2 December 2021. In 1999, a group of students at the University of St.Gallen came up with the idea of creating a campus radio station. A short time later, two field tests took place under the name Radio Herzschlag. Due to the great demand for "making radio", those responsible at the time campaigned for a permanent station. This led to the creation of toxic.fm in 2001. HSG students can still take advantage of this offer free of charge and discover the world of media while studying.

From campus to educational radio

In the early years, the programming was created almost exclusively by students at the HSG. Over the years, however, more and more external people joined forces with the HSG students to the point that there were more than 60 people involved. Concurrently,  the demands on the program creators increased, so that the educational aspect became more and more important. In 2010, this development was taken into account and the Radioschule Schweiz AG (RSS AG) was founded.  

An exceptional training concept

For ten years now, toxic.fm has been offering professional training for HSG students – who can learn media skills free of charge thanks to the long-standing collaboration – and career changers. The concept is still unique in Switzerland. The program is produced exclusively by trainees, who are closely supervised by professionals. This practical approach enables students to gain valuable experience in program production. The model has proven successful: Over 450 journalists have been trained at toxic.fm in recent years. Many of them now work for well-known media companies.

Image: Unsplash / Sašo Tušar