Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (pronounced [ˈvɛstˌdɔʏtʃɐ ˈʁʊntfʊŋk ˈkœln]; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (pronounced [ˌveːdeːˈʔɛʁ] ⓘ), is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne.

[1] WDR is in part funded by the limited sale of on-air commercial advertising time; however, its principal source of income is the revenue derived from viewer and listener licence fees.

[4] These fees are collected not directly by WDR but by a joint agency of ARD (and its member institutions), ZDF, and Deutschlandradio.

It has served as the production entity for shows on Das Erste, such as Verbotene Liebe ('Forbidden Love'), which, over the years, has introduced many young actors to the German audience, such as Andreas Stenschke, Jo Weil, Luca Zamperoni and Kay Böger.

A long-running talk show on wheels was Hallo Ü-Wagen ("Hello Radio Van"), which ran from 1974 to 2010 with Carmen Thomas as the original host.