ECHO RADIO - THE DUTCH NETWORK,is a non-profit voluntary organisation which provides a weekly Dutch-language radio programme aimed to New Zealanders of Netherlands descent.In doing so, Echo Radio provides a weekly information service to the Dutch community in New Zealand with news from the Netherlands as well as community news from the different regions in New Zealand.                                                                        The focus on the Dutch language makes Echo Radio a unique service in New Zealand, as it provides the only Dutch-language programme in the New Zealand broadcast media.          Echo Radio receives no central government support. Whereas in Australia, ethnic minorities benefit from the free platform for multicultural broadcasting provided by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Echo Radio's continued existence is entirely dependent on individual and community funding.

Echo Radio has a potential audience of 150,000 New Zealanders of Netherlands descent, particularly those belonging to the pre-Internet generation.  Echo Radio possesses anecdotal evidence - through incoming correspondence and telephone calls made to its studio - that it has a wide, appreciative audience.  Its membership through Friends of Echo Radio can be considered relatively low, however, many of its weekly audience believe that they had 'paid' for Echo Radio through the soon to be abolished broadcasting license fee.  Statistically reliable audience research has proved too costly for Echo Radio's modest budget.  

Our Mission

For New Zealand to become a truly multicultural society, it is necessary that our voice and language be heard. The Netherlands and its language are important to New Zealand. Please give your children and grandchildren a chance to maintain their cultural roots!

We would also ask you to pass this information on to others. We hope to be able to welcome you as a listener and Friend of Echo Radio.

Profile Echo Radio has been broadcasting in New Zealand for over seventeen years. Today, its weekly broadcast in the Netherlands' language is being beamed through nine transmitters and can be heard in almost all of New Zealand. Echo 's radio programme in Dutch is of very high quality and regularly wins awards for its production. We invite you to tune in to our broadcasts, and listen to news, current affairs and music from the Netherlands, as well as to our own Echo Radio productions such as the language slot "Taalschat".  For more information, you can listen via this website, go to  Audio. Echo Radio’s programmes are made by volunteers, without government help. They cannot survive without assistance of the listeners and supporters.