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Omroepvereniging VARA
	VARA's last logo prior to being merged with BNN to form BNNVARA
Type	Public broadcaster
Country	Netherlands
Availability	Netherlands and parts of Belgium
Founded	1 November 1925; 99 years ago
Owner	membership association
Dissolved	Merged on 1 January 2014 with BNN
Former names	Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs
Official website	omroep.vara.nl
Replaced by	BNNVARA

The Omroepvereniging VARA (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɔmrupfəˌreːnəɣɪŋ ˈvaːraː]), the VARA Broadcasting Association, was a Dutch public broadcasting association primarily operating in the fields of television, radio, publishing and interactive media. It was a member of Netherlands Public Broadcasting.

History

The association was founded in 1925 as the Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs^[1] (Association of Worker Radio Amateurs).^[2] The name was changed to Omroepvereniging VARA in 1957 and is no longer an acronym.

VARA originally focused on labour and socialism. In the era of Dutch pillarization, the association had close links to the Social Democratic Workers Party and its successor, the Labour Party.^[3] For many years VARA's chairmen, such as Marcel van Dam and André Kloos, were prominent members of the party. Although the connection between the two organizations loosened, affinities remain, such as a large overlap between their respective support bases.^{[citation needed]}

On 7 March 2002, VARA adopted its final logo which consists of a red cube bearing an exclamation mark alongside the word "VARA" in its new, trademark font.^[4]^{[citation needed]}

On 1 January 2014, VARA was merged with BNN to form BNN-VARA.^[5]

Programming

Selection of domestic programmes

2 voor 12 (1971–1981 and 1991–present), a quiz show hosted most recently by Astrid Joosten
Kassa (1989–present)
Kinderen geen bezwaar (2004–2013)
Kinderen voor Kinderen (1980–present)
Mike and Thomas Show (2005–2009), a panel game show
Pauw & Witteman (2006–2014), a live programme about current events, presented by Jeroen Pauw and Paul Witteman
Sonja (1983–2006), a talk show hosted by Sonja Barend
De Wereld Draait Door (2005–2020), a live programme about current events, hosted by Matthijs van Nieuwkerk
Various programmes with Paul de Leeuw
Zeg 'ns Aaa (1981–1993), popular Dutch sitcom
Alfred J. Kwak (1989–1991), an animated children's television series
Pipo de Clown (1958–1964 and 1970–1980), a children's television series

Miscellaneous

On 5 June 1964, during The Beatles' world tour of that year, VARA organized and recorded for television a Beatles concert in the Treslong Café Restaurant in Hillegom as part of the group's three-day visit to the Netherlands. VARA broadcast a complete summary of the Beatles' visit to the country three days later, on 8 June 1964.^[6]

References

^ The word vereeniging is an antiquated spelling; today this word is spelled vereniging.
^ Arnold, Klaus; Preston, Paschal; Kinnebrock, Susanne (15 October 2019). The Handbook of European Communication History. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-16162-2.
^ "Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP)". parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 July 2020.
^ "VARA-televisievormgeving - Beeld en Geluid Wiki". wiki.beeldengeluid.nl. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
^ Ritzen, Guus (11 September 2018). "New management for BNNVARA (Nieuwe directie voor BNNVARA)". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 July 2020.
^ The visualization of the three day visit showed:
* arrival at Schiphol Airport - young women wearing Volendam folk costumes welcoming, offering tulips and traditional Dutch hats.
* the concert at Treslong.
* a roundtrip by boat through the canals of Amsterdam. The Beatles visiting the red light district De Wallen was not shown.
* arrival at De Doelen Hotel in Amsterdam.
* the concert at the Veilinghallen in Blokker.
* the group waving goodbye while boarding a plane at Schiphol Airport on their way to their next destination, Hongkong.