Edition #26: The latest news from SiriusXM.
Edition #26: The latest news from SiriusXM.
SiriusXM is the top podcast publisher, a free trial for certain phone customers, Samsung thinks the app is the best, new channels, more events, and... plenty more!
Friday, December 9th, 2022
Hello there all once again! Welcome back to the SeriousXM newsletter. I hope you are enjoying the holidays thus far as we’re really into the season right now. As a reminder… SiriusXM has several holiday-themed channels available at your disposal.
Another thing to note here, I have all these things to remind you every week but they’re important to help further grow this newsletter. And for the holiday season, I hope you can contribute to what you can.
I’ll keep it short on this part. Let’s just get to this week’s news…
The Latest News
SXM is America’s top podcast publisher.
Its good to be a SiriusXM podcaster right now. Edison Research released a list of the top podcast publisher networks for the third quarter of this year and… SiriusXM via SXM Media tops the list at #1 for total network reach. It fell very close behind to #2 in the last quarter to Spotify but has since reclaimed that spot.
Here’s the list of the Top 30 Podcast Publishers in the third quarter of 2022. According to Edison Research, this is based on…
… measuring reach as a percentage of the weekly podcasting audience. Rankings are compiled by measuring the total unduplicated reach of all the shows represented by a given network. Listening is credited to the producer and/or the network that represents the advertising for the show, not the platform or app that the listener uses to access the podcast.
T-Mobile and Sprint customers can now get an SXM Free Trial.
What SiriusXM knows how to do is to convince new folks to sign up for SiriusXM to give it a try. T-Mobile knows how to do the same as well as it has recently offered FREE of lengthy free trials to various subscription services, including Netflix, Apple TV+, Paramount Plus, Tidal, and at one point, Quibi (remember that? Yeah, neither do I. Haha, actually kidding. Yes I do because I used it during its lengthy FREE trial that I only used the entire time it existed).
Now, and no surprise here, T-Mobile and Sprint customers are giving new users a SIX-MONTH free trial. It will give you access to their Streaming Platinum plan, which is 425+ streaming channels, including new ones that are being added to all the time (I’ll get to that in a moment).
This is for those who subscribe to T-Mobile’s Wireless or Home Internet plans as well as Sprint’s Wireless plans, regardless of their rate plan. However, this is for NEW NEW users only, meaning that if you participated in a previous free trial, participated in T-Mobile’s free SXM trials in the past, or you’re even a past subscriber, then you don’t qualify for this free trial.
If you are a NEW user who wants to try this out, and you are a T-Mobile or Sprint customer, you have until April 30th, 2023 to sign up for this.
Thanks to Phone Arena for the H/T for this story.
Samsung has SiriusXM as one of the best apps out there.
Samsung reveals its best apps on its store every year within apps, games, and other digital content for Samsung’s Galaxy devices as part of the Best of The Galaxy Store awards, and SiriusXM ended up being one of the best.
This year, it took home Best Music App during the awards earlier this week. It won the award for its success in marketing and promotion, development, and design. This is despite continued user complaints regarding the app and its service.
But since 2019, SXM has offered exclusive subscription offers on the app via the Galaxy store so that is a plus if you ask me.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy device, then you can download the SXM App from the Samsung Galaxy App Store here. The app is FREE to download, but you gotta log in of course with your account to access SXM.
New Channels
One channel debuted last week after the newsletter was released, while another debuted this week.
Neil Young Radio in High-Res.
This may be an interesting first for SiriusXM. Launched last week, SXM has unveiled Neil Young Radio (online-only) in high-resolution audio, titled Neil Young Radio High-Res.
From now until next Friday, December 16th, the station features a high-resolution, lossless audio mix of Neil Young’s songs. If you’re not a technical or audio geek like me, hi-res audio has higher sampling rates up to 96 or 192 kHz and a bit depth of 24 bits compared to the standard CD quality of 44.1 kHz for a sampling rate and a bit depth of 16 bits (the current HD Radio quality), meaning that the music is much cleaner and more high-def to hear.
Most, if not all, SiriusXM channels are broadcast in much lower quality than that but this particular one is powered by OraStream, which adapts streaming to the exact quality of the original music source.
Both this one and the regular Neil Young Radio are on SiriusXM until next Friday.
For those struggling, Mental Health Radio could be very useful.
I’ll be very honest here. I struggle at times with my mental health, especially since I’m diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Combine that with my autism… yeah. So its really is not good.
Yet, despite all of that, I’m still here, I’m still alive, I’m still kickin’ it. And now, SiriusXM is offering a new channel devoted to mental health programming with Mental Health Radio, powered by NYU Langone Health as a spinoff to NYU’s Doctor Radio (SXM 110).
The channel is online-only and will be available on Channel 779. It will feature the week’s top mental-health-themed programming from Doctor Radio with a specific focus on several topics, including substance abuse, psychedelic research, drug supply issues, depression, anxiety (the latter two I’m diagnosed with), COVID-19 pandemic-related stress, trauma disorders, and much more.
While that’s new and will be available, Doctor Radio will expand some of its shows like The Psychiatry Show which will now air Mondays-Wednesdays, Mondays going 11am-12pm ET (8-9am PT), Tuesdays going 12-2pm ET (9-11am PT) and Wednesdays going 4-5pm ET (1-2pm PT) and About Our Kids which will now air Thursdays and Fridays, Thursdays going 3-4pm ET (12 Noon-1pm PT) and Fridays going 8-10am ET (5-7am PT).
Both those shows will re-air on weeknights at 8pm and 12am ET (5 and 9pm PT).
And if that’s not your thing, SiriusXM does have mood-based streaming channels, such as Soothe, Tranquil, and The Sleep Channel. Pandora too has some as well such as Happy Radio, Sleep Radio, and Meditation Radio.
Events
Time to get to the events section and there are lots to mention here, especially sports. But before I do, its the last of the Hallmark Channel Radio (SXM 105) specials to tell you about for the season.
This week’s special is Jonathan Bennett’s Santa’s Playlist. The star of the all-new original movie The Holiday Sitter is the one decking out the holiday playlist, plus he’ll talk about his new movie and more.
Sunday, December 11th at 12 Noon ET (9am PT)
Monday, December 12th at 9am ET (6am PT)
Wednesday, December 14th at 3pm ET (12 Noon PT)
Drake’s SiriusXM Apollo Concert is delayed yet again.
Before I get to the other events for the upcoming week, I just want to let you know that SiriusXM has once again updated the shows for Drake’s upcoming concert at the Apollo Theater in New York City. They’ll now take place on Saturday, January 21st, and Sunday, January 22nd, 2023.
This is the second such delay from its original date which was supposed to take place this week. The first date of November 11th was postponed due to the death of Migos rapper Takeoff, so it was moved to December 6th and 7th, which was this past Tuesday and Wednesday. It got pushed back again due to what Variety is reporting as production delays, thus the second delay to now.
The shows will be meant to celebrate his new collaborative album, Her Loss, with 21 Savage, which was released back on November 4th.
Now onto the other events for the upcoming week.
Sidewalk Prophets’ Great Big Family Christmas Concert
So I had to look this up because I had no clue who the Sidewalk Prophets are until now. Apparently, they’re an American contemporary Christian music band from Nashville and so too does a SiriusXM special in their name.
Performing from Terre Haute, Indiana, the band will have Christmas songs and favorites to play from their Merry Christmas To You album and more in a holiday special called The Sidewalk Prophets’ Great Big Family Christmas Concert. It will air on Christmas Spirit (SXM 63) and while it started airing two days ago on Wednesday, it will air eleven more times. I’m not even kidding you. Plus, there’s the SXM app too to hear it in full again or for your convenience.
Today, Friday, December 9th at 9am ET (6am PT)
Tomorrow, Saturday, December 10th at 9pm ET (6pm PT)
Sunday, December 11th at 6pm ET (3pm PT)
Tuesday, December 13th at 12 Noon ET (9am PT)
Thursday, December 15th at 8am ET (5am PT)
Friday, December 23rd at 12 Noon and 6pm ET (9am and 3pm PT)
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24th at 9am and 3pm ET (6am and 12 Noon PT)
Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25th at 6am and 12 Noon ET (3 and 9am PT)
The Top 25 Male Vocalists of Christmas
Starting today and into this weekend, Holiday Traditions (SXM 71 or 24/7 on streaming-only 602) will countdown the Top 25 Male Vocalists of Christmas.
Many have come over the years, from Bing Crosby and Burl Ives to George Michael and Michael Buble. But now, this countdown will find out who’s the greatest Male Vocalist of Christmas.
OneRepublic’s SXM Pandora LIVE Concert
This past Monday, OneRepublic held a Pandora LIVE concert in Brooklyn as part of a world tour they’re currently doing and hosted by SiriusXM Hits 1 (SXM 2)’s The Morning Mashup program with Nicole Ryan, Ryan Sampson, and Stanley T.
The concert will be aired next week on Wednesday, December 14th at 9pm ET (6pm PT) on SiriusXM Hits 1 and an hour later at 10pm ET (7pm PT) on The Pulse (SXM 5).
Sports
Time to get into sports and there’s plenty of it to mention.
Before I get to it, SiriusXM on its blog has provided a list of all the sports specials that will come between now and the new year. They’ll include a wide variety of in-review specials, preview specials for the new year, Christmas Day games (in both the NBA and the NFL), and much more.
I’ll reveal those little by little over the rest of this month or so in the newsletter so stay tuned. For now, this week’s upcoming action…
⚽: FIFA World Cup is in the Quarterfinals.
We’re almost towards the end as eight more teams are left standing in this year’s FIFA World Cup Tournament from Qatar. I can’t go much further than this weekend since we don’t know the semifinalists as of yet. However, I can say that all quarterfinal matches will be on FOX Sports (SXM 83) so here’s the list…
Today, Friday, December 9th
10:00am ET (7:00am PT) - Brazil vs. Croatia
2:00pm ET (11:00am PT) - Argentina vs. Netherlands
Tomorrow, Saturday, December 10th
10:00am ET (7:00am PT) - Portugal vs. Morocco
2:00pm ET (11:00am PT) - France vs. England
After this, the Semifinals will be here on Tuesday, December 13th, and Wednesday, December 14th. The next time I’ll mention it will be THE weekend, the Third Place playoff game on Saturday, December 17th, followed by the Championship Game on Sunday, December 18th. I’ll mention those games next week.
🏈: The Weekly NFL Audio Guide to Week 14
Once again, Matthew Keys from The Desk is amazing to put this all together every single week for you to read via Reddit. Find out about this week’s games here.
🏈: Army-Navy. That’s it.
At this point, the College Football regular season is over and all Conference Championships are already dealt with. But there’s always this one exception that takes place every year and boy is it an amazing way to honor the men and women of our Armed Forces who guard and defend this country to protect our freedoms.
Its the annual Army-Navy football game from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. SiriusXM will air it of course at 3:00pm ET (12 Noon PT). For national coverage, Westwood One will deliver that coverage with John Sadak handling play-by-play, Ross Tucker as the analyst, and Tina Cervasio reporting from the sidelines with Jason Horowitz handling the pregame, halftime, and postgame shows.
Coverage will also be available here. In terms of where you can hear it on SXM, here’s the following…
National (home to Westwood One’s coverage): ESPN-U Radio on SXM 84.
Navy Midshipmen Hometown Broadcast via AM 1090 and 101.5 FM - WBAL Radio in Baltimore: ESPN Xtra on SXM 81.
Army Black Knights Hometown Broadcast via AM 770 WABC in New York City: NBC Sports Audio on SXM 85.
🏒: College Hockey. Yes… still got that.
There are not that many College Hockey games that SiriusXM broadcasts but it does carry some. As a matter of fact, I got two to tell you about that’ll take place later tonight…
Today, Friday, December 9th
6:30pm ET (3:30pm PT) - Michigan Wolverines vs. Michigan State Trojans
9:00pm ET (6:00pm PT) - Wisconsin Badgers vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Michigan Hometown Broadcast (via 1050 WTKA Ann Arbor) and the Minnesota Hometown Broadcast (via 1130 KTLK Minneapolis and 103.5 K278BP Cottage Grove) will be aired during their respective games at their respective times on SiriusXM BIG Ten Radio (SXM 372).
And that’s it for this week’s edition of the SeriousXM newsletter.
I hope you got to enjoy this read and check out some of the stuff that’s available plus all the week’s news from the company. Before I go, one more reminder…
Also, an upcoming note to tell you about: Next week will be the last SeriousXM newsletter editions for the year, as I will take two weeks off after next week to celebrate the holidays. Next week will come in two editions… one (on Thursday) with a special throwback with the regular news of the week (if any) plus, a special second edition (on Friday) that will cover all the events we know of for two weeks while I’ll be away. Think of it as a special double edition like what some magazines like to do every year. You’ll get that next week for the last ones of the year.
I’ll talk to y’all then for the last time this year, but for now, enjoy your weekend.
SeriousXM is a newsletter service of TheRolyPoly Productions.
