Alexa Interviews French Radio London - The France Show 2018

Tutorial Transcript

Hello and welcome to the France show 2018. Today I have the honour to meet Pascal and I have a question for you, hello Pascal. Hello Alexa. So my question is: why are you here in the France show this year? So it is the third time, even the fourth time, that we are here. I founded a radio station for French people in London 8 years ago. And so we are here because the radio station has evolved not only to attract French people, the francophones, but also the francophiles, and there are a lot of francophiles. So it is the reason why we are at the France show, because, in fact, we are surrounded by francophiles. Absolutely. I have met many, in fact, and I would like to talk about your radio station and what content there is in the radio station. So what is it? Only music? Are there interviews? What is there? So, we are mostly a musical radio station, let’s compare it with RFM for example, ok? So there is 80% music, 20% of talk. And within the music it is 80% French music. There are popular songs, there are also some very popular anglo-saxon songs which are unmissable. And as for the ‘speak’ and ‘talk’ side, there are the news, chronicles and interviews, documentaries - there is a bit of everything. But all in French. It’s all in French? For example, the documentaries, what sort of documentaries? Where do you go? Do you travel? So one question, you are based in London in England? That’s right, we are based in London and there is a small team of five. So do we travel? No much, but it is true that we organise events. Last year, we organised a lot of comedy events. As well as musical events, so we did a bit of everything. We had Renaud come, we had Voulzy come, Souchon, Hubert-Félix Tiéfaine. Ooh la la, but there are lots… Vianney. And then, as for the comedy side We did… the guy from ‘Bref’, we had Pascal Légitimus come, Elie Semoun, etc. So we organise a lot of events in London. But, saying this, FRL (so French Radio London), which has been on for 8 years, has been sold to another company called French Morning. It is a company based in the United States and it’s working well in the United States. And they wish, well, they wished, as they have done it now, to settle in London. So this is what they did when buying us. Ok, what does this mean for your future, Pascal? You sold and you are no longer the owner of this radio station? Are you going to do something else? In fact, the answer is that it has been a while since I am no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the radio station. There is… there is Elizabeth who looks after the radio station. Me, I am a consultant so I work with the BBC quite a lot and with other companies that need my experience, so to speak, and for this, however, I travel, I travel quite a lot. A lot in Africa. For example, soon I will go to Palestine. To do some training. And so, well, there you go, and on a personal touch, I have another radio station in Paris so I go to Paris quite often to keep an eye on it. And so who knows? Maybe I will set up another radio station, I don’t know. I have been a radio man for 40 years… 30 years! I am not as old as this! And so there you are, so the idea of setting up a third channel, why not. No that’s super interesting. I am interested by the radio station in fact that you have set up in Paris. Can you talk to me about it a little bit? So the radio station in Paris. In fact it was born 2 years ago, so we are just starting. In fact, we realised that French people, and it is not to be mean that I am going to say this, but in fact French people are rubbish at speaking English. And for… for us, so we thought ‘hold on, here we are’ it is the opportunity to set up a radio station for the French people in Paris. We are going to talk about French things which interest the French people. What French people do, etc. All of this in English. Because when we learn a language, one must start with the ear. There you are, it is just a question to immerse in it in a first instance, so the radio station is free. And for those who wish to go further, there is the subscription side where we can go deeper in. To go and decrypt and better understand and listen again to the program that we do on this radio station over there which is called englishwaves.fr. Ok. I was just going to ask you what the name of the radio station was, very well, and well it was really lovely to meet you Pascal. And so that’s it. Good bye. The pleasure was mine. Good bye. The pleasure was mine. Bye, see you soon, kiss kiss.