On Friday it should be decided who will be the new director of the Hessischer Rundfunk. At around 5:40 p.m. the email came with the result: The Broadcasting Council had chosen a stalemate in three ballots, 16 to 16.
“The stalemate underlines that two outstanding candidates presented themselves today. Unfortunately, no result could be achieved. The Broadcasting Council has reassigned the selection committee,” said the Chairman of the Broadcasting Council, Rolf Müller.
There was a candidate and a candidate with very different profiles: Florian Hager, 45 years old, who had made a name for himself as the founding managing director with the development of the public service youth service funk and most recently as a channel manager pushed the realignment of the ARD media library – and Stephanie Weber, 50 years old, who worked for Saarländischer Rundfunk for a long time, among other things as administrative and operations director for the areas of finances, personnel, fees. She moved from Saarbrücken to Frankfurt at the beginning of this year.
So were the finances against the program?
“I wouldn’t focus that much,” said Müller, but of course Stepahnie Weber focused more on the economic aspects in her presentation, Florian Hager on the digitization of the station.
The Broadcasting Council will meet for the next time on December 3rd. Both Weber and Hager can now consider whether they want to compete again. In addition, the Broadcasting Council can propose other candidates.