KMAC Radio was a Dutch podcast about Apple and Mac topics. It ran between 2005 and 2008, during which 44 episodes were published, until its hosts no longer had the time. Six months after the final episode, a single reunion episode was released.

Created by Martin van Spanje, KMAC Radio offered news, discussion and information about Apple products such as the Mac, iPod, iTunes and Mac OS X. Also, discussion about open source software, internet, privacy, law and anything related.

According to its description, KMAC radio had a “lighthearted, relaxed, and humorous approach to the Mac world, and doesn’t shy away from strong language. Consider yourself warned. If you’re looking for carefully measured commentary, you’d best look elsewhere.”

The podcast was released just one week before One More Thing, the largest Apple and Mac news site in The Netherlands at the time, released its own podcast. At the time, KMAC founder Martin van Spanje was also the owner and chief editor of a competing Dutch Apple news website called MacWereld.nl.

KMAC Radio was inspired by a British Linux related podcast of an unknown origin, in which presenters would joke around a lot and shout “for fuck’s sake” all the time. This expression was taken and became a standard catchphrase in KMAC Radio during its entire lifespan.

Hosts

KMAC radio was hosted by three people (see below). Often times they would engage in discussions so frantically, that during editing some mic inputs needed to be muted. Shouting would have to be trimmed down for listening clarity, and obscenities would have to be edited out.

Hosts were described as follows:

Martin “MacWereld” van Spanje – Objective-C hax0r, musician, web-developer, brother, son, neighbour, all round good guy. Well, name something he isn’t. He even comes round if you’re not in the mood for it.

Feike “quecque” Wierda – student, 1337 root user and database administrator. Likes beers and is never too lazy to check your file system for inconsistencies.

Nigel ‘G.D.’ de Jong – Administrates systems like it’s a life purpose, except if there’s Windows installed. Has a huge interest in the legal side of tech and can cast a pod further than anyone else.

Segments and topics

Apart from Apple and Mac related news, other topics were frequently discussed, such as cheap “beige box” PCs, the Apple Store (which did not yet have store locations in the Netherlands at the time), software, games, privacy and security, Linux, advertising, tech, interesting people, and general banter about life and other “stuff that matters”.

Sometimes the podcast itself would be discussed, as well as financial details, things that went wrong and the fact that too much beer was being consumed during recording caused the hosts to forget what they were talking about.

Regular segments included responding to listener e-mail submissions, a “shoot out” where two opposing statements or products were discussed and one would lose, an “angry minute”, where each host would be allowed to complain angrily about any subject and a poll in which listeners could vote on a subject. During the time host Nigel was living in New York, a special segment “Nigel in New York” was introduced.

Notable impact on society

KMAC Radio had about 10.000 downloads per episode at its peak. In january 2007, it filed a playful complaint with the Stichting Reclame Code (the Dutch Advertising Code Foundation) regarding an anonymous or unclear ad campaign called “de Oppepper” on Hyves, a large social media network in the Netherlands.

Host Martin van Spanje claimed that the “Oppepper”, which was a blue cartoon character that would randomly appear in user’s pages and posts, was a covert advertising campaign by Dutch insurance company Achmea. In the Netherlands, any piece of advertising has to be visibly recognisable as such by law, and the “Oppepper” did not comply. According to the complaint, the ad should be considered a “vaagvertentie” (vaguevertisement), a term coined regularly in KMAC Radio episodes.

Following an inquiry, Achmea’s legal counsel and their social media manager as well as representatives of KMAC radio appeared at a hearing of the Advertising Code Foundation regarding the complaint. Several weeks later the foundation ruled the Achmea advertising campaign illegal, forcing Hyves to change the appearance of the character to indicate it was an advertisement, causing Hyves users to lose interest in it.

In some media the KMAC Radio case was discussed as it could have a large impact on other social media platforms such as MySpace, which were experimenting with viral ad campaigns.

KMAC Radio episodes

Episodes of KMAC Radio were released bi-weekly and lasted around 45-60 minutes each. The theme tune was based on the Mac startup sound, various sound bites and samples, and music from Apple’s “Switch” commercials featuring the song “Spit” by John Murphy. All audio and music production was done by P-Edge media.

Recording and editing was done in Martin’s home studio in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The episodes were hosted by a sponsor called Openhost.nl. Before official hosting, file mirroring was used to enable people to download the podcast. Desk Design (Olof Fredrikze) hosted the website for kmac.nl.

Some episodes featured live audiences and one episode was recorded live in iCentre Haarlem, an Apple reseller, during store opening hours and featuring live music.

Host Nigel de Jong went to live in New York for a couple of months, during which Skype was used to record his voice. Often the connection would drop and he would have no idea what was being talked about.

KMAC Radio list of episodes (click to expand)

001 Geleuter in de ruimte
002 Een smiley met een blauw scherm
003 Bezinning
004 Start spreading the news
005 Vorsprung durch Technik
006 De Genius bar is lang open
007 Het eerste interview
008 Steve en Steve schieten op elkaar
009 Ze zijn terug en schoppen kont
010 I love my Mac
011 Skype if you like
012 Gedoe over laarsjes
013 m4b is troep!
014 Nee Gizmo werkt goed
015 Een glas water in de storm
016 PEBKAC
017 Zit jij al bij Hyves?
018 Kadootje voor Feike
019 KMAC 3.04 beta 24 r.38 b.645
020 Videochatten is vier keer leuk
021 Myst IV is geen populair spel
022 Warme dingetjes
023 Vet fraggen in Medal of Honor
024 Klagie en vaagvertenties
025 Gesponsorde koppelingen
026 Happy new year!
027 De iPhone is bom!
028 De Schmapple iVod
029 Afpeppen 30 euro
030 Op de wagens
031 De shootout is terug!
032 Een grote rol stickervinyl
033 Feike en Nigel gaan forken
034 Twee jaar KMAC maar we doen gewoon gewoon
035 Draag altijd een bluetooth oortje
036 Opa legt het nog 1 keer uit
037 Mag die iPhone misschien ietsje minder zijn
038 Er zijn meerdere kampen
039 Leopard is vet, cool, troep en kut
040-A Dixons grossiert in ongevraagd advies
040-B De aankondiging
040-C De finale
041 De iPhone is top, T-Mobile is scrale
041 EXTRA_ deleted scenes

KMAC Radio dictionary

Each KMAC radio host would use common and made-up phrases and expressions repeatedly, resulting in audiences to start using them as well in daily conversation. A “KMAC Radio Dictionary” was published on the website, so new listeners could understand them.

80 miljard (80 billion) – a lot; “80 billion complaints were received” = “there were a lot of compaints”
aflevero – episode
Aldi PC – a cheap computer
Apple Stoooorrrree – a store that sold Apple products
beige box – an ordinary Windows PC
bom (de) (the bomb) – good, great, cool
Dell box – any Windows PC
for fuck’s sake – oh my god
fresh – good, cool
gers – nice, good, cool
goedkopie / goedkopietroep (cheapo / cheapotrash) – unbranded or low priced product
“ik mot gamon” (“I must game”) – reason for PC users not to buy a Mac
kak – bad or low quality
kek – nice, good, cool
klopt / plokt / plotek / klotep / polkt / plktoh / kltpoh – that is correct
kut – annoying
muck – trash, nonsense
servermannetje (little server guy) – administrator of the KMAC Radio webserver
schtei – stie
stie – style, stylish
troep – bad, nonsense, mess, of bad quality
ubie – really, very. “ubie fresh” = “really good”, “ubie many” = “a lot”
Ubuntu CD – fake prize, a prize that can but won but the winner has to download it by themselves
vaagvertentie (vaguevertisement) – an advertisement that cannot be recognised as such

Freebies

KMAC Radio gave away several freebies. A free downloadable desktop widget was available in which new episodes would appear. Four short remixes of the theme tune were released as free ringtones, in a time where ringtones would be very expensive. Stickers were sent out for free to anyone who asked for them. One young listener even received free Apple iPod socks, simply because there was just enough money for it, and live audiences would get free drinks and snacks.

Merchandise

At one point, KMAC Radio launched a merch shop in which several items were sold sporting the logo. The best selling items were coffee mugs, the worst selling item was a thong, of which only one was sold.