On Whitney

[johndavis]

Saturday night was a good night to see who was minding the store. Of course, media being what it is today, I learned of Whitney Houston's death through my wife reading it on Facebook first and then looking at various websites to see if the reports were true.

So, while we were cruising down the beltway, while my wife was reading a story from ABC News where a publicist was issuing an angry denial (and saying that Whitney was at home in New Jersey with her family), I started punching around the radio.

Sunny: playing Nickelback, probably canned.
Mix: playing Backtrax USA, definitely canned.
Magic: playing Whitney Houston, "Heartbreak Hotel."

Me: "Well, it has to be true, because Magic wouldn't play a song like this on a Saturday night."

Magic ended up playing all Whitney all night, which is what we were in the mood for, although I wished they would have played some more of her early stuff and some more uptempo stuff while we went to dinner and back. Let's face it - when Whitney's first album hit in the 80's, you could be going through a metal head's record collection and you'd find a Whitney Houston LP in the rack because the girl could sing.

The jock seemed to be hanging in there pretty good until around 10:30 (then she went into a stopset cold, came out of that break cold into a song, went into another long stopset cold, came out of that break with a legal into Patti Labelle, back into another long stopset cold, and out of that break cold into Whitney's "Do You Hear What I Hear" before I punched out.) I'll cut the girl some slack - it was probably nuts in that studio.

I also have to give their production people credit for having sweepers produced and on the air by the time we were back in the car from dinner. Of the three stations that I'd expect to salute or just acknowledge Whitney Houston's death, KMJQ had somebody minding the store on Saturday night.

[mrbeasley]

If you ever want to slide breaking news past the radio audience; just let it happen on a Saturday night, anywhere, in just about any market.  They were all on auto-pilot.  KMJQ was the exception.  Oddly enough, they have a live show on Saturday evenings.  But, by the time very many other radio stations picked this story up, it had been on national TV for hours. 

[sdh483]

Magic does a great job paying tributes to those in the R&B world who have passed on.  When Michael Jackson died, they did about three days of nothing but Michael Jackson music.  It was so great to hear the music of this legend on the radio that most stations either neglect or play only two or three of his songs on occasion. 

[DToTheJ]

I was wondering if any stations upon her death would be playing her popular Christmas tune, even though it's about six weeks out of season. Oddly enough, at least one station played it in the city which shares her last name.

Something tells me there might be even more spins for her version of "Do You Hear What I Hear" for holiday seasons to come.