Somewhat inspired by this thread:
in which we talk about what stations we listen to most often, I wonder what
station would be the number one spot, if we could have the stations we want.
If you could “invent” a genre channel that XM / SIIRUS does not currently have, what would it be?
A Channel of Video Game Music.
The “Ecto” genre. Think artists such as Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes, Jane Siberry, Noe Venable, Jeff Buckley, Bel Canto, and so on, people who don’t generally fit neatly into Rock/Pop/Alternative. “Modern Rock” would be close but not close enough. It’s hard to describe Ecto music, but I know it when I hear it. I know what Ecto music lovers want to hear.
Really, what they REALLY need, is me, and my unique show, Suspended In Gaffa. l specialize in Ecto. 
On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to move to Texas or wherever they are. Sigh.
I’d like a 70’s-80’s hard rock. Not hair bands, not metal, not new wave, not alternative. Just hard rock.
A channel of Disney park music.
An industrial rock station.
XM has one. Channel 49, I believe.
What I want on XM would be a Celtic channel, and maybe a couple of “dedicated” channels. By that I mean one that rotates a few acts by day. Monday is all Springsteen, Tuesday is all Stones, Wednesday is all Beatles, etc.
Progresssive Rock. A channel dedicated to the most overblown, pretentious, challeging and creative music ever made. Emerson, Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, early Genesis, Caravan, Procul Harum, and Yes could be heard mixed with Porcupine Tree, Riverside, the Tangent, IQ, Arena and the Flower Kings. Argent, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Flash, Camel, Nektar, Kansas and It’s A Beautiful Day all recorded music that never gets heard. It doesn’t have to be obscure, either. Music by Traffic, Steely Dan, Santana, Little Feat, Rush and even the Grateful Dead and the Marshall Tucker Band would be right at home on my channel. There is room for Weather Report, Return To Forever (and it’s members’ solo efforts), Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jazz Is Dead, and Alphonse Mouzon. We could find time to play music by If, Les Claypool’s various projects, Adrian Belew, Clutch, Affinity, Alan Parson Project, Captain Beyond, Spock’s Beard, Dream Theater, moe. and Transatlantic.
But then again, maybe nobody else wants to hear any of this (whatever happened to the “Music Lab” channel on XM, anyway?)
Feel free to pass this post along to anyone at XM or Sirius. I’m available for programming consultation. 
Music Lab got dumped to online-only when they brought Flight 26/XM Hitlist/U.S. Country/Escape to the satellites as commercial-free replacements for KISS/MIX/Nashville!/Sunny.
I don’t have XM or Sirius but my dad does (not sure which) and while I was with him yesterday, I was looking at the stations playlist he keeps in the car and was trying to find a station that would fit my particular tastes and eventually decided that I would have to meld about a dozen different similar-but-not-similar-enough genres together to get the station I’d want and it sounds like yours would be a pretty close approximation.
I’ve bookmarked your site for future listens.
That’s not really hard rock. Last time I listened to 49, they played Kansas and Fleetwood Mac. I suppose 41 is the closest, but they still favor the hairband/mainstream stuff.
Ecto sounds good to me (HR fan here).
FTR: XM is in DC area, Sirius in NYC. No Texas move needed.
I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your station.
Sirius has music? I only listen to Howard. Yep, thirteen bucks a month and I basically listen to Howard.
Well, when I have a guest in the office, I listen to music. There are lots and lots of stations, but I can’t imagine finding one that’s completely to my taste. Maybe, in addition to Elvis (13) and the Stones (98), they could devote some stations to other bands or artists. #10 was Springsteen when I first got Sirius, but now it’s what my workstudy student calls Old Person Music, like Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor and Paul Simon.
The correct answer is, I believe, subscribers.
I think Sirius needs to scrap the single-artist sttions. I’d like to have the world music station back, instead of all-Rolling-Stones-all-the-time on Channel 99.
Although I’m not a huge fan of prog/geek rock, I think DfrntBreign’s idea for a prog rock station is do-able.
Stone Chill Station…
After listening to Ron & Fez I have found that XM is lacking in only one thing:
FUNK!
I know what you mean about trying to meld genres to get what you want. Let me know what you think when you have time to listen. You may not like everything I play, and I may not play artists you’d like to hear (I’m at the mercy of what albums and mp3s I own, and I don’t have the money to buy all the music I’d like to have) but I do hope you like what you hear. I’m very proud of my own taste in music. It’s my only talent.
Wonderful! Thanks for telling me.
Oh, if only one of them would open a studio in the Chicago area. I’d love to live in NYC but it’s far too expensive. We have a 3-bedroom apartment here for the price, or less than the price, of a studio there. And I wouldn’t want to live in DC. Not that they’d ask me, though, ha, they should. Hmm, Delaware’s close…
Hell, yes! The Village (XM15) plays some Celtic stuff but a dedicated channel somewhere in the ‘World’ set of channels would be a welcome addition.
They already have this channel but I think this would be a cool add-on for it.
On the NASCAR channel during a race it would be cool if they had the running order continuously scrolling across the radios display screen the same way it scrolls across the top of the tv screen when you watch it on tv.