RTL (France)

**RTL** is French private radio station owned by RTL Group. This station broadcasts news and talk shows

## History

On 19 December 1929 the **Grand Duchy of Luxembourg** established a state monopoly on broadcasting, but the law provided for possible concessions to private companies who wanted to use radio bandwidth, with the state charging a fixed amount for private use of radio.

The **Société Luxembourgeoise d'Études Radiophoniques** (**SLER**) was founded on 11 May 1929 with the aim of obtaining an eventual broadcasting contract from the Luxembourg government. This company was run by Luxembourger **François Anen**, French publisher **Henry Etienne**, and French engineer **Jean le Duc** representing the **Compagnie des Compteurs de Montrouge**, which possessed 84% of the project's capital and which had signed a secret agreement to work with the group **CSF**, the main stockholder in Radio Paris. Radio Paris wanted to set up a powerful peripheral radio station in Luxembourg, outside of the strict French regulations, which only allowed public stations. An agreement between the **SLER** and the Luxembourg government signed on 29 September 1930 with a duration of 25 years ensured the Luxembourg government a fee of 30% on future profits of the station. The agreement also set up a committee for programming and a technical committee which allowed the government to regulate the private station.

The **Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion** (**CLR**) was founded on 30 May 1931, officially replacing the **SLER**.

On 14 January 1933 experimental broadcasts by **Radio Luxembourg** began, at 1191 metres (200 kW), an unauthorized wavelength, from the longwave transmitter at **Junglinster**. The official opening of broadcast was on 15 March 1933 at 19:00 with a pre-recorded concert of light music. **Radio Luxembourg** broadcast each evening from 19:00 to 23:00, in **German**, **French** and **Dutch** and was therefore the only **French**-language private broadcaster available in **France** and **Belgium**. Programmes in **English** debuted on 3 December 1933 under the editorial guidance of **Stephen Williams**.

The station closed down at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, but it resumed service after the War.

Beginning in 1946, it could be heard easily in **France**. Until the 1980s, only the French public radio networks could transmit from **France** itself. **Radio Luxembourg** was one of private "peripheral" networks transmitting from abroad.

Quickly, **Radio Luxembourg** gained a large audience in **France**. In the 1960s, it was faced with the success of another peripheral network from Germany, Europe 1, which adopted a modern tone and gained a young audience.

**Radio Luxembourg**'s changing environment led to the station being renamed **RTL** on October 11, 1966, less obviously mentioning its connection with **Luxembourg** (the acronym being short for **Radio Télévision Luxembourg**).

During the May 1968 crisis, the French public radio networks were on strike and TV was not independent from the government. **RTL** and Europe 1 were the main ways of obtaining independent information for the French people. They were nicknamed "barricades radio".

Unlike the British government's treatment of the **Luxembourg English** service, which was never allowed to have a landline from London, the French service has long had its main studios in Paris, with a landline from there to the transmitter. Consequently, it appears to the listener to be simply a big French national radio station, and the Luxembourg connection is played down.

In 1981, under president **François Mitterrand**, privately run radio stations were allowed to broadcast in France. **RTL**, now broadcasting in France mostly at 104.3 MHz, was the radio network with the most listeners from 1981 to 2002.

Whereas Luxembourg's English service was always centred on light entertainment and popular music, **RTL** in French is a mixed station: about 50% of its output is speech-based, with a strong focus on news and current affairs and a large team of respected journalists.

**Radio Luxembourg**'s two main national competitors are Europe 1 (another out-of-country commercial station, broadcasting from Saarland, again with Paris studios) and the state-owned France Inter. All three stations have very high-powered transmitters occupying long-wave frequencies that date back many decades.

The French service has called itself **RTL** for many years. It still broadcasts on 234 kHz long wave using the **Beidweiler Longwave** Transmitter, but nowadays also on a network of FM transmitters throughout France, as well as on the internet, cable and satellite.

In 1991 a separate **RTL** Belgian service in French, called Bel-RTL, was established. Intended for the French-speaking part of **Belgium** and with studios in **Brussels**, this station is licensed (along with many competing commercial stations) by the **Belgian Government**, with a network of FM transmitters covering Brussels and **Wallonia**, and no particular connection with the **Grand Duchy of Luxembourg** other than its ownership by the **RTL** parent company.

Since 2000, it has gone through a crisis. Indeed, in order to stop the aging of **RTL**'s audience, station managers imposed changes which have annoyed many listeners. From 2000 to 2002, **RTL** lost a third of its listeners, falling to second in the ratings behind NRJ. In November 2006, it re-took the lead in the French radio ratings only to succumb again in July 2012 to NRJ.

## More...

Click for programming here

Click for logos here

* Western Europe
* Germany
* Belgium
* Spain
* Scretonia