RTL Radio
Coordinates: 49°38′13.23″N 6°09′50.15″E / 49.6370083°N 6.1639306°E
RTL – Deutschlands Hit-Radio (English RTL – Germany's Hit-Radio), formerly RTL Radio, formerly Radio Luxemburg, is a commercial radio station in the German language. It began broadcasting after World War II from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 208 metres in the medium wave band and has its studios today in Berlin. Until 30 June 2015 it used to broadcast an oldie music format, since 1 July 2015 it has broadcast a hot AC format.
RTL Radio is part of the RTL Group. Today there are two stations, the German national station "RTL Radio", and "RTL Radio 93.3 & 97.0 FM". The former is broadcast via cable, satellite and on the internet. The latter, regional programme broadcasts on FM in Luxembourg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, eastern Belgium, and Lothringen. The regional program between 2008 and 2013 had a separate version of RTL Radio. But since 23 December 2013, RTL Radio 93.3 & 97.0 FM relays now again the national version of RTL Radio.
History
RTL – Deutschlands Hit-Radio began its broadcasting as the German service of Radio Luxembourg on 15 July 1957.
In 1990, Radio Luxemburg was renamed in RTL Hörfunk and was focused to listeners from 25 to 45 years.
In 1992, Radio Luxemburg changed its format and profile to become RTL, der Oldiesender.
After almost ten years, the format changed to Die besten Hits mit Gefühl (“The best Hits with feeling”), later Die besten Hits aller Zeiten (“The best Hits of all times”) meaning love songs and soft pop, and several game shows. For a while RTL Radio lost its AM frequency to Mega Radio, but regained the frequency.
The 1440 kHz frequency was still in use by the remodeled German successor RTL RADIO until 31 December 2015. Since the January 1, 2005, the transmission mainly switched to digital (01:00 AM until 05:00 AM and 09:00 AM until 06:00 PM). During the evening hours, airtime was sold to international broadcasters (China Radio International) and religious organisations. RTL closed the 1440 kHz Medium Wave Transmitter on 31 December 2015 at 2355 CET.
In full, the radio station was called “RTL Radio – die besten Hits aller Zeiten” until 30 June 2015.
On FM frequencies (93.3 and 97.0 MHz) between 2008 and 2013, there was broadcasting a regional radiostation with the name RTL Radio 93.3 und 97.0 targeted to Luxembourg and Germany. On 23 December 2013 the German national version of RTL Radio die besten Hits Aller Zeiten returned on FM (with some regional ad-inserts as well as regional weather). RTL Radio die besten Hits aller Zeiten has slots on analog and digital cable, and transmits digital signals via the Astra 1L satellites.
On 1 July 2015 RTL Radio relaunched as RTL – Deutschlands Hit-Radio and moved its studios from the City of Luxembourg to Berlin. The production of regional traffic service and weather for the regional FM frequencies remained in Luxembourg.
External links
- Homepage of RTL Radio (in German)
- Homepage of RTL Radio for Luxembourg (in German)
- History of the German service of Radio Luxemburg (in German)
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