You may not recognize Mark Strong at first glance, but chances are you’ve heard his voice.
The Oakwood Collegiate grad is the in-arena announcer for the Toronto Raptors and the Argos, is currently a morning show co-host on G98.7FM and formerly a morning show co-host on Flow93.5, now called The Move.
Back at Oakwood Collegiate, Strong had his first hint of performance in theatre class and in school plays but had no idea he would end up in radio.
“I’m an extrovert, so I was definitely part of extracurriculars, from the basketball team to AfroCan to UNESCO and other clubs,” he says.
After his days at Oakwood, Strong had a friend that was the program director for an Internet radio station who asked if he would be interested in radio.
“I started doing that Tuesday and Thursday each week. It was two or three hours but not paid.”
As he became immersed in the radio industry, he heard that Flow93.5 was about to be a reality as a commercial radio station.
Originally, Strong says he didn’t want to make the move to commercial and wanted to stay underground. But his friend took a portion of one of Strong’s shows and submitted it to the team at Flow without Strong knowing.
“They reached out to me and asked if I would be interested, and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I guess [I could] get paid for this,” says Strong.
He started as a Saturday afternoon host before auditioning for the morning show, which then became Mark and Jem in the Morning. The pair has now taken that show to G98.7FM.
Strong is proud to be one of the voices for a station that reaches Toronto’s Caribbean and African communities, while also speaking to many other cultures in the mosaic that is the GTA.
Off the air, Strong has been in-stadium announcer for the Argos for the past seven years, though with the move to BMO Field, they are minimizing the hosting element. He is going into his sixth season as the in-arena host for the Raptors and has also been the live voice for both Canada’s Walk of Fame and the Juno Awards for the past decade.
“To be honest, most of that stuff that I went through, the channels of different connections, I never really applied or auditioned for anything after Flow,” says Strong.
He also shows no signs of slowing down. Strong is still looking to take on more projects from public speaking at schools to TED talks and voice-over work on a grand scale.
“You know when you’re at a movie and you hear, ‘Coming this summer’? I want to be that voice. That is something that is in the works for me right now.” he says.
“I’ve been blessed with somewhat of a captivating and engaging voice and character that I can use, and I think my voice works better than my looks.”
