XM and Sirius Merge Stations: Eminem, Bob Dylan, Howard Stern Survive

XM and Sirius satellite radio stations merged today. Each sides' premium channels and talent mostly stayed intact, with stations like Howard Stern, the Grateful Dead Channel and Eminem's Shade 45 all making the jump to XM users, while Sirius listeners acquire Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, Tom Petty's Buried Treasure and B.B. King's namesake blues station. Many of the themed genre stations, however, were either axed or assimilated into one station. For instance, Sirius' college rock mainstay Left of Center is done, replaced by XM's similar XMU. The by-the-decades stations are now categorized as "'60s on 6," "'70s on 7," etc. A pair of Rock Daily's favorite Sirius stations, Lithium and First Wave, thankfully managed to survive, while XM's alt-rock trio of stations Fred, Ethel and Lucy learned their satellite days are over.

Related Stories:
• Sirius and XM Finally Merge, Become Sirius XM Radio
• Eminem Announces New Album Relapse, Plays New Song On Sirius
• DJ Bob Dylan Returns to Airwaves

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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