De pioniersfase van Omroep Brabant

Van experiment naar volwassen mediabedrijf

Samenvatting

Radio Brabant began on 1 September 1976 with the first radio broadcasts for the southeast Brabant region from a studio in Eindhoven. It was then an experiment for two years. In that time, it would be determined whether a regional radio station was a useful addition to the Dutch broadcasting system. The experiment was made possible through the new Broadcast law of 1967, which stipulated, among other things, that new regional radio stations could be established, separate from the NOS. After the second world war, a number of regional radio stations were already established but these fell under the authority of the NOS. For some time, there had also been interest in the Netherlands to start a regional station but, due to all kinds of circumstances, it was years before all the obstacles were overcome and two new regional broadcasters could start. In addition to Radio Brabant, STAD Amsterdam was also given the opportunity to prove itself.

Within a year, the chosen formula turned out to be a great success. The numbers of listeners were above expectations. Radio Brabant became the most listened to regional broadcaster in the Netherlands. That success was, and is, difficult to explain. Radio Brabant was the first regional broadcaster in the Netherlands, which focused entirely on the daily news and delivered many service messages. There was little room for in-depth background programmes. The large amount of spoken word earned the radio station the name of a spoken newspaper: reliable but conservative. The first director-chief editor was Jacques Grijpink from the KRO in Hilversum. Grijpink firmly believed in the formula he chose, which was guided by the experiences of the ‘local stations’ in England. With much less financial space than was usual in Hilversum, 13 hours of radio were initially made per week. The popular Hilversum 3 programme could be heard during the remaining hours.

The IVA research institute (affiliated with the then Catholic University of Tilburg) was commissioned to investigate how people listened to STAD and Radio Brabant and whether the new media led to better information provision in both regions. That institute 
established that Radio Brabant had quickly become an important source of information for many residents in Southeast Brabant. This was true more for the inhabitants in the villages than in the cities, and more for the less educated than for the analytical upper class. The need for regional broadcasting had been clearly demonstrated, according to the IVA. But whether the radio station had also contributed to better information about regional affairs and thus more involvement, the IVA could not assess. The research period was too short for that. This question has never been further investigated in subsequent years. Numbers of radio listeners remained high and responses were generally positive.

Nevertheless, this positive appreciation in the region did not lead to an expansion of the regional radio station. It must be noted that national politicians were never really interested in this and that no strong support for that endeavour was ever received from Hilversum either. In addition, the radio station had to deal with a number of developments in the 1980s, which made growth difficult. The economic situation deteriorated and initiatives for local broadcasters emerged in various places.

Although the success of Radio Brabant made it clear on what scale regional broadcasting had to be operated, in the end politics did not want to go further than one regional broadcaster per province. That broadcaster could rely on a government subsidy, but the necessary supplement to this had to be decided by the province, which had to determine an increase in the license fee. Ultimately, the maximum amount of that license fee was set at ten guilders. That income was insufficient to realize four equivalent broadcasters in the province of North Brabant, as had been intended from the start. It did mean that there were four studios, but most broadcasts were broadcast provincially. The first regional broadcasts from Breda, Tilburg and Den Bosch did not take place until 1989, more than 12 years after the experiment had started in Eindhoven. The pioneering phase of Radio Brabant with its 
many uncertainties was, by then, over.