. . . or click on the link here for Audio Player – WCBS-CBS News – Report on Death of Johnny Carson – January 23, 2005 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection

On this day 10 years ago, if you were around before 1992, Johnny Carson was part of your life. For 30 years he was casually known as The King Of Late Night Comedy. On this January 23rd in 2005 it was announced that Johnny Carson had passed away from Emphysema. Tributes poured in and people remembered how integral Johnny Carson was in the Popular Culture of America from the 1960s to the 1990s. News of his passing prompted people to recall favorite moments, or “what they were doing when . . .” in association with seeing Johnny Carson every night, usually before drifting off to sleep – Johnny Carson was embedded in the American psyche. Although, after leaving The Tonight show in 1992, Carson dropped out of public view, his past episodes of The Tonight Show continue to make the rounds on video and are still remembered these ten years after his death.

But there was other news going on this day – Rosemary Woods, President Nixon‘s Secretary and the object of the infamous “missing 18 minutes” from the Watergate tapes, passed away. During the Watergate investigation, she famously confessed she “accidentally erased” 18 minutes of crucial evidence.

There was also the Blizzard of ’05 that got peoples’ attention. The Eastern seaboard was buried under 2 feet of new snow, and in some places 3 feet. The weather was expected to strand millions of travelers until the middle of the coming week.

Gas prices rose an average of 5 cents to a whopping $1.87 a gallon. OPEC as usual, was to blame with what was purported to be “an unfortunate coincidence of oil production cuts and Iraq’s elections”.

And San Francisco was going to be the first city in the country to charge for paper bags in Supermarkets. 17 cents per bag was the asking price.

All that, and so much more for this January 23rd in 2005 as presented by WCBS-AM and CBS News.

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