Visiting Radio Leinehertz

To complete our image of citizen media in Germany we visited the open radio channel Radio Leinehertz in Hannover in the state Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).

Besides getting to know this citizen platform, we also met other ASA participants working at Radio Leinehertz.

Radio Leinehertz is an open radio channel in Hannover. It was founded in 2009 with the aim to support democracy, educate people about media and political structures and give them the opportunity to present their opinions to the public.

35 % of the radio channel is financed by the State Media Authority of Lower Saxnoy (NLM). Furthermore, they receive financial support by the city of Hannover, the job center, donations, sponsors and income from their shop. All in all, they receive around €700.000-750.000 per year.

The radio channel has one editing room, music control room, various offices, three studios, two recording rooms, a meeting room and a shop. They also share rooms with the free TV channel h1.

Around 30 people are working at Radio Leinehertz including the staff of 10 people, apprentices, interns and volunteers. Only the staff and the apprentices are paid by Radio Leinehertz.

Radio Leinehertz produces a large variety of different shows, part of them in cooperation with the open TV channel h1. The radio program runs from 6:00-18:00. From 18:00 to 6:00 there is a free space for the program of the volunteers. Around 250 volunteers, who are chosen every 6 months, produce various magazines about different topics.

Radio Leinehertz covers the city and region of Hannover of 1.5 mio. People. Their website has around 40.000- 50.000 visitors per day and the radio channel 20.000-22.000 listeners.

As Radio Leinehertz main goal is to support democracy by the means of media, the people working for the open channel are free to choose which topics they want to talk about. The liberty to freely talk about your opinion and produce shows about topics that interest you is enabled by the good communication to the radio’s staff.

For more information you can visit leinehertz.net.