Sebastian Heigl On egoFM: “We Dare to Do Something"

Sebastian, you studied sociology, art, music and theater, why did you end up in the audio sector after all?

Sebastian Heigl: It's classic that all media professionals have studied something in the humanities. I found sociology really interesting without having any idea about the subject. But sociology also involves statistics. I wasn't at all talented in that area, so after the first semester I switched to a minor in art, music and theater. In week two of my degree, I looked to see if there were any student radio stations in Munich. I've always been interested in that. I wrote an email to M94.5 without knowing what it was actually about. I went to an information event the same day and was actually accepted.

What happened after that?

Heigl: I was first in the music department, then editor on duty, then chief on duty and did a lot of presenting on the side. In the first year, you received training in basic journalistic terms, the structure of radio reports, speaking techniques, the development of radio programs and the like. You also had one fixed day a week where you worked at the station. I moved to egoFM at the end of 2019 after receiving a call from the current program director Fred Schreiber. He had put together a completely new team and said that he had already heard a lot about me and wanted to meet me for a coffee. I'm still incredibly grateful for that today.

Building a community with a podcast

So I can hear that your entry into the radio industry with M94.5 was an absolute stroke of luck?

Heigl: Yes, absolutely! Back then, it was always a question of weighing things up: Do I go to a seminar or lecture today or do I go to the station and do an awesome radio show?

At M94.5, you also produced your first podcast “Die Sebastians” together with Sebastian Glathe. You were quite early on in Germany, how was that for you?

Heigl: We came up with the idea of doing a podcast because we hosted a radio show on M94.5 called “Katerfrühstück”. We wanted to talk beyond the show and create our own content. Then we decided to take the project online. We uploaded the first episodes to YouTube and Soundcloud, as there were no podcasts on any of the streaming services yet. It went down well with the younger generation because we were one of the first with our focus on the media scene in Munich and the interview format.

At the time, many older colleagues kept telling me that Munich was dead, that there was no subculture and that all the cool people had moved to Berlin. For me as a guy fresh from the village who thought everything in Munich was pretty cool anyway, that was completely incomprehensible. There was a subculture, you just had to make it heard. We invited exactly these people to our podcast: young bands, artists and media professionals. We were successful and built up a real community.

egoFM: Keeping journalistic standards high

You are now at egoFM, why did this station in particular convince you as a young media professional?

Heigl: If you look at southern Germany as a location, egoFM stands out. There are also DASDING and PULS at BR in Baden-Württemberg. As I didn't want to leave Munich and had already listened to egoFM in my youth, it wasn't a difficult choice. The music, the young team, the innovativeness and creativity and the mere fact that the presenters are not called by their surnames appealed to me. They dare to do something here. We work in a consistently queer-friendly, anti-sexist, anti-racist and sustainable way, both on the journalistic side and in terms of internal collaboration.

For a station of our size, we manage up to three interviews every week, focusing on the current weekly topic. For example, I spontaneously did a special show with Jakob Amr, the singer of the band Leoniden, about his coming out of depression. There are also interviews with musicians and shorter reports. Despite a small team and a focus on music, we have the confidence to keep the editorial output and journalistic standards so high every week. And precisely because it is said that radio is dying out among young people, as a broadcaster you have to dare to do something, both journalistically and in terms of formats.

At egoFM, you host the show “Downtown egoFM” on Saturdays from 11 am to 2 pm. How do you prepare for a 3-hour show?

Heigl: I usually sit down in the production studio on Friday lunchtime and first look at the planned playlist and then check how many moderation breaks I've been given by the editorial team. Then it's about how many fixed sections there are in this episode, how often I talk about the current egoFM theme week and what's topical for the day. But the playlist is always very important. Where are the new tracks, when will the egoFM music favorites be released and what has happened in the world of pop culture and music that I can refer to? I'm also on air at egoFM as a jumper for various programs.

In addition to your work as a presenter, you are also head of programming. What does that involve?

Heigl: In radio, there is the what and the how, i.e. the content and the way in which this content is packaged. This how is created by the programming department. For example, we regularly have theme weeks. There are small trailer spots that run in the program so that listeners are reminded of the thematic environment we are in that week. It can be anything from sketches by Gerhard Polt or Loriot to suitable song refrains. I conceive and write these things and then implement them with our producer.

We are also responsible for the program dramaturgy with the editor-in-chief and program management. So what should the program for the coming week look like, how do we design it in the long term, what activities are planned? We are also responsible for the conception of new podcasts or sections. I am then the project manager and coordinate with the other departments such as Sales or the music editorial team. Ultimately, we are the link between all departments in order to implement innovations and new projects.

Are you already experimenting with AI at egoFM?

Heigl: Not seriously. My colleague Max Kelment from the “Metropol” show and I had AI write a moderation text for us a week before Antenne Bayern did the completely automated show. Every station has actually tried that at some point. I had the feeling that March was an AI lottery week. Of course we still talk about it internally, but everything is still handmade for us. Apart from that, we've already thought about whether this will take our job. But we've come to the conclusion that we shouldn't be so pessimistic about it, but rather see it as a cool new tool that you can use to do cool things.

Sebastian Heigl: Young people must not let themselves be frightened

You're in your mid-20s, have made various podcasts, host your own show on a major radio station and founded the collective “Donkey Shot Entertainment” with colleagues. Does success sometimes put you under pressure?

Heigl: For me, the question is how to define success. When I started out in the radio industry, I thought to myself: “I'm young, I'm hungry, I've been told by a few people that I'm doing quite well, so now it has to go off!” I put a lot of pressure on myself and compared myself to personalities like the Wolter twins or El Hotzo. So it's difficult for me to recognize anything as a success. But I am very grateful for what I am allowed to do. Generally speaking, as a young media person you either don't stress yourself at all and chill out, which I very much envy, or you put too much pressure on yourself. There are certainly cases in between, but they are few and far between.

The shortage of skilled workers is also a problem in the audio industry. How difficult is it for young people to gain a foothold? Do you have any tips?

Heigl: Do it! Even if you fall down at the beginning, you have to keep going. You shouldn't let older people with more experience talk you down too quickly. Frustration is often involved. The industry is difficult in terms of pay and permanent positions. Unfortunately, salaries are sometimes made up out of thin air and permanent positions are few and far between. You shouldn't let that scare you. The fact that public broadcasters in particular rarely offer permanent positions and freelancers often only receive low daily rates naturally puts many young people off. They don't do audio full-time, but become podcasters in their spare time.

What other plans, wishes or goals do you have for the future?

Heigl: I would like to host a night show one day. Firstly, because I've never experienced this time of day as a presenter, and secondly, because you have a completely different audience there. I always imagine lonely truckers on the highway who are tired of David Guetta and then come across my show. I would like to have more live guests in the studio and broadcast more from outside the station. egoFM already does this more than other stations, but imagine broadcasting from the main stage of a big festival and interviewing the big artists after the shows.

My dream is also to have my own radio station. Not because I want to be the boss, but because I want to set up something cool and all my own with all the creative people from the media industry in Munich. Because the network and the people around you are the most important thing in creative work.