When I was a kid in L.A. in the '60s, for a (short) time there was a radio station that only played the Beatles and the Stones. In that time of extremely eclectic Top 40 radio — where a set might run from Aretha Franklin to Blue Cheer to Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra to the Monkees — such narrowcasting seemed absurd.
Now with satellite and cable radio, webcasting and podcasting, there seems to be no limit to the fine slicing: you want ONLY Norwegian fishing songs as opposed to the occasional Swedish piscatological ditty thrown in the mix, you got it, you betcha!
In honor of the latest Rolling Stones tour — which kicked off in Boston last night — and the Sept 6 release of their Bigger Bang album, starting tomorrow, August 23, and running through September 29, SIRIUS Satellite Radio will launch an all-Rolling Stones music channel. The craggy old farts will help program the channel, which will feature five decades of Stones music, including rare tracks, live cuts and previews from A Bigger Bang.
Rolling Stones Radio will also air nightly "concert playbacks" whereby SIRIUS will play album versions of the Stones' songs in the order they were performed following each US tour date, and present track-by-track stories and introductions to each of A Bigger Bang's 16 all-new songs, as told exclusively to SIRIUS by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood.
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
This is a fantastic innovation -- I think satellite will really make inroads via this kind of niche programming.
2 - Eric Berlin
"Craggy old farts"? Aren't these dudes from your era, EO (he said with tongue in cheek...)?
3 - Matt
Sirius gives the Stones a channel, but the Beatles got nothing. A crying shame.
4 - Eric Olsen
the Beatles aren't touring Matt!
age-wise, I am closer in age to someone 32 than I am to Mick
5 - Mark Sahm
Matt, I guess Sirius considers it a better thing that the Stones continue to make music and market themselves. Whereas at least in the online sense, the Beatles catalog is still (legally) in a glass case not being distributed. Indeed, it's a shame.
Even though I wonder if the new stuff hurts the Stones' overall catalog as a composite.
6 - Steve S
SIRIUS has an all Elvis channel, and they just launched another one, but I can't remember who it was, Jimmy Buffet springs to mind, but I wouldn't swear on it.
Mark Goodman, an old MTV VJ has a show on one of the rock stations. We love Sirius, the only thing that sucks is the recent departure of Air America from it. But it's a thousand times better than the cyclic airplay and commercials and painfully stupid djs of corporate radio.
7 - Mark Saleski
yep. there's also a great and extremely rootsy country channel called 'Roadhouse'.
i also love the Dead show that Bill Walton does on the jam band channel.
lotsa good stuff to listen to.
8 - Eric Olsen
we really like Music Choice via cable TV - digging that Retro-Active on the weekends.
9 - Tan The Man
Nice. I hope this doesn't give Britney an excuse to launch her own-channel, if and when, she tours again.
It makes me shiver.
10 - Bob A. Booey
Bill Walton has a show?
I'd tune into that just to hear him ramble for 8 hours in his Bullwinkle Moose voice about the Dead before he could even play a song. "Best concert in history!"
That is all.
11 - Matt
I don't know, I'm not buying it, and Im a Sirius subscriber (so I guess I AM buying it). No one needs 24 hours of Rolling Stones. No one. What was the last truly great Stones album? Tattoo You, right? For fuck's sake, that was nearly a quarter century ago.
I know the Stones have more of a history simply because they refuse to stop playing, but the Beatles have more to contribute to an channel devoted to them 100%.
12 - Eric Olsen
Matt, note that the Stones channel is only through Sept 29, so it's more like a "Stones month" than a Stones channel; but I agree the Beatles should have their own, especially if you add in the solo stuff
13 - Reisa L. Gerber
The Rolling Stones can kick off a tour anytime
they decide to, just as long as they "come over",
because "I'll be home soon"...
My relationship with Mick, from my side, is
very good, because he is excellent, as is David
Bowie. There were two trips to paradise, you
know? And Lady Stardust played her songs: yeah.
My sister saw the Stones about a year ago with
her husband...I blew it up in her face!
Bitch, No Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash,
Let Me Go!, Start Me Up,Angie, Brown Sugar,
...hey, mick, who's Marie in the states?-
Love YA GOTTA MOVE!,It's Only Rocknroll (But I
like it!), As Tears go bye, You Can't always
Get What you want, Paint it (black), "No colors
Anymore, I want..."...And, of course, Stevie
Nicks-"You're not my friend
You're not my love,
And these are really things we don't
Discuss!.....Where were you?
I thought I heard you cryin',
But I wake up and I get through it..."
A Whole Lot of Trouble
Time and Space, Stevie Nicks...