The vast majority of the songs played on-air are rock, alternative, indie and pop, though dance and Mega Top 30 tracks may also air at times.

Radio 3 added numerous FM frequencies on 1 December 1985, when on the same day it adopted its current name.

As from Monday 5 October 1992, Radio 3 went completely horizontal, with each public broadcaster losing its own designated day (except Veronica on Saturday and TROS on Sunday) but getting a fixed and daily time slot instead.

Paul van der Lugt was appointed as the channel coordinator in April 1992 and had to ensure that Radio 3 got a clearer identity.

To do this, the station got a new slogan (de jongste zender van Nederland, "the youngest channel in the Netherlands"), and a logo (a chick, to emphasize the concept of young).

In September 2003 Florent Luyckx was appointed as new channel coordinator, who is partly responsible for a number of (controversial) changes.

This caused Henk Westbroek, Cobus Bosscha and Isabelle Brinkman to leave the station.

After the frequency distribution for commercial radio in 2003, the competition in the target group increased and in the second half of 2004 led to the departure of Rob Stenders, Patrick Kicken and Ruud de Wild.

[1] From 2006 to 2013, the NTR broadcast Ekstra Weekend on Friday evening, which was one of the most popular radio programs in those days.

Presenters of the VPRO late evening program 3VOOR12 told the station in 2005 that they felt "confined" to their freedom.

In the summer of that year the channel coordinator Florent Luyckx left the station and was replaced in October by Wilbert Mutsaers.

Furthermore, it meant that after 12 years Giel Beelen hosted his own morning show GI:EL, he was replaced by Domien Verschuuren between 6.00 and 9.00 (no longer till 10.00).

Frank van der Lende took over the evening program of Giel Beelen, who left the station and BNNVARA.

A striking change was further that two women, namely Eva Koreman and Angelique Houtveen, were programmed respectively in the 'lunchtime' and 'early afternoon' slots; in addition, a female DJ talent from their own radio school, Jorien Renkema, got a place in the weekend with on Saturday between 14.00 and 16.00 the Mega Top 50 and on Sunday at the same time slot a radio show under her own name.

Despite numerous changes happening, the listening figures still consistently went down, and almost showed no sign of rising.

He stopped his breakfast show Domien, Jouw Ochtendshow and switches to the Qmusic for a drive time slot.

It is possible that Domien left the station due to his "dissatisfaction and frustruation"[4] of the, as noted above, consistently-dropping figures.

It is not yet known when he leaves, however it is now confirmed[5] that the current early evening DJ Sander Hoogendoorn will be his replacement.

On 2 August 2018, Talpa Radio director Menno Koningsberger said that NPO 'no longer worries' about 3FM's figures.

He argued that a typical Dutch radio listener is 50 years old in average as of now, and that the same struggle is happening with Radio 538 since breakfast host Edwin Evers and the Saturday night mixshow "Dance Department" are starting to attract relatively older listeners.

In January 1993, the Nationale Hitparade was scrapped and replaced by an all new chart, the Mega Top 50, started on 7 February 1993.

In 2022, the team of programming produces include: AVROTROS, KRO-NCRV, EO, BNNVARA, VPRO, NTR, PowNed and ZWART.