The Heat (Sirius XM)

The Heat is the name of Sirius XM Radio's urban-leaning rhythmic contemporary channel, on Sirius channel 47 (previously 50) and XM channel 47 (previously 68), as well as on Dish Network channel 6047(previously 6050), Until February 9, 2010, it was on DirecTV channel 825, due to all of the Sirius XM programming being dropped. The service signed on April 17, 2006.

At the start The Heat was a Rhythmic Top 40 outlet and had played Rhythmic hits, but during the Sirius XM Merger on November 12, 2008, it changed to a more hit-driven R&B, urban pop, and melodic Hip-Hop channel.

Prior to its debut as "The Heat" in 2006, it was originally called "The Eye" (XM26) and it was only available online from November 11, 2004 to April 16, 2006. On November 12, 2008 The Heat replaced Sirius' Hot Jamz on channel 50. It also shifted its direction to Urban after the changes were made, to replace XM's former Urban Contemporary channel, 67 The City. Due to the failure of their urban contemporary experiment, in March 2009, the channel's playlist became more Rhythmic once again, however, this time, it seems to be more of a Rhythmic Contemporary, not as much of a Rhythmic Top 40 like it was prior to the merger, because of Sirius removing Pop2K (now exclusively on XM channel 30, and many Pop2K artists are played on The Heat. Most of the rap tunes were dropped, unless it has melodic elements such as in the songs "All the Above" by Maino or "Whatever You Like" by T.I., as its sister Hip-Hop Nation and Shade 45 channels play them. R&R still lists the channel as an urban-formatted outlet. As of late 2009, the channel (despite still listed on Mediabase's rhythmic top 40 panel) decided to not focus on hip-hop music, although The Heat is now described more of a hot rhythmic adult contemporary channel. It took the former playlist of the now-defunct Hot Jamz channel that was on Sirius 50 pre-merger.

The station plays clean versions of songs and has deejays, just like a terrestrial station, however, the channel is commercial free. As of April 2009, the channel has a new logo which shows only the word "heat" engulfed in now blue flames.