Radio SRF 1 Basel Baselland airs the Regionaljournal Basel Baselland, a daily news program covering two Swiss cantons that were once a single canton until armed conflict tore them apart nearly two centuries ago. The show has been quietly reporting on both halves together, in one broadcast, since 1978.
A Canton Split by Force in 1833
Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft were one canton for centuries, joining the old Swiss Confederacy together back in 1501. That unity broke down in the early 1830s, when rural Landschaft residents, who outnumbered the city nearly two to one and had grown wealthy on the textile trade, demanded more say in a government dominated by Basel's urban elite. Negotiations failed, militia clashes followed in what became known as the Basler Wirren, and on August 26, 1833, the Swiss confederal authorities formally divided the canton in two, with Liestal becoming the new rural capital and Basel keeping the city.
Reunification Has Failed Twice
The split was supposed to be a rupture of its era, not a permanent arrangement, but every attempt to undo it has failed at the ballot box. Voters rejected a merger in 1969, and as recently as 2014, Basel-Stadt residents backed reunification with 55 percent support while Basel-Landschaft voters turned it down with 68 percent against. Nearly two centuries after the split, the two half-cantons still run separate governments, separate parliaments, and separate cantonal identities.
One Broadcast, Both Sides, Since 1978
Radio's answer to that divide predates the most recent referendum by decades. The Regionaljournal Basel Baselland first went on air at 6:03 p.m. on November 23, 1978, broadcasting out of Radio Studio Basel on the Bruderholz with a daily runtime of just 15 minutes. The program grew through the 1980s, adding a midday edition in 1983 and three morning editions by 1988, evolving into the multiple daily reports on politics, economy, culture, sport and society that still run on Radio SRF 1 today, all under a single regional desk covering both cantons at once.
Common Ground the Politics Never Found
Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft still jointly fund the University of Basel and coordinate on public services even without a shared government, and the Regionaljournal fits that same pattern. It never tried to resolve the 1833 split. It just decided, from its first 15-minute broadcast onward, to cover both halves of a divided canton as one region anyway.