History

The idea

• The idea came from Radio 2 station manager Kees Toering: around the turn of the millennium he wanted a listener-compiled list of 2000 songs, broadcast between Christmas and New Year. According to Wikipedia EN the idea arose in the summer of 1998. From January 1999 listeners could submit their “song of the century”, which produced the list of 2000 records. Wikipedia EN gives September 1999 as the moment he put the plan to colleagues. That does not fit the submissions from January, so the sources differ here. according to sourceSource: en.wikipedia.org, wiki.beeldengeluid.nl, radiowereld.nl, hitnoteringen.be
• Radio 2 looked enviously at Sky Radio's strong listening figures, especially with its Christmas programming, and hoped to beat them with the list. Christmas was then Sky Radio's territory, and Radio 2 did not broadcast at night.Source: radiowereld.nl, en.wikipedia.org
• Frits Spits says himself that the idea came from Kees Toering and Sjors Froehlich and that he and his team were reluctant at first, because they had to give up their own programme. So by his own account he did not come up with the Top 2000 himself. Later he saw it as a fresh start to close the twentieth century. according to sourceSource: nporadio2.nl
• Many colleagues, broadcasters and DJs doubted the plan. According to Wikipedia, an impassioned speech by Frits Spits helped win them over. Only that one source mentions this, and it does not clash with Spits' own account of his initial reluctance. according to sourceSource: en.wikipedia.org, radiowereld.nl

Background photo: Overview of Media Park, Hilversum (2011), Dick van Aggelen, CC0. Resized and tinted.

The first broadcast, 1999

• The first broadcast began at midnight at the start of Boxing Day 1999, with John Denver's 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy' at position 2000. Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' won, followed by Hotel California by the Eagles and Child in Time by Deep Purple.Source: en.wikipedia.org, radiowereld.nl
• According to Wikipedia EN, listeners voted with a coupon from the free newspaper Spits (circulation 450,000): fill in ten songs and send it in. Processing the result by hand took days. The source gives neither a year nor the number of coupons. according to sourceSource: en.wikipedia.org
• For the first broadcast, presenters had to bring their own records, some of them by bike in a record case. There was no digital system; the records were played on turntables. Spits says the stream of e-mails took the makers by surprise. according to sourceSource: nporadio2.nl

Background photo: Frits Spits, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid), Hilversum, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl. Resized and tinted.

One-off at first, then a tradition

• The Top 2000 was meant as a one-off event for the turn of the millennium. It was so successful that Radio 2 broadcast the list again a year later and turned it into an annual tradition.Source: radiowereld.nl, en.wikipedia.org, dutchreview.com
• According to Toering, the first edition reached almost 4 million listeners, while Radio 2 normally had around 1 million. In market share, Sky Radio stayed ahead for some time, until the Top 2000 overtook it in 2003. These are Toering's own figures, from a news report. according to sourceSource: radiowereld.nl
• Toering later said that in the first editions the makers nudged the result a little: long, little-known songs with as many votes as shorter ones were deliberately played at night, and every hour opened with an up-tempo song. This stopped after a few years, because the list had become so popular that the running order no longer affected listening behaviour.Source: radiofreak.nl, welingelichtekringen.nl, hartvannederland.nl
• Growth kept going: in 2011 Radio 2 reported a record reach of 11.2 million listeners (78 percent of the Dutch population aged 10 and over), and in 2023 the broadcast had a national market share of 41.1 percent.Source: en.wikipedia.org, hitnoteringen.be

Background photo: Top 2000 Café at Beeld en Geluid (2018), Laurensvanheerde, CC BY 4.0. Resized and tinted.

Belgium: what we know, and what we don't

You often hear that the Dutch Top 2000 does not catch on in Belgium. We found no conclusive explanation for that in any source. These are the facts that can be found.

• Not confirmed by any source: why the Dutch Top 2000 does not catch on in Belgium. None of the sources consulted (VRT, Wikipedia, Radiovisie) gives a substantiated reason, and the VRT does not mention the Dutch list in its own reports. A 2017 source even claims the opposite: that the list is followed widely in Flanders too, without figures. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu, vrt.be
• Correction to the assumption: Studio Brussel De Tijdloze did not begin in 1997 but in 1987, well before the Top 2000. From 1987 to 2004 it was broadcast on Boxing Day and later moved to 31 December.Source: vrt.be, hitnoteringen.be
• The VRT calls De Tijdloze probably the oldest end-of-year list still running in Flanders and says that more than half of Flanders listens in, with tens of thousands of votes a year. The VRT gives no exact figures. It has since become a VRT-wide project with its own digital station, books and TV. according to sourceSource: vrt.be
• In 2021 the VRT launched a completely new end-of-year list on Radio 2, the Radio 2 Top 2000: twice as long as before, chosen by listeners and broadcast 24 hours a day, also on Eén. Network head Rino Ver Eecke gives as the reason that Radio 2 wanted to close the year on a cosy note. It makes no reference to the Dutch Top 2000.Source: vrt.be, hitnoteringen.be
• According to an opinion piece by Radiovisie, the Flemish list began in 2007 as '1000 Klassiekers' and was renamed Radio 2 Top 2000 in 2021. Only that source mentions the predecessor. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu
• Reach: according to a 2017 source, NPO Radio 2 can be received on FM in the north of Flanders and elsewhere via cable (Telenet, Proximus) and web stream. Nothing was found on the number of Belgian listeners or voters for the Dutch list. Wikipedia only says that people from abroad can vote too. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu, en.wikipedia.org
• Musical taste: according to Radiovisie, almost 900 songs appear on both the Dutch and the Flemish list, mostly from the seventies and eighties. Flanders chooses more accessible classics and Belpop, the Netherlands more new wave, alternative rock and Britpop. This is an analysis by an opinion writer, not research into why Belgians are uninterested. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu
• According to the same opinion piece, Dutch listeners may choose 5 to 35 songs, while Flemish listeners may pick only three. The NPO has an estimated 600,000 to 750,000 unique voters; no comparable figure is available for Flanders. The VRT also runs De Tijdloze in the same week, which the author says gets in the way of its own list. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu
• Listening figures: in Flanders, according to the opinion piece, the CIM measurement shows no peak for Radio 2 during the list, while in the Netherlands NPO Radio 2 reaches a market share of over 40 percent. The VRT news reports on the 2025 list give no number of voters or listeners, only that the finale came live from Roeselare and that 500,000 people attended the end-of-year festivities there. according to sourceSource: radiovisie.eu, vrt.be

Background photo: Flagey in Brussels, the former radio building, Sally V, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and tinted.