About VeggieRadio

VeggieRadio

VeggieRadio is Germany's radio station for vegan and vegetarian life — the first broadcaster in the country dedicated entirely to the topics of plant-based nutrition, animal welfare and sustainable living. Launched on 31 March 2014 at 13:13 from Potsdam, the station was founded by former ARD moderator Michael Kiesewetter as a 24-hour programme combining information, interviews and music for the growing community of vegetarians, vegans and the veg-curious. Operated by Veggie Radio UG, the station broadcasts primarily via internet stream, complemented by FM windows on partner frequencies — including a notable run on 88.4 MHz in Berlin and 90.7 MHz in Potsdam via Alex Radio — and carriage on platforms such as radio.de, TuneIn and phonostar. With its website veggieradio.de publishing current articles into 2025, the station remains an active media voice for Germany's plant-based movement more than a decade after its launch.

Overview

VeggieRadio is a Potsdam-based special-interest web radio station devoted to vegetarianism, veganism and related lifestyle topics. Broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it combines journalistic content — interviews, background reports, daily topics, book and product presentations — with a music programme of listener requests, charts and independent music. The station was founded by Michael Kiesewetter, a former ARD moderator, and is operated by Veggie Radio UG. Its primary distribution is the internet livestream via veggieradio.de, extended through radio aggregator platforms including radio.de, TuneIn, phonostar and Live Radio, with plans documented for cable, DAB+ and FM expansion. The station also secured FM presence through cooperation with Alex Radio in Berlin, broadcasting on 88.4 MHz in Berlin and 90.7 MHz in Potsdam. VeggieRadio's audience is the German-speaking veg community and everyone interested in plant-based living — a target group the station claims as the first broadcaster to address systematically.

History

VeggieRadio went on air on 31 March 2014 at 13:13, launching from Potsdam as what its founders described as the first radio station for vegans, vegetarians and everyone interested in the topic. The launch reflected the rapid growth of plant-based lifestyles in Germany in the early 2010s: vegetarianism was moving from a niche into the mainstream, vegan products were appearing in supermarkets, and a dedicated media voice for the movement did not yet exist. Founder Michael Kiesewetter brought professional broadcasting experience from his years as an ARD moderator to the project, giving the station a journalistic polish unusual for a special-interest startup. The early programme was built around daily topics, a Tuesday-evening studio talk, a Friday feature with PETA's topic of the week, cinema tips, business news, health and yoga content, and weekend formats on restaurants and travel.

A milestone came on 7 November 2014, when VeggieRadio broadcast for the first time on FM — via Alex Radio's 88.4 MHz in Berlin, with a monthly Friday-afternoon slot also audible on 90.7 MHz in Potsdam and on the Tele Columbus cable network. This cooperation with Berlin's open channel gave the internet station a terrestrial shop window in the capital, and the monthly specials, presented by Kiesewetter, were repeated on the station's own stream. In the years since, VeggieRadio has maintained its 24-hour internet programme while developing its web presence into a news portal: the veggieradio.de site publishes current articles on vegan topics — such as the July 2025 report on PETA Deutschland's vegan tofu product launch — demonstrating ongoing editorial activity more than eleven years after the launch. The station's history is thus one of steady persistence: a small, mission-driven broadcaster serving a community that has grown enormously since 2014, without ever abandoning its founding idea.

Programming

VeggieRadio's programme is organised around its mission to inform and entertain the veg community. The journalistic core consists of interviews with interesting personalities — activists, authors, entrepreneurs, scientists and celebrities from the plant-based world — and a daily "topic of the day" that keeps the programme current. The Tuesday studio talk, running from 18:00 to 20:00, provides an extended discussion format, while the Friday PETA topic of the week connects the station to Germany's largest animal-welfare organisation. Practical service content includes cinema tips, business news from the veg economy, health and yoga features, and presentations of books, CDs and new products tested by the station. Saturday programming reports on restaurants, cafés and other establishments recommended by listeners, and Sunday takes the audience travelling — a fitting format for a lifestyle movement with a strong travel and discovery culture.

Music is the second pillar: the station plays listener requests alongside charts and independent music, with music tips welcomed from the audience. This participatory approach — "Mitmachen ist ausdrücklich erwünscht" (participation is expressly encouraged) — runs through the whole project, from programme ideas to the FM cooperation with Alex Radio. The monthly FM specials on 88.4/90.7 condensed the station's offer into an hour of information on vegetarian and vegan lifestyle plus music, professionally presented for the terrestrial audience. The overall tone is positive and inclusive rather than missionary: VeggieRadio addresses convinced vegans, curious flexitarians and everyone in between, reflecting the movement's growth from strict subculture to broad lifestyle trend.

Organization and Ownership

VeggieRadio is operated by Veggie Radio UG, the limited-liability entrepreneurial company founded for the station, based in the Potsdam/Berlin area. Founder Michael Kiesewetter, a former ARD moderator, is the station's public face and driving force, bringing decades of broadcasting experience to the project. The organisation follows the lean model of special-interest web radio: a small core team handling editorial planning, moderation and technology, supported by contributors, interview partners and the engaged listener community. The station's early announcements spoke of a glass studio in a Berlin shopping centre planned from July 2014 — an ambitious visibility project characteristic of the station's entrepreneurial approach to building its brand.

Financing rests on the typical pillars of niche web radio: the founders' investment, advertising and sponsoring from the veg economy — food producers, restaurants, lifestyle brands targeting the plant-based audience — and community support. The cooperation with Alex Radio for the FM slots was organised within Berlin's open-channel framework, which provides airtime for civic and special-interest broadcasters. Distribution partnerships with aggregator platforms (radio.de, TuneIn, phonostar) extend the station's reach at minimal cost. Publicly confirmed details of the UG's current shareholding and staffing are limited, but the station's continuous operation since March 2014 — with current web content into 2025 — demonstrates a sustainable organisation. The Potsdam base places the station in Brandenburg's media landscape, adjacent to Berlin's vast veg scene and the capital's broadcasting infrastructure.

Digital Presence

VeggieRadio's digital home is veggieradio.de, which combines the livestream with an editorial news portal. The website publishes current articles on vegan and vegetarian topics — product launches, campaigns, lifestyle news — with content current into 2025, making it a genuine online magazine for the veg community alongside its radio function. The livestream player is the site's centrepiece, delivering the 24-hour programme to listeners worldwide. A dedicated app was already in development at the station's launch, reflecting the founders' understanding that mobile listening would be essential.

The station's distribution across aggregator platforms is comprehensive: radio.de, TuneIn, phonostar and Live Radio all carry VeggieRadio, ensuring availability on smart speakers, mobile apps and connected devices. The phonostar listing documents the station's categories — health, wellness and variety — for the platform's audience. Social media channels extend the station's community work: programme announcements, article shares and interaction with the veg scene's activists, brands and personalities. The monthly FM presence via Alex Radio's frequencies and stream added a terrestrial dimension to this digital-first operation. Together, the website, the stream, the apps, the aggregators and the social channels make VeggieRadio a fully digital special-interest broadcaster: a Potsdam-based station with a nationwide — indeed worldwide — audience, serving Germany's plant-based community since 2014.