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Günther Schifter (born December 23, 1923) is an Austrian journalist, radio presenter and record collector.
Born in Vienna, Schifter started collecting 78s of the popular music of the interwar years already as a boy. After the war, he was instrumental in popularizing once again jazz and Swing in occupied Austria, becoming, in 1949, one of the first disc jockeys on Austrian radio. From 1967 to 2000 Schifter had a weekly radio programme, Günther Schifters Schellacks, where he played 78s from his vast personal archives (including, for example, more than 100 cover versions of W.C. Handy's "Saint Louis Blues") while always refusing to resort to reissues of older material on vinyl records, audiotape or, later, CDs. In between songs Schifter developed his unique style of giving enjoyable miniature history lessons.
Ousted by the Austrian state radio (ORF) in 2000 due to a switch to the more commercial music radio format, Schifter continued broadcasting for a while from Bavaria, Germany, but is currently not on the air. A trained actor, Günther Schifter is immediately recognizable by his distinct and sonorous voice.
See also
External links
- Günther Schifter: "Unterhaltung in den vierziger Jahren" (http://www.return2style.de/duesenberg/artikel/uid40ern.doc) ("Entertainment during the 1940s") (1998) (an essay very similar to his radio show; in German)