In the 1980s Mt. St. Helens erupts, John Lennon is murdered outside of his apartment, Portland’s own Quarter Flash releases their platinum debut album, Tom McCall passes away, The Challenger Space Shuttle blows up and Ronald Regan becomes president.
1980 brings the completion of KINK’s new studios and an increased work space of approximately 3,000 square feet (from 460 square feet!). The new facilities include three newly equipped functional studios. These studios are still used today.
KINK participates in Stand Up For Your Zoo, a benefit for the Washington Park Zoo (now the Oregon Zoo), with items such as an Elton John tour jacket, a life size Gilda Radner stand up and an autographed lithograph of Heart’s Wilson sisters. To promote the event KINK creates a commercial starring Les Sarnoff. View it in the player to the right.
Mike Bailey leaves KINK and Bill Minckler takes over as Program Director. Alan Lawson, Ron Allen and Bill St. James also start.
KINK creats some low-budget commercials starring KINK DJs Les Sarnoff, Bill St. James, Jeff Clarke, Ron Allen, Alan Lawson and Mitch Dahline. View them in the player to the right.
1981
1981 Les Sarnoff leaves KINK and is replaced by Rusty Kimble.
1982
1982 Stan Mak starts as KINK’s General Manager, Rick Scott takes over as Program Director, Alan Wolfe and Cindy Hanson start on-air and Sean Marten starts part-time on the weekends.
HELP, I CAN'T GET IN! Of course there were plenty of mishaps over the years. Listen as Sean Martin and Les Sarnoff recall locking themselves out of the studio during their shifts.
1983 KINK becomes the first radio station on the west coast to play Compact Discs. Cindy Hanson recalls that time and how strange and difficult it was to say “Compact Digital Discs.” Listen as she talks about that historic shift in radio and music.
Also in 1983, KGW TV approaches KINK with an idea to produce a television/radio simulcast called Saturday Night KINK (view it in the player to the right). The idea being that on 3 consecutive Saturdays at 6pm KGW TV would air music videos and at the same time KINK would air the music to those videos. People would then mute the television and listen to the much better sound quality on the radio. Cindy Hanson hosts this feature and talks about what it was like to be a local VJ.
In 1983 KINK creates a commercial titled "Alaska." View it in the player to the right.
Jeff Clarke and Alan Lawson leave in 1983 and Charlie Bush takes over mornings for a short time. Mike Bailey returns for his final stint at KINK.
Lights Out I is Released In 1985 KINK releases Lights Out I and becomes one of the first, if not the first, station in the country to release a beneficiary album. Lights Out I features artists like Tom Grant and Kenny G and is distributed on vinyl only. Manufactured in (West) Germany, the record raises $20,000 with all the proceeds going to the Oregon Food Bank, at the time called Portland’s Interagency Food Bank.
Music Millennium distributes Lights Out I, and still considers that record as one of the biggest selling albums in the history of the store. Listen as Music Millennium owner Terry Currier talks about the release of Lights Out I.
In 1985 Carl Widing becomes Program Director and Tom Neumann takes over evenings. Martha Nielsen begins as Marketing Director.
During 1985 KINK releases four more commercials titled "Beach," "Swing," "Ear" and "Tub." View them in the player at the top of the page.
1986
Mike Bailey leaves KINK for the last time while Les Sarnoff and Rebecca Webb return to host the morning show. Listen as Rebecca talks about why she returned.
KINK also creates a commercial called "Games" reiterating the fact that KINK doesn't play games when it comes to the music. View it in the player at the top of the page.
1987
Paul Clithero replaces Stan Mak as KINK’s General Manager.
1987 KINK aires commercials starring Cal Scott, Calvin Walker, George Benson, Kenny G, Rindy Ross and Tom Grant. View them in the player at the top of the page.
1988 KINK turns 20!
To celebrate, KINK releases Lights Out II. That same year Jeff Clarke returns, Sean Marten replaces Tom Neumann in the evenings and U of O track star Leann Warren starts at KINK as host of the over night shift and weekends.
Lights Out II is released on vinyl, cassette tape and compact disc. KINK presents the Oregon food bank with $70,000 from the sales of “Lights Out 2” - one of the largest single donations ever to have been received by the Oregon Food Bank.
“Listeners were eager for the release of ‘Lights Out 2’ due to the success of the first recording,” recalls Martha Nielsen. Following its release in October of 1988, “Lights Out 2” was the number one selling recording in the Portland Area during the holiday season, the heaviest new recording release time of the year. “The success of the second recording was even greater than the first.” - Martha Nielsen
1988 KINK produces three commercials titled "Bagels," "Jail" and "Night Watchman." View them in the player at the top of the page.
1989 Rebecca Webb leaves KINK.
In 1989 KINK releases three more commercials starring KINK artists Karla Bonoff, Randy Newman and Robert Cray.
As the 1980s draw to a close, a new decade looms. In the coming years KINK will be bought and sold multiple times while familiar voices fade and new voices heard. What's the next step for KINK? Let's find out
Lights Out I is Released
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