A page is turning to RMC, probably the most emblematic. The awakening of Jean-Jacques Bourdin will now sound a little later. According to concordant sources, the morning broadcaster who has borne his name since June 2001, “Bourdin direct”, is about to hand over. By “mutual agreement” with its management, says one in his entourage. The journalist does not leave the station: he will keep his political interview at 8:30 am, a landmark meeting two years before the presidential election.
This decision is the fruit of discussions for several months within the Altice group (parent company of SFR, RMC, BFMTV…), which for the moment refuses to comment. Because Jean-Jacques Bourdin is the man on whom the businessman Alain Weill bet nineteen years ago when he bought a moribund RMC.
Upon arrival, the presenter becomes the face of the station, which he awakens with his cash style and his real speaking. He made interactivity with listeners his trademark, a role initiated on RTL between 1996 and 2000, when he held the reins of the program “Les auditeurs ont la parole”. The audiences are flying away, RMC becomes essential, to the point of sometimes ahead of Europe 1, France Info and France Bleu. And Bourdin was quickly called in for reinforcement when the little sister BFMTV was launched in 2005.
He wants to devote himself to the presidential election of 2022
According to our information, the one who will celebrate his 71 years on June 15 should therefore let go at the start of his two and a half hours daily live, on RMC and the channel RMC Découverte, to devote himself only to his interview of 8:30 am, broadcast simultaneously on RMC and BFMTV and become a compulsory crossing point for politicians. “It is one of the most watched political talks in France and Jean-Jacques wishes to devote himself to it fully with a view to the presidential election of 2022”, underlines those in his entourage. A course on which the group already has its eyes riveted: BFMTV has indeed just poached RTL correspondent in the United States Philippe Corbé as future head of the political service of BFMTV.
“Jean-Jacques has weighed in masterfully to relaunch RMC since 2001. His political interviews created the event. During the 2007 election, BFMTV was the only news channel to receive presidential candidates ”, we are greeted by the radio. At the time, he hit the nail on the head with his “politically concrete” questions launched on the run at Ségolène Royal or Nicolas Sarkozy on the number of nuclear submarines and other trapped questions.
Breathing new life into the radio
Those who like to present themselves as a “free man”, the title of their work published in 2014 (Ed. Cherche Midi), will therefore reduce their airfoil when RMC wants a new lease of life. This winter, the station had 3.5 million listeners every day. 850,000 less than its record in November 2016. “All of this remains insufficient. There is a general desire to relaunch the radio, ”breathes a face from the antenna.
According to our information, a youthful breeze is also blowing on the section devoted to sport. Jean-Louis Tourre, 33, and Mohamed Bouhafsi, 28, will resume the section from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., partly occupied for four years by Christophe Dugarry, on the start.
Favorite Apolline de Malherbe to succeed him
Jean-Jacques Bourdin was not spared this general drop. Last January, on RMC’s only antenna, “Bourdin Direct” gathered 660,000 regulars between 7 am and 9 am (-120,000 over a year, +35,000 over a wave) according to Médiamétrie. But the journalist beat last week a record audience on RMC Découverte, 3rd channel in France between 6 am and 8:30 am (9% of PDA).
