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SiriusXM is set to launch a radio channel devoted to female comedians on Wednesday.
The channel, titled “She’s So Funny,” will air at 7 a.m. EST, which is the morning of April Fool’s Day, naturally.
“We have a lot of people who are very scared,” Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer at SiriusXM, told The Associated Press. “You have a lot of people who want to feel OK in a difficult time, to have a little humor and try to laugh.”
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The “She’s So Funny” channel is an outgrowth of a listener survey revealing people wanted to hear more from women, said Jack Vaughn, senior vice president of comedy at Sirius.
Much of the material will be culled from recorded routines by the likes of the late Moms Mabley, the late Joan Rivers, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Tig Notaro and Whoopi Goldberg. The channel will also showcase emerging talent like Rachel Feinstein and Jo Firestone.
Interviews or specially-made messages will come from Schumer, Aidy Bryant, Pamela Adlon, the Original Queens of Comedy and others in the first week.
This combination photo shows comedians, from left, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Whoopi Goldberg and the late Joan Rivers, whose comedy will be featured on a new SiriusXM comedy channel called ‘She’s So Funny’ debuting on April Fool’s Day.
(AP Photo)
There’s a real renaissance now in comedy done by women, Vaughn said.
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“The talent is going to speak for itself,” he explained. “There’s just a lot of good stand-up out there today. More so, I’d say, than at any point in human history.”
The number of people listening to SiriusXM’s comedy channels online this year is up 80 percent over last year, the company said, adding that it doesn’t have ratings for the satellite portion of its distribution. That’s through March 22, which includes a little bit of the shut-in period.
Greenstein said Sirius has suffered no service interruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak that has forced many employees to work at home.
“We’ve been lucky,” he told the outlet. “We did a fair amount of planning through the years.”
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SiriusXM also announced that starting Tuesday, it is opening up streams of all of its programming for free online, through May 15, as a gesture to people at home because of the novel virus.
Among the current Sirius comedy channels are ones featuring the works of Kevin Hart, the late George Carlin, Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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