About Radio Rheinwelle

Radio Rheinwelle

Radio Rheinwelle (on air as Radio RheinWelle 92,5) is a non-commercial local radio station in Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, Germany, broadcasting on FM 92.5 MHz. The supporting association RheinWelle 92,5 e. V. was founded on 23 August 1996; after a cooperation phase with the municipal Radio Rüsselsheim, the station went on air officially on 13 September 1997 and has been independent since 2001, when it received its own Wiesbaden FM licence. Some 300 volunteers produce the programme, which spans an unusually wide musical spectrum — from world music and classical to hard rock, reggae, and independent — complemented by poetry, satire, children's programmes, radio plays, and comedy. The station broadcasts terrestrially, on DAB+ digital radio since 2017, and via livestream.

Overview

Radio Rheinwelle is one of Hesse's non-commercial local radios (NKL), the citizen-broadcaster tier licensed by the Hessian media authority. Its studios are located "Unter den Eichen" (Under the Oaks) in Wiesbaden's Medienpark — a site steeped in German media history, as documented below. The station's musical breadth is its trademark: where commercial formats narrowcast to demographic slices, Rheinwelle's schedule runs from classical and musicals through swing, jazz, folklore, country, and blues to German Schlager, hard rock, reggae, rock'n'roll, and independent music, with many genres hosting their own dedicated shows.

History

The association RheinWelle 92,5 e. V. was founded on 23 August 1996, and together with the municipal Radio Rüsselsheim (K2R) signed a cooperation agreement for joint licensing. Broadcasting began officially on 13 September 1997 — initially from the shared studio in Rüsselsheim. The arrangement quickly proved impractical, and Rheinwelle began expanding its existing pre-production studio in Wiesbaden; soon the associations and groups organised in the "Offenes Gruppenradio" (OGR) could send their programmes "into the ether" from Wiesbaden. By the end of March 1999 the Wiesbaden studio operation had been continuously expanded to strengthen the local connection to the city, and since April 1999 the station broadcast 50 percent of its programme share from its own Wiesbaden studio — a development welcomed by citizens, associations, and groups, as reflected in steadily rising membership.

The original 1996 cooperation agreement envisaged two years of joint operation to pool resources, with the explicit goal of obtaining two independent NKL licences. Delays in the completion of studies commissioned by the Hessian media authority on non-commercial local radio made an independent licence application from 2000 impossible, and existing licences were merely extended by a year. The cooperation agreement with K2R ended in 2001; in May 2001 the station applied for its own FM frequency in Wiesbaden, and on 25 March 2001 the Hessian media authority granted Radio RheinWelle 92,5 the licence to operate a non-commercial local full programme. Since then the station has been fully independent.

The "Unter den Eichen" Studios

The station's home is one of the most historic broadcast sites in Germany. The "Unter den Eichen" media park in Wiesbaden is where ZDF transmitted in its early years — and, in a detail beloved by local patriots, where the famous Mainzelmännchen were invented: not in Mainz, as their name suggests, but in the Wiesbaden premises, a point of gentle teasing given the storied rivalry between the two Rhine cities. In the 1980s the site nearly became one of the birthplaces of German private television: RTL almost moved its German TV operation not to Cologne but to Wiesbaden, some 180 kilometres up the Rhine. That the move never happened was, as one station history puts it, good luck for non-commercial radio — because it freed the "Unter den Eichen" rooms for the RheinWelle. Station manager Eckhard Blasche has shown visitors through studios where German television history was made and where citizen radio now continues the tradition of independent broadcasting. In October 2023 the media group "FM Kompakt" visited the RheinWelle — guided by Blasche together with AFN historian John Provan — documenting a station whose premises connect the earliest ZDF years, the invention of the Mainzelmännchen, and the near-miss of RTL's arrival with the present-day reality of 300 volunteers making non-commercial radio. Musically, the station offers a mixture of different styles, many with their own dedicated focus programmes — the breadth that has defined Rheinwelle since the independent era began in 2001.

Programming

Some 300 volunteers supply the programme, which the city of Wiesbaden's encyclopedia credits with serving up to a million potential listeners monthly with information and music. The musical spectrum is deliberately encyclopedic: world music, classical, musicals, swing, jazz, folklore, country, blues, German Schlager, hard rock, reggae, rock'n'roll, and independent — many styles with their own dedicated shows. Poetry, satire, children's programmes, radio plays, and comedy round out the entertainment offering.

The station also serves as a platform for others: Campusradio Mainz, the student radio of Mainz's university, broadcasts on Radio RheinWelle 92,5, and Radio Quer — the Mainz/Wiesbaden free radio — is carried at times via Rheinwelle's DAB+ channels. The associations and groups once organised in the "Offenes Gruppenradio" (OGR) were among the first to broadcast from the Wiesbaden studio in 1999, and the volunteer-based group radio tradition remains part of the station's DNA. This hosting function makes Rheinwelle a hub of the region's non-commercial radio landscape.

Coverage and Audience

The programme is transmitted from Wiesbaden's Konrad-Adenauer-Ring on FM 92.5 MHz at 100 watts ERP, receivable in Wiesbaden, Mainz, and surroundings. Since 1 January 2017 the station has also been on DAB+ digital radio (channel 12C in the Hessen-Süd multiplex); until 31 December 2023 it shared the slot quarterly with Radio Rüsselsheim, but since 1 January 2024 all four southern Hessian non-commercial local radios have been on channel 12C around the clock. The DAB+ ensemble transmits from Mainz-Kastel (5 kW), Großer Feldberg in the Taunus (4.5 kW), the Frankfurt telecommunications tower (5 kW), Hohe Wurzel in the Taunus (5 kW), and Hardberg in the Odenwald (10 kW), serving a reception area between Gießen and Ludwigshafen/Mannheim and from Eltville am Rhein to Hanau. A livestream in multiple formats is available on the station's homepage.

The station publishes no commercial audience ratings; the city encyclopedia's figure of up to a million potential listeners monthly reflects technical reach rather than measured audience. Its public is Wiesbaden's culturally diverse citizenry — including the "other riverbank" of Mainz, whose moderators are warmly welcome at the Wiesbaden station despite the cities' rivalry.

Ownership and Funding

Radio Rheinwelle is operated by the non-profit association RheinWelle 92,5 e. V., licensed by the Hessian media authority as a non-commercial local radio. Like other German NKL stations, it is financed without commercial advertising — through membership contributions, donations, and public support — preserving its editorial independence and its volunteer-based character.

Digital Presence

The station's online home is radiorheinwelle.de, carrying the livestream in multiple formats, the programme schedule, and the station's own written history of its path from the Rüsselsheim cooperation to independence. The website documents the "Unter den Eichen" studios' media-historical significance and provides information for the 300 volunteers who make the programme. From a shared studio in Rüsselsheim in 1997 to a round-the-clock FM, DAB+, and online presence from one of German broadcasting's historic sites, Radio Rheinwelle has become the citizen voice of Hesse's capital — independent, volunteer-run, and musically omnivorous. The 300 volunteers, the Campusradio Mainz partnership, and the "Unter den Eichen" studios anchor the station in the region's media landscape for the long term.