DThe long-time SWR program director for culture, Gerold Hug, is dead. He died on February 13th at the age of 65. The broadcaster announced this on Thursday in Stuttgart. Director Kai Gniffke called the deceased “one of the greats in SWR”.
Hug volunteered at “Südkurier” in Konstanz and then moved to “Express” in Cologne. In 1983 he came to what was then the radio station SWF3 in Baden-Baden. When SDR and SWRF merged to form SWR in 1998, he became program director for SWR3 and DASDING. From 2009 to mid-2011 he headed the SWR strategy department in Stuttgart. From 2012 to 2016, Hug worked at SWR as radio director, after which he took over the culture, knowledge and young formats program directorate. He retired in 2020.
In a statement, the SWR writes that as program director, Hug “has brought about change (…) and was able to successfully attract young people to public broadcasters with SWR3, DasDing and, last but not least, the founding of “funk”. The love of radio “determined his work” and motivated people “at SWR to (…) focus on proximity to the listeners”.
Hug also laid the foundation for the ARD Audiothek and also campaigned for the radio ensembles. Among other things, he hired Teodor Currentzis as chief conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra.
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