Westdeutscher Rundfunk

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WDR building in Köln

The Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) is a public broadcaster in the German Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a member of the ARD. The WDR produces one TV channel (WDR-Fernsehen, older names WDF and West3) and 5 radio channels targeted to different audiences.

1 History
2 Television
3 Radio
4 External links
5 Live streams

[edit] History

Map of the nine regional broadcasting members of Germany's ARD radio/TV network.

The WDR was created in 1955, when the NWDR was split into the NDR responsible for Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, and the WDR responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia. On January 1, 1956, the first two radio channels were started.

[edit] Television

WDR started its regional television service on December 17, 1965 under the name Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF). In 1988 the programme was renamed to West 3; since 1994 it has been known as WDR Fernsehen.

While the programmes are mainly run from their Köln headquarters, they also have a number of regional studios performing a regular broadcast called Lokalzeit aus... with "Regio Aachen" (Aachen), "OWL aktuell" (Bielefeld), "aus Dortmund" (Dortmund), "aus Düsseldorf" (Düsseldorf), "Ruhr" (Essen), "Köln" (Köln and Bonn), "Münsterland" (Münster), "Südwestfalen" (Siegen) and "Bergisches Land" (Wuppertal) added for the respective region. Arrangementa are being made to install studios in Bonn and Duisburg.

Apart from the WDR Fernsehen channel, WDR also contributes broadcasts to the ARD network.

[edit] Radio

Eins Live (L1VE) - popular music aimed at a young audience modelled after BBC Radio 1. Special non-mainstream nighttime programmes such as "Heimatkult" with pop music from Germany or "Lauschangriff", a series of audio-books.

WDR 2 - claim: Der Sender (The Station) - adult-oriented popular music, traffic information.

WDR 3 - classical, jazz and world music, culture, drama

WDR 4 - claim: Schönes bleibt (The beautiful remains) - oriented toward senior citizens, mainly German language music.

WDR 5 - spoken-word programme
FunkhausEUROPA - joint programme with Radio Bremen, targeted at foreigners and immigrants.

All WDR radio stations are available on FM, cable, satellite and digital. WDR 2 is broadcast on two AM stations, 720 and 774 kHz, with even longer traffic announcements and the possibility to opt out for coverage from Parliament.

Despite the fact that WDR is a public broadcaster that receives a lot of its funds through licence fees, EinsLive, WDR 2 and WDR 4 carry commercials during the day.

See also: German television