EXCLUSIVE

Ke$ha's new hit "Die Young" has fallen on deaf ears ... after radio stations around the country yanked the song from their rotation after the Newtown tragedy ... TMZ has learned.

"Die Young" clocked in at #3 on the radio playlists on Friday (the day of the shooting) ... reaching 167 million listeners nationwide, this according to Mediabase, a company that tracks radio airplay.

By Saturday, the day after the shooting ... airplay dropped by 3 million listeners ... a sign that stations were slowly pulling the song off the air.

By Monday ... "Die Young" took a huge hit on the radio ... dropping down to 148 million listeners ... a 19 million drop from what had been a pretty steady rotation before the shooting.

One music expert tells us ... a drop of this magnitude is extremely rare. The last time a song plummeted this quickly is when the Dixie Chicks were banned from country radio ... after insulting President Bush.