Radio PFM: live radio from Arras

Hooold...

Dusting off the needle…

Radio PFM

Temporary, for forty-five years.

Punk, metal, dub and zouk from an Arras collective.

A collective of ecologists and far-left organisers in Arras put out an «émission 0» on 11 June 1981, the first pirate broadcast in the Pas-de-Calais, backing a candidate who was campaigning to break the state's grip on the FM band. They called it Radio Provisoire, meaning the word as a promise that the thing would outgrow its own beginnings, and it did — the association was declared in Arras that July, and Provisoire FM became PFM. It has never carried advertising, and around sixty volunteers present it.

Bazar à Zic is the long daytime block, with rap, reggae, soul, jazz, world, rock, electro and blues in one stretch. Evenings split by obsession: Ch'greuns takes punk and metal, Easy Rider garage, Faster Pussycat fifties rock'n'roll, Trou Noir rap and dub, Kabar Dready reggae and maloya, Absinthe the electronics, and Les Comptines du Forgeron gives metal a weekly show of its own, often with a band in the studio.

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Arras, France

Radio PFM

Temporary, for forty-five years.

Punk, metal, dub and zouk from an Arras collective.

A collective of ecologists and far-left organisers in Arras put out an «émission 0» on 11 June 1981, the first pirate broadcast in the Pas-de-Calais, backing a candidate who was campaigning to break the state's grip on the FM band. They called it Radio Provisoire, meaning the word as a promise that the thing would outgrow its own beginnings, and it did — the association was declared in Arras that July, and Provisoire FM became PFM. It has never carried advertising, and around sixty volunteers present it.

Bazar à Zic is the long daytime block, with rap, reggae, soul, jazz, world, rock, electro and blues in one stretch. Evenings split by obsession: Ch'greuns takes punk and metal, Easy Rider garage, Faster Pussycat fifties rock'n'roll, Trou Noir rap and dub, Kabar Dready reggae and maloya, Absinthe the electronics, and Les Comptines du Forgeron gives metal a weekly show of its own, often with a band in the studio.