Twin Cities Radio Airchecks.Com Presents The Al Arneson Collection Al Arneson, grew up in Edina Minnesota and got an early start in radio. In Jr. high school, Al got his first chance to be on the air at his friend's, Kim Cummings, basement Pirate FM station. When that station went of the air, he started his own station. Al operated his station out of his basement during the early 1970's while attending Edina High School. You can hear those early Pirate recording of him on this web site's Pirate Radio Page.
Al later took a job at an Appleton Wisconsin station and later took a job on KSTP-AM near the beginning of KSTP's Music Radio days. He also worked at U-100. He currently owns and operates his own business, Entertainment Plus. An aircheck from 1973 of Al Arneson on KSTP-AM is posted below (Scroll Down)
Thanks Al, for recording and contributing these airchecks. Keep cleaning out that storage locker!!
Late 1970's photo of a young Al Arneson
Although the quality is not very good, you can see Al Arneson with Rick Dees in a photo taken at the June 2008 Conclave.
KSTP-AM 15 KSTP "Big" Al Arneson December 21st, 1973
This is another Tape I recently found and converted to MP3. I originally recorded this of the air after I got home from my evening shift at KTCR-FM. Unfortunately, the AM radio quality was lacking. You can hear this tape fine, but there is a faint AM squeal in the background.
This is typical Al. What is not typical is the use of his real name. He later went by the name "Big" Al Davis here and at U-100. There are additional aircheck of him both at KSTP as Davis and at U-100 at RadioTapes. Com
Al had his own unlicensed pirate FM station in Edina when he was in high school. An aircheck of him at this station is on this site on the Pirate Radio Page
Recorded off the air by Rick Burnett and posted 8-8-12-07
Al sent me a note on 4-2-08 says he was sorry to hear of Scott Burton's passing and he remembered how he liked him a lot. Al enclosed an aircheck he had of Scott at WWDC (not to be confused with WWTC) that was recorded in the spring of 1972
When Scott Burton left WDGY, he went to Washington DC to do afternoon drive on WWDC, a MOR station at the time. Although you will still hear "The Sound of Scott" and "The Burton Extravaganza"), this is a slightly different Scott Burton, as he is able to do a little more talking than he was able to do at WDGY.
Johnny Dollar/Bob Moomey and the Robert W. Morgan Connection Al read about the passing of Bob Moomey (Johnny Dollar on WDGY) and also enclosed an aircheck of Robert W. Morgan on WIND in Chicago recorded in the Fall of 1971. Al visited Bob Moomey during Spring Break 1972 and when Bob was the program director at WIND. Bob told Al how proud he was to have hired Robert W. Morgan for awhile as WIND's morning man. Al mentions that Bob had placed color photos in the WIND studio. Listen to the aircheck to get Morganized. Contributed by Al Arneson, Edina MN, Formerly "Big" Al Davis on U-100.
WYOO 980 AM - Partial Day in the Life of a Radio Station - May 31st, 1973
Site contributor, Al Arneson, went to his storage locker again. Al has one of the larger collection of Twin Cities airchecks and has been a generous contributor to this site. Al has provided some great WYOO recordings from this trip to the storage locker They were recorded all from the same day; May 31st, 1973. This was a day before voice tracking. This was a day when the DJ was actually in the room plying records and talking to you live. This was a day when a listener felt they had a companion while they listened to the music.
Bob Chase This day start with Bob Chase in the morning drive starting at 7:09 and going to about 8:12 AM. Bob has some banter on the story line of the song "Tell Laura I love her." He steps on the vocal on the into patter and discusses story after the song. You will also hear a promo for Art Snow. In this segment there are kid put on the air singing songs for the 1 minute talent spots. Bob does a live spot for "Try Me Dolls" This is hosiery, to the blow-up dolls. You will also hear the Weather jingles for the Twin Cities Suburbs, Anoka and Bloomington. There is also a discussion during the sports segment on breaking the 200 mile speed barrier and cars using wings.
Tall Robert Hall Robert states this is the "New YOO, the Station that plays the good old songs." His show starts with the Tonight Show theme. You will hear the Radio 98 Listening Post. There is a little dead air before the Elvis song. Not a big deal today; more common whe voice tracking computer have a bad day. Robert has a discussion on the Airport Head Tax news. During his culture segment, Roberts reads the lyrics from the Isley Brothers song and then plays it. At 3PM WYOO-AM an WRAH-FM simulcast the sports and news with Bob Schuman doing sports and news and Ron Fraiser doing the inside story segment.
Sweet Michael O'Shea Did not do a commentary on this aircheck. You do not need me to ramble on this one, just listen. These airchecks were contributed by Al Arneson, former basement pirate FM operator with talent, who went on to work in commercial radio at KSTP-AM, and at WYOO's successor, U-100.
The airchecks on this not for profit web site were recorded off the air. The recordings on this site provide historical examples of Twin Cities radio and are intended for purposes of archival preservation and for research. Additionally, the recordings can be used by vision impaired visitors to get an audio perspective of radio history. These recordings are not intended to by used by others for commercial purposes.
Some of the airchecks are off reel to reel tapes that were recorded off the air by the web site creator. In May 2006 the recordings started to be converted to MP3 and shared here. In addition to this web site creator's recorded aircheck collection, there are also many airchecks that were recorded and submitted by friends and acquaintances, or contributed by other collectors. Sources are cited, if known. The contributed recordings from friends and contributors of both airchecks and other material are greatly appreciated. Without their help, the site would have many less pages of radio history. The recordings of the contributors to this web site who recorded them off the air may show up on other sites. This site does not charge any fees to listen to the posted recordings. The purpose of this site is to provide radio history and intended for purposes of archival preservation and research.
Windows Media Player works well to play these MP3 files, and depending on your internet settings, will start streaming the file once the link is clicked, Some files are large and may take time to open. Should you have any aircheck of Twin Cities radio stations, let me know and I may be able to include them at this site. Contact me at Rick(at)HotMail.com --- NOTE Replace "(at)" with @ when typing email address
