Some people view radio as the poor cousin of television. What a mistake! I have to make a confession here. Many think that because of my curriculum vitae I am a television guy. But to tell the truth, I am just as much a radio man. This medium for me is above all others. It is fast, inspiring and cultivated, like no other.

In my short turn as radio director I learned to appreciate the value of radio as a cultural institution. Radio for me is like what the author Arthur Miller says: "a wonderful medium because it depends solely on words". Besides the challenge of telling a story without visual aids, the power of words is often much stronger than the power of images. Anyone listening to radio must use his or her brain. If you don't listen and pay attention, you won't be able to keep up with the topic. The same is true in society. Like no other medium, radio encourages society to conduct a dialogue with itself. The things that really interest and move listeners can be heard every day on the radio.

In the 1970s, radio stations slowly began making themselves accessible to the listening public. Today, anyone who has something to say about a particular topic can say it on radio. The connection between the telephone and the microphone functions better today than any radio professional would ever have imagined before. People everywhere are tuning into programs that allow not only the "called upon" but also the callers to express an opinion. Whether the topic is building a new theatre or revamping the pension system, radio is a democratic medium, through and through. Or to quote the German playwright Bert Brecht and his radio theory: "It has transformed itself from a distribution apparatus into a communications apparatus, which has contributed to its success."

Day after day, some 32 million people in Germany listen to ARD radio programs. And people appear to like what they hear. Over the last 30 years the number of radio listeners has steadily increased. For sociologists, access is the yardstick for equality. For society, it is openness and democratic practices: access to education, access to information, access to culture. Every now and again, someone complains that with 60 different public radio stations Germany has too many programs. Actually, the reverse is true. Modern media must not only offer a lot, it must offer it to everybody: radio for young people, like N-Joy or Eins Live, information programs, or popular magazines, like SWR3 and MDR1. These programs ensure that the medium radio with its tremendous variety reaches the broadest possible range of age groups, interests and regions. This variety guarantees access.

Every segment of society interested in culture wants to have a "basic supply" of those things that appeal to it. Radio, with its variety, is best suited to accommodate them. Radio as a medium, in fact, is a cultural factor in and of itself. The more conscientiously programs are crafted, the more finely honed the language, the more they will contribute to the development of the cultural landscape. It is a landscape - and this is the fantastic thing about radio - that is accessible to everyone.