Wink Martindale
| Wink Martindale | |
|---|---|
Martindale in March 2010
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| Born |
Winston Conrad Martindale December 4, 1933 Jackson, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation | Disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, television producer |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Madelyn Leech (m. 1954; div. 1971) Sandy Ferra (m. 1975) |
| Children | 4 |
Winston Conrad "Wink" Martindale (born December 4, 1933) is an American disc jockey, radio personality, game show host, and television producer. In his six-decade career, he is best known for hosting Tic Tac Dough from 1978 to 1985, Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
Martindale was born in Jackson, Tennessee, and started his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in Jackson, earning $25 a week.
After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson's only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while a college student at Memphis State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1957. While there, Martindale became a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
Martindale's rendition of the spoken-word song "Deck of Cards" went to no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold over a million copies in 1959. It also peaked at no. 5 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1963, one of four visits to that chart. It was followed by "Black Land Farmer". In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, California, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He also had lengthy stays at KGIL from 1968-1971, KKGO/KJQI and Gene Autry's KMPC from 1971-1979 and again from 1983-1987, the short-lived "Wink and Bill Show" on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993-1994. In 1967, Martindale acted in a short futuristic documentary film about home life in the year 1999 produced by the Philco-Ford Corporation which predicted, among other things, Internet commerce.
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