My initial reaction when I heard the news 31 years ago was that it had to be a bad joke. I was sure the DJ was going to end the segment with "April Fools". He didn't and I stood there staring at the stereo in shock. I was new to L.A. having lived there less than a year, and I was just a couple of weeks shy of my seventeenth birthday. Just three months prior Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson had drowned not far from my home in Venice, CA. Marvin Gaye would have turned 76 this year.
From Wikipedia
At around 12:38 pm (PST) on April 1, 1984, as Marvin was seated on his bed talking to his mother, Gaye's father shot Marvin twice. The elder Gaye had been having a heated dispute with his wife, and Marvin had intervened on his mother's behalf. The first shot, which entered the right side of Gaye's chest, was fatal, having perforated his vital organs. Gaye was taken to the emergency room of the California Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 1:01 pm (PST). The gun Marvin Gay Sr. used to shoot his son had been given to him by Gaye, as a Christmas present, to keep Gay Sr. safe from intruders.