Mark Belling (born July 4, 1956, in Kaukauna,
Wisconsin
) is a radio talk show
host for 1130 WISN in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin
.
Belling hosts a three-hour weekday radio program,
The Mark
Belling Late Afternoon Show, which is regularly rated No. 1
for the afternoon-drive time slot. He is also a weekly columnist
for many local newspapers including the Milwaukee Post, Waukesha
Freeman, West Bend Daily News and Hometown Publications. Belling
occasionally serves as a substitute for national conservative
talk-show host
Rush Limbaugh.
Belling
previously hosted a Sunday-morning television panel, Belling
and Company, on WISN-TV
(Channel 12)
until 2000, when it moved to WDJT
(Channel
58). The program was discontinued in 2005 due to editorial
conflicts between Belling and the management of WDJT owner
Weigel Broadcasting.
A native
of Wisconsin's Fox Valley,
Belling is a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin–La Crosse
. He has been with WISN since March 1989.
Before
joining WISN he was news and program director of WTDY-AM in Madison, Wisconsin
, where he began his talk
radio career. Belling also served as a radio news director
in Springfield,
Illinois
; St. Joseph, Michigan
; Benton Harbor, Michigan
; and Oshkosh, Wisconsin
.
Radio Program
Belling discusses a wide variety of topics on his program,
including Milwaukee area politics, Wisconsin politics, and national
issues. Belling tends to lean to the right politically, though he
has been known to frequently criticize local and national
Republicans for straying from conservative principles. Throughout
the 2008 presidential campaign, Belling regularly proclaimed his
disdain for Republican candidate John McCain, though eventually he
sided with McCain over Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
Belling also regularly discusses sports on his program, including
football, baseball, basketball, golf, NASCAR and Formula One
racing. Each year Belling makes numerous sports picks, often
including the audience and show producer Paul Kronforst. Each week
during the
football season, Belling, Kronforst,
and an audience member make NFL and college football picks.
He also discusses his picks for the NCAA college basketball
playoffs and horse racing's
Triple Crown. In 2006
Belling correctly selected
Barbaro as the
winner of the Kentucky Derby.
Belling is also a music fan, often discussing it on the show. He
has been known to play entire songs on the air, often taking credit
for "discovering" them for his audience. His love of country music
is especially prevalent, as he previously worked as a disc jockey
at a country station. Some of his favorite current recording
artists include
Alanis Morissette,
The Eagles,
Fountains of Wayne, and
Bruce Springsteen. The theme song for the
Mark Belling Late Afternoon Show is an instrumental version of Lost
in the Shadows by
Lou Gramm from
The Lost Boys .
Awards
Mark is a
2001 Marconi award
recipient for best medium-market radio personality, a three-time
Milwaukee Press Club winner for best radio editorial, has twice won
the Radio-Television News Directors Association award for best
investigative reporting in the Midwest, and
was a 1986 finalist for "Journalist of the Year" in Illinois
as awarded by United Press
International. Belling also was named one of the Top 100
Heavy Talkers—the most influential talk show hosts in America—by
Talkers Magazine, an industry
publication.
References
External links
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