Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 1:46 PM• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 14:10

Omroep NH, RTV Rijnmond and Omroep West permanently removed a radio program by Johan Derksen from the programming this week, but from the online radio station Arrow Bluesbox Radio he can continue to present his show Music for Adults three times a week. Owner Adrian Ossendrijver has never considered stopping the show, he tells the General Newspaper†

In the radio program Derksen plays music to his taste: country, americana, blues and soul. He is known as a lover of those musical styles, which in his eyes are hardly played on the radio. “He presents that program with so much inspiration and passion. You rarely see something like this in the Netherlands,” says Ossendrijver. “With his unconditional love for music, Derksen has meant so much to starting bands in the Netherlands. He got his hands dirty for many young guys who were musically talented and could use some attention. He jumped in the gap for those people. No one else did. Which.”

The owner of the Arrow Media Group sent Derksen an app this week with the text: ‘Johan, we will continue’. “It is absolutely ridiculous what has happened this week. Canceling it by a small group, the media and radio stations running after it blindly. It all has nothing to do with each other. Now we are ready to have a nice program from the tube, and a man who has meant a lot to good Dutch music is sent away by everyone. Well, not by us.” By the way, Derksen was not ‘cancelled’ by Today Inside, but decided to leave himself. He concluded that there is no longer any place in the media world for someone like him. The radio stations did pull the plug on his programs on their own initiative.

“As is often the case, the criticism comes from people who have nothing to do with the program at all. Yes, sometimes it goes too far, sometimes not, and that’s fine,” says Ossendrijver. “That’s the way it goes with things that happen on TV on a whim. I don’t worry about those religious programs on the Evangelical Broadcasting, why should I? Let those people have a good time! Now you suddenly see all those people who crocodile tears bummed that the program is ending.” He calls the situation surrounding Today Inside ‘one big farce’. “We should have more people like Johan Derksen, I really mean that. The events of this week don’t change that at all for me.”