NPO 3FM is a Dutch

rhythmic CHR Rhythmic may refer to: * Related to rhythm * Rhythmic contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic adult contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic gymnastics, a form of gymnastics * Rhythmic (chart) The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and ...

radio station controlled by public broadcaster NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

and pop, though

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and

Mega Top 30 __NOTOC__ Mega Top 30 is a Dutch music chart compiled by SoundAware and broadcast every Saturday from 14:00 - 16:00 on NPO 3FM. It originally started on November 30, 1963, as the Tijd voor Teenagers Top 10. Throughout the years, the chart has had se ...

tracks may also air at times.

History

As Radio 3

Launching on 11 October 1965, NPO 3FM was created as Hilversum 3 (later Radio 3) by the Minister for Culture and Social Recreation, Maarten Vrolijk, to counterbalance the popular new offshore stations such as

Radio Veronica Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and broadcast offshore for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands to stimulate the sales ...

. It broadcast so-called "vertical programming". Due to the nature of the Dutch public broadcasting system, with several broadcasters being awarded airtime based on the numbers of paying members they have, NPO 3FM hosted radio shows by a different broadcaster daily (respectively: AVRO, VARA, EO+VPRO, TROS, Veronica, NCRV and KRO). The station was quickly popular because of this 'unpredictable' style and diversity (as an example, Christian broadcaster EO used to broadcast Christian-themed programs (including a request show with religious music), followed by the now legal

with a format based on Top 40-pop). It mainly focused on a young audience with a mostly pop format, so that there was a clear identity. The NOS was live horizontally from Monday to Saturday evening between 18:00 and 19:00. Radio 3 added numerous FM frequencies on 1 December 1985, when on the same day it adopted its current name. The dawn of commercial competition and changing ideas about modern radio forced Radio 3 to overhaul its format drastically from 4 January 1992. First, three broadcasters (

NCRV NCRV (Nederlandse Christelijke Radio Vereniging) (English: Dutch Christian Radio Association) was a public radio and television broadcaster in the Netherlands, mostly transmitting on NPO 1 and NPO 2. On 1 January 2014, NCRV merged with KRO to for ...

KRO KRO, or (Catholic Radio Broadcasting), was a Dutch public broadcasting organization founded on 23 April 1925. Broadly Catholic in its spiritual outlook, KRO broadcast the bulk of its television output on the NPO 1 channel. KRO was also responsi ...

and

AVRO AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

) decided to join forces and introduced ''Station 3'' in January 1992, with a horizontal format for three days from 6am to midnight (Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays), with programs hosted by DJs from these three broadcasters. As from Monday 5 October 1992, Radio 3 went completely horizontal, with each public broadcaster losing its own designated day (except Veronica on Saturday and TROS on Sunday) but getting a fixed and daily time slot instead. The rise of commercial radio at the beginning of the 1990s led to a decrease in audience. Ferry Maat, TROS' programming director on Radio 2 and 3, feared early listening figures would be worse due to the relocation of the TROS from Thursday to Sunday. Paul van der Lugt was appointed as the channel coordinator in April 1992 and had to ensure that Radio 3 got a clearer identity. To do this, the station got a new slogan (''de jongste zender van Nederland'', "the youngest channel in the Netherlands"), and a logo (a chick, to emphasize the concept of ''young''). Furthermore, relatively unknown music was played between new and old hits (

sandwich formula A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

), and more attention was paid to

live music A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety an ...

and

pop festival Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

As Radio 3FM

In January 1994, Radio 3 got full national FM coverage. To emphasize that, the name of the station was changed to Radio 3FM. The

medium wave transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

was no longer needed and switched to

Radio 10 Gold Radio 10 (formerly : ''Radio 10 Gold'' and ''Radio 10 FM'') is a Dutch commercial radio station that mostly focuses on songs from the 1970s to 2000s, with a moderate amount of mid-1960s' and 2010s' hits. It is one of the oldest, still remaining, c ...

. However, the public pop-channel lost the number one position in audiences to

Sky Radio Sky Radio is a Dutch commercial radio station playing non-stop Adult Contemporary pop music, owned by Talpa Holding. The target audience is men and women between 25 and 54 years of age. It is programmed according to the AC format (any popular so ...

in 1995. There was more and more cooperation between the various broadcasting associations to make Radio 3FM sound as a whole. However, Veronica left the public order for a commercial adventure on 1 September 1995. The TROS therefore moved to Saturday on the next day (''de zinderende zaterdag'', "the sizzling Saturday"). The broadcasting time for Sunday was divided over several broadcasters with a lot of attention for album music or alternative sounds. As of 1997, a special music editor was released, separate from the broadcasters. In collaboration with the DJs, this determines to date which music can be played on the channel during the day, which makes the channel recognizable, but also predictable. In September 2003 Florent Luyckx was appointed as new channel coordinator, who is partly responsible for a number of (controversial) changes. To refresh the station's branding, the name was shortened to "3FM", and a new logo in graffiti style was created, which was associated to the new slogan for the station: "Serious Radio". The idea was to focus the station more into music; evidenced by the new motto ''Als je van muziek houdt, dan luister je naar 3FM'' ("If you love music, you listen to 3FM"). This caused Henk Westbroek, Cobus Bosscha and Isabelle Brinkman to leave the station. Although this gave opportunities to new young radio creators, the changes were not well received by the audience. After the frequency distribution for commercial radio in 2003, the competition in the target group increased and in the second half of 2004 led to the departure of Rob Stenders, Patrick Kicken and Ruud de Wild. Many people predicted the downfall of 3FM. Schedule changed at least three times in two years. Stenders was succeeded by Giel Beelen and De Wild by Wouter van der Goes, who left 3FM in September 2006 for

Qmusic Qmusic may refer to: * Qmusic (Belgium), commercial radio station of the Medialaan group in Flanders since 12 November 2001 * Qmusic (Netherlands) Qmusic (previously written as Q-music) is a Dutch commercial radio station which has been broadcast ...

and was succeeded by Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga. In 2007, Rob Stenders also returned. Eventually the station recovered its audience, making it to the top 5 in the end of 2007 and becoming the #1 radio station in the Netherlands in November and December 2013. From 2006 to 2013, the NTR broadcast Ekstra Weekend on Friday evening, which was one of the most popular radio programs in those days. The influence of the 'music police' has become increasingly stronger over the years. Presenters of the VPRO late evening program 3VOOR12 told the station in 2005 that they felt "confined" to their freedom. In 2007, 3FM won 4

Marconi Award :''"Marconi Award" links here. Note that in the Netherlands, the radio academy awards are also called Marconi Awards.'' The Marconi Radio Awards are presented annually by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to the top radio stations and ...

s: Best Radio Station, Best Presenter (Giel Beelen), Best Program (GIEL), and Upcoming Talent (Domien Verschuuren). In 2009, 3FM was again nominated for a Marconi Award for best radio station. In the summer of that year the channel coordinator Florent Luyckx left the station and was replaced in October by Wilbert Mutsaers. In December 2011 3FM won 3 Marconi Awards: Silver Radio Stars (Annemieke Schollaardt and Gerard Ekdom), The Golden Radio Ring (Ekstra Weekend), and the Marconi Talent Award (Sander Hoogendoorn).

As NPO 3FM

On 19 August 2014, the name of the stations was changed to "NPO 3FM", incorporating the public broadcaster; " NPO" name and logo. In November of that year, Claudia de Breij announced to stop her Friday lunchtime show ''Claudia d'r op''. A month later, Eric Corton also announced that he was leaving his "That's Live" program. He was replaced by Sander Hoogendoorn. In October 2015, NPO 3FM celebrated its 50th anniversary by broadcasting for four days live from the island of

Pampus Pampus () is an artificial island and late 19th-century sea fort located in the IJmeer near Amsterdam. Pampus now belongs to the municipality of Gooise Meren and is open to visitors. Together with the artillery battery on the lighthouse isla ...

, including a special television program about the 50 years of 3FM on

NPO 3 NPO 3 (''NPO drie'', formerly Nederland 3 until 2014) is the third and youngest of the terrestrial television channels operated by the Dutch public-broadcasting organization NPO in the Netherlands. It carries programmes provided by member-based ...

, and organizing an evening concert in Paradiso. Arjan Snijders published a book entitled ''50 jaar 3FM: van Vrolijke Puinhoop naar Serious Radio'' ("50 years of 3FM: from Merry Mess to Serious Radio"). On 3 February 2015, it was announced that Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga (from the Coen and Sander Show) would switch to Radio 538 on 17 August. Their time slot was taken over from 1 June by Frank van der Lende. On 18 March 2015 it was announced that Gerard Ekdom was going to leave the radio station to move to NPO Radio 2 on 5 October to present the new morning show ''Ekdom In de Ochtend''. With this, NPO 3FM quickly lost many important DJs. It managed to catch the departure of these DJs with young talents from their own DJ school. Eva Koreman was also taken from Qmusic to NPO 3FM. In September 2016, Paul Rabbering and Timur Perlin left (to NPO Radio 2). On 7 November 2016, the schedule of NPO 3FM was completely renewed, and only Frank van der Lende's show (Monday-Thursday 4-6pm), 3voor12 Radio (Monday-Thursday 9-midnight) and Mega Top 50 (Saturday 2-4pm) stayed at the same time. Furthermore, all program titles were replaced by the first names of the DJs (except for the two latter shows). The slogan ''Serious Radio'' was removed after 13 years and switched to ''Music Starts Here'' (which somewhat modelled

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

's famous ''Where It Begins''). Furthermore, it meant that after 12 years Giel Beelen hosted his own morning show GI:EL, he was replaced by Domien Verschuuren between 6.00 and 9.00 (no longer till 10.00). Beelen went to present the ''On Stage'' program from Friday-Sunday 7-10pm. Due to the many changes the listening figures dropped sharply. As of 2 September 2017, the schedule changed once again. Frank van der Lende lost the 'drive time' show to Mark van der Molen and Rámon Verkoeijen. Frank van der Lende took over the evening program of Giel Beelen, who left the station and BNNVARA. A striking change was further that two women, namely Eva Koreman and Angelique Houtveen, were programmed respectively in the 'lunchtime' and 'early afternoon' slots; in addition, a female DJ talent from their own radio school, Jorien Renkema, got a place in the weekend with on Saturday between 14.00 and 16.00 the Mega Top 50 and on Sunday at the same time slot a radio show under her own name. Currently, NPO 3FM is trying to halt the sharply declining listening figures since the end of 2015. Despite numerous changes happening, the listening figures still consistently went down, and almost showed no sign of rising. The latest statistics show that NPO 3FM only has a national market share of 2.9%, therefore becoming Netherlands' second least-listened-to youth-orientated station in the market, ahead of only SLAM! (1.6%). On 20 June 2018, Domien Verschuuren announced his departure. He stopped his breakfast show ''Domien, Jouw Ochtendshow'' and switches to the

for a drive time slot. It is possible that Domien left the station due to his "dissatisfaction and frustruation" of the, as noted above, consistently-dropping figures. It is not yet known when he leaves, however it is now confirmed that the current early evening DJ Sander Hoogendoorn will be his replacement. On 2 August 2018, Talpa Radio director Menno Koningsberger said that NPO 'no longer worries' about 3FM's figures. He argued that a typical Dutch radio listener is 50 years old in average as of now, and that the same struggle is happening with

Radio 538 Radio 538 () is a Dutch commercial radio station that was founded in Hilversum, Netherlands in 1992. It is the second-most listened to radio station in the Netherlands. Radio 538 refers to the wavelength on which Radio Veronica used to broadcast ...

since breakfast host Edwin Evers and the Saturday night mixshow "Dance Department" are starting to attract relatively older listeners. A new schedule has released on 3 September 2018. Sander Hoogendoorn hosts the "Sanders Vriendenteam" show in the breakfast slot, and his old evening slot is now hosted by Frank van der Lende in his new "De Bende van Van der Lende" show. NPO 3FM has also officially released the reason of the controversial decision of switching all program names to DJs' first names in 2016: "to increase the brand awareness of

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

Pop chart

Starting in 1969, Hilversum 3 hosted its own hit parade: the '' Hilversum 3 Top 30'', following the example set in 1965 by

and its own Top 40. The name and compiling methods of the Hilversum 3 chart changed several times. In the early 1970s it was known as either ''Hilversum 3 Top 30'' and (from 1971) the ''Daverende Dertig'' ("Thundering Thirty"). In June 1974 the name was changed into ''Nationale Hitparade'', first a Top 30, later a Top 50 (1978–1987) and a Top 100 (1987–1993). In January 1993, the ''Nationale Hitparade'' was scrapped and replaced by an all new chart, the

Mega Top 50 __NOTOC__ Mega Top 30 is a Dutch music chart compiled by SoundAware and broadcast every Saturday from 14:00 - 16:00 on NPO 3FM. It originally started on November 30, 1963, as the Tijd voor Teenagers Top 10. Throughout the years, the chart has had se ...

, started on 7 February 1993. It is still broadcast every Saturday. Unusually, Hilversum 3 used to have more than one pop chart between 1974 and 1992. While its official Nationale Hitparade chart – supported by most public broadcasters – was hosted by the NOS, Veronica, once it received its legal status in May 1976, broadcast its own Top 40. Also,

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek ...

introduced its own rival chart,

TROS Top 50 Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek m ...

, on 1 June 1978 (it had previously broadcast the TROS Europarade, a top 30/40 of the biggest hits in a number of European countries) which started on 27 May 1976. This European chart was discontinued on 27 June 1987. For many years, you could listen to three separate charts on Hilversum 3: the TROS Top 50 on Thursdays, Dutch Top 40 on Fridays and Nationale Hitparade on Wednesdays. Also on Sundays, you could listen to the TROS Europarade. All this changed on 7 February 1993, when the Nationale Hitparade was discontinued (the TROS Top 50 had already been scrapped on 21 November 1985), the Top 40 moved to

and NPO 3FM started its new public chart, the Mega Top 50.

3FM Serious Request

In 2004, the station begun a charity project by the name of

Serious Request Serious Request is a family of annual multi-day, multimedia fundraising events for International Red Cross initiatives, typically hosted by radio stations in the week before Christmas. The project was begun in 2004 by Dutch public pop music ra ...

in which three DJs play requested songs for money for six days and nights in a glass house. They collect this money for projects of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. The DJs don't eat during these days. Serious Request starts every year the week before Christmas.

3FM Awards

Each year in March/April, 3FM hosts the 3FM awards, which are given to Dutch musicians. A public poll is held among listeners to determine the winners. In 2010 3FM hosts the sixth edition of the 3FM Awards. The artist with the most awards in 2009 is

Ilse DeLange Ilse Annoeska de Lange (born 13 May 1977), better known as Ilse DeLange, is a Dutch country and pop rock singer-songwriter. As a member of The Common Linnets, she finished in second place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Biography Ilse An ...

, she won three awards. She also won the

Schaal van Rigter Schaal may refer to: People *David Schaal (actor) (born 1963), English actor *Richard Schaal (1928–2014), American actor *Wendy Schaal (born 1954), American actress, daughter of Richard *Kristen Schaal (born 1978), American comedian *Barbara A ...

the award for the most played single on radio station 3FM, she won this award with the song "So Incredible".

Live performances

Most of the DJs invite artists to perform live on air. The band Yellow Pearl holds the all-time record of most live performances on 3FM. They did this 25 times, within four years in nine different shows. The first performance was in 2004 when they performed their single "For you and me" in the morning show of

Rob Stenders Rob Stenders (born 18 April 1965) is a Dutch radio DJ. Stenders had a long-lasting career in radio starting with local radio stations. Stenders followed up Edwin Evers with the 3FM morning show "Stenders Vroeg" for the public radio and televis ...

Programming

In 2016, the team of programming produces include:

AVROTROS AVROTROS () is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster that is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. It was founded in 2014 as the result of a merger between the Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) and the Televisie Radio Omroep Stic ...

KRO-NCRV KRO-NCRV is a Dutch public broadcasting company based in Hilversum established on January 1, 2014 from a merger of the broadcasters Catholic Radio Broadcasting (KRO) and the Dutch Christian Radio Association (NCRV), transmitting on NPO 1, NPO 2 ...

, EO,

BNNVARA BNNVARA () is a broadcasting association and network within the Dutch public broadcasting system. History BNNVARA was founded on 1 January 2014 through a merger of the BNN (founded 1997) and VARA (founded 1925) associations. These continued to ...

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more soc ...

and NTR. The station also broadcasts news bulletins produced by the NOS. The current broadcast schedules (effective from 15 October 2018) are (program names only):

Former DJs

Robin Albers Robin Albers (born 1956), who uses the stage name Jaydee, is a Dutch house music producer and DJ. Biography After a degree in commercial studies, Albers played in the Dutch national baseball team and was triple Dutch arm-wrestling champion ...

Edwin Brienen Edwin Brienen (born June 15, 1971 in Alkmaar, Netherlands) is a Dutch film director, actor, producer, journalist and radio moderator. In German press he's often called 'the Dutch Fassbinder' because of the high production-level and style of his ...

Adam Curry Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964) is an American podcaster, announcer, Internet entrepreneur and media personality, known for his stint as a VJ on MTV and being one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer Web sites. ...

Wessel van Diepen Wessel Dietrich van Diepen (born 12 November 1966) is a Dutch radio host, music producer, voice actor and former TV presenter. Under the pseudonym DJ Delmundo, he is part of Danski & Delmundo, the production duo behind internationally famous act ...

Wouter van der Goes Wouter van der Goes (born 18 January 1973, Alkmaar) is a Dutch radio DJ. At age twelve, he was tinkering with audio equipment as a hobby. Later, during his free time, he worked with several local radio stations, as well as pirate stations, wh ...

Dolf Jansen Dolf Jansen (born 25 June 1963 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch comedian, host of the Radio 2 programme '' Spijkers met Koppen'' and an active Marathon runner. On television Jansen hosted '' Loods 6'' (1991), '' Kunstbende'' (1992), ''Jansen slaat do ...

* Robert Jensen *

Bart van Leeuwen Bart van Leeuwen (5 February 1950, in Amsterdam – 17 June 2017) was a Dutch photographer and author. Career Van Leeuwen published his first pictures in 1967, graduated from the School for Professional Photography in The Hague in 1969 and start ...

Jan Steeman Jan Steeman (23 May 1933 – 24 January 2018) was a Dutch comics artist, best known for his association football comic ''Roel Dijkstra'' and ''Noortje'', a comic strip about a bumbling teenage girl published in ''Tina''. The latter runs for more t ...

Rick van Velthuysen Rick van Velthuysen (; born 15 September 1961) is a Dutch radio DJ. Born in Rotterdam, Van Velthuysen started his career at the age of 18 with ''Radio Bollenstreek''. In 1985 he became a DJ with KRO and had a gameshow with . He moved to AVRO ...

Henk Westbroek Hendrik Otto "Henk" Westbroek (born 27 February 1952) is a Dutch radiohost, singer, songwriter and former owner of a café named 'Stairway to Heaven' in the city of Utrecht. He was also a political activist for Leefbaar Utrecht and Leefbaar Nede ...

Ruud de Wild Ruud and Rud are surnames of Norwegian origin. Both are also Norwegian place names of numerous farmsteads named Rud or Ruud from Old Norse ''ruð'' meaning clearing. Ruud is also a Dutch masculine given name meaning "famous wolf" although it is also ...

Erik de Zwart Erik de Zwart (born 16 June 1957 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch broadcaster, former D.J., former Music Box, The Music Factory and MTV V.J. and media entrepreneur. He was co-founder and shareholder of Radio 538 (1992) and The Music Factory (1995). P ...

References

External links

*
Historical site
{{Authority control Radio stations in the Netherlands Netherlands Public Broadcasting Radio stations established in 1965 1965 establishments in the Netherlands.