No more WRS on FM

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
21
actually there are plenty of people who do listen to radio and enjoy it, it's just that the radio that works now is often community centered and 'different'. radio stations that have more loyalty among listeners tend to be area specific, genre specific or the like. stations that play top 40 or pop music have listenership going down precisely because people can listen to this music any/every where.

one of the problems with wrs is that they didnt take advantage of the niche that they had, they didn't focus on who their audience is and how to best serve them, instead using expectations/preferences of one audience to serve another. all around bad planning and lack of foresight. among other things

anyway, if you want to get back into radio i would say to look at the smaller community stations around your towns. chances are that there are kids/oldies/ other interesting folks talking about what's going on and local music being played. just a shame that the english station didn't take the very possible and easy opportunity to appeal to their listeners and not their out of touch ideas of what people want

22
This is a rather difficult question.

A) age groups > people above 55 tend to still listen to radio, but what about the 18 to 28 years old group ?

B) applied technology > it has to be possible to listen to shortwaves and to longwaves radio stations in motor-cars and in trains

C) community ? > does every region and every Zürcher-Stadtkreis indeed need its own radio-station ? Will Mr Schawinski launch stations like "RadioUno Zch-Kreise-1"2" and "RadioUno Zch-Kreise-3+4+5" etc ?

in regard to the English language stations you have to see that a majority of foreigners here are NOT English speakers. Quite many of them here use Standard-German as their language for communication and not really the local dialect(s)

Interesting is how

http://www.lora.ch/

tries to tackle things ---

They amazingly surived up to now.

23
It's too bad about WRS, I am sure they have quite a few followers who will be bummed out. I have tried to listen for years, the amount of practical info was pretty decent, some shows were really well done. I understand that the music tried to fit everybody's and nobody's taste, since it is really hard to please all. But what always stroke as absurd, was the poor quality of presentation. Hosts, half asleep, trying to joke constantly believing they were funny and fun, yikes. It was unprepared and it seemed unorganized, that's too bad, since the truth is probably somewhere else. It seemed they had a lack of support or something, missing network behind them, who knows. I listen daily to some stuff from NYC (it's a niche little station, not your usual commercial US radio stuff) and other places, being a radio host is so different than being just a journalist or a DJ. One has to make a specific effort, at least read the lines before actually opening one's mouth on air, jebus. Aside of the marketing and biz trouble, waiting for people to get attracted is always a poor strategy, they could have done it with higher quality back up, support and hiring. It was a huge chance since a lot of the public in our area is more than 50% Anglophone. I hope something in our area will come up again.

24
there's a ton of niche radio stations in the u.s, especially in the ny area and that what i listen to a lot too, although believe or not there are also some here if you look for them.

by community stations i mean radio programs created by and for the people of the community. there are plenty of people who are happy to be a part of the choice and the thing about wrs was that it obviously appealed to a certain community of listeners (i.e english speakers) but didn't attempt to appeal to their tastes/preferences or requests. there are some stations that are doing great things with using high school and young adults to make radio and that's another thing- using diversity in selection and ideas behind the radio. even 50 year olds who listen to radio mostly want to hear at least some of what the younger generation is interested in and vice versa (but maybe less )

25
I know..You put it very elegantly.

I also felt it didn't mix the local and expat community enough, bunch of potential young listeners are multilingual and multinational, a mix between expat and local, the distinction has been blurred lately, which is a good thing. I never heard much about that particular generation (well, apart from psy and parental guide programs there), nor them themselves actually talking on the radio, too bad. Young people have a lot to say and FB is getting uncool fast. Actually, radio station and people's choice is easy these days to built in one's whatever profile.

26
Basically radio will die off in controlled, regulated markets. In New Zealand, the country with the 2nd highest number of Radio stations per capita except for the USA, all stations are target marketed. None of the trashy, non-specific stations exist like in Switzerland. In an unregulated market Radio listenership still GROWS!

Why should the Swiss Government control Radio and TV, control the number of adverts they can air, or what Format they should be, but NOT control newspapers at all? Why not a level playing field for media and like with newspapers, LET THE MARKET DECIDED which should stay on air or not?

The Swiss Government wastes alot of MY taxes on interferring with Radio and TV. Just sell the licences to the highest bidders, keep a couple for regional community radio and leave it at that. This is 2013, not 1920!

And for those of you who cannot stand top 40/Oldies ....tune into RADIO X in the Basel Region on 94.5 / 93.6 or livestreaming, on Swisscom TV.

www.RadioX.ch or www.TheEnglishShow.com

27
Because radio&TV organisation-wise are by law under government control. Newspapers and magazines are NOT.

The name of the Federal Ministry is

Eidgenössischen Departement für Umwelt, Verkehr, Energie und Kommunikation (UVEK).

= Federal Department for Environment, Traffic, Energy and Telecommunications

> and "Telecommunications" include radio&TV

28
Oh, but I will be missing listening to BBC news in the car on the way back from work! As you said, some really good programmes, and a lot of naff presenters. Music indeed rubish. You put your finger on it, it seems like there was a lack of real support...and a missed opportunity.

29
I guess you miss the point. There is NO REASON why the Swiss Government should be so absolutely controlling of radio OR tv. All they should do is be incharge of selling licenses, collecting the cash and monitoring standard censorship laws.

NZ - have the size of Switzerland. No government control of the radio market EXCEPT for selling the frequencies. Voila - the market, i.e. listeners decide on what is good and what is bad. The advertisers follow the listeners to make the radio SELF SUSTAINABLE, not needing any TAXPAYER handouts.

In New Zealand there are two Government owned radio stations, one aimed an news and politics, the other classical. All the rest, private money trying to please the market.

Here, well you see, Govt owns WRS, a pop station (Couleur3, DRS3 ...why are they wasting money on that?), Swisspop - a channel of elevator music, Option Music and a myriad of other money losing radio stations. Just because it owns all these stations it somehow thinks it is god. Infact, it is a group of old bureaucrats behind the scenes without the slightest idea how to make good radio (or TV for that matter).

I am all for WRS, but allow it to be commercial, deliver good radio and be self sustainable (through sponsorships etc)....and stay on air. Without this option - it's dead. And the Govt made that decision for you!

30
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I agree that there is absolutely no reason for government control of radio and TV. But according to existing laws, the government has control of radio and TV, not about its contents but in regard to structure and licences

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Private radio stations here, once having their frequencies, do produce what brings listeners and advertisers. The private radio stations do not need taxpayer-money. This would be comparable with NZ. But the federal government can practically decide who gets a frequency. And the federal government maintains a chain of state-owned radio-stations and TV stations. And only the Confederation can broadcast unionwide, the private stations are limited to local roles. Alright, if I read the Radio-105 WEBsite correctly, they are "inter-regional".

-

and can the private stations serve all-NZ or only regions ?

in the Zürich area, you have the following private radio stations

> Radio LORA --- www.lora.ch

> Radio 1 --- www.radio1.ch

> Radio 24 --- www.radio24.ch

> Radio Zürisee --- www.radio.ch

> Radio 105 --- www.radio105.ch

> Radio Top --- www.radiotop.ch

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and even a TV station

> Teletop --- www.teletop.ch

They all do not get taxpayer-money and are not owned by any government

However, this here shows the problem

Datenbasis: Messsystem Radiocontrol (vgl. Definitionen/Erklärungen)

a 60%-plus dominance of the Federal stations

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their problem, if re-started as a private company, is the geographic limitation and the point that it only serves a specific segment of the population. A well done WEBsite with lots of download-videos may be better to tackle the market

-

31
And here I thought they were saying WRS does not serve a big enough audience, so they will take away the frequency. Sounds like they control more than the structure and license to me!

What business is it of the state to control who can broadcast Country-wide or regionally??? They do not control the printed media like this. Not a level playing field at all. Is this the USSR?

All frequencies in NZ are bought by the highest bidder on a regional basis. However, the stations then network the radio shows out of one or two locations to serve the entire country. It is the choice of the successful bidder as to what and how they broadcast.

This "networking" of regional private stations programmes started in the late 1980 ́s in NZ.. but only started in Switzerland in the mid 2000 ́s - I guess they needed Government approval here.

Radio Lora in Zurich is a community Station and is receiving Money from the canton of Zurich and various independant organisations.

The question is, why should the state be sinking hundreds of millions of taxpayers money into Entertainment radio stations competing a private stations? I can understand if it is a station about Swiss cultural and politics, but anything other than that is a complete waste of taxpayers money. I mean, why should they operate.... Swiss Pop - a Station on cable of Elevator Music? Or DRS3/Couleur3???? Effectively Pop/rock stations which both lose millions of francs each year.

I read many reports about Switzerland being one of the most competitive in the world. However, truth is in media, or at least in radio it is not at all.

It sold Swiss Airlines to private enterprise, and it had the lion ́s share of the market. So sell off everything except the bear minimum of cultural/politics/news stations.

If WRS restarts as a private radio station I would suggest it refocuses on the region WRG served.

As just an online site - well it would compete against .... Swissinfo....owned by the SBC - The Government.

32
Well, this sucks. Now I won't have any radio to listen to in the car and French radio like One FM and NRJ makes me want to put a bullet in my head. There's another English-speaking FM station on 88.8, but it's mostly educational stuff or other lame shows. Well, Bible Answers (weekdays at 1 o'clock) is good for a laugh as I'm driving back from lunch.

33
Dave Goodman has been taken off presentation duties for "The National" by the management of WRS for the final two weeks the station is on air. No credible reason was given. Dave says: "I'd like to thank every single one of you for your support over the last 2 and half years. I'll miss waking you up in the morning but will be back on the last day to say a proper goodbye. I treasure every lovely text and email I've received and see it is as privelege to have been your morning host since 2011"

From WRS Facebook

34
Its a shame that WRS is closing. I survived a long time on updates from WRS for anything be it Connectors or Gadget Guru or The Wrap.

I heard Susan say on some show that there will be some continuation.

Does anybody know anything about it ?

What about Internet radio will there be anything ?

There was another show when they said that there will be something but for whole Lac Leman region. Does that mean people in basel (me ) will not be able to hear anything from them??

Its the first radio i followed in my life, im so sad that they are closing.

35
Okay, I know I sound a bit like a broken record, but there's a reason for it. I was an avid listener of WRS. Mainly Speedreads. Hell, I loved that show. And a while ago, I co-founded a Book-Club and we have a Podcast. We've taken some cues from WRS and mostly Speedreads, because it was an awesome format.

So if you crave more booky-things as well as "geeky news with funny accents", check out www.uncanny.ch . We'll return from summer break come Saturday and then we're gunning for a weekly show. We're also on iTunes, so you don't actually have to seek us out but you can just subscribe.

36
Press Release: The Future of WRS

Important Media Release: 26.8.2013

Copyright © 2013 Radio Frontier, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

Radio Frontier

9 Rue de Veyrot

1217 Geneva

Switzerland

Edited: Confusing press release copied to here has been deleted here.

,

37
good news. (for those who listen to it...)

38
Well, this is a misleading press release - intentionally IMHO.

This is a new radio station (run by Mark Butcher, the owner of Anglomedia) which has nothing to do with the current WRS. Mark Butcher just bought the station name. As a matter of fact, ALL current WRS staff have been laid off and none re-hired by the "new" WRS.

See the official FAQ of the current WRS for details: http://worldradio.ch/wrs/about/faq/f...e-of-wrs.shtml

39
Well in a way its just a comeback of WRG. Marc Butcher and part of his team at AMG pioneered WRG/S.

At least in a way there will be a continuity of an english radio in the lake Geneva region.

40
the above was Published on Friday, 2. August, 2013 but...

************************************************** ***

Good News! WRS will be operating again as usual

Press Release: The Future of WRS released on 26. August 2013

Important Media Release: 26.8.2013