Year Born: 1947
Year of Induction: 2007
Pioneer – Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Brière, Raynald (1947- )
In 1967, Raynald Brière began his career in the media sector, as a journalist at the weekly newspaper Le Réveil in Jonquière, in his native Saguenay region. He then worked successively at the Progrès Dimanche in Chicoutimi, L’Écho in La Tuque and radio station CFLM in the same city.In 1970, he became the Director of Programming and News at radio station CJTR in Trois Rivières. But in 1972, he went back to the print media, first as a journalist, then as a news desk editor, and finally as Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Le Nouvelliste, in Trois Rivières.
In 1975, he went to Hydro Quebec as Editor of their magazine Info-Presse.Two years later, he returned to broadcasting as General Manager of the new station CHEM-TV in Trois Rivières, a position that he would occupy until 1979, when Télémédia offered him the position of General Manager of radio station CHLT in Sherbrooke.In 1981, Télémédia gave him a new challenge, as programming director at radio station CKAC, in Montreal.
In 1984, Raynald Brière joined Radiomutuel, as Director of Programming and News at CJMS and the other stations belonging to the Radiomutuel network in Quebec City, Jonquière, Trois Rivières, Sherbrooke and Gatineau, following the acquisition of the group by Paul-Émile Beaulne and Normand Beauchamp who had also just left Télémédia. Over the next 10 years, Raynald would work hard at developing a group of professional and profitable AM and FM radio stations, as well as creating the FM Énergie network.
In 1994, as part of the consolidation of the six Radiomutuel AM radio stations and Télémédia into a new entity called Radiomédia, Raynald Brière returned to CKAC, in Montreal, as Vice-President of CKAC, where he was given the mandate to turn around the station, both in terms of its finance and dwindling listening audience. The creation of Radiomédia was saluted as a milestone in the history of radio in Quebec, where two companies who were formerly competing fiercely against one another on the AM band, decided to pool their talents together to counter the decline of their listening audience and their profitability, caused by the growth of the FM band.
Then, in 1998, the TVA group asked him to head the new all-news channel, LCN. Still with TVA, he then became Vice-President of Broadcasting, a position where he oversaw programming, news and the operations of CFTM-TV in Montreal, as well as being responsible for the other TV stations belonging to the TVA network across the Province.With the acquisition of TVA by Québécor in 2001, he was named interim President, and later confirmed as President and CEO. In 2004, he moved on to Groupe Radio-Nord Communications, as President and Chief Operating Officer. The company later changed its name to RNC Media Inc.
In addition to his professional activities in the media, Raynald has always devoted a good deal of his time to numerous charitable organizations including Le gâteau du pauvre in La Tuque early on in his career, a local initiative that is still operating today, as well as the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Centraide and the Canadian Cancer Society.
Raynald Brière was inducted into the CAB Hall of Fame in 2007.
Written by Yvon Chouinard – October, 2007