Wessel van Diepen

Wessel van Diepen (born on November 12, 1966 in Delft, Netherlands)^[1] is a Dutch radio host and station-voice for Radio 538, and FOX Television NL, movie trailer voice over and is one of the most successful dance-pop music producers in Dutch history. With a total of 10 UK top 10 hits including 2 UK number one hits. Two Billboard Dance number one hits. A gold album in the USA and multi platinum selling singles world wide.

Career

At age 15, van Diepen started a pirate radio station called "Radio Stad Delft". The station was taken down by the police numerous times. When was Wessel was 17 years old, during a holiday in Wichita, Kansas, United States, there he met a DJ at KKRD who gave Wessel the opportunity to fill in for him on air. Back in The Netherlands, in 1986, he got noticed by 3FM DJ Rob Stenders. Wessel decided to accept a job as a DJ at the VARA, which also broadcasts via National radio 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 programs which included the Europe-wide broadcast popmusic TV-show Countdown, broadcast on Sky Channel and Super Channel which shot Wessel to international fame.

In the '90s Veronica moguls Erik de Zwart and Lex Harding deserted Veronica and started Radio 538 and Van Diepen was asked to join 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 major DJs would spin their vinyl live in the studio, ranging from Oakenfold to Digweed and from Paul van Dyk to Tiesto. Many successful Dutch deejays have claimed to have grown up listening to Dance Department. 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. After he temporarily resigned as a radio presenter in 2006 to focus more on artist development and music production. Wessel got back in 2013 on Radio 538 with Global Dance Chart. A weekly beat-mixed chart-show with the 40 biggest dance hits worldwide. The Global Dance Chart was officially opened by Martin Garrix smashing a bottle of champaign on Wessels' head. The show has turned out to be a "ratings monster" for Radio 538 and will most likely branch out to other territories.

During the '90s he started a successful run of producing danceable hitmusic, together with Peran van Dijk and later Dennis van Den Driesschen ('Danski'), leading to 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. 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 Rocket To Uranus, featuring Perez Hilton and Pete Burns (video only),^[2] once again co-written and produced by Van Diepen. The Vengaboys currently perform about 150 live shows per year worldwide. In 2013 Protocol recordings released the EDM track WTF!? Co-written by Wessel and produced by Nicky Romero and ZROQ a.k.a. Peran van Dijk. It is not known if and when Wessel will release new material, although his Twitter feed has showed various recording studio pictures.

References