A holiday, a day off, hassle with the schedule: all sorts of things have come up as a reason for Ron Brandsteder’s sudden absence. But now the monkey comes out of the sleeve…
The sudden, mysterious absence of Ron Brandsteder has stirred up a lot. The presenter makes a program every late Friday evening on the popular NPO Radio 5, but last week he was replaced at the very last minute by Angela Groothuizen. She was almost panting behind the microphone, there was so much haste.
Where’s Ron?!
What was Angela doing there? She didn’t really know herself. She created so much mystery about Ron’s absence that listeners began texting and calling the studio with concern. At one point she shouted that he was on vacation. “Yes, we think so. We don’t actually know.”
Because at one point there was so much controversy – Ron’s ex Patty Brard also started to get involved – an official statement was made. Jan Slagter’s clubhouse announced that the presenter simply had a day off. He would just return this week. “If it’s okay.”
Little lie
And it was good. Last night Ron was behind the microphone again. And that’s where the monkey came out of the sleeve: the MAX celebrity was physically unable to present the broadcast last week. Apparently they didn’t want that in the media and a tsunami of excuses was invented. But yes: no matter how fast the lie is, the truth will catch up with it…
Ron: “I just want to go back to a lot of consternation from last week. You could also call it ‘ronsternation’. It came down to this: I wasn’t having such a good day, I was a little physical, I was ehhh, I wasn’t feeling well. I reported this to MAX a day in advance.”
Hope rumours
Omroep MAX then provided a replacement, says Ron. “They then found Angela Groothuizen willing to fill in at the last minute. Then the communication went a bit wrong, because we remained vague about that and that gave rise to a lot of rumours.”
He continues: “Martijn was not there either. It was my old friend Frans who was sitting here with Angela. And there were a lot of reactions from people who were worried and so on. Well, that’s when the tabloid press popped in.”
Sensational press
It is obvious that Ron is very annoyed by the tabloid press. Of course he hoped to deceive those sensational press by coming up with an excuse for his absence. “In short: we have to do that differently next time. But I’m back to my old self. In fact, I am older, because I turned 73 today.”
Finally: “Thank you very much: your interest and concern was heartwarming for me. And I don’t mean the anxiety of the tabloid press, but of our regular listeners, our regular family.”