This Site Primarily Contains a Collection of Airchecks of Numerous Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Radio Stations, Some Recorded Off The Air by Rick Burnett and Many Others Recorded or Provided by Other Contributors to This Site (see footnote at bottom). The Contribution of Recordings and Materials are Greatly Appreciated and Have Made this Site a Bookmark for Those Interested in Radio From this Era. Explore the many recordings on this site by using the menu at the left side of the screen. Should you have material to contribute, Please Email: Rick1031(at)HotMail.com Note: Substitute @ for the "(at)" when typing email address
Tuning Up And Down The Dial - October 7th, 1987
We will take control of your radio tuner when you click on the recording link at the right. The date was based on research of the news stories on the tape and was determined with the help of a web site viewer. There are some un-named announcers/DJ's on this tape. Let me know if you recognize them: Rick1031@hotmail.com
Tape provided by Dick Sigurdson. Dick volunteers at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting and keeps the transmitter going at Fox 9 TV in Minneapolis
This recording was submitted by Alan Kabel and was recorded just before Minnesota Public Radio purchased WLOL. It was owned by Emmis at the time of this recording.
Contributed by Alan Kabel. (10-1-07)
This is very rare early WCCO-FM material. DJ Dave Teller and the newscaster on this tape, Bill Henderson, may have been here prior to the likes of Tom Ambrose, Dick Driscoll, and Rick Olsen (Rick Olsen was my first instructor at Brown Institute of Broadcasting). Dave Teller has a laid back style that is easy to listen to and he surprises us near the end of the tape with his impersonation of Ed Sullivan. Teller plays a mix of music on this day.
When WCCO-FM was first on the air, it broadcasted minimal hours of programming. I am not sure it was full time yet in 1974. This tape was recorded in Bloomington in an apartment building I was living that had occasional electric interference. If I have the story wrong, please email me a correction at : Rick1031@hotmail.com
This interference wreaked havoc on my recording of AM stations and was strong enough to even affect my FM reception. There are a couple of places on this recording you will hear the interference briefly.
More classic True Don Bleu with his "Hi Twin Cities, How're You". This long clip has the music edited out, but many of the commercials are left in. You will recall some of the products which are no longer sold or stores no longer in business.
Smokin' Joe Hager did evenings at KSTP working until Midnight. This clip starts at 11:03 PM and covers about 15 minutes of air time with music edited out.
(From the Rick Burnett Collection)
Adam North KDWB-AM 630
Recorded off the air on November 10, 1970. This is the home of the 20/20 Triple Play (take that WDGY - who cares about 20/20 news?) You will hear the promo on the Super Gold Contest, where one could win a brand new AMC Gremlin.
Tom Wynn at his current job at KFGO in Fargo ND. Tom has been in radio for 48 years and was at WDGY in the early 60's. Tom was a grad of Richard Brown's American Istitute of the Air, a predecessor to Brown Institute. He now does a morning news/talk show in Fargo.
J.D. Ball followed Tom Wynn on WLOL-AM during its short-lived "Number One Music" format. Tape courtesy of Randy Randall.
(From Collector Randay Randall, Rochester MN.)
Jeff Lonto has written several books on Twin Cities Radio and in particular on Grainbelt beer. I have put these commercials from 1966 and 1971 on the site, because they ran on radio and bring back some fond memories. You can see more information on Jeff's books at his site www.Studioz7.com
Thanks for the contribution Jeff. Contributed by author Jeff Lonto. (10-1-07)
Pirate radio's Randy Randall moved on to work in real radio and one of the several commercial stations he was at was 93X KLXK-FM when this recording was made. Randy went from Al Arneson's unlicensed FM station , to Brown Institute and later to KTCR-FM. He also worked at WWTC. This is a short clip that was submitted by Randy Randall on 9-26-06. It is undated but it was recorded approximately April 1992. You will hear Randy share his wealth of knowledge on classic rock artists he plays and you will here him promote the Riverfest Concert. Thanks to Randy for submitting this and other airchecks.
Randy Randall in September 2006 at his jewlery store in Rochester. Hight and Randall is located at 10 Historic 3rd Street SW in Downtown Rochester.
Alan Freed Friday June 5th, 1981 (Sound File to Far Right)
Minneapolis Public Schools Non-Commercial Radio Station KBEM-FM 88.5 MHZ
NOTE: This is not a recent addition, but an update and an additional link to a tape of Freed's unlicensed station. This tape was recorded off the air on June 6th, 2006 on my TEAC 1230 reel to reel on a 3 hour tape. I liked dance music back then. I retrieved this tape I recorded that was in a box I had in deep dark storage. The clip here is scoped. Alan is doing Dance Night Friday night early Saturday morning and is in the middle of the top 20 dance hits count-down. He is partnered with Tracy Crowson. You will hear Alan do the news and banter with Tracie between records. About 22 minutes into the clip you will hear a silent pause. It lasted over a minute and I edited out most of it. Alan then comes back on to tell us they were having technical difficulties.
This is the same Freed that had a pirate station in Minneapolis in the 90's and currently works at XM Radio. The pirate station was shut down by the FCC in 1996 after a complaint was filed by a commercial station. To see a news story on this, click on the following address: http://www.beatworld.com/press/newcity.html I also found the following text on a site reporting on Freed's unlicensed dance radio station:
".....micro station called Beat Radio in Minneapolis. Alan Freed, who has been a DJ at three Minneapolis radio stations as well as at Power 99 in Philadelphia, went on the air on July 21, 1996 to air a variety of dance sounds that local stations refused to play. With much of the station's air time handled by local club DJs, Beat Radio soon drew a large and devoted following. It also drew the attention of the FCC, which sent Freed a letter threatening him with prison time. The Minnesota Broadcasters Association filed a complaint about Beat Radio with the FCC, as did several Minneapolis commercial stations. Beat Radio began to suffer high-power interference from another transmitter, which Freed believes could only have been done by licensed stations intent on putting him out of business. Then, at 4:35 PM on November 1, the FCC, accompanied by U.S. Marshals, entered the premises of Beat Radio and seized the station's equipment."
Also, you can hear a tape of Alan's unlicensed radio station "Beat Radio" at RadioTapes.com Click on the highlighted Radio Tapes text to go to the page that has this and other tapes of unlicensed Twin Cities stations. The Radio Tapes also has a great collection of other Twin Cities radio stations and is worth an extended visit. Check out www.BeatWorld.com
Alan recently emailed me with some additional information about the above aircheck and station, which included the correct date, and the correct spelling of the co-host and the following additional info:
Dance Night flight: was on from April 1980 to June 1981. It launched as a Saturday night show and expanded to three nights, Fri/Sat/Sun (Friday nights 10p-6a, Saturday nights 11p-6a, Sunday nights midnight-5a).
A companion weekly or biweekly one-sheet publication, "DanceBeat," was distributed to area record stores and clubs, too. It contained the latest Twin Cities dance music chart, compiled from club DJs, and relevant dance music news and show promotion.
KMGK 108 FM Jason Williams January 16-1984 KSTP-FM Jim Brunett January 3, 1981 WCCO-FM Pat O'Neill Early 980
I received this in the mail from Phillip Wagner. Phil writes in an email (which explanins the short times on the clip):
"I recorded LPs onto tape in the early 80's so I could listen in the car. So that I didn't have dead space on the tapes, I connected to the FM radio and filled in the rest of the tapes with usually top 40 music. That is where I got the airchecks."
Check out the WCCO aircheck. At the beginning, you will here the famous "That's Easy to Remember" KDWB tag when mentioning 103 FM. The "63" part is edited out but it sound like the same voice. Go to the KDWB Page on this site for the "63" story as told by Chuck Blore. CLICK HERE
Also note the IBM commercial for its new PC computer "now under $13,500." Looks like computers have come a long way since the IBM 5120 was introduced in early 1980.
Thanks for sending this Phillip. Contributed by Phillip Wagner of Minneapolis (posted 11-22-07)
Newspare TV-Radio Schedule Septermber 9th, 1973. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
TV-Radio Schedule
September 9th, 1973
Contributed by Mike Cunningham, former KTRC-FM Operations Manager in the 1970's. See his other contributions on the Cunningham contributions Page on this site.
Twin Cities Soul Radio Station, KUXL. July 1st, 1972 Music Survey. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
KUXL Golden Valley
1972 Music Survey
Contributed by Mike Cunningham, former KTCR-FM Operations Manager and former KUXL DJ-Talk Show Host. Se his other contribuiotns at the Cunningham Contributions Page on this site.
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
