Wednesday, May 17, 2006

WFMJ's Mark Koontz Will Be Back

After suffering a stroke during one of his weekend weather segments in March, NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 Youngstown meteorologist Mark Koontz will be back on the air this Saturday evening.

The Youngstown Vindicator reports that Koontz got hugs and handshakes from WFMJ co-workers, when he returned to visit the station on Tuesday. Koontz had trouble coming up with the right words when he had the stroke on March 17th, and needed help from weekend anchor Jennifer Baligush to finish his weather report. Koontz was then quickly whisked to a Youngstown hospital, and then lifeflighted to Cleveland later that evening.

He tells the Vindicator's Guy D'Astoflo that he's very thankful for the support shown by viewers, and that his doctor is prescribing less stress and a better diet for his recovery. He says health-wise, he's "90 percent back".

Cleveland area TV viewers over a certain age (including, umm, us) remember Koontz for his long-time stint as Dick Goddard's backup at then-CBS affiliate WJW/8...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of us "old timers" can remember Mark as Don Webster's backup and weekend weather guy at WEWS-channel 5

Anonymous said...

we miss seeing Mark on channel 8 in cleveland.Iwish him a complete recovery.Levi from Ashland.

Anonymous said...

Met Mark several years back when we transported Kelli O'donnells car..Nice man..heal soon!