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Deutschlandfunk ( DLF, Broadcast Germany) is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio.
In the 1950s, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) began broadcasting its Deutschlandsender station on longwave. In response to this, the then-Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk applied for a licence to operate a similar longwave service on behalf of the ARD. This was granted in 1956 and operated as Deutscher Langwellensender ("German Longwave Station").
On 29 November 1960, the federal government under Konrad Adenauer created Deutschlandfunk as a national broadcasting corporation based in Cologne. At the same time, the government's attempted creation of a national television channel under its direct control (later to become ZDF) prompted a complaint from several states to the Federal Constitutional Court regarding broadcasting powers. In the "First Broadcasting Judgement", handed down on 28 February 1961, the court held while that broadcasting to Germany was not a power granted to the federal government and therefore delegated to the states, broadcasting from Germany to other countries fell under the federal government's responsibility to conduct foreign affairs.
When Norddeutscher Rundfunk's licence to broadcast on longwave expired, the federal government acquired the frequencies for Deutschlandfunk and began transmissions on 1 January 1962, joining the ARD on 7 June.
Deutschlandfunk broadcast primarily in German, targeting the GDR and German language minorities in Eastern Europe. However, its European Department was responsible for foreign-language transmissions to neighbouring countries in Europe, primarily from the Ehndorf transmitter. From 7 June 1963 it began foreign language transmissions in Czech language, Croatian, Polish language and Serbian language. Later it focused on the Federal Republic's neighbours in northern Europe, including English programming for Ireland and the UK. Inter-continental broadcasts were the responsibility of Deutsche Welle. Back in 1989, also news on the half-hour were placed next to the hourly news.
On 1 July 1993, DLF's European Department was transferred to Deutsche Welle. DLF English programmes were phased out over several years and replaced by DW's intercontinental programmes.
The rest of DLF was merged into Deutschlandradio ("Germany Radio"), a public broadcasting institution created to oversee national services, from 1 January 1994. DLF was given a new remit as a news and current affairs service, while retaining its staff and studio facilities in Cologne. The service remains free of advertising. In the years immediately after the merger it was sometimes referred to as DeutschlandRadio Köln ("Germany Radio Cologne").
Deutschlandradio developed its service and beside of Deutschlandfunk (mainly news and information) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur (culture in a broader sense) they started Deutschlandfunk Nova, which is also based on production from Deutschlandfunk and targets young adults, mainly with spoken-word. The Dokumente und Debatten is an opt-out channel, often for special events and significant parliamentary debates.
On weekdays, the morning news magazine Informationen am Morgen is broadcast between 05:00 and 09:00, with frequent news bulletins. News magazines are also broadcast between 12:00 and 13:30 ( Informationen am Mittag), and between 18:00 and 18:40 ( Informationen am Abend). The main evening bulletin ( Das war der Tag ("That was the Day")) is from 23:10 to 23:57. Selections from German and international newspaper commentaries are interspersed in the morning, noon, and midnight news magazines.
Until the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 came into effect on 23 November 1978, Deutschlandfunk was transmitted on longwave from Sender Donebach and on mediumwave from Bad Dürrheim, Cremlingen, Ravensburg, Ehndorf, and Mainflingen. With implementation of the plan Bad Dürrheim was shut down. In 1979 new transmitters came into service: in Erching for daytime longwave transmission and in 1980/81 in Nordkirchen and Thurnau for mediumwave transmission.
On 1 January 1989 the Aholming transmitter replaced Erching and allowed 24-hour service on the second longwave frequency. On 1 October 1994 Heusweiler transmitter, which had previously transmitted "Europawelle Saar", began transmitting Deutschlandfunk. On 31 December 1994 Mainflingen transmitter was shut down. On 31 December 2014 longwave transmissions from Donebach on 153 kHz and Aholming on 207 kHz ceased, although Donebach 153 kHz continued into the early hours of 1 January 2015 before being shut down. On 31 December 2015 all remaining medium wave transmissions ceased at 2350 CET.
The radio station is available on the apps for Android and iOS. There are two options: 1. Live stream 2. Catchup of the latest news summary.
In December 1962 the transmission power of Mainflingen was increased to 300 kW. Until 1967 its antenna was on the same site as the Mainflingen longwave transmitters. This resulted in interference problems, which made the desired further increase of transmission power impossible. A new transmitter, with a directional and an omnidirecional antenna, was built in the mid-1960s on a site south of the A3, at a distance great enough from the longwave transmitters that even when using a power of 1000 kW, no greater interference problems would occur. This facility went into service on 1 January 1967.
The directional and the omnidirectional antennas were somewhat unusual for mediumwave broadcasting antennas. The omnidirectional antenna consisted of a ground-fed 142-metre-tall guyed mast, carrying a double conical cage antenna with a diameter of 64 metres. This construction allowed its usage for all mediumwave frequencies, and therefore also as backup antenna for Deutschlandfunk's mediumwave transmitters at other sites. The directional antenna consisted of two horizontal which were mounted on 4.85-metre-tall guyed masts at a height of 75 metres, with a radiation maximum showing in northeast and southwest direction. As the omnidirectional antenna could not be used for the full available transmission power of 700 kW, in 1974 a 95-metre-tall guyed ground-fed mast radiator was built. A transmission power of 1050 kW was also possible by switching the third backup transmitter in parallel, but for economical reasons was never used. The transmitter was now run during the day with 700 kW and omnidirectional radiation, and at night with 350 kW and directional radiation, and was also used in the evenings for transmitting English-language programmes.
The introduction of the wave plan of Geneva resulted in an increase of the transmission frequency from 1538 kHz to 1539 kHz. Mainflingen's daily operation mode was not affected. However, according to the wave plan, it was no longer allowed to use the double conical antenna as backup antenna for Deutschlandfunk's other mediumwave transmitters. The regulations of the wave plan of Geneva do not normally allow operation of backup transmitters more than 50 kilometres away from the standard site without special coordinative measures. This antenna was therefore dismantled in 1982.
After 1 March 1983 Deutschlandfunk was also broadcast at night using omnidirectional radiation, and the four masts of the directional antenna was dismantled afterwards. From 1 April 1988 the transmission power was reduced to 350 kW. Beside the bad groundwave propagation of the used frequency, broadcasts from the transmitter were only sufficiently well-received during daytime, despite the high power output. This resulted in a shut-down of the transmitter on 31 December 1994, some years after the cancellation of foreign language transmissions.
As a replacement, Saarländischer Rundfunk's Heusweiler transmitter was leased. It was first planned to demolish the Mainflingen facility, but on 1 April 1996 Evangeliums-Rundfunk (ERF), a religious broadcaster, which already hired transmission time at Trans World Radio restarted its operation.
Several disputes between Deutsche Telekom and the Mainhausen municipality occurred, as after the relaunch, problems with electromagnetic influence of electric devices were reported. Local residents were therefore opposed to continued use of the transmitter. In 1998 it was decided that the site could be used for mediumwave transmission and modernization of the facility started. First the old transmitter was replaced by a new, fully transmitter, which would be also able to operate in DRM mode.
In order to allow a good night-time transmission without causing too many problems with electromagnetic influence, a cross-dipole antenna with a radiation maximum pointing vertically into the sky was built in early 2006. This antenna, which is one of the few applications of circular polarisation for broadcasting, is mounted on 5 guyed masts. The central mast of this antenna is grounded. It carries the feeder cables running to the dipole, while the masts at the edge are standing on insulators and grounded via in such way that they radiate as low a frequency as possible. In this way, undesired parasitic radiations, which are the cause of electromagnetic influence, are suppressed. The radiated wave must be right-hand polarized, otherwise the signal reflected on the ionosphere would be 20 Decibel less strong. In spring 2006 this new antenna went into service. It is used only for night-time transmissions, as the desired ionospheric reflection occurs only at night. During the day the old mast is used.
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