Sander Lantinga

Sander Lantinga (born September 27, 1976 in Berkhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch program maker at BNN, and a radio-DJ at radiostation 3FM. Lantinga became world famous as the streaker during the quarter final tennis match between Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva on Wimbledon.

Early life

Sander Lantinga was born in Berkhout, North-Holland, the Netherlands. After leaving Berkhout, Lantinga spent his childhood in several cities, including Biddinghuizen. Lantinga described his childhood in Biddinghuizen as "not very pleasant". He recalled that he had to cycle 10 kilometers everyday to school in another city, called Dronten. He once described the polder where he lived as "the Dutch version of Guantanamo Bay". Also in Biddinghuizen, Lantinga's interest in music began to develop. He listened very much LP albums from his father in his bedroom, some of which Lantinga still has. Lantinga says he benefitted from this, because he has now very much knowledge about old music, even before his birth. Though he admits that he isn't very musical, he always wanted to be a musician. When he was 5 years old, he had a little paperboard guitar. He loved it so very much, that he "even used it to beat other children at the playground" because he wanted to bully them for all sorts of reasons. However, the guitar was stolen. He says that's the reason why he isn't a world famous guitarist. Later on, he used two buckets as drums and admits he "was pretty good at drumming". He was drummer in two unsuccessful bands. He also said that he once participated in a annually local karaoke contest with his neighbour, because the price for winning the contest was going to Paris. They won, but the trip to Paris wasn't possible, so the price was going to local party. When he was sixteen years old, he decided that it's better to only listen to music. Every year, he was going with his friends to popular festival Lowlands since it was held in Biddinghuizen. Lantinga says that he got his funny character when friends were laughing at him when he was acting crazy.

Also on that same age, Lantinga experienced a turning point in his life. His mother died of cancer and decided to move to another place because he was "going to study anyway". He first studied economics, but he dropped out because he sent his data to late to the school. He then decided to work abroad, but he failed because of several factors. A year later, he decided to study Audiovisual Journalism in Zwolle. After six years, he eventually finished the study. He then auditioned for the newsprogram "Hart van Nederland" (Heart of the Netherlands), a newsprogram that reports news which aren't interesting enough for the bigger news programs. He was the person who had to decide at which event famous weathermen Piet Paulusma had to report. Lantinga remembers his time when he worked at Hart van Nederland. In an interview he said: "sometimes, people actually cried when they heard that Paulusma was too busy to go to their event".

Career

MTV

His audition for Hart van Nederland was unsuccessful, so he auditioned for MTV Netherlands in 2002 for three months. He hoped to be indispensable, so he worked very hard and did multiple things: filming, writing and post-production of the film. MTV was pleased and gave Lantinga a job. He enjoyed his job and after a while, he got an invitation to do a screentest. He was very sceptical about it and refused to do it because he thought he doesn't fit as a presenter. After many invitations that followed, he eventually accepted. The CEO of MTV Netherlands recalled Lantinga's first screentest as "the worst screenplay" he ever saw. After a few more however, Lantinga was accepted. Lantinga was very nervous for his television debut and knew that there was no way back. He decided to host the program with a bag on his head, so he could hide himself. He also found it funny, unique and a good way to hide himself. He was especially curious what the audience would say about it and what the power was of the media. After a while, forums were even opened about the identity of "the man with a bag on his face". However, when MTV asked him to interview the Foo Fighters, he had to take off the bag. Lantinga also did something he always wanted: to travel all over the world. He did that for the program Summer of Love where traveled to international music festivals.

Over the years, the budget of MTV Netherlands downsized, so there were also less programs for Lantinga. Lantinga wanted to leave MTV, but then he got a call from the CEO of radiostation 3FM Florent Luyckx. He thought that Lantinga's way of hosting could fit very well on the radio. He asked him a demo and was pleased with it. He then gave him the offer to host a radio program between 1 AM and 4 AM on Tuesday. The early morning/night programs on 3FM are critically acclaimed, since it's being used for new DJ's. Lantinga never had the intention to be a DJ, since he was convinced that his voice too horrible for the radio. He said the only time he was playing as a DJ, was in the train while he was toying around with Discman. Lantinga accepted the offer and worked for both MTV and 3FM. Lantinga said it was very hard for him to work as DJ, since he was very clunky with computers and buttons. Someone who helped him, was DJ Coen Swijnenberg who had a program after Lantinga's program aired. They developed a bond and even made a episode together. After a while, Swijnenberg got the chance to make a program in the weekday during the evening between 6 PM and 8 PM.After a year, 3FM changed it's schedule and Luykx decided that Lantinga could host a weekday program program from 8 PM to 10 PM. Lantinga accepted the offer and left MTV in 2004. After his departure, he said that several factors were important for him to leave MTV. The decreasing budget was one of them, but also because he thinks that the "M" of "MTV" is fading away. He said that the music videos on MTV were important for him during his puberty. However, he admits that a country like the Netherlands isn't having any interest for new music videos like countries as the United Kingdom.

3FM

Lantinga started his new program during the weekdays on 6 september, 2004, called the SanderSjow (in English: SanderShow] . The program was aimed at pupils and students who liked to listen to the radio in the evening, new music, stunts in the studio and several items, like "the radiodate", daily top 5 of songs, reports of trends in different countries and interviews with both local and international musicians. A notable item was Zand erover (in English: sand over it), were listeners could try to solve conflicts with other people. Lantinga tried a variant of this item two years later in an program where he had to replace a DJ because he was on vacation. It stayed the same, only this time it was to resolve relationship problems. The item was unsuccessful, however.

It also meant that Lantinga was reconnected with Swijnenberg, since he had an program before Lantinga. Luyckx listened to the episode Lantinga and Swijnenberg made together and said they would perfectly fit in a Friday weekend drive-in show. In the same week the SanderSjow debuted, Lantinga and Swijnenberg made a weekly weekend drive-in show from then on. The program was very successful, garnering many listeners.

Lantinga had the intention to be entirely different than other DJ's, which earned him a Marconi Award in the categorie Best Radiotalent.

Back to television

Before Lantinga received the award, he announced that he would stop making radio. Lantinga wasn't very pleased by the fact that he came home on 11 PM and that everybody was already sleeping, including his friends and girlfriend. Right at the time he realised he was being socially isolated, he got an offer from organization BNN to make television again. He entirely stopped with the SanderSjow, but continued to make "Lantinga & Swijnenberg" and sometimes was replacer for several radio programmes. He made several programs for BNN: BNN University (a program where he teaches several things like stealing a bike, how to strip, etc., etc), Spuiten & Slikken (in English: Syringing & Swallowing, a program where the viewer is being informed about sex and several types of drugs) and Try Before You Die. For the latter, he became worldfamous.

On July 4, 2006, he interrupted the quarter final tennis match between Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva on Wimbledon. For the television show "Try before you die", he entered the court as a streaker. After being questioned for a few hours by the London police, he was sent off with a warning, and a life-long access prohibition for Wimbledon.

Back to radio

After a year, Lantinga missed doing a daily radioshow. At one occasion, he replaced for a morning drive-in show (6 AM - 9 AM), lunch show (12 PM - 2 PM), midday drive-in show (4 PM - 6PM) and a late evening program (10 PM - 11 PM) on one day. He temporarilly replaced them, because all DJ's who originally hosted the programmes were on vacation. In July 2006, it was announced that the DJ who was presenting the program between 4 PM and 6 PM was leaving. BNN then approached Lantinga and Swijnenberg to replace him. Lantinga and Swijnenberg are still doing the show at this moment. Lantinga is also doing television on some occasions.

In December 2006 he entered the House of Glass during the Serious Request project.

Lantinga experienced an near-death experience for Try Before You Die, when he wanted to be weightless. To do so, he visited NASA in the United States of America. Lantinga had to swallow a pill from his doctor which should prevented him to be nauseous. However, things got worse when he swallowed the pil. He went in a trip for several days, which meant for him that he should rest in a dark room for one whole week without using any electrical items. Later on, the doctor revealed that the pill had to much ingredients. The pill could have meant Lantinga's death.