diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 4217e53a..c468a486 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -1065,6 +1065,8 @@ Marco Schl
  should fail and all PIDs added so far should be deleted
  for fixing attaching a cPlayer to a cDevice, so that 'Operation not permited'
  errors don't occur any more
+ for reporting a problem with initialization of the main program loop variables
+ with older compiler versions
 
 Jürgen Schmitz <j.schmitz@web.de>
  for reporting a bug in displaying the current channel when switching via the SVDRP
diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 53e65662..dbe592ee 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -3078,7 +3078,7 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   This avoids shortly seeing the wrong events in the channel display when
   switching to a channel that hasn't been tuned to in a while.
 
-2004-10-30: Version 1.3.15
+2004-10-31: Version 1.3.15
 
 - Fixed some typos in the Makefile's 'font' target (thanks to Uwe Hanke).
 - Added more checks and polling when getting frontend events (based on a patch
@@ -3087,3 +3087,5 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   (apparently setting "live" PIDs before the tuner is locked doesn't hurt).
   Moved the wait into cDevice::AttachReceiver() instead.
 - Immediately displaying the new channel info when switching channel groups.
+- Moved the main program loop variables further up to allow compilation with
+  older compiler versions (thanks to Marco Schlüßler for reporting this one).
diff --git a/vdr.c b/vdr.c
index 033f186b..08df727d 100644
--- a/vdr.c
+++ b/vdr.c
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
  *
  * The project's page is at http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr
  *
- * $Id: vdr.c 1.190 2004/10/24 14:01:11 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: vdr.c 1.191 2004/10/31 09:35:55 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include <getopt.h>
@@ -347,6 +347,21 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
   isyslog("VDR version %s started", VDRVERSION);
 
+  // Main program loop variables - need to be here to have them initialized before any EXIT():
+
+  cOsdObject *Menu = NULL;
+  cOsdObject *Temp = NULL;
+  int LastChannel = -1;
+  int LastTimerChannel = -1;
+  int PreviousChannel[2] = { 1, 1 };
+  int PreviousChannelIndex = 0;
+  time_t LastChannelChanged = time(NULL);
+  time_t LastActivity = 0;
+  int MaxLatencyTime = 0;
+  bool ForceShutdown = false;
+  bool UserShutdown = false;
+  bool TimerInVpsMargin = false;
+
   // Load plugins:
 
   if (!PluginManager.LoadPlugins(true))
@@ -490,19 +505,6 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
   // Main program loop:
 
-  static cOsdObject *Menu = NULL;
-  static cOsdObject *Temp = NULL;
-  static int LastChannel = -1;
-  static int LastTimerChannel = -1;
-  static int PreviousChannel[2] = { 1, 1 };
-  static int PreviousChannelIndex = 0;
-  static time_t LastChannelChanged = time(NULL);
-  static time_t LastActivity = 0;
-  static int MaxLatencyTime = 0;
-  static bool ForceShutdown = false;
-  static bool UserShutdown = false;
-  static bool TimerInVpsMargin = false;
-
   while (!Interrupted) {
         // Handle emergency exits:
         if (cThread::EmergencyExit()) {