Hanneke de Jonge is the new voice of ‘With an Eye on Tomorrow’

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Hanneke de Jonge is the new voice of the radio program Met het Oog op Morgen. ‘Her voice sounds a little hoarse, which in terms of intimacy fits well with the late hour of the program.’ Image Ramon from Flymen / ANP

De Jonge follows in the footsteps of Hans Hogendoorn (76), the ‘Big Ben’ among Dutch voices, as ex-Oog presenter Frits Spits once characterized his deep, bronze timbre. For 48 years, Hogendoorn has been inaugurating the NOS program, to which hundreds of thousands of listeners, whether or not they are dozing, tune in every evening just after eleven. The radio maker recently announced that he has had enough after about 17,000 broadcasts.

And so the program had to look for a successor. Het Oog did this over the past five weeks with a public competition. No fewer than 7,183 people submitted a recording, from which a jury led by Oog and NOS Journaal presenter Rob Trip selected eleven votes. The nominees included illustrious names from the theater and film world: Jacqueline Blom, Thekla Reuten and Gijs Scholten van Aschat.

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Jonathan Witteman is an economics reporter for de Volkskrant and writes about social security, inequality and technology, among other things.

However, they lost out against Nieuwsuur journalist Hanneke de Jonge (46) in a special broadcast on Saturday evening. ‘One voice among thousands: unique and accessible at the same time’, the jury judged. ‘I am so incredibly honoured,’ De Jonge stammered after the announcement, ‘that I just can’t get my words out.’

“A beautiful, flowing voice, with something musical in it,” Hans Hogendoorn responded a day later to De Jonge’s selection. ‘I think it sounds beautiful and I hope it will continue to please listeners for a long time to come.’

The Dieverse radio maker does not have urgent voting advice, along the lines of ‘Gargle twice a day with salt water and a dash of honey’, for his colleague who is thirty years younger. “It’s not rocket science,” he says. ‘Just humming a little every now and then during the day to get rid of the mucus, that’s enough.’ And not having conversations during the day near road workers with jackhammers or other heavy weapons is also recommended, says Hogendoorn.

Voice coach and opera singer Elizabeth Ebbink, author of the book Depends on your voice?, is charmed by the balance between softness and hardness in De Jonge’s voice. ‘Women are often in a split: their voice must sound substantive and attractive. This applies much less to male voices, as we mainly want them to sound businesslike. De Jonge solves this cleverly by making her voice sound a little hoarse, which in terms of intimacy fits well with the late hour of the program.’

Ebbink thinks it is wise that the jury has opted for a completely different voice with De Jonge. ‘Hans Hogendoorn’s voice exudes nostalgia and a certain old-fashioned fatherliness, a bit like Philip Bloemendal from the Polygoon news. Then there is little point in choosing the same type of male voice again, because then you run the risk that listeners will complain: it is just not like it used to be.’

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