From the book:
Quote:
“When the building of the Berlin wall in August 1961 so abrubtly cut off East Berliners from half of their city, SFB responded at once with a special transmission of three and a half hours of programmes every morning to help them keep in touch. This early session, aimed entirely at the east, is supported by both the German networks, ARD and ZDF. [...]
To ensure that every possible home in East Germany can watch this morning session, it is also relayed by transmitters of other ARD stations in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, who are nearer the border to achieve blanket coverage.”
A German Wikipedia article has some more details about that morning session (Vormittagsprogramm):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeins...on_ARD_und_ZDF
East German television already had regular morning programming (for shift workers). The Western counterpart (by SFB/ARD) started on 4th September 1961, ZDF joined in 1966.
In the late 70s, I sometimes watched the morning session in my holidays. I remember that our listings magazine said it was only broadcast by selected transmitters - and I wondered why. I thought maybe the other transmitters didn't have enough money.
From January 1981, the morning session was broadcast throughout Western Germany from 10:00 to 13:15. In 1989, it was expanded from 9:00 to 14:00. And in 1992, a live breakfast show from 6:00 to 9:00 was added.
The East German morning session on DDR 1 (in the 80s) could start as early as 7:50 with educational programmes, but regular programming started at 9:15 with 10 minutes of gymnastics, followed by a short news bulletin and the repeat of last evening's main news. From 10.00 to 12.45, various programmes were repeated, often followed by another educational programme (e.g. "English for you"). Afternoon programming started somewhere between 15:00 and 16:50 on weekdays.
Here's the startup of DDR 1 on 25th June 1983. This was a Saturday, with non-stop programming from 9:25 to 2:35. The closedown was unusually late, due to live coverage of an athletics competition (USA vs. GDR) from Los Angeles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMoJEyLOSs
(TV & radio listings start at 5:40. According to the uploader, this was recorded in Sweden, hence the shaky reception.)