What do you want to know?

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What do you want to know? was a talk show on the radio program of the North German Broadcasting Corporation (NDR), which was broadcast from 1952 to the end of 2000. It can be seen as a classic model of modern “call-in” broadcasts like Domian . The topics discussed related to many areas of daily life: recipes were also discussed, as were puberty and education , abortion and fear neuroses , love and bullying , depression and drugs , marriage and sexual problems , etc. Since March 3, 2015, What will want to know ? a follow-up program aimed at a younger audience in the NDR program.

concept

The concept of what do you want to know? does not differ significantly from today's thematically open "call-in" broadcasts: a moderator tries to sensitively help callers anonymously for an hour or to advise them or simply to listen. However, it was not a live broadcast in which callers were switched directly to the studio; instead, the conversations were recorded beforehand in one or two listening hours a week .

Hamburg phone number

The Hamburg number "441777", which has been set up for the broadcast since the 1960s, became legendary. Until the broadcast was discontinued, the moderators always called this number for every conversation, so the phone number pronounced "Four-Four-One-Seven- Seven-Seven ”is firmly anchored in the consciousness of several generations of radio listeners for years after the end of the series.

music

The program's signature music was the "Krautjazz catchy tune" Big Schlepp , played by the Dave Pike Set (Dave Pike - vibraphone; Volker Kriegel - guitar; Hans Rettenbacher - bass and cello; Peter Baumeister - drums) and released in 1972 on their LP album . The title was played at the beginning and at the end. In addition, short instrumental recordings separated the individual calls acoustically.

Moderators

The two presenters who run the show What do you want to know? The author Walther von Hollander (1952–1971) and the judge Erwin Marcus (1971–2000), whose names were often synonymous with What do you want to know? were used. It is interesting that, contrary to the general assumption of their callers , the doctoral degrees of both radio chaplains were by no means assigned to the field of psychology , but to von Hollander's philosophy and Marcus's law .

Walther von Hollander

As early as 1952, the second program of Norddeutscher Rundfunk broadcast the program, initially with Walther von Hollander on the phone. The entertainment writer Hollander had, among other things, published successful non-fiction books on questions of interpersonal coexistence and had thus become the addressee of countless further questions from his readers, which he initially answered by letter and in specially arranged office hours. The program, which was broadcast on Friday evenings at prime time , now offered people the opportunity to discuss their life problems with Hollander on the radio by phone - anonymously, but with hundreds of thousands of listeners at times. Hollander has become a kind of "father figure of the NDR" through his broadcast; he answered around 10,000 calls in a good 20 years.

Erwin Marcus

The judge Erwin Marcus, who replaced Walther von Hollander on November 2, 1971, showed himself to be a worthy, sensitive and particularly patient successor. He took even more time for his callers - Marcus only made a good 6,000 calls in his 30 years of service. After changing the broadcast slot, he had his fixed appointment on Thursday at 9:05 p.m.

It was not until December 28, 2000 that Marcus said goodbye to the show at a similar old age as his predecessor Walther von Hollander. As “the advisor in Northern Germany” he had shaped the program so decisively that a successor in the context of a program of the same name was no longer considered.

Last ran What do you want to know? on NDR 4 Info , a special interest station of the North German Broadcasting Corporation, on Thursdays from 9:05 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Sundays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

effect

The Hamburger Morgenpost called What do you want to know? as "probably the most iconic advisory program in German radio history". The NDR director Jobst Plog described the performance of Marcus in particular on his 75th birthday in 2000 as follows:

Time and again he has succeeded in (...) gaining trust and (...) providing clever and unobtrusive advice even in the most difficult situations. The NDR and its listeners owe a lot to Erwin Marcus.

However, the show under Marcus also gave rise to parodies. With Heino Jaeger's radio series, ask Dr. Jaeger , Saarländischer Rundfunk produced a satire on the program in which typical callers and also the consultant himself were parodied down to the precise speaking style and subliminally humorous counterpoints similar to those in the program. The cover of the long-playing record that was released for this was also visualized by the advice telephone with the Hamburg number.

The Hamburg university professor Andreas Bieberstedt used the following typical excerpt from the original broadcast 2004 for an introductory seminar in the study of linguistics, 2004:

Anonymous caller: Well, that's good, then I'll probably do it.
Dr. Erwin Marcus: Yes.
Caller: First of all, thank you, no.
Dr. Marcus: Please ... and good luck with it.
Caller: Yes, thank you, bye!
Dr. Marcus: Bye!

What do you want to know?

The NDR youth radio station N-Joy has been broadcasting a rejuvenated format of the program since 2015, with the music group Fettes Brot as the host. The radio show is therefore only called What do you want to know? Even if the concept and title are similar, the same theme music is used and, with Doktor Renz, the tradition of the consultant with a doctorate is retained - even if in this case it is only the artist name of a band member - this is more closely based on the To speak of radio classics as an actual continuation of the same. The broadcast frequency of the now humorous program is also weekly, but takes place in seasons. The broadcast is also taken over by Bremen Vier at the same time .

Others

The phone number on the handset for What do you want to know? could call, will continue to be used as the freephone number for the program speaking time broadcast on NDR Info .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Speaking time - listeners ask, experts answer , NRD info.