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Ursula Karin Henriette Richter

1932-07-122007-10-16

Radio producer, programme presenter

Ursula Richter was the first female producer of radio entertainment in Sweden. She created long-running classic regular programmes such as Sommar, På minuten, and Svar idag.

Ursula Richter was born in 1932. She was the only child of parents who had emigrated from Germany in the late 1920s. Her father was a merchant and the family spent their initial years in Sweden living at Lovö, Drottningholm. They subsequently moved to Bromma where Ursula Richter attended Ängby läroverk (school) and where she gained her school-leaving certificate. At school she was exceptionally good at orienteering competitions. She maintained her interest in and need to spend time in nature and in the fresh air into adulthood on her daily walks to work from her residence on Östermalm, and on weekend walks in Liljansskogen.

Her choice of studying languages at Stockholm college was unsurprising given that she had grown up speaking German at home. In 1954 she began to work at what was then the AB Radiotjänst shortwave department for programmes intended for Swedes outside of Sweden. Ursula Richter would announce the news in German, French, English and Spanish.

In 1957 Ursula Richter transferred across to the then new medium of television which had just begun airing regularly the preceding year. She was a script supervisor whose work included the first edition of the entertainment programme Stora famnen, hosted by Lennart Hyland.

The following year she returned to the radio service and in 1961 she became the first female producer of a live entertainment programme with the summer series Lill-Babs på Grönan aired from Gröna Lund featuring the popular singer Lill-Babs. Tage Danielsson had started the regular programme called Sommar a few years earlier which Ursula Richter produced for many years. In 1969 she became the producer of the new improvisation programme hosted by Lennart Swahn called På minuten. She carried on as producer until the programme ended in 1988, only for it to be reinstated in 1994 with a new producer and host.

In 1969, the same year that På minuten began to air, Ursula Richter also served as producer and later on host of Svar idag. Listeners were invited to phone in to ask questions on any subject at all, which were put to a panel of a range of experts in the studio. The programme became very popular and in 1978 she was, along with her editorial colleagues Per-Erik Lindorm and Håkan Norlén, awarded the Expressen radio prize. Ursula Richter produced and ran the programme until it stopped airing in 1991. However, she made further use of the popular concept with her former colleague Hasse Alfredson, then head of Skansen. During the spring of 1992 they ran a programme series at Högloftet entitled Vi svarar idag. The name was perhaps seen as too similar to its forerunner, however, and in the autumn they renamed their new programme as Kloka gubbar and it was aired live on TV. The following year, in 1993, Ursula Richter retired from Sveriges Radio.

Ursula Richter also made a lot of other programmes during the more than forty years she spent working at Sveriges Radio. She put her linguistic skills to good use in simultaneous airings on radios in other countries, such as concerts and the Eurovision song contest. In the early 1960s she, along with Elisabeth Husmark from the home- and family-editorial board, produced the programme Fritimmen, which was a mix of entertainment and consumer information. From 1970 until the end of the 1980s she ran the regular Vardags radio programme on popular information. She was also responsible for producing Förmiddag, Det ska vi spela, and Våra nöjen.

Ursula Richter died in Stockholm in 2007. Her grave lies in Bromma cemetery.


Kristina Lundgren
(Translated by Alexia Grosjean)


Published 2018-03-08



You are welcome to cite this article but always provide the author’s name as follows:

Ursula Karin Henriette Richter, www.skbl.se/sv/artikel/UrsulaRichter, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (article by Kristina Lundgren), retrieved 2024-12-04.




Family Relationships

Civil Status: Unmarried
  • Mother: Minna Emelie Richter, född Ansorge
  • Father: Richard Karl Paul Richter
  • Brother: Wolfgang Vilhelm Paul Sven Richter
  • Sister: Margot Irma Anna Richter, gift Olsson, omgift Hallberg


Education

  • Läroverk, Stockholm: Studentexamen, Ängby Läroverk
  • Högskola, Stockholm: Språkstudier, Stockholms högskola


Activities

  • Profession: Nyhetsuppläsare, AB Radiotjänsts utlandssändningar
  • Profession: Scripta, Sveriges Radio AB:s television
  • Profession: Producent, programledare, underhållningsprogram, Sveriges Radio AB


Contacts

  • Love relationship: Ulf Palme
  • Colleague: Hans Alfredson
  • Colleague: Lennart Swahn
more ...


Residences

  • Birthplace: Stockholm
  • Ekerö
  • Stockholm
more ...


Prizes/awards



Sources

Encyclopaedia
  • Ericson, Uno & Engström, Klas (red.), Myggans nöjeslexikon: ett uppslagsverk om underhållning. 12, Olds-Rundq, Bra böcker, Höganäs, 1992

Literature
  • [Ursula Richter: nekrolog], Svenska Dagbladet, 2007-10-25