Westwood One to air the summer of love 50 years later

Westwood One News will present a special retrospective entitled "Summer of Love," a look back at the counter culture revolution that defined the summer of 1967 from a 50-year perspective. The half-hour special, airing the weekend of August 18-20, is hosted by WON correspondents Jim Roope in Los Angeles and Steve Kastenbaum in New York, the program features some of the iconic pop and rock music that filled the airwaves that summer, along with extensive use of the Westwood One News archives -- including interviews with activist Abbie Hoffman, LSU guru Professor Timothy Leary, rock manager Bill Graham, singer Scott McKenzie and others.

The archived audio showcased in the special was discovered on a 1987 Summer of Love 20th anniversary cassette tape unearthed during Westwood One News' recent move to a new facility in Washington, DC. Longtime Westwood One producer George Achaves, who produced the 1987 special and is now based in Nashville, was able to track down the master reels. "We captured the moment in time and it sounds as good to me today as it did then. This was done before digital editing, on reel-to-reel tape and news carts, edited with razor blades and splicing tape," said Achaves.

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