It's another presidential election year; the American people are deeply divided and deeply entrenched in another unpopular war. The topic is not 2008, but 1968. If 1967 was the Summer of Love, maybe 1968 was the Summer of Hate.

We hear Dale Minor report from the battleground during the "Tet Offensive;" part of from Pacifica Radio Archive 1968 Revolution Rewind.

We go live to the "Chicago 1968" DNC demonstrations, mixed by Barrett Golding. (Voices: Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, journalist, police, and demonstrators at Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention. Music: "Ballad of the Green Beret" by Sgt. Barry Sadler, "For What It's Worth" original by Buffalo Springfield and cover by The Staple Singers.)

We drink "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," stirred by producers Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. (1968 Tom Wolfe book | 2009 Gus Van Sant film Weekend America "This Weekend in 1968" | Voices: Carolyn Garcia, Mountian Girl" & "Hardly Visible" George Walker | Merry Pranksters)

We hear the songs, speeches, and news reports of the times in "A Shortcut Back to 1968," sliced by Peter Bochan. Says Shortcuts producer:

An unpopular war was raging overseas, as an unpopular President spoke of his "awesome responsibility" and chose not to seek re-election, while his party fought for a change toward "new policies", and the crew of Apollo 8 embarked on a journey to the moon.

1968 was an election year that brought the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The Vietnam War took a record number of casualties. Many cities burned as people took to the streets against the war and against racism.

The Presidential election process gave way to unprecedented turmoil, with deep divisions in the political parties, including protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and riots in the streets of Chicago (leading to the political trials of the "Chicago 8" and the Catonsville 9 for burning draft files in Maryland). It was also a time of intense resistance on college campuses across the country, with battles between hawks & doves, rich and poor, young and old, black and white.

Using only the sounds, music and voices of one of the most explosive and memorable years in history, this 40th Anniversary mix captures a time when America came to a crossroads that almost destroyed the dream and any bridge for that famous "generation gap".

Featuring "Yippies" Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and underground and counter-culture heroes like The Fugs, Cat Mother & The All-Night Newsboys, David Peel & The Lower East Side, the Amboy Dukes, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and The Family Stone, the Rolling Stones, the Band, Mary Hopkins, Marvin Gaye, the Moody Blues, Ennio Morricone, 2001: A Space Odssey, Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, the Monkees, the cast of "Hair", Simon and Garfunkel, Cream, The Firesign Theater, with Dustin Hoffman, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Huey P. Newton, Charlton Heston, Chicago Mayor Richard J.Daley, H.Rap Brown, Stokley Carmichael, Sammy Davis Jr, Eldridge Cleaver, Joe Cocker, Marshall Efron, "Rosko", Spiro T. Agnew, General Westmoreland, Sen. Ted Kennedy, LBJ and many more.

Recorded and mixed in analogue on a Tascam vintage 4-track, "A Shortcut through 1968" features no narration, it's message evolves from the careful juxtaposition of the various elements, including airchecks from the archives of WBAI in 1968 (with the voices of free-form radio founders Bob Fass, Steve Post and Larry Josephson) mixed with interviews on "what do you remember about 1968?"