The story begins on Christmas Eve 1921 on the airwaves of Radio Tour Eiffel. A small number of listeners pick up the signals using their “cat’s whisker” receivers. Since then, radio has never stopped changing, both on the technical front and in the programmes provided for listeners. The burning issue of the moment is the switch to digital radio.

In the 1930s, radio produced first-time achievements for its listeners on an almost daily basis. During World War Two, radio was suddenly transformed into a fighting weapon. After the war creation came into its own, with some transgressions of accepted standards, as radio became more popular with the population in general.

Today radio is one of the mass media, as a means of information, cultural communication and public debate.

Looking beyond all these changes, what is it that makes radio so powerful and appealing? Probably its qualities of immediacy and creativity, its ability to react quickly to world events, and the fact that pride of place is given to the spoken word.

By bringing together heritage collections and sound archives, the “Radio: Ears wide open” exhibition enables you to find out more about the people on both sides of the radio set: those who, since the 1920s, have made radio what it is today, and the radio listeners.


For more information (in French):
http://radio.arts-et-metiers.net/
The Rendez–Vous is the flagship event of the association. Organized every year by TV France International, the Rendez-Vous is a market strictly focused on French TV programs, giving the chance to foreign buyers to screen the best selection of the recent French TV offer; more than two-thirds of the presented programs are NEW and never been screened before to any other international market.


- the French productions are presented in the complete absence of all foreign competitors in a strategic time of the year: 1 month prior to the Mipcom.


In 2010, the 16th edition gathered nearly 200 foreign buyers and 60 French companies presenting some of 1250 programs.