Why is former NRJ morning host Jer’M joining Fun Radio Belgique?

NRJ officially announced Jer’M’s exit on 23 June. The station described it as part of a change to its model, while reporting by Soirmag cited management’s argument that resources had to be reallocated as listening habits evolved. That wider restructuring also affected afternoon presenter Julien Jadoul, whose departure was announced separately in early July. The two cases should not be conflated: it was Jer’M, whose real name is Jérémy Delarue, who had spent ten years on the 6/9 and is the subject of the reported move to Fun Radio.

For NRJ, the decision represented an attempt to reshape a costly and strategically important part of the schedule. For Fun Radio, recruiting an already recognisable Belgian voice offers a comparatively direct way to strengthen local identity. The CSA describes Fun Radio as a private network aimed at listeners under 35 and distributed through FM, DAB+ and the internet. Its service sheet records a 2.5% market share for 2025, based on CIM data, leaving it smaller than NRJ but still established across Brussels and Wallonia.

Those figures help explain why presenter loyalty matters. NGroup, NRJ’s parent company, reported that NRJ held 4.9% of the French-speaking Belgian radio market in the September–December 2025 CIM wave, while Fun Radio stood at 2.2% in that particular measurement period. The figures come from NGroup and therefore reflect a competitor’s presentation of the market, but the underlying CIM measurements show the scale of the challenge facing Fun Radio: a familiar host can attract attention, yet one recruitment alone does not guarantee a sustained audience shift.

This is chiefly a Francophone media story. Fun Radio Belgique broadcasts for the French Community, so its speech content, competitions and audience interaction are primarily in French. Residents of a Dutch-speaking gemeente in Flanders may still listen online or where reception permits, but they should not expect a Dutch-language equivalent of the programme. In bilingual Brussels, the same distinction applies whether a listener lives in the Ville de Bruxelles/Stad Brussel, Schaerbeek/Schaarbeek or another commune/gemeente: the municipal language regime does not alter the station’s French-language editorial identity.

The CSA, the competent regulator for audiovisual services in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, lists Fun Radio as a service edited by FM Développement SRL and authorised until July 2028. It also confirms three listening routes: analogue FM, digital terrestrial radio through DAB+, and the internet. A car radio bearing the DAB+ logo should find the station by name after a channel scan; otherwise, the most dependable option for newcomers to Belgium is the station’s web stream or mobile app. FM frequencies vary by locality, so listeners outside Brussels should consult the CSA service page rather than assume that 104.7 MHz works nationwide.

The move also illustrates something broader about commercial radio in Belgique. Streaming services have made music itself abundant, leaving presenters, local humour, contests and listener participation to carry more of a station’s distinct personality. NRJ management explicitly connected its restructuring to changing patterns of media use. Jer’M’s swift recruitment by Fun Radio suggests that competitors still place considerable value on the human relationship those same digital platforms struggle to reproduce.

There are two legitimate readings of the transfer. NRJ management can present the departure as a difficult but necessary reallocation of resources in a changing audio market. Long-standing listeners, meanwhile, may see Fun Radio’s recruitment as evidence that an experienced local presenter remained valuable and that the bond formed over ten years could travel with him. The next meaningful test will not be the initial burst of messages but whether listeners follow regularly once the new schedule settles.

Fun Radio is expected to clarify and promote its full autumn line-up around the rentrée. Attention will then turn to Jer’M’s exact role, the colleagues around him and any audience response recorded in later CIM waves. Until those details are published, the safest conclusion is a measured one: Jer’M has found a new Belgian microphone quickly, but whether his arrival changes the balance between the country’s Francophone music stations will take months, not announcement-day enthusiasm, to establish.