At 3:20 p.m., a red dot lights up on the screen of Charles Daudon, a presenter at Radio Vinci Autoroutes. Three minutes later, drivers near Laval already knew what he did: a fire had broken out near a vehicle in a ditch at exit 3 of the A80 highway, with smoke in the area and firefighters on their way.
That sequence is part of the well oiled machine behind summer holiday weekends on French highways. Behind the voices announcing traffic jams and accidents is a newsroom that never stops.
Drivers on highways within the Paris, Nantes and Bordeaux triangle who tune to 107.7 FM are hearing content produced in Nanterre, at one of the headquarters buildings of the company Vinci. The radio station has two other studios, in Vedene near Avignon and in Mandelieu near Cannes, each covering part of the 4,400 kilometer Vinci Autoroutes network.
Benoit Salliot, editor in chief of Radio Vinci Autoroutes, said the station's first mission is to report every potential danger brought to its attention, and its second is to guide listeners as well as possible with practical information.
Local reporting that complements GPS apps
The station runs editorial segments, general news bulletins and reports on highway rest stops or partner businesses. On the day of this report, that included a segment on the Futuroscope water park. But listeners tune in above all for traffic updates, which are scheduled roughly every fifteen minutes and supplemented by shorter updates whenever news requires it.
In the studio, software centralizes real time reports from highway control centers. Daudon compared it to a wire service for traffic, showing incoming information and a map of incidents, including a three vehicle accident in Charente-Maritime and a 45 minute jam stretching seven kilometers.
Within seconds, that information becomes a direction for drivers: take exit 35, follow the departmental road, then rejoin the A10 near Pons. According to the station, that level of detail sets it apart from navigation apps. Salliot said the team can determine how many vehicles are involved, whether emergency services are on site, and whether an accident has just happened or is close to being cleared.
Behind the scenes of a holiday radio station
Precision is an obsession in the studio. Daudon said the job requires being everywhere at once and not getting caught off guard. Between an accident on the A10, a vehicle fire on the A11 and storms near Poitiers, the work can turn urgent. The studio's rule is a maximum of four minutes between receiving information and announcing it on air, so music is sometimes interrupted without warning. Radio Vinci Autoroutes can even cut into other programs if a listener's car radio has the TA, or Traffic Announcement, function activated.
During the July and August rush, the station runs both of its Nanterre studios at once, splitting coverage of the west and central zones, and sends reporters out by car into traffic jams. On the busiest days for holiday traffic changeovers, teams watch driver behavior live through highway cameras at the Saint-Arnoux toll in the Ile-de-France region.
Salliot said one of the most satisfying parts of the job is telling listeners, for example, that the left lanes have fewer cars, then watching traffic rebalance a few minutes later.
Among the messages the team receives, some listeners say they have listened to 107.7 since they were very young. The presenters' reassuring voices carry the feel of setting off on holiday, even when they are announcing traffic jams.
