The Ottawa Senators have a new French radio partner. They announced today that 104.7 FM Outaouais will carry games in French for the coming season. It's a three-year deal that includes all pre-season, regular season and post-season games.
104.7 FM was the team's original broadcast partner for its first 19 seasons, between 1992 and 2012. Until today's announcement, 94.5 Unique FM had carried the Senators' games in recent years, led by play-by-play man Nicolas St. Pierre. With the Sens' changeover to a new rights holder, St. Pierre announced on X on Wednesday that he was asked to step aside after 17 years in his role.
Après 20 ans à la couverture des @Senators, dont 17 à titre de descripteur, on m'a annoncé que je devais céder ma place. Ça fait mal, mais pour le ''tit-cul'' qui a quitté Sept-Iles avec des rêves et un peu de talent, ce fût une maudite belle aventure. Merci et à bientôt.
— Nicolas St-Pierre (@Nico_StPierre) August 13, 2025
Loosely translated to English: After 20 years covering the Senators, including 17 as a play-by-play announcer, I was told I have to step aside. It hurts, but for the "little guy" who left Sept-Îles with dreams and a bit of talent, it was one heck of a great adventure. Thank you, and see you soon.
Marc Legault, a sports commentator at 104.7, will be the new French-language play-by-play voice of the Senators.
“Since Michael Andlauer joined us, we have reaffirmed our commitment to better serving our francophone fans throughout the Ottawa-Gatineau region,” Sens president and CEO Cyril Leeder said in a club statement. “We are very pleased to partner up with 104.7 Outaouais, a radio station with strong roots in its community and well known among hockey fans.”
“This new partnership is part of 104.7 Outaouais’ commitment to remaining the benchmark for sports on French radio in the Ottawa-Gatineau area,” Josianne Delorme, the radio station’s general manager said in the same release. “In an industry undergoing rapid change, it is essential to build strong relationships with the best partners, both for our listeners and our advertisers.”
With the French radio rights now set for the next three years, attention will soon turn to the future of the English rights. The Sens are entering the final year of a 12-year regional radio deal with Bell Media's TSN 1200. If the money is right, the Senators' preference is to continue partnering with a sports talk format, where they are the station's dominant subject, indirectly being promoted for most of the local broadcast day.
But Bell Media may not be enthusiastic about another massive investment in its sports talk radio properties, particularly after it just shut down four TSN radio formats in as many years. In 2021, they said goodbye to their TSN shops in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Hamilton. Then, two years later, TSN Edmonton was shut down. So, it will be interesting to monitor what happens next in Ottawa.
The new season will begin on Thursday, October 9, when the Senators visit the Tampa Bay Lightning.
By Steve Warne
@SteveWarneMedia
The Hockey News – Ottawa
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