Mark Wilson (radio broadcaster)

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Mark Wilson (born in Chicago, Illinois,1960s-) is a Detroit sports radio broadcaster and a former Associated Press and Michigan Association of Broadcasters "Michigan Sportscaster of the Year" and columnist in Detroit's cultural weekly Real Detroit and The Observer & Eccentric newspapers. For seven years Wilson co-hosted with Rob Parker Parker & The Man (Wilson is the 'Man') on Detroit's WKRK 97.1 Free FM from 7PM-11PM five days a week, until the show was unexpectedly cancelled on December 28th, 2006. Additionally, he contributed to post and pregame Detroit Lions broadcasts as 97.1 FM WKRK is the team's flagship broadcaster. For the 2006 season, Wilson appears with Rob Parker on official team pocket schedules.

A Michigan State University graduate, Wilson had worked in Houston, Texas, Miami, Florida and Lansing, Michigan before coming to Detroit. Wilson was a producer of the nightly sportscast at WDIV-TV "Local 4", the NBC television affiliate based in Detroit, as well as being a noon-time on-air sports anchor at WJBK FOX 2 Detroit before moving full-time to radio. He first worked in television sports at NBC affiliate WTVJ Channel 6 in Miami, where he was an on-air sports broadcaster. As self-reported on the air in November 2006 in an uncharacteristic streak of immodesty, Wilson claims Suzy Kolber, the ESPN sideline reporter extraordinaire, publicly stated she aspired to have his job- noon sports anchor on WTVJ- while he worked in Miami and she was a Communications and Broadcasting student at the University of Miami. He has been heard to ask Ms. Kolber to phone him at the close of his show, because he has never met her and imagines they would have a lot to talk about.

[edit] Radio show news

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

CBS Broadcasting which owns the station released Parker and Wilson as the station decided to replace them with Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers broadcasts formerly carried exclusively on the 1270 AM station WXYT, also a CBS owned station. Parker and the Man recently celebrated their 7th anniversary on the air and were promoted as "Michigan's Number One, night time sports talk show". The Detroit Free Press speculated on December 29th, 2006 the New Years Eve broadcast of the Red Wings will officially end the shows reign.

Rob Parker was quoted in a December 29th 2006 Detroit News article that he and Wilson plan to continue as a team on another station in Detroit- "different Bat time, different Bat channel." He is also quoted as saying the station did not offer an explanation beyond "they were going in a different direction." Wilson was quoted as saying "radio is an adult business, and if you're not prepared for changes, you're not doing your homework."

As of March 1st, there has been developments on the Parker and the Man front. In a message to their myspace page subscribers, Rob Parker stated that there is a deal in the works that would have Parker and the Man back on the radio dial, albeit on AM, and not FM. The station would be Detroit AM station 1200 WCHB, a station with a strong and clear signal throughout Southeastern Michigan, Northwestern Ohio and Southwestern Ontario. Terry Foster, a fellow sports columnist with Parker at the Detroit News, reported in his blog a new deal to put Parker and Wilson back on the air was in the works too.