100 years ago, on December 31, 1921, Toulouse discovered radio
On December 31, 1921, for the first time, we hear the radio in Toulouse. The signal from the Eiffel Tower is picked up at the Pérignon barracks. For the occasion, around thirty guests were gathered on this military site.
It was on December 31, 1921 that the people of Toulouse heard the radio for the first time. But it was not until 1925 that Radio Toulouse (private) and Toulouse Pyrénées (State) arrived.
As at the time it was the military who had the monopoly of transmissions, it is therefore at the Pérignon barracks that the signal from the Eiffel Tower will be picked up on December 31, 1921. For the occasion, it is a concert for the Parisians given from the Eiffel Tower on December 24, 1921 which will be broadcast.
“About thirty guests were gathered in the Pérignon barracks, around the telegraph sappers and their devices,” reports The Toulouse Dispatch (Editor’s note: the old name of La Dépêche du Midi). Among the privileged people of this scientific demonstration presented by MM. Paul Second, warden; Paul Feuga, mayor of Toulouse; Ramet, first president; Colonel Junca; Paul Sabatier, Dean of the Faculty of Science; Charles Camichel, director of the Electrotechnical Institute; Edouard Privat, president of the commercial court; Aimé Rune, director of the Conservatory; Mr. Domergue, deputy mayor; Delfort, Hérisson, Gaubert, etc. and the representatives of the Toulouse press ”, wrote our newspaper.
“The concert started at 4:30 pm. The artists were Mrs. Jane Morlay, of the Opéra-Comique, who sang the verses of “La Mascotte”; a melody by Reynaldo Hahn and two excerpts from “Carmen” and “Werther”. Félix Galipaux recited two monologues. Finally, a little after 5 pm, the Eiffel Tower post sent its best wishes to the listeners of all the telephone sets related to him, ”continued the journalist from The Toulouse Dispatch.
We can see the antenna of the time on the old photo and the Pérignon barracks which still remains, in 2021, a high place of transmissions in Toulouse. The large pylon which stands in the courtyard bears witness to this.