After 17 years at the helm of the morning show of ICI Première de Québec, Claude Bernatchez is about to bow out. Another 29 shows before the seasoned host, loyal to Radio-Canada for 34 years, leaves his microphone to take on new challenges.
Bernatchez announced his decision on the air shortly after 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning in an emotional message to his audience. “On June 23, I will be hosting the show for the last time. First hour “, he began, quickly caught up with a sob.
Contrary to his habit, the man of words had prepared a text for the occasion. Another departure from tradition: long silences punctuated his announcement, a rarity in the studio on rue Saint-Jean.
The animator had been thinking for a few years about exploring new avenues – of “bouncing back towards a stimulating job, in his words, which will [lui] learn a little more about life, about the world. »
Claude Bernatchez leaves when the program he pilots remains unbeatable at the top of the ratings charts, collecting more than a quarter of the market share on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. The last nine Numéris surveys have devoted First hour at the head of the pack of radio morning shows in the capital.
He admits that after 17 years, the flame was beginning to flicker.
“Routine sets in occasionally,” Bernatchez said. I don’t want to become a jaded animator waiting for retirement to come. »
The passion was eroding, the body was getting tired too. “Waking up every morning at 3:30 a.m. which imposes a life of a monk on you, managing fatigue which has become a lifestyle, weekends which are never long enough to arrive fresh and ready for work on Monday morning… I I no longer want to ask my body to give a little more. I know he can do it, but I’m tired. »
Claude Bernatchez’s voice resonated on Radio-Canada in 1988, when he began his career in Edmonton. After a detour through Toronto, Montreal and Trois-Rivières, he returned to the fold in 2005, in the city of Quebec which saw him grow up.
Further details will follow.