Mark Schroeder has been involved in racing all of his life, and has competed with his Devastator monster truck for more than ten years. This year Schroeder was given the opportunity to join Scott Douglass in the broadcast booth for SPEED television broadcasts of Monster Jam in addition to driving his truck, providing technical analysis and color commentary for all shows. We caught up with Mark for his thoughts and experiences on the television side of Monster Jam recently.

What led you into doing television for Monster Jam on SPEED?

I began announcing about ten years ago at a show when my friend Jeff Perrin needed someone. I got a good response out of that, and did a show in Crandon, Wisconsin that some people at Live Nation saw and enjoyed, so that is where the beginnings were. As far as television, at the time I was up for two awards during the awards banquet in Las Vegas, but they didn’t want to tell me about them beforehand, so they invited me to be a pit reporter while I was there during the show. They kept the secret, and I was told that I did a good job in the pits, so I remained doing that and have been for several years now. After that, I was invited into the booth with Scott Douglass and Ken Stout to do some voice work, and now I’m in the booth full-time in addition to driving.

Is television something you have always wanted to do, or was it something you stumbled upon?

To be really honest, it’s not something I ever aspired to do; it kind of fell into my lap. I didn’t think I was anything great, but the response kind of snowballed and I kept getting requested to announce at shows and things like that. I like to be entertaining, fun, and at the same time informative whether I’m announcing or in the booth. It’s nice to get a great response from those that watch me, but at the same time I’m not a fan of tooting my own horn. Once I started doing the television thing, I found that I really enjoyed it; I enjoy talking about something I know and love. I have had great people by my side and great people to learn from in Scott Douglass and Ken Stout. They welcomed me with open arms, and they are the best in the business. To have the opportunity to learn from them and emulate them is great.

Take us through the experience you have being a part of the television process.

Well, I am at a few shows when I’m not driving. The shows are posted in a studio and I enjoy being part of our production team. Again, working with Scott has been great, and there isn’t a lot of downtime for the whole process. Things are busy and I have been doing my best to keep up with everything and give great information for both new fans and the diehards.

What are your goals as far as being on television, both for the short-term and long-term?

As far as short-term, I want to get viewers’ input, and have that be a part of the show. I thought if they had questions about a previous show or a question for Scott or me, we could have the fans e-mail or ask us questions about everything. Long-term, I want to keep doing this as long as the viewers will have me! I’m happy now, and I want to continue for a long time, but my main focus is on 2008, right now. I want to bring the viewers the best technical aspect of the show that they’ve ever seen. I want to educate both the new fans and the ones that are already into monster trucks.

What is your favorite part of the television process so far?

Just the opportunity to bring the fans the information they want to see has been great. I like being able to give them clear information from an experienced, educated perspective and give them a better understanding of what may be going on with the truck or inside a driver’s head as the show is going on. I may be a driver and entertainer, but I’m still a fan of Monster Jam as well, and now a color analyst, so I can bring many different perspectives to the show, and that is what I hope to do for a long time.