I CAN'T BELIEVE IT--40 years ago next Tuesday-- John Lennon gunned down outside his Dakota home in NYC.
That night in 1980. I remember vividly; I was watching Stevie Wonder at the Oakland Arena; got wind of Lennon's murder like almost everyone else; a security guard back stage told me Howard Cosell told Monday Night Football viewers of Lennon's fate. My generation's the night the music died.
I remember driving home that night and listening to Russ Coughlin on KGO (of all people) and hearing people cry. Everyone was pretty much shocked and saddened. Like real depressing. Lennon was only 40. A Beatle. History happening for all the wrong reasons. Coughlin did the right thing and let everyone commiserate and vent. A gloomy Monday w night.
I can remember it like yesterday.
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ReplyDeleteIt was/is on Youtube when Stevie Wonder announced the death of John Lennon.
ReplyDeleteI was an overnight music DJ at a South Bay radio station that night. We had a strict music format to follow. I dumped it and played John Lennon and the Beatles music all night. It was the right thing to do. Our listener phone line lit up with people wanting to express their grief.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to that guy who used to call up all the radio shows to say that Stephen King killed John Lennon?
ReplyDeleteStephen King killed Him!!!
DeleteDave Sholin of the Big 610, KFRC, was the last person to have interviewed John Lennon
ReplyDeleteThe Nightline segment that Ted Koppel anchored is also on YouTube, as well as David Hartman's anchoring of GMA the next morning when KFRC face Dave "Duke" Sholin had to give his most painful eyewitness account to Hartman.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there is no KGO-TV segment on that same night. But the next day, both CBS & NBC headlined their newscasts with the next painful assassination after RFK. John Lennon was on his way to reach MLK & Gandhi level before the whack job through GA & HI hit.
"imagine", what he could have accomplished had he lived longer.
ReplyDeleteI did a NYC tour once, "The Dakota" is just off of Central Park.
ReplyDeleteI have the Sholin interview as well as Dr Don Rose's KFRC show from the next morning. KFRC went all Beatles as well.
ReplyDeleteScott From Concord
Russ Coughlin? I remember he was unsympathetic to John Lennon's death because the lyrics of "Just Like Starting Over" didn't rhyme. He also didn't like Elvis Presley because Elvis didn't write his own songs. Yeah, I remember.
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