‘Rob van Someren leaves Radio Veronica’, RadioFreak wrote exactly ten years ago, in the summer of 2014. The radio DJ has to make way for Jeroen van Inkel and loses his afternoon show on Radio Veronica. Rob goes to court to contest his dismissal. Although the outcome of that lawsuit is never known, according to Rob the judge is said to have said “that the way they (Radio Veronica, ed.) did it was wrong and should have been more careful.”
Nevertheless, the contract between Rob and Radio Veronica is terminated, ending a series of lawsuits. Less than two months later, Rob moves to Radio 10, to continue his afternoon show there. With success, because for almost ten years ‘Somertijd’ is one of the anchors in the programming of Radio 10.
History repeats itself
The story of 2014 is almost identical to that of today. Last May, Rob was told that he would lose his afternoon program on Radio 10 and would have to move to the weekend. Again, Rob took his employer to court, again the judge ruled in Rob’s favor and again, the radio DJ eventually switched to another station, in order to continue making his baby ‘Somertijd’: on 100% NL this time.
“I just can’t stand injustice,” says Rob in The Telegraph about why he filed the lawsuits. “The moment you make agreements, you should not go behind my back and do things that we did not agree on.”
Non-competition clause off the table
Radio 10 director Dave Minneboo recently apologized in the same newspaper. “I communicated my decision to move ‘Somertijd’ to the weekend as a fait accompli, while I should have taken it into account more in the decision-making process.”
After the summary proceedings, Rob and Radio 10 still reach an agreement. What it contains remains secret, but according to Telegraaf journalist Jordi Versteegden, the non-competition clause that Rob once signed at Radio 10 is off the table. That seems plausible, since Rob can already be heard on 100% NL this fall and he does not deny the clause’s cancellation.
For comparison: Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga were not heard on the radio for more than half a year, after they left Radio 538 and switched to JOE. The reason for that long radio silence? The non-competition clause.
Flame not out yet
Radio 10 is also said to have abandoned its appeal after the court ruled in another lawsuit last May that Rob is retroactively entitled to several substantial salary increases over several years. In short: the radio DJ will still receive the large sums of money from the station he is now leaving.
Rob calls his departure from Radio 10 ‘the result of their own decision’. “Nobody can blame me for that. I can’t help Radio 10 improve their position in the radio landscape by moving to the weekend. I can do that at 100% NL. The flame is not out yet for me”, says Rob in The Telegraph.
Photo: Radio 10
