Stations react to Jackson death
Don @ IdahoRadioNews | June 25, 2009
Boise stations KZMG/Magic 93.1, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM and KWYD/Wild 101 are all paying tribute to Michael Jackson this afternoon — by playing a heavy diet of songs from the best-selling popstar.
- KZMG started the trend at 3:52pm – and has been non-stop Jackson since (as of 5:40pm).
- KSAS started at 4:07pm and played about half a dozen songs, and has talked about it quite a bit throughout the afternoon. Program director KeKe Luv tells Idaho Radio News “Michael Jackson was possibly the Elvis of our generation.”
- KWYD flipped into Michael mode at 4:41pm, and is still playing a heavy portion of his songs.
- KCIX/Mix 106, which promises “the best of the 80s, 90s and now” but is voicetracked in the afternoon — has not played a single Jackson track.
This echoes a similar trend decades ago when stations started playing non-stop John Lennon songs after that icon’s death.
UPDATE: About 20 minutes after this post, Mix 106 played a Jackson tune, according to Yes.com. At 7pm, when the station switches voicetrackers, it played “If Today Was Your Last Day” by Nickelback (basically a song about one’s last day on earth), followed by Beat It. Then, back to the music.
KZMG is running a series of promos – one of which is voiced and written as if the station is talking to Michael directly… ‘you will be missed Michael, from all of the Treasure Valley and the staff at Magic 93.1.’
KWYD laid off the all-Jacko all the time vibe, but in the 9pm hour has played several Jackson tracks.
Sadly, we can’t blame Clear Channel for this nowadays.
An interesting comparison since Michael owns the Beatles catalog. I am curious as to what happens to the catalog now, does it get passed down or go back to the actual beatles?
Definitely does not bode well for the folks at Mix…someone is asleep at the switch on that one. Not sure I would have gone completely Michael Jackson, but especially during drive time, the news deserved special (dare I say LIVE) coverage.
And as far as the Beatles catalog, I wonder about that too…especially since Jackson was reportedly 200 million in debt. Not sure there was a clause that said it had to go back to the Beatles if Jackson died – although I did remember hearing something about a “first right of refusal” by the remaining Beatles (most likely McCartney) if Jackson ever decided to sell. I suspect the catalog will be sold to settle his affairs. One can only hope McCartney gets the catalog…seeing as how they are in great part his songs (and since Yoko Ono has not expressed an interest in the rights).
Needless to say, this has been a very sad and surreal day.
Actually, just found an interesting article on this subject on Snopes.com. Turns out I may be off base. Also must stand corrected – Ono did also bid for the rights along with McCartney when they originally became available. Appears MJ only owned HALF the publishing rights, and Sony Music owns the other half after he entered into a joint partnership in the 90’s. Overall the catalog is estimated to be worth a substantial sum of money. Whole article I found is here:
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp
Who died and made YOU The King of Pop? Too Soon? Too Soon?
I broke format and spent an hour doing a tribute to Michael Jackson and taking phone calls from my audience. Broadcasting from Mexico, I can tell you that he made the front pages of all the major newspapers in the country and stations that don’t even play pop are playing wall-to-wall ‘Jacko.
I was just impressed that at least 4 stations I heard weren’t already voice tracked for the day and had some live information. How do they deal with tornados in the midwest when the jock has already gone home for the day? Oh yeah, the EAS system just goes off in the middle of a voice track. I hate what this business has come down to.