Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #811

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

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

Welcome to episode 811 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. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Contact Barb, she's Barb at CDN Technologies dot com 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. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majeski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike.

He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me for his February 2021 recap. From 1236, it's Mark Weisblot. Hey, Mike. Still on Zoom. Part of the appeal of doing these monthly recaps is the chaotic energy that comes with taking the TTC down to New Toronto. We'll look forward to doing that again in the spring.

Get some more backyard episodes happening. Here we are in early March. It's time to end the winter already. Didn't the groundhog tell us that it was going to be over? Six weeks or less? Oh, it's hard to track. There's so many groundhogs these days, and they're not always on the same page. But I can tell you that I believe that this is our last Zoom episode. I sincerely believe, maybe our last Zoom ever, I feel like all subsequent 1236 episodes of Toronto Mic'd will be in person until it's safe to be inside. We'll be in the backyard.

I think we can do that in a month. Yeah, that's the way it's got to be. Well, this is very convenient. bus getting down to the lakeshore. Instead, spent puttering around my apartment, getting a little nervous, wondering how things are going to work out doing it this way. Can we cover everything you ought to know from the past month in the Canadian media in a reasonable amount of time and then get to the Ridley Funeral Home obituaries where we talk about the people who died in the last 30 days since we met. And I love that you're rocking the Ridley Funeral Home toque.

So that's awesome. And you're not even outside. So that's how much we respect the good people at Ridley Funeral Home. By the way, Mark, I must apologize off the top. I'm coming off the high of the Ann Romer jam kicking. I don't know if you caught any of that earlier today. Well, I think it's novel how we used to talk about Ann Romer as if she was some mythical character trying to decode how she retired twice from cp24 it ended up being three retirements

for ann romer in the end and now now she's a true fotm right it's no longer uh you on the on the outside looking in at the life of ann roemer it's ann roemer coming time and time again to talk to you this would have been one of those kick out of the jams episodes where some tears were shed in the process of counting down her memory you know what i noticed if the guest gets oh you know overcome of emotion and starts to weep, it just sort of, I start to put myself, what do you call that?

Empathy, I suppose you put, I put myself in their position and I sort of like, I go, Oh, they're crying. This is really sad. And yeah,

it got to me. So there's a moment with the final jam. And because she's Ann Romer, she got 11 jams. I couldn't, I couldn't tell her to drop one because she's Ann Romer. Okay, well then thank you anyone who in their podcast app might have seen back-to-back Toronto Mic'd episodes today and chose to listen to me rather than the former host of Breakfast Television. Rather than the former host of Breakfast Television.

Well, you know, those, as I've said often, those who like the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mike, like them a lot. I do have a jam for us to get us started here. Let me get myself sorted here. Here's something to warm us up. Any moment here. pause for the rhythm and the wins for recital ready for revival revved up riddling roll with the riddling

messed up middling best you settle in while I'm peddling pills in the molly I'm nibbling edibles whittling cash I'm fiddling your own dick you diddling saddle in the corner with the gas just giggling tell me if you wanna get real about the cinnamon I got discipline Now, Anne didn't kick out anything this current, but what is this song, Mark? And didn't kick out anything this current, but what is this song, Mark? Oh, here is a duo of sisters from Calgary called Cartel Madras. Cartel Madras. Pass that slip.

And this song is called Drift. Drift. I learned about this song from listening to CBC Music. We discussed how they were adding a nighttime black music show called The Block.

Right. And already a few times I caught this one on heavy rotation. Learned a little bit about this act signed to the legendary Sub Pop Records from Seattle. I guess seal of approval

for something different here. Some sisters born in southern India who moved to Calgary and now they're on Sub Pop. How's that for a throwback? Oh, no doubt. Something that would have had quite a cachet back in the

1990s when they were signing grunge bands from Halifax. Right, right, right. And now here's something different. And thank you to cbc music for putting this on my radar because uh there a month ago we were skeptical about how canada's public broadcaster would get into into hip-hop on their music radio station,

talking about where that project has fallen short of expectations over the years, still waiting for them to bring back the show Brave New Waves. Right, right. But here was something that I heard that was, I think, worthy of what that all represents. And look, maybe more to come. You can't depend on TikTok to tell you everything about what's hip with the kids.

So Mike, just that service I try and provide here every month with introducing you to something different and getting us into the mood for the episode ahead. Well, we appreciate it. And, you know, I already asked you for some instant feedback on the Ann Romer jam kicking, which literally happened hours ago, but there's a couple of other fairly recent Toronto Mike episodes that you wanted to discuss off the top.

Well, what I was of course, taken with John Pohl, who paid you a visit on the heels of being laid off by Bell Media. Here was a story of a guy who owns radio stations of his own, the My Broadcasting Corporation there on the east side of Ontario. corporation there on the on the east side of ontario uh there he was doing his own shows across the country for bell media at night and i didn't realize all of this ahead of time he he was he was just doing it as a hobby like it was something for fun he said they were paying him but i'm sure not very much part of the appeal would have been that he came with a discount. Where was he calling from? The Ottawa Valley? Renfrew?

Renfrew, Ontario, wherever that is. But I think some candor there from somebody who's in radio ownership and management, somebody who's in radio ownership and management talking about how they made it be behind the microphone and built up that kind of audience uh for a certain kind of talk radio i thought in the tradition of somebody that that john worked with uh very early in his career ed needham the whole need him. The whole idea of people just gathering around the radio and a talk show host that isn't as much polarizing as just trying to connect with people and create that community around a radio show, something that Bell Media seemed to have no use for any longer. He was content with the fact that they replaced him with Jamil Javani, who I think is doing more of a current events-based show from a conservative perspective. It's not so much right-wing as it is anti-woke. But here we had the media story that I think made the most impact

in the first few weeks of 2021, right after Bell Let's Talk Day, Bell Media deciding. They had a couple hundred employees that were expendable. They didn't need a round anymore. They didn't need a round anymore. This was at the same time it was revealed they were taking what, 122, 123 million dollar wage subsidy. Something like that. Paying it out in dividends and maybe showing off a bit of the hypocrisy about how this telecom-owned media works in Canada. And I think just underlining a little further, and we'll get to that in this episode, because it comes up in every episode,

how Bell and Rogers and Shaw, them being invested in media content, it may not be long for this world. Yeah, the John Poole episode was very well received because John brought the real talk. So if you haven't yet heard the John Pohl episode, go pause this and go listen and then come back. But we should have discussed this in the January recap because the other episode you wanted to talk about

was actually recorded in January. I probably left it on the cutting room floor. Who knows what I did at the end of January. But Nicholas Piccolis. Oh, yeah, Nick, who is now working in Buffalo, as he has been for the past quarter century on KISS 98.5. And I guess he's going for the gold there, like Roger Ashby with his 50 years at Chum.

Nicholas Piccolis is halfway there in Buffalo. And I thought the story about how he went from being this board operator, button pushing guy at CFNY about 30 years ago, turned into this entire radio career, owing to the fact they got this job on the YTV show, Video and Arcade Top 10. And it was because Nick was on YTV that I learned somewhere along the way, he was the best known radio DJ with teenagers in Toronto. Wow. Even though he was on the air in Buffalo. He had the highest recognition factor. Wow. that was talking about super NES on this no-budget show that was running on the weekend for YTV.

I mean, look, there were fewer entertainment options out there. If you were flicking around television as a bored tweenager in the 1990s, you definitely would have landed on nicholas pickless talking about video games and i think you know whether it was whether it was nick nicholas pickless i liked how you mentioned in that episode an anecdote i passed down to you that early on writing for i weekly i gave uh something nick was up to, a little plug. He showed up on the Buffalo radio station

doing this postmodern Sunday show. The point where the CHR Top 40 thing was dying out and they brought him in to bring more of a modern rock flavor to Kiss. Brought him in to bring more of a modern rock flavor to Kiss. I could not bring myself to type out the name Nicholas Pickless. Right. And here we are 25 years later talking about him as a radio legend. So whether it was Nick or John Paul, I think the story that there is to be told that came up in a couple of those real talk episodes is like the the the gen xer media story yeah what did it take to get somewhere in radio or any

anywhere in the media business during the during the 1990s because because the concept of the internship wasn't so enshrined, not like it is today. You can think about how that reflects the system of labor in the workplace, you know, that things have gotten a lot more exploitative in the decade since, that there's kind of an idea that you'll go to a major corporation, you know, multi-billion dollar Bell or Rogers Media in order to get some sort of diploma degree. You're going to work for a company like this for free? And yet a whole generation or two came along thinking that's just the way that it works. It's all intertwined with. And I think you're getting more of those stories as all these people who are now pushing 50 or older than a half century at this point in time, looking back on how they got here, what they've got to say. It's been Mike Wilner

talking about how he became the voice of the Blue Jays, you know, here on the other end of that experience where they tossed him out in favor of running the television play-by-play. How did he get to where he was? What created that opportunity for him? It was essentially like annoying his way in uh a lot of stories you've collected right if like people pestering others by by making phone calls and until they got the go-ahead until they were wanted to do something george straubelopolis same same sort of story i mean how you know how did he get to do this international show on Apple Music every afternoon? Right.

It wasn't by accident, but at the same time, it took a certain sort of persistence that I don't think you can get away with anymore. Don't you get that sense when you do these interviews where you're talking to people about what it took to break into broadcasting 20 or 30 years ago. A different set of circumstances than what we see today. In a lot of ways, it's gotten better because here we live in this time of TikTok. People able to start their own podcasts and YouTube channels and rise up through the ranks in that way. But a certain kind of innocence, you know, when you're talking about the last century and what was involved to get on the radar and end up with having this kind of career, some of these careers are coming to an end. People are being put out to pasture who still have a lot of working years ahead of them.

And I think also that's been a recurring theme here on Toronto Mike. So what can I say? Cheers to John Pohl. I mean, it helps what he inherited some radio stations from his dad, built up the company that way. It took a lot of ingenuity on his part, knowing a little bit more about human resources and how to relate to his employees than a big telecom media company can. Or then somebody like Nicholas Pickless, who stumbled into CFNY at a certain time atop the strip mall in Brampton. And he's made a certain kind of radio stardom out of that. Those were the stories you're collecting here,

and there will be different sort of stories in the future. A similar story to Nicholas Piccolis' is owned by Brother Bill, also known as Neil Morrison. Brother Bill recently did a three-episode arc on Pandemic Fridays. Now, Mark, you don't know this is coming, so this is going to be a surprise for you. But Brother Bill's in this story. You're in this story because you mentioned when you were talking about Nicholas Piccolas, you used to write for iWeekly. Mark Wiseblood, iWeekly. Great work there. And you also mentioned the 90s because we all remember the 90s. So, Mark, I'll play this for you and then later if you make me edit it out, that's fine. Nobody will know this happened because we're not live anywhere. But I'm going to play a piece of audio that Brother Bill sent me. You ready? No, I'm not ready, Mike, but what can I do? What can you do? Here we go.

This is courtesy of Brother Bill. Hey, Howard. Mark Weisblot, iWeekly. Thank you. Okay. All last week, I've been getting phone calls at home from different producers of TV shows and radio shows. They were all begging me to come on there and be the guy who sits on a panel and defends you and tries to justify what you're doing. I guess they were really hard up to find somebody here in Canada who would go on TV and be the

guy who speaks up on behalf of Howard Stern. But you know what? I turned them all down. And the reason was because I think there's enough people riding your coattails in this town. I'm trying to do my own thing. But if I actually succumbed, went on one of these shows, what would you want me to say on your behalf as the guy who defends Howard Stern to the people of Canada? Well, I'd want you to say nothing.

I don't want you going on defending me. Nobody needs to defend me. I'll bring down Howard here for a bit because he's going to go on for a little bit. But you come back later. So we've talked about, I feel like we've referenced this several times on Toronto Mic, but I've never heard the audio.

This is the... I feel like this event defined my entire life in the past 23 or 24 years. All right, speak to it then because it's in the background, really quiet. I don't even know if you can pick it up on Zoom. How long did it go on? Well, at some point I want to bring it back because you call out a couple of guys in Toronto and I want to bring it back when that happens.

Unless you want to listen and then we'll just comment on it. Why don't we listen? Because, you know, Brother Bill worked hard to find this audio. So let's listen to a bit more, and then we'll talk about it. They're all frightened right now. How do you feel? I'm not the first American to start broadcasting. In fact, in Toronto right now, there's a guy on CBC Radio in Toronto.

He's an American. His name is Andy Barry. Uh-huh. You're right. And he came here. He came to Canada because he probably couldn't make it in the States. So you got our leftovers. You know what?

Howard, he was a draft dodger. I don't know if, listen, that's your accusation. I don't know the man. I don't know that he's a. It's true. It's a fact. That's fine. I don't care.

I don't care about that. I'm making a point about radio. So suddenly a guy comes into town who actually does some work on his show. He actually makes people laugh. Everybody's all threatened. Everyone's up in arms. The other radio stations are busy running announcements. We're we're Canadian. We are we're not American. What do you think? Who do you think that's directed at? Why are all the radio stations worried? Why are they nervous?

Because I work at my show. Because I care about what I put on the air. I think radio can be a better medium than what it's been. And I feel glad for the people of Toronto that they're finally going to get some competitive radio in the morning. How do you feel then, Howard, when you turn on the TV and you see a panel discussion going on about yourself? Because there's been an awful lot of them going on Canadian TV. I haven't seen any of them, obviously. I haven't been sent any.

We wish you would send us tapes. I would love to see them, and then I'd tell you how I feel about it. I've turned on many television shows in the United States where they debate whether or not I should be on the air, and I always have a good chuckle. I always think it's kind of funny that everybody talks about free speech, but as soon as somebody actually exercises it, everyone wants it stopped. They go running for cover. Yeah, I mean, I don't get it.

What's everyone afraid of? Same thing on the Internet. Everyone's screaming in this country anyway. I don't know about in Canada. Oh, we have to stop the Internet. We have to. You know why? Because it's free.

People can't stand freedom. They want to be told what to listen to. They want to be told what to say. And God forbid anybody says anything that's sort of out there or politically incorrect. They want to stop it. Well, we're not stopping it. I'm glad to be on Q107. I'm excited.

I believe Canada should have good radio, and now they're going to. Hey, Howard, on a related note, have you ever pursued legal action against another DJ who was stealing your bits? No, I never have. Have you actually gone after them? I never have. Because there's a couple in Toronto who have definitely made a career out of ripping you off the last couple years. Well, that's why I'm kind of glad I'm here now.

I mean, that was the whole point of syndicating my radio show. I mean, how would you feel if you were sitting home and something you wrote was picked up by another journalist and he was credited? Literally, things that I've said, the exact way i say them concepts bits the way i do radio uh my only revenge is to show up in the market it's a very it's very hard to go after people and sue them for concepts ideas style of speech very very difficult so the only way i can do it is to be on the air and say, hey man, I started this. It's me that you've been listening to. These guys stole my personality. In Los Angeles, I had two bitches who stole my personality.

Mark and Brian. Had to teach them a lesson. Mark Wiseblood. Please. Firstly, like I said, I'd never heard that. So this week is the first time I heard that. Well, I never heard it either in the sense that even though you hear my voice on there, I think we were at the Hard Rock Cafe at Young and Dundas.

And I mean, I would have been so nervous. I would have been standing there trembling. You did a great job, by the way. You did a fantastic job. But I'm saying it's not like I was able to digest the answers. Right. I knew I was there for a certain kind of performance. How did I do, Mike?

I'm impressed because I always talk about, yeah, I interviewed Chuck D. Well, that's you interviewing Howard Stern. That's a big fucking deal. I thought that was fantastic. Okay. Now you're saying the aftermath of that moment, which continues to this day in which you cannot mention my name to Humble and Fred,

whose podcast no longer on terrestrial radio. Right. You are currently the producer of the humble and fred show yes you're you're booking great guests every single day you're making the show a little bit more than them bantering back and forth with dan duran yes all on you thank you uh and they never got over the notion that there they were humiliated over the North American airwaves. By my insinuation, notice I did not mention them by name. Right. That I was humiliating them in front of Howard Stern.

Well, you basically accused Humble and Fred, and I know you didn't. I didn't accuse anyone. Of stealing Howard Stern's bits over the last couple of years. I could have been talking about any number. Jesse and Gene? Of Toronto radio DJs. Well, Jesse and Gene weren't on the air anymore. Right, that's why I know it's Howard Stern. They haven't gotten over that either.

They just launched some new podcast where they're still talking about getting fired in 1997. But it's not a podcast. I will say this about both, you know, Jess and Gina are FOTMs. They've been on the show. It's not a podcast if you have to go to a special website to hear it.

You cannot subscribe to Jess and Gina. Good luck getting through to them. But yes, that Howard Stern press conference in Toronto. Look, at that point, I'd already been a Howard Stern listener for as long as you could get him out of Buffalo in the morning.

On 1520. No, this was AM radio. Before WBUF. Okay, before WBF. Before WBF. It was WKB. It used to be WKBW. Okay, so pre-private parts. Pre-private parts.

I'd listened to Howard Stern for years. I'd heard the press conference schtick in every city in which he premiered. The day he signed on in Canada, they did one in Montreal. There were huge headlines over that. I knew this thing would get a certain amount of attention. I knew the ears of everyone interested in radio would be on this thing, including Andy Barry, who called me to try and set the record straight that he was not a draft dodger, but he was in fact a deserter

who moved up to Canada at the height of the Vietnam War. But again, that was just me looking for an angle, But again, that was just me looking for an angle and the whole idea here that we could humiliate somebody else. I mean, this is why you get into Howard Stern. It's either you go with the flow or what? You're setting yourself up for some sort of humiliation. I wanted to be the benevolent reporter, right? I wanted to be the person who was Howard Stern's best friend. Now, to this day, Howard Stern will tell you he was out of his mind back then. That what you heard was just a performance. This wasn't his real character who was spewing this venom over the airwaves right like he's disavowed everything he's ever said prior to well even even after he got on satellite radio there were these glimpses

of the old howard stern but when when they got rid of arty lang and brought in new new management right this is the the w Woker Howard going on today. And whenever it's come up with instances of him saying the N-word or objectifying women, you know, rating them along with Donald Trump, yucking it up in the studio, this wasn't the real Howard Stern. What you were hearing was some demonically possessed younger version of himself, even though he was in his in his 40s and 50s at the time. And there I was playing along. I'm glad you have heard that here. Thanks a lot, Neil Morrison of British Columbia.

White Rock. White Rock, B.C. Right. of british columbia where white rock white rock bc right um but that has been heard subsequently on on serious radio again before before they started censoring all the old tapes of howard stern uh they would run a master tape theater on on serious radio and they would play more of these unexpurgated recordings from the history of Howard. So I know that has aired at least once in the 2010s at some point in this century because people mentioned me. They heard it. They were impressed. And I thought, hey, that was my most humiliating moment now i get to hear it again i say you know what mike i didn't come off that badly no you did great i sounded like i knew what i was talking about for a 25 year old punk well i just love that i

it's just too funny to me that i now produce the you know humble and bread show and that you're calling them out for ripping off Howard Stern. This isn't whatever. Was it 97? When the hell was this? When was this? Oh, yeah, 1997. Okay, okay.

I was 26 at the time. Because, you know, I know they pretend they don't, they aren't aware of anything Toronto-miked, and that's their shtick, but I'm pretty sure they know that uh Mark Weisblatt spends a few hours on Toronto Mike'd are you entirely sure one one one time you're on the phone with Fred you said I was coming over and he flew off the handle talking about that press conference oh yeah I've been hearing about this press conference. Never, ever forgive or forget what went down that morning in Toronto.

Oh, man. What a start. September 1997. Wow. What a beginning. And here we are. What a beginning. Here we are today on Toronto Mic'd. And where do I go from here? Let's talk about the Toronto Star getting into gambling. Oh, I feel if we're going to do this topic,

you should have some casino sound effects in the background. Can you find some? You can be like Fred on the Howard Stern show. Oh, yes. Because how can you talk about casino gambling? He's got some kind of library. I got casino sound effects. Without the sound of slot machines ringing all around you.

It seems like an essential part. Let's see what I got here. Wow, what a lot of work you're making me do here. Hold on here. That's the stuff. All right, talk to me. Toronto Star. I saw Michael Hollett wrote something you retweeted, but is,

is this a appropriate behavior for the Toronto star? Tell me about what's going on with them in the casinos. Okay. Well, we're going to, uh, after the pandemic, uh, move into a whole new era of, uh, of gambling regulation across Canada, uh, which includes a federal level, you can do like single game sports betting through the whole history of the pro line lottery, right? It's been the point of contention

that you're not able to bet on a single game. It has to be a combination of picks, which makes it a lot more complicated to win. And also, I think, more complicated to follow what's going on because people just want to bet one game at a time. What else are they going to Las Vegas for? But Canada looks set to loosen the laws in that regard. to loosen the laws in that regard. And Ontario ready to open the floodgates here for private companies to do online betting

like it won't just be the domain of the OLG. Because even though they started up with the government agency, they're still noticing. I think they said $500 million a year is being bet in Ontario on these offshore websites. Why not keep the money in the province and in in the country stepping up to the plate here is the tor star corporation which changed hands uh at some point in 2020 the the structure that had before was on the brink of going broke

and some new saviors stepped in a couple of guys who always wanted to own a newspaper and enjoy the political power that came along with that they bring in the former premier uh david peterson to be their ambassador you know because these guys had a record of supporting conservative parties they wanted to show hey we're still on the side of liberals in fact we're going to we're going to bring in one of the biggest liberals in the history of Ontario to back our bid. And we're going to show that we're going to keep up with the ethics of the newspaper. They have something at Torstar called the Atkinson Principles. That's what keeps them leaning left. That, in fact they are are supporting uh the less fortunate aspects

of society afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted uh mike do you think that that online casino gambling is a fit with these atkinson principles? Or maybe do you detect a little bit of hypocrisy there that at the same time that they're reporting on the stuff that is ailing society, should the Torstar Corporation be encouraging people to gamble? Where are you at? Of course not.

No, of course they shouldn't. But it's the new regime there. It's going to be about dollar bills, y'all. And this is the lay of the land, the way of the world here. Okay, well, from a media critic perspective, including Jaron Kerr at the Globe and Mail, who did the story about this, and it's a good thing he's around. Somebody's got to.

The Toronto Star is not going to give you an honest report about their ambitions. Right. And when he asked around, they said these guys that own the star, Jordan Bitov, Paul Rivett, they said, you know, we're going to keep the Atkinson principles in mind.

Right. When the day comes that we attach a Toronto star to online gambling. And I think what raised an alarm here was not the fact that, look, if you want to start an online sports betting casino company, whatever this is supposed to be, If you want to combine that with content, like bring in Mike Willner to do his Blue Jays reporting, and that's part of the appeal for sports fans. They can read a little bit about the Blue Jays and then place a bet on tonight's game. I mean, that sounds like a legitimate enough business.

It might not do much for the problem gamblers out there. You might be legitimizing a sort of behavior that has been shown to have a downside, but still a legitimate business. A company from Toronto. The Score, which originated from the headline sports TV channel, which launched with a certain Mark Hebbshire on the air reading the sports scores. And they later sold this channel to Sportsnet. They spun it off into an app, and here they are are uh working uh an ipo on nasdaq uh you know bringing in bringing in the potential billions here for a canadian media company thanks to the liberalization of of online sports betting and getting ready to pounce in Ontario as well. So, you know, it looks good for this idea that they've got to, the thing that they are hoping to get for Touristar, I don't want to talk about it as a done deal because it is subject to regulatory approval,

but the question lingers. Why are you attaching this as something that is going to save journalism? Why do you have to bring the newspaper into the equation? Why do you have to give this online gaming portal more of a meaningful social responsibility context by saying that we're going to take a certain amount of these proceeds and we're going to use them towards investigative reporting. That we're going to have sleuths working the streets of Toronto and it's going to be made possible by the fact that we know there are a lot of potential gambling addicts out there. So to you, Mike, does this ring as hypocritical

that they feel a need to spin it this way rather than launching an operation like that in earnest? Because if these guys wanted to get into the gambling business, I don't think anybody would be batting an eye. Right. It's them attaching it to the purpose of a newspaper right and of course you know uh lottery proceeds are funding all sorts of stuff out there when when the the olg ontario lottery corporation first came to town the mid-1970s remember they

would have the winterio draw on television yep they would make a point of emphasizing all the good that was being done right out of out of the money that you were spending on lottery tickets you know they would go around the province to all these different uh cultural centers uh all these small town ontario places Ontario places got their own theater that was paid for by proceeds from the lottery. The lottery has helped subsidize all sorts of infrastructure out there, projects that would not have been possible without people burning money on lottery tickets that what was considered like a tax on stupid people has ended up being something that has done a lot of good out there i guess uh the new owners of tour star uh they took a gamble here and thinking that people would see them in

the same way same light you know we can't we can't get journalism to pay for itself through advertising. Can we get sports gambling to, in fact, fund the goodness of our editorial products? So that sums up where we're seeing a backlash at this moment. But I don't know. I mean, little seems to be standing in the way of this thing coming through. And it's it's on the journalists at the Toronto Star to wear this thing or to have it reinforced. They're working with editorial independence where anything they're doing is not impacted by by all the side hustles that they've got going on there. And this comes this comes in the aftermath of the government of Canada saying it's going to be a done deal here, that Google and Facebook will be forced in different ways through impending legislation.

We are going to make them pay for linking to our content. That's a whole other confusing spin that they've applied to what they're lobbying for here. Because you've seen editorial after editorial defanging big tech articles in the Star, making a case here. And Mike, I mean, you can destroy this in a second. this in a second, that by virtue of Facebook sharing articles from a newspaper like the Toronto Star, that Facebook is in fact stealing the content and using it to profit without paying anything back. You've been on the internet a long time. Did you ever see all those links to Toronto Star content, other newspapers, magazines, big media outlets out there? Did you ever see all those links to Toronto Star content, other newspapers, magazines, big media outlets out there? Did it ever run through your mind that somehow Facebook was stealing this stuff?

No, never once. No. And yet that's the argument that the newspaper lobby has been trying to make. So Australia got some legislation through. They were quickest on the draw. A recent CannaLand episode where Jesse Brown coined the phrase, it's tomorrow already in Australia, right? They're always one day ahead of us here. And they were the first to put this legislation through. Ended up compromising with Google and Facebook to effectively say, look, we're going to make the Silicon Valley social media companies pay, but if they want to strike

their own deals with the companies, if they want to show that they're paying for these journalism links in their own way, then we'll lay off. We won't tell them who they've got to pay then we'll lay off like we won't we won't tell them who they've got to pay as long as they can show us that they are paying someone and who's the first person that that facebook strikes a deal with rupert murdoch and and news corp and he once he once owned my space now he fashioned himself some sort of media mogul, and now, in fact, he figured out how to get paid in a whole different way, and it came down to the Australian government saying if Facebook doesn't make a deal on its own, we're going to force them. Google as well with something called the Google News Showcase where they did a workaround. They said we're giving money to these Canadian companies, Village Media, Narcity Media. These are companies that are mediocre in their own way, but you would have noticed that they did not give the money to Post Media and Torstar. They went after these companies. They made new friends with people who were outside of the established newspaper industry.

My hope is that they will continue to do that, just to annoy and infuriate these people from newspapers who think it's their birthright to get paid by these social media companies because they didn't do anything wrong by distributing their links. In fact, the newspaper companies were complicit in playing the game. Who is putting more of these Toronto links on Facebook than the Toronto Star itself? And so I had a little chat with someone at Google. I guess they wanted to have me on their radar and know what was possible. Of course, I ended the call by saying I would be more than happy to have the 1236 newsletter, St. Joseph Media, considered to be part of the Google News Showcase. In fact, I would think we would be an even better partner with them because we haven't sent lobbyists to Ottawa making some payments to keep the government of Canada happy. Mike, would you turn this money down?

Unlikely. It's got to go somewhere. I mean, this again with Jesse Brown in the Canada Land episode wrestling with the moral dilemma here as to whether he's in a position where he would take the money if the money was offered to him because it would be money that these media behemoths were not going to get. So why don't Google and Facebook support independent journalism? But in Australia, what did we see? The first deals that they made were, in fact, with these media bigwigs. And so much for any talk of media diversity and smaller voices being heard. Although, once again, at least there's a little bit of hope. Because it's Google and Facebook who are cutting the deals.

And they can decide to reach out to the little guy. Okay. I want to get us back to radio, but first maybe we can touch on a subject. So just prior to, between Ann Romer and you, Mark, I produced a podcast episode for a relatively new client. His name is Chef Jordan Wagman and the podcast is called In the Weeds. And it's very interesting. And today's episode was primarily about Clubhouse. Now, I'm not an iPhone user. I'm a proud Android user. And I understand this is why I can't get in there. But I get a lot of messages from people like, why aren't you in Clubhouse? Get in here. I don't think I can get

in there with my Android device. But tell us what's going on with Clubhouse. Yeah, I haven't figured it out either. I think for the same reason I did not get an iPhone until like 2014 because I thought as soon as I get this device, I'm going to be addicted to it. I held it until the end. I've got enough distractions in a day. What? I'm now subscribing to like, I don't know, 2,500 podcasts.

Which is insane. What do I got to listen to more audio for? But yeah, Clubhouse continuing to make news by the fact that it has become the app on which you can hear people in power, political power, but more importantly, big CEOs. power but more importantly a big big ceos uh that's where they're they're letting their hair down and they're having these candid conversations uh with whoever's invited to their clubhouse room and as far as i can tell whoever wants to listen can have a chance to to hear the kind of candor that until recently was maybe confined to podcasting, the sound of a human voice on, I guess. Is it just like a live podcast? Like a new kind of conference call.

Okay, let me understand. So right now we're going to speak here for, even though I told you let's aim for two hours, it's going to be several hours, I can tell already. And people can hear it after the fact. So it's been recorded, then we put it i can tell already and people can hear it after the fact so it's been recorded then we put it in the wild that anyone can listen but it sounds like in clubhouse our conversation you're in there while we speak essentially am i am i right can they talk like

well i i mean there was a feature in the new york times where they were speaking of the danger of unfettered conversations taking place. Real talk. Clubhouse act. And sorry, on the clubhouse app. And that brought a lot of mockery, right? Because it's like, gee, what's next? Are you going to be monitoring the unfettered conversations going on in a restaurant patio? Right.

Or, you know, you talking to your wife in the bedroom? Right. Should we assign spies from the New York Times to make sure every conversation that goes on in human history is monitored somehow to make sure that there's no wrong speak? I mean, a new Canadian press article talked about Duncan Fulton, CEO of Restaurant Brands International. So that's the company behind Tim Hortons and Burger King and Popeyes.

And so he was using Clubhouse to essentially talk to his shareholders as well as customers and clients. And it was a forum, I guess, because it has a little bit of formality that it can create this idea that you're getting a sneak peek at something behind the curtain that you wouldn't get any other way. something behind the curtain that you wouldn't get any other way. And the fact that the audio is a little bit more interactive, that you're able to take questions from members of the audience that, you know, it, it allows for a lot more real talk. And maybe it, it helps some information come to the fore that wouldn't otherwise be revealed.

And so I think that's why Clubhouse has become the hot app here in lockdown. But iPhone only. iPhone only. Whether or not the novelty sticks around after enough people get vaccinated. Liberated. This is how I felt when the Toronto Star had that, what was it called? Remind me of the name of the damn app the Star had. What?

Star Touch. Yeah, Star Touch. You were out of the loop. So I can never get in there. So for all those who are like, get in there, I promise to try it. I try all these new things, and sometimes it takes, sometimes it doesn't. But I'm not invited yet because I'm an Android user. Okay, but yeah, the whole idea is that there there there is sort of uh there's a certain impermanence to a conversation on clubhouse so you are recording

podcast after podcast after podcast and technically speaking it will live forever but here if we're getting together in a room on Clubhouse, it's something of the moment. Like a fleet. Yeah, I don't know to what extent you can protect your privacy. Well, I can record anything I can hear in my headphones I can record. You know what I mean? Like, there's nothing to stop me from recording my Clubhouse.

Yeah, but as social media gets more private, as people are retreating to these direct message groups, not that you would know anything about that, Toronto Mike. Wink, wink. Or different Slack chats or stuff on WhatsApp. WhatsApp. Of course, there are going to be finks who decide that they have to screenshot and blab to everybody that they found out that Ted Cruz escaped a blizzard and a blackout to go to Mexico. But at the same time, I think people are starting to understand that, look, if you want access to these conversations, then you are not going to disclose that you're in them because eventually social pressure will prevail and you'll get kicked out of the room.

And so I think that is part of what's being tested right now with something like Clubhouse. Thank you. Let me take you to the max I want to love you A pretty young thing You need some lovin' Some lovin' care And I'll take it there Girl I want to love you All right, to radio. Hey, remember when you had

Jamar McNeil there kicking out the jams? Of course. Still one of my favorites, I think, as far as the American recruit to Toronto Radio, even though everybody's getting laid off all around him, that the Marilyn Dennis and Jamar show became one of the smarter moves in the history of Toronto Radio. Like a lot of the great chum DJs, they found him in the history of toronto radio like a lot of uh the great chum djs uh they found him in the usa and brought him up here uh and i think he's uh he's done that whole tradition

justice and i think he even now knows how to pronounce toronto like a local after you taught him after all these years he had jamar down in the basement one day and it was, remember it was right after the time the Leaving Neverland documentary was on HBO and the question was hanging in the air, will Michael Jackson ever be played on a respectable radio station again? And it was ironic at the time because at CHUM 104.5, they adjusted the format a little bit after Roger Ashby left.

And they were not playing retro songs anymore. At least not in regular rotation. Right. They expanded the Chum chart. They had their own top 40 and very rarely on Chum. Would you have heard a song recorded? I mean, forget about a song from before the 2000s. I don't think they were playing many songs from artists who were born before the 2000s.

Right, right. As they tried to younger up the sound, trying to do uh sort of like uh nicholas pickless's station buffalo kiss 98.5 which is you create like a a youthful sounding station for people who are in fact closer to middle age uh that you you know you do the type of radio that can make someone in their 30s and 40s, in this case, very female-skewing demographic, make them feel younger by playing music that their daughters would also like. And that was part of the game on Chum FM for a little while. Well, look what happened during the pandemic.

The ratings seemed to slip a bit and all of a sudden they dusted off the throwbacks and the old songs are back all over 104.5 Chum FM

and at the top of that list, Michael Jackson. Here's my Stu Stone invitation. You ready? Jim Richards. I don't think I do it as well as Stu, but Jim Richards, we talked about this. You had this nailed from the beginning that Jim Richards. Okay, but I don't know that I had it nailed because I'll tell you, I was up real late.

I tuned into Jim Richards' showgram, returning as an overnight show. What's it called? News Talk 1010. What, the late showgram with Jim Richards, midnight to 5 a.m.? We'll see how long that lasts. Five-hour overnight shift. Okay, but in listening to his debut, his return to that time slot, here it got a little heavy. Listening to Jim talking about the decision that he had to make, which was return to where it all started.

Back doing this overnight shift. Right. On CFRB, News Talk 1010. He debuted there right around the time of that Howard Stern press conference, in fact. I remember it well. Fall 1997. Because he was doing overnights on the Fan 590, right? Overnights on the Fan 590.

I think he spent a year, year and a half at Q107, including doing that overnight national show. The one that was starred by andy frost andy moved into uh doing more with uh the leaf games right and uh jim was was brought in to fill a lot of those time slots so okay so here we have jim richards you know back to doing the time slot that he was doing on the same radio station in his early 30s. And on his first night back, I would say he brought the real talk, saying that he wrestled with the decision to the point, I can't remember how he described it, maybe in terms of panic attacks, spending some time feeling bedridden that yeah i mean he he felt uh emotionally overwhelmed by this decision the choice that he was faced with because he was offered to do this overnight time slot and he

wasn't entirely sure whether it was something he wanted to do at this point in time partly because i think i've listened to a lot of jim rich the years. In fact, in the early days he was on and overnights, I even, I've been went to the studio, showed up on the air with him a few times and was trying to figure out what to do. Jim, Jim wears his heart on his sleeve. He's known for again, getting a tearful on the air. It's not just the Toronto Mic'd podcast where people break down and cry. Jim Richards has been known to have those emotional outbursts when there's a topic

he's discussing. Look, he's a sensitive kind of fella. And he admitted on the air that, well, Bell Media offered him this overnight job because of all the layoffs that they did and changes they were making and moving to putting more shows on multiple radio stations that they found a place for him in the midnight hour, the overnight show. And that was a wrenching decision for him. I'm not putting words in his mouth.

I heard this for myself over the air that he didn't know if he wanted to do it. Well, you know, this is good news for Jim Richards that he gets to stay on the air on the iHeartMedia slash Bell Media Network, whatever they're calling it these days. But this seems like that seems like a lost opportunity for FOTM Jason Agnew. Because didn't Agnew get his overnight? Yeah, he got a shot. I mean, look, it's not the same in the sense that Jim now brings with him like a quarter century of a certain approach to talk radio. No, no, not the same.

But if Jim had turned that down, I feel like it might have been an opportunity for Agnew. I'm just guessing here. They put Jason Agnew in like during the heat of the pandemic when things were getting paranoid to try and soothe people over the year but you know from what i heard it kind of fell into a formula that wasn't really like a overnight radio show he would pre-record a lot of interviews i mean look he was i guess auditioning for a more permanent kind of job but the novelty wore off after a while they just brought back coast to

coast am and on the weekend sometimes filling in richard serrett doing it from uh not the not the uh bell media studios anymore but from his basement in Thornhill. And so back to the issue of Jim Richards. I mean, he's still bringing the excitement of himself talking got the promise from them that they would put the show on a podcast so that he would continue to be on the radar with people who weren't hearing him in the overnight show right because how many people can afford can actually listen to a you know a midnight to 5 a.m okay but he's on like every single bell talk radio station there are look there are a lot of randos out there not that working the night shift if you say so but don't

they like that? Okay, that kind of radio companion. I realize, look, everything is competition. By listening to this podcast, you're not listening to the latest episode from Jim Richards. So just to clarify there, so you can listen to that first episode of Jim Richards as a podcast? As far as I could tell.

But then today, the second episode, they didn't bother uploading. And so they're already letting Jim down. I don't know what to say. I mean – Need a TMDS assistance there. Look, Jim is going to bring it no matter what's going on. I would say take a lesson from the late Larry King. Larry King would do this overnight show,

and the main attraction was the fact that he would interview a guest off the top. Right. He would do that long-form interview, the closest you could get before there was such a thing as podcasts. You know, spend like an hour, 90, 120 minutes with a single guest, and then take calls from the audience. And then take calls from the audience. And that's where he show. And this was kind of the charm of the everyman, Larry King. I don't know how much in all your, you know, 800 and what, what are we at? 11 episodes of podcasting? I mean, are there any episodes that you ever did with absolutely no research? No, no.

And to a point where I had Greg Godovitz on the show earlier this week, I read his new book. So I actually do the opposite of Larry King, which is I pride myself on actually doing my homework. And that's where you're able to compare yourself to Brian Linehan. Right, right. I'm more Brian than I am Larry. Even when the question was written by me, I let you take credit as if you were Brian Linehan. Because Brian Linehan never copped to anyone feeding him these questions. No, but I think I tried to say, I reference you.

Yeah, but I don't want you to. Oh, okay. Because I always give you credit for your questions. It's more fun for me when the guest thinks it's coming to everybody. I reference you. Yeah, but I don't want you to. Oh, okay. Because I always give you credit for your questions. It's more fun for me when the guest thinks it's coming to everybody. The one person I remember calling you out was Tyler Stewart. Remember? He knew. That was a Wiseblock question?

That I fed you a bunch of questions. He could tell. But he did the opposite. He went on Toronto Mic'd and claimed he never listened to your podcast in his life. Right. And then I found out from Duncan Fremlin that it was like his favorite podcast. What's he getting back into the backyard? Tyler.

I mean, we can't find him on Twitter. He won't respond to DMs. We have to send a message. We need him. You know, halfway through a three-hour episode. In the last month. Tyler, Tyler, call Mike. Okay, we're going to make it happen because he did tweet back in the last month that he was game for a repeat performance.

Okay, if I am listening to a Jim Richards podcast, which I got to do because I'm not going to stay up all night. Okay. At least, you know, I don't want to, but insomnia prevails sometimes. Okay. I mean, I miss the days of having nothing better to do than stay awake all night listening to Jim Richards, but I'm past that. Now, I got to get up and work my newsletter. Right.

So I would rather, yeah, I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear Jim taking back-to-back calls with third shift randos. I would rather he use his talents to a little more context here and do something interesting over the airwaves. Now, here we are still in pandemic mode. I don't know. I don't think these would be very good Zoom interviews, but there he is. He knows what to do. He's got the studio there at 250 Richmond, Queen and John. I think the nightlife should return to some sort of normalcy in 2021. I look forward to the show that I know Jim Richards can do taking shape in the overnights over the course of the year.

But I feel bad popping off about him because he sounds stressed out enough in his decision to take the show. The last thing he needs is to hear about a discussion in the middle of a 1236 episode where I start dispensing advice to the Jim Richards show. But since I've done it anyway, I would say the future belongs to getting guests and not just George Strombolopoulos, even though I'm sure it would be great to have him drop by once every month or two, and taking calls for the guest, that Jim would be a terrific moderator.

And I was looking back through the archives, because he hasn't been mentioned in the newspapers very much over the years. I mean, here's a guy who's been on Toronto radio for going on three decades, and yet the number of Jim Richards references in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, few and far between. But you see ads for the CFRB lineup in the late 1990s, and they're promoting the Mott's and how they hired a lesbian, Susan G. Cole, who was the editor of Now Magazine back then.

She would come on and spar with Michael Corrin. Dick Smythe was on CFRB after he retired from Rogers and CFTR 680 News. That didn't work out in the end. They thought he was too crotchety for the radio station, ended up writing a national post column about it. I remember meeting Dick, And we talked about that column after the fact. I did an interview with him,

what it was like to get fired from a radio station at 66, 67 years old. Jim Richards was in the mix back then. He is a Gen X survivor of the radio business. All these people being kicked to the curb from CFRB, from the Fan 590. Norm Rumack, who was on the Howard Berger website, talking about his trials and tribulations of

trying to keep a gig after they let him go at the Fan. And I know he was on the podcast here talking about that too. I mean, Jim Richards has outlasted them all. I wish him only the best for the decade ahead doing this overnight show on iHeartRadio, Bell, CFRB, Talk Network. Mark. As things are becoming more clear, I don't know. Last time we talked on here, we didn't even know who was being laid off. And now it's clear that it's going to be more of a nationalized operation. Mark, coming out of Queen and John, you know, we talked about, hey, let's try to get the 1236 monthly episodes closer to two hours, which will be impossible if we spend, I think we spent 35 to 40 minutes on Jim Richards going to overnights.

Like, I think that's, I think if I took a stopwatch that, and it's, I'm not saying Jim. Can you tell I'm very emotional about this? I don't know. Okay. So other FOTMs, I mean, they laid off, they got rid of Barb DiGiulio. Right.

Along with John Paul. They overhauled the 9-10. Who is now an FOTM. But Jay Michaels, a fake name that it's easy to say. Right. And Ryan Doyle, they kept them on, expanded their airtime. And now they're on in London, Ontario, in more markets. But again, they got

rid of something that worked. It was 6 p.m. news with Dave McKee, which I thought could have been the format for a whole radio station on its own. I mean, that was some actual innovation there, something different, sort of inspired by Howard Stern, where it was sitting around talking about the news with the actual radio newscaster. And they got rid of one of their rare new radio innovations to replace it with a world beat news at 6 p.m and so uh nighttime on on cfrb and these other these other bell radio stations at this at this point in time um you're talking about several hours a night dedicated to simulcasts from television. It's something that may end up becoming like a pandemic blip. It's something they had to do.

They were ordered to have a certain number of layoffs, get rid of a certain amount in the budget. The most expedient thing that could happen was just plug in the television and run this on radio. But look, anybody in radio despairs the fact that they're running television over the AM airwaves. And if Jim Richards is providing a little bit of antidote to that, then it can only be good for radio.

1010 Backtalk. What the hell is that? Oh, I clipped a bit of this podcast, which was, can you find it? Like at the one minute mark in this podcast, which they don't stop promoting on the air and listen to the way that to some extent, there was an internal acknowledgement

of the fact that there was a shakeup at Bell Media. If you want to hear how they handled it, go to that one minute mark in that podcast. Recorded from the Newstalk 1010 studios in downtown Toronto, Canada. Welcome to Backtalk with host Andrew Dunlop. The first rule of big media is you do not talk about big media. The second rule of big media is you do not talk about big media. The third rule of big media is probably the same sh**. Okay, I won't say who, what, where, or why,

but a big Canadian media company just played crafts with a large number of its broadcasting staff, and the house won. Part of the suck of working in big media is that we understand that things can change at any given time. It's happened before, it's happening now, and it will happen again in the future. It's a risk we all take working in an industry we love to work in. It's like being in a relationship. You're there because you're in love, but love can also hurt sometimes. The media landscape in Canada is changing. Journalism is changing. Let's face it,

almost every aspect of our normal lives has changed in the past year. It is what it is. But if you worked in big media and were affected by anything in the past month, just remember this, you're in a better position to pivot and change than any of the giants are. So don't be afraid to use this opportunity to get ahead of the curve. By the way, that's the sound of me pouring one out, not taking a piss. It is what it is.

It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. listening to this corporate lackey, a guy named Andrew Dunlop. But look, he's happy to still have a job. I mean, as far as I know, should I look at LinkedIn?

Have they let him go yet? they let him go yet he's i think he's the digital content director of these of these bell talk radio stations and i feel for him because he was stuck with these god-awful websites just like some of the worst user experience i've ever seen they keep reminding people on the air, visit Newstalk1010.com. It's an absolutely atrocious website. I'm like, is this big media? Is this corporate broadcasting? You know, I mean, Mike, you've been in this business your whole adult life. I mean, you know a lousy website when you see it. I don't know if you want to grade it here on the air, this NewsTalk 1010 website. I mean, look, if that was my job, I'd be stressed out too. But what was that podcast about? What was he trying to say? You've got a guy trying to show that he's the edgy podcast

producer for NewsTalk 1010, produces this thing where they do these retro clips, the best of the week on the radio station. And he does a lot of swearing. Am I watching Bizarre with John Biner 40 years ago? I mean, is this what passes for a subversive form of corporate media? And shout out to Super Dave Osborne, who, of course, worked with Tyler Stewart, who we spoke about moments ago. OK, you heard that clip for the first time. What did you think of that weak and meek acknowledgement of the layoffs at Bell Media, which was facilitated by Bell Media itself? By the way, it's possible i'm the only person who has listened to this until now i'm sorry if i've gotten this guy fired as a result no listen

but what do you want him to do the sunlight he he wants to get his paycheck from bell media like what do you expect him to do like he can't bite the hand that feeds right but then why why talk about it at all though like when i listen to humble and fred right they'll never stop getting nostalgic about like uh the show we had in the hole you know like uh just you know vaporing with their colleagues at the other radio stations, all the stuff that you couldn't say over the airwaves, you know, all kinds of feuds and fights that would go on. And that they have they have better memories of this stuff just based on listening to all these Humble and Fred podcasts. Like that's what they remember up working a radio. Right. I mean, that's where, that's where the recollections come from. They don't come from any bits that they did on the air. It's what went on in the hallways afterwards.

And so I can see the idea that, that here this dude doing a podcast wants to bring a little flavor of that to anyone who's anyone. I don't know if anybody is, they got rid of the guy who was in charge of podcasting at the company oh did they I didn't know

so I don't know who I don't know who he's broadcasting to but I would say either be blunt reveal what you're talking about don't address it at all I agree with you 100% shit or get off the pot.

This whole being too cool for school, cute, wink, wink, doesn't satisfy anybody. And it doesn't work. We're going to get some drops from Donald Trump. It is what it is. Which, not even with a trigger warning.

So what's that about? Now, either you're going to do some real talk on something very real that just happened to a bunch of your colleagues that week, or you're going to not talk about it like everyone else at Bell Media, you know? Like, I know that when Dan O'Toole got it, I was curious to see what Jay Onright was going to say.

And I thought he did a good job because we all know that Jay Onright would like to continue cashing his checks from Bell Media. And he, you know, he, I thought he did a good job because we, you know, he's not going to go on there and shit all over, you know, Bell Media for the decision. But, you know, he's still going to have his buddy Dan O'Toole's back.

Oh, well, speaking of crying on the air. Yeah, okay, let's, so, in fact, just don't be upset, Mark, but a bunch of stuff on your list is going to the cutting room floor, but that's because we're running way late on this one. Okay, but you want to go off on the TSN? Let's do the Sid and Tim and Sid thing. Okay, well, let's do a bit of the TSN thing and then segue over to the whole Tim and Sid thing.

We already kind of touched on the fact that Wilner got the boot. Now we know why, because there's no radio coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays. But Wilner, who is a great FOTM, we both love him. He's your oldest, what, the guy you're, the celebrity you were in touch with youngest? Am I saying that right? But this is your guy, Mike Wilner. Well, the FOTM, who I've known for the longest amount of time, and maybe this summer if he returns to the backyard.

He will. time and maybe this summer when if he returns to the backyard he will we we will learn whether mike wilner has come any closer to figuring out what exactly it is that i do so but mike wilner landed on his feet we alluded to it earlier he's at the toronto star now so yeah do a little tsn talk i don't know what more there's to say but well you covered it i thought wonderfully with hebsey on sports in the sports media round table with Milan. And so, you know, it got out there, how they locked people out of these of these TSN radio stations in in Hamilton, but more dramatically in Vancouver. And what was it? Winnipeg.

Winnipeg. That was it. And, you know, people were doing their shows mostly. Mostly from home. They couldn't access the whole computer system anymore. They got locked out in the middle of the show, and then Green Day starts playing over the airwaves. Good riddance. I hope you've had the time of your life.

Right. Just a classless way of doing things. No honesty, no honesty, like no, no respect, no, no disclosure. Right.

And I think, uh, puts a kibosh on them doing bell. Let's talk day again, because these were the same people who just a few days earlier were on the air talking about. Yeah. But of course they will do bell. Let's talk day again in 2022.

Okay. I'll take that. But this all segues nicely. It might be downsized into the humble and fred we'll see but the humble and fred thing because um funny 820 was a station in hamilton and as far as i know the vancouver and winnipeg tsn's are going to become are now i guess they already are funny stations and bell media's plan was to automate all three stations. Like these are like just standup comedy clips,

typically by American standup comics, by the way, cause there's no can con for standup comedy. It's not music anyway. It's all automated. And they have one guy making like 14 bucks an hour who has to press some buttons and then whatever. So humble and Fred were given notice. So this is all the inside stuff is they got a letter basically from Bell

media saying, uh, you were as of this date, I guess the contract was ending. We are no longer going to broadcast your show on funny eight 20 because they were live there every morning from seven to 9. And Humble and Fred and I got on a zoom and I pulled up the, uh,

what do you call it? Work breakdown structure. Basically the, pulled up the, what do you call it, work breakdown structure. Basically, the project plan for February 2020, when the big plan was to fire radio before they had a chance to fire Humble & Fred. And we just tweaked it a bit, made some little changes, and it ended up being Humble & Fred quit radio.

So basically, live on the air, they quit radio. Now they're just a podcast. Fine. I think I've written about this a lot at torontomic.com this ties in you mentioned some back you know some backroom uh things we you learned from humble and fred turns out that they were very unkind to danny elwell when she quit radio not unkind i don't want to use that word but they thought it was a they didn't think it was a good idea when she did it or whatever i always thought it was really cool that danny did that so i told the guys doing that live on the air is fucking cool they do it and then there's a whole danny humble and fred thing because she won't come on whatever all this is to say uh wise blood uh anything more to say on the bell stuff before we get to tim and sid ending

their run were there also tears from from tim and sid i i I mean, Dan O'Toole, I'm surprised, look, I'm surprised he still had a job after the stunt that he pulled in the summer. Although that might, that might've also been a mental health thing because, because after, after he got bounced, he had a series of tweets, which he ended up deleting. Right. Where he chastised the company for not supporting him. Right. With a little ordeal he went through involving child custody back last summer. And, I mean, they hung on to him. You could argue that that might have been a fireable offense under other circumstances.

But instead, I don't know if there's any more graceful than that. How it was the end of Jay and Dan on TSN and the end of Tim and Sid on Sportsnet. So there we had Sid also weeping on the air, even though he still got a job. Right. And it's by all accounts, you know, he had the choice, it sounds like. Like he chose to leave Tim and Sid to become a host of breakfast television. And I guess a little higher profile for him. It gets him out of that sports media ghetto.

I know he's paying as much attention to breakfast television. It's not the days of Ann Romer anymore. I sound like I'm drunk. And yet I have no Great Lakes beer on the premises. I've got to come back over. At the end of March,

in my backyard, I promise you fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. Thank you, Great Lakes beer. Okay, where were we? So Tim and Sid break up and you've got all kinds of theories about that, that the two white man team isn't going to make it anymore in sports media for whatever it's worth. But with the decision to put the television Sportsnet Blue Jays broadcast on the radio, maybe it's just the end of Sportsnet radio. Right. Maybe the sun is setting on the idea that you need to have any kind of

separate radio broadcast. Just like, just like with bell media, you'll be hearing more TV on the radio that they're already producing this stuff. Why not just blast it over the AM airwaves, but Bob McCowan continuing to learn his lesson that 30 years of being available

when people would switch on their cars, being there on the AM dial, ready to go, part of switching on the ignition, that the translation to doing it online does not guarantee you an audience no hold it and then your dreams of making 10 of joe rogan money forget about it take might take a little bit of time but there but there's a Bobcat, and he was also mouthing off there to Howard Berger, I guess. It's a convention here of the old-time Toronto sports radio host commiserating about what happened to their industry and how they can build it back up again.

Well, Toronto miked and TMDS leading the way. So I know you've got stuff on the cutting room floor. We're not going to talk about... Before we leave Tim and Sid, I just want to say that Sid in his farewell spiel there, I caught it on YouTube actually, and he shouted out, well, many FOTMs, but a great TMDS client.

In fact, I believe he was the first TMDS client. Mark Hebbshire, host of Hebsey on Sports. So I pulled the clip. Here's 20 seconds of Sid's farewell speech. But this was a lot of fun. And Tim and I, you know, to be part of a duo is very rare in our business. And we grew up watching Mark Hebbshire, Jim Taddy.

And they were amazing. And I just want to shout out Jay and Dan because it's not easy what we do. So, yeah, Sid cried a lot for what it's worth. Jim Richards has got a lot of competition this month in the crying on air department. So, yeah, that was worth interrupting me for. I was going to say, maybe next month we'll talk about some of the debacles surrounding Black History Month, even though we'll be past February. It might not be as fresh anymore. I thought the Gowling's law firm had to apologize for the fact that they're on Instagram. They posted a statement from one of

their staffers who was making, I don't know, what did these corporate lawyers make? Four, $500,000 a year. But there was an entertaining Vice article about it. Here was a statement. My daughter inspires me a lot. When she was younger, she often spoke of her friend Daniel. One day, my husband and I attended an event at her school and finally got to meet Daniel. He was very nice and extremely polite. My grandmother would have said he was, quote, well brought up, unquote. Never during the course of her friendship with Daniel did my daughter mention he was black. That night, I went to sleep with the hope that one day race-based conflicts would forever be behind us. That made it to Twitter and the corporate law firm Gowlings issued a statement,

we apologize for our screensaver message that appeared in this post. It does not reflect our values. The message has been taken down. We are reaching out to all our people, listen to their perspectives and learn from this matter. Mike, what does that tell you about all this corporate training, all these diversity and inclusion initiatives still resulting in someone from a big law firm thinking, oh, this is what you mean when you ask us for our thoughts on Black History Month. I'm proud of my daughter because she did not mention that her friend was

black. I think it says there's still a lot of work to do. Or maybe these companies shouldn't be bothering at all. Mike, what do you think? Well, because you just picked up some interesting items off the cutting room floor, I'm going to reply with a little bit of the theme song to Designing Woman, which I don't know if you can hear it in the background. Nice jazzy number. I used to watch this show. Georgia on my mind.

Oh, yes. So it is. Okay. Dixie Carter. I always liked because she was also Mr. Drummond's girlfriend on different strokes, which was my favorite show. When I wasn't watching Dukes of Hazzard,

I was enjoying different strokes. And so when I, when designing woman came on, I recognized her right away. And it was exciting back then to recognize somebody in a sitcom. That seemed to be a big deal to me when I was a kid. But why am I playing Designing Woman? Oh, a great one involving CTV and Bell Media, where they had their own CTV throwback page,

what to watch during Black History Month. There was a picture from an episode of Designing Women of Delta Burke in black fits from an episode of the show. And, of course, once this was pointed out, I think it might have been David Friend, reporter from the Canadian press. They had to issue the usual apology. We removed the picture. We removed the episode. Not only that, and here's maybe a potential situation where Bell Media can call back some of their laid off employees. You lost your job at TSN radio. You do now because they're promising

to monitor every single old show in their archives that they got from whatever American services host these low-grade old sitcoms online. We're going to review all of our content and see if there's anything that doesn't fit with these contemporary times. We're not going to run a disclaimer like CHCH and Hamilton. We are going to remove any incidents of episodes. It's worth noting that blackface, any blackface in these old sitcoms, it seems,

means the whole episode gets removed regardless of the context of the blackface. And I only point that out because there's a Golden Girls episode where the girls are getting mud on their face. Like this is, you know, I don't know, Mark, I guess women put mud on their face, like to, I don't know, to moisturize their face or something like that. And then somebody, they were caught with the mud on their face when, I guess, I don't know if it was Dorothy's son brought his black girlfriend in or something.

And they made a crack about, oh, this is not blackface. This is actually mud on her face. This was the joke or something that it wasn't blackface. It was mud on their face. And that whole episode was removed. I was reading the other day. So I guess any, any hint of blackface and it's gone. There was another one in Durham region. Remember this one early in February, black history month scavenger hunt. And for the,

for the employees of, ofham uh they gave them uh advice what to do dance to a reggae song and write down the song cook an african meal and uh enclose a picture show us proof um speak to a black colleague right and tell us your name. And then they had to, of course, issue an apology for that one. And then there was yet another thing. It was in Peel region. And it was tied to an event for black girl empowerment. A sign-up form got released, and of course I don't think there was anything racist going on here.

Accidents happened. A draft got released to the public, got emailed, and would it say thank you for the participation in this special project for black female students. This labor of love will bring them joy and hopefully inspire them to be able to be their true selves blah blah blah the kind of thing you include when you're typing up a draft and you're just trying to say like fill in this space with the rest of the point because i'm not in the mood to finish making it myself and then peel

peel region also had to issue an apology statement break out the notes app one of these one of these apologies that was you know a lot longer than the offense and uh reminding people that they think uh and you would hope so um you would hope at the appeal district school board that they think a little higher of their students and blah, blah, blah. Well, let's shout out Arrested Development's Bob Loblaw and his law blog. So shout them out.

And I'll say just for balance, the Jews got into this game too because there's a clip from this global TV show, Nurses, which aired on NBC, like emergency pandemic programming. And nobody has perfected this kind of cancel culture like the Jewish people have. And they descended upon NBC and the producers of this show,

E1 and Chorus Entertainment. And the issue there was the fact they had a portrayal, by the way, by Jewish actors. And a Jewish showrunner of this nurse's show. But it was a Hasidic Jew who was taking issue with the idea that he would be implanted with a goyim leg, which isn't even a proper use of the word uh and this was this was held up as an example of anti-semitism the anti-defamation league they all got into the act i mean they usually don't understand i don't understand he was he needed a a new leg is that what you're saying yeah something some sort of amputation but the idea that that that if it was if it was from the goyim, especially from an Arab woman, that he would turn down the transplant, which is not actually any form of Jewish law at all. Kefukta Nurses TV show on NBC, you know, on a Wednesday night in February.

I mean, this is the saddest type. This television for people that don't have cable and don't have Netflix, you know, sit there, watch a spoon-fed stuff. So the show had aired a year earlier on global tv in canada but no one no one was watching to pay attention because it got in front of this bigger audience it drew attention to um gotcha drew attention to the show on nurses like the most anti-semitic episode ever involving jewish actors and a jewish showrunner so i just want just wanted to throw that in for okay okay so i don't want i don't want to sound like I'm picking on Black History Month, Mike,

because what I'm saying is my people have perfected the art of this game and being able to get things canceled when it's something that's offensive to them. Mark, you can say that. I am not saying that, just for the record. Mark Weisblatt is saying that. Now, because now I realize like whatever this episode i think i think you heard the american hardcore episode with cam gordon and uh brother bill and you were jealous that we went three and a half hours that's what i think okay so what you're

saying mike is this episode has has uh fallen off the rails well now this is this is the time when you have to get in the sponsor mentions but actually now i now because because whatever now i'm like whatever there's two more radio notes really short ones you got to get in, the sponsor mentions. But actually now, because whatever, now I'm like, whatever. There's two more radio notes, really short ones. You got to keep these really short. One is, there's a change,

mornings on Zoomer radio. Is that notable? What? They got rid of the main guy, Neil Headley, or he had some kind of clash, conflict in the hallway. I don't got to fight with Moses Neimer.

That'll do it. That'll do it. That'll do it. Ask Peter Grimes. And so they're presenting the fact that the two women who were his sidekicks are like a new morning show. But it's not really a new morning show. It's the same morning show, but they got rid of the main guy. What would I know about Zuma Radio?

Okay, so there's now Sisters of the Sunrise. Samantha Houston, who we first got to know on 1050 Chum, with Bob McGee, and Jane Brown, who was originally on Kiss FM, the country radio station, Mugs and Kisses. Right. She went on seven before that. She's also been around Toronto radio for so many years. So so here it's a two woman team on on on Zuma radio in the morning. on zoomer radio in the morning i wonder if maybe bob mcgee who uh holds the most recent record for the longest stretch of time heard on toronto terrestrial radio that is to say he was first

on 10 50 chum in the early 70s uh ended up doing the morning show there in the first part of their oldies era uh worked a bunch of other stations. And then he showed up on Element FM. He's no longer there. I wonder if he'll be reunited with Samantha Houston on Zoom or radio. And he'll be able to be the guy that says, I was on Toronto radio in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s. And he was on Element FM into the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s. And, you know, he was on Element FM into the 2020s.

Let's keep the record going or at least get Bob McGee on Toronto Mic'd. I tried. I tried. I'm tingling of excitement. I can't wait to find out if Bob McGee joins the Sisters of Sunrise on Zuma Radio. Like, my heart is beating out of my chest. Yeah, well, then it wouldn't be the Sisters of Sunrise anymore. All right. you're right. I do want to thank some partners.

Great Lakes, we already thanked. They're fantastic partners. I think the Octopus Wants to Fight is on sale at LCBO. So you get, I think, 20 cents a can off, I think. Get yourself some Octopus Wants to Fight. I want to thank Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta, great, great partners. Palmapasta.com. Support

them. It's a family-run business just like Great Lakes, just like StickerU. You tip me off. This is you, Mark Wiseblood, who tip me off to the fact that there was a Toronto Star article about the purple onion, and one of the founders was quoted in it. His name is Barry Witkin.

Well, as you know, Mark, because you tipped me off to this article, Barry Witkin is the father of Andrew Witkin, who FOTMs might have heard kicking out the jams. He is the owner and founder of StickerU. So StickerU, not only does StickerU.com make fantastic stickers, and it's a great local company. They're in Liberty Village. Com make fantastic stickers and it's a great, you know, local company.

They're in Liberty Village. But on Friday, Barry and Andrew Witkin are my special guests on Toronto Mic'd and we're going to talk about the Purple Onion. And he will be the oldest guest in the history of Toronto Mic'd. And on that note, happy birthday, David Marsden, because today is David Marsden's birthday. Is he 82 today, David Marsden? David Marsden, because today is David Marsden's birthday. Is he 82 today, David Marsden? David Marsden, 81. Okay. And getting up there, and we all know that to this day,

no guest of Toronto Mic'd is six feet under in the group. Isn't that amazing? The key to living a long life is to appear on Toronto Mic'd. I think now that we're nine years deep into this thing, 800 plus episodes, I think that's kind of wild that no guest on Toronto Mike has ever passed away. So, and again, I don't mean to jinx anything here, of course, but Barry Witkin is 82 years young. He's my guest on Friday. So we'll hear on this upcoming episode about the history of music in Yorkville. Yes. And the campaign to provide a museum in Yorkville for all the devotees of Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

Give them a pilgrimage spot, not just one of those Heritage Toronto plaques. They've already got one of those. Right. But a way to those Heritage Toronto plaques. They've already got one of those. A way to remember all those 1960s in Yorkville, what it represented in the public imagination. It'll be good. Speaking of good, Mike Majewski, or as I call him,

Mimico Mike, he's a real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. His motto is, in the know in Mimico, and he certainly is motto is in the know in Mimico. And he certainly is. You can check out more about Mike at realestatelove.ca. And Barb Paluskiewicz, she's the CEO of CDN Technologies. Ann Romer wants to interview her for Ann Romer's show on the region station.

We just had that chat earlier today. Barb can be reached. If you're looking to outsource your IT department, contact Barb for an assessment. She's 905-542-9759 or go to barb at cdntechnologies.com. and this segment of every mark wiseisblot episode of Toronto Mike, this is our memorial section. I'm glad you're wearing the Ridley Funeral Home toque because this segment is proudly brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home. They're at 3080 Lakeshore. That's at 14th Street in New Toronto.

Brad Jones, I shout him out every episode. What a tremendous FOTM. You can pay tribute without paying a fortune. Learn more at RidleyFuneralHome.com. oh uh here's uh lewis clark uh who died in February 2020. Maybe you don't know his name, but if you were alive at the time, you couldn't get enough of his creation. Hooked on classics. And when Stars on 45 initiated the medley craze of 1981. There was Lewis Clark,

who previously worked with Jeff Lynn and the Electric Light Orchestra. He would have been the one behind the curtain working on all those orchestrations. Not an official member of ELO, I've learned, but signed a deal with a Canadian record company called K-Tel. Yes. To create Hooked on Classics and release it in October 1981.

And as a result of this classical medley, a bunch of tunes that you recognize but probably couldn't name. Here I'm like half century in to try to be some sort of classical music expert. Flight of the Bumblebee. I don't think I've gotten very far. Flight of the Bumblebee? You know

Flight of the Bumblebee. Yeah, of course. What about 1812 Overture? William Tell. Yeah, right, right. There's a bunch of these. These are the greatest hits of classical music. The greatest hits of classical music now playing on a Zoomer radio station near you.

I mean, that became the entire aesthetic of Moses Nimer's Classical 96. Just like hooked on classics around the clock. But well before that happened, top 10 hit in the U.S. And of course, top the Canadian adult contemporary chart. People could not get enough of being hooked on those classics, which I guess provided a fair bit of money for

Lewis Clark. He also was an arranger on Roy Orbison's last album, Mystery Girl. Ozzy Osbourne, when he had something symphonic going on, it was Lewis Clark doing the conducting.

And although when Jeff Lynn did not want to bring the old team back together, he's too busy hanging out with the Traveling Wilburys producing the Beatles reunion. The old members of ELO

started something called ELO Part 2. Remember there was an electric light orchestra cover band. Like the Guess Who? They could use the name

because of the ownership belonging to the drummer, Bev Bevan. Wow. I don't remember this at all. And he went on tour with ELO Part 2 and there was Lewis Clark.

So dead at age 73. He was British but there he was living in Elira, Ohio. Hooked on classics. Played probably for the last time on Toronto Mic'd in memory of Lewis Clarke.

For some people, delivering presentations, speaking in public, or appearing in media can be an anxiety-ridden experience. I know. I suffered panic attacks on live TV and radio. But what if I told you it's possible to take fake confidence and turn it into real confidence in five seconds or less? Hi, I'm Jeff Ansell, and I'm grateful to say that people across the globe who experience public speaking anxiety have found help and comfort in our training and coaching process. We teach people how to look and sound like leaders, often with immediate and dramatic

results. Click on the Contact Us button below to see how we can help you. Jeff Ansell. He was once a name all over the Toronto media because he worked in the coolest places in town. He did the news on 1050 Chum, eventually showed up on City TV. He was part of the City Pulse news team. As far as I could tell, initially the assignments he got were in the genre of Peter Gross, which is to say when there was an emergency tryout for the Toronto Argo Sunshine Girls, emergency tryout for the the toronto argo sunshine girls uh they put uh jeff ansell on the case do that in-depth reporting a retro ontario clip of him there you know there's one of him hanging out the cne but uh with that voice transition to be the serious anchor man who uh was the city pulse

anchor uh right up there like a a third stringer behind Bill Cameron, the late Bill Cameron, and also FOTM Gord Martineau. And Jeff Ansell seemed to be on deck to reach that level of prominence as a TV news anchorman out of Toronto. Who knows? He could have fallen in the footsteps of J.D. Roberts and ended up being a White House correspondent for Fox News or whatever. But here's the thing with Jeff Ansell. He decided somewhere around 1987, there he was in his early 30s, that he didn't think it was very good for his soul to be working in news anymore, that he wasn't down with this whole idea that part of the job of working in a newsroom was hanging out waiting for people to die, reporting on a tragedy.

And the way he remembered it, like breaking out in cheers when they found out that this kid, the subject of this story who was on his deathbed, that he passed away, this was not for him. He had too much of a conscience to work in the media this way. So instead of voluntarily, he walked out the door of City TV and he got into public relations. And I'm sure there was also more money to be made by being that sort of spin doctor with a level of media experience. What he subsequently did and what he became more known for with a more select group of people was doing media training. And Jeff Ansell ran a business out of Toronto Jeff Ansell ran a business out of Toronto where he would connect with people who were working in big business or different politicians or whoever had to be interviewed, potentially grilled by some sort of reporter.

You know, a young Jeff Ansell that was going to shine the spotlight in your face and ask you a bunch of tough questions. It became Jeff Ansell's job to teach them how to deal, as he put it, with people like me. And that became his business. And based on the tributes that he received when he died at age 65 on February 23rd of cancer, he flew around the world doing this sort of training. And so here was a guy that traded in that level of fame as a Toronto anchorman to find a different approach, a different career, a different medium. As far as I can tell, he was phenomenally successful at it. A tribute from FOTM, Steve Paikin, writing about its close friendship with Jeff Ansel. Now, here was a guy that had it all as far as being a TV reporter, an anchorman.

Before that, doing news on the radio was concerned. He rocketed to the top of that profession real fast only to decide he didn't want to do it anymore. But some of his journalism also involved hunting down Nazis who were still alive in Canada. And ended up parlaying that into a documentary that came out just a couple of years ago called The Accountant of Auschwitz. And so Jeff Ansell remembered here one of the deaths of February 2021. And on that Anne Romer episode that you did earlier on this day, you talked a little bit about Jeff Ansell. Absolutely. I feel the sun wash your face stretch to your height and side it's the right time and place

feel your spirit lift and soar like a bird on the wind The city has life once more Happy faces are reason to sing Life in the city starts at the center. Life in the city at the Eaton Center. Life in the city starts at the center. I feel like I'm kicking out the jams with Ed Conroy here. Here's some Terry Bush.

Life in the city. Frederick Eaton, one of the members of the Eaton family of the generation at the time when the company would attaching it to what was then the most modern shopping mall. Frederick Eaton died February 20th at age 82. And this ad, you know, in the obituary section, advertising, it ran like multiple days. I mean, Eaton Family has a lot of money. They could afford to have this ad run for a week or more, reminding you of all his accomplishments. I would say from a snarky point of view, if you wanted to learn about what members of the Canadian establishment valued most, it was sitting on different boards of directors and belonging to as many country clubs as possible. Because this legacy.com obit for Frederick Eaton, uh everything that he he did in his life unlike his brother thor who used some of the family funds to get into the the rock and roll business he was one

the back the festival express concerts and um toronto rock and roll revival all those stories about john lennon in toronto 1969 the documentary movies about but all those dirty hippies. They were doing it on the Eaton family dime. All those department store profits. But Frederick Eaton ended up taking the helm of Eaton's around the time of the opening of the Eaton Center, 1977 and 1988. Here's the thing. Frederick Eaton, 1982, became public enemy number one when he announced that Eaton's would no longer be sponsoring the Santa Claus parade. He thought it was a waste of money, that it was unfeasible for Eaton's to continue to attach itself to this brand, that the claus parade was on its way out they sat around and said we don't want to bankroll this thing anymore which created the backlash i can remember at the time

i don't know if you can i i actually do remember the media save the santa claus parade right from from these evil robber barons like Frederick Eaton who are canceling Christmas. And it was George Cohan of McDonald's who like rounded up all the civic leaders that wanted to back this thing and save Santa. And here we are almost 40 years later with the Santa Claus parade still around. But look in the Toronto public library photo archives there in the Toronto star is

a stone faced Frederick Eaton announcing that his family firm did not believe in Santa anymore. That, that didn't, that didn't make it into the, into the obituary along with the with the membership in all the yacht clubs that he belonged to. But I learned he was also on the board of Topps Friendly Markets, a supermarket from Buffalo. They're a little cross-border dabbling in all his interests. Of course, Eaton's, the department store, ended up going broke somewhere around the turn of the millennium after they tried to refashion it. I mean, we're now over 20 years talking about the death

of the department store. Who knows what happens after COVID-19? If Nordstrom, which replaced its space in the Eaton Center, can even stick around anymore if there is demand for all that. But look, he got to hang on to his money and happy retirement for Frederick Eaton. Dead at 82 on February 20th, 2021. Thank you. A little Frank Mills in tribute to a radio programmer who made it to age 95. Not bad. Well done. At the top here, we try and get to the most most local of obituaries the podcast being

being toronto miked um 95th year he was 94 um ted randall uh was the guy who brought the drake format of radio to 10 50 chump when he was a programming consultant in LA. And that meant really exposing Toronto to that taste of the top 40 format that was happening in Los Angeles and New York, which meant you tighten the radio station playlist. You know, you get the jocks to say something shouty in between the songs with a lot of reverb. And the legendary excitement of Top 40 Radio in Toronto

owed a lot to the influence of Ted Randall. But when he finally moved to Toronto, which was in the late 1970s, so here was this guy that had a lot of experience programming radio in Hollywood, but he was hired by Ted Rogers to do the programming of CHFI. And back then, this was the

heyday of candlelight and wine. And that was the whole idea of turning over radio programming to this romantic music at night because CHFI would have been licensed as an instrumental radio station. The kids' stuff had to be on the AM side, CFTR. CHFI was obligated to have a more sophisticated type of programming,

and Ted Randall was the guy that made it happen. He made CHFI more of a contender in the Toronto radio ratings. And I think, you know, put that brand on the map. A previous obituary segment, we talked about Don Jackson, lovers and other strangers, when he died.

And that was an extension of the candlelight and wine format. But here was the thing. Ted Randall uh worked in radio uh until chfi in 1982 and then uh eventually like walked walked away from the business he wasn't interested in this stuff anymore he made his money and uh lived out a lot of years just uh painting away in victoria b. But at the time, he would have been one of those characters that ignited the airwaves of Toronto. Pouring one out here, a good long life, 94 years for Ted Randall. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់� I went back to Ohio

But my city was gone There was no train station there was no downtown so time would have disappeared Rush Limbaugh where do we begin? My City Was Gone, the theme song to the

excellence in broadcasting network for so many years with the permission of Chrissy Hynde. She said that she was happy to let Rush Limbaugh use this as her theme song

because her dad was a fan listening in that city that she left behind in Ohio. Now, I don't imagine, Mike, you listen to a lot of Rush Limbaugh. Maybe you never heard him at all. Well, I'll tell you, I've never heard him, but what I heard was Birch Barlow on The Simpsons. And I knew that Birch Barlow was this imitatious Rush Limbaugh. I knew the name from Howard Stern and just through osmosis and stuff.

So Birch Barlow was my introduction to Rush Limbaugh, but I've never heard his show, not once have I heard the Rush Limbaugh, but I've never heard his show not once have I heard the Rush Limbaugh show. Partly because you didn't live in a place like Akron, Ohio where Rush Limbaugh would have been booming off the AM radios of

Chrissy Hines' dad and everyone else in flyover country. I just want to say that this song kicks ass, and the pretenders, I think, are grossly underrated. Please continue, Mr. Wiseplot. No, there was Birch Barlow on The Simpsons, and when they had Rush Limbaugh on Beavis and Butthead,

they called him Gus Baker, which is also kind of a play on Rush Limbaugh. And in both cases, I don't know that, was it on The Simpsons where they were doing a play on Rush Limbaugh. And in both cases, I don't know that was it on The Simpsons where they were doing a parody of Rush Limbaugh on radio or television? I thought it was radio. Because on Beavis and Butthead it was a TV show. Part of the brilliance

of this Rush Limbaugh TV show was even though he was on WABC in New York and being syndicated to hundreds of radio, I mean every American market had Rush Limbaugh on some ailing AM station. It's not an exaggeration to say he saved the AM radio industry. Well, when Rush Limbaugh translated to television, even though he could have had access to the biggest budgets behind him, Rush Limbaugh translated to television, even though he could have had access to the biggest budgets behind him.

Behind the scenes, he had Roger Ailes, who was later the evil genius who created the Fox News channel. And quite deliberately, they made this Rush Limbaugh TV show look as cheap and tacky as possible, like a bad infomercial, like it was Robert Vaughn selling the Helsinki formula or something. And I think that was the way to make it look like Rush Limbaugh was this sort of underground phenomenon, right? That he wasn't backed by this big Republican money, but he was just like this cable access television guy. And that show, that TV show would have definitely beamed into toronto in fact if memory serves they even picked it up on on cfto tv which is the kind of thing they would have been canceled for i have no memory of this at all

this was 1992 93 early 90s you know you know rush I mean, he would do his radio monologues. That's part of also the thing with remembering Rush Limbaugh. Like, he didn't speak in sound bites. Kind of listening to a 1236 podcast episode. You cannot extract a few seconds out of our discussion here. Because when Rush Limbaugh was trying to make a point, you know, it went for for multiple minutes. And so in that sense, look, even though even though he said a lot of inflammatory stuff, it wasn't so easy that you could you could whittle it down to just a little clip on on Twitter or whatever.

And I think that that's part of the the cognitive dissonance here. All these people were waiting 30 years for Rush Limbaugh to die. And when it finally happened, I don't know if there was a victory lap that a lot of people were expecting. Maybe it's because he hung in there to the end. I mean, he admitted on the air towards the end of 2020, it's a miracle that he's still around. There he was diagnosed like Alex Trebek with a cancer that gave him limited time left to live.

And there it was. He was beating the odds. He saw Donald Trump win a second-term election. In Rush Limbaugh's view, that's what happened. Oh, boy. Donald Trump agrees with him, happened. Oh, boy. Donald Trump agrees with him, too. Oh, boy. Look, I mean, Donald Trump made his his his first appearance after after no longer after no longer being being president on the Fox News channel.

Talk about Rush Limbaugh, who died of lung cancer, age 70. You know Rush Limbaugh had the same birthday as Howard Stern. Four years apart, January 12th. I did not know that. Rush is the guy who said that smoking didn't kill you. Am I right? Is that what it is? I said a lot

of things. Okay, well, I can't keep track. And look, I mean, like Larry King, he was married multiple times how many marriages for rush was it four or five not not quite matching uh that man that man is a total black hole to me uh rush had uh four marriages i mean he had look he had his own he had his own uh drug addiction struggle at one point he went deaf and he was still doing a radio show until an implant helped fix that. He was a football commentator on ESPN.

He got fired for being a little bit racist. Ultimately came down to the fact that here they got rid of the fairness doctrine. American radio stations could be as Republican as they wanted to. You didn't have to have equal time anymore. And there was Rush with Roger Ailes behind him. He had worked before for the Kansas City Royals.

His good buddy was George Brett. Came straight out of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Failed radio DJ Jeff Christie onto the airwaves with a lot of Rush Limbaugh. And reinvented this style of talk radio. I mean, you know, Jerry Agar on CFRB said he wouldn't have had a career without Rush Limbaugh. And I think Jerry Agar, before he came back to Canada, was like a failed wannabe Rush Limbaugh. But so was Mike Pence, who did this kind of talk radio for a while, although it was a lot less caffeinated. I mean, if you've heard Mike Pence, real laid back style. who did this kind of talk radio for a while, although it was a lot less caffeinated.

I mean, if you've heard Mike Pence, real laid back style. You know, there was a lot of looking around, like who could be the other Rush Limbaugh's? Look, I mean, he's already been dead a couple weeks. They haven't announced his replacement yet. They're running Rush Limbaugh reruns. Mark Stein and his multiple accents might be a potential replacement. He's been a Rush Limbaugh fill-in.

G. Gordon Liddy did a Rush Limbaugh wannabe talk show. You'd have these other guys, Michael Savage and Mark Levin. Sean Hannity, a famous one. I mean, Rush Limbaugh created this whole industry. You can't deny it. And now he's dead. Did you ever hear the one about last year? Said it was all a lie Ain't it funny how time flies?

Said what we're doing to baby What's left for us to grow on Never stolen nothing, no not a thing Did I always try to stay away Of this scary thing It ain't as easy as it seems To find a new job or dream, yeah Well, do you know Oh, yeah Don't take me Now, now

Mike, do you know why I included the Black Crows? A song from their 1994 album Amorica, which was kind of where the Black Crows phenomenon came to a crashing halt. And part of the reason that happened was because their original album cover

was drawn from a magazine called hustler which was founded by larry flint yes and uh you know i guess ironically died february 10th age uh 78 the same month of rush limbaugh. I think on the graph of American icons, you can think of Rush Limbaugh and Larry Flint in that same mindset, even if their politics were diametrically opposed. They're both provocateurs who

cut a certain figure upon the American stage, who are into stirring shit up and making people uncomfortable. And with Larry Flint, as a lot of people were introduced to in that Milos Forman movie,

The People vs. Larry Flint, 20 years after Hustler magazine came on the scene there was the cinematic representation of the legacy represented in the First Amendment fights that he had

with Jerry Falwell over his right to present people in his publication in as lewd a context as possible and uh with these glossy magazines saw a certain amount of success um mike you you might have asked the question of the fotms would you admit to ever seeing an issue of hustler magazine are you asking me personally? Well, I mean, maybe somebody had a copy of it.

Oh, no, totally. Like, yeah, of course. Like, as a teenager, for sure. What do you remember from that? Was it the beaver hunt where they would solicit Polaroid photos from their readers to take photos of their wives? Although Ron Jeremy also was discovered showing himself off. Like literally that's all I remember from Hustler is the beaver hunt. I don't think it was known for its literary excellence. No, you see, Playboy you could read for the article.

You might have Norman Mailer and you might have some good shit in there. Hustler, no one was buying Hustler for the articles. Okay, well, I guess I spent too much time in used magazine stores some good shit in there uh hustler no one was buying hustler for the articles okay well i i guess i spent too much time in used magazine stores because when the black crows had their amorica album in 1994 and they got into trouble because they used a photo of a american flag with a tuft of pubic hair coming out of it. I think I already knew this was once one of those infamous covers of Hustler. And back then, when I wasn't trolling Howard Stern, I thought I should do some reporting on this development.

You know, you couldn't Google this stuff back in the day. on this development. You couldn't Google this stuff back in the day. 1994, I called up the Hustler Magazine office, and it felt like I was doing something really forbidden, like to talk to someone who worked at Hustler. And he gave me the backstory about this bicentennial hustler cover, stuff you could Google now. Sure. A little item about it. And of course, Walmart, I don't know, whatever family store is selling CDs, they didn't want this thing racked, right?

And the Black Crowes had to censor it. And I think it might have played a part. The guy from the Black Crowes. Chris Robinson? Oh, no. He wrote a biography about how they kept running into trouble, like how they kept doing everything wrong. They had fame served up to them and that this was these Robinson brothers who were high all the time making all these ridiculous decisions and

sticking to their guns with this Amorica album cover was one of them. Larry Flint, okay, I'm not saying I never saw an issue of hustler but i did buy a larry flint magazine on the regular and it was called rip magazine it was a it was a heavy metal magazine the late 1980s and it has some terrific production values like this was the heyday of guns and roses uh they were embedded with his publication you know stuff about skid rose sebastian bach uh he was regularly covered in there all these characters from the sunset strip scene in the hair metal scene there's a new oral history book about it like this was uh you had meat magazine published in toronto uh but that was that was just a wannabe, like the definitive guide to what was

happening in this world of LA heavy metal could be found in pages of Rip. Lita Ford's mother wrote the advice column. And there was definitely a while where I bought this magazine every month. That's what I remember. That's what I remember Larry Flint for. Might as well remember him here. But then, okay, Hustler was originally banned in Canada because the depictions that provided of sexuality were too graphic. They were stopped at the border. And a Canadian entrepreneur started his own magazine, called it Rustler. And he just like stole the logo of hustler right and called it rustler these are things you could get away with in the in the late 70s and he would have i don't know paparazzi shots of of margaret trudeau later when when hustler could be distributed in canada and this was how larry flint operated he decided he was going to challenge a law that didn't allow for American magazines to sell advertising in Canada. I don't know what kind of ads

Hustler was selling. These were like 1-900 phone sex lines, I don't know, porno video stores. And the government clamped down on him. And then he decided to target Sheila Copps, liberal MP and cabinet minister, in a lewd way in his magazine and added her to – I don't know. I mean, look, I don't want to endorse anything Larry Flint ever did, but for a while there, 25 years ago, you could hold him up as a free speech hero, make him the subject of this Hollywood movie. Which was a good movie, by the way. I liked it. Stuff today for which he would get canceled and no one would go anywhere near with.

And then he ended up surviving an assassination attempt and was wheelchair-bound on the Larry King show, made up with Jerry Falwell in the end. RIP Hustler magazine, even if it's still around. Who would even know? And RIP to the legendary American provocateur, Larry Flint.

Do you know who was really good in The People vs. Larry Flint? Oh, Courtney Love. Crash and burn, all the stars explode tonight How'd you get so desperate, how'd you stay alive Help me please, bring the sorrow from your eyes. Oh, come on, be alive again. Don't lay down and die. Hey, you know what to do. Oh, baby, drive away.

From Malibu Okay, Mike. Jack Palladino is who we're remembering here. Legendary American private eye. And I'll tell you why I kept this on the list. He died on February 1st at age 76. An incident involving Jack Palladino was referenced on Pandemic Friday with Cam Gordon,

where he spoke about seeing a talk, Who Killed Kurt Cobain Talk, at Western University in London, in which Courtney Love's dad, Hank Harrison, showed up with a couple of gumshoe journalists from Montreal, Max Wallace and Ian Halperin, and did a presentation where they presented their theories about this idea. They didn't say it was factual. You know, they were working around the reality here as they understood it to be, that it was, in fact, Kurt Cobain's death was something on the order of his wife at the time, Courtney Love. And Jack Palladino was working for Courtney, trailing this roadshow around Canada and stepping in at every opportunity to interrupt the presentation, trying to set the record straight.

My client, Courtney Love, did not kill Kurt Cobain. Don't listen to the insinuations of her father up on that stage. I saw this happen for myself at the Opera House in Toronto, where Jack Palladino got in on the act. It happened again afterwards when they brought the roadshow to Montreal, where Jack Palladino interrupted a press conference, except at that point he brought along a Montreal newspaper columnist, Nick Oftermar, whose daughter by that point was playing on this song,

replacing, what was it? Kristen Paff. Basis in Hole, who died. And there he was sticking up for his daughter, his daughter's boss, Courtney Love. And he made a scene and he ended up getting kicked out of this press conference. And there was my moment with Jack Palladino, an absolute legend.

I mean, he worked for Bill Clinton. He worked for R. Kelly. He got him off the hook at that trial. He he defended John DeLorean, the cocaine carmaker. Jeffrey Weigand from that movie The Insider. Jack Palladino was behind the scenes on all that. Anyway, a robbery attempt at his house in San Francisco. Hate Ashbury. Traumatic brain injury. Tragic death.

Ended up on life support. Died onary 1st dead at at 76 uh someone i was once in the same room with jack paladino When we let you so fly and now you're busted Sweetheart, we got a lot to discuss, kid Your relationship is withering Don't walk away from me, come hither and listen Cause I speak straight up, so let me try Sorry baby, but your man ain't all that

Before you verbally stomp me Just wait a sec And explain why you're always looking wrecked By now any other lady would have just had it Looking depressed and battered Shattered dreams of you two being the perfect item The feelings you have try to fight em Cause your man's a conniver so stay alert Mark my words you're gonna get hurt Does your man abuse you physically or mentally Throwback here to Energy 108. If Scott Turner could possibly be listening this late into an episode, I remember when this was on the chart. My favorite Burlington dance radio station.

Typical reasons, and in parentheses... Mike, I'm like you here with the words today. Parentheses. You're not that bad. No, I'm worse. Typical reasons swing my way. Number one rap hit in early 1993 for a guy named Prince Marky D. But no one remembers this song, except me and Scott Turner.

What we remember is when Prince Mark D was one third of the Fat Boys. Yes. Do you think there's a debate about this online? I even looked it up. Okay, I'm trying to prep here for the episode. Do you think you can tell

in someone's voice if they're overweight? Because there are arguments about whether this is something that's audible whether there's a certain tone a pitch timber sure okay someone's voice where you can tell if they're carrying around a few extra pounds yeah i would say this uh if you are uh carrying around more than a few extra pounds. Yeah, I would say this. If you are carrying around more than a few extra pounds, okay, you can tell when somebody is overweight, but it's not, okay, how am I trying to say this? So sometimes somebody who's overweight will sound,

will not sound like they're overweight. But every time I hear somebody sound like they're overweight, they are overweight. I'm thinking of Heavy D and the boys, okay? Heavy D, as I imagine his voice, which I've heard many times, sounded like he was

Heavy D. He was overweight. But was it in his voice, or was it the fact that Heavy D couldn't stop calling himself the overweight lover MC? I know. I think it's in the voice, but again, I'm not a doctor, but what do you think? I feel like I can do I think it's in the voice. But again, I'm not a doctor. But what do you think? I feel like I can do it.

Well, we knew the fat boys were fat. Because we all saw... Because they called themselves the fat boys. There was nothing fat-phobic about saying the fat boys were fat. With an F. Not E-H. Right.

I think I saw disorderlies far too many times as a young man fat boys uh prince marky d mark mark morales who died uh one day before his 53rd birthday on february 18th uh prince marky d of the Fat Boys. So Disorderly, yeah, I think, you know, the Fat Boys came on the party rap scene. Remember the jailhouse rap? That was their first novelty video. Then they found a certain niche because they were working with the Beach Boys,

a cover version of Wipeout. Right, yes. The Beach Boys with the Beach Boys, a cover version of Wipeout. The Beach Boys featuring the Fat Boys. One of those low points for the Beach Boys before Kokomo, but at the point where Brian Wilson had left the building and was under care of

Dr. Eugene Landy. Yeah, that was the Mike Love iteration. I think that song appeared on a bunch of compilations. I think I had it on some kind of hits compilation that was quite popular at the time like the Hits album

or something like that. And later it was Chubby Checker and the Fat Boys doing the twist and uh any any billboard chart historian uh would know that uh the twist was a song that went to number one twice uh in the early 60s no No such luck in 1988,

but it's a miracle that that would have gotten any attention at all for Chubby Checker and the Fat Boys. So we are now down two Fat Boys. The human beatbox, some might say the most famous of the fat boys. He only made it to age 28 and died in 1995. And Prince Marky D ended up working on the radio, 99 Jams in Miami, Florida. But the day before his 53rd birthday, we lost Prince Marky D. I go back as I recall

And you walk slowly down the hall You said you had to get away To ease your mind And all you needed Was just a little time Oh, we're just past spring and fall You never run me You never wrote me You never called

Oh, Mary Wilson of the Supremes. I think one of the more famous people who died in February 2021. Even if people didn't know her name, they would have recognized her as the person who had to put up with the most from Diana Ross of anyone in history and it's something that she chronicled in her own in her own memoir called dream girl which was back

in the early 80s and you know subsequently there was always there was always the matter of of will the will the supremes ever reunite diana Ross, she left the group at the height of its power. She was cutting a backroom deal there with her lover, Barry Gordy, and left the group behind. But the Supremes carried on. This song, Nathan Jones, is one of the supreme songs that they had without without diana ross smaller hits but uh they were they were they were still on the radar they could still uh work as uh some some kind of oldies act and uh so it was uh mary wilson and cindy birdsong and diana ross they were on the legendary Motown 25 TV special.

That was the first sign of a reunion. Will they ever get back together again? Well, in the year 2000, they were going to reunite. They were all set for the Diana Ross and the Supremes Return to Love reunion tour. Except Diana Ross was being offered $15 million. And Mary Wilson, only $4 million and Mary Wilson only $4 million. So she balked at the offer and Diana Ross ended up going on tour

with two other ex-members of the Supremes. The two other reunited Supremes were like the not famous members of the Supremes who replaced the former members of the Supremes who replaced the former members of the Supremes.

If you can... It's a blood sport. Follow what's going on. And one of them, Florence Ballard, who died in 1976. I think that reunion tour combined with Mary Wilson's tell-all memoir, just in general, like,

what do you know about Diana Ross's reputation? I don't think it ever recovered. I mean, you got to be careful throwing around the word diva when you're in the presence of Molly Johnson. But I think next to the dictionary definition might have been Diana Ross because, well, she's still with us. And she's got kids who are famous today. One of whom is Tracy Ellis Ross from Black-ish, the sitcom. And Evan Ross is married to Ashley Simpson in their reality show. But yeah, I think Mary Wilson, she set out to avenge what happened to her with Diana Ross. I think she was successful.

I think she could go out smiling. think she was successful i think she she could go out smiling uh but unfortunately uh died here in in february 2021 uh so rest in peace uh mary wilson who was still active and still performing in fact In fact, Paul Stanley of KISS, who's being reincarnated as some kind of soul singer, he mentioned that like a day or two before he died, he was on a Zoom with Mary Wilson. But there you go, February 28th, one month before she would have turned 77. Goodbye to one of the Supremes. If I could only be sure that you love me, baby If I could only be sure that you love me, baby I'd climb the highest mountain, I swim the deepest sea I take on all your misery just to make you happy, yeah, yeah

I turn my world upside down, I turn my smiles all into smiles. I'd do anything at all, yeah. If you just let me love you, baby. Okay, Mike, here's where I show off how good I am at Googling people who I barely heard of before I found out that they died.

But I know you appreciate these discoveries. Here's a guy named Nolan Porter. Made it to age 71 when he died on February 4th. Okay, so here's what sort of deep cut we're talking about with Nolan Porter. album unknown pleasures um it used the guitar riff from one of the songs from the early 1970s albums from this obscure american soul singer so if he was on the radar with joy division uh that that tells you what kind of legacy he left behind there in the crates. And later on, this tune here in the background, if I could only be sure, it was covered in 2004 by Paul Weller.

So if you're one of those British blokes who likes talking about your old collection of Northern soul wax? You would know the name Nolan Porter, even if we did not before he died, but someone we lost age 71, February 4, 2021. I'm crossing the line That you really don't give a damn

They say you're running for your life But you're doing for your life But you're investigating I gave you all of my love I even gave you my body Tell me baby, ain't that enough? What more do you want me to do? I'm playing fool for you. I can't do it no better.

I'm so bad, so bad, like I'm broken hearted. Why do you want to treat me so bad? I don't love you. I don't think there has been enough love among the FOTMs, all the jam kicking here for the first bunch of Prince albums. I mean, do you know this song, Mike? This is from the second Prince album, the self-titled one. And yet it sounds fresh as a daisy. I mean.

No, I can't say I know it. I mean, this is an example when people talk about the majesty of Prince and the influence he had on all the music that came after the track like this one. The man who signed Prince to Warner Brothers Records. His name was Russ Thyret. And he died on February 12th, 2021 at age 76. And so he was the guy who found this high school kid from Minneapolis and put the wheels in motion to give him a record deal that turned out to be quite lucrative for Warner Brothers Records. So lucrative, in fact, that Prince spent a lot of years after that having a public tantrum about how they weren't paying him the money he deserved change his name to a symbol and all the rest and rust thy ret uh by that point in the mid-1990s

became the chairman and ceo of warner brothers records so here is where Prince's behavior. Maybe comes into question. The guy who signed you. To a record deal. Who had the patience. To back you. With four albums. That were kind of obscure. Before 1999.

He became the biggest boss at your record company and you're refusing to fulfill the terms of your contract well that actually happened and Rusty Red while going down in history as the guy who

signed Prince also turned in history as the guy who signed Prince, also turned out to be the guy that Prince was angriest at for enforcing the original contract that he signed. You know, there's a recent book about Prince by a guy named Neil Carlin, writer in Minneapolis, called This Thing Called Life. And there's some real talk in there because, you know, he gets into Prince Warts and all about what it was like to befriend this occasionally disturbed individual. Maybe violating Prince's privacy a little here. Some disrespect for the dead.

I know the book has gotten some reviews based on wondering, like, who gives this guy the right to portray Prince as such a conflicted character, who also did a lot of things to kibosh his own career and go through a lot of struggles with his own identity, how he wanted to present himself to the world. But yeah, I would recommend that book a lot more than I would a new book about the history of Warner Brothers Records called Sonic Boom. And I was kind of disappointed about that one because Warner Brothers Records was seen

as the legendary artist label. I mean, they signed Fleetwood Mac back at a time when no one cared about them, stuck with the band, right? And then Fleetwood Mac ended up becoming this billion seller. And part of the thing with Warner Brothers Records, how they were on the side of the artists

and created this legendary record label as a result until, I guess, the record industry wasn't built for it anymore. Not a great book there, but the one on Prince, This Thing Called Life, and remembering here, dead at age 76, Russ Thyret. Thank you. Buddy Whaler died on the day we're recording this at age 73. What a coincidence that one of the original members of Bob Marley and the Wailers had the last name Wailer. Well, his name wasn't Bunny either. It's a birth name. Isn't this a death that should be remembered in the March

recap? I'm just curious how we... But you're bumping him up because... Mike, if we start arguing about that, we're never going to finish this episode. Okay, so... Died when he was born, Kingston, Jamaica. Shout out to Bunny. Wayler, originally part of the trio with Peter Tosh, died rather dramatically

way back in 1987. And Bob Marleyley of course uh we're coming up on 40 40 years since bob marley died and before the marijuana and before the coffee there was all the music and you know in the earliest days of bob marley and the whalers who spent a lot of time trying to make it i mean i think like uh know, way up there with the Beatles as far as having to put in that 10,000 hours in some sort of obscurity. But when they caught some international success with the album Catch a Fire, there was Bunny Wailer still in the act until him and Peter Tosh separated and went solo. Part of the legacy there, though, of Bunny Whaler.

Steer it up! One more midnight, a man's still gone The night moved too slow He tries to remember the heat of his turn While he's listening to the border radio He calls toll free and requests no song Someday he used to know You know, in the last round of obituaries in 2021, we talked to Michael Fonfara, who was part of Downchild Blues Band. And even though he's from Toronto, a lot of credits in America and Urgent by Foreigner.

Well, here was someone else that worked in that world of Downchild. Well, here was someone else that worked in that world of Down Child, also a pianist, a guy named Gene Taylor, who died at age 68 on February 20th. One of these boogie-woogie pianists originally played with the band Canned Heat, but then, I guess, hooked up on the new wave scene, a band called The Blasters with Dave Alvin. This song called Border Radio that he played on. Then he went north of the border and played with these acts, including Downchild. And so, figured worth inclusion here because it's an interesting coincidence. We had two months in a row where a pianist from the Downchild blues band died

who had some celebrity on both sides of the border as far as his music credits were concerned. The case of Michael Funfara, it was with Rhinoceros and Lou Reed and Foreigner and with Gene Taylor in the Blasters later, Fabulous Thunderbirds. with a guy named Gene Taylor, who was a television host in Toronto, who was part of the original cast of City TV. Did you know that? And then had his own CBC talk show, which I once saw taping of in Fairview Mall. That was a different Gene Taylor.

He was also a radio DJ in Detroit, and he would come on with Don Daynard and do his TV segments. Not that Gene Taylor, who also died. So now we're down two. Two Gene Taylors who were a little bit famous. the same as it. Terima kasih telah menonton! Mike, I wish I was in your backyard looking up at a blue sky contemplating return to forever. But that'll have to wait

because we're still stuck here on Zoom trying to wrap things up for February 2021 and the death of Chick Corea. What's this one called? Spain? Is that Spain? Yeah, this is Spain. By Chick Corea. I know this one.

I gotta plead ignorance. I know he's well regarded and famous in certain circles. And I saw a lot of the, you know, the typical Jazz FM people and everybody talking about Chick Corea. I don't know much about this dude. I missed the boat here with Chick Corea.

Well, one of the things he was most famous for was being a member of the Church of Scientology. In fact, even played on a Battlefield Earth album. Wow. Based on the book that later became a movie. And a lot of attention for the fact that Germany would not let him enter the country because of the fact that he was a Scientologist. Very unapologetic one at that. But, you know, I subscribe to a Scientology blog

run by Tony Ortega. It's like daily investigations into the world of L. Ron Hubbard. And so when a prominent Scientologist dies, questions arise about whether or not they were following the Dianetics theory of medical treatment.

Right? John Travolta's wife and son were up for some scrutiny when they both died as a result. and Sun were up for some scrutiny when they both died as a result. can I say that's what you get for belonging to the

Church of Scientology. People are going to be suspicious. But whatever the case, Chick Corea died of cancer age 79, February 9th, 2021. Hard bodies Soft emotions So fast So smart

The world's at your feet But what about your heart? James Brown Who once did a concert in Mimico Right Not far from Toronto Mike's house. What was it called? The roller rink?

It was called the Mimicombo. The Mimicombo. That was it. And we even paid tribute to the owner of the Mimicombo. Right. When he died many episodes ago. How Do You Stop by James Brown? I think the, I think the only hit song that I remember hearing on the radio by the Godfather of soul.

What about the Rocky four song? Oh, living in America. That's right. But you would definitely hear that's mine. The living in America. That was my James current James Brown radio song. But I remember hearing this on CKFM and CHFI

to different stations uh CJZ what can I say how do you stop a Joni Mitchell covered this song uh in in in 1994 I think with Seal that's how that's. That's how important this song was in the history of James Brown. Kind of one of his last hurrahs as far as being a contemporary recording artist. Song written by Dan Hartman, which is why it sounds like I Can Dream About You. Yeah, it does. It does. I can dream about you. Okay, well, we lost James Brown, what? That was on Christmas Day?

Long time ago now. 2006. But the guy who died at age 85 in February 2021 was Danny Ray. And James Brown would sing his show closing song, And there, the second hardest working man in show business would come out and drape a cape on James Brown. And this was such a crucial part of the act

that after they established this schtick, James Brown never played a concert without bringing his cape man, Danny Ray, in the entourage. How would it feel to have someone as loyal as Danny Ray all through your performing life. But this guy's claim to fame is he would bring out the cape for James Brown. He's his cape guy.

He would bring out his cape for James Brown. Yeah, all the way to James Brown's funeral when he draped the casket with a cape. And that act got him, I was going to say the penultimate spot, but we actually just slipped something in, so it's no longer. But it was going to be the penultimate memorial because he's the cape guy for James Brown. That's amazing.

Let's try to wrap this up in three hours. Mike, you've got five minutes left Oh, no. Okay, March 2nd, 2021 was the day we lost a trombonist, a British jazz band leader named Chris Barber. A name I only know because I'm a big enough Beatles geek that I remembered his name as the recording artist behind one of the songs that Paul McCartney gave away in 1967. Here was a song called Cat's Walk, which was in the Lennon-McCartney catalog off the cutting room floor. Paul McCartney thought it would be a novel to give it to this jazz guy. Paul McCartney's dad,

Jim McCartney was, was one of those old time players. And Chris Barber did this song with Paul McCartney. Maybe you can hear his bass on there. Him in the background with Jane Asher. So here's a little bit of Beatles history. And the guy whose name was on the label died March 2nd

at age 90. Chris Barber. My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lake to the trees. My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies from a church on a breeze, to laugh like a brook when it trips and falls over stones on its way

To sing through the night Like a lark who is learning to pray I go to the hills when my heart is lonely I know I will hear What I've heard before My heart will be blessed With the sound of music And I'll sing once more And that is a little tribute to Christopher Plummer,

dead at 91 on February 5th. Coming full circle, Toronto Eaton Centre, where the silent partner was filmed, Christopher Plummer as the homicidal psychotic santa claus i don't know you can you can google the rest when he stepped in for uh kevin spacey uh got an academy award right uh nomination yeah nomination no one academy award age 82 for the movie beginners that. That was it. He became the oldest person to win an acting Academy Award.

You can Google the rest. Well, just know he's a Toronto guy. Oh, yeah, that too. Well, this is Toronto Mike. You're supposed to emphasize that. I was a little bit surprised, pleasantly surprised. February 2021, there weren't a lot of big name celebrity deaths it's amazing you know you were able to fill so much time because christopher plumber was the biggest one

and maybe the second biggest mary wilson who some would argue is not that big a name so i mean uh this is christopher plumber tor guy, beloved actor, gone. And I would say gone too soon, but how old was he again? Made it to 91. And I think, look, a shining example for us all. I mean, forget about third act. He had a fourth act, a fifth act. Right.

And we'll take stock in another month, Mike. We'll get back together in the backyard for another 1236 recap on Toronto Mike. Okay, Mark, look me in the eyes, okay? So in my backyard, I'm looking into the camera, in my backyard for the March recap, let's try to get this thing to a lean and mean two hours. Do you think we can do that? Mike, I didn't come here with a half-hour segment

about a Howard Stern press conference from 24 years ago. But yeah, thanks, Neil Morrison, brother Bill. That was a good memory. And that brings us to the end of our 811th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 1236. Sign up for that fantastic newsletter,

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And Mimico Mike, not on Twitter. Go to Instagram and follow him at Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week. I don't care where you've been Because everything is kind of rosy and green This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.