To Jam On!… or NOT To Jam On! THAT is the Question!
When I bought my 2013 Equinox, I was so excited. I could get SiriusXM radio! And what was the first station I set? 29 Jam On! The second one? 23 The Grateful Dead channel.
As time went on, I added more. 21 Little Steven’s Garage Rock, which featured the best show ever on SiriusXM, Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure. And my other two go-to funk outlets: 49 Classic Soul and Motown, and 50 The Groove: ’70s and ’80s RnB.
But Jam On! was the thing. WAS being the operative word, because Jam On! has now been relegated to the SiriusXM app and online listening. Why?
To make way for Phish Radio.
Look, I like the boys from Vermont and all, but for me there was already too much Phish on the air. In addition to Jonathan Schwartz’s Gone Fishin’ live set each weeknight at 9, there was plenty on throughout the day. In fact, I’ll bet you may have joked at some point about it being Phish Radio (before the announcement on June 14).
And, yes, given their following, Phish deserve their own channel just as much as do 18 The Beatles, 19 Elvis, 20 The Boss, 22 Pearl Jam, and 24 Jimmy Buffett. And, of course, 31 Tom Petty Radio.
I know people trying to petition SiriusXM to bring Jam On! back. And it is a noble effort, but here is a “sirius” question: Is it worth saving? Or moving back to Channel 29?
How tight was their playlist, anyway? It feels like — and I have no evidence here other than anecdotal and apocryphal — the list was shrinking. I love Marco Benevento, but to listen to Jam On! you might have assumed he only had one song out: “At the Show.” I can’t bitch about them playing only “Final Thought” from Kamasi Washington’s The Epic; I was thrilled they were playing it at all. But some artists were defined by a single track, or so it appeared.
Then there were the live broadcasts from festivals such as Suwannee Hulaween and in-studio specials as well. Are they too now relegated to the app and/or 716?
And it seemed, true or not, that there were fewer and fewer new artists being featured. Perhaps Jam On! has just run its course. I found myself listening to 29 less and less and spending more time elsewhere. (OK, it doesn’t help that I’m a news junkie, either.)
Tell us what you think. Do you miss Jam On!, or had it already lost its luster?
It’s hard saying goodbye to an old friend who’s moving far, far away.
