Bayerischer Rundfunk

Bayerischer Rundfunk was founded in Munich in 1922 as Deutsche Stunde in Bayern. It aired its first program on 30 March 1924. The first broadcasts consisted mainly of time announcements, news, weather and stock market reports, and music. Programming expanded to include radio plays, concerts, programs for women, language courses, chess, opera, radio, news, and Catholic and Protestant morning services. Its new 1929 studio was designed by Richard Riemerschmid.

Deutsche Stunde in Bayern became Bayerischer Rundfunk in 1931. In 1933, shortly after the Nazi seizure of power, the station was put under the control of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. After the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, the American military occupation government's Information Control Division (ICD) took control of the station. Operating as Radio Munich, it, Radio Stuttgart, and Radio Frankfurt began broadcasting in June 1945, using programs from Radio 1212 until November. Radio Munich broadcast, among other programming, live coverage of the Nuremberg trials and programs such as "War Never Again" ("Nie wieder Krieg"). 1945-1946 ICD surveys found that while listeners preferred Radio Munich's news (other than the war crimes trials) to that of Berliner Rundfunk, they preferred the Soviet broadcaster for music because they much preferred German music to American.

In 1949, Radio Munich became Bayerischer Rundfunk, and in that year it established Europe's first VHF station. A station was added in Nuremberg in the early 1950s. Television broadcasts began in 1954.

Legal foundation

BR is a statutory corporation established under the Bavarian Broadcasting Law (Bayerisches Rundfunkgesetz), originally passed in 1948, and updated in 1993 to take account of the demands of a changed media and political environment. Its functions are determined by a legal foundation which lays down the principles under which the broadcaster operates and the structure of its internal organization.

The broadcast law is supplemented by the so-called Broadcast State Contract (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag), a multilateral agreement between all 16 German Länder which regulates the relationship of public and private broadcast in the dual broadcast system and which contains fundamental regulations particularly for financing. Just as important for the work of Bavarian Broadcasting is the cooperation of the ARD consortium, consisting of nine other regional broadcasting corporates as well as Deutsche Welle. The broadcasting service is further backed by the relevant European legal bases as well as the media service convention, which contain regulations for the on-line offerings of Bavarian Broadcasting.