Edition #30: The latest from SiriusXM.
Edition #30: The latest from SiriusXM.
Another place to hear SXM, SXM and NHL are renewed, a new add to management, events, and more...
Friday, January 20th, 2023
Welcome aboard to another weekly edition of the SeriousXM newsletter. I will not wait any longer this week so time to get to this week’s news.
The Latest News
SiriusXM + NHL = 🤝 for six more seasons.
Good news for you all hockey fans. After this season wraps up over the summer, there’ll be more hockey to hear for the next six seasons.
This week, SiriusXM and the NHL announced that they have extended their current rightsholder contract for another six seasons, which will now last until 2028-2029.
Nothing really changes much with this new extension since SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (SXM 91) and all NHL games, from pre- to regular to post-season and all NHL Stanley Cup Finals matches, will continue to be heard across all SXM platforms across North America. All 32 NHL hometown dedicated channels that are available online only from 920-951 will also remain in place.
The only difference now is that for the first time, SiriusXM will become the EXCLUSIVE audio broadcaster for the Honda NHL All-Star Game, starting with this year’s event, the 2023 edition from FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida (located inside yours truly’s backyard market), home to the Florida Panthers.
They’ll carry coverage during All-Star Weekend on February 2nd-4th with exclusive coverage of the game on Saturday, February 4th, beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT). They’ll also carry Media Day on Thursday, February 2nd, beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET (12 Noon PT) and live coverage of the All-Star Skills Challenge on Friday, February 3rd, beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET (3:00 p.m. PT). Steve Kouleas (play-by-play), Gord Stellick (commentary), and Scott Laughlin (rinkside reporter) will be on hand to deliver the call for the skills challenge and for the all-star game.
⚽: Ever heard of the MASL? SXM will introduce you to it.
I’ve never heard of the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) until now and you probably haven’t either. Well, SiriusXM will introduce you to it after announcing a 10-game Friday night regular-season broadcast package that will be heard on SiriusXM F.C. (SXM 157).
These games will air every Friday night starting tonight, January 20th, and go right up until Friday, March 24th.
The MASL is the top pro indoor soccer league in North America and features teams from all over the continent, with 12 teams in the United States and two in Mexico with players from over 30 different countries.
MASL made its debut on SiriusXM last year with the radio broadcast of the two-game MASL Ron Newman Cup Finals between the San Diego Sockers and the Florida Tropics.
SiriusXM F.C. will also air a half-hour weekly program devoted to the league called MASL Monday which will air every Monday at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT) starting this upcoming Monday, January 23rd.
The first game tonight on SiriusXM F.C. will be between the Kansas City Comets and St. Louis Ambush at 8:35 p.m. ET (5:35 p.m. PT). In the events’ sports section every week from here on out until late March, we’ll mention the MASL Friday Night Game of the Week in this newsletter so keep your eyes here for more.
An ex-WSJ CMO becomes a CGO at SXM.
For the first time in the company’s history, there’s a Chief Growth Officer at SiriusXM, someone to help grow the company. The inaugural recipient will be Suzi Watford, who’ll also become a Senior Vice President at SiriusXM in addition to the newly created CGO role.
She’ll be based at their New York City headquarters and will report to Chief Commercial Officer Joe Verbrugge. She will try to find ways to deliver growth across SiriusXM’s platforms, including the SiriusXM streaming subscription business as well as corporate marketing, analytics, and research for both SiriusXM and Pandora. Suzi brings two decades of experience architecting and implementing transformational growth strategies in the direct-to-consumer space and will lead the distribution, acquisition, retention, and engagement strategies of SiriusXM’s streaming businesses.
According to Variety, prior to joining the company, Watford was with News Corp. for more than two decades, including eight years at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. She lead the overall consumer business for Dow Jones, which included all aspects of marketing and subscription acquisition for The Wall Street Journal (one of the most distributed newspapers in America), Barron’s, and MarketWatch. She previously also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at The Wall Street Journal, overseeing global sales and marketing for the publication. Suzi joined Dow Jones from News UK where she served as Sales and Marketing Director for The Times and The Sunday Times.
SXM is now on your VIZIO Smart TV too.
We got word yesterday that SiriusXM has now launched the SXM app on VIZIO Smart TVs. This means that 425+ channels are now available on VIZIO joining other platforms like Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and others who carry the SXM app as well. This deal for VIZIO will also include SXM’s expansive video library as well, which offers 13,000 pieces of video content.
As you know, SXM carries a wide vast of content, ranging from commercial-free music channels to artist-led channels, activity or mood-based channels, news and entertainment, talk, comedy, and (my favorite here, and I’m being biased when I say that, I know. Lol.)… Every. Major. Sport. Ever., both college and professional sports.
Oh, and podcasts are also on there too so basically, anything you can find on the SXM app for your smartphone will be found on the app for VIZIO Smart TVs.
If you wanna check it out for yourself, then sign up at SiriusXM.com/VIZIO and receive the first 3 months FREE of the SiriusXM Streaming Platinum plan. However, if you’re already a customer, then just sign in with your credentials and start enjoying it yourself right away.
🍁: Winners from a Canadian Music Awards ceremony.
We’re going up to Canada for this story as SiriusXM Canada and the SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) Foundation announce the winners of the third annual SiriusXM Black Canadian Music Awards, which is to help recognize Black music creators, from any genre, across Canada. This year, SiriusXM Canada doubled their support to winners receiving $10,000 each.
The $10,000 prize winners…
Adria Kain is a Toronto-based R&B artist.
AHI is a Toronto-based singer and songwriter.
Desarae Dee is a Toronto-based pianist, and multi-instrumentalist.
Nonso Amadi is an Afro-R&B, soul singer-songwriter, and producer from Nigeria.
Zach Zoya is a Montreal-based rapper.
They also gave out smaller awards of $1,000 given with special distinctions…
City Fidelia is an Ottawa-based rapper.
Haley Smalls is a Toronto-based R&B/Soul singer-songwriter and music engineer.
Leila Day is a Toronto-based R&B singer-songwriter.
Promise is a Toronto-based rapper.
Shreez is a Quebec-based rapper.
For more information regarding this, check out the SOCAN Foundation's website.
Events
Time to get to all the weekend events, and to my surprise, there really aren’t that many events taking place this weekend so this part will be light in nature. Obviously, the sports side will dominate more but there are some observances to take note of.
Remembering David Crosby
We got word yesterday afternoon that David Crosby has passed away. The legendary American musician was a founding member of the Byrds in 1964, and again as a founding member of Crosby, Stills, and Nash in 1968. He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, TWICE, once with each band. Outside of that, he also released six solo albums from 1971-2017.
Born on August 14th, 1941 in Los Angeles, he passed away on Wednesday, January 18th, 2023 at the age of 81 after a long illness.
Because this passing is still fresh, SiriusXM hasn’t come up yet with upcoming concrete tributes to the legendary singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Get updates on this blog post and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of them to honor him.
Remembering Lisa Marie Presley
On the same day I released the previous edition of this newsletter, I received word that Lisa Marie Presley has died. She was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She had a solo music career of her own, following in her late father’s legendary footsteps.
Born on February 1st, 1968 in Memphis, she grew up at Graceland with her father, and when he passed away in 1977, she was only eight years old at the time. She took over the reins of the Presley empire and of Graceland as a joint heir with her grandparents, father Vernon Elvis, and mother Minnie Mae. Once they passed away, she became the sole heir and inherited his father’s residence.
Since then, she released three solo albums of her own as establishing her own career in music. Now that Lisa Marie has passed away, her daughters Riley Keough, and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood will take over the estate and Lisa Marie will be buried right next to her father Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll, and son Benjamin who died in 2020 from suicide.
She passed away last Thursday, January 12th, at the young age of 54, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
As a tribute, Elvis Radio (SXM 75) will play an extensive tribute tomorrow, Saturday, January 21st. Her solo songs will be played plus those she did with her father. Also, lots of archived interviews from her multitude of visits to Elvis Radio over the years. The next day on Sunday, January 22nd at 10:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. PT), live coverage of her memorial service LIVE from Graceland in Memphis, followed by Elvis Gospel.
Sports
Time to get into sports with another jam-packed weekend ahead. You have a lot of college basketball action ahead (both men’s and women’s) plus your regular season NBA and NHL fare and even some weekend Premier League action in soccer. But one sport will overtake them all this weekend…
🏈: NFL Divisional Weekend
We are in the Divisional round of the NFL Playoffs. This is where the bye teams (K.C. Chiefs and Philly Eagles) get to play and showcase what they’re made of. For the others, show up and be the best. We got four matches this weekend to see what they can do.
Saturday, January 21st
4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT) - Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Jaguars Hometown Broadcast via 1010 WJXL/92.5 WJXL-FM Jacksonville Beach/Jacksonville: SXM 225 or online only 814.
Chiefs Hometown Broadcast via 106.5 WDAF-FM Liberty/Kansas City: SXM 226 or online only 815.
National feed: SiriusXM NFL Radio on SXM 88.
Spanish feed: SXM 229 or online only 983.
8:15 p.m. ET (5:15 p.m. PT) - New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Giants Hometown Broadcast via 660 WFAN/101.9 WFAN-FM New York: SXM 225 or online only 823.
Eagles Hometown Broadcast via 94.1 WIP-FM Philadelphia: SXM 227 or online only 825.
National feed: SXM 228 or online only 966.
Spanish feed: SXM 229 or online only 983.
Sunday, January 22nd
3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 Noon PT) - Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills
Bengals Hometown Broadcast via 700 WLW/1530 WCKY/102.7 WEBN Cincinnati: SXM 225 or online only 806.
Bills Hometown Broadcast via 550 WGR Buffalo: SXM 226 or online only 803.
National feed: SiriusXM NFL Radio on SXM 88.
Spanish feed: SXM 229 or online only 983.
6:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. PT) - Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers
Cowboys Hometown Broadcast via 105.3 KRLD-FM Dallas: SXM 225 or online only 808.
49ers Hometown Broadcast via 680 KNBR/104.5 KNBR-FM San Francisco: SXM 227 or online only 827.
National feed: SXM 228 or online only 966.
Spanish feed: SXM 229 or online only 983.
⛳: PGA Golf in California’s Coachella Valley.
This weekend, the PGA Tour is in California’s Coachella Valley for the American Express tournament at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, California.
The first round has already taken place so expect coverage of the second, third, and final rounds. Today, coverage will start at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) with tomorrow and Sunday’s coverage starting at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT) and, as always, you can hear it all on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (SXM 92).
🎾: The Australian Open on SiriusXM.
As mentioned last week, the first major tennis tournament of the year, the Australian Open, is very well underway with a lot of action going on with some few surprises as well (i.e. Rafael Nadal was already knocked out after the second round and Andy Murray winning his five-set, almost six-hour match by 4 AM Melbourne, Australia time).
The Tennis Channel has allowed SiriusXM to carry coverage of the tournament and you can hear it on Channel 392 or online only on 982. It’s delivering nightly coverage starting at 7:00 p.m. ET (4:00 p.m. PT) and will do so throughout the tournament.
That’s it. That’s the newsletter for this week. I hope you get to enjoy this weekend and I’ll be back with you again next weekend for another look at SiriusXM in a way that only I can, right here with the SeriousXM newsletter.
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