Ron Fournier (radio personality)
Encyclopedia
Ronald "Ron" Fournier is a Quebec-born radio host and sport journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. He is also a retired professional hockey referee.

Early life

Fournier was raised in Montreal. In his youth he played baseball with teammates Maurice Jr. and Normand Richard (Maurice Richard
Maurice Richard
Joseph Henri Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, Sr., was a French-Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League from 1942 to 1960. The "Rocket" was the most prolific goal-scorer of his era, the first to achieve the feat of 50 goals in 50...

's sons) with the Braves d’Ahuntsic. When winter came, he switched to a goalie outfit with which he would be drafted with the Rangers de Drummondville in the beginnings of the LHJMQ.

He was never drafted by the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 but he had already thought of becoming a referee if he couldn't get in the league as a hockey player. At the age of 19, he called the city of Montreal and the day after he was scheduled to become a referee. He then went on to do four years in the World Hockey Association
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...

 followed by 10 years in the National Hockey League which he retired from in 1987.

Radio & Journalism

In 1987 he became a radio host. It all started at CJMS, then switched to CKAC in 1994, a radio station based in Montreal where he hosts multiple call-in shows about sports in general, such as Bonsoir les sportifs (Good evening sportspeople) and Parlons hockey (Let's talk hockey). The first is the one he is most known for and racks up to 300,000 listeners, most of them Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...

 fans that await his prophetic words and his magnanimous phrase.

He also appears on other shows broadcasted by Corus
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...

. On television, he was an intermission analyst on La Soirée du hockey
La Soirée du hockey
La Soirée du hockey was a popular ice hockey show in Quebec. It was the French language SRC equivalent of the English Canadian CBC show Hockey Night in Canada...

(Hockey Night) on Radio-Canada. As a radio announcer he is mostly known for saying Pas pire, pas pire, pas pire (Not bad, not bad, not bad) and some would nickname him the French-canadian Don Cherry 

Other involvements

Ron Fournier also gives conferences on leadership and motivation.

He is the current president of an eponymous hockey referee school situated in the arena in Candiac, Quebec
Candiac, Quebec
Candiac is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec; it is located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River opposite Montreal near La Prairie...

.

The band Les Cowboys Fringants
Les Cowboys Fringants
Les Cowboys Fringants are a popular band and cult phenomenon from Quebec, who perform Québécois néo-trad music , the band also draws on Country music. They have gained an international underground following, especially in France, French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland...

have written a song that portraits him, Salut mon Ron, which was showcased on the album Break syndical in 2002.
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