by Wolfgang Schlag
Mr. Schlag was talking about the radio history, especially in Austria, and his work at OE1.
The history of radio started in 1920 in the USA with KDKA, which was organized by a big company; after that governments also started radio. It started in America and also in other countries with music, literature and commercials.
The first radio station started in 1924, the station was named Radio Verkehrs A.G. (RAVAG), the radio station was overtaken by national socialists in 1934. In 1939 they built the “Funkhaus” in Vienna, which still exists.
Radio was politically very important.
In 1967 OE3 started, it is a Pop Radio Station, it was structured like Radio Luxemburg, which was the example for Radio OE3. Also, OE1 went on air in 1967, this radio broadcasted mainly classical music at this time and educational content.
In this time new music forms and festivals appeared, like the Beatles, Woodstock-festival etc. The modern Pop Music started also in this era. These occurrences had been also interesting for broadcast stations, because new material could have been broadcasted to the people.
The lecturer mentioned also the radio program “Musicbox”, which was an one hour program in the evening, which was a little bit provoking.
Especially for people living at the countryside, programs like “Musicbox” were very interesting, because they had no opportunity to get information or music in an easy way.
In the 80s and 90s OE1 changed a lot, more world music, ethic music, critical pop music and latin music were broadcasted, because OE3 had less world content. So, OE1 changed to a colorful broadcast station, capitalism, environmental crashes, healthcare, traveling, globalization and stories of people are nowadays content of this radio station.
Mr. Schlag switched for some time to the television, but he came back to the radio. He likes the radio much more, because of its simplicity. It is very easily to broadcast, especially nowadays. You need just a good microphone and a laptop. In Corona times he told that everybody produced at home, because it works so easily. Television is still much more complicated.
OE1 is a special idea of taking care of the Austrians, working on democracy, education and on fun. He thinks that the radio will survive. One aspect is the missing orientation about fake news in social media. Information broadcasted from Radio like ORF, is always checked and save.
Furthermore, the lecturer told a story from a friend from Italy about fake news. He made the experience that 100% of fake news came from Russia, there is a web-platform, then a radio station, then a newspaper, and this newspaper is connected to Russia. The goal is to destabilize Europe threw fake news and fake media.
So, the job for the radio is the responsibility doing something for society and a sustainable future.
I think also that the radio will survive, not just for cooking, but also for getting right information and to educate people, who do not have the opportunity to other broadcast platforms like “spotify” or who just want to turn on the radio and do not want to search for information at the internet.
