Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Christmas Program on Shortwave

As every year, Northern German Radio (NDR) has scheduled a four-hours Christmas program on shortwave – “Gruß an Bord” (greeting all ships) – for December 24, from 19:00 to 23:00 UTC. The program usually begins with a news broadcast of about five minutes at 19 UTC, and the actual Christmas program would start right after that.

[Please mind the updates underneath – Dec 18, 2019]

Leer Reformed Church weather vane, archive / edited

All messages will be pre-recorded, in Leer, a town in northwestern Germany, on December 8, in Hamburg on December 15, and at NDR broadcasting house (where letters and emails will be  accepted until December 15), and be read out on December 24, from 22:15 UTC, according to the NDR schedule. Sometime during the first three hours of the program, a one-hour religious service is usually transmitted.

Radio Berlin-Brandenburg’s (RBB) media magazine has published the broadcasting schedule as follows¹⁾:

19:00 – 21:00 hours UTC

transmitter site	kW	direct	kHz
Nauen, Germany	125	west	6080
Nauen, Germany	125	south- east	9720
Moosbrunn, Austria	100	east	9570
Issoudun, France	250	south- east	9800
Update, Dec 18	125		9740
Issoudun, France	250	south	11650
Noratus, Armenia	100	Europe	6030

21:00 – 23:00 hours UTC

transmitter site	kW	direct	kHz
Nauen, Germany	125	west	6145
Nauen, Germany	125	south- east	9720
Moosbrunn, Austria	100	east	9675
Issoudun, France	250	south- east	9590
Update, Dec 18	125		9740
Issoudun, France	250		9830
Noratus, Armenia	100	Europe	6155

The Nauen site is said to be the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. There was an interruption of about a decade, however, from May 1945 to 1955. By the end of the 1950s, it was also one of Radio Berlin International‘s (RBI) two transmission sites, thus carrying East Germany’s official programs for an international audience.

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Notes

¹⁾ as at November 1 (which seems to suggest that changes aren’t ruled out)

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Updates (Dec 18, 2019)

See Deutsche Welle reference to the NDR program for latest frequencies

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Related

Program history, Dec 25, 2017

Tags: Austria, Eastern Friesland, Europe, foreign trade, France, Germany, Hamburg, international, media, seasons, shortwave radio, Southeast Europe, winter