rbb 88.8 streams 80s and 90s hits live from Berlin, and it carries one of the city's longest and most tangled radio lineages behind that simple nostalgic format. You can stream it free anytime on Radio Shuffle.
Four Names, One Frequency
rbb 88.8 traces its roots back to June 1, 1954, when Sender Freies Berlin, the ARD broadcaster for then-divided Berlin, launched its SFB1 program. For decades SFB1 served only West Berlin, and it was not until January 1, 1992, following reunification, that the broadcaster expanded to cover the entire city. The station itself has changed its name repeatedly since then: SFB1 became Berlin 88.8, then 88acht, then, after SFB merged with ORB in May 2003 to form today's Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, it relaunched as Radio Berlin 88.8 on November 7, 2005. The station has carried its current name, rbb 88.8, since a February 4, 2019 relaunch.
That string of rebrands reflects just how much Berlin's media landscape itself has been rebuilt and merged since the Cold War, with one frequency and call sign surviving through reunification, a broadcaster merger, and multiple format overhauls.
From Also-Ran to Berlin's Most-Listened Station
The 2019 relaunch proved to be a turning point. After years of middling numbers, rbb 88.8 became Berlin's reach-strongest radio station in 2020, the first time it had topped the city's radio market since July 2009. That is a genuinely rare feat for a regional public broadcaster competing against a crowded field of commercial stations in one of Germany's biggest media markets.
The station sits alongside other rbb programs like Radioeins, Inforadio, Fritz, and Antenne Brandenburg, each aimed at a different audience, but 88.8's nostalgic hits format is the one that finally put a regional public station back on top of Berlin radio.
What You'll Actually Hear
Expect a steady run of 80s and 90s pop, rock, and dance hits, delivered with the production polish of a public broadcaster that has spent seven decades adapting its sound to a changing city.
rbb 88.8 is free to stream on Radio Shuffle alongside thousands of other stations from around the world. Press play for Berlin's biggest nostalgic hits station.