Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ashley Docking: Toronto Mike'd #418

Episode Date: January 7, 2019

Mike chats with Fan 590 host Ashley Docking about her hall of fame collegiate career, her work on television and radio, the Gruber incident and diversity in Canadian sports media.

Welcome to episode 418 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Paytm Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, and our newest sponsor buckle i'm mike from toronto mike.com and joining me is fan 590 host ashley docking welcome ashley hey what's up nice to finally meet you i hear your voice all the time i uh you must when people meet you do they have a sense of familiarity with you that isn't reciprocated? Because you're meeting them for the first time, but they've been listening to you and they think you're friends. Do you ever encounter that? I feel like I'm not even close to being a big enough deal for that to happen.

I don't order at a restaurant and someone's like, have we met before? That doesn't really happen to me. It'll come though. And I mean, we'll get into this later in the episode, but you do a lot of fill in when people are on vacations, like you're on. So you had like prime time, you were on a lot during the last couple of weeks, I'd say. Yes. Jeff Blair was super busy as he should be. He's amazing. He was in Las Vegas for the winter meetings for major league baseball. Then he took a family vacay over Christmas's amazing he was in las vegas for the winter meetings for major league baseball then he took a family vacay over christmas and then he was covering in for bob on pts so during those weeks i was taking over his uh 9 to 12 slot with uh george rusick and also sherry ford

are you like is there a pecking order of fill-in like a a hierarchy, and you're near the top of this ladder? Have you seen this list? I don't know if there's a list. I've been there the least amount of time, so I would imagine it would be at the bottom of the totem pole if we're going to say. I don't think it works that way, though. Dark Eye has a show.

I don't know if you've heard that yet. I don't know where he would have a show. I don't listen to any other station except for SportsF590, The Fan. Yeah, I don't know. I don't really worry about things like that. I kind of just look at the schedule, control F my name, find out when I'm on and then keep it moving. That's probably a good way. Speaking of your name, I'm going to play an awful song, a terrible song. Tell me if you know this song. Do you know this song? No.

I have no idea. Is this a theme song for a cartoon? Super Smash Brothers. This is Ashley's song. Oh my God. Ashley is a character on Super Smash Brothers. Yeah, I wondered if you had encountered this. No, but it's now going to be my theme song for everything,

and I'm going to demand people play it for me if I do an appearance. When you get your permanent spot on the Fan 590 roster, this could be your opening theme song. It probably won't be, but it might be a drop. It's pretty awful, to be honest. But if you edit it down and take it in small doses, it has a really Halloween-y vibe, to be honest.

Let me hear. vibe to be honest. How do I hear? Oh my god. Mike, please stop. Everybody's already shut it down. Yeah, no one's even listening anymore. Ashley Song. It's cold outside, but

you're okay with cold. Are you okay with cold? How's your cold tolerance? It's okay. I, recent, my limits were recently tested when I accidentally agreed to go winter camping in Banff. And I say accidentally because I was there for a football tournament and the idea was floated that we extend our stay and go to Banff because we were in Edmonton initially.

I was like, oh, that sounds great. Banff, hot springs, spas, maybe a hike no longer than five kilometers, maybe eight dinners. Great. I'm in, booked my ticket, extended the stay. And then I get a text message from a girl on my team and she's like, okay, here's a list of things we need. And I'm going through the list, sleeping bag, bag um air mattress axe knife with a blade longer than six inches so if you encounter a bear it will pierce the bear's heart i was just like wait i need someone to clarify what's happening here but you slept outside i sure did wow it was not

good but like okay well i don't know i've never I don't like to camp when it's like colder than like 20 degrees outside. Yeah, I don't like to camp longer than a day ever. So how many nights were you outside in Banff? Two nights. Okay. Outside two nights. In the bush, like in the actual wilderness, one night where we hiked 21 kilometers with all the stuff we needed on our backs and just had to forage for our own wood and

it was snowing and it was so cold i was gonna ask what tempo were we talking about there how cold was it in the evening like overnight it probably got closest to minus 15 maybe minus 10 so do you have a like i guess you have to have a special sleeping bag i guess i had a sleeping bag i had a mat for the floor i had a blanket blanket. I had multiple pairs of pants, three jackets, a balaclava, two hot paws, and I was still freezing. And I had some drinks.

So to still be cold after all of that is a testament to how freezing. That's a bad idea because then you're going to have to go to the washroom at some point, which means leaving the cocoon. Like you basically, you're cocooning yourself

and you don't want to ever leave. The whole thing was horrible. So my cold tolerance to answer your initial question is actually quite good after that. But I try to avoid it now because I have PTSD. I can imagine. No, honestly, that would do it too. And then when you hear it's like, I don't know what's today. I don't know, minus nine or something for windchill. You're like, oh, that sounds balmy and warm, like compared to what you survived. So, okay. or something for wind chill, you're like, oh, that sounds balmy and warm compared to what you survived. So, okay. Well, I find it, I mean, I like to bike and I was biking all weekend and thinking, oh my God, if Toronto winters were like this, that'd be amazing because you could do 30K, you're not too cold, it feels great. But then today I was walking my kids to daycare and I'm

like, no, this sucks. There's a wind chill. I don't like this. Well, also 30K of anything sucks. So good for you for embarking on that journey. Well, no. Biking is easy. It's the running 30K that's a pain in the butt. I should tell everyone listening that you actually were booked for the sports. What did we call that?

Diversity in Canadian sports media episode. You were booked for that. You took. So Kayla Gray was booked for that and Kayla, uh, couldn't get childcare and she dropped out and then you took her spot and I'm like, Oh, that's great. Ashley Dawkins. And, and then you, you dropped out, but you had a good reason, right? You, uh, you had a, you had to be on the radio. Right. And that really happened because I was busy recording. I didn't tune in 590. I had to to confirm did ashley just say oh my god i can't believe you fact-checked me as i didn't lie about something so public everyone knows if you lie you lie about something that people cannot confirm that's right i have a doctor's appointment or something yeah like it's no one else's business

i would never lie about being on air and then i'm not on air it's just too easy to fact check so we missed you on that episode i would love to loved to have you on that, but I'm glad you're here now. Sophia, and I'm going to say it real quick, Jurstikovic, she took your spot. But like I said, I'm truly pleased that you're here today. So it's great to finally meet you. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you to Greg Siskonen. Greg is a longtime listener

of Toronto Mic'd and over the break, he gave me a holiday surprise by pledging some money. So he didn't want to become a patron on patreon.com, patreon.com slash Toronto Mic, but he wanted to send over

some money to help with the expenses and to help keep this real talk going. So thank you, Greg. That was amazing. Very, very, very generous. Ashley, I saw your car in the driveway, so I know the answer, but I was going to ask if you drive, but you clearly drive and you own a car. Yes, to both. And I don't know how old your car is, but the car you parked behind is a 1999 car that's rusting out.

So I'm always like looking to get my car serviced. But do you have an old car? Is this a new car? It's a 2009. So it's not too old. Coming up on Lucy's 10 year anniversary though. Lucy. Yeah.

You named your car. I sure did. And you owned it. Are you the first owner of this car? Did you buy it new? Yeah, I bought it new. So I have no one's owned it before Are you the first owner of this car? Did you buy it new? Yeah, I bought it new. So I have, no one's owned it before. It's actually kind of a crazy story.

So the initial car that I got was same car, but black. And there was, I don't know if you remember a while ago, it was over a summer, probably 2000 and maybe 2010. There was a bunch of arson going around, definitely in the East end of the city. People, there was like fires around houses and people were just like going crazy. They were just lighting things on fire.

So one night, I'm not even joking. You can't make this stuff up. I was at my parents' home where I was living. And, um, all of a sudden I just like kind of awake from my sleep and I walk out onto the landing of our second floor and it's just kind of orange, like it's glowing.

So I go and I look out the window and a car in our driveway is on fire, up in flames. It wasn't my car. It was the car my brother was driving at the time. But it was just engulfed and it was there were sparks. It was electrical fire. It was the whole thing was up in flames. My car was parked beside it, the black version of Lucy. And tried to get it out of the the driveway tried to back it up but um the windows had smashed from the heat my car was filled with smoke my dad's like please just

like leave it let's go the paint's all bubbled it turned out that a ttc driver who had been off work late was driving past our house he saw the fire called the police so by the time we had someone had already been dispatched but long story short they don't know who it was they never figured it out it was a molotov cocktail which is hyper aggressive and i got a new car out of it because my car had been just under a year old so the lease said that i got the or the insurance said that i got this makes you a suspect actually that's fine I'm absolutely fine with that it wouldn't be the first time I've been suspected of something you know not necessarily arson but um but yeah so I got the full value of the car back as opposed to like the red book value and then uh Lucy and that's 10 years almost I guess yeah you're going

on your 10th year and okay so when you do this is this is fantastic this is I'm going to tell you about something and these guys are the newest sponsor of Toronto Mic'd, and I'm really pleased to have them on board. They're called Buckle. Buckle is spelled B-U-K-L, Buckle. And they're helping to fuel this real talk, and here's how it works. So if your car needs any work done,

so my car's always needing work done, your car will need some work done. It's 10 years old now. You go to buckle.co. Again, that's B-U-K-L.co. B-U-K-L.co. I have links on torontomic.com. You enter like what's your car and like your make and model and year and then what service do you need? And then you get these instant quotes from like car repair shops in your area because it knows where you are geographically. And then you can basically say,

oh, there's a good deal, like, I don't know, a kilometer away. You can book that appointment right away and then you just bring in your car, it gets serviced and then you drive away, like no payment or anything because it's all automatically charged. It's like a seamless, convenient way

to get car repairs done. So to very quickly find out, you know, what they're charging in your neighborhood. Like to me, this is fantastic. Maybe it's because I have a 20-year-old car. But buckle.co newest sponsors. Glad to have them on board. So we'll be talking about them over the

coming weeks. But now you know, Ashley, if your car has any troubles, you know where to go. Buckle. Not a fire with a Molotov cocktail, though. i don't know if they could help with that did the cops ask you if you had any uh enemies yeah that was the first question they asked do you have any enemies do you have any people you know that would kind of be out to get you and it was funny because like a week before i had just broken up with my long-term

boyfriend and so i was like well like i broke up with and they're like oh really uh what's his name like got out the pen and paper suspect i was just like no i'm like there's no way no disrespect he could not pull off something like that i just don't think he has it do you know if they talk to him no i don't think so asked him for an alibi this isn't csi that's what i learned really okay because i was like are you gonna dust it for fingerprints what's happening are you collecting evidence in small bags i think it's different though it's one like, oh, some vandals at night are slashing your tires or stuff, but you're in a whole different category. Like this is a Molotov cocktail. To me now it's, that's dangerous. Like lives could be endangered. It could spread to the house. There's gas at a gas

tank. Like I'm thinking when the fire hits that it could have an explosion. It was crazy. And actually we were kind of lucky. We were doing some renovations and like landscaping. So there was like a big pile of sod in the driveway that kept the cars at least 15 feet away from the house. So it probably would have been much worse had that not been there because we would have pulled right up to the garage. And now you're really my suspect number one

because you knew that was the case. And look what you did there. It's a cold case now. They're not going to open this back up. It's over. What is the statute of limitation of Molotov cocktails? It sounds like you're a political enemy of Molotov cocktails? It sounds like you're like a political enemy. Molotov cocktails,

to me, is like, we're talking assassination. That's kind of interesting. It was wild. All right.

So I'm glad you're no worse for the wear and In fact, you benefited. They always say, who benefited from this crime?

Ashley Dawkins benefited from this crime. I'm glad your ex-boyfriend wasn't harassed by the coppers maybe it could have been fun man i once had a like a for a period of time my car was getting slashed the tires were getting slashed and i called the cops and i because it was over and

over again i kept buying new tires it was draining my bank account like it was like a horrific nightmare yeah it's a nightmare and they were that's they i had i had the questions too like who your enemy is and i was this is a while ago now i i know i got a long list now but i didn't have i had a very short list but i still remember those questions turned out it was uh like a local grade eights bad group of grade eights in a local school at lunchtime we're going and doing this uh really yeah so it was just a random like, but it was. It's aggressive. So maybe they were also setting fire to cars in your neighborhood. I don't know. Here's a question that was sent in from Milan.

Milan actually works. He owns a fast time watch and jewelry repair. So I'll let him ask the question. It's a three part question. So I need you to like focus. Okay. Milan making things difficult off the job. I'm going to say take notes because

I might have to play this three times to catch them all. So focus on this three-part Milan question. Hey Toronto Mike. Hello Ashley. You've become one of the true promising young talents on The Fan. I've really enjoyed your on-air chemistry with George Rosick and see the

two of you as future morning show hosts one day on The Fan. A couple of quick questions. One, as a former star athlete and a multiple-time athlete of the year, what is your one-rep max bench press, and could you beat Faisal Khamisa in an arm wrestling contest? Two, do you believe the WNBA would ever work in Toronto? And three, as a former reporter at the fight network did you ever work with john pollock and wei ting big fans of theirs keep up the great work and thanks ashley and toronto mike okay so first of all i need to know if george paid him

to say that we should be the future morning show. Yeah, that was, you should start with that. Okay. And this will come later. That's just absolutely wild. Like should Greg Brady be concerned? I guess. Should you watch his back? Any Molotov cocktails going to AJ?

No, no. Those guys are so amazing. Um, every single time I get a chance to work with anyone who's been on the radio at the fan for a long time, there's always kind of something new to learn and it's very exciting. that's really nice of you to say but it's again i i'm suspicious i'm suspicious that george didn't pay you to say that um but uh as for one rep max

bench press i don't do that i'm not like a power weight lifter so i don't know would be my answer i feel better now because i'm also not a power weight yeah like i don't i'm not like a power weightlifter. So I don't know would be my answer. I feel better now because I'm also not a power weight. Yeah. Like I don't, I'm not like training for anything specific. I'm not going to be in some kind of fitness competition. So the answer is, I don't know if I could beat Faisal in an arm wrestling match though.

Absolutely. 110% for sure. No problem. But he blamed like he's got a fake hip. I think it's a hip. He's got a body part that's been replaced. Yeah. So he would blame that.

But I don't think that has anything to do with that. I feel like it does. No, no, I don't think so. Yeah. Faisal is one of my really good friends. So I think that if he honestly,

if he was giving his honest opinion about it, I think that he would say that I would win as well. what else? Okay, WNBA. Yeah, that's kind of cool. Like there was talks about that for a long time now, since probably about 2016. I think it's something that kind of had serious legs. And yeah, I think it could work here. The 905 has been kind of a revelation here in Mississauga. I believe that they're pretty popular and they get some really good talent and it's an opportunity to see some of the young promising players

on the Toronto Raptors without paying a premium price. You get to be closer to the action. There's always activations after the game where you can go meet players, get autographs, things like that. So I think it's really cool for young fans to kind of be introduced to the Raptors organization that way. And I think it's really cool for young fans to kind of be introduced to the Raptors organization that way. And I believe the WNBA would have a similar effect. And obviously the women that would come here would be probably in some cases more recognizable than

some of the players on 905. And I think that there is absolutely a market for it because the appetite in this city for basketball is absolutely through the roof. And the Toronto Raptors success has kind of brought that out in people, but I don't see a way that it wouldn't be something that could be sustained here. And you bring up a good point, bring it up the 905 Raptors 905, because perhaps like a WNBA team out of like the Hershey center, as opposed to the Scotiabank arena.

Like, and I think if you could, I don't know if you could get a marquee player, like I thinking like a kia nurse or something like that like uh well and we know that mlse loves the canadian players they do it on 905 all the time um but they had like simbular they had bennett that was there for a minute wiggins's brother was there for a while so they always seem to get some canadian content um i don't know how an expansion draft would work i don't know if it's one of the WNBA teams that isn't working in their current city would move here.

There are a ton of logistics, but in the grand scheme of things, yes, I do believe it's something that could find success in Toronto. And then the last part was. Okay. So he's a big, I should point out,

cause I just chatted with him on the phone Friday and those gentlemen, it's going to sound terrible. I can't remember the names he dropped there. Do you remember the names? Yeah, it's Pollock and Ting. Okay. So they, Friday. And those gentlemen, this is going to sound terrible, I can't remember the names he dropped there. Do you remember the names? Yeah, it's Pollock and Ting. Okay, so are they wrestling? No, they work. John and Wei worked for

the Fight Network. I believe they don't work there anymore. And just to clarify, I was not a reporter for the Fight Network. I did some in-studio hosting and stuff for them. But yeah, I did work with them and they're so amazing. They're really, really nice. They know what they're talking about.

They know their shit. Super talented. And yeah, I haven't seen them in a while, but I hope that they're doing well. I'm sure that whatever they're embarking on, they're thriving, honestly. Okay, so I'm buddies with Jason Agnew and he was hosting live audio wrestling

and then the Fight Network thing that went down. Now he's not because I guess, I don't know, that went away or something due to some Fight Network thing. I don't know. But are these two gentlemen wrestling like WWE? Like are we talking about like fake wrestling stuff? I think they do everything. I think they're well-versed in every level of fight.

Like I'm pretty sure they could talk about WWE. I'm pretty sure they could talk about UFC. I'm pretty sure they could talk about UFC. I think they could do boxing as well. They're just, um, the people that work there were just wonderful. And their depth of knowledge was crazy. Like you see Robin Black on TSM now,

and he was one of the fight network, like stalwarts when I was there. So everyone just crazy talented. Cool. Okay, cool. Uh, who is it who just,

Mean Gene Okerlund just passed away i just uh throwing that out there so we're talking wrestling i grew up as again i'm a lot a lot older than you mean gene was a big deal to us guys in the 80s it was a huge deal i used to watch wrestling with my babysitter a lot she was a huge fan and she used to put in vhs tapes all the time so it was like sean michaels the undertaker mcfoley gold dust um back like in their heyday when things were wild when it was like barbed wire cages and people like jumping from 30 feet up in the air and hitting a table and not caring about it well get this all those names you named are after my time with the ww they're all post yeah so you're like more of a jake the snake kind of guy actually

i didn't see that yeah and Yeah, Andre the Giant mug. Yes, so it's all legit. I got that in 84, believe it or not. He alluded, Milan alluded to your career as an athlete. So we have to go dive into this because before we even talk sports media stuff, I guess people know this, but I'm not sure if everyone listening knows this, but you're like, you're a big deal

in collegiate sports in this country. Am I right? I don't know. You're in a hall of fame, right? Yeah. Two actually. Which ones?

Which ones? I'm in like my school's hall of fame. And then I'm in the Ontario collegiate. Oh, CAA. Yeah. But that's a big deal. Yeah.

It was amazing. I was so excited. That was a huge honor. Okay. How the heck did you get, tell us, pretend we don't know anything. How did you get into the OCAA Hall of Fame?

Oh my goodness. I don't know. I got lucky. I played on some really good teams with some really good coaching. So humble. Well, I don't know. I was like a late bloomer.

I wasn't someone who was pegged out of school to lead a team. I was a walk-on for both the soccer and basketball program. At Seneca? Yeah, at Seneca College. I wasn't recruited by anyone. I would go to soccer practice at six and then run to basketball tryouts at eight in my soccer gear. Like no one knew who I was. Like, who's this white girl in short shorts? Like, I don't know what she's doing. So in high school, you weren't um so i actually in high school you weren't uh like a standout in high school like i i think i was okay at basketball and soccer but it just

wasn't and i also wasn't actively pursuing that like you weren't trying to get like for example i just today was chatting with uh i'm gonna butcher her last name too because that's what i do i got docking right i couldn't butcher that if i tried okay but caroline uh schwed schwed yeah right she was she got a like a scholarship to play soccer in the states yeah you weren't on any of those radars it sounds like you you you didn't have these up no like i got asked to go i kind of got a letter to go to an AAU type of school when I was in high school, but it just was something that intimidated me. I didn't want to move away from my family. I, I just didn't think that that was a path for me. It's not

something that I had aspired to. I kind of just played sports cause it was fun and that was the start and stop of it. Right. Um, and then, yeah, when when you got to college things kind of opened up for me and I I don't want to say I got lucky but the starting point guard of our basketball team she tore her ACL or something like that and uh they're like okay Ashley like you're in and I was like oh I didn't expect this so I got an opportunity to kind of you know put myself in the position to get some more minutes when she she came back, she became the starter. That was actually the most devastating day of my life because my coach never even told me Marcy, thanks a lot. Like I was just used to starting and she was coming back and I was the starter and we had

won all our games. And then all of a sudden like, Oh, Quinn starting. I'm like, Oh, all right. Good luck Quinn. Um, but yeah, I don't right. Good luck, Quinn. But yeah, I don't know. It just kind of worked out well. And I was never someone that had an exceptional amount of talent. Like I'm not good at drills. I'm not on Instagram showing off my handles, shooting a hundred free throws in a row. It was just kind of, I guess, my attitude that propelled me.

So yeah. You're all heart like wendell clark you're all heart yeah pretty much just just determination and and things like that okay so i did i mean i had to you know you know i know my i know my oc double a uh stuff so i i knew this off the top of my head but i also did a little research just to confirm some things yeah so uh you were of course you mentioned a dual sport student athletes yeah So you had the basketball and the soccer. And a little note here is that you excelled in both. You excelled in both because you were a member of back-to-back OCAA champion women's basketball teams.

That's like 05, 06 and 06, 07. You were named a women's basketball championship all-star in 07, 08. And as a Seneca was awarded the silver silver was that does that sad to win a silver did it feel like you were the first loser or was it okay i it's the only time i've ever cried in sports that loss was the only time i've ever cried in sports because we went three years without losing a single game and then we get to the finals and then to experience like the other side of it when you're used to only positive results and elation and overcoming adversity, that was really, really difficult to me.

Who beat you? Sheridan. Wow. I mean, I wish I, yeah, that was a big upset because yeah, like you said, three years, you were back-to-back champions and you were undefeated and then to lose. Yeah, that's tough. Well, it was, you know what, in the grand scheme of things, they did a really good job when they went to nationals.

I believe they became the first team in Ontario to medal, maybe ever, if not ever in like 20, 25 years. So they did a lot for the province of Ontario because the way Nationals works is that every province gets a representative and then there's one wild card. It doesn't seem fair, though, because half the country lives in Ontario. It feels like we should have more representation. Well, then it'd be better, but we weren't good. We'd get killed. It's not to be fair. They did well there, and then they kind of opened the door

for us to get the wild card the next year. They won again. They went back-to-back, but we got to go to nationals as well. Okay, cool. Now that's just basketball, but now let's talk a little bit about soccer here. In your final season here, OCAA season, you, uh, scored 18 goals in 11 matches. I know that's good because it's like more than one per match. And you won, that was the OCAA bronze medal that you

guys won. You were also, by the way, I should tell everybody you were a league all-star, uh, OCAA player of the league and, uh, sorry, of the Year, and CCAA. What is that again? Canadian College. So like the whole country. And you were an all-Canadian. Yeah, CCAA All-Canadian. And let me just see.

There's a little more. I know your head's getting a little bigger. That's okay. I'm so embarrassed. Ashley was named a First Team All-Star, East Defensive Player of the Year, Championship All-Star, and CCAA Championship Second Team All-Star. And to cap the season off, you were named OCAA Female... Whoa, I got to slow down for this.

OCAA Female Athlete of the Year. Okay, I think that's... Like, have you been talking to my mom? This is so embarrassing. Your mom says hi, by the way. Hi, Sandy. Hi. Yeah. I mean, that's good. That's says hi, by the way. Hi, Jandy. Hi. Yeah. I mean, that's good.

That's worthy of a Hall of Fame. And it's just, I think people hear you on the radio and think maybe you're just a broadcast, like person who just wanted to go into broadcasting. Right. Whereas you actually have this amazing pedigree, like this huge success in Canadian college athletics. I just need to tell the people this. No, I appreciate it.

It kind of, it's not something that I'm really boastful about, but it is, I think, one of the reasons that gives me a different perspective than other journalists. And I'm not saying that I played at the WNBA level or, you know, I wasn't on the Team Canada soccer radar, anything like that, or the World Program. But like, it's, yeah, it's just a different kind of perspective. I don't know. And when you do speak about basketball on the radio, sports radio, you're talking about basketball. It does give your analysis more weight, I want to say, because you're not just

a fan on TV. Although there's a lot of people who are just fans. I don't think Eric Smith was an OCOFS. These initials are all confusing me. I used to call it CIAU, but I guess they changed it to CCW. I don't know anymore. But bottom line is you played the game. You were good at the game. And that helps explain why you know the game so well.

Thank you. The end. By the way, who would win? Somebody asked me this on Twitter. I didn't even take a note of who, but somebody wants to know who's better at soccer. It might have been

that guy named Steven. Who's better at soccer? You or Caroline Shvev? Probably Caroline, but if I'm not mistaken, she has knee issues, so I might be able to take advantage of that.

Oh, yeah. Somebody, she was doing this thing of Norm Powell and he mentioned her scar. She's got, yeah. I don't know Caroline. I've met her once or twice just around Sportsnet,

but maybe that would be my advantage is that maybe her lateral movement isn't as good as it once was. Well, then I'm going to root for you. I'm going to, because I've never met her, so I've met you. She's really nice. You're my favorite.

Although she's coming on, I'll tell people in February she's going to come on the show. Oh, great. I can't wait for you to play that clip for her. For sure. Let me play another clip for you right now. This is Brian Gerstein. He's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. He's got not three questions like Milan.

Oh my gosh, Ken. You need to talk to these guys because the cardinal rule, the cardinal sin in broadcasting is you don't ask double barrel questions. Ask one, get your answer. Ask another one because things get lost in translation. Three, oh my goodness. I'll have a long, stern discussion of Milan. But there's only one question from Brian. So this will be easy. Propertyinthe6.com Hi, Ashley. Brian Gerstein here.

Sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Night. Call or text me at 416-873-0292 if you're looking at getting your home on the market. My marketing includes a pre-sale home inspection, professional floor plan, photography, virtual tour, and lots of print and online advertising. All designed to get you the most for your home.

Ashley, you are always on point and make sports radio fun, which it's supposed to be. Back in June 2016, you said that there's no such thing as an overnight success, just all-nighters and a lot of hard work if you want to be successful in this business. Now that you've progressed where you are a well-known name and can cover multiple sports with ease, is there one sport that appeals to you above the others? My guess is hoops, but I may be wrong. Yeah, basketball, for sure. I played it, obviously. I really, really love it.

I just feel like I understand the game more than other sports. and also football as well i've been around football for a really long time i play football now currently um and my mom actually played football for 20 years so i was like always around the game she played a touch football version i was gonna say like flag football she played touch for 20 years and there was like a huge women's group that were doing it like they were going to mexico to play international tournaments they were going to Vegas for like tournaments with like tons of tons of teams um so I play that now and it just it's once once you've kind of been in the mix although it's obviously much different than the NFL even the CFL there's just things that you understand nuances about the game that you can kind of relate to a little bit more now Brian's handle on Twitter is Raptors Devotee. So he's a massive basketball fan.

So thank you for giving him the answer he was looking for. By the way, I went by this too quickly. Milan, who is from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. I wanted to say that Fast Time Jewelry Repair has been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years. They were the watch repair shop inside the Sears, the Sears Canada locations.

Sears has left the country. You probably noticed they're gone, but Fast Time is starting to open up new locations in the GTA. They have a brand new location in Richmond Hill. So if you go to fasttimewatchrepair.com to learn the location near you and you mentioned that you heard about them you heard

about fast time on toronto mic you'll get 15 off the regular priced uh battery uh watch battery installation that's an amazing dual uh deal and an amazing dual too it's an amazing deal and uh thank you milan for the question but next time one one question, not three questions. Come on. Where's your broadcasting credit? Be a professional. Absolutely. Be a professional. Now, Ashley, can we go way back here? Like I want to talk about how the sports, you come out of college, you get all these accolades and everything. Now, is it Edmonton where it begins for you?

No, I didn't even, first of all, sports broadcasting is not on my radar. That is not an aspiration of mine. I know a lot of people, their story goes ever since I was a little girl, I used to sit on my dad's lap and watch the football game and watch the Leafs play. And I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster. And, you know, I always wanted to emulate myself after amazing people like Ron McLean or something like that. For me, it's just not the reality of it. I had no idea what I wanted to be. I kind of wanted to be a lawyer or a psychologist or a fashion designer. That runs the gamut. Those are my three focuses. You could combine them.

So when I was in school, I took marketing, I took fashion business, and then I graduated and I actually went to work at Rogers. But on the communication side, I was dealing with cell phones and like third party realtors, super boring stuff. Um, but that was kind of it. It was horrible and I hope my former boss isn't listening, but I was watching like nine TV shows a week. I had like a rotation. My work schedule only got busy at the beginning of each quarter. Otherwise it was just program maintenance. I didn't have aspirations to be better, to excel, to advance. I just wasn't invested. So a friend of mine, Chantel Blay, who currently works at MLSC, she was in a program for sports media. And I was complaining to her one day because I was just like, I'm not happy and I don't want to be the person. And I honestly

say this all the time, but there's no one worse in the world than the person who you ask how their day was. And they're like, oh, my gosh, my boss is this. Sheila from accounting is this. Like Nigel from resources is that. And all they do is complain. Like those people are the worst. There's so many of those people. But they're the worst kind of people.

And if that's who you are, that's like not conducive to a happy life. Quite frankly, you spend a ton of time at work. And if it makes you miserable, at least for me. And again, there's different elements to it. I didn't have kids. I didn't have a mortgage. So that wasn't a factor for me. I do understand that plays in for some people. But because of all that, Chantal was like, I think you'll really enjoy this program that I'm in. I went for a tour of the school. I went to the College of Sports Media. I decided I wanted to go. I deferred for a year to just kind of save some money, get my head of the school. I went to the College of Sports Media. I decided I wanted to go. I deferred for a year to just kind of save some money,

get my head around the fact that I was going to go back to school again. And then that's kind of when broadcasting started. So that wasn't until 2012 I went to school. So you went to the College of Sports Media. Yep. So shout out to two-time guest, the fantastic Jim Van Horn. Oh, I love Jim. So Jim, you know he was

a rock jock. Yeah. This guy has the best career because he's doing the rock jock and then he's the sports media guy. And now he bikes. He's a big biker. I think he does AMI now too, which he's like voice over work. Yes, he does. And obviously he has a great voice. He went to Korea. Yeah. Absolutely.

He's got a great voice. And he has a great mustache as well. Yeah. And the whole thing has a great voice, but, and he has a great mustache as well. Yeah. It has, the whole thing has a life of its own. So this is where you met Faisal. Yeah. Faisal was a year ahead of me.

So it's a two year program. So he had already done his first year when I got there. And yeah, I kind of hit the ground running since I knew I was going to be at that school. I volunteered at Rogers for their community television. And I did everything from floor director. I did camera.

I did audio producer, director, like everything behind the scenes as well. Even though I knew my aspirations were to be on camera, I still enjoyed the creative aspect of everything else. And then after I graduated in 2014, that's when things kind of started going. Can I ask, does that Rogers exist anymore? The community station? Like, does that exist anymore? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they closed them all down. And quite frankly, it's super discouraging for people that are just coming up in sports media now, because it was a really, really great opportunity. And you could get a chance to try your hand at everything. And if you made mistakes, it wasn't the biggest deal in the world.

It was such a good learning tool. So it's really, really sad to see it not be an option for younger broadcasters. And there's a long list of famous Canadian sports media people who cut their teeth doing exactly that. And I'll just drop a few names because we've been on. But Mike Wilner, for example, he was there. Ed the Sock. He's not sports media,

but Ed the Sock, that was his thing. He started out, I think Michael Landsberg was there back in the day. Caroline Cameron. Caroline Cameron, yeah, absolutely. She was there as well. So yeah, it's terrible that, I don't know, was Jackie Redmond there?

I can't remember, but Caroline Cameron for sure, for sure. But too bad that that's no longer around. It's unfortunate in two ways because it's also unfortunate for young athletes who get their game covered by Rodgers and get to see a full camera crew come and get to be interviewed on TV

and your family can watch even if they can't make it to the game. That's an aspect too that you kind of miss out on is that you don't get to celebrate your community sports like you used to. Cause it was hyper local and super, super to tie in this a little bit. Like Joe Tilly was on recently and,

uh, recently CTV got rid of all the like local sports guys and they just bring in like a TSN person to do like, Oh, the leaf game was this, the Raptors game was that, whatever. But it really is like,

that means that's the end of like, uh, the high school stuff, you know, the low, the hyper local stuff that's gone now because, oh, the Leaf game was this, the Raptors game was that, whatever. But it really is like, that means that's the end of like, the high school stuff, you know, the hyperlocal stuff, that's gone now because Joe Tilly and Lance Brown and those,

you know, Sunil Joshi and those guys aren't around to do that. So it's sad. The first game I did was, I was color commentary, or actually no,

I was play by play with Damlin who works at TSN for a soccer game at Lamoureux. Like, it doesn't really get much more GTA than that, right? So, yeah, things like that just aren't happening anymore. So I know that they still do some OHL broadcast and stuff, which is great, but it's just not the same.

No, that's too bad. So how do you get to Edmonton? Like, is that what's next? Like, you get out of this Canadian sports media and then you make your way to, speaking of, you talked about Edmonton for the Grey Cup, but you went to Edmonton to, you know, get some reps in? No, I wasn't there for the Grey Cup.

I was there to play football, personally. Oh, was the Grey Cup in Edmonton? Or am I dreaming that? Yeah, it was. Yeah, okay. So you were there to play football. Okay, look at you. You're a multi.

It's a third sport. Third sport, yeah. Add that to the list. Um, what happened? So I applied for a job at breakfast television in Edmonton. They needed a PA to cover a mat leave contract. And there is no way that I should have got that job.

If we're being honest, like every leg of the interview process, I botched in some way or the other by naming the wrong talent that wasn't on breakfast television i actually started naming people on cp24 um and then they're still like okay you advance i was like what okay that's unfortunate okay quick aside my wife when she was a teenager was uh applying for a job at arby's and they asked her in the interview like what do you like best about arby's and she said the hamb And they said, oh, we don't sell hamburgers. And she got the job at Arby's. Yeah, I don't know what that's about. I don't know if that's just trying to

convert new customers or what have you. But so that's kind of the same thing. Anyway, I'm pretty sure speaking of Jim Van Horn, I'm pretty sure he had an extent like a big time role in me getting the position because he knew the program director at Breakfast Television at the time so they probably had a talk and this guy's like she has no idea what she's doing and Jim's like just give her a chance she has potential that's kind of how I envisioned the conversation anyway so they gave me the job and um I had seen a posting for a writer producer role at with Edmonton Oilers previous to this but it was a paid internship but it wasn't enough to kind of move for you still would have been struggling I don't know if I could have afforded rent I wasn't really keen on living with strangers but once I got the

BT role I um contacted them for an interview when I got to town and you know it worked out the interview was great we got along very well although I had to face a firing squad like I didn't really appreciate it and Mark Jeff and Mojo and Chris like they had three guys sitting across from me and they're just like peppering me with questions but uh hockey questions not necessarily no it wasn't necessarily hockey questions it was more on the production side which I actually did appreciate because I was petrified that they were going to ask me historical Oilers questions because they were obviously the franchise, right? But so I was doing two jobs there basically.

So I was working from 4.30 in the morning until around 11 o'clock at night for a year essentially before the contracts ended and I ended up coming home. Okay. So the contracts end and then you come home. Okay, cool. And is it fantasy sports network? Is that your next stop?

That's the next stop. Anthony Chachone, who was a teacher at CSM needed someone to host a show that they were doing and sponsored by DraftKings. And so I went in for a read and actually the guy that was one of the guys that was making the decision didn't like me. He didn't like me at all. He wanted to go with someone else. But how do you know he didn't like you? Because I was told that he didn't like me from someone else that was in the room making the

decision. It's fine. We worked together on the show. He was on the show as well. We're good friends now. But he was just like, no, I'm kind of feeling this other person and it was funny because I did this read and one of the names in the read was Ben Roethlisberger and I did the read and it was over and we were on a break and then he's like comes with me he's like wow like I put that name in there to trap you I was like only one of the most well-known quarterbacks in the NFL Roethlis, like that's what you think is going to trap me. And I was like, Oh, I think that this is kind of a signal as to expectations of women in sports

broadcasting. Because to me, that was a given. Like everyone, he's a big deal. Everyone who should know who that is. Um, so anyway,

the experience overall was fairly positive. Um, but I was there for around two years. Do you, you encounter that and i'm gonna ask you a little more detail on this later but do you ever do you find people are mansplaining things like uh like particularly i think with football which like i find uh like i'm not a big football guy and i was watching yesterday and it's a far more complicated sport I find than, you know, hockey or basketball or baseball. But do you get mansplained a lot? Sometimes I think I do, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that I do have a lot to learn.

So I think that you really need to take a step back and not let your first reaction be defensive here really hear what the person is saying then if you determine that they're being a bit condescending I generally just say that thanks for mansplaining it to me I really appreciate that and then usually it doesn't happen again and imagine like I can imagine somebody mansplaining a bass something basketball to you and do you ever just say like, like Hall of Fame, bitches? Like, do you ever just like... No, I should. I should put it on a shirt. No, I definitely don't do that.

I would do that. If I were in the Hall of Fame, if I were in the Checkers Hall of Fame and somebody's trying to explain a move, I'd be Hall of Fame, bitches. Hall of Fame, bitches. Yeah. So Fantasy Sports Network,

you were the host of Fantasy Sports today. And this is about the time, I guess when you mentioned you were hosting some stuff with the Fight Network. Yes. UFC host of Fantasy Sports Today. And this is about the time, I guess, when you mentioned you were hosting some stuff with the Fight Network. Yes. UFC post-fight show. Yep. Do you enjoy, do you sincerely enjoy UFC or was it just

I used to love UFC. I used to love when it was like Chuck Liddell. Oh, no, I'm not. Randy Couture. Like that kind of era. I used to love those guys. Who's another one?

Rich Franklin, I believe he's... The only name I know is Ken Shamrock. Is he... Yeah, Shamrock, yeah. Like those guys I used to watch all the time. I wasn't necessarily well-versed. I just really, really enjoyed it. I stopped watching around the time...

Who was it? Jon Jones snapped his leg. And it just became a little too aggressive for me. I think it was Jon Jones. But yeah, so I did enjoy doing the fight stuff, but it was just really, really physical. So I don't really love seeing people get like elbowed in the face. Well, this is my problem. Like, I don't like, it just seems too, I don't know.

I don't want to sound like a wuss or whatever, but too violent maybe. It just seems a little brutal. Well, you're not a wuss if you think something's violent. That's just how you feel. I mean, there's a lot of sports that are pretty tough, but I found UFC just, I don't know. I don't like the idea. I'm kind of squeamish. Like a lot of times, like in basketball, for example, when there's like a severe injury,

like maybe the bone or whatever. Oh, it wasn't Jones. It was Anderson Silva. Excuse me. Anderson Silva who broke his leg. injury. It wasn't Jones. It was Anderson Silva. Excuse me. Anderson Silva who broke his leg. I wasn't even savvy enough to call you out on that. I just want to make sure. But I get squeamish, I think, with bones breaking the wrong way

and ankles turning the wrong way. I remember Moises Alou had a thing where his ankle went the wrong way. I can't even watch. I need a trigger warning to not watch that this leg should not be turned that way. So I find it's difficult to watch ufc i never yeah i thought that i thought that i was like that and then i we had to do a project at school and we had to just make a montage of anything that we want and then i decided to do my montage of the worst injuries of the year so it was like someone running into a wall it was anderson silva's leg wrapping around his opponent it was j hat getting a comeback or to the face.

And I mixed it all to, that's why they call it the blues by Elton John. And I was like, maybe I'm not as squeamish as I thought, because I had to sit and watch all these injuries happen again and again and edit them perfectly to the music. So I, I'm into UFC now.

Okay, cool. I'm back into it. Now, uh, before we proceed, cause there's a lot more to cover, I want to give you some gifts because you've come all this way

and I appreciate a cold day. So there is, there was, did you already drink it? Did you drink the six pack? Absolutely not. No, it's beside me on the floor. Yeah, it's beside me on the floor. Actually, six pack was on the table and now it's not. But that six pack is courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery.

They're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke and they would like you to bring that home and enjoy responsibly the six pack of Great Lakes. So that's yours

to take home. Enjoy. Thank you Great Lakes. Thank you very much. Thanks Great Lakes. I like this octopus with boxing gloves. Yeah, that's the octopus

wants to fight and I'm pretty sure I got at least one of those in your six pack there. Cool. Thanks guys. And you're going to be. And I'm pretty sure I got at least one of those in your six pack there. So thanks guys. And you're going to be hungry. Uh,

I got to feed you, not just give you a beverages, but there's a lasagna in front of you. Like that's, do you want to lift? Like, let's see how strong you are. Could you even,

I'm telling you, I, I struggled. Maybe about five or four pounds. I struggled. So that tells you I need to start working. You need to do something about that. I need to fix that.

So that's courtesy of Palma Pasta. Now, that's frozen, so you can't have that tonight, but just put it in the fridge for 24 hours, and then the instructions are on the box. But it's the best Italian food in the GTA, and I'm not reading that. That's the truth. But they have four locations in Mississauga and Oakville.

Their newest Palmas kitchen location is at Mavis and Burnhamthorpe. If you go to palmapasta.com, you can find out their locations. They're amazing. That's Mississauga's best fresh pasta in Italian food. So you got your beer. You got your lasagna. Was it worth the drive? I don't know.

TBD. We still have some time left on the podcast. Well, here, let me give you... Although I don't need you mansplaining to me how to make this lasagna I'll tell you that much oh I explained to everyone are you kidding me people think they're gonna have that tonight and I have to give them the bad news that no it's that's frozen rock solid you're not cooking that tonight but tomorrow night you can do it no I'm human explaining okay there is a ten dollars waiting for you from paytm if you download paytm from paytm.ca and use it to pay all of your bills in one spot, as I do,

you can get $10 by using the promo code TorontoMike when you make your first bill payment. That's Paytm.ca using TorontoMike when you make the first bill payment. Then you can use that $10 towards another bill payment or one of the rewards in the rewards section. So check out Paytm.ca and pick up your $10. Now earlier, Ashley, we talked about Raptors 905. You actually did some work for

NBA TV Canada. Yes. Tell me, I guess, is this shortly after the Fantasy Sports? Is it concurrent? concurrent during it was during yeah so yeah they needed someone to do sideline for their inaugural season and I was lucky enough to be selected um it was great it was a wonderful learning experience it was something that was really fun and I had had aspirations of doing sideline so it was nice to kind of get in early

um kind of figure out what it would be all about if I had held that role on a permanent basis for hopefully, um, I don't want to say a professional team cause those athletes do get paid, but do you know what I mean? Like someone in the big four, um, leagues and, uh, yeah. So it was, again, it was great to be paid to be around basketball. Like who wouldn't want to do that? Yeah, and it's a good way to get your reps in. If you had visions of working for the Toronto Raptors, for example,

starting with the Development League team makes a lot of sense. Exactly. So you get on the radar of the MLSC folks. So that didn't work out. I work on the radio now. No, I'm just joking. You're doing lots.

You got lots. Your time is on your side. Your time is on your side. I have a message from a past guest, Bubba O'Neill. Okay. Happy New Year, Mike. I don't know if I'm supposed to read that part, but he wrote Happy New Year.

I felt I'll read it. And he says, As you know, Ash was the weekend sportscaster at CHCH. Ask her if she misses my early morning text to get more McMaster and local scores in her sports casts. But then he throws in a big LOL and then a few exclamation marks. No, that's a hard no.

Like this guy's tech, like, okay. So I was working full time hours at fantasy sports network Monday to Friday. Then I was working full time on the weekends, essentially network monday to friday then i was working full-time on the weekends essentially to eight to ten hour shifts on the weekends so this guy texts me at like 8 a.m on a saturday like go away bubba go away so annoying like i'm just trying to sleep he's like so did you see that mcmaster i'm like okay okay, I'm not answering this right now. I have at least two hours left of shut-eye.

This is not what I need right now. I'm off the clock. I'm off the clock, Clint. It's nice to hear that not all local sports reporting is dead because that's a hyper-local news stuff that Bubba's passionate about at CHCH. It's one of the best things about him, to be honest with you. He cares so much about shining a light on the OHL teams that are in the vicinity.

Even, oh, what's that baseball league that people play in? And I'm sounding like super ignorant about it right now. No, I don't know. Is this a fantasy thing? No, it's a real baseball league. International?

League like Christie-Pitt Pitts for the Maple Leafs? Yeah, IBL. Is it IBL? I think so. So IBL baseball, he would talk about a ton because there's teams out in the West End,

you know, the Hamilton Bulldogs and Niagara Ice Dogs, Mississauga Steelheads. He always focused on McMaster, of course. And then, of course, CFL too is a big focus

for CHCH because everything's in that community. So as much as we say there's not community television, CHCH does a good job of making sure that some attention is given to, you know, these worthy athletes. Now, your time at CHCH, that's after the whole clusterfuck where, like,

you know what I'm talking about. I do, yeah. By the way, the guy you didn't know the name of earlier, Mark Hebbshire, he was, I think he worked with Bubba, I know he worked with Bubba O'Neill on CHCH, but he was in the room of people who were told to go away. So he's not there anymore. But so you came after that when? Yeah, when they decided to reintroduce the weekend news. Yeah. And I guess how long were you there? I was there probably about a year.

Um, and then I left because I got a job with the national lacrosse league. So I traded that in for full-time work. Um, I wasn't really sure about it. I wasn't, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but, um, one of my bosses at CHCH had kind of indicated to me that, listen, like we don't really see you as anything else besides being able to do sports and weather. Cause I had asked to be able to train as a news reporter, um, which is something that I had experienced in when I was in Edmonton, um, with breakfast television. And then also kind of the stories I was doing with the Oilers were more community-based stories. So they were more traditional reporting than actually sports casting. And he kind of said he didn't see me in that role.

He just said, I don't see it. And we're not going to give you the opportunity really to do that. So I was like, OK, that's fine. I understand that media can be subjective at times, at most times, really. understand that media can be subjective at times, at most times, really. And if I'm not going to be given the opportunity to grow, and I'm not going to be working for someone who kind of believes in me in that sense, then maybe I'm better off pursuing a different opportunity. And it worked out really well for me. So, you know, it's not like there's hard feelings, there was obviously disappointment, but these things

happen and when you're doing sports media specifically you have to be able to pivot you have to be able to roll with the punches I guess and when something that you think should happen doesn't happen if you just kind of get stopped in your tracks then you'll never be successful well said now here's a question. I'm going to preface this by saying, uh, I wasn't going to read this question. It's not unfair, but I mean, I didn't think it was a cool question is nothing. You'll be mad at me for asking. I don't think, but I'm asking, I'm going to ask it because I did field questions. And then I'm so Brian M is the chap who sent in this question and I'm curious now how you'll respond. But he says, I watch CHCH News and that is how I know the name Ashley Dawking.

She did the sports and on occasion weather, she was good at it. But one day she appeared on air in a fashion uncomfortably close to gothic. I think that convinced the station bosses. Sam will choke up reading this question. Convinced the station bosses. See, I'm all choked up reading this question. Convinced the station bosses to begin looking for other talent. This is my personal observation anyway. So that's how it came in. And I was going to like discard it.

But then I thought it was actually not like I won't, she won't be pissed off I asked that. But so what do you say to people like Brian M who thought your fashion sense being close to gothic this one day caused them to remove you from the airwaves. How would you respond to that? I think that I would first and foremost want to know the demographic that Brian represents. And I would guess that he's probably an older male who maybe is not in touch with the way fashion trends for younger females.

And if I feel as though I would like to wear something that's not a black blouse and a colored blazer, which he's probably used to seeing in his female sportscasters, that is well within my rights. And for the record, I never had any of my bosses complain about my clothes. I'm trying to imagine like, were you wearing like black lipstick? I don't know what this gothic look is exactly. I know goth is a lot of black. I don't know.

I have no idea. And, you know, Brian, I think that if someone's going to fire you for one outfit that you wear your position probably wasn't secure to begin with so okay brian there you go i asked your question and yeah so i anyway i left i didn't get fired no you left for the uh nll uh and okay so you you and tyson uh okay so tell me about working uh is it uh? Is this called Relax? The post-game show? It was more like Relax. That's the kind of...

Oh, Relax. So it's like a reaction to the lacrosse, Lax being the short form. Oh, crap. You know, it went over my head. I apologize. That's okay. It was a question that was commonly asked

in our production meeting. So wait, Relax, Relax, Relax. Yeah, so Tyson and I, it was kind of a cool gig in the sense where we had full control for the most part of everything we wanted to produce. And if we were given something to do, whether it be a feature, a pregame or a postgame, we could execute it in the way that we thought was going to be the best fit for our personalities and our skill sets. So it was awesome because it was fully creatively liberating. Tyson's just, he's great to work with. His production touch is phenomenal. His attention to detail. He's so creative in that sense. Plus he grew up playing the game. So as much as I had covered it for about five years before I got the job with Kojiko actually. So for the indoor summer league lacrosse that they play major series lacrosse.

So I had covered it for a while. I was familiar with the game, some of the players, things like that, but Tyson really had an innate knowledge of it. So yeah, we made a really good team and it's unfortunate the way that it worked out, but it is what it is. So how did,

what's unfortunate? Just, I got to plead ignorant. So what's unfortunate? I got to plead ignorant. So they moved the production facility to Philadelphia and they attempted to get us visas but the climate in the United States doesn't necessarily allow for that to be a thing as easily as they had before. So we essentially,

our position was basically terminated and then they hired two Americans to take on the role instead that is unfortunate that is unfortunate um tell me about your role with okay so there's there's hoop talks and puck talks and pitch talks uh and what is your role with the uh what is the company called that does all the talks homestand sports yeah what's your kevin kennedy right so yeah um kevin initially reached out to me because i think it was Blake Murphy, actually, that gave him my information to be involved in a Hoop Talks panel. I was nervous. It's not something that I had been asked to do before.

The names of people that were going to be involved were kind of intimidating to me. They were people that I considered established and I considered to be very smart. And it was, again, it felt intimidating to be asked to be a part of it. So I reached back out to Kevin. I was like, listen, do you think I could just moderate the panels for you until I see what it's all about? I don't, they do audience questions. I was petrified that someone was going to ask me something that I didn't know. And I was going to look stupid. But I've been doing that all hour. But yeah, I was going to look stupid. But I've been doing that all hour. But yeah, I was going to look stupid and it was really difficult for me. So he's like,

sure, you can moderate them, no problem. And so that's kind of how I got into it. Kevin and I hit it off and we have a really great working relationship. So I'm proud to be able to kind of front all his brands in that sense. So are you still doing this? Yeah, I just did one on Saturday, actually. I did a Puck Talks at Rec Room. It's just such a great environment and atmosphere. Honestly, I'm not even just plugging it because I'm involved in it.

If you haven't been to one, depending on your sport of choice, I highly recommend that you get out to one when you can. All right, now I need to ask a question about Scott Moore. There's an awkward silence there. Scott Moore was on here recently. You might have heard of him. He used to be doing something.

He used to be basically my boss. Right. Scott Moore, and I asked him about this, but apparently he confirmed that he issued, I don't know, there's a creed or something that like Sportsnet people should no longer participate in these hoop talks and puck talks and pitch talks things. Yeah.

So is there a reason that you're able to do both? Well, I'm not a full time employee from Sportsnet. I'm freelance. Gotcha. So I'm still able to pursue outside opportunities. And that's good because you clearly enjoy doing these events. Hoop Talks, Puck Talks, and Pitch Talks. Have you done all three?

Like you've done Pitch Talks too? Yeah, I've done Pitch, Puck, Hoops. I'm doing a Tackle Talks, my first one of those for the Super Bowl as well. So yeah, it should be good. All right. I have a question from Jason. What up, Jasonason uh says uh you handled the entire gruber incident with class of course you do you think you probably thought i was

gonna skip right by it but jason's doing this thanks jason selfishly it was difficult to see someone who i looked up to as a kid act that way gruber was i don't know if i should read this part actually i'm gonna skip that part because i don't know how it sounds. I don't want to go into that part. But in hindsight, do you, Ashley, think it's wise for PT to have him, or for Pitch Talks to have him on? There's something going on in Gruber's life, and I don't want to get into it. But he just thought, let's not even answer Jason. Maybe Jason introduces the whole Gruber incident,

and you can just talk about that because I think this was a big moment of awareness for Toronto sports fans to learn about you. In a weird way, I think it really did a lot for people putting you on people's radars where maybe you weren't there before. Now, so that's a positive, but can you maybe, whatever you're willing to share about the uh the maybe tell us what was this gruber incident that people are

talking about and uh if there was any fallout like uh from you know kevin kennedy or anyone else uh regarding what happened that that night so tell us what happened maybe and then um speak to it briefly i don't know i don't really want to get into it to be honest with you and do a full recap. If people want to take a look, I think it's online somewhere. I have no idea. Okay, so Gruber made some awkward appearance

on stage with you and you were on stage of Kevin Barker doing like a pitch talks. And Gruber, I'll call it awkward because I watched it and it was awkward. And then basically, I guess they decided that he was being, here's a quote, help with this.

I'll read a quote from Kevin Kennedy. Basically, what happened was by the time he got on stage, he appeared to be inebriated. He was just acting sort of obnoxious, kind of erratic. He was confrontational with our host, Ashley. And quite quickly, I knew this wasn't going in the right direction. So it sounds like he's been banned from these events and that this was cut short. But again, this is what I would say went viral, I'd say.

And I think you came off looking good. And it was probably, in a really weird way, a positive for your career, because I think a lot of people became aware of you. That's what I would say. I would agree with that um it's unfortunate that that's kind of how I guess some people came to hear of me but it is what it is um I think that it was a I don't think awkward is the right word because I think using the word awkward kind of lets him off the hook because it wasn't awkward for me I was insulted I was kind of surprised that he would take that moment during a charity function to I guess in engage in that kind of humor I think he thought he was joking around I don't know him so I'm not too sure but it was a moment. I think he thought he was joking around. I don't know him, so I'm not too sure.

But it was a moment that I think was good for people to see because I don't think that they really believe that that's how some people act and treat others in sports broadcasting. And I'm not even saying others as a woman. I'm saying others that they feel as though they're better than or have done more than um it's a thing that happens and you know what not everyone's like that the majority of people that I've met in sports are not like that but there are exceptions to every rule and it was it was more disappointing than anything that the event was over and ruined because it was supposed to be a silent auction for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. It was supposed to be raising money. There was a ton of fans that were there.

Yeah, it was just a really good day and then it was ruined by that. Yeah, because they stopped it 45 minutes early. Like if Pedro Martinez can Skype in from wherever he was and that goes off flawlessly, like this shouldn't be the hiccup, right? And it's fair to say,

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but if you were, do you think if you were a male that, I only used the word awkward because I copied and pasted this description that called it a brief awkward appearance on stage, but clearly it was, yeah, right, it was more,

it was misogynist. Is that a term I can use for this, for his comments? And then do you think you would have received flack from Kelly Goover there if you were not a female? Well, he made a comment to Barker also,

something he mentioned the Greg Zahn dismissal as well. So I wasn't the sole target of his tirade. So it's too bad he ruined the event and he's no longer appearing at these pitch talk events, but you are.

So we can move on yeah from that and again uh not that you'd want it this way but it did in a positive way gave you uh aware awareness is half the battle here right like like who's ashley docking then people start to hear your name and then they hear you on the fan 590 and suddenly like uh we heard from milan and brian suddenly you're uh how do i say you're You're Toronto famous, amongst sports fans at least, right? You're Toronto famous, Ashley Dawson. I don't know about that. It all adds up.

And then your Toronto Mike appearance. Well, this is just the pinnacle. This is really the moment I have been waiting for, Mike. Well, listen, you'll be surprised at who's listening. We'll put it that way. But you'll be surprised. I'm going to tease. You'll be surprised.

But the Fan 590 now this is where a lot of people have heard you recently like how did you end up on the fan 590 um it was kind of cool actually so someone that i worked with at fight network had connected me with the person that was opening up the sportsnet radio studio in vancouver um 650 and they were looking for people to do updates. So I had connected with that program director and he had said, listen, it's a part-time job. We're not going to relocate someone for a part-time job. It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't pay a lot. It's expensive to live here. Plus we want people that are already known on the Vancouver sports scene. I was like,

all that makes complete sense. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. scene. I was like, oh, that makes complete sense. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. He's like, but I want you to talk to the program director in Toronto. So I went and met with Dave Cadeau and I was under the impression I would be doing updates. And Dave was like, yeah, so, you know, I've seen your stuff. You obviously know sports, you know what you're talking about. So we're going to like throw you in some swing shifts on Sportsnet tonight and just see how it goes. And I was, no, all right. Are you sure? And like, there's always so many stories about when you get hired at a major network that there's like this sports quiz that they give you this piece of paper.

There's however many questions. And it's like, who won the Super Bowl in 2004? And who was the leader in batting average in major league baseball in 1998 and if you don't know these things then you can't work here um so none of that happened he just gave me obviously the benefit of the doubt he's like i've seen your stuff you're credible um do your worst kind of thing and i really appreciated that. It was very refreshing because I have had female friends go into situations and meetings like that where they're kind of second guessed and they're asked to verify and validate themselves in that moment.

And it's a little bit insulting because I don't think that's exactly how it goes with men. I don't think Blendell got the sports quiz I don't think there's a rapid fire situation for some guys right so um I was really happy and encouraged that that's how it kind of went down at Sportsnet and then yeah the rest is kind of history I just fill in when they need me and that's it do you you aspire for more? Like do you aspire? I'm going to be blunt here. Like do you aspire to get your own show one day on the Fan Factory?

Like the Ashley Dawkins show or at least you and somebody else? I mean, it would be cool if they wanted me to have my own show and I think it would be fun to be able to create something in whatever, with whatever formula that I envisioned radio being for me. I don't exactly have a vision board of things that I

want to accomplish and do. And it might seem kind of counterintuitive and it might seem like fake humble or self-depreciating or whatever. But just the way that my career has gone, fake humble or self-depreciating or whatever. But just the way that my career has gone, you really just don't know what to expect. So I kind of hope for the best in every situation. And I hope to advance. And I love, love doing radio on the fan. If that's not something that happens in terms of getting my own show, well, then I'm sure something else is kind of meant for me. And that's the attitude I have. It just becomes, there's so many things that can go wrong, I think, in broadcasting. And it may seem like a pessimistic way to feel about it, but I really don't think it is. I just, it's hard to kind of

set all your hopes in one thing and then not let it materialize when there are only a handful of people that are in control of actually giving you what you want. So I think that's the difference. It's not as though I can be like, oh, I want to host my own radio show on a major network in Toronto. Well, there's only really like two to five people that can make that happen. So it's hard to put all your eggs in that basket,

I guess is what I'm saying. So you diversify your portfolio. Well, that's kind of what I like to do too because I don't like when things get monotonous. I don't like when they do the same thing. So it's amazing that I'm in a position where I can do the radio show, which I absolutely love. I can do homestand sports, which I absolutely love. I'm doing a Raptors postgame podcast with Yahoo Sports coming up in the next month. I think we're doing

like two or three shows. I'm writing for sportsnet.ca. So it's just been cool that I can kind of dip my toe into all these things. And then maybe that'll give me a moment to see what I actually love the most, right? As a freelancer, do you feel like, I mean, I'm not even sure if this is in a contract or anything, because you're a freelancer, but like, would you, you would not accept a shift? I'm guessing if like 1050 said they had something for you to do, you would say no, you feel uh a loyalty to 590 oh you i i think it's just an unwritten rule you're just not going to go back and forth and quite frankly i don't think that 1050 would want me just for a shift when they know that i'm working with sports

net like there's an artificial line drawn in the sand right but yeah it doesn't work the other way but it so if 590 which has the bigger ratings, 1050 could try to take some of that juice by taking people. So it might work that way, if that makes sense. I see what you're saying. Because you're on the big fish. You're the big fish at 590. And then they're trying to catch you. So they might.

You're starting rumors. This is not like someone at 1050 has come to my door and been like, here's this contract offer. It hasn't happened. But no, I'm enjoying my time at Sportsnet and they've been really great to me. Mike Grigotsky is a listener and he asks, well, he says, what's the best thing

about working on the Jeff Blair show? And then he wants to know, what's the most challenging thing? And he says, keep up the good work. He enjoys hearing you there. So you mentioned you're filling in for Jeff when he's's not when he's on vacation or in vegas wherever the heck jeff blair goes uh you fill in and uh it was a george russik and sherry ford were those the two people uh yeah yep okay cool now so what's the i mean it sounds i mean what's the best thing

and what's the most challenging well the most challenging thing is that you're not jeff blair and you never can be and you never will be and And he just has so much experience. He has so many stories. He, the way that he kind of goes about his business, um, is honestly one of the best things that I've got to be a part of. When I did my first set of shows in the daytime on 590, I actually was partnered with Jeff and got to work alongside him. And it was, um, it was really interesting because he's not really one for hot takes. He's not really one to make things up out of nowhere and just run with it. You know, he knows people, he talks to people, he's seen a lot of things. So I think a lot of his, um, a lot of the things he says come from educated, um, places, which I really, really loved about him.

And I kind of wanted to at least take that little portion of what he does and apply it to my own radio hosting style. So that's the first thing when you're not doing the Jeff Blair show, you're not Jeff Blair. And what we have this text line and someone texted in and it was actually kind of funny. They're like, Ashley, you're a magician. I was like, oh, that's a weird way to start things off. They're like, every time you're on, you make people disappear. And I was just like, that's actually really funny. Like, I really appreciate the cleverness. You didn't put your name or your city, so I can't talk about you. But yeah, people love Jeff. So he's an institution there. So it's, it can be difficult in that sense. Um, the best part about it though, is that, you know, the station has really given me the green light to just be myself and kind of let my personality shine through and maybe be a little bit quirky sometimes, um, mix in some real life stories with sports talk. So that's probably the best part about it is that I don't really have, um, a lot of calm finds

when I'm working. Russick or Ford, if you had to choose, you could only have one right now for a co-host. Now I'm causing trouble. Sherry. Sherry. We'll do the, we'll do the girls, the girls night. Okay. Now, uh, you mentioned girls night. So Dave Friedman, uh, writes in, uh, it's about time the suits, he puts suits in quotes writes in, it's about time the suits, he puts suits in quotes. It's about time the suits at Fan 590 made her the first female host with her own show. Now I'm just chiming in here to say,

I don't know if that's true. Did Barb DiGiulio ever have a show on Fan 590? Okay, so I don't know if she had her own show, but I know that she was obviously a host on a show. Forever. And before her, before her, yeah,

I think before Mary Ormsby co-hosted on. Yeah. So you're not the, anyway, anyway, just to get back. No, no,

no, a hundred percent. And that's, that's important to know. But maybe no female, cause Jeff Blair, that's his show. But maybe female hasn't done a chair,

which is like the main host. I don't know. That may be. So, uh, this guy, Dave Friedman says, seriously now I'm, he's trying to get people fired That may be. So this guy, Dave Friedman, says, seriously now.

He's trying to get people fired here. He says, I'm thinking 1 to 4 p.m. The time has come. So he wants them to out the... Is it the good show? Is that what we're calling the Ben and Miss? It's just good show. Good show.

Oh, yeah. No the. No the. Good show. Sounds pretentious. I don't know. No, they're great. Don't go stirring any pots here, Mike. No, the is pretentious. Not those guys. Not having the the is pretentious. don't know no they're great that don't don't go stirring any pots no the is

pretentious not those guys okay not having the the is pretentious no i have nothing no i have no come on i love everybody but uh should they go on to bigger and better things and leave the 1 p.m slot vacant or maybe they go off to vancouver like andrew walker and work there who knows but if it was vacant uh this guy's saying that you should be there. You're a slam dunk. The time has come, he says. So let me just like segue over to, you were originally going to come on the diversity episode and we were going to talk about whether current sports media is doing a good enough job reflecting the diversity

of the people in this city and in this province. And particularly with radio radio because on radio, the daytime hosts are all white guys. So they're all male and they're all white. So we were discussing, me and Shorali

and Sophia and Scott, whether that was appropriate and whether we should have more diversity. Okay. And the consensus in the room was that the Fan 590 needed to do a much better job of diversifying its daytime lineup. Okay. That was the consensus in the room was that the Fan 590 needed to do a much better job of diversifying its daytime lineup.

Okay. That was the consensus. So what would you say to that? Do you think it's appropriate for all of your daytime hosts to be white males in a city that half the city is not white and half the city is not male? I don't... It's a difficult question because basically you're saying, do one of my colleagues deserve to not have a show?

But let's say they moved on to bigger and better things. Well, then you would hope that there would be a little bit of a different look. No, because Andrew Walker, and I didn't mean to cut you off there, but Scott said the same thing. He said, well, we can't fire people and start again. But very recently, fairly recently, Andrew Walker was the one to four guy and he was moved to Vancouver. That's an opportunity right there to fill a seat.

And they picked another white guy. They did. But you're also kind of discounting the fact that the people that were put in that position, you know, had been working hard for a long time as well. So do I think that the landscape of radio needs to have a more diverse look? Yes. If you're asking me to reimagine the 590 schedule, I'm just not even going to go there. But I think it is important more so than anything that you kind of start from like the bottom up, right? Like if you look around sports media and you look at the makeup of newsrooms, that's an issue too. It's not just what you see on air, right? It's like, who are the, who's the talent pool that we're choosing from internally to promote? If their only option

is someone of the same demographic from the people that we already have on radio, well, then that becomes more of an issue as well. It's, it's a whole encompassing thing, right? Do I think there should be more voices, um voices that can tell different stories and give different perspectives? Of course, the more you know, it's always going to be better. And the more range that you can provide your listeners, it's important that they feel as though someone talking can, they can relate to them, right? Because I can go off on a tangent and tell a story about something that happened to me. And if you haven't been in the same situation you're not going to get it my humor might be different my references might be different so if I can't make a reference to a Bollywood film for

example and I'm always talking about stepbrothers well it's talking to a certain demographic as well right and maybe it's because Scott Moore's been on twice in the past couple of months. So these are all, it's all very fresh in my head. But he said something that I took and I've been thinking about it a lot. He said that the best advice he ever got was that he should stop hiring himself. And I believe there's amongst the hiring managers

and people who make hire, there's a tendency to hire people, like hire, because say hiring yourself, if you're a middle-aged white guy, you have a tendency to hire people like hire because say hiring yourself if you're a middle-aged white guy you have a tendency to hire other middle-aged white guys like so this whole challenge to hiring managers to

to not by default hire yourself over and over again to look beyond that and this seems to be where it needs to, needs to start. There's kind of a saying in sports media and it might be media in general, but again,

I'm not kind of in tune to the news side, but it's either you have to be really, really good or know someone. And so when Scott says you have to stop hiring yourself, well, if you're hiring people because there's someone's son or someone's daughter that you know, and all your friends that you hang out with look like you, well, then you're not going to be hiring anything else, right? Like,

I don't understand why people think it's like, oh, I'm going to take a chance on this, this woman of color or this Asian man. Why is that taking a chance? Do you know what I mean? It's because you're not comfortable with it. It's because you're not confident in it. And I think when it comes to diversity in media, I will say this. It's difficult for me as a white woman to fully comprehend what it's like to be a minority in sports media.

Definitely women are underrepresented for sure. But as someone who's white, I still get the benefit of the doubt. And my job, at least when I feel when I'm entering a new situation, or I did when I was younger, I felt that I had to prove myself in terms of knowledge. That was where I felt people saw my shortcomings. They're like, oh, who's this girl? This woman doesn't know about sports. She didn't grow up watching Hockey Night in Canada every night with her dad. So I felt I needed to prove my knowledge from talking to friends of mine who are people of color. The difference isn't it? People really have to understand this. They come into a situation in sports broadcasting that's

predominantly white, whether it's male or female. And they feel like they have to prove themselves first, that they belong, that they can fit in with the culture that's already established. Then on top of that, prove their knowledge. So they're not even being seen for who they are to begin with. And that's not something that I've ever experienced because I am white. So I do have that privilege. And it's important for people to understand that because there's a big difference between myself and a black female friend of mine walking into a space in the sports world. We're going to be viewed differently, even though we could be smarter than everybody else. We could have more experience than everybody else. But the person of color is going to feel as though and be made, sorry, be made to feel as though they have to prove that they belong first before they can even start on the actual credibility that they have in sports.

That's a, that's a great point. And that's why you had to replace Kayla gray on the panel because Kayla came on this show and said, said as much and how difficult it is. She said for a woman of color in the Canadian sports media landscape. And there's not even role models you can really point to and say, oh, she did it before me.

I could do it too. Kayla is that barrier breaker. I think she's the first woman of color to host like a sports center. So Kayla Gray is a very good friend of mine. And I'm so, so proud of her. And I must just give her the utmost amount of props for the way that she's done everything. She's a new mother. She's fought for roles that no one offered to her.

She's taken kind of the bull by the horns, if you will. And she's really cut out a spot for herself. And I'm so proud of her. But again, like someone asked me one time, how come you don't think there's more women on sports radio? And it's kind of the same thing. It's just like, first of all, it's a really hard job. I don't think people understand that to be at least versed, if not well versed in every single sport and to be caught up on the day today lineup changes, injuries, watching all these games, it kind of consumes your life.

So first and foremost, it's difficult. So I don't necessarily think it's why there are more women doing sports talk radio. There aren't really that many people that you talk to coming out of school that are like, I want to be a sports talk radio host. That's not really a career path for a ton of people. But then again, to Kayla's point, you don't see a lot of women doing it. So you're like, oh, they just want to hear men talk. I'm not even going to attempt to explore that route. I've had an off the record discussion with somebody in the industry, a white male who's

in the industry. And of course, off the record, I'm not going to tell you who this is. But they basically said that the audience is all white guys this is this is the argument that was was proposed to me that uh yeah the hosts are all white guys because the audience is all white guys but now you've got a now and i pointed this out but now you've got a whole chicken and egg syndrome going on like um if the only perspectives on sports radio are white male perspectives you're gonna maybe the audience becomes what you're talking to because no additional and diverse perspectives are shared. So I don't know if it's true that the audience is all white males. I doubt that's true. But if it was even close to true,

it would be reflective of the only perspective shared. You're not sharing any other perspective other than white males. So I do agree with you when you go chicken versus egg. What came first? Well, it was white males doing the shows. And okay, white males were listening. Did white males not turn it off because it was only white people talking? Or did they not turn it off because they liked what they were hearing?

And on radio, here's the thing. Like, unless I see a photo of you and I just hear you, I don't know if you're black or white. Really? How am I supposed to know if I don't know who you are and I'm just hearing your voice for the first time there isn't it's not a visual medium like no but it has changed a bit with social media i agree with you but to a certain extent but if i know what everyone looks like now for some reason so i feel that's got to be whatever people don't people don't like change that's the bottom line and i get the same thing too they're just like oh my gosh this woman's voice turning off the station

and it's like, well, you speak, hypothetically, you speak to women on a daily basis so is it just because it's something

that's different for you? You're not willing to give it a chance and you only want things how you are used to them being served to you so I think it's just an adjustment period

that people need to just understand that it is important. It is important to have representation. It is more entertaining to have different points of view. I can't even like at the very base, like besides thinking about inclusiveness and making sure that everyone has a seat at the table. besides thinking about inclusiveness and making sure that everyone has a seat at the table, if I have five guys who are all raised in the same area, all from the same class, all from the same demographic, well, their opinions are going to be largely the same depending on their experiences in life. But if I have people that were from all over the world and had different things that they went through and different challenges that they overcame and know different people. The sources are going to be different. The stories are going to be more entertaining. There's going to be more discussion. There's going to be more learning.

And I think that's one of the things that I try and aim for in radio. It should be two things. It should be entertainment and it should be educational because as much as kind of society is a little bit like mindless and we sit and we stare on Instagram and YouTube for hours and we get caught in these black holes. At the end of the day, you still want to learn something, right? So those are the two things that I think are important and diversifying the offering can only help with those two things. The crowd's applauding that great insight you shared. Thanks. Thanks. Hey kids, chase the loose, give us fall I did something that's known to change the weather

But careful fighters call for my son I'll bring it back, but this is Elton John's Benny and the Jets. And tell me, why am I playing this song, Ashley Dawkins? Because you made me pick. Because you made me pick a favorite song, and that's why I picked it. I went to a concert, the Elton John concert with my mom in September. It's just one of the songs that I like.

I used to listen to Chum FM all the time and it's kind of in that range of music that they would play. My mom likes it. It was kind of a nice bonding moment for us, so why not? You can't go wrong with this jam. Are you kidding me? He opened with it, so I was kind of upset because it was like a nice starting point.

But then I wanted to be like, maybe have a bit more, a few more libations in me before I got to really hear it. See, the problem, not the problem. The interesting thing about seeing an Elton John is that it's such a massive catalog. Like, yeah, you don't know where you're going to get what. You're going to get these smaller bands of maybe a smaller catalog. You can say, you can predict your encore songs. You can predict you're going to close with this.

But with Elton, who knows? It's so many big hits but uh i saw elton john are you ready for this in 1989 okay i was three i know but uh yeah that sounds like fun going up your mom to see elton john that's great yeah it was really nice we had a good time and i was kind of upset because we like bought these tickets and then we shelled out for them and then he's like oh I'm adding this new date like damn you Elton but it's also like his second goodbye tour anyway so should have known and how apparently this goodbye tour is gonna last several years I don't know yeah he's coming back yeah it's ridiculous but anyway it was worth it it was super fun my mom's the cutest shout out Sandy um and yeah is Sandy gonna listen to this like would you link her to this?

So I just found out she has Twitter. So it might come up on her feed. I didn't know. I'm like some woman named Sandra Docking. And the O is a capital for some reason. I was like, who is this person? I texted her. Or maybe it's a zero.

No, it's a no. I checked. I'm like, did you have Twitter? She's like, yeah, I got it. I don't really know how to send tweets, but like she forwarded, you know how Twitter sends you an email of like a roundup? I do. So I get this email and then I can like read to

my heart's content. I'm like, oh, you have no idea what you're doing. I'm going to have to send her a little tweet to say listen to your daughter. Yes, I think you'll be the first person that follows her. You're not even following her. For what? She doesn't send any tweets out. daughter. I think you'll be the first person that follows her. Oh, you're not even following her. For what? She doesn't send any tweets out.

But when I asked you to, uh, what's your favorite song of all time? It wasn't like, that was a tough question for you, right? I got the feeling like this was not an easy question. I don't have,

I don't know. Like for the longest time, I didn't consider myself a music person, quote unquote. Um, but I think I just am too, I have too many things that I like. I don't really know. Too many passions?

I like a lot of different things. I have very eclectic taste. Like I've been to a Nickelback concert. I love Motown. I love Elton John. I really love John Mellencamp, but I also am obsessed with like 90s R&B. And then I love like old school hip hop. And so I can listen to different things every day. So it's hard for me to pick a favorite song because there's not something that is just like my go to. Did you notice I rephrased the question? So you were struggling with it. So I said, OK,

what's a song you really, really like? Even that was hard, honestly. I actually was sure you were not going to do it. And I was fine. That's fine. You don't have to do it. It's optional. But then, yeah, I was surprised I got the answer from you yesterday. I'm like, oh, here we go.

I'm nothing if not a professional. I might not give you the answer when you need it, but eventually it'll come. And you picked something that was already in my collection. So it made my life very, very, very, very easy. What's next for you? So, I mean, you've been pretty clear that you don't have a roadmap here. Like you haven't blueprinted.

I'm winging it. But I mean, you must admit, even though you're a very humble person, you must admit that over the last, I'm going to say the last 24 months, there's been a big spike in in the average sports fan in this city being aware of Ashley Dawkins. I don't know if it's that long.

Okay, when was the Gruber thing? Was that only a year ago? It was not even a year ago. Oh, wow. It was like September or August or something like that. So starting with that, and then all the fill-in for Blair and all the different times you're showing up on Fan 590, all of that has, I think,

has greatly increased your profile. I was saying, I think that's a big deal when it comes to, I don't know, like again, we're not trying to get fired here.

This is not what we're trying to do. But if people move on to do other things and there's vacancies on the air, I'm sure you'd be a prime candidate to replace him. Yeah, Dave Cadeau. Listen to what Mike has to say. No, listen, I'm sure you'd be a prime candidate to replace him. Yeah, Dave Cadeau. Listen to what Mike has to say.

No, listen, I agree with you. It feels a little bit different in the sense like I'm not saying people are running up and saying hi to me on the street and knowing who I am. I hope, honestly, I don't. That doesn't sound appealing to me. But definitely with engagements on social media and people have been super kind in my mentions and always have something positive to say for the most part except for Brian who says I'm a goth and need to like drop it with the emo stuff. I don't think it was Brian but yeah

Brian was the guy from there was two Brian's I think I think there was two Brian's but that was funny anyway and I'd like to see a photo of this outfit I want to make my own I can't believe I can't do that I can't imagine a guy getting the same kind of thing. You know what I think it was? Yeah, Brian M. You're right. Yeah. So I think it was, here's what I think.

I think it was a day where I had on a gray sweater. Okay. That had, it's called a cold shoulder. So cutouts in the shoulder. Yep. I've seen these. And it's like a mock turtleneck. And then I had like a silver necklace on top

and I had a black skirt with it. So no like choker or whatever. And I wasn't like heavy on the eyeliner. I wasn't like hair bangs like stuck to my forehead or anything crazy. Anyway, yeah, I think that there's been a lot of positive engagement and stuff like that. So that's really nice to see.

Again, like, I don't know. I can't overstate it. It sounds super lame, but I do love doing what I do on 590. So the more opportunity, the better for me. And yeah, no blueprint, but definitely goals to get a full-time job. Mike, how about we start with that? What's your goal to have a full-time job in 2019? Well, good luck to you.

If you need any help podcasting, I'm here to help you. Just so you know that. Sounds good. If you don't know somebody, you can help me there. Not that you need the help, but you never know.

And I wish you much luck. This was a fantastic 90 minutes and I appreciate you making your way out here. Thanks so much for doing this. Time flew by. I had a good time. Thank you.

And again, I won't mansplain how to make that lasagna again. Yeah, maybe not. I'll stop doing that. And that brings us to the end of our 418th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Ashley is at Smart Ash, but she smells it.

She smells it. She spells it like Homer Simpson. SMRT. That's a great episode that was homer goes to college that's what my favorite i love the sentence uh smrt ash so follow her on twitter her mom is what's your mom's handle again i think it's mama doc m-o-m-m-a-d-o-c-k okay follow uh ashley's mom let's just get her trending, okay? Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. And Paytm is at Paytm Canada. See you all next week. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or will do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you

Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up. Rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold with the smell of snow. Won't you be today?