Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Barry Taylor: Toronto Mike'd #155

Episode Date: January 11, 2016

Mike chats with Barry Taylor about David Bowie, his years on 102.1 the Edge, why he was fired, his work at Y108, his stand-up career and his Raptors podcast.

Welcome to episode 155 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com and joining me this week is radio personality and stand-up comedian Barry Taylor. How's it going, man? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a pretty cold day today. Definitely January weather.

That's right. We act like this is foreign to us. What the heck is it doing cold in January in Toronto? But that's the way it's supposed to be. We had a good run, though. It was good, good mild weather there for a while. Dude, on Christmas Eve,

actually on Christmas Day, I was outside in a t-shirt. A lot of it. That's insane. I saw on the weekend, I was walking home and there were people, there was a girl in shorts

and it wasn't weird. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. That looks right. You're right. We balanced. Everything's awesome and then there was

a cold snap for a couple of days, but then it got awesome again. And now we're in a little dip again. But yeah, you know, that's Toronto. El Nino.

Big fan. Yeah, El Nino. That's right. So we can talk over this, but this is Space Oddity. Yes. Strange timing, because on Saturday, Em Griner dropped by, the singer-songwriter Em Griner. Oh, wow, cool. And she worked with Chris Hadfield on his famous cover of

space oddity no way yeah so this is two days ago and we're sitting she's sitting there and we're talking about she was she toured with bowie as like a keyboardist and backup singer so we're talking about bowie and i'm like telling her like bowie's awesome and she's talking about like how awesome bowie was as a person right and then Right? And then we're talking about doing this song with Chris Hadfield. And it was like, yeah, you know, Bowie's a living legend. And then I wake up this morning and find out he passed away of cancer. Yeah. That sucks.

Terrible. Terrible. Do you have a favorite Bowie song? This one's definitely up there. I don't know. This one's definitely up there. I mean, I'm just... He's literally an icon.

He's a legend. He's bigger than... And one of those inspirational guys. You look at your favorite band and they usually list Bowie as an influence, be it Nirvana or whatever. It's just, yeah. Yeah. And I can't remember what year,

but I was playing Electronic Arts, EA NHL Hockey on the PC in the late 90s. And I think it was, I'm trying to remember. I know Eric Lindros was on the cover, but I played the hell out of this game because before I had kids

and I could play video games in the good old days. And I remember this song here. This track was loaded in. It would play like a hockey montage to David Bowie's... It's perfect. Yeah,

perfect, yeah. And every time I heard this, it was like, it got me all, like, psyched up

for some, like, EA sports hockey. This is way better than the Wallflowers version. Yeah. Yeah,

he had a bit up on the Wallflowers, yeah. Yeah. So, he was 69 and up on the wall probably too. Yeah. So he was 69 and cancer took him. And it's funny because, funny, I guess weird funny, that when M. Greiner was here, we talked a lot about Bowie and we talked a lot about like how much cancer sucks

because we talked about somebody else who passed away from cancer. And it was just strange that that all kind of happened on Saturday and then this, which to us is out of nowhere because he didn't tell us. He didn't disclose that he was fighting cancer. No, yeah. No, I do. I was up last night

late on my computer and just came up on Twitter and I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a hoax or something, you know. Sure, yeah. After the Golden Globes or whatever, but yeah, sadly, it's, you know,

it's the reality, so. In that episode, this is episode 155. 154 ended kind of sad and then I promised myself, oh, Barry Taylor's coming in. He's a funny guy. I'm like,

we're going to keep it. It's going to be freaking fun. Pure fun. But we're starting sad. The train of sadness continues. That's right. So my last little footnote on David Bowie

before we move on is that somebody left a comment on my site today that there's sort of a white guy rap in this song. And they're wondering if this is the first instance in pop music where there's like a white guy rapping. Interesting. And I actually like yourself, I can see your brain is chugging away right now. I'm thinking like, maybe, is that true? And I'm thinking of all the songs that kind of have a white guy rapping and I can't think of an earlier instance

and I don't know if I'll play it long enough to get to the white guy rap, but it's kind of in the middle of this one. No, yeah, I don't I can't think of anything off the top of my head. No, so there's another great little David Bowie footnote. Hey, the beer before you, you see the case of Great Lakes Brewery Beer.

That's yours, man. Oh, wow. And I got more, too. Thank you very much. But I didn't want to put everything on the table. But yeah, so that's a new thing I'm doing here. So whenever somebody sits in the hot seat, they get rewarded with some booze.

Oh, nice. Okay. So I hope you drink. And I hope you're not a recovering alcoholic or this will be an awkward moment. Very worthwhile. No, I am doingze. Oh, nice. Okay. So I hope you drink. And I hope you're not a recovering alcoholic or this will be an awkward moment. Very worthwhile. No, I am doing a sober January though, but it'll be good in February.

February is just around the corner. Just after midnight on like, yeah, February 1st, you can. Yeah, perfect. Thank you very much. Hey man, no problem. And quick note, because I didn't do this last episode,

but there's a new Patreon. So I'm doing this Patreon thing. So you go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike, and then people can kind of crowdfund this podcast. So Steven Ball, Steven Ball just signed up. So thank you, Steven. And a quick thanks to everyone else who signed up so far. Pete Fowler, Norman Forbes, Ed Nicholson, Moose Grumpy, which is my favorite name on the list, Al Grego, Hamilton Mike, at 1236, Marc Asor, Steve Leggett, L Miller. I got to find out what L stands for. Mark Kluet and Rick C in Oakville. So thank you all. Ed the Sock gave me good advice,

which is don't be dismayed that the number isn't like instantly 100 people. You got to keep at it and keep going. So that's great, though.'s great though wow thanks man it's better than nothing like that's uh that's very cool and the first name one of the second name i listed there's pete fowler he was a guest recently and pete actually came on and told a whole bunch of interesting 102.1 stories because he was there when he left to become a cop i'm trying to remember when he left but it's uh before your time there but uh okay yeah yeah he was there that's right cool so tell me let's start with that like how did you end up on the air at 102.1 the edge um i went to uh mohawk college in uh from hamilton for radio right And then I interned in the creative department at The Edge.

And then once that was up, I got a job in promotions. And a couple overnight positions came up. And I went for them and was immediately told no. I was like, your voice is terrible. You'll never be on the radio. I was like, all right, fair enough. And then I was like, well, let me, can I try again? And the guy was like all right fair enough and then i was like well let me can i try again and the guy's like yeah whatever so i went back and put together this demo where i did this

over-the-top radio guy voice it was so ridiculous and he and the pd loved it he's like oh this is what i'm talking about and then so yeah he let me start to do overnights after that which pd was this this was dave farrell dave farrell yeah he uh. Yeah. He and Jim McCourty, who was working in the creative department then, he's now a PD in Hamilton, gave me my shot. That's funny. So, when I listen, I listen to a lot of Barry Taylor on the edge at this time. So, I was listening to you quite a bit. Oh, cool.

And I always remember the 420 thought. Yeah. So, why did you start the 420 thought and then why did it stop? Because it goes away at some point, right? Or am I misremembering things? Yeah. I just wanted to do stupid little segments. You know what I mean?

Like just little ridiculous things. And I thought that one was funny because I don't know. It's just stupid. You know what I mean? It's 4, 4 20 in the afternoon and there's pot smokers listening to the edge. So I was like, let's do a top five list of something ridiculous.

And, uh, yeah, I think I stopped doing that when, um, uh, Ross Winters came in as program director. He,

uh, he asked me to stop doing that. So that's when that stopped. Did he say why or did he just didn't want the pot connection? He was not a fan of me at all. He wasn't in the Barry Taylor camp. He was not. No, he definitely wasn't.

So he basically told me to stop doing everything and then eventually fired me. So I guess that kind of... All right, we'll get to that because, yeah, I'm definitely going to get to that. So is he the guy you also told... You used to do these kind of Blue Jays breaks

or Blue Jay breaks you did with your dad, right? Yeah. And he also had you stop doing that? Yeah, he wanted me to stop. He just crapped on all things Barry Taylor. He wanted me to stop doing everything, basically. He's like, intro the songs,

back sell them, give the time and the weather and shut up otherwise, basically. So give me some timelines here. When do you start going on the air at 102.1, and when does Ross Winter show up? Do you remember? Oh, man.

I mean, I think my first ever shift was actually Christmas overnight, like Christmas Day overnight. Which is a big night for radio intro. Prime time, basically, is what I'm saying, right? And that was 2003, I want to say okay yeah um and then yeah uh i think ross came later in like 2008 2009 when i got let go yeah all right so yeah this ross winters guy is not a big barry taylor guy but we'll get to that we'll get to that so uh i got a couple of tweets I just want to read out.

So Andrew on Twitter says that your best bit was when you would ask Jeff Martin of the Tea Party questions and would only reply with, and I can't remember this bit, so you'll have to do it, but you? Yeah. I'm using the wrong tone, I'm sure. It was from the beginning of one of his songs, which I should know, but I don't. But at the very beginning of one of his songs,

he just started out by going you or whatever. So that just that sounds like a cheap I think that's all the tea party pick a song that was one it was the one yeah so yeah I did uh yeah I forgot about that actually asked Jeff Martin and you know what this one so the one time I came into the studio and he was actually in studio ahead of time doing an interview with Bookie and I guess he had heard about it and was not a fan. Oh, he didn't like it. No. And I walked in and he just was giving me the worst cut-eye, like

just ready to fight me. And I'm a pussy. So I was like, well, I'm going down to the food court. I'll be back later, guys. I just didn't return until... Yeah, you don't want to pick a fight with Jeff Martin of Tea Party because he'll hit you with one of those instruments you've never seen before he's got right yeah it's a sitar or something yeah at least i've heard of a sitar yeah yeah you're right though uh jeff martin what i remember is the first single that got radio play from tea

party is uh the river yeah and the video had like the old mill in it do you have yeah that's and i mean that i wasn't, I wasn't, I have nothing against, the other guys I've met in the band were awesome and he, I'm sure, is a great person too. I just didn't know him

and thought it was something silly, but. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I guess he took it the wrong way and I felt bad about that because I was not trying to directly make fun of the guy.

I was just, you know. But remember, he's channeling his inner Jim Morrison, right? So he can't be a funny guy. He can't, that's right. You can't picture him kind of laughing it off. I guess he can't have a sense of humor, but

yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah, it was just something stupid. My buddy, Bob Willett, he actually just saw Jeff Martin this past weekend. I just saw Bob this past weekend, so there you go. He's having his big 40th birthday party.

I saw him at, it was this weird timing. There's a little get together with a bunch of radio people from way back when. And yeah, I saw him. Bob's awesome. He's a great guy. Yeah, he's at The Rock now in Oshua. Great dude.

He just started that in the new year. Bob and I, we met through the the humble and fred show uh okay and so i've known bob for years now and the joke with bob and i is that we're the same guy pretty much the same guy but i'm the west of young version and he's the east of young and he thinks of everything west of young the way i think of everything east of young that i like i do my bike rides and my life is all west of young and once in a while i kind of go east of young and i kind of feel like i'm i'm not my comfort's gone. It's a whole new world.

But see, I'm an east guy. There you go. How do you feel now? You're very west of Yonge right now. Yeah, very west. You feel okay? It's okay. I didn't know if I was supposed to bring a passport or adjust my clock.

But yeah, no, I'm okay. I'm going to acclimatize to the west. I'm not afraid. But it's strange. Toronto's not that big a place, I don't but it's weird how that young street kind of divides us it really does yeah and it's it and it's that's so true because like i said i live just east of young and a couple of my friends have just moved there too and everyone looks at you different when you're east of young there's like oh what's going on over there don't worry about it it's fine

i uh i had i had a i have bins of like old stuff at my mom's house. And my mom renovated her basement. And she's like, you got to pick up these bins. And I pick up the bins. And me and my daughter were going through these bins. I had like old CFNY stickers of all things from like 1990. I had old stuff in there. Like a scrapbook I kept from the drive of 85.

Yeah, I was a big George Bell guy. And at the time, it seemed like a big deal. But the Blue Jays as a franchise, we very young we only started in 77 so in like 84 or something bell set a new franchise mark for doubles in a season and i cut this out like first of all looking back like i might have set that mark you know what i mean like who had the where was the bar like somebody had that mark the whole time everyone's got that right it was just yeah then he took the lead it's not like we had some big time sluggers in the late 70s that were like you know raising the bar for everybody like of course george bell set the record for doubles in 84 or whatever

anyway i'm going through this thing i you know i completely forget where i was going with this but it'll it'll come back to me but uh oh yeah yeah so i have like a i have a hardcore logo book oh nice it's a great movie right amazing i loved movie. I loved it. It's where, well, obviously, Billy Talent got there. That's right. That's right. So they spell it different. That's one of the dudes I interned under was Ben. Is that right?

Because they're from Streetsville, right? Yeah. So he was producing Live at the Edge while I was interning, and I interned under him. That's amazing. And then he actually left that position because they got a record deal. Yeah. And they spell talent differently. Because I know the character has two L's.

Oh, really? The band has one L. A little fun fact for you. If you ever do another 420 thought. Ben and those guys, they're up on their grammar. They know what's going on. Great band, by the way. I saw them at an Edge Fest or something.

Great band. And as good as they are, they're the best guys. All four of them are just amazing, amazing guys. So I have a hardcore logo book and i've got a uh an old nirvana book like there's a oh wow yeah and i just blog like whoever wants it can have it like i just didn't have you know i'm giving it away some guy at jarvis and bluer says like i'll take it so i bike to him so i go like i go waterfront trail uh to sherborn and then there's this great bike path on sherbourne just to get north or whatever and uh so i drop off these uh books and you know this is he's he's i ask him like where are you from and stuff he's like i live in scarborough and he's telling me

all right i swear to you i've lived in this city for 41 years like these this scarborough is like uh i have no idea what's going on there like i don't know what's there. I almost, I'm trying to think, I've been there maybe a handful of times in my life. Like I've lived here 41 years. I'm in Toronto right now. It's just bizarre how this whole, I know a bit of east of Yonge. I know it like on the waterfront.

Like I do bike rides to Kew Gardens and I know the Portlands and I know this stuff. But once you get like north, east of Yonge and then up north, I'm gone. I'm lost. It's so true. And Font, that radio get together, I was telling you about it on this weekend, was then up north, I'm gone. I'm lost. It's so true. And font that Radio Get Together is telling you about on this weekend was at a... Which I was not invited to as an embedded journalist.

Right, yeah. I didn't know. I was unaware. I just assumed you'd be there. But so this person lives in what is considered Scarborough, but I would never think... Like, I have no idea where the Scarborough border begins and ends. That's a good question. I thought we were just in the beaches.

And they're like, no, when you, what's it called? GPS it. You're in Scarborough. And I was like, what? How north were you? What was the major street north? Do you remember? Just north of like.

Queen? Or we. Yeah. Really? Because to me, that's pure beaches right there. Right. Yeah. And there's even my one good friend uh john davies who

i did the punk show with we went together and he plays slow pitch in a diamond there and it's the beaches slow pitch league apparently scarborough though yeah it's all big scam wow so there you go that's our bob willett story of the day all right here's another tweet this is uh jason from sudbury that's his handle jason from sudbury, though, was when he filled in for Josie on the Nooner. He did this thing called Automated Therapist, which I thought was hilarious. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah, that was, again, just something stupid where I found this program where you could...

Because there was no... Facebook just came around, and you know what I mean? The internet was still very small. So I found this thing online where you could type in sentences, and then it would read back in this horrible robotic voice or whatever. So that was that bit. I just typed in, like, these, like... I left an impression of Jason from Sudbury.

Thanks, Jason. That's great. Right on, Jason. And what's Josie like? Josie I've met. She's been on the show. So I've met Josie. But what's Josie like? Josie's one of the best people. She's one of my best friends. I love her. And the thing I love about Josie to talking to people that know her as a radio personality is they don't realize she is. they don't realize she is um she's extremely intelligent and very hard working and sometimes on the radio or on her television shows she comes off as you know a woman who's maybe a little did d word did see yeah but it's so but i she's not afraid to own that which is part of her like i think what makes me so respect her so much is she's like yeah i'll take that and then i'm gonna you know build off of it and make this amazing career and uh yeah she josie's uh josie's

one of the best people i know cool she uh she when she came in she was super pregnant with kid number two yeah just had both yeah so three months in fact i heard she's already back or she was filling in or something because she's been on the air recently. She wants to. That's what I mean. She's an extremely hardworking. Yeah, it's crazy. She's a great person.

And yeah, if they, like I know she was asking to go back on and they were like, no, just stay home and mom, you know? Yeah, right, right. Bloj Salmin, who I know very well, is the guy who used to work with Down Goes Brown on these comedic videos. You ever get bored one day, look up the Down Goes Brown Bloj Salming videos. They're very funny. Anyway, he's got a question for you.

He said, ask him if he was in Beaver Scouts as a kid in Westdale. Pretty sure I was in the same group in the 80s. You better believe I was. That was you. Because there's a lot of Barry Taylors out there, but this is you. Yeah, yeah. All on that Beaver Scout in the 80s, Barry Taylor. I was in the same group in the 80s you better believe I was that was you because there's a lot of Barry Taylors out there but this is you yeah yeah all on that beaver scout mid-80s Barry Taylor I was a beaver too yeah uh I think I was I was for one year for sure but maybe not but I think I quit oh no no that's not true because I went on to Cubs yeah Cubs Scouts so

yeah no but that's that was definitely me all right good stuff good job Bloche Salmi I guess forever he's been wondering, is that the same Barry Taylor? And now he has like closure. There it is. That's good stuff. Hey, I'm going to ask you about sort of the end of your 102.1 years,

but do you have any other stories from the 102.1 years you want to share with the masses? Oh man, I don't know. Too many to mention? Yeah, it was just, just you know a lot of fun and a lot of great people and don't you know regret any of it was like like other than maybe ross winters who wasn't the biggest barry taylor fan was there was anyone else there who uh on the shit list or were they all pretty decent no and he's not even on the shit list it's just that's

the nature of the industry right i have i don't didn't take it personal i don't think ross is a bad human being he just saw the radio station differently than what the way or you know wanted different personalities but that's just the way it is that's not he wasn't vindictive or a bad person he was just like no i'd rather do something else which is and that just happens so that's uh there's nothing sure nothing wrong with ross like i've never met ross and like you said i mean i don't know him at all i've never met him uh but like as a listener it's the station does change it does change in the ross winters era yeah absolutely he made his stamp on it for sure so what what was his uh like philosophy and how did it differ from like sort of like the late 90s cf uh 102.1 that we might we might know um I man I don't even I I don't I have no idea what the man was thinking to be honest because I'm not in his head but

I just know he wanted things to go in a different direction he wanted I guess to bring in different personalities and um kind of had a different look on how maybe the music should be presented. He wasn't, when I was there, what he told me is he didn't want band interviews. And if they did, he wanted them a minute or less, which is not possible, you know. Yeah, it's tough. Because you're like, hey, how's it going? Yeah, and then, okay, thanks. Here's your song or whatever, right?

Like it doesn't, this just doesn't work. So he was very much, he was much more focused, at least when I was there, and the impression I got was that he was more focused on tightening the playlists, playing songs more frequently, and less sort of interaction with listeners and personalities, I guess. But that was just when I was there. Sure. Why the hell would they fire Barry Taylor?

Right? That's what I said. What happened that day? I flipped the desk. This is like 2009, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So how did it go down and what did they tell you? It was pretty simple.

They just called me in before a shift one day and brought me in he's like oh the ratings are are low right now so we're gonna let you go and that was they just slid an envelope across the table and that was kind of it but what was your shift at the time um i was doing weekend afternoons and monday tuesday wednesday evening which in terms of rating nobody cares about those ratings what is what's evening again is that it's like what time does evening start uh i did seven to midnight okay so i'm not sure if that's the same layout now but it was literally like when dave farrow was my boss or alan cross was my boss they were literally just like no one cares about these ratings we

can't sell anything for them so just don't burn the station down when you're on the radio. I was like, amazing. Okay, I can do that. Like that's, so yeah. So I think it was, I mean, it was, he just wanted to bring in different personalities and that's just the way it is.

That's all right though. All right. When you were let go, somebody else was let go, like either the same day, like how did it go down? Like you're told you're let go, somebody else was let go either the same day. How did it go down? You're told you're let go. Yeah, I was let go on a Tuesday

and then Martin was let go the next day. Because I remember when I wrote about this, it was like, oh, Martin Streak, who's been there like 25 years. Right.

He's gone from the edge. Oh, and Barry Taylor's gone too. Right, yeah, yeah. With his little footnote, hey, Barry Taylor's also missing from this website. Yeah. Well, I mean, Martin was like iconic with that station, right? He was one of the major voices of that station

and Toronto Radio in general. And anyone that grew up in Southern Ontario knew him and, you know, he was part of that culture, a major piece of that culture. So him getting let go was definitely a big deal. Well, he and Bookie were the last two kind of holdovers, if you will, from like if you want to go back to the glory days or whatever, CFNY, and you had your last two kind of holdovers.

Because Alan Cross was, I'm trying to get my timing right, but Alan Cross, they parted ways with Alan Cross at some point. And I lose track. I guess was he the program director before Ross Winter? Yeah. So he was my boss as well. He was program director. And then he moved up to, they gave him this new sort of.

Oh, the digital arm. Right. Yeah. So then he took that and then Ross came in as a program director. And yeah, then eventually they let Alan go as well, but brought him back because... Yeah, he's there now. Everyone likes Alan. That's right.

So what kind of guy was Martin Street? Because you worked with him, you let go at basically the same time. Yeah, he was an amazing guy. He was very unselfish always uh helped out other people always put other people first um very very passionate about his job took it very seriously um and you could tell that he was he was uh he was extremely good at what he did and um yeah it's just as good a broadcaster he was, he was a good person, too. Well, you mentioned, I have a note here that you mentioned somewhere that,

so you're let go, and then he's like one of the first people, he gets an email, like an old Barry Taylor, we wish him well in his future endeavors, whatever that email is that goes out when somebody's gone. And he's like one of the first guys to reach out to you. Yeah, by far he's one of the first, yeah. Because he doesn't know yet, because he gets told, I guess, he reaches out like, sorry this you know he reaches out to you and sort of like a supportive kind of uh uh to let you know he has your back and he's you know supportive of

you whatever and then he gets the axe like right away you know yeah and i think i mean the writing was kind of on the wall when when for me anyway when ross took over and i think martin knew it too kind of thing because there was like like martin and i used to attend the music meetings as well and right those just we just were not like those would just be scheduled and we weren't told and the doors were closed kind of thing you were no longer invited it was just like yeah it was like all right this is starting to get you know kind of obvious or whatever so i think he kind of knew uh it was coming as well, for sure. But yeah, he was the first person that reached out to me.

I mean, like, well, the first person I called was Josie because we're very tight. And she was obviously amazing. But the first person that actually contacted me was Martin. And yeah, he's just a great dude. Yeah, and he gets it. So yeah, you and I don know, one day difference or whatever, but you guys get axed at about the same time.

And then, if memory serves me correctly, shortly thereafter they announced that they're going to hire a new guy from Edmonton. Right. Named Fred Kennedy. Yes. Who also known as, maybe better known as Fearless Fred. Fearless Fred, yeah. So, at the time, I'm just going back into the Toronto Mike archives here.

So, I look back when I knew you were coming in and I saw in April 2010, I wrote this piece of, I called it of Fearless Fred and Barry Taylor or Why I Don't Know Shit. That's what I called it.

And basically, the premise here is that you and Fearless Fred to my ears had very similar schtick, okay? Okay. You're sort of a, I don't want to call it the slacker motif, but there's sort of a laid back,

kind of a chill kind of a thing. Right, right. And in my humble opinion, and some people think I have this thing for Fred, I have no issues with Fred except for this, which is that, at the time I was wondering, why fire Martin Streak and Barry Taylor

just to bring in Fred Kennedy when I felt like you could be that Fred Kennedy persona. My own private thoughts, if you will. Right. I think, well, part of it was because, again, when Ross, it's like, you know, in anything, when someone in management takes over, they want to put their stamp and they want to bring in their guys, right? And Fred was one of his guys from out west. So he wanted to bring him in. Also, Fred, when he got that job, reached out to me specifically and was very cool too. And he's another great guy who's also very good at what he does.

But yeah, that was more like I know Ross just wanted his guys on the air and to work with his guys. And Fred was one of his guys. Yeah, that makes sense. So at the time, I was just thinking, this is why I'm not in the business, because I don't know what I'm doing. Right. Because I would have kept Barry Taylor. It's like Shapiro coming to the Jays, right?

He lets Anthopolis go, and you're just like, you piece of garbage. That's a good comparison. And then he brings in Atkins, and you're like, why are you bringing in the Cleveland Indians staff? That's a good comparison. And then he brings in Atkins and you're like, why are you bringing in the Cleveland Indians staff? That's who we're emulating now. We want to be like the recent. Right, yeah.

But not that by no means is Fearless Fred a Cleveland Indian. He is a... No, I mean, he's got mornings there now, right? So it's Fearless Fred and Mel in the mornings now. Right.

So good for Fearless Fred. He says some stuff about me on a show that was unfair but he was actually angry at commenters on my blog and I think in his head it was me writing what the commenters

were saying. So there was like this crossing of the wires so he basically goes off on me for things I would never ever in a million years say.

Oh, okay. Which, you know, so I've invited him on to talk about this but he has no interest in coming on because I think in his head I still wrote these things.

Right, right. I wrote these horrible things about him when he came to Toronto, but I never wrote these things. The worst I ever said was that, like, why are we bringing in Fearless Fred from Edmonton when we had Fearless Fred in the guise of Barry Taylor? I think, yeah, well, man, look at it from his position. Like, he could not, he came in at the worst possible time, right? position like he could not he came in at the worst possible time right like the one of the biggest iconic voices of the station is let go and then sadly you know yeah two months later he takes his own life yeah so i mean you pick up pick a worst scenario right and then be like hey i'm the new guy you know what i mean like no one's gonna like you so right especially when people are thinking they're tying the suicide to the dismissal right so they're basically blaming chorus or whatever for killing martin streak right

and this is so martin streak was like in people's heads martin streak's fired so that fearless fred can come here absolutely so if you start connecting these dots fearless fred is the reason martin streak is dying right so it's like what happened that is the worst possible storm. He got unfairly branded with that sort of brush or whatever paint of that brush. And yeah, I mean, it's insanity, you know. But he was professional about it and he's doing well now. Do you remember a social media site called MySpace? Does this ring a bell? Oh, you better believe it.

You were a big MySpace, right? No, no. No, but you were on MySpace. I had a MySpace page, yeah. All right. Do you know where I'm going with this? The blog? Yeah. Oh, okay. So we're just going to have a little chat here about this. And part of it, obviously, when we do discuss it, obviously part of this is done, you know, you're a funny guy. So part of this is there's great humor in here because there's some obviously false things in here. So I'm going to try to find out from you, like try to separate, you know, the jokes from the real deal here. So you basically wrote a rant on MySpace. This is after you're dismissed by CFNY 102.1.

And I won't read the whole thing because it's really long, but it's actually, I found it fascinating. Like that it was so, and yes, you yes you do like I can't remember the things but you would talk about you would basically say somebody was like a big black guy who like gangster rap when I happen to know he was like not a big black guy you're like so there's lots of things that are funny like that so it's hard but there's lots of what I think are like truths in this rant right so how will I do this without boring everyone at home uh basically I'm try, because I copied and pasted it all into this little thing I'm looking at. But you kind of talk about, the quote I liked was that you said, Ross Winters was making 102.1 a top 40 station, but with grunge music.

That actually, because I forgot, that's what he told me. The one of the first meeting I had is he's like, this needs to be a top 40 state that he, that's a, that's a real quote. That's a thing. See, because you put in the couple of things in there that were obviously false and funny,

it's hard to kind of, it's hard for me to know when you're being funny and when you're being serious because it's a mixture mixed bag. So that's why you're here today. Right. Well, what happened? The whole thing behind that blog was sadly when martin passed away a lot of um there became like some you know local media attention

and some people reached out to me because we were let go at the same time and i just didn't i didn't have anything to say i was like this is stupid or whatever uh so i just kept saying no and then finally like i would see things in articles where that had me tied to them or whatever which had you know so i was like five the a guy from the toronto star i can't remember his name reached out to me and he's like hey do you want to do this article he's like it's got it won't focus on martin streak it's going to be just about cf and y and how it's changing or whatever and i was was like, yeah, that'd be cool. I'll do that. And he's like, all right. So then he asked me some questions and then the article comes out and it's called The Ballad of Martin Streak. Oh, that's not the star. That's the Globe and Mail.

The Globe and Mail, yeah. And it's Burt Archer. Okay, right. Who talked to me as well. I remember this very well. And I was just like, I was like, you, what? This is exactly what you said it wasn't going to be, right? And so it just became this thing about Martinin streak where i was just like i don't have much to say about this you know like it's insanity so i i was frustrated so i did write that blog so i was like if anyone is curious or at least then i can say what i want to say and it was obviously in a very non-serious tone because

it's not a very i mean from my standpoint me getting let go because it's not a very, I mean, from my standpoint, me getting let go, who, it's not, it doesn't, in the grants, it means not, it's just a radio thing, you know what I mean? And it was just taking this weird, serious tone because of what had happened with Martin. So I just wanted to sort of separate my, uh, self from that tone, not from Martin or whatever. So in this MySpace rant, first you go off on the way that they structure the breaks. Believe it or not, I'm not a radio guy, so a lot of this

went over my head, but you talk about how there would be two minutes of commercials followed by a song, followed by another two minutes of commercials, followed by a song, and then two more minutes of commercials, another song, followed by a minute-long commercials, followed by a song, and then two more minutes of commercials, another song, followed by a minute-long promo, followed by a song.

Right. So that's not a joke. This is real. Right, yeah. And that, again, is because, as I was saying earlier, like, evenings and weekends, they don't,

those time frames don't matter in terms of ratings. Like, they don't. Like, to tell you you were fired because of ratings when you had the shifts you have is clear BS. Right. They just wanted to in terms of ratings. Like they don't. Like to tell you, you were fired because of ratings when you had the shifts you have. It's clear BS. Like it's right.

They just want to get rid of you. Yeah, exactly. Which again is fine. But like, so, so yeah. So like that in the evenings they'll dump,

like sometimes I'd come in, they'll be like, Oh, the first two hours we're running this show or whatever. You know what I mean? So it was like, so they, they would put a lot of

stop sets and our commercial breaks i guess they're called uh and just just pack them into my shift or whatever and then wonder why people wouldn't listen you know i mean i'm like why would anybody listen to two minutes of commercials a song and then two minutes of commercials you know like i was just like no one's going to tune into that. So that was to say that I was just saying from the standpoint that you can't say that I can be held responsible for ratings when the hour is full of commercials. And when I'm the one not programming it, basically, is what I was saying. Okay, here's quoting you now. Changes came quickly with ross the

music played on the station became incredibly restricted and really repetitive in the past i was allowed to have input at the station's music meetings the meetings happen weekly and it's where we decide which songs to add enter dr don mitchell the music director and assistant program director so this is where you go into like, so that's true, I assume. And then you do your description of Don Mitchell, which is not true because you call him a 300 pound African Canadian who lives and breathes gangster rap. And then you go on.

And his catchphrase, which I won't say on the air, which was, anyway. And Ross and Doc decided all music at the Edge would be based on what other stations were playing. They also sent out for a ton of research to try and tune them into what the demographic liked. So it sounds like basically, yeah, like you said,

top 40 with grunge. And then you mentioned something which I always wondered because you always talked about the electric car. And I remember seeing a video on YouTube of you trying to get a meeting with the Minister of Transportation or something, right? So you said another nail in your coffin came with the whole electric car chaos and that it really upset people and that the coverage received more attention

than any other thing that happened in the last seven years. But management did not love this publicity and you were told not to talk about this issue on the air. So you were basically told like cease and desist speaking about the electric car deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah i uh i forgot about this that was great man dude it's great and by the way if anyone wants to read this just go to my site i've got it somewhere to be honest i want to read it because i forgot about a lot of this uh or basically all that's uh yeah dr don mitchell no that's great it's actually great

and uh it's stupid but um yeah no they i was told to basically talk about nothing when when the new management came in they're just like just intro the songs and then back sell them and but that was because they were obviously preparing for the for the changes which is again fine so oh and then you do touch on the martin streak thing that he was very supportive that's where i got that quote from, actually. And yeah, so your let go doesn't sound like this program director liked Barry Taylor. And you're canned. And then what's next for Barry Taylor after you leave the Edge?

That was the challenge is because I was like, well, I don't have very many skills. So I don't know what to do. And there were no other Toronto Radio rock stations not owned by Chorus at the time. Right. And it was 2009, and the economy was about to, everyone was predicting this downfall,

like a Great Depression. Right. So nobody's hiring. And it was just, yeah, it was pretty depressing. I'm going to be honest. I was more, it was like I was a deer in pretty depressing. I'm going to be honest. I was more, it was like I was a deer in the headlights. I was just like, I have no idea.

Did you consider leaving this market? Like, did that ever? A couple people had suggested that, but I like Toronto more than I like radio. And I have family and friends here, so I would rather be around them and not work in radio than go somewhere else and not be with them and work in radio and uh eventually though you end up on y108 yes that was jim mccordy who uh i interned under and dave farrell actually he was the national

and those guys i know hooked me up with that position um though they say they didn't but i know they specifically did and um yeah that was fun it was just it was kind of challenging because it was in hamilton and i still live here and there was a commute and i just didn't uh feel comfortable when i was there just you just didn't feel like that was home or that no it was just a very it's just a very different environment. The people were all amazing. Everyone that works at those three, that chorus, Hamilton, they're just the greatest people.

I was there on weekends, so no one's in the office. It was just a very empty... I just didn't feel comfortable and was not myself at all. So I just left. This is like a classic rock format, right? Yeah, yeah.

And they're slowly moving, though. They've added some newer stuff. So they're kind of... Well, Q's doing that, too. Yeah, well, I mean... Because Q's gone from classic rock to try to add more newer stuff. Yeah, rock radio's screwed, man.

So tell me then, yeah. so how is rock radio screwed? Who listens, right? Like, I don't know. And it's got nothing to do with the people working in it. It's just the industry and everything that's going on around it. And if you're trying to hit that demographic of 18 to 35-year-old men, a lot of them aren't on the radio or they have alternative ways to find music

whether it's you know spotify or i like anything there's just too many other variables well you think it's bad for that age like i i talked to my my two oldest kids i always ask them like what stations do you listen to because like i always tell them someone's coming over i'll be like oh you know stew jeffries is coming over like do you know him from boom and like no i don't know i have no idea who the stew jeffries guys are oh well maybe you would have been more excited when ross and mocha were here but even i thinking okay that's aimed at kids right this is like top 40 this is real top 40 of kids stuff whatever uh no that's not even resonating with them and i'm like it turns down to it they don't watch they don't listen to radio

at all like they think it's like for old people it's like they have these devices each have a device and everything's through that device it's not radio but they're hearing lots of new music like my son lots of new music and even television same thing though like everything is there's youtube guys that are like the big celebrities in their world are these youtube people yeah and you know they do some netflix and stuff but it's uh yeah i don't know what radio is going to do because this generation it's not they're not tuning in the only reason i ever tune in i used to have a commute and i'd be in my 99 mazda that's in the driveway and it has an am and an fm radio and that's all it has and it was you know i'll listen to some bobcat i'll listen

to some 102 you know what i mean yeah i'm trying to get bob in here you know what it is i was my one buddy uh nick put this to me perfectly. And I was just like, the older you get, the better he is. Do you know? Because he's a curmudgeon? Yeah. And when I was growing up as a teenager, even in my 20s, I was like, what is this guy's problem or whatever? Now I'm just like, tell it, Bob.

You know what I mean? Preach it, Bob. You got it. You're nailing it. He's awesome. I don't know if you ever, and it's okay if you haven't, but if you've ever heard an episode of this podcast. I listened to the one with Josie. you okay yeah okay yeah uh and josie uh i had i had jeff merrick on first and merrick's like you have to get josie on you have to get josie on i had no idea of this like history between the two uh because merrick and

josie live together yeah and i saw like i had no idea but uh anyway merrick's like you got to get josie on you got to get josie on and i'm like get Josie on. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to try to get Josie on. Like, I'll love to talk to Josie. But I have a lot of, like, in fact, tomorrow, Mike Richards from TSN Radio is coming in. He's a, I like listening to him. I got a lot of questions for him. But I have a lot of people on, like, I don't know,

be it like Arash Madani or David Schultz or whatever. And Bobcat's one of my favorite conversation pieces to talk about Bobcat because he's entertaining, but he's an interesting person. The stuff that's in public we know, sometimes he seems to have almost thin skin when it comes to like,

it sounds like, what's the guy's name from the Globe and Mail writer? Stephen Brunt. It sounds like Brunt has pissed off McCowan by doing some Tim and Sid thing. And Brunt has been kicked off McCowan's show. These types of things. It's like a soap opera for us guys. Because I would feel like just listening to it as a fan, no pun intended,

but they put Tim and Sid, that amazing radio show, but then they put their TV show directly up against Bob McCown. And you know what I mean? So he's got to take that as a shot. Yeah, and they promo the hell out of it. Yeah, absolutely. Which he's got to be pissed off about that. Because he's always been the main guy right there.

I know when I go to the ACC, it's his face I see. Right. That in that parking lot billboard, yeah. So I really think that tim and sid you know blowing up really rattled him i think just as a fan listening and that's sort of what i took away from it i didn't know none of them personally so don't you find it interesting that they took tim and sid and made it a television show as opposed to like a radio show on the television like don't you think that was kind of an interesting move i again listening just as someone as an as a listener i think they wanted tv from the get-go because they came from

television right at the old score yeah yeah and i think they're they always wanted to be on tv and i kind of get the impression that maybe they had their podcast and that was their way in to get into rogers and rogers said hey we'll give you this opportunity if that goes well then kind of thing and then obviously the radio show went that goes well, that kind of thing and then obviously the radio show went extremely well and that kind of developed into the TV show.

And who am I, as I said earlier, I don't know shit about running a radio station or a TV station because I have no idea because I would think you have Tim and Sid

successful in this afternoon time slot on the radio and even if you're grooming them to replace McCowan, let's say McCowan, right? To me, I'm surprised you take them off the radio. And even if you're grooming them to replace McCowan, let's say McCowan, right?

To me, I'm surprised you take them off the radio altogether. Yeah. It's just surprising to me. I think just total guess. I think they wanted television. I think that was their goal.

Personally, I think they always wanted to be on TV. And TV guys don't want to be radio guys, right? And radio guys want to be TV guys. So I feel like that was kind of their...

Is that because radio guys don't get paid? Is that the deal? Unless you're Bobcat? Yeah. I think it's part of that. I also think TV's cooler than radio, right? Like radio's like full of... Everyone who works in radio, we're all losers, right? So it's like TV people are cool. Like if we had real talent, we'd be on TV, but we have kind of talent, so we're on the radio. That's the way that works. And if you're really talented, like Josie, you can do both. Exactly. That's what I'm saying.

And the aforementioned Roz Weston, who still shows up on, he's an Entertainment Tonight guy. Oh, okay. Yeah, so he's on Entertainment Tonight Canada, if you will. And he does the morning show on 92.5, I believe. All right, cool. This is a good segue. I was going to talk to you about this later, but let me do that now.

So we're talking about sports radio, but there was a 24 Hours Toronto. It's like a newspaper they hand out in subways, okay? Right. So I guess it's owned by the Sun Post Media, whatever the post media world is. They own the Toronto Sun and the National Post. Yeah.

So they put out this thing. So I get this like email from a guy who was like, do you know Toronto Mike is in this paper as one of the top Toronto podcasts of 2015? Congratulations.

Well, you're about to get the same thing back. That's why I'm doing it. That's why you're doing it? Yeah. That's right. That's a good move.

I like that. So like I get this, he even takes a picture doing it? Yeah. That's right. That's a good move. I like that. So like I get this. He even takes a picture of it and everything. And it turns out it's actually online too. Believe it or not, I can actually see it on the internet. I wrote about it yesterday actually. But yeah, so I'm like I'm honored because I'm right between like Alan Cross and his podcast and the Taggart and Torrance podcast.

Yeah. They're both great guys. Very funny. And then I'm reading it and it's like oh uh talking raptors is one of the top podcasts to listen to in 2016 talking raptors and it was by barry taylor and i'm like that's that is the barry taylor from 102.1 so yeah so how did this come about um a buddy of mine uh nick reynoldson he's also a very funny comedian. He and I just wanted to start, we're both big basketball guys

who just wanted to start a Raptors podcast and yeah, so we just did and then we put out a couple and Raptors Republic heard it and said, hey, can we work together? And we're like, of course. Those guys do an incredible job

with their site. And they're not affiliated, they're like, of course. Those guys are doing an incredible job with their site. And they're not affiliated. They're independent, right? Yeah, well, they're through ESPN's True Hoop Network. Doesn't sound very independent. But they have complete control. So it's just like ESPN's True Hoop Network. They take one site from each NBA city and sort of put it together.

Oh, that's kind of like the pension plan puppets guys in the SB Nation. Similar, yeah. Same kind of deal, right? Yeah, so they're the Toronto one. And then we were just fortunate enough to start working with them. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's just a ridiculous podcast that is not serious at all. And we just like talking about basketball.

How often do you record? It's a weekly podcast, more or less. We do miss a couple of weeks because we're either on the road at different times kind of thing. Well, I call this a weekly podcast and I can miss a week or two, but sometimes I get these spurts like this

where I have four episodes in five days. But that's great though, right? But then it's like awesome because then you can put some on hold except that yeah right that was my thought until I realized I don't want to put

anything on hold like I don't oh yeah yeah so I okay all right so I released them so you might you know it's kind of one of

those things I like that hustle yeah you know like it just feels like if we're going to be talking about like Bowie passing like this will age or

whatever but you're right there are some episodes which are like to have no time quality but I still stick them out like what am I holding on to them for? For the beer guys

don't care. So you know my boss doesn't care. Man that's a we gotta get sponsorship. That's the one thing. You know that just happened. So it took me 150 episodes

to get a sponsor and we'll see where it goes but it's tough. It's tough. Yeah definitely. And I lack the brand the name brand

of a Barry Taylor I can't point to you lack the brand, the name brand of Barry Taylor. I can't point to the years of service on this huge rock station. Yeah, you'd be surprised. Maybe that closes more doors than it opens. Yeah, it really does. All right, so what's your co-host name again? Nick Rennoldson. Nick Rennoldson.

Yeah. Okay. So you've always been a Raptors fan since day one? Yeah, Raptors and Jays were really my two teams. Right. And I played basketball growing up, but I can't even ice skate. I've never played a game of hockey. Oh, wow. Yeah. I'm like the shame of my family because I never played hockey. But yeah, I love basketball and the Jays. And yeah, we wanted to talk about basketball.

No, it's awesome. I had Eric Smith on here, and he was telling me about how few jobs they are for somebody who actually wants to cover the Raptors. Like he gave me, and I can't remember. I have to be careful because a lot of this convo was after we stopped recording. So I don't want to talk out of school or whatever.

But the bottom line is, if you're going to cover the Raptorsors there's only a handful of real jobs well that's you know what i mean there's not you know it's not like hockey in canada if you cover hockey there's lots of jobs right but if you're covering the raptors there's only a few spots for you it's amazing just getting being fortunate enough to get to tour and do comedy shows around canada and just seeing how much people just do not care about basketball at all. Like there's one we were doing a show, Nick and I were doing a show in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, which is like just outside of Halifax. And so they have their TSN feed of the Raptors game.

And it's a close game. And it's like the last two minutes left. And then it hits the top of the hour and they drop the coverage to go to like a Stars Sharks game wow and they're just like and we were and no one complains but no no and they're like they're like yeah the hockey game's on we're like it's a it's Dallas and San Jose the Raptors are tied with two minutes left they're like yeah but it's a hockey game or whatever just like that's amazing ask and then asking different people to put the basketball game on a bars across they just look at you like you just just spit on their family like they don't it's not a thing i hear that i know raptors are big

in the gta but i hear it's not not so hot outside of the uh no but very big in toronto yeah very big all-star weekend's gonna be crazy so yeah that's right uh and it's funny the opposite like finally i watch a lot of raptor games from start to finish like i'll watch the whole game and i enjoy it but everybody always not everybody a lot of people will kind of rib me and they make a really good point which is like if you only watch the last two minutes okay and i know and i know i hear this and it's like i so i enjoy the game i'm gonna watch the whole game but many many as many times although i noticed this with some of the i don't watch a lot of n, but I caught the last minute of two NFL games this weekend. And I feel like I saw everything of these two games.

Couldn't you say that about anything, though? Couldn't you just read the last chapter of a book? Just watch the last. But you can't say it about baseball, I don't think. In baseball, the big inning might have been the third inning. That's possible. Yeah. But I mean, anything you could.

Anything with a clock. Because there's no clock in baseball. Right. Yeah. Right. Maybe that's it. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. I hear that argument sometimes, but you could do that with literally everything in life. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Are the Raptors going to win a playoff round this year? Man. Because if they don't, they've got to turf...

Dwayne Casey. Dwayne Casey. I'm okay with that. I sincerely, I'm one of the few people, but I say this in all honesty, I really think Kevin Durant's going to come here next year. This All-Star weekend, they've got this state-of-the-art practice facility that's going to be happening.

Drake's going to be performing. Bieber's going to be performing. I guarantee Bieber will perform. Kanye's dropping his album on the Thursday. Drake will be releasing, I'm sure will announce that he's going's dropping his album on the thursday drake will be releasing i'm sure we'll announce that he's gonna release his album it's gonna it's like the per and then they're gonna have all the salary cap space next year when the cap it's the perfect storm of good things happening to the raptors so free agents are gonna want to come here and that's that's a big one i just feel

like that will not happen because that would be it's too big it man he well he was here and it really is he's the piece because, you know, a lot of these great teams have the trifecta. And I feel like we've got the two, three. We're missing the one guy. Like, we need that one superstar guy. And I love DeRozan and I love Lowry. That guy's a hustle, hard and hustle.

Yeah. Love it. But we are missing that one big guy. And I feel like if we had that guy, we would be a legitimate contender for a championship. KD, man. Yeah, you're right. I'm sold. Drake's going to work his magic.

I love it. Because actually, my friend James, who works at Exclaim Magazine, just did an interview with Matt Bonner and Matt Bonner was saying that everyone in the league, 27 and under, circles every game they have with the Raptors

because everyone wants to either maybe see Drake or be seen by Drake. And he's like, it is the biggest thing in the league right now. So Toronto's got a lot going on right now. The Six, right? We're going to call it The Six. The Six, right. Yeah, yeah.

I feel like I can't pull that off, though. I can't at all. You can't either? I can never even do TDOT, so I'm just going to... No, we skipped that. That was Cardinal, right? Toronto. Oh, Fischau.

Yeah. Toronto. And then some people give me a hard time because I will try to say it properly. Oh, fish out. Yeah. Toronto. And then some people give me a hard time because I will try to say it properly. Like I'll say Toronto. Right. And I get in trouble because I say the last T. I'm like, what do you want?

You're damned if you do. You're damned if you don't. So true. Give me a break. Like I was born in Parkdale. I can prove it if it bothers you. Right. All right.

So the Talking Raptors, everybody who gives a rat's ass about basketball should subscribe. And it's one of those top eight of the top eight podcasts of the year, according to this wonderful publication, 24 Hour. The greatest publication. Yeah, my personal favorite, 24 Hour. And Sean, I think his name is Sean Fitzgerald, maybe, possibly. I hope I'm giving credit to the right author because I gave him a thanks on Twitter.

Nice. There you go. Amazing. And you mentioned a few times stand-up comedy. the right author because uh i gave him a thanks on twitter but nice there you go amazing and you you mentioned a few times stand-up comedy so maybe in the last few minutes tell me about uh like this you're trying to i mean maybe you're maybe you're a successful one i'm not sure i'm not a big stand-up comic follower or whatever but uh you're you do gigs and stuff stand up comedy yeah yeah perform i sound surprised yeah no that's okay it is surprising

um yeah yeah do uh do shows around um the country and some in the u.s and it's uh it's a lot of fun it's a hustle and like a grind and it's but it's fun but is there any money in it there can be well is it so do you have to like be poor for a long time in the hopes that you make money? Absolutely. There's definitely more opportunity in the US. But that's sort of the goal is to get down there more frequently. The only guest I've had who was a stand-up comedian who was on the show

told me that she was moving to LA. Basically, the next move for her is she moves to LA. Right. It sounds like you can't really do it here if you want to actually make money. No, there's a definite ceiling here in Canada. And I mean, there's no, because there's no star system in Canada for just in general, whether it's TV, comedy, anything really, right?

So yeah, there's, you can succeed here and then you get to a certain point and then that's it. You're done. So this is why Jay and... Who are those TSN sports? Yeah, Dan and Jay. So basically they had to go because in Canada you can only...

But they got... Fox came to them and apparently I had a friend that was working in that company at the time and they weren't even looking to go and they weren't at first even interested to go. They were just like, nah, I don't know, know whatever and then they have fox obviously well the number was probably so much more than they could ever make in this country i guarantee and here it feels so like even if you're good at your job like forget you and your time slots where nobody it doesn't

matter who's listening okay let's take real time slots that matter right even if you're good in your job it seems to me like you could be canned in some kind of a bell media cut or some whatever whatever wherever you work for like you could be a veteran who's done good work and still produces and you could still be out on your luck out i mean out the door because of like some numbers game or something it just seems like the smartest thing they did was go down south to make some real money. Like, it's a no-brainer in hindsight, I think. Yeah. Well, there's a real industry down there.

Right. Whereas here, it's just, you know, not. There isn't. I mean, there is, but it's like the minor leagues. So then, okay. So if you're doing your stand-up here still, because you mentioned Toronto is more important to you than radio. So is Toronto more important to you than stand-up comedy? No. to you than radio so is Toronto more important to you than stand-up comedy um no well actually myself and uh another comedian uh we run a record label that puts out comedy albums and um we

recently expanded into the U.S. so we've started working down there yeah um with Canadian comedians and American comedians and sort of collaborating on that. So that, um, that I'm definitely interested in pursuing and will continue to hopefully ideally work more in the U S. Um, cool. Because yeah, comedy records, comedy records.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks man. All right. So tomorrow, uh, this is my last question for you.

I saved it for the end because, uh, you know, I saved the best for last, but so I got Mike Richards in here tomorrow and we're going to talk about, uh, sort of like a TSN versus fan 590 morning show thing. So the 590 morning show is Dean Blundell. Yes. Who you worked with. Yes. What kind of guy is Dean Blundell? Um, Dean, I think is, uh, an extremely good communicator on radio. Um, I think when he was at the Edge, that was his wheelhouse.

That was his perfect sort of scenario. I haven't heard him on the fan only just because I'm not up and listening to radio at that time. I'm sure he's doing well. Personally, to be honest, I didn't see him that often, right? Because I'm doing evenings and weekends. Yeah, you wouldn't see him. He's there in the morning, so maybe it's him at a staff meeting kind of thing. I don't, to be honest, I didn't see him that often, right? Because I'm doing evenings and weekends. Yeah, you wouldn't see him. He's there in the morning, so maybe I'd see him at like a staff meeting kind of thing. I don't know.

See, a guy you'd want to go have a beer with. Yeah, I'd talk. Only because he's paying. Yeah. No, I didn't have any personal issues with Dean, but it's not like we just weren't, we were just acquaintances, you know what I mean? Just because we never saw each other. So it wasn't like a thing.

I was just like, hey, what's up? He didn't rough you up in the hallway or anything? No, no, no. Did you rough him up? All the time. He was very intimidated by me, yes. I'm going to find out tomorrow if Mike Richards wants to rough him up in a hallway.

We'll find out there. Hey, man, that was very, very good. Oh, well, thank you very much. Thanks for having me, Mike. I try. And that brings us to the end of our 155th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Barry is at BT Jokes.

See you all next week take a street car downtown