TVA Sports/Journal de Montréal: 16 things you need to know about their fall season

As you all know by now, I won’t be returning to co-host the noon show on BPM Sports. It’s been quite a year, and I can’t thank Georges Laraque(big!), Yves Bombardier and all the listeners enough for a superb year at the microphone of THE sports radio station in Montreal.

What will I do this fall? It’s too early to say… since I don’t even know myself yet. It’s a safe bet that you’ll be able to read me here on a regular basis, that I’ll be doing sports columns in a few specific places… and that I may even be hosting a podcast that will shake up the pillars of the temple, as the other guy would say.

Unless…?

But anyway, I’m just glad to be back with you today, to shake off the rust a bit before heading out of the country. And when I get back, I’ll announce what good things I’ll be doing in the coming year.

These are difficult times in the media business. Very difficult.

Inflation, falling revenues, the exodus of many listeners, viewers and readers, rising interest rates, loss of confidence in the industry, digital transformation, the impact of GAFAM, government legislation, etc.

But DansLesCoulisses is still here. So are RDS, TVA Sports, BPM Sports and dozens of nearly identical sports blogs that are reproducing faster than the Groulx family.

Fortunately, people know where to find their quality content, and the vast majority continue to visit three sports sites. In order, I’m talking about RDS, DLC and TVA Sports.

Some sports media are threatened with extinction, and some of them will disappear. It’s inevitable. It’s already started with the general news media. Fortunately, we’re not one of them.

We told you about the many changes that have been made – but not yet announced – at BPM Sports. For those of you who were out of the country on vacation :

Many of you have asked me, on air or via social networks, what’s coming up at TVA Sports for the next season. Let’s not forget that the channel has announced that it has increased its market share, but lost revenues (and therefore, most likely profits).

But the station refuses to die. At least, not before the summer of 2026, when its broadcasting contract with the NHL comes to an end.

Basically, here’s all I’ve been able to learn about TVA Sports’ upcoming programming:

1. Jean-Charles Lajoie, who will not be back on the Montreal airwaves of 91.9 Sports (96.5 FM and 100.9 FM in Gati-Bec), will be back at the helm of his 5 à 7 Québécorien. Once again, he’ll be the man with us between the end of our day shift and the start of NHL games at JiC.

2. Stéphane Gonzalez, who will be returning to BPM Sports, will remain on TVA Sports for a while. He’ll probably be doing sports betting-related stuff, as well as columns on the Jean-Charles show…

3. Anthony Martineau should take up as much – if not more – space as last year. He should be assigned to the Habs, to the hopefuls… and therefore, to the Habs’ hopefuls. We should be able to read him, see him AND hear him, as was the case last year.

4. Nicolas Cloutier keeps his job as journalist/editor. Once again, we’ll be able to read him on the company’s sports media, but we’ll also be able to see him on our small screen (which isn’t so small anymore, but hey) recounting his best journalistic chops.

5. Guillaume Latendresse and Maxim Lapierre will be back at NHL games AND afterwards. Just because they’ve added a few million dollars to their bank balance doesn’t mean they’ll stop making TV.

6. Élizabeth Rancourt, who caused quite a stir after her appearance on the Solemn podcast this summer, has signed a new contract with the station. So she’ll still be hosting Hockey Night in Canada alongside Marc Denis Maxim and Guillaume, I presume.

7. Dave Morissette is no longer a regular on the channel. Reminder: he will be Rythme FM ‘s morning man.

He will, however, be at the helm of the Canadiens’ Saturday night post-game show, which is broadcast on TVA Sports. With such a small task, I imagine we’ll be giving the next Artis trophies to other people…

8. Frédérique Guay, whose personal and professional life has changed a lot in the last two years, will have to stay in the box. As CF Montréal is no longer partnered with TVA Sports, we’ll be able to hear her talk about tennis, other sports and general news.

9. Arnaud Gascon-Nadon, who has become one of Jean-Charles’ closest collaborators – on both radio and TV – should be back on the air. Mainly in the JiC time slot…

10. It would be surprising to see Marc-André “Mapper” Perreault on the CH beat. Perreault is said to have other projects (a la Jean Pascal?) outside the sport that should take up quite a bit of his time in the weeks ahead. He could therefore be limited to a few appearances left and right. We’ll see.

11. There are rumours that Andy Mailly-Pressoir is moving elsewhere. I haven’t been able to get any confirmation, but I’ve heard that he might turn to producing documentary-type programs. If this is true, I wish him the best of luck.

12. I haven’t been able to get anything on Kevin Raphaël. The guy is in several ads on Noovo (Bell), but he continues to appear on TVA Sports (Québecor). That’s pretty rare…

Remember that Kevin is involved in women’s field hockey (president of La Force, a TVA Sports partner last year) and professional wrestling (once a week on TVA Sports, then as a podcast). Will he be able to deposit Bell and Québecor pay cheques at the same time?

13. JP Bertrand will no longer be hosting a morning sports show. He’d done Les Partants, then La Dose, before learning that La Dose was to join Les Partants in the sports-show graveyard. I’m told Bertrand may return on a freelance contract basis… and that he’d rather cover a few major sporting events than work full-time in the studio.

14. Mathieu Boulay has lost his sports assignment. Boulay will write about business and money for the Journal de Montréal website. There are all kinds of stories floating around about why this reassignment took place, and I’ll let you dig for yourselves (or not).

Please note that Boulay has not written a column for JDM since June 9.

15. In closing, Louis Jean and Réjean Tremblay each officially left the empire in 2023. There were rumors of Louis Jean hosting at BPM Sports earlier this summer, but they never materialized. Who knows why?

As for Réjean, he will write a daily column on the BPM Sports website, which he will publish in the morning and possibly comment on air afterwards.

16. Tony Marinaro should once again be one of the many contributors to the Jean-Charles show on TVA Sports. And from what I understand, there’s a good chance we’ll hear him again on BPM Sports, but in a time slot other than the morning one. Perhaps with Georges? The two already collaborate weekly on the Sick Podcast.

I don’t know if Québecor will end up spending less money on sports… but it will spend a lot of money again this season.