Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 66 - TSN 1260 Jason Gregor

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Unreal hour. Jason Gregor of the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260 out of Edmonton tells all about how he got into the radio business.  How about this though: he owns his show! I mean he rents air time off of TSN 1260, does the marketing, sales etc. Everything is on him. Such an interesting guy. We also talk about his charity Gregor's Grads where he raises money for kids who can't afford a tux for their graduation.  Enjoy!

I am Jason Greger. You're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. What's wrong with that? We love where we are. On that door. Good time. How fun was that to start a podcast that way? That's the first time for that, folks.

I bet I caught a few of you off guard this morning. Happy Wednesday. Hump day here. We're going to try something a little new this week. I threw out a couple posts on social media yesterday, reaching out to anyone wanting to get a little free advertising. I think, you know, around Lloyd Minster, and I think pretty much everywhere at this point, I can't remember a time where, you know, you lose your job in whatever industry you're in,

and you can't, if you're a worker, you just don't go pick up another job and get back to work. But right now, everybody, you know, staying at home, oil where it's at, business is a closing shop, you name it, you talk to anyone, it's the topic around. town right now you can't even sit and have coffee with somebody you got to do it via you know face time or what technology you have so I got a list of businesses that reached out so I want to I want to go through them I really appreciate them trusting me to get their message out I hope I do them justice if I missed anyone or you're just hearing this for the first time I'm going to do this until this gets gets done with so once we open doors up and

people are back out and around and everything going on I will you know up until that point you want to get something on here you just DM me text me look me up Facebook Twitter Instagram anything you want I can try and get it on there or get it on here I should say so first Cory Dubick Midwest flooring he reached out they're open for business same hours Monday through Friday can shop online or in store give them a call 780875 8448 that's here in Lloyd Carly Clawson and Windsor Plywood boys They built me my table, which I am longing to sit around. I got to be honest.

It's been a couple days since I got to stare at that beauty. But they're still open regular hours. Right now they're promoting, calling in orders to help promote that physical distancing. They're able to set material out front for curbside pickup and loading. And for the time being, they're doing in-town deliveries for free. So give them a call 780 8759663. The Boys at Factory, longtime supporters of the podcast here. They're urging you to continue to shop local.

I think that's a big message from all these companies. They say although their storefront is closed to the public, the boys are on standby waiting to take phone calls and get you what you need. 306-825-7678. Give them a call if you're looking for anything. They'll get you hooked up. IHD, longtime supporter of the podcast. He was a guest on here as well.

Wanted me to highlight two local boys who just signed their entry-level deals in the NHL, one being Bryce Kindop with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and Brinson Pashnik, who just signed with the San Jose Sharks. Heathrow, long supporter, Heathrow, he says earmuffs for the kids. I would like to take this time to tell everyone

to quit fucking buying all the toilet paper in town. And then he adds a little chuckle at the end as if you know he throw, you know the chuckle I'm talking about. What a strange thing, you know, I know everybody's talking about it, but toilet paper of all things, people. Colin Ringett with CR Sales and Marketing would like to tell everyone to be safe. And if you're a business owner that needs representation after this virus, contact him, 780871, 1417.

He probably stares at me from his balcony into the backyard every day. He lives across the street, and I'm sure he sees my kids, doing kid things. They seem to get in a lot of trouble and they're having lots of fun right now. But anyone who's got kids at this point, first off, I'm envious to anyone who doesn't because I love my kids.

I don't know how my wife is, I think she's on like day, like 18 folks of quarantine, like with three kids under four. Like I pull my hair out and it's been about 10 days now. So she's a superhero. But anyone who's sitting there with no kids, I envy it. because you probably, you know, you wake up, you have your coffee, you know, what are we going to do today?

And, you know, you got your work to get done. Maybe you don't. Maybe you've got laid off for the time being. Hopefully you're back on your feet soon. But, man, it must be quiet in there. And you're probably annoyed by the quiet. I tell you what, I'll give you three children for a couple hours, and we'll spruce that rate up.

Stacey Jubinville, Wandering Wild Apparel. I talked about buying a hat off for last week. She says, the small businesses are the heart of every community, and I believe a lot of them need you more than ever right now. If you purchase $100 or more with her, 25 of that will go towards a gift card of a local small business of your choice as gift back to you. So spend $100, and you get a $25 gift card to wherever you want to go. And so she says whether it's your favorite local restaurant, clothing store, woodworker, or artist, we can show them some love. I 100% agree. Larissa Scott,

grit athletic performance. She's started every Tuesday doing a Tip-It-Ford Tuesday, a random act of kindness challenge. Check out their Instagram page. She says just a way to spread some positivity through our community.

So I'm going to keep my eyes posted on that. I think that's a brilliant idea. Anytime we can, you know, put some smiles on some people's faces. You know, everywhere I go, I have a conversation. I've got to remind myself to, you know, I'm usually a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, and right now it is a lot of doom and gloom.

So let's try and cheer some people up on Tuesdays. Keep an eye out for that. I think that's brilliant, Larissa. She says, as of today, so if you're listening again, this is April 1st, you're not hearing a joke. She's offering three programs with huge discounts, where if you spend $100, $25 of your gift card will go to a local business. So once again, give you $25 back.

And then she's going to, on top of that, she's going to donate 25 of it to the Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation to help support frontline staff and residents in need. Lori LaBerge, Abby Road Flowers and Gifts, temporarily closed to walk in traffic. However, they're offering curbside pickup and free delivery within Lloydminster. Current hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. please call 780875-2211 or visit on Instagram and Facebook. You know, I might have to order some flowers. I think my wife has probably had enough of the kids, but she's probably had enough of this big kid by now.

I'm sure I'm driven her nuts. Her friends probably already know that via several texts, I'm sure. Ken Rutherford, yes, Ken, the episode number, one of the Sean Newman podcast where the Sean Newman podcast is housed in his Rutherford appraisal group. Lots of love here for you Ken. He says he's in the business valuing any kind of real estate. Home shops, farms, restaurants, cabins, or any kind of property. If you need an appraisal for a bank loan or to set up a fair purchase price or buying, selling, uh, give his office call 306, 307, 1732. Ken is the man. You won't

find anyone better, I promise. Malcolm Ragkey had sent me along. Two notes. The first one, I apologize if there was supposed to be a name attached to it. I don't have, I don't have a, I'm just going to call it anonymous. It's a note, I believe, from a nurse, and I think I'll just read it here, and you guys can hear. So it says, it's been a couple of weeks now that our lives have been turned on a dime.

when one takes a step back, the scope and breadth of a pandemic is not something anyone could ever prepare for. Not mentally, not emotionally, not until you're in it. What you don't expect, though, in the midst of the fear and the exhaustion, are the little, and in some cases, huge moments of grace. The absolute outpouring of love and kindness we are seeing from our community is an overwhelming moment of grace to me, and that love and kindness makes it worth going to work the next day. From the dental offices and companies who are selflessly donating hundreds upon hundreds of mass, after just one call to the restaurants bringing in food for the workers just to brighten our day the staff who are thinking outside the box and bringing in supplies from outside normal health care routes to the phone calls and texts of friends and family willing to man their sewing machines and make mass each person or company who do this selflessly are my moments of grace in this I know there these are scary times I'm scared too and these are early days our world has changed in just weeks and it's going to change even more making it almost too much to fathom But this love and support from our community makes me proud to be a nurse.

And I hope then things settle and they will. And that this new sense of team and kindness for one another is our new normal. Our new normal. Man, I got through that all and then butchered the last sentence. And if your hairs didn't rise a little bit from that, I don't know if you're human. That was, to whoever that was, that was well written. I really enjoyed that. another note here, Malcolm had passed on me.

From Dr. Kevin Governor, he said, I want to extend the sincerest gratitude of all Lloyd Minster and area health care professionals to the community of Lloyd Minster for their overwhelming support during these trying times. With the generous help of the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation and numerous members of our fantastic community, we've been able to acquire the personal protective equipment that we need to provide safe care to our patients. Your efforts are much appreciated. I want to take this opportunity to plead with all of you to exercise social distancing during this time.

It's the only way to ensure that we minimize the spread of COVID-19. Stay safe. I also got an email from a business in town. They wanted to remain anonymous, but it's a cool little email train going around right now, where you can buy, skip the dish as gift cards, and take them into Malcolm Raggkin. the Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation. He'll issue you a receipt for whatever you purchase,

so whether you're a business or personal. And then he'll drop them off for the frontline workers, for them and their families while they're busy, you know, making sure that all of us are taking care of. Essentially, if you, well, here's the step. Step one, log into your Skip the Dishes account or create one. Click gift cards at the bottom. Use your business credit card or your health.

credit card to load up some gift cards and print them out. It says it's super easy. Email Malcolm at Malcolm, M-A-L-C-O-L-C-O-M-R-A-D-K-E at L-R-H-F-F-E-E at L-R-H-F-F-A. He'll arrange for a pickup for the printed cards and get you a receipt. And step four is obviously repeat. And that's going around right now. I think that's a really, really cool idea as well. Another thing that's going on in Lloyd and just finding ways to help and I think that's super cool and super cool on the company in town for getting that kicked off. Just a reminder that people are, people care, people are thinking of everyone. I know the social distancing can get you kind of stressed and feeling it every day. And don't

forget your phone is a powerful little device. I, I've learned to connect with friends via FaceTime and and it's you know I tell you two weeks ago I would have never thought to pick up my phone and FaceTime somebody it probably would have been awkward to be honest and now the other night Mel and I sat down with Colby and Dejure good friends of ours and we sat there and had you know a couple beers and just a good old bullshit and it was healthy it felt good and like I say a week prior to that you would have got a babysitter and hop down and went and had a good night and came home and you know no different but times have changed and uh we've got to take care of ourselves we got to take care of our friends and family and uh never forget that a simple phone call goes a long way to letting people know you're thinking about them and uh a little love you know in the form of what these businesses are doing or um that they're open if you if you got proxie you're on the go now that you got a little bit of time they can help you out show them some love

they've been you know a lot of these local businesses have really supported some of our local charities and teams in the past and now they're asking for some help and I think a lot of us if we are able to should be lending a hand and trying to do that heck if you got don't have the money you know a little pep of mine and I'll get I'm rambling right now and I apologize guys folks. I'll get to Jason Greger here in a quick moment but if you don't got money and you're pinching pennies I think everybody understands that. Something you could do as we all just saw we're living in Canada. I'm bloody it won't stop snowing. I grab your shovel and go shovel a neighbor's driveway. I got three little kids we're out for a walk. Nothing just drives me more nuts than

you know nobody's shoveling a driveway because we're hauling 12 different things down the sidewalk and now you got to try and go through a snow drift up to my knee and uh if you if you if you got a little bit extra time lend a little hand give somebody a smile and um really uh let's try and help everyone out here and pull together through this thing now here's your factory sports tale of the tape on the on the show today is jason greggar if you're sitting there going who is jason Gregor. Well, obviously you're not a sports person. Jason Greger is on TSN 1260 out of Emmington. He owns and operates his entire show. I want to think about that. He buys airtime off the radio station, does all the marketing, does all the show content. He is a fantastic talk, fantastic, really enjoyed

him. He quit his job at 27. He was working in the oil patch and then hops into radio. And, gangbusters, let me tell you. And it was just a fantastic hour. I think you guys are really, really, really going to enjoy this one. So I'll stop babbling without further ado. First off, thanks or welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. I got Jason Greger from TSN 1260 on. Thank you for taking the time to sit down with me.

I know I joke on the show. All of us guys are specifically you guys who go in and have these big radio shows are kind of stuck at home right now. So you're probably taking 50 of these calls a day just to keep yourself entertained because I mean, now you're not out and about. But regardless, thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

No, no problem. Look forward to it. Now, you, sir, are my personal favorite at Eminton. But I have three brothers and a sister. and what's fantastic about you is I have a brother who absolutely detest you. And we get in arguments all the time. And I think it's one of your best attributes. I was like, have you been that opinionated from an early age?

Or is that something that, you know, you kind of developed as you went along? Yeah, the funny thing is, I don't know if I'm that opinionated, really. I just, I like to debate. and I think if you're going to debate, then, you know, back up your debate. Too often people want to just spew their opinion, but don't have anything to back it up. And I find that, you know, that's always entertaining. You know, in our household growing up, we had a lot of discussions. I call it a discussion.

You don't always have to agree with everybody. But if you're going to bring a counterpoint, then you better be able to back up your facts. When, you know, if people like to throw out things and I can say, well, actually, that's incorrect, then your opinion, it's great to have an opinion. but your opinion's only worth to the point that you can back it up. I learned that long time ago reading lots of books, and I've always been a firm believer in that. And there's days obviously on radio where you say things to fire people up.

And the thing is about hosting a show, if everybody liked you, then you don't have a good show. It's a very good point. With discussions in particular, that's a hard thing. Like most conversations when you're talking about hot subjects end in arguments. It's very hard to have a discussion, right, where you can actually like calm yourself down enough to listen to the other side's point. We see that all the time. I mean, right now with this coronavirus, it's, I mean, you go on social media, you can get anything from conspiracy theorists

to listening to the scientists, to listen to Joe Blow over there. Everybody has their theories on it. And a lot of people tune out the other side. And you see that all the time. So to have a discussion, is really a big talent. Yeah, and you know what? Like Strud's and I, we have lots of good debates on the show. And there's times where I'll be on radio where I'll debate a point

that I don't necessarily agree with off of the air, but on the air, I have to come up with a counterpoint. Otherwise, it makes for boring radio. So that, and that's something you don't want to do, you don't always want to take the side you don't agree on because, A, it's a little bit harder to try to defend it sometimes. But if Strudz and I, you know,

we see things similar in a lot of cases, if we always agree, it'd be pretty boring. So now, you know, I'm not, if it's anything that's a real serious topic, I would never go publicly with an opinion that I don't stand on. But when we're talking, you know, analyzing players or things like that, there's times when you can, you know, you can disagree with something just because it makes for entertaining radio. So, you know, you always have to mix that part of it in. But, you know, Strud's and I will have a great debate and everybody thinks it's heat and

we go to commercial break and we're like, hey, no, that was a good one. That was perfect. we're fine. That's the best, right, when you can have heated discussions and have a chuckle about it after. I mean, you obviously have a pretty tight bond with Jason there on your show. Like, you guys are having a lot of fun right now. I mean, I was going to ask, like, how you've adjusted. I assume you guys aren't going into the studio anymore.

You're doing everything over essentially media outlets like this, right? the ability to tie in together, but self-isolator distance, social distancing? Struddy actually comes. We do it from my house. Okay. So Struddy comes here, just the two of us, and we trust each other enough on what the other person's doing away from it. He's really the only person, I think, other than my wife's parents who live right down the street from us that have been in our house here in the last few weeks. And so, you know, he comes in, scrubs down. We always joke. He's a pre-med guy, so he likes to pretend that he knows how to white gown properly. But no, we do it right here from the studio. I've done my show on location for many years.

So it's just, it's actually a little bit easier doing it here because, you know, there's not a, you know, I've done it at bars for 15 years in different places. So here it's just the two of us in my office nowadays with technology, you know, it sounds virtually the same as in studio. You know, our engineers can tell the difference, I think, for guys with a great ear for sound. but for the most part, that's what it is. Now, we do sit across the table where we're a good six feet apart. We're not shaking hands when we see each other or anything like that. But it's being different because now we don't get into a lot of analyzing anything because there's not a lot of plays to analyze right now.

But I'm always, I like interviews. I've always liked maybe longer theory interviews. And so for the last few weeks, we focused on the 97 Euler Star series. We've had players and coaches from both teams. and it's been really good. We did a new segment, we call it Storytime, and we just get different athletes, not necessarily the big name guys.

We had Frank, the animal, by Lois on. Like, anybody who's got the nickname, the animal's got a unique story. And he opened up our interview, basically saying, well, you know, I just got out of jail. I snuck across the border so I could play in the East Coast League,

and the interview only got better from there. So it was, you know, I like them finding the personalities in sports now, And I think your audience right now, we get a lot of texts every day from people that are just like, thanks, you're giving me an opportunity not to have to think about the reality. Because right now it's a pretty scary situation for a lot of people emotionally, physically, financially. So, you know, we got four hours to just have fun. You know, we like to debate a lot of things. We'll debate movies and TV shows now rather than sports.

And, you know, guys always have opinions. And, you know, I think I have a sense of what the average guy is interested in. So we like to talk about that. Speaking of movies, I hear rom-coms are the next upcoming. Oh, this is strutty, man. It's like a Stanley Cup. So he will, he's the resident expert on rom-com. So usually we have myself, Strud's, Connor Halley, and Tom Gazolo each submit one option.

Okay. And then we're going to put it online and everybody votes. But we're going to let struds pick all four. All four? And then we'll see, we'll see who they vote on. So. And these movies are movies you have seen before? I know you just watched Indiana Jones, right?

Yeah. Like those are movies you're just rewatching that. Yeah, well, I haven't seen Indiana Jones in years. And funny enough, Gazola and Connor had never seen it, which I couldn't believe. Really? Yeah, we'll try to, we picked movies like Super Bad was, you know, everybody needs a comedy out of it. And that one was really good.

But we do try to slide in a few movies that we haven't seen. Like, out of the four that were nominated last week, I'd only seen one of them. And it happened to be Raiders of Lost Ark. So I was kind of disappointed. it, but, you know, it's still a good movie. I hadn't seen it in 20 years, so it's not like I remembered every scene. But, you know, really what it is, is it's more so for the comments online because I think a lot of us, you get into routines and you watch the game at home for hockey.

And a lot of people like to go on Twitter and, you know, see what other people were saying about the game. Now, this is a little different, but because, you know, the movie, it's not like there's, you know, bad plays. Now there's some bad scenes, so we'll talk about it. But it's just, it's more so trying to give people an opportunity to be connected. And, you know, we get a lot of people that are like, man, especially somebody who lives at home right now,

they said, man, it's just nice to feel like you're communicating with someone, even though they're not there. Well, I was talking with my brothers yesterday. And I listened to a lot of podcasts. When I worked out towards Outpoint Bonneville, I used to listen to your show all the time. Now I go east north and north-Battleford, and you don't come in. So that sucks.

But when I'm drive, I listen to a ton of, radio, podcasts, etc. And I find over the last two weeks specifically, you've listened to so much stuff on what's going on in the world trying to stay up to date that you can stress yourself out. Oh, yeah. To have, have, you know, some stuff on, just listening to your Ryan Smith interview, Ryan Smith has been my all-time favorite oiler.

And that series you guys are talking about, you know, at the time I would have been, I think, 11 years old. and like you know you guys talk about like just how the hockey was played and how good the stars were and oilers we were just like the blue collar team oh listen i talked like it was my team because that year was you know those years actually were probably the funnest years of watching the oilers i ever had where they just uh they come in they were complete underdog you had when you came to emminton though the fans were electric and now going back listening to you guys kind of retrace the steps of that with all the players and coaches and

just people in general that were around then is for me that that stuff right now is fantastic it's been a lot of fun because every player and the coach they all have a different memory of the series and different games and even having Andy Moe gone yesterday of course who won three cups with eminent and then he was winding down his career that was the second last year and and he didn't have a great series i think if you know if we're being honest especially like Smithy's overtime goal in game five was, I think it's from behind the net almost, the goal line. It wasn't an ideal goal, but it went in. And, but Moe just talked, you know, he gave a really great answer about the Todd Marshawn breakaway goal and how as a goalie on

breakaways, it's all about analyzing the speed of the player. And he said, you know what? The difference was there when he came, when he, his, he should have had his heels at the top of the crease, but he had his toes. He backed in a little bit too far. And that's the difference. you give a guy an extra three or four inches of opening, and, you know, NHL players are going to hit that. And it was really unique listening to that aspect, you know, didn't make an excuse just said, hey, this is how it was. And, you know, it was, it's been interesting.

We got Doug Waite coming on on Wednesday. Well, you know, I think we got Gary and Hatcher, who Oiler fans, I think what's interesting is the players that you hate, you almost really enjoy listening to them this many years later. I find, you know, O'Refans used to hate Steve Ott until he came on my show all the time, and then they loved him just because he was a fun personality. And it'll be interesting to have Dary and Hatcher.

I know he had an illness in the family last week, so that's why I wasn't on. But when we connect with them, I'm very curious because that guy, you know, he was probably one of the dirtiest, most physical defense of his era. The only guy we ever had,

and you could probably correct me on this, there's probably others, but the only guy who ever played or suited up for the oilers who beat up guys like that was Chris Pronger. Like when you get a guy of that stature who plays that hard in front of the net, if he's on your team you love him but when he's opposing all your players man it's tough yeah the owner said like Craig muny and Brian Marchman were those guys they walked the line

of dirty no question about it with the submarine hits and you know opposing guys hated them but you love them on your team and I you know I I remember like strutty was telling us when they went to get Brian Marchman every guy in the room before the game was like be aware of Marchman right and it was constant reminder and he still got guys because even though, you know, they would yell from the bench, Marshman's on the ice just because he was, you know, Hatcher was more mean, aggressive in your face all the time. But Marchman and Muni were pretty dirty.

You're right on Pronger. Pronger could get away with, you know, cross checks to borderline to the neck and upward sometimes in the face and, you know, slashing and cross-checking. And now you can't really play that way in front of the net. It's probably a good thing. Probably a good thing. But there were very few guys. And when you played like that, like, I remember talking.

to Richard Matvichuk last week and he said the thing about Smith that he they respected so much was it didn't matter what you did he would come back the next shift and a lot of guys wouldn't right like you could tell as a player just like in real life when you can get in a guy's head and intimidate them and smith's strength was a he was unreal in front of the net at tipping bucks net etc but he was incredibly talented at never showing a weakness that he was beat up even if he was he never showed it and I think at times that would get into the head of the defense yeah he was a warrior I loved watching Smitty play. But the purpose of having you on today, as much as I love talking sports, is I love hearing

guys' stories. And I actually listened to you and Dean Mlard, which you did, I think, about a month ago. And it was interesting to listen to that because at the time, the Oilers are in the playoff hunt. You know, you're almost talking about Battle of Alberta, and whether it's going to happen or not, which you said for some reason it won't happen. And I had to chuckle because, of course, now where we sit, you know, it looks like Oilers, Flames fans are going to have to wait at least

another year. But what I want to know is I've listened to you a long time, really enjoy your thoughts and perspectives and your show in general. And I'm always curious on how a guy gets to where he is. And a year ago, almost to the day, I had Morgan and Merv Mann on, who are two Lloyd guys. I know both of them. I'm more clear. I know both of them. I'm more, played with my brother Colin and a kid. We were actually, Morb was in my brother's wedding party, they're beauty guys.

Well, and as soon as I finished with them, they said, you know what guy you should get on is Jason Greger. And I said, I'd love to have them on. And then they started telling me a bit of your story. And I was like,

holy shit. Like, I've never, I didn't know how that worked or you could even do that. And so for the listeners who don't know, you're a guy who buys your air time and then does pretty much everything.

And before we get to that, I was hoping we could maybe go back to the start because you weren't, it wasn't like at 17 you walked in, started on the radio and then, you know, and worked your way that way. You got a little bit different of a story. And I was hoping we could maybe start a little closer to the start and just kind of trace your steps on how you get to where you currently are. Yeah, it's definitely not a unique. I mean, it's pretty unique path. But everybody has their own path on success. And so for me, you know, I was always, I think, my, like, my mom's highly educated. And so in our household, we used to read the paper every day. My brother and I, of course, being, I think I was nine when I started reading the paper every day. And, you know, we'd kind

of debate, you know, whoever got up first would get the sports section, right? Like, sports and comics were pretty much all I wanted to read, you know, every now and then, your mom would make it take section B, I think, in the journal and you're worried about the city or something else. And it was like, shoot me until I got to the sports section. And, you know, back then there was no internet growing up. So I would read the sports section sometimes, three times, they and just absorb as many stats. I have a really good memory. And, you know, I could just remember a lot of those stats. And, you know, for people who grew up, I don't know if you read the journal, but Tuesday used to be the big day because that's when they would bring

out all the stats from the NHL and every team and every player. And I would just read those all the time. I just to cut them out and keep them and just kind of memorize them. It was a fun thing for me. And so I've always, sports is what I always wanted to do. But, you know, I played in the jungle, just junior B hockey. Hockey. It was never a great hockey player. I liked it. Who did you play for in the jungle? Bowman and then Ladoque, and then we won with Ladoque. We actually lost to Lloyd in the provincial final in overtime in 93, I think it was, after

winning in 92. So I kind of suck, but it was, you know, it doesn't matter what level you're at. You never forget that. And so I finished up playing hockey. I was 21. And I'd been working in the oil field at the time, and I just kind of stayed there. I didn't, you know, I always wanted to do sports, but I think I was young, a little immature at that time, really, and was having fun. So, you know, worked in the oil field, made some money, had a lot of fun.

I party with my buddies. Basically, that was it, a single guy. And just one day, I was working in Killam, Alberta. And at that point, I'd ran my own unit for a year. So when you ran your own unit, you got to stay in your own room. But in the summertime, when it would slow down, they would put four operators on a job and you had to share a room. And I ended up having to share a room with this guy, Jason Beattie. And I never met any human being in my life who snored like that guy.

And literally the second night, I couldn't sleep all night, finally had to take the duvet off the bed, went into the bathroom, rolled it up like a sleeping bag under the sink. And I laid down to go to sleep. And I just laid there. I remember looking up and saying, man, there's got to be more life than this. Like, this is not what I want to be. And literally, we got back in town two days later. I called my mom and said, hey, I want to go into radio.

How do I do it? My mom was, you know, she's like, well, she looked. it up, she was the educated one and said, hey, this is what you got to do. So I actually went to applied at Nate and I had to go through college prep courses. I had to upgrade. It was pretty competitive. So they recommended you had an 80 average and I think I had like a 72. So I had to upgrade a few classes, which is kind of humbling when you're, you know, you're 26, 27. You go back to school and you're really in there with a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds. And it's funny, the difference you have when you have life experience at 26 and 7 and, you know, I just knew a lot

of stuff like social studies. And so it wasn't that I was smarter. I just had more life experience. And then I got in the program and it kind of just took off. I locked out in my third semester, a guy got let go. And I grew up listening to John Short. I don't know if you know who John is, but he was kind of like a legend of mine growing up. Yeah, big broadcaster. Before, before I, I got to slow you down just a smidge here. I'm curious, you work in the oil patch for a long time. And at that time, when you're quitting, would have been the heyday, the start of the heyday. You must have been, where were you working at the time? I was working at premium oil field inspection.

I was doing downhole, ultrasonic testing on downhole drill pipe. Okay. And at the time, so you're working in the oil patch. Were you doing radio things at all? No, no. No, no. The only thing I was, I read both papers every day.

Like, the guys on the road always laughed because I would buy the journal and the sun. And I would read everything. Just, I wanted, you know, I felt like that was the way to keep my brain active. because doing ultrasonic testing, you know, it was pretty boring at times. You're doing all the drill pipe. You know, you got your little machine and you're on the pipe. And you're just hoping for a crack or something so you can feel like you're working. But I have an ultimate respect for oil field guys, a lot of my family's in there.

And it can be a tough job when you have to put in repetitive hour after hour. And not much is really happening, right? So it's, you got to stay sharp just in case. So that's what I was doing. And I went back to school in 19. 1999, 2000? Yeah, 2000, January is when I started the program, but 1999 in September is when I went into college prep courses at me. So when you're driving, after you've been under the sink and you're laying there and you go and there's more to life, you're driving home, you're thinking,

whatever you're thinking. Why radio that? Was it something that you've always wanted to? You talk about reading the paper a ton, like, did you want to write? Your mom's wrote books, has she not? Yeah, my mom, yeah, she's unreal. Yeah, she wrote three books in her 70s. So, and she wrote a book probably when she was 45 or 52, so she's amazing. But, you know what, I, radio was something I always wanted. You know, I've always had a gift of the gab in my family. You know, I emceed probably tons of my friends' weddings growing up before I was ever in radio.

That's just something I was good at talking and telling stories. So, you know what, I listen to John. I remember my late father and I coming home from hockey games, listening to Sports Hockey Radio, religiously every night. Yeah, yeah. So that's something I always wanted to do. And I, you know, I talked about it and I just never did it. And, you know, I looked back and it was just,

it wasn't the right time for me. And so when I went in, you know, you need a little bit of luck. And sure, I got some luck by being able to work with John. But, you know, then hard work like in any occupation. I think the most successful people in whatever walk of life are the ones who usually worked on. Well, and you, you are doing a ton. like i mean i always point out your show but i mean on top of your show you do uh you write uh for

oilers um oil nation right uh i always enjoyed and i'm curious on the story on how uh your charity got started with draggers grads uh you do a ton there um with uh all the different charities you work with actually. I mean, like, it's always when I listen to you, I always go, man, it's impressive. Everybody always talks about being busy. And then I listen to guys like you. And I go, man, that guy has got to be busy. So when I sent the email to get you on my show, I go, eh, it's probably hoping how he comes on. And then you email back and I'm like, oh, I guess he's you know, a guy who never seems to sleep. Well, actually, you know what, it's probably had the best two weeks of sleep of my life because there's not much going on right now. But

I grew up on a farm in New Sreptan. I think you just, you got a work ethic from being on the farm. Like when you got up in the morning, there was always something to do. And so you just did it. You didn't really have a choice in the matter as a kid sometimes. As a teenager, I didn't really love it. But that's kind of how it was. If you lived on the farm, you had to do the work.

And so I'm a pretty, I think I'm a hyper guy a little bit. So I like to be on the go. I like to do a lot of things. You know, hosting my show is kind of the easy part of the day for me. I've been doing it now for 19 years. It's fun. I like it. You know, the writing at Orders Nation,

They approached me back in 2007 and they wanted me to write. And they started the company. And at that point, I'd own my show now for three years. And once you become self-employed, I wanted to have a say. So I said, well, guys, can I buy in at 20 percent? So they were kind of stunned. They were like, you're serious? I'm like, well, yeah, if I'm going to be in on it, I want to be invested.

And there's no better way to show someone you're invested by putting money where your mouth is. So I bought in. And so now I'm part owner of the nation network. And, you know, my buddies, Clark and Jay are much more of the internet savvy guys, right? I can talk content and help out with that. And it's, you know, now we own hockey fights.com and daily face off and, you know, NHL numbers and all those different sites that are part of it in Calgary and Toronto and Vancouver. So it's, you know, it's being interesting to learn.

You know, I'm more in the content and just writing side of things. But, you know, that's just fun. I like it. I like learning different things. The charity thing was my father grew up, fairly poor in his household. They didn't have a lot. And I just, I remember my dad talking about it as a kid.

And, you know, my dad was never one for lectures. I never, you know, big speech father or anything. But you just kind of learn sometimes from watching. And my dad was always very willing to want it. Like in our household, he never bought anything for himself. He made sure my mom always had the newer car. You know, in the 80s when the, you know, the oil collapse happened. My dad literally didn't buy new pair of pants for three years.

My mom used to just sew patches on his jeans. And he didn't care, right? Because he grew up really poor. And I just, he never said that, but I remember those stories. And, you know, my dad always talked about, you got to help other people. So I kind of stumbled into the, to the charity thing on my show one year when I decided, well, we'll start a month of giving to see if we can raise the money for, for Santa's anonymous and the Christmas Bureau.

And, you know, my goal was to raise 25 grand that month. And we ended up raising 55. And I was like, wow. And so it just kind of came on. And, you know, my audience is, I think most people genuinely want to help others. They just need to be reminded who. And people trust me now. I do a lot of research on which charities we work with because I want charities that have

a low administration fee. So you know that the money is going to the people who need it. It's not going to someone to have a job. And I think that's important. And then when I started my own foundation, I just, that happened in 2013. And for people who don't know Gregor's grads, we supply suits for high school boys who can't afford one. And it's a new suit, shirt, tie, shoes. We get them all professionally fitted at Mr. Dirks. They're a big sponsor. And you know what? I can tell you of all the things that I do.

It's a lot of work to organize that with the schools, but they're great. But when you get to see a young, 17-year-old kid and he stands in front of the mirror the first time with the suit on, man, it's amazing. So it's a lot of fun. It still chokes me up just talking about it. How many boys do you give suits to each year? Well, the first year was, 36 and last year we did 125 and this year we we had 140 then of course COVID hit and so now there might not be grads and ATV financial is stepped up they're a big title sponsor now which is awesome as well as Mr. Dirk so you know we still you got to because we do a lot of fundraise and I raise all the money myself and it costs about on average 270 bucks we get really good deals on on

a new suit with shirt and tie and shoes and you know the counselors at the schools are the ones who and nominate the kids. They know which kids and which families are in dire need. And, you know, you get some pretty cool pictures. That's the only thing I ask. We never put the kids' names out there. But I just, all I ask them is they send me a picture on grad date of just so you can see them in their suit. They're always pretty fired up. Yeah, well, that's, you know, I was telling my wife, I was explaining my wife is from Minneapolis. She, until I met her, even though they're in the hockey state, had been to zero hockey games. You can imagine her now. She's shaking her head living in Lloyd Minster. And I'm telling her who I got

coming on tomorrow. And, you know, I'm pretty excited about it. And I was explaining some of the things that you do. And I brought up Gregor's grads. And she's like, well, what's that? And I'm telling her about it. And she goes, huh, that's something very unique. You don't hear that very often. And, you know, I, when I first heard you talk about it on air probably a couple of years ago, I was like, man, that's kind of cool. And at the time, I didn't realize how many boys that is. But like, that's a lot. 140, you say. I mean, and that number probably continue to go up as it gets more successful. But kudos to you for doing stuff like that. The world needs more of that. Like, that's, that's really cool. I appreciate it. Like, we, you know, when I got the idea from

Cinderella's closet, they provided it for girls. And now it's a little bit different because, you know, we learned the hard way that I guess with dresses you can take a size 10 dress and and alter it to fit a size three or four you can't really take a size 40 suits and alter it to fit a 36 right doesn't work we learned that the hard way because the first year we did it we were just taking donations and so we had lots of listeners like we page cleaners had volunteered and offered to dry clean all the stuff so people were dropping it off we had 300 suits and now I got I had to get rid of some of them you know some people gave suits from like the 70s and I'm like, okay, we're not going to buy. We actually had some really nice suits, Hugo Boss and stuff, but we learned that the fittings,

like, and luckily we only had 36 kids because it was a stretch. We ended up having to buy some suits because most of the suits were donated were sized 40 to 44 because they're from men. But these are high school boys. And, you know, some of them are wearing a 34 or 36. And you just couldn't alter it down to fit. So after that, I sat down and just said, okay, I got to raise the money and we can get a new suit, they can keep it. It's a lot easier. And now we do it at Mr. Dirk. So when the boys come in,

like, they feel like any grad. They come in. They're professionally fitted by the staff at Mr. Dirk. And we've now done it for last five years. So, you know, it's like an assembly line. They're really good. And it's just awesome to see the kids when they step out of the change room, they stand in front of the mirror because none of them have ever had a suit before. And even, I don't care. You're a growing man. Every time you get a new suit, you're looking in the mirror. Hey, what's happening? You know, you're strutting to your wife or your girlfriend. and it's no different for your 17-year-old boy. There's something about looking good.

Oh, 100%. Right? And new threads are the best, right? I laugh about your dad's story about wearing the same jeans for three years because I grew up on a farm and I could just, that's the way you're kind of wired out there, right? And a little dirt on it or whatever. You got a hole whoopty do, right? I mean, fencing.

I mean, if you fenced, like, the holes are just part of the game. I mean, if you don't have cuts on your arms or your hands, even if you're wearing gloves after fencing, you probably haven't tightened the fire tight enough. I got to be the demographic out here, I love the farming chat. But fencing, I'm a guy who can't, I have to have a bare hand for the stable. I can't do it with glove. So I don't know how many times as a kid you smack your hand, a couple of choice words. It was one of the places, dad, I'll get dad and crap for this, mom and him,

the list of this, but it was one of the places in the entire world where we could swear when you did something stupid like that, right? And he'd just look over and he wouldn't say anything because, I mean, he's done it. It hurts like hell. And you carry on with life, right? But going back to the tuxes, I mean, even now, you said it right, a grown-ass man, you get a new suit. There ain't nothing better. And at that time in their life on, you know, now we're both older. but at that point when you're graduating, that's a big time in your life, like a huge achievement. And at the time, you think there's going to be nothing bigger in life.

And, you know, to get something to, so you can be a part of it and feel a part of it and actually, like, stand up tall. Like, that's, that's, it could be, you know, life altering almost. Well, we've received a lot of emails from, from boys saying, hey, thank you. And, you know, a lot of them will, because when I sit down, we tell them, we, we purposely at Dirks, they fit them the jacket so it fits, but they leave an inseam in the back. So, you know, you're 17 by the time you're 20, maybe your shoulders broadened out a bit. They can just take it back to a tailor and let it out. So, you know, a good inch and a half now, unless you have a massive

growth spurt, then maybe it'll be too tight. But, you know, a lot of them can keep these suits for five, six years, depending on how much they grow. And, you know, I tell them, hey, keep this for, it's yours to keep, which usually shocks me. A lot of them think it's kind of a rental, but it's theirs to keep. And they can use it for, we've had a few kids that email and the side, hey, I got a job and I think I only got the job because of my suit. And that's great to hear. And I always tell me, I said, the suit didn't get you the job. The suit just gave you confidence so they would see who you are as a person. And really, that's all it's due. Ah, super cool. Like I say, really cool that you do that. It's another reason I'm a huge fan here.

is just some of the community aspects that you put into your show is just awesome. I want to get to your show before, you know, I constantly looking at the time and I see the middle. Don't worry. I got a lot of time. My show is all prepped for the day. Perfect. Well, one of the very interesting things that I learned about you last year when I was talking with the Man Brothers is that you buy your air time and then do everything. And I was curious, like, is that something that happens in all radio or are you very unique to, you, I know when you talked about John Short, when I listened to you and Millard talk about it, that's a guy who did that.

That's how I assume you learned it. And I guess me just being dumb, I just assumed you're an employee and you just showed up and you lined up your guests and whatever else. So maybe we could just dive into that a little bit. Sure. Well, John hadn't always done that, but he did it later in his career back at what, but then was an oldies, 1260. So it was an oldie station. And then from nine to midnight, he would rent his airtime. And they had Bob Suter was his sales guy and they would, and they would go out and make sales. And so John was doing a show at Northlands, the racetrack every night. And that's when, when I started working for him, I was in my third year semester at school. And they just needed somebody to be the on-site producer because John, you know, was technically inept. Joe. about is like dude you can't teach a 70-year-old how to all of a sudden run the internet like I can barely turn on computer you joke so I'd have to be on site and printing off all the stories because the internet this was still in you know 2000 so it was the early

stages there wasn't you know the massive amounts of sites with information there was like a CP and that had all the stories and you would search through and then print them off and talk to them so that's kind of how I got started and you know luckily for me you need to break Rob Kerr who was the regular guy got sick pretty sick so I hosted I filled in every night for a month while I was in school. And that just after I was supposed to do my practice, I'm at Chad. And John was like, well, why aren't you doing it with me? And I was like, I didn't think that was an option. Because, you know, like he was in his own show. He's like, no, you can do it. So I was like, great. So I did it with John. And I started covering the Eskimo was kind of like a

beat reporter and producing a show. And then after my practice was done, he said, well, hey, we'd like to hire you. But like, you got to learn how to do sales. And I was like, what? Like, I never sold anything in my life. I'm, you know, sales job's tough. And so I kind of learned a little bit how that was. And so we did that for a few years. In the meantime, I had a break. We went to CGA, where I was actually employee the station for a year and a half. And that was okay, but it was a religious station with a sports show. And ultimately, that wasn't so, you know, it's kind of one of those just little odd parts of your journey in life. And then we went back to, then Team 1260 started in 2004. And we worked there for about eight months. And I was

starting to get pretty good at sales. But, and my show at that point was 11 p.m. till 1 a.m. And John was nine till 11. So we would buy a four hour block. And all the sales were going into one pot. And I was starting to get good at sales, but I was really getting such a small commission. It wasn't like, I'm like, I got to make some money here. You got to remember, I'm like now 32 years of age. And I'm like, this is, you know, I got to make some money or else I got to quit.

Like, you can't do anything? So I went to John and said, hey, do you mind if I just separate my show, you take your two hours, I'll take my two hours. And he said, sure. So I went to the station. I talked at that point, Carl Stark and Marty Forbes. And I said, hey, guys, it's my plan. They're like, and they knew me now for a year.

And they're like, okay. So all the sponsors I had at that time, Blue Sky Limos, Boston Pizza, a few other ones, Kaplanaroh, rehab and others. I took them, and that was 11 p.m. until 1 a.m. And Kia West Eminson was a car dealership that I had. And I just kind of started from that. And I worked that for a year. And then John left to the afternoon.

He was getting older and tired. And then I went from 9 to midnight. And I owned three hours and just would sell. I did all the sales for my show. I was doing 11 to 1 every night. Buddy, that was, you got to remember, I was, usually you would go to Lloyd Minster or other small markets in Saskatchewan and start. But so I kind of looked at it.

Like I started on CJACA, which was a Christian station. So it wasn't like it was a massive market. But you're in a major market in a small market station is how I looked at it. So I got to cover, you know, the orders, the roadrunners, the Eskimos. So you got to cover major league teams. But I was a newbie. Like, you know, it was, it was a good way to learn. You can make mistakes at 11 p.m.

And, you know, you're not going to get ripped on it as much because your audience is just smaller. And then it just kind of grew your audience at night. And so it was fun. Like, and you could, you didn't get away with anything really at 11. You know, there wasn't a lot of CRTC regulation. Not that I ever swore anything, but, you know, you could have some pretty zany segments and stuff.

And then it just, it kind of grew from there. But, you know, it's funny. Like, 11 p.m. to me was, that was my first time. the time didn't care to me. It was just like I'm talking into the radio and doing what I love and it was for two hours and I always tell people it doesn't matter how many people are listening. If you want to get better, you're just going to work on your craft, not because you got 10 listeners or 20,000 listeners.

That's right. The only way you'll get to 20,000 is if you take the time at that point to get better. And so I got to learn kind of through my mistakes. Well, and I was going to say, you know, he said you'd never done sales before. And I think anytime you hop behind the mic, whether you realize it or not, you're selling. You're selling yourself, right? And you're trying to get, you know, and if you're no different, right? If you sucked, I wouldn't listen to you, right? And if other guys, you know, I love when you have Ray Ferraro on, like that guy is excellent. And if people like that weren't

good, you wouldn't tune in. And that's, and it's not that hard now with technology. And I mean, podcasts and everything else. You can listen to anyone wherever you want to from the other side of the world. You know, you got more options than ever before. It isn't back like when I was growing up, you tuned into, you know, your two or three radio, well, heck, two or three. We probably had one radio station in Lloyd, and then you listen to 630 Ched for the Oilers games and I mean, a couple other little stations and that was it, right? And now the options are endless. Yeah, no, they definitely are. The world has changed and evolved.

And, you know, a lot of people thought the radio would die when the internet came in. And, you know, people thought radio would change with podcasting. And, you know, I know what works for my audience. And, you know, like your brother, not everyone's going to like your show. And that's totally okay. Like I've always said, if everybody likes the host, then you're not opinionated enough because not or you're not making a strong stance on something. And, you know, the best compliment is, yeah, I hate your show, Gregor,

but they listen and they know everything about it. I'm like, okay, good. Like that's just as good as you love the show as long as you're listening. And, you know, when it comes to advertisers, it's definitely competitive. And to me, sales, like, you know, could I stand up and get a sales seminar? I don't know. I actually did one once. And to me, I was always like, sales is just straight honesty.

You have to tell, okay, this is my show. This is who my audience is. This is what I think you're going to do. And the advantage of being the host of the show is when you tell a client, you know what, hey, I can do bonus mentions for you and me talking about your product. They know it's true because I host a show. So that's kind of the advantage. And I'm lucky a lot of my clients.

I like to build long-term partnerships. I want clients that are going to have success, ones that my audience will respect. And so I pick clients, you know, because you're right. Like the Jason Greger show is essentially me. If it sucks, it's not TSN, it's Jason Greger. So I have to make sure that, you know, my audience and my advertisers feel that the show is respect. Um, going back to buying the air time then. Is that what all shows are doing or is that unique just to you? Yeah, that's just me. Um, now there's guys who have like a once a week show that will do that. Um, but as far as, you know, I have 20 hours a week now. I've had 20 hours a week since 2008.

Really the only guy in the country who does that. And it's, you know, and I'm lucky. Like I have a really good partner with TSN, you know, in Bell Media. They're awesome that we do it. And, you know, it's, it's being a relationship that works well. for for all parties and hopefully it can continue for a long time. Yeah, it's, it's, well, like I say, when I first heard that, I went, huh, I just would have never thought that, that you could buy airtime. And I mean, as a newbie into the industry, even with a year in when you're back, working the late nights. It's a pretty cool move to, like, you know, have the gumption to sink in and go all in on something like that.

Yeah. You know, it's funny in sports, I would say, you know, the young players didn't know the pressure they were in in the playoffs because they're just naive enough. And honestly, I think for me, it was, you know, luckily I grew up, I had support for my parents my entire life. They loved all three of their kids. And, you know, you get confidence when you just have belief.

And so when I wanted to start my company in 2005, you know, I went to my mom and, you know, like, we sat down literally with an Excel spreadsheet and said, okay, this is what I have to pay the station that's in this column. Well, this is what I got to pay myself. Will Fraser was my producer. So we got to pay guys. So this is how much I need. So I got to have this much coming in minimum. And that's really how it started. And my mom gave me a $5,000 loan at the time just to see it. And I was like, hey, you know, I'll pay it back in a year. And, you know, things went way better than I expected. You know, I got to pay her back within like two months. And the best thing I ever did was Paul Hockey was somebody who was coaching the U of A ringet club. And they were an independent club. They weren't part of the U of A, was ringet, and it was kind of starting out. And so I had emceived their event, and he was an accountant. I sat down talking to Paul what I'm doing. He's like, well, you need an account. He says, I'll be your accountant.

And so he gave me the best advice on how to start a company properly. And I look back on that. And that's, you know, the finances behind the scenes of any company are really what's going to make or break. Because Paul said this. It goes, it's not how much money you make. It's how much money you're saving as a company overtime. And, you know, make sure you're paying your taxes. Like things like, I never knew about CRA and corporate tax and GST and all these other things that you, you know.

So, and I'm kind of, like, if someone gives me direction, I can be a good listener. And he was like, you got to make sure you're, you know, you're separating your things that are, you can use as expenses. And he always said, do everything legally. Don't try to, when someone tell, if somebody tell, yeah, well, my accountants give me loopholes. He goes, there's no such thing. is a loophole. It's legal or illegal. There's nothing in between. And there are legal things that can benefit a company, but it's not a loophole. It's just a legal thing. Anything that's a loophole is probably illegal. You can do it. But if you get caught, then you're screwed, right? And so

that probably is when I look back in my business, having Paul and just having guys to support you in areas that you have no expertise on made such a huge difference. When you look back now, because you've been pretty much in it for 20 years almost. What's maybe one of the blunders you made where you go back and you go, man, if I could have talked to myself at 30, this is maybe one of the things I would have told myself so I don't make that mistake again. That's a good one. Really, it's probably, you know, arguing with trolls on Twitter.

I wasted a lot of my life early on when it came on about that. And you're just like, what are you doing? It just caused you a lot of grief for no reason. So that would be the big one. But from a business standpoint, like I didn't really know much. So it was all learning. And I got lucky along the way. Like I had some good mentors, a gentleman of Jim Mones was somebody who I used to just talk about business stuff.

Because no one in my family, like my dad, you know, he didn't even grow up in a farm. But he ended up being like a business farmer really, but not, you know, not in a business standpoint. My mom was highly educated, but didn't have a, you know, business per se. but now the farm's kind of like a business for her and she runs her own books and everything so you can kind of evolve but it was really you know the business side was just learning and I think more of my mistakes came on air

and you know in certain segments that I would try that bombed and things like that that you learned but that's kind of part of the process of being a hoster you have some stuff that you just look back and say man that was terrible what was it bad segment and you tried well we I want this was in at nighttime in 2000, oh God, maybe two, maybe he's during the lockout. And for about a month, we tried a segment every night where we were going to reenact the game.

And it was awful. Like looking back on it, because I still have some tapes on it. And it was so dumb because, A, like, we literally tried like a five-minute segment pretending it was a 60-minute game, right, and doing play-by-play on it. And it was awful. Like, it's so bad. And you just, you know, but thankfully it was at night. And, you know, thankfully, there's no record.

I do have a few of them, but I would never publicize it. It was just like, what were you thinking, right? And the play-by-play wasn't that good. Like I was doing Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs at the time. Like, I've been in Lloyd Minster and Bonneville many times doing games at AnySport Anytime.com back in the early 2000s. And, you know, and I love doing those games. But trying to have a make-believe game was not ideal radio. I got to ask, how did you come up with that idea? Well, you know, it's a lockout. I never experienced a lockout of host. And you're just like, I got you. I got you. What am I going to do here, right?

Like, it was, it was a little nerve-wracking. Like, thankfully, at that time, there was basketball and other sports, so you could at least, because, you know, I was always a sports fan, not just a hockey fan. I've been, like, luckily I got to do play-by-play for the cross for 10 years and really introduced me to that game, and I love it. And, you know, football, I've always been a football fan and basketball. And, you know, I was a huge baseball fan growing up, not so much anymore, but I was when I was when I was younger.

And so, luckily, they had those sports, like, so that, but when hockey was still your main thing in Canada. So it was more so out of fear of thinking, well, I got to have a hockey segment somehow. And then I realized, you know what? People don't care. Like there was so much anger around it that fans are just so frustrated that they're going to miss hockey for a year over people arguing over millions of dollars that no one can really relate to. So finally, I just scrapped it. I was like, this is not, I don't think this is relating to the audience of anything. It's alienated. What, with all that's going on right now, the summer Olympics just getting bumped back again. Do you think there's any opportunity you see any form of playoffs come back?

Like, is there any chance the NHL does March Madness style, does Best of Three, does 24 teams get it? And I mean, the idea is, we always joke around here. Man, would it be to be a fly on the wall in the NHL conference room to hear what they're talking about? Like, is there any possibility? And I know there's so many unknowns with, you know, just what's going on right now. Nobody can say if this is going to last two weeks. But is there a chance they can somehow formulate? And I mean, you can do NHL or you can do, you know, MBA for all I care. I think it's going to be challenging based on.

Now, there's two things here. Can they have playoffs without fans? I think that's very possible, right? You could get to a point now that, you know, the scientists here, like, it's amazing to see how quickly science can evolve. And, you know, I've always been one, I don't really question scientists. Like, they do years and years of studies on things. And usually it's like, believe the scientists, you know, don't believe a guy who used to be

celebrity apprentice to us because he has no clue what he's talking about when it comes to science. But you look at, you know, when they say, okay, you know, and Canada, you even look at the numbers compared to other countries. We've done a pretty good job of, you know, social distancing. and, you know, our numbers are relatively low. But that could still go up here in the next few weeks. And then, because they say it takes two weeks to really see a difference.

But so far, I think we've done a fairly admirable job considering, you know, what everybody else is doing. The thing for the, for the NHL and the NBA is the United States is on a totally different level. Like their cases, and granted, they're 10 times big as us. Their cases are growing significantly. Exponentially. Yeah. And so the NHL in Canada, you might be able to have things clear in some of our cities, but I'm not sure, you know, all of them in the U.S. are going to be that way. So I think right now,

and maybe I'm telling myself, worst case scenario, because then it's easier to accept it, but I'm like, I would be very surprised. And the other thing is, from a business standpoint, the NHL has already been on record. They don't want to shorten next season, because that's, when you look at a business, that's where they make their most money. They have 1,271 game nights. And there's tons of revenue from tickets to merchandise, to beer and food, to parking. So if you suddenly limit that to even, let's say, a 70-game season. Well, now you're cutting out 180-plus games. The NHL playoffs only average 88 games,

and they don't make double the revenue, right, in those 88 games. They don't, because you're not doubling your ticket price. You're not doubling your beer price. You're not doubling your merchandise price. So you still only have on average 88 playoff games over the last five years. So they don't want to limit next year because now they're catching up again. And to me, the most fascinating part of the NHL for next season for me is what's going to happen in salary cap because you've lost now the final 171 NHL regular season games plus the 88 on

average let's say in the playoffs so we're talking now 14 15% of your revenue there I don't see how the salary cap goes up I don't see how it doesn't go down and so how can they go down at the current rate it's at because most teams don't have any cap space I can see them having the players might have to you know they're going to have a bigger chunk of escrow moving forward right like significant chunks of it and that's the only way I think they're going to be able to get by without a significant drop because if I'm a player I don't want to do what happened in 2005 where they just cut the salary. Remember it was 24%. So if you had a four year deal, 24% of your salary over four years was cut instantly. So a guy like Leon Drysell for argument

sake or McDavid, right, they got six and seven years left on their deals. If they have a, sure, they're making a million so it's not like it's going to cost them in life, but it'll cost the money. But if you do a 24% rollback, as a player, you'd probably rather bet on escrow because let's say this first year, it's 30%, but if everything recovers, well, next year might be 12th and the next year might be 10 rather than a straight 25 for seven years. So I think the players might have to bite the bullet on escrow. And that's the way that, you know, everybody's making less.

Because I think the NHL in every pro league, John, is going to be, there needs to be a reset in the sports world. Like it's $50 million to play basketball for superstructure. You know, 30, 40 million in NFL and Major League Baseball, you know, 12, 10, 9 million in hockey. Like, it's just, it's an unnecessary amount of money for one individual to make. Like, I love sports. I love it. But if you're telling me the best player made five million a year, no fan's going to be upset

about that. It's five million a year, right? And if the bottom feeder guy is making half a million, like think about, you know, what is it? I think one, 10% of Canadians make over $60,000 a year. So, you know, I think sports, the stock market resets all the time. At some point, the sporting world, I thought was going to be in for a reset. And this might be the starter.

Man, that filtered down quick, too, wouldn't it? Like, you just think, you're in the scene, right? To go to an oiler game right now, I love the Oilers. But I got a, you know, as my kids get older, I got three kids under four right now, which you know, you can imagine. And you can imagine being self-isolating with that. That's, it's, it's interesting. But when you look at going to an oiler game, specifically from Lloyd, I mean, that is one expensive night.

And I love the oilers. But you argue with yourself on where it's almost just easier to flick it on the TV and have a, you know, a cold Pilsner and relax on your coach and not have to worry. And I love going to an oiler game. If you had where it reset and now maybe prices come down. Geez, I bet you that would be healthy for even the fan base. Oh, without question. I think, you know, as ticket prices were going, you looked at this year, number one, just the amount of season tickets that dropped, right?

From people were tired of supporting a losing organization. They just were, right? And there's lots of markets that are like that. But then you put in the cost factor. Like I know so many people who canceled their season tickets and said, man, I could go to 10 games a year. I could wait till an hour before the game and buy it online for three quarters of the price of what it would be. You know, half the price, 25%.

And I don't like definitely now, if there's no playoffs this year, there isn't that emotional reconnection. If anything, most fans are going to, because no one knows what our financial situation will be. A lot of people are looking at 10, 20, 40% rebates in their own money coming in. So that's even less disposable income. I think a lot of teams are going to have a massive, if they want people in the building, they're going to have to look hard in the mirror and reset. And I think pro sports, because I understand it, once you get used to a certain level of money coming in, you don't want to have a 15, 30, 40 percent rebate in your ticket sales just to

get people in the building. But that's realistic. Like if this COVID situation has us three, four months where basically the economy is on pause or creeping along slowly, people aren't going to have what when, like, you're a father of three. Do I get my kids clothes or do I get them school supply? It's a no-brainer what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. And Alberta specifically is in a different, well, we've been battling with economy here for, geez, man. It's been probably five years now. It just seems, well, I was just talking with a friend earlier this morning actually, right? Like the COVID crisis right now for a lot of the

world is maybe is suffocating. But for Alberta specifically, it's just another thing in a long list of things that's happened over the last five years where you just keep getting, you know, we get kicked, we get knocked down, you stand back up, you carry on, you find a different way to do it, and then you get dropped again and you carry on. And, you know, we've been dropped, like I say, probably four or five times. It's just become the new norm where things are not going to be great again for the foreseeable future. Yeah,

it's one where it sounds strange, but Albertan's perseverance might be better than some other places because we've had to deal with like significant adversity. Well, you go back to your parents and, you know, I was a young kid in the 80s and, you know,

I'm 24% interest. You talk to anybody who lived that. Think about 24% mortgage on your, like that's just people who were walking away from their houses, but they person. And they went again. You know, we've had the mass of ebb and flows of the oil field. And that's just the reality of Alberta.

And, you know, hopefully we find different avenues, which I think we are slowly. But it's hard to change. And we still need it. Like, oil is hugely important for the world. Like all these people that try. And Canada is one of the leaders at doing it clean. I don't want to get on an oil ramp. But trust me, like, you want to get me fired up.

We can talk about these people trying to suggest that Canada and Alberta specific, we do it cleaner than anyone and our own country doesn't support us, which is mind-blowing. But anyway, I think our ability have shown to get back up repeatedly is going to help us through it. And the toughness and mental perseverance of humans, when no one wants to deal with the crisis, it sucks, it's scared, it's stressful. But we've proven historically time and time again, we can come out of it. And we will. It just, you know, things will look a little bit different. Yeah, I, when you go back through even the last 100 years, there's been some pretty bad epidemics come through this area. I mean, in the world in general, right?

And I love history. And I had a note passed along from my mother looking at Kelowna and there was a note come out back in 1918 about the Spanish flu coming through and, you know, gatherings weren't supposed to be 10 people or less. and they were shutting down the dance halls and the pool halls and all that stuff, right? So people have had to deal with this before, right? I mean, like, history is a funny thing. You know, every generation that comes kind of forgets a bunch about the previous what they went through. And we're, you know, we're experiencing something that in, you know, 20 years, 40 years, people are going to ask us about, like, was it really that bad?

Was it really, you know, and that's unique when you think about it because that doesn't happen every single day. No, Canada, really in the grand scheme of the world is pretty lucky. We've never, you know, we haven't had a lot of wars on our own soil where you saw the devastation, personally, anybody who's ever visited Europe, if you go to Germany and you can see, like, and that, you know, we get into the psychology of generations and how that impacts three, four generations later, you know, this is something that will definitely impact people. It's, it's the first time someone's experience, like, having to lose, and we're so lucky and freedom. And so what I've been doing in this to keep my mind sharp is I actually been reading books on people who persevered.

I just read a book. It's called Holmes. It's written by a young kid who actually, I didn't know when I started the book, but he lives in Emmonson, Canada now. Really? He penned the book with his teacher when he was like 16. It was about his life living in Syria. And how they talk like, yeah, we're walking down the streets. And there's bombings two blocks away. And it's like, okay, run for shelter. And the next day you're back out there. And so the human race can overcome a lot more than we think. Now we're losing a lot of like our abilities to socialize and go out and do things. And then obviously the financial restraints on people is going to be challenging, no question. But we'll get through it.

It's just it's going to be different. So I recommend like for me I was reading that. I'm like, okay, you know what? Like this is this is not the worst thing. And he talked almost nonchalantly about people dying in the street because they would see it. And you almost become immune to it. Immune to it, yeah. It's kind of sad in a way.

And he even talked about when he came to Canada, how for the first month it was really hard on it because he had quiet. There was no mortar. There was no bombings around. And to think that quiet can be a bad thing. It's just we always have to take everything in different perspectives. Yeah, that's interesting. I'll have to check into that.

And if you say it's Holmes? Yeah, Holmes. H-O-M-E-S, because I was the neighborhood that he was from. in Syria. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's really intriguing. It's an easy read. It's a small book, but it's really cool about a young Syrian.

And, you know, he had seven siblings and, you know, his mom and dad, and they came over and didn't speak English and went to Highlands Elementary School in Evanston. It's pretty cool. I see we're at the hour, Mark. And I always try and stick to timelines because I know I'm a busy guy. I know you're an extremely busy guy. So I want to, at the end of my show as I do the Crude Master Final 5,

they're a sponsor that I have that's been with me since the start. So shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald. It's just five questions. We can take as long or short as you like. The first one I have, going back to the NHL. If you look at the NHL this year, what team suffers the most from this season not being played out?

And I always think of like maybe the Boston Bruins because, you know, when you're that good, everybody always talks about windows of opportunity, right? What team do you think maybe missed out this year if they don't find a way to have playoffs? Oh, it's a good question. Like, if we're talking to a team that was missing out on a potential championship, I think Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay made a lot of changes to their team. They, you know, they got crushed last year and four straight to Columbus, and they'd made a lot of changes to be better.

and I think their team had addressed their weaknesses. So I think Tampa Bay is up there. No, Boston's, you know, for some reason, I don't know why it was. I felt Boston was a team that was ripe to not make it to the conference final. You know, they probably could have won around. I just, I thought Tampa Bay was a deeper team than them this year. Tampa remember had a really slow start and they got better. You know, in the, in the West, I really think the Pacific was wide open, right?

Eminton, Vegas, even Vancouver or Calgary. Anybody who got in could have easily won two rounds. And when you're talking to Eminson and Vancouver, who haven't had much playoff success in a long long, like quite a long time, definitely in one year, you know, from a financial standpoint for their organization, I think those teams lost out. Like Calgary, Eminson, Vancouver, teams that haven't had a lot of success,

that emotional, like, oh my goodness, we're in the second, third round of the playoffs. And for season tickets, I think from a financial standpoint, those teams are going to lose significantly from this. And just the possibility of a battle of Alberta. You know, I was too young to remember, like, I can't remember the glory days. I was born in 86. So the last time there was a battle of Alberta, I was like knee high.

Yeah, you're five years old. Right? And just to listen to the accounts and even watch some of the games, you know, the film of it, is just like, that's healthy. I had Trevor Redden on this, well, actually, it came on. today while we're recording and he's the voice of Prince Albert Raiders and the Raiders got to play Saskatoon uh in the conference finals to go to the league finals and just hearing about how healthy that rivalry was right for both places dude I was there my nephew played on the Raiders last year when they

won well that's right that's right I was in PA man it was unbelievable uh experience so fun and for that rivalry to be back again, it was fantastic. And P.A. and Saskatoon could have met easily in the first round again this year. Right. And that's healthy for organization, for fans, right? You know, I got tons of buddies. My college roommate was at Calgary Flames. I went to northern Wisconsin and go all the way there and my college roommate is a Calgary Flames fan. You think like, I just, it followed me wherever I went. And to have the opportunity, to have our two teams finally play each other with a lot on the line, lots of bragging rights, everything else.

And then for, you know, you wish it could happen. I think it'd be healthy for the province, you know, a tough time to have sports to rally around. Yeah, it would have been fantastic, honestly. I think, you know, even Emmington, Vancouver at this point, would it would have been good. But, you know, Emmonson, Calgary would have been phenomenal. I think for a lot of people, like, it's funny.

Some of our fans be, I don't want that because if they lose, I can't handle my flames fans. And I'm like, dude, that's like a loser mentality to look at it. You look at it because you want to experience it because it'll be, you talk about 97. You were 11 years old. It was the first time you really became like a diehard fan because that's what the playoffs do. It's just different. So then 06 was for a lot of new people.

17 again. But if you would have had the battle of Alberta, that would have been every generation of hockey fan in Alberta would have gotten back to their roots, whether it's people who had never experienced it the first time. Because unless you watch 91, you've never experienced. And this regular season showed us that the animosity is coming. But at the playoffs, it would have just ramped up to a whole new level. And really for fans, like if your old college roommate, you guys would have been

chirping each other all day over the phone. We chirp each other all the time anyways, right? As fans, you love and hate that feeling because in the playoffs, specifically the playoffs, if you're invested, you're a part of the roller coaster ride that is the playoffs. And so the joy of winning, but like gut-wrenching pain of losing is just ramped up on a level that you don't normally experience. And for the Oilers fans, we haven't, you know, you talk about 2006, talked about 2017. We just didn't experience. We haven't been able to experience a lot of that.

And that is what's so special about the playoffs is that, that rate there when you buy into your team playing. And if it was the flames, dear God. like it would be absolutely incredible the amount of techs that would be flying back and forth the amount of just absolute trash talk you know like when cassian and kukchuk uh go at it i mean was there anything in this province for like a three week period that was talked about more than that well maybe the mike smith fight i think people got more fired oh mike smith yeah that was good yeah that that brought people back together and you know emminton and calgary h one a game people don't even care so much who won the games they were just like yeah i was there for that

and and it's fun like that's the emotional like i was host in the night show nine to may night in in 2006 and we used to go on the air till two in the morning sometimes like people were so fired up back then it was the raw emotion that's the only thing i miss about evenings is the raw emotion of fans after a game after a game something you can't it's instant like if you go to sleep at night you're you're still upset but you're not nearly as fired up positively or negatively as you are right after the game because Very few people are working, and that's their whole focus for those hours. You know how many people were pumped when you'd stay on later? I don't know how many times we've driven up to an Euler game to turn around and drive back to Lloyd, right?

So the game gets done at, you know, 10.30, you hop in the vehicle. You're not home until 2. And when you guys are done on the radio, you can just hear it. And now it's just silence. You're like, fuck, right? When you guys would carry on those shows, that was unreal. Yeah, I used to stay late quite a bit. I was a single guy at the time.

I had nothing to get home to. So, you know what, if it was good. And that was, we didn't really have a text line then. I could, we might have stayed on until six in the morning if there was text lines back then. Because, you know, very few people still, you know, a small percentage will only ever call. Right. And so, you know, everybody will text. So it's, it's just, you know, it's how that it's changed for a good thing.

There's, you know, it's easier to communicate to your listeners now than ever. If there's one guest you haven't had yet that you'd love to have on your show, who would that be? I've had a lot of big name. But I would say either Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Probably one of those two. MJ, I grew up as a huge Michael Jordan fan. And he's just, I would have just, I've always, there's a few questions I've always wanted to ask him about.

And, you know, we put out the request. I thought I had him last year and then something came up. But I think him or LeBron would be unique. Like, LeBron's in a different era. And Michael, we can get into debates who's better, whatever. I still go Michael. But when I look at LeBron, LeBron James, what he does different is, you know, he's got a bigger platform now and ability to touch people. And he does a lot of positive.

What he does with his schools for kids and poor neighborhoods is unbelievable. And we probably don't applaud LeBron James for the human being. He is like, you know, he's the big superstar. You know, he was kind of like Gretzky. There's never been any off-court issues. with LeBron James, right? It's happily married guy, or at least what we know of, and I'm not going to say any different.

He's a father figure to his kids. He's one of the rare public figures that has kept his private life really good. And I applaud him for that not only being a freak of nature after. Yeah. LeBron is larger than life. He's a guy that if you're not a basketball fan, somehow you're a basketball fan because of LeBron. I remember watching in Boston Pizza.

I took my wife at the time. And I can't remember if we had Shane, my son, my oldest son, I believe we had, we went out for a date night. And I took her to Boston Pizza because it was game. Oh, what would that have been when he wins with Cleveland? Game 7? Yeah, yeah, he won in game 7. When they come all the way back. And I remember being in Boston Pizza and everybody was quiet watching the TVs.

And you could hear everybody go up and down. Like not in the lounge, in the restaurant. Think about that. And that was, I was always so happy for LeBron to come back to his hometown because he got so much criticism. Heck, even for me, right, the way he went about leaving his hometown to then come back and do it the way he did. Yeah, LeBron James would be unreal to have on.

But I mean, you talk Michael Jordan. I mean, there's another guy who just transcends sports, right? Like he's in a league of his own. I know. And both fantastic athletes. It's hard to compare errors. The game of basketball has changed so much, so much more outside of the three-point line now than ever.

Big men all have to be able to shoot. So, yeah, the games change. I love one of those guys just because, you know, they were elite, the two best of their era, no question. Since the social distancing movement came in and we were supposed to all be, you know, at home for the most part, have you picked up any hobbies? No.

I read so I can read more, but, you know, we still have the farm, so I take my son out to our family farm at New Surrepan. You know, it's calving season starting here next week, so that'll be good. But no new hobbies really, just probably new different activities. I get more time at home, which is the good thing with my son, so we get to play a little bit more helping him with, well, he doesn't have schoolwork. He's in kindergarten, but he has little, you know, activity books he likes to do. And so reading, but no new hobbies, I don't think.

And you know what's funny? There's nothing right now. I just like reading books. So that would probably be it. There's not a new hobby that's intriguing me. Maybe I should find one, but I don't have one. What book are you currently reading? Well, I just finished Holmes.

Holmes, yeah. I just finished a book, a neighbor of mine. I grew up with him in the Duke for a few years. He suffered for mental illness and schizophrenia, and he wrote a book about it and how he beat it. So I just finished that one, which is cool. It's really short, easy read. And then I have a new book.

oh my mother was a serial killer. I like true stories. So just my wife got it for me online. It's about a girl and her mom was a serial killer. And how, so I don't really know much of the story. I just, I'm intrigued by true stories.

And I'm kind of, I know it sounds odd, but I'm intrigued by serial killers. It's kind of a freak thing. But I read a lot of books on serial killers. Well, they're an anomaly, right? Like, they're really smart.

They're obviously crazy. But the stories about them and how some of them get away with it. for so long and no one ever catches them. It's fascinating to me. If you could go on somebody else's show and co-host, what show would you want to hop on for an episode? Ooh. Probably Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick's show I like a lot.

Him or Rome, you know, two American guys, probably those shows. I know a lot of the guys in Canada. I've talked to them before. So I probably have to say Patrick or Rome. have very different deliveries and how they go about it. So that would be, that would be interesting. I'd just like to sit in on them and see. Okay. And your final one then is, and maybe it'll be one of these answers you've had before, but if you could sit down with anyone, current, past, living, not, and just have a beer and pick their brain, who would you want to sit with? Oh, wow. It's probably too selfish about my father. My father passed away when I was at Nate in school in September of 2000.

so I was just in my second semester. And my dad and I grew up listening to sports soccer radio all the time. So he's never ever, you know, listened to my show. So I'd like to have a beer with my pops and talk about it to see what he thinks. That would be the number one of somebody who's not alive without question. Somebody who was alive, probably Obama. He's a very unique personality to me. I thought, you know, his journey to where he got in life and just how he treats people.

I have a lot of respect for him. I'm not necessarily a Democrat or Republican, per se, and I don't lean one way or the other. I'm kind of more of a centrist, to be honest. But Obama just found it was fascinating on what he did, how he handled things for eight years. He'd be pretty fascinating guy to me. You know, Obama was the only president in my time.

I was in college at that time, where they rolled TVs in to watch his debates because he was such a great speaker. Yeah. Well, he was really well. I had his huge sports fan, too, so I could have a lot of fun talking sports. I just, he was, he was unique. You know, I find too much now in politics.

People, you know, if you vote one way, it doesn't mean that you have to agree blindly with every. 100%. Right. Like I, and, you know, I'm one who's changed on where I am in my life, on, on who I voted for. I'm not a believer in. If I voted conservative, my, you know, when I was 20, I have to vote conservative when I'm 30, 40, 50, or liberal, same thing. So I've always changed for what it adapts to me. And a lot of it has to, who's in my riding.

I don't really vote for the leader because, you know, especially in Alberta, the leaders doing jack squat for us federally. But, you know, I've never been one to want to blindly just say, okay, I support this. And it doesn't matter. And, you know, Obama had some things that, you know, sure he didn't always agree with. But I just liked how he handled things. And you're right, as an orator, as a debater, he was fascinating. Yeah, well, we could go down.

the politics thing. I mean, there's shows built just on that and get everybody's ruffled. I would say the thing as a younger guy that just bothers me about today's politics is it doesn't seem like there's any going back to what we talked about right at the beginning. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of discussion at any point. It just seems like two stark opposites. We hate each other. And if you are on that side, you hate the other side. And I feel like there's so many people like yourself. that are sitting in the middle going like, yeah, that makes sense. A little bit of that makes sense.

Why can't we have both? Why can't we do things that are right for, you know, majority of people and do things that make sense across, you know, the time instead of just yelling at each other and getting nowhere? Well, I always, I look at, you know, you watch some of the parliament sessions now. I'm like, if children at home spoke to their siblings like that or their friends, parents would be like, what are you doing? That's one, that's two. You're in a timeout.

Right? Like, they don't allow kids to talk to each other. We teach them that that's not how you converse. And then we just allow them to yell and like, that's what, like, it's, it's beyond childish in how they can't just have a debate. And it's, and they really bring up the same things over and over and over again. Like, once it's in place, I don't have to agree with it, but I can't change it. So, you know what? Let's move on to something else. And they're rarely, do they ever look and say, okay, how can we work together? Like, now it should be the last time to say, well, we know, we have a liberal federal government. We have a UCP in Alberta. Like, can't we come together on some things rather than be like, hey, you know what? Lots of people are in financial distress. But let's not worry about that. Let's just continue on with whatever our platform is. And it's really disappointing. Like, I would like your leaders to lead when there's times of toughness. And, you know, I thought Cannes, you know, overall, the

I don't love Trudeau, but for the most part of this, I think he's done okay overall. But it's funny, people in Alberta right now, Dr. Deanna is everybody's, that's who they're following because of her poise and how she just tells the truth. And just tell the truth. I think most, even if you disagree with it, you're like, I don't like it. You respect it because it's the truth. And that's what we tell our kids. So why don't we just ask our politicians to do what we teach our kids?

And I think that's where we'll leave it because I agree 110%. I really, really appreciate you coming on. It's a date as soon as I knew we were going to do this. I've circled and I've been really looking forward to. So thank you again for joining me. I've really enjoyed this. I'm sure everybody who's listening has enjoyed it just as much. Well, Sean, I really appreciate it.

Say hi to your brother for me. He'll come over to the dark side. We'll do.