From Student Project to Award-Winning City Radio Station
20 Years of Campus & City Radio St. Pölten
Campus & City Radio – the educational radio station of the St. Pölten UAS and free radio for citizens – is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Just recently, two radio producers of CR 94.4 won the Adult Education Radio Award (Radiopreis der Erwachsenenbildung). Next Saturday, the radio will celebrate its anniversary with a special programme.
On Air
On 30 April 2002, students of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences went on air for the first time on the radio frequency 94.4, at that time called FHRadio. “A few days before the launch, we realised that while we had finished the studio, we forgot to establish a connection to the transmitter in the building next door, so we soldered together 50 metres of network cable with adapters”, recalls Martin Holovlasky, a graduate of the UAS and now a leading radio technician in the commercial private radio sector.
Claudio Schütz, who is now a presenter at the Lower Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, was also among the students who started the radio station 20 years ago. After a year of online radio operation in 2001, a team of UAS lecturers, students, and mayor Matthias Stadler (then authorised signatory and later Executive Director of the UAS) took care of maintaining the terrestrial frequency.
In later years, Ö3 presenter Lisa Hotwagner also gained her first experiences at the Campus & City Radio during her studies. “At that time, I didn’t do the morning shows because as a student, I still wanted to party in the evening and sleep in the next day.”
Professional Radio Environment
The studio offers students a professional radio environment with state-of-the-art technology. Today, Campus & City Radio St. Pölten has around 60 regular programme series, which are created by students and freelance radio producers from the surrounding area. CR 94.4 is thus not only an educational radio station, but also one of the 14 free non-commercial radio stations with open access for citizens in Austria.
Adult Education Radio Award
Tino Liangos and Fabian Schmiedecker were able to win the most sought-after radio award in the country this year, the Adult Education Radio Award, for a programme from their series “Regionale Weltmusik” (Regional World Music). They had interviewed a police officer with a refugee background who has to carry out deportations.
Not Monotonous, Not Run-Of-The-Mill
For its anniversary, the radio also eternalises its most popular slogans on T-shirts, such as: "94.4 und nicht 0815” (94.4 is not run-of-the-mill) and similar slogans, which are available via the website. They express the lived diversity in music and information because CR 94.4 is anything but a format radio.
Interviews with Austrian artists find just as much space here as information about local events from art and culture in and around St. Pölten, climate and environmental protection, feminism, inclusion, health, adult education, and queer topics.
Campus & City Radio St. Pölten
Campus & City Radio is supervised by UAS professor Ewald Volk and programme director Anna Michalski. FM4 presenter Dave Dempsey is responsible for training the student presenters. Other team members work on sponsored projects, for example to enable people with disabilities to present on the radio, or to implement contemporary witness projects with students. Programmes with refugees are also designed and supervised.
Anniversary Programme
On the day of the anniversary, Saturday, 30 April 2022, mayor Matthias Stadler, presenter Claudio Schütz and numerous other guests will come in for a live interview and describe their memories of the early days of the radio station.
