We don’t call him the king of the waves out of sycophancy. Paul Arcand hosts the most listened to radio program in the country. Since you have to get up is the most popular radio show in Canada, all languages combined.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
It was at the height of his popularity, then, when no one doubted his relevance, that the king of the airwaves announced to his listeners on Thursday that he would give up his throne in two years, at the end of the agreement that links to 98.5 FM.
Those who know him do not seem unduly surprised by his decision. In 2024, Paul Arcand will be 64 years old. It will have been exactly 20 years at the helm of the morning show of 98.5 FM. From 5:30 a.m., “four and a half hours a day, five days a week, more than 40 weeks a year,” he reminded me recently in an interview, suggesting that he was ripe for a new challenge.
“I love radio, I think it’s a fantastic medium. I don’t want to retire, but at some point do I want to have a less demanding role? We go one year at a time,” he replied in January, when I asked him if he still intended to host the morning show for five years.
So there is a moment that he was thinking of leaving this niche and that he announced it to his bosses. The rumor of his departure rustled in the corridors of Cogeco for several weeks. It is to short-circuit the leaks that Arcand wanted to make the announcement himself. We are a master communicator or we are not…
Paul Arcand has hosted a morning radio show for 32 years. First at CJMS, then at CKAC and finally at 98.5 FM. “I want, in two years, to move on,” he announced to listeners on Thursday. Since you have to get up. “Why, will you tell me? Because I want to do something else too. And I still find that it’s been a while and that it’s asking. It’s a lot of work. There also comes a time when you have to move on. »
Unlike other hosts who have been slow to bow out, Arcand has the lucidity to leave his show when his reputation is intact and unshakable, when he is admired by his listeners and his collaborators, feared by his rivals… and feared by all the politicians, from Quebec to Ottawa via Montreal.
It is said that no one is irreplaceable, but the departure of Paul Arcand from the morning show of 98.5 FM will leave a void, which will certainly be difficult to fill. The conjectures on his succession are already well underway. Just like those of his next destination.
We can bet that it will be back on the waves of Cogeco, owner of 98.5. We don’t let a headliner of his caliber go like that. “Paul is a staple on radio, and we will enjoy every moment with him. Further developments will be announced in due course,” Cogeco Media told The Press by email.
So there will definitely be a sequel. Because if he gives up his career as morningman, Arcand does not intend to “return to his land”, he told his listeners, to whom he now wants to “offer appointments”. Occasional dates? A weekly meeting?
The host intends to “keep a microphone”, he says, to do what he likes: press reviews and interviews. Hey, hey, there’s just a lunchtime program specializing in the subject which has just lost its host at 98.5 FM… We’re chatting, as Guy A. Lepage would say. I would be the first to be surprised if Arcand swapped a four-and-a-half-hour daily for another three-hour daily, just because he could sleep in.
Paul Arcand, who is currently working on a documentary series, will do what he wants, how he wants, at the frequency and pace that suits him. He is a radio giant for whom we will roll out the red carpet… for two years. He deserves it.
Some wouldn’t describe it that way, but Paul Arcand is a gentleman. He welcomed on the air Thursday the results of his show in the spring polls (it is first everywhere, all categories combined), but underlined the vitality of talk radio more broadly, throwing flowers to its main competitor, Patrick Masbourian, from Radio-Canada. It’s stylish. I myself was very critical of his documentary films. He nevertheless remained cordial and generous in the interview.
He is a tough journalist, some would say pugnacious. He rarely lets go. How many have learned this the hard way? Leaders are accountable.
Arcand does not accept that they do not answer for their actions – and his questions – even if it means reminding us daily that no one from the Passport Office has deigned to acknowledge receipt of his team’s numerous interview requests.
He doesn’t do things by halves. His tone of bulldog, popular and populist vigilante of “common sense” and “real questions” has sometimes been able to irritate some (I am). His strokes of blood have on occasion pushed him to disregard nuances, subtleties or yet illuminating gray areas. I avoid on his show the übercommentators who improvise specialists in everything and nothing, while reproaching those who deepen a subject that they master for going too deep.
Still, it’s hard not to succumb to the undeniable charm and extraordinary communicator talent of this sacred monster of radio. To his exceptional ability to tell, to explain, to popularize, to captivate his audience. Whether it is by hounding a fleeing minister, talking about the war in Ukraine with Fabrice de Pierrebourg or Jean-François Lépine, the evolution of criminal law with Denis Gallant, revealing the keys to an absurd enigma or undergoing the sympathetic taunts of the indescribable Fabien Cloutier.
The reason for its success, more than anything in my opinion, is its authenticity, in its faults as much as in its qualities. Paul Arcand is not a character. You can hear it and feel it. In the pleasure he has with his team, no matter who makes it up. From this chemistry of the waves that he knows how to create, which cannot be invented or faked. He is a remarkable captain who will soon be able to breathe more. Since he won’t have to get up anymore.