'40s on 4
 | |
| Broadcast area |
United States Canada |
|---|---|
| Frequency |
Sirius XM Radio 4 Dish Network 6004 |
| First air date | September 25, 2001 |
| Format | 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s Music |
| Class | Satellite Radio Station |
| Owner | Sirius XM Radio |
| Website | SiriusXM: '40s on 4 |
'40s on 4 (or just The '40s) is a commercial-free music channel on the Sirius XM Radio platform, broadcasting on Sirius XM channel 4 as well as Dish Network channel 6004. (DirecTV formerly carried the channel as well, but as of February 9, 2010 had dropped Sirius XM programming in favor of SonicTap). The channel mostly plays big band, swing, and hit parade music from 1936 to 1949, with occasional songs from the early 1950s.
The channel often bills itself as "The Savoy Express on Track #4", a reference to the passenger train travel common in the 1940s. The original "Station Master" (Program Director) for the channel was Marlin Taylor, with Bob Moke as Music Director. Both have since departed, and the channel is currently programmed by Human Newman.
Around Thanksgiving and Christmastime, '40s on 4 would be pre-empted for Holiday Traditions, a seasonal format devoted to popular Christmas music from the 1940s to the 1960s. From November 16-December 25, 2009, the channel was pre-empted for Holiday Traditions. In 2010, the channel was again pre-empted for Holiday Traditions, this time starting November 15 and extending through January 1, 2011. On November 8, 2011, it was announced[1] that Holiday Traditions would appear on their own channel (147) from November 14, 2011 to January 2, 2012.[2]
Similar to the other XM decades channels prior to the 2008 merger with Sirius, the '40s channel was originally programmed to recreate the feeling of its time period. They were able to do this through big band/swing music, recreated newscasts (in which fictional reporter "Ed Baxter", voiced by Bill Schmalfeldt, would report on a given day's top stories in a year from 1936 to 1949 as if they were current events), countdowns of the top three hit songs from the current week in a year from 1936–1949, World War II–era patriotic songs, Spike Jones joke novelty recordings, and such features as the Record Museum, which played tracks from the 1920s and early to mid-1930s. During Academy Award season, Bob Moke would regularly introduce and play all of the Academy-Award nominated songs for a particular year between 1936 and 1949.
The voice of the channel is Lou Brutus who models his announcing style for it on Bing Crosby staff announcer Ken Carpenter.
Other past programs on the channel included Harmony Square, a one-hour presentation of barbershop music that aired on Sunday afternoons and evenings; Big Band Jump, a syndicated weekly program hosted by Don Kennedy that specialized in Big Band music and the stories behind it; and a weekly program devoted to vintage Bing Crosby radio shows such as Philco Radio Time and Kraft Music Hall.
The channel was also used for XM's annual pop music chronology, IT, from 2002 to 2007.
From August 2011 to August 2013, Jonathan Schwartz, formerly of XM's High Standards and Siriusly Sinatra channels, was heard daily on '40s on 4 playing a mixture of classic and contemporary pop standards recordings.
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