radio ffn

Logo since January 2015

Studio and broadcasting building as an extension to the rear of the former swimming pool on the Goseriede

Front view of the Goseriedebad with the seat of radio ffn in the right third, on the left the Kestnergesellschaft

Status of ffn on election evening 2013 in the state parliament

ffn is a private radio broadcaster in Lower Saxony with regional studios in Hanover , Braunschweig , Osnabrück , Oldenburg , Göttingen , Hamburg and Lüneburg . The operator is "Funk & Fernsehen Nordwestdeutschland GmbH & Co. KG", to which 49 newspaper publishers from the broadcasting area and Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH as shareholders belong. The managing director is Harald Gehrung, the program director is Jens Küffner. Ole Petersen has been ffn's Voice station since 2018 , previously Ingo Albrecht lent his voice to the station.

history

The foundation stone of radio ffn was laid with the founding of the “Nordwestdeutsche Neue Medien- und Rundfunk GmbH” on February 25, 1982. The station was located in a villa in Isernhagen near Hanover. On December 31, 1986 at 12:00 noon, Radio ffn went on the air; This makes ffn the oldest private broadcaster in Lower Saxony.

The then Lower Saxony state government of Ernst Albrecht had promised itself a conservative competition to the " Rotfunk " decreed NDR , which should be weakened for better political control of the media. In order to guarantee a CDU- friendly editorial policy for the new founding , the State Chancellery campaigned heavily for the broadcasting license to go to a consortium of mostly conservative newspaper publishers from Lower Saxony . In the first few years there was a program to be heard that was previously unknown in northern Germany. Not only was the color of the music - unusual for public radio stations at the time - geared towards young tastes and the moderation was unknown and relaxed. Dealing with political issues was also unknown and cheeky. The broadcaster forbade the usual submissive behavior towards politicians from radio . This included the fact that the moderators did not thank the politicians for the interview at the end of a live conversation, as was customary up until then . On the contrary, it happened that politicians were disgraced in live interviews if they did not respond to critical moderator questions despite repeated inquiries . ffn contributed to the fact that the Lower Saxony CDU interior minister Wilfried Hasselmann had to resign in 1988 because of the so-called casino affair. Because of its critical journalistic attitude, ffn was considered an SPD broadcaster in this phase by the CDU until it was depoliticized .

In the early years, ffn broadcast a music program that included chart songs as well as numerous unknown pieces outside the mainstream from the fields of pop , rock and independent . Music editors at that time were u. a. Ulrich Kniep, Frank Eichner, Gerd Kespohl, Lutz Hanker and Ecki Stieg . Special items such as B. Sonic Soul, Pop specialties, Monday Evening Rockshow, Country-Time, French Connection or Grenzwellen were an integral part of the evening program. This unconventional and music journalistic concept clearly set ffn apart from the other public and private radio stations. A jingle that was often played in the early days of Radio ffn was therefore: " ARD , the nice fat one, will soon only be available on cassette ."

In 1988, ffn started the comedy show “ Frühstyxradio ”, which set standards for today's comedians with its anarchic humor . Kalkofes Mattscheibe was also broadcast in this show .

From 1990 on, format radio prevailed among German radio stations . Radio ffn's music selection was then changed and from then on it was based on the sales charts . The special programs were largely discontinued, the music color originally broadcast all day was initially summarized in special-interest programs in the evening (programs Power Station and Nightline) and subsequently removed from the program entirely.

In 1997 the station moved to Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony. Since then, the new quarter has been the Goseriedebad's former men's swimming pool in the immediate vicinity of Antenne Niedersachsen and near Steintorplatz .

In a further program reform in 1997, a consistent orientation towards the format radio of today's style was carried out. This concept has been retained to this day.

Nothing is known to the public about plans to realize the second "f" (= television) in the station name.

reception

radio ffn broadcasts its program from the studios in downtown Hanover .

The transmitter is transmitted both in the cable network and via antenna via VHF throughout Lower Saxony , Bremen and Hamburg (the Hamburg frequencies are 100.6 MHz (antenna, analog) and 99.35 MHz (cable analog)). You can also receive radio ffn in northern Hesse , in the north of the Free State of Thuringia , in the west of Saxony-Anhalt as well as in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Radio ffn can also be heard terrestrially in the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The digital ASTRA reception is possible from the position 19.2 ° East at 12.633 GHz horizontally.

radio ffn has been available on FM 101.90 MHz and Torfhaus FM 102.40 MHz on the Hannover-Barsinghausen transmitter since it started broadcasting. The cable providers in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria also offer perfect reception in the rest of Germany via the digital receiver. Ffn Bremen-Oldenburg has been broadcasting from the Bremen-Walle telecommunications tower via DAB + on channel 7D since June 27, 2018 . ffn and the North Sea Wave Wilhelmshaven , which started there at the same time, are the first private broadcasters in Lower Saxony to be broadcast in this standard. No private digital radio has yet been broadcast from locations in Lower Saxony (the Schiffdorf telecommunications tower , which is scheduled to begin broadcasting the same muxes in the first quarter of 2019, is usually associated with Bremerhaven).

The program can be received as a live stream via the Internet . Other specialty channels ("Peppermint FM", "ffn comedy", "ffn nur 90er", "RADIO BOLLERWAGEN", "ffn Tannenbaum" and "ffn digital") are offered through this. Among other things, ffn can also be received via the Nokia Internet radio portal or iTunes .

An app for the iPhone and similar devices has been available since spring 2010 . There are now also apps for Android and Windows Phone 7. This means that ffn can also be received on many smartphones.

program

Radio ffn broadcasts an audible format radio program in the music color Hot AC ( Adult Contemporary ). The program, with 70 percent music and 30 percent words, has a clear focus on comedy . The station works with Frühstyxradio , but also creates its own comedy episodes and series that are often updated daily.

From June 2015 to September 2017, the station produced a joint night program with Radio Hamburg from Monday to Thursday between 23:00 and 05:00 , the Nordnacht , which was broadcast between 23:00 and 00:00 by the moderator of the ffn evening program and between 00 : 00 and 05:00 was mostly moderated by Felix Rumpf.

Program development in detail

ffn started broadcasting on December 31, 1986 at 12:00 pm with a jingle lasting several minutes . The first moderation was taken over by the then program director Torsten Römling and read: “In the beginning there was the word, and the word was Grüß Gott! And then came the Bangles. ”The first song played was Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles .
From 1991 to 2017 the annual Easter hit parade The Yellow from the Egg took place from Holy Saturday to Easter Monday . During this period, the radio station played 750 hits that were voted by the listeners. On the evening of the respective Easter Monday there was a closing party in the courtyard from ffn until 2015, at which the last 20 songs were played. This party was moved to Lastrup in 2016 and to Bovenden in 2017 .

For reasons of labor law, the moderators were no longer allowed to run a marathon from 2015 onwards, which is why teams were formed annually for every Easter hit marathon from 2015 onwards.

In 2018 and 2019, 1000 hits were presented and presented as the "Top 1000". The listeners chose their three favorite hits via the station's homepage. The music editors determined the playlist for the Easter days 2018 and 2019 from all the votes received. In these years there was no closing party for the secret "Top 20", as the twenty most popular tracks were only played on the Tuesday morning after Easter, in the "morning show" were.

The format “The Yellow of the Egg” still existed under this name in 2020, but in a completely new form and only on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. As before, listeners can register music requests, with the respective desired tracks then having the chance to be played; there is no longer a fixed ranking (place x - 1 is played directly after place x, and the place number is announced during the broadcast). Placements in 2020 were also no longer published on the page “The Yellow of the Egg: All Placements!” On the station's homepage.

ffn played every year from the afternoon on Christmas Eve until 2011, Frieda and Anneliese , who are supposed to shorten the waiting time for the Christ Child.
The morning show with "ffn-Morgenmän Franky" has been rebuilt more and more recently, as within a year and a half a total of 5 colleagues at his side left the station for various reasons. Susan Hamann, who has hosted the morning show with Franky since 2003, switched to N-Joy in spring 2009 ; Successor Rieke Bargmann left six months later and moved to Bremen Vier , Sarah Neuburg left at the end of 2010 to go back to her homeland in Hesse. After RPR1 she can now be heard on MDR Jump in the morning show. Isabel Eulenstein was only a four-week interim moderator and got out in January to continue studying in Lüneburg ; she later switched to NDR 1 Radio MV . Lea Rosenboom moderated together with Frank Schambor (née Schulte) alias Franky until October 2013 and switched to the regional television broadcaster SAT.1 in December 2013 . In the meantime the team consisted of Franky, Axel Einemann and Heike Klimmek. Over time, Caro Gawehns took over the role of Heike Klimmek and became her successor. Caro Gawehns has been editor-in-chief of the morning show since September 2018 and Dany Füg replaced her as presenter. Franky is currently moderating the morning show together with Axel Einemann and Carmen Wilkerling.
With Mike Leon Grosch , the station hired a relatively well-known new presenter for the morning show in 2011. Grosch took part in the third season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar in 2005/2006 and achieved second place at the time. He moderated the morning show from May 2011 together with "ffn-Morgenmän Franky" and Lea Rosenboom. He left the station after a few months.
Julia Bamberg (open in the evening) won the German Radio Prize in 2015 in the “Best Newcomer” category. On November 27 of the same year she presented her last show on ffn, a few weeks later it was announced that she was moving to Bremen Vier.

Comedy programs at ffn (selection)

Current:

Günther the tractor driver (awarded the German Radio Prize in 2014)
Baumann and Clausen

Former:

The world in 30 seconds! ( Awarded the German Radio Prize in 2012)
Grandma fell in the loo songs
Jogis Eleven
The ffn school radio
ffn satirical news
Proverbs - Mechteltechtel
Kiss me chancellor
Siggi and Raner
The little animal lover
Frieda and Anneliese
Papa's press review
Brochi and Erwin
Storm on the Leineschloss (for the state election in Lower Saxony 2013 )
All in Geiss
Crazyphone

Knowledge series

Dr. word

Discography

The music department put together various compilations that corresponded to the musical style of a particular program:

Powerstation (1990)
Powerstation 2 (1990)
Forever Hot! - The Best of five Years Hot 100 (1991)
Play Is Again, ffn (1991)
Nightline (1992)
Nightline 2 (1993)
Oldies 1 - Classic Rock (1993)
Take off - into the 80’s (1993)
Oldies 2 - Classic Rock (1994)
Nightline 3 (1995)
Local Heroes '95 (1995)
Baseline (1996)
Local Heroes '96 (1996)
10 ⁿ D - recording of the broadcast of the same name for the tenth anniversary. (1996)
Baseline 2 (1997)
Night Of Darkness ~ Grenzwellen on CD (1997)
Baseline 3 (1999)

economy

Shareholders

The operating company of the station, Funk & Fernsehen Nordwestdeutschland GmbH & Co. KG, is owned by several, mostly regional, media companies. The most important of them (with proportions greater than 5%) are

Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH (13.08%)
Bremer Tageszeitungen AG (10.13%)
Radio Madsack Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG (8.5%)
Braunschweiger Zeitungsverlag GmbH & Co. KG (8%)
Axel Springer AG (7.62%)
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG (6.92%)
NWZ Funk und Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG (5.16%)

Employees

According to information from the "Economic Development Portal of the State Capital and Region of Hanover and hannoverimpuls GmbH", 70 employees worked for radio ffn in the Hanover region in June 2005 (for comparison: the Hanover State Broadcasting Company of the NDR had 545 employees at the time, a majority of which in the television sector was active).

Moderators

Moderator	broadcast	Time
Frank Schambor ("Morgenmän Franky")	Franky & Co - Lower Saxony's morning show	Mon - Fri: 04.55 - 09.55 a.m.
Carmen Wilkerling	Franky & Co - Lower Saxony's morning show	Mon - Fri: 04.55 - 09.55 a.m.
Axel Einemann	Franky & Co - Lower Saxony's morning show	Mon - Fri: 04.55 - 09.55 a.m.
Sarah Berg	ffn on the morning	Mon - Fri: 09.55 a.m. - 13.55 p.m.
Ruven Rintelmann	ffn on the morning ffn on Saturday	Mon - Fri: 09.55 a.m. - 13.55 p.m. Sat .: 05.55 a.m. - 13.55 p.m.
Gina Kaemmerer	ffn in the afternoon	Mon - Fri: 1.55 p.m. - 5.55 p.m.
Malte Seidel	ffn in the afternoon	Mon - Fri: 1.55 p.m. - 5.55 p.m.
Marie Günther	ffn in the evening	Mon - Fri: 5.55pm - 11.55pm
Marie Niemann	ffn on Saturday	Sat .: 05.55 a.m. - 13.55 p.m.
Klaas Scholtalbers	ffn Top 40	Sat .: 1.55 p.m. - 5.55 p.m. Sun .: 7.45pm - 11.55pm
Urs Koehler	ffn party time	Sat .: 5.55pm - 11.55pm
Bjorn Rehwinkel	ffn on Sunday	Sun .: 11.55 a.m. - 3.55 p.m.
Cedric Werner	ffn on Sunday	Sun .: 3:55 p.m. - 7:55 p.m.
Finja Böhling	Moderation / editing	n / A
Melissa Bozkurt	Moderation / editing	n / A
Dany Füg	Representation for moderation: "Day and weekend program" editorial staff	n / A
Caroline Gawehns	Representation for moderation : "Day and weekend program" Editorial management: morning show	n / A
Marlene Gesch	Moderation / editing	n / A
Volker Marczynkowski	Representation for moderation: "Day and weekend program" Program coordination	n / A
Christoph Recker	Editor: OnAir Promotion Moderation: Off Air Events	n / A
Peter-Michael Zernechel	Editor: press Moderation: Off Air Events	n / A
Julian Zumbrock	Representation for moderation: "Day and weekend program" Editor: IT technology	n / A

Status of the moderators

As of 2015, the Hanover Trade Inspectorate prohibits the practice previously common with the program The Yellow from the Egg of a moderator duo moderating 58 or 59 hours at a time, as this constitutes a violation of Section 4 of the Working Hours Act, giving employees a daily break of at least assures eleven hours. As a result, the Office classifies the moderators as employees.

Market share

In the media analysis 2019 Audio II (population 14+ German-speaking population), the station achieved third place in Lower Saxony with a market share of 15.1% (Mon. – Fri., 14–49 years) behind NDR 1 and NDR 2.

ffn media group

The ffn media group also includes Energy Bremen (Bremen 89.8 / Bremerhaven 104.3 / Oldenburg 103.5; since 2003) and Radio Roland (Schlager, Bremen 96.1; launched on March 8, 2018).

Cooperations

The association “Hörer hilft eV” was founded on January 27, 1998 by the broadcaster. Every year, funds are collected as part of the large ffn donation day to support sick or distressed children. The association is financed by radio ffn, 100 percent of the donations flow into the respective supported project.
For years, the broadcaster supported the representative for Lower Saxony at Stefan Raab's Bundesvision Song Contest . In 2007, Oomph! feat. Marta Jandová won the victory, as did 2013 with bosses .

criticism

Old FFN logo (until January 6, 2015)

The program reforms were heavily criticized in public. The broadcaster was accused of eliminating the variety of music (keyword: bag radio ), lowering the level and thus causing a decrease in the number of listeners. The station argued that the previous color of music was no longer up to date, which actually caused the number of listeners to decline and the program measures were necessary for the station's economic success.

Such discussions are more frequent in connection with private broadcasters, but Radio ffn was more criticized than other broadcasters because of its earlier unique selling point .

Legal disputes

ffn hit the headlines in 2008 because the broadcaster called the Hessian SPD politician Andrea Ypsilanti with its Crazyphone, pretended to be Franz Müntefering and suggested that she give up her candidacy as Prime Minister of Hesse. Ypsilanti complained that the broadcaster should not broadcast the material.

In mid-April 2011 it became known that the station had been reported by a listener for sedition . The reason: An East Frisian joke by Timm Busche in the morning show. The Osnabrück police investigated. The ad was withdrawn on April 18, 2011.

In August 2013, the broadcaster sent a cease and desist declaration to the non-profit association Freifeld , as it was of the opinion that the association's logo would infringe its trademark rights. As a result, a shit storm that lasted several days developed on the station's Facebook page . In May 2014, the dispute was settled amicably with the introduction of a new logo. ffn finances the team of the Freifeld Festival to post posters on several large areas in Oldenburg in the run-up to the festival.

Others

Presenter * studio dog Bizkit was the radio station's second dog after Hi-Fi and left the station in winter 2016.
As a comedy for the plagiarism affair of Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg , radio ffn released the Guttenberg song, a rewritten remake of Alles nur stolen by the band Die Prinzen . It was uploaded to YouTube on February 19, 2011 and can also be viewed on the broadcaster's website.

Web links

Commons : Radio ffn - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Sender's website
Info page of the NLM
List of shareholders
Evangelical Church Radio Lower Saxony at ffn
Market shares in Lower Saxony (PDF file; 761 kB)
The radio frequencies of ffn on the NLM homepage (PDF file; 87 kB)
History of private radio stations in Northern Germany from the perspective of the NDR

literature

Stefan Matysiak: Home for the ears. South Lower Saxony on the radio . In: Stefan Matysiak (ed.): Of brown roots and great simplicity. South Lower Saxony media in the past and present. Norderstedt: BoD, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7347-3375-8 , pp. 210-236.
Helmut Volpers / Detlef Schnier / Christian Salwiczek: Programs of the non-commercial local radio stations in Lower Saxony. A program and acceptance analysis. Berlin: Vistas, 2000.
Helmut Volpers / Uli Bernhard / Detlef Schnier: Radio landscape Lower Saxony 2009. Structural description and program analysis. Berlin: Vistas, 2010.
Jörg Aufermann: Development and perspectives of the non-commercial local radio (NKL) in Lower Saxony. Expert opinion on behalf of Hit-Radio Antenne, Radio FFN, Verband Nordwestdeutscher Zeitungsverleger eV Hannover: Verband Nordwestdeutscher Zeitungsverleger, 2000.
Further literature on radio ffn in German libraries.