Mediascape and Soundscape Two Landscapes of Modernity in Cold War Berlin, in: Philipp Broadbent/Sabine Hake (eds.), Berlin Divided City 1945-1989, New York: Berghahn, 2010, S. 56-65

The various zones of contact, con ict, and tension between publishing houses, television, and broadcasting stations in East and West Berlin determined Cold War Berlin'’s mediascape in the 1950s and 1960s. Arjun Appadurai uses the term mediascape to describe the production of media content, symbols, and narratives in a competitive setting of distribution channels, such as broadcasting stations (2000: 27––47, 33). The producer of content is keen on securing the transmission of an intended meaning to viewers and listeners without being distorted through acts of consumption or by adding additional meaning. This essay examines these zones by discussing the organizational structure of radio broadcasting in Berlin in the 1950s and 1960s and by further focusing on the strategies of West Berlin broadcasting stations adapting to new kinds of programs, and realigning and modernizing spe ci c areas of broadcasting, especially youth and music programs. The very sound of the music broadcast by radio stations provides a eld in which they can claim a distinct identity, and in which the political pur pose of a radio station must negotiate with its fundamental need to attract the majority of a target audience. This essay argues that the commercially competitive agenda of the media market is a crucial force that drives broadcasting institutions to rede ne themselves in a constantly shifting environment of listening behavior. The consumption of music via small devices that are capable of receiving and replaying music is a prominent feature of popular culture