3FM made unknown bands big in its heyday, after which commercial stations also started playing their music. Now that the youth channel has lost a lot of market share, making bands big is more difficult, says Qmusic. “3FM started running Kensington and Chef’Special before we got started. Actually, nobody benefits from a channel like 3FM that has become so small and therefore no longer has that impact ”, says Rob Ester, music director of Qmusic of podcast ‘Off You Is Harder’.
The music director of Qmusic points out that 3FM has also put foreign acts on the map. “Like Mumford & Sons and Kings of Leon, who were really the cross-over made to Qmusic and Radio 538. Now that happens less, yes. While it is a genre of music that suits us. ”
According to Rob, it is more difficult for a channel like Q to get the (new) currants out. “After all, there aren’t ten Kensingtons; there is only one. A channel like 3FM has much more space. They have also tried nine different rock bands, which we have now all forgotten. We cannot try everything, we have to think much more about our market share. ”
15 years of Qmusic
Where 3FM has seen its market share drop sharply in recent years, Qmusic’s figures have climbed right up, breaking fifteen-year records this year. Rob Ester was involved with the station from day one.
In the podcast he admits that he was initially not interested in ‘Het Foute Uur’. “Nice to play a crazy song once, but bad music every day for an hour, how do you get it into your head?” I thought. “We had really good conversations about it at the time. But we realized very quickly: this is just fun, this works very well. It is the Top 2000 without grumpiness. ”
Qmusic still manages to attract a lot of listeners with ‘Het Geluid’. “To be clear: the DJs really don’t know what the sound is. Within Qmusic there are about five people who know ”, says Rob.
Foto: Nathan Reinds | NPO 3FM
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