About Radio Ginseng

Radio Ginseng

Radio Ginseng is a free community radio station from Grünheide (Mark) in Brandenburg, Germany, with a concept that is unique in German broadcasting: the station is organized and presented exclusively by volunteers of senior age. A member of the Bundesverband Freier Radios, it began as an internet radio on 28 March 2021 and has been part of the Radiokombinat Brandenburg on DAB+ channel 12D for Berlin and Brandenburg since May 2023. The studio and editorial office are located in the Robert-Havemann-Haus in Grünheide, with broadcast technology provided by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg. The station's founding was accompanied by the Arte documentary "Für immer jung", which brought the project nationwide recognition.

Overview

Radio Ginseng broadcasts as an internet radio and, since 31 May 2023, as part of the joint programme of Brandenburg's free radios on the two-state DAB+ multiplex 12D for Berlin and Brandenburg. The Radiokombinat Brandenburg brings together frrapó from Potsdam, Radio Ginseng from Grünheide, Radio Woltersdorf and Radio Słubfurt from Frankfurt (Oder), with the licence held by Freies BürgerRadio Słubfurt e. V. until 30 June 2030. The association's address is An der Alten Schule 2 in Grünheide (Mark).

The programme is made entirely by senior volunteers, a deliberate inversion of the usual community radio demographics. The presenters bring lifetimes of professional and personal experience to the microphone: former engineers, teachers, craftspeople and professionals who discovered radio as a retirement passion. The result is a programme with an unhurried, conversational character, shaped by the curiosity and life experience of its makers rather than by a commercial format.

The station's hometown gives the project an extra layer of meaning. Grünheide (Mark), a small town in the Oder-Spree district east of Berlin, became world-famous as the site of Tesla's Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, the electric car plant that transformed the quiet Brandenburg town into a symbol of Germany's industrial future. While the world reported on the factory, Radio Ginseng's senior volunteers reported on the town itself: the Grünheide that existed before the gigafactory and continues alongside it, with its lakes, its history and its community life. A radio made by the town's older residents is a natural chronicler of that continuity amid spectacular change.

History

The station's founder is Ulrich Burow, a trained radio technician and scholar of media and theatre studies. In 2018 Burow completed a short traineeship at the British community station Angel Radios, which was run exclusively by retired volunteers, and returned to Germany inspired to create a German equivalent. After more than three years of preparation, Radio Ginseng went on air for the first time on 28 March 2021.

The Angel Radios inspiration is the key to understanding the project. Burow did not set out to create another community station that happened to welcome older volunteers; he set out to prove that a radio run exclusively by seniors could work as a matter of principle. The British model showed that retirement is not the end of creativity but, given the right framework, the beginning of a new productive phase. The three years of preparation, from 2018 to the first broadcast in March 2021, were spent building exactly that framework: recruiting the volunteers, training them in studio technique, establishing the association and securing the technology support of the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg. The Arte documentary "Für immer jung" captured that founding process and turned a local Brandenburg experiment into a nationally discussed example of active ageing.

The founding was accompanied by the Arte documentary "Für immer jung", which followed the senior volunteers as they built their station and brought the project recognition far beyond Brandenburg. In August 2021 the station won the MACHEN!2021 ideas competition in the category "East-West Partnerships" with the project "Kooperation WOST – An East-West Radio Partnership", a cooperation with the West German free broadcaster Radio free FM from Ulm, earning prize money of 15,000 euros. In May 2023 the station joined the Radiokombinat Brandenburg on DAB+ 12D, gaining terrestrial digital distribution across Berlin and Brandenburg alongside its internet stream. By April 2025 the association counted around 60 members, all contributing to a station financed by membership fees.

Programming

The programme reflects the interests and life experience of its senior presenters: music from the decades they lived through, conversations about topics that matter to them, local stories from Grünheide and the surrounding region, and the unhurried talk formats that suit a volunteer team with time to prepare. There is no commercial format clock and no advertising pressure; the presenters shape their own shows within the free radio ethos.

The east-west partnership with Radio free FM Ulm, recognized with the MACHEN!2021 prize, illustrates the programme's broader horizons: the cooperation brought together senior broadcasters from eastern and western Germany for joint productions, discovering common ground across the old divide. As part of the Radiokombinat Brandenburg, the station's programmes also reach the shared DAB+ audience of Berlin and Brandenburg, giving the Grünheide volunteers a metropolitan platform for their senior-made radio.

What the senior presenters offer that no other station can is perspective. A volunteer who lived through the GDR, reunification and the transformation of Brandenburg brings to the microphone a personal archive that no research can replicate. The music they play carries memories; the stories they tell are first-hand history; the conversations they lead have the patience of people who have learned that the interesting answer takes time. In a media landscape obsessed with youth, Radio Ginseng is a quiet argument for the broadcasting value of age.

Organization and Ownership

Radio Ginseng is operated by the non-profit association Redaktion Radio Ginseng e. V., founded by Ulrich Burow and financed by membership fees. The association counted around 60 members in April 2025. The broadcast technology for the studio and editorial office in the Robert-Havemann-Haus in Grünheide was provided by the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), the joint media authority of Berlin and Brandenburg, which supports non-commercial broadcasting in the region.

As a member of the Bundesverband Freier Radios, the station belongs to Germany's community broadcasting movement, committed to non-commercial, participatory media. The DAB+ distribution runs through the Radiokombinat Brandenburg, whose licence on channel 12D is held by Freies BürgerRadio Słubfurt e. V., which makes airtime available to the partner stations as required by the licence conditions.

The financing model is as lean as the concept is bold: membership fees from the association's members sustain the operation, with the media authority's technology support covering the studio infrastructure. There are no commercial pressures and no ratings to chase, which is precisely what allows a station run exclusively by seniors to exist at all. The around 60 members are not an audience to be monetized but the makers themselves, and the station's success is measured in participation rather than reach.

Digital Presence

Radio Ginseng began as an internet radio, and the live stream on radioginseng.de remains central to its identity, carrying the senior-made programme worldwide. The website serves as the station's home, with programme information, reception details and the stories behind the volunteer project.

The DAB+ distribution via the Radiokombinat Brandenburg on channel 12D added terrestrial digital reach across Berlin and Brandenburg in May 2023, complementing the stream with a broadcast signal for the region. Together, the internet stream and the DAB+ presence give the station full multi-platform availability, proving that a radio made exclusively by senior volunteers can hold its own on every modern distribution path.