Curaçao is a small island with an outsized radio habit. For a population under 160,000, the Dutch Caribbean island supports somewhere between 30 and 40 stations, broadcasting across Dutch, Papiamentu, Spanish and English to a listenership that expects real variety. Paradise FM 60s & 70s is one answer to that demand, a decade-specific spinoff of Willemstad's Paradise FM 103.1 built entirely around the golden-era pop that its flagship station cannot fit into a single Top 40 format.
One Signal, Several Stations
Paradise FM built its identity as "Het Geluid van Curaçao," the Sound of Curaçao, running Top 40, pop and adult hits around the clock on 103.1 FM. Rather than squeeze every era into that single signal, the station spun off a family of parallel streams targeting specific decades and genres, including 80s & 90s, 00s & 10s, Latin, a commercial-free NonStop feed, and this one, dedicated purely to the 1960s and 70s. It is a model built for listeners who already know exactly what they want to hear rather than for a general audience hoping the DJ picks something they like.
A Station That Changed Hands in 2024
Paradise FM operated for more than fifteen years under Media Ventures Curaçao NV, owned by Kees Baas, before a 2024 sale to station manager Joris Reer and businessman Wout Tieleman brought new ownership to both Paradise FM and its sister station HITradio 915. The handover was not without friction. Co-manager Maarten Schakel said he learned of the sale only after the fact and left the station soon after, a departure covered extensively in Dutch Caribbean media at the time. The stations kept broadcasting through the transition, a reminder that on an island where radio ownership changes hands occasionally but the audience rarely does, continuity of the signal tends to matter more than who signs the paperwork.
Why the 60s and 70s Still Play in the Caribbean
Curaçao's radio culture reflects the island's layered history as a former Dutch trading post that absorbed Latin American, African and North American musical currents long before streaming made everything instantly available everywhere. Pop and soul records from the 1960s and 70s arrived on the island through the same trade and travel routes that shaped its language and cuisine, and they stuck. A dedicated 60s and 70s stream is not just nostalgia programming here, it is a continuation of decades of listening habits formed when those songs were new and Curaçaoans were hearing them for the first time alongside merengue, calypso and homegrown tumba.
Part of a Crowded, Multilingual Market
Paradise FM's stable of streams competes in a market that also includes long-running names like Dolfijn FM and Radio Krioyo, stations built around Papiamentu-language talk and traditional Curaçaoan genres like tambú. Against that backdrop, Paradise FM 60s & 70s carves out a narrow, dependable lane, English and Dutch-language pop from two specific decades, delivered without the interruptions of a station trying to cover every era and every language at once.