About COSMO

COSMO

COSMO — "Der Sound der Welt" ("The sound of the world") — is the multilingual global-music radio station of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), produced in cooperation with Radio Bremen and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), broadcasting from Cologne. Launched on 30 August 1998 as "Funkhaus Europa" and renamed COSMO on 1 January 2017, it combines daytime German-language world music ("Global Sounds Radio") with evening programmes in the languages of Germany's immigrant communities. With 191,000 listeners (Media-Analyse II/2026), it is public broadcasting's world-music and integration wave.

Note (October 2026): The WDR has announced plans to rename and reorient COSMO as "1LIVE STREET" from 1 April 2027 — a plan reported as controversial, with a legal opinion commissioned by the WDR Broadcasting Council reportedly concluding it would violate the WDR law. At the time of writing, the change is planned but contested; the station continues as COSMO.

Overview

COSMO broadcasts from Cologne across North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen, and Berlin/Brandenburg on FM, DAB+, cable, satellite, and livestream. Programme directors are Schiwa Schlei (WDR) and Karsten Binder (Radio Bremen). The WDR intendant leads the broadcaster; the rbb intendant is Ulrike Demmer.

History

COSMO began on 30 August 1998 as "Funkhaus Europa" — a joint production of WDR and Radio Bremen. The concept was integration through the airwaves: a station for the immigrants and their German neighbours, the world music that the mainstream waves ignored, the native-language programmes that the guest-worker generation needed.

The station's roots reach deeper: Radio Colonia, the Italian-language programme, has been on air since 1961 — the guest-worker era's radio, the first foreign-language programme in German public broadcasting. Köln Radyosu (Turkish), Radio Forum (Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian), and the Russian, Polish, Kurdish, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic programmes built the multilingual evening schedule: the languages of the labour migration, each community with its own hour.

On 1 January 2009, the rbb joined the cooperation — replacing its Radio Multikulti (the SFB's legendary multicultural station, discontinued at the end of 2008) — and the station took over the Berlin frequencies. On 1 January 2017, "Funkhaus Europa" became "COSMO": the rebrand modernising the identity, the "Sound der Welt" slogan asserting the world-music mission.

Since 2016, the WDR has produced the weekday daytime programme alone from Cologne; Radio Bremen's contribution shrank to weekends and holidays. The cooperation's centre of gravity shifted west — Cologne as the world-music capital, the rbb and Radio Bremen as regional partners.

Radio Multikulti's Ghost

The 1 January 2009 rbb entry — replacing Radio Multikulti — carries a ghost. Radio Multikulti, the SFB's legendary multicultural station, was discontinued on 31 December 2008 amid fierce protests: the Turkish, Arabic, and other communities losing their Berlin voice, the demonstrations, the petitions, the accusation that the rbb was silencing the immigrants. The rbb's answer was the Funkhaus Europa cooperation: the Berlin frequencies would carry the Cologne-based world-music station, the multilingual mission continuing under a new name.

The transition was painful: Multikulti's Berlin staff and listeners experienced the change as a loss — the locally produced multicultural programme replaced by the Cologne import. The Funkhaus Europa/COSMO years have been the long healing: the Berlin studios contributing, the rbb's identity in the cooperation, the capital's multilingual audience finding the new station. The ghost lingers in the memory of the 2008 protests — the reminder that integration radio is never just programming, but recognition.

The Guest-Worker Frequencies: Since 1961

Radio Colonia's 1961 launch — the Italian-language programme — makes COSMO's evening schedule a living museum of German immigration history. The guest-worker era (1955–1973): the recruitment agreements with Italy (1955), Spain and Greece (1960), Turkey (1961), Morocco (1963), Portugal (1964), Tunisia (1965), Yugoslavia (1968) — the "Gastarbeiter" who rebuilt the Wirtschaftswunder's factories. Public broadcasting's response was the foreign-language programmes: the workers' news from home, the practical information, the music of the homeland.

The programmes outlived the guest-worker era: the workers stayed, the families followed, the communities became German. Köln Radyosu (Turkish), Radio Forum (Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian), the Russian programme (the late-Soviet emigrants), the Polish, Kurdish, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic hours — each community's radio, each generation's bridge. The evening schedule is the acoustic archive of sixty years of immigration: the languages changing as the migration changes, the Arabic programme reflecting the 2015 refugees, the Russian programme the post-Soviet emigrants.

"Global Sounds Radio": World Music as Format

The daytime "Global Sounds Radio" — German-language world music — is the station's format innovation: the world's music as a mainstream-adjacent programme, not a specialist ghetto. Afrobeat, Balkan brass, Latin, Oriental, the global pop that the hit-radio formats ignore: the daytime schedule treats world music as the norm, not the exception.

The format's wager is demographic: Germany's immigrant-background population — over a quarter of the country — hears its music on the public dial; the German mainstream discovers the world's sounds. The "Sound der Welt" slogan promises both: the world in Cologne, the world for everyone. In the streaming era — where every niche has its playlist — the curated world-music flow is the station's defence: the human selection, the cultural context, the surprise that the algorithm cannot provide.

1LIVE STREET: The Contested Future

The WDR's announced plan — renaming and reorienting COSMO as "1LIVE STREET" from 1 April 2027 — is the station's existential crisis. The proposal: fold the world-music station into the 1LIVE youth brand, the "street" signalling urban youth culture. The reported legal opinion — commissioned by the WDR Broadcasting Council, concluding the plan would violate the WDR law — suggests the reorientation may breach the broadcaster's statutory mission: the law mandates the integration and world-music offering; the youth-brand absorption may not satisfy it.

The controversy reflects the ARD reform era's tensions: the cost pressures, the youth-audience panic, the temptation to sacrifice the specialist waves for the mainstream brands. COSMO's defenders — the immigrant communities, the world-music scene, the integration advocates — see the plan as the abandonment of a 28-year mission. The legal opinion gives them ammunition: the WDR law as the shield for the "Sound der Welt".

At the time of writing (October 2026), the outcome is open: the plan announced, the legal opinion reported, the resistance mobilised. The station continues as COSMO — the daytime world music, the evening languages, the 191,000 listeners. The 1 April 2027 date looms: the day the "Sound der Welt" may become the "Street" — or the day the law saves the world music.

The Cooperation Model

The WDR/Radio Bremen/rbb cooperation — the three broadcasters sharing one station — is the ARD's federalism in miniature: the large western broadcaster (WDR) producing the core, the small northern (Radio Bremen) and eastern (rbb) partners contributing regionally. The 2016 shift — WDR alone on weekday days, Radio Bremen on weekends and holidays — streamlined the model: Cologne as the world-music newsroom, the partners as the regional windows.

The model's fragility is also its virtue: the cooperation survives because each partner needs what the others provide — the WDR the frequencies, the partners the programme. The 1LIVE STREET controversy tests the model: if the WDR reorients the station, the partners' multilingual audiences lose their offering. The cooperation's future is the plan's collateral.

Programming

COSMO's schedule is two stations in one. Daytime — "Global Sounds Radio" — is German-language world music: the sounds of the world, from Afrobeat to Balkan brass, from Latin to Oriental, the daytime companion for the culturally curious. Evenings belong to the communities: Radio Colonia (Italian, since 1961), Köln Radyosu (Turkish), Radio Forum (Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian), and the Russian, Polish, Kurdish, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic programmes — the native-language hours that have served the immigrant generations for decades.

Coverage and Audience

COSMO broadcasts on FM, DAB+, cable, satellite, and livestream across North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen, and Berlin/Brandenburg. Its 191,000 listeners (MA II/2026) reflect the station's niche: the world-music audience and the multilingual communities.

Ownership and Funding

COSMO is operated by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in cooperation with Radio Bremen and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg — all public-law broadcasters and ARD members. The programme is financed through the broadcasting licence fee. The WDR intendant leads the broadcaster.

Digital Presence

COSMO's online presence is integrated into the WDR's digital platforms, with livestream, programme information, and podcasts. Because the official domain has not been independently load-verified, the website field of this profile is left empty pending verification.