Leon Ramakers relaunches Dutch radio station Kink

Joy of a Toy BV, a company controlled by Mojo Concerts co-founder Leon Ramakers, has bought into a new Dutch online radio station, Kink, set to launch in February next year.

Kink is a spiritual successor to Kink FM, an alternative rock station in operation from October 1995 to October 2011, but will be broadcast online seven days a week, as well as over streaming services and in podcasts. It launches on 1 February 2019.

According to a launch announcement, Ramakers (pictured) – “one of the initiators” of the new station – “attaches great importance to the existence of a radio station that [caters to] lovers of alternative rock in a modern way and contributes to pop culture in the Netherlands”. No financial details of Ramakers’ involvement have been disclosed by Kink, with a statement noting that “his shareholding is emphatically private”.

Ramakers owned 25% of Kink FM between 1998 and 2003. According to MediaMagazine, Ramakers’ shareholding in Kink is a purely private venture, with no financial from Mojo or parent company Live Nation.

“It is a great honour to be able to revive this legendary radio name”

Working alongside Ramakers and director Jan Hoogesteijn will be veteran DJ Michiel Veenstra, who has been appointed programme director.

“There is no serious base for fans of alternative pop music in the current radio landscape,” says Veenstra, who was most recently a presenter at NPO’s 3FM. “The time has come for a contemporary platform where this music can be heard 24 hours a day, on both live radio and on-demand streaming services and podcasts. Music and technology come together at the new Kink, and it is a great honour to be able to revive this legendary radio name.”

The company that became Mojo was founded in 1968 by Berry Visser, with Ramakers, then a young architecture student, coming on board in 1970, the pair growing the company to become the largest concert and festival promoter in the Netherlands. Visser left in 1993, and Ramakers sold the company to SFX Entertainment (later to become Live Nation) in 1999.

He temporarily became co-CEO once more in 2016, following the departure of Wilbert Mutsaers, and now serves Mojo in a consultant capacity, as well as a booker for Pinkpop.

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