Radio Weinstrasse

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Dr B. Vogel on Radio Weinstrasse-Studio.jpg

Radio Weinstrasse was the name of the first German private radio broadcaster. It was approved in December 1983 by the Cable Communication Agency (AKK) as the licensing authority for the cable pilot project in Ludwigshafen / Vorderpfalz . Operator on radio channel 1 (of 4 possible channels) was initially from January 1, 1984 the company TFE-Studio GmbH from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , which actually produced sound studio equipment and had also installed two radio discotheque studios in the AKK. The managing director was Dieter Hofherr , who came from Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden , other colleagues were Gerhard Kerner, a journalist from Speyer , and Guido Müller from Elmstein .

The project, which started on January 1, 1984 with five hours of broadcasting time a day, was able to fall back on a pool of radio and language experienced employees and moderators who produced programs on a fee basis for a target group aged 15 to 50 ("from the Palatinate, for the Palatinate" ). Including today's voice actor Bodo Henkel , who greeted the audience when it was first broadcast. The deficit increased monthly due to the costs for the studio, fees, broadcasting fees of the AKK etc. It was hoped that VHF distribution would be possible soon , which would have made significant advertising revenue possible.

Hofherr, Kerner and Müller then founded Radio Weinstrasse-Rundfunkbetriebs GmbH in 1984 and, in coordination with AKK, took over the broadcasting license from TFE-Studio GmbH. The morning broadcast (6:30 am to 8:30 am) was produced live in the studios of the AKK Ludwigshafen. The midday and afternoon programs were mostly recorded in Neustadt in the studio and then taped to the AKK in Ludwigshafen. A fixed transmission line in stereo could not be financed. The technical range in the cable started with around 8,000 potential listeners and rose to around 150,000 by 1986. However, it was difficult to find advertisers to finance the program as not enough listeners could be reached on the cable network. In 1985, the program was reduced to pure treadmill playback, essentially in order to preserve the broadcast channel. At the same time, the founding meetings of the UKW group for a nationwide radio program took place in Rhineland-Palatinate, with the publishers heavily involved (Rheinland-Pfälzische Rundfunk GmbH & Co. KG -Radio RPR-). Radio Weinstrasse had around four percent of this. Since it was not possible to finance the necessary capital further, Medien Union Ludwigshafen initially joined the company as a shareholder; after the nationwide VHF program (Radio 4) had started broadcasting, another publisher acquired the remaining shares of the founding shareholders, and Radio Weinstrasse thus set up its own broadcasting activities the cable.

Logo Radio Weinstrasse

At the end of September 1985, Radio Weinstrasse was able to transmit via VHF for the first time and for only one week: The Deutsche Bundespost , as the future operator of VHF transmitters for the nationwide chain, wanted the first transmitter on 103.6 MHz, the one on the telecommunications tower stood in Mannheim, test it. The AKK granted Radio Weinstrasse GMBH a limited FM license for the duration of the Consumenta consumer fair in Ludwigshafen. Radio Weinstrasse broadcast live eight hours a day from the hastily built own exhibition studio. The range of the transmitter, which was initially operated accidentally with 5 kW, was enormous. Calls came from a radius of sometimes more than 100 km. After 3 days the output was reduced to 800 W. Nevertheless, the Vorderpfalz and Baden were easily accessible. The first advertising customers booked over 30,000 DM spontaneously, but this did not result in any advantage for the “radio pioneers” when it came to granting FM licenses. This went to four organizer associations (Radio 4), which started the nationwide private VHF program in Rhineland-Palatinate on April 30, 1986 (initially via only four VHF transmitters).

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Keller: “Radio Weinstrasse” is not a crazy idea . In: Mannheimer Morgen . No. 176 , August 3, 1984 ( fmkompakt.de [PDF; 120 kB ; accessed on August 21, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Hendrik Leuker: Bodo Henkel (RPR / SAT 1) - The first voice in private radio . In: Radio-Kurier - listen worldwide . No. 2/2018 , February 2018, p. 26–27 ( addx.org [PDF; 500 kB ; accessed on August 21, 2019]).