In 1960, a new service was created within the French public broadcasting service, the Service de la recherche (Research service). The structure was in fact not entirely new since it was largely the product of the merging and expansion of two existing structures: the Club d’essai (test club) and the Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM, musical research group). The head of the new structure was none other but the founder of these two bodies, Pierre Schaeffer.

A multitalented character, Pierre Schaeffer is worldwide known for his seminal contribution to concrete music (a denomination he eventually rejected) but he was also a great administrator and an engineer. From 1964 to its disappearance in 1974 in connection with the split up of the public broadcasting office (ORTF), the Service de la recherche produced programs fitting the ORTF motto: to inform, educate, and entertain. The “Research Magazine”, better known as Un certain regard series, was one of the most important space for exposure of science on television in the late sixties and early seventies.

My talk will focus on some characteristics of the Service and its members that help explain how, why and which sciences were presented in the Service’s production.