Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Amber Payie: Toronto Mike'd #1064

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

In this 1064th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Amber Payie about her years at 680 News and CHUM, doing traffic at CP24 (and 1050 and 104.5 and 1010), her experience in radio as a woman, why she left Bell Media, and why she left the country. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.

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Guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me today, finally making her Toronto Mike debut, is Amber Pei. Hi, Mike. So technically, you have been on Toronto Mike before I have and I actually appreciated

that I was with a group of people before coming on it just makes me feel a little more comfortable so you got a little taste of it but you could let Ashby and Van Horn do the heavy lifting oh please yes no I would never step on their toes no No, no, no. I was very, very happy. And it was a great episode. It's master storytellers. And as you and I were both sort of on and watching everything, they were just wonderful. 1050, you were a part of it, but I always wanted you to have your own spotlight, like the Amber Pay episode. But before I even say another word and find out how you're doing and where

the heck you are, why isn't it Amber Pay-ee? Where's the E? There's a whole bunch of vowels in there, darling. It probably was at one point Pay-ee, but we just always said pay in the family. I don't know. Apparently, we thought maybe we were part of that wine,

les perriers, whatever that's in the stores, but I don't think we are. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's French. Because I think periodically, I think it's payee. And then I never hear the E when it's said, like it's always Amber Pay. And then I'm wondering, like, can we lose the IE? But it's not my call to make, like it's not my name. Who am I to tell you how to spell your name? Like if it's Amber Pay. It's always been P-A-Y-I-E.

I think it looks different. I think if it's been P-A-Y-I-E. I think it looks different. I think if it's just P-A-Y, it looks unfinished. But, you know, you go through life and you're pay Amber, pay attention. You know, just stuff that goes along with it. I try to have a little bit of fun with it. Sometimes I'll put pay it forward or payday if I'm talking about myself. But sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Well, there's a woman.

I never really liked it, though, to tell you the truth. Oh, what didn't you like about it? That people would butcher it? No, I didn't like my name. I never liked my last name. And I did want to change it. I wanted a moniker. And I was asked if I wanted a moniker.

And I basically said, yeah, actually, I do. I just didn't know what to pick. And then my grandmother stepped in and said, no, absolutely not. Most people ask me if Amber is my name. Amber is your name. It is my name. It's my name, Amber Paye. So I'm going to ask anybody.

I see all your FOTMs on my Twitter feed. They all know from Medieval. I'm Amber Paye. Well, honestly, I'm going to get to that in just a couple of minutes. But I've seen your yearbook graduation quote. I can basically attest to the fact that you always have been Amber Paye. That's correct. And I guess I always will be because I didn't take my husband's name either.

Well, okay, let's talk about that briefly here because you're not here in my home studio where I would prefer. I would like you to be sitting right there, Amber. One day. One day. Where are you in the world right now? I'm currently outside of Phoenix in Arizona. Moved here in October. My husband was transferred here back during COVID. He was, I guess,

my husband does it, my husband trains pilots. And when COVID hit, he was, he trains pilots from all around the world. And they couldn't get them into Canada because of the restrictions. And then slowly, group by group, they were all slowly getting let go. And he was probably the last group, but there was an opening in Phoenix. And they said, you want to go to Phoenix? And we had always talked about retiring in Phoenix, to be honest. And I don't know, I must have somewhere put, I never mess with the universe, Mike, never mess with the universe. So I guess all my manifestations years ago of perhaps wanting to retire here,

I just got here a little bit early. Okay. Now, is your husband American or is he Canadian? He's Canadian. He's from Alberta. And I met him on vacation in Mexico back in 2014. On my birthday. Okay.

Well, that's... So firstly, I guess, congratulations. I'm excited that you are not only that you've found Mr. Right, but that you're, you get to kind of get, this is an early retirement because you're what, 35, 36 years old? 20, 25, 26 years old, clearly. Yeah, no, it's, I guess it's kind of like a semi-retirement um I I didn't really react to it very well when I got here because you know you I'm not used to not working and the last time I did not working was when I was released from Bell and that's just the whole we'll get into that some other place here yeah But I didn't handle not working very well.

When I arrived here and we were so busy trying to find a place to live, because I moved here in October, my husband had been here since May and I followed him. I got married down here in the summer. I'm almost one year married next month. I made it to a, and all my ex-boyfriends would be like, oh, that's shocking. That's just shocking. But yeah, we're a very good match. We're a very good match. Okay, so I'm very happy for you. You had to leave your Toronto media career.

We'll get to all of this, because we'll go chronologically. So let me just tell you, last night, I was talking to Peter Gross on the phone, because I literally, this is not a joke, I speak with Peter Gross on the telephone. I'm not talking text. It's a phone call.

Yeah, like he phones me every Sunday. So I almost find it like quaint, like it's almost like kind of romantic or something. Yeah, it's like you have a scheduled appointment with Peter Gross every weekend. You're very lucky. And when the phone rings, because not a lot of people phone anymore, right? So when the phone rings on a Sunday afternoon, everyone knows that, oh, Peter Gross is doing his weekly call.

So I always take Peter's call because he's a sweetheart. And I drop his episodes. So usually it's always about his down the stretch podcast. But he tells me, I mean, usually I say who's coming up on the show and he'll tell me if he worked with them or not. He says he worked with you and he said he enjoyed working with you, but he wasn't too sure on the details, but he said he remembers you were very cute.

Oh, thanks, Peter. Yes, I've always been cute. I have always been cute. I worked with Peter. I was an intern at 680 News with Peter, and Peter was lovely, and when you're an intern, you can't remember, and I understand now having so many interns that have come through CHUM. Sometimes you remember some. Sometimes you can't, and sometimes you can, but you can't remember how you know them, so I worked at 680 News you can't you can't remember how you know them uh so i worked at 680 news um in 1994 i was it was my internship from humber college and he was in there and it was it was he was lovely peter and i used

to peter and i used to be the ones tasked with putting money in the parking meters so peter and i would run down together and put the money in the parking meters at eight o'clock because at the very beginning, when I started working there and I didn't have any money, I was still parking in the parking lots and it was like $17 a day. Wow. And I was pulling in there at 1.30 in the mornings. My shift was 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. And then at some point, somebody said, why are you doing that? It's free parking overnight until eight. Somebody runs down, puts everybody's money in the meter, and then we're good for another hour or so. So that's what Peter and I did that every day. Okay, so I'm going to bring you back earlier, and then we'll kind of do this again. But just briefly, was Mike Wilner

there at the time? Not that I'm aware of. Okay, because Wilner credits Peter Gross with getting his start in mainstream media because Wilner was doing some kind of internship or some kind of work at 680 around this time maybe a little later so I just wondered if you guys crossed paths at this time I never crossed

paths with Mike however I remember telling Peter about a very talented guy in my class named Damian Goddard. Oh, yeah. And I remember him saying, well, did he finish school? But Damian didn't complete the school year. Extremely talented, very good at sports.

Everybody wanted to be Damian doing sports. So I remember contacting Damien and said, send me your tape, your cassette, and I'll give it to Peter. And Peter heard it, and I think he was on the air in like a week or two. So I think Peter's probably responsible for a lot of people's careers taking off.

Well, you know, it all comes back to Peter Gross because I just did a 20-week run where I was producing a podcast for Donovan Bailey. By the way, now Donovan's filming this like it's like a reality show game show thing for I think CBC, where he's right now going across the country filming this thing where he coaches Canadians or something, but I'm sure we'll all be inundated with like media about this in, in September or something, but regardless, so we had to wrap up the 20 week arc and then we'll pick it up again later. But, uh, I,

I was producing this for Donovan Bailey because of Jason Portwondo and Jason Portwondo. I know because he's friends with Petereter gross and jason portuando is friends with the aforementioned damian goddard i hope i'm safe yeah and i mean again damian talented man if i remember correctly he's a religious man and he did not believe in same sex marriage and i believe this was something this is what cost him his, I want to say Sportsnet gig, but it was his vocalization that marriage is a man and a woman and no alternatives. And I don't remember Damien like that in school. I don't remember. I remember him. I know that he

wanted to be married and have children, but I don't remember those views being strongly brought forward or anything. I don't think it was ever discussed or anything like that. And typically those views, again, not to pile on, I never met the man, but usually it's just, okay, in this church, it's going to be between a man and a woman because these are the rules of this church. But rarely do I see somebody suggest that even a civil marriage is wrong. Like usually, you know, even religious people are like,

all right, if that dude and that dude are in love and they want to get married at City Hall, it's all good there. Just keep it out of my church. You know what I mean? You see the difference? Yeah, yeah, I've got you. I don't know. I mean, the way I look at things is that it's very hard to change somebody's mind if they are set on something.

And I learned that very early. I had a very opinionated father who I argued with on so many different levels about so many things that I thought he was wrong. And I could never, ever, ever change his mind on any of his views. And I kind of see that now. And I see it especially being down here where I am. And the religious views, it's more the political views.

And I just stay out of it because that's the safest place for me to be. Right. I always wonder, like, you're still kind of fresh down there, but at some point I wonder if you'll be missing this country. Not that it's a lot better here, but it's got to be a little better here. It's different. It's definitely different. I have found that the level of kindness is different in a different way. It's hard to explain. I haven't found the people as warm as I thought they were going to be. I find some of them cordial at best. I have been, I've met a conspiracy theorist that just,

I didn't know what to do. And it was the checkout lady at the Target. And I just, I don't know what to do here. And, you know, there's, they want to know immediately what side you're on, Democrat or Republican. They want to know immediately. And I can always tell the Republicans immediately, too. Okay, so we're going to bring you back to Mississauga,

so we won't dwell on that too much. But did you buy a gun yet? Any guns in the home? I have not bought a gun. There are a lot of guns here. There's a lot of people that have guns, and even Democrats have guns, I've learned. But I've not bought a gun.

I'm hoping to never buy a gun. I don't think I do need a gun. It's tough to shake that Canadianity out of you, you know, many decades. Yeah, it is. But I mean, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, I hear that my friends that are here, some of them, there's one that has a gun.

I don't know about the others. I know one wants to get a gun now because now she's afraid of everybody else that has the guns. And then you have this whole circle of, I'm afraid somebody is coming in my house with a gun. So now I better get a gun. Okay. Amber, this is, this is what I always thought of steroids. Okay. Cause I often hear people say, Hey, just let them take steroids. And I'm referring to professional athletes. Okay. So let's say you say, okay, fine. Baseball players can take steroids, right? Mark McGuire was taking steroids. He hit whatever, how many homers, 70 homers, whatever the heck that was. Now, because he's taking steroids, you got to take steroids to compete because now it's not a fair fight. He's

on steroids. You're not. Now you have to take steroids. Now everyone's got to take steroids. And it's very unhealthy to be taking steroids. And this sounds like the whole gun idea. Like everyone's got a gun. So now I need a gun, even though I don't want a gun. Anyway. Exactly. And it's still, I don't notice it now because I've been told a few things since I've been

down here from the people who have lived down here. I've heard anywhere from my bank manager, who's amazing by the way, my bank manager, uh, to the guy that installed our water softener. Do not honk, do not honk your horn to people, you know, when you're, somebody stopped at a light or whatever, and you honk your horn just to get them. Sure. To let them know it's green. Let's go. Never, never, ever, ever down here. And what's the problem? You just give them a little tap, a little hug,

just tell them, hey, it means it's on. Bring it. Okay, you're scaring me. You're scaring me. I'm scared. And there's another area around here that somebody said, don't even look at them. Look straight ahead.

You come up, if you approach a light and it's stopped just stop a little bit behind because if you look at them it's on and you don't know who's carrying a gun who's not carrying a gun right um i don't like to say that i i encounter this every day because i do not i did see a vehicle in the parking lot the other day and he had a it was was a big AK 47 or whatever it was. And it said something like, I want to see you try and take it from me or something. So there's a lot of that. They're very strong in their ideals. Some people about having a gun and owning a gun and it's,

it's not something that I'm interested in. Okay. Hang in there, Amber. Home is always waiting for you if things go south, no pun intended. Okay, so I did want to pass on. You can always come home. Right, you can always come home, Amber. Okay, so Peter Gross, I mentioned the Peter Gross call

because Peter Gross did share some interesting information I want to share with FOTMs now. And it's not serious in that he's okay, but our beloved FOTM, John Gallagher suffered a stroke. And it's the same kind of stroke Peter Gross had a couple of years ago. And I forget the term TIA or something,

but where it's, I guess you'd call it minor. Like I don't think John even spent the night in hospital. He was in hospital for like eight hours or something. And he's home now and he's able to speak. But John Gallagher did suffer a stroke. So I just want to let John know the FOTMs are thinking of him.

And I hope this is just a little blip and that he's, you know, going to outlive us all as planned. Right. It's scary. Yeah, I wish John all the best. Did you cross paths with him? I only crossed paths with John. I guess it was sort of a social setting. It was in a bar.

And I... Why are you laughing? Because that sounds like the social setting of choice for my friend, John Gallagher. I was there too, so I for my friend john i was there too so i don't know i was i was there with a girlfriend and he was standing at the bar and it was alfresco's on john street john near uh richmond i think it is okay uh right near the studios and i went in there with a friend of mine i don't know what we were celebrating. And he was standing there at the bar and he was having a drink.

And these three guys just would not leave him alone. Like they wanted, they were challenging him and they were, you know, discussing sports and how his opinion sucked and all this kind of stuff. And I remember sitting there looking at him. I'm like, oh dear. And I worked for Chum at the time. And I thought, you know what? I'm just going to go over there and see if I can stop this. Because to me, how it looked,

it looked like he was getting heated. So, and I could see John basically saying, you know, guys, I just want to have a drink. I, you know, so I went over there and I chatted with him and I think he said, thank you. I'm pretty sure he said thank you. But yeah, that's one of the, I think the only time I've ever met him. Okay, good for you. You saved him there, I think. I saved John Gallagher. See, no gun required.

Okay, let's get you back to Mississauga. So I want to shout out FOTM, YYZ. See, he's a very, no, I know. It is YYZ, but he's told me in the past, he once had said YYZ Gord. Why? Why, Gordy? Why?

Why, Gordy? That's a great question. But Gord, I'm going to read what he wrote. Hope you ask Amber Pay about growing up in the Meadowvale neighborhood of Mississauga. And by the way, another FOTM, Moose Grumpy, apparently also from this neck of the woods. But I think he went to Meadowvale Secondary School with you. That's correct. He did. Gordy Goodfellow.

Yeah. Okay. And he, by the way, we talked earlier about Damien Goddard. And I don't know if I'm saying that right. Is it Goddard? Goddard. Okay. Does not approve of a man marrying a man this is damien's opinion based on his religion why why is he gourd married a man they're very happy together so shout out to uh tom oh congratulations gordy and tom i'm so happy to hear that but don't tell damien okay

so talk to me about uh the meadowvale neighborhood and growing up with Meadowvale Secondary School. Okay, sure. Great place to grow up. I was born in, the first year of my life was in Rexdale. So I guess I'm a Rexdale girl. My mother, when she immigrated from Scotland, they went to Rexdale, where my father was. They met, started off my life in Rexdale, moved to Streetsville, and then finally to Medaville when I was about four or five years old.

And I grew up there. I went to Maplewood Public School. Actually, first I went to Shelter Bay. Shelter Bay, Maplewood, Edenwood, Medaville Secondary. And I don't know how far back I go with Gordie. I'm not sure if it was just at Medieval Secondary. But Gordy, when I tell you Gordy was out of my league, I mean, he was out of everybody's league. Gordy was, is, I'm quite certain, probably one of the smartest, most brilliant people in the world. And I think he was one of the smartest people in the province when I was in school. If I remember correctly brilliant which is why I never had one class with him because he was probably in some elite neck of the woods um but um from what I understand it I would just really know him just kind of say hi fabulous guy so just so you know he's actually we have a

pirate stream it's live.torontomic.com. And he's there now listening live. So he's hearing these kind words about him live. He did write in the chat, Ederwood. Did I say that right? Edenwood. I need my glasses here, Amber. Did I forget Edenwood?

Edenwood is what he wrote in there. So it was back in Edenwood he was there. So I don't think I ever had one class with him, but we all knew Gordy because Gordy was brilliant. Okay. I could tell he was smart because he listened to Toronto Mic'd. Don't we all? Do you ever listen? I do.

You are my, I try to listen because, you know, it's, it's been really cathartic for me to listen to some people that I worked with and I take you to the gym with me. Oh, you're my gym companion. I'm honored. I'm honored. And you know, I listened to your music at the beginning and, um,

I kind of get into it and sometimes, you know, I can tell the wheel is going around on my phone because it stops for a while. Is it something with my phone? Is it something with Mike? And I'm on the rowing machine and I'm like. Is it something with my phone? Is it something with Mike? And I'm on the rowing machine and I'm like, is it coming back? But you do, you always come back. Okay, as long as I come back. Okay, thank you for listening.

I do enjoy doing this and I'm sorry it took so long to get to you. But I remember, and we're about to find out, you know, why you wanted to get into radio. That's going to be the next section here. But I remember like I did jury duty once. So do you remember this at all? I was doing jury duty.

Bob Summers, is that the gentleman's name? Yes, yes. He was there in the pool. Like they have a big pool for jury duty. And he was there. And somehow you and I were like tweeting about the fact that Bob and I were in the same jury pool. Oh, really? I don't remember that. How? He I were in the same jury pool. Oh, really?

I don't remember that. How? He was always getting called for jury duty. Other than my mother, I've never known anybody that's been called so many times for jury duty. I think in the years that I knew Bob, and there's a lot of years there, I think three times.

But I always felt bad for him because he was always getting summoned so but but that time i the summoning there resulted in i ended up on a jury for a murder trial and i was the foreman of that jury oh wow yeah i'm not gonna ask you how it went because i'm pretty sure you're not allowed to tell me no you can tell you can tell verdicts you did i don't think you're allowed to talk about what happens in the uh the room, but we did find this person guilty. Wow. That must have been tense. Well, yeah, it was all super tense because as the foreman,

foreperson maybe? Foreperson. I'm sure it should be foreperson. Foreperson. Right. You're sort of the manager of the team. You're sort of there to keep everybody in line and keep things moving and make sure everybody has a like an open

mind and open heart that there's no prejudices at play like you're sort of the boss in that room it's quite the uh experience and i think because i went through that maybe that bought me some time or i haven't been summoned since give him a break he's done his job. But how much were you sequestered at all? No. Okay. So the entire trial was only two weeks. So there was 10 days where I couldn't work because I was, you know, at a university, whatever that courthouse is called. And yeah, then when it was time, you know, you go in, I can't remember what the terminology is anymore, but when you have to, you know, become, it's either, it's gotta be, you know, you go in, I can't remember what the terminology is anymore, but when you have to, you know, become, it's got to be, you know, 12-0, right?

It's got to be unanimous. But that entire process before I, you know, told the judge we had a verdict was only two hours. So sometimes you hear about these things and it's like you're in a hotel for weeks or whatever. We were done in two hours. So there was no hang-ups of us 12 of us, 12, uh, 12 people. Did you have to sway anybody any other way?

Or were you all just, you don't sway. Like, it's more like, if here's what I remember. I remember it, it crystallized very quickly. And then I had a moment where I said a speech.

I thought there was cameras in there or something like 12 angry men, but I made a speech about how this man's life is in the balance here. And we're about to, it's 25, I think years before you get paroled or something I said so we're here 12 nothing very early I said let's reflect on this for a little while like let's give it let's reflect on it and make sure all 12 of us are 100 certain so I just basically kind of forced this exercise on the other 11 people. I've never talked about this, I realized. But anyway, it was quite the experience. And that's when I was tweeting with you.

I think we were messaging about Bob. He never ended up on that jury. Yeah, I think he always got out of it somehow. And I think it was probably because he was in the media. Well, he's famous. He could pull the card. I couldn't pull back then. I might pull that card today.

I do know who I am. That would be the card I would pull today, but okay. We used to, we used to do that. Do you know who I am? Marilyn Dennis. See what we could do.

You know what we could catch. I bet you Marilyn never has to do jury duty. I bet. Marilyn's a sweetheart. Okay. We'll get to her. So, so what made you want to get into radio, Amber?

I was always interested in radio. I was always interested in television. I don't know if you found this out in your diggings or anything through Gordy or anybody that is an FOTM, but I was a child actor. So I was always, always, always wanting to be on the radio or on camera or performing something in a play, whatever it was. It was the only thing I was good at. I wasn't good at anything. I was a terrible student.

I hated school, but I could do that. But are we talking like ads? You would be in commercials and stuff? Basically on TV shows. So there was a show, and you can Google it, but you probably won't find the era that I'm in. It was called Kids World. It was a news magazine program for children. Kent Frost, Sandra Fujimoto, and Andrea Davis were the first round of people in that group.

I was in the next group. So I was with Lisa Abarquez. I was with Keith Singer and Mark Gosling, who a friend of mine actually ended up working with later in life. And he didn't tell anybody he was on this show until I outed him, I guess. But I was always doing some sort of acting. I was barely in school in grade six, which was fine with me because I hated

school. I just hated it, always hated it. And I was pretty successful as a kid. I just enjoyed it and I liked it and I wanted to work. I didn't want to be in school. I wanted to work. So in that realm, I wanted to be doing something that had to do with microphones, lights, cameras, action, you know, all of that kind of stuff. So I was an actor for a while as a kid and then kind of got out of it. My parents had gone through a split up when I was about 16 years old and I couldn't get into the city really anymore. My whole family was like flowing apart and it was just a an odd place to be so I just

kind of shelved it a little bit and tried to figure out the rest of my life but when it came to going to university I remember and I was very sick my last year of high school um I was traveling from Bracebridge where my father lived into Meadowvale every day for school, and I got really, really sick. So I was off school for, I think it was three weeks, and when I came back, I still wasn't quite right. But prior to that, I had failed an accounting exam so poorly, I'm pretty sure it's probably up in a wall somewhere. But I was so ill, I couldn't even focus on it. up in a wall somewhere, but I was so ill, I couldn't even focus on it. But at that point, I needed to decide where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. And I decided instead of going the media route, because I was a little bit afraid

of it. I think I'm a great worker, but I think I have a lot of insecurities, putting myself out, I think I'm a great worker, but I think I have a lot of insecurities putting myself out, putting myself forward. And I think that that was another case where I sort of veered a different direction. And I wanted to go where I knew people were going to be, which was University of Waterloo. And I was a health sciences major. My brother was there. I had friends that were going there. And I stayed in residence.

And I was there for two years before I realized, oh, this is so not where you need to be. And I left. And where is it that you needed to be? Just not there. I didn't like the, I wasn't just, just not in a school setting where I was, you know, studying all the time. I wanted to be a little more active in what I was doing. I then took a couple of years off and I was like, you know what, you need to figure out what you want to do now. Maybe you have the confidence to try radio broadcasting. And then I applied at Ryerson and Humber and Centennial, I think was the other one that was kind of on my list. I don't remember Seneca really being in that vein, but I remember sending my stuff off to Ryerson and then they told me they

didn't receive my information. So they wouldn't let me apply, but they cashed my check. So I'm like, it was a $50 check. You cashed it, but you telling me I didn't make it in time. It was a $50 check. You cashed it, but you're telling me I didn't make it in time? So I didn't get the money back. And I went to an interview at Humber.

So we all were kind of in this big room. And I had Joe Andrews and Jerry Shulman that were there. And I remember after doing a little bit of an audition there, and they said, are you going to be in the diploma program, which was two years, or in the certificate program, which is one year? I said, I don't know. Which one do you want me to be in? I don't, I didn't know which one to pick. I didn't know where I was supposed to go or be or who or what or whatever. And they decided the CERT program, the one year program was where I should be because I had past experience doing

television and voiceovers. And I also was older, I was 23 and um at that moment I remember leaving there's there's about three things I've been sure of in my life and that's one of them and Humber College was one of them when I left that interview with Jerry Shulman and I did my you know voiceover I remember driving away going I know and it's And it's very rare I'm confident about something, but I knew that I got it. And I knew I was supposed to go there. And I knew for whatever reason that that was what was meant to be for me. Amazing. Okay, so this Humber College is your gateway to our terrestrial airwaves.

Yes, it is. I started at CHUM right from Humber College. I was chosen along with another classmate of mine to stand. It was at the International Auto Show. And, you know, dead of winter, there's always a snowstorm. And I was there and he and I stood there for 12 hours a day for 10 days in a row in the Skydome and we were giving away this cute little Mazda Miata and that was the start. I stood there and I stood there and at first the interesting story with me at this show was I didn't know who

Jungle Jay Nelson was and that week that we were both there people started coming up to us saying oh my gosh I'm so sorry to hear about Jungle J and I'm like hmm you know what and they just kept coming one after the other sorry to hear about Jungle J sorry so sorry here but finally the two of us were just like, oh, I know. Isn't it terrible? We had no idea what happened. We had no idea what was going on. So the other gentleman that I was with, he actually, you know, went and looked something up. Meanwhile, I called my parents.

Sure. Who's this Jungle J, Nelson? I have no idea. Everybody's asking me about it. So that was my first lesson in get to know your company and what's going on, because then we could properly answer. Right. Okay. So for those of us who are confused, and it's funny,

this topic actually just came up on Toronto Mic'd with Blair Packham. I think that was like two and a half weeks ago. But tell us who was Jungle J and why were there shout outs to Ridley Funeral Home regarding him? I don't know about that, but Jungle Jay was apparently, I never met Jungle Jay. He was brilliant, brilliant on the air. He was, I think he was an actor originally in Buffalo and he had this whole Jungle Jay sort of skit. And I believe it was Mr. Waters who who began chum his daughter that said why

don't you get him to come on the air and he's sort of changed the airwaves he apparently was a very brilliant very funny man he was a morning show he was a morning show host at chum yeah yeah and i think i think um from what i understand maybe a little bit of a tortured man as well inside, which I think a lot of artists are. He died quite young. I think he did. And I don't think that, from what I recall, I don't think he was in the place where he wanted to be. Well, the sad connection to the Blair Packham episode

is that Blair was sharing a story about how he was at U of T Radio and he was one of the youngest DJs in the country. But there was a guy down the hall a little younger, and it was Jungle J Nelson's son. And his son, who started on the air there, I think he was like 14 or something. But he ended up, which is too young for university, so I don't even know how that works.

But he ended up being like a radio guy, because he was very good as well. He was a radio guy in Ottawa, who I'm told by Mark Weisblatt, who visits me every month, I'm told he also died quite young. Oh, no. I know, terrible. I know, very terrible news.

But you're at the auto show and you're representing, and just to clarify, because when people say chum, it's like, well, which chum are we talking about? This is 1050 chum. 1050 chum. Yeah, the original. The original 1050 chum. Yeah, the original. The original 1050 chum. Yeah, it was, yeah, I was plucked out of the class to do this

before the ending of my school year. It was February. And, yeah, I did that. And I didn't really hear back because I really, I didn't think that the woman that had hired the two of us actually liked me very much. I didn't think that the woman that had hired the two of us actually liked me very much. I just got a bad kind of feeling that she just really wasn't impressed.

She was very impressed with him because he was a little bit older than I was. He was probably the oldest person that we had in our class. So he was a little bit older and maybe would represent the company better. But from my understanding, it had come to light that he had been bothering another classmate of mine. And then she was like, no, I don't want him. Now I'll call her. So that was me. And I remember thinking, I don't think I want to take this call or this job. And she kept calling and I wouldn't return the call. And I feel really weird saying this, by the way, I wouldn't return the call. And then finally, I think the message that she left, I lived with my grandparents at the time was if she ever wants to work in this city, she'll call. And I remember thinking, Oh, I better call. So I phoned and I spoke with her and I went in and then it started a whole

other trajectory for me where I was doing Corvette Summer and I was doing Stuffabuzz, just things that were on location. They ended up giving me the nickname On Location Amber. And I got that from Robbie Evans from 1050 Chum because I was always on location. I was On Location Amber, On Location Amber, On Loc, Amber. But yeah, it was a different time in that I not only worked for 1050 Chum, I was also interning at 680 News at the same time, which, you know, I don't think many people do, but I did. Well, I mean, they're competitor companies, right? This is Chum and Rogers. Chum and Rogers. And it was different. And by the way, if we're going to talk about 680 News, I actually have a Jesse and Jean

story. Okay, please. These are FOTMs as well. Let's hear it. Okay. So this is a, they would probably never remember this. I, at the time, was horrified that it happened because I was fresh out of school, and I'm in a newsroom with Dick Smythe, Marlene Oliver, David Craig, Richard Crabb was in there. I shouted a fabulous gal named Arlene Healy. She was amazing. And one day, you know, and I was already always nervous. 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. was my shift. My sleeping pattern was off.

I was young. I was terrified. And I'm in there. And I was, you know, always having to call the cops or write a story or this or that. And the phone rang, so I had to get the phone. So the intern gets the phone. And, oh, 680 News, newsroom, trying to sound all professional. And it was, hi, we have a was uh hi we have a news tip we have a news tip i'm like okay and i'm pencil and my pen and i'm like okay go ahead you know

and uh yeah this is jesse and jean calling we just got a street named after us and we'd like to know if 680 news was going to send a reporter to cover it. And I went, uh, just a minute, please. And this is the part that was the most humiliating part for me and I'll never forget it. As I went to hang up the phone,

I had a pen in my hand or a pencil like this. And remember the old phones, they were sort of yellowy brown and there was like a lit, like a, a strand of buttons on one side and then a strand of buttons on them. So I went to hit the hold button with one finger, but the tip of the pencil hit the release button and hung up on them. And then I was like,

Oh my God. But hold on. Titch a context though. They're not. Cause you're, you're at six 80 when you get this call and are they at 640? They are at 640. They're somewhere else.

Was that live on the air? Like was that broadcast on 640? I'm pretty sure it was live on the air. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure. I just know I was mortified and I turned around. I just sat there for a second and thought, how do I say this? Like and thought right how do I say this

like how how do I do this so I remember turning around to uh Richard Crabb who was the assignment at the time and I said um so here's what just happened and I told him and then he stood up and made this big announcement in the newsroom everybody Everybody, Jesse and Jean, they are at it again, and they've just called the newsroom. Now, I ever accidentally hung up on them, but if they call back, send them to me, and I'm like, oh my god. I was just, I was doing one of these.

I think that was the best move. I know it was an accident, but I think that the hang-up was the move. This is the competition. They're being dinks. Yes. Well, you know. Shit distur disturbers you hang up on those guys well i i just didn't know what to do and i didn't mean to do it and i did it and i thought oh my god that's funny you've got like this dumb woman here anyway that's my 680 story okay no anytime you have a story about anyone like that, just, just let me know. Okay.

Because I'm trying to get you in this right place. So you're at 10 50. Just remind us which era of 10 50 is this? Is this before the team? Yeah. Before the team. Yeah. Yes.

Okay. Very, very much before the team. Right. So are we, are we golden oldies right now? We are. So the morning show,

the time was Bob, Sam and Robbie, Bob McGee, Samantha Houston, uh, and Robbie Evans. Great. Love them all. And, uh, Doug Kirkwood was their producer as well. I don't want to leave Doug out. I like Doug. And, uh, it was Bob, Sam and Robbie.

Mark Payne was on the air. Russ McLeod. Um, Greg Lee. Greg Lee was over there. There there was just it was like it was oldies and when I started it was oldies I was one of my first jobs was taking a couple of vintage Corvettes around called Corvette Summer actually I have a picture maybe I'll send you the picture of it that I have um a really hot day I'm gonna forget that day yeah, I started there and this was 1994. So I was there in 1994 and I did, I went right through the team and after the team went back to oldies. Okay. So I have questions about when it went back to oldies. Okay.

So there's a few people I want to ask you about. Uh, one is Tom Rivers cause I listened back to episode 1050, okay? So it sounds like in this iteration of 1050, the post team that Tom would voice track, would do voice tracks for the station. Do I have this right? Correct. Okay, so when Tom Rivers was voice tracking his show on 1050 at this time,

you had a relationship with him, right? You would converse with him. Yes. Not a physical relationship with him. Let's be clear. He was married to Nancy Krantz, who I also worked with. No. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I wasn't suggesting that, of course. But that would be quite the scoop right here. Okay. No, but you had a friend relationship where you would converse with him. So what can you tell us about, you know, your conversations with the late Tom Rivers? First of all, I'll tell you that Tom Rivers was my idol growing up. So I don't know if it was all of those hours as a kid listening to him, and he was, his humor was very, I guess, sarcastic, and in person, he was, he was sarcastic, big teddy bear, big teddy bear

of a man, but he was sarcastic, and he, he knew who he was, he was, he was a very strong, big bear of a man, and I think I was used to his, his candor, I think I was used to his wit, I think I was used to his candor. I think I was used to his wit. I think I was used to his tempo. I think I was just used to a lot of things. We had this unbelievable ability to know what the other was thinking, even though he had voice-tracked it hours ahead of time. And I think he, for some reason, I think he he just got me and I somehow maybe just got him and I don't know if it was because he was my when I listened to the radio it was Tom Rivers it's Tom Rivers and Mike Cooper Tom Rivers and Mike Cooper CFTR uh you know

or CHUM or you know wherever they were at the time flipping back and forth right but uh it was what i was i'm so glad i had the opportunity number one i just he was amazing and um no bs from him he was just tom rivers and i was honored that i was actually able to keep up with him and be able to have that kind of conversation with him. I actually felt important. I felt important. Well, Amber, you are important. And I was actually going to bring this up when you mentioned that until this other gentleman, I guess, bothered somebody else in the class, as you so delicately put it, that it sounded like that person was going to get sort of the chum gig.

And I was just thinking back to that time in radio, and it's not much better now, although it is a little better now. But, I mean, radio, forget radio in Toronto, radio anywhere, but in Toronto particularly, a boys' club, right? Like, how does a woman broadcaster, you couldn't set your sights on getting your own you know daytime shift could you sure i mean when i was at chum there was already women in there i mean i admired marilyn dennis in that morning show oh yes but marilyn was co-hosting like marilyn was one was one cog in the wheel was also there

so ingrid schumacher had her own show so i had and i i there was not only strong women on the air that were kind there was also strong women on the air that were kind, there was also strong women off the air that were very kind as well. I just have to be fortunate enough that I worked in a company that we... I mean, I know what you're getting at. I do. I know what you're getting at here. And I do understand it because it is true. It can be daunting. And you just hope that where you go to work,

that people like you and they don't treat you like a piece of shit and they're not angry or mean to you, and you're very aware of it. I was warned before going to 680 News by a teacher about a specific person that worked in that company to watch out for them. I appreciated that. I appreciated that warning. Nothing ever, you know, unruly ever happened. So I was grateful for that as well. But it's, it is kind of in your mind. And yes, I mean, I know we're talking about Jennifer Valentine here. And I know we're talking about Q107, and I'm not that far away that I'm not on what's happening in Toronto, but that was excessive and cruel. You do think about it a lot.

And I haven't had those experiences to that extent, but there have been experiences where I've been a little bit okay and, you know, trying to deal with that kind of thing. But yes, it's not acceptable. I never got a Roger, Rick and Marilyn, never. And anybody in that, never, never, never. None of the shows, never. It was just, I didn't have that awful experience to that extent while i was in this business well amber that's good news yeah because you know and i i think about all of the women and i i know we're talking about warren holloway and jennifer valentine and andrea ruse who i worked with briefly at easy Rock, and Jackie Delaney, and most of these ladies I don't know.

But I do know what it feels like to perhaps not be in that position where people think you are as good as they are, or you are, and they don't want you to be. And that's a very different thing. You've been saying some very nice things about Tom Rivers, who, by the way, I would wake up to Tom Rivers on CFTR when I was going to primary school. I was a big, big, big fan. So I'm glad to hear these nice words, because I'm wondering, did you hear the Mike Cooper episode of Toronto Mic'd? I have not heard your Mike Cooper episode yet. I apologize. Amber, your stock is plummeting here. Just kidding. So that's on your to-do list. That is on my to-do list because I've met him one time. And I met Mike Cooper when he returned before we went to the team. We had this big

send-off of all these different jocks that came back and he was graciously allowed to return to chum to do this and he was another thrill for me to meet and he signed my chum book so i felt like you know when it comes down everything i'm just a big geeky fan of a lot of people i love it no i love it you're not just a radio veteran but you are a legit fan a legit fan of the medium, which is awesome. I love it. Okay. So, by the way, did Tom Rivers ever confide in you that he was insulted at the salary he got for the voice tracking on Chum? I don't recall that. I do remember the day that he, look at you, you're like, I'm going to get this out of my head. No, no, I'm just curious. I remember the day that he, look at you. You're like, I'm going to get this out. No, no. I'm just curious. I, um, I remember the day that he left and I know that the day that he left, uh, his,

his wife, Nancy, who worked with us for many, many, many, many, many years, Nancy Krantz was let go that day. And he came into work to do his voice track. He got it. It's like whatever. That's just, it was just the way radio was. People are getting let go. And I'm not exactly sure how the conversation went, but somewhere along the line, it went sideways between he and the general manager at the time. And I think that some nasty words may have gone at least from Tom. I'm not sure about the general manager at the time, but at least from him. And then I think he just gave him a parting shot and said, you know what, I don't need this.

And off he went because that was Tom. I believe the final stop for Tom Rivers in this market is Jack 92.5. I think he ends up there. And then sadly, of course, he dies far too young. Yeah. And that's another thing that i i bring in about peter gross peter gross and i sat beside each other at um there was a a gathering for tom and i believe it was at seneca college and i sat with with uh peter gross there too peter gross showed up in my life a few times um in in different places and always been a pleasure in this. I love that man, Amber.

I love that man. I love that man too. Let's spend the next hour talking about Peter because. Why doesn't he just come on with me? I'm much better with somebody else. If I call him, he will come on. Like that's the kind of guy Peter is.

And we're going to hear, I will just tease that tomorrow night. There's an episode of toast. We do this monthly. It's Cam Gordon of Toast. We do this monthly. It's Cam Gordon and Stu Stone. We're going to kick out our favorite songs that have a prominent saxophone part. We call this Let's Talk About Sax.

And this is happening tomorrow night. And I just want to tease it by telling the FOTMs, and I think Stu's going to be late, so this will be at live.torontomic.com at 8 p.m. Eastern. So Amber, you can pop over and enjoy the show. But we will hear Peter Gross's voice on this episode of Toast. I'm the naïve, gravelly Peter Gross that we all love.

You should listen to his most recent Toronto Mic appearance because he auditioned for a role during the episode. It's actually hard to explain because it all happened very, it was all unplanned. We're talking. And then suddenly he gets a text or a phone call from his agent. Like, why aren't you doing this zoom audition?

And Peter goes, I thought it was tomorrow. And he goes, Peter, it's right now. And he's looking at me. I'm like doing what I'm doing with you right now, except he's here.

And I just went to the zoom. I connected him. I put went to the zoom. I connected him. I put the camera on him. He did his audition, but I recorded it for, I recorded it the whole time. It's in that episode and he got the, he got the role and it's quite the, like, it's quite the rollercoaster ride. I love it. It's, it's very hard to kind of do that kind of thing. Um, I, I kind of, after I would, after I left Bell, which i know you'll get to um i did sort of dabbled into voiceover work and um and then covet hit and then i the roles or the the auditions weren't coming and yeah so i haven't i might i might pick that back up here i might you should

because i think it's your passion i can sense it it. I do like it. I do like it. I do. Now, one interesting comment came in when I said Amber Paye was coming on Toronto Mic'd. It was from Alan Drummond. And the comment was, listeners should play a drinking game and take a shot every time she says traffic or chum.

How many times have I said item? I don't think I've said the T word once. I have to review the tape. By the way, I call it traffic now. So just so you know, Alan Drummond has been my friend for 30 years. I met Al. I received a Pete McGarvey award from Humber College, and I brought my roommate with me to get the award.

And the fabulous Stan Lark from Humber College presented me with that award. I love that. He's the one who got me to 680 News, by the way. He was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Stan Lark. And I met Al that night because my friend and I went out for a drink afterwards and she, her boyfriend was friends of his. He is a very, very good friend of mine. I've known him for 30 years almost. He is one of the few people that knew I was getting married. He drove me to and picked me up from the airport when I came down

here to get married. And he's a wonderful friend. And if you like kayaking, I do check him out. You do. I do. He, he, he, he does kayaks. He does a whole bunch of different things with kayaks. He takes people on tours. He's incredible. Okay. Cause the, the family here, that's the story here is that for my 50th birthday, which hasn't happened yet, my 50th birthday, I want to kayak because I bike every day. I give myself like a 90 minute block to bike every day, but I want to kayak as well in the summer. And so this is like a goal thing is a kayak on my 50th so I can get out there and kayak either the Humber River or just in the right by the shore of Lake Ontario. Okay. So I have to talk to Al.

Okay, Al. He'll set you up. He's a very good friend of mine. And what was that award you got from Humber College? It was a humanitarian award. Really? When was this? Was this 2017? No, this was, no, 2017 was my Humber College Hall of Fame.

Look at you. This was right after I got out of school, so it would have been 1994. Okay. So I'll just skip ahead and say congrats on being inducted into the Humber College Hall of Fame in 2017. Thank you. That's amazing. It was an amazing honor um i remember going in because i i taught at humber for a semester and i saw all these people on the hall of fame wall and i ever say to jerry i'm like hey hey where am i you know just teasing and because i would never assume i would be on anybody's wall and he just said well no you're traffic take a drink Al. You're kind of traffic. And I was like, okay,

well, I'll just slink back down. But then eventually it did happen. So I'm very appreciative of it. I still have the flowers that they actually sent me flowers because when I received that award or just before I was receiving that award, my mother was in the final stages of life. And I never went to pick up my award. The wonderful Sheila Walsh accepted it on my behalf. And they sent me flowers, and I still have them. And I'm very thankful. I'm sorry about your mom there.

So best of times, worst of times. Somebody wrote that once. But Evelyn Macko. Evelyn Macko is in this Hall of Fame? Yes. there but um so best of times worst of times somebody wrote that once but uh evelyn macko evelyn macko's in this hall of fame yes evelyn macko uh again another person that i would look up to and or listen for uh growing up and evelyn would fill in for marlene oliver at 680 news and i didn't really speak to Evelyn back then because she was very serious into her. She always had headphones on and I didn't want to bother her, but oh my gosh, I was just, I can't believe, I couldn't believe I was in the same room with Dick Smythe and Evelyn Macko

and Peter Gross, of course, was another one, and I remember listening to this very serious person, and I thought, oh my gosh, these people are, they were going to be in suits and stuff, and I remember from my interview at 680 News, I came in in this full red jacket, red skirt, and big high heels, and they sent me out to do work. They actually had me do streeters, which I hated. My heel was getting stuck in a sidewalk. I was that awkward moment. But the guy I thought was in the suit was Mike Apple. And I was like, you're Mike Apple? He said, I'm Mike Apple. But so Mike Apple was there too.

Do you know Mike Apple never misses an episode of Trotter Mike? Hi, Mike. Yep. I'm Mike Apple. I'm Mike Apple. He'll say, please don't say that, Amber. And Mike, he does crossover appearances on breakfast television, right? Mike Apple. I believe he does still, yes. He did when I was last there. So shout out to my neighbor Bojana who

recognized Mike Apple from those appearances on Breakfast Television and was like, she was swooning. She's 85 years old by the way. She was swooning. It was quite a moment. Over Mike Apple? Yeah. Aww. He is a sweet, kind, lovely gentleman. Don't get much better. And I know he's also tight with Peter Gross so he has good taste in him. Oh, is he?

Well, yeah, they were there at the same time when I was too. Alright, let's talk about somebody who was there then. You already dropped his name, but I'm dying to get a story or two, whatever you can share. But the late, great Dick Smythe. Right, okay.

Dick Smythe terrified me going into 680 News because I had heard, I mean, I'd known about the reputation and the throwing of the typewriters and the bang, bang, bang of the pipe and setting the garage, the garbage bins on whatever was in there on fire. And I was aware of all of this stuff because, as I mentioned, I was doing chum stuff and 680 stuff. So I was aware of his gregarious personality. So I was afraid. Plus, I mean, he was just Dick Smythe.

Dick Smythe would come in and I never had one issue with Dick Smythe. He did ask one time, who wrote the story about the doll? Who is AP? And I thought, oh, God. Arlene, is that you? And I'm like, please let it be Arlene. You know, and I was terrified. I'm like, that's me.

I'm just the intern here. You know, and he said, well done. That was the solid piece. And then he, I never, he was fine. I was never afraid of him after that. We had a love of opera together and we talked opera a lot. of opera together. And we talked opera a lot. When I went to university, one of my courses was an opera course. And we, we kind of bonded on that. I wouldn't remember who I was.

I think I met him years later at Chum's 50th and he didn't remember me. Obviously, as I said, interns come in and out. So he couldn't have been lovelier to me. I really liked him. That AP story. Okay.

That's a trope that you will see in sitcoms, right? It'll be some blustery, angry kind of guy like Dick Smythe will be, who wrote it? It looks really angry and passionate and it'll be like, who's AP? And then of course AP, who's you, would be sheepishly afraid to say it's you

because he's going to say, this is the worst piece of garbage I've ever read. What a piece of trash. And you're like, it's me, sir. And then he's say, this is the worst piece of garbage I've ever read. What a piece of trash. And you're like, it's me, sir. And then he's like, this is the greatest piece of garbage. It really happened. I'm telling you. It's like I was so scared. I was scared every day I went to 680 News.

I was afraid I was going to say something wrong or write something wrong in a newscast. I didn't enjoy calling people and asking them, you know, if there was a, it was a murder. I didn't enjoy that. And I knew that when I left 680, I really didn't want to be in a newsroom again. And then the rest of my career, I spend in a newsroom. So, you know, it's just kind of a learning curve, but I never really kind of got over that, the scary part of it. And I think that takes me back to your other conversation that you had about it being a boys club, where you, I'm always afraid to get yelled at. It doesn't matter. I'm always afraid that somebody is going to yell at me. And you're, when you're afraid of it, you're kind of always on guard for it. So that kind of thing is, you know, you want to do a good job. And if somebody is terrifying you and being horrible to you, then you, you do, I don't know, a fight or flight. And for the most time, sometimes you flight and you're terrified and you leave. And I don't know.

I keep thinking about ever since Jennifer brought up all of that information and did that video. I think I'm feeling like a lot of women in this business are feeling at first. It felt heavy and it felt as if you were reliving all those different things that kind of happened, not for me at all at that extent, but in those moments where somebody kind of made you feel small and you really didn't know what you could do about it or should do about it, you didn't want to lose your job. That person was the star. So that kind of stuff, it does come kind of flooding back. And I think that I wouldn't be mistaken if all women that have kind of been in this business felt that and had all of these feelings rushing back.

And I will just say it's not just your industry. Like this is a... No, no. Right. But... It's everywhere. I mean, it is. Like there's a simple code by which, and I've been trying, even as a guy would be, you know, writing on torontomike.com or conducting, you know, 1,064 of these conversations for Toronto Mike, the podcast, and just working with whomever,

that if you just treat everybody with respect, like it's just one word, respect. It doesn't mean there shouldn't be some corrective, constructive criticism or guidance, but always respect the person you're either writing about or speaking to. And when you hear these allegations, there's a complete lack of respect for another human being. And really, that's what I find abhorrent.

Absolutely, totally abhorrent. And it's, I mean, look, media and being in a newsroom is a tough, it's a tough room. And it, it, it shouldn't be to the point where it's abusive. It's just not tolerant. It shouldn't be tolerated. It shouldn't be accepted. I don't, I didn't, again, I didn't have that experience to that extent. Thankfully. And I didn't, again, I didn't have that experience to that extent, thankfully. I have had a couple of experiences where I didn't know what to do.

I had one man that I did work with who screamed at me. I was brand new. I wasn't even in the building. I was doing on location stuff. So he called the telephone, started screaming at me about how the microphone was on and it was coming into the newsroom and he couldn't work. And I was like, okay, I'm not the one who sets up the microphone. I'll have to find somebody. But he just berated me then. He berated me a second time years later. me then he berated me a second time years later and I remember thinking after that second time he wasn't going to do it again and he did do it again and I tell you that's the last time he did it because I it was one of those moments where I I remember saying myself if he ever does that or speaks to me like that again I've had it I'm not going to put up with it because he thinks I'm weaker than than he is and it was a ridiculous fight that if anybody was around,

they'll tell you it was a ridiculous fight. What he was yelling at me for was just absurd. And it was something, I don't even know how to say it, just to tell you about it. It was a fight over a recycling bin. And the location of a recycling bin that had been in the same location for years before i got there but all of a sudden seemed to be a hazard to him after i got there and then he berated me for that and then i realized

at that point if i'm not gonna let my father yell at me like that no i'm not gonna let you yell at me like that amber you're a human being and And what I'm hearing here, it sounds like this person, like I guess we're not naming this person, right? We're not naming this person. I'm not naming this person. This person has passed on and we actually, we sorted it all out and became. Okay.

So this unnamed person though, obviously has issues and is lashing out at Amber Pay. And you're taking the brunt of this disrespect and hate and it's unfair and you're trying to work. You're trying to do your best job to, so you can feed yourself and pay your rent and there's no, no room. There's absolutely like no room for that kind of workplace bullying. It was,

it wasn't nice, but I'd had it by that point. And this was the third time and I wasn't going to do it again. I was done. And after he was kind of screaming at me and I let him have it because I'd had enough. And I remember saying to him, you're screaming at me over something that has been here for the longest amount of time,

so I'm imagining that you think that I'm weaker than you are, and therefore, I'm not going to let you do this to me again. Whatever's going on in your personal life, you've brought it in here, and you're unloading it on me, and I don't want it. It's not going to happen. Not this time. You know what?

This is really resonating with me, and I can't go into too many details right now, except that it's funny. I've never worked in radio, but I'm having issues with radio people right now that have been triggered by the John Derringer allegations. now like this this this need to take control of the situation and where i need to stop being bullied by radio people and i'm speaking to you you're in the room i've never been i've never been in the room and i'm going through this right now well you mean you have a platform right well and some and some people and and i mentioned this when Jennifer came forward with what she said, I think that sometimes the fear is, and I'm not saying it is with whoever you're speaking about, but sometimes the fear is that they're going to be better than you, and they're going to be more popular than you. And I think with Jennifer, she was more popular.

I think she had a big following that brought her there. I only listened to that show one time, and that was to see or hear how Jennifer was doing. And I remember thinking, you know, that was, uh, I, I, I didn't feel comfortable. I didn't feel that she felt comfortable when I heard her. And I thought, I don't want to listen because it didn't sound comfortable to me. Something didn't sound right. sound comfortable to me. Something didn't sound right. And I never listened to it again. Um, and I don't, I don't, I don't know John Derringer. I don't have any, I've met him one time. I met him at a show with Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman. I was introduced to him by my incredible program director from 1050 Jump, Brad Jones, not your Brad Jones, my Brad Jones. director from 1050 Chum, Brad Jones, not your Brad Jones, my Brad Jones. And he, that was it.

But I was never one for wanting to go somewhere where I thought that that boys club was that strong. I mean, I got bullied by boys in school and those bullies listened to Q107. And I figured, number one, I didn't like the music on Q107. I just didn't. I'm a pop princess. I am as poppy as they come. And my sister listened to a lot of rock, Yes, and Pink Floyd. I didn't like that music, and I knew that music was on Q107. So I never, ever thought about going to Q107.

And the realm of where I would hear two guys kind of being. Bros. This is bro, bro talk. Yeah. Like I, I just, I thought I'm going to suffocate here.

I'm either going to stand up and yell at you or I'm going to cower away. And I don't know which one it would have been in that situation. If I, if I put my shoe myself in Jennifer Valentine's shoes, I don't know which Amber would have come out. And after a while, it would probably be the one that would kind of cower and slink away too,

because after I had that argument with that gentleman where I was about the recycling bin, I burst into tears because I was so rattled. But I think I was more rattled that I stood up for myself he apologized the next day he came right up to me and apologized he got on his knees he actually came over to me and he got on his knees and he apologized saying that it was clear the recycling bin meant more to me than it did to him. And I looked at, and I just thought, are you kidding me?

And then he looked at me, he goes, aren't you going to apologize to me now? Wow. Nope. I'm not. Done. And that was it. I never, he never bothered me again. Well, I'm glad that you, that Now, just a little teasement here before I thank some of the sponsors that make this possible. Then I'm going to get back to chum with you here. But it's funny. We mentioned the name

Maureen Holloway, so I just want to let FOTMs know that Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley are my guests on Friday. So where are we at in the world? This is Monday today and this is Amber pay day and payday see what I did Tuesday night I mentioned is toast with Cam Gordon Stu Stone we're gonna talk about sacks I did allude to something going on in my life here with radio people and uh I'm going to

stop being so cryptic and it's going to become very clear on Wednesday. So, uh, in the Toronto Mike feed, I'm dropping some audio on Wednesday. And then we have Maureen Holloway and, uh, Wendy Mesley on Friday. You mentioned Brad Jones. I actually,

uh, my Brad Jones, your Brad Jones from Ridley funeral home. I want to congratulate him because we have in my hood here, new Toronto, we had the grilled cheese challenge on Saturday. And Ridley Funeral Home sponsors one restaurant's grilled cheese and they won. So much love to Ridley Funeral Home on winning the grilled cheese challenge on Saturday.

What made their grilled cheese the best? I actually didn't get the lineup to get the damn grilled cheese was so long. I never actually, Brad should have pulled some strings for me, but I know I did see him there. I did see him there. I saw a bunch of great people there. Uh,

but yeah, my Brad Jones has a great podcast called life's undertaking. So shout out to Ridley funeral home. I wish you were here, Amber. I'd give you some fresh craft beer from great lakes. I would love that. They were at the Grilled Cheese Challenge,

so I saw them there as well. Love Fresh Craft beer. You can get them in LCBOs. You can't get them in Arizona, though. So, yeah, when you get back home. Can you ship it to me? Yes, I guess we could ship it to you. I don't know.

I guess that's okay. What I can ship to you, though, because it's against the law, you're going to have to come up here and enjoy Canna Cabana. So I want to say thank you to Canna Cabana. They won't be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. What is the law about cannabis in Arizona? Is it a no-go or what's the deal?

No, I think you can. Yeah, there's lots of dispensaries here, I think. Oh yeah, it's hard to keep up. I just don't partake in it, so I wouldn't, I don't really know. You don't smoke weed, Amber. Never have. Never have.

Well, you can take it other ways. You could get some CBD for your sleep time. Edibles. Yeah, I've heard about that. Maybe I should try that. But no, I've never really... I can see you popping a gummy before bed. You get a great sleep. It's a good Amber thing to do. I take vitamin gummies. Does that count? We combine them. But thank you, Kana Cabana. Doer Pants. you can save 15% if you go to the retail store on Queen Street West or if you go to Dewar.ca, D-U-E-R.ca.

I wear Dewar pants and shorts and shirts, comfy AF, and again, 15% off if you use the promo code TMDS. And last but not least, I want to thank StickerU.com. I wish you were here, Amber. I would give least, I want to thank StickerU.com. I wish you were here, Amber. I would give you a Toronto Mike sticker from StickerU.com. I would love one.

Oh, I said last but not least. I lied, Amber. Last but not least is actually Palma Pasta. So I would be giving you a lasagna if you were here. Oh, I picked up a Palma Pasta lasagna for Tina Cortez at 105.9 The Region for her birthday last year, because I lived close by to Palma Pasta. Okay, yes, you're, well, Mississauga and Oakville is where you find Palma Pasta. Go to palmapasta.com. You mentioned Tina. So we are going to talk about The Region, and I actually have a piece of audio, but we'll get to that after I finish my chum talk with you.

Okay. Another name I want to, I'm just going to pepper you and ask you for stories, but what was your relationship like with the late, great Brian Henderson? Penny. What a, what a, he was, he was another one like Tom Rivers, larger than life, just full of wisdom and stories

and the way that he, you know, I have to, I was very blessed to work with people that could tell a story. They could just hold court. And Brian Henderson was one of them. And the emotion, the feeling, the, the, everything that Brian Henderson would put into his commentary or even his show. He was just so real and so raw. I found him so raw and I adored him. This is an odd connection. His cousin was my drama teacher in high school. And if Gordy's still listening, it was Miss Bruce.

Miss Bruce is Brian Henderson's cousin. So I found that out. He is still listening because he wants to accept the Great Lakes beer on your behalf. I just saw. Oh, go ahead. Give it to Gordy. Please do.

Oh, trust me. Gordy will be at TMLXX. And that means the 10th Toronto Mike listener experience, which will be September 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke. And I just want to let people know to mark the date because it's going to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke. And I just want to let people know to mark the date because it's going to be a magic night. Some of the performances by FOTMs and Palma Pasta is going to feed everybody and Great Lakes is going to make sure everyone's got some fresh craft beer.

And it's going to be like a wonderful way to celebrate 10 years of Toronto Mic'd with TMLXX. So Gordie, I'll take care of you, buddy, because I got to get Amber's beer to somebody. I like calling him Gordy. Gordy's more fun to say than YYZ Gord. I'm going to call him Gordy. Who is always Gordy? Gordy Goodfellow.

I'm sorry, Gordy. I'm hoping I'm allowed to say your last name. I hope so. Well, he didn't complain in the live chat, so I don't think I have to do any editing after this. But I think it's fair to say he is a good fellow, right? Absolutely. Definitely, and very smart.

I think I've said that a million times. But I knew he was smart. I don't know what Gordy's doing now. What is Gordy doing now? Okay, so here's what I know. I know him well enough in that I see him at events, and I had bent-weight beers with him. That's something we FOTM to do periodically.

So I know he retired and now he's going to unretire. So I think he did a lot of traveling during this retirement that him and Tom would go everywhere. And I was always surprised that somebody who looks that young, because like, who is that young? Yeah. Well,

he's like you 35 years old. So what are you doing? Retired? Like, I'm like you. We're young. 35 years old. So what are you doing retired? Like, I'm like, this guy's retiring. Retirement's not even a thought in my head. I'm just going to have to keep hustling until my final breath here. But because Gordie Goodfellow was brilliant. That's why he can retire at the age of 51. You know, next time I see him, his head's going to be twice the size it was last time I saw him. Okay, so help me understand this. Yes. We've been talking a lot about 1050 Chum.

Yes. But it's the same blob, right? This is the same, like 1050 Chum and 104.5 Chum FM. You're all over that station too, right? Yes. I did a lot of different things at Chum um after i was doing some on location stuff do you well it's now called the cp24 chum christmas wish back when it was when i was there it was a chum city christmas wish right and i coordinated that for four years okay so i had um

i did a lot of it was a lot that was a lot of work. But I did that for four years. And then I, let me think, I'm doing my own timeline. I did that for four years. I worked part-time for CHUM for about four or five years before I actually became a traffic reporter there. So I had worked all right. And I was already doing on location on air there as well. So you,

you were basically, you were doing traffic. I know we're supposed to drink. I got my great lakes here. I got to drink every time I say traffic, but we were doing, you were doing traffic for CP 24 and 104.5 Chum FM. And 1050 Chum.

And 1050 Chum, of course. and this would be like during, I guess the morning and the afternoon drive times, you'd be helping everybody get to their destination. Yeah. I was the afternoon drive, uh, traffic reporter, traffic drink. And, um, I was, I was only supposed to be there for a month. So I had come in because the traffic reporter that was there, the lovely Judy Wilson, uh, had be had some medical issues and left to take care of them. And I stepped in and I was hired just for a month.

It was one month. I didn't even have a contract. I was hired on a handshake. And I was in there for a month. And then it was, okay, we're going to extend it to another month. Okay, another month okay another month and I had been so used to working uh contract to contract to contract like I just needed to work because I needed to survive so I was working and I wasn't leaving and then it just kept continuing

and then Judy just never returned and Judy Judy's okay, by the way. Judy's lovely and she's okay. But she didn't return to that position. So then I just ended up staying there. Now in terms of ownership, just so no one gets confused. So obviously at some point this ownership is transferred from Chum City there. You mentioned the Waters family. Like it becomes a Bell Media property.

First CTV. Right, right. Okay. Right. That's why you're here. You're the expert on all this. So how many years in total? It was like we got changed twice.

Right. So that, you know, the group, the Chum group that we had and before we were purchased by CTV, we also had a team come in. So the team came in. I want to say, I know that the team was there when 9-11 happened.

I know that for sure because I remember speaking to Gene Volaitis and I remember him, you know, you talk about a sports station and it's sports, sports and whatever, but they were shattered in that room they were shattered and i remember gene being so serious and just sports doesn't matter this matters this

is life and this is death and this is awful and this is this is this is big uh and i that's i remember that they were definitely there in 2001. Yeah, I thought, well, Gene's been on the program and we've definitely talked about his day on the air, September 11th, 2001, and that's the kind of day that changes you. It certainly did and it changed, it changed, I remember it because I actually was asleep and I at that point I was working

the 2 p.m to 10 p.m shift I believe and so I would sleep later in the day and I missed the phone the phone rang it kind of woke me up and I just kind of thought I'd get back to it and there was a message and a friend of mine phoned and she had said, Oh, Oh gosh, this is awful. I'm like, what's wrong? Are you okay? I didn't have the TV on yet. And she said, well, you know, what's happening in New York? I'm like, what's happening in New York? She said, a plane went into the buildings and I said, what? And I thought it was like a small plane and turn the TV on. And then I thought, I bet you that. And I said, I got to gotta go and I called work they asked me to come in early because what happened was the afternoon traffic started in the morning because everybody

I think was so fearful that the planes were never coming to Bay Street or the CN Tower that everybody just left and it took me forever and I took a cab they brought me in in a cab and I it took me forever to get to Chum and coming home it was like a ghost town it was it was surreal it was just and I remember not knowing what to do under Paul Cross took over um he was in the newsroom my news director I think his mother had passed around that time so he wasn't available and he wasn't in the newsroom and I remember Paul cross just kind of taking over. And I remember Rob Farina, uh,

him saying no traffic today, no traffic today. We're going to go wall to wall with this. And then it changed over the day. So there's a lot of moving parts and like everybody else, you just like, you can't believe it. You just can't believe it.

Uh, so it was a weird it was a weird time but that was definitely 2001 when we the team in there and of course because i've had so many people from the team on this program and i made a micumentary about this at some point where i collected all the stories because although they were promised, and I'm thinking of my friends like FOTM Romy and FOTM Mike Richards and FOTM Jim Van Horn and so many of these people were promised, you know, that this would be given a true opportunity to succeed. Sounds like the Waters family pulled the plug on it relatively quickly. I don't think it made 18 months. Am I misremembering that?

I think it was just about 18 months, maybe. Yeah, I think it made 18 months. Am I misremembering that? I think it was just about 18 months. I think we were all surprised. We all understand that things don't last forever. Jobs don't last forever. Formats don't last forever. You want them to last forever, but sometimes whatever the issue is, we don't make the decisions down here. the decisions are done up there so it was i was surprised to hear that they were going to do a sports station i didn't think it fit and you know i don't know that was just me it's my own selfish i didn't think it

well amber as a sports fanatic i can tell you what didn't make sense was to to have a sports station with a national focus. Yeah. And that was something that was very difficult, I think, in terms of doing timelines and just timing and stuff. But I think they gave it a shot. I have heard stories about how some members of the team didn't feel welcome at CHUM, and I loved having them there. I loved the difference. I liked having somebody around at night, because I was working two to ten, and now all of a sudden there was people to talk to. I had

Jamie Shally in there, and I had Scott Laughlin in the newsroom. I think Paul Johnson was on the air and you saw a whole group of people that you got to get to know the thing that I found interesting. And anybody is going to correct me, but from where I was sitting, I found the major problem with the team was the management that was brought in. I could never find anybody. They were on a golf course. And this is just my view. I know that maybe somebody will be listening and thinking,

oh, she doesn't know what she's talking about. She's, you know. This is your opinion, Amber. Opinions can't be wrong. Okay, so this was my opinion. I found that their management were in way over their head. That's my opinion. I found their management was in way over their head. They didn't know how I found their management was way over their head. They

didn't know how to do it. They didn't know how to do it properly. And I think it just, like dominoes, came down, down, down, down. If anyone listening wants to hear more about the Team 1050 experience or experiment maybe is a better word, find the micumentary on the topic. So if you go to torontomike.com and click notable episodes, then do your command or control F and look for the Team 1050. You'll find it relatively quickly, but there's a very interesting

Mikeumentary on the Team 1050. Okay, so Amber, how many years in total are you, regardless of who owns it, but how many years in total were you with this enterprise? Okay, so if I start from the time, if I'm talking about part-time, because I always count my part-time, because I was very dedicated to Chum. So I would always kind of be in the mix at some point. So I would say from 1994 right till 2017. So I would say from 1994 right till 2017.

Wow. Okay, wow. And we didn't really talk too much about them, but we probably should spend a minute here and talk about Roger, Rick and Marilyn, which then of course, as has been covered in depth here on Toronto Mike, Rick gets an offer. He didn't refuse from standard broadcasting and he leaves to go to 1010

slash Easy Rock and that did not work out for Rick unfortunately but he's a good man. I quite like him. I love Haji. Haji is great and I understand why he left. I think that it was the right move and we were all sad

to see the breakup of Roger, Rick and Marilyn and but I think he felt it was the right move for him. And I think at that time I would have as well. I'm sad that it didn't work out for him up the street or around the corner. To St. Clair, right? I guess he went to St. Clair if I have my job. So he was doing 1010 and The Mix? No, it was actually Easy Rock.

Easy Rock was there at that time? Yeah, it was Easy Rock. They had a four-person booth. Okay, I'll name the four because... Kim Stockwood. Correct. Kim was the outlier because what's Kim doing here? But that's Kim Stockwood.

We already talked about Rick Hodge. Hodgey. And speaking of the allegations against John Derringer, Colleen Rusholm is in the booth. Yes. With a gentleman whose show I produced today, Humble Howard Glassman. Oh, great. Yes. Yeah.

It was brand new. I forgot about Colleen being there, but I like Colleen. Colleen is amazing. Super smart. Smart as a whip. But yeah,

I think Kim Stockwood had done some, she'd filled in for Marilyn a few times. And I think that they really, maybe that's where they got the idea from to bring in Kim Stockwood. In my experience, not experience, In my opinion, just too busy. You have too many voices. There's four voices.

Anyways, eventually they got rid of Rick and Kim, and I think Kim was relieved when they said goodbye to her. I think she was very happy with that news, but it was just Howard and Colleen for a while until it became just Stu Jeffries. Yes. And I know he does that. I really was never, Stu Jeffries was never in my realm of anything. I understand he's a great guy.

I see what he posts and I like him. I think he's, you know, he's funny. And I think he's from the 80s, you know. He's from Good Rockin' Tonight. Good Rockin' 80s. He's from Good Rockin' Tonight. Good Rockin' Tonight. And I never watched Good Rockin' Tonight. I was more of the Toronto Rocks girl. Right, John Major.

John Major. So John Major. Speaking of chum alumnus and people who have left us far too soon. Yeah, I met him one time, but well after. I think I was, I heard you say you worked at the C&E. Yeah, three years. Yes. What did you do there?

Managed a game booth called Papa Ball for a company called Astro Zodiac Enterprises. I do know Astro Zodiac Enterprises. I worked at the CNE for years. Okay, so it's Ardo's place. Ardo Godaro. Ardo's place, yes. Yes, so he was part of concessions. Yeah, I worked in the offices.

I used to run. I used to supervise an area on the grounds. It was the C&E Medical Center, the Lost Children, the Baby Rest. And I took over the Scouts as well. Is that near the Dufferin Gates, that section, that stuff? Yeah. Well, the Scouts used to be up by the Dufferin Gates. They've since moved them to the BLC, their living center.

And the medical center and all of that other stuff used to be right under the gardener behind the food building. Okay. So yeah, I worked, I worked there for years. I was the very first CNE mascot. You're burying the lead Amber. I would have led with this when we started.

It was honestly my favorite job ever. I was, I was the very first. What was the mascot for this? What was the started. It was honestly my favorite job ever. I was the very first to see Alex. What was the mascot for this? What was the mascot? It was a beaver. They had a big contest for a mascot, and it was a beaver that actually looked like a bear, to be honest.

His name was Al-X, A-L-E-X, and I was the first person in it. Wow. I know. Fun fact. And that's a fun fact. From now's a fun fact from now on in the history of Toronto Mike, when Amber Pay comes up, I will be dropping that fun

fact because that's just how my brain works. I'll just say, did you know? It changed the mascot look. He looks more like a beaver now, I think, but he didn't back then. You'd have thought he was a bear except I used to have this big tail that hung at the end. Please, I digress here. I need to know why, why does it end for you?

That's a long run, by the way, from 1994 to what did you say? 2019? 2017. 2017. Okay. Okay. Well, it just was, I remember when, when Ingrid was let go and I called her because when Ingrid was let go, it was also 2017, but it was January of 2017. And it was the day after Bell Let's Talk Day. Right. And they think a lot of people were let go. And I had that day called and said, I was struggling. My mom was towards the end of her life. I was not handling things very well. And I had called on that morning after, the day after Bell Let's Talk Day. I remember it clearly.

Bell Let's Talk Day, if I could just talk about Bell Let's Talk Day for a second. Of course. Okay. It was a, I always found it the hardest day in the newsroom at CP24. I found it really difficult to hear people's struggles. And I found that it really affected me. So I used to have to pull the thing out of the ear and not listen to the stories.

For me, it upset me. And on that year, it really upset me. And I had the next day called and said, I need to take some time off. I need to take a leave of absence. And it was to be with my mother. I didn't realize that also that day was the day they let a group of people go, including Ingrid.

So when I spoke to Ingrid later, she said, you know, I think it was just my time, I guess. And it was hard because slowly, group by group by group, we were all kind of going. And it kind of started when the team there was there was a big layoff before i started at chum and then there wasn't one for a very long time i remember when bob sam and robbie were let go and everybody was just devastated it was a devastating blow and we were all we were sad these people that you talk to and you at chum you it's not just you it's us and i always felt and i don't know if some people

consider it like a family i was considered it like family in there but and if i may interject really quickly here it when it was owned by a family, like literally owned by the Waters family, it could be a family of sorts because it's sort of like, you know, WKRP, right? It was wonderful. I still love Chum. I loved the Chum at 1331 Young. I loved it. And you're right, Mr. and Mrs. Waters were there a lot. Jimmy Waters was the president.

You can talk to the owner. Like there's not a lot of businesses where you can talk to the owner, but that's one. And they were nice. And I think their philosophy was always keep your employees happy. It's not hard. Keep your employees happy and they will produce for you.

And then when you were owned by a telecommunications conglomerate, a giant one, be it like Bell Media. Now, how do I say this delicately? You're more of a number. Yes, you are. And, you know, you still have some of your same people. When Bob and I moved over there, I think it was still CTV.

And there was a lot of movement going on at that time i remember flow coming in and um just loving that whole urban feel like it's another different station for us i loved it when we moved from 1331 1331 young street which was in 2009 2009 is when Bob and I, Bob Summers and I were separated from everybody else. So the misconception is that I actually worked for CP24. I did not work for CP24. I worked for Chum side. Bob and I were planted in CP24. So we lost all those people. And that, for me, I'm the type of person that needs to have people around. I like people who I can talk to, who make me feel comfortable, who I hope I make feel comfortable.

I need that sort of support. And it was gone. You know, when we went in to that building, I thought at first we weren't going to be in that building, but then we were. And then I had to meet a whole group of brand new people and have a whole different atmosphere. And it totally changed my job. It completely changed my job from what I was doing on radio to what I was doing on TV, even though even back at 1331, we were on television as well. It was different because they had to wait for me. Whereas now I was in CP24 feeling that radio had to wait for TV and that's not the way it was supposed to work. feeling that radio had to wait for TV and that's not the way it was supposed to work. I was a radio person first. Then it just, you know, then Bell took over and then I think Flow went out

and, you know, then there was a whole bunch of different changes. And it was, you do, you kind of become a number. You walk in the halls. I remember walking upstairs in the commissary and saying hi, hi to people and nothing, just straight. But the people inside CB24 where we worked were lovely. I loved the people at CB24, most of them. Okay, so you get caught up, am I right, that it's just simply, it was time to cut payroll and you were caught up in that exercise? Like why do they say goodbye to Amber P? People ask me this all the time and I know that there's a misconception. It's a big misconception, by the way. I did not make a lot of money. I did not make a lot of money.

Show me your T4 from the following years. I need to see these. Let's just say, for example, when I started, I started on that handshake at 36,000 in 2001. And I think maybe cost of living from that point on, if you want to figure it out.

So that's not, you know what? No joke. See this? I'm just showing it to you. Do you see that? I don't know if you can see that. A little bit, kind of.

Peter Gross is calling. Can I take it real quick? Sure, go ahead. Okay, hold on. Hi, Peter. Hold on. Peter, what's going on? I'm talking to Amber Paye.

Say hi to Amber for me. We were actually, we were talking about you, and she has nothing but fond memories of you. Huh. Isn't that lovely? Yeah, I know. Yes. You're live on the air, so show some enthusiasm, Peter.

That's why we never went out. Amber, why did you never go out with Peter Gross? I believe he was married or he was with somebody at the time, and I think I was too. How about that? You were never single at the same time, Peter. Isn't she about the same size as me? I think I'm too. How about that? You were never single at the same time, Peter. Isn't she about the same size as me? I think I'm taller.

She's taller than you. Everyone's taller than me. She's not taller than 5'4". Amber, how tall are you? 5'3". 5'3". So, 5'3". So, 5-3. So, Peter, do you want me to call you later,

or is there something you can say that's fit for public consumption, or do you want just me to call you later? Well, you know, we had such a great experience when I was on your podcast a couple months ago with regards to that audition. Yeah. And I've got another one, another Zoom audition. Do you have an availability at 3.55 on Wednesday to help me out?

Oh my goodness, Peter. Okay, let me tell you very quickly here. What day, Wednesday? Wednesday, 3.55. You know, that's my wedding anniversary Wednesday, but I am available at that time. Okay, call me later, okay? Go on.

Okay, so just even send me a text or a note to remind me, and then you can come down here, and we can get you another gig. That would be great. Get me one, too. Carry on with Amber. Okay, peace and love to you, Peter, and talk to you later. And find out if she's single now. I know she's married to a guy, and they're living in, like, Arizona,

so it's a long way for you. You're welcome anytime, Peter. All right. Peace and love, Peter Gross. Bye, Peter. So there you go. You never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to happen.

Because that's because he knows, first of all, he struggles with technology. So the fact he was here to do that Zoom to get him the gig, that was like good because he was never going to get that Zoom to work on his own. So he now, whenever he has an audition with Zoom, he wants to do it here. So you know what, maybe you're a calming factor for him and he trusts you and I think that's good. It's because I know what buttons to press. That's all, it's really all this is. It's like, oh, I'm going to come over to your house soon because I don't know the buttons to press either. I always tell Peter, really all this is. It's like, I'm going to come over to your house too, because I don't have any, I don't know the buttons to press either. I always tell Peter, every baby boomer needs a Gen Xer to help them out here. Okay. So Amber,

I'm sorry. Let's get back to you. This is all about you, but really to put a bow on this, I think you were mid sentence or something, but you got caught up in something that happens to many media people. There's these waves I noticed. I've never worked in media, but I've noticed bell and it always upset me when it was right beside the Bell Let's Talk. Not that it would be any easier any other time, I suppose. But there'd be a wave where a lot of people, they'd be reducing payroll, it looked like. These were like budget cuts or something.

And it sounds like one of these waves caught Amber Pay. I got caught in this. I got caught along with Bob Summers, Jeff Howitt, Lance Oh my gosh. Lance Brown. Joe Tilly? Joe Tilly, yep. Joe Tilly was in that. Coming up! Coming up!

Sports! Coming up! He was just on Hebsey in Sports with Hebsey and I like two weeks ago. So I just saw him. I have a Hebsey story. Okay, give me the Hebsey story before we get you out of here. Go. Hebsey, I was doing PR at the CNE one year.

And he had called me and he says, I want to do a whole bunch of stuff at the CNE. I want to do it all. I want to do water skiing. I want to do this. I want to do that. So I spent like a week getting everybody set and ready to go. And I had everybody lined up, lined up, lined up.

And then he ghosted me. Oh, my God. I know. Okay, I'm going to ask him about this. I'm going to be with him Friday morning. I'm going to ask him. I actually called at the station and they said, oh, he's not in today. Wow.

Pardon? Wow. Yeah, he ghosted me. I was, I was, and I said, okay, well, I, yeah. And all the people that I had show up for that day were also quite upset. Oh, no, this is, that's rude, right? I got to talk to my boy about this. Well, you probably wouldn't remember it.

We're talking about 1994. So, and I was doing, I was doing publicity stuff, PR. Well, you know, that's the height of Hebzymania, so he probably... I got caught. I was just like, I got something better going on. It's okay. I'm over it. Okay. Well, I'm sorry that you lose

the gig in 2017 with Bell because you've been there since 94 and that sucks. And it's, I mean, you'll tell me, but at some point you do get another opportunity in GTA Media because you do end up at the region. I ended up at the region and at the same time, CBC. So I was not. I would hear you on like Metro Morning and stuff, right?

Sometimes. Yeah, but mostly it was the afternoon. Right. Here and now with Jill Deacon. She's an FOTM too. Is she? I mean, I didn't get to know Jill very well, and I'll explain why. But after I was, it took a long time for my case to be settled with Bell.

So many, some people just take a month or whatever. Mine was a lot longer than that. Back and forth, back and forth. So I was off for a long time. I didn't know when I was able to go back. So I think it was May. So I was like, oh, November the 20th, 2017. It was, I was 46. It was right before my 47th birthday. My father was on life support in the hospital. And I had just bought my first home the day before. Oh my God. So I had all of this junk on, and I, and of course you walk in and whatever.

So from that point I couldn't work. I wasn't allowed to work, look for work while you're in the whole lawyer process. And I didn't, I just kind of tried to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. So then when I was finally able to work, somebody came forward and wanted me to do voiceover work for animation. And this is somebody who I also went to high school with. His name was Jason

Groh. He happened to be an animator and a director of cartoons. Go away, unicorn. Yes, go away, unicorn. I always do my homework, Amber. Yeah, thank you for that. And I kind of started to do stuff like that and go on auditions. And then in the meanwhile, I had been contacted by the amazing Tina Cortez, who I credit for saving my soul. She saved my life. And she's been so instrumental in so many other people as well. But she wanted me to fill in for the amazing Rosie Ferguson. Do you know my connection to Rosie by any chance?

I don't, but I've heard you speak about Rosie. My best friend since grade 10, the only human other than myself to be at both my weddings and the original co-host of this very podcast for the first 30 episodes. It's Rosie? Yes. That's Rosie? Yes. That's wonderful. Isn't that wild?

I never met Rosie. You know what? It's a small world and it's wild. And Rosie was so sweet. Well, she left Toronto Mic'd to go to the region. Region. Oh, okay. Well, sorry.

No, I mean, no. No, because then I realized I don't need a co-host and I haven't had one since. So it's all good here. You like being solo? I like being with people. Well, I'm with you right now. I get to change the people I'm with. I get to change the people.

If you want to make this more permanent, call me. So, yes, after that, I kind of did both. So I was kind of doing voice work and then, uh, my friend Jennifer Singh, who does a lot of, uh, media coaching and that kind of do amazing, amazing work for women. Uh, she contacted me, she said, CBC is desperate. They need a now they need somebody who can do traffic now that they don't have to train now and I said okay um do you have a contact and nobody contacted me it's kind of around the same time where I heard from Tina and she said our afternoon co-host is going to Italy do you think you could spare us two weeks but the thing

that I found interesting was that when Tina sent me the note through LinkedIn, she actually wrote at the very beginning, I'm not sure if you remember me. And I thought, you got to be kidding me because I years ago, I had sent her I'd asked if I could do a demo to read for CP 24. And she said, Sure, I never heard back. And I figured, okay, not interested, you know, they don't call that they're not interested, you move on. But for whatever reason, she decided she remembered me, I filled in for Rosie, I was with Mike Adam. And it was as if I fell in love with radio all over again. He brought out, brought out laughter in me again, that I had been so lacking just by doing traffic. But I enjoyed working with Mike.

I worked with him for about a week and a half. And then I had Craig Robertson, who was also wonderful and kind and gracious. He ended up training me for when I ended up taking over about a year and a half later. But I did that in CBC at the same time. That's where I met Reshmi Nair, who's coming up on the podcast. Yeah, she's booked, I think, July 4, I think. And she's my sister for life. I love Reshmi.

Wow. And she just, CBC is a different place when you go to CBC. It's not like mainstream radio. I always just felt they were smarter than I was. Well, they want you to think that. That's their little thing. They want to make you elitist. Yeah, almost. And when you walk in and I'm like, hi, because I'm very, hi, and Reshmi is very, hi! It was silent. And I was like, you know. But there were

some lovely people there. And I met the lovely Jill Deacon, I worked with Jill Deacon only, only for a little while, my first day starting there, unfortunately, was the, it was the shooting on the Danforth, so my first day was the day after the shooting on the Danforth, and Jill lives near the Danforth. It was her neighborhood. And I walked into a very understandably upset woman. It just, just sad. And I think she was grieving a little bit. And unfortunately, after that, she had been diagnosed with cancer again, and then she left and I never worked with, I never had the opportunity to work with her again Rashmi Nair came in I have friend for life forever my sister forever I absolutely adore her and all her greatness and um that kind of saved my life and I did the region at the same time

CBC wanted me to stay on about a year later in May of 2019. And but they didn't want me to do any of my voice work. So I said, I'm going to move on. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't have anywhere to go to. I went on unemployment. I started applying for PR jobs, publicity job, whatever, wasn't getting anywhere. And out of the blue tina had called and she said can we talk like okay sure make it great you know at that point i i had known that mike and rosie had had left um i had worked with him i guess in the summer of that year mike and rosie were gone i was brought back in at at Christmas time along with Sarah Bartok for about three days for over Christmas for Jim Lang, who I love.

And then I was brought in after Rob Daniels. So Rob Daniels was before me. And then I took over. Okay. I'm going to play a little clip here. This is, well, here, let me play it here. It is a couple of minutes here, but this is uh well here let me play it here it is a couple of minutes here but this is your uh sounds like this is your final break on the region here we go hit it the big story on 1059 the region you know we're supposed to do the big story uh with the major news event right now and i look over at the the newsroom and our news guy glenn perkins is nowhere to be glenn he's out yeah our top story at this hour uh after an illustrious career uh in broadcasting we're teasing glenn we're teasing i'm here i'm

teasing sorry i'm here i'm doing the news yes after an illustrious broadcasting career in the greater toronto area amber pay is going to be hanging up her microphone in 15 minutes. She's counting it down. I know. You just can't wait. But you know what? In all seriousness, yeah, it is very sad. It can be.

You know what? Over to you, Amber. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much, Kevin. I just wanted to say thanks to everybody. I've had the time of my life here. And thanks to all the staff here at 105.9 The Region. I love you guys.

I love you so much. You gave me my life. And you were so generous and kind to come in and see me, phone me, send texts, send emails, whatever. And I am extremely touched. To Debra, thank you so much. I just got your email. Thank you so much, Debra, for having me in this

wonderful station. You have made such a lovely atmosphere for everybody. And I know we've spoken quite a bit. And I think your biggest hope that this place would not feel corporate, that it would feel like everybody was a family and everybody got along and just to be there to support each other. And that's exactly how I feel here at 105.9 The Region. I just feel loved and supported, respected, and it's a wonderful place to work. It's a wonderful place to learn about the business or if you've already been there like Kevin and I have,

to come back and just have a great time doing something that you absolutely love to do. Tina Cortez, I am not letting you off the hook. I absolutely adore you. You have been my absolute rock throughout this whole process. It's so hard, isn't it? It was hard. You gave me my life back.

You gave me my joy back. And you have allowed me to just be in this company and have the best time. You just let me sing. You let me dance. You let me just have a lot of fun. And that's what's important here in this company and have the best time. You just let me sing, you let me dance, you let me just have a lot of fun. And that's what's important here at this company. I couldn't have asked for a better boss. And what a great way to end my career here in Canada, this wonderful station. Oh God, she's here behind me. I don't remember you said hi and bye. And I said no tears. No, I'm not crying though. No, no, no, no. She told me, make sure she cries. It's good ratings.

They were just pooling up, but they didn't fall. But thank you, Tina. I really appreciate it. And she's here. No thanks required. You have to talk into the mic. I know I have to talk into the mic, but I don't know if I should take off my mask. The mask.

For goodness sake. Okay, Kevin, get out of the way so Tina can come in and say her piece. And I just wanted to say, you know, you saved us as well. You brought in this energy and this feeling of just fitting in immediately. And as you said, we try to create an atmosphere here. And it is true. It's genuine that we want people to feel comfortable, to be great at what they do, but also to be really comfortable. Very comfortable.

And you did that right out of the gate. I love it here. And I love you. We love you too. I love you and I love it here and I don't want to leave, but I have to go because I have people to see and places to be. And we're getting the wrap up. Guys, I just want to remind you I'm a diabetic and all this sugar here. But Amber, you know what? You're not

gone yet. We still have just a few more words of saying goodbye. That's still to come. 105.9 The Region, 5.48, 12 minutes before 6 o'clock. There you go, Amber. Brings me my tears back. And also I speak really quickly,

don't I? Yeah, The Region was pretty special um look I'm crying all over again it it was it really truly did save my soul uh when I finally landed somewhere that um just allowed me to to be myself and I was okay with being myself. Tina Cortez is a fantastic mastermind behind bringing in people and enjoying radio for what it should be and let's play and let's have fun, but let's be, you know, let's be serious at times and let's give information. It's a great station. I wish more people in York region listened to it. I love Jim Lang. Jim Lang in the morning,

I call him my York region hero. He was just, I've said this a couple of times, whenever you start somewhere new, I'm always afraid that I'm not going to be liked or somebody's not going to, whatever this is. And I couldn't have been more welcomed. Jim Lang was just a rock for me. And they were all rock.

They got me through COVID. You know, I was lucky that I could go in somewhere every day and be with people that I really liked to be with. I want to thank FOTM, Lucas Iannetta. He pulled that clip and made sure.

Did he? Yeah, he did that. Is he there now? I haven't checked, but he's going to definitely be listening to the podcast for sure. So Amber, how was this? I know I can hear in your voice, you miss it a little bit. And I just want you to know that Chum FM needs a new DJ because Ruby Carr is going on maternity leave, or I suppose we're supposed to call that parental leave now

and you could apply and get that Chum FM DJ gig if you wanted no no and how did this go I know we couple of quick hits one is was Bell Media fair to you

at the end of the day when it came to Severance? Finally. Okay, so finally. It took some efforts, but okay, good. That's good. And we never really did talk too much, but we talked about Rick leaving Roger and Marilyn,

and then Darren B. Lamb comes in, and then he goes to CHFI. But Roger Ashby and Marilyn Dennis, what was it like succinctly? What was it like working with those legends on Chum FM? Amazing. Amazing. I couldn't be more blessed. And Larry McGinnis, Skagman, and Tom Jokic in that studio as well. That whole group.

Awesome. Love them. Tom Jokic, also an FOTM, by the way. Yes, he is. I heard him too. And my last question before I give you the full goodbye. Yes, he is. I heard him too. And my last question before I give you the full goodbye,

will there be another chum chick gathering this Christmas now that COVID is subsiding somewhat? Will there be a chum chick gathering? I'm hoping so. I'm hoping the girls get together. Sue Mills, Mae Potts, Sheila Walsh, Kim Geddes. I hope they all get together. Maybe I can join again. I did last year like this, Zoom. Oh, and Mae's daughter, Lauren, is in there. And we've got two chum guys there last time.

Mike Wiseman, Wise Aska Collin, and Dan Blakely who's awesome. Amazing. Amber, was this good for you? Did you enjoy yourself? I loved it. I loved it. Thank you so much, Mike. I wish I'd come on earlier, but now I'm all yours. Loved it. Just you so much, Mike. I wish I'd come on earlier, but now I'm all yours.

Loved it. Just wish you nothing but the absolute best in Arizona there with your hubby. And enjoy it because you deserve it. You worked very hard and it wasn't always easy, but just enjoy. Thank you so much. This has been a pleasure, a real pleasure. Thank you. Just enjoy.

Thank you so much. This has been a pleasure, a real pleasure. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 1064th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Amber, what's your Twitter handle again? At Amber Pay.

Look, there's my tattooed on my camera. Okay, and put an IE at the end of that, Amber Pay. There's an IE at the end of that. Yes. At Amber Pay. It used to be Amber Traffic, but I don't do that anymore. No, now you have to take another drink. Woo! Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Dewar Performance. Ridley Funeral Home are at RidleyFH. And Canna Cabana, they're at CannaCabana underscore. See you all tomorrow night when Stu Stone and Cam Gordon drop by for another edition of Toast.