Host Bios

Nick Francesco

Nick has been in the microcomputer industry since 1975 - almost as long as there's been a microcomputer industry. He believes that the 20 years he spent as a professional actor uniquely qualifies him for his role in the tech industry. He's done everything from selling computers to building them to fixing them to programming them to kicking them. For twenty years, he was the Systems Administrator of the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology (he had a very long business card). He spent time as President of both the (PC)3 and Apple CIDER computer clubs and was the CIDER Librarian back in the days when people brought blank disks to meetings so the Librarian could copy floppy disks from the library onto them. Yes, Nick is older than the Internet.

He started Sound Bytes with the great Bob Smith back in 1989. He's helped people with their computers on the radio, on television, in the newspaper, on line at the movies, and on the Web. Currently, he publishes a weekly newsletter. You can read more about that at AskNick.com.

Dave Enright

Years ago, while still at Eastman Kodak, I was viciously attacked by a relatively new bug – a large but slow desktop critter! I started out on a TRS-80, 8 ½” floppy drive, 64mg of memory. Soon, I was buying my first IBM PC Junior. Ahhh, the beginning of the end. Within a week, I had it torn down for upgrades. I realized that this was something I could do 24 hours a day … the thrill of the hunt when troubleshooting; the creative challenge of new-builds; and, best of all, the different people I get to meet and work with each day. Early 1991, I started what was Enright PC Management Services, Inc., and left EK shortly after til 2013.

I am now 75 and retired from building and working on computers. You could say, I got out at a good time, folks nowadays are using tablets, phones, or a laptop to fit their needs.

For over 33 years now, I have enjoyed being teamed up with Nick and Steve, answering folks computer questions on the air at JAZZ 901 FM to keep me on my game and helping folks. Nowadays I spend most of my time concentrating on the wife, my dogs, and ham radio (K3WHD). Not necessarily in that order.

Steve Rea

Steve fell in love with computers in high school, and it's been downhill ever since. During college, he began volunteering at the Apple CIDER user group, holding almost every office at one point or another. He remains far too involved to this day, which takes time away from his radio-controlled airplanes and model rockets. Oh - and his family. You can currently find him at Mac-Ave, an authorized Apple reseller and service provider. He works with Windows-based computers, too, for money, but hey - everyone has something they’re ashamed of.

Rob Linton

Rob started his journey with Sound Bytes when he became the board operator (he insists he was the "Producer") of the show when it was at WHAM. He left in 2004 to become the Station Manager (yes, that's his real title this time) of Jazz 90.1. In June of 2009, after much begging, pleading, and bowing and scraping, he persuaded Nick, Dave, and Steve to move to their current home at the station, where they are very, very happy.

Dennis Wurster

Dennis is a figure of darkness and mystery. He appears out of the fog when he is most needed, and then quietly disappears when no one is looking, leaving behind only a sinister chuckle and a slowly fading grin. He is extremely knowledgeable about computers, which we assume is the result of some unnamed voodoo ritual performed in the dark of the full moon. He is also an avid bike rider, but we won't hold that against him. Much.

Chris Horn

Chris, more commonly known as "chorn" to his friends and enemies, started with a Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem. He joined CUGOR, and taking inspiration from WarGames, leapt into the good-old-days of hacking, phreaking, war-dialing, and being anti-social with a computer. It was a good introduction into working through problems and fixing things that are broken. These days he's happily married, has kids, dogs, and likes to volunteer for fun things. His job and hobbies are super-nerdtacular.

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