Europe ARD in Germany has an especially large number of radio orchestras. Eleven radio orchestras perform and produce classical as well as contemporary music and jazz for the North German Broadcasting (
NDR) with two orchestras in Hamburg and Hanover as well as the NDR Big Band. West German Broadcasting (
WDR) has two orchestras in Cologne and a Big Band, Southwest German Broadcasting (
SWR) with one orchestra (2016 merged) and the SWR Big Band in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg, Bavarian Broadcasting (
BR) with two orchestras in Munich, Central German Broadcasting (
MDR) with one orchestra in Leipzig, Saarland Broadcasting (
SR) with one orchestra (2006 merged) in Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern, Hessian Broadcasting (
HR) with one orchestra and a Big Band in
Frankfurt and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin. The
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) operates five full-time permanent symphony orchestras (
BBC Concert Orchestra,
BBC Philharmonic,
BBC Symphony Orchestra and the
BBC Symphony Chorus,
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and
BBC National Orchestra of Wales), as well as a full-time chamber choir (
BBC Singers), and the
BBC Big Band. The
Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) also maintains orchestra in the form of the
Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the
Danish Radio Big Band, Chamber Orchestra, and Radio Choir. The
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) runs the
Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Norwegian, Kringkastingsorkestret, abbreviated as KORK). The orchestra specializes in classical music as well as popular music. This makes it quite unique in that the musicians are trained both classically and rhythmically to a high degree. The
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra also have agreements with NRK to make a number of broadcast recordings a year. In the Netherlands, the
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep (
Broadcasting Music Centre), an umbrella organization of the
Netherlands Public Broadcasting (NPO) associations, supports the
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, the
Radio Kamer Filharmonie, the
Groot Omroepkoor (
Netherlands Radio Choir), and the
Metropole Orkest, the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. (RTVE) in Spain maintains the
RTVE Symphony Orchestra and its professional Choir.
Americas The last surviving broadcast orchestra in North America was the
CBC Radio Orchestra founded in 1938. On 28 March 2008 the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced that the orchestra would be dissolved at the end of November. The ensemble has continued independent of network affiliation as the
National Broadcast Orchestra based in Vancouver. The
house band for the
Late Show with David Letterman whimsically called itself the
CBS Orchestra though it was not a classical musical orchestra and did not perform on CBS outside of the
Late Show. The last permanent studio orchestra in the United States was
The Tonight Show Band, also known as the NBC Orchestra, a big band led by trumpeter
Doc Severinsen.
Oceania The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Australia operates six state radio symphony orchestras through its subdivision
Symphony Australia. ==See also==