Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - 30 Years of 680 News: Toronto Mike'd #1312

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

In this 1312th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Scott Metcalfe, Mike Eppel, Richard Southern and Peter Gross as they discuss 30 years of 680 News a.k.a. CityNews 680. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1312 of Toronto Mic'd. 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. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

Getting hip to the hip. An evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund on September 1st. Save 10% with the promo code FOTM10. And Pumpkins After Dark. Use the promo code TOMIKE15

and save 15% this month at PumpkinsAfterDark.com. And last but not least redley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921 today celebrating 30 years of 680 news now city news 680 is scott meckhaff mike epple hello and richard southern hello Mike. Welcome, all three of you. Thank you. Good to have you all back. You've all been here one time before,

so this is the second appearance for all three of you. Yes. You have more ads than City News 680. I'm very impressed. We need to hire you. The sales team needs to hire you. I don't bill as much as 680, though. That's where I need some help here.

Send me all the 680 News sales representatives and I want to talk to them. Well, I've got my ticket to the Get Hip with the Hip event. So you'll be there. That's the plan. This is how I'm going to sell it from now on. See Mike Epple in the flesh. Before

we go any further, it needs to be said, if you don't already know this, that Mike Epple is, and I say this truthfully, he's your biggest fan, Toronto Mike. Is that true, Mike? I do take some, I will take that credit, yes. He talks about you all the time when I talk to Mike, and he

listens to every single episode. I want to reach over and kiss him on the forehead right now. I'm sweating because I walked from the Mimico Go Station. Good for you. I'm used to walking the dogs, walking on the golf course. Was that a long, do you know, like, what is that? 30 minutes. Is that like 6K?

What is that? No, it's no, it's just over 2K. That's it? No. Yeah, that's what it said on the Googler. Okay, I trust the Googler. Yeah, I would have taken my bike on the GO train, but I had that stolen recently. And was it stolen?

I'm coming public to this. Okay, Mike, Mike even obtained video there's a lot here i do so you have video of someone stealing your bike i do but i asked you earlier so i know the answer yes did you lock your bike no the metro i was trusting see i was a trusting individual provincial parks you can do that okay you don't look foolish but in the real world random thursday night went in for five minutes to just pick up a couple of things came out bike gone went and checked on the and this is whitby michael i know what is going on this doesn't surprise me you need to throw at least some kind of lock on it i should

have yeah i should have i just didn't i didn't even think about it scott are you surprised that mike apple got his bike stolen outside of Metro when he didn't even lock it? Let's hear the voice of reason. Scott Metcalf, everybody. The randomness of it. That a person... I have the entire incident on video from the surveillance cams, for goodness sakes. And I know I'm immediately off topic of what we're here to talk about, but...

It's just the backstory of how I got here. I know, right? It's like... Why not tweet the video? No, I'm not doing that. I'm going... I know... You don't want vigilante justice. Well, I got here. I know, right? It's like, why not tweet the video? No, I'm not doing that. I'm going. I know. I don't want vigilante justice.

Well, I am Batman. You're Batman. You're Epman. Yes. Thank you. Did you see Bojana by any chance before? No. Okay.

We got to rectify that because Bojana is your biggest fan. So I think just to recover here. So yes, you're my biggest fan. Sure. Bojana is your biggest fan sure uh bojan is your biggest fan and i am richard southern's biggest fan there you go it's a full circle thank you scott are you there i just want to make sure i haven't i used to work at the fan but i don't think i have anybody's a fan of mine i'm a big fan of scott yeah we're both so i'm a big fan of

scott look before this gets away from us, lots going on here, I will just recognize that I am a big Scott Metcalf fan because in many episodes when there is a reference to the fan sports radio 1430 before it moved to 590, I whip out this binder and I wave it like this

and this will mean nothing to the listenership because they can't see it. But I love this fan 590 Sports Radio binder that was gifted to me by Scott Metcalf on episode 1106. And here's what I wrote at the time, because I just want people to know

there's deep dives of all three of these gentlemen. This episode is going to be a little more about 680. But this Scott Metcalf debut was, what did I write? Mike was joined by 45-year radio veteran. Let's do the math on that, guys. Scott Metcalf, as they discuss his recent retirement from 680 News, because that's what it was called back then,

and the 30-year history of CJCL, the fan 1430 slash 590. We talked for almost two hours. You brought all these great clips, Scott. And it's just a thorough history of CJCL as a all-sports radio station. That was one of your better episodes, really. I enjoyed that. That was one of my better episodes.

Absolutely. It was your best. That was Scott's best appearance. Hey, I have some more stuff. Do you want to get that? Oh my God, yes, please. Scott has a bag full of swag here. I expect that from all my guests. It's not big. Anyway.

You should all take a note from Scott Metcalf. Bring me gifts. In here is a 680 News mic flash for Mike. Wow. Very, very nice. You can't buy those anymore. No, you cannot. Can you still hear me?

Turn it so that the, well, no. I'll use it later. But thank, this is going to be on permanent display in the TMJ studio. Thank you very much, Scott. And also, because you're a bike rider, we had these. Now, whenever they change logos or change names, this stuff, they just, you know, set aside. But those are for bike riders. They're reflective.

Oh, and then, you know what they do, I think? They'll go around your leg. Right, because your pants, your leg of your pants will get caught in the chain, and you need to kind of contain that. Thank you very much, Scott Mechoff. What did you guys bring me? Oh, there's more.

And this is from Richard and Mike. It's a pen. 680 pen. You know, I used to get pens from Woodbine Racetrack whenever Peter Gross would visit me. He would visit me for Down the Stretch before the pandemic, before we changed how we do things around here. And

I have like a bunch of pens you get at the racetrack, but none as fine as this 680 news pen. Thank you very much, Scott Metcalf. And thank you, Richard and Mike. And I appreciate it. Okay, so that's Scott's episode 1,106. But if you go back to episode 890, Mike chats with 680 News and breakfast television business reporter, Mike Apple, about Tilsonburg. And my back still aches when I hear that word.

Working day one at the Fan 1430 and day three at 680 News. Yeah, both there for both launches. Format changes. But day three, you missed a couple of days. I was in the building. Okay. Yeah. When you play, as I expect you would, the initial

sound of the initial sign on of 680 News. We built this city. Well, there's that. That song. Yeah, I was there. I don't exactly remember why I didn't start until day two or three, actually. It is such a distant memory.

But you're early. I was in the building. I remember being there. We're not even done this description here, okay, because we talked about your Toronto-miked mug. That was a clue you were a big fan. We talked about Peter Gross, because you and Peter Gross are good friends. Yes. We talked about Dick

Smythe, who's not the father of Stephanie Smythe. As you explained yesterday in your Paul Cook and Stephanie Smythe episode. People still think that's true. They still think that. And we always correct those people. And you were great, and we did that in the backyard. Yes, that's right. So Scott was in the basement.

You were in the backyard. Okay, go back to everybody. This is an order. Go back to episode 724. Mike chats with Richard Southern about his career at 680 News. When did you join 680 News, Richard? 07, 16 years ago. Scott Metcalf hired me.

He doesn't remember. He's not perfect. He did a lot of stuff. One of the best. One of the best hires ever. So Scott hired me at the fan. You hired me at the he's not perfect he did a lot of he did a lot of stuff one of the best hires ever so scott hired me at the fan you hired me at the fan right okay that's a continuing thread here so scott's a day one-er and you're you're what's when are you at 680 uh scott like for day one or what's your 10 years late 10 years in okay but you were in the building too uh no no i was uh i was at

the fan uh a different company. And actually, there's a short story here that Mike's not aware of. He was persona non grata at my house for a while. Mike Epple. Yes, because he left the fan to go to 680, which was great. I said, congratulations, 680. The competition. But I think at the time, I was getting ready for a vacation or something.

And the fan was a small staff, as you remember. There weren't a lot of people. So I ended up having to cover for you and do sports. You missed your vacation for this? I don't remember this. But Mike saved himself. It's all coming out. Mike is now a hero.

How? Because when I got an RTDNA award, you videoed it on your phone, posted it to YouTube, and I shared it with my family, and now you're a hero. Oh, thank you. There you go. So up until that point, though, you were not a big fan of Mike for screwing your vacation up. I was always a fan of Mike. I don't remember the...

I was part-time at the fan at that time. Yeah, I don't... Yeah, and when... So I probably ended up working weekends. And when John Hinnan offered me a full-time job, well... Yeah, I don't. Yeah. And when, and when he ended up working week and when John, and when John Hinnan offered me a full-time job, well, you got to take it.

Okay. To finish up the Richard Southern description here though. So we talked about Richard. Also, we talked about him on city news and breakfast television, his appearances on primetime sports with Bob McCowan. When I filled in for Mike Apple. Right.

Of course. Yeah. I just, yeah, I don't, I don't know. We also talked about the money game. I pulled it out of you you uh was a great chat we had during the pandemic in your backyard and i pulled it out of you that you really didn't listen to 680 very much because you ride your bike

and i was trying to convince you to put a some headphones on while you're on your bike and listen to 680 have you been doing that toronto mike i've not been doing that, Richard, but I root for you guys, and I will say to a team. Why not? There's other things I need to consume, other media I need to consume, to be quite honest, but I do... He's very busy. I root hard for you guys. I literally bike by Carl Hanski

on the reg. He's in the neighborhood, and I see him all the time. I told him about this episode. He's going to be listening in. Is he the mystery guest that you keep alluding to maybe i haven't even teased it yet but there might be a mystery guest you might have noticed there's four chairs around the studio and there's only three of you so we'll see i don't know but we'll talk more about that maybe i don't know but carl haskey in the hood just yesterday in this very basement was who wants to guess well i like on the way listen to it yeah paul cook and stephanie smith so i feel like uh and recently harold hossein was

here there's been a lot of 680 content lately thank you and we're going to kick it into overdrive here because the great scott metcalf has sent me some great audio and we're gonna we're gonna walk through uh what do you want to call this? The ongoing history of 680? Yeah, well, what we did was there's a podcast, City News 680, 30 Years in the Review Mirror, which I'm plugging. Scott did a great job putting that together. I don't mind. But it's a good history of 680,

and the reason that it was done is that there was so much good stuff over the years, including at the very beginning. And the backstory of how 680 started is interesting as well. Well, I can't wait to capture these stories. I will say to a T, and I haven't met, I think I asked Paul Cook, are there any assholes at 680? Because, okay, so I know,

even though Carl won't come on, you know, Richard's obviously put up his hand. President accounted for it. Carl Hansky has not been on Toronto Mike, but that's his choice. And I'm sure when he announces his retirement in in whatever years he'll be here the next day but so he's a sweetheart i can tell you from uh chatting him up on the streets here in new toronto but i mean mike apple's a sweetheart richard southern's a sweetheart uh peter gross is a sweetheart paul cook was a very nice man yesterday i assume he's a sweetheart you know

stephanie smith and i get along really well she's a sweetheart who am i was a very nice man yesterday. I assume he's a sweetheart. You know, Stephanie Smythe and I get along really well. She's a sweetheart. Who am I missing here? Oh, yeah, Scott Metcalf. He's a sweetheart. To a T, everybody that I've met who's been on the airwaves at 680 is a sweetheart. So is it just that the assholes won't come on or are there just literally, tell me now

before we dive into this history, are there no jerks at 680? I don't think there are. I mean, it's kind of a loaded question, too. It is kind of a family atmosphere in many ways. It's a family atmosphere. I think one of the things we always tried to do, and this was Paul, who's the managing editor,

so he had some say in how the station was managed, and Amber LeBlanc, who's the current news director. Is she good? She's fantastic. Really good. The two best news directors of 680 News are Amber LeBlanc and Stephanie Smythe. Get out of here, Scott. They were the best.

They were the best. But anyway, one of the things that we always promoted and focused on was respect. And respect is totally a two-way street. So if you give respect, you can expect it back so expect respect but if there were people who didn't measure up in that way they would fade away and it wasn't that they were pushed out or anything they just didn't fit right and you could sense that on the team it's a real team effort. And we've been very, very lucky, but very, very careful. Richard being hired.

What would happen is we get interns in, and we've hired a lot of interns over the years. People like Cormac McSweeney, who we'll hear from later, and great, great interns. Maybe he's a mystery guest. Yeah. And James Monroe. And what would happen is the interns would come in and they'd be there

for a couple of months or whatever. You went to Seneca, right? And I wouldn't hire the interns. Everybody else hired the interns. They'd come to me and they'd say, you got to keep Richard Southern. Like he's so good. We just love having him around. We got to find a place for Richard. So that's how a lot of these people got hired. And so that looks after itself. Makes sense that you'd have a good, you'd have a good crew over there. So, and you, again, I know I say this to all my guests, but I don't, you can listen back. You are three of my favorite FOTMs.

So thank you for returning so we could talk about the history of 680 and maybe I'll pass the baton. Shout out to Donovan Bailey. He was here tomorrow, but I actually end a question I need to ask later. Maybe when the mystery guest is here about the 1996 Olympics, but tell me, Scott Metcalf,

maybe I might have a seated question from an anonymous person, but the history of 680, maybe you want to take us back to, I mean, we're going to go all the way back to the 20s, I guess. But take us away, Scott. And then you just give me the point when you're ready to hear audio. Okay. Well, and this was all part of why we wanted to do this.

Okay. So it goes back to Ted Rogers' father. So in the 1920s, Ted's father invented a radio tube that allowed you to plug a radio into the wall. Up until then, all radios were battery operated, but people hated the batteries. They were filled with bad chemicals and they would leak and explode and cause issues. Around the world, people were trying to invent a way to plug the radio into the wall. And it was Ted's father who figured it out with a particular kind of tube and the wiring and all this you might call that a batteryless well that's exactly what cfrb is so ted's father started cfrb and what that

stood for in his mind was canada's first rogers batteryless so the batteries were so disliked that in the marketing they use the word batteryless rather than electric because what's an electric radio back then people go what's that right but batteryless yeah i don't want that battery fascinating i know so that was the that was the great story about that so and it does bell media know that they uh own canada's first rogers batteryless yeah i know Well, it's like CP24. That's cable pulse 24. Nobody knows that, right? That's right.

All these things. You know who knows that? This guy right here. Shout out to Gordon Martineau. Yes, absolutely. And Harold Hussain. Those were great years too. So Ted's father died suddenly at the age of 38, 1939.

And what happened was the family lost control of cfrb and the radio business eventually that faded away and uh as a boy ted told his mother i'll get it back wow we gotta make a movie this is i'm into this story you know why do you yeah exactly like the the emotion and the family connections to the history uh are amazing So in, and this is the first clip we have coming up. In 2008, just a few months before his death, Ted Rogers was asked about the influence of his father during an interview with a guy who was on here yesterday. You got to call him an FOTM, who?

FOTM, Paul Cook. Now your dad, of course, was an inventor and an entrepreneur. And he came up with the plug-in radio, a major invention at the time. And he was also a workaholic, much like you are. He died at an early age, 38. You were just five. What impact did that have on your life?

Well, I guess, you know, everything. Because if he'd lived, I might have been just a spoiled brat and I wouldn't have the drive and ambition that I have had during my lifetime to win back his name and reputation. So that's the back story. That's the back story. It is. And so after they lost the stuff, the first station Ted bought was CHFI, an FM station in 1961. There weren't even FM radios.

And this was his, he took a chance and it worked out. And then when he got 680, he decided to call it CFTR. And he imagined that stood for Canada's first Ted Rogers. And that was a tribute to his father. So that's what CFTR stands for. Amazing. I love that. So CHFI is just high-fi, right?

That's just like fidelity, I guess, CHFI? I believe so. I'm not even sure. That makes sense. Yeah, with the FM. Sure. Well, Apple remembers the 1920s. Not too far off.

He has a tractor from the 1920s. I too far off. He has a tractor from the 1920s. I would ask the loaded question here, but I don't trust I'd get honest answers, but I'd go around the horn now and ask how, how you guys feel about the Ted Rogers statue outside the dome. But I won't put you in that spot. It's fair to say there's room for other statues and maybe hopefully we get on.

So keep Ted, but maybe add a Joe Carter or a Joey Batts or something something i'm in favor of that and and uh i uh spent my high school years in chatham ontario and just this summer they unveiled a statue for ferguson jenkins jenkins and it's this it's a copy of the statue that they have uh in chicago outside the cubs wrigley field amazing so and and it's life-size so when I went to see it you know you think, ah, statue, whatever. When you went to see it, it's a beautiful statue. It's

Fergie in full form and he was one of, he is one of the best pitchers in baseball history and he's from Chatham. Right. And so I was looking at it and I thought, this is, what a great idea. And then I thought about the Ted statue and I thought, okay, look the Blue Jays are in Toronto because of Ted. So, fair enough, they can have a statue. And then I thought about the Ted statue and I thought, okay, look, the Blue Jays are in Toronto because of Ted.

So fair enough. They can have a statue. But I agree. And they did buy the place. I agree with you that a Joe Carter, absolutely. A Joe Carter statue would be great. And maybe some others. You guys can debate.

But I think instead of saying remove Ted, I think you should add Blue Jays. And the city could also get that water fountain going again right i mean there's no money for that you're gonna find that money love it love the history here shout out to paul cook they're uh interviewing uh the late great ted rogers because that's not easy the other month they tasked me with interviewing current rogers ceo tonyieri, about the Shaw purchase. Not an easy task when you're interviewing the big boss. So Paul did a great job with that.

Do you get extra anxiety knowing there's a lot of ears on this? Yes. So how did you do? I would play the clip, but I don't have it. You know, good enough on the newsroom, they let me do a fair and balanced story. Well, it wasn't easy. I know uh do a fair and balanced story well it wasn't easy i did a fair i felt i did a fair and balanced show up but you know you got three pr guys standing there it's not an easy job you know but i mean that guy doesn't even have the last name rogers

like that's a whole uh additional layer of anxiety i would think and paul cook did a great job i was asking paul because paul's got those pipes you guys have great voices too although richard i feel is more in my ballpark. I feel like Richard and I like Richard, did you ever smoke? When I drink, I smoke, yeah. You do? You know, occasionally. I'm not a regular smoker, but if I'm out and I'm having a few beers, I may smoke.

Give us a timeline on that. Okay, when was your last cigarette, Mr. Sounder? Maybe a few weeks ago. See, you need to stop because it's bad for you. It's just a casual thing. It's a casual social smoking. I grew up on a tobacco farm, so I have no comment on the pros and or cons. But I've noticed a lot of, you know, I have a lot of radio people over and there's a certain texture to a voice, which is a part of my, I won't even swear on this show, but because I can't swear in front of Scott, you understand, but there's a texture to a voice that it always

comes back to smoking cigarettes. And it's almost enough to make me want to start. Mark Daly too was a big smoker. Scott says don to make me want to start. Mark Daly, too, was a big smoker. Scott says don't start. Don't start. Mark Daly, right? Okay, the voice himself. But Paul Cook, he doesn't smoke anymore,

but he also attributes those pipes to cigarettes. And by the way, Scott is well-versed in how much I can swear when we golf. Oh, yeah. You can swear. It's somewhat shocking, the commentary that comes out of well feel free and i hate saying about the smoking in front of scott because scott you know especially when he worked in the in the newsroom with me as news director it's very much a great father figure you know so

i hate it to disappoint scott richard put out that cigarette richard do you know what smoking does to your health here? I hate to disappoint him. So we have, okay, so 680 CFTR stood for possibly maybe as a tribute to his father, Canada's first Ted Rogers. See, I always thought TR was for Toronto. Well, it can be many things, but that's how Ted imagined it when he chose those call letters. Okay, so tell me a little more about 680. You played a little bit of the John Stahl clip yesterday. Out of context, it's like, what is he talking about? Yeah, he's content. In context, it's a great story.

So what happened is 680 on the AM dial, powerful signal. So Ted had to convince other nearby radio stations to move off the 680 dial position so that he could just blast it across Ontario and into the States. So he got CHLO in St. Thomas, Ontario to change, and he paid for that. But there was another station across the lake in Rochester, New York, that he had real trouble getting to change the frequency. So in his book, which is titled Relentless, Ted told a story about how he managed to get that done. So here's in context, John Stahl, 680's John Stahl, reading that passage from the book in Ted's own words.

Because of the reach of Rochester's WRVM, also at 680 on the dial, we couldn't broadcast at full power during the day unless that station moved to another frequency. The owner of WRVM was a Detroit businessman named Milton Maltz, who would later go on to found both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. I called Maltz, but he would not entertain the idea of moving the station, and he eventually stopped taking my calls. But a broadcast convention was coming up in Washington,

and I found out from his assistant which flight Maltz would be on. He had a stopover in Cleveland, so I headed down there and booked a ticket on Maltz's flight to Washington. I asked the attendant if I could sit beside my pal Milton, and she said that seat was available. If you don't ask, you don't get, as I have learned time and time again. When I boarded the plane and sat down beside Maltz, he went berserk, saying, you're hounding me, Rogers, you're hounding me. I can't go anywhere without you calling, and now you sit down beside me on an airplane. At this point, he actually took off his shoe and pounded it on the armrest of his seat like Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations.

But before we landed in Washington, I had won him over. He said my persistence was driving him crazy, and he would move the Rochester station on the dial if I paid for the switch and bought him the land that he would need for new transmitters. I gladly did so. This is history I did not know. Fascinating. Fascinating. It is a fascinating story, and that's the kind of guy Ted was.

He was creative and brave. You talk about blasting the station out. One of the coolest things about my 16 years there was i read this happened a few times as you know scott was i received a an mp3 or cd from a gentleman in in england one of these dxer guys who likes to pick up the station and it's me doing the overnight news you know overnight 680 will just boom in the right conditions right across the atlantic it's very very cool have a Now, my station of choice in primary school, so most of the 80s, I'd say, was 680 CFTR.

I loved my Tom Rivers in the morning. That was a big deal for me. It was great. How have we lost you? We've lost Mike. We need to get Mike back on 680. You didn't listen to me. If I'm in a car, I will still tune in 680.

But, you know, like I choose other programming for the bike rides. But again, there's no station I root harder for than 680 with all these sweetheart FOTMs working there. You know that. So go hard, go hard, 680. Long may you run. And although I haven't quite adapted, I'm still calling it 680 News, and then I'm catching myself and remembering it's City News 68080 that's how powerful that branding is we'll get to that but yeah a big signal i used

to listen to as a kid i think somewhere here evelyn macko gave me a 680 like towel thing and it's uh proudly here alongside the uh fan 1430 binders so love 680 that fits right in with the next clip which is very brief so um cftr became a popular music station in the 70s and 80s so here's a sample of the station from 1973 with a dj known as rick allen cftr here we go i'll take the fifth call now at 870-9181 to instantly rip me off for two tickets to the lovats can't have the most for it. That's brilliant. Now I know I happen to know the spoiler here, which will let you announce,

but I'm listening to that clip and I guess it does sound like him. Yeah, it sounds like him. I knew he did a lot of things. So maybe we'll get the big reveal here. Who wants to guess the other name by which Rick Allen is known? Okay. I've heard this clip too

and I can't remember now. Oh, really? Okay, Richard. Roger Ashby? No, no. He was Roger at that point. But Rick Allen, of course, is Rick Moranis. Oh. Rob Callen's buddy. Yes. Oh, yes, exactly. The Rob Callen episode.

There's some great Rick Allen, Rick Moranis stories in that one. Yes. Oh, yes, exactly. The Rob Cowan episode. There's some great Rick Allen, Rick Moranis stories in that one. Yes. Absolutely. Oh, wait a minute. What's happening here? The secret guest is walking in. Ladies and gentlemen. It is. You know, you were supposed to come in the side door. What do you mean? I had a jar for you to burst in

like the Kool-Aid man. You came in the front? I walked in and terrified Monica. I bet you. Was she dressed? I hope so. Oh, my goodness. Great. For your sake, maybe not. Hi, Peter Gross.

I haven't seen Peter Gross in so long. How are you? Peter Gross is here. Nice to see you. There's a chair for you. And these headphones are for you, Peter. I want you to hear. Excuse me for one minute.

Okay. Okay. So everybody, these special guests. He needs to go place a bet. He'll be right back. I didn't promote this. Close the door. I'm off track, buddy.

Mike Epple did get the clues, right? of bad he'll be right back i never i didn't promote this close the door mike apple uh did get the clues right which episode did i reveal the special guest uh was it not in the it was something herald episode that was like to see who's paying attention but absolutely so ladies and gentlemen peter gross is going to join us and that's great because he's here in time for uh the clip we're going to play where he's the second voice we hear on the station so rick allen rick moranis i knew rick allen was on chum fm because ingrid schumacher came over and talked about training him on the board at chum fm i don't think i knew till right now that rick allen was on cftr yeah well i yeah i think that's where he is that where he worked with rob or was he at ckfh like a lot of those guys and especially

in those in in that time they moved around a lot right yeah right right and they even do now great clip though that you have that uh that's wild love that love let's get to one more clip in before peter comes back because peter's on the second clip so there were a lot of people involved in getting 680 news off the ground uh john hinnon was one of the really key people. So Ted absolutely had to say yes to have it started. But Hinnon was the guy who was there day after day thinking about it 24-7 and helped to make it what it is today. So on the 30th anniversary podcast, City News 680, 30 Years in the Riverview Mayor,

John Hinnon talked about how important it was to have the support of Ted Rogers. His goal was always to try and buy back CFfrb that was originally one of his goals and it wasn't until much later i would say 2005 or 7 or whatever once 680 became like you know a major behemoth with from from both the ratings and a revenue standpoint that he said to me he said what i don't think i have to buy cfrb anymore. So he backed off on that. But you know what? If it wasn't for Ted Rogers, this would not have happened. I mean, that was a great thing about having an owner like that, who can make those decisions. There wasn't a big conglomerate behind him telling him what to do. He didn't care if he lost some money the first few years. He didn't care about that. It was not a big deal because if, in fact, the big win at the end was there,

that's what he was looking at. That's a great clip too. Yeah, it is. Wow. It's funny to hear this reference, dude. There's no big conglomerate because that's the way it is today, right? Okay.

What conglomerate? I don't see any conglomerates around here. It's something special. So I will tell the listenership that I have, I can only plug four mics into this board and I'm keeping one for myself. It's something special. So I will tell the listenership that I have, I can only plug four mics into this board, and I'm keeping one for myself. It's very exciting to see Peter. I haven't seen Peter in a while. You're excited

to see me. I am. I really like Peter. I love Peter. Richard, do you know that Peter Gross is in the FOTM Hall of Fame? I did know that. He's a legend in many realms. God bless you, Peter Gross. He's not in the betting Hall of Fame, though. He kind of struck out on that one.

He's showing great restraint there. How did you do with Jim McKinney when you were in Saratoga? Well, I'm glad you asked that because

the August 2023 issue of Down the Stretch is now online with about a 3,000 word essay on how McKinney and I did. You mean the

printed Down the stretch because people think you're talking about the podcast. Not the podcast. Okay. But we did a whole podcast on it. I needed both the podcast and the paper to exemplify. Oh, lots. Terrible.

We need a number. Well, at one point I had bet 43 races and I'd cashed once oh my god and the one emerging the one was a one dollar exactor that paid 26 so it was uh it was extremely expensive and frustrating it it picked up somewhat after that particular that's a great episode of down the stretch so i'll shout out down the stretch a great uh podcast and people should listen to it. It's all about Ontario horse racing. Peter does a great job. Peter, I can tell by your losses there, you probably haven't had a meal in a while. So here's what I'm going to do, okay?

One, two, three, four. There's four adult men in this basement right now and each of you are going to get a large lasagna. It's in my freezer right now from Palma Pasta. Peter, you're getting a pasta. Well, that was the incentive for coming, not to chat

with these places. Prices of the grocery store these days. Tell them what I admitted when I came up on the sidewalk. Well, Apple brought a, he made sure to bring a backpack so that he can bring home his Palma Pasta lasagna. He's carrying it all the way back to Whitbeer. Yeah, and I'm going to go on the GO train, so it's going to be weird

if I'm carrying this bag of Palma Pasta. Now, you know, and you've seen my tweets about stopping at the Mississauga location of Palma Pasta and loading up. So let's make sure Anthony knows. So, did you learn about Palma Pasta from Toronto Mike? Yes. That's exactly where

I learned, and every time I drive through Mississauga, I pick up a month's supply you know if it lasts that long if you want a taste of this palma pasta money scott come on you haven't had this this lasagna well i have it's fantastic oh amazing there's a story in oakville so i've been there and it's fantastic okay man yeah don't forget to swing that mic back and forth it's going to be awkward for you but it's going to sound great for the listenership and that's all that matters so peter, I'm glad you're here.

You're all getting the Palma Pasta. Great, I know Peter, you're not a big beer guy, but there is Great Lakes beer for you guys to bring home with you as well. So shout out to Great Lakes beer. And because I'm mentioning this,

I'm just going to ask a very important question to you gentlemen. Who in this room is going to be at TMLX 13 on September 7th? It's 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery

in Southern Etobicoke. Wait, it's September 7th. It's 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke. Wait, it's September 7th? Yeah. Did it change? So you don't... Yeah, Apple, this is... Yes, it did change. It's a big fanboy.

He's a big fanboy, but he didn't pick up the change. I'm confused. Yes, it is the 7th. You didn't get that memo because I thought I was broad telling everybody far and wide that I had to move the date. Okay. Can you make it anymore? Yes. Okay, so... Yes, I knew it was broad telling everybody far and wide that I had to move the date. Okay. Number seven.

Can you make it anymore? Yes. Okay. So. Yes. I knew it was a Thursday. I thought it was next Thursday. It was. Followed by.

Oh, I'm glad we had this talk. Getting hip to the hip. I was just coming back and forth, basically. I'm glad that we had this talk. Thirsty Thursday. I'm in. So, Apple's going to be there. Richard, will you be there?

It's Thursday. It's Thursday. It's pub night. I'm in. Yeah. So, you're going to get your first beer on the house. Sure. Courtesy of Great Lakes.

And you're going to get Palma Pasta is going to feed you. And it's going to be a cool event because we're going to have a cool vibe, man. FOTMs are just going to collect, eat, drink, chat with each other. Will Peter Gross be there? Special guest Peter Gross.

Put me down as a big maybe. What do you mean? Why can't you be there? What do you got going on on September 7th, 6 to 9 p.m.? Honestly. I don't know. You'll be there.

You'll be there. I'm going. What are you going to bully me into it? I'm going to bully. You'll be there. You'll be there. I'm going. What, are you going to bully me into it? I'm going to bully you into it. Okay. If Apple's going, I'm going. If I'm driving from Whitby. Yeah.

You're a Mississauga guy. I'm driving from Mississauga. It's like six kilometers. Oh, the hardship. You know who's going to be there? Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. I want to shout out Brad Jones and his awesome podcast, Life's Undertaking. So shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.

Okay, I'm glad Peter's here for this. So are these beers, by the way, are these chilled? Yes. Well, do you want me to run? During this clip, which I heard yesterday, because I played yesterday, I can run up and get you a cold one. So you want a lager?

Whatever. Anyone else want a cold beer? Sure. I'm off the clock, so. Okay, I'm bringing down. So three beers will come down during this clip. Sure. But I'm going to get that mic back to Scott,

because Scott's going to set up this clip. All right, so this is the start of 680. So Sandy Sanderson was the program director for CFTR. He decided that the last song that would be played when they switched from music to all news would be We Built This City on Rock and Roll by Jefferson Starship, Mike's favorite song. And so on June 7th, 1993, Sanderson, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CFTR.

This is a sad yet exciting moment in the history of this incredible radio station. It marks the end of one era and the history of this incredible radio station it marks the end of one era and the beginning of a new one and like all major transitions it involves mixed emotions for nearly a quarter of a century cftr has been a powerhouse of today's music appealing to a large and vibrant audience over the past several years, the popularity of contemporary music on the AM band has diminished, and we find ourselves in a situation that requires a change. Effective immediately, CFTR will become known as 680 News, providing Toronto with an innovative information service that has never been available in this city or in this country before.

In the next few months, you'll become aware of how the new 680 News will work for you, and I'm confident it'll soon become part of your day. It's been a fabulous 22 years, and on behalf of the entire staff of CFTR, thank you for your generous support over the years. I'm sure the next 22 will prove to be just as exciting and challenging. But for now, this chapter has ended, and it's time to move on. Farewell to the old, hello to the news. This is 680 News. Good morning, it's 14 degrees at six o'clock on this Monday, June the 7th. I'm Dick Smythe, and here's what's happening. There will be normal GO Transit service this morning. Service on the weekend was normal as well.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, one week left in power, said farewell at Baycombe of Quebec last night. Canada's first all-news radio station is on the air. All news, all the time. After a Sunday of meetings, Premier Bob Ray says that his goal remains the same, to trim $2 billion from provincial expenditures. Morning showers, then sunny and warm. More rain forecast for tonight.

I'm Peter Gross in sports. Jack Morris was himself yesterday. Unfortunately, pickups set in the French Open and a miracle finish in men's golf. This is John Hinnon with business. The Nikkei is down 38 points, gold is down $2, and the bank rate is expected to increase tomorrow. Now traffic and weather every 10 minutes on the ones. First, the check of 680 News Cantell traffic. Here's Russ Holden. Thank you, Nick. Good morning. Traffic around Metro

just starting to fill in. Roads are a little bit wet. Some light rain persisting, and as a result, roads could be a little bit slippery, but no problems to tell you about so far. Accident-free TTC routes, they're all just beginning to build. Reasonable start to the morning, and we'll have another update in 10 minutes. A disturbance passing southern Ontario is bringing cloudy skies and a chance of showers

this morning, about a 30% chance. That disturbance will pass through the area quite quickly. Following that, we'll have a mix of sun and clouds for the rest of the day. Winds will be light today and a high of 24 degrees as expected. That's 2 degrees above normal. This evening, an overnight cloud on the increase. There is a rain beginning just before dawn, overnight low of 14 degrees. I'm Michelle Skinner from the Weather Network for 680 News. Okay, so Dick Smythe talked about this in the podcast, City News 680, 30 Years in the River,

or another place. Available wherever you get your podcasts. And Dick, I think what, 80, 30 years in there. Review me or another available wherever you get your podcast. And, uh, Dick, I think what happened was Dick Smythe pressed his button, Mike button to turn it back on. Somebody in a control room, press it at the same time and they kind of neutralized each other. So his mic didn't come back on. So he kept broadcasting.

Peter may remember this. He kept broadcasting and it took them like a few seconds to figure it out. So it was a little bit of a rough start, but since then it's been fine. In the newsroom, I remember all just hearing the ticker underneath, but no voice. And everybody's kind of going, are we on the air? You can't even tell. I've heard that so many times.

I can't even tell there was a mistake in there, actually. It sounds good. so many times. I can't even tell there was a mistake in there, actually. It sounds good. I love the fact that the first voice

spoken on 680 News by somebody still with us is the gentleman in my basement right now, the great Peter Gross. I've got to tell you that that moment with Dick, the start of 680 News,

is one of like the five greatest moments of my life. Count them down for us. Well, the other four were like sex with girls. All four times? The same one four times. No, I was quite nervous.

And I'm sort of like sitting beside Dick in this little broadcast booth, just thinking about just say what you want to say and say it properly and i'm being very much in myself you know and then the music comes on and suddenly there goes dick good morning it's dick just exploding i mean i almost rocked me out of my chair i'll never forget that so you were nervous even though you had all those years at city tv under your belt you were still nervous there for the, I often got nervous before going on there. I found it was,

it was a real good kind of energy to have. You know, it cures nerves, a good nap. Yeah. I never saw, but I did see Peter, a bet on horse races in between news.

What are you referring to? We'll get back to the nap. Hold on. Richard Southern just dropped a truth bomb there. So you witnessed on the clock. Now, you don't have any severance owed to you by Rodgers. It's all right. You're good?

Scott, were you at all involved in the decapitation of me from 680? Did Scott fire you? No, no. Amber didn't. I made it uncomfortable for her, and I regret that. She had no choice. I very much orchestrated my own exit from 680 News. And Mike actually, on a couple of occasions, said,

Mike Epple said, this is not a good look on you. I guess I'd grown. He tried to warn you. Yeah, he warned me. You can't be playing the horses between sports it was great i enjoyed watching him online well there were occasions when the sound of certain things would emanate from the computer that you were on was that pornography no no it was it was like international international off-track horse races.

See, this is the difference between the sanctioned 680 podcast and my show. I need to open this beer. On the mic, though. So Mike Epple opening up a Great Lakes lager. And again, Scott Sherr. There's no smoking in here.

I can't fire one up? No darts. That's why you were in the backyard last time. I can't fire one up? No darts. That's why you were in the backyard last time. Hold on, I have a beer too here, so I want to crack one open. And I feel bad. Actually, my original vision was that Mike Epple and Peter Gross would share a mic,

but I see how difficult that is with the... I can share with Scott here too. Cheers, Mike. Thanks for having us. Okay, thank you. And Peter, you know I goof around about the fact you were caught napping when they would... There were actually...

Like Amber, I haven't met Amber, but I don't think she had a choice, right? Like if your sports guy is asleep when they go to him. No, that's... That's sort of... No, I argued long and hard that there was nothing in my contract that said I had to be awake. Okay?

How did that go for you? In this day and age you need to specify that the truth is twice at quarter to ten keep in mind that i i was in there at two o'clock in the morning and i was filing sportscasts to kitchener ottawa halifax and then doing and it just i think it wore me down and and a couple times i. And specified to each individual market. I don't want to underplay how hard it is to do sports on 680 and for all of the other affiliates. Incredibly hard. It is difficult.

You try getting up at 3 in the morning for 30 years. So a couple times I put my feet up. And sure enough, it was quarter to 10 both times. And now sports and Peter Gross are just dead air. And I'd run down the hall and say, Peter! Yeah, I remember Samantha Knight coming in at ten to ten. Peter! That was embarrassing, and I suppose the whole collection of events justified.

I would argue your audio content was some of the, uh, justified, uh, I would, I would argue your, your audio content was some of the most creative though. I agree. Well, thank you. And that was 93, right?

So that's, uh, Jack Morris is off here. He still had his wit there. Cause in 92, Jack Morris had 20, I think he had 21 wins or something like that. Is that,

what is that Peter Gross? Someone keeps calling me and I have to keep. But what is that ringtone we heard there? It sounds like you're slaughtering a goat. Yeah, I don't... So the initial, you know, where we were on the first days or the first few years, really, of 680 on Victoria Street, right? That was a very different environment from where it is today

in the Rogers Complex. And I just remember, like, coming in as a newbie after uh then announced the format change and the rock and roll djs had been let go and how how that newsroom was not really built for an all news format i mean it was actually for its time was actually fairly sizable but at the time considering the amount of people that were involved, it was very cramped. Oh, we built this newsroom. Okay, swing that mic to Scott for a second,

because Scott, can you speak to the gravita? You can hear it in the voice, but having somebody like Dick Smythe as your lead news guy when you start the all-news station. Yeah, as Peter said, he was almost knocked off his chair. Paul Cook often refers to Dick S smite's voice as rolling thunder and it really is he's just rolled out of

the speaker but he was also a great writer and and the other point i would like to make now and we'll hear hopefully later is uh one of the best writers that's ever worked in broadcasting in toronto is peter gross well i'm i've heard this from fred patterson from humble and fred who used to do his sports commentaries on cfny back in the back in the 80s into the 90s that he said he was inspired by the writing of peter gross like he has told me that yeah he he's he's unique and rare and uh i would think... Aren't you glad you're here, Peter? It would be... This is your funeral, okay? Let's do a...

Sponsor party. Ridley Funeral Home. Ridley Funeral. Shout out. Shout out. But, Mike, in your world of podcasting, and I know you've done something with Peter before with John Gallagher and...

Gallagher and Groy saved the world. I think there's room for somewhere for Peter to shine again. 100%. With his writing in some format. I don't know what it somewhere for Peter to shine again. 100%. With his writing in some format. I don't know what it is. I'm not taking on that project. Well, just for the record, he does have a podcast to this day called Down the Stretch.

And you write that and you voice that. I would put him on an old sports radio station for an hour. I think that would be an incredible hour of radio every day. No, I disagree with you about that. Because he'll be napping if you're awake it would be great my my approach to sports was always it was something i could fool around with it was something that that i could be entertaining with and at some point 680 news and i disagreed on the content and that was that was one of many issues that led to my demise there. Can you run down those issues that led to your demise there?

We want to hear all of them. No, I just, there was a definitive point where I grew weary of the subject material, and it showed in my work, and it showed in my attitude, and it really, you know, I haven't spent a day thinking, oh, I lost that wonderful job. And I have no desire to be a sportscaster. You don't regret this.

You have no regret. No, no, no. I love Peter Gross. No regrets. The year, I would have to say the four years since I was let go by 680 News have been the most interesting years of my life the the year after was fantastic because they you know they gave me a handsome envelope and i spent most of it on trips not not on drugs but i'm saratoga this man for the record is not how you

haven't done any drugs since the 80s right no no just for the record peter had great drug stories though i enjoyed hearing those. Oh, yeah. Listen, if you want to do a show about drugs and gambling... Well, we had a show like that. It was called Gallagher and Gross. When Amber LeBlanc tunes in, I can't wait to hear how the guy sounded on Toronto Mike. I wonder how she's going to feel about

the hour we spent talking about all the reasons that Peter Gross was fired. To bring it back to the clip you last played. I love that clip. the first time we heard 680 what strikes me about that is that it's not exactly the same but you can still hear today's format there and that's what's so the key to success about this station is that it is the content changes obviously the news changes every hour but the format is rigid you know as a listener if you want to hear something you know when it's going to be on you know sports is going to be on at 15 or business is going to be on at 26 past the

hour you still you heard that right on day one and you still hear that and that's what struck me about that actually actually scott you could attest to thiseren't we originally on a 20-minute cycle? Okay, swing that back. I want to hear Scott talk to this, because we did touch on this with Paul Cook and Stephanie Smythe yesterday. But yeah, how has the format of 680 evolved from 1993 to 2023?

Yeah, well, when it started, it was based on the WINS New York format, which is every 20 minutes, there'd be one anchor for 20 minutes doing the newscasts. The other station in New York, WCBS,

what they did was half hours. So they would have two hosts on at the same time and sort of talking back and forth and kibitzing a bit and throwing to each other. And it was really more of a, of a personable, uh, and it allowed for a little more personality. So they, they did that in Vancouver when they started a news 1130 in 1996 and they

liked how it sounded. And then they decided let's, let's change in six 80. And that was a big decision, right? You've already got this thing rolling. And they said, no, let's, let's do it this way. And that's where we are now. And it sounds terrific. I mean, I listen to the US all news channels from time to time. And obviously, I'm biased, but it doesn't sound nearly as good to me. There's not that flow that we have.

Even though we have this rigid format, there's still some room for personalities like Peter's or Mike's to shine through. And I think that's the key to success at 680, where you have these personalities, but you're also sticking to this format that everyone knows and likes. While we're in the 1990s, because we're going to talk about what I believe, and I said this to Stephanie Smythe yesterday, like we can live to be 300 years old and we'll still might have the same answer for what was the biggest news day here. So we're going to talk about that fateful day in 2007 in a moment but while we're in the 90s i have a question here about the 1996 olympics uh paul cook was at the

1992 olympics in barcelona i believe and i'm always interested in 96 because that's the donovan bailey olympics when he wins gold in the 100 meters and then we win gold in the 4x100 meters and donovan bailey gets the world record uh he was the fastest man in the world and paul cook remarked that peter gross was in atlanta for that and then i learned uh that paul had forgotten that peter gross was not alone in atlanta who else was with you peter gross mr mike apple apple why doesn't paul cook remember your contribution because i was only there for four days to start peter stayed the entire time you were there the were you were there for both weeks or 10 days 10 days anyway i only went i only went to start because that was really the first olympics where it was a massive corporate event.

So in Atlanta, they built this entire area of corporate tents. And so as the business editor, we had an extra seat and some tickets. So I tagged along. You two at the Olympics. So when does the bombing happen? After I left. After you left. Okay. After I left.

I was staying in a hotel in Buckhead, make sure you pronounce that correctly, which is kind of like staying in Markham for events at the Rogers Center. Look, I don't pronounce any words correctly. Yeah. So it was about 30 miles. What was interesting was I had these gigantic press credentials, and I found I could walk out of the street,

stick my thumb out, and I'd get a ride immediately. And women would pick you up. So I got picked up several times by women. Well, that's new for you. Yeah. No, the Atlanta games were interesting. They were a gong show from a transportation standpoint. But the night of the bombing, I had worked all day.

It was very warm. I was carrying around a very heavy, the tape recorders were heavy in those days. The big Marantz machines. Yeah, yeah. Later I'll tell you where you can get them recycled. I mean, now I can do that. What's a tape recorder?

Rich is the young one in the room. So I get back to Buckhead. I was up at seven in the morning, back to Buckhead near midnight, trying to get to sleep. And then I was up at 7 in the morning, back to Buckhead near midnight, trying to get to sleep, and then I'm looking at CNN at 1, and they start talking about the bombing at Centennial Park. And I remember just staring at the phone, thinking, this phone is going to ring.

And sure, in five minutes, 680 News calls me. And so I go on the phone and simply reiterate what I was seeing on CNN. And the next morning, I was live from my hotel room. CNN is reporting. Exactly. And then the next day was probably the most unpleasant, uninteresting day I've ever spent reporting. I was at Centennial Park from maybe 830 in the morning to mid-afternoon, giving the same report. Because I had no information.

There's a very heavy police presence here welcome to my world and and the worst experience was so vancouver what's the call letters for vancouver 13 11 11 30 11 30 they learned that they had a reporter live at the scene for the biggest story of the year right So I get on the phone to Vancouver. They put me on hold for 35 minutes while they did stories about renaming a park and, you know, traffic signs will be changed here. And,

and, and after 35 minutes is the juice on my phone is. And so I gave them this, there's a real police police presence here very solemn it was well before the age of the iphone yeah dear and it was hot it was very hot the movie was very good what's the the movie richard jewel richard jewel yeah very well done yeah well you know that he's a great director but uh very interesting that you were there on the scene and you were also uh live at the uh the 100 meter final no i wasn't i i would i know you there's a reason why i wasn't live please there better be a reason yeah there was a reason because

they sent you down there uh on the very first day what was the the um the nice red-headed girl who got a medal in cycling? Oh, Clara Hughes. Thank you, Clara Hughes. She's a two-sport. And so I went to this event. She was there, and I interviewed her, and I wasn't supposed to. And so they took my credentials away from me. Really?

We didn't have broadcast rights. They stripped me of my credentials. I think we went live from the opening ceremonies. Like the CBC had broadcast. Yeah, I think we went live from the opening ceremonies when Muhammad Ali lit the torch and the flame. So Peter, I just want to understand.

So you're there as a member of the press, obviously, but you're not a rights holder. So you didn't have permission to talk to Clara Hughes at that point? Or what did you do? I'd have to argue that I didn't realize that I didn't have permission. I know, you can plead ignorance or what what did you I'd have to argue that I didn't realize that I didn't I know you can plead ignorance because that's got you this far in life but uh but is that the violation you were accused of yeah I think so and uh and you couldn't get into the building no I continued to get into buildings because my past still worked so why

weren't you there for the biggest moment Olympic, probably next to maybe winning gold in Vancouver in 2010? I'm trying to think of what's a bigger Olympic moment than Donovan Bailey winning the 100 meters in Atlanta. Like, I'm angry you were there. I can't believe you held the job that long. You weren't even there. Possibly one of the reasons that I'm no longer here. That's worse than the sleeping.

That's definitely worse. 20 plus years after the fact. Probably because that happened late in the evening and I'd been up since seven in the morning filing. And to my credit, I filed 10 to 15 stories a day. Can I speak to Scott Metcalf for a moment here? Swing that mic around. So Scott, what was your role in 96 at...

I was not at 680 News. He had nothing not at 680 news you're smart to wash your hands of this 590 okay so over to you peter anyways we'll move on from this but i was uh pretty certain you would have been there because if uh 680 sending somebody to the olympics in And the big event for Canadians is the 100 meters. Listen, I'm sure that from my hotel room, I called in and said, wonderful moment for Canada. He was so fast.

It took him much less time to cover the 100 meters than it's going to take me to tell you about it. Shout out to Donovan Bailey. His podcast is called Donovan Bailey Running Things. And we're going to recap the world championships that just happened in Budapest. We're going to do that tomorrow. So Jason Portwondo, who, by the way, I learned Jason Portwondo roomed in college. He was a roommate of Karl Hanske.

Isn't that a mind blow for you? Isn't that wild? And I'm spec every week. And the other fun fact is that Jason Portwondo would be seen on TSN. And I only know him because of Peter Gross, because he's a big horse. And the other fun fact. Well, let me finish mine first. Okay.

So Jason Porwando could be seen at, now it's called King's Plate, but maybe if there's a Queen's Plate, it would typically be back in the day, Jason Porwando and Laura Dykin. This would be the duo

on TV, on TSN, covering it. Laura Dykin's dad lives across the street. There's too many six degrees of separation here. And Beauchesne is down the street and Mike Epple is right here. Look at that. They're only a few

houses apart. Go ahead, Peter. The update about Jason Portwando is he's now a steward. He's a judge on the sixth floor deciding whether or not to disqualify horses. So every time my horse is interfered with, I have to text him and say do not take that

horse down wow he's gonna love that getting aired okay well jason porwano honorable guy i would trust him as a judge uh can you marry people no well i'm just goofing okay let's move on so yes uh that's all fun and games not the bombing bombing, of course, but the fact that Peter called the Donovan Bailey race from his hotel room in Buckhead. That's amazing. That's now my favorite Peter Gross story. That's amazing.

Did you know this, Mike Epple? I have a vague recollection of it. Again, it was a while ago. But Richard Southern, you're learning this for the first time. I was in short pants back then. Yeah, you were in grade school. I love that we were having

a very nice 680 conversation. Then you invite the one guy. One of the few people we've let go. That's why I love Toronto Mike. That's why I love you. You know why? Because Rogers did not

cut a check for this event. So this is Toronto Mike time. Okay. Scott, let's sober up here for a moment as we enjoy

our Great Lakes beer because on September 11th, 2001, we all know what happened that day. Tell me about 680 News prior to that day. Like, was it a, was it profitable from the get-go? No, no, it wasn't. And in the City News 680, 30 years in the River Mirror podcast, I mean, how many times can I say that? What's the name of that again?

Is Peter Gross on that podcast? No. You know what, that's what I was going to say. His voice is. Always voice, you know what his voice is always voice but but recording of his voice from back in the day yeah okay but anyway what the uh the station took a few years to be profitable but uh tony viner who was the general manager at the time tells the story that he had the uh opportunity to call ted to tell ted that 680 had actually passed CFRB in the ratings. And Ted had wanted to buy CFRB, decided that he just let CFTR run 680 News and see if he could pass CFRB. And the station did, had higher ratings. And Tony said he called Ted to tell him that.

And he said Ted was absolutely giddy. That's the word Tony used. He was giddy. Well, it is amazing. Because CFRB is such a juggernaut in this city. It was for years and years and decades. And also mention Phil Lind, who we just lost this past weekend at the age of 80, passed away. He was instrumental with Tony Viner to convince Ted to do the format.

They talked about losing money, you know, three, four, five years maybe. Well, I heard the story. Maybe Scott can speak to this. I heard that there was almost a race between 640 and 680 as to who was going to go all news first. I think AM radio, you couldn't play music on it

and make much money. So all the radio companies were looking at it. It was obvious. There were sports stations in the U.S., there were news stations in the U.S., and they were looking at those options, and the fan went with sports while they had the rights to the Jays and the Leafs,

so why not? That made perfect sense. And then 680 and 640, and there was even some talk of 1050 maybe thinking about going all talk, all news or whatever. Well, at some point they tried it with the team. Yep.

And 680, yes, thanks to Ted saying, yep, you can lose some money. Go ahead, do it. And Phil Lynn was involved in that decision. Wow, that's great. And if people want more of that history of 590, which was 1430 going all all sports. That episode, 1106. That's like your definitive history, the 30-year history of the fan,

CJCL. So go to that episode with Scott Metcalf. Peter, that's your homework. You're going to listen to the history of the CJCL episode 1106. Okay, let's go. I'm actually, just yesterday when Stephanie Smythe

and Paul Cook were here, we talked about that day. What a horrific day for humanity, but what an interesting day for people who are active in the news media covering 9-11 on 9-11. So set this up for me.

Yeah, just play the clip. All right, let's listen. For mothers who have to work, the report says the government should help. This just into 680 News. We now take you live via CNN to New York City, where it appears we have major problems with the World Trade Center. So that was it. That's how it started.

That was the first indication on 680 News that something had happened because they were watching CNN in the news booth, and they saw, like, what's going on there? And nobody knew at the time. The smoke was billowing out of one of the towers. Yeah, nobody knew that it was a jetliner. They thought, oh, it was a small plane, and you're looking up, and CNN was live, and we had rights to use CNN audio on air,

so they just brought up CNN. What gives me goosebumps about that as a news guy, like I literally got goosebumps about listening to that again. Yeah, me too. Was the fact that, and we only do this if it's big, breaking into audio that's being played.

That's Paul Cook, right? So Paul Cook is mid-sentence, and then it's Marlena. No, no, no, that was a report. That was a recorded report from an American story. And those reports wouldn't be long. We normally wait. Oh, it's not Paul Cook.

I'm going to play it again. I just want to hear it again. For mothers who have to work, the report says the government should help. This just in to 680 News. We now take you live via CNN to New York City, where it appears we have major problems with the World Trade Center. So that's Marlene Oliver? Yes.

Okay, and that's Oliver with an I, unlike Fergie, who dropped that I at some point. Okay, Marlene, Marlene, Marlene, Marlene Oliver. And I guess that's just before 9 a.m. on September 11th. And that is when, after the first plane hit the tower. And again, we talked about this quite a bit yesterday. People should check out Paul Cook and Stephanie Smythe on Toronto Mic'd.

But most of us, like you just said, Scott, we're envisioning a Cessna accidentally gain off course and maybe flying into the World Trade Centre. Yeah, and Paul and Stephanie talked about that yesterday in detail. And they decided, and I wasn't there at the time, I was at the FAN 590, and I remember that they sent Karl Hanske and Kevin Meisner immediately to New York.

Now, the first thing was they were going to put them on a plane, but then everything shut down. So then John Hinton and Stephanie Smythe said, get in the car and go. And they got across. Well, let's listen to Stephanie, only because I know you sent this for me to play during Stephanie's visit,

but let's listen now to like 15 seconds of Stephanie Smite talking about this. I think it was something like pack your underwear and get moving. It was just no question. We couldn't not be there. And we didn't know how or what or, you know, exactly what was going to unfold

when they got there, but it didn't matter. They just had to get on the road and, and they were amazing, right? Just getting on the move and, and getting there and getting that perspective that we had to have. So it never really was a question of if it's just how and get moving, you know, and, and we'll figure it out as we go. And thankfully they were two absolute pros yeah kevin meisner and carl hansky were amazing uh in the podcast city news 680 podcast what's the name of that podcast city news 680 30 years in the rearview mirror but no peter gross from today there is some no not not a specific interview but p Peter's voice is on there. Peter's voice is on there a number of times through the podcast.

Of course. But Kevin and Carl, in the podcast, they're interviewed by Amber about their time covering 9-11. And their stories are phenomenal. And that's one of the reasons why I thought it was important to get these stories out there, because students who are interested in getting into journalism these are great stories to listen to carl said he learned so much about reporting on the scene and he talks about that so anybody who's thinking of getting into that business listen to that because you can learn something from kevin and carl wow so when when 680 news launches on uh sorry june 7th 1993 honky dory you catch cfrb you're building something

here but i'm guessing uh 9-11 is a moment where uh your ears on the station balloons yeah and and the um the team there carl and kevin and paul cook and stephaniemythe running the show, John Stahl, all the people who were working there at the time, they stayed on that story. Mike, you would have... I was not there at that time. I was over at CTV at that point. Yeah. So they would have stayed on that story and they stayed on it for weeks and months. And that was a turning point for 680 News where it became in the diaries before we went to the PPM leaders in the diaries, it became the to the PPM leaders, in the diaries, it became the most listened to radio station in Toronto.

It took eight years to get there, though. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. When the Blue Jays were launched in 77, they didn't make the playoffs until 85. It took them eight years. Yep. So, see what I did there?

I brought it back to the drive of 85. That's my comfort zone here. I'm just glad 680 had the sense, don't send Peter Gross to New York. Because you know what would happen? He'd be in Hoboken, New Jersey or something watching CNN. Wow.

So anyway, I don't want to give it short shrift, but Paul and Steph talk about it a lot, and there's a lot of it in the 680 podcast if anybody's interested in listening to that. Wait, you guys have a podcast about your 30 years at 680? But I did want to move on because I know we're, I don't want to run too long, but there's this one clip I really wanted to get to for sure,

and it's about Gordon Lightfoot. And, you know, he died on May 1st at the age of 84. So a few years after the launch of 680 News, Gordon Lightfoot ran into 680 News reporter Rudy Blair. So Rudy was out there and he was talking to all the young people just starting up in the music. He was great for that, for promoting the, but he also talked to the stars, but he hadn't talked to Gord.

And Gordon saw Rudy at an event. It might've been like a juno award event or whatever and he came directly over to rudy and said hey you and i have never had a one-on-one chat uh why don't we set that up and we said yeah great sure whatever so gordon set it up and gordon initiated that yes that's amazing you know what i gordon came to the station when rudy uh another time interviewed him and he was just like the sweetest guy. He was a big fan. He was a big fan. He was a very big fan of 680. And he was introduced to Leah Walker,

who was doing business at the time. So, Leah Walker, I listen to you all the time. Like, he was a genuine fan of 680. Who could blame him? With all the sweethearts there. So, he got to know Rudy, and they hit it off. So, in February of 2010, there was a post on Twitter that Lightfoot had died at the age of 71. Right. And some Canwest media websites actually picked up the story and

gave it life. And it went around the world. Now we were holding off on it. We were saying, Oh, you know, we don't have any proof, but we, we ran the story that there was a story. So we said, we can't confirm this, but there's this story out there and we're doing our best to confirm it. So, um, thanks to Rudy's connection with Gordon, he had Gordon's cell phone number. And so he was able to reach him. Gordon had been at the dentist and didn't know this was going on. So the corner, the co-anchors at the time, Brian Fisher, Catherine Jette, and, uh, it was lifelong Lightfoot fan, Brian Fisher, Catherine Jette, and it was lifelong Lightfoot fan Brian Fisher who broke in with the good news on February 18th, 2010.

Well, this just in to 680 News. The latest developments regarding this story we've been reporting on this afternoon. Reports from out west that singer-songwriter, Canadian icon Gordon Lightfoot had died. 680's music reporter Rudy Blair is joining us live right now with the latest. Rudy? Yeah, do you want to talk about the latest? Excuse me, Mr. Gordon Lightfoot, are you there, please? Yes, Rudy.

What is going on? I'm hearing about you dying, and then suddenly you finally get a chance to call. What is going on here? All of a sudden, my music is in heavy rotation. All of a sudden, my music is on the air everywhere. I'm i'm in great health i'm doing just fine i'm sitting in my office right now the whole thing's a hoax well when did you hear about this

and when you did i mean what did you think about people talking about you died but you're not dead well i started getting concerned about it because i heard it on the radio coming down here just a few minutes ago. And I very hurriedly rushed in here because our telephones are ringing off the hook here at the office. And the whole thing is just a hoax. That's all it is. I don't know where it came from or how it happened. Gordon, have you had a chance to talk to any of your family members? Because I know we had heard that they're really

upset about hearing this hoax. Well, we're going to be getting calls here all afternoon, I'm sure. And, you know, I'm going to be talking to people. I really appreciate the concern. You know,

I don't know what to make of it, but I hope that we'll find out. But I'm fine. Okay, so your health is okay? Everything's good? You're still touring? Everybody's happy?

I'm just getting ready to go out on tour. Oh, might as well promote it. Where are you going right now? I'm down in the southeast, actually. I'm playing five states down in the southeast. We're doing 10 shows in 11 days. So I hope that I'm sure i'll be able to handle that okay oh my goodness gordon you have no idea i'm standing here and i'm shaking

like a leaf because when i heard about this can you do me a favor can you wait a couple more years before i have to do your obit please oh yes indeed i will rudy that's very kind of you okay my friend i'll let you go thank you for calling into the 680 News Studios. Good to hear that you're still alive, my friend. Thank you. That's a great clip. Yeah, that's one of my favorites. And a total tribute to Rudy

having built a relationship with Gordon. It's what happens any time on Twitter and or X when you see a celebrity name trending, right? You're like... I'm going to call it Twitter if that's okay, if you missed your Apple. But when I was on Twitter this morning,

I saw Don Cherry's name was trending. And naturally my first thought is, did Don Cherry die? Yeah. But he didn't die, everybody. There's an example of a rigid, a station with a rigid format. Yet, you know,

we can drop it and put Gordon Lightfoot on live and Rudy can talk to him and it's fun. You know what I mean? No, that's a fantastic clip. And that was 2010, you tell me. So the man, yeah, he went another 13 great years and we sadly did just lose Gordon Lightfoot.

Wow. There's quite a conversation with Dave Hodge in the Toronto Mike feed. I listened to that and that was spectacular. He told some great Gordon Lightfoot stories. It's all Dave, man. Yeah, he was tearing up in that chat and you can hear it. It was something special. So he lost his friend, friend Gord.

Okay. So Mike, you told me you're going to getting hip to the hip. Yes. That's the plan. Okay. Did you use my promo code? I did. So good.

You saved 10%. I did. Excellent. Thank you. No. Well, thank you for using it. And I will, can I sit beside you? Sure.

Is this a sit-down? No, this is not a sit-down event, is it? I don't actually think so. Tomorrow, you'll want to tune into this. Tomorrow morning, Jamie Du, who's organizing the Getting Hip to the Hip event, is going to join me here. We're going to kick out our favorite covers of Tragically Hip Songs. You know, Jake's going to be mad at me. Don't you think it's awkward?

So I just said we're going to kick out our favorite covers of Tragically Hip Songs. Don't you think it's awkward to say we're going to kick out our favorite covers of the Tragically Hip Jams? Don't you think that it sounds better without the? That's a good question. You're a broadcaster.

No, I'm fine. We've never seen you on Breakfast Television. I think it's fine either way. Okay. I broadcaster. No, I'm fine. I've seen you on breakfast television. I think it's fine either way. Okay. I don't think you have to be so specific. Jake disagrees with you. He wants the in there. So, okay.

Okay. So we're going to kick out the tragically hip covers of the tragically hips and we're going to get the details. So he's going to basically paint the picture so we can visualize this event. Cause I know it's got a cover band. I know that Sean Cullen's going to be there. He's a funny guy. He's an FOTM. And I kind of, I know there's going to be band. I know that Sean Cullen's going to be there. He's a funny guy. He's an FOTM.

And I know there's going to be a live recording of Getting Hip to the Hip. And I know this is for the Downey Wenjack Fund. And I know it's September 1st. And I know that it is, the promo code is FOTM10. FOTM10. You can save 10%. So tomorrow, Jamie Dew is going to explain everything.

Is it a sit-down? Is it a stand-up? Regardless, Apple, I want to be with you. Alright. Alright, so everybody who's invited, you know, Richard, we want to see you at getting hip to the hip. Come on. Get out there. Save 10%. FOTM10. Okay, one more event I'm going to tell you about here before we get back to these

awesome 680 clips that Scott has sent me. Pumpkins After Dark. Okay, this is a big event. This is in Milton. Bring your kids, your grandkids, your uncles, your aunts, your cousins, everybody. Pumpkins After Dark. I have a promo code in August that saves you 15%. T-O-Mike15. Go to pumpkinsafterdark.com. You get more details. We've been working with Pumpkins After Dark in the past, and then there's a pandemic, and then it became this thing where like a non-contact event.

But now we're back to normal, everybody. It's in Milton, Ontario. And that event runs from, I don't know, it runs to Halloween. When does it start? Do you know, Mike Epple? You listen to Trump. No, but I've driven past it.

It's just off the south side of the 401, right? By the Agricultural Historical Museum the agricultural historical museum grounds there. Yes, sir. And it does start. I now have the dates here. September 23rd to October 31st. So by now save 15% with T.O. Mike one five driven past and I've always gone.

We should stop and check this out because it looks quite impressive from the highway tickets in advance because the lineups going in were long. It's an award-winning event, and it's damn cool. So everybody get your Halloween on there at Pumpkin's After Dark. You can bring your pumpkin spice latte to Pumpkin's After Dark. It's on sale now. It's Pumpkin's Spice Latte Day. Is that today?

Today. I celebrate it every year. This is exciting news. It's too soon. It's 20 years today. It's too early. today yeah it's too early it's too early because kids aren't even back it needs to be after labor day absolutely because you first get the kids back to school because you know when the x ends and we go back

so then you have like a new that's a demarcation line and then you can kind of ease into this the other shocking thing about that not to get off topic is the fact that it's been around it's been around 20 years there is there's a great pumpkin beer at Great Lakes. I'm really enjoying this Great Lakes beer, by the way. Okay, so that's good to hear, because Great Lakes has ruined me for other beers. Like when I'm out and I'm at a restaurant that doesn't... I'm disappointing Scott again.

I hate this. No, listen, you're allowed to drink. You're off the clock here. So today, let me ask you about today quickly here before we move on to the next clip. what hours did you work today i was up at four o'clock as i typically am i am still working from home going into the office once in a while but so where where were you heard like in the rogers family where were you heard today where like like like like so yes exactly everywhere no i was on bt and 680 this

morning and yeah that's that's the detail we want to hear heard in vancouver heard in uh right uh ottawa oh yes right of course all the affiliate the affiliates that we thank you richard for reminding me of all the stations that we actually send content to. Look at you. Because it's all, again, that has been the growth of the format helped out by the fact that we can do all of this from a digital standpoint. And 680 was so successful in Toronto that they duplicated it right across Canada. When we started, it was all carts and reel-to-reel and all these other old, you didn't even work with reel-to-reel, did you, Southern? No.

No. Well, Southern's like 28 yearsreel, did you, Southern? No. No, no. Well, Southern's like 28, he's 28 years old. Am I right, Richard? So once we were able to send all of these things out digitally, that, you know, helped expand everything. When I started, though,

when we would go live in the field, we'd have a digital recorder, but we'd hold up the cell phone to the digital recorder to get, it was very, I mean, you heard the initial 680 clip and the weather person was on the phone. Where's that music coming from? Is that a ringtone?

I think it's from your phone. Whose phone is that? No, it's not my phone. Gross, is that your phone? Who has a song as a ringtone in this room? Not that I'm angry. It is Mike Epple. What song is that Mike? It's my this day on your photo stream

from certain years. And you know how Apple puts in a musical background for some reason because it was in my. There is a switch you can mute. It's off. The ringer is off. Why is it playing anything? I don't understand, Peter.

We love you, Peter. It was Mike Apple, everybody. Not that anyone heard that except me, but I'm like, where is that music coming from? I mean, it wasn't anything from Scarface. Real quick. So you talked about the old tech that... Say hello to my little friends.

The cockroaches. Not that that was ever on the air. You guys mentioned the old tech that used to get 680 on the news. And I will tell you, if you have those old machines and you don't... I know. You don't throw those out because the... You guys are the best. You don't throw out that old tech, the old electronics.

You recycle them properly by going to recyclemyelectronics.ca and finding out a depot near you where you can safely drop that off. I have a lot of electronics to recycle. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, but I've been telling you for many, many months now. I have old laptops that weigh a ton, and I'm going, what should I do with this? Well, you don't put in the garbage no i know that end up in the land i know that but i also what do they do with the and i

don't again i don't want to get off topic what do they do with a hard drive well you know wipe that maybe and then bring it over to wait how do i do that is there anything incriminating on that hard drive apple that you want to tell us about no No. A lot of tractor pictures. That is true. Probably so. I do have an affinity to farm equipment. So, let's fast forward.

That sounds weird. You know, your tractor, I don't know if recycling electronics takes your tractors or whatever, but okay. I better not. August 10th,

2008. Scott Metcalf, do you remember that day? I do. I do. What happened that day? Thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes because of explosions and fires at the Sunrise Propane

Facility in Downsview. This is about Richard Southern, and we'll get to that. So it was about 3 o'clock in the morning. Richard Southern and Judy Friedman were the co-anchors Sunday morning, and there were a flood of calls from people asking about the explosions and fires. Sure.

So at that moment, Richard made a terrific decision, really creative. He decided that he would go to the scene and leave Judy as the solo anchor, which is unusual. Usually you need the two people to run the thing. And he was one of the first reporters to get there to see the destruction it's sunday august 10th good morning i'm judy friedman 12 degrees and partly cloudy in downtown toronto and here's what's making news this hour and we have breaking news from downsview area where dozens of powerful explosions early this morning has led to the evacuation of a number of people in the Keele and Wilson area.

680's Richard Southern is live at the scene and joins us now with the latest. Richard, exactly what is going on? Well, hey there, Judy. I just arrived on scene here in the Keele and Wilson area just a moment ago. We have a massive fire here. Officers on the scene are telling me that it is at a propane refinery, of course. Now, we're not going to go ahead and say that's an official word because they're just in their cruisers, of course.

A huge emergency response here. But again, they are telling me this is a propane refinery, and I have every reason to believe that is the case. The air is just thick with the smell of propane here. I am not far from the blaze. I'm looking at the flames billowing up high into the smell of propane here. I am not far from the blaze. I'm looking at the flames billowing up high into the air right now, Judy. Thick black smoke encompassing about one or two city blocks here. As 680 News has been reporting this morning, this entire area being

evacuated by police. They are going door to door here, getting everyone out of their homes and away. Of course, with all the streets closed off, as you heard from Penn, I had to walk my way into the area. As I did so, pretty much every single person outside in front of their house talking with their neighbors, comparing stories. They all heard a large series of explosions this morning. Those bangs are continuing to happen sporadically here, presumably perhaps propane tanks going up.

A blaze, as far as I can see from my vantage point, Judy, does not appear to be spreading at this point. But again, a very active blaze. Live on senior, Akeelan Wilson, Richard Southern, 680 News. Good job, Richard. Thank you. I'll never forget that. I mean, the 680 studio at the time is where it is now in the, in the Bloor and Jarvis area. And it was three o'clock Sunday morning.

We were leading Judy and I with it's going to rain tomorrow. It was a slow news day. Right. And we heard, we felt at the newsroom shake and we said, what is this? And I remember going on the Canada geological website thinking this was an earthquake.

And can I confirm that this was an earthquake? And at the same time, we started to receive calls of people reporting a big blaze. And they were calling from the West End. It took a few calls, Mike, before I connected the fact that what they were talking about in the West End was likely what I felt in the East End. And it was at that point I knew we got a big story here at three in the morning on a Sunday. Never proclaim out loud that it's a slow news day. Yeah, exactly. And it always happens when you're least expecting it

in the middle of the night on a weekend. That's right. That's incredible. I was thinking of Hank Hill from King of the Hill. Can I tell you something? Oh, hold on. My Hank Hill quote is, he sells propane and propane accessories.

Propane accessories. Okay, Rich. The episode when his wife started cooking with charcoal and he couldn't believe it. I'm a big yes. My second favorite adult cartoon is King of the Hill. If I may, it speaks to the fact that we are, until this day, live 24-7.

There's nobody else doing news on the air overnight anymore. Let's talk about that because back in the day when I was a young man, you had Storm and Norman Rumack and you had these different people that were live overnight on our airwaves. Like, are they live on 1010? No. No.

What about Jim Richards? Is he live on 1010? He might be live for a bit. In the evening. In the evening. Oh, yeah, that's right. Then they replay it overnight. Paul Cook mentioned this yesterday about when he was working overnights,

how many other great names in radio news were also working overnights on all of the AM, and he was on FM, on CHFI, doing overnight news years ago. So, I mean, it's changed dramatically. Okay, so tonight,

what is this now? This is Thursday, August 24th. You guys are the first episode I've ever done on an August 24, which I find interesting. Very few days like that. Christmas, there's very few days now. You're making history, Richard Southern tweeted that earlier today. So tonight,

let's say 3 in the morning. So at 3 in the morning, if I go just, you know, play with my, do I have a dial anymore on my radio? I don't know. Let's pretend. I do over here. On your phone streaming. If I start cruising radio stations, let's start with the AM dial here. Is anyone else in the GTA live at 3 a.m.?

No. We can confidently say that's not the case, right? What I would say, AM, yeah. I don't think there is anybody. Now, what I'd say about FM is CBC would have live newscasts, but I think the other programming around that is recorded. Coast to coast, maybe. Yes.

I was thinking that, too. Open up the West of the Rockies line. That might be about it. But, you know, I always liken the station to the convenience store, the Rabba Foods or whatever, at the end of your block, that's open if you need milk at three in the morning on Christmas Day. We're there all the time when you need us type of thing.

And the immediacy. You went right to the scene. Boom. Done. Even on TV, you couldn't necessarily make that happen. No, that's right. Television's got a lot more moving, many more moving parts. Radio and its simplicity of turning on a microphone, go live. Or a phone.

And I just want to point out that there were many people who probably would have called for a reporter to go there. And it would have taken some time to get somebody, you know, out of bed and all the rest of it. It was a great initiative

that Richard had just to go. And great by Judy to take on all of the work and sometimes circumstance also works in your favor i remember leah walker driving by the on the 401 by pearson international when that air france jet went off the off the runway yeah she was just happened to be there at the time stopped stopped on the side yeah live and she was the first person to say i see a bus leaving up until then authorities were saying nothing she said i see a bus filled with people leaving the airplane and that was the first indication that there were survivors and again nobody died in that crash but and then she stayed there as long as she could and

eventually the police said you gotta go arrest go or we're going to arrest you. But she got the main point. The fact that at 3 a.m. that day when the news was breaking, there were two human beings live working. There would have been three because there was somebody on traffic. Wow. Okay. So today you guys are basically the last station.

You mentioned CBC on the FM dial. That's pretty cool, don't you think? I always loved, what I always loved about radio was that it was live and local, and that's less and less the case today. But that's still the case 24 hours a day on 680. That's it. Bless you, boys.

See, there's 24 hours out of the day you could listen, Toronto Mike. You know, just saying. Just saying. Richard, I only have two ears. And we've had so, you know, in the business department alone, we've had a number of sort of play-by-play events that's part and parcel to listening to find out what's happening right now and i can remember you know 97 the collapse of brie x for example we had camera crews coming into our newsroom

to film in this case me talking about how the stock was plunging on a moment by moment basis right you know things like that or the or the financial collapse of 2007 or the night of brexit in the uk was doing business. We tape it at the end of the day. I taped it all. I went home. I was eating dinner. I was watching CNN. Oh my goodness, they're voting to leave. The financial markets are crashing. I went back to work and I worked all

night long. How late did we stay up? We stayed up all night the night that Trump got elected. You and I were up all night the night Trump got elected. Watching the markets plunge. And then they bounce back. It was weird. But that's the kind of people

that work there, Mike, is they care so much that they'll come in at the snap of a finger just to be there when things are breaking. And that's fantastic. All right.

Speaking of breaking news, there was more breaking news on October 22nd, 2014. What happened that day, Mr. Metcalf? Yeah, this of breaking news, there was more breaking news on October 22nd, 2014. What happened that day, Mr. Metcalf? Yeah, this is another great... You didn't go to school with Cormac, right? No, you went to school with Colin DeMello. Who else was there?

Judy Friedman. Judy Friedman, yeah, at Seneca. Jackie Crandall. That's right, Cormac went to Humber, I think, Humber. Anyway, so October 22nd, 2014, a gunman opened fire on Parliament Hill. Corporal Nathan Cirillo, on ceremonial sentry duty, was killed at the National War Memorial, a shocking, tragic event. The gunman then managed to get into the center block at Parliament Hill,

which was, again, another shocking thing. That's where the House of Commons and the Senate Chamber are. So 680 Parliament Hill reporter Cormac Miscwini was in the centre block at that moment. He was on the phone with editor Betty Harrison and planning out today's coverage. So when the shooting started, Cormac stayed on the phone with Betty, and he also had the presence of mind, and this is just amazing. He had a second phone that he used to record interviews. He turned on that phone to record himself running from the gunshots. So he thought it was a shotgun. Somebody had said it was a shotgun.

So he says in the clip, it's a shotgun, but it was a rifle. But who knows, you know, in that marble and sandstone, you hear the echoing of guns, you don't know. You know, in that marble and sandstone, you hear the echoing of guns, you don't know. So here is the full audio of Cormac McSweeney as he was running for cover as the shots were being fired. I don't know. There's a bunch of gunshots. Where do we go? Where do we go?

Where do I go? This way? Okay, thank you. Yeah, are you rolling on me right now? Okay. I'm in a security office right now. Apparently, somebody has walked up to the front steps of Parliament Hill. A single guy came in with a shotgun there were yes yes go put me on air right now wow that's uh gave me chills right there

wow yeah and so betty harrison put him on live at that point and and that's when people first heard about what had happened and it was still happening when he was on the air and uh he won a international award for that, right? Yeah, the RTDNA in the United States gives out the Edward R. Murrow Awards, and they give out regional awards. Peter Gross, who has won, I think, at least two, five. Peter Gross has won five Edward R. Murrow Awards? For writing.

He deserves them. We would always submit Peter's writing. Great writer. Fantastic. So I didn't know it was five. Peter's writing. Great writer. Fantastic. So I didn't know it was five. That's fantastic. Before we get back to Cormac,

there's these sovereign awards, right? For coverage of horse racing things. And these are typically going towards large enterprises like Woodbine Entertainment or whatnot. But Peter Gross and his Down the Stretch podcast has been nominated multiple times. Am I right, Peter? If two is multiple. Multiple, Peter? If two is multiple. Multiple, yes.

But two is multiple. Well, it's fun to brag about it. Yes, Down the Stretch podcast has been nominated two years in a row in Outstanding Audiovisual. There are three nominations every year. Every year, Woodbine Entertainment gets nominated. They've got millions of dollars of technology and editing and cameras they have a team and alberta racing produces great stuff

every year and then the third nominee is always down the stretch and and that's out of a pool of three submissions wait wait firstly do you know that for a fact there's no no you're making that up you're such a humble man okay that's a huge to me that's amazing that you yourself and you you yourself and you are nominated for uh that sovereign the more important question is peter did you have the eight to one king's plate winner no no but if you listen to the next down the stretch podcast i had a great interview with mark Mark Cassie in which I chastised him. I interviewed him in Saratoga. And the first thing I said to him in the interview was,

could you not have told me about this horse at 8 to 1? I had Jim Lawson on City News 680, the CEO of Woodbine, and he picked the correct horse. It baffles me why I would not pick a horse ridden by patrick husbands and trained by mark cassie's wins cassie and cassie and and husbands win an extraordinary percentage

like over half of all the snakes races so even though there's 20 other jockeys and 50 other trainers and so any anyway said no surprise that you got five edward r murrow awards i do want to ask are there any other edward r murrow award winners in this room besides peter gross well scott how did i was so go ahead i was gonna ask have haven't you been honored yeah but as the news director i sort of get you know lumped in with all this stuff but you're also a humble man much like what i want to say though is is peter won the regional awards so there's like there's like 12 uh regions in the united states and then they have one for canada i think it's 13 in the states and we're region 14 canada and the rest of the world so peter's won in that group five times wow it's rare to win

the international award that's where they pull all. It's rare to win the International Award. That's where they pull all the Americans and all around the world, and then they decide. And Cormac won that one. And Cormac won that one, and that is extremely rare. And he got to go to New York and to the ceremony to accept the award. All right, congratulations to Cormac. That's amazing that he won that award, Cormac McSweeney.

Okay, and that's a great clip as well is there another podcast that aired that clip that I should know about City News 680 30 years in the rear view mirror and I thank you very much I actually might send an invoice to Rogers and just see what happens will they pay this invoice

not after all the other things we've been talking about today but speaking of Peter we have the next clip. We're always speaking of Peter on Toronto Mic'd. So, and then Edward R. Murrow Awards, you have the Toronto Mic Hall of Famer, Peter Gross, right? Wow. So Peter is like one of the most creative writers I've ever seen. And this probably won one of those five awards this audio that we have so uh it was in 2008 peter would structure

his sports cast that included a bunch of oscar references from the academy awards presented the night before so this is monday morning this is peter gross at his magical best this is a special tribute to the oscars sports cast there will be blood of the Maple Leafs blue variety in Matt Sundin's veins tonight when the Leafs skate with the Senators in Kanata. Sundin told Cliff Fletcher, I'm not there if you're talking trade. Though many American clubs wanted him, the 37-year-old Sundin held fast to his no-trade clause, meaning the U.S. is no country for old men, though the Eastern promises to exclude Toronto from its playoffs.

Atonement for the Raptors as they punish the Knicks, 115-92. They did it with a rat-tat-tat of threes and a rat-tat-tat of twoies. 25 points for Andrea Bagnani. Now the Raptors are gone, baby, gone to run with the Pacers tonight in Indy. Timu Solani was the right man for the Ducks last night. Three goals and two assists as Anaheim pushed over Chicago 6-3. Janot, that makes Solani the 25th all-time scorer with 546 goals. Calgary skated into the wild 2-1.

Manitoba's Jennifer Jones yelling, Paige, playoff is great, was not intimidated by Alberta's Shannon Kleibrink. Jones got away from her to capture the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with a 6-4 victory in the championship game. Tiger Woods, wearing his traditional red jersey, La Vie en Rose, won the match play championship, flattening

Stewart's sink 8-7. When it comes to golf, to Cohen a phrase, Woods the match play championship flattening Stewart's sink eight and seven. When it comes to golf, to Cohen a phrase, Woods is the American gangster. It's win or nothing. Apparently Woods was born with that ultimatum. Well, that's my cue.

All scores and statistics in this sportscast were tabulated by Price Waterhouse. No writers were injured in the making of this broadcast. Sports at 15 and 45 past every hour or anytime at 680news.com.

And it's also the audio that you mixed in there. That is also one of your major talents. Thank you. I love doing that. Anything to deviate from the typical reading of scores. Well, you've already told us you don't really care for sports, do you? I feel like you're saying hallelujah, you don't care for sports. I want to put up with the sleeping in Captain.

I do if I've got a bet on the game. But see, those are the... You guys were ahead of the sports betting game. You were ahead of the market talking about live betting. All of celebrities are talking about it now. You think there'd be a position for someone

who has an expertise in odds and point spreads. And you can bet within the game. Yes, you can. Now, earlier in this program, we dropped the name Mark Daly, The Voice. And I just want to take this opportunity to play a little bit of him. The following program contains adult themes, nudity, and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Any excuse, right, Apple, if i can play that clip on the other thing too is is the change in the

branding for 680 and and mark yeah is a great uh lead into that so it was 680 news for many years and then it became city news 680 because they had thought for many years they had thought about combining the two newsrooms and calling it City News 680. And that was uncomfortable because 680 News was so iconic. But when they made the change of production and they hear the introduction for the newscast, it's City News 680 everywhere. So that's the blending. And I hear Mark Daly's voice as part of that. So to me, as I said in the podcast,

City News 680, 30 years in the river. I said that it goes back to Shakespeare. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So a news station is just as useful as it was. And I say to the people who work there that the brand is you and you are the brand. It's what you do day after day after day after day that matters. And so City News 680 will become the brand and that's fine. And the people there are still doing a great job. Now, Scott, on that note, so you happily retired, right?

I've had you on this program to talk about retiring, but you seem very involved. Is it just you came back for this special project? Well, what happened was you were the catalyst. Whoa, slow down. Now I'm interested. You were the catalyst. So what happened was we did the session on the fan.

Yep. And as I was walking back to my car after we chatted i thought well there's got to be something for 680 like it's next year is 30 years so what do we do like we can come on toronto mike and that's great and it's a wonderful way to pay tribute to the station i said but the station should do something so i wrote up an outline of uh six shows, five-year chunks in each show, and I sent it to Amber, and I said,

here, you guys should do this. And then she got back to me later in the year, like, I don't know, maybe in April, I think, and said, we think it's a great idea. We want you to do it. There's no one better for that job. No, seriously. She took it on with you. It was a great idea. We want you to do it. There's no one better for that job. Never recommend an idea. No, seriously.

I took it on with you. It was a labor of love. Yeah, and it is so well produced. It is so well produced. Well, Scott Metcalf, I mean, it's his second appearance, but I already know from these episodes, these are the most produced episodes of Toronto Mike because Scott sends me notes and their clips,

and I'm like, okay, I know exactly what I'm doing here. So, Scott, you did a great job on this episode. What's the name of that other podcast? City News 680, 30 Years in the Review Mirror. But we really wanted to do that. Everybody wanted to do that. That's a tribute to the station. And also, I hope it's used for journalism students,

that teachers use it to have the kids listen to as, as a lesson in, in great radio. So in the Rogers family, so we just talked about how, uh, all new, sorry, all sports,

1430 slash five 90 had a 30 year anniversary. Now six 80, which is now city news. Six 80 has a, uh, 30 year anniversary. I've been having chats with FOTM, Brad Fay and Brad Fay has been having chats with FOTM Brad Fay, and Brad Fay has been having chats with FOTM Jamie Campbell.

And Brad and Jamie are very psyched to come over and talk about Sportsnet, which is hitting 25 years. So no shortage of milestone anniversaries in the Rogers Communications office. Exactly. That'd be a great show. Yeah, well, they're both gung-ho. We're just waiting for permission from their overlords. Scott lived and breathed

680 News. This guy was there late at night. He was there on the weekends. He had no life. When you're live 24-7, as we talked about, you need someone in charge who, I guess, is watching and listening 24-7, and that was you, Scott. So here's how I want to close things.

You guys have been incredible, and I've thoroughly enjoyed this, but I want to go around the horn here, and starting with you, Richard, and then we'll end with Mike here, and I just want to know what is your personal favorite memory of your time serving on your... A couple of you are still there. You're still active, but what is your favorite memory of your time? A couple of you are still there. You're still active.

But what is your favorite memory of your time at 680? Let's start with you, Richard. Southern, that's how you say your last name, right? Really appreciate you having me back on. Just don't call me late for dinner, Toronto Mike. Well, you're getting the palma pasta already, Richard. Love it. It's been a privilege, you know, I mean,

to be a part of so many big events, you know, covering provincial politics. And so a lot of that comes to mind covering the election last year, which we won a group RTNDA award for. But, you know, I remember... I hate to interrupt, but what is an RTND? Because it's been dropped a few times. But what is that award? We now know what the Edward R. Murrow Awards are, but what are the RTND? There are two organizations, one in Canada, one of the united states the radio television digital news association in both countries so you have it in the states they give out the edward r murrow awards in canada it's mostly just the rtdna awards although there is a dick smith award for sound and they do give names to some of them as

well okay so how many rt how say those letters again. RT DNA, DNA. DNA. So how many RT DNA awards have been won by the four of you in this room? I was just part of the overall news coverage, which we, it's a big team at the station. So very honored to be part of that. Okay. But a quick memory. I was covering the G20 when it was in Toronto, which, as you may remember, shut down the city. Scott sent all the reporters and myself to army training. We had a gas mask on.

And I remember they kettled everyone very controversially on Spadina. And we stood there, and I stood there in the pouring rain all afternoon and evening, going live on 680 every half an hour. And I was completely drenched when I got back to the station. And standing there was Scott Metcalf with a fresh T-shirt and a towel for me. And I always remember that. Great to work with. And working with Mike and Peter taught me so much.

So it's been a great ride. And I appreciate you having us on to talk about it. Well, Richard, any excuse to get you back on Toronto, Mike? Do you know that? You need your lasagna, buddy. So thank you for being here. I don't need the lasagna, but thank you, Mike. I do have a little note, just because we're live at live.torontomike.com.

And Moose Grumpy will be at TMLX 13 on September 7th from 6 to 9 p.m. with Apple, Southern, and I. I didn't catch whether Metcalf would be there. He's very busy now. He's very... Sure, if Apple's there, I'm there. All right. Look at this. And Peter Gross has would be there. You're going to make it there? He's very... Sure, if Apple's there, I'm there. All right. Look at this.

And Peter Gross has to be there. Otherwise, I'm going to delete down the stretch the podcast. Okay. So Moose Grumpy just wants Scott to know that she's going to be suggesting to her future journalism student, her son, who we called on this show,

I called him Welcome Matt, but Moose Grumpy's calling him doormat. I don't think doormat is as nice as welcome Matt, but Matt is going to be a journalism student and she's going to have him listen to say the name one more time of that podcast. Oh, uh, city news, six 80,

30 years in the rear view mirror. Reminds me of a Pearl Jam song, a rear view mirror. Okay. So Moose Grumpy, thank you for the note. Now we go to Scott Metcalf. Scott Metcalf, final thoughts. What's your favorite memory of your time at 680?

I don't have a specific memory. It's just the people I've worked with. And what I'll say about that is I love helping young people get started. And that was one of the great things. Richard as an intern, Cormac was an intern. It was just wonderful to work things. Richard is an intern. Cormac was an intern. It was just wonderful to work with them and see them advance. So you can tell Moose Grumpy, and you have my cell phone number.

You can pass it on to her son, and I'm happy to talk with him. Amazing. Because I love that. I just, I think it's, and we need that. We really need that in this, because it's a tough business. But it's such a necessary business. I mean, look at the great work that has been done, not just by 680 News, but all news businesses and the stories that they ferret out. It's necessary. Scott, I'm with you 100%.

So necessary, so important to a vibrant democracy like we have here in Canada. But I feel undervalued in this country. I see merging of newsrooms. There seems to be fewer bodies on the ground. It just seems like it's underappreciated. I don't disagree with you there. I think also, though, that people are very creative. And I think there will be people who will find ways to get the news out.

And it's easier now. You don't need big towers to send out. No, we're broadcasting right now. That's it. So I think there will be ingenious people who will figure out and find a way to get enough revenue to keep that going, I hope. So I'm optimistic about the future. The only other thing I'd say about

680 News was what the people do in there is astounding. Like Mike Epple and Richard Southern are astounding. They will do an entire business cast and have nothing written down. Nothing written down. They're just looking at screens and numbers and scrolling through and something might pop up in that moment where they say oh look at this this stock has done this it is amazing to watch these people work and it's the same for the people in the control room and i remember when i first got there and i was so lucky that john hinnant hired me as the news director i almost blew that and that's part of the podcast story the story in there. But I remember coming in and thinking, you know, what I had been doing was five-minute newscasts at the top and bottom of the hour.

And that's kind of like the Beatles doing I Want to Hold Your Hand. What 680 News was doing was Sgt. Pepper's. You know, there were tons of people, tapes playing backwards, stuff happening, and I just remember looking at it and going, how do they do this? This is like I can't even understand how all of this gets done and so that to me was just so i was so fortunate to work with those people and learn how the how the system worked and full credit to them breaking news i feel like i'm 680 right now breaking news moose Grumpy is in tears. This is her speaking here.

That is so amazing, Scott. She goes, she's honestly in tears with your graciousness. So expect a call from Welcome Matt at some point soon. He can text me. You can give him my cell phone number. He can text me and we'll set up a time to talk. Amazing. So Moose, bring that to

Matt. Break this news to him at dinner tonight. Peter Gross, you were the second voice ever heard on 680 News on that day in 1993. Second voice after Dick frickin' Smythe. I can't believe that you and I, I can't believe that we even know each other. Peter Gross. You're so blessed, aren't you? Are you kidding me?

And I love it when you visit because I don't have to warn you about hitting your head on the ceiling. Like, it's such a relief that it's not even a concern. I love it. I love it. What's your favorite memory of 680? And how many push-ups can you do? I do 100 every morning.

Wow. I'm juggling three here. going to the 1997 world cup in france was an amazing experience but i'm not gonna talk about that did you go to the game no no no i had no pass i i reported from the field outside the stadium you're living the life yeah um secondly um mike mike referred to this the time i accidentally channeled al pacino from scarface swearing off the top of a sportscast was was one of the greatest can you recreate it what did you say um that wasn't what you said um or you played a clip with swears in it yeah yeah can i well i'm gonna say this is not rogers this is not 680 it was during the the hockey lockout in whatever year

and and 94 maybe i'm trying to remember. Okay. It might have been 94. And over and over and over they kept saying, Peter, do a story on the lockout. Do a story on the lockout. And I'd run out of ideas and things. And what I wanted to do was I wanted to get a clip of Al Pacino going, I'm the bad guy. Okay.

For Gary Bettman. Okay. I was going to reference. Say goodnight to the bad guy. Say goodnight. Say goodnight to the bad guy. Look at me. I'm the bad guy.

When he's in the restaurant with his wife and he's ripped out of his mind. And, um, so it's 10 after five and I'm trying to find that clip on YouTube. Okay. And I, I'm, I'm unaware that I've got the, the switch on that, that when I turn on my mic, we'll put the sound from the movie on air. So, um, and I was, I was going to refer to Gary Bettman. When I turn on my mic, we'll put the sound from the movie on air. So, and I was going to refer to Gary Bettman. I was going to make a reference to Gary Bettman, then cut in.

Look at me, I'm the bad guy. And so then the anchor in the morning, and it wasn't Paul Cook, it was the kids overnight, says, and now sports, here's Peter Gross. And at that precise moment, the clip from the movie was Al Pacino going, you're all fucking assholes! And that's what went on there. Richard, if I may look at you, I would listen nonstop with that kind of activity.

And the anchors just, we'll be back in a moment. Not our finest hour. That's an amazing story. Did anyone complain? Well, people thought it was me. People thought that i was having some screaming yelling argument in the newsroom and i remember john hennig called me and john was like john in a moment of crisis was always like the calmest guy in the world and he says what happened and i said well i i was trying looking for this clip didn't realize that and he said okay that's fine however by the way john uh anybody have any uh chats with john lately like how's john doing he's great yeah oh yeah you're off mic there's like i've had a chat with john he's doing great he's got two grandkids life is good okay happy to hear that happy okay but

i'm going to identify now the greatest moment of my 6'8". And I was there from 2000, 2004, and from 2000... 93. And you were there in 93. Yeah, 93 to 2000. Yeah, 93 to... I'm sorry, 93 to 2000.

We know, because we just heard that clip from... In 2004 to 2000 and... Whenever the... To 1818. But 2019... I've said this many times. This was the greatest moment. From 2004 to 2000, whenever the, to 18, whenever it was. But 2019. I've said this many times.

This was the greatest moment, one of the greatest moments of my life. It was six o'clock in the morning, and Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to promote the fact that they had hot wings. And they brought in a bucket of 100 hot wings, and everybody in the newsroom was like, fried chicken at six o'clock in the morning so I ate half of them. I heard this story from Gene Valaitis told me this story about you and the chicken wings. That is quite something. That's his favorite story. I love that. No, to this day,

the most wonderful, one of the most, not the most wonderful morning of my life, but up there, top 10. Top 10. And they wonder why do I love peter gross so much that is incredible peter thanks for being here you were the surprise guest uh didn't even uh promote it i'm surprised to be here and i i'm surprised that i was so clear because i can even see now the side door is a jar because i envisioned you bursting through like the uh like i said the kool-aid guy the kool-aid

man and monica was just up there to get the beers and she's like, I need to lock the door. She said, Peter just waltzed in while she was on a call like for one of the big banks and was like, okay. That's funny. I got to go back to the records. Did I say side door? Anyway, thank you for being here, Peter.

You're amazing. Everybody should subscribe to Down the Stretch. This is the definitive Ontario horse racing podcast and Peter is so gifted. We will close here with Bojana's favorite broadcaster. Shout out to Bojana. Mr. Mike Apple, my biggest fan. What an honor

it is to be Mike Apple's favorite podcaster. You like my podcast more than this 30th anniversary podcast. No, it's good too. It's really good. Give's really good. Give it a listen. Hey Ref is on the live stream to say he did listen, Scott. And Hey Ref says, I want to quote him properly.

He says, the 30-year pod was good. And he put an exclamation mark on the end. So you can get that printed up for the blurb or whatever. Okay, Mike Epple, take us home, brother. We can get that printed up for the blurb or whatever. Okay, Mike Epple, take us home, brother. I'm going to be very sentimental because I have to think back to all the people who I've worked with, who for the most part have been pretty darn fantastic. I made great friends at 680.

Like Peter Gross. Like Peter Gross, one of my best friends. Jeff Verhomen, who is now there, also one of my best friends. Hopefully he's listening who is now there also one of my best friends he's hopefully he's listening to hear this because hey make a listen valid validation no look scott hired me at the fan years ago you know there was a great opportunity to do all sports at that time john hinnon um somehow saw something in me to do business. Now I did have a little background in that coming in, but you know, that that's been my career. It's when I think about it, everything that that's provided, you know, to me and my family, um, John was also, uh, willing to say goodbye when I decided to go try television and did

that for five years. go try television and did that for five years. And over that course of time, realized that my true love was radio. And because I had had such a good connection with 680, never burned bridges or anything of that nature, came back to 680. Now leaving, you know,

I did meet my wife at CTV and, you know, that, and that's, that's been great. But, but from a work standpoint, coming back to 680 was always my, my home. And Scott, you were there at that time at 680, how everything kind of the confluence

of events. So everything kind of came back together. So, uh, yeah, just work with some great people and it's a success, you know, and that, and that in and of itself, I find my, you know, very know very fortunate uh the fact that 680 city news 680 excuse me is as successful as it is because we have seen other stations go by the wayside or draconian cuts by corporations who maybe don't value the on-air content as much and they look more just the the bottom line and i and, you know, going back to, you know, what Moose Grumpy was talking about,

encouraging tomorrow's journalism students. We've heard about, you know, people saying, oh, I don't know if I want to get into journalism because I don't know the future of it. 680, it's going to be there. And the future is, there is still a future in journalism and it is still very bright for those willing to be inquisitive and be, you know, wanting to know specifically the latest or whatever is going on on City News 680. Mike Epple, you did that unscripted, and it was incredible.

I now have evidence of your creative genius. Wow. Okay, so around the horn, I got to say thank you to Richard Southern. We've turned Toronto Mike into a 680 fan today. I'm so excited. I root so hard for 680. You have no idea.

I'm going to text you tomorrow morning to tune in. 5 a.m. Let me know what time my shout out is. Everybody, we were on Toronto Mike's yesterday.

That's when I'm going to be tuning in. Put your mic flash on to remind you. There you go. Thank you, Scott Metcalf, for the clips and for these gifts. This is incredible. I got some biking stuff, and I love this mic flash.

I love it so much. Thank you, Scott Metcalf. Thank you again, Peter Gross, FOTM Hall of Famer. What more can I say? And thank you to future FOTM Hall of Famer, Mike Epple, who loves you, man. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 1,312th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. All right, one more time around the horn because I can't even keep track anymore. Richard, how would you like people to follow you on social media? At RichardCityNews on Twitter. And if radio isn't your thing, and I don't know why it's not, every day at 6.40pm on City News on the TV. Fun little

segment we do where we talk about all sorts of fun stuff. And Scott, how can people follow you on social media? On Twitter, it's Metcalf680News. And Peter, I know you don't check Twitter, but you are Peter the Gross on Twitter, but you don't actually, like, you don't ever tweet.

I'll give you my grandson's number. He understands all that stuff. All right. Well, Peter, if you want to get a hold of Peter, just reach out to me. I'm Mike at TorontoMike.com, and I'm on Twitter as TorontoMike. And here's the Epman. I know this. On Twitter, you can follow Mike Epple at Epman. Is there another social media

place? Not to be confused with Batman. No, never. Which is where I stole that from. That was the original idea behind it. Now I know the rest of the story. I'm sort of on Instagram, but infrequently. Thanks for talking media, by the way, Mike. We love that you're the only person who talks media

in Toronto, and we appreciate it. I'm the last person who gives a shit about radio. You can also catch my smiling face on breakfast television at 6.40 in the morning. That's how Bojana recognizes you, from breakfast television. Hey, any truth? Can you tell us who's going to be the new co-host of breakfast television? I am not in a position to. I cannot confirm or deny any rumors.

Because there's a rumor it's Meredith Shaw. Can you confirm or deny those rumors? Cannot say anything. So you know them? I didn't say that. I said nothing. Don't get them in trouble. So you know them. I didn't say that. I said nothing. Don't get him in trouble, he's your buddy. Do you know?

Don't get him in trouble. I can neither confirm nor deny. You can't announce it until Rogers announces it. No, it's not my place. PR would be mad at him. And I've had issues with PR lately, but not Rogers PR. Okay. Great Lakes Brewery.

They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Getting hip to the hip is at Getting Hip Pod. You love it. You're going to get some right now. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. And we have Pumpkins After Dark. They're at Pumpkins Dark.

And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. See you all tomorrow when Jamie Dew and I are going to kick out our favorite covers of the Tragically Hip songs. Shout out to Jake Gold. See you all then. Rosie and Gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms me today

And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray Well, I've kissed you in France And I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name