NATO Individual Democratic Institutions Research Fellowships (1994-1996)

Why Public Service Broadcasting Eastern vs. Western Europe: Circumstances and Challenge Catalin Preda (Romania) [Back to Index]

2.2. Radio France 2.2.1. History and evolution 1904 A telegraphic post of the Eiffel Tower was created with the help of the Paris Observatory. 1910 The Creation of the French Radio-electricity Corporation. 1921 Experimentally broadcasts from the Eiffel Tower done by the captain Ferrie. 1922 Born of the "Radiola" station (Studio 79 Bd. Haussmann) 1923 Creation of the "Paris Post Telegraph & Telephone", broadcasting from the Superior School of PTT. 1924 "Radiola" became "Radio Paris". 1925 The first spoken journal of Maurice Privat, broadcast from the Eiffel Tower. 1926 Inside the administration of the PTT it was created a "broadcasting service". Radio Paris has been bought by the public power the same year. 1927 Within the Radio PTT it was born the "Radio-Journal of France". 1929 The National Office for Radio Broadcasting was born. 1931 Inauguration of the Colonial Station, during the Colonial Exhibition. 1932 Radio Luxembourg starts broadcasting. 1934 Creation of the National Orchestra of the French Broadcasting Corporation 1936 The first electoral campaign on the public radio networks. 1940 France introduces state monopoly on radio broadcasting. 1942 Foundation of the Society Radio Monte-Carlo. 1944 The so called 'liberation' of the waves. 1945 The private radio stations are nationalised and the French Broadcasting Corporation - RDF is born. 1947 Creation of the station 'Paris-Inter'. 1954 Introduction of the frequency modulation (FM) in Paris area. 1955 Creation of the Community of Radio Programmes in French Language. 1963 The regional programmes and Paris-Inter were grouped in a single radio station - France Inter, and there were created two new stations: France Culture and France Music. Inauguration of the Radio-House in Paris. 1964 Under the guardianship of the Ministry for Information the ORTF - The French Organisation of Radio and Television is created. 1966 Radio Luxembourg becomes RTL 1974 ORTF is partitioned in seven corporations and public companies. 1975 Radio France International is created. 1980 Radio France started the stations Radio 7 (for youth), Radio Blue (for people over 50 years old) and of three local radios. 1981 The jamming of the free radio-stations is stopped. 1982 The Consultative Commission of the private local radios is installed. Creation of the RFO - Radio France Overseas. 1983 First list of local radios authorised by the High Authority. 1984 A law is issued authorising advertising on private local radio-stations. 1985 The anti-concentration law is adopted. 1987 The station France Info was created. 1989 A new Superior Audiovisual Council takes the place of the existing broadcasting authority. 1991 First experimentally 'numeric broadcasts' in Paris area. Creation of the Digital Audio Broadcasting Club. 1993 Privatisation of Radio Monte-Carlo. 1994 A new law for the private radio broadcasting sector.

2.2.2. Legal framework The Superior Council for Audiovisual (CSA) CSA was created in January 1987 and it is in principle an independent and colleague-like authority, having the mission to regulate the audio and video scenery. The CSA has not the right to elaborate its own legislation, this attribution being held by the French Parliament and by the Constitutional Council. The main attributions of the CSA are: the nomination of the presidents of the public radio and TV channels, including those from Radio France, Radio France International and Radio France Overseas, who are designated at Government's proposal, and the nomination of four of the members of the Administration Council of the National Audiovisual Institute; manages and attributes the frequencies and channels for radio (and television). It is important to underline that public radio and television broadcasters have the priority to get 'on air'. The CSA also delivers broadcasting authorisations for cable (for 20 years) and satellite (for 10 years). The CSA is an entity guarding the law and its numerous missions can be summoned in a single word: control. The National Audiovisual Institute Preserves and exploits the audio and video archives of the national public broadcasting services and, if it is the case, of the archives from the private audio and video communication services. May offer, if requested by the interested organizations from the audiovisual sector, initial and continuing formation of the staff, and contributes to high-school education in the field. May provide research on programme production, on audio and video communication and on audiovisual documents in co-ordination with its archive research and exploitation activities. The French Radio Broadcasting Corporation - Radio France has two main obligations: To conceive and broadcast radio programmes on the six radio channels and on the local radio network. To ensure the management and the developing of the two orchestras and two choirs of Radio France .

2.2.3. Radio France Network France Inter broadcasts around the clock dense and complete information, magazines and music. It is a generalist radio station, with a great audience. The programme consists now of speech and music in almost equal parts, with the music being 60% French or of Francophone origin. France Inter adds to the competence of its journalists from the Paris studio the network of local radios and the important number of correspondents abroad. On France Inter the news and current affairs information is profoundly analysed, enriched by feature reports, completed with debates and the interventions of numerous guests. The audience is about 12% per day during weekdays (5.35 million listeners). France Info is the first station in Europe that broadcasts information continuously. It is a radio of live coverage and features about almost everything. It proposes at any moment, day and night, complete information continuously updated. Every half-hour France Info broadcasts a 7 minutes news-bulletin. It replays the headlines every 15 minutes, and if it is the case it develops the stories. Every hour there are four feature-reports covering essential news. The programme includes also stock exchange information, news about employment, medicine, weather, science, cinema, spectacles, books, week-end destinations, animals, cars, gardening, and of course sports - through live transmissions from the most important sport events in France and abroad. France Info's audience reaches 9.5% during weekday (4,3 million listeners). France Culture broadcasts stereo on FM 24 hours per day. They say this station is unique in the world. It is a national radio-station with an exclusively cultural vocation and with the goal of disseminating knowledge. France Culture's programmes consist of present cultural items, great problems of the society, specialised magazines, also a very good selection of musical programme, as well as recorded or live theatre, festivals, and concerts. The audience is very small, less than 1%. France Music is devoting its programmes, around the clock, to the music from all ages and cultures. It has as a priority to broadcast the activities of the permanent art groups in Radio France (The National French Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra, The Chorus) and also the work of the Music Production Department. The programme of France Musique perpetuates the great repertory, but it proposes also a permanent enlargement of the audio universe - through creation, jazz, and music of all traditions. It reveals the musical life as a multiple phenomenon, topical and universal. France Musique gives priority to broadcasting every year more than 1,100 concerts of symphony and chamber music, recitals, opera, jazz, traditional music, most of them live, both from France and from abroad. The channel also broadcasts interviews with artists, composers, soloists, orchestra conductors, music critiques and analysts. The audience is just 1.5%. Radio Bleue - it is surnamed by the French people "The perfume of the life." It broadcasts 12 hours daily, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The particularity of this radio-station is that it broadcasts just French songs from today and yesterday. The audience is composed mainly of people aged 50 or more, and it hardly reaches 1%. One of the station's objectives is to favour the inter-generation communication. Radio Bleue is an office radio but also an entertainment station for its listeners. FIP (France Inter Paris and Regionals). These radio-stations created after 1971 are the ancestors of the local radios in France. Such radio-stations are broadcasting now in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Metz, Nantes, Strasbourg, Marseille, Lyon and Nice. They propose information and service messages on an interrupted musical background. FIP also broadcasts information about the weather, the road traffic, employment offers, radio and TV programmes, spectacles, and other utility information. The musical line may be jazz, instrumental, classic music, film music or folk songs, French or foreign. The Local Radios of Radio France are broadcasting 24 hours per day in FM, covering 50% of the French territory. There are 39 local radio stations in France. Their programmes consist of general information, entertainment, and music. Their main characteristics are that they are interactive and close to the concerns of their local listeners. Each local station has an original programme. At the initiative of local radios, four production workshops - based in Bordeaux, Nantes, Nice, and Strasbourg, are making documentaries and fictions that are broadcast as series or serials by the local studios of Radio France. The general directions for the programmes of the local radio-stations are settled by the 'Direction for Local Radios', giving to the network a kind of 'family air'. Every director of a local station has as his or her goals to elaborate, in co-operation with the programme responsible of that station, the specific policy of the local radio and to adapt it to the expectations and preoccupation of the listeners. Depending on the county one can find programmes in a regional language, magazines about the Basque pellet, or about the sea, etc. Every local radio in France broadcasts daily between 6 and 14 hours of specific programmes closely linked to the music programme 'Modulation France' - realised in Paris by a team of disk-jockeys coming all from the local radio-stations. This programme which is broadcast through satellite becomes on each of the local station the property of the local disk-jockey who is presenting it in its personal manner. With 70% of the music being French the musical programme is based on the productions of last 30 years and consists of jazz, Latin-American songs, blues, country, etc. Several times a day the local radios of Radio France broadcast local or regional utility information on employment, health, weather, road traffic, but also entertainment, spectacles, cinema, books, series, and radio-documentaries. The journalist working for the local radio-stations are present everyday on the national channels France Inter and France Info forming together the first editorial office of France, based on the principle that ' good local information is indispensable to the national up-to-dateness. Together with FIP-stations, the Local Radios of Radio France have an audience of 5.5% during weekdays (2.5 millions). Emergency - Radio France is a rather unusual type of radio-station, broadcasting just in the Paris area for the persons being in extreme difficulty and for those who are helping them. The programme is operating every day from 4:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m. Note: The ensemble of Radio France programmes - France Inter, France Info, France Culture, France Musique, Radio Bleue, FIP and Local Radio-Stations, have an audience of about 11.8 million listeners per day representing 25.7% of the potential French audience.