Radio Luxembourg (DRM)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Radio Luxembourg is the name of a commercial radio station that has broadcast in many languages in conjunction with a television service operated from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This article is about the English language DRM service that began transmissions in 2005. For other languages see the disambiguation links at Radio Luxembourg.

[edit] Background history

Radio Luxembourg in English from 1933 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1991 was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in the United Kingdom. It was an effective way to advertise products by circumventing British broadcasting restrictions that were in place at the time.

Following the original close-down of the English language station broadcasting from the Grand Duchy at the end of 1991, the station remained silent, although rumors began to abound that Radio Luxembourg would once again return to the air under new management with a leased English service. Nothing more was heard of the English language service until 2005. At that time the parent RTL company stated that the AM transmissions would not resume but that a full time English service would begin on DRM.

During August 2005, the parent operating company of Radio Luxembourg conducted digital test broadcasts to Great Britain on 7145 kHz using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM). This culminated in the soft re-launch of Radio Luxembourg in English at 07:00 BST on September 12, 2005. It is currently heard at 7295 kHz DRM and online over the Internet with a classic rock playlist. RTL have now discontinued DRM broadcasts on 7295 kHz throwing the future of this station into doubt once again although local DRM broadcasts are still on air in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. They are hoping to broadcast on the new digial two national DAB in the UK in 2008 if National Grid Wireless Limited win the licence. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/dcr/applications/app_national/national/

[edit] Current technical data

Today Radio Luxembourg is offering a full time service in English because it no longer relies upon its previous mode of transmission. It is no longer "208 - your station of the stars." Instead, Radio Luxembourg is now streaming its programs via the Internet and offering a satellite service to listeners.