Thursday, 15th March

ENGLISH: The radio in Germany
Today Thursday we´ve visited the radio FFH , the most important radio station in Hessen, the federal state where we are. First, we´ve arranged to meet at Niedernhausen´s train station. We took the regional train ( S-Bahn) to Frankfurt and then changed trains to go to Bad Vilbel, a little village in the middle of the countryside.

There as soon as we entered the building they kindly offered us drinks and they took us to a big and modern auditorium to show us a video presentation featuring a brief history of FFH, photos of celebrities who have come to be interviewed and other important events and concerts FFH has arranged lately. Amongst the celebrities were Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Leona Lewis. FFH is a commercial radio station that is to say that it finances itself thanks to advertisements and marketing. FFH reaches to a wide range of audience and it belongs to a media corporation which includes two other radio stations: Planet Radio catered for teenagers and Radio Harmony catered for adult listeners.

After the initial presentation, the guide took us to a production studio, where she taught us what every gadget and devise was used for and how to make a radio programme. It´s not as easy as it seems! In that same studio we recorded a piece of a radio programme in German and English. Our students, Marina Callejon and Alex Parraga volunteered to play the guests part. As soon as they´ll send the recording to us you´ll be able to listen to it clicking on the link on your right!

Later we could visit the office floor of FFH with the different sections: sports, news, on-line radio, shows and music. The office floor is full of desks with laptops and computers, screens all around, the musical archive with 50,000 CDs, traffic lights indicating if the host is on air , the music studio, pre-production studio, …Fascinating!

Finally as a farewell, they took a group picture of us which they promised to upload on their website. We´ll be famous in Germany! Check their website on the following link:

FFH website

We´ve come back to Niedernhausen by train where our partners and their dear families were waiting for us with a full programme of activities to do with us. Don´t forget to check our students blogs on the right!!

Español: La radio en aleman

Hoy jueves hemos visitado la FFH, la gran emisora de radio de Hessen, el estado en que nos encontramos. Primero nos reunimos todos los españoles en la estación de tren de Niedernhausen. Cogimos un tren hasta Frankfurt y luego otro hasta Bad Vilbel, un pueblecito rodeado de campos amarillos.

Allí entramos en el edificio de la FFH, donde nos ofrecieron bebidas y nos llevaron a un auditorio muy moderno para mostrarnos en imágenes algunos datos sobre la radio, fotos de artistas famosos que la han visitado y de otros eventos organizados por la radio. En realidad se trata de una empresa privada que posee tres emisoras, pero solo una de ellas alcanza una audiencia masiva entre personas de todas las edades.
Acabada la presentación inicial, nos llevaron a un estudio de producción, donde nos enseñaron para qué sirve cada máquina y cómo se realiza un programa de radio. ¡Y no es tan sencillo como pensábamos!

En esa misma sala pudimos grabar nuestra propia entrevista, que esperamos poder colgar en este blog para que nos escuchéis por la “radio”.

Después pudimos visitar las otras oficinas de la FFH: mesas con ordenadores para los trabajadores, muchas pantallas por todas partes, el archivo musical (¡con 50.000 CDs!), el estudio para la música en directo…

Como despedida, nos sacaron una foto de grupo que colgarán en la web de la radio.

¡Así seremos famosos en Alemania!

Al acabar la visita hemos vuelto a Niedernhausen, donde nos esperaban nuestros compañeros alemanes con muchos planes para esta tarde. Cada uno os lo contará por su cuenta.