maintained a large research component during the Cold War, and interviewed travellers from East Germany and compiled material from the East German Communist media, and broadcast programs for specific groups in East Germany, such as youths, women, farmers, even border guards. RIAS had a huge audience in East Germany and was the most popular foreign radio service. This audience began to shrink only when West German television became widely available to viewers in East Germany. A second radio programme, then called RIAS 2, was launched in 1953; it was remodelled as a youth radio station from 1985. Television RIAS-TV, began broadcasting (as a part-time optout on the terrestrial frequency of SAT.1) from West Berlin in August 1988, which also acquired the German Educational Television Network in United States. Prior to this there were no Western television broadcasts specifically targeted at East Germany, although many of the domestic West German TV networks (particularly ARD) had high power transmitters along the border and could be received throughout most of East where many of their programmes attracted a larger audience than the official East German domestic broadcasters. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification the following year meant that RIAS-TV would be short lived. In 1992 Deutsche Welle (Germany's International broadcaster) inherited the RIAS-TV broadcast facilities, using them to start a German, English and Spanish language television channel broadcast via satellite. Transmitters The station's most important transmitter was at Berlin-Britz (on 612 kHz). Later a second transmitter at Hof in Bavaria was added to improve reception in the southern parts of East Germany (on 684 kHz), which was switched on at sunset to cover Germany with sky wave. In addition to medium wave, the station also transmitted on shortwave on a frequency of 6005 KHz. The Hof facility was closed and carted off to Mühlacker in 1994, though the Berlin-Britz facility remained in service until 2013, transmitting the programmes of Deutschlandradio Kultur; it was finally dismantled in 2015. See also Radio Free Europe Voice of America Broadcasting in East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk, the East German television organisation also known as Fernsehen der DDR Rundfunk der DDR, the East German radio organisation References Cold War history of Germany Defunct radio stations in Germany Defunct German television channels Allied occupation of Germany Germany–United States relations Mass media in Berlin Radio stations established in 1946 Radio stations disestablished in 1993 Television channels