Mark Leslie, aka "Mr. Melody," was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, when he first became interested in radio broadcasting in the 1970s. From the age of 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, Illinois, while tuning in to the hottest radio stations in the Chicagoland area. He started imitating the DJs while listening to the radio late at night. Always having had a love for music, it was the delivery and smoothness of the Chicago late-night DJs that were 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 the USA team in Finland. Shortly after his discharge from the service, Mark was involved in an industrial accident that resulted in the amputation of his right arm. He has since attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1988, where he majored in radio and television and 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 and television majors.

Along with earning credit hours while student training at the college TV station WSIUTV, he performed as one of the DJs 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, on the advice of his doctors, Mark decided to move from the midwest 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 taste of live radio on Las Vegas radio by sitting in once a week with one of the DJs. Soon after, he took over the Midday Show and hosted a show called "Saturday Morning Flashbacks." In 2000, he left Vegas only to return in 2003, and he has since been a part of KCEP Power 88.1. Over the years, duties have included production, training, board operator duties, music programming, air personality duties, and various other radio station duties. Mark is also the owner of Mr. Melody’s Professional DJ Service, which provides music for all occasions.

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