About Allgäu Hit

Allgäu Hit

Allgäu Hit, styled AllgäuHIT, is a private local radio station serving the Allgäu region in the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia. Broadcasting from Kempten, the region's largest city, it presents a full-service regional programme built around popular music, hourly news, weather and traffic, with a strong emphasis on local reporting from across the Allgäu. The station began on 1 August 2011 as a cable and internet radio service licensed by the Bavarian media authority BLM, added terrestrial distribution via DAB+ in December 2018, and moved its studios from Sonthofen to Kempten in 2020. Since the closure of its longtime competitor RSA Radio at the end of 2024, Allgäu Hit has been the only regional broadcaster airing a complete radio programme for the Allgäu while also being headquartered directly in the region. According to the Funkanalyse Bayern 2025 audience survey, it reaches 13,000 listeners in average daily reach and 44,000 in the widest listener circle, making it the most-listened-to regional radio station in the Allgäu.

Overview

Allgäu Hit positions itself with the tagline "Dein Allgäu. Dein Radio." — your Allgäu, your radio — and the programme is shaped entirely around that regional promise. The music format is a broad adult-oriented mix aimed at a mainstream regional audience, presented alongside regional news bulletins, weather forecasts and an automated traffic service at the top of each hour. Outside the presented shows, the station runs the "AllgäuHIT-Mix", a continuous blend of music with news, weather and traffic, keeping the service on air around the clock. Distribution today spans the regional cable networks, a live internet stream, DAB+ digital terrestrial radio and satellite, so the programme is receivable both at home in the Allgäu and by listeners further afield who want to stay connected to the region.

The station's identity is inseparable from the Allgäu itself: a largely rural, tourism-heavy region of Alpine foothills, dairy farming and small cities such as Kempten, Memmingen, Kaufbeuren, Sonthofen and Lindau. Local reporting covers district politics, club life, winter sports, folk culture and the seasonal rhythms of tourism, giving the station a community-newspaper role on the airwaves. Its audience figures underline that positioning. The Funkanalyse Bayern 2025 credited Allgäu Hit with 13,000 listeners in daily reach from Monday to Sunday among the population aged 14 and above, and 44,000 in the widest circle of regular listeners, ahead of any other regional station in the area. The station is financed as a commercial private broadcaster through regional advertising.

History

The path to launch ran through the Bavarian Landeszentrale für neue Medien, the BLM, whose media council approved a cable radio service for the Allgäu at its meeting on 26 May 2011, initially for a period of four years. Broadcasting began on Monday, 1 August 2011 at 6 a.m. from studios in Sonthofen, the district capital of Oberallgäu. The shareholders and managing directors Marcus Baumann and Thomas Häuslinger personally greeted the audience at sign-on, opening with Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" — a nod to their months of absence from the Allgäu radio market — followed by Roxette's "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)". The launch schedule comprised a morning show, a midday programme and an afternoon show, distributed through the regional cable network and a live stream.

The early years were marked by steady expansion of the schedule. Sunday gained a weekly talk format, the "AllgäuHIT-SonnTALK", in which notable Allgäu personalities and socially relevant topics are discussed from a regional perspective. In July 2012 the station brought in Rick Hölzl, a pioneer of German private radio who had previously worked at stations including Radio Lindau, adding veteran expertise to the young operation. A notable tradition dates to the very first day of broadcasting: the team was informed of an arson attack on a joinery in Obermaiselstein that had happened the night before launch, and the station has reported on the investigation every year on the anniversary of the fire, the perpetrator never having been identified.

Terrestrial broadcasting arrived in December 2018, when Allgäu Hit was first transmitted via DAB+, freeing it from dependence on cable and internet distribution. In 2020 the station relocated from Sonthofen to Kempten, placing its studios in the economic and media centre of the Allgäu. The most consequential change in the station's competitive environment came at the turn of 2024 to 2025: RSA Radio, the longtime regional competitor based in Kempten with roots going back to the pioneering private-radio era of the mid-1980s, ceased operations on 31 December 2024. Since 1 January 2025, Allgäu Hit has therefore been the only regional broadcaster transmitting a full radio programme for the Allgäu with its seat directly in the region — a status the station communicates prominently. The visual identity was refreshed with a new logo in 2021, replacing the original design used since launch.

Programming

The weekday schedule is anchored by the "AllgäuWECKER", the morning show presented by Marion Daltrozzo, which wakes the region with music, regional news and service information. Daytime and the afternoon drivetime hours are presented by Uschi Binkert, Niklas Bitzenauer and Thomas "Tommy" Häuslinger, who combine the music mix with regional news duties, while Bernd "Bernie" Krause hosts "Samstag LIVE" on Saturdays and contributes regional news. Sundays feature the "AllgäuHIT-SonnTALK" with Norbert Kolz, the station's weekly conversation programme, alongside "Frühschoppen" presented by Richard Wendelin Brunner, a traditional Bavarian late-morning format. Outside these presented slots the "AllgäuHIT-Mix" keeps the programme flowing with music, hourly news, weather and automated traffic.

Two externally produced programmes round out the schedule: "Radioreise" with Alexander Tauscher, a travel magazine, and "Lovenight" with Andreas Viktor, a late-night show. The music policy is a broad, hit-oriented adult mix designed to appeal across generations in a family-listening region, avoiding narrow genre specialisation in favour of familiar popular songs. Regional news is a defining pillar: the station maintains its own regional newsroom producing bulletins with reporting from across the Oberallgäu, Ostallgäu, Unterallgäu and Lindau districts, covering local politics, business, culture, sport and club life. Service elements — weather tailored to an Alpine-foothill region where conditions matter for commuters, farmers and tourists, plus traffic reports — complete the classic full-service local radio proposition.

Organization and Ownership

Allgäu Hit is a private local broadcaster licensed by the BLM, the Bavarian regulatory authority for private broadcasting. The company behind the station was founded by Marcus Baumann and Thomas Häuslinger, who have served as shareholders and managing directors since the launch; Häuslinger also appears on air as a presenter of drivetime programming and regional news, a common pattern in small German local-radio operations where management and presentation overlap. Public sources describe the station's ownership as resting with Baumann and Häuslinger. The operation moved with the times physically as well as technically: after nine years in Sonthofen, the station relocated to Kempten in 2020, consolidating its presence in the city that also hosts the Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag newspaper group and the regional television service TV Allgäu.

As a commercial local station, Allgäu Hit finances itself through advertising sold primarily to regional businesses, a market in which its position as the most-listened-to regional station in the Allgäu, per the Funkanalyse Bayern 2025, is its central sales argument. The closure of RSA Radio at the end of 2024 removed the station's direct local competitor and left Allgäu Hit as the sole regional full-programme broadcaster headquartered in the Allgäu, strengthening its role as the region's commercial radio voice. Regulatory oversight, licence renewals and programme supervision remain with the BLM under Bavarian private-broadcasting law.

Digital Presence

The station's website at allgaeuhit.de serves as the central digital hub, offering the live stream, programme schedule, presenter profiles, regional news articles and catch-up audio. The live stream makes the programme available worldwide, serving Allgäu natives living elsewhere and holidaymakers planning visits. The station is also active on social media, where it publishes regional news updates, programme highlights and event coverage, and it operates a YouTube channel under the AllgäuHIT brand featuring formats such as the "AllgäuHIT-Kaffeeklatsch", a video interview series in which guests discuss regional topics — one edition, for example, featured Armin Walch on the thirtieth anniversary of the Burgenwelt Ehrenberg castle attraction.

Podcasting and on-demand audio complement the linear broadcast, with talk segments and features available for later listening. The station's DAB+ presence is supplemented by distribution through radio aggregator apps and smart-speaker platforms, and the website integrates a playlist display so listeners can identify songs heard on air. For a regional broadcaster, Allgäu Hit maintains a notably complete digital footprint: stream, website newsroom, video interviews, social channels and on-demand audio together extend the Kempten-based programme well beyond its terrestrial coverage area.