1995: Antenne Steiermark – The First Commercial Radio Station

Owned by the Catholic Media Association Private Foundation

Since the mid-1980s there have been media policy debates in Austria on the licensing of commercial radio stations, but only in the 1990s was there an opening of the market. This step was taken after the European Court of Human Rights had ruled Austrian broadcasting monopoly to be partly a breach of the freedom of information. The dual broadcast system (the public Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, ORF, and commercial radio) was introduced in 1993 with the adoption of the Regional Radio Act (RRG) in the National Assembly.

With around 150 applications, there was an unexpectedly large rush for the ten advertised radio licenses available. Following notification of the licensing decision, some of the rejected parties appealed to the Constitutional Court (VfGH). Because these appeals had a delaying effect, radio stations were not allowed to start broadcasting until a final decision was reached by the VfGH. Two private stations were, however, able to agree with their claimants: Antenne Steiermark started transmitting on September 22, 1995 and broadcast “Born to be Alive” as its first song, as well as Radio Melody, today’s Antenne Salzburg, which launched one month later. Antenne Steiermark quickly gained a large audience and competed with Radio Steiermark but also with Ö3, the only radio station until then that played contemporary pop music.

A nationwide introduction of commercial radio took place in 1998 with the amendment of the regional radio law; in April of that year, 15 regional broadcasters went “on air”. Meanwhile, the number of commercial radio broadcasters in Austria has grown to about 70 stations.