When Radio
Was Live
and Local.
There was a time when every American city had its own sound. A station that knew its streets, its teams, its people. That world is largely gone. These recordings are what remains.
Aircheck Radio is a nonprofit radio station that streams historical American radio airchecks continuously, 24 hours a day — the actual off-air recordings that captured real broadcasts from the 1960s through the 1990s before that era of live, local radio disappeared. We stream them unedited, unscoped, and free to anyone who tunes in.
Our library holds more than 3,500 recordings from stations across the country — from the biggest names on the biggest stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, to a first-year DJ at a 1,000-watt daytimer in a small market, just getting his feet wet in the business. Both are part of the story. Both are in the rotation right now.
Live. Local.
Manned Around
the Clock.
Before consolidation, before satellite feeds, before automation — every radio station was staffed around the clock by real people in a real room in a real city. The morning drive DJ knew which highway was backed up. The late night man knew which record requests were coming from the all-night diner on Route 9. The station sounded like the city it was in because it was the city it was in.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed that. The major station groups moved in. Local staff were replaced by voice tracking and satellite feeds. Stations that once employed a hundred people went dark at 5pm Friday with the transmitter still running. The transmitters kept running. But nobody was home.
What you hear on Aircheck Radio is what was there before. Every format. Every market. The biggest stations in the country and the 1,000-watt daytimer in a town nobody's heard of. Both are in the rotation. Both matter.
A recording made off-the-air from a radio receiver onto tape while the broadcast was happening. Not a studio production. Not a master. The actual signal — exactly as it went out over the city that day.
The stations themselves rarely kept recordings of their own programming. The networks didn't archive it. What survived was preserved by private collectors — enthusiasts who traded reel-to-reel tapes through a network that predated the internet, understanding that something irreplaceable was going to disappear if nobody saved it.
Aircheck Radio streams those recordings unscoped and unedited — music, commercials, jingles, news breaks, and all. The static and tape dropout are part of the record. A 1974 San Francisco morning show should sound like a 1974 San Francisco morning show.
The original commercials are not a problem to be edited out. A 1967 Chevrolet spot on a Detroit Top 40 station is a specific human moment that exists nowhere else. We preserve it.
Every Market.
Every Format.
Every Level.
Aircheck Radio is not a hall of fame. It is a complete record. The rotation includes the biggest names in American radio history right alongside a first-year DJ at a small-market station who was just finding his voice. That range is not accidental — it is the point.
Top 40. Country. R&B. Adult Contemporary. News. Talk. Oldies. Every format that shaped American radio culture is in the library. So is the full arc of a DJ career — from the rookie shift to the afternoon drive at a major market. Radio was not just the legends. Radio was everyone who ever stood at a microphone in a city that was listening.
Kept Alive
by the People
Who Loved It.
The stations didn't keep recordings of their own broadcasts. The networks didn't archive them. What survived did so because private collectors understood the value of what was disappearing and kept it — in shoeboxes, on reel-to-reel tapes, in hard drives — trading recordings through a network that predated the internet and ran on mutual respect and shared love of the medium.
Aircheck Radio was built by the same community. Our team are retired and semi-retired broadcasting professionals — people who spent their working lives inside the stations you hear on the stream. When a recording from a 1971 afternoon drive shows up in rotation, it may well have been made by someone on our team.
You Keep
This On
the Air.
To everyone who has supported Aircheck Radio — thank you. From all of us. Every contribution goes directly to keeping the stream running, the archive growing, and this history accessible to everyone — free, with no advertising, and no paywall.
We carry no advertising. We have no paid staff. The entire operation runs on listener generosity and on Microsoft and Google nonprofit grants that help cover some technology costs. We do this because we believe this sound belongs to everyone — not just the people old enough to remember it.
If you have been listening and want to support us, we would be genuinely grateful. Any amount makes a real difference for an organization our size. Your donation is fully tax-deductible under IRC Section 170.
| Legal Name | Aircheck Radio |
| IRS Status | 501(c)(3) Public Charity |
| EIN | 99-2245030 |
| Deductibility | Yes — IRC Sec. 170 |
| Classification | 509(a)(2) Public Charity |
| Location | Preston, Washington |
| Paid Staff | Zero — 100% Volunteer |
Verify our 501(c)(3) status at the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search: apps.irs.gov — search Aircheck Radio or EIN 99-2245030.
Have an
Aircheck?
Share It.
If you have an unscoped aircheck — a real off-air recording with music, DJ patter, commercials, and all original broadcast content intact — we want it in the rotation. Our collection grows through the generosity of collectors, former broadcasters, and radio enthusiasts who have been holding onto these recordings for decades.
Every donated aircheck goes into the live rotation and becomes part of the permanent archive — freely accessible to listeners around the world. We give full credit to the contributor and source collection when known.
- Unscoped MP3 files — full broadcast, unedited, music included
- Era: 1960s through 1990s — all markets, all formats
- Major markets to small-market daytimers — all welcome
- Include what you know: station, year, DJ name, city — partial info is fine
- Every submission reviewed — every contributor receives a personal response
Deserve to Be Heard
You have been the caretaker of something irreplaceable. Aircheck Radio is the place where it goes back on the air.
Upload Now →Required: Unscoped · Full broadcast unedited
Physical media: Ship to
Aircheck Radio
30405 SE 84th St, Unit 374
Preston, WA 98050
FedEx · UPS · USPS accepted