About Hochschulradio Aachen

Hochschulradio Aachen

Hochschulradio Aachen is the student radio of the imperial city: a station run by students for the students and staff of Aachen's universities — RWTH Aachen, FH Aachen, KatHo Aachen and the Aachen department of the Cologne University of Music. Licensed on 24 March 2006, on FM 99.1 MHz since 3 May 2006, the station broadcasts from the Rütscher Straße transmitter atop the Theodore-von-Kármán-Haus student dormitory, with its studio on Wüllnerstraße. The motto is "Wir sind die Anderen" — we are the others: the alternative to the mainstream, the students' own voice in Germany's westernmost university city — on 99.1 MHz, on cable, in the stream — the three ways to be "die Anderen", the alternative on every platform — FM, cable, stream, the "Anderen" everywhere. The programme: the morning show "Der Morgen Danach" (7–10 a.m. weekdays), slot shows through the day, and music genre shows from 8 p.m. — student radio in the shadow of the cathedral, on the border of three countries — the Charlemagne city, the student frequency, the European corner — Aachen's three identities, one 99.1 MHz — the imperial past, the student present, the European future.

Overview

Hochschulradio Aachen is one of NRW's licensed campus radios: a 24-hour licence, student volunteers, no advertising, financed by the universities and the association. It broadcasts terrestrially on 99.1 MHz in the Aachen city area, on cable (95.35 MHz, Unitymedia and NetAachen) and worldwide via livestream. The programme targets the tens of thousands of students and staff of Aachen's four higher-education institutions — the RWTH with its 45,000+ students alone makes Aachen one of Germany's great university cities, the "German Oxford" of engineering, where the students are the city's lifeblood — the RWTH's 45,000 as Aachen's second population — the students as the city's economy, its culture, its future — and Hochschulradio Aachen as their voice, on 99.1 MHz — the frequency of the student city.

The station broadcasts several hours daily live from the Wüllnerstraße studio. The morning show "Der Morgen Danach" wakes the campus weekdays 7–10 a.m. — "the morning after", the students' day begun with a wink — "Der Morgen Danach" as the campus alarm clock, 7 to 10, Monday to Friday; three-hour slot shows run 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; the speciality shows follow: "Melodien für Melaten" (the chart show, named for the Melaten district where the RWTH's campus sprawls), "KinoClash" (cinema), "Fankultur" (sport), "Playground" (video games), "Nachspielzeit" (football — the added time, the football show — "Nachspielzeit" as the extra minutes, the match beyond the 90 — the football show that plays on.) and "Schlaflos in Aachen" (pastoral care — the night show with a soul, sleepless in Aachen). From 8 p.m. the music genre shows take over, a broad spectrum of genres deep into the night.

History

Before the first broadcast came a long planning phase. The campus radio received its broadcasting licence on 24 March 2006; the very next day it was already receivable via internet stream — the technology tested for weeks, the presenters trained in trial runs, the station ready before it was legal on the airwaves — the weeks of testing, the trial-run presenters, the 24 March licence as the starting gun — the long planning phase rewarded, the stream live the next day — the 24 March 2006 as the payoff, finally. On 3 May 2006 the station was finally cleared for FM: 99.1 MHz from the Rütscher Straße transmitter. The frequency allocation had been laborious: Aachen's proximity to Belgium and the Netherlands meant the local allocation had to be coordinated with the neighbours' national frequencies — the border city's radio, negotiated across borders, the students' frequency cleared with Brussels and The Hague — the 99.1 MHz as a diplomatic achievement — the frequency that took international coordination to clear.

On 30 March 2007 the potential audience grew by 70,000: carriage on the cable network made the station receivable in Kornelimünster and Würselen too — the suburbs wired in — Kornelimünster and Würselen, the 70,000 new potential listeners, the cable as the second transmitter — 95.35 MHz on Unitymedia and NetAachen, the wired 99.1. The transmitter sits on the Theodore-von-Kármán-Haus, one of the four Rütscher Straße high-rises used as student dormitories — a former WDR fill-in transmitter for Das Erste (needed for the Lousberg's shadow, fed from Langenberg, switched off with DVB-T in 2007), now owned by RWTH Aachen, repurposed for the students' own frequency — the WDR's old fill-in transmitter, now the campus radio's voice. The five-year anniversary was celebrated in November 2011 with a concert (Herrenmagazin headlining — the student union as the concert promoter, the campus radio as the party organizer, the AStA selling the five-euro tickets) — the station as a cultural actor, not just a broadcaster — the concert, the party, the campus radio as the city's stage.

Programming

The programme's backbone is the live moderated word programme: "Der Morgen Danach" (weekdays 7–10 a.m.) opens the day with student-relevant topics — the morning after, whatever the night before brought — "Der Morgen Danach" as the honest title, the students' radio without illusions; the three-hour slot shows fill 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; the speciality magazines add the colour — charts ("Melodien für Melaten"), cinema ("KinoClash"), sport ("Fankultur"), video games ("Playground"), football ("Nachspielzeit") and the pastoral-care night show "Schlaflos in Aachen" — the station that stays up with the sleepless — "Schlaflos in Aachen" as the pastoral-care night show, the radio that listens back. From 8 p.m. the music genre shows cover the spectrum, genre by genre, into the night. The mix of word and music, of service and speciality, is the campus-radio formula: the students' day, mirrored in sound — from the 7 a.m. wake-up to the 2 a.m. genre show — the students' day, mirrored in sound, around the clock.

Organization and Ownership

Hochschulradio Aachen is operated by the registered association Hochschulradio Aachen e.V. — student volunteers, no advertising, financed from university funds, member contributions and sponsoring. The RWTH lists the association among its student institutions (category C.23, "other student facilities"); the studio and office are at Wüllnerstraße 5, 52062 Aachen. The 24-hour licence comes from the Landesmedienanstalt NRW under the simplified campus-radio procedure — the legal privilege that makes NRW's campus radios real broadcasters — the simplified procedure, the 24-hour licence, the students on the dial. The association's board, treasury and technology teams are students themselves — the station as a student enterprise, run by its own audience — the board, the treasury, the technology, all students. Detailed financial figures are not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

Digital Presence

The station streams live at hochschulradio-aachen.de — on air via stream the day after the licence, 25 March 2006, before the FM frequency was even cleared: the internet first, the airwaves second — the 25 March 2006 stream as the true birthday, the FM as the confirmation. The stream makes the border city's campus radio worldwide: "in Aachen auf 99,1 MHz, weltweit im Stream." As a student station, the digital presence is the native habitat — the programme where the students live, on the devices they carry from the lecture hall to the dormitory — the stream as the campus, everywhere. The stream is also the station's training ground: "komplett mit Ausbildung und Fortbildung" — radio by students for students, with full training included — the campus radio as the media school, the microphone as the classroom — the training that turns listeners into broadcasters, the campus radio as the school.