Radio BALLADERadio BALLADE

It has been on air from Espéraza, in the Haute-Vallée de l'Aude, since 1981 — earlier, by its own reckoning — under the Association Communication Montagne, and has taken no advertising in any of those years. Thirty-odd volunteers hold the microphones, some live in the studio, some recording at home and sending it in; a small board sits above them and a couple of staff handle the day-to-day. The signal covers Limoux, Quillan, Couiza and the Razès on 101.8 and 106.

The playlist is whatever those presenters have turned up that week — jazz next to metal, reggae next to electro, blues, punk, rap and records from a long way outside the valley. As a Férarock member it also carries the federation's picks of emerging French-language artists. Outside broadcasts come from the organic fair at Couiza, the Abracadagrasses at Lagrasse and the Convivencia festival.