It was a particularly strange Easter in 2025. Pope Francis is no more, Adriaan Van Landschoot has also died. The man who on 15 July 1973 in one fell swoop dealt the ossified Flemish radio landscape such a blow, after which it would change for good. Offshore radio stations, free radio and commercial broadcasters were to follow. The Adegemnaar was behind this history when he started ‘his’ Radio Atlantis’ from international waters.
Adriaan Van Landschoot was born in Heulendonk, a district in the East Flanders municipality of Adegem, on 21 April 1948. He died on… 21 April in Ghent. Aged exactly 77. In three words, we prefer to describe him as an entrepreneur, music producer and radio pioneer. He started his career in the textile sector, but gained fame mainly as the founder of the offshore radio station Radio Atlantis, but also as a promoter of Flemish music.
Father Van Landschoot was a producer of wooden barrels. After his studies at Sint-Vincentiuscollege in Eeklo and the Erasmus Institute, Adriaan started as a bookkeeper in a textile company, where he further specialised at the Textile Institute in Ghent. He started a series of clothing boutiques under the name Carnaby. His eye-catching Rolls-Royce brought extra attention to his brand and himself.
In 1973 he founded Radio Atlantis, the first Flemish radio station after the unfortunate adventure of Radio Antwerp that had already ended in 1962, with the stranding of the broadcasting ship Uilenspiegel on the beach of Cadzand. Atlantis caused a real shockwave in the media landscape. ‘A Flemish Veronica at last!’ it said. The station had been on air for just under three months from the MV Mi Amigo, Radio Caroline’s transmission ship.
A broken transmitter mast and one Sylvain Tack as a privateer on the coast, forced Van Landschoot to look out for a transmitter ship of his own. It became the MV Condor, once intended as a floating home for Radio Condor. A Dutch project with religious ambitions that never took off. From the renamed Jeanine, named after Adriaan’s wife, Atlantis was on air again from December 1973.
With the introduction of an anti-offshore radio law in the Netherlands, Atlantis came to an end on 31 August 1974, at the same time as Veronica and Radio Noordzee Internationaal. A few months later, the comeback from a British lighthouse was nipped in the bud by the government. He also collaborated on the relaunch of Radio Mi Amigo from the MV Magdalena in 1979, something he admitted only many years later in an interview. The radio ship stranded prematurely. The Atlantis story as free radio, in the early 1980s, did not fare much better, as this time a seizure followed.
Van Landschoot was at least as ardent an advocate of Flemish music. He produced and managed artists such as Petra, Good Shape and Dream Express. His projects, including the Adrivalan Orchestra, the choir Fine Fleur enjoyed international success. ADYA Classic was released in sixty countries.
Adriaan Van Landschoot, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for some time, stepped out of life on his birthday. He leaves an indelible impact on the Flemish music and radio world (DP).
With thanks to the editorial office of RadioVisie.