Sky Radio



Sky Radio is a Dutch commercial radio station playing non-stop Adult Contemporary-pop music and is owned by a joint venture between Talpa Holding and Telegraaf Media Groep. The station slogan is "Your favourite playlist!". The station primarily plays pop and rock music from the 1980s through to the present.

The station focuses on men and women between 25 and 54 years and is programmed according to the AC format (popular music without extremes, such as rap or dance). There are no disc jockeys heard and the music is intervened for news, weather, advertisements and traffic reports.

History
Sky Radio launched in the Netherlands on September 30, 1988 and was founded by Veronica-DJ's Lex Harding and Ton Lathouwers. At the time, commercial radio broadcasting in the Netherlands was not permitted and therefore the station was available only via cable. In February 1992, the station was temporarily allocated the terrestrial frequency of 102.7 in the western Netherlands (Rotterdam Waalhaven).

At first it was to receive the station only via cable. In February 1992, Sky Radio received temporarily FM radio frequency 102.7 MHz in Western Netherlands (station location: Rotterdam-Waalhaven) assigned after proceedings before the Board of Appeal for Industry to be assigned to these so-called "residual frequency". This procedure and other test cases in which FM terrestrial frequencies under judicial pressure were made available to commercial radio stations were otherwise formally led by two media legal experts from the University of Amsterdam under the title "De Vrije Ether b.v." (English: The Free Ether e.g).

Sky had a second station called Hitradio between July and December 1992. This station could only be received via cable and was replaced after December 11, 1992 by Radio 538, a station of Lex Harding and Erik de Zwart. The name HitRadio is used again since November 1, 2009 by Sky Radio Group for the cable radio station formerly known as TMF HitRadio.

When in 1994 the terrestrial frequencies were divided again and awarded to commercial radio stations, Sky Radio and Radio 538 fell the wayside and initially Sky Radio failed to be awarded a licence. After both stations had protested against this, they were both still assigned a frequency. Both Sky Radio and Radio 538 appealed against this decision and Sky Radio was eventually allocated a frequency of 100.7 with an additional frequency of 100.4 in the north of the Netherlands, a few low-powered fillers and some relay stations. In the Netherlands, Sky Radio took the leading position over from Radio 3FM in 1997. On June 21, 2004, Sky Radio, however, was passed by Radio 538.

In 2003, all the broadcasting frequencies were reallocated and redistributed and Sky Radio switched to its current frequencies of 101.0 to 101.9 MHz. Since then Sky Radio can be received in the Netherlands on frequencies between 101.0 and 101.9 MHz. In March 2005 the corporate identity and the known logo of Sky Radio were replaced by a completely new design.

In February 2006 was Sky Radio bought by the Telegraaf Media Group NV for 190 million from News Corporation, the Veronica association is shareholder for 10% of Sky Radio (Group).

In 2006, Sky Radio conducted a so-called muziekgarantie (music warranty), which is never ran twice the same plate during the 9am and 5pm. In 2008 the removed station this guarantee. In July 2011 they reintroduced the formula under the name of "the no repeat workday". In the summer of 2013 that form is thrown again overboard.

After the collapse of the transmitter mast Zendstation Smilde at Hoogersmilde in July 2011, the station was temporarily taken off air in the far north east of the country - until summer 2012 the station operated on a number of low-power temporary frequencies in that area (including the frequency of 89.2 which lies outside its standard allocation).

The station has in recent years undergone modernization which the current playlist for half of current hits from artists exists such as Adele, Ilse Delange, Train, Michael Bublé, P!nk, Robbie Williams and Blof. In 2011 will be after 23 years the Sky audio logo modified, which changed all the jingles and the news, weather and traffic leaders. In 2012 the image logo has also been adapted and modernized.

Since 2012 Philip Alberdingk Thijm is CEO of Sky Radio Group. The program director of Sky Radio Uunco Cerfontaine. Previously he worked for, it still being owned by the Sky Radio Group, Radio Veronica. Previously, he was program director of Radio 538.

The voice-overs of the station belongs to Kas van Iersel and Marlayne Sahupala. Sky Radio had from 1992 until early 2013 its own news service, but that disappeared by budget cuts.

During the winter months, Sky Radio is available along the east coast of England due to the clear airwaves.

Music
From December 6 to December 26 Sky Radio broadcasts striking lots of Christmas music. They presents themselves then as 'The Christmas Station'. For this much publicity is made through commercials on TV and posters at stations, bus and tram stops and metro stations. Also on the site of Sky Radio, this is explicitly stated. On Christmas Day "The Christmas Top 50" is broadcast with the best Christmas songs. This program has achieved ever six million listeners according to research by Intomart Gfk. Sky Radio brings every year from October 1, the Internet radio station Sky Radio: The Christmas Station, which broadcasts for three months non-stop Christmas music. Furthermore, Sky Radio broadcasts every year on Valentine's Day the Valentijns Top 101 from a list of the 101 best Valentine Hits composed by the listeners.

Abroad
Sky Radio is also several years been active in Denmark and Sweden. In Sweden, Sky Radio was active for several years until November 1999. Denmark had the station from 2003 to 2005, the largest air coverage of all Danish commercial radio stations. Although the station was very popular in the beginning, the listening figures dropped rapidly and fell against the revenue, partly because of strong competition from state broadcaster Danmarks Radio and Radio 100FM (part of Talpa Capital). A format change which makes henceforth presented programs were told not to avail. On November 14, 2005 at 23:59 pm Sky Radio Denmark stopped its broadcasts.

In Germany, Sky Radio has had a station in the state of Hessen. Sky Radio Hessen started on December 24, 2001, initially as a soft pop station. As of January 11, 2005 presented broadcasts with a format change are implemented as hitradio station. In July 2006 it seemed like to have extracted a success, but this later proved to be relative. Ultimately it is for the Telegraaf Media Groep NV been a consideration to sell 49% of the station in November 2007 in Regiocast in preparation for a full sale. On August 5, 2008 the brand name Sky Radio in Germany was that as 'superhit' radio station was abandoned active since 2005. Since August 5, 2008, Sky Radio Group (51%) and Regiocast (49%) is in Hessen active with Radio BOB! with a rock/pop format. On December 15, 2008 Sky Radio Group sold its 51% stake in Radio BOB! to Regiocast which thus became the sole owner of Radio BOB!

Spin-off stations
Sky Radio also broadcast a number of spin-off stations which are available only via the Internet:
 * Sky Radio Hits
 * Sky Radio Love Songs
 * Sky Radio 80's
 * Sky Radio 90's
 * Sky Radio 00's
 * Sky Radio Running Hits
 * Sky Radio Lounge
 * Sky Radio NL – Dutch music only
 * Sky Radio Dance Classics
 * Sky Radio Summer Hits (from June 21 until October)
 * Sky Radio Christmas (from October until January)