We forget – before we had the Internet and streaming radio, it was hard to find out what was happening with popular Culture in the rest of the world. Of course, when The Beatles arrived and the British invasion was going full-tilt, we started to become a little more aware of the world outside America, but it was still hit-or-miss. We did have those broadcasting organizations that helped fill the gap by offering bits and pieces of contemporary programs via Transcription services – programs packaged or made available to American radio stations who would then broadcast them, often in the middle of the night on a Sunday, but still giving us a glimpse of what we were missing out of. The BBC had a whole range of programs, including many which went along very nicely with The British Invasion and got huge audiences just by the nature of what they were offering.
The French, by way of the government-run ORTF (later RTF and Radio France) offered their own range of variety shows via transcription (discs or tapes sent to radio stations to air), offering a chance to know what was going on in Paris. For the French the American audience was a tougher nut to crack because of the language barrier and the policy that the majority of music from France had to be in French and the majority of artists didn’t sing in any other language than their own. So it was a harder sell.
But for those radio stations in America who were adventuresome and whose audiences were open and willing, listening to what was going on in Pop Culture in France was a fascinating experience.
The majority of programs coming from ORTF were of Classical Music, with very little offered in the way of Pop Music. But those that did, offered a whole new view of Popular musical genres we just weren’t familiar with before.
One of those programs, which were produced specifically for the English speaking audience was “Hey, What’s New?” – you can forgive the somewhat corny title and the creaky banter between songs, but you got to hear artists you had no idea existed. Some were recorded live but most were commercial recordings of hit songs of the day. This broadcast comes from the late 1972-early 1973 period (no exact dates, which is frustrating but sometimes clues help) and features several popular artists who were huge in France and the rest of Europe (Johnny Hallyday, for instance).
Fifteen minutes, once a week – a program which went from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. This was part of your musical education, if you were willing.
Have a seat and press Play – arrive at your own conclusions.
