Digital History – A Transmedia Project On Radio Luxembourg

29 January 2024

“Radio Luxembourg – The Station that Changed our World” is a 360° transmedia project led by the University of Luxembourg’s interdisciplinary research centre, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH). It explores the fascinating history of Europe’s most influential commercial radio station and its formative influence on generations of listeners.

Radio Luxembourg Station History

Just as Luxembourg is a pioneer in research today, the country was an innovator and a major influence in communications throughout the 20th century. Starting in the 1920s with Radio Luxembourg (RL), Luxembourg would also become a trailblazer in television in the second half of the century with its successful Radio Television Luxembourg (RTL).

However, with television not maturing until late in the century, Radio Luxembourg played a pivotal role in the 20th century, from being an extremely important propaganda tool in the Second World War to having a global impact on popular culture in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, even beyond the Iron Curtain.

At its peak, Radio Luxembourg reached 100 million listeners every night, from Eastern Bloc countries to as far as the United States and Australia, as it was the only station where listeners could hear pop music. Radio Luxembourg combined form with content and was not only a radio station, but also a magazine, an event organiser and eventually a transnational social media platform.

Radio Luxembourg shaped not only international pop culture but also European politics, history and identity. Radio broadcasting has long been the most effective and influential communication tool during the larger part of the twentieth century. As a matter of fact, radio was a synonym of power.”

Radio Luxembourg – The Station that Changed our World

A Transmedia Documentary

This 360° transmedia project tells the interconnected and remarkable stories of this radio station from different perspectives, involving both local and global communities. This collective exploration of Luxembourg’s iconic radio station reveals a transnational and multifaceted history of the 20th century in Europe and beyond, all broadcast from the tiny Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.

The project will evolve over the next four years and will have several outputs:

• Online: This website, currently used for the crowdsourcing campaign, will become the central hub of the project. It will skilfully combine different interconnected media and platforms, and act as a starting point for all other components of the project.
• In XR: with our AR tour and immersive 3D experience of the Villa Louvigny.
• On Screen: with our documentary film.
• On Air: with our participatory radio/podcast series.
• On Site: with workshops, debates and temporary guided tours at the Villa Louvigny, ​as well as permanent immersive XR stations in the Radio Luxembourg café.
• On Tour: like the former DJs used to do, at festivals and in different countries, with the help of the local embassies.
• In classrooms: with a teacher’s guide that will be freely available in several languages.

We Need You: Call For Testimonies And Documents

In an attempt to compile the most complete history of Radio Luxembourg, the project is asking for the public’s help. By sharing stories and memories, the public will help researchers preserve the history of one of the world’s most influential radio stations and create the largest digital archive collection of Radio Luxembourg in existence.

Researchers are looking for people who may have a connection, story or anecdote about Radio Luxembourg. Personal photos, correspondence, postcards, documents, drawings, objects, videos, contacts… researchers are interested in anything that touches on this part of Luxembourg’s and the world’s history.

Similar articles