SRF reorganizes the radio division
Reorganization in SRF’s Radio Division: Susanne Witzig will head the newly formed cross-program editorial team for background reporting and podcasts, while Roland Wehrli and Alexander Blunschi will jointly take over management of the live programming on Radio SRF 3.
Roland Wehrli, Journalistic Co-Head SRF 3, Susanne Witzig, Head of "Background and Podcast" and Program Developer Radio, Alexander Blunschi, Journalistic Co-Head SRF 3 (from left).
The Radio division in the Programming department comprises the entire offering of Radio SRF 1, Radio SRF 3 and Radio SRF Musikwelle, including the trimedial specialist Pop/Rock editorial team.
Swiss Radio and Television is partially reorganizing its radio division. In view of current developments in the radio and audio sector, which show that linear radio use is declining and on-demand use is increasing, individual editorial teams are being merged and placed under new management. As a result, individual organizational changes that were planned for the move to the Leutschenbach site are already being implemented.
Röbi Ruckstuhl, Head of Radio at SRF, explains: "Linear radio will continue to have a firm place in the media mix of the Swiss for many years to come. Around 80 percent still regularly listen to linear radio. Nevertheless, we have to continuously adapt to changes in media usage. We are therefore combining radio background broadcasts and podcast production in a new editorial department in order to invest the combined forces in new audio products."
The newly formed editorial team "Background and Podcast" comprises the background programs "Input" and "Focus" from Radio SRF 3, "Doppelpunkt" from Radio SRF 1 and all podcast products from the Radio division. Susanne Witzig, 48, is taking over as head of this newly created cross-program editorial department in addition to her function as program developer for the Radio division. The aim is in particular to develop new digital background formats and thus to be able to make new audio content available to the audience on demand.
The management of Radio SRF 3's linear live programming will be taken over by Roland Wehrli, previously in charge of daytime programming at Radio SRF 3, and Alexander Blunschi, currently Head of Moderation at Radio SRF 3: They will share the journalistic management, with Alexander Blunschi, 38, continuing to be responsible for moderation and Roland Wehrli, 45, focusing on editorial matters.
Röbi Ruckstuhl again: "We decided on a co-management model because we are convinced that the flexibility it provides is important in times of media change, so that we can optimally meet the changing needs of our listeners.
Heidi Ungerer, journalistic director of Radio SRF 1, will now take over as deputy for Röbi Ruckstuhl. The new organization will come into effect at the beginning of May 2019.
