#MediaMonday – Mark Mayfield
“X” marks the spot this #MediaMonday as we profile KSLX FM’s own Mark Mayfield.
Don’t know what #MediaMonday is? Each Monday, we are posting a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
To check out our ever-growing list of weekly profiles, please click here.
And to see what Mark has to say…just read on!
So, Mark, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
I was a Drama Geek in high school and after I got into college I decided that radio was a better way to make a living than acting. You get to eat on a regular basis you see…I worked as an intern at a radio station in San Diego and on the college station KGCR. That’s how I met the guy who gave me my first job in radio: Jay Stone — about the best disc jockey who ever lived. Anyway, I first came to Phoenix in 1977 after Jay hired me at KUPD as a board operator and researcher. The research part was a real drag…calling people at random out of the phonebook trying to get them to tell you about their radio listening habits. That was from 2-10p.m. I then came back from 2 a.m.-6 a.m. to run the board. After about 10 months of that I was about ready to drop, but I wanted to be in radio so you do what you’ve gotta do….
Since then I’ve done just about every job you can do on-air including disc jockey, traffic and news and for 24 years I focused on doing radio commercial and promo production.
I love being on the air ‘cuz I believe I’ve got the best job in the world. I get to play my favorite kind of music; I get to meet and interview really interesting people, and actually get to do some good stuff, as well for the community. I gotta tell ya: It was really interesting how frustrating it was to be out of the state over the weekend. To get all the news second-hand instead of being here at the station and being able to keep up with it in real time was teeth-grindingly annoying.
Over the past 33 years in radio here in Phoenix I’ve been on the air when quite a few world-changing or newsworthy events have happened: Iran hostage takeover, Jonestown, Lennon’s murder, San Francisco’s earthquake in ’89 and the beginning of the first Gulf War. It’s always exciting to be on the air when stuff is happening and you’re trying to keep abreast (or at least not fall behind) the events taking place.
I’m a lucky guy, and I know it!
