It hurts to see him like this. He has been my best friend for years, maybe even my first great love. As a little boy I secretly lay in my bed listening to him. The room was lit only by the digital numbers that indicated the time. If I held the device up to my eyes, I could read the words ‘Schlummer’ and ‘Schlaf’ in the faint glow of the clock radio. All the magic was in this German device. All the magic came from there.
As long as I can remember, I listen to the radio. All day long it was on: the Ko de Boswachtershow, The black hole, Radio Romantica, Well-informed Circles, God be with us, Hear Her, The Dik Voormekaar Show, Ball on the roof, Between start and finish, An hour of Ischa, The state of the world, Music Hall , The Building, Argos, the Orphanage of the hits, Borát, In de Rooie Haan, the Tros News Show, OVT, Early Birds, Along the Line, Radio Bergeijk, Ronflonflon, The Marathon Interview, The Evenings.
The radio was not a predictable friend. Luckily not. He told stories I didn’t know interested me: about occult matters in The black holefeminism at Hear Her! and love troubles in Radio Romantica. He was sometimes reactionary with the talk of GBJ Hiltermann (my father wanted to switch off the device, but I could listen to it mesmerized) then again incendiary left with In the Red Rooster. He could make me laugh with Ischa Meijer, André van Duin and Wim T. Schippers. Every hour of every day he did something different. He introduced me to new music, introduced writers into my life who read from my own work and scientists who were looking for answers to life’s questions. In The Marathon interview people I had sometimes never heard of were interviewed for five hours (!) The radio was fascinating, surprising, sometimes annoying, but never boring. That’s why I loved him.
Over the years I have seen my boyfriend change. He couldn’t help himself, that was because of his bosses. The channel managers, who understood from surveys that people don’t want to be surprised at all. People always want the same thing. That’s why McDonald’s is so successful. When you see the yellow M, you know what you’re getting, anywhere in the world. The yellow M on the radio is called horizontal programming: the same program every day at the same time. Never a surprise. Every day from 6.00 to 9.30 the Radio 1 News and immediately after Speech makers. And always the same middle-of-the-road music. My boyfriend has become a predictable, boring dork.
There is one program that escapes the horizontal desires of the managers for one hour a week: Mangiare!. A cheerful, slightly chaotic food talk show that is educational, stimulates an appetite and is extremely important. Or do I have to explain to you (and the boss of Radio 1) that there is a direct relationship between the farmers’ protests and our food system? How important is knowledge of nutrition to combat the obesity epidemic? What role does food play in loneliness? Talking about food, about cooking and about enjoyment is more important than ever. But according to the channel manager ‘fits Mangiare! not in the profile of the news and sports channel’.
Hi friend, we had a good time together.