Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga did not see it coming that Radio 538 had to stop their program. On Thursday afternoon, the two will present the last regular broadcast of their daily afternoon show.
The duo, which could be heard on both 3FM and Radio 538 for sixteen years, will return on Friday after the summer and will also continue solo. A career step that was not planned, but which Talpa decided for them a few weeks ago, the presenters report in the AD.
“I was in the kitchen with the children when I got a call from Tessel, my wife and manager,” said Lantinga, 45. “‘Bad news’, she said, ‘they don’t want to continue every day’. Then you curse. It takes a while. And all kinds of things go through your head. Have we done it wrong? Failed? You are perplexed.”
Swijnenberg adds: “That announcement was tough and we did not see it coming. We knew that it would not go well with 538. But in fact we were just back in the the winning mood† Corona was behind us. The evening rush hour was full again. The audience numbers went up.”
‘Want to show that a big mistake was made’
While Swijnenberg will make radio from Monday to Thursday for 538, Lantinga will have an afternoon show on Radio Veronica. And then on Friday together again the old-fashioned way. “Talpa did not want to get rid of us as a duo. And Friday is a wonderful day. You go into the weekend with the listeners. We will show on that Friday that a big mistake has been made,” says 42-year-old Swijnenberg with a smile. Wink.
Neither of them expected that they would last this long. Lantinga: “When we got the chance to make radio together, I thought: great, I would love it if we can distinguish ourselves and we can keep it up for three or four years. That it has become sixteen years, the longest running afternoon show ever, I think it’s very special.”
The Coen and Sander Show has been around for sixteen years. The duo was first heard with the program from 2006 to the summer of 2015 on public pop channel 3FM. Then they left for a lot of money to Radio 538 to continue the show there in the afternoon. In front of The Coen and Sander Show the two were already a duo on 3FM with the program Lantinga & Swijnenberg on fridaynight.