Deutschlandradio (DLR) (''Radio Germany'') is a national German

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

radio broadcaster.

History

''Deutschlandfunk'' was originally a West German news radio targeting listeners within West Germany as well as in neighbouring countries, ''Deutschlandfunk Kultur'' is the result of a merger of

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

's RIAS station and

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

's DS Kultur after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. Both networks that used to broadcast mainly on the AM bands have since spread throughout Germany, having been allocated many additional FM transmitters. However, because of lack of analogue frequencies, during 2003 Deutschlandradio changed its distribution strategy to digital terrestrial transmission.

Stations

It operates four national networks: *

Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in the ...

: mainly news and information * Deutschlandfunk Kultur: culture in a broader sense *

Deutschlandfunk Nova Deutschlandfunk Nova (; abbreviated ''DLF Nova''), formerly known as ''DRadio Wissen'', is a public broadcasting radio station and part of Deutschlandradio. The program is aimed at students and young adults. Their broadcasting studios are situate ...

: aimed at young adults, mainly spoken-word *Dokumente und Debatten: opt-out channel, often for special events ''Dokumente und Debatten'' is a digital-only special-event channel. It broadcasts coverage of the federal parliament, sports events, talk shows and shipping forecasts. Many of the talk shows are rebroadcasts of the audio portions of TV shows made by ARD, ZDF or Phoenix. '' World Radio Television Handbook (WRTH)'', pp. 209–211, 2007 edition, and pp. 194–195, 2008 edition It uses digital frequencies of both Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. ''Deutschlandfunk Nova'' is knowledge orientated station, started in 2010, targeting a younger audience, and broadcast only digitally – via

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

, cable, DAB, and online. ''Deutschlandradio'' is based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, with some departments—including ''Deutschlandfunk Kultur''—based in Berlin.

Branding

On May 1 2017, ''DRadio Wissen'' was renamed ''Deutschlandfunk Nova'', ''Deutschlandradio Kultur'' was renamed ''Deutschlandfunk Kultur''.

Distribution and transmitters

The three programs and the additional special event channel are all distributed terrestrially via Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+) on a nation-wide single frequency network (SFN) in VHF channel 5C. The coverage at the end of 2019 is for portable indoor reception 85% of the population and for mobile reception 96% of the area of Germany or 99% of the highways respectively. For an intermediate time the two programs Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur are still transmitted in analog way via FM with an average coverage of 64% of the area. The switch over from analogue to digital started in 2015 with the switch-off of

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayti ...

and long wave. In 2018/2019 first small-power FM transmitters were switched-off two. The aim is to further improve the digital terrestrial coverage of DAB+ and to reduce the analogue transmission step by step. For stationary reception the programs are also distributed via satellite on the transponder of ZDF. Of course the programs are streamed via the internet and available on relevant platforms. Beside the linear programs extensive non-linear content is available via audio-on-demand (podcast, mediathek and various platforms). Deutschlandradio is also very active in social media networks in order to make the content available to all public.

Orchestras and choirs

Deutschlandradio has a 40% share in ''Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH'', a non-profit organisation which operates: *

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (East Berlin) The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin'') is a German symphony orchestra based in Berlin. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie. The orchestra has also ...

* Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin * Berlin Radio Choir *

RIAS Kammerchor The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public br ...

The other shareholders are the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

(35%), the State of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

(20%) and RBB (5%)

References

External links

Deutschlandradio website

{{Authority control Companies based in Cologne Deutschlandradio Publicly funded broadcasters Radio stations established in 1994 Radio stations in Germany Mass media in Berlin State media Government-owned companies of Germany 1994 establishments in Germany