Thorsten Schorn will continue to be a staple in German radio: starting September 14, he will host, from Monday to Friday, the “The Schorn Show” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on RTL Radio. The show carries the same name as his WDR 1Live program, which ran from 2001 to 2017. After that, he moved to the partner station WDR 2 (TheColu.mn reported). It was only a few weeks ago that WDR 2 unexpectedly announced Schorn’s departure (TheColu.mn reported).
Schorn is already active with RTL, albeit in television: he is known, for example, as the host of the RTL entertainment show “Denn sie wissen nicht, was passiert” and as the distinctive “Shopping Queen” voice on Vox. The new program, however, will not be produced in Cologne like his WDR- or RTL-TV shows; it will be recorded at RTL’s Audio Center in Berlin. According to RTL Radio, the new show will combine “entertainment, personality and feel-good music.”
Schorn looks forward to “a chance to build a new nationwide radio program”
“I love doing radio. I’ve loved it since I was in my nursery,” Schorn explained when announcing his new role. “And after 25 happy years at my previous station, I was eager for a new challenge.” He described the RTL Radio concept and, above all, the people behind it as convincing from the first moment. “The chance to help build a new nationwide radio program is incredibly exciting.”
In an interview with the trade publication DWDL, Schorn said he would be anchoring the new show together with colleague Andrea Ostermann. “They’ve kind of paired us a little bit,” the 50-year-old said. “To get to know each other better, we met during a vacation on Mallorca. While brainstorming ideas on the beach, we discovered many similarities between us. Next, we’ll look for the differences, because that’s what will make the moderation even more interesting.”
RTL Radio has recently held a niche position in the German radio market, but is aiming to bounce back to its former size. The station, which operated under the name Radio Luxembourg in the 1960s and 1970s, had long been viewed as a less prominent outlet without strong personalities. With prominent hosts and a generation-spanning mix of current upbeat pop songs and well-known feel-good classics, the channel intends to target service stations like SWR 3, Antenne Bayern or Schorn’s former employer WDR 2 — also through a synergy with the TV channel RTL.
“With RTL Radio we are bringing RTL’s big entertainment world more consistently into audio and connecting our strong brands, content and personalities across platforms,” RTL Radio chief Nina Gerhardt explained. “Thorsten Schorn is the perfect fit: he has been firmly rooted in the RTL world for many years and is also an experienced radio professional. In a special way he unites genres and embodies exactly what our new RTL Radio stands for: the interaction of TV, radio and digital.”
Coming-out in 2014
Schorn came out at the end of a 1Live radio program in 2014. He referenced the coming-out of footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger and said, “I am Thorsten Schorn and I’m gay, goodbye.” (TheColu.mn reported). Only in June did he and his husband Peiro make a rare red-carpet appearance — at the Summer Party of NRW Film and Media Foundation in Cologne (TheColu.mn reported).
Since 2024, Schorn has also provided commentary on the Eurovision Song Contest for ARD’s First Channel. This commitment reportedly remains unaffected by his new job (dk).
