DW-RADIO expands programming for the U.S.

Deutsche Welle’s broadcast Newslink Plus, available worldwide on shortwave, now brings a full hour of news and sound-rich features from its studios in Bonn, Germany. The programme is taken down live via satellite by Chicago-based distributor WFMT Networks at 9:00pm EDT and is immediately transmitted on the public radio satellite as a live programme. Stations have the option of using the programme live or time shifting it for later broadcast in the evening, and of broadcasting the first 30 minutes of the programme.

Greg Fitzgerald, DW-Radio’s marketing and distribution coordinator in the US, said the programme is being produced specifically to meet the format needs of public radio. Said Fitzgerald, “Newslink Plus will be produced with the format features most public radio stations request, including the ability to begin the hour with an NPR newscast”.

Why another international news broadcast for the US? One thing public radio listeners were clear on during the war in Iraq was the importance of a variety of viewpoints from around the globe. Says DW-Radio´s editor-in-chief, Uta Thofern: “Even if not censured, the media everywhere in the world cover events from their national perspective, a trend that is enhanced during crises. The more strained international relations are, the more important becomes international news coverage.”

Fitzgerald adds “there is no better way to get a new perspective on a major international issue than from correspondents and producers working in a radio system far removed from the Washington beltway”. Fitzgerald continued, “Newslink editors and producers don’t rely on the New York Times and Washington Post as their primary guideposts. Most of the editors in US newsrooms don’t have access to the European news resources available to Deutsche Welle’s news team, because most don’t speak the language and the news agenda in Europe is very different.”