Normand Brathwaite was on the CKOI station on Thursday to announce that he will be back on the morning show starting August 21.
What there is to know
Normand Brathwaite will be guest co-host on Monday at Comedians stand up.
He will join the new daily nucleus formed by Valérie Roberts, Martin Cloutier and Étienne Marcoux. It will be an arrival at the microphone for the latter and a departure for Tammy Verge and Billy Tellier.
On Wednesday, Dominic Paquet will be on the air as guest presenter, then Sarah Dufour on Friday.
On April 6, Normand Brathwaite recounted memories of Yé too early To Stand up comedians. “It was after the gentleman with the beard asked me if I wanted to do radio again. »
The “gentleman with the beard” is Christian Viau, director of programming at 96.9 CKOI, who is in his office as we chat with Normand Brathwaite after he announced his return to FM. . Not as morning man full time, but on a weekly basis.
“I wanted to start doing radio again and this formula works for me, argues Normand Brathwaite. In addition, I made my star and asked to be at the hotel, because I live in Saint-Paul-d’Abbotsford and I calculated that to be here at 5 a.m., I had to leave at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. »
It was natural for Brathwaite to return to the station where he hosted the legendary show Yé too early from 1990 to 2006, then quite a comeback from 2009 to 2011.
There was nevertheless a dark time when he was a morning host from Monday to Friday before recording Hot pepperand where he could have a very bad temper if he was woken up from a nap.
Getting up at dawn only once a week on Monday suits him very well, especially since he multiplies his commitments. Let’s quote the show Zeniththe play Sainte-Marie-la-Maudernethe emission beautiful and bum (who returns for the 21e year with three new co-hosts), not to mention filming the children’s show Drazilion on Télé-Québec.
Is it therefore a return to youth fiction in addition to that on the radio? Well almost… “ Pumpkin Pop wasn’t really a kids show neither The ingenious Don Quixote. They were shows written by drugged adults for teenagers. »
“I think this will be my biggest year to date,” says the grandfather of two grandchildren more seriously. I have fun in everything I do. »
“The party is more difficult to fit into the schedule, but I no longer have any friends and I live in the woods,” he continues as a comedian who knows how to laugh at himself so well.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
“I don’t like getting up in the morning, except when I’m having fun. And it’s good for me that it’s once a week! said Dominic Paquet, who, rest assured, will be in the next season ofSee you next week on ICI Première.
Natural and free radio
After 30 minutes of interview, we have to admit that it’s still so entertaining to interview Normand Brathwaite because he has so much self-mockery and a nice drooling character. Whether he speaks of his “completely blurred” years, of his voice “even more radiophonic” than that of Jean-René Dufort (with whom he had disagreements) or of the time when he was still in his car when the musical theme of Yé too early was beginning.
When we started, it was quite rudimentary and I had never done radio.
Norman Brathwaite
The rival station CKMF even had a contest to find out in how many days he was going to be fired. “Someone said 33 days, but people started listening to CKOI like a freak show it’s all wrong,” he says.
Normand Brathwaite then co-hosted with Joane Prince (now presenter of the radio news). “I was doing things that weren’t being done,” says the man who quickly realized that he wasn’t made to read the words written on a sheet in front of him literally (and who learned the hard way that the name of the group INKS was not pronounced like the word ink in the plural in English).
“Then came the bébitte to François Pérusse, continues Normand Brathwaite. We started trying deals with Christian Tétreault in sports and Mike Bossy. »
The spontaneous “all wrong” that Brathwaite talks about is what audiences loved…and asked for again.
The show became popular by accident.
Norman Brathwaite
“It was real and natural. They created a format,” emphasizes Étienne Marcoux, who listened Yé too early on the school bus, and who will be on the microphone of Stand up comedians every day in addition to continuing to be an author.
“My mentor is Suzanne Lévesque,” says Normand Brathwaite, quoting the name of the show’s host. Touch all which lasted more than 20 years on the airwaves of CKAC.
Hilarious memories
For a long time, the CKOI station was located on rue Gordon, in Verdun (it is at Place Bonaventure today under the ownership of Cogeco). The place didn’t look like much. Normand Brathwaite remembers a little beast that had slipped inside. “I thought it was Michel Girouard’s dog, but it was a rat. »
Normand Brathwaite then launched a contest on the air to find him a name.
“Dan Big-Rat,” suggested the one who won a trip to the South.
If this had earned him a disgruntled call from his boss at the time (former minister Pierre Arcand), Normand Brathwaite is still laughing out loud today.
U.S. too.