BC-DX TopNews WWDXC #945 BC-DX 945

the history of our station is quite accurate and most of all, shown with
humour.
"One day, the airwaves transmitted across the world the magic words "AQUI
RADIO ANDORRA". The first commercial radio station in Europe was born.
Andorra was an ideal place for such an enterprise. No railways, no planes,
no industrial plants, no noise to break the silence of the mountains, or
the voice of the speaker".
"Then, hour after hour, a little, everywhere in the world people were
listening to these words: "AQUI RADIO-ANDORRA" and many opened their atlas
to re-discover this little place, nearly unknown until now. The tourism
managers, willing to serve their increasing number of customers, also
looked at their maps. Their agents soon invaded the Co-Princes' kingdom:
They discovered splendid mountain for skiers, radious sky, pure air,
picturesque places and even, a fountain supposed to have health benefit
effects, but hotels and comfortable rooms were missing, as well as
souvenir shops, pubs, restaurants: in a word, most tourism facilities. But
hopefully this was not to be missing for long.
"Something else: One day I was standing in front of the hill where the
RADIO ANDORRA station is located. Many cars were passing by without
stopping (one car for every three inhabitants). There were also
pedestrians in the street; all were having a brief devotional look at this
dark grey building as if it were a church. Actually the vassals of the Co-
Princes will never forget that misery time ended the very moment when the
world heard for the first time the magic words "AQUI RADIO-ANDORRA", since
then no one will pronounce the name of Andorra without thinking of its
miraculous radio station. That's the legend of the fifth smallest state on
our continent"
Radio Andorra is the name of one of the oldest French private radios,
which from 1939 until 1981 had a broadcast license in Andorra.
Broadcasting began on 7 August 1939 by Jacques Tremoulet, who was also the
owner of the broadcasting company Radiophonie du Midi, which was already
broadcasting in Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Agen. Within the
location of Andorra it bypassed the state monopoly on broadcasting by not
operating on French soil. On its first broadcast Radio Andorra was
exclusively a music program interrupted only by the famous greeting "Aqui
Radio Andorra."
During the Second World War the music program was broadcast to soldiers in
France and North Africa. Both German and Allied forces attempted to
control the radio without success because the neutrality of Andorra served
as a protective shield. By the end of the war Jacques Tremoulet was
sentenced to death by the French judiciary because of collaboration. He
first fled to Spain, then to Switzerland, and finally to France, where he
was acquitted in 1949. During this time Radio Andorra was massively
hindered as it was hard to receive transmissions in France. After a slow
climb in the 1950s and early 1960s Sud Radio competed with Radio Andorra
as it was supported by the French government since its foundation in 1968.
The last years of Radio Andorra were characterized by a lack of funds and
a reduced transmitter power so that only in the vicinity of Andorra could
it be heard. Because of the desire for the establishment of a separate
broadcasting network the Principality of Andorra broadcasting license
file:///Z|/DOKUMENTATION-BULLETINS/WWDXD-BCDX/2010/BCDX980.TXT[11.06.2012 10:40:19]