XM satellite radio's channel 49, Big Tracks

A little bit of heaven via radio from high up in the sky

from JoeUser Forums
Just to show I'm not averse to listening to music :-D here's a quick thumbs up to the folks at XM for a recent addition to their line-up, the new channel 49, "Big Tracks" (more info here: Wikipedia info on Big Tracks)

I don't want to take up too much space here, so I'll continue in the comments area. Please feel free to read more there, and perhaps add some comments of your about your own favorite sat-rad (satellite radio) channels (either XM, or Sirius).
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Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Continuing my thoughts here, big thumbs up to the nice people (and so smart too ) at XM for the recently added Big Tracks channel, channel 49.

Big Tracks is just a little bit of heaven for me, as a child of the 70's, who matured through the 80's. The description for Big Tracks is "Our Generation's Classic Rock." A very fitting description, at least for me.

The music I get to hear on Big Tracks is the stuff I heard as I went to high school, and then later on to college. Music that straddles both the 70's and 80's. Classic bands and artists like Dire Straits, U2, Springsteen, The Police, Journey, Styx, the Rolling Stones, Rush, Aerosmith and many more. Music I haven't heard (unless I pull out some dusty old CDs or go way back to some really old cassettes. Heck, some of this stuff might only have existed on 8 track tapes or good old fashioned vinyl) in a very long time.

These are tunes I would have thought should have been playing on the "classic rock" station in the D.C. area, but unfortunately for me, they seem to feel that classic rock means late 60's and early 70's. Older tunes that would appeal to my bosses, and others that have a few years on me.

I used to have a similar problem with the programming on XM. Sure, I could (and did and do) enjoy "today's country" on the Highway 16 channel, but like most radio programming, that channel tends to cycle back through the same songs and artists over time, making for very boring listening. I want more variety in my entertainment, and I don't mind hopping around the dial a little to get to it (including Sports talk, News talk, politics, modern country music, classic rock, adult contemporary programming, and more).

With all of those choices though, the stuff I missed the most was *my* classic rock. The songs and artists that I listened to the most. The stuff of early MTV. The stuff that was playing when disco was dieing.

Yup, XM has a hit (at least for me) with Big Tracks. Keep up the great work XM.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah I listen to it a lot. 46 is another good channel.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah I listen to it a lot. 46 is another good channel.


I've listened to some of Channel 46 also (Top Tracks is the name for that one I believe). It's a good mix of music too, though again goes back a bit further than I prefer. (Late 60s, early 70s, up to around the 76 or maybe 77 time frame for most of their tunes).

46 is more of the Hendrix, Jethro Tull, early Stones and other type tunes. A nice change of pace, but stuff I heard so many times on local classic rock radio stations that I get bored with it incredibly quickly. I do enjoy stuff like old Janis Joplin, and some other classics, but most of the playlist for 46 is just too close to the stuff I see as my older cousin's music. They were about 4 - 6 years ahead of me in school, but I got to hear their music quite a bit during some vacations when my parents had us stay with them while they were on big vacations. One cousin played David Bowie so loud, and so many times that much of that particular album is seared into my brain.

Of course, later in life I also seared my own brain with Frampton Comes Alive, Boston, Aerosmith, and a batch of other tunes that I'm finding over on Big Tracks.