Hartmut Salmen used to stand in the Südtribüne, and since 1992 he has been sitting in the stadium announcer's booth, helping Nobby Dickel for BVB home games. Stadium visitors will know his distinctive voice mainly for announcing the attendance, which sounds better in Dortmund than anywhere else in the world. Now you can listen to him on the latest episode of the BVB podcast.

While Nobby Dickel is going through the team line-up on the pitch and can be seen by everyone in the stadium, Hartmut Salmen is working in the background. The man responsible for the security announcements sits in the stadium announcer's booth in the Osttribüne with a great view of the pitch. In 1992, he and Dickel began their work on the microphones. "It's been a long time, but you can't get away from BVB," explains Salmen. 

It all started with a standing room ticket in the Südtribüne. "That was around the time when Bruno Knust was the stadium announcer and word got around that he wanted to hang up the mic. I thought about who could do it, and it hit me: do it yourself," remembers Salmen, who then simply sent an application to BVB. "I received a letter, telling me to make an appointment with Michael Meier." The manager at the time asked about what experience Salmen had as a candidate who had never worked as a stadium announcer. Two days later, he did a trial at a game of the BVB reserves and Salmen had the job.

In this podcast episode, he also tells of his craziest announcement to date and of a moment when he lost his voice.

Click here for the latest episode of the BVB podcast, presented by 1&1.