Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Austin Delaney: Toronto Mike'd #1414

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

In this 1414th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Austin Delaney about his start in radio on stations like CFNY and CFTR and his 34 years at CFTO / CTV Toronto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

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I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm in Toronto right where you wanna get the city love Welcome to Toronto Mic'd, episode 1414, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut is Austin Delaney. Welcome, Austin. Thank you. Thank you. I love that jingle you've got there. I'm going to be singing that all the way home. I'm going to tell Illvibe, okay? That's an original. We've been using that on the show. I say we because it makes it seem bigger. Like there's more than me. So I just say we,

we've been using it for 12 years now. It's the Toronto Mike theme song. Yeah, that's beautiful. Is there an Austin Delaney theme song? Maybe that Harry Chapin song, the one about the radio. How does that one go? I remember the father, the father. Oh, it's, it's the saddest song ever, especially if you worked in radio, because it's about the guy who's sort of,

he's doing well and then he doesn't do so well, he's gotten older and he's doing that thing in radio where you're at the top of your game and then you slowly slip back and next thing you know, you're working in a small town in the US. And it's just a sad little song. Because all my little cat's in the cradle. Is this W-O-L-D? Oh my gosh, yeah it's sad as anything. Makes me tear up.

Let me see what I got here. Hold on here. Let's see. I want to make you tear up off the top. You got it? Yeah. Just listen at the beginning. Okay, let's listen to this. Hello, honey, it's me. What did you think when you heard me back on the radio? What did the kids say when they knew it was their long lost daddy-o?

Okay. Yeah. Here we go remember how we listen to the radio and I said that's the place to be and how I got the job is an FM job the day you married me it was two kids and I was in the AM Rock but I just had to run around It's been eight years since I left you babe, let me tell you about what's gone down I am the fawning DJ at W-O-L-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D- Okay, why aren't you crying, Austin? It's a pretty sad song. I remember seeing Harry Chabon at Massey Hall and he sings this and he says, at CHUM, way

back when, when Chum was, Chum A.M. was king. Right. Yeah. You know, there's episode Toronto Mike episode 1050. 1050 is like a bunch of those old cats from 1050 talking to me about those those days of 1050 Chum. Was that your station growing up? What was your station growing up? That and CFTR and I remember growing up and I remember New Year's Eve with my sister. We would listen to the top 100 of the year and the top song of the year would come on and it was that other sad song.

The other one. I can't remember the name right now. But then what was so cool about that was I ended up working at that station, my first real job in radio. And there I was, you know. What year are we talking about when you were on CFTR? That's about 82 I think. Okay so was Tom Rivers there yet? Yep you know he wasn't there yet he was coming. Landecker was there, John

Landecker like some just some great names. So is Mike Cooper there yet? Cooper's there, Cooper's doing afternoons, great jock, Bill Hayes is there. These are two FOTMs you know Bill Hayes and Mike Cooper are FOTMs. Aren't they friends of Toronto Mike and you're now an FOTM Austin. And I'm so happy to be one. Thanks for inviting me. What a pleasure. No, I'm happy to have you here. A few quick questions. We're going to get back to CFTR and there's another station you were at. I have a hundred questions about CF and why I made a tweet yesterday that I'm more interested in talking to you about CF and why then CFTO that's where we're gonna cover both though.

You love CFMY. I love these like this. There's a documentary coming. I'm thrilled. I can't wait to see it. I think it's supposed to come in the fall. Like they're probably trying to get it at TIFF or something and it's supposed to come in the fall.

But yeah, they're like right now they're working on licensing the music for this documentary. They've done all the filming and yeah. are you in this documentary? No, no it's about the music I understand not about the news department which was a fantastic news department. I know you've had some other people on who have said the same thing. Was Mike Stafford there? He was and I didn't know him because I was a reporter. I was a Queens Park reporter. I would come in and fill in every once in a while, but he was gone. But I was a big fan.

I used to love listening to him. I remember one line he had, "'I'm like Stafford, but you can call me Chloe or waiter.'" Well, he's a witty guy. He was on Jeopardy, right? Like he's a smart guy. He's got the trivia. He's got a great voice. Smart as a whip. After the recording, I'll chat he's a smart guy. He's got the trivia. You've got a great voice.

Smart as a whip. After the recording, I'll chat with you a little more about Stafford. But we're big fans of Mike Stafford on this program and he's been over a couple times in the past year. He's fallen on some tougher times. He's not quite in the same great space as you, Austin. So here's the big million dollar question. You ready? Off the top. Yeah. How the hell is retirement treating you? Oh, it's amazing. I think you might say that. I've been saying something else. I've been swearing about it. You can swear, by the way.

This is not radio radio. It is just amazing. It's fucking amazing. It really is. It is. I highly recommend it. If you can do it, do it. So when I thought about retiring, I had a big job.

It was a fun job, but it was a big job. You were out in the center of everything that was happening all the time. And my worry was, would I miss this? And I asked people, I said, what's it like? Are you bored? What do you do all day? Do you just read? Are you watching daytime TV? I don't want to be the guy who's watching TV. I can do the gardening. I'm good with that.

Okay. Yeah. And they just said, you know, you won't know where the time went and how you everything else in and it's been nine months over nine months and I can't believe how fast it's gone by how much fun it's been and Where my days go I haven't had a board day yet. Not one and you're like Traveling the world. Is that right? Well, yeah, we're about to go to Asia. We're doing Hong Kong Vietnam Cambodia Laos, Thailand. Yeah, it's a big, big trip. The first big one. We've done some little ones. Right.

And this one is the first big one. There's no itch like there's no itch to do something. I'm thinking of like Tom Hayes right now. So he was here Tuesday. Yep. I talked to him the other day. OK, so he was here Tuesday and he's doing one minute warnings. Like he's still working basically. He's getting about like 530 in the morning

to put this together. That's not retirement. I know you guys are situated. You, for the record, okay, cause this is a topic that comes up. We talk about the Christine Bentley tap on the shoulder. You of sound mind and body, you Austin Delaney chose to retire, right?

Yes. And that's for sure. You're not bullshitting me. I made the phone call and said I'm out and the two of us teared up, my boss and myself. Good for you. First of all, you know, most media professionals don't get to make that call. You're right. And what a privilege it is. And also not to have those bad feelings if you don't make that call So you walk out your heart's in a good place your mind's in a good place You're not angry, right? You just have this great adventure in front of you. Tom Hayes told me just a short while ago It was Andrea case's birthday and we were at a party And he said I'll get bored. I said, why are you doing this? Why are you gonna have a 530 in the morning?

I love what you're doing. It's great, what a great idea. And, but why? And he just said, it'll happen to you. You'll be bored. Not yet. Nowhere near. Actually, so I would, you know, we have this not so secret FOTM chat

and there was speculation. Cause a lot of times, you know, nine months into retirement, people do get bored and then they start, maybe I'll start a podcast or a blog or get, you know, get back in the game on some level. And I actually sensed this and I sensed this because I produced you on an episode of On the DL, Dana Levinson's excellent podcast.

And I actually recently revisited it because I knew you were coming over. And so we did meet on Zoom and this is our first in-person meeting. I have a piece of audio in a minute from somebody you know, so I'm gonna play that in a minute after we crack open our beer. But I had a sense from you that you were at such peace

with this decision. Like I felt like, oh, this is a guy in his early 60s who can literally walk away and enjoy his remaining years on this planet. That's exactly right. I have a funny story about it. So I left on a Friday, April 1st, my first day of retirement. And then Monday came up and I had all these jobs planned for myself.

And it was 930 in the morning and my stepdaughter came downstairs and she said, what are you doing? Oh, I've done my jobs. He calls her mom up and says, we're in trouble. He's done his jobs. And that was the first day, and then after that, it just unfolded in this beautiful way of not working anymore. I don't use the word retired so much, but not working anymore. And it's nice. But that is also retired.

It is, but the pressure of work, like the pressure. Like deadlines, you mean? It started in the morning morning and I loved it. I loved every moment of it. But the moment you get a sign, which is about eight o'clock in the morning, you're in the shower and you're thinking about your story

and how are you gonna get this together? Who are you gonna get to interview to get a story on for noon? And when that opened up, when that went away, I had this big brain space that opened up for me. And it's great. I love it. I guess, and you look great.

Thank you. First time meeting you, but I've seen you on the television a million times. I feel like I've watched you grow up, Austin. Hey, quick, Austin Delaney, okay? Austin, that name has been around for my whole life. I know the name Austin, okay? But for the last several years,

a prolific goal score on the Toronto Made Beliefs is Austin spelled differently. Spelt differently. Do you think that's going to rewire young people's brains and that you might end up seeing people misspell your first name, even though it's always been spelled A-U-S-T-I-N. But now people who might know this very famous Toronto Made Belief is A-U-S-T-O-N. In the future, young people will misspell the name Austin. I think they can do what they like.

I know, this is a big philosophical question, Austin. So when I was a kid, there were no Austin's. I'm an Austin junior, my dad was an Austin, his uncle was an Austin. When I was a kid, there were no Austin's. Now when I go into McDonald's, I hear Austin! And I turn around, because I think I'm in trouble, but it's some other kid who's in trouble.

That's probably Brian Austin Green from 902 and 0. Right don't know that one. No you know you can spell it however you like I don't mind. Well of course you can spell it however you like but it's funny that it's always been spelled your way and now this guy spells it I don't know where it came from maybe it comes from his mother's Mexican heritage I have no idea but A-U-S-T-O-N I feel like it's now we're gonna see people who think that's how you spell Austin. But it's Iain right? Right it's Iain. Everyone knows that. Texas, the car, all those. Everyone knows. Okay I'm gonna shout out my oldest

son because on Saturday he turns 22. So I just want to say happy birthday to my oldest son James, 22 years old on Saturday. Happy birthday James. So let's toast him. You got a Great Lakes. Okay you got the lager. Great Lake lager. So crack it open on the mic. This is from Great Lakes Brewery. Nice. And I'll crack open my burst. And then here let's not spill it on the board but here we go. Fantastic. Cheers. Cheers to you. Get buckled up. This will be several hours, this interrogation. Okay. Actually, I can't go several hours.

I realize Brad Jones. We're not going several hours. And you came from here, so your proximity to Lake Ontario is similar to mine, but you're on the other side of the city. Yep, yep, the beautiful beach. I feel like this neighborhood wants to be the beach. Like we aspire to be what you guys are. The beach is interesting. It's quiet.

And we live in the suburbs of the beach and I say that we're just by the plant, the filtration plant. Oh I went there for Doors Open recently and took a million photos. It's amazing. Yeah I know the whole thing. It's just unbelievable. There's an album by the Jitters. You remember I've been a fool, played it dumb. Should have played it smart. Used my head, but not my heart. Yeah. I've been crazy playing it hot. I should have played it cool. Now I'm just the last of the red hot fools. Once I started, can't finish Austin. So, okay. So that's by a guy listening right now.

A big fan of the show, Blair Packham, who wrote that for his band, the jitters and the album cover has that water infiltration building in the background. So there's some Toronto music history that brings in that building. It is a cool building and every once in a while you see a movie being done there. One time I saw it used as a prison and it had barbed wire fence around it and everything. It looked very cool, but if you go, like you've been inside it's it's unbelievable It's very that's our water genetic and very very very very interesting. Okay, we cracked open the beer So now we're gonna listen to a recording that was made special for you. Just late last night. Are you are you comfortable?

I'll take another sip. Did you hear the Tom Hays episode from Tuesday by any chance? I didn't I just heard Kevin Frankish Okay, how was the Kevin Frankish episode? It's good. He's a great man. It's one is it because he's been over like five. It's just the one he's working now over at the shores. That's a recent one. Okay. Because there's one where he he comes over to explain what like he kind of bullshit me a little bit about why he's not on breakfast television, but then he I don't know if he feels bad or if he says no more bullshit. He comes back and he goes, I just want to tell everyone the truth. And he talks about that aforementioned tap on the shoulder. And he got it on like a Tuesday. And then they said, I don't know, he somehow they did a go-she where he could have a farewell show, but on like the Friday.

And that's how it ends for most people, Austin. Yeah. Like that. I know. Not your way. Wasn't that amazing? Did you amazing did you did you see any of it the farewell yes yeah I saw a nervous looking Kevin Frank is bullshitting saying something about working on some fictional documentary city or something like that right I was talking about mine oh was pretty good

yeah I did I was doing my production work for somebody who I don't I want to pause you there because I'm going to play this clip. And then it just relates to when I did watch that. But it's a little long. I asked this person for 30 to 90 seconds and they ignored me. And that's typical. But, you know, when you're this person, you don't have to follow the rules. So let's listen.

What can I say about Austin Delaney? Well, I could say a lot of things, but I'm gonna start by saying, he truly is one of my favorite people I have ever worked with. When I got my job at CTV many decades ago, When I got my job at CTV many decades ago, I remember really very vividly, I remember thinking to myself that I am going to be working in the same newsroom as Austin Delaney. He was really that revered and that revered in my head. And rightfully so.

He was always a professional, always, no matter what. Even when he was having the best time and he was the most fun to be around, he was just always professional. Austin and I became friends pretty quickly. I think it's mainly because Austin really was part of that news era that believed the people that you work with are like your family.

And he treated me that way from day one. He was just incredible. And, you know, I really looked up to him and not just in the first couple of years working together, not after 10 years working together, 15 years in, but I would say the 20 years working together, I always always always looked up to him I'm gonna tell you why. Austin has this incredible ability to

connect with people and it shows in all of his work. He by far is one of the best journalists, news reporters, storytellers I have ever known. And of course I've had the pleasure to work with. I would watch Austin go at a story and his ability to connect with people he was interviewing with was almost as if it was an art. He made it look look looked artful. It was really something.

And all of that coupled with so many times of week, Austin and I would have the chance and it wasn't a long time that we would have together. But even if we just had a few minutes just to chat about what we both were working on But even if we just had a few minutes just to chat about what we both were working on and you would see the passion in him With every story he was telling I guess Yeah, easier way to say it is he just really got into it and that was very inspiring for me He is a great great guy. He has the best sense of humor. Oh.

He's super healthy. We can just stop. He's super kind. Almost done, almost done. I don't know anyone who could say a bad word about him. And I just have an incredible fondness for Austin. And I wish him the very, very best in this next chapter of his life.

Well, thanks, Dana. What do you think of what Dana fucking Levinson just said about you, Austin Delaney? Well, I'm humbled. She's a lovely, lovely, lovely woman. She's just really nice. Now, I'm going to do 35, 40 seconds on her. Can you keep your Dana Levinson worship to 30 to 90 seconds, please, Austin? Yeah, what a lovely thing to say.

It's, yeah, thank you Dana. That's nice. She sat next to me at CTV Toronto. We call it CFTO on this program. We do? Okay, good. CFTO. They can't stop me.

And Gail's still reading the news. Do you know, this came up with Tom Hays. A lot of things are going to repeat, like Echo's here. Have you had any contact with her? No. I've wanted to talk to her. I've wondered what happened to her. I would I would love to hear from her. I'd love to know what happened to her as well. Because she left us and there was a struggle I know because she was... She was a superstar. was a superstar, but then it did make the papers She I don't know. Did she punch out a cleaner or something? Have you oh there was there was a court case at one time

I can't remember how that ended but yeah, but you haven't heard I covered that as a reporter at CFM Y Okay. Well, we're gonna get you to we got to get you to the radio and then we'll get you back to CFTO You had 34 years at CFTO. So there's some ground to cover there, but I did want to just thank Dana for sending that in. Thanks Dana. That's very Dana producer note. That audio was so much better than the audio you sent in for Tom Hayes, where it sounded like it sounded like Dana was phoning it in. But this one, and it sounds like she used a USB mic or something much better fidelity for,

for Austin than you did for Tom. I don't know if you're showing preference to Austin over Tom, but you know, when you do get to the Tom Hayes episode, Dana had a nice message for him too. So maybe she just thinks everyone is the best. It's not a script, is it? Where she just puts a name in there. Yeah. It's like Austin, Tom, lovely to talk to. Yeah. There's a variable in the word document and it's like, who is it today? It's Andrea Case. Okay. Drop that in there. And then it's Ken Shaw. Okay, put that in there. Okay, we're gonna get the CFTO so I'm gonna hold on to

my CFTO. First, this is the hard-hitting question. I want to find out how much of a person's official bio is bullshit. So Austin, I need to know, can you speak some Flemish for me? I'm a tree. Okay. Yeah, smake like youakelake eten el emal. Good eating everybody. So how did you learn Flemish? Well, it's an interesting story. My mom's from Belgium. So we spent a lot of our summers in Belgium, like staying at my aunt and uncle's house. We spent summers there as kids before he turned 16.

You started to work for the summer. So my mom speaks Flemish and French. She's from the Flemish part, a tiny little village called Veltem. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part.

And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the Flemish part. And she's from the F work for the summer. So my mom speaks Flemish and French. She's from the Flemish part, a tiny little village called Veltem.

And so I pick up, I can get away with Flemish and French. If I'm over there and I go over about once a year, I can pick it up and it comes back. I wouldn't give somebody directions in Flemish. I wouldn't tell them how to make a recipe in Flemish, but I can get by in a conversation in a restaurant. Okay, because in your official bio from the CFTO site, it said you speak English, French, and a bit of Flemish. And I'd say that is not a mistruth.

That sounds accurate. You speak English, you speak French. Oui, un tout de beurre. And a bit of Flemish. Yeah. Okay, good for you. Now let's talk about how you end up on the radio, okay? Cause you're destined to be a radio star

and then you heard that song and you said, hey, that's it, I gotta go to TV. But what the heck, you talked about CFTR, we're gonna talk about CFNY, but there's CKEY, CHFI. Tell me your origin story and let's talk radio for a bit. So I was in high school and I wasn't doing very well and I thought, well, I'm kind of funny. Why don't I become a morning disc jockey,

a morning announcer? And I'm not that funny, but I went to Humber College to become an announcer and I got an internship at CFTR working overnights. When CFTR back then was CFTR 680, it wasn't the News 680, it was the top 40 radio station. Yeah, they flip in 93. It was hot. It was really hot. And you had people like Tom Rivers, Landecker, all those people working there. And some great newscasters. Well, they had a fantastic news department.

And I was working overnight. And it was the time when Susan Nellis, do you remember her? Susan Nellis? No. She was accused of killing babies at sick kids. I do know the story, yes. And there was an inquiry going on and I would go to bed in the morning because I worked overnight

and by the time I woke up at four in the afternoon, a whole day had passed and it was like a soap opera. And I got hooked on this soap opera of news. And then they gave me a couple of breaks, they let me do some reporting. I did Man on the Streets. Tom Rivers used to call me Moss. That was my nickname there.

Okay. And I was just hooked on news and got a break at CFTR. Read their 68 second news breaks overnight. And you had to have 68 seconds, by the way. You had to write down in the booths how many seconds it was. And if you went 72 or 74, you were asked why were you going over? Why don't you just drop a score in there and come out 68?

So we were trying to always hit 68. I remember very well, so CFTR, and you said you're there early 80s, so I don't know, when do I, I'm trying to do some math in my head. It was around like 84, 85 when I started waking up to CFTR, uh, as an, on my alarm clock, I'd wake up CFTR and I loved a river's, uh, river's air force was, and, and, and today I'm friends with people like, uh, Larry Fedorik is a client.

So was he there when you were there? He was doing promotions. Okay. Wow. Yeah. So Larry Fedorik also has a great podcast called later that same life. Yeah. You got to check doing promotions. Okay, wow. Yeah. So Larry Frederick also has a great podcast called, Later That Same Life. Yeah.

You gotta check that out. Okay, a couple other names I'm gonna throw at you. Is Evelyn Mako there? Oh yeah, yeah. Wacko Mako. Great influence on me. Well, she wasn't Wacko. Well, that was her nickname on radio

before she got to CFTR with Wacko Mako. Yeah, she's lovely and great newscaster. Great, yeah, yeah. And Tom Rivers, The Call of the Day, do you remember that? Yes. He did one on my mom. Okay. And yeah he did one he pretended he was from the immigration department we were we were from England. We'd come over from Belgium. Yeah send her back to Belgium and he pulled this stunt on her and the poor woman just he said yeah he was pretending he was a tester, a judge and yeah it was funny it was very funny, a judge. And, uh, yeah, it was funny. It was

very funny. That was, I loved it. I love Tom Rivers. And what about, uh, Eric Thomas? Yeah, he was there doing sports. Yeah. Great guy. And he's been on your show. He's been on my show. He was amazing. And he just retired himself from my baseline radio. This is like, like very recent news. So Eric Thomas, and I remember the, uh, Larry Silver. Larry Silver, who's never been on the show. Gotta have him on. I know, and Evelyn was trying to make that happen, and I'm not sure why Larry never came on. We gotta make that happen.

But was Dick Smythe there? No. He comes later. Maybe, I can't remember. I think he just came in. I think I was gone. Yeah. You were gone before Dick showed up here.

But who else do you remember from CFTR? We showed most of them out. Well, there's Larry Silver, John Hinnon did the sports. He was the news director. Ben was the morning guy. He just passed away. He did CHFI as well. And then there's Dana Lewis. Dana Lewis went on to NBC and Canada AM. So yeah, there are a lot of people. Bob Ackler, he was the new, he was the- Was Chris James there yet, KJ? KJ was there, yeah, KJ was a lot of fun. KJ was a long time, you know, you have work colleagues

and you lose them over the years, but yeah, KJ's a great guy. And he's one of those guys from that era still on the air in the city. Yeah, he is, he is. Might be last man standing from that era of CFTR. He tells a funny story about being CFTR was doing really really well and they were beating chum for the first time ever and the boss took everybody out for dinner at a big fancy restaurant and KJ tells

the story that he thought the butter was cheese and he was eating these chunks of butter. You have them on. I had them on but didn't really want to talk about the past. Very interesting episode of Toronto Mikes because you seem to know the deal. You know we're gonna talk about CFTR for goodness sakes in the 80s. But KJ came over and he didn't really want to chat about CFTR and then have a seat in there like, but I want to talk about CFTR. Like what are you here for? I know some people are like that. Uh, Jim Taddy didn't want to come on cause he didn't want to talk about sports line, but these are the things that make when, when something makes you like

famous, if you will, Toronto famous, at least like, you know, you don't know one's going to put a gun in your head and say, you have to talk about it, but it does make people like have a feel good to talk about some of these nostalgic memories of Toronto media. Well, it's a privilege to work with all these people. You just name them off and I'm naming off all these great, great people that, you know, I was a kid, I was 22 years old at CFTR. I was wearing a jacket that said CFTR on it because I thought I could meet people.

Checks that is. Yeah, well, whatever it takes, right? At the time. And you were a handsome guy. Imagine what the ugly people had to do. I don't know about that. You are because I told my mom you were coming on and she told me you were a handsome guy. Oh, that's nice of you, Mom.

You've got my mom's vote there. Okay, so give me the whole line here. I think it's something like, you'll tell me, but let's talk like CFTR CKEY CHFI And then I want to spend a little more time on CF and why but like you just jump around what's going on So CFTR and CHFI are one station. We're not one station. They're one company. They're Rogers So we were on the I think the 25th floor and CHFI was on the 26th floor So you worked for both of them, you know, you did a report for CFTR. It went on CHFI I did a newscast up on CHFI, but you know who was when I was doing Overnights was Paul Cook who's also been on here. He's been on with his wife yeah

yeah yeah Stephanie yeah Stephanie Smay. Yeah so yeah so that's CHFI. CKEY I had left the business and gone traveling Europe for a couple of months and then came back and was lucky enough to land at CKUY, which was at the top of number one Young. And there were greats there too. There was Robert Payne, Jay Nelson, Jungle Jay was there. Who else? He died far too soon.

Yeah, yeah. And his son also. John Rody was there. John Rody, who was like the voice of, I want to say of like much music or some kind of voiceover guy in the early days of much music, So and you know you're a kid Trying to break into this business and you're a sponge to all these people right and you know

They made it all possible just learning from them. So that's the and then and then so CKY Then I went to CFM why and CFM why was in Brampton in a strip Plaza and I remember it going where am I? We were familiar with the station before you you know, oh, yeah, I was a fan Yeah, okay. Can I jog you remember I pulled this just because I knew we were gonna talk a little CFNY of the era So let me just play this CFNY's Ontario Place road shows continue Tuesday Tuesday, July 17th at the Molson Summer Gardens, this time with the live Earl Jive. Ladies and gentlemen, let me present the live Earl Jive, possibly the most important thing

this side of the world. Hey, join me, the live Earl Jive, and meet in person my sister and brother-in-law from California, my nephew Tim with his wife and their two little kids, and of course the lovely and talented Beverly Hills. Don't miss this rare opportunity to meet actual members of my family. The Hip-Hop Jumping Jive makes you hip-hip from the male side. The all-new CFNY Video Roadshow with the live Earl Jive together again Tuesday, July 17th. Moles and Summer Gardens at Ontario Place.

Join the spirit live on the waterfront. Absolutely free with admission to the park. All to you from 102. CFNY the spirit Just to jog your memory there. Yeah, live or die Beverly Hills Pete and Geets were there when I was there. So I was a big fan of them. I I was growing up listening to them and Love the station loved the music everything about it. I was listening to I've run you had him on the other day. He retired too. Everyone's retiring. And he tells me he chose to retire as well. I know. And they give him a big party as well. It's nice. Yeah.

Look at all you people choosing to retire. What's going on here? The way it's the future. Okay. Keep name dropping. Actually, let me name drop. Okay. Note came in from Captain Phil Evans. Oh, I love that man. He's a good storyteller. Ask him about his stint as Canada's overnight news voice. Yeah, well I did overnights for a long time. Ruined my sleep forever. Yeah, I did them at CFTR.

I did them at CKEY. I did them for what was called news radio at the time where it went across the country at night. Yeah, and I wasn't very good. I remember being at a party much later, like a few years later after leaving CFTR, and a guy says, what do you do? And I go, I work in radio, I'm a newscaster.

What's your name? Oh, have you gotten any better yet? Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. No. It's a break.

So many things in my 2024 brain, of things that boggle me is that, you know, back then all these radio stations had great news department. Yes. Can we talk about that? Yes. Today? Yes. I don't know.

There is, I mean, even, uh, even the mighty, you know, 10 10 CFRB doesn't have a news department. They got to farm it out from, uh, whatever. CP 24 CF. Well, Bell does it out from whatever, CP24 or CQD. Well, Bell does it. CFTO does it. Yeah, but it's not the same. At least radio stations all had CFNY. I know it was part of their CRTC mandate, I'm sure.

But CFTR had a robust news department. I had an award-winning news department. It had a fantastic... They all did. CKY did. And that was the great thing about working in radio in news radio at the time Would you were working and and it mattered? CF and why I had this amazing?

News department for a rock station and so that was so what was so great about that Rick Charles a great news reader. He was my boss Mary Ellen Be Benninger was there. Now married to Alan Cross. Alan still married. I'm glad. Yeah, the two of them. Yeah, Alan Cross. Isn't he fantastic? What a career he's had. Yeah, and he's heavily involved with Ivor Hamilton in the CFNY documentary that you and I are going to go see together. Oh, I wouldn't mind. I'd love that. Yeah. I remember Alan Cross. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, who are your... I'm curious about two things. One is make sure you name check everybody you remember from your time at Sable. How long we asked a wife or two years, two years. So name check everybody who is there. I'm like with Scott Turner. There's Scott Turner was there as May Potts. There may pots was there. She's the nicest woman in radio, as we say. KJ, I know my sister, KJ was nice man in radio.

Yeah, but there are're together on Boom. Oh, are they? Yeah. Oh, good. You didn't know that? I did, actually, yes. They're a long time now, Austin. I got to update you on everything.

Who else can you name check from this era of CFNY? Was Danielle well there? Not yet. Yeah, she was. I didn't know her. News department, Mike Cancellara was there. Alan Erickson was there. Great reporter. Uh, they were just, it was just a top notch news team. And, and they, yes, they all had top

notch news teams. Like you say, the CRTC made them have them in FM. And when, as soon as they took that away, they all dropped them all. Right. Which is such a shame because they were good. They all dropped them all right, which is such a shame because they were good Who else was there? Neil Mann was there right Martin Streak was just starting out right? Oh, and we're all looking for Chris Shepard I do you have any idea where he is maybe in your world? Basement stumble upon him in Thailand or something The funniest story that no one can find Chris Shepard, but it's real because yeah So some idiot podcaster and so the Tobacco one can find Chris Sheppard. But it's real because yeah, so some idiot podcaster in South Etobicoke is looking for

Chris Sheppard obviously, although I've been looking for 12 years, but I digress. But now you have the makers of the aforementioned CFNY documentary who really want to put, you know, Chris Sheppard in the CFNY documentary, they can't find him. I don't understand because I know they've been hunting for him for a year or two Yeah, how he hasn't heard he must have heard what you think he's in Costa Rica I believe he does not he I believe he is in coast. I have some leads on this I believe he's in Costa Rica and he does not want to be found He must not but he's such a such a part of that music scene

I Liked him. He was he was sort of funny. He would just look at me and go, yeah. Often imitated, never duplicated Austin. Spinning the wheels of steel in a Friday night. He couldn't believe it that I was going to see FTO. He thought that was the coolest. Yeah, man.

I would think the opposite. I think, oh, I didn't turn off my ringer. Look at what I am. It's Chris Shepard. No, but it is. It is. It's Shep on the phone I am. It's Chris Shepard. No, but it is. It is. It's Shep on the phone. What's going on Shep?

When you would talk to Chris Shepard and he wasn't in his on air persona, did he talk like that? Yeah. The way I remember it, yeah, Austin. So he would always put on the fake, I don't know what it was, like fake English accents he was doing.

I don't remember that. This is a long time ago It's it's 34 or 35 years ago. You're you got a little beer in you now. How's the great lakes by the way? It's fantastic. It's cold. It's refreshing. It is a lovely lager. I highly recommend it at your local beer store Yeah, go to uh, well not the beer store I think you got to go to an lcbo or I recommend buying it straight from hq which is in southern atoba Go go to great lakesakesBeer.com. I'm actually gonna be there tomorrow morning.

On my way home. It's all I drank is Great Lakes beer. Okay, you have an authoritative news voice, so can you put a plea into the microphone that if anybody has any connection to Chris Shepard and can introduce me to him via email or whatnot to do so. Let's hear it on something. Shep, man, Shep, where are you? Shep.

He should come on your show, but he should be in that documentary. He was such a big part of that station. And going back to that station, and he was so unique. He came off the streets. A lot of people did, came off the streets and became stars at Martin Street came off the streets they all did I mean Marsden you know he was well-known he was Dave Mickey before that at CKY yeah all the greats that went through CK he's coming back by the way in early March which at his birthdays in early March Mars bar wants to return to Toronto Mike it's been a few years and he confirmed that earlier this week he tells a story about hiring Martin

Streak shout out to Ridley funeral home. He tells the story about he got the, he was, they needed someone to drive the truck for the, uh, the road show that we just were just hearing about the, uh, the, what was it called? The, uh, the road show, traveling road show CFY travel. Anyways, they needed someone to drive the truck and yeah, Marden Street got the proper license and that was the moment he got to join the team. And Donnie Burns was there, right? Of course. The late Donnie Burns.

So he would walk by the newsroom and I think he was program director when I was there and I would beg him to let me go and introduce a band at the Maple Leaf Gardens or something. I just wanted to say, hello Toronto. Did you ever get to do that? I got to introduce some movies and the Shakespeare in the Parks.

I was hoping you'd say you got to introduce the spoons and then I could tell you that Rob Pruss is a key member of this program, keyboardist for spoons back then. Love the spoons. I bet you do, okay what are your jams? We're gonna get you to the CFTO next, but when you are listening to music for pleasure What do you spend these days?

I I'm addicted to Spotify and I have music on in the house all day long and it goes from lately I've been listening to some French jazz. Oh Just because I like the way it sounds I'm not hearing the lyrics even though I can speak a little bit of French But not that good French. I recommend Flemish jazz. Oh very good It's a bit of a harsh language So just yeah, I just I can have stuff on the house all the time. I love it. All right How do you get the gig at CFTO in 1989 you apply?

Okay, no I told I tell that because there's a story behind it because when you get that gig, when you leave radio, when you go up to TV or go up to TV, and that's what a lot of people saw it as, they saw it as, well, first of all, you're gonna get paid a lot more money than radio could ever pay you.

And everyone would come up to me and say to me, how did you do that? Who do you know? What did you, how? And I went, I applied. And they would say, can you put a good word in for me? I said, yes, if you apply and they didn't always apply. Right. Right. Well, it's sort of like, so like how did you get Dave Thomas on Toronto mic? I'm like, I asked him. He said, yes.

Well there was a big executive there named Ted Delaney and everybody used to think I was his son and I wasn't, I would be in taxis and people would say, your dad got you the job. And you'd go, nope, my dad didn't get me the job there. Nope. No relationship. No relation. Also, Jackie Delaney, not a Delaney.

That's her some grandmother. Anyways, that's not her name. OK, so you apply and you get the gig. This is CFT. I just saw, I'm coming off, you have to understand, two days ago I had Tom Hays and we walked through this and we talked about, and I hope you can reemphasize this, but how big a deal CFTO News was in 1989.

This is by far the most watched Toronto newscast there is. It was a huge deal and going, first of all I couldn't believe it, I got the gig. I applied for it, there was a job opening, and yeah, got the gig, and I remember walking in there the first day, nervous as anything, had to buy three suits, I didn't own any suits because I worked in radio, you worked cowboy boots and that kind of thing, and had a haircut,

and I remember walking in the door and saying hi, and then they said, there's a fire downtown someplace, you gotta go, and they're throwing me out the door with a camera person, and I'm asking them what the phone number is here to call in. But it's Baptism by Fire. And yeah, it was super cool. It was a great place to work,

and I was just so privileged to get that gig and have such a great career there. Well, 34 years, Austin. Incredible. Yeah. The only guy who didn't get another job offer. That's why I see it. I was going to ask you, any job offers from NBC, CBS? No, nothing like that at all. You follow JD Roberts in his American news path? So I remember JD Roberts when he, when he started to do news. So he came out of Much Music and, and he showed up at Queen's Park one day and Queen's Park

was pretty cliquey. There were a lot of reporters there back then. A lot, we had our own bar, Press Gallery had its own bar. It was a great place to work. JD shows up and he's John now, I think he is. And people are snickering because he's the much music guy. And he starts asking questions in the scrum and he starts leading the scrum. And I just walked away going this guy's going

places and of course he did. And now he's at Fox News. Yep. What a career he had. Oh yeah no doubt. Absolutely and from from breaking through the very and I didn't see it because I didn't have it in my cable package at the time but it was Christopher Ward and JD Roberts busting through this like paper like a first ever day of much music on the air at ninety nine Queen Street East. I think I've seen that. I don't think I saw the first one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of like the famous moment there, but yeah, he was the tide. I guess you can tie J.D. Robertson Christopher Ward. Are they answered to a trivia question like the first the first VJs in much music history. That was another dog.

Did you ever, I don't know if it's widely available yet, but did you ever see the 299 Queen Street West? No, I just, it's coming up on one of the streamers. Oh yeah, maybe it's coming now. I just read the other day, but it got a lot of publicity, and it was kind of fun to see people out there that you grew up listening to in that whole era that really was interesting, you know?

And again, Moses and Ima, right? Well, I'm gonna ask you, when you joined CFTO in 1989, did you apply elsewhere? Like, did you try to get into the Moses plex there at 299? No, no, it was my first foray into TV. I heard there was a job opening, and there was a cameraman named Byron Auburn who was on the streets, and he said, you know, there's an opening you should apply.

I'll put a word in for you as well. Paul Rogers worked there. He was a fantastic reporter at the time. He put a good word in for me and his word was pretty, the two of them, their words were pretty solid and, you know, I just walked in, met the boss, took a few hands, did a quick demo downstairs on a teleprompter that I'd never done before. And then what happened back then was Doug Bassett, the owner of the station, he'd look at the tape and it was a yay or nay and I got a yay. And then I had a mustache back

then and about a week later, Doug Bassett came into the newsroom and he said, welcome aboard Austin. Thank you, Mr. Bassett. And then he goes, what are we going to do about this? And he goes, hands on my mustache. Well, George Stibrander. come aboard Austin. Thank you Mr. Bassett." And then he goes, what are we gonna do about this? And he goes, hands on my mustache. Well George Stibrander. He's going, oh, you don't want it on? Nope! It was gone by the afternoon. So no facial hair on CFTO. That would be the difference between City TV and CFTO. Lauren Honigman had the soup strainer, as did others of course. I ran into

Lauren the other day. Where? Tell me, he's my guy. He's a great guy, isn't he? Yeah, he helped Mike Stafford. He was helping him a little bit. Well, he heard Toronto Mike and Stafford talking about how he never got severance and then Lorne made a phone call and next thing you know, just under the wire, Stafford is able to file a whatever legal thing against Chorus to try to get severance for his 20 years in the business. Lauren Honigman tells the story that he loves to tell the story. He's a funny guy. That

he taught me how to walk and talk. So way back when City TV was a bit of a leader in walking and talking and doing that kind of stuff. Constant movement in that environment. And then we caught on to it at CFTO and we were, there was an instruction came down, start walking and talking a bit and was foreign to us right and he saw me doing it one day and he came over made some fun of me let me fun of me doing it and tells the story that he taught me how to walk and talk well somebody had to do it might as well be the great Lauren Honigman absolutely he's a mensch as he once called me a

mensch I said no you're a mensch. I said, no, you're a mensch. That means sweetheart in Yiddish. OK, OK, you're a sweetheart, Austin. He's a mensch. OK, so Joe Louis, here's a question from Joe Louis. He's a listener. He says, I'd like to ask Austin Delaney, what is his Silverman moment? OK, so what Joe Louis is referring to is Peter Silverman, the late great Peter Silverman, speaking of City TV, has this watch it buddy, right? Like, did you have any such watch it buddy moment, Austin?

I think I was more sorry to bother you. Sorry to hear about your loss. Do you have a second to talk? You don't mess with Peter Silverman, right? No, no. He was, yeah. He was a tough cookie. He was. He might have been in the Israeli army or something. Like he didn't, don't fuck with Silverman.

That's what I would say. I know he did work overseas. I think he was building, he did some charity work where he'd go over and build school houses and things like that. But he was always fun around. Cullen Vaughn, all those guys. Cullen Vaughn, what a character.

Seriously, what a character. And again, when you go back and you're making me think about all these Yeah, Joe Joe Chinto Joe Joe Chinto. Yeah, he's a you know, what a lovely man Hurricane Harold Hossain Yeah, didn't know him. Well, I can tell you he's been over he came over in the summer. It was great But let's get back to CFTO here Okay, we're gonna do 90 minutes on City TV and I'm gonna be like, oh shit. He was at CFTO for 34 years We forgot to talk about it. All right. So no watch it buddy moment. Joe Louis for

for Austin Delaney. I'm curious about the how the newsroom changed. So when you show up in 1989, I'm curious, like tell me about the newsroom in 1989 and drop some names if you don't mind. And then maybe as you say goodbye, nine, whatever, March, 20, 23, what was the newsroom like then? Like, what a change you witnessed. Yes. So you walk into the newsroom and it was a different newsroom that is now. It was a small newsroom on the first floor and it was packed and it had typewriters, the manual kind, and you typed a script and that's how you did it. it was a lot of fun editors were there there were a lot and it was a time of my life we were all young and we were all ambitious and we

were all a team and we all hung out together because you know one was married really you know and we you know you go to the bars and everything afterwards and there was that that that fun that camaraderie that was there for a long, long time. And then live television came. Uh, we started to get the live trucks, which scared the heck out of me when I first started. It's not like today, the kids of today. I remember my first live hit, I had to go home sick afterwards. I was so nervous. That went away of course.

So yeah. And you know, the newsrooms evolved as they do, as you've documented on your show, they've changed. Well, they're shrinking. They're shrinking. I hadn't been at CTV for three years because of COVID. So what happened during COVID was they had a brilliant idea. The management there was they divided the newsroom up

into two groups, the people who worked outside. I was an outside worker, wasn't allowed inside the building in case COVID came in. If you remember when COVID started, nobody knew anything. So they were taking risks and Bell also owned CP24. CP24 had a satellite news room in another building, in the chum building next door to them in case COVID swept through

and they had to stay on the air. So when I finally went back to see TV after COVID, the place was empty. So people were working remotely and editors were working remotely. And it was very, it was a very different scene. And that's shortly later after that, I left and retired. Wow. Well, so you witnessed quite a change

and you witnessed the, tell me if I'm right about this, but like you would have a cameraman, but would you still get a cameraman or would you have to do that yourself now? Like the new way to do it at CTV is, is you're doing it all. You're doing it all. There are still camera operators around.

You get them sometimes and sometimes you don't. Some of it's on your iPhone, some of it's on another camera, a kit that is provided now. It depends, but yeah, it's a very different way of gathering news than it was when I started. And mind you, when I was in radio, uh,

and I looked at the TV crews way back when the CBC crews, they would come with a, I think these are the national crews. They'd have a sound man, a producer, a cameraman and a reporter out there. That's bigger than the newsroom too. It is. Uh, so it's a bit, it's a bit of a one man show. Now they don't have the, the, it, it, the, the technology has changed so much that you can edit your piece in your car

and you can send it up without a truck. It just goes up, boom, it's there. And yeah, it's all changed. Absolutely. Hey, I wanna ask you about, so it's funny, again, it's wild coincidence to me that you and Tom Hays were 48 hours apart. Was Tom Hays fun to work with?

Yeah, he's a great guy. He's the guy who taught me, so when I first got there, I was a bit embarrassed that I was on TV. I didn't quite get it all. And I wasn't doing stand-ups because there wasn't much live. And he said, why aren't you doing stand-ups?

And I said, I'm a bit embarrassed about it. I don't know how to do it and stuff like that. He goes, you've got to put yourself in the story because people want to know who's telling the story. And I got that and I'm still the same way. When I watch TV news, I want to see the face of the person who's telling that story to me. So I always got myself in and it was good for my career. I like my mom said you're handsome, so get your freaking self in that story. Austin, come on, let the ugly people stay out of the story. Okay. We handsome people need to be part of the story.

I'll leave that with you. Do you like Italian food? I love Italian food. Okay. Who doesn't? Well, I would like to know if anyone other doesn't like Italian food, talk to me. I'm gonna rough you up a little bit. Okay, I have in my freezer right now a large meat lasagna courtesy of Palma Pasta. I can't wait. It's delicious. When do you travel to Asia? Next week. Okay, you got time to eat this. Okay, I can help you eat that. Okay, Austin. So you get the lasagna, you're going to bring home some more beer. I know you're enjoying a great place right now, Great Lakes and over some beer shadow to Great Lakes Brewery, delicious fresh craft beer,

Palma pasta. That's where you get your authentic Italian food in the GTA there in Mississauga and Oakville and that measuring tape is courtesy of a Ridley funeral home Pillars of the community since 1921. So measure what you want Austin that's between you and your god what you measure Okay, I don't need I don't need to know that. Okay. All right When Tom Hayes was here We talked about him covering the Paul Bernardo trial Yeah was here we talked about him covering the Paul Bernardo trial yeah and I had some real questions about his mental health through this like did they did

they at that time would see TTFTO offer up somebody you could talk to like a I think so yes because I can't imagine what you would yes you're in and I'm you you my friend you covered the Carla Hamilka trial, right? Yes. Yes. So that was before Paul's trial. And you know, I was fishing around, I was looking for, you know, I was looking for the other day, I was going through my box of life and I wanted to frame this and it was a, I

have a lovely letter from David Peterson when I got my job at CFTO and I got one from Bob Ray as well. And for some reason that didn't get framed. And I wanted to put that on the wall of fame thing. So I found that, but I also found the script from that day sitting in the box of life from the Carla Homoka day when she was, when she pled out. And I read it and it just brought back tons and tons

of memories about that day because it was a crazy day because that was the day we learned that they had killed her sister Tammy, because she had given Tammy as a gift Christmas gift to Paul to allow him to rape her. And they gave her too much, uh, uh, sedative and she choked on her vomit and died and no one knew about that. and we had to keep that quiet and I remember reading the script there but I was in the truck that day and ran out of the new at this isn't St. Catharines ran out of the

courtroom to file for noon and I couldn't read the script I was so f'd up about it well it was yes it was like you killed your sister like we'd all got used not you know got used to it. You knew about the horrific rape and murders of Leslie Malafi and Kristen French, but you did not know about Tammy. No, and it was just like I couldn't read the script. My colleagues will say what else is new, Austin? But yeah, that was hard. And then we were sworn by the judge not to talk about it with anyone about what happened that day. And then we were sworn by the judge not to talk about it with anyone

about what happened that day. The publication ban. And it was a major publication ban. Here's a story, I was in a bar one time shortly afterwards and I don't remember this, but a guy calls up the station he says, yeah, I was in a bar the other day and I met your reporter Austin Delaney. And I tried to get him to talk about the Karl Amok stuff

and he wouldn't. I just wanted you to know that. Well, good for that guy to say that and not lie and say, he told me everything. Good for me, I wasn't too tipsy and talked about it. No, you're the consummate professional. That's what Dana Levinson told me. A lot of the many attributes of, I was like,

I thought you might be floating as you came in. I was like, okay. Dana described you, I'm like, oh, he's just gonna float like an angel. He's gonna be on a cloud. He's gonna come down and it's Tom Hayes. No, no, you didn't. Tom Hayes is not as flattering as yours. I know you're listening right now. Sounds like you're a second place, buddy. Austin is a winner here. Also as producer on the DL, I don't remember Tom Hayes on the DL with Dana Levinson. I remember Austin Delaney on the DL with Dana Levinson. I remember Austin

Delaney on the DL with Dana Levinson. So that's food for thought as I, you know, think on that one for a little bit. Speaking of Tom Hayes, he won an Edward R. Murrow award, but you doubled that. You won two. What did you win these Edward R. Murrow awards for? One of them, one of them is for a story, a court story. It was a funny court story. We were at a courthouse, John Mosselman and I, and somebody escaped. And I think John found the guy, tells the cops, he's in the bushes over here.

So we did a couple of stories on that. Yeah, that's one of them. The other one I'm not quite sure. But is it, tell me the truth, is it a prestigious award? Or do they hand these out like candy? I think it's prestigious. It sounds prestigious, but then,

it's like Order of Canada. Order of Canada sounds amazing, till you see that they gave it to like a thousand people the other day. You know what I mean? I just feel like if everyone's getting an Edward R. Murrow award, it's not that prestigious. But you're telling me it's? Like I just feel like if everyone's getting an Edward R. Murrow award, it's not that prestigious, but you're telling me it's still

a better not getting one. It's true. I feel sorry for those saps who don't win any Edward R. Murrow awards. I think I'm up for one for my reporting on on the Mike Stafford situation. I don't know what I'm trying to think off the top of my head here. But congrats to you on winning these. Are they their plaques, right? Your your company makes a plaque for you. So yes. Yes

Okay, you have them in your wall of fame or whatever you got going on there in the beaches It's somewhere when did you switch from the beaches to the beach? Like it's that something you always call it the beach or did you say I'm always the beach I see it as one. I understand the the history of the beach I understand that it's a lot of different beach, the Q beach, there's a whole bunch of different beaches, but when you're down there or you fly in on Porter, you will see one beach. You see Daytona beach. You know what I mean? When you're flying. Okay. So one beach though, I see one beach is so Lake Ontario, cause we both live close to Lake Ontario. It's one beach all around. You know what I mean? Like, I mean,

I guess there's, there's homes and stuff that separate the beaches. But so you're telling me, and I believe you, but that if you live in this area of Toronto where you live, it is, there is, it is the beach. It is not the beaches. Well, it got voted as the beach by the community. Um, the, the old time I used to live there, I'm, I'm new. I've only been there. I don't know, 15 years. So I call it the beach because when I look at it, it starts at Woodbine and it ends right

about where I live, just down by the filtration plant. It looks like one beach to me, there's one big boardwalk. But you know, before, a long time ago, there were amusement parks down there, they had the horse that jumps off the, into the water, had all that stuff. It was it. It was a it was a cottage industry for Toronto. When Toronto was tiny and people would take a streetcar train out to their cottages in the beach.

So when you now 15 years living in the beach, when you visit New Toronto, where you are now, which is nestled between Mimico and Long Branch, but we call this Lakeshore Village. Like, what is it like for you to venture to this area? You're like, Oh, like I'm in the bizarro world. No, it's a two hour drive. My brother in law lives out here. It's a, you know who lives out here? Alicia K Markson. Do you remember her from, from CFTO? No, say the name again. Alicia K. Markson. Alicia, Alicia K. Markson.

Yeah, she lives out here. She's, she's out here. You know who else is out here? Carl Hanske from 680 News. Oh, traffic guy. Yeah, and Michelle Butterly of course, cause they live together. Don't know, oh they do?

I didn't know that. Yes, you can start spreading the rumors. They do and they have a big dog named Gracie. I didn't know that. Michelle Butterly from CHFI. Whenever I hear her name, I go, Butterly. Can't be a real name, right? I got to see that birth certificate. Really? But you can make an argument, Austin Delaney sounds a little fake,

like a soap opera actor or something, but that's your birth name? Yeah, my dad's name, my great uncle's name. But you know it's got a nice name to present, especially an on air person. Well, my parents will tell the story that I hated my name when I was a kid. I wanted to be a John, a Christopher, or something like that, because there were no Austins. And then, you know, you're right,

it's a pretty good TV name. I'd believe you were a soap opera star. Before that? Like Austin Delaney, soap opera superstar. Every once in a while, somebody will come up to me on the street and go my mom named me after you or I named my son after you right and now they're all naming their kids after Austin Matthews and spelling it differently here. Okay, let's get a little

more recent. Okay, okay and and that Carla Hamocha trial yep still might be like maybe the biggest story. What would you deem the biggest story you've ever worked for CTV? Um, G 20 was pretty good. Okay, let's go there next then. Okay, that was actually where I wanted to go. Anyway, okay, the 2010 G 20 protests. Tell me about covering that. It was, it was unreal. It was, it was, it was unbelievable. It was, it was, I, I, I still am stunned having difficulty finding words today.

You know, we knew it was going to be crazy. We didn't know how crazy. And we had gas masks, we had helmets. There were cops everywhere. And I just remember being there, my cameraman at the time was Danny Pinto, and he was really into it. So I had a great, you know, cause we had to run a lot. My shoulder still hurts, I think,

from running with this big heavy camera through the streets of Toronto. And you know, they'd taken over. The black block had outwitted the cops. And they, instead when the cops were, so the protest started, it was peaceful. A lot of, you know of families and things like that and interspersed into this group were these rioters.

And they shot up a firework at one point on Spadina, I think it was, and it went up in the air. And as soon as that went up, that was the signal. And everybody ran the other way and caught the cops off guard. And then they started going up Young Street and causing trouble. Now, you know, we're used to seeing police cars on fire on the news in other countries, in Paris, places like that. But when you see that in Toronto on Bay Street,

it's jarring, it really is jarring to see and people just running amok of the city, smashing things and no regard for peacetime and peaceful protest and it was insane. Just insane. And your reporting helped expose the Black Bloc, right? Yeah, there was this really interesting time. We were just running up a street and saw these people taking their black clothing off and stripping down to their regular clothes, their t-shirts that they were wearing before.

And my cameraman saw it and we zoomed in on it and they tried to get us to stop it and we didn't and they thought that if they gave me the finger on the camera that we wouldn't show that on TV and we did. And I don't know if they got caught, but a lot of people got caught because the cops, first of all, there were so many cops there disguised as journalists taking pictures of everybody all the time. And what they did, how they caught all these people was they would, they zeroed in on, so say a black block person was smashing a police car, lighting it on fire. They'd look for an earring.

They'd look for a lace, a shoelace, something, and then they'd go through, meticulously go through the video and find that same shoelace on somebody wearing normal clothes and then zero in on that person. Whole bunch of people went to jail for that stuff. Wow. And a lot of them just got caught up in it too that normally don't do that kind of stuff. But there were a lot of assholes.

Lot of assholes. Okay. So changing the disguises and all that important reporting. Important to reporting by you Austin Delaney. I'm going to take a moment, Austin, to just tell you about a couple of, well, I'll tell you about one website. It is RecycleMyElectronics.ca. And Austin, if you have any old electronics or a drawer full of old cables you'll never use or old iPhones or something, don't throw that in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill. You can go to RecycleMyElectronics.ca and put in your beach postal code and it'll be like, oh, like two blocks away, there's an EPRA accredited depot, drop it off there and it'll be properly recycled. So remember that address, recycle my electronics dot C a good. Thank you. I have a printer and because you're retired and you don't do anything.

Well, you go into Asia, like I'm going to ask you more about what's next because it's like, when are you starting your podcast? Austin? No, but you obviously invested like, obviously, I think one of the keys is you got married one time and that's for life. Right, Austin? I'm married twice. You're married twice.

See, I'm making these assumptions. Everybody is, aren't they? I am. That's for sure. But you know what? Most people. So, okay. So you were able to retire even though you're divorced.

You had a starter marriage. Oh, the divorce is so long ago. Right, you had no money. Okay, so long ago. So long ago, okay. Yeah. That's why, why did I think you were married to, okay, that's fine, I'm married,

I'm second time married too. But whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment plans, The Advantage Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. The Advantage Investor is a podcast. You can subscribe to Austin hosted by Chris Cooksey. He's a good guy. I highly recommend it. Now you have your marching orders.

How long you been married this time? Because last time. Okay, you know what? Similar to me, I married almost 11 years in June. Yeah, it's fun, isn't it? Well, you know, you would call, so, okay, so this is news to me, I don't know, maybe I should have paid more attention

to On the DL with Dana Levinson, and I would have learned that you were on your second marriage, but she's on her second marriage, too, and she's very happy Yeah, she's extremely happy. Yeah, and yeah, she's she's she's yeah, she's just doing fantastic Isn't she and her husband who is a doctor? Has the same birthday as me no way that's coming up now. It's coming up in June Further away I guess. But on that note, I'd like to invite everyone including you Austin to come to TMLX 15, that's the 15th Toronto Mike listener

experience. It's happening at Great Lakes Brewery on June 27 from 6 to 9 p.m. Great Lakes will buy you your first beer and Palm of Pasta will feed you and we're just going to have a gay old time, okay? Just like the Flintstones. So Austin, I don't know if you'll be in the country, but put that in the calendar. You gotta get there. You and Tom Hayes can come together, the CFTO block, if you will. All right, so you're going to Asia. This is an amazing trip you have planned. But then what? Like then what? Oh, we've got all kinds of stuff planned. Then we wanted to go to Africa. Yeah, we're going to Poland. Stephanie Smythe, Paul Cook's son is getting married. And we're going to go to the

wedding in Poland. Okay, when's this? That's in September. Okay. Yeah. So we're just planning that. And then we'll go to Hungary with that as well And I think we're gonna go to the Cotswolds for just a walking tour with some friends of ours You were made to retire like you've got a good that's what you do You got to keep you got to travel so you don't get bored so my financial guy He said to me when I said I'm playing from Raymond James, Canada. I'm why did you ditch him? He's done. He's done But I talked to him and he said, we had a meeting and he said, okay, this is go-go time. You're young, you're in your early 60s, you've

got lots of energy, you're not, you're not, you're, you're healthy. Go-go. And then there's slow go and then there's no go. There'll be a time in your life. You don't want to do anything anymore. So go-go now. So we're go-go. Now is that you're healthy enough to go go go these trips and everything everything now is the time to enjoy life without having deadlines and having to cover fires and stuff like that good for you honestly very few people come over here and they look me in the eye and I believe you 100% you you made the call you talked to your financial advisor you realize you could do this and you made the call and said

I'm gonna do this good for for you. Yeah, at 61. And so my wife got out at 57. She's out too. She's at 57. It wouldn't be so much fun without her. If you had to get up in the morning and kiss your spouse goodbye, and they were going, what are you gonna do all day?

Nothing. She's like, it would be. But she's not sick of having you around all the time. No, no. Because she likes you. Because we get along. Because it's your second marriage of having you around all the time. No, no She likes you get along because it's your second time. I I I say that all the time I say we get along and that we like each other and that's that's key I think well, that's the key because you know when you get married the second time typically you marry your best friend, right?

Like this is so you want to spend time with your best friend. Yeah, Austin You got it all figured you got the the the soap opera name. You're living the life here You got all these trips. So looking back at the 34 years, any is there any other story you want to highlight now? This is your Toronto mic debut. We talked about some terrible stuff you had to cover with Carla Hamolka. Yeah. We talked about the 2010 G20 protests, but is there any other event that you are happening that you covered that you just want to highlight on your way out?

It's not so much a highlight. I enjoyed the courts a lot. Just so much was at stake. You had the two sides. You had the accused and the victims family. And just to watch that unfold and the drama of all that. And then every once in a while you'd see somebody who was wrongly accused let out after 25 years in jail. And that's a gift.

Can you name it? Because I mean, Keepo Moran is a name that comes to mind who was wrongly accused. Yeah. I don't have contact with him anymore, but for a long time we'd run into each other at certain things. Yeah, he was wrongly accused. Romeo, what is his name now? Romeo. He died a couple of years ago. Right. But he Romeo. Oh, I forgot. Anyway, he was he was in jail for murder. He didn't do and he would he would not tell the parole board that he was guilty of it. So he stayed for like 30 years. Because if you don't say, you know, repent your sins, you don't get out.

Well, that's the thing, right? That if you admit what you did, you get out before, because it was a Romeo-phileon. Yes, that's it, yeah. Right, I'm looking at it now. Confessed, oh, cause- You're good on that computer. Wow, just a quick Google search here.

Who are you? Doing that so fast. I'll be 50 in June. Good for you. Big milestone, big milestone year for me. Are you you? You're doing that so fast. I'll be 50 in June. Good for you. Big milestone. Big milestone year for me. Are you scared? Scared?

Like the way I look at it is you got two options. You can get older or you can die. Like these are the two options, right? Like I feel this is right now, I feel like I like this option better. So it's like, it's just a measurement of time on earth. You have no control over it. So I don't even think about it.

You know, I'm holding onto my hair hair Austin this is uh this is yeah TV's calling you I think they lost my number TV why don't you have it on a webcam that's what everyone that's what all the kids are doing well there's a webcam there right so this well you're looking too far this oh oh so this does go on the web oh my dot Toronto Mike calm has this right now Oh my god, the old guy doesn't even notice the web. Yeah. Yeah, so even 12. Oh, you look great 1236 is on the live stream to let us know that Romeo Philemon Died at 76. Yeah

Yeah, okay. I always think a hurricane Ruben Carter same group same group got him out with that with that great lawyer we think of Hurricane Ruben Carter? Same group, same group got him out with that with that great lawyer who helps everybody. I can't remember his name either. OK, you're going to make me do a lot of Googling today here, Austin. I didn't know here, but yeah, I if it comes to you, somebody on the live stream wants to bail out Austin here. But any other any other like like you mentioned your love and retirement, and I believe you because look at all this. Look at your life, man. I'm envious. But do

you ever miss, do you miss the people like you missed the just the camaraderie of having colleagues? Yeah, I'm I missed I miss, you know, people you work with very closely, you miss them because they become your friends, your colleagues, you know, about their families, you know, about their trials and tribulations, when their kids are getting married, when they're getting divorced, when they're getting married, it becomes part of your life. Their struggles, their kids' baseball games.

But you know, it's time to move on. I thought I would miss being in the thick of things, throwing questions in scrums. I loved a good scrum, a nice big scrum. But those scrums are smaller now. There's so many few people in there and the cameras are smaller. There's nothing like a good election day moving scrum.

When you're in the thick of it and you're moving into that group of people with the elected winner, shouting out questions, tripping over cords, I miss that, but not that much. Moose Grumpy, by the way, on the live stream is wondering if you're thinking of James Lockyer. Yes, Moose Grumpy. How do you get a name like that?

Moose Grumpy is a pillar of the FOTM community. What would we do without her? But as is 1236, and I'll just quickly shout out, the brother was wondering, I didn't shout him out, but the brother wants to know, did AI write Dana's script? Dana, let us know if AI wrote that script and Jesse Hirsch on the live stream good to see you buddy he's coming back to Toronto Mic'd in person soon and he had a great story and he wrote a great piece

about me and I appreciated that article about Toronto Mic'd Mr. Hirsch so thank you so much. Austin I can can't believe like how great your life has turned out, 34 years at CFTO. Now, I understand since you left, ratings are in the toilet. Like who would want to tune into a newscast without Austin Demaney? Have you heard the same? I have not heard if ratings are in the toilet.

That I have not heard. I imagine they're up after I left the door. I don't think it works that way, but continued enjoyment of that retirement. And I want to postcards from all these wonderful people. Are you going to the Philippines by any chance? No, no. Because if you do drugs there, they shoot you. I'm good on both parts. There was a time. There was a time. The wacky tobacco gets you shot there. At least that's what I'm told by my in-laws.

So not that I need the wacky tabacky, but I just don't want to go somewhere where I might get shot for doing recreational drugs. Well, you just don't want to get shot. You want to be careful in all these places, right? It's not your world. I'm sternly against getting shot. On our way out, I'm thinking of the movie Goodfellas, which I've seen a hundred times. And I'm not thinking of that because Martin Scorsese should finish up that SCTV documentary that he's not working on.

That's a whole separate rant. You can hear that in the Dave Thomas episode from Monday. But I'm thinking at the end, spoiler alert, when he's just a regular guy, like he's no longer connected. So he has to wait in line like everybody else to buy milk. And I'm thinking you had 34 years where you had that badge or whatever you had, and it had what? It had else to buy milk. And I'm thinking you had 34 years where you had that badge or whatever you had and it had what it had CFTO on it and then it had CTV Toronto on it and you'd wave it and you'd go to the front of the line. This whole city opened up for somebody who was on CFTO news. You don't have that badge anymore. Do you miss it? I don't. I know what you're talking about. If you're talking about the badge where you get to walk into City Hall where you

get to walk into the courthouse and I think it would get you anywhere to be honest but you know if getting into bars no nothing like that what's what are you trying? No what's really so I don't miss the I don't miss the work part of it where you have to go to City Hall and do those stories where the badge did let you in the front door without going through security and all that kind of business. But I'm not at City Hall. I'm not at police headquarters. I'm not at the courthouses. The other badges, people are just so nice. They still remember me. They're coming up to me all the time. You must get recognized a lot.

They're just saying, have a night. How's retirement, Austin? And talk to you a little bit about it and get on your way. It's lovely. It's been fantastic experience. This was lovely. This was fantastic. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me. Don't leave without the lasagna. We'll take a picture by the Toronto tree. And that brings us to the end of our 1,414th show. I like saying 1414. It just sounds better. That's our 1414th show. You can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike. I'm also on blue sky

Austin can we follow you anywhere? I'm on Twitter Yes, Twitter Austin CTV seat. I think it's CTV Austin. I don't say Yeah, yeah, CTV has just been wonderful to me. Yeah, you're still on the website. That's the first sign that was an amicable split. When they keep you on the website, they just add a line to the top to say, Austin retired in March 2023. That's your first clue that it was an amicable split. It was a very amicable split. Yeah, I'm very grateful to CTV for everything. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, that's Palm Opasta,

that's Recycle My Electronics, that's Raymond James Canada, and that's Ridley Funeral Home. I was gonna have Sarah Slean on tomorrow, but she actually pulled a buffy on me, which means my next guest is, standby, we're doing this in real time. Oh, yeah.

Cancon... Oh, sorry. Con-Can, do you remember Con-Can? No, but I heard you talking about it today with somebody. Barry Harris is the guy behind Con-Can. He's going to drop by on Monday and tell me everything I ever wanted to know about Con-Can, but was afraid to ask. And we'll see how many times I accidentally call that band... Can-Con. Right, because I get that mixed up. Barry Harris, Monday

see you all then. I'd better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shakna Kur But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true because Everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away

Cause everything is rosy now, everything is rosy Yeah, everything is ros rose and gray