NYC Radio The Night John Lennon Died (mp3)

Here's a dial scan of New York City's FM band from 25 years ago (MP3). It was recorded shortly after the news of John Lennon's murder broke. The recording was made by an unknown listener, and it was included on our CD compilation, Radio Archival Oddities, Vol. 2.

Comments

[Daniel McCarthy]

I think this recording from the Radio Dial the night Lennon was killed was in fact produced and scripted. I think there are some real interviews and exerpts from that evening, however, some things just don't seem right. At the end the radio announcer refers to the Playboy interview with John Lennon that has hit the stands. It was my understanding that this interview came out in January of 1981.

[Station Manager Ken]

Here's the interview in question:

http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/dbjypb.int1.html

The interview was done in September of 1980, and the issue it was published in has a date of January 1981 on it, but a quick round on the web reveals that many people had read that interview by the time Lennon was murdered. I'm not sure whether it had been released elsewhere, or more likely, that by December 8, 1980, the January 1981 issue of Playboy had already been published.

-ken

[Kelly Higgins]

This is an amazing clip. Thanks for posting it. Extremely emotional.

Playboy, like most magazines and new cars, hits the market well before the born-on date. This seemed authentic to me. I remember that nothing else mattered that night.

[luis enrique]

the playboy magazine with john lennon interview had already been published in december 8 1980.
even mark david chapman bought one copy days before he shot john lennon(it was said in news papers at the time?

[Winters Spell]

Truley fascinating. Keep up the great posts!

---
http://www.wirah.com

[chuck cunningham]

digg it! digg it! digg it! digg it! like a rolling stone! and the c i a! digg it! digg it! digg it!

[nolovelust]

brilliant!

[sternfans.net]

Lennon lives.....

www.sternfans.net

[John]

Totally fake scan... moves virtually instantly from one radio station to another which comes in perfectly clear.

[Chapa]

Its edited dude.

[Fred]

Reminds me of what happened to me that night. I was driving in rural Michigan on that cold Autumn evening. I was able to find an AM NYC station, but it kept fading in & out to other stations; all playing Beatles/Lennon music. It was haunting.

[mark]

New York
“The spirit of John Lennon“
by Gianni Motti

A medium pretends to have been appealed by John Lennon during a seance, which took place on the 30th of March 2006 in the main room of the Metro Pictures gallery in New York. John Lennon communicated to her that he would soon make him visible in the same place. An infrared ultra sensitive webcam was installed to capture live 24/24 any possible presence or signal of John Lennon in the room.

Webcam :
http://www.metropicturesgallery.com/index.php?mode=current&object_id=246&view=webcam

On a frenzied night in the sixties, the Beatles promised each other that when one of them would die, he would send a message to the others from the hereafter.

It has been 26 years since John Lennon's death and Paul McCartney once said that he is still waiting for a message from him.

In order to facilitate this event, Gianni Motti organised a séance with the psychic LuhrenLoup. To absorb his spirit this medium with paranormal powers made spiritual pilgrimages to places that John Lennon frequented when alive. She visited the Dakota apartment building and Strawberry Fields in Central Park.

The séance to invoke the spirit of John Lennon happened on March 30, 2006 at Metro Pictures in New York and lasted approximately 40 minutes. Important revelations were made to the medium, among them that Lennon would appear (express himself) soon in the space of the gallery.

Infrared cameras were installed in the rear gallery where the séance took place, to try to capture any sign of the spirit of John Lennon. The live video is projected in the front gallery and a video of the séance itself is projected in the side gallery.

A 24-hour a day live feed of the séance room is visible under current exhibitions at:
www.metropicturesgallery.com

[LuhrenLoup]

Dear WFMU,

I was crushed to read that you think I pretended to contact John Lennon.

Not really crushed, but annoyed. What I did in the film was explain, firstly, how I create a sacred space, some of my beliefs, and how I bring myself to a state where I've gotten rid of everyday detritus, and am more open to psychic energy, and other ways of being.

After meeting Gianni Motti and agreeing to work with him on this project, I went home and it came to me that John Lennon left this world with many issues forever unsolved. He blamed himself for his death, for his ego . . . He was not coming back to sing us any tunes.

The energy in front of the Dakota was bad. Towards the end of my ritual, I am upset, overwhelmed. What I did was bring John Lennon's energy into that room. If you go there you will feel uneasy; you will not stay long. As to the question of contacting the dead, that may be possible for a year after a person dies, (and that generally happens with members of the immediate family) beyond that what you pick up is energy, which has its own story to tell.

LuhrenLoup

[Audio Guy]

This dial scan is a very nice tribute and fun to listen to, but I agree that it was produced after the fact. It's hardly debatable. The ease of AM stations being tuned in, the fact that there are absolutely no commercials or other types of programming, the static is too much white noise and not enough variable signal distortion, each excerpt of dialogue is strategically placed... Don't get me wrong, i've really enjoyed listening to it and I'm glad it exists, but I don't feel right propagating it as a historical artifact.

No harm, no foul. A nice tribute using some good orginal content.

[Audio Guy]

ok, i was late to the game with these comments. i just read The Professor's explanation and realized i commented on a 2005 thread. Please disregard this comment.

[Chris Johnson]

There is nothing scripted about that dial scan. I grew up in Woodbridge, NJ, listening to the New York City rock stations, mainly WPLJ, WNEW-FM and even the oldies station WCBS-FM.

That dial scan is exactly what the radio sounded like that night. I heard the press conference live on WPLJ when it was announced that John had died. I heard the room full of reporters gasp in shock, many of them breaking down in tears, as this was the first they heard the news too. No, there's nothing scripted or fake about this recording. Edited together maybe, but nothing that wasn't broadcast that night. I've forgotten a lot of things in my life but that night will never be one of them.

[Radio Malaysia]

Loved your blog, a lot of good info

[Mat Kennedy]

Wow, I very suprised to find a recording from that night. I reference the dial scan in a post on my blog:

http://www.pay4rides.com/2008/12/imagine/

Thanks for making this available!

[cagwait]

Thanks for making this available