David de Jong writes: The German version of Radio Luxembourg became 50 years old on 15 July. What is today RTL Radio - die besten Hits aller Zeiten, began on 15 July 1957 as a German speaking request programme on Radio Luxembourg. The German broadcasts started originally only as one hour per day on mediumwave (208 metres/1440 kHz) and shortwave, to become four hours a day with the subtitle ‘Vier fröhlichen Wellen’.
From 1964 RTL Radio started broadcasting on FM in Luxembourg from 06 till midnight and in daytime also on mediumwave. Thanks to the FM and mediumwave broadcasts the station was able to gain popularity in a large part of western Germany (especially the Nordrhein westfahlen area) and was able to pioneer as a commercial radio station while there were only public radio stations in Germany.
From 1964 the station was called RTL Radio Luxemburg, to be changed in 1988 to RTL Horfunk and from 1990 RTL Radio. Originally RTL Radio was a general entertainment radio station, but at the beginning of the ’90’s it changed to an ‘oldies’ format with the subtitle ‘die grossten Oldies’. From December 2002 until September 2005 the station had an adult contemporary format with the slogan ‘die besten Hits mit Gefuhl’, but changed back to a golden oldies format in September 2005 with the slogan ‘die besten Hits aller Zeiten’.
At the beginning of the nineties the company which is now RTL Group SA started with local (hit orientated) FM radio stations in Germany. One of the oldest is 104.6 RTL - Berlins Hit Radio. Most RTL Radio Deutschland affiliates don’t carry the name RTL, only 89.0 RTL (Sachsen Anhalt), Hit Radio RTL Sachsen and the Berlin station.
RTL Radio die besten Hits aller Zeiten still broadcasts on the ‘famous’ 208 m/1440 kHz mediumwave frequency at 04-07 and 16-17 UTC in analogue mode, while 07-16 and 23-03 RTL Radio can be heared in digital DRM mode. RTL Radio die besten Hits aller Zeiten is also still broadcast nationally on cable in Germany and Luxembourg as well as on powerful 100 kW FM frequencies from Luxembourg and on Internet and satellite (analogue & digital). The broadcasts are still coming from the Luxembourg studios located at the RTL Group headquarter buildings in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.
- RTL Radio website
- Live audio stream
- Promo about the history of RTL Radio (published by Radioszene)
on Jul 31st, 2007 at 12:38
Actually the “vier fröhlichen Wellen” referred to the four frequencies used by Radio Luxemburg for most of its existance (1439/1440 kHz, 6090 kHz, 93.3 MHz and 97.0 MHz). The shortwave outlet was quite popular in the GDR, one of my childhood memories is the ever-present 5 kHz het caused by Bayerischer Rundfunk on 6085 kHz. Radio Luxemburg listening then sharply declined here after 1985, though.
89.0 RTL is an interesting story on its own. The station has most of its listeners not in Sachsen-Anhalt but instead in Niedersachsen, and that’s fully intended. What they are using was once the Brocken frequency of Radio DDR 1 which had in 1992 or 1993 been taken out of this chain for even more commercial broadcasting in Sachsen-Anhalt (besides Radio SAW on the former DT64 chain), leaving only a much less powerful Brocken frequency for the cultural program of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The commercial station on 89.0 was called Radio Brocken and got years later additional FM frequencies. Some years ago RTL presented the licensing body a plan to take 89.0 away from Radio Brocken and use it as a promotional outlet for a new, innovative digital station. Of course such an application had been applauded and approved, and so RTL launched a station with a new rock format, called “Project 89.0 Digital”. After some time they reformatted it into a clone of 104.6 RTL, called 89.0 RTL. Mission accomplished.
After 1990 RTL Radio was for some time produced at Stuttgart because RTL was hoping for FM allocations there, but they returned to Luxembourg when these attempts failed. From 1993 to 1996 RTL Radio was also broadcasting on mediumwave in the Berlin area, starting in November 1993 on 603 kHz via the Königs Wusterhausen transmitter, abandoned by Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg only four months before, then moving in late 1994 to a less powerful transmitter at Berlin-Köpenick (891 kHz).
A large fansite about Radio Luxemburg is here:
http://www.radiotreff.de/rtl/
What needs no knowledge of German: “Töne” = recordings, “Fotoalbum” = pictures, “Funkhaus” = description of Luxembourg studios (note that Radio Luxemburg used separate promises due to a lack of office space and studio capacity at Villa Louvigny). Note also how for the fans the original legend came to an end already in 1990.
on Aug 1st, 2007 at 00:04
Kai, thanks for your interesting additional information!!
on Aug 1st, 2007 at 19:32
And David de Jong and Andy, thanks very much for the original information. I didn’t know that RTL’s 208 service had become a music station like that. I’ve listened to it hours on the internet since this article was printed. It’s brilliant.