Jesper Baehrenz

Jesper Baehrenz (born September 8, 1965) is a Danish radio host, television host, producer, board game developer and screenwriter. From the early 1990s he has been among Denmark’s most popular radio hosts and has developed/created and / or hosted some of Denmark's most popular radio programs. He has also been part of several TV successes and have interviewed or worked with a wide range of Danish and International superstars. He has done major solo interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, U2, Genesis, Smokey Robinson, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams and Annie Lennox.

Outside broadcasting, he has maintained a creative career as a concept developer, board game producer and screenwriter, often with his wife Mette Lisby through their creative production company, VIVE Productions.

Youth and early radio career

Jesper Baehrenz was born in Herning, Denmark, where he became part of the de-nationalization of Danish radio at age 18, in the wave of new, private, local radio start-ups in 1983. Local station Radio Herning invited him, along with four other young people, to spend 15 minutes each week to talk about a particular music genre. Baehrenz ended up having to talk about a genre he didn’t know anything about: Reggae. But this task taught him the art of research, and eventually he got more and more air time on the growing station. He spent all his time outside his high school and preliminary business school studies on producing radio, and soon became a popular radio host in the area.

When Danish radio entrepreneur Glenn Lau Rentius left Copenhagen's most popular radio station, The Voice, and launched a competing station, Radio Uptown,^[1] he invited then 22-year-old Jesper Baehrenz to Copenhagen to become the morning host and Program Director at the station – The youngest Program Director ever in Denmark. This combination resulted in a working day lasting from six in the morning to ten at night.

Next, he hosted shows on the local TV station Kanal København, and was hired as a journalist at the monthly music magazine MIX, where he worked from 1988 to 1989. It was here that he met a popular DJ from the DR (The Danish National Broadcasting Corporation), Alex Nyborg Madsen. Baehrenz laid upon Madsen a criticism of the DR’s most youth-oriented channel, P3, stating that the station should play more top 40 hits. Alex Nyborg Madsen reciprocated this challenge by asking Baehrenz to do a better job at P3 himself.

DR

Jesper Baehrenz started working at P3 on the nightly broadcast Syveren,^[2] partnering with legendary Danish DJ Kim Schumacher on a special part of the program focusing on new music. The same partnership continued in the program Studio 89, where Schumacher and Baehrenz took turns at hosting the show, which presented the newest tracks from around the world. Baehrenz quickly became involved in several projects at P3, especially over the weekends, where he hosted shows such as Hit På Hit, Sport på 3’eren, and Ring et nummer. He also started the popular P3 interview show Kronsj.

Outside his expanding radio career, he also found time to join the team behind the popular dating show Knald eller Fald on the Danish affiliate of the pan-Scandinavian TV station, TV3. Knald eller Fald was hosted by popular TV host and singer Anders Frandsen,^[3] who was chosen to be the Danish entry for the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest. Jesper Baehrenz followed Frandsen, reporting from the international contest and producing the warm-up show on Danish TV.

Strax

After being the host and producer of several individual television music documentaries, and being a reporter on music show 3773-Hitservice, Jesper Baehrenz went back to radio, hosting P3 shows such as the early morning show Go'morgen P3 and the afternoon show Maskinen. These gigs led to a regular hosting position on the hugely popular daily show Strax, as well as the weekend program Varm Weekend.^[4]

Strax was one of the most formidable successes P3 has ever had, and Jesper Baehrenz 'popularity grew in step with the program. Strax made Jesper Baehrenz a household name in Denmark, which led to several high-profile appearances on TV, like hosting the DR’s New Year's Eve shows from 1994 to 1996. His popularity also led to film roles, playing himself in the Academy Award -nominated Ernst og Lyset (1996) and Den Attende (1996).^[5]

Baehrenz dove into TV once more with the quiz program Stjernetegn (Starsign), which he hosted 150 episodes of in the period 1996–1997. Afraid of becoming a “quiz host” for life, however, Baehrenz left the show and went back to radio.

With a Z

Jesper Baehrenz was now so popular that DR decided to let him create something of his own on a big budget. He got his own radio show every Saturday morning on P3 in 1997. The program was called With a Z and drew a very large audience, Saturday after Saturday. The program was an entertainment program in the classic, live talk show genre, with a studio audience, celebrity guests and a range of activities. For example, the many music stars who performed live on the show were also to paint a paintings, which later was then auctioned off, raising money for the Danish AIDS Foundation. Over the course of a year, more than 200.000 dollars was raised for the organization.

Many of these musical guests were international superstars, amongst them Lenny Kravitz, The Corrs, Sinéad O'Connor, Andrew Strong and Genesis.

In addition, almost all the major Danish music names of the day performed on the show. The show, which was conceived by Baehrenz himself, was among the most popular radio shows during that period, with ratings that have yet to be beaten.

Tæskeholdet

Even with "With a Z" being a massive success every Saturday, Jesper Baehrenz also found time to be a co-hosting producer on Tæskeholdet which ran every Friday morning on P3. The program was a series of crazy, chaotic live programs with ultrapopular stand up-comedian Casper Christensen as the main host, surrounded by other key figures from the Danish stand up-scene of the day, such as Jan Gintberg, Mads Vangsø and Søren Søndergaard.^[6] Tæskeholdet and With a Z were the two biggest radio successes in Denmark in 1997/1998.

Jesper Baehrenz spent 1998 producing television. Among other things, he joined the team behind the TV production of Jagten på Sandheden, hosted by the popular comedic team of Timm and Gordon.

Højtryk and Millennium Broadcast

Baehrenz 'next radio success was the summer program Højtryk in 1999. Again, he had invented the concept behind the program himself. The show transmitted from towns all over Denmark through the summer, bringing local events to national attention. The program was a huge success, which DR and Baehrenz repeated in 2001.

Jesper Baehrenz also led Denmark into the new Millennium together with TV celebrity Natascha Crone, when they hosted the 11-hour-long New Year’s Eve live broadcast on DR in 1999/2000. The program started at 3pm and ended at 2 in the morning and parts of the program were sent out to the whole world in a huge, International television co-broadcast.

Baehrenz once again returned to the familiar framework of radio at DR, where he took the With a Z concept on the road with a large, nationwide tour. This time the show as called Z-Up 2000, and a follow-up show was also broadcast under the moniker Z-Up Light.

Marriage

In 2001, Jesper Baehrenz married the popular television host, actor, screenwriter and stand-up comedian Mette Lisby in the Danish Sailor's Church in Singapore, where the couple was working on the 2001 edition of Højtryk. The press did not find about the wedding for another three weeks.

Again in 2004, Jesper Baehrenz ventured into television production and writing, when he became executive producer and writer on Knock Out, a talk show / interview program, based on the British concept Room 101. Mette Lisby hosted the show.

The couple had already worked together on another production, the TV and DVD release One Woman Comedy, a recording of one of Lisby’s live shows, which went platinum in 2001.

London

In 2005, Baehrenz and Lisby moved to London to expand their activities within their newly formed company, VIVE Productions. Baehrenz made a minor comeback on the radio in the form of two shows on Sky Radio, which had just been re-launched in Denmark at the time. Baehrenz hosted the chart show Z-listen Saturday mornings, and Brunch with Baehrenz Sunday mornings, transmitting from his own studio in London.

Through VIVE Productions Jesper Baehrenz now ventured into developing entertainment concepts for other platforms. This led to the development and production of a series of board games, a product line that is still very active in VIVE Productions' subsidiary NoDice Board Games. Among other games, NoDice produced the best-selling "Master of" series for Nordisk Film in Scandinavia, and the board game based on the incredibly popular Danish TV comedy Klovn. The company has sold over 500,000 games worldwide.

Stephen K Amos

While living in London, Jesper Baehrenz and Mette Lisby wrote material for the ultra-popular British stand-up comedian Stephen K. Amos. Besides the material itself, Baehrenz was also responsible for the general composition of Amos’ shows. So far, this co-operation has resulted in two shows, Stephen K Amos Gets Next To You and the even more popular Stephen K Amos' Find The Funny,^[7] which in addition to its success in the United Kingdom also led to a sold-out tour of Australia and a DVD release in the UK and Australian markets.^[8]

Los Angeles

In 2009 Lisby and Baehrenz moved to Los Angeles where they continue their activities through VIVE Productions. The couple is working on several screenplays and TV concepts.

In 2009 they created the Scandinavian version of the highly popular Disney Channel sitcom "As The Bell Rings", and they also wrote scripts for the first season's 25 episodes, slated for release under the Scandinavian title Når Klokken Ringer in February 2010.^[9]

References

External links

Vive Productions Website http://www.vive-productions.com