About Radio Schleswig-Holstein

Radio Schleswig-Holstein

Radio Schleswig-Holstein, styled R.SH, is the statewide private radio broadcaster for Schleswig-Holstein, based in Kiel. It went on air on 1 July 1986 as the first statewide private radio in Germany with a full 24-hour programme on its own frequencies, and it has remained the most-listened-to station between the North Sea and the Baltic ever since. The first words ever heard on the station, spoken by presenter Ines Barber, were "Es ist fünf vor zwölf"; the first record played was "Do It Again" by The Beach Boys. Targeting listeners aged 14 to 49 with an adult-contemporary and European-hit-radio music mix, regional news, weather and traffic service, R.SH is owned 100 percent by the media company Regiocast. According to the Media Analysis 2021 Audio, it reached a weekly market share of 24.1 percent among the German-speaking population over 14 in Schleswig-Holstein.

Overview

R.SH is the north's statewide private flagship: a personality- and service-oriented full programme with news, weather and traffic service, built on the slogan "Zusammen sind wir Schleswig-Holstein" (Together we are Schleswig-Holstein). The station broadcasts from the Funkhaus Wittland in Kiel, a building that once stored tobacco before becoming the broadcast centre of the north's first private station. Reception is via FM across Schleswig-Holstein, in the cable networks, on DAB+, and via the internet livestream; the signal reaches beyond the state borders into Hamburg, parts of Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and into parts of Denmark. Until January 2017, the station was even carried in the Danish cable network of YouSee, a rare cross-border carriage for a German regional broadcaster.

The music colour is AC/EHR, adult contemporary and European hit radio: the biggest hits of today with the familiar pop of the past decades, aimed at a core target of 20 to 45 years within the broader 14-to-49 audience. The station shares its Kiel studios with its two sister stations delta radio and Radio NORA, which target the same 14-to-49 demographic with different music formats: the three Regiocast stations from one house, the north's private-radio family under one roof. Beyond the main channel, R.SH broadcasts a series of digital niche channels, including streams dedicated to the music of the 1980s and 1990s. The station's programme highlights include the morning "Wach-Mittmann-Show", the workday programme "Schleswig-Holstein bei der Arbeit", the afternoon show "Von 2 bis frei!" and the evening programme "Der R.SH-Abend".

History

R.SH was built before its launch by managing director Klaus Schmidt-Ulm and programme director Hermann Stümpert, and the 1 July 1986 launch made broadcasting history: while Radio 4 in Ludwigshafen had gone on air on 30 April 1986 as the first statewide private radio, it was initially an operators' consortium of four programmes sharing frequencies. R.SH was the first statewide private station in Germany to broadcast a full 24-hour programme without frequency splitting with other operators, and it is widely described as the first real statewide private broadcaster in the country's history. The launch came just months after private broadcasting had become legally possible, and the new station from Kiel immediately set out to win the north's listeners from the public competitor NDR 2.

The Funkhaus Wittland, the station's Kiel seat, was itself part of the story: the former tobacco warehouse became the broadcast centre of the north's first private station, the symbol of the new medium moving into the old trade city's industrial fabric. From Wittland, the station built the regional profile that won the north: the presenters who became household names, the regional news that the public broadcasters had treated as an afterthought, the weather and traffic service tuned to the coastal climate and the holiday traffic to the islands.

Programme director Hermann Stümpert made information a weapon in that competition: observing that NDR 2's hourly news bulletins were a point of weakness, he shifted R.SH's news slightly after the full hour so that listeners could switch between the two stations without missing either bulletin. The offset news still exists today. The station's regional profile, its friendly presenters, its weather and traffic service, and its campaigns that got all of Schleswig-Holstein talking made it the leading station in the far north. The 2011 Media Analysis credited R.SH with a 20.3 percent market share and 1.2 million listeners; the 2021 Audio analysis recorded a weekly market share of 24.1 percent in Schleswig-Holstein among the German-speaking population aged 14 and above, measured Monday to Sunday.

Programming

The programme is a full-service statewide format: the morning show, the workday programme, the afternoon show and the evening programme, built around the music mix, the regional information, and the weather and traffic service that northern drivers depend on. The news operation has changed shape over the years: the station no longer maintains its own newsroom. Its bulletins are written by Regiocast Radioservices, formerly the ANN - Audio News Network GmbH, the news agency for Schleswig-Holstein's private media. The more local stations of the earlier years were closed in 2003 for economic reasons, but regional news bulletins still air several times a day alongside the national and international news. In the north of the state, the regional daily Flensborg Avis produces a news bulletin for the Danish-speaking minority, a distinctive nod to the border region's bilingual reality.

The digital channels extend the brand: niche streams for the eighties and nineties music, the livestream simulcast, and the social-media presence that carries the station's campaigns and presenter personalities. R.SH's actions and giveaways, the entertainment campaigns that get the whole of Schleswig-Holstein talking, are a hallmark of the programme and pull even the Hamburg neighbours into the audience.

Organization and Ownership

R.SH is 100 percent owned by Regiocast, the media company that also operates a series of other regional radios across Germany. Regiocast itself is 40 percent owned by newspapers of the Schleswig-Holstein region; originally, R.SH was directly owned by those same publishers, the regional press houses that had built the first private station in the north. The management is led by Rainer Poelmann as spokesperson of the management board and Marc Strüßmann; the programme director is Dirk Klee. Marketing is handled by the Regiocast brand MACH 3, which sells regional and local advertising across the areas Kiel/Rendsburg/Neumünster, Flensburg/Sylt/Heide, Lübeck/Eutin/Lauenburg and Hamburg plus its surroundings.

Digital Presence

The internet livestream carries the programme worldwide, and the digital niche channels for the eighties and nineties give the brand additional outlets on the digital platforms. The station's website rsh.de is the programme's online home with the stream, the presenter pages, the campaign pages and the regional news. The social-media channels, including the station's Twitter profile, extend the presenters' reach. The shared Kiel radio centre, where R.SH, delta radio and Radio NORA produce their programmes side by side, makes the Wittland studios one of Germany's densest private-radio production sites.

Since 1 July 1986, Radio Schleswig-Holstein has been the north's private voice: the first statewide private station in Germany, the most-listened-to broadcaster between the seas, on FM, DAB+, cable and the stream. From the tobacco warehouse of Wittland to the digital niche channels, from the Beach Boys of 1986 to the hits of today, the station has carried the north's mornings for four decades. "Zusammen sind wir Schleswig-Holstein": the slogan is the programme, and the programme is the north.