About Radio Ostrock

Radio Ostrock

Radio Ostrock is a German DAB+ and web radio station dedicated to 100 percent East German rock and pop music, with the slogan "Das hör' ich. Das bin ich". Launched on 9 November 2019, the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, initially as a web offering, it has broadcast since 1 February 2020 in digital quality from the Freiberg-Wasserberg transmission tower on the local DAB+ multiplex Freiberg (channel 10D) in Mittelsachsen, Saxony, and as a web stream. The operator is Angelika Pörsch with her team, advised by programme consultant Jens Breuer of the DEUTSCHE HÖRFUNKBERATUNG in Leipzig. The programme combines the DDR rock classics of Karat, the Puhdys and SILLY with current music from eastern German artists such as Clueso, Silbermond and Kraftklub.

Overview

Radio Ostrock is receivable on DAB+ in Mittelsachsen via the local Freiberg multiplex on channel 10D, broadcast from the Freiberg-Wasserberg tower, and worldwide as a web stream. The programme runs daily from 6 am to 10 pm with classics and current Ostrock songs, with the latest world news on the hour. Mittelsachsen, the district around Freiberg, Brand-Erbisdorf and the Erzgebirge foothills, is the terrestrial heartland: the old mining region where the DDR's industrial working class lived, and where the Ostrock anthems still fill the festival meadows every summer. As the only programme in Saxony offering 100 percent Ost-Hits, it closes what its founders call a musical-cultural gap in the Free State: their market analysis found that no Saxon station played more than four percent East music per broadcast hour, a finding the team described as a wake-up call.

History

Radio Ostrock started on 9 November 2019, deliberately chosen for the 30th anniversary of the Mauerfall, initially as a web offering. The date was the programme statement: thirty years after the Wall fell, the music of the East deserved its own station. On 1 February 2020 the station went on DAB+ from the Funkturm Freiberg-Wasserberg, bringing the programme in digital quality to Mittelsachsen via the local multiplex on channel 10D. The launch press release framed the mission as preserving the music of the past, tied for so many listeners to personal memories, while looking forward: alongside Karat, the Puhdys and SILLY, the playlist carries current music from Clueso, Silbermond and the occasional Kraftklub song.

The anniversary symbolism runs deeper than marketing. The DDR rock scene, the "Ostrock", was one of the few cultural spaces in East Germany where a genuine youth culture could develop: the Puhdys filling the stadiums, Karat's symphonic rock, SILLY's poetic rebellion around Tamara Danz, Karussell's anthems, City's "Am Fenster" becoming the most successful DDR song internationally. The Amiga label's catalogue is the foundation of the station's music, and the Wende generation's memories are its emotional capital. Thirty years after reunification, the founders argued, that music had been marginalised on the airwaves of the reunited Germany: the western formats dominated, and the East's own soundtrack survived only in the oldies shows. The four-percent finding, no Saxon station playing more than four percent East music per hour, was the empirical backbone of the argument, and the station was the answer.

The response from the Ostrock scene was immediate: alongside many enthusiastic listeners, several stars of the East rock scene contacted the station personally, and Joe Raschke, singer of the band Karussell, agreed to host his own monthly music show. The scene's embrace was the validation the concept needed: the musicians whose music the station preserves recognised it as their station too. The team around operator Angelika Pörsch and consultant Jens Breuer announced plans to extend the DAB+ availability to further parts of Saxony and beyond the state's borders, from the Mittelsachsen beachhead to the whole East German musical homeland.

Programming

The music programme is the station's whole identity: 100 percent Ost-Hits, from the DDR rock canon to the current eastern German pop and rock scene. The DDR fund includes the big names, Karat, Puhdys, SILLY, Karussell, City, and the deeper catalogue of the Amiga era; the current side includes the Erfurt-born Clueso, the Bautzen band Silbermond and the Chemnitz band Kraftklub, artists who carry the eastern German musical identity into the present. The monthly show hosted by Karussell singer Joe Raschke gives the station a direct line to the scene's living legends: the man who sang the East's anthems now curates the station's music once a month, a seal of authenticity that no consultant could buy.

The "looking forward" half of the concept is what distinguishes Radio Ostrock from a pure oldies station. Clueso, the Erfurt rapper-turned-popstar, Silbermond, the Bautzen band that conquered the German charts, Kraftklub, the Chemnitz band that turned eastern German identity into indie-rock attitude, all prove that the East's musical story did not end in 1989. The station plays them alongside the classics as a continuous tradition: the Ostrock of the seventies and eighties and the eastern German pop of the 2000s and 2010s as one musical homeland, "Das hör' ich. Das bin ich."

The world news on the hour provides the informational frame, but the music is the message: the songs that shaped the lives of the East German generations, preserved and continued. The programme's 6 am to 10 pm schedule covers the full day with the Ostrock mix, a format that no other Saxon station offers.

Organization and Ownership

The station is operated by Angelika Pörsch and her team, with programme consulting from Jens Breuer of the DEUTSCHE HÖRFUNKBERATUNG Audiomarketing GmbH in Leipzig. The lean operation, a small team with external consulting, is typical of the DAB+-only local stations: the multiplex slot and the stream are the distribution, the music format is the product, and the team size matches the focused concept. The consulting input, the market analysis that found the four-percent gap, the format strategy that pairs the classics with the current eastern artists, gives the small operation a professional backbone. Detailed ownership and financing information beyond the operator structure is not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The web stream on radioostrock.de carries the programme worldwide, alongside the DAB+ distribution in Mittelsachsen on channel 10D. The phonostar and radio aggregator listings carry the stream to the platform audiences, with the programme categorised as modern rock, classic rock and German music. For the East German diaspora and the Ostrock fans beyond the DAB+ footprint, the stream is the station's main distribution: the music of the East, available everywhere. The Wessi who married into an East German family, the Ossis who moved west for work, the festival-goers who discovered Karat at a summer open-air, all can take the 100-percent Ost-Hits programme with them, wherever the DAB+ signal fades.

Launched on the 30th anniversary of the Mauerfall and on DAB+ since February 2020, Radio Ostrock is Saxony's 100-percent Ost-Hits station: the DDR classics and the current eastern German music, the monthly Karussell show, the world news on the hour, from the Freiberg-Wasserberg tower on DAB+ channel 10D and on the web stream, "Das hör' ich. Das bin ich", the soundtrack of the East, preserved and continued, on air every day since November 2019, and still rocking strong today, from Freiberg to the whole wide world out there, day after day after day.