SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Fifty-four years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
As traumatic as it was at the time, imagine if that was the very first thing you heard on a radio you built.
That happened to longtime KELO-AM DJ, Jon Michaels, who was a Washington High School student.
"I raised my hand and told my teacher that, 'Hey, I'm getting something on the radio that says that the President's been shot," Michaels said. "He goes over to the principal's office at Washington High and comes back and say, 'Class dismissed.'"
Michaels said it was like something out of The Twilight Zone, as he tuned his hand-built radio through all sorts of interference to finally lock on a clear signal announcing the death of the President.
Michaels says kids really did look up to the young President at the time.
Given today's poloarized political climate, it's hard to fathom that any political figure was almost universally respected Michaels say JFK was revered by the kids in Sioux Falls.
"It was Camelot," Michaels said. "He was every young person's dream of a future in this America."
He said it was like your own Sir Lancelot died.