Radio host Paul Arcand presents the latest edition of his morning show on Friday morning Since you have to get up on the airwaves of 98.5 FM in Montreal.
The “king of the airwaves” is leaving daily entertainment after 34 years at the helm of a morning show, including 20 years at 98.5.
However, even though he’s hosted the show for over three decades, he’s not the one in the driver’s seat on Friday. Rather, it is the sports columnist Alain Crête, who is also on his last show, who pilots the episode.
From the first minutes of the show, around 5:30 a.m., Paul Arcand wanted to make things clear: “I haven’t changed my mind, it’s the last one,” he said. he decided.
When Alain Crête asked him what his first impressions were at the start of the latest show, Paul Arcand was humorous.
“I would like to ask the Montreal fire department to let us finish the show. We respect the capacity rules, we have no marquee, so please, everything is under control and everything is happening according to the rules,” he mentioned, referring to a subject that marked his last week of entertainment, namely the closure of the terraces of certain restaurants during the weekend of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
More seriously, he added: “Quite honestly, I don’t like it […] the kind of avalanche of tenderness and affection,” he mentioned, admitting that he would have preferred a normal show, with “a good interview going on.”
98.5 management has promised that Friday’s show will be filled with tributes, memories and a “plenty of surprises.” It is also recorded in front of an audience.
Even if he leaves daily entertainment, Paul Arcand is not retiring.
From next fall, he will collaborate with the daily The Presswhile continuing to offer its famous press review in the form of a podcast available on the 98.5 digital platforms.
It is the journalist and host Patrick Lagacé who will replace him at the helm of the 98.5 morning show at the start of the fall term. The show will be renamed Bored in the morning.