August 2003 - Nr. 8
Hermann and Christel
– Local German Radio Live on CKWR 98.5FM – Waterloo Region
by Herwig Wandschneider
Going up to the Radio Station is always an experience. To be on Hermann and Christel’s Hit Parade (Sundays 5-7pm) an adventure in Live Broadcasting. This dynamic couple sits across from each other and with a wink or gesture they each seem to know what the other is to do next. Ad-Libbing is the name of the game. That’s fine, but a bit of a challenge for greenhorns…
![Hermann and Christel at the controls - always upbeat [photo: Herwig Wandschneider]](308c-HW-Radio.jpg)
Music that June 22nd was just great – they were playing German hits from 1998-2002, real up-to-date fun stuff, and if they were not so busy, we would have seen them dance in the Studio. This was also the day Rob Brady had his (and TA’s) Broil King draw live on the show. Hermann just stopped him in time from reading the winner’s phone number – the winner might have had some 4000 BBQ guests had he not.
4000 – that is the magic number of listeners on this show. Quite impressive. The Music, the right up-to-date News, the special event greetings, K-W social activity announcements, Quiz’s and above all the relaxed chit chat attracts these loyal listeners. But then I found out another detail. Hermann and Christel meet some of their listeners every last Friday of the month at the Concordia Club at about 6pm. They eat and dance and enjoy their company. Some of the participants have been on tours organized by Christel to places like Mexico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic etc. And clearly many of the listeners there were well known to both from Tours and previous dinners at the Concordia.
![Dinner and dance at Concordia - 10 of some 50 radio listeners [photo: Herwig Wandschneider]](308c-HW-Radio_Listeners.jpg)
Hermann and Christel celebrated their 10th Anniversary year on K-W’s multi-cultural Radio CKWR this May. Hermann kicked off the show in the 5am slot in 1993 and switched to Sunday 5pm, when this became available. Who can blame him? Christel’s addition to the show a year fter Hermann started was a bit of a fluke, but when that became a successful combination – they carried right on.
Aside from preparing the Hit Parade for the show and putting together a rough outline, including the so necessary commercials, let’s not forget that this team not only volunteers their time for preparation and the show, but also buys almost all the CD’s themselves. That’s commendable for the 5pm slot they have had now for 5 years, but downright heroic for the 5am slot they had in the first 5 years. Hermann has some other interesting ideas about what he would like to tackle next. Stay tuned …
