"As a Chemnitz resident, you can have a broad chest"

Tino Utassy

Tino Utassy can't sit still. It is perhaps the most striking characteristic of a creator of his calibre in an industry that thrives on entertaining and informing people every day. Tino is a radio producer in the best sense of the word and has been since the early 1990s, when he launched Radio Chemnitz. Back then, he sometimes sat at the controls himself to train presenters. Today, he is head of the national BCS Broadcast Sachsen, which operates local radio stations such as Radio Chemnitz and Radio Dresden as well as Hitradio RTL. The fact that he has been doing radio for over 20 years is not apparent to the football fan and even if he occasionally flirts with his age in jest, he is an active person who is drawn to South Tyrol whenever possible. Preferably with a caravan. Incidentally, this is a topic that you can talk shop with him about for just as long as football. After reunification, he recognised his opportunity in the radio market and seized it. In this respect, he is a typical Chemnitz doer, whom we were able to meet for an interview in his Chemnitz studio.

For many citizens, your radio is part of their everyday life, it has been "their" city radio station for years. How long has Radio Chemnitz been around?
Tino Utassy: The idea for Radio Chemnitz has been around since immediately after reunification. It's been around "in the flesh" since 23 May 1993, but it wasn't easy to get there, it was quite a difficult task.

Why?
You can't just get a licence for a frequency, you have to apply for it. So you can imagine that we weren't the only ones. Everyone from the old federal states naturally wanted to do radio in Saxony because there was a high probability that Saxony would become a flourishing federal state in the east - which, in my view, is the case. And of course many people were interested in that.

Why did you do it in Chemnitz in particular?
I'm from here. Before reunification, I had a lot to do with culture, especially with discos - in other words, with "making music for other people". And I was always a bit sad about that. There was DT64 back then, but that wasn't what I thought it was. It was more RIAS 2 or Bayern 3 that I liked. RIAS 2 was more for the younger people, Bayern 3 was more for the older people and I just thought to myself: "Oh, that must exist here too! That can't be right." Then came the turnaround and I thought to myself: "Now it has to work somehow." That sounds easy today, but it wasn't.

If it wasn't easy, you had to have certain qualities. What are your doer qualities?
First of all, I have a thick head, that's for sure. If I have something in my head that I want and that has to happen, then it has to happen. And I believe that making decisions is a really big deal. I also believe that managers have to be able to make decisions every second and that's how I feel sometimes. You have to get through it, it's no use. That's a quality that not everyone has. Many people need a very, very long time to decide certain things and are also very afraid of making the wrong decisions. But it's the sum of good decisions that leads to success.

Do radio people particularly need that? Is the radio market so tight that you have to have special doer qualities?
No. I think it doesn't matter what business it is - in the end you need doer qualities. Those who are successful follow certain "gene structures", at least that's my impression. I've also met a lot of people over the years who I thought: "Wow, they could be someone." And then it didn't quite turn out that way. Or you've discovered people who have gone on to make a name for themselves and are now working in completely different areas and have leadership qualities.

21 years of Radio Chemnitz - how has the media landscape in Chemnitz developed in recent years?
It has changed enormously. At the time when we had the idea of making radio, the situation for the medium of radio was very similar to what it is today. If you think about everything that is now available online and what has happened to newspapers that have halved their readership in that time! If that's even enough, I can't say for sure. It's a very difficult time for newspapers and magazines. Television and online have made huge gains and radio has remained very, very stable. Not just here, but in Germany in general.

Are Chemnitz listeners particularly demanding?
Yes and no. They are not more demanding or less demanding than other cities. What certainly speaks in favour of the people of Chemnitz is that they appreciate receiving regional and local information of any kind: entertaining, informative, service-related. They reward this with a real love of the station, you can tell.

Are locality and regionality a model for the future?
Yes, absolutely. Everything we hear on the Internet is more international. As international as it can possibly be. We notice that the most local information, right down to neighbourhood interest, has become incredibly important. And that's always the case: when something grows in size, a small part of it also develops. It usually falls by the wayside in the centre. And it's the same with radio.

Chemnitz is now the "home planet" of Radio Chemnitz. Many successful companies have emerged from this industrial city. Do you think the people of Chemnitz are particularly self-critical doers? Do they have special expectations of themselves and what they do?
No, they are perhaps particularly galvanised by the big situation, let's just stay in Saxony. I encountered this directly when I started radio. The managing director of Dresdner Nachrichten, who of course is no longer the managing director of Dresdner Nachrichten, said to me: "Well, Tino, what's going to happen to Radio Chemnitz?" It sounded so pitiful, like this: "Will it work? Should I help you in any way?" In the end, that gave me additional motivation to show that I could do it: "So, watch out now, my good man. Now I'm going to show you where the hammer hangs." And in the end, I succeeded!
For a long, long time, Radio Chemnitz and, from 1994 onwards, Radio Zwickau were the ratings winners. Better than Radio Leipzig, Radio Dresden and Radio Lausitz combined, which of course ultimately resulted in sales. You don't have to look it up or poke around, but that has meant that even as a Chemnitz resident you have a broad chest and say: "I'm the only one left from the management team back then. And the one who is responsible for the entire current Saxon construct."

Can this claim be generalised to the people of Chemnitz? Do they always feel particularly incentivised?
If you look at the people of Chemnitz from the outside: When he's somewhere, people say: "Oh, he's from Chemnitz." Along the lines of: "I'm sorry about that." But the people from Chemnitz themselves have a different self-image. I was born here, I was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, but this is my city and I'm happy about every corner that becomes more beautiful. I'm also happy about every effect that reaches the outside world and people say: "Oh, the people of Chemnitz again." The people of Chemnitz don't dare to say "I'm from Chemnitz" out loud on holiday and reveal their dialect. But I do believe that the younger generation will broaden their horizons in the medium term and we have to keep working on improving this.

Why don't the people of Chemnitz have to compare themselves with Dresden or Leipzig?
Well, because you don't have to! I could compare myself to Özil, which I would love to do, and I would love to say: "Or, I can play football as well as him!" But the basic requirements are different. And no one from Chemnitz has to imitate someone from Dresden and vice versa. Each city is special in its own right. And we have something that the others don't have at all and you just have to emphasise that. And that's why I always find it a bit ugly when people say: "Yes, they still have this and they still have that and we don't have that right now." There are beautiful corners in Dresden, just as there are beautiful corners in Leipzig. But there are also still nasty corners, just like there are in Chemnitz. And they have to be cleared away, it's as simple as that.

Do you have to encourage the people of Chemnitz?
I don't think we need to encourage the people of Chemnitz as much as we need to say to those who don't come from Chemnitz and judge Chemnitz: "Watch out now. What you see here is not the case." I know from some companies based here that they are desperately looking for specialists. But they would rather go to Leipzig or Dresden and not to Chemnitz because they have a completely wrong view of Chemnitz. And that's the problem, you have to address it and put it into perspective.