Radio Liechtenstein

Radio Liechtenstein, often shortended to Radio L, is the public radio station of Liechtenstein. It is the first and primary station to broadcast in Liechtenstein. They primarily broadcast local news, world news, music, sports, events and podcasts. There were plans to launch a radio broadcaster in the late 1930s, but this was discontinued. The plans to bring back the radio broadcaster began in 1991, with the station being launched on 15 August 1995. It is operated by the Liechtenstein Broadcasting Corporation (LRF) and funded by the Liechtenstein Government. The headquarters are located in Schaan.

Radio Liechtenstein

Logo since 2022
Schaan Liechtenstein
Broadcast area	Liechtenstein, Switzerland & Austria
Programming
Language(s)	German
Network	Liechtenstein Broadcasting Corporation
Ownership
Owner	Liechtenstein Broadcasting Corporation (since 2003) and Government of Liechtenstein
Operator	Christian Maroldt
History
Founded	15 August 1995
Former names	Radio L
Links
Website	www.radio.li

In 2021, the station reported an average viewership of 21,530 people, 10,800 of which came from within Liechtenstein itself. The majority of listeners of the station come Switzerland, for its German-speaking population in the north-east of Switzerland, which borders Liechtenstein. Due to the high commuter flows from Switzerland, its official broadcast area includes the lower Rhine Valley, which is served by two FM stations in St. Margrethen and Thal and the DAB block in eastern Switzerland as far as Lake Constance.

Programming

The legal programming mandate describes in the editorial section an objective and comprehensive range of information for the general public from all relevant sectors for a broad target group, which should be sophisticated and balanced, but also entertaining and take into account the culture, independence and other characteristics of Liechtenstein. The programming principles correspond to the public service's self-image.

The broadcaster aims to broadcast an objective and comprehensive range of information for the general public for its news programming. News is broadcast every hour from 6 am to 7 pm, which can be listened to in the "Media Library" section on the station's website. There is also a new Radio Liechtenstein app available since the end of 2023, replacing the original "Radio L" app.

The station also aims to showcase Liechtensteiner culture, entertainment, music and other aspects of Liechtenstein. Its music style is described as "adult contemporary", with a mix of songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Radio Liechtenstein also likes to promote music from local artists and genres unique to the country, including songs in the German language.

History

Former logo as Radio L

On 15 October 1938, a Radio Liechtenstein broadcast on 700 kHz medium wave from Vaduz. On 21 November 1938, the transmission mast collapsed as a result of a storm, which resulted in a transmission outage for several days. Although Lirag ( German: Liechtenstein'sche Radio-Gesellschaft) was founded on 20 February 1939, the simple music program of Radio Liechtenstein was discontinued in September 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War due to financial difficulties, after the government had informed the population about the events and the measures to be taken.

On 15 August 1995, after a trial period starting in 1991, a station called Radio L began official broadcasting as a private radio station. Radio L was the first post-war radio station in Liechtenstein. When the broadcasting fee was abolished in January 1999, which until then had mainly financed the distribution of Swiss programs in Liechtenstein, the private station was one of the only providers, along with the local print media, to provide services as a public service for Liechtenstein. Since then, funding from the then newly designed state media funding has been available to pay for this public service mandate. They are supplemented by advertising and sponsorship.

After eight years and an investment of 12 million Swiss francs (12.3 million euros), private investor Peter Ritter withdrew from the radio station in 2003. According to figures from the Publica Data Institute, the station had more than 50,000 listeners at that time, of which in German-speaking Switzerland alone, with an average reach of 37,200 listeners per day, three times as many listeners as in Liechtenstein itself with 12,200.

After several negotiations with the government, Radio Liechtenstein was converted into a public broadcaster on 1 January 2004. 750,000 francs from the state budget were invested in the expansion and reconstruction of the broadcasting network, and line rental costs were saved by switching to ball reception. In this report in October 2005, the government stated that the station produced "a similar amount of information and spoken contributions" compared to Radio Rumantsch and Radio DRS with around 1/10 of public funding, which meant "about twice the information output per employee (full-time equivalent)". Nevertheless, further savings and efficiency improvements were planned in the following years.

In October 2013, the government applied for the restructuring of the national budget ("Package of Measures III"). The reintroduction of a broadcasting fee was intended to relieve the national budget by 1.5 million francs from 2015, but was rejected again in July 2015 because a broadcasting fee was not socially accepted and the state contribution had proven to be the most economical financing option. The government rejected an offer to buy the station from Media Holding AG in November 2013. This was justified not only by the low offer price, which the government believed was significantly below the current market value, but also by the loss of the statutory service mandate (" public service ") based on the Swiss model. In addition, the special status as a public broadcaster in Switzerland would have been lost. A loss of Swiss listeners would have resulted in a loss of income (probably particularly from advertising revenue). According to Publica Data, the station reached around 46,200 listeners daily in 2012, of which 12,900 listeners (second semester) were in Liechtenstein. An increase was aimed for by expanding the digital broadcasting area, with which 40 percent of households in the eastern Swiss-Liechtenstein economic area could be reached.

In the second half of 2020, the program had more listeners in Switzerland for the first time, a result of the new content focusing "more [on] Liechtenstein" since 2019.

On 2 June 2024, Radio Liechtenstein announced that it was "in the process" of joining the European Broadcasting Union, with its application currently being decided on. If approved, this would be the first broadcaster from Liechtenstein to join the organisation, as its television broadcaster 1 FL TV has retired plans to apply for EBU membership. The broadcaster also stated that it is aiming to organise Liechtenstein's participation the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025, which will take place in Switzerland. This would serve as Liechtenstein's inaugural appearance at the competition, making it their official debut. However, a radio broadcaster has never solely organised participation at the competition before, so its unclear as to how the broadcaster would get around this without broadcasting the programme solely online (which also has never happened before) or in association with 1 FL TV (as Liechtenstein's main television broadcaster).

A proposal to privatize Radio Liechtenstein was proposed by the Democrats for Liechtenstein and received 1,729 valid signatures in favour of the privatisation on 2 August 2024. The subsequent referendum was accepted by voters, meaning that the station is set to be privatised.

Broadcast

Radio Liechtenstein is broadcast terrestrially via FM via six small transmitters in Liechtenstein with 0.025 to 1 kW (ERP) and two other small transmitters in Eastern Switzerland with 0.05 and 0.2 kW, although the allocation to the broadcasting areas on the station's homepage differs. The program has been broadcast via DAB since 29 November 2013 via Block 9D, which was converted to Block 9B by the beginning of 2017 and is still being built up with the aim of providing comprehensive coverage in Eastern Switzerland. The Rüthi/Bismer transmitter (4.3 kW) can also be received in Liechtenstein.

The program is also available in analogue form on the cable networks of Telecom Liechtenstein, UPC Switzerland and EWB Buchs, as well as digitally in Switzerland on Rii-Seez-Net and Swisscom TV.