Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD. As well as contributing to the output of national television channel Das Erste, WDR produces the regional television service WDR Fernsehen and six regional radio networks. WDR was created in 1955, when Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was split into Norddeutscher Rundfunk – covering Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg – and... Westdeutscher Rundfunk, responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia. WDR began broadcasting on two radio networks on 1 January 1956. WDR is funded partly from the limited sale of on-air commercial advertising time but principally from viewer and listener licence fee receipts. As of January 2009 the monthly fee payable per household for radio and television reception was €17.98: the equivalent of €0.59 per day. For radio only, the monthly fee was €5.76.
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