About Campusradio Jena

Campusradio Jena

Campusradio Jena (CRJ) is the student radio of Jena, operated by students of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena and the Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena. On air since 3 December 2002, it broadcasts weekday mornings from 8 to 11 a.m. — with a late-night repeat from 10 p.m. to midnight — on the frequency of Radio OKJ (the Offener Kanal Jena) at FM 103.4, as well as through its own internet stream. As a user of the open channel, the station can reach up to 120,000 listeners in Jena and eastern Thuringia. Financed by the student councils of both universities and run almost entirely by volunteers, it is radio by students for students: study and Jena topics, entertainment and music, with a single full-time editor-in-chief watching over programme and budget — and a new generation of volunteers walking through the open door every semester.

Overview

Campusradio Jena broadcasts Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., with the morning programme repeated — or replaced by a late-night edition — from 22:00 to midnight. The carrier is Radio OKJ, Jena's open channel, on FM 103.4 (and cable), whose infrastructure the campus station uses as a licensed user; the station's own internet stream carries the programme beyond the terrestrial footprint. Through the OKJ frequency the station reaches up to 120,000 potential listeners in Jena and Ostthüringen — a remarkable reach for a student station, and one that makes the morning hours a genuine local broadcast rather than a campus-only affair. The morning slot is the station's strategic choice: it captures students at breakfast and on the way to lectures, while the late-night repeat serves the second great student daypart — the hours when the Mensa is closed and the WG kitchen becomes the living room.

The programme focus is study and Jena: student life, education, politics and culture, combined with entertainment and music. Daily fixtures include weather and event tips; the magazine programmes dig into university politics, science topics, cultural news, band interviews and cinema and record reviews. The music department provides the musical backbone, while the editorial teams research and produce the spoken-word content. Jena — a university city of around 110,000 inhabitants dominated by its university, its optics industry and its student quarters — gives the station a dense, engaged audience: the morning programme airs exactly when students are having breakfast, cycling to lectures or sitting in the Mensa.

History

The first Campusradio Jena programme aired on 3 December 2002. In the early years, experimentation was the point: the station operated within the framework of the Offener Kanal Jena (OKJ), trying out formats and finding its voice. Over the years a clear programme concept developed, with fixed topics and variable emphases replacing the improvisation of the founding period — the normal maturation of a student station from a playground into an institution, without losing the playfulness that makes student radio worth listening to. For its first birthday in December 2003, the station inaugurated its own studio at the Fachhochschule — financed by the student councils of the university and the Fachhochschule together with the Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Universität — giving the young station a permanent home in Haus 4A of the FH.

The station is a joint project of the two Jena student councils, and its structure reflects that: the editor-in-chief holds the post for one year, the position counts as committee work (and can be credited as a leave semester), and the editor-in-chief is the only member of the station working full-time on it. This model — a single paid coordinator atop a volunteer pyramid — is the standard German student-radio arrangement, designed to keep the station student-run while ensuring continuity across the annual turnover of volunteers. Everyone else — the roughly 15 permanent editorial members plus many freelancers reported in the station's early years — contributes voluntarily. The editorial meetings are public, traditionally held Tuesday evenings in the campus studio, and anyone interested may simply walk in: radio experience is explicitly not required. Notably, the station's morning programme travels: radio hsf, the student radio of Ilmenau, takes Campusradio Jena's 8-to-11 morning show on its own frequency — a rare cooperation between Thuringia's student stations, and a quiet compliment to the Jena programme's quality.

Programming

The weekday morning block (8:00–11:00) is the station's backbone: a magazine-style programme with news, weather, event tips and features on student life, education, politics and culture. Jena's compact geography — university buildings, student dormitories and the city centre within cycling distance — makes the station's local reporting unusually immediate: a demonstration at the Holzmarkt, a new exhibition at the Kunsthof, a Mensa price debate are all within minutes of the studio microphone. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the second hour carries "Das Magazin", ranging from university-politics and science topics to cultural news, band interviews and film and record reviews, plus event tips and student news. Wednesdays from 9 to 10 a.m. alternate weekly between the culture desk and the university desk with their own programmes. Fridays belong to music: "Kontrabass" is the station's music show, devoted not only to vinyl but to the people behind the music, with in-depth band interviews and record reviews.

The late-night repeat (22:00–24:00) gives the morning content a second life for night owls. The music department curates the station's sound — student radio traditionally leans toward independent, alternative and local music — while the editorial desks produce the spoken content. Anyone interested can join; radio experience is not required, and the public editorial meetings keep the station open to each new generation of Jena students.

Organization and Ownership

Campusradio Jena is financed by the student councils (Studentenräte) of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena and the Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena — a joint project of the two student bodies. The editor-in-chief, elected for one year, oversees the programme and the finances and is the station's only full-time worker; all other contributors are students volunteering their time. The newsroom divides into two areas: the editors who research current topics and produce features, and the music department responsible for the musical programming.

The station broadcasts as a user of the Offener Kanal Jena (Radio OKJ), Thuringia's open-channel infrastructure, which provides the FM 103.4 frequency and the technical platform. This is the classic Thuringian model for student radio: the open channels carry the student stations as licensed users, giving them professional transmission without the cost of a standalone licence — and giving the open channels themselves young, regular programming in return. Thuringia has four such student radios — in Ilmenau (radio hsf), Jena, Weimar (Bauhaus FM) and Erfurt (UNIversal) — and the Jena station's cooperation with radio hsf, which relays its morning programme, shows the network in action.

Digital Presence

The station's website at campusradio-jena.de is its programme home, carrying the live internet stream alongside schedule and contact information. The stream extends the OKJ-frequency programme to Jena students abroad, alumni and anyone beyond the FM footprint — including the many graduates who keep a piece of their student years in the morning show. The station's contact channels — including its long-standing info@campusradiojena.de address — reflect the open-door ethos: public editorial meetings, no experience required, and a standing invitation to every interested student. For a station whose terrestrial life depends on the open channel's frequency, the stream is the independent second pillar — the part of Campusradio Jena that belongs entirely to the students themselves.