RTS Couleur 3 is a Swiss French-language public radio station playing pop-rock, hip-hop, reggae and electronic music mixed with humorous columns and news, with no advertising. It broadcasts from Lausanne to French-speaking Switzerland, and you can hear it live on Radio Shuffle for free, from anywhere in the world.
What Couleur 3 Plays
According to French Wikipedia, the station specialises in pop-rock while also featuring hip-hop, reggae and electronic music, with humorous chronicles and information segments, and no adverts as part of public broadcasting. It is produced in Lausanne's Sallaz district and is available on DAB+, cable, satellite and the internet. Long-running shows named there include Les Métissages, on air since 1988, Les Bras Cassés for humour, Nayuno for hip-hop and Pili Pili for African music and culture. You can also follow the station on the RTS live player.
A Radio Born Against Competition
Couleur 3 began at noon on 24 February 1982, when Radio Suisse Romande launched a third channel under the leadership of Jean Charles, Jean-François Acker and Frank Musy, according to RTS's own archive programmes and its chronology. The SSR expected the FM band to open to private operators and decided to create a channel for young people before rivals arrived. It replaced a late-night show called Liste Noire, and the concept was a radio by and for young people, with lots of music shows, columns, sketches and above all a state of mind.
Rock, Humour and Reinvention
The station made a splash quickly, with early surveys showing it far ahead in its first months. Swissinfo's 20th anniversary feature describes its provocative, experimental style and how French pirate stations began targeting it by 1984. In the 1990s, trying to mix rock, hip-hop and electronic music all at once cost it listeners, and in January 2001 the channel refocused on pop-rock, keeping what its director called a certain rock spirit and an irreverent, analytical humour that made it an oddity in the Swiss and French-speaking radio landscape.
Why Listen Now
For French learners, Couleur 3 is a lively way to hear everyday Swiss French, slang and jokes, and for music lovers it is a public station that still plays with rules. The lake-side city of Lausanne, home to the studios, has long been the centre of French-language Swiss culture, and the station carries that youthful, cheeky energy far beyond its borders.
Listen to Couleur 3 Free on Radio Shuffle
Tune in to RTS Couleur 3 on Radio Shuffle. No account, no app, no fee. Press play and turn up the colour.