FAB FACTS
Facts, photos and information.

LINKS
Other sites about Radio Luxembourg.

MEMORIES
The memories of Radio Luxembourg - as remembered by the listeners.

THE 208 STAFF
Photos of Luxembourg staff.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Luxembourg staff today.

THE EARLY YEARS
Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s.

THE RADIO LUXEMBOURG FORUM
Interactive room where you can communicate with other 208 enthusiasts.

THE STATION TODAY
What about Radio Luxembourg today?

VILLA LOUVIGNY TOUR
Take a closer look on this building which housed Radio Luxembourg most of the years.

Radio Luxembourg officially started their programming in English December 3. 1933.

The station's first Director of English programming was Stephen Williams. He joined Radio Luxembourg after leaving University and venturing into early commercial radio. The station was exciting and challenging in a variety of ways: it was international, broadcast in three languages (French, German and English) and was a commercial success. Its entertainment-based style was a direct contrast to the formality of the BBC of the day, and it built a large and dedicated listening audience throughout Europe.

Radio Luxembourg's  programme schedules were printed in a magazine named Radio Pictorial, and the schedule pictured above is from 1938. (Taken from Ron Montague's "When the Ovaltineys Sang")

In the period immediately prior to the War, Stephen Williams faced growing danger, to the extent that at one time he was shot at by Nazi sympathisers. Concerns about the fate of the station following Nazi invasion of the supposedly 'neutral protectorate' of Luxembourg led to Williams involvement in the burying of transmission valves in a field.

When German forces invaded Luxembourg in 1940, the station was overtaken as a vehicle for propaganda. Lord Haw Haw broadcast from the station in English during this period. Luxembourg had a traumatic war, with many nationals sent to death camps or conscripted into the German army to fight at the Russian front.

During the War, Williams worked for the BBC, broadcasting propaganda material back to the continent. On one journey through the blitz to the BBC, his taxi was hit by a bomb. The driver was killed, and he was severely injured.

In 1945, the US took control of the station and briefly used it for propaganda purposes, including mock broadcasts of a fabricated anti-Nazi German army unit in the Rhineland, broadcasting to the German people against Hitler.

Although the German forces had blown up the transmitter, the transmission valves Williams had buried in the field were unearthed and broadcasting was quickly resumed.

The widow of Stephen Williams donated his Radio Luxembourg archive to the University of Sheffield in January 1999. This archive includes a script of the first British broadcast after the War, including mocking impersonations of Adolph Hitler. It also contains books, tapes, schedules, photographs and scripts of English language broadcasting on Radio Luxembourg in the periods 1933-39 and 1945-46. A press release from the University says that the archive will be used as a unique research tool into trio-lingual broadcasting at this crucial time in modern European history.

Adverts for programmes that were aired on Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s. (Taken from "When the Ovaltineys Sang" by Ron Montague)

Site updated 01.03.2008

This RADIO LUXEMBOURG site is owned by Eivind Motland.
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