History of Südwestrundfunk

The Südwestfunk (SWF) was a German radio and television station with its head office in Baden-Baden and with radio and TV-studios there and in the old arsenal of Mainz. It was operating in the former French zone of Germany, which became the southern part of Baden-Württemberg and the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate. Those regions are not as densely populated as the North of Baden-Württemberg with ''Süddeutscher Rundfunk''.

The Südwestfunk was member of the ARD and produced TV programs for ARD and in cooperation with ''Süddeutscher Rundfunk'' for ''Südwest 3'' (a so-called "drittes Programm" / 3rd TV-program), with Saarländischer Rundfunk as third partner for this regional television program.

Südwestfunk also produced 4 radio programs: * (pop) music and information, sports and entertaining shows * ' with classical music, radio dramas, radio features (in cooperation with Südfunk SDR) * pop and rock music, "new pop" and information, * ' (cooperation with SDR) and '''' with regional programmes and 'melodious music'.

SWF3 was one of the most popular radio stations in Germany, with many listeners near the borders of its area, in Stuttgart, in Frankfurt and especially in Cologne, the same as today SWR3. The SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden was renowned for its interpretations of contemporary classical music that could often be heard at the Donaueschingen Festival. Provided by Wikipedia