Re: Is it censorship...for a moment...

[btm805@btrtx9.hrz.uni-bayreuth.de (B. Gramlich)]

Mark, Re:

> I have a (I believe) fairly good picture of what's going on
> in England, but of Europe it's a bit hazy. I know that there were some
> excellent German shows (Rockpalast, for instance) in the `60-70s (`cause
> I've got some on tape, most notably The Kinks and XTC). We had nothing like
> that here.
> Radio is a corporate venture, subject to polls and studies and no
> individualism at all (except for Howard Stern). The day of a DJ playing
> something that HE/SHE thought was worthy is long gone. Sadly.

Hm, maybe I should waste a few words on German radio.  Let's start with a short
history lesson:

Immediately after the war, the British occupying power began to establish
German radio stations in their zone.  They were exactly modelled on BBC,
becoming public stations independent of governmental influence.  The American
and the French zones of occupation followed shortly thereafter, resulting in
ten regional radio stations altogether, roughly speaking each one for every
Land (federal state of Western Germany).  Eight of them also established a
regional TV channel.  The latter were soon supplemented by two big national TV
channels (of essentially the same public structure) whereas national radio
never became important.

One important thing to know about German radio is that commercials are not
allowed in late evening and on Sundays.  Therefore the public pop & rock
channels are subject to the results of polls during daytime only:  This means
(roughly) that you will hear a lot of oldies in the morning and the latest pop
songs in the afternoon.  In late evening, however, every public station has
some fine shows with decent DJs, the best of them certainly comparable to your
Howard Stern (though I don't know him).  It is after about 9 p.m. when you can
expect Who songs other than `Who are you' being played on German radio.  And
since today's cable radio providers have not only one but nearly every regional
public radio in their channels, you can really chose your favorite DJ.  The
public stations share a common after-midnight program with tolerable song
selections two thirds of which being really listenable for a fan of rock music.

In the 80s, when private radio stations were introduced here, the big ones
became direct competitors of the public stations of their region and soon
resembled them in every respect.  They tried to get a `hipper' image, but they
didn't make much difference.  Among the smaller private radio stations,
however, there are a lot of fine local rock channels really worth listening to.

The public rock stations have got used to organizing some rock events of their
own once or twice a year:  open air festivals, special concerts etc.  The best
of them certainly is `Rockpalast' (rock palace) of the WDR station
(`Westdeutscher Rundfunk', the public radio and TV of North Rhine-Westphalia
[that's the densely populated Land to the west with well-known cities like Bonn,
Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen]).  Important Rockpalast events for Who fans were
the Essen concert and `Deep End Live'.

Ok, this was a little boring, but at least Mark wanted to know some more
details.  I hope no one complains about too little Who content.

Bernd