On Wednesday 12 February, I was at RTL House in Brussels. Following an advert (on Bel RTL and on the RTL info website) I signed up to take part in an afternoon meeting with presenters and journalists from the channel (RTL Belgium) to mark World Radio Day (13 February).

Quick story on RTL Belgium;

RTL Belgium was created in 1985, and was owned at the time (66% by RTL Group; RTL Luxembourg). RTL Belgium has been a subsidiary of the (Rossel Group and DPG Media) since 31 March 2022, (DPG Media: media group: Het Laast Nieuws, VTM, Qmusic and Joe) and the (Rossel Group; Le soir, Sudinfo, 50% daily newspaper L'écho) I say partner because they are the print media editions that they bought RTL Belgium.

Here are a few shots taken during the visit.

The 3rd floor houses the RTL info editorial office and the radio studios (Bel RTL and Radio Contact and the RTL info 1pm and 7pm studio);

This is the editorial room (when they hold editorial meetings), where they meet 2 or 3 times a day; an editorial meeting in the morning (with the journalists in the field or in the regional offices, where they choose the subjects for the 1pm or 7pm RTL info), then a meeting at around 2.45-3pm.

In the studio corridor ;

Visit to the studios (Bel RTL and Radio Contact);

We continue our visit, going back through the editorial offices to the radio studios:

A photo in the corridor for Bel RTL... But a photo in the Radio Contact studio.

Did you know?

The first : Did you know how many people listen to RTL Belgium radio stations alone?

Roughly speaking, according to the latest study by CIM "Le Centre d'Information sur les Médias" (study: May - August 2024) this is; 865,070 listeners (combined).

Bel RTL alone has 398,200 listeners a day and Radio Contact 466,870 listeners a day.

In RTL's press kit on the 2024 year in review:

Radio Contact : (CIM - Jan - Aug 2024) 471,000 listeners/days = 943,000 listeners/week.

Bel RTL : (CIM - Jan - August 2024) 397,000 listeners/day = 723,000 listeners/week (all radio stations; Bel RTL, Radio Contact and MINT: that's ... 1.5 million listeners/week, Source: CIM and press kit on the year 2024′ CIM study: Jan - August 2024). Digital listening (via the RTL or Radio contact app) it is nevertheless: 31.2% of PDM for the three radio stations (of the RTL Belgium group) Radio Contact, Bel RTL and Mint.

Second: Did you know how many viewers RTL info will attract in 2024 (1pm and 7pm combined)?

Rendez-vous d'infos (RTL info 1pm and 7pm) averaged 923,000 viewers/week over the past year (2024).

The last one: Did you know how many channels (TV and radio) there are in the RTL Belgium group?

Since November 2024 there have been 4 TV channels: RTL tvi , RTL club , RTL plug and RTL district.

Since 13 February 2025 13:13 : 4 radios : Bel RTL and Radio Contact and Mint (A little explanation about MINT radio: it's a radio station created on 25 January 2007, at the time it was on FM, but since 17 October 2008 it's only on the web, because it lost its FM frequency. At the end of 2018, RTL asked the CSA to recover an FM and DAB+ frequency, but in 2019, the CSA rejected its requests). The latest addition is Contact MAX (radio contact's little sister) it broadcasts music from the 80s, 90s and 2000s and news flashes every hour. You can listen to it on DAB+ on the radio contact website and app, or on television on RTL district between 11.30pm and 1.30pm.

Come on, I'll take you to the press room (press conference); he had the director of radio and the presenters and journalists (Bel RTL and Radio Contact).

There were Maria Del Rio and Olivier Arnould (part of the Radio Contact Good Morning TEAM) and David Antoine, who stayed for a good 10 minutes (at the start of his 15/19 programme on Radio Contact). The Bel RTL news gang; Sandrine Dans, Thomas De Bergeyck and the journalist in charge (politics and economics) Martin Buxant.

As usual, photos after a few answers.

End of the visit to RTL! I loved the visit and it was a great meeting too.

Hugo CLAUW