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Made his debut this week as host of the mid-morning program on BPM Sports activities.
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Please don’t inform François Legault.
This week, former TSN 690 persona Tony Marinaro — an English-speaking Montrealer of Italian origins — made his debut as host of the mid-morning present on francophone radio station BPM Sports activities and Tuesday he spent greater than 20 minutes interviewing, in French, Canadiens basic supervisor Kent Hughes, who’s an anglophone. That’s proper, two blokes talking of their second language on French radio.
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Fast, name the police!
At one level, Hughes was speaking about how he was reconstructing the Habs and he stated he was engaged in “asset accumulation” and he instructed Marinaro he wasn’t certain the way to say that phrase within the language of Lafleur.
Marinaro began laughing and instructed Hughes he additionally had no concept the way to say it en français. It was only a basic Montreal second circa 2024. It’s merely unattainable to think about within the ’70s or ’80s right here that you just’d have an anglo radio host interviewing an anglo visitor on a French radio station. Very cool.
Marinaro accepted the supply to host on BPM Sports activities, which could be discovered at 91.9 FM in Montreal, as a result of he felt possibly he was getting too snug.
“I’ve accomplished radio in English, I’ve accomplished collaborations on different folks’s exhibits in French, and I’ve accomplished podcasts in English,” Marinaro stated in an interview this week in his podcast studio within the basement of his dwelling in LaSalle. “And I assumed, ‘I’ve by no means accomplished my very own French radio present’ and I began pondering, ‘how many individuals have crossed over in Quebec?’ … In sports activities, I don’t assume it’s ever occurred (that an anglo hosted a francophone radio present). I began pondering, ‘hey that is going to be actually arduous, that is going to be the most important problem of my skilled profession’ and that’s another excuse why I wished to do it. I simply thought, if I deal with one thing so arduous, one thing some folks assume I can’t do, I assumed it could be an amazing message to my youngsters. If one thing is difficult, don’t run away from it.”
Street to the Cup
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His French isn’t good, however then once more neither is Hughes’s. However they each talk completely nicely and Marinaro likes to talk within the slangy French of the streets, with various English phrases thrown in. He even used his signature catchphrase “Is that this a joke?” on Monday when he discovered that the electrical energy had been lower to the station and that his first present started solely on the net.
Marinaro grew up in a really English surroundings in LaSalle and he says that earlier than he started doing radio hits in French, he spoke extra Italian than French.
“Some folks instructed me the francophones are usually not going to love you since you’re going to butcher their language they usually take that severely,” Marinaro stated. “However historical past has proven me that each time I converse French, francophones inform me they admire the hassle they usually like me the best way I’m.”
That’s the Marinaro type. Simply do it and fear concerning the penalties later. He’s not afraid to make a idiot of himself on air, like sing the American nationwide anthem in its entirety in his off-key voice, which is strictly what he did this week on his new present.
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“I wish to placed on a present,” Marinaro stated. “Lafleur was my first sports activities idol. He had that IT issue. And my subsequent idol was Stéphane Richer. Lafleur and Richer impressed me to do issues the best way I do them. I like offence. I do my present on the offence. I don’t do my present on the defence.”
He’s a man who first grew to become often known as “Tony from LaSalle” when he referred to as in to Group 990 (the forerunner of TSN 690) and people calls ultimately led to him internet hosting a post-game present after Habs video games starting in 2002. He was at first paid solely with reward certificates, not cash.
As he talked about in his introduction to his first present on BPM this week, his idol rising up was legendary Montreal sports activities radio call-in host Ted Tevan and as a youngster he referred to as Tevan’s present incessantly.
Marinaro stated the executives from BPM Sports activities first approached him seven years in the past to host a present on the station. However on the time he turned them down as a result of “I used to be too hooked up to my listeners at TSN 690.” Marinaro was internet hosting the ten a.m. present The Montreal Discussion board and he didn’t wish to desert his loyal viewers.
However then BPM got here calling once more within the spring of 2022 and this time, Marinaro was extra open to the thought. He declined once more, however the left the door open.
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By then, Marinaro’s unbiased podcast The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro was producing rising numbers, one thing that by all accounts the bosses at Bell Media, which owns TSN 690, didn’t like. By Might of the identical 12 months, the battle got here to a head and Marinaro give up his job.
Chris Bury — director of reports and knowledge programming at CTV, CJAD and TSN 690 — didn’t return a request for remark by press time.
“I awoke that day not feeling nicely and I tapped my spouse on the shoulder and stated — ‘That’s it, I’m quitting the radio station,’ ” Marinaro stated. “And he or she stated — ‘What? The podcast is simply getting arrange.’ And I stated — ‘I simply assume that is the precise factor to do.’ ”
Inside days, each BPM and TV community TVA Sports activities got here calling with affords and by that fall, he was doing a section each morning on Jean-Charles Lajoie’s BPM present and doing successful every night with Lajoie on his TVA Sports activities present.
Marinaro loves the thought of bridging the 2 solitudes.
“I feel sports activities brings folks collectively,” Marinaro stated. “There are some francos and anglos which are divided so if I can carry folks collectively …”
bkelly@postmedia.com
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