6 July 2026

French colonies

Explore the history of radio broadcasting in the French colonies through a collection of articles dedicated to the development of radio across the former French Empire. From Algeria and Indochina to Madagascar and Vietnam, radio played a central role in communication, information, propaganda, culture and political influence throughout the twentieth century. This category highlights the origins of colonial broadcasting with historical features on iconic stations such as Radio Saigon, Radio Tananarive and Radio Sindex in Haiphong, considered the first radio station in French Indochina. Discover how French colonial radio networks expanded across overseas territories and became strategic tools during periods of war, political transition and decolonization. The articles also explore major historical moments including the reorganization of radio in postwar Algeria, the return of broadcasts in Saigon after World War II and the evolution of radio stations in Vietnam before the end of French presence in the region. These stories provide valuable insight into the role of French-language broadcasting in colonial societies and the development of media infrastructure overseas.

“Les radios” refers not to the medium in general, but to individual stations, the specific broadcasters, voices and frequencies that populated the airwaves in radio’s formative decades.

“Au temps de” means “in the time of” or “in the age of”, a phrase with a distinctly nostalgic, almost romantic flavour in French. It evokes a lost era, a world that was, rather than a simple historical period.

“La TSF” Télégraphie Sans Fil, literally “wireless telegraphy”, was the word ordinary French people used for radio throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s, long before “la radio” became the common term. Crucially, it carries enormous emotional weight: it conjures the crackling family receiver in the living room, the amateur enthusiast building his own set from spare parts, the Resistance operator tapping out morse code in an attic. For anyone with a passion for broadcast history, TSF is not a technical term, it’s a time machine.

So the title really means something closer to: “Radio stations from the golden age of wireless”, a deliberate, affectionate nod to the era when broadcasting was still young, still miraculous, and the act of pulling a human voice out of thin air felt like nothing short of magic.