Patrick Kicken: Radio Veronica and Giel’s failed marriage

[BLOG] Friday was the day. Something that had been buzzing for a year or two and that Giel herself regularly mocked (shouting ‘this was the last’ on the last Friday of the month) has happened: the difficult marriage between Beelen and Radio Veronica was dissolved. The estate was divided. And Giel waved off with screeching straps, leaving his armor behind. Where did it go wrong and what can we learn from that?

I was also happy for my old cluppie, which I put my heart & soul into for 12 years when Giel came on board with Veronica in the fall of 2017. It was even a press alert at the ANP. That promises what I thought back then. The station was again led by the man who also contributed to the success of Radio Veronica (6.5% market share), Uunco Cerfontaine. Couldn’t go wrong anymore I thought. Yet it was already a bit rumbled behind the scenes. The rest of the jocks were promised at the Talpa Radio Group’s takeover of Veronica & Sky that the station would become a kind of 538 from the 90’s. With the nice (dance) guys from back then. Accompanied by the voices of Van Nieuwenhuize, Ruyer and Klijn you could evoke that feeling again.

It was not. Cerfontaine logically chose what made Radio Veronica so successful in the period 2003-2010 and that was pop / rock. That is what the station was and is known for. Giel Beelen fitted that picture perfectly, with his image of sleeping in a tent every day and counting down until the festival season starts again. The other jocks grumbled about it, but it is not really motivating if you are promised something else of course. So that’s where all the ‘hassle’ started.

Of course it is always cool when the most famous deejay in the Netherlands comes to strengthen the ranks. That also lifts you as a jock, such a star player in the team. But Giel wanted to be Giel again from the successful years of 3FM and there he made the first fallacy. This is Radio Veronica, not 3FM. So you adapt to the Radio Veronica listener, not the other way around. You investigate what your target group wants, you don’t shove them in their face because ‘I am Giel’. Like those live bands early in the morning. In the successful years of 3FM, with a much younger target group, you got away with that. But in the past it has been shown time and again that hardly anyone at Veronica is waiting for that in the morning. Then why do it anyway, to the point? Or long telephone conversations with hip artists that you know and like, but not the average Veronica listener.

Then there was the ‘live meeting’ from 5:30 am to 6 am on the channel. Where Giel’s team went on-air with him to discuss what they were going to do in the show. Nice for once, at most. But not every day. Tune out factor. You don’t sit there for your own fun, you sit there for the listener. And he just wants to start his or her day with a good mix of fun items and cool music. Also so early yes. The on-air meeting that also regularly caused a riot, because Giel unprepared, sat down to talk about the Michael Jackson documentary.

The umpteenth riot was born, something Giel found difficult to get rid of in his Veronica time. Barely six months after he started in the morning at the commercial channel, there was already the comic strip with Tim Knol. Where the tone was set and Beelen caused quite a bit of bad blood. Radio Veronica should have known better after the fiasco with Robert Jensen at the end of 2009, after which I had to go headlong again at the beginning of 2010 because after six months it turned out that Jensen and the Veronica radio audience were not a match. They like friendly radio, not too difficult, not too highbrow, with a likeable figure. And you can say a lot about Giel, he is super famous, has fans, but also a lot of haters. He has an ‘image problem’ they also found out at Radio Veronica after 1.5 years, he could do little good with their listeners, many well-intentioned things were also misinterpreted.

Instead of doing something about it, Giel actually only made things worse for himself, by not only working on-air but also online mainly with himself. A photo from the gym every day. “Look at me hanging on the ropes.” And I will probably forget some riots. Giel said on his farewell show that this is not where he should be. That he wants to make radio again without armor, nice and free, with listeners shit and play all kinds of music instead of the commercially well-tested records. Yet I think that is a certificate of incapacity. Then you are not a professional disc jockey but a spoiled hobbyist who mainly wants to do what he likes.

It is also almost impossible, after 20 years of 3FM, great success years, a lot of (musical) freedom suddenly go to the commercial. I’ve been lucky in my 10 years at 3FM that I never really got beyond weekends, daytime raids, and nighttime shows, which made me happy to give up those freedoms for a set time in the morning. I got my fun out of the items, cut callers shorter, one / two with the sidekick / newsreader and most of all, scoring a lot of (positive) free publicity for the station. The music was secondary to me. Giel thought he would make Radio Veronica a kind of 3FM for adults, especially with the hope of the arrival of Rob Stenders and / or Michiel Veenstra. And yes, I too was guilty of blaming the music, when the fun stopped for me after ten years or so Veronica. But the music is never to blame. Neither does the listener. You are to blame for not being able to deliver what once made you so successful.

What now with Veronica?

Let’s make it two-blogs-in-one anyway, since we also need to talk about Giel’s succession. Like Spreek Buis already announced a good two weeks ago Will it be Wilfred Genee in combination with Florentien Goedhart (that’s how I keep calling her, it’s your stage name after all) what we also reported last weekend. In a two-hour morning show. Four times a week. Hmm, yes that’s very skimpy. A two-hour morning show, I wouldn’t even set the alarm for it. If you have started up properly (because you have to in the morning) it is already over. Very different dynamics than at the end of the day. It is that I really like Wilfred that I give him the benefit of the doubt in this construction, but it is again ‘on his Talpas’. Where they apparently firmly believe in two-hour radio shows, after public example. Sigh. And then also with four different voices, callers and a lot of advertising: that will be no more than six / seven records per hour.

The afternoon show timeslot is now available, actually they have a disc jockey shortage at Veronica now, but they probably know how to come up with something internally. In Germany they just put on a tight jock that repeats the highlights from the morning. Could be easy here too. Just also Veronica Inside in the afternoon, I also watch the TV version when it suits me. But I haven’t been hoping for modern ways of listening back to the national commercial stations for a long time. Especially keep thinking old-fashioned! Just a jock with a sidekick and a newsreader, cheerful music, giving away prizes, playing records, phone calls in the show and especially many celebrities, as has been heard for 25 years. In that respect, you can just as well all of us Eddy Keur put there. If we do choose that style, then that is the man who still does it best: atmospheric personality radio. Just whether Rob van Someren is so happy with that? The two Talpa stations 10 and Veronica often compete with each other in the field of music, for example with both an 80’s list, so also in the style of afternoon show.

Patrick kicking

–