Television WDR began its regional television service, Westdeutsches Fernsehen (WDF), on 17 December 1965. On 27 August 1967, when West Germany broadcast its first color TV program, WDF used a live broadcast originating from a Bosch
outside broadcast van to start broadcasting in color. In 1988, the channel was renamed West 3; since 1994, it has been known as
WDR Fernsehen. While the programmes are mainly run from their
Cologne headquarters, they also have a number of sub-regional studios contributing to a regular broadcast called
Lokalzeit with the opt-outs "aus Aachen" (
Aachen), "OWL" (
Bielefeld), "aus Bonn" (
Bonn), "aus Dortmund" (
Dortmund), "aus Düsseldorf" (
Düsseldorf), "aus Duisburg" (
Duisburg), "Ruhr" (
Essen), "aus Köln" (
Cologne and
Bonn), "Münsterland" (
Münster), "Südwestfalen" (
Siegen) and "Bergisches Land" (
Wuppertal) for each respective region. WDR has its current affairs and regional politics studios in Düsseldorf. It has served as the production entity for shows on Das Erste, such as
Verbotene Liebe ('Forbidden Love'), which, over the years, has introduced many young actors to the German audience, such as
Andreas Stenschke,
Jo Weil, Luca Zamperoni and Kay Böger. The
Sportschau is produced for ARD in Cologne, and WDR contributes to
ARD Digital,
3sat and
arte.
Radio '' with
Carmen Thomas in 1982 A long-running talk show on wheels was
Hallo Ü-Wagen ("Hello Radio Van"), which ran from 1974 to 2010 with
Carmen Thomas as the original host. WDR's main radio channels are available on FM and digital (DAB+), as well as via cable and satellite: •
1LIVE is a popular music channel modelled on
BBC Radio 1 and aimed at a young audience. Its schedules include such non-mainstream night-time programmes as
Heimatkult, focusing on pop music from Germany, and
Lauschangriff, a series of audio-books. •
WDR 2, featuring adult-oriented popular music, focuses strongly on national and regional news, current affairs, and sport. •
WDR 3, the cultural channel, offers mostly classical, jazz and world music as well as
radio drama and spoken-word features dealing with literature and the performing arts. •
WDR 4 (motto:
Melodien für ein gutes Gefühl, "Melodies for a good feeling") is a channel aimed chiefly towards an older audience. Its focus is on tuneful music – in particular,
oldies and
classic hits: popular music of the 1960s to the 1980s or later – with more specialized programming (operetta, country, folk) in the evenings. Around 30–40% of WDR 4's musical output is made up of
German-language songs. •
WDR 5 features spoken-word programming with the focus on present-day culture and society. Between 6.05 and 9.45 each Monday to Saturday morning the channel offers news, background briefing, interviews, and correspondents' reports in a sequence entitled
Morgenecho. The main lunchtime and early-evening news and current affairs programmes
Mittagsecho (at 13.05–14.00 on Mondays to Fridays and 13.30–14.30 on Sundays) and
Echo des Tages (at 18.30–19.00 daily) are both co-productions with
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in
Hamburg. Additionally, WDR 2's 30-minute round-up of the day's most important news reports,
Berichte von heute, is
simulcast by WDR 5 on Monday to Friday evenings at 23.30. WDR 5 also carries children's radio programming from
KiRaKa at 19.05–20.00 each evening as well as on Sundays at 7.05–8.00 and 14.05–15.00. •
COSMO (earlier WDR 5 Funkhaus Europa – an offshoot of WDR 5 – and now a joint production of
Radio Bremen,
RBB, and WDR) is a channel principally aimed at serving immigrants and promoting integration. It features a wide selection of
world music. It is not available over-the-air in every part of WDR's broadcasting area. Broadcast only via DAB (Digital Radio) as well as DVB-S and partly DVB-C: •
1LIVE diggi – off-mainstream music and news from 1LIVE •
WDR Event – program of events for special occasions Former radio channels are: •
WDR 1 – Predecessor of 1 Live •
WDR 2 Klassik – Contributions from WDR 2 with classical music, briefly replaced by the online service Mein WDR Radio after it was discontinued •
1LIVE Kunst – web radio with cultural themes and sophisticated pop music •
Radio Dortmund – The first local radio station in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was started in 1985 as part of a cable pilot project. Radio Dortmund ran for nine years until WDR needed the frequency for a new WDR 2 "regional window". •
KiRaKa – web radio for children aged 5 to 16 • WDR Info – WDR data and news service with visual information •
WDR VERA – full-length traffic news spoken non-stop by a computer ==Musical organizations==