Tony Marinaro to have his own show on BPM Sports

BPM Sports – formerly known as 91.9 Sports – has often changed its schedule at an unjustifiably fast pace. In radio, consistency is key. You have to create listening habits, and it’s not by turning your programming upside down before the start of each new season (and during the holiday season last year) that you’ll succeed in building listener loyalty.

You need to offer them something relatively stable and constant.

Now that Alexandre Panneton (GM) is in charge, we seem to have decided to focus on a certain stability of listening. Good!

The summer schedule is more stable… and the regular programming that goes into effect on August 26 (that’s far too early and I’ll come back to it later) is in keeping with the theme of continuity.

The morning show will be back in its regular format: Max Lalonde, Gilbert Delorme and Anthony Desaulniers will once again form the morning line-up… trying to win over listeners disappointed by the turn of events at 98.5 FM.

Georges and Gonzo will be back from noon to 3:00 p.m., and Martin Lemay will once again steer the show home. The excellent Ben Roger will produce these two flagship shows .

From what I understand, there will be no more pooler shows in the early evening, and nothing live over the weekend either. BPM Sports will be live from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, then on repeat (or podcast) during the rest of the week.

Live streaming on YouTube will be back on the menu in 2024-25.

“Didn’t you tell us who was going to replace Max Van Houtte, Truman?”

According to several sources, Tony Marinaro will host the morning show (10:00 a.m. to noon), a time slot that was occupied by Maxime Van Houtte last year. Van Houtte indicated 36 hours ago that he would not be returning to BPM Sports this fall.

I’m told that an agreement has been reached between the two parties and that, barring a highly improbable turn of events, it will be confirmed when Tony Marinaro returns to Quebec; he is currently in Spain with his son.

“It this a joke or what?”

No, it itsn’t! BPM Sports has struck a (very) big blow.

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Tony occupied this time slot (10 to noon) for some fifteen years on TSN690. He will now be on air at 10:00 a.m. on BPM Sports, then at 10:00 p.m.(10 p.m. in the evening) on his Sick Podcast. Keeping the opportunity to host the popular and much-loved Sick Podcast was a “must” for Tony!

BPM Sports is clearly less reticent about its hosts’ personal projects than other radio stations…

I’m told he’ll also keep his daily columns on TVA Sports(JiC).

BPM Sports management has been trying to reach an agreement with Marinaro for seven years. We’ve been wanting to give him a host’s microphone for a long time…

I’m pretty sure Tony won’t be making $40,000 under the circumstances!

Marinaro replaced Gonzo alongside Georges last spring, and proved beyond doubt that switching from English to French won’t be a problem. To say he knows how to give a show is an understatement.

Georges has often joked on the air that he was glad to hear Tony was getting his own show in the fall. The joke became reality.

They wouldn’t tell me who was going to be the director who would put the show on the air and who would occasionally bounce with Tony. From what I understand, it’s likely to be Lanctôt. Whether it’ll be Greg or Alex remains to be seen…

We can expect Tony to come on the air with seasoned collaborators… and a lot of craziness.

In closing, I can’t wait to see if Georges and Gonzo will once again have the best ratings on the station, or if Tony will be able to become the king of BPM Sports.

Tony Marinaro and Alexandre Panneton declined to comment when contacted.

It’s a well-known fact: generally speaking, a sports radio station can expect its comeback show to be the one with the most listeners. I’m told that Martin Lemay spent part of his summer revising the pacing of his show with the aim of scoring even more.

And… I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I do know that we worked very hard to convince Martin Leclerc to resume his daily on-air columns. Leclerc was, season after season, one of the station’s most listened-to columnists. Réjean Tremblay will no longer be at the microphone during the morning show.

In short, BPM will be focusing on consistency and stability for the start of the new season next month, but will also be offering a product that we believe to be superior to the one that was on air last year. Will the station break even? We’ll see.

Extension

– I expect BPM Sports to announce at the beginning of August a lot of the above. Not sure we’ll want to do it in a big way…

– Tony Marinaro had one of the most popular segments on Jean-Charles’ show two years ago, as well as during the lunchtime show last year.

– From what I’m hearing, the Laval Rocket’s game broadcast agreement is set to be extended for a few more seasons. Cursed good news for the Rocket, its fans… and Anthony Marcotte. He’s done a superb job on the morning show in recent weeks.

– Greg Lanctôt, Éric Hoziel and J-P Bertrand have also been doing very well since the start of the summer; I’m told the summer ratings are very good. Nice!

– A small downside: I know that Montreal radio operates according to Numeris poll results. The three important surveys (for selling advertising) are the fall, winter and spring ones. As soon as the spring survey is over, we send our regular hosts on vacation and bring them back for the first week of the fall survey. The problem is that this first week starts at the end of August.

A specialty radio station like BPM Sports should consider bringing its people back three weeks later… and keep its regular programming for three more weeks in the spring/summer. Ratings are often difficult in late August and early September… and it would give listeners the regular hosts for the Stanley Cup Finals, the draft and the opening of the free agent market, the time of year when interest is at its peak (at least that’s the case on a site like DLC). In the end, I think it would only be a good thing.

Overtime

– Mason Toye looks happy.

– The video you need without knowing it this morning.

– The Canadian team also attempted to use a drone during the recent Copa America…

But Jesse Marsch reportedly blew the whistle on this one. #AuMoins