These ideas are related to the ‘bitter clingers’ stereotype.
I don’t even buy the simplest details of his story. My college town in 1983 was 60 miles from the nearby big city and I heard numerous radio stations from that city. Kansas City is only about 40 miles from Lawrence (Douglas and Johnson counties are adjacent) and presumably had many radio stations in common even in 1983.
I think the point is that the major market radio stations like those in Kansas City weren't playing the Sex Pistols back then, but small college radio stations were. As someone else who went to college in those days, I can verify the truth of that.