Radio Liechtenstein

Radio Liechtenstein, often - particularly in its early years - shortened to Radio L, was the public radio station of Liechtenstein. It was 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, and the station was launched on 15 August 1995. It is operated by the Liechtenstein Broadcasting Corporation (LRF) and funded by the Liechtenstein Government. The headquarters was located in Schaan.

In 2021, the station reported an average listenership of 21,530 people, 10,800 of whom came from within Liechtenstein itself. The rest of the listeners of the station mainly come from Switzerland, from its German-speaking population in its north-east, which borders Liechtenstein. Due to the high commuter flows from Switzerland, Radio Liechtenstein's 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. The station went off air on 3 April 2025.

The legal programming mandate described 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 corresponded to the public service's self-image.

The broadcaster aimed to broadcast an objective and comprehensive range of information for the general public for its news programming. News was 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 was also a new Radio Liechtenstein app available from the end of 2023 until it ended in 2025, replacing the original "Radio L" app.

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

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, of 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 these, an average of 37,200 were in German-speaking Switzerland alone, three times as many listeners as in Liechtenstein itself with 12,200.