Today, it is best known for its employment of several radio presenters jointly known as Lord Haw-Haw — most notably, William Joyce, who was German radio's most prominent English language speaker and to whom the name gradually came to be exclusively applied.
Jazz was banned from playing on German radio stations at the time, as the Nazi party forbade "Negermusik".
The announcers were an integral part of the programme, making various announcements and enabling prisoners of war to personally send regards to relatives in their native countries,[citation needed] which made the programme quite popular with listeners of war participating states, especially the United Kingdom and the United States.
Germany Calling was founded on behalf of Reichsminister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels as a propaganda radio programme aimed mainly at audiences in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as other parts of the world.
Germany Calling ceased broadcasting on 30 April 1945, when Hamburg was overrun by the British Army.