ABSTRACT
The field of radio media in France has been regulated by a public policy of quotas for French-language songs since 1994. FM radio stations resulting from the freeing of the airwaves relatively quickly adopted the American model of rotating and structured playlists, the 'format', supposedly pleasing to listeners, more repetitive than vagabond in their fleeting pleasures and more coherent than eclectic in musical taste. Radio programming contributing to the spread of rock existed as early as the 1950s. The change of 'CSA formats' confirms the current development of music radio stations whose programming, established in the early 1990s as generalist to reach a wider target, is now leaning towards growing fragmentation in terms of target audience and musical genre. French radio has moved towards musical formatting, in other words, towards the specialization of radio stations in particular genres, this resulting in the current range of major musical genres.
