Paradise FM 103.1 streams pop and soft hits around the clock from Willemstad, Curacao, built for listeners roughly 30 to 50 years old under the tagline "Het Geluid van Curacao," the Sound of Curacao. It plays free on Radio Shuffle, no account or download needed.
A Dutch Station on a Papiamentu Island
Paradise FM broadcasts in Dutch, which puts it in an interesting position on an island where that is not actually the language most people speak day to day. Dutch remains Curacao's official language for government, law and education, but Papiamentu, a Creole language, is what most residents use in everyday life, and other local stations program specifically in it. Paradise FM's choice to run a Dutch-language music station, broadcasting from a transmitter at Grote Berg out to 103.1 FM across the island and online worldwide, carves out a specific lane among Curacao's broader radio landscape.
That landscape has deep roots. Curacao's broadcasting history stretches back to 1933, when a station known as Curom, run out of Rif Fort as an offshoot of the maritime station PJC, became the island's first broadcaster, according to a history of Curacao radio. Stations on the island have gradually shifted from the AM medium-wave band to FM in the decades since, a process reflected in Paradise FM's own all-FM signal.
Ten Years, Then Counting Further
Paradise FM marked its first decade on air in October 2018. Owner and director Kees Baas told JingleNews at the time that the station had been broadcasting for exactly ten years, celebrating with a new jingle package from Strike Jingles both on air and with events on the island itself, putting the station's launch in October 2008.
The station also steps outside its own frequency when the occasion calls for it. During Bonaire's Regatta Week, Paradise FM has broadcast live from the neighboring island, carrying its signal and its sound to an audience beyond Curacao's own shoreline for the duration of the event.
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From a 1933 maritime offshoot station to a Dutch-language pop signal still finding its decade-plus footing on an island that mostly speaks something else, Curacao's radio story keeps layering new chapters onto old frequencies. Stream Paradise FM free on Radio Shuffle and hear the Sound of Curacao for yourself.