The death of Michael Jackson is having an emotional effect on music lovers in San Diego.
On Thursday afternoon, the phones were ringing off the hook at the Magic 92.5 radio station studios in Murphy Canyon. The news hit a lot of people in San Diego very hard.
"I'm 16 and an old-school type of girl ... and I'm a big fan, and I want to reach out to his family, and I'm hoping that they're OK," one caller said.
"I'm really, really so sad about Michael Jackson," said another caller, who was audibly upset about the singer's death.
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Magic 92.5 is an oldies station, and that means, of course, that they play a lot of Michael Jackson songs. For much of Thursday afternoon, that was all the station was playing, in memory of the music icon.
Jackson led a very controversial personal life, including accusations of child molestation, but despite that, his millions of worldwide fans continued to adore him.
Xavier the X Man, a DJ at the station, said that the reality was that people loved Jackson because of his music.
"Yeah, he had his ups-and-downs and some terrible situations, but, all in all, he was a human being at the end of the day who just loved to perform and sing his heart out, and that's what he did, and so we made an emotional contact, connection with him," the DJ said.
Elsewhere in Southern California, large crowds assembled outside the UCLA Medical Center, where the singer was brought by paramedics.
The X man said the reaction there and elsewhere could be understood in the context of Jackson being the Elvis Presley of his generation, an icon, and that when somebody like that passes away, it has a major effect on people.
