Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln
Country Germany
Founded 1955
Slogan "Mehr hören. Mehr sehen." (Hearing more. Seeing more.)
Headquarters Cologne
Callsigns WDR
Callsign meaning
 West German Broadcasting Corporation
Affiliation ARD
Official website
 http://wdr.de

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR, West German Broadcasting Cologne) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD. As well as contributing to the output of the national television channel Das Erste, WDR produces the regional television service WDR Fernsehen (formerly known as WDF and West3) and six regional radio networks.

History

Origins

The Westdeutsche Funkstunde AG (WEFAG) was established on 15 September 1924.

There was a substantial purge of left wing staff following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. This included Ernst Hardt, Hans Stein and Walter Stern.

One of WDR's buildings in Cologne

WDR was created in 1955, when Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) was split into Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) – covering Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg – and Westdeutscher Rundfunk, responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia. WDR began broadcasting on two radio networks (one produced jointly with NDR) on 1 January 1956. WDR constitutes the most prominent example of regional broadcasting in Germany.[1]

Directors

  • 1926–1933: Ernst Hardt, Intendant WERAG
  • 1933–1937: Heinrich Glasmeier, Intendant of "Reichssender Köln"
  • 1937–1941: Anton Winkelnkemper, Intendant of "Reichssender Köln"
  • 1942–1945: closed
  • 1945–1947: Max Burghardt, Intendant of NWDR
  • 1947–1961: Hanns Hartmann, Intendant of NWDR and since 1956 of WDR
  • 1961–1976: Klaus von Bismarck
  • 1976–1985: Friedrich-Wilhelm von Sell
  • 1985–1995: Friedrich Nowottny
  • 1995–2007: Fritz Pleitgen
  • 2007–2013: Monika Piel[2]
  • since 1 July 2013: Tom Buhrow[3]

Funding

WDR is in part funded by the limited sale of on-air commercial advertising time; however, its principal source of income is the revenue derived from viewer and listener licence fees. As of 2015 the monthly fee due from each household for radio and television reception was €17.50.[4] These fees are collected not directly by WDR but by a joint agency of ARD (and its member institutions), ZDF, and Deutschlandradio.

Television

WDR began its regional television service, Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF), on 17 December 1965. On 27 August 1967 Germany turned on it first color TV program, WDF used a live broadcast from a Bosch Fernseh outside broadcast van to start broadcasting in color. In 1988 the channel was renamed West3; since 1994, it has been known as WDR Fernsehen.

While the programmes are mainly run from their Cologne headquarters, they also have a number of sub-regional studios contributing a regular broadcast called Lokalzeit with the addition "aus Aachen" (Aachen), "OWL" (Bielefeld), "aus Bonn" (Bonn), "aus Dortmund" (Dortmund), "aus Düsseldorf" (Düsseldorf), "aus Duisburg" (Duisburg), "Ruhr" (Essen), "aus Köln" (Cologne and Bonn), "Münsterland" (Münster), "Südwestfalen" (Siegen) and "Bergisches Land" (Wuppertal) for each respective region. WDR has its current affairs and regional-politics studios in Düsseldorf.

It has served as the production entity for network shows on Das Erste of ARD, such as Forbidden Love, which over the years introduced many young actors to the German audience, such as Andreas Stenschke, Jo Weil, Luca Zamperoni and Kay Böger. The TV-sport for the “First Channel” Das Erste is produced in Cologne, and WDR contributes to ARD Digital, 3sat and arte.

Radio

WDR's main radio channels are available on FM and digital (DAB+), as well as via cable and satellite:

  • 1LIVE (formerly styled L1VE: Radio Eins Live) is a popular music channel modelled on BBC Radio 1 and aimed at a young audience. Its schedules include such non-mainstream night-time programmes as "Heimatkult", focusing on pop music from Germany, and "Lauschangriff", a series of audio-books.
  • WDR 2, featuring adult-oriented popular music, focuses strongly on national and regional news, current affairs, and sport.
  • WDR 3, the cultural channel, offers mostly classical, jazz and world music as well as radio drama and spoken-word features dealing with literature and the performing arts.
  • WDR 4 (motto: Melodien für ein gutes Gefühl, "Melodies for a good feeling") is a channel aimed chiefly towards an older audience. Its focus is on tuneful music – in particular, oldies and classic hits: popular music of the 1960s to the 1980s or later – with more specialized programming (operetta, country, folk) in the evenings. Around 30-40% of WDR 4's musical output is made up of German-language songs.
  • WDR 5 features spoken-word programming with the focus on present-day culture and society. Between 6.05 and 9.45 each Monday to Saturday morning the channel offers news, background briefing, interviews, and correspondents' reports in a sequence entitled Morgenecho. The main lunchtime and early-evening news and current affairs programmes Mittagsecho (at 13.05–14.00 on Mondays to Fridays and 13.30–14.30 on Sundays) and Echo des Tages (at 18.30–19.00 daily) are both co-productions with Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in Hamburg. Additionally, WDR 2's 30-minute round-up of the day's most important news reports, Berichte von heute, is simulcast by WDR 5 on Monday to Friday evenings at 23.30. WDR 5 also carries children's programming from KiRaKa at 19.05–20.00 each evening as well as on Sundays at 7.05–8.00 and 14.05–15.00.
  • Funkhaus Europa (earlier WDR 5 Funkhaus Europa – an offshoot of WDR 5 – and now a joint production of Radio Bremen, RBB, and WDR) is a channel principally aimed at serving immigrants and promoting integration. It features a wide selection of world music. It is not available over-the-air in every part of WDR's broadcasting area.

In addition WDR broadcasts a number of digital-only radio channels via DAB+, cable, satellite, and internet:

  • 1LIVE diggi: alternative 1LIVE output — with no ad breaks and no DJs.
  • KiRaKa (Der KinderRadioKanal): radio for preschool and school-age listeners.
  • WDR Event: live coverage of selected events in the worlds of sport, politics, and cultural happenings.
  • WDR Vera: computer-generated traffic reports from across the WDR broadcast area. Vera is an acronym for "Verkehr (traffic) in Real Audio".

Defunct radio programmes:

  • WDR 1: predecessor of 1LIVE.
  • WDR 2 Klassik: content from WDR 2 accompanied by classical music.
  • 1LIVE Kunst: current cultural topics with highbrow pop music.

Except on Sundays and public holidays, 1LIVE, WDR 2, and WDR 4 each carry a limited amount of paid-for commercial advertising during the daytime.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Potschka, Christian and Golding, Peter (2012) The structural developments of regional broadcasting in Britain and Germany. Media History 18(3-4): 443-458" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-12-02.
  2. ↑ Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR 5) 7 April 2013: "35 Jahre keine Langeweile!" Intendantin Monika Piel verlässt den WDR Archived 17 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ DWDL.de: Tom Buhrow tritt am 1. Juli als WDR-Intendant an, by Thomas Lückerath 18 June 2013
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
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