A car drove by my house and I heard "Jungleland" playing on its radio. I turned on WNEW-FM just in case that's where it was coming from. From at moment on, Vin Scelsa had me glued to the radio. I will never forget that night.

I was listening that night. I was a huge Beatles fan, and I listened to Vin Scelsa all the time. The local tv news had reported that John was shot, but I heard the final word from Vin. This is the first time I've heard this in 40 years and I'm in tears reliving it. Thank you for posting.

@brianhassett1994

Жыл бұрын

I was also listening to Vin Scelsa that night and popped a cassette in to record. I still have the cassette tape "Vinny Scelsa on the radio".

@martind7635

7 ай бұрын

Same here. Lying in bed listening to WNEW-FM when Scelsa came on the air to announce it.

I was driving home to 955 East 93rd Street in Canarsie Brooklyn, NY. The far corner of East 93rd Street, off of Farragut Rd became a big hang-out spot for us East 93rders and our friends in the late 70s and early 80s. On any given night, there could be up to eight cars parked and double parked on that corner, much to the chagrin of our neighbors. Before going home, I drove to the corner to see if anyone was out.. I saw my friend, Frankie in his car. I pulled up next to him. He was the 1st car off the corner on the right side of the street. I rolled down my passenger window the old fashioned way, cranking it, and gave the standard greeting, "What's up?" I never expected what I heard next. He matter-of-factly, simply said "John Lennon just got killed." I had no response. What an odd thing to say. Was he kidding? I said "No way," half smiling. He said "Really. Turn on your radio." I did. I hit WNEW 102.7 FM, our rock station. I heard "Imagine" by John Lennon. I said "Holy shit! Is this true or is this the strangest coincidence ever?" He said, "Get in, I have a joint." I parked my car behind his and got into his passenger seat. We smoked and listened to the radio for what seemed like forever. We didn't talk much. I remember staring at the radio on Frankie's dashboard, listening to Scott Muni as he was sobbing, describing the scene at Roosevelt Hospital, thinking to myself, 'What kind of animal would do such a thing? It was horrible and very, very sad. So damn senseless. I remember it like it was yesterday. Continued rest in peace Mr. Lennon. You've been missed.

@brianhassett1994

Жыл бұрын

Canarsie is very different today. I hope Sonny's Deli is still there.

A musician friend, a guitarist, called me incredibly grieved, we cried for hours at a coffee shop in Hoboken together...

I remember listening to Vin Scelsa all night after his report, and then going up to the Dakota the following morning. Vin, BTW, played songs and requests all night; I sure miss rock radio.

I remember listening to this live back on that terrible night. I was fourteen years old and in a total state of shock and disbelief.

@pluggy86

5 ай бұрын

I was 17 and totally crushed. I listened most of the night. On WPLJ, the DJ kept pleading with people not to go the Dakota, and let Yoko and Sean grieve in peace.

I was driving East on the GW Bridge when Vin Scelsa broke the news. Listening to this for the first time in 41 years is sobering to say the least. After all this time still shocking.

The absolute grief and shock in the DJ's voice is beyond palpable. It really is extraordinary and his reaction is probably about the same as millions had at this time when they heard about John's death. Heartbreaking.

@4cmandm645

4 жыл бұрын

DJ is Vin Scelsa... besides John Lennon, Vin was another one of my heroes growing up in the NY area.

@mrmjb1960

3 жыл бұрын

Svott Muni and John was friends since Muni interviewed him during the 1977 blackout.

I was a teenager listening to Vin Scelsa, sitting on my bed smoking a cigarette, when he came on the air to say news had come in that John Lennon had been shot, but he didn’t have the details. I remember praying to God “Please let him be ok”. And then Vin came back with the news he had been killed. We went to the Dakota the next day and a week later attended the Vigil in Central Park which ended with a very brief and very light snowfall. I’ve always felt that was John responding to all our thoughts and prayers that day. There had been 10 minutes of silence and all you heard were the helicopters above. Still miss him♥️

I was coming back from a WNEW-FM sponsored concert that night and when I got back to my apartment, I tuned into Vin's report to hear a review of the concert and this is what I was hit with. There are no words.

thank you, Anthony. i listened to this broadcast live in december 1980. i remember well.

Thanx for the upload, never heard this, i was 6 when it happened, was a fan since 1977 after hearing iam The Walrus.... i heard it at my grandparents house while granddad watched the news, after his work, in Holland. At school i did not notice, i was too young, but, i remember me crying my self to slleep dec 9th,1980........

December 8, 1980 by Mark R. Elsis "I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope." John Lennon, December 8, 1980 John Lennon was the greatest singer-songwriter and the most influential political artist of the twentieth century. He was assassinated on Monday, December 8, 1980, walking into the Dakota, his home on the upper West side of Manhattan, New York City. In mid-November of 1980, at our local Irish tavern, the Gaslight Inn, in Elmhurst, I told my closest friends, John Lennon was about to be assassinated. I told them the powers that be were going to blame it on a lone crazy deranged fan, and that this person would never have a trial. I don't know how I knew all of this would come to be, except to say that besides my parents, John Lennon, someone whom I had never met, was the most significant person in my life. Perhaps because of my lifelong adoration, I was tapped into a precognitive form of what Dr. Rupert Sheldrake postulated in his theory, Morphic Resonance. I have had many other episodes of precognition throughout my life. I've like The Beatles since first seeing them and hearing their music. On December 10, 1963, a five-minute news story shot in England about the phenomenon of Beatlemania aired on the CBS Evening News. I watched it and thought wow, in my almost six years of life, I have never seen such excitement. The young girls were going crazy for them. Then on its release day, December 26, 1963, radio stations in New York City started to play, I Want to Hold Your Hand. John Lennon's initial influence on me first took hold a few minutes past 8 pm on Sunday, February 9, 1964, when Ed Sullivan gave his now-famous introduction, "Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles" and after a few seconds of rapturous cheering from the audience, the band kicked into "All My Lovin'." Only 79 days before my Irish Catholic President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated, and I had just turned six-years-old 32 days earlier. On that February evening, the ongoing wake for President Kennedy finally ended. Then while watching television on the evening of Sunday, June 25, 1967, I realized that there was someone who believed in peace and love. This night John Lennon and The Beatles sang, All You Need Is Love, on, Our World. The Beatles performed the song as Britain's contribution to Our World, the first live global television link via satellite. An estimated 400 to 700 million people around the globe watched the broadcast. Watching John Lennon and The Beatles sing, All You Need Is Love, was profound, and perhaps the most transformational moment of my life. I was already a huge Beatle fan, but now the music, lyrics, and images of, All You Need Is Love, touched me at the deepest level inside my heart and soul, as nothing ever had before in my life. This admiration for John Lennon only grew from that evening until the evening of December 8, 1980. I was driving my taxi in Manhattan on that beautifully warm Monday evening of December 8, 1980. At around 10 pm, I was traveling without any passengers, going north on Central Park West, when I made a slow left turn on to 72nd Street. As soon I made the slow left turn on to 72nd Street, now looking towards the front of the Dakota, my instinct sensed something was wrong. So, I slowed down to a crawl while passing in front. I first noticed the outside doorman (Jose Perdomo, which somehow took the media six plus years to finally name correctly) who was standing on the left side of the archway. He was just outside of the doorman enclosure. Then, I looked directly at this other man and sensed that he was lurking in the darkness. He was standing just outside the right side of the archway. I felt something was wrong and nearly stopped my taxi. The next day this man was identified as Mark David Chapman. About an hour after I passed by the Dakota, I was still driving my taxi in Manhattan while listening, as always, to Vin Scelsa on WNEW 102.7, when he suddenly announced John Lennon had been shot. A short time later, while trying to hold back tears, he announced the death of John Lennon. When Vin Scelsa broke this horrible news of John Lennon's death, I was with a woman passenger in my taxi. I was on East End Avenue, the same street where I was born, in Doctor's Hospital. As soon as my passenger heard the news, she immediately broke out crying. Soon there were tears in my eyes and rolling down my checks. I slowly composed myself, turned my off duty light on, and finished driving my passenger to her home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (one block from where my paternal Grandmother lived). I dropped her off, waited until she was inside her home safely, and then headed straight to the Dakota. It was about 11:45 pm when I arrived, and already there was a large group of people gathered. I double-parked my Peugeot 504 taxi just about twenty feet West of the archway, in front of the Dakota. I opened the sunroof of my taxi and placed a portable speaker on the roof so people could hear WNEW FM live. Soon hundreds of people had gathered outside of the Dakota. Throughout that solemn night, thousands of fans arrived, mourned, and left. I know about these thousands of people coming to pay their respects and grieve the tragic loss of John in the middle of the night because I stayed in front of the Dakota for the next nine hours. It was heartbreakingly sad for me to witness. At any one time during the night, there were dozens of grown men and women openly weeping like babies. These nine hours were the catalyst that transformed my life. I swore on John's blood that I would do everything I possibly could to enlighten humanity and make our world better for future generations. And every day for the last forty years, I have been doing just that. Strawberry Fields: Keeping The Spirit Of John Lennon Alive (Film) (1:22:08) Producer | Writer | Director: Mark R. Elsis Featuring: Crying For John Lennon, by Hargo, Produced by Phil Spector and Graham Ward www.bitchute.com/video/4OFVttHeM8PD

WNEW was doing a "Doors A to Z" that night. "Former Beatle, as he is called here John Lennon......" as he went on to read the press release. He then played the NBC Hotline report, saying flippantly "hold on a second friends, " as he cued it up. It was narrated by Ann Taylor. While it was playing, he must've recieved info he couldn't report yet. He came back on audibly shaken. Only after playing another song did he report the news, saying ".......John Lennon has died tonight. (long pause) And I don't know what to say to you people. (long pause). God bless him. And say a prayer for the rest of us." He then put on "Watching the Wheels", the end of which starts this recording. Saddest night of my adult life.

I heard this live..stocking shelf’s at Pathmark night crew in Staten Island. NYC. We listened to WNEW every night with the PA rubberbanded to a old fm radio.

I've got a lot of airchecks from that night but I was DXing from Indiana. I got a lot of WABC and some WCBS, but couldn't pull in WNEW. Thank you.

This is the station I immediately turned to after I learned of John’s death 💔

i was sleeping...my wife (ex now) elbowed me and said someone shot john lennon...half awake i said shut up, no one would shoot john lennon and went back to sleep a couple hours later i heard beatles music on tv and i sat straight up in bed took 1 look at the tv and busted out crying. i blew off work and took a bus into myc and went to the dakota...that saturday i was at the silence in central park at the band shell. it seems like yesterday and i still cant believe it.

Thank you so much for uploading this. I have never heard it begore. I got the news during a TV movie interruption and was in a different hospital at the time. Much appreciated. What a loss.

This is what I was listening to that terrible evening. 2016 has seemed like an utterly insane year with all of the sad news of the deaths of influential artists, many of them years before their time. But for me none has been the gut punch of the murder of John Lennon 36 years ago on December 8, 1980. I was a high school senior. I was hanging out in my bedroom listening to the Vin Scelsa show on WNEW-FM. Vin was my favorite DJ and he broke the news to me and it was just unbelievable. I was a huge Lennon fan. I had just bought his album Double Fantasy and I loved the song "Starting Over" which indicated to me that after a drought of a few years, John was about to get busy again. Incomprehensible. Thank you so much for uploading this.

@celebtrvl

7 жыл бұрын

ArtemusClydeFrog1 me too the whole night crying and listening.

@celebtrvl

6 жыл бұрын

ArtemusClydeFrog1 me too and I'll never forget it. I listened and cried all night long.

This is amazing. I first got the news on WNEW TV that night, after their 10 pm news, saying he had been shot, no word on if it was fatal or who the assassin was. Vin’s presence and grief here are still resonant. too was a Vin Scelsa fan tho I never really heard his shows until I had internet ca. 1995.

The absolute real reaction from Vin Scelsa proves that RADIO was closer to the audience than TV could EVER be.

This alone is why Toutube was invented.

@93seronica

8 ай бұрын

Actually it was because of the 2004 Asian tsunami

i was listening to this broadcast that night. ....

@celebtrvl

7 жыл бұрын

Sam Akhtar it felt like someone had punched their hand into my chest and ripped out my heart. That's the only way I can describe it.

@josettekey3533

6 жыл бұрын

There were not enough words to describe the pain when I heard about his death.

@moboutmen

6 жыл бұрын

Sam Akhtar anyone who was old enough to go through JFK, MLK, & RFK, had mean flashbacks.

I was 14 when this terrible event happened, I knew something was wrong as my father who was watching Monday Night Football; yelled out at the announcement" " Oh shit, one of the Beatles were shot and killed ! At that point, in my room, I immediately tuned in to WCBS radio 88 am, and heard the sad news. After that the song Imagine got the most airplay along with Lennon's newest single "Just Like Starting Over". Sometimes it just does not seem right and real that this horrible act occured !

Scott Muni was His Good Friend,so painful as Hell for Him!

Next day it was as though I had woken up in the wrong universe. One that was sadder because it was a lot emptier.

Scott Muni hosted an impromptu all-night vigil of callers and Lennon's music. There has been no other such radio broadcast in history, before or since.

This is how I heard it as well. They broke into the ball game, then I turned WNEW on because I didn't believe it. Then Vince played "Jungleland" at some point.

R.i.p John Lennon 1940-1980

wow...I heard this that night..omg

December 8, 1980, the night the World Cried :-(

I remember listening to Vin almost all night. Was going on vacation the next day. Needless to say, it was not the best vacation

Rip john lennon we miss you

This was a shocking report. It took place while I was asleep, and I heard the news the next morning.

Muni spoke to Lennon during the 1977 Blackout.

He's missed every day...

Rest In Peace ✌️ 🙏 John Lennon

I forgot it happened so late in the evening funny how memory changes

Когда был со своей группой был красавчик полный сил а снюхался с этой бабкой сам превратился в старика похудел до невозможности .... Довела .. .и до сих пор жива

wow it will be 40 years this december 8th 2020..we forget the night that was a monday and Monday Night Football was on with Howard Cosell telling America that he was killed

One of the Top Ten Life Changing Events Of My Life. One of the most painful weeks of my life an I will never forget about. Best thing is that it got me out of my apathy an I became an activist. One of my campaigns continue to be against the National Rambo Assholes. That asshole removed a light from the world. 😟 I was here in Phoenix. It still tears at my heart.

@nicholaspierro4448

3 жыл бұрын

Reading all these touching comments, I knew there had to be one idiot. Congratulations.

the best use of the word damnable possible

I was in college when Lennon was murdered-Still can't believe it happened!

@cmkilcullen8176

3 жыл бұрын

Me too. I was 21 Attended Iona College & graduated in the summer of 1981. Living in East Harlem where I grew up. Crazy painful and shocking.

You can hear the pain in his voice. I couldn’t imagine living that day and seeing or hearing of John’s murder. It isn’t fair that this happened to him. It shouldn’t happen at all to anyone. Murder is nasty business 😔

Vin told me about it that night.

He would have made the 1980's incredible............

The radio guy sounded broken in the beginning

When I was born

@93seronica

8 ай бұрын

13 years before I was born

Wow how in the world did you uncover this

@longislandnytony

9 жыл бұрын

Recorded live off the radio that night by me.

@moboutmen

6 жыл бұрын

Anthony John and If my memory serves me, you were listening to the Doors Special

@2thewaythetruththelife

2 жыл бұрын

@@longislandnytony amazing

@ksol1460tv

Жыл бұрын

@@longislandnytony Do you know approx. what time it was? I'm arranging my airchecks from that night in chronological order (more or less). Sounds like it might begin just before 11.

@longislandnytony

Жыл бұрын

@@ksol1460tv Maybe just after 11 PM