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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fifty years of RTL German programming


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.
(Source: R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)