On Thursday afternoon (Australian-time) I stumbled across a station playing ‘Billy Jean’ and thought how rarely it seems to be played these days. Never a huge fan of that particular song, it felt kinda good to hear it again. A bit like the Thompson Twins’ “Hold Me Now”… you don’t necessarily want to hear it too often over and over but once a year it’s a little warm and fuzzy audio delight for your ears. Well that’s how it is for me anyway.

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday I lost count of how many times I heard Billy Jean. And ’Ben’. And ‘Thriller’. And ‘Rock With You’. And ‘Beat It’. And, and, and…!!!

Of course yesterday was the day Michael Jackson moonwalked off the planet forever.

And checking out online stations from around the world – those that published their live playlists online – was fascinating. Some played blocks of Michael Jackson songs, say three or four in a row. Some played a couple of tracks back-to-back then a little while later played another of his songs.

Would it be wrong to estimate that every contemporary music station on the planet has played at least one Michael Jackson song in the past 24 hours?   

If you know of a station – not a talk-based station, (although I’m sure 99% of talk stations at least played a snippet of Michael Jackson’s music yesterday!), not a classical, heavy metal or other ‘niche’ station – but if you know of a single commercial radio station in the ‘western world’ that DIDN’T play MJ then I’d be amazed.

No matter what you thought of ’Jacko’ he sure had an amazing, international effect on  people. And in his life and after it – radio plays and will continue to play the most important and powerful means of delivering his music to ears wherever they are at any time of day or night.

Radio’s strength in rapidly spreading news yesterday in combination with the emotive power of music was unparalleled in its effectiveness, even in an age where some predict the demise of radio in favour of emerging technologies. Yes, radio as we know it now will perhaps barely resemble radio in the future. But it’ll still be “radio”. Radio touches people wherever they are and that’s why your trusty am, fm, shortwave, digital, online… whatever…  station will always exist.

And it’s thanks to radio that whether you’re stuck in New York traffic or alone on an open stretch of road in Australia’s outback, you’ll still be able to hear ‘Billy Jean’ and sing along out loud at the top of your voice in ten, twenty or thirty years from now.