As a presenter of a show like that Local time from Cologne you have to be up for any fun. Appear in carnival costume at the hand-made speech, then announce a contribution to garden bed ideas, then weather report. Moderation in front of drunk football fans at the public viewing on Heumarkt, a contribution to the noisy ICE plant in Cologne-Longerich, weather report. The contributions babble to themselves every evening, as does the good-humored engagement of the moderator. It was Simone Standl for 17 years, now her collaboration with WDR ends, in a bad mood, with a big argument between the broadcaster and the presenter.
It all started a few months ago. During the pandemic, Standl learned from the station that the end of June would end for her Local time. Sorted out and exchanged, although she would have liked to continue. By then, at 59, she was fully paid and was popular with the loyal viewers, she said in several interviews that she then gave. The moderator has made it public that the departure is anything but consensual. She threw the WDR in Cologne city gazette Youth madness and age discrimination before, and put in the current Picture on sunday again after that the station wanted to become “desperately more diverse”. One would scare off the older, loyal regular viewers if one took away what was familiar and dear to them. So are they looking forward to a major future offensive at WDR?
WDR: “Age did not play a role in the decision in Simone Standl’s case.”
Well, on Twitter they hastened to announce the allegations that standl “for weeks and also today in the BamS raises against the WDR are nonsense and simply wrong “, it says there,” Ms. Standl knows the reasons why she does the Local time from Cologne Will no longer moderate. “Does she? When asked by SZ, Standl said that she had not been given any specific reasons why she had to leave.
A spokeswoman for the WDR explains to the SZ: “A change among the Local time-Moderator: inside there are always. That is normal and the moderators know that too. There are many reasons for such a change. Age did not play a role in the decision in Simone Standl’s case. “Nor was” more diversity “a reason.
For Simone Standl, it’s less about the fact that you have separated from her anyway. “The interaction and the lack of appreciation” is the core of it all, dealing with women in front of the camera, which is also not an isolated case. “I have now opened my mouth on behalf of many others,” says the SZ moderator.
She was initially offered to continue working behind the camera, to speak local news on the radio at WDR 2 from August, which she also accepted. “The WDR would have liked to continue working with Simone Standl,” tweeted the WDR. But “the relationship of trust” has meanwhile been “disturbed so badly that the WDR has withdrawn its offer of continued employment. Ms. Standl receives a fair severance payment in accordance with the rules of the WDR collective agreement. From our point of view, everything is said.”
Simone Standl doesn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire, she tells the SZ, now she has to take a deep breath. In her last show she wished her successor every success, “she should have as much fun as I do here”. Born in Duisburg, Sümeyra Kaya, 38, has been the new presenter of the since mid-July Local time from Cologne.
Apart from the fine interaction and behavior: If you look at the moderation team on WDR television, you can not see any youth and diversity mania.