About Radio Erft

Radio Erft

Radio Erft is the private local radio station for the Rhein-Erft-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the district between Cologne and the Eifel foothills. On air since 1 November 1992, it broadcasts under the claim "Wir spielen die Hits!" on FM 91.4 and 105.8 MHz, via DAB+, cable and live stream, with nine hours of locally produced programming on weekdays built around the "Morningshow" and the afternoon programme "Am Nachmittag". The station is the daily reach leader in its district: the E.M.A. 2026/II survey found 25.0 percent of the district's population tuning in daily, around 124,000 listeners Monday to Friday, ahead of both 1LIVE and WDR 2. Since the end of September 2026 the station has broadcast from a new Funkhaus in Bonn.

Overview

Radio Erft covers the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, a district of some 470,000 residents stretching from the western edge of Cologne through towns such as Bergheim, Brühl, Wesseling, Erftstadt, Frechen, Hürth, Kerpen, Pulheim, Bedburg and Elsdorf to the edge of the Eifel. The terrestrial signal uses two FM frequencies: 91.4 MHz from Bergheim and 105.8 MHz from the Colonius tower in Cologne with 1 kW, a signal that carries south into the northern Eifel, north into southern Duisburg, east into the northern Bergisches Land and west into the Düren-Jülich area. Since December 2025 the programme has also been distributed via DAB+, and the website and app carry the live stream.

The station's market position is exceptional among NRW local stations. With a daily reach of 25.0 percent in its district according to E.M.A. 2026/II, Radio Erft leads the local radio ranking ahead of the statewide youth station 1LIVE at 22.6 percent and WDR 2 at 20.4 percent, a first place it has defended for years. The programme follows the NRW architecture of local daytime hours plus the Radio NRW framework from Oberhausen, with a hits-oriented music format matching the "Wir spielen die Hits!" claim.

History

Radio Erft went on the air on 1 November 1992, licensed by the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen, in the second wave of NRW local radio launches. The licence is held by the Veranstaltergemeinschaft des lokalen Rundfunks Radio Erft e. V., based in Wesseling under chairman Wolfgang Stutzinger, with the business operated by Radio Erft GmbH & Co. KG, also in Wesseling. The station has thus been rooted in the district's towns from the start, first in Wesseling and Bergheim.

The 1992 launch placed Radio Erft in the second generation of NRW local stations, arriving two years after the pioneers of 1990 and benefiting from the lessons they had learned. By then the two-pillar model was established practice, the Radio NRW framework from Oberhausen was a going concern, and audiences had begun to accept the idea of a commercial station that belonged to their district. The Rhein-Erft-Kreis proved fertile ground: a populous, economically strong district on Cologne's doorstep, with no single dominant centre but a string of substantial towns, each with its own identity and news agenda. The station's steady climb to the top of the district's radio ranking was built on serving all of those towns rather than privileging one, a district-wide localism that remains its editorial signature.

A landmark in the station's recent history came at the end of September 2026, when Radio Erft moved into a new Funkhaus in Bonn, consolidating its operations in the former federal capital just east of its broadcast area. The move followed years of steady audience success that made the station one of the strongest local brands in the Rhineland. Editorial leadership was renewed on 1 October 2022, when Christian Philipps became editor-in-chief. Through more than three decades the station has remained continuously on air for the Rhein-Erft district, growing from a 1992 start-up into the district's most-listened-to radio station.

Programming

On weekdays Radio Erft broadcasts nine hours of local programming: the "Morningshow" from 5 to 10 am, hosted by Julia Drexler and Finn Weyden, and "Am Nachmittag" from 3 to 7 pm. Local news from the Rhein-Erft-Kreis airs every half hour from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm on weekdays. On weekends the station is local on Saturdays from 7 am to noon and Sundays from 9 am to noon, and it cooperates with partner stations in the Rhineland on jointly produced weekend programmes: Saturdays from noon to 3 pm bring "Raus ins Rheinland", focused on events and event tips across the Rhineland, while Sundays feature "Kölsch & Jot", dedicated to Rhineland customs and traditions.

Other presenters of the local programmes include Heike Spitzley, Oliver Frühauf and Christian Meißner. The citizen-radio window required by the state media law gives local radio groups airtime for their own productions. Outside its own broadcast hours, the station takes the Radio NRW framework programme, including the hourly world news, transmitting a statewide advertising block each hour in return. The hits-oriented music format targets a broad mainstream audience across the district.

The weekend cooperation with the Rhineland partner stations is a distinctive feature of the schedule. "Raus ins Rheinland" on Saturday afternoons pools the event-reporting resources of several stations to cover the region's extraordinarily dense calendar of festivals, fairs and cultural events, while "Kölsch & Jot" on Sundays taps into the Rhineland's living traditions, from carnival customs to local dialect culture. For a district station, these cooperations offer the best of both worlds: the efficiency of shared production and a programme that still feels rooted in the Rhineland identity the district shares with its neighbours.

Organization and Ownership

Radio Erft operates under the two-pillar model of North Rhine-Westphalia's media law. The programme is organized by the Veranstaltergemeinschaft des lokalen Rundfunks Radio Erft e. V., the community-based association based in Wesseling chaired by Wolfgang Stutzinger, while the business is run by Radio Erft GmbH & Co. KG. The managing director is Ralph Steinhausen, and the editor-in-chief since 1 October 2022 is Christian Philipps.

The station's service and marketing infrastructure is connected to the DuMont media house of Cologne, which participates in seven local radio stations across the Rhineland, giving Radio Erft access to the advertising marketing and technical support of one of the region's largest media groups while the two-pillar structure keeps editorial decisions with the local programme association. Since the end of September 2026 the station's operations have been based at the new Funkhaus in Bonn.

Digital Presence

Beyond FM 91.4 and 105.8 MHz and the DAB+ distribution added in December 2025, Radio Erft streams its full programme live on the internet via radioerft.de and offers a smartphone app, making the district programme available worldwide. The website serves as the station's news and service portal for the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, carrying local news, traffic and weather information, programme details and event tips.

The digital platforms extend the station's district leadership into the online space: the stream follows commuters into Cologne and beyond, while the website's local news and service content mirror the on-air agenda that has made the station the district's reach leader. Together with the terrestrial signals and cable carriage, the online presence gives Radio Erft full multi-platform coverage of its broadcast area more than three decades after its first broadcast.

In a district where so many residents commute daily toward Cologne, the mobile stream and app are arguably as important as the FM frequencies: they keep the district's radio with its audience through the working day, turning Radio Erft from a at-home medium into a companion for the whole day.