June 14, 1977 – CBS Radio Hourly News – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
June 14, 1977 – a relatively calm day in 1977. News began with talk about Jimmy Carters Budget proposal for Fiscal Year 1979 as well as his assessment of the unemployment situation. The President was slated to hold the first of a series of conferences with advisers on this day, aimed at writing a Fiscal budget for 1979. It was to be the first budget with a purely Carter stamp on it. The 1978 budget was largely the responsibility of President Ford, his predecessor. Mr. Carter was also slated to meet with The White House Commission on HIRE (Help Through Industry Re- Training and Unemployment. Conservation was also on the agenda for the President today and White House Energy secretary Arthur Schlesinger was heading to Capitol Hill to argue price controls on interstate Natural Gas and imposition of Federal controls within Natural Gas producing states.
In other news; 10 Americans released from Cuban jails by Fidel Castro made their way to the states this day. One group arrived in Los Angeles, expressing their relief, but remaining tight-lipped over any details of their captivity, fearing repercussions from Cuban authorities towards the remaining American prisoners.
Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton asked President Cartetr to either make James Earl Ray, convicted killer of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King a Federal prisoner or let Tennessee guard Ray the way it sees fit. Ray has staged an escape no less than three times. Ray was back behind bars after a weekend escape attempt.
The Campaigning for Spain’s national elections was officially over and the polls were scheduled to open the following day, and between all that- 33 hours of what was known as “a period of reflection”. The voting was to be Spain’s first free election in some 41 years, and it was also a “period of holding breath”.
Tensions were high this day in Northern Holland ahead of the funeral for six terrorists, killed days earlier. Dutch authorities were on special alert, as the Moluccan community buried the six who were killed when the Dutch Marines stormed a passenger train and a school the terrorists had been holding for nearly 3 weeks. Two hostages were killed in the raid as well. Some groups of young Moluccans called the storming a massacre and the government was calling for calm.
And that’s just a sample of what went on, this comparatively uneventful day in 1977 via CBS Radio News.
