About JazzRadio Berlin

JazzRadio Berlin

JazzRadio Berlin is Germany's only 24/7 jazz station — a privately run, 24-hour moderated music programme with jazz and jazz-soul music plus editorial features and news, on air since 1 June 1996. Under the slogan "That's Cool!" it has won more national and international radio awards than any other German broadcaster, including two World Gold Medals at the New York Radio Programming Awards as the world's best jazz station. The programme's six jazz styles are deepened in weekly specialist shows such as The White Room, Diplomatic Lounge and Xpat-Berlin. The operator is the New JazzRadio GmbH (Fujairah Media FZ LLC plus three private individuals); managing director is Julian Allitt. The "Friends of JazzRadio" listeners' club supports the station.

Overview

JazzRadio Berlin is a regional private radio programme: an information and service programme with jazz music across subgenres, with a 10–15% spoken-word share — news, cultural and jazz-event listings in Berlin, and advertising. For three decades it brought international jazz stars to Berlin, supported local musicians and promoted concerts, building a cultural bridge between Berlin and the worldwide jazz scene — all without public funding, financed solely by radio advertising, listener donations and sponsorship.

History

JazzRadio started on 1 June 1996 on FM 101.9 MHz in Berlin (Jazz Radio und Verlag GmbH). After a frequency and operator change on 1 December 2010 it moved to FM 106.8 MHz via the Scholzplatz transmitter. From 13 March 2015 to 1 June 2020 it also aired in Rostock on 105.6 MHz under the Jazz Radio Deutschland GmbH & Co KG licence.

In 2024 the mabb re-tendered several FM frequencies including Berlin 106.8 from October 2025; eleven broadcasters applied. The mabb decided to award the frequency from January 2026 to a programme of electronic music ("106.8 pure fm"), citing a greater contribution to Berlin's techno and club-scene diversity. JazzRadio's urgent court challenge was largely rejected by the Berlin Administrative Court in September 2025: the station kept 106.8 only until 31 December 2025. The station continues on DAB+, cable and internet.

Programming

The programme consists of jazz music with 10–15% spoken word: news, weather, traffic, cultural and jazz event listings in Berlin, plus advertising. The six jazz styles are deepened in weekly specialist programmes; award-winning shows such as The White Room, Diplomatic Lounge and Xpat-Berlin set standards for innovative radio.

Coverage & Audience

Until the end of 2025 JazzRadio aired on FM 106.8 MHz in Berlin (previously 101.9); it is received on DAB+, cable and worldwide via internet streaming. Berlin's only terrestrial jazz station, it continues its 24/7 moderated jazz programme digitally.

Ownership

The operator is the New JazzRadio GmbH, in which Fujairah Media FZ LLC and three private individuals hold stakes. The "Friends of JazzRadio" listeners' club binds listeners and supports the station.

Digital Presence

The station operates jazzradio.net with a worldwide livestream alongside apps, podcasting and social media channels, keeping its 24/7 moderated jazz programme and cultural listings available after the FM exit. The digital offering extends the station's award-winning jazz identity and its cultural bridge between Berlin and the world jazz scene.

The 106.8 Frequency Battle

JazzRadio Berlin's home for decades was FM 106.8 MHz — until the frequency was lost. On 9 September 2025 the Berlin Administrative Court (VG Berlin) ruled in the dispute over the frequency's reallocation by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), and on 1 January 2026 the techno station "106.8 pure fm" took over the frequency. The decision ended JazzRadio's long FM presence in the capital on its signature frequency — a symbolic moment for Berlin's music radio, where the jazz station had been a fixture of the dial. The ruling and the handover were widely covered in the German radio press as a sign of the times: even established niche stations are not safe when FM capacity is re-tendered.

World Gold in New York

JazzRadio's programme quality has been recognised internationally: the station won World Gold twice at the New York Radio Programming Awards — one of the radio industry's most prestigious international competitions. The awards confirmed what the Berlin jazz community had long known: the station's curation and presentation stood comparison with the world's best music radio. The New York golds remain the station's most visible international honours.

Jazz Beyond FM

After the loss of 106.8 MHz, JazzRadio continues on DAB+ and as a worldwide livestream — the digital path that more and more German niche stations are taking as FM frequencies become contested. The station remains Berlin's jazz voice: a specialist programme for the jazz audience in the capital and worldwide, carrying on after the FM era on its historic frequency ended.

Berlin's Dedicated Jazz Voice Since 1996

JazzRadio Berlin is Germany's award-winning 24/7 jazz radio station — a private Berlin regional broadcaster devoted entirely to jazz and jazz-inspired music. Its launch date was 1 June 1996; in the beginning it broadcast in Berlin on 101.9 MHz, a frequency then barely receivable properly in the city. In December 2010 the station moved to 106.8 MHz — the channel previously used by MotorFM by day and Radio Teddy in the evening (and before that by Radio Multikulti) — with a markedly better reach, along the A 24 seamlessly following on from Rock Antenne and Alsterradio Hamburg. The operator is New JazzRadio GmbH, owned by Fujairah Media FZ LLC and three individuals; a listeners' association exists to support the station and guarantee its editorial line.

The Programme: Jazz in All Its Colours

The programme consists of jazz music and 10 to 15 percent spoken word — essentially news, weather and traffic bulletins plus reports on cultural and jazz events in Berlin. The six main jazz styles each get their own special broadcasts. The musical spectrum is broad: classic and vocal jazz, soul, blues, swing, lounge and contemporary smooth jazz, with themed programmes on new jazz releases, legendary artists and live performances. Jazz is, in Germany, a minority music — its market segment is reckoned at no more than three percent — and several earlier jazz stations founded after the partial privatisation of the radio landscape (Jazz Welle Plus in Munich, Jazz Welle plus Hamburg) went off air after a few years. JazzRadio 106.8 is the one that survived: Germany's dedicated jazz frequency in the capital, broadcasting in German, receivable on FM 106.8, in cable networks, via IPTV and worldwide by webstream (jazzradio.net).

A Niche With a Future

The station's persistence is its story. Where the jazz niche once seemed commercially hopeless, JazzRadio has kept a 24-hour jazz programme on Berlin FM for three decades — staffed, moderated and journalistically embedded in the city's jazz scene with interviews, live broadcasts and event coverage. Notably, the format is even gaining company: on 5 January 2026 Ella Radio went on air on FM in Berlin and Potsdam as a new jazz station. For a genre long described as "Minderheitenmusik", the Berlin FM dial now carries two jazz programmes — a late vindication of the listeners' association that has backed JazzRadio since the beginning. The station's address is Friedrichstraße 155, 10117 Berlin; it remains, in its own description and its listeners', Germany's jazz station of record.

That longevity makes JazzRadio a cultural institution as much as a broadcaster: a station that treats jazz not as background colour but as a living art form — from bebop to smooth jazz — and that has given Berlin's clubs, festivals and musicians a daily on-air home no algorithm can replace.