Public service broadcaster in Northern Germany
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
(
pronounced
[?n??t?d??t??
???ntf?ŋk]
; "Northern German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to
NDR
(
pronounced
[??ndeː????]
ⓘ
), is a
public radio and television broadcaster
, based in
Hamburg
. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of
Lower Saxony
,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
and
Schleswig-Holstein
. NDR is a member of the
ARD
organisation.
History
[
edit
]
Pre-war
[
edit
]
In 1924 broadcasting began in Hamburg, when
Norddeutsche Rundfunk AG
(NORAG) was created. In 1934 it was incorporated into the
Großdeutscher Rundfunk
, the national broadcaster controlled by
Joseph Goebbels
's
Propagandaministerium
, as
Reichssender Hamburg
.
In 1930, NORAG commissioned the Welte-Funkorgel ? a large
theatre organ
custom-built by the firm of
M. Welte & Sons
to meet the specific acoustic requirements of radio broadcasting ? and installed it in their radio studio (today the world's oldest such facility still in use) on Rothenbaumchaussee 132, Hamburg, where it continues to be played, now maintained by volunteers.
[1]
Post-war
[
edit
]
In the
British Zone
of occupied Germany, the military authorities quickly established
Radio Hamburg
to provide information to the population of the area.
The
British Control Commission
appointed
Hugh Greene
to manage the creation of public service broadcasting in their Zone. On 22 September 1945,
Radio Hamburg
became
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
(North-Western German Broadcasting), the single broadcasting organisation of the British Zone.
The state of
Bremen
, while surrounded by the British Zone, was given to the United States as part of the
American Zone
. A separate broadcaster was established for this state,
Radio Bremen
. However, Radio Bremen and NDR cooperate in certain programmes and stations.
Lander control
[
edit
]
In 1948, the Control Commission transferred the
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
(NWDR) to the control of the constituent Lander (
Hamburg
,
Lower Saxony
,
North Rhine-Westphalia
and
Schleswig-Holstein
). At first, NWDR had just one radio station, later known as NWDR1. In 1950, it introduced a regional station for the north,
NWDR Nord
(later to become NDR2), and a regional station for the west,
NWDR West
(later WDR2).
That same year, NWDR became a founding member of
ARD
, a joint organisation of all German regional broadcasters. The NWDR also played a founding role in launching
625-line
television in Germany, starting broadcasts on 25 December 1952.
NWDR split
[
edit
]
In February 1955,
North Rhine-Westphalia
decided to establish its broadcaster, whilst
Hamburg
,
Lower Saxony
and
Schleswig-Holstein
continued with the existing joint system. To this end, the NWDR was split into two broadcasters, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in the north and
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
(WDR) in North Rhine-Westphalia.
NDR continued to operate out of Hamburg. The split was effective from 1 January 1956, although the radio station NWDR1 remained a joint operation with regional opt-outs.
The NWDR television service also remained a joint operation, from 1 April 1956 under the name
Nord- und Westdeutsche Rundfunkverband
(North and West German Broadcasting Federation ? NWRV). NDR and WDR launched separate television services for their respective areas in 1961.
NDR history
[
edit
]
On 1 December 1956 NDR started its third radio channel, NDR3 (from 1962 to 1973, it was operated jointly with
Sender Freies Berlin
).
In 1958
Han Koller
became the musical director of Hamburg's
NDR Jazz Workshop
, which became a popular radio broadcast. Numerous names in
Jazz
performed on these broadcasts including;
Dave Brubeck
,
Kenny Clarke
,
Lucky Thompson
,
Wes Montgomery
,
Johnny Griffin
,
Oscar Peterson
,
Ben Webster
,
Sahib Shihab
,
Carmell Jones
,
Lee Konitz
,
Cecil Payne
,
Slide Hampton
,
Phil Woods
,
Jazz Composers Orchestra
,
Howard Riley
,
Barry Guy
,
John Surman
, the
Kuhn Brothers
and
Barney Wilen
. Some of these have been released since 1987, while the older ones only exist as rare
bootlegs
, sought after by many
Jazz
aficionados.
On 4 January 1965 NDR, Radio Bremen and Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) began a joint "third channel" television service,
Norddeutsches Fernsehen
, later
Nord 3
and
N3
. Since December 2001, this service is called
NDR Fernsehen
.
SFB
started a separate TV channel for Berlin in 1992, called B1, later SFB1, now
RBB Fernsehen
.
In 1977,
Gerhard Stoltenberg
, the
minister-president
of
Schleswig-Holstein
unilaterally cancelled the
NDR-Staatsvertrag
, the governing contract of NDR. This caused a discussion on how to organise broadcasting in the North German region.
In 1980, NDR signed a new contract with the three Lander, changing the pattern of broadcasting and creating new regional services. NDR1 was divided into three independent radio stations from 2 January 1981:
- NDR 1 Radio Niedersachsen
(from 2002,
NDR 1 Niedersachsen
) for
Lower Saxony
- NDR 1 Welle Nord
for
Schleswig-Holstein
- NDR Hamburg-Welle 90.3
(from 2 December 2001,
NDR 90.3
) for
Hamburg
NDR2 and NDR3 (now NDR Kultur) continued as regional stations.
These regional services were further subdivided with opt-outs for specific areas.
NDR 1 Niedersachsen
established regions based around Oldenburg-Ostfriesland-Bremen-Cuxhaven, Osnabruck-Emsland, greater Hanover, Braunschweig-southern Lower Saxony and northern Lower Saxony.
NDR 1 Welle Nord
was subdivided with studio centres in Flensburg, Heide, Norderstedt, Lubeck and Kiel.
Roughly around 1983?1984,
the Most Mysterious Song on The Internet
was recorded from NDR2.
On 30 September 1988 NDR introduced a
Teletext
service on its
N3
television channel. Originally called
Nordtext
, it became
NDR Text
on 2 December 2001. The Teletext service also offers information for viewers in the Radio Bremen area under the title
Radio Bremen Text
.
On 1 April 1989, NDR introduced its fourth radio service, NDR4. This service was later renamed
NDR4 Info
and since 2 June 2002 has been known as
NDR Info
. The station is a news and information service for the whole NDR region.
On 1 January 1992,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
in former
East Germany
joined NDR as the fourth state in the organisation, where it replaced
Fernsehen der DDR
and
Rundfunk der DDR
. The area receives the main NDR radio and television stations, plus the regional
NDR 1 Radio mV
, which has subregions based in Schwerin, Rostock, Neubrandenburg and Greifswald. In October of the same year, SFB in Berlin stopped relaying the
Nord 3
television service in favour of its own
Berlin 1
TV channel.
On 4 April 1994, NDR introduced
N-Joy Radio
(known simply as
N-Joy
since 2001), a radio station aimed at 14 to 29-year-old listeners.
On 3 October 1997, NDR3 was relaunched as
Radio 3
, produced in co-operation with Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg. At the end of 2000, SFB joined Radio 3. This arrangement lasted until ORB and SFB merged on 1 January 2003 and started its own classical and cultural network. NDR3 became
NDR Kultur
on 1 January 2003.
On 1 November 2001, NDR and Radio Bremen launched a joint radio station,
Nordwestradio
, to serve Bremen and northwestern Lower Saxony. This service replaced
Radio Bremen 2
and control of the service remains with Radio Bremen.
As the organization responsible within the
ARD consortium of German public-service broadcasters
for overseeing the country's participation in the
Eurovision Song Contest
, NDR staged the
56th annual contest
which was held in
Dusseldorf
on 10?14 May 2011, outside their broadcasting area.
Studios
[
edit
]
NDR's studios in Hamburg are in two locations, both within the borough of
Eimsbuttel
: the television studios are in the quarter of
Lokstedt
while the radio studios are in the quarter of
Harvestehude
(though they are called "Funkhaus am Rothenbaum"), a little closer to the city centre. There are also regional studios, having both radio and television production facilities, in the state capitals
Hanover
,
Kiel
and
Schwerin
. The facility in Hanover is now called the
Landesfunkhaus Niedersachsen
. In addition, NDR maintains facilities at
ARD
's national studios in
Berlin
.
Organization and finances
[
edit
]
Chairmen of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk
[
edit
]
- 1955?1961: Walter Hilpert
- 1961?1974:
Gerhard Schroder
- 1974?1980: Martin Neuffer
- 1980?1987: Friedrich-Wilhelm Rauker
- 1987?1991: Peter Schiwy
- 1991?2008: Jobst Plog
- 2008?2020: Lutz Marmor
- 2020?present: Joachim Knuth
Funding
[
edit
]
NDR 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 August 2021, the monthly fee due from each household for radio and television reception was €18.36.
[3]
These fees are collected not directly by NDR but by a
joint agency
of
ARD
(and its member institutions),
ZDF
, and
Deutschlandradio
.
Services
[
edit
]
NDR currently provides a number of services on its own or in co-operation with other broadcasters:
Television
[
edit
]
- Das Erste
? joint national channel
- NDR Fernsehen
(formerly
N3
and
Norddeutsches Fernsehen
) ? third public service channel for the NDR area and
Bremen
, in co-operation with
Radio Bremen
.
- Phoenix
? events channel produced by ARD and ZDF
- KI.KA
? children's channel produced by ARD and ZDF
- Arte
? Franco-German culture channel
- 3sat
? cultural channel, co-produced by ARD, ZDF, ORF, and SRG
- tagesschau24
? news channel
Radio
[
edit
]
- NDR 1
[
de
]
network consists of four independent radio stations:
- NDR 90,3
[
de
]
? Local station for Hamburg, playing music for older listeners.
- NDR 1 Niedersachsen
[
de
]
? Local station for Lower Saxony, run from Hanover with some regional opt-outs. Plays music for older listeners.
- NDR 1 Welle Nord
[
de
]
? Local station for Schleswig-Holstein, run from Kiel with some regional opt-outs. Plays music for older listeners.
- NDR 1 Radio MV
[
de
]
? Local station for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, run from Schwerin with some regional opt-outs. Plays music for older listeners.
- NDR 2
[
de
]
? Popular music station for middle-aged listeners. This is a commercial public service station.
- NDR Kultur
[
de
]
? Arts and culture station (formerly NDR 3). Plays classical music.
- NDR Info
[
de
]
? News and information station (formerly NDR 4 or NDR 4 Info).
- NDR Info Spezial
[
de
]
- Same programming as NDR Info with opt-outs for sports, parliament sittings, maritime forecast, multicultural broadcasts and the ARD Infonacht.
- N-Joy
? youth station.
- NDR Blue
[
de
]
? Music "away from the charts".
- NDR Schlager
[
de
]
? a music station with the programming format
schlager
music and easy listening
Broadcasts
[
edit
]
Musical organizations
[
edit
]
NDR has four musical organizations, including two orchestras, a chorus and a "big band":
- NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
? the
North German Radio Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
; created in 1945 as the Symphony Orchestra of the NWDR and continued by NDR under the name
NDR Sinfonieorchester
between 1955 ? 2016. It was renamed in 2016 to its current name. Principal conductors have included
Gunter Wand
and
John Eliot Gardiner
. Currently it is
Alan Gilbert
.
- NDR Radiophilharmonie
? the
NDR Radio Philharmonic
; created in 1950 as the Hanover Radio Orchestra of the NWDR and continued by NDR under its current name since 1955. Principal conductors have included Willy Steiner, Bernhard Klee, and
Eiji Oue
. The orchestra plays light classical or "concert hall" music.
- NDR Chor
or
Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks
?created in 1946 by the NWDR and continued under its current name NDR since 1955. The choir specializes in "Alte Musik", but a broad repertory also includes contemporary music.
- NDR Bigband
; created by the NWDR and continued by NDR in 1955 as the
NDR Studioband
. Renamed
NDR Bigband
in 1971.
Transmitters
[
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]
FM, MW and TV
[
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]
FM and TV
[
edit
]
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
[
edit
]
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in former
East Germany
, NDR programmes are broadcast from facilities owned by Media Broadcast GmbH, a former subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Other facilities
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Current members
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Former members
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Programmes
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Channels
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Current regional channels
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International channels
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Joint venture with ZDF
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Former
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Active
members
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Associate
members
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participants
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International
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National
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