So yes. Barbara Schöneberger, this time dressed entirely in black, belongs to the dark side of power: Darth Vader revealed to her at the gala for the German Radio Prize that he was her father. Or to put it another way: the actor Reiner Schöne, who was the laudator on the stage of Schuppen 52 in Hamburg, spoke with the voice of Darth Vader zu Schöneberger. But he is not only the German voice actor of the Star Warrior – but also that of Papa Schlumpf. Schöneberger would then be Smurfette.
This pas de deux of the two began with a kiss on the hand at a Corona distance. They did it more (he) or less (she) easily and elegantly, but of course it was weird too. How Reiner Schöne let a fine, subtle irony flash through in the few minutes of his appearance. He didn’t want to be funnier than the winners in the Best Comedy category, to whom he presented the award – Martin Gottschild and Jürgen König from the RBB – but was charming and pointed. That had style.
It was an evening of strong performances in front of a corona-related small audience. Made the beginning Gloria Grünwald by Ego FM, who was honored as the best newcomer and used her acceptance speech to appeal to the general election. Two laudators, Antonia Rados and Enissa Amani, spoke to politicians, but also to the audience in the hall as well as in front of the radio and television sets – the gala was broadcast by more than 50 stations – with emotional power in the conscience: You should the people of Afghanistan don’t forget and help, wherever possible, to get them to safety. An Afghan radio presenter who managed to escape to Turkey reported by video message how he had experienced the extremely threatening takeover of power by the Taliban.
“On this historic night, Radio Wuppertal showed what good local radio is all about.”
Valerie Weber’s laudatory speech, which was characterized by sincere respect, was also great. The program director of the WDR and currently also audio chairwoman of the ARD presented a special prize, donated by the advisory board of the radio prize, to the small private radio Wuppertal, das had broadcast on the night of the flood disasteruntil the transmitter’s emergency generator ran out of reserves. “On this historic night, Radio Wuppertal showed what good local radio is all about,” said Weber: “It was mindful and caring. It stood by the people on site. It warned, informed, talked and comforted people.” Your own broadcaster, the largest of the public broadcasters, had to put up with the accusation that it had done all of this too late and not extensively enough. In the meantime, Radio Wuppertal had set up a special broadcast within half an hour.
The relevance of the radio medium was by no means only reflected in this special award. The best program action was Anti-Racism Week Awarded by Toggo Radio, a young DAB broadcaster for children operated by Super RTL. The best interview was conducted by Carmen Schmalfeldt from Radio Leverkusen with the black German Gina Hitsch – the title: Racism Bullshit Bingo. That Sümeyra Kaya WDR Cosmo honored her as best presenter not only recognizes her performance, but also the diversity on the radio.
The British band Duran Duran also appeared at the Radio Prize. And singer Simon Le Bon now knows the word stage anniversary.
(Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa)
In-depth information was awarded in three cases: N-Joy worldwide from NDR was awarded as the best information format, Back to the topic from Detector.fm, a committed and renowned podcast radio from Leipzig, as best podcast, and the Radio Bremen feature Mr. Nickels shoes – A journey to the end of life by Jens Schellhass for a week in a retirement home as best report. The remaining prizes went to the Steffen Lukas show from the Saxon private radio PSR (best morning broadcast) and to Tobias Prager and Marcus Fahn from Bayern 1 for 100 years of radio, in which they simulated a radio broadcast from 1920 (best broadcast).
This award for the BR is representative of the wit and creativity of the radio. Elements that also shaped the gala for the German Radio Prize. Because the seriousness of many moments on this evening in no way led to a sadness and sadness. Seriousness was combined with good entertainment, be it by the moderators Barbara Schöneberger and Thorsten Schorn, or by the laudators Christoph Maria Herbst, Tarek Müller and Judith Williams. Or through the live performances of many musicians whose careers would be unimaginable without radio: Gunslinger, Johannes Oerding and Wincent Weiss, Zoe Wees, Rag’n’Bone Man, Nathan Evans and, as a highlight of the final, Duran Duran. The band released their first album 40 years ago, playing their hit “Ordinary World” and the new song “Anniversary” in Hamburg. And since then the singer Simon Le Bon has known the beautiful German word Bühnenjubiläum, although Barbara Schöneberger chatted with him in English.