Europe 1

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Europe 1

Broadcast area	France
First air date	1955
Format	News and talk
Owner	Lagardère Active
Website	www.europe1.fr

Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately-owned radio network created in 1955. It is one of the leading French radio broadcasters and its programming is heard throughout France. The network is owned and operated by Lagardère Active, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group.

Over the last fifty years, the best-known programs on Europe 1 include: 'Pour ceux qui aiment le jazz' ("For Those Who Love Jazz") hosted by Daniel Filipacchi and Franck Ténot, 'Signé Furax' ("Signed, Furax", a comic adventure serial), 'Salut les copains' ("Hi, Friends", a pop music programme), 'Campus' (a show that includes book reviews, interviews of literary personalities, and chat about current events and culture), 'Vous êtes formidables' (a programme devoted to "demonstrations of solidarity") , 'Bonjour, monsieur le maire' (a broadcast aimed at listeners in rural France), 'L'horoscope de Madame Soleil' (an astrology show), 'Top 50' (a reprise of the musical charts), and 'Le club de la presse' ("Press Club", a programme devoted to political conversation). The original BBC Radio 5 did a translated version of Top 50 called Le Top around 1992.

Noted journalists, moderators, and performers have included: Patrick Topaloff, Maurice Siegel, Jean Gorini, André Arnaud, Pierre Bouteiller, Pierre Bellemare, Francis Blanche, Daniel Filipacchi, Franck Ténot, Lucien Morisse, Robert Willar, Albert Simon, and Madame Soleil.

1 History
2 Technical details
3 Cross-references
4 External links

[edit] History

In 1955, in order to circumvent the prohibition of commercial broadcasting that had been imposed in France after the Second World War, Europe n° 1 was first established in the Saarland, a German state that borders France and Luxembourg. Transmissions were not legally authorised, however, until France's post-war administration of the Saarland ceased and sovereignty was returned to West Germany in 1957; so, during its first two years of operation (1955-1957), under the direction of Louis Merlin, who had defected from Radio Luxembourg, Europe n° 1 was a pirate radio station. In 1959 the French national government bought part of the broadcasting corporation, and this interest is administered today by the Lagardère Group. Network programming has always been produced in Paris. The network feed is transferred over broadcast-quality ISDN lines to Felsberg in the Saarland.

From its beginnings, Europe n°1's priorities were two-fold: first, presentation of news and cultural information with an emphasis on eyewitness or participant accounts rather than "pre-digested" recitations delivered by an announcer with a script and a sonorous voice; and, second, shows aimed at establishing intimate bonds with listeners, including plays, contests, informal talk, popular music, and street-level politics. In both these respects, its programming was a radical departure from the established radio formats of the day.

In the 1960s, Europe 1 achieved remarkable success in capturing a young audience, due, in no small part, to the presence of Patrick Topaloff, the popular comedian, singer, and actor. It pioneered a new tone in French radio. The musical broadcast Salut les copains became an icon of French popular culture and the baby boom generation. Europe 1 played a significant role in the May 68 political crisis, one of the seminal events in modern French history, by being the principal source of information untainted by government sanction; it was nicknamed "barricade radio". In the 1970s, President Giscard d'Estaing criticized its "mocking" tone. When the industrialist Jean-Luc Lagardère became president of the Europe 1 group, some feared that the network might lose its traditionally independent point of view.

Since the 1980s, Europe 1 has experienced decreases in the size of its regular audience, and the average age of its listeners has steadily increased. Both of these negative developments can be traced to the proliferation of commercial radio networks. In the 1990s, Europe 1 became a "news and talk" network. Jean-Pierre Elkabbach became president in 2005.

It is estimated to be the fifth most popular radio network behind NRJ, RTL, France Inter and France Info. During the late 1980's a network of FM transmitters were established for the network within France, but presently these transmitters are used for Europe 2.

Europe 1 has been a member of the European Broadcasting Union since the 1970s.

[edit] Technical details

Europe 1 programming is delivered by Europäische Rundfunk- und Fernseh-AG (in English, European Radio and Television Company), broadcasting on the longwave band at 183 kHz from Felsberg in the Saarland and on various FM frequencies throughout France.

The Felsberg antenna points Europe 1's signal southwestward towards France. In the easterly direction, transmissions are mostly absorbed, so, in Eastern Europe, only a very weak signal can be heard. Because of a slight defect in the design of the antenna system, only the carrier frequency is properly screened to the east; the sidebands suffer only a small absorption, so that, in the east, sideband reception is adequate in strength but strongly distorted.

Carrier frequencies on the longwave band are assigned to frequencies in multiples of nine kHz ranging from 153 to 279 kHz. However, the Europe 1 transmitter's frequency, 183 kHz, lies within the usual nine-kHz raster established under the Geneva Plan. This is to minimise interference with a transmitter in Oranienburg, which currently broadcasts Deutschlandradio Kultur on 177 kHz. So, Europe 1 and Deutschlandradio Kultur straddle the standard 180-kHz frequency which would normally be assigned to one or the other under the Geneva Plan.

In Felsberg, the four guyed antenna masts raised in 1954 and 1955 average 277 metres in height. The building where the transmitters are housed is an architecturally-unusual prestressed-concrete construction that stands without supporting internal columns. It has been designated an architectural monument by the European Union, and, as such, it is a protected structure.