John Westland

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Happy Music

The Music palace

The Music Palace

It all started on November 17, 1960, when I was born in Sint Jansteen in the Netherlands, right on the Belgian border. Here on the left you will find the first photo that was taken of me in the spring of 1961.
In 1970 we moved to Terneuzen, a big city in the eyes of someone who comes from the countryside. At the age of 10 or 11 I started to be interested in music and came into contact with Radio Veronica as a listener. I soon became a loyal listener of the programs of this offshore radio station.
That pleasure did not last very long, because as is known, Radio Veronica came to an end as an offshore radio station in 1974. But like many others, I also made the switch to Radio Mi Amigo, which continued to make broadcasts from the sea after August 31, 1974.

After most offshore radio stations disappeared, many small ether pirates started to emerge in the Netherlands. Having my own radio station appealed to me and through the grapevine I got a much-desired transmitter, a josty-kit. It’s not much of a transmitter, but it’s a good start.
My first program went on the air on December 25, 1976, a one-hour Christmas program. When I listen back, it wasn’t a program to be proud of. I hope there are no more copies floating around that I could be confronted with….
The josty kit became a larger station and every now and then I broadcast under the name Radio Atlanta.

In 1979 I started regular broadcasts on Friday evenings under the name Radio Atlantis together with a school friend (JL). It went well and we made plans with other local pirates to start a larger radio station together that would broadcast on Sundays. Early 1980 this station, Radio Continental, was born. The broadcasts lasted for one year and were concluded in the last week of 1980 with a marathon broadcast of 192 hours (of which most programs were broadcast live).

Radio Continental stopped broadcasting early 1981 and I switched to another station in Terneuzen, Radio Exodus. This station turned out to be extremely popular because of its specific format (unlike other pirates in the region, this station focused on the slightly older listener). During the Father’s Day broadcast we received no less than 250 requests within two hours.
Unfortunately, well-listened-to radio stations are also very popular with the investigation service and one seizure followed another. During a police raid (especially for us, we were honored) all employees were arrested, except me. I was not at home. Later they also managed to find me and that meant the (temporary) end of my active radio career in the Netherlands.

In 1982 I started at Radio Tijger in Stekene, a very powerful and professional radio station. A former employee of Radio Mi Amigo was still at the cradle of this station. I presented the program “natafelen” every working day between 13:00 and 14:00. A nice detail was that I had to appear in court for my participation in Radio Exodus on a working day at 13:30. While I stood in front of the judge promising that “I would never do it again” my program could be heard from Northern France to Rotterdam!
In 1984 I left Radio Tijger because there were quite a few internal problems at the time. After this I briefly had my own radio station called Radio Cupido, this adventure did not last long because I got into conflict with other board members.

After Radio Tijger I did continue to work in Belgium. I signed up for Radio Delmare (Zingem), Radio ‘t Ros (Dendermonde) and Radio Kompas (Oostende). At each of the radio stations I had a program every working day. All programs were recorded in Terneuzen and sent by post to the various stations. During this time I also worked at Radio Europe (The Hague) and Radio Stad FM (Rotterdam) in the Netherlands, but both were not destined to last long. The syndicate programs on the Flemish radio stations continued until 1987.

From 1987 to 1989 I took a break from the radio. I had met a pleasant young Belgian lady and moved from the Netherlands to Belgium (emigrating is officially what it is called, but for me it was only 40 km away…).

Disc Jockeys cannot do without the radio for long, that is common knowledge and so I started working at the radio again in 1989. This time at Radio Saturnus, the local radio station in my new home town Maldegem.
At this station I not only presented, but I also maintained (as best as possible and with very limited resources) the technical side of the radio. The entire automation was a nice piece of home industry and worked properly.

I continued working at Radio Saturnus until the last day came in 2002. The station was then forced to close its books and was taken over by a chain radio station.

Dj