WELCOME TO SIRIUS 66 :: THE BEAT
Sirius 66 :: The Beat is a tribute to the long-gone Sirius Satellite Radio dance channel The Beat. Here you'll hear the same great dance tracks that defined the channel in the 2000s, mixed with 1990s Eurodance, club classics and today's dance hits.
But the music is only part of it. Throughout the stream you'll also hear original The Beat sweepers, bumpers and station imaging from its Sirius days, including the unmistakable voice of Eric Edwards. The goal is simple: preserve the sound, energy and personality of a dance station that disappeared from the satellite dial years ago — while keeping that sound alive with music both old and new.
So whether you remember The Beat from Channel 66, discovered it later on Channel 36, or you're hearing it for the first time here, welcome to Sirius 66 :: The Beat.
Enjoy the music!
THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEAT
The Beat was a commercial-free dance music channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, featuring a mix of current dance hits, rhythmic Top 40 remixes and club classics from the 1990s and early 2000s. Presented in a Top 40-style format, the channel also featured guest and resident DJs including Art Rooney, Mike Bordes, Joey Rivaldo and Louie DeVito.
The Beat launched in early 2003, although its exact launch date remains unclear. A Sirius channel guide dated January 8, 2003 does not yet include The Beat, with Channel 66 then occupied by the jazz/swing channel Swing Street.
Sirius implemented a major programming expansion on February 3, 2003, adding 14 new channels — eight music, three talk and three weather. The Beat was not among the eight new music channels added as part of that expansion.
By April 1, 2003, Sirius's archived dance programming lineup shows The Beat broadcasting on Channel 66. Taken together, the available evidence establishes that The Beat was added sometime after the February 3 expansion and no later than April 1, 2003.
During its early years, The Beat was identified on-air as “Stream 66 — The Beat,” reflecting Sirius's original terminology for its satellite radio channels. As Sirius moved away from referring to its programming as “streams” and adopted more conventional channel branding, The Beat's identification evolved to “Sirius 66 — The Beat.” That later identity is preserved today in Sirius 66 :: The Beat, an homage to the original Sirius dance station and its longtime home on Channel 66.
The Beat moved from Channel 66 to Channel 36 on September 29, 2005, as part of a major Sirius channel lineup realignment.
Following the merger of Sirius and XM, the two services began consolidating overlapping channels and programming. On November 12, 2008, The Beat was discontinued as a standalone channel and its dance format was combined with XM's BPM. BPM continued as the surviving dance channel on the newly unified Sirius XM lineup, bringing The Beat's run after more than five years to an end.
Although the channel itself was gone, The Beat name briefly survived. The Beat Morning Show with Geronimo debuted on BPM on January 15, 2009, carrying a small piece of the former station's identity into the newly combined Sirius XM service. By June 2009, the program and The Beat name had disappeared from BPM's schedule.
Years later, echoes of The Beat could be heard again on SiriusXM. On January 1, 2014, SiriusXM introduced Utopia, a dance channel devoted largely to the 1990s and 2000s dance music era that The Beat had helped represent. Initially offered through SiriusXM's online service and app, Utopia later joined the satellite lineup, giving many of the sounds associated with The Beat a home on SiriusXM once again.
Today, Sirius 66 :: The Beat keeps the sound and spirit of the original channel alive, combining music from The Beat's era with 1990s Eurodance, club classics and current dance hits. Original Sirius-era station imaging, sweepers and bumpers help reconnect that music with the sound and personality of the station that inspired this tribute.
