Radio BALLADE: live radio fra Espéraza

Veeent...

Tørrer støvet af nålen…

Radio BALLADE

Rural France, no easy listening.

Mountain-valley radio with a metropolitan record bag.

It has been on air from Espéraza, in the Haute-Vallée de l'Aude, since 1981 — earlier, by its own reckoning — under the Association Communication Montagne, and has taken no advertising in any of those years. Thirty-odd volunteers hold the microphones, some live in the studio, some recording at home and sending it in; a small board sits above them and a couple of staff handle the day-to-day. The signal covers Limoux, Quillan, Couiza and the Razès on 101.8 and 106.

The playlist is whatever those presenters have turned up that week — jazz next to metal, reggae next to electro, blues, punk, rap and records from a long way outside the valley. As a Férarock member it also carries the federation's picks of emerging French-language artists. Outside broadcasts come from the organic fair at Couiza, the Abracadagrasses at Lagrasse and the Convivencia festival.

Mere som denne

FranceNantes

SUN - Le Son Unique

The pirates who went legal.

FranceGranville

Radio 50/50

Camembert with a sound system.

United StatesHouston

KTRU 96.1 FM

They bought the frequency, not us.

FranceLangres

Radio Rempart

One man's taste, no committee.

FranceParis

Éclectique Radio

Shuffle, with a person behind it.

SpainA Coruña

CUAC FM

No proposal has been refused.

GermanyCologne

674FM

The afterparty has a schedule.

South AfricaPretoria

The Grind Radio

Ten residents, no playlist.

BelgiumBrussels

Kiosk Radio

No following required to belong.

French GuianaKourou

Radio Péka

No format ever took hold.

United KingdomLondon

Aaja Radio: CH1

Sound system first, decor later.

United KingdomLondon

Aaja Radio: CH2

Neighbours with the aux cord.

GermanyDüsseldorf

Callshop Radio (Düsseldorf)

Local scenes, long-distance call.

United KingdomEdinburgh

EHFM

No gatekeepers, just neighbours.

FranceParis

Rinse France

Less London than it looks.

FranceParis

Prose

A record shop that plays itself.

United StatesNew York City

The Lot Radio

New York, mixed in public.

NetherlandsEindhoven

RARARADIO

Disorder, neatly timetabled.

AustriaVienna

Callshop Radio (Vienna)

The third phone in the shop.

AustriaVienna

Radio Rudina

Run on friendship, not formats.

Espéraza, France

Radio BALLADE

Rural France, no easy listening.

Mountain-valley radio with a metropolitan record bag.

It has been on air from Espéraza, in the Haute-Vallée de l'Aude, since 1981 — earlier, by its own reckoning — under the Association Communication Montagne, and has taken no advertising in any of those years. Thirty-odd volunteers hold the microphones, some live in the studio, some recording at home and sending it in; a small board sits above them and a couple of staff handle the day-to-day. The signal covers Limoux, Quillan, Couiza and the Razès on 101.8 and 106.

The playlist is whatever those presenters have turned up that week — jazz next to metal, reggae next to electro, blues, punk, rap and records from a long way outside the valley. As a Férarock member it also carries the federation's picks of emerging French-language artists. Outside broadcasts come from the organic fair at Couiza, the Abracadagrasses at Lagrasse and the Convivencia festival.