State Champ Radio Music News
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When Post Malone released F-1 Trillion last year, he conquered yet another genre with the country collab album. And it looks like he’s going back to that well on his next project. On the new Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are joined by Billboard deputy editor Lyndsey Havens to discuss Post’s Sunday headlining set […]
Wink Martindale, who had success as a DJ, radio personality, game show host and TV producer, died in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday (April 15). He was 91.
Martindale was best-known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988 and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
He also had a short-lived career as a recording artist. His spoken-word hit “Deck of Cards” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song had been a No. 2 hit for “T” Texas Tyler in 1948 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Retail Folk Records chart, a forerunner to Hot Country Songs.
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Martindale landed just one other Hot 100 hit, “Black Land Farmer,” which reached No. 85 in 1961.
The future broadcaster was born Winston Conrad Martindale in Jackson, Tennessee. He began his career as a DJ 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 attending college at Memphis State University.
In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He was a regular presence on Los Angeles radio into the 1990s. He had lengthy stays at KGIL (AM) from 1968 to 1971, KKGO-FM/KJQI and Gene Autry‘s KMPC (now KSPN-AM) from 1971 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1987, a brief stint on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993 to 1994.
Martindale’s first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a children’s series. While at that station, Martindale became the host of the TV show Teenage Dance Party, where Elvis Presley (who would become a friend) made an appearance in June 1956.
Martindale’s first game-show hosting job was What’s This Song?, which he hosted for NBC (credited as “Win Martindale”) in 1964-65. In 1970-71, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, Words and Music, again on NBC.
While Martindale’s greatest claim to fame is as a game-show host, he periodically returned to music programming. Martin filled in as guest host for Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in October 1975.
In the 2000s, Martindale had a daily three-hour show on the syndicated Music of Your Life format. In 2012, Martindale hosted the nationally-syndicated The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.
On June 6, 2021, Martindale began hosting the syndicated The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a two-hour weekend review of music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The production was created by Martindale, producer/engineer Peter Jay Gould of The Intervale Group, and writer/producer Gary Theroux.
Martindale was one of the hosts featured in the 2002 NBC special Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, alongside four other game show mainstays – Bob Eubanks, Jim Lange, Ben Stein, and Peter Marshall.
Martindale’s last program was the GSN original series Instant Recall, which premiered on March 4, 2010.
On June 2, 2006, Martindale received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – site of the first Academy Awards ceremony. On Oct. 13, 2007, Martindale was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Martindale married Madelyn Leech in 1954, with whom he had four children; the couple divorced in 1972. He married his second wife, Sandy (née Ferra), on Aug. 2, 1975.
Forest Hills Stadium in Queens says its 2025 season is officially on despite a long-running noise dispute with its neighbors. “As anticipated, we’re pleased to announce that the City of New York has given Forest Hills Stadium the green light for our 2025 concert season to proceed as planned,” reads a statement from a stadium […]
If a Mount Rushmore-like attraction commemorating white rappers is ever built, Machine Gun Kelly thinks his face should definitely be carved into the rock — despite what a recent viral mockup of the concept dictates.
Days after a seemingly AI-generated image of a fake “White Rapper Mt. Rushmore” started going viral on social media, the “My Ex’s Best Friend” musician spoke out against his omission from the choice of hip-hop stars featured in the picture. In place of the real-life monument’s lineup of past United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, the faux Caucasian-rapper iteration showed stone-like renderings of Eminem, Mac Miller, Paul Wall and Russ.
“me not on the white rapper mt rushmore is blasphemy,” MGK wrote on X.
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In evidence of why he should have been included, the rapper-turned-punk-rocker also reposted a video of him freestyling in his home city of Cleveland while guesting on Gillie Da Kid and Wallo267’s YouTube series MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME in August. “I made 10 mil with someone, and we ain’t talking now/ F— the money, I just want the loyalty we talked about,” he spits in the clip as his posse cheers him on. “It’s no other side, it is only us/ I get cross-eyed watching y’all switch up.”
Though he’s earned a reputation for trying out different genres in recent years, MGK got his start in rap. His sophomore album, General Admission released via Bad Boy Records, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Since 2020’s Travis Barker-produced Tickets to My Downfall, however, the musician has been more focused on flexing his pop-punk and rock capabilities — most recently doing so on last month’s single “Your Name Forever.” Collaborating with Jelly Roll in 2024 on both “Lonely Road” and “Time of Day” after covering The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble” for Spotify Singles in July, he’s also been dipping into the country space.
But his music isn’t the only thing that’s experienced change lately. In March, MGK also welcomed a baby girl with ex Megan Fox, making him a father of two. He also has a teenage daughter named Casie from a past relationship.
“She’s finally here!! our little celestial seed,” the artist wrote on Instagram last month to announce the birth.
Wale recently took to X and opened up about how he once dealt with writer’s block, revealing that a fellow rapper once suggested meditation. “Music friends, how do y’all cure writers block,” he asked. “Over the years I’ve had different methods. Curious what y’all do.” Fans responded with a ton of suggestions that ranged from […]
04/15/2025
Whether it was Cardi B spraying Whipshots into the crowd or LISA shutting things down just by showing up, these were our favorite moments in the desert.
04/15/2025
Toby Gad, a German-born musician who made a name for himself in America as a hit songwriter, recently celebrated the deluxe edition of Piano Diaries – The Hits, a collection of his biggest songs (including two co-writes that topped the Billboard Hot 100, Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and John Legend’s “All of Me”) reimagined as collaborations with 17 fresh artists. The collection afforded the songwriter-producer the opportunity to look back on a career that has found him wearing many different hats; lately, he’s been donning a reporter’s cap, interviewing musicians about their careers, work habits and inspirations on his new podcast, Songs You Know with Toby Gad.
The podcast’s latest episode, which posted on Tuesday (April 15), finds Gad chatting with producer Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman about everything from growing up in Moldova to learning English through hip-hop to working with Hozier.
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Gitelman served as a producer on the Irish singer-songwriter’s 2023 album Unreal Unearth and its follow-up, the 2024 EP Unheard. Both projects were inspired by Dante’s 14th century classic Inferno, but Gitelman says he and Hozier initially bonded over a different part of the literary canon.
Meeting up during quarantine to work on new music in rural Ireland, Gitelman says he and Hozier spent “the first day or two just talking about James Joyce” (Gitelman says he’s a fan of Joyce’s Dubliners in particular). For the producer, those discussions were key to finding a trust that helped them as they worked on songs that bridged the gap between Irish folk and soul music (styles that Van Morrison, another artist the two discussed in detail prior to recording together, was especially adept at combining). “A lot of times it’s like, Andrew [Hozier], I don’t know what it is you’re saying in Gaelic, but let’s do,” Gitelman recalled.
The two also went deep on Gitelman’s time working with Mac Miller on Swimming, the final album released during the late rapper’s lifetime, as well as hitting the top 10 on three Billboard producer charts in the same week (Hot 100 Producers, R&B Producers and Country Producers) in November 2023 for his work on Jelly Roll & Jessie Murph’s “Wild Ones” and Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama.”
“It’s a cool statistic, I like numbers,” Gitelman says of the Billboard chart coup. “Coming up from an artistic, musical world, it’s nice. I’ve been shouting from the rooftops, like, ‘Hey I’m pretty good…’ To have the numbers do all the talking is really nice. I don’t think music is a competition… but man, the numbers sometimes give you the freedom to make the art you want to make.”
Check out the new episode of Songs You Know with Toby Gad below.
SoCal’s high holiday of music festivals, Coachella, returned to Indio, California, this past weekend, April 10-13. As always, the event offered far more music than one person can possibly consume, with some of the biggest music stars in the world turning up and turning out across the festival’s many stages. As an acutely hot Friday […]
Olivia Wilde has chimed in on the controversial all-female space expedition helmed by Jeff Bezos‘ space exploration company Blue Origin. The Don’t Worry Darling actress took to her Instagram Stories on Monday (April 14), shortly after the NS-31 rocket completed its 11-minute journey. She shared a meme featuring two photos of passenger Katy Perry exiting […]
Coi Leray has announced the sex of her baby with Trippie Redd, sharing the exciting news on Instagram. Sporting a cute pink outfit on Tuesday (April 15) that perfectly showcased her baby bump, Coi Leray announced to the world that she is having a girl with her ex-boyfriend Trippie Redd. “GIRL MOM,” Coi wrote in […]
