B5 aktuell

B5 aktuell launched on May 6, 1991 at 6:00am and took over the additional frequency of BR4, over which until then the evening ARD-Gastarbeitersendungen broadcasts, as well as some special parliamentary debates or other events were adopted. Model was the French news channel France Info of Radio France. Later, other stations in Germany took over the concept of B5 aktuell, such as MDR Info (1992), Inforadio from RBB (1995), NDR Info (1998), hr-info (2004), SWRinfo (2012) and DRS 4 News in Switzerland (2007). As one of the first ARD radio stations on the Internet B5 has been online since November 1995. On September 8, 2011 B5 was recently awarded the German Radio Prize in the "Best News Format" category.

Main features of the program structure on the air are the 15-minute rolling news blocks. The information blocks on the hour and half hour are designed for a length of 8 minutes and are presented by editors. In these info-blocks there are also correspondent contributions and o-tones. At XY: 15 and XY: 45 clock come five-minute news without recordings, read by newscasters. The last minutes of the block are filled with various in-depth contributions to certain topics after a program clock, then at XY: 08 a block with news only from Bavaria and XY: 55 a block with sports news aired. A stock market update is read every 2 blocks, and local traffic and weather news is read in every block.

B5 currently also transmits selected sports events, such as International matches of the national football team, the Champions League (here the games of FC Bayern Munich) and the ARD Bundesliga conference live, sometimes in full length.

To expand the offer of live broadcasts, launched on 8 October 2007, B5 plus was launched to provide additional sporting events and live scores from the German Bundestag and the Bavarian state parliament transfers, alongside extended breaking news coverage. At all other times, B5 plus relays B5 aktuell.

B5 aktuell currently broadcasts from 6am to midnight (in the remaining time the ARD-Infonacht is taken over) and is transmitted in Bavaria nationwide over ultra short wave VHF and via DAB + in the channel 11D. In Südtirol, the broadcaster is broadcast by the broadcaster Rundfunk-Anstalt Südtirol in the standard DAB +. Europe-wide B5 is currently receivable via DVB-S and DVB-C. Worldwide, the program can be heard via livestream. In addition, there are individual programs as a podcast. The shortwave broadcasting (digital on 6085 kHz in DRM mode since May 2, 2005) on the transmitter Ismaning was set on October 1, 2010.

The current RDS PTY code for B5 is 02 ("Current Affairs") because the vast majority of the broadcasting time are backgrounds, debates, analyzes, and the like. However, it will be permanently marked with RDS PTY code 01 ("News", Messages) sent; a nationwide exception. In particular, car radios often offer the possibility to emphasize messages in addition to traffic using dynamic PTY: for example, transmits the German radio basically code 03 ("Information"), only during the news 01, however, which allows radios to temporarily change channels and adjust the volume. Due to the continuous transmission of the message code at B5 aktuell, there could be an effect known as station-kidnapping, because the radio remains on the transmitter until the message function of the device is deactivated or the transmission area is left again.

B5 aktuell currently has around 590,000 listeners in Bavaria every day, which corresponds to a market share of 5.3%. In addition, there are around 40,000 in other states.