Ö2

Under the name Österreich 2 (Ö2, past name Österreich-Regional) all ORF regional radios, regulated by public law, are subsumed. These 9 regional radios only broadcast in their state.

The following radio stations are part of Ö2:

• Radio Wien
• Radio Niederösterreich
• Radio Oberösterreich
• Radio Burgenland
• Radio Salzburg
• Radio Steiermark
• Radio Tirol (also available in the Italian province of South Tyrol)
• Radio Vorarlberg
• Radio Kärnten

These radios have a strong regional content and offer full-service programs with news, weather, traffic, regional reports and music, all produced in their own ORF studio (one in each state).

In the last few years, the 9 regional radios were transformed to format radios – their target audience being the group 35+, which makes them clear market leaders in reference to market share and coverage. The music played by these radios are mostly oldies and relatively old pop music. Even though some regional radios, like "Radio Oberösterreich", also broadcast classical music, literature articles and free radio productions (for example Alice Ertlbauer's Konzertpodium). This is similar to the program of Ö1. One of the longest produced radio programs was the legendary daily Autofahrer unterwegs, (drivers en-route) with 15.153 episodes during 1957 and 1999. Due to its popularity, this program was broadcast in all Austria.

Up until the 1990s, many Ö2 programs were dominated by folksy oldies music and were therefore often called Hausfrauenradio (housewives' radio). Just before private radios were allowed to broadcast in Austria, which were first only allowed to broadcast in one state, the music choices in some Ö2 radios were more internationalized. The new regional, private radios therefore tried to gain marketshare by a large variety of music and different music types. Because of that, there was more of a competition with Ö3, than Ö2. Since all Ö2 radios have a better financial standpoint and more staff, it is easy for them to hold their marketshare, not only in radio, but also in the online news sector.

Except for the world news, all Ö2 regional radios produce their own content 24 hours a day, with a lot of regional content. Regional news, mostly ever half hour, detailed journals („Landesrundschau“ etc.), reportages and service elements ensure a high listener loyalty. The music program gets chosen through a lot of criteria and is mostly made up of oldies, relatively old pop music und traditional folk music. All regional radios have a slightly different amount of each genre, as some only play oldies, while others only play German folk music. During the night, each radio station broadcasts its own non-stop music program, which only gets interrupted for the news.

Up until the mid 1990s, all Ö2 radios had the same program, which only got interrupted for a few hours for regional content. This collective radio was first called Österreich Regional (Austria regional), during its last years Österreich 2 (Ö2). To expand its program, the regional studios contributed their own programs, such as Autofahrer unterwegs, Turnier auf der Schallaburg or other formats. After the introduction of computers in radio stations, there was a high cost reduction in the late 90s, which allowed the ORF to fully regionalize its radio. The name Österreich 2 was eliminated completely, as all new regional radios have the name of their state. All regional radios are also broadcast via the Astra satellite.