De minimix op deze avond was nieuw: Energy 52 vs. David Guetta – Cafe Del Mar Don’t Leave Me Now. De keuze voor deze tracks maakt duidelijk dat er langzaam maar zeker een verschuiving optreedt van de 80’s via de 90’s naar 2000. Naast de twee tracks uit de titel – Energy 52 – Cafe Del Mar en David Guetta – Love, Don’t Let Me Go is ook nog Let The Bass Kick te horen.

vs.

De beide uren van In The Mix waren op deze avond speciaal. Op 1 april 1983 (of eigenlijk op 2 april, want het radioprogramma werd om 2:00 uitgezonden) werd de eerste aflevering van In The Mix uitgezonden – 30 jaar geleden dus. Om dat te vieren werd in het eerste uur de Grandmix van 1983 uitgezonden. Op zijn website schrijft Ben Liebrand daar het volgende over:

“So here it is, the GRANDMIX 83 in it’s original format. No touch-ups, just the original audio as broadcasted back then.

The studio used for Curry & van Inkel was located at the green dot in the picture above. The studio from which the night shows, In The Mix and the Grandmixes were broadcasted were located at the red dot.

Lex Harding picked up on this new phenomena where DJ’s no longer blabbed through the music in clubs, but rather blended seamlessly from one track to the next. I was given the awesome opportunity to play such mixes on the most popular radio station of The Netherlands, Radio Veronica.
It was the first time on Dutch National Radio that the DJ was silent and the music conveyed the message.

From In The Mix, the Minimix spawned later that year, slotted earlier on prime-time, gaining an even bigger following amongst mix enthusiasts and the dance audiences. At the end of that first year it occurred to me that it might be a nice idea to make a mix featuring the best of dance in a continuous 1 hour mix on radio. That first year it wasn’t even called the Grandmix, as that name came up later through one of the NOS technicians.

In a time far before Internet, nobody knew this was going to be broadcasted, so although it was a big bummer that only one of the 2 tapes turned out to be in the box on the first run, (thus missing the last 25 minutes) nobody knew what to expect that first time. Luckily all was OK on the re-run a week later.

Anyway, history has shown that this was a key moment in Dutch Dance Music and I am very proud and thankful for that opportunity.”

Veel bekende dj’s uit deze tijd zijn geïnspireerd door deze Grandmix en de daarop volgende.
Tijdens het tweede uur van In The Mix werd ITM #001 herhaald. Dit was het eerste non-stop muziekprogramma op de Nederlandse radio. Daarover schrijft Ben Liebrand op zijn site:

“This is the first In The Mix episode ever, broadcasted on the night of April 1st, so actually in the first hours of April 2nd 1983, from a studio at the NOS (Dutch Broadcasting Organization) , very much like this one. Mixed on 2 SL1200’s to a 2 track Revox B77 with Studer butterfly heads. Prior to being allowed to play my BASF911 38cm/s tape, my overall quality and technical standard was checked by NOS quality control to see if they met the broadcast standard.
My black coated BASF tape really stood out amongst NOS standard Agfa tape that had a pink colored back coating. So it was immediate apparent that it was not made at the NOS facilities.
Broadcasting my mixes on NOS equipment by NOS personnel thus required a special written exception informing the technicians about this bending of the strict NOS rules.
Furthermore, at 38cm/s a full hour did not fit on a single hub (reels are not used) and so the technician on duty had to crossfade seamlessly from one tape to the other. A marker sticking out above the tape marked the moment where tape 2 should be started giving the technician another 4 or 5 minutes to make the crossfade once the music ran in sync. What can I say, Oldskool!”