Audio Interviews and Transcripts

Interview with Francois Bessette
by Simon Bessette

Simon conducted an interview with his father, Francois Bessette. His father has three children, two sons and one daughter. Before his professional career he played hockey at the junior level and has always loved sports. This is the reason why Francois decided to specialize in sports journalism. He started to work as a journalist when he was nineteen years old. Francois then worked in Montreal for a television station called TQS for more than twelve years before making the switch to a specialized sports station called RDS. For the last six years, he has been doing both radio and television. Francois is now the host of a morning show in Simon's hometown in Quebec. You can read a part of the interview below in the transcript, translated into English and typed out by the student, or listen to the full interview in French in the audio player below.


From 8:00-13:00

SB – Simon Bessette

FB – Francois Bessette

FB: For seven years I traveled with the Montreal Canadians. I was friends with them, and I got to travel around North America. For some it might sound like a dream. I was in the same hotel, I ate in the same restaurants. I was working with them. The only difference was that I wasn’t on the ice with them. My goal was to create a link between people at home and the team. I wanted to give them a human status because we know that in Montreal they are considered as gods. I wanted to show the public in Quebec what it was like to be a hockey player. I did that through the wins, the losses, the happy time, and the sad time I was with them 24/7. I wanted to relate the information, yes, but it was really important for me that the people in Quebec understand the reality behind that dream. The second I realized that I could do that job it was a no brainer for me. I wanted to keep doing that, and it’s the reason why I didn’t think twice when I made my decision. Hockey was and still is my passion, and I consider myself lucky because I work with some of the best athletes in North America.

SB: Was there a moment in your life when you thought about coming back to your original background which is sociology and criminology?

FB: Eehh listen, never really, covering sports is my passion, and once I started, I never wanted to go back. It was just too fun, and for me it wasn’t work. Every day I would wake up, and I would be excited to go work. But this job is really hard, sometimes you get some bad news and it is very hard to swallow. When it happens, you have to tell yourself: it’s alright, I’m gonna work harder and get better. Let me tell you a story. When I was working at TQS, I was working with the Quebec Nordiques in the NHL. I was the host and my job was to once again follow each and every move of their team. Then the Montreal Canadians are coming at TQS and my boss is looking for someone that will work with them. I did work with them in the past. I was already working with the NHL so I thought I would be one of the best to do the job….There are two people on the list, me and somebody else, and my boss told us that the one with the most stable life would get the job. I had a wife and three children, and the other one was a guy that was single and loved to go out and party all the time. Knowing that, I thought I was the one who would get picked. So one weekend my family and I are going to Ottawa for a little vacation, and while I’m looking at the newspaper, I learn that the other guy got picked instead of me. My boss never called me to tell me the news; I had to learn it from the papers. There’s no need for me to tell you that it was really hard. During the following three days I had trouble to not show my disappointment, and I was really mad. I told myself at that point that I was really good at my job and the only thing I could possibly do was to focus on what I have and to keep working hard. To answer your question now….no, even if sometimes I went through some really hard times…. even if it was really hard, it’s my passion and I never doubted my job. I kept going, and I had a really good career.

SB: OK, ehhh I would now like to talk about the different technology that you had to work with, in the last twenty years. Did you see a big change?

FB: I started working and we were still using those big recorders. It was a big tape, and every time we wanted a certain clip from an interview we had to go through the entire interview so we could find the perfect part. Then we started to record with smaller recorders, and people were saying that it was amazing we could now go on the road and just carry smaller tools… ehhh it was just easier to work with. But today it’s unbelievable how much technology has changed journalism. We don’t have big recorders anymore; everything is on your phone or online. We need to get just a few seconds of a certain interview; it is really easy for us to go to the exact section and pick the part we want. The technology changed so much. To give you an idea, I’m working at RDS now and every year they change the entire studio so they can bring new technology in. We are always looking forward to see what kind of change will be made and what kind of adjustment we will have to do….