WDR 2 Rheinland streams adult contemporary pop and rock alongside news and talk, live from the Rhineland region around Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required.
Part of a station born from a 1950 regional split
WDR 2 descends from NWDR UKW West, launched on 30 April 1950 as the western regional arm of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, which at the time also covered Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. When North Rhine-Westphalia opted to run its own broadcaster in 1955, the western service became WDR 2 under the newly created Westdeutscher Rundfunk on 1 January 1956, giving the Rhineland its own dedicated regional feed within the wider WDR 2 network that continues today.
Broadcasting over Germany's biggest Carnival
The Rhineland region this station serves centers on Cologne, home to continuous Carnival celebrations documented as far back as 1341 and now the largest modern Carnival in Germany, according to coverage of the tradition. The season opens every year on 11 November at precisely 11:11 am and builds toward the Rosenmontag parade, which draws roughly a million spectators through the city center. That regional identity runs deep. Academics studying Cologne have described local patriotism there as practically inseparable from being a committed Carnival-goer, a civic spirit that sits alongside the Gothic Cologne Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose foundation stone was laid in 1248.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
WDR 2 Rheinland streams around the clock, and Radio Shuffle carries the feed live with nothing to install and no subscription required. Press play for pop, rock and regional news broadcasting out of Germany's Carnival capital.