This Is It takes over the radio waves

After Michael’s death, the songs of the King of Pop took over the airwaves. A similar event happened after the release of This Is It on October 12. From the first minutes of early Monday morning until noon the same day, the song was played 900 times across 402 radio stations in the United States, and 10.4 million people listened to it.

On its first day of radio play, among Billboard’s “Hot 100” songs, it ranked thirty-fifth in terms of the number of plays across all radio stations. On R&B radio, it was fifteenth by number of plays. Even though the song was written in 1983 and had once been released in 1991 by a Puerto Rican singer, it still received strong support on radio waves, and the public’s response has been favorable—so much so that everyone wants to hear it at least once.

Forty percent of the song’s airplay came from R&B radio. Kevin Gardner, manager of the adult R&B radio network WCFB in Orlando, says they launched a contest whose prize is free tickets to This Is It for the film’s first day of release in Los Angeles.

“We know people feel Michael’s absence and love his music. This song will do well on adult R&B/hip-hop radio, as well as adult R&B. Long live the King of Pop.”

On October 13, the song reached number one in the UK in terms of number of plays. During the first 24 hours, it was played 800 times on radios in European countries: Germany, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Romania, and Sweden.

Billboard, in its review of the song, wrote: “Michael Jackson’s absence will be felt forever, but the release of songs like this keeps his music alive.”

Source: eMJey / Nielsen BDS / Billboard