Legendary RIAS DJ ‘Lord Knud’ dies at 76

Lord Knud, who was one of the best-known DJs at RIAS in both West Berlin and Communist East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, died recently at his house in Berlin at the age of 76, according to reports on RBB television’s website and Berlin newspapers.

The host of such popular RIAS music programs such as “Schlager der Woche” (Hits of the Week) and “Evergreens a go-go”, Lord Knud was a former rock musician in Berlin before becoming a DJ and gaining fame on both sides of the Iron Curtain for pushing the boundaries with off-color on-air commentaries.

“Lord Knud was a radio star,” wrote RBB Berlin journalist Ulli Zelle in a tribute to the man born Knud Friedrich Martin Kuntze in 1944 that appeared in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. “He worked as a DJ with his biting Berlin attitude, his rough jokes and acidic jabs against those in power ‘over there’ in the Communist SED party ruling.”

Lord Knud was a bass player in the Berlin band The Lords in the mid-1960s that was often called Germany’s answer to the Beatles. After losing his right leg in a bus accident during a tour, he started a new career as a DJ for RIAS in 1968 and became a popular fixture at the station until 1986.