[BLOG] Report something on time to Radio Veronica, since they are owned by John de Mol’s Talpa, they are no longer so fond of it. There will come a day when we have to wait until 4 p.m. on a weekday who will be heard again in the near future. Yet you can often add 1 and 1 or there is such a buzzing rumor buzzing through Hilversum that it is already clear. Now again: after years of flirting with De Bergweg in Hilversum, Rob Stenders goes to Radio Veronica to do the (early) afternoon show. Tim Klijn moves up a spot. And much more.
It is starting to become a nice group of friends over there at Talpa Radio. With the departure of Dave Minneboo to QMusic to overthrow his baby Radio 538, which, according to the latest listening figures, is quite successful, our aged teenagers Coen & Sander, together with Ome Ekdom, did their very best to support their former BNNVARA colleague Marc Adriani. And with success, it was he and not NPO chief Indian Jurre Bosman who himself was absent. So it makes sense that this trend of favoritism was continued. Menno de Boer, who sometimes released a critical note on Coen & Sander, had to leave and will soon be replaced by Coco Hermans, from the same circle of friends.
Florent Luyckx once became interim boss at Radio Veronica because he would just catch Rob Stenders. Despite plenty of tug of war and here and there a clumsy slip of the tongue from Stenders on-air with the announcement that ‘John wants us’, it all fell through, while there had already been plenty of discussions about the new course that Radio Veronica had to take, in the garden at Rob’s home in Almere, with various hot shots from the radio world. Veenstra, Beelen, Hoebee: all from Robbie’s inner circle. All good at nodding yes and saying: Rob, what do you know about it.
The best man also understands radio, of course. But the future will tell whether he will be able to refloat the leaky ship called Veronica. Why do I think he’s going to do the afternoon slot on Radio Veronica? Because he too belongs to the circle of friends of Marc Adriani, radio boss at Talpa Radio. And he pulls out all the stops to bring Rob in. It started with its own podcast channel on Juke, together with the fallen bookcase Leo Blokhuis. Now Rob will probably get carte blanche with Veronica to also fill the station from A to Z musically and programmatically. Musical freedom between 2 pm and 4 pm with market leader NPO Radio 2 is not enough for Stenders. He makes no secret of often disagreeing with the musical direction, the top song that is chosen, etc.
It is good for the entire Talpa radio group when Stenders comes. You deal a blow to market leader NPO Radio 2, from which Radio 538 and Radio 10 benefit. Moreover, with Stenders on board it is more interesting for other jocks to switch. Even Evers looks up to Stenders, which makes it easier for him to be persuaded to substitute for Veronica in the morning or a regular show at 10. Which also helps: soon to be morning jock Wilfred Genee and Rob Stenders are close acquaintances of each other . The same for Rob and Veronica deejays Ruyer and Muijs. That’s different between De Wild and Stenders. And Rob is simply sensitive to that friend club feeling.
So Robbie doesn’t just become a jock (1-4 pm) at Radio veronica, he becomes the boss. Niels van Baarlen is / was also interim, just like Florent Luyckx. Dennis Hoebee becomes his sidekick or at least returns to the station. I don’t even have to really listen to the Hilversum tam tam for this, this is just a logical scenario that has been talked about for years. Gieltje Beelen can therefore quickly start making promotion at NPO Radio 2. Or Rick van Velthuysen can do 14-16h. They are all warmly awarded it. I think it’s great that after all these years you can still find the zest and energy to throw yourself into such an adventure and not play it safe to continue working for the public broadcaster until your retirement. Let’s hope Veronica gets the time to grow back into the crazy radio brand it once was. Because 3.6% market share, the stove cannot burn. Put him on Rob!
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