It had a mixed of news and light entertainment schedule, with an emphasis on events in the GDR, and also included regional programming.

In April of that year it was renamed "Radio aktuell" and carried advertising for the first time.

The weekly Schlagerrevue, which ran for 36 years and was presented from 1958 by Heinz Quermann, became the world's longest-running radio hit parade.

The programme's editor from 1963 to 1988 was the composer, lyricist, arranger, singer, and bandleader Siegfried Jordan.

Radio DDR 1's Sports Department employed such well known journalists as Heinz-Florian Oertel, Hubert Knobloch, Wolfgang Hempel, and Waldefried Forkefeld.