
Fungus (XM)

Fungus, branded on air as Fungus 53, was a Commercial-free radio station on XM Satellite Radio, launched in early 2004 and was specialized in playing Uncensored Punk rock, Hardcore rock and Ska music. The channel was one of nine on XM that is marked with an "xL", which is the Channel is Uncensored, and indicating frequent Explicit Language. The channel was programmed by Lou Brutus, who is also host of the nationally syndicated radio show, "Harddrive", and former program director of Special X. Lou and Russ Brown were the two DJs on the channel.
In popular culture.
The station was the subject of the first half of the Fungus/I'm a Really Huge Fan of Bad Religion song from one of NOFX's 7" of the month club program. Fat Mike expresses his thoughts on the station, mentioning that "I hate the radio but I like Fungus/The only punk rock station, it's humongous".
AC/DC Radio and the end of Fungus.
Between 2008-09-15 and 2009-01-15, the channel features the music of Australian band AC/DC 24/7. This is the first single artist micro-channel that is preempting channels on both the XM and Sirius platform. Punk on the Sirius platform is being preempted as well. It is being reported that the channel Boneyard will replace AC/DC radio on channel 53, meaning Fungus 53 has been retired from the Sirius XM lineup. Faction became Fungus's successor on November 12, 2008, although Faction is now XM channel 41.