A basic journalistic virtue is the separation of news and commentary. Bayern 1, the most listened to radio station in the Free State, obeyed this command on election evening in a particularly subtle and smug way. The forecasts and projections, the interviews with politicians, the conversations with in-house experts and correspondents: serious, informative, in no way biased. And where there were no facts (yet), there was no speculation.
But Bayern 1 also plays the music. The polling stations were hardly closed when Bill Withers sang to the outgoing Chancellor: “Ain’t No Sunshine (When She’s Gone)”. In Munich, from where Bayern 1 is broadcasting, rain set in that evening, Mike Oldfield roared “Shadow On The Wall”. What shadows did you see pulling up at the BR, which is often assumed to be close to the Union, in view of the first ARD forecast, which was a bitter damper for Armin Laschet’s ambitions?
After performances by Scholz and Laschet it was time for “Men” and “The Wild Boys”
The music should by no means express a political sensitivity at Bayern 1. Rather, she commented on moods in the parties and in the electorate, undermined statements, and told her own story that election night. Robert Tepper sang “No Easy Way Out” when it was clear that Union politicians would find it difficult to get through this evening. Then the Scorpions whistled from the “Wind Of Change”.
Enter Scholz: The next Chancellor is Olaf Scholz. Enter Laschet: He will lead the next federal government. Enter Söder: Red-Red-Green have suffered a crashing rebuff. Alpha male sentences. The sound to go with it: the gladiator hymn “Conquest of Paradise” by Vangelis, Herbert Grönemeyer’s “Men”, “The Wild Boys” by Duran Duran.
When the defeat of the CDU and CSU could no longer be discussed away, it rang in their direction: “Ready for the island” and, comforting, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. And as on TV that Berlin round had long ended and also with Anne Will Everyone had said it all, George Michael summed it up in four and a half minutes: “Cowboys And Angels”.