President, Carl Bourke (WRTE329)

Radio is my whole life and then some. I have been involved with radio since I was about 10 years old; starting out with FRS walkie-talkies, CB and watching my now father-in-law (yes, I met my wife because of radio!) work DX all over the world on amateur radio. When I was 14, I joined the Fire Department explorer post and was exposed to the Public Safety side of radio. That same year, I passed the Amateur Radio Technician Exam and conquered the airwaves. When I was 20, I was hired as a Fire Dispatcher at the Monroe County 911 center and formed a small business outfitting public safety vehicles. I left the 911 center in 2012 to pursue a career in Public Safety Radio Communications with a Rochester area company where we build, stage, optimize and manage Mission Critical Public Safety Radio Systems for municipalities throughout the United States

Vice-President, Brian Krawczyk (WRKX607)

I spent 37 years as the Chief Operator at the Attica Water Treatment Plant. My interest in two-way radio goes way back to my youth with simple walkie-talkies, to CB’s in my teen years and continued through adulthood as a casual radio user at work and during outdoor pursuits. My passion for radio really flourished after my retirement. I have found that this hobby certainly fills the urge to troubleshoot, diagnosis, design and fabricate that I miss since leaving my full-time career.

Secretary, Bill Critchfield (WRKS298)

I grew up in Sodus, New York and have spent most of my life in the area. I have used radios since my teen years, starting with CB's. I worked in public service most of my life, including EMS, 23 years as a career firefighter and a total of 30+ years in law enforcement.

After being retired a few years, I found I missed the radio part. February 2021, I got my GMRS license. Wanting to expand my capabilities, October 2021, I obtained my amateur radio Technician's license. In November 2021, I passed my General test and upgraded to Extra in March 2022. I have been enjoying every minute of the hobby.

I have two grown children and two grandchildren, who all live in the area. In my free time, I enjoy riding and traveling on my motorcycle, some time on the range and being active outdoors.

Treasurer, Joe Gialanella (WRHX581)

I come from a little town called Conklin, New York. Met my wife at Circuit City so our family is a bunch of computer nerds. After the corporate ladder didn’t work after moving to Fairport, I ended up starting my own business around liquid cooling computers. The issue was I turned my hobby into a business, so I need to replace that void. My uncle was always into radios, which ultimately led me down this path. I started with GMRS and then walked right into my amateur radio license. The ability to make something invisible to the eye come to your ear is going to fascinate me for years to come.

Region 1 Director, Chris McClune (WRHX800)

I started radio communications as a child, with a handheld Realistic (Radio Shack) 40 channel CB Radio. Throughout the years, I have continued to appreciate the value of RF communication, as I have been serving the Fire Service in Niagara County since 1994. I have served my community as a Fire Chief for almost 25 of those years. I have been involved with all aspects of public safety, from fire, EMS and auxiliary Police over the years. GMRS is expanding greatly throughout NY State, and I want to be a part of that. I have enjoyed meeting people from the NYS GMRS Alliance radio club, and learned a great deal of how things work, and what limitations are upon us, such as geography, topography, and types of radios being used for this hobby. I also own and operate my own small GMRS repeater in Lockport, NY (Halligan 600). I have 2 daughters and a girlfriend that are awesome, and enjoy camping during the summer months with them. I am considering getting my HAM license sometime in the future.

Region 2 Director, Todd Dobson (WRDN973)

My wife and I reside in Brockport and are the proud parents of three sons. I have been into radios since the early 80s with CB radios, marine radio telephone, two years with GMRS and dabbled with FRS for quite some time. Two-way radio is now part of my everyday life and I enjoy listening to and talking with all the other stations.

Region 3 Director, Dennis Grems (WRPI413)

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Bio coming soon!

Region 9 Director, Mark Ryan (WRMS758)

I was Born and raised in Buffalo NY. I currently live with my wife and 5 kids in The Town of Evan/Angola NY. I got into radio when I was in 5th grade when a friend and I would play animal rescue and find stray cats and hurt birds. They were those telescopic antennas that if you look at them wrong they’d fold over and break. Of course there has to be a better antenna… well one thing lead to another and I was always upgrading my radios from the small FRS to CB base stations. When I was about 13 years old I installed a K40 antenna on my bicycle and in my backpack I had a lawn tractor battery and a 150 watt linear amp connected to a Cherokee AH-27 hand held CB and rode to the top of the Grand Island bridge where I’d shoot skip. Of course nobody believed that I was on a bike with an HT.

Senior year in high school I started working at an amateur radio dealer. This dealer also did some commercial radio on the side for public safety agencies. After the cellphone boom, radios went out and I got laid off. I started working for Sprint PCS who was “building the first digital network from the ground up”. In the early 2000’s I got laid off and went into broadcast engineering after Entercom bought 6 radio stations and wanted them all moved into the same building. That put a whole new spin on radio for me because of all this added audio processing equipment that goes into it plus I got to work on a 110,000 watt transmitter. After getting laid off again, I fell back into the mechanic field.

I currently employed as a diesel mechanic in Buffalo where I do radios, cameras and other repairs.

Repeater Custodian, Andrew Magin (WRCU416)

I started gaining interest in radio when I started playing with CB radios when I was 14 years old. When I made my first DX contact on channel 38lsb, I knew amateur radio was for me. One year later, I acquired my Amateur Radio License and immediately began using local repeaters on two meters and experimenting with HF. I had always had specific interests of re-purposing part 90 radio equipment for hobby use, I also had big interests in radio infrastructure. All of these factors played into my full time career, I worked for two, two way radio dealers until I found myself with Monroe County working as a Public Safety Radio Technician. In addition to this position in Public Safety, I also previously Volunteered at the Bergen Fire Department, and have worked in various Law Enforcement positions.