Marc Ysaye presents the last of the Classics on Classic 21

© RTBF

Broadcast on December 18 at 9:00 a.m. on Classic 21

“I will definitely be moved. I’m not going to pretend it’s a show like any other because it’s not, but I’m perfectly calm. It was the right time to stop.“Great thrill. This Sunday, December 18,at mass time” as he has always liked to point out, Marc Ysaye will animate for the last time the emblematic The classics, the program he launched on January 3, 1988 on Radio 21 and which remains one of the biggest success stories in our radio landscape. Retired from public service since February 1, 2019, the former director of Classic 21, moreover Machiavelli drummerhad kept his iconic show by popular demand. A month ago, with his show’s ratings still strong, a succinct statement announced that it was ending and Marc Ysaye was leaving Classic 21.”This is not a decision taken on a whim. I joined the RTBF in 1982, after a test passed in front of Jacques Mercier where I had mentioned the story of Genesis. Forty years… I think it’s the right time. I had a blast and I’m leaving knowing there’s a great team at Classic 21.”

To do something else? “RTBF knows that I have received offers, it’s no secret. Before, I said “no thank you, I’m not interested”. Today, I give myself the right to reflection. I may make a decision in two, three or six months. And maybe I won’t do anything at all, we’ll see.“One thing is certain. His warm voice, his innate talent for telling the great story of rock, his enthusiasm and this undisguised pleasure in finding new anecdotes each time to evoke a new Beatles reissue or the anniversary of “The Dark Side Of The Moon” we will miss. “When I proposed the concept of the Classics to the RTBF in 1988, I simply wanted to play good music that you couldn’t hear anywhere else. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis or the Guns N’Roses… Not many people believed in it, there were ridicules, people told me it was corny. What’s crazy is that thirty-five years later, not only has the formula not changed, but we are still the only ones to offer it and our audience has changed.”

Read also : 10 things to know about Marc Ysaye leaving Classic 21

For this last of the Classics, Marc Ysaye did not want any ceremony. Not really his type. “I will put one or two titles that were broadcast in the first show. But I didn’t want to make it special. These last hours behind the microphone, there will be the listeners, me and above all good music.” The classicsin its name at least, should not survive the departure of Marc Ysaye. “But I have confidence for the future, the team is full of talent.”