Radio in the Flemish Community
This article covers the radio landscape in Flanders and Brussels, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium known as the Flemish Community. FM radio. The early years. The legal framework for FM radio was introduced in 1930 when the Belgian government granted itself the state monopoly on radio broadcasting. By the law of June 18, 1930, the bilingual state broadcaster Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio Omroep (NIR) was founded. Broadcasts were initiated on February 1, 1931. Later, the state broadcaster would be split into a Dutch-language broadcaster (currently known as VRT) and a French-language  broadcaster (currently known as RTBF). Public radio. In its current form, Flanders' public broadcaster is funded by a combination of taxpayer money and advertising. The following VRT stations broadcast over FM radio, covering pretty much the entire Flemish community: All FM stations from the VRT except Klara broadcast commercials. In addition, the VRT also has some digital radio stations that are broadcast online and over DAB. The line-up has changed over the years, but every station is automated and commercial-free. Current lineup: Private radio. For decades, private entities weren't legally allowed to operate radio stations in Flanders . Today, three types of radio stations are recognized by the Flemish broadcasting regulator: national, regional, local and other. National broadcasters. The following radio stations currently have "national" coverage status, meaning their coverage area spans the entire Flemish Community. The frequencies for Nostalgie were originally zoned for regional use. In March 2008, Antwerpen 1, Radio Go, Radio Mango and Radio Contact Vlaanderen jointly started broadcasting Nostalgie on their frequencies. On March 8, 2010 the station took over some of the frequencies of EXQI FM in Limburg. This effectively created a new national broadcaster. Local broadcasters. Despite a significant amount of locally  zoned FM frequencies, many local broadcast organizations choose to work together to form a network. Such franchises are known as "ketenradio's" (or "chain" radio stations). The individual frequencies of a radio network usually broadcast exactly the same output, save for localized commercials and the occasional mandatory regional news bulletin. Examples of networked radio stations include: Independent local stations also exist, but aren't as widespread. Examples include: