The media city Hilversum

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 - 01:07 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  4 minutes

Main building of the Sonneheerdt estate © DennisM

Main building of the Sonneheerdt estate © DennisM

Hilversum is a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called “‘t Gooi”, it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages. Hilversum is part of the Randstad, one of the largest conurbations in Europe. Hilversum lies some 30 km south-east of Amsterdam and 20 km north of Utrecht.

The town is often called “media city” since it is the principal centre for radio and television broadcasting in the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands, heard worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, is also based here. Hilversum is home to an extensive complex of audio and television studios belonging to the national broadcast production company NOS, as well as to the studios and offices of all the Dutch public broadcasting organizations and many commercial TV production companies. As a result many old radio sets in Britain had a “Hilversum” dial position marked on their tuning scales (along with other exotic locations like Athlone).

View over Media Park © Dick van Aggelen Town Hall © Iijjccoo Media Park - RTL Nederland Studio 5 & 6 © Cuijk Great Church © Marcel mulder 'Beeld en Geluid' (Sound and Vision Experience) at the Media Park © Vijverln Gravelandseweg © DennisM Van Hellenberg Hubarlaan © DennisM Hilversum Museum, former Town Hall © Marcel mulder Main building of the Sonneheerdt estate © DennisM
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'Beeld en Geluid' (Sound and Vision Experience) at the Media Park © Vijverln
In 1964, the population reached a record high – over 103,000 people called Hilversum home. The current population hovers around 84,000. Several factors figure into the decline: one is the fact that the average family nowadays consists of fewer people, so fewer people live in each house; second, the town is virtually unable to expand because all the surrounding lands were sold to the Gooisch Natuurreservaat by city architect W.M. Dudok. The third reason for this decline of the population was due to the fact that the property values were increasing rapidly in that moment of time. So many people were forced to move to cheaper areas in The Netherlands.

Some sources blame connections in the television world for attracting crime to Hilversum, and the town has had to cope with mounting drug-related issues in a community with higher than average unemployment and ongoing housing shortage.

The town of Hilversum has put a great deal of effort into improvements, including a recent renovation to its central train station, thorough renovation of the main shopping centre (Hilvertshof), and development of new dining and retail districts downtown including the “vintage” district in the Leeuwenstraat. Several notable architectural accomplishments include the Institute for Sound and Vision, and the largest man-made wildlife crossing in the world, Zanderij Crailoo.

Read more on City of Hilversum, Media Park Hilversum, Institute for Vision and Sound and Wikipedia Hilversum. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




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