Mark Reardon was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, but moved to St. Louis in the fall of 1979 and spent the next 17 years in Missouri. Inspired by the legendary disc jockey's at WLS in the 1970's and after a lot of practice playing radio on his turntable he started his radio career at the 10 watt powerhouse KYMC in Ballwin in 1982---which at the time was owned and operated by the YMCA of West St. Louis County. As Mark remembers it his Mom and Dad actually had to pay dues every month for him to work there---not altogether different than the way he continued to hit them up for money for years.
After graduating High School at Parkway West (included so you didn't have to ask) in 1983 it was off to Mizzou to major in journalism where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in 1986. During those early years in Columbia he worked at a variety of stations in a variety of formats before being hired in 1987 to be a news director and morning show partner on what today is KPLA-FM. Some five years later those duties expanded to overseeing the news operation at KFRU-AM in Columbia while at the same time making the jump from music radio to doing a talk show and leaving the FM band never to look back. In 1996 Mark had a short lived stint at the former KSD-AM in St. Louis and then left for Wisconsin to co-anchor the award winning and top rated Wisconsin's Morning News with current ABC radio anchor Cheri Preston on WTMJ-AM, the flagship station of the Green Bay Packers. After 4 years on the morning show he switched back to a full-time talk show role and was also a regular panelist and guest host on "Sunday Insight" every Sunday morning on Milwaukee's NBC affiliate.
In March of 2006 Mark returned to St. Louis and KMOX and is thrilled to be back in the state he really considers his home. Despite growing up in Chicago he is NOT a Cubs fan. When the Cardinals won the World Series in 1982 that made him a Cardinal fan for life. When he's not working on the radio he's probably seeing a movie and his reviews can be heard on KMOX and found here. He's also a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the group that puts on the Critics' Choice Awards which this year aired on VH-1. His reviews are also heard on BXR radio in Columbia.
An avid cyclist, hunter and fisherman Mark's other hobbies include music, thoroughbred racing and Mizzou football and even Mizzou basketball despite Quinn Snyder destroying the program. He's soon to be re-married and has two children, a dog and 3 cats.
