Robert Jensen (television personality)

Robert Kjaerby Jensen (born 12 April 1973) is a Dutch broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the RTL 5 chat show Jensen! during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on Radio 3 during the 1990s.^[1]

Biography[]

Jensen is a son of Walter Kjærby, the Vice Consul of the Danish Embassy. He is a brother of radio DJ Frank Dane, who uses the name Dane as a pseudonym so that the connection with his brother Robert is less likely to be made.

Jensen attended primary school at the Willem-Alexanderschool in Voorburg, secondary school at the in Voorburg and his havo. He obtained his diploma at the in The Hague.

Radio career[]

Jensen started in 1991 as a technician at Radio Midvliet in Leidschendam. Arjen Zijlstra of Midvliet did not think that Jensen was suitable to present, he said: "The board thought him too rude, but he could do everything with tape recorders and made the most beautiful jingles - we still use them".

After school, Jensen did radio training in Toronto, Canada. Back in the Netherlands, he was allowed to present the Midvliet Gala program at Midvliet, a program with calm pop music. After working for a few months in the radio traffic information department of the ANWB, where Jensen read traffic information on the national radio, he knocked on the door of Radio West. From 19:00 to 21:00 he was allowed to fill in a live broadcast from a studio on the Buitenhof.

Jensen was discovered by Alfred Lagarde, who regularly took him to the Radio Veronica broadcasts on Radio 3. , Veronica's radio director at the time, was impressed by Jensen. But unfortunately for Jensen, Unico had no place for him in the programming. Jensen then made his entrance at the TROS, where several internships were available. In between, Alfred Lagarde occasionally had him fill in for Veronica on Radio 3 for the program Veronica's Oh, What a Night. Jensen was also co-producer of the controversial Radio 3 program by dj Rob Stenders.

Soon a place became available at the then-commercial Radio Veronica when moved to the morning. Jensen subsequently presented Jensen's Evening Escapades (1995), The Friday Evening Shack (1997 together with Edwin Evers) and Robert Jensen (1996-1997, every working day). In 1996 Unico Glorie made him program manager of Hitradio Veronica.

In 1997 Jensen in the Afternoon was created, with Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte making his entrance, as well as (pseudonym of Jan Zwart), who every now and then sat down for items with well-known Dutch. Jensen traded the afternoon for the morning, and so Jensen in the Morning was born. Jensen presented this together with Kijk in de Vegte, Van Zanten, and (eddo) made his entrance in this program. , who went back to the afternoon, left not long after this for Radio 538.

In 1999, Jensen took a sabbatical for 13 months. Jensen himself said about this on the radio: "I had everything: a cool house, a nice car and a hot chick. And more importantly, the job I've always wanted. But I wasn't happy at all." In the intervening period, Kijk in de Vegte, Van Zanten and Ouwehand took over the program, which was renamed The Morning Pub. In 2000 Jensen returned to (which became Yorin FM in 2001, due to Veronica's departure from HMG). After that, Ouwehand left the program and in 2002 became producer of the morning program.

Jensen started on February 3, 2003, at for the program Jensen in the Afternoon, with co-hosts Jan Paparazzi and Robert Feller.^[2] Op 10 March 2004 he left Noordzee FM again, because Jensen did not agree with the principles of the station.^[3]

In June 2004, Jensen returned to Yorin FM with his program Jensen in the Afternoon, after a number of conflicts at Noordzee FM with Erik de Zwart and . Not only as , he was also creative director of Yorin FM and , where he was responsible for positioning and image. In January 2006 Yorin FM was sold to SBS Broadcasting and the name changed from April 18, 2006, to Caz!. However, Jensen did not go along and decided to focus on his television career for the time being, with the talk show Jensen!, which could be seen on RTL 5 every working day from 10.30 pm to 11.15 pm.

From August 2, 2010, together with sidekick Jan Paparazzi, Jensen presented the morning program on Radio Veronica on Monday to Friday, entitled Jensen! from 6 am to 9 am. On February 3, 2011, Robert Jensen left Radio Veronica unexpectedly and immediately. He has not been heard on radio since then.

Television career[]

Robert Jensen made his television debut in 1995 in the program Don't Forget Your Toothbrush by Rolf Wouters. In it he was voice-over but he also appeared regularly. In 1996 Jensen had a regular item in the Veronica program by and Floortje Dessing, in which he advertised his radio program, which started a few hours later. . Jensen also presented the on Veronica during the same period.

In 2002 Jensen got his own television program JENSEN! on Yorin, where he received famous people together with Jan Paparazzi. Among the guests were well-known Dutch people, such as Pim Fortuyn, Patty Brard, Kim Holland, Ilonka Elmont and Bart de Graaff, but also international stars such as Tommy Lee, Deepak Chopra, Char, Shakira, Johnny Knoxville, Lionel Richie, Kim Wilde, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Pink, Sugababes, Borat, Westlife, Snoop Dogg, Vanilla Ice, Enrique Iglesias and singer Fergie. On March 23, 2006, this television program won a prize in the BNN television program in the infotainment category.

In 2006 Jensen was a participant in the TROS game show Lingo by Lucille Werner together with Jan Paparazzi.

In June 2008, Jensen announced that he wanted to stop his television program,^[4] but in November 2009 Jensen started a temporary new series episodes on RTL 5, again together with Jan Paparazzi.

In April and May 2010, Jensen and Jan Paparazzi presented the entertainment program on RTL 5. Regular guests in the program were Jaap Amesz and Kelly van der Veer.^[5]

In May 2011, the last episode of Jensen was shown on RTL 5. From April 4, 2013, Jensen again presented a TV talk show twice (later once) a week. The program aired Mondays at 10pm and Thursdays at 10:30pm on Veronica. The Thursday broadcast was later canceled due to disappointing viewing figures. Sidekick could no longer be seen in his program, partly because he was making an afternoon program at RADIONL.^[6]

In the fall of 2016, Jensen presented the program Jensen chooses America on RTL 5. In this program he paid attention to the American elections and what the Americans thought about these elections.^[7]

In the spring of 2017, Jensen will make the program Jensen USA for RTL 5, in which he interviews famous people from America.

In 2018, Jensen started again with new episodes of JENSEN! on RTL 5. After seven months, the program disappeared from the tube again, due to low viewing figures.^[8]

Podcasting[]

In 2018 he started his own podcast, the Jensenpodcast, vor het echte geluid. The podcast was nominated for the Dutch Podcast Awards by BNR.^[9] It is now called the Jensen Show, which can not only be listened to, but also viewed on his website jensen.nl or his YouTube channel Jensen.

Jensen turned against the Dutch government's coronavirus policy in 2020.^[10] According to Jensen, the virus is not much more dangerous than, for example, the flu virus of 2018, while the measures do have disastrous consequences for the economy.^[11] Jensen is a supporter of former United States President Donald Trump and critical of the human role in global warming.

Controversies[]

Jensen's part on the radio sometimes caused commotion when it came to statements about famous Dutch people, or the provocative attitude of co-presenter Jan Paparazzi during visits to showbiz parties. Especially the program part in which Jan Paparazzi stalked famous Dutch people aroused annoyance. Also unknown people were called by Jan Paparazzi. One of the best-known 'telephone terrors' is Jan, who pretended to be someone from Nuon and wanted to shut off the water at one of his victims, whereby Jan Paparazzi mafia practices did not shy away: Otherwise I'll send the 24-hour shift you wonder and there are a few Yugoslavs among them. And they are not the best I can tell you!"

Some well-known longstanding conflicts between Jensen and Dutch celebrities:

Mylene de la Haye[]

came into the studio uninvited during the program Jensen in de ochtend op on with a horse for her television program on RTL 5. This led to a considerable altercation, after which Jensen phoned (then program director RTL 5) live on the broadcast and asked if he could ask De la Haye if she wanted to leave the radio studio. One of Jensen's most famous quotes from that radio moment is: "Mylene go away, go away. Mylene please go, go blow that horse outside! Come on, fuck off now!"

During De Vrijdagavondkeet (a program that Jensen presented together with Edwin Evers), Patty Brard and José Hoebee were put through by telephone on the radio. The two ladies had been in conflict with each other for years. At the time, it seemed that Jensen and Brard could get through one door, but shortly after this radio moment, at a showbiz party, Brard suggested that Jensen might be gay. She would have told this story exclusively to a gossip magazine. Jensen felt cheated by Brard and so there was years of mud-slinging on the radio between the two. It wasn't until 2002 when Jensen started his TV show JENSEN!, with Brard being his very first guest, that the quarrel was settled.

Viola Holt[]

In early 2006, filed a lawsuit against Jensen for allegedly making derogatory comments on his talk show JENSEN! and on his radio show. Holt has had the Public Prosecution Service investigate whether it is possible to start a criminal case against the presenter. The reason for her was the regular joke within the program in which Holt was central. Jensen regularly referred to Holt when a 'fat person' comes into the picture.

Holt said he was depressed by Jensen and wanted to write a book about it, called "The Jensen Effect".

Bassie[]

Bas van Toor was imitated until March 2005 in the radio program Jensen in da middag. The voice of this imitation Bassie was so striking that Bassie himself was taken for it. The statements of this Bassie were also very rude in nature, one of those rude statements was 'Adriaantje teringlijer'. The real Bassie was called out in the street. Jan Paparazzi called Bassie himself to talk it out in the TV program JENSEN!. In the end, Jensen stopped this imitation. It was not disclosed at the time who the impersonator of Bassie was, however, various sources believed that it would be (the Hague who was regularly seen in De Wereld Draait Door as Jackal in The Jackals section). Evenblij would also be responsible for the imitations of René Froger, Reinout Oerlemans and Hanna Tokkie. In the broadcast of 14 July 2007 of Frank Evenblij confirmed his Bassie imitations.

Maarten Spanjer[]

In Jensen's radio program was often called by Jan Paparazzi for various items, such as the big Christmas special, the autumn special, the European Championship special 2004 and the birthday special. Spanjer was not pleased with this and often let himself be hunted down. He got along a little better with Jensen, but he didn't want to be on his television program until 5000 euros were paid for giving an interview.^[12]

Noordzee FM[]

At the beginning of 2003, Jensen switched to radio station , where he started presenting Jensen in de middag ging presentern. He did this together with Jan Paparazzi and Robert Feller. In the same year, Noordzee FM decided to adjust the format again because of the air frequency auction. They had taken over the frequencies from Sky Radio and wanted to be more like this station. Jensen no longer felt that he fit in with the station and regularly called in sick at the end of 2003/beginning of 2004. In March 2004, together with Jan Paparazzi and Robert Feller, he left Noordzee FM for good.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website