SiriusXM this week has shaken up its pop lineup in a significant way.
The satellite service, which has about 35 million subscribers, bowed to the passage of time by introducing its eighth decade channel the 10s Spot on channel 11, covering pop music from the 2010s.
The playlist includes “Sunflower” by Post Malone, “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers, Coldplay’s “Paradise,” Ella Henderson’s “Ghost,” Pitbull and Ne-Yo’s “Time of Our Lives,” Kiiara’s “Gold,” 5 Seconds of Summer’s “She Looks So Perfect” and Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa’s “One Kiss.”
The two older-skewing decade channels covering the 1950s and 1960s, which have been on channels 5 and 6 since Sirius debuted nearly 20 years ago have been bumped to 72 and 73, respectively, in the same vicinity where easy listening and standards reside. (Siriusly Sinatra moved from 71 to 70.) They also renamed 50s on 5 to 50s Gold and 60s on 6 to 60s Gold.
Pulse, which has covered adult pop music from the past decade, moved to 5 from 15. The Coffee House, which focuses on acoustic and stripped-down takes on popular songs, moves to 6 from 14. The one commercial FM station still on the main network, Los Angeles’ top-40 station KIIS-FM gets dropped to 14 from 11.
And SiriusXM also launched a new pop station called Mosaic, covering the top hits from the 1990s and 2000s. The playlist includes songs such as Uncle Kracker’s “Drift Away,” Fountains of Wayne’s “Stacey’s Mom,” Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman,” Madonna’s “Vogue,” Britney Spears’ “Oops! I Did It Again,” Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ “I’ll Be Missing You” and the Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes.”
And its long-standing Blend channel, which was originally an XM channel before Sirius and XM merged in 2008, has shifted format. It had been “bright pop hits” covering the past five decades with hits ranging from Billy Joel and the Eagles to Ed Sheeran and Kelly Clarkson, but now is a softer station focused on the 1970s to the 1990s to differentiate itself from Mosaic.
It is rare for Sirius to make a format flip like this. It’s now using the slogan “classic nice and easy pop hits.” Some songs heard on the new Blend: Olivia Newton-John’s “I Honestly Love You,” “You’re a Friend of Mine” by Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne, Juice Newton’s “Love’s Been a Little Been Hard On Me,” Steely Dan’s “Do It Again,” Simply Red’s “Holding Back the Years,” Sarah McLachlan’s “Building a Mystery,” the Commodores “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” the Carpenters’ “Please Mr. Postman” and “The Girl is Mine” by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. It appears to be doing the heavy lifting of SiriusXM’s “Love” channel, which used to be on the main tuner but has been relegated to the app (Channel 708).
Two Christmas channels are on the main channel now: the more contemporary Holly on Channel 105 and Holiday Traditions on 71. More will be added later. The 40s Junction channel will return on the SiriusXM tuners Dec. 28 on Channel 71.
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