John Lennon December 8 1980 - NY Radio AS IT HAPPENED!
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- Опубликовано: 12 янв 2025
- Around 5:30 pm that evening, I was on my way to an evening college Physics class when I decided to stop off at a Smoke Shop. I looked at the new issue of Playboy, which had an in depth interview with John Lennon. Not looking at any of the pictures, I went straight to the interview. I read a half a page and saw that he was going song for song. I began to read it in the car. Then I said "screw the class. THis is more important." I went home and read the magazine, which was challenging because my mother was home and I had to hide it every time I heard her near by.
Around 10:50 pm 1980, I was still reading the interview, completely fascinated, when my friend called me. He said he brother told him to tell me that John Lennon was shot. I told him to stop joking around. I put the radio on and heard the news. I threw an 8 track tape in the stereo and hit record. I don't know why but I just did. It was early enough that I caught the reports before they knew John was dead. I stayed up the entire night recording bits and pieces. It was a tough night for me as well as the many people out there. It is disturbing to hear the emotion of the DJs as the were doing their best to keep it together.
I eventually recorded the 8 track tape to a cassette player via a microphone. So, this tape is not the greatest quality but the audio is there and the emotion can be felt. I wanted to share this 37 year old tape with the world on Dec 8 to remember John and how important he was.
A caller requested "The Tide is High" by Blondie.... ironically Sean Lennon said that his father loved that song and would sing it to him. 😔
I never knew that. Thank you for sharing. Today is the miserable day.
I heard about this from the car radio, on the freeway.
The DJ said, "Some wacko emptied a gun into John Lennon tonight"
'emptied a gun' I violently pulled over and went into shock.
I saw The Beatles, live, on my 9th B-day ! Aug 1965 Portland OR
I imagined John as my older brother, being in the same 'room' and all,
we made a connection.
I never knew they played in Portland. Thanks for sharing.
I know a woman who walked past them in NY. She said hi, didn’t know where she knew the passing couple from. 30 feet later, she screamed, “oh my God”. Lennon looked back and smiled. She kept walking. So NY of her.
He had a reputation for being quite nice to the fans.
priceless
@@gordons-alive4940 He would sometimes get a little salty if they asked him about " Yesterday".
@@gordons-alive4940 Very true, that. Good call.
@@gordons-alive4940 kind of cool to think that anyone could wait outside and get an autograph and ask him a question.
I was 20 at the time and a huge fan of John. I was driving to work at 8:00am in England with the radio on. The news came on and I nearly crashed the car. Cried all the way to work and found it almost impossible to take it in for the rest of the day. Every tv station had tributes that night and I was flipping between all 3 stations hoping it wasn't true. Still affects me 40 years on .
I wasn't born yet but I can feel it
It’s a horrible thing that happened. Unfortunately these types of shootings have destroyed many lives here in America
The night Lennon was murdered, I was driving my Mom up from NW Florida to NYC, where she grew up. I heard the car radio come to life - suddenly playing a program of continuous Beatles songs - after driving through the rush-hour traffic around Atlanta. The night seemed to get worse and worse as the night dragged on. Mom volunteered to drive, but I couldn't sleep, and besides, I had won a "safe driver" award in the Army.
At the time, I was living with my folks, and unhappy about not being able to say a thing about Reagan's election win. And I'd been driving for 8 hours when all of a sudden the radio stations were ALL playing Beatles songs nonstop. And Mom was grumbling about having to not be able to hear about anything else but Lennon's death; a good, solid headed Catholic, she disliked him because "Imagine" had that line about "No Religion, too" in it.
Later that night, as we passed through the Washington, DC area and the southern end of the Eastern US Megalopolis, we heard a news story from Baltimore, Maryland. A Police sting operation had caught a man and his wife who had arranged to do some business with a guy who turned out to be an undercover Baltimore Police officer. They were going to trade one of their numerous children for a kilo of cocaine. But what was most disturbing was that the report said that one of the heartless entrepreneurs mentioned that this wasn't the first time they'd made such a deal.
And six weeks later, on the day that Ronnie Ray-gun was inaugurated, the Iranians finally released the US Hostages, and later on Reagan's people confirmed that his Election campaign "people" had made the "Swap" deal with the Iranians, to embarrass President Jimmy Carter.
I can't confirm the rumor that I once heard(but it's too ugly and slimy to omit it), but I once heard someone say that around the time of Reagan's shooting, George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife had dinner with John Hinckley's parents, who were long-time friends. If it's true, than it's probably just a coincidence. Fortune passes everywhere.
I remember that day well too. Felt like the whole stopped. Even Country music stations were playing Beatle music.
When the world mourns together its usually a very important person. It's about Character.
I like to delude myself listening to the early stuff here and think it’ll be ok and we’re just waiting for the news saying he’s ok.
Yeah. The few minutes still held some hope that he would be ok. But he never stood a chance. Sad.
Lennon's passing was one of pop music's greatest tragedies. Rest in peace, John.
Yes.
It has to be considered one of the greatest tragedies in the history of rock and roll.
If not the greatest..
Band would have reformed.
John was invited to January 81 sessions with Paul.
Yep. It was awful.
@@kurikokaleidoscopeI doubt that The Beatles would have reunited. George said that he'd never play in a band with Paul.
He said that it's nothing against Paul as a person but it was a difference in music.
@@bobma6342 they all said a lot of things. Paul and George played together on recordings made in the 1990s. Paul sang on one of George's recordings made in the 1980s.. and then there's the uncredited/ miscredited material.
@@kurikokaleidoscopesure, as recordings. But between the Beatles breakup and John Lennon's murder, 1970-80, they never recorded together.
He had said on many occasions while all four were alive that he wouldn't join a band with McCartney.
And there was no reason for him to. He probably benefited the most from the breakup and was enjoying a very successful solo career. He didn't want to go back to having his songs suppressed and fighting to get them on albums.
What a historic recording! not only for the live reporting of John's murder but also for Mark Goodman, who in a few months would gain national exposure as one of the original VJs when MTV premiered in 1981.
Cool.
I never knew that future MTV VJ Mark Goodman was a part of this historic broadcast. Chilling.
I wish I could understand him better. His mouth seems to be too close to his mic.
@@storyofcorymust be a consequence of the poster transfering the original 8-track to a cassette tape with the use of a microphone, as he explained in the description.
42 years on and still the greatest rockstar and songwriter, I have one rule in life when it comes to people, if you're not a Beatles fan we can't be friends.
Beatles catalog does have something for everybody.
Worship Jesus only.
@@handled99 Keep thy religion to thyself
@@koenhughes9267 its not a religion. Its the truth the way and the as Jesus said. Especially at your older age, you don't have much time. You need to know your creator.
@@handled99 I repeat my previous statement.
Wow, this is the exact moment I heard the news. I was taping from WPLJ that day too, but lost the tape long ago. And here it is again after 40+ years. Still chilling.
It's ironic the hospital speaker played "All My Loving" when it was announced that John Lennon passed away. 🎸🎼
I was 9 that winter of 1980 and I remember such a shock, even as a child, How much John Lennon and Elvis Presley meant to, and still mean to me. Rest in Peace John. I’ll never forget.
I too, was 9 when John was murdered. I remember when Elvis died and I was in shock. He was like a super hero. At the time, being 6 years old he was up there with The Bionic Man and Evel Kneivel. All heroes to me. That was in 77.
The next year in 78 my grandfather died suddenly from a heart attack just the same as Elvis, so I was familiar with what a heart attack was. Then by the time 80 rolled around my friends and I were really loving all kinds of music. My best friends parents had an 8 track of Sgt Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. We listened to it on the way to school every day. So in 80 when John was shot we we devastated. We couldn't believe this piece of shit killed another one of our heroes.
Peace be upon John Winston Ono Lennon (1940-1980), & George Harrison (1943-2001)
As I remember the events of that evening, from Lennon signing an autograph for the Vermin, to the irreversible damage that each one of those four bullets did, I am filled with remorseful rage. Still, almost four decades later.
A tragedy on every level and we’re all worse off for it.
The ''vermin'' has a name.
@@davidsonofyisrael Good point---NOT.
@@davidsonofyisrael yeah pig,cowardthethird!
@@davepollison4333 John Lennon in the light of 2022 is vermin you old idealistic queen.
@@davepollison4333okay... Screwball Vermin
It really hits home hearing the grief in Mark Goodman’s voice.
2 Years before MTV. He was so broken up he could barely speak at times. It must have been tough to hold it together live on the air at that moment. You can hear how important John was to him.
TVR PRODUCTIONS : Wasn’t it more like 8 months before MTV?
@@johncurtis7186 Yes it was. MTV debuted August 1, 1981.
His grief is palpable and hard to hear. It makes you want to travel through time to console him.
@@briankeith6256 Yes, it was palpable. Not that I'm criticicizing, God knows, but media people are human, too. For that matter, Walter Cronkite's voice got a little husky when he announced JFK's death 17 years previous.
I was visiting friends in Los Angeles when the news came over the radio. I had recently recorded at Warner Brothers, backing a musician friend named John Dunn. He was the very embodiment of John Lennon - including his music style. At first I thought the radio reported that John Dunn was killed. Then I realized it was John Lennon. A week later, John Dunn was coming home from the Lennon vigil in LA. The car he was riding in rounded a blind mountain curve and slammed into a car wreck. The passenger door flung open, and John flew off a cliff - where he died immediately. It was spooky.
What a sad day to remember. December 8th 1980. Rip john
I was 20 years old in Melbourne Australia. It was about 3.00pm in the afternoon when my best friend's girlfriend rang me at work with the news. I was a real mess for a solid week and really struggled with this tragic event for at least 12 months while still moving on with my life and career at one of the most important era's of my own life (early 20s!). Thanks Chapman you dead-fuck for putting all of us through that - but so glad we got to move on and live our lives, while you to this day have just wasted away in prison.
I was FIVE when John was murdered. But it affected me BIG-TIME. I had been listening to Beatles records since before I can literally remember. On December 24, 1979 (we celebrate on Xmas Eve since my family is Swedish), my parents got me the REVOLVER album. It fascinated me. It is (to this day) my favorite Beatles album. JUST UNDER ONE YEAR LATER, I woke up (December 9, 1980) to a pre-winter's day. My parents had decided NOT to tell me that John was dead. (They thought that telling me that John was murdered would upset & scare me too much...I WAS only five.) But I clearly remember a few of my teachers around my Kindergarten class being teary and upset that next morning. Finally, that night, my parents could not avoid it. We would watch the Network news every single night...and they had to let me see it. I CRIED. I did not understand. As such a young child, seeing that my hero had died, I could only ask my parents, "The news said that the guy who killed him was a Beatles fan. Why would a Beatles fan kill a Beatle?" And my dad could only answer: "He was crazy."
It confused me. I simply COULD NOT understand why this had happened or why this man would do such a horrible thing. JOHN HAD A SON EXACTLY MY AGE!!!
I still don't understand.
Makes me miss radio news, good radio in general. Best medium ever for public communication.
I was 9 years old and had become a CNN junkie for a while. I got up early before school the morning after, turned on the TV and heard the news. I didn't really know much about John Lennon, but I remember being shocked and saddened. At 9 years old, I couldn't imagine how someone could kill anyone in such a manner, let alone a celebrity. I still feel the same way at 52 years old. Continue to RIP Mr Lennon.
I was born 21 years after John was pronounced dead and months after George died..I knew about the Beatles when I was 4 and became and instant fan. I always wanted to play with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr but then my grandma sat me down and told me who died and who was left. Back then I was a big Lennon-McCartney fan so when I found out how Lennon passed it kinda broke me but to be honest but when I hear the actual stations and news coverages like this actually tell me that John Lennon had been shot and killed...it makes me feel the exact same way you all have felt on December 8, 1980. It’s sad. RIP Beautiful Boy
I was 12 years old when that happened, and remember hearing the news reports that night announcing it. Incredibly surreal and still hard to believe after all these years.
@@planetcoasterprojects3093 lying bruh
I think it is clear the live news reports of his death to his millions of fans at the time would be a whole lot more shocking to hear than listening to a report of a death you already know of 40+ years after the event.
I remember I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade. My mother told me the next morning. I asked, "Is he alright?" She said she wasn't sure and said to turn on the radio. Soon as I turned it on, all I heard was, "John Lennon...was 40 years old." WAS????? That means.....and I burst into tears. My mother was surprised of my sadness. She almost let me stayed home from school. The day was raining and it hid my tears. Teachers were sullen and noticed I was sad. I told them I was sad that Lennon was killed, and they were surprised of my mood too. Sad day
Thanks for sharing. It was an overwhelmingly sad day. I am sure many of your teachers were sad too.
I was 10 years old and still remember this so clearly. Living in NJ, it was very close to home. Not just in proximity, but my brother and sister were HUGE fans. It's still a horrific loss.
I was 10 too, in Cleveland. The next day we discussed it in 5th grade class. My parents were jazz fans so not much of a reaction but I remember some of my classmates' parents were inconsolable.
Amazingly, I have the same aircheck of WPLJ from that night - I'd just received a new "boom box" as an early Christmas gift and popped a cassette in to test it out and shortly after the news of the shooting broke. I recorded various stations throughout the night, including WNEW-FM and WABC-AM. FYI, the voice you hear at 3:50 is DJ Jimmy FInk who had come on with the latest update, sharing the microphone with Mark Goodman.
Idc about the sound quality. It's so cool of you to not only obtain this audio, but post it to RUclips three decades later. Thank you so much for sharing this with the world. We all know what happened later in the night, but few have heard what happened DURING. Plus, I love hearing classic radio airchecks. I truly appreciate this video.
Bee Kay 5150 i am glad you liked it. I did not obtain it. I recorded it as it happened. I sat by my stereo all night and recorded on an 8 track tape. Sad night all over tv and radio. I never went to bed until 6 am. I transferred it to a cassette s later but was not paying attention to the volume so that explains why it is distorted in different areas. That second report when they say that John “expired” sent chills down my spine when i heard it. We were all waiting for him to be released from the hospital. Check back. I may have more radio related recordings like this.
@@trusso11783 Right, I saw that, but I meant obtain as in "the sense of mind to stick a tape in the deck". Wise move.
I have been a fanatic since i was 10. I would record the A Hard Days Night movie and solo Beatle talk show appearances off of the Tv onto a cassette to listen to it later. I recorded parts of Magical Mystery Tour movie off of cable tv with my silent 8mm movie camera. No other choice before vcrs. Lol.
@@trusso11783 I hear ya on the audio levels. On a "real" tape deck (I.E. no "auto level", but manual control) it's one thing to adjust the levels ahead of time for a planned recording session, BUT for breaking news, No such "luxury" and of course just changing stations (and changing tapes!) is gonna screw with the levels. I don't mind at all the variations in quality or volume. It actually makes it somehow more REAL. This is what twisting the tuning knob during a breaking news event SOUNDS LIKE. 👍👍
@@jamesslick4790 unfortunately, I think the original 8 track tape was fine because my stereo had an auto level . The problem came a few years later when I recorded the 8 track playing through the speakers into a portable cassette recorder and it was probably too close to my speakers. My mistake but i wasn’t paying attention to details at that time.
I heard the news the following day (oh boy ), I woke up around 5,turned on Channel 5 in NY, & even on the school bus, we were talking about John Lennon, in school, that was the talk, I had a dentist's appointment that day & on the radio & even in the dentist's office, John Lennon & Beatles music was playing, it really peaked my curiosity about how John Lennon & The Beatles had that kind of hold on people, I knew who The Beatles & John Lennon was, I saw documentaries, old movies, saw John on TV numerous times, but I just thought he was just another singer like Mick Jagger.
It is sad to hear all these reports but its the 1st time I ever got to hear this thank you for posting all this
It still fascinates me to this day. Not out of morbid curiosity, but of historical reference.
Holy moly, thank you so much for posting this, and for sharing your memory of that horrible day. I completely relate. My Dad had cut out the interview for me and I read it ten thousand times before that night. My mom took me to see "My Bodyguard" that night. Got home, went to bed. Next morning, getting ready for school, we got the call and time just stood still for a suspended moment while it sunk in and then absolute tears. It's definitely a dividing line in my life and probably every one else's. Never have watched "My Bodyguard" ever since. I live in NYC and it's only recently I've been past where it happened. I never like being around the Dakota.
I’ve stood in that doorway and it is eerie. Normally, they drive celebrities through the gates so they are safe. John didn’t like that and wanted to be with the people. He would go to the deli and small restaurants on his street and talk to everyone. Not that these celebs today who are so full of themselves that they have bodyguards that tell you no to make eye co tact with them.
Thanks for your story. It definitely was a dividing line just like JFK. There was an end to innocence after someone gunned down a mop top who brought so much joy to the world and changed it while doing so
@@trusso11783I visited the Dakota in July. I was born 13 years after he was murdered so I don’t remember it obviously but I do love history
I had PLJ on too & switching between it and WNEW, when I got home from work. I was 23. I went to The Dakota next night for the vigil and then to Central Park the following Sunday for the gathering at what's now Strawberry Fields. I never heard the city so quiet.
I am American but, I was in Toronto that week. People saying this was like when x or y other musician passed away are incorrect. There was nothing like this the besides maybe JFK in my lifetime. People gathered in the streets for huge memorials the world over. Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto had thousands of people gathered there, they were openly grieving, consoling each other, trying to sing. I'll never forget it, it still touches my soul in a place I can't ever get back to and that will never be again. Rest in peace John, you changed the world.
This was shocking and terribly sad. Beyond the sad loss, all of the hope of a Beatles reuniting for another project was lost. I was 18 then, mostly missing the 60’s Beatles but had been looking forward to hearing more audio magic from the Beatles.
But of course a hero taken from us senselessly left us somber.
I was a year older than you when I taped the radio that night. More than the loss of a potential Beatles reunion was the loss of his life. He was just coming back and returning to music. He was already planning a tour in 1981 and was rehearsing reggae versions of I Want To Hold Your Hand and some other Beatles songs. We will never know what would have been.
Even though I was a teen of the 1970's I was (and am still!) all about 1960's rock. It was 100% because of The Beatles. Beatles record were my "gateway drug" to the Stones, Doors..Etc. Once I was on the road to disovery of that, I could not be 100% satisfied with 70's and 80's pop/rock (And there was a lot of good shit out there, of course! But there will never (at least in my lifetime) A more powerful music force like those four! From their early stuff to the last. It all inspired my music taste.
Still hurts. I was watching monday night football with my brothers and that announcement by Cossell stunned us...i was 16 in HS 5 blocks away (MLKjr HS) and I knew Tues I was in front of The Dakota...all day. It was weird because I was this latino kid who wasnt the biggest fan but was born in 1964, just like when they got here...I grew up knowing The Beatles...
I lost something that night, a piece of my youth...again, crazy because I was just discovering music beyond it being something you played or danced to...it is something you feel, and Lennons music made me do that...
Never believed it would still feel so hard after all these years...
I was listening to all of this that night...
And it still hurts...damn.
At 10 l was a huge New England Patriots FAN, WATCHING THAT NIGHT, I'LL NEVER FORGIVE HOWARD COSELL FOR PUTTING THE WHAMMY ON MY TEAM ! It still has me enraged.. .& I believe John Lennon is still more popular than cheese its. I prefer a good Ritz Cracker to Ringo . GEORGE HARRISON I LIKED HIM MORE THAN CHEESE ITS & RITZ CRACKERS... So What of Paul McCartney ? 🤔 ....He's very clean Grandfather NOW.
@@davidhopeman3591
"give us a kiss" ;)
Thanks for posting this. I was 13 years old at the time...and remember getting home from school the next day, and watching the news with my mother and father, and finding out. It was surreal...and I believe...that is the day, I entered adulthood. My childhood had passed. I was awakened by the true evil/nature of the world.
Same. I watched it on MNF then went to my room and listened to the Help album. Terrible.
I was 15 at the time when Lennon was shot. It has affected me for the past 41 years.
I was 3 years old when this happened. Same year my older brother died. Both of these negativity impacted and shaped my entire life and worldview, unfortunately.
@@nintendianajones64so sorry to hear about your brother.
RIP John.
Thanks Mate for capturing a bit of History.
This is one of the saddest and most shocking moments in the history of popular culture.
I wept, like many others, when I heard the news.
I understand friend. It is an important body of work, and amidst(sp) such.grief. A horrible night. It was Monday of exam week at Central Michigan University where I was a senior, 21-years-old. I had not been part of the 60s the being just a small child then. But, I was full bore in with the late 70s-early80s resurgence of the Beatles and 60s music. I was a big fan the Beatles of in particular, John Lennon. I did not sleep. All over campus people were getting wasted, not all that uncommon for exam week, but not in the middle of exam week. At the library someone had put up a large banner sign which quoted John from 'Imagine.' "You might say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." Not much else to say. I finished my exams responsibly, then, the unwinding began. Horrible sadness. Thanks for this most important posting.
Thanks for sharing. I was a kid when John was shot but remember the day clearly and hearing his music on the radio all day on a long journey to see family. I became a huge fan of his from listening to his music that gloomy day. Johns murder deprived us of what he would have gone on to make but the biggest tragedy was the loss of a human life and a loving father and husband. It always strikes me as a little selfish just to mourn the fact that we didn't hear more of his music. RIP John.
I loved John- genius, salty, acerbic, funny, not perfect. I finally got to the Dakota and stood like I was at a shrine. A bus load of tourists pulled up and they piled out. Than we got to Strawberry Fields, and finally the Bethesda fountain where I said a prayer for him. He was so real. He will never be forgotten.
John Lennon & Paul McCartney are in the pantheon of great songwriters like the Gershwin Brothers, Gilbert & Sullivan, Burt Bacharach, etc.
George Harrison too
Gilbert O Sullivan ........ not Gilbert & Sullivan.
No. The comment was correct. Gilbert O’ Sullivan had one or two hits in the 70s and was a virtual nobody. Gilbert and Sullivan were the most successful songwriters of the 20th century
@@trusso11783 Really? I've never heard about them.
This is why they're should be psychological tests before they issue licences for firearms.
Sam Bradley it wouldn’t have helped. Anyone can kill anyone they want if they want. Anyone could also snap at any moment. In this case, this piece of garbage made a trip, two actually, to NY with the sole purpose of killing John. This should have no effect on the millions of law abiding gun owners in this country. Do not you want to have psychological exams for everyone who buys steak knives, cars and rope too?
TVR PRODUCTIONS here we go. I sorely disagree with you. No other invention in the history of time (save for nuclear bombs) have been made for the sole purpose of causing death than guns. Yes, there should be extensive background checks for people who want to purchase guns. I can’t believe we’ve been fighting about this 40 fucking years later. The only reason why no one who has a gun is willing to surrender it is because a gun equals power. Fuck that.
fairariadne2000 thats right. And if everyone had them, no one would mess with the other person. A city like Chicago, who has very strict gun laws, experiences 30 or 40 gun murders each month. Explain that. I do not own a fire arm but have no problem with anyone who wants to own one. It’s too late now. No one will give theirs up. Look at Virginia. They’re trying to make everyone register their guns. The won’t do it. People without guns equals a gov’t who will take over your life. Look at all of the other countries. Making guns illegal would never have stopped MDC from shooting John. He came on a mission. Nothing would have stopped him.
I am a widowed senior lady living alone. By my bed is a loaded .22 rifle which I inherited. It's there for my protection and I know how to use it.
@@TheBluewaterBlonde My mother's words exactly.
So weird. I zoned out listening to this and realized I was becoming anxious as if I were hearing the news live in the moment.
It was far worse as it was happening. The entire world went dark for many people
When it happened, I never realized what an impact John Lennon & The Beatles had on people as well as popular culture.
The biggest band of the 60's and arguably all time? Fair enough. As far as I was aware they were basically A list since their first number 1 in the UK.
Were you alive at the time? Hell I wasnt and I was aware from the moment I understood music
I came here hoping to find out what song was playing when the announcement of the shooting was made, right in the middle of the song. I was a high school sophomore doing homework in my room, listening to 'PLJ, which was a fantastic rock station at the time (pre-internet and cell phone, radio was everything). Once I heard Lennon was dead, I went downstairs and asked my parents if they knew who John Lennon was (of course they did). The next day at school, most of my young teachers who grew up on Beatles music -- who worshipped the Beatles -- were clearly devastated.
The chances of hearing a recording is nearly impossible. You would have needed a random person to have recorded WPLJ on any ordinary night and then still have that recording 43 years later. There may be a recording of it WPLJ archives if it even exists
if someone typed this already, my apologies, but I'm not reading all the comments. Just thought it was wild the first song Goodman played after the news was "Miss You". I'm glad he later played Beatles songs and didn't stick to format. I was a high school DJ at Mather High in Chicago that time and the next day (12-9-80) I played like 15 Beatles/Lennon songs during a 40 min lunch break.
What a piece of history you give us here.
Thanks my friend.
No problem. It’s too bad it wasn’t a happier event but this is what happened that night right as it happened.
@@trusso11783 I thank you for this video. I was 18 that night and a New Yorker, and WPLJ was what I listened to that awful night. Like yourself, THIS was the exact way I followed this event "as it happened". I was listening to Mark Goodman.
I was at college watching Monday night football when they announced it, I was also upset that Howard Costello seemed excited that he was breaking a big story
For those interested in what happened with these radio stations:
In 1980, WPLJ and WNEW, were both Classic Rock stations in NYC. WLIR was an Alternative Rock station in Garden City Long Island.
In 1983, WPLJ switched to more of a Contemporary Hit Radio format, which continues to today. WNEW stayed with Classic Rock, until changing formats in SEP 1999.
WLIR continues today in its Alternative Format, but at a different location.
I listened to both stations as well as WABC 77, WNEW 102.7, & WCBS 101.1 ,WNBC 66.0
@@sambradley2975 I loved WCBS 101.1!
Actually, the "classic rock" format didn't exist in 1980. WPLJ was A.O.R. ("album-oriented rock") and the other two were considered "Progressive Rock" format at the time. WPLJ was more tightly formatted. But the point is all three stations played both new and older rock, unlike todqy's "classic rock" stations.
Also, WLIR did not go alternative (a.k.a. "new music" format) until 1982.
WNEW-FM is now "adult contemporary", WPLJ is "contemprory Christian music" and WLIR-FM now simulcasts news/talk station WABC @107.1
I was standing in the WPLJ studio with my father when this was announced. he and I had just come from a WWF show at MSG and I took him up to 1330 to see the studios. I worked at ABC Radio Net on the FM network.
I wish that the first bulletins from New York's two all-news radio stations, WCBS-AM and WINS-AM, could have been included.
I eas 16 and had posters of him and the Beatles all over my bedroom wall when this happened. I was devastated
I still miss him but i am glad I got to be alive when he was alive. He was so funny,positive and brilliant. ☮️💟☮️💟☮️💟
It's one of those "where were you " moments.
I was watching the game. I was in our dining room watching the TV from an angle when Cosell made the announcement. I think they handled it very well even by today’s level of reporting news. Perhaps the best way it could have been done. Kudos to ABC News and ABC Sports.
I was stationed in Korea at the time. It took a couple of days for me to find out. What a great loss for such a stupid reason.
Most of them felt they lost a friend or family member.
All these decades later, this is still very shocking to hear and re-live..
Thanks for sharing this piece of history with us. I, too, was up all night listening to the radio. A horrible day.
@@gns423 I had the cassette in my collection for 40 years and decided to digitize it and share. I know it isn’t not what people want to hear but it is what happened. I’m glad you “enjoyed” it.
@@trusso11783I can’t say I really enjoyed it. More like reliving a very sad night in history. 😢 Somehow, it’s a little therapeutic.
It's 38 years, & I remember when it happened. It still amazes & fascinates me.
Me too
I would have liked to hear a report from NYC's lone country station at the time, WHN. I read in a book about WHN that they played Alabama's "Why Lady Why."
What makes this clip even more sad is that the man behind the public service announcement at around 23:30, Dr. Michael Halberstam, was shot and killed just three days before Lennon. Halberstam lived in the D.C. area and was shot after his house was burglarized. He later died at the hospital. Sad video all around!
jaytolbert I have a friend who's also a doctor. He actually met Halberstam. It was at a party on Halloween, 1980. They played poker. My friend told me that Halberstam was VERY competitive, confrontational, and just HAD to win. My friend didn't have a good opinion of him.
jaytolbert Wikipedia says that Halberstam was killed on December 5. Also, this doctor friend of mine also met Nixon, back when he was VP under Eisenhower. Nixon was drunk.
Halberstam's brother David was the first reporter on the scene in Saigon in 1963 when a monk got out of his VW Beetle and set himself ablaze right before his eyes.
I watched How I won The War over the Christmas period. There is a scene where John is shot in the film and he looks at the camera and says "I knew this would happen"
It was really surreal and incredibly sad.
The only thing I can compare to people hearing he had died is when Chadwick Boseman died in 2020. I had woken up that Saturday morning and I had just sat down for some tea and toast and my brother came down and said Chadwick Boseman has died and I just burst out in tears after I looked up the news on my phone. I really loved that actor.
My parents had a cassette tape of Revolver and I heard it many times the car growing up. The Beatles and John Lennon especially is my favourite artist of all time.
Also Kobe Bryant in 2020
Thank you for this important piece of music history.
Can't describe how listening to this making me feel but it's powerful
Many celebrities would pass away since John's passing, but quite a few held the same vibe.
Sam Bradley I was eight months old when Lennon was killed, but Kurt Cobain was the closest profound musician death of my generation. I was 14 in 1994.
Because virtually no other death has been as horrific or senseless.
I was 26. I had gotten ready for bed that night, and at 5 minutes after Midnight (Central time) I turned on my bedside clock radio to set it to wake me the next morning, and the reports were being announced. I was then up all night, listening to the radio. I did not have Cable TV at the time, only 3 local channels on rabbit ears on a B&W TV.
Strangely, I don't really remember much about the time after first turning on the radio to set the alarm. I remember bolting up and sitting on the side of the bed as I heard the news, but I really don't remember most of the rest of the night. I know the next day, when I went to work, I was an absolute wreck from grief and lack of sleep, but again, I don't remember anything about that day, except how subdued the office was.
I really don't remember much of that week, except for being glued to the TV coverage and buying every publication I could find with news of his murder.
My first clear memory afterwards was of attending the vigil that following Sunday, in Downtown Tulsa. It was gray and cold, and there were over 6,000 people there.
Thanks for sharing. Your experience is similar to most others who have lived through this. I live in NY and wanted to go to the big vigil in Central Park but I had to work. I do remember that there was 10 minutes of silence in our store, as there was across the globe, as requested by a yoke. No radio, tv or in store music. That was eerie.
I was also 26. I was cabbing home from a freelance job to my apartment on 20th St. and I listened to this on the cab radio. Shock. Mind blowing, still, 41 years later.
39 years later, this is still an unbelievable tragedy
@popculturedad It will never not be an unbelievable tragedy.
TVR, thank you for this. I especially appreciate the annotations letting us know who is speaking and what is going on. I wish more of them did this. If I ever upload my many airchecks on this subject I will try to as well.
ksol1460tv thanks. I’m glad that you liked it and appreciate my efforts.
As a 6 year old i was walking into the basement of my apartment building in queens new york with my parents and a guy coming out says to them "did you hear?," " Lennon was just shot " ..I will never forget that moment.
That must have been pretty tragic for you for remember that moment. I imagine you had no idea who he was but it still must have been scary.thanks for sharing your experience.
I would of said "Lennin" DIED DECADES EARLIER IN THE U.S.S.R.s' UTOPIAN Nightmare. I was taught early about Socialist Schemes...So I'd of been confused 😕 as a young kid hearing that.
@@davidhopeman3591 lol..I was raised by a musician...my father was in a 60s band that had some hits in the early 60s and he was still actively playing in the 70s when I was born...he is a bass player /singer so he was a McCartney fan . he was telling me about the beatles and playing them in our apartment while I was still in utero...by 6 I was well aware of all 4 members of the beatles ...thats why the level of the tragedy hit me even at 6 because they already had been in my life so often...also I was about 10 min aways from where he was shot so it was on the streets by the next morning.. walking to the store with my mom(we didn't own a car living in the city) all the conversations people were having was about the news...less diverse range of news making headlines in those days ..before the days of the 24 hour news cycle and decades before the internet
Thanx for making this available 🎶🕊️🎶
Bad night. Good night John. We have missed you since Dec 8, 1980. Chapman must remain in jail. No mercy. Bad dude.
I recorded this exact same bulletin, flipped a cassette in my stereo, right after Howard Cosell while watching MNF announced the terrible news.
Yes. Howard Cosell and Don Meredith debated whether to disclose it. I was still in school at the time and learned it the next morning.
@@TheBrooklynbodine It was Frank Gifford. Dandy Don was off that night.
@@paulsonj72 OK, thanks.
I was 7 home from school with strep throat. I was up,couldn't sleep. My Dad was up watching Monday Night Football.
I will never forget Howard Cosell announcing it over the game ....
R.I.P. John Lennon 1940-1980
one of the last real stars who cared about the people and could make a difference ....No Ai can replace or replicate him ever......
you didn't hear of the guy who bought Lennon's lost tooth so he could try to clone him, but how would a clone have all those memories and trauma that shaped Lennon's mind and instigated him getting his angst out strumming his guitar and later all the self retrospective songs about his pain. But that guy paid a lot of dough for his old tooth... some people.
@@TheHeavensFellenWTF!?!
@@TheHeavensFellensome people are just morbid
@@TheHeavensFellenSounds like that guy needs to go to an asylum 🤣🤣🤣🤣
We lost more than just a rock star that day...though I wasnt born til December 9th 8 years later. It's nice to be able to hear it as it happened, in a way. Thanks.
I was in New York City on the 8th and 9th for my job. It was just horrible.
Remember it well,sitting in a run down apartment watching a 12 inch B/W TV when Howard Cosell made the announcement.
I just turned 17 years old getting ready for bed listening to the radio Monday Night Football then I heard the news I started to cry went downstairs to see my dad and we were in shock so sad I’ll never forget RIP J L now I’m 60
Thank you for sharing this with us.
I stumbled upon this today, the day after the 40th anniversary of Lennon's death. WPLJ & WNEW were my two favorite stations growing up & I listened to a lot of this that night in my bedroom. After hearing Lennon was shot I started frantically jumping from station to station to get an update that said he was OK. When I realized it was almost midnight, I jumped to the AM news channel, 1010 WINS, for the top of the hour update. And it began, "John Lennon has been shot AND KILLED in NYC tonight". I collapsed on my bed, muffled my screams of devastation to not wake up the house and sobbed so much I was shaking. Four decades later and it remains the most cruel lesson life ever taught me-that a beautiful man who spent his honeymoon in bed for peace, who cut his hair for peace, who wrote songs about love & peace, who wanted nothing more than to see the world live as one & raise his son, would die a horrible violent death in front of his wife at the place they chose to raise their child and be a family. Four decades later and it still hurts. It will never not hurt.
Thanks for sharing your memory of that terrible night. I felt the same as you. The only difference between you and me was that I recorded myself while going station to station. While John was no angel, he certainly did not deserve what happened to him that night. I kept wondering how anyone could assassinate one of the lovable mop tops that was in A A Hard Days Night. I was thinking that there was no way that he could ever imagine back in 1964 when he was on top of the world, that he would be gunned down 16 years later. Such a tragedy. He was just coming back and planning to go on tour. He was working on Reggae versions of I Want To Hold Your Hand and other Beatles songs. We will never know what would have happened after that night but one thing that did was that the world lost a chunk of its innocence at that time.
@@trusso11783 Thank you for your thoughts as well. Innocence absolutely died that night without question. The dream that started on Feb 9, 1964 ended in a horribly final way that terrible December night, hence the grief we saw expressed by the mourners in NYC and around the world.
@@micheleatlilacsrust5785 Totally agree
I found out the next day in school and once I realized it wasn’t a joke, that what the kid sitting next to was telling me was real, I remember this incredible anger just fill my mind. I knew I would carry this anger for the next 20 years at that moment. Here we are now 40 years later and the anger has not even begun to simmer down.
R.I.P John Lennon 1940-1980🌻🌻🌻🌹⚘🌹⚘🌷
I heard about both John Lennon & The Beatles when I was a kid, but I didn't realize the impact that they had until John was assassinated.
I was 5 when this went down and I do remember it on the news amazing enough
John did not deserve his fate.Love deeply. Live every day like it’s your last.🏁❤️🎸
Nobody deserved that fate
IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY...
🎸💔🎹
Hard to believe, 40 YEARS worst news to hear at that time, or anytime..still shocking..
@@sandrasanders706I was 16. We were all in shock. I remember listening to this live. I couldn’t go to school for days. We miss you John 💙
When I hear the first few reports at the start, I cant help but think come on John pull through
That’s what I was saying at the time. No one knew how fatal it was at the time. He didn’t stand a chance they used hollow point bullets which shred you so you bleed out.
If he zig zagged and did some Walter Payton type moves I really believed he would have lived and perhaps disarmed his assailant
I remember it like yesterday, I was 18 second youngest of seven kids, we were all huge beatle fans, John and George being my favorite, I was watching Monday night football Howard broke the news, it's May 1st 2021 and I still remember this event like yesterday I'm 57 now.
I was 19. Your math doesn’t add up though. If you were 18 when John was shot in 1980, you would have been 58 in Dec 2020. Somehow, you lost a year. Tell me your secret.
Paul did not have not anything to say other then, it’s a Drag.
I’ll cut him a break. He was in shock. I remember being outraged at his reply at the time too.
He had literally JUST found out hours earlier. He was still in shock and processing. He had mics shoved in his face and was being asked stupid questions. Give him a break 🙄
It still amazes me that an entertainer's passing could literally stop the world. I remember when Elvis passed, & that was equally tragic, but John's passing hit a lot of people more. I was saddened, but I weeped more when Elvis passed 3 years earlier.
It was interesting to compare the reaction to John's death to Michael Jackson's 32 years later. In person, it was very much the same; massive crowds showed up at the hospital and many people were playing his music and connecting with each other. On the radio, though, it might have just been any other day. When John died, regular programming utterly ceased. All you could hear, up and down the dial, for a couple of days, was John's/Beatles music, interviews, memories. When Michael died, some stations played a couple of his songs, then went right on with their normal broadcast day.
Elvis died, Jackson basically killed himself. John Lennon was murdered. See the difference?
@@ksol1460tv Jackson & Elvis destroyed themselves. JOHN LENNON had self destructive modes to his personality too.He had the same capability to do it to himself,but he had gone Cold Turkey...he knew he had to let it go, & after years of becoming better..and STARTING OVER in his time & his way.....HE GETS GUNNED DOWN .....IT'S QUITE DIFFERENT THAN THE ELVIS & MICHAEL JACKSON DEATHS... always easy to cry 0ver...Looking back my preference would of been for LENNON to go live on an island....NOT MANHATTAN..
Elvis did it to himself. John was gunned down and was assassinated by a lunatic who crouched down into combat stance and shot him with hollow point bullets to make sure he could not survive. Elvis' death was sad. John's was violently tragic
No, it didn't.
They ALWAYS get that fact wrong. He was NOT dead the moment he was shot. After he was shot he staggered up the 5 steps to the Dakota lobby, and said to Jay Hastings "i'm shot". How could he have done that if he were "dead the moment he was shot"
The cop who took him to the hospital asked him if he was John Lennon and he answered yes. He must have died in the back seat of the cop car and the hospital tried to revive him unsuccessfully.
True. He should have been dead the moment he was shot, but he wasn't. Medical personnel said later they were amazed to hear he had walked into Hastings' office and spoken to him, and then spoken to police.
i mean technically he was dead, there was nothing that could be done the moment the bullets passed through his chest. the vein chambers surrounding his heart were instantly destroyed, he was on borrowed time from that point forward. there was nothing that could have saved him from death after he was shot, so he was a deadman. though yes, he did officially pass away and lose consciousness in the back of that police car. i'm only 20 years old, but i am still very pissed about what happened as if it just occurred
@@ksol1460tv He was able to walk? I'm serious.
@@TheBrooklynbodine Yep. He walked up the steps to the guard's station, said "I'm shot" and fell. Cops found him lying in front of the guard's area.
I was a kid in college, central michigan,, was making a tape, next song I had was cold turkey! We had Monday night football on,, then heard to news from Howard Cosell ya!!
I remember my Dad was watching Monday Night Football when it happened. He came upstairs to my bedroom to tell me the news. I didn't sleep that night listening to the radio.
Yep. Same. It was awful.
December 8 is my mother’s birthday as well as singer Jim Morrison’s birthday. On December 8, 1980, I was a 20 year old college student in NYC listening to FM radio at night in my dorm room. I thought it was Carole Miller on WPLJ but I’m a little fuzzy on that memory. Probably WPLJ. Or was it WNEW or WLIR? They were playing a Doors rock block to honor Jim Morrison. I hit the head down the hall and maybe took a shower. When I came back to my room they were playing Beatles music. I wondered what happened to The Doors songs and then they announced that John Lennon was dead. I was shocked like so many other students up and down the hall in my dorm at SUNY Maritime. Every room was playing a radio with John Lennon’s music.
I wish they still had that record exchange.
The first few minutes here on WPLJ was the very broadcast I followed and how I learned the news that fateful and horrible night.
@ ~26 min, 10 years from now, you're gonna know where you were. It's now 40 years, and we still know where we were
Great post. You are correct. This was like a presidential assassination. Not like a Curt Kobain or Jim Morrison death. BTW, both of those were due to their own behavior. No one ever assassinated a musician, and this was an assassination. It was well planned out and the shooter was a typical "loon" who stood around and waited to be arrested. Don't forget the following Sunday (Dec 14) there was a 10 minute silent vigil around the world where there would be no sound. All radio stations (possibly televisions) went silent. I was working in a grocery store on Long Island and the music stopped. It was bad. It was an end to an innocence. This was the guy who was singing She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand 16 years earlier. Made no sense and the world was shaken.
These days they call it a murder more often than not.. but at the time the favored word was definitely 'assassination'.
It's appropriate that you say it was like a presidential assassination, since the murder of Lennon was one of the things that spurred John Hinckley Jr. to attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan just a few months later. He was a big Beatles fan and Lennon's death put him back into the pit of despair he was just starting to climb out of in late 1980. His depression worsened and his mental state deteriorated that he became convinced that assassinating Reagan would (among other things) get Jodie Foster to fall in love with him.
It was absolutely an assassination. I was one of the people arguing for "assassination" on the Wikipedia article (although I was okay with "murder"), even if the shooter was only a "deranged fan" (which I am doubtful). Here's what I wrote in 2015: "Lennon was not just a public figure, he was an intensely political change agent. Over and over that night you could hear news reports saying that police were handling the case carefully, saying it was as important as if an American President had died. WABC's Shelley Sondstein, interviewing people outside the Dakota, said they were telling her Lennon's death was _more_ important to them than the death of a President."
This was a year before he went to MTV.
Who?
@@bobbyg433 Mark Goodman
Gotta wonder what John could’ve done for MTV!
I’m surprised by the level of emotion the DJs and reporters are sounding. I knew he was well know in America but I didn’t know he was that loved in America.
Why would you be surprised? The Beatles were the biggest thing to happen to America. They were adored over here and it never went away. These reporters grew up with the Beatles music in the 60s. They were huge fans. Mark Goodman was one of the first VJs on MYV, which was another year away from existing. He to9k it hard as well as many of the others. The fans that called in all night were hysterical too. It was a huge loss. It’s bad enough to have a president assassinated but how do you do that to one of the lovable mop tops from the movie A Hard a days Night? Sad?
Why?????
Really!?? He was huge in America, still is beloved by a lot of people.
@@trusso11783 Yes, adored, and not just by young people.