Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #480

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

Mike chats with Marc Weisblott of 12:36 about the current state of media in Canada and what you oughta know.

Welcome to episode 480 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and joining me for his monthly recap is 1236's Mark Weisblot. You know, we almost had to have a personal conversation without the podcast running.

And it was a little bit awkward there, wasn't it? We had to talk in a way that wasn't being recorded. This does not happen with us here. That's true. We never speak unless we're recording. We're like the Gord Martineau and Ann Roszkowski of podcasting. We're like the Gord Martineau and Ann Roszkowski of podcasting. But business had to be taken care of before you could push record.

And here we are on June 25th, which is earlier than I try to get here for the month recap. And it's all about the obituaries. At the end, when we recap the people who died in the past month. I want to make it comprehensive, and we don't know who's going to pass away in what's left of the month of June. So those will have to carry over to the July episode. Absolutely. I'm glad you're here. Now, can we right off the top, can we update? I want to update everybody on what you've been up to, but I want to make sure people know what's happening in two days. So I hope you don't mind me doing this right now. Oh, I'm going to have to open the first GLB

to get through what I'm going to have to listen to one more time. Actually, this is definitely the last time. This is the last episode. Oh, you know what? Melanie and JJ are in on Thursday. So you know Mel and jj right mel mel and jj they they were the morning team on flow 935 i talked here about their podcast a couple episodes ago and it turns out that they got in touch they wanted to come on they wanted to refute what I was saying about them.

Something like that. But they're all, they're booked for Thursday. So this might be the second last time. But let me just say to everybody, Mark Weisblatt from 1236 is going to be at TMLX3. This is confirmed. Can we just make the official announcement right now? Because you look like I caught you off guard there.

If you listen to this afterwards, maybe you'll find out if it happened or not. I know that if I'm not there, I'm never going to hear the end of it. And it sounds like you've recruited reinforcements to make sure that I show up at a certain time. And I didn't know if we were allowed to talk. So we have a mutual friend now.

You referred somebody to TMDS's services who I've become buddies with because I work with this friend now. You referred somebody to TMDS's services who I've become buddies with because I work with this gentleman now. And he's a friend of yours. And he had a... I was there last week and he assured me

he's bringing you to TMLX3 on Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. We will see about that. But why don't you tell everybody else listening who's hearing this podcast before July 27th, your 45th birthday.

No, June 27th. I don't want to confuse people. Sorry, June 27th. So maybe this, I can kill all the birds of one stone here. Today, I was at Sticker U. They're in Liberty Village. I went to pick up, they have made Toronto Mike stickers and temp tattoos, and they made

Agitpop. That's the new album from Lowest to the Low. They made stickers and temp tattoos. So I picked up like 150 of each and brought it to Great Lakes Brewery because we're going to literally have loot bags for people who come. So there's some stickers for you. Now that that's actually okay. So you also have a, what are they called again? Pop something. Uh, that's for holding up your cell phone. If you're watching your cell phone, that's courtesy of Cappadia, LLP CPAs. So yeah, a couple of things going on here. And again, this is one of those rare episodes where we're not actually on. I can't even play to the camera and show things because there's no camera in this room right now,

just like the olden days. So, Mark, what did you do with the last Toronto Mike sticker I gave you? I'm accumulating them, I think, so that they can fill up the whole front of my computer that I could be recognized everywhere I go as Toronto Mike. Let the record show, this is the first time Mark has brought his laptop,

and I'm looking at it. Apple, good. Well, look, you're doing all right there at 1236. There's no Toronto Mike sticker on it. I just want to put that on the record. There's no Toronto Mike sticker on that laptop. One lonely sticker on a laptop doesn't make any sense, right? But they can't all be the same thing.

But the one example you had of somebody to put a Toronto Mike sticker on their laptop, he had like a whole range of stickers. What about this one? It says six, numeric six, and the I in six is the CN Tower. This is also made by StickerU. So you can put that on. You can put the Toronto Mike. I can get you an agitpop.

Here's the StickerU.com. Bottom line is I can take care of you because I know the sticker people. Everybody listening, if you need a sticker, like one or 1,000 or whatever, you can get them custom-made at stickeru.com. They're good people. Come to TMLX. You'll get that. Okay, so you got your stickers.

The beer, you've already cracked one open, a Canuck Pale Ale. Do you mind if I crack open a cold octopus? Could I? Imagine if I stopped you. This is the kind of mood I'm in. What would that be like? Here we go. So June, very busy month, but now the weather has turned.

It's beautiful out. I got to say, I got an electric circus Great Lakes brewery can. I thought it would be my last one. One and only. Last one. Actually, yeah. You know, Al Grego got one because he's been such a friend of the show he's playing for the royal pains at tmlx3 yeah i had one left that's the very last one other than the one i'm never opening which is like part

of the studio which is over here and i wanted you to have it because you're such a important part of this show you know every month you i look forward to our chats glad you're such an important part of this show. Every month, I look forward to our chats. Glad you're here, buddy. So enjoy. Okay, you got one for Ed Conroy, Retro Ontario? We took care of him separately. So better than that, he got his own supply straight from the source. I didn't even have to get involved.

They took care of Ed. He's got a bunch of these for sure. So let's look to stir up some more television nostalgia from Great Lakes Brewery because this is legit. Electric Circus authorized by the cowboy. Cowboy blessed it. Absolutely.

So, okay. So you've got your beer from Great Lakes. That's where the event is on Thursday from six to nine. You got your stickers. The people that I have, can you even keep up with the lasagnas? Like are they are they are they also piling up

in the freezer? Be honest with their they're being put to good use. But are they being devoured like somebody eating them? It's happening. OK, as long as they're

fantastic. I don't want. OK, so there's another veggie for you if you like. Of course, from Palma Pasta. I was on the phone with the gentleman from Palma

Pasta and he's like he's going to give away a gift card. So we're going to ask a Toronto Mike trivia question. First person to yell it out gets the gift card for Palmapasta. So that's happening. Thank you, Palmapasta, for that. Brian, and he's got a question that we're gonna do in a moment here but brian from property property in the six he's given away two 25 tim horton's cards so that like it's just gonna rain gifts from everybody i've already mentioned that great lakes i hope i mentioned that

the first beer is they're buying you your first beer so So if you come for the Toronto Mike listener experience, your first tasty, fresh craft beer is on the house, as they say. And then it's only $5 a pint after that. Nobody is getting out of TMLX3 without being guilted by you, grilled with questions about what they're going to do with the things that you're giving away to them. Milan, from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is giving away a watch. Now, he's supposed to tell me today. He hasn't told me at the time of recording exactly which watch,

but I'm assured it's not going to be like a $20 piece of crap. It's going to be a quality watch. That's the same thing. I think we'll do like a trivia question. First's going to be a quality watch. Same thing. I think we'll do a trivia question. First to get it right gets the watch. That's happening as well. Fast Time watch and jewelry repair. We'll remember the time in a moment and

talk more about it. If you win the watch, then you're going to make follow-up phone calls to make sure that they're wearing the watch. I want to see on Twitter that you're enjoying the watch from Fast Time. Seems to be a condition of getting something free from Toronto Mike.

I know this is not the song you wanted. Look at me going against your wishes, my guest. I just felt like hearing this. I'm in the mood. My octopus wants to fight. Ten years ago today. Ten years ago today.

Michael Jackson was murdered. He didn't just pass away. He was murdered. What say you about this significant milestone in pop culture here? The first celebrity death of the online era that everyone will remember forever. As the joke went at the time, where were you when you heard Michael Jackson died? I was on Twitter. Right. Controversial figure.

Like, that's a question I've been asking people from the radio biz. People like Maureen Holloway or our friend Jamar. Like, your station's still playing this guy. Is that okay?

Like, it's a great uh great debate right but we're playing it here but then when it comes to the idea of mourning him of getting deep into the weeds of contemplating the legacy of michael jackson i i think that's where it gets a little more complicated for sure and and yet uh celebrity death it's it's been our obsession. And at the end of every 1236 episode, we go over the people who died. And I think it was the reaction to Michael Jackson that reminded people how dying can be big business, right? A writer from Montreal, Ian Halperin, he wrote this trashy book about MJ, slapped together with some rumors and innuendo about how Michael Jackson was nearing the end of his life and the thing was all ready to go.

They knocked a bunch of copies off the presses. He ended up with a number one New York Times bestseller because he happened to have this book ready talking about how Michael Jackson was at the end of his life. Timing is everything. Before we get Brian's question, which is a great question that kind of ties into Toronto Mike's universe,

which I quite like, as you know. So let's get an update on 1236. Like, tell me about these other news. I can't remember. Did you have these out last time? I think you did. But tell me about the other newsletters and what else is going on in the 1236 universe. Part of an experiment for the springtime was to see if the 1236 platform could be used

to get some other writers going on substack substack.com that's the company making it easy to use these newsletters they're not a sponsor or anything they've just made it a lot more accessible for other people to sign up and rather than sitting around waiting for somebody to hook up with, instead I put together different people who had ambitions to do this sort of thing on their own. You recruited. Yeah, and launched them all at once. Had a newsletter up front week at the end of May. I think all these folks were going to do something like this anyhow.

Here was just a way of tying them together and get some promotion for the idea of subscribing to an editorial newsletter. So 1236.ca now going for the past four years. Wow. I'm still wondering if this is where it's at, if email distribution is the way to go when it comes to editorial products of the future. A lot of signals point to the idea that's going to work out in the end. But we've been through the ringer of digital media for a long time. It's one trend after another, one gimmick that everybody jumps on. Podcasting is part of that too these days.

You could say that there's a podcast bubble going on. I'm into the email newsletter thing. I still think it's great. So I did my part to help some other people get involved with it too. And every weekday, Monday to Thursday, there's another newsletter that comes out. And I help with each one in different ways. Retro Ontario on Monday, Ed Conroy. Retroontario.substack.com.

Never heard of him. Never heard of him. So that is the classic televisual universe of the 70s, 80s, and 90s that Ed has been nurturing on YouTube for all these years and all over social media with followings on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.

So now in the process of making Retro Ontario something that people can get a digest of in email form. It's got some different twists, morsels that you won't see anywhere else. On Tuesday, Jody's jumpsuit from Twitter, jump.substack.com, the smoke break with your work wife. Wednesday, a writer, Alali Picasso, who works on disinformation and misinformation

and untangling all the weirdness that happens on the internet, arguments about politics. That one's called Ms. Info. She's getting that one back together. And Ken White, former National Post and McLean's editor-in-chief, he has his own publishing company, which is called Sutherland House, and that newsletter is called Shush. It comes out on Thursday.

So still doing that for now, and we'll see where it goes. Could you rank them in order of popularity? Or would you not do that? Because they're like your children. You can't favor it. Well, they're independent operations. Each have their own agenda tied to the author. This is just my role here

in trying to advance the media business to a different level. I've got a secret agenda of what I want to have happen after showing this proof of concept. And in the end, this is why anybody that wants to get into publishing on their own now, go start a newsletter because you have your own email list. It's not about randos who find you on Google. It's about people that want to make a direct connection to you. Like podcast subscribers. I volunteered to be a bit of a guru because of the experience that I had.

We'll see how it goes. I'm a fan of all these people. I want to see them all succeed in their own different ways. Doesn't mean that I'm doing much of the work. Sometimes none of it at all. I'll know when you, I can tell the difference between your style and Ed Conroy's style.

So I'll know when it's like ghostly, when it's really a mark of my style. Okay, but I wanted to collaborate with Retro Ontario. We're doing it behind your back, I know. By the way, why do you think I'm so bitter? Because I feel like Retro Ontario was my guy. Like, I'm not saying I just, oh, yeah, okay, I'll say it, okay? He's out there doing his thing.

I fall in love with this. I amplify it. I write about it on the blog. I put him on the podcast as often as possible. I was ready to base a TMLX event around him. I'm telling you, you're behind my back. You're behind my back with Ed Conroy from Retro Ontario, and I'm insanely jealous.

Is that what you wanted to accomplish? But you like the newsletter, right? Get the newsletter, because I hope we'll do some fun things with it. Nope, I'm always messaging Ed back and forth about stuff. You guys never talk about me. The energy that we're just putting into these private conversations about all this arcane Toronto television, steer it towards something that other people can read too?

Why not? So that's where the idea came from, and that's what gave me the enthusiasm that we could make something work on a bigger level. I think there's a lot to go for Retro Ontario as well. He did that documentary about People's City, the song by Tommy Ambrose. We're all very impressed by that one.

I agree. I went to the premiere. Okay? You weren't there. I don't think I was invited to that premiere. I guilt you into something. It was open to the public, pretty much. I don't work that way anymore. I need a personal invitation. No, I can't go to these public events. And And of course, we hear Ed on News Talk 1010,

where I think he is the biggest libertarian on CFRB. It's sort of nuanced. I don't think a lot of people really get where his politics are. And I don't want people canceling Retro Ontario because he falls to the right on a lot of topics out there. But when I'm tuned in to 1010 and I want to hear somebody who's speaking for me, Ed Conroy is the man. No arguments there. Well, you'd probably argue with him once he gets spouting off politically. You ever heard him?

Agar? Is this who we're talking about? No. Yeah, but Ed Conroy. Oh, no... You keep the politics out of it when he comes down. I keep the politics out of it because I don't want these guys to be tainted. I'll find out, for example,

I don't know if this will be true, but I'll find out Ed Conroy is like, he's a big Andrew Scheer guy and he's going door to door. Why? It's time to have a beer with Scheer or something. And then I'll be... It'll just be so disheartening. I'd rather just not know and focus on the content. Ed is too much of an anarchist for all of that.

Yeah, hear him with Jerry Agar Wednesday mornings most of the time. And he does these Retro Ontario bits as well on News Talk 1010. Hopefully more to come with him and Bell Media because they tried him out as a talk show host. Do you remember that? Of course. I remember we were banned from being on that show. I can't wait for Ed Conroy to be back here. Toronto

Mike. Early July for Ed and I'll see him Thursday at TMLX3. Brian Gerstein, I mentioned he's giving away the gift cards at TMLX3. Palma Pasta gives away a gift card for Palma Pasta. That's their product. Milan gives away a watch. He sells those watches at Fast

Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. But Brian, he's got to go pay retail. He's got to okay uh malone gives away a watch he sells those watches at fast time watch and jewelry repair but brian he's got to go pay retail right he's got to go out and spend 50 bucks to give away 50 and gift cards like that's pretty awesome and above and beyond it's the least he could do for all the people listen to him kvetch for 40 minutes about standing at the raptors rally that was that was quite an episode yeah i was going to ask you what you think because I'm getting lots of feedback and I'm getting some feedback that is private. They don't want to put it in public

because they so fundamentally disagree with Brian and they don't want to hurt Brian's feelings. It was real talk. He said what he was thinking. I know. And I'm so glad that he said it to me. I was glad we did that. Now let's hear from Brian because he's going to kick us off.

This is a great question. Let's go. Propertyinthe6.com Hi, Mark. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. Looking forward to TMLX Free Thursday where I will have two $25 Timmy gift cards to give away

if you can be the first to get my Toronto Mike trivia questions answered correctly. Yesterday, I got a further Gallery and Mall condo update. It will launch mid-September, and we have two buildings to sell. Once the first one is 80% sold, we sell the second one. About 500 suites in total, most of them in the $900s on a cost per square foot basis. We will easily sell out, and likely i will only get one to sell so first come first served 416-873-0292 by phone or text to be first in line mark one of my favorites and a recent guest with mike was ashley docking who was hired as the full-time morning driver placement from ellia price

any other toronto my guests that come to mind with new gigs great question the the person that i was thinking of uh in in the last few months that that got a new job was somebody that was on toronto mike talking about how they left their old job in in the newspaper industry to work in radio matt Matt Gurney, who's ended up going back from whence he came to the National Post. Now, when he was talking here about leaving the National Post, what was the main motivator for him to get into radio? He said it was money, right? I believe so.

That his car broke down, that he was wondering he couldn't afford to fix the car to get some new tires something was going on that triggered the idea in his head that he had to take this offer to be on the radio global news radio am 640 as a co-host of the morning show well it didn't work out as planned he ended up being demoted a little bit, ended up doing the late morning show, his move from 5 a.m., 6 a.m. to 9 time slot. Had him starting at 9, 9 to noon. They ended up letting him go from the radio station. Now he's back with the National Post,

working as a comment editor, doing what he did before so here we have immortalized on the internet forever a toronto mic episode where he's talking about how he he left the national post to get into radio now he's back national post well good for matt i mean if uh it sounds if that's where he wants to be i'm happy for him that's good i have uh so we got ashley docking because brian mentioned her and she came on and then she was made permanent uh co-host of the fan 590 morning show then we matt gurney that's a great example but i have some others here we can run by uh jason barr has a new job he's left uh i think we talked about this in the last 12 36 episode but he left uh hits 97 7 in saint catherine's and he's gone with his partner uh yeah his partner

and work and probably his partner in life they've moved to ottawa to take over for doc and woody on and i never know how to say it sheaa 106? What do you remember then about him when Jason Barr was down here? Did he feel that he was at 97.7 for life? No, I'll tell you exactly what I felt. This was all going to work out for him until the end of time? I felt like in a heartbeat, he could up and leave to a deserted island

and live in a deserted island in the Caribbean or something. Like 100%, he. 100%, I never felt a love for radio or I want to be in radio. I really felt like he could just up and end up selling clamshells or something on some beach somewhere. That's how I felt about Jason Barr.

The radio thing seems to have worked out for him. They are wanted by Rogers and now they've moved them to Ottawa. There's someone else from the guest list. Who else am I thinking about? I got a press release about Steve Anthony. Okay. Someone forwarded this to me.

Two-time guest, Steve Anthony. He's working for a company called Direct Global, disrupting the disruptors, representing over 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses in 46 countries. Does that surprise you that that's what Steve Anthony is taking on in his next job? I feel like he said he was going to move. I thought he was moving in to be like PR or spokesperson for like a cannabis company. Does that ring a bell? He might be doing something like that too.

That's probably in the pile. Like he's so happy right now because he's up and left the city the big smoke and he's living in uh prince edward county we you know he's got like i don't know beachfront pro he's got some nice estate in prince edward county and i get the feeling like he's just like happier than a pig and shit so i think he's doing all right it might be paid really well for what he's up to over there calling rush home yes one of your more loyal guests I think she told me I look like Ted Danson there was chemistry when you did the episodes down here is that what they call it once in a while I have a guest but male or female I don't you know but often female but not only female but where I get

these a lot of comments about name Name a male that you ever got those comments about. I know you're married and everything. I know. You gotta watch it. I can get flirty with the guys, no doubt about it.

Where? When? I can't think of enough to talk about. How did... What? When? What episode? Because there's nothing sexual.

Yeah, I'm a straight guy, but I know you either have the chemistry or you don't. I don't see gender when it comes to chemistry. Was that Jeff Woods when he was talking about his omnisexual attitude? It moved, I think. I'm not sure.

But back to Colleen. So, yeah, without a doubt, Colleen and I have the chemistry, as they say. And she told me I look like Ted Danson. And I thought that was quite the compliment because Ted Danson, he's a hunky guy, I like to think. But Colleen, yeah, this was big news. She lost that morning show gig with Darren Laidman because our buddy's from Virgin, not Virgins anymore. What the hell is that show called, Tucker and Maura?

Tucker and Maura. We've talked about them a lot, but you've never listened to them. No, I never listened to them. And yeah, their style on the podcast they were doing in between radio gigs was what they wanted. They were mad as hell about what happened to them. Then they ended up deleting all the

old episodes, foreshadowing the fact they got a new job. Do you remember today, coincidentally after I was at Sticker U, I have a buddy who works in sales for Indie88. And I met him at Indie88 and he gave me a tour. So I tweeted some pictures, but I was in this, Lana Gay was on the air and I'm in the Indie88 studio.

It was kind of just like taking a tour or whatever. But Andrew Stokely came on the show many years ago to basically say that indie 88 was at its very best during the soft launch like before it really launched and he was really angry that indie 88's hard launch like what it became wasn't nearly as good as what it was during that soft launch and it sounds like when it comes to people like uh tucker and mora you like them at their best when they're between the mainstream, when they're their own boss doing their own thing.

That's when they're at their best. Because it was unexpected. And they were saying things that were unpredictable. But the format they were working in, Virgin Radio and now Energy 95.3, it's a job. You've got to give the company what they're paying you for.

That doesn't mean you fly off the handle and divert from the type of broadcasting that fits a job. Now I remember where I was. So Colleen Rush home is no longer doing mornings there, but they kept her for the afternoon rush, which I thought was great for someone who took the name and, you know, she gave her herself that name Rush home,

right? That's a fake name, but she get Rush home. Uh, but then Rush home has decided, and this is interesting because i know her uh her husband owns a like barber shop in parkdale and he's not he's not moving to ottawa so i think they're gonna do the whole weekend uh commuting thing but uh colleen is off to ottawa to be on their boom which interestingly enough is not owned by the same company that owns our boom right it's not it's like uh it's not it's not new cap

it's another company chorus same company so and that's an interesting thing and it's up you don't see that i don't see that anywhere else i don't think, where two different big companies own the same branding. Like, that's unique. Stacey Thompson was another guest you had down here who ended up getting a national radio gig that she didn't have at the time that she was a guest. All my doing, by the way. I'm taking full credit for that. Yeah, she's doing very well for the Breeze.

The evening Breeze playing Yacht Rock across Canada, but not yet in Toronto. Last time, Robbie J, he worked at Chorus for a long time. He was a mail person, like delivering mail. And he was walking many kilometers a day and enjoying that. Was he one of those males that you had chemistry with? I think there's a little chemistry there, for sure. Okay, well, then again,, we got to correct the record here

because was he talking like he was done with radio? Well, he thought he was done with it. Was his future? Right. He was talking about getting in enough time to get your gear and then you had certain years you put in and then you could get a management or something.

But yeah, he was going to be a mail carrier, M-A-I-L and M-A-L-E. But he took a gig working on podcasts for Chorus. So he's back in the same Queens Quay building that he left after many years. The podcast bubble is on. That's with Daily Podcast now that they do for Global News. I think I totally mispronounced the name of the host last time.

It's Tamara Kandaker. I might have gotten both their first and last name wrong you did better than i would have done that one uh i i still might have it wrong that one launched in the interim in the past month and it's different it's a daily afternoon podcast about a news story of the day and that's in there now with one from Rogers, big story podcast, and another from CBC, Front Burner, a whole bunch of them out there all going on that land grab, trying to do that thing that the New York Times pioneered with The Daily,

and have that 20-minute hit of podcasting every day where you have one guest on to decipher something going on in the news. We'll see how this goes. At some point, there's going to be a shakeout. But you could say that for podcasting in general. And this seems to be the format that works for these big companies, something that maybe they can relate to audiences and advertisers. And later in the show, we'll talk about a big personality at CBC

who's going to be focusing on podcasts. So we'll get to that. Okay, Mike Wilner. Yeah, Mike Wilner. That was also... He might be there on Thursday. 2019. Even though there was enough conjecture

that he was eventually going to become a permanent play-by-play guy, Jerry Howarth made room for Wilner to step in. It was only in the last few months before this baseball season that we learned that Wilner is now a permanent fixture of the Blue Jays broadcast. This was someone that I knew as a child. Right.

And he's somebody that can brag that I knew once upon a time when he was a nobody. Can I get a picture of you two together on Thursday? It's like 30, 40 years ago. I hope he won't be there, and then we won't have to have that awkward moment. It's a day, yeah. Reuniting.

Explaining who I am. I don't know. That was a moment here where you asked about me, and he was trying to be polite. I don't think I was on his radar, but then again, I don't think I've ever listened to Mike Wilner. Keegan Matheson, who will definitely be at TMLX3 on Thursday,

he just got a new gig. This is exciting, because he came on to set us up for the awful 2019 Blue Jays season, because he was doing his own thing at Baseball Toronto, and I was really proud of him, because he's rolling his own,

and I love it. But he just, he just, that's gone, because he took a gig that he got an offer. He couldn't refuse. That's it. No more baseball Toronto, no more independent publishing here.

I'm advocating for people to start their own newsletters, their own startup, own their own mail. I know I'm kind of, I'm actually like, I'm happy for him because it's probably helping him pay the rent. But, so then again,

what do you do with that episode of Toronto Mike, where he's going on about how independence is so important to him? It was a great story, too. He's not selling out to the man working for Major League Baseball doing editorial work for them. Delete that episode because he took a gig with MLB.com. He took a real, he's going to write about the Jays, but he's going to have bosses and be on a payroll and stuff like that.

So good for Keegan, but that happened very recently. He announced that last week. That makes the episode that he gave her a little bit disingenuous in hindsight. I'm right up there with Matt Gurney talking about why he left the national post. That's right. Sometimes the real talk changes depending when it's recorded. What's going on with Ann Romer? Yeah, good question.

She's doing commercials that run on CP24. I think they run in the States. I get the odd note from somebody in the US who sees those. I have a feeling that she's beyond the CP24 with those ads. What are they for? Windows and doors or something? I can't remember.

I don't know if that's a job though. That's just like she's doing ads. That's not a job, right? That was another one of those episodes where a woman who came on Toronto Might and you got comments about the chemistry. That's true. That's true. Who can blame me?

Really because I think Ann Romer was so excited that there was a guy out there who was fixated upon her. Remember, I'm— Watching her every move. I'm married. With help from people like me. I was going to say, I'm married, but I'm not dead. I can be friendly with these women.

The buildup to Ann Romer here was incredible, and yet the follow-up episode, what's happening? I don't know, man. She was all set to come in, and she was going to take me to Ikea. I think she soured on me because maybe— Okay, real talk. Ann, if you're listening, this is, I'm gonna share a little story here,

but I said I wanted to do something. Let's pretend I said in the fall, but I don't like to bother and pester people like Anne Romer, so I probably didn't reach out again until something closer to the Christmas time or something. And I'm like, Anne, are you ready to schedule your visit? And then I got a sense she was, because I took a gap between,

I said, I'd love to have you back, whatever. And she said, okay, I'll take you to Ikea for lunch. And I'm like, yay. And then I might've taken too long to follow up because on purpose, by the way, because I don't want to harass somebody that I might've like lost out on that opportunity. If you can believe that, yes, that might have happened.

But keep on tweeting your Ann Romer sightings to Toronto Mike because you know what to do with them. I was going to say the story of Jazz FM 91 was a factor in the first half of the years. We saw Heather Bambrick go back to Jazz FM. A lot of them went back. Again, after coming on your podcast, resigned to the fact that this was a thing of her past.

Last week, as recently as, yeah, last week I was at Great Lakes Brewery to meet somebody I'm working with. We had a beer to talk about some things. And then a gentleman recognized me and he came up to me and said, he's on the board of the new board and he wanted to thank me for the courage

and doing what I did with regards to the Ross Porter letter. Apparently this would, I'm sort of a hero in some circles, like a folk hero, because by sharing the truth and the real talk, I showed somebody to be awfully litigious and potentially, I won't even use it. He's so litigious, I'll be careful

of what I say, but by putting a light, shining a light on this, I'm a little bit of a folk hero in some circles. But yes, you're right. Heather Bambrick, who's fantastic. Back on Jazz FM more than before because she's on the midday show. Yes.

She had mornings at one point. She's a cornerstone of that station. James B. was another who was on here talking about his history with Jazz FM. From what I can recall, never imagining that he would be invited to return. It was a

done deal. It was a done deal. Right. It was, it was behind him. He was finding new ways to make money. And now he's back on there with his jazz safari. Like, like nothing ever happened. So, so jazz FM,

at least a couple of guests you had on here and Ralph Benberg, he was back on there, but he was fundraising. Right. He was fundraising. Not a full-time job. I was also going to mention Kate Wheeler. Yes.

A guest you had here. I was reminded from the Best of Toronto Mike episode with Al Grego. What did you think of that? It was terrific. I had zero role. I don't think I'm anywhere close to Al's level of obsession with the history of Toronto Mic'd. So for those who haven't heard,

pause us and go back. But Al basically, he took 16 clips from the first 250 episodes of Toronto Mic'd. I never had a role in picking the clips. In fact, I didn't know

what the clips were until I heard them, which you can hear in the live recording of that episode. So he pulls the clips. We play them on his tablet. I connect him to the Bluetooth channel. And it was fun not knowing what was being played, by the way, on my podcast. It was very exciting. But yeah, that clip of Kate

Wheeler, as I was listening to it, and I think I remarked this at the time, but the first thing, first of all, she was fantastic. Well, Kate, who, Bentley, Christine Bentley joined her, and she was great too. But the Kate Wheeler story about being stabbed in the underground, in the path, was unbelievable to hear it even again. It was very chilling, but I really heard the Aussie accent on Kate Wheeler that I don't remember taking note of

the first time I talked to her. But yeah, Kate Wheeler has a new gig. At Global News, she's in charge of something. Production. Oversight. Good for her. Of the newscast at Global. John Scholes.

I'm not exactly sure what he's doing there, but I hear his voice on News Talk 1010. On commercials. I think he's in the loop with these sponsored content shows that he's been doing. And that's terrific for somebody to have a life after being a Q107 DJ

to bring a little bit of flair to these shows that are essentially paid advertisements that run on talk radio stations on the weekend. It sounds like business is booming, that he's a guy that's able to connect the people with services to sell to the radio station. So good for schools there

to have a life after the mighty Q. And he was optimistic, right? He thought that was going to work out for him. Yeah, he had a good mindset. And yeah, that was a really, really good... He was not quite as I thought he'd be because he was not like your Al Joynes metalhead kind of guy.

Like I got the feeling like when John Scholes drove off in his little red Corvette or whatever that he's listening to like Hall & Oates or something like that, you know? Some kind of like a yacht rock or something. I don't think he was going to listen to any headbanging music. I think that's it for the report card. Matt Gurney back at the National Post again.

Got this episode where he swore off participating in newspapers. But with National Post, they have a whole legacy of bringing people back. Who left at one point? Christy Blatchford, Andrew Coyne, Colby Kosh. Well, they come back cheaper. I think that's how it works. Is that what it is? We'll see what's ahead with National Post

because they still technically have an empty chair as editor-in-chief of the National Post. And we'll see who fills that over there. And we'll get to talking more about newspapers and media as we usually do. Now, let's go in the time machine here. Remember the time. And of course, when you visit, we look at the chum charts.

I love that. We look at the chum charts. So this was number one on the chum charts 40 years ago this week. The logical song. Super Tramp. This is from Breakfast in America, right? Mark's grooving to this one. I love it. We're tuning in here to the time in my life when I started to know what was happening

with something like the Chum Charts. 40 years ago, June 1979, this was the number one hit for weeks and weeks and weeks. Not only that, but around the same time, they started a Chum FM chart. It would run in the Toronto Star on Fridays, a 10.50 Chum chart. Right beneath it,

the top 30 albums in Toronto branded by Chum FM. And it was Breakfast in America, the number one album, the logical song, the number one single, Meatballs, the movie starring Bill the number one single, Meatballs. The movie starring Bill Murray opened at the box office.

Love that movie. From Retro Ontario, and the Retro Ontario newsletter talked about that one. June 29th, 1979. Saw that movie in the theater because my cousin was in it for half a second. One of the extras there, the summer camp. There was Disco Demolition Night. I think Mark Hepsher is big on that one. Yeah, and it was Don't Tell Me, Don't Tell Me. Comiskey Park.

Comiskey Park. Steve Dahl, DJ in Chicago, had a thing where you should bring your discarded disco records to get them blown up real good on the field between the doubleheader, and it was such a disaster, they ended up forfeiting the second game of the doubleheader. Infamous night, and the footage from that, there must be a documentary out there. I might have seen it, where they use Super Trance's logical song

set to the images from Disco Demolition Night. Like, this was the song, right? Progressive rock. Roger Hodgson triumphing over the demon disco amongst the white folks of Chicago, Illinois, 1979. I don't know. Those are my recollections of the time. That's the best I can do.

But Supertramp bought this album, Breakfast in America, maybe at Music World at the Don Mills Center or something. It had a great cover, too. I still remember the cassette myself because my parents owned it. And it had a great cover, The Waitress. And it was this, Breakfast in America, and Meatloaf, Bad Out of Hell, which were like my two sophisticated rock albums when Ben Rayner was here.

He was talking about me that I first met him at a Meatloaf concert 20 years ago. And I guess I made an impression on him because I was inquisitive about who Ben Rayner was. Well, he remembered everything. People remember you if you recognize them,

if you ask them questions about what they're up to. Also, if they see you doing something else that they're interested in, then they go, oh, yeah, that's that guy. So it's like maybe he remembered remembering you. Quite a memory then of 20 years ago, end of 1999, we went to a Meatloaf concert where it was like VH1 storytellers, right, where Meatloaf would play his songs, but they would talk in between them, and it was sort of an acoustic show, like an unplugged thing, and they would go in the audience

and answer questions, and after a while, as Ben Rayner talked about, it was getting rather insufferable, but yeah, he remembered almost 20 years later that I talked about my childhood love of Meatloaf, which was consecrated somewhere around 1979. It was that and Super Tramp, number one on 1050 Chum. And Mike, don't forget to read the sponsor tag.

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Be there or be square. Be there or be square. Mark, I can't tell you how many times I heard this theme song. I used to have a commute. I wasn't always this pinko, you know, times I heard this theme song. I used to have a commute. I wasn't always this pinko. I used to drive to work and back and often I would listen to Bobcat on the

Fan 590. Are you sure you don't recognize that song from some VHS porn movie that you got somewhere in the late 80s? It's quite the jam. They did not want to update that one, I guess. But who can blame them? Well, that was part of the charm.

And I wonder if it was stipulated in Bob McAllen's contract that they couldn't replace the original theme from Primetime Sports. It was 30 years in October, October 1989, October 1989, that Primetime Sports as a brand made its debut on 1430 CJCL. And in reporting on Bob McCowan's rumored retirement, there was the dilemma of figuring out, like, how long was he with the station? How do you define the number of years that he was there? Hepsey got into this as well, right? Because he worked with him at CKFH.

CKFH 1430. Right, but it was a different station, but same frequency. But it was the same station, because it was the station that ran the Leafs, right? Foster Hewitt, CKFH. They picked up the Blue Jays when they started in 1977. There was, in the midst of the sports broadcasting, Bob McCowan, who started there in 1974 as a sales guy,

was put on the air to do sports. And in the process, pioneered this idea of being this character on Toronto sports radio all the way back in the mid-'70s, when the idea of an all-sports radio station would have seemed like the most outrageous thing in the world. And he was the one who developed his chops by going on at night and eventually alternating with the Leafs or the Jays games that were on the station.

And that was the genesis of Bob McCowan. So we are talking there at least 44 years working with the same station in one way or another. But it took a few twists and turns along the way. Yes, because I've heard, for example, he was on it for the last 30 years. And people are forgetting that he was fired before. This is not the first Bob McCallum.

He was fired in 1981. But he was fired in... Did Hebsey replace Bob McCallum? He says he did, yeah. A source of their friction. He's still angry about the fact they gave Hebsey the job that they ditched McCallum for.

This is almost 40 years ago. But he was fired in the mid-90s. Well, along the way, though, he ended up starting Sportsline on Global. Right, where Hebbshire replaced him there, too. And he also got fired from Global? I don't know. I think he did get fired from Global.

A move to Las Vegas, got in the whole gambling game. Okay, I remember when he joins CJCL 1430 and he's doing the sports stuff there. CKFH, yeah, became CJCL. Right. And CJ, somewhere along the way, CJCL had more talk shows. Metro 1430. Right. Metro 1430.

This goes way back. And the music of your life format was somewhere in there. Yeah, yeah. That's what I remember. Music of your life. There was still this idea that AM radio would be the source of musical integrity. But on CJCL, they take McCowan off primetime sports. And they put him on mornings.

And they put Dan Schulman, who's been on the show. Dan Schulman takes over primetime sports. So this goes to 1992-93, when the fan signed on as a full-time concern on 1430. They already had primetime sports, and they had a template for it all. And the first morning man at the fan was a disaster. Mike Inglis. He was from the States, right? Indiana, it was a fiasco.

He's still calling Miami Heat games. But on the fan in Toronto, they gave this guy the hook within a matter of weeks, demoted him, and there was McCowan. He was the ideal morning man. He was a franchise at the station. Why not put him on in morning? They reassigned McCowan to be the morning guy on the fan just a few months after it launched in that format.

Right, but it ends for McCowan on Mornings, not because he goes back to primetime, but because he gets fired. He got fired because he wasn't good. He didn't bring the ratings. It wasn't his niche. It didn't allow him to be

the character that he turned into. Listen, I've listened to as much Bob McCowan as Bob McCowan seemed to have watched hockey in his entire broadcasting career, which is to say literally almost nothing. But I understand the idea, the concept of the know-it-all, the guy who won't take off his sunglasses because there's so much wisdom hiding behind there

that he doesn't want to reveal any sense of humility. We've gone over the fact that Bob McCallum has turned down every invitation to be on Toronto Mike. Well, there's only been two, but yeah, he did. Okay, but you don't ask Superman to put on Clark Kent's glasses. And I think my suspicion, since I reflected on Bob McCowan moving on from primetime sports, is the fact that if he came on this podcast, what would he say?

Could he be the character of Bob McCowan? Would you let him get away with it? Is this modest basement where your son sleeps around the corner the place for Bob McCowan to be Bob McCowan? Yes, but wouldn't you like to find out? Yeah, but he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't go for it.

But he should do it. But why? It's the brand. He made millions of dollars being this asshole who refused to acknowledge any knowledge that he didn't actually have.

He wouldn't talk, for the most part, to open line callers, right? He just wanted to talk to the experts when it came to what was going on with sports. If I change hats. He was very select about who he spoke to, right?

Yeah, there were friends of Bob and you got on shit list. Well, we talked Gare Joyce and David Schultz. We've had a bunch of people on who we talked kind of openly about being on the shit list or whatever. Wilner was never on primetime sports. Probably has something to do with what happened with Jerry Haworth who was not on Primetime Sports when he had that very ceremonious retirement from his gig there. Yeah, very selective.

I didn't even realize all this. What I did get a sense of, because he did interviews to promote a documentary about Primetime Sports. It had been around, what, 25th anniversary? But Roger's interviews interviews all his interviews that former guest christina rutherford did a great interview of bob but for sports net magazine what bob mccowan said was when it's my final show i'm not gonna give it away i'm gonna at the end of my last episode i'm gonna go on and say i'm done done here. Thank you very much. I appreciate you listening, and it's

over. There'll be no ceremony, no tributes, no goodbyes. None of this Roger Ashby thing where they put him in the big ballroom of the Sheridan Center and have people giving tributes. Yeah, you're right. That as soon as it was over,

Bob McCowan would be the one and only person to know. And what happened, thanks to Toronto Sports Media. Jonah, yeah, he leaked it. And then we all knew. And how did we know? Because there was a lot of bitterness rolling through the halls of Sportsnet. They were talking about layoffs all around, cost cutting.

And I think they had to put Bob McCowan out there as a sacrificial lamb to say, look, we are serious about trimming our budgets here. That's pretty serious. We're getting rid of our fattest cash in the form of Bob McCowan. And you could imagine there was a lot of drama going on at Sportsnet, and they couldn't keep a lid on the whole thing. I don't know who would have leaked this information. But once it was out there, once it was out there, he couldn't rein it back in.

McCowan had to acknowledge the day before that this was going to be the last episode of Primetime Sports. It wasn't going to be like a Gord Martineau thing. No, it wasn't Gord. He said, but modern family is coming up next in midnight, and then they put it up press release 10 minutes later. He couldn't do the Gord thing, but he could do the Kevin Frankish thing.

This is the Kevin Frankish thing. If you think back on that, that was decades on breakfast television, and then on a Wednesday, all of a sudden, oh, Friday is my last show. I'm going to work on other projects. Thank goodness they didn't BS us with the other projects nonsense on this one. But it is very Frankish-esque

the way that he was Well, okay. When these people are in this situation, the lie is always, I'm not retiring. Don't say that I'm retired. Because Christine Bentley had to fight that where people thought she retired. It's hard to get another gig when people think you've retired.

And yet the assumption is that a Bob McCowan, the best bet for him to keep doing what he does is to do something on his own independently. And that's where TMDS comes in. And honestly, i actually would love to get a message to bob i don't find he doesn't have to come on toronto mike like a lot of people say no it's fine dutch he said no okay if i can take a no from you know darren detition i can take a no from bob mccowan that's fine but i would like an opportunity like i would like five minutes to

pitch him on a big idea i have for bob mcc with the other hat, like with my TMDS hat on. I would like to do that. Mark, can we hear an old school primetime sports ad just before we wrap up the McCowan segment here? Hey, Dougie, good shot in there. You know, you're a guy who looks for the best things in life. Isn't that right, Doug? Right, Bob.

And that's why you tune into my morning show every day on The Fan 1430. Isn't that right, Doug? Yeah, right, Bob. And, of course, you into my morning show every day on The Fan 1430. Isn't that right, Doug? Yeah, right, Bob. And, of course, you tune in because research has found me to be intelligent, insightful, and opinionated. Right, Doug? Wrong, Bob. Wrong? I tune in for the news every hour at 25 and 55.

The Bob McCowan Show. Everything a guy needs to start the day. Weekday mornings on The Fan 1430. Gilmore tunes in for news. And that was not Bob McCowan in his final form, I don't think. Right? Because you could tell there that he was trying a little bit too hard. Right.

To make friends and influence people. But that was the nature of morning radio at the time. When they ditched him from a fan 590, they were moving the frequency over from 1430 to 590 took over a ckey their their big get for the morning show was john derringer who was synonymous with with q107 but had been in montreal working for show for a couple of years in the morning and it was his old buddy bob mack Makowitz became program director of the fan and brought back Derringer in the morning. And that show struggled too

until they recruited Pat Marsden to be the second. Nelson Millman on this show said that, yeah, Pat Marsden saved the station. He said that here. Bob McCowan was out of a job for about a month, maybe two, as far as I could tell. And the anecdote is in there, somewhere in the Rogers official propaganda about primetime sports.

They rehired him back in early 1995 to his old afternoon drive show. And I think that's where you could fairly say that Bob McCowan's run was 24 years. Because that's when Fan 590 was established, and that's when he was in place doing the show that he did until the week before we're talking right now. 24 years at least. You know, we talk about how much effort people had to put in to make it. You know, just like somebody like Dave Bookman.

There was Bob McCowan swirling around the radio station for 20 years before he got the gig that he became synonymous with. And it's mentioned in there. When he came back to primetime sports, he did one show on a Friday, and then he immediately left on three weeks vacation. That's power. That's like a Donald Trump- style thing to do real power move and and i think it it set the tone for everything that followed and they made millions and millions

of dollars off this guy and i'm sure he got his share and it didn't it didn't sound like he had anything all that bad to say about rogers which took over the the fan from telemedia in the 21st century. It seemed like they treated him pretty well. They had Tim and Sid in there. They moved them to TV to compete against McCowan. Maybe you'd think there would be a bit of resentment, like here were these new kids that were being trained to take over. Is it speculation that that's going to happen?

It's speculation. Just see Tim and Sid. I mean, they're the established brand. They're the thing that people will listen to. Jeff Blair's got it in the short term for sure. We'll see if they stick with that. I know right now he's got the chair, but I was going to say the spark for bringing back McCowan, of course,

was that Dan Schulman left to call Blue Jays games for TSN. So Shulman quits primetime sports, and that's when everything kind of happens with bringing McCowan back, as I recall. For sure. I hope this discussion was satisfying for the commenter that was looking forward to us talking about Bob McCowan. Again, who I never really listened to,

but I think the arrogance that he put on, which I think was a persona, not the actual guy, that that was always compelling. And the fact that maybe the exit wasn't as orchestrated as he wanted it to be, wouldn't it have been a lot more fun if he just lived up to his vow

and just said in the last minute of the last show, I'm done, I'm not here. There's a leak. If those executives are going to be calling up their buddy Jonah and spilling the beans, then there will be no more surprises. Right? Right. Okay.

Okay, Godspeed Bob McCowan. We'll look forward to you here on Toronto Mic'd. here on Toronto Mike? Daryl Hall, Whiteport and Lemon Juice. Why on earth am I playing this jam, Mr. Wise Blunt? White pork lemon juice. White pork lemon juice. White pork lemon juice. White pork lemon juice. Well, it'll do to you.

To you, to you, to you. The biggest radio story of spring 2019 south of the border was the fact that New York City radio station WPLJ signed off for the final time after 48 years. And it was this version of the song White Port and Lemon Juice, WPLJ, a doo-wop song made famous by Frank Zappa in the glory days of underground radio. Perfect call letters for an American radio station, New York City, WPLJ. It had been WABC-FM, owned by the American Broadcasting Company. And there you had the biggest one of those free-form rock radio stations that took root in the USA. Its counterpart in Toronto would have been 104.5 Chum FM. Already established around that time, and after 48 years, the current owner of WPLJ Cumulus

sold the station, this is a signal maybe of where terrestrial radio is heading, to a Christian broadcasting network, one that runs on donations, a non-profit. I think they had to figure something out with the FCC, so there was a bit of a delay with the sale having to go through, but they ultimately approved it. And there at the end of May was a fascinating sign-off to the station.

You want to talk about a sign-off ceremony? They made a big deal out of it. They brought back all the old DJs. It was Scott Shannon, who's now on CBS FM in New York, who did a shift on there and a reunion about the station. And where people in Toronto

would relate to what happened with WPLJ was this. They were a station synonymous with playing rock music, New York's best rock. And in the early 1980s, they figured out that this MTV thing was taking off, and there was, you know, different styles of music that were becoming more popular with the

teenage kids, and maybe they had to move away from this fossilized rock music. And as a result, they started bringing in Culture Club and Wham! and Madonna onto WPLJ. But at the same time, they kept the rock DJs on the station. Now, we had some of this happen in Toronto, and it was on Chum FM. And I think the inspiration owed a lot to the fact they got away with it on WPLJ. And then from there, the type of music they were playing, kind of adult contemporary, middle-of-the-road stuff. I mean, this is a very conventional radio format that you would associate with hearing in the supermarket. Didn't really live up to the legacy the WPLJ call letters represented, but when it came to saying goodbye, they made a big deal out of it.

It was very emotional. And this was a big rock radio station. New York City, you wonder, well, what would it be like to hear a Chum FM, Q107, C-FNY have its last day because they sold the signal to a Christian broadcasting company? Look, it could happen because it happened to WPLJ.

I mentioned I was at Indy 88 for a tour today and they're happy over there because they got a power increase. Tell me like how this went down that they get to whatever, double their power. They had to get it on the second try. They applied once

at CRTC and they came back with them and said, look, you accepted the license to get on the second try. They applied once at the CRTC and they came back with them and said, look, you accepted the license to broadcast on this station. What are you coming up with? This is common. This happens all the time. Somebody, an independent operator, get a radio station license. They'll complain about the fact they can't make the money that they were counting on making when they started this station. And with Indy 88, C-I-N-D, I think that's the attitude that came back at them from the CRTC. We're not going to allocate this technically. It's complicated.

It gets in the way of other signals out there. But they came up with a plan, a compromise, and involved this newer radio station, the frequency for Aboriginal Indigenous music on 106.5. It's currently an imaginative format at Element FM. The closest thing in Toronto that we've had to an adult alternative radio format. The concept over there is it's an eclectic playlist,

but one out of every four songs is something Aboriginal. So it's a way of connecting that community to a broader listening audience. I think it's a pretty inventive idea. What do with the station? I wish it had more listeners. I wish it got more attention. I wish it did a little more with it, but you can hear on there Bob McGee doing the morning

show. Here's someone that started a show in 1972 still on Toronto. I should get that guy on Toronto. Late 60s, pushing 70s on Toronto radio every morning. It's terrific. And you never know what you're going to hear next. Unpredictable stuff. So Indie88 struck a deal with

Element FM where they would change the frequency, the current. I don't know anything about these technical terms. Whatever they did allowed Indy88 to get away with a power boost that would fit all the criteria that wouldn't get in anybody else's way. CRTC rubber-stamped it, and here, 88.1 what used to be 50 watt ckln out of ryerson will will now have a signal boost associated with a legitimate radio station or closer closer to it than it was before people out there wonder why you're always talking about fm radio who listens to that anymore but when it comes to people discovering what they're doing it seems to be pretty important

and from what you're telling me they're excited about this over there. It'll give them the opportunity to finally eclipse 102.1 The Edge. Well, it's a big deal. I mean, my guy there is a sales guy, so you can imagine this is a big deal for the sales department, right? So salesmen, cheats, and liars.

And look, I mean, you get these licenses from the CRTC. I don't know what Indy ADA was expecting when they applied for it. Did they really think that they would win? They were up against a bunch of competition, but here we are. Six years later into the existence of that station, it's too bad that my favorite DJ on the station died. But aside from that, it's doing okay. I get a lot of old friends that are getting back in touch

And it's a pretty good feeling, yeah, it feels pretty good I get a lot of double takes when I'm coming around the corners And it's mostly pretty nice, yeah, it's mostly pretty alright Cause most kids give me credit for being down with it When it was back in the day, back when things were way different, when the youth of today, in the early seven seconds, taught me some of life's most valuable lessons. There's going to come a time when the scene will seem less sunny, it'll probably get druggie and the kids will see...

Stay positive. The hold steady. Don't worry, I'll bring it back when we get to the stay positive part. Don't worry. But I just realized, as always with the Mark Weisblatt episode, always up against the clock because we could easily do this five hours a month. So stay positive, immortalized, as the words attached to a picture of Dave Bookman at the Horseshoe Tavern.

Last time I was here in Dubai, we did a one-hour tribute to Bookie. How did that go over? What was the reaction? A lot of reaction and the vast majority of comments were extremely positive. We kept it ad-free. You did an hour and yeah, very well received.

I think one guy on Twitter you saw thought you sounded angry. Did you want to address that? Yeah, but look, I'm angry a lot. I think one guy on Twitter you saw thought you sounded angry. Did you want to address that? Yeah, but look, I'm angry a lot. I was called out for an angry tweet the other day. I ended up deleting it because it was from a few months ago. It was somebody trying to get back at me.

Some smug comment that I made. What was wrong with me that day? But no, well received. I thought it was fantastic. If anybody wants to go back and listen to your last, the May roundup, you did the first hour all about Bookie, who you knew, you knew him. Obviously, you haven't been friendly with him in recent history,

would you address, but you did know him. We were karmically connected and through Twitter. And I listened pretty much every day in the years that he was doing the midday shift on Indie ADA. I'm adrift. He's not there anymore. I'm not tuning in like I used to. And the ratings for The Young and the Restless

have tanked ever since he died. This is real. I think the show was cursed. He put a hex on it. He was complaining on Twitter. He was Toronto's top Y&R troll. And now I'm reading Young and the Restless. It might be canceled.

How did you feel about the hour you spent talking about Bookie last month? Like, how did you feel? We don't really script these things in advance for something improvised here. It was adequate performance. Like every episode here, I wish I could have done it over and over again. Oh, yeah. Can I tell people that when we take the picture on the lawn,

every guest, I take a picture of them. I'm never, never, ever satisfied. And that's why I was willing to come in here every month, by the way, because I know the more episodes we pile up in the archives, the less likely the chance that everybody is going to listen to all the old

episodes that I didn't like. Smart. That's absolutely true. And so we're just doing a takeover and over and over again. The tributes to Bookie kept on rolling in. In fact, the day that we did that episode, May 30th, would have been his 59th birthday. And that night at the Horsesvern was a, an invite only party. No one,

no one was looking for me. I didn't even get an invitation that I could turn down, but it was a reunion of people that, that worked with bookie that knew him, knew him over the years. Oh yeah. I think I saw Robbie. Yeah.

Cause there's a big Raptors game that night. I remember thinking all star cast performed on stage, including a guy from Death Cab for Cutie, who did one of Bookie's famous songs, I Will Follow You Into the Dark. Which is a hauntingly beautiful little ditty, yeah. Very

touching, very emotional. And a petition to the City of Toronto that May 30th, 2020, each subsequent year, should be declared Bookie Day. Now, this is a no-brainer. I don't know. Do you really need a petition?

But a whole bunch of people signed it anyhow, and it's good that they did, that you showed there's genuine interest out there. And if you look at the list of special days that are declared in Toronto, of course Mayor John Tory has to make May 30th, 2020, bookie day. And I look forward to that happening. So he's been on my mind a lot, given the fact that just by coming on here,

I made the fact that he died more personal than I might have otherwise. But I'm glad that we got to pay tribute to him in that way, not just roll him off as another one in our monthly list of obits. And even though there was no funeral that I could find, his family kept this very private, you can't find information. There's nothing associated with the cemetery. There's no listing out there, which made it a bit confusing. But I did what I could to mourn him.

I don't know if there is any template for how this should be done. Given the fact that I could call this guy a friend, a mentor, an influence at one point in my life, and that I wasn't in touch with him for directly for many years since then. And I hope we're able to celebrate May 30th, 2020. Bookie Day in Toronto will be a big deal if it happens. Now, we're going to burn through some topics in the next 20 minutes before we get to the newly passed, the new memorials. So let's update everybody what's happening with As It Happens hosts, right? Oh, well, we were talking about Toronto Mike guests who got a new job, but this one never showed up. No, but the real Jeff Douglas you're talking about, right?

That's his Twitter handle. But Jeff Douglas lives in Mimico or lived. He's now in Halifax. But when he visits Toronto, he has promised he's going to make it up to me and make his appearance. So he's the I am Canadian guy. That's how he's probably better known. But yeah, he left as it happens to go. I guess he's doing a halifax uh cbc show

he's hosting the afternoon drive show from the halifax cbc i believe if i have that correct but meanwhile that's like some cbc news that's big but there's also we alluded to this earlier but the currents the host of the current anna mariaremonti, has left The Current to head up podcasts? I think it's going to be like the deep dive interview podcast from the CBC. Good. And the opposite of Bob McCowan, once again, where her final episode had a whole build-up, retrospective. These were the greatest episodes that we ever had with The Current,

with Anna Maria Tremonti. I guess you have to have an ego to set up the whole CBC atrium in your honor on your last day. You can't hide behind your sunglasses if you want this sort of celebration around you. Very different, though, because they have a incentive to publicize Anna Maria Tremonti because she's going to be the face and the voice of these podcasts which have advertising on them. That's the big change, right?

Oh yeah, that is a big change. So much so that when the CBC did their upfront presentation to advertisers, people were astounded by the emphasis that they made on advertising, that they rolled out the fact they're debuting a new podcast app or interface or whatever it is for the CBC, and that it is sponsor-friendly. So here is our public broadcaster claiming that radio is non-commercial. Right. Well, radio is non-commercial, but the podcasts are commercial.

And it's a new vista for them. And it's looking at it as a big revenue stream. Kind of smart when you think of it. Like, they found a loophole, essentially, right? We cannot advertise on CBC Radio 1, so we pushed this to the podcast world where we can, you know, RBC wants to cut us a check. It can be, you know, whatever.

And Anna Maria Tremonti will be part of that as well. And they announced Paul Kennedy leaving the show Ideas. Oh, I didn't know that. I need to know these things. I've heard my fair share of Paul Kennedy on Ideas. They announced foreign correspondent Nala Ayed. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Is taking over Ideas on CBC Radio. So still going a bit highbrow. You'll have to talk to J.J. J.J. Laborde about what it is to go from commercial radio to CBC. So what's he doing at the CBC right now? You'll have to find out. Okay.

That's on the next episode of Toronto. That's on Thursday, just before TMLX3. Now, Marcella, okay, why am I playing this? Of course. Every time you visit, we get a little, can you give me like a, can you put it all together? Well, yeah, Chair Girl. No court appearance for Chair Girl that I could

find, even though there was supposed to be one in June. Still facing charges related to allegedly throwing some patio furniture off at Balcony in downtown Toronto. But the Chair Girl Instagram continues paying dividends. I learned that chair girl is involved with an organization called Got Ass.

Like Got Milk? Right, right. And they go around to events in which there might be a lot of lubricated gentlemen and perform for them. And this is what Chairgirl's job seems to be. Oh, to Sir Mix-a-Lot songs. Yes, Baby Got Back, I believe, is the theme song. And between that and her other Instagram stories,

she's still living it up, living the life, although she didn't manage to get in any trouble lately for any talk of Coke or cocaine or Coca-Cola or whatever it was. Mark, I rely on you fully to give me my updates on Chair Girl. I don't hear,

I haven't heard a word about Chair Girl since the last time you were on. She did make a listicle, though, from a website, the Post Millennial. They had the top 10 Canadians having a terrible 2019. And Chair Girl was number eight on the list.

And she was right up there with Justin Trudeau, Doug Ford, social justice queen Nora Loretto, who we've talked about on here before. Chair Girl, if nothing else becomes of this entire episode, she can say that she made this list on the post-millennial. We'll see where the Chair Girl story goes this summer. We'll see if we can keep playing the Beach Boys from Carl and the Passions. Hot off the press. Carl and the Passions.

Hot off the press. I had David Schultz on and he disclosed how happy he was when they offered these involuntary buyout packages at Post Media. He was very excited. No, not Post Media. I got to get my stuff straight.

My apologies. He had a long career in newspapers. One of the Globe and Mail. My apologies. They probably did that to him. He had a long career in newspapers. Right. One of the last lifers standing. Right. And he was all set to get this offer, and he jumped at it, and he got it approved. So he got some money, and now he's retired.

Margaret went. No, not yet. Right? He said that he has a final date at the end of July. Right. He's dogging it. But he's very pleased about the fact that he doesn't actually have to write anything as he runs out the clock.

He's still on the payroll until the date where he technically becomes retired. Now, I mean, others have taken this involuntary buyout, including one interesting name you want to share with us. Oh, Margaret Wente. Right. And that was this week, and not a big surprise, because she's of the generation that put in their time at the newspaper. 33 years with the Globe and Mail, and the last 20 of them doing this column,

which became the subject of a lot of infamy. People that would have never read a Margaret Wente column in their lives got to know her as an alleged plagiarist. Now, I say alleged because the way they spun it, it wasn't enough of an infraction that they would discipline her for it. This caused a lot of resentment,

especially among the younger wannabe journalists that Margaret Wente was taking up space in the newspaper, money that could have gone to them for spouting off on their opinions. I have a bad take. How come the Globe and Mail won't pay me too? Well, the thing was that Margaret Wente

was a big star of the Globe and Mail. Going back to the newspaper war days against National Post, they positioned her as the voice of the paper. And look, she delivered. She brought the goods. She was synonymous with a voice that matched what the Globe and Mail reader wanted to read.

So no matter what people's opinions were of her, I mean, it was essentially a center-right viewpoint, perspective on the world from an establishment figure. She delivered the goods for the Globe and Mail time and time again. They found her to be the most popular columnist in there. A year ago, she got cut down to once a week. I don't know if that was by her own choosing, and my suspicion

was that might have been some kind of buyout situation or semi-retirement or whatever, but it turns out, in fact, that whatever was happening in the last year, she now has a buyout and she says she's done.

She's leaving. She's gone. No more Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail at the end of August. Some people are rejoicing. Whatever. Listen, it's the Globe and Mail.

We'll see where it goes and whether it's Margaret Wente or David Schultz or whoever else, they had a mandate to cut a bunch of staff and get on some solid footing. We'll see what happens with the federal newspaper bailout.

Could be a different kind of Globe and Mail in the future. In the end, though, they're mostly interested in subscribers. They're not giving it away for free. You notice, Globe and Mail, a lot of it's beyond a paywall now. Yeah, I did notice, yes. And that is how you make this thing sustainable, and that's you

know david thompson richest man in canada he's not pouring all this money into a prestige newspaper to you know just have any old schmuck clicking on it they they now are zeroing in on who the gold mill demographic is and that's what we're going for i can now confirm breaking news i can now confirm that the lowest of the Low will in fact play this song live on Thursday at Great Lakes Brewery. Bleed a little while tonight.

Now, I'm playing low not just to share that breaking news, which is pretty exciting, but because their CBS News super fan has been ousted? Is that what I'm seeing here? Did you get the story on how Lois of the Low ended up on CBS?

We did that before. Weekend Morning Show. They did it back in... And what did this Jeff Glore have anything to do with the fact they were on there? I think everything to do with it. Everything? Yeah, like everything. My memory is shot.

Yeah, you got to go back, because that's why I didn't want to waste the value of time. I wanted to know, because Jeff Gore got demoted from being the anchor of the CBS Evening News. Nowadays, everything has changed. Right. But this is Walter Cronkite's job. This is the gig that Dan Rather did before he unceremoniously departed. Well, things ain't what they used to be, and there's more of a revolving door. And CBS, Black Rock, venerable institution, they believed in this guy.

But he didn't last very long, and he was shuffled out of it. In the cover of Night, they made him an ex-CBS evening news anchor. So here's our mid-40s Gen Xer from Buffalo, New York, made good. He's got to hang his head a little lower by virtue of the fact that he's being replaced by Nora O'Donnell. Now he's still with CBS. There still might be a shot for Lowest of the Low to get on CBS again. Because in the loop there, maybe he

can be the curator of musical guests on CBS. That might be a make-work project for him. So, the highest-ranking, lowest-of-the-low fan in the world no longer has his job. Now the Rolling Stones,

are they in town now or no? When is this happening? You know more than I do about this. I know the Rolling Stones, as we speak, are in Chicago doing the second of two opening dates on their tour. And let's face it, they need a break between shows. They don't do back-to-back ones.

A few days in between. But they had a tour kickoff of the Rolling Stones. The most anticipated Rolling Stones tour in history because we almost lost Mick Jagger along the way. And there was a cancellation postponement at one point, wondering if he'd be able to pull through. This song from the Steel Wheels album from 30 years ago, at the time that the Rolling Stones were already being derided as old men.

I remember well. The steel wheelchairs tour. And they dusted this one off to perform in Chicago. It was the one unexpected, unpredictable song in the Stone set list. And they try to mix it up.

So playing at Burrell's Creek. Where is that? Near Barry. North of Barry. North of Barry. Up there. playing at Burrell's Creek. And that's, where is that? Is that, do you know? Orno? No, near Barrie. North of Barrie. North of Barrie.

Up there. They had the Way Home Festival there for a few years. Boots and Hearts is another one. Right. The Rolling Stones, closest they're going to get to Toronto. Talk about them reopening the El Macabre.

Well, it could happen. Better happen soon. They need a rest between shows, as we can see. And so in the process there, we had Mick Jagger doing some interviews, including with John Derringer of Q107. And I'm astounded by the fact Mick Jagger's been around for all this time and still cannot do a useful interview to save his life. He talks and talks

and says absolutely nothing. No real talk from Mick. Never. And Ron Wood might be even worse. So they're not into the idea of giving interviews, but they've been doing them anyway. And we learn absolutely nothing.

We've played Frank Walker before because this is Belinda Stronach's son. And get some airplay. Yeah, that one's rising up! The chum charts! And not only was I watching the chum charts 40 years ago with Super Tramp 1979, I still

pay attention to the chum chart today! I would like some recognition! For my obsessions here. The best I can do is scream about them on your show. Frank Walker, son of Belinda Stronach, a track called Heartbreak Back, number 15 right now. 104.5 chump. Okay, but this song we're listening to now is Only When It Rains. This is his next single.

This is his follow-up. I'm watching Frank Walker only because of his mother and his grandfather. And they're on the cover of the current July issue of Toronto Life magazine, The Strawnic Family Feud. Did you read this story? No. There's some wild stuff. Even though I'm riding on the coattails of Toronto

Life, I never expected to plug what they do there. This is a wonderful family feud going on, you know, wondering how many billions of dollars can be burned in the process while Frank

Sr. and Belinda feud with one another. So check that out online from Toronto Life and Frank Walker on Chum or whoever else is playing him. And it's funny if Frank Walker, Belinda Stradek's son, becomes a big pop star. For sure. Now, who's related?

Now, what's going on here? This is, of course, Strange Advance. We run. This is like popping in a time machine here. I might have bad intel. Former Toronto Mike guest, Mark Wigmore. I was told that it might be his uncle who is in strange advance. And I wanted to confirm this with him. I'm just saying it out loud here.

Yeah, sure. We'll figure it out. I mean, I should have maybe done my research before I arrived. So this is inconclusive whether Mark Wigmore is related to... Whether his uncle was in this pioneering Canadian synth-pop group from Vancouver,

and they've just reunited, and the place you can see them in Toronto, near Toronto, is in the strangest place of all. They're one of the opening acts for Kid Rock and Alice Cooper. That's a bizarre match. At a festival called Roxodus.

Roxodus. Which is at the Edenvale Airport in the Clearview Township. They're going to get bottles thrown at them because it's not a proper fit for the Alice Cooper Kid Rock fandom. And Peter Frampton is in there, too. And they're at the beginning of the bill, Strange Advance. This is maybe, yeah, going to be a rough crowd for them, but there they are playing Saturday, July 13th.

Strange Advance and Street Heart, along with Peter Frampton and Alice Cooper and Kid Rock. Where is this again? This is near the Edenvale Airport. Field somewhere. What does that mean? Biker friendly atmosphere. So the other headliners

in this are Nickelback, of course. Oh, wow. Nickelback and Collective Soul 1-9. Wow. Big Rack,

we'll talk about them later. Yeah. The next night, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Cheap Trick and Billy Idol and Blondie.

Wow. And also Prism, which is not nobody from the original lineup of that Vancouver act. And Saga, who I thought retired. Termy Luce, right? Frog Rock. And they're opening the show. And then this one was strange. And then the last night is Aerosmith and Matthew Good Band.

Yeah, I know Matthew Good, of course. Theory of a Dead Man and I, Mother Earth reunion. Wow. Wow. And in the middle of it all, Strange Advance in broad daylight. An act that

never got much traction. But these songs are memorable, especially from CFNY in the 1980s. This one is, yeah, very memorable. But not enough to stick around, like they didn't last past 80s. But now they've reunited. Danger in the shape of something wild of the reunited stranger dressed in

black she's a hungry child what her name is I don't know where she came from What her game is Hot child in the city Hot child in the city Who's going in the Hall of Fame, Mark?

My body looking pretty. Hot child. Oh, this one is already inducted. It got into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Hot child in the city. Number one hit, 1978 from Nick Gilder. And they announced this was happening. I couldn't find any coverage of it.

Asked on Twitter. Where are the reporters in this country? Nick Gilder having an induction ceremony is something that should be paid attention to. Now, you cannot beat the sleaziness of this original recording. You see cover versions and Nick Gilder teaming up with some younger bands, redoing the song. And it doesn't work, ironically. It doesn't connect to the flavor of the original Hot Child in the City. Doug Saunders of the Globe and Mail reacted on Twitter.

He mentioned the fact that he was in, I don't know, seventh grade, 1978, and a music teacher had everybody sing the song in unison. Wow. Which, when looking back, is quite a creepy thing to do because what's this song about? It's about wandering around Hollywood Boulevard watching all the hustlers on the street. This was Nick Gilder from the band Sweeney Todd

that worked on this song with the producers Chin and Chapman that captured something here that he didn't figure out how to ever do again. Hot child in the city Hot child in the city And of course it is in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. How could this not be? And the ending is terrific too. Hot child in the city Woo!

All right, Mark. We got one hour left in the program. We have many people to memorialize. All right, Mark. We've got one hour left in the program. We have many people to memorialize. So we're going to do this up, and we're going to start by talking about the acknowledgement, I suppose, made by the Degrassi Palooza people with regards to the death of wheels many years ago.

What a somber way of leading into this. And so where's our zit remedy song, if you're going to go with this here? You got that somewhere on the computer? I was going to say there was a Degrassi Palooza convention. Pat Mastroianni, Joey Jeremiah from Degrassi, he seemed to come up with a pretty good business model. He would reunite all the original cast from Degrassi.

Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High. The shows were on late 80s, early 90s. My shows. And he would get Degrassi fans to pay money to hang out with them at their reunion. And he got some rundown airport hotel to host this thing. And hopefully he made a few

bucks out of the deal. Because it seemed like the cast members were reuniting for the first time. They were all excited to be there and hang out with one another again and meet their fans. Was Stephanie Kay there? Was Stephanie Kay there? I think, yes, Stephanie Kay.

All the way with Stephanie Kay. Why am I not part of the Degrassi Palooza promotional tour? Is there a better match out there? Come on. Have you been in touch with Pat? At some point I was. I remember Stacey Metician was going to come in when her,

but she had young kids and she's all the way in either Oshawa or Ajax or Pickering or somewhere way out there. So I need to pick this up again with my Degrassi people. Love those guys.

And yes, the death of wheels is like the saddest thing ever because the poor guy was dead five years before we knew of it. Man, what a tragic tale. And there were Degrassi balloons of all the images, of all the selfies, of all the photo ops that people paid for to hang out with their favorite original Degrassi cast members. My

favorite was the memorial book that they set up for Wheels. Neil Hope, who died in 2007. We didn't learn about it until 2012. Finally given not a funeral, not really a memorial service, but just a way for people to sign their name and remember Wheels, who we lost and didn't learn about because when he died, it was in a rooming house in Hamilton. And finally, Degrassi Palooza was a context in which Wheels could be properly remembered. Everything is on a time delay with the legacy of Neil Hopes. It was only in June 2019 that Neil Hope got the send-off

that he deserved from his biggest fans. I want to live I want to kill I've been a miner for a heart of gold It's these expressions I never give That keep me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old

Neil Young's manager passed away. Elliot Roberts is probably one of the most important people in the history of Canadian music. Even though he was a guy from Brooklyn who ended up moving to Laurel Canyon, California. But that's where he took

his first big client, a woman named Joni Mitchell. He discovered her in Greenwich Village. It was Buffy St. Marie who sent him a Mitchell. He discovered her in Greenwich Village. It was Buffy St. Marie who sent him a tape. He was a budding music manager. He was given a tip-off to check her out. He saw something there, and he said,

I will work for you for free because I think I can make you a star. And that was how we got to learn about Joni Mitchell. It was Elliot Roberts behind the scenes. So from Joni Mitchell, we get to Neil Young, who had already been known from Buffalo Springfield and then starting to work with... And the Miner Birds, I want to say. The Miner Birds in Toronto with Rick James.

And then on to Crosby, Stills, and Nash and Young. birds i want to say minor birds in toronto with rick james and then onto crosby stills and nash and young right but the idea of neil young as a solo performer neil himself credits elliot roberts with making it all possible when you think of heart of gold this was a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit in 1972. He was the Lil Nas X of his day. I mean, a guy that's just lying there, he had a back injury or something, strumming the guitar, came up with these songs, and all of a sudden he's got Neil Young,

a number one song in America? I mean, this is incredible, because we think of him as a countercultural figure, no? Like to think that this was a number one hit in America. This was a song that everyone was strumming at a certain point in time. Neil Young as an influence. Elliot Roberts worked with Neil Young for 50 years, all the way down through all the different incarnations of Neil Young. There was his manager right

with him, so a lot of interface with Canada along the way and all of the musical genres that Neil Young explored. Elliot Roberts right alongside with him. Dead at age 76, Elliot Roberts. Adam Littlebit. Adam Litovitz Okay, so here's a big sad one for the obituaries this month.

It was a 36-year-old musician and composer, Adam Litovitz. And this was the kind of music he made with his partner, his life partner, his creative partner, a woman whose name more people would know, Sook-Yin Lee, former Much Music, DJ, host on the CBC. Bob's my uncle. She had a band.

Bob's your uncle. Bob's your uncle. Right. Also my uncle. Okay. Okay. This song, by the way, I hope I pronounce it right,

is called the Juge. The band. J-O-O-J. Musical name. Gotcha. And this came out on Last Gang Records, a big Toronto indie rock label. Don't know that it got a whole lot of notice,

but Adam Lidovitz also did music for movies that Sookie and Lee made around that time. He was nominated for a Canadian Movie Awards. This is the nature of Canadian independent music fame, but it seemed like he made a big impression and had an impact on a lot of people This is the nature of Canadian independent music fame. But it seemed like he made a big impression and had an impact on a lot of people because, in fact, there were police reports about the fact that he'd gone missing, got a lot of attention on social media, and within a matter of days, it turned out, in fact, that he had died. Katie Texter was 45.

Who is Katie? Oh, well, that is something related to an event that just happened in Toronto, which was the unveiling of a Morley Safer Lane. So Morley Safer corresponded for 60 minutes. Now it's on the laneway. It's right next to the Clinton Street Public School on Manning Avenue, downtown Toronto. And I saw

the sign on the day they unveiled it. I got to see for myself that there is in fact a Morley Safer and at the same time this was being unveiled, we learned that Katie Texter, a woman that was Morley Safer's producer in the latter years of 60 Minutes,

died at age 45! I thought people involved with 60 Minutes lived forever. So, there was a tragic death related to 60 Minutes and Morley Safer. You can now

not only see buried at the Roselawn Cemetery in North Toronto around Bathurst and Eglinton, but you can see his own laneway sign around where he grew up in downtown. A lot of people don't know that Morley Safer was born and raised in Toronto.

They associated him with being one of these New York guys. But his loyalty to the city was such that I would assume that he wanted to be buried here. And now he's joined myriad names who have laneways named after them. There's a movement in Toronto to give names to these laneways. You don't have to be dead to get one, but a lot of people that have them are. But it helps. I think it's a good tourist attraction.

It's Ian March, the program director of Indy 88, put on Twitter that he lives at the corner of Manning Avenue and Morley Safer Lane. That's pretty good for downtown Toronto. Not a lot of star wattage in our street signs. A lot better than getting a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame. Right. Nobody cares about that.

You need a sign that people can look up and see, not stomp over on the ground. I'm really trying to hit the post here, can't you tell? I lose your drag around my door If I keep it cracked, they won't be there no more I lose your lead along the way Leave them there, don't come back today Yeah Yeah We lost a member of Big Rec.

Brian Doherty, that was his name? He was a guitar player in Big Wreck, a band that formed in Boston at the Berklee College of Music, but got a record deal on the basis of being Canadian because it was Ian Thornley, the front man, who was Canadian. And they were signed with a lot of hype, and it was one of those attempts to use the fact that they would guarantee a certain amount of attention in Canada to break through in the USA.

I don't know that it really happened for them. This song got some airplay south of the border. There's several big radio hits from Big Wreck, for sure. This was the first. The Oaf is the first kind of big one. But no, there's. And even Ian Thornley as a solo artist had some radio play, I remember. But Big Wreck, I remember.

Yeah, they're all American except Ian Thornley. But we lost only 51 years old Brian Doherty from Big Wreck. That's terrible. Big Wreck ended up breaking up because of their struggles with success. And Thornley became

his own brand. And that was the name of the band. But it was Brian Doherty that stuck with him. And they ended up reverting to Big Rack. The name came back because that was the name of everybody. Sure. They had enough recognition from Canadian radio, and even though Brian Doherty was born and raised in Staten Island, New York,

he ended up moving around Sarnia, Ontario, New York. He ended up moving around Sarnia, Ontario. And he died in June 2019 at age 51. But Big Wreck is still performing and they're in this Roxodus

festival that we mentioned. Wow, everybody's there. Retrospect, 22 years after this song, The Oath, came out. Sounds a lot better now to me. But back then it was like... It's the headphones and the beer. Stone Temple Pilots covering Led Zeppelin.

But you know what? Stone Temple Pilots have never sounded better to me. And I was a big Stone Temple Pilots guy who saw them live several times. But they sound great to me now. Like they're better than I remember. I know. Maybe it's I miss being a young man. Maybe that's all this is.

It's either that or the Great Lakes beer. Honestly, that octopus, everything sounds great right now. Brian Doherty, he will be missed by fans of the band Big Wreck. Tell me about Moe Scarlet. Moe Scarlet passed away. Well, there was an interesting trinity of deaths. Last time I was here, it was the day that Leon Redbone died. And shortly after that, we lost Dr. John.

And Moe Scarlet was kind of like a hybrid of Dr. John and Leon Redbone. Now, Moe Scarlett was a Canadian musician who performed in that similar style. He didn't have that level of fame, but he died in June. but he died in June and it led to a lot of reflection about the fact that, hey, maybe these deaths really do come in threes because here were three guys who performed in that old-timey musical style.

Moe Scarlett was 72, Dr. John, 77, Leon Redbone, 69 and it seemed to be like a thing of a certain generation that you could make it a little bit as a musician by putting on this old-timey 1930s thing. It must have been Leon Redbone that led the way for Mo Scarlett, but we might not have had Leon Redbone without Dr. John.

And here in the background is Leon Redbone without Dr. John. And here in the background is Leon Redbone and Dr. John. Right. Right. Right. This is Leon Redbone and Dr. John doing Frosty the Snowman. So he said, let's run and we'll have some fun now before I melt away. Down to the village with a broomstick in his hand. Running here and there all around the square saying, catch me if you can.

He led them down the streets of town right to that traffic car. And he only paused in the moment when he heard him holler stop. Rousty, the stone man, had to hurry on his way. But he waved goodbye saying, don't you cry, I'll be back again someday.

Leon Redbone, who we talked about the last time I was here, it was the afternoon that we heard that he died. I think even in death, he did a great job of remaining a mystery, obfuscating his origins in Toronto. And the whole thing with Leon Redbone is he was a man of mystery. He wouldn't tell people his real name. And as a result, I don't think he came up all that often

when people talked about the history of Canadian music, even though it wouldn't have happened for him without playing in the coffee houses of Yorkville and without being in the Mariposa Folk Festival where he met Bob Dylan, gave him a breakthrough. And even the fact that Leon Redbone became initially known for being on Saturday Night Live, he was musical guest twice in the first season of the show, when it was a seminal influence on American pop culture as it built up. had a lot to do with Toronto Connections too because of Lorne Michaels and Dan Aykroyd and Howard Shore, the guy who did the music on SNL.

Did you get the sense with Leon Redbone that people remembered him as a Canadian? No, no, no. Yes or no? No, it was like a fun fact you'd share with people. Like, did you know he was living in Toronto? And yet, part of the mystery of Leon Redbone was that at one point, as he was

getting some traction, that the only way that you could reach him was by calling a payphone in a billiards hall at Young and Bloor. That this was part of his shtick. And where that billiard

hall was located is on, let me get this right, the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor. There's a subway entrance there. There's now a Nordstrom rack. Wait a minute. A big condo, fancy skyscraper. That's the Harvey's.

Yeah, there was a billiards hall in there, and that was the pay phone that you had to call if you wanted to find Leon Redbone. But yeah, it was so secretive about where he came from. He ended up being revealed in the Toronto Star somewhere around the mid-'80s, but I don't think when we were growing up, people never said,

this guy who did the theme for Mr. Belvedere is from Toronto. And trust me, people never said, this guy who did the theme for Mr. Belvedere is from Toronto. And trust me, around that time, people would have taken civic pride in the fact that there was a Toronto connection to Mr. Belvedere. All right, so Dr. John, Leon Redbone, and Mo Scarlett now for something completely different. This year, Halloween fell on the weekend. Me and Ghetto Boys are trick-or-treating

Robbing little kids for bags Till a little man got behind our rags So we speeded up the pace Took a look back And he was right before our face We were in for a squab no doubt So I swung and tried to take him out He was going down we planned

But this wasn't no ordinary man He stood about six or seven feet Bushwick Bill from Ghetto Boys. Only 52. Man. Don't tell me Bushwick Bill has a tie to Toronto. Is that possible? Oh no, but he has a tie to me, which is enough to get into our

section sometimes. My mind is playing tricks on me. Right, and this is his verse from Mind Playing Tricks on Me. If you know the story of Bushwick Bill, it's amazing that he made it to that age. Because part of the legacy of the Ghetto Boys was that he attempted suicide,

and the cover of the Ghetto Boys album that Mind Playing Tricks on Me was on was a picture of him in the hospital with the two other guys from the Ghetto Boys posing with him after he tried to kill himself. But in the early days of gangster rap, look, this was currency. I mean, if this was going to happen to these people, they were going to try to figure out how to make money off it. Mind playing tricks on me. A song that made it into the Billboard Top 40. I remember it being

on the American Top 40 countdown with Shadow Stevens. I'm surprised. They wouldn't even play more than a few seconds of the song. It was the point where things got a little too dangerous. They were realizing that, okay, maybe this rap music is becoming a bit extreme. Well, they were used to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It was way out there.

But how did the Ghetto Boys become famous in any way? It was because Rick Rubin was going to release an album of theirs. And it was Warner Music. Warner Communications refused to distribute it. That was in the initial backlash, the days of NWA. I mean, this was dangerous stuff. days of NWA. I mean, this was dangerous stuff.

Violent, misogynist, offensive all around, as far as hip-hop was concerned. There was the idea that, okay, this was like the art that they were putting out there. This was representing the streets. It shouldn't disparage what they're doing. This is reflecting a reality. Now, 20 years ago, a huge resurgence, though, because of the office space,

at least two Ghetto Boy songs off the top of my head are prominently featured in office space. And Mind Playing Tricks On Me is an amazingly intense song. At the time it came out, and the fact that it's got any sort of mainstream attention was kind of mind-blowing. I remember Grail Marcus, a great music cultural critic, wrote a whole essay about it in Esquire magazine.

And here was a song that was like nothing that people had ever heard before in hip-hop. I was obsessed with it to the point I bought a cassette single of mine playing tricks on me. I think I paid $5, $6, $7.99 for a cassette of this one song. The edited version was a lot better too. And this was Scarface, Willie D, and Bushwick Bill, who was a little person. And they were the Ghetto Boys, and they captured something in that one song.

It was kind of like an old blues thing, like Robert Johnson, down to the crossroads, and drug-fueled paranoia. I can't believe that a song like this ever became popular. But we lost Bushwick Bill, who was the soul of the song, dead at 52 in June 2019. Thank you. Oh, what a feeling What a rush Oh, what a feeling What a rush Oh, what a feeling.

What a rush. Well, you know what I'm feeling. I think you're coming out. Crowbar. Who did we lose from Crowbar, Mark? We lost the guy from Crowbar, Kelly J. Dead at age 77 Was considered the soul and spirit Of Canadian music from the beginning That oh what a feeling

Was the CanCon National Anthem To the point where when they released a box set To commemorate 25 years of Canadian content, the title of the box set was Oh, What a Feeling. I bought that box set. It had Let Your Backbone Slide on it. And the Canadian content regulations kicked in in 1971. The Canadian content regulations kicked in in 1971.

And this was a song that, to this day, was considered the kickoff of the whole thing. There was Kelly J. from Hamilton, Ontario. They had this band, Crowbombs. And they were going to bring Canada into the 70s. And what better champion could they have for their music than Pierre Elliott Trudeau? Maggie Trudeau, husband of the prime minister, who was about 30 years...

Well, wife of the prime minister. Sorry, sorry. Too many beers. Always misgendering down here. I'm going to start again. Maggie Trudeau, wife of the prime minister. What kind of music would a 22-year-old and a 52-year-old have in common? The Rolling Stones.

No, Crowbar. Crowbar was what they could agree upon. Met them at some sort of rock festival. They smoked a joint together, which is commonplace in 2019, but subversive behavior for a prime minister around 1971. And the Liberal Party of Canada ended up recruiting Crowbar to perform at Pierre Trudeau rallies in 1972.

What a rush. Now this was not the most successful election. I mean, wasn't there a minority government? But look, Trudeau was able to keep the flame burning of Trudeau-mania. And he gave credit to Kelly J. of Crowbar, who was an animated character known for doing things like leaping on his piano. And he was not a slender man.

And that was part of the animated act that they put out there. Things eventually turned sour for the band Crowbar. You know, they were formed on hippie ideals, which couldn't sustain into the mid-70s, so that was the end of that. But Kelly J ended up being a media personality in Toronto. They hired him as an overnight DJ

on Chum FM. At one point, I think he was also involved in the Chum FM morning show. Although I'm not sure if that meant he was still hanging around from his overnight shift. Later in the 80s, Oh What a Feeling became a jingle for participation.

You might have first heard it then at the time. Remember? Participation commercials? Well, of course. Oh, What a Feeling? Of course. Participation. Get in the action.

Of course. He ended up having some family tragedies and things went awry. And the last we really heard about Kelly Jay, he was in one of those reality TV shows from his home in Calgary. In fact, they had a big problem being a hoarder, that he couldn't get rid of all his memorabilia. And he was on one of these reality shows where they were trying to cure him of hoarding. This was a

serious thing for him they was dealing with that he was going through yeah no laughing matter like this this is a mental illness and people collect things and it starts to yeah it it's very serious yeah i mean a lot of reality shows have been based on that that uh that illness unfortunately we started here kelly j yeah We found out that he was brain dead a couple weeks before the news came in that he'd actually passed away. It was one of those situations where there were stories on the fact

that they were trying to raise money through a GoFundMe for his funeral. And this is where these stories turn somewhat sad. When you hear about somebody who once played for for big crowds friend of friend of the prime minister of canada i'm i'm surprised that there was no justin trudeau tribute to kelly jay because of the legacy he left behind with that one song oh what a feeling i was gonna, did Crowbar have any follow-up hits that I should know or might know?

I don't know that the style was something that was going to stick around, but you can find on YouTube videos of Kelly J. performing to nostalgic crowds right up until a few years ago. No, I suppose because he was brain dead before he passed away. I did read on social media he had passed and then sought corrected that he had actually, like rebutted that he actually had not passed. So it was one of those like, we've had this in the past

where somebody is reported as dead before they actually die. But then of course they do die shortly thereafter. But, yeah, sorry to lose Kelly J. Now, you mentioned Pet, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. We lost a few. We're going to put these together. A trifecta of Canadian politicians in June. Let's start with MP Aideen Nicholson.

Let's start with MP Aideen Nicholson. Again, I wonder, what's the criteria for getting an obituary in a newspaper? We're having the CBC pay attention to the fact that you died. But yeah, Aideen Nicholson, she passed away at age 92, and it was one of those, every time I come in here and talk about people that died, there's a few that I only get to see because they show up somewhere in the Globe and Mail, maybe Toronto Star, in the listings that people take out when somebody is no longer with us. Right, that anyone can spend whatever it is, $500 or whatever, and put a listing through. Well, yeah, some days it's the only advertising in the whole newspaper. So I'm always checking there to find people that aren't noticed otherwise. A.D. Nicholson was a pioneering female politician in Canada.

She was a frontbencher in the Liberal cabinet of Pierre Trudeau, an MP in Toronto. Interesting life. And, yeah, she died May 31st at age 92. Well, that's a good long life there. But you're right. You'd think an MP, even single termers, but an MP, and I don't know how long she was in

as a member of parliament, but you think that's worthy of a write-up in the star and the globe and everywhere, you'd think? Well, yeah, from 1974 right up until 1988. And a big politician. You wonder who's going to pay attention to us when we die. Right. Nick, if she didn't get a write-up, what chance is there?

Although I told you I'll memorialize you if you pass before me, but... And I'll have no podcast to go on. It's not going to work out either way, Mike. Oh, by then the 1236 Empire will have been built and will be successful. I should also mention then the MP that was a current MP, Mark Worora.

Right, I mentioned a trifecta, so that's the second one. Mark Warrora. So Mark Warrora was active or was a current member of parliament when he passed? No, I think he was done. I think he had, yeah, he was still an active member of parliament, conservative politician from B.C. Okay.

Up until he died at age 69, and that was on June 20th. Let me make sure I've got my facts straight. If we're going to go over all of the deaths. Yeah, this is the one section you can't make a mistake in this section. It's unacceptable. And yet I've bungled most of them in the past along the way. But yeah, he in fact was memorialized in the Canadian Parliament.

Good. Okay. And we mentioned the trifectas of the third person. Somebody who was, I guess we could call this gentleman Mel Lastman's sidekick, Milton Berger? One of them, anyway. He was part of the North York City Council, which was overseen by Mel Lastman,

longtime mayor of North York. And back on May 19th, at age 94, Milton Berger died. He was believed to be the first Holocaust survivor to be elected as a politician in Canada. And when the Toronto amalgamation took place, he ended up downtown at Toronto City Hall with Mel Lastman. And that was an amusing development where all these parts of Toronto, all these former boroughs, North York and Scarborough and East York and Etobicoke,

City of York, suddenly there was a super group of Toronto politicians at City Hall. It was all very confusing and amusing. And there was Milton Berger, an old school North Yorker, in the middle of it all. And he lived to age 94. But Mel Aspin is still with us. Right. Now take note, people, that a 94-year-old

is not how we're ending this memorial section, so that's good news for somebody, I suppose, although they are dead, so maybe not the best of news. But... Unfortunately, not available in stereo. I only hear it on the right side of my headphones. But this is the theme song to Side Street. Who from Side Street. Who from Side Street?

And I'm going to bring it down because when it's not in stereo, it bothers me. But who from Side Street passed away? Side Street was just one of the shows associated with an actor named Sean McCann. He died at 83, back on June 13th. at 83, back on June 13th. He was one of those Canadian actors who would work on TV series at the same time that he was doing commercials. And this is a big fixation of Ed Conroy, Retro Ontario.

The fact that to be a jobbing Canadian actor meant you could be the star of a show, and then there'd be a commercial break, and you'd be doing one of the commercial spots only in Canada, or at least not in the United States. Would something like that ever go on? You watch, okay, you're aware of Working Moms, right? And this is the written and starring Ivan reitman's daughter who is i

believe katherine reitman she stars in a like a it's not no frills it's the canadian superstore so i guess it's the same people but she stars in this just not as like a famous person but just a regular shop i didn't even know that that seems almost like it's supposed to be ironic yeah they're doing like a kitschy version of what we're talking about here, updating it for the present day. That's a joke. She doesn't need the money. She's Ivan Reitman's daughter.

But she's in this ad, just regular shopper person in the ad, Catherine Reitman, and maybe she does need a little extra money. Maybe work and moms, although Netflix hasn't, so maybe there's some cash. I don't know. Maybe it's not as lucrative as you think. But you mentioned meatballs earlier, right? Because your friend was in it or something.

My cousin. So who's the guy who did the Leon's commercials? Isn't there a guy who did the, a famous guy who did the Leon's commercials? Harvey Atkins? Harveyvey is that the name harvey and now i have to channel my inner ed conroy but i want to say harvey atkins if that's the right name but he was in everything including leon's commercials harvey atkins right singular right close enough but he was in meatballs i believe right he was in people and this guy mccann was in this guy

who just passed away sean mccann was i believe he was in tommy boy he, right? Yeah, he was in Meatballs. And this guy, McCann, was in this guy who just passed away, Sean McCann, I believe he was in Tommy Boy. And along the way, he was in a bunch of other shows. Night Heat was one of the shows he was famous for. And a sitcom called The Baxters, which was produced at CHCH. Interesting

development there, where there was an American syndicated show, and the whole idea was it was a family sitcom and then they would do a talk show segment in which people would deliberate about what they saw in the sitcom interesting interesting it's like in the sitcom there'd be maybe maybe a woman would go get an abortion or something briefly yeah briefly produced by chch but they they re-ran it for years like any of of these Canadian content shows. So Sean McCann was on that show.

He played the dad on there. That was one of his breaks. And then he was on this Canadian TV series, Power Play. Remember Power Play? Wasn't it a miniseries? Was that a TV show? Okay, maybe I'm mixing it up. It was a short, short run Canadian TV show.

Okay, I do remember it. CTV, right? CTV, I think. Maybe. About an NHL franchise in Hamilton. Right. And he did that as well. And then, yeah, he was recognized from Tommy Boy.

He was there with Chris Farley. By that point, he was in his 60s. Just recognizable. Hey, it's that guy. Sean McCann. A lot of guys, including me. I mean, no one knew his name. No, but is that guy a lot of guys like me no one knew his name no but we've like tommy boy's a movie which is very rewatchable like it's one of those movies you can watch like for the eighth time and enjoy so no doubt he got recognized from that for

sure uh something else with sean mccann that came up in a obituary written by joe warmington seemed to be a friend of his and he he was a big Blue Jays fan, a fixture at Exhibition Stadium in the stands, and they gave him a job as an amateur associate scout. Nice. There was some moonlighting for a Canadian actor. And on top of it all, before he took off in acting, he tried to be a Canadian politician

and ran in the Ontario provincial election in 1977 as a liberal against Roy McMurtry. And he lost, and that's where we got the whole acting career of Sean McCann. And he was 83 years young. 83 years of being recognized for reasons that no one was quite sure why. Character actors

who, yeah, and you're right, I do see it a lot. Like, I watch, so I watch, I watch, a quick aside is I watch Handmaid's Tale, but I also watch a lot of Canadian shows. Like, I'll watch Kim's Convenience, and I'll watch Working Moms and stuff. And it's amazing like how many actors or actresses, you know, from a pop, like some ad that ran during like either something I watch live, which would be like a Leafs game or a Raptors game. Okay. And I'll see somebody and I'll say, oh, that's the

person from that investor's ad or whatever. And then they show up in two or three of those series like the same people kind of show up in all these toronto filmed series and if you knew their names wouldn't that ruin it for you right right right you would see them and you would you would think of them as synonymous with a certain role that, in fact, it's that level of anonymity which allows them to keep working. And Sean McCann, he helped to develop the idea that you could have a career based on being that kind of actor. Right. Now, Tracy Curley. Tell us about Tracy Curley. She was a cannabis advocate.

Cannabis advocate. You might have had too much beer here, too. That's my last octopus for me. Yeah, death that got some attention was the fact that one of the more outspoken medical marijuana personalities in Toronto on that scene died in the past month in her mid-40s. Yeah, she was 46.

And, you know, here you have to remember those people who stood up and talked about smoking pot at a time when it was still illegal, that they were willing to be Googled and known as pot smokers. So a legacy there of making the case and the argument that cannabis can be illegal and all hell won't break loose. Where are we at right now when it comes to legal cannabis? There was so much anticipation as we did these

monthly episodes like what what's it going to be like to live in a country with legal weed are we bored of it yet has smoking pot become uncool i smelled by the way on the on the waterfront trail i smell the same amount of pot but i'm always always kind of glad that they don't have to hide it anymore. At least now they can do it with a clear conscience or whatever. But I have to be honest, it's an kind of underwhelming change. I haven't noticed anything radically different since it became legal. I think it was noticed when the Raptors won the NBA Finals that there was more

weed smoking in 2019 than there was in 1992, 1993, when the Blue Jays won the World Series. That's probably

very, very true. Absolutely. All right, so we lost Tracy Curley. Now, tell me about, I hope I pronounced his last name correctly, Philippe Zadar.

Oh, this was a music producer. Something else that I was thinking of was the contributions that this French rock music producer made. Because he might have been the one responsible for the fact that French rock music is not considered a joke anymore. And the main band that he was associated with in producing albums for was Phoenix. Well, how's that going? My favorite Phoenix song. The popular one, of course,

because I'm not cool. Thank you. It's not what you say. What you say is way too complicated. For a minute thought I couldn't tell how to fall out. It's 20 seconds till the last call. Go ahead. I love it how you know it's easy. I like waiting it all the time. And I'll be anything you ask and more Go ahead It's not a miracle we need it

No, I wouldn't let you think so Falling, falling, falling, falling Another song that Girls Talk put in the mix where I just want to continue on with How Low Can You Go? Anyway, that's my problem. I think you can credit this guy, Philippe Zdar,

with the success of Phoenix because looking at their discography, he didn't produce all their albums, but the ones he produced, including the one that 1901 is from, were the good Phoenix albums. I'm declaring that right here. And what he originally came from

was a dance music duo called Cassius. Ever heard of Cassius? They had their last album came out just a couple days after he died, falling from a 19-story building in Paris, France, just 52 years old. That's a rough way to go. So if you like Phoenix, remember that we lost Philippe Zadar. Here's an ad.

Let's go in the Wayback Machine here. Nothing's changed. I'm late and it's dinner time again. We love a Laurel. The pizza makes a meal. That's right. Pizza for dinner goes over big. The kids are wild about it, but it's got to be a Laurel.

They love a Laurel pizza, so why hassle? We love a Laurel. The pizza makes a meal. And a darn good meal pepperoni cheese mushrooms and the best tasting crust now that's nutrition so make it easy for yourself and give the kids a meal it's a treat too we love a lauro pizza anoni griffin would have been the voice on that commercial. And she died in July, or sorry, in June. It's not July yet. Almost.

Age 85, Noni Griffin had, again, one of those eclectic Canadian actor resumes where she was known for appearances on TV shows, including The Littlest Hobo. Sean McCann was on The Littlest Hobo 2. Retro Ontario has the Hobo-ituary going on, where he's keeping track of all these actors that we're losing. But with Noni Griffin,

we also had a bunch of commercial voiceovers working with the studio Nelvana, shows and movies like The Care Bears. But originally, she was a stage actor. If you look on YouTube, though, you'll find a commercial reel of her doing spots like we just heard for Alorno, Frozen Pizza. Yeah. Another commercial from Zellers, and she seemed to be the archetypal Canadian mom.

Like in her late 40s, early 50s, you know, if you were a latchkey kid watching TV, you would wish that Noni Griffin was your mother. Was she ever on Polka Dot Door? Yeah, Polka Dot Door 2. That was also part of her resume now uh it seemed like into her 80s she was still successful and in fact created a one-woman show called maryland after where she played the role of maryland monroe coming back to life 50 years after her death.

And I would imagine on the Canadian dinner theater circuit, that was the kind of show that would sell. But she had a lot of experience with that. The Red Barn Theater in Jackson's Point and performing in the title role of Hello Dolly at the Limelight Dinner Theater in Toronto in 1990. Just a history and a legacy that maybe you don't think about until someone like her dies. Then you think, hey, she did a lot of stuff and an interesting

career to have started out as this kind of stage actress and worked on all these kid shows and cartoons. She was on the Ewoks and the Raccoons, and as you mentioned, the Polka Dot Door, all these bit appearances everywhere, and what a legacy to leave behind. So a bit of a twinned death there for June 2019. Sean McCann and Noni Griffin, names that we didn't know before, but that are worth remembering.

Now, Noni was 85, but she does not get the crown for June. That will go to Dave Bartholomew. And Dave Bartholomew, well, let's play this song because it's going to take you back, Mark. I know it's going to put you in the time machine. We got to do our alma mater. We must do our alma mater.

When I was a little bitty boy, my grandmother bought me a cute little toy. Silver bells hanging on a string, she told me it was my ding-a-ling-a-ling-o. My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling, I want you to play with my ding-a-lay. Watch his play with my ding-a-lay. Watch his play with my ding-a-lay. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Mmm, and then mama took me to grammar school. But I stopped off in the vestibule. Now, it's not Chuck Berry who passed away.

So, Dave Bartholomew, what does he have to do with My Ding-a-ling? And what kind of memories are flushing back right now for you? As much as you could imagine, somebody sitting down to write the song My Ding-a-ling. Well, this was the work of Dave Bartholomew, who just died at age 100. I had this song, My Ding-a-ling, on a K-Tal album called Goofy Brates, with a whole bunch of novelty songs from the 60s and 70s. novelty songs from the 60s and 70s. And this might have been my introduction,

not just to Chuck Berry, but the whole concept of rock and roll. Wow. This is his biggest hit, right? This is Chuck Berry's biggest hit. Did I read that somewhere when he passed? Yeah, Chuck Berry's biggest hit. That's unbelievable. One American hit.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Not only did I find the lyrics confusing, I think it was the whole idea of the crowd singing along on a record, which didn't make any sense to me. You know that's future Parliament. Right. It's like, what's the Johnny Bower song at Christmas time? Honky the Christmas Goose.

There's a little bit of a Honky the Christmas Goose vibe going on in this sucker. But Dave Bartholomew, he wrote this song and he reached the nice round milestone age of 100. Keep in mind, he is known for more songs than just this one. All the hits that we know from Fats Domino would have had Dave Bartholomew making them happen. Writer, co-writer, Ain't That a Shame,

Blue Monday, I'm Walkin', and a few years ago we lost Fats Domino, who died at 89 in October 2017. But none of that would have been possible without Dave Bartholomew. And that, Mark,

brings us to the end of our 480th show. Thanks for doing this. More lasagna for you, more beer. You're fantastic. I can't wait to have you back for the July roundup. And that was our death roster for June 2019. But with a few days still left to go in the month, we'll have to catch up next time.

Ten years ago today that Michael Jackson died, but with a few days still left to go in the month, we'll have to catch up next time. Ten years ago today that Michael Jackson died. Same day as Farrah Fawcett, but who gets a People Magazine tribute issue? Farrah Fawcett. Because Michael's stock has plummeted. Am I right? Do you think the Great Lakes beer has had more influence on us today than usual?

Is that what it is? Is it summertime? It is summertime. 30 degrees out there. I'm going to the lake. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 1236.

Go to 1236.ca and subscribe to his wonderful week daily newsletter. Yeah, yeah, you're drunk. I'm not drunk. The octopus has taken its hold. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery or at Great Lakes Beer, propertyinthesix.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at

Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. Sticker U is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. Sticker U is at Sticker U, Y-O-U. And Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all Thursday when Mel and JJ are my special guests. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you. special guests.