Radio host Stephan Komduur invited me to be his guest on De Wereld van BNNVARA radio programme, which was aired last Sunday evening from 8pm to 10pm. During the first hour, we touched on several subjects, one of them being my trip to Saint-Louis earlier this year. If you understand Dutch, you can check out a visual radio fragment below.
Visual Radio
De Nieuws BV op TV: the first hybrid radio/TV show of NPO Radio 1
Before I left for Kenya, we talked and daydreamed a lot about this concept at my previous employer, NPO Radio 1. But now it is finally here: BNNVARA programme ‘De Nieuws BV’ is the first hybrid Radio 1 show to be broadcasted on both radio and TV (NPO2) at the same time. The broadcasts were already visible on the regular channel of NPO Radio 1, and it looks very good.
The idea behind all of this was simple: talk shows on TV are actually nothing more than beautifully aired radio talkshows, and so you could easily turn a radio talkshow into a TV broadcast. Technically it is slightly more complicated, but there are many possibilities at hand.
The idea of broadcasting "radio on TV" simultaneously has been around for a long time - that’s what I learnt when I started doing more research for De Nieuws BV and later as an online coordinator at Radio 1. I found the best example with our ‘southern neighbors’, the Belgians, where broadcasts are made on both RTBF and La Une.
Just like in Hilversum, there were some major struggles at the Walloon broadcaster. There were claims that “the magic of radio” would disappear, for example (which is largely nonsense, according to my graduation research on 'visual radio'). All struggles and difficulties aside, I think it’s great that a Dutch broadcaster like BNNVARA finally dares to make a move towards a hybrid radio and TV programme, and I’m sure many more NPO Radio 1 shows will follow De Nieuws BV’s lead.
Click here to read more about visual radio, or click here to read more about the work I did at NPO Radio 1.
New pictures published in NRC, Trouw and NPO Radio 1
I couldn’t be more proud of Saskia, who has won a prestigious Dutch award for talented journalists, the ‘Philip Bloemendal Prijs’! The jurors praised her ability to convey difficult stories through “clear texts and powerful imagery”. Saskia works as an Africa correspondent for Dutch media, like TV broadcaster RTL Nieuws, radio program Bureau Buitenland and newspaper Trouw. To read the whole jury report, click here! To check out her great appearance in TV show RTL Late Night, click here.
Last month, my pictures of my girlfriend Saskia and another Dutch Saskia, writer Saskia Noort, were published in several online / print media. Radio station NPO Radio 1 and newspapers NRC Handelsblad and Trouw published my portrait of Saskia Houttuin, which was also included in several press statements. Some of my photographs of Saskia Noort’s trip to Tanzania were shown in this NPO Radio 1 video segment and were used by De Nieuws BV and NPO online.
The power of visual radio
At Dutch public radio station NPO Radio 1, I'm responsible for 'visual radio': the regular radio stream, but with added visuals. Apart from showing imagery and additional video footage, we capture what's happening in the radio station's studio. More and more, people are getting used to the fact that radio anno 2017 isn't audio only. That's also visible (no pun intended) if you take a look at this video column of comedian Pieter Derks, uploaded by Radio 1 programme De Nieuws BV. The small fragment has become a new milestone in the station's online history: it reached more than 6.5 million people.
Check out the viral video through the Nieuws BV Facebook page or NPO Radio 1 Facebook page.