'40s on 4

The '40s on 4

Broadcast area	United States Canada
Frequency	Sirius 4 XM 4 Dish Network 6004
First air date	September 25, 2001
Format	1930s, 1940s and early 1950s Music
Class	Satellite Radio Station
Owner	Sirius XM Radio
Website	SiriusXM: '40s on 4

Logo used prior to the Sirius/XM merger on November 12, 2008.

'40s on 4 (or just The '40s) is a commercial-free music channel on the Sirius XM Radio platform, broadcasting on both XM and Sirius channel 4 as well as Dish Network channel 6004. (DirecTV formerly carried the channel as well, but as of February 9, 2010 had dropped Sirius XM programming in favor of SonicTap). The channel mostly plays big band, swing, and hit parade music from 1936 to 1949, with occasional songs from the early 1950s.

The channel often bills itself as "The Savoy Express on Track #4", a reference to the passenger train travel common in the 1940s. The original "Station Master" (Program Director) for the channel was Marlin Taylor, with Bob Moke as Music Director. Both have since departed, and the channel is currently programmed by Human Newman.

From November 16-December 25, 2009, the channel was pre-empted for Holiday Traditions, a seasonal format devoted to popular Christmas music of the 1940s through the 1960s. In 2010, the channel was again pre-empted for Holiday Traditions, this time starting November 15 and extending through January 1, 2011.

Similar to the other XM decades channels prior to the 2008 merger with Sirius, the '40s channel was originally programmed to recreate the feeling of its time period. They were able to do this through big band/swing music, recreated newscasts (in which fictional reporter "Ed Baxter", voiced by Bill Schmalfeldt, would report on a given day's top stories in a year from 1936 to 1949 as if they were current events), countdowns of the top three hit songs from the current week in a year from 1936–1949, World War II–era patriotic songs, Spike Jones joke novelty recordings, and such features as the Record Museum, which played tracks from the 1920s and early to mid-1930s. During Academy Award season, Bob Moke would regularly introduce and play all of the Academy-Award nominated songs for a particular year between 1936 and 1949.

Other past programs on the channel included Harmony Square, a one-hour presentation of barbershop music that aired on Sunday afternoons and evenings; Big Band Jump, a syndicated weekly program hosted by Don Kennedy that specialized in Big Band music and the stories behind it; and a weekly program devoted to vintage Bing Crosby radio shows such as Philco Radio Time and Kraft Music Hall.

The channel was also used for XM's annual pop music chronology, IT, from 2002 to 2007.

As of August 2011, Jonathan Schwartz, formerly of XM's High Standards and Siriusly Sinatra channels, can be heard daily on '40s on 4.