My all time favorite rationalization that I actually heard used some years back was "It was solar flairs"

Of course no one else was affected by the 'Flairs' including myself on the same channel 72.40 Orange/White.

The golden age of creative rationalizations was when most all radios were AM units and more seriously affected by something called third order intermodualtion. An effect where someone about ten channels away or in that area would indeed cause problems.

John