About detektor.fm

detektor.fm

detektor.fm — "Das Podcast-Radio" — is Leipzig's pioneering internet radio station and podcast label, on air since 4 December 2009. Founded by the journalist Christian Bollert and operated by the founders-led BEBE Medien GmbH, it set out under the slogan "Zurück zum Thema" (back to the subject) to combine demanding, independent, in-depth journalism with modern pop music — deliberately positioned against nerve-wracking morning shows, formatted chart radios and oldie stations. What began as a small online radio from the Plagwitz district has grown into one of Germany's leading podcast labels and online radios: winner of the German Radio Prize for best innovation (2012) and best podcast (2021), multiple Grimme Online Award nominee and winner, and recipient of the Ernst Schneider Prize for business journalism (2017). Since January 2018 the station has also broadcast terrestrially via DAB+ in Leipzig and Freiberg.

Overview

detektor.fm is a German-language internet radio station and podcast label headquartered in Leipzig, broadcasting worldwide via livestream and podcast with Germany as its target area. The programme is a 24-hour stream combining journalistic word content — news, interviews, features, documentaries — with a curated modern pop-music programme. The station's profile is the mix its founders promised at launch: serious journalism and contemporary music, produced far from the formatted clocks of commercial radio. An early interview had Bollert putting it bluntly: the station works "far away from nerve-wracking morning shows, formatted chart radios or oldie stations" — a positioning that became the brand's identity and its business proposition.

The podcast label has become at least as important as the stream: detektor.fm produces daily podcasts and storytelling formats, cooperating with publishers and public broadcasters. The 2023 partnership with radioeins (rbb) produced the storytelling success "Teurer Wohnen", which won a Grimme prize. Programme directors are Ina Lebedjew and Stephan Ziegert; founder Christian Bollert — born 1982 in Potsdam, a Leipzig journalism and political-science graduate who worked for MDR, rbb and the university station mephisto 97.6 — leads the company as managing director, moderator and speaker, and appears as a lecturer and industry speaker.

History

After registering with the Sächsische Landesmedienanstalt (SLM), detektor.fm began broadcasting on 4 December 2009 with its own podcasts under the slogan "Zurück zum Thema". The founders — led by Christian Bollert — set up the BEBE Medien GmbH as the programme organizer, deliberately choosing Leipzig over Berlin or Hamburg as headquarters: the city's lower costs, its university and its creative scene made it the natural base for an independent audio startup, and the station has been part of Leipzig's media landscape ever since. The early concept, as Bollert described it, was a small local cultural podcast that grew into a full online radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day from Plagwitz, focused on news and events of national importance rather than the local scene — Leipzig as the production site, Germany as the audience.

Recognition followed: the German Radio Prize for best innovation in 2012 — awarded when the station was barely three years old — Grimme Online Award nominations in 2011, 2013 and 2017 (with two Grimme Online Prizes now on the shelf), and the Ernst-Schneider-Preis 2017 for business journalism in radio, a prize that confirmed the station's journalistic seriousness beyond the digital scene. The German Radio Prize for best podcast in 2021 marked the second phase of the station's career: no longer just an innovative online radio, but one of the country's leading podcast producers. On 31 January 2018 the station went terrestrial for the first time, broadcasting via DAB+ in an SLM small-scale trial on channel 6C in Leipzig and 10D in Freiberg. In 2019 Bollert and Melanie Stein launched the "Wir sind der Osten" initiative, interviewing 206 East Germans to make visible the people positively shaping the future — categorized as those who stayed, those who left and those who returned. In 2023 came the radioeins partnership and "Teurer Wohnen". Most recently, the non-profit Media Forward Fund selected detektor.fm from 79 applicants across Germany, Austria and Switzerland for a two-year, 500,000-euro grant to build a new audio and newsletter format for Saxony-Anhalt, launching ahead of the state election — the fund's first East German project, and a vote of confidence in the Leipzig station's journalistic model.

Programming

The 24-hour stream combines journalistic programming with modern pop music: news coverage, interviews, features and magazine content alternate with the curated music programme. The podcast label's strategy, as Bollert describes it, is a mix of daily podcasts and storytelling formats — the daily rhythm builds habit, the storytelling builds reputation, and the combination is what he calls the sweet spot between continuity and innovation. Flagship productions include the Grimme-winning "Teurer Wohnen" housing series with radioeins — a six-part-style deep dive into Germany's housing crisis produced with the rbb youth station — business-journalism formats that won the Ernst-Schneider-Preis, and the "Wir sind der Osten" interview series, whose 206 conversations created a panoramic portrait of East German biographies.

The station's editorial stance — demanding, independent, in-depth journalism — is codified in its editorial codex (Redaktionscodex), and the programme avoids the formatted clichés of commercial radio: no nerve-wracking morning shows, no tight chart rotations, no oldie automation. The music programme carries modern pop, indie and electronic sounds selected by the station's music team, the soundtrack to the journalism rather than its competitor. The Saxony-Anhalt project funded by the Media Forward Fund extends the model to regional information provision, aiming to strengthen news supply in the state — a sign that the Leipzig model is now seen as an answer to the local-news crisis.

Organization and Ownership

detektor.fm is operated by BEBE Medien GmbH, led by the founders with Christian Bollert as managing director. Programme directors are Ina Lebedjew and Stephan Ziegert. Bollert — who also moderates and speaks on the station — has become one of German audio's public faces: a fellow of the federal government's Competence Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, sixth place in Medium Magazin's "Journalist of the Year" entrepreneur category, a participant in the International Journalists' Programme and the US International Visitor Programme's Young Leadership scheme, and a regular speaker at Radiodays Europe and industry events. The company also organizes industry events: Bollert's BEBE Medien took over the Medientage Mitteldeutschland (MTM) with a new concept, making the Leipzig company a player not just in audio production but in the media industry's self-organization. The business model rests on the podcast label's productions, cooperations with publishers and public broadcasters, and project funding such as the Media Forward Fund grant.

Digital Presence

As an internet radio pioneer, detektor.fm lives online: the detektor.fm portal carries the 24-hour livestream, the podcast catalogue and show pages, with apps and all major podcast platforms distributing the label's productions. The station's podcasts — daily formats and storytelling series alike — are its primary growth engine, reaching listeners who never touch the stream; in the platform era, the podcast feed has become the station's real frequency. The station is active on social media, and its industry presence — from Radiodays Europe to the podcast-business press — keeps it visible in the professional audio community. For a station that declared FM out of the question in its early years, the DAB+ presence in Leipzig and Freiberg since 2018 was a pragmatic addition — but the internet remains detektor.fm's home, its laboratory and its future, today and tomorrow.