After eight years, Coen Swijnenberg is still pissed about the Jeugdjournaal broadcast in which his transfer from NPO 3FM to Radio 538 was mentioned. “It was really intense.”
It has been more than eight years since Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga switched from the public radio station NPO 3FM to the commercial Radio 538 for money. At that time they started to earn an extreme amount of money and today both gentlemen are multi-millionaires. Still, the media storm was quite tough at the time, says the radio maker.
‘Lies on TV’
Coen thought that their transfer was reported in a very spicy manner, he says in the Beau Monde. “When Sander and I switched from 3FM to 538, it was big news. All the talk shows called, Humberto personally texted us, it even made it to the Achuurjournaal. We didn’t know what was happening to us.”
The way in which their transfer was reported is sickening, says Coen. “At such a moment you notice that the media all start to make their own story out of it, with the result that my son called in the evening: ‘Dad, I saw you in the Youth News and they say that you go to school for the money. you switched channels.’”
‘Money is not a motivation’
The Jeugdjournaal has gone way too far with this, Coen thinks. “That is very intense, to be in such a media storm. I also felt the urge to put things right, because I thought: yes, we have certainly improved financially, but I am not wired that way at all.”
Why did Coen and Sander switch? Because they serve better coffee at 538? “Radio means so much love to me, I’m such a nerd about it. Money would never be a motivation for me.”
Burnout
Working at 538 is apparently a lot more intensive. Coen ended up in a burnout in 2020. “Suddenly I was literally transfixed. My heart was racing, I felt myself slipping. The control I always had was suddenly no longer there. I thought it was scary. During that period I felt worse than I could ever have imagined.”
He also doesn’t like it when people in the media say that burnouts are something of his generation. “I have to say that I get quite angry when I hear people claim that burnout is something of the times, a hype. It may well be that people use the term too quickly, but if you really have a burnout, then that is very tough.”