True to the Music

Since the mid-seventies, KINK radio has been my music station of choice. For most of those years, Les Sarnoff was the one introducing me to new music. Most of the artists I listen to I discovered through his program... many of them, due to interviews he did with the artist in studio. A lot of pirated albums in Portland were compliments of Les' KINK Album Preview.

Les was responsible for a Thanksgiving tradition in my family. Every Thanksgiving, at 12pm, we listen to "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie. It's 18 minutes and 34 seconds that my kids can recite from memory.

When I think of Les Sarnoff, I think of "how it used to be" on the radio. How KINK used to be more of an indie/underground/folk/rock station... how they used to be before big money made all the decisions.

Les died Friday night after a year-long fight with cancer. It kinda feels like those old days of FM radio are gone with him.

That's kinda sad.