MASS MEDIA IN DIVIDED GERMANY 573
led to extensive programming reforms in the GDR in 1971/72, as well as
in 1982/83, which included a noticeable increase in entertainment shows
that were clearly modeled after Western formats. In particular, the pro-
gramming schedules were aligned with those of West German television.
The airing times for journalistic shows, for example, were shifted so that
they would not have to compete with entertainment programming on the
Western airwaves.^87
The East German leaders were well aware of the threat that this con-
vergence with Western television posed for the country. They sought to
avoid these dangers by keeping “hard politics” in the form of news pro-
grams such as Aktuelle Kamera fi rmly on a course of demarcation directed
against West Germany. At the same time, they also experimented with
new formats in the 1970s that tried to use Western lifestyles as a cover for
politically correct messages, such as on the FDJ program RUND.^88
Similar trends can also be detected in radio programming. The advent
of television forced radio to become an easily consumable companion to
daily life that off ered smaller programming bits, such as short news up-
dates, journalistic pieces, or “service coverage” with weather and traffi c
information. Simultaneously, radio formats appeared that catered to the
popular culture and music interests of diff erent target groups, such as
teenagers; these included the GDR’s DT 64 that hit the air in 1964 and the
West German RIAS Treff punkt that got going in 1968, as well as Pop Shop
(SWF, from 1970).^89 Although it has always been cheaper to produce ra-
dio programs than television, commercialization nonetheless came to
radio due to the growing demand for catchy pop music programming.
Stations could not produce enough music on their own to keep these
programs running over the long term, which meant that they had to pay
considerable sums in licensing fees. There were also attempts to limit the
amount of pop music being aired in both German states. In the West, for
example, the so-called “record wars” erupted in 1965 in which the ARD
radio stations boycotted current albums, and pop music was only played
every now and then on these stations in the following years.^90 The GDR,
on the other hand, had already introduced the infamous “60/40 rule” in
1958 that dictated that 60 percent of the songs played on the radio had
to come from the Eastern Bloc. Cultural and political resentments mixed
with economic considerations in both cases. For example, this was a way
for the GDR to limit expenditures in foreign currency. In the 1970s and
1980s, however, the radio formats that catered to youth culture (as well
as the service stations) could no longer avoid playing British and Amer-
ican pop music. Over the long term, it was impossible for radio in both
West and East Germany to avoid playing by the rules of the game in the
increasingly international music industry.^91