The Official Opening Day of the station, and the start of the Flemish Service, was on Sunday the 30th December, 1973. The first day's programmes were as follows :(FLEMISH SERVICE) 05.00-07.00 Non-stop Music, 07.00-08.00 Dave Jones, 08.00-10.00 ?, 10.00-11.00 "Vlaamse Top 15" Alfred van den Bos, 12.00-15.00 "Radio Atlantis Top 40" Moses van de Berg, 15.00-17.00 Alfred van den Bos, 17.00-18.00 Theo van der Velden. (INTERNATIONAL SERVICE) 18.00-20.00 C.S.J., 20.00-22.00 Johnny Dwyer, 22.00-24.00 Andy Anderson, 24.00-05.00 GMT C.S.J. That night Cris related a sad little incident that had taken place earlier in the day - a short break had occurred in transmission between 13.00-13.05 GMT, and Cris explained that this was due to a bird being sucked into the air-intake of the generator, and that they had switched it off for a few minutes in order to free it, but unfortunately the bird was already dead. At 13.00 GMT on January 1st Cris had to cut into a Flemish programme, which incidentally are all on tape, and request that the office urgently send out a transmitter valve No. 6146 and a very hot Calor Gas soldering iron. Technical troubles put the station off the air for the next few days, but they were back on the air by the evening of the 5th. 2.5 kW was being squeezed out of the ex-REM Island transmitter during the test transmission on January 6th. The familiar voice of Gerald van der Zee was heard doing a programme between 12.00-13.00 GMT on January 8th. Another newcomer to the station at this time was a DJ called Frans (later known as Frans van Brugge), his first show was presented on January 9th, and was broadcast between 05.00-06.00 GMT. Next came Steve England, he did his first programme on January 27th having arrived on the boat a week earlier.
from Monitor magazine. First show of Frans van Brugge on January 9th, 1974 ON THE AIR. 2-3-4-5 January off the air, but there are studiotapes.
EliePrinsDaveRogers 1759-1911