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Lorraine cœur d’acier, an activist radio station owned by the CGT union, was created in Longwy in March 1979 in order to support the mobilization of the steel workers. Based in a single-industry region that was a stronghold of the CGT union and the French Communist Party, the existence of this radio station drew attention to the relationship between workers and intellectuals in the context of a common political activism. This paper illustrates the gradual loss of control of the working class component during this broadcasting experience, in terms of programming and general orientation. The specifics of this process have to do with the ambivalent representations and positions that emerged on both sides of the activist workers/activist intellectuals pairing. This ambivalence must be interpreted through the lens of the crisis of the working class, which underscores the necessity of an exit out of the working class, and of the reputation of the journalists as ‘class defectors.’ In this context, the respective legitimation repertoires of workers and journalists seem to be in competition rather than complementary.