WSFM denies it failed to tribute Bowie at news of his death

Some radioinfo readers contacted us to report that WSFM and other Pure GOLD stations had failed to pay tribute to David Bowie on Monday evening, soon after his death was reported. 

They insisted that voice-tracking had prevented the stations from breaking into pre-recorded programming to pay the rock legend due respect.

Not so says Charlie Fox, (below left) WSFM Content Director, “The GOLD network has been playing David Bowie tracks, running produced tribute pieces, taking calls from listeners and putting to air celebrity memories since the news broke Monday afternoon. This is what radio is good at, instantaneous programming change to reflect what is happening now. And we will continue to do so.”

Fox is adamant that there’s no way his station would fail to honour such a historic moment.

“Someone said to me the news of David Bowie’s death is ‘as shocking and impactful as Lennon’s death’ and I think for the post Baby Boomer generation, that is true. Especially the way it happened. For the public it was sudden and shocking, coming right after his 69th birthday and excitement of his album release, but being an amazing artist and creative force to the end he engineered Black Star as the final curtain.

 On a personal note, as a huge Bowie fan (I used to dye my hair red, dress like him and wear silver platform shoes … to work!) my way to mourn was not to go back and listen to his huge body of work but just to play Black Star over and over. It’s so chilling, haunting and ethereal, it sounds like it’s coming from another place, which in a way it is,” says Fox.

iHeartRadio Australia has a David Bowie Tribute page, featuring a tribute station here:  http://www.iheartradio.com.au/bowie

Direct link to the David Bowie Tribute station here

The page and station features all of Bowie’s biggest hits, including “Space Oddity”, “Let’s Dance”, “Fame” and many more. Fans can also see clips of David himself talking about  his groundbreaking music, and artists that admired him, like Bryan Adams, Cage the Elephant, Seal, and Duran Duran.

 

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