Wessel van Diepen (November 12, 1966, Delft, The Netherlands[1]), was a Dutch radio host for Radio 538 (until October 2006) and is the most successful dance-pop music producer in Dutch history.
At 15 he started his own illegal radiostation called "Radio Stad Delft", his first step towards a blossoming radio career. Later, when Wessel was 17 years old, during a holiday in Wichita, Kansas, United States, he made a radio roadtrip visiting several stations in that area and there he met a DJ at KKRD who gave Wessel the opportunity to fill in for him on air for a period of three months. Back in The Netherlands, in 1986, he got noticed by 3FM DJ Rob Stenders and through him he got his demo to several Dutch radio-stations in broadcasting capital Hilversum. After numerous offerings Wessel decided to accept a job as a DJ at the VARA, which also broadcasts via 3FM.
As he was a fresh breeze throughout Dutch radio, soon he was contacted by popular broadcasting organisation Veronica. They wanted to recruit him for some radio and TV programms which included the Europe-wide broadcast popmusic TV-show Countdown, which shot Wessel to international fame.
In the early 90s Veronica moguls Erik de Zwart and Lex Harding deserted Veronica and started Radio 538 and Van Diepen ended up going with them. Besides hitting big ratings with a daily drive-time show, he took the opportunity to exploit his dance minded side and created the internationally awarded radioshow "Van Diepen's Dance Department", where every notable DJ spinned vinyl, ranging from Oakenfold to Digweed and from Paul van Dyk to Tiesto. When Dutch musicvideo channel TMF (The Music Factory) was launched in 1995 and Wessel got on board, he once again gained TV fame as a VJ with a popular show called "Wessels Woelige Wereld" (translated: "Wessels Wild World"), which he hosted until 1999. He resigned as a radio presenter in 2006, but continued to produce music using the pseudonym DJ Delmundo.
During the 90's he started producing hitmusic, together with Peran van Dijk and later Dennis van Den Driesschen ('Danski'), leading to successful acts such as L.A. Style (James Brown Is Dead (with Van Diepen doing the trademark megaphone catchphrase)), Nakatomi, and eventually worldwide phenomenons Alice Deejay and Vengaboys. Over the last thirteen years, the Vengaboys alone sold over 15 million singles, 4.5 million albums, went platinum in 73 countries and performed in more than 130 different countries. The Vengaboys split in 2000, but announced their comeback in 2010 with the space age disco bliss single Rocket To Uranus, featuring Perez Hilton and Pete Burns (video only),[2] once again co-written and produced by Van Diepen.
Wessel also owns a recordcompany called "Violent Records".