About Radio Hannover

Radio Hannover

Radio Hannover is a private local radio station for Hanover and the Hanover region in Lower Saxony, Germany, broadcasting under the slogan "Die Stimme der Stadt" ("The voice of the city"). On air since 2 April 2014, it broadcasts terrestrially on FM 100.0 MHz in the city and surrounding area, on cable at 106.2 MHz, on DAB+ channel 8C since July 2023, and via internet stream, with a technical reach of 1.5 million people. The station's seat is opposite the Steintorplatz at the western end of Hanover's inner-city pedestrian zone. The programme targets 29- to 59-year-olds with pop- and soul-flavoured music from five decades, from the seventies to current hits, combined with Hanover city news, surveys, sports reports and event tips.

Overview

Radio Hannover 100,0 is the commercial local voice of Lower Saxony's capital, a city of trade fairs, industry and culture with one of Germany's most competitive radio markets. The programme focuses on the 29-to-59 target group, playing chart hits alongside B-sides in a pop- and soul-dominated music colour, from seventies classics to today's hits. The local content comes from the city of Hanover itself: street surveys, sports coverage, event tips and the daily news of the state capital.

The station broadcasts on FM 100.0 MHz terrestrially, on cable at 106.2 MHz, on DAB+ 8C and as an internet stream, giving it full multi-platform availability in a region where the competition includes the NDR's public stations, the statewide private broadcasters and, since August 2025, the new citizen radio Leibniz.fm on 106.5 MHz. The technical reach of 1.5 million people makes it one of the larger local stations in northern Germany.

Hanover is a demanding market for a local station: the state capital hosts the NDR's regional studios, the trade fair grounds that bring the world to the city several times a year, and a culturally engaged audience with high expectations of local journalism. Radio Hannover's answer is the "Stimme der Stadt" promise, a station that treats the city's daily life, from the Kröpcke to the Eilenriede, from the trade fair to the Maschsee, as its natural reporting territory.

History

Radio Hannover went on air on 2 April 2014, entering a Hanover radio market that had been shaped by two decades of citizen radio experiments. The 106.5 MHz frequency had carried radio flora from the nineties until 2009, then radio leinehertz 106.5 from 2009 until its licence was revoked in 2019, leaving the commercial field open for a professional local station on 100.0 MHz. The new station positioned itself from the start as "Die Stimme der Stadt", the commercial counterpoint to both the public broadcasters and the citizen radio tradition.

The citizen radio prehistory is worth telling, because it explains the gap Radio Hannover filled. Radio flora, one of Lower Saxony's pioneering citizen stations, lost its licence in 2009 when the NLM declined to renew it, citing below-average listener acceptance; the frequency went to the 106,5 Rundfunkgesellschaft gGmbH, an alliance of several competitors that launched radio leinehertz 106.5. When the NLM revoked that licence in March 2019, confirmed by the Hanover administrative court that April, the station went silent at midnight on 30 April 2019. The media authority then decided in 2021 to drop Hanover as a citizen radio area entirely, judging that there was no longer interest in such a project in the state capital, a decision reversed only after the state parliament improved the financial conditions in December 2023. Radio Hannover, launched in 2014 between these two citizen radio eras, provided the professional local commercial voice while the citizen frequency stood empty.

The station's seat, opposite the Steintorplatz at the western end of the pedestrian zone that connects the Steintor via the Georgstraße to the city centre at the Kröpcke, places it in the middle of Hanover's urban life; the house Schütze once stood on the site. The addition of DAB+ distribution on channel 8C in July 2023 completed the station's terrestrial footprint, adding digital reception to the FM, cable and stream paths. In August 2025, citizen radio returned to Hanover with Leibniz.fm on 106.5 MHz, after the NLM had decided in 2021 to drop Hanover as a citizen radio area and the state parliament created new financial conditions in 2023, restoring the dual structure of commercial and citizen local radio in the state capital.

Programming

The programme is built around the 29-to-59 audience, with a music mix spanning five decades from the seventies to current hits, pop- and soul-flavoured, combining chart successes with lesser-known B-sides. The local journalism covers the city of Hanover: surveys from the streets, sports reports, event tips and the news that matters to the state capital's residents. The Wednesday evening music special "Grenzwellen", from 9 pm to midnight, gives the station a distinctive specialist slot for music beyond the daytime format.

The "Stimme der Stadt" positioning runs through the programme: the station presents itself as the city's own voice, close to the listeners' daily lives, with the service and entertainment mix of a modern commercial local radio. The combination of five decades of music with a strong local news and service component aims at the broad adult mainstream of the Hanover region.

The Wednesday "Grenzwellen" special, from 9 pm to midnight, is the station's musical calling card: a late-night space for music that stretches the boundaries of the daytime format, giving the station a specialist credibility that complements its mainstream daytime appeal. In a market as musically diverse as Hanover's, home of the Scorpions and a long rock and pop tradition, such a slot connects the station to the city's musical identity beyond the charts.

Organization and Ownership

The owner is the KMWS Media Hannover GmbH & Co. KG. The managing directors are Martin Wöbbeking and Benjamin Kahnt; the programme director is Björn Stack, and the editorial leadership is shared by Dörthe Hanssen and Jasmin Kohler. The station operates from its seat at the Steintorplatz in central Hanover, with the newsroom and studios serving the city and the surrounding region.

As a private commercial local station, Radio Hannover stands in the tradition of Germany's local radio model: a licensed private operator serving a defined region with local news, service and entertainment, financed by advertising. The 1.5 million technical reach gives the station a substantial advertising market in one of northern Germany's strongest economic regions.

Digital Presence

The internet stream on radio-hannover.de carries the programme beyond the terrestrial coverage, and the station's DAB+ presence on channel 8C since July 2023 gives it digital terrestrial reception across the region. The website is the hub for the station's digital services, from the stream to the local news and event tips that complement the broadcast.

For a station launched in 2014, digital was part of the DNA from the start: the stream, the cable distribution and later the DAB+ multiplex give Radio Hannover full modern availability. In a market where the citizen radio tradition returned to the dial in 2025 with Leibniz.fm, the commercial "Stimme der Stadt" continues to hold its position as Hanover's private local voice, on FM 100.0, on DAB+, on cable and on the stream, broadcasting the city's daily life to 1.5 million people across the region.