If the folks at BPM Sports had a karaoke night planned for today, they’d be a few to write the name of the song Ça va bien (by Kathleen) on their little piece of paper.
“Max, karaoke doesn’t work with little papers in 2024!”
Sorry, I haven’t been out in almost a decade, I guess…
Why do I say that things are going well at BPM Sports? Because the station – whose closure was rumored just a few months ago – seems to have (finally) found its way back to success.
Ratings for the first two weeks of the season have exceeded expectations – Tony Marinaro’s Forum and Laraque & Gonzalez are doing very well, while the comeback show is still going strong, and the morning show is still going strong – and the station’s web reach has reached a new level in recent weeks. Nearly 22,000 people now subscribe to the station’s YouTube channel, which had only 10,000 – 12,000 subscribers during the summer.
And we’ve just learned that one of the station’s guys will be on the Habs beat in 2024-25: Anthony Marcotte. It’s safe to assume that he’ll be following the team when they’re in Montreal/Brossard, but perhaps sporadically on the road as well. We’ll see.
My father always used to take me to the Bell Centre a few times a year to support the Canadiens. The passion for hockey hasn’t run in the family for a long time.
One day, I must be 10 or 11 years old. We’re sitting in section 119 where my… pic.twitter.com/AKeKJ7gRCj
– Anthony Marcotte (@anthonymarcotte) September 12, 2024
Congratulations Tony!
At the end of his tweet, Marcotte indicates that he hasn’t described his last Rocket game.
From what I understand, the Rocket’s broadcast contract on BPM Sports ended after the last campaign… and no new agreement has been signed to date. Except that, reading Marcotte’s tweet, there’s reason to hope for a new deal. At least for home games!
The Rocket’s season opens in a few weeks, after all.
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A podcast for Olivier Brett and Frédéric Lord
Over the past few days, I’ve learned that the TV duo of Olivier Brett and Frédéric Lord will be recreated, this time on BPM Sports’ little cousin, the Athletic Commission.
That’s the project Oli was talking about this morning on X.
13 years ago, I first stepped into the world of media.
Privileged to have had the confidence of the heads of TVA Sports, then RDS and BPM Sports.
Charmed to have rubbed shoulders with so many stimulating people.
A new (and highly symbolic) project is on the horizon. Can’t wait to tell you about it pic.twitter.com/0Tm7xFKlDm
– Olivier Brett (@Olivier_Brett) September 12, 2024
The details of this new podcast have not been revealed to me, but I understand that :
1. FC919 won’t be back.
2. The podcast will most likely also be broadcast over the station’s airwaves (several times a week?).
3. Syd Fowo will continue to be the Montreal CF match analyst and columnist on the station’s schedule.
Fred Lord is a contributor to Laraque & Gonzalez this year.
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What else?
Greg Lanctot will host a brand-new show on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (on Montreal FM and YouTube). He’ll be joined by Olivier Paiement on console, as well as a host of regular contributors.
Greg, like much of the rest of the schedule, enjoyed good ratings during the summer season, when he was at the helm of Le retour.
For the past week, Arnaud Gascon-Nadon has been hosting a podcast called La Ligne des Mêlées (Commission Athlétique). He is joined on air by his good friend Arnaud Pepperall-Gutierrez. The podcast is broadcast live on Monday evenings (a look back at the weekend) and deferred on Friday mornings (recorded on Thursday evenings, in preparation for the weekend). This means we’ll have two episodes a week.
Pierre LeBrun and Anthony Desaulniers will be at the helm of a brand-new podcast recorded on Wednesdays, for broadcast on Thursdays (Athletic Commission). What a great addition to the Athletic Commission’s YouTube channel!
Processus is back since yesterday… and at least one more podcast could be added to the box’s programming over the next few weeks, while a few podcasts broadcast last year will disappear.
Extension
We talked about the Rocket earlier in the text…
We also talked about soccer…
The $1,000 question: what’s going to happen with the Montreal CF broadcast on FM?
I wish I had an answer for you, but for now, all I know is that the CF Montreal contract with BPM Sports will end after the current season.
And members of the Montreal club’s management team were spotted with Cogeco (98.5 FM) executives last week. CF Montreal games were broadcast on Cogeco just two years ago…
To be continued.