That’s right, folks! Here’s my little promo feature for Germany’s 12punks.fm online punk rock radio! Check out their official website, play it and scroll down for my short chit-chat with Daniel Gützlaff and Benedikt Hoffmann, who run this powerhouse, also known as “the biggest punk rock radio in Germany”. Well, their social media channels don’t exactly prove these words, but I guess it’s maybe because of the fact that overall radio stations are not popular ;) or the fact that they’re not even a year old. Anyway, I believe it’s worth your time. Tune in, check out their playlist full of melodic danceable tracks and see what they has to say about his station.
Hey, man! You’re the first radio station interviewed for IDIOTEQ :) I’m really glad we’re doing this. How are you? How’s everything?
We’re really happy to have this interview and also to be the first radio station.
So far, everything’s going awesome! We started in fall 2012 and are now the biggest punk rock radio station in Germany, but we haven’t reached our goals, yet.
Nice. What motivated you to launch the station?
We simply wanted a real cool punkrock radio with the bands and songs we liked. Plus, in Germany there weren’t any nearly good stations, so we took it upon ourselves to make the radio station we like!
Did you have any experience doing radio?
Yeah, we have, but we won’t reveal where :D
Haha, ok ok, let’s leave it then ;)
Why „12 Punks”? :)
That’s one funny story. Our first name was 1234punk, because every good punk songs starts with “1234”. But you know, that sounded really strange. So we thought about it and had no idea how to name the station until someday we listened to one tune on the radio. We misheard the lyrics, but they were something like “we are twelve punks”. Since that day it is only “12punks”. Pity we can’t find the song because we don’t know the real lyrics…
Cool :) What can the listeners expect to hear when they tune in?
Well, obviously the best punk rock music out there ranging from ANTI-FLAG, over BILLY TALENT and NOFX to RISE AGAINST. We also have some pop punk, hardcore and easycore songs in our rotation. But it’s also important for us to play the small bands and give them a chance. There are some real jewels among them. You could say, the listeners can expect music right “in your face”.
How do you get music for the radio? Do you have an extensive collection of CDs and vinyl? Or do you download songs from the Web?
Around 15 years ago we became infected with punk rock. Over that timespan we collected many CD’s and Vinyl. Nowadays you can find every band on facebook or myspace, but before social networking you had to go to those small sweaty clubs. It was awesome to get to know new bands and party there and you might buy some CDs there. Also we get many songs from bands, labels and promoters. Everything we can’t get from these sources we bought as download, as a physical copy or as vinyl.
You are broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. How many listeners do you get for a given show?
We don’t have any hosts and therefore no given show, except for our weekly chartsshow which airs every Sunday 16:00 UTC but nobody anchors it. So for that show we have over 200 listeners. And generally every day for prime time around the same amount.
So the rest is just pure music, huh? Any plans to change that and launch some radio talks, panels, etc.?
Yeah, that’s the point just pure music (don’t you think moderators are annoying? :D ). We may launch a hardcore and a german punk show and maybe we’ll air some interviews too.
Sure! Ok, have you had problems with web hosting?
We have our own Servers and IT-guys and never had to bother with such problems, for now.
What software, hardware and equipment that you use for your show? What are your recommendations for all the kids wanting to get into the business? ;)
Sorry, but I can’t tell you what systems we use, it just needs to sound good.
To all you kids out there who want to start anchoring radio, or start their own radio station:
Begin small, you can’t be the biggest fish in the pond overnight. Get experience! Join a big station or do an internship at your local radio. But most of all, you need lots of time. So if you already have little spare time, you may don’t want to start such things.
What does the future hold for 12punks?
We hope for the best. The first half year was awsome for us. We became the biggest punkrock station in germany, got only positive responses from our listeners and many bands wanted to be played on our station. So hopefully it will continue that way.
Besides running the station, are you somehow involved in other activities within your local punk scene?
Yeah! We organize concerts, are in some streetteams and one us of played in a punk rock band.
Will you sell me its name? :)
Haha, the name was TEXAS IS THE MUSIC, but we only got one song (called “The Nightmare”) and we were only booked for one show but never played this show because the song was only 1:30 min long.
Was it a punk band? Never thought of putting together another act?
It was “electro punk”. There were plans for an album but we only had guitar and bass. Drums were made by the computer. On top of that we were not really ambitious, so we stopped the band and started to organize concerts.
Alright, guys. Thanks so much for your time. Feel free to add anything you want and good luck with your station!
Thank you for the interview, was a pleasure and always remember: “stay wild, stay true, stay punk”!
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