About Radio Augsburg

Radio Augsburg

Radio Augsburg is a private local radio station for Augsburg in Bavaria, broadcasting a 24-hour full programme on DAB+ in the Augsburg multiplex (channel 9C). Positioned as the city's adult-contemporary digital station, it offers what its programme concept describes as the best music from four decades — a melodic mix aimed at the 25-to-59 age group — combined with round-the-clock information for Augsburg and Swabia. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from its base at Otto-Lindenmeyer-Straße 28 in Augsburg, and is operated by Digital Radio Augsburg GmbH (DRA) with ties to the Sankt Ulrich Verlag publishing house. As a digital-only local station it complements Augsburg's FM landscape, which is dominated by Hitradio RT1 and Radio Fantasy, with a calmer, broader music mix for a mature audience.

Overview

Radio Augsburg serves the city of Augsburg — Bavaria's third-largest city, with around 300,000 inhabitants — and the surrounding Swabian region. Unlike the city's FM stations, Radio Augsburg is a DAB+ programme, broadcast in the local Augsburg digital multiplex on channel 9C, and available worldwide via live stream. Its programme is a full 24-hour service, every day of the year, with no shared frequencies or part-time slots: from midnight to midnight, Monday to Sunday, the station is on air.

The format is adult contemporary with a four-decade music span: the station promises the best music of the last forty years, a broad, melodic mix of familiar hits rather than a narrow chart focus. The declared target group is listeners aged 25 to 59 — older and broader than the youth-oriented CHR format of Radio Fantasy and the 14-to-49 focus of Hitradio RT1 — positioning Radio Augsburg as the companion station for working adults and families in the region. Local information, event tips and service elements are woven into the music programme, keeping the station anchored in Augsburg life. The Funkanalyse Bayern audience research includes the station in its Augsburg market reporting, documenting its reach in the city's competitive local radio landscape.

History

Radio Augsburg emerged from the digital radio development in Bavaria in the 2010s, when DAB+ opened new capacity for local stations alongside the established FM frequencies. The programme was produced by a production company associated with Markus Gilg together with the Sankt Ulrich Verlag — the Augsburg-based Catholic publishing house — a connection documented in the history of the sister project Radio Schwaben, which grew out of the same production environment. This publishing-house backing gave the station institutional roots in Augsburg's media landscape rather than a purely commercial startup origin.

Operating under the Digital Radio Augsburg GmbH (DRA), the station established itself as a permanent DAB+ presence in the Augsburg multiplex 9C, broadcasting from Otto-Lindenmeyer-Straße 28 in Augsburg. It entered a crowded local market: Augsburg's private radio history began on 21 March 1987, when Hitradio RT1 (then Radio Tele 1), Radio Fantasy and Radio Kö 87,9 launched on shared FM frequencies, and the city later hosted further formats including the jazz-and-lounge station Smart Radio (on air since September 1999) and the short-lived Radio Kö revival. Radio Augsburg's digital-only path avoided the FM frequency scarcity that had ended earlier Augsburg projects — the third FM frequency, for instance, ultimately went to Rock Antenne Bayern after the BLM saw no economic viability for another FM local station — and instead built its audience on the growing DAB+ installed base in Bavarian cars and households. The address places it in the city's media quarter, and the "c/o St. Ulrich-Verlag GmbH" designation in its official planning data confirms the close operational link to the publishing house. As DAB+ receiver penetration grew in Bavaria — driven by the state's promotion of digital radio and the successive Funkanalyse Bayern surveys — Radio Augsburg consolidated its role as the digital-only local alternative for Augsburg's adult audience, a position it continues to hold.

Programming

The programme concept is a full-service music-and-information mix: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the station combines its four-decade music selection with regular information for the region. The music spans roughly the 1980s to the present — pop, rock and soft AC titles chosen for broad familiarity and all-day listenability, deliberately distinct from the chart-driven formats of the FM competitors. The 25-to-59 target group shapes the selection: melodic, mainstream, and family-friendly.

Local content focuses on Augsburg and Swabia: city news, event announcements, cultural life, and service information relevant to the region. The station's editorial approach is steady and companionable rather than sensational — the "always better informed" positioning from its programme concept emphasises reliability. Special programming around local events, holidays and the Christmas season reflects the station's integration into Augsburg's civic calendar. Overnight and weekend hours continue the full programme with the same music-and-information mix, giving the station a consistent sound around the clock.

Organization and Ownership

Radio Augsburg is operated by Digital Radio Augsburg GmbH (DRA), based at Otto-Lindenmeyer-Straße 28, 86153 Augsburg. The station's production history links it to the Sankt Ulrich Verlag, the Augsburg Catholic publishing house, whose "c/o" designation appears in the station's official planning data; detailed current shareholder structures are not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted for this profile. The station's advertising is marketed through STUDIO GONG, the Bavarian radio advertising combination, as part of the BAYERN FUNKPAKET and BAYERN DIGITALPAKET offerings that bundle the state's local stations for regional and national advertisers.

As a DAB+-only local station, Radio Augsburg operates with a leaner cost structure than FM stations with their transmitter networks, while reaching a growing digital audience. Its publishing-house connection places it in a distinct tradition of Catholic media engagement in Augsburg — the Sankt Ulrich Verlag, named after the city's patron saint, has long published church and regional media — giving the station an institutional anchor unusual among Germany's typically commerce-driven local digital stations. Against Hitradio RT1's hot-AC chart focus and Radio Fantasy's youth-oriented CHR, Radio Augsburg's four-decade, 25-to-59 positioning fills the adult-contemporary gap in the city's radio dial. The station's contact address (info@radioaugsburg.de) and its Augsburg base keep it operationally close to its broadcast area. Its institutional connection to a publishing house rather than a radio chain gives it a distinctive profile among Bavarian local stations.

Digital Presence

The station's website, radio-augsburg.de, is its digital hub: it carries the live stream, programme information, local news and event tips for Augsburg and Swabia, and contact and advertising details. The stream makes the station available far beyond the DAB+ 9C coverage area, serving former Augsburg residents and Swabian expatriates as well as local listeners on phones and smart speakers.

Radio Augsburg is listed on the major radio aggregator platforms and apps with its DAB+ and stream details. Within the Augsburg 9C multiplex it broadcasts alongside other local digital programmes, sharing the transmission infrastructure — such as the Hotelturm transmitter site used by Augsburg's DAB+ stations — that gives digital radio its efficient, single-frequency-network coverage across the city and region. On social media, notably Facebook (under "Radio Augsburg"), the station shares programme highlights, local news, event coverage and music content, maintaining daily contact with its audience. The station's presence in the Funkanalyse Bayern surveys — the official audience research for Bavarian radio — documents its standing in the market and provides the planning data used by advertisers. Podcasts and on-demand clips extend the broadcast programme into time-shifted listening, completing a digital offering built around the DAB+ core.