Children Still Want to Hear Jackson’s Hit on the Radio

The controversy muddying the waters around pop superstar Michael Jackson doesn’t seem to matter to young listeners of Radio AAHS. The Children’s Satellite Network’s 24-hour radio programming airs nationwide on more than a dozen stations, including Los Angeles’ KPLS (830 AM).

Jackson’s pop hit “Will You Be There?” has been No. 1 with callers to Radio AAHS’ Top 10 request list for six weeks, throughout the period of headline-grabbing stories about charges by parents who say Jackson had sexual relations with their 13-year-old son.

“To my knowledge we’ve had no concerns voiced by either the kids, the parents or our affiliates,” said Gary Landis, vice president of programming. “We’re carefully watching the situation.”

While the network intends to be responsive to listeners, he said, “our decision to continue airing Michael Jackson product (is based on the fact) that in this country an individual’s innocent until proven guilty. We feel it’s not fair to be overly judgmental in a case of this magnitude.”

Christopher Dahl, president of CSN’s parent company, Children’s Broadcasting Corp., said that whether to run Jackson’s music has been a point of discussion among network officials.

“We talked about this a week or two ago, but we didn’t see a lot of kid consciousness. It’s a big issue in Los Angeles from what I see--I’m not so sure that’s mirrored throughout the rest of the country. It’s a big story, but not super-big the way it is in Los Angeles.

“If there is something of substance in what’s going on we would take some action,” Dahl said. “At this point nothing has been substantiated that we know about.”

The alleged victim’s filing Tuesday of a civil suit in Los Angeles accusing Jackson of child abuse doesn’t change the network’s current stance, Dahl said. “When it’s been proven to be a fact, then it becomes a reality for us. Then we make that decision.”

The Radio AAHS Top 10 list, which includes children’s songs by Cheech Marin, Robin Williams (from the “Aladdin” soundtrack) and Muppet characters, is compiled each week from listeners’ requests sent in by mail and called in on the network’s 800 number.

The network receives 135,000 calls a month, with “50,000 from L.A. alone,” Dahl said.