|
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK |
|
- Edition #950 - August 13, 2017 - |
Talent: WINK
MARTINDALE interviews ELVIS PRESLEY
Station: WHBQ
Memphis
Date:
August, 1956
Time: 37:00 (unscoped)
Wink Martindale and Elvis, 1956
One of this aircheck's subjects went on to become a game-show TV star. The other? Well, he had a singing career of note.
It was 1950 when Wink Martindale got his first radio gig - as a disc jockey at age 17 in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. He made $25 a week at WPLI. After jocking at a couple of other Jackson stations, he moved to WHBQ Memphis where he's heard below playing interview tapes with the then-rising star Elvis Presley in August 1956. Martindale moved to Los Angeles in 1959 to work at KHJ (pre-Drake), followed by gigs at a string of other Los Angeles stations: KRLA, KFWB, KGIL, KKGO/KJQI, KMPC, KABC and KJQI. His radio career was overshadowed by his other gig - as a TV show host, on popular shows like Gambit, Tic-Tac-Dough, Bumper Stumpers and High Rollers.
Martindale also had a hit record - the spoken-word "Deck of Cards." It went to #7 in 1959.
As for the other guy, Elvis sold over a billion records - not bad for a guy who never received formal music training and could not read music.
Hear
Wink Martindale with
Elvis Presley on
WHBQ from August, 1956
here.
Hear
Wink Martindale with
Elvis Presley on
WHBQ from August, 1956
here.
(The Charlie Ritenburg Collection)
|
|
|
We're previewing the Aircheck of the Week on Facebook. Every Friday, we post the audio link to the Aircheck of the Week on Facebook with the full feature to follow on Sunday as usual. |
RETURN TO ROCK RADIO SCRAPBOOK
