105'5 Spreeradio now plays hits from the 80s to today for a broad Berlin audience, but the station's frequency did not start out chasing a broad audience at all. It launched aimed squarely at a single demographic, and it took two rebrands to become the station Berlin listens to now.
Launched for a Different Generation Entirely
Per the station's Wikipedia entry, the frequency went on air on April 29, 1994, as "Radio 50plus," a station built specifically for listeners over fifty and fronted by hosts including the well-known German TV personality Wim Thoelke and Peter Bosse. That target audience did not last long: within a year the station rebranded as "Spreeradio 105,5" and shifted its format to schlager, the sentimental German pop tradition, chasing a different kind of nostalgia than the one it started with.
Two Rebrands, One Frequency
The bigger transformation came in 2004, when the station restyled itself as "105'5 Spreeradio" and reoriented its format toward listeners aged 30 to 59, describing its sound as "Oldie-Based AC," adult contemporary built on a foundation of familiar hits. That repositioning is the format still on air today, now owned by RTL Audio Center Berlin GmbH under the RTL Group, playing what the station calls the best songs from the 80s through the present.
News on the Hour, Hits in Between
According to Radiozentrale's station profile, the current lineup runs a morning show hosted by Jochen Trus and an afternoon show with Thomas Koschwitz, backed by a team of editors and reporters delivering Berlin, national, and international news at the top of every hour, with extra half-hourly updates during peak listening times. Weekday local reports and Berlin newspaper press reviews air on the half hour, keeping the station's news habits from its earlier, more talk-heavy years intact even after the format shifted toward music.
Why It's Worth Tuning In
105'5 Spreeradio offers a rare on-air record of a Berlin station reinventing itself twice over three decades, from a station built for a retired generation to a schlager outlet to the hit-and-news adult contemporary station now broadcasting on 105.5 FM across the city.