KROQ – Brent Kalen – 2:55 pm – 3:55 pm – February 28 1979 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
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Could have been something as simple as Valentine’s Day; the one day of the year completely concocted by Hallmark Cards and See’s Candy, the one you really never took seriously because nobody really ever meant it. It was a popularity contest and you were never high on anybody’s popularity list, ever.
But this year – 1979, smack in the middle of 11th grade, life happened. Completely out of the blue. The one person in the world you swore didn’t think you existed, struck up a conversation with you in the hallway just before lunch. Right in the middle of a rush of people, with slamming lockers and brown-bag lunches and Salami – you just started talking. You don’t even remember what you were talking about; you just know you opened your mouth and words flew out; all kinds of words. And there were smiles and laughing at nothing and making eye-contact, an insane amount of eye-contact. Even while you were talking you were thinking how amazing this all was. But more than that, what happened? How did it all change? How did you go from this cynic to someone who clearly has fallen in love, or at least, in deep infatuation? How did that happen? Did the world start spinning in another direction?
You don’t know. All you know is, life has suddenly all made sense, and it feels amazing. Everything looks different. Everything smells different. And the possibilities are endless. And it all got started in the hallway – and it’s been two weeks and there’s no end in sight. Love, it appears, has arrived.
And no doubt, or at least some of you, the soundtrack behind this major growth spurt came via KROQ . In this case, it’s from around 3 in the afternoon on February 28, 1979 with Brent Kalen, hot on the heels of Mike Raphone who just had Nicky Hopkins in the studio for an on-air interview. Rather amazing day, all the way around.
Crank it up and time travel a bit.
Editors note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
