,,3FM has of course thrown in its own glasses. That is clear,” says De Zwart. “You also have to be very furious if your listeners want to leave.” According to him, the channel’s policy makers “didn’t quite understand something”. The 3FM audience no longer exists. According to De Zwart, the channel has a national market share of 2.5 percent. “3FM has long lost the game in the Randstad”, he says. ,, Only in the province is 3FM very strong, because there commercial stations are almost impossible to receive on FM. If you then only make programs for the canal belt in Amsterdam, you have misunderstood something.”
De Zwart does not think that the decline of 3FM can easily come to a halt, but he does expect that the new broadcaster Menno de Boer will try to make it ‘a tighter station’. He has a lot of confidence in the DJs that come over from Radio 538. ,,They know what it’s like to make radio per linear meter. They are just going to play records and make hours and not talk too much.”
According to De Zwart, the leadership of the Public Broadcasting Service lacks a vision for 3FM. He says that first you have to come up with a philosophy. ,,What should it radiate, what association do people have when they hear the name of the radio station and what association do they have when they listen? And does that association match with what you broadcast on the radio? If you don’t meet that, you won’t have a successful radio station.”