Jay Tuck

Jay Nelson Tuck, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York as son of newspaper journalist Jay Nelson Tuck.[1] He attended Wayne High School in New Jersey and studied at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. There he shot his first student films, The Date[2] and Short Circuit.[3] During his studies he also held jobs as a student economist at the Federal Trade Commission, the US Treasury and as a social worker in Harlem. Tuck began his journalistic career at age twenty as radio reporter for WYSO, the college's FM station.[4]

As a recognized conscientious objector during the Vietnam War he travelled to Germany, where he served his two-year civilian service in Hamburg. During this time, Tuck shot various amateur films, including Good Day[5] with the British rock group Nektar.

His German media career began in 1971 as a free-lancer for local TV at Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in Hamburg, where he interviewed many entertainment personalities, including Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen and Andy Warhol.[6] For thirty years, Jay Tuck was employed full-time by NDR and the ARD network, first as investigative reporter for NDR-Panorama and WDR-Monitor, later as war correspondent in both Gulf Wars.[7]

In Germany, reportage from Jay Tuck appeared in Stern, Der Spiegel, Die Welt, Zeit-Dossier and Zeit-Magazin. Internationally he has written for Oggi (Italy), Panorama and Nieuwe Revu (Netherlands), Vi Menn (Norway), Le Point (France), Playboy (Germany) and Time Magazine (USA).[8]

After retiring from ARD German Television, Jay Tuck founded Airtime Dubai Ltd[9] in the United Arab Emirates, an international media company[10] with close contacts to the Arab broadcasters of the region. His weekly technology magazine Understanding Tomorrow (عن كثب) was on-air for five years and watched by 40 million viewers on Al-Jazeera (Arabic). Airtime Dubai also produces corporate image videos.[11] Its music arm, Airtime Records, released the top-selling CD "Dubai Nights, Volume One".[12]

Tuck has continued his work behind the microphone since his university days, as radio DJ on the north German FM station NDR-2 ("Die Jay Tuck Show") and in commercials and cinema trailers.[13] His voice can be heard on hundreds of TV commercials,[14] and as the narrator of the Hollywood thriller Alone in the Dark starring Christian Slater.[15]

Jay Tuck during the Siberian Ice Marathon in Omsk, Russia, 2001

Tuck is a long-distance runner. In the year 2000 he became the first American to run the Siberian Ice Marathon[16] in Omsk, Russia.