Der 60er Channel is one narrow slice of FluxFM, a Berlin station whose entire identity is built around change rather than sticking to any single sound. The name Flux comes from the Latin word for flow, and the station has lived up to it since its earliest days, reinventing itself more than once before settling into the sprawling, multi-channel operation that includes this dedicated 1960s stream today.
From an Event Frequency to a Berlin Institution
FluxFM traces its roots to September 2004, when a program called Motor FM first went on air on a temporary event and DAB promo frequency. Motor FM secured a permanent Berlin FM licence on February 1, 2006, and ran under that name for years before a shareholder dispute in 2011 forced a rebrand. The station relaunched as FluxFM on August 23, 2011, adopting a name that had previously only been used for its temporary event broadcasts, a rebirth born out of conflict rather than a planned rebrand.
A Reputation Built on Alternative Sounds
FluxFM's main signal has built its name on alternative, independent, punk, and electronic music, earning it real industry recognition, including a 2013 ECHO award for Best Artist Development, German Radio Prize wins in 2014 and 2018, and a Best Radio Station Worldwide title from a Los Angeles ceremony in 2014. That credibility as a tastemaker station is what makes its side channels, including Der 60er Channel, more than an afterthought.
One Decade Among Many
Rather than squeeze every era into one general playlist, FluxFM runs separate decade-specific channels for the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s alongside genre-specific streams for jazz, metal, and hip-hop. Der 60er Channel gets to be a real destination for that decade's sound rather than a occasional throwback segment on the main feed, running everything from French pop provocation to American protest folk to British psychedelic rock side by side.
A Decade That Contains Multitudes
What actually plays on the channel shows how wide that decade really was. Serge Gainsbourg's controversial "Je t'aime moi non plus" sits comfortably next to Phil Ochs' Vietnam-era protest anthem "I Ain't Marching Anymore" and The Zombies' baroque pop track "Care of Cell 44," three completely different corners of the same ten years, French pop scandal, American political folk, and British studio experimentation, all treated as equally worth preserving.
Change as the Whole Point
A station named after flow and reinvention turning one entire channel over to a single, frozen decade might look like a contradiction. It isn't, Der 60er Channel exists precisely because FluxFM's structure allows constant expansion into new specific spaces rather than forcing every era and genre through the same signal.