Radio Luxembourg: The station that rocked Cliff Richard

“Here is Radio Luxembourg.” “This is Radio Luxembourg.” “Ici Radio Luxembourg.” “Here is Radio Luxembourg on 208 metres.” No other European radio station ever commanded such a large audience as the multilingual broadcaster from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

At its height in the 1960s and 1970s, as many as 50 million people across Europe listened to programs broadcast from Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg’s city park. Its presenters were called disc jockeys and treated as stars. Radio Luxembourg stood at the avant-garde of modern radio, creating formats such as the hit parade, “The Cheerful Alarm Clock” and “Motorists on the Road.”

When Barry Alldis, Tony Prince or Muriel Young presented the English-language hit parade on Sunday evenings, British cities seemed to empty. Young people stayed home beside their radios. The station’s success helped push the BBC into crisis while the state broadcaster continued to play chamber music. Pop stars instead sought out the private station.

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Radio Luxembourg rocked my career.

Cliff Richard remained grateful years later. “Radio Luxembourg rocked my career,” he said. The station’s role extended beyond Britain. Its powerful transmitters in Junglinster reached France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and, at times, the east coast of the United States.

Pop music would likely not have spread so quickly from the mid-1950s without Radio Luxembourg. When the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” first aired on October 5, 1962, it did not play on the BBC. It was broadcast by the London-produced Friday Spectacular show on Radio Luxembourg’s 208-metre medium wave. Record companies courted the station’s presenters, and Honey Bee Benson, the first female DJ on its English service, recalled that labels even flew her around the world to interview their artists. She said the station’s friendly atmosphere and enormous reach helped establish many major hits.

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One particularly wonderful aspect for me was the opportunity to interview so many stars of the music business. Given the millions of listeners, record companies practically begged me to interview their artists, and they even flew me around the world for it. When the artists visited the station, it often ended in a party. They appreciated our friendly atmosphere and the enormous reach of our station. We played a major role in establishing numerous major hits at the time.