Station of the stars

Some nostalgia from the Economist

EVERY evening in 1960s Britain millions of young people—many hiding under their bedsheets—would twiddle the dials on their transistor radios. They were tuning in on the medium wave to Radio Luxembourg’s nocturnal English transmissions. Or, rather, they were tuning into its stream of pop music, the likes of which could not be heard on the stuffy old BBC.

But it seems some brodacasters want us to return to those days.Radio Luxembourg itself is planning a comeback using a new technology called Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

Without going into the technological complexities,it is basically a way for stations to broadcast over long distances in the same way that the old medium wave signal travelled long distances at night bouncing off the ionosphere.

Quite why we need another medium for broadcasting is a little beyond me though.Surely the internet provides ample spectrum for radio stations to travel across continents.


With the deregulation of radio and the arrival of hordes of commercial rivals, Radio Luxembourg lost its audience. It went off air in 1992. Now it is planning a comeback using a new technology that can provide high-quality digital broadcasts over long distances.