About Radio Sauerland

Radio Sauerland

Radio Sauerland is the private local radio for the Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It started on 1 October 1990 with a test programme and began official broadcasting on 6 October 1990, making it one of the pioneers of the NRW local-radio system: among the very first stations of the new two-pillar model, on air within weeks of the system's birth. The station is licensed by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW and based in Meschede, the county town on the Ruhr. Paul Senske was editor-in-chief from the founding year; since his retirement on 1 February 2015, Anke Gebhardt has led the editorial office. The station broadcasts on FM, DAB+, in the cable network and via internet stream, combining locally produced hours with the Radio NRW framework programme from Oberhausen: the Sauerland's district news, the pop music, the citizen radio, all on one frequency.

Overview

Radio Sauerland covers the Hochsauerlandkreis, the large, forested district of the Sauerland between the Ruhr area and Hesse: the county town Meschede, the winter-sport towns Winterberg and Willingen, Brilon, Arnsberg, Schmallenberg, Olsberg, the reservoirs and the ski slopes. The format is pop music for the broad local audience. The station's building in Meschede houses the studios and the editorial office that produce the district's local hours: the morning and afternoon shows, the local news, the reporting from the Sauerland's towns and valleys.

The Sauerland is NRW's green lung and its winter playground: the Rothaar mountains, the ski jumps of Willingen, the bobsleigh track of Winterberg, the reservoirs, the half-timbered towns, the Schützenvereine. It is a district of tourism and tradition, where the winter season fills the hotels and the summer fills the hiking trails. A local radio here lives with the seasons: the snow reports and the ski-jumping results in winter, the hiking and the festivals in summer, the district's politics all year. The Hochsauerlandkreis is one of Germany's largest districts by area, and the local radio is the medium that holds its scattered towns together.

History

The 6 October 1990 launch placed Radio Sauerland among the very first NRW local stations: the state media law had just created the two-pillar system, and the Sauerland got its own voice within weeks of the system's birth. The test programme had started on 1 October; five days later, the official operation began. Paul Senske led the editorial office from the founding year through more than two decades, shaping the station's local identity: the voice of the Sauerland's mornings, the man who built the district's radio from nothing. On 1 February 2015, Anke Gebhardt succeeded him as editor-in-chief, the generational change at the top of a mature station: the founder's era giving way to the next generation, the station's identity carried forward.

The pioneer years were the invention of the format: the small Meschede editorial office learning how to fill the local hours, how to cover a district the size of the Sauerland, how to compete with the WDR's regional studios and the new private competitors. The answers the station found, the local news at the top of the hour, the morning show from the district, the framework from Oberhausen, have carried it for three and a half decades.

The citizen radio has its own history alongside the commercial station: the Hochsauerlandwelle, the district's citizen-media institution based in Brilon with an office in Eslohe, went officially on air on 6 May 2002 in the Bürgerfunk on Radio Sauerland with the show "Do biste platt". Its roots go back further: the first unofficial broadcast in 1986, born from a youth exchange of the district with the GDR on the theme of 25 years of the Berlin Wall; the 1987 "Albersdorfer Buntfunk" from a Caritas holiday camp; the cassette programmes of the eighties, exchanged by mail because there was no internet and no FM distribution; and from 1990 to 1999 the contributions to Radio Sauerland's "Heimatkalender", "Flohmarkt" and "WFG Radioklub". The Bürgerfunk, the citizen-radio window in the NRW local stations' programmes, gave the Hochsauerlandwelle its airtime: the citizens' productions on the commercial station's frequency, the volunteers' voices between the network's music.

From 2017 to 2018 the Hochsauerlandwelle was one of 34 citizen-radio service points of the LfM NRW; since May 2018 it cooperates closely with NRWision at TU Dortmund, the citizen-media platform where its podcasts, radio and television contributions can be retrieved. The citizen medium and the commercial station, the volunteers and the professionals, share the Sauerland's airwaves: the district's radio in two keys.

Programming

The programme follows the NRW model: the local hours from Meschede with the Sauerland news, the district reporting, the morning and afternoon shows, and the Radio NRW framework for the rest of the day. The Bürgerfunk window carries the Hochsauerlandwelle's citizen productions: the volunteers' magazines, the local history, the district's voices, on the commercial station's frequency. The Sauerland's seasons shape the programme: the winter-sport reporting from Winterberg and the surrounding ski areas, the ski jumping from Willingen's Mühlenkopfschanze, the summer tourism, the Schützenfeste, the district's club life. The morning show wakes the district; the local news at the top of the hour keeps it informed; the framework fills the night.

Organization and Ownership

The editorial office is led by editor-in-chief Anke Gebhardt, succeeding founding editor Paul Senske in 2015. The service company is Westfunk, the Funke Mediengruppe's radio services house that also serves Radio Bochum, Radio Essen, Radio Mülheim, Radio Oberhausen, Radio Emscher Lippe, Radio Duisburg, Radio K.W., Radio Herne, Radio Hagen and Radio Ennepe Ruhr. The Westfunk connection places Radio Sauerland in the Funke family's western radio group: the Essen-based media house's radio interests, the shared services, the cooperation with the Ruhr-area sister stations. Since 2019, podcast production has been a focus of Westfunk's product development, with clients producing their own brand podcasts in the Funke houses: the Sauerland station benefits from the group's digital push.

Digital Presence

The internet stream on radiosauerland.de carries the programme worldwide, and the DAB+ distribution gives the station digital terrestrial coverage of the district. The cable network's carriage extends the reach into the Sauerland's households. The Hochsauerlandwelle's productions are available as podcasts in its media library and via the NRWision citizen-media platform of TU Dortmund: the citizen medium on the digital channels, the volunteers' contributions retrievable on demand. The station's website is the district's local news portal: the Sauerland's headlines, the winter-sport results, the event calendar, the stream, all in one place.

Since October 1990, Radio Sauerland has been the local radio of the Hochsauerlandkreis: the Sauerland's own voice from Meschede, on FM, DAB+, cable and the stream. The pioneer of 1990 is the institution of today: the test programme of 1 October became the official operation of 6 October, the founder's two decades became the successor's era, the FM gained the DAB+ and the stream. Through the media revolutions, the station held its mission: the district's news, the district's mornings, the district's seasons, from the ski jumps to the Schützenfeste. In the Sauerland's forests and valleys, on the slopes of Winterberg and Willingen, in the towns along the Ruhr and the Lenne, the local radio still plays: the Hochsauerlandkreis talking to itself, since 1990, today and tomorrow, always on air.