36 The Beat

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**The Beat**

Broadcast area	United States, Canada
First air date	February 14, 2002
Frequency	SIRIUS 36 DISH Network 6036
Format	Rhythmic Top 40 / Dance music
Owner	SIRIUS Satellite Radio
Website	www.sirius.com/thebeat

The Beat is a Dance Music radio station on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 36 and DISH Network channel 6036.

The Beat offers a hybrid of current-based and mostly remixes of Rhythmic Top 40 and Dance music product, as well as Club classics from the 1990s and early 2000s. All of which is presented in a Top 40-like direction.

Like XM Satellite Radio's XM 81 BPM, this channel also features DJs, but are more personality driven. Like XM, they are also commercial-free.

The Beat signed on the same day as Sirius Satellite Radio in 2002. In the fall of 2005, after eliminating several channels to incorporate new ones such as the Howard Stern and Martha Stewart channels, the Beat moved from Channel 66 to Channel 36, along with the other dance-oriented channels (with the exception of Remix, which was eliminated).

During the month of May 2006, Sirius began to pull the majority of the current songs in rotation from the Beat. The majority of these occurred on either May 4th or June 6th of 2006. Now the Beat is playing about 50% "gold" music, older songs primarily from the 90's but some reaching as far back as the new wave hits of the early 80's (like Yaz and New Order). The Beat has also significantly slowed down the number of new song "adds" every week.

The Beat had just recently, in early 2006, become very aggressive with newer music and was beginning to sound a lot closer to its rival XM Satellite Radio's XM 81 BPM.

As of June 14, 2006, the Beat is becoming more of a classic dance station playing many of the songs that were previously being played on the Strobe, channel 37 (the existing disco/classic dance station on Sirius). In some cases, the Strobe is playing music that has a more current release date than the Beat.

It is not clear what Sirius is planning to do with the station, as the company has made no announcements regarding the obvious change in their programming approach regarding the Beat.