How an Online Radio Station Kept Berlin Going During Lockdown
How could a radio station keep Berlin, and the global techno community, going during lockdown? It was during the early months of 2020 that everything went a little crazy. Berlin is a city that revels in the avant-garde, basks in creative freedoms, and is known around the world as a center of hedonism. So what would happen when virtually the entire world would be forced to stay indoors because of a lockdown designed to combat the biggest medical crisis in generations?
As more and more countries announced lockdowns for their populations in a bid to stop the spread of COVID, millions of people got ready to deal with a completely different way of life for, what was at the time, an unknown period. Parents home-schooled their children, there was a whole new demographic learning how to bet on sports for the first time, and the famous ā and infamous – clubs and bars of Berlin closed their doors.
Less than a year earlier HĆR was launched by two DJs looking to fill what they saw as a gap in the market. The much-loved Berlin Community Radio had shut down only a year earlier because of a lack of funding and, although there were other online radio stations providing a valuable service, there did seem to be something missing from the Berlin electronic music landscape.
