Twin Cities Radio Airchecks.Com Presents The Al Arneson Collection WCCO 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
Captain Buzz Lives!!
WCCO-FM Composite. A Day in the Life...
They are all here, even the part-timers. Check out those late 70's jingles. Paul Stagg 6-9 AM Tim Russell 9-12 N Carl Lensgraff 12 N - 4 PM Curt Lengren 4-8 PM Tom Ambrose 9 PM - Midnight Terri Davis 12 M - 6 AM Pat O'Neill Weekends Mesa Kincaid Weekends Johnny Canton Weekends Recorded and contributed by Al Arneson, formerly at KSTP-AM and U-100. (Posted 11-18-07)
Charlie Boone/Roger Erickson - Mornings Denny Long - Weekends Steve Cannon - Afternoon Drive
Contributed by Al Arneson, Formeraly of KSTP-AM and U-100 as Big Al Davis
WCCO-FM 102.9 1972 & 1973 - The Early Days - Predecessor to WLTE-FM
I need some more time to put the rest of the recordings contributed by Al Arneson. Here are a few of them. More to come soon.
To the right are two WCCO-FM Sign-Off recordings. It now seem strange to think a station of WCCO's size would not be on 24 hours per day. This was when the studios were located at the Pic-Nicollet Hotel.
The recording of Tim Russell starts with the 6 AM sign-On and is a good example of the voice impersonation Tim could do. However, this is before he invented the character of "Buzz Studley" the air-traffic reporter. The music is out and news left in. Unfortunately, the tape ends just prior to the 7 AM newscast of Rick Olsen, a former Brown Institute instructor of mine (Rick Burnett-Mason)
Tapes courtesy of Al Arneson of Edina, formerly of KTSP-AM and a/k/a/ Big Al Davis on U-100
More recordings from contributor Al Arneson. To the right is a recording of Denny Long of early WCCO-FM. Additionally, there is a recorded interview of former Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the signal and it appears the FM Frequency lock on the radio used to record this was not on and it drifted off channel a bit, but you can still here it well. The interview was a part of the WCCO-FM Grand Opening Broadcast on August 27, 1973 to celebrate the switch to the Shoreview 1,200 foot antenna and increase in power to 100,000 watts. The station transmitted at lower power from an antenna on the Foshay Tower prior to this. I am not sure what the transmitting power was from Foshay Let me know if you do: Rick1031@Hotmail.com
Dave Teller - Recorded on the Grand Opening Day - August 27th 1973 This was a time when the DJ's had wide discretion on music selection and announcing style. This was a more talk, less music format. Dave plays Peter Nero then Carly Simon, then The Looking glass and other MOR Contemporary songs. Lost of weather info is also provided. Does anyone know what happen to Dave?
WCCO-FM Early 1970's - Two Recordings From Grand Opening Broadcast August 27, 1973
The two recording to the left are from the day WCCO-FM had a ribbon cutting ceremony atop the Pic Nicollet Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Al Arneson provided the recordings. WCCO-FM was celebrating the switch in transmitter location to the new 1,200 foot tower in Shoreview and an increase in power to 100,000 watts. It is ironic that although CCO-FM increased it power, these recording suffer from some FM static. I believe this is due to the frequency lock on the radio not working or being turned on, allowing the frequency to drift. Remember when FM radios had a frequency lock button?
Paul Stagg During the Afternoon Paul starts off by mentioning the station has received numerous phone calls on how the new 100,000 watt signal is getting out, including calls from Rochester. Later, Paul talks about how Dave Teller, who just got off the air, is now enjoying his cheeseburger that was delivered by Alice, a local waitress with a man sounding voice. Paul also informs us the grand opening ceremony will be replayed after 6 PM, primarily because the station owners wanted to hear themselves. At about 14 minutes into this tape, the frequency starts to drift and a little static can be heard.
Hugh Phillips at 6 PM Hugh worked at Brown Institute and was the placement director when I (Rick Burnett) attended the school in 1972. He also worked one time at WWTC. I remember at Brown he told a class a WWTC story about announcing the title of a song by Connie Francis and then saying..... "Let's flip her over and try the other side" naturally meaning the 45 record and not Connie. In this broadcast, he mentions the new higher power 'CCO-FM is now broadcasting at, but later keeps saying 1,000 watts, rather than 100,000 watts and does not realize the error. The 10 AM grand opening ceremony is replayed and later the Paul Stagg interview with Hubert Humphrey is also replayed. This tape only has a portion of the Humphrey interview. A missing portion is also on this page with another group of recordings. Again, it seems the FM radio's frequency lock is not working or turned on as the FM static is on parts of this recording. Even with the static, you can hear the broadcast ok.
I heard that the Pic Nicollet hotel was not occupied and some staff members spent hours going through the vacant hotel. There may be some hotel plate setting ot there somewhere. Should anyone have some "CCO stories to share, Let me know: Rick1031@hotmail.com
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
