– CBS Radio – KNX-AM/FM Los Angeles – 4 hours of days events – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
July 20, 1969 -Yep, they did it. Landed on the Moon and now they’re walking on it. You never thought for a second they would ever do that in your lifetime. The Moon was this big romantic ball of light and mystery, but actually going there? You didn’t think so. Movies, magazines and Twilight Zone and lots of people imagining what it would be like to actually go there, but you never thought they would. Hard to imagine, looking up at a full moon, there would be people actually walking around on it at the same time. You can’t really picture that.
And so you, like everybody else everywhere, are watching TV and listening to the radio, because you can’t help it – you can’t tear yourself away. You’ve been this way, going on six hours, and you know everybody else is doing the same thing, because you can hear all the TV’s and all the Radios, on all over the neighborhood, tuned in and listening, watching and waiting; a giant echo engulfing the whole block. And there’s no traffic on the street; no cars, no buses. Almost like a holiday or the day Kennedy was assassinated; that was the other day everybody had their TV’s and radio’s on and nobody moved. The world stopped and held its breath – and you’re doing to same thing today; watching TV, listening to the radio and trying to wrap your mind around the concept that it’s happening right now – you’re sitting here in L.A. and they’re walking around on the Moon; right now. What a bizarre concept.
And this minute – this very second, life is changing. And now you really wonder what the future is all about.
If you were around on this day fifty-four years ago, Los Angeles, like every other city, town and village throughout the world was tuned in and listening. In L.A. you were, very probably listening to KNX on the radio or watching Walter Cronkite on the TV – and a lot of you were doing both at the same time.
To get some idea, here is a four-hour excerpt of the full day, as it happened on July 20, 1969 from KNX- AM/FM and CBS Radio. It begins with another prominent news story of the day, the accident on Chappaquidick with Ted Kennedy.
