By Marc Maes
Dec. 10 saw the final edition of the “De Pré Historie Live” special event broadcast at the Vooruit arts center in Ghent, Belgium. The show has been on the road for 20 years.
Guy De Pré is on stage during De Pré Historie Live event on Dec. 10.
Photo credit: Credit: Alex Vanhee
De Pré Historie Live was a spin-off from the public broadcaster VRT’s popular Radio 2 show “De Pré Historie,” hosted by Guy De Pré.
De Pré Historie has been on the air for more than 32 years with the same presenter, making it the longest running radio show on the Dutch-language broadcaster’s Radio 2 channel, and with the same host.
De Pré Historie airs on Sunday between 10 a.m. and noon, and attracts a loyal audience of some 800,000 listeners per broadcast.
The De Pré Historie Live audience on Dec. 10 at Vooruit arts center in Ghent, Belgium
Photo credit: Alex Vanhee
During the two-hour show, De Pré strolls through the charts from the 1950s through to 1999, and links news and trivia to song titles. Over the years, the radio program has yielded various spinoffs like aweekly television show of the same name that ran between 1990 and 2000, and a highly successful series of compilation CDs based on the radio format, which has sold over 3 million copies.
“With an average audience of 1,000, partygoers per each ‘Pré Historie Live’ special event broadcast, I gather that some 300,000 people came to see us during the last 20 years,” said De Pré.
“Over the last two decades we played in all venues and tents in Flanders. From the very beginning we pioneered the projection of video-clips during the live presentation. A memorable edition was the 1999/2000 millennium show where I started a party at the Flanders Expo venue in Ghent and then rushed to the Antwerp Sportpaleis about 70 kilometers away after midnight,” he added.
De Pré reiterated that while the live show has stopped after 20 years, the “De Pré Historie” radio show continues on Radio 2.
