Omroep Brabant is celebrating: 25 years ago, the very first TV broadcast was held. For many well-known TV faces their career started in Brabant. Today René van Brakel looks back on his time at Omroep Brabant. He started his career during his studies.
In the mid-1990s, René ended up at Omroep Brabant. He heard through the media that reporters were being sought. He didn’t like that, so he showed some of his presentation talent on an accompanying cassette tape. Successfully.
“I just read a few newspaper articles. I thought: then they will hear my voice. After the interview, I was told, ‘I’m not going to be a reporter, but we’d love to work with you as a newsreader.’ Then I learned it all in practice,” says René.
In the first years René could be heard on the radio as a bulletin reader. In 2002 he was seen for the first time as a presenter of Brabant Nieuws on TV. A day he still remembers well: “It was February 2, the wedding day of Willem-Alexander and Máxima. The presentation itself was not that exciting to me. I was especially busy with the preparations: I had to get an orange tie.”
“We set up a live broadcast in no time.”
The most memorable broadcast was on April 29, 2007, the day on which PSV miraculously became national champion. “We assumed that PSV would no longer become champions. But suddenly it fell just right for PSV, only we hadn’t taken that into account at all. We then set up a live broadcast in no time. That was very hard work and a lot of fun to do.”
In René’s last years at Omroep Brabant, he also worked as a freelancer at the NOS. In 2008 he moved all the way to Hilversum. “But nowhere is it so cozy and friendly as at Omroep Brabant. The region is sometimes overlooked in Hilversum. I thought, and still think it is, very important to show that the Netherlands is bigger than the Randstad.”
“I’m not recognized anymore and that’s quite nice.”
In 2017 René left the NOS to become editor-in-chief of the current affairs section EenVandaag. He has never missed presenting: “But I really enjoyed being in the Omroep Brabant studio again to present the broadcast about 25 years of Brabant Nieuws.”
“Some people thought it was crazy that I gave up presenting on TV for a place behind the scenes, but I didn’t see it that way at all. The advantage is that I am no longer recognized and that is quite nice”, he laughs.