Born on a Saturday night in the summer of 1961 at; Ullevål hospital in Oslo. (July 15th, for those who want to wish me happy birthday in the years to come). Spent my first couple of years as a nomad, living at a number of different places, before settling down at Etterstad, on the eastern side of Oslo. This led to starting school at Vål'enga elementary school, where I stayed through the first two grades, and also became a member of the school's Marching Band. In my nice blue and white uniform, I marched around town with the rest of the band on our National celebration day, May 17th - 1969, proud as a peacock. All of this took a sudden end though. I started 3rd grade at a different school, a bit further north in Oslo. Not so strange maybe, as my Mom & Dad found out they wanted to move to this part of town called Ammerud. One of the brand new suburbs of Oslo with all the difficulties and troubles that follow new suburbs.
To Groruddalen...and Ammerud
And then it was Ammerud Elementary School, proceeding to Apalløkka Junior High for another three years (Yes, this was the school that got a lot of publicity for having the students sell & buy heavy drugs in the schoolyard. As always a little blown out of proportions, - it was only marihuana.) And I think it was around this time that my desire for being a new great pop or rock artist really emerged. It was mostly the "rockie road" that appealed to me. Sweet, Slade, Nazareth, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were among the great influences, before I became Norways #1 Runaways-fan. I also developed an "fixation" for Rocky Horror Show, and I do not think it was accidental that one of the rock-bands I was in put on a short version of this genious musical. If you've got the nerve, you may take a look at a beautiful picture of myself in the role of Frank N. Furter. A number of groups and school-concerts later, I started to doubt whether this was my course in life after all. I do believe though, that we were in the very top league when it came to pyroeffects, smoke and other things to draw the attention away from what we were playing. The fact that we rehearsed next door to Rolf Graf & Marius Müller, who were to become 2 of Norway's most successful musicans, didn't make it easier for us.
High School Student as opposed to Rockstar
So, I studied science at Sinsen High School, resulting of course in new posibillities and new friends. And not forgetting, - new rock-bands and more school-concerts. (here's another pic.)
I graduated in 1980, (Yes, I did pass all my exams, though it was a close call in some subjects) and moved to Horten, about 60 miles south of Oslo, and got a degree in mechanical engineering at Horten Engineering School. The inspiration was probably not as present as it should be, probably due to the fact that I never really wanted to become a mechanical engineer in the first place.
Tele-Com, Life-Guard, Cab-Driver - and Radio 1
I found my way back to Oslo, where I joined the Telephone company's own school for technicians. (Education paid for by the Government, leaves you without a big debt for getting where you want to)
I worked for the Phone Company and TBK for almost 6 years, before I managed to fight my way into Radio 1.
My first assignment was to make 26 weekly travel-reports from a 6 months honeymoon from basically all of the U.S., starting in June 1986. After that it just started rolling, and the rest of my time at Radio1, as they say, is history. A rather loooooong story though. During witch I had the pleasure of meeting quite a few celebrities.
If you wanna have a look at some of the people I've met and interviewed, you can click on Stein meets Celebs.
As you may understand, it's not very often we do take pictures with the people we interview, but there's been some photos taken along the way.
After 11 years at Radio 1, I quit my job in September 1997. With the arrival of Elmer (my son) and the fact that I had been talking about doing something different for a few years, I took the plunge. Into nothing really. Jeanin, Elmer and myself set out to travel around the world, and we waited until we came back to worry about a new job.
When back in Norway 3 months later, I started working for Company Ralph Bolin, an Event/Marketing company with offices in 8 countries throughout Europe, and I got to be part of their first attempt on the American market, which was a huge success.
But things change so from spring 1998, I will be working most of my time for P4 Event, a company owned by P4 Radio Hele Norge. This also means going back to some radio work, but what and how much, remains to be seen. But you'll find out by tuning in to P4 in Norway (nationwide)..
Apart from this I've also tried a couple of other jobs. I spent some time teaching at elementary and junior high-school, I was a life-guard at one of the local swimmingpools, Tøyenbadet in Oslo. I I also put in quite a few hours & nights as a cab-driver, and of course there's the television bit.
"Over stokk og Stein" on TV
This chapter of my life started with a series of travel-reports for TVNorge, that finally got the title "Over stokk og Stein", a Norwegian saying that has a kind of double meaning, since it involves my name. I hosted 20 shows all together, which allowed me to travel basically all around the world. It started with Reykjavik, St.Petersburg & Venice, but developed to be more exotic places like the Bahamas, Mauritius, Egypt, Mexico, Carribbean Cruise, guesting the Zulu-tribe in South-Africa and a number of trips around the U.S.A..
Most enjoyable of the U.S.A.trips was probably the show on Route 66, where I got to ride a Harley Davidson Heritage Softtail (see pic. at bottom of page), even though my dream is to ride & own an old 
motorcycle. And we also ended up doing a travel show on our expedition to the North Pole in April 1993 (an idea, - that in all humbleness - was mine from the start)
Stein on TV2 - Ærru Gæær'n...
My carreer at TV2 started in March 1995, when I was asked to host the Norwegian Miss Universe Show (Schwiiing). It all went well, so they (TV2) asked me to do another series for the summer, called "Resten av Nyhetene", meaning "The Rest of The News". It was basically an entertainmentshow, with two teams of celebrities that were to figure out if the news we presented in the show were true or false. We shot all 8 shows in the series during a 3 day period in Bergen. And when those shows had all been aired, I was asked to do another series called "Ærr'u Gæær'n", a show based on so called "bloopers" from film and TV all over the world. These were all done "live", on saturday nights all throughout the rest of the year, with reruns continuing throughout the first months of 1996. What happened next..........well......
...and then back to TVNorge through "COLOSSEUM"
...I got back on TVNorge. The production of a new entertainment show - "COLOSSEUM" - took place in October and November 96. The show featured myself and Anne Marie Ottersen as the hosts, and was shot in Stockholm. It was a series of 11 shows, with airing start on January 6th, 1997. A show with a lot of celebrities, and an even longer row of people with different skills and and talents. Not so good reviews and critics this time, but hey!.....Can't win them all.
RadioNett, the very first 100% internet radio in Norway
...was started on December 1st, 1999, by myself, Lise Askvik and Rafiq Charania. We started working on the project from late summer 1999, and were pleased to see that we got it up and running on the date we had set. It was also the very first time in Norwegian radio that anyone did a 2 hour daily talkshow, which was a thrill to do. No producer telling you to cut and go to music, and a very liberal dialog in our studio (which by the way was above my garage at home)
Due to technical problems and a breakup with Rafiq, the radio was put on hold after just 4 months, and I'm not sure if we'll get it going again. However, we were and will always be the very first internetradio in Norway!
With TV2 Summer Tour 2000...
..I went travelling to all different places in Norway. We started the tour: "Kysten er Klar" in Kristiansand, and then went to Bergen, Sandnes, Fredrikstad, Harstad, Skien and Bø, with Arists such as Christian Strand, Kim Kolstad (both from the tv-series Hotel Cæsar), Klovner i Kamp and Infinity. The Scad dive was probably the most popular activity on the tour, when the wind didn't stop us from using it. It was Gunilla Holm and myself that hosted the tour, which was a support tour to the TV-show "By-kampen" on TV2.
...and now he's "behind the Camera" and on "Big Brother"
...as I accepted a job as head of production for a new Travel Series called tur:retur that was aired on TVNorge in the fall of 2000. We went to destinations like the Kenya, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Canada, Portugal and Israel to name the most exciting ones. The host of this show is Mette Aakerholm, with a side-kick host named Lisa Tønne, a stand-up comedian. The shows rated quite good, so TVNorge decided to go for a new round of 8 shows to be prioduced in the spring of 2001 and to be aired in the fall. At first I happily accepted to be part of this next round too, but another tempting off came along that made me reconcider. This means that I'm now the Producer of the TVshow "Big Brother". It's the very first time it's beening produced for the Norwegian television audience, and after 4 weeks of production it's a HUGE success. The ratings are the best in any country Big Brother has been aired, and we have a marketshare of 50% in the targetgroup 15-44, which is extremly good. I'm very happy to be a part of it all, and this will take most of my time until the summer.
Native American Indian art store on the net!
Between all of my projects and work, I've also tried the position of being a shop owner. In November 1995, my girlfriend Jeanin and I opened the first ever Native American Art store in Norway. We opened at Aker Brygge in Oslo, but after a little more than a year, we had to close down, mainly because of our location and the fact that Aker Brygge is a very seasonal place for visitors as well as shoppers. We're not giving up though, and are right now looking for a new and better location. So Indian Trail will rise again. In the meanwhile you can visit our Cyber-store here. We try to show as much as we possibly can of Pottery, Jewelry, Mandellas, Dreamcatchers and Chokers as well as Skulls, Hides, War-Bonnets and Tomahawks. If you have any questions or want to order something, just mail us, and we'll send you the goods to whereever you want it.
Our family
As you should have figured out by now, I'm living with my girlfriend Jeanin (29) and my little son Elmer (4). Sadly, our beloved and huge dog Zombie died just a few days after X-mas 1998, but at 11 and a half years he had a long and good life. Elmer and Zombie got to be really good friends, though Elmer will probably don't remember much of this as he grows older.
We all live in our own house at a place called Kløfta just north of Oslo, where we all like it a lot.
One of my deep passions is Pinball. No, your eyes didn't fool you. I did say Pinball. I just love these good old machines (the new ones too, for that matter) that aren't just digital fighting games. And this may also be the reason why three of these beauties ("Elvira, and the Party Monsters", "Radical" and "Six Million Dollar Man") have found their way down in my basement.. I'm also, like most guys, like a kid when I can run around the gadget stores in New York city, to buy a lot of stupid but fun, electronic, small things you never thought you'd see..
If you you like, you could mail me at: stein@johnsen.com
And finally, here's a picture of Stein, on his horse, ready to go out on Route 66......."Live to Ride!!.
And if you think I can't handle a REAL horse, look here..
This page was last updated on March 21st, 2001
