RTL9

RTL9 is a Television channel Luxembourg general practitioner private with international diffusion emitting in direction of the televiewers Luxembourg, French and Swiss French.

History of the chain

TV-Luxembourg

July 1st 1954, the CLR (Luxembourg Company of Broadcasting) changes its denomination into CLT (Luxembourg Company of Remote transmission), integral from now on its new ambition: the Television. May 20th 1953, the board of directors of the CLR authorizes its president, Robert Tabouis, to sign a concession contract with the Luxembourg government to exploit a television channel. It obtains authorities of the Grand Duchy a concession making it possible this chain to enjoy a state monopoly.

The completion of great work to the Villa Louvigny coincides with the beginning of the construction of a transmitting television on Ginsterberg close to Dudelange, site which proves to be most suitable to ensure a good reception, because of its altitude of 430 meters and its situation to only 200 meters of the French border. The establishment expresses the intention well to emit in direction of the East of the France.

January 23rd 1955, day of sound 59e birthday, the Large Duchess Charlotte I {{Re}} inaugurates TV-Luxembourg with her husband the Prince Felix, thus marking the official birth of Luxembourg television. With the screen, a young announcer announces that “TV-Luxembourg will be the allied essential one of your family” . The first emission consists in making discover the slides of the chain. At the time, no studio of television was installed with the Villa Louvigny. The emissions were carried out since the building located at the foot of the pylon transmitting Dudelange. This powerful omnirange transmitter makes it possible Télé Luxembourg to be collected well beyond its initial forecasts, in a ray of approximately 150 km to the Luxembourg, in the the Belgian Ardennes, in Lorraine and even until Rheims or Mulhouse. Using the channel VHF E-07 initially planned for emissions in 625 lines, and which will be renamed " Luxembourg" channel; in France, the standard selected is the 819 lines " belge" or " 819 lines with band étroite" retained by the French-speaking Belgium. It uses less band-width than that of the French Broadcasting-television (with for result an image a little less fine, near to that in 625 lines of which it with the same bandwidth) but has as an advantage of " caser" a greater number of transmitters on the same zone) while being visible as well by the French televiewers as Wallons who collect already many foreign transmitters (Germany, Netherlands, Dutch-speaking Belgium…). It is then about the first television channel general practitioner deprived in Europe. Its mission is to disseminate interregional information in French with the Luxembourg, Belgium and Lorraine.

In spite of the recruiting of some " pointures" rtf (which will carry felt sorry for without success against the station), like Jacques Navadic or Robert Diligent for the future Journal of TV-Luxembourg , the beginnings are rather hazardous because nobody has real formation, the teams being made up former technicians of radio operator reconverted into television. Production professionnalise little by little and in 1956 - 1957, CLT builds a tower of eight stages to the Villa Louvigny in order to shelter there the offices and studios of TV-Luxembourg. The chain, which then diffuses about thirty hours of program per week, finds finally its public and the head office of TV-Luxembourg quickly becomes a mythical sign of the audiovisual landscape.

Beside on line filmed emissions, like the School Buissonnière , as well as reports turned to the four corners of the country and in the French-speaking areas close for the needs for the Newspaper to TV-Luxembourg , TV-Luxembourg fills its sending antenna delivered turn-key by Paris Productions and foreign films and series. Gradually, the chain created its identity by marking its difference vis-a-vis the austerity of the French and Belgian national chains. It surprises by its lightness (diffusion of plays, series, and each evening of films) and its user-friendliness (strong presence of French organizers known like Pierre Bellemare or Georges de Caunes and of announcer-high-speed motorboats like Anna-Vera). Publicity is present right from the start, but they was the organizers themselves which were to read the advertisements on line. The popular passion is with the height of the efforts made during the production of the 7th Grand Prix of the Eurovision of the Song in 1962 retransmis in most of Europe since the Villa Louvigny. This national event was followed on line in all the coffees of the country.

In 1969, the Belgian government grants frequencies for hertzian relays to the télédistributeurs. Coditel installs a receiving station in the Ardennes with Saint Hubert and sending the signal of TV-Luxembourg towards the cable networks of Namur, Brutélé which distributes it in the periphery Liege oise and of Brussels. Thereafter, it is Belgacom which exploited these networks in order to propose this diffusion with the whole of the télédistributeurs. The development of the cable in Belgium, French-speaking person at least, was done thanks to TV-Luxembourg, became a product of call with the French chains (TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3). TV-Luxembourg then draws its principal advertizing revenues from Belgium. This family and popular vocation will guide Jacques Navadic in the years 1970 to sit the notoriety of the chain. The daily diffusion of films, American series, plays and emissions using the same organizers confers on TV-Luxembourg a statute of chain star to the Luxembourg, in the East of the France and in Belgium, reinforced by its passage to the color in 1972: in addition to the transmitter VHF 819 lines (E-07 channel) reconverted with the 625 lines SECAM, two new transmitters UHF are brought into service on the transmitting Dudelange, one on channel 21 in SECAM for the France, the other on channel 27 in STAKE for the Belgium. The every day, the credits of opening of antenna, the heraldic lion of Luxembourg appearing on circles symbolizing the Hertzian waves and the name TV-Luxembourg, is made precede by an still image by the transmitter by Dudelange, with the voice of Jacques Harvey which announces: " Here TV-Luxembourg, channels 7,21 and 27, transmitter of Dudelange, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg." . The plays of development of consumer loyalty arrive, with the Coffre-fort presented by Michele Etzel, then with the slogan Vivement this evening on TV-Luxembourg , a publicity sticker that the televiewers were to affix on the rear window of their vehicle, and thus, to have the chance to be made film by a team of TV-Luxembourg to be diffused with the antenna.

July 30th 1981, the stayed pylon of the transmitting Dudelange is completely destroyed, following the collision of a Belgian military aircraft, and RTL Tele Luxembourg is then in impossibility of emitting during several hours, until the installation of a less powerful back-up system. The French president François Mitterrand will intervene in person to authorize TDF to use the old transmitters VHF 819 lines of TF1 in Lorraine to relay RTL Tele Luxembourg colors until the rebuilding of the pylon of Dudelange. But many are those which do not have any more an antenna 819 lines and cannot collect the emissions correctly. The transmitter of Dudelange is rebuilt in 1983 and is replaced by a monopiece pylon.

RTL Tele Luxembourg created and programs plays and series ahead first before all the other chains (it is the first chain in Europe to diffuse Dallas , quite front TF1). Thus regularly, the presenters announced that a program was diffused in " priority of diffusion on RTL Télévision" … This policy of program known as of proximity founded by its leaders, is based enormously on the personality of the organizers. Jacques Navadic, director of the programs, imagine in 1977 a contest to engage a new presenter. At the time of a memorable evening, entitled Ten in string? , the public of the chain and the jury of personalities (Michel Drucker, Jean Lefebvre, Therese Leduc, Jacques Navadic, Diligent Robert) choose Marylène Bergmann which will become one of the emblematic figures of the chain. With its continuation takes place a change of generation and again faces make their appearance with the antenna: Andre Torrent, Philippe Goffin, Bibiane Godfroid, Michele Etzel, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang.

RTL Television

RTL Télé Luxembourg is renamed RTL Television in 1982, thus marking the emergence of mark RTL. During the decade 1980, RTL Television is with its apogee. Under the impulse of the new director of the programs, Jean Stock, a long string of emissions and organizers make the success of the private channel then: the Train of the toys , Léo against all , Lemon-yellow Grenadine , Head with Head , Stop Star , the Safe , Frequency JLB , Atoukado for the emissions, Valerie Sarn, Bibiane Godfroid, Michele Etzel, Sophie Hecquet, Jean-Claude Thieltgen, Philippe Sorel, Philippe Goffin, Claude Rappé, Anouchka Sikorsky, Marylène Bergmann, Jean-Luc Bertrand and Georges Lang for the organizers. The emissions are connected, the team increases and it chain is number 1 in the heart of Lorraine, the Belgians and the Luxembourgers. March 4th 1983, RTL Television obtains a radio-relay system between Brussels and Luxembourg. The antenna is duplicated at the time of the scission of the channels UHF SECAM 21 (Luxembourg/Lorraine) and UHF STAKE 27 (Belgium). She proposes on her Belgian channel of the special programs ( JTL belgized presented by Jean-Charles De Keyser and plays) in parallel of the intended program to the Luxembourg and Lorraine televiewers. RTL Télévision then takes foot avenue Franklin Roosevelt with Brussels, where it installs a studio, and extends its cover (by agreement of the Belgian government in compensation of the accident of Dudelange) to all the Belgian territory by the Cable television which knows a rapid development in Belgium. With widening considerable of its public in Belgium, chain is finally become advantageous, and enhardie by experiment, CLT created RTL More on January 2nd 1984 intended for market German and diffused on channel VHF E-07, which makes lose a good portion of French audience with RTL Television whose zone of reception of channel 21 is limited from now on to the only area Lorraine, with the great disappointment of Alsatian, of Lorraine of the South or the inhabitants of Champagne-Ardenne, from now on private of their preferred chain. Part of the financial and technical resources of RTL Television pass then on RTL More, but the chain undergoes one second hemorrhage of its teams in March 1987, when many technicians, journalists and organizers leave to take part in the creation of M6 created for the French market (taking again the sixth network, left vacant after the stop of the music channel TV6). In September of the same year, the Belgian channel of RTL Television takes its independence with the creation of RTL-TVI which produces from now on all its programs with Brussels. Many organizers high-speed motorboats and the creative team of RTL Television are then put at contribution for all these startings. In the same moment, the chain is reproduced among the first five television channels available on the cable which begins timidly its establishment in France.

Deprived of its Belgian public and thus addressing itself more that with the Luxembourgers and Lorraine, the audience of RTL Television is blown and the chain tests great difficulties of positioning vis-a-vis its new French private competitors. The need for revival is made feel, and in 1988, RTL Television tests redynamiser by small keys, by modifying its logo and its preparing (appearance of montgolfier RTL), by calling upon sizes of information like Genevieve Guicheney (come from FR3) or while engaging of new faces like Martin Igier to replace those left on M6 and RTL-TVI. The persons in charge of the chain undertake to reorganize the programs by starting a new format targeting the young people more and more adapted to his new basin of audience. An internal conflict bursts then between the old one and the new generation, which do not manage to agree on the new forms of business management. RTL Télévision thus gives up its Luxemburgish public service missions with RTL Hei Elei, new chain created with the Luxembourg at the request of the government. It is the one time end.

RTL TV

Like marking this change of time, RTL Television becomes RTL TV in 1991, passing the relay of first chain of the group CLT with RTL More which recovers in 1992 the denomination RTL Television.

Following its broad recovery on the cable in France, RTL TV changes format under the control of a new director of the programs, Hugues Durocher, and target a younger and urban public. The films and the series supplant little by little the many emissions of plate and the historical organizers yield the place to a new generation: Agnes Duperrin, Laurent Lespinasse, Katia Schmidt, Thierry Guillaume, Nicolas Albrand, Veronique Buson, Jerome Anthony, Virginia Schanté, Francoise Gaujour, Fabienne Equal and Charlotte Gomez makes their appearance. The chain tries to return to its fundamental while capitalizing on its organizers and launches a vast campaign of publicity proposing " the spirit of famille". This slogan is translated with the antenna by the installation of appointment with the organizers of the chain at the key hours of the grid: the Scrabble RTL with Thierry Guillaume and Veronique Buson, follow-up of the 40 minutes of Marylène Bergmann at the beginning of evening, the 52 minutes monthly magazine RTL Health presented by Agnes Duperrin, the female magazine F like Women each midday with Veronique Buson and Francoise Gaujour, emissions of clips to the request Music Family then Line Tennis shoe of Jerome Anthony and Virginia Schanté or the Galaxy of Thierry Guillaume, diffused for youth in end of the afternoon or Wednesday afternoon or the emission for employment Help! . Centred on its Lorraine public, RTL TV obtains a regional variation, called Lorraine RTL , which is distinguished from his/her big sister diffused by satellite cable and by local unhookings ( 40 minutes in Lorraine , and programs different from those of the cable and satellite Wednesday evening) only accessible to the Lorraine public by hertzian way since channel 21 from the transmitting Dudelange.

RTL9

In 1995, RTL TV celebrates in large pump its 40 years since the large auditorium of the Villa Louvigny and is officially renamed RTL9 at the end of the evening. The official reason of this énième name change is a renovation of the antenna ( RTL9, it is new! ), but CLT rather wishes to personalize each one of its chains and to avoid confusion between RTL TV, its Belgian chain RTL-TVI and its German chain RTL Television.

In 1997, CLT amalgamates with the German audio-visual group UFA and thus covers all the chain of diffusion, the production and the acquisition of rights. Vis-a-vis his/her two Belgian “cousins” and allemandes who at the head places audiences in their respective country, and with slow success but crescent of M6 in France, CLT-UFA raises the question of becoming of its chain pionnière and the means to allot to him vis-a-vis a confidential audience in Lorraine and about the cable French and Swiss. The new German-Luxembourg group is attached less to the patrimonial aspect than with the economic aspect of its company and then decides to capitalize on its chains with strong output by sacrificing those considered to be not very profitable. In December 1997, the whole of the personnel of the chain is laid off for economic reasons (RTL9 posts a loss of 50 French franc million) and on March 3rd 1998, 65% of the capital of the chain is yielded to AB Groupe, CLT-UFA preserving the 35% remainder. Many televiewers then regretted the departure of the organizers headlights of the chain, Marylène Bergmann at the head, which was present on the screens since 1977. Only Jean-Luc Bertrand, become Director of the programs of proximity, remained on the chain.

Concerning 650.000 hearths per hertzian way in Lorraine and with the Luxembourg, 2,1 million hearths by cable in Swiss France and , 1,5 satellite million subscribers to the bouquet TPS and the double for the bouquet CanalSat, RTL9 is the chain number 1 in measurements of audience relating to the cable and satellite for 10 years and has been classified in third position of the chains most looked in Lorraine. Extremely of this report, AB Groupe proposes the candidature of the chain for the French Digital terrestrial television on July 1st 2002. The SCUMS refuses to grant to him a concession because of its statute of nonofficially agreed chain foreign, and consequently, not subjected to the same obligations as its French competitors in terms of diffusion of films and publicity, which would distort competition. In 2005, RTL9 celebrates its 50 years by diffusing a small subject containing files of the chain of 1955 to 2005, but making the good share at the period RTL9, follow-up of a musical production since the Olympia with Paris conceived and presented by Jean-Luc Bertrand. Contrary to RTL-TVI which diffused at the beginning of March 2005 an emission recalling the history of TV-Luxembourg to the independence of the Belgian antenna, or RTL Tele Lëtzebuerg which diffused a at the end of 2005 documentary homage containing files recalling the 50 years history of “T” of RTL, RTL9 could not diffuse this type of emission following the loss of its own files during its removal in 1995. However, during the last week of December 2005, the emission of Jean-Luc Bertrand, Welcome on your premise , was devoted to certain old stars of the chain: Michele Etzel, Andre Torrent, Jean Stock, Georges Lang and Marylène Bergmann, especially come to tell their professional memories and history of RTL Television.

Since September 4th 2006, RTL9 renewed its preparing of antenna without changing its logo. This new preparing in 3D, carried out in-house, takes again the colors and the 3 forms composing the logo of the chain. A second event also occurred the same day by the return, after 9 years of absence, Marylène Bergmann, which also officiates on RTL-TVI, two days per week in the emission of its old accomplice Jean-Luc Bertrand, Bienvenue on your premise on RTL9 Lorraine.

Starting from a small television in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the empire RTL forever ceased extending, in Germany, France, Belgium, with the Netherlands, in the Eastern European countries, to count from now on 38 radio television channels and 29 stations in 2007.

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