Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #831

Episode Date: April 6, 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 831 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. Order online for free, local Local home delivery in the GTA. CDN Technologies. Your outsourced IT department. Contact Barb. She's barb at cdntechnologies.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 this week from 1236 is Mark Weisblot. Mike, it is time for the Outdoor Backyard TMDS Season Opener.

And we got from December 30th when we met back here for the Fromage 2020 episode all the way to April 6, 2021. This is an opening day sort of afternoon. No longer at Exhibition Stadium. I do remember how in April they wouldn't schedule night games. Too cold. Too cold by the lake. And here we are in your backyard. Also not far from a large body of water. The same body of water. Far from a large body of water. The same body of water. Lake Ontario.

So, yes, to be clear, this is the very first time I've done an in-person episode of Toronto Mic'd. Since your final appearance of 2020, it was, again, like you said, it was December 30th, the fromage episode. You were back here. Then we shut it down because it got too cold. And here we are a little over three months later,

and I can't tell you how good you sound in the headphones like this is how it's always supposed to sound and i will just point out because we're not on camera here that i actually added feet to our distance have you noticed we're a little further apart we're a good we're a good 11 feet away as we speak there are new variants in the air shutdowns are being contemplated as deja vu all over again it's like eternal march 13th friday the 13th 2020 with all sorts of uncertainty and i i think like every month we're just waiting for all of this to end i I remember we did our first Zoom episode. It was a March 2020 recap, stuck in the Zoom-pocalypse at home,

recognizing this isn't the way it was meant to be. No. But we persevered with the monthly recap. You get used to it. Like, I've done how many Pandemic Fridays now via Zoom, and you kind of get used to it, but it's never quite the same. It doesn't sound the same. It doesn't have that same

human energy. I'm just glad you're here, safely distanced, of course, and I really hope we can continue to do these in person. But what are we going to get this over with, Mike? Let's get vaccinated. I remember predicting last year that there would be like a new libertarian renaissance

and everybody would be busting out and fend for themselves in a whole new way. Not to be selfish, not to trample on other people's rights, but to just say, look, I serve my time. I stayed home for the lockdown. Now I want my freedom. And we start to hear about that happening in the United States of America right now, listening to podcasts where people are talking about getting their social lives back. Well, we're here in Canada with a certain amount of captivity.

Well, we're here in Canada with a certain amount of captivity. And right now, situation once again, schools closed for another two weeks, which is how this all started back on March 13, 2020. One of those weeks is a belated March break. So, yeah. But what really boils my potatoes, Mark, if I can rant for a quick second, is that we've come off a four day long weekend. And there was great discussions in this household about whether the two little ones go to school today. I told my wife the truth, which is that if it was my call 100%, I would walk them to school today. And she ended up saying, okay,

let's do that. And they're in school as we speak. But the announcement was made this afternoon, schools close tomorrow. So what was the point of today like just to just attempt let's just put them all together after the four-day weekend for one day and see what happens and then you know then make the call like why couldn't they have made this call yesterday i know you don't have the answers but it makes no sense to me that we couldn't just why why didn't we shut it down for today i'm just happy that you saved the date to have me first of the year in the backyard. I thought, well, last year you promised I would get that milestone,

and Ben Rayner beat me to it. One of several Toronto-miked regulars who has a pretty good idea of who I am, but expresses no interest whatsoever in what I do. Another one being Mike Wilner, who I also was wondering. He did a pop-up appearance, a last-minute tee-up here of Blue Jays season, now that he's writing for the Toronto Star. Sounded all optimistic about that.

I think as we do our usual media talk, maybe a little too rose-colored in his outlook about what the newspaper means. Although I also got the sense that maybe they're just going to call him right back. It'll pick up where he left off, doing the Blue Jays on the radio. You're dreaming in Technicolor, man. But it was good to catch up with Wilner. Lots of episodes.

Speaking of people who know who I am, yet express no awareness whatsoever of what I do. Stu Stone. Yes. On Pandemic Friday, week in, week out, just blowing my record out of the water as far as the most regular appearances on Toronto. Mike, you're now up to what? 55, 56 Pandemic Fridays? 56, I think. Water, as far as the most regular appearances on Toronto Mike. You're now up to what, 55, 56 pandemic Fridays? 56, I think.

56 coming up maybe this week, yeah. But that's not a fair. You're a monthly man. Fantastic once a month. And they're weekly. Like, it's not a fair compare. It's not apples to apples. Okay, well, we can try and catch up here in the years to come. Also in March on Toronto Mic'd, you had two guests over 80 years of age. I remember imagining that David Marsden, who turned 80 years old in 2020, would be a good person to reach that milestone.

But I know David has been broadcasting as ever on his NY the Spirit website from home, and maybe you can get him back here this summer, but then two other gentlemen in their 80s. Well, you tipped me off, so this is all thanks to you pointing out the fact that, hey, this guy who is a co-founder of the Purple Onion

in Yorkville and had an article written about him in the Toronto Star, you're like, this guy Barry Witkin, that's Andrew Witkin's dad. Andrew being the founder of StickerU. Much love to StickerU.com. Fantastic partners. And you get great stickers and decals, etc. The Toronto Mike stickers from StickerU are amazing. If anyone wants one, I'll bike it over to you. Just DM me or email me and let me know. But yeah tip me off that barry was so i had this idea to get barry and andrew on together and it went really well like uh uh barry whitkin is a very sharp 82 year old man and then not too long after fotm banjo dunk who you know himself when

the pandemic hit he was a sponsor of the program promoting his live events and then the live events evaporated into the mist and then therefore what am i advertising and he disappeared but he's like uh hey man it's not too late it's not too late to get uh brian mcfarland on the show he's 89 years old and we did it and again sharp as a tack and it And it was an amazing episode with Brian McFarlane. Brian McFarlane, the proprietor of the cartoon character Peter Puck. Right. He's not sure who owns it anymore, which I found comical. Nobody really knows who owns it.

It's probably owned probably by NBC or, who knows, Disney or something. Who knows? But, yeah, he was the Peter Puck man. Okay. Also in the month, you did a Toronto Mike's compilation episode. I know it was VP of Sales Tyler Campbell who combed through the history of the podcast to find anecdotes about Harold Ballard. Although he missed Hebsey's, and Hebsey noticed.

And he missed mine, me talking about seeing Yolanda Ballard in Starbucks in her final days living in Toronto, even though she moved to Florida, lived another decade. Thanks to the 89-year-old wonder, Brian McFarlane, we have a lot more really cool Ballard stories

for a sequel. So VP of Sales, we're going to need to do a sequel and pick up the rest of these stories we missed for Harold Ballard. And an obsession in the past month with Tears Are Not Enough by Northern Lights. What did you think? I think I

heard it all. It was Cam Gordon deconstructing the Northern Lights Ethiopia charity single with I thought a significant amount of sincerity. Yeah. Because I'm old enough to remember at the time, nobody thought that that was an interesting piece of music.

It was schlock that came out of the world. Brian Adams and Jim Valens, produced by David Foster. Right. And yet Cam Gordon had a place in his heart for this song and broke down an incredible amount of detail about its recording

and managed to change history by inspiring revisions to the Wikipedia page for Northern Lights Tears Are Not Enough. Which is awesome. And that was something else. And then after that, Carol Pope came on and Cam

was pleased because, you know, she was a little frosty at first. Like, it took a while to warm her up. So when I first asked her about, you know, how were you asked about doing Tears Are Not Enough, she kind of, like, showed little interest in any, like, she couldn't remember and didn't want to talk about it. But then as I warmed her up, I went back to it.

So Cam was pleased because then I could feel, okay, Carol's starting to warm up. Let me revisit Tears Are Not Enough. And all I was thinking is, you know, Cam's going to enjoy this. And he did. So I don't know if you caught the Carol Pope episode. Well, footnote on Carol Pope, it had a rare appearance from Future Mike,

one of your alter egos when you have to interject in an episode. You almost never hear him. Most significantly used with Molly Johnson to prepare listeners for what might be coming does not live up to the standards of verbal ping pong here on Toronto Mike. But you got through. You did okay. I think it turned out okay.

I listened to the whole thing over again, and I think it turned out pretty good. I thought it was pretty good considering. But yeah, that's only the second appearance of Future Mike. If Future Mike shows up in an episode, something interesting is going down. Like, you know, maybe just that's like a sign

that, okay, this is not your run-of-the-mill Toronto Mike, because this is episode 831 we're recording right now in my backyard. And only two have appearances from future Mike. Okay, yeah, a prolific month since I last talked to you here on March 2nd, 2021. Now let's bring on the recap of March. We'll talk about what's going on in the media, what you want to know, tales from the newsletter at 1236, 1236.ca. And then, like every 1236 episode, Kirstie, of Ridley Funeral Home. We'll run down some of the interesting people who died and bring back any recollections that we have

of the histories they've left behind. It's great to have Ridley Funeral Home on board for all of 2021. That's fantastic. Thank you, Ridley Funeral Home. I know Brad at Ridley Funeral Home. He's a big fan of Great Lakes beer, and like as most FOTMs are,

because it's delicious, fresh craft beer. Mark, for the first time in over three months, I have a guest with me who can crack open a cold GLB. Let's hear it. What are you opening? Oh, how appropriate. Like a fact in honor of the breeze that's coming here off the water. But I think we're going to get through this afternoon.

This first backyard episode of the season will be one to remember. What do you think? Let's make it great. I'm going to have my current favorite GLB burst. It's a New England pale ale. So cheers to you from 12 feet away. Tell me about this jam we're listening to because my daughter,

Michelle, loves this song and I blew her mind by telling her that Daniel Caesar, Caesar? How am I supposed to say his last name? Do you know telling her that Daniel Caesar. Caesar? How am I supposed to say his last name? Do you know? Yeah, Daniel Caesar.

Caesar. Okay, like Caesar, like Julius Caesar. Okay. Like Caesar's palace. Right. So he is, of course, he's a Toronto boy, and she had no idea. But this song has some record for debuting at the top of the charts. Do you know that info off the top of your head there?

Oh, well, you're the one keeping a list at torontomike.com of Canadians who topped the Billboard Hot 100. And Justin Bieber, I think ever since he entered the adult phase of his career, has made a bunch of appearances, sometimes as a featured artist on a song like Despacito, other times a track of his own. And this one came out with his surprise album drop, Justice, along with two featured artists, one of whom is Daniel Caesar from Toronto.

Real name is Ashton Simmons. And, you know, Daniel Caesar got cancelled somewhere along the way last year in this time of scrutinizing everything that somebody says. It goes against the grain.

I think he said we shouldn't fret too much about the fact that white people didn't like black people before, but maybe we should leave this behind and move on. Oh, it's not, I guess not the kind of thing to say. Let bygones be bygones is what he's saying. Okay.

But he rebounded here, I think, thanks to Justin Bieber, and had his very first American number one hit. So in the list of Canadian acts to top the Hot 100, up to number 58 at this point. So it's been a lot of Weeknd and Drake. There was a Shawn Mendes song in there. Yeah, a lot of Bieber. But this is the first one that has two Canadians credited on the track

along with another singer from California called Givion. And I think on our Fromage 2020, one of the tracks on there reviewing some of the infamous moments in pop music was Yummy by Justin Bieber, which he gave like a country remix. He was trying to manufacture a hit. Monica likes that song. A hit on TikTok. I think it was an example of cynically crafting a song specifically to play to that generation

and making 15-second dance videos. And his new Justin Bieber album is seen as a comeback, relatively speaking, because it's got a little more credibility and I think pivoting back to that Christian sound. And he subsequently had an EP, a few tunes out for Easter. That might be also the direction that Justin Bieber is going

with the song Justice. But I always like to get in the mood here by bringing something in that the kids are listening to today, Mike. No, you gotta keep current. It keeps us young. Keeps us young. But you know what?

We're stuck. I feel like we're stuck in that space where we're not young, but we're not quite old enough to get the vaccination yet. We're stuck in that zone there. We're getting there. Whereas Justin Bieber, I'm sure, has a vaccine. He's got a celebrity in Hollywood at this

point in time. Stu fucking Stone has his vaccinations. Okay, so if Stu Stone has been vaccinated in California, then care of. Stu fucking Stone has his vaccinations. Okay, so if Stu Stone has been vaccinated in California, then you can rest assured that Justin Bieber has been vaccinated. So, I will wait patiently for my turn here in the TDOT.

Why don't you start off by telling us about what's going on at Wilner's new place of employment, the Toronto Star. You know, they hired a new editor-in-chief at the Star, and it was Anne-Marie Owens, who was part of the day one team with the National Post and at one point worked for Maclean's magazine,

but then ended up getting a position, a big one, symbolic and ceremonial as a woman leading a national daily newspaper, which National Post is still categorized as. And I think she found the rhythm of what this thing could be. It doesn't mean that it was making any money, but it was holding its own within the premise of this post-media chain. And then one day, she makes an announcement. She's done with newspapers, done with post-media.

She's going to get some kind of job at McMaster University. And she did that for a couple of years as a recovering journalist. People who used to work in media, let alone editor-in-chief of a national newspaper. I don't think they'll ever stop reminding you that they used to have this important job in the media, even if they don't want to do it anymore, went off somewhere else. I mean,

look, she was high up on the sunshine list with his academic job, but the Toronto star, uh, looking for a rebirth beyond, uh, sports gambling as a way to fund journalism beyond, uh,

using his pages to try and lobby the Canadian government to figure out how to get Google and Facebook to pay to link the news. They're very much on this bandwagon. We've talked about that a lot here over the months, and they still haven't found a solution, by the way. Right. What's happened so far is Facebook in particular, and Google in Canada a little bit, stepping up and offering their own payments, offering their own grants, their own programs,

their own apps, their own subsidies, their ideas to say, okay, we're being good corporate citizens here. We're giving something to the journalism industry and the newspaper lobby, punching back at them and saying, whatever, you're making like hundreds of billions of dollars a year. This is Trump change. You can afford more. We'll see what that means to the future of a company like Torstar, Toronto Star Newspapers.

Anne-Marie Owens in charge is seen as a positive move. Like in the world of Twitter and all the embittered journalists that are out there, I don't think there's anybody outwardly with a bad thing to say about her. That bodes well for a newspaper. It's a fact that she worked for the more right-wing libertarian National Post, which is maybe an unusual shift to go to the liberal party's national, natural governing newspaper at one young street. But I don't know if there was any kind of purity test. She's interested in journalism. She'll do a good job with the tools that she's given but then that raises the question about whether we are going to see

further consolidation that brings these post-media newspapers the national ones across the country and the Toronto Star under the same roof. Like these two rich guys have bought the Toronto Star took it off the hands of the five families and the sinking stock price that it had before. They've got bigger ambitions than just owning a local Toronto newspaper. I think they can get their hands on every newspaper in Canada

if the price is right. As far as I can tell, they can get handed these things for free if they can put across the right terms and conditions about what they're going to do with them. I think everything's on the block. Everything's up for grabs. In that case, somebody with

seasoned experience running the National Post would be a great hire for the Toronto Star to make something out of it. Here's where I get a little bit snarky about my childhood chum Mike Willner. What he had to say about his optimism for the newspaper. Even you, Toronto Mike, listening to Mike Willner telling him about how things are turning around. It's going to be better than ever in the sports department of the Toronto Star.

But I didn't say that. Better than ever in the sports department of the Toronto Star. But I didn't say that. Okay, let's contrast that with a recent backyard guest on Toronto Mike. Right. Legendary married couple from the sports section. How did they feel about what had become of their newspaper? Well, think about it. Recent guests, if you will, not only Mary Ormsby and Paul Hunter, but you could throw in Ben Rayner,

and then you could put Peter Howell, who popped in just before the pandemic hit. These are all people who might not see the great growth at the Toronto Star. But, okay, so can you succinctly tell me what the heck I should know about Huffington Post and BuzzFeed? Oh, well, speaking of deals that made it possible for one company to pick up another for absolutely nothing, we watch the evolution of the Huffington Post in Canada.

Arianna Huffington started this website. Remember when the Huffington Post launched in 2005? Yeah. And it was seen as the realization of the blog era. It was the whole idea that if you wanted to write for free online, here we had elitist woman Arianna Huffington coming to the rescue where she was going to provide a platform where anyone could be a star if they wanted to write for free.

And there would be the blog roll in the corner. I figure you must have gone to the Huffington Post homepage on the first day, see what it was all about. Probably, but not very often thereafter, to be honest with you. George Clooney contributing a column. Of course, you know, they would get these stars to contribute something, get filtered through seven different layers of managers and agents and publicists. I was more into the Better Living Center. Well, that was also from that era.

It did not last long. It did not get sold to America Online for $315 million, which was how Aria Huffington and her team leveraged this idea of people writing for free. At the same time, they also perfected what was known as a mullet strategy. That is to say, you do the serious stuff in the front and the party time in the back. And when it came to this new age of clickbait riding the social media that was coming on the scene and google searches getting more sophisticated i mean look mike you've you've been in this game pretty much as long as it's been around that at one point uh you could you could

cultivate wealth by showing up as one of the first results on Google. If you had a magic formula, the right number of search terms, it would bring in a certain surge of traffic. Right. There was money in there. Google where the hell is Anwar Knight. Give it a go. You'll see why I bought the Lexus out front.

And, of course, look, things have changed, and a lot of the energy shifted to different platforms. AOL, which was still, I think, to this day, running a dial-up internet service, they decided to try to get deeper into the content game, and that meant snapping up the Huffington Post. So Huffington Post had international expansion to Canada. This is like 10 years ago this spring.

And it chugged along as a newsroom that, on one hand, was following in that tradition of creating clickbait content, content farming. When was the last time you heard that term? Kidnapping stories from other sources, putting their own search engine optimization on those pages, and then coming up ahead of the newspaper where they sourced the story from without doing any original reporting of their own. Hate that.

And yet, it was a business. It was a game that they were playing. At least it moved them far enough along to the point where they started bringing in original reporters. And in Canada, that was Althea Raj. You see her on CBC at Iss issue in there with Andrew Coyne and Chantal Hebert. So she brought a certain kind of reporting style to Ottawa. I think, because I did this stuff for a time at Post Media when I had the job there.

Canada.com, whatever the hell that was supposed to be. Part of it was, I guess, scanning social media, looking online, finding stories that were out there in the ether that no one had gotten around to turning into a narrative. And that also became part of the Huffington Post formula. At the same time, they phased out the idea of having volunteer blogger contributors. I think Twitter, if not Facebook and Medium, more recently Substack. Would you need to go through the Huffington Post anymore

if you wanted to have your say? The quality of volunteer bloggers definitely went down because other platforms were created. And what do you use for torontomike.com? I mean, Squarespace. You can set up your own website. I use Ghost. It's a lot less complicated than it was before.

I was on movable type for approximately 18 years or something like that. And now I'm on Ghost. Okay, so Evolution of Huffington Post, it gets to the point where it's not worth anything at all. I mean, it went from AOL to being owned by Verizon, American telecom company. I guess they wanted to get their hands on those AOL dial-up subscribers, convert them to broadband. Who's going to save the Huffington Post? We learned in finding out about its sale to BuzzFeed,

it lost like $20 million last year. Who was waiting to take it off their hands? Jonah Peretti, who was one of the original architects there with Ariane Huffington. At the same time as a side project, he was developing something called BuzzFeed. And BuzzFeed is trying to figure out how to cash in its chips. So he got custody of HuffPost, this thing he originally started. And what was bound to happen, a whole bunch of people were out of a job and that included closing down huffpost canada and and that was like i don't know 10 weeks short

of 10 years right that it was that long this american outpost this uh this strange eccentric idea for uh an elitist American neoliberal website, one that when Donald Trump announced it was running for president wouldn't even cover him as a political story, like they put him in the entertainment pages. We all know how that turned out. More recently, Huffington Post in Canada was trying to present itself as a media outlet that would solve the issues of diversity by writing about the

multicultural aspects of Canada. I've talked about it here before relative to my more recent appointment. Did you know I'm the managing editor of the Canadian Jewish News? You know how I know this? Because a recent episode of Toronto Mic'd featured Huxley Workman kicking out the jams, and along for the ride was my rabbi, Ralph Ben-Murgy, and he is's backgrounds and lives and culture and everything. And my belief remains that through this Canadian Jewish news, that I want to be able to solve this idea that individual communities, niche groups can do the media of their own. Right.

Stop stamping your feet. Right. Waiting for a big establishment, old stock newspaper to do it for you because it's not going to happen. You can't accommodate every view under the sun. People are going to just end up at loggerheads with with one another. one another. That's why I'm skeptical about what they think the Toronto Star can become like this big tent newspaper. When in fact, then you hear about, okay,

they want to get into the game of sports gambling. They hired, they brought in another columnist, probably freelance writer, who's doing a newsletter called The Parlay, like a betting website.

I've seen this on Twitter. That was also some indication of where the Toronto Star is going, and then they bought Score Golf magazine. Cineplex had its monthly magazine. I'm sure you remember growing up, you'd go to the movie theater and you'd pick up this glossy publication. Are you kidding me? Of course. What was the name of that?

What was it called? Do you remember? There was Marquee magazine. Tribute magazine was another one in there. Yeah, right. And then Cineplex, so that's also part of the Toronto Star's future business. They see the whole idea of

producing, distributing this Cineplex star magazine. Keep in mind, this is different from what Peter Howell was doing as a movie critic. Yeah. This is marketing being in the pocket of big movie studios. And look, I mean, before,

before their business gotored for a year, before their idea of selling for $3 billion to Cineworld, a British company, failed to follow through because of the pandemic. Cineplex perfected this idea of taking these Hollywood movies and building all of this marketing content around them. So that's why you would go to the movies and see what? 10 minutes of commercials? Sure, at least. 20 minutes of trailers?

Yep. Be surrounded by brand activations all through the hallway of the theater, figuring out with their scene points how to get people to upsell their popcorn so they would be buying seven, eight, nine dollars worth of snacks in order to see the movie. At least. They figured out the magic of turning the movie-going experience

into something that could make money all around them. Like there was wealth pouring out of the walls of the Cineplex theaters. The fact they basically had Monopoly in Canada, and now their media, their magazine, adopted by the Toronto Star, and we'll see if that's also part of their future. Now, just before we move on to some items unrelated, Vice, so I think Stu's in the States now because he's filming some wrestling thing for Vice.

I think that's his employer right now on this deal. Yeah, it was. They started the Viceland television network right it was um it was with a and e in the united states and uh rogers in canada right and that was vice fluffing itself up $5.7 billion valuation. Wait, with a B? With a B. Vice. Yeah, in 2017.

Oh, Toronto Mike is only worth 10% of that. But yeah, that's pretty cool. Well, Mike, it wasn't meant to last. Okay. And, I mean, the companies that were pouring money into Vice were, after a while, just writing the whole thing down. I think it was Disney that their annual report said, okay, this really isn't worth anything at all.

You've got something called a special purpose acquisition company. Have you heard that term before? Does it mean anything to you? No. Kind of like NFTs, non-fungible tokens. Right. That's been one buzzword in the last few months. Suddenly, artists out of nowhere making hundreds of thousands of dollars

selling like a virtual house online. I think there was one young artist in Toronto. She made like $600,000, which would have made it the cheapest house in all of Toronto. I was going to say. Selling it as an NFT. Okay. So right now you can,

I guess the way the rules work in the USA right now, you can on Wall Street, like just set up a shell company just for the purpose of raising money. And if you can grab the right kind of moneymaker at a discount, you can reap the rewards of wrapping it up in other stuff that you're selling. Wrapping it up in other stuff that you're selling. And so it's rumored that Vice is about to be sold to one of these S-PACs. And Vice Bot Refinery 29. And the rumored valuation is not $5.7 billion.

Sorry, Mike. Yes. They're down to more like $2.5 billion. Yeah, billion. A bit less than half. they're down to more like 2.5. Billion? Yeah, billion. A bit less than half. Practically giving it away. Well, for something that started as a street magazine in Montreal that was funded with some money that was supposed to go to drug rehabilitation programs, to go to drug rehabilitation programs,

that the three bros originally behind Vice managed to talk their way into some sort of glory. Eventually, I think we're going to hear the end of that story whenever the news arrives that Vice has been sold to an SPAC, along with Refinery29, the women's website, that it acquired somewhere along the way, similar, I think, to the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed deal, where, you know, realizing like this, this digital media thing was stretched to the limit.

These investors aren't going to get the returns that they were originally hoping for. Consolidation had to come. And so right now we are living in the last days of Vice. But there's always room for reality television programming. And that seems to be what Stu Stone is up to right now, right? Working on the one hit show that they found for Vice TV. They were going to have all these shows with these burly, tattooed bros like Action Bronson and Damian Abraham from Toronto.

Fucked Up. From the band Fucked Up. Shows about weed and cooking and Matty Matheson. He was another one of that stable. Well, uh, instead of, instead of hipsters who look like wrestlers, they realized why not go to the source. Right. And so in the tradition of VH1 behind the music,

it's a show called dark, dark side of the ring. That's the one. And who better than wrestling obsessive Stu stone, right? To, uh, It's the one. And who better than wrestling obsessive Stu Stone to move to California in the midst of the pandemic, relocating there, doing his research. Surrounded by palm trees and vaccination sites. He's living the good life.

You're just a little bit jealous listening to him every week on Pandemic Friday. And back to Ralph Ben-Murray then. Canadian Jewish News Podcast is called Yehupitzville. And it's about small town Jews in Canada. A concept that originated with

Ralph. But it needed a better name. And I kept hearing Hebsey on sports episodes where mark hebzer would refer to an imaginary place called yahupitzville yes whenever he wanted to talk about sports in a small town i'm not saying i didn't know the word before but it was Hebsey that refreshed it in my mind. And there's a little bit then, FOTM Convergence.

Love it. Where Mark Hebsey, his overuse of a Yiddish word, inspired me to name a podcast by Ralph Ben-Murky. You might as well, Mark. You might as well just join TMDS. You're all up in the TMDS business here. Love it here. But I'm glad you mentioned Hebsey,

the fabulous host of Hebsey on Sports, because when Sid Sixero did his farewell show on Tim and Sid before he went to Breakfast Television, and I want to talk about this now because I gave you like an hour to talk about. And I want to talk about this now because I gave you like an hour to talk about the things I don't care about, like Huffington Post and BuzzFeed and Vice. And now it's my turn. So I pulled this clip to play for Mark Hebbshire because he's mentioned in the farewell clip by Sid. And Hebbsy would not, and I guess you might have heard this,

but for those who didn't, Hebsey would not let me press play. He had zero interest in hearing Sid Sixero's farewell speech in which he honors Mark Hebsey. Not only that, I felt like Hebsey was willing to go on for an hour about why he didn't want to listen to a 15-second farewell clip from Tim and Sid. So that clip for Hebsey was 20 seconds. I actually pulled a longer one for us right now. But part of Hebsey's beef, I think part of his beef was that

neither Tim nor Sid have ever agreed to come on Toronto Mic'd. So it's good that Hebsey's got my back. We're all looking out for each other. Look, Hebsey inspires podcasts hosted by Ralph Ben-Murgy. Yep. And here we have a boycott

of Tim and Sid. But I think the clip from the final episode of Tim and Sid, which we've talked about here before on a 1236 episode, it still resonates here a month or two

later as representative of something about the current state of the Canadian media. Well, let's play it and then let's discuss. Here is the last. This is actually a minute 51, so let's listen and drink our Great Lakes beer.

To everyone watching, thank you. I'm such a loser you're all right come on I know you can't tell right now but I'm really excited about the new show I'm going to use the hair on your chest let's go now I am I think I'd, how are you coaching me up in this moment? I did not think that's how it was going to happen. I'm usually the one. Yeah. But I,

I, this was a lot of fun. And, and Tim and I, you know, they're to be part of a duo is very rare in our business. And we grew up watching Mark Hepsher, Jim Taddy,

and they were amazing. And I just want to shout out Jay and Dan, because it's not easy what we do i'm such a loser god bless god bless all of you tim i love you so much i'm the ugliest prior you've ever seen oh and messy still is a fraud i don't care what anyone said Oh, and messy still is a fraud. I don't care what anyone says.

Um, I want to thank you all. I've held it together the whole show. God bless all of you. I suck. I love you too, man. I appreciate everything that you've done for my career. And this started as a dinky little show and a dinky little station. And we had dreams of doing something big and here we are 17 years later and we hosted a parade for eight hours and have met some of the giants in

the business so damn straight uh cheers to you my friend and cheers to everyone who has gone on this ride with us salute tim at some point though you some point, don't you got to know when to hold them? You got to know when to fold them. You got to know when to walk away. Know when to run. Love you all. God bless. What day was that?

Was that sometime in February? Or six weeks later? Sounds about right. We've got Sid installed as the co-host of Breakfast Television. Have you seen any of that? I watched a few minutes of an episode of Breakfast Television. Curiosity, because I wanted to see Neil Osborne, FOTM from 5440,

what it was like when he would be inducted his song, I Go Blind, into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. I didn't expect much, but... I made a point of tuning in. No wonder Sid was crying if he was going to work on this Milk Toast morning show. So I can't watch. It sounds like he was recognizing that the fun was over. The party was done.

No longer would him and his buddy Sid get to own the rights to run around Rogers and call the shots. The power is being redistributed at these telecom media companies, and you talk about here with Hebsey, Hebsey on sports, every single week, the need for a changing face of sports media in Canada. So I don't think it was a coincidence that Jay and Dan were discontinued as a duo at the same time as Tim and Sid. It was Bell and Rogers looking over one another's shoulders and wondering who will be the first to blink.

I don't know in chronological order of Tim and Sid and Jay and Dan, which show ended before the other or which announcement was made. I know that Dan— No, no, no. The announcement of Sid leaving came first, but the final show was Jay and Dan because Dan was fired Sunday. I can see there was some sort of strategy there. Now, Dan was unceremoniously removed from Bell Media.

He never got to say goodbye. But subsequently, they did a four-part, four-hour Jay and Dan podcast retrospective. I didn't know that. A clip show and people calling in all to say goodbye to the podcast. The Bell Media side project that they were doing. I mean, these guys got to go to Hollywood. Five years working for this Fox Sports Network,

which didn't have any viewers, but you can be sure they got paid. If you can get Jay and Dan back here, maybe we'll get the real talk about how much money they actually earned for doing that job on Rupert Murdoch's dime. With the idea that Fox Sports could be as big as Fox News with them as the two main anchor dudes. I've had some DMs with Dan O'Toole since this news, and let me just say that when he's able to speak freely about this,

buckle up. It's going to be a hell of a ride. He's got some real talk to share. So we had Jay Onrate. He was also weeping. He was trying to hold back the tears in his goodbye to Dan and their producer, producer Tim? Tim.

Producer Tim laid off, along with a couple hundred others at Bell Media in the winter, what they've come to call in the industry as the Let's Talk layoffs, The call in the industry is the let's talk layoffs coming right on the heels of their mental health day, saying goodbye. All those employees just locking them out of their computers while they're stuck working at home. who talks a lot about the fact that himself with Jim Taddy, being one of those duos, projecting the chauvinism of two Caucasian guys talking sports, that here we are every many years later, since it was you, Toronto Mike, who was railing against the white men of the Fan 590.

That was me. That if this sports media is going to survive, and the jury's out about that, given what happened with the Blue Jays games, whether or not there'll be any extra effort expended for radio broadcasts in the future. or not there'll be any extra effort expended for radio broadcasts in the future. We got Bob

McCowan on, uh, what's the station? AM 960? Saga 960? Out there in your Huppetsville? Did that happen in the last month? Was that a March thing? I completely forgot about that.

Because they're just playing his podcast. It would be like if a station nobody could get pressed play and played Toronto Mic'd. Like, would I be on that station? I suppose, technically speaking, but it's not live. Anyway, I'd forgotten if that was March. I don't... I think we talked about that.

It was in March. It was in March that Bob McCowan made his return to terrestrial radio doing a... Well, he started off with, okay, you've got five minutes. Right, which starred the great Brian Gerstein, I believe, for at least one of those five minutes. YouTube show he produced on the way back

from the bathroom at dinner on the bridal path. Yeah, that didn't last too long. I couldn't be bothered. I've only got five minutes of energy to give you. Not even going to take my sunglasses off. Right. I've got

so little time to listen to what you have to say. Right. Bob McCowan showed up with a slightly longer version of his podcast. Weren't Humble and Fred complaining about having to format their podcast for the radio, fill in the commercial breaks? Well, it sounds like Bob McCowan has now taken that deal.

Yeah. Which is not very lucrative. Specifically longer show on Saga 960. Right. Okay, so what's left with sports media then? When you get rid of the duos like Jay and Dan and Tim and Sid, what we're left with are old-timers like Gord Miller of TSN doing what I think was a ridiculous example of virtue signaling.

This is the barstool sports thing. For no reason whatsoever, aside from the fact that he was doing Twitter AMA, I guess. It was answering questions. Ask me anything. It was answering questions. Ask me anything. Pose me your questions. Would you ever appear on this podcast spitting chiclets? Which is like, I should point out, that's probably the number one podcast

in the sports section of Apple Podcasts in Canada right now. Flagship hockey podcast? What is it? Former NHLers? Biz Nasty, I think. Bissonnette. I think. I've never actually listened except I have friends who love it. I think it's a very

popular hockey podcast. Someone asked, Gord Miller, would you be willing to appear on Spittin' Chicklets? Right. Just like some of your TSN colleagues have. Right.

And perhaps recognizing the current zeitgeist, what's appropriate to say, what kind of statement do you have to put across to remain in good standing with your bosses at Bell Media? Gord Miller replied and said, I like those guys a lot, but anything to do with barstool sports

is a no go for me. And he elaborated. It was a history of unapologetic misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and the repeated condoning of non-consensual sex. Wow. And if not wanting to associate with them makes me a part of, quote, unquote,

cancel culture or constitutes, scare quotes, virtue signaling or being quote-unquote woke. I'm okay with that. That was Gord Miller of TSN. Now, you know if he hears back from his Bell Media bosses, they are only going to pat him on the back. He's only going to get plaudits for taking a stand and making a statement like that.

Because that's the kind of thing you have to say to show that you're on the right side, maybe even hang on to your job. And it was Dave Portnoy, stool presidente, the head of Barstool Sports, who said, look, you're slandering my entire company here with blatant lies. We've heard all this before. Now, obviously, part of the appeal of barstool sports is that it's not a woke media organization and they've they built up a company worth worth billions of dollars based on that and

a lot of a lot of it has involved people saying things off the cuff that are not too polite right there are things that would not help you stay employed at a company owned by a telecom in Canada. But that's the difference between TSN and Barstool Sports. What is your verdict on what we saw going on here, Mike? Do you think this was Gord Miller being a try-hard working overtime? Because then he does an interview on the radio on CTV, Bell Media, News Talk Gord Miller being a try-hard working overtime? Because then he does an interview on the radio on CTV, Bell Media,

News Talk 1010 with Evan Solomon. Right, right. He talks about his martyrdom. What a heroic job he did on Twitter standing up to bullies of martial sports. Okay, but doesn't Gord deserve, and I don't know, again, I feel like I have to preface this now because if people come over and they spend a with me, and they're my buddies or something, I've never met Gord Miller, so I'll preface it with that. I don't know G with barstool sports. And he deserves some credit, I think for, for putting that out there, you know,

like, I don't know. You tell me, is that it's, are his accusations fair? Like I haven't heard enough, but like if there's a misogynist, uh,

under, uh, pinning of the, the barstool sports network and some of those others accusation, he, he mentions the R word racism. Like, I don't others. He mentions the R word, racism. Like, I don't know. Tell me if he's.

Well, the issue was they once launched a podcast with black hosts, and the name of the show was like an acronym based on the N word. And this got a fair amount of blowback for them. Like, this was inappropriate for Barstool Sports as a company to be standing behind, but you understand they're trying to push a certain envelope. Also, my understanding is... Look, it's wildly profitable. If you're part of the marginalized group,

you have license to use these terms. So, you know, it's not like, you know, you and I are starting a podcast of anything, naming it anything of that nature. So I think Gord's entitled to have these opinions. I don't know if I would call it virtue signaling or whatever. He felt like he needed to make a public stand. He did it.

I don't, if anything, I might even applaud his courage in saying so. Gord's a big boy. He can handle it. And I don't have any problems with what Gord said, to be quite honest with you that's what it takes to make it in the uh corporate media world here in 2021 the kind of the kind of comments that you see now nowadays all over linkedin yeah and i know a big fotm is uh but he doesn't listen to the show superstar linkedin employee i don't know how i I know a big FOTM is a superstar LinkedIn employee. I don't know how I got into looking at LinkedIn several times a day,

but I can't stop. I'm on there. I post the odd thing. I can't stop linking in because I'm fascinated at what's become of this world of proclaiming your pronouns and asserting your allyship. And okay, maybe for some of these folks, there's a sincerity at the root of what they're doing. Like they fought for these principles all their lives.

But don't you recognize at a certain point, it's completely over the top. Well, I'll tell you, you don't have to do this anymore like everything's been said here in lockdown like i know that uh as you know uh there was a lot of speak of a lot of chatter about anti-asian racism okay over the last i think it all happened in march but yes i mean so there's this feeling of like, like, do I now need to create some posts to say I'm against anti-Asian racism? Like as if like I need to make this public declaration that I am against anti-Asian racism. As you know, that cute little girl

at the window right here, she's just left, but she was very happy to see you because I don't think she's seen any of my friends in the backyard in many, many months. She was very excited, but she was very happy to see you because I don't think she's seen any of my friends in the backyard in many, many months. She was very excited, but she's Asian. That's my daughter, Morgan.

Hello, Morgan. I live with Asians, and I love Asians, and I will just say for the record here on Toronto Mic, I just want to say I'm against all anti-Asian racism. Well, then do you feel you have the right to tell people? You're being a little ridiculous here. This is kind of over the top. You don't,

you don't have to proclaim, you know, on a, on a daily basis that you're, that you, that you are, you, you do not believe in race.

I am against anti-Asian racism. The corporate tide is, is bringing people into this view that you cannot be a useful employee, a participant in getting a paycheck if you, you know, using the over-coin term here, virtue signaling, it becomes the order of the day.

Like, people used to say, I don't want to look at Twitter and Instagram. I don't care what you had for breakfast in the day. People used to say, I don't want to look at Twitter and Instagram. I don't care what you had for breakfast in the morning. We've reached a point now that I don't care that you're not a racist. Good for you. I don't care that your pronouns are

he and him, you obviously heterosexual male-looking person. It becomes a very aggressive thing to do. Educate me when it's a variant of the norm, if you will. The default setting should be

anti-Asian racism, right? This is the default setting. Let me know when you are pro-Asian racism so we can talk about that, right? All I'm saying is Are we cancelled now? I don't even know.. Right? All I'm saying is, are we canceled now? I don't even know. I haven't had to listen back.

Gord Miller, I'm sure, got lots of hand claps on LinkedIn at Bell Media for taking a stand against Barstool Sports. Which I had confused with Bar Down for a little while because TSN has... I had confused before for the Bleacher Report, but now I know what Barstool Sports is.

They also have the podcast Call Her Daddy. We might have talked about that on a 1236 episode. I don't know that podcast. The two hosts had a big public breakup, and you found out how much money they were making to do this dirty talk on a podcast every week and they've broken up and it's never been the same just standing by for the inevitable reunion until the gourd miller controversy i didn't know spit and chiclets was a barstool sports production nor

did i know what barstool sports was because again i did think maybe barstool sports was bar down and i was initially intrigued by uh Gord biting the hand that feeds because I thought that was a more interesting story, that he was going against Bar Down when I know Bar Down is affiliated with TSN and owned by Bell Media, whatever Bar Down is. I don't actually have a clue. Except Barstool and Bar Down, they have the word bar in it. Speaking of bar, this is a good beer.

I don't know if you're enjoying your Great Lakes beer, but it's delicious. And it's nice to have you here today. You mentioned that we talked about cancel culture and uh we're probably canceled now because i am firmly again for the record i'm firmly against anti-asian racism i just want to make sure everybody knows that but uh there is an example of somebody in quebec who's been uncanceled and you've had i think it's been four or five months in a row where you've asked me to pull this clip it might have been six or had, I think it's been four or five months in a row where you've asked me to pull this clip. Or it might have been six or seven or eight months. And it's been on the cutting room floor, and the reason I leave it, and I'm going to play

it now, because just so you stop putting it on the list, but nobody in Toronto on this show called Toronto Mic'd, nobody knows this person. I don't think anybody cares about this person, but I'm going to play this for you, Mark. Mike, we're going to play this clip, and then I'm going to make you care about this story. Okay, okay. All right, I know there's a hockey angle here, so maybe we'll hear about it on Spit and Chicklets,

but here we go. My name is Marie-Pierre Moret, and I'm Brennan Prescott. Brennan plays for the Montreal Canadiens. I'm Lauren and I'm Brennan's first girlfriend. Brennan plays for the Montreal Canadiens. I'm from Montreal where the hockey players don't have really good reputation. So there was no way I was ever going to date a hockey player. But it was so different. When I met Brennan my English was terrible. But you know the first year you pretty much do one thing and that you don't need to speak.

Girls are crazy. You pretty much do one thing and that you don't need to speak. Girls are crazy. They're gonna do everything for something to happen between them because he's a hot player. If Brennan cheated on me, I would cut his balls off, cook them and make him eat them. I'm a TV host. I host a morning show, it's called Ménage à Trois. I have a contract with Revlon.

I launch my own strength line. And sometimes I sleep. Right now, my biggest fear is for him to get targeted. I don't know if I'm going to be able to follow him. If he signs anywhere in the States, I can't work. So every day I wake up and I'm like, I'm hoping he's going to stay here. Maripier Morin.

One of those celebrities in Quebec who you never hear a word about in English Canada, even though she was on the show Hockey Wives. Do you know a player she was married to? She mentioned him. Brandon Gleeson? Brandon Pruss. Gleeson's an actor, right? Okay, I don't think he plays for the Habs.

Yes, right. So he's no longer a Montreal Canadian, is he? He's gone. Or I think I should leave the hockey talk to him. I don't speak sports. I think his hockey career ended and his marriage to this Quebec celebrity ended shortly thereafter. She probably cut off his balls and fed them to him.

I think that was the threat she made. I never heard of this woman before. I mean, I don't follow the Quebec star system, but I think we grew up in Canada knowing that Quebec has its own celebrity culture, which runs much deeper than the rest of Canada, which runs much deeper than the rest of Canada, that they've been able to cultivate their own homegrown star system. And outside of Quebec, there's always been questions about whether Canada can have its own celebrities revered in the same way that the ones on the other side

of the two solitudes have been in Quebec. I mean, this has been going on for decades and decades. We know that Quebec has celebrities of their own. And they work for a lot of the same large media companies as celebrities in English Canada. Shortly after the incident that brought down the career of Jessica Mulrooney involving Sasha Exeter, an exchange of messages on Instagram had something to do with George Floyd and speaking out against anti-black racism and posting a black square on Black Tuesday. And, well, you remember we talked about it here. Jessica Mulroney lost her CTV show.

A deal with Netflix was off despite being good friend of Meghan Markle. She was excommunicated from corporate society. And it was her husband, Ben Mulroney, who even went on air and made a very carefully crafted speech to make it sound like he was stepping down from his job. as a five-minute-a-day intro host on eTalk, when I don't think much was changing for him at all. But it was a shrewd move, got some headlines. Here is Ben Mulroney repenting for his wife's wrongdoing at this corporation. Subsequently, Barbara Kay at the National Post wrote an incredibly boring article that was exonerating Jessica Mulroney. So the

temperature was rising, and if you were accused of something in this climate last summer, and you had a job that involved a company like Bell Media, you had endorsement that involved a company like Bell Media. You had endorsement deals for, what did she mention there? She works for Revlon. I think she had a lingerie line, her own eyewear. She was doing Ford commercials.

I mean, this Marc-Pierre Morin, for someone in their mid-30s who we never heard of in English Canada, it seemed like she had it going on. She was like a ubiquitous celebrity there. In the Quebec media, a singer named Safia Nolan posted on Instagram that Magpie made unwanted sexual advances towards her in a Montreal bar. Um, and that, uh,

the actress, uh, made a statement along the lines of, the black barmaid is angry because she is black. Um, you had, uh, Mark PA, uh,

accused by Safia Nolan of, of biting her thigh so hard that she had a bruise for two weeks. These accusations leveled at this famous Quebec actress. Well, you know what came next. It was only a matter of time until every affiliation of Marpier Morin, every show that she was hosting, she had a part in some Quebec cop show, all these advertising endorsement deals that she had.

She just lost like one after another in record time. It was all over. Cancelled. No longer welcome in Quebec. And then it turned out that when they announced Bell Let's Talk Day for Quebec, that Safia Nolan was one of the spokespeople. She brought down the career of Marc-Pierre Morin. She was out of a job with these companies, including Bell.

What better person than to be one of the spokespeople endorsing mental health for Bell Let's Talk. They must have cut some sort of deal on the side because it emerged shortly thereafter that Marpia Morin was back hosting a show, one of the things she got cancelled for at Bell Media. So she's uncancelled. Rehabilitation is underway. It shows that it can happen.

Therefore, I don't know if I'd be all that surprised if we saw Jessica Mulrooney back in the ranks of Bell. Now that she's been exonerated. You see what happened in both these cases, both Jessica Mulroney and Mark P. M. Morin.

They put out social media postings after the, when the fire was hot, when everybody was looking for them to make a statement. In both cases, they made a vague acknowledgement of the fact that they did something wrong, that they were going to take some time, listen and learn, and work on themselves. And it seems like in Quebec anyway,

where, look, the mean, the politicians on the highest level, the premier of Quebec and politicians from the Bloc Quebecois, they've had enough, right? They're ready to strike back. What is this cancel culture canceling everything? So let's look to La Belle Provence to show us the way and provide us with new 1236 episode stories to tell about people being uncancelled

in the year to come. Look, Mike, I did my best. At least I didn't make you talk about John Gomeschi. I wanted to play a bit of this jam just before the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial section of the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mic'd because we learned in March, at least I learned in March, of this. No, no, I also learned in March. But I think you might have even learned before me. What? Somebody emailed you about this? So

yes, somebody emailed me and I guess they were Googling like Toronto rap historians or something to that effect. And that of course brought them to my site. Nobody cares more about the electric circus cowboy in summertime, summertime than Toronto Mike?

So we're listening here. Let me get my facts right. Bear with me here, Mark Weisblatt. But here we are. Okay, so on March 18th, actually March 19th, as if that matters, 2021, I did receive an email from somebody named Neil Scoble or Scobie. Scoble? Scobie.

Scobie. Scobie. Scobie, yeah. My apologies. I need glasses so the I and the L look very similar. Okay, so Neil Scobie wrote me to, he thought I'd be interested to know that this song, Ladies Delight by Mr. Q, Mr. Q's real name, of course, J.W. McGee, that this is, seems to be that this is the very first hip hop track released in Canada, way before FOTM's

Mishy Mee or Maestro Fresh Wes or future FOTM's The Dream Warriors. This song was released in 1979. Ladies Delight, Mr. Q, of course, clearly inspired by Rapper's Delight. That's a New York, a Brooklyn jam, right? And this, of course, they were right. I wrote about it right away. That was March 19th, 2021. And this song is available on YouTube.

And I learned about Mr. Q q and i also learned that mr q passed away i was thinking and immediately i need to get jay mcgee aka mr q on toronto mic he recorded the first ever hip-hop jam in this country and he passed away in jan January of 2021 only a few months ago COVID took him so I wanted to play a little of Ladies Delight and just maybe we could pay our respects to Mr. Q sadly I only

learned of his contribution to Canadian hip hop after his passing and I regret that but I know this is on your radar as well because a couple weeks weeks after I wrote about it, finally I saw it in the 1236 newsletter. Oh, okay. Look, for once you scooped me on something, Mike.

Finally. Not much I could do about that. But part of the reason I thought it was relevant, we talked about here, it was Scotty Pete Gang from CKOC in Hamilton, who had what I had previously thought was the first rap record to be released in Canada. And that was a parody of Rapper's Delight called Rapper's Defeat. When was that released?

1980. On quality record. Why did that come up? Not only because one of those CKOC DJs died, or it was their program director, Nevin Grant. He also passed away. We talked about him in one of the memorial episodes. And as far as anyone knew up until recently,

it was that Rapper's Delight parody, which was the first rap record recorded and released in Canada. And that is an ignominious bit of history because, you know, that's ridiculous. That's not a good song at all. Just like some white morning radio guys in Hamilton making fun of the Sugar Hill Gang. Right. But it turned out the rapper's delight inspired Mr. Q, J.W. McGee,

to record these sides put up by a record store somewhere, Eglinton Avenue West, Little Jamaica. And in fact, he could make the claim to be the first Canadian rapper on Wax, even though he wasn't really a hip-hop

guy, more like an R&B and gospel singer, ended up nominated for a Juno Award in 1990. And the history of this unfolds in the form of a few articles. There was one on the Hazlitt long-form literary website where there was some excavation about Mr. Q. Mr. Q? Mr. Q.

And the legacy he left behind. And they were trying to spin it like the reason this guy never got any credit was because of racism, which is, I mean, look, these are the times in which we live. I mean, you could be an obscure musician no matter what your background was, especially in Canada. But there's some sort of revisionism going on around this song because you had an episode here dedicated to the Flyer Vault,

the Instagram account, the book they put out. And similarly there, they were like, the Sugar Hill Gang packed an audience into the Masonic Temple concert hall in Toronto. We don't know how this happened because nobody knew about rap in Toronto. Right. Remember this? I do remember this. It couldn't have been further from the truth. In fact,

Rapper's Delight from the Sugar Hill Gang was the number one song on CKOC Radio and Hamilton. Subsequently founded it was on the CFTR, 680 CFTR chart.

It even was in the Chum Top 30. I don't think they played it on the air, but it was a number one selling record in Canada

at the time in 1980. And, okay, maybe you got to bring somebody back here to talk about where things were at in terms of the black music scene in Toronto. But I think it was Cam Carpenter, an FOTM, who worked for Quality. Get him back here. You can find out about this. an FOTM who worked for quality. Get him back here.

You can find out about this. Where people who were too young to know what was going on, I'm not pretending like I was around some sort of sage observer when I was, I don't know, 8, 9, or 10. I was paying enough attention to know that I don't think you can project a narrative of modern-day prejudice upon the fact that some guy who produced some obscure rap records in 1979 didn't get a lot of credit.

But that was what I heard on Q, not Mr. Q, Q the CBC Arts Show, where they were also making that argument. I mean, this is a lot of lazy rhetoric when it comes to cultural coverage, right? It's like, well, the reason this wasn't a success is because everybody's a racist.

Right, right, right. Usually the narratives are a little more complicated than that, but at the same time, it's terrific that we discovered that we've got it on the record here, that this was the record, the first rap record ever made in Canada. I think it should be in a museum.

There should be a plaque dedicated to J.W. McGee and Mr. Q. Well, I haven't been this excited since I discovered the Summertime Summertime 12-inch by the cowboy, Kay Pompei. All right, my friend, are you ready? Ridley Funeral Home. They're at 3080 Lakeshore. That's at 14th Street in New Toronto. Brad Jones there has been a tremendous FOTM.

Just ask Joe and T.O. He'll give you the story. Pay tribute without paying a fortune. Learn more at RidleyFuneralHome.com about a joke and who's this guy singing that he knows how to mystify no, he's just gonna go honey he wants to hold you

don't you let him try he says he needs you but you better pass him by cause he can love you like I love you just let me prove it to you he't love you like I love you. Just let me prove it to you. He can't love you like I love you. So good at using you.

But he can't love you like I love you. Come on, let the proving begin. Michael Stanley Band. He can't love you Like I Love You. This is some real hard driving 1981 American corporate rock. You know the song, Mike? Have you ever heard it before? No, I don't know the song.

Okay, Michael Stanley came out of Cleveland, Ohio. Aspiring rock star who figured out a formula here. I guess you would call that like E Street Band Light. Isn't he going for that Springsteen arena rock sound on this song? Maybe a little like a little J. Giles band maybe or maybe I need to hear a little like a little Jay Giles band maybe Or maybe I need to hear a little more

I keep thinking like maybe the kid is hot tonight or something Coming at a Yeah that generic corporate rock kind of sound I don't know how generic because This song has Been stuck in my memory ever since. Although only recently did I discern that Michael Stanley is not the singer on this song,

even though it was his name on the band. But just, that's like, it's Jake, no. Who's the guy who just passed away whose name is on the band but did not sing? Ah, crap, I think they're out of England. There's a recent memorial, Ridley Funeral Memorial death we acknowledged

for a popular band that was not named after the lead singer because it had me thinking of bands where the name is not the lead singer, like Van Halen, for example. But I digress.

It'll come to me in a moment. Michael Stanley has time on the charts with this song. A couple other hits. There was one about Cleveland, Ohio called My Town. Turned into a hometown anthem. And he ended up getting a job as a radio DJ. Spencer Davis.

Oh, Spencer Davis, of course. But Jake Giles is another good example, of course, of a band that's named after somebody who's not the lead singer. And so Michael Stanley, well, someone else who we talked about here on Death Segment was Benny Mardonas, Into the Night. And he was like the biggest rock star in Syracuse, New York. In turn, Michael Stanley was the biggest rock star in Cleveland, Ohio. Again,

thanks to the fact they had this radio DJ job. And died of lung cancer on March 5th, age 72. Why do I have such fond memories

of He Can't Love You by the Michael Stanley Band? Because it was a bigger hit in Canada than it was in the USA. And it owed a lot to the fact that it was played at the time, the rock format that I would listen to on 1050 Chum. And that meant waking up early in the morning to listen to Tom Rivers, Brian Henderson, and Dick Smythe. It's 20 minutes before 8. This is Dick Smythe, CKLW 2020 News for Michigan Blue Cross

Blue Shield. All main streets in Windsor are now clear. Side streets very slippery. 401 still snow-covered. All Detroit freeways have been sauntered but are starting to ice again in some locations. Some of the ramps are also slippery. The main surface streets are wet. No reports of ice there. Side

streets are snow-covered and slippery. Traffic is heavy and slow throughout both cities. Eastern Airlines is just going to have to open a ticket office in Havana. Another of their big jets ended up there this morning, hijacked. Everybody's safe. They'll be shipped back later today. Eastern spokesman Bill Barnett, to whom this is getting to be a routine procedure, tells 2020 News. It landed safely in Havana at 1.05 a.m. this morning, Eastern Standard Time. Just in, the man was held up and shot in Detroit about 7 this morning. The incident happened at 1330 Virginia Park. That's all we have so far. Armed gunman made off with about $600 from the Holiday Inn on the I-94 freeway near Metro Airport early today. And if you take the bus to work, your DSR

driver may have a puzzled expression. He doesn't know whether to drive fast or slow. Here's a big eight early bird report. Detroit's bus drivers and the city will be in circuit court this afternoon where the driver's union is seeking an injunction to restrain. I was thinking, Mike, of all the memorial tributes that we paid here on the podcast over the years. Did anyone inspire me more than Dick Smythe? I mean, I got to know some other people who were in broadcasting and worked in the media in general. We've talked about them here. We did a whole one-hour tribute to Dave Bookman, someone I got to know personally. There was Mark Elliott, who, like Dick Smythe, spent some time at CKLW, Big 8 in Windsor, radio DJ.

Also got to know him personally. Very sad that he died. But Dick Smythe, who died on March 6th at age 86, I listened to him at an age where I just hung on his every word. And where I discovered Dick Smythe was on 1050 Chummy. He had already been there doing the morning news on the Jungle J. Nelson morning show. But where I became a dedicated listener to the station, what I think was

what got me into caring about radio in general was listening to Tom Rivers. Tom, Dick, and Henny. Brian Henderson, the sportscaster, who died a couple years ago. And Brian Henderson,

I think, also a big influence on the whole concept of the cranky guy doing sports commentary in the morning. Fred Patterson, doesn't he speak highly of Brian Henderson as an influence? He speaks highly of Henny and my good friend Peter Gross. Those are a couple of big inspirations for Freddie P. There was Rick Hodge on Chum FM. But no, these were my guys. It was Tom Rivers, Shotgun Rivers morning show.

And you remember Tom. He moved over to 680 CFTR. He had a clash with the management of Chum. No, I listened. Told him to get out of here. Got a job down the street. So I missed Tom Rivers his entire 1050 career, actually. But I did uh a great deal

of his uh 680 cftr years that was my that was my show as a grade school kid waking up in the morning i'd wake up to 680 okay so imagine here i'm in fourth fifth sixth grade listening listening to tom rivers morning show for his uh wack characters. I mean, back then, you wouldn't have celebrity chatter in the morning show. It was very adolescent doing bits between these songs. The unfriendly giant, I remember.

Does this bit ring a bell with you at all? And they used to air the old Chicken Man skit. But imagine that interspersed with Dick Smythe. Yeah. Coming on at 6, 7, 8 a.m. Yep.

And doing like a morning sermon. Right. Based on current events going on in the world. And, you know, for all I knew, so Dick Smythe at the time, I guess he would have been like around our age. Around, you know. Hard to believe, right? I mean, he died at 86, 40 years ago. He would have been 46 years old.

Sure. And you could tell, even if I didn't know anything about where the guy came from, that what he was putting across on the air was a very well-honed routine. And he did appearances on City TV. This coincided with when Chum bought City, and they started putting radio people on camera to be part of City Pulse, and you would get a minute with Dick on the nightly news. minute with Dick on the nightly news.

And it was just out of this world listening to this guy as a prepubescent youngster explain the universe to me. Right. And I just couldn't get enough of Dick. And I don't know. I can keep a diary, but however many mornings in a row, 1981, 1982, I listened to Dick Smythe every single morning. On top of it all, I would be with my dad in Fairview Mall and we would run into Dick multiple times. Wow.

Like just in the early evening. He'd be hanging out there with his daughters, his wife, whatever. And it was just this sense of celebrity, like greatness in the midst, and yet entirely accessible. Because my dad would run into Dick multiple times and just start talking about whatever. And I was totally, totally starstruck uh at this dick smith character that was cultivated remember when that 70s show started and there was um there was the dad

character on the show foreman yeah that must have been it. Red Foreman on that set. I don't know if that was influenced by Dick Smythe, but I think it was that kind of guy that Dick Smythe imagined playing. There he was in these rock and roll radio stations, this three-ring circus all around him, and he was pounding away, writing his newscast on the typewriter famously like he's andy rooney when he'd be frustrated he'd throw the typewriter across the room i suggested at the condo that replaced 1331 young street they should put like a like a typewriter like on the side of the city tv building with a truck i can see that typewriter coming out of the side of the city TV building with a truck, there should be a typewriter coming out of the wall of the new Jack's condo building

there at Young South of St. Clair in memory of Dick. That's a good idea. What a legacy this guy left behind. Now, 1050 Chum famously was slipping in the ratings and made a mistake maybe by letting Tom Rivers go because he went to competition at CFTR. And it was only a matter of time before Dick Smythe followed. And I think it would have been like Ted Rogers himself

who recruited Dick over to 680 from 1050 with the idea of eventually making him the main anchor for an all-news radio station. Because CFTR was getting pretty serious as far as news. There was Dick Smythe, there was Larry Silver, there was FOTM Evelyn Macko. Well, who I just wanted to point out is my special guest on Monday. So on Monday, Evelyn Macko kicks out the jams and remembers her great friend, Dick Smythe. Yeah, I mean, look look she worked with dick uh

you know he was he was a colleague and an elder statesman uh mark daly was also very close with dick uh uh mark daly was like sure still a teenager i think working his way up as a reporter there at cklw in windsor covering uh the riots in detroit um and And in 1971, Dick Smythe was recruited to chum. And just like the enormity of the role that he played in this morning show. And then we get around to the point where I got to meet Dick Smythe. Wow. What was that like? Okay, he did his time at CFTR.

When 680 News signed on 1993, he was the first voice that they heard. They played We Built This City by Starship. I heard this live at, I don't know, at 4.59 in the morning. They flipped the switch, and suddenly it was all news, 680 News. And there was Dick, and it was, all news, 680 news. And there was Dick. And it was, I think, a different kind of Dick, because he didn't have the creative freedom that he had before working on Top 40 radio station.

I mean, another fond anecdote, which I think I even heard it live, was when they would have him, like, tee up the next song. They were playing on Chum. Someone handed him a sheet of paper. It said ZZ Top, and he introduced it so confidently. 22 Top coming up next on 1050 Chum. I thought it was going to be ZZ Top, but 22 is even better.

Look, Mike, I mean, 40 years ago, there wasn't the idea like today of middle-aged guys sitting around and showing off to one another how much they're in touch with the youth culture of today, Dick didn't give a shit. Right. He was there to tell you the news. And so at 680, I mean, I think he served his purpose in terms of launching the all-news radio format for Rogers.

But he spoke in hindsight about the fact that he became depressed, like he was battling depression big time during that period, I guess because of at least partly the circumstances had changed for him and the stress of his career. There was an incident in the mid nineties where Brian Henderson made a comment on chum, um, about how he,

he observed that there were a conspicuous number of Jewish doctors and lawyers and accountants. Right. And, uh, well, we've spoken on here about how Jews are the original, original cancel culture-ers, culture cancel-ers.

They got on Henderson's back and Smythe made, I think, a mistake in thinking he had to back up his old buddy, Henderson, and then went on 680s. I don't see anything wrong with his comments. It's not for me to re-litigate all of that, but I think that adds to the stress, and that's why Dick took retirement. He was around 62 years old, and he left 680 in 1997. He was tired of waking up at 2 in the morning.

Okay, because before you retire him, I do have his last TV commentary here. Okay, but no, but then Dick got a gig at CFRB. That's where I wanted to say he spent a year coming in and doing these roundtable discussions. He would come on at least once, maybe twice, three times a week. He'd be in there with Christy Blatchford, other people giving their off-the-cuff opinions on the news. And guess what? Dick Smythe, in 1999, at 65 years of age, got fired from CFRB 1010. I mean, it might have just been a freelance gig. He might have been doing it for no money at all. But it was Steve Couch, a program director, that took him aside and said,

Dick, we're going in a new direction. You're a little too old for what we're looking for. And I think this just broke him. They wrote an opinion piece in National Post railing against the baby boomers who think they know it all. Here I am on this Heritage CFRB radio station. They let me go. My services were no longer required. So I think that was the final insult for Dick when it came to participating in the Toronto radio industry. We're still at home in Huntsville. I know he would do his commentary still on the moose radio stations

out there in cottage country. Yeah, which brings us to the last professional thing that Dick did here in his mid-80s, two years ago, 2019. example of why a master class in perfecting a character that you can live with for the rest of your life oh no this is not it that was the liver leaf commercial well this is i was all ready to go this is his final commentary on to go into channel 47 this Hey, I turned 62 years old last month. What's this horny 30-year-old doing in this ancient 62-year-old body? In any case, I am reducing my workload, not to mention my income, because it is time to do it. I'm going to continue doing some radio work and my weekly Toronto Sun column, and

odds and ends here and there, but I have decided to give up television. Reasons? Well, to start with, it's a young man's game. Editorials are out. Nobody does editorials anymore. It's a shame, but they don't. Talking heads are passe on television,

and frankly, it's a lot of work. I spend much of Sunday and Monday writing, and I spend Tuesday shooting. The people here at Channel 47 have been just great. Barb Gardhouse, Jane Farr, and of course the big boss, Les Salls. And you have been great. I mean, I've been on television for a lot of years in Toronto, both here and at City TV. People I have met have been delightful. One of the joys of television, sometimes it can be a curse, admittedly, but one of the real joys is that you get recognized all the time and you meet nice people. I'll miss that because I have met some

really great people. I've had people mad at me and I've had people glad at me over the years. I've mellowed and I stopped smoking. Ten years ago, I stopped smoking, yet people still say, where's your pipe? No, it's time to go. I'm not retiring. I'm preparing for retirement, but it is time to go, and I'd rather realize that myself than have somebody else do it for me. It's been fun. Thanks a lot for having me. This is why you

need to have separate transmissions on radio versus television, because there he is ripping off his microphone, walking away his last bit, doing commentaries for Rogers on Channel 47. So I wanted to say, and that's where I got a little bit confused because a last thing about Dick,

just want to play this commercial they did just two years ago. And that's a fact that over the course of his time on the air, his politics shifted so originally he was playing the conservative curmudgeon you know it talks about on chum he would talk about the um he would talk about the uh uh lesbian and gay equal rights discrimination, anti-discrimination rally on Parliament Hill. He would call gay people militant alcoholics, militant lepers, militant lunatics.

But eventually, his politics shifted leftward. And so in the latter days of his career, commentaries that Dick made were, I think, like more of a career, commentaries that Dick made were, I think, like more of a more of a conventional new Democratic Party view on the world. And therefore, I thought it was it wasn't wrong that they called him a conservative commentator in the Canadian press. Oh, bit. But he had a change of heart. but he had a change of heart. It seems like all sorts of people who make their living doing public opinions eventually will change their spots from one tribe to another,

whichever side you're on. And yeah, with Dick Smythe, well before Michael Corrin figured out, and I don't think in the case of Dick, it was a business decision. He went from seeing himself as someone on the right to someone on the left. I once saw him write a letter to the editor in the Village Voice newspaper, Alt Weekly, from New York. I think that's what really impressed me about Dick,

that he was reading the same New York Alt Weekly as me. And I think when I talked to him, I confirmed this. When I met Dick was after he got yanked off CFRB, and we met at, I think it was the Keg restaurant at Young & Shepherd, and we talked about the business. So he met you for lunch or dinner or something. Meeting an idol. Wow.

It was to write, at the time I was writing on this website, radiodigest.com. Yeah, sure. And it was following up his sentiments in a column. And then Steve Couch, who let Smythe go. I remember Couch explaining to me, Dick Smythe is 65 years old. He's out of it.

He's out of touch. Right. Maybe I'm paraphrasing, but I'm thinking, Couch, buddy, you're going to get there someday. And I think already 65 is in his rear view mirror. Life well lived to 86. But do you still want me to play the ad for the pain cream that he did a couple years back? Yeah, one last thing.

So I thought you were going to play this before because it further— You gave it to me in the other order. Well, it further—but the other thing also made my point, and it's the fact that Dick Smythe established a character, and he stuck with it. Right. And he was able to be Dick Smythe until a character and he stuck with it. Right. And he was able to be Dick Smythe until his retirement, age 62, and he could still be Dick Smythe at age 85.

It's still 3.03 a.m. Nights seem extra long when you're coping with aches and pain. If only you could get some rest to start feeling better. Write down live relief. Think live with relief. At the store choose the blue package for aching, swollen joint pain, the green for nerve pain. Help is close in 5,256 stores across Canada.

stores across Canada. Okay, happy trails. Nick Smythe, dead at 86. And a friendly ciao Cause that's the way we'll treat ya So pick up the phone and call us Pick up the phone and call us now Oh, Pizza Nova Pick up the phone and get a ciao 439-444-PIZZANOVA 439-444-PIZZANOVA It's a real Italian pizza With flavor you can savor

Chiaro mille grazie Now do yourself a favor So pick up the phone and call us Pick up the phone and call us now you can save her. Quiero mil gracias. Do yourself a favor. So pick up the phone and call us. Pick up the phone and call us now. Oh, pizza nova. Pick up the phone and get a chow. 4-3-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-0-0-0-Pizzanova. 4-3-9-0-0-0-Pizzanova. I'm glad you played that to the end

because it was what Sid Kessler deserved for coming up with, I think, there's some competition, but Toronto's greatest pizza jingle. 4-3-9-0-0-0-Pizzanova. Well, you say there's only one other jingle that could even be in the conversation, first of all, okay? And this jam is...

I don't know. There was a 2-4-1 pizza jingle that they tried along the way, but yeah, you're talking about 9-6-7-11-11. That's the only one in the combo as far as I'm concerned. I feel like Don Cherry there as far as I'm concerned. But that jam there, that Pizzanova, that is the jam. That is the jingle. I was listening to it for the 4,000th time in the headphones right now,

and I'm thinking, this is amazing. That is so fucking good. Alfie Zappa Costa is the singer who gets the credit all the way from Tears Are Not Enough. Right. And still in our ears to this day with that Pizza Nova commercial. In fact, Boom 97.3 once did one of those behind the vinyl videos with Zappacosta discussing the history of 439- uh oh uh oh

they beat me to it but you can't find it online anymore they deleted it I want to do that I think it's gone or somebody in the sales department is like why are we giving preferential treatment but is there a certain point where you transcend

those commercial considerations? And in the case of Zappa Costa, think about pizza. Okay, Sid Kessler was from Toronto, from Hamilton, Ontario, originally, and went to L.A. and learned about the jingle trade, came back to Toronto with the skills that he learned about how this was done. And this was a point in time where there wasn't much of an industry in Toronto as far as doing commercial jingles. And he basically invented the idea on his own. own and for that he was richly rewarded uh more money in doing successful commercial jingles on the radio than most other forms of songwriting out there and uh with the passing of sid kessler

you end up with a a significant catalog of jingles that he left behind. Now, most of them are not as timeless as Zappa Costa singing about Pizza Nova. And I think it's even a credit to Sid Kessler that when you listen to this stuff, it does sound very much of its era, and that he was able to capture something in these jingles with the people that he worked with, which reflected a certain time, and something that was also very Canadian. I think you've got another jingle queued up

that reflects his style. Black cis photography Anyway you look at it Black cis photography Black cis photography You'll be smiling Oh, you'll be laughing Bring back those memories that we shared Hey, you're looking good Any way you look at it

Blacks is photography In ten minutes, hours a day Oh, any way you look at it Blacks is photography Blacks is photography Is that the sound of the mid-1980s or what? Oh, that one brings back the memories, too. That was all over the place, and that was also a banger.

I think what he was able to do with these jingles was bottle, I guess you would call it like an aspirational yuppie sound that you heard throughout these tunes. I want to mention also he did develop an American game show as part of his time in L.A. That was The Crosswits, which was one of those 70s weekday morning game shows that ran on ABC. On one hand, then, he had that credit, but he was back in Toronto making the jingles happen,

and in 1988, it resulted in an innovative deal when John Labatt Limited, Labatt's the brewery, they established a joint venture with Sid Kessler for something called Super Corp. And that was essentially to run a media company, largely focused on advertising and the whole idea that he could churn these things out. And it was only a matter of time until this thing was making like $150 million a year.

And he cashed out of that, but still kept on making commercials. Like on YouTube, there's a Sid Kessler account with a lot of his spots, a lot of condo commercials for Toronto. Again, a lot of that aspirational marketing, playing to that sound of adult contemporary radio. I'd even go so far as to say that the sound that he brought to the airwaves

was as integral to these radio stations as the music that they were playing between the commercials. And a lot of these commercials, case in point, Pizza Nova. No one remembers Zappa Costa and the hits that he had or whatever Canaver hits. I don't know. It was on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Right. But they'll always remember 4-3-9-0-0-0-0-Pizza Nova. One more jingle then from Sid Kessler was for Maxwell House Coffee.

And again, a throwback, I think, to that yuppie era, the idea that cheap coffee you could buy in the supermarket was itself a way of life. I distinctly remember the English rollout of this campaign. Hug a mug, hug a mug, hug aa-max or whatever. I distinctly remember when that rolled out. I just threw in the French one to throw you a bit, Mike. See if we're paying attention. Sid Kessler, dead at age 75 on

March 7th, 2021. I think we have now one exemption for April. Because you've been on my case when we do an episode and we're into the next month. I'll allow this one because it's such a significant name. We couldn't hold this one

another 30 days. You're right. Yeah, you speak to this because this is a very significant death, especially for listeners of Toronto Mic'd and especially listeners to the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mic'd. You just let me know. Tap your nose. And I like that we're in person and I can see all these visual cues. Let me know when you want me to play this audio, but just let me know. Tap your nose when you, and I like that we're in person and I can see all these visual cues.

Let me know when you want me to play this audio, but please take it away. Tom Gibney, the anchorman from CFTO World Beat News, starting in 1973. starting in 1973. He died on, I think, April 4th at age 84. I would never have imagined Tom Gibney capable of any sort of self-awareness. Let's put it this way.

You would see Tom Gibney on World Beat News, and if you were a hap to City Pulse, all the FOTMs that Channel 79, Cable 7, is responsible for, they were playing against the type established in Toronto by Tom Gibney. He was our local voice of God.

They found him via Yorkton, Saskatchewan. And the Bassett family, Bayton Broadcasting, whoever from the old Orange Order was in charge of hiring at Channel 9 Court. Agent Court Ontario declared

that this man represents the alpha anchor who will reassure the city at suppertime that everything is going to be all right. You watched Tom Gibney growing up? No, I just knew the promos. I knew him distinctly because I guess I'd watch Flintstones and they'd have

a promo for World Beat News or whatever they called it. World Beat News? World Beat News! I was a city TV guy. I didn't ever watch. That's a joke. I always tell Dana Levinson I missed her entire career. But Tom Gibney was a face and voice I knew from these promos. And I believe, you'd correct me if I'm wrong, but Christine Bentley for a period of time was his co-host.

She came on and I believe we talked about that on Toronto Mic. What is a list of co-hosts? Christine Bentley would have been there along the way. There was Gail Smith. I need to get her on Toronto Mike. Do you know how to contact Gail Smith? Let's look into that. Maybe this shout-out might be enough.

Gail, get in my backyard, girl. Let's talk. Really? Okay, it was Tom Gibney all the way. I can't say that I paid much attention to his style either. I, too, worshipped at the Church of Moses Nimer. But, you know, Tom Gibney was a presence that I grew up with, and you just figured he was always there.

I mean, from 1973 until 2001, every single night. And then something that you wouldn't see anymore. He retired. He still hung around for six more years. The original Ann Romer, right? He's gone in 2001, but he lingers till 07. He made a big deal of his retirement, then he'd be on half the time. All those keg gift cards.

I know what he did. He probably got a lot of keg gift cards out of this scam. But here's the thing. gift cards out of this scam. But here's the thing. Tom Gibney appeared in the greatest deconstruction of the

TV anchorman experience. A little movie called Network had a bit part for Tom Gibney. He's not even in the credits. Really? But if you ever see this movie Network, which is made in Toronto in 1976. And you know why it was made in Toronto?

Because they needed to have a television studio, a real TV studio to film the movie. I mean, there was no need to build one of their own. I read this in a book that came out a year or two ago by Dave Itzkoff about the history of the movie Network. It's so important someone wrote a whole book just about the movie. Even if listeners have never seen Network, and that's entirely possible, you still know the phrase

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. That has sort of transcended I'd say that's leaked into pop culture the osmosis. But what was going on with that film? How would you describe it? A critique of what had become of corporate broadcasting by the mid-1970s. Yes.

Inspired by this woman who committed suicide live on the air, live during a newscast. If it bleeds, it leads or something. 1974. Right, and that footage has never been seen because I don't know if they destroyed it or whatever, but I totally know exactly what you're talking about. She killed

herself live on the news, and she said, keeping with the standards of this station, I can't remember her statement, but it was about sort of like a it bleeds it leads type uh sentiment shot herself on camera it was uh christine uh chubbuck from sarasota florida right and subsequently more more recent years uh someone made someone made a movie inspired by her life but network i mean network was seen as like yeah an important critique uh for its time. And the legend of the movie was accentuated by the fact

that the main actor playing the role of the anchorman, Howard Beale, he died right around the time that the movie was being released. Dropped dead. Heart attack. Back then, age 60, and then went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. So, you know, here was this film about this suicidal anchorman,

and then the star of the movie died. I mean, this was stranger than fiction. They filmed it in Toronto at CFD. Why? Because I can't remember if it was they called around or they just assumed. There was no way a major American television network affiliate was going to hand over its studio to film a critique of everything that they were doing. They had to go north of the border of Canada, find a safe space, find a TV studio that wasn't,

where they wouldn't take it personally, the message of the movie. And so it gets around to the point where you've got the Howard Beale show. And this is leading up to the idea that Howard Beale is going to kill himself live on camera. And they're playing the announcer of the Howard Beal show, Dan Durant. FOTM Dan Durant might have played this role in a future generation.

You know, in FOTM, only because he's a friend in the real world, but he's actually never been on Toronto Mic. Fun fact. We'll fix that this summer. Who could they find who would play the perfect TV announcer at CFTO TV? 1976, Tom Gibney. How do you feel? We're by his house, and we're not going to do this anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour with Sybil the Soothsayer. Jan Webbing and his It's the Emma's Truth

Department. Miss Mata Hari and her skeletons in the closet. Tonight, another segment of Vox Populi. And starring the mad prophet of the airways, And there you go. If you thought that Tom Gibney was just an empty suit, a bingo caller reading the news, I don't think there was anything that he could have done that was cooler than that. Even when Gord Martineau finally showed up in a movie 20 years later.

Dirty work. Dirty work. I mean, that's okay. That's also a classic. I'm not putting down dirty work. But look, it didn't win any Academy Awards. No, but let's give some props to Stu Stone's Faking a Murderer because Gord makes an appearance in the credits of that program as well.

Don't quote me on this, but I think that Howard Beale show thing in Network was filmed in the same studio where I appeared on Just Like Mom, the game show. I think that was the same studio at CFTO TV, 9 Channel 9 Court. Wow, that's a fun fact. Great part of the legacy of Bell Media. And look, because he had a dignified retirement, because he didn't get laid off by playing good riddance, I hope he had the time of your life.

Up next, Modern Family. Because he had the dignity to take his significant pension right off into the sunset and yet still show up on camera for six years later. Tom Gibney was given a proper tribute on the CTV Toronto News. But you know, there are,

I've been receiving reports from FOTM's listenership who say they wanted me to know that Gibney had a real job after this. Like, apparently he had a real job. Not a bus driver like Uncle Bobby. Same spirit. I'll tell you later. Oh, you mean this is

off the record? This is going to be off mic? But yeah, because I haven't corroborated these statements yet. Whatever he was doing was just for fun. Okay, that's the thing. I would think, okay, but look, part of the... When Bobby Ash died, and you've gone

through the history of Uncle Bobby multiple times with Ed Connery, Retro Ontario. I hope you have Ed back here this summer sometime. Because he won't do a Zoom. I guess I told you that, but he won't do a Zoom. Delayed Christmas crackers in July. Get him vaccinated. Move him to the front of the line to get him on Toronto Mic'd. Essential worker.

When Uncle Bobby died, he had a hard luck life after his stardom on Canadian kiddie TV. Sure. Things didn't really go his way, and he ended up being a school bus driver, and it became a stuff of local legend that, hey, Uncle Bobby is driving my bus to school. It wasn't just because he loved children. It was because he needed the money. But it's like, look, they built up this whole TV empire on the guy's back, and he had nothing to show for it.

I would think Tom Gibney was fairly compensated for being the face of CFTO TV for 27 years. Money is not the only reason you work for a living. Often it's to be a part of a team or to have something to do to keep yourself busy. There are multiple reasons why one would continue to work. Okay, well, he did get a proper send-off on the news with, who's there now?

Nathan Downer. Yeah, I guess Ken Shaw took over for Gibney. Is that right, Ken Shaw? Yeah, Ken Shaw took over at the main 6 p.m. Ken Shaw. Worldbeat News. Ken Shaw. Ken Shaw took over for Bob Gibney.

And there were still people, despite all the decimations at CTV, like Andrea Case is one name that comes to mind, who have worked there, who are still there today, from the era of Tom Gibney. But if you look at the City News webpage, I don't know why I was on there. They have the current staff.

I mean, you barely recognize anybody anymore, like Cynthia Mulligan might be the last one back from the old days. They sent Pam Cheadle packing out the door. But they have a bio section for Mark Daly. So from what I can tell, you have to die in order to be respected by your ex-employer, the TV industry. Gordon Martineau doesn't have a bio on the City Pulse website. Kevin Frankish isn't having his legacy acknowledged on there, but because we lost The Voice at age 57 back in 2010,

it's safe to admit that he worked here and unfortunately had to die in order to get that video. What is the record? What is the current record for longest episode of 1236 on Toronto Mike? Are we on our way? I think we're on our way here.

Let's do some more tributes to people who died in uh in march 2021 come on hi sam hey hey hi may we come in sure you might uh wait till i get another piece of music going here and then we can chat for just a second and now. And now, back to music on the CFRB and here's one that fits the weather. We just thought that you would be just the man to explain to us how a radio station works.

Okay, you want me to? Please. It's very easy. See, this is the microphone and this is the microphone switch that turns it on and off. I turn the microphone on, I introduce a piece of music and the operator in the control room plays the piece of music and makes it loud or soft with the volume control. It's so simple. Simple. Yeah it is. And uh is that the control room back there? That's the control room behind Jody. Goodness look at all

those dials and knobs. It's like your computer room, Sam. It sure is. We have a couple of minutes left on this disc. You want to go down the hall? Show you the record library. All right. Come on in here, Sam and Jody. Oh, man. Oh, man.

How do you like that? This is the record library. My goodness, there must be thousands and thousands of records here. There are. Do you really have people who just work in here organizing these records and picking music for shows? Yes, Jody, we have a library staff that does nothing but that all day. Well, that must be a wonderful job, working with all this music. Would you like to pick a selection? I'll tell you what, Sam. You pick any selection you like

and we'll take the record down to the studio. We'll play it on the air and you can announce it. Anything you like. What a wonderful... He's got a lot of choice. Let me see now. Pick a good one now.

Oh, this is wonderful. Will we ever be able to follow the example of Sam, the security guard from today's special? Sam Crenshaw. Be so eager and earnest to speak behind a microphone on a radio station like CFRB. I mean, we're sitting here in your backyard, Mike. We're doing the same thing.

I have to say I was a little disappointing when you started talking because i was into that like uh really enjoying that but thanks so much take it up take it up with muffie muffie the mouse i do fotm muffie mouse and shout out to fotm jody's jumpsuit because we know that she's her namesake was just in that clip uh bill mVean was the CFRB radio announcer who had a cameo on today's special somewhere in 1983. And that would have been toward the end of his run of being one of those voices of reason on the 1010 airwaves,

one of the people people listen to. Ultimately, he was on an afternoon drive. He was like the equivalent of Wally Crowder in the morning, and it would be Bill McVean on the drive home, a very soothing voice in between the easy listening tunes. Bill McVean, well, first of all, it's worth noting that he was in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He served in the Second World War. And that's what happens when you make it to 95 years old.

Good for him. Died in March 2021. After the war, pursued a radio career, first in Hamilton. Familiar radio stations there, like CKOC, before it was a top 40 station. He was the first person in the world to do live traffic reports from an airplane. That Army training came in handy. Wow.

And after a stint at CHML in Hamilton in 1960, got a job at CFRB. job at CFRB. He was a fixture of the station in middays and late night. He would do the quiet hour. I don't know if you've listened to air checks from those old days of CFRB, but I think in hindsight, we remember something being a little more exciting than it was. I actually never, ever had a moment where I thought CFRB was exciting.

What are you doing? I just, I always grew up. Dunking on FOTMs like, uh, J Mad Dog Michaels and Ryan Doyle, who you can now hear in the, in the time slot once, once occupied by Bill McVean. Not your father's CFRB. They're trying to bring it. And he was there, I think, until they started to tweak the station into more of a talk radio format. And by 1986, in Afternoon Drive,

maybe they were looking for more of a news and information orientation. for more of a news and information orientation, and they put Bill McVean into a semi-retirement, but he spent 10 more years on 1010 hosting a travel show, having figured out the racket where you can pretty much fly around the world as long as you're willing to say nice things in the newspaper, on the radio about your destination.

And so by the mid-90s, I guess around the same time, the same time Wally retired, that was the last that we heard Bill McVean on the CFRB airwaves. But hey, he made it to 95. And a name that I think everybody grew up with if their parents, grandparents had CFRB on the kitchen radio. And like anyone who ended up retiring from the industry,

look back on it all. I guess Dick Smythe would have been the same boat, right? It's never as good as it used to be. And it was the fact that Bill McVean had this history as a pilot that gave him a second career, and he was in an air show in North Bay, Ontario, a structural failure that led to a plane crash, and he spent six months in the hospital doing his radio show from CFRB from the hospital bed. doing his radio show from CFRB from the hospital bed. Technically speaking, I think that was a little more complicated,

you know, half a century ago compared to today. And then for more than 20 years, he was in charge of the Canadian International Air Show at the CNE every year, the air show. Do you think the air show has come back this year for people to complain about? Not this year, but we'll see. And if you went for 20 years to the air show, it would have been Bill McVean manning the announcer booth, but maybe most importantly of all then, sorry for cutting you off, Mike, he had an appearance

on an episode of today's special. Do you think we can, because I'm looking now and I see 12 more people I want us to remember and I'm not going to leave anyone on the cutting room floor, but do you think we can, maybe two minutes each can we do that? No, you know we can't, but let's give it a try.

Oh, for the second day in a row, or the second show in a row, I get to play this song. But for a sadder reason. If I hold out If I do I know I can make it through Be the best The best that I can be Hear what I say to you Jamil French was an actor in the latter days of Degrassi, The Next Generation. You mentioned it's the second episode in a row where you've kicked out this theme song.

And the full version, which he didn't even recognize, because I guess there's no rap in the end. I don't recognize it either. This is very much after our time. I didn't realize how many different Degrassis there's been since the Degrassi classic. Oh, by the way, Caitlyn has been booked on Toronto Mike. Don't tell Bingo Bob. Caitlyn. Caitlyn.

Caitlyn of Degrassi, Caitlyn? Caitlyn Ryan? I believe she has another name, Stacey Metician. And yet, I think, based on what I've heard, including a great episode, they're all great, of Bob Ouellette, Bob's Basement podcast. He is a terrific interviewer,

Bob. I love that show. Is he better than me? Be honest, I can handle it. It's a different style. More like a therapy session. Right. Okay, but we are somebody sadly, because much

too young if they were on the next generation of Degrassi. Remind me who passed away? Oh, Jamil French played Dave Turner in Degrassi the next generation. What took him? Do you know?

We don't know. Oh? We don't know. Oh, we don't know. That's terrible. Okay. Very sad. And parallel in that respect with Neil Hope, Wheels, who was the first cast member to die from the earlier incarnation of Degrassi.

It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? They've been the best in the business for a very long time I've been watching them myself since I was only nine They're the longest running anchor team in history. They're the only news team I want on my TV. My name is Tom Joles, but you can call me CT. When you want to know the weather, you can count on me. I do it outside because that's where it's at.

My rap is finished, so Rick's up to bat. My name is Azar. Rick's up to bat. My name is Azar. That's Rick for short. I got the inside track on every sport. I tell it like it is, the way you deserve. So does this man, our main man, Erk. Wow. Wow.

Listen, party people, and don't be late. You'll always get the scoop I give it heard this before. Unbelievable. We didn't play this on an episode when Irv Weinstein died? I guess not. I can't imagine forgetting this wonderful piece of art. This is unbelievable. The Eyewitness News rap from

1987. But yeah, it's riveting. They cut up the theme and everything. Unbelievable. Tom Jules, you can call him CT. Sure, that's what I call CT. Are you kidding me? Sunday mornings was a wasteland. It was like church crap and all this garbage on TV, but you still had Commander

Tom giving you something for the kids. Yeah, for sure. I watched a lot of Commander Tom. Rick Azar, born Ricardo Efrain Thomas Aquino Carbalada de Babyol. I think I got that right. Is that why he shortened it? That's why he shortened his name. I think I got that right.

Is that why he shortened it? You can tell why he shortened his name. Part of the greatest three-headed anchor team in American history from Eyewitness News on Buffalo TV, WKBW. We lost Rick Azar. We lost Irv Weinstein. And we've still got Commander Tom. Yeah, and he's in his mid-80s, I think, hanging in there.

Long may Commander Tom run, but yeah, that's too bad that we lost Rick Azar. Now, Rick Azar, who was part of WKBW, became sports director in 1965, and that's when the Irv, Rick, and Tom trio was established. He also hosted Buffalo Bandstand, which was like a local version of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. He got called in once to fill in for Dick on the Mothership show.

Got the call. But Rick Azar retired from Channel 7 WKBW in 1989. He got a solid three decades and change of retirement at 60 years old. That's the way to go, buddy. He was the first one to move on. In fact, moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina, and he hosted a jazz radio show while he was in retirement. One of the reasons I think Hebsey brought this up, Rick Azar was unique amongst these

TV sports anchormen because he injected his own opinion into the sports cast at a time when that typically wasn't done. And I think eyewitness news in Buffalo was really like a big part of the personality of the ABC television network on a national level. It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? Michael Jackson wrote a song based on Irv Weinstein's catchphrase. I think we might have played that when Irv died.

Okay, because that's... Does that ring a bell? I didn't dig up the Eyewitness News rap. I wasn't yet resourceful enough in the category of the Ridley Funeral Home obituary segment. Right, Michael Jackson writing a song about the eyewitness news. That's sort of like when Rush writes a song about CFNY. It's right up there. That's a big, big fucking deal.

Okay, we lost our hockey dad. You ready? Hey, sirrah, sirrah, whatever will be, will be. Our future's not ours to see. Que sera, sera. When I grow up and fell in love, ask my mother, what lies ahead? Will I be famous? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me.

Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Oh, Walter Gretzky, dying on March 4th in Brantford, Ontario, with the whole family at his bedside, including Wayne Gretzky. Nationally televised funeral, a front-page story, and why wouldn't it be?

I think Walter Gretzky, through the success of his son and the story about how the Great One, number 99, came to exist, you can't tell the story without factoring in Walter. What, building a rink in the backyard, training his toddler before he could walk to be the greatest NHL player of all time.

I highly recommend on CBC Gem, there are these little shorts called Wally's World. And go, I mean, it's free. You have no excuse. Go to CBC Gem, find Wally's World. These great little short stories about Walter Gretzky's life. And they're endearing. It's really good.

So go do that. You know, it was around 1991 on CFRB, Pat Marsden reported on the air that Walter Gretzky had passed away. Right, I know. I've read about this. At the time, what was it? He had suffered a stroke? Definitely,

yeah. He was close to death, of course, and then somebody misreported his demise. Reports of his demise were exaggerated. That was Pat Marsden would have been the guy on CFRB. Pally. It was Pally.

I'll do my Derringer doing it. There you go. You know you're a legend like Gordon Lightfoot if you've been announced dead before your time in Walter Gretzky's case. Like 30 years before he died on March 4th. How many years are we going on now for Gordon Lightfoot? Isn't it Abe Vigoda has the record? Wasn't he reported dead?

I mean, he's dead now, for real, but he was reported dead maybe 50 years before he passed or something. I think he's got the record. Wayne Gretzky's restaurant, which closed just a few months before we lost Walter. Wayne's dad was a big part of the restaurant. Like there was a mural on the side of the restaurant of Wayne and Walter. Right.

And Walter was like a fixture of the restaurant. You come down there and Walter would just be hanging out. Yeah. Hanging out with all the Wayne Gretzky memorabilia. And again, not long before he died, there were a couple of arrests surrounding a theft of memorabilia stolen from Walter Gretzky's home. And that raised a lot of concern about whatever condition

he was in at the time that these people were allegedly taking advantage of him. But if this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry, say live and let die. Live and let die. Live and let die. Live and let die Live and let die What does it matter to you When you got a job to do You gotta do it well

You got to give the other fella I put this up there in the Canadian section of the Ridley Funeral Home obituaries because Yafet Kotto was at one point a resident of the province of Ontario. I might need you on the Google now as I try and recharge my references.

Even though I would love to do this off the top of my head I forget the town where Yafet Kato had settled after he starred in the show Homicide Life on the Street

Marmora that's it and what was it famous for? it was Marmora, that's it. And what was it famous for? It was, yeah, Marmora, Ontario. And he claimed that he could see UFOs in the air from there. And was trying to relaunch his career like some kind of Canadian actor. Even did a pilot for a show on the Showcase Network, but didn't really get very far, but

it seemed like he was living off the residuals from Homicide. Which was a great show, by the way. Now, a notable resident beyond Mr. Cotto here was former Maple Leaf, the late, great Greg Tarian. He was also a resident

of Marmora, Ontario. What else did Yafet Kato do? The one thing that comes to mind about him is that he claimed to be of Jewish descent via royalty in Cameroon and that he considered himself part of the Jewish religion based on that heritage. That was another unique part about his character.

We first got to know him from Live and Let Die, the James Bond movie with the great Paul McCartney and Wings theme song. He was in that. What do you do between that and Homicide? Okay, well, Homicide, obviously, but Alien. That was it. That was in that. What do you do between that and Homicide? Okay, well, Homicide obviously, but Alien. That was it. That was it. Alien. And The Running Man. Don't forget The Running

Man. The Running Man. And maybe even throw in, because it's such a great movie, but he's in Midnight Run with, yeah, De Niro. And because you can't ask me, how old was he when he died? Great. See, I'm now in charge here. It's all flipped.

By the way, he died in Manila in the Philippines is where he died. But he was 81 years old. 81. Yeah, he died in the Philippines. Just, I'm looking at it right now. Black and white here. So that's a, I would say it's a fun fact,

but it's sad when we lose people and they die. So that's a, I would say it's a fun fact, but it's sad when we lose people and they die. So I won't say that. Yeah. Did you know of that Canadian connection? Only after he died. And how did you learn about that one, Mike? Oh, probably,

I subscribed to 1236, the newsletter. It's sort of what teaches me all these fun facts. I like to regurgitate on this program. I think, where are we at? And who was it from TSN me all these fun facts. I like to regurgitate on this program. I think where are we at? And who was it from TSN who died in March 2021?

A guy who was on TSN. Come on. You can remember. Hold on. Somebody died from TSN in March 2021. This isn't fair. You're like the emperor. Skill testing question. Check TorontoMic.com. Once Mr. Weisblot's

laptop and phone goes down, we learn that he's not sure what's going on anymore. Hold on. Let me think on this for a moment. Give me a moment to think. I know my TSN people. Somebody died in TSN. This is going to be awkward to listen to. You can check the in-memoriam part of the TorontoMic.com website website which gives you a rundown all

right hold on of who we lost and also in this month of march uh which i think was saddest of all the the first person to die with an affiliation with this program i'm glad you but it brought... Chris Schultz is who you're thinking of. Chris Schultz. And he was on TSN. Yeah, he did. You're right. See, that tells you how much CFL I was watching. My phone will be charged soon

and we can get back to the programming. Sheila is who I'm thinking of. FOTM Sheila, who I believe we learned of her passing and then the very next day we recorded a Pandemic Friday episode. So off the top of that, we played some Fire and Rain from James Taylor and talked about Sheila. But Sheila attended five of the six TMLX events.

I don't know if you met her at one of those events, but did you? I know she trash talked me on one of your episodes, but that was Sheila. She had opinions. She had an attitude. She had opinions and she had an attitude. She had opinions and she had an attitude and she was fire and rain as Moose Grumpy said. But she was a great supporter of the show. There was even a month of the program

where she had her boss sponsor this program and she read the reads for it. That was Joanne Glutish. You might remember that, November 2020. But wow, what a tremendous supporter and FOTM. And she left us far too soon. She was only, I want to say she was 53. She was in her 50s.

I should know this off the top of my head. But we lost her far too soon and very suddenly. So rest in peace, Sheila. Didn't want to do the obituaries without paying tribute to FOTM. Still on my mind Had the smile Looked like I'd grown Now it rains It seems the sun never shines And I drive

Down this lonely, lonely road. Oh, I got this feeling. Girl, I gotta let you go. Because now you've got to fly. Fly to the angels. Having a way to reach your heart. And flowers bloom in your name. Slaughters fly to the angels. More of a left field obituary here for Jerry Miller. Jerry Miller, she was the editor of a magazine called Metal Edge.

I don't know if you remember seeing Metal Edge at your local 7-Eleven. Maybe. It sounds like I would have seen it. I don't think I ever bought it, though. Kind of combined pin-up photos of poodle hair rockers with all the bold-faced gossip you needed to know about what was happening with bands like Slaughter. These acts weren't going to get any respect in Rolling Stone. You couldn't open up Spin Magazine

and find out what was happening with the Vinnie Vincent invasion. Kiss without their makeup on. and find out what was happening with the Vinnie Vincent invasion. Kiss without their makeup on. Acknowledge that Jerry Miller was the one journalist to take them seriously. And she died in March, whatever day it was, age 67. And after her time at Metal Edge, and before that you were for 16 Magazine. Okay? She was well

trained in the art of the music pin-up. And the editorial content surrounding it. Later on, worked for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. And there you go, another person who, over the course of their career,

went from writing about washed-up rock stars to covering the news of the Jews. it's funny i'm waiting for ron howard's voice jessica walter oh died at 80. 80? 80 years old. Very funny character. In March. I'm leaving it to you to find the precise dates because... You should have put that in the notes.

Well, you're always looking for me to tell you what happens when we go over time. But it's held up. We've done okay here in the backyard as we do the home stretch of people who died. Jessica Walter from Arrested Development, most famously. Yeah, she was 80. 80 years old. And Archer. Those are the two I know.

I know she had a career well before Arrested Development, but she came sort of into my zeitgeist in Arrested Development, which I loved and I've seen several times. And she was the funniest character on've seen several times and she was the funniest character on that program i thought she was hilarious and wasn't it a case of someone who had been uh doing bit parts like a journeyman actress uh all all kinds of roles where she was essentially playing the same character over and over again and she was recognized finally with the rest of the Development like that she could

play that same character. What was the name of the character? Do it in the form of a regular series. Yeah, the character's name is Lucille Bluth. That's it. Bluth. Yes, Bluth. Because of course it's George Michael Bluth and George Oscar

Bluth. Yes. And the whole show. Have you seen Arrested Development? No, this is where I confess that I couldn't get into Arrested Development at all. Hook it to my veins. But I do recognize, as far as a cult television figure is concerned, that everybody knew Jessica Walter. This is a big one too

Big in what sense? Like a guy that you would see On TV all the time Not really remember his name You know what He was even Okay What is the show

Fresh off the boat You ever see this show Fresh off the boat Fresh off the Boat? You ever see the show Fresh Off the Boat? Fresh Off the Boat? I think that would be after I gave up on sitcoms. Me too. He was on Fresh Off the Boat. But my daughter turned me on to it. It's a network show.

You're right. I don't watch a lot of network shows. But he was on that. But well before that, George Segal seemed to be everywhere. He was just famous. Just a guy you recognize. A show I did watch, Just Shoot Me. Yeah, okay.

With George Segal. Yeah, Spade, I guess, is in that. That's a David Spade vehicle, Just Shoot Me. But a whole bunch of films that were in the category of like the 1970s grown-up romantic comedy. There was a certain sort of formula film where George Segal became a guy on call starring all these things. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf got him an Oscar nom. Anyways.

That sounds familiar. What are we listening to? All right. This jam is called a theme from, it's a theme from Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe. That's it. That's it. I remember.

I actually find, I have great amusement knowing you're flying blind over there. I just feel such great power. I remember the commercials, the trailer for this. It seems so sophisticated that this was like my parents' generation being marketed to

with these American romps. Well, here's a fun fact. They credit him as being one of the very first American film actors to become a leading man in movies without changing his Jewish surname.

From George Siegel. Right, so I suppose he would become George Smith or something. Right? Close enough. He made it to age, let me guess, 87. Correct. Amundo. Correct, Armando. We lost Larry McMurtry. 84 years old.

Larry McMurtry was a real man's man as far as fiction writers were concerned. He was responsible for the last picture show something called Lonesome Dove yes any other credits that I'm forgetting because the one they had his last big success for we're hearing here the soundtrack from

Brokeback Mountain let's not forget of course Terms of Endearment as well which is a big one but in total all the movies he adapted they've combined to be nominated Let's not forget, of course, Terms of Endearment as well, which is a big one. But in total, all the movies he adapted, they've combined to be nominated for 34 Oscars. In fact, have 13 wins. He was quite successful. And now he's gone. And his son, James McMurtry, singer-songwriter, Americana troubadour.

And I remember when he came out as a protege of John Mellencamp. John Cougar Mellencamp, that he took Larry McMurtry's son under his wings to kind of be a less commercial version of Mellencamp. I don't know how that's going, but he had a song, It Can't Happen Here, one of those songs despairing about the state of the USA, and rock critic Robert Christegau named it like the greatest song of the 1990s. Wow.

Playing that political consciousness as the son of a rich and famous fiction writer. King of the road. I remember the 35 sweet confides When you put me on the Wolverine of Duane and Deb It was still September when your daddy was quite surprised To find you with the working girls in your county jail The star of... The star of WrestleMania 2. G. Gordon Liddy passed away.

I think it's fitting. The two greatest things G. Gordon Liddy ever did. Serve as a judge in WrestleMania II. And have a part in the lyrics of a Steely Dan song. My old school. I got to work here on my memory about the story behind my old school. It's on Wikipedia somewhere. It involved the two guys from Steely Dan.

Yeah, Donald Fagan and Walter Becker. And they were attending what university? There's like a- Bard College. Bard College. Right. There was a drug bust. Yeah, Liddy directed a drug raid in 1969.

And yeah, Donald Fagan and Walter Becker were caught up in this thing. And they wrote this song, My Old School, about the raid. They refer to him in the lyrics to this song as Daddy G. That's wild. See, that's... I always try to guess why you choose the songs that will introduce these people we memorialize. And usually, sometimes it's obvious.

Mike, Mike, using Google is easy. I do it all the time. But I'm holding it up okay. But tell everybody, of course. It's Watergate. I But yeah, was this song, I don't know if this song was written before he had notoriety with Watergate or after. That it was just like incidental.

That there he was, what, the Attorney General of California, that he played a role in this Bard College fiasco, this drug bust. Was Watergate 74? When was Watergate? Watergate would have been the American election of 1972. 72. That they were snooping around.

Okay, he resigns in 74 then. Okay, that's why. Nixon resigns in 74. And whatever the chronology is, somewhere around that time. This song. Second term of Richard Nixon. This song came out. This song. Second term of Richard Nixon. This song came out. This song was released in October 1973.

It was the single before Ricky Don't Lose That Number. Junk Filter. Junk Filter is the name of a podcast with Jesse Hawken. You might know his name from Twitter in Toronto. And he did a fantastic episode talking about Steely Dan for an hour and a half and the relevance of Steely Dan to his own life.

Check out Junk Filter. I'll check that out for sure. J-U-N-K Filter. And I mentioned G. Gordon Liddy, I I think when we were reviewing the life of Rush Limbaugh, how there were all sorts of

Rush Limbaugh imitators and duplicators that were appearing on the scene to try and fill the other time slots, the other 21 hours a day on those AM radio stations, and G. Gordon Liddy had a pretty good run from the mid-90s onward day on those AM radio stations. And G. Gordon Liddy had a pretty good run from

the mid 90s onward doing political talk on the American airwaves. And one of the more successful Rush Limbaugh wannabes out there

as a result. And I think it out of lots is notoriety. I mean, look, he was there at Watergate. He served his time. He spent like the mid-70s in prison for his role in the break-in. And 10 years later, there he was, WrestleMania II. G. Gordon Liddy. I used to think maybe you loved me No, baby, you shouldn't I just can't wait till the day

When you knock on the door Now every time I go for the mailbox Gotta hold myself down Cause I just can't wait till you're at me You're coming around I'm walking on sunshine I'm walking on sunshine. Whoa. I'm walking on sunshine. Whoa.

I'm walking on sunshine. Whoa. And so it feels good. All right now. And so it feels good. Beverly Cleary died what day in March? She made it to 104 years of age. She passed away on March 25th.

104. We're always looking to end the show with the oldest old. I think anyone who breaks past a century is going to qualify. I spent days wondering what sort of song can we get to commemorate Beverly Cleary, and you know why. I picked this Ali and AJ

cover version of Walking on Sunshine. My guess would be it's on the soundtrack to Ramona. Not bad. Beezus and Ramona. The 2010 film. Right. That was, what, a Disney production?

It was one of those. My oldest daughter loved that movie. Your daughter would have been in the age and would have been addicted to this thing. From the other room, you might have heard this blaring from the soundtrack. I mean, it's the first song on the album. It's the first song on the album. Ali and AJ. Teen singers from the early 2000s.

And a song to put us in a good mood, I think. No, no. I mean, it's no Katrina and the Waves, but it's fine. No, it's better. Did you read, growing up, did you read Beverly Cleary? Absolutely not. No, but I read a lot of Judy Blume. I don't know.. No, but I read a lot of Judy Blume. I don't know.

Is that strange? I read a lot of Judy Blume. Judy Blume crossed gender lines. Oh, is that it? And I think that happened because her writing was more provocative. Like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. But also, I think she got into issues of puberty. She was able to capture the teenage experience in some of her books. Whereas Beverly Cleary was like pre-pubescent tween stuff.

It was a book you would see girls reading Beverly Cleary's books. And you would just know that they weren't meant for boys. Okay, that explains it. Ramona the Pest. That title I remember, and that was part of the literary legacy that Beverly Cleary left behind, along with this cover version of Katrina and the Waves. I was hoping for a sunnier day. It's gotten a bit breezy out here, which explains my raspy voice.

Before I start sounding like Lindsay Lohan, we'd better adjourn until the next episode. Well, thanks for making the trek. It's been three long months since I had a guest in person. And I will just, again, we were very, very safe. We kept a good 15 feet apart back here. We're going to take a photo very safely. I was so safe

that when my phone battery ran out, I had to do a whole operation that's held it captive inside the TMDS mansion and I can't go in to get it out. But we made it through, Mike.

I was able to do the rest of those obituaries without a digital device. This is a lot better than Zoom. By the way, I don't know how do I phrase this. There is another death we could have spoken about that I'm aware of because it's caused one of my guests to delay there it's a what I would call a can con music passing but I don't think I'm they don't want me to talk about it yet because it's going to be made more public on the weekend but it has caused one of the future Toronto mic guests to delay their visit. It'll all make sense later,

but I wanted to just share the news of this and play a little music from this band, which you may have heard very recently on Toronto Mic'd. Probably in the last couple of weeks, I played it on Pandemic Friday. But again, this will

all make much more sense on the weekend. Okay, we'll get around to that. But, again, this will all make much more sense on the weekend. Okay. We'll get around to that. We'll figure out what Tom Gibney was doing after he retired from television. All that and more. Mike, I'll see you back here for the April recap. And maybe by that point seeing the end

of the lockdown life. Well, maybe by that point we've got vaccinated. Maybe. Which would be exciting, I think. Coming soon. Maybe by that point

Pandemic Friday will finally be cancelled. And that brings us to the end of our 831st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 1-2-3-6.

That's 1236. You should go to 1236.ca to sign up for his fantastic weekday lunch hour newsletter. It comes in your inbox and is full of good info like this. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH.

And Mimico Mike, he's on Instagram, Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week. 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.