by Bjӧrn K. Johansson
I grew up and am still based in Malmö, which is a Swedish city connected to Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s a wonderful place, but I’ve also had the privilege of spending time in other cities. I love California and all it has to offer, especially San Diego. I can also recommend Berlin and Nice in France.
I come from a family of classical musicians with both my parents being concert pianists. I, of course, love this genre of music too and while growing up even did some opera singing and I performed some parts in musicals around Sweden. I also liked other genres of music and bringing home a CD of the Backstreet Boys automatically made me a teenage rebel!
I am a writer and a motivational speaker. I started my career in advertising as a copywriter (which is also my degree). While working on a script intended for a TV commercial, I suddenly fell in doubt as to whether the jokes I was writing were funny enough or not. I managed to get a three minute spot at a comedy club and it all went pretty well. I started to get booking requests as a comedian and they also offered me a job to co-host a show on Swedish Public Radio. As if this wasn’t enough, I founded a production company and an advertising agency. Does it sound like too much to do? Well, it was! I got completely burnt-out. A couple of months later I had a car accident.
I’m currently doing a speech based on my experience where I’m trying to motivate my audience to be constructive in setbacks and turn their limitations into possibilities. I also have an upcoming writing project which is a blog (Gentleman on the Loose) on lifestyle and travel. I’m really excited about this as it launches at the end of January. I assure you MTIM will definitely be written about!
My therapist told me to start singing again, and it’s the best thing I’ve done in many years. I do classics and standards. I’ve been asked to record it and I’ve said yes. So hopefully this will be released next year.
Over the years I’ve grown to love the standards such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett (and later Michael Bublé) and have never gotten tired of listening to them. It was actually while visiting my neurologist’s office that I discovered MITM. Usually doctors never listen to music as it’s an unwritten law they have to obey, so imagine my surprise when walking in to his office and hearing this great music playing. I said to him, “Good music! What are you listening to?” He replied, “Oh, is there music on? I didn’t even pay attention. It must be my assistant. I’ll turn it off.” I told him not to as it seems like a good channel. My doctor later admitted to me that he was the one who turned on MITM (but don’t tell anyone). Soon I was also listening everywhere I went, in my office, at home and in my car. I tell everyone to listen to this great station and I’ve even given out a lot of the listener cards, which I got while visiting MITM the last time I was in California. I’ve given out the cards in over eight countries. Now that’s “Sharing the Martini!”
You can tell right away that MTIM is built on love, joy and passion. That’s what makes it so good. And the name is really catchy too. Not like the usual K-Whatever.
MTIM is a great trademark. You know immediately what it’s all about and you keep on listening to it. Having all of the world’s radio stations and music services in your phone makes you change channels a lot, but MTIM’s unique character makes you want to stay tuned.