When Radio BOB signed on in Kassel, Germany on August 5, 2008, the station's programmers chose AC/DC's "Hells Bells" as the very first song to hit the air, a deliberate statement of intent from a station that would go on to brand itself simply as "Deutschlands Rockradio," Germany's rock radio. R. BOB Best Of Rock is one of the streams that grew out of that mission, built to move through five decades of the genre without pretending to specialize in just one era.
Built on a Predecessor's Frequency
Radio BOB did not start from nothing. It launched as the direct successor to SkyRadio Hessen after the Kiel-based media group Regiocast bought a stake in that earlier station and rebuilt it around a rock format, according to background compiled on German Wikipedia. Regiocast has owned the station outright ever since, running it out of Kassel under a leadership team that includes Jan-Henrik Schmelter, Martin Hülsmann and Dirk van Loh.
A Station for Listeners Who Never Stopped Buying Vinyl
From the start, Radio BOB positioned itself toward listeners over 30 who grew up on rock's classic era, anchoring its programming around bands like AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Metallica and Led Zeppelin while still making room for newer acts such as Rise Against and Volbeat. That mix of old guard and current rock has defined the station's identity since its first broadcast, giving it a clear lane in a German radio market crowded with pop and adult contemporary formats.
From One Frequency to a National Signal
The station expanded well past its original Hessian broadcast area over the following years. It went national via DAB+ digital radio in August 2011, then added a sister station in Schleswig-Holstein in May 2016 that replaced the earlier Radio NORA there. In January 2025, Regiocast announced plans for a further regional expansion into North Rhine-Westphalia under the name "Radio BOB rockt NRW," continuing a growth pattern that has run for well over a decade.
Five Decades, One Stream
Best of Rock is the station's attempt to fit all of that history into a single feed, moving, in its own words, "von den 70ern, über die 80er, 90er, 00er bis hin zu den topaktuellen Songs," according to Radio BOB's own stream page. The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and The Eagles anchor the 70s catalog, Guns N' Roses and Iron Maiden carry the 80s, Nirvana and Pearl Jam represent grunge's arrival in the 90s, and Arctic Monkeys and The Fratellis bring the stream into the present. The station describes the throughline as "handgemachte und ehrliche Musik," handmade and honest music, the same standard "Hells Bells" set on day one.
Rock Without a Single Era
That refusal to lock into one decade is what separates Best of Rock from Radio BOB's other genre-specific streams, like its dedicated classic rock or punk channels. It exists for listeners who want the whole span of rock history in one place, proof that a station built around a single genre still has room to cover fifty years of it without repeating itself.