Journalists Isaure du Fretay and Jean-Pierre Gaillard. J-P starts talking at about 0:12
It took me a while to figure out why French radio authority figures sounded so different from American ones. The Americans, no matter their age, just sounded... younger somehow. One day I was listening to Radio France Info, as usual, and Jean-Pierre Gaillard came on with his emblématique "Jean-Pierre Gaillard: La Bourse" [the stock exchange]. His voice was deep and strong, somehow reassuring. Suddenly it hit me.
Smoking is the reason these people's voices sound different.*
Of course, there are still plenty of smokers in the U.S.A. But on the whole, the upper and media classes (what the Brits call "the chattering classes") are non-smoking, and the broadcast scratchy voice disappeared years ago when they quit.
*I have no idea if J-P smokes. My guess is he used to smoke a lot and has given up in the past few years-- he's not as scratchy as he used to be.
