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Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson interviewing cornerback Isaiah Oliver after a CU football practice.

Johnson Named CU's Director of Audio Broadcasting

August 10, 2017 | General

Adding To His Play-By-Play Duties

BOULDER — Mark Johnson, who has been the play-by-play announcer for University of Colorado football and men's basketball since 2004, has joined the athletic department full-time as its director of audio broadcasting, athletic director Rick George announced Thursday.
 
In the position, he will continue to serve as the "Voice of the Buffaloes" on radio broadcasts but will add a new dimension to CUBuffs.com with interviews, sports reports, podcasts and other creative ways to expand coverage of CU's 17 intercollegiate sports.  He will also continue to host the Buffalo Stampede that airs 30-plus weeks on the Altitude Sports Network.
 
"We're all excited to bring Mark on board to further enhance what we are doing with our website and reaching out to our fan base," George said.  "He has served the department well for over a decade, emceeing several of our events and hosting our in-house produced television shows.  Mark is well known to our constituents and it's great that we can continue our relationship with him."
 
"After 13 years of doing the Buffaloes, I feel like I've become part of the Buff family, and now I'm officially part of it," Johnson said.  "It seemed like a natural transition for me, and it'll be a great fit.   We're breaking some new ground and I believe some of what we'll be doing will be on the cutting edge."
 
Johnson, 50, replaced Larry Zimmer as sports director at KOA-Radio in the summer of 2004, and assumed the play-by-play duties that same year.  However, the sports director position in essence was eliminated at the station this past summer, but CU and KOA agreed to have Johnson continue in his role calling Buffalo games.
 
Zimmer had served in the play-by-play role for all but three years dating back to 1971, and shifted into the color analyst position through his retirement following the 2015 season.
 
Johnson graduated from the University of North Dakota with a degree in Communications in 1992, but was already working in radio as a student.  His first job in sports was calling high school games in Mankato, Minn., before returning to his alma mater to announce games from 1993-95.  His first position in Division I came at Illinois State (1998-2002), calling both football and men's basketball, before moving on to Syracuse to do the same.  He worked there for two full seasons (2002-04), where he had the opportunity to call the 2003 national championship win by the Orange men's basketball team which featured former Denver Nugget Carmelo Anthony.