Hip Hop Nation's repetitive rotation.

Well I sent a letter to both.

The thing is, most people that have a subscription probably listen to sirius a lot more during the day than people who listen to FM listen to free radio. So I dont understand the repetition at all, it can't be what people want.

When my friends tell me about a song they like, I like saying, oh yeah I heard that months ago on XM. I don't hear these new catchy songs much anymore, but i do hear the same songs they are playing on FM.

I know it will improve, and I still love the station and Shade 45 over anything else, and I'm not going to stop voicing my opinion to them.

Dion, the Senior Programmar for the urban stations wrote me back last night...below are two e-mail exchanges I had with him, decent info I got from him, definentaly better then the form letters I've seen for months.


Hi,

I've been a loyal subscriber to Sirius for over 3 years now ,and never have I been more disappointed with the content being played on your flagship urban station, Hip Hop Nation. It is nothing more than "Top 40" of Hip Hop being played constantly on rotation. Even worse its playing these small list of songs multiple times in thirty minutes to an hour on a consistent basis, this is unacceptable and action needs to be taken. This is something I can see being done for "The Heat", having Top 40 Hip Hop/R&B but not what should be promoted as the flagship urban station. We need more songs from the artists you play, not their latest singles or all the mainstream music.Were essentially listening to unedited FM radio, it's unacceptable for me or any one else paying $150 a year, if we wanted FM music their would be no Sirius XM because we would just listen to FM. Ignoring the situation is only making matters worse, you say you listen to us so please do for once. We will not stop until the rotation is improved!

-------------------------------

Hello Sean,

Thanks for your feedback and concern for Hip-Hop Nation. We rely on input from subscribers like yourself to keep us on our toes and to ensure we're providing the best content possible. We've received a few e-mails concerning the music rotations on Hip-Hop Nation, and I want to assure you that these e-mails are being taken seriously. While it is not unusual for Hip-Hop Nation to rotate a record with an 80-90 minute separation in some cases (particularly if the song is in Power rotation), the 30- minute turnover you mentioned is indeed an oversight which will be promptly addressed.

Please note that Hip-Hop Nation is a mainstream hip-hop channel, which plays "hip-hop hits", as both our website and channel guids indicates. Conversely, The Heat is our mainstream R&B channel - and supports records as such. If you feel there are some artists/projects that we're currently not supporting, that would be an ideal fit for either channel, please make me aware of these records, and as a programmer, I will take these recommendations into account. We realize at the end of the day that we cannot please everyone, but if we can arrive at a common ground musically, it will ultimately make our channels better as a result.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly in the office to follow up - at 202-230-4467 - or reply back to this e-mail to make sure you received it. Thanks again for reaching out to us, and please continue to do so.

Best,

Dion
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My reply

Dion,

Thank you for the response, it is very much appreciated. My main
concern, as is many listeners is that the power rotation is very
shallow and not updated accordingly. Songs like Got Money, Vacation,
Homecoming and many more have been in the power rotation for 6 months
or more. Hearing these songs for that amount of time daily even in 90
minutes spans becomes very annoying, this is why so many people have
become fed up with FM and pay for satellite, but now it is becoming
eerily similar. If your on the road a lot, have Sirius in the car and
home, or are having a party and are hearing these songs every hour for
so many months becomes hair pulling annoying. I also very much
understand that hip hop nation is a mainstream station, but their are
still a lot of mainstream songs that get no play, such as Lil Waynes
Im Me or T.I.'s Top Back. This is just a small example,
but their are endless songs that could be added.

Something I think that could be done to sastify most listeners is deepen the power
playlist and add a weekly countdown on saturday or sunday afternoon
where you could countdown the top 25 of the week, allow listeners to
vote on songs through Hip Hop Nations website or something like that.
Please get back to me if you can and let me know what you think of
some of these ideas.

---------------------
His second reply

We're having our music meeting tomorrow for Hip-Hop Nation and will most
likely start rotating new music from Fat Joe, Maino, Ludacris, as well
as a few others we're looking at for the week. Let me know if any other
titles cross your mind.

The countdown idea isn't bad...I'd just have to find a personality
in-house whom I know could pull it off. Let me give it some thought.

Trip you are right on:

your flagship urban station, Hip Hop Nation. It is nothing more than "Top 40" of Hip Hop being played constantly on rotation. Even worse its playing these small list of songs multiple times in thirty minutes to an hour on a consistent basis, this is unacceptable and action needs to be taken. This is something I can see being done for "The Heat", having Top 40 Hip Hop/R&B but not what should be promoted as the flagship urban station. We need more songs from the artists you play, not their latest singles or all the mainstream music.Were essentially listening to unedited FM radio,

I agree with everything else you wrote also. There is no need to rotate so much, there is plenty of songs that have the same impact of "power hits"

Keep up the good work and tell him you have support. This morning I heard 2 songs i've never heard before and it was great. I think what they don't get is we don't care about familiarity like all those rock douche bags that listen to the same songs from the same band since 1970.

And yes, "The heat" and "Hits one" and "20 on 20" is a great place for the "power hits" not the "flagship" urban station.

I think I can even quantify it by saying after the 4th time I have heard a "Hot" song its starts getting old.

I think a quick solution would be like you suggested, playing the same artists, just different tracks from their albums. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a Hot song, I like hearing things that I don't get from FM.

Today around noon I heard 5 songs that i've never heard on HHN before in about a 1 hour time frame, after that it got back to the playing a lot of the "power rotation" stuff. I heard about an hour tonight and it has been pretty good but Nina 9 usually does a decent job of mixing requests with the rotation any way. Like you were saying romo The Heat would serve just fine for the "power hits" or "top 40" of Hip Hop and R&B as oppose to having two "top 40" urban stations being "top 40". Other then that we have an Eminem channel that does have a deepter rotation imo but its still a niche station, it plays Em and his crew more then anything else..I can still live with that though. Then an exclusive old school rap station, but their needs to be a station that plays a lot of underground music, get these unsigned artist some spins with their songs, maybe they can become signed..also needs to be a lot more new music put into rotation when it becomes new and not stay as long(you said about 2 weeks in an old post, that sounds about right). This station should be HHN, and hopefully we can get it there. It does seem that things are slowly starting to change for the better, but their's still a lot of work to be done.

It bothers me that they ask us to tell them what to play, I know its a catch 22 though because we tell them they aren't playing what we want to hear but then we can't tell them what we want to hear. I for one don't know any names of songs, I barely know any artist names. I couldn't request a song if my life depended on it. I depend on them to provide me the entertainment.

Originally Posted by imromo24

It bothers me that they ask us to tell them what to play, I know its a catch 22 though because we tell them they aren't playing what we want to hear but then we can't tell them what we want to hear. I for one don't know any names of songs, I barely know any artist names. I couldn't request a song if my life depended on it. I depend on them to provide me the entertainment.

Yeah I hear that, a lot of people are like that and I see where your coming from with that. I got my new survey today and it was still all the same songs from the past two surveys, but it had a new question that asked what I wanted to hear. Also in the e-mail it listed Leo G. as Director of Programming for Hip Hop Nation. I'm not sure if he has this job since the merger or if he got a recent promotion to help fix up things

I'll venture to guess that Leo G. was not in any way director of programming...and has been promoted, which is great news. Im sure you know leo G. comes from the XM RAW channel and I believe was only brought back by listener demand. Some sites during the merger were chanting to bring him back.

Especially since you said he was ticked about having to be "mainstream" I doubt the director of programming would complain he can't play something! So excellent news!

Can't wait to get home and take the survey, been a long time it seems since the last one.

Power, I was doing some research on Leo G. and found this on his myspace. This sums up exactly what we are asking for, maybe if he gets some more influence we'll be good.
http://www.myspace.com/the66general
Leo G. started his radio broadcasting career over 15 years ago and since that time he has become one of the most infamous radio personalities in the nation. Leo G’s career began at New York City’s WQHT FM as their Programming and Promotions Assistant. Since that time Leo G has been the on – air talent for several Number 1 rated radio stations in the Northeast and he has retained an almost cult like following throughout the nation.

Leo G joined XM Radio in 2001 and has helped to make it one of the fastest growing subscription-based companies in history, with over 9 million subscribers on it’s platform as well as another 14 million subscribers through XM’s relationship on DirecTV.. Leo G’s experience in entertaining large audiences makes him a natural behind the mic as well as behind the scenes. Leo G’s current role as Program Director for XM Radio allows him to utilize his creative expertise to influence programming for one of XM’s most popular channels – XM 66 RAW.

RAW is about writing the story of hip-hop. When programming RAW, Leo G took a more of a mixtape approach which has not only managed to let the newest music hit the streets sooner but it also gives Leo’s listeners the best uncut music in the industry. Leo has been quoted as saying, “When an artist or label leaks a new track to the DJs to break a song, I’m right there bringing those exclusives from the biggest mainstream and underground artists to the XM hip hop nation.” This fresh approach to new, uncut, raw material makes Leo G’s RAW one of the most popular Hip- Hop stations in the nation.

As Leo G looks toward the future, he is continuing to work toward giving his listeners the very best uncut RAW music that the industry has to offer and maintain the true essence and integrity of the hip hop culture through XM 66 RAW.

Originally Posted by imromo24

Leo G’s current role as Program Director for XM Radio allows him to utilize his creative expertise to influence programming for one of XM’s most popular channels – XM 66 RAW.
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So he was Program Director for XM RAW as well? Hopefully he can get things changed for the better. After a decent week of mixing in some new songs, this weekend has been pretty horrible playing the same old rotation songs over and over.