France Inter

France Inter
City of license Paris
Broadcast area France
Slogan France Inter, la voix est libre
Frequency AM:
162 kHz (Allouis)
FM:
87.8 MHz (Paris)
91.3 MHz (Marseille)
99.8/101.1 MHz (Lyon)
Frequencies
First air date 1 January 1947
Former callsigns Club d'Essai (1947)
Paris-Inter (1947-1957)
France I (1957-1963)
RTF Inter (1963)
Owner Radio France
Sister stations FIP (radio station)
France Bleu
France Culture
France Info
France Musique
Le Mouv'
Website France Inter

France Inter is a major French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is a "generalist" station, aiming to provide a wide national audience with a full service of news and intelligent spoken-word programming, both serious and entertaining, liberally punctuated with an eclectic mix of music.

France Inter broadcasts on longwave (162 kHz), FM, and via the internet. The station's LW signal is strong enough to be heard clearly beyond the country's boundaries, including most parts of Great Britain and Ireland.

History

France Inter was founded in the reorganization of state broadcasting which followed the end of World War II as "Paris-Inter" and charged with being French public radio's generalist (i.e. "full-service") service. The channel was renamed "France I" in 1958, although three years later one of France's most popular radio and television listings magazines was still showing the station's programmes under the heading "Paris-Inter" with "France I" as a subtitle.[1] In 1963 the France I and France II networks were merged to form "RTF Inter", renamed "France Inter" one month later.

The major challenge faced by France Inter at the time of its reorganization in the 1960s was the private "peripheral stations" (in particular, RTL and Europe 1, broadcasting from powerful transmitters outside France) success in capturing the majority of the French radio audience since the war. They had done so by adopting a modern broadcasting style and earning a reputation for greater freedom from government influence.

As well as rapidly modernizing its style to match its competitors, France Inter stressed its freedom from commercial pressures – although it does carry a limited amount of paid-for advertising – and especially presented itself as intelligent radio accessible to a general audience under the slogan Écoutez la différence ("Listen to the difference").

Programmes

France Inter programmes, a number of which have been important milestones in the history of French radio, include:

References

  1. ↑ La Semaine Radio-Télé 29/41, 8–14 October 1961

External links