Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #494

Episode Date: July 31, 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 494 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 this week is Mark Weisblot of 1236. Can you believe that I am still doing this email newsletter every single day, but coming in here hinged on the concept of me being obsessed with these topics, and then I roll in here at the end of the month to talk about. Grateful to still be pumping it out at 1236.ca.

We'll still see what happens over there at saint joseph media as they integrate these other magazines that they acquired later on we'll talk about the media business as we usually do uh still on the precipice of something else in podcasting i'm trying to see what's going on when it comes to audio, who's making it happen, different companies sprouting up around Toronto. I never wanted to be the person doing the podcast, but I was the only one who was willing to do it. And here we are, what, 20 appearances later, And here we are, what, 20 appearances later, and I guess it's on my shoulders. I got to follow through. Have I ever told you how much I look forward to your visits?

I don't know if I've ever told you this. I appreciate the fact that you actually come all this way once a month. Do you know that's 12 times a year? Like, that's amazing. Well, we're only halfway through the year. Yes. It's only July. We started doing it monthly at the end of January.

So July 31st. We go as close to the last day of the month as we can get, whatever seems convenient. Last time I was here was a few days earlier because of TMLX3. Right, right. And it seems so long ago now, but it was just five weeks ago. I'm now in like TMLX4 planning mode. Like if anyone has a suggestion as to what I should do for TMLX4, hit me up. This is the time.

But you beat it into me, the idea that I had to be there. I couldn't weasel out of showing up. The people, they want to see you. People love your episode. I got to meet other Toronto Mike guests too. There was Stu Stone. I got to say hi for the first time.

His doc is now on Netflix in the USA. This is a big development for him. Mark Hebbshire, Hebbsy, who I've listened to my entire life. Now he's pretty much the only sports media that I consume. Hebbshire, Hebbsy, who I've listened to my entire life. And now he's pretty much the only sports media that I consume. Hebbsy on sports. And there was Hebbsy holding court in the middle of it all. Selling books.

Cam Gordon from Twitter Canada, who's been an anchor around here. And he's a childhood friend of Stu's. They're coming on together in like late August, I think. And the TorontoMike.com regulars who I got to meet for the first time, JJ. That's amazing, JJ. And I now know she likes it when she gets mentioned in the 1236 episode.

But it was amazing. She came all the way from Scarborough. That's amazing. And coming from even farther was Beats. B-E-A-T-T-S. Where is he from again? Colberg or Colburn? Colberg. The one with the apple? Where is he from?

It's all the same to me. I mean, look, we were both coming a long way to get to Great Lakes Brewery. Now, I got a ride there from a friend, a mutual friend who you work with, producing corporate podcasts. I'll see him tomorrow. He drove me over

there. Now, when you're with somebody who has a real 9-to-5 job and he was busy sending his kids off to camp and arranging a trip to Italy, a lot going on. So we showed up late and we left early. In the process, there were a few people that I interact with online who I didn't get to say hello to,

and that seemed like a strange missed opportunity. There were three, four, five people who, after the fact, I was wondering why I didn't notice them, why we didn't figure out who they were. I mean, it seems like it's so long ago now, but you haven't been here since. But yeah, TMLX3 was fantastic. I'll try to make it up to them by showing up earlier

and leaving later at TMLX4. But along the way there, we'll have, what, one or two opportunities for you to try and confirm whether I'm going to show up. Before we jump into this Mike Stafford situation, do you want to tell people about like all those other newsletters you help to, you don't just put out the 1236? Well, I just put out 1236. What are you like?

This thing called Substack, a newsletter service, which just got over $15 million in venture capital from the firm Andreessen Horowitz. So I figure maybe for the first time I bet on the right horse. Now, it's not like I'm in line to get any of that money, but it's a show of faith and the whole potential that email newsletters will become more of a thing. and the whole potential that email newsletters will become more of a thing. I have the flagship email newsletter in the marketplace of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm now synonymous with the whole deal, and the process encourages other people to get on Substack. So there's a Jody's Jumpsuit newsletter, Jody's Jumpsuit from Twitter, jump.substack.com. I helped out Ken White, former news editor from the National Post,

from McLean's as he goes into this book publishing adventure. His is at shush.substack.com. And our friend Ed Conroy of Retro Ontario. That's a collaboration between me and Ed. And that's the one that makes me jealous. I'm not in that collaboration. He puts a playlist together. There's more to come.

I was going to ask if there's more to come. But the Ken one, did you try to talk him out of that name? I feel like that's a tricky name. He's got his company, Sutherland House, publishing non-fiction books aimed at a global market. So it was an honor and a privilege to help set him up with this stuff. And I gave him some plugs, and there'll be more to come. there that ended up on hiatus with a lolly pecaso talented writer right debunker in the world of

misinformation disinformation some other priorities got in the way but she set up this newsletter got a few hundred subscribers and it'll be up to her to figure out what to do with it and me helping out along the way but i think there's a lot more to come in this area of email, just like podcasting, that the shape-shifting of the media business continues. And you look at what's sustainable, what's relatively simple to create. Another day with Torstar, publisher of the Toronto Star, hearing about, I don't know, the million or two dollars that it loses every single week trying to do this transformation over there. And for the rest of us who aren't working with Bell or Rogers or Chorus, I think that the opportunities are abundant.

It's just a matter of figuring out how it's going to happen. So here I am now four years into a course of experimenting with something that can turn into something else and just trying to figure out how I'm going to get there and what kind of corporate support might help me along the way. Well, thank you for doing it, because I feel if you didn't do it, who would, right? Like, I feel like there's this... Mike, I feel the same about you.

Well, that's why I get jealous when you and Ed are collaborating. I'm like, I feel like we could all be collaborating on something. You see, Ed is also in the loop with Bell Media. He's got it over both of us. He was doing the panel discussion, the Jerry Agar show, News Talk 1010.

But he's a Zoomer guy, right? I don't know where he is. He's helping also with Moses. I mean, he was working on a documentary about the history of much of music. So he's not such an outsider. I'm trying to be more of an insider. I need Ed Conroy in my corner.

If you're looking at me and my connection to him and you're thinking that I've got something over you, it doesn't quite compute. We're going to get there. It's going to happen. He's had some things in development and lots going on with Retro Ontario. I feel that my connection to Retro Ontario

is something that was meant to be. Because he is the king of this kind of content. But I think I am the second most qualified person to help him on this stuff. How many times have I said, on the record, on Toronto Mike, this is what, episode 494, how many times have I said that this Mount Rushmore includes Wise Blot, it includes Conroy?

I've said this multiple times. And Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies wanted to get on there. We were trying to get him on to do an episode of the podcast. He stopped responding to my DMs. He stopped responding. He's ghosting you. He's out on a tour with Hootie and the Blowfish,

still coming to Toronto later in the summer. Maybe I'll get on the guest list. Tyler, if you're listening, you can put us down, make it happen. Don't forget us, Tyler. Mark, I'm going to ask you about before we dive into the Stafford thing, which is burning up here. I need to talk about it.

Is it really? I don't know. Touch it. We'll talk about that. We'll see if we can come out of this discussion unscathed. Some other careers might fall aside. So much going on. I've been dealing all day with misinformation from Bob McCowan. That's the kind of day I'm having right now. So we'll get into this Stafford thing in a moment.

What a week I'm having. Did you listen to the Chuck D episode? Can you tell me whether it was any good or not? I need to know. Was the Chuck D episode any good? What answer are you willing to accept? The truth. How many times did you say on here

that you were not leaving the basement to record an episode of Toronto Mike? Did I say that? I said I wasn't going to do phoners. I thought I was willing to relocate for the right guest. I feel like I said that. You said it was like Barack Obama had to come to Mark Maron's garage.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right. And that you want to sustain the same policy when it came to Toronto Mike. I had to make a tough decision. I realized that for the right guest, and it's a small list of people, but one of them is Chuck D,

but for the right guest, I would be willing to do what I'm going to do tomorrow with your pal, which is pack up the studio and build it out remotely. And that's what I did last Friday. So was the episode any good? It was shorter than your usual podcast. A little bit.

And you cut to the chase. You talked a lot about his history in Toronto. And what he was doing, it was a festival of beer, right? Yes. And that's sort of like a hip-hop, urban music scene. Okay, so Mishimi was there and DJ Jazzy Jeff, a couple of guys from the Wu-Tang Clan, and then Public Enemy Radio.

That was the night I was there. Did you stay for the show? I left early because I was starving to death. And not that there's not food at the festival of beer, but I had a long day. Cause I did, that was the day of the Kevin Frankish thing. I did the Hebsey thing. Kevin in Alberta was,

was hanging out. Anyways, I did not stay for the whole show. I was missing my flave, but the public enemy, uh, 20 minutes, I felt like on the 20 minutes of Chuck D anyways,

I feel I squeezed as much as I could. It would have a, a very ticking, uh, clock there. You know, you were, you were a fan going way back, right?

You got the first four Public Enemy albums. I didn't start with Yo Bummer, the show, but started with Nations and then kind of went back and then, of course, Fear of a Black Planet. For sure. How did you become a fan of Public Enemy?

I probably caught them on, I think I caught a Much Music spotlight. You know how they used to do the spotlights on an artist? I probably caught them on like, I think I caught a much music spotlight. You know how they used to do the spotlights on an artist? And I remember seeing Black Steel and the Hour of Chaos and Night of the Living Bassheads. And I'd never heard anything like it before, Night of the Living Bassheads. And then when you

pick up the CD and you hear Bring the Noise and Don't Believe the Hype, and you're like, what is this? It completely blew my mind and I was hooked. I was hooked. By the way, I'm going to crack open a Great Lakes beer. So you have a, are you cracking one open now? What is that one called?

What do I got? Down in Moxie. Yeah. Meanwhile, down in Moxie. Okay. And I have an octopus. That's a new one. Yep.

Crack it open. Okay. That's in stereo there. Okay, so we can drink our cold Great Lakes. You're bringing, again, as always, you're bringing this six-pack home with you. I don't know if it makes it home. Do you drink it all by the lake? Does any of it ever make it home?

Well. Can you down six? Sometimes I get a little tipsy while we're doing the episode, and then when we review the obituaries at the end of people that died, I managed to make more factual errors in the space of that segment than any other time during the podcast. It's a tradition at this point. So GLB, home of TMLX.

So thank you, Great Lakes. Wonderful sponsors of the program. Thank you, guys. Everybody should be, Great Lakes. Wonderful sponsors of the program. Thank you, guys. Everybody should be buying Great Lakes beer. Retail store, LCBOs. You can buy it at some grocery stores. And if you go to a restaurant that doesn't serve Great Lakes beer, talk to the manager and say,

what is wrong with you? You should be serving Great Lakes local fresh craft beer. Now, just so you know, you're also getting a lasagna from Palma Pasta. Vegetarian lasagna. I was just at Palma Pasta at Palma's Kitchen having lunch with Anthony. They've been amazing supporters. He gave me a call after the Chuck D episode just to tell, basically to tell me like how proud he was of me. I felt like, I felt, it felt really good. So what wonderful sponsors they've been. So thank you. And just

before we dive into Stafford here and I ask you about a couple other episodes uh how many toronto mic stickers do you have now you have a lot right have you done anything of these toronto mic stickers i'm waiting for enough to cover my whole computer so thank you i thought i would get a sticker thing go on my computer i i i figure i might as well stick to toronto mic stickers when i'm with it. When I get enough to cover the computer, then I'll consider the idea. So thank you so much, StickerU. Thank you for your support. If you're going to make your own customized stickers,

labels, decals, et cetera, you go to StickerU.com. You can order one or as many as you want. They've been fantastic as well. So thanks so much. And they do the temporary tattoos as well. By the way, just a really quick note before I get into this next topic here. There's a contest at Wayne Gretzky's. Okay, so you know this guy, Wayne Gretzky, right? Great hockey player. Well, that restaurant's going away, but it's not gone yet. So right now, there's a contest. You can win two tickets to Two Islands Weekend.

I should have done more homework on what the hell Two Islands Weekend is. But if you visit Wayne Gretzky's in Toronto, you can enter this contest with Great Lakes beer. Now, okay, I need to ask you about a couple other recent episodes that are kind of interesting. Did you enjoy the Gord Martineau episode? Well, how could I not?

It was a great moment in Toronto Mike's history to finally get Gord Martineau, what, three and a half years? Yeah. After he signed off from City Pulse News. Was it that long or two and a half years? It was three and a half years. Really? Yeah.

That was 2016. 2016 is three and a half years ago. Is that right? You're right, Mark. February 29th, 2016. Wow, okay. We'll get around to celebrating. The first February 29th since Gordon Martineau's last newscast

is right around the corner. The tradition on these podcasts is to have somebody come on after they've lost a job that they've done for decades. You had Kevin Frankish here for the same reason. To tell the truth about what went wrong and why they're not on the air anymore. And getting Gordon Martineau to do a show like that took a lot longer

than the other guests that you've had. I'm kind of still surprised he did it. I don't know why, but I don't know where I got that call on July 5th. And then he was in the next week

and I feel it went as well as I could have hoped. I think he was pretty, he was pretty as honest as he could be. You know, he disagreed with the Ann Roszkowski recollection of things, which is interesting, but now it's like it's a he said, she said, I suppose.

What was the conflict in the comment section about whether or not he was honest about his feelings, whether he had a guard up? Was he aware of the fact that she made these comments about him you you've got to be specific i mean somebody mentioned there it wasn't a case of him being accused of misconduct or right any behavior nothing on the job that he risked being arrested for if i've got this right she was she was characterizing him as a jerk. It wasn't any more complicated than that. Right. That they used to be work friends, and as things got more intense,

as Rogers was moving in on City TV and changes were happening there, that they didn't have the same kind of camaraderie that they had before. But at the end of the day, it's just a job. Right. And working with somebody on camera as their co-anchor doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a personal relationship. I guess that's the way that Gore Martineau was playing it. Right. That he was doing what he had that Gore Martineau was playing it. Right.

That he was doing what he had to do. He was showing up to work. He'd been there however many decades by that point in time. She was also a veteran of City TV. She was there for what? 30 years? Yep. That they could show up and they could perform and they could do what they had to do and that it didn't really matter if they were friends or not. So there's been some great episodes lately. I won't run through them.

Like I do with Elvis to find out if what you thought, because I won't do that to you. Just that if you know, you like the old newspaper guys, even if you're not a sports fan, I think the Dave Perkins episode was, well, they were all pretty good,

but that Dave Perkins episode was pretty awesome for me anyway. So I don't know what you thought of that. And he was also able to have more candor, right? Because he's distant now from the Toronto Star. He's one of those poor star pensioners that they have to pay for that's weighing on their bottom line over there. But he did his time, and they owed him a retirement. What's going for me, I don't think I'll see any situation like that

where I can kick back comfortably into senior citizenship and continue to get some kind of paycheck. People like Dave Perkins, yeah, he's a relic of a different era, a different period of time when the printed newspaper business was booming. Now, Perkins was a frequent guest on Primetime Sports with Bob McAllen. So can you, just because this is fresh, it happened today, it happened the day we recorded this. Are you up to date with the McCowan stuff that's been tweeted?

I think so. And last time I was here and we were recapping the farewell episode of Primetime Sports with Bob McCowan, I used a word that's not at the top of my vocabulary to describe him, and that was calling him an asshole. Yes, but you called him an asshole. Someone took issue with that. Well, I didn't say that.

I was actually paraphrasing what he called himself when he was discussing his career to Q&A. Christina Rutherford. Sportsnet. Sportsnet Magazine or the Sportsnet website. There's an article and McCowan said he was playing a character on the radio. That after a few years he figured this out.

That he had to be this know-it-all guy. And that what you heard on primetime sports behind the sunglasses was not necessarily Bob McCowan in real life. It was a performance that he was putting on. That's where I got into speculating

that he was less likely to want to do Toronto Mike and be on the podcast because that would be like watching a performer offstage. Like when you see Ronald McDonald in full makeup and he's not talking like Ronald McDonald, he's talking like the actor. It's very, yeah. Is that what you're talking about? Could that happen to anyone? It's like when you would Ronald McDonald in full makeup and he's not talking like Ronald McDonald, he's talking like the actor. It's very, yeah. Is that what you're talking about?

Could that happen to anyone? It's like when you would see the wrestlers who would go at one another, the baby face and the heel hanging out together after the match. I like my Ronald analogy better. These guys hate one another. What are they doing?

Palling around. So my speculation was Bob McAllen would not want to do a podcast like this because it would require him to leave his comfort zone and go out of character but he's not using that as his reason no because he's turning you down he's and he used quotes around this word he tweeted that he's not doing my show because he alluded i don't remember exact words, but it was that I called him a dinosaur. Like he put dinosaur in quotes. I actually will say,

I have called a few sports media people dinosaurs. I've never called Bob McCowen a dinosaur. I'm actually a longtime fan and I think I've been pretty kind to the guy. I don't know where that comes from. Speculation on Twitter is that he's confusing me with Mike in Boston, who writes for the Toronto Sports Media blog.

And at some point he tweeted, Bob McCowan tweeted, like a clarification that he's aware there's multiple Mikes on the site. And I got an interesting text from Tyler, who maintains the Kick Out the Jam spreadsheet. He goes, he believes Bob McCowan thinks that the entire internet is one site like there seems to be some like what are you doing you're calling him a dinosaur now you're never gonna get him on well he's not coming in anyway the fact that he would passive aggressively put out a tweet like he doesn't owe you anything no but he wouldn't even tag me he didn't even tag

me in the tweet like he just said toronto because I tweeted, this is where it all comes from today, this morning. I tweeted a tweet like this, something like, okay, Bob McCowan, this is your last chance to be my guest for episode 500, going, going, dot, dot, dot. That was it. And that's, so later in the day, he tweeted, not at me with the proper tagging, but just said, Toronto Mike invited me to be his guest for 500.

I'm going to pass because he thinks I'm a dinosaur, something like that. So anyway, what can I do? I can't convince him otherwise. It's up to the Michael Granges and the Dave Perkins and the Stephen Brunts of the world to set him straight. And you don't have a guest for episode 500. I haven't thought. I gave you an idea. 494 you... I gave you an idea. 494 you?

I gave you an idea for 500. You wanted? I wanted, no. My idea for 500 was Roger Ashby, who we've talked about a lot on here. Yeah, I talked to Donabee about that. And that you can get Roger Ashby to come here on what would have been the 50th anniversary

of his first radio show in Toronto, which was August 8th, 1969. This idea is under consideration. That is the truth. I am mulling over a few options, and part of me thinks the most punk thing to do will be to just let the— what falls where it may? What is it that falls where it may?

Remind me of this expression. The chips. Let them fall where they may. I'm into my octopus wants to fight. The whole idea of numbering podcast episodes. Which my brother hates. I'm not sure where that convention even came from. Why it even matters?

It makes my life easier. And my brother Steve has been saying since like episode 70 or something like that, he's been like, get rid of the numbers. Like you don't need numbers. But I actually need,

I need the numbers. Like even if internally I would use the numbers. So why not just, why not just use numbers? Whoever came from, people do numbers. Every, every,

Jesse Brown, Canada Land, does numbers. Does he do numbers? He does numbers. And doesn't, I'm sure doesn't like, Joe Rogan, doesn't he do numbers too?

Yeah, Joe Rogan does numbers. Sure, so. And it gets really impressive when you're into four digits. Which I'm halfway there. The Keith and the Girl podcast is now well past 3,000. You know, Keith and the Girl podcast from Queens, New York. Wow, 3,000. At one point, really early on, 2007, they taped a show in Toronto. I must have

been the only person there was any sort of local media insider at the time because I knew these people were going places. I can tell at time I still listen to them to this day. Is it a local podcast? So it's not just a local podcast. It's a New York podcast. It's a chatty podcast. Ex-boyfriend and girlfriend who started this thing in 2005, and they're still at it. A lot of guests, mostly comedians from around New York. A lot about their personal life.

They've been married and divorced. Not to each other, but to other people along the way, and they've been doing the podcast the whole time. Yeah, long time favorite. Keithandthegirl.com. Okay, so my 494 pales in comparison. But, you know, I'm getting there. Now, let's get to the Stafford thing.

So, Stafford, we need to disclose a few things. One is we need to disclose that Stafford has been on this show twice. Mike Stafford. You're talking about Mike Stafford, right? Is there another Stafford in there? Yes, Mike Stafford. And I knew, okay, it had to come up. We had to discuss Mike Stafford has been on this show twice. Mike Stafford. You're talking about Mike Stafford, right? Is there another Stafford in it? Yes, Mike Stafford. And I knew, okay, it had to come up. We had to discuss Mike Stafford because he's been here with you twice.

He's what, a frenemy of the show? Is that how you would describe him? I guess that's a fine term because he was, I would say we were very friendly. He had a great experience, I believe. Well, he had a good experience the first time because he came back the second time and I think the second time was even better.

And I think he had great feelings about it all. He kicked out the gems. Then Lou Skizes was fired by 640. And Lou came over and I asked one question of Lou about Stafford, which was something to the effect of, have you heard from Stafford since you were fired? And Lou said, no. And that was the only time Stafford came up

in the entire two-hour episode. But that reference is what caused Stafford to call me a turd in my basement on his 640 radio show. And he left a comment on an open mic. Basically, it was like a goodbye comment about why he's parting ways. And I haven't heard from him since so he's the furthest thing i'd say from a buddy and i have uh you know i don't think he's coming back like

bob mccowan like gordon martineau i think when you're in the media for a long time yeah maybe maybe you you have a very fixed idea of of who is a friend and who's just somebody that you associate professionally with. You don't really owe them any more of a courtesy than you would anyone else you encounter over the course of a day. And he's put you in that category. So now that that's all been disclosed, let's chat about this. What are these tweets that Stafford tweeted, I guess, a couple of weekends ago that put him in hot water, and what's the fallout?

I need you to tell us what's going on with Stafford. I need to tell you. Well, it was chronicled at the Canada Land website. It was a fact that Stafford put on Twitter a couple of comments while he found himself in the Mississauga Hospital, Queensway Hospital Emergency Department. The situation there involved the fact that his wife

had some sort of accident where he ended ended up uh waiting with her in the waiting room it was a week where he had his own misadventure uh his own injury that happened the week that he was on vacation his fuse was short and he was making a spectacle of this on Twitter. We all use Twitter here, me and you. It's very easy to impulsively put something out there online that you might end up regretting a little bit later. It's happened to all of us. In the case of Mike Stafford, I would say that, you know, well, he was waiting, being a patient in the hospital,

emergency room, waiting to see a doctor. What he tweeted were a couple of attempts at a joke using racial references that didn't really land. Let's say. One of them was something about Uncle Apu. Another one was seeing headscarves in the hospital triage. And as a result of what he tweeted, Mike Stafford, who came back from a vacation on a Monday morning,

found himself off the air for the rest of the week. This was the stuff of some speculation. What's going on around here? Now, we've seen this show before. Most famously, Roseanne Barr, who lost her ABC sitcom, lost her starring role in the show. They reconfigured the whole thing without her because of something that she put on Twitter that she regretted a little later. There was another tweet, a reply somewhere in there where Mike Stafford acknowledged that he might have been in some sort of trouble.

Yeah, he tweeted that he expected to be fired. And for the rest of the week, from what I could tell, he might have been dragged into these HR meetings to figure out what he meant. What do we do with this guy? How do we spin this? How can we justify keeping him on staff? And what do you think?

Like for him, this would have been a major regret. Was it worth it? Of course not. To tweet this stuff and trying to make some jokes while he was staring at his phone, whatever state of mind that he was in. If only he didn't have that impulse, if he could take it all back. And because the tweets were out there, there were people who were speculating that he had to be

fired. How can you keep this guy around an operation like Global News Radio, Chorus Entertainment, who leaves a trail of tweets like this. They have to let him go. How can he be? This is what people do for fun, right? You watch and you wait and you hold your breath and you refresh the radio station website to see if he's been fired or not. Right. We've been down this road before. But after an entire week where he wasn't on the air,

they had Peter Sherman do emergency fill-ins, maybe from his bathrobe in his basement, wherever Peter Sherman is. Niagara-on-the-Lake. He's a guest next week, by the way. He does a fill-in show. Peter Sherman. On 640.

At the end of the week, they decided to keep Mike Stafford on the air. Now, somebody we know, Michael Hainsworth, is livid about this decision. Right? Everybody on Twitter, I don't know. People seem to be accepting of the fact that this is the way it goes. Stafford tweeted some things that he regretted. People make mistakes. Maybe it doesn't help that there was a racial element, that these were attempts at humor that didn't end up landing. But here we have Mike Hainsworth, formerly of BNN, Business News Network, 680 News before that,

who's on a bit of a tear. He wants Mike Stafford out of there. He thinks that Coris is making a mistake by keeping him around. Now, he's entitled to that opinion. Of course. If they got rid of the radio host who tweeted stuff like this, I wouldn't be criticizing the station for the decision that they made. I wouldn't be leading a protest saying that they should keep him. Aren't you surprised?

I accept that they looked into it and they talked to him and they investigated it. And there's a guy that's done, I don't know, 100,000 hours of live talk radio. And they're willing to keep him around and do the morning show. That's an awkward position now because, well, first of all, now you can Google him and see this on his permanent record

and that maybe there are other people working at Global News Radio around chorus who are upset that they would keep somebody around who tweeted these sorts of things. Maybe they had a policy that he wasn't informed about. He's not on Twitter anymore. He deleted that account. But I'm surprised.

Maybe I'll phrase it this way. I am surprised because he came back on the air Monday. We're recording now on Wednesday. So he's done three shows this week. I'm surprised that by all accounts, and I know you were listening, this has not been referenced. I thought for sure he'd open Monday with an apology. Well, see, that's where it gets complicated

because how many of his listeners would be aware? Very few. Of any of this? Very few. What can of worms are you opening by going on the air and doing a whole mea culpa about something you did on Twitter, a platform that is not professional,

it's not an obligation, it's not part of your job. No, but we know now that when you're tweeting and you belong to one of these conglomerates, you're representing the place you work. And you know what? I think they have a policy they probably enforce pretty hard

on people who sign up, who've just joined Global News Radio. Now that's all consolidated with Chorus under the same roof, they have responsibilities but he's been there a long time he got grandfathered in now as part of the old the old ownership and i don't know maybe they never told him that he was he was liable okay or something that he tweeted if it didn't come off okay now a, a few things. One is that, as I just said,

I was surprised they didn't acknowledge it or have him apologize for it. I'm not defending it, but is he going to defend it? Is he going to, well, I think I was right to do what I was doing. It's something to regret. Because there's a fine line.

You've been calling them. He will have to live with. You've been calling them, and I'm not out to get Stafford because he called me a turd in my basement. That's my fear is somebody will think that. I'm absolutely not. I don't. I'm not. But you've been calling it like racially insensitive. I can't remember what word you use, but you haven't called it racist yet.

Like these. Do you think. So they were racist. Okay. Yes. That's the word you've been avoiding there. But how did they get... What was his intention by tweeting this stuff?

Regardless, it tells people what's in his mind, right? Does it really? How does he co-host? Maybe he was in a state of mind. What was... It's not for me to say what like, what he was going for. This is a guy that has done live radio in Toronto for close to 40 years. He is familiar with the concept of a hot mic,

of the things that you should and shouldn't say when people are listening. But social media does weird stuff to people's brains. We've seen it before and we'll see it again. But it has to be in your brain to be typed out, you know what I mean? He's got to have these feelings about South Asians or people of the Muslim faith in order for it to

spill into his feet. He was trying to make it a acerbic observation based on what he was seeing to make it a... Well, clearly, Coris did not fire him. It was an acerbic observation based on what he was seeing. He's a cranky old white guy. He's playing to stereotypes here. Are you surprised at the lack of... I don't know.

Maybe he thought he was being funny. For sure, for sure. And he wasn't. So then he's got to live with the consequences. All right, well... But the consequences at this point do not include losing his job. Well, you're right.

He didn't lose his job. He's been on all week. But I'm wondering if you're curious at all, because Canada Land, as you pointed out, Canada Land covered this. I saw some tweets from a few, like Michael Hainsworth, et cetera. But the mainstream media as a whole

has completely ignored this story. Are you surprised at the complete lack of coverage? No, no, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. Because I don't know. Because no one cares. completely ignored this story. Like there's so, are you surprised at the complete lack of coverage by, I don't know. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised because I don't, I don't know. I don't know that it was that big of an issue.

So I, and, and how do you explain it? I, what? So he's supposed to go on the air and do a whole mea culpa, maybe a morning show co-host Supriya Dwivedi. She's on a maternity leave is supposed to,

I don't know, interview him about this, and he should express remorse about what he put on Twitter. I would not say that they did something wrong if he lost his job over this. But I could also accept that they looked at the situation and they talked to him and they dragged him into maybe a few meetings over the course of a week and they came to the conclusion that this was not a a firing offense he's on his last you don't agree with this you think they should have let him go no no no no absolutely no that's not true at all. You think they should have let him go. No, no, no, no, no.

Absolutely, no, that's not true at all. I'm with you. I'm playing devil's advocate because there are some people out there who see yet another old white guy on AM radio spousing out racist stuff without any repercussions. On top of all that, you would have people that would come across this and assume that this reflected the kind of invective

that he spews on the radio right that am radio is is synonymous with right wing ranters and that maybe this was part of his persona but it's not because as far as I know, he never got in trouble for anything he said over the airwaves. And before we fell out with each other, I feel like it's my ex or something, but before the falling out, I was on the record many times as saying, Mike Stafford was the best talk show host in the city. I think he's just,

I think he's a super sharp, super. I've said it to him on his programs. I'm a big, I was a big Stafford fan. I thought he's very good. I'm with you. I don't hear racial rhetoric coming from him. What is Michael Hainsworth on

about? Because you considered calling him and that you would do a little interview with him and then we would play it and deconstruct what Hainsworth had to say. The original plan was, I talked to Hainsworth recently and I said that during this live recording,

like right now, for example, I would press the button here and we'd have Hainsworth, Hainsworth would come in through the phone and he would tell us his thoughts on it. And we would have like a five to 10 minute chat about it. As if it would only be five to 10 minutes. Well,

already that's signed and move on. Okay. So Stafford survives. I'm sure he's on a short leash. I hope he, uh, maybe deleting the Twitter account is better. Whatever, hire him, fire him. He's the one that's got to deal with the fallout from this.

It's not my problem. No. It's his deal with, and we'll see what happens with 640. Now, he got this morning show, and one thing that happened was when they paired him with Supriya in the in the morning yes a lot of comments came in critical of her and i remember somewhere in there he had to call out these listeners who were making racist statements about supriya as as his co-host

on the radio. He called them out. Told them, knock it off. This is ridiculous. Which makes the tweets all the more disappointing. It's indicative of who's listening to the radio station. If they caught wind, those same listeners of the fact they got rid of

Mike Stafford because of Twitter, could you imagine the revolt, the uprising? Here he is at the same time able to say that he is now a neck and neck with News Talk 1010 in the morning ratings. They flipped back and forth when it came to the numbers for the target demographic, 25 to 54, that 640 was holding its own for the very first time in mornings that with a certain segment of the audience here being 10-10.

And Mike Stafford deserves a lot of credit for that, as does Supriya Dwafeti, as the co-host. To dismantle all of that, to have it become a big media story showing up in all the papers? I wonder how much damage control might have had to be done in that case. Well, I think he got lucky. It's impossible he's keeping the job because they just imagined situation. What could happen if they got rid of him? It would effectively cancel anything that the stations got going for itself.

And in terms of an audience that sees it as a bastion of free speech, they've taken on that more conservative radio attitude in Toronto and the Canadian market. They've got Charles Adler on there at night. Charles Adler on there at night. Charles Adler. Charles Adler has taken every type of political position along the spectrum. Not to equate that with something the guy tweeted a week or two ago,

but I'm sure you could find lots of tape or maybe no one bothered to record it. Charles Adler taking right-wing reform party positions that would store up a lot of outrage if he publicized it. Now we let people evolve in their thinking, and now Charles Adler is kind of trying to play the contrarian to the conservative movement. He's always passive-aggressively tweeting about Andrew Scheer

and Jason Kenney he did a confrontational interview with. He's swinging in that direction of Michael Coren, where it's like I used to be a hard-line right-winger, and now I'm more compassionate. That's a bluster we're getting these days from Charles Adler on Global News Radio. Maybe it's time for Mike Stafford to move more in that direction as well if he has to make amends somehow. But ultimately, people like his honesty. That's what they're tuning in for.

So once again, I wouldn't have been surprised if they let him go, if this was the end of his career. But it wasn't, and I can accept the fact that they did a review and it came out okay. One thing's for sure, this will be the only broadcast in the city that discusses this topic, I'll tell you right now. You're the one dragging me into it. Well, I want to move on to a different chorus.

And who knows? I don't know what's going to're the one dragging me into it. Well, I want to move on to a different chorus. I don't know what's going to happen based on what I just said. Am I now going to be a subject of invective from Michael Hainsworth? We've been down this road before, by the way. Me and Hainsworth. Am I allowed to poke at that a bit? It sounds like I feel like this whole experience that there's something underlying underneath me. My statements are not as much pro-Stafford as they are anti-Hainsworth.

The enemy of the enemy is my friend. And can I tell the people that I was going to right now call Hainsworth, but you basically didn't want that. Like, you're the reason that's not happening. I have better things to do this afternoon than argue with a guy on the phone about a couple of regretted tweets from a long time talk radio guy

who as far as i know doesn't think much of me either and given the fact that we've supplied the topic with all this oxygen man gotta be a couple people listening to this who are now looking this up who didn't hear about it before. I wish him the best, Mike Stafford, because I think he worked his way up to do the morning show and he's very emotional about the fact that they were finally giving him this opportunity after almost 40 years on Toronto Radio. And to see the whole thing fall apart

because of Twitter would have just been unfortunate. And yet this is the risk that we're taking by putting ourselves out there on social media and leaving a trail. I don't know if what I've just said here can be used against me in some context in the future. If I didn't come on here with fire-breathing condemnation

about what Mike Stafford shared from the emergency room, that there's implications for my career, what do you think? Did I come out okay? Yes, I just want you to be honest with me, which you are, and I appreciate that.

There's no real honesty, an ant's not our problem. And I look forward to Stafford coming back here in the basement. Maybe he'll come on with McCowan. And doing that third episode because he had so much fun the last two times. Why wouldn't he want to come back? You know those were fantastic episodes. I don't know why he turned on me so abruptly. But anyway, let us please move on to a different chorus station, okay?

Otherwise, this will be a four-hour episode. Edge 102, or is it 102.1 The Edge? 102.1 The Edge, which you've talked about on your website, on the podcast, more than any other radio station. We just passed the 10th anniversary of the death of Martin Streak. Yes. And there's a guy making a documentary. Will Dunlop death of Martin Streak. Yes. And there's a guy making a documentary. Will Dunlop?

About Martin Streak. Do you know he came over and interviewed me for this documentary? Okay. And a lot of, I don't know how much to say here, except I feel like a lot of his interviews are because he heard the stories on Toronto Mic'd. I feel like Toronto Mic'd was like his test bed, hearing what Alan Cross is saying,

what Ivor Hamilton is saying, what Bob Ouellette is saying, and then he'd go and kind of get his own footage of it. But I am looking forward to seeing this documentary. 10th anniversary of when Martin Strick died suddenly. It seemed to get more attention than a lot of other 10th anniversaries out there. Well, suddenly, I mean, he hanged himself.

That's as sudden as it gets. Michael Jackson, 10th anniversaries out there. Well, suddenly, I mean, he hanged himself. That's as sudden as it gets. Michael Jackson, 10th anniversary of his death a couple weeks beforehand. In the case of Martin Streak, someone did a great Spotify playlist of songs. I remember him spinning at the Phoenix Concert Theater, and David Marsden did a tribute show to Martin, a guy that he hired so that

reminded us of the great legacy of 102.1 the edge i don't know what's going on with that radio station now because as we discussed here over the course of they hired this new morning show the sibling radio ruby and alex carr and with that came the emergence of a style of radio on chorus that I still cannot understand. I will tune in just to try and hear if there's something that I'm not getting about it, which is talk segments on the radio station that seem to have no connection to the music

that's being played around them and no connection to the city that they're broadcasting from, which then enables a station to use all sorts of voices, different personalities, who are voice tracking shows from different cities around the country. And finally, 102.1 The Edge went down that road, and they have a new evening guy. What's the guy's name? Zach Hewitt.

He's coming out of Calgary. So the storied radio station of CFNY, with Martin Streak on the 10th anniversary of his death, debuted a night guy who's not even living anywhere near here. And this follows a pattern that we had with these other people. There was Meredith. Of course. Who you had some fun with.

I had some fun with on Twitter. And the fact that she was on all these other stations at the same time. So you can hear her in Vancouver. Yeah. She used to live there, but now she's voice tracked on the station. You can hear her in London, Ontario. I think, what's the other one? Winnipeg.

Is this all cost cuttingcutting? This is all just to save money, right? Well, what does it matter? You're just coming on and identifying yourself and giving the call letters and making a couple of quips for a couple minutes an hour. Do you have to pay somebody to be minding the shop when you can

just set all this up on the computer? Right. But the two things we love most... You don't even need a human to be sitting there babysitting the board anymore. The two things that, I mean, I'll speak for myself, the two things I loved most about radio was that it was local and live. Like those were the two things I dug about radio

and they seem to be parting ways with both. Not so local and not so live. And it's kind of sad. I mean, I guess that's just the evolution of radio, but maybe that's why what we're doing now exists. Like, this is local. Even to get emotional about it is kind of weird, which is why I enjoy coming on here

and complaining about these old radio stations I used to listen to, wondering, whatever happened to them? What's going on? It's this disembodied disconnection between what you're hearing on the air. And, you know, they gave these siblings a stint doing the morning show. And, you know, Dean Blundell, they got rid of him. I mean, speaking of Mike Stafford, Blundell was canceled by Chorus.

And they landed on this sibling duo. And you don't hear anything about them. I have to come down here to Toronto Mike's basement to update on what's happening. Someone on Twitter was telling me that they love the sexual chemistry between those two, and I had to set him straight. I don't know if you caught that. That was a couple of months ago now, but I set him straight. They're just doing a job, and it was a job that we all dreamed of and wanted to do,

and even if they devalue it and turn it into nothing, it's all a bunch of dust on terrestrial radio. I still have hope that this can become something. So at the same time, we're talking about Mike Stafford ruffling feathers and getting called into HR over what he put on Twitter. What's going on on the rock and roll airwaves? Couldn't be more homogenous than it is right now. Let's go for the chorus trifecta in this market,

which is the third chorus station is the mighty Q107. Oh, this song. Wintersleep. They added this to the Q107 playlist. We went from what? Duran Duran and Rick Springfield's Jessie Girl and New Order they were spinning for a while. I think they're still on Depeche Mode.

They cleared a hurdle with the research that they do for classic rock, whatever they're branding it as now. Is this the boomification of Q? We talked about that many times, but just like to compete with Boom? Because Boom's been kind of stealing. They did some research. They did a survey.

I guess this song came out okay. But it's a great song. I'm actually like it's something I would have heard on 102.1 back when I used to listen to it. It's a fantastic song. Remember when John McCain, the great senator, late, great John McCain, was running for president. His daughter was living in Toronto at the time, working in the music business, and this was her project, Wintersleep.

I didn't know that. That was her connection to the 2008 U.S. presidential election. presidential election. So, Winter Sleep and Arcade Fire and Arkells joining the rotation on Q107, which is

also a lot more canned than it used to be. They still got John Derringer doing the morning show. Is there a clock on that? Like, is there a ticking clock on the Derringer experience? What, they signed a contract? You think when the 10-year expires, is that it for Johnny? I guess we'll find out.

We'll see what happens. But as far as, you know, unexpected songs on Q107, I saw a reference to the fact they were playing Arcade Fire and Notice This Winter's Sleep as well. And time keeps marching on that this song is considered appropriate for the Q107 airwaves. And whoever's listening,

you just got to keep and stay tuned. And this song was designated good enough to keep them locked. Keep them locked and cranked. Locked and cranked. As Marty would say. I'm trying to coin a new phrase like FOTM, like Friend of Toronto Mike.

So FOTM, I don't know if this is going to catch on. FOTM Let's see if it catches on. FOTM, Colleen Rusholm has of course left Hamilton? Is that where that station is she was barely barely even on what happened they changed the they changed the branding of the station it was fresh 95.3 it became energy right 95.3 so for a long time they

had uh from from hamilton darren darren laidman a long time hamilton got hardcore hamilton From Hamilton, Darren Laidman, a longtime Hamilton guy, hardcore Hamilton. And he ended up parting ways with the station when they took him and Colleen off the morning show and landed real quick across town on the other station there, Light FM. Okay, good for him. I never met him, but he seems like a nice man. Owned by Bell.

Staying in Hamilton in the Hammer. The whole idea was to relocate, reposition this 95.3 back, try and get the Toronto mark. That involved our oft-cited morning duo, Tucker and Mora. Nobody talks about Tucker

and Mora more than the 1236 episodes of the Toronto Mike podcast. You love that podcast they did. Why am I so obsessed with Tucker and Maura? You know why? You're so starving for authenticity and between mainstream media gigs, that duo had a podcast

where they were real and you it really struck a nerve with you. You're really craving that they gave colleen a consolation prize that she could do this afternoon drive and do it from toronto from the chorus key studio she's a junction girl as i know i've met her i've bumped into her at brunch uh it's good for her to be able to go to chorus key but she hightailed it right out of here to ottawa another station owned chorus, they had a morning show vacancy and she took the offer.

Yeah, it's Boom 99.7. You're right. That's a unique thing in Canada where the same branding can belong to two different companies depending where in the country you are. Because Boom here is Stingray. But Boom there is

Chorus. But it looks the same, the Booms. And music is more interesting because they still have to go by that old rule where they couldn't play only hits, where they still have to play non-hit music. The old CRTC regulation to keep

stations from becoming too popular if it's an English station against French ones in the same market. Long time one. Interesting. They cut out for radio everywhere, except when it was English stations competing with French ones. On this Energy 95.3, there's a little jolt of excitement for a few seconds. This was in the Retro Ontario newsletter.

Okay. That Energy 108 and later Energy 95.3, and the name was kept on ice. It wasn't molding away for 17 years, and they resurrected energy radio. And there was a notion that maybe they would return to that original sound, that 90s Eurodance thing. And Wayne Williams, who was one of the original energy DJs, is in fact the program director of the station.

I need to get that guy on the show. He knows what this is all about, but maybe doesn't call the shots on that level. But who replaced Colleen Rusholm on Energy, let me get it right, 95.3 in the afternoon drive? Oh, Brooke and Jubal are their names. That's a morning show from Seattle, Washington, which they installed in Ottawa,

the chorus radio station there. That's kind of gross, right? in which they installed in Ottawa a chorus radio station there. That's kind of gross, right? And I say gross to segue to the next topic. Yeah, because it was a live and local duo and they got rhythm. They put on from Seattle. But that sucks. It's not live.

Doesn't that suck? But it's just as well because the segments that they do within Canada, within the chorus radio stations, have that same canned feeling to them that it's no longer about having a live body in the studio, that what you're hearing sounds so pre-produced, so scripted, you know, maybe even edited down to, you know, take out any blunders, any pauses,

any typos, everything that you can hear on a toronto mic podcast um they can get rid of when you do radio in this in this computerized way listen that uh this explain or no wonder podcasts are exploding like that sucks i think that sucks it could be anywhere and you mentioned that it could be any format of music because they're not talking about the music. So this chatter. I'm not going to pretend that this is an exciting development. But guess what?

It's a shitty development. Minimum viable product. It's good enough for what they're putting out there. And the fact that it's a national radio show, and that I guess. Out of Seattle. Well, they see it as being generic enough. The style of it is not that much different

from Marilyn Dennis and Jamar. That is to say, people in a room and there's excitement all around. Well, of course, because you couldn't hire this whole idea of having two people dedicated

to one radio show and not doing these other shifts and having sidekicks and other characters around. This sort of thing can only happen on a syndicated level now did i tell you uh you probably saw my tweets actually but uh that i bumped into our friend jamar at uh before i interviewed chuck d from public enemy that

jamar is the uh dj now for mishimi and he was performing at 6 p.m and i saw him backstage a couple of times and there there they were, Jamar, a friend of Toronto Mike. He said Toronto Mike gave me a big FOTM. And Mishimi. I witnessed. And so Chuck D was probably wondering, who is this guy that I have never heard of before?

I really did look like I belonged. It's amazing how much I look like I belong. You know, Mishimi's giving me a hug, calling me Toronto Mike and Jamar's doing it. But I will say what I witnessed is this great moment where I witnessed Mishy Me introducing Jamar to Chuck D for the first time. And I could tell Jamar was a big Chuck D fan like myself. And it was kind of neat to kind of be a fly on the wall. I just had my, you know, 20 minutes of Chuck and I kind of got to witness Jamar having a moment to meet one of his heroes. Pretty cool stuff. I'm not sure they witness Jamar having a moment to meet one of his heroes. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm not sure they played Public Enemy at any time in the history of 104.5 Chum FM. That would be a long shot. Yeah, the Chuck D. I got into listening to some Public Enemy after the podcast. Tracks I hadn't paid much attention to in a while.

It's funny to think, 30 years ago, what really put Chuck D on the map was his reference to Elvis Presley in the song Fight the Power. You know, that was something that was... Do the right thing. I think it was referenced a lot, right?

Like, that would have been the first thing that a lot of people would have known about public enemy. This was a guy calling out Elvis Presley. Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me. Straight up racist, this sucker was simple and plain. Motherfuck him and John Wayne. Well, I wouldn't put Elvis and Chuck D

in the same category sociologically speaking. I think those 30-year-old public enemy tracks today have that same resonance that Elvis once did. You listen to it and you think, was this real? Was there like a human being that actually made this stuff? Bomb squad. Where I'm going with this.

It's so influential, so embedded in so much else that has happened ever since. It's hard to believe that it was ever something that a human being organically thought of. That's the impact that public enemy has had. Also, I recommend everybody go back and re-watch Do the Right Thing because that flick holds up better than ever. I think that's a tremendous movie, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

Radio Raheem. We saw on TMZ yesterday that Chuck D is suing this record company. He got into this internet music distribution when that whole idea was first starting out, that he could go independently and sell music online. This is like really early 2000s. Right, he was at the bleeding edge, as they say,

of the internet radio. I think it also had something to do with the fact that big leagues no longer saw Public Enemy as viable, that their record sales kept declining. Oh, big drop off after apocalypse anyone and and and i think yeah they they weren't seen as worthy of a major label deal anymore they had a bit of a comeback what's that song it was a big hit we got you got game we got game no there was one there was one 2007 it was a big hit and got no fancy car never was no superstar this one i

can't remember but it was big... Big British, British hit. That was seen as their comeback. So they bounced back, kind of an oldies act around the time that they were entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Chuck D., who thought he could still sell his music on the internet, he says he was swindled. He alleges that his money was stolen, that he didn't know anything about business. He just signed away his rights to a lot of music.

And now he wants it back. So I don't know how often Chuck D. has shown up on TMZ. It was funny to see it right after he was on Toronto Mike, maybe. Maybe the comeback of Chuck D D started by doing your podcast. Now, I mentioned that it was kind of gross what we were talking about, and that was my segue into the fact that FOTM, Peter Gross, who gave great podcast, he, after, I don't know, you tell me how many years, he's no longer on 680 680 news now this was in the aftermath of bob mccowan uh being cut loose

from rogers that uh maybe they were on the warpath there as some of their veterans that were expendable no longer wanted anymore and then the headline from FOTM Steve Simmons that Don Cherry was on the chopping block. Right. And I don't know if his return was ever actually confirmed by Rodgers. But there was a tweet from a verified Hockey Night in Canada account. So the Hockey Night in Canada verified account that said that Don would be back for next season.

Okay, but that doesn't mean that he's not into his last year. This is the final run. It doesn't mean anything beyond next year, but it does sound like he'll be back for at least one more season. I don't know why I'm defending Steve Simmons. It's a great Toronto pastime to dunk on him. Yeah, just have a hot dog and enjoy it.

For rumors that he's printed. And then he comes down here and gives a long justification for... I'm so glad I started Toronto Mike. Just think about the moments that have been created in this basement. I was just thinking about how he defended the whole hot dog story. And I was thinking, like, that's only possible because of something I started up. Go to the one that Al Grego curated curated for you best of toronto might yes it's on there it's on there amazing the royal pains an amazing moment Castle commissioning a hot dog cart to set up shop at the base of his condo

for the exclusive purpose of him being able to eat this specific street meat. We don't yet know. We do not yet know the official replacement for Bob McCowan on Primetime Sports. Has it been Jeff Blair? Well, it has been up until like next week when Jeff's, I think he's on vacation and it's going to be the good show,

which is Ben Ennis and shit. What's his name? It's a couple of young men who have that previous time slot. But they think Tim and Sid will ultimately be in the show. That's the rumor. I think maybe Jonah might have... I can't remember if it was...

With all the changes at Rogers and Peter Gross, who was doing Yeoman's duty at 680 News, a guy who had been in the Toronto media since the mid-1970s, one of the original characters on City Pulse News. Of course. The sportscaster, the original one who was there. The world according to Gross. With Gordon Martineau and Beanie Petty,

which was on the front lines. Oh, Lorne Honickman's coming in, just FYI. Continue, please. We heard on the podcast here about Peter Gross's journey. He went from being City Pulse Sports to doing the kicker items. He was the wacky guy about town, world according to Gross on City TV.

And do I got this right? The height of his glory, he walked off the job. That his ego got the best of him, and a few months later, he ended up cab driver in Brampton, Ontario. No, quite the story. And he revealed all.

There's a guy who came in and just told the truth. And I'm just sorry we won't be able to hear him anymore on 680 because he was, as he told us, he was telling non-sports people the sports news. And he sort of spun it that way. Listen, I thought, he's been around a long time, gave this a lot of thought.

That he saw his job, his responsibility was to do sports on 680 News, news station, news wheel that got to do sports. But80 News, news station, news wheel. They got to do sports. But at the same time, he's up against two full-time sports radio stations. Get every score everywhere on your phone. That he saw his job at 680 to be engaging enough that people would stay tuned to the end of the sports cast and

that they would fulfill the role of having sports on the all-news radio station, but that he had to engineer it in a certain way to have in mind a listener who didn't care about anything that he was talking about. And I thought that was terrific terrific that he'd mastered that. At the same time that he said he was now only getting to the point where he was making the amount of money that he was earning like 30 or 40 years ago. Right.

That he was still sticking around waiting for a salary to catch up. He wanted to be the world's oldest sportscaster. Here he was, what, pushing 70 at this point? Right. And they cut him loose. They let him go. No big ceremony. It was just, you know, another voice on the station replaced.

Got lots of people around Sportsnet if they need a sports update. But it wouldn't be the same handcrafted thing that they got from Peter Gross. And this was after 26 years of 680 News. He left for a while. At one point, he went back to City TV, but then came back on the radio. And I think his hiring even predated 680 News. When it was still music on CFTR,

they had him in there. It's a long, long final act. Although at the same time, maybe we haven't heard the last of him. Maybe he'll end up back with Moses Neimer on Zoom or radio or something. You've got to see this guy's ambition through. He wanted to be the world's oldest sportscaster. And what was the guy, the oldest guy that was giving out scores?

96, 97, 98? Something like that. He should come down here and do a sports update for 60 seconds a month. That's what it takes to fulfill what he's looking for. Pick the ponies. That's what he'd want to do. So not the biggest salary at Rogers Communications. Peter Gross admitted that himself.

But they considered him expendable and shoveled him out. It got mentioned in a few places. But that ticks me off. If you fire an old guy who's making big bucks, now I'm like, okay, that's not ageism. That's like big buckism. You know what I mean? You're biased against people who have big salaries.

But in this instance, you got an old guy who's making a very modest salary, and you still chopped him. I can respect that they didn't see the sentimentality in keeping him around, or maybe it's a bad precedent and managers have to answer to other managers about their budgetary decision.

What's this guy doing there and doesn't make any money for the station? We're not a sports station anyway. But you gotta have your sports updates on 680. Do you? Don't you? I got the sports radio sports updates, and getting scores all over the place.

I'm not sure where it's at, but 680 is a money-making machine, and for a live 24-hour radio station, they do it with a lot fewer people than they used to when they first signed on. Oh, for sure. Now, speaking of, he wanted to be the world's oldest sportscaster. Let's talk about Brian Master, because Brian Master was in recently. He's now in FOTM. And Brian and I had a chat where I thought maybe he was the, how do I word this? The last standing GTA radio host

who was also on our airwaves in the 60s. Am I saying that right? And if you're saying it right, then at this point you're saying more than half a century. Correct. I mean, if it was any time after the summer of 1960. Well, man landed on the moon 50 years ago.

That's how I know you're right. In Woodstock, right? Okay, so maybe we learned something about Brine Master is still on the air with Juul? Juul 88.5. 88.5 FM. I had a mug, but I think it's upstairs now.

He gave me a very nice mug, and he gave me sunglasses, which, in fact, I said I could wear them like Bob McCowan. Although we're not on Periscope, so I'm not going to bother putting them on. We learned a lot about Brian Master, someone I don't think we ever talked about him here before. Never, never. But I knew who he was as a kid.

You would hear him. It was interesting, right? Brian Master is one of those cool radio DJs from Chum FM, from Q107. I never even had that. I learned everything I know about Brian Master after a listener asked me to have him on, telling me that he would have great stories about being in radio. And then I'm like, who's Brian Master?

And a long time at CHFI. And you read a quote to him that was from the Toronto Star. And I know it was because I'm the one that dug it up. Right. I hope I gave you the appropriate credit there. From an article that I remembered about Did you remember that or did you find it No, I remembered. Wow. I've looked it up. That's why you're good at what you do, man.

That's why you're good at what you do. Okay, so it was rock DJs who had worked at. Well, any DJs. Chum FM at Q107, at CFNY, and they had been hired by these other stations, CKFM, CHFLM. Brian McGee was the only guy we're wondering...

Bob McGee, sorry. Brian McGee was the guy from The Simpsons. Remember, he had the fake ID, and his name was Brian McGee. He stayed up listening to Queen when he was 17. Okay. So, Bob McGee DeQueen when he was 17. Okay. So Bob McGee

was on the air starting in 1972. That's not the 60s. But Brian Master thinks he might have been on the air earlier under a different name. You gotta get Bob McGee down here. Yes, done. And because that morning show he does, Element FM, is, I think, as far as music playlist is

concerned, the most eclectic commercial radio format that's ever been done in this country. So get him down here and ask about that. So it was Brian Master who was disavowing Ozzy Osbourne and these other heavy metal boys. How do we explain this to the parents? Yeah, and there he was in his early to mid-30s, and he was saying, I'm too old for this devil-worshipping shit.

I'm moving to the lighter side. 98-1 CHFI. Now, he's now claiming he never said that. Well, it was in the newspaper. Well, it shows you you want to be a company man. He just got this new job. He ended up keeping the job for what? Can you trust anybody anymore?

What was it, 17, 18, 19 years at CHFI? Yeah, 19 years. So I guess he, you know, satisfied his corporate overlords. Ted Rogers was happy with his performance. He was justifying, you know, that, you know, if you were an old hippie, that CHFI was the thing to listen to based on the rating success that it has, maybe you had a point.

Now, Brian Master is a real estate sales representative, but he's not my favorite Brian who's a real estate sales representative. I'm partial to Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. Brian, who, by the way, I know I'm not going to tell this story. I was going to tell a story and I remember he told me on the phone not to put this in public, but let's just say he's been quite the advocate for Toronto Mike and I appreciate his support. Let me play a question for you, Mark Weisblot from Brian Gerstein.

Brian Gerstein. brand new Minto Westside Suite at Bafferston Front I'll be listing. Contact me for any rental or buy and sell needs you have at 416-873-0292. Mark, which Toronto locations do selfie tourists seek out in Toronto, like the Friends Building, Degrassi Street, Queen's Park from the Rush album cover, Kim's Convenience on Queen East? Any others to add on that list? And if there are any suit fans out there, my PSR office at 625 King Street West at Portland,

second floor, was shut down for a taping of suits, and we had no access for a day. So you can add my own personal experience as well. Well, thank you, Brian, who does these questions now based on a question that i ask on twitter synergy and yeah he records a thing and he pretends he's asking it himself but i had this one on twitter because a terrific article in the new yorker website which was uh hanging outside the friends building, the establishing shot. They didn't film Friends there. But now Friends has a whole new generation

watching it on Netflix. Your kid's into Friends? My daughter watches Friends. Yeah, my daughter watches Friends, for sure. And my wife is a big Friends fan. She would have been an original fan going back and watching the reruns. The Friends building now has all these selfie-taking tourists.

They want to pose outside. I don't even know what it looks like. I don't even know the Friends building. Outside the Friends building. What would have been the monuments in Toronto? If you were going to take a selfie, you would go to, so there were a few that Brian mentioned. Okay.

Do I get to answer one? Well, Kim's Convenience is one, right? Okay, I've done that. Yes, I've done that. You took a picture at Kim's Convenience. I went to Kim's Convenience just to take a picture because I was enjoying the show. Okay, what about get to answer one? Well, Kim's Convenience is one, right? Okay, I've done that. Yes, I've done that. You took a picture at Kim's Convenience. I went to Kim's Convenience just to take a picture because I was enjoying the show. Okay, what about Queen's Park?

The Rush, moving pictures. Well, I mean, I don't associate Queen's Park with Rush, I have to confess. They would have a Rush convention in Toronto, and that would be one of the stops on the Rush tour. Can I throw one in before we get back to your list? I like to go to the Degrassi Junior High building because it's very close to my home

and it's going to be destroyed at some point for condos because they built up all these townhouses and stuff right around it, but it still stands. Anyways, it's not too far from here, the Degrassi Junior High building.

And Brian mentioned that too from my question. Oh, he said Degrassi Street. Degrassi Street. Okay, different places. And the Suits building is seen as, you know, if you were clued into the show Suits. Where the Duchess was on that show.

Megan Markle. You know, you would have been familiar with the exteriors there. I was going to say, one of the answers on Twitter from Friends of Fernandez. Oh, yeah, Tony Fernandez fan. He mentioned Dutch Dreams, the ice cream parlor. Do you know Dutch Dreams? Yeah, 100%. St. Clair

West at Vaughan Road. They had a location, they moved across St. Clair from where they used to be, but that was the original Dutch Dreams. Isn't it near Casa Loma? Yeah, close enough in the in the movie half baked uh night heat had its own building not as famous as the apartment building from

friends but that's on um that's on college street now canadian canadian blood services you know what's doing a lot for this is handmaid's Tale. Not just Toronto, also Cambridge and Hamilton, but there's a lot of landmarks that are being brought into that series. Like Nathan Phillips Square, the new City Hall was a prominent scene this season of hangings and

stuff that took place right there. You did a wonderful tribute to your daughter, Michelle. Oh yeah, that was a... And you mentioned the movie cinderella man yes that on the morning that she was born the the sun hadn't come out yet right right three in the morning or something like that and there you saw what was it was madison square garden yeah the old simpsons i think it was the old simpsons building was transformed to look like madison square gardens i guess that was the scene of a big fight between Jim Braddock and somebody or other and Max Bayer or something like

that. And yeah, it was wild because all the cars and people were from the 1930s. Bay and Queen. It's funny how that works because I don't know if anyone else has ever referenced that, let alone gone to take a selfie there. But I got than that. It is so deeply part of your life. Oh, I know. I'll never forget. And the story of your daughter. It's a good movie, you know. It's a good movie. I'm just throwing it out there. But also, there's a big scene in that movie where they're listening to the fight on the radio and it's inside St. Cecilia's

Church, which is like Runnymede in Annette. It's just east of Runnymede on Annette Street. The show Hannibal had his house. It was on Simcoe Street, across from Roy Thompson Hall. That makes sense. Sure.

Being Erica, remember that show? Of course, CBC. This is hardcore Canadian. That her apartment building, which is on Palmerston, when that show had a following, I think by standards of CBC shows, the mid-2000s, it was kind of a big deal for a few minutes. It didn't get an Emmy nomination like Schitt's Creek,

but it did all right. If you wanted to reenact Mean Girls, with Lindsay Lohan, you go to Sherway Gardens. And a bunch of locations from Scottott pilgrim oh yes the pizza pizza a lot of stuff's in that actually lee's palace honest ads which isn't there anymore and the uh which would public library which is undergoing some big renovations so shape of water take much of a self-help it's called shape of water shape of water which won the oscar a

couple of oscars ago uh they have some big scenes at, like, Massie Hall, the outside of Massie Hall, and the inside of the Elgin Winter Garden Theater as well. From Police Academy 3. Oh, 3, okay. The Queen City Yacht Club. That was one response. And a movie.

You mentioned it with Gordon Martineau, because he in the movie, Dirty Work, the the eglinton movie theater which is now still standing but they don't they don't show movies there anymore it's more of an event space a movie the f word okay with uh harry potter the canadian daniel radcliffe movie with a george street diner they filmed there and uh john ross robertson elementary school does that ring a bell you would have seen that as a location in billy madison wow and i'll credit uh cam gordon of twitter canada with this one yeah uh which i remember at the time it was uh the real mccoy greasy spoon restaurant in Scarborough. Yeah.

Which you can see in the video, for Barenaked Ladies, lovers in dangerous time. I feel like that's where they still have the big sign about Ripken from Mojo Radio saying it was the best burger in the city. I went there once, and it's like, Ripken's long gone, Mojo's long gone, but that poster remains inside. Where you can't go anymore is the world's biggest bookstore where they filmed Short Circuit. Right, Johnny Five. Short Circuit 2? 2 for sure.

Short Circuit in the world's biggest. That was a good question, right? I like it. We didn't do too badly. We'll see what we can come up with for next month. Thank you,rian gerstein of property in the six dot com now i like the idea that we do a commercial and the commercials like you know 10 15 minutes long it reminds me of the old howard stern show where he would break in and

do these that's how i roll brother but it's's with a heavy heart we do this next commercial, if you will, because it's the end of July, July 31st, and we're about to remember the time as Mark opens up a pompous ass. I'm not trying to give you any messages with that, but it's just random, but from Great Lakes Brewery. But it's with a heavy heart that we play Remember the Time because Milan, from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, this is the end of their contract with Toronto Mic'd. I think Milan has been more than just a partner and a sponsor of the show. I mean, I sent my mom

to get her watch fix. I think Milan's been a character on this show. He's been on multiple episodes. He was on that great episode with the wrestling Wei Ting. Wei Ting is a great name, by the way. Do you remember the name of the other chap? How embarrassing. No, John. John Pollock.

That's what I thought. Great friend of the show. I told him I now consider him not a friend of the show I now I told him I now consider him not a friend of the show he's a friend okay Milan's a friend so thank you Milan

that's a different category than that friend of Toronto Mike he's not FOTM he's an FOM FOTM is a little removed right that's like your friend

of the show I would say Milan is an FOM a friend of mine and I saw him at TMLX3 as well what a gentleman What a gentleman. What a gentleman.

He actually recommended the show to Capadia, and I appreciate that. So let's, again, for the record, for all eternity, if you ever need any jewelry repaired or cleaned, or if you need your watch battery replaced or watch band fixed or anything of your watch repaired, go to Fast Time, go to one of their locations and have them do it because they've been doing it for 40 years and they are most excellent.

But without further ado, let's go back in the time machine. We're going back, I have to check my notes, we're going back 40 years ago this week and it's not, it's not the Billboard Hot 100 because Wiseblog's here. This is the Chum Charts. I'll know the things you've done I wouldn't criticize I guess you had your way You said I've got to make you understand I know it sounds a foolish thing to say But it don't matter, baby Just a day's another day

You shine a little light on my life You shine a little light on my life You shine a little love by ELO. So this was number one in July 1979 on the Chum Charts. Oh, I'm going to miss this segment because it's inspired me to look at these old Chum charts and find if there were songs in different months corresponding as close as you could get to the week. Songs that were number one on Chum that didn't reach that milestone anywhere else in the world. And I was surprised to be reminded that this was one of them by ELO. Number one at the end of July 1979. 40 years before ELO just did a concert in Toronto.

Yes. With Jeff Lynn. Yes. And so that is some staying power. You could not have imagined another, I mean, as far away as 1939 was from 1979. And I remember when ELO selling lots of records, it was a bit of a mystery to me. Still too young to clue in the difference between one rock band and the other.

But this was number one on CHOM in an eventful week because it was the same week as Disco Demolition Night in Chicago. And it was in July 1979 that a radio station in Chicago with DJ Steve Dahl, the White Sox, were big on having stunt promotions, and they said, you know, you could get into the park and bring your disco records, and we would demolish all of them on the field

in the middle of the doubleheader, and the chaos set in. Soon, they ended up forfeiting the second game of the doubleheader. A lot of think pieces on the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night. This ELO song is Disco Enough? Yep.

Somebody on Twitter disputed that fact when I brought it up. What is this? Disco with the cellos and the violins and ELO. This was not Disco. It was Disco Enough. And subsequently ELO

was paired with Olivia Newton-John in the movie Xanadu, which got a bit of a backlash. But Jeff Lynne says that's the favorite song he ever wrote, Xanadu. And that was the end of their initial run, I think. It was still around through the 80s, but it was never quite the same. So here on 1050 Chum, this Toronto roller

skating anthem that made it to the top of the charts, I think it embodied what was going on with disco, but at the same time it was British enough to be Toronto's idea of what a disco song should be. As Retro Ontario discussed, you had all these discos happening in Toronto.

There was checkers and heaven and sparkles at the CN Tower. All these places that invested in disco, they had to pivot because suddenly people didn't want to disco dance anymore. And that was 40 years ago, July 1979. If anybody out there wants to sponsor the Remember the Time segment, this is the time to contact me. We have space for one more partner of Toronto Mic'd, and we would love to bring back this segment. But give one more shout out to Milan.

Because look at what he made me do. Go through the Chum Chart archive. Now, Milan did say he's hoping they'll be back. They're taking a break because they're going to put all of their marketing budget into, I hope I'm not speaking at a school here, but into television ads, I believe, that might air on CHCH, for example.

So there's simply no money for Toronto Mike at this point, but it does sound like he would like to come back in the future. And again, if I ever encounter anybody who needs a watch battery or repairs to their watch or jewelry, I'm sending them straight to Fast Time because Milan, what a great supporter. And he's a sweet man and very smart and well-spoken with those good pipes. And yeah, I'm going to miss the kick. I'm going to miss remember the time. I need somebody to

step up and keep it going. That's what I need. And when Milan at Fast Time wants to save his company money where does he turn to capadia llp cpas did you ever meet did you meet rupesh at tmlx3 no i wouldn't have known who to look for and i'm not sure what this thing is that that rupesh gives me every month it's called a pop socket okay it goes on the back of your phone and it and so if you want to watch your phone like a TV or something, it props it up. It's like a stand for the screen. That's amazing. Why did it come with an instruction manual

so that I knew what it was? You'll have to give me a new one on the way out. I will. Actually, here. Enjoy. It's a Capadia LLP pop socket. So Rupesh, as I've been saying, he's the rockstar accountant. I urge everyone who can hear my voice that has any questions or any business ventures

or anything to do with taxes or anything that you want a certified, a CPA, a certified accountant who sees beyond the numbers to give you advice. If you want a free consultation, the 1236 Enterprise mark, there's no one better to talk to about it than Rupesh Kapadia. I can hook up this free consultation. Just let me know. Here in his own words is a tip from Rupesh Kapadia. Hey, hey, hey, this is Rupesh here. And Toronto Mike listeners, this is a real fun fact for you.

Did you know that you can claim almost up to $30,000 HST rebates on newly built condos or substantially renovated house? If you would like to know more, do call us at Kapadia LLP. You can talk directly to me or any one of my associates and we'll be happy to help. Thank you. Rockstar Accountant. Mark, we need a chair girl update. Well, we don't actually need a chair girl update, but we're going to get one anyways. We know you want to give one. Did you know that this song by the Beach Boys, Marcella,

was written by Brian Wilson about a masseuse that he was obsessed with? I don't know that Brian Wilson was leaving the house all that much. So his human interaction was limited to people like Marcella. But this is a whole different Marcella than the one who has been making news in Toronto for most of 2019, and that would be Marcella Zoya, Toronto's own chair girl. And here we are with the legal

entanglements of chair girl who allegedly threw some patio furniture off of a balcony in downtown Toronto. Allegedly, I saw the video. I know, it's still allegedly, I understand. My lawyer's video. I know. It's still allegedly.

I understand. My lawyer's brief. I've had many chats of my lawyer lately. It's allegedly. And ever since she appeared in court at College Park

for that first date with all the paparazzi surrounding her, she's only been represented by her lawyer in putting off the case, making excuses, talking to the media

about what sort of leniency he's hoping for with his client. All the while, Chair Girl has been on Instagram posting adventures about her life, something that's gotten her a spot of extra attention along the way. Now, court was finally in session for chair girl, and Marcella was nowhere to be found. But her lawyer was there looking for the extension to put off things a little bit further, that her actual day in court needed another month off.

And the reason was, as he explained, that she was hired to do some modeling in Miami. There was a hotel that was looking for the services of chair girl. Wow. And that she had the social media notoriety required for what they want that's how he explained it wow i'm not not saying that that wasn't a euphemism for something else it's interesting how the media will pick apart certain things and you know at other times they're willing to go along with whatever discretion they want to apply to what the lawyer is saying.

So if he says that Chair Girl was modeling in Miami, that's the story that we'll stick to. And that's why Chair Girl didn't show up in court at the same time that she was talking about her trip to Miami on Instagram. Once again, we know there'll be another month of updating Toronto Mic'd on what's happening with Marcella. And this story has been amusing for a whole other reason, which is it's showing the power of news accounts on Instagram.

I don't know if you follow any of this stuff. There's one called SixBuzzTV that's become phenomenally popular. And whoever's behind the scenes of that is a shadowy figure. They don't really explain who they are. But we wouldn't have known much about Chairgirl if it wasn't for SixBuzz,

another one straight out of the Six TV, and there's one Real Toronto News with a Z. These are accounts with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers. SixBuzz has a million followers getting their news filtered in a certain way. Doug Ford's office is leaving comments on SixBuzz, okay? Like the premier is people are paying attention Ford's office is leaving comments on Six Buzz, okay?

Like the premier is people are paying attention to what goes on there, and Chair Girl was really a creature of news being disseminated this way, and I don't know what's going to happen with charges for Chair Girl if she goes back to dental hygiene school, but the takeaway, I think, is what it says about news on Instagram. Are you telling me it's the 20th anniversary of this fantastic jam, Steal My Sunshine by Len. I'm telling you that the 20th anniversary of Woodstock 99 is something that seems to be getting

its share of nostalgic attention as a reflection of a certain era in popular culture. When the mook metal scene took over from grunge rock. Break stuff. There was no longer the values that were associated with Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl. I mean, he survived that era,

but here they were at a time overshadowed by a different kind of pop culture that was a lot meaner, a little more misogynist, and generally had a value system that people are no longer tolerant of. Now, Steal My Sunshine crossed over as a big pop hit out of Toronto, but when it comes to Canadian one-hit wonders, I don't think there was any better embodiment of the summer of 1999 than this song.

I'm with you, man, and I'm still digging it. Isn't that, what does that say? It's still a good jam, right? Good video, too. This is Costanza, or Costanzo. What is that? Mark and Sharon Costanzo, brother and sister, and they did this song on a lark and somehow became a big hit all around the world. That was a great jam.

And it was, the whole idea at the time was, you know, you would have the one radio hit. Finding as many kids as possible would pay $18 for a CD just to get the one song. And a whole bunch of other tracks. It sounded nothing like it. Right. And this is how it's explained. Napster caught on because, you know, provide an alternative to wasting your money on CDs.

Like, you can't stop the bum rush from Len. Great Canadian fluke, and that single came out as a single later than the album, later than it was getting airplayed. But July 22nd, 1999, the 20th anniversary of Steal My Sunshine. Don't forget this little epilogue or whatever

at the end of Steal My Sunshine on the album cut. Tell me about Roxodus. Roxodus was cancelled. Oh, and that happened. We talked about Roxodus when I was last here at the end of June. We're trying to decode what was this festival,

where was it happening, what was it all about, how did they manage to book all these big classic rock bands? And look at this. Like in the last four or five weeks, the whole thing fell apart. And it was this extravaganza that never was. And the organizers, originally to blame the weather,

they said that Edenvale Airport near Barrie, Ontario, where they were going to hold Roxodus, that the ground was all wet and it didn't allow for it happening there. How many stories were churned out about what happened there? Alan Cross played a role in this drama because he was hired by them to be like their spokesman, and he was going to be the emcee for the event, and he got all rhapsodic in that Alan Cross way about how this was going to be like Canada's

reincarnation of Woodstock, that this was, you know, here it was going to happen with Aerosmith and Nickelback and Leonard Skinner and Kid Rock and a bunch of supporting acts. And they filed for bankruptcy. The promoters, you know, they just couldn't make it happen, and they owe a bunch of money to Eventbrite, which sells the tickets. They gave out refunds. If you bought your ticket there

it would have been refunded but a big mass that's going to be dragged through court for months or years to come Roxodus the festival that never happened it's our fire festival is what you're telling me possibly speaking of the festival of beer

I heard that when Ja Rule and Ashanti that was the Sunday were at the beer festival. Yes, Sunday. That people came in like Fyre Fest merchandise. That the legend of the Fyre Fest is such that, you know,

people see Ja Rule. Wow. And like the whole idea that here he was involved in this disaster playing in real time. I don't know if we'll be seeing a Roxodus documentary

anytime soon. It just, just seemed... No, no, because there's no exotic island location for that. That's a whole different... Yeah, just a lot of people that were hoping to sell some spiraled potatoes. And there weren't a lot of small businesses that were left in the lurch because they canceled this Roxodus festival. So there's already a fading memory of July 2019.

The band's out of the blue. Robbie Robertson. What's he doing in the news? Do you remember this song? Did you ever hear it on the radio? You talk here a lot about the band, The Last Waltz. I suppose I do because I really like that documentary, and I watch it often.

But yes, I suppose I do talk about it a lot. Okay, this song's on the album, The Last Waltz. It's one of the songs they recorded after the movie. The Wait with the band and the staple singers. Yes. You know that one. You've talked about it. I prefer that to the actual studio

version of The Wait. I love it with the staple singers. I don't think that I knew that much about the band when I first heard this song. It kind of reminds me of the Magic Shadows theme song from TV Ontario. Speaking of Retro Ontario, he would replay that many a time

when he kicked out the Canadian team. And this made its way up the chum chart when the last waltz came out. And I think the legend of the band is about to be discussed more than ever because the opening night of the Toronto

International Film Festival will be a documentary about The Band with a 25-year-old director working under the guidance of Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson leading the way on the

red carpet and here was again something in music history that, you know, if you give it any thought, it's hard to believe that ever happened, that this group from Toronto reached that level of artistry that culminated in the last waltz. And most of them are dead now. Yeah, there's two left, right? Because Garth is still alive, right?

Robbie, for sure, is still alive. Yeah, Robbie Robertson is still active. So he wrote one edition of his autobiography. He says he's got two more on the way and a new album coming out in September. He'd be a good guest for Toronto Mic'd. Is that possible? I've got Chuck D.

I can't get Robbie Robertson. You've got to call John Donabee because Donabee was what? Like the Toronto radio connection. Right. For the band. Yes. From Leave On and the Hawks and Into Their Great Glory even went to the last Waltz concert.

Yes, he did. The one Thanksgiving 1976. John Donabee was there. He's your hookup. I'm going to work on it. I think we'll hear more about the band than ever. And Robbie Robertson, he was one that conceptualized this idea. He wasn't the vocalist, but he did that song, Out of the Blue.

That was him singing and solo career that he had after that. Which was successful. There were some big CanCon hits. Absolutely out of that solo career. But if I may, on Toronto Mike, when we talk about FOTMs, Ron Hawkins is an FOTM, Ron Hawkins. It's just the

other Ron Hawkins. It's not the Ron Hawkins with the Hawks who became the band. It's the other Ron Hawkins. But I digress. you sat and dressed in a room where you do what you don't confess. Sundown, you better take care if I find you

been creeping around my backstreet. Speaking of Canadian musical legends, Gordon Lightfoot. Speaking of the band and Levon and the Hawks, this song was written about a woman named Kathy Evelyn Smith. And her name moved to the forefront of headlines in 1982 because she served 15 months in California State Prison for injecting the drugs that killed John Belushi.

But her history on the rock and roll scene involved carousing with a lot of legendary rock stars. That included Gordon Lightfoot, who was inspired to write this song about their volatile affair. And Gordon Lightfoot is still around. And so is Kathy Evelyn Smith, because she returned to the pages of the newspaper where her confession with Belushi was originally discussed. And that was the National Enquirer. So if you've been following this stuff for as long as I have, and it was around that time, 1982, that I first caught on to the Enquirer. What a fantastic newspaper that used to be.

Still got to flip through it every week to see what's up. Do you? I put this stuff on Twitter. My snapshots from the Inquirer. They're changing ownership. And so if you're a real hardcore reader of the National Inquirer, you would have got a feeling of nostalgia by the fact that they had an update on the life of Kathy Evelyn Smith in Vancouver.

Things aren't going so well, but maybe she made a few bucks talking about her hard luck life to the Inquirer. The last time I thought of the National Inquirer was when that guy Mike, whose last name is Mike Walker, would come on Howard Stern and play that game on, I think, Fridays or something. He would play that game about the four stories, one of which is made up. Yeah, and the speculation was they gave him that airtime to keep Howard Stern out of the National Enquirer.

Well, it's genius then, right? By giving him airtime. It's the last time I heard about the National Enquirer. And he died, Mike Walker. Oh, no, National Enquirer went through a whole scandalous period where Donald Trump was on the cover almost every week leading up to him winning the election and then afterwards. And a lot of dirt about who was getting paid and paid off, you know,

related to the White House and a publisher. David Pecker. David Pecker was on the board of directors of Post Media. A lot of scandal. A lot about the Inquirer. And they've got new ownership, a new era coming in. We'll see if it survives. But Kathy Evelyn Smith, the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown,

bridging the generations my entire life, paying attention to this stuff, couldn't come on here without mentioning it. Now, you know, we have to get to the memorial section. We've lost a lot of people we need to acknowledge. But before we get to the in memoriam section, FOTM, is it cashing on yet? FOTM?

Okay, FOTM, Ed Keenan has a new gig with the Toronto Sun. Oh, yeah, of every media story here, and we're not going to get to all of them this month. I'm very proud of my pal, Ed Keenan. Daniel Dale, who was appointed the Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Toronto Star based on the work he did around Rob Ford. They had this notion that he would be the guy to cover Donald Trump. I mean, they didn't think that he would win the election in the end, but it was all quite fortuitous. And on his own

time, Daniel Dale got into this business of counting falsehoods that came out of Trump's mouth. And that was not his main gig at the Star, but they certainly exploited it, that he discussed it in his articles, and they had the Trump check feature, a newsletter with his counting of lies, and he seemed to be the right guy to bring on CNN, that you would have, you know, Daniel Dale, that kind of fits a stereotype with these alpha male anchors on CNN, Alpha male anchors on CNN, the Jake Tappers and Chris Cuomo's and. Anderson Cooper, that they could throw to Daniel Dale, that he could look like the guy who was working behind the scenes in the computer lab to count the lives of Donald Trump. I think he plays the part really well, and they noticed it, and they gave him a full-time job.

So there was no being at the start. They needed somebody in D.C. No one more deserving than Keenan. I mean, that is an honest appraisal, though it also relates to knowing the guy and all the work that he did to get to that point of that assignment. And he's not only moving there,

he's bringing his whole family along. So logistically, that's a lot of work. And from what I could tell on Twitter, he'll be coming on Toronto Mike before he skips town. That's the plan. So we're going to squeeze him in before he heads to D.C. We're going to do our best to get Keenan. He's been on, I think he's been on three times.

And we're going to try to make it a fourth before he goes. Big time FOTM, and I'm happy for him. Yeah, a real unlikely unexpected gig. And who knows if the Toronto Star will even be around in the couple of years that he's doing this posting for, but that's not his problem. And I'm looking forward to what he has to say. And it's way out of Covering Toronto

because it got so much recognition and moved up through the ranks by having that impassioned perspective on what was happening in the city, and here he is leaving that behind to be the Toronto Star's man in D.C. Like, they're only foreign correspondents. Wow. By the standards of Canadian journalism, a big deal, and at a time when they're leaking money and cutbacks all around,

they have hopefully locked him in to keep doing great stuff. And we'll be reading and listening to him on Toronto Mike. Exciting, exciting. Now, we heard a song, Robbie, we did a song from the band, which is primarily Canadians, and we heard a song by Gordon Light we did a song from the band, which is primarily Canadians, and we heard a song by Gordon Lightfoot, who's very Canadian. Here's a song penned by Leonard Cohen, but it is, of course, it is the Neville Brothers

as we begin our In Memoriam section of the 1236 episodes. Who did we lose from the Neville Brothers? It's not Aaron. I'm helping you. He's still with us. Oh, Art Neville. Art Neville of the Neville brothers.

He was instrumental in this legendary New Orleans music group that was deep into middle age before they got a level of commercial attention. So there he was playing with the meters in New Orleans, and his brother Aaron Neville was a minor soul music star in the 60s. But these guys had a few decades behind them by the time they got the Neville Brothers Act really going. As something that they could turn into an international success. And part of it had to do with the fact that Aaron Neville

did this album with Linda Ronstadt. Right. Cry Like a Rainstorm. Which produced a top 40 hit, at least one that I remember. But, yeah. And from there, there was more interest in the legacy of the Neville brothers. And out of that came this Leonard Cohen cover,

which was their biggest hit. And I'd imagine even the days that you were working at Food City at the Galleria Mall. Imagine how many hours of shopping in supermarkets has been done to the sound of Bird on a Wire by the Neville Brothers.

So true, so true. So there, Art Neville, part of the Neville Brothers, his daughter, Arthel Neville brothers. So true, so true. So there, Art Neville, part of the Neville brothers, his daughter, Arthel Neville, who was originally on the show Extra, the entertainment magazine. Oh, Ricky Gervais. Oh, that show. The wrong Extra.

I'm thinking of, I thought you were talking about Ricky Gervais' Extra. And on Fox News. Okay. More recently, there was just one of the big musical deaths of July 2019. Art Neville of the Neville Brothers. There'll be more, but let's talk about somebody who you have actually met. I believe you have.

Ng Wong Ward. I was going to say, I knew this woman a little bit because I was at Ryerson Journalism School at the same time as her. She was a CBC radio producer I think

not too long after graduating Ryerson that she got this job at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. And it was there that I was contacted by her once or twice that she was looking for information or guests producing different shows. And she died in July at age 46 after all those years of working at the CBC. And here she was born with a neurodegenerative disorder.

As a result, she never actually walked. She was dependent on a wheelchair all through her life. So she was noticed for that reason alone. But subsequently, she got attention in other ways, being on the CBC, even more so by the fact that a couple years ago she was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was inoperable.

And she wrote and spoke about the fact that even though she was put into this palliative care that she knew she didn't have too many years ahead of her, that she was there, that she was interested in living life to the fullest and being outspoken with this idea of having limited time. And this was stuff that touched a lot of people because usually when you're faced with this sort of diagnosis, you want to keep private about it.

But she made herself a voice for this kind of thinking, you know, that she was going to remain there and be present through all this time. But time ran out for her this summer, 46 years old, and left a daughter and husband and made an impact, an impression here on Canadian media. We don't hear a lot about CBC producers behind the scenes, but this was when Ng Wong Ward, when she died, was considered big news, and that she's remembered for leaving that sort of legacy. And, you know, here in, in running down these deaths, um,

there always seems to be somebody that, that I knew somewhere along the way. What are the odds every month? And it turns out that, that she's a person that I knew a little bit. Sure. Uh, interacted with on Twitter, on the phone, and that I remembered her going back to the early 90s and saw her as a colleague and an inspiration and someone who's not around anymore. So I couldn't do this memorial segment without mentioning Ing.

Hodan Neeli is are you sure that's correct let's make sure i mean we are we're talking i i aim for uh perfection and i usually miss so hodan naily you'll uh correct me but uh she was uh By the way, Ng Wong Ward was only 47 years old, so that's far too young. Yeah, 46, 47, somewhere in there. Yeah, wow. The same age as me. But Hodan Nele was only 43 years old.

Okay, now she was a Canadian, Somali-Canadian TV host. And the shows that she was making were not just on YouTube, that she was also on City TV, on Omni Television. She was connected with Rogers. And her whole mission was to do accessible television for the Somalian community that was here in Toronto in the English language. And decided that she was going to move back to Somalia and go back to her roots and report from over there. As a result, she was killed along with her husband in a suicide bombing.

Only 43 years old. And there we go, another loss in the Canadian media. Yeah, at age 43, Hodan Nala. Before that, she worked as a producer on American Idol and So You Think You Could Dance and was one of those characters who you wouldn't hear a lot about in the mainstream media as far as making that kind of impact. But somebody who used those tools, you know, who had this idea of connecting to a community, which, you know, made the fact that she died in this way extra tragic.

And that was also, you know, an obituary that made a lot of news in July. Jaluka's Scatterlings of Africa. We lost Johnny Clegg in July. They are the scatterlings of Africa, each a rooted one. Oh, my, my, my. They're on the road to Palahanta, where the world began. I love the scatterlings of Africa, each and every one. Oh, my, my, my. In their hearts a burning hunger, give me the cup, sir. Okay, here is another 1050 Chum one from the Chum Charts, late 1983, early 1984.

I get emotional hearing this one because, yeah, remember hearing the sound. Never heard anything like this before. This is three years before Paul Simon put out the Graceland album with similar sounds from South Africa. And there was Johnny Clay, one of those people who was leading the way. And this song, which I think it ended up being a bigger hit in Canada than anywhere else. That it was on

Chum, on an AM Top 40 radio station. Around that time, with all these other music video stars, somebody must have had a sweet spot for the sound of this song. Remember hearing it over the AM radio

airwaves. I can't say that I kept up on the career of Johnny Clegg, but I had some idea that he was fighting

cancer, that he had a diagnosis in 2015, and that he was outspoken about. Once again, time was running out for him as he continued to be a public figure, and he is remembered as one of those pioneers as far as fighting against the apartheid regime in South Africa. There he was. He collaborated with black musicians in Jaluka and a band after that called Savuka

and he got the nickname the White Zulu because of how he integrated with the Zulu nation. They adopted him. He adopted them. This song was in the movie Rain Man a few years later. A lot of people might have heard it from somewhere in the movie or the soundtrack. And he died in Johannesburg, South Africa, age 66 in July 2019. Do you remember this song at all?

Nope. Nothing? Nothing. Not there? No. No. But it's nice. I like it.

But I don't remember it. But closer to home. It's not there. No. But it's nice. I like it, but I don't remember it. But closer to home, much closer to home, David Kaplan. Oh, David Kaplan was a liberal MPP, and he was elected in the government of Dalton McGinty. in the government of Dalton McGinty. In that period of time, from 1997 to 2011, when he served as an MPP in the North York area,

and his family already had a political dynasty because his mother had been an Ontario cabinet minister. That she was even a health minister in the liberal government and later in the federal government. So here we had a situation where Eleanor Kaplan was a federal MP at the same time that her son David was a provincial MP. He died at age 54 in what is described as a fire accident. A real tragic. And he's remembered as one of those people who is always that undercurrent of criticizing what's going on now at Queens Park in the era of Doug Ford, that here was a liberal that didn't play those partisan games,

that he was well-regarded for having that attitude that everybody should get along, figure out a way to compromise based on their differences. But because of the e-health scandal with the provincial liberals, Kaplan ended up being sort of shunted to the side of the party. And at the time he died, he was trying to make a political comeback. He had run in the municipal election. He had a bit of a chance, but then they cut the number of seats at Toronto City Hall

and lost to Denzel Minnan Wong. And he was looking to get a nomination to run as a liberal in the federal election this fall because of a situation going on with an MP named Geng Tan. A sticky situation you might have heard about, read in the 1236 newsletter about an MP who is accused of not paying child support to a woman that was working in his office. and the woman claims that the MP's wife ordered that he fire this staffer who was impregnated by him, and he says that he was just a sperm donor.

Oh, that old yarn. And now he's not going to run again. But then you got the great headline out of there that Gang Tan's wife is considering a run for mp in his place after he resigned quote unquote to spend more time with his family that his wife very good would be a good candidate to replace him more seriously it was david caplan whoplan who was looking for that job and might have even gotten it. So we lost him in July at age 54. And we lost Catherine Mulherin, not much older, at 55.

54, yeah, I think just before her 55th birthday. A name that you would know on the Toronto art gallery scene, that her name was on an art gallery, so when it came to the idea that Queen West would be moving more west, this was before the Drake Hotel opened, before the Gladstone Hotel was refurbished into its current glory, the whole idea that you would go further down Queen West, west of Dufferin, west of Ossington,

this was considered like the Wild West. This was Parkdale. This was a place where people with money feared to tread. Here was this woman, Catherine Mulherin, who was seen as one of those at the forefront of all the gentrification that followed, and the way that she did it, like any great gentrification story,

was by opening up an art gallery and drawing people to that neighborhood. And she got a lot of acclaim for the outreach that she did in developing that neighborhood, and she got a lot of acclaim for the outreach that she did in developing that neighborhood and later took her act to New York City for a few years and then back to Toronto, and she relaunched her gallery in a different part of town, further north, lower in Lansdowne area, and she did that for a while,

but died by suicide here in her mid-50s. And then these tragic stories come out, and you've got to wonder, do we hear these stories more often today than we used to? Or is it social media that draws attention to the circumstances under which people died than they ever did before. Whatever it is, here we have Catherine Mulherin, you know, remembered for the legacy that she left in Toronto. There's gonna be good times, good times.

Got no job, baby And my pockets don't seem to have a jingle But as long as you let me hold you tight Everything is gonna be all right Oh, yes it is Everything is gonna be all right. Oh, yes it is. Everything is gonna be all right, baby. This is time.

Things are looking real bad. Real bad, baby. I can't afford the fancy, dancey places. But as long as you have faith in me,

we'll have ourselves a grand time. Good times. The Persuasions. Listen to that. That sounds great in the headphones. That juxtaposition. That guy of the pipes I wish I had.

We lost Jerry Lawson from The Persuasions. We have a world on a silver platter. We are the only thing right now that matters is keeping you

right here with me for now me For now For now The only thing I got Is a little love to offer you Oh baby But as long as you tell me I'm your man

We'll have ourselves a ball Oh yeah honey We'll love and that ain't all No baby, we don't need a whole lot of money Good times, oh Lord All we need is a little bit of honey Oh yes we do I know there's gonna be good times

There's gonna be good times There going to be good times. There's going to be good times. There's going to be good times. There's going to be good times. Oh, good times, good times. There's going to be good times, good times. There's going to be good times. Really, what would have been the point of rambling on on top of that? The Persuasions, the original big doo-wop revival group.

Jerry Lawson was not in the group anymore when the Persuasions made an album with the Barenaked Ladies. We've covered that on here over the years. That was a terrific album too and uh there was a version of the old apartment that uh bnl did with the persuasions uh jerry lawson isn't on there but neither is stephen page was originally uh the singer of that song and i think i mean stephen page is still alive but uh i think that recording covers the impact that both of them had. But it goes all the way back to that song, Good Times,

by the Persuasions, the leader who had this concept, Jerry Lawson, dead at what age? 75? I actually don't have that information at my disposal. Well, whose fault is that? So as far as losses in music, that was just one of them. Yeah, 75. 75, okay. Jerry Lawson of The Persuasions.

That Good Times was sampled in a song by Jamie XX. From the XX, that was a more recent update of Good Times. Powerful stuff, man. No, it sounded great. We should call it off right here, but we still got a few more to go. Well, here, in fact, for the next few, with all due respect to their memories,

maybe we go a little quicker here to close out. Try to hit the two and a half hours. Alan Cairns, am I butchering the... No, Alan Cairns from the Toronto Sun. Yes. A reporter, one of those old-fashioned Toronto tabloid reporters.

Toronto Sun journalist, yes, of course. And the Paul Bernardo trial. He played a big role in all that and he was in there documenting the trial. And Legacy of the Toronto Sun, also reflected in the death of Mike Burke Gaffney, who was an editor there. The Toronto Sun carries on in, I would say,

a much diminished form from what it used to be, and it seems like we've gone through a list of people who've died associated with the the history of the newspaper and the the fun that they had there and i can't get enough of stories about the history of the sun even if it it takes people dying to to reflect upon the contribution they had with this action-packed toronto tablo in the 70s, 80s, 90s. I mean, some of the positions were problematic by today's standards, but hey, they still are now that it's owned by Post Media.

And the whole idea of a newspaper and personalities, characters that made it happen, even if these people didn't look for the spotlight, their creativity. This is when people think about what's been lost in journalism for a large part. It's characters like these that kept the newsroom humming, and hopefully there's still some of that going on or more to come in the future, even if what it takes to be a reporter is a little bit different, like me with the 1236 newsletter pecking away in my own corner, if that's where it is nowadays. I miss the concept of camaraderie, but we try to find it online.

That's what I think about when these old reporters die, but that they left this legacy behind. They could be resurrected. We don't just look at these tabloid reporters belonging to a bygone era. In fact, they had an inspiration. Alan Cairns would have been one of those people. Now, what about Byron Iannoglou? Byron Iannoglou, another writer, another member of a cast of characters. In this case, it was NOW Magazine.

He was a food writer, food critic. At a time when people would pick up NOW Magazine to read, read these columnists that they would have. John Harkness was a movie critic, and maybe later Tim Perlich, the music critic. Here you had the sharpest tongues in the city that they were writing for now. And this Byron Iannoglu, he played that role writing about the restaurant scene for a few years. And prior to that, he was a chef to celebrities. And then Jagger keeps coming up in reference. But best I could research, he might have only cooked for Nick Jagger once.

Nick Jagger called him up and asked to make him a Chinese food dinner at 2 in the morning. He made it for him. And it's forever synonymous that he once cooked for Nick Jagger. But he was a caterer on movie sets and wrote for NOW for a few years, went on to the Montreal Gazette, and died in July at age... 73.

73, Byron Iannoglou. The guy who replaced him as NOW Magazine's restaurant critic was a writer named Russell Smith. And the next death we're going to talk about is a different Russell Smith. I was going to say, multi-talented Russell Smith. Here he is with the amazing Rhythm Aces. Yeah, this is not Russell Smith, the Toronto writer. This is Russell Smith, country music singer.

A lot of Smiths out there. How old was Russell? How old? Remember, we always try to close with the... Do you remember this song at all? No. Does it mean nothing to you? It means nothing to me. What era are we talking about here? Early 80s?

We're talking about 1975. Because it's also a genre that I didn't really dive into post. Like, I wouldn't remember it in 75, and then I wouldn't go back to it because it just isn't quite my cup of tea. It's the Dean Blundell of music. When CKFH radio in Toronto

started airing Toronto Blue Jays baseball games, when Mark Hemsher was working there, it was a country music station. And I must have heard this song in the late 70s on CKFH

because in the mid-70s this was a huge country crossover hit. Third Rate Romance. Interesting. Originally recorded by Jesse Winchester, the Vietnam draft dodger who moved to Montreal.

And maybe it was because of that Canadian connection. It was a number one hit. Wow. A number one pop chart hit for all of Canada. Wow. In 1975. Third rate romance. Later on in the 90s, it was covered by Sammy Kershaw.

And it was a song you would have heard on new country radio stations. Kiss. With your mugs and kisses. My mom was listening to the Garth Brooks on Kiss. But the amazing rhythm ace is Russell Smith who died at

age 70. And his best known song, Third Great Romance. Howard Engel. Howard Engel was a mystery novelist. What he was best known for was a series of books involving a character named Benny Cooperman. Mystery novels that he wrote

about this alter ego that he had, a whole bunch of books. And then at one point, he found himself in a situation where here he was a writer and he was dealing with an issue where all of a sudden he forgot how to read. And this was a story that Oliver Sacks, the legendary doctor picked up on,

who would specialize in writing these stories about unusual disorders, the movie Awakenings, is based on Oliver Sacks. Robin Williams playing that role. And it was a fact that here, Howard Engel, he forgot how to read, but somehow he was still able to write. Bizarre. You'd think they'd be together.

That's interesting. It became a subject of fascination for the doctor, and subsequently we had books and another Benny Cooperman mystery update where, in fact, Howard Engel addressed this situation that he was going through, how this happened. He couldn't really figure it out, and he made it to age 88, died one of the great Canadian writers of the late 20th century in Canada, that he made this impact.

And most of all, the three Oliver Sacks ended up having this New Yorker article written about what he was grappling with. If you could imagine, but with the condition, managed to live another couple of decades of his life. When you keep the team alive. You're in the big leagues. Big league shreds. When you block a shot or two. You're in the big leagues. Big league flavor. You're into big league chew. Big league chew.

Band size wads of great tasting shredded bubble gum stuffed into a giant stay fresh pouch. You're in the big leagues. Big league flavor and big league bubble. You're into big league chew. I remember big League Chew. And the co-founder of Big League Chew died in July. He made it to age 80. And you would think, like, why would there be so much attention on Big League Chew?

How many candy creators ever get this level of obituary attention? Well, it was the fact that it was Jim Bouton, the guy who wrote the book Ball 4. It was a candid memoir about his experience in 1969, playing for the Seattle Pilots. And this paperback book, which was a tell-all about the experience in Major League Baseball, was kind of a big deal

because it was the first time that most people got a glimpse behind the scenes of what was happening in the baseball business. Right. You mentioned Hebsey. Yes. Sees the book as a big influence. Big time. We Right. You mentioned Hebsey. Yes. Sees the book as a big influence. Big time. We talked about it on Hebsey on Sports.

But he learned about baseball, right? And the bad behavior of the players on the field. So Bigley Chew came out of Boughton conceptualizing with other players. conceptualizing with other players. What if we took chewing tobacco, the concept, and we made it accessible to children? Right. Like Popeye's cigarettes, remember?

Absolutely brilliant. I mean, you know, as far as just like sitting around drunk or high, trying to come up with concepts that you could make some money off of. It seemed like they struck gold with this gum when it came out in 1980. All the kids wanted Big League Chew. You remember Big League? You used to seek out Big League Chew. The whole idea of shoving all this gum into your mouth at once and how long how long could it really last uh but but just having that effect of being a a baseball player

chewing tobacco uh but you were able to you were able to buy it at any convenience store. This shredded gum. A markup there, which would have far exceeded the cost of Double Bubble. For sure. Putting money into Jim Boughton's pocket, which she enjoyed while continuing to be a writer, and seen as a literary

idol. Dave Bedini had a Twitter thread about encountering him along the way uh so we remember jim bouton for uh ball four but even more so big league chew okay mark i need you to work with me here because we need to uh memorialize some of these following people more quickly than we're used to here because i just checked out the clock. So we're already at two hours and 27 minutes as I speak. We've got three minutes here to work our way through the rest. But there's like lots of people to talk about.

So let's start here. Just do maybe 30 seconds on everybody. Maxwell Miller. Oh, I had Maxwell Miller in the 1236 Newsletter. He was an architect for Simpsons and Sears department stores and the former head office of Sears Canada on Jarvis Street. It's like this upside-down, brutalist building. You know the one I'm talking about.

That would have been part of his legacy. No one else was going to remember this guy. I definitely did as a contribution to architecture, and I think a lot of the department stores, the glory of Simpsons across Canada in the 50s and 60s would have had something to do with the architecture of Maxwell Miller. Now, this is The Shays. We lost Fred Keeler of The Shays.

Yeah, he was a guitarist there with David Clayton Thomas. And, you know, when you look back at the resume of somebody like this in music, how David Clayton Thomas went on to Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Did you know they played Woodstock? Like, did you know this? How come I only just learned they played Woodstock? A lot of bands in Woodstock. But they didn't make the movie, and if you didn't make the movie,

in my little brain, because I watched it a lot on City TV as a young man, but if I didn't see you in the movie or on the soundtrack, it didn't happen. But they played. I don't know why. I think there was some tuning issues with the horns. Anyways. Fred Keeler,

notable Toronto guitarist for his role in the toronto sound and later he uh joined one of those uh hippie bands called uh jericho produced by todd rungrin uh never never really made it despite having all the connections kind of like a second rate version of the band uh but he was around in Toronto, and his death in July got noticed. You know, those musicologists of the Toronto scene and this style of playing, which was unique to the city, it took root in Toronto in the 60s.

He's that R&B influence, rock and roll. Cesar Pelli. Oh, Cesar Pelli. Not bad. Something. Oh, speaking of department stores, he was a legendary architect, and a thing he's remembered for in Canada most infamously is the fact that he was the architect of the downtown Eaton's department store

in Vancouver, which was nicknamed the Urinal. There he had this idea of this futurist box, and then they put this overhang on it and it ended up looking like a urinal. They're in the middle of downtown Vancouver. You're going to be in Vancouver later in August. Later this next August. Well, if you go by the old urinal,

it's not what it used to be because Nordstrom took over the store and made it look a lot more glamorous than it used to be. But for all those years in downtown Vancouver, there was the Eaton's Urinal. You know, the hardest part for me in the In Memoriam section sometimes is me trying to pronounce all the names. It's always very challenging. I'm going to do my best here. Ciao, Gilberto. part for me in the in memoriam section sometimes is me trying to pronounce all the names it's

always very challenging i'm gonna do my best here uh ciao gilberto am i close not so much Ser feliz a quem se ama Muita calma pra pensar E ter tempo pra sonhar Da janela ver seu corcovado O Redentor que lindo Quero a vida sempre assim Com você perto de mim

Até o apagar da velha chama E eu que era triste, descrente desse mundo Ao encontrar você eu conheci Well, look, this is another one of those most influential records ever made for the bossanova sound. And Wow Gilberto died at age 88 in July. Good for him. That's pretty good.

I'll take that. 88's a pretty good run. I'll take that. What about Artie Johnson? Also had a good run. Oh, Artie Johnson? Also had a good run. Oh, Artie Johnson. I originally knew that name because of the Bobby Vinton show. The Polish singer, Polish prince, used to tape his show at CTV.

at CTV. And there he did one of these shows produced by Alan Bly, along with Billy Van. Wow. Was always part of the repertory troupe in all these variety shows he did at CTV. So I remember Artie Johnson, but yeah, he was around the American comedy scene,

all the variety shows, and he died in July. But there was his Canadian connection that he was on the show with Bobby Vinton. There you go. And yeah, it was a Joao Gilberto. I think I was close. I think I might have been closer than you, to be honest. We'll have to go back to the tape and see.

But I did my very best. I'm trying very hard to hear than you, to be honest. We'll have to go back to the tape and see, but I did my very best. I'm trying very hard here, people. I hope you understand. Bill Luxton. Another man who had a good long life. Bill Luxton. He was 92. Oh, Bill Luxton.

Another one brought to my attention, more by Retro Ontario. He was a fixture of Ottawa television most of all. And the show that he was most famous

for doing was Willie and Floyd. Where it was Willie and Floyd as Bill Luxton and Les Lai. Guy who was also on You Can't Do That on television. Of course. Do you remember William Floyd at all? No.

Ottawa Mike would know. That was on Making the Rounds CanCon for all the years that went by. And he was the announcer for the amazing Kreskin TV show. I got another email from his PR people. He's available again on the phone. But, you know, he's no Chuck D. So I think I'm going to pass. But FYI. There's an old man called the Mississippi

That's the old man that I'd like to be What does he care if the world's got troubles? What does he care if the land ain't free? Old Man River, that Old Man River He must know somethin' But don't say nothing He just keeps rolling He keeps on rolling along Hal Prince has passed away.

He don't plant tables He don't plant cotton Hal Prince has passed away. Hal Prince, legendary Broadway musical director, who made it to 91. He died on the same day that we're recording this. On July 31st, we learned that he's passed away. And there is a song reflecting his legacy, his connection to Toronto,

Showboat. When Garth Grabinski was at the peak of his powers, he booked Showboat, a Broadway-bound production, into downtown North York, and this became the subject of so many protests, if you recall, at the time, before social media. What would it take to get attention with you finding a theatrical production problematic?

Well, there was a North York school trustee who made a lot of noise about the way that American blacks were depicted in this musical play. And maybe she had a point, because Ziri had the issue of reflecting history and the way things happened when people of different races in America didn't get along and was depicting that reality on stage accurate. Was it fair? Was it appropriate?

And there was that air of elitism around bringing this kind of production to Toronto. And that's what I remember most about Hal Prince. There his name was attached to the production and he had to defend his artistic choices and ended up making it to Broadway. But there it all started in Toronto for Hal Prince and Showboat.

The queen of Kensington Market has passed away. That's royalty. This was a woman who was the, well, her family started this tropical food store. It was Sancy's in Kensington Market. Frances Sancy Borg at 96 years old. The store is still around, notable for the fact that originally when it opened,

it only sold bananas. It was at one point the only place in Toronto that you could buy bananas was at Sancy. So somebody lived long enough to get to this summer who was originally involved in the development of a store that was literally Toronto's own banana stand. Right, there originally involved in the development of a store that uh was literally toronto's own banana stand right there's money in the banana that was the only thing that you could buy there and that the store is still around but mark we lost the queen of kensington market

and the pierogi king of roncesvalles on the same month sir nicholas? Sir Nicholas. Sir Nicholas had a restaurant on Roncesvalles, all-you-can-eat pierogi place. And he made it also to 96 years old. These at least were finishing strong of the high ages. Marjorie Walters. Oh, Marjorie Waters. Waters, of course. You mentioned that with Brian Master. Yes, Marjorie Waters. Waters, of course. You mentioned that with Brian Master.

Yes, I'm going blind. Yes, of course, Marjorie Waters, of course. Wife of the Chum founder. And she was part of the operation of Chum. It was a family business. There with her husband, Alan Waters. And they were big on treating their employees royally. Everything, everybody there had wonderful things to say about them.

And that she made it to 98 years old with that broadcast legacy behind. I'm still stuck on trying to get the right pronunciation. Of who? Of Joao Gilberto. Is that what we had before? That's what I had, I think. Well, then what was I? You went to like a silent J, like a how-ow. This is what happens when I'm two years in. We're in the two more to go.

I'm trying to listen to these pronunciation things on my phone. Well, here's what I can pronounce. If somebody sticks with us this long on the podcast, you've got to figure that they're forgiving. Two more to go. In fact, here, one of my favorite shows of all time. Let's listen to this. Clang, clang, clang with the trolley.

Ring, ring, ring with the bell. Zing, zing, zing with my heart string. Thank you. Give the bully an extra point. Martin Prince, the voice of Martin Prince, and of course others, Russie Taylor passed away. Did you know before she died at 75

that she was also the voice of Minnie Mouse? No. That there was a link from one and the other? I learned that when she passed, and that's a fun fact. Absolutely. Minnie Mouse. But only for the last 30 years. I guess that's a long time.

As The Simpsons approaches 30 years that's been on the air, 30 seasons so far, what happens when the actors on the simpsons die well the core right we have those core actors i mean we lost phil hartman a long time ago but he wasn't part of that core group right we haven't lost a member of the core group it'll be interesting they gotta go sometime uh but listen everybody sees a little bit of themselves in Martin Prince. And that was news to me because I wouldn't have known that there was a separate actress that specialized in the Martin Prince character that took her dying to do that for that to make news.

But Minnie Mouse, that was, that was her main, her main gig out there. One more to go here. Let's finish up. Duck tales. Also Huey,

Dewey, and Louie. In duck tales. Walter Homburger. Oh, uh, Walter Homburger, who made it to age 95.

Uh, he was director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, but his greatest credit of all was the fact that he discovered this eccentric teenager named Glenn Gould, and that there in 1946, Walter was, do the math, in his early 20s, and he found Glenn Gould, took him under his wing, and here this eccentric guy who was fond of wearing winter coats in the middle of summertime and, you know, died at age 50, Glenn Gould, in 1982.

But, you know, here we have this classical music impresario to thank for helping to put him on the map, one of the legendary Torontonians. So, I don't think we did too bad outside of me botching that pronunciation correction there. Well, welcome to the club.

Feel bad about that forever? Sometimes you just can't hit that 2.5 hour deadline there. We went a little bit over, but it's all good stuff. Always appreciate you coming by every month. Can't wait till you come back at the end of August. Thank you so much. And that brings us to the end of our 494th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 1236. That's 1236. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WGR. Sad that I won't be saying that next episode. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Cappadia LLP is at Cappadia LLP. See you all Friday. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years

It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears