After experiencing vibrations during the takeoff roll an MD80 flight crew encountered a nose gear unsafe light upon gear retraction.

Narrative

On takeoff roll the nose tires seemed to somewhat out of balance--which in itself is not that uncommon--however; when the gear handle was placed in the up position; the red light on the nose stayed red associated with a much louder wind noise. We also noticed the 'Auto Spoiler do not arm light' was on. ATC was notified that we wanted to level off and hold the current speed (200 KTS) and be vectored around until we could sort out the problem. First Officer was instructed to get out his QRH and look at the landing gear issue. We placed the gear handle down and did get three green lights. Due to the vibration and the nose gear not coming up we felt there was no way of knowing if the nose tires had blown so it was best to leave the gear down and not try to recycle. At that point the First Officer took the aircraft and the radios and I explained to the flight attendants what was going on and that I would be making a PA to the passengers. I also advised them to set up for an emergency landing. After we worked the landing gear and spoiler checklists I contacted Dispatch and told them what was going on and what we were planning to do. Dispatch agreed. I declared an emergency with ATC; explained the nature of the problem and that we wanted to fly around long enough to burn enough fuel so the aircraft would be below the maximum landing weight for a safe landing; also; that we needed to land on the longest runway into the wind and to alert CFR. When the time came we landed uneventfully with a 15K cross wind. The plane was inspected on the runway by CFR as well as a mechanic. The nose gear strut was found to be collapsed. All three gears were pinned and we taxied to the gate. The logbook was filled out and aircraft was turned over to Maintenance.