KYA – San Francisco – Tom Campbell – February 22, 1969 – Rob Frankel Collection –
Suddenly it hits you – you’ve missed out on everything. Never went to a single love-in. Never went to The Fillmore or The Avalon or The Matrix. Missed all the bands. You went to school – went to the Library – went home. Where did the time go?
Yes, it hits you – it’s 1969, almost the end of the 60s and you feel like you have nothing to show for it. You got drunk once. Nobody ever offered you Pot. Never hung out in the Haight. Your Math Major boyfriend goes to Stanford. He’s a year older than you and you’ve known him since 10th grade. You get along with your parents.
The reality is; you’ve become one of the straight people and even you are starting to notice.
So you decide to do something about it. First, you’re going to break up with the boyfriend – the way it’s been going, he won’t even notice. Next; you’re going to apply to Berkeley in the fall, And then, you’re going to start going to concerts, starting this weekend. Grateful Dead or Tower Of Power? You have to find out. You’ll start going behind the cafeteria at lunch – that’s where all the cool kids go to smoke cigarettes and listen to the radio. You’ve got to make friends with those kids. Even though they think you’re weird, and a couple of them said so, you have to let them know you’ve been on another planet and you don’t know where you are. The guys think you’re a narc, but the girls think you’re “kind of” okay. One of them you sort of knows from Home Ec and you helped her out once.
Yes, changes are going to happen, and they are going to happen soon. No more of this uptight, straight-laced normal person. Time to find your freak flag and fly it over San Francisco.
Wow . . .did you just say that? Freak Flag? You’re doing better than you think!
And while 1969 forages ahead, the radio is still playing the hits. Like this aircheck from KYA and Tom Campbell from February 1969. Lots of familiar, forgotten and completely missed. KYA was still the bastion of Top-40 in 1969, and even though FM was grabbing up defectors like crazy, there were still those loyal listeners who faithfully tuned in and let the hits flow.
Big thanks and shout out to Rob Frankel for contributing this gem from his collection.
Crank it up a play “name that tune”.
