– KTNQ-AM, Los Angeles – September 1977 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
You Remember – Your life; 1977 – Oh yeah – the year you were assaulted by Disco, Kiss and The Ramones – all at the same time and all on your radio. No wonder your brain was scrambled. You were smack in the middle of Polyester, Black leather and bib overalls (part of you was still loyal to The Eagles). You were in Southern California and even Tower Records had a hard time keeping track of things. And forget about clothes – were you Preppy or Glam? Glam or Disco? Disco or Punk? You would spend all your allowance on shoes because one week you had to get platforms and the next week somebody told you about Doc Martens. You had friends who were Deadheads and they all hung out behind the Cafeteria at school, smoking dope and wearing tie-dye everything – but you had other friends who were into Roller Disco and all had coke-spoons dangling from chains hung around their necks. They sneezed all the time and talked fast, but never made any sense. And then there were the angry ones – the ones who bleached their hair white and spiked it with gobs of Tenax – ate speed, spit all the time and said Fuck-You a lot. They were the ones getting kicked out of school the most – but they were the ones you could relate to.
And you were stuck – you were still in school – you had to keep a grade average. Every other day your dad would ask “so . . .what are you going to major in when you get to UCLA?” – You had no idea. But you were under pressure – people were depending on you – your family mostly. Why? You don’t have a clue. UCLA? Seriously?
All you know is – your music is all over the place – your radio is all over the place – your life is all over the place – your friends are all over the place and the world is just a little skewed.
So this is the 70s? Yeah – and they’re almost over – three years left to go. You’ll be in college by then – and then it will be the 80s.
The mind fairly reels.
And on that note – here is an hour’s worth of KTNQ-Am from September 1977- and maybe no Ramones, but Kiss, Donna Summer, Donny Osmond and a whole lot of what mainstream radio was like that year.
Editors note: The above rant 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.
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