Mattie and Wietze bury battle axe and make radio together for Giro 555

Mattie Valk and Wietze de Jager are going to make radio together on Monday to collect money for Giro 555. The DJs – colleagues at Qmusic closely for many years – got confused five years ago, but think the fundraising campaign around the war in Ukraine is a ‘good time to to leave the past behind’.

,,It will be quite a special moment next Monday. We were asked this and we both immediately said yes,” Valk told Qmusic this morning. ,,We thought this was a good moment to put the past behind us. And certainly when you look at what’s going on in the world now, it also puts things in perspective, to say the least. So we shake hands and raise as much money as possible for Ukraine. It can be heard on all radio stations on Monday.”

The two DJs would switch to Sky Radio together in 2017, but Mattie changed his mind at the last minute. He decided to stay with Qmusic, without first consulting with Wietze. It led to the notorious split between the successful radio duo, with Wietze calling Mattie a ‘money-hungry mate’. Mattie expressed regret for his actions.

Mattie now presents a successful morning show on Qmusic together with Marieke Elsinga. Wietze can be heard on Radio 538 for several years and at the beginning of this year succeeded Frank Dane as presenter of that station’s breakfast show. On Monday they take care of the fundraising campaign on the radio between 08:00 and 10:00 in the morning. “We are going to make fun radio together for two hours on Monday to raise as much money as possible. It’s not about us, it’s about the good cause. That’s what we do it for. With this we show that we form a unity and that we all do this together”, says Valk.

National action

Valk and De Jager are not the only DJs from different stations who work together. Gerard Ekdom (Radio 10) and Sander Lantinga (Radio 538) will kick off the day from 6 am to 8 am. Then Mattie and Wietze can be heard, followed by Bert Haandrikman (NPO Radio 5) & Jorien Renkema (NPO 3FM), Annemieke Schollaardt (NPO Radio 2) & Barry Paf (100% NL), Rob Stenders (Radio Veronica) & Rob van Someren (Radio 10), Domien Verschuuren (Qmusic) & Ruud de Wild (NPO Radio 2) and Coen Swijnenberg (Radio 538) & Marieke Elsinga (Qmusic). Sander Hoogendoorn (NPO 3FM) and Tim Klijn (Radio Veronica) will present the last hour of the action day from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Radio stations 100% NL, NPO Radio 2, NPO 3FM, NPO Radio 5, Qmusic, Radio 538, Radio 10, Radio Veronica, SLAM! and Sublime together make fifteen hours of radio, under the name Radio555, to raise money for Giro555. The joint program can be heard on all channels at the same time. Radio555 is made from Sound and Vision in Hilversum and can also be seen on TV 538 and NPO 1 extra.

Request plate

Listeners can request a record on Monday for a fee or donate directly via the Radio555 website. The commercial breaks will be replaced by material recorded during the promotion. The entire commercial proceeds of the commercial breaks will be donated. The broadcast cannot be heard on Sky Radio, but a call for Giro555 is broadcast every hour and extra attention is paid to the action in news bulletins.

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