Hitradio celebrates a decade

Claudia Reiter
Local radio station Hitradio Namibia – the only German-speaking private radio station in the country and in Africa – has been on the air for ten years.
On 1 August 2012, Wilfried Hähner, Sybille Rothkegel and Reinhold Rothkegel made their debut on the radio station. Fast forward to 2018/19 when Hähner, Jessica Rothkegel and Hartwig Rothkegel took over the station, which has since been taken over by Sybille Moldzio Schonecke and Kai-Uwe Schonecke .
“New additions to the station are the Hitradio Namibia podcast, ‘Namibia Hören’, which consists of two series, ‘Komm mit...’ and ‘Auf einen Sundowner mit...’ For ‘Komm mit’, our colleague Katja Haase travels across the country to look for special and unique stories and places. For example, we have already been to Lüderitz, Swakopmund, Etosha, Otavi and Otjiwarongo,” Moldzio says.
In “Auf ein Sundowner mit...” Haase chats to people from Namibia who support the country in some way or another, or who have a passion for Namibia.
Since being established, Hitradio has also introduced themed evenings, for example “Deutschen Dienstag” (two hours of German music), Wild Wednesday (two hours of country) and “Donner Donnerstag” (two hours of rock and metal). “On weekends we introduced the music shows ‘Roadtrip’ and ‘Homecoming’ to take our listeners into the weekend and back home again.”
Hitradio now boasts ten employees and interns from Namibia and Europe, mainly from Germany and now also Austria. Over the past two years, the station has been able to attract more and more listeners from Europe, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as from South Africa and even the USA.
Their aim is to cultivate and promote the German language in Namibia, but also to maintain the connection between Namibia and Germany, to inform Namibians and tourists about the country, and naturally to entertain them.
Moldzio said that while today is an internal celebration, “everyone is welcome to join us for a sip of bubbly or a cup of coffee and a bite to eat on Saturday (6 August). That day belongs to the listeners, who can wish for everything their heart desires in terms of music. We’ll be broadcasting non-stop from 08:00 to 16:00, have nice prizes to give away and we’ll broadcast from a beauty salon and the Klein Windhoek Spar.”
The last ten years have seen many ups and downs for the team, but “we’re looking forward to the next ten years with you! Thank you to our active and loyal listeners, our wonderful clients and the unique opportunity to be the only German-speaking private broadcaster in Africa.”