Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Bill Atanasoff: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1770

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

In this 1770th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with FOTM Hall of Famer Peter Gross about his friend and former colleague Bill Atanasoff. Featuring Peter Gross, Jim McKenny, Lorne Honickman, John Whaley, Al McCormick, Bill's sister, Bill's caregiver and Bill himself in his own words. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, the Waterfront BIA, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

The following program contains adult themes, nudity, and coarse language, viewer, and parental discretion is advised. 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. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA. Next weekend, check out the Waterfall Festival on Toronto's Waterfront. Blue Sky Agency, the official distributor of Cylent's quiet, comfortable, and customizable office pods. Create sanctuary within your workspace. Recyclemyelectronics.c.a.cometing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home.

Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto-Miked to tell us all about Bill at Tannisoff. It's FOTM Hall of Famer Peter Gross. How are you, Peter Gross? I'm fabulous. Hey, does Mark Daly get a few bucks for that intro? Look, don't get me started.

I know that we're going to hear from multiple voices in this episode. There's one particular voice that we're, we'll hear from that might spark me to play something else that may or may not be the voice of Mark Daly but I'll hold on to that for later but Peter it's been a long time since you've been in the basement what have you been up to well I've been very fruitful I ended 12 wars you know that BC Madagascar thing was just awful hundreds and thousands of people were dying um I I I've actually found out what causes autism there's an actual there's an actual scientific correlation between sex and autism.

The parents of every autistic child at some point or another had sexually intercourse. I don't know why they don't tie that together. And I'll bet you that's not even true. I'm on this, move on to this new program. One Tylenol a day for three months and you will grow an inch. You notice that I was much taller since I last came here, right? Oh, let me tell the listenership you did look taller and then I saw you were wearing roller blades. So you actually, is this the first time you rollerbladed to the TMDS studio for an episode time?

I think I did it a couple years ago. It's 7.3 kilometers and it was absolute hell. But this begs the question, Peter. What is the status? We've had many an update on your insurance issues with cars and everything. Like, are you able to drive your automobile? No, no, because of the insurance problem, because I was put on facility and paying almost $700 a month, I, it's almost been a year now since,

$700 bucks a month, I canceled my insurance, I haven't been driving for almost a year. Did you, uh, I gave you this advice before I press record, but I'll give it to you on the public record here that you, Peter Gros, need to invest in a bicycle. Well, I'll consider that, but I think it's highly unlikely.

I'm so committed to the rollerblades, even though there's been a seismic shift in my balance lately, and it was a miracle I got here without falling. You know those, uh, uh, bronze indicators at the beginning of each sidewalk for the blind? Yes. The blades don't like those.

You know, I can imagine that. And the only reason I mentioned a bicycle is because if you had to go, let's say you had to travel, I'm going to make it up eight kilometers. Well, it's much faster and I think safer and easier for you to do the eight kilometers on a bicycle than on roller blades, particularly, I don't know, as it gets a little cooler in the winter. So I'm just putting it out there that I think you'd be. great cyclist, no car required.

You got public transit, and you got your bike. I'm doing pretty well without driving. All right, all right. I can't convert you from. And I like rollerblading myself. I used to rollerblade, but it was back in the 90s. I used to roll-blading. So when did you start rollerblading?

It was in the early 90s. Jim McKinney was asked to put together a team for a rollerblade hockey tournament. And when we showed up, they gave us rollerblade. So ever since then, I've been. Do you have the same pair? Oh, God, no, I've gone through several pairs. Because I remember, you can probably rock the same pair for a long time, but you do have to change the wheels occasionally.

Yeah. I've had a couple of instances where the wheels actually came off in transit. That's problematic. Well, it sounds problematic to me. So we love it when you're on the show. You're an FOTM Hall of Famer. You're one of my all-time favorite guests, if not my favorite guest. We're going to do a couple of quick updates,

and then it's going to be all about Bill. Atanasov the rest of the way. Does that sound good to you, Peter? I know that you make your living interviewing the movers and the shakers and the heavy hitters and the notorious and the famous. But enough about Peter Gross. But Bill of Tennisoff wasn't famous. Bill of Tennisoff wasn't a rock star. But this is a story that will amaze some people and dismay a lot of people.

Essentially, in my life, what happened to Bill of Tennisoff is the worst thing I've ever seen happen to a human being. Okay, so hold on to that because you've brought some stellar audio, some familiar voices, some people will hear for the first time. And I'm kind of really excited. When you pitched me this idea, I was sold right away. And I want to thank Retro Ontario for this fantastic photo I was able to get from Retro Ontario. That's Ed Conroy, also of FOTM Hall of Famer. He's got a great photo of Bill, you know, in a city TV truck or whatever with his camera out the window. and I think it'll be a great, like, photo to accompany this episode of Toronto Mike.

But I need to ask you, because you've talked to him since I have, how is our mutual friend and co-host of Gallagher and Gross Save the World? How is John Gallagher? Well, I'd have to say the answer is not great. He called me a couple days ago and informed me that he had a much more serious stroke. And he didn't quite sound like the John Gallagher. we know and love and I think that he and I think he was still in hospital I think he's been in hospital since July that does not sound good so I can't be I can't be overly

specific but um he's not a hundred percent so my last I did a phone call with John like within the last 18 months a time is a blur to me at this moment but fairly recently like post he had a what are the smaller strokes called the one that you had the TIA transient isemic attack which is a the most benign stroke you can have. Yeah, TIA, that's the letters I was looking for. So I live in an alphabet soup. There's FOTMs, there's TMLX's, there's TMDS, and this is TIA. So, okay, and shout out to the TMU. But he sounded great. Like, he sounded like John Gallagher, and then I would hear him doing voiceover ads, like big ones for, I don't know, on the Super Bowl, I think I heard

him, at least the Canadian telecast. So John sounded good last time I talked to him, but I'm hearing from you now, he had a bigger stroke and has been hospitalized since July. So on behalf of the TMU, that's the Toronto Mike universe, we're all thinking of John, I don't want to live in a world without John Gallagher. Do you? No, no. And it's funny how you're driving around or listening to the radio and suddenly you'll hear a commercial.

Oh, voice over. And his voice is so distinctive. Oh, yeah. It's his moneymaker, so to speak. So here we're wishing him well And keep us updated, Peter, because this news that I only got from you a couple of days ago Just when I heard it, I was so sad

Like I can't John in the hospital This guy needs to be out in the sun Like is there a sunroof or what are they called? Actually, just so I can make the news even sadder, his dog died Wait a minute, Jack Johnson? What was it, Jack Johnson? Jack Johnson named him after a fighter, yeah He just sort of in passing, he said the dog died, and I felt terrible for him.

Okay, so you're hitting me. This episode's only going to get sadder, everybody, but there'll be a silver light in this whole thing because we're talking about, in the present tense, we're talking about Bill a tennis off. So the last update I want before I shout out some partners and then it's all Bill the rest of the way is I want to just congratulate you because I listen to a lot of podcasts. Down the stretch, your podcast continues to impress me. I don't think, and this is going to be like a testimony that will kind of live it in this episode because you're basically the producer of this episode and you're going to introduce this audio clip that you independently procured. So this is the Peter Gross episode of Toronto Mike, but it's all about Bill a tennis off.

But I got to say, down the stretch is so well produced and so interesting that me, a guy who hasn't been to a horse race in decades, I think, I find it fascinating. So kudos to you on your podcast, Down the Stretch, which draw, It's a new episode every single week. And if you're listening this week, there's two wonderful stories about jockeys. There's a jockey named Brian Hernandez, Jr. He rode Mystic Dan to the Kentucky Derby in 2024,

had a terrible spill a couple of weeks ago at Churchill Downs, broke seven ribs, pierced his liver, internal bleeding. And he was gracious enough. He let me interview him while he was in his hospital bed. And he says to me, I think I'll be riding in the Breeders' Cup, which is in five weeks. He's being overly optimistic, but you've got to aim high. Well, jockeys are amazing.

The other jockey story, there's a jockey named Michael Sanchez. So he's in a race at Parks, which is near Philadelphia. And as they're going down the backstretch, one of the horses, his reins broken. The jockey couldn't control him, so the horse bolted to the extreme outside. And Michael Sanchez looks and see, it was one of his best friends, sees his friends in trouble, pulls his horse out of the race, goes off to the side to rescue his friend. So we abandon any chance of winning. So these are like, to me, these are not necessarily for the, of course, everyone who gives any, gives one iota of thought about horse racing, particularly in Ontario, should subscribe to Down the Stretch.

But even if you just like human interest stories and well-produced stories like these, I would highly recommend a subscription to Down the Stretch. It's free. It's a podcast. Wherever you found this podcast, you'll find Down the Stretch. did you ever get sued for using the term down the stretch? There was an issue with... Well, yeah, I remember this. Yeah, yeah, with the...

Did that ever come to anything? Did you ever have to get Lord Honnickman involved? No, no, no. I called their bluff. I said to them, there's a famous announcer who's catchphrase, and down the stretch they come, and his lawyer got in touch with me, and I interviewed the lawyer,

and I actually put the interview in one of the podcasts, and I said, look, I can't give you the money you're asking for, but I'll give a plug to any charity, right you want in every episode and and i'll say that this is the down the stretch podcast and it has nothing to do with the down the street blah blah blah and he never got back to me that was a couple years ago okay so i'm glad that there's no lawsuit headed you away you have enough legal problems okay so i know why you're really here of course we're to celebrate bill a tennis off and you got you got some great audio but i know you come here because you love the palma pasta lasagna that is true um

when I told my son I was coming here, he knew that he's having lasagna for dinner. It's wonderful. It's the best lasagna I've ever had. So I do absolutely have a lasagna in my freezer for you, Peter. You're going to get that right after this recording. But I also want to invite you and your son and your grandson and your neighbors and any loved ones of Peter Gross,

your mom who almost became an FOTM. It was close, right? She said she would do it and then she had second thoughts. Shout out to Marilyn Gross. So I just want to invite you. all to Palma's kitchen in Mississauga, November 29 at noon. That will be the 21st TMLX event. Palma pasta will feed everybody.

And for those who enjoy a delicious, fresh can of craft beer, I will be bringing some Great Lakes beer as well. And that's happening November 29 at noon. Everyone's invited. Not coming unless you have an orange soda for me. Okay. So if the VP of Sales is listening, that's your, I'm tasking you, bring that orange soda We did it last time.

I think you took two sips and then left it. You promise you'll consume the entire orange soda. Well, if it's sugarless, I'm storming right out. Okay, well, the good news about Palma's Kitchen is we can buy it there, unlike the Great Lakes Brewery where I have to go out, get it somewhere else. I can buy it at the Palmer's Kitchen. So we'll take care of you there. I want to say hi to Doug Mills.

He's the man behind Blue Sky Agency. They signed up for two months. They forged partnerships. with established office furniture brands like Cylon and Green Furniture Concept and Rulliard, and they're eager to chat with any and all Toronto mic listeners looking for dynamic and creative work environments.

But then I got a note from Doug on the weekend. He wants to double that. He wants to do four months of sponsorship of Toronto Mike. So bless you, Doug Mills. I hope all FOTMs, write Doug, and thank him for that and engage him on how he can help you with your dynamic and creative work environments

as we all return to the office. Not you and I, Peter, but everyone else. So Doug at blue skyagency.ca is where you can find Doug Mills. Thank you, Doug, and thank you to the good people at Blue Sky Agency. Peter Gross, I have a measuring tape for you from Ridley Funeral Home. I'm sure you have a large collection of these now, but we love Ridley Funeral Home. And Ridley Funeral Home has a great podcast called Life's Undertaking.

I urge everybody subscribe and listen. I was going to make the tasteless comment that do they use these to measure? the length of the body and the... And that would not be the first time. I heard this tasteless comment. How dare you, Peter Gross. I'm taking you out of the FOTM Hall of Fame. How dare you?

Okay. Last but not least, Recycle MyElectronics.ca. That's where you go, Peter. If you have old cables, old electronics, old devices, you go to Recycle My Electronics. Dot C.A. Put in your postal code

and then you can find out where to drop all that off to be properly recycled. Sounds good to you? it sounds great peter who is bill atanisoff bill attenisoff was this dashing handsome charismatic man who many many you know at least myself and jim mckenny will tell you was the greatest sports cameraman it was a field cameraman for city tv in in the late 70s and early and 80s into the 90s uh just wonderful wonderful cameraman great guy to work with we had A lot of adventures, a lot of mischief among us.

And almost 15 years ago, one night, he was working nights. He was one of the camera supervisors, but he chose to work night because he had freelance during the day. So he's working night, and he'd gone to some event where a bad guy had jumped from a building. Okay. So there were police and ambulance at the site, and it's 11 o'clock at night. He sets his camera up. There's sort of a police barrier. And as he's standing in the street near the police barrier, a guy goes through the police barrier,

over 30 miles an hour, driving a Cadillac, plows into Bill, smashes his legs, Bill's head hits the windshield, he flips over, his head smashes against the curb. He's dead if there's no ambulance on the site. They pick him up long and short of it. He was in a coma for a while, needed dozens of stitches to his head. They had to remove one of his legs. ever since then he's been a blind quadriplegic. Okay, just to correct, we care about the facts on this show.

We don't print the legend, but it was a Lincoln Continental that hit Bill at tennis. What did I say? You said Cadillac. Well, I wasn't there. And this was Kipling Avenue, shadowed to Atobico where you are right now. So Kipling, this is November 9th. What calendar year again?

I'm saying 15 years ago, so 2000. 10? Okay, goodness. They did arrest the driver and they charged him. He was a 68 year old man. They charged him with criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. I don't know what the resolution was of that lawsuit. But as you've told us what happened to Bill, at the time, the article I was reading talked about a severe head trauma, a broken neck, broken pelvis, two broken legs. It sounds like they had to amputate one of those legs. Oh my goodness. So devastating. accident, a 68-year-old driver, just bowled over Bill Atenesoff, who was doing his job on Kipling Avenue that November 9th night. Terrible. And we will find out, in ensuing interviews, what happened to that individual who ran Bill down. Okay. I love it.

So I want to just tell the listenership that I've never heard these clips. So I have nine clips that Peter Gross has procured, and I can't wait. So as I listen to these with you, Peter, I'll be hearing them for the first time. time. And then my reaction will be authentic because I don't know what's coming. And I'm very excited. But do you have things you'll say before I play each clip? Yeah. I'll give you. Just, just set up. And the first one's easy because Jim McKinney and I have been up to, it's the Grove Park long-term nursing home where Bill. He's been in a number of places based on a series of circumstances. Now he's up in Barry in this home. It's very nice.

and Jim McKinney and I went to visit him. This is an interview from about three weeks ago, which I got him talking about what happened to him. Okay, so we get to hear from Bill. Here we go. We're talking with Bill of Tennisoff, room 3037, at Grove Park long-term health care. First of all, it's a beautiful sunny day.

Bill, how are you feeling today? I'm feeling pretty good, Peter. Okay. I want to talk to you, and I'm worried that this will be difficult, but I want to talk to you about the accident that you had almost 15 years ago. Are you aware that it's closing on 15 years? Yes. Okay, I'm going to read you something here.

I was in the 680 newsroom. I was doing sports this particular morning. I think it was November the 10th, 2010, and I saw this story come over the wire. I'll read, I'm reading it with interest and then my heart just sunk. A Toronto television station's cameraman is in hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a car while videotaping a police investigation. My first thought is, geez, I wonder if I know that guy. And then it says, Bill of Tennisoff, 58, who works for City TV,

was struck on Kipling Avenue in Toronto's West End. And just my brain, my heart just sunk at that point. Atenasov and other journalists were on the scene to videotape an incident being investigated by the province's special investigations unit. They're quoting the CBC's Tony Smyth. Bill was standing on the outside of a police car with emergency lights flashing when he was struck by the car. Police said Attenasov was crossing Kipling Avenue mid-block when he was struck. Bill was thrown about 15 feet. His camera and belonging scattered on the road.

He landed near me and three other colleagues already. on the scene, a 68-year-old male driving a Lincoln Continental was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to Toronto Police's 22 Division. Now, first of all, do you recall any of this bill? Yes. To what extent? Well, I remember we were waiting for the police to show up and give us a press conference, and I realized that I needed to change my equipment a bit and prepare for the press conference. Anyway, I went to the car, the trunk, opened it up, exchanged some things,

and came back across the street. when I crossed the street the second time I saw a car that was driving in my direction and I thought oh we'd see me I wished that I'd ran across

an accident I guess I couldn't believe that he didn't see me and then he came in and hit me with the car and I guess I went flying in the air landing on a couple of hoods of cars and then the kicker I landed back on the sidewalk

that's where I hit my head and lost my vision forever I have to say that on the morning that I got the news about you there actually was a closed circuit video of it it's awful to watch your head slammed into the passenger side of the car

breaking the window and you can see your body flying over do you want to describe the full extent of your injuries? Well, I lost my vision. That was the worst. Now I'm a blind person. And I've been for many years.

And I also lost my right leg. That was smashed by the car when I was originally hit. and that leg was crushed and they amputated it. And I now have a stump in place of the leg. But you also suffered a broken neck

and a broken back, am I correct? A broken neck and did you say broken back well I did am I correct am I wrong I don't know I was knocked out

and take a little hospital do you have any significant feeling below your neck yes Talk about that. Well, I think I get pain killers, which take care of the pain killers. I like the painkillers I'd be in total misery. Which part of your body gives your pain?

My upper back. That's the worst. When you woke up in the hospital, because I assume that you suffered a really severe injury to your head, how long did it take you to understand what had happened to you? Well, I know I'd been hit by a car. I didn't learn much about the driver. Do you know what is that?

now? He died. He died like a day or two before the trial was going to start. It was a year later, but the day before the trial he died. Okay, but I'm going to ask you, you know that I've interviewed people for the last 50 years, mostly frivolous, silly stuff. I'm going to ask you, it's a horrible question. But before the accident, you were this really good-looking, very athletic individual. You were good at sports. And we're going to talk about this, me and Jim and your friend John Whaley and other people, about what a brilliant cameraman you were. You worked hard, you saved money, you owned a house and in an instant

because some driver was careless and not paying attention it was all taken away from you. How difficult is it to process that? Well, you can't get hit by a car and get knocked all over the place and land on a cement sidewalk.

head first, back of your head. And that's what did the damage, losing my vision, which really hurts. It's interesting that you emphasize that the worst part of the injury is losing your vision, as opposed to losing your body. Why is that? Well, if you can't see, Even though you used to be able to see, you don't know where you're going. I can't even go to the bathroom by myself.

Do you find that humiliating? Yes. Not my fault. No. But it is humiliating. when you can't go to the bathroom at a normal toilet. I know for a while that you were being taken care of in your house, which was kind of in the east end.

What street was that on near Broadview and Queen? Woodley. Woodley. And then they moved you to a really nice apartment, I think, on Churchill, north, around Finch and Young. Yeah. And then subsequently, you've been, moved into this care place.

Is it adequate for you? Are you comfortable here? Can you achieve any level of happiness? Well, as long as my painkillers are given to me at the right times, four times a day, right around breakfast time. just after lunch. Jim McKinney and I come and visit you, I can't say as often as we should,

but the one takeaway we get is that you don't feel sorry for yourself. Those are private moments that I keep to myself. Sharing those feelings with people as, not productive in any way. Who comes to visit you? Who are still your closest friends? Who drops in on you? John Whaley.

He would come. I understand that one of the fundamental reasons that you and John Whaley are good friends is you both like the Boston Bruins. That would be true. Peter, I'm hearing that for the first time. I have a couple of questions. One is, like, was it easy to get Bill to open up and have that conversation with you?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I broach it to him. I said, I want to do this. And he said, fine. If you put yourself in Bill's place, he's lying there, no capacity to even scratch his own nose. He's blind. The hours must just go on endlessly. so he likes it when people visit.

The one question there, I set up this question about you've lost everything in an instant. And instead of saying, poor me, why did it happen to me, he has a kind of a cause and effect. Well, I'm in this situation because I got hit by a car. Right, yeah. I found that remarkable.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cause and effect. So I found that to be remarkable to listen to. like that conversation and it sounded like he trusts you and he was going to open up to you and it sounds like he's still struggling like it sounds like maybe it's more privately than when he's having visitors like you and john and lorn and jim and gourd and all these people who visit him i would say that uh he's still feeling uh the loss of vision particularly that's still affecting him 15 years later that is such a raw conversation with with a man who

still with us but you said this is the worst thing you've ever witnessed happened to a human being is that what you said yeah there was um just to put this in context uh several years ago there was this wonderful man named don mehili he was in his 30s cameraman for city television and he was working the overnight shift and he kind of pulled his car over to take a little nap and never woke up oh my god and that that was horrible but it was finished you know he died in his sleep, which at least there's no pain. It was horrible, and I remember that the funeral was very emotional, but Bill wakes up every day.

I wonder, I couldn't ask him, what do you dream about? Because in your dreams, you're different. I wonder if in his dreams he's walking around with the camera on his shoulder. So he was 58 when he suffered these injuries? So now he's 73. Okay, so he has 58 years. And you mentioned, you know, I have a little. video that you shared with me and I've seen him like he's a strapping handsome uh just you know

king of the world kind of guy like he sounds like a great guy sounds like a great guy i know he still is but to have to be robbed of that physicality and that uh stature and to lose his vision and his everything whatever everything that you described uh you know that's that's quite the blow well well the theme of this whole podcast about yeah sorry here i just said i'm still processing i've never heard his voice. So for years I've had people like you and Lauren Honeckman particularly, you would come over and I would always hear about these birthday parties

for Bill and Lauren would show me pictures. You know, Jo Jo Chinto might be there. I'd see the blue-eyed FOTM himself, Gord Martineau, and I'd see these people I kind of know. This is kind of what led to me saying, ask Joe Jinto to come on Toronto mic, and he said, nope. So I never heard his voice till today, till right now. It's quite something, but please,

set up the second clip. You've got a nine-grade clip. But the overwhelming theme is that this is a guy who suffered catastrophic injuries and doesn't feel sorry for himself. Now, from the beginning, Lauren Hanukman and his wife, Kathy, and Al McCormick, who was another supervising cameraman and his wife Mara, were probably the point people who were helping to take care and solve a lot of Bill's problems. So the next clip is me talking to Lauren Hanukam. let me tell you how we found out we had just come back from new york we were celebrating our anniversary there we wake up to the radio news i can't remember what station we had on but the news was that a city tv cameraman was hit by a car and he is in critical condition in hospital and i'm thinking through myself that geez i hope that's not bill because bill had a very active uh free

practice, he liked to work nights. He liked to keep his days open. I saw a message from Al that he may have heard it as well and that it was Bill. I rushed to the hospital. And one of the incredible things, Peter, when you think about it now, is that Bill was covering some, what used to be called in the business, and you'll remember this. It was called a high shot but being a hot shot meant that emergency crews were on the scene fire police ambulance and because there was so many emergency personnel there he was treated right away at the scene and they got him to the hospital and there was always the talk later being that you know given the the level of injuries that

he suffered he may not have lived had it been not for the fact that so many emergency personnel were there at that time. I walk in there, Peter, and there was like so many people from City TV there, right? It was because everybody had heard about this. And from that moment on, from that moment on, that no-men were coming up to the anniversary of it, November 2010, his unbelievable, unbelievable will to live, just kept nobody knew what was going to happen nobody knew if he was going to survive

he was he was obviously in in critical condition it was it was the type of thing where you thought to yourself he's you know nobody's going to make it like and you didn't think he would and as the days and the weeks and the months and of course eventually the years bill bill did survive and it has been an unbelievable journey watching him. I remember when we first found out that not only was Bill never going to walk again and that he was for all intents and purposes a quadriplegic. He lost one of his legs. He was also blind. So here's a person who's not going to be able to move and not going to be able to see and if you said that to somebody anybody well i'll speak for myself if you said um you know here's what's going to happen you're

going to you're not going to ever be able to walk you're not going to be you're not going to be able to move you're going to for essentially you're going to be a quadriplegic and you're not going to be able to see um i i i know and i'd say please let me die and i can say that i have never ever nobody i've never heard anybody say to me one time ever hearing bill say let me die i want to die and you'd come into the room and you'd go hi bill and he'd hear your voice and he'd immediately lord or kathie whatever it was he knew who it was and a big smile would come on his face And he would just be so happy at that moment that you were there. And that's what it's been like through the years.

I understand that right at the beginning of COVID, he got it. Yeah, Bill got it. COVID lockdown started mid-March. And at the end of March, like two weeks, three weeks into it, we hear from JC that Bill's got COVID and that they're taking him to the hospital. it was like they did we were in this twilight zone we nobody knew anything and nobody could be with them so here it is bill who has this specialized care you know quadriplegic blind i'm thinking of myself he's going to be what it's going to be lying there nobody's going to be there's going

to be, there's chaos at the hospitals. But I was able to find out a floor that he's taken to. I get to the floor and this wonderful nurse, she has her phone and she walks and gets into the room and she said, Bill, and I hear her going, Bill, and I hear Bill's voice. She goes, your friend Lauren wants to talk to you. And Peter, I could hear all. over the phone, this relief, and Bill goes, Lorne, Lauren, I said, hey Bill, hey Bill. I said, Bill, everything's okay. You're at the hospital. Don't worry. It was like, I just, for him, I was just thinking, oh, my goodness, here he is getting COVID and with all the, just the insanity that was taking place. But again, the resiliency of,

of Bill Atanasoff, not only did he fight the COVID, which, of course, in that first strain, as we know, that was the worst strain of all. But Bill got through it. But that's Bill again, making it through another huge, huge hurdle that maybe you and I or anybody else wouldn't be able to make. But I'll always remember the beginning of COVID and what happened to Bill.

We didn't know anyone else. What's the most pressing issue with his health these days? He's always had issues through the years with, you know what, because when you're lying down and if you're not, things happen, you get, everybody knows you get these bed sores. What they are are ulcers on your back, when you're bum everywhere while you're in bed and whatever. And he doesn't know about them because he's paralyzed.

if you or I ever had those bed sores, we'd be in agony. But because Bill is paralyzed or whatever, he doesn't even know about having them. And that's sort of a medical issue that he's dealing with right now. And we're all hoping that it's going to be taken care of properly. Bed sores are ulcers. And if ulcers aren't properly taken care of, it can lead to obviously really unfortunate consequences.

The thing that I just want to say about Bill, he's somebody that you can get an inspiration from because what Bill has not ever lost is the ability to laugh and the ability to just think about the good. Here's a person who can't move, who can't see. When you go see Bill, he'll thank you. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for coming. And we always want to say to Bill, thank you, Bill.

Thank you. Because you'll walk away every time, every single time I walk away, I'd shake my head. And I go, oh, wow. Wow. Thank you, Bill. Wow. Honnickman expresses it well, doesn't he? Well, does Hanukman know that you have his mustache?

you know these are you what he's saying there just just just a little memo if anyone's out there is listening to this and knows bill and can put a couple hours aside and go visit him because that's the most important thing to bill is that someone comes and spends an hour with him he's at the grove park nursing home in berry easy to find uh can see if you ever worked with bill or you know bill just think about they let you in they're very nice there and he's just he's thrilled and it's a real moment in his day if someone comes to visit him um the next clip is with john whaley waley and bill have a lot in common because i think at some point john waley was a videographer

who shot his own stories and waley's one of these guys who from the very beginning was very loyal to bill coming and helping him out and visiting so um hit the button and let's play john whaley John Whaley, before Bill of Tenetsoff's accident, how would you describe your relationship with him? Well, it was funny. My first four years at City, I worked on Deity Petty City line with the still fabulous Deenie Petty. And I volunteered and helped Jim McKinney on Wednesday night because he didn't have anyone to help him. So I would go down to Leaf Games or Jay's games with Bill's for highlights. And we struck up a friendship because Bill still is a total.

sports dude, love tennis, his Atlanta braids and the Boston Bruins, and that's where we bonded. You have a mutual affection for the Boston Bruins, which is kind of an affliction from some And in the next couple of years, it's going to be a suicide affliction. But nonetheless, let's talk about Bill. When you first heard what happened to Bill, what was your understanding as to the extent of injuries well i i all all i had heard i think it was it might have been jimmy who called me but he just said that he got hit by a van our car and was thrown like 30 feet in the air and landed on his head and then of course like you know it's just the horror thoughts going through your mind when you hear that and of course it was i think it was the first morning and you were

already there, as I recall. And just to see him, I mean, his head was the size of a 32-inch screen because of the impact. It was horrifying. As I recall, he had something like 60 staples in his head. Oh, I wouldn't have been surprised. And he had to wear a halo. Did he not? And by halo, I mean,

you know, a contraption to keep your head in place and that. It was just horrifying to see. So for these 15 years, from what I get, you have been the most constant visitor to him. I would go visit him once a week. I live in the West End, more like Burlington area. So I'd go down once a week and see him on Sunday mornings because I never shift that practice television

and getting up at 2.30 in the morning habit. And that was the best time to go into town and back for traffic. And I have to admit, I haven't seen him. I've only seen him a couple times since COVID. I mean, I'm in constant contact with him on the telephone. I've always kept contact with him and kept him abreast of what's going on in life, what's going on with the Boston Bruins. and, you know, as a matter of fact, just a quick antidote.

It happened December of, was it November of 2011? 2010, yeah. And the Bruins won the cup in June of 2011. And I somehow think that Bill had something to do with that. You can get your hanky out now. what McKinney and I find every time we see him is the absolute lack of self-pity. It just doesn't happen. He never mentions why did this happen to me.

No, no, not once. I've never heard it. I've never heard him even come close to it. And, like, I mean, it's an overused cliche when something. like this happens but you think you got problems in your life he's a blind quadriplegic and it's not bitter doesn't complain it puts things into perspective and I know that's a cliche but it's it's true always in a good mood like always you know anxious to talk and amazing amazing person he just he

would just go whatever extra yard had to be done to make your story look as good as it could. And not that the others didn't, don't get me wrong, but Bill would ruin his clothes if it meant that the shot looked better. You know, I wonder, it's just a total pro and a wonderful guy. It is good to hear John Whaley's voice. There's a episode of Toronto Mike celebrating the 30th anniversary of the launch of Breakfast television. Anne Romer was in the basement and she arranged to have John on that episode and I'm so glad she did and hello to John but wow yeah again these are great clips Peter

thank you for putting in this work you want to set up so this I will just tell the list there so we have nine clips they're all pretty short coming up except for this next one so this next one's got a bit more meat on the bone but any words to say before I press play on I think what you'll find in this clip is just we wander into the past with Bill and talk about some of our experiences together because he was a remarkable guy and there were just so many outrageous things that happened to him. So just hit it and see what we got. What high school did you go to?

Winston Churchill. What was your first job out of school? Uh, Moses Nymer. Well, wait a second. When we worked together, you used to tell me you had this wonderful job sucking crap out of sewers. Oh, yeah. Tell me about that. What was involved there?

Because that sounds way better than being a cameraman. Well, me and another guy had a job. driving around, called sewer suckers. We go to a sewer, use a pick, crank it open, and stick this big, long apparatus down that suck the sand and other debris that may have gotten

somehow into the sewer usually the only biggest weirdest thing we'd get would be a broken hockey stick and we had a car me and the other guy Don Purser he had a car and I had a car

well Purser was the original city television cameraman so did he bring you win? I guess he didn't disapprove. Had you had any experience with the camera and videotaping before that? Only what I studied at Ryerson. I went there for three years and graduated radio television and arts, RTA. Was there a point where you realized that you were really good at this? No.

I didn't never realize I was good. Well, other people realized that you were an elite cameraman. We're going to talk about some of our experiences. But who do you remember working with? We're going to talk about you shooting stuff with me and with McKinney, but if I throw some names at you, can you give me a capsule comment? I'll try. Gord Martineau. Did you ever shoot with Gord Martineau?

He was a broadcast camera, right? I didn't have much to do with him other than when I came to the station and he would be there. Maybe they'd asked me to shoot something. Colin Vaughn? I went out with him a lot. Very smart man. I got along great with Colin. What about the great David Onley?

I worked with him too Quite a bit But then you went to Queens Park And I kind of separated us There was a moment Early on in David Anley's career Where Moses got angry Because the cameramen were shooting him from the waist up

Not showing his disability Do you recall any conversations around show that David Onley is in the wheelchair? Vaguely, but once it was pointed out to me that I needed to show him

I could understand that it was important to show his disability. What about Jojo Chinto? Uh-huh. I was a man of, there's no two JoJo Chentos in the world. Elaborate on that. He was quite a character.

He could size up a situation and call it as he sought. And if you disagreed, tough. Did you ever have the pleasure of working with Catherine Humphreys? Yes? Sexy. That's all I remember. What about John Whaley? Did you ever shoot for John Whaley?

I remember talking to John, but I don't remember the shooting part. Because I know the two of you are very close friends. Can you describe your relationship with him? I thought he was a good reporter. Okay, here's a tough question. Who did you prefer working with, Jim McKinney or me? It's an unfair question. Are you passing on it?

Yeah, if Jojo was available, he'd go there. Oh, right. I'm going to bring something up here that I think speaks to your personality. We would go to a shoot, and I would introduce myself, hello there, I'm Peter Gross, I'm with City TV, and then the person would look at you. and say, and you are, and you would say, I'm just the cameraman. Do you recall doing that?

Yes. Why? Because I'm just taking the picture. I'm not going to try and influence. What happens? Because I have the camera. You know, we would go to gymnasiums to shoot basketball, and I would walk in, and the cameraman,

would come behind and the crowd would not go berserk until they saw the camera it wasn't me it was the camera and knowing that they were going to be on TV that night the camera was always important that's their problem we would we shot hundreds of high school sports events and there's there's anecdotes about you um because you take your sports very seriously. And one of the anecdotes is we're shooting a high school basketball game and the ref calls traveling and you were in sense because you didn't think it was traveling and you pulled your camera away from your, from your eye and you shouted, hey, that wasn't traveling. Oh, I'd let them have it if I disagreed. I did not pull punches in that regard.

I think you took shooting sports very personally. Well, yes. We talk a lot, Jim and I talk a lot about you. Shooting basketball is easy. Shooting football is pretty easy because you just follow the ball. Baseball is an almost impossible sport to shoot with one camera, but you had a very special technique. Do you remember how you used to shoot baseball?

Yeah, I'd go up behind home plate. and then how high I'd get up I'd like to see the picture and the batter in one image and then the land around it maybe shortstop

second base you used to tell me though that you'd keep your camera eye on the camera and the other eye open and you'd watch the play with the other eye to know where to move the camera? Yes, my second eye provided assistance in guiding me of where to move the camera to get the best image for the action. The thing about baseball that's different from all other sports is the massive area that

the play can take. The ball can be hit into the right field corner and a guy, coming around second and third and he's going to score and you have to decide where you're going to go with the camera and because you knew baseball so well you were always aware of the guy coming into the plate

well the camera initially would follow the ball heading to the outfield once you saw it's starting to sink you want to see if it landed

or whether he'd be caught. And once that was determined, you'd quickly pan down to catch the runners. Were they coming home? Which in many cases, they were. Okay, I'm going to remind you of, in my opinion,

the most intuitive piece of camera work you ever did. And this will probably piss you off to remember the story. There used to be a media day at Glen Abbey for the Canadian Open, and they would let us play 18 holes. But on this particular day, you and I were out there, and it's pouring rain. And I'm determined to come back to the office with some products. So on the 17th hole, a long par four, I put my eighth shot into the trap, and I'm standing over the ball, and I'm wiggling the club back and forth, back and forth,

and you say to me, hit the fucking shot. Yeah, that sounds like me And you were on the green sort of 10 feet from the pin And I just took a wild swing at the ball And from the moment I hit the ball You knew it was going into the hole And you followed it, racked focus

And you got the perfect shot of the ball Going into the hole Do you remember that? Yes And then you panned back to me And I'm doing this over-dramed hands in the air, blah, blah, blah. Look at me, I'm great.

I got a nine on a par four. How much did you enjoy shooting sports with us? A lot. I always love sports. Mr. McKinney, hockey, baseball. American football, not. Canadian football. I got another anecdote, another baseball anecdote.

Back in the first days of the Blue Jays at Old C&E Stadium, there was a camera booth that was about three floors up behind home plate. And you had this fantasy of becoming the first cameraman to catch a foul ball while recording it. And you came damn close once, didn't you? Yep. I was disappointed that I didn't get it. what were the circumstances

well the guy the batter took a swing and it nicked off his bat and the ball came back up in the air towards us in the camera box and I just

about caught it but didn't imagine if someone did that today it would be on every TV station, it would be on YouTube, it would go viral. If I had a baseball glove on my hand, I'd have caught it. Do you recall a number of circumstances with me in which you suffered injuries? I escaped. I was never hurt working with you, but oftentimes when you were with me, there was damage to your body.

Do any of them stand out to you? Not really. Good, I'm going to remind you. I think it was 1979, and we were shooting the Big Brother's downhill soapbox derby at High Park. And you got very creative. You got down near the bottom of the hill, and you pushed the camera back up against the curb, and you're lying face down looking through the camera. John Hinnon, who would later be my boss at 680 News, lost control.

control of his soapbox and his little vehicle slammed directly into the lens of your camera, pushing the lens back against your face, snapping the lens off the camera. I remember looking for you and I see your body pack, your recorder cumbling down the hill, the lens up in the air and you're grasping your face, blood coming out all over the place. Do you remember what you said to me when I came up to you? No doubt. I'd be swearing. Well, in between, in the swine, you said, there goes my modeling career. Was there a thought at the time? And you were a very handsome young man. Was that a consideration at the time where you're going to do that kind of thing? Modeling career? That's what you said

to me. That was a joke. Okay. Do you remember the house I had on Dundas Street just east of Coxwell. Yeah. And we used to, we spent a lot of time there, smoking pot and playing cribbage. That's right. And one night, it was a block. It was just through a park to Greenwood Raceway. And of course, I always dragged you to the track. So one night, we're running through the park. And I think the sun had gone down, so it was a little dark. And, of course, you're competitive. You had to run faster than me, not knowing that at the end of the park, there was a wire fence. about a foot off the ground, and you hit that full flush in your legs and went flying. You don't recall that?

Oh, I'd like to dampen the memory. Not a proud moment. Do you remember all the squash we played together? Yeah. And I'd have to say this. You were a much better squash player than I was, and you always tempered your game down so that the games could be competitive. You beat me most of the time, and I wouldn't say that you let me win,

but you allowed the rallies to go on longer than if you just wanted to crush me. But in all the times we played squash, you never hit me with your racket. You never drove a ball into my back. I did that to you numerous times. You hit my back? I hit you with my... Yeah, yeah, drilled the ball right into the smaller your back. I'm glad you don't remember that as well.

How about this one? This is actually on videotape. We were shooting a promo around Queens Park, shooting a promo for the Toronto Marathon. So I'm running behind the car. You're sitting in the trunk of the car shooting me as I talk about the Toronto Marathon. The driver hit a bump, and it jarge you out of the car.

And on the outtake, which they run at the cruise, Christmas parties or whatever, you can hear you saying, right out of the fucking car. Well, if I was knocked out of the car, that's what happened. Right out of the fucking care. That sounds like me. Oh, that's great. It's great to hear his voice and the laughter. It's good to hear him laugh.

On the mic, Mr. Gross. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I'm just looking at my script here to see. Well, while you're looking at that script, I just want to ask you a really quick question. So since this horrific accident back in the evening of November 9th, 2010, was there any policy change at City TV where they're like,

from now on, camera people need to wear some kind of reflective vest or something? I don't know. I think on the night in question, he was mostly in black. But all... I just wondered sometimes you take an accident. for people to be like, oh, at night, it's a bad idea to wear black and be on the street filming. You know, if you had a reflective vest, maybe that would be safer. I'm just wondering.

Regardless, all of the information that I have heard is that the guy driving the car went right past a police barrier, that it was completely the fault of the driver. Now, through the whole history of this, imagine, you know, someone very special to you, is a quadriplegic and blind. Every one of his needs to be taken care of someone else. So the Bill had a live in, I can't say it was a girlfriend. He had a girlfriend and they broke up and she continued to live in his house. And so for several years, she took care of him.

And I've got to be very vague about this because I really don't know the details. There was some concern that this woman had taken, there was an insurance settlement of some amount and that she had taken some of this money and used it for purposes other than Bill's benefit. Allegedly. Yeah, yeah. So I, Lauren wants me to say allegedly. Allegedly.

And anyways, because of this concern, I think about seven or eight years ago, Bill's younger sister, Janet, had power of attorney over him and took over. So this next clip is with Janet and talking about her concerns for Bill. Janet, just how did this affect your family when you found out how badly Bill had been injured? Well, well, it was really, really traumatic. And I know that my husband and I traveled down to Sunnybrook Hospital every weekend, because we were both working full-time at the time, every weekend for, like, I swear, almost two years between him being in Sunnybrook and then later at Bridgepoint.

he had a girlfriend or a lady who was a friend taking care of him for a while and without going into the specifics it was pretty clear that she was abusing a lot of the money that came from the settlement so eight years ago you obtained power of attorney and now you are in charge of his destiny yes i am i was speaking with with bill earlier and i said to him did you break your neck and did you break your back in this accident? And he was very quizzical and didn't seem to feel that that was the case. Can you be more informative about that? For some reason, I thought he'd broken his neck and his back.

No, no, he did not. He had a severe head injury. And that brain injury caused blindness and basically paralysis. I mean, he's not totally paralyzed. He has feelings, and he can feel pain in his back or his neck or his arms, but he really doesn't have use of them. He can't even scratch his own notes. I understand that there's been an issue with bed sores with him.

How threatening is that to his health? Well, if they become infected, then, of course, his health would be compromised. For anybody that gets an infection, especially when you're 73, right, is not good. good. So it's got to be looked after. He never did have them in his own private home because he had 24-7 care. They're just lying in one spot for a long time can create these bedsores? I guess so, yes, yeah. So you have to sort of lean them to the left, lean them to the right, set them up a bit more. If they do go in the chair, it's a limited time, you know, that type of thing. You don't have to answer this, but I am curious. It must be.

very expensive to keep them, if I were to just ballpark and say between $7,000 and $7,000 a month to keep him in this particular home up in Barry. Does he have sufficient funds to sustain this? Let's say he lives another 10 years? Yes, he does. There was an annuity from the car accident that gives him extra money along with his pensions and old age and Canada pension. So between all of them, yes, he can definitely live. in his present situation in a nursing home for the rest of his life, and he will have enough money coming in every month.

When we visited him, when we talked with him, you never get a moment where he feels sorry for himself. Is this just a reflection? You would know your sister. Is this a reflection of just the type of human being he is? Well, you know, if I go back to before he was hit, he would have said, he did, in fact, say the first. time he pretty well could speak to me, that, you know, he'd had a good life, he'd lived

it the way he wanted, and he was ready to go now. And I said, okay, Bill, but you don't really have a choice that way, but he was sick for a long time, as you remember, after the accident, he was in and out of the hospital. And I think one time he just, he became more mellow. Is that the word to use? He accepted it. Now he's moved to the nursing home. It is an adjustment.

It will be an adjustment. But I'm going to try to make it as good, and everybody is trying as hard as they can to make it as good as possible, because this at least is affordable for the rest of his life. Well, that's good news. Janet's one of these very wonderful people in Bill's life who are doing everything. You know, we talk about Hanukman and his wife, Al McCormick and his wife, Whaley, people who really care about Bill and do whatever we can to. to enhance his life. Now, speaking of that, there was a reference to, he's now in this home in Barry. For several years, he was in this very fine apartment, Churchill and Young Street. It's

near Young and Finch. And he had a 24-hour-a-day male nurse called JC, wonderful, wonderful guy. And when you think about what's required from someone taking care of a guy like Bill, I don't think you and I would want to do it, but these are extraordinary people. So we've got a few minutes of the interview with this fellow, J.C., who took care of Bill for about 10 years. J.C., how long were you the nurse for Bill of Tanasoff? Well, I met Bill back in early 2013 in Bridgepoint Hospital, and then since then I've been with Bill from 2013 up to last year, December, when I left for the U.S. Had you ever worked with a person with such severe injuries?

Actually, Bill was my first client to have that kind of severe injury, like from a quadriplegic. I've worked with hemorrhagic, but Bill was my first quadriplegic. Did you have to stay within 24 hours a day? How did that work? Well, I have to stay with him 24 hours a day because he couldn't do anything. He needs somebody to do stuff for him, like scratching her, his eyebrows, water to drink, or especially if he's listening to sports. So you have to do this stuff for him, like even preparing him, the meals, the meds. When we spoke with Bill, the one thing that he was upset about was that he's incapable of going to the bathroom.

to him on his own. So without being specific, that's something that you had to take care of. Yes, I have to do that like every other day, including the changes, changing his supropubic catheter, which we do once a month. So he

has a catheter attached to him and that's how he urinates. Yep, that is correct. Those of us who know and love Bill know that he's got an interesting personality. Did you find that he could be cranky sometimes.

Yeah, yeah. He can be cranky sometimes, but, you know, he is also, once he realized that he said something, that's you, he would immediately apologize. That's what we found. He would have so that he would blow up and then realize that he'd cross the line and he'd apologize to everybody. Yeah, that is correct. I think that that's important, that here's a man who's become a quadriplegic and his

blind, and he still retains a lot of his personality. That is correct. You know what, Peter? While working with Bill, I also do part-time jobs with other long-term care facilities. And then these people would always tell me that they hate what happened to them, and then they wanted to die. And the moment they say, tells me that, I would always tell them about the story of Bill. this guy has been living a normal life for more than 50 years

and then all of a sudden it was taken away from him by an accident but for the longest time that I've been with this guy I've never heard him say those words that he wants to end his life every time we would go to the hospital he would be asked these routine questions from the ER if the event that we need to do we need to revive you do you want to be do you want to have a

a tube inserted in your mouth, you want to be revived, a CPR, and he would always say yes. Yeah, that's what we're hearing from everyone about Bill. So in a few words, can you just sum up your experience with Bill of Tennis off? Well, Bill is like family to me. I went to visit him a month ago, and I cried when I saw him, because he reminded me of my dad, because I told him that, you know, you're like my dad, that I've never had a chance to take care of my dad. We have this great relationship with Bill.

It was Bill who re-ignited my love for tennis, because I used to play tennis. But then when I started working with Bill, I immediately went back to tennis, and it was also him who introduced me, who taught me the games of baseball and hockey, those, you know, the terminologies. And every now and that I would call him to check on him,

to update him about, you know, sports, especially tennis. I want to thank you for what you did for my friend. Bill of Tennisoff is a very special friend of mine, and there's a number of us who care deeply for him and admire him. And you know what, Peter, I always tell Bill before that you are so lucky, and I wanted to be like you. When I grow old, you know, you have these friends that keeps visiting you, you know, keeps calling you despite their busy schedules.

Wow, J.C. Wow. These are very special human beings who work in these places and help, you know, severely disabled people. Okay. Speaking of severely disabled people, we have a clip of Jim McKinney. Oh, perfect segue. I don't have to set this up. There's just some business with Jim here. All right, let's hear from Howie. Jim McKinney. That'll be me.

The ladies, man. Yeah. When did you first heard about the accident with Bill? What was your feeling about that? I couldn't really believe that it happened. And you didn't know the extent of it. And then we heard Bill was in Sunnybrook and coma. And it's just the whole newsroom was upset.

you know because in those days city tv was like a great big family in the heyday of city tv there were 65 70 people in the newsroom every day two or three people with their dogs and their kids had come in on a day off so you knew everybody and you knew their kids and you knew their kids. And when Bill got in the accident, geez, like, nobody talked. The whole newsroom was quiet. What are your fondest memories of him? Not that he's gone, but as a cameraman. Oh, Bill, anytime you got Bill, you were, you know, you were cooking with gas, especially if you're shooting sports. So we could never ask for Bill, because, then Hurlbut had never given to us.

So you just had to take your chances. But you knew when you got Bill that you'd have a, the Viz would be good. My part of the story would probably be shit, but Bill could save it. And most guys for a minute and a half segment would shoot 15, 18 minutes of tape. Bill would get it all in five minutes of tape. you know and so the the editors loved them you know it was it was so easy to cut a story that

that he went out and shot because in his mind he was he put the story together as he was shooting it do you remember the look he would give you he'd pull the camera away and just glare at you saying we don't need anymore yeah that or that's six fucking takes so yeah it was always fun going out the drive out to the shoot and the drive back did you ever experience his white-hot temper where he would blow up for 30 seconds yeah on occasion

you'd be in a game and a referee it'd make a bad call and bill it come out from behind the camera and said, that wasn't fucking traveling, you know, what the fuck you're talking? And all these kids, the high school kids would be there too, right? And, uh, but I would cover them off because I'd probably be in front of the kids and drop it joined out of my pocket or something. So he'd be okay with whatever he said. So, you know, it was fine. And they didn't realize what they were getting. But what you were saying before is You know, like I went to quite a few high school football games and that by myself, and nobody cared.

But if you walked in there with a camera, you were cooking, you know. And I used to get people calling me all the time because I never realized that they wanted me to go to an event with the camera to give them exposure to 400,000 people or however many people were watching City TV that night. When you and I visit Bill, what's your takeaway when we leave? Well, that we should be here more. I feel guilty. Well, what about his state of mind how he deals with this? Yeah. Well, it's amazing, you know, to keep a half-fast positive.

attitude after all that's happening for such a long time. You know, I'm not so sure whether I could do it. It's a very powerful example of the will to be happy, you know, to live and to be happy. And, you know, so many things that we take for granted, you see, they can be taken away in a heartbeat. And why does it happen to the good people? How did you get the nickname Howie? How did they get the nickname Howie? When I was playing for the Neil McNeil Maroons, when I was 16 years old,

there was another defenseman on the team named Jim McKendry. So they kept getting us mixed up. And so Gary Smith started calling me Howie after Howie Young. because I had a facial and behavioral resemblance to Howie. Howie was one of the finest alcoholics to ever play in the NHL. So I was out to see Howie in New Mexico just before he passed. He was doing great. He was quite the character.

Wow, Jim McKenney. Wow. You know, I know we have a couple more clips to go, Peter, I want to let you know that I think you did a stellar job on this, producing this episode. And it's funny, you made that joke with Jim off the top that, you know, oh, Bill's not dead because it does come across a little bit like we're memorializing Bill, but absolutely still with us. We got to make sure we're celebrating him while he's here, which I think is very cool.

Well, the very fact that he survived 15 years with these catastrophic injuries, has defied the odds with Bill. But you've heard the testimonies. Yeah, I love this. The will to live, the shrugging off of the dreadful things. And it sounds like we're talking very late September right now, but at some point in November, I guess November 9th, yeah, it'll be the 15th anniversary of that horrific name.

And by the way, what you've seen, what you've heard is a guy who's still very articulate, has a very strong memory. Still laughing. And a great sense of humor. Yeah. uh and keep in mind that the main injury was the slamming of the head against the concrete you know sounds sharp to me yeah he's sharper than i am and sharper than you for sure well i accept that he's very mentally intact um the next clip yeah is uh al micormick

al macormick huge man i used to love going out with al micormac because he's he's twice my size and there you can find on youtube a story we did in 1985 when the blue jays wiped out the yankees and they sent us to New York. Al McCormick and I on a Monday morning going to New York and basically traipsing through New York going, and then-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. And, of course, they sent me with the biggest cameraman possible just in case I would get beat up.

If you ever find it, it's great. Anyways, Al McCormick and his wife Mera and Lauren Honickman and his wife, Kathy, have contributed very much to Bill's benefit over the years. So in the next clip, Al talks about his relationship with Bill And included in this is a clip from a piece of video that Al shot of Bill for 27 years ago. I've seen this. Yeah.

It just, it almost makes me cry to see what an attractive, funny, bright guy he was. So here's some clips with Big Al McCormick. Big Al McCormick, five-minute clip. Then I have a very short 11-second clip and a question for you, Peter Gross. and then you're going to take us home with the final clip of Bill. I love this very much. Thank you, Peter Gross. Here is the, what is this?

This is the penultimate clip. Al McCormick, I worked with you many, many times. I loved working with you, but you're probably aware that in many circumstances, the reporters, particularly reporters going out for sports, preferred Bill. Were you aware of that? Oh, absolutely. No, Bill was a sports enthusiast. And, you know, you're aware that he played hours and hours of tennis.

And, you know, he was fortunate enough to have a tennis court in his backyard. I was terrible at tennis. And, you know, I guess in desperation he would call me up and I'd go over. And, you know, we would shoot a bucket of balls and there would be balls all over the court. And we would go around collecting the balls to start again. And I would bend over to pick up the balls and he'd say, don't bend over to pick up the balls. He said, this is how you do it,

and he would demonstrate how he would put the ball between his foot and the racket, and then in one motion you lift your knee up, and the ball would come up, and you catch it. And so I tried it, and I wasn't even very good at doing that. And I just ended up bending over to pick up the balls, and he would be yelling at me constantly about that. How did you and the other cameraman,

react when you heard how badly he was injured? I received a phone call from Peter Dvorsock. I wasn't working at City at the time. I had taken a package a few months before that. And it was a phone call just out of the blue. And Peter said, Bill's been in a car accident. He's at Sunnybrook. And, you know, we got in the car and went up there.

And, of course, the ICU. was just crammed with people from city when we realized how badly he was injured. I mean, it was just devastating for us. I'm sure you've got many anecdotes about Bill. Can you pick one out for our entertainment? Colin Vaughn, who was the political specialist at City TV, he was very interested in Quebec politics.

And in the 90s, we would go to cover the elections in Quebec. and Colin, his favorite cameraman, political cameraman, was Bill. His second favorite was me, fortunately, and a lot of times they would send two cameras to Montreal. And Gord was another one that he would often go with Colin. You know, we would work during the day, and then we would, you know, have a lot of partying at night. And this one night, they handed us little video hand-held video cameras. And just for a laugh, I fired up the camera to show Bill was going to demonstrate how he applied hair products to his hair. So I shot this video of him applying the hair, and it turned out to be so funny.

And Bill, having the sense of humor he had. As my mother always said, smells like springtime. She was referring asparagus with cream sauce. I'm just on the cream sauce First application for fudge For those with short Limp hair That's looking for a bit of a lift

It's what we call fudge See it? Sticky, gooey But what's applied to the scalp Explain the flip part Oh That was my real Well it was soft limp hair Normally you'd come out of the shower

And the sheer moisture Would flatten it down Okay, yes it looks like a lot of white molding paste in there but let me tell you if you just finger it up a bit for a while the more you finger it the more likely it is to just appear bill you have to chub up your hair i'm fluffing the hair of course if you've got some on your forehead you'd want that off nobody wants a sticky creamy substance all over their forehead that's the end of the scene What do you get from the fact that after this horrendous accident that left him so tragically disabled

15 years later he's still built yeah he is I don't know if I should be telling you this but after the accident when we first wanted first visited him He, you know, he said to Mara and I, that he asked for our help to end his life. He didn't want to live. And, you know, for obvious reasons, we really couldn't fulfill that wish. And as it turned out, he, I think, more than ever now, you know, cherishes his life. wow I could have edited that out because we've been constantly reinforcing the fact that he never felt sorry for himself but that was a very reasonable reaction in the early moments don't you think

and as we learned from his sister he now he won't even sign a do not resuscitate order at this point that's how much he enjoys life and living yeah so it speaks to his acceptance of the fact that that he no longer has his sight and his mobility and how he basically adapted and he can listen to his Bruins games and listen to tennis matches and he can laugh at a good joke and visit with friends. He's living his best life.

Now, Peter, hold on, before you set up the last clip, okay, because that's Al McCormick we just heard from, okay? I've never had the pleasure of meeting Al McCormick, but recently Lauren Honickman visited not once but twice. And his first visit here in the basement, Lauren Honnickman, I played a clip of subdivisions by Rush. And I just wanted to hear from Lorne, who knew Mark Daly, whether he agreed with me that the voice saying subdivisions was Mark Daly. I spent a whole, because I'm Mike, and this is

Toronto Mike, Toronto Mic, Post-B-D, I spent a whole six minutes on this, and it drove Lauren mad. Like, he was, move on, he didn't want to spend more than 60 seconds on this. You should have seen his face, and I have the video evidence. But then when Lauren came back, I had in my possession a clip sent from the aforementioned Al McCormick, because Al McCormick, heard that episode of Lorne, he enjoyed all six minutes, I know that, and Al sent me a little clip of basically AI, bringing down the music

and raising the vocals for an 11-second part of subdivisions by Rush. So I'm going to play 11 seconds that Al McCormick sent me, you're going to tell me whether you believe that is your former colleague and friend Mark Daly or not, and then you're going to set up the final clip of

Bill. You ready? Okay. Eleven seconds. Subdivision. In the shopping malls, conformal Bacastos, in the basement bars. You heard subdivisions twice in that 11 seconds. Peter Gross, I'm looking at you. In your opinion, having worked closely with Mark Daly for years, is that the voice of Mark Daly?

Very likely. There was something very distinctive. I wish I'd had more than a second and a half. I'll do it one more time, though, now you know what's coming. Again, sorry, Lauren. We're spending another 11 seconds on this. Subdivision. In the high school halls, in the shopping malls, conform or be castles in the basement bars.

I'm voting yes on that. Okay, I just had Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson from Sloan. They were here on Friday. I think Chris loved hearing that little clip, and he started singing the rest of subdivisions, which is his favorite Rush song, and he thinks it's Mark Daly. I think it's Mark Daly. Al McCormick for the record here before you set up the final clip here

in Bill's excellent episode of Toronto Mike Al McCormick says without a doubt 100% that was Mark Daly take it away Peter you did a great job in this episode I want to just run one wonderful anecdote by you in 1979 there was a hockey tournament in New York I think it was called the Challenge Cup

NHL All-Stars or against the Russians so Bill and I were sent down to shoot this and our number one priority was to score some marijuana. So we're going up to people on the street. And Madison Square Gardens has these eight circular stairwells going around it. And we found out between periods that they were like the eternal stairwells of pot. Up and down, people were smoking like crazy, being very generous with them. So by the end of the game, Bill and I are extremely high. We go into the the NHL All-Stars dressing room, just buzzed out of her minds.

And I'm interviewing Ken Dryden. Wow. Now, I don't remember the question I asked, but as soon as I ask the question, Bill pulls his camera away from his face and loud enough so that every other person in the room can hear, he says, that's a stupid fucking question. That was, and then 30 seconds later, he apologizes. Oh, I love it. I was out of order.

I love it. Okay, this is a nice clip to sort of end the thing. And at the very end of this, you're going to hear Bill's ongoing sense of humor. I'm not exactly sure. I can't remember what ensued in this, but just hit this last clip of Bill. So, Bill, there's a nice TV set in your room here. Of course, you can't see it. But do they put sports on and you can listen to sports?

Yeah. And who are your favorite teams these days? The Boston Bruins, the Cleveland Browns, the New England Patriots, and the Toronto Blue Jays. You've moved off Atlanta? Yeah, didn't you like the Atlanta Braves? Yeah, I'm sorry, Atlanta. So you're enjoying the Blue Jays this year. They're having an amazing season.

Aren't they in first? They're still in first, as we're talking. I think they're two and a half games ahead of the Yankees and the Red Sox. Their bullpen's been atrocious all August. But Bichette and Springer are insane. Oh, Bichette. What made you as a child decide that your team was the Boston Bruins? It might have been as silly as.

My name's B for Bill. And the two Boston Bruins start with a B. So you're not a big fan of the Buffalo Bills, though? I like the Bills. But only maybe it's a number three team. In terms of watching TV where you can only hear the audio, what's the best sport? I like baseball. the pace of it probably hockey what's your routine here at grove park what are your days like

they're not great like an old man this is where they sent me to die well you know considering your circumstances and how badly you were injured the fact that your still kicking and still thinking in a very upbeat way after 15 years is incredible. I thank you. I still feel like shit. Well, on that note, I'm going to conclude the interview. Great ending. It's a great ending.

I hope we're fucking done. But there's still a lot of Bill Otenestoff left in Bill Otenestov. Thank you, Peter Gross. You more than earned that lasagna from Palma Pasta, my friend. You basically painted a very thorough picture. It was very thorough and detailed and interesting. And we heard from voices we know and voices we don't know, but we got the story of Bill Atenasoff.

And I've got to say, thank you so much. I'm not sure there's any other outlet that would give 90 minutes to this gentleman. and I would honestly give even longer. That was very interesting to me. You do great work. If I could reiterate, if you've listened to this and enjoyed this, if Bill of Tennisov ever shot a story that worked for you,

if you ever worked with Bill, if you knew Bill from City TV, and you have the opportunity to go up to Barry to Grove Park, you can do the research and find out where he is. They're very receptive. They're very kind there. Go visit Bill. Go take an hour of your time.

and say, you know, I heard the podcast. I just wanted to come say hello and visit you. That would be great. And I have a mind blow on our way out here that I was doing a little homework because you mentioned that Bill liked to work evenings. He would freelance during the day and do other things, right? So I thought this was interesting.

If you go to IMDB.com and you search for Bill's name, Bill Atanasov, you will learn that he was a camera person for the elephant show. And that was the famous kid show. hosted by Sharon Lois and Brom. So the Sharon, Lois and Brom, The Elephant Show, Skinnamarinky Dinky Do, Bill's got a credit on that. Next time I visit him, I'm going to sing,

Skinnamarinky Doo. Do it and see if he gets like PTSD or something from that. But do that. So again, thank you, Peter, but also thank you to everybody who said yes to Peter's request to have a recorded conversation about Bill, many of whom have been in this basement, but some of whom haven't.

And it was good to hear John Whaley. Good to hear Jim McKinney. Always good to hear Lorne Honnickman. Nice that Bill's sister. And good to hear J.C. I recognize that accent right away from J.C. And who else did we have on this show? Oh, yeah, of course.

Al McCormick. Al McCormick, who sent me that AI enhanced subdivisions clip so we could definitively say, without a doubt, it's Mark Daly. Thank you, Peter Gross. You're welcome. This is why you're in the FOTM Hall of Fame. And that brings us to the end of our 1,770th show.

Go to tronelomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Listen, this is what I'm doing. I'm trying to enhance the Patreon experience at patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. I am posting like crazy, spilling a lot of tea. Inside info, I did a whole thing about the Sloan episode because of some feedback. It's all going there. So become a member at patreon.com slash Toronto Mike.

Lots of things happening there. Thank you to Great Lakes Brewery. Thank you for hosting us at TMLX20 last Thursday at the GLB brew pub. Thank you to Palma Pasta. Peter and the gang will be at TMLX21 on November 29th at noon. Bring all the city TV people. I got food for everybody. I got beer for everybody.

Thank you, Toronto's Waterfront, B. It was a great four months. It comes to an end this week, but everybody should check out the waterfall festival this next weekend. Thank you to Recycle My Electronics.ca. Blue Sky Agency, who said two months is not enough. We want to be a supporter for four months.

Thank you, Doug Mills. And thank you, Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow. This is kind of exciting. Making his Toronto mic debut is musician, producer, Fred Malin. You won't believe. what Fred's done in his career and who he's produced. He's got stories talking to Fred tomorrow.