Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln
Country Germany
Founded 1955
Slogan "Mehr hören. Mehr sehen." (Hearing more. Seeing more.)
Headquarters Cologne
Callsigns WDR
Callsign meaning
 West German Broadcasting Corporation
Affiliation ARD
Official website
 http://wdr.de

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR, West German Broadcasting Cologne) 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 the national television channel Das Erste, WDR produces the regional television service WDR Fernsehen (formerly known as WDF and West3) and six regional radio networks.

History

Origins

The Westdeutsche Funkstunde AG (WEFAG) was established on 15 September 1924.

One of WDR's buildings in Cologne

WDR was created in 1955, when Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) was split into Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) – covering Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg – and Westdeutscher Rundfunk, responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia. WDR began broadcasting on two radio networks (one produced jointly with NDR) on 1 January 1956. WDR constitutes the most prominent example of regional broadcasting in Germany.[1]

Directors

Funding

WDR is in part funded by the limited sale of on-air commercial advertising time; however, its principal source of income is the revenue derived from viewer and listener licence fees. As of 2015 the monthly fee due from each household for radio and television reception was €17.50.[4] These fees are collected not directly by WDR but by a joint agency of ARD (and its member institutions), ZDF, and Deutschlandradio.

Television

WDR began its regional television service, Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF), on 17 December 1965. On 27 August 1967 Germany turned on it first color TV program, WDF used a live broadcast from a Bosch Fernseh outside broadcast van to start broadcasting in color. In 1988 the channel was renamed West3; since 1994, it has been known as WDR Fernsehen.

While the programmes are mainly run from their Cologne headquarters, they also have a number of sub-regional studios contributing a regular broadcast called Lokalzeit with the addition "aus Aachen" (Aachen), "OWL" (Bielefeld), "aus Bonn" (Bonn), "aus Dortmund" (Dortmund), "aus Düsseldorf" (Düsseldorf), "aus Duisburg" (Duisburg), "Ruhr" (Essen), "aus Köln" (Cologne and Bonn), "Münsterland" (Münster), "Südwestfalen" (Siegen) and "Bergisches Land" (Wuppertal) for each respective region. WDR has its current affairs and regional-politics studios in Düsseldorf.

It has served as the production entity for network shows on Das Erste of ARD, such as Forbidden Love, which over the years introduced many young actors to the German audience, such as Andreas Stenschke, Jo Weil, Luca Zamperoni and Kay Böger. The TV-sport for the “First Channel” Das Erste is produced in Cologne, and WDR contributes to ARD Digital, 3sat and arte.

Radio

WDR's main radio channels are available on FM and digital (DAB+), as well as via cable and satellite:

In addition WDR broadcasts a number of digital-only radio channels via DAB+, cable, satellite, and internet:

Defunct radio programmes:

Except on Sundays and public holidays, 1LIVE, WDR 2, and WDR 4 each carry a limited amount of paid-for commercial advertising during the daytime.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Potschka, Christian and Golding, Peter (2012) The structural developments of regional broadcasting in Britain and Germany. Media History 18(3-4): 443-458" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-12-02.
  2. ↑ Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR 5) 7 April 2013: "35 Jahre keine Langeweile!" Intendantin Monika Piel verlässt den WDR
  3. ↑ DWDL.de: Tom Buhrow tritt am 1. Juli als WDR-Intendant an, by Thomas Lückerath 18 June 2013
  4. ↑ http://www.rundfunkbeitrag.de/informationen/aktuelles/informationen_zur_beitragssenkung/index_ger.html
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