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Dutch Top 2000 facts – Top2000feitjes website

News ticker on Top 2000 live

Are you watching NPO Radio 2 live on this site? Then you can have a news ticker run over the picture: a running line of news headlines along the bottom of the screen, with the name of the source in front. Here you can read how it works, which sources there are and how to set it up.

What is the news ticker?

With Watch live you see the studio pictures of NPO Radio 2, for example during the Top 2000 Café. The news ticker is a narrow bar across the bottom of that picture, like the ones you know from the news on TV. News headlines run through it, each with its source in front, and a small spinning LP reminds you that you are watching the radio. That way you stay up to date with the news while the music keeps playing.

The ticker is available on computers and iPads. On a phone the picture is too small, so it stays away there.

How does it work?

A program of my own on this site’s server fetches the sources’ public news feeds every ten minutes. It keeps only the headline, the name of the source, the link to the article and the topic. The article itself is not copied, and a headline appears exactly as the source wrote it.

If you click a headline, the article opens in a new window on the source’s website. If you point at a headline, the ticker pauses so you can read in peace. Items older than a day disappear by themselves, and the ticker keeps running at night too.

Sources

You choose how many sources you want to see, with a maximum of six at a time. There are fourteen sources to choose from.

The Netherlands: NOS, NU.nl, RTL Nieuws, De Telegraaf, NRC, De Volkskrant, Trouw, Het Parool, Tweakers and GeenStijl.

Flanders: VRT NWS, HLN, De Morgen and Sporza, recognisable in the list by a Belgian flag .

Articles that the source itself marks as paid (premium) are skipped by the ticker. Not every source does that, so now and then an article may still sit behind a paywall. The ticker prefers to leave out regional news and articles from lifestyle sections.

Setting it up

Under Settings, the cogwheel next to the live player, you will find News ticker. In the window that opens you can do the following:

  • On or off with the slide switch at the top left.
  • Choose topics: Netherlands, World, Economy, Politics, Sport, Tech, Culture and entertainment and Odd news.
  • Choose sources, up to six at a time, with a tile per source.
  • Boomer Boost: the bar, the text, the source name and the LP become twice as big, for anyone who wants it easier to read.
  • Default resets everything and OK saves your choice in your own browser.

Your choices stay on your own device only. Nothing is sent to the server.

Ground rules

The ticker shows only what the sources themselves offer publicly in their feed, respecting their terms: the headline stays unchanged, the source is clearly named, the link goes straight to the article, the use is non-commercial and no logos of the sources are shown. This site does not belong to or act on behalf of the sources mentioned. This page deliberately shows no current headlines: you only see those live in the ticker.

Frequently asked questions

What is the news ticker?

A running line of news headlines across the bottom of the live picture in Watch live, with the name of the source in front. It works on computers and iPads.

Where does the news come from?

From fourteen Dutch and Flemish news sources, including NOS, NU.nl, RTL Nieuws, De Telegraaf, NRC, VRT NWS and HLN. You choose up to six yourself.

How do I turn the news ticker off?

Open Settings, choose News ticker and turn the slide switch at the top left off. With the same switch you turn it back on.

Can I choose only sports news or only world news?

Yes. You choose per topic what you want to see: Netherlands, World, Economy, Politics, Sport, Tech, Culture and entertainment or Odd news.

What is Boomer Boost?

A switch in the news ticker settings that makes the bar, the text, the source name and the spinning LP twice as big, so the headlines are easier to read.

Why don’t I see the news ticker on my phone?

On a phone the picture is too small for a running line of headlines. That is why the ticker is only available on computers and iPads.

The Top 2000

The Top 2000 is an annual listener chart from NPO Radio 2: the 2000 favourite songs of the listeners, broadcast between Christmas and New Year, from number 2000 to number 1. In 2026 it is the 28th edition.

How is the list put together?

Listeners vote in advance for their favourite songs. NPO Radio 2 counts the votes and turns them into the list. In 1999 you still voted with a coupon from the free newspaper Spits; now you do it via the NPO Radio 2 website.

How did it start?

Radio 2 came up with the list around the turn of the millennium and originally meant it as a one-off. It became so popular that it returned in 2000, and every year after that. More about this on the History page.

The broadcast

Since 2010 the broadcast has come from the Top 2000 Café at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) in Hilversum. In 2025 the broadcast lasted 168 hours, with number 1 just before midnight on 31 December. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was number 1 in 22 editions.

Read more

About The Jumping Fox

Listen live

Listen live to NPO Radio 2 here. The sound only starts after a click.

On a computer or iPad you detach the live block with the icon to the left of full screen, or by dragging its top line outward. Grab the window by its title bar to move it, and pull the grip at the bottom right to make it larger or smaller (double-click the grip for the default size). The cross puts it back in the page.

The music keeps playing while you navigate this site; on the other pages the little speaker is at the top right. Reloading a page or leaving the site stops the radio.

The stream runs a few seconds behind the radio itself. Prefer to listen on nporadio2.nl? (opens in a new tab)
Changes

About this site

A personal project by Pim Uijttewaal: all Top 2000 lists since 1999 in one database, with facts, records and statistics. It is an extension of Alweer dat nummer? (opens in a new tab), my radio statistics for Dutch radio stations.

Listen live

You can also listen live to NPO Radio 2 here, and the music keeps playing while you navigate the site. For the song that is playing now you can see straight away whether and where it appeared in the Top 2000, with a link through to the artist and the song, plus the NPO Radio 2 programme and the presenter.

On a computer or iPad you will also see a camera icon in the live player, to the left of the gear. It opens the live studio images of NPO Radio 2 (Top 2000 Café) in a window on the page. You choose from three sizes, drag the window wherever you like and close it with the cross, while the radio just keeps playing. If you choose Watch live in the menu, the radio switches off and the window opens straight away with sound.

Tip! Want to enjoy the Top 2000, or just a regular Radio 2 day, even more? Drag the video and the radio next to each other. Or click Watch live and the two windows are instantly lined up neatly side by side. That way you see the stories about the artist and the record right away, with every song.

Navigating

On a computer or iPad you can place the windows as you like. Grab a window by its title bar and drag it wherever you want; with the arrow keys on the title bar you can nudge it too.

The live studio images come in three sizes: small, medium and full screen. Grab the little grip at the bottom right and you can pull the window larger or smaller; the picture keeps its proportions. Escape takes you back out of full screen. The cross closes the window.

You detach the live block with the radio using the icon to the left of full screen, or by dragging its top line outward. It then becomes a floating window that stays put as you navigate through the site. If you grab the grip at the bottom right, you can make the window larger or smaller; the size is remembered. The full-screen icon fills the whole screen. The cross puts the block back in the page.

When the radio window and the studio images are both open, you can drag them independently of each other. The window you click comes to the front.

From radio to picture

If the radio is playing and you click the camera icon in the live block, the site asks whether to switch the radio off and let the video take over the sound. If you choose Yes, the radio goes off and you hear the sound of the studio images, with a volume slider and a mute button. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.

If you choose Watch live in the menu, the site does it all in one go: the radio goes off, the picture opens with sound on the left, and the radio window detaches and sits next to it on the right. Both windows start just below the LP at the top left and together fill the width of the screen. After that you drag and resize them as you like. If you then click a menu item, that page opens as a window above the two windows; use the cross or Esc to close the page and see the windows again. Even if the picture was already open, Watch live puts both windows back in that fixed place. If the radio is not playing, the picture also opens with sound. On a phone there is only the radio and the facts: the studio images and detaching windows are for computer and iPad.

Search

At the top right, next to the “About this site” button, and at the bottom of every page, there is a magnifying glass. Use it to search the whole site: by artist, song, presenter or fact. Typos are fine, and a result immediately opens the matching explanation while the radio keeps playing. With the / key (or Ctrl/⌘ + K) you can also open the search without a mouse.

Under the Top 2000 results is the Basement League: artists and songs that never made the Top 2000, labelled Never charted. An artist from it has their own card with all songs by year of release. If an artist is also in the Top 2000, you see the Basement League songs under their regular card. If you only want the Top 2000, untick Also Basement League above the results.

Listen to a song

Click a song and its song card opens with the stories behind it. At the top of that card are two icons: Apple Music and Spotify. For almost every song the Apple Music icon takes you straight to the song itself; the Spotify icon searches for it. Both open in a new tab, so the radio keeps playing.

What have I done?

  • All editions from 1999 to 2025 brought together: 27 lists of 2,000 positions each.
  • The top 100 of every edition compared position by position with other sources. No real discrepancies were found, only spelling variants of titles.
  • Facts and records calculated from that data, and news facts looked up, always with a source.

Where does the data come from?

  • The lists themselves come from the Excel database by Erwin Groenhof (top2000database.wordpress.com). The original source is NPO Radio 2.
  • Checked against: top2000nl.com, Wikipedia, Ziggo and news reports.
  • Photos only come from Wikimedia Commons, with the creator's name and licence included.
  • The Basement League (artists and songs that never made the Top 2000) comes from MusicBrainz and Wikidata (both free to use) and Wikipedia. That data is maintained by volunteers and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

A look behind the technology

The lists are stored in a SQLite database; the pages themselves are generated statically with Jekyll. For the near-live section, my own collector checks what NPO Radio 2 is playing every 30 seconds and matches it to the position in the list. It is the same technique as on the radio page.

What has changed? An overview of the biggest changes to the site, with dates.

Want something like this made?

This site is an example of what I build. More in the explanation of the database, or get in touch via The Jumping Fox.

Logo and rights

The Top 2000 logo belongs to NPO Radio 2. This site is not run by or on behalf of NPO.

More about the news ticker in Watch live: how it works and which sources there are.

About The Jumping Fox

Top2000feitjes.nl

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The Jumping Fox

The top2000feitjes.nl website was developed by Pim Uijttewaal, owner of The Jumping Fox: smart IT solutions and apps. A robust site with smart features and database integration.

The most notable features:

How all of this works, right down to the database, you can read at About this site. This window stays open.

Also always available for IT-related assignments.

On thejumpingfox.nl you can read more about the company and find the other apps too.

This is an external website; it opens in a new window.

To thejumpingfox.nl

What has changed?

The biggest changes to the site, with dates. The newest comes first.

Sunday 8 November 2026

Saturday 7 November 2026

Friday 6 November 2026

Thursday 5 November 2026

Wednesday 4 November 2026

Tuesday 3 November 2026

Monday 2 November 2026

Switch the live radio off and take over the sound of the video?

If you choose Yes, the radio switches off and you hear the sound of the studio images. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.
SQLITEone file

What is SQLite?

SQLite is a database in one ordinary file. There is no separate database server around it: the program that needs the data opens the file and queries it, in the language SQL. That makes it light, fast and reliable, and easy to move or back up: you simply copy the file.

Why here?

The entire Top 2000 since 1999 fits in a file of about 5 megabytes: 27 editions of 2000 songs each, making 54,000 chart entries for almost 5,000 different songs. A few queries to that database bring out the records and facts on this site, such as the highest new entries, the heavy hitters and the one-hit entries. The results are baked into static pages in advance, so visitors never notice the database and the site stays fast.

A well-known technique

SQLite is free software (public domain) and one of the most widely used databases in the world. Your phone, your browser and many apps quietly use it for their own data. I use the same approach for the radio statistics, and for the Basement League: a SQLite file of about 460 megabytes with over 4 million songs, in which search takes a fraction of a second.

This is just an example

This site shows what I can build. I can make something like it for you, for your business, club or subject:

I build it, maintain it and make it available to you, under your own name or domain.

Need a quality website? Or custom software? I make that through The Jumping Fox. Tell me what you want, and I will help you think it through.

Get in touch (opens in a new tab)

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