Free Radio In Berlin and Brandenburg - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- This is not a full English version of the German radiokampagne.de website, but it is a good general description of what it's about.

The Ex-Berliner (No. 2, July 4 - 17, 2002)

FREE THE AIRWAVES

By Emma O’Brien

Mini-senders are three euros at your local electronics store. Wired to the back of pushbikes, mounted to apartment block rooves they are the source and lifeblood of Free Radio in Berlin. A few words and some music recorded onto a tape and then transmitted through the radio waves via these cheap but functional antennae is the sum and total of Berlin's independent and non-commercial radio. Through Mitte with static, heard faintly in Prenzlauer Berg, the signal fades at the Zionskirche. All that exists of alternative radio remains stuck in the Berlin inner city.

A reluctant Senate and a lack of available funds ensure Indy radio in Berlin remains a pirate pursuit, illegal, surreptitious and with very bad reception.

All but five of Germany's Bundeslaender have independent radio broadcasters; Berlin is the most notable exception. The Berlin Senate's position over the last decade has been to deny the need for Free Radio due to a perceived lack of popular support, this attitude has seen a spate of pirate radio stations spring up, illegally tapping into the frequency band with their unique brand of radio for Berlin.

Only open on weekends the Freudenhaus cafe has made an exception for the Thursday meeting of the 'Radiokampagne'. Beer? Tea? The consensus is for tea. A guy with stringy hair and banged-up sneakers goes off to boil the kettle, popping back now and then to listen in on the meeting and give his two cents worth. The rest buy beer and settle on leather couches, stools and coffee tables. They're running late.

They meet monthly, sometimes more, and at different locations, but always around Prenz'l Berg. Last month about twenty attended, this time only ten or eleven.

Started late last year by a hardcore of eight, the 'Radiokampagne' or 'radio campaign' is fuelled by a common passion for radio and Berlin's alternative communities and subcultures.

Securing the funds and support for 'Freies Radio' is the unbridled focus of the campaign. Literally translated: Free Radio. Free of commercialism, free of ads, free of any corporate and political influence and free of poppy Top 10 tunes. Whatever adjectives you choose to accord it, Free Radio is broadcasting without the Britney bullshit and with a political and social conscience. Bavaria, Badem Wurttemburg and Nordrhein- Westphalien have it, but not Berlin, the political capital and centre of the underground, the hip and progressive pulse where the extremes of Germany meet and converge.

A guy in a polar fleece and bumbag chairs the meeting. Winnie Medina has been involved in radio for more than five years, first at Radio Dreyeck in Freiburg, the most successful of Germany's sixty Free Radio stations. He has also worked a few extended stints in South America for student radio.

Of all Germany's metropolitan centres, Berlin, with its punks and Anti-fascists, Squats and artist communes would be the city most likely to be home to a thriving alternative radio scene.

"Nobody can understand it," says Winnie Medina. "A wealth of potential exists within Berlin's subcultures and small communities, with independent radio you can get snapshots into various scenes in Berlin."

"Free Radio would be unconventional, subcultural, engaging and with a strong local perspective, it would focus on people and issues that are underrepresented in the mainstream media and have a strong cultural portion including Off-Broadway theatre and literature," he says.

Compared to commercial radio, Free Radio is a lot cheaper to produce. 100,000 to 400,000 euros a year compared to a hefty 2million in yearly costs for a commercial station such as Berlin's Radio Kiss. "An independent radio station would be playing to a totally different audience to us," said a spokeswoman for Radio Kiss. "We are driven by what people want to hear and at the moment that is primarily techno club beats and the Top 10."

The Media Body of Berlin Brandenburg (MABB) is allocated 2% of the money gained through taxes levied at both TV and radio broadcasters in Berlin and its neighbouring Bundesland. The body rakes in an impressive 6.2 million euros every year.

At the moment a small portion of that is used to fund Berlin's contentious 'Offene Kanal' or Public Frequency, a station based on a vague socialist notion of participatory democracy that can only be heard through cable.

You only have to complete a radio broadcast course and come up with an idea for a show to secure a spot on the Public Frequency.

The 'Offene Kanal', says the 'Radiokampagne', is one of the many reasons why the Senate is yet to act on Free Radio. The City doesn't see a need for another community run radio entity.

"The money is there for Free Radio in Berlin, the decision just has to be made whether to give it out," says Medina. The 'Radiokampagne' says it needs about 260,000 euros a year to be able to set up and adequately run Berlin's first Free Radio station. The election of the red/red coalition to the Berlin Senate was seen as the first realistic opportunity to lobby the government for a piece of the broadcast tax pie.

"When the CDU lost the election we thought, okay, now we have a chance," says Medina.

The conservative political climate of the last ten years has had a lot to do with the lack of success of Free Radio so far. The decision as to whether to allow the 'Radiokampagne' access to money from the braodcast tax fund rests almost entirely with the Senate. "It is merely a political decision whether they choose to keep the money or give it out, and in the last ten years they have always chosen to keep it," says Medina. "We don't want money specifically from the Senate, we want their political support for an alternative radio choice."

"The government is scared that Free Radio will call for a revolution or something, of course that is total nonsense," says Jens Groeger, of Pi-radio, Berlin's most recent example of Free Radio, broadcast illegally. Pi-radio is also a core supporter of the 'Radiokampagne' Free Radio will always been a critical voice," he said.

Seven weeks ago some core members of the campaign met with the SPD's spokesperson on Media, Frank Zimmermann.

Frank Zimmermann told The Berliner that the SPD-PDS coalition wants to support Free Radio in Berlin but that the decision essentially rests with the representative Media Body for Berlin Brandenburg (MABB).

"We definitely want to foster Free Radio in Berlin but whether some of the 2% can be made available for funding a Free Radio station is up to the MABB," said Zimmermann.

The official law on Media in Berlin only acknowledges two types of radio sender, Commercial and Public Access. Zimmerman says the Senate top priority is to alter this aspect of the law so that the term "non-commercial" more adequately reflects independent radio, not just the 'Offene Kanal'.

"We definitely have a desire to encourage creativity in the Berlin radio scene," said Zimmermann.

While the MABB has the final say as to whether money will be allocated or not, the Senate has the responsibility to lobby the body on behlf of their constituants. "The political will is there," said Zimmermann. "We just need to make that clear to the MABB."

With the cost of renting a frequency on the Berlin radio waves over 10,000 euros a month and the Senate's apparent unwillingness to distribute funds from the coffers of the GEZ, Free Radio in Berlin has often found itself in the role of a radio frequency pirate. A pre-recorded programme of reports and music and a mini antenna held in just the right position to tap into a disused radio frequency, and you have Pi-radio.

"It is embarrassing that in a capital city the rights of citizens to express their views via the microphone is ignored," says Jens Groeger.

Groeger is from Freiburg and also got his first taste of Free Radio via Radio Dreyeck. "Even in Baden- Wuerttemburg with it's history of deeply conservative government they have had Free Radio for fifteen years."

Pi-radio, short for 'Pirate Radio' attempted to broadcast highly political programs with a particular focus on the needs of the local Berlin community. They tried unsuccessfully to get a legal frequency and now only broadcast irregularly for particular cultural events. They did rent a frequency and broadcast hip-hop for a week in summer 2001 in conjunction with a Hip-Hop school run by the Volksbuhne. "But that didn't have much to do with Free, political, subcultural radio," says Groeger.

The Berlin Free Radio landscape is dotted with the carcasses of various pirate senders. Started up, transmitted in secret and eventually shut down by the cops after a mere few months broadcasting.

In March, 2000 as a hip-hop programme was being illegally disseminated by the pirate club music station Twen- FM, police mounted a surprise search of the old house that doubled as their studio. All their equipment was confiscated. Five months later the headquarters of 'Radio Westfernsehen' a more politically focused pirate broadcaster located in an unheated apartment in Prenzlauer Berg, were also raided. Everything was seized and the station made to pay a penalty of more than a thousand deutschmarks. The fine for illegally broadcasting currently stands at 2500 euros. Twen FM took its programme of DJ and club music to the Internet after the raid. 'Radio Westfernsehen', however, did not survive its brush with the authorities and no longer exists.

A local Latin American internet broadcaster Radio Onda as well as a handful of other cultural organisations are also involved with the 'Radiokampagne'

A small group is gathered around a stack of cardboard. It's the campaign's new posters featuring a cartoonish Berlin TV Tower made to look like a radio antenna.

They talk about actions, how to widen the profile of the campaign. Flyers at the Karneval der Kulturen? A joint venture with Indy-media at the Mauerpark for June 21st?

"It is imperative that we publicise the campaign around Berlin, there is no Free Radio but there is a small group of people who know that Free Radio is a totally cool and brilliant thing for a city, but there is an even larger amount of people who have absolutely no idea what the hell it is and that's why they can't support it," says Winnie Medina.

Seamus, a native Irishman, suggests the group run a stall at the Fête de la Musique, a music festival run in Berlin for the last six years at the Kunsthaus Tacheles and other venues. There are DJs, live bands and various groups attend. "We could sell beer?" says Seamus.

But with only 200 euros in the bank and no time to get a sponsor, they argue. Seamus is all for it, the tea maker against.

Their favourite action is by bike. With mini- antennae attached to their bike racks playing a short pre-recorded program they pedal through the streets with their personalised message of Indy radio.

Just what kind of programme they would air if they finally get the station up and running is still open to interpretation.

The Radiokampagne is unequivocal when it comes to advertising. "Free Radio in Germany never has ads, commercialism and Free Radio don't go together," says Medina. "You try and be independent and you can't do that when you have an advertising agency giving you money and then saying, 'we didn't like that' then taking their money back and the whole project falls apart."

When it comes to music "anything is possible" says the 'Radiokampagne'. The programme would feature a broad line-up of DJs, club music, Indy and live performances. Everything except for Britney and her buddies in the Top 10 charts.

Theoretically, anyone could come up with an idea for a show, pitch it, and go on air the next day.

It's getting late, people are looking to the door waiting for gaps in the discussion, a good time to leave the meeting. The tea has finally arrived, strong and in odd cups.

"Basically it all comes down to one thing," says Medina. "If people don't understand what Free Radio is then we don't have a hope of being able to make it work."

They talk about when to hold the next meeting, they disperse. Someone turns off the disco ball.

The campaign also features a so-far relatively successful online petition, posted at the group's website, www.radiokampagne.de