Dramatic twist at 98.5 FM: MC Gilles is fired. Dave-Éric Ouellet, his real name, says that his contract was terminated following differences with Cogeco management regarding his place in the fall program. He also evokes a “conflict of personalities” with Patrick Lagacé.
In interview at Duty, MC Gilles recognizes that his relations with Cogeco have not been good since the start of the season. A column by Mario Girard, published two weeks ago in The Presshowever, would have soured their relations, which would have resulted in his dismissal.
In this text, we learned that MC Gilles was going to host a humorous program starting in the fall on Fridays in the early evening. However, nothing was confirmed at the time of publication, denounces the main person concerned.
“Cogeco decided to make this public while we were still negotiating. I took it as a way of confronting a fait accompli. In reality, there was no contract signed. I told them that the Friday evening time slot didn’t really appeal to me. We also did not agree on the tone that the show would take,” underlines the man whom the general public knew as a columnist for Infoman.
MC Gilles says he expressed his dissatisfaction to his bosses, which they would not have liked. “They called me into the office on Tuesday after the show. They told me I whined too much, and said they were offering me something not worse. That’s when they told me it was over,” he says.
At loggerheads with Patrick Lagacé
MC Gilles has been working with Cogeco for 19 years. He shared the microphone with Patrick Lagacé in the homecoming time slot for three years. The collaboration between the two men would end in June since Patrick Lagacé will take the helm of the morning show next fall.
“ [Patrick et moi], we had a big, big conflict at the start of the year. We had two months left on the air together. I thought we were going to make it through, but the bosses decided that there was no light at the end of the tunnel, it seems,” laments MC Gilles, less than 24 hours after learning that Cogeco was cutting ties with him.
This conflict with Patrick Lagacé is obviously not the main reason for his dismissal, recognizes MC Gilles, “but it is part of the whole work,” he says. Mr. Lagacé, for his part, indicated that he would not comment on the situation.
As first reported The Press, a note was sent to employees Wednesday morning to inform them that MC Gilles was no longer a contributor to 98.5 FM, which caused surprise within the station. “For professional reasons which remain internal, the association between Cogeco Media and MC Gilles ended yesterday, Tuesday April 9. He will not be replaced before the end of the current season. No further comments will be made,” Cogeco said in an email sent to Duty.
For its part, Radio-Canada confirmed that MC Gilles would continue to collaborate on Infoman and to Everybody talks about it.