Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Adam Stiles: Toronto Mike'd #193

Episode Date: September 21, 2016

Mike chats with CityNews Meteorologist Adam Stiles about why he came to Canada from America, Toronto's craft beer scene and the art and science of reporting weather.

Welcome to episode 193 of Toronto Mike, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is City News meteorologist Adam Stiles. Welcome, Adam Stiles. Welcome, Adam. Thanks for having me. Have you ever been mistaken for Adam Wilde? You know what? It happens a lot, but only in sort of the virtual world.

I'm about twice the size of Adam Wilde, and he's about twice as handsome as I am, so... I saw him this morning on the old breakfast television. He's not twice as handsome as you. I'm going to just tell you that right now. Okay, one and a half times. Well, you know, he's from the Toronto media royal family. Absolutely, a pedigree there. Yeah, you can't compete with Adam Wilde. Because when I was spelling your name, I wanted to put a Y in there for Stiles.

And I was thinking to myself, like, why am I doing that? And I realized it's because I see the name Adam Wilde and it's got a Y in there. So I see Adam Stiles. And by the way, have you considered changing it? Stiles with a Y? No, I feel like that just seems a little unauthentic. Already I like you because I'm all about authenticity.

Hey, we have a mutual, I should do, this is full disclosure. You're supposed to disclose these things because I'm a hardcore journalist now. Nice. We have a mutual friend, Troy, who works at Great Lakes Brewery. And he loves you, man.

Just so you know. He's a big Adam... Sorry, he's a big Adam Wilde fan. Oh, okay. No, no, no. Yeah, so he disdains me, loves Adam Wilde, and there was a booking mistake.

Right. Yeah, so tell us more about growing up the son of Marilyn Denner. I got nothing. I could make up stories, but I like Marilyn. I've met her a few times. Sweet lady. Then how come she nicely

declined an invitation to appear on this podcast? Ah, I can't speak to that. I cannot speak to that one. I'll check in with Adam Wilde and find out. Find out, because we're going to stop talking about Adam Wilde right now. Eventually. Adam is a Rogers media person like yourself,

but Marilyn is a Bell Media person, so I'm surprised you can even talk to her. There's no rules. It's not like Anchorman. There's no back alley brawls. That's a good analogy. Since you're on the air, I have a really quick question. On my last episode with Ann Roszkowski, episode 191,

I didn't know I did this, but I got feedback from a loyal listener that I said the word convo too often when I should be saying conversation. Like when you're on the air because you're on television, like you're a big deal, television guy, not even a radio guy, you're a television guy. Do they tell you, hey, don't say convo, say conversation? You know what? I'm a big fan of brevity. So if I can abbreviate something, I have three minutes to fit in a full weather story when

we're doing main weather, 30 seconds on the short stuff. So I don't object to it personally, but some of your listeners might enjoy this. Just this one listener. Arthur, and I hope he's listening now, but I actually at first I was like, who's this idiot?

I say Convo. I'm not a professional. This is all very natural. And then I started thinking, I'll try to say, then I just came and I said, I'll try to say it. Then I came to the realization, I'll try to say conversation. You find yourself repeating words over and over again, and I do this all the time. And that's one of the only reasons why I will actually go back and watch myself is to see what is my crutch word this week.

What am I saying over and over again? And I get a lot of feedback on Twitter from stuff like, you keep saying through the night tonight. And it's like, okay, well, technically that doesn't make sense, but it kind of does in my mind. My buddy Elvis, who's sometimes co-host, won't listen to himself.

He will not listen, but I do listen to myself because I count the many ums I do. If there's a gap, I'll be umming and I'll yell at myself like, you don't need um, ah. Like you can just have silence. And you're listening to yourself

to give yourself some feedback and some critique to improve, not because you just have that big of an ego. It's the opposite. I hate my voice. Although hearing myself 193, almost 193 episodes here, I've started to like get used to my voice,

but I hated my voice. I just wanted to sound like a big FM radio DJ guy. Getting out there Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Here we go. Yeah, we sell you the whole seat, but you only need the edge. I want to sound like that guy. By the way, big fan of Ann Marszkowski as well.

Worked with her for a while. Sweet lady. Yeah, your name came up because I mentioned you were coming on, and she, quote unquote, I love Adam Ann Marszkowski as well. Worked with her for a while. Sweet lady. Yeah, your name came up because I mentioned you were coming on. And she, quote unquote, I love Adam. This is what she said. See, I just pay these people like 20 bucks in the initial introduction. They say nice things.

But afterwards, it turns out she was talking about Adam Wilde. How much of his fan mail have you been hogging? Come on. Real quick update for everybody. Thank you for all your pledges for the Terry Fox run. So that was last Sunday. And it was like, as you know, it was a sunny, warm day. Like, perfect.

I did. So me and my two older kids were biking to High Park for this. And in Mimico, my tire went flat. I popped my tube. And I sent them. I said, go went flat. I popped my tube and I sent them, I said, go on ahead. Don't miss the speeches. Go on without me.

You'll make it. And then, you know, Mimico to Hyde Park, biking is short, but I'm not, I ended up like running with my bike and I have to go up the Colburn Lodge Hill. And it's like, I just wanted to get there for like the 9 a.m. start. You don't have a different gear

you can switch into when you're on foot. You're right. And I'm being, i don't want to wreck my rims on my bike that's expensive right now it's just a tube so i like i'm pouring sweat because it's really humid and i get there and uh you know for the speeches just i get there on time it was amazing and then i decided um enough is enough i have put 9 000 kilometers on these tires which were only supposed to go 5 000 kilometers and i ended up investing in new tires because i was popping too many tubes well it was it was a wonderful summer to be out bike riding like you couldn't have asked for better weather i did ask for that i actually uh maybe a little bit cooler a little less humid i mean you can always ask for better. I actually... Maybe a little bit cooler, a little less humid.

I mean, you can always ask for better weather. You're just not going to get it. What do you think of that? Like a lot of people this summer are saying it's too hot. You must have heard this from a million people. Yeah, just remember that in February is what I say when you're freezing and you say, when's spring coming? When your pipes are freezing and you're like, oh, that 40 degrees wasn't so bad. Everybody has a very short-term memory when it comes to weather.

It's always, this year is the worst. It's never been this bad before. It's quite comical. And if you're my mom, you have only like a three-degree range of like I'm happy. So she'll be like, it'll be 25, which is like gorgeous. She'll be like, oh, it's too hot. I'm staying inside. And then it'll go be like, oh, it's too hot. I'm staying inside. And then it'll go down to like 22.

It's too cold. She's got the three degrees where she's happy. The old sweet spot. And I always say, your life must be tough. Because my range is pretty good. I'm biking out to minus 20. When it gets below minus 20, I'm not happy because my brake sees up and all this. But from minus 20 to like 45 degrees, I'm okay. That's a

huge range. Yeah, that is a huge range. You are definitely in the minority on that. And that covers 99% of our days. Yeah, you're easy. Oh, and also, do you know Liza Fromer? No, I didn't work with Liza. She was before my time at Citi.

Because one of my listeners' feedback on my Liza Fromer interview was, too much Mike, not enough Liza. Now, this is a 90-minute conversation, okay? Not a convo, a conversation. Conversation. 90 minutes. And I don't, like, I just try to talk to people.

But now I realize somebody's going to tell me. Too much Mike, none of Adam. No, no, no. Carry the load here. I have you for three hours, though, right? Exactly. Because we don't have a newscast or anything to do today. Next time we let you talk is when I tell you that

you've drifted off mic and I'm very disappointed. At four o'clock when we're still here, I might have to call and have the live-eye truck roll up. Would you? Can you do a live-eye for me? I don't have that power. Because if you could, I was serious about wanting that. So thank you for pledging my terry fox run i want to say hi to wayne wyland he's a regular listener uh wayne

thanks for listening and go jays go are you a baseball fan i am a baseball fan and i grew up in seattle which right now is a very difficult time for me with this series that is happening as we're recording this. Jays are in Seattle. I'm amazed by the number of Jays fans that are down there that are filling this stadium. It's amazing, right? It's like a home game. They booked this at the beginning of the season.

As soon as the schedule came out, as soon as tickets went on sale, they booked it. So as a former sort of Mariners fan still with one toe in the water, you look at that and you're like, oh man, that's not fair for the Mariners fans because they're in the hunt. Yeah. But it's one of those very difficult times where both teams are in contention. It's like, can you split the series and then will everybody be okay? And then can they both make the playoffs?

But your heart now belongs to Toronto. Yeah. I mean, I've been up here for eight years. And when you get to go to the games and cheer for a team, your allegiances start to... And there's something about it. And I say this as a guy who's only ever lived in one city. So what the heck do I know? But I feel like when you're in it together,

and then when you have the success, and you're all like... Like last year when Batista did the bad flip and we went on to the ALCS, like we were all like so happy and you know, you walk that waterfront trail and everyone with their Jays gear

has a big smile on their face and you're looking at them and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it's something about, like I always feel for people, there's a News Talk 1010 has a reporter named Siobhan

who has been on this show and she, although she was raised in Ontario like the GTA, I think, she swears by the Red Sox and she's passionately rooting for the Red Sox and like here she is, she's on the air in Toronto, surrounded by Toronto

people, and she's rooting against us. How miserable do you have to be to do that? Come on. Absolutely. That's just one of those, you just bite your tongue, I guess. I say you adopt your home team. What is this Boston nonsense? You're not from Boston. At least if you're from Seattle, I can understand.

Yeah. So I always like sports because it brings people together. I feel like they have a common interest. You get to get behind a team. You get to support it. So Jays all the way right now. Usually I used to have an old thing where I'd be like, I'll just root for behind a team. You get to support it. So Jays all the way right now. Usually I used to have an old thing where I'd be like, I'll just root for the home team.

Doesn't work this time around. Right. So as we record, we have the wildcard spot. And it actually looks good for a wildcard. We are not going to win the AL East, but we will be in a wildcard game. And that's going to be like, have you thought? I'm thinking that game is going to be so difficult

to watch. This wildcard game is going to be... I'm already dreading this experience. This is sport. It's going to be tough. I'd like to just put a blood pressure monitor on myself during some of these games. I'm a diehard Seahawks fan on the football side.

My blood pressure must just be incredibly elevated. Dude, at least you've had some recent success. In Toronto, if you exclude like we do the CFL team, our last success was 1993. Yeah. But before that

for the Seahawks, nada. Zip, zero, zilch. It was Dave Craig fumbling over and over again and getting sacked for a recordahawks. Nada. Zip, zero zilch. It was Dave Craig fumbling over and over again and getting sacked for a record amount of time. But we live in the now. Now things are okay. Just ask the Red Sox fans. Suddenly, you know, hey. And if the Cubs win this year, they can

just live in the now as well. Hey, City Brew. So tell me and we're going to... I got lots of meteorology questions and stuff, but because it segues, this segues nicely into the beer before you, but City Brew is your baby, right? Yeah. We were relaunching our 5 o'clock show, our evening supper show, and trying to make it a little bit more lifestyle, a little bit more in Toronto- specific, things that people relate to. And I've always been a big fan of craft beer. And I think that goes back to growing up in Seattle and on the West

Coast. And I just, they said, what are you interested in? Well, I go, I like beer. Like, let's do a beer segment. Let's support our local breweries. Let's support our local economy. And let's bring some new experiences to people that may not venture out and if craft beer has always been somewhat what's the word i'm looking for um intimidating to some people yeah yeah yeah if you've been a if you've been a molson guy or a labak guy all your life or me and the boys that are 50 and Me and the boys that are beer? Yeah. Sometimes it's tough to break that cycle and crack into it. So if we could come up with a way that was somewhat approachable,

answered questions, opened up a dialogue, if you were sort of interested about it, that was my whole goal with it. Since our format has changed, we've had some management changes. We've sort of gone away from doing that on television about a year ago or so. But I love to talk about beer, so anybody wants to hit me up on Twitter, love it. I have a City Brews account you can also hit me up on. But I'm a big fan.

I love the people in the community. If you get a chance to go out to any of the Toronto Beer Week events. Well, let's say right now, right? It's happening right now. This is it. Yeah. Toronto Beer Week. And it happens every September. So there's some really Week events. Well, let's say right now, right? It's happening right now. This is it. Yeah. Toronto Beer Week. And it happens every September.

So there's some really great events. There's a good opportunity to try new things. I think it's just a really fun community to be a part of. And they're very inclusive. Do you have any, like, so I think today's the last day of summer. Yeah. Last full day of summer. So 1021 a.m. tomorrow, the autumnal equinox, fall begins.

And the temperature plummets at that exact minute. You flip a switch, right? Hey, summer's ending. Okay, well, it's the same degree as tomorrow. It might actually sort of pan out that way in the span of about three days. So this weekend is going to be significant. So we're saying goodbye to the 30 degree humidex days. You know what? There may be one or two that

pop up, but they start becoming few and far between here at this point on. Have you had to remove the term Indian summer from your lexicon because it's not politically correct? Well, anytime you bring it up, you do get a couple of tweets about it. I've never really used it.

It's just one of those things. It becomes sort of a about it. I've never really used it. It's just one of those things as it becomes sort of a regular pattern. So why have a special name for it when you sort of expect it? And if you're going to have a name for it, pick another name.

Yeah. Like your Seahawks, offend nobody, not like the Redskins. Well, the bird community, actually the Seahawks aren't even a real bird. Is that right? No, they're not.

I just, this picture went, yeah, okay, so the Seahawks don't exist. There are hawks. I believe there's a military helicopter that is called the Seahawk, but that's not what the logo is, and I don't know where it came from. Now I'm offended.

As an anti-war person, I found a way to be offended by the seahawks so city brew is great uh craft brew people should be uh looking for city brew stuff from adam uh so yeah so and last day of summer where was i going with that yeah last day of summer do you have any like what's a good craft beer in the city for the fall oh put you on the spot some beer questions start to get a lot of the pumpkin beers coming out. There's some people that aren't big fans of the pumpkin beers. I'm kind of on the fence. It has to be a really good one.

So those are ones to keep an eye out. But right now, all the wet hop beers are coming out. So what a wet hop beer is, they will go and pick the hops fresh. Normally, they're dried, pelletized, and concentrated when they throw it into a batch of beer. They take the fresh ones, and they put it into the batch. So the harvest was end of August, early September. You do a brew day. It sits in the tank for about three weeks.

So now's the time that you're going to start to see the wet hop beers. Jump on those because those are very limited. It is intimidating because right now i'm intimidated because like everything i know about beer was from my tour of i did a back back to back it was tough to do geographically but i went to the the heineken uh i went i was in amsterdam and i went to the heineken plant or whatever and i did a big tour there and the very next day i was in dublin and i went to the guinness to the top of the game so i did the heineken and guinness back to back that's where i learned all about my hops and stuff.

Yeah, so have you been to Great Lakes? Have you been there to the brewery and seen the scale of the operation? Well, I've been there. Probably vastly different. Yeah, and I haven't seen where they actually make the beer, though. Tell Troy to take you into the back. We'll go up to his office and drink. That's fine.

You can drink in the brewing area, too. It's kind of cool to see, though, because you went to two mass-produced. Yeah. So their tanks are hundreds in volume. So you're saying Great Lakes has a smaller tank than Heineken. Is that what you're saying? Yes, we're going that way.

But better beer inside. That's what really counts. Can I ask you, is that true? Or is it because you're a craft beer guy? You sort of like, you root for the underdog. But like, okay, so let's do this. Let's do this now. That six pack from Great Lakes Brewery is it because you're a craft beer guy? You root for the underdog. Let's do this now.

That six-pack from Great Lakes Brewery is going home with you. Oh, amazing. Because you don't have enough craft beer. Exactly. My wife's going to be thrilled to see six more cans coming home. You talk while I go off mic. So we always have this ongoing thing.

She's like, are you drinking this? Is this in the fridge? Why does it need to be there? Where can it go? Where do we store it? That's funny. So I just pulled out of your six-pack the blonde lager here. So let's say that's kind of Heineken-esque, right?

Yeah, it's a lager style of beer. So all things being equal, you got a Heineken here and you got this guy there from Great Lakes Beer. Honestly, don't worry about the fact that he's sponsored the show. What am I going to pick?

I'm going to pick the Great Lakes 100% because it's made here. It's supporting our local economy. There's probably a lot more thought that goes into it by a brewmaster who's not following a massive recipe

and just keeping everything on a quality standard level. There could be some creativity? Is that the term? There is a lot of creativity in craft beer, and that's the difference. I mean, Great Lakes makes about 1,500 different IPAs, and one of the ones in the pack is Octopus Wants to Fight. Not only hilarious name and great label,

but you get to pick up on some of the nuances within the beer and sort of the different hop schedule and all of that. Yeah. And there's like a citrus thing going on there. And yeah, and that's actually one of my favorites. It's a fantastic IPA. Canuck, always a very solid go-to favorite. If you like pale ales and you're at a bar and you don't know what to get, I always sort of default back to a Canuck. Other than Great Lakes beer, which is one of your favorite craft beers in the city, is there another craft beer that you just want to give a shout out to for producing? You know what? There's a ton of great breweries right now that are making some amazing

beer in some good spots in the city. Reinhard is a new one that sort of has popped up in the last year and a half. They're in the west end of Toronto. Leftfield's making some good beers out in the east end of Toronto. Just visit your local one. Everybody's going to have a different taste preference. If you live

in the east end, are you allowed to cross over and come to Great Lakes Beer? What's with you and rivalries? You always want to just sort of put these dividers up. Can't talk to CTV people. No, you can't. That's the nice thing about me is I can talk to Bell Media, Rogers. I can talk to Chorus. It's you

I'm worried about. I think I looked at my next five guests. I think I covered the gamut. I've got Bell Media people. I've got a Chorus person. I've got yourself from Rogers. I love all a Chorus person. I've got yourself from Rogers. I love all of you. I just want you all to get along. That's my concern. I don't think there's any problems there. That's going to

disappoint some people. First with me. Real quick, if people want to help crowdfund this podcast, please go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. You can go to torontomike.com and click the big orange button and click over there

and help keep this going so that we can get Adam Stiles and maybe one day if things go well, I can actually get Adam Wilde in here. Maybe. Although his mom, not coming on. The fun fact is that I just had on Steve Dangle. Yeah.

Who does a podcast with Adam Wilde. Yeah, he's like high school buds with Adam Wilde. What is his energy level like? I imagine he's just on 11 every time he comes in here. No, you're right, because you look at those YouTube videos, and he's frenetic. But I caught him at the end of a fast. This is the thing.

He was doing a fast. This is okay. He was doing a fast. So he was malnutrition and basically waning. And I'm not his doctor. I made sure he knew that. Like I am not your doctor. But I just said, you should talk to your doctor. And I'm not here.

I got some emails. I'm not here to say fasting is bad. I'm here to say, just tell your doctor what you're doing. Because what he's doing is long periods where he eats nothing. But then he had just come off like a fast periods where he eats nothing, but then he had just come off like a fast and he was coming over and he stopped at like a local restaurant and was just gorging. Like he was just, he was attacking the food. Like he hadn't eaten in a long time. Well, he hadn't actually.

And I don't know, like common sense to me is you're better to do portion control and just regular installments than to do nothing for a while and then pig out like you've been starving for days. Anybody that's seen me on TV knows I'm not the one to go to for dietary advice. I heard that you go on these walks to keep yourself fit. Well, I walk to work, and it's about five kilometers.

Five one way and then five back? I usually just walk into work because I get off at midnight, and I'm downtown. And you're scared? And there's a couple of relatively sketchy areas that I would have to walk through that it's just easier to jump on the streetcar. Plus, I don't want to go to bed at 1 or I don't want to get home at 1.30 or 1. Have you considered cycling?

Because that would be a short little ride. I have. My wife is just, she wants to keep me in a bit of a bubble. She's worried that I'm going to fall. I'm not that coordinated. Oh, you're going to fall off your bike. I'm going to fall off my bike or somebody's going to open the door.

Oh yeah, dooring is an issue. She's a news producer or was a news producer when I met her. And you have to write all those stories. Cyclist injured, blah, blah, blah, over and over again. So there's a little bit of that, I think, that creeps into your core values. What if I help?

I'll plan your route so it is as safe as possible. All bike lanes. The same route I would plan for my 12-year-old daughter. Nice. I'm an expert at safe bike routes. I can help you. All right. I can help you.

I'd have to buy a bike. Yeah, but you don't have to spend. People think, oh, you've got to go spend a couple of grand. You can get a good bike for $500. All right. A good hybrid bike. Maybe next spring. I'll do some winter work on getting the wife behind it and say it's for health and time purposes. We'll see how that goes.

But Troy, our mutual buddy, he says you go on these walks. Oh, I walk over to his house to drink beers on his porch. So any work that I do, I undo when I sit there on these walks. Oh, I walk over to his house to drink beers on his porch. So any work that I do, I undo when I sit there on the porch. He tells me, you guys call them porch beers. So you walk there to, I guess, to lose weight, to burn calories, and then you consume

more calories than you burn. No, I just do it because I've got some time to kill. I like to be outside. I'm one of those guys that if I could be outside through a good chunk of the day, I would be. If my desk could be outside, I would work outside. When I'm one of those guys that if I could be outside through a good chunk of the day, I would be. If my desk could be outside, I would work outside. When I'm at home, I'm either out on our patio or working in my garden or just trying to be out as much as possible. Yeah, me too.

I like to be outside. I'm with you. Hey, but as you mentioned earlier, you're a Seattle Seahawks fan because you're an American. So start by telling me what brings an American to Canada to work. It was timing. It was opportunity, really, that did it. So I grew up in Seattle. I went to school at Washington State University for broadcasting.

While I was there, I started picking up the meteorology stuff through Mississippi State University. I worked in Twin Falls, Idaho for six months doing TV weather there. I worked in Twin Falls, Idaho for six months doing TV weather there. From there, I moved down to St. George, Utah and did a two-year stint in southern Utah doing weather. And then I was in California for two years doing a morning show there. And I went to a conference, the National Weather Association Conference, which I actually just came back from this year, which was down in Norfolk, Virginia. But they pronounce it Norfolk. That's a big Navy port, right? Big Navy port.

But, you know, it's kind of borderline swearing, I feel. Norfolk? Yeah. You can't say that one on City News. No, I try not to. So anyway, the conference was in Reno in, it would have been 2007. And Michael Koos, who used to do weather here at City News, we hung out. We just had beers one night.

It's always a big group of broadcasters that go out, and we hit up a bar, and we shoot the crap back and forth. That's called networking. Absolutely, networking. And we do a thing called a tape swap, where you get to take your tape and show your work, and your peers basically critique you or say, oh, I really love that. Here's what I would maybe do a little bit differently. And he saw my tape and he's like, did you do a great job? I was like, oh, OK. And then again, just kind of kept in contact.

And then when Citi and CP24 split. So that would have been 2008. You know, CP24 going to Bell, Rogers with Citi. Two vacancies opened up at Citi. And he just sent me a text message. He's like, hey, would you ever consider coming up to Canada? My contract was coming up in California. And this is when the economy just took a dump in the US.

This was the housing crisis. So I was sending out tapes, probably 50 tapes, all across North America, all different market sizes. I sent a tape to Buffalo Crickets just because they weren't filling the positions. They weren't flying people out. Everything that they were doing was hiring internally. So it was tough to sort of get any bites or any leads. And I was like, okay, well, yeah, I'll come up and check it out. About a month goes by. I sent my tape up and my resume. About a month any leads. I was like, okay, well, yeah, I'll come up and check it out. About a month goes by.

I sent my tape up and my resume. About a month goes by. I don't hear anything. Then all of a sudden, I get a phone call one morning. It's on a Monday. It's the news director at the time, Tina Cortez. She's like, hey, saw your tape, love your stuff. Do you want to come up for an interview? I was like, yeah, sure. Great.

How about Friday? I was like, okay, great. I'll do it. I'll start booking it. I'll figure this out. I go, oh crap. I don't have a passport. I hadn't had a passport at that time. I hadn't left the country. I'm working in these small markets and you don't have really a travel budget other than to go home and see family. So I was rushing to get a passport, but it wasn't going to make it on time. So I was like, okay, what's the solution? I'll fly into Buffalo because at the time you could still get across the border with a birth certificate. So I booked my flight. I was going to leave the Thursday after the morning show in California, fly to San Jose. It was going to be San Jose,

Chicago to Buffalo, and then drive up. Well, I get to the airport and they're like, oh, that flight from Chicago to Buffalo has been canceled. We have some staffing issues. I was like, great. So when can I get in there? Friday at two o'clock. I was like, well, that's not going to work. And so we figured out a way to get routed out. So I flew out of a different airport, out of San Francisco. they carted me up there and then flew into atlanta on a red eye overnight flight so this is eight hours after i was supposed to leave is when i finally board i'm like i got a job interview tomorrow and i'm sitting on this red eye flight i'm wearing like basketball shorts and a t-shirt i get into atlanta i have about an hour and a half layover I go into the bathroom and I just do

like I bought some washcloths and some soap I was literally doing like a hobo bath in the shower or in the sink and in the bathroom stall I go in and I change and I come out in a suit if somebody was outside of the bathroom

they must have been like what just happened there it was like a superman change. And then I go up, fly into Buffalo, get the rental car, drive up to Toronto, get there about noon-ish. And I walk in and I meet Tina and I meet Michael and everything's cool. We're ready to go. We're going to do the interview, do the audition. Tina goes, you seem a little overdressed. Don't you want to put on something more comfortable? After all of the effort that I put into. So I went back into my car, which is in the parking garage underneath the Scotiabank Theater, put on shorts. But when, I'm with you though, when in doubt, better to go that way.

Absolutely. But then I was like, well, aren't we doing an audition? I hadn't really seen a lot of what City did back then. Michael was the guy, and he would do very sort of casual weather. Yeah. So I did my audition tape with the polo and the shorts and waited about a month, heard back. They're like, hey, yeah, we'd love to send you an offer. We negotiated. I drove up to – I'd quit my job since I had the offer. They had

helped me out with some of the legal paperwork. Because under NAFTA, and if NAFTA's still around when Donald Trump gets elected... You said when. That concerns me. That concerns me as well. There's a deep, deep concern. But I drove up

to the border up in outside of Vancouver, Peace Arch, got my work permit for one year, and then when I was up here, I could just continue to do it, and then now I'm a permanent resident. Cool. Yeah, that was a long way to go, but I'm glad you got the gig because that story sucks if you don't get the gig.

It's like, look what I did, and I still didn't get the job. What happened to Michael Kuz? He left City TV. He left. He went over to CTV in Vancouver as they were sort of relaunching and rebranding their stuff. Since then, they had gone through some cuts, and he's over at Global BC right now. So he wanted to be on the West Coast. Yeah, he's from there.

He grew up in Victoria. As the crow flies, not far from where I grew up. And so he moved his family. I think his wife wanted to be out that way too, but that's all speculation. That's speculation in hearsay. I'll have none of that on Toronto Mic'd. Please.

You know, the funny thing is Michael Kuss is my landlord. I still pay rent to him. Get out of here. He owns a house here, and I moved in. And as he was moving out, he's like, hey, do you mind moving in and keeping an eye on the place and sort of taking care of it? See, that's a fun fact.

Right? That's funny. Michael Kust is my landlord. Got me the job. Got me my housing. Did you know, Mr. Adam, that there's a number of weather people who lack the appropriate or the proper accreditation? I'm well aware of that. Okay.

So let me tell the people out there. So you are, and then you can correct me, but you are a Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Wow. I sucked at saying that. And you're an endorsed weathercaster that holds the National Weather Association television weathercaster seal of approval. You know what? I might be the only one in Toronto that has the NWA seal. But a lot of people don't do it.

There's not a lot of folks this side of the border that are members of the National Weather Association. Probably because they can't say it. Well, the CMOS one, that's specifically Canadian. There's quite a few here in town that have that. But the the CMOS one, that's specifically Canadian. There's quite a few here in town that have that, but the NWA one is something that

there's a few people up here that would definitely be qualified for it and do a phenomenal job and would likely get the seal if they attempted it, but I don't think anybody's... Maybe they're confused because someone says, hey, do you want to be an NWA? Yeah, right? NWA? I can't be in NWA.

Seems like a little bit of a rough lifestyle choice there. I can't even say NWA. Right? That could be an issue too. So I saw this article in the Toronto Star when you were coming over, and I know you've read this. You probably printed it and put it in your bathroom. It's probably framed there. You know what?

I think you've read me all wrong. No, but I haven't read it all yet. Come on, too early. It says, they basically say that many TV weather forecasters lack qualifications. So my first question is, does that bother you that you got this CMOS and you got this seal of approval? It reminds me of the crusty seal of approval on all the stuff Bart had. What is it, the clock where if you plug it in it got hot. Anyway, that's a sentence

reference for everybody. But does it bother you that there's people out there, weathermen or weatherwomen coming on and that they don't have these dump letters behind their name? It really doesn't. I just try to focus on what I do and providing the best forecast for Toronto.

And the effort that I put into it and sort of the knowledge and the ability to explain things is kind of what I've always prided myself in and trying to take something that's incredibly complicated and boil it down to something that's simple that you can explain within 20 seconds. So for the folks that are out there, there's some people that are not meteorologists that do a fantastic job in weather storytelling. Okay. I'm sure.

But they're basically, they're going to like what I do. I go to that Canada meteorology webpage that has like, and I can read that. Yeah, the weather office. Yeah. Is that what they're doing basically? They're going there and they're reading it. You know what? There's a lot of people that have different methods.

Some people have worked in weather long enough to pick up a couple of tidbits and some shortcuts. For me, right now, I don't look at the people across the street as competition anymore because now I'm in a constant battle with cell phones. Well, my phone said it was going to rain today, and it didn't. You lied. They say that to me. Interesting. But it's probably like the city news app that told them, so they tie it to you, right?

It could be the city news app. It could be the weather network. It could be the one that's just on your Apple iPhone, which, by the way, those forecasts are terrible. They're terrible. No human ever looks at any of that data that comes off of

a majority of those weather apps. It's one model data, or one model run, that they'll just spit out because it's convenient, it's timely. I probably look at more forecast models that I disregard than ones that I actually use for generating the forecast.

Because this is an actual science, right? This is science-based. It is science-based. There's a little bit of an art form because we could look at, you know, myself or any of the other meteorologists can look at the same thing and come up with a different conclusion sort of based on our experiences. same thing, and come up with a different conclusion sort of based on our experiences. We live in an area where the weather is so almost volatile because of the wind. Like if the wind goes southwest compared to southerly,

that could be the difference of three to five degrees. Southwest wind, you get a little downslope off the escarpment, some compressional heating, and the temperature just goes whoosh. Can you segue nicely to one of my beefs, the weather, is that the weather seems not to apply to where i live most of the time so let me tell you this is a big thing like may april may okay and i'll see let's take early bay i'll see on city news you might tell me it's like oh it's 22 and sunny okay which i'm oh it's 22 and sunny and okay? It's 22 and sunny. And I'll go outside and I got to go get a jacket on now because it's honestly much closer

to 15 degrees. It's just the swing. Sometimes when I'm because I bike every day. And if I'm on the waterfront at certain times of the year, if I just go up to High Park, I just got to go a little north. I always say north of Queensway in the West End. And if I go north of Queensway, I gain 10 degrees.

Absolutely. What a difference. Yeah, and it's all because of the lake. The lake just takes a lot longer to heat up. The specific heat just takes months. That's why it'll be warmer sometimes along the lakeshore in October than what it'll be away from the lake if the winds are out of the south.

So blame the lake, don't blame me. But a lot of us are, I mean, Toronto is on a lake. There's a lot of us who get this lake effect. I do try to slide in a lakeside temperature. You know, when it's hot in the summer, it could be 30 in Vaughan. It could be 22 down along the lake shore. So big swings. And I do keep that in mind when I'm putting a forecast together.

Good. Don't forget us lake people. By the way, Great Lakes has a beer called Lake Effect. Yeah, they do. When they first put it out, I got a six-pack, thanks to Troy, on my desk. For the porch beers. So when you were talking about the porch beers, so you mentioned you do the walk.

So is keeping fit, like keeping in shape, something that is important to you? Obviously not. I make no assumptions. I've struggled with weight my entire life. But I just... I try not to focus in on it

because I'm still a person. Yes, you are. And having a relationship and I try not to judge people. I hope people don't... No, of course not. Is this because you love food? Is that the thing?

Well, I do. I do, and I love beer. That's one of the other things. But again, it's been something that since I was 12, I've struggled with. And you know what? I'm fortunate enough that I've been able to make a career in television because there's a lot of

areas of North America where I wouldn't even be considered for a job. Is that right? Is that because they're looking for like a Brad Pitt upper body? They would love that. Right? I mean,

it's a bit of a challenge from a professional standpoint, but I try to overcome that with skills. Yeah, no, and I only ask because there's a brand new, this is an exciting moment for listeners, but there's a brand new sponsor of this podcast. Yeah, and it's... So you're all about segues. That's 192 episodes where it took me to figure

out how to how to segue but this is exciting so i would do a drum roll but i don't actually have it loaded in my soundboard that'll do uh so chef's plate okay so chef's plate is a company and they they do meal kit delivery service so basically if you're having a busy week you mentioned you work till midnight and you're always busy i I can imagine it's tough to eat healthy because you got no time for meal planning or grocery shopping or whatever. So basically they deliver like healthy meals, pre-portioned, locally sourced, farm fresh ingredients, and easy to follow recipes. And basically it's so easy, like I can make it. And this is like a healthy meal that you make in your own kitchen, but they deliver everything you need and all the instructions and tell you how to make it. And this is like a healthy meal that you make in your own kitchen, but they deliver everything you need and all the instructions and tell you

how to do it. Oh, that's fantastic. And I just think if, uh, I learned this, uh, when I lost 40 pounds,

I learned, thank you. This is, uh, 2012. So what are we now? 26. Yes.

Like four years ago, I lost 40 pounds and it became apparent that it wasn't so much that I could, I could never, I could never exercise enough to make up for a shitty diet. Like this is the first lesson I learned. It's basically you got to stop eating the crap and eating, you know, and if there is pizza available, you don't have to eat six slices or seven. Wait, you don't have to finish them? Right.

I had this mindset like if there's pizza there, well, I need to eat it until the pizza's gone. I'm in pain. It's pizza, after all. Exactly. And you have to, like, oh, maybe I can have two slices and stop. Like, maybe I can do that. Like, that was the first big lesson I learned. But Chef's Plate sort of takes care of all this and sends it.

So, basically, if you're listening, and this is for you, Adam, or anyone listening, if you go to chefsplate.com, the promo code TORONOMIKE gets you two plates for free. They tell me that's $22 savings. Nice. So go to chefsplate.com, put in the promo code TORONOMIKE, give it a shot, and let me know how it goes. And welcome Chef's Plate to the TORONOMIKE family.

So you're going to try this. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Again, tie in. They don't deliver beer. See, that would be the one thing. You need that on the side.

I think that's a whole different license thing. Okay, so one of the quotes that you made when you joined City News, and I'm going to quote you here, is you said that you, well, actually, it might not be your quote, somebody about you. It says, he also enjoys the advanced weather technologies available at Citi. So I want to know, is it really like advanced technologies available at Citi for weather? Well, at the time, it was. In 08?

Yeah, at the time, it was fairly advanced. But you know how the way computers change now. It's every year, basically, your computer is obsolete. So we do have still some unique things that nobody else has. We have our exclusive weather station network,

which is cool because we get to really sort of pick up on the nuances of the temperatures that we have around the area. You can take a look at some of the humidity readings

so we can find out where patchy fog is in different communities, which if you look at what Environment Canada has for weather sensors, they have one at Pearson Airport, they have one at Buttonville, they have one at the Island, they have one in Oshawa, and there's one on the Skyway. And that's really about it. Well,

we have one in Oakville, we have one in Milton, we have one in Brampton, one in Mississauga, one in Etobicoke, one downtown, one in North York. Where's your one in Etobicoke? The one in Etobicoke is up at Wellsworth Public School, I believe. Is that what it's called? I don't know. Never heard of it. I think it's up towards Centennial Park. Oh, yeah, cool. It's not close enough to the lake, though. So a lot of them are there at schools because we can get access to them.

We can do sort of the maintenance when we need to do it. But they're all across the GTA, and we've got a few in the East End as well. So there are advanced weather technologies available at Citi. Yeah. Were you around when they switched from Citi TV to Citi? Was that since the late... Yes, I was. That was...

That's got to be probably 2010, 2011, something in there. That's one of those moves that makes so much sense because they're not just TV anymore. Like, you know, there's digital, this and that and all. But us old-timers, we're like, oh, you can't change it from City TV. We grew up with City TV. People still say I love watching you on City Pulse.

Yes. Which, that's, again, one of those things that repetition is sort of ingrained. But sometimes I tell people, yeah, I work at City, and they're like, oh, what do you do? Parks department? It seems too generic, right? It is.

But again, it is one of those things. It's a move to get into that sort of cross-platform. And I get it completely. Yeah, it makes sense. You don't want to marry yourself to one delivery platform, especially in this age of tablets. Yeah, so sometimes I go, I work, I work for City Television, Channel 7. I work for the station formerly known as City TV.

Yeah, there we go. That's what I would say. And so you're on 5 and 11? Is that when you're on? 5, 6, and 11. 5, 6, and 11. Holy smokes. So we've got two hours of news,

separate time starting at 5 o'clock, and we go right till 7 o'clock. You can catch the full forecast, the big three-minute meaty forecast, at about 6.52 to 6.55, give or take. My favorite three minutes of the news, by the way. So you mentioned earlier that you worked with Ann Roszkowski. So because you're episode 193, and she was 192, very close.

So she said some things about her relationship with Gord Martineau. I know you still work there so I don't want you to get in trouble but did you ever notice any friction between Anne and Gord?

You know what? I kind of stay in my own lane. I try to stay out of it. Like our weather center is always tucked in the corner at 299 and that was back when they both worked there

at our new building. I'm up on the fifth floor. So a lot of the times I'm oblivious to it and I feel like I'm somewhat better for that because you don't get into some of that. So I can focus on what I'm trying to do and the stories I'm trying to tell. That's a good idea.

Stay in your own lane. But did you listen to the Ann Morris Guilty? I have not. I have not. When was it uploaded? I need to get on that. About a week ago. I guess I was curious whether... I guess you haven't heard any... There's no

buzz in the city news department. No one's saying, oh, did you hear what Ann just said on Toronto Mike? You're in your own lane. You haven't heard any rumbling. I've been out of the country, too. I was down in Virginia for the National Weather Association conference. Norfolk. Norfolk. All right. So I was down in Virginia for the National Weather Association conference. Norfolk.

Norfolk. All right. So I was curious because I had no idea. As a viewer, we see only what they record and put on the TV. This is all we see. We just assume Ann and Gord get along because they seem to get along at the news. I was surprised that Ann and Gord didn't have the relationship that you would envision that they might have had. You know what?

Everybody's there to do a job, and we always put our audience sort of first and foremost. So there are times that you might have friction or a tough conversation with somebody that you work with, but when the light goes on, it's your job and your duty to be as professional as possible and don't let that carry you. That's the tough part.

If you have a bad day, you can only have a bad day off camera. You can't bring that on the air. This is not fair to the audience. No, you're right. So you've got to fake it, basically. I'm fortunate that I get along with most of the people I work with, probably because they don't see me that much because I'm upstairs.

But not all the people. Let's hear the names. Not naming names. But you got a good crew down there. And you're at Yonge and Dundas Square now. So that explains why I go to Speaker's Corner with my loonies. It's just a mail slot. They have a bag there.

It's a homeless guy. He just videotapes me on his iPhone. Perfect. Oh, quick update for everybody. So in that Ann Roszkowski chat, she mentioned that at Christmas parties and stuff, there'd be like a tape of like Speaker's Corner outtakes that would be played,

the stuff that couldn't go on air because of nudity or swearing, whatever, whatever, whatever. So I said to her, like, do you have a copy? Because I want to see it. Ann says she doesn't have a copy. I don't think there's that many copies floating around. All right. So this is before your time in Toronto, I think.

Maybe not. But we had a DJ here named Brother Bill. That is before my time. Yeah. Brother Bill is on 102.1 CFNY. I believe no one better as The Edge. And Brother Bill is not really a bill. His name is Neil Morrison,

and he works at a White Rock BC, speaking of the left coast. He says he's got a VHS video cassette of the aforementioned outtakes of Speaker's Corner, and he says he's going to ship it to me. So now we have to do two things. Track down a VCR. Make sure the tracking is okay.

He said that first. Like, do you have a way to play this? But I'm friendly with the legendary Retro Ontario. Have you ever heard this term, Retro Ontario? No, I have not. I saw it only this week because you had sent a couple of tweets. There you go. So his real name is Ed Conroy, and he writes for the Star sometimes,

but mainly BlogTO. But he's archiving. He'd be the guy who would archive all the great Mark Daly voiceover stuff. Mark Daly. I miss that guy every day. He was such a good, sweet, sweet man. And I loved being on television with him because he always took a backseat. He always made you look as good as possible.

He was a true pro. He was a professional through and through. And he befriended me when I moved up here. Didn't know anybody. We went and played golf a couple of times. Invited me over to the house, you know, dinner with him and Kim. So I miss that. I miss that man.

I got to say, I never knew him personally like you did. I didn't golf with the man. I miss that guy. I miss that voice. Well, that voice is just, it can't be recreated. Do you know what his nickname is? The Voice. I did know that.

That's all you need to know. That's all you need to know. Yeah. He's fantastic and gone way too soon and i was upset with like even when i first heard my first like late great movie promo or something that wasn't his voice i was like no you know come on uh that guy was amazing so um retro ontario would be a guy to keep that memories alive. He works really hard. He gets old VHS that people recorded,

like City TV back in 1987 or something, and he'll digitize it and then chop it up and share it on his YouTube channel or whatever. I think you may still be able to call the general City TV phone number. I think it still might be the Mark Daly recording. It was at least a year ago. Thanks for calling City TV.

Do you know the number off by heart? 416-599-2489. 416-599-CITY. Is that right? Should I? I've never. I don't know. Check it out.

It may not be there anymore, and you may actually get somebody answering the phone, but if you get to the recording stage, it used to be Mark and and again, just iconic. Yeah, I was going to do it live, but nah. You don't know who's going to answer the phone. So don't do it, Mike. Don't do it.

Do it after hours. I'll do it after. I'll do it after for sure. Yeah, he's great. So Retro Ontario, though, because he digitizes his VHS tapes, I figure Neil Morrison just has to ship me the VHS video cassette. And he's coming on soon. We're going to do... digitizes these VHS tapes. I figure Neil Morrison just has to ship me the VHS videocassette. And he's coming on soon.

We're going to do, everybody's going to be excited to hear this, the top 10 jingles in Toronto history. Nice. So 9, 6, 7, 11, 11, maybe the Marine Land one, my personal favorite,

Fabric Land. Yeah, and you can't say the second one without screaming it. Right? Right. Yes. No, you can't. And some of these might predate your toronto history but uh you'd still enjoy it so he's gonna digitize this uh speaker's corner stuff and i'll figure out how i can share any of it if i can uh one of the names so we talk about mark daily but when i

think of weather and i think of city formerly known as city tv i think of har, formerly known as City TV. I think of Harold Hossain. Who still works on 680. You'll hear him on the weekends on occasion. And did you have any interactions with him professionally? I have not. He was out at City before my time. Did you replace him at City? I did not.

I most certainly didn't. Because you'd lose a lot of points there. No, I didn't. I just certainly didn't. Because you'd lose a lot of points there. Yeah, no, I didn't. I just showed up. He had just this great, I could see him, even now, if it looks like it's going to rain, don't forget your umbrella. These guys, and a lot of these guys are long gone, but the Gordon and these iconic guys,

like Peter Silverman and Jim McKinney doing sports. Like these, this is the city pulse that people still, you know, might still call it. And they were doing things that were so far ahead of their time that people are now bringing into the fold. The thought of a videographer on the scene where they're the storytellers,

they're doing it. Right. A lot of people in the States picked up on that sort of in the late 90s, early 2000s because it was cheap. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You just pay one person to get a story

as opposed to having a camera person and a reporter on scene. And I always see they would want to, like when they'd wrap up their news segment, they would maybe film themselves as like the reflection in the car window or whatever. Like in the videographer's unit. Coming up with creative ways. And now they call them multimedia

journalists in the States. Basically saying, we're going to pay you to do a job and we're not going to pay you probably what we would pay a traditional reporter. Right. Speaking of multimedia, do you get any guidance from your employer in terms of your Twitter feed?

What you should do with your Twitter feed? There's been a couple of things here and there. Not as much as I would like. There are some tips that I picked up when I was down at the National Weather Association Conference about, you know, content and times that people are on and, you know, what content is shareable. Basically, they say, don't send out a tweet if it's not going to get shared. Don't make it a stream of your consciousness. So they're saying, okay, so they're saying, if you want to tweet about your crappy, your runny eggs you just ate or whatever,

don't do that, are they saying? Are they saying just the weather? Stick to your... Well, no, if it's something that people engage with. If you have a dog, gangbusters. If you have a cat, gangbusters. People love to share that stuff and talk about that. I'll send out the seven-day forecast

every night and I'll sometimes check. We have two retweets. But then I'll do something stupid about my peppers or something. It'll be like, 10! Yeah, the kittens, I think, is the winner on the web if you could do some do you have a kitten i don't have any pets whatsoever well just fake it just like rent a

kitten take some cute photos you're set just take a bunch of them and just send them out that's not the same cat that you had two weeks ago then i become like a cat hoarder oh no um no don't you don't want to be one of those uh So sometimes you're on breakfast television, right? Like if Frankie Flowers is on vacation or something? Yeah, when he's away. He does a lot of speaking engagements and stuff. So when the schedule works out, I'll do it. With me being a night shift guy, it's tough on the body to make that change.

And if it's one or two days, then I can't do it. But if it's a good solid week, every once in a while, I'll pop down. Did you know that his last name is not really Flowers? I did know that. That blows my mind. I still have him in my phone, though, as Frankie Flowers. Frankie Flowers is how he'll forever be known. Okay, so on Breakfast Television, you worked with,

when you did do some Breakfast Television, you'd work with Jennifer Valentine, right? Yeah. So do we, I know she's showing up now. She's like a bachelorette host of some sort. Yeah, like the after show, I believe. I saw her in July at the Toronto Festival of Beer that was down at the... Oh, because her husband is like a beer guy.

Yeah, her husband launched a beer brand called Heroes, and they were down there at the booth. And I had a nice long catch up with her. I hadn't really spoken to her after she departed. It was nice to hear her take on things. It was nice to see her. Just catch up.

She's a sweetheart. She gave me a ride home, which was amazing. I was going to take the TTC or something. That's just because she was there like 20 plus years because she was there. But you know what? I think that speaks somewhat to the industry changing.

That your long-term sort of veteran people are more expensive to have. And I don't know the exact reasoning behind it. They say that they got rid of the live-eye position, which they have. But it's a changing industry right now,

and there's a lot of challenges, and every decision made is revenue-driven, I personally feel. What's your salary right now fair question fair question i just worry for you you've been there since 08 let me do the math it's not as good as you think it is how about that's gonna keep you employed see that this is absolutely but this is a point i've made with guests think about how many layoffs that i've survived i'm like a cockroach in chernobyl You're saved by that baseline salary being just underwhelming enough.

And just doing a good enough job. You're not great. Because, you know, then at that point, then you warrant the salary. And it's fair to say, and I'm not going to, like it's one thing

when Ann Marszkowski comes on, okay? She said to me, she goes, Mike, I'm a 63-year-old woman. I will never work in broadcasting again. Right there, she's got basically a license to tell it like it is. She doesn't need to worry about it.

And she does not look 63. I know. She looks amazing. I know. I'm with you right there. Looks amazing. Can't believe she's 63, but she says she is. I have to trust her on that one. And your position is that you're a young person who's in the industry and would like to stay in the industry. if she's 63, but she says she is. I have to trust her on that one. And your position is such you're a young person who's in the industry

and would like to stay in the industry. So I don't even mean to go too deep into this uncomfortable area. You notice how I've been trying to answer as many of the questions as you ask tactfully? The last thing I want to do, the last thing I want to do is get a good guy like you in trouble.

I don't even mean to do that. I get myself in enough trouble as it is. But there is some truth to be said. There is some truth to be said that when you're not making the movie, movie star salary, the target on your back is much smaller. Absolutely. Which is kind of,

and you don't even have to, this could be said rhetorically here. That kind of sucks because you're, you're kind of, you have your program to make as much money as you can, like get whatever you can. And then you, now you're sort of going to purse, you might, you might suppress your own salary in terms to, to make sure you have longevity with the company. You know what? I could, I could go and move back to the States. And if I, I could take a weekend

job in Cleveland and probably make more than what I'm making now. But then I'd have to live in Cleveland. You know what I mean? I have a lot of listeners in Cleveland. They're not going to be happy with that. Wait until I call it the mistake by the lake. Well, I remember when I grew up, we had the Blue Jays played at Exhibition Stadium, which is long gone,

but it was always referred to as Mistake by the Lake. And then I, so I grew up thinking like Mistake by the Lake was Exhibition Stadium. And then at some point I learned, yeah, that was the nickname for Cleveland. You know what? Different lake though. The funny story about Cleveland, my bachelor party was in Cleveland. Oh yeah? I had a great time in that city.

They got the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yeah. We went and saw an Indians game. Also a terrible sports name. Right. Yeah. It's more the logo terrible sports name. Right, yeah. It's more the logo than the name. I mean...

What's his name? Chief Wahoo? Chief Wahoo, yeah. Yeah, that doesn't sound right to me. I've got some good friends that are meteorologists in Cleveland as well that I keep in contact with. And they have the NBA championship there right now. And we do not. So they've got some things going for Cleveland.

Okay, so what's better? Like Canada or the USA? I watched the hockey game last night. So I'm not talking hockey because Canada is better at hockey. They whipped. Yes. Kessel had a really great tweet, by the way. I saw that one, yeah.

Something important I should have been doing today. That was great. That was great. So what's better, Canada or the USA? Come on, pick one. Living? Living. Well, I mean, I'm sure or the USA? Come on, pick one. Living? Living. Well, I mean, I'm sure it varies depending on where you are in Canada.

If I was living in Timmins, I might have a different perspective. Now you've offended the Timmins people. I got the Cleveland people. I just try to get north and south covered. That's right. Shania Twain's from Timmins. Wait for you, folks. East and west.

I'm coming after you next. Okay, let's say Toronto. Toronto. Fantastic city. Love it. I love the inclusivity. I like the vibe. The people are great. Everybody's a lot more sort of absorb what you're saying. Interesting. Whereas some of my, and it might be my age and who I was hanging out with in the U.S., where they would just really try to further their point along the way. Yeah, that might be your poor choice of friends. Yeah, well, I'm a terrible judge of character. I know that because you're hanging out in Troy's porch. Yeah, exactly. I don't even...

By the way, am I allowed to say that you're a Danforth guy? Yeah. I'm an East End guy. Yeah, I talk about that. Why is Danforth such a great neighborhood? You know what? We have everything that we like there. You've got a butcher. You've got a fish market. We've got a new LCBO. Yes. There's some great restaurants. There's some great people that own those restaurants. I'll give a shout out to the Combine Eatery. One of my favorite places.

If you're ever milling around Danforth on a Sunday morning, there's a chance that my wife and I are in there having brunch. There's a new bar that just opened up that I just met called the Edmund Burke. Cool vibe. It used to be Das Gasthaus, I think, and then you heard that whole story about the raffle tickets

for the win the restaurant thing. Yes, I did. Anyway, if you get a chance to go in and talk to them. I'm sad to say I don't spend nearly enough time. I'll be honest, other than on the south end where I'll be along the waterfront, if you exclude the waterfront trail, I rarely get east of Yonge. And you know what? I barely get west of Yonge.

I found myself in like like downtown the entertainment district or even in even near bay street i was like that's new that's new that's new i've never seen that before where when did this building get built yeah live i and i think it was just becoming uh springtime weather temperatures were starting to warm up and i was at the black bull patio which is where all nice weather live-eyes seem to happen. And I look up, and I go, I've never seen that building before. Yeah, there's crazy development. And it's a 30-, 40-story skyscraper, and it's like...

Like, even, like, even park lawn area like that, and I know that whole pocket there kind of near the Humber, where Humber meets the waterfront kind of deal, is there's stuff growing there. It seems like it's kind of popping up overnight, like big developments. It's just, yeah, this city is nuts with developments. Well, there's a huge lot that they're clearing out on Islington.

I don't know what that's going to be, but I saw it on the bus ride. Okay, Islington and what? Do you know? It was north of the Gardner there. Okay, okay. Yeah, there's stuff going on there. You know, you're in New Toronto now,

so just tell your friends there's a new Toronto, tell your friends, uh, by the way, I'm going to read a comment on my blog. So somebody had heard Adam styles was coming on. The worst part of this is I didn't like an idiot. I did not document the name of this commenter and I'm so sorry,

but I'm going to read it verbatim. Hi, Mike. When you have Adam Stiles on, can you ask him why weather people talk about things like wind speed, relative humidity, and the record high for this day was 32 back in 1936. No one cares about any of this.

All we want is the temperature for the week, and is it going to rain or snow? Exclamation mark. temperature for the week and is it going to rain or snow exclamation mark or or maybe it's just me who gets annoyed by this useless information also could the weekend weather girl i know that's condescending but i can't remember her name please stop saying temps respond please adam styles so i always find that my job is about creating context to the weather story and making it relatable. Relative humidity is important for several things. It goes to comfort on a warm day, higher humidity.

You have a higher Humidex value, you're going to notice it. Wind speed, I get slammed the other way if I don't mention wind speed. You want to know if it's going to be a breezy day, windy day, especially you as a bike rider, you probably want to know. And you probably want to know what direction that wind is coming from. Am I riding into a headwind? Am I riding with a tailwind? And it makes you sound smart. You know what? I'm not too worried about that. I say a lot of dumb things to make myself, you know, sort of get into a reality check. But I also throw out a lot of big words that I then have to sort of backtrack and try to explain. But it's all about context, I think, and getting the full weather picture. The temps are going to be there. I'm going to still give

you that, but there's a lot of people out there that have a curiosity as to what's happening with our weather and relating it to activities in their life. It's like office space, right? It's like tchotchkes. You ever see office space, right? People can get a cheeseburger anywhere. Absolutely. They come here for the flair.

They come to tchotchkes for the flair. So you want to know what temperature it is today? There's a lot of places that will tell you the temperature. Only Adam Stiles is going to give you this kind of context. I try to make things relatable to lifestyle, whether it's sporting events, whether it's just your getting ready, your day-to-day stuff.

What's the goal here? You've got a great gig at a very prominent Toronto station. You're in people's living rooms every night. Like, that's amazing. But is there, like, a dream job? Like, is there, like, and maybe it's not. Like, maybe you're not gunning for Peter Mansbridge's job. I don't know.

But what's the dream job? It really isn't a pinnacle as far as weather in Canada. I'm really happy with the job that I have. Hopefully I can keep it for a prolonged period of time. You haven't said anything in this podcast that would risk your job, by the way. Well, there's still time. But, you know, if it was one of those shots

where, hey, ABC called and they want you to do Good Morning America, would I consider it? Absolutely. If I got to work in L.A., I'd probably go. You talk about fires and floods once a year, and you get to live by the beach. But you would miss the variety.

I would miss the variety. That was the thing. I lived in California. I was forecasting in California doing the morning show in Monterey. Monterey Salinas is the market there on the central coast.

But I got bored because there's only so many ways you can say cloud in the morning, sun in the afternoon, and high on 68. Right, right. Right?

Fog will burn off by 11. If you're in the inland, it's going to get up to 100. Yawn, it's another perfect day. Just don't worry about it. Good. My final questions are specific

Toronto meteorology things, just because I'm naturally curious. So we just had this summer, which seemed really warm. Yeah, second warmest on record. When did the record start again? These ones are 1937, 38 at Pearson Airport. And we use Pearson Airport for a consistency. It makes sense.

You know, it's not necessarily where a lot of people live, and it does get warmer and cooler. But you need a baseline or whatever. You need a baseline. Again, offering context. Right. So, okay. So second, wow.

What was the first warmest? I think it's 1959. I remember that summer. Yeah. You look about that old. Wow. What were you? Minus five?

I was very young. Yeah, I was minus five, asshole. Give me that beer back. No, you were minus. See, you weren't born yet. I'm saying that you're looking younger. Yeah, I was more than minus five. Less than minus five.

Thank you. But okay, so last summer, and I feel like I know where, I feel like a semi-expert because I'm outside every day for like an hour to 90 minutes on the bike. I lots of like mental notes on different things so i can tell you last summer very cool almost it's very cool uh there was i there was never that you know that feeling you had almost every day this summer where you walk outside and it's like the wall of heat

kind of hits you i didn't i don't think i felt it once last summer like it got warmest i think in september or something yeah we had a very we had a very slow summer last you. I don't think I felt it once last summer. It got warmest, I think, in September or something. Yeah, we had a very slow summer last year. I don't remember the specific numbers and sort of where it would rank in it, but this summer was exceptional. Our August missed the warmest mean temperature, so all the temperatures averaged out.

The warmest month ever recorded at Pearson Airport missed it by one-tenth of a degree. Wow. So it was 24.4 the record, 24.3 is what the mean temperature average turned out to be. And these are actual real temperatures, right? Because everybody now talks about Humidex. Yeah, so this is air temperature.

Humidex, again, it's one of those things that's subjective, and Canada has a different formula than what they use in the U.S. They have a heat index down there. So it's kind of how you interpret it. When did Humid X, because it used to be ahead of temperature, and that's the temperature. But now it seems like, oh, it's going to feel like 30 degrees, but it might be a 25-degree day.

I think people started realizing that heat is a serious health risk for people. Heat kills more people than tornadoes and hurricanes. Okay, but you're talking about respiratory-issue people, right? Not healthy. Yeah, but your body overheats. A lot of the times it is seniors. A lot of the time it is infants, especially with the car thing. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Again, I cannot fathom. Dogs, babies in cars, I don't understand. I don't know why I have to continue talking about how fast a car will heat up, even if your car is parked in the shade. They don't understand the greenhouse effect. Not a good idea. Yeah. Incoming solar radiation, shortwave, can get through the glass,

gets into your seat, your upholstery, comes out. Longwave radiation, can't go anywhere. It basically turns into an oven. Right. I don't think, yeah, you hear once in a while about like a dog or heaven forbid a kid left in a car, but thankfully it does seem to be kind of few and far between. But it usually is people forget the kids back there, right?

Yeah. Most people are sensible enough not to actually intentionally leave their kids back there. Absolutely, and it's one of those things. I mean, we all have a million things that we're doing and our minds are on a million different things but it's that simple backseat check if you have a kid that's got to be every parent's worst nightmare i mean i and a lot and some of the times it's grandparents that aren't in that same routine that's the trick when you're out of your normal routine just out of your normal routine so i always i always try to harp on to the backseat check yeah just one quick glance

do it anyway ways just in case somebody's back there with like a knife or something your normal routine. So I always try to harp on and do the backseat check. Yeah. Just one quick glance. Do it anyways just in case somebody's back there with like a knife or something. Just in case, well, that. Haven't you seen enough horror movies? Always check your backseat. Come on, you have no kids. Are you going to the wrong car?

Yeah. Even if you have no kids, you should check your backseat. Do we have, are we getting better at like, so this summer was really hot. Last summer was not really hot. Like, are we getting better

at predicting out like what, what we might get from these summers? Climate science is one of the tougher aspects in sort of the weather picture. You know, I focus mainly on the meteorology. So climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. So I look at the what are we going to get type of a thing in sort of the short range.

I'll be the first to admit that long-range forecasting is not my strong suit. I didn't spend enough time studying it because that's not what I was intending to do. But a lot of it is driven on what's happening in the oceans. You know, they were saying in May, oh, going to be a big La Nina here, a huge La Nina here, which doesn't have a huge impact for us. It's more of a sort of a West Coast and a U.S. South thing where they really get into the impacts of it. But then three weeks ago, yeah, it's probably not going to be La Nina this year. So it's going to, you know, so it kind of puts us into a normal pattern, what they call ENSO neutral, El Nino Southern Oscillation.

Dorky, dorky stuff. But you sound smart when you say that. Well, I read an article or two. So we're going to be in sort of a neutral pattern, which kind of puts us back into a standard type of a winter. It does look like our fall is going to continue with a warm pattern just based on what I've seen in the shorter range forecast models. Not the short, short range, but like the 14-day. It looks like the warmth is going to continue and there's no hints of a big push beyond that. Last May or whatever it is. So one of the things I enjoy is I like to take pictures of the cherry blossoms at Hyde Park.

It's a West End thing, okay? Didn't happen. Like, there were no cherry blossoms. So we got that cold snap. Too late? Yeah. So I think it was warm, and then it was cold, and then it never really warmed up enough.

So I think there was a lot of bud damage that happened, and then it just never... That was one of my favorite places in the city to be, favorite time of the year. One of my first dates with my wife was at the Cherry Blossom. She made a nice little picnic lunch. Did you go on a weekend or a weekday? We went there on a weekday. Good idea.

Yeah, I got off work at like 5.30, and so I guess it was a picnic dinner. No, it's just smart just that uh i can tell you when i have to go there because my kids playing baseball or something uh the peak cherry blossom time avoid high park on weekends oh absolutely mad house for sure and don't even think about driving there just don't even think about it uh we tried to take a i think we tried to take an uber to go check it out two years ago. And it was like, we were sitting in traffic. We just said,

all right, bud, we're getting out. We're walking. All right. Walked from the entrance all the way. The Bloor Street entrance? Yeah, the Bloor Street entrance. Now, I guess you can't tell me that the blossoms will be okay.

Like they're going to be okay next year? Like this never happened? You're not a blossom expert? No idea. It all depends on, I mean, again, you could have two days of cold weather that just comes in and screws it all up, or it could be incredibly warm and it's early and it's not, or we have a windstorm that comes

through that knocks them all off. It's, it's so sort of fickle and in such a small timeframe that, you know, it's one of those things. I'll get people that, hey, I just got engaged, or a mother of a bride. My daughter just got engaged. She's getting married next June. Do we need to get a tent? I just say yes. You just say yes.

Get a tent. Get a tent. At least put one on hold. You know what? I don't even trust. My mom's big on the seven-day forecast or whatever. She'll be like, oh, next. What are we now?

This is Wednesday. Today's Wednesday. She'll be like, oh, next Monday it's going to be beautiful. And I won't even hear it. Too far out. Too many different variables at play, right? And you know what? There is some support to that.

There's three to five days. Three days, pretty good confidence what's going to happen. When you have a winter storm, that's a little bit different because then you're sort of getting into that 24-hour window to really try to nail some of the stuff down. And even then, we have a tough time sometimes with it. But day four, five, you start to just go with trends. It's looking like this is going to be an air mass,

and it's looking like it's going to be about this much warmer than what it would normally be. And that's where a lot of the forecast goes through. Like, again, people will be like, oh, hey, I'm getting, like, I just got a tweet about somebody getting married on October 1st. And I said, don't, check back with me

on, like, the 28th, 27th, 28th. She's like, do I need to execute my rain plan? I was like, you probably don't need to tell them whether you're going to execute your rain plan now. So why get worked up about it? Also, that's a lot of pressure for you. Like you can't play God and look at your crystal ball and say, oh yeah, you know, that's not fair.

And, you know, I looked at the long range models and this happened early in the week. And I was flipping through and I was like, there's a round of rain that's the day before and there's a round of rain. That's the day before. And there's a round of rain. That's the day after. And it's like, but nothing on the, on that specific day. And it's like, well, I can't with confidence say, Oh, it looks like you're going to be dry. No worries. It's going to be fantastic. The day before you can't with confidence. I mean, you know what I mean? If I, if I screw up the day before the day before, something was drastically wrong, different, I overlooked something.

The models, that's the one thing. Computer models are only as good as the information that goes into it. So if it's garbage in, it's going to be garbage out. And a lot of the times, there'll be one or two of those model runs that you'll end up throwing away, which sometimes your app just picks up and it's like, rain all day. And I'll be like, I have showers from three to four. Right, right, right. so there's a good question so let's say you've got it all modeled out and you think you've got the forecast for the tomorrow whatever and then do you ever do you do a reality not a reality check but do you do a verification like did you see what the uh the canadian

meteorologist i don't know what their proper title environment canada environment can do you ever just say hey are we on the same page here like why are they saying this and I'm saying that? Yeah, I will check. But a lot of the times I know that Environment Canada is somewhat underfunded and they have a lot more of an area to forecast for. Right. That is true. On their page, day one, I think, is actually controlled by a human.

The rest goes to model data. And Citi has advanced weather technology. We do. We have our own microcast model as well, which is a version of the NAM forecast model that's run specifically for the Toronto area. Right, right. And this, by the way, that comment I read

where she was complaining, I think it was a she, but I don't remember the commenter's name. The weather girl was saying temps instead of temperatures. Again, convo. Convo instead of convo. Because brevity is important here. Yeah, we have a very temps instead of temperatures. Again, convo. Convo instead of convo. Because brevity is important here. Yeah, we have a very limited amount of time.

And temperature is not an easy word to say when you're trying to spit it all out. I'm still working on... And there's a lot of people that say temperatures, where it's temperature. Temperature. Temperatures. It's like February.

Yeah. Oceanographic. Say that one again. Temperature. Temperatures. It's like February. Yeah. Oceanographic. Say that one for me. Oceanographic? Oceanographic. You got to just roll through the ocean. Oceanographic. Yeah, oceanographic.

That's easy if you do it that way. And meteorological? Yeah, meteorological. Meteorological. Meteorological? Yeah. Like meteorological. Yeah.

Meteorological. Yeah. Okay. It's tough. It's, you know, having to say it on TV too, be like, I'm meteorologist Adam Stiles.

It becomes, sometimes you get tripped up by it. All right, you're a man who came to Toronto in 2008. So does this mean anything to a man who doesn't arrive until 2008? This is a throwdown,

a showdown. Hell no, I can't slow down. It's going to go. Like, be honest with me. Does that mean anything to a guy who arrives in 2008? No.

See, I didn't think so. And that's probably not my music genre that I would be really listening to. I have a terrible taste in music.

What kind of music is with your jam? You know what? Any sort of thing that is catchy and pop will stick in my head. Like, are you talking like Katy Perry? Like anything that's terrible will just get like earworms.

Oh, like Gangnam Style? Yeah, absolutely. It's not like I'm downloading it and jamming to it on my iPhone. No, there's no shame in this room here. But I don't have the appreciation of music that my brother has. He's sort of a student of music. You're more of a who let the dogs out man? Yeah, absolutely.

The Venga boys are coming. The Venga boys are coming. I remember that. It's a guilty pleasure. No, it's not that bad. Cotton Eye Joe is on your iPod? No. I was, because, I mean, I grew up in the city,

so that, what you just heard there, I'll just do it again. This is a throwdown, a showdown. Hell no, I can't slow down. It's going to go. So that's from 1989, and it means a great deal to me. And the man who wrote and recorded that song, Let Your Backbone Slide, he's my guest tomorrow.

And I was just thinking, like, this guy, this is a Seattle guy. He shows up in 2008. There's no way he knows Let Your Backbone Slide. Now, if it was Sir Mix-a-Lot, I like Big Butts. Swap Meet Louie. Posse on Broadway? Maybe. But now you've

got Macklemore. Yeah. So he's like, Ken Griffey Jr. in one of his videos. Yeah, downtown. Throwing fish to a playa. So you's got Ken Griffey Jr. in one of his videos. Yeah, downtown, throwing fish to a playa. So you grew up a huge Ken Griffey Jr. fan? Yes. Because he was the kid, right? Yeah.

So there's a funny story about Ken Griffey Jr. He was doing an autograph session at the Bellevue Red Lion or something. It was a card show. They had a couple of the Mariners there. And the lineup was just huge. You go through. And it would be like Jay Buhner would be there, Griffey, Greg Peewee Briley, which that's a very obscure reference. I don't know that one.

He was a small guy, hence the nickname Peewee, would be sort of sitting at the table. Randy Johnson was there. And so we got in line. We waited one time. Got our signature. Got Griffey to sign the upper deck card. And then we kind of went and sat there. And we were just kind of watching him as they were doing the whole thing. And then we noticed that there was a couple people that weren't paying attention in line. So my brother and I would just sneak in

again. He'd sign another thing for us. We sat back down. I got two Griffey autographs. My brother's got two. And there's another one. Another guy not paying attention. So we did it again.

And we had the cards. So we got them. And he signed it again. He goes, hmm, boys, you look awfully familiar. Probably the last time you should do this. You were busted by the kid. By the kid, yep. The G to R to F to F to E to Y.

Nice. He had a rap song, by the way, with Kid Sensation. When I swing, I bring bass like an earthquake. Hit the home run, make the house shake. Nice. That's my childhood right there. And the Griffey Bar. He had his own candy bar.

Was that available outside of Washington State? I don't think so. I think it was very, very local. I remember when I found out the Baby Ruth had nothing to do with Babe Ruth. And there was a Reggie Jackson chocolate bar I remember as a kid. As a kid, you'd get a Reggie Jackson

chocolate bar. I have a Reggie Jackson autograph that my uncle gave me. Mr. October. He basically annoyed him enough in the airport that he's like, go away, kid. He, yeah, he was like the straw that stirred the drink, right? He, I think he's coaching, right? Is he a coach for the Yankees now?

I don't know if he is or not. He might be. I think I saw him on the field. Seattle, real quick thing with Seattle is you now have the longest drought, right? Playoff drought? Because 2000? Because we had it and then... Yeah,? Because 2000? Because we had it.

Yeah, probably. So the Royals had it. They made the playoffs. And then we had it and we made the playoffs. You're not making the playoffs, by the way, this year. But you have it now, I think, 2000. That sounds about right. We still have the Seahawks who lost to the Rams this last weekend. Yeah, but at least you have a title you can talk about.

So when you are in Toronto and your team from your childhood wins the title, you don't go to the parade or anything. It's a different thing. It's just like, oh, good for them. You have some nostalgia. I watched it. I watched the Super Bowl.

I had to watch the Super Bowl the first time at home by myself. Oh, yeah. Because I'm a terribly nervous fan for my team. I'll be like that if we have this one-game playoff here in the World Series. Yeah, it's like I don't want anybody around. I don't want to go to a Super Bowl party because if things don't start going my way,

this is the year they blew out the Broncos. So I should have went and been gloating and been like, in your face. But you don't have that. Just like with the weather, you don't have that crystal ball. I was at home. I have the professional wide receiver gloves, the ones that if you put your hands together, it makes the logo.

Oh, yeah. So I was wearing those because I'm a huge dork and watching the game and sweating and swearing and knocking back a couple of cold ones. A couple of great leg beers. Yeah. Even if it's not true, you can just say it and it'll make Troy happy. There's a good chance it probably was.

If you had no relationship at all with Troy and you never met the man or sat on his porch for beers, would you still be as big a fan of Great Lakes beer?

Absolutely. I mean, Canuck, very solid. One of the best pale ales that's in Ontario right now. And you had a good time on episode 193?

I had a great time. You're going to tell all your friends at City you got to do Toronto Mike? Sure. I listened to the Avery Haynes podcast. Yeah, she was great.

What an amazing storyteller she is. She just came back from North Korea. Is she actually back? Yeah. Okay. She's back.

But she's doing a strange thing where she's tweeting out screen captures of her story. So she'll type it in something and screen cap it and tweet it out in like these installments. So she'll type it in something and

screen cap it and tweet it out in like these installments. So I'm like following her stories about North Korea coming out in these dribbles and drabs.

It's very interesting the way she's sharing this. Check it out. Great story. Avery Haynes is great. That brings us to

the end of our 193rd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike and Adam, you should follow him. He rents kittens and tweets pictures of them at Adam styles. Styles is S T I L E S. There is no Y in style.

And our friends at Great Lakes brewery are at Great Lakes Beer and Chef's Plate at Chef's Plate CA. See you all next week. Eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or will do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you.