"There are some people that you meet in your life that you always have good memories of, and Arnie is way up there at the top for me." (Mel Phillips)

Who was the world's FIRST disk jockey the man who spun the first record on the air, physicist and inventor Reginald Fessenden, apparently had a home near where Arnie grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. When he died in 1932, Arnie was a "little kid," (his words) somehow Arnie got hold of some of his equipment.  It fascinated Arnie, and inspired him to get into radio engineering.  He began that engineering at WORL/950, where once in a while he sat in with the host of a prime time show. And eventually, into DJ work.

Now.... remember that theme song he use at WMEX...with that obvious edit near the end? The missing words are "at 1600 on your radio," and that original WBOS version is in Arnie's possession as a 45 rpm record on the Velvet Voice label Arnie's own the name chosen in ironic allusion to his self-described "aching adenoids" voice.

Arnie was in fact a Radio Engineer, first in 1956 at WORL/950 where occasionally he would join a show's host for live on-air banter. The same occurred at his next stop, WBOS/1600, where he developed his own on-air Top 40 show, which prepared him for his move to Boston's Top 40 powerhouse (before WRKO), WMEX/1510. He refused a salary from station owner Max Richmond, instead wheeling and dealing for a 25% cut of all commercial revenue Arnie would generate for his show... and that, claimed Arnie, made him "the highest-paid jock on the station."

Arnie seemed to be on the air 7 nights a week... and in fact he was, except for the fact that he would record one of his weekly night shows for playback on Saturday night... and record a new show for Sunday during the week! In those days, that was considered to be highly unusual. In fact, what Arnie did became popular only in the 1980s, when Radio network shows would often follow suit!

While Radio Hall-Of-Famer Arnie Ginsburg is best-known from his colorful (as in Color Radio) days at the old 1510/WMEX in Boston, he also spent some time at WRKO. When WRKO was on the drawing board, management anted to build the station around a local radio legend, so Arnie was a natural choice.

"Woo-Woo" Ginsburg, hired for a reported $47,000 per year, was on the air for less than a month, when his former boss, WMEX owner Max Richmond slapped a court injunction, enforcing a no-compete charge, and Arnie left the "live" airwaves for good. But Arnie got to stay in the business, by staying with WRKO, as they segued him into sales, where he performed magnificently. In fact, he claims to have personally sold all of the advertising minutes for WRKO-FM.

To my knowledge, the one aircheck currently circulating may have been fabricated, so I haven't posted it. Arnie isn't even sure he has a WRKO aircheck in his possession. But the radio legend has been caught on tape doing various commercials, which are found in some early WRKO airchecks, where supposedly is the REAL aircheck of him at WRKO known to be in existence!

Arnie "Woo-Woo" (that nickname came from his most-famous sound effect, the train whistle, which he used on his WMEX shows) Ginsburg began his DJ days in 1956 at the old WBOS-AM/Brookline. Around 1956, Arnie teamed up with the local Boston group, "The Three Dees", and composed the famous Arnie Ginsburg theme song, heard wherever station he went to, including WBOS, WMEX, WRKO, WROR, and WXKS. According to Arnie, the song was actually recorded using just one microphone, at WBOS! Arnie is the star on Cruisin' 61, a series, a series of CDs on which nationally-famous disk jockeys re-created heir shows, complete with jingles.