FAQ

We have several professional presenters. The announcements and lead-ins are pre-recorded.

We endeavour to pronounce names correctly. This is quite challenging in particular with regard to eastern European and Scandinavian languages. It is not possible to change existing announcements that have already been recorded. For pieces that are newly included in the programme we attempt to do justice to the original pronunciation but draw on the «ARD pronunciation database».

Radio Swiss Classic deliberately keeps its speech sections short, because the idea is to play the music, rather than talk about it. That is why we limit announcements to the name of the piece of music, the composer, and the performer.
All the information is taken unchanged and verbatim from the CD booklet. This also makes it possible to locate information in the Music database.

The volume of the pieces of music and the presenter segments are balanced with each other using our technical mixing equipment. We take international standards as the basis. It is true, however, that many classical pieces in particular begin or end very softly. Where this is the case, the previous or next presenter segment will tend to be perceived subjectively as too loud in relation to the music. Listeners will not notice the difference with works that end on a grand final chord.

The majority of Radio Swiss Classic listeners prefer a varied programme to long works. In the evening and at night we broadcast one or two complete works every hour.

Music that is enthusiastically received in a concert hall is not necessarily right for inclusion in a background station such as Radio Swiss Classic. We have conducted relevant studies, and have a sufficient body of feedback from listeners, to know that opinions tend to be divided on works featuring the organ, choral or operatic pieces, brass instruments or spiritual music. We therefore tread very carefully when scheduling these types of music.

The programme philosophy of Radio Swiss Classic does not envisage contemporary music. Moreover, this would entail detailed explanations, which do not suit our concept of brief announcements.

This is due to the acoustics: the sound quality of old recordings is not suitable for the demands of today’s digital radio listeners. Live recordings are unsuitable for radio broadcasts because of the background and ancillary noise.

«CH» indicates that the piece played has a link to Switzerland. This may relate to the performers (soloist, ensemble) or the composer.

Most of our listeners switch on for an average of about an hour, often at the same time of day. With over 6,500 pieces on our playlist, we are thus able to offer a good variety for the great majority of them. Listeners who have Radio Swiss Classic on almost around the clock will notice repeats to a greater degree.

We’re always happy to receive non-binding suggestions in writing at the email address info@radioswissclassic.ch. Owing to the large number of requests and tips, we cannot respond to all the enquiries that we receive.

We do not offer a requests show. Our music editors regularly select new, suitable titles in line with our programme philosophy, in order to include them in the programme.

The number of sound storage media orders via our playlist and delivery by corresponding trade partners has fallen significantly in recent years. In addition, an increasing number of titles in our range are no longer available on physical sound storage media. The detailed information on the titles and albums on our website (including label and order number details) are so comprehensive that available sound storage media can be directly ordered from online retailers.
In addition, many mainly older recordings in the range are not available as digital data for download. And compressed data often do not meet the requirements of classical music lovers.

For copyright reasons we are not permitted to produce copies of pieces of music. This also applies if the piece is no longer available.

Radio Swiss Classic does not have its own sheet music archive. We recommend that you ask in a specialist shop or look online for a publisher.

You can listen to our programmes using the “PlaySRF” app on an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet. The app is available in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

To listen to our station in the car, you need a DAB+ car radio, or a car radio with internet reception. In Switzerland, more and more vehicles are being equipped with DAB+ radios. There are also various options for retrofitting VHF radios with DAB+ technology. Please ask your dealer or garage mechanic. Please note that our station is available via DAB+ in cars only in Switzerland and in border areas of neighbouring countries. For more information, please visit www.dabplus.ch.

The best thing to do is to run an automatic station search on your DAB+ radio. This will update all available stations. It sometimes helps to change the location of the radio whilst the station search is running.

Our station is not broadcast via FM, but rather on the digital DAB+ network. With DAB+, stations are not allocated a frequency in the conventional sense. After an automatic station search on your radio, you’ll find us under the name «Swiss Classic+».

We are aware of the problem. When updates are carried out to the operating systems of smartphones and tablets, all app providers need a certain amount of time to update their apps accordingly. This is unfortunately also the case with us and is unavoidable.

In view of the very rapid pace of technical progress, a gradual increase in streaming quality is likely in the medium term, but no definite plans have yet been made. Improving streaming quality means that we will need more bandwidth for each station, and that means much higher costs. However, only a small proportion of our listeners – those with the corresponding hi fi equipment – will be able to benefit from the marginal improvement in sound quality. Our 96kbps AAC+ stream offers a slightly better-quality sound, if you would like to try it.

From 2016, in order to receive our programme via Eutelsat Hotbird satellite, you need a DVB-S2-compatible receiver. Otherwise reception will unfortunately no longer be possible. Our programme has not been broadcast via the Astra satellite for some time.

This is basically permitted, and we do not demand remuneration. On the other hand, you are obliged to follow your country’s rules for licence fees in public areas in order to protect the artists’ copyrights.

We do not accept direct applications. Any vacancies will be published on the SRG SSR website. Internships are unfortunately not possible at our station.