In 1932, a television broadcast launches the powerful new Poste Parisien

In April 1932, Poste Parisien took a major step forward. The radio station of Le Petit Parisien moved into new studios on the Champs-Élysées and brought into service a transmitter ten times more powerful. The official inauguration was a strong display of prestige, notably attended by the President of the Republic, Paul Doumer (who was assassinated a few days later), and Marshal Pétain. Poste Parisien now reached a large part of France and established itself as a national-scale broadcaster. But its ambitions went much further.

Before detailing all the changes that made Poste Parisien the challenger to its private competitor Radio-Paris, let us take a closer look at one part of that inaugural evening. It largely went unnoticed, yet it already demonstrated the willingness of private stations to invest in a new medium: television. Technically, it was still in its infancy, but progress was significant, thanks in particular to the work of the French engineer René Barthélemy. Although it would take until 1935 to see the first images of Radiovision-PTT, experiments were multiplying in 1932 Radio-Lyon, Radio-Normandie, Radio-Vitus (with the PTT), and even the Galeries Lafayette.

During the inaugural gala evening held on April 25 at the new studios and then at the Cercle Interallié, the audience could witness a television demonstration. On a screen appeared, for a few minutes, a young woman broadcasting live from studios set up at the Compagnie des Compteurs factory in Montrouge.

This was where new television technologies were being tested. The demonstration gave the audience a chance to hear a few words of welcome spoken by a charming collaborator of the Société des Compteurs Français who, to conceal her nervousness, powdered her face and lit a cigarette, which she smoked with delight, noted Le Petit Parisien.

Anticipating future developments, Poste Parisien had installed in the cable linking its new Champs-Élysées studio a circuit for the transmission of very high frequencies used in radiovision. This is the first time that a line with special characteristics has been established for this type of broadcast, reported the Revue du génie civil. However, these ambitions ultimately went no further, as the State did not allow private radio stations to pursue developments in this field.

A new, stronger company

To support all these developments, the station needed a new structure. On October 25, 1929, a new company was created to manage the private station: the Compagnie générale d énergie électrique Poste Parisien. Its main shareholder was, of course, the company that owned the newspaper. It contributed the radio transmission station (TSF), currently installed in Paris at 18 rue d Enghien, together with all its equipment, as stated in the statutes; the audience and advertiser base of said station; its news services; its technical, artistic, and administrative organization; and the benefit of all agreements, contracts, and commitments entered into by the contributing company in connection with its broadcasting installation.

A new name dropping Petit

The Poste du Petit Parisien had borne the newspaper s name since its first broadcasts in March 1924. It was renamed Poste Parisien shortly after the creation of the new company. The change became effective on December 22, 1929, according to the program listings published by Le Petit Parisien.

A very powerful new transmitter

The new company quickly began looking for a site. It was not alone: several private stations were seeking to leave the capital in order to broadcast more effectively. In mid-November 1930, the State authorized two private stations to install their antennas outside the Paris metropolitan area. Radio-Paris chose Les Essarts-le-Roi, while Poste Parisien selected Les Molières in the Chevreuse Valley.

An initial site at Fontainebleau was rejected due to the forest, which might have interfered with signal propagation. Chartres and Corbeil were also considered, but the final choice fell on a plot along the road from Chartres to Limours, on a plateau rising to 175 meters above sea level, about 30 km from the Paris studios.

The transmitting station is housed in a central building designed by the architects Antoine and Benjamin, surrounded by staff housing, a workshop, and a garage. This building contains, on the ground floor, auxiliary services (power control panel, batteries, converter units and transformers, pumps), and on the first floor, high-frequency equipment, the control console, and the rectifier, described the Revue du génie civil.

And the antenna ? It is of the T-type, its shape calculated to minimize fading. The horizontal section consists of three 50-meter wires. From its center descends a vertical line 110 meters high. The two guyed metal masts supporting the antenna are of the SFR type. They are set 180 meters apart and rise to a height of 120 meters.

Testing began on March 5, 1932, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Feedback was massive, reflecting the station s new power. The station received letters from very distant listeners some as far as Arkhangelsk in northern Russia who had tuned in at 328.2 meters (914 kHz).

New, highly modern studios

On the third floor of 116 bis Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Poste Parisien now had some of the most modern studios of the time. The Champs-Élysées studios are designed according to the plans of architect Chatelan, following the latest advances in acoustics, boasted Le Petit Parisien. They included a large hall of nearly 200 square meters with a height of 6 meters for orchestral concerts, as well as two smaller rooms for chamber music and lectures. Listening and technical control rooms, an artists lounge, and offices completed the complex, which was designed to allow continuous broadcasting from 7 a.m. to midnight.