About Radio Hagen

Radio Hagen

Radio Hagen is the local radio station for the city of Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, broadcasting from its Funkhaus on the Rathausstraße. On air since 29 September 1990, it is one of the founding stations of NRW's private local radio system. The station broadcasts on FM 107.7 MHz, on DAB+ and via livestream, with six hours of local programming on weekdays and the Radio NRW framework programme filling the remaining hours. A remarkable continuity defines the station: Chefredakteurin Cordula Aßmann joined as one of the first employees in September 1990 and still leads the editorial team more than 35 years later. From 21 August 2006 to 30 June 2019 the station carried its frequency in its name as "107.7 Radio Hagen", before returning to the original name.

Overview

Radio Hagen broadcasts to the city of Hagen on 107.7 MHz FM, on DAB+ and via livestream. The weekday programme offers six hours of local content per day, centred on the morning show "Am Morgen" and the afternoon programme "Am Nachmittag". City news airs every half hour from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm on weekdays, with local news on weekend mornings and afternoons as well; on Saturdays and Sundays the station broadcasts three hours of local programming from 9 am to noon. The legally mandated Bürgerfunk occupies the evening hours, and the rest of the day, including the world news on the hour, comes from the framework provider Radio NRW, for which the station airs an hourly advertising block.

The station's identity is closely tied to its longevity and its editorial continuity. Few German local stations can point to a Chefredakteurin who has been there since the first broadcast day; Cordula Aßmann's 35-year tenure gives Radio Hagen an institutional memory that shapes its local journalism to this day.

Hagen itself gives the station a distinctive reporting territory. As the largest city of the Sauerland and the eastern gateway to the Ruhrgebiet, Hagen combines industrial heritage with the green hills of the Sauerland, a city of contrasts that the local news reflects every half hour. The station's city news service, from 6:30 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon, is the most frequent local news rhythm of any Hagen medium, keeping the city's residents informed on a cycle no newspaper can match.

History

Radio Hagen went on air on 29 September 1990 under its original name, licensed by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW, as one of the first stations of the NRW local radio system. The launch was part of the most ambitious local radio experiment in German broadcasting history: North Rhine-Westphalia's 1986 media law created a two-pillar system in which non-profit Veranstaltergemeinschaften held the licences and commercial Betriebsgesellschaften financed the operations, and in 1990 the first wave of stations went on air across the state. Hagen, the largest city of the Sauerland region on the edge of the Ruhr, was among the first to get its own station, giving the city a local voice alongside the WDR's regional programming for the first time. The early days were not easy: like many of the pioneering local stations, the programme initially sounded unprofessional, a consequence of the difficulty of finding staff who combined journalistic training with knowledge of the local political and cultural scene. Cordula Aßmann, who had completed her traineeship at a Hagen newspaper, was one of the first to join in September 1990, bringing local competence but, like her colleagues, little radio experience. The gaps were closed through radio training centres, whose role is today filled by the Hörfunkakademie in Dortmund.

The station's name history reflects the marketing fashions of NRW local radio: on 21 August 2006 the frequency was added to the station name, making it "107.7 Radio Hagen", a branding that lasted until 1 July 2019, when the station returned to the plain "Radio Hagen". The Funkhaus on the Rathausstraße also housed the editorial team of the neighbouring station Radio Ennepe Ruhr until 31 December 2020, a reminder of the close cooperation between the region's local broadcasters. Shared facilities and shared experience have long been the quiet strength of the NRW local radio family, where neighbouring stations pool resources while keeping their editorial voices distinct.

Programming

The weekday local programme comprises the morning show "Am Morgen" and the afternoon show "Am Nachmittag", six hours of local content per day, with the city news every half hour from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm keeping Hagen informed throughout the working day. On weekends, three hours of local programming air from 9 am to noon on both Saturday and Sunday, with local news in the morning and afternoon. The Bürgerfunk, produced by citizens under the statutory provisions, takes the evening slots from Monday to Saturday and on Sundays.

The Bürgerfunk deserves a note of its own: under NRW media law, local stations must make airtime available to citizen broadcasters, giving associations, schools and individuals access to the airwaves. In Hagen, as elsewhere in NRW, these evening hours are some of the most diverse on the dial, with programmes in many languages and on every conceivable topic, produced by the city's residents themselves. It is the direct democratic legacy of the 1986 media law, still on air every evening more than 35 years later.

The presenters include Timo Hiepler, Robin Hiermer, Felix Tusche and Anja Buschjost, working under the editorial direction of Cordula Aßmann. The music follows the Adult Contemporary format of the Radio NRW framework, aimed at the broad adult audience of the city. Outside the local windows, the Radio NRW programme from Oberhausen carries the station through the day and night, with the world news on the hour and the shared advertising blocks.

Organization and Ownership

The station's owners are the Funke Mediengruppe, the MFS-Holding GmbH and HVG-Hagen. The managing directors of the operating company are Axel Schindler and Thomas Kloß, while Wolfgang Röspel serves as Intendant of the Veranstaltergemeinschaft. Marketing is handled by Westfunk, the sales organization for the Funke-affiliated NRW local stations.

The ownership structure is typical of the NRW two-pillar model: the Veranstaltergemeinschaft, representing socially relevant groups, holds programme responsibility, while the Betriebsgesellschaft, backed by the Funke media group and local partners, carries the economic responsibility. The long tenure of the editorial leadership, with Cordula Aßmann at the helm since the founding year, gives the station a stability that has served it well through more than three decades of media change.

Digital Presence

Radio Hagen streams its full programme live on radiohagen.de, extending the 107.7 MHz signal beyond the city limits to former Hageners and interested listeners everywhere. The website carries the local news, service information and the programme details that complement the broadcast.

The station's DAB+ presence adds digital terrestrial reception to the analogue FM signal, giving Radio Hagen a future-proof distribution path alongside the stream. For a station that began in the analogue pioneering days of 1990, the combination of FM, DAB+ and streaming represents a remarkable journey: from the unprofessional-sounding startup of the early nineties to a mature local broadcaster, still led by the woman who was there on the first day, still broadcasting the city news every half hour to the people of Hagen, the city at the gateway between the Ruhr and the Sauerland.