A few minutes on the air and very few listeners for this first radio show which would mark the start of the media’s development, and also ensure the sustainability of the Iron Lady, which was not yet the undisputed emblem. from Paris. “Hello hello here military post of the Eifffel Tower“: these are the first words uttered from the top of the monument.
A few days before this premiere, a program, sent from the transmitter of Sainte-Assise, in Seine-et-Marne, to the hotel Lutetia, celebrated with great lyricism the birth of the radio. “These waves will fly up to you, and vibrate all modulated in harmony. This music will be the voice of our friend the fairy”, announces the very first voice heard in a post.
This astonishing marriage of the human voice, radio waves and the Electricity Fairy begins to equip households with galena stations. On Radio Tour Eiffel, we listen to the news, the weather forecast, the stock market price, sardines in oil, music, opera, songs … In 1923, the first spoken newspaper was created by Maurice Privat!
“We were on our way, only moved by faith, a sort of ideal, an unbridled belief in this new mystery.”
Georges Delamare, one of the radio pioneers
The Eiffel Tower will become the privileged place for radio and television transmitters, which in the process will put an end to the debates on its durability, explains Bertrand Lemoine, historian specializing in the Iron Lady: “We may have hesitated to keep it because it was a bit out of fashion. Having a large metal monument in the heart of Paris was something! Radio ensures its long-term existence.“
The tower was even raised in 1959 to hang more antennas: it is therefore 320 meters high, instead of its original 300 meters. Even today, it retains multiple uses in terms of radio communication. The media celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.
100 years ago, the first radio program was broadcast from the Eiffel Tower – Alain Gastal
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