No doubt, some of you have been wondering where Newstalgia has gone. Well, it's gone. After 3 years it's time to move on and test new waters. Some of you have noticed another site, Past Daily, which has been running posts quite similar to this. Well, that's who we are now and that's where we've set up shop for the past couple of weeks. Same history, same historic audio, same concerts, same rarities - only a new site, a new look and a new audience. We're working on the look and tweaking features here and there. In essence, we're still moving in.

A lot of you have been very supportive over the years, and I would like to say it's sad to leave. But in truth, nothing has changed, only the location. So if you like me as Newstalgia, you'll like me as Past Daily. And I will be continuing to offer you rare material you won't hear anywhere else. So nothing has really changed, only I am now no longer affiliated with Crooks and Liars.

It's been fun. It started as an experiment, and for the most part it worked. Now it's time to move on.

Drop by Past Daily if you get a chance and say hi. I still take requests and I still read e-mails.

A special thanks to my pals at C&L - you made it all fun and interesting and I was proud and delighted to be part of the team, especially Neiwert, Karoli, Blue Gal, Susie and Nicole.

And like I always say - you ain't seen the last of me.

Be well and stay sane,

Gordon Skene

I would venture to guess, just based on uncovered evidence, that America in the 1950's was probably more balanced from a cultural standpoint, than it is now.

Why do I say that? The evidence - weekend radio in America was a veritable grab-bag of music, information and culture - all laid out, usually in one place. In 1955, NBC Radio introduced a Weekend service called Monitor. It was an adventuresome idea, geared along the lines of America's then-insatiable curiosity over how things worked.

Monitor's credo was "go anywhere, do anything" and it lived up to that credo over a 48 hour period, beginning at 12:01 on Saturday morning until 11:59 Sunday night.

This episode of The Grand Ole Opry comes from that service. For a half hour (On June 22, 1955) it featured the talents of "Little" Jimmy Dickens, "Cousin" Minnie Pearl, Del Wood, Jimmy Newman, Chester "Chet" Atkins and a host of others. Strictly Americana at its most rural.

But here's the thing - right after Grand Ole Opry, Monitor went to Birdland and featured a set by Woody Herman and Erroll Garner, and a half hour after that, a set by Tyree Glenn and "Philly Joe" Jones.

And the next day, you got the NBC Symphony. Quite a blast of disparate culture, to say the least. But if you were up for it, you got one hell of an education in the space of 48 hours. And your musical taste got very broad and all-encompassing. And if you were a musician, you stumbled into a gold mine.

So as a reminder of how potentially isolated we've become as a culture, here is a half-hour of down-home rural/middle America/roots music, supplied by Mainstream Radio in the form of NBC on June 22, 1955.

The Jazz portion comes tomorrow.

This weekend, twenty-five years ago, it was all about The Persian Gulf and the U.S. decision to re-flag Kuwaiti Oil Tankers within the next ten days. Amid reports that Iran was mining the Gulf and the U.S. was inching closer to a shooting war. With the Iraqi bombing of the USS Stark, which claimed 37 crewmen, it would seem a showdown was inevitable.

Despite all that, there was no concrete Policy in place, with reference to our position on The Persian Gulf. This episode of Face The Nation was titled "Persian Gulf Policy: A Sea Of Confusion", and it reflected just how off the charts we were in handling crises overseas.

Joining Moderator Leslie Stahl were Under-Secretary of State Michael Armacost and Chairman of The House Armed Services Committe, Les Aspin, discussing what was becoming a fractured and and confusing policy and whether or not the re-flagging of Kuwaiti ships should be postponed.

Here is that broadcast. You get to decide.

I would say that, without stretching the point too much, had the Moody Blues not stumbled across an obscure sound effects gadget used by the BBC for their radio shows and realized it had tons of musical possibilities, the world may never had the opportunity to hear a Mellotron to the extent the Moody Blues used it.

Initially part of the British Invasion of the early 60's, the Moodies (as they were known, for short) slowly morphed out of the Beat Group niche and into a cross between Art-Rock and Symphonic-Rock. Their biggest album, and one that just about every one "of a certain age" knows the words to from start to finish, was Days Of Future Past, released in 1967. It touted the first-ever collaboration between Symphony Orchestra and Rock Band, with the extra added bonus of The Mellotron, for good, ethereal measure.

Tonight's tracks come by way of two BBC Sessions - the first from early 1967 (just before Days was released) and the other from November of 1967, (after Days was released).

Here's the rundown:

BBC Early 1967
1.Leave The Man Alone

BBC "Top Gear" November 13, 1967
2. Peak Hour
3. Nights In White Satin

Now you get to hear why every band on the planet had to have a Mellotron, or at least record with one.

And some still do.

News for this June 22nd in 1941 had everything to do with the sudden Declaration of War by Germany to Russia, setting up an invasion and opening up what was to be known as "The Eastern Front".

News was coming in so fast that NBC, and most other networks, announced they would suspend all their regular programming and devote themselves entirely to the news of the moment. And flustered announcers and analysts rushed to their microphones to deliver breathless updates, sometimes forgetting they were on the air, and other times delivering news off the tops of their heads, without aid of a script.

So here is a one-hour snapshot of that day in history, where very little else went on for June 22, 1941 as heard live over the combined networks of NBC.

Anyone who has even a remote interest in 60's Pop-Psych will know who Status Quo are, and have probably heard one of tonight's tracks at least a thousand times.

It was that popularity that became their undoing for the rest of the 60's. Pictures Of Matchstick Men became something of an anthem and they were hard pressed to duplicate its Instant Classic status for the rest of their Psychedelic period. It wasn't until they re-invented themselves in the early 1970's as a quasi-Hard Rock/neo-Heavy Metal outfit that they regained their appeal and dumped the notion they were one-hit wonders until their eventual breakup in the 1980's.

But tonight it's going back to the "Matchstick Men" period, as a struggling band who finally had a hit single after five years of trying, first as The Spectres, then as The Status Quo and finally as just Status Quo. Here they are during one of their Top Of The Pops appearances from March 29, 1968. Starting off with an interview by Brian Matthew, playing Matchstick Men, and then following it with Things Get Better.

A familiar song, heard in an unfamiliar version.

News for this June 21st in 1955 was mostly all about the 10th Anniversary celebrations taking place in San Francisco, site of the first meeting of the United Nations. June 21st commemorated the signing of the UN Charter. Right after the newscast is a re-cap of the days activities and excerpts of addresses from British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan.

With the news was also enthusiastic anticipation over the upcoming Big Four Conference, to be held in Geneva in July. Macmillan voiced optimism that the issues of the Cold War were becoming more agreeable. In addressing the assembly, Macmillan hoped for a continuing of good relations between East and West. Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill was less unreserved, saying he welcomed the softening of positions, but was still wary that the Cold War was still very much with us.

In other news, it was reported two North Korean pilots defected to South Korea. CIO Leader Walter Reuther rejected an offer by the Auto Makers for uniform contract negotiations and President Eisenhower extended the Reciprocal Trade Agreements.

All that and a re-cap of the celebrations at the United Nations for this June 21, 1955 as reported by Ben Grauer of NBC Radio News.

Since Summer officially arrived a few hours ago, what more fitting tribute to the inclinations of baking in the sun, goofing off, staying up late and wearing as little as possible than playing something by The Beach Boys?

Okay, Summer means different things to different people. Those of us on the West Coast don't really have Summer until some time in October, when parts of Los Angeles have been known to burn down every few years. Until then, we weather through June Gloom and days where it barely breaks out of the 70's, unless of course you're in the Valley, where it is casually known as a "suburb of Hell" until December.

But the Beach Boys, at least on the West Coast, have always meant Summer to a certain degree, or at least an idealized version of it. Probably less now than a generation or two ago, when it was mandatory to have at least one Beach Boys album in your collection, and preferably all the singles.

Tonight it's one of the less instantly hummable Beach Boys songs. The Warmth Of The Sun was written, ironically, as a reflection on the Kennedy Assassination (as legend has it ) and goes under the heading of one of the more introspective of Brian Wilson's songs. Nonetheless, like a lot of their music from the early period (all the way up to Pet Sounds), it offers an aspect of a band that cranked out more than Surf tunes and were, in fact, capable of having something relevant to say.

In the meantime, get ready for insanely long days.

A celebration from Madrid tonight. In honor of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Radio Nacional Espana, the Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television) put on a special commemorative concert in which no less than Queen Sofia of Spain attended.

The concert was recorded live-as-it-happened on June 1st of this year and features the RTVE Symphony conducted by Garcia Asensio and Luis Fernando Pèrèz, piano in music of San Miguel, de Falla and Borodin.

Here's what they play:

Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE

Concierto 75 aniversario de R.N.E. Transmisión directa desde el Teatro Monumental de Madrid.

Part 1:
1.SAN MIGUEL: Fantasía radiante (estreno y encargo de RNE).

2.FALLA: Noches en los jardines de España. L. F. Pérez (p.).

Part 2 -
BORODIN: Sinfonía nº 2 en Si menor.

Orq. Sinf. de RTVE. Dir.: E. García Asensio.

Since it's Anti-Road Rage Wednesday, you can certainly join in the celebration. Or just get horizontal.

Since we arrived at an anniversary; forty years since the infamous Watergate Break-In on June 17, 1972, I thought I would run this episode of ABC's Issues & Answers featuring RNC Chairman Sen. Robert Dole and DNC Chairman and Chairman of the McGovern-Shriver Campaign, Lawrence F. O'Brien.

In what started out as an assessment of where the Presidential Campaign of 1972 stood, quickly evaporated into a thirty-minute discussion on the Watergate Break-in and its implications for the Nixon campaign.

Dole was quick to dismiss the allegations, and eager to change the subject. O'Brien and the ABC News reporters weren't, and it turned into a lively exchange that Dole repeatedly attempted to deflect the seriousness of the charge by saying "oh, the Democrats are guilty too".

In hindsight, hearing this exchange, the intense amount of misinformation, smokescreen and outright prevarication is palpable. At the time it seemed like there was more to it, but the amount of denial, with hopes of keeping the lid on until at least the election, kept everything in a state of confusion some three months after the initial break-in.

And perhaps in 1972 it was realized the Press were a far more dangerous commodity than previously realized. The fallout from that no doubt has made mainstream media what it is today.

Here is that complete episode of ABC News Issues & Answers, first broadcast on September 24, 1972.