Sud Radio

On 29 October 1951, ANDORRADIO S.A is constituted; it's owned 51% by Sofirad, with the aim to create a new radio station in Andorra; the station, eventually started broadcasting on 18 September 1958 and was named Andorradio.

On 29 March 1961 an agreement was signed allowing two stations to transmit from Andorra. The French radio, previously called Radio des Vallées d'Andorre (Radio of the Valleys of Andorra) became Sud Radio in 1966.

In March 1986, Sud Radio received permission to transmit on the French FM band. The following year, the group Laboratoires Pierre Fabre took control of Sud Radio along regional investors. In turn, the radio took a majority interest in 1990 to acquire one of the first local radio stations in France, previously held entirely by the professional football club Girondins de Bordeaux: Wit FM.

In 1994, Sud Radio expanded its broadcasting area, now covering 22 departments in the south of France. Revenues of the group passed the 100 million French francs in 1995. In 1997, the program of Sud Radio began broadcasting on the bouquet of Canal Satellite.

In 2001, the CSA assigned four new frequencies to Sud Radio in the regions Auvergne and Limousin (in Brive, Ussel, Mauriac and Puy-en-Velay).

In November 2005, the group Laboratoires Pierre Fabre sold Sud Radio to the holding Sudporter owned by the group Start, based in Orléans. A new grid was launched the following year along with a new logo, a new, more Top-40 Pop format and the slogan "Show & Info".[1][2]

In 2008, Sud Radio moved its studios to Labège near Toulouse and inaugurated a permanent correspondent in Marseille. A new transmitter allowed additional coverage in Marseille-Aix-en-Provence and made a potential audience of more than 1.3 million people.

In November 2010, the CSA allowed Sud Radio transmit in Clermont-Ferrand and Limoges. That same year, the Start group changed its name to become Sud Radio Groupe.

In January 2011, the CSA selected Sud Radio to transmit in Paris for the Parisian area and Ile de France region on the frequency 99.9 FM, and began broadcasting on August 10, 2011.

In spring 2012, after finding out and admitting his failure in the field of the private radio station, Jean-Eric Valli decided to sell Sud Radio. In November 2012 exclusive negotiations with Marc Laufer (former CEO of NextRadioTV) got underway for the acquisition of the station. His project called for Sud Radio's format to become a generalist business news radio station, similar to BFM Business.[3]

On 14 February 2013, however, Sud Radio Group announced that they ceased negotiations with Marc Laufer.[4]

Sud Radio broadcasts throughout 29 departments, which are in 7 regions which are Aquitaine, Auvergne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Île-de-France (since August 2011, as Sud Radio+, as the station does not broadcast geographically in the south of France), Midi-Pyrénées and the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.[7]

• Official website
• Full history of Sud Radio at SchooP.fr