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France Inter

France Inter is a major French public radio network and part of Radio France.

History

In the reorganization of French public radio which followed World War II, Paris-Inter was founded as the system's general network. The station was officially 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). In 1963, France I and France II were merged to form "RTF Inter", which was renamed "France Inter" just one month later.

The major challenge which France Inter has faced since its inception has been that of facing up to the success of the private "peripheral stations" – in particular, RTL and Europe 1 – broadcasting from powerful transmitters situated outside French territory and presenting an image of greater freedom from government influence as well as a more modern approach to radio broadcasting.

As well as modernizing its style to rival that of its private-sector competitors, France Inter has focused on emphasizing its freedom from commercial pressures (although it does carry a limited amount of advertising) and on presenting itself as a source of intelligent broadcasting accessible to a wide general audience, under the slogan Écoutez la différence ("Listen to the difference").

The station today

Today, France Inter is going through a crisis. Many listeners have criticised its journalists for having favoured the "yes" campaign in the 2005 European Constitution referendum. Furthermore, it has been faced with a decline in audience figures. It is frequently estimated to be the third-place network in audience share, behind NRJ and RTL.

France Inter has aired many programmes which marked the history of French radio:

Le Masque et la Plume, a cultural broadcast with critical jounalists
Le Jeu des 1000 euros, a cultural game
Pop Club, a cultural broadcast
Le téléphone sonne, a current affairs discussion and phone-in programme
Là-bas si j'y suis, a reports programme
Le sept - dix, morning news programme.

France Inter broadcasts on both longwave (162 kHz) and FM. The station's signal is strong enough to be heard reasonably clearly in most parts of southern Great Britain. The 162 kHz signal also carries a time code; see Télé Distribution Française for details.