Midnight in Munich

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Midnight in Munich was the first German radio show after the Second World War with a pure jazz program , which stayed in the program schedule for a long time. The series was broadcast since 1947 by the medium-wave transmitter Radio Munich and from 1949 to 1956 by the Bavarian radio and was one of "the most successful jazz programs in Europe."

history

The American soldier broadcaster AFN Munich has been broadcasting a jazz program Midnight in Munich from Munich since 1945 , which was also popular with German listeners. The program, which received more than 60,000 responses from listeners, fell victim to a program reform by AFN Munich as early as 1947. This gave Jimmy Jungermann , the then head of entertainment at Radio Munich, the idea of ​​taking over the program in a German version, especially since he had just been given airtime after midnight. In doing so, according to Werner Götze , he “did not adopt the AFN concept consisting of the latest hits and evergreens of the better variety, but only borrowed the catchy title 'Midnight in Munich'. His midnight in Munich was fully focused on jazz. "

Midnight in Munich was first broadcast on December 2, 1947. Initially twice a week there were new episodes of the hour-long program from midnight to one o'clock with the subtitle "Jazz from all over the world", which featured jazz records and live jazz. From March 1948, midnight came in Munich with the subtitle “Jazzfreunde unter sich” three times a week. Jungermann shared the moderation with Werner Götze and Hanns-Ger Huber, both jazz musicians. The plate material came mainly from the AFN. Because it was not possible to get enough sound carriers to create a varied program at first, live concerts were added. Munich jazz bands like Delle Haensch's “Gamelang-Combo”, the Max Greger orchestra , but also the combos by Freddie Brocksieper and Charly Tabor , with which soloists such as Hugo Strasser , Rolf Schneebiegl , Paul Kuhn and Klaus Ogermann performed. “The MiM, as midnight was abbreviated in Munich , was the first center of jazz after the war. Everyone wanted to be there when she put on her concerts. Today - in the age of television - one can hardly imagine what an echo the radio had back then. For years, jazz fans in half of Europe sat at the loudspeaker three times a week from midnight to 1am to watch their MiM. "

In terms of content, different formats were alternately broadcast during midnight in Munich ; this included the “jazz news”, a program without music, in which mostly news from the American jazz scene was reported - personnel changes in bands, record productions, tours, deaths, but also anecdotes and gossip. There were also listeners' requests (“As requested”), as well as the “Just appeared” format, in which new records were presented. Apart from the concerts, the focus was on "programs about the history of jazz, portraits of musicians and bands and the presentation of various styles of jazz."

From October 1950, midnight in Munich became jazz at midnight . Airtime has been reduced to once a week. In addition, from January 1953, there was again the program Jazzfreunde unter sich , now in the second program of the Bavarian radio, but without a fixed slot. The 500th broadcast from midnight in Munich was celebrated in 1953 with an anniversary gala in the Deutsches Museum . "In July 1956, the show Midnight in Munich was renamed again to Jazz Journal , probably due to the fact that the broadcast time 24:00 was no longer consistently adhered to."

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Joachim Ernst Berendt, A Window from Jazz. Essays, Portraits, Reflexionen , 1978, pp. 174-177.
  2. ↑ Radio Munich had already broadcast the program This is Jazz between October 1945 and February 1946 , which was replaced by the program Uns gefällts , which was discontinued in August 1946 without replacement. Both programs had attractive slots between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Cf. Martina Taubenberger " The Sound of Democracy - The Sound of Freedom" - Jazz Reception in Germany (1945–1963) Dissertation Mainz 2009, p. 12-
  3. ↑ a b Hermann Glaser German Culture 1945–2000. Berlin 1999, p. 43.
  4. ↑ Jörg Lichtinger: With Jimmy, jazz came back. In: Jazz newspaper. No. 1, 2007, pp. 10-11.
  5. ↑ Martina Taubenberger: “The Sound of Democracy - The Sound of Freedom”. Diss. Mainz 2009, p. 13.
  6. ^ Martina Taubenberger "The Sound of Democracy - The Sound of Freedom". Diss. Mainz 2009, p. 12.