Art Vuolo tells us the news came down on Friday from longtime friend John Garabedian, that Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsburg passed away at the age of 93. He died at the home of his life partner Carlos Alberto Vega in the Boston suburb of Framingham.
From Art Vuolo: Arnie fell in love with radio at a very early age, and began as a talented broadcast engineer at both WBOS and WBCN. His most memorable runs as one of New England’s most iconic radio personalties was at 68/WRKO and 1510/WMEX. Later in his career he was EVP of Pyramid Broadcasting, which owned WXKS (Kiss 108 FM). Through the 1960’s and 70’s his evening show was called “The Night Train” and his steam engine style whistle tagged him with the “woo woo” moniker. A plethora of sound effects and noise-makers were a staple of his on-air presentation. He introduced nearly every major rock and pop star of the golden era of top 40 radio! In the 1980’s he became involved with an MTV-style UHF TV station, with John Garabedian, known as V66. In recent years Arnie enjoyed life in Ogunquit, Maine, a resort town on the southern coast of The Pine Tree State. He would have turned 94 on August 5, 2020. Radio in Boston will continue to broadcast, but it will be a bit less entertaining.
Art archived the WRKO Reunion three years ago which featured all five original DJ’s, they were: Arnie, Al Gates, Joel Cash, J J Jeffrey and Chuck Knapp. He also produced a fitting 6 1/2 minute video tribute to “Woo Woo” which you can see HERE.
Photo credit John Garabedian in 1969
Arnie was a favorite at Berwick Academy in the early ’60s. His crackling voice, Adventure Car Hop and that woo woo was appealing to us as was the 1510 Color Radio Boston and Arnie made it Tops in Town.
Arnie’s reputation was made on WMEX, where he spent around 10 years as Boston’s #1 night time radio personality. He was only on WRKO for a very short amount of time, when WMEX enforced their non-compete clause. He then went into sales at WRKO, and much later appeared on various Boston stations doing revival shows. But the long run on WMEX is where most people remember him.