Breaking news: The Sky Radio/Radio 10 deal is off!
But it could be back on again!
Update 2030 UTC
Sky Radio announced this morning that it had backed away from taking over Radio 10 FM. Sky Radio said it was unhappy with the fact that the parent company of Radio 10, owned by Dutch media magnate John de Mol, intended to proceed with a court case against the original decision to award the oldies licence to Sky Radio instead of Radio 10. Sky Radio didn't waste any time: this morning, most of Radio 10 FM's terrestrial FM frequencies were carrying a continuous stream of oldies interrupted only by ID's as "Radio 103, de Gouwe Ouwe Zender" (Golden Oldies Station), the name that was mentioned in Sky Radio's original licence application. FM transmitters in some parts of the country continued to carry Radio 10 for a time, but by lunchtime had all been switched to the programme feed from the Sky Radio studios.
The court case was due to be heard this afternoon in The Hague. The central point in Radio 10's case was that Sky Radio did not have any experience at running an oldies station, whereas Radio 10 has been on the air for 15 years. Sky Radio Director Ton Lathouwers appears to have been personally affronted by this line of argument. For its part, Radio 10 FM accused Lathouwers of breaking a contract that was signed last weekend.
At Radio 10 FM's headquarters in Amsterdam, the staff were said to be "shocked and bewildered". The station's Web site appeared to be down this morning, but sources at the station said it was merely overwhelmed with visitors trying to find our what's going on. It was back online with increased capacity later in the afternoon.
I listened for a while to Radio 10 on the cable. In place of their normal fast-paced format, they were playing several tracks back to back and interspersing them with appeals to listeners to fax and E-mail messages of support. Some of them were read out on the air. Radio 10 told its listeners that they would try to stay on the air via cable, and that they wanted people to keep listening. But the mood that came across to me is one of disbelief about what had happened.
At 1320 UTC, an emotional Radio 10 presenter read out a joint press statement from the boards of Talpa (the company that owns Radio 10) and Sky Radio. It said that discussions were under way to find a solution as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the planned court case had been postponed. Radio 10 stopped reading out messages from listeners, and there was a distinct brightening of the mood on the air. They even started playing promos for their summer events again. It seemed that the staff probably knew more than they were allowed to say.
Meanwhile, Sky Radio's Gouwe Ouwe Zender started sounding more like a real radio station. By now there were commercials - presumably the same ones that are running on Sky Radio's main service - and live news bulletins.
Playlists
One noticeable thing is that the playlist on the Gouwe Ouwe Zender consists of a lot more mellow music than Radio 10 FM. This is presumably because they can only play the oldies already in their computer system, which were originally selected as suitable for Sky Radio. It seems they didn't expect to get the oldies licence and weren't prepared. If these talks fail, they'll need to beef up the playlist to attract the Radio 10 audience. At the moment, there's not enough difference between Sky Radio and the Gouwe Ouwe Zender to justify two separate services.
By contrast, legendary DJ Ferry Maat sounds on good form with his drivetime show on Radio 10 FM. They're still doing traffic information, even though the motorists now have to wait till they get home to find out the details of the traffic jam they were in!
What goes around comes around
I can't help thinking that what goes around comes around. 30 years ago, John de Mol's father abruptly fired all the English DJ's on Radio Noordzee Internationaal, and replaced their shows with programmes in Dutch. After just over a week, English programmes programmes returned. This time, the boot is on the other foot. Now John de Mol knows what it feels like to get kicked off the air.
PS: For an inside view of the situation from Kristian of Sky Radio in Denmark (a sister station of the Dutch one) click on comments (below). Kristian makes some very pertinent points. Thanks for the feedback, Kristian!
Another agenda?
Meanwhile, the situation gets ever more complex with the news that Sky Radio is also involved in the talks going on between commercial TV operator SBS and Veronica. A spokesperson for Veronica confirmed that talks are being held with Sky Radio, but would not give details of what is being discussed. Media observers here are speculating that Sky Radio could be considering a deal for a Veronica-branded radio service on the frequencies of the Gouwe Ouwe Zender. On Tuesday the Veronica board postponed for three weeks a decision on the future of their organisation. Watch this space! (AS)
9:52:49 AM 
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