25 years ago, the program in Musique 123Punkwith an animator a young rock music passionate hidden behind a board of skate. The one that is still called today “Rej Laplanche” today lives in the Quebec region, where it could be heard until recently on the waves of the BLVD station. He announced last week that he left his microphone, no longer recognizing himself in “the 2025 version” of this antenna.
“Since I announced that I left BLVD, I have received proposals. I do not know if I will be reserved for a radio microphone soon. Maybe. But the web tempts me. I really like the podcast. We’ll see, ”lets you know Rej Laplanche, who continues to animate several rock music festivals this summer.
At 50, he does not want to compromise. His decision to leave his radio show proves it well. A leap into the void that has something “a little punk”. When it is noted, Rej Laplanche, who leads a life rowed in the countryside with her longtime spouse and their two teenagers laughs.
“What’s punk or not?” This is the big question. In the early 2000s, there were almost fights in bars to find out what was really punk and what was not. When we arrived with 123Punk, It was also the great debate. For purists, a television show, by definition, it couldn’t just be punk, “he recalls.
Music guy
Rej Laplanche will have animated 123Punk For almost 10 years on MusiquePlus Music. He has a very good memory of his beginnings behind a roller board to present the NOFX or Planet Smashers videoclips. “A stunt”, who was a nod to Ed The Sock, a low -shaped puppet that animated Muchmusic, the Fluisplus counterpart in English Canada. But not only …
“At the time, all new faces in the waves were to be approved by Moses Znaimer, the big patron of MusiquePlus and Muchmusic, which was based in Toronto. It could be long before receiving his authorization. We didn’t have time to wait. We needed a program on punk. So we had the idea of making me animate behind a board of skate. It was quite punk that too when we think back, ”says, laughing Réjean Claveau, his real name.
Photo André Tremblay, La Presse Archives
The VJ 2004 version of MusiquePlus, from left to right: Stéphane Gonzalez, Rej Laplanche, Mélanie Cloutier, Mike Gauthier, Rebecca Makonnen, Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay, Izabelle Desjardins, Valérie Simard, Denis Talbot and Nabi-Alexandre Chartier.
The host had resumed his baptismal name during the years he worked on Radio-Canada in Moncton, after his departure from MusiquePlus. When he moved to Quebec and he took the bar of the Blvd morning in January 2021, he became a rej Laplanche again.
At the time, BLVD was a rock station. Since then, she has adopted a format closer to spoken radio, with a political orientation marked on the right, like her rival Choi Radio X.
In interview with The press, Rej Laplanche wanted to specify that his decision to leave the station has nothing to do with his editorial line. He also provides good terms with the bosses.
This is not a question on the left or right. It is really the spoken radio format, which is glued to the news, which does not correspond to what I am.
Laplanche rej
“Me, there is a maximum number of times I can talk about the tram in a year. Talking about it every morning, I just can’t, ”says Laplanche, who remains first and foremost a music guy.
Iron vj
MusiquePlus was his playground for fifteen years. This channel was perceived as a school by many young animators, who came to prove themselves in the hope of being drafted then by TVA or Radio-Canada. Rej Laplanche has never seen things this way. He remembers having been courted at the time by several commercial radios and here music. The answer has always been no, “even for $ 20,000 more”.
Photo Marika Vachon, special collaboration
Laplanche rej
Nothing else allowed me to live what MusicPlus made me live. If the musicon that we knew still existed, I would always be there.
Laplanche rej
However, the old reference chain of Quebec teens was only the shadow of itself at the end. Music had become secondary. The programming consisted mainly of double -sized American reality TV. The closure appeared inexorable since the arrival of the Internet. Could it have been avoided? Rej Laplanche ignores it, but he still believes that some decisions could have been made differently.
“We may have been too slow to react when the web arrives. I remember talking about Youtube to a boss at the time. He replied that it was going to be a fashion and that we did not have to worry, ”said the host, who also doubts that the creation of Musimax was beneficial.
“Yes, Musimax, it was good for those who wanted to see a Celine or Garou clip. But it also made sure that we diluted our musical content, ”regrets the one who found his departure from MusiquePlus difficult, 10 years ago.
The good old days
The first years after his departure, almost no one approached him to tell him about MusiquePlus. “It was so bad at the end. It is as if people preferred not to think about it, ”he noted.
Since then, nostalgic fiber has taken over. Rej Laplanche says he is talked about almost every day. To believe that the deceased chain could be reborn from its ashes.
“If we redo MusiquePlus, it would happen on the web, that’s for sure. But would people really be there? Yes, they are attached to the brand. Nostalgia is very strong. But do they want to see a new version of MusiquePlus? I don’t know, ”wonders the ex-VJ.
