R.I.P.: Milwaukee Broadcaster Chuck Arnold Was 77

He was a disc jockey for almost two decades at WISN radio, master of ceremonies on the old "It's a Draw" TV show with Sid Stone and the cheerful voice of afternoon drive time. But it was Chuck Arnold's one-time stint filling in for Dick Clark on "American Bandstand" in 1959 that captured Milwaukee's teenage heart.

According to jsonline.com, Arnold died Wednesday at his Glendale home of complications of progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder that affects balance and movement. 

He was 77.

He was chosen to fill in for Clark, who was filming a movie, because he was considered "the hipster at the station - the guy who had the personality most similar to that of Dick Clark," Arnold's wife explained.

Arnold was born Chuck Arnold Manger in Racine but grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he began working as a disc jockey at age 16, on nights and weekends, at radio station WKMI. After graduating from high school in 1953, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., to work as an announcer at a dog track. He next took a job at a radio station in Pittsfield, Ill. "It was so small we had to visit a drive-in across the street to use the bathroom," Arnold said in a 1973 interview.

He worked briefly at WIRL in Peoria before he followed his boss, Jim Butler, to WISN radio in July 1958. Butler suggested that Arnold change his name to something that was easier to pronounce.

In 1968, Arnold went to radio station WHBC in Canton, Ohio. He returned to WISN in 1970 and served as program director at WISN-FM.

He left WISN in 1976 and worked for about 18 months at WTMJ-AM (620), leaving in 1978. Then he did voice work for Sentry Foods, Stein Garden Centers and other clients.

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