After 34 years of waking up before dawn, including 20 years at 98.5, Paul Arcand will leave the helm of Since you have to get up this Friday June 14. Tens of thousands of listeners are already destabilized. For months we have been anticipating the departure of our beloved host, who will retire from daily animation. We already had quite a scare last November when he was absent for a few weeks due to health problems. We had a glimpse of what awakening would be like without him…
Paul. MY Paul Arcand, like that of hordes of listeners. Because we communicate with him. While the ministers, officials and other spokespersons who deal with him every morning remain a little embarrassed, half-frightened, half-respectful, and give him some Mr. Arcand as big as your arm.
He is a star, whom everyone knows, an influential, yet discreet man. He doesn’t often leave his den, has hosted a few TV shows, but he avoids interviews and talk shows and is reserved about his private life. Which is rare.
Radio has become a media for stars, and morning shows are no exception.
In this sense, he knew how to preserve the essence, the particularity of these emissions. A voice meets a pair of ears.
A host speaks to thousands of listeners, but addresses ONE person at a time, whether they are a motorist stuck on the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, a parent already running, rushed by their routine in a kitchen in Terrebonne, or a trucker who is about to face the one-way streets of Montreal.
The early morning listener is special, very sensitive to these voices which accompany him in his vulnerability at the very beginning of the day. He is without armor, still soaked in the mists of sleep. Paul Arcand addresses an audience mainly from the 450, therefore very early on the road to work, valiant and stressed. His gruff presence sets the tone for his day, from Pointe-aux-Trembles to Mirabel, from La Prairie to Varennes. By not giving in to starification despite his status, Paul is a member of the family, one of us.
Not for nothing is he the king of the airwaves.
His style is direct, without fuss. Rough but not grumpy, he pulls us out of bed firmly, without sentimentality. He’s not Mr. Smile, but he’s friendly with his beloved team, sneering and lazy on Fridays with his sung parodies of current events. He follows up on his political guests, is pugnacious in his questions, bites when necessary, and knows how to stir up arguments. bullshit. We heard him reply: “That would surprise me” to a civil servant who had told him, trembling, after a tough interview: “That made me happy…”
With his close and relevant interviews, he made himself the voice of the citizen. We can say that he, in his own way, advanced democracy. His 6 a.m. press review set the table: it was his editorial of the day. With the political chronicle of Jean Lapierre and his successors, he set the political agenda.
His obsession with news items reflects what they have become: social facts that teach us about the social body.
I had the privilege of working with him. From 2009, for four years, I did the Bazzo-Dumont Commission. Paul had this rich idea of bringing together two commentators who were completely opposed to take a look at daily news. There were rich discussions on air, laughter with Mario and the management team, but above all, the joy of seeing Paul work from the inside. He will have had flair and will have invented what is today an essential debate format on morning shows. He was schooled.
When I told him in 2013 that I was going to host the morning show across the street, on Première Chaîne, he was super elegant. He knew he outrageously dominated the market, but sincerely wished me the best. We maintained contact. I still see him as a big radio brother, from whom I learned a lot. I have been a listener, a fan, a happy collaborator and a competitor who still admires him.
Arcand leaves in full glory. At the top of his game and his ratings. He is THE locomotive of 98.5, the one who brings in the cash and on which the architecture of the rest of the programming is based. It will not be an easy task to keep the train on such prosperous rails. Let’s wish Patrick Lagacé good luck.
A new era is beginning, in a context where talk radio is searching for itself.
These years, a whole generation is leaving, the generational divide is being felt, both in animation and in listening habits. The broadcasts are more and more niche, traditional radio is challenged by podcast shows. Humor triumphs everywhere, music radio is on the rise. We want peace between the two ears. It is becoming more difficult to make talk radio a consensual event.
Paul Arcand will close an era on Friday.
We will be able to listen to his podcast like a slightly nostalgic comforter. But never, EVER will this man be able to sleep in, as his being is so accustomed to getting up too early. He is condemned to see the sun rise.
Thanks, Paul. Respect.
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