Michael Jackson Memorial Service

KCRW will air Michael Jackson’s Memorial Service as raw, unanchored coverage from NPR in its entirely on KCRW.com’s all music channel starting at 10am on Tuesday, July 7. Stevie Wonder, Motown records founder Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, and Lionel Ritchie are among the attendees expected to attend the public memorial, although the list is subject to change and few official details on the program have been announced. The memorial will take place in the Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles.

More than 1.6 million people registered for tickets to the event and only 17,500 tickets were made available through a lottery system. The ceremony will not be shown on the giant outdoor TV screen at Staples and there will be no funeral procession through the city.

KCRW deejays have put together a number of tributes to the late singer over the last couple weeks, all of which are available in the archives on a tribute site, as well as Elvis Mitchell’s interview with Margo Jefferson, author of “On Michael Jackson,” from The Treatment, available at: http://www.kcrw.com/music/michael-jackson