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If you’re a real radio geek as I am, you probably did some scanning of shortwave radio in your youth. Among the bleeps and blurps of the HF radio band, the sounds of distant preachers and foreign languages would come in. And then you’d run across the unmistakable sound of the BBC. But every night here in North America, there was at least one of the only two rock stations I listened to on a regular basis. The first was on 15.420 Mhz – WRNO New Orleans. WRNO was sometimes the independent broadcaster of rock & roll, often simulcasting it’s 99.5 FM sister station, but always rocking. The other one was equally fascinating!
Station and aircheck description:
This is the story of a European broadcasting legend. The Great 208, they called it. 208, because as was customary in Europe, radio stations identified by the wavelength of the station’s frequency. 208 comes out to approximately 1440 kHz. Radio Luxembourg was on 15.350 Mhz shortwave during the time I, your webmaster discovered it, but prior to 1983 the station only broadcast on medium wave. At 1,300 KW of output power, it was considered the most powerful commercial station ever!
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This post is written from an American perspective, so, perhaps it’s difficult to realize the enormous impact which Radio Luxembourg had in Great Britain. There are pages and pages – in fact, a whole website or two dedicated to the history of Luxembourg, in addition to assorted airchecks of the station which reside in various places throughout the web. Perhaps the American station with the closest history, between controversy and high power, would be Powell Croseley’s WLW Cincinnati. But even WLW never got close to a station putting out ONE MILLION, 3 HUNDRED THOUSAND WATTS!! Radio Luxembourg did. And its influence was far and wide.
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Click below to hear this audio-only Classic Aircheck
Click below to view this from our Official Airchexx YouTube Channel (Airchexx Classic Radio)
In December 1983, RTL (as it was known for a while) produced a special for its 50th anniversary of broadcasting. It was hosted by longtime jock Noel Edmonds. Listen now as we bring you back 30 years, to celebrate the previous 50 years on Radio Luxembourg – a remarkable station that no longer exists as an over the air entity.
The contributor of this remarkable aircheck was the owner of aircheckdownloads.com. That website no longer has any U.S. airchecks available for download. However, there is a substantial number of U.K. airchecks and European/U.K. radio station jingles along with hundreds of hours of U.S. syndicated shows, such as American Top 40 with Casey Casem. We invite you to check it out!
I discovered Radio Luxembourg when I was stationed in Germany. The Signal was Horrible but the station itself was great to listen to. Radio Luxembourg was the closest I could get to Top 40 radio in The states. it was a high energy station with Great Air personalities.