RTV Connect streams local music, talk shows and news for Arnhem, Renkum and the surrounding Liemers and Doesburg area in the Netherlands. It is free to listen to on Radio Shuffle, no account or app required.
Four Local Broadcasters, One Signal
RTV Connect did not start as a single station. It grew out of a deliberate merger between separate local broadcasters serving neighboring Dutch municipalities. According to municipal records, the local broadcasters RTV Arnhem, RTV Favoriet, Omroep Lingewaard and Studio Rheden signed a letter of intent on August 20, 2020 to work together, and RTV Arnhem and RTV Favoriet deepened that partnership further from November 2021 onward. The goal, stated in the same records, was to eventually merge into a single regional broadcaster with a strong presence across radio, television, internet and news for Arnhem, the Liemers area and Doesburg.
The legal entity behind that merger is Stichting Streekomroep Midden Gelderland, which trades under the name RTV Connect. Renkum council documents describe the foundation applying to the Dutch Media Authority, the Commissariaat voor de Media, for a renewed broadcasting license covering both Arnhem and Renkum for the period running from November 18, 2023 to November 18, 2028, with the municipal councils weighing in before the regulator's final decision.
Why Dutch Towns Each Get Their Own Broadcaster
That layered approval process exists because of how Dutch public media law is structured. Local public broadcasting sits as the third tier of a three-level system, alongside the national NPO and the provincial RPO stations, and under the Mediawet, each municipality is entitled to only one official local public broadcaster. Rather than each small town running its own separate station, RTV Connect's merger model lets several municipalities around Arnhem pool their resources into one broadcaster serving all of them, while still going through each individual council for approval.
Press Play
From four separate local newsrooms to one shared signal across the Arnhem region, RTV Connect's story is really a story about small-town Dutch broadcasters deciding that working together beat competing for the same small audience. Stream RTV Connect free on Radio Shuffle and hear the result.