The Musik Mafia

(from Tom)

In my Ohio State German class I learned the term for listening to music as a hobby, “Musik hören,” and our vacation house has a nice stereo system ("Stereoanlage”) with FM radio.  I have found a couple of radio stations that play rock and pop music, so I like to have these on in the morning while O. and I get breakfast (Kristin is out bussing the girls to school).  The morning radio listening is a habit I acquired back home, as I could listen to NPR and get my news and weather before heading to work.  But I think listening to German language on the radio is the most difficult setting, since there are no visual cues to help you with the context.  I know that “Wetter” is “weather”, but I have not been able to catch this amid the dialogue.  So mostly I listen to the radio for the music.  The two stations at the right end of the dial are similar in style of music played, which is an eclectic mix of U.S., British, and German rock and pop music.  Yesterday I heard a song by the Scorpions (a Hannover band) followed by “We Are the World” followed by Katy Perry.  I also recall hearing two particular songs more than once within the first few days:  a song by Mike + The Mechanics – “Silent Running” (“Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?”) and the theme song from Dirty Dancing – “Time of my life”.  Not sure what this says about German sensibilities.

                Regarding radios and televisions, Germany has an unusual system of supporting them.  A quarterly tax of 50 Euros is levied by the government to all tv owners, and radio owners have to pay an additional smaller amount.  The funds go to the public broadcasting corporation.  The benefit to the listener is that after 8:00 pm there are no commercials on the radio, and cultural programming is supported.  In other words, this is the NPR model without the pledge drives – instead of asking for your voluntary donations, the State comes knocking on your door to force you to pay.  Literally.  My colleague told me of a time when he had moved into a new apartment and the next day the tax collector knocked on his door to demand payment for the tv and radio tax.  At the time my colleague had no tv.  The dialogue went something like this:

                “Good afternoon sir, I am here to collect the tv tax.  I assume you have a tv?”

                “Actually, I don’t have a tv.”

                “Right then, I will put you down for just one tv.  That will be 50 Euros.”

                “No, I do not have any television.”

                “Well surely you must have a television.  Everybody has a television these days. And I’m sure you were just about to make the payment, so you can do so right now.”

                “But I haven’t got a television”

                “I see, okay then, I have filled out your bill.  It says one television.  Please sign and make the payment now.”

                My colleague eventually turned him away.  He said the collectors get commission for each tax collected, so they sound a bit like NPR meets the Mafia.