On June 10th 2020 the General Assembly of UNIKOM elected a new Board of Directors
reflecting the recent expansion and evolution of the association. The enlargement of the association was voted at the General Assembly 2017, when the new DAB+ local radios joined UNIKOM. One year later, the sub-group “Meldepflichtige Radios” and the sub-group “Komplementäre Radios” were constituted for this purpose.
The 23 radios subject to registration (Meldepflichtige Radios) are start-up radios, mainly commercially oriented in order to cover their costs. They broadcast their programmes via DAB+ and are working through different business models (events, sponsoring, advertising, crowdfunding, subscriptions, etc). The group of nine non-profit complementary radios (Komplementäre Radios) such as 3FACH, LoRa or RaBe broadcast their programmes via FM and DAB+ and fulfil a public value mandate, for which they receive public funding.
UNIKOM currently has 32 members and is thus the largest radio association in Switzerland. The 23 radio stations subject to registration are diverse music radio stations or moderated cultural, sports or church radio stations for Swiss citizens or foreigners living in Switzerland.
The general assembly elected a new board of directors taking into account the commercial interests of new members and integrating multilingualism.
Lukas Weiss, former president of UNIKOM, is stepping down after 25 years of engagement and Patrick Studer of diis Radio resigned due to lack of time available for voluntary work.
UNIKOM Board of Directors:
Judith Grosse, PR manager at Radio LoRa, was re-elected and represents the interests of the complementary local radio stations.
Simone Ruckstuhl, managing director of Radio 3FACH, was newly elected to the board and represents the interests of the complementary local radio stations.
Vanessa Esteves, Radio Vostok, was newly elected to the board and represents the interests of the non-profit radio stations subject to registration in French-speaking Switzerland.
Dany Hofmann, manager of IP music and entrepreneur (IP worldcom, Decibel SA, DABCOM SA) was newly elected to the board and represents the commercial interests of the radio stations subject to registration in French-speaking Switzerland.
Giuseppe Scaglione, manager of my105, was newly elected to the board and represents commercial concerns of DAB+ radios in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
Armin Köhli, managing director of the klipp+klang radio school, was newly elected to the board in support of radio education and training.
Thomas Gilgen, manager of open broadcast radio and digris ag, was re-elected. He is the contact person for innovative technologies (DAB+, archive, streaming) and for digital migration.
See http://unikomradios.ch/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/kandidaturen_vorstand.pdf for more information on the new Board members and http://unikomradios.ch
More information on the current legal framework in Switzerland can be found here: https://www.bakom.admin.ch/bakom/de/home/elektronische-medien/informationen-ueber-radio-und-fernsehveranstalter.html