April 19, 1979 – KNX-Newsradio – 9:06 am-10:00 am – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
April 19, 1979 – It was a busy day – Middle-East Peace proposals and the third day of voting in Rhodesia were the big news items of the day. So was the George Moscone/Harvey Milk murder trial in San Francisco – as well as the Hillside Strangler case, which had most everyone in Los Angeles at least on edge. But this was what was going on in Los Angeles – a microcosm of Planet Earth – one city out of thousands dotting the globe. So as big as the broad-sweeps of news and earth shattering events which took place on this day throughout the rest of the world, so were the smaller, but no less significant events which took place down the street or around the corner.
The local crime, local disasters, local politics – all small strokes in the big picture of things on this day, but significant if you were living in the middle of them. The court cases, lawsuits and celebrities – the ads for businesses that have either grown and become something else, or are no longer here.
The popular culture – the events taking place in Los Angeles which were part of the bigger social/cultural picture. Studies and disclosures – Marijuana use was on the upswing in America, but California already knew that. More teenagers than ever before were getting high – but Los Angeles already knew that too. Health Secretary Joseph Califano found those statistics deeply disturbing – but L.A. knew it – even though it didn’t strike anyone as particularly disturbing, just a lot of people were getting high.
Pacific Coast Highway was doing what it always seems to do – shut down due to rockslides. The relentless erosion of land perched precariously over the ocean was once again on the move. Every time it rains, every time the earth shakes.
If you live in L.A. were born in L.A. – have visited L.A. or are just wondering what happened on this day in your typical average city on this day – here is a snapshot, a one-hour look at life as it unfolded over the period of an hour – 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning on April 19, 1979, by way of KNX-Newsradio, Los Angeles.
