Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #591

Episode Date: February 27, 2020

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

Welcome to episode 591 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text TORONTOMIKE, Mike one word to 59559. Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack. One of the most celebrated

roots, country, bluegrass bands in Canadian music history. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pay tribute without paying a fortune. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is 1236's

own Mark Weisblot. Where do we start? Complaining about the weather that I experienced on the way getting here? A lot of snow, even more wind in the air. My diva demands

of wanting now a hot cup of coffee when I come sliding through your door. Created all sorts of consternation because your wife Monica is working from home today. And you insisted that she should bring it to me by walking down the stairs. And I found this completely uncomfortable. This whole concept that I come to your house

and I ask for something and you make your wife bring it to me? Do you know how awkward that experience is? If I may. I made the coffee and I just wanted us to press record sooner just so that, you know, we have a two and a half hour limit of sorts, but it's a soft

cap. And if we leaked over because there's so much to cover, I thought, OK, well, we can start earlier and that can happen. But all it required was Monica bringing the coffee down the stairs. I can't handle any of this. I guess that's why the only media appearance I do outside of sitting at home and writing newsletters is coming to your basement once a month, and here we are at the end of February. You know who else demanded a coffee when they appeared on Toronto Mic'd? Todd Shapiro.

Not only a coffee, wanted you to cook an entire breakfast for him? There was so many demands, and I was... But that was part of you and him getting into business together, right? You were being tested. It was kind of like this idea if he's going to get you some money for helping

him with his podcast. When he started his Todd Shapiro show on SiriusXM, he modeled it after the Humble and Fred show. So he went to the architect of that show and said, I'd like the same setup. And so I designed the back end blueprint

that I did for Humble and Fred. So yes, Monica took photos of him here, and we built him a website, and we got the XML stuff. We did our thing. This is back when he started. And coincidentally, he announced yesterday that that show has come to an end. No more Todd Shapiro shows.

And as usual, you know a little bit more drama behind the scenes. But I wanted to cut to the chase here in talking about an FOTM who's gotten, I think, the greatest job going from being a Toronto-miked guest, who I'd barely, if ever, heard of at the time, to now being the main guy on the morning show, CFNY 102.1 The Edge, Jay Brody. I'm so excited for this guy and feeling really invested in his success. Well, it's a great segue off the Shapiro update

because I met Jay Brody when I guested on the Todd Shapiro show. And at the time, he was just like, I think he was, you know the story better than I do because you recently revisited his last appearance if I'm going to stand for Jay Brody here and the B team

the show that he does with Shauna Whalen and Chris Z not Zed probably what some long last name what ethnicity is he trying to mask there? I'm going with Polish, but who knows?

Who knows? If I'm going to stand for Jay Brody, I had to go back and listen to his first Toronto mic'd appearance. It was back in June 2018. And it's an amazing episode to look back on. Because there he outlines his plan for radio domination, how he was working on construction sites. What was his position?

He was some sort of foreman? A title like that, but he essentially explained what his job was to do. He changed his name so his boss at the construction site wouldn't hear that he was on the radio. And he described these construction sites

that were run by the mafia and that whatever fancy title they gave him, his job basically amounted to picking up the piss bottles left behind by construction workers. And while he was doing that, came up with this dream. What do I have to do? How much do I have to hack to get my way onto the radio? And a whole bunch of dominoes had to fall in order for this to happen. He found out about Todd Shapiro, formerly of Dean Blundell, on 102.1.

He noticed that Jason Barr disappeared from the show. Then Todd Shapiro. There was some drama surrounding them. He recognized this thing couldn't last. But what were the odds that it would start to fall apart like it did? When Todd started on Satellite Radio Sirius XM, Jay offered himself up like as a volunteer correspondent, be a guest, he'd hang out, he'd be an intern, he'd pour coffee, do whatever he had to do. And because Todd, the way it sounded, had no real concept of what he was going to be

doing there, I guess it amounted to some sort of infomercial model where he would bring in guests who would pay for the privilege and he would talk up the sponsors. where he would bring in guests who would pay for the privilege, and he would talk up the sponsors. There wasn't a salary in it for him, so much as there was the airtime and the opportunity. Jay Rohde comes along, calling himself Jay Brody, so that his boss wouldn't know that he was sneaking away to do this radio show,

and Todd just threw him on the air, right? He didn't need a helper. He didn't need an intern. But the price was right. Yeah, the price was right. He didn't need somebody to fetch coffee for him. He needed a sidekick, and Jay Brody was perfect for that role, right? And, of course, Roddy Comer, who was, what was the name?

Rebel Emergency. So he was a musician with Rebel Emergency. And he was also kind of the house band. It was kind of an interesting vibe at the time, way back when I would appear on there, that you had, Jay was there, and Anna Saison, who eventually became an FOTM. But there was no real money in it. No money.

Maybe they got paid a little bit somewhere down the line, but they found... Well, okay, Jay Brody came on the show with Roddy Comer and basically took a big dump on Todd Shapiro. And that was why. That was because they weren't formally employees. And then after a while, they felt like Todd was ghosting them

because he had his priorities. Sure. He got married. He was having a kid. He had to figure out what to do with this airtime. It became less freeform than before. And in the process, maybe Brody felt like he wasn't being treated as well as he could have been. Right.

But had enough talent to strike out on his own and get his own satellite radio show at the same time that he was feuding with Todd Shapiro, the guy that brought him in in the first place. And Brody, very diplomatic. He didn't want to trash talk Todd, who gave him the opportunity at the same time you hear that after a while, things got frosty. They weren't getting along. And from there, you know uh whether it was doing the satellite radio show or the podcast of the satellite radio show and he had his own separate podcast

how could he hack his way into a full-time radio job the opportunity came because why 108 chorus radio station out of hamilton had a changing of the guard on its morning show. Right. Which was rather dramatic, and I'm not sure I ever got all the details. It involved this Ben McVie. Right. Part of the story, although not the specifics, but Shauna shared the gist of the story when this whole Y108 morning show, which is now the B team, which is now the 102.1 morning show,

came on Toronto Mic, like all three of them. Not too long ago, like maybe November 2019. A lot of fun. And I actually, and Shauna shared a bit of the story that something went down. They did a remote from a tropic, I can't remember, Dominican Republic or something. And there was a bit of a Me Too thing went down, but no specifics

were delivered, and Ben McPhee was let go. Okay, another domino falls, giving Brody a chance to work his way in there. First, he was doing fill-ins. They were trying him out on the air, and they realized that he was good enough that he could actually be the morning show sidekick, if not considered the co-host.

Right. And this was summer 2018 that he was on with you, just trying out, getting his feet wet, trying to work his way into chorus. We're talking like just a year and a half ago now. Right. And they called that show The Morning Grind. It was The Cougar and The Cub before that. That's kind of a Hamilton style of morning radio.

I think that wouldn't fly here on the alternative rock station, 102.1 The Edge. In a relatively short period of time, they showed that they had what it takes. And over at CFNY, they had to have two different morning shows full. The Adam and Melanie show didn't get any traction. Melanie's show didn't get any traction. In the interim, one of the failed FOTM's Kid Craig, known for one of the most difficult episodes of this podcast, he was filling in but maybe also trying out.

Right. I guess he counts as half a show. They talk about having seven morning shows in seven years. I was trying to calculate maybe he counts as one of the seven because he was doing it for a few months. And then the sibling radio, Ruby and Alex Carr, and we deconstructed before how they were just ill-suited for the station. I didn't understand what they were trying to do. Why did they pick these people?

What was going on? It was only a matter of time before they came to the conclusion that this was all wrong, this was the wrong show. The right show was over Y108 in Hamilton, and that's now the B team. You can do the math and wind your way through all the different firings and meltdowns that were required for Brody to work his way in there. It was his dream job through his life to be on the morning show, 102.1 The Edge.

I'm ride or die with this guy. I need to see it happen for him because I think in the history of Toronto media, this is a remarkable story that not a lot of people really know about because you have to be an FOTM, but you also have to remember. I I mean I had to go back and listen you're pumping out so much content here how often do I really feel the need to go back

and listen to an old episode into the archives but they are out there right and you can hear Jay Brody from the first time he was down here with you to second time uh very sincere about it all. And I think a terrific voice too. Like he sounds like no one else who's ever been on the radio in this market. Because he's so real. It's real and it's also very mellow. But it's not forced and it's not

fake. It's not contrived. Very natural. You know his voice reminds me of someone who to you would be completely obscured. It's a guy named Chris. who did a talk show on WFMU in New Jersey, a non-commercial radio station. And that's who he reminds me of, but that's a deep cut. That's an obscure reference. But just like, you know, he's from the outside of the commercial radio shtick. And very natural, but he's got a remarkable reverence for it all.

I heard he gave a shout-out to Humble and Fred on the air. Yeah. And he mentioned Dean Blundell. Didn't really get into the details of the seven morning shows in seven years. Didn't want to talk about Josie Dye. Right. Which is a competition now they have to steal listeners away from. But some acknowledgement.

To get there, all he wanted to do was be this kind of morning radio host in Toronto. He had a dream. He saw it through. That's an inspiring story for everyone. Here he's writing songs, sending them in to Howard Stern, doing these Robin Quivers song parodies.

You played one or two of them here. You wondered, even on this uncensored podcast, if you're allowed to play these songs. They're so lewd. These homages to Robin when she does her newscast, a long time Howard Stern tradition.

Jay Brody, all the way. B-Team 102.1, The Edge, started earlier this week here at the end of February. They've got some long odds here. Part of the marketing for the show is the fact they've got to see if they don't get fired. And as you kind of figure out what's happening at Chorus Entertainment, I think they have an agenda to develop a morning show that's worthy of national attention

that can be syndicated on multiple radio stations because that's a model they've got going on. Yes, indeed. And they're now in the running to make it happen. We're going to see where this ends. Does CFNY stick around as an edge radio station in that format? I'm not so sure. But that's okay.

I mean, the music is transforming as well. It's a little bit different than it was. It's a poppier sound. Fewer guitars than there were on the station even, I don't know, a few weeks ago. They're tweaking it. Q107 is up for grabs, I think, at some point in time. When the morning grind, the three of them from Y108 Morning Show,

who are now the 102.1 Morning Show, when they were all on this show in November 2019, I suggested that Chorus drop them in the Derringer spot when Derringer retires. They've now got big John Derringer billboards around Toronto. So no imminent retirement. He might be around for a while. I don't know.

It's because we're just looking. Each episode we talk here about, the people get tapped on the shoulder and told, your time's done. We paid you enough money. You had Rick Hodge here on the episode before. Oh, what'd you think of that? You can comfortably retire,

and now it's time. Although the way Rick describes it, he actually had the upper hand in that act. It sounds like it was Rick's, according to Rick, it was Rick's decision. Yeah, Rick, very emotional. I think he needed the therapy that you have. We all do. All the FOTMs need a little session

with you, but it seemed like Rick was starving for it a little more than a lot of the guests down here. I didn't see that coming. I thought, okay, Rick's coming on. We'll kick out some jams, shoot the shit, find out how it's going. Did he really retire? And then it got, I admit, it got emotional in the room anyways. You could tell he needed some catharsis, like he needed to share something.

Also, Perry Lefkoe earlier this week. I've known Perry's brother, Elliot Lefkoe, for a long time. I haven't seen him in years. But he was a concert promoter in Toronto. He established those relationships, you know, in the pre-grunge years. A lot of rock stars and the people handling them that grew up to be important. And he wrote it all the way to working in Los Angeles. There was his brother, Perry Lefkoe, a brand new

FOTM, and he also got very emotional at the end about this song, The Promise, by When in Rome. I did not see that coming either. That's twice. All of a sudden, it got really emotional and heavy, and I was like, wow, you never know what's going to happen in this basement

here. You never know what's going to happen in this basement here. You never know what's going to happen. Hello? Okay, I have loved this song ever since I first heard it. At this point, that must be now going on 36 years ago. The Word is Out by Jermaine Stewart, brought back into my life by the return of another FOTM, Scott Turner. What did you think of that episode? I was always intimidated by Scott Turner growing up, I think. You talked about the evolution of his broadcasting style, how he used to have more of an affected radio voice. You had an old clip from him.

And, you know, he seemed like a serious dude. Like he was, you know, so far ahead of the curve that he was intimidating and unapproachable. I think it was partly because of how he spelled his name. That S-K-O-T, one T thing. You know, he's like, this guy's really hard. I can't relate to someone this cool. He claims David Marsden suggested he do that when he arrives at CFNY.

But in that episode, he shares with me something. I can't remember which station, but it was before he was on CFNY. And it was some advertisement. And he was spelling it S-K-O-T in that pamphlet, so he got busted there. Anyway, later on I got to know Scott a little bit. We'll talk about this when he comes back.

I helped him out do some copy editing on the Energy 108 charts that came out in iWeekly. I would get on the phone with him and we would review what songs they were spelling wrong in the chart that was in the newspaper, and that's where I could connect with the guy.

Even though I haven't had contact with him in a while, it was because he was down here with you that I got the sense, wait a second, I read this guy all wrong. He's just a radio and music geek like the rest of us. He comes down here with his chum charts and his book of historical notes and trying to sort his way through everything that he wants to tell you.

Right. And the guard was let down because he's a radio professional. He knows how to say what he has to say in a succinct amount of time and get out of the way of the music. But to hear him lay it all out here and be the genuine guy that he is, that was an experience I got here on Toronto Mic'd. To be continued April 1st. So April 1 is the return of Scott Turner.

So we'll talk about that. I'm staying by it. Yeah, I want to hear about the history with me copy editing the Energy 108 charts. And that, Jermaine Stewart, the word is out, right? He kicked out that jam. And that was a song we ascertained on Twitter. He made that something of a hit in Toronto

by playing it on Radio 790. That's it. Chow Radio, where he's working at the time, and he introduced that black music format to Toronto radio at a time that it was pretty elusive. And it ended up crossing over. You'd see it on the music video shows, and it made it onto the Chum Chart.

And Jermaine Stewart, you know that song, We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off to Have a Good Time. He got picked up by Arista Records, Clive Davis, and they kind of tried to mold him into a male version of Whitney Houston.

And mostly it was about that one big hit, and then there was another slow song after that, Say It Again. He ended up dying young, not even 40. Complications from AIDS might have been a factor there and by the time he died, not a lot of people remembered him and that song, The Word Is Out,

it wasn't really much of a big hit anywhere. It was bubbling under on the British music charts. it was scott turner who i have to thank for bringing that song into my life something i learned about on toronto mic'd okay so we've talked about the recent rick hodge episode scott turner episode uh what did you think of your old pal mike wilner i still can't tell whether mike wilner has any idea what I'm doing with my life right now because he's the most famous person who I ever met when I went to high school. As he mentioned here, he he's not even the most prolific Toronto Mike guest to go to his high school, just like Dan Schulman is more famous than him.

And they went to the same elementary school. Mike Willner can't even say that. He's the most famous baseball play-by-play guy to come out of his elementary school. Nice to reunite with Mike. And I only do it by listening to you chatting with him. And he's now a five-timer. Is that it? He's a five-timer.

Absolutely. I'm dying to know your thoughts on one of my favorite episodes in a very long time, Sass Jordan. I don't know if that was so much my thing, but it was good to hear a deep dive interview with somebody who I don't think has gotten that treatment too much before. And as you have the experience with a lot of these music guests, they come down here not really expecting what's going to go on,

and I think they're shocked and surprised by the amount of prep that you put into talking about them that like the table is set the coffee is made i mean that metaphorically speaking only for special and uh you got uh you got some stuff out of sass jordan that no one else would ask her in any other form. And what's she doing now? She's still doing music. She's trying to, like these older rock performers, trying to trade on her reputation that she's got her name out there. New blues record. A new blues record. I guess that's a more mature, sophisticated side of what she was doing before.

I think that original music that she put out was pretty cringe. Very Quebecois. You said nice things about it anyhow, right? That's your style. Yeah, you know, we talked about how they're of the decade when they were made, but her vocals are fantastic, and there's some good hooks in there.

Yeah, and then she went down this other road like a Black Crowes style. Right. Got some stateside attention for it. Working against the grunge rock revolution. And then Canadian Idol, which gave her a full-time job for a number of years. And, you know, you've just begun to scratch a surface, I think,

of the legacy of Canadian Idol, which came out at a time, I think, of the legacy of Canadian Idol, which came out at a time, I think the last era, when there was that consensus of viewership for a television program. Like, they caught the last wave. And the running joke was that the winners of Canadian Idol,

except for Carly Rae Jepsen, who did not win, wasn't even the winner. But the people that got all this attention for the show weren't able really to leverage that into a real career. These winners like Ryan Malcolm became a bit of a joke when it was realized he was going to

have to go back to his job being a waiter. That it wasn't going to work for him with album sales, and I don't know what they did. A few of them got nominated for Juno Awards. Do you remember these Canadian Idol winners? Rex Gowdy, Kalen Porter. They all had to go back to reality.

I got an email today. They had to get day jobs. Maybe they went back to school. I got an email today offering me as a guest, Manila native Mikey Bustos. Does that name mean anything to you? It means, is that a Canadian Idol person? Is that what it was?

That's a Canadian Idol person. A winner? A contestant? Did not win, no. But it was, I guess, one of the bigger names to come out of the Canadian Idol. Well, the joke at the time was that there wasn't much of a career in it for these people after they won Canadian Idol.

But I think we're at the point now, we're talking over a decade later, where it also doesn't mean anything if you win American Idol. That doesn't guarantee you stardom either. Oh, no, right. It puts you on the map professionally. Maybe you can get booked on a cruise ship, and they'll put in small print under your name,

winner of American Idol. But that's the level we're at right now. We're not going to see a case like Kelly Clarkson becoming a bonafide celebrity now with her own daytime TV talk show on the back of winning American Idol. It's just a reality check, I think, to reflect on how far we've come here in 10 or 15 or 20 years and what the media means and what having this singing competition show

might have done for your career and your attention at the time that it was originally on. We all know Sass Jordan was on Canadian Idol. That's something that wouldn't happen today. It was a good move for her at the time. Sure. You might not even have remembered her name if it wasn't for her being on Canadian Idol.

No, I would. Okay, you're on your way now to having FOTMs, all four Canadian Idol guests. Sorry, Canadian Idol judges complete the set out of all of them. I'm just hunting down wherever Zach Werner's at. I don't know. I think he's out in Newfoundland or something like that.

Now, we're not video streaming this episode, so we can pretty much guarantee that people can only hear this via audio. I personally want people to subscribe to the podcast, so it's very rare I ask people to watch an episode. In fact, I'm doing that right now. If you haven't yet heard the Sass Jordan, or even if you have as a podcast, I strongly urge you to watch the Periscope stream,

the Sass Jordan episode. It's just bananas to watch her reaction. And when I play her first song that she was on and she doesn't recognize it, it really is an extra dimension to watch Sass during that episode. Now, okay, we talked about Jay Brody, FOTM Jay Brody, and of course the whole

B team they're called. They're all FOTMs because they've all been on Toronto Mike. What role, just before we move on from that, how much credit do I get for this huge promotion for that Y108 Morning Show team? How much credit do I get for Jay Brody's success? Well, it's good to have friends in high places.

And it's all relative today, right? What's a more prominent job in the media ecosystem? A morning host on 102.1 The Edge? Or an FOTM who gets to appear every month on Toronto Mic'd? Like, who is more famous at this point? Me or Jay Brody? He gets money, right? I just want to point that out.

You get coffee, and you also get beer. Let's do this right now, because I'm going to crack one open. Great Lakes Brewery has sent over another six-pack for you, Mark, and I know you love your Great Lakes beer. You know who loves his Great Lakes IPAs? Jack Armstrong. He asked for a delivery. And he can get free stuff anytime he likes. who loves his Great Lakes IPAs? Jack Armstrong, he asked for a delivery.

Like, I know. And he can get free stuff anytime he likes. I don't think he has to buy a drink anywhere anymore. But he loves the IPAs. Now, they make a bunch of great beer at Great Lakes, but I'm going to crack open

an IPA, one of my favorites. So I'm now opening a cold Octopus Wants to Fight. And you chilled it for me, too. I got to say, on behalf of Great Lakes Brewery, I heard they got a shout out on News Talk 1010 from Richard Krause. Good. Because

I don't know, they were having some discussion about the future of the beer store. And Richard Krause made a reference about how he likes being able to get craft beer at the LCBO. Not the foreign-owned monopoly of the beer store having to fill out a form and get your case on a conveyor belt,

primarily for Molson and Labatt to enrich themselves, but that he had become a craft beer connoisseur. He mentioned on the radio that he's into beer that has an octopus on the can. Octopus wants to fight. And if it wasn't for me coming down here and drinking your GLB, I would know that that's what he's making reference to. You know, Richard's an FOTM who left this show with a six-pack of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes.

Okay, well, I'm not leaving with a six-pack because, as usual, I'm donating one to you. Yeah, I made you a coffee. Well, my coffee's done. We can now start drinking. Okay, we've got to get through this intro intro it's already a half an hour deep here now okay so in addition to the jay brody thing i want to ask you about another huge morning show change at least in my circle which is that uh fotm ashley docking is no longer on the fan 590 morning show and i think that reflects the reality of the business here

because anything could happen to our buddy, Jay Brody, and that could include, after one year, they decide his services are no longer required. And that was a wonderful story here about how Ashley Dawking was in your basement beginning of 2019, talking about how her goal for that year was to get a full-time job. Where was she

before? She was making the rounds in sports media. Her name was known well enough for her to come on and be a guest with you. Well, it was the Gruber thing. She actually didn't like that I used that as a way to promote the episode, which, you know, that's what I do. Because we talked about the Kelly Gruber pitch talks controversy where I think

Kelly was inebriated and rude and there was a whole, like, it went viral in this market anyways and that's sort of I think I said it to her but that's like the best thing that could happen to her because it totally made people aware of her and she's very good and I told her on that program when she was here I said Ashley you should get a full-time job on the fan 590. Enough is enough. And it was like one month later, it was announced that she was joining the Greg Brady, Hugh Burrell version of the morning show. And it was only a matter of time before

they got rid of those two guys. Hugh Burrell, they, I don't know if they demoted him, but they reduced his airtime, right? His role was to do the morning sports updates. He's like a pre-morning show now. It's like a, yeah, it's like a scoreboard show. Yeah, I think that, I don't know if I'll use the word demoted because I don't know if they,

but I just, yeah, he has less time in the morning. They took him off the posters. You can no longer include him in the white men of the fan 590 who would all pose together with their sunglasses on surrounding Bob McCowan and he's gone too.

A lot of turnover there in the last few years. And Ashley Dawking, now one of the casualties because even though they replaced the two other guys that she was doing the morning show with,

brought in Scott MacArthur. F-O-T-M, Scott MacArthur. Scotty Mack. And the other guy on the show? Mike Zigglemanis. That's it. Who politely declined my invitation to come on Toronto Magic. Notice that unlike Chris Z, on 102.1 The Edge, he uses his whole last name.

Because it was already his brand, because you can't short in the last name when you're an NHL hockey player. So that's why. He'd be Mikey Z if he was starting in radio. Under mysterious circumstances, Ashley Docking was no longer employed at The Fan. And this was a TorontoMike.com blog entry that has generated a lot of comments. They're still going on, right? Right, because people go to, and I think it's Rob J, not to be confused with FOTM, Robbie J,

but who we'll talk about in a minute because I want to talk about this Canadian podcast award. Okay. But Rob J. I was going to say, a recurring complaint then about Ashley Dawking.

Oh, I don't get to finish my thought? Whose show is this? I gave you a coffee. Hold on. Real quick to finish this thought. Rob J is always curious why all of a sudden there's something will happen like an entry

about the Ashley Dockett leaving the Fan 590 Morning Show and there'll be all these comments from people who don't normally comment, like not regulars. And he says, what are they, lurkers? This is just what strikes a nerve. But the fact is, and I explained it to him, is that these are Googlers. So somebody will hear the Fan 590 Morning Show and won't

hear Ashley's voice. They'll go to Google and they'll say, Ashley Doing gone Fan 590 or something, and inevitably they'll end up on my site, and then they'll leave a comment saying she was the best part of the show, or thank goodness I can listen again. One of those two things. You shouldn't have let me finish my point

because it was a perfect segue into your point. Well, we got to figure this out. It's only your 27th appearance. Too much wokeness seemed to be the drive-by comment that was recurring there on torontomic.com, right? That there was Ashley positioned as, I guess, the contrarian voice to the sports radio orthodoxy. I can't pretend I really listened.

But based on the reviews of hearing her on the air, that the whole idea that she was going to interject and kind of bring, let's call it a women's liber perspective, as Archie Bunker might say, that this didn't sit so well with the sports radio listeners, even though they thought maybe on paper this was a good idea to have. Now, in my experience with Ashley, she's an early recipient of the Palma Pasta lasagna.

And at the time, I was very excited that I had good instructions on how to make it. And at the time, I was quite excited that this is a frozen lasagna I'm giving you. By the way, shout out to Palma Pasta, great partners of the show. Go to palmapasta.com and cater your events and go to skip the dishes and get some Palma or go to the locations in Mississauga and Oakville because it's the best Italian food you can buy. But I was excited to give Ashley her frozen lasagna

and I informed her that you cook it at 375 for 45 minutes and it's going to be great. And she accused me of mansplaining how to make lasagna. But she was just rehearsing, Mike, for the persona that she was going to bring on the air. And ultimately it worked for a while. She kept the job for a year. They rebuilt the radio show around her.

And I think the consensus, a conclusion here on what's happened, the conventional wisdom, is that it all comes down to the fact that TSN 1050 is now considered a real formidable competitor against the fan. And that they're quaking a little bit over there. Rodgers, because they're losing market share. The sports radio thing where they could treat chum 10 50 chum changing to sports as a joke going back to the team 2001 right the tsn made the right strategic hires and

people ruled their eyes when they put michael landsberg in the morning but i think landsberg has managed to steal an audience away that had been listening to the fan house. You explain two morning shows in two years. Now, it's not seven and seven yet, like the Edge. It's getting there, though. They're on their way. And then people love talking about this overdrive.

Brian Hayes, son of Bill Hayes, FOTM, nephew of John Hayes. Eventually, I'll get that guy as an FOTM. Derringer, who you see on billboards around town, and I'm sure very proud of his nephew, who's a rising radio star. He might be the next Q107 morning man. Who knows? But it seems like hockey was the main investment in that overdrive show, that they figured out to do hockey talk,

something that Bob McCowan was not considered conventionally good at. And because people want to hear talk about the Leafs, not just David Ayers, the Zamboni driver, but I guess general ins and outs of what's going on with Maple Leafs sports entertainment. Sports and Entertainment? Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. And Entertainment.

M-L-S-E, yeah. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. And Entertainment. There's an ampersand in there. I think it's Wrestling, WWF Wrestling, which is Sports Entertainment. Right, that's right. No ampersand in there.

And that overdrive on TSN radio has now surpassed the fan that they're trying to put Tim and Sid on in the afternoon, doing a TV show on the radio. People are annoyed by the bits. Well, Bob McCowan, come back to radio. Is Rogers willing to make amends and put him back on the air? You saw my tweet that people guffawed at which I said Tim and Sid in the morning and bring back

McCowan for afternoon drive and people are like no way, but I'm just saying this is all speculation, but it could happen is all I'm saying. If I may, real quick, the fan should have kept FOTM Greg Brady and FOTM walker right where they were when they were gaining momentum and getting a pretty good share instead the program director

don collins thought he would pursue the uh the uh the dean blundell share that he had at some point at 102.1 and uh you know turf those guys to 1 p.m but they should just kept them going they'd still be there so we haven't heard the last of Ashley docking, whether or not she gets back down here. Based on what you're telling me, the chances are slim. I don't think so. She's invited, but I just don't think she'll come back. But if I, do you have other, is it just ratings

and they had to make a change? Is that the, do we know why Ashley got the boot? Well, your comments are open. You're waiting to hear the inside dirt. How much can you trust based on anonymous people leaving a comment on a blog? No, I would never trust an anonymous comment, but I do know ratings are down,

and the January rating for their targeted demo was like a 1.9, and this is really not good for that show. What I fail to understand is I don't know how they decide what to change. They got rid of one-third of the show. And what I fail to understand is I don't know how they decide what to change. Like they got rid of one third of the show. I don't know why. I'm hoping at some point somebody like an FOTM,

Scott MacArthur, who I believe will come back, will come on and maybe shed some light on it. In New York City, WFAN, Mike Francesca. He was the afternoon drive-by. Mike and the Mad Dog, legendary New York radio show. At one point he retired, and then a matter of months later, he announced he was coming back,

even though he was falling asleep on live TV while doing his show. Like Peter Gross. Like nothing ever happened. Bobby Ewing on Dallas. Wake up. It's all a dream. Here I am taking a shower. It is conceivable.

There is a precedent that Bob McCowan will get back to where he was before. It's all dream. Here I am taking a shower. It is conceivable. There is a precedent that Bob McCowan will get back to where he was before. It's possible. Kathleen Wynne and I have been exchanging emails, and I was very clear with her about my rule, and she respects it. Of course, she has to respect my rule. What's she going to do? Break in and force me to interview her? But I don't talk to active politicians. But is there some word on this front that perhaps she could soon become an official FOTM? Well, upstairs, your wife Monica is waiting by the

door for Kathleen Wynne to come back. That's right. After her first try. And Ralph Ben-Murgy, who was embarrassed by the idea that Kathleen Wynne would want to come over to your house, and she was perfectly fine with it. Of course, and I knew she would be, too. That's on Ralph. And here are Ontario liberals on the verge of picking a new leader, and it's almost certain it's going to be this guy Stephen Del Duca, even though there's a bit of a scandal here

where he built a big pool in his backyard without getting the right kind of environmental protection permission. He was embarrassed by the whole thing, a bit of an expose, very much in line with his character, the kind of policy wonk that he presents himself as. Whatever the case, whatever happens there with Stephen Del Duca, my assumption is then Kathleen Wynne will resign her seat and make way for him to run there,

and then he can actually sit there in the Ontario legislature, I think. Something like that is on the cusp of happening. Okay, so we're close to Kathleen Wynne. There are only so many Ontario liberals left to resign their seat and give up for a potential leader. Then again, there's the same riding where John Tory once tried to run and get a seat as an MPP for the Conservative Party and ended up losing to Kathleen Wynne.

Strategy didn't work for him, but I don't know if it's a safe seat and Kathleen Wynne will be able to retire with dignity and appear on Toronto Mike. There's a lot of people wanting you to speak on this controversy with Tanner Zipchen. What can you, and I have the edition loaded up, so tell us about this and then let me know

when you want to hear it. This came about because of an article in the Toronto Star that appeared in the business section. And the headline there was that Tanner Zipchen, a struggling disc jockey from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, entered a contest to host the pre-show at Cineplex Theaters, and that at first he was only paid in scene points. There was no cash exchange for

his services. There was a problem, though, in the argument that he was making. They never promised him anything more than that. There was no money involved in the contest. There was no cash prize available. The whole idea is, if you

wanted to make it and get your social media votes and appear as a pre-show host at Cineplex as three people did before him, that Tanner Zipchen would get an opportunity to be the Cineplex pre-show host, and he was pretty much on his own doing a day or two a month of filming bits in his hometown of Saskatoon. or two a month of filming bits in his hometown of Saskatoon. But look, he had illusions of grandeur, and he figured that he might as well leverage it. He had already been a radio DJ,

and they had to figure out how to turn this into a full-time job. So Tanner Zipchen, who was originally contracted to work for ScenePoints, who did it for a year, managed to stick around for something around four years, going into year five as a pre-show host at Cineplex. Did they start paying him after the first year? They started paying him after that. So his complaint really didn't make any sense, but the Toronto Star turned it into a headline, make any sense, but the Toronto Star turned it into a headline, made it a story that Tanner Zipchen ended up disavowing, and on Twitter, he regretted that he ever agreed to participate

in the first place. Well, we'll get to this very shortly, but the Toronto Star is hurting over there, and they needed some clicks. I'm not surprised by that, but you want to hear a little bit of the Tanner audition? Yeah, let's go back to the beginning of where we first met Tanner Zipchen. Hey, I'm Tanner, and I want to be your next Cineplex pre-show host. See, here in Saskatoon, I'm a radio show host. I host shows on the radio, and when you're on the radio and your name is Tanner,

eventually people make that connection, and they start calling you DJ Tanner, but it's okay. I'm a pretty big Full House fan. But when I'm not inside there, I'm out here hosting events around the city. Charity fundraisers, parades, movie premieres, even the opening of that brand new Cineplex VIP Theatre here in Saskatoon. I also host panels with celebrity guests at the Saskatoon Edmonton and Calgary Comic Entertainment Expo. See right there I'm even on the front page of the Calgary newspaper for it. Well at least the back of my head anyway.

See there's my hairline and Brienne of Tarth. But that's why I'm here. I think it's time we let the front of my head get its time to shine on the big screen. Right? And that whole face for radio thing, I think that can just go away, too. All right, you want me to keep going, or we got a field? We're on right now. Well, I'm not sure if anything happens after this point. Look, one of the prior winners of the Cineplex contest

is Shannon Burns. She's now a DJ on Chum, an iHeartRadio station. She's on nationally. They do the syndicated Virgin Radio, iHeartRadio thing. Okay, good for her. And as far in the modern radio paradigm, she's got big things ahead of her, and I'm sure she has.

Her volunteer scene points payment being at Cineplex, a thank for all of this. Tanner Zipchen, he gets the opportunity, turns it into a gig that he did for a number of years and he got paid a little bit, but they let him go

because Cineplex got sold to this British company Cineworld, although maybe they were trying to figure out how to get rid of him little bit but they let him go because cineplex got sold to this british company cine world although maybe they were trying to figure out how to get rid of him anyhow and he goes and he talks to this freelance journalist peter nowak writing for the toronto star and tanner did not like hey how he was portrayed you know they sound a little bit bitter like he he sounded after that article like the kind of guy who has a habit here of maybe agreeing to things. And then after they don't work out in his favor, complaining about them. That's not cool.

That's not cool. And that's where we're at with Tanner Zipchen. See him at the Niagara Falls Comic Convention this June. He'll be signing autographs and, I don't know, asking for a job, begging for forgiveness, looking for attention. How many more times am I going to have to,

not that I'm complaining, like Tanner there, but how many more times am I going to have to, not that I'm complaining like Tanner there, but how many more times am I going to have to play this Beach Boys ditty, Marcella? What's wrong with complaining? It's your podcast after all. Well, then thank you. I have other complaints. We're not finished yet with Marcella Zoya, the chair girl.

We thought going into 2020, maybe one more court appearance. She'd get her sentencing. It would be over and done with. And yet, in February 2020, we had yet another day where a chair girl appeared in court. And because of the procedure that they put her through, leading up to her potentially getting a sentence of up to six months, getting a sentence of up to six months, mischief charges for a year ago, throwing a chair off a balcony of a condo in downtown Toronto, not actually striking anyone, but coming pretty close,

that we've gone through yet another month where Chairgirl has to come back to court in March, you know, awaiting her fate. And there we had even more details coming out about the story behind how the whole Chairgirl saga happened. Remember we talked about here, they were trying to prove or disprove whether or not it was Marcella herself who posted the ultimately incriminating video. And whether or not she had issues with being this sort of exhibitionist on social media,

and whether or not this should be a factor in her ultimate punishment, that they want to make an example of her and make part of her sentence. Like, maybe she shouldn't be sent to jail. Maybe she should just be banned from Instagram. And that that would be like an appropriate punishment under the circumstance. Just like, take the phone out of her hand. Delete all her accounts.

Don't let her post anything anymore. And that trauma might be even worse than being sent to a women's prison. Right. Under the conditions through which she has lived her life. The sentencing didn't happen, but Chairgirl was on the front page of the print edition

of the National Post, an amazing essay. Look it up if you haven't read it. It's by Joe Breen, Joseph Breen of the National Post, an amazing essay. Look it up if you haven't read it by Joe Breen, Joseph Breen of the National Post, where he talks about through a philosophical lens about what Chair Girl tells us about the evolution of punishment. And we will see once again in the March update, the 1236th episode, whether I come back here with a final chapter of what happened to Chair Girl. Okay, a couple of items tied to Mick Jagger. Tell me about Ray Dawn Chong.

Well, this story kind of had a fast fade. As far as celebrity scandals go, it didn't have a whole lot of likes, but I was still fascinated by it because it was Ray Don Chong, daughter of Canadian icon Tommy Chong, who got a little bit of celebrity

out of her appearance in a movie, Quest for Fire, which is almost 40 years ago. Do you remember that? She's got a nude scene. And she was pretty young at the time. So was I. And her age factored into the anecdote that she dished out

on a podcast with the Hollywood Reporter where they go and do interviews with, I guess, forgotten B-list celebrities and they were talking about her role in the movie Commando, that she was in 1985. And she blurted out in the podcast that, in fact, she had an intimate encounter with Mick Jagger

when she was 15 years old. Whoa. And then she gave an interview where she had to clarify this wasn't going to be some sort of Me Too story. That she wasn't traumatized by the experience or anything. That she might have actually been proud of the fact that this happened. If it even happened at all. Because is Mick Jagger going to give his side of the story at this point in time?

Nope. At his age? Have you ever heard Mick Jagger do an interview where he says absolutely nothing? Right. He's just a master of dishing out quotes. John Derriger on Q107 interviewed Mick Jagger. It was a big deal, right? Exclusive chat about that tour where he ended up

being sidelined from heart surgery. No real talk from Mick. Never. That's why he's not invited on Toronto Mike. He is the worst. I mean, how can you be Mick Jagger, been around for all these years, and have nothing to say in public about anything, ever? Just, like, dishes out these platitudes. The most unquotable rock star in history.

It's up to other people to do the talking about Legacy of Mick Jagger and Ray Don Chong talking about this. And maybe looking for some resurgence, a recharge for her own career. And it was the fact that she was in this Mick Jagger solo video, his first, what was supposed to be his first solo hit, Just Another Night. It was a hit, right? I mean, I remember it being a hit. It did okay, but it didn't do good enough for him to leave the Rolling Stones.

No, of course not. And that's what he was betting on, on to break up to not have to return the phone calls anymore from ron wood asking him when the next gig was going to happen and uh from there uh we got you know mick jagger's solo career a bit of a non-starter uh but that he he left this song and this video behind and i don don't know, gossip about how he treated women, especially ones who were underage, courtesy of Ray Dawn Chong. At the same time, the Rolling Stones announced they're going back on tour. So we go through another guessing game as to whether the Rolling Stones will once again

play that return visit to the El Macombo. Do we know when the El Macombo, and this kind of ties in with Monday's guest. Are you familiar with the name Sam Grosso? Am I Grosso or Grosso? Oh, I don't know. You're going to have to figure that out by the time he gets down here. But he at some point, at some point, he ran the El Macombo at some point.

It fell into the hands five and a bit years ago. Michael Weckerle. Whose mom taught at my high school. Eccentric, rich guy who's into rock and roll. And it's part of his personality now that he's going to be the guy that brings the El Macombo back to glory.

At this point, we're talking like a half decade or more of renovations being promised at this point we're talking like a half decade or more of renovations being promised at this nightclub on on spadina right college and spadina didn't your son work at burger king caracha street 100 100 yes because i know so you've been around the omicombo you got to see the neon palms as they're brought back to life but no one has ever seen the inside of the place. They held a little Chinese New Year celebration outside of there. I think Gallagher might have got in there at some point. I don't know.

It seemed a bit elusive. Like, I think they let people into the lobby. Toronto City Councilor Michael Thompson, that he had a picture on the inside, and there was another neon palm when you walk through the door well well believe it when we see it if the alma combo ever opens or if this is some kind of scheme going on here where the whole idea is he just wanted to say that he was the owner of the alma combo michael wackerly and he really is and he can talk about it right you really have to go through the trouble when we're

talking about like the guy who's trying to revive by. Isn't it just enough to say to all your rich friends that you're bringing Byway back? Do you actually have to go through the effort of losing money by reopening the store? Why not just have the El Macombo sitting there as a hypothetical nightclub? Does it not serve the same purpose for the ego of the guy wants to run it right you got dave grohl to wear an el macabre t-shirt and remember that was better than having dave grohl show up and do a concert if you could even get him there the the city toronto is obsessed with our signs anyways like we just want like the sam the record man we don't care if the record store is open we need the sign okay there's a lot examples. The chum, the 1050 chum sign.

Make sure these signs are preserved. We really just need the El Macombo palm. Okay, but for five years now, Michael Weckerle has been saying that his whole ambition here is to get the Rolling Stones to come back to the El Macombo. And maybe you can even get

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make an appearance and show up there at a legendary venue that's synonymous with his mother hanging out with the Rolling Stones back in 1977. Right. Everybody's getting on in here.

Oh, yeah, I know. But the Rolling Stones announced another tour, and I think you can compute on the tour dates like there's a point in time where they can maybe make a detour to Toronto somewhere coming up this spring or this summer, and maybe they'll show up there Michael Weckerle waved enough money in Mick Jagger's face well Keith loves the city they

showed their willingness to do these kinds of club shows they performed Horseshoe Tavern and what was it RPM the government that club down there yeah Cool House whatever the hell they call it Cool House Queens Quay the condos was a thing, the surprise Rolling Stones Toronto nightclub concert. Will they do it one more time? Stay tuned. Quick aside, because I mentioned Gallagher, which is to say two of my TMDS clients, two different TMDS clients had heart scares last week. Just throwing that out there, because if you listen to the Perry Lefkoe episode of

Peter Gross, Peter read the text from John Gallagher about how he was having pain in his chest and he was admitted into the hospital for several hours and I think he's okay. But Humble Howard on vacation in the USA felt faintish

and he went into the hospital. Man, Mike, you gotta get some younger clients. I'm working on it. I don't know. I don't really look forward to the day when our obituary recap at the end of the episode starts getting into clients of TMDS. Well, you know, we've never mentioned an FOTM

in the obituary yet. So that'll be a terrible day when that eventually, that's inevitable. But a plea, if you're under the age of 60 and you want a podcast, reach out. I need to reduce the average age of my clientele. So,

where do I go next? How about Bernie Sanders, feeling the burn? Talk to me about Ontario Place and Bernie Sanders. Oh, well, they're doing some awful research on Bernie Sanders, right? I mean, there are people running against him

in the Democratic primary. I mean, it's going through every scrap of video, any evidence that you can find of Bernie Sanders talking about anything. There's going to be somebody out there

doing research. What do we have to watch to sync this guy with? And it turns out in the process, people talking about all these vintage Bernie Sanders

videos that he did on Vermont public television that he did a show in the late 80s. In Burlington, Vermont. Burlington, Vermont. That he had an episode of the show where he was in the mall talking to passers-by about good ideas for government. How can

we bring more socialism to this corner of the United States of America? This is part of the pitch with Bernie Sanders. He's always been consistent in his beliefs. You can't really find any dirt on this guy because he always espoused the same thing for all these years, whether you're a fan of his thinking or not. And here was a clip from the mall in Burlington, Vermont. Bernie Sanders talking about a visit to

a Toronto water park called Ontario Place. Your mother mentioned, if I remember correctly in her literature, she used as an example a park in Toronto, Ontario. Remember that? What's it called? Ontario Place, is it called? Yeah, and there's also a place called in uh... toronto ontario member of the school of interior places of course and there's also a place called zachary wrinkles in pennsylvania and i went there during summer and i gave her the idea that i really really liked it and you

give your mother the idea i think that you know they got all the good ideas for from you and not all of them over the model here for herself or yet but she just i just told her that it, and she said, gee, that'd be really neat because there's space down the road. Actually, what I should say is I don't know how many of the viewers

have been to a beautiful park in Toronto. I was there, I would say, about four years ago, and it's called Ontario Place, right? And it's a fantastic family place where it is reasonably priced. And people have a chance to do some boating and skating and listen to music. It is a very lovely place. And I think your mother's idea is a very good idea. Listening to Bernie and that little girl talk is like listening to you and me trying to get to the point.

That's how I felt listening back to that. So Bernie Sanders, give it a shout-out for Ontario Place. I was standing by waiting for the Toronto Star article. Bernie Sanders mentions Toronto. Didn't happen yet, but it was in the 1236 newsletter, 1236.ca, and, of course, this being Canada. Everyone is always standing by for that Canadian content, right?

In any American political story, especially presidential race. So you had Amy Klobuchar mentioning that she can see Canada from her porch, right? Playing off of Sarah Palin there in Minnesota, that she felt some affinity with Canada.

And, of course, Pete Buttigieg, his work with McKinsey & Company, a now legendary meme from New York Times reporter, Benjamin Applebaum, saying to Mayor Pete during the interview, you worked for a company that fixed bread prices. That being consulting work he did for Loblaws. And still investigators are trying to get to the bottom of whether Mayor Pete was responsible for the crime that Loblaws admitted to. Bob Laws admitted to of fixing bread prices for a few years and trying to buy people off with a $25 gift card. Back to Bernie.

We've got a big moment for an FOTM, Chuck D., who is going to be the headliner as of this date, coming up to March 1st, a big Bernie Sanders rally. Fighting the power right alongside Bernie. Feel the Bern. Imagine that, from the Toronto Beer Fest last summer to a rally for Bernie Sanders. No, better to say this, from Toronto Mic'd to a rally for Bernie Sanders. I still, when you say the words FOTM Chuck D, I feel like I get choked up a little bit,

like Perry listening to When in Rome. That's amazing that I'm still tickled pink that Chuck D's in FOTM. But this is the real deal. This is Bill's public enemy, and we learned from his Toronto Mic'd episode that there is public enemy The Band, where he brings out the full regalia.

Flavor Flav. And public enemy radio, which is like the scaled down thing, a band where he brings out the full regalia with Flavor Flav. And Public Enemy Radio, which is like the scaled down thing where it's just like Chuck D showing up. It's everything minus Flavor. Just buy him a plane ticket and he'll be there. When you're out of them, I think it's if you're in the USA, you get Public Enemy

and if you leave the USA, you get Public Enemy Radio right now. Okay, Public Enemy with Bernie Sanders and his opening act, Dick Van Dyke. Wow, how old is Dick? Do you know offhand? I won't put you on the spot,

but over 90, right? We don't have him in the obituary section yet. Good for Dick. Okay, now we talked a lot about radio already because we covered The Morning Grind becoming the B-team

on 102.1 and we talked about Ashley Docking being let go from her gig at 590, but almost, I will call them an almost FOTM because when I was recording the party for Marty at the Opera House in the corner of my eye not only did I see Scott Turner there who didn't want to bother me by coming on as if that would bother me because that's what I actually wanted but Carlos Benavides

I saw him in the corner of my eye and I I'm like, time to get Carlos on Toronto Mic'd, but then he was gone. Another shout-out here to long-distance FOTM, I think, because he tweets about listening episodes. Matt Cundall, longtime radio guy, does a podcast called Sound Off. It keeps on getting better because through his different guests that he has on there, I learn little tidbits about what's going on in the radio industry, Canadian media scene in general. The more, the merrier. He covers what's going on in the radio industry, Canadian media scene in general. The more the merrier. He covers what's going on

in other markets, other countries. He brings personalities to my attention that I've never heard before. His most recent guest, as of right now, Carlos Benavides, talking about his history of, just like FOTM Jay Brody, having his

eye on CFNY, that he wanted to be on 102.1 The Edge. It was his dream gig. Started out handing out condoms for Humble and Fred for their promotions that they were doing and making his way on the air. 20-plus years ago, another story of someone. That was their dream.

That was their ambition. He got there. He managed to do it, but ultimately he found his bliss in the Kitchener-Waterloo market. He got to be a morning man over there. And Carlos now on the Jack FM radio stations with Rogers doing a show called Jack Up the 80s. And I think he has, I don't know, you would describe it as like a game show host personality that on these Jack FM stations bring a bit of personality

to radio stations that are a little too reliant here on autopilot automation voice tracking. And that's a good sign that they see maybe we should have a lively person on the radio. It turns out to be Carlos Benavides, former, almost F.o.t almost if we count like a twitter dm relationship he actually is an f.o.t.m but we got to get him on the show now because you can be an f.o.t.m and not be a guest on the show there's many loyal

listeners that are f.o.t.m you know that mark come on now let's do a couple of quick cbc hits uh there was breaking news as you were on your way to the TMDS studio. What did you learn took place? This is like an hour old, this news. This is super fresh. But something, a big change at the top of CBC News. I'm not sure exactly what we learned outside of the ability of CBC News having all the platforms required when they part ways with a prominent person in the organization, it's CBC that's able to spin the story, right?

If you're CBC News and you're writing about the head of CBC News leaving the company, you can pretty much be ahead of the curve in spinning the narrative any way you want, right? Now, we're standing by for, let's say, Simon Haupt from the Globe and Mail to get in there and tell us what's really going on. Right. And in the meantime here, we find out that leaving the CBC after over 10 years in charge, Jennifer McGuire, head of CBC News, she was responsible for that four-headed anchor thing on The National. And the speculation is she's taken the fall here

for what didn't work out as far as executing those plans of the CBC. But there's also the factor of the CBC on the internet, the fact that they basically run what amounts to a newspaper, which is subsidized with federal tax dollars. And that's also a big point of contention. I'm not sure if that'll play a role in explaining what went down here, decisions that she made. It is time for me to spread my wings and imagine a life outside of the CBC while I am at the height of my skills. How's that for spin?

That is some wonderful spin, but I'm so used to spin now. Everybody who gets shit-canned or whatever, gets pushed out, gets to say that they're, I want to spend time with my family, all these wonderful things. So no surprise there.

But CBC, I'm listening, I'm playing right now, Favorite Boy by Half Moon Run. Half Moon Run, a band from Montreal. And I put this on the playlist only because it was a song I would know about if it wasn't for the CBC music radio station. And this is an example of the kind of music that defines the current format of CBC music, the FM radio stations that they work. Great, great harmonies here. Listen to this. Wonderful. It's on its

way out, just in time for you to raise the volume. Better late than never. But listen, you don't hear this stuff on any other commercial radio station, even though it seems perfectly suited for, I guess, the old stock adult contemporary format. We lean on CBC Music to provide exposure for this sort of act. And CBC Music is getting a new boss in March 2020, a guy named Steve Jordan, who's been around for a long time, most recently, years and years, In March 2020, a guy named Steve Jordan, who's been around for a long time, most recently, years and years, heading the Polaris Music Prize, which was his own invention. He got the right kind of funding to turn this thing into, I think, what has now eclipsed the Junos

as the most prestigious Canadian music award, which you only give to one album. Right. And the whole idea is like any genre, as long as the person behind it is Canadian, Justin Bieber, Drake, Shawn Mendes are just as qualified to win this thing as much as Godspeed

You Black Emperor or Fucked Up. These are the bands that actually did win. Right. And that he's moving from the years of running this Polaris thing to be the head, the chief, the honcho at CBC Music. And we've talked a bit about CBC Music because FOTM Raina Doris was doing the morning show there

for quite a while. FOTM JJ Laborde working both behind the scenes but also doing stuff on air. Like chart stuff. I know he was tweeting about being on the air for some music chart stuff. This is Canada's national music radio station with some controversy and

consternation. They pivoted away from being a primarily classical music format. They sell some classical middle of the day. Shout out to Danny Graves, FOTM Danny Graves as well, who shows up the odd time. And FOTM Laurie Brown, who was there for years and years while they figured out what to do with CBC Radio 2.

We've got now, we've got a new program director coming in. And it's got to be, in large part, part of his assignment is to figure out how to get audience paying attention to this thing at one point they were allowed to sell commercial time and they practiced for a while uh they gave reina the morning show which is a challenging position i think because even though she was doing it in the morning it's not live at the same time across the country. The opportunity for spontaneity might be slim, but she was still there. She was able, as a host, to comment in relatively real time

on what was happening in the world. Be a real morning show host. Right. Who had cut her teeth in some commercial radio able to do it. That's why they hired her for this World Cafe at NPR. I mean, it was inevitable that bigger things awaited. So at the same time, you know, they've got a permanent space to fill there at CBC Music. And I looked at their chart most recently, and I calculated, came up with this number,

ran it through my statistical system. And I think CBC Music has to still move 23 degrees to the right. That is, like, they play The Weeknd and Harry Styles and Billie Eilish and other acts that are considered

celebrity icons of our time. But I don't think they play them enough. And I don't think the station is fully accessible. That's why I wanted to nominate on here, in this many minutes, where we are in this episode of Toronto Mic'd. If anyone's listened to this long. Scott Turner is the kind of person that should be on CBC Music.

I mean, I think they should just hire him. Now, he's mostly known as Southern Ontario for all those years, Energy 108, 102.1, The Edge, or CFNY before that. Did that Spirit of Radio Sunday show, which is now infamous for the fact that they canceled the highest-rated show on the station because it didn't fit with their demographics that they were chasing. But Scott, a terrific storyteller, has a history with all these sounds. He should be live on CBC Music Radio. JJ and Melanie, former Flow Radio hosts from Toronto, still do their act together on the podcast,

and they both have different jobs. They're the kind of show that should be on CBC Music. So only FOTMs. Have a commercial mindset morning team at the same time that you're playing some eclectic, eccentric music. Liven this thing up. Make CBC music sound like something that someone who is otherwise defaulting to a CHFI or Chum FM, HFI or Chum FM, that they would relate to what's being transmitted there and lose that public radio cloak because it's not going to build the audience.

I know this, Steve Jordan, a little bit. I'm trying to see if I can talk about something on your podcast that will actually make a difference. I'm not asking for a job. Even though at one point, FOTM Gene Volaitis approached me and asked me to kind of help brainstorm something with him. But this is over a decade ago.

And I think at the time, I came up with a really sharp idea. And I should have done it at the time. And I would now be 10 years into my career as a public radio player. Oh, you'd be. And I would now be ten years into my career as a public radio player. Oh, you'd be good. I would listen. But behind the scenes, that was it. That was all I wanted

to do. Listen, Gene asked me and, I don't know, they didn't accept the proposal or they didn't want him on the air. And what my idea was at the time was that Gene should essentially be hosting like an on-ramp. That he should be talking about music from the perspective of giving somebody

who can't keep up with what's going on. This is over 10 years ago, before Spotify, before like this onslaught of options. You need a filter. You need a curator. How can you know what's going on in music if there's not somebody to be that roadmap and tell you what you need

to care about. It doesn't matter if it's the stuff happening now or like Scott Turner's show down here that he can talk about things even if they're from 30 or 40 years ago through a contemporary lens. Here's a guy that's been around

and sounds as youthful as ever. I'm standing by to be a consultant to the new CBC Music if they will have me. And if they don't, I'm just going to tweet about them all the time. And I'm going to tell you what I like

and don't like about what they're doing. A new dawn awaits for CBC Music on the FM dial. I just checked the time here, Mark. I'm giving you five minutes for you to go off, if you will, because I love it when you go off, on the Canadian Podcast Awards. Do I have to? Is it necessary?

There was a Canadian Podcast Awards ceremony. It was a real thing. It took place in Toronto in February 2020. It's an annual event tied to something that they've done every year ever since podcasting became a thing, and it's called PodCamp. This was a trend at the time, more in the mid-2000s, where you would have unconferences, where essentially anyone could sign up and give a talk, unstructured, say whatever they had to say, whether they were doing it out of the bottom of their heart, whether this was some kind of sincere thing they wanted to get out there. They wanted to impart their expertise. Or whether maybe there was a little bit more of a business interest

behind what they had to say. I don't think they discriminated there. This pod camp event. They let people speak. Let them say whatever they thought. Were you ever invited to one of these events? Did you ever get to go? Yeah.

Do you know the name Karim Kanji? Oh, I know him well. I was on his show three times. I know you did. With varying degrees of success.

I don't know if he's returning my calls anymore. But you were at one of these pod camp events. He used to be on some kind of a, maybe the board

or something at pod camp where he had some say in who would present. And he invited me a few years in a row where I made the way to the Ryerson campus there and had sessions, well-attended

sessions. And then, I guess, I don't know if Crim left the board or if he lost interest in me, but they stopped inviting me. So I'm no longer on the PodCamp panels. For all I know, they've had the Canadian Podcast Awards for the past 10 or 15 years. I don't even know. But look, podcasting

is at a point, as we discussed here last November, that more corporate interests have worked into it. And if you say you're doing a Canadian podcast awards, and there's no one else out there doing anything comparable to the Canadian podcast awards,

I guess, if you're trying to get podcasts happening at a company like Chorus or Rogers, Bell Media has also appointed somebody to be in charge of podcasting. Maybe they feel a little bit behind the curve. And no matter how organized, disorganized the Canadian podcast awards are, if you give such an award to a corporate show, I guess they're going to crawl about the fact this thing won a Canadian Podcast Award. I mentioned Robbie Jay. Who picked these Canadian Podcasts?

You can't even figure it out from their website. Like, how did they determine who was worthy of a Canadian Podcast Award? And yet, Chorus put out a press release, a future FOTM, Jordan Heath-Rollings. Already on schedule. Very proud of the fact that he won. Who wouldn't be?

He won some podcast awards. The Gravy Train. Listen, Gravy Train, another show, frequency, podcast network from Rogers. I don't know. This thing, I don't want to call it a scam, but it's just nothing. We can set up our own. We can start our own awards right here in the middle of this episode. With Coke and Hookers.

That I think will be as credible as the Canadian Podcast Awards. We can give all the awards to TMDS clients. We can just make the award winners Gallagher and Gross, Ralph Ben-Murgy, Hebsey on Sports, Larry Fedorek, Humble and Fred.

We've got a trophy for everyone. And I think it would be just as credible as these awards. And by the way, on the award website, one of the jokes, one of the hosts of this great podcast from Vancouver, Blocked Party, was joking about the fact that there are nominees that have more episodes than the show has Twitter followers. And on top of that, they couldn't even spell nominees right on the website.

There are two M's in nominees. This is where we're at in this country? This is what you're supposed to take seriously? I realize the Canadian Screen Awards, which is a very establishment operation, isn't that much better. You can't

take that seriously either. You can take that as seriously as the Oscars, for example. Well, they nominate themselves. There are three nominations for the previous year's award show in the Canadian Screen Awards. And not only that,

but the more amateurish the award show, the more categories they have. Like, I think there were more categories in the Canadian podcast awards than, like, the Oscars and the Grammys and the Golden Globes combined. But what does it say

to honor a Canadian podcast? Toronto Mike, I mean, part of the problem was, I think Al Grego said, hey, you got to go in and nominate your show or something. And I actually said,

okay, well, Al wants me to do it. He's a very good FOTM. I'll do it. And when I went in to, well, Al wants me to do it. He's a very good FOTM. I'll do it. And when I went in to do so via the PodCamp website, it said... Well, I'm glad it didn't work because now we can dunk

on the whole thing with the opportunity. So I never... No TMDS shows. I was going to nominate all my shows. But would they... I don't know who was judging.

Would they even have listened to you? What would it have been based on? I have no idea. I don't blame Chorus for putting out a press release yeah we rule right rob johnston over i just try to say i won canadian podcast awards listen right it's a thankless job no one else is acclaiming him for anything else if i had won i'd make noise about

it right so it's like i i didn't get nominated so no i didn't win i didn't even you couldn't even get your intro the can Canadian Podcast Awards winning Toronto Mike. Probably. So I can't judge. I can't judge Chorus and Rogers for screaming from the rafters about their big wins. Well, not only that, but Bell feeling like they're out of the loop, that they're left behind. They appointed one of their executives, Tyson Parker, to be in charge of podcasting.

I know him a little bit. He's a sharp guy. But here they are. I'm subscribing now. We're well into past 1,500 podcast subscriptions. You've got to win me over before you get to anyone else. You know what happened to me? I'm going to tell a quick story. I went to log in to nominate my shows and I connected with Google.

One of the options was connect with Google, so fine. But Google warned me that this was an unauthorized partner, and it was dangerous to proceed, and I basically decided in that moment, when I had a million other things to do, that it ain't worth it. I'm just not going to win any Canadian Podcast Awards. And then I went about my day

creating compelling content for the universe. Okay, so you'll get Jordan Heath Rawlings down here, host of the Big Story podcast on the Frequency Podcast Network. I'm convinced he got the job because he was the guy hanging around there who sounded the most like Ira Glass. Right, he has a great voice. I listen to the gravy train. And I think down here you should brainstorm.

How can you come up with a better version of the podcasting awards that not only spells nominees correctly, but I think also reflects what's going on on this scene. You should be in charge. What do you need podcasting awards for at

all? But why don't we create our own awards and have you, who listens to a thousand plus podcasts, you're probably the best guy in the country. I also don't see any reason to trust this pod camp operation. This is pretty inside baseball. And I'm sure there's a few people out there who take this thing very seriously. And I see people that are very much into talking about online communities, reminding us maybe of the early days of blogging, like when people thought that,

oh, we'd set up our own parallel universe of media that never really interfaced with the mainstream, like we hate people that make money, and we're all in it for this socialist utopia of the internet. And then also like the social media expert scene, which emerged around know around the the late 2000 early 2010s you know people that were very much in this idea that you you try and sell people on the idea that they don't they don't understand these different platforms pay me money

to run your instagram account and there are people who manage to build careers on this sort of thing. I know many, yes. Arguably, you do it now. You facilitate podcasting. You have people in here who, admittedly, could more or less figure out how to do this on their own, but I don't know if they have the confidence that they would do it very well.

And you're able to bring them, what do you call it, the turnkey solution. A to Z. And don't forget, the greatest value out of working with me is you get to work with me. You get to work with you and you get to hear all the behind the scenes dirt of all the things you can't say on the podcast about all the people you've met and all the D-list Toronto celebrities that you've had down here and all the experiences that have come out of producing Toronto Mic'd and how someone else can have this happen to them too. Because you're the regular guy, right? I want to be like you.

Thanks to good people like you. I won't mention his name. It's too unique. But you know who? Your buddy who I quite enjoy working with. There's a whole bunch of corporate podcasts. Well, he wants his name mentioned, but I refuse to mention it. Can I say it?

No, no. I don't want to mention his name. Can I say his first name? No, no. That's part of the shtick. Well, he wants his name mentioned but I refuse to mention it. Can I say it? No, no, I don't want to mention his name. Can I say his first name? No, no, that's part of the shtick that we don't mention his name. He is one of your clients, right? And you met him through me. Right.

And you do a podcast for him. He was my first corporate client. You go to an office on Bay Street and you record a podcast and they love you there. Okay. Because you're the guy with the podcast.

There's no one else hanging out on Bay Street who has a podcast. Oh, thank you. I didn't know they loved me. But I can tell you that Mark Hebbshire was my first external client, besides myself, obviously. Toronto Mike was for Hebbsy on Sports.

And your buddy, Manny, was my first corporate client. There you go. You ruined it. You mentioned his name. So he does a podcast. He talks about what? Stocks? Investing?. So he does a podcast. He talks about what? Stocks? Investing?

It's definitely an investment podcast. And they have to be within... You have to have money to listen to this podcast. Within the legal borders of what you're allowed to say on a podcast about investing. There's a lot of disclaimers on these episodes. Now, Mark... We get no disclaimers at all. No.

No. But I have learned to be careful because, you know, I've been warned by people like Lorne Honigman, speaking of Bay Street. Now, I need to cover what's going down at the Toronto Star because FOTM Peter Howell was in here fairly recently, and we had a great chat. And it feels like five minutes later, he took a buyout.

So what happened? Look, it was already in the air. But the way he explained it here on the show, he expected to be around at the Star for at least a little while longer, not forever. He had to retire at some point. Well, they were going to make him an offer he couldn't refuse. He's a movie reviewer.

This was not a job that you can't do into your 70s and 80s if you're still in good health. But it turned out, yeah, in February 2020, we learned that Peter Howell had taken a buyout, as we understand. People like FOTM Jim Slotek will dish about how this process works. That, you know, it's not necessarily a tap on the shoulder,

you're out of here, but you're given a compelling case with a dollar sign attached to move on from the company and you've got to make your decision pretty quick. That there's often not a lot of warning when someone leaves due to a buyout and it's not something

that gets announced very often in the newspaper. They're just not there anymore. So here we had Peter Howell who was doing movie reviews augmented by ones that were through American outlets, American syndication and wire services. Reviews from the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times and the Washington Post. But Peter Howell reviewing all the movies that he could.

And all of a sudden, one week there in February, right after the Oscars, no more reviews from Peter Howell in the Toronto Star, symbolic of the fact that they were winding down the idea of having staff writers dedicated to entertainment. Which you called this. You were very clear, I think, back in December, you were kind of explaining how it was all good. It was in the air, and I think FOTM Ben Rayner was also insinuating

that something like this was going to happen very soon. And he's been reassigned. As far as I know, he's still the star. He took some time off to deal with some mental health. Maybe he has not disclosed what he hopes to do in the future. But, yeah, I mean, look, it's the kind of corporation where if they had to take that kind of time off for those reasons, health-related, then they would have been able to accommodate him accordingly. And we'll see if he's back in the paper in the long haul.

But Peter Howell, gone from doing movie reviews in the star. And I don't know, whatever you think of Peter Howell. I like him. It's symbolic of the fact that you hear you had a staff critic at what touts itself as the biggest circulation newspaper in Canada. It's a principle of the thing. And even if he's just reviewing Hollywood schlock 90% of the time,

it means that it's still 10% where he can credibly be a reviewer of Canadian cinema and talk about trends that are happening unique to Toronto. And that no longer exists as a full-time job at the Star. It's conceivable he could return

as a freelancer they have like damien cox former writers there given that sort of deal so i think for that reason he doesn't want to portray himself as an ex toronto star person right they've been great to him throughout his career and he hasn't burned any bridges as far as i know no uh that there's some kind of deal they can make to bring him back. It's happened a lot. Laurie Goldstein at The Sun, who's still in there writing for them all the time,

I think also an editor. At one point they laid him off, and he made some kind of deal to come back. It goes on. F-O-T-M Damien Cox, because he's so familiar with listeners of Toronto Mic'd. He blocked me on Twitter for making fun of his tweet about just a selfie from right now is good. That got me blocked.

He didn't love me asking about that either. Forever. And he let me know. Damien Cox, no friend of 1236. But he is a four-time Toronto Mic'd guest, and we got to get him to five to tie Wilner. Yeah, well, maybe by the fifth time, you'll figure out what was going on with that tweet. I want to touch on these,

since we're in the newspaper portion here, and I need to get to the memorial section. Could you talk about Wayne Parrish here to save Torstar? And then segue, we talked about Peter Howell taking the buyout, FOTM Peter Howell. And I think about FOTM Norm Willner, speaking of Mike Willner, that's Mike Willner's brother, as you know.

And I wonder if you could touch on Now Magazine's future. Oh, well, Wayne Parrish, who was at one point a sports writer with the Star, and he worked for Post Media for a bunch of years. He was part of that plan backed by American hedge funds to reconstitute Post Media after the Ken West global bankruptcy. And Wayne Parrish, an architect of the way that they figured out how to do things over there,

at the same time that he was transforming Post Media, at one point Tor Star ran a headline saying, post-media is a cancer on Canadian journalism. And that would have been Wayne Parrish, who was at that point running the show, editorially speaking. Here we are four years later, and the cancer on Canadian journalism is now working as the last, I think, turnaround guy at the Toronto Star.

The speculation based on how they're doing financially, they had their year-end quarterly results coming out. That's only a matter of time before they change the business model over there. Either somebody takes it over, it becomes some sort of non-profit or owned by a foundation. They've got these subsidies now through the federal government supporting journalism. We're on this track that the Toronto Star, as we know it, was run by five families that were sitting on a board that all owned a piece of the paper that is not very long for this world. And I think as we

progress here in the monthly episodes of 1236 tor star will be a recurring topic as you try and figure out what happens to it uh norm wilner over at now magazine uh by virtue of the fact they let peter howell go from full-time work at the star mentioned that in the toronto film critics association that he was the last of the original founding members who has a full-time job writing for a publication. That at the time, you know, this was a common enough thing that you could have a committee

that could start this kind of group that could do their own awards dinner every year, you know, get together, further the cause of film criticism. There he was, Norm Willner, being very wistful about the fact that he was last man standing and working for NOW Magazine with this company, Media Central Corporation. They're still putting out a lot of press releases.

The press releases need an editor. They also need someone to maybe ask before you hit send, why are you even sending out this press release? But it's part of this vision that these investors have that this company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange are going to save the alternative weekly, make it a vehicle for the creative class, connecting it to cannabis content. A skepticism about anything.

If any of this can work. But look, enough money, Now Magazine, which had to admit in the filing that it was losing $80,000 a week, and there's very little to be gained for anyone else who now goes out of business. Hanging in there, Alice Klein, with her then-husband Michael Hollett, one of the founding editors, she said she was going to stick around, and you look at the masthead, she was gone within a matter of weeks.

She's not there anymore. The format is stick around, and you look at the masthead. She was gone within a matter of weeks. She's not there anymore. The format is still around, still alive. The alternative weekly thing, let's see if it survives. Let's see if a new model rises up to replace the rule that's had. And, of course, I like to talk about here that my sensibility as a product of the old weekly generation goes into what I do with this 1236 newsletter, even though it's a different thing. It's the lessons that I learned from that kind of journalism, whether it was from growing up reading the Village Voice from New York or being a part of iWeekly, both at the beginning and the end of its existence.

Here I am trying to define, you know, what would this thing mean here in the 2020s? Now going on five years later with the newsletter. Still waiting for this company, St. Joseph Media, to believe in me a little bit more. I believe in you. It's going all right. I think the newsletter thing has more future now than it did before.

Like, I was coming on here wondering, am I going gonna be doing this much longer um i have a notion of where i can go with this thing and we'll see if it fits with this company and the different plans and all the magazines they're putting under one roof i am looking forward to being a part of it if it doesn't work out hey that showbiz i can be a gossip item media gossip item here. How do I subscribe? 1236.ca gets you the 1236 newsletter

and that's a daily digest about the things we talk about here on 1236 episodes and it's my effort, my attempt to put together for me. We talk about people like Jay Brody. He had his sights on 102.1 The Edge. We talk about Mike Willner living his dream

as a play-by-play guy for the Toronto Blue Jays. In a very weird, abstract way, I'm doing what I always wanted to do. All these FOTMs living their dreams. Can't be a coincidence. But you also can't write one newsletter after another where you revel in the fact that there's turmoil in the media industry

and not expect that someday it might happen to you. But right now, everything's all right. And it might even be better than ever. And I look forward in 2020 if I could take this in the direction that I want it to go. In the meantime, it's just a matter of having all these subscribers, being in touch with all these people. It's worth a lot. You know, they invested in me, my vision.

We got it to this point. Let's see where it goes from here now before i give you your toronto uh mike sticker from sticker you.com uh shout out to fotm roger ashby who finally got his uh golden oldies show what do you call that show well there was some skepticism about whether the fact that on his day of his retirement bell media president uh randy lennox went on the air. He said, Roger, we're not letting you go just yet. We're going to give you your own streaming radio channel

on the iHeartRadio Canada platform. And based on what was implied at the time, this was kind of going to be like a whole history of the chum chart, pop music, and there would be Roger dropping in with his little trivia bits. That also sounded like a lot of work. Like, how do you make this thing something that people will actually want to listen to?

And it sounds to me like they went back to the drawing board, and they realized that rather than try to be so ambitious with some 24-7 streaming thing, and it's a steep climb to get people to listen to it i think roger is alive and well but he is you know past 70 years of age i don't think he has the 20 or 30 years required to make this thing a success what can we efficiently do in this amount of time bring back the roger ashby sunday morning oldie show which was a hit on 10 50 chum going back to when chum was a top 40 radio station there was roger doing the oldies on sunday morning i once won a kinks greatest hits album by calling into roger sunday morning on chum went there picked it up got a little tour of the radio station 1331 Younger. I remember that forever. Of course. Of Roger back on the air, back through Bell Media.

They did live up to that promise through their Orbit syndication division. In Toronto, Bell doesn't have a station that would run a music radio oldies show. I mean, they could put it on CFRB. But it would be kind of incongruous. Symbolically, it would be interesting. Like, I would crank up my AM radio to hear Roger on there.

And Zoomer Radio 740 does still play music. Right. At one point, they were running spots, inviting Roger to come and join the staff over there. Come work for Moses. But no, his loyalties are with Chum. So he's still producing a show at Chum, but it runs in Toronto, terrestrially speaking,

on 88.5 The Jewel, So he's still producing a show at Chum, but it runs in Toronto, terrestrially speaking, on 88.5 The Jewel, because that's the appropriate station. They have a relationship there, Evanov Radio. Right. And I guess they give it, whoever these things work, I don't even know. What am I trying to say?

Like they let the station run it for free and then they sell the commercials. You know, Brian Master, he resigned from his role at The Jewel after, I think he said 51 years on GTA Terrestrial Radio. Well, was it consecutive? He could still come back somewhere? They would have him? Is the housing market

really that good? I'm supposed to have brunch in the next week. He left radio to be a full-time real estate agent? I'll give you an update. Now, I just, again, the time is our enemy here. So, congrats to FOTM Roger Ashby. There is a Toronto Mike sticker from

StickerU. I really do think you need to go to StickerU.com and order 1236 stickers. I want you to, like, plaster them all over the city. I want to see 1236 stickers. Wait until I get that commitment as to whether this newsletter is going to How many years? It's been five years.

That's not enough time? Okay. It's been amazing. Listen, I send this thing out, you wouldn't believe. You wouldn't believe the powerful names that read this thing every day. I'm not even allowed to tell you. Toronto Mike reads it every day. That's a powerful name. There's a privacy policy. You're not allowed to divulge

this stuff, but I can dig in. I have some idea. They follow me on Twitter anyway. I know who they are that way. You look up the Twitter followers. Where does it go? How do you sell this thing? What do you do with it?

It's all a work in progress, just like what's going on down here in the basement. It's been ostensibly this idea. So no stickers, you're saying? Well, I would come on here and promote the newsletter. That was what I was coming on here for, and I don't even know if I'm really doing a good job of that anymore. Well, yeah, because I ask you how you subscribe, and you tell me, and then people listening go, I should subscribe, and you really should.

Yeah, I've got lots of FOT in the loop as a result of this show, but look, I developed the base here. I need to build up the power that I have in this media market. And as we see, other business models fail to catch on. And legacy newspapers fall apart. I'm standing by to make this thing work. And as far as I can tell, it's only a matter of time. I'm amazed that I stuck it out this long. They believed in me now for half a decade to get to thing work. And as far as I can tell, it's only a matter of time. I'm amazed that I stuck it out this long.

They believed in me now for half a decade to get to this point. And I have to bring it every day. I have to wake up every morning, okay? I have to think, like, what can I put in this newsletter that's going to get people talking and get attention? And it's very incremental. Like, you know, it doesn't, it's not, I don't think it's any one day. I don't think it's any one item. I don't think it's any one item. I don't think it's

any one thing. It's just kind of like this relationship. You get it to the point where if it disappeared, that people would start lamenting that it went away. I would lament. I hope I've gotten to this point now where at the very least they keep me around because they don't want the bad press that comes with

everybody complaining it's not around there anymore. But it has opened up other opportunities, and wherever this thing goes, there are more things that are going to happen. Maybe they happen with you, and maybe they happen with TMDS and podcasting. How many jobs can I come down here and beg for? Once things came together for Ashley Dawking, that put the bug in my mind that I also should be coming on Toronto Mic'd and beg for a job.

And Jay Brody, don't forget. A lot of great, a lot of people come on Toronto Mic'd and then their dreams come true. So why not me? But when I went into this spiel in some episode, I don't know,

somewhere in the heat of last summer, someone left a comment where they thought this was deranged. What am I doing coming on here? Don't read the comments. Asking for new and different opportunities out there in me, especially when, at this point, I am pretty employed. Like, there's a lot going on.

But I want bigger and better. Like, I want to see how much longer do I have to live? Forget about Roger Ashby. I want to see this dream through. And what do I have to do to get there? What do we have to do, Mike? How are we going to make it happen? Well, first you're going to get stickers

at StickerU.com because they're fantastic quality, reasonable price. I thought that commercial was done. Everybody is looking forward to TMLX. Oh, it's not happening at StickerU. I'll tell you later.

Six, seven, eight? Six, and it's going to at sticker. Oh, I'll tell you later. Six, seven, eight, six. And it's going to be at a great lakes brewery in June. So I'll update you later, but I'm still going to check out someday. The sticker. You should sticker museum,

six 77 queen. You should check it out. It's amazing. It really is amazing. Uh, check out the sticker and then, you can Instagram it on the 1236 account. Now, I want to play a little updated ad from my pal Banjo Dunk.

Banjo Dunk. Anyways, I'll let Stompin' Tom tell you about Banjo Dunk. Here's a little of Duncan Fremlin. Hello, Toronto Mic listeners. This is Duncan Fremlin from Banjo Dunk headquarters. For many weeks now, you've been hearing me talk about my annual Stompin' Tom birthday show coming up on April 16, 2020. This is a co-production with Zoomer Media.

And you may be wondering, who the hell is this guy? And what's he got to do with Stompin' Tom? Well, it all began in 1990 on my first cross-country tour with Tom. What followed was many years of great music, crazy off-stage shenanigans, and a whole lot of warm beer. And the rest, as they say, is history. Each night from the stage, Tom would introduce me this way. The coordinator and originator of the Whiskey Jack plays the meanest banjo that you'll hear the sight of anywhere. The leader of the Whiskey Jack himself, Duncan Fremlick. So please join me, my Stompin' Tom band, Whiskey Jack, and

many special guests as we take time to celebrate Tom and his lifelong contribution to Canada. The list of Canadian stars joining us on stage that night will be announced soon. Get your tickets early. Go to hellooutthere.ca. That's hellooutthere.ca. We'll see you on the 16th. Thanks to Toronto Mike, I got to read My Good Times with Stompin' Tom. What did you think? Written by Banjo Dunk.

Well, I didn't know until I read the book that Banjo-Dunk was the opening act for Stompin' Tom Connors and that I guess it was stipulated by Tom Connors himself that if you're going to be the opening act for Stompin' Tom, you should only play Stompin' Tom songs. And to me, that made perfect sense because you're going to a Stompin' Tom concert. Why not hear an opening act that plays the music of Stompin' Tom? I also think Stompin' Tom had a little bit of an ego, right?

I mean, he announced his retirement because he wasn't being played on the radio. He was protesting against the fact that he wasn't considered genuine Canadian content. Even though his music was so corny that no radio station would have wanted to play it. Margo's got the cargo, Reggie's got the rig. And he laid low through the late 70s into the 80s, and then it's like the world was ready for him, right? There were people like at college radio stations

that would get into the irony of Stompin' Tom Connors. And there we had the Stompin' Tom comeback. And by now, people know Banjo Dunk was a part of that paradigm. He was right there having good times with Stompin' Tom. And there was the opening act for Stompin' Tom. And if you're paying to buy a ticket to a Stompin' Tom concert, I guess, it was Banjo Dunk warmed up the show by playing more Stompin' Tom songs. I didn't know that before, and I learned that from reading my good times with Stompin' Tom. I love the fact, I love the way that Banjo-Dunk

has integrated himself as a character on the show. Like, just what a sweetheart. And then I realize Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group, I haven't played enough of his voice. Like, he is an equal sweetheart. What a great supporter of the Real Talk.

Well, he's got a long way to go, I think, to catch up to the other real estate agents who advertised on Toronto Mic'd. But he's in for the long haul, right? Austin Kytner? He's going to make his name through this show. Anyone who's listened to you knows the real estate agents you had on here before.

Brian Gerstein? Am I allowed to say their names? Yeah, of course. Brian Gerstein. Am I allowed to say their names? Yeah, of course. Brian Gerstein is an FOTM emeritus. Brian Master? Afformentioned from Juul. Yeah, no longer on the air. And now it's time for a new generation.

What's his name again? Here we have some work to do. Okay, so Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group, he's helping to fuel the real talk. He can help you. He is a great guy. I'm going to play a little clip from him in a moment. But if you text Toronto Mike to 59559, he will be there to serve. Here's Austin. My fellow Torontonians, real estate inventory in most markets is down by 27%. We have similar interest rates as we did two and a half years ago. We are similar conditions overall in the market as when we were at the peak. People who have been on the fence about selling

are calling us right now to get free home evaluations. And a lot of them are surprised with how much their house is worth. If you're looking for a free home evaluation, just text Toronto Mike to 59559. That's Toronto Mike to 59559. And we'll get you a free valuation for myself or one of my listing specialists. So thank you, Austin. Mark, I need to get us to,

I need us to change the tone here. We've been having a really good time, but I'm going to talk about friend of the show, Ridley Funeral Home. They're at 3080, so 3080 Lakeshore. That's at 14th Street. Brad Jones there

has been a tremendous FOTM himself. He's a sweetheart. At Ridley Funeral Home, you can pay tribute without paying a fortune. And this memorial section of the 1236 appearance on Toronto Mic is brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home. Thank you. words and papers words and books words on tv, words for crooks, words of comfort, words of peace, words to make the fighting cease, words to tell you what to do, words are working hard for you. Eat your words but don't go hungry, words have always nearly hung me.

A bit of a deep cut here, but it only takes a little bit of Googling to know that this was one of Christy Blatchford's favorite songs. Because she mentioned it in at least two of her columns. Wordy Rapping Hood by the Tom Tom Club. And this is maybe, how many songs out there have ever been written

about journalism? Right. But I think at least through the lens of Christy Blatchford, this was her song. You know, you've got the typing there, and you're talking about writing words, and this is what she did with her life. Well, we lost Christy Blatchford in February 2020 at age 68, and I think it was mentioned on News Talk 1010

where they ended up doing a full day of tributes to Christie. Talk about her impact there on the radio. That she got, you know, the closest thing to a state funeral for someone who was a journalist, let alone a journalist who pulled no punches, who ridiculed Justin Trudeau in his black face in her last series of columns when she was writing about the federal election last fall on his campaign. And he recognized the fact that she made that impact here on Canadian journalism, working for every one of the four Toronto newspapers over the years. And I think making a huge impression by being on the radio,

on CFRB News Talk 1010 every weekday for so many years, like close to a quarter century. And the culture of print media, maybe they didn't know. They didn't know about the fact that Christy was beloved also by having her voice on the radio. You would have heard her on there over the years, right? Originally started like her doing a commentary, kind of reading her column in a bridge version into the radio. You would have heard her on there over the years, right? Originally started like her doing a commentary, kind of reading her column in a bridge version into the phone. But she was part of the round table discussions

they would do every morning and afternoon. And that Christy was there. She was part of it every single day. Like the technology allowed for her to dial in and sound like she was in the studio, even though she was usually on some kind of ISDN line from home. And it was there, doing that extemporaneous commentary on whatever was happening every day,

that I think Christy Blatchford had helped her reach a level of fame that was over and above what she already had by being that kind of newspaper columnist. Mike, what was your impression all the years of Christy Blatchford? Well, I must confess I never heard her on 1010. So I can't speak to that.

Just my theory then, really, about how she became the kind of person that would get that level of attention. But it wasn't only that. She started off straight out of journalism school into working for the Toronto Star, breaking the glass ceiling as a female sports reporter.

She's the first one in the country, right? Yeah, that was the title that she had. I wasn't sure because there was also Alison Gordon, and I wasn't sure who was there first, but it sounds like Christy was there first. Christy was at the forefront. Right. She made it happen.

After working at the Star and the Globe, joined the Toronto Sun. First as a kind of lifestyle correspondent. She was representing that young baby boomer woman who was coming of age in the big city, and she wrote a lot about her life. People remember that she would always refer to her significant other.

She ended up marrying and divorcing one of her two marriages, the boy. She would always talk about the boy in the column. And from there, into more serious column writing, including covering criminal trials. There was a Paul Bernardo case, which she dutifully covered every day. She really established herself as that kind of person who could cover a court case, sit in a courtroom. This is not a very efficient way of doing journalism. You have to sit there and listen to lawyers argue with one another.

There's a lot of procedure to work your way through, a lot of breaks through the day. There was a certain discipline involved with covering courts, and it was through that that Blatchford established herself into middle age as someone who could be that kind of journalist. Got hired by the National Post when it originally started in 1998. Kenneth White, the editor-in-chief, hired her to be a specialist writing about legal trials, that she would cover trials not only in Canada, like they had Conrad Black's bank account, an unlimited budget in this fantasy where they'd fly her anywhere in the world to cover trials,

whatever was happening. You know, if there was something like the O.J. Simpson trial again or the Menendez brothers, you know, these big sensationalist events, that Christy Blatchford could be that kind of correspondent. She did a little bit of that work initially, but it turned out that she also liked hanging around home and that she didn't want to stray too far. And as a result, she ended up being an eclectic columnist writing about anything and everything.

And that became her brand in those early days of the Post. Very determined to get prominent placement for her columns. She would make demands that she needed, deserved, merited, being on the front page that helped get her name out there. And as that initial backing the Conrad Black idea of the National Post fell apart, they kind of ran out of money, she decamped to the Globe and Mail. They hired her back.

And for about eight years, there was Christy Blatchford writing like an establishment job where you could tell it was a little more constrained than what she could get away with at the Post. But there she was, you know, basking in a certain amount of fame and attention. They wanted her there. There were, I remember, big billboards for Blatchford on Toronto streets, that she was like a star attraction at the Globe, but the Globe is still the Globe. It's that establishment Canadian newspaper, and I think at that point in time, maybe she started pining for the fact that the National Post was her spiritual home, and she was part of what made it possible, and as they reorganized as Post Media, the new company,

they managed to bring Christy Blatchford back. And we're talking what turned out to be, over eight years, a victory lap where she showed every side of what she had to write and what she had to offer. And she was able to exercise it through the pages of the Post covering the Olympics every time it came up. That was part of her tradition. She would find the human stories there.

But also, when you're talking about controversial cases and social disputes going on, you're also going to make a few enemies. And that also became part of the Blatchford brand. And when she died, along with all the tributes, was that undercurrent of resistance and this whole idea that this woman's legacy was maybe nothing to be celebrated,

that you could pick out different cases that she covered, different positions that she took that did not maybe fit with what has become a consensus of what you are and are not allowed to say. Now, anyone who knew her, and I don't think I ever met her directly. I was around an event or two where I recognized her. At one point, I worked at Post Media,

and I started shuffling through the office. It didn't seem like she was big on showing up for a meeting at that point in time that she was there. You would see her around downtown. She lived on some street somewhere near, I think it was Lippincott Avenue, one of those streets close to Kensington Market downtown. She moved later. She bought a condo around Bathurst and Eglinton, around that neighborhood. So there were different opportunities where I might have had a sighting, a Blatchford spotting out in the wild. Never had the chance to talk to her. But I guess, I don't know, do I risk some hit to my reputation

by saying that I was a fan? Because there are a lot of people out there that say if you liked Christy Blatchford, if you liked what she was doing and what she represented, that you were on the wrong side. You would have read her after all these years. Her columns about the Gian Gomeschi trial, I'm sure those came up on your radar at the time. trial. I'm sure those came up on your radar at the time. She put out a book just a few years ago where she talked about some of these criminal trials that she was observing over the years. At one point, she was out there with the Canadian forces covering a mission in Afghanistan. Whatever was happening, Chrissy Blatchford was there.

She made it happen, and she had this dream career in Canadian newspapers for 45 years. And the legacy that she left behind, as far as I'm concerned, was something to be celebrated. It was nifty to know that she really liked that song from the Tom Tom Club. Wordy rapping hood. And it came up a lot that she wrote a column about Jack Layton right after he died.

It was kind of the canonization of Jack Layton. Speaking of state funerals, that he got a level of attention that she found, you know, completely over the top. That this was like saccharine and maudlin and, you know, what are you, you know, presenting this guy as saintly when, you know, he was just human, he's just a regular guy, he was a flawed politician. And going back about 15 years, I found a column where she wrote about being on the campaign trail with Jack Layton. 15 years, I found a column where she wrote about being on the campaign trail with Jack Layton, and

as per the fashion of the day, everyone had an iPod loaded with music, and she traded iPods for a while with Jack Layton, got to know his musical taste, exposed him to songs

that she liked, like Wordy Rapping Hood by the Tom Tom Club. And at the end of that column, she determined that there was a song on Jack Layton's iPod that resonated her the most, maybe even brought her to tears. A ballad by Gian Gomeschi. Stuck in the 90s.

Who would have thunk that a decade later, that would have been one of the big trials that she wrote about? On the same day, in the same cancer hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, another journalist died later that same day in Kingston. And she was 62 years of age. And even though she had some parallels with Christy Blatchford, they both worked in the early glory days of the National Post. They were colleagues of some degree.

It's said they also couldn't have been any different. And Anne Kingston's beat, even though she started out as a business reporter, she wrote the biography of Dave Nicol, the President's Choice Guy, and she won the National Business Book Award that year. But through the National Post, she got into more covering society trends. And she wrote a book called The Meaning of Wife,

just from the perspective, like, what does it mean to be a married woman, which she was not and got some acclaim for this kind of book and a role with McLean's magazine she was also right there at the

Gomeshi trial I think this was a milestone, a landmark event in Canadian history, the significance of this whole thing foreshadowing the Me Too movement. And even though the term social justice has turned into a pejorative, that she was seen as the kind of writer

who brought these issues to the forefront. A third journalist who died right at the end of January was Linda Dybell. I think that is how you pronounce it. I was researching enough to make sure I got it right. We are trying to remember somebody who died after all. And she worked on investigations for the Toronto Star, same kind of job that Kevin Donovan has.

Is Kevin an FOTM yet? Not officially. We're working on it. When the Star had a lot more employees, Linda Dybel was one of them who was working on these investigations. Very thorough, intense work. One of the last big stories she worked on there

was the case of Marineland. There were allegations of animal abuse going on there. And she was remembered, I think, most of all, as were Anne Kingston and Christy Blatchford. And this is what you want to be remembered as, no matter who you are, no matter what you do. As somebody who mentored younger people who wanted to make it into the industry, someone who always had time to give to somebody who wanted to know, how do I get to do what you do? And that generosity was really part of her obituaries and how she was remembered by her

own newspaper, by the Star, which she had retired from, and that she was remembered most of all for this reason. And there's a big lesson there. Because journalism, especially on Twitter, has become this game of shading people back and forth. You pick your tribe. It's kind of uncool to say anything nice about what anybody else is doing. I'm not going to deny that I've been swept up in that over the years. Being snarky became part of my brand.

But you also have to balance that by leveling up interesting things that people are doing. It doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't matter how old they are. That if somebody is putting themselves out there and doing quality work, if they make their way through the filter that you are able to know who they are and pay attention to them, that it doesn't hurt, especially nowadays, to give them a little nod, say something nice about them on Twitter at the very least, talk to them directly if you think that you have some wisdom to impart to them. Because you know what? At the end of the day, they're never going to forget it. And I think in the case of all these three women journalists, that a big part of what they're remembered for is the fact they made this extra effort.

We hear those stories all the time here on Toronto Mike. You had Anwar Knight down here, and he was talking about he was the overnight guy, some anonymous voice on Easy Rock, and Gene Valaitis on his way to do his morning show gave the guy a call. It was like 25 years ago. Here he is 25 years later remembering it, right, Gene?

He took the initiative to pick up his car phone and tell me I was doing a good job. So it was just good to know that in this cruel and unusual profession of writing for a living, that there are people that can still be remembered for this reason, and that that's also worth remembering them for. I love the day games The night games too I love the clinchers

When they're tied at two I love the coaches The entire crew I love the Blue Jays I love the diamond And a pitcher's seat Who's on the schedule Who can we defeat I love the diamond and the feature seat. Who's on the schedule? Who can we defeat?

I'll buy a hot dog, cause I love to eat. And watch the Blue Jays. Blue Jays! Now batting for your Toronto Blue Jays, the shortstop, number one, Tony Fernandez. Now, you are my main source for all nostalgia about the mid-1980s Toronto Blue Jays. You came to the right place. That drive of 95 was my entire life that summer. That was everything to me in 1985.

In February 2020, we lost Octavio Antonio Fernandez Castro. Known to all people that heard Marie Eldon on the Blue Jays public address system as Tony Fernandez. He had four

tours of duty for the Toronto Blue Jays, and I cannot, although Wendell Clark had three I cannot name another professional athlete in the city who had four Tony Fernandez four times he was a Blue Jay okay now this was a death that was a little

bit more foreshadowed even though he died at what 57 years of age that you kind of knew it was coming I did of knew it was coming. I did not know it was coming until Jerry Howarth, F-O-T-M Jerry Howarth, came on Toronto Mic and told me that he was in dire straits.

He needed a new kidney. He had some kidney disease and he needed a new kidney or he was in some serious trouble. And yeah, he passed away far too young, and he was a tremendous person by all accounts. I never met him, but everybody who met him said he was a great person. But also a fantastic defensive shortstop, the best defensive shortstop in franchise history.

And the man could hit for average. The man had the record for most hits by a shortstop and a Blue Jay record for hits in a season. Fantastic Blue Jay, and I'm so glad he was a part of the 93 World Series winning team. Another side of Tony Fernandez, a point of trivia that came up when he died, is that he was the first color front page photo of the New York Times.

He was playing 1997 for the Cleveland team. Right. That's what you say around here? In respect to Jerry Howarth, yes, absolutely. And what was it? Extra innings? Home run? Something like that.

Yeah, against the Yankees. Against the Yankees. He won what? ALCS? Playoff game? It put them in the World Series, and then, of course, I guess you'd call it a boner. He had the error that you could argue cost the Cleveland team the World Series.

The first color front page of the New York Times, October 16, 1997, along with his role as a Toronto icon that Tony Fernandez, I'm sure he had that framed somewhere, that he got that first front page color photo. Speaking of nostalgia. When Brian gets hungry, he goes wild. So I tame my big appetite with a Swanson Hungry Man dinner.

A man-sized meal with extra meat and all the fixings. The second helping's built right in. I'm just a meat and potatoes man myself. Then dig into a Hungry Man Entree. Just meat and potatoes, but big on the meat. Swanson Hungry Man Dinners and Entrees are enough to turn a wild man... Into a pussycat! Meow!

Meow! Brian Glennie, who died in February at age, what have we got? He would have been 73 years old. A defenseman who played on what? What teams? Well, here's the thing. LA Kings, Toronto Leafs. He was a Leaf, of course.

He's in that ad with Lenny McDonald. But titch before my time, I never saw the man play. And yet there he is forever, memorialized at a Retro Ontario upload of Swanson Hungry Man Dinner. That's circa 1978. He was famous enough to be right on there, doing an endorsement for those TV entrees. Right, the Hungry Man TV dinners.

And he was a celebrity on par with Landy McDonald and his mustache. And in that commercial, he rips the door off the refrigerator in order to enjoy some of the most frozen food ever created. And they would always have that dessert in there, which kind of grossed me out. I wouldn't say eating this stuff was part of my childhood. It was like a conceptual thing for me that you could make these frozen things and like a whole dinner with multiple courses would be presented to you. This was some science fiction stuff back in the late 70s.

Oh, for sure. I can't say I ever partaked in that ritual. Well, you're your palma pasta all the way. I think technology has evolved a bit that frozen food isn't as terrible as it used to be. But if you were watching your NHL hockey heroes endorsing this stuff on TV, how could you resist?

If it was good enough for them fighting on the ice, it would be good enough for them fighting on the ice it would be it would be good enough for your young appetite i recall just walking down the street trying to escape the city i saw her from the corner of my eye yeah she looked so good i thought i'd die my heart went bang, shang-a-lang Bang, shang-a-lang Bang, shang-a-lang Bang, bang

My heart went bang, shang-a-lang This is the second hit song by the Archies, which has nothing to do with FOTM Andy Kim. Sugar Sugar gets played enough, but never enough respect for Bang Shangalang. And listen, they mention death in the lyrics of that song. And here in February, we lost Archie Comics editor-in-chief Victor Gorlick, died at age 78.

If I didn't know his name before, I was fascinated by the tributes to him because he worked for Archie Comics his entire life. He was in high school when he went to work for the company, wanted to work for Archie. He wanted to be in comic books and he talked his way into a job when he was around 16 years of age. And he hung on to that job here until 2020, ultimately rising to be the editor-in-chief. Victor Gorlick, there was some kind of workplace scandal at Archie Comics a few years ago.

I didn't quite get the gist of what was going on that his name came up. They were grateful to him because he came up with the idea of using Archie in commercials to endorse other products. So where you had Archie and all the gang

showing up in different commercials, this was a radical idea at the time, courtesy of this young guy who was working in the art department of Archie Comics. And that here he was. He was carrying the torch for this whole legacy of Archie and the Archies and Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead. Don't forget Big Moose and Midge.

And that he stayed on the job until the day he died. Here he was at 78, and in his obituary, very simple, he said, it said his last words were, he hoped he put a smile on people's faces. He put a smile on my face. As a young, very young man, I was addicted to Archie Comics. Like, I just ate him up like candy. And double digest, here we go.

But I loved archie comics the ultimate in screen terror the horror that was the nazi nightmare explodes on the screen because of the shocking nature of many scenes in this film, it is definitely not recommended for the squeamish or easily offended. Ilsa, she-wolf of the SS. In late January, gradually what trickled out was that Diane Thorne, the actress who played Ilsa, she died in Las Vegas at age 83. Ilsa is worth talking about here because this was a series of pornographic films

at a time when they would play on a big screen in a movie theater where the origins of the movie were entirely Canadian. Ivan Reitman, who went on to so many bigger and better things under maybe a series of pseudonyms, was originally involved with the production of the Ilsa series. It started with this movie where Ilsa was, I guess she was in the thick of it all during World War II. There was a subplot where Ilsa, as an agent of Adolf Hitler, that she was capable of castrating men who did not abide by her desires. Does that make sense as far as you're concerned?

I think I've got it, yes. Would you now want to see this movie? We're talking about 1975. Well, I just watched Black... Playing in an X-rated movie theater. I don't know about that, but I will point out that at my convocation, at Convocation Hall

when I had my convocation at U of T, the keynote speaker was Ivan Reitman, but it was not Diane Thorne. It was Ivan Reitman. Well, Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS

was a successful enough movie that they made three sequels. There was Ilsa, harem keeper of the oil sheiks, where she slithered her way through Arabia. Ilsa, harem keeper of the oil sheiks, where she slithered her way through Arabia. Ilsa, the tigress of Siberia,

which was filmed in Montreal, standing in for Russia. These Ilsa movies, there wasn't much continuity to the whole history of who Ilsa was and how this came about, how she found herself in these different scenarios. But keep in mind, these were porno movies. No one was too worried about the fact that it didn't make any sense that here we had Ilsa showing up in all these scenarios. And the original Ilsa, fascinating enough, was shot on the set of Hogan's Heroes. After that show finished production,

the whole set was there. It wasn't struck yet in Hollywood. They were able to sneak in there and film the movie. A real cult icon of midnight movies. But listen, there was no genuine acting career awaiting Diane Thorne. She went into a whole other industry with her husband. What they did, they ran a wedding business in Las Vegas,

you know, where they would do these spontaneous destination weddings. And you could ask Diane Thorne to dress up as Ilsa and perform your wedding ceremony. Here's the thing, though. I don't know if she did it that often because the kind of to dress up as Ilsa and perform your wedding ceremony. Here's the thing, though. I don't know if she did it that often, because the kind of guy that would want Ilsa performing his wedding ceremony is usually not the kind of guy who's capable of getting married. And then I'm around the one selected there to lead you home.

You wander alone. I feel the night. I feel your heart. I feel somebody's right. Took my cheat in the night. I feel the light I feel your heart beat Something right Too much heat in the night

In the night You feel the sadness taking over In the city Here is a real retro Ontario jam. I mean, here I am stealing more thunder from Ed Conroy by bringing this down to Toronto Mike. I don't think you have ever played the theme from Night Heat in any context whatsoever before.

I don't think so, but you never know. It might have leaked into an app, but I don't think so. Who died in late January was Sonny Grosso, and he was a police detective who was involved in a legendary case which turned out to be the inspiration for a movie called The French Connection.

It was Roy Scheider in that movie who played the fictionalized detective character that had the same surname, and that was him cashing in on his police career. And he was able to work as a film and TV consultant for people who wanted to make sure that their portrayal of police was accurate. He helped out with The Godfather,

and he later worked on shows like Kojak and Beretta, and all this came together once I read his obituary. Why did the show Night Heat get any attention in the United States? And it was because Sonny Grosso was behind the show, that he had those credits behind him, that he had that history. It was a guy from the French Connection who he was striking out on his own with his own show, Night Heat, about cops in Toronto,

even though they never said what city they were in. Did they? I have no idea. I didn't see it. The whole idea was that they masked it as a generic metropolis, but that everyone who lived here could take pride in the fact

that it was being filmed in the city. Gene Hackman was in French Connection, right? Yeah. Got the right movie, okay. And one of the urban legends on Night Heat, maybe it was true, the fact they had to add garbage to a Toronto street because the streets were so clean. Toronto the good.

This sounds like something that somebody would have once made up. But it also could have been true to make the city look a little grittier. I mean, this is decades before your favorite show, The Wire. And it was very much, I think, inspired by Miami Vice. That's where they got Dominic Triano,

a Canadian musician from the band Bush, and went on to be a bit of a disco star. And he was in The Guess Who. Yeah, after Randy Kaufman. Do you know who owns the, quick fun fact, I know we're in the memorial section, there's no fun facts allowed,

but of course there's always time for fun facts. I guess you know this, but who owns the name The Guess Who in tours as The Guess Who? Well, it is the drummer of the Guess Who that owns the rights to the name, and the singer of the Guess Who now is Sass Jordan's husband.

Right? It was on my notes to bring up of Sass, but I got a five-minute wind-down warning, and I never got to it. Yeah, well, that's a bit tacky. So a Guess Who cover band playing around the casinos and the summer fairs around america with the name the guess who they're allowed and meanwhile bachman

and uh cummings are uh they're they're touring without being called the guess who right like it's kind of bizarre it's a little confusing and there's a lot of bad blood behind it but look it's keeping sass j Jordan's husband on the stage. Baby welcome to the party I hit the boy up and then I go skating around it Baby welcome to the party Pitch a metat, get me lit Got no money One and a half Ten and a clip

Baby Baby don't trip Just lower your tone Cause you can get hit, don't let that hit you, you my sister I got your body, next day I forget it Nigga try to score the body I don't know. We seem to be talking about a different rapper in the memorial section every month that we never heard of before they died. Because I don't know if Pop Smoke was somebody that you ever listened to. Not until he died.

You rely on your kids for this stuff. I asked my son, the hip-hop expert of my life. I said, oh, Pop Smoke, gone. Did you know him before he died? And he confessed to me that he didn't know of him until he passed so I don't feel so bad well we want to sound cool here

Mike as we creep into middle age so let's pretend that we were well versed with the discography of Pop Smoke do you like this song straight up

real talk Mark Weisblatt like you know we're listening to this jam I never heard it before he died so now it has this different resonance

for me I guess but he's no XXXTentacion, who at least I felt like there was something there. This Pop Smoke, I'm not sure. This is the only song I ever saw sort of referenced. And no disrespect, not to speak ill of the dead here. I know he was shot and killed. Tragic.

Very young. Very, very young. 20? Was he 20? 19, 20, 21? Something like that. That's a kid. I can't believe it.

But this was the jam that he's kind of famous for and finally hit my radar by passing. But again, I'm the guy who says there should be a word for when you start to like something because the singer passed away. And this is maybe for that reason alone. Yeah, okay. Bashar Jackson

murdered at age 20 as a result of putting his address on social media. And these stories are getting weirder and weirder. Juice World was one before that where he swallowed a bunch of drugs on a plane.

Is it just that there's more because of YouTube and other such it just that there's more, because of YouTube and other such digital enterprises, that there's just more famous people now? That you're starting to like, now you don't rely on being in a movie or on one of the three stations

of a television show on one of the three stations or, like it's now there's just so many more people of notoriety because of, you know reality shows and youtube etc etc spotify add him to the list along with xxx tantacion still trying to remember how to pronounce that right uh juice world was another one just these strange stories of circumstance and uh here we had pop smoke who was reportedly gang affiliated and uh here we had Pop Smoke, who was reportedly gang-affiliated. And here he had his album debut

on the top ten of the U.S. charts. As per your theory then, I mean, these people do post numbers. They would have followings through streaming platforms and stuff like that. And in the process, there we go, a gang hit,

taking out Pop Smoke, not Pot Smoke. Pop. And other stories involving rappers from Toronto. There was a big Airbnb shooting, and it was a member of the duo, the Tall Up Twins, who was killed there. Also had attention as 4400 Bully, rapper we mentioned earlier, and another one called YS. And that ended up a bit of a coincidence because all these rappers

ran in the same circles and they were all murdered under circumstances that I don't think were entirely solved. A lot of tragic deaths all around. I guess updating the list of dead rappers younger than ever. What to do for pleasure songs that you heard in your life you didn't know that they were songs that other people wrote. They were from existing albums.

The first time you ever heard them, it was somebody's theme song on a radio show. You spent years and years trying to figure out what Bob McCowan's theme song was. I have a copy of it here. Bob Mackiewicz on QN07 when he would do the music news. That was his theme. Natural's Not In It by the Gang

of Four. Andy Gill was the Gang of Four. Andy Gill was the Gang of Four member who died in February. You mentioned him with Scott Turner, and that was the song I Love a Man in Uniform, which is a real jam. Also from this vintage, but it was on February 1st that the lead guitarist of Gang of Four,

Andy Gill, real new wave legend for this song, but remembered most by me for writing this song that would introduce Bob Makowitz telling me the music news on Q107. Thank you. This is not America. Little piece of you. Little piece in me. Well, this is not America.

For this is not America. A miracle, for this is not America. Lyle Mays died in February 2020, and he was a keyboard player with the Pat Metheny Group. And if you know nothing else by the Pat Metheny Group, you know that they wrote this soundtrack to the Falcon and the Snowman. And one of their instrumentals, David Bowie, wrote some lyrics to it. And it turned out that this jazz act, Pat Metheny Group, could say that they had a top 40 hit song. This is not America.

David Bowie with the Pat Metheny Group and the keyboards courtesy of Lyle Mays. keyboards courtesy of Lyle Mays. And after playing with Pat Metheny, he ended up working in computers and architecture. You know, a very scientific guy after developing this synthesized sound to the wild-haired jazz

guitarist. Another song they had called Last Train Home, Pat Metheny group. You might recognize it if I played it for you. I think that was a bit of a radio airplay item on different radio stations at the time. But most of all,

they left this song behind with Bowie. I think this was like the last hurrah for the great avant-garde David Bowie, at the same time being able to crack the charts. After that, he had that Never Let Me Down album. He was trying to

cash in, trying to get back to that glory, playing in stadiums. It was alright. A couple of minor hits. But after that, we had David Bowie and Tin Machine. You know David Bowie is still trying to reclaim the legacy of Tin Machine, even though he's dead. They just put out remakes of

those Tin Machine songs on an he's dead. They just put out remakes of those Tin Machine songs on an EP that came out in February of him trying to reclaim them. But it's Lyle Mays who we remember, and yeah, great, great jazz stuff from the Pat Metheny group, and it couldn't have happened without him. Pat Matheny Group.

And it couldn't have happened without him. I spend my time thinking about you constantly. It's true that I want you. You're the meaning of success to me. Cause anything you want, you can get from me. Don't try to work it out. Just let it be. Emotion has no price.

And love is free. Really, I do this death section so I can live out all my fantasies of being like a 1980s corporate rock radio DJ. And we can get into deep cuts like that one from John Waite, most famous for Missing You. I've been missing you. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that was covered by Tina Turner, as I recall. Guys like John Waite, even though you associate them with this slick corporate rock like created in a boardroom,

I think John john wait always fashioned himself an art rocker when we talk about somebody like david bowie like john wait would have seen himself as being in the same sort of genre uh but but but not everyone could be david bowie and he had to sell out he was in this bandies, and ended up with his solo career. And for at least part of his career, his bass player was a guy named Ivan Kroll. And Ivan Kroll, before that, played with the Patti Smith group, also with Iggy Pop, also with David Bowie. But the song that people associate with him most is one from Patti Smith called Dancing Barefoot. Went on to work with John Waitin. If you want to go by the Billboard chart books, that would have been the biggest song that he ever wrote.

A follow-up from the album that came after Missing You. Every Step of the Way, died of Cancer, February 2020, age 71. And because you're not going to hear this on the radio, not even on Jack FM, here we got to remember Ivan Kroll. I want to hold the hand inside you I want to take a breath that's true I look to you and I see'll come apart and you'll go black Some kind of light into your darkness Close your eyes with what's not there

Baby You didn't think there were that many verses before the chorus, did you? I gotta say, I love this song and always have. A Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, a duo with a singer named, what was it, Hope Sandoval, playing with David Roback. And it was David Roback who died in February 2020, also cancer, at age 61. And even though you'd think this Mazzy Star was some kind of one-hit wonder,

I don't know, you remember this song from your formative years? But this is the one Mazzy Star song I could name off the top of my head because I've listened to it a million times. Oh, it made it to the pop charts. And I think it was partly because, looking at the top of my head because I've listened to it a million times. Oh, it made it to the pop charts, and I think it was partly because looking at the history of David Roback that he came up with this sound. Previously, it was a duo. He had a different

singer. It was called Opal. Opal. And the cowboy junkies came along, and they got all this critical acclaim, and they started playing these big theaters, and he felt like they kind of capitalized on this sound that he had, this gothic folk music, which at the same time,

here was this group from Toronto that came in there, and they were getting all this fame that he felt he could get a piece of too. And ended up, probably because of the Cowboy Junkie's success, got that major label record deal and at least had this one hit to show for it in this weird time, I think, when the grunge

explosion had already happened and pop radio stations were making room for more songs like this at the time when the Meat Puppets or the Butthole Surfers, these acts that had been around the American Songs like this at the time when the Meat Puppets or the Butthole Surfers, these acts that had been around the American indie scene, all of a sudden there they were, the Billboard charts, and he had his turn too. But they had an early band with Susanna Hoffs who went on to the Bengals,

a band called the Rain Parade, part of the Paisley Underground. But it's Mazzy Star, Fade Into You, for which we remember David Roback. Fade I don't need no doctor Because I know what's killing me I don't need no doctor Because I know what's killing me A Buddy Cage is who died associated with this band,

New Riders of the Purple Sage. And Buddy Cage was a pedal steel guitar player from Toronto, originally played in the band with Ian and Sylvia, the Great Speckled Bird. And he was along on the Festival Express concert tour. It connected him with Anne Murray. He played on our early albums, Pedal, Steel, Guitar, and also Roar and Shipley.

But the Festival Express is where he came on the radar with his band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, because their Pedal, Steel, guitar player had a different job. His name was Jerry Garcia. And they were looking for a full-time permanent member to replace him. And he got called up to the upper major leagues of hippie jam band music. And for all those years there he was Buddy Cage

with New Riders of the Purple Sage died February 2020 at age 73. She's a rich girl She don't try to hide it Diamonds on the soles of her shoes He's a poor boy Empty as a pocket

Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose. Sing ta-na-na, ta-na-na-na, she got diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Ta-na-na, ta-na-na-na, she got diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Diamonds on the soles of his shoes Diamonds on the soles of his shoes Diamonds on the soles of his shoes Diamonds on the soles of his shoes Joseph Shabalala

He died in February at age 79 And I think he's somebody who a lot of people know who he is Even if they don't know his name And it has a lot to do with that song Right? Diamonds on the soles of her shoes From the Paul Simon album Graceland That he was from, that vocal group Lady Smith Black Mambazo, who I first saw live on Saturday Night Live

when Paul Simon debuted the incarnation of Graceland on SNL. I saw it when it happened. I thought this was something different. Pretty exciting that he tapped into the South African musicians at the height of apartheid when the tensions were rising and that Paul Simon found these people to collaborate with. And he was right in there with this song and the other song, Homeless, and the Graceland album, which would have been a must-own for every yuppie at the time. I don't know if it was on your playlist, the mid-1980s. Monster album, yeah. It was across all the genres and generations.

Big, big deal. And Joseph Shabalala met with a lot of tragedy. Like different family members who were murdered. You know, apartheid became a thing of the past. South Africa became a tense place on a whole different level, but amidst all the tragedies, he kept performing. He cracked the worldwide market with his singing act, and as a result, even if people didn't

know his name, that it would have been this guy who sang with Paul Simon, who was a crucial part of Graceland, that he died on February 11th, 2020 at age 79. I never know why you don't know how to tell the truth. You don't know how to tell the truth. Yeah.

I'm a fool, fool. I've been such a fool. I'm blowing my coal with you right now To tell the truth, truth, truth, truth You say you went home early last night As the age of death gets older and older and older, I know we're coming to the end of the episode, and I wanted to salute Orson Bean,

who died at age 91, not of natural causes. He got hit by a car. Wow. And Orson Bean, mostly famous just for being famous. He was the kind of guy that would show up on TV game shows.

He would sit on the couch on all the different talk programs including Alan Thicke who was doing a show for CTV in the early 1980s. They flew North of the border to make these appearances. Be this kind of rock and tour on TV. And the show

that he was most anonymous with was this one. To Tell the Truth. And the show that he was most synonymous with was this one, To Tell the Truth. And I remember this theme song from childhood, not quite understanding what it was all about, but being completely freaked out every time I would hear it in a good way. This is

an amazing song. Could have been a hit in its own right, I think. And even though it was from the late 60s, it hung around as a TV theme song through the early 1980s. Orson Bean was also married to the mother from The Wonder Years. Wow. Allie Mills, a few years younger than him. A few?

I feel like we got like 30 years younger than him. So how old was Orson Bean again? Orson Bean was 91 years of age. Also part of his legacy, he was the father-in-law of Andrew Breitbart, the journalist who originally worked with Matt Drudge and lent his name to a website. Breitbart died at a young age. You didn't get to see this become maybe the most infamous website in America

when it was taken over by a guy named Steve Bannon. And Orson Beaton was one of these characters who was like a former communist who became a real diehard conservative. If he was blacklisted for his politics at one point in time, maybe he rejoined the blacklist later on because he was a real kind of right-winger. And yeah, one of those names that maybe people wouldn't have given him a lot of thought

until it turned out that he was struck by two different cars, like a collision with him in the middle, but at the same time befitting his legacy. We all got to go sometime. Orson Bean dead at 91. Now, Mr. Bean was 91 years old. There's no way we could come up with somebody who lived to be older than that. Last month, we remembered the life of Mr. Peanut,

whose death was announced at age 104, and I think it turned out to be a little bit of a scam. Because the whole thing was Mr. Peanut's funeral would be broadcast during the Super Bowl. Maybe it was because of Kobe Bryant dying somewhere while they were doing that promotion. They want to be too morbid about Mr. Peanut's death. Whatever it was, Mr. Peanut was,

was what, reincarnated as a baby? That was part of the promotion during the Super Bowl? But that was January. But in February, is it possible somebody lived to be almost as old as Mr. Peanut? Is that possible? Well, I think he had in mind the idea that he could live that long, but we lost Kirk Douglas at age 103.

Spartacus, a movie that I have never seen. I feel like I've seen it because it's all over pop culture. Like, I am Spartacus, but I don't believe I've ever seen it either. I just think I've seen it. Well, Stanley Kubrick was a director. And if you want to be a historian well-versed in the history of cinema. I guess you got to watch this thing, but I'm not one of those people. As a result, I don't think I ever saw any movie with Kirk Douglas,

but certainly knew who he was, at the very least, as the father of actor. What, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? That was him, right? Or am I getting my guys confused? I used to get Burt Lancaster mixed up with Kirk Douglas. Well, they did like their last mainstream movie together. The two tough guys. And that was in the, what, late 80s, early 90s,

around the same time. Because I always remember Burt Lancaster, he played that great role in Field of Dreams, a movie I've seen a hundred times. That's how I remember Burt Lancaster. But Kirk Douglas, for most of my life, I just know him as being Michael Douglas' dad, who used to be a big deal.

Kirk Douglas, soon after he wrote his biography, The Ragman's Son, it was a great story about making it in Hollywood throughout the 20th century. He ended up in a helicopter crash. Someone ended up dying, and he survived. He took on, I guess, a more spiritual side, reflected in the fact, now that he's died,

that his entire fortune is going to charity. And I think there was some satisfaction in the headlines that Michael Douglas, his son, who is generally perceived in the show business press as an arrogant prick, was not going to get a dime. He's got his own money. Yeah, did it really matter? He's like worth $300

million. Right. He produced a lot of hits too. Kirk Douglas, even though he made it to $103, he didn't burn through his whole fortune, whatever the numbers were. $60, $70, $80 million left behind to a good cause, a great legacy, Kirk Douglas dying

at 103, making it possible for us to end the Toronto Mic'd obituary section on a note that we all can live with. We went over time, but I'm not editing a word out of this thing, so it's going to be longer than two and a half hours today. I just couldn't cut.

I cut out so many deaths as it was, as you know, but, you know, there's so much content. But thank you again for making the trek here. Love the monthly visits from Mark. 12.30, six wise blocks. Okay, Mike, let's see where we're at at the end of March. Will I still be working on the 1236 newsletter? If somebody was listening this long, you better sign up at 1236.ca.

But lots of other adventures in the air. And I hope we can get together at the end of March and take stock of where we're at, catch up on other FOTMs, and one more plug for FOTM Jay Brody on the B team on 102.1 The Edge. Congrats, Jay.

And that brings us to the end of our 591st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 12361236. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. Banjo Dunk is at Banjo Dunk with a C. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. See you all next week. 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

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