Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB; ''East German Broadcasting Brandenburg''), based in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

, was the

public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

for the German federal state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

from 12 October 1991 until 30 April 2003. It was a member organization of the consortium of public-law broadcasting organizations in Germany, ARD. ORB merged with the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

public broadcaster

Sender Freies Berlin Sender Freies Berlin (; abbreviated SFB ; ) was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003. On 1 May 2003 it merged with Ostdeu ...

(SFB) on 1 May 2003 to form

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (; "Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting"; abbreviated: RBB , stylized as rbb) is an institution under public law (national broadcaster) for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, based in Berlin and Potsdam. RBB ...

(RBB). Signals began as members of

Deutscher Fernsehfunk Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991. DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programmin ...

History

Following German reunification, ARD expanded its membership to include public broadcasters in the territory of the former

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

(GDR). Four public-broadcasting organizations replaced those of the former GDR: the already existing

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

-based Norddeutscher Rundfunk in the north; the already existing

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 ...

-based SFB, now covering all of the city; the new

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR; ''Central German Broadcasting'') is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, with regional studi ...

for the states of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, and

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

; and the new Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg. Created on 12 October 1991, ORB joined ARD on 27 November and formally took over from the former ''

Rundfunk der DDR Rundfunk der DDR (, 'GDR Broadcasting'; from about 1948 to 1972 Deutscher Demokratischer Rundfunk, 'German Democratic Broadcasting') was the collective designation for radio broadcasting organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the Germa ...

'' on 1 January 1992. ORB had originally planned to call itself Ostdeutscher Rundfunk (ODR - ''East German Broadcasting'') on the pattern of the already existing Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR - ''North German Broadcasting''), Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR - ''South German Broadcasting''), and

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) 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 conso ...

(WDR - ''West German Broadcasting''). However, faced with the criticism that the designation ODR could be taken as implying that the new organization covered the whole of the former "

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

", a more specific name was chosen in the autumn of 1991. ORB television was broadcast from the former studios of the official GDR film company, Deutsche Film AG, whilst the radio services originated in the ''Funkhaus Nalepastraße'', the former headquarters of the GDR's broadcasting service. In 1995 the Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg in coalition with the

started their

Internet radio Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...

streaming service ''Info-Radio on Demand''.

Programming

Radio

On commencing broadcasting on 1 January 1992, ORB had three

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

s. * Antenne Brandenburg - begun by the former GDR in May 1990. This became the ORB's pop music and information station. * Radio Brandenburg - a culture and news station. * Rockradio B - a youth station, broadcasting on the former frequencies of the GDR's youth station ''DT64''. On 22 February 1992, ORB and SFB began a joint radio station, ''radioBZWEI'', aimed at 25 to 50-year-old listeners. On 1 March 1993, a further ORB/SFB joint station, ''Fritz'', replaced ''Rockradio B''. A further ORB/SFB station, the news-based ''infoRADIO'', began on 28 August 1995. On 3 October 1997, SFB and ORB launched ''RADIOkultur'', a cultural station taking up much of the programming of SFB3, with an emphasis on classic, world, jazz and new music and politics.

Television

ORB started broadcasting its own "third" television station on the same day the ARD Das Erste launched in ORB's area - 1 January 1992. The third network mostly carried ARD programming for cost reasons. ORB broadcast news programmes at 1900 and 2045. However, the main evening news in the GDR had long been at 1930, and this was the preferred time for most viewers. On 1 May 1992, the schedules were radically altered to account for the habits of the viewers, with the main local news being moved to 1930 - a position it keeps on RBB's successor service. Additionally, more locally derived programming was added to the schedule. ORB's television networks were:

Joint operations

* Das Erste - ARD joint channel * Phoenix - ARD and ZDF joint events channel * KI.KA - ARD and ZDF joint children's channel *

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

- French-German culture channel *

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies ...

- ARD, ZDF, ORF, and SRG joint highbrow channel

Own network

*ORB-Fernsehen - the "third network" for Brandenburg.

Studios

The main studios of ORB were in Potsdam-

Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter ('' Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pala ...

(near to the

Babelsberg Studio Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...

s). Other studios were located in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

, Frankfurt (Oder) and

Perleberg Perleberg (; North Margravian: ''Perlberg'') is the capital of the district of Prignitz, located in the northwest of the German state of Brandenburg. The town received city rights in 1239 and today has about 12,000 inhabitants. Located in a mostly ...

Productions

ORB contributed to the series ''Polizeiruf 110'' - a crime drama strand originally produced from 1971 by GDR television and taken up by Das Erste after reunification. ORB also created the popular magazine programme ''Polylux'', which has been continued by RBB and is now shown on Das Erste.

References

External links

Official site of Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
(Redirect to RBB) {{Authority control German radio networks Defunct German television channels Defunct radio stations in Germany Radio stations established in 1991 Mass media in Potsdam 1991 establishments in Germany 2003 disestablishments in Germany