If any of you want to make sure that you stay up-to-date with the updates but don't always get round to checking this blog, just subscribe to Feedblitz (on the right-hand-side of this page). That way you will receive the new blog entries directly by email.
For now, check out the following update from ex-MTV Europe Veejay Ingo Schmoll:
Hi Simone,
It's really interesting to read and find out about the destiny of my former MTV colleagues. Firstly, a big hello to all of you wherever you are !
As for myself I nowadays live in the country side about 40 minutes outside of Cologne in Germany. After my gig at MTV I continued hosting tv shows for another few years in Germany. Every now and then I would bump into Ray Coked who hosted a radio show for a station in Berlin which was located right next to the studios of Deutsche Welle TV worldservice where I was hosting a show every Saturday until 1999. The truth is that I got extremely fed up with tv after that, particularly German tv, because most of it is total rubbish in my opinion and it gets worth every time I turn on the tv (which I hardly do anymore). But right after MTV I also re-joined WDR- EinsLive radio which is Germanys most successful radio station for people between 16-35 years of age. This is where I still work nowadays hosting several shows every week. The station really sticks out of the ordinary and boring German programming on other radio and tv stations. Most likely you could compare it to BBC's Radio One.
Besides I still produce music every now and then at my studio with a friend of mine. Our latest "product" was a pop track sung by Snap's former singer Thea Austin (I know they had several singers, but Thea did "Rhythm is a dancer" for example). The track was licensed to EMI who never released it, but they paid for it anyway :-) Somehow it got a release in Russia though and landed at number 12 in the Russian Pop Charts. But I never made any money from that as it was released over there by the Russian mafia (or their affiliates...).
Sometimes I also produce television features (including portraits of actors for example) or even advertising (e.g. for Mircosoft although I am a die hard Apple user !). Also I do quite a bit of voice over work. For example dubbing characters on South Park for German tv or characters in Playstation games such as Spiderman.
My latest venture is fulfilling an old childhood dream of mine: becoming a puppeteer of several Muppet-like characters on a tv show that is currently in the planning stages. It will be a puppet show for adults and I have been training puppeteer-ing (doing the voices and playing) some of the characters last week. It's been great fun ! So this is it for the "professional" part of my life.
As for my personal life: I do own a dog that actually looks like a muppet called Josefine (breed: Bearded Collie, age: 10). Maybe you remember me getting married to Janelle who worked in the AR department at MTV. We actually got divorced in 1998 on "good terms" as they say. Janelle went back to Australia after that. My girl friend Anna (who studies Design in Cologne) lives with me nowadays. Whenever we can we travel. Next stop: Snowboarding in Austria in February next year. Can't wait ! Hopefully someday we'll even visit Belize !
Sometimes I talk to Thomas Markert (Ex MTV On-Air, nowadays hotshot at Nick Networks in New York) through my webcam via Apple's iChat. He's working really hard. I can always see him online on my Instant Messenger when he's in the office which is most of the time (then again is this a surprise for any of us ? We're talking working for an MTV affiliate here ;-)
Finally I sometimes bump into Steve Blame in Cologne. He speaks German really well nowadays. I hope all of you are doing great, but from what I read here it seems like it.
Happy 2006 to all of you!
Take care, Ingo
RSS Feed
