About Radio Bielefeld

Radio Bielefeld

Radio Bielefeld is the licensed local radio station for the city of Bielefeld in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. On air since 1 June 1991, it broadcasts a locally produced adult-contemporary programme built around Bielefeld city news, traffic, weather and community information, filling the remaining hours with the statewide framework programme supplied by Radio NRW. The station reaches its audience on FM 98.3 MHz and 97.6 MHz, on cable, on DAB+ across Ostwestfalen-Lippe, and worldwide via live stream and app. Operated under North Rhine-Westphalia's two-pillar local radio model, it combines an editorially independent local programme with backing from the region's newspaper publishers and the city itself, and it remains one of the strongest-performing city stations in the state, with more than 129,000 daily listeners.

Overview

Radio Bielefeld serves the city of Bielefeld and its immediate surroundings with a full-service local radio programme. Its terrestrial flagship frequency is 98.3 MHz, transmitted from the Deutsche Telekom building, while the southern districts are covered on 97.6 MHz; cable listeners find it on 98.90 MHz and, in Sennestadt, on 99.85 MHz. Since 18 December 2025 the station has also been receivable via DAB+ throughout Ostwestfalen-Lippe, alongside a live stream on its website, a dedicated smartphone app and availability on smart speakers.

The musical backbone is the adult-contemporary format prescribed by the Radio NRW framework, aimed at listeners between 19 and 49, but the station's identity comes from its dense local output. On weekdays it airs up to 15 hours of its own programming from its studio, with local news blocks between 6:30 and 19:30 on the half hour, plus locally produced hourly news during daytime hours, a rarity among NRW local stations. Traffic reports, speed-trap warnings from the police, local weather, consumer advice and event tips round out the service offering.

Audience figures underline the station's local standing. According to the E.M.A. NRW 2024 II electronic reach analysis, 47.2 percent of Bielefeld residents aged 14 and over tune in on a typical weekday, more than 129,000 people a day, well ahead of statewide public broadcasters in the same city. The station markets itself with the claims "Immer am Puls der Stadt", "Jeden Tag den ganzen Tag" and "Immer gut zu hören".

History

Radio Bielefeld went on the air on 1 June 1991 as one of the local stations licensed under North Rhine-Westphalia's media law, which opened the FM band to private local radio in the early 1990s. The licence was issued by the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (LfM), the state's media authority, and the station has broadcast for the city of Bielefeld ever since.

Like all NRW local stations, Radio Bielefeld was built on the state's two-pillar model, which deliberately separates programme responsibility from economic responsibility so that journalism is not shaped by commercial interests. From the start, programming was entrusted to a local editorial team while the business side was carried by a consortium including the regional dailies Neue Westfälische and Westfalen-Blatt together with the city of Bielefeld, with technical and commercial services largely outsourced to the Bielefeld-based full-service provider Audio Media Service (ams).

In its early years the station established the weekday local-hours structure that still shapes its schedule today, supplemented by the Radio NRW framework programme from Oberhausen outside local windows. A significant milestone came in 2016, when Radio Bielefeld set up its own supra-local newsroom, becoming the first and only private station in NRW to produce its own hourly news during local broadcast times instead of taking the Radio NRW bulletins. Editorial leadership passed from long-serving editor Martin Knabenreich, who held the post for twelve years, to Timo Fratz on 1 January 2015. Since 2002 the station's programme has also been distributed online via live stream, and in 2025 it joined the DAB+ expansion of the NRW local stations. In October 2026, after more than 35 years at its studio on Süsterplatz, the station moved to a newly built media house at Kesselbrink in the city centre, with regular broadcasting resuming from the new studio.

Programming

The weekday schedule is anchored by three long local blocks. "Radio Bielefeld am Morgen", the morning show, runs from 6 to 10 am, followed by "Radio Bielefeld bei der Arbeit" from 10 am to 2 pm and "Radio Bielefeld am Nachmittag" from 2 to 7 pm, carrying listeners into the evening commute. Local news is a signature: short bulletins on the half hour from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm, and since 2016 the station's own full newsroom also produces the hourly news during local hours, covering Bielefeld alongside NRW, national and world stories.

Evening local output includes two weekly specials from 7 to 9 pm: "Liebold live", a Monday talk programme with personalities from the city hosted by Andreas Liebold, and "Die HitStory", a Thursday oldies and listener-request show presented by Stephan Schueler. At night and into the weekend the youth programme "radio deinfm", produced in the studios of Radio Gütersloh, airs on all OWL local stations, including Sunday evening listener charts. Between 9 and 10 pm the station carries the citizen-radio window required by the state media law, featuring recorded programmes made by radio enthusiasts and local radio workshops.

Weekend programming keeps the local focus: "Radio Bielefeld am Wochenende" airs Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm and Sunday from 9 am to noon. Sports coverage is a standout: as Bielefeld's official station, Radio Bielefeld broadcasts every Arminia Bielefeld match live, with stadium reporting by Ulrich Zwetz, who has commentated the club's games for the station since 1994.

Organization and Ownership

Radio Bielefeld operates under the two-pillar model mandated by North Rhine-Westphalia's media law. Programme responsibility lies with the Veranstaltergemeinschaft für Lokalfunk in Bielefeld e. V., an association made up of representatives of socially relevant groups in the city, which guards editorial independence. Economic responsibility rests with Radio Bielefeld Betriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, in which the newspaper publishers Neue Westfälische and Westfalen-Blatt and the city of Bielefeld participate. Technical and business tasks are largely outsourced to Audio Media Service (ams), the Bielefeld-based full-service company.

Outside local hours, the remaining programme and the hourly world news come from the framework provider Radio NRW, which supplies 45 NRW local stations with a 24-hour backbone from Oberhausen; in return, Radio Bielefeld airs an advertising block from the statewide programme each hour. Editor-in-chief is Timo Fratz. Well-known voices on the station include Sebastian Wiese, Roxane Brockschnieder, Bettina Wittemeier, Holger Höhner, Dirk Sluyter, Andreas Liebold and Stephan Schueler, alongside the long-serving Arminia commentator Ulrich Zwetz.

The two-pillar arrangement that shapes Radio Bielefeld is typical of local broadcasting in North Rhine-Westphalia but by no means trivial to sustain over more than three decades. By assigning programme responsibility to a community-based association and business responsibility to a separate operating company, the model insulates the newsroom from the commercial interests of the newspaper publishers and the municipality that fund the enterprise. In Bielefeld this balance has been maintained since 1991, with the technical and commercial service provider ams handling advertising sales, production infrastructure and digital distribution so that the editorial team can concentrate on local journalism.

Digital Presence

Radio Bielefeld has streamed its programme online since 2002, initially among the ams-operated local stations offering live streams on their websites. Today the stream is available directly on radiobielefeld.de, via the station's own app for iPhone and Android devices, and on smart speakers, extending the broadcast far beyond the FM and DAB+ footprint in Ostwestfalen-Lippe.

The station's website functions as a local news and service portal alongside the audio offer, carrying the stream, local news, traffic information, speed-trap reports and event tips that mirror the on-air programme. The app and web player allow live listening as well as access to the station's digital features, ensuring that Bielefeld residents who have moved away, as well as commuters, can stay connected to the city's radio. The combination of terrestrial FM, the DAB+ launch in December 2025, cable carriage and digital distribution gives the station full multi-platform coverage of its home market.