Long Wave
162 Khz France Inter
183 Khz Europe 1
216 Khz Radio Monte Carlo
234 Khz Radio-Television Luxembourg (RTL)
Medium Wave
864 Khz France Bleue
945 Khz France Info
France Inter is part of the state Radio France network, the equivalent of Radio 4, but for my money much more entertaining.
I have fellow students who swear by Europe 1 (one lives by a railway line, and it seems the trains in this country run on the same frequency as France Inter). If you have favourite programmes on Europe 1, please let us know about them.
Favourites on Inter (winter timetable, times G.M.T)
Saturdays
1220-1300 Rendez-vous avec X. Patrick Pesnot.
Little known or remakable events of modern history
Monday-Friday
0600-0800 Le 7-9
With the doyen of french radio broadcasting, Stéphane Paoli
1300-1330 2000 Ans d'Histoire
Patrice Gelinet. Half an hour of modern history
1600-1700 La bas si j'y suis
Daniel Merimet. According to my all-time favourite dictionary, TLFI,
Pop. (Va) voir là-bas si j'y suis. Et il la reprit, et il la serra, par bravade, lui écrasant sur la bouche ses moustaches rouges, continuant: Fiche-nous la paix, hein! Fais-nous le plaisir de voir là-bas si nous y sommes (ZOLA, Germinal, 1885, p. 1571).
So, an irreverent injunction to bog-off. Which is the programme, really. For all the raleurs of France, which is most of the population. Very gauchisant, many street interviews, hard to follow, well worth the effort of trying. Pure France.
1715-1800 Charivari.
Frédéric Bonnaud. Excellent, excellent, arts programme
1820-1900 Le téléphone sonne.
Alain Bedouet. I love this. Two or three experts and listeners phone in with their questions on current events. Yes, the listeners express their opinions, but the French like listening to experts, and the standard is so much higher than our wretched phone-ins.
All the programmes are additionally downloadable from the France Inter site, here.
Radio-Télévision Luxembourg
Ready for some listening practice? And a little history. Radio Luxembourg which figured on Medium-Wave radio dials during and after the war, is now incarnated as RTL - Radio-Télévision Luxembourg. Here is the Wikipedia article.
And their Chroniques are splendid. The take the trouble to transcribe quite long interviews. And it is a very nicely designed site. Plenty to keep us busy here.
France Info
France Inter doesn't do chroniques at the weekend, so you might want to try this. I find the France Info site cluttered, and the pieces tend to be short - many less than two minutes. But good listening practice. Some text. Start with À la une.
And just because we're proud of things British, here is a lovely little radio optimised for Long Wave reception by the Queen's favourite radio manufacter. You can listen to the cricket on it too.