Radio Flora from Hanover – in Polish

Flora, the non-profit citizens’ radio station
 

In order to paint a picture of our first beginnings at the radio station, we need to return to the 1990s and the euphoric spirit of optimism that was prevalent at the time. Back then, the Polish language was hardly ever heard on the streets of Hanover. This wasn’t because there were no Poles living in the city. Quite the contrary; the Polish community made up one of the largest migrant groups. For a variety of reasons, our fellow Poles preferred not to attract attention to themselves in public. When they did speak Polish, it was in whispers. It was no surprise, therefore, that the creation of a Polish editorial team at Radio Flora in February 1998 was met with an enthusiastic response.

Our parent broadcaster came into existence thanks to a change in the broadcasting laws for the state of Lower Saxony. As well as the private media and state-run media, a third sector was now also permitted: non-profit citizens’ radio and television. Radio Flora was created after months of preparation by the left-leaning Freundeskreises Lokal-Radio e. V. (the “Friends of Local Radio” association), the initial letters of which make up the station’s botanical-sounding name. The concept for this initiative was selected from a number of other projects by the Niederscächsisches Landesmedienanstalt (the “Lower Saxony Media Institute”), which paid for the technical equipment for the radio station. It’s non-commercial programme schedule was to be designed by volunteer supporters of the citizens’ radio concept. 

According to its articles of association, the purpose of Radio Flora was to give a voice to groups and initiatives that until then had not been sufficiently represented in the media, and by teaching them media skills, to enable them to join in the public debate, participate in society and enjoy freedom from social constraints. This voice was also designed to complement the state-run and private radio stations. Migrant communities were also invited to participate in the citizens’ radio project.

For those who remain and those who depart ...
 

The first person to accept this invitation was Grażyna Kamień-Söffker. She found out about the station in the summer of 1997 when she saw it advertised. Soon afterwards, she was joined by Dorota Szymańska. Aside from the two women, the following people were present at the founding meeting of the Polish editorial board, which was held after the final approval of the first programme on 15 February 1998: Zbigniew Kaczmarek, Marzena Kubiszyn, Tatiana Mikołajczak, Adriana Moskal, Jacek Woźniak and the author and poet Dariusz Muszer (who came up with the name for the Polish feature programme, “Polenflug”) as well as the film specialist Grażyna Słomka. At that time, only the latter two had any experience working in media.

As the years went by, several dozen others joined the volunteers working for the citizens’ radio for shorter or longer periods of time. We learned the ropes by trying out ideas, under the careful supervision of our friendly and supportive editorial colleagues at Radio Flora. The purpose of “Polenflug”, which was broadcast three times a week, could be summed up as the “3 I’s”: information, integration and identity forging. Alongside reports on current events relating to the 20,000 Poles living in Hanover, repeat programmes were broadcast, such as “Nasze losy” (“Our fortunes/fates”), “Polonia gospodarcza” (“Business and Polonia”), “O kobietach dla kobiet, ale nie tylko” (“On women for women and others”), “Alfabet artystów plastyków” (“The ABC of visual artists”), “Magazyn bardzo kulturalny” (“The high culture journal”), “Salonik Literacki” (“The little literary salon”) and interviews with well-known Polish figures from the field of culture, politics and sport. Another important topic was German-Polish relations in the broadest sense, and the meeting and intermeshing of different cultures, presented both as individual experiences and as a social phenomenon. 

This wide range of topics, which did not always fit into a single programme, led the makers of “Polenflug” to create other formats: “Kowalski trifft Schmidt in Niedersachsen” (“Kowalski meets Schmidt in Lower Saxony”; Teresa Czaniecka-Kufer and Grażyna Kamień-Söffker), “Vergiss nicht die Musikgärten” (“Don’t forget the music gardens”; Grażyna Słomka and Kama Kowalska), “Fenster zur Welt” (“Window on the world”; Agnieszka Foit) and “Floretta” (with the support of Dorota Szymańska).