Mark Wozniak
Mark Wozniak, WBFO's local All Things Considered host, has been at WBFO since mid-1978.
He started as a volunteer board operator for Bob Chapman and the late Bud Ralabate on the program When Rock Was Young. In the fall of 1979, he applied for a job posting for a control board operator for NPR's new morning news program, and on November 5th, 1979 he was on the WBFO payroll for the debut of NPR's Morning Edition.
In 1980, Mark left Morning Edition to host WBFO's lunchtime news program at the time, Midday. He also became involved with audio production work, and other various aspects of station operations, including many of the station's growing computer functions. Mark emceed several call-in trivia game shows on WBFO in the early 1980s, and enjoyed being a volunteer co-host of A Polka Sunday With Friends with the late Stan Sluberski on WBFO from 1981 to 1986. From 1986 to 1997, Mark moonlighted as assistant to the late longtime Buffalo broadcasting pioneer Stan "Stash" Jasinski on his weekend polka and Polish-American radio shows on WHTT-AM in Buffalo. Mark returned to Morning Edition as a local correspondent for a while in the late 1980s, but heavier workloads in the data processing area of his job led to a reduction of on-air duties. In late 1992, Mark returned as WBFO's host of Morning Edition, after then-News Director Toni Randolph left WBFO. Mark is pleased to have Howard Riedel as his fill-in host and pitching partner during the WBFO Fundraisers. In September 2009, Mark was transferred from hosting Morning Edition, weekdays from 5-10AM, to All Things Considered, from 4-7PM.
Mark, a 1971 graduate of Buffalo's (sadly now-defunct) Calasanctius Preparatory School, started his radio career while attending Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken New Jersey, on the school's carrier current AM station WCPR (the Sporty 740 and the Nifty 750!). Like WBFO, WCPR celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2009. His interest in radio came from growing up with "one of America's two great radio stations," the old personality and Top 40 oriented WKBW-AM in Buffalo during the 1960s and 1970s. There were other influences, including the other great Buffalo stations of the time (WYSL, WNIA, WGR, WBEN, etc.) and the famous MusicRadio WABC in New York.
For 17 years, Mark's day would start when the alarm rang at 3:21AM (or, 7, 14, or 21 minutes later, depending on how many times he hit the snooze button). The best part about moving to the afternoon shift is losing the chronic sleep deprivation, and a less hectic routine.
Mark's family includes wife Karen and daughter Carrie, who is now a senior in high school. His son Alex passed away June 27, 2004 following a nearly eight year battle against leukemia and its complications. A web site was set up after he relapsed for a second time in late 2003, to document his treatments. It continues now as a memorial site.
Mark combines his interests in computing and Buffalo history by maintaining a "This Day in History" database of Buffalo and Western New York historical events. It began by computerizing Mark Scott's 1982 WBFO News of the Year book. Trips to the library for other primarily (but not exclusively) Buffalo history and trivia tidbits have expanded that database into over 30 thousand entries (one of these days, he hopes to make it available on the Web). He is also a genealogy buff, tracing his wife's lineage back to pioneer Buffalo settler George Coit, and to the Mayflower (through two lines!). He's also trying to find out more about his own ancestors from Poland.
Mark's other interests include family activities, naps, Beatles music, naps, polka music, naps, home improvements and naps (although since moving to the afternoon shift, the naps are less frequent!).
