France Bleu Saint-Étienne Loire, sometimes referred to as France Bleu Saint-Étienne, is a generalist radio station broadcasting from Saint-Étienne.[1] It is the youngest of the France Bleu stations, beginning broadcasting on 9 September 2013. The local headquarters are in Saint-Étienne in the Manufacture Plaine Achille, near the studios of France 3.[2]
The creation of the station was announced in January 2013 by Phillippe Chaffanjon [fr] to fill a gap in network coverage.[3] The name of the station was announced on 5 April 2013.[4]
Soft launching without an announcement, it began broadcasting on 9 September 2013, as the 44th outpost of the network. Its creation was criticized by the union of Radio France employees as "a detriment to the other stations in the network".[5]
