The Verge (XM)
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| Broadcast area |
Canada United States |
|---|---|
| Branding | The Verge |
| Slogan | New, Emerging, Now |
| Frequency | SiriusXM 173 |
| First air date | 2002 as Radio Unsigned 2005 as (un)Signed April 17, 2006 as The Verge |
| Format | Emerging Canadian rock bands |
| Class | Satellite Radio Station |
| Owner | Sirius XM Canada |
| Website | The Verge |
The Verge is a Sirius XM Canada channel featuring new and emerging rock bands from Canada. The channel is produced in Toronto, Ontario for the entire SiriusXM platform. The channel's former names included Unsigned, and (un)Signed, which indicated that the channel played a combination of signed and unsigned bands. A few American songs, such as Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder (written and originally performed by a Canadian) are played on the channel. In August 2015, The Verge was added to the Sirius channel lineup.
XM launched the original Unsigned channel (notice no parenthesis) in its rock selection as an outlet for all the unsigned rock bands out there to receive nationwide exposure. In addition to unsigned rock music, one of these bands would also have the opportunity to have Unsigned play their favorite popular band at a certain time each day. A popular show on Unsigned was The R>A>D>A>R Report, which actually started via internet in the late 1990s as a showcase for unsigned rockers. XM Satellite Radio picked up the show for its Unsigned channel, and the show now had a wide audience to broadcast to beginning on January 3, 2003. As Unsigned continued its parade of no-name up and comer rock bands, sister rocker XMU on XM 43 was also growing with its selection of independent and college rock. After a while, it looked as if XMU and Unsigned were slowly becoming the same channel, with similar bands being played. Some XM fans suggested a merger of the two channels, while others suggested niching the playlists a little more. On November 16, 2005, the "merger" people got their wish.
In June 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission gave XM's partner, Canadian Satellite Radio, the license to broadcast satellite radio in Canada. With this came some rules and regulations regarding Canadian content, forcing the birth of new channels on the line-up. Some channels were newborns, some were deleted completely and replaced with new ones, Unsigned on the other hand was the only one to be moved and reformatted. Thus, (un)Signed was born. (un)Signed was born as a station for new and emerging rock artists from Canada, and is currently on the entire XM platform in both nations. To maintain 100% Canadian content, The R>A>D>A>R Report was moved to XMU where it continues to broadcast weekly shows with encores. XMU did not receive a name change, but it now makes up more for the loss of the old Unsigned's playlist.
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