Mark Elliot - host biography

Mark Elliot is on News Talk 1010 CFRB every Saturday night at 11 hosting the award winning three hour program People Helping People about addictions and recovery.. He's well known for his admission that he is alcoholic and has been a recovering drug-addict since 1994 and his outreach to others dealing with addictions of all kinds.

On CFRB we also get the chance to meet the many sides of a man who worked as an acclaimed correspondent covering entertainment for ABC News and became legendary as a radio personality and writer.

Mark Elliot became a household name in Toronto when on the afternoon of August 14, 2003 he was on the air as the Great Power Blackout struck Toronto. As all other radio, television and internet crashed in the power failure News Talk 1010 CFRB remained on the air with Mark Elliot providing news and information while calmly reassuring people that everything was going to be allright.

Mark knew how to handle it because of what he's learned in the Great Blackout of 1965 listening to CFRB's legendary newsman Jack Dennett. "I remember hearing CFRB come back on the air in 1965 and how Jack kept his sense of humour while dealing with the confusion - It was a great primer for what happened 38 years later!"

Mark grew up in Weston and started working in radio in 1974 at CHIC Brampton under the tutelage of Ted Woloshyn.

He moved on in quick succession to Quebec City, then Winnipeg, but it was in Ottawa where he made his name as evening host on CFRA. He was known for being outspoken and controversial, honoured by the JUNO Awards as the presenter of "The Outstanding Achievement Award" in 1985. But, it all changed in 1986 when he made the biggest headlines of his life when he resigned his CFRA job "on the air" at the peak of his fame.

Following that he moved to rival station CFGO and gained an even bigger audience, but nowadays Mark will tell you about a tragic addiction to drugs and alcohol which destroyed him at the same time. "It seemed like the higher my star flew, the lower I went until I crashed in 1987."

Mark was fired from his job by an employer who understood alcoholism and knew he needed help badly. He was 33 and he was dying from his addiction.

He was directed to the Brentwood Treatment Centre in Windsor and told he had to stay as far away from his fame in Ottawa as possible if he wanted to succeed at recovering. It meant giving up everything he had achieved and starting again, but better things were waiting.

He was hired by another legendary radio station CKLW Windsor and began working again as a DJ. It kept him stable and sober for many years, but there was more to work through. Mark had to come to terms with surviving sexual abuse as a child and a confused sexuality that was complicated by his massive fame in Ottawa. He relapsed to addiction again in 1993 returning to Brentwood a year later defeated again.

When he left Brentwood the second time he had resolved that he was a Gay man and began a new career as a talk show host starting People Helping People as an openline talkshow about addictions in 1995. That led to national syndication a year later and his eventual move back home to Toronto.

People Helping People is renowned for Mark's no-nonsense approach to addiction and his outspoken views, winning accolades from critics like Marc Weisblott of Radio Digest:"...an outlet for riveting radio in its weeknight hour at 11 p.m. Elliot provides blunt first-person insights about vices in a fashion that's far removed from the Stuart Smalley 12-step style".

Mark is the first openly Gay host on CFRB and refuses to shy away from controversy. He also helped CFRB win regional and national RTNDA awards and a New York Festival Gold Award for his coverage with Father John Walsh and Dave Trafford of the Papal Vigil.

He has worked as a counsellor with the Salvation Army Harbour Light Treatment Centre and in private practice as an addiction counsellor.

"Working at CFRB is a dream come true" he says. "I grew up with Wally Crouter, Gordon Sinclair, Betty Kennedy and all the others who made this place great. To be a part of it today is just incredible!"