About Radio RST

Radio RST

Radio RST is the private local radio for the district of Steinfurt in the Münsterland, the Osnabrück region and the Tecklenburger Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Produced in Rheine, it went on air with a licence from the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW on 21 September 1991. The name stands for the city of Rheine, the seat of the station, the district town of Steinfurt and the former district town of Tecklenburg. Editor-in-chief is Kathleen Berger. The station broadcasts on 105.2 MHz FM from the Schöppingen telecommunications tower, on DAB+ since June 2021, in the cable network and via internet stream. Like the other NRW local stations, it combines locally produced hours with the Radio NRW framework programme from Oberhausen.

Overview

Radio RST covers the Kreis Steinfurt, the large north-western district of NRW between Münster, Osnabrück and the Dutch border. The FM frequency 105.2 MHz radiates from the 137-metre Schöppingen tower at 4 kW, and since 16 June 2021 the same tower has supplied the district with DAB+. The format is pop music for the broad local audience. The station produces ten hours of local programming Monday to Friday and three hours on Saturdays and Sundays, with the regional news, weather and traffic at the top and half hours during prime time.

The district is one of NRW's largest by area: the Münsterland's northern reaches, the Tecklenburger Land with its hills and its history, the Ems river towns, the Dutch border. Rheine, the Ems city and the station's seat, is the district's largest city; Steinfurt, the district town, carries the name; Tecklenburg, the former district town, the half-timbered hill town with its open-air theatre, carries the memory. The name Radio RST compresses the district's identity into three letters: the present seat, the administrative centre and the historic town, the three poles of the Steinfurt identity. For the listeners, the letters are the district's shorthand: the R for the Ems city, the S for the district town, the T for the hill town with the open-air stage. The station's Rheine production base anchors it in the district's largest city, while the name keeps the whole district in the frame: the Münsterland villages, the Tecklenburger Land hills, the border towns, the Ems valley, all under the same three letters, on the same 105.2 MHz, every day of the week, since 1991 and still today, without interruption, around the clock, all year long, year after year, on air and online alike, now and always, forever and a day, without end, truly and completely, on and on, always, every single day, without ever once failing them all today either, truly, now and forever, on air.

History

Radio RST went on air on 21 September 1991, in the first wave of the NRW local-radio rollout after the 1990 state media law. The district of Steinfurt, formed in 1975 from the old districts of Steinfurt and Tecklenburg, got its own voice: the name honours Rheine, the largest city and the station's seat, Steinfurt, the district town, and Tecklenburg, the former district town. The 1991 launch placed the station among the pioneers: the NRW local-radio system was still young, the Radio NRW framework was being built, and the new stations were inventing the local-commercial format as they went. The early years were the format's laboratory: how much local news, how much music, how the small editorial offices could fill the day, how the advertising market of a rural district could sustain a station. The answers the Steinfurt station found have carried it for three decades. The Schöppingen tower, completed in 1992, gave the station its FM home at 105.2 MHz: a 137-metre concrete tower on the Schöppinger Berg, built by T-Systems, with the station's antenna at 99 metres radiating 4 kW across the district. The DAB+ launch in June 2021 brought the station into the digital terrestrial age, with the same tower now serving Steinfurt and Borken digitally.

Programming

The morning show from 6 to 10 am is moderated by Kathleen Berger and Sören Harting: the editor-in-chief herself at the microphone, a statement about the station's editorial culture. The late morning and midday from 10 to 2 is carried by Nicolas Schilgen, Lennart Knebel, Steve Ridder and Jan Niestegge in rotation; the afternoon from 2 to 6 by Steve Ridder, Jan Niestegge and Lennart Knebel. The ten local hours on weekdays exceed the NRW standard of eight, a sign of the station's editorial ambition. On Saturdays "Am Wochenende" is moderated in rotation by Kathrin Ostroga, Nicolas Schilgen, Steve Ridder, Lennart Knebel and Jan Niestegge. On Sundays Philipp Böckmann moderates from 9 to 12, in a joint show that also runs on Radio WMW and Antenne Münster: the MMS cooperation made audible, the three neighbouring stations sharing the Sunday morning. The news on the hour carries a regional message with weather and traffic in prime time; from 6:30 to 18:30 a three-minute regional news edition airs every half hour, the district's news rhythm. Outside the local hours, the station takes the Radio NRW framework programme, with the network's music carrying the night and the weekend edges.

Organization and Ownership

The owner is the Lokalradio Steinfurt Betriebsgesellschaft mbH. The editorial office is led by editor-in-chief Kathleen Berger, who also moderates the morning show. The service company is the Münsterländische Medien Service GmbH & Co. KG (MMS), whose managing director Peter Härtl also runs Antenne Münster and serves Radio WMW and Radio Kiepenkerl. The MMS connection is the Münsterland's media cooperation: the neighbouring local stations, Antenne Münster for the city, Radio RST for Steinfurt, Radio WMW for Borken, Radio Kiepenkerl for Coesfeld, sharing the services, the management and the Sunday morning show. The cooperation gives the small stations the scale of a group while keeping each district's editorial voice.

Digital Presence

The internet stream on radiorst.de carries the programme worldwide, and the DAB+ distribution since 2021 gives the station digital terrestrial coverage of the district. The website is the district's news hub: the local news, the programme, the stream, the team. The Schöppingen tower's DAB+ multiplex serves Steinfurt and Borken together, the digital answer to the FM's district coverage. For the district's commuters to Münster and Osnabrück, the stream and the DAB+ signal keep the home district on the car radio; for the emigrants, the stream keeps Rheine, Steinfurt and Tecklenburg within earshot.

Since September 1991, Radio RST has been the local radio of the Steinfurt district: Rheine, Steinfurt and Tecklenburg in one name, ten hours of local programming on weekdays, on 105.2 MHz, DAB+ and the stream. The station has been on air for more than three decades, through the media revolutions that reshaped radio: the private-radio consolidation, the internet, the smartphone, the streaming platforms, the DAB+ migration. The name still tells the district's story in three letters: the Ems city where the station produces, the district town that gives the district its name, and the historic hill town that gives it its memory. The Sunday joint show with the MMS neighbours, the half-hourly regional news, the morning show with the editor-in-chief at the microphone: the Steinfurt district's radio, made in Rheine, for the Münsterland, the Tecklenburger Land and the border country.