About Antenne Pulheim

Antenne Pulheim

Antenne Pulheim is a private local radio station for the town of Pulheim in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, just outside Cologne, broadcasting a locally produced full programme around the clock. On air since 2 March 2017 on FM 97.2 MHz, it is one of the few local stations in North Rhine-Westphalia that operates entirely without the statewide Radio NRW framework programme, producing all of its output itself. The operator is the Pulheim-based Central FM Media GmbH, founded by the Pulheim-born radio makers Jan Lüghausen and Moritz Grosse. The station's programming combines local news, reports and interviews from Pulheim with a music mix of seventies-to-nineties hits, current titles and Rhenish dialect songs. The FM signal covers Pulheim and reaches from northern Cologne to Leverkusen, complemented by an internet live stream.

Overview

Antenne Pulheim serves a town of around 55,000 residents on Cologne's northwestern doorstep — a commuter town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis where many residents work in Cologne, Leverkusen or Düsseldorf, but whose civic life revolves around Pulheim's own districts, from the central town to Brauweiler, Stommeln, Sinnersdorf and Dansweiler. The station positions itself as the town's own radio: local news from the town hall and the districts, reports on club life, school and church affairs, interviews with local figures, and service information for the commuter corridors toward Cologne. The music format blends hits of the seventies, eighties and nineties with current titles and "rheinische Originale" — songs in the Rhineland dialect that root the station in the region's carnival and folk culture.

Technically, the station is a small-scale operation by design. The transmitting antenna was first installed at the former Walzwerk rolling mill on Rommerskirchener Straße in Pulheim's town centre — today a business and culture centre — radiating the programme at low power across the town; since 16 February 2025 the station has transmitted from Pulheim's railway station with 80 watts. The FM footprint covers Pulheim itself and extends from the north of Cologne to Leverkusen. As a commercial private broadcaster, Antenne Pulheim finances itself through local advertising, sold to the town's businesses and tradespeople.

History

The road to launch took almost a decade from idea to implementation, as technical director Moritz Grosse later recounted. The Central FM team had long been active in Pulheim's radio life: as early as 2009, a "Central FM Barbaramarktradio" broadcast as an event station from a glass studio during Pulheim's pre-Christmas Barbaramarkt, already using the 97.2 MHz frequency, with Christmas and chart hits plus rock, pop and dance from the seventies to nineties. Separately, the nationwide Central FM programme was produced by Central FM Media GmbH in the Pulheim district of Dansweiler.

The decisive step came when the media commission of the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW unanimously allocated the 97.2 MHz FM frequency in Pulheim to the Central FM Media GmbH project — the sole applicant in the tender — enabling a permanent local station for the town with a technical reach of just under 20,000 listeners at the time. The two shareholders, Jan Lüghausen and Moritz Grosse, both born in Pulheim, brought extensive radio experience to the venture and had already secured an FM frequency in Saarland, where their "106.1 Radio Saarschleifenland" — Radio RSL — had launched in April 2016 serving the Merzig, Mettlach and Losheim area. After weeks of test transmissions, Antenne Pulheim went on air on 2 March 2017 at noon on 97.2 MHz, with the live internet stream activated simultaneously. The transmitting installation at the Walzwerk was set up entirely by the station's own team. In the years since, the station has maintained its round-the-clock, fully self-produced programme — a rarity in NRW local radio — and in February 2025 moved its transmitter to Pulheim station with increased power.

Programming

Antenne Pulheim's programme is a classic small-town full-service mix, produced entirely in-house. Local news and reports from Pulheim form the journalistic core: town-council politics, construction and infrastructure projects, school and club news, church affairs, and the social calendar from the carnival sessions to the town festivals. Interviews with local figures — from the mayor to club chairmen, business owners and cultural organizers — give the station its personal, neighbourly character. Service elements include local weather, traffic for the commuter routes toward Cologne and Leverkusen, and event tips for the town and the surrounding Rhein-Erft-Kreis.

The music programming combines hits of the seventies, eighties and nineties with current titles, rounded off by Rhenish dialect songs that connect the station to the region's musical identity. Without a framework provider, the station fills all 24 hours itself — a deliberate editorial choice that gives Antenne Pulheim an unusually local sound for a German commercial station, where even overnights carry the town's own presentation rather than a networked feed. Special broadcasts mark local events, and the station's history as an event-radio operator lives on in its on-location reporting from town festivals and markets. The station's independence also shapes its advertising proposition: local businesses buy airtime on a station whose entire audience lives within a few kilometres of their shops, a precision that larger regional stations cannot offer.

Organization and Ownership

Antenne Pulheim is operated by Central FM Media GmbH, based in Pulheim. The company was founded by Jan Lüghausen and Moritz Grosse, both born in Pulheim, who planned and financed the station and brought their radio experience from the Central FM event-radio days and the Saarland sister station Radio RSL. Lüghausen, described in later reporting as a passionate radio enthusiast, has since passed away. The same company operates Radio RSL (Radio Saarschleifenland) in Saarland, making Antenne Pulheim part of a small two-station group of locally rooted private broadcasters.

Regulatory oversight lies with the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW, which licensed the 97.2 MHz frequency. The station is financed as a commercial private broadcaster through local advertising. Detailed current management information beyond the founding shareholders has not been publicly confirmed. The company's Saarland sister station, Radio RSL, continues to serve the Saarschleifenland region around Merzig, Mettlach and Losheim on 106.1 MHz, giving the small group a footprint in two western German states with the same philosophy: radio made by locals, for locals, with no networked framework diluting the local voice.

Digital Presence

The station's website at antennepulheim.de carries the live internet stream — activated at launch in March 2017 — along with programme information, local news and contact details. The stream extends the small FM footprint worldwide, serving Pulheim natives living elsewhere and commuters beyond the 97.2 MHz coverage area. The station is listed on the common radio aggregator apps, making it easy to find on smartphones and smart speakers. A playlist display lets listeners identify songs heard on air, a standard feature that the station maintains despite its small scale.

On social media Antenne Pulheim maintains channels with local news updates, programme announcements and coverage of town events, functioning as a digital noticeboard for the community. Listener contact runs through the website and social platforms, where requests, greetings and tips from the districts are welcomed — the direct line between the studio and the town that has defined the station since its first day on 97.2 MHz. For a town station with a deliberately small FM footprint, the digital presence is proportionate and practical: stream, website and social channels that keep Pulheim's own radio available wherever its listeners are — from the districts of the town to former residents following the local news from afar.