Although a number of word-frequency lists exist in German, there is an absence of studies investigating the relative frequency with which various grammatical structures are used. Traditionally, extended modifiers have been most prevalent in written German. Based on an analysis of authentic radio news broadcasts, this article makes the case that they are now also used routinely in spoken German. The study investigated the number and type of extended attributes employed, their length, the position of the sentences containing the modifiers within the news story and the location of the extended modifier within the sentence. Pragmatic aspects of the topic are also discussed.