Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (1933-1992) was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in Europe. It was a cheap and effective way to advertise in the UK by circumventing the broadcasting restrictions in place at the time. For many years complete programmes were pre-recorded in London and flown to the tiny independent grand duchy of Luxembourg on mainland Europe. A powerful transmitter enabled broadcasts to be received throughout northern Europe.
The station continued throughout the war by broadcasting Nazi propaganda: fabricated news stories delivered by William Joyce ('Lord Haw-Haw').
The station reached its peak in the 1950s after it switched its wavelength to 208 metres (1439 kHz, later 1440) the number with which it became synonymous, in 1951. Propagation conditions meant that this frequency could only be heard at night, so the English service began broadcasting at 7:00 PM. The commercials aimed at Ovaltinies and Horace Batchelor's 'Infra-Draw Method' for winning money on football pools (little more than a scam) were particularly popular and successful. Radio Luxembourg also launched the careers of many presenters including Jimmy Savile, Hughie Greene and Pete Murray.
In the 1960s the station had to compete against the pirate radio stations located closer to the UK on ships or abandoned World War 2 sea forts, and was disadvantaged by its inability to broadcast by day. The tendency of its signal to keep fading in and out also put many listeners off. In the 1970s its audience continued to decline as BBC Radio 1, Capital Radio and other local radio stations competed for its audiences. At one point it became an all disco station. The station's 50th anniversary in 1983 was a rather low-key affair.
In 1989 the station began broadcasting in stereo via the Astra satellite which could be received throughout Europe, and expanded its satellite service to 24 hours with daytime programmes in English but aimed at Scandinavian audiences. But the station's owners had lost interest in the English service. The 208 wavelength was unceremoniously reassigned to German language programmes, and the satellite service was closed down on December 30, 1992 (one day before New Year's Eve to avoid clashing with listeners' New Year celebrations).
Trivia
For many years, due to British advertising restrictions, Luxembourg was the only station available in the UK that could advertise tampons.
By the 1980s Luxembourg claimed to be broadcasting with 1.3 megawatts, making it the world's single most powerful commercial broadcaster, at least in terms of individual transmitter power.
