Weeks passed without any reaction from the station. I went about my business thinking it just wasn't going to happen. A few months later though I got a call back. And in februari I started the show. The title was changed form REVERB 2000 to TEGENTONEN. Without any previous experience the first few months were extremely poor, I guess. It gradually got better. Not just me hosting it, but the music as well. Man, we played all kinds of genres.
Internet was growing and I built a webpage (old school in HTML). It got me responses from all over the world. I remember a Belgian singer living in the USA contacting me and sending me his cd. Or a bluesband from Chicago sending me their debut-cd. It was a big deal to me. Most important thing for me, was that this show was always about the music. We never did any interviews, we just played records. Oh, with two exceptions in 1998 when I and my colleague Iwan went to interview AGNOSTIC FRONT and DROPKICK MURPHYS. The show featured a lot of punkrock and hardcore back then.
For the next 13 or so years I made this program. Never alone though, always with a studio technician. After a year or two with an ex-vet who later ended up as a cameraman for gayporn-movies(!), my friend Iwan took over. Iwan was also part of the team that made (and still make) the (hard)rock & heavy metalshows for the station. Their show, Als Het Maar Hard Is (As Long As It's Loud) is actually this country's longest running rock&metalshow. In between songs we always had a lot of fun talking about politics, shitty tv-shows, movies and whatnot.
The decision to quit wasn't an easy one to make. But I did in late 2011. I'm going to miss playing you all my favorite records and I'm gonna miss those saturdaynight hangouts. My last show featured some of my all-time favorite artists like Nirvana, Tindersticks, The Smiths, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and The Stooges. My friends from Als Het Maar Hard Is bought me a bottle of excellent whisky. It was fun. Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening...
