Buffalo Rising Online

Feb 14th 2008, 2:39pm By Elena Cala Buscarino

You know his voice, but unless you've had the pleasure of being at an event he has emceed, not that many of you know Bert Gambini's face, one that is hardly, as they say "made for radio".

That's Bert, WBFO Music Director, host of Midday Jazz and Executive Producer of Meet the Author series on the right, next to Sparkle Teddy, ward of Bert's fast-moving daughter, Mara, the shadowy figure in the background.

Mark Scott, News Director at WBFO, who greatly admires Gambini's talent as an announcer, likes to tell the story of how Gambini came to be employed at WBFO--not without slight chagrin, however. It seems Scott actually had to pull Gambini's demo tape out of the wastebasket, after having dismissed him at first because he came from a small station, WHLD in Niagara Falls.

After hearing the tape, Scott says, "I saw what a valuable person he was and hired him for Weekend Edition." Gambini's stock just kept rising from there. A UB communications graduate with intentions toward print journalism, Gambini was sidetracked by a job in radio immediately following college.

"I wasn't crazy about the midnight to 4 a.m. slot," Gambini said, "but WHLD was a great news station, and we carried news for all of Niagara County." Gambini named radio personalities like Paul Butler, owner of WHLD; Ed Tucholka, a radio personality; and Mike Casale, WHLD News Director, as being among his early mentors.

In addition, Gambini said that working with broadcasters like Mary Van Vorst and Jim McLaughlin convinced him that he couldn't have stepped into a career in radio at a better time. "I had an appreciation for radio's unique ability to tell a story," he says.

He remembers McLaughlin telling him early on, "You read that story perfectly!" Followed by, "I can get anyone to read it...you have to tell a story." Gambini admits that McLaughlin was a tough critic, but fun.

As for his current gig of hosting jazz on WBFO at 10:00 every morning, Gambini says that he always had his hand in it one way or another. Still, to hear him rattle off facts about the artist just featured and the one coming up, one can make the asessment that Gambini's skills are as smooth as the jazz he serves up daily.

For those of you who haven't seen (and heard) Bert in action, stop by Live in Allen Hall on the UB Main Street campus for a live Xponential radio show featuring, live, new, local music on any given Wednesday.

"It's really fun," Gambini says of his job. "What other job would allow me to listen to great music, read books, tell stories and meet people?"