After Edi Finger junior, Austria mourns the passing of another radio legend: Kurt Wolff-Votava, the long-time presenter of the legendary program “Motorists on the Road”, is dead. The 75-year-old is on the night of May 28th after a long, harder time Disease died. He had previously been diagnosed with coronavirus infection.
The 75-year-old from Lower Austria was part of the design team for “Motorists on the Road” from 1976 until he was hired in 1999. After professional positions as an educator, tax officer and advertising clerk, Wolff-Votava finally made a career on ORF.
Thanks to his good contacts to the police, ambulance and fire brigade, he was in great demand as a “mad reporter” and was one of the first journalists to report on the collapse of the Vienna Reichsbrücke on August 1, 1976. He was also involved in the Red Cross and in refugee aid . In 2016, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, he was honored with the Golden City Hall Man in Vienna City Hall.
Wrabetz expresses his condolences to the family
For ORF General Director Alexander Wrabetz, “the name Kurt Votava is inextricably linked to the program” that “probably shaped the radio the most”. For more than 20 years, he was one of “the most widely heard and best-known voices of the Landes “and would have made” an essential piece “of radio history.” Our condolences go to his bereaved families, “said Wrabetz.