Jakob Sæthre Skarstein (7 June 1921 – 6 August 2021) was a Norwegian journalist and radio presenter/personality.

Biography

He was born in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

as the son of civil engineer Karl Skarstein (1892–1941) and Svanhild Sæthre (1898–1941). After taking his

examen artium Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1 ...

in 1940 he moved to

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

in 1941, where he took miscellaneous education and jobs. He participated in the Bergens Dramatiske Klubb, illegal during the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. In May 1945, when it became clear that

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

would lose

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Skarstein was asked to prepare free radio broadcasts to be used after the liberation. The Germans left the radio studio of Bergen— in Strandgaten—on 9 May. On that day, Skarstein's first radio broadcast took place. He was soon employed by the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the larges ...

, and spent his career at the regional office in Bergen, with short exceptions. He is especially known for the program ''Middagsstunden'', created in 1966. During the

Bergen International Festival Bergen International Festival ( no, Festspillene i Bergen) is an annual international music and cultural festival in Bergen, Norway. Biography The Bergen International festival is the largest festival in the Nordic countries in its genre and ha ...

he headed the program ''Festspillopper''. In 1965 he married his assistant from the latter program, later television presenter and politician Inger-Lise Skarstein. Skarstein also wrote ballads,

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own du ...

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s and participated in amateur theatre. He wrote a songbook for the city of Bergen, ''Den nystemte'', which was released in 1973 and re-released in 1993. Skarstein celebrated his 100th birthday in June 2021 and died two months later on 6 August.

References

1921 births 2021 deaths Norwegian centenarians Men centenarians Journalists from Bergen Norwegian radio personalities Norwegian radio presenters NRK people People from Ålesund Mass media people from Bergen {{Norway-journalist-stub