About Hertz 87.9

Hertz 87.9

Hertz 87.9 is Bielefeld's campus radio: the university radio for the East Westphalian city, on air since 6 December 2000 on 87.9 MHz FM, plus livestream, app and cable. Run by the registered association Hertz 87.9 – Campusradio für Bielefeld e.V., the station broadcasts from the Telekom tower at Kesselbrink — the tallest building in inner Bielefeld — across the whole city and beyond, east to Bad Salzuflen and partly to Minden. Its focuses are student topics around Bielefeld, science and local news: the morning magazine "Der Morgen" from 9 a.m. weekdays, monothematic evening magazines from 6 p.m., and a programme made entirely by student volunteers — no advertising, just campus. The name is the unit and the promise: Hertz, the frequency of Bielefeld's student life — 87.9 megahertz of campus, on the dial since 2000 — the frequency as the brand, the brand as the promise — Hertz 87.9, the name that is the number, the number that is the station.

Overview

Hertz 87.9 is one of North Rhine-Westphalia's licensed campus radios — 24-hour licences awarded in a simplified procedure, volunteer-run, advertising-free, financed by the university, member contributions and sponsoring. The NRW model, unique in Germany, gives student stations regular licences and their own frequencies alongside the public broadcasters and commercial stations — the students on the dial, not just on the web — the NRW privilege that makes campus radio a real radio, with a real frequency. The transmitter sits not in the university building but on the Telekom building at Kesselbrink, the highest building in Bielefeld's inner city; the coverage spans the whole city except the area west of the Teutoburger Wald, reaching east to Bad Salzuflen and partly to Minden — the campus station as a city station — the students' frequency, audible across Bielefeld, from the university to the Kesselbrink and beyond — east to Bad Salzuflen, south to the Teutoburger Wald's edge — the 87.9 MHz footprint, the campus audible across East Westphalia.

The programme is moderated Monday to Friday. "Der Morgen" runs daily from 9 a.m.: news from Bielefeld University — interviews with lecturers, event tips, the Mensaplan — plus local culture, politics and sport. The Mensaplan in a morning show is the detail that marks a true campus radio: the station that tells you what's for lunch — the service journalism of student life — the Mensaplan, the event tips, the lecturer interviews, the campus made audible — the morning magazine as the student's daily briefing. Every evening from 6 p.m. a monothematic magazine airs: games, cinema, art and culture, new music, university politics, sport, science — the students' interests, one theme per evening — the weeknight schedule as the curriculum of student life, from games to science — the evening magazines as the students' seminar — the monothematic 6 p.m. hours, the deep dive after the day's lectures. A monthly record-review show, a political talk and a satire show (occasionally performed as a stage programme) round out the schedule.

History

Hertz 87.9 went on air on 6 December 2000 — among the wave of NRW campus radios enabled by the 1996 change to the state media law, which gave student stations regular licences and their own frequencies. (Radio c.t. in Bochum was first; Bielefeld followed with Dortmund, Münster, Düsseldorf and Cologne — the class of 2000 that put NRW's students on the dial — Bielefeld's Hertz among the founding generation of the state's campus frequencies — the 6 December 2000 as the birthday of student radio in East Westphalia — the day Bielefeld's students got their frequency.) The station was founded as a registered association, the standard legal form of NRW's campus radios, and has broadcast from the Kesselbrink tower ever since — nearly 25 years of student radio from the tallest building in the inner city — the Kesselbrink tower as the station's landmark, visible across Bielefeld — the Telekom building as the campus radio's antenna, the city's tallest mast — the Kesselbrink as Hertz 87.9's Eiffel Tower. The "Hertz junior" youth reporter team won the PUSH prize of the Stifterverband — the young reporters as the station's talent pipeline, the school students learning the craft alongside the university students — Hertz junior as the farm team — the PUSH-prized youth reporters, the next generation already on the microphone — Hertz junior's PUSH prize as the proof that the pipeline works.

Programming

The programme's pillars are the morning magazine "Der Morgen" (weekdays from 9 a.m.) — university news, lecturer interviews, event tips, Mensaplan, local culture/politics/sport — and the evening monothematic magazines from 6 p.m.: games, cinema, art and culture, music novelties, university politics, sport and science. The monthly Plattenkritik (record review), the political talk and the satire show add depth and humour — the satire occasionally leaving the studio for the stage, the station's comedy as live performance — Hertz 87.9 unplugged, in front of an audience — the satire show as stage programme, the radio that leaves the radio — the satire on stage, the science in the lecture hall, the campus radio beyond the studio. Science is a signature: the university's research, made audible — as in the "Wissenschaft live" lecture series broadcast live with the Hertz junior team, the Leibniz laureate's robot brain explained for everyone, the podium discussion with the rector and the sociologist, the listeners invited to join in — science as a public conversation, on 87.9 MHz — the university's research, explained by the students, for the city — the campus radio as the translator of science.

Organization and Ownership

Hertz 87.9 is operated by the registered association Hertz 87.9 – Campusradio für Bielefeld e.V. Like all NRW campus radios, it is volunteer-run, advertising-free, and financed from university funds, member contributions and sponsoring — the students' station, paid for by the students' community — the university, the members, the sponsors, no advertisers — the campus radio's clean funding, the independence of the unfunded-by-ads — the campus radio that answers to no advertiser, only to its listeners. The 24-hour licence comes from the Landesmedienanstalt NRW under the simplified campus-radio procedure — the legal privilege that makes NRW's campus radios real broadcasters, not just web streams — the 24-hour licence as the students' charter — the Landesmedienanstalt's simplified procedure, the frequency as a right — the students' 24 hours, the simplified procedure, the dial that belongs to the campus. The association structure gives the station continuity across the generations of students: the e.V. as the vessel, the volunteers as the crew — the association that carries Hertz 87.9 across the generations of students — the e.V. as the constant, the volunteers as the change. Detailed financial figures are not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

Digital Presence

The station streams live at radiohertz.de and via its app, alongside the 87.9 MHz FM signal and cable distribution. The stream extends the Kesselbrink transmitter's reach — from Bielefeld's inner city to the alumni and the curious everywhere. As a campus station, the digital presence is the students' natural habitat: the programme where the audience lives — on the phone, on the laptop, in the Mensa — the campus radio where the campus lives, digital as well as on the dial — the stream, the app, the 87.9 MHz, one Hertz. The app and the stream make the campus radio portable: Hertz 87.9 as the companion of the Bielefeld student, from the lecture hall to the WG kitchen — the station that moves with its audience — from the lecture hall to the WG kitchen, Hertz 87.9 in the pocket.