SRF 2 Kultur broadcasts culture, society and knowledge programming in German, built around classical and jazz concert recordings, in-depth discussion, and a genuine commitment to radio drama that few stations anywhere still maintain. One-hour Hörspiel productions air Saturday nights, full-cast dramas built entirely from voice and sound rather than any visual element at all. It streams free worldwide on Radio Shuffle.
The station launched in 1956 as DRS 2, arriving alongside the introduction of FM broadcasting in Switzerland, and took its current name, SRF 2 Kultur, on 16 December 2012 as part of a broader rebrand across SRF's radio and television channels. Throughout those decades, the station has stayed one of the main supporters of Swiss classical and jazz music, recording concerts directly rather than simply playing commercial releases, giving Swiss performers and ensembles a consistent broadcast home.
Its radio drama commitment runs even deeper. In October 2025, SRF marked a full century of Swiss Hörspiel with a season of classic productions, a milestone that places SRF 2 Kultur's Saturday drama slot inside a tradition stretching back to the very first years of Swiss radio itself, long before SRF or even DRS existed as names. That continuity, a country still producing and broadcasting original audio drama a hundred years after the format began, is increasingly rare among public broadcasters, most of which quietly let radio drama fade once television and streaming took over the cultural conversation.
The station backs that programming with an actual listener community too, the SRF Kulturclub, which publishes a monthly magazine and organizes events tied to what airs on the station, turning passive listening into something closer to an ongoing cultural subscription.
For listeners who want their culture station to still take radio drama and new classical performance seriously, SRF 2 Kultur streams free anytime on Radio Shuffle.