The only 24/7 FM Jazz radio station in Germany just turned 25. JazzRadio Berlin, has not lost a day of broadcasting in 25 years.
Julian Allitt is CEO, he says German radio regulations and other broadcasters have created many hardships for the station over the years, but it has survived.
“In 2010, other Berlin stations in a unanimous vote including the major public broadcaster blocked our national sales representation. We were initially refused participation in the national radio audience survey and told we were too small. Several stations then tried to buy us, saying we could not survive without national sales revenue.”
“Salespeople from other Berlin stations told clients that we had no audience data. We took the industry to the national competition court for excluding us from the survey and won.”
Even that was somewhat of a hollow victory.
“For two years in 2012 and 2013 we were forced to pay twice as much as every other radio station in Germany to take part in the industry audience survey.”
Through thick and thin, which included six takeover attempts, most of them hostile; Allitt likes to list successes.
“We have won more medals at the NY Awards than any other German radio station apart from Deutsche Welle, the public international station. We were instrumental in bringing the NAB European conference to Berlin. 80 per cent of our clients in our first two years were new to radio.”
Radio Ink is no stranger to JazzRadio Berlin. Here are links to two other stories we have shared over the years:
This German Jazz Station Really Gets It
It’s Not Rocket Science, It’s Radio
