(In 1978 radio was changing)

KROQ was one of those radio stations that, in the 1970s, had numerous brushes with disaster before coming up with a formula that worked. Resurrected from the ashes of free-form KPPC, KROQ sought to become a serious top-40 FM station and quickly went bankrupt in the process. By the time it hit on its mixture of Punk, New Wave and Hard Rock, disc jockies were forced to bring in their own records and dig up their own ads (a bit like the free-form days of the mid-1960s). Because the station was too broke to make demands, the DJ's had pretty much free reign and an audience was born. Typical of the on-air talent at KROQ during the period of the late 1970s was Frazer Smith, whose gleeful insanity captured a huge radio audience and helped established KROQ as an off-the-wall cutting edge station with an adventuresome playlist.

Here is a one-hour excerpt of his show from December 1, 1978.

Yes, radio was different - even in the 70's.

And further evidence the 70's were just as haywire as every other decade. The news from June 14, 1978 was proof.

In the continuing series of accusations and denials, President Jimmy Carter alleged he had irrefutable proof that Cuban advisers were heavily involved in the rebel uprising in Zaire, from intelligence gathered that Cuban troops were training rebels in bases from neighboring Angola. Castro flatly denied it. The saga dragged on.

Meanwhile, Carter pressed to put negotiations with China on the fast track in an effort to get full normalization of relations as soon as possible.

On Capitol Hill - Questions were being posed to Israel regarding their future status of the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank. The inquiry set off a rift in the Knesset, causing a three-way split in the Israeli cabinet.

The United Nations was wrestling with the Lebanon situation. Southern Lebanon was going relatively smoothly, but it was Northern Lebanon that was the cause of concern. Tensions were high in that region over the killing of the son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter of former President Sulieman Franjileh by Phalangist gunmen, and fears of an outbreak of violence during the funeral put everyone on the alert.

Japan was weighing their Oil Storage policy as the result of serious damage done to several Oil tanks and the resultant spill of millions of gallons of crude at facilities in Sendai, which had been hit hard by a recent earthquake.

And Jimmy Carter was meeting on this day with Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai for talks regarding U.S.-India relations. The two got on famously, even though there were areas of disagreement.

And the news ended with a roundup of recent Primary election results around the country.

And that's how life rolled, this June 14, 1978 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.

Ironically, the storm clouds passed and New Orleans was bathed in sunlight and blue skies by August 31st. Ironic because the true devastation was becoming painfully apparent on the ground at every turn. The roads were still clogged with refugees trying to find some shelter. The ones left stranded in the city were trapped, some still in their houses, hanging on roofs, waving to passing helicopters for rescue. The death toll was rising and it was feared it would rise to not just hundreds, but thousands.

Typical of the reports flooding the airwaves on August 31st were these via CBS News and CBS Radio Affiliate KCBS in San Francisco, trying with words to convey the destruction and desperation surrounding the people of New Orleans.

And of course, there was that parade of pious slime creeping up.

(Welcome to California!)

With the current state of eternal/ongoing financial crisis in California, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the day where things went south. On June 8, 1978; the day after the election and the "voters revolt", California was poised to go from budget surplus to bankruptcy in a very short time.

Gov. Brown: “The message is, that the Property Tax must be sharply curtailed and that government spending, wherever it is, must be held in check. We must look forward to lean and frugal budgets.”

Lots of people forget just how this thing got started, since it was 31 years ago - time has a tendency to cloud things over, particularly events that seemed like a good idea at the time, but over the long haul just spelled disaster.

So in case you were wondering . . .

(Capability Brown - GREAT singles. But albums . . . . well . . .)

Capability Brown were one of those bands who had all the elements of being great. Amazing vocal harmonies, good instrumental licks, great up-and-coming label (Charisma came about as the brainchild of former manager of the bands Creation, Bonzo Dog and The Nice Tony Stratton-Smith) with lots of positive Press. And Capability Brown had a couple of great singles, like this one "Windfall".

But when it came to putting an album together, that was another story. The material was just bland and not well produced. And that spelled disaster for anyone trying at the high-stakes rock n' roll game and perplexity for reviewers who were anticipating their albums, based on the positive reaction to their singles.

Like I said, the singles were another story - and "Windfall" was everything the albums weren't. Capability Brown is largely forgotten now. their first album never issued on CD and their second album issued briefly on CD in Japan and the singles only issued as part of anniversary compilation in 1973. By that time the band had split and Charisma was reaping the benefits of Genesis.