Federico l'Olandese Volante

Frederik Matthijs Van Stegeren was born on 19 April 1950 in Deventer, in the Netherlands, to Dutch parents. In a January 2025 interview with FM-world he explained that his father had been Dutch consul in Milan in the years after the Second World War, then retired early from diplomatic service, fell in love with Lake Garda and bought land at Torbole, near Riva del Garda, where he built a hotel. According to ANSA his father also created one of the first holiday villages in the area, bungalows by the lake next to the Lido Blu hotel that still exist. The family settled in Italy in 1958, when Federico was eight, and he and his siblings went to school in Italy. In 1967, at Riva, he made his first stage appearance as presenter of the Miss Lago di Garda contest. When he was 16 his father sold the hotel and the family went back to the Netherlands.

Back in the Netherlands he completed secondary school. In 1969 he enrolled in architecture at the University of Amsterdam, but he never took his degree. As Il Fatto Quotidiano put it, music was stronger. He recalled seeing Pink Floyd, the Doors and the Rolling Stones live in those years.

Pirate radio. He began working in radio around 1968 on Radio Veronica, an offshore station broadcasting on medium wave from an old fishing boat outside Dutch territorial waters. Its signal reached London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris.

Radio Monte Carlo. In 1972 Noel Coutisson, founder and artistic director of the Italian service of Radio Monte Carlo, brought him to Monaco. Coutisson gave him the nickname l'Olandese Volante, the Flying Dutchman. Working alongside Herbert Pagani, Awanagana, Luisella Berrino and Roberto Arnaldi, he launched the Federico Show and also worked as a DJ at the Jimmy'z club. He said he brought the Anglo-Saxon DJ style to Italian radio. When he left, he said, RMC had eight million listeners.

Rai and Radio 105. In 1977 he moved to Rai Radio 2, hosting A tutte le radioline with Herbert Pagani and Riccardo Heinen. In 1978 Alberto Hazan called him to Milan, and together with Claudio Cecchetto he helped structure the new Radio 105, where he hosted the afternoon for about twelve years.

RTL 102.5. At RTL 102.5 he became the station's afternoon voice. Sources differ on when he joined, with dates ranging from 1983 to 1994. By his own account, The Flight was created in 1997 from an idea of the owner Lorenzo Suraci, and he hosted it until 2010. RTL says he presented it for 16 years, and the show still carries the name.

R101, Radio Norba and RadioFreccia. On 5 November 2010 he moved to R101, broadcasting an afternoon show from January 2011. From 3 July 2015 to 29 December 2024 he was at Radio Norba in Puglia. In February 2024 he took a few months off for health reasons. After his farewell to Radio Norba he returned to RTL 102.5 for a special edition of The Flight in January 2025, and from 2 April 2025 he hosted a rock programme on RadioFreccia.

Television. He hosted Popcorn on Canale 5 in 1983, appeared in the second episode of the Canale 5 miniseries I tre moschettieri (1991) with Marco Columbro and Iva Zanicchi, and took part as one of the mystery guests on Rai 1's Soliti ignoti in 2021.

Alongside radio he worked as a record producer and recording artist. In 1979, as Freddy the Flying Dutchman and the Sistina Band, he released Wojtyla Disco Dance (Polydor), dedicated to the newly elected Pope John Paul II. It reached the top of the Italian charts and was also successful in Spain and South America. Other singles included D.J. (1980), Banana and Cashbah Boogie as Federico e la Marrakesh Orchestra (1982 and 1983), Let's All Dance with the DJ supergroup Band of Jocks (1983), Just Another Love Song (1984), Swamp Dance (1985), Peace and Happiness (1987) and Toccare (1991).

He kept his private life out of the media. In a 2026 interview with Corriere della Sera he said he had had two Italian wives and was now with his third, without naming any of them. He had a daughter, Lucrezia, and a son whose name has not been made public. On Facebook he wrote warmly about time spent with his son, his former wife and his former mother-in-law. He moved to Puglia in 2015 and his Facebook page lists Conversano. From the end of 2024 he lived in Hammamet, Tunisia, where he had bought a house by the sea, and in 2026 he spoke of wanting to return to Torbole, where it had all begun.

He believed radio was about personality and freedom. Before leaving R101 he publicly criticised the way Italian networks had come to sound alike, and in 2025 he said he still held that view and had stepped back from daily shows partly because of it. He lamented that the Italian idea of the DJ had split into radio speakers and club DJs, and that young presenters were badly paid compared with the 1980s and 1990s. His motto, quoted by RTL 102.5 at the opening of its tribute show, was that you have to enjoy yourself, because that is the essence of life.

Radio Files. Storie di radio (Sugarco, 2000). Il Principato. Storie di radio e rock'n'roll (Arcana, 2016), about his years on the offshore stations and at Radio Monte Carlo, which he described in the book as a live history of radio magic from the English coast to Monte Carlo. Il cartello olandese (Mondadori Electa, 2019), his most autobiographical book.

Radiogrolla special prize (2007). Cuffie d'oro award for the best communication in the Italian language (2011).

He is remembered as one of the last witnesses of the era when radio was still an adventure, a bridge between the North Sea pirates, the Italian service of Radio Monte Carlo and the free radio boom of the late 1970s. Many younger Italian presenters, he said, were small Federicos who took inspiration from his style. RTL 102.5 called him an almost legendary figure who left a deep mark on the airwaves, and kept the name of his show, The Flight, in his honour. Carlo Conti and Linus both recalled how RMC shaped their generation of DJs.

On Thursday 8 October 2026 his former RTL 102.5 colleague Fernando Proce, informed by the family, announced on social media that Federico had been admitted to intensive care at the hospital in Monopoli, Puglia. He died the following morning, Friday 9 October 2026, aged 76. The cause of death was not made public. RTL 102.5 announced the news live on air and devoted a special edition of The Flight to him that afternoon. His family announced on Facebook a vigil at the cemetery of Conversano on 9 and 10 October, with a funeral to be held in Milan the following week, writing that the show must go on.