Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US campus) enjoyable, exciting.

1985		‘Jennifer Blowdryer’ Modern English 8: cranking (v): Something that is really happenin’ can be cranking. A band or a club, par example.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 48: This music is crankin’!
2011		Dly Record (Morristown, NJ) 5 June 39: The surf is ‘cranking’.