150 | Mass Media and Historical Change
the medium that occupied leisure time most fully. On average, people listened
to the radio for three hours every day, usually in company with their families
in the evenings, but women often listened during the day while doing their
housework. Listeners preferred light entertainment, informative programmes
and local radio stations. Variety and quiz shows were especially popular, as
was folk music, but news also (Schildt 1995: 214–61; Meyen 2002: 115). The
triumphal progress of these popular entertainment broadcasts was facilitated
by the introduction of radios with VHF (FM) frequencies. At first the number
of regional programmes doubled, and then during the 1960s nationwide pro-
gramming with diverse content asserted itself, broadcasting both light enter-
tainment and more sophisticated fare.
Both the Cold War and radio technology changed international broad-
casting culture during the 1950s. The introduction of VHF frequencies was
especially expeditious in Germany because of the dearth of both radio sets and
frequencies after the war, and this turned the radio into a regional medium.
This has continued into the Internet Age, since listeners apparently prefer their
radio stations to have a local orientation. At the same time the Cold War
fostered the international character of radio by expanding specific foreign sta-
tions that promulgated their worldviews. Next to the big stations that emerged
during the 1930s and 1940s (like Voice of America and BBC World), the
Federal Republic launched the ‘Deutsche Welle’, a station that was to spread
(West) German culture and views: first to Eastern Europe during the 1960s,
and then to South East Europe, India and parts of Africa. In this way, Greek
immigrants in the Federal Republic, for example, had the opportunity to com-
municate via the Deutsche Welle with the Greek people during the dictator-
ship in that country. Unfortunately, more detailed studies on the workings
of the Deutsche Welle are not yet available. Important impulses continue to
come from the private station Radio Luxemburg, whose trans-border modern
music broadcasts appeal to young people especially.
This mélange of tradition, innovation and exchange is also evident in the
cinema. In all the Western democracies fairly strict control of movies remained
common into the 1950s. Thus in 1934 the American film industry, fearing
state censorship, pledged itself to abide by the moral guidelines of the so-called
‘Hays Code’, adherence to which was monitored by the Production Code
Administration. In 1949 West Germany introduced the state-authorised ‘Frei-
willige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft’ (FSK) based on the American model
of compulsory self-censorship voluntarily undertaken, with films being scru-
tinised by representatives of the cinema industry and the ‘public sector’ (youth
organisations and churches). During the 1950s the FSK forbade as many as
150 films and ordered cuts to be made in approximately 900, which amounted
to a censorship rate of 5 per cent (Buchloh 2002: 210; more balanced: Kniep
2010). In addition there were cases of direct political intervention by ministries