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LA Radio: The Night John Lennon Died

Mike Stark

Mike Stark

Today we aired on KLBP 99.1LPFM and KLBP.org, my "LA Radio Sessions" show that featured "LA Radio: The Night John Lennon Died" which was 44 years ago tonight. The show is available "on demand" at: Mixcloud

Too me, as tragic a night as it was, it was a night that radio could be proud of. I only got to hear LA that night but I "imagine" that similarly, good radio occurred throughout the country.

It really shows the potential of what radio is capable of. I'm not sure if a major star like Lennon were to pass today that radio would step up like they did that night.

Mike
 
Mike Stark said:
It really shows the potential of what radio is capable of. I'm not sure if a major star like Lennon were to pass today that radio would step up like they did that night.
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With nearly all night shows pre-recorded and voice-tracked, the response time would be very slow today. By the time radio got to the story, it would be all over the internet with pictures and interviews and everything else about what happened.
 
Mike Stark said:
Today we aired on KLBP 99.1LPFM and KLBP.org, my "LA Radio Sessions" show that featured "LA Radio: The Night John Lennon Died" which was 44 years ago tonight. The show is available "on demand" at: Mixcloud

Too me, as tragic a night as it was, it was a night that radio could be proud of. I only got to hear LA that night but I "imagine" that similarly, good radio occurred throughout the country.

It really shows the potential of what radio is capable of. I'm not sure if a major star like Lennon were to pass today that radio would step up like they did that night.

Mike
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Interesting. I've heard some of these clips (particularly Shana and Jim Ladd) before.
This video is a bandscan of New York radio on that same night:
 
DavidEduardo said:
With nearly all night shows pre-recorded and voice-tracked, the response time would be very slow today. By the time radio got to the story, it would be all over the internet with pictures and interviews and everything else about what happened.
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I remember when Michael Jackson passed away, and stations having to scramble to put specials together. This was 2009, still before the smartphone era.
 
Mike Stark said:
It really shows the potential of what radio is capable of. I'm not sure if a major star like Lennon were to pass today that radio would step up like they did that night.
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Lennon was shot at 11PM EST. That's 8PM in LA.

DavidEduardo said:
With nearly all night shows pre-recorded and voice-tracked, the response time would be very slow today. By the time radio got to the story, it would be all over the internet with pictures and interviews and everything else about what happened.
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It depends. Keep in mind that the DMCA requires radio stations to get permission from artists and songwriters in order to play multiple songs by the same artist. So Sirius or internet radio can't play more than four songs by one artist in any three hour period. There are no exceptions, and the permission must be in writing. If the death happens after business hours, it's hard to get that kind of permission.
 
TheBigA said:
It depends. Keep in mind that the DMCA requires radio stations to get permission from artists and songwriters in order to play multiple songs by the same artist. So Sirius or internet radio can't play more than four songs by one artist in any three hour period. There are no exceptions, and the permission must be in writing. If the death happens after business hours, it's hard to get that kind of permission.
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I can't think of any similar case where an OTA station that streams digitally would not say, "so sue us and see how this comes out of a jury trial!"

And that only applies to the digital stream, not AM or FM which are not the "Digital" in DCMA.

And I would imagine that most of the significant streamers that have staff on hand to handle breaking news would likely take the same approach of saying, "this is a new event and it was done to honor an artist". I don't think the DCMA administrators would push in such a case unless the stream continued with non-stop music by the artist well into the second day.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I would imagine that most of the significant streamers that have staff on hand to handle breaking news would likely take the same approach of saying, "this is a new event and it was done to honor an artist".
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In the case of Michael Jackson, Sirius waited for permission. It took about a day. I think if you review comments on this board in 2009, a lot of people wondered why they waited.
 
gr8oldies said:
I remember when Michael Jackson passed away, and stations having to scramble to put specials together. This was 2009, still before the smartphone era.
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I also remember the day Michael Jackson passed away. TMZ broke the story. It was all over LA radio. The national cable networks as well. That was just after 12 noon or so. For almost 3 hours, the TV stations collectively put their hands over their ears and said, "Lalalalalala Shut up TMZ, we don't believe you!" and stayed with regular programming. All during most of their 2pm Newscast KCAL 9 stayed with the headline, 'Micheal Jackson Hospitalized. Condition Unknown." while they knocked themselves out bugging the hospital trying to confirm the story themselves. It wasn't until 3pm that they joined the rest of the country with coverage.
 
CaliRadioFan said:
I also remember the day Michael Jackson passed away. TMZ broke the story. It was all over LA radio. The national cable networks as well. That was just after 12 noon or so. For almost 3 hours, the TV stations collectively put their hands over their ears and said, "Lalalalalala Shut up TMZ, we don't believe you!" and stayed with regular programming. All during most of their 2pm Newscast KCAL 9 stayed with the headline, 'Micheal Jackson Hospitalized. Condition Unknown." while they knocked themselves out bugging the hospital trying to confirm the story themselves. It wasn't until 3pm that they joined the rest of the country with coverage.
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If they couldn't independently confirm it, they weren't going to declare him dead just because another outlet said he was. That's not rocket science.
 
radiofan2023 said:
If they couldn't independently confirm it, they weren't going to declare him dead just because another outlet said he was. That's not rocket science.
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I've found TMZ seldom gets celebrity deaths wrong, but we've had situations like Tom Petty, with back and forth "he's dead/he's not/he's dead/he's not". So what's a Classic Rock programmer to do, schedule extra Tom Petty or hold off?
 
DavidEduardo said:
I can't think of any similar case where an OTA station that streams digitally would not say, "so sue us and see how this comes out of a jury trial!"

And that only applies to the digital stream, not AM or FM which are not the "Digital" in DCMA.

And I would imagine that most of the significant streamers that have staff on hand to handle breaking news would likely take the same approach of saying, "this is a new event and it was done to honor an artist". I don't think the DCMA administrators would push in such a case unless the stream continued with non-stop music by the artist well into the second day.
Click to expand...
The radio station could shut off the stream during times they are playing a bunch of songs by the same artist. Might be easier to do on a non-comm who don't have to worry about revenue that the stations stream might bring in.
 
TheBigA said:
It depends. Keep in mind that the DMCA requires radio stations to get permission from artists and songwriters in order to play multiple songs by the same artist. So Sirius or internet radio can't play more than four songs by one artist in any three hour period. There are no exceptions, and the permission must be in writing. If the death happens after business hours, it's hard to get that kind of permission.
Click to expand...
I violated that requirement numerous times as a terrestrial programmer. All George Strait for his birthday in Texas? You bet. Go ahead, send me a C&D. (No one ever did.)
 
Huff said:
Right... but I didn't bother with halting the stream for such an occasion.
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A single station stream doesn't attract as much attention as a Sirius channel. FM stations regularly do album premieres that violate the DMCA, and they don't get cited. The question is who would file a complaint? Everyone is still getting paid. This was one of the things I thought would have been eliminated in the Music Modernization Act.
 
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