Radio Luxembourg abandons historic radio transmitter site

 Luxembourg to leave historical site

A piece of Europe's broadcasting history is due to be erased later this year when Radio Luxembourg gives up its main transmission site at Marnach.

Radio Luxembourg's transmission company, BCE, is looking for a new site for its operations to continue operating on 1440 KHz (208 metres MW). The parent CLT company is giving up 5 acres of the transmission site at Marnach according to the Luxembourgaise magazine "L'essential" and all broadcasting activity there will close down at the end of 2015.

The owning company, CLT, operates several radio and TV stations, but its services for Germany and France are the most profitable. The legendary English service probably the best known, although its over twenty years since that closed. 

Famous in its day for being the first radio station in Europe to play Elvis and the Beatles, the station also made Jimmy Savile a huge star and gave many more DJs their first big radio break, including Mike Read and Kid Jensen. For many years Radio Luxembourg prerecorded most of its shows at a small studio in Mayfair and flew the tapes out to the radio station in the Grand Duchy for transmission. 

There have been many attempts to restart the English service of Radio Luxembourg, by having it on satellite, using the new DRM digital mode of modulation, and as an all country music station, but these have all come to nought.  The one megawatt transmitter on 208 metres medium wave which millions of European kids have gone to sleep with at night "tranny under the pillow" is now used for relaying Radio China to Europe.