Weekend...

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You may have heard about "snow" chances to our south tonight. Watch and learn today on News Channel 3. Jasper on Tiger, two singers, Trivia, Wink's Birthday.

Here's what we're watching.

If you missed it yesterday, Markova had a great story about a "Rapping Dentist" in her Thursday Bright Spot. You can watch it on our Daybreak Video links page.




Tiger Woods? This pro-golfer has close ties to the situation, and he ain't happy.

Guess who is "freaking out" about her Grammy Nominations? It's already been a big year, maybe to get even bigger.

Remember this singer? I thought she was a "flash in the pan" but boy am I wrong. Setting records, on the other side of the pond.



In Daybreak Trivia: We're talking about the roots of a popular fast food chain and Mid-Southerners should know about the "Million Dollar Quartet."

Want to give a listen? There's a show at the Apollo theatre.



A familiar name in the Mid-South is celebrating a Birthday, Wink Martindale is 76 today. Talk about an entertainer who has done it all. TV show host, singer, performer. Just amazing.

Just last month he was awarded the "Tigret Award" for his charitable contributions: Read here from his web site:
Welcome To Wink's WorldNovember 13, 2009
Chances are, there will be a standing ovation as legendary television personality Wink Martindale walks up to receive the Tigrett Award on Saturday at the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation Gala's "A Taste of New York." Martindale has come a long way from making $25 a week as a 17-year-old radio announcer for WPLI radio in Jackson to hosting TV shows such as "Gambit," "Tic Tac Dough" and "High Rollers" to receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.But longtime friend Bob Arrington, founder and president of Arrington Funeral Group, said what Jackson folks most remember is this: "Wink has never forgotten his roots. It's one reason he was so dedicated and worked so hard for the Wink Martindale Cerebral Palsy Telethon in Jackson," Arrington said.

Martindale, whose long entertainment career has taken him around the world, said simply in a telephone interview, "There's no place like home."For the Tigrett Award presentation, he said his wife, Sandy, and two of their three daughters will be present. "They arranged their schedules and lives to do this, and it makes it even more special that they want to be there," he said.Jimmy Exum, executive vice president at Murray Guard, has known Martindale all his life.Exum said what makes Martindale exceptional is that he's achieved local and national recognition, "which is important for the award.

He's always been a big promoter of Jackson when he was on television, and he never lost touch with family. Plus he's a good character, a good representative. He loves to sit down and talk and makes you feel very comfortable."Frank McMeen, president of West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation, said, "I am delighted that our gala committee selected a hometown boy for this year's Tigrett Award winner. Wink loves his hometown, and Jackson loves him. It is indeed an honor to recognize one of our own.""A Taste of New York" will be held at the Carl Perkins Civic Center. Jackson Award winners also will be honored: arts, Kakky Tanner; community service, Brenda Whalley; volunteer service, Doris "Cousin Tuny" Freeman; education, Nancy Zambito; health care, Jim Moss; and leadership, Jimmy Exum.This year's gala will benefit the children served by Ayers Children's Medical Center, which includes the Kiwanis Center for Child Development and the Therapy and Learning Center, Healthy Start and all neonatal and pediatric services of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.

So, as many gala attendees will come to see Martindale, it's appropriate the funds raised will go toward children's medical care, a primary reason for Martindale's years of philanthropy.
Martindale recalled that Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again, but when Martindale left Jackson in 1952 for Memphis, he'd drive "that old two-lane road back to Jackson because I was homesick."When I was coming back to Jackson to host the CP Telethon, those were some of my happiest years," Martindale said. "The first year when I came home, I got hooked when I saw those kids battling CP."

Today, the Cerebral Palsy Center is named the Therapy and Learning Center.Arrington said when Martindale began running the telethon, it raised about $40,000. The last year it raised $400,000. "He helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and bring entertainers and celebrities to Jackson who we would otherwise never have seen. He's amazingly respected in the industry in Los Angeles, and they were strictly doing it for Wink."Martindale credited his parents for his determination to help."But so many people were so helpful making those telethons," he added, listing both Arrington and Exum, among many names - including Freeman, who also has been devoted to the the children she calls "her special children."Freeman said, "You know, a true performer never lets the spotlight blind him.

Wink Martindale is a true performing star. He has a heart of gold. He is a very special Tuny Cuz, and I love him. He's a real blessing to this world."Exum recalled one night on stage near the telethon's end when they hadn't reached the goal. "I remember Wink telling me - and this was not in our script - he wants to just go out to center stage and make a personal plea to the people of Jackson. So he did. And there was not a dry eye in the building when he finished, and we made the budget."Arrington said Martindale is at work on projects, "more behind the camera instead of in front of it, creating game shows and doing some commercials. He's too good a talent not to."Martindale said he's got five shows in the works. Among those is "TAKE THIS JOB AND ... LOVE IT!" which has been pitched to Mark Burnett Co.

The other is "Numbers Up," a roulette concept optioned by a production company."My office is in my home, and I'm my own boss." Martindale said. "What I enjoy doing is developing new shows."As he discussed his new TV show concept about jobs, he mused that of all the career avenues he's had in radio, TV and music, perhaps if he had known where sportscasting was going, back in his early years he might have headed in that direction. "My first two years in radio, I called plays at Rothrock Stadium," he recalled.

Martindale loves coming home, with one caveat: "I can get lost in Jackson now," he said. "I'm thankful for GPS because Jackson has grown so much."He figures he'll have five or six minutes for his acceptance remarks. He's thought about all the people who mentored him, and he'll describe the early days, "when there was Hicksville, the West Tennessee Fair, Kisber's, Joe's Pool Room, Diffee's Drug Store, Baker's Drug Store, Woolworth and Kress. I remember the old Hut at Hicksville and the pig sandwiches. If I had a nickel for every cup of coffee I drank there, I'd be rich."When the Dairy Queen came to Hicksville, it was a big deal. "People were standing in line around the block just to get in," he said.

Martindale, a Jackson High School graduate, once worked as a soda jerk at the old Baker's Drug Store and still drops by when he's in town.It's Martindale's hometown friendliness that impressed Steve Beverly from the start about 10 years ago, a little after Beverly started doing TVgameshows.net, his former Web site."That's when we connected," Beverly said. "When he wrote his book, 'Winking at Life,' we struck up a relationship then. He thought I treated his genre with respect that a lot of people didn't who've been in media before, and we just had a natural relationship because of that."Beverly added, "The only other thing than the Tigrett Award we need to do for Wink is that it's past time that we have a sign at one of our city limits that says, "Home of Wink Martindale, TV Legend."