Joël Le Bigot, Paul Houde, Pierre Bruneau, Denis Lévesque, Michel Lacombe, Denis Gagné, Pierre Therrien, Jacques Fabi… In my 30-year career in the media, this is the first time that I have attended such a large number of departures and changes in such a short period. And then, it must be said, it is obvious: this movement mainly affects men in their sixties and seventies.
Posted at 7:15 a.m.
This change of guard out of the ordinary is explained by various reasons. First, we must take into account the context, that of the pandemic. In the spring of 2020 and 2021, the bosses made little change to their timetables and the composition of their teams. Now was not the time to do it.
But this pandemic has also given them the opportunity to reflect on the future of the media they run. Now that things are looking up, they take action.
This troubled period also allowed certain radio and television artisans to do some introspection to better foresee the coming years. Do not believe that all these departures are solely the will of the bosses.
In short, some animators have relied on the song by Charles Aznavour (he who ironically clung to the stage until his death) in which he says that “you have to know how to leave the table”.
That said, you have to be naive not to understand that if the media push their veterans out, it’s also to “refresh” their image and create greater diversity.
This practice is far from new. Since I have practiced this profession, I have tirelessly seen colleagues leave this job which is difficult to tear oneself away from, because it is made up of passion, excitement and this hard drug that is the attention of the public.
Periodically, we witness waves of departures to “refresh”, to “renew”, to “rejuvenate”. These operations are both cruel and natural.
But can we talk for a moment about balance and blending? On ICI Première, the vast majority of headliners are now in their forties or fifties. The oldest are now Michel Désautels, Alain Gravel, René Homier-Roy and Franco Nuovo. There is an interesting and desirable balance here, I think.
And can we talk about relevance? In the media, like everywhere else, you can be relevant at 72 and not at 38. This is also what the bosses have to look at.
And then there is the cultural baggage. Everyone has their share of culture, experience, curiosity and talent. It’s not a question of age. But between a mature and knowledgeable host and a young columnist who reads me a press release, I will definitely prefer the former.
When I started doing radio in the early 1990s, the legendary Henri Bergeron came coach beginners in regional stations. He listened to the columnists and hosts on the air and then shared his impressions. While appreciating this veteran’s advice, I wondered if he was happy to take on this role after years of glory.
A career in the media world is often a roller coaster. Each course is unique. Sometimes the glory is in the beginning, sometimes it’s halfway through. Sometimes it even comes back when we thought it had disappeared.
The job of an animator is absolutely exhilarating. But it is based on performance and image. Your ratings are no longer good? Ciao, bye! Are you ringing my uncle on the air? Ciao, bye! Are your wrinkles starting to show too much? Ciao, bye!
These many departures which announce a major wave of change in the fall strike the imagination because, it is well known, the media like to talk about the media. And also because radio and TV personalities are part of the public’s daily life.
Knowing how to “leave the table” is difficult for everyone, whether you are an accountant, a lawyer, a teacher or a doctor. But at a time when we are experiencing a severe labor shortage and the “old” are becoming less and less old, the media world is one of the rare sectors which dares to afford the luxury of rejuvenation.
We fight against stereotypes of all kinds and the diktat of smooth skin. All this to achieve what? To advocate rejuvenation at all costs. Isn’t there a contradiction here? We keep repeating that we have to refresh… because we have to refresh. The problem is that we don’t always know why we do it.
Like many of you, I stopped wondering about the reasons for this obsession. I tell myself that we have to refresh, because it allows us to discover new talents, new ideas, new faces.
But I would like someone to explain something to me.
We recruit young faces who are 30, 40 or 50 years old. And what is the first thing we do? We bring them to a studio to photograph them. We make them up and we photoshop excessively so much so that it is difficult to recognize them on the signs along the highways.
It has become that we rejuvenate those who symbolize rejuvenation… It borders on neurosis, don’t you think?
We are constantly told that we live longer. We should also be told that we are young for less and less time. It would be fairer.
So we close the shop where we photoshop ? There is the question !