France Musique

**France Musique** is French public radio station owned by Radio France. This station broadcasts classical music and jazz.

## History

**France Musique** was founded in 1954 on the idea of the poet Jean Tardieu, under the name of "musical program with frequency modulation". The programs are broadcast in frequency modulation and in stereophony, two techniques then new, the **RTF** seeking to encourage the listeners to equip themselves with stereophonic sets. Initially experimental, this program diffuses at the beginning every day from 19 to 23 hours and Saturday until midnight; then it manages to become a true station.

On February 4, 1959, he took the name **France IV Haute-Fidélité**, then became **RTF Haute Fidélité** on October 20, 1963 and **France Musique** on December 8 of the same year.

From this time on, the station experienced tensions on two subjects: the place on the air of music other than classic and the distribution of the air time between music and comments. These two themes motivate all the reforms carried out since the 1960s.

Thus in 1975, **Pierre Vozlinsky**, director of musical programs and services at Radio France, appointed **Louis Dandrel**, journalist to the **Monde**, as director of the station. The latter seeks to increase the audience of the radio by extending the programming to rock, jazz, varieties and non-European music. A third of the producers are discarded and replaced by a younger staff. The new grid takes office on October 4, 1975. The audience is progressing, but the "faithful" (for example, **Jean Dutourd**) and the press denounce the new orientation of the station. Soon, the relationship between **Volzinsky**, attached to a more traditional design of the station, and **Louis Dandrel** deteriorate. The latter resigned in 1977, followed by some fifty producers, while the radio put an end to the opening practiced.

In 1978, **Pierre Vozlinsky** gave a new impetus and called on **Denys Lémary**, who created ***Le Matin des Musiciens***, surrounded by **Dominique Jameux**, **Jean-Pierre Derrien**, **Olivier Bernager**, **Philippe Hersant** and **Jacques Merlet**. decisive to the rebirth of the old and baroque music. **René Koering**, **Alain Lacombe**, **Bernard Deutsch**, **Marcel Marnat**, **Claude Santelli**... The hearing is progressing clearly, but the contradiction between a radio that explains and a radio-tap is still not arbitrated by the powers. The intestine struggles in the musical world will lead to a waltz of the directors.

In 1982 the program again provoked protests: the time would be too long and too boring, the planned programming is not respected. Also the station tries to reduce the place of the speech on its waves.

The arrival of Radio Classique on the airwaves in 1983 prompted **France Musique** to broaden the range of music broadcast and to leave more room for comments (Radio Classique leaving little room for speech). But the private station is not slow to compete and then go beyond the public radio. In 1987, **France Musique** undergoes a new reform aimed at reducing once again the speaking time of the animators. On February 6, 1992, another reform was introduced, resulting in a reduction in the speakers' speaking time, which averaged 14 minutes per hour, and the adoption of a more lively tone. But the company of the producers of **France Musique** and the press are hostile to the new grid.

**Pierre Rousseau** renews the grid and the staff of **France Musique**, a policy that allows the channel to see its audience increase by 10% over the period 1993-1998 [ref. necessary], in a context already very marked by the competition of Radio Classique. Many of the young producers recruited under his direction are still active (**Lionel Esparza**, **François-Xavier Szymczak**, **Anne-Charlotte Rémond**, **Anne Montaron**, **Bruno Letort**, etc.). desired. Priority is then placed on the legibility of the grid, live music (each day a live show with artists of all disciplines), the memory recovered of great elders removed from the scene. New partnerships have been established between the **Paris Opera** and the **Paris Opera**, the **Aix-en-Provence Festival**, the **Paris Orchester**, several festivals such as **La Folle Journée in Nantes** and **Musique à l'Empéri**.

Named director in 1999, **Pierre Bouteiller** gave the station the name **France Musiques**.

The President of Radio France, **Jean-Marie Cavada**, asked him to host more live music, to reduce the share of musicological commentaries and to give more space to the information. The grid, launched in September 1999, is disappointing.

The station resumed its name of **France Musique** after the departure of Pierre Bouteiller in 2004.

In 2004, **Thierry Beauvert**, producer of programs at **France Musique** since the 1990s, becomes director of the station.

In 2008, **Jean-Paul Cluzel**, president and CEO of Radio France, appointed composer **Marc-Olivier Dupin** to head **France Musique**. Its first grid is marked by the departure of several emblematic producers of the station (**Alain Gerber**, **Jean-Michel Damian**, **Claude Carrière**, **Jean Delmas**, **Dominique Jameux**, **Philippe Carles**, **Georges Boyer**...). In February 2011, he resigned.

Deputy Director at the time of **Pierre Bouteiller**, he is secretary general of Radio France from 2004 to 2008.

He was appointed Deputy Director of **France Musique** in 2008, Deputy Director in 2010, Acting Director in February 2011, Director in June 2011

Former Deputy Director General in charge of programming Universcience, she is appointed to the head of the station by the President of Radio France, **Mathieu Gallet**, from 2 June 2014. She is seconded by **Pierre Charvet**, a collaborator of the station.

She dismisses several historical producers of the station (**Jean-Pierre Derrien**, **Xavier Prévost**, **David Jisse**, **Marc Dumont**, **François Hudry**, **Thierry Beauvert**, **Arièle Butaux**...) and sets up a grid that includes the arrivals of **Vincent Josse** as well as the emblematic issue of **Frédéric Lodéon Carrefour de Lodéon** of France Inter.

She left the management of the station in July 2015 and was entrusted with a "prefiguration mission aimed at creating a department responsible for the musical and cultural creation and programming of the **Maison de la Radio**.

In July 2015, **Marc Voinchet**, the presenter of the ***Matins de France Culture*** since September 2009 - who was deputy director of **France Musique** from 2007 to 2009 - was appointed director of the station.

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