Les choses de la nuit: a history of French night radio
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/RIHC.2023.i21.04Keywords:
Late-night radio, night time, history of radio, intimacy, radio listenersAbstract
From the 1950’s, French radio stations started to extend their schedules, broadcasting progressively longer in the night, until they reached a non-stop broadcast, available 24 hours a day. Since then, during night-time, radio became a place of intimacy, creativity and freedom, with a new kind of programmes emerging, in which the listeners were sometimes invited to express themselves on the air. The aim of this chapter is to examine the history of French night-time radio from the 1950’s until today, focusing on the evolution of late-night programmes, but also on its influence on night-time listeners. While the radio professional working the night shift could use a freer tone, people listening to radio during dark hours tended to be more available, more alone, and less distracted by external demands. At a time conducive to imagination and solitude, late-night broadcasts used to provide listeners with a reassuring voice, that seemed to speak only to them. This paper relies on a various range of sources: sound archives, but also several kind of written (radio producer documents, letters from listeners, newspapers...) and oral sources, interviews with radio professionals.
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Accepted 2023-11-22
Published 2023-12-21
