A number of the songs were topical in nature, particularly Ochs' "In the Heat of the Summer" (which chronicled the 1965 Watts Riots), and Reynolds' "It Isn't Nice".
He witnessed the 1965 Watts Riots from an apartment within the curfew zone, feeling more endangered, he indicates in 'Writing a Life' (99-100) and When TISH Happens (224), by the US National Guard than by the mostly black protesters.
Amid the climate of the 1965 Watts Riots, Williams used the station to call for assertive action: "In the spirit of 76, in the Spirit of Los Angeles, let our people take to the streets in fierce numbers, and in the cause of freedom and justice, let our battle cry be heard around the world. Freedom! Freedom! Freedom now, or death!"
Even the 1965 Watts Riots did not change that, although Willowbrook suffered damage to a number of its buildings, including Willowbrook's community library.
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Among other stories he has covered are the 1961 Bel Air fires, the 1963 Baldwin Hills Reservoir dam break, the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr., the 1965 Watts Riots, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family, and the Hillside Strangler.