OUI FM ROCK 70's runs a continuous stream of 1970s rock anthems and deep cuts, but the network behind it started life as something completely different: a radio station run by the French anti-racism association SOS Racisme. Nearly forty years and several owners later, that same station now brands itself simply as "La Radio du Rock," and ROCK 70's is one of its dedicated genre channels.
From an Association's Radio to an Independent Station
OUI FM first hit the airwaves in Paris in autumn 1986, emerging out of Ça Bouge Dans Ma Tête, a station operated by SOS Racisme, after a falling out with the association, according to the station's French Wikipedia entry. Five people carried the station forward under its new name, Pierre Raiman, Philippe Mazière, Bertrand Jullien, Éric Mettout and Agnès Bonnet, building it around an underground, rock-first identity mixed with coverage of literature, cinema and photography.
Comedy Duo Kad et Olivier Got Their Start Here
Polygram bought the station in 1991, and under director Bruno Delport it moved from a fully automated playlist system to live hosts, a shift that brought in Maurice and the duo Kad et Olivier, who built their now-famous "Rock'n Roll Circus" show on OUI FM before either performer became a household name in French comedy and film. It is an unusual footnote for a rock station, launching two of France's best-known comedians years before their television careers took off.
Passed From Virgin to a TV Star to a Businessman
The station's ownership kept shifting after that. Virgin took a stake through its Polygram holdings in 1997, and briefly rebranded under the Virgin Radio name in 2006 before Richard Branson sold the property once Lagardère acquired the Virgin Radio trademark for a competing station. French TV personality Arthur bought OUI FM in December 2008 through his AWPG holding company for around five million euros, running it for over a decade until businessman Jean-Éric Valli's Groupe 1981 took over in April 2019, a sale the French broadcasting regulator formally authorized that same month.
One Genre, Many Channels
Today's OUI FM operates as a full rock media brand rather than a single signal, running specialized web radio channels like ROCK 70's alongside Classic Rock, Rock Indé and Alternatif streams, each narrowing the station's core identity down to a specific era or subgenre. ROCK 70's takes that mission back to the decade the station's original underground spirit drew from most directly, running anthem-heavy tracks and deeper catalog cuts from rock's arena-filling golden age.
A Rock Identity That Survived Every Owner
What is notable about OUI FM's history is not really any single owner, it is that the rock format survived intact through an association falling-out, a Polygram buyout, a Virgin rebrand, a TV star's decade in charge and a businessman's takeover. ROCK 70's exists today because that identity never got diluted along the way, a channel built on the same underground rock instinct the station launched with back in 1986.