A Seasoned Communications Professional

Mark Wishnia has been working in the broadcast industry for over a decade. He began with an internet radio show in high school (2007) and he's been going non-stop ever since. In 2022, Mark left the broadcast industry for the first time and became the Manager of Communications for a nonprofit.

Mark has worked in TV, radio, the podcast space, and has been both on-the-air and behind the scenes. He's published several articles, worked with various website content management systems, and keeps up with the latest trends on social media.

In addition he's worked in the news, sports, and music space and can quickly adapt to whatever is thrown his way.

More about mark's journey

Mark had the media bug from a young age. He knew from the time he was very young that he wanted to work in broadcasting. For the longest time, he wanted to do either sports play-by-play or host a sports talk show.

In 2007, while a junior in high school, he started an internet radio show on BlogTalkRadio with his neighbor and friend Evan. It was called 'Sports Heaven with Mark and Evan' and was all about New York sports. Not wanting to do things small, Mark worked hard to book big-time guests -- something he did with success. In addition to speaking with several local reporters who cover New York sports, he also spoke to national broadcasters including Kenny Albert and Doc Emrick, along with famous athletes including NHL stars Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik, as well as NFL player Darrelle Revis.

'Sports Heaven' continued until Mark was a sophomore in college and after recording 150 episodes.

Mark went to college at Penn State where he immediately put his broadcast aspirations to work. He joined the student radio station the first day he stepped on campus and immediately began hosting a sports talk show there as well. Mark continued booking big name guests on his college radio show. In his sophomore year he continued to host his show while also doing a plethora of play-by-play of Penn State athletics. This included men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and hockey.

In addition, Mark took the initiative his sophomore year to get the student radio station on Facebook and Twitter, two social media platforms that were still relatively new at the time. He also took the opportunity to make improvements to what was then a very primitive website. The initiative led Mark to being named the radio station's, 'Director of Media' and he was in charge of all of the station's online presence.

During his junior year, in addition to hosting a sports talk show and doing more play-by-play, Mark decided to branch out and try something separate from the sports world. The student radio station did not have a traditional morning show, and Mark decided to start one. He wanted to have a morning-zoo style show. He successfully launched the 'ComRadio Morning Show' which aired every weekday morning for two hours. Mark adjusted his class schedule to be a mainstay on the show, while bringing in a rotating crew of hosts for each day of the week. The show consisted of news, sports, entertainment, off-beat style news and a few music segments. Mark continued booking great guests for this show including people like Joe Kittinger, who did a free fall from space in the 1960s, as well as Elmo from Sesame Street.

The Morning Show made Mark fall in love with that format. He loved being able to talk about a variety of different topics and let the creativity of he and his hosts fly. It was during that time that Mark decided he would love to pursue a morning zoo type show professionally, though he was still very open to working in sports. Mark continued doing the Morning Show in his senior year (along with his sports show and more play-by-play). The Morning Show became so popular, that the local public access radio station said they wanted to syndicate the show on one of their digital stations.

The college radio station had an opening for student General Manager during Mark's senior year and his initiative and leadership led him to get the role. This put Mark in charge of roughly 150 students covering a variety of news and sports. It was also during this time when charges were filed against Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno was fired. Mark was integral in helping the radio station cover this major event on campus that drew national attention.

Three days after graduating from Penn State, Mark was offered a position as a producer on a syndicated morning show based in Davenport, Iowa. The show also aired on a second station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was a news/talk format that covered mostly news and politics but sprinkled in entertainment, off-beat, and technology news as well. Mark also did high school play-by-play for the station and helped cover major events including the 2012 election.

After that, Mark took a job as an Assignment Editor at the NBC TV affiliate in Davenport, Iowa. This was Mark's first soiree into the TV world and he quickly gained the respect of his co-workers by bringing in bagels for the entire staff every Wednesday morning (along with staying on top of all the news in the area and making sure they were properly covered).

Following the TV stint, the radio bug began itching again. So Mark moved to Malone, New York where he finally landed his dream role as a morning show DJ on a music station. During this time, he also helped the station completely revamp its high school sports coverage. Mark also was involved in the station's coverage of the infamous Dannemora Prison Escape. That prison was about 40 minutes west of Malone. One of the suspects ended up getting shot and killed in Malone.

Mark then moved on to Bismarck, North Dakota where he again was a morning show DJ. He was sucked into the news world again when many people across the country descended upon Standing Rock to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. Mark spearheaded the radio cluster's news coverage of those protests in addition to hosting his morning show.

Following his time in Bismarck, Mark returned to his home state of New York where he took part in roles at Westwood One Sports (where he had interned during college), WFAN Radio (where he had also interned), and then spent time at CBS Sports.

In his role at CBS Sports, Mark was in the asset management department where he helped Broadcast Associates obtain footage ahead of college basketball, college football and NFL football games. He also was in communication with the broadcast truck on game days to ensure all the footage from the game would properly get sent back to the CBS Broadcast Center where it would then be archived.

Mark then went to CBS News Radio, where he cut sound, wrote scripts, copy edits and produces national newscasts, and played a role on the "Connect" team which creates a daily prep sheet for FM radio stations. He also helped produce nationally syndicated country music specials.

In March 2022, Mark decided for the first time in his life to leave the broadcast industry to become the Manager of Communications for a nonprofit based in Harlem. Showing a strong interest in the charity's mission, while also looking to maintain a more "normal" and consistent schedule, Mark decided to try something new. Mark is in charge of maintaining the nonprofit's website and social media channels while also assisting in other aspects of the organization like fundraising and events.