The Veronica DJ's.
Will Luikinga.
He joined Radio Veronica in the early seventies to
ghost a show between 12.00 en 13.00. He wasn't a common deejay. He became
rather popular for his humour and because of 'Harry'. Harry was a kind of
machine the listener had to play against. The formula of the program became
as popular as the deejay.
After the close down of Radio Veronica he joined the television crew of the
VOO, but after a while he returned to the high seas, with the
'Harry'-formula. He did a two hour show on the Dutch Radio
Caroline, early eighties. All of a sudden the station closed down,
to come back as Radio Monique. Will was a party member again.
Before he started his radio-career he was a local newspaper reporter. As
a matter of fact, he never stopped writing. He still is a very popular
columnist. He has his weekly page in the Veronica magazine.
Will was and still is active in the Dutch music business. In 1975 the
Dutch group 'Teach-In' won the Eurovision Song contest in Stockholm with the
song 'Ding-a-dong'. Will Luikinga wrote the lyrics for it.
I think that the good guy has a show on a commercial radio-station in
Holland at the moment.
Ad Bouman.
The man on the latest photo is studio engineer 'Ad Bouman'. A real
native of Amsterdam who joint 'Radio Veronica' in November 1965. Before he
worked as a technician for Philips Industries.
The youngster was really mad about music, sounds and radio. So, on his
attic he was always busy 'doing things' with tape-recorders, records and
microphones. A friend, Jules Gelijck, told him to apply for a job with
Veronica. Jules himself couldn't as he had to join the army. Ad got the job.
Two weeks later, Jules was kicked out of the army, payed his friend a visit
at the Veronica studio and was also enlisted !
Real soon Ad got his nickname ; 'De Meester' (The Master). Indeed the
man was born for that kind of job. A magician behind the mixing-table. A
famous sound engineer, and a very charming guy just because he was a nice
muddle head as well. He was extremely appreciated among the Veronica deejays
and quite popular among the listeners...
One day, and just as a kind of pratical joke, Lex Harding asked him to
make his very own 'Top Ten'. Ad did. It was filled with the
not-so-commercial music, weird sounds and original jingles. The 'joke' was
aired during the 'Lexjo' on monday between 7.00 and 08.00 pm.
The response was incredible heavy ! All of a sudden people wanted to
know more about the mysterious technician. They started sending him letters
and parcels. One week later, there was a brand new edition of the ABTT. The
hitparade lasted till the end of the Veronica offshore days !
Four letters became a standard. ABTT stood for 'Adje Bouman Top Tien'.
The guy became so extremely popular that he got his own fanclub. He was the
only one at Veronica.
He never left the station. Even today he's one of the most important
technicians with 'Hitradio Veronica'.
As a matter of fact, AB is the one and only remaining person from the
orginal radio team ! The group that had to stop all its activities August
31th 1974.
Lex Harding.
Lex started his career with 'Radio Dolfijn'. The Dutch follow up for 'Radio
227'. Flipper Radio closed down on 21st July 1967. Soon after, Lex found
himself a job with Radio Veronica. He ghosted a daily show and was quite
popular as the voice from the Veronica Top 40, on Saturday's.
31st August 1974 Radio Veronica had to close down. Lex continued the
production of the Veronica Top 40, that was renamed as the 'Nederlandse Top
40'. Now, the chart was aired on Hilversum 3 by the Tros, one of the members
of the Dutch broadcasting system (Tros is the organisation that ran 'Radio
and TV Noordzee' from the REM tower, build in the Northsea, in 1964).
Hilversum 3 was and still is the pop station from the Dutch national
broadcasting system. The 'new' hitparade was ghosted by Ferry Maat (who came
from RNI).
One year later Veronica became a part of that legal system herself. They
were allowed to make programmes on radio and... television. So, Lex became a good producer of music television shows. In 1989 he was involved with
the start of the first Dutch commercial television, 'RTL 4' (broadcasting by
satellite from the Duchy of Luxemburg !). Quite soon, he left to get
involved in a few minor radio projects.
Finally he started his own landbased
commercial station 'Radio 538' (named after the former Radio Veronica
wavelength). The station is a sister from 'Sky Radio'. Radio 538 can be
received by satellite and in the Netherlands on FM 103 and cable).
At this very moment Lex Harding is the managing director from 'The Music
Factory' and 'TV 10 Gold'. Both belonging to the Arcade Group. They own also
'Radio 10 Gold'. The Music Factory is the Dutch equivalent for MTV.
Well, as you can see Lex never has been out of business.
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