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AN INTERVIEW with ARNDT PELTNER
in English and German

Introduction
Arndt Peltner is a native German who now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 1996 he has been the producer and host of the weekly 60-minute German music program called "Radio Goethe" and the 30-minute culture/news broadcast entitled "Radio Goethe Magazine," which until January 2011 aired live on Thursday beginning at 8:30 p.m. on KUSF in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the University of San Francisco pulled the plug on its own college radio station.

But recorded 60-minute versions of the Radio Goethe programs still air on more than 40 radio stations throughout the US, Canada and several other countries, and are also available online at radiogoethe.org and as a podcast subscription. In addition there is a German version of Radio Goethe for the German armed forces' station Radio Andernach. Radio Goethe has the goal of exposing an English-speaking audience to the music scene in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Ardnt Peltner is the producer and host of the weekly Radio Goethe music and news programs. PHOTO courtesy Arndt Peltner

 
INTERVIEW with ARNDT PELTNER

1. Where do you come from in Germany? Where did you grow up?

Arndt Peltner: I was born in Würzburg and grew up in Nuremberg. Other than a brief interruption, I also lived there until I moved to the USA in 1996. The "brief interruption" was a year in San Francisco (1992-1993).

2. Did you attend university? Other schools?

After graduating from high school with a Fachabitur, I attended college (Fachhochschule) in Nuremberg, where I studied to be a social worker for four semesters.

3. So how did you get started working in radio in Germany?

Social work wasn't really the right thing for me. I realized that after a very strenuous internship year in San Francisco, where I worked at an institution for mistreated and sexually abused children. Back in Nuremberg I began working at an independent radio station, a kind of "community" broadcaster. That was Radio Z. After that I was able to do a practicum at the commercial station Radio Gong. By then I knew that was exactly the right job for me. Then in 1995 I followed that up with an 18-month trainee position, with practical training as a radio editor.

4. What brought you to the US and the San Francisco Bay Area?

The first time I was ever in San Francisco was in 1987. After that I kept going back, and finally for an entire year in '92-'93. That's when I met my girlfriend. Then we had a long-distance relationship, and after my radio internship I just jumped into the deep end of the pool and went to the US as a freelance correspondent. In the beginning that was a rather difficult undertaking, because there wasn't really anybody waiting for a correspondent. But one thing led to another – my planned three years turned into many more.

5. I've heard you don't really like the name Radio Goethe. Why is that?

The name is unfortunate. When I started the broadcast at KUSF in 1996, I needed an underwriter who could assume the modest weekly broadcast costs. So I thought maybe that was something the Goethe Institute in San Francisco might be interested in. The director at that time agreed to do it and asked me what the broadcast would be named. Since I hadn't even given that a thought, he suggested "Radio Goethe." The title is unfortunate because so few people here in the US know Goethe, much less know how to pronounce or spell his name… not at all good for a website address! Plus, the people who DO know Goethe, immediately think of high culture – more Beethoven and Wagner than Kraftwerk and Rammstein.

In addition, many people think I'm the Goethe Institute's radio station. But after only two years, following a change in directors at the GI San Francisco in 1998, the German Consulate General took over the sponsorship.

6. Why didn't you change the name of the show/website back in 1998?

It's quite simple: To this day I haven't found a better name. It isn't that easy. How should I label the show? It's about the German music scene, but it's neither a specific format nor strictly a German-language show. Now, after 14 years, I'll stick with the old name.

7. What kind of funding do you get for Radio Goethe? Private, public?

None of the above! [Laughs.] For a few years I received grant money through the German government's European Recovery Program as a German-American project. However, this grant has a time limitation and was intended to expand the broadcast. The idea behind the grant is to provide start-up funding. Since, for various reasons, I can't commercialize Radio Goethe, the start-up funding was all we got. So I wasn't able to secure any long-term financing.

8. What do you live off of then? Other jobs?

I work as a freelance correspondent for various radio stations in Germany and Switzerland – and for a few newspapers. On top of that I produce and moderate the in-flight country-music program for Lufthansa, and from time to time I work as a DJ. Over the years I've developed quite a selection of employment options. So it never gets boring for me. Radio Goethe has thus become a wide ranging "hobby," as we say so nicely in German.

9. You play a lot of music by artists that I (and most Americans) have never heard of. How do you select the music played on Radio Goethe? Do you have a specific goal of some kind?

I should add that many of the bands that I play are not known in Germany either. But "being known" is relative. Let's just say, they aren't played on German radio. Actually, I'm open to everything, as long as the quality is suitable, meaning the recording is broadcast-quality.

And I have to be able to play it. Here in the US we have the FCC regulations, meaning you can't play [songs with] certain words. For the Radio Goethe broadcasts on Radio Andernach [for the German armed forces] there are a few more regulations. So I have to be careful about what I play and what I'm allowed to play. My goal is quite simple: I want to get the listeners interested in the music scene in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And if that succeeds, to offer them access to Germany, the German language and culture through the music – to show them that Germany is not just Oktoberfest and Bavarian Gemütlichkeit.

10. How and where do you find the music you play?

Nowadays the… More...

NEXT > Interview in English - Part 2

 
THIS INTERVIEW in GERMAN

Interview mit Arndt Peltner: Deutsche Version
Die deutsche Version dieses Interviews mit dem Gründer, Produzenten und Moderator der wöchentlichen Radio-Goethe-Musiksendung. (The German version of this interview with the creator, producer and moderator of the weekly Radio Goethe music program.)

MORE > German Culture
BACK > Radio Goethe and Arndt Peltner
 

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