An enterprising reader decided to follow up on our recent story regarding XM's removal of their punk stations by contacting the company directly and recieved the following statement from one of the DJs, Lou Brutus:

Thanks so much for taking the time to write with your comments on XM 53 Fungus. We recognize and appreciate the fact that Fungus and punk, ska and hardcore has loyal fans like you, but because we have limited space on our platform for music channels, we're often faced with having to make difficult decisions when it comes to what's available on our channel line-up. Fungus was one of the channels that had a very loyal but also a very limited audience.

Some of the music heard on Fungus can be heard on other XM channels including Fred (XM 44) and Ethel (XM 47). Again, we appreciate you being a fan of Fungus and hope you listened to enough other XM channels to stick around as a subscriber.

Back when the satellite radio format was being launched, one of the advantages touted by executives was the format's ability to serve many more channels than conventional radio. This, it was argued, would have allowed satellite providers to serve more niche audiences.