Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Al Joynes: Toronto Mike'd #321

Episode Date: April 3, 2018

Mike chats with Al Joynes about his two tours of duty at Q107, working mornings at The Rock, and being let go one week ago today.

Welcome to episode 321 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Camp Tournesol,

the leading French summer camp provider in Ontario. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and joining me is broadcaster Al Joines. Hi, Mike. Al, I said this to you at the door, and I meant it. When I heard that voice, I'm like, that's Al joins. Your voice is so distinctive and memorable to me. It's a great radio voice.

Well, thank you, Mike. I've worked on it for a while. Can you train me on how to get a good radio voice? Breathing is everything. Breathing in, breathing out. But I don't have to follow the Jeff Woods program where he said drink lots of scotch and smoke packs of cigarettes

when you're a preteen. So that's Jeff's secret, eh? Because he's got great pipes too. Sure, he's a great guy. I don't know if that's a good program for me to buy into. Take up smoking and drinking heavily and you should have a great radio voice.

Great to meet you. Your name is Al. Really quick story. When I was a young man, I used to read these books, these Encyclopedia Brown books. Do you know Encyclopedia Brown? He would solve mysteries in the neighborhood. He was just like a 10-year-old kid or 10 year old kid or something. But there was one, one book I had,

there was one story in one book I had where there was a character named Al. And I distinctly remember that Encyclopedia Brown would solve the case. He solved the case because he, this guy was only known as Al in the neighborhoods, but there was a character that called him Alan. And in Cyclopedia Brown figured he must be, I can't remember what the crime was or whatever, but he must be the guy because he knew his name was Alan. And Al could mean like Albert or Alvin or Elvis or whatever. So what does Al mean for you? Well, I love Elvis.

That's how I used to sign you know, sign my emails sometimes. It's Alan with one L. But at Q107, Derringer nicknamed me very early on Alvin. So I got Alvin all over the place there. I want to do it in my David Saville voice. Alvin! That's right. Story of my life.

I bet. You're used to hearing that. Story of my life. I bet. You're used to hearing that. I'm going to break regular format. Normally, we do like a chronological order thing. Like we start when you're a baby, and then we kind of get our way up to the current day. But I'm going to break that a bit and just tell you right off the bat how freaking sorry I am regarding the news you received last week. I'm sorry, man. Thank you.

It was about time. Really. Really, though? After all these years. Well, I've had the best time of my life. But why does that have to end? I disagree with you that it was about time. Well, it's not going to end.

It'll end for Q107, but podcasts, as we were talking about before we went to air here, is the new wave. And I've been doing a podcast for independent music for a couple of years now. So I've kind of prepared myself for all this stuff that's going on today. I can't say enough about Q107's listenership, Mike. enough about Q107's listenership, Mike. I've never really experienced, you know, more enthusiasm and more passion than Q107 listeners.

And that's why I would, you know, always carry that with me, because I had a big passion for music as well. And in this radio era, this era of radio, music doesn't really count anymore, unfortunately. That sucks, man. I hate that. That sucks. I am a man. Maybe I'm living in the past or whatever, but I believe that when it comes to radio, what makes radio work, in my opinion, are the personalities. Because you got your music, of course, but you're right. Today, if I want to hear a Zeppelin song or whatever, I can probably say it out loud right now and my Google phone will play me a Zeppelin song. You know what I mean? I won't say it because it will

if I say a certain word before Google. And I think the word is okay. If I put it in that order, it will start doing stuff. It's a little bit scary, but it knows my voice. I trained it on my voice. It's very scary. But I digress. The personalities are what I like from radio. I like to know that if I tune in on a weekend, my friend Al will kind of be my guide as I listen to some classic rock or whatnot. That's what I like about radio, personalities. And I think that carried Q107 for years and years and years.

Some of the best personalities coming through that place, you know, Bro Jake, the late, great Scruff Connors, Andy Frost, Al Joins, Jeff Woods. You put Al Joins on that list. You can't do that. So I will help with this. After the breaks, we'll start to talk more in depth about the people you worked with at Q. So let's just tell the people listening if they're wondering, why am I saying I'm sorry and you're talking about moving on? Because I don't think everybody listening knows this yet,

but I guess you were at Q for 30 years? 30 years, but two tours of duty. And in between there, I was at 94.9 The Rock, which I named driving home eastbound on Taunton, calling the general manager and going, let's call it The Rock. Wow. And then I went back. See, I didn't know that.

You mentioned it earlier. I was just telling you my buddy Bob works there. And then you mentioned that you named it The Rock. That's amazing. Yeah, because I was assistant PD there and music director when we first opened in 2000. I think it was 2003. And then I was unceremoniously dumped from that place too. However, such as radio.

And you know what date it was? It was June 6, 2006. So that's 666 that I came back to Q107. That's great. Couldn't have designed that any better. So we will go deeper into your career at Q and we'll touch on

The Rock. I have some audio of you at The Rock and some audio of you on Q, and we're going to talk about these great people from Scruff Connors to Brother Jake to Derringer, Andy Frost. We're going to talk about all these guys. But can you tell me a little bit about, like, how did this go down?

Did they call you in a room and somebody gave you a folder? Well, last Tuesday, I was out doing some things in the morning. I came back. There was a message on my phone from the new general manager of Q107 asking me to call him, and I called

him. And then he said, can you come into the radio station? I said yes. And I came into the radio station and we met in a small little room, much like this, and he handed me my walking papers. But, you know, it's been a great ride. I couldn't have asked for a better team to work with,

better listenership, better equipment. I mean, you see pictures of it and I look like I'm in, you know, Rocket Ship 7, you know. I mean, it looks better than this, you're saying. Well, this is close, though. This is close. But, you know, Rocket Ship 7, you know. I mean, it looks better than this, you're saying. Well, this is close, though. This is close. But, you know, and I have nothing

but great things to say about them. Well, good for you, parting that way. You could have come in here guns blazing, like those effers at chorus or whatever. But in that day, you got it, which that Tuesday. I started getting notes early that day that the word that was used with me was bloodletting across the country.

So do you find any solace maybe that, hey, it wasn't an Al thing. Like this wasn't like, let's get Al. This was, let's get lots of people and Al somehow fell into that bucket. Exactly. And, you know, Blair Bartram was in that bucket and Ross McLeod from Toronto, from The Edge.

And those are the program directors from those two stations. Yes, yep. And, you know, Andy Frost, which I think they've given him a month to stay, and then he's on his own journey. Is that public yet? That's nowhere yet, right?

Like the Andy news? Well, I think it's out there. I, you know, I'm not... No, I mean, I'm glad you're being so... I mean, okay, so let me tell you what I know since you did that. I was told the same thing. So the day I learned Al Joines got it,

I was told Andy Frost got it. And then I learned from my inside sources, I learned Al's gone now and is public about it. And Andy's going to be given a chance to say goodbye. They didn't let you say goodbye.

No, they didn't, which is unfortunate, really. Well, you're saying goodbye now. I just need to tell everyone. That term listenership, too. I hear that a lot from people who worked at Q107. Q, is that the station that uses the term listenership? I think so. Scruffer, he was the one that coined that phrase, right? You know what? My buddy, Freddie P. Yes. Okay. So Fred Patterson told me that was a scruff term. Thank you.

It really was. That's great. And we just carried it on. I love it, though. I love it. The listenership. So I just need to get all the listenership to listen to this so you can say goodbye. And we'll do that at the end of this episode to one of your favorite songs, actually, which I think is appropriate for your departure from the mighty Q. But they're a loss, in my opinion. They're just...

You and Andy are a couple of voices that people who listen to Q107 for the last few decades... I know Andy, I think, I want to say, 86 or something. And he only had the one tour of Doody, too. Oh, did he? No, he had two. I should know this. He was on this show. That's right. And he was the one that hired me

back in 88. Do you do an Andy Frost impersonation? Of course I do! Mind doing a little bit of Andy? Or am I putting you on the spot? It might be a little early for that. I don't know. He's the best. He's a good man.

You know what I say about Andy, though? If everything works out, his son will be making millions of dollars very soon. Maybe if his son could help dad out. Morgan is doing amazing. Amazing. And if I was Andy, I'd go on his

coattails. I'm unfortunately, I don't know yet with the youngest son, but the oldest son is a bonafide house leaguer. He's got a game tonight.

He's not making me, he's costing me money. That's what happens at first. And then hopefully he will, he will turn things around and bring in a

salary for you, dad. Yeah. I don't know if he'll make Morgan Frost money. Your boys though, did they play hockey? My oldest played computer and played books.

He's the one that, you know, the intellectual one, do you want to say? And my second son, he works with his hands. He's a carpenter. Oh, cool. And I warned them both not to get into radio. No, I didn't. My final question, I almost want to bump it up now. What do you tell, like, I don't know, let's say a 17-year-old kid comes up to you and says, I'm going to go to, I don't know,

I'll make up a program, a Humber College radio program, because I want to do what you did. You look that kid in the eyes. What do you say to that kid? I say, good luck. And if you have the passion for it and you have the strong will to do it, then go for it. Do you also say, can your mommy and daddy help you pay rent and some things? That's right. That's right. I was very lucky. I was very lucky.

When I got out of Ryerson, I got on at CKAR in Oshawa. And we're going back a ways here. But it was my first commercial on-air job. And really, I've only been unemployed in those situations for six months to maybe a year and a half. So I've been very lucky that I've been on the air solidly for all these years, 40 years pretty much. Yeah, great.

And I hope it doesn't end. We will talk about that in a bit here. So I have some words from the listenership to share with you here. So two tours of duty, but 30 years at Q. You got whacked last week, you and Andy Frost.

Toronto's going to miss you both. But let's read a quote from Andy Burns. Okay, so this is from Andy Burns. After 30 years at Q107, oh, no, sorry. I'll start with the proper Andy Burns quote. Al's a good guy and one of the many voices that inspired me to get into radio when I was a kid. Our time together at Q107 was pretty short, but I liked him very much. And then he goes on to talk about Blair Bartram.

He says, Blair Bartram was hands down the best boss I ever had when I was at Q. And he was at Q, the guy who wrote this, Andy Burns, from 2001 to 2007, he says. Though I learned from all of the guys in charge, Blair has a way with people that few others do. He's thoughtful, he listens,

and he always aimed to bring out the best in his staff. He also took criticism as well from all of us. He was the boss, but he never held it over us. Like I said, he listens. He said, Blair had 13 years at Q, which is an incredible run. It was a privilege to work with him.

I was a better writer for it. So yes, there's some good stuff about you, Al, but that seemed to be more of a love letter to Blair Bartram. Absolutely, and every word is true to Blair Bartram. Absolutely. And every word is true. Blair is the ultimate programmer. I've learned a lot from Blair.

And hopefully Blair maybe learned a lot, you know, a little from me. But it was always a positive message that came out of Blair. Whenever we did any kind of meeting, any kind of, yeah, I'm trying to think of the air checks that we would do. I would leave the room with my head bowed and, oh my God, no, I didn't. It was, no, he pretty much took me to another level.

Let's put it that way. So Blair, Andy Frost, and yourself, as far as you know, are those the only three victims of the National Chorus bloodletting last Tuesday? Well, Ross McLeod. I mean, at Q. At Q, yes. That's it. Yep. Did you hear any

rumors about... Because I know they hired one person to take over for both Ross and Blair, right? There's a woman coming from Winnipeg whose name eludes me right now. But apparently, have you heard anything about voice tracking in the future of these stations?

Have you heard anything of that nature? Well, I think what they would like to do is, well, sorry, what they'd like to do is have a national network, much like the others, like the Bell and Rogers and maybe Vancouver you know, Vancouver-centric, Toronto-centric.

I'd like to talk about that. I mean, do we have time now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've already broke the format, so please go ahead. Well, I was just going to say that my own personal opinion is that Toronto is very unique. I worked in Calgary for six years. I know the West.

Calgary's my second home. And Vancouver is even another jump West. And they're different markets. They aren't the same market. The basic music tastes are probably the same. But Toronto gets, you know, gets full points for being a huge city, a metropolitan city, very musically oriented from over the years. And I really think they need Toronto programmers in there to program to Torontonians.

Remember earlier I said what I liked about radio was the personalities? You know the other thing I like about radio? The locality of it. Yes. I like it that, yeah, be hyper local. Like I like to hear Toronto stuff on the Toronto station. And the famous example, and this is a little different because it was sports. And of course, Calgary people want to hear about the Flames and Toronto people want to hear about the Leafs.

But I remember when 1050, the team, this was before TSN, when they became the team, that that failed. And if you ask anyone who worked at the team, it failed after like a year and a half, they'll tell you it's because they tried to be a national network and you can't talk to Calgary

the same way you talk to Toronto. Exactly. And that's what killed it. It really, and I think that could be killing a lot of ratings because people are now going to podcasts. They're going to Spotify. They're going to Apple Music. And I don't want radio to, and I think another thing that a lot of programmers are doing right across the country is because of the streaming situation that they feel that radio could stream like that as well.

But as you pointed out, Mike, it's very personality directed and you don't get any personality from streaming music unless there's somebody explaining the music. Right. So I think that they have to really, they really have to keep their personalities in there and they have to keep it local. They have to keep it rocking or at least energy driven anyway. And not to worry about the Spotify's and the Apple music.

That, you know, that could even be just a fad. No, it's funny how if you and I were in charge, we would have taken this in a different direction. But so then I have to look at it. Is this all like to appease shareholders? Is this all cost cutting? Because it doesn't make sense unless you say, oh, it's all to cut costs.

Yeah, no, I think it is. They're restructuring and they need to save money. I understand that. And I understand that my time was up there. But what I don't understand is the fact that radio is dying a slow death because of certain programming decisions. Death by a thousand cuts, they say. But yeah, it's sad, man. Yeah, it's sad. I always feel bad when, you know, longtime radio vets like yourself or Andy get it

because I always wonder, is it because of that rock star salary that they pay Al Joins? Is that what it is? I saw you come in here. You've got the Lamborghini Countach in my driveway right now. Yeah, with the rusted fenders.

By the way, your car looks great compared to the car you parked behind. Oh, that's fine. When you leave, you can take a look at my Mazda. That thing is... It is it is it is old it's funny my son's learning to drive on it and my son is younger than the car but so my car is uh 19 years old and it looks it man like it it's had a rough winter parts of it are now falling off like it's just rusting out and it's like i'm part of it one day in the, like I'd open the door and stuff. Part of it would just plummet to the snow below. It's, uh, it's, it's, I don't know how long, much longer I can keep that going. Like, uh, Neil Young said, like long may you run. That's what I

say about that. Uh, here's a note from a Michael Hum. He says, uh, I would ask Al if he gets tired. Now, I don't know if Michael had the news yet, so I'm going to change the tense on this. If he got tired playing the same old, as the joke goes, 107 songs all the time. I know he was on Sundays for Psychedelic Sundays, which I love, but still I'm not the only one that thinks Q could be better serving the 45 plus demo. Not your problem now, but you are a knowledgeable guy in this arena, so I need to ask you, what do you think of what Michael says? Do you think that the 45-plus crowd that loves Psychedelic Sundays were well-served by the, Michael Hum says, 107 songs all the time? Well, I think there was more like 430 songs. But Mike, you're absolutely right. It came from an era of vinyl.

We miss the vinyl and the queuing up of the vinyl and the taking it out of the music library vinyl. Then it came CDs, and we still play the CDs. I would physically put CDs into a CD player and queue it up. Nowadays, it's all animated. Is that the right word? Automated. Automated, that's it.

I'm animated. You're animated. That's why we like you. And I think my podcast was born out of that very question. What's the name again of your podcast? Discovery, Toronto's Independent Music Showcase. And what I do is I play unsigned bands and artists and then try and give them some exposure through my podcast. unsigned bands and artists and then try and give them some exposure, you know, through,

through my podcast. And that was born out of boredom because, you know, how many times can I play Won't Get Fooled Again or, or Stairway to Heaven or all these other songs that I love so much and have played so many times, but it was just getting a little bit much. Well, you were no longer getting satisfaction

from playing I Can't Get No Satisfaction. I wasn't. From the Stones, for sure. Because I'm a big fan. And I really believe that the listener is correct. Michael Hum. Yep.

We're not fooling anybody. Let's put it that way. And new radicals into Zeppelin just doesn't work for me. As I read the name Michael Hum, I realize actually why he goes by the name Michael and not Mike. We'll just leave it at that. I just see it in print here.

Lorraine chimes in. Lorraine got the news that you were leaving Q, and she says, What a shame! I will miss Al's wit, friendly voice and all-round good guyishness. I don't know if that's a word but we'll use it. Guyishness. Q is destroying a great thing. I've been

listening since 77 and I've heard too many stupid changes. That's it. The listenership that sticks that's loyal to the station sticks around. Those are the ones that hate these kind of changes. I think that these radio corporations made a decision not to care about the Lorrains of the

world and to focus on the next listener or the new listener. Right, the new listener. Right. Absolutely. So the Lorrains of the world do get shafted when these decisions come down the pipe. For sure.

And I hear about it when I'm out in public. If I go to a remote or if I'm in a bar, that's the one thing that people mention to me is the changes over the years. And nothing's more constant than change, but don't wreck it. Oh boy. You're all emotional.

I'm all choked up here. I'm all choked up here. Again, it's been a tough time for me as well. So I'm relating too closely here. Dale says, and you kind of answered this, but we'll give you another shot at it. What do you see, this is for you, Al, what do you see in the future for radio overall?

And what do you think of the music format? What do you think the music format will be at Q107 in the future? Because, this is Dale's words, it is floundering like a fish out of water as they don't know where to succeed. A great stay at Q107, Al, and hopefully hear you soon. So a couple of things to unpack there, as they say.

But firstly, I guess Dale's frustrated by the playlist, but do you want to comment on what do you think the future of Q107 will be or should be? Any thoughts on that? Well, this is my own opinion, Mike. Totally my own opinion. My opinion is that 40 years of Q107, of the mighty Q,

has happened. They can't replicate that. They cannot do what has already been done. And I'm thinking they should just change the call letters completely. And that's a new trend in radio. They did it at AM640 into global radio. They should do it at Q107.

Not to say that I'm saying sour grapes. Oh, they got to change everything. No, no, no. grapes. Oh, they got to change everything. No, no, no. But it would be, it would serve the listeners they're trying to get by changing the call letter, uh, you know, boom FM or, or not boom, but, um, big FM or something like that, because there's just too much heritage at Q107, Toronto's best rock. We all grew up with it. I was there when they signed on, too. I was a listener as well. I was a big fan.

Always wanted to work there. You know, you got to watch what you wish for, Mike, in this life, because you'll get what you wish for. And I really do think that unless they're going to do the mighty Q over again, they really need to perhaps change. And, you know, you mentioned Global News Radio, which I call GNR. GNR is an attempt, of course, to have sort of something across Canada.

They have many GNR radios across Canada now. And you mentioned earlier the whole voice tracking, because I hear that, you know, wish i remember i should have wrote down her name but uh someone from winnipeg she was a program director in winnipeg is coming to assume to take control of q107 and cfny uh edge 102.1 and uh the thought that i keep hearing is that well they're going to move it towards more voice tracking so you're right if you know q107 this legacy toronto institution i mean cfrb doesn't go by cfrb anymore they call themselves news talk more voice tracking. So you're right. You know, Q107, this legacy Toronto institution. I mean, CFRB doesn't go by CFRB anymore. They call themselves News Talk 1010. They could do it.

Q could do it, right? Yeah. Lose the Q107. Just have a nice funeral celebration of life, if you will. And then whatever it is, maybe whatever that is, maybe that exists across the country at Chorus-owned FM.

And that would probably be big FM. That's, that was, that's their, their, their format. Well, before I forget,

and, um, John Derringer is a, one of those, uh, big money contract guys. Okay. So he's making,

I heard he makes even more money than you do. Oh my. I don't know if that's possible. He signed a 10-year contract. I'm not sure what, you know, because he's so good. But I,

and I don't know, you know, what that's going to hold for John in the future. And all I can say is best wishes because he really is, you know,

one of a kind. Erin Davis was here once and she told me that everybody trying to, you know, be the next John Derringer or the next Aaron Davis, they're trying to rob a bank after all the money's gone.

Exactly, exactly. And you can put Q's Morning Show into any format, really, because they're that good. So I'm not too worried about that. But what I am worried about is radio failing in smaller markets. Toronto, you'll always have radio. Montreal, Vancouver, just because people are in their cars. It took me an hour to get here today.

Oh, I feel bad about that. No, no, not at all. You know what I mean? But you're right. The car is the last bastion of radio. You're right. It is. That's when I listen to all my radio when I'm stuck in a car.

For sure. And that could be the death knell. I don't know. But I know in Peterborough or smaller markets that they are hurting and they aren't making a hell of a lot of money. to a local news presence or just the whole locality we talked about where that's why you listen to, again, I'll make up a station. Let's say there's a station in Wasega Beach or whatever. You're listening to hear local Wasega stuff. Like the more local news you cut and the more locality like that, you can't make it sound like something in Toronto.

Like otherwise, and we already know with this recent post-media tour star, they traded papers to shutter them, okay? A lot of local smaller towns. And I'm talking as Toronto Mike. So I know Toronto. We don't have this problem. We have lots of media still in Toronto.

But there are a lot of small markets where your local radio station is kind of all you have left. If you get rid of the local news from there, you're left with digital only. And if the powers that be decide there's no money in digital only, you got to hope there's like a feisty, passionate local blogger or something that's, you know, like who's going to the city council meetings, who's reporting on all of keeping them from the corruption that will, you know,

erupt if you get rid of radio and newspapers and news. Well, you know, I like getting a newspaper every day. I guess I'm old school. I was just talking to my wife, Barb, about getting rid of that, you know, just being online, you know. So there's one subscription that's going to go away. And also, you know, as far as subscription radio goes, people paying for, you know, what is it? Sirius Radio. Sirius XM, yeah. That, you know, they still put commercials in there. You're paying dough and you're still hearing. Oh, man.

Howard Stern, not only, he's got lots of ads he runs and you're paying bucks to, yeah. So I don't get that. I don't know. Right. We watch Netflix because we don't have to watch a, you know, a two minute block of commercials between episodes. You know, that's why we pay. Yep. Yep. They're double dipping now. That's what. We watch Netflix because we don't have to watch a two-minute block of commercials between episodes. That's why we pay. Exactly. Yep, yep.

They're double-dipping, Al. That's what they're doing there. They're double-dipping all right, Mike. Al, do you speak French? Very little. Did your two boys, did they just do the mandatory grade nine French or did they ever do any french immersion yeah well my my oldest speaks a lot of french uh and youngest not only when he swears no he doesn't uh he doesn't speak french at all if you have children everyone listening if you have children between the ages of 4 and 14 there is a way to watch to witness your child's French skills skyrocket over the summer.

I'm talking about Camp Tournesol. Now, Camp Tournesol, if you haven't heard of Camp Tournesol, they've been around since 2001, and they provide French camps at the GTA for tens of thousands of children. Like I said, ages 4 to 14. They're the largest French camp in Ontario. And, you know, your son or daughter, if they're Francophone or if they're in French immersion or even if they have no French experience, there's a day camp or an overnight experience for them.

So if you go to campt.ca, you'll learn about the camps available. It's a great idea because it's fun. First of all, the kid thrives in these camps. But they really do learn the language. And they come back after the overnight like just that's funny gourd depp from the spoons was here and i was telling him that they even have this 13 day trip to quebec i think gourd's registering i told him you got to be uh 14 or under gourd's gonna lie that's right he looks he looks like a young guy the man does not age but even he has

trouble passing for 14 but there's so many options, like these overnight camps. They'll come back and they'll be... You ever see that Simpsons where there's a foreign exchange program and Bart goes to France? Do you remember this? And he ends up making the knockoff wine or whatever. Do you remember? They put antifreeze in the wine,

but he comes back speaking fluent French. That could be your kid. Absolutely. Camp Tournesome. So when you go to campt.ca and you check this out, and then when you do finally sign your kid up for Camp Tournesol French Camp, use the promo code Mike, and you save 20 bucks right there.

You a big Nana Muscuri fan? Well, you know, it's funny you would play that, because one of my early jobs was at CKEY, 590 CKEY. I remember 590 CKEY. Yep, with all the songs. We played Nana Muscuri. We played Laurie Bower Singers. I don't know if you remember that.

No, here's what I know about Laurie Bower Singers. Didn't they sing the Spider-Man theme from the 60s? Nobody knows who you are. I think that might be the Laurie Bower Singers. Could be. Who's the CHCH House of Freidenstein? Oh, Billy Vann. Right.

Wasn't he? Was he part of Laurie Bower Singers or did he have the Billy Vann Singers? Or am I messing up? No, I think Billy was just comedic. But, so I would play Nana Muscuri at CKY and all my friends would be going, who's Nana Muscuri?

You know, but it was very big at that time. Huge. Oh yeah, huge at that time. And speaking of Gord Depp, who's enrolled himself in a Camp Ternusul camp, he once, for pure irony purposes, I think in the late 70s, he went to Halloween. He went out for Halloween dressed as Nana Muscuri. Right. And how old is that lady? She's coming to Massey Hall or she's been to Massey Hall lately or something, but she's got to be getting up there.

I will say, though, that if you are a person who does not remember the 70s, you're probably hearing the name Nana Muscuri for the first time. She doesn't have a big presence these past 30 years. But I loved her glasses. She had those black horn-rimmed glasses. They were gorgeous. Absolutely. We're pro-Nana Muscuri here. I want to thank somebody, a listener, Miriam.

So episode 320, this is 321 uh but episode 320 was about uh my personal situation uh with employment and different options i was looking at for the future so al you and i are in the same boat here but uh miriam heard that episode and wanted to help crowdfund this project she doesn't want this project to be a victim of like life changes that might happen in that transition so she doesn't like Patreon. I do urge everybody who does use Patreon to go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and help keep this going.

Miriam prefers to email me money every quarter instead of Patreon, which is great. So I want to say thank you to Miriam. That's amazing. Al, do you enjoy beer? Beer is good. Beer has been part of my career for many years. And if I could send my address to her too, I'd love some.

Miriam, Al wants you to send him some money too. But in addition to mine, you can't cannibalize mine. No, of course not. I could never be you, sir. I was going to say the same thing to you. Nice. Great Lakes Brewery, local craft brewery. It took you an hour to get here, so I know you don't live around here.

See how smart I am? I'm an Ajacian. I live in Ajax. Oh, wait. I don't think... Ajax, that's a long... Yeah, that's a long way out there. But every time you're in the neighborhood, you've got to great lakes brewery and pick up your beer you can also get it in lcbo's but great lakes brewery wonderfully wonderfully i'm gonna i'm hosting a hockey pool draft next monday and i'm gonna make sure there's lots of cold uh glb for people drafting uh they're gonna give you that six pack thank you home with you Thank you so much. I was talking to one of my contacts there just yesterday.

I was talking to him, and I said, this weather, I think the normal weather for this time of year is like 9 degrees or something, and it's freaking cold out there. It is. It's been freezing. I got up the other morning. It was like minus 12. I'm like, what?

That's ridiculous. April 1st is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Although I always remember the first ever Blue Jays game was like April 6th, 1977, and it was snowing. It snowed. So that's how I remember. It does snow in early April.

Yep, yep. And I was at Ryerson at the time, and we were going to go to that game, but I think we got sidetracked and just watched it on TV. Well, now there's approximately 600,000 Torontonians who tell you they were at that game. So they did report

that it was like 47,000. They sold out Exhibition Stadium, whatever, but 600,000 Torontonians claim to have been at that game. Absolutely. The other one is every other Jays fan

was at game six and 93 when Joe Carter touched them all. Yep. Every other Jays fan was at game 6 in 93 when Joe Carter touched them all. Yep. Every other Jays fan was there. Is that possible? I was on the couch. Cheering. So I'm not lying. But no, the Jays, and hopefully this season there won't be as many injuries as

there has been the last couple of seasons. Well, Tulo might never play again. Tulo, you know, what's up? You're right. It's funny just to touch on the Jays here has been the last couple of seasons. Well, Tulo might never play again. Tulo, you know, what's up? He's fragile. You're right. And it's funny, just to touch on the Jays here, super early, of course, but they've already exceeded my expectations.

For sure. Yes, the last couple of games. Oh, man. After that start, the 0-2 start, I was like, okay, here we go again. It'll be like last season. But here you go. We're above 500.

That's right. I watched Smoke's Grand Slam the other day. Oh, my gosh. Glad you mentioned Smoke, because he's the guy where you can look at his career and say, oh, that was a fluke. Like, he was great last year, but that's the only year you point to him. You need him to be what he was last year,

this year, but so far he looks like he is that, which is great news for Jesus. And hopefully he'll surpass that. Fantastic. I'm curious to see what happens with Mr. Josh Donaldson because, first of all, can he throw from third? I need to see that.

And do we trade him at the deadline for some prospects and futures? Well, he's hoping for a great season so that he can call his own monetary amount that he wants. He's got to be careful. The injuries are just taking him down, I think, personally. You're right. But last season, when he came back,

he was injured first half of the season. But apparently, after the All-Star break, I think I got this right, I don't think anyone in Major League Baseball hit more home runs than Josh Donaldson did in the second half of last season, I think. And I did see him hit one out yesterday. So if he can throw from third and

put together a good season, either we get something for him at the trade deadline, or he walks for massive dollars. He becomes, I don't know, a Yankee or whatever the hell he's going to end up. And Jose Batista, I mean, hopefully he's enjoying his marriage because he didn't get picked up either. I was surprised at that. Yeah, nobody took a run at him. I'm hopefully he's enjoying his marriage because he didn't get picked up either. I was surprised at that.

Yeah, nobody took a run at him. I'm thinking he's come pretty cheap right now. I think so. You want veteran depth on the bench. But maybe the Braves, because that's where Alex Anthopoulos is. I was thinking the Braves would give him some kind of, I don't know what's cheap for a baseball player, like a $5 million deal or something. I know we talk about $5 million like it's pocket change, but that's pretty cheap if you're going to pick up Jose Batista. Yeah, I totally picked the wrong career, Mike.

Oh, you had the option? Oh, look, Morgan Frost had the option. Okay, they're few and far between. Beer, we talked about the beer, but you got to pour the beer into a pint glass. Where is it? There it is. All yours, my friend.

The six. It says the six right on it. That's great. Property in the six. Propertyinthesix.com is where you go to contact Brian, or you can phone Brian at 416-873-0292. Brian, I talked to him yesterday. That's a wonderful man.

He's a great guy. And he recorded a special message for you, Al. So let's listen. Nice. To Brian. recorded a special message for you al so let's listen nice to brian hi al brian gerstein here sales representative with psr brokerage and proud sponsor of toronto might hope you enjoy my pint glass i also have a limited supply left over exclusively for Toronto Mike's listeners. In order to get one, just give me a call at 416-873-0292 to meet and discuss any real estate needs you have as spring has sprung

and now is the best time to list. Even without meeting me, I can email you my listing presentation for review as I do Toronto Real Estate Done Right. My listings include a pre-sale home inspection, professional floor plan, staging consultation if required, and both print and online marketing to maximize the exposure and sell for top dollar. Al, being a huge Beatles fan, curious to know which Beatle you feel had the most solo success. Commercially, of course it's Paul, but I'm looking at from a creative standpoint.

That would be John. John Lennon, big fan. I resemble John Lennon and I resemble that remark, Brian. And John Lennon left the planet way too soon, as we all know. Paul McCartney has had

a phenomenal, phenomenal career. And even Ringo Starr. And I miss George as well. I know you're a massive Beatles guy. I am. Can I talk about something that I'm in? Of course. Okay.

There's a great, wonderful performance called Ones, the number one songs of the Beatles. And I am the MC for it. I appear on this big video screen and explain all that's going on on stage before the great band Frank Zeroni's band starts playing the Beatles songs

and we've done a few already. We're aiming for a lot more and I went to Vegas for the first time over Christmas and I want to do it in Vegas and we've got to do this thing. But the One Show, check it out. If you're a Beatles fan, you need to see this.

Some great players, Frank Zeroni and company do such a great job. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Band and myself talking about the Beatles. But you do it as, we should point out, you do it in your granny glasses as John Lennon. No, you don't. You do it as Al. No, but I do dress up in it. I do. That's all I can say about that.

Oh, your Sgt. Pepper outfit, that means. Okay. And they superimpose me into various situations, which is very, very hilarious. And it's a great show. Could you name your favorite Beatles song? My favorite Beatles song? Bulldog is up there.

That's... Nobody says Bulldog. I know. That's a great answer because I have like literally a hundred songs in my head that I've heard as an answer to that question. Bulldog's never the answer to that question. This one you're playing now...

Some say yes. This one's a popular answer. It's right up there. I really like, oh gosh, Strawberry Fields Forever. Sure. But yeah, Bulldog is one of my favorite, all-time favorite. I do have a Bulldog, Remington his name is, and he's an old Boston Bulldog. Named after Remington Steele.

Yes. I remember Remington Steele. Yes. I remember Remington Steele. And not the weapon. Oh, he's named after a gun, eh, Al? No, no, no. That was his audition series for when he became James Bond, right? That's right. Remington Steele.

Oh, man. Speaking of 80s shows, just the other day I was telling my wife, she was born in the 80s. She doesn't really know the 80s TV that we remember. But I was telling her about Hill Street Blues, like is a weird coincidence. We were listening to a podcast the other day, and I said to Barb, my wife as well, I said, I wonder how much people make on these podcasts. And the person that was doing the podcast said, and answered my question, don't make a lot of money out of this,

but subscription would be nice. So click on my subscription. Oh, that's great. It's like I think he was listening to you. Synchronistic. I think that's one of the privacy concerns. That's great. Yeah.

Because now that I'm looking at the next phase of my professional life, I'm thinking, well, how much money could I depend on from the podcasting world? Because it would be nice if that number was larger. You put a lot of hours into it. You do a lot of homework. You have interesting people like Al Joins come over and you put together

what you think is good content. But it's still what I would call, you know... New. I would say in the spirit of Great Lakes Brewery,

I would say beer money. Right, for sure. Exactly. And it looks like they supply you in beer money. Oh, yeah. I'm hammered it looks like they supply you in beer. I'm hammered all the time, so there's that. Brian, that was great, because I'm glad Brian,

again, Brian has these questions, and he went with the Beatles. He loves the Beatles, too. But I knew all about that Ones. I was going to ask you about it later, and I'm glad this was a better time to talk about it. But that's why there was a Beatles song so conveniently queued up. It was very good. I have some songs for you song so conveniently queued up. It was very good. I have some songs for you.

Or it is very good. It is very good. It still is. Here's a song you probably played a couple of times on a psychedelic Sunday or whatnot. You got some,

you played a few Pink Floyd jams in your time. For sure. Pink Floyd's a big, you know, is a big fan. I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd. You can hardly talk here, Mike.

It's okay. That's my job. You're here as a guest. You don't have to talk. Thank you. The reason I'm playing Pink Floyd is because of Paytm. I use Paytm to pay all of my bills. I manage them in this one convenient app that I have on my Android phone,

but you can get it for your Apple phone as well. And basically, because all my bills are paid via Paytm, I decide how I'm going to pay these bills. Like I got three options. I can take them. The money can come from my bank account. I can put it on a credit card on my MasterCard or I can use Paytm cash. So what I always do for every bill is I use all my Paytm cash. And then for the rest of the bill, I put it on my MasterCard because it's double dipping. Al, this is the genius. I get points for using my MasterCard. That's right.

So even like, I don't know what the property taxes are like in Ajax. My buddy from Oshawa told me, I was surprised, Oshawa's got like the highest property taxes around. Same with Ajax. How come, man? You don't even, you have to pay lots of property taxes and you don't even get to live in the big smoke? I know, I'm not even,

I think you pay less in Etobicoke than you do in Ajax. Wow. Yeah. So you can't pay your property tax, at least in Toronto, you can't pay it with your credit card if you go through the normal channels,

like through them, but you can do it using the Paytm app. So I pay it all. I love it. But here's what I want everybody to do because there's 10 bucks waiting for you to claim here. If you use the promo code Toronto Mike, one word,

when you make your first bill payment, you get $10 in Paytm cash that you could put towards another bill. So it's free money. There's no cost. You don't pay anything through any of this. You just download the app for free from Paytm.ca,

and you get $10 for using the promo code TorontoMike. That's what I would do. I'm going to do it. You should do it because that's $10, and you're out of work. You need the $10. That's right. I need that $10. You did have to drive an hour, but you got a pint glass,

you got a six-pack, and now there's $10. And it's not too late for you to join Gord Depp on the French camp. They're going to Quebec for 13 days, which sounds amazing. Nice. I'll send my boys. All three of you should go. That's right. It's going to be a bonding trip.

You could be a counselor, maybe. Maybe. We have to work on your French first. Oh, yeah, that's right. My niece, she went to French immersion, so Sydney can go. Sydney's going to go. Sydney kid. Now, let's go back now.

You mentioned CKLN. Is that where it all begins for you? How do you end up working in radio? How did I work? At some point, you get to CKLN. Is that because you always wanted to be in radio? Well, to paraphrase George Carlin, it wasn't in the womb,

but it was shortly after. Since I was eight years old, I've wanted to get into radio. And I had to wait 10 years after that. I went through many tape recorders, many microphones, as you might have too, Toronto Mike. And the thing is that I just never lost that passion. And of course, the music came with it.

I lived the early Zeppelin, the Doors, all that that I played on Psychedelic Sunday. I was one of the first people to hear that music when I was, you know, 11 up kind of thing. But CKLN was CRFM before they became CKLN. And that's where I first went on the air. And I listen to those air checks sometimes and I'm going, okay, I'm going to make sure nobody hears these. But really, in reality, it was some of the best radio I'd ever done because it was totally free-form radio.

I had access to all the music because we were in downtown Toronto. I interviewed David Clayton Thomas, Atlanta Miles, Lisa Del Bello. Let's tango! I remember this. Of course, these are great names. All those great singers and bands from Moon Martin, The Vibrators, all these early punk bands that came through Toronto,

came through the radio station at Ryerson. Then I became music director there, and we put it into stages to put it on 88.1. Right. Right? And then I was gone the next year because I'd finished my third year. They put that into the ground, Mike. That's not a very good memory of mine because when I came back from Calgary,

I went down there to say, hey, you know, could I give you any of my experience, fellas? They really weren't interested in Al Jones's experience. And perhaps they should have because that would have still been on the air, 88.1.

Now it's Indy FM. And, but, so it was a sad day when CKLN was put to rest because of neglect. And really, I'm angered at the people that were in there because they just ignored everything. They had a beautiful studio, Mike, that was redone and they just hammered it into the ground. redone and they just hammered it into the ground. Then after that, I went out to Oshawa and it was CKAR Motor City Music and I was on AM radio and those air checks are even more precious. I wish I had a few. Then I went out west after that. Barb and I got married

and she's a broadcaster as well and we went out to Calgary and I worked at CJ 92 and kick FM, which is now Q107 in Calgary. So I've, I've had all this, you know, variety of experience to, uh, to draw upon. Then when I came back to Toronto, I worked at CFGM, which was a country radio station and wait for it, Mike. Yeah. In news.

I was a newscaster for a very brief period of time. Yeah. But I was thinking, who's the example? Well, it's funny because that's the opposite of like J.D. Roberts, right? Right. Because J.D. Roberts was the long-haired rock guy, and then he became the news guy. Right.

You kind of... The news guy with the long hair that later became the radio guy. And after that, Andy Frost hired me at Q107. And my first tour of duty was 88 to 2001. Okay. So just quickly base back to CKLN just for a moment. And I think you're ahead of this because you were there when they switched to 88.1. So did you have any overlap?

I don't think you did. But with the Fantastic Voyage, DJ Ron Nelson's program, or does that come later? That comes later. Yeah, that came later. It was like mid-'80s, I guess. OK. Yeah.

Because I know him and Paul Romanuk were at CKLN. I've had them both on, but it's a little bit after your time. But yeah, CKLN, it is a tragedy what happened there, because I used to listen to a lot of, because that's where you got the cool music. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And's where you got the cool music. For sure. Yeah. And the cool talk, the cool chat.

I think they really, really made a big mistake when they let that go. They violated some CRTC thing or something? Is that what it was? Because they're digital only now. Right. And when the CRTC asks you for information or for logs, music logs, commercial logs, you send the CRTC your music logs. Right, because it's not a right.

It's a privilege to have this. And sometimes they have some... Usually people think they're toothless, but sometimes they have teeth. And they totally ignored it until the governing body said, enough is enough, and you guys are done. Just like they said to me last Tuesday. Yeah, you've heard that before. When you got the folder body said, enough is enough, and you guys are done, just like they said to me last Tuesday.

Yeah, you've heard that before. When you got the folder, though, was there only one person giving you the folder, or did they have somebody else? No, there was a lady from HR that I'd never seen before in my life. Yeah, they like to do it in pairs, I suppose. Yep, yep. But they were happy with my reaction. I didn't pull a Tasmanian devil.

I was very cool about it. And, you know, I mean, what am I going to say? What am I going to do? What can I, how do they want me to react? They've known, or at least they knew of you for a long time and they knew Aljoins wasn't going to react badly. Like they knew your personality type. I think they knew that.

So they did their proper protocol and stuff. But the people they aren't so sure about, that's when you got the armored guards by the door, I suppose. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just in case, but all right. We'll get to that.

But when you get to Q107, did you say it was 88? Mm-hmm. Okay. Here's a lineup when you get there, okay? I think I've got this right. I did a lot of homework here. But here are some of the names I believe were at Q107 at

the time. Jesse and Jean, were they there at the time? Yes. Yep. Jim James. Yes. Jimmy James. Jimmy James, of course.

Yeah. He's also a great Beastie Boys song. Yeah. John Derringer. Yes. Never heard of him. He was doing Afternoons. Shirley McQueen was there.

Yes. Lovely Cheryl. Yes. Do you keep in touch with Shirley? Yes, I do. Yes. Never heard of him. He was doing afternoons. Shirley McQueen was there. Yes. Lovely Cheryl. Yes. Do you keep in touch with Shirley? Yes, I do. Yes. Well, that's a good thing about social media now, right? Facebook and all.

Yeah. And yes, I do keep in touch with Miss Shirley. Because 88, just my personal radio history, I was listening to a lot of Q107 in the late 80s. I was obsessed with the top 10 at 10. Yes. And that's where I'm going to point now to the appetite for destruction flag here. But in that era, for example,

I was listening to hear what's Paradise City at or whatever. That was to me a big deal. I still remember Rat had a song on the Top 10 at 10. Round and Round? No, it was Way Cool Junior. That's what everyone talks about,

Round and Round. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Way Cool Junior, I know that one. I recorded Way Cool Junior to cassette because I thought that was the coolest track. And then as time goes on, nobody's talking about Way Cool Junior. Okay? But Young Mike loved Way Cool Junior by Rat.

And it was the top 10. When Aerosmith, their stuff, it was just even cool Steve Earl, Copperhead Road, just great jams I used to record from the top 10 of 10. So I was listening to this station quite a bit at that time. And of course, that's when it was like

New Rock, right? So Shirley McQueen was a, and I remember I would see her on TV sometimes. Where was she? CFMT or something? She had a program I would see on television sometimes, Shirley McQueen. Yeah, I think it was CFMT.

I think we were all, Channel 11, I think it was CHCH. Oh, CHCH, okay. That's where we did the Q107 Rock Awards and we all experienced television and everybody saw what we looked like

and it was like, oh, it was over. That was always interesting back in the day when there was no social media and stuff like, what does this person look like? And then sometimes you're like,

in my head, I had them looking very different. You know what I mean? Right. Well, theater of the mind. Right, yes. It played tricks on you. The thing is, when we first started with the social media, they put cameras in the control room.

We're all going, what are you putting cameras in the control room for? Because that just destroys the mystery of the radio announcer. But in reality, it was actually a good move because when artists came in, people got to see what they were

talking about, where they were, and I wore a mask. But you look like John Lennon, so it's okay. Shirley McQueen, though, face for television. Yes. Gorgeous girl. Still a wonderful woman. I've got to get her in here actually. I've talked myself into getting her in here. There's a name I don't remember, I'm sad to say, but Tim McLarty?

Right. How come I don't remember Tim? Tim was there. He was a swing guy. Okay, swing guys. Maybe I missed out on you. Yeah, and he still does commercials. He's still active in the industry.

Of course. He's not on the air. Q had sex with Sue Johansson at the time. Sue Johansson, yes, indeed. She taught me a lot over the years. In fact, you know, she did wonderful things with a condom.

But she always did it on a banana. That's right. With me, it was probably more, you know, a raisin? A bean. Or a pea. But no, I'm a little bit larger than that. We'll get Barb on here and find out.

But no, Sue Johansson, wonderful lady. Uh, she did a lot of great work. I'm not sure what Sue's doing lately, but I think the most wonderful thing about Sue Johansson was when she was on David Letterman. I don't know if you ever saw that.

Big memory. I remember her in Degrassi, but I'm trying to remember her in David Letterman. Freak David Letterman right out by putting that condom on that banana. Americans weren't ready for Sue Johannes. No, they really weren't. They really weren't. And I think she did something on the Lifestyle channel

in the United States. Bless her heart. I hope she's great. Let's just say this. That woman is 109 years old. It's amazing she's still with us. That's right. Exactly. Wow. And she was one, you know, Steve Martin is still healthy and with us, but Steve Martin looked old when he was 30. Yes.

Right? So some people have this ability to seem like they're living forever because they looked older when they were younger. It's like they kind of trick you that way. Sue's one of those people. She is. I remember in the 80s, Sue looked like she was 80. Okay.

Sue's still out there. So good for her. And we were talking about Nana Muscuri earlier. She's got of those people. She is. Because I remember in the 80s, Sue looked like she was 80. Okay, Sue's still out there, so good for her. And we were talking about Nana Muscuri earlier. She's got to be 101. That's right, the math says so. Oh, that's funny.

But here's a couple of cherry-picked names who weren't, it was like John Gallagher was there doing sports, right? Or at some point, I think John Gallagher was at Q at this time, maybe. John Gallagher. Tell me about John Gallagher. He's at this time. Maybe. John Gallagher.

Tell me about John Gallagher. He's been here twice, so he's a friend of the show. Oh, he's a good man. Well, you know, because I don't know. This is real talk. Let's do the real talk. John, by the way, is king of real talk. That guy both times, that guy told it like it was.

Oh, totally. And off the air as well, you know, told me many times where to go. But no, he's one of a kind and always has been. He's got a book out, I guess, now. And I'm not sure if he's on the air or anything, but, you know, he's hanging in there. He lived with Andy Frost for a while.

Yes, they did. Yes, they did. And Derringer too. There's so many stories about that that I'm not qualified to mention. Well, there's another one too. He lived with Steve Anthony for a while. He did.

Because he told me the famous Mitsu story, which Steve's been on the show a couple of times too. But yeah, great stories from those days for sure. It was one hell of times too. But yeah, like, yeah, great stories from those days for sure. It was one, you know, it was one hell of a time. That's when it was the mighty cue. That's when I think the most fun was had during that period of time. And even in the 90s and when they left, when I

left in 2001, the first time I was, I was younger. My kids were young. I didn't know what I was going to do. I ended up doing music videos and directing and appearing in them and also a lot of voice work as well. So there was life after Q. People are saying to me now, oh, there is life after Q. No, I know there is.

But what I wanted, the second tour of duty was to experience what I did the first time as an experienced broadcaster. And I certainly surpassed that for sure. Okay. So just before we end your first tour of duty and let, let, so I have a couple of questions. So Jesse and Jean,

they get a deal from CFTR. I remember they, they fly the coop like that summer or something to, to head for, for even though I, cause I listened to Jesse and Jean on Q107 and they trashed AM radio relentlessly. And then they, they were off to AM to AM, and that was when I realized,

oh, yeah, there's a lot of hypocrisy here, too. It was like an eye-opening moment. They're very intelligent broadcasters and very, very funny. I was never of that ilk. I was more the musicologist. I was more, you know, this is the facts about the music. Right. I was more, you know, this is the facts about the music.

The, you know, the, how can you put it? The comedy that they chose to do sometimes was a little bit, you know. You couldn't do it today. I think people would be insulted. You're referring to the things, yes. Because I've revisited, they were on recently, and I revisited some of their old bits. And they'll do a South Asian accent and kind of make fun of somebody from India, for example. It would be the butt of the joke. So today, that would never fly. Right.

Or they call up the dentist, Dr. Wong, or something like that. But having said that, Gene Valaitis is on the air now in Vancouver. Roundhouse Radio? Roundhouse Radio. Roundhouse Radio doing mornings. And Jody Vance is there too, I just want to point out. Okay. Because Jody, a lot of people know Jody, but she's there too. Right.

And that's Don Schaefer is the grand poobah at that radio station now. I'm not sure about the other one, Woodman. Jesse Dillon, I should say. Jesse Dillon, I think, does have a program on that same. Or is it Steve? Is it Steve or is it Mike? No, it's Jesse. I'm not sure.

But I don't know what he's doing. I think he's selling natural. Lifestyle crystals or something. Is that what it is? Yeah, yeah. And I think he does do like a weekend show on that new age kind of show on the same roundhouse radio. Oh, okay. I think he's there too.

Well, then he should go on as Jesse and Gene again. When Gene announced he was, because Gene came here, he was in California, then he came back here for a very short period of time. Yes.

And then he went back to the West Coast and I already knew Jesse was there on the West Coast and did have a program on the same station and I connected those dots. This is going back now whenever it was six months ago saying, well, we're going to hear

Jesse and Gene again. And it never happens. So that goes to show you what I know. But sometimes one plus one does not equal. Well, it's like the Abacostello kind of team, you know, or Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, you know, they just go their separate ways. They just, you know, They have separate career paths. I mean, Jesse went into the natural crystal industry.

Yeah. And Gene stayed in broadcasting. Right. I think, actually, I think Jesse made a big bucks on that ridiculous stuff for what it's worth. Well, he tried to sell me magnets one time. Yeah, that's the kind of nonsense. And it's lucrative.

And it pisses me off one time. Yeah, that's the kind of nonsense. And it's lucrative. And it pisses me off because I couldn't do that. I couldn't be pushing magnets on somebody. You know what I mean? Right, right. You know, around my ankles and, you know, all that kind of stuff. How dare he get rich off nonsense like that. I'm all angry now.

But when Jesse and Gene leave for CFTR, that's when brother Jake Edwards returns. Bro Jake. Yeah. And I loved Bro Jake too. He did The Champ. Yes, he did. And people still ask me about The Champ. Where is The Champ?

I'm like, The Champ's on the West Coast. And he was supposed to do a cartoon. I think there was a few animated champs that happened. Fox Television comes to mind. I think that's what. But Bro Jake just celebrated a big birthday. Which one? 75. He gets his old age

pension. He's the reason Gallagher made it to Q because they were in Halifax or something. Oh, it's his fault? Yeah, he's the reason. I think Bro Jake, they were playing softball or something in Halifax and Bro Jake mentioned there was an opening for some sports guy at Q or whatever. Yeah, it's all Bro Jake's fault.

Just a couple of notes on Bro Jake, the champ, is that he did not invent the champ. He might have licensed it, and maybe he owns it now, I believe, but it was a, what are they? McLean and McLean. Right. Yep, yep.

So that's a fun fact, and Steve Anthony was the one who told me that because Steve seemed a little perturbed that Jake had done so well with this character. He's still from McLean and McLean. But guys like me who listen to Q back, I remember waiting for the, I think it was 640 or something. It was a time of day. It was on or something.

We'd wait for the champ. It was, you didn't miss it. Like, hey, pass the tea bag. Right? Like that kind of cover. Hey, champ, I heard you blew a wad on your wife's face. That's one of my favorite ones. That's popular, yes.

Not the fact that, oh, never mind. Anyway, it was the best, though. And yeah, because you could say stuff that you were saying stuff, but it was in the context. It was innocent. But of course, the double entendre stuff is fun. For sure. Once it became popular, McLean and McLean did put the show in litigation. But I believe that Bro Jake was very generous.

And after that, McLean & McLean, I guess, got some kind of residuals from Jake's success. But he's an amazing guy, Brother Jake. He has an ability to bring everybody together, and he is such a positive guy. together and he is such a positive guy. That's what I miss most about the Q107 employees is the energy and the positive level that we maintained over the years. Is now a good time for me to ask you to speak about the late, great Scruff Connors?

Of course, yes. Jeff Newfield, Mr. Scruff Connors, is another wonderful broadcaster. Very, very comedic. Very, very passionate. Not about music, but I think passionate about the listener. You know, he would bring on the broccoli lady.

Remember her with the broccoli? And, or, or what have you. He would have, what was the other one? The singer that they probably wouldn't get away with now? It escapes me. But he had a couple of tours of duty as well, Scruff Connors. Not only did he do mornings, but he also came back and did weekend swing.

And yeah, he will be missed. His son, TJ, is doing very well in the broadcast industry. Hits FM. Yes. St. Catharines. And he's traveled around a bunch of times. And I just recently got in touch with him and said, you know, we should get together in your father's honor

and, you know, have a few Ailsie Wailsies. Have some Great Lakes beer. Yeah, exactly. He, I believe, Fred Patterson, when he was in Peterborough, he was like a chorus program director for the Peterborough station. Yes, The Wolf. Hired TJ at The Wolf, if I remember correctly. TJ Connors, yeah, at Hits FM today.

Yeah, Scruff Connors was at Hits FM himself. He was. He was a legendary Hits FM. Yeah, he ran that place pretty much. Wasn't he the, he was something to do politically. I think he was the chairman of Waterworks or something like that. It's something like that. I don't know.

But his last gig that I know of was for the, speaking of GNR back when it was Mojo Radio he had the shift on Mojo. Yeah, how successful was that? That's another example of changing the call letters completely. You know, CFGM became AM640, became Mojo Radio,

went back to 640, Talk640. We used to call it Talk640. Right. And, you know. Tough going there because they're up against the juggernaut at 1010. Right. Trying to make it work. But I do like Stafford there for what it's worth. He's the new Mojo guy. Mike is the best. Yep. Right. Trying to make it work. But I do like Stafford there, for what it's worth.

He's the new money sugar guy. Mike is the best. Yep. Yep. I'm going to miss him. They put him on mornings. I hope that's not a ploy to, you know, you get on mornings and it's like, okay, that's enough.

See you later. Hope that doesn't happen to Mike. Yeah. I hope not too. He's been on here. He's been here a couple of times. Fantastic. And he's just so sharp.

Yeah. Sharp as a tax. For sure. I dig that. All right. So your first tour of duty, why did it end at Q107? Well, I think the reason why it ended was, I don't know why. Uh, they went from, uh, Western Broadcasting to Shaw to, uh, it wasn't quite chorus yet, if I, if I do believe. And they're, you know, they shuffled about 18 of us out at that time.

And that was probably the most, yeah, it affected me. The first time it really, I didn't know what I was going to do. I couldn't listen to the station because it was just too close. And then, you know, that kind of wears off and you start, you know, going back to the station

again. That's when I took a course at Ryerson. I took motion picture production for two years. And that's when I started making the videos. And then I was brought on by Durham Radio to launch The Rock. The Rock. Yes. 94.9 The Rock.

Okay. The Rock. That's great. Great station, by the way, The Rock. We're going to play a clip there. But here's a great quote for you. This is from Stephen Page. They asked him if he was being interviewed prior to the Junos reuniting with Ed Robertson and the rest of the Barenaked Ladies. And Stephen Page said he did not follow anything to do with Barenaked Ladies after he left the band. He said, that would be like watching a sex tape featuring your ex-girlfriend, is what he said. So I totally can see, especially because it sounds like maybe the first time you left Q, you were caught maybe more by surprise. Like this time, I think maybe you were ready.

I was expecting it. I was. I thought it was going to happen a year ago. Yeah, and it changes everything when you're kind of ready for it. But the first time when you're not ready for it and you see the folder, it really can really hurt. The last thing you want to do is listen to that station that decided they're better off with your voice not on it. That's right. That'd be the last station I listen to. For sure. And you know what? It's even like that right at the moment because

I'm too close to it. Family members were saying, Al, did you hear who was on Sunday morning? Oh my. And you're like, not my problem. Yeah, exactly. And those were my exact words. Well, I almost feel bad because right now, basically, I'm forcing you to relive some Q&A.

Seven memories. It's too raw, right? You only got this news last Tuesday. Yeah, no, I'm enjoying it. I really am. One week ago today. Yeah, it was, yeah. And, you know, the thing is,

is that you carry on, you know. And I think we mentioned this just when we first met was you're not defined by your job. Oh, yeah. At the door, I quoted Fight Club because I tell it to everybody. Usually, it's a radio person, I notice, but it's not just radio because I'm going through it too,

but you are not your job. That's right. I always worry what worries me the most, of course, and you did work with him at Chorus because you did overlap when he's at CFNY, but Martin Streak, for example, was let go and two months later took his own life.

Yes. And I won't pretend to know why or anything in his head, but I will say that you are not your job. That's right. And I worry with Martin because I talk to a lot of people and I've got to say the T, not the D.

Martin is, he literally had a tattoo on his ass of Spirit of Radio, the station's logo that was on his ass. That's how closely he identified at that station. And I don't think I'm... I think that you could connect these dots, that he was there for whatever, 20-something years, let go, and two months later he decides to exit. I don't want that

to happen to any other radio vet that gets let go after X number of years. You know, and I'm saying this in jest, but I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Oh, we're good. And Martin, rest in peace. I have a microphone on my right arm, and I have

Q on it. Because, you know, it is part of my life. Sure. It is something that I'm proud of. But did you try to scratch it off in the early 2000s? Yeah. No, I didn't have it then. Oh, no. That's right.

That's right. I got it on my second tour of duty. And Rob Tatu, thank you very much. He does a great job. But, you know, I just think that people just need to you know move on and not to be defined by what they do you are not your job you're not your job but let's talk about the rock here so after the first tour duty at q you're at the rock in oshawa let's let's listen i think i have some of you doing mornings let's hear what i have here and we'll be surprised together shall we

this is what greets al joins and sarah Beer as they get up to go to work every morning. It's not until the two are well underway into their morning show that the sun peeks through the windows of their second floor radio studio at the Oshawa Airport. Al and Sarah are the hosts of the Al Joines and Beer for Breakfast morning show on 94.9 The Rock. I wasn't a morning person. My mother is still shocked that I get up every day at 3.30 in the morning. But I think that I love what I do, like I said, so it's easy to be happy and cheerful. I've got an easy job when you think of it in the sense that I'm not saving lives. It isn't brain surgery.

I'm sitting around playing great tunes, talking to the audience, chatting with my new best friend Al Jones. And I try and think that I'm awake, you know, and my body sometimes says, no you're not. And then the mind, you know, and the body has to, you know, get in sync and then finally, but yeah, there's a few, you know, cobwebs that I've got to get out. And of course coffee is good for that. And, you know since uh uh you know the coffee uh flows freely and uh so does you know so so do i 827 matthew good alert status red yeah the traffic is crazy out there and sarah's keeping on top of it the two hosts start the show at 5 30 a.m

but i'll fade it down a bit uh but it's uh so this So you were doing mornings at the Rock? That's right. Yeah, I was. You know, now that I look back on it, I should have picked afternoons. I'd probably still be there. But no, I did mornings. Gave it my best shot. I was up against, you know, the Derringers and the other, you know, the other fantastic morning men of the GTA.

But I don't think I'd ever do it again, Mike, to be quite honest. I don't want to do mornings again. Is it too hard on your body? Well, not only that, but it is very competitive. They're easily, this is why I was saying about Mr. Stafford, you know, it's just, you know, he can maintain his professionalism. And if they get rid of him, it's not his fault. And same that happened with the morning show. Somebody else came along by the name of John Gallagher,

and they thought, well, we're getting John Gallagher at this price. We can get rid of Al Joins. And that's what they did. They surprised me one Friday. Gallagher. I was doing music, and the boss said, I want to see you for a minute. I went in, and he said, you're done. And I went, no, I've got a couple more hours left.

He goes, nope, you're done. You're done is got to be one of the worst phrases I've ever heard in my whole life. And I use it all the time. Well, that's the worst bedside manner, I think I've ever heard for letting somebody go. That's horrible. This guy is sadistic.

Right. But, you know, it was time and I had done my job. I was there for two years. I did mornings for two years. And I joke that I should have done afternoons, because if I'd done afternoons, I'd probably still be there today. Because I loved being music director. I think that's one of my stronger points in my career,

because I do know music, you know. Current morning show host at The Rock is former Q107 Craig Venn. Yes. Lobster boy. Hello. AKA lobster boy. Should he be looking over his shoulder?

Are you knocking on the door? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. But the afternoon guy, Doug Elliott. No, I'm just kidding. But Doug Elliott's also program director too,

right? He's the best too. And they, they're all suited for their position. I, I joke because most people at Durham Radio have been there forever. I wasn't. That's fair.

You know, and I don't know what I did wrong, but obviously, you know, I bounced back and I went back to Q for 11 years. Well, you were, you know, David Marsden was let go by The Rock. Yep. So you're in good company there. Yeah, time's up.

I helped Dave over the years too. The one thing about David Marsden is he would bring these suitcases full of CDs and records into The Rock and he would play these records and he'd get out of his car and you'd think he was traveling somewhere, but it wasn't.

It was all music in these suitcases. And he's still doing his thing too. I hope to be still doing it. At David Morrison's age, I hope to be doing what he's doing. You just got to find the right channels. I mean, heck, I'm broadcasting right now. I'm in my basement.

I love it. Yeah. These conglomerates, Chorus and Bell and Rogers, they don't get a say in the matter. No, and they're forcing us to do this as well. You know, not necessarily Chorus, but the big conglomerates,

the big media companies, you know. You can't really do this with television. You can't really have a television station in your basement, but you can have a radio station. Although, you know, my kids, my teenagers are all about watching YouTube. You actually kind of could. Well, that's true. They watch

TV on YouTube, and it's just, and my daughter who particularly was 13, she watches these shows on YouTube the way we watched, whatever, Family Ties or the Cosby Show or something, you know what I mean? Sure. It's appointment viewing to watch these guys. And I'm like, obviously, I'm too old for that crap. She's

enjoying it, but she's thoroughly enjoying it. And these guys are influencers, and they're just doing a YouTube show. So that's the way of the world. It's crazy. Yep. So how do you, okay, you get let go from The Rock, but how do you get a second tour duty at Q? Well, I gave it a couple,

I gave it some time, and I got in touch with Blair Bartram and left a few messages on his machine. And finally he had his assistant call me and she said, would you like to come back and do a few shows? And I'm like, well, sure. You know, twist my arm. And, uh, then it evolved into a swing thing. You know, Blair would call me at five 30 in the morning.

Joanne's not well. Joanne's, uh, um's daughter isn't feeling very good. Can you come in? And every time, like I, this is, this is the truth. Every time that Blair called me, I always came in. And that was, you know, I, I think that's a

worth, a work ethic that I'm proud of because I love doing what I do so much. I mean, we've all had those jobs where you're, you're watching the clock. You're in a maintenance situation in a factory, and you're like, when am I going to get out of here? Sure. And yet, I had clocks all over the studio, and they didn't distract me at all. It was like, oh, slow the clock down.

Right. You want the opposite. Right. You're like, oh, darn, I only have a half an hour left in the shift or whatever. That's right. I better sober up. No, I'm... I was going to ask you about the late 80s, early 90s at Q,

if there were just mountains of cocaine everywhere. That's how I envision it. No comment. Please, the fifth. Let's talk about... What could I possibly want to talk about next? I don't know. I saw this guy was doing the Jesus Christ Superstar the other day.

Right. Alice Cooper. Herod, right? He was King Herod? I don't know because I don't know. I just knew it was happening, but I didn't actually watch. But, yeah, I think so. This reminds me of Psychedelic Sunday, Mike.

This is Psychedelic Sunday. That was an amazing show. And I was lucky to be part of it when we were playing vinyl as well, up at Young & Bloor. And that evolved as well. And I think these days, again, they're playing those 107 songs. 430 songs. I always joke and say I always played the same music, but in a different order every time I was on the air. But with Psychedelic Sunday,

it struck a chord with a lot of people. And in fact, does Larry LeBlanc ring a bell to you? He was a, well, he's a researcher and a broadcaster, but Larry was at Q107 years ago, and he did a show called Backstage Pass. And according to Larry, who I caught up with the other day on the telephone for two hours Larry and he told me that psychedelic Sunday evolved out of

out of backstage pass and there was a couple of hosts Andy Frost probably the most famous and hopefully myself as well but in the early early days, it was totally freeform. We could play what we wanted. And I think that's what gave it that magical spark. Now, it's pretty much programmed for us. And I think it's lost its spark. Yeah, it's fair to say I don't think anybody's playing what they want anymore in GTA radio. No.

Marston might be. He was doing that at the rock playing what he wanted that's right that's why they hired him i don't know why they got rid of maybe his contract i actually talked to doug elliott about this because i'm a big mars bar guy and uh it didn't fit the format like you're all six days a week six plus days a week you're playing this and then for a few hours on sunday you're playing other stuff. I think it just didn't fit with the rest of the... They needed it all to align the programming. I think that was the

official reason. Well, they were restructuring, were they? That word again. That word restructuring. Oh, by the way, Alice Cooper's fantastic. I could listen to early 70s or whatever Alice Cooper all day long. I just love this stuff. Me too. I'm a big Alice Cooper fan myself.

And he loves Toronto. He lived in Toronto even before he was famous, when he was Vincent Fournier. But, yeah. And remember, the band was Alice Cooper. That's right. And then he, yeah, Vincent Fournier became Alice Cooper post-band Alice Cooper. That's right.

Just like be elected or everyone talks about schools out or whatever, but basically there's the greatest hits of Alice Cooper. I can see the cover in my mind's eye, but every track on that greatest hits of Alice Cooper, tremendous. Great singer-songwriter. Right, and Bob Ezrin was a big, you know,

Torontonian. Big part of that music with Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel and so many others so Psychedelic Sunday whose idea was it to spell Sunday with a P that always threw me off I still use that I'll still put P-S-U-N-D-A-Y

probably it evolved I want to say Andy Frost but I think it was before Andy even that they spelled that now we'll go back I want to say Andy Frost, but I think it was before Andy even that they spelt that. So, okay. Now we'll go back. I know we've touched this off the top.

But if you were just let go Tuesday and Andy's been let go but gets a chance to say goodbye, what becomes of Psychedelic Sunday? Like, is this something that disappears from Q107? Do you know? Of course, they're not going to tell you on your way out. Here's what we're doing. That's right. No.

And that is totally my opinion. And yes, I think that we will see the end of Psychedelic Sunday come summertime, or come month from now, or whenever you're hearing this podcast. It might even be gone now. It might be gone when Andy's gone. That's right. Why even keep it around a little longer when you've taken the heart out of the beast? The beast will now die.

Well, you remember the times that we took Psychedelic Sunday out of the programming. I would be somewhere, and the most famous one was I was in a parking lot. I wasn't doing anything to do with Q. I was just somewhere. Somebody recognized me. It was like,

Hey, Al, when are you bringing back Psychedelic Sunday? I'm like, yeah, okay. And we would get that all the time.

Then we brought it back and then we made it 12 hours, which was great, nine to nine. And then it shortened to 12 to nine and then it was 12 to six. And I guess we just need

to let it rest in peace. Prediction time is that, folks, the Psychedelic Sunday era is quickly coming to an end at Q107. Purely speculative, but we can connect these dots, right? But if I did a podcast called, you know, The Son of Psychedelic Sunday, don't you have to, you know, would I be able to play those songs? Oh, this is honestly, to, you know, would I be able to play those songs?

Oh, this is the, honestly, legally, completely, absolutely not. Yeah. And this is my, okay,

so I'm basically, I do a show called Kick Out the Jams. This is some real talk for everybody. I do a show called Kick Out the Jams where I know I'm violating the,

whatever it's called, the copyright laws or whatever because when I have somebody in, and I'll, if I have somebody in like Mike Stafford, for example, and

we will play a Beatles song that is one of his, we play his 10 favorite songs of all time and chat about it. So I start the Beatles song like we did already. We just played Hello Hooray by Alice Cooper. It's right now, podcasts can't do that. So Mike, you're doing it. Yes, because when I get the cease and desist,

I guess these guys, these episodes disappear. I Mike, you're doing it. Yes, because when I get the cease and desist, I guess these episodes disappear, I guess. I pull them or whatever. Well, I wonder about Jeff Wood's show that he does. Does he play? Because I talk to Alan Cross about this all the time because he's not allowed to play the whole songs on his ongoing History of New Music podcast. So Jeff Wood's

podcast version of his show has the song in its entirety? Well, I do believe it does. So he's doing what I'm doing, which is waiting for the cease and desist from the record companies, I guess. I'm hoping I'm in that nice flying below the radar area. So Jeff might not be flying below the radar because A, he's famous, and B, his show's on the Chorus Network, right? Well, it's on Q, and I believe it's on a few other stations as well. So he's flying too close to the sun

whereas I'm just some idiot in his southwest Toronto basement. Go pick on somebody your own size. Right. See, that's why I do Discovery, the independent thing, is because the bands basically are giving me their demo tapes and if

they're not, it's their first EP or their first CD and with their permission, I'm playing the music on my podcast. But that's the part that bugs me is when I talk about, when Mike Stafford eloquently discusses why he loves these 10 songs, and he'll talk about, oh, I love this song. Everyone listening is hearing the song, and they have this additional context of Mike's story, only makes the listener, all that happens is they like that song more

than they used to. They might buy it now, they'll definitely stream it and possibly when that band comes to town, they're going to buy a ticket or a t-shirt. Or an overpriced t-shirt. It only works, and there's no, I can't imagine a record company not

wanting that kind of exposure. But it's all, the copyright laws in this country are still behind the times. I think so. All right. But yeah, I get that question once in a while. Like, why are you playing the songs? And I'm like, well, when they tell me to stop. So these are all collector's items, people.

Get these episodes of Toronto Mike now before they disappear. They're collector's items here. For sure. Oh, man, I can't believe Psychedelic Sunday. So Andy's okay? Like, have you talked to Andy since he got the news? We text each other. I had this really long text, you know,

it's a bad day, Andy. I really feel sad that, you know, our time is ending at the Q107. And he texts me back, yes, sir. That's it. So he's doing fine. Yeah it. So he's doing fine. Yeah, I hope he's doing fine, because he's been around forever,

and he's a great guy. He's coming back to kick up the chance. By the way, if you ever want to make that drive from Ajax in the future, again, for more beer and another pint glass, you could kick out the jams with me. You just tell me your 10 favorite songs. We play them, and we chat about it.

You'd love it. Perfect. In fact, at the end of this episode, I'm going to play one of your favorite songs of all time. We're going to talk about that. Joanne Wilder's been on this show. What was it like working with Joanne? Fantastic. She's a

great girl. Great woman. She's like my sister. She's my sister. That means you never looked at the Playboy spread. Oh, yes, I did. Of course I did. She's not quite like your sister. Yeah, yeah. And that was, you know, that's really, really, really cool.

She's a consummate broadcaster. What can I say? Yeah, no, she was great. She was great. She is great. And what about Kim Mitchell? Kimbo, wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful.

I've always been a fan. Max Webster from the very beginning. Going to the Piccadilly Tube at 18 or whatever age I was, maybe 17. But yeah, Kimbo was fantastic. And there's another, you know, my opinion only. Why did they get rid of Kim Mitchell? He had wonderful stories. Yeah.

He got along with us all. When he did a show, it was very special because it was a Q107 presentation. And he's just a really cool guy. You know, he almost, you know, had a fatal heart attack. I know, because I saw him just,

I saw him in this neck of the woods. He did a concert at the big park near here. Yep. Just before that. Yeah, he had a heart attack. And now he's healthy, all that. He was really, really, really cool. I really like him.

That I met him and worked with him. All this stuff must be cost-cutting. It is, totally. Kim just made too much money, I guess, because he's Kim Mitchell. Right, right. But see, again, I thought that he was retiring and all that, and he admittedly got fired from Q107. And that really bothered me, Mike.

That really totally put me off. And after that happened, I knew that there was going to be other changes and I'd probably be part of it. And I thought it was going to be last year. I really did. So you were all set. And then you get that false sense of comfort. Like, well, if I didn't get it, maybe I'm going to linger for a while.

Right. Because I just came off of two weeks of middays, two weeks of afternoons. You know, I had no clue that this was going to happen, although I had an inkling. Let's put it that way. What's your preference on this? Like, I had a... Christine Bentley came on this show, and she's a long-time CTV anchor,

and they came to her, and they said to her, you know, you said, they said to her, your time's up. That's what they said. And they said, we can do this two ways.

Like, you can be walked out with a box, and you've been fired or whatever, or we could spin this to the public as, because this is going to tie in nicely with Andy Frost, I think, but we can spin it to the public that you are retiring. So you get to say goodbye

and it doesn't look like you were fired, and you get to keep, I guess, some kind of leave in a graceful manner. It keeps your pride, I suppose. And she chose that option to make it look like you're retired. The downfall was people thought she was retired, but she needed to work, and there's a whole negative thing retired. The downfall was people thought she was retired, but she needed to work.

There's a whole negative thing there. You and Andy, good example. You got option one. You're fired. Al's fired. Al joins no longer works at QN07. Fired's a harsh word, though. You were restructured out, we'll say. And then Andy Frost, to be honest, the reason

when you mentioned Andy was let go, I was actually not going to mention it unless you mentioned it because like I knew about this on last Tuesday, but I purposely didn't tweet it or, um, you know, people who pay close attention on Tuesday, I tweeted a link to Andy Frost's episode of Toronto Mike. I figure if somebody's really paying attention, they'll connect the dots here. But I didn't want to put out like Andy Frost has been let go because I figured they're going to do the Christine Bentley treatment, which is Andy is going to make an announcement in a month that a mutual decision has been reached

and he will retire from broadcasting. So I didn't know whether that was because Andy wanted to have his pride. Like, are we spoiling anything in this discussion? Like, is Andy going to be upset that you put this out there I don't know I hope not because I can't edit it out now it's too it's too interwoven with this no I don't think I think that this is a kind of an insider

show and a podcast so and no one's listening you're saying no no that's not the truth that's not what I meant I meant that that you know you're getting a little piece of information that's going to be coming to fruition. Yeah. And I don't think Andy Frost is going to listen to my podcast anyway.

Right. That's true. Just hear yes. Let's tell everyone listening, okay? Act surprised when Andy announces in whatever, a month or so, when he announces he's stepping down. It's been a great run. I loved my time here. I've decided to do other things.

Act surprised. Right, right. And they used to call me Andy Jr. there at QAnon. Well, you know, when I listened to your rock clip, I was thinking you sounded a bit like Andy Frost in the rock clip. Well, there's Andy Frost, Al Joines, and John Scholes. We all sound the same. Yes, John Scholes. And he's okay because I thought he survived these clips.

Well, I can't comment on that one. But that hasn't been resolved yet. We'll see what happens. John's a wonderful broadcaster, great guy, excellent father. And I'm sure all three of us will. The thing is- You're all going to live off of Morgan Frost. That's right.

That's what you're telling me. I'm going to be his manager. Yeah, no. But the thing is, with the R word, retiring. Don't tell people you're going to be his manager. Yeah, no. But the thing is, with the R word, retiring, don't tell people you're going to retire. Because they won't make you a job offer. And the phone stops ringing. The only people that call you is your wife or your partner

or your husband and everybody else. Oh, Al's enjoying his retirement. I'm not retired. I probably will never retire from broadcasting. I have the same setup in my basement, too. you know, his retirement. I'm not retired. I probably will never retire from broadcasting. I mean, with, you know, I have the same setup in my basement too. And I can, this is where I do my voice work.

If something comes up, I send them an MP3 or a WAV file, whatever they want. And I can continue to do that with Barb. I want Barb and I, my wife and I, to do a podcast. She won't do it. Well, what are we going to talk about, Al?

You know, I said, well, there's all kinds of stuff we could talk about. People like it when you talk about regular stuff. Like, I went to Home Depot because I had to return this. And then you probably have good chemistry with your wife. So I think it would be interesting to have a kind of, you know, reality shows are popular

for a reason. People just like to peer into your lives. Yeah. Point, counterpoint. That's what we should call it. But that kind of thing. And I would never tell people I'm retiring. I'm not done yet in the immortal words of Monty Python. Well, you got to repeat those words soon. When I play your jam at the end of it, I'm going to ask you that question. Will I be done? The R word will not be used.

Right. Too many R words floating around because restructuring is the other r-word i've heard too much lately but yeah you're not retired but more on that in a bit but we and obviously you can't speak to john's situation uh but uh you know when i look at this like people who are involved in psychedelic sunday and the weekend stuff and the swing stuff seems like the voice tracking is coming and you guys were salaries they could erase from the bottom line at chorus getting angry over here

all right let me ask you about Maureen Holloway yes well yeah she's the best too she's really a wonderful lady she she did the best thing possible she hopped she jumped ship and went to a wonderful thing at CHFI,

and we're all very proud of her. The only person I can think of that had a smarter Toronto Radio strategy than Maureen Holloway might be her co-host over there in CHFI because I don't know who this guy is, but he slides into the Rick Hodge slot, okay? So it's like, who are you? You're now in the warm Rick Hodge seat beside Marilyn and Roger Ashby. And that's a Heritage longtime morning show that, you know.

So you're in there. Now you're part of an established brand. So it's like instant, you know, listenership. And then you are able to leverage that into going beside, when Mike Cooper leaves, I guess, you come in with Aaron Davis, and then Maureen Holloway comes over,

which is a great move by her. And now that, I know you're no longer with Q, so I can tell you that, you know, you and every other station gets their butts handed to them at the ratings time by the CHFI people. Right, even men. Yes, even men. But I joke, you know, men of that age

are probably at their doctor's offices at the proctologist sitting there for two hours with one of those PPM machines. Yeah, the PPM device. The PPM device on their belts. And that's why CHFI is getting such great ratings. Well, that's why they do Christmas music because it gets them in all the malls and all that,

you know, the dentist stuff. You're right. And Darren B. Lamb is the guy's name. Right. I'm just trying to remember. Who's this guy who's now like the number one morning show? Where did he come from? That's right.

Like that was... But Maureen Holloway, good for her. She's been on the show. And like you said, lovely. And yeah, she made the right move for Maureen. Smart, funny, intelligent. That's Maureen Holloway. And a good audience, too.

People love her. She laughed at my jokes. Oh, good. She's fantastic. Speaking of The Rock, by the way, you know who's also there is Lee Eckley. Right. Wonderful Lee. Lee Beef.

Lee and I go way back, right back to the late 70s, early 80s when I worked at CKAR. And he was at, I think he was at Q107 at the time. But of course, he went, you know, CFNY and to MFM. He did his Toronto tour of duty, for sure. Yeah. Lee Eckley, he says he'd come on the show.

So he will come in and tell some radio stories. Well, now that I've been on it, he'll definitely be here. Well, now that you've been on it, I think I might get canceled. Probably. And I'm sorry. That's even possible. Bob Segherini. Yes.

I have to call Bob today. He wants me to call him. Well, he has his blog. I find his blog very interesting because he gives you, like, it's real inside baseball, so I'm probably the only one reading. No, I read it too. All right. Yeah, yeah.

Industry guys like you probably too. But great stuff. And he's a guy I got to get on. He's got a million stories. For sure. And he's nice because when you left Q after the first tour of duty, he writes about it like this. Al has left to pursue video production.

So very nice that, you know, that's a nice way to spin that. It's, you know, they kicked Al out of this place. No, Al leaves to work on video production. He's a good guy to do that. Oh, definitely. And he put in such a nice comment on my Facebook page. And he said, Al, call me. I said, I'll call you on Tuesday.

So Bob, see you next Tuesday. Oh, today's Tuesday. So I'll be calling you I said, I'll call you on Tuesday. So, Bob, see you next Tuesday. Oh, today's Tuesday, so I'll be calling you later. That's funny. I played slow pitch forever, and there was always a team in the league called See You Next Tuesday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was it a female team? No.

Co-ed? Probably not. I don't know. I never ask you. Normally, when a guest comes on, I say, what's your favorite song of all time? And I get an answer. I just asked that of Tara Sloan, who's coming on later this week. But I saw somewhere, I did some homework, and at some point in your life, you listed Led Zeppelin's Ramble On as your favorite song of all time. Is it up there? It's right up there, for sure. This is a great song. In my time of dying, I always said to my wife or to my family, that's the song I want

at my wake. Your celebration of life. But you know what? I don't want them to sit there for nine minutes. Let's play a three minute song and get them drinking. Zeppelin is right up there for sure. Is that your favorite band of all time?

Rolling Stones is pretty much the top three. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Beatles. Is there a Martin Scorsese movie that has not used the Rolling Stones? Can't Always Get What You Want? No. Oh, Give Me Shelter. Give Me Shelter, right. Right, yeah. He obviously likes that song.

Well, he directed that concert video that 10 years ago they had a concert, Rolling Stones' The Light One, I can't remember what it was called. But anyway, it was great, and he directed that. The man can direct a good concert movie, as we know. For sure. Ramble on. I like this song as we wrap up here, because not only do you love the jam, and it's a great jam that, uh,

Led Zeppelin two is for the second one. Yep. Uh, but ramble on. I think there's something in that for you. I'll joins like my life. Right. Ramble on, man.

You, yes. The, the corporation decided to remove your, uh, extensive paycheck from their bottom line. And that's all done for shareholders and for corporate reasons, but that doesn't shut you up.

Like you're not your job. Ramble on, man. Just find your voice, whether it be a podcast or reach out to everybody. We're going to hear you again, man. We've got to keep hearing your voice. Thank you, Toronto Mike.

Maybe that Vegas thing will come true. I'm a pure Canadian. I'm a Torontonian. I'm born and raised here. I'm not going anywhere, I'm a Torontonian. I'm born and raised here. I'm not going anywhere. So, too bad. Okay. And this, well, no, yeah.

Bad news for people who don't like Aljoins, but I did a poll. There is nobody who doesn't like Aljoins. Oh, thank you, Mike. But Gord Lambert, or is it Lamberts? I don't know if he's a French or not. But he wants to know if you'll continue to stay in radio if you go on to do other projects. But this all ties into what's next for you. And I know you've told us that it would be a podcast or another radio gig or whatnot.

But you're not retiring. We'll repeat that again. We will hear your voice again. And you do have a podcast now, right? I do. How often do you put out episodes? Well, let's see. Monthly, I guess.

Almost seasonally, but it will be monthly now. I would do one spring, you know, summer, fall, winter kind of thing. And I just completed the spring one just before I came in here, Toronto Mike.

And it's on SoundCloud at the moment. Oh, I was going to ask you. So part of me, let's talk about me for a little bit. As I look at my next phase of my professional career, I'm really looking at this, what I call it, I call it option two, where I start my own home-based business and I do a whole bunch of digital marketing stuff.

And I do from social media to web dev to web management, web presence management to marketing automation and email marketing. I do a whack of stuff. I can do it for these companies and these individuals who can't afford to have a full-time e-marketing division or manager or whatnot. I do all these things. And one of the things I do, I'm not trying to pitch you here, by the way. I'm just thinking out loud here.

One of the things I do is podcasting. I helped Humble and Fred start their podcast. And they're still going like six years later and I designed their backend. I did this one, surprisingly enough, Toronto Mic'd and I have another podcast. But if you ever need help, like right now you said your SoundCloud.

Well, my argument to you is what you've done is you've created content in audio form, but that's actually not a podcast yet. It's not a podcast until podcast listeners can subscribe to your syndication feed, the XML file. So all that, for

guys like you who have the voice and can put together the content, you might need somebody to hold your hand and to kind of walk you through the steps. That's what I hope to do. But because you're a good guy, you can consult me via email or phone or whatnot,

and I will push you in the right direction. No charge to you. Oh man, you're the best. Not only am I on a podcast, it's very popular. I got some Great Lakes Brewery. I got a Toronto Real Estate Dunrite,

the sixth glass. Propertyinthesix.com. And I met you. And I met you, man. And too bad it's Ajax. I would bike over and have a beer with you every day, but that's a long bike ride.

But we will meet again, and hopefully one day you come back and kick out the jams. Remember, Al, you are not your job. Hope that's clear. It is very clear. It is very clear. So clear that I can see for miles. Beautiful.

Now I'm playing the wrong song, though. And that brings us to the end of our 321st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Al is at Al underscore joins. And if you don't know, joins is J-O-Y--n-e-s so follow al because wherever he pops up and whatever he's doing with his podcast he's going to tweet about it so follow al joins our friends at great lakes brewery are at great lakes beer property in the six.com is at raptors

devotee go raptors paytm is at paytm canada and camp Tournesol is at Camp Tournesol. Tournesol for us Anglos is T-O-U-R-N-E-S-O-L. See you all next week. Well you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do For me and you But I'm a much better man