Frank Dane is very disappointed that the Radio 538 studio is located in the media city of Hilversum. “Of all the villages and towns in our country, this is not my favorite.”
Where the major commercial competitor Qmusic resides on an ugly industrial estate in Amsterdam, the studios of the Talpa radio stations reside in a green residential area on the Hilversumse Bergweg. But Radio 538 star Frank Dane doesn’t exactly think that’s the ultimate place; secretly he is a little disappointed about it.
Frank is bummed
Frank is sorry. “You should know that 538, your favorite radio station, comes from Hilversum. Of all the villages and towns in the Netherlands that you can choose from, Hilversum would not be my favorite. Especially not that industrial estate where we are. It’s really terrible,” he says in his afternoon show.
Sidekick Airen Mylene surprised: “Industrial area? We are in a neighborhood. I do not know.”
Beach club
Frank admits. “Well, that’s nice for imaging. No, we’re in a neighborhood that’s true. We are in a neighborhood in Hilversum and we are going to exchange that for the 538 Beach Club. We are a radio station of extremes. We are going from Hilversum…”
Sidekick Jelte van der Goot: “Yes, from a sleepy Gooi village with red trousers…”
Frank: “Exactly. From there we go to Zandvoort. We will be broadcasting every weekend for a month from the beach of Zandvoort in Bernie’s Beach Club. We will broadcast from there every weekend in July.”
Lower listening figures
Radio 538 was for years the most listened to radio station in the Netherlands, but after the departure of Edwin Evers everything collapsed. Today, the station is number six, after – in that order – NPO Radio 2, Qmusic, Radio 10, NPO Radio 1 and Sky Radio. Recently, the station was also overtaken by NPO Radio 5, which does not even have an FM frequency.
Next month the FM frequencies auctioned again and there is a possibility that Radio 538 will disappear from the FM.