About LeibnizFM

LeibnizFM

LeibnizFM — Leibniz.fm — is Hanover's citizen radio: the Bürgerradio for Hanover and the Hanover region, on air since 15 August 2025 on the city's FM frequency 106.5 MHz — the 106.5 as the citizens' frequency again, the six silent years ended — the frequency's homecoming, the dial's restoration. The namesake is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the universal scholar who lived in Hanover in the 17th and 18th centuries — the "last universal scholar," the gifted networker of the Republic of Letters whose vast correspondence connected the scholars of Europe, the inventor of the stepped-drum calculating machine and co-developer of the binary system that underlies modern computing. The station takes him as its programme: networking with the people on the ground, transparency about the community, fact-based reporting as the credo — "Leibniz is our hero" — the polymath as the mission statement, the 17th-century networker as the 21st-century model — the hero's method as the station's method, the Leibnizian way of radio. The history is a comeback: after radio flora failed in 2009 and Radio Leinehertz 106.5 ended in 2019, the media authority decided in 2021 to license no more citizen radio in Hanover — until the Lower Saxon state parliament created better financial conditions in 2023 and the NLM granted the new licence in 2025 — the political rescue of the citizen radio, the parliament's yes as the prerequisite for the comeback — the democracy funding its own airwaves, the 2023 decision's legacy. The programme: a daily editorial schedule, mainly independent, alternative and underground music that mainstream radio doesn't play — plus the methodical crossmedia approach: the volunteers' content promoted via social networks, more than a linear radio programme — the indie/alternative/underground as the sound, the crossmedia as the structure, the citizen radio reimagined for the platform age — the tradition renewed, the Bürgerradio's next chapter.

Overview

Leibniz.fm broadcasts on 106.5 MHz FM in Hanover (the Hörfunkzulassung valid for ten years, the decade's mandate for the citizen radio — the long licence as the public trust, the ten years' promise.) and via web stream — the FM for the city, the stream for the region's diaspora. As a Bürgerradio, the programme is made by the citizens: volunteer editors produce the content, the station provides the platform — the open channel's promise, the citizens' microphone on 106.5 — the frequency's democratization on the FM dial, the airwaves' open door. The daily editorial programme centers on independent, alternative and underground music — the sounds mainstream radio doesn't play — framed by the citizen-radio mandate: local reporting, transparency about the community in the broadcast area, the exchange with the people on site — the underground's radio home, the community's mirror — the niche's FM shelter, the city's own honest reflection on 106.5, daily and unfiltered.

The concept is deliberately crossmedia: the team doesn't concentrate exclusively on making radio but promotes the volunteers' content via social networks — the methodical crossmedia approach as the answer to the linear programme's limits — the radio station that thinks in posts as well as programmes, the Leibnizian networking applied to media. "Leibniz.fm should be fun and at the same time impart knowledge unobtrusively" — fact-based reporting as the credo, truth as more than an opinion, in the tradition of the polymath — the sympathetic legal scholar and historian as the model, so that history does not repeat itself, the station's own reading of its namesake.

History

Hanover's citizen radio has a broken history. Radio flora failed in 2009; Radio Leinehertz 106.5 ended in 2019 — the two predecessors' rise and fall, the citizen frequency's troubled past. In 2021 the Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt (NLM) decided to license no citizen radio in Hanover anymore — the 106.5 MHz fell silent as a citizen frequency — the authority's no as the low point, the citizen radio's apparent end. Only after the Lower Saxon state parliament created better financial conditions in 2023 did the NLM allow the restart: the carrier association won the licence reallocation, and on 15 August 2025 Leibniz.fm took up regular broadcasting on 106.5 MHz — the citizen radio's return after six silent years — the 2023 decision as the turning point, the 2025 licence as the vindication, the 15 August as the rebirth.

The name is the programme: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — the Hanover polymath, the "perhaps last universal scholar," whose extensive correspondence made him what today would be called a gifted networker — the branding that references, like the university, the ingenious scientist to whom Hanover owes more than the temporarily successful pretension to the British throne. The station wants the same networking: early information about interesting developments in city and region, transparency about the community — the Leibnizian correspondence as the editorial method, the network as the newsroom. And the computing pioneer — the stepped-drum calculating machine as a kind of first computer, the dual number system he substantially developed as the foundation of what today is called programming and the origin of the computer-assisted information technology of our century — as the patron of the crossmedia concept: more than a linear radio programme — the 17th-century inventor blessing the 21st-century platform strategy.

Programming

Leibniz.fm broadcasts a daily editorial programme. The music: primarily independent, alternative and underground — the niches mainstream radio ignores — the indie scene's Hanover home, the alternative's FM address. The word: citizen journalism — local topics, the community's transparency, the volunteers' perspectives — the citizens' Hanover in the citizens' words, the 106.5 as the town hall of the airwaves. The crossmedia layer: the content lives on social networks too — the radio as the hub, the networks as the spokes — the programme's second life online, the volunteers' reach multiplied. Detailed schedule information is not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted — the young station's programme is still taking shape — the one-year-old broadcaster, the schedule as the work in progress.

Organization and Ownership

Leibniz.fm is a Bürgerradio (citizen radio) run by its carrier association (Trägerverein), which won the NLM's licence reallocation — the association's victory in the reallocation, the citizens' organization behind the citizens' station. The FM licence for 106.5 MHz is valid for ten years — the decade's security, the long horizon for the volunteer project. The programme is produced by volunteer editors — the citizen-radio model: the association provides the platform, the citizens provide the content — the numerous honorary editorial teams, the volunteers' Hanover on the air. The financial basis was reshaped by the 2023 state-parliament decision that made the restart possible — the parliament's more favourable financial framework, the economics of the citizen radio repaired. Detailed financial and staffing figures are not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

Digital Presence

Leibniz.fm is leibniz.fm — the stream, the station's digital home, the crossmedia hub — the .fm domain as the statement, the website as the station's front door. The concept demands it: the volunteers' content promoted via social networks, the radio extended beyond the linear programme — the methodical approach made digital, the crossmedia as the online strategy. The city of Hanover's own pages introduced the namesake — "Leibniz ist unser Held" — the polymath as the brand — the hannover.de portrait, the city's blessing for the citizens' station. The digital face is the networking face: the correspondence of the 17th century as the social media of the 21st — Leibniz.fm, the citizen radio that networks like its hero — the letters' network reborn as the followers' network, the universal scholar's living spirit in the feed, today and tomorrow.