With a Masters Degree in Astro-Nuclear Physics and a Doctorate in Physical Chemistry, Dr. Lyria Messahel has been programming JazzRadio Berlin since 2014. Fluent in French, Arabic, German and English; she tells Radio Ink it was the language of computers that resulted in this unlikely partnership.
Radio Ink: How does someone with a degree Astro-Nuclear Physics become the PD of an FM Jazz Station in Berlin?
Messahel: Of course, I already appreciated jazz. Much of my academic work involved mathematical modelling on computers, so when the station had a problem with the server and program files, they asked me via a friend to help sort it out. I did and things developed from there!
Incidentally, a lot of scientists are really into jazz. There are quite some similarities in structure with mathematics and physics.
Radio Ink: Tell us about your station.
Messahel: JazzRadio Berlin is Germany’s only 24/7 FM jazz music station. We’ve been on-air continuously for 26 years. We have a (two-weekly) cume of 458,000 listeners on FM, and a monthly cume online of 285,000. We are very much an exception in Germany. All the big groups have tried to buy us but we value our independence and we are committed to jazz.
As you would expect, the majority of our music is great jazz from the USA! Our output also includes weekly programs in English from New York and Los Angeles, presented respectively by jazz artists Jon Regen and John Story.
Radio Ink: How is the radio industry in Germany different from the business here in the U.S.?
Messahel: There are two big differences; in Germany you can’t flip format and public radio also takes advertising.
You can apply to broadcast in any program format but, once issued, your licence requires you to keep to your promised format.
Public broadcasters share in 8 Billion Euro (9.5 Billion USD) every year from the broadcasting tax – we don’t get a Cent. They also compete for ad revenue and own one of the two main national radio sales agencies. So it’s not exactly a level playing field!
The big commercial broadcasters set out to block us in the market, through their ownership of the second major national sales agency which refuses to represent JazzRadio Berlin. It’s a serious issue. It stifles competition and restricts choice so the ultimate losers are the listening public.
Radio Ink: COVID-19 changed a lot in how the U.S. Radio industry does business. How has the pandemic impacted the broadcast industry in Germany?
Messahel: Our revenue from advertising and jazz concerts has fallen by half in the past year. We’ve cut our costs to the bone and we’ve also had 47,000 Euro (56,000 USD) in a special Covid-19 government subsidy for commercial broadcasters. It’s tough but most stations are getting through it.
Public broadcasting is less affected because of its subsidy from the broadcasting tax.
Radio comes into its own at times of crisis. JazzRadio Berlin teamed up with the Berlin Chamber of Commerce to bring daily bulletins to help our listeners get the support and advice they need and to stay healthy during the pandemic.
Radio Ink: What is it that you like about radio?
Messahel: It’s an accessible, honest, friendly one-to-one medium which brings a lot of happiness and enriches people’s lives. It’s confirmed in almost every email or letter I get from our listeners and it makes my job truly worthwhile.
In our particular case, I like that we give airplay to jazz artists who would not have anything like the same opportunity on any other radio station in Germany.
Thanks to Dr. Lyria Messahel, PD and Julian Allitt, CEO
JazzRadio Berlin
