Westdeutscher Rundfunk

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The WDR building in Cologne

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD. As well as contributing to the output of national television channel Das Erste, WDR produces the regional television service WDR Fernsehen (formerly known as WDF and West3) and six regional radio channels.

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.

WDR was created in 1955, when Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) was split into Norddeutscher Rundfunk – covering Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg – and Westdeutscher Rundfunk, responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia. WDR began broadcasting on two radio channels on 1 January 1956.

[edit] Television

WDR began its regional television service, Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF), on 17 December 1965. In 1988 the channel was renamed 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

1LIVE (before: 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
Funkhaus Europa - 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, 1LIVE, WDR 2 and WDR 4 carry commercials during the day.

See also: German television