Sirius-XM Brings Back the Boneyard; Now Let's Fix It!

As part of their post-merger activities, Sirius XM Satellite Radio merged many of their music channels, both to the happiness and annoyance of their subscribers. Channels were gained and lost on both sides. Two months later, the shake-up is still being felt by subscribers.

As part of the combining of channels, one of my favorites as a long-time XM subscriber, The Boneyard, was temporarily lost, replaced by AC/DC Radio. Finally, it was brought back on January 15 on XM channel 53 and Sirius channel 19. In bringing back the Boneyard on XM 53, Sirius listeners lost Buzz Saw, which was a similar channel, and The Boneyard's old home on XM, channel 41, was replaced by Sirius's Hair Nation. This channel, too, is somewhat similar to The Boneyard.

Okay, enough of the background...Now, on to the complaints and how I suggest fixing it after almost five years of having been a happy XM listener, and in particular, huge Boneyard fan.

First, to put it simply, just give me back my old, pre-November 12 Boneyard. Get rid of Hair Nation, and restore the Boneyard to what it had been...A mix of classic hard rock/metal and hair metal, along with new rock from those artists, and new artists still carrying on that sound. Doing this might also allow Sirius XM to bring back another channel lost in the merger, such as the all-punk channel to keep that particular niche satisfied.

I'm serious about combining Hair Nation and Boneyard. In addition to the other channels I listen to (several country channels, Octane, The Virus, NFL Radio), I'm often flipping between the Boneyard and Hair Nation. Boneyard plays a lot of stuff they don't play on Hair Nation, but they both play a lot of the same songs from Dokken, Guns N' Roses, Kiss, The Scorpions, Great White, Whitesnake, Aerosmith and so on. The main difference is that the Boneyard goes further back into these bands' catalogs than Hair Nation.

Even if we can't eliminate Hair Nation and simply combine the playlist with that of the current Boneyard, or give me back my old Boneyard, let's at least expand the artist roster of the Boneyard. I was home sick a good portion of the weekend, and spent a lot of time listening to the channel, and heard an inordinate amount of the same bands over and over again...Though they may be core artists, there is more to hard rock and classic metal than Rush, AC/DC, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden. I listened for several hours and heard at least one track from each of these bands every hour and a half to two hours. After having had AC/DC radio on the platform for four months, too much AC/DC in particular is being played.

Who would I like to hear more of, or hear at all? That's easy.

• More UFO. I've heard the same couple songs from this band multiple times. They have several albums out. Get anything with Michael Schenker or Paul Chapman, and play those.
  
• Thin Lizzy: Maybe I've missed it, but I've heard no Thin Lizzy at all. The Boneyard of the past used to play tons of great tracks from these guys, and not just "The Boys are Back In Town" or "Jailbreak". There's plenty of material to choose from.
  
• More Rainbow. Again, other than Eddie Trunk's show, we don't hear enough of these guys.
  
• More Michael Schenker/MSG.
  
• Riot: Particularly material off the Restless Breed, although any of that early stuff is fine.
  

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Also, make it easier for your listeners to get in touch with you. When the channel was strictly on XM, the phone number, email, and MySpace address were constantly given out. Interaction is a huge part of satellite radio. We pay at least $12.95 a month for this service, and that's if we haven't added a "best of" package, or don't have more than one radio. Keep the listeners happy; make it easy for us to get in touch at leave requests.

Next, bring back the deeper cuts. Right now, both stations sound pretty much like Z-Rock did back in 1990. Z-Rock was cool back in 1990, but The Boneyard was cooler from the day I signed up for XM in May of 2004 until November 11 of 2008, mixing the radio hits with the deeper album cuts we hadn't heard in a while. Many times, I'd hear a song on The Boneyard and either dig out a CD I hadn't played in years or jump online and order a copy after hearing some forgotten gem from junior high or high school.

Next, let's mix up the DJ line-up a bit. Lou, Matt, and Kane are fine, but seven days a week? It's obvious they're voice-tracked, which is fine...But let's have a bit a variety, and let's add some more day parts. Maybe some different guys or gals on weekends. Let's also bring back some more specialty shows such as Breaking Bone, which is listed at 30 minutes. Bring back Bone Phones, the all-request show. Bring back the shredder show (can't remember what it was called). Maybe add a replay for Eddie Trunk's show.

Again, these are just some thoughts from a die-hard fan. I'm sure the casual listener thinks the station sounds just fine and doesn't need any work, but to those of us who remember what it was even a couple months ago, it's fallen considerably.

In closing, as I type this, I'm listening to The Boneyard on my XM receiver, and they're playing the same Iron Maiden song they were playing at about this time Sunday night, "Two Minutes to Midnight". Just goes to show how much the playlist has narrowed. I love the song, but come on...Let's broaden it a bit.