Red-white-red (transmitter)
Rot-Weiß-Rot (RWR) was a radio station in occupied post-war Austria under the supervision of the American occupation authorities.
The beginning
“Here is the Austrian broadcaster Rot-Weiß-Rot!” With these words the American Major General Walter M. Robertson opened the radio in Salzburg on June 6, 1945 , “May this medium contribute to making the Austrians a well-informed people . “The station was directed by the German-American Hans Cohrssen .
The RWR broadcasting group
After Salzburg , broadcasting began in Vienna (Seidengasse 13) in November 1945 , and the main focus of the broadcasting station was relocated there. Initially, a medium wave transmitter was used by the military on the Sulzwiese on Kahlenberg . Since this area was right on the border with the Soviet occupation zone , the transmitter was relocated to Grinzing . The transmitters on Mönchsberg in Salzburg and Freinberg in Linz that were not destroyed during the war were also used.
In order to be able to supply the Soviet occupation zone well, a new, powerful transmitter was built in 1951 on the Steinhof grounds on Wilhelminenberg .
A transmission system with a directional antenna consisting of three masts was also built in Kronstorf in Upper Austria . At 274 m, the middle of the three masts was the tallest structure ever in Austria. In 1952 Salzburg also received a new transmitter, albeit with a lower transmission power.
The programming
The program was intended to create a counterbalance to the Radio Verkehrs AG (RAVAG), which was under Soviet influence, and its radio station, Radio Wien (then popularly known as the “Russian station”), and to act pro-Americanly on the population. This was characterized by programs such as America calls Austria and We learn to think . From 1951 the “Script department” was in the lead with its satirical and critical programs such as “ Der Watschenmann ” written by Jörg Mauthe and other young intellectuals and the “Radio Family” by the authors Jörg Mauthe, Peter, which was taken over by Austrian Broadcasting in 1955 and broadcast until 1959 Weiser , and until 1953 also Ingeborg Bachmann .
The program items
As a result, attempts were made to influence the audience with entertainment programs. Examples of this were America in Word and Music and The Voice of America . The Austrian population reacted with skepticism. Only “neutral” programs like Die Große Chance with Maxi Böhm and Melodie und Rhythmus to order with Louise Martini or biting cabarets like Brettl vorm Kopf with Carl Merz , Helmut Qualtinger and Gerhard Bronner were able to inspire the audience. Well-known artists and audience favorites such as Hans Weigel , Alfred Böhm , Peter Alexander , Fritz Eckhardt , Hugo Wiener , Friedrich Torberg and Günther Schifter worked for the station Rot-Weiß-Rot .
The last highlight was probably the New Year's Eve program in 1954/55 with Karl Farkas and Marcel Prawy .
The end
On July 27, 1955 at 10:15 p.m., the remaining RWR station in Vienna ended its program. The transmitters in Salzburg (Moosstrasse) and Linz (Kronstorf) had already been discontinued on March 7, 1954 . The industrialist Manfred Mautner Markhof senior wanted to acquire the transmitter and use it commercially. At that time, however, private broadcasters were not permitted by the Austrian federal government. Therefore the transmitter Rot-Weiß-Rot was finally taken over by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). Some popular programs such as Die Radiofamilie Floriani or Du holde Kunst remained in the program, while critical programs such as the cabaret show Der Watschenmann by Jörg Mauthe could not be heard for some time. The Watschenmann did not return to the program until 1967 with the reform of Gerd Bacher .
Other well-known programs
- Happy at eleven (hit broadcast)
- Sport and music (with the legendary Heribert Meisel, among others )
- The Sandman or The Little Sandman (bedtime show for the little ones; successor at RAVAG: The little dream man is coming )
- Disc-Jockey made in Austria (music broadcast presented by Fred Ziller)
- XY knows everything (popular question show)
- For gardening enthusiasts (with "flower doctor" Anton Eipeldauer )
- Beautiful voices, beautiful sages (music broadcast)
- School radio (contributions were used in the schools in class)
- Children's lesson (designed by Polly Kügler-Leistner )
- Serious and cheerful (literary program)
- Our radio family ( radio play about the Floriani family, trend-setting for the later TV series Leitner family )
literature
- Ilse Stohl: Broadcasting in Salzburg from 1945 to 1954. The Rot-Weiss-Rot transmitter in Salzburg during the American occupation . Salzburg 1988 (Salzburg, Univ., Diss., 1988).
- Manuela Aichinger: Rot-Weiß-Rot Linz and the broadcasting system in Upper Austria 1954 to 1957/58 . Salzburg 1992 (Salzburg, Univ., Diss., 1992).
Sources
- A larger inventory of tapes from the station Rot-Weiß-Rot is in the Austrian media library - these are original tapes with broadcast and radio play parts and program fragments - entire broadcasts are hardly preserved - as well as RWR concert recordings of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Web links
- Dunking a field mouse - about the beginning of radio broadcasting in Austria after 1945.
- Austrian Media Library: Received broadcast material from the station Rot-Weiß-Rot
- Austrian media library: Radio address by Federal Chancellor Julius Raab on the occasion of the discontinuation of the occupation channel Rot-Weiß-Rot on July 27, 1955.
- Radio history of Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Broadcasting stations in Austria: Der Sender Wien-Wilhelminenberg (1951–1959), A "radio archaeological" tour , accessed on March 3, 2018
- ^ Johann Werfring: Music as you like it. Print article appeared on April 19, 2005 in the column "Wiener Museumstücke". In: "Wiener Zeitung", p. 10.
- ↑ Wolfgang Kudrnofsky: From the Third Reich to the Third Man. 1973, p. 250
- ^ Joseph McVeigh: Ingeborg Bachmanns Wien. 2016
- ↑ Radio history of Austria: The "Zwischenender" Salzburg
- ↑ Radio history of Austria: The "Zwischenender" Linz