Since the departure of King Evers, Radio 538 has been rumbling: from a bizarre twist to papa days | show

“Now I would really like to put the car aside for a moment, get out and enjoy the view immensely”, with those words Edwin Evers says goodbye to Radio 538 at the end of 2018. At that time, he was the most decisive radio maker of the the past two decades. The DJ has achieved great success and Radio 538 has been the number 1 in the Netherlands for years. How different is it now? 538 plummets to sixth place. The market share is not even half of the new leader Radio 2. Qmusic strives In the meantime, Evers has managed to hit the headlines again: he makes a podcast with King Willem-Alexander.

Frank Dane initially had to become the new king of the morning. The listening figures are falling slightly, but Radio 538 seems to remain reasonably stable under him. At the end of 2021, like a bolt from the blue, the announcement that the morning show will end. The team is informed quite late and there is a lot of negative publicity. Dane decides to stop immediately, which means that Wietze de Jager and Klaas van Eerden are flown in earlier than planned. It leads to a messy start.

Six months later, the story takes an even stranger turn. “For a moment I thought I was in Candid Camera. This was the craziest turn in recent months,” says Dane himself. 538 DJs Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga have to make way for Dane. He gets their prestigious spot in the afternoon. Swijnenberg and Lantinga do not hide their disappointment: “We didn’t see this coming. I slept less well for a few nights.”

Meanwhile, De Jager is also not happy with his early time slot. Although he said a resounding ‘yes’ to Dane’s succession, he expresses his doubts on the radio and openly talks about a so-called dad day. “I notice that this morning program and everything that comes with it and a young family is quite an energy-consuming combination. I didn’t expect it to be this complicated, no. I notice that it gnaws because I can’t give enough at home, so then you feel like you just can’t do it well enough. I just want to be with my kids with the right energy.”

Six months later, Radio 538 cuts the knot for De Jager, as it became clear on Wednesday. “I was recently asked the direct question by the channel management of 538, ‘Wietze, how are you in it for the long term? Can you commit and present this morning program for the next five, seven, ten years?’” The radio DJ couldn’t do that. ,,Then I had to be very honest and I said ‘I don’t know if I will continue with the morning show after those three years, I just can’t oversee that yet’. And then the choice was made by 538 to stop this program early.”

Team Evers, albeit without their leader, continued to make radio. At first Niels van Baarlen and Rick Romijn did that with Wilfred Genee on Radio Veronica. However, that marriage came to an end when Genee got a daily television program, Inside today. Since then they can be heard in the morning of Veronica with Tim Klijn, not entirely coincidentally a regular voice on 538 between 1998 and 2014 and also a permanent replacement for Evers for many years.

Klijn (43), Van Baarlen (47) and Romijn (60) now return to the old nest. With this, 538 hopes to get some rest in the morning after four and a half years of hassle. Well-known voices that have already proven to be popular with the listener of the station in trouble. And also three men who won’t be asking for a daddy day anytime soon.

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