Well I sprayed a lot inside and waited two days (yeah I know it doesn't have to be that long). I turned it on, and the crackling was a tad louder. So I opened it up again and sprayed a little more, this time rotating the balance knob, in addition to the volume (as mentioned above), and waited another 48 hours. It was even WORSE. This time the crackling was in the upper range of the dial, instead of the low range, and it was louder.
So I pulled both vol/bal knobs off, put some tissue underneath the potentiometers, so the stuff wouldn't drip down inside, and sprayed while rotating the vol/bal. When I removed the tissue, it was full of black dirt...And everything was much shinier I might add.
Anyway, no more crackling. And the reason it was worse before? I forgot I had previously squirted a tiny bit in the front (with the bal knob still on) but not much. What probably happened was it just shifted some of the dirt, thus the difference in the crackling and range.
So my recommendation to anyone with crackling issues... Squirt the front first.
It might be all you need.