Nostalgia Radio: France's Second Music Radio Station
The vintage trend and the revival of the 1970s and 1980s don't stop at the realm of fashion or decor. It also affects the world of music, as evidenced by the resurgence of Radio Nostalgie. We invite you to trace the history of this station, which was once deemed outdated but is now one of the most listened-to radios in France.
A station where nostalgia sells well.
Nostalgia (formerly known as Radio Nostalgia) is a French radio station owned by the NRJ Group.
This station is characterized by a programming mainly composed of Francophone artists. Riding on the nostalgia of past decades, it heavily features songs from the 1960s to the 1990s.
A radio born in the 1980s.
Nostalgia Radio was launched in Lyon in 1983. It was created by Pierre Alberti, who had founded another station called Radio Contact a few years earlier.
With the proceeds from the sale of that radio, he created Nostalgia, and many presenters and journalists from Radio Contact joined him in this new venture. The station originally targeted the 40-50 age group, with a programming that was 80% French.
Nostalgia Radio started developing a network as early as 1985 and reached Paris in 1986. At that time, RMC acquired a 35% stake in the Radio and eventually held a majority of the capital in 1989. Nostalgia then achieved a 5% cumulative audience share, with a younger target audience than at its inception.
An evolution from decline to renaissance.
In 1997, Western General acquired a 49% stake in the radio station. This station targets a younger audience by playing hits from the 1980s and entertainment shows hosted by famous presenters (Pierre Bellemare, Georges Beller, Lio), but it experiences a decline in its listenership.
When the RMC group was broken up, Radio Nostalgie was bought by NRJ, which still owns four national networks today: NRJ, Chérie FM, Rire et Chansons, and Nostalgie. The CSA then imposed conditions on the NRJ group to reduce this monopoly situation.
On this occasion, Nostalgie's programming underwent a radical change, prioritizing music and refocusing on hits from the 1960s and 1970s. The NRJ group, which already reaches young adults with Chérie FM, logically chose to target an older audience, and success followed. In just a few months, Nostalgie's audience ratings skyrocketed: while the best scores previously were around 6% cumulative audience, Nostalgie quickly surpassed 8%.
A success driven by the vintage wave.
Since the 2000s, a wave of nostalgia has swept through the French musical landscape: following the success of the tour featuring 60s artists called "Age tendre et tête de bois", a group of singers from the "Années 80" (80s) has performed successfully all over France.
Radio Nostalgie, which is a pioneer in this respect, rides the wave of the yéyé years, disco, and the 1980s and 1990s. The station, which plays the biggest hits from the 1960s to the 1990s, gained 400,000 new listeners in 2023. According to Médiamétrie data, it recorded a 6.2% cumulative audience share from April to June 2023, ranking ahead of Skyrock (5.8%) and RMC (5.6%).
In 2024, Nostalgie is the fifth most listened-to radio station by the French, behind France Inter (12.5% cumulative audience), RTL (9.5%), Franceinfo (8.8%), and NRJ (7.7%). It is even the second most popular music station in France, with more than 3.5 million loyal daily listeners. "Today, one can be trendy and say 'I love Nostalgie'," declared Xavier Laissus Pasqualini, the director of the station.
