radio flora
radio flora is a radio broadcaster based in Hanover in the Linden-Nord district . The abbreviation is based on the profit Trägerverein F reundeskreis Lo kal Ra dio Hannover eV, established in May 1993 to life. The radio station is a member of the Federal Association of Free Radios . The license for broadcasting citizens' radio on the FM frequency 106.50 MHz in the Hanover region expired for radio flora on March 31, 2009. Since then, it has been broadcasting as Internet radio . FM's successor is Radio Leinehertz 106.5 .
history
Precursor to free radios
The first non-commercial citizens' radios emerged in the 1970s as part of the anti-nuclear power movement , preferably in southern Germany . These radios turned against the exploitation of the environment and the unreflected use of nuclear technology. The pioneer of this form of resistance culture was Radio Verte Fessenheim, originally active as a pirate station in the German-French-Swiss border area , which in 1977/78 achieved legal status on German soil as Radio Dreyeckland in Freiburg im Breisgau . Soon afterwards, further independent radio initiatives were founded in Germany, also with the aim of giving political groups and individuals greater participation in the radio media ( Federal Association of Free Radios ). In the course of this development, the Friends of Local Radio eV - FLORA was founded on May 1, 1993 in Hanover. It was a grassroots project organized by the counter-public, which recruited its members from workers and academics who felt they belonged to the left-wing social spectrum.
Originated in Hanover
Immediately after the change of government in Lower Saxony in 1990, the new red-green coalition announced that it wanted to amend the Lower Saxony media law, among other things with the aim of enabling direct public participation and open access for laypeople in broadcasting. However, the ruling media politicians from Rot-Grün initially spent the next few years discussing different models controversially: The SPD favored the open channel , while Alliance 90 / The Greens campaigned for free radio . In 1993/94, the two government partners agreed on a model experiment that made both possible: open television and radio channels, but also non-commercial (free) local radio stations. However, it took another two and a half years before a five-year model test (1996/97) was announced.
The prospect of a broadcasting license aroused great desires in Hanover. The Freundeskreis Lokal Radio eV - FLORA was one of the radio initiatives that was committed to being open to access and non-commercial from the start. She was willing to implement Bürgerfunk 1: 1. Initially competing radio initiatives from the cultural and student sectors such as Open Air and La Mouche finally merged with Radio Flora. Other Hanover radio initiatives (Stadtradio, Hannover Radio) stopped their activities in the course of the approval process.
At the end of the model phase (2002), both types of organization merged organizationally into citizen broadcasting . It combines the central elements of the open channel (absolute freedom of access for everyone) with those of non-commercial local radio (supplementary journalistic function).
Start of broadcast 1997
Radio Flora convinced with its concept for a community radio and went on the air on June 21, 1997. The station was located in the premises of the ecological industrial park Linden Nord GmbH, which is located next to the FAUST site. Before the station was set up, there were already radio productions in October 1994 with the solidarity waves from the pavilion , one month later for the closure of the Hanoverian writing instrument manufacturer Pelikan AG and in May 1995 for Labor Day in Hanover. In doing so, the broadcaster demonstrated that a citizen broadcaster can produce a demanding and varied program.
Like the other 13 participants in the Lower Saxony “Open Channel / Non-Commercial Local Radio Operational Trial”, Radio Flora was also included in comprehensive accompanying scientific research. It should be determined which organizational, financial and journalistic requirements must be met in order to be able to go into permanent operation as a non-commercial broadcaster. Last but not least, the legislature, the licensing media company and the broadcasters themselves wanted to know how popular it is. The pilot project was successful and Radio Flora, like the 13 other stations, was 'released' into regular operation from March 2002.
Loss of broadcast license in 2009
The broadcast license from 2002 was granted for seven years. On March 22, 2007, the assembly of the Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM) decided not to extend the radio flora broadcasting license and to put it out to tender for the period from April 1, 2009. The NLM justified this with the low level of listener acceptance compared to the national average. radio flora applied for the new broadcasting license, but was subject to 106.5 radio company gGmbH in a decision by the NLM of November 6, 2008 . This is a group of several competitors that brought the community radio radio Leinehertz 106.5 into being. Therefore, on March 31, 2009, radio flora ceased broadcasting via VHF. The distribution is maintained as internet radio via live stream.
financing
Radio Flora is ad-free and non-commercial. Therefore, alternative sources of income must be used. The former main source of income was the license fee. They are awarded by the State Media Authority (NLM) responsible for private broadcasting in Lower Saxony . However, when the license expired on March 31, 2009, the corresponding benefits ended. Since then, Radio Flora has generated its annual budget from the membership fees of around 400 members as of April 2009 and from donations. This also applies to the cost of dissemination over the Internet.
program
General
Radio Flora broadcasts around 50 different programs as web radio (as of September 2009) in the following areas:
- Politics / society / culture
- Entertainment / comedy / satire
- International
- music
Foreign languages
The program is held internationally with five foreign language programs. Languages are included:
Events
In 2012 Radio Flora was co-organizer of the InterKoneXiones in Hanover.
Audience rating
In autumn 2006 the Bielefeld opinion research institute TNS-Emnid carried out a study on the audience of the 15 public radio stations in Lower Saxony on behalf of the Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM) . In it, radio flora was certified as having a low audience rate of 3.8 percent with the largest audience . This means that within two weeks 3.8 percent of the possible listeners had switched on the station. The nationwide average of all Lower Saxony citizens' radio stations was 15 percent for the largest audience . Radio flora was thus at the end of the scale among citizens' stations and, compared to the last survey in 1999, recorded a drop of almost 50 percent in listeners. The program in 16 languages was also seen as the cause. The Emnid investigation was of particular importance for the extension of the citizens' radio broadcasting license in spring 2007.
Broadcast technology
The transmission power of the non-commercial local radio stations in Lower Saxony varies from 100 to 1000 watts. Radio Flora broadcast until March 31, 2009 on 106.5 MHz with an output of 300 watts. About 690,000 of the approximately 1.1 million inhabitants in the city and region of Hanover were technically able to receive the program from Radio Flora.
In 2004 there was a change (in production) from analogue technology to digital technology. A so-called "MusicTaxi" was used to enable live broadcasts in real time from branch offices. This involved a real-time encoding and decoding process consisting of software and hardware via ISDN , which was implemented using the ISO MPEG process.
criticism
According to a report by the media network Indymedia , there was a censorship case on July 7, 2008 , in which a critical radio report was overlaid with rock music. The Internet platform "freie-radios.net" has put an alleged broadcast recording of the broadcast interruption online. In addition, the complained article was also placed completely online.
See also
Web links
- radioflora.de
- State Association of Citizens Media Lower Saxony eV
- North German cooperation citizen media
- taz article: 10 years of radio flora
Individual evidence
- ↑ Radio Flora loses its license - incomprehension among the Freundeskreis - press release radio flora on the decision of the NLM ( memento of the original from April 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ IKX women's radio meeting on the website of Radio Flora
- ↑ Press release of the State Media Authority
- ↑ de.indymedia.org: 'Hannover: Zensur bei Radio Flora', July 13, 2008, 1:37 pm
- ^ Censorship in the citizen radio. Documentation of a transmission failure. In: freie-radios.net . July 22, 2008, accessed June 12, 2015 .
- ↑ The campaign. Elimination of a self-managed radio company in Hanover. In: freie-radios.net . July 7, 2008, accessed June 12, 2015 .
