Rick Burnett's Twin Cities Radio Airchecks

Older Twin Cities Radio

This page has recording of some old radio shows, going all the way back to 1945 with Cedric Adam's newscast on WCCO.  This page also includes some 50's and 60's airchecks of WDGY-AM, KDWB-AM and WWTC-AM (Scroll Down).  Some of the airchecks are un-scoped and have the commercials left in.  Brings back some memories and interesting insites on the "Good Old Days"   

These two recordings are from the 1940's and represent some early history in Twin Cities broadcasting.  Cedric Adams was a big time broadcaster in the 40's with WCCO-AM.  Although I was not around at the time, I find these recordings interesting and they certainly have historical value.

The first recording was off the air on January 19th, 1945.  This was Cedric Adams noon newscast and was brought to you by Crisco Shortening.  You will hear a detailed update on the action in World War II as it draws near its end.  Cedric informs us this is President Roosevelt's last day of his 3rd term and he will be sworn in for his 4th term the next day.

The Twin Cities will also have a new model street car launched the next day from the rail yards at University Ave. and Snelling.  This was the street car maintenance yards before Midway Shopping Center was built at this location.

But the lead story was the school closing announcements.  The winter weather was severe and Cedric had a long list of closings to get through.  Boone & Erickson had this duty in the 50's, 60's and 70's.  We all tuned in to see if we were getting a snow day.  Most times my school was not one of the closings reported and I had to get my boots on.

Twin City Federal was a big sponsor for this newscast.  They were touted as "the largest savings & loan in the United States"  They had offices in Downtown Minneapolis and Downtown St. Paul.  It appears at this time, branch bank offices were common.

You can see Cedric's bio at the Pavek Musuem of Radio Histry Hall of Fame, as well as hear some additon recording of him at: http://www.pavekmuseum.org/Adams.htm

The Cargill Red River Valley Gang broadcast was on the air during the time when live audiences attended studio broadcasts. This was a weekly broadcast for some time at WCCO-AM.  Hosted by Bob DeHaven, Cargill was the sponsor for this live show that included a studio audience.  Corny jokes and country music is the format.   The Grand Ole Opry was not the only place for live country music, but it was better than this.  At the end of the broadcast Bob informs us next week's show will be coming from Grand Forks in celebration of "Harvest Days."  As of July 2008, I came across the following link to a WCCO broadcast from the 1955 Minnesota State Fair of Bob DeHaven and the Red River Valley Gang: 

One of the members of the Red River Valley Gang was Hal Garven, known as Gus on the radio broadcast  His brother, Ernie, wrote the Hamm's Beer commercial.  Ernie died in 2004, but his memory lives on here and on a web site at:  http://www.tcmu.com/archivemm/mmarticles03.html  Scroll down to the second to the last photo and bio.

Ernie Garven wrote many popular commercials, which the trio recorded during the 40's and 50's. You may recall, in addition to  the Hamm's Beer commercial, "From the land of sky blue waters!",  the one he did for Dairy Queen, "Let's all go to the Dairy Queen, I see one just down the street". The commercials aired for many years all over the country.

WCCO-AM 803 Severe Storm Coverage

In addition to reporting on school closings during the winter, 'CCO was also the station that was tuned in by many Twin City citizens to find out if they were in the path of an oncoming tornado.  The recordings below are a collection of severe weather segments.  Although it shows a date of May 6th, 1965, there are segments from many different years.

Tom Wynn (Below)

Tom Wynn was at WDGY in the early 1960's and the two WDGY airchecks below are from January 6, 1961.  This aircheck in two parts is presented un-scoped.  All promos, commercials and music have been left in.  This provides a historical look at the times.

An additional aircheck was provded by Randy Randall of Tom Wynn at WLOL-AM in the early 70's while LOL was programing the "Number One Music" format.  In a September 2006 email Tom sent to me, he states he has been on the air for 48 years and is currently at KRGO in Fargo doing a morning news/talk show.  He recently celebrated 25 years at KFGO.  You can see another photo of Tom Wyn and his on air partner by clicking the following web address: http://www.kfgo.com/pages/tomanddankfgo.html

Scroll down further to get to WDGY & KDWB

WDGY-AM 1130 Minneapolis

Some good stuff here.

KDWB-AM 630 St. Paul (Woodbury)

More good Stuff.  Enjoy.