About Radio MK

Radio MK

Radio MK is the local radio station for the Märkischer Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, based in Iserlohn. It went on air on 13 May 1990 as the third NRW local radio station, licensed by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW. With the claims "Der beste Mix" and "100% von hier, Kulthits und das Beste von heute", it broadcasts on 92.5 MHz FM, on DAB+, on cable and via livestream, producing eight hours of local programming daily from its studios in the "Funkhaus in der Harmonie" at Poth 1 in Iserlohn's city centre. The Programmdirektion is Holger Jahnke, and the station's technical and commercial services run through the AUDIOSERVICE plus provider.

Overview

Radio MK's FM presence is anchored by 92.5 MHz from Iserlohn, with DAB+ distribution, cable and the livestream and app completing the portfolio. The local programme runs Monday to Friday from 6 to 10 am and from 2 to 6 pm, eight hours daily produced in the Iserlohn studios, with weekend local hours from 9 am to noon; local news for the district and the region airs hourly on weekdays from 5:30 am to 7:30 pm and on weekends from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. The remaining hours, the night programme and the world news on the hour come from the Radio NRW framework. The legally mandated Bürgerradio occupies one hour daily: Monday to Saturday from 9 pm, Sundays from 7 pm, produced not by the station's editorial team but by the radio support associations Förderverein Lokalfunk Iserlohn (FöLok), Studio MK and Bürgerradio Süderland.

The station is the audio companion of the Märkischer Kreis, the district formed in 1975 from the old districts of Iserlohn, Lüdenscheid and Altena, with its wire industry, its Sauerland foothills and its proud local identities. The wire drawing mills of Altena, the cutlery and fittings of the Lüdenscheid area, the breweries and the forests, the district's economy is a mosaic of Mittelstand craftsmanship, and the station's local news and its business reporting speak to the people who keep those mills and workshops running. The Iserlohn Roosters ice hockey team, playing in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, gives the station its signature special programme: "Arena Live", the hockey broadcast that turns the district's winter evenings into shared listening events.

History

Radio MK's launch on 13 May 1990 made it the third NRW local radio station, following the pioneers of the system that had begun in the spring of 1990. The Märkischer Kreis, with its 400,000-plus inhabitants spread across the Sauerland foothills and the industrial towns of Iserlohn, Lüdenscheid, Menden and Hemer, was a natural territory for a local station: large enough to sustain one, fragmented enough to need one. The district itself was still young, formed only in 1975 from the old districts of Iserlohn, Lüdenscheid and Altena, and the local radio gave the new administrative construct something it had lacked: a shared daily conversation, a common set of topics, a single voice that spoke for the whole Märkischer Kreis rather than for its constituent towns.

The station's studio history is a tour of Iserlohn's architectural heritage. It began in the Funkhaus am Nolten, housed in the Scheiblersches Palais built in 1783, one of the city's historic buildings. In 1995 the station moved to the Funkhaus an der Isenburg on Vinckestraße, and in May 2015 it settled into the newly built studios in the "Funkhaus in der Harmonie" at Poth 1 in Iserlohn's city centre, where it broadcasts today. Each move brought newer technology and a more central location; the Harmonie studios are the station's purpose-built home for the digital era, in the heart of the city whose name the district's car plates still carry, broadcasting daily since May 1990 without interruption, through every season and every shift change, on air for the district around the clock.

Programming

The weekday local day is built around the two main blocks: the morning show from 6 to 10 am and the afternoon programme from 2 to 6 pm, with hourly local news from 5:30 am to 7:30 pm keeping the district informed through the whole day. The weekend local hours from 9 am to noon carry the Saturday and Sunday morning audience, with hourly news from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. "Arena Live" is the station's sporting flagship: the live broadcasts of the Iserlohn Roosters ice hockey matches, the DEL club that is the district's biggest sporting institution, with the atmosphere of the Balver Zinn Arena carried live to the listeners who cannot be in the stands. The Roosters, the team from the Sauerland that has held its own in Germany's top ice hockey league for decades, are more than a sports club in the Märkischer Kreis: they are the district's calling card, the one name that the whole of Germany knows, and the "Arena Live" broadcasts are the moments when the district listens as one. The winter evenings, the playoff races, the derby nights against the big-city clubs, all come live from the MK microphones, with the commentary and the crowd noise that make the listeners feel they are standing in the arena themselves.

The Bürgerradio slots give the district's citizen broadcasters their daily hour: the FöLok, Studio MK and Bürgerradio Süderland associations produce programmes that the station's editorial team does not touch, keeping the citizen-radio tradition of the NRW system alive on the MK frequency. The Radio NRW framework fills the remaining hours with the statewide programme and the world news on the hour.

Organization and Ownership

Radio MK operates within the NRW two-pillar system: programme responsibility with the local Veranstaltergemeinschaft, economic operation through the local Betriebsgesellschaft, with the technical and commercial services outsourced to the AUDIOSERVICE plus provider. Holger Jahnke leads the station as Programmdirektor. The studio address, Poth 1, 58638 Iserlohn, with the phone 02371 790 3 0 and the WhatsApp line, has been the station's public face since the 2015 move to the Harmonie.

The station's ownership structure follows the NRW pattern of local newspaper publishers and municipal partners, though the exact current shareholdings are not publicly confirmed in the sources available. The AUDIOSERVICE plus partnership puts the station in the service network that supports a large part of the eastern NRW local stations.

Digital Presence

The livestream on radiomk.de and the station's app carry the programme beyond the FM footprint, and the web-channel portfolio is one of the most extensive among the NRW locals: Lounge, Rock, Urban, Top 40, Deutsch Pop, Schlager, Love, 90er, 80er, 2000er, Karneval, Oldie, Rock Classic, Hip Hop, New Country, Singer Songwriter, Dance, Sommer and the seasonal Christmas channel. The genre streams let the listeners take the MK brand into every musical mood, from the Schlager fans to the hip-hop generation, and they give the advertisers targeted environments beyond the main programme's broad mix.

More than three and a half decades after its launch as the third NRW local radio, Radio MK remains the Märkischer Kreis's own station: the morning show, the hourly local news, the "Arena Live" hockey nights, all from the Funkhaus in der Harmonie at Poth 1 in Iserlohn, on 92.5 MHz, DAB+, cable, stream and app, the best mix from the heart of the Sauerland foothills.