Broadway Channel Sirius XM Layoffs.

[alovingfan]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 1:33pm

Sirius XM is letting go 8 % of its work force.  Some on air personalities are being let go and some low pole channels are planned for elimination.  I am hopeful they keep the broadway channel as well as Julie James and John Tartaglia.  

 

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/siriusxm-layoffs-465-employees-1235543907/

[alovingfan]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 1:36pm

Wanted to correct the title of the thread as the layoffs are for the whole thing and not just the broadway channel.  I was hearing on Morning Joe this morning that the layoffs have a lot to do with the stall in car sales due to chips throughout the pandemic. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 1:56pm

I don't even know if its the chip thing. I mean, Despite always being able to work with the staff to get the price lower when I renew, I also think that in the current financial climate, paying for something that you can get for free would be somewhere you could start. 

[alovingfan]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 2:10pm

fashionguru_23 said: "I don't even know if its the chip thing. I mean, Despite always being able to work with the staff to get the price lower when I renew, I also think that in the current financial climate, paying for something that you can get for free would be somewhere you could start."

I don't mind paying.  I have listened to over the air radio in years.  And yes.. I do the same thing.. whenver it is time to renew;  I always say I am cancelling and they reduce the rate to keep me.  They were showing on the news this morning how it is somewhat directly related to not many new subscriptions because people were not buying new cars during the pandemic.  I am sure that is onlya part of it.  As far as the broadway channel.. I had heard that it does not do great for them.  I hope they just re program it and keep it.  Frankly;  I can do without Seth.  Or at least not every day.

[alovingfan]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 2:11pm

Should say.. I have not listened to over the air in years.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 2:14pm

Yikes! It’s my default station on in the car all the time. Per a comment above, I’d never want them to lessen the Seth quotient, but frankly I turn the channel when it’s Julie James — she just NEVER lets her guests speak. 

[Lot666]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 2:30pm

I bought a car years ago that came with a free trial. I declined to start paying for the service simply because (1) I hate "DJs" who yell at their audience and (2) the audio is so compressed that I can't bear to listen to it.

[Azúcar!]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 2:41pm

I find both Seth and JJ unbearable.  To the person that mentioned compressed audio.. I don’t have that issue in my end .

[Bette's Turban]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 3:08pm

I am afraid the Broadway channel is to niche to survive.  It sounds like they are trimming all around.   I heard the studio 54 channel is also getting cut.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 3:31pm

The only saving grace I feel with the Broadway channel, that while niche, you can't really find the music elsewhere on the dial. Explain to me why there is a Top 40 channel, a channel of songs trending on TikTok, songs trending from Pandora...actually, how many channels of spa music does one need.

One thing I will say is the loss of Frank DeCaro and Doria Bittle on OutQ, the LGBTQ channel is still heavily missed. 

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 3:47pm

Regarding the compressed audio, that’s a real thing for sure, but a HUGE part of how the end result sounds is based on the car radio’s processing power. Some radios can “fill in the gaps” pretty well. My husband’s Ford’s XM sounds *terrible*, but streaming music via CarPlay (where the phone does the work) sounds more or less fine. My VW’s sat radio sounds 10x better than his Ford, but streaming stuff from CarPlay isn’t noticeably different. Result of the processor, software etc. I’m guessing. 

(There are videos explaining it much better… saw one on CNET a while back. Interesting stuff, to me at least haha.)

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 4:06pm

We added Sirius when we moved cross country last summer and although we have enjoyed the Broadway channel in the past we couldn't take more than a couple hours of it during this trip.  Too much old obscure stuff and too much chatter and not enough tunes from the last 40 years for us.

[Det95]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 4:07pm

I work at an automotive manufacturer in infotainment. XM in general has a very small take rate among new car buyers, especially young adults. Industry wide the core base of XM subscribers is 40+. With more remote/hybrid work and less commuting less and less people are renewing. It sucks, but I’m not completely surprised this is happening. 

[whatever2]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 4:36pm

> how many channels of spa music does one need

i thought they only had one?

[Melissa25]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 5:32pm

I kept renewing for the Broadway and Traffic channel but now that they have dropped the traffic channel, I will not renew again.  The sound on the traffic/Weather station was so awful.  It always sounded like they were muffled by a sock. I will miss Christine Pedi though.

[ELP]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 5:44pm

Melissa25 said: "I will miss Christine Pedi though."

Where'd you read that she's being let go or are you assuming that she's being eliminated?

[Ceej]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 5:54pm

As someone who worked in radio for over 25 years, I think the most likely scenario is they cut the talent but not necessarily the channels. They could easily automate a Broadway channel with just music, no shows. Many terrestrial radio stations now feature pre-recorded voice tracking, often done in other cities, and those DJs sometimes voice 6-7 stations across the country a day. I could see SIRIUS/XM doing something similar. They already share talent across several channels as it is. 

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 6:13pm

ELP said: "Melissa25 said: "I will miss Christine Pedi though."

Where'd you read that she's being let go or are you assuming that she's being eliminated?"

I think they meant they’ll miss her due to not re-subscribing. 

[east side story]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 7:12pm

Bette's Turban said: "I heard the studio 54 channel is also getting cut."

Wait, that one actually hurts to this under forty subscriber.

[BETTY22]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 7:45pm

The sad truth about Sirius is that only Stern gets massive ratings and makes massive profits.

His channel subsidies everything else including Andy and Broadway channel.

The good news, is the Broadway channel is very cheap. They pay talent very little and pay songwriters even less.

Fingers crossed. 

[Ke3]

Posted: 3/9/23 at 11:50pm

I recorded a few of Seth's concerts through the app which was helpful but other than that it wasn't really worth it when it was time to renew.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 3/10/23 at 12:57pm

Ceej said: "As someone who worked in radio for over 25 years, I think the most likely scenario is they cut the talent but not necessarily the channels. They could easily automate a Broadway channel with just music, no shows. Many terrestrial radio stations now feature pre-recorded voice tracking, often done in other cities, and those DJs sometimes voice 6-7 stations across the country a day. I could see SIRIUS/XM doing something similar. They already share talent across several channels as it is."

They did something similar in the fall when the 2-3 K-POP-related channels dumped their talent and went to one automated channel.

As an aside, people that negotiate lower prices by threatening to cancel. If enough people practice that, it factors into budgets, doesn't it? 

[SmokeyLady]

Posted: 3/11/23 at 11:45am

As long as they keep Christine Pedi.I am fine.  I stopped listening to Seth a few years ago.  And Julie James doesn't let her guests get in a word edgewise.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 3/12/23 at 3:18am

BETTY22 said: "The sad truth about Sirius is that only Stern gets massive ratings and makes massive profits.

His channel subsidies everything else including Andy and Broadway channel.

The good news, is the Broadway channel is very cheap. They pay talent very little and pay songwriters even less.

Fingers crossed."

Does Howard Stern still have the same draw as he did in the beginning? I remember when both Sirius and XM were their own separate companies fighting for subscribers. Howard was recently kicked off regular radio, satellite radio was new and it was a big deal at the time that he was going down that route. It also won over a lot of people who were either not to turned onto the idea of satellite radio to begin with or those who had it but were XM subscribers who then switched over just because of Stern. 

Now, things have changed. While he does have a fan base he’s not really as edgy as he once was compared to what is out there nowadays and Sirius and XM have merged to become one company. 

 

I know for years, for both companies both before and after the merger, used cars as their primary source of subscribers. But, only recently have they decided to allow people to just subscribe to the app itself.

I listen to Sirius XM a fair amount. And there are a couple of channels that are devoted to a single band that I enjoy listening to is the Phish channel. I have noticed that even though they do have hosts, you hardly hear them that often and a majority of what they do can be pre recorded and I am sure it is. Whereas, there are other channels, for example, like one of the classic rock channels where the format there is more along the lines of traditional radio with a DJ talking for a bit between songs. I think that that also can be pre recorded and don’t need it to be live anymore. 

[Critifur2]

Posted: 3/27/23 at 1:29pm

I think Sunday Funday with John Tartaglia has already been deleted off SiriusXM, but there has been no notification of such anywhere, including simple social media posts. Just gone.