Dit is de Non-Stop RNI Top 50 van 14 April 1973. Dat het songfestivaltijd is merk je onder andere aan de treiterschijf. Veronica voelt in deze tijd letterlijk “nattigheid” en Ben Cramer springt op de bres voor Veronica met de nieuwe binnenkomer op 46. Ook nummer 35 zal een rol spelen in de gang naar het einde van de zeezenders, wanneer Rolf Coppes van de PPR een stuk van de tekst citeert in de 2^de kamer debatten. Judge Dread, die ook nog een RNI versie maakte van Big X, staat op nummer 17 in de Troef 20. En Stevie Wonder is uiteraard de kanskaart van Ferry Maat. Wederom een leuke Top 50 met een aantal plaatjes, die in m’n geheugen waren blijven “vastkleven”.

Deze Top 50 kun je hier beluisteren:

Uur 1 Uur 2 Uur 3

Onder de TOP 50 kun je de herinneringen van Michael Downing lezen uit de tijd dat deze Top 50 werd uitgezonden.

The RNI memories of Michael Downing for this period

I had no RNI diary in April 1973, but what I recall of this period is:

The first Troef 20 was broadcast on Sunday 15 April 1973, introduced by Leo van der Goot. This replaced the previous RNI Playlist programme, which had included the records that the Dutch service of RNI was playing at the time that had not yet made the Super Top 50. In the week commencing 8 April 1973, there were 22 records in the playlist programme. From 21 April 1973, the Troef 20 was broadcast on a Saturday evening at the beginning of Driemaster and was hosted by the DJ who was presenting Driemaster that week. Hence on 21 April it was presented by Dick de Graaf.

There was one really typical RNI record in the Troef 20 of 14 April 1973 - the Buitengaats Kanskaart at number 9 by Cherry Van Gelder Smith, "Goodbye Guitar Man". At the time, Buitengaats was the early morning show, hosted alternate weeks by Gerard Smit and Marc van Amstel live from the Mebo 2. "Goodbye Guitar Man" was not a hit and didn't feature at all in Veronica's Tipparade. Cherry would have a Top 20 hit with "Silverboy" at the beginning of 1974. Another typical RNI record from this week's lists was "Er is maar een ding" by Mike Vincent at number 42 in the Super Hit 50 - again, a record that didn't even make the Tipparade on Veronica.

The final Vader Abraham Kanskaart was in the previous week (7 April), "Zomertijd Wintertijd" by the New Four. I was not a regular listener to his programme, but this must therefore have been about the time that he stopped broadcasting for RNI and started on Veronica.

The International Service DJ team was static in April 1973 - Mike Ross, Don Allen, Brian McKenzie, Arnold Layne, Graham Gill and Ian Anderson. There was an International Top 30 show from 20.00 to 22.00 on Friday evening. The show on 13 April was presented by Ian Anderson and, although it contained mainly hits from the UK chart, there were several that were not hits in Britain, including "Bitter Bad" by Melanie at number 9, "Brown baby" by Billy Paul at number 15 and "There must be a way" by Black Velvet at number 26.