1980

Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer create a political reporting partnership that lasts throughout the decade.

John Lennon is murdered. ATC does a series of reports, threaded with Beatles music, on the murder, the vigil outside the apartment building, and reactions around the country.

On the Dec. 15 show, commentator Vertamae Grosvenor spoke of the observance, requested by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, of 10 minutes of silence in his memory:

"Because my Sixties was sit-ins, not love-ins; because it was not Monkees and Beatles, but Panthers and Young Lords; because my song was We Shall Overcome, not I Want to Hold Your Hand, I felt it would be a bit hypocritical for me to go to Central Park and light a candle for John Lennon. But because I believe that John Lennon was a righteous brother, I wanted to do something. So I met with several of my friends for brunch about 1:30. Nobody announced 2 o'clock -- but when it came, we knew."

Hear the broadcast.

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