Philippe Bouvard will retire in January, after sixty years on RTL

Retirement soon for Philippe Bouvard: the tireless 94-year-old journalist, who still writes a weekly column on RTL, announced on Sunday June 23 that he would cut the microphone in January, on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary on the air , “a world record”moves the station forward.

“There is a temptation, which is not a temptation of laziness, but a temptation of setting records, and that is to go to 1^is January, it won’t be bad enough, and then listen to others and be silent”explained Philippe Bouvard on Sunday on RTL, in reference to retirement, which he refused for a long time.

“Because the 1^is January, I will have established the double record that I hoped for, that is to say sixty years of radio and sixty 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 wish I had that one. [ce record]because, I won’t hide it from you, I really liked the radio, and the radio did it for me.”added the journalist who looks back on moments that forged his career in “Les Portraits de Philippe Bouvard”, Sundays at 6:40 a.m. on RTL.

An “erudite pioneer of humor on the airwaves”

In a press release, the M6 ​​group radio hailed its emblematic figure as “the host who has done the most seasons on a station”. 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 to the RTL family forever”he argued.

The program director, Gauthier Hourcade, paid tribute to a “erudite pioneer of humor on the airwaves” at the“lively, independent and impertinent spirit”.

After thirty-seven years of hosting “Les 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 since”as he explained in December to Was-Matin.

RTL then told him “Hello Bouvard”broadcast on weekends until summer 2020. Philippe Bouvard has also written a column in the monthly magazine for four years VSD and prepares a 70^e book, titled ” Retirement ? Not an end of life, but the beginning of a new existence”according to his interview with Was-Matin.