Hello OB van

Last broadcast by Hallo OB Van on December 18, 2010 in Cologne

Hallo OB-Wagen is a radio show of the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR), which was included in the program in 1974 and was last broadcast every week on Saturdays from 11:05 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on WDR 5 . At the end of 2010, the traditional program was discontinued at the rhythm that had been used until then. Since then, it has rarely been broadcast in the form of extra issues on the occasion of special events. A special feature in the first years of the program was the open discussion with the involvement of the audience; The open, partly popular and never instructive language as well as the choice of topics were also considered new and unconventional. Up until then, only experts were usually asked about the program's topics in the media, and statements from listeners only found their way into the program extremely rarely and then in the form of reading out listeners' mail.

history

Julitta Münch

The program was first broadcast on December 5, 1974 and has been running every Thursday between 9:20 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on WDR 2 . It has been on WDR 5 since January 1995, first on Thursdays at the same time, then on Saturdays from 11:05 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Hallo OB Van was moderated by Carmen Thomas until the end of December 1994 . This was followed by Jan Seemann and in September 1997 Julitta Münch .

The program started in the period up to 1995 with a shortened version of the music track "Picasso summer" by Michel Legrand (record bell 2308 029) and ended with the piece "Pelican dance" by The Baronet (record Bellaphon BF 18209), which was used as a back timer.

On April 15, 2010, WDR confirmed rumors that the traditional show would be discontinued at the end of the year. The Cologne broadcaster announced that Hello OB van was no longer up to date and the number of listeners was declining. The production costs are too high compared to similar programs. The last broadcast took place on December 18, 2010. On March 17, 2011, on the occasion of the Japanese nuclear accidents on the subject of nuclear power, there was for the first time an edition of Hallo OB Van entitled as an extra broadcast.

Concept of broadcast

Guest round in the last broadcast

An OB van (short OB truck with the nickname Violetta due to its color) of the WDR went to a place in North Rhine-Westphalia , mostly in large or small town, and from there a program on a particular topic was broadcast live. The topics were selected by the editors according to the listeners' wishes. But it also happened that the topic of a program was changed at short notice due to current events. Experts and affected people were invited to discuss the topics, some of whom reported to the moderator or the editorial team themselves. Editorial groups for and against were formed to give the program a discussion character. Depending on the topic, well-known public figures such as actors, politicians or athletes were among the participants.

The program was opened earlier with the uncommented reading of readers' mail from previous programs. Then it started with the moderator talking to the audience in front of the OB van about the current topic. Then the invited experts and citizens were introduced and questioned. The audience was repeatedly included in the experts' discussions, and in some programs it was possible to participate via telephone. E-mails on the subject were also often read out by listeners. In the first few years, listeners' greetings were read out in order to include the audience in the completely new broadcast concept and to encourage them to participate.

Live music was occasionally part of the show. The broadcast was always interrupted by the news on the hour.

The WDR presenter Jürgen Domian named Carmen Thomas' journalistic work in Hallo OB Van as a model for his live interview show Domian .