Ignition radio radio top

Folded graphic by Hans J. Brehm, for displaying the next radio top.

The Zündfunk Radiotop (with the long-spoken last syllable, similar to Biotop) was an experimental radio broadcast that was broadcast between 1993 and 1997 in the youth radio program of the Bavarian radio , Zündfunk . The claim in the title of the program was: “The radio is raging”.

Structure of the program

Spark radio radio trailer at the beginning of the broadcast (1993)

Typical live collage from three sound sources, with Helmut Kohl (1996)

The radio top ran every other Monday between 5 and 6 p.m. and contained several innovative elements. In contrast to the music broadcasts with their musicologically precisely prepared and fully formed presentations on rock music , for which the Zündfunk was known, the radio top was presented freely and without preparation. Neither the listeners nor the moderator knew how it would turn out. Instead of coming into the studio with a precisely planned number of records, the moderator arrived with a whole suitcase full of sound carriers, from which he then selected and played some ad hoc according to feeling and mood.

Scientific interviews

In terms of content, the focus of every program was an interview with a scientist, technician or engineer such as computer graphics pioneer Kai Krause (October 1995), Apple founder Steve Jobs (May 1996) and historian Ute Frewert (May 1995). The topics of the interviews included the then new method of burning CD-ROMs on the PC (July 1996, with Astarte), the programming of genetic algorithms (September 1996, with Karl Sims ), the importance of Wired magazine (March 1997, with Constance Hale), design issues in the development of modern motorcycles (July 1997, with David Robb, BMW ), cryptology (April 1996, with Friedrich Bauer ), European patent law (1995, with the head of the EPO Paul Braendli), digital compositing (February 1997 , with Angela Redwisch, Arri ), the communication cables of the world (December 1996, with Gerhard Pauly, Telekom ), fire and ecology (July 1995, with Ralf Marsula), the development of computer games on CD-ROMs (August 1995, Voyager) and Virtual studios for television (October 1996, with Andrzey Wojdala, Accom), the history and meaning of ice ages (January 1996, with Wolfgang Boenigk) or 3D computer animation (August 1996, with Ben White, Softimage ). Interviews with musicians were also less common, for example with the lute player Michael Dücker , the guitarist Caspar Brötzmann and the techno musician Atom Heart .

All interviews started with the same three questions: What is tofu? What color do I have to mix with yellow to get gray? Which key is between the E and the F?

PostIt sticker on a 1994 techno record for the Radiotop

Other elements

Listener postcard on the factor 5 puzzle (December 1996)

Other recurring elements of the program were the science fiction short radio play series "The house with 106 floors" and the "Factor X puzzle". With digital sound processing methods available for the first time at the time, rock classics such as Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing were compressed by a factor of 5 in time without changing the pitch.

The listeners could and did interfere in the program at any time by telephone. For example, they asked the moderator to stop a piece of music in order to talk about its content. Because of the music selection, which mainly consisted of Death Metal , Grindcore and Techno , often from little-known groups and labels, the Radiotop had the youngest audience on Zündfunks. Numerous callers were boys before their voices broke. A noticeable amount of mail came from the areas of the former GDR .

Maximilian Schönherr, who designed and moderated the Zündfunk Radiotop, always brought his co-moderator “Stephan” with him to the Bayern 2 studio , who sat on the seat to his left and whom he repeatedly spoke to, but who never said anything. Stephan was - what the listeners never knew - an inflatable, life-size skeleton. The program also worked with original noises, for example from rowing boats or sounds from inside video cameras, recorded with an OKM artificial head microphone . Technically, the Zündfunk Radiotop was the first broadcast on Bayerischer Rundfunk in which the presenter brought all the original sounds, such as sounds, jingles and the cut interviews, into the studio on a self-burned CD and carried them off himself. At that time, it was common for such elements to be played by the sound engineer in the control room at the hand signals of the moderator. The feeds were on tape , called "laces" in radio jargon and separated from one another with so-called "yellow tapes".

The series was discontinued in early 1997 after more than 40 episodes.

Some original sounds from the show

One of several radio top jingles (1996)
The guitarist Caspar Brötzmann. Short interview excerpt (1995)
School of the Nation and a Train in South London - Sound Collage (ca.1994)
Erich Honecker - sound collage (approx. 1994)
Christian Tradition and the New Right - Sound Collage (approx. 1994)
The German Bundestag on long wave sound collage (approx. 1994)
Radiotop Polyphonic Jingle "The Radio Is Raging" (1994)

Individual evidence

↑ Brehm developed the Radiotop-Haus because, due to special programs and public holidays, it was not guaranteed that the program would be broadcast every fortnight as planned. By moving the strip of paper in the middle, the date of the next shipment became visible.
↑ In the archives of Bayerischer Rundfunk there are several recordings of the broadcast series, for example from episode XXIV of October 17, 1994 with the title "Atomhertz" (because of the interview with the Frankfurt musician Uwe Schmidt alias Atom Heart). The program was 1 hour 19 minutes long. At that time it was recorded on 38 cm / s tape and later digitized in the BR archive.
↑ Excerpts from the interview with Pauly can be heard in the article about the submarine cable . At minute 1, Pauly answers the notorious questions about tofu, colors and buttons.
↑ In the early 1990s, tofu was only known to vegetarian circles. Often the answer to this question was: “Fish”. Anglo-Saxon interviewees usually knew better.
↑ Behind this is the question of the complementary color of yellow, which in RGB would be the mixture of R (ot) and B (lukewarm), i.e. violet. Most of the interviewees answered “black”, which only makes the yellow darker and does not neutralize it.
↑ This question was usually answered clearly: "no button". Because neither on a typewriter / computer keyboard nor on a piano / keyboard is a key between E and F.
^ Winner: The German Audio Book Prize. Retrieved January 26, 2020 .

[1] Brehm developed the Radiotop-Haus because, due to special programs and public holidays, it was not guaranteed that the program would be broadcast every fortnight as planned. By moving the strip of paper in the middle, the date of the next shipment became visible.

[2] In the archives of Bayerischer Rundfunk there are several recordings of the broadcast series, for example from episode XXIV of October 17, 1994 with the title "Atomhertz" (because of the interview with the Frankfurt musician Uwe Schmidt alias Atom Heart). The program was 1 hour 19 minutes long. At that time it was recorded on 38 cm / s tape and later digitized in the BR archive.

[3] Excerpts from the interview with Pauly can be heard in the article about the submarine cable . At minute 1, Pauly answers the notorious questions about tofu, colors and buttons.

[4] In the early 1990s, tofu was only known to vegetarian circles. Often the answer to this question was: “Fish”. Anglo-Saxon interviewees usually knew better.

[5] Behind this is the question of the complementary color of yellow, which in RGB would be the mixture of R (ot) and B (lukewarm), i.e. violet. Most of the interviewees answered “black”, which only makes the yellow darker and does not neutralize it.

[6] This question was usually answered clearly: "no button". Because neither on a typewriter / computer keyboard nor on a piano / keyboard is a key between E and F.

[7] Winner: The German Audio Book Prize. Retrieved January 26, 2020 .