Paris-Mondial (later known as Voice of France) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

-government-owned

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

external service radio station that began broadcasting in 1937. After the

fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

, it continued broadcasting a domestic-only program.

Origins

Paris-Mondial first broadcast in 1937, targeting an international audience with multilingual programming. Its sign-on for its U.S.-directed broadcasts was "Hello, America!". A 1938 survey of French embassies reported that Paris-Mondial enjoyed a clear signal in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, though reception in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

was spotty.

Second World War

Following the

invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

in 1940, Paris-Mondial eliminated all non-English programming and began a non-stop schedule of broadcasts that included, ultimately fruitless, appeals for help by Frenchmen who had lived or worked in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. On June 9, 1940, the staff of Paris-Mondial abandoned their facilities in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and evacuated to a series of backup facilities, first in

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...

and, after that became untenable, to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. As of June 12, the monitoring centres of the U.S. networks

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

reported the station was continuing to transmit its "usual newscasts" and could still be picked up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. However, this routine soon gave way to "recordings of military marches and panicked appeals for guns, tanks, and planes". On June 14 the station went off-air, returning on June 15 with the sign-on "this is Paris-Mondial, broadcasting from somewhere in France". Programming became increasingly intermittent during the final days of the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...

. In its last hours, the station's broadcasts consisted almost exclusively of frantic

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

-format programs "begging for aid". After the fall of France, Paris-Mondial was rebranded by the government of the État Français as "the Voice of France" and aired a mixture of original programming and rebroadcasts of German radio, all internally directed (under the terms of the French surrender, international broadcasting was prohibited). When broadcasting German programming, Voice of France operated under the name "Y". From 1937 to 1944, the artistic director of Paris-Mondial / Voice of France was

Tony Aubin Tony Louis Alexandre Aubin (8 December 1907 – 21 September 1981) was a French composer. Career Aubin was born in Paris. From 1925 to 1930, he studied at the Paris Conservatory under Samuel Rousseau (composer), Samuel Rousseau (music theory), ...

References

{{reflist, 30em International broadcasters Radio stations in France France in World War II 1937 establishments in France Radio stations established in 1937 Radio stations disestablished in 1944 1944 disestablishments in France Defunct radio stations Defunct mass media in France

Origins

Second World War

See also

References