The voice of Philippe Bouvard on RTL is almost over. The 94-year-old journalist announced that he would retire in January. This will be his 60th career anniversary at the station.
Retirement soon for Philippe Bouvard: the tireless 94-year-old journalist, who still writes a weekly column on RTL, announced on Sunday that he would cut the microphone in January, on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary on the air, ” a world record,” according to the station.
“There is a temptation, which is not a temptation of laziness, but a temptation of record, it is to go until January 1st, it will not be bad enough, and then to listen to the others and to be silent”explained Philippe Bouvard on Sunday on RTL, in reference to the retirement that he refused for a long time.
Les Grosses têtes launched in 1977
“Because on January 1, I will have established the double record that I hoped for, that is to say 60 years of radio and 60 years of RTL” justified the one who started in 1965 at Radio Luxembourg, which became RTL in 1966, before launching “Les Grosses têtes” there in 1977 and making it the most listened to program in France.
“I would really like to have this one (this record, editor’s note), because, I won’t hide it from you, I really liked the radio, and the radio gave it back to me“, added the journalist who looks back on moments that forged his career in “The portraits of Philippe Bouvard”Sunday at 6:40 a.m. on RTL.
In a press release, the M6 group radio praised its emblematic figure and its “world record” for “the host having done the most seasons on a station”.
“Scholarly pioneer of humor”
His career has “revolutionized radio”, estimated the president of RTL, Régis Ravanas, quoted in the press release. “We understand his choice, but (…) Philippe knows that he belongs forever to the RTL family”he argued.
The program director, Gauthier Hourcade, paid tribute to a “erudite pioneer of humor on the airwaves” with a “lively, independent and impertinent mind”.
After 37 years of hosting “Grosses têtes”, Philippe Bouvard reluctantly left his place in 2014 to Laurent Ruquier, called to rejuvenate the show, which he did not “never listened to it since“, as he explained in December to Var-Matin. RTL then entrusted him with “Allô Bouvard”, broadcast on weekends until summer 2020.
Philippe Bouvard has also written a column in the monthly VSD for four years and is preparing a 70th book, titled “Retirement? Not the end of life, but the beginning of a new existence”according to his interview with Var-Matin.
