From the age 13 up until his freshman year in high school Mark would stay up late at night, usually past midnight, when you were able to pick up any quality signal from (Rockford, Il hometown) while tuning in to the hottest radio stations in the Chicago land area. He started imitating the Dj’s while listening to the radio late at night. Always having had a love for music, it was the delivery, the smoothness of the Chicago late night Dj’s that was most captivating to him. After graduating high school in 1980 Mark joined the United States Army in 1981 and was selected for the All Army Boxing Trials. Became the All Army and Army Europe Champion. Was selected to represent USA team in Finland. Shortly after his discharge from the service Mark was involved in an industrial accident which resulted in the amputation of his right arm. He has since attended Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale Illinois in 1988 where he majored in Rado/Tv and where he chose the name Mr. Melody. His start in radio was in 1989 when he began learning basic radio and television production in courses required for radio/tv majors. Along with earning credit hours while student training at the college TV station WSIUTV, he performed as one of the Dj’s on the “Hot mix radio show” A weekly House Music mix show on the university radio station WIDB. He was also one of the hosts for the Quiet Storm on WIDB radio. In 1993, at the advice of his doctors Mark decided to move from the mid-west to the west coast for health reasons. Before long he was introduced to the General Manager of Radio Station KCEP Power 88.1. Mark got his start with KCEP by first attending an adult intern training class. After several months of training and performing everyday radio station tasks, he got his first time live on Las Vegas radio by sitting in once a week with one of the Dj’s. Soon after, he took over the Mid day show and hosted a show called “Saturday morning flashbacks”. In 2000 he left Vegas only to return in 2003 and has since been a part of KCEP Power 88.1 Duties over the years have include production, training, board operator, music programming, air personality and various other radio station duties. Mark is also the owner of Mr. Melody’s Professional Dj service, providing music for all occasions.
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