16 Facts About Radio Luxembourg

English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earliest commercial radio stations broadcasting to the UK and Ireland.

On 19 December 1929, the government of Luxembourg passed a law awarding a monopoly licence to operate a commercial radio broadcasting franchise from the Grand Duchy.

In May 1932, Radio Luxembourg began high-powered test transmissions aimed directly at Britain and Ireland.

The British government accused Radio Luxembourg of "pirating" the various wavelengths it was testing.

On 1 January 1934, a new international agreement, the Lucerne Convention or European Wavelength Plan came into effect, and shortly afterwards Radio Luxembourg started a regular schedule of English-language transmissions from 8:15 am to midnight on Sundays, and at various times during the rest of the week.

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On 21 September 1939, the Luxembourg government closed the radio station to protect the neutrality of the country during World War II.

The English programmes of Radio Luxembourg moved on 2 July 1951, from long wave to the medium wave frequency of 208 metres.

Radio Luxembourg served as a refuge for stars and shows previously heard on the BBC but with whom the BBC had fallen out for one reason or another.

One spot commercial that became burned into the minds of every Radio Luxembourg listener was for Horace Batchelor's "Infra-Draw Method" of winning money on football pools, turning the previously obscure Somerset town of "Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M" into a household name throughout the country.

Radio Luxembourg enjoyed a monopoly of English-language commercial radio programming heard in the UK until, in March 1964, Radio Caroline began daytime commercial transmissions to southern England from a ship anchored less than four miles off the Essex coast.

In 1983, Radio Luxembourg marked its fiftieth anniversary as a station, but the British commercial radio stations kept whittling away the 208 audience and advertising, while a brief replay of competition for audiences began to emerge from off the British coastline with new radio ship transmissions.

RTL Group, Radio Luxembourg's parent company, was an initial minority shareholder in the UK's Channel Five terrestrial analogue television channel, launched in 1997.

Radio Luxembourg was broadcast on RTL's various European TV channels after closedown.

Wavelengths and frequencies used by the English service of Radio Luxembourg changed throughout the years, although "208" was by far the longest-lasting and most famous one.

Radio Luxembourg was one of few channels through which people living in the Eastern Bloc could listen to rock and other contemporary popular music.

Eastern Bloc governments did not use jammers to prevent people from listening to Radio Luxembourg, but did do so for Radio Free Europe and, since the stations used harmonic frequencies, the jamming affected Radio Luxembourg's signal.