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Michael Jackson would have turned 51 on Saturday, and to celebrate the fallen pop star’s memory, New York dance-pop station WKTU will flip to an all-Michael format from 5 p.m. Friday all the way through Sunday evening. I’m sure that the ratings spike WKTU saw in the wake of Jackson’s death, when it switched to a similar programming strategy, has nothing to do with this flip!
WKTU started playing wall-to-wall Michael music when he died in June, and listener response increased the station’s ratings almost 20% for the month of July.
Right. Anyway, WKTU is a Clear Channel-owned station, so look for this special programming to possibly be syndicated to a Hot AC station near you this weekend. (Other New York-area radio outlets will also be airing Jackson-themed programming in the coming days, with one station relegating his honors to the not-very-prime 3:30-6 a.m. slot.)
[NYDN; HT scroll]
Side note: I may still be pissed at WKTU/CC for canceling the Sunday night freestyle show.
@Maura: I thought they just moved Judy Torres up on Sunday, to the 4pm-8pm slot. Not that I’ve been able to listen anytime lately, since I actually am out and about on Sundays.
@Nick Minichino: She’s not doing freestyle-only programming anymore, sadly. Apparently the Long Island radio station Party 105 is hoping to pick up the slack soon…
@Maura: That is sad!
I’m not sure where they found room in the Party 105 playlists for freestyle though. Then again my concept of Party 105 was formed back when Cascada/DJ Sammy/Alice Deejay had their moment and were all played constantly on the station.
On the other hand, the last time I listened to Party 105 there was a station ID shoutout to the students of Adelphi. So who knows!
@Nick Minichino: er, Cascada came much later, whoops!