He wants to embrace the past and blend it with the future.

Marco's predecessor, Andy "Bull" Barch, vacated the position after six years to return to Notre Dame College in his hometown of South Euclid, Ohio. Barch will serve as assistant sports information director at the small college there, but he left a legacy in Charleston that has caught Marco's attention.

"When it comes to baseball in this town, he's kind of an institution," said Marco, who was hired in February as the director of media relations/broadcaster.

"He's impossible to replace. Everyone knew him, the quality of his call, how he was going to handle a situation on the air.

"I'll try to emulate him and put my own style and twist on things."

Marco, 30, came to the Power after spending the last two summers as the No. 2 radio broadcaster for the Oklahoma City (Okla.) RedHawks, the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the Texas Rangers. But he's not a Midwesterner at heart.

Marco grew up on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where he graduated from Kiski Area High School before attending Division II Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa.

"Basically I chose that college because I could get on the radio very quickly," he said. "Three days into my freshman year they sat me down and said 'Here you go.' At a large school I would have had to wait around."

Marco was educated in the classroom and the radio booth. By his senior year, he had broadcasted sports ranging from women's basketball to hockey to soccer. From there he started his professional radio career and began a circuitous route to Charleston.

He spent three years as a country music disc jockey, a brief stint in sports talk, and three more years as a DJ, this time in classic rock.

But for Marco, something was missing - he wanted to relay the beauty of a 6-4-3 double play or the excitement of a close play at the plate.

So, at 27 years old, he quit a full-time job with benefits as the production director for a 13-radio station cluster outside of Erie to become a broadcasting and promotions intern with Minor League Baseball's Williamsport Crosscutters, a short-season Class A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

He cut his teeth calling their road broadcasts.

Three years later Marco is here in a city with which he has some familiarity. His fiancée, Brienne Greiner, is a WVU Law School graduate who has worked in the Federal Courthouse here. As a result, Marco spent the last two offseasons with her in Charleston working as V100's traffic reporter.

When Barch left, Marco reached out to Andy Milovich, the executive vice president of Palisades baseball, an organization that owns the Power.

Coincidentally, Milovich started his career with the Erie Seawolves and carved his niche as a front office executive in the New York-Penn League, which is where Marco broke in as a Crosscutters intern.

"From everybody that I've talked to, and I have some very close friends that he's worked for, they said we'd be nuts if we didn't bring him on board," Milovich said. "We think he'll be a great asset to the organization."

Marco said it was a "no-brainer" for him to return, especially considering the Power is the Pittsburgh Pirates' low Class A affiliate. For him, that hits close to home.

"Growing up near Pittsburgh and following the Pirates - I mean, I covered the Phillies, the Rangers, but now to cover and talk about guys that will one day play at PNC Park, that's a little different for me. I have an emotional tie," Marco said.

"The chance to come to a city that we knew and an organization where I knew a few people - it's perfect.