Erfurt (dpa/th) - Schlager Radio in Thuringia went on the air on Wednesday with the Eastern hit "Jugendliebe" by singer Ute Freudenberg. The private station can initially be received on four VHF frequencies in Erfurt, Gera, Gotha and Weimar, as Schlager Radio Managing Director Oliver Dunk said at the start of broadcasting on Wednesday. Eisenach should be added by the end of February – Schlager Radio in Jena will probably be activated in the spring. At the end of the network expansion, the technical range will then be around one million people in Bavaria.
According to Dunk, Schlager Radio broadcasts a full 24-hour program with non-stop pop music and news from Germany and the world. In addition to current hits by Helene Fischer or Roland Kaiser, listeners can also look forward to popular hits from the east by Frank Schöbel or Inka Bause.
Fans of hits now have a new format - their own radio station in Thuringia, said Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) at the start of the program in Erfurt and revealed that he also "very often, very happy and very loud" hits like "marble, stone and Iron breaks" sang along. "It puts you in a party mood."
The director of the Thuringian state media authority, Jochen Fasco, said that pop music gives many people an important sense of home. The new VHF offer means there is more media diversity in Thuringia.
MDR Schlagerwelt has been on the air via digital radio since September 2016. This digital special interest program of the public service broadcaster is produced in Erfurt and also broadcast from there.
