Österreich 1 (Ö1) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

: one of the four national channels operated by Austria's

public broadcaster Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

ORF. It focuses on

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, documentaries and features,

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

radio plays Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

and dramas, ''

Kabarett Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which was developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. ...

'', quiz shows, and discussions.

History

The channel was launched on 1 October 1967 as part of an exercise which saw the ORF's radio output reorganized into three numbered services, the other two being the regional stations grouped as Ö2 and the pop music channel Ö3. Earlier, in 1964, there had been a petition for a national

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

, whereby more than 800,000 citizens declared themselves against ideological appointments of key positions within the public broadcasting service by the Austrian

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

government of Chancellor Alfons Gorbach (

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

) and Vice-Chancellor Bruno Pittermann (

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

) according to the Austrian '' Proporz'' system. Two years later, a legal regulation of a nonpartisan broadcasting was passed by the National Council parliament, entailing a relaunch of the ORF radio stations. Ö1 was designated to comply with the public educational mandate (''Bildungsauftrag'') and to offer a broadly cultural program for an artistically inclined audience. One focus is on news broadcasts like the one-hour ''Mittagsjournal'' ("Noon Journal") and ''Morgenjournal'' ("Morning Journal"), launched in the course of the coverage of the 1968

Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...

. Beside established programmes such as ''Du holde Kunst'', first aired in 1945, Ö1 since the 1970s has also broadcast

radio documentaries A radio documentary is a spoken word radio format devoted to non-fiction narrative. It is broadcast on radio as well as distributed through media such as tape, CD, and podcast. A radio documentary, or feature, covers a topic in depth from one or ...

(''Hörbilder''), music programmes beyond the strictly classical canon (''Pasticcio'', ''Spielräume''), and several recurring reports on

everyday life Everyday life, daily life or routine life comprises the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. Everyday life may be described as mundane, routine, natural, habitual, or Normality (behavior), normal. Human diurna ...

in a

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of , the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle ...

style like ''Der Schalldämpfer'' by Axel Corti (discontinued upon his death in 1993). Similar to other classical music radio stations, Ö1 has to bear with the tension between an elitist "''

Hofrat was the title of the highest advising officials at the imperial, royal, or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic reigns in Ge ...

'' widow broadcaster" and a "Classic FM" popularisation, with the station's style and scheduling a matter of ongoing debates.

Operation

After having broadcast from Funkhaus Wien on Argentinierstrasse in the

Wieden Wieden (; ) is the 4th municipal district of Vienna, Austria (). It is near the centre of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but its borders were changed later. Wieden is a small region near the city centre. Wien.gv.at webpage (s ...

district of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

for decades, the station moved to the ORF-Zentrum at Küniglberg in the

Hietzing Hietzing () is the 13th Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna (). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains large areas of the Vi ...

district in late 2022. The current

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

was composed by the jazz musician Werner Pirchner in 1994, the

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...

''Ö1 gehört gehört''—a pun on "to be heard" in German conforming with "ought to"—was created by the author Wolf Haas. The interval signal of Ö1 is a three-note chord, played on a viola. There were two earlier versions of the signal: first one was played by harpsichord and the second one by a synth. Since 2010 a 75-minute altered block of programming is broadcast every morning on the

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

frequencies of former Radio Österreich International as Ö1 International. Ö1

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

can also be listened to live on the ORF website through

streaming audio Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downloadi ...

, the programmes can also be heard for a week after broadcast at no charge. Several are available as

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

s and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s. Ö1 runs the RadioKulturhaus venue in Funkhaus Wien including the KulturCafé

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...

. It also participates in the annual

Donauinselfest The (German for " Danube Island Festival") is a free open-air music festival which occurs annually at Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria. The festival is hosted by SPÖ Wien. It is the largest open-air music festival in the world, with around 3 ...

music festival.

Programs

External links

Ö1 Website

Ö1 Programme
{{DEFAULTSORT:O1 Radio stations in Austria Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in Austria ORF (broadcaster)

History

Operation

Programs

See also

External links