Unexpurgated FM

Don’t touch that dial – not because you like what’s on, it’s just that it’s the same on every other French commercial radio station. Ok – that’s not entirely true. There are some good news based stations and if accordion hits and obscure classical music - interspersed with monotone chat - is your thing, then happy listening awaits;

Perhaps you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard ‘Summer lovin’’ in French accented English – especially when it ‘appened sooo fast – but if your young children are in the car, you could probably do without unedited Katy Perry and Pink hits (if you don’t remember or are over 40, think ‘f*** you’ in a breathless middle C as the principal part of the chorus). 

But then, this is the country that brought you Serge Gainsbourg  - who with ‘Je t’aime’ put sex on your radio years ago - so a few expletives here and there aren’t worth working up a sweat over. The other anglo American import - adopted by virtually every breakfast show - is the zoo format, ie. two alpha males (one a bit less alpha than the other) and the weather / horoscope / occasional news girl, all of whom babble endlessly and laugh at each others jokes.  Virgin FM is actually quite good, but suffers from the same limited playlist as the other stations – absolutely fine for goldfish, but it pretty soon feels like Groundhog day for everyone else.

So next time you hear someone complain about the BBC, tape a days worth of your local station and send it to them. In the meantime, stuff as many CDs as you can into your car. You’ll be glad you did.