Mark Ruffin

Mark Anthony Ruffin (born September 24, 1956) is an American broadcaster, producer, and writer. He has won the regional Chicago / Midwest Emmy Awards Ruffin has been the Program Director/On-Air host for Sirius XM's Real Jazz channel since 2007.

Ruffin received both the Jazz Journalists Association's Career Excellence Award in Broadcasting and the Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award from Jazz Week in 2017.

Biography Mark Anthony Ruffin, was born in Chicago, IL on September 24, 1956. Ruffin's parents had a record store on the west side of the city for the first eight years of his life. He grew up in the suburb town of Maywood, Illinois where he graduated from Proviso East High School and studied Radio/TV and music at Southern Illinois University/Carbondale. Mark is the father to three sons: Melcolm Xavier Ruffin, Sidney-Bechet Mandela Ruffin, and Kenyatta Hents Philips-Ruffin.

Career Before rising to prominence in North America, Ruffin was a presence in Chicago jazz radio for over 25 years, where he was also Jazz Editor at Chicago Magazine from 1982 to 2007. He has had a varied multi-tasked career in radio, television, journalism, recorded music, and film – with a focus on Jazz and American culture in all the mediums.

Radio Since 2007, Ruffin has been the Program Director and On-Air host for Sirius XM's Real Jazz channel. 1980–2000, he started as an operations engineer at WBEZ-FM/Chicago. In 1980, he got his first on-air opportunity through the Jazz Institute of Chicago. From there: 1981–1985, Jazz Music Director WDCB/Glen Ellyn, 1985–1988, Music Director-WBEE-AM/Chicago, 1988–1996, Producer/Announcer WNUA/Chicago. 1996–2000, Announcer/Producer WBEZ/Chicago. 2002–2007, Ruffin joined Miles Ahead Incorporated which produced, Miles Ahead and Listen Here, two syndicated shows featuring him and Grammy Award-winning annotator and broadcaster Neil Tesser. The latter show was distributed by WFMT Satellite Network and was heard on up to 120 stations in the U.S. and Canada.

Ruffin was the original producer of the nationally syndicated Ramsey Lewis Show Gayle King, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Dr. Robin Smith, Bruce Lundvall, Marcus Miller, Christian McBride,

Journalism Ruffin was the Jazz Editor of Chicago Magazine from 1982 to 2007, Contributor at Down Beat Magazine 1985–2005, Jazz Stringer at Chicago Sun-Times 1989–1997, Music Editor at N'Digo Magazine 1995–2005 and contributed to Jazziz, JazzUSA.com, Playboy, Ebony, Illinois Entertainer and many other publications.

Records

Annotator Ruffin has numerous annotation credits.

Associate producer 1987 Frank Mantooth – Per-Se-Vere 2013 Taeko Fukao – Wonderland (w/ Taeko Fukao) 2013 Giacomo Gates – Miles Tones 2017 George Freeman – 90 Going On Amazing (w/ Kevin Patrick) 2017 Giacomo Gates – What Time Is It (w/ Giacomo Gates) 2004 A War On All Fronts: Life & Times of Robert R. McCormick (WTTW/PBS) 2005 Mackinac Island: Mecca of the Midwest (WTTW/PBS) 2017 The Drowning

Awards and nominations