Germany and Radio Networks

Radio stations and networks in Germany go down a particular path.

First, there are public stations/networks (run by ARD's public TV-Media tax on households), and spread out across the sixteen states of Germany.  Then there are commercial stations/networks, which are funded by commercial activity or charity action (mostly church-related networks).

If you own or operate a station....it has to be approved by the individual state.  It's not a federalized program....each of the sixteen states run the system with their own rules and standards.

The chief paths to broadcast?  FM, to a lesser degree AM, and digital (DAB-plus).  You can put your antenna up and look for AM stations and I would suggest that whatever you could pick up in 1985.....more than 90-percent of those have shutdown. Most stations have gone to FM to operate.

The term 'community station'?  It'll be a charity-run or foundation-run type station....built strictly around one single town or city.  It would surprise most folks that near 90-odd community stations exist in Germany today.  An example of a community station?  Helle Welle, based out of the Stuttgart region.  It's a combination Christian-Jewish network.  Another example is Radio-X out of Frankfurt, which runs pure and absolute Jazz (one could suggest an absolute obsession with that style of music).

How radio stations exist across Germany today?  Roughly 500.

FM networks that operate across the entire nation?  No.  You will find a handful of stations that bulk up on power and have the strength to carry over to three states (to some degree)....an example of this is BIG-FM (out of the Pfalz region).

Talk-radio?  The 'creature' doesn't exist.  You might find various formats used to interview people, but you won't find a case where German 'Rush Limbaugh' exists. 

The effect of AFN (American Forces Network)?  Well....a LOT of Germans over the age of sixty will say that they had a huge fascination with AFN in the 1960s/1970s, and preferred AFN to most all German public and commercialized networks.  By the 1990s, that number had dwindled drastically.  Part of the reason, I perceive, is that German stations got more aggressive....listened to their complaints, and improved.  While AFN does exist to some minor degree today....I doubt if you can find one German out of a thousand today.....who listens to some minor degree....to AFN.  And to be honest, since the internet era arrived....even among GI' in Germany.....I doubt if you an find more than 2-percent who actively listen to AFN (most will say they turn it on for news while driving to work).