Fritz Raff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fritz Raff (born February 11, 1948 in Ludwigsburg ; † January 27, 2011 in Homburg ) was a German journalist and broadcast director of the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation . From January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, Raff was chairman of the ARD .

Life

After graduating from secondary school, from 1965 to 1971 he was trained as an administrative graduate . During this time he was already working as a journalist for various daily newspapers. His first professional position was the management of the Southwest German Association of Journalists (SWJV) until 1977. From Stuttgart, Fritz Raff went to the then federal capital Bonn , where he worked for the German Association of Journalists (DJV) as general manager until 1985 . In this function he represented the DJV as head of all tariff commissions (newspapers, magazines, radio and freelance journalists). At the same time he was DJV representative z. B. in the sponsoring association of the German Press Council or the ZDF TV Council . Raff was involved in various committees there. At times he was also the editor-in-chief of the journal Journalist .

In 1985 he was directly elected Lord Mayor of the large district town of Mosbach in Baden-Württemberg .

The then director of the Saarländischer Rundfunk, Manfred Buchwald , brought Raff to Saarbrücken five years later as the station's administrative director. He held this office until 1996; from 1994 already as deputy director . The Broadcasting Council of the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation (SR) elected him on May 20, 1996 for a five-year term (from August 1, 1996 to July 31, 2001) as director of the SR. He was re-elected in 2000 and on September 18, 2005.

From January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, Raff was chairman of the ARD , from January 1, 2009 and until December 31, 2010 he was deputy chairman of the ARD. In Raff's 18 years in public service broadcasting, he was a director or member of various commissions for ARD and ZDF . The main focus was on leading or membership in interdisciplinary ARD working groups (e.g. sports rights agency, steering committee Hybnet), leading the working group "ARD marketing strategy" and chairing RUTE, the commission on broadcasting and telecommunications strategy the ARD. He was also chairman of the joint digital commission of ARD and ZDF for seven years.

Raff was one of the ARD representatives in the ARTE general meeting and chaired the ARD strategy group. In his capacity as chairman of the Franco-German Radio Commission, he was responsible for the continuous expansion of the cooperation between Radio France , Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the radio programs of ARD. In 2004, as part of the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty , Raff made the first case for the establishment of an ARTE radio. As a result, the German-French information radio antenna Saar was launched on December 12, 2005 at Saarländischer Rundfunk - as a cooperation model with RFI, SWR and Phoenix via medium wave and DAB.

Raff died on the night of January 27, 2011 at the age of 62 in the Homburg University Hospital of the rare and incurable disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , which he suffered from in autumn 2009.

Working as an artistic director

Raff led the Saarländischer Rundfunk as a journalistic director. By expanding the evening program from 40 to 120 minutes and by extending the broadcasting time of the regional magazine “Current Report” to Saturday and Sunday, he strengthened the regional competence of the state broadcaster. Also in the business program area - the SR is one of the founding members of “Plusminus” - Raff expanded the broadcaster's competence by introducing the regional business and service magazine “bonus”. This also applies to the focus on travel with the programs “Ratgeber Reise” in the first and “100 percent vacation” as well as various features and documentations in the third. Raff's decision to broadcast the weekly Kulturspiegel in the evening before the program doubled the audience.

Raff's track record was overshadowed by the scandal surrounding the 'Telefilm Saar', a subsidiary of Saarland Broadcasting Corporation, which ran into financial difficulties in 2007 because of its managing director Joachim Schöneberger - 15 million euros were missing - and was finally dissolved.

Radio

In radio the SR applies thanks Raff's numerous cross-border initiatives as the most French of ARD station. For 14 to 25 year olds he has set up a special youth wave called “ 103.7 UnserDing ” (in cooperation with “ Dasding ” at SWR).

Raff and his colleague at the time, Peter Voss, initiated the first cross-channel merger of two radio orchestras : the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern. The two merged in 2007 to form the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernard Bernarding: SR director Fritz Raff died at the age of 62 , January 28, 2011
  2. ^ Claudia Tieschky: Affair in a small country - a production subsidiary of SR is missing 15 million euros , Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 3, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Raff, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, director of the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2011
Place of death Saarbrücken