SiriusXM Drops Jocks From Two Music Channels

Pat St. John

UPDATE Monday 2/10/2014: Personality Pat. St. John has re-surfaced on SiriusXM.  St. John is hosting 1p to 7p (Eastern) on the 60sOn 6 Channel.  Smart Move!  He can also be heard midday Sundays on WCBS 101.1 FM in NYC and online.


Earlier Posting....

SiriusXM satellite radio has taken the disc jockeys off two more music channels, 50s on 5 and 90s on 9.

According to David Hinckley at the NY Daily News, this erases several jocks that New York listeners know, including WAXQ 104.3 FM morning man Jim Kerr, Pat St. John (continues to be heard midday Sundays on WCBS 101.1 FM) and Norm N. Nite, all of whom hosted shows on the ’50s channel.

SiriusXM saves a few bucks in salaries here. The main goal, presumably, is making those channels music-intensive — a trend that has permeated all of music radio over the last 10 years.

The thinking is that listeners want music, not voices.

Hinckley writes, a good jock is as much a part of radio as the music itself. They’re part of the package, part of the deal listeners always had with the radio.

The disappearance of more jocks at SiriusXM also feels disheartening because it takes satellite radio another small step away from what make it so distinctive in the beginning.

XM, in particular, positioned itself as an alternative to terrestrial radio. It played a wide range of music you’d never hear on commercial stations, and it hired jocks like Matt the Cat, a young guy with an old-time personality.

When XM and Sirius merged, a lot of that got squeezed out. Playlists tightened, hosts vanished, older and less well-known music was replaced by newer and more popular. It felt as if someone had hired a top-40 consultant and was holding focus groups.

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