Wink Martindale Online with Hit Parade

By Ron Laughton

“Radio is in my blood”, says radio and TV personality Wink Martindale, who has enjoyed an incredible 58 year run of hosting radio shows. In television, he has hosted 19 TV games shows.

Now, Martindale goes online.

On Oct. 1, the veteran begins co-hosting Hit Parade Radio, a syndicated online and radio program from Earthworks Entertainment. The Oldies program will play classics from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s and incorporate sound bites from Martindale’s archived interviews with the performers.

“In the 1950s, the radio announcer did everything, such as reading the news, playing the music, and sweeping the floors,” Martindale says, recalling the many changes that he has seen in the business. Starting in 1951, he used two turntables at 78 rpm (revolutions per minute) with a 33 1/3 rpm switch for playing commercials. By the late ’50s, Martindale upgraded to tape machines. Tapes from the catalogue would be queued up to play, and Wink would “take it back just enough so it did not wow in.” Making a great show back then required attention to a lot of details.

“Today, it is so much easier,” he said of the digital home studio that he now uses. In this setup, Martindale finds his favorite interviews and songs, then renders MP3’s to email to producers. “With less extracurricular things, I can think more about what I want to say, which makes for a better show.”

“I have never stopped keeping up with the times,” said Martindale of using new technology. Interestingly, the radio vet starred in a 1967 presentation that predicted Internet shopping, banking, email, and homework from a personal computer. The video is titled “1999 A.D.” and can be seen on Daily Motion at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xppx9_1999-ad-1-wink-martindale_life.

With all the years of change, Wink did share one thing that has stayed the same. “My yardstick is that the show must be interesting to me. If it is something I enjoy, then it might be interesting to others.”

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