French Radio Project

In 1938, Louisiana State University organized the French Radio Project, the first serious coordinated attempt to broadcast in French to the rural people of south Louisiana. The effort was not merely nostalgic. LSU was a land-grant university, and its Extension Division already understood radio as a practical tool for reaching farmers, homemakers, and scattered communities. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the university hoped to deliver agricultural advice and other educational material to listeners whose daily language was still French.

From The Acadian Tribune, Rayne Louisiana, Feb 17, 1939

The project also contained a tension that would reappear throughout the history of Cajun radio. Its stated goal was to “perpetuate and improve” French in Louisiana. The first word suggested preservation, a respect for the language as people actually spoke it in kitchens, fields, and small-town stores. The second word suggested correction, as if the local dialect had to be lifted toward a more proper standard. That unresolved conflict helped doom the project.

The broadcasts aired from September 1938 to May 1939, twenty-five programs in all, each fifteen minutes long. The shows centered on the fictional farm life of Nonc Phillip and Tante Alice, along with their son Joe, a neighbor, and a parish farm agent. Through these characters, LSU slipped lessons on corn, cotton, canning vegetables, insects, and even the preservation of French into familiar domestic scenes.

From Ville Platte Gazette, Jan 28, 1939

The programs were recorded at WJBO Baton Rouge and also aired over KVOL Lafayette, KPLC Lake Charles, and WDSU New Orleans, stations chosen because they could reach the southern part of the state where French influence was strongest. Linguist Harley Smith wanted the broadcasts to use Cajun French, rich with idioms and local speech. Louise Olivier preferred a more refined version. Smith resigned, and a simplified standard French won out. What began as a radio bridge to ordinary French-speaking Louisianans became, in the end, a lesson in how difficult it was to decide who had the authority to speak for them.

Michael Krysko has a GREAT chapter on the French Radio Project, Contested Airwaves. My book also has good info, but I want to give credit where credit is due!