Milovan Ilić (; 5 November 1938 – 10 February 2005), better known by his nickname and

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Minimaks ( sr-Cyrl, Минимакс), was a Serbian radio and television personality.

Early life

He was born on 5 November 1938 in the village of Lipnica near

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the List of cities in Serbia, fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Se ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. He completed primary and secondary school in Kragujevac, and studied law in Belgrade. He started in the satirical magazine ''Jež'', and in 1960 he moved to

Radio Belgrade Radio Belgrade (, ) is a state-owned and operated radio station in Belgrade, Serbia. It has four different programs (Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, Radio Belgrade 3, and Radio Belgrade 202), a precious archive of several hundreds of thousa ...

Career

He became known as the leader of the radio program ''Minimaks''. This program was broadcast on Radio Belgrade in the 1970s. "Minimaks" was one of the first programmes in which there was a lot of popular music and its motto was "minimum talk, maximum music". He was one of the first unconventional journalists in

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

who inserted jokes, witty remarks and jingles between the standard radio host notices. With shows ''Sutra je petak'' (It's Friday Tomorrow) and ''Tačno u podne'' (Exactly at noon), better known as ''Tup-Tup'', which he hosted for 22 years, he achieved great success. After cutting of his radio show, he continued his career on the

Radio Television of Serbia The Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly referred to as Radio Television of Serbia (), or RTS (), is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Serbia. RTS has four organizational units – radio, television, music pro ...

, where he led the program ''Od glave do pete'' (From head to toe). However, the show was taken off air in the 1990. He moved to

RTV Politika RTV Politika () was a major Serbian TV station, owned by Politika AD, that was on the air from June 28, 1990 until December 31, 2010. It was founded on June 28, 1990 and it was a majority-owned subsidiary of the aforementioned Politika AD media ...

where he hosted show ''Minimaksovizija''. He later led shows ''Minimaksovizija'', ''Maksovizija'', ''Sunday with Minimaks'' and ''Fonto'' at

TV Pink Pink is a privately owned, national brand of radio stations and TV channels in Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem ...

and TV Palma. Throughout his time on radio and television he promoted numerous up-and-coming folk singers, most notably

Lepa Brena Lepa may refer to: People * Astrid Lepa (1924–2015), Estonian actress and director * Margus Lepa (born 1953), Estonian radio journalist and actor Places * Palma de Mallorca Airport, assigned the ICAO code LEPA * Lepa, Samoa village in Samoa ...

, even giving her the stage name. Through his programs passed a large number of Serbian singers, musicians, actors, politicians and other public figures. For each guest Minimaks was thoroughly prepared using comprehensive documentation and news. He is the author of several books

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

s and songs, as well as many columns in various newspapers. With his wife Biljana he had a daughter Hannah and son Vladimir, and from the first marriage, son Igor. He worked with and knew many Balkan singers, including being manager to

Silvana Armenulić Zilha Armenulić (née Bajraktarević; 10 February 1939 – 10 October 1976), known professionally as Silvana Armenulić (), was a Yugoslavian singer-songwriter and actress and one of the most prominent commercial folk music and traditional se ...

, until her death in a car crash in 1976.

Ksenija Pajčin Ksenija Pajčin (, 3 December 1977 – 16 March 2010) was a Serbia, Serbian singer, dancer and model (person), model popular in Serbia and the other Yugoslavia#New states, former Yugoslav republics. Sometimes referred to as Xenia or Ksenia. Biogr ...

worked as his assistant while trying to make a name for herself in the 1990s.

Death

At the end of 2004, Minimaks received a

liver transplant Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a Liver disease, diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person (allograft). Liver transplantation is a treatment option for Cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and ...

at the clinic of the

University of Padova The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

, where he died on 10 February 2005 at age 66.

References

External links

Interviews

Interviews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minimaks 1938 births 2005 deaths People from Kragujevac Yugoslav journalists Serbian television personalities Serbian journalists Liver transplant recipients