Celebrating Radio Luxembourg 208, 18/02/2023

RTL Today - The Lisa Burke Show

This week, Janet Alldis joins us to talk about her famous father, radio presenter Barry Alldis. Benny Brown describes the history of Radio Luxembourg and its importance.
Janet Alldis is rightly proud of her father, Barry Alldis, who was a DJ on Radio Luxembourg 208. Unfortunately he died too young, very suddenly at 51 and it was only then than Janet saw the influence he had had on his listeners. The family were inundated with boxes of tributes.
From then on, Janet has worked hard to keep the memory of her father alive; firstly publishing a book full of interviews, and now with a song, 'Under The Covers', which she wrote and is co-produced by Freddy Cannon. You can vote for the song on the Heritage Charts in the UK - please do so! The song is also available on Spotify.
"Dad’s life was all about music and so I too had the urge to express my feelings and childhood memories into a song. It is my story," says Janet.
Benny Brown has worked on radio in Luxembourg for so many years, one might think of him as 'the last man standing' in radio here. Born in San Francisco, Benny obtained his first job in radio as a teenager in Hawaii, by mowing the grass at the local radio station in return for "free" records!
He's been enamored with radio all his life, and as a teen listened to lots of faraway radio stations late at night. Benny came to Europe after military service in Vietnam. He was on the air with AFN in Frankfurt, and then lured to Radio Luxembourg in 1979 by their Programme Director in London (Tony Prince.)
At the time, Radio Luxembourg 208 was the world's most powerful commercial radio station, and Benny was working with their medium and short wave broadcasts, as well as with Luxembourg's 'Community Radio' every afternoon.
Benny Brown was twice selected by Billboard Magazine as the 'International Radio Personality of the Year.'
Later, while based in London, Benny worked with European syndicated radio programming. In the German language, Benny hosted the weekly 'American Top 40', which was the world's most-listened-to radio program.
Benny was on the radio at RTL's Radio Letzebuerg from 8 to 11pm for eight years from 2008 thru 2015. And since 2015, he's regularly heard on Luxembourg's Radio 100,7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Alldis
https://open.spotify.com/album/41lsEEToFMPXsacumu6rlj?si=hoeAbsCPRLG-yxpwERA9Tw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHyqvVUoFhE
heritagechart.co.uk