Sputnik or MDR Sputnik is a youth-oriented German radio station, and is part of Leipzig-based public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), based in Halle.
The station, which primarily broadcasts pop and rock music, is the successor to the East German youth station DT64, founded in 1964 on the occasion of the Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend [de].
It was given its present name on 1 May 1993, following German reunification in 1990; the new name, inspired by the Soviet Sputnik satellite, was the suggestion of the then Minister-President of Saxony, Kurt Biedenkopf.
While DT64 was broadcast throughout East Germany, Sputnik is available on FM only in one of the five federal states which replaced the GDR and thus only in one of the three federal states that form MDR's coverage area (Saxony-Anhalt); it is available throughout Europe via the Astra satellite on 19.2° east in DVB-S standard as well as on most German cable networks on DVB-C and in the MDR area (Saxony,Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia) on FM and on DAB+.
Between 1993 and 1997 MDR Sputnik was available only via Astra satellite analog audio subcarriers and a special German digital Radio System DSR, receivable via cable and satellite.