This is probably the most comprehensive audio compilation of what was achieved in the first 50 years of the Dutch external radio broadcaster. Part seven of the 8-part documentary series on Radio Netherlands focusses on the 1980’s and what it meant to the English language department in particular. It was a decade in which many women producers arrived, breaking through what had been a mainly male-dominated radio station. Names such as Veronica Wilson, Dorothy Weirs, Doune Porter, Ginger da Silva, Martha Hawley, Marijke van der Meer and Anne Blair Gould. News to Africa and Asia was regionalised.
The decade started with a coronation in the Netherlands and a speech by U.S. President Reagan about the evil empire. The massive Delta Works were completed, making Zeeland less vulnerable to flooding from the North Sea. Taboos were broken in our weekly Rembrandt Express programme and the decade ended with fall of the Berlin Wall.
The series was written and presented by Pete Myers, with research from Luc Lucas and audio contributions from the Media Network archive.