About 94.5 Radio Cottbus

94.5 Radio Cottbus

94.5 Radio Cottbus (styled RADIO COTTBUS) is the local station of Cottbus and the Lausitz — on air since 1 August 2002, the first independent Brandenburg local radio for the Lausitz. Part of Stephan Schwenk's The Radio Group, it is owned by the Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH with managing directors Ronny Gersch and Stephan Schwenk. Under the slogan "Willkommen zu Hause!" ("Welcome home!") it offers a morning show, half-hourly local news and hourly world news around the clock. In the Media Analyse 2024/2 the station reached 170,000 listeners.

Overview

Radio Cottbus is a private local full programme focused entirely on Cottbus and its surroundings — the region's local alternative to the Berlin/Brandenburg statewide stations. It is part of the local radio chain The Radio Group, whose owner Stephan Schwenk also serves as managing director alongside Ronny Gersch. The Lausitzer Rundschau media house has been a shareholder in the Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH since 2007, linking the station to the region's dominant daily newspaper.

History

On 1 August 2002 Radio Cottbus went on air as the first independent Brandenburg local radio for the Lausitz, becoming part of The Radio Group's local-station chain. The Lausitzer Rundschau media house joined as a shareholder in 2007. The station's name evolved from 94.5 Radio Cottbus to the current stylised RADIO COTTBUS.

Programming

The full programme offers a morning show, half-hourly local news and hourly world news throughout the day — a locally anchored magazine format under the slogan "Willkommen zu Hause!".

Coverage & Audience

Radio Cottbus is received on FM — Cottbus 94.5 MHz, Forst 102.7 MHz, Guben 92.1 MHz, Senftenberg 90.3 MHz and Spremberg 90.3 MHz (plus cable frequencies), on DAB+ in Berlin/Brandenburg beyond the city limits and as a worldwide livestream. In the Media Analyse 2024/2 the station reached 170,000 listeners.

Ownership

The owner is the Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH; managing directors are Ronny Gersch and Stephan Schwenk, the owner of The Radio Group. The Lausitzer Rundschau media house has held a stake since 2007.

Digital Presence

The station operates radio-cottbus.de with a livestream alongside apps and social media channels, extending its local Cottbus-Lausitz programme to listeners beyond the terrestrial footprint. The digital offering carries the station's local news, morning show and world news on demand.

The First Local Radio of the Lausitz

When Radio Cottbus went on air on 1 August 2002, it was the first independent Brandenburg local radio for the Lausitz — the historic region in south-eastern Brandenburg shaped by lignite mining, the Spreewald and the Sorbian minority. The launch filled a gap in the Brandenburg radio landscape: while statewide private stations from Berlin covered the region with occasional regional windows, Cottbus — the Lausitz's largest city — had no radio of its own. The station, then still called 94.5 Radio Cottbus after its Cottbus FM frequency, built its identity on radical localism: a morning show from and for Cottbus, half-hourly local news and hourly world news around the clock, under the slogan "Willkommen zu Hause!" ("Welcome home!"). In the Media Analyse 2024/2 the station reached 170,000 listeners.

The Radio Group and the Lausitzer Rundschau

Radio Cottbus is part of The Radio Group, the local-station chain of owner Stephan Schwenk, who also serves as managing director alongside Ronny Gersch. The Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH operates the station — and since 2007 the Lausitzer Rundschau media house has been a shareholder in the company, linking the station to the region's dominant daily newspaper, which holds a monopoly position in Cottbus and surroundings. The newspaper-radio connection gives the station deep roots in the local media ecosystem: the Lausitzer Rundschau, founded in 1946 and based in Cottbus since 1952, and Radio Cottbus together cover the Lausitz across print and audio.

A Local Full Programme

The station's FM footprint covers the Lausitz's key towns: Cottbus 94.5 MHz, Forst 102.7 MHz, Guben 92.1 MHz, Senftenberg 90.3 MHz and Spremberg 90.3 MHz, each with corresponding cable frequencies, plus DAB+ in Berlin/Brandenburg beyond the city limits and the worldwide livestream. The full programme — morning show, half-hourly local news, hourly world news — is designed as a local companion for the whole day, making Radio Cottbus the audio home of the Lausitz in a market where the Berlin-Brandenburg statewide stations otherwise dominate.

Brandenburg's First Independent Local Radio

94.5 Radio Cottbus went on air on 1 August 2002 — the first independent local radio station in Brandenburg, serving Lusatia (Lausitz). The operator is Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH; owner Stephan Schwenk, managing directors Ronny Gersch and Stephan Schwenk. The station is part of the local-radio chain The Radio Group. The slogan is "Willkommen zu Hause!" ("Welcome home!"). The full programme includes a morning show, half-hourly local news and hourly world news around the clock. According to Media-Analyse 2024/2 the station reaches 170,000 listeners. FM frequencies: Cottbus 94.5 MHz, Forst 102.7, Guben 92.1, Senftenberg 90.3 and Spremberg 90.3; the station is also receivable beyond the city limits via DAB+ and livestream. Since 2007 the Medienhaus of the Lausitzer Rundschau — the region's monopoly daily newspaper — has been a shareholder in Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH.

A Century of Radio in Cottbus

Cottbus has a radio history stretching back a century: regular broadcasts of the Deutscher Radio-Klub went out from Cottbus as early as 2 August 1925, with a reception range of up to 600 kilometres. In 1946 the Studio Cottbus of the Landessender Brandenburg was founded; under the GDR it produced daily regional programmes of up to six hours on Radio DDR II in German and Lower Sorbian, and in 1989 gained its own studio in Bautzen for Upper Sorbian productions. After reunification, private competitors arrived: BB Radio and 94.3 rs2 broadcast regional windows, while Radio B2 and Berliner Rundfunk 91.4 are receivable on FM — but 94.5 Radio Cottbus remains the station focused entirely on Cottbus and its surroundings, complemented locally by Lausitz TV on cable. In a media landscape long dominated by the Lausitzer Rundschau in print, the station has given the city its own dedicated local voice on the airwaves for more than two decades.

Now RADIO COTTBUS

The station has rebranded: in its own spelling it is now RADIO COTTBUS (previously "94.5 Radio Cottbus") with the slogan "Willkommen zu Hause!" (welcome home). It remains a private full programme for the Greater Cottbus area, part of The Radio Group's local radio chain, on air since 1 August 2002. According to Media Analysis 2024/2 the station reaches 170,000 listeners. The programme offers a morning show, half-hourly local news and hourly world news all day long.

Ownership: The Radio Group and the Lausitzer Rundschau

The operator is the Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH, majority-owned by Stephan Schwenk with 55%; the LR Medienverlag und Druckerei GmbH (publisher of the Lausitzer Rundschau, the regional daily) holds 34.8%, and the Union Druck und Zeitungsverlag GmbH 10.2%. The newspaper's media house has been a shareholder in the Lokal-Radio Cottbus GmbH since 2007. The managing directors are Ronny Gersch and Stephan Schwenk. The music programme is aimed at 14- to 49-year-olds; morning and afternoon drives were long presented by Alex Pop and Michael Heger in rotation (Perfekt geweckt and Der Nachmittag), with Helena Hartwig presenting the midday show Der Tag, and Michael Heger has been programme director since August 2009.

Reception: FM, Cable and DAB+

Radio Cottbus broadcasts on FM 94.5 MHz in Cottbus, 102.7 MHz in Forst, 92.1 MHz in Guben and 90.3 MHz in Senftenberg and Spremberg — plus the corresponding cable frequencies — and is receivable beyond the city limits via DAB+ in Berlin/Brandenburg and worldwide via livestream. As the only station with round-the-clock live programming specifically for Cottbus and the Niederlausitz, RADIO COTTBUS has become a fixed part of the city's media landscape: local news, sports updates and talk shows from and for the Lausitz.