Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #894

Episode Date: August 3, 2021

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

Okay, 4.33 p.m., whatever the episode number is. You tell me. 8.94. 8.94. Welcome to episode 894 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 home delivery in the GTA. McKay CEO Forums, the highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1,200 CEOs, executives, 1,200 CEOs, executives, and business owners around the world.

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Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week for his review of July 2021 is Mark Weisblatt. From 1236. I subscribe. Vaxxed and waxxed and maxxed and relaxed here on the August Civic Holiday. Simcoe Day. Did they cancel the name. Simcoe Day. Did they cancel the name

Simcoe Day? Not yet. I can't keep track. And unlike our traditional routine, where I'm whipping together the 1236 newsletter, whipping down here

to New Toronto, South Etobicoke. We got to experience a little bit of a lazy weekend today. You got to take the fam to Center Island. Kids on their first roller coaster ride. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, well, we lost a lot of time because nothing was open last year. Morgan's only five, but she went on her first roller coaster. This is like mine ride at Centerville.

Okay, so she's already ahead of me on the bucket list. I don't think I ever went on a real roller coaster at all. Really? Other rides? Not even Canada's Wonderland? I've been on rides that were like the vomit-inducing experience, some of these flume log machineries. There's one of those at center.

I think I was always intimidated by something like the Flyer, the Wildcat. Going on the actual roller coaster was too much of a commitment for me. So kudos to Morgan at five years old already at least one thing that she's done in her life that I didn't do. Hidden treasure that island. I haven't been there in a long time actually. Wow.

Just beautiful. Take the ferry across. It was a great day. We went to Ward's Island and then you kind of walk to Centre Island. You do the Centerville thing. There's amazing beaches. Just shout out to Center Island. You do the Centerville thing. There's amazing beaches. Just shout out to the islands. That's where it's happening.

As for me, here in the middle of summer, I'm glad that I got a primetime slot. Got to get this Pandemic Friday out of the way. Almost done. You're doing these episodes with Cam and Stu and taking up, I feel, a massive chunk of the Toronto Mic'd calendar, which I would like never could Know that I can't find nobody else as good as you I need you to stay I need you to stay You like the thing where I make you play a song off the top Where I can show off how I'm in touch with the teens of today With the Bieber You know who the main artist there is?

Well, I can read it Kid Carole? No, the Kid Leroy from Australia You know who the main artist there is? Well, I can read it. Kid Carole? No, the Kid Leroy from Australia who has the number one album in America. And I think it's because what he did, uploading a mixtape. He's big on the four-letter words. F. Love was the name of his album. And definitely pushing the envelope here as far as bringing coarse language to streaming services.

Because you hear the stuff on the radio, and they've censored out all the coarse language. And then, I don't know, if kids today want to turn to the streaming services and hear the unedited version, are they ever going to go back to the terrestrial airwaves? Yeah, because it does suck. Could they take this music seriously ever again? It does suck when you hear a song, the edited version. Like, it doesn't pack the same punch.

It's like, why would you want to do that if you don't have to? The Kid Leroy gaming the charts by putting out an album and then, like, adding songs to it over time so that the album scores even more points on the chart. He turns 18 years old in August, and it makes Justin Bieber look like an elder statesman. Justin Bieber is now in the 27 Club. I guess he's expected to make it to 28.

And there did that featured bit, kind of like Mick Jagger and Dave Bowie dancing in the streets. I remember. But it's a better song. Now, there's a lot of ground to cover here today, as usual. So let's get rocking with Ripken. So Ripken came over no he didn't. He zoomed in. Same difference I guess. Who was that?

Rick Lowen was I thought one of your more interesting guests on the podcast since I last dropped by because Ripken was picked to click by Chorus Radio that he was picked to click by Chorus Radio, that he was going to be the big new star in town 20 years ago,

what they launched as Mojo Radio. Right. And it was really all about the voice, I think, with Ripken. That was the appeal. The people wanted him on the air. A bit of a bidding war at the time between Chum and the Team Network. They were looking for his services.

He was what? He was doing hockey radio shows. Yeah, with his cousin or something. He was down in Florida at one point and also Winnipeg I guess during the first era of the Winnipeg Jets. We learned, I guess, during the first era of the Winnipeg Jets. And we learned, I think, a unique history of being recruited by corporate media,

course entertainment, and how it all fell apart in less than two years. Right. Ripken talking about the fact that when they launched this Mojo radio with all this imagery ripped out of Maxim magazine with Mojo radio girls and

no chicks in jail don't drink and drive. Spider Jones launching the station where he did a show at night. I mean, this went down in radio infamy forever because Ripken brought it up. The first night of Mojo Radio. You know, give me a call now.

Tell me about the first time you ever had a boner. Yes. And how this style of programming robbed the Toronto Maple Leafs the wrong way. And that was partly because, of course, they want a family image for the hockey team. Young boys tuned in listening to NHL hockey on the radio. Listening to NHL hockey on the radio, there was really no reason you had to subject them to a smutty talk show after the fact where people were calling in with their phone sex fantasies. And as I think came up on a recent episode of Hebsey on Sports, at the time, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a bit of an image problem involving ushers who worked at Maple Leaf Gardens. And criminal prosecutions were underway, right? Didn't a couple guys end up being sent to life imprisonment?

Yeah, we talked about this Friday. And that was also part of the debacle with Mojo Radio that the Toronto Maple Leafs did not want to be on a radio station that was going down this road of talk radio. Ripken

comes in. He's not interested in this smutty stuff at all. He wanted to take a higher road. Do this hangout style of radio, a show about nothing, but at the same time, be those friendly companion pals on the airwaves. And Ripken ended up out of a job in Toronto because he was overheard on some kind of radio station field trip talking to Humble Howard about how in some cities his people own all the buildings, the Mennonites, and in other cities, Howard, your people, the Jewish people, own all of the buildings.

Just idle chatter between two very loud and boisterous stand-up comedians. A salesperson from the radio station overheard what they were talking about, discerned that this was maybe a little bit anti-Semitic, and this Ripken guy had to go. He figured he could retaliate with the fact that being on this smutty radio station, he was being sent, how did he describe it? Like disgusting pornography showing up in his inbox every morning. Right. And nothing he would have wanted to see in any workplace at all.

And that he had something in his back pocket that he could go to HR with, and they just figured this wasn't worth the fuss. You've got what sounded like an exaggerated accusation of discrimination on one hand, and on the other hand, him saying, you've created a workplace that's offensive to my existence. You've created a workplace that's offensive to my existence. I didn't sign up here to work for the radio version of Maxim magazine, even if it ended up sounding at times more like hustler. And from what I could tell, they just paid him to go on his way,

and we never heard from Ripken again. It was, to me, a fascinating conversation, time with the fact that last month when I was here, we were talking about Mike Stafford. Yep. How he ended up crossing the line for the last time. Chorus out of a job after

20 years at AM640. Him and Ripken started on that Mojo Radio at the same time. Yep. And Ripken didn't even make it 24 months, and there Mike Stafford got to 20 years, and I think with both of those radio stories, what can I say? The Toronto Mic'd podcast is where you hear these morsels of media history that no one has gotten around

to exposing all this time. But Mike Stafford, I figure you never heard from him. No, I never heard from him. He wasn't interested in coming over. I never heard from him. Exit interview. You've got Michael Landsberg coming on. We're talking here, what, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning.

Yeah, bright and early Tuesday morning. Bright and early. No longer got a TSN 1050, 1050 Chum radio show. TSN. I suppose his exit was coordinated to be as low-key as possible. This wasn't like a big Roger Ashby farewell ceremony, a two-month-long victory lap. It was, what, at the end of his Friday morning episode?

He said, I'm done, it's over? Thanks a lot, 37 years. Friday before a long weekend. Here working at TSN. I mean, he knew it was coming. It wasn't like he was tapped on the shoulder in the middle of the show. Right. Well, I got lots of questions for Michael.

Once again, Toronto Mike is where all the greats go for the real talk. I'm wondering if he is yet another media veteran who is pondering how do I get into podcasting?

Doesn't he already have it? Am I dreaming or doesn't he already have a podcast? Is that related to his mental health advocacy? Sick Not Weak is his organization and we're going to talk all about this. I don't have answers now, but tomorrow morning I'll know everything.

We'll talk more, I think, through the episode about what's going on with AMFM Radio including... Most of my sports talk is done while I am on Toronto Mike. I don't think about sports anywhere else, but I check in with Hebsey every Friday morning, Hebsey on sports. I think Hebsey on sports is now hitting its stride.

You had to make the investment of what? Three years doing it with Hebsey? It's been a while. Every single week. And, like, his place within the structure of sports media is starting to come clear. And it says something about when you embark on these ventures that it is perhaps impossible to see where these things are going to end up a few years down the road. That you just have to give it your all, flying a little bit blind, because nothing is guaranteed just because.

Like there's a million middle-aged men in Toronto who know the name Mark Hebbshire. Did not mean that all of them were going to show up at the front door of the podcast. Right. Right. Anything but. I mean, even a bit of frustration along the way and trying to get traction for this thing of doing an independent podcast. So, yeah, I think I don't know. You want to hit Landsberg up? Does he want to invest in in TMDS? It sounds like a game he'd be he'd be willing to get into. It says something that he's coming your way. Yeah, bright and early Tuesday morning. To deliver the real talk that, well, I mean, Bell Media,

they're not going to highlight a guy who's just been turfed. Not turfed. What is it? He's been ceremoniously excised from the company bottom line, right? It's one less elite executive salary that they have to pay. And I think all along, the fact that he ended up on this TSN 1050 morning show, wasn't it that they had canceled off the record on TSN? Yep. They had afternoons.

He'd already done an in-depth, heart-to-heart interview with every professional wrestler alive. There was no more reason for Off the Record to be around. And Sports Desk, well, that was long behind him, reading the teleprompter, being the anchor man. I think it was FOTM Mike Richards whoed as a TSN 1050 morning man. And Landsberg was brought in. Was it even a temporary replacement, like an emergency fix? He's still on the payroll. We've got him around.

Maybe he can make something out of this morning show before we pull the plug and change the format again. And what happened in the interim was, as far as the sports radio pie is concerned in Canada, I guess the sands shifted a little bit, and you've got TSM Radio, Rogers Sportsnet. They're pretty much neck and neck. Aren't they seen as equally credible as far as competitors are concerned? That's what I hear.

At this point, TSM is even seen as more enthusiastic about radio compared to what was happening over at Rogers. If you're listening to this, perhaps by now you've already got the Michael Lansberg episode up. I'm looking forward to the real talk. Another FOTM. Yes. John Spike Gallagher.

Gallagher. Another FOTM. Yes. John Spike Gallagher. Gallagher. Former co-host of Gallagher and Gross Save the World. I don't like you saying former. It makes me feel like it's done. At least the initial run of episodes, which you put out like a binge listening experience.

Right, right, right. They were spilling the tea about their media careers. I caught wind of the fact that Moses Nimer was not happy about the fact that a couple of legends of City Pulse News were doing a podcast dishing about stuff happening behind the scenes. Didn't at least Peter get a memo from Moses Nimer's office saying, I read it, I read it, yes. Do not ever talk to me again. Essentially, Moses, through his people, sent Peter Gross, it's like a cease and desist. It's like, don't bother me, don't call me, lose my number.

Really hurt Peter, by the way, who's a sweetheart. But what control did they have? They severed ties a long time ago. Peter isn't working for any corporate overlords at all. But the Gallagher and Gross Save the World podcast, in your own words, Toronto Mike, a show that was too beautiful for this world. Wasn't it great?

The archives are still out there. Do you have any plans to take them down? Could you imagine somebody being embarrassed enough or somebody sending in legal representation to ask for the candid conversations of John Gallagher and Peter Gross? That'll have to be pulled down over my dead body. Okay, so everybody stand by waiting for another round of episodes of Gallagher and Gross Save the World.

The pandemic hit, and you, I know you tried to do what? Over the phone a couple episodes? There were some phone episodes. It just didn't have the same spirit. No. It was literally phoning it in. Right. And we come to the issue that even though you've got this whole wonderful TMDS backyard set up,

and you've done at this point dozens of episodes on Zoom, we get to the fact that John Gallagher has not been accessible. You haven't been able to find the guy in order to bring him in to do a sequel. And then word comes down that John Gallagher, who loved talking about the vac that he bought a house in Toronto around Avenue and Lawrence, Lawrence Park, somewhere in that neighborhood for, I don't know, what was it? $200,000? Like he paid for it with money he got he got paid in in paper bags for something

announcing drink specials at the barracuda um and a house he bought 25 years ago in toronto uh went up like like 10 times the value right they were sitting on this pile that was worth two or three million dollars and even though his services were no longer required by Moses Neimer anymore because at one point he tried to work him back into the Zoomerplex. They had him doing the sports on AM 740. They even gave him a classical music radio show. It was like John Spike Gallagher learns about the history of the symphony. It seemed like Moses took a liking to him

while their spike was exiled from the mainstream media and found himself over in the basement talking to Toronto Mike. From what I can tell, your off-the-record recollections of all these visits, maybe he was a little uncomfortable about the routine of making media in a context where he had to do the heavy lifting himself, right?

Like it wasn't his thing. He was used to having like a dozen production assistants whirling around and people to fetch him his water and his Red Bull or whatever kept him going and flowing when he was on the air, right? whatever kept him going and flowing when he was on the air, right? The whole idea of having to go down to some guy's basement after all those years of burning the midnight oil on city TV and then magically being live on the radio at 5 a.m. the next morning on Q107. I don't think anyone in the history of Toronto media would be on TV at midnight and then on the radio at 5 a.m., but I think with Gallagher,

you got into deciphering the pharmaceuticals that might have been used to make this sort of split-shifting possible. He was like the Energizer Bunny of Toronto sportscasters. He would never stop and am I right in saying maybe his ego was deflated? I don't think so.

No, you don't think that he thought it was beneath him to come over to your house and have to fend for himself trying to make things work that way? Like he didn't have a car so I feel like maybe it was inconvenient but peter would like pick him up and then bring him here and i don't think i ever heard him complain about it to be honest and in the episodes i don't know whatever there were

in the can 30 episodes or whatever speak for themselves like he was fire but uh well i'm waiting for the punchline here because the gal you're not bringing up Gallagher because he died, right? Like this man, as far as we know, he's still alive, right? I'm providing an armchair psychoanalysis. It sounds like a really funeral. Listening to him trying to fit into the FOTM world and maybe not figuring it out or not being comfortable in his own skin. Well, you know, he talked a big game.

When it came to participating in what you were building here. I think he might have had some lofty expectations Mike Richards style in terms of like maybe he thought Molson would be signing million dollar checks for this or something and then

when he realized that it might not be as easy as that he definitely took a little wind out of his sails, I think. But where is Gallagher today? Okay, well, Gallagher, based on reports on his public Facebook page, he had a little goodbye soiree once the patio was reopened in Toronto. And he said goodbye to the Toronto media market. I don't know, Out of all the famous people

he would have rubbed shoulders with, who did he consider his celebrity friends? That maybe he's burned some bridges? That he didn't get that star-studded lineup of people to say goodbye to him? George Cavallo. John Spike Gallagher has left town and cashed out on his Lawrence Park detached manse

and gone back to where he came from, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Okay, so Spike Gallagher has left the city of Toronto. He's in Halifax now. Another FOTM, Stu Stone. Are you still hate listening to the Pandemic Friday episodes? There's only a few left, you know. Well, I feel like we've come to a mutual understanding,

me and Stuart Stone, that he recognizes that perhaps hearing Stu Stone take over two or three hours of the Toronto Mic'd podcast each and every week for the entire run of the pandemic is not the best use of your resources.

That he's no longer going to push for the idea of doing Pandemic Fridays forever. That you arranged this last bash. You're going to do the Pandemic Fridays grand finale episode on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery. Yep.

And that Stew Stone, I think, can now live with the idea that after how many weeks will it be by the time you get to the final episode? Oh, 76, I think. 76 weeks in a row. I know. Of podcasting in a row. I know. Of podcasting with Stu Stone. I'm exhausted. But look, I've become increasingly compelled by Pandemic Friday because you added a plot twist.

Yeah, what do you think of that? Bob Ouellette, who somewhere in the past year became the program director of Chorus Radio Stations in Kingston, Ontario. Bob has been working his way around the province, bringing his commercial radio expertise. And I think with his background with Edge 102, CFNY, like you once a producer of the Humble and Fred show,

although I guess you still are. I still am, yes. That I think he brings a lot more texture to the task of figuring out how to retain audiences on terrestrial radio and being the innovative mind that Bob has become. He has a job opening in Kingston. Station is Chorus Fresh FM. Fresh, which they at one point called the Hamilton Station, I think.

I think so, too. But they changed it to Energy 95.3, trying to capitalize on Energy Radio, Energy 108. But these are, I guess you would call them hot adult contemporary radio stations. Bob Ouellette had in mind, I've got this job opening here. Who better than Stu Stone? Wow. Desperate for attention, he wants to be heard.

Why not offer him the role to be a radio morning man in mid-market Canadian FM radio. You don't get job offers like that too often without really paying your dues. I mean, 76 weeks in a row of appearing on Toronto Mic'd as enough of a qualification to become a corporate radio morning man for chorus? In Kingston, which is the key part of that sentence, right? And he actually has to move.

Kingston for now. Right, right. This radio industry is becoming more syndicated. They're relying on national programming. We've learned along the way a woman named Monica. Yes. Not Toronto Mike's wife. Right.

A different Monica. They had Al and Monica in Kingston. Was it Bingo Bob who sent Al packing? I don't know. Do you know? I didn't even know it was an Al. I guess I forgot it was an Al. First order of business.

Not so good, Al. But Monica out there in Kingston, Ontario, she does fill-in shifts on Q107, you see? Yeah, Stu could do that too. This is a big deal. Do you think Stu will take the Kingston Morning Show game? That's what I'm saying. In an industry always looking nowadays for the next way to cut costs and perform austerity.

I don't know if Kingston, Ontario radio is a step down that it used to be. We've talked about Toronto radio DJs who end up showing up in these smaller markets. But the salary is a step down. You'll agree they aren't going to pay. A step down for what? What are you paying him here? He's running into your backyard every week

to be paid in what? Palma Pasta? That's true. The man is paid in Palma Pasta. GLB? Speaking of which, I should open one up. Crack one open there, buddy. What are you opening there? Which one is it? Rubricate the real talk. That's a big one. That's the tango. Wow. Let me know what you think of that one.

It's a good one. And what becomes of Stu Stone, commercial radio morning megastar? Stay tuned. Is there any chance that's going to happen? Is this the pandemic Friday cliffhanger that we're waiting for? See, here's the great strange thing about pandemic Fridays with Stu Stone. I love these episodes. They need to come to an end because they really are Pandemic Fridays with Stu Stone. I love these episodes. They need to come to an end

because they really are draining me. I'm exhausted. I'm really tired. 70... Not only that, but I want my Thursday time slots back.

Right, right. So there really are... I mean, this week, for example, Stu's in LA because he's launching his Faking a Murderer movie. So actually,

taking the place of Stu Stone is Ben Rainer. And Cam and Ben are back here Thursday night. We're going to kick out the best Canadian songs from east of Ontario. So we got ourselves a genuine, a genuine Maritimer in Ben Rainer. And I've got a hell of a special guest who's going to zoom in and it's

going to be great. Okay. I can't wait. Replacing Stu Stone, a guy who knows who I am yet has no idea what I do, will be Ben Rayner. Another guy who knows who I am yet has

no idea what I do. So there's not many of these left. Where was I going with this? I was witness to the offer. I know the dollar amount of the offer. I promise not to say it on this podcast. So I know the details. I also know Stu didn't do what you do when you want the gig with that follow-up directly with the hiring manager. Like that step actually didn't happen.

So Bob is taking that as an indication. Stu's not that interested. Bob needs to fill this role. Bob has continued to interview applicants as if, because he hasn't got that next level with Stu where he commits that he's going to move to Kingston and take the job at that rate and you know give it his go so if I were a betting man I would bet it doesn't happen but Stu likes to do this wrestling thing he used to be a manager in the wrestling he likes to do uh uh like sort of like sort of like I don't even know what the wrestling term is you might know work versus shoot so is it work the real one or the fake one? Do you remember?

Do you know? It's too much for me. I mean, it was enough effort researching the Paul Orndorff obituary for the Ridley Funeral Home segment later on. So anyway, he's got this wrestling background, and it really comes out in these things. So it's difficult to tell with Stu what's legit real and what's part of his, like like this gimmick or this plot line as we wind down Pandemic Friday.

He says he has a big announcement to make on Humble and Fred. I booked him on that show for the 26th of August. Of course, the finale of Pandemic Friday, which everyone listening to me right now is invited to, and I hope you all come out, is 6 p.m. Friday evening, that's August 27, at Great Lakes Brewery. It's going to be awesome. I want everyone there. We'll have a fourth mic open for people who want to jump on it and tell Stu directly what they think of him or whatever. But that'll be the finale. I hope Stu is happy. If going to Kingston and doing this makes him happy, good for him. Otherwise, Stu has a 5-7 Films

production company that he's passionate about. And he probably... I know it's based in Toronto, so I don't know if he wants to move to Kingston and put that on ice. It depends on how this launch goes this week in LA where they have the Fake and the Murder launch.

How's that for my skew? Shout out to Bob. We'll add another, another thing we've got on the agenda today, which is the fact that he is expecting that if you're going to be a radio morning man in Kingston, Ontario, you got to move to the city where you're broadcasting from. And that's where,

you know, in this era of people trying to figure out when do we return to the office and how is a remote working going to work for every industry. We'll talk about it in a little while how I think to this point, radio has suffered. And here Stu is being told that you've got to make your home in Kingston, Ontario. You've got to follow in the footsteps of Zalianovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful, who after he narked out his bandmates and that was the end of his hippie music career,

opened the Shea Piggy Restaurant in Kingston and became the biggest celebrity there. His restaurant became a tourist attraction. Stu Stone could be the biggest star in town. Bill Woleczka, the former MuchMusicVJ, would be competing with Stu. Outlaws and heroes. For who would be the most popular Toronto exile. Would they? Well, yeah.

Bill was showing off on Twitter his collection of memorabilia of the Honky Tonk Man. I think they'll get along. From the World Wrestling Federation. Well, Stu can tell them about all the times he met the Honky Tonk Man. I think they'll get along. From the World Wrestling Federation. Well, Stu can tell them about all the times he met the Honky Tonk Man. That'd be cool. Now, there's a great radio update, and it also ties into Stu Stone and the Pandemic Fridays,

which sadly are coming to an end August 27th, 6 p.m. Everybody's invited. But speaking of radio, and this is not the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. Oh, yeah, I queued up a song. Did you get that one? I'm going there now on YouTube here. Okay, now, because I have an anecdote related to someone we just lost.

I heard about it on August 1st, and that was James Baby Scott from CFNY. I don't like you, but I love you. Scott from CFNY. I love you madly You've really got a hold on me You've really got a hold on me Now Mark, you were telling me that James Scott, who I only know from clips, I get a lot of clips sent to me from the Spirit of Radio days, and I hear them on these recordings. I don't ever have a memory of listening to James Scott live on 102.1, but you're telling me that James Scott is the real life,

I guess the real life brother of FOTM David Marsden. Half brother. Now, I'm getting a little emotional here with the Beatles singing Smokey Robinson. I'll tell you why. Because I never forget listening to James Scott on 102.1 FM. I was able to look up this date. I don't have much of a steel trap memory.

February 26, 1987. It was the day that the Beatles came out on compact disc. And it was originally the first four Beatles albums, this one, 1963. And I would, at that point in high school, I changed high schools partway through. Didn't really talk to anybody at all. One time we eulogized the one guy who talked to me in high school.

Remember that? And I would just, like, lose myself sitting in the back class listening to what was happening on the radio because I could get away with it sitting in these big public high school classrooms. I think it was a high these big public high school classrooms. I think it was a high school law class at the time. And knowing there was a big media event, these Beatles CDs had come out.

And flipping around my portable stereo, my off-brand knockoff Walkman. There on CFNY was James Scott and the Scott Show commemorating the fact that these Beatles CDs had come out by playing this song, which is not the obvious choice, not the biggest hit from those early Beatles records, but I think it reflected when people talk about the glory days of CFNY, was the fact that you could tune in, and in between all that British synth pop

and emerging alternative music, they would throw in a song like that into the rotation. And I remember hearing that on the air, specifically that afternoon, and I was overcome with this longing. Like, I have to get out of this classroom and somehow into this radio. And then I go down the road of thinking, did I do anything else with my entire life except consume media? That I'm constantly reminded of memories like this? I guess based on the fact that I have so many of them, I didn't do anything else at all. Except listen to the radio and have a desire to find myself being a part of it. And I just always remember James Scott playing that song from the Beatles and coming out of the track with this enthusiasm for the fact that it arrived the Beatles

were in the radio station CFNY on compact disc and it wasn't wasn't long after that that I got involved with CIUT at the University of Toronto and found some way to be a part of things. I find myself in your backyard. But isn't it amazing? This is over 34 years

ago that I just remember hearing this innocuous song on the radio. We're constantly longing for these moments, right? We're always referring to these things that we heard on the radio, we saw on TV, or we caught on the newspaper in a distant time. That was just like an ephemeral moment, might have been heard by tens of thousands and, you know, every single one of them forgot it, except maybe you and me, and that these instances stick with us forever. And I just always remembered hearing the Scott Show, James Scott, Afternoon Drive on CFNY, playing the Beatles. You really got a hold on me.

How sad was I to learn on August 1st that James Scott died? And the interest in his life. He was one of those cast of characters in the golden age of spirit of radio. CFNY was around there, I think, from around 1982. A couple years later when it started broadcasting from the top of the CN Tower. He was part of that legendary lineup. Pete and Geetz and

Liz Janik. Ivor Hamilton. Who else among the FOTMs? You had Freddie P. Fred Patterson, always around. Mike Stafford. Mike Stafford. And Scott Turner. Scott with a K. Was Hal Harbour there? No, Hal Harbour was

not there at that point. I remember hearing when I first got in the loop of radio gossip that James Scott was the brother of David Marsden. How could this be?

For one thing, they had different last names. I mean, I think by that point I was hepped to the fact that if you heard a DJ on the radio, that they were not necessarily using the name that they were born with. But if you heard David Marsden, he would handle Saturday night on CFNY with the emergence of that radio station. He was a big number in this town.

I mean, if you were a teenager in the 1980s, it was shouted from the rooftops. It was in the newspaper every other day that David Marsden was really the most influential figure at that point when it came to the music media as a tastemaker with this radio station. I learned a little over time about how he was mentioned in Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. My dad remembered listening to Dave Mickey on 590 CKEY. He did a CBC television show called Music Hop, where I think he took over for some obscure character

named Alex Trebek, who went on to bigger things. I'm not sure who hosted Music Hop in which order. It was before my time. But Dave Mickey, the fast-talking, teeny-bopper, AM radio DJ legend via Stratford, Ontario, who was on the air in Toronto before the Beatles, at least before there were Beatle records, early 1960s. Dave Mickey was a modification

of the name that David Marsden grew up with so he was adopted by a family with the last name McKee this is all relatively new news to me which I happened upon in a podcast that was just recorded somewhere in the middle of July called Cool Story with David McNeil. It was like a remote Zoom interview that David Marsden did talk a little bit about the fact that he was adopted into this

family, the Scottish Canadian family, McKee. And it turned out they're also quite religious. So there was no rock and roll allowed through their front door, that he grew up with very limited exposure to the popular culture that he was later synonymous with. And what? He first tried to get in as a rock and roll music manager with what later became the band, known as The Band. That's all part of the history. But then he found his calling behind the mic on ultimately CKEY radio in Toronto

and doing this show on the CBC called Music Hop. Dave Mickey, on his birth certificate, his name was Dave McKee. Dave Mickey then, I guess he ran his course in Toronto. I mean, the culture was moving fast. He'd done his time. He represented a certain era. It was time to reinvent himself, and he got a job in Montreal.

Still a major market, not any kind of demotion, right? The Anglos still ruled the town. But there he was initially commissioned to do, let's say, a more mellow style of broadcasting, middle of the road, CKGM in Montreal. And he was told by his new management there, you can't call yourself Dave Mickey because Dave Mickey is internationally known as the fast-talking top 40 teenage DJ. You're going to be speaking to a more mature, sophisticated audience. You're going to have to choose another name.

And Dave Mickey at least was privy to the information that he was adopted. His birth mother's last name was Marsden. So he chose to be called David Marsden. But he wasn't sure how to spell it. He went for M-A-R-S-D-E-N. The surname was actually Marston, T-O-N. Now here's where it gets a little bit blurry. At some point, you might have to get in touch

with David Marston, F-O-T-M, Marston, to clarify his side of the story. And listening to him on the podcast, I don't think he's quite clarified what happened here because it's actually been the source of a lot of pain in his life. And I'm paraphrasing here what I heard on this podcast he recorded a couple weeks ago, that he was reacquainted with his birth mother.

He met her for coffee a few times, had a cordial relationship with her in adulthood. turned out that this birth mother had another son named David, which she raised in her household the way he described it. She ended up having a successful career, I think, living in London, Ontario. And there was David Marsden, who was the half-brother of radio icon David Marston. Somewhere down the line, David Marston decided to become a radio DJ. This is a chronology I'm not sure of. But when David Marston wanted to get into radio in London, he couldn't call himself David Marston wanted to get into radio in London, he couldn't call himself David Marston

because there was already a David Marston. Right. He had to choose a different fake name. He went for the name James Scott. James Baby Scott. Once again, I'm working here with scatterbrained information like i'm not sure at what point the two david marsden's actually met but wouldn't it be in the nature of david marsden once he took the programming reins of cfny that he had an opening for an afternoon drive DJ.

Who else would he think of to hire than this half-brother who had the same name as him? Wow. But the fact that James Scott's real name was David Marston, I think was kept a closely enough guarded secret. Because you'd imagine this is the kind of thing that newspaper articles would have been written about back in the day. Like, they had enough fame in Toronto that people would have been curious about how David Marsden, the architect of CFNY, found a place for his half-brother.

And the fact that their name was the same never seemed to come up along the way. But the fact that they had the same mother meant that they could channel the same energy. So in James Scott doing Afternoon Drive on CFNY, it was, I think, a hereditary thing at work, right? Where you could have the closest you could get to David Marsden as an on-air personality was David Marston. Wow. His long-lost half-brother known as James Scott. Wow. His long-lost half-brother known as James Scott. Wow.

And the Scott Show was afternoon drive on CFNY. Through much of 1980, he ended up leaving the radio station. Starting around the time, they shifted direction. It was put up for sale. And the opportunities that were there for him in radio were a whole different kind of format, like easy listening, adult contemporary radio. Initially in Orangeville, DC 103

radio, the station that's still there at 103.5. At one point, I remember hearing him on Easy 97 uh at one point i remember hearing him on uh easy uh easy 97 cjz in toronto and and uh then for a long time because they had the same odor uh chre in saint catherine's 105.7 light 105.7 the station that was later easy rock the station at rick hodge, FOTM Rick Hodge, later appeared on. And for quite a while, into the 21st century, there you can hear James Scott doing the morning show.

He still had that same savoir faire they brought to the airways with CFNY, even if the music was completely different. I don't know if there was much of an overlap as far as listeners were concerned. I just think everyone remembers this James Scott. If you were tuned into CFNY in the 80s, The Scott Show. Do you want to hear a little bit of James Scott from 1987?

We have gone on long enough about the guy. It's the least we can do. Alright, listen here. 102, and it's the Scott Show, live and direct from the Hard Rock Cafe here at the corner of Young and Dundas. We heard 5440 in the music set with Take My Hand,

Blind, Deaf, and the Lame from Rock and Hide, Working on My Tan, Tim Curry up at the top of the hour here on the Scottshow. Liz Janet finishing off her program today with New Order and Bizarre Love Triangle. Well, just like we've been promising you all week,

it is my pleasure to welcome to Toronto, I suppose not for the first time. You've been here a couple of times. But J.J. Brunel from the Stranglers is with us today. J.J., it's nice of you to take some time to come down and talk to us I know you've got a sound check coming up in a little while but we're gonna keep you here and we'll do some talking and listen to some of your music and well we might even keep you later I don't enjoy this sunshine yeah you know

we've had a contest running on the radio station here for the last little while, giving away tickets to your show coming up tonight and tomorrow night. Let's see if you can answer some of these questions. See if we can get a double pass to the Strangler show for you tonight. Okay. Backstage. Can I meet the group? Yeah, you could.

I want you to get to autographing our albums here, too, in a minute. That's okay. Here's your first question. Okay, Jamie. Now, the answer is the title to one of your songs, one of your recent songs. Correct. Revenue Canada, your tyrannical boss, the hangman. What do they all show?

Time's up. Sorry, JJ. You're out of here, pal. Oh, no mercy. Yeah. Yeah, no mercy is absolutely right. Okay. Well, we can carry on.

Okay. A little bit of James Baby Scott of CFNY. Now, Joey Vendetta. Oh, you got a Joey Vendetta clip. Yeah. You're usually better with segues, Mike. You caught me by surprise with the ending. I just was buckled up for another 45 minutes there.

I was enjoying it. It's stories like that, by the way, that Dave Marsden, Dave Marsden story. Stories like that. And I would also say the story about the Beatles song that you introduced that segment with that make you so good at what you do. Why do you think I ask you to come over for three hours every month? Because you're so handsome? Is that what you think it is?

It's because there's no one else in this market. Mike, enough already. No one else in this market. We're never going to get to the end of this episode. It doesn't like you think it is? It's because there's no one else in this market. Mike, enough already. No one else in this market. We're never going to get to the end of this episode. Okay, so this clip for everybody listening at home, now that I'm prepared and ready. This is a clip of a great show I'm lucky enough to be a co-host of. It's called Hebsey on Sports.

And this is a couple of Fridays ago where Mark Hebbshire brought up Joey Vendetta. Finally, Joey Vendetta, officially out at the fan radio after he posted an insensitive tweet and then was literally run over by his own colleagues at Rogers. Mike, I don't know how many people at Rogers you follow. I don't know if you're aware of what happened here, but Joey made a comment about people not liking living in Canada

and they should leave if they don't like it here. It was an insensitive tweet. There wasn't context. And because of that, Joey's show was taken off the air, but others at Rogers recognizable on air people at Rogers jumped on Joey piled on basically said, Oh, you know, it's terrible and not acceptable. And this is a big problem that Rodgers has encountered recently with regards to social media

and their personalities. They're finding that some comments are being made and others are jumping in as well. And I'm not going to, you know, let's say this particular Sportsnet personality started by saying that's terrible, that's horrible. He should be fired or words to that effect. And someone else at Sportsnet sees that and goes, yes. And pretty soon they're all piling on. and pretty soon they're all piling on. And so what happened was Joey got taken off the air and was apparently offered his job back,

but with certain terms and conditions, which he did not want to adhere to, and refused their offer, and so he's out. Joey Vendetta, Godspeed. Last time I was here a month ago, we were unclear about his fate at the station. I even deigned to speculate that shortly after the Rogers family was canceled for taking a photo at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump, they would stand by their man.

And I thought that was social media pile on. Mike, I'm just doing my best to debate, to take the opposite position of you. Once again, I lose another bet. That's two at least, I think. But based on what we heard there from Hebsey on sports, there was a deliberation. Like there were a few days where, refreshing the Sportsnet website, there was still Joey Vendetta with his Saturday afternoon show

that he had not been removed from the schedule yet until a few days after he put up a tweet saying what? Happy Canada Day. If you don't like this country, you should leave. Words to that effect. Yeah, because there's others who will take your place. And then having to clarify it, saying he too, as a Roman Catholic,

is disappointed in the church and what they did at these residential schools. And then the groveling corporate apology. Right. Saying what I said was wrong and I'm very, very sorry and I regret it and I'm a terrible person. At which point his Twitter account

vanished. Whether it's been deleted or deactivated forever, Joey's got maybe bigger and better things to do if he's still working for Live Nation. Expanding the Budweiser stage at Ontario Place. I don't know, he's still working for Live Nation. They're expanding the Budweiser stage at Ontario Place. I don't know.

He's got to protect himself here, protecting his own neck. And Joey Vendetta, no longer on Sportsnet Radio. Thanks, Hebsey, who I believe is a friend of Joey Vendetta's, right? I mean, the two of them are tight. They're close. They're close. They're connected. That would not surprise me in the least. They worked together at Q107 when Hebsey ended up doing the sports there.

Goodbye, Joey Vendetta. Just between you and me Baby, I know our love will be just between you and me. Always I know our love will be just between you and me. At what point in talking about the entire history of popular culture will we get to referring to someone who is alive and well and not considered an FOTM? I don't understand the question. This is Miles Goodwin, definitely an FOTM.

What I'm saying is at this point in time, Definitely an FOTM. What I'm saying is, at this point in time, does so many podcasts have had so many guests that we keep running into people who are on your resume? Right. Right. And when will, so the question is, at some point, will an FOTM die?

Is that the question? Or no, that's not it. At some point, I mean, it's plausible that Joey Vendetta could have appeared on here somewhere in the last five or ten years. I probably invited him a few years ago and he probably just never replied. You've got Mike Stafford in the archives. At least twice. Absolutely. And Miles Goodwin.

Yeah. Who? What? He did his podcast over the phone. But I thought you cut it up into a clever episode. Thank you. Did a little deep dive career retrospective about April Wine, who were on my mind in the past week, because August 1st marked the 40th anniversary of the cable channel known as MTV.

anniversary of the cable channel known as MTV. And I think it was MTV's own doing by the fact that they made a big deal out of their 10th and 20th and 25th anniversary. Right. That you've got this like canonical list of the first videos ever played on the channel, even though it's mostly just this schlocky corporate rock from 1981. There's some stuff in the list which would have been on the cutting edge of the time, but it's also a lot of Styx and REO Speedwagon and the worst era Rod Stewart that were dominating the playlist on there.

These are the videos that they had in their library. These were the videos that they got permission to run when MTV signed on the air. And the fact that 40 years ago, you couldn't get MTV in like 99 point whatever percent of American homes. It's not like this launched with a massive marketing campaign. That was the whole point. Call your local cable company and tell them I want my MTV. Right. The fact that the channel had to build up this virality over a couple of years.

But of course, in the process, that's how big cultural force was created. It all began with April Wine, just between you and me. Now MTV, the main cable channel MTV, they did nothing about this anniversary. They were just showing reruns of Ridiculousness,

which is the one show, like the flagship program of MTV, both in the U.S. and Canada. Also, I think much music plays it like half the time all day. Do you know what ridiculousness is? No clue. It's like sort of a game show setup where they show YouTube videos.

They find people performing stunts online. Somebody sits there sourcing all these videos, and you get paid $100 to be on this show. It's kind of like what MTV used to be, but instead of music videos, it's like clips that we found on YouTube of kids doing stupid stunts. That's the main programming right now on the MTV network.

He got into a lot of lamentations. Why don't they play music videos anymore? Why don't they acknowledge? Are they around 40 years here? You know the drill. You know the deal. No commemoration that I could tell on MTV. They weren't dusting off April 1st,

even though there is an MTV classic channel. But even in that case, there didn't seem to be, uh, any, any special occasion. You know, 40th anniversary is usually a big deal because unlike the 50th anniversary, 40th anniversary here,

we're in that cohort. You and me, Toronto, Mike, I mean, it's that age group that remembers, but we're still not so old that we're over the hill. We're not,

we're not in that 55 plus demographic yet. We're still the Gen Xers. We're still not getting enough respect from the hill. We're not in that 55-plus demographic yet. We're still the Gen Xers. We're still not getting enough respect from the media. There was a commentary that ran on Variety magazine, Variety.com, to that effect. Like, turn the keys of MTV over to the generation that grew up with it. This Gen X age group, let's say currently 42 to 55, 56 years old, no one is really programming for us in the mainstream media. In the mainstream media.

And I also hope to go further down that road. I'll reveal here. Without exactly knowing how that's going to happen, yeah, I think coming out of the pandemic, I think there will be an appetite for Generation X to be acknowledged more in the mainstream media. But because April Wine were on that playlist on that first day, because they were the first Canadian video.

Yep, and it's a good song. And it was played five times. It was only two videos were played five times in that first day. Wow. The other one was the Who, You Better You Bet from the Faze Dance album, which again, like no one looks at that and says that was the greatest Who song of all time. They just worked with whatever they had, whatever they could scrounge around. As far as videotapes, I think they could get permission to play

because there were Beatles videos that were made in their heyday. Those weren't on MTV on the first day that it was broadcasting out there. Infamously, like there was no black music R&B. It was all this like corporate rock schlock with a bit of new wave thrown in, and it was only a matter of time, I think, until that second British invasion took hold, and of course, that's where you get Duran Duran heralded as the main band that benefited from having that MTV attention. But yeah, I guess it becomes a bit of a cause celeb, the fact that MTV, 40th anniversary,

not getting the respect it deserves. And here on WXPN, the non-commercial radio station from Philadelphia, the one that World Cafe with FOTM Reina is on, they are doing an homage to MTV. So here you've got like an alternative non-commercial radio station and they're the ones breaking out the sticks

in REO Speedwagon and April Wine and the worst songs ever by Rod Stewart. They're the ones that are giving this stuff the airtime, the respect. They're looking out for the Gen Xers. But here I figured on this 40th anniversary weekend, going down in history, April Wine. And by 1981, April Wine, you went through April Wine history. You had the guy on the show.

By 1981, April Wine were around for a long time i mean these guys were were veteran rockers that went all the way back all the way back to to the late 60s in uh in east coast canada right and uh yeah by 1981 this was like i don't know their third or fourth go-round of of trying to have a hit and it was a moderate success, but I don't think it had much to do with MTV because, as I said, not a lot of people could see the station. It was just between you and me, and also from that album, The Nature of the Beast was sign of the gypsy queen.

Pack your things and leave. Is that how it goes? And Just Between You and Me has this part in French at the end. You know, seulement entre toi et moi. Kind of a shout out to their Québécois fans. Well, yeah, they would qualify if Ben Rayner or Cam Gordon wants to kick out some April wine on Thursday night. That's a maritime band.

It would be appropriate. Just between you and me, I wanted to also mention, executive from MTV has now taken the reins of Buffalo, Toronto Public Media. That's like the official name of the company that runs WNED, Channel 17. Okay.

Former home of Goldie and Mike. Ed Conroy's Retro Ontario YouTube channel. Wasn't it originally called? 100%. WNED. WNED 17. This guy, Tom Calderon, he was the architect of MTV in the late 90s. Total Request Live,

which we wouldn't have seen much of up here. It wasn't all Much Music. We didn't see any of it. Well, Much Music was imitating all of this. I think the fact, as we have in the past, hours-long discussions about whether Much Music was

a superior product totv mtv was driving driving the zeitgeist right i mean whatever much music was doing a huge black hole to me i never saw it i know the great stew stone saw it he had a satellite dish whatever he moved to la uh i gotta say i never saw a minute of mtv never saw it and i do think we missed out because we we had this diluted Canadian equivalent, which took the form of these after-school music video shows and stuff on City TV, the new music, and City Limits. But yeah, for sure, you know what it was like?

My friend Jesse Hirsch once made this point. Do you remember when Toys R Us didn't exist yet in Canada? That was only something that happened in the United States. And you hear about this idea of a department store that was only toys. And you had to cross the border, go over the rainbow, over the rainbow bridge to access the ecstasy of going into a toy department store. That Canada was deprived of that kind of experience. And I think by the fact that you didn't get to see MTV in Toronto, yeah, I think it took us down like a different kind of pop culture trajectory.

So through the 80s and 90s, I mean, there was a lot of spillover, a lot of influence, a lot of impact. All what you saw in Much Music was driven by MTV. And that included the era of the boy bands. And this guy Tom Calderon was behind Total Request Live. He's the one that brought that boy band and Britney Spears era to MTV. He later ended up running VH1, where he brought on these reality shows like Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and Flavor of Love with Flavor Flav. I don't know how much of those shows ever also showed up in Canada. Seen as like a cable TV visionary, and it really came down to like

knowing how to do the cheapest programming possible that could turn a profit for his Viacom overlords. Okay, so here this guy who has a background in Buffalo and kept a home there all this time, big Buffalo Bill, season ticket holder. He finds himself at the helm of public broadcasting in Buffalo. I think that's pretty neat that someone who was in the trenches there of doing this uh teeny bopper media in america now ends up uh in charge of innovation to figure out how to bring pbs and npr to new audiences and i think a lot of that has to do historically channel 17 in buffalo had a big canadian audience they would do these pledge drives right and they would get even though canadians are paying their taxes for the cbBC, they would still voluntarily give money to this American TV station to do this kind of programming.

And I think also that continues with NPR, with public radio. I look forward to seeing what they do with this Tom Calderon at the helm. Let's see if this guy who went to University of Buffalo, I think he's close personal friends with the Goo Goo Dolls, if he does anything different as far as public radio in Buffalo is concerned. But it's right there in the name. It's now Buffalo, Toronto Public Media. Okay, we're going to do quick hits on these five topics because, as usual, we have lots to cover on your monthly.

Maybe we should do it weekly. Maybe Pandemic Friday should be monthly, and your appearances should be weekly. I told you, Mike, not to praise me too much. You would run out of time. All right, so Jim Richards, depressed and depressing. Elaborate, sir. Oh, you're reading off my notes there, Mike.

Jim Richards, who has refused to appear as a deep dive guest on Toronto Mike. Politely refused. Yeah, politely refused. Refused nonetheless. He's still one of those... He wasn't comfortable with having the... White whales. Much like yourself.

He doesn't want the spotlight on him and for me to talk about his career and everything. Even though he's one of those guys, yeah, I think because of the Fan 590 stuff. Like Jim, who I've met several times. I've met him various places and we are chummy enough, I'd say. I think he'd be a great FOTM. You don't stay employed for 30 years in Toronto radio without having something to offer.

And he had that history, yeah, doing sports radio. The fan, like, who was seen as, what, the least knowledgeable sports radio guy. He was with Norm Rumack. They had Richards and Rumack, as I recall. And I remember it being very confusing

because there was a Mike Richards there, there was a Jim Richards, and they were both kind of funny. Next least worst thing to putting me on sports radio as far as his literacy was concerned. Everybody faked his way through it and very amusing. And of course, that's where you had his connection with George Strombolopoulos, Jeff Merrick, Game, The Overnight Show, Bob McQuist Jr. also in there,

The Boss's son. I mean, this is where Canadian media history was made. He was at Q107 for a little while, and then ended up with his job, talk radio on CFRB, originally doing late night, and then worked his way into the daytime schedule. Now, when they did those big Bell Media cutbacks, we're talking about here back in the winter of 2021, dark times for everyone under heavy duty lockdown

and people wondering where's Jim Richards? Was he laid off from the station? Is there something more sinister at work by the fact they didn't even announce that he wasn't there anymore? It turned out behind the scenes he was secretly, quietly negotiating, figuring out, coming to terms

with the fact that they offered him a new job and it might have been seen as some sort of demotion that they would be putting him back on overnights. Except in this case, he would be doing more of a nationwide program, whatever that means anymore in these days of digital listening, but the fact that he would be on all these Bell AM radio stations

that were doing talk radio across the country, I mean concentrated in Ontario, but also Montreal, different markets, more exposure for him. And when Jim came back in March of 2021, right out of the gate, he acknowledged that he had a bit of whether he was going to take this overnight job stationed at News Talk 1010 doing what was called the late show gram, which started in March of 2021. Of 2021. From what I can tell listening to Jim, part of the offer and the opportunity here was them saying, okay, we're into this remote style of broadcasting here. It seems to work.

You no longer have to leave your house to do this national overnight radio show. And I've listened to enough of Jim over the past few months to come to the conclusion that this might be a mistake. Like, here you've got the Toronto Mike podcast famously, you're inviting guests to come over in your basement, but you're still playing off the energy of having somebody else here. You've got a guest, you've got a visitor. This is Jim sitting at home, alone, in Leslieville, wondering how he's going to fill the time and get through the night with this overnight radio show.

And I'm hearing a lot of desperation. And while it's morbidly fascinating to tune in for a little bit, I'm starting to feel for the guy. And it's the fact, like, get him back into the radio station. They've got this Bell Media facility downtown, Queen and John, Richmond 250, Richmond, Richmond and Duncan, whatever the intersection is. You've got the glorious 1050 chum blinking sign outside.

This is the atmosphere in which the magic has been historically made. Why aren't you, if you're running a terrestrial radio station, I was giving props before to Bingo Bob Ouellette expecting Stuart Stone to move to Kingston if he wanted to be doing a Kingston radio show. Just because Jim Richards can do the radio show from his house i think i think you're you're hearing you're hearing a radio guy in twilight grasping for for whatever he can't find because because he's not able to harness the energy of being in that radio workplace now i don't know i know i know, you haven't tuned in. You don't even know what I'm talking about as far as listening to this late-night show, Graham.

I mean, they've got on a podcast. You can flip through it the next day. Jim has this guy who's living in New York, David Cooper. He does an hour a night chatting back and forth with him. I think he's a buddy of Strombo's. Based on the clues that they've dropped, he met him through Burning Man, the Burning Man Festival. Sure.

And David Cooper, he's got real smooth delivery. Like this guy could, he was a born broadcaster as far as I'm concerned, but there's no real context to what he's doing there. He's originally from Toronto. He's got a LinkedIn page. He's some kind of computer scientist or engineer, and he's decided to get into radio, and he's filling all this airtime bantering,

bantering back and forth with Jim, trying to start a fire, trying to harness some energy that I don't think is going to happen until you order people back into the studio again. What did the boss say? Bruce Springsteen said, you can't start a fire without a spark.

Jim Richards, get back to work. Or anybody who's interested. I mean, I have News Talk 1010 on all the time. I also hear that despair in John Moore's show and Jerry Eagle. Almost FOTM, John Moore. I think FOTM, Mad Dog, Jay Michaels, I think he actually goes into the station. He actually sits there in the studio. You could see that with Mad Dog, right?

He's like the type of guy who would say, this is where I belong. I'm not myself sitting in my basement doing a radio show. I dreamed of doing this as a job. I'm going to see it through. And I don't know how many pandemic precautions you need. Everybody's vaccinated. You're welcoming guests into your basement. Why can't two vaccinated people do a radio show in the same room?

It might be like an overly cautious thing on the part of Bell. This is another drawback of that corporate media. I'm just saying, you've got to wonder. Look, I was listening to a bit of the 31 Thoughts podcast. Soon to be 32 Thoughts. Is that right? Once they released the Kraken. And 32, did you know that's why they call it 31 Thoughts? I never actually stopped to think about it.

31 NHL teams. Of course. 31 Thoughts. I never thought. I was listening to the final episode of 31 Thoughts before it becomes 32 Thoughts with FOTM Jeff Merrick. Yes. You would probably be surprised that I listen to a hockey podcast.

He knows enough about my sports illiteracy. And Elliot Friedman. FOTM Elliot Friedman. FOTM. He's been in the basement. He's been in the basement so long ago. That's before he started getting creative with his hair and his beard and became the legend as we know him today.

And what, the heir apparent to Ron McClain. Aren't they saying that? Isn't that a given that Elliot with an E? Oh, I don't know. I hadn't heard that. He'll be the main dude when Ron McClain gets canceled for last time. By the way, is this a quick hit? Remember those five quick hits?

Oh, five quick hits. No, okay. So at the end of the 31 Thoughts podcast, they were ruminating over the fact that sports radio is changing. Sure. And the audience habits have shifted and things ain't what they used to be.

And here's Jeff and Elliot, I think, taking a bow for the fact that they invested in podcasts. They convinced their bosses that this was a big thing. Eventually, they were going to get a respectable enough audience, I think bigger than the numbers that are usually tuned into the fan.

And they had a right to feel proud of themselves for what they had managed to build as far as an audience was concerned. And I think, especially from Merrick, I'm very grateful about the fact there are so many podcasts out there. And they've seen that there's a critical

mass of attention who want to listen to 31 Thoughts. There's a lot of sports podcasts out there, but only a rare couple that get promoted during the big Saturday Night Leafs-Habs game on CBC. So, shout out to 31 Thoughts. Soon to be 32 Thoughts.

32 Thoughts. Maybe you'll get Jeff Merrick back here before they change the number. If I tell you the number of times he said he wanted to come back, I'm just tired of that game now. How hard can it be? I don't know. Another FOTM I want to mention is Nicholas Pickless. Was that, did that make the cut?

I cut all the Buffalo stuff, but go ahead, you can do it. I'm going to mention Nicholas Pickless because I loved his appearance on Toronto Mic'd. I thought that was one of the best episodes of 2021. I thought that was one of the Zoom episodes that worked great. Oh, I know, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And he's all around the mix, like he's just

in the mix. And faked his, like he's in the mix. And faked his way into a job at CFNY and turned that into, we're coming up quick on three decades doing morning radio in Buffalo, except for a little detour to Hamilton in Toronto. So Nick the Pickle, Nicholas Pickless, is the last man standing at Kiss 98.5 WKSE in Buffalo. He is the last DJ who works at that

radio station. Do you think there's a lot of Toronto people who tune in Buffalo radio? Because it never even occurred, except for a period of time when I listened to WBU after hear Howard Stern. I never even considered tuning in a Buffalo. Why would I want to hear a station where they talk about Buffalo traffic?

Well, for one thing, if you're listening to music, it's not regular by the CRTC. So you can hear those American hits as repeatedly as you want. I don't want to hear the American hits as repeatedly. Nicholas Peklis in Buffalo, his co-host Janet Snyder, she got married. Some rich guy moved to Boston. He was making more money than her, and she could do her show remotely anyway.

And so here at Kiss 98.5 in Buffalo, owned by the company Audacity, formerly Intercom. They've also gone to this model of syndicated programming. So Nicholas Pickless is the only person, only live human being who does a show from this legendary Buffalo radio station. That's, that's how far they've, they've cut back.

Shout out then to Nicholas Pickless for surviving the radio hunger games and, and going from faking his resume at CFNY to being a Buffalo Radio legend. But because that video on Arcade Top Ten show, everyone knew Nicholas Pickless's name. Hey, before I bring up this jam and we can hear this cover by the New Monkees, Darren and Mo, do you have an update on Darren and Mo? Well, I keep refreshing that page. Darren B. Lamb on CHFI hasn't been there since January.

I think one morning they were off, and it's like the Darren and Mo show, and Mike Cooper will be back from vacation tomorrow morning. Mike Cooper has been filling in for most of 2021. I don't know what's happening there, but Ian the General, we mentioned him last time, long-time morning producer at CHFI. I hope he pays a visit to Toronto Mike. You know what? I've got to make that happen. Absolutely. You know, because Maureen Holloway

is an FOTM. A couple of visits here. And I know, Ian, it comes up quite a bit when I have, for example, Aaron Davis on. They seem to be tight. Another exit interview waiting to happen, but we'll see. The mystery of 98.1 CHFI. That's not Tom Cochran. What am I hearing here?

New Monkeys? What is that? The New Monkeys. Look, somebody has to pay respect to? New Monkeys? The New Monkeys. Look, somebody has to pay respect to the New Monkeys who are mentioned in a memoir by Tom Sharpling, American comedy

podcaster from The Best Show, The Best Show on WFMU, and been doing it on his own. Another podcast called Double Threat with Julie Klausner and a show he worked on called Monk. Tony Shalhoub.

No, I'm familiar with that. He's worked on a few shows and the most recent one, Kevin Can F Himself. Tom Sharpling is the head of the writer's room for that one. So he's doing well. And I thought,

an amusing memoir about counterculture history of how someone went from, I guess, being a depressed teenager to making a career for themselves and having electroshock therapy along the way, where they forgot everything that ever happened in their first 18 years of life. But once Tom Sharpling got himself together and started figuring out what to do as a Gen Xer looking for his place in the pop culture spectrum,

he auditioned to become a member of the New Monkees. Do you remember the New monkeys in 1987? This was after MTV was showing reruns of the monkeys. And much music, because that's where I was watching. There was a reunion of the monkeys without Michael Nesmith in 1986. Yeah, I remember this

monkeys mania. And the people that had the rights to the name the monkeys said, okay, let's have a new monkeyskees, except instead of sounding like, I don't know, Power Pop, whatever, the Monkees were known for making some incredible albums. The new Monkees will sound like Glass Tiger. And there is quite a bit of CanCon connection on this album

because another song on there was written by Eddie Schwartz, a Canadian songwriter, and also this Tom Cochran cover version, Boy Inside the Man, all of which to say no one talked about the New Monkeys at all, even though I remembered. I once bought this cassette from a $1

bargain bin. And over 30 years ago, I got into that jam. Tom Cochran covered by the New Monkees. Boy, inside the man. You hang in there long enough, Mike, live to see the day when something like the New Monkees could be pulled out of the delete bin

and become something discussed through Tom Sharpling. Great book. And the part with the new monkeys was excerpted on a website you might have heard of, rollingstone.com. Needless to say, he didn't get the gig as a member of the new monkeys and their 13 weeks of existence as America's answer to Glass Tiger. Speaking of teen idols, one more thing I wanted to mention,

Jason Priestley. I was going to get there because, uh, as you know, I put together with a great assist from VP of sales, Tyler, I put together the, uh,

the Harold Ballard episode of Toronto Mike, which was well received. People dug it. And it wasn't that long after the, uh, great success of the Harold Ballard episode of Toronto Mic'd, if you haven't heard it, you should check it out, that I learned this piece of news you're going to reference right now.

Jason Priestley has been working on a documentary about Harold Ballard for the CBC. They announced it earlier this year. Did we ever touch on it on one of these episodes? It came up here. It was in the 1236 newsletter. Of course. But a Canadian press article clarified this project. The Jason Priestley documentary will be followed by a movie with actors that they're hoping to make.

So once the Harold Ballard documentary is done, I don't know if they're waiting to see how it's received. But based on this report, a deal has been put together. I'm not sure how this is supposed to work well where then the producers are hoping that they can get actors to reenact the harold ballard story and turn turn it into a major motion picture so not only the Harold Ballard documentary, but in fact, this is foreshadowing Brandon Walsh getting into the Harold Ballard business big time and looking to spend the next year or two obsessed with the legend of the Toronto Maple Leafs owner buried by Jeff Merrick. I hope, yeah, that's right. I hope that maybe Anthony, who's the, Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins would make a good Harold Ballard. What say you? I'm more interested in how you get Jason Priestley

to come to the backyard because no one has paid greater attention to the legacy of Harold Ballard than you. Not even the guy who made Harold Ballard's story out in Lego. Right. Right. And posted it on Twitter and Instagram. Right.

And has put in the work that you, Tyler Campbell, VP of sales, have spent obsessing over the stories that have come up on this podcast about Harold Ballard. Maybe that's my in with Jason. I thought Gare Joyce might be my in. Putting out the smoke signals. You know what? This dude I know who lives in Yorkville. I don't want to be more specific than that.

Okay, that's not very specific. But he said Jason Bresley currently lives in his building. And maybe I can direct the smoke signals in that direction Not very specific. But he said Jason Priestley currently lives in his building. Hmm. And maybe I can direct the smoke signals in that direction or sit on the patio of Pusateri's and have a look out. I feel that this guy who mentioned seeing Priestley, I'm not sure I even knew the guy's name, right? It's like, oh, that guy. From 90210.

Did he even say 90210? Priestly? Because, you know, they canceled. They're going to stop making private parts. Not private parts. That's a Howard Stern movie. Private practice. That's why he lives here, right? Private eyes.

Oh, my gosh. That's private practice. Which he wanted to continue, and he got caught in the undertow of the way they do business at Global and Chorus and all the different funding bodies. And it's like, we have a good show going here people are actually watching it among the viewers that watch like the older demographic to watch primetime tv sure they're uh ask ask uh fotm bill brew it's uh it's ranking high in the canadian ratings and in the canadian tradition uh the show will see soon cease to exist.

But I feel this fellow I know who lives in Jason Priestley's building is maybe a good person to talk to him because I think Jason Priestley would be friendlier to a guy who's like 65, 70 years old who just comes up and talks to him at random because it so rarely happens, right? Like he's dodging all these 50-year-old women who are trying to get a selfie with Brandon from 90210. But if you're like an older guy who absolutely doesn't care that you're talking to Jason Priestley, that he would be more receptive to you.

Is it that you got to play it cool? You got to make it clear that you're not going to barrage him with a bunch of questions about what happened to Brandon and Brenda. But you know I will. Kelly and Donna. I can't lie to the man. Like, yeah, of course I'm going to. It's like, get off black cars already. That's where we're going to go.

Mike, line it up and stand by for like 100 90210 questions from me. Okay. Done deal. Thank you to Great Lakes Brewery. You've cracked one open. Here we are. I am going to go. I'm going to go for a second.

It's one of those days. Okay, wow. That's the Canuck Pale Ale. Canuck Pale Ale. And again, this is the big news. Breaking news. Great Lakes Brewery is going to host TMLX 8 on August 27th, 6 to 9 p.m.

Some details still being ironed out, but I have the official confirmation. They're not even, that patio, by the way, I think it hasn't been open since like 2019. I think the week after TMLX 8, it'll open to the general public, if you will. But FOTMs can collect on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery for, again, for TMLX 8 on August 27. DMs can collect on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery

for TMLX8 on August 27. That will also be the Pandemic Friday finale. And are you going to be there, Mark Weisblatt? I feel like I'm a distraction from the star of the show, Stuart Stone. It will be disappointing to me personally if I don't see that face in the audience on that evening. But we'll talk further closer to the date.

Actually, you won't be back again, I realize, until... Until September. I hope you come. I think it's great. The listeners want to see you. They want to meet you. If not, then some other time. We're doing this podcast on a holiday Monday.

It's terrific. It's beautiful. You're doing this podcast on the holiday Monday. It's terrific. It's beautiful. You're actually going on vacation. People see the podcasting output from TMDS. They figure Toronto Mike is incapable of taking a break. Which might be true. But word on the street is you're going off the grid. Not for too long, but yeah.

I'm taking the kids. At least 75% of my kids have said they're going off the grid. Not for too long, but yeah, I'm taking the kids. At least 75% of my kids have said they're going. Two didn't have a choice. I'm working on the other, but he might have to work. But yeah, I'm going to go camping. So TMLX8 is going to happen, and then I'm off for, I don't know, for a bit. But I want to say thank you here before I forget.

McKay CEO Forums, they've helped to sponsor this show in summer of 2021. Awesome. The highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1200 CEOs, executives and business owners around the world. So I'm talking to all you smarty cats that are listening to Mark Wiseblood here on Toronto Mic Mike. I urge you to listen to the podcast produced by McKay's CEO forums. It's called the CEO Edge Podcast. It's fireside chats with inspiring CEOs and thought leaders. Subscribe, give it a listen.

Let me know what you think. I do post the most recent episodes on torontomike.com so you can find them and get subscription links. But thank you to McKay CEO Forums. Thank you to StickerU.com That's where I get my Toronto Mike stickers and my decals in the

basement studio. And I urge you guys to go to StickerU.com for all your stickers and temporary tattoos and decals and a whole bunch of great stuff. You know, they're in Liberty Village. Great, as you know, it's a great family-run business. Andrew Witkin, his dad drives the bookmobile. He owned the Purple Onion.

It's just a great story. So shout out to StickerU.com. And of course, as we now enter the memorial section of Mark Wiseblood's monthly appearances on Toronto Mic'd, with great respect and great thank you to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Pay tribute without paying a fortune. Learn more at ridleyFuneralHome.com This is the place to start

This is the place to grow Come on and be a part of Ontario This is where we began Here where the free winds blow so many dreams to win in Ontario. And this is our place, Ontario Place. And this is your place, a once in a lifetime, never before place. This is the place to go. This is the land we call our Ontario. Our Ontario.

Dolores Clayman, who died on July 17th at age 94. There we have what might be her third best-known composition, the theme from Ontario Place. In fact, I know it at all. Might have a little to do with Ed Conroy, Retro Ontario, preserving all this pop culture history because I was certainly a patron of the early days of Ontario Place

but I don't know that I remembered the theme song maybe it was it was like it's a small world at Disney World like blaring through the through the aisles as you went from from one provincial propaganda exhibit to another.

It might have served a purpose like that. Of course, in a previous month, we remembered the man behind the movie North of Superior, which was at the Cinesphere. That was also part of the experience of learning about Ontario at Ontario Place. But Dolores Clayman's biggest hit of all was called the Hockey Theme.

The theme song from Hockey Night in Canada, which again, I think it just would have been something that was in the air. You would have never given any thought to the fact that somebody wrote this song, let alone a lady songwriter, until 2004, when Dolores Clayman's name started showing up in headlines because it turned out the CBC broadcaster of Hockey Night in Canada had violated their agreement with the songwriter, Dolores Klayman.

And suddenly, the theme from Hockey Night in Canada was being sold in ringtones, or it was like being licensed for video games, or, I don't know, maybe it was showing up in some of these government comedy shows, 22 Minutes, Air Force, whatever it was, CBC was not playing fair and not abiding by the agreement that they had with Dolores Klayman. And after she and her family raised a fuss about it, initiated legal action. Here you're using my composition without my consent that in 2008, when the license to the hockey theme came to an end,

Dolores Klayman turned around and said, I am willing to sell the rights of this song to the highest bidder. And in such dramatic fashion, CTV owners of TSN trying to move in on that hockey media marketplace, they laid down the big bucks, which made it possible for them to now eternally, $2.5 to $3 million, beating out the CBC's offer,

which was $850,000. They now forever have the rights to what we know as a theme from Hockey Night in Canada. And then the CBC started scrambling. They initiated a contest, write your own replacement hockey theme. night in Canada. And then the CBC started scrambling. They initiated a contest, write your own replacement hockey theme. And I remember then at the time, they were doing the deal where they were asking people to submit their music and sign a form, I don't know, tick a box, terms and conditions that no one actually reads, right?

Like, by submitting this song, you are yielding all rights forever. You know, by entering our contest, we can do whatever we wish. Like, they were showing that if you would come up with a new theme for Hockey Night in Canada, they were going to treat you the same way that they treated Dolores Klayman. You get paid for use of the song, but you couldn't dictate the terms upon which it was used. Mike, you're one that settles in on Saturday night, watching a hockey game.

What have they used in the last 12 years as a theme for Hockey Night in Canada? Some new fanfare composition. You had the guy who does the opening credits. Tim Thompson. Tim Thompson. He did, yeah. Or he did the opening credits.

Back in the day. And he would work with different music, rock songs. That's different, right? Supply to him. That's like the montage that would start the broadcast, and then they would do the theme song over their vignettes of the players or whatever. Okay, but it all just came down to two different things. All of this was just a poor substitute for the fact that they lost the rights

to the song that everybody remembers, right? They were overcompensating by trying to make hockey flashier in different ways. And because the rights ended up in the hands of Bell, when Rodgers signed that deal to take over hockey, they still didn't get the song. It belonged to Bell forever, and whatever hockey coverage they do on TSN is allowed. Allowed to have the theme from Hockey Night in Canada,

the famous theme. And Dolores Klayman got paid. The fact that she died in Spain indicates that she might have been having a nice retirement. The other song, the second most famous Dolores Klayman composition, along with a lot of jingles she wrote, A Place to Stand,

that's the name of the song, A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow, and Terri Eri Eri Oh, that's the name of the song, A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow, and Terri Eri Eri Oh, which debuted at Expo 67 in Montreal, commissioned by Queen's Park, the PC government of John Robarts.

Maybe next time Steve Paikin pays a visit here. He's a big fan of that early history of Ontario. Bill Davis, the goat amongst Ontario premiers, according to Steve Paykin, and the pride in the marketing of Ontario owes a lot to Dolores Klayman, a place to stand, a place to grow. It turns out right after Dolores Clayman's death came the leak of the fact that Ontario Place finally announced plans of what they're going to be doing with all that land.

The original theme park was closed in 2012, and various provincial governments were trying to figure out what do we do with all this space that we have here. And they finally made an announcement about the new redevelopers, which includes a year-round Live Nation concert venue for the Budweiser stage. Does that excite you at all that it will no longer be just an amphitheater for summertime? Yeah, you know, sure. That Toronto will have a big concert venue there year-round?

Sure, yes. They got a spa company from Austria to build a place where you can pamper yourself. That was rumored for quite a while. And in the spirit of the children's village of Ontario Place, there is a Quebec company that's going to be resurrecting that, I guess, for this high-tech era. New places for

your kids to play. Do you have any hopes that this place will be built in time for your children to actually play there at Ontario Place? I'm crossing my fingers, absolutely. I'm glad that I was worried about casinos and giant Ferris wheels and such.

So, yeah, we'll see how it goes. And I look forward to bringing my kids there. And if I can see a winter concert at a cool venue, so long as the tickets were comped to me, I'm all in. You're going to see Blue Rodeo there, having had the keyboardist Blue Rodeo as an FOTM. You're good enough to get on the guest list. Yeah, he told me I could get on the guest list.

I didn't hear the keyboard player from Blue Rodeo giving as much air time as he was on this show. I know that he did say to me that he could put me on the guest list, so maybe I will be there. Absolutely, that's the day after T.M. on stage. Yeah, that's the first rock concert in Toronto, first big rock concert with the Arkells, having done a video with no frills for Loblaws,

showing that they're part of the resistance, the revolution. These guys are really fighting the power. There's Max Kerman of the Arkells, pictured with his Budweiser paraphernalia, getting ready to take over the Budweiser stage. I can see the Arkells. I'd take back, by the way, if I ever said anything nice about the Arkells. I think at one point, I was into what they were doing.

Not so much anymore. I understand they built up enough of a fan base. I can see the Arkells like Blue Rodeo. It would be an Ontario place like Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, where if they've got a year-round concert there, that the Arkells and

Blue Rodeo could hand off to each other every other month, be like a permanent installation down by the lake. At Ontario Place, look, no one could write an Ontario Place theme song like Dolores Clayman. Let's hope this doesn't go the way of the Hockey Night in Canada theme. Where else would you want to hear the song about Ontario Place than at the rejuvenated Ontario Place? I'm going to make a Thank you. Thank you. Where did you just go for the three minutes that we kept that playing? I went to the washroom.

Okay. I'm sorry that we didn't have the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald available. No, this would do. To play for that bathroom break. This is a nice six-minute jam here. This is perfect. Charlie Brown Christmas. Look, Vince Giraldi, Vince Giraldi Trio was the credit on that.

Legendary animated music by the drummer there, who I think is even more memorable, was a guy named Jerry Grinelli who died in Halifax on July 20th at the age of 80. Jerry Grinelli from San Francisco was a big Buddhist, and his Buddhist teacher said, go to Halifax, it's a very spiritual place, get out of America. I don't know, he didn't like Ronald Reagan,

spiritual place, get out of America. I don't know, he didn't like Ronald Reagan. And he would find some sanctuary in the meditative east coast of Canada. So Jared Grinelli, also eligible for your next Pandemic Friday, talking about Canadian east coast musical legends. And the Charlie Baron Christmas even though Jerry Grinelli was in Halifax teaching drums and playing jazz

and touring across Canada it was his live performance of the Charlie Baron Christmas album look he was a real deal he was on the original album so up until 2019 he would tour across canada with the live version of uh charlie brown christmas a documentary about him too and his uh

life in in halifax as this american expat who found sanctuary in Canada. Jared Grinelli, dead at 80, July 20, 2021. The Israeli cabinet has rejected a public inquiry into the Palestinian camp massacres. U.S. Marines are steaming towards Beirut to take up peacekeeping duties. And the Ontario government has introduced a 5% wage restraint program for civil servants. I'll have details at 11. Peter Truman. Coming in hot off that global news update.

Dead July 23rd at age 86. Peter Truman from 1974 until 1988, with a bit of a break, was the correspondent-in-chief of Global News on global television. Mike, do you remember growing up watching Peter Truman? I remember him from promos and stuff on Global. I don't know if I was tuning into his newscasts, but absolutely 100 100%, remember Peter Truman. And this was

Peter Truman bringing the gravitas to what launched as otherwise a rather silly global television network. Now, brought us the first season of SCTV. That goes down in history as a great Canadian contribution.

But global TV in its early years struggled a lot trying to figure out what they were supposed to do after they originally signed on in 1974, they were leaking a lot of money, all their idea of original programming to do like an Ontario-wide version of what Moses Neimer was trying at City TV, do these experimental sort of low-budget television shows.

It's not like City TV was an instant smash either. It just so happened that Global was running out of money even faster. Izzy Asper from Winnipeg stepped in to try and salvage the operation, took increasingly controlling interest of the place due to programming innovations like let's just run a lot of reruns of The Love Boat rather than going through the trouble of producing programming of our own

or trying to compete. And I think by that point, City TV was more established as the hipper television station they had after all the baby blue movie, City Pulse News, and Global was stuck with, I guess, the leftovers as far as Canadian television programming was concerned.

And yet, they had hired this newscaster, Peter Truman, who was very dedicated to integrity. He had been a newspaper reporter at the Montreal Star. He was the executive producer of the National at CBC. They teamed him up with Peter Deborats in Ottawa, and Peter Truman became well-known for his sign-off at the end of every news broadcast. That is not news, but that, too, is reality.

You knew you were dealing with a serious newsman when Peter Truman would close his nightly reading of the teleprompter with words like these. I don't think it came as much surprise in 1988 to learn that Peter Truman had enough of global news. Disgusted with the fact that they were dumbing down the entire operation all around him. And by that point, there he was, 1988, 53, 54 years old,

wanted to see if he could find more intellectual pastures in which to ply his trade, and the sensationalism of commercial television newscasting wasn't going to be for him anymore. In retrospect, it's amazing that one of the outlets that Peter Truman found that was receptive to his idea of intellectual rigor was the Star Week TV Guide magazine with the Toronto Star. Like, this is in the era when you would get,

we've talked about this for so many years, you would get this TV listings with your Toronto Star, and it would be this portal to this entire world that would have like original columnists. I think you've got several FOTMs who were writers in the history of Star Week, or at least they were covered in there over time. Week, or at least they were covered in there over time. Peter Truman found that having his prose in between these listings of what was coming up this week on television, that that was a place that was more credible than doing

newscasts on Global. And he ended up doing that for almost 10 years. There would be the Peter Truman commentary, the Peter Truman media criticism showing up in Star Week. A digression here then, Star Week came up in the news this week because the Toronto Star got complaints. People got their Star Week TV guide in for years now, maybe even over a decade. The TV guide isn't what it used to be.

Not as many people are getting the weekend newspaper in their home. I think you even have to pay a few extra dimes to get this delivered to you. And the Star got a whole bunch of complaints wondering, why is my Star Week TV Guide filled with all these articles cheerleading for Americans at the Olympics. Even the cover of the TV Guide had American Olympians. Like, why are the pronouns talking about the Olympics in America referring to we, our team?

And it even said on the front page of the cover, it said something like, watch on NBC and elsewhere. It was so clearly ripped from an American publication. And there was no attempt at all to Canadianize it or localize it. It was shameful. I'm surprised it got through. I don't know what your thoughts are on that. Yeah, but notice that this was never a problem until they got caught.

But it was so blatant. Now, there's a public editor who was addressing this. But notice that this was never a problem until they got caught. But it was so blatant. Now, like there's a public editor who was addressing this. They got enough complaints, and he's working independently there, addressing complaints to the Toronto Star. But I think, yeah, it went back to something like 2007, that they were no longer having those original writers in Star Week, no longer.

You can get away with it until a moment like this, when they're speaking of America in the Olympics, Star Week, no longer... You can get away with it until a moment like this when there's... This is when they're speaking of America in the Olympics and you're reading that in Canada. Like, this is the moment where that won't fly. And yet, even their excuse for the whole thing was weak.

Because they were essentially saying, like, the articles we write about television are usually fine because people watch the same TV shows on both sides of the border. And you know this is the old bait and switch, just like how initially they got rid of Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. Howell at the Toronto Star, and they figured, okay, we can get the same movies reviewed from a newspaper in Minneapolis, so why not just run that syndicated movie review? It's the same movie, right? It doesn't make a difference.

And I think a little bit of an embarrassment for the Toronto Star, but not so much that they're necessarily going to change it or start recruiting, like the 21st century answer to Peter Truman to start writing media criticism in between the TV listings, the Toronto Star TV Guide. I don't know who would notice it anyhow. And there's a little coincidence then. Just as Star Week columnist Peter Truman died, a shining example of the mediocrity he was railing against,

courtesy of the place that used to publish him. Also, right after Peter died, you had a current global news anchor joining you in the backyard. Farah Nasser, yes. And she brought up the fact that Peter has a child and a grandchild. Is it a son, a grandson? Yeah, I think it's a son and a grandson working there. Apparently working at global news.

It's good that then he didn't discourage him from pursuing a career over there. I don't know, maybe got a little soft in his old age. And he continued to work in broadcasting, producing shows, different documentaries, Canadian specialty channels. a guy who was satisfied that he had his chance to make it to the top of Canadian network broadcasting. And like what he saw there, he realized he could live a lot cheaper on Amherst Island and a community radio station there that he helped start. And he did a Saturday morning radio show on like on like a 10 watt radio station over there. Uh,

and, when he died was living in Kingston, Kingston, Ontario. Well, future home of Stu Stone. Fantastic. How old was Peter?

It worked for Peter Truman. Peter Truman, uh, dead at 86, a good long life, uh, dead on July 23rd. I'm getting pretty bored And I wanna get out

I'm getting pretty angry And it's enough to shout Will I catch a bus Or will I catch a bus? Or would I catch a train? I need an help, baby Cause I'm going insane And I wanna go to New York City Cause they tell me it's the place to be Oh, I want to go to New York City

I just know that it's the place for me Has this song come up on Toronto Mic over the years, New York City by the Demics? Yeah, I think early and often, because it's a personal favorite of mine, and I love that it's like a Canadian punk song. And 1996, Chart Magazine, which at that point was, I think,

the last glossy Canadian music magazine left standing. They had a poll for greatest Canadian song and album of all time. The album at that point was twice removed by Sloan, which was like a few months old at that point. Might have been a bit of an exaggeration. I don't know if it's something they want to revise. But Chart Magazine isn't around anymore, ask anyhow. And New York City was at that point named the greatest Canadian song of all time

in the poll that they did in Chart Magazine. 1996, I think partly because it reflected a, I guess, Toronto punk rock sentiment, which is, I want to go to New York City. Toronto is like New York, without all the stuff. As someone said by... Steve Martin. Steve Martin in episode 30.

130 Rock, that's it. Honoring a drummer from the Demex who died in July, that was J.D. Weatherstone. He also was a drummer for the DEMEX who died in July. That was J.D. Weatherstone. He also was a drummer for the late Handsome Ned. And I figure worth noting because it's unlikely we're going to mention the DEMEX in a memorial section anytime soon because he is the third member of the DEMEX to die. The singer Keith Whitaker, he died in 1996, that year that

they were honored as the greatest single in Canadian history and guitarist Rob Brent died in November 2014 at age 57. That is then drummer

J.E.D. Jimmy Weatherstone, a Canadian music scene stalwart here that we lost in July 18th, 2021, age 63. Thank you. They say the neon lights are bright On Broadway On Broadway They say there's a way Magic in the air You know, people used to deride the kind of music that they played on Queen Street West in Toronto from people who went to the Ontario College of Art.

I think it sounded a lot like that version of On Broadway by George Higdon. But in 1983, this was a sound of the Avant Garde. And this record was put out by Celluloid, which was Avant Garde record label. by Celluloid, which was avant-garde record label Bill Laswell, the producer involved with that label, and a lot of legendary avant-garde records, Art Rock produced over there, and George Higdon was a Toronto artist who got that break. Now, George Higdon died in July 2021 at age 70.

He was also a member of a punk band called The Existers, which means that he would have been definitely a contemporary of the Demics, part of that scene, putting out their 45 punk rock records on the Toronto scene, but then had opportunity to make records of his own, not only there in 1983, but even released an album just a couple of years ago. Now, George Higdon is remembered even more because he started a newspaper,

a monthly magazine that came out in Toronto called Shades. And in the history of Canadian music publishing, this is seen as the greatest chronicler of what was going on in the alt music scene of the day in Toronto, right? Every scene would have needed its own documentation, some journalism to explain what was going on, and you can find on archive.org. George Higdon himself uploaded some of his archives of Shades magazine.

I think FOTM Dave Bedini credits Shades with the first place to ever publish something that he wrote. And the way that these old newspapers were laid out, kind of in that ransom note style like the old cut and paste way of creating a newspaper. Shades Magazine makes for a fascinating document to read about

what was going on on the fringes of Toronto music at the time. And of course, on the fringes, you had a lot of characters who went on to become big business. I mean, Blue Rodeo was originally made up

of guys who were on the Toronto original punk rock scene. George Higdon was there. He saw it all. Dead at 70 in July 2021, like a secret Toronto legend because it wasn't, to me, in my household, he was not a household name. And there's not even a lot on the internet about him, but then you realize that this guy was there, and he made a lot of things happen and i think most of all that you have the archive of this newspaper that he had the idea to put together maybe even before there was a now magazine or nerve uh exclaim uh that uh he got uh he got the ball rolling for that era and documenting it in the pages of Shades. was out and my legs were stiff. He said, hey, there's what you want, a ride? I said, hell yeah. He said, I can't cause my girl's inside. So he jotted off leaving two tracks. Not at

one time did homeboy look back. It took me an hour to get where I was going and to top it all off. It had to start showing. My sneakers was old and my coat was stained, but my determination kept me warm with sin. I had nobody to help me as you can see. I'm alone again naturally. Alone again naturally. So I went into the show and started

So Mike, you might have never heard this song before in your life And yet you could guess exactly what it is Biz Markie trying to write a follow-up To Just a Friend Yeah, that's a one-hit wonder for you Because when I think of another Biz Markie song I go to one of my favorite albums of all time,

which is the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head. And they've got just some Biz Marquis on there, the Biz versus the Nuge, etc. But yeah, this jam here, trying very desperately, I think, to get a second hit. But here's the rub. Alone Again by Biz Marquis from, I think, his second album. Third album.

Yeah, third album. I Need a Haircut was his attempt to follow up that Just a Friend, one-hit wonder status. Before that, there was an album by Biz called Going Off. And it was, I guess, a cult hit in New York hip-hop circles at the time. A song called

Pickin' Boogers. That also set the tone for Biz Marquis' career. He had a song called Nobody Beats the Biz, which was a rip on the riff of the Whiz electronic store commercial. And then with the Biz Never Sleeps, he was associated with Cold Chillin' Warner Brothers Records. And hit pay dirt there with this novelty hit, Just a Friend.

I don't know. What was it about Just a Friend? Do you think this is the days when hip-hop music was supposed to be fun? That it helped have a gimmick like Bismarck-y playing the piano, serenading you in his terrible voice? You got what I need?

I don't know, but it worked, man. That thing came together. But you say he's just a friend. That follow-up then from the I Need a Haircut album I need, I don't know, but it worked, man. That, that thing came together. He's just a friend. that, uh, follow up then from the, I need a haircut album, uh,

alone again, sampled, uh, a song by Gilbert O. Sullivan, uh, alone again, naturally.

And it was still a wild West as far as hip-hop sampling was concerned those early public enemy albums they did not ask permission for layering on all those samples the beastie boys yeah paul's boutique goes down as a classic because there's like a billion samples in there from the dust brothers and they couldn't have afforded even like 10% of these clearances that would have been required to get the record out there. They snuck it out. They made it happen. Well, by the time we got to Bismarck Key taking on a loan again naturally. Not only did the Irish singer Gilbert O'Sullivan,

or at least his lawyers, catch on to the fact that they were using his song without permission, but they filed criminal charges against Biz Marquis. Like, he stole the song, the intellectual property. There was already a precedent in the air because De La Soul got sued by the Turtles. But this Gilbert O'Sullivan, I think by then he was in some form of semi-retirement. like a 70s teen idol, some bad management, and fizzled out in his recording career. There he was saying, look, you stole my song.

You didn't ask any permission at all. And that sent a chill through the entire hip-hop industry. And there was this idea from that point forward, like you're just not allowed to take these songs anymore without permission. I think even 1991, what was the Public Enemy album that they released? Apocalypse 91. The Enemy Strikes Back. And that was a flop because it didn't have that same textured sampling to it that the others did.

Because they were afraid of the lawyers. I mean, there was a chill in the air over the fact that hip-hop could not get away with stealing samples anymore. And that's what happened to Biz Markie. And as far as the idea... Now, I put an album after that, cheekily enough,

the title of the album was All Samples Cleared. That's how notorious he got. But but at the same time this was a style of uh comedy rap just like shock g of the digital underground uh there was a limited shelf life i think for being dj jazzy jeff and fresh prince were this style of rapper yeah you had to pivot. Now, Biz Markie did pivot. He did what? Cartoon Voices in, what was the show? Yo Gabba Gabba? Do I got that right?

That sounds right to me. And, yeah, Yo Gabba Gabba. That was a show on Nick Jr. Also performed as an opening act for Chris Rock, who appreciated a good novelty musician

who could rap pickin' boogers on the stage. Now, we had mentioned the possible passing of Biz Markie in a previous memorial segment because, in fact, he was pronounced dead on Twitter before he was actually deceased in real life uh because he spent uh pretty much the entire pandemic uh in a in a rehab hospital a stroke uh diabetic coma uh it wasn't good so uh july 1st uh on social media, he was pronounced dead, which was not true. But on July 16th, at age 57, we lost one of the greats, Marcel Hall, known professionally as Biz Marquis. marquee. Do you still remember? only what you're hearing Will you

still remember when the morning light has come? Will the songs be playing over and over? Do you do it all over again?

Play, play the game tonight. Can you tell me if it's wrong or right? Is it worth the time? Is it worth the price? Do you see yourself in the white spotlight? Then play the game tonight We're talking about the first day of MTV kind of music. Well, I think this song by Kansas would have been on the first day of MTV.

Here's the thing, it hadn't come out yet. And I remember hearing this song on 1050 Chum in 1982. Play the Game Tonight by Kansas, which is one of the great corporate rock songs. And I, Mike, if I didn't have these 1236 podcast episodes, I could not bask in the fact that not only am I up on the new single by the Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, but I have been paying attention to this stuff for long enough that I heard

this Kansas song the first time it was on the radio. Wow. Play the game tonight. And you can tell this song has got some power, right? It could have been the theme song for a wrestler entering the arena. Definitely like an 80s film. This could be maybe played over the montage

or the big final fight or battle. For sure. It sounds like it would belong there. Now crank it up here because we're getting to the part that relates to the guy who died. The Guy Who Died. Robbie Steinhardt. Robbie Steinhardt was a violin player in Kansas. See, every band needed a gimmick.

And for Kansas, with Dust in the Wind and Carry On, My Wayward Son. You've heard those songs enough on classic rock radio stations. See, those songs get a lot more spins than this one in this day and age anyway. Point of No Return. Do you know that one where no is spelled K-N-O-W in prog rock circles. That was pretty clever. If I heard it, I'd let you know. It's like all those April Wine songs I had heard all these years,

and then it wasn't until I didn't realize they were April Wine. Just like Chicago's gimmick was a rock band with the horns, Kansas was all about the violin, horns. Kansas was all about the violin, and the violinist and singer Robbie Steinhardt died on July 17th at age 71. I don't think there was much of a Kansas without the violin, but at one point, Kansas did carry on without the violins, and their last hit in 1986, it was a power ballad, All I Wanted, and Robbie Steinhardt was not in the band, but the classic rock circuit came calling. How could you have Kansas, even though they were down from two lead singers to one?

This would not have worked without having the violin player around, especially on a song like Dust in the Wind. And that is the story of Kansas, and that's the story of somebody that we lost here in July. of somebody that we lost here in July. And a tune I remember hearing on the radio, Play the Game Tonight by Kansas. Yeah! I've been up, I've been down, take my word, my way round. I ain't asking for much.

I said, Lord, take me downtown, I'm just looking for some touch. I've been bad, I've been good That was Texas, Hollywood I ain't askin' for much I said, Lord, take me downtown I'm just lookin' for some touch guitar solo Take me back, way back home Not by myself, not alone. I ain't asking for much. I said, Lord, take me downtown.

I'm just looking for some touch. Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, I think, is going down in July 2021 as the biggest dead newsmaker out there. The tributes to Dusty Hill and the contributions that he made as the bassist for ZZ Top reminded people just how legendary this act from Texas was. I mean, you only find out sometimes how many people care about a certain celebrity when they die. And I think as a result of how he died as a bassist of ZZ Top, we'll end up making them more popular than ever. Because there, the trio is waiting out the pandemic. They had a whole 50th anniversary tour that was planned.

And Dusty Hill, who'd gone through some health challenges, is champing at the bit to hit the road again with Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons and do the ZZ Top thing on the stage like everybody remembered. Three shows in, back on the road. Dusty Hill was having a hard time standing, making it to the end of the show. Dusty Hill was having a hard time standing, making it to the end of the show. It seemed like he was going through something, as far as his health was concerned. And he anointed the guitar tech for ZZ Top, who'd worked with them for 30 years, a guy named Elwood Francis, who had been growing his beard during the 16, 17 months of the pandemic.

Coincidentally, at least claiming that he wasn't going to cut the grass, that he was going to grow his beard in solidarity with his buddies in ZZ Top. Well, it came to good use when they needed him as a last-minute replacement for the stage when Dusty Hill ended up in the hospital. Now, according to Billy Gibbons, while Dusty Hill was lying there slipping away, his last will and testament was give the bottom end to Elwood. I want you guys to carry on, get back on stage. I don't want you to miss a gig. And Elwood is waiting in the wings to take over as the bassist. I think the level of attention this story received,

just by the amount of deep diving that I got into through the catalog and the history of ZZ Top, now I want to see ZZ Top in concert. Like, it turns out, I think, that Dusty Hill gave them the greatest promotion that they could ever receive because we took them for granted. Like, here's this blues band that had, I guess, a modestly successful career out of Houston in the 1970s. It turned out that they went on a little hiatus there at the end of the decade.

And it was Billy Gibbons who caught on to the whole punk and new wave synth pop happening from England. In fact, claimed that Depeche Mode was the inspiration for ZZ Top getting more into electronics. And when they came back on the scene in the early 80s, the first album that ZZ Top released in that new incarnation with Billy Gibbons growing out his beard to match Dusty Hill. This is important here in the history of ZZ Top, right? Dusty Hill was the guy who had the beard first. And if it wasn't for wearing the beard and the sunglasses and the hat, I think Billy Gibbons looked more like Bob Odenkirk, like just sort of like a lanky, goofy guy

without having that signature style of the two guys from ZZ Top having that matching look together. That first album that they put out was DeGulo, 1979. I think I'm pronouncing that right. And that's when ZZ Top was played on 1050 Chum. Earlier in the year in a memorial segment, we talked about ZZ Top in regard to Dick Smythe, legendary newscaster,

introducing on 1050 Chum on the radio, handed a piece of paper with the song that he had to cue up coming out of his newscast here's the latest song from 22 top right right and uh that's i think how i i knew that uh zz top uh were a band uh worth worth paying attention to uh as they uh were refining this sound with a lot more synthesizers now the zz top we all know is the one of the album eliminator worth paying attention to as they were refining this sound with a lot more synthesizers. Now, the ZZ Top we all know is the one of the album Eliminator, 1983.

Give Me All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man, Legs. Follow-up was Afterburner, Sleeping Bag. Remember that song? And a ballad called Rough Boy. It was a song that they had before that they rewrote. Velcro, Fly. That was their ZZ Top single. They did a theme song for Back to the Future Part 3.

Yeah, the cowboy one. Yeah, 3. 2? Yeah, 3. Cowboy 1. Yeah, Back to the Future Part 3. Yeah, the Wild West one. Back to the Future 2 and 3 were shot at the same time. Yeah, three. Cowboy 1. Yeah, Back to the Future Part 3. Yeah, yeah, the Wild West one. Back to the Future 2 and 3 were shot at the same time.

Right, right. But released some time apart. Hey, can I give a shout out to the Dazed and Confused soundtrack? Because I owned it. It introduced me to a lot of cool shit, including Tush. Well, that was Dusty Hill's signature song. Right. That was the one that he would take the lead vocals on.

Now, when ZZ Top got to the 90s, I think the grunge rapture did a number on them. They were seen as a little bit passe, and yet they still signed a big record contract with RCA Records, and I don't know that they really knew what to do with them. How the ZZ Top sound fit into the 1990s was kind of unclear, but it didn't matter. They got to bank away many millions of dollars,

and Clive Davis, the record impresario, was trying to figure out what to do with them and had the idea that you could team up ZZ Top with younger artists like you did for Carlos Santana. Oh, yeah. And this was in the works. There was even an announcement that ZZ Top was going to be making their comeback record.

And it would have like ZZ Top with Wilco and ZZ Top with Pink and ZZ Top with Dave Matthews. I don't know, ZZ Top with whoever would do a duet with them. And they ended up shelving that. And I think they just went on the casino circuit for all these years and grinding out the hits. They certainly had enough of them. And ZZ Top, I guess, adding to the intrigue by not missing a beat. They're going to take a night off because there's a Dusty Hill memorial service

that they're obviously going to attend. But no plans to leave the road in the wishes of Dusty Hill, giving the bottom end to Elwood. Everybody needs a little place to get high Somewhere to call their own, don't let nobody inside Every now and then when I'm due to let go For some it's a doctor, for me it's rock and roll For some it's a bottle, for some it's a pill Some people wait to buy because it's given and fulfilled I must point the finger if they don't like what they see

If you live in a blessed house, don't be throwing rocks at me We all need a little shelter Just a little helper to get us by We all need A little shelter Just a little helper Ooh, and it'll be alright I think this song was as good as it got for Cinderella. Can you name any other Cinderella songs? This was their third album

with Shelter Me. They were trying to tone down the glam rock. A sound that was a little more of a parallel with the Black Crows by 1990. Working their way out of the hair metal scene. What songs do you remember from Cinderella? For sure, Bad Seamstress Blues. I liked very much, actually, and Don't Know

What You Got. There was a few big hits, and there's another one I'm missing. I think it was from Long Cold Winter. Here, I'm going to cheat a little bit. Oh, so incredibly shrill. Now, I saw Cinderella live in concert at the C&A Grand Stand. Wow. The reason I was there, I got in the guest list

for White Lion, which was the band that I was more interested in, but stuck around, watch and laugh at Cinderella. And that, during that tour, the Long Cold Winter Tour, one of the great excesses of hair metal,

I think it's even in that oral history book, came out earlier this year. A hollowed-out piano descended from the rafters on which Tom Kiefer was pretending to play as he descended upon the stage with a power ballad, Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone. This wasn't your cup of tea, but I definitely remember me and my buddy Joe banging our heads to Gypsy Road.

That was the big jam, as I recall. Gypsy Road. I had to cheat to remember the title, but I could sing it for you if you like. Can you do it in the voice? The Tom Kiefer voice? My gypsy road can't take me home. No. The answer is no. Okay. Tom

Kiefer is a guitar playing sidekick. A guy named Jeff Labar. They found him dead at age 58. That news that was reported on July 15th. And Cinderella no longer around.

The band called it quits after, once again, victims of the grunge rapture, although they kept going for a while. I mean, look, I think their marketing was different. It was, I mean, the band was called Cinderella. Yeah. I guess they were maybe looking to get to something with a more masculine fan base

who would be willing to accept a band with that name. But at the same time, they had high style, right? They wore big boots, a lot of hairspray in the air. That Poison Motley Crue kind of scene there. I thought, you know, there were a handful of songs by this band, Cinderella, that I quite like, and I urge people to listen to Bad Seamstress Blues. I actually really dug that jam,

and I listened to it when this guy died, and I still dig it, so there you go. But you know what happens? Their third album is called Heartbreak Station, so they were trying to show like they were getting serious now, down to their blues roots. Not that they necessarily had any to begin with. And one of those music videos that had a whole bunch of celebrities in it,

which was a way to try to get on mtv now with cinderella okay we had something i don't think has ever happened before and i think it is worth mentioning here in the in the ridley funeral home obituary segment which was the announcement of two members of the same band dying on the same day do you think that's ever happened before not Not in a plane crash or anything where they were together? Sure, that would be different. I do not think that's happened before.

At least not with a popular band people know. Okay, but the other guy who died was not an official member of Cinderella, but a long-time touring keyboardist who was also a co-writer of a song that we all know. New pages of a blue boy magazine I've been thinking of a new translation I don't know, I don't know

Could that be true? Do I wanna go out with the lion's roar? Yeah, I wanna go south in the snow Hey, they say that a statue turns to snow And the super star will all go blind A Gary Corbett, the keyboard player who co-wrote She Bop by Cyndi Lauper. I'm just assuming there, Mike, that anyone who gets to this point in an episode of Toronto Mike is familiar with this song. I don't know. Like your wife, Monica,

who is famous for seven years. She would not know Shebop? She would know Girls Just Wanna Have... I could tell you the three songs she would probably know. Time After Time, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and maybe I Drove All Night?

That would be it, though. True Colors by Cindy Lauper? Oh, yeah, she might know True Colors, but she would not know Shebop, which this is about masturbation, right? Because I was told that as a young person. The PMRC, Parental Music Resource Center, hit list, Filthy 15.

Clever song about Cindy Lauper enjoying the pages of Blue Boy Magazine. I don't think too many tweenagers had heard of Blue Boy before it appeared in the lyrics to this song, but that was like the gay porn version of

Playgirl, to catch my drift. Gary Corbett, I don't know if he was involved with the lyrics, but he was a pioneer as far as synthesized music was concerned, and you could imagine that whatever his contribution was in the co-writing there was significant. But he was also a keyboardist who first worked with KISS on the album Crazy Nights and the resulting tour Anyhow.

He was on stage hiding behind a curtain playing keyboards for Kiss. It wasn't very masculine to have the keyboardist up on the stage on the side with the heavy metal band. But there he was. Later on he joined Cinderella

and he was stalwart of the Cinderella stage act, I guess. So the singer of Cinderella would no longer have to pretend to play the piano descending from the ceiling that Cinderella would have a touring keyboardist from there. Gary Corbett, who died on the same week as Jeff LaBar of Cinderella. But even though it was reported in the same 24-hour period, I don't think it was the same day. Nonetheless, a very strange coincidence

in which no one gave much thought to Cinderella until you found out that two of the dudes involved with the band died somewhere around the same time. Rest in peace, Gary Corbett. Thank you. I'm a fighter My fish is my game I'm a fighter Oh, fish without a. I'm a fighter. Oh, fish without a name.

I'm a fighter. And I'm just pulling ground. I'm a fighter. And I'm never going down. I was walking. Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff. Dead at 71 on July 12th. Mike, I don't know if you're surprised that I'm relatively literate

in the ways of the 1980s World Wrestling Federation. I mean, I think whatever attention I paid to this stuff stuck with me more than anything else in sports. More of the point, sports entertainment. Right. Which is what Paul Orndorff was in the business of. But Mr. Wonderful famously fighting against Hulk Hogan. Was that generally they were pitted against one another as mortal enemies in the WWE?

The big matchup at the main event with me and whatever it was, 65,000 fans at C&E Stadium in Toronto. That was the big event. The main event, if you will. Now, around that time, it did become difficult to keep track of who was a heel and what's the who was a heel and who was, what's the opposite of a heel? I don't

know, but I know Hulk Hogan at that time was still the good guy. The, you know, take your vitamins, say your prayers, good guy. So anyone who went against him, like Orndorff, would have been the bad guy. Babyface! Babyface. I don't know.

Do I look like Cam Gordon? You talk about wrestling on Pandemic Friday 40% of every episode. I would think by now you could take the lead in remembering Mr. Wonderful. And there, one of his theme songs by Van Zandt. Speaking of bands that had multiple members die at the same time out of the ashes of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Right. And this song came out of the Van Zant brothers, one of whom died in that plane crash,

doing some rock and wrestling with I'm a Fighter. Well, we did just place Cyndi Lauper, who is the queen of rock and wrestling. Was that on purpose? Are you playing chess while I'm over here playing checkers? Well, it might be organized that way, but by the time we got to the end of an episode, I can't remember what I was thinking anymore, Mike. But look, Paul Orndorff,

Mr. Wonderful, but I think was it one of his kids who did bring up in announcing his death, like here was another guy who might have lived a longer life if his job didn't entail getting slammed in the head

for all those years. I mean, this is a matter of some concern there in the dark side of the ring. The fact these wrestlers turn out not to have very long lifespans and really struggle at the end. You know when you get that news that that wrestler you enjoyed in the 80s actually died at an old age, I don't know, 80-something, and you're thinking, yeah, that sounds amazing. But more often than not,

these guys are dying far younger than that. It's definitely not good for you. CTE is what his dementia was blamed on by his son and suffering from that dementia in his later years, he was part of a class action lawsuit. Wrestlers who were filing suit against WWE. Like, look, I mean, a lot of workplace injuries for which they were not fairly compensated. But in his glory, when you saw him enter the squared circle at Exhibition Stadium. What was it?

CNE, August 1987? That sounds right. It's either 86 or 87. You would have seen Mr. Wonderful in his prime. He was among the wrestlers who then took issue with Mr. McMahon. He left for the WCW, kind of reunited with most of the WWF celebrities over there. But again, his health issues, CTE, whatever he was dealing with, ended up being diagnosed with cancer. The end of Mr. Wonderful's career came in the year 2000,

and 21 years later. R.I.P. Paul Orndorff, Mr. Wonderful. We'll be right back. Every time that you get a call at night to tell us what's up to us, we've had it up to here, and we don't want it from you. The hometown folks are so ashamed they put us in exile. Nine months of hard labor, like working on the rock pile. With rules and regulations, man, we're never dealing with this. Okay, some pretty obscure new wave there from a band called Blow Up, signed to Capitol Records. But here's the relevance.

Somebody died. Robert Downey Sr. I don't know that Robert Downey Sr.'s death would have gotten as much attention if there was not a Robert Downey Jr. movie director and made a classic film 1969 called Putney Swope, which I think has resonance to this day. It's kind of like a commentary about woke capital gone awry, like what happens when you are running a corporation and then let the wokesters take over. He made a movie about it over 50 years ago.

What was supposed to be his big studio film and opportunity after being on the fringes, a film called Up the Academy, which started off as a joke. It was going to be sponsored by Mad Magazine. Mad Magazine's Up the Academy. I remember seeing ads for this. Desperately wanted to see it. I think it was restricted. There was no way

I was getting into a movie theater. But the original idea was Mad wanted to do their answer to National Lampoon's Animal House. And they were going to put in the marketing for the movie, Mad Magazine does not endorse this movie Up the Academy. And the movie studio, Warner Brothers, changed it around and said,

You can't say that. We're going to say this is the Mad Magazine movie. And Bill Gaines, the publisher of Mad, felt this was so embarrassing and the movie was so terrible, embarrassing and the movie was so terrible they ended up paying uh the movie studio money to take away the mad magazine branding on up the academy uh and this uh low rent uh answer to animal house teen raunch comedy was kind of the end of uh robert downey senior trying to be a mainstream filmmaker but still hung around Hollywood as a director, did a little bit of acting, and then, of course, his son, Robert Downey Jr., mourning his dad, Robert Sr.,

dead at 85 on July 7, 2021. I need a Vegematic I need a pocket fisherman I need a handy appliance That'll scramble an egg While it's still inside its shell. Operators are standing by. How does that make you feel? Help me!

Mr. Popeil! Okay, you know it's a good Ridley Funeral Home obituary segment when we can work some weird Al in there, huh? Ridley Funeral Home Obituary Segment when we can work some Weird Al in there, huh? And Mr. Popeil is not the guy who died in July 2021, but the Mr. Popeil of the Weird Al song, Help Me, Mr. Popeil, was actually Ron Popeil's father, Sam Popeil.

And he was the inventor of the Tropomatic and the Vegematic. Oh, these are two different guys. Well, Ron Popeil, I mean, the song is about Mr. Popeil because the son took over the father's business at Ronco and continued to sell the product, the innovations of his father. Now, joining the chop-o-matic and the veg-o-matic was Ron Popeil's own idea of innovations along with the development of TV infomercials. And there was Ron Popeil who was primarily selling the food dehydrator and a product called GLH. Ron Popeil, who was primarily selling the food dehydrator,

and a product called GLH, where you could spray paint your bald spot, and based on the claims they made on this infomercial, you could get away with tricking everyone into thinking you had a head of great-looking hair. And I don't think anyone was really fooled by that. Remember the GLH infomercials? It was Ron Popeil who was a friendly face, and he was the one that popularized the phrase,

but wait, there's more. Ron Popeil, dead at 86 on July 28th. Hey, I'm no match for you, baby. You like making it rough on me, don't you? My, my, my. Back to the shack. Oh, yeah. Nothing seems to be better than that. If time has taught me anything,

got to learn to be the boss. And I can't keep from laughing at it all. Oh, I'm going out. I'm going all the way. Settle in and and gonna love somebody Don't care how long it takes Like a shot to the heart I got moves for you

I may not look so smart But I'm nobody's fool Micah, if nothing else, this episode I think is going down as our best one yet when it comes to 80s corporate rock jams dropping into the show. What do you think? Like Nobody's Fool by Kenny Loggins, a theme from Caddyshack 2, which starred the late, great Jackie Mason in one of the attempts to try and turn him into a corporate Hollywood movie star. try and turn him into a corporate Hollywood movie star, thinking at the time that he could follow the trajectory of Rodney Dangerfield, who was also like a borscht belt comedian who ended up on the blacklist for being a little bit difficult in the case of Jackie Mason.

It was Ed Sullivan claiming that he gave him the finger on live television, which ended up with a court case where Ed Sullivan apologized that, in fact, it was just Jackie Mason gesturing to the fact that his act was being cut short and it wasn't the middle finger per se that he raised on television. Nonetheless, he was seen as an impossible guy through much of the 60s and 70s, even into the 80s, even though he had enough connections in comedy. People like Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, they saw him as a legend. They gave him little opportunities here and there. But it was on Broadway that Jackie Mason became a legend by doing his one-man show. His first one called The World According to Me. And part of the success of Jackie Mason was the fact that he would do these Broadway shows at night.

And he would stand outside the theater during the day, like hawking his own tickets. And you could meet Jackie Mason, get an autograph, I don't know, some kind of primitive, prehistoric version of a selfie. The Jackie Mason was going out there, old school, meeting one fan at a time, making friends, and making a comeback as a comedian. But Caddyshack 2 went down in history as one of the great cinematic embarrassments. Try and capitalize on the home video legend of Caddyshack.

And Rodney Dangerfield thought the script sucked, so they called in Jackie Mason. Later on, a sitcom that they tried to do called Chicken Soup in the late 80s with Jackie Mason and Lynn Redgrave. But I think in the world of FOTMs, we remember Jackie Mason the most for Rabbi Herschel Krustofsky on The Simpsons. Jackie Mason, dead at 93

so he did pretty good in the end on July 24th 2021 are we down to one more are we almost out of here here is once again a theme song something that rings emotional from my childhood to remember the oldest guy to die in July. three. Here's the wizard as you can see. He'll fix that one, two, three.

In the funny place called the world of Oz. Oh, the world of Oz is a very funny place where everyone wears a funny, funny face. All the streets are paved with gold. And no one ever grows old. In that funny land lives the wizard

of Oz. Alfie Skopp made it to 101 when he died on July 24th in Toronto. So here we have after Paul Soles, the second consecutive death related to a group of, I guess, cartoon voice veterans who were associated with the 1964 production Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And this was also a clique that was behind that. Tales of the Wizard of Oz cartoon.

So Alfie Skopp had a history of working at the CBC in the first decade. Mentioned in his obit, he was the best man at two weddings involving Robert Goulet. That was his BFF. And he was part of that pioneering entertainment scene. He was an early architect of the show Front Page Challenge. And Norman Jewison gave him a role in Fiddler on the Roof and some other really obscure TVO series that Retro Ontario,

leave it to him that he knew about this show that Alfie Skopp did somewhere around 1976. But you know what? I related most of all, yeah, Mr. Bean was a character, 2 plus U on TV Ontario. But I think of the Wizard of Oz, which had the Tin Man, the Lion, and the Scarecrow. And as a kid watching this CanCon cartoon, because there was nothing else to watch, remember this?

When you'd wake up at 6 a.m. on a weekend morning. Well, if Hercules wasn't on, we had to watch this. Here was a show from the early 60s, but even by the mid-70s, I mean, it seemed like it was from a whole different time. But you had to watch it because there was nothing else on. Cartoon Playhouse on CFTO Channel 9. And from when they took the Wizard of Oz cartoon and made an NBC primetime special out of it, here is, best as I can tell, because he did the voice, speaking voice

of the character, Alfie Skopp as a scarecrow born without a brain, singing a song about what it was like to be him. Rusty, look! Hi. Socrates Strawman, what are you doing up on that pool? A genius like you. Aw, don't scold me, Dorothy. I'm sorry, Sock. I'm really glad to see you.

You know that, don't you? I don't know anything. My thinker was a clinker. Oh, well, we'll just get you a new one, that's all. A new one? Where? Brains don't grow on trees, you know. Oh, you can't buy a brain like you can potatoes or tomatoes. It can't be found. Oh, you can't find a brain In the neighborhood grocery No no no siree

It can't be found You gotta have one When you're born Or else you'll go Through life forlorn You'll be like me Most assuredly A silly willy nillynilly, billy guy

Now, brains don't grow on a tree like a peach does And that is because they might fall down You won't find a brain in a candy bar In a railroad car One can be found You gotta have one when you're born. Or else you'll go through life forlorn. You'll be like me, most assuredly.

Silly, willy, nilly, billy guy. Oh, you can't make a brain in a laboratory. That's too gory It's just not right You can't build a brain With wood and hammer Too much clamor It's just not right You gotta have one when you're born

Or else you'll go through life forlorn you'll be like me most assuredly a silly willy billy billy tilly billy billy bye Elfie Skop

Socrates the Scarecrow. And that's it for the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment. And maybe the longest episode, 1236 on Toronto Mic'd. And thankfully he's not dead, so he's not part of the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment. But I just want to recognize that during this recording, this lengthy recording, I learned that Kyle Lowry, I'd say

the most popular of the Toronto Raptors, who delivered us a championship in 2019, he has signed with the Miami Heat. He's leaving the Raptors. And I'm processing that. I'm processing that right now.

But again, when he does return to the Scotiabank Arena, I suspect the cheers will blow the roof off that building. Breaking news that is at least 90 minutes old because I'm banking on the fact that half the people out there listen to me on double speed. And we got through it. Toronto Mike, a great visit to the TMDS backyard, covering it all here for July 2021. And that brings us to the end of our 894th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Mark Weisblot is at 1236. That's 1-2-3-6. And you should subscribe to his awesome weekday news burrito email newsletter that he sends out at 1236 p.m. every day. Go to 1236.ca and get on that list. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. McKay's CEO Forums are at McKay's CEO Forums.

Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike, he's not on Twitter. He's on Instagram at MajeskiGroupHomes. I'd say see you next week like I do every time, but I just want

to let the listenership know I've got Michael Landsberg in the AM tomorrow and the CBC's Tom Harrington here in the backyard in the PM. I better get out of here. It's tomorrow already. Yeah, the wind is cold with the smell of snow.

It won't stay today. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine. And it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.