Radio station Cosmo should be abolished: If the ARD does the politics of the AfD

The WDR Broadcasting Council is expected to approve this plan on Wednesday. RBB, which is also involved in the global pop station Cosmo, wants to mix its program shares there with Radio 3 in the future; The third cooperation partner, Radio Bremen, has so far kept a low profile, saying they are in discussions with WDR about the changes.

Cosmo was already the focus of cuts in the ARD radio wave reform last year. There was a major solidarity campaign in which stars such as Herbert Grönemeyer, Joy Denalane and Jan Delay took part. This time there is also resistance. In Berlin, the integration officer is protesting for the preservation of the only multilingual ARD radio program.

Nothing will help, Cosmo will be ruined. This means that the ARD has to accept the accusation of acting in the interests of the AfD. Eliminating a program that relies on diversity in terms of music, content and language is exactly what the right-wing radical party’s election campaigners are dreaming of. Away with the woke stuff!

Of course, a new hip-hop channel won’t make the AfD dance for joy. But a special interest program that is dedicated to a specific genre is far less powerful and symbolic than a full program that is about pop and phenomena from all over the world, in which many presenters have a migration background and there are also programs in nine foreign languages. Of these, only Turkish, Farsi and Arabic will find a place in the young WDR programs in the future.

The Cosmo attitude sends the fatal signal that the issue of diversity can be put aside in times of tight budgets. This is a colossal mistake, because the diversity of German society is constantly increasing. A public radio program must noticeably take this into account – and not simply crumble when the wind blows ever more strongly from the right.