Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Bonus Ep: Toronto Mike on the Justin Bruckmann Adventure

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

Mike is a guest on the Justin Bruckmann Adventure. This is the 64th episode of that podcast and not a Toronto Mike'd episode.

Alrighty, so this episode of the Justin Bruckman Adventure is brought to you by Vintage Speed and Metal, the lifestyle brand for those who build what they love, everything else is secondary. If you want some high-quality merchandise, Vintage Speed and Metal has sweaters, T-shirts, long sleeves, hats, and more. You can go to VintageSpeedandMetal.com and use the code JBA for 10% off storewide. This episode is also brought to you by Mortgage Mat Northcott. When the bank says no way, try MortgageMat.ca. Business is always giving stuff away, and this time of the month, and it's no different. You can go and get a $500 gift card to Great Wolf Lodge.

You just have to enter the contest on his Facebook page. You just have to go find MortgageMatt.ca on Facebook, and you can enter the draw there. And finally, this episode is brought to you by The Rehab Lab. Melissa Biscardi is a BSCN, MSCRN, osteopathic therapist, and she helps busy people recover from concussions. Didn't screw it up this time. Sorry, Melissa, I love you. She helps a lot of people deal with concussions, including our very own Justin Bruckman over here.

And if you think you may need some help, go to therehablab.ca and contact Melissa Biscardi today. She's handy to know if you've fallen off your bike. Right? I like that you just read the alphabet there. That was pretty good. Yeah, I have no idea what any of those acronyms mean. I don't either, but I know she helped me.

So that's good enough. Good to go, right? Yes, sir. That was way better than yesterday. Oh, you should have seen yesterday, Tron. I'm like, it was bad. I needed to go see Melissa after the ad read from yesterday. I was screwing up so bad.

Wait, when does Jason Statham show up? Is he going to sit here? Be patient. Be patient. He falls from the ceiling like the movie in Frank. You know what I mean? That guy owes me likeness rights, man. I'm telling you, I gotta get paid. So, hey, today our guest is, I would say you're a Toronto legend. You're a Toronto legend. Oh my god, no one's called me a legend before. Wow. You know what? First off, whenever we sit in with someone we haven't met yet,

it's exciting to me because I like to learn. That's the whole thing. I'm here with my martial arts buddies all the time. When you get someone to learn from us, it's fun, but we've never met you. I've only seen you online and we're like, I wonder how tall he is. Is he huge or is he a little dude? You can't tell from the photos?

We were explaining this to him. We had a guy on yesterday. His name is Josh Hill. He's a professional fighter, but he fights at 135 pounds. I thought he like 6 4 280 or something you could ever tell so when they're on more than that everyone everyone on your computer computer screen is six feet tall i mean if you ask me or so uh yeah so uh where do we where do we start yeah for for anybody that doesn't know just uh obviously the host of the toronto mic podcast uh i don't know if we should go all the way back to your start in broadcasting. That's kind of what I want to know. I want to find out more about how I got the term legend.

Because honestly, I feel like my ego just inflated like 10 times. So I'm not going to lie. I'm not a podcast guy. But now I'm kind of looking around. Now that we had some radio guests and stuff like that too like that's i'm kind of figuring and starting to understand the that scene in toronto right so i go i went back through your uh through your resume of your guests oh yeah i'm like the guest list yeah i'm like holy shit like dude you know everyone

yeah you know what i mean like you didn't get all these guys out to come and hang out in your basement because you haven't had some sort of polar impact in the industry right so like I listened to I listened to

your 100th one with Humble and Fred oh yeah Humble and Fred I'm like that was that was an awesome listen because I came from that decade where all you listened to

was Humble and Fred yeah me too man and then again you had someone like Mishimi on and stuff. Oh, yeah, a few times. I'm like, oh, my God, that's amazing, right? She's a great FOTM, Mishimi. So just with a wide variety of people that you've had on your show, you've got to be respected in your community.

These people don't just show up at your house for nothing, right? So when I'm like, and you're actually Toronto Mike, like that's, that's pretty bold. No, and I realize now I can pull that testimonial that you said,

I can pull it as a quote and Jason Statham called me a legend. Like I can put that on the TorontoMike.com homepage. Now you've got me worried that we're going to get sued by Jason Statham

for likeness rights. Now I'm like, get him on it. I think he's got bigger fish to fry. Don't worry. Well, that's good. That's good. Yeah. I don't know.

We should go the other way. I don't think he wants my money. I want his. You can't get blood from a stone. We've got to find an angle, right? That's a good point. Do you have stickers? Do I get to leave with a sticker?

I know I'm putting you on the spot here. I see one on the back of your laptop. We have stickers and t-shirts like I'll deliver one to you next time How about that who wants the third sticker? I got the sticker you Toronto Mike snap it Matt. Yeah, there we go We actually have we do and we accept he drove today and the stickers from my car. It's complicated I guess we'll just have to hang out. I'll write a bike down to your house and bring you a sticker I guess we'll just have to hang out again. I'll ride a bike down to your house and bring you a sticker. Yeah, I would love it, man. Because once I biked here to deliver stickers at this podcast studio.

The Toronto podcast studio. Okay, that's good for SEO, Toronto podcast studio. They're very bright, yeah. I don't think it was like 11 o'clock on a Monday. They said, I love Toronto Mike. Do you bring Toronto Mike stickers? And I biked them over and I get here and I'm knocking on the door. Nobody's here.

Like they ghosted me. And then, oh, sorry, we're in Oshawa or something. I'm like, well, we had an arranged day and time to be here. You're an asshole, Ross. Is that Ross? Ross, tell him I want to meet him outside after this recording. Actually, you know how I know Ross? I know martial arts.

So do I. Ross is one of my first students, so. You're a nice fellow, but I don't like your odds. He's going down. Kick his butt. So how did you get your start in broadcasting? So you were a producer for the Humble and Fred? Is that how you kind of got in there?

No, no. Well, okay. When Humble and Fred were no longer able to get a gig on Terrestrial Radio, so I think they were last on 99.9, they got fired. Then Humble got a gig at Easy Rock, which became Boom. Then he got fired, and they couldn't get hired, and they wanted to continue broadcasting. So in 2006, I told my friends Humble and Fred about this burgeoning new format that's emerging. They're called podcasts.

And Apple had just added podcasting to iTunes. And it was really new. There weren't a lot, but I was listening to one by Ricky Gervais. And I was like, okay, here's the podcast from Ricky Gervais. And I would sort of reverse engineer. How does the audio become a podcast? Oh, there's a syndication. There's XML as a syndication methodology that gets parsed by iTunes, and you start to figure that out.

So I said to Humble and Fred, if you can record the content, I can make that a podcast, and you guys can keep broadcasting. So this is 2006. We did a few one-off podcasts. And then in 2011, they wanted to start doing doing a podcast every day so i know this is really boring right we're way in the weeds here but no this is what we're here for i designed the back end so here's the infrastructure that will let you feed the beast every day you can podcast you can you know uh subscribers will have it pushed to them in real time to their smartphone

etc and i watched humble and fred do it for a couple of weeks like they would have a guest on like jason statham would come on no he never on, but somebody would come on and I would kind of watch Humble and Fred chat with them for 15, 20 minutes. And Humble and Fred are great at being, they're great because it's the Humble and Fred show. And it's primarily about Humble and Fred. And I thought, well, what if I did a show where the same type of guests came over and it was all about them? Like it was a deep dive. I ask all the questions fans want you to ask somebody. Like, you know, those questions that burning questions, every fan wishes the interviewer would ask,

but you know, because it's usually run by like Bell or Rogers or Chorus or whatever. Yeah, it's like they don't go there and it's always five to seven minutes or less and it's very high level, like promoting the next thing. Like, what if we did a deep dive? And I started inviting people over and some people said yes

and then it started to roll and then next thing you know, you know what you're doing. So yeah, I've done 590. Ben Ennis came over yesterday. He's on the fan 590 and he was episode 593. Yeah, that's amazing.

That's amazing, yeah. Was there anybody else in Toronto doing podcasting like this before you, or were you the first? Not that I knew of. I was modeling my stuff after two of my favorite interviewers, which was a guy named Brian Linehan, who did a show on City TV. And I used to watch this show, and he'd have on somebody, some famous Hollywood person. And there was no internet back then, so you can't go to Wiki or Google things. So he would do his homework.

And I remember being really impressed that he did his homework and the guest was often impressed by questions that he would ask because they weren't the run of the mill like obvious stuff

so I was like man if I ever I never thought I would ever host anything like that because I have a terrible voice who am I to do that but if I ever did a show

I would do my homework so Brian Linehan influenced me and the other guy I liked because I liked how he would relax his guests, get them calm, and then kind of hit them with the question

that they would never normally answer. And then they would kind of go there. And I said, oh, that technique works. I see what he's doing. And that's a little-known radio guy named Howard Stern. So I basically took a bit of Brian Linehan, a bit of Howard Stern, and then the rest is all just my own instinct. Just my gut.

That's a talent, right? I've done a million interviews in my career, and they're the worst because everyone's asking you the same shit over and over again to the point where you can tell that your athlete or your entertainer doesn't even want to be there

because he's had to answer this. Yes, because how long are you doing? I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the guys that are going to do, I don't know, let's say 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes. And you're right. You don't get anything interesting or unique out of that 10-minute hit. But what if that person, and I know these Hollywood,

Tom Cruise isn't going to sit down in my basement for 90 minutes, but if somebody would give you real time, like say, okay, take as long as you need. You know, by the hour i always say this at the hour and 10 minute mark that's where the gold is found like you have to kind of you have to converse for an hour or so before you extract the gold you can't get the gold out if you say okay you got 20 minutes yeah you know one time i said yes to a 20 minute interview because it was chuck d a public enemy and i'm such a such a fan and that's like I call it

the Chuck D exception but typically like if you tell me you have 20 minutes I say well this isn't the this isn't the show for you and I say

respectfully we won't be doing it that's so interesting we come in with like a like a loose kind of game plan and stuff like that but it is

it's just sit and hang out and then I'm a lot of the times I'm going to figure out the questions I really want to ask as we go, you know what I mean? How to,

how to like, do you have bullet point notes of things you want to hit? We're not that produced yet. Like we've been, and this is something we usually don't talk about on air but like,

like happy to do so today. It's real talk, man. It's exactly, exactly. Like as a, as a, like the producer of the show, I haven't wanted to like

be too hard, be like, hey, you need to be doing this, you need to be doing that. You just like want to kind of let him do his thing and then interact with the guests the way it works

and that's worked for us because it's jason's show so jason's you can't stop looking i know handsome son of a bitch holy smokes okay go on more but but yeah that's what we've been trying to are things that we want to focus on as we move forward and kind of like scale up especially with having somebody like yourself okay but he's got a staff. How many guys you got on here? You're looking at it. Okay, so it's just you two. Yeah. Because there's three other bodies in the room.

What do they do? So Snap and Matt, our photographer, and then we have Ross and Laura, and they run the Toronto Podcast Studios. Okay, so Ross is the guy who stood me up. I'll never forget that name. Listen, I've been ratting him out since you got here. Pay attention.

So the two people behind the curtain, this is their space. Yes. Can you guys sort of rent the space or whatever? And then, so yeah, you got sort of three. Matt just jumped on a couple weeks ago. I met him through taking pictures at our gym with some of our fighters, and it all just kind of forms together.

Oh, that's good. And as far as us, I do a little bit of homework. You know what I mean? I have an idea what's going on, and then we kind of try to feed off each other and stuff like that. I haven't walked into the room blind quite yet. You know what I mean? I have an idea what's going on, and then we kind of try to feed off each other and stuff like that. I haven't walked into the room blind quite yet. It's good you've got somebody with a laptop open beside you because you could be chatting me up on something, and he's Googling something.

That's generally the dynamic and how it works. We'll let him go until there's a lull, and then if there's a lull, I jump in and try to ask a question. Okay, cool. It's great you're doing it. I say like it's like sort of like cycling which we talked about before we press record but like people are like oh man i'm so impressed you did 30k a day or something and i say honestly like do you think i one day just decided i'm gonna go for a 30k ride no i was doing 5k rides for a while before i decided let me try a 10k

ride okay you guys are doing it. How many episodes have you done? This will be number 64. That's amazing. Like, you know how many podcasts get to episode 64? Very few. Not very many. Yeah.

Yeah. I have no idea, but I bet you it's a low number. But we're speaking on the way down here too. Like our, our, our weekly business meeting is, is in the car on the way here. And it's kind of like, sometimes we want graphics and music. I'm like, just fucking do it. We can switch it later. It doesn't have to be perfect.

You're going to have to kind of throw stuff out, see what sticks, make your mistakes. Because the studio is going to make sure you sound good. Which, by the way, to me, it's half the battle. When I hear podcasts,

because there's a podcast with, I won't name it, because I don't want to shame any podcast, but the content is highly targeted to me, and I'm very interested in this content. But the audio quality is such that I can't listen. I really need it to sound like it's coming out of CBC or whatever, NPR. I totally agree.

So you guys got that covered. So now you just got to worry about content. And it sounds like you've got 64 episodes in. You've got that figured out. You know what? We're trying. If you go into anything genuine, you're going to be okay in a little bit of research. But going back to the audio really quick,

I didn't, because I haven't listened to a lot of podcasts and I don't understand the audio side that much. But once we, but I do go back and listen to my own shit to kind of have an idea where we need improvement. And while we did make the jump to down here, I'm like, it is much more enjoyable. Do you edit the show? Ross takes care of all that for us.

But you edit it? Up until like five episodes before, like you, I did everything. So I set up Strike, record audio, record multiple cameras, edit it all together, publish everything. And then the main thing we were struggling with is getting people to come to Oshawa. And as you know, it's a long bike ride. Right, because I said no to that.

But thankfully, we had a lot of people that said, no, but when you get to Toronto, or if you're in Toronto, let us know and we'll come on the show. And all those people now are joining us now. Yeah, and it was just, it was meant to be like, I've known Ross since he was a little kid. He was one of my first students, right? And it all just fell into place. Okay, but Ross will edit this. I guess I'm just curious whether this

episode is completely, is it raw or is it edited and pasted? Yeah, so it comes to us fully, like, here, we'll just give Toronto podcast studio a little plug. It's I don't know. What's the rate Ross? It's $85 an hour, I believe. And then you get your audio file and your video file delivered fully.

Okay. So for us, it's been. Ross is a competitor, I think actually. For you. Yes. For you specifically. Yes. I know you know what it's TMDS, right?

That's fine. Yeah. TMDS. Yeah. No, it's fine. It's all good. There's enough room for all of it. So outside of your, you're producing others as well.

Oh, yeah. So I produce my show, which is sort of my pride and joy, I suppose, Toronto Mic'd. And I do produce other shows. So Mark Hebbshire has a sports podcast called Hebbsy on Sports. I produce the Humble and Fred show. Ralph Ben-Marie has a really awesome podcast on spirituality called Not That Kind of Rabbi. John Gallagher and Peter Gross. Man, I love this show so much.

It's called Gallagher and Gross Save the World. These two are just bananas together. Like, they're fantastic. So there's that show. Larry Fedorek's got a show called I Was Eight. If you like Ontario horse racing, Down the Stretch with Peter Gross is, and I'm learning so much, but it's just everything. It's a wonderful podcast if you have any interest in Ontario horse racing and

some corporate podcasts as well yeah for sure is that a part in that part of your gig is that something you like sitting back and just listening and learning like all the time does that because for me I'm like I kind of like walking into stuff that I know nothing about then I'm like I love to sit sit and like listen you know well that's the horse racing

one like I don't know anything about horse racing now I've learned there's three types and I'm learning where they run them and I'm like I love to sit and listen. Well that's the horse racing one like I don't know anything about horse racing. Now I've learned there's three types and I'm learning where they run them and I'm learning about some of the high profile owners and trainers and jockeys and they come over to my studio because Peter Gross will

interview these people and we've talked to people like I hope I get the names right because they're all new to me, but Emma Jane Wilson, who is like a very successful jockey and she was great and we have these conversations. I'm muted on that podcast. On Hebsey's podcast,

I get to co-host. So we get to talk sports and that's a lot of fun. But in Gallagher and Gross, I've started talking too. I don't necessarily, most of the podcasts though, I'm muted.

But on mine, I get to say whatever the hell I want. And for me personally, like, that's the best part about this gig. It's my show. You don't have to censor anything. Like, you can't be a complete pile of shit, but you get to do whatever you want, right? No one can really say anything. It's the best.

Like, I kind of like that. You can have whatever approach you want. If you don't want to listen, don't listen. You know what I mean? You got tattoos on your palms of your hand yes I do episode number 17 you can actually watch it live on the show the Wendell Clark episode okay yeah is that common honestly I don't know if I've seen it before it's pretty it's it's rare for sure I think it's starting to come up a little bit more now probably thanks to our podcast but well yeah because I'm

looking at your hands and I have a mic in front of me so I gotta ask those tough questions it is a horrible experience i don't recommend it okay i'm gonna scratch it off my ear yeah i tell everybody like just go watch him like the panties in on the episode and you'll be like i'm not doing that why did you do it like uh for the content mike i don't know i'm always i'm a tattoo collector I've been tattooed for 30 years and I just I don't know a couple of things pop in my head

that's a great idea let's try that I have my whole and I have outside of my face which doesn't happen and I don't have much room left

do you have a neck tattoo no that's where okay smart I feel like that's a good idea because you can wear a suit and then you can't

the judge won't and if the podcast thing doesn't work out I'm going to need a fucking job well you got a lot of sponsors like I heard at the beginning uh a lot of sponsor mentions there yeah but they were very supportive most canadian independent podcasts uh are sponsorless yeah well we've been fortunate too where a lot of people uh like want to see us succeed so it's

like these small businesses are people that are our friends and they're like hell yeah that's a great idea so they're jumping on board early out of loyalty and they want to see it succeed. So it's like these small businesses are people that are our friends and they're like, hell yeah, that's a great idea. So they're jumping on board early at a loyalty and they want to see it succeed. Right. And so it's a way for all the small businesses to help promote each other. No,

amazing. I'm just, I was impressed when I got to the door, I thought maybe I didn't know what to expect, but like a lot of bodies doing different things and photographer, I would, can I borrow your photographer? You talked to Matt on the way in.

I need a photographer, but very good. You know what? We, Matt kind of, like I said, he joined us your photographer? You talked to Matt on the way in. I need a photographer, but very good. You know what? We, Matt kind of, like I said, he joined us a couple weeks ago and it's been,

it's been awesome to have, just to see yourself from the outside, like, I'm like, holy shit, we look like we're having a good time,

right? When someone actually captures it, like, like you smile like that, that's nice, right? So,

and also too, we should say, hold on here, I don't know what I do for the, and now I'm so self conscious that there's see that's why

they're all gonna be candid you gotta do candids Mike right right okay but also we're just standing on the shoulders of guys like yourself like we just looked at people that had done this before us

and ways that we could improve or things that we could add to it and stuff like that and we're essentially just copying what you did like if we're being like bluntly honest

that's the highest compliment legend is obviously I'm not a legend, but I have had, I've been on, I've had some podcasters tell me either, one story I got was that he pitched his idea for what he wanted to do. And the person said, oh, you want to do the Toronto Mike model?

Like this is what it was called. And I was like, like, that's kind of, if you could start to have things, this is the Toronto Mike style. That to me is the highest form of uh flattery like forget legend absolutely right like it's art right so it everyone's art is influenced by someone right you know I mean like everyone's knocking off something right so you can lay something out that people are motivated by or inspired by that's yeah that it really is and then when your peers come to you

and tell you what a great job you're doing on top of that that's the best like oh yeah no and uh if you this compliment you just paid me like suggesting that uh you're even uh i want to say ripping off my style but i don't own this style this long form conversation with people i don't own that but the style that i kind of instinctively kind of directed myself towards the more the merrier. Right. It's all about real. To me, there's a lack of long form interviews in the mainstream media. Like I know you could get the odd hour deep dive on a CBC program and you get, you know, there's a there's the odd. I find the odd example where people are doing it in the mainstream media. But it's very, very rare. Like these these hits you get on a i don't know a typical fm radio station is like two to five minutes if you're lucky and you get nothing out of it you just find out the new album's coming out drop it tuesday or something

like that half the time you're just plugging whatever product you're selling like i'm tired of people coming over just to plug something like i wouldn't and sometimes they do come over because they want to plug something but they gotta wait 90 minutes before i get to that topic and that's like i'm gonna we're gonna chat for like 90 minutes and then i promise you we'll talk about this latest project you know you gotta hurt it for sure absolutely like like i don't know you gotta get paid first that's the way i look at it like right i'm all we can all support each other but like i'm not yeah you're not come over here to run an infomercial you mean like i don't need the thai master or anything like that although I did

give you sticker you stickers off the top so maybe I'm a bad example these are really nice that's a that's a Toronto based place there in Liberty Village yeah yeah yeah yeah I was listen to that they have yeah maybe I'll switch they're on Queen Street too like if you're ever near Queen it they have a store 677 Queen Street they're really cool people awesome awesome yeah now I'm feeling pretty inadequate because we have a box full of stickers in Oshawa

they're a little far away I'll bring you one don't worry I'll bring you one I'll bring you a t-shirt too what size t-shirt are you? Medium and I wear a lot of t-shirts and then I take these photos so after every episode I take this photo in the same spot and I noticed nowadays when you Google, sorry, when you Google somebody, you're often seeing their photo with me. It's kind of weird. Like the Google images search. If you pick some Toronto

celebrity and you go to Google and you search them and you look at images, often in that first little page, you'll see, oh, there they are with Toronto Mike. That's awesome. Isn't that weird? That's awesome. I typed in Ann Romer and second row first photo is you and her. I have to ask you, what made that spot the spot where you're going to take your photos with your guests? Is this the tree out front of your house? That's the tree in front of my house.

So I have a studio in my basement and that's the tree in front of my house. And it wasn't right away. I would guess it's about 150 episodes before I started doing that. So for the first bunch of episodes, I never even thought to take a photo. A lot of this is evolution. A lot of stuff has just come out. A lot of stuff. The only thing that's been constant, I think, is the opening theme song.

I had the same opening theme song episode one as I do like 593. Still today. Yeah. That's impressive. Who did that for you? Ill Vibe. He's a local rapper producer. And he built that custom made for Toronto Mike,

this vision I had. And he was fantastic. That's awesome. We were speaking on that just before we walked in the door because we had someone just make some music for us. And I can't wait. It's amazing. I can't wait to get it up there.

Yeah, we'll have it up for episode 65 for sure. I'd like to get it for this one, but I have to work after this. It's pretty cool to have all these little pieces of the puzzle all come together. Right. Yeah. So thanks for smacking down the blueprint for us. That was nice of you.

What is, do you got something you want to chime in? Ask me anything. Yeah. All the pieces matter is what I always say. My favorite, one of my favorite lines from the wire, all the pieces matter.

Great joke. Oh my God, that show is amazing. And and it's you you were because the opening part of that quote is we're building something here we're building it from scratch all the pieces matter and that's really you know to get where we are today that is like all these pieces start fitting in and the photos a whole part of it now and that's and now it's like mandatory if you come on the show you do a photo in that spot, you know, rain or shine. And I always take the photo in a t-shirt,

even if it's minus 30 outside. There's these little things I sort of sprinkle in. And yeah, every show ends with Rosie and Gray from Lowest of the Low, because I love the song on the fantastic album, Shakespeare, My Butt. They played events. I've started doing events

and I had Lowest of the Low play. They're called TMLX, Toronto Mic Listener Experience, and they played the third one. So it's a constant evolution, and you can't sort of start. Where I am today and what I do today, I couldn't have started there. The only way I knew to get there was to sort of start and then evolve. I don't know how else I could have got there. Well, I went back through your playlist in your library,

and you actually evolved pretty quickly. For me personally, I was like, holy shit, where you are, where you started to where you are now. Like in terms of production, everything is like, yeah, and adding endorsements and everything else. Right. Well, it started with Great Lakes Brewery. They literally listened to the show because they liked the show, house like it's right well it started with uh a brewery great lakes brewery they literally uh

were they listened to the show because they liked the show and they could hear references to things in their neighborhood like i would mention that i don't know i biked to san remo bakery and and then they'd be like san remo like that's a that's a mimico institution okay and they're they're at like rural york and queensway like down the street from the costco and i got an email like hey would you come by for a meeting we want to chat with you and i had never even considered true i've never considered monetizing the podcast like i had done like i don't know how many episodes 75 episodes or something and i didn't even think about monetizing it because it felt like how could i sell out like i had a full-time job and this was like a passion project like i can't what am i

i can't sell out. Like I was thinking when Krusty sold out. Remember Krusty the Clown? Yeah, yeah. He was like George Carlin. And then the Canyonero, remember? Like I was like, I can't, like, am I allowed to swear on this podcast? Yeah.

Are you kidding me? The Canyonero, like forget it. And then, true. And then I just had a meeting with a local family run independent craft brewery. Okay. Amazing people people and they literally they said here's what we'd like to do like we'll give you money and we'd like you to give every guest a six pack of our beer and i actually honestly my instinct was to say no thank you and i just noodled it for a bit and then uh i said well let's try this and then the rest is history

and they approached you yeah oh yeah that's. I think 90, maybe every single sponsor I have approached me. Man, that's cool to hear. It's the same for us. Yeah, exactly. Everything for us has been our group. Because you create compelling content. And people want to be aligned with that. They want to be a part of that.

Now you're paying us compliments and making us feel good. Oh, my goodness. Everyone's just stroking. I'm assuming you create compelling content. Because you're having me on episode 60. You can listen to yourself later on.

I'll listen back. Are you kidding me? I want to listen to see if there's any editing. That's what I'm curious about. There shouldn't be, but I don't actually watch back on all the episodes.

Maybe Ross is watching her back cutting out all the dumb shit we say. Impossible. Do you go back and listen to your own work? Yeah. Yeah? Is that consistent? I back and listen to your own work? Yeah. Is that consistent? I used to listen to every episode

because I used to do a lot of ums and things like that. And then I would listen back and I would take these notes like, okay, do less ums. And then other things too. I think I was so excited for a while that I might interrupt a story. Like my guest

would be saying something and I might jump on them. And then I listen and I'm like, no, like most people are listening to hear the story from the guest. Stop doing that. Like, so things like I would listen back critically. And I believe, and I think I'm right on this one. I believe I've improved because I listened back.

Cause I, you know, I hear people, I never listened back. I don't want to hear myself or whatever. I don't know how you get better if you don't listen back as a listener. I feel exactly the same way. And I am trying to be more conscious of cutting people off.

It's difficult because I get excited and I want to talk to you. Yeah, yeah, that's me. I'm learning. I get excited. And then where I am, where I am really learning to do that is when I'm sitting in the room

with another professional. Because we've had a couple DJs on and radio personalities. Which DJs on there like in Radio person which DJs if you had also we hit who'd we have Jerry Archer from KX 96 and then Kevin Where is that station like it's not Toronto. No, it's it's you've been up to the rock studios 94 Yes, yes, yeah, the airport. Yes. Yeah, they're like sister stations our brothers our mutual friend Bob will let invited me to the rock Mr. Bob. Yeah. Yeah. We had Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob.

Kevin Goob. Kevin Goob. Kevin through the news cycle up here in Canada, but he got his job because he had a cartoon drawing on the back of his resume. No, I do remember a global news article about this. It's that guy. Okay, cool. We had Ed Sock on. Yeah, Ed's great. That was huge for us.

It was a pleasure to meet Steve, yeah. Here's my question. That was the first one where I felt like I was kind of being phony. The whole point of Toronto Mic'd was real talk, like straight up no bullshit. But Steve Kersner was coming over and I wanted to talk to Ed the Sock. So how did you do it? Did you talk to Steve or Ed?

We talked to Steve and then we took pictures with Ed afterwards, if that makes sense. But you talked to Steve. Okay, so I don't know. I wanted to talk to Steve for sure. Because I need to know how the sausage was made. But I really also wanted to talk to Ed. I used to know how the sausage was made but I really also like I wanted to talk to Ed yeah I used to watch Ed on Cable 10 back way before the City TV thing

yeah with Harland Williams you remember when Harland Williams yeah that was I loved it I thought that this came up yesterday because my guest yesterday was on Cable 10 which is gone now like there is no case he wouldn't even know what that is yeah I only know from Ed the Sock stories people like Mike Wilner uh Michaelael landsberg uh i mean carolyn camera and a whole bunch of people we know today cut their teeth on cable they volunteered at cable 10 and they would create you know a shout out to cam gordon at twitter and stew stone who i believe had a cable 10 show but okay i shout out all the cable 10 shows but okay. So you had Steve on and you took pictures of Ed. Yes.

Here's what I did. And I think at the time I didn't want to do it and I did it. I'm glad I did it in hindsight. But I had Steve on and then Steve had to go move the car. No, Ed and Steve were there at the beginning. And then Ed went to, he had to go, no, Ed had to take a shit. That's it. Ed had to go take a shit.

So I talked to Steve for like a half an hour. And then Steve realized he had to move the car. Oh, I got to move the car. So Steve went to move the car. Coincidentally, just as Ed came back from taking his half hour shit. And then I talked to Ed for a half an hour or something like that. So I did both. Yeah, but it's phony, right?

Yeah, I know, but it's fucking. It's so fun. I'm glad I did it. Because ours, every episode has been video too. So at the time. Yeah, but it's phony, right? Yeah, I know, but it's fucking... It's so fun. I'm glad I did it. Because every episode has been video, too. So at the time... Is this video? Yeah. I've been picking my nose the whole time.

We just didn't know how to frame up the puppet. Yeah, it wasn't video back then. Video is a new thing for me, so I didn't have video back then. So was switching him in and out, was that your idea? I told Steve, well, Steve and I chatted at the beginning, and he's such a professional. He said, oh, well, here's what we'll do. So he had the, we just need a reason to get one out of the room or whatever,

because it's all audio. And I said, okay, let's do that. So I don't edit a stitch of my podcast. That's the other thing, too. I don't edit a stitch of my podcast. So it's all real time. I don't even take out gaps or whatever. So it's all just frenetic, whatever, synapses are firing are firing whatever and then uh it worked out and it was a great episode and i took the

photo of ed because i wanted the photo of ed although i've had steve on subsequently where he came on as steve with his wife and then i got the photo with steve but uh that i think that's like a an early episode i don't know it was in the 70s or something uh when i uh added theatrics to it all and it felt a bit just i felt bad like i didn't it wasn't the 70s or something when I added theatrics to it all and it felt a bit I felt bad it wasn't the spirit

of the show but it was the only way I knew of to get Ed on because Ed's a puppet I don't know if you know this

it's like how do you get Ed on without being a little phony yeah but because he's a character anyway you can swing it and it works

it's not like you're selling yourself out you know what I mean well I did it and I'm glad I did it damn it and it works. It's not like you're selling yourself out. Well, I did it and I'm glad I did it, damn it. And it's a good episode. Yeah. I'd never seen him before

so I didn't know. When he walked in, I was like, oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. You don't know what to think. You're cute. He's not much bigger

than the sock is. He's a little fella. But man, he knows how to talk. He's an anti-shortest. Oh, is he? No. He's an intelligent guy though, man. Oh, is he? No. He is.

He's an intelligent guy, though, man. Oh, Steve Kirsten? Yeah, yeah. Very smart guy. I mean, I love those. I love anyone connected to the old city, the old Moses era of city TV. Like, I love them all. I work with a bunch of them now, which is funny to me.

But I thoroughly, like, I love, those are my favorite guests when I get on. Somebody from the old Moses City TV empire. Those are the best. Like, be it Ziggy or Ed the Sock or even, you know, even Strombo was there. Like, you know, these are just, I love having, or Steve Anthony's. I was, I was, I was reading that about Steve Anthony. I was like, fucking cool. Yeah, he's in Prince Edward County now.

So, I don't know. It's hard to get him now. But guys, yeah. Or even like Master T. Cool. Was fantastic. Eric, have you had Eric? You know, Eric and I were working on something. But guys, yeah. Or even like Master T was fantastic. Have you had Eric? You know, Eric and I were working on something because she has a new syndicated Mutt show.

Really? So this is with like Michael Williams and Steve Anthony and some other people. And to promote this syndicate, because they need stations to pick it up. It's a syndicated program. I believe they're going to want to get out there and do some promotion stuff.

So I'm working on something with Eric. Cool. But not even some promotion stuff. So I'm working on something with Erica. Cool. But not even directly with Steve. So I'm working on something with Steve Anthony, who's a great FOTM on getting Erica on. But anyone from that, I mean, Lori Brown was a recent guest, and she was really, really fun. I just love talking to those old city TV guys.

And again, I work with a bunch. So like John Gallagher. I can't do the John Gallagher, but what a voice that guy's got. But he's bananas. Like that guy's just off the wall. And I get to work with the guy now. And Peter Gross, there's a City TV legend.

Like what a fantastic part of that, you know, Moses fabric. Yeah, and for me, like City TV, much music was like being a teenager for me, man. That's like, that was everything. We're probably the same age.

Yeah, like late 30s, yeah. Yeah, late 20s. I think my shirt's in its late 20s. Yeah, so just curious, like with all these big name guests that we're always talking about and if you go into

torontomic.com, you can go to the notable guests tab at the beginning. You can see it's like a laundry list of the who's who's of Toronto media. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, and I tried to,

I created that page one day because I realized everything's in reverse chronological order. So it's hard to find a guest from episode, I don't know, if you want to hear Jeff Merrick on episode 74, it's hard to do it if you go in reverse chronological order from 593. So I created that page and broke them into categories like TV, radio, music.

I like also, since we're the same age, I like the CanCon bands. I love having a Moe Burgon to talk about Pursuit of Happiness or I mentioned Louis Delos. Or I love The Watchmen, so I'll have Danny Graves from The Watchmen or Sammy Cohen from The Watchmen.

I just had one of my favorite recent episodes and one of my favorite of all time maybe is Sass Jordan came over like a week ago. That's so cool. She was so like, I almost can't do it justice. You have to make time on your drive to Oshawa and listen to Sass Jordan. She was just amazing. She was amazing.

That's awesome. So do you book all these guests yourself? Do you have like a booking agent? Like how does all this work? Okay. So for the first 500 episodes, I booked every guest myself. And then a great FOTM, Tyler Campbell, started helping me with some.

So he booked, I don't know, he booked a handful of come-through Tyler Campbell now. But I would say 99% of guests on Toronto Mike have been booked by me. That's impressive. I think of somebody I'd like to have on and I try to contact them and ask them on. So is your whole production, is it really a one-man show?

Yeah, it's one-man. Yeah, hey. Tyler helps with the booking the odd guests so he can book a guest and then drop it in my calendar and uh and he's done that like since episode 500 he's done that a bunch of times like 10 times or something uh and he also is now starting to help with selling sponsorship uh so far every sponsorship deal i've ever done was 100%. Like, I'm the sales guy in that. And we, you know, I do it all. And he's starting, maybe one day he'll sell something, who knows? But you never know. It could happen any day now. So he's but but yeah, I do everything, right? Like I, I'm the so you have a guy behind this curtain doing what I would call like,

the audio production, right? Like,. I do that during the conversation. So during the conversation, I'm doing the convo with my notes and stuff. I'm making sure all the mic levels are good and I'm recording the audio on my laptop. And now I'm live streaming stuff on Periscope with multi cameras and stuff. So I'm also manning that and conducting the interview.

And what else is there to an episode? Then I'm putting it online. So I put episodes online approximately 15 minutes after that photo is taken. So we do the episode. Thanks for coming. It was great. And then we do the photo. Then I come inside and about 10, 50 minutes later, the episode's live.

Because I don't edit. So it's very easy to turn it around. And then I write the blog entry on TorontoMike.com with the photo and then I'll tweet it and put it on Facebook, Instagram, whatever. Do you want to get to a point where you're delegating more and you kind of just get to sit back and do yourself or do you like being in charge?

Oh, no, no. I would rather. So that's the thing. I don't know how many episodes you guys do. How often you record an episode we try to do one a week but depending on what falls in our lap sometimes we'll do five six a month we have a demanding actual jobs right so we're trying to just kind of swing it no i used for a long time i had that too with toronto mice and it got easier when i got rid of that but okay so that's what we're trying to get to so i promise uh sponsor i don't like to call them sponsors i think of them more as like partners to be honest they help fuel the

real talk and we kind of work together uh i i uh promise them one episode a week so i and i and i typically record three or four episodes a week so So my goal actually is to record less. So I'd rather do two great episodes of Toronto Mic'd a week. Part of the problem is, first of all, if I do, let's say I did five. I've done a week of five episodes of Toronto Mic'd. I get paid the same amount of money for five episodes as I do for the one or the two. So there's no extra money for me. So I'm doing it out of love of the game because there's good conversations to have.

But that's a lot of time, right? These conversations are not short. So it might take it might take, for example, it could take two and a half hours of my life for an episode. And that's not even counting the research I'll do during the Raptors game or whatever. So that's a lot of time per episode. So you multiply that by five. Where am I finding the time to produce the podcast that feed my family? I got four kids.

I got a mortgage. You got to make money. So it's hours. And I insist on 90 minutes in a day where I could cycle. So I got the four kids. So crazy. I got to go pick up the three-year-old at daycare at five-ish. I'm not even home from dropping them off until 8 a.m.

So from 8 a.m. to 5 is sort of my TMDS day. I'm producing other people's podcasts, sometimes on location, like corporate clients, I do it at their location, like not far from here. And I'm doing all that and I'm trying to, you know, push out great Toronto Mike content. I got to record Hebsey on sports, maybe a, uh, Ben, Ben Mergey, uh, you know, Peter Gross visits me every Monday for down the stretch.

Maybe there's going to be a Gallagher and Gross, the corporate podcast, other things around all of that, the whole sales aspect and the, you know, I'm also the guy who generates the invoices and collects money and then records all that. So all of this and just finding the balance where I can't have Toronto

Mike take up, you know, right. Half my week. I just can't have Toronto Mike take up half my week. I just can't afford it. So I need to bring it down and then let people catch up maybe. You're a fucking animal, man. He's excellent. I know.

I feel like a bit of a pussy right now. And I thought I was busy, right? Like, jeez. I would never call you a pussy. Because you'd beat me up. Yeah. Never. I don't fight less is for money,

my friend. You know, I learned a long time ago, never pick a fight with a guy who's got a tattoo on the palm of his hands. That's like a life rule I live by. The one I live by, you can't see it because he's got headphones on, but anybody who's got ears like that, leave him alone. The cauliflower ears? Yeah, just don't even... I have cauliflower everything. Say yes.

And on the palms of the hand, I'm adding that because my real real rule is uh neck tattoos i never fuck with a guy with a neck tattoo so like if even if they pick a if i'm like and i walk like i walk lakeshore a lot and sketchier parts of lakeshore in the west end and uh you know they might look maybe if you look at them funny and then they start whatever i honestly i just tell them like oh you know you're great you're handsome uh peace and love to you and then i cross the street if i see a neck tattoo like any ink on the face or the neck and i'm like i'm just not because that's the kind of person who's gonna just just kill you no it's not like

that actually it's exactly exactly the opposite if you saw some dude with a neck tattoo 20 years ago you're like don't fuck with that guy okay you see a guy with a neck tattoo 20 years ago, you're like, don't fuck with that guy. You see a guy with a neck tattoo now, it's because he's a pussy and he wants to look like he should be fucked with. What if it's the same guy from 20 years ago? Then you'll know about it. If he's got an old cheating tattoo and that guy's got some bodies on him,

yeah, cross the street. I'm going to keep my rule and I'm adding the palm, the ink on the palm. That's a smart one. Anytime you go shake somebody's hand, you're like, okay, leave him alone. Nice to see you, sir. Fair enough.

Peace and love to you, you handsome gentleman. I'm pretty easy to get along with, man. I don't fight. Do you have a temper? Very rarely. I'm pretty passive.

I'm animated, but I'm passive. You know what I mean? You're like me. I'm animated and passive. Perfect. When was the last time you got in a fist fight? I got like you're like me I'm animated and passive perfect when was the last time you got in a fist fight

I got into a lot of fights in high school and grade school I was so angry and there's nothing left it's almost like it drives my wife crazy because I don't

I don't get angry it's like I just don't have it in me I don't have that energy yeah the wire there's a guy named

Cutty Wise he came out of the cut right he's like the game ain't in me no more the game ain't in me no more. Like, he wants to, the game ain't in me no more. See, I'm the other way where all I want to do is fight, but only for money. But yeah, you fight for, literally for sport.

Yeah, for sport. Yeah, for the longest time was, yeah, prize fighter. I fight to eat, right? But not anymore. It's actually, you want to, like, emotionally, like, you want to get in a fight because you're mad at me. I'm like, nah, I don't got time for this. I'm like, nah.

Ain't nobody got time for that. No, no. I've known you for, what, like, four years? I don't think I've seen you, like, actually angry once. Nah, I don't get mad. No, and I work, I have clients who do kind of get angry quickly. And then it's like, that's just, yeah, I just think that would be a tough way to live,

like, where things set you off. Like, nothing, nothing set. I was set off once. This guy, Ross wanted me to deliver stickers and he wasn't there and I was so angry. Can't let it go, man. That's the last time. You're like my high school girlfriend. Or like Gino Vanelli once said to me, uh, you're like, get off me, man. You're like my parish priest. That's the Gino Vanelli once said to me, get off me, man. You're like my parish priest. That's the Gino line.

Where do we go? I don't know what just happened. I started thinking about punching people. I'm all confused now. It's a rough segue, but out of all the people that you've had on your show, is there anybody that sticks out? It's got to be hard to pick a favorite. Is there a top five?

I can do that, but I got to tell you, one of the things I got better at from putting in my reps and doing this is segues. Okay. I'm really good at segues now, but you're right, at the beginning, everything was an awkward 90 degree turn or whatever. And it's like, at some point,

it all kind of slows down and it's almost as like, you've seen this movie before and you're now watching it and you sort of know exactly how to get from A to B in like an elegant manner. And that really does come from putting in reps. It's like if you do something enough times, whether you like it or not, you get good at it or at least better at it. So it's funny you mentioned the segues.

Okay. Episodes. And I have such a recency bias too like because everything's like that's the thing when i reference shows i often reference previous episodes i notice i'm always referencing something that happened like the last week it's like whatever happened last right there it's all fresh in my brain or whatever but episodes that stick out to me there's several and i hope i don't leave any important ones out but the george strombolopoulos episode was that he was episode 103 we marketed it we marketed it as episode 102.1 but i gave i promised 102 i gave episode 102 to scott turner

who's a legendary cfny dj he's awesome scott turner is awesome but he lives way out west but uh so strombo because he just came one night he came it was like near christmas because as a we took a photo of a christmas tree behind us before I did the normal photo. And really, that was when Real Talk was born. Like he, so we sat, you know, we sat across from each other and we talked about everything from Martin Streak. Why did he have to get out of chorus? Why, what, like every little thing, like from his rise from the fan to 102.1, to Much Music,

to the CBC thing. And then he was at hockey, he was at hockey in Canada at the time. And he was getting a lot of hate mail and stuff. And we talked, we talked openly and honestly about everything. And he was so, he was so amazing.

And I think at some point during that episode, he said, no, I started crying. Oh yeah, that's right. We were talking, he was talking about saying goodbye,

Martin streak, passing away, his good friend who took his own life 10 years ago and then somehow I got into my buddy I was doing the ride to conquer cancer for my buddy I had esophageal cancer and had just passed away and there was a moment where I was tearing up on the mic it's like the first time

I was tearing up on the mic and then I felt like I'm sorry man and he goes oh Mike don't worry that's real talk he says that's real talk and it was like a light went off. I can't tell you how many guests have cried on my show. And I had Aaron Davis on a few weeks ago. And there was a moment.

Actually, if I tell you the story, I'll cry right now. Are these cameras on? You're already crying. So keep going. Because Aaron says, she says, okay, the concept, and I struggle with it because I'm a father of four. But the concept is if you have a child and your child dies, are you still a mother? This is the concept and i struggle with it because i'm a father of four but the concept is if you're if you have a child and your child dies are you still a mother this is the concept and and she was she was looking at me and she was very in control but she was saying she am i still

a mother like on a mother's day people say happy mother are you still a mother if your child passed away and this whole like sentiment uh flushed me out in that i was thinking, fucking right, you're still a mother. Like, you know, if you're telling how much your kids, you're still a parent. And the whole thing, and I'm live. I got a camera on me on my show. I don't edit a stitch of it. And then all of a sudden, I'm starting to cry.

Like this was just a few weeks ago on the Aaron Davis episode. And, you know, she's starting to, now she's comforting me. Like, you know don't don't worry it's okay or whatever and all of that like that whole like uh permission to be real and to just if you feel like crying you can cry like that all kind of stems out of that strombo episode because i think one or two episodes later david marsden comes in happy birthday david marsden He just turned 80 years old two days ago or three days ago. But Marsden came over and that was a fantastic episode.

And there were two times in that episode where he was weeping because I played some clips and stuff that brought back these nostalgic memories that choked him up and he was crying. And now that's sort of like every once in a while, you know, a tear. I've had people come on talking about, you know, their children dying. There was a moment when David Schultz came over to kick out the jams where he was talking about

how a song made him feel the loss he felt for his son. And in that moment, you know, he's in front of me weeping and I'm like, oh my God. And it was such a touching moment. So all of these real talk moments, I can, they're all still like fresh in my mind,

but it's sort of like the Strombo episode is where that real talk begins. So shout out to the Strombo episode. Uh, the one that's referenced the most is the only episode I've ever done that went sideways. Uh, I've had 593 episodes and a 592, everybody left, uh, feeling great. And then that one episode that went sideways was, sideways was Molly Johnson. And so if you ever if you want to hear an episode of Toronto Mike go sideways, that's the one to listen to. And people reference that more than any other episode, I think, because it's people listen one, two, three, four or five times, like you listen to it multiple times. And you kind of okay, when you can kind of pinpoint moments where things are going wrong. and no fault of mine, by the way,

I've decided, uh, I don't think I, I don't think it's on me. I just think it's just a bunch of circumstances pile up. So that's an episode. Uh, let me think here.

Ron McClain was great. Like if you want to hear a good old classic, cool. He was cool. That's amazing. Like he was really good. He was really good. I'm trying to think.

I just, uh, I just had, I just had Jack Armstrong on, but, but that I don't, I'm trying to think. I just, uh, I just had, I just had Jack Armstrong on, but, but that I don't, I'm trying to think of other ones to shout out that were personal favorites, but I do like the,

you know, when I have on a good, I don't know, like a, an old time. I mean, I like nostalgia stuff. So if I have on like a Vic router or something like that,

I just dig that kind of vibe. So I seen you, you said that Ann Romer was your white whale. Oh yeah. Difficult to book. No, I think it's because there's a and this all stems from a fascination I had maybe I still have

it with the fact that Anne Romer had multiple retirements from CP24 so she'd have a very public retirement with cake and keg gift cards and then a couple months later she'd be back on CP24 as if it never happened. And they wouldn't be like,

welcome to the morning news. Yeah, but they wouldn't reference it. And that's fine. This is kind of, that was interesting to me. And I would write about that on torontomike.com. And then at some point, maybe a year later, she would retire again, but they'd do the same thing. Cake, keg gift cards, you know, social media pictures of everybody saying goodbye to Anne,

and she would go away. And then shortly thereafter, I don't know how many months would pass, she'd be back on every day on CP24. This is a true story. This is a true story. And I was fascinated by the multiple retirements of Anne Romer. And I started to do a little digging because I have contacts. And I started to say, okay, the first retirement was so she could,

she wanted to recapture the favorite time in her professional life, which was working for, as like a steward. Are they called? Airline attendant. And she wanted to, I think she was going to work for Porter Airlines. And that didn't work out maybe because it wasn't as lucrative as she remembered it or something like that.

And then the second one was maybe contemplating a run for office, for public office. So you start to dig in and what are the reasons for these and then find it. So I was trying to get her on the show

to ask her all these questions and then she said she'd come on and she was great. I get to go listen to them. And Roma was great. And she's been back, she came back again for the 30th anniversary

of Breakfast Television. And we reunited on Toronto Mic. We reunited the opening day lineup of Breakfast Television. Who was that? Okay. It was David Onley. So we brought him in by phone. David Onley was opening day guy.

Steve Anthony was the opening day live eye guy, I think. John Whaley, I believe, was the sports guy. Do you remember the name John Whaley? And he was tough to track down, too. He's been kind of low-key. And we had the original producer, a guy named Bud, I believe. Bud something. I can't remember his last name right now.

And Ann Romer was the host. I think so. David and Ann were kind of the hosts. And then Steve and John, yeah. That's crazy. You weren't born yet. I remember growing up watching Anne Romer on CP24. Sure.

Well, my mom was watching it, and I was sitting there eating cereal, wishing it was cartoons, but still she was there. Yeah. Liza Fromer's coming back to kick out the jams. I was just chatting with her. She was a one-time. I think she took over for Anne, I think. I think Liza Fromer.

That's so cool. Crazy. How did kicking out the jams start? As an excuse to bring people back. So I think. I think. That's so cool. Crazy. How did kicking out the jam start? As an excuse to bring people back. So I'd have people on. Yeah, it was all like, all these ideas come on bike rides, by the way. I go on a bike ride, and then I'm thinking, like, I'd like to have somebody, I don't know, name a, Mike Stafford, okay?

He's the morning show guy on Global News Radio. And he was great. First time comes in, he does his Toronto Mike deep dive. We do 90 minutes, whatever. And I want, I need an excuse to have a Mike Stafford back

or a Mark Hebbsher or a Mike Wilner. Like these guys, I want to have them back. But we've already done the A to Z bio. Like we've done the career. So yeah,

you can come back and shoot the shite about what's going on in the world. But I'm like, I need something more. So I invented Kick Out the Jam

for guests on their second appearance. We'll catch up for half an hour about what's new and stuff, and then we'll play and discuss their 10 favorite songs of all time. And I learned more about a guest, Rick Hodge just kicked out the jams. I learned more about that man

from hearing, because we'll start a song, let's say Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. So we started playing, It's on his list. And he'll start telling you when he fell in love with the song, why, what it means to him, and he opens up. And suddenly he doesn't even realize it, I don't think,

how much he's sharing with you. And he played father and son from Cat Stevens. And he'll talk about how his two children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, moved to London. And he never saw them as much as he regrets that he didn't see them as much as he wished. And how that song reminds them.

He would play that song after visits. I'm all choked up again. I'm crying again. But just the stuff people reveal when they talk about the songs they love is unbelievable. It's your scrapbook, right? That's what your favorite songs are. So you know where you were with it.

Bingo. So imagine there was a place where somebody could just, we'll just listen and talk about these songs until they remove my podcast from all the podcast aggregators

for plain unlicensed music. Copyright and free. Which is inevitable, but whatever. I was kind of wondering how you pulled that off. I'm a rebel, Dottie. So you're just going for it, eh?

That's awesome. Fuck it, man. Hey, beg for, Dottie. So you're just going for it, eh? That's awesome. Yeah, fuck it, man. Beg for forgiveness, right? You know what? The worst case scenario, honestly, the worst case scenario is that they will remove my podcast from their listings, which will be something I'll have to deal with. So far, so good. I mean, not so good. Honestly, Spotify is

the big jerk in the whole thing right now. There's an active Spotify issue, but I actually have decided if it's right now, it just spotify and go fuck spotify like i'll say goodbye to spotify in order to preserve what i'm doing here that's how much i enjoy this and i i don't really want i don't care to do a lot of this if i have to if i can't play you know unlicensed music so i always say since I'm on this thing and you guys might be interested, I'm like,

please tell me a way I can pay X dollars to do this without ramification. Like I'm not, I'm not, there is no way for me to do it legally. Like create a way

I can do it legally. Let's pretend I could pay a $200 licensing fee to like, you know, like radio has this, right? Like they pay some SOCAN fee

and they can play things, right? Like let me pay X dollars dollar licensing fee to like you know like radio has this right like they pay some so can fee and they can play things right like let me pay x dollars because if it's if it makes sense from a business standpoint i'll happily pay that as a business expense and not worry about the fact spotify is going to boot me because i played thunder road by bruce i'm on a bruce thing lately i don't know i feel you know what i hear a lot when people kick out the jams if i have on if i have on a sports writer who's in their let's say their 50s or 60s

you're guaranteed a Bruce Springsteen song it's just like what you can death taxes in a Bruce Springsteen song from a sports media personality in their 50s or 60s

yeah sounds about right to me I was curious one thing too what was it like for you when Bob McCowan mistook you for another Toronto Mike

and was seemingly he was pretty upset at you for, like mistakenly so, but he was upset at you for a while, wasn't he? I don't think he sounds like a very nice guy. Like I've never met Bob McCowan. I did listen to him for hundreds of hours. When I used to have a commute, which has been a long time, but I used to have a commute in a car

and you only have your AM FM radio. I still drive that 99 Mazda, but like there were many afternoons I would find myself on 590 listening to him, and I thought he was very good. Especially when Burt Randolph Sugar would come on talking boxing, and they had Brunt, by the way. Listen to Brunt kick out the jams. That guy's amazing. But okay, I've never met Bob McCowan.

I think he's very talented, and I enjoyed his work. I made the mistake of offering him episode 500. talented and I enjoyed his work. I made the mistake of offering him episode 500. I offered Humble and Fred episode 100 as a thank you to them because they inspired Toronto Mic'd. So I thought

500. Bob had just left. I don't know if he had just left or not. I can't remember anymore. He might know. He was still at the Fan 590. But I offered him 500. And he very publicly tweeted this. Thank you, Toronto Mike, for number 500. I understand your followers think I'm a dinosaur and they probably don't want to hear from a dinosaur like me.

So I wish you luck, but no thanks or something like that. Meanwhile, OK, firstly, I don't think I actually I don't think to that point I'd ever said a negative word about Bob McAllen. Like I just said, he's he I think he's very good. I think he's maybe the best sports radio host in this country. That's what I said. I don't think there's anything negative there. Everything was very positive. I don't know these followers he's talking about. I don't know

what he's talking about. I think he confused me. A lot of people agree. He's confused me with a guy named Mike in Boston who writes on a blog called Toronto Sports Media. And that's all they do is Toronto Sports Media talk where I do a million things and part of it is Toronto Sports Media. And that's all they do is Toronto Sports Media talk, where I do a million things, and part of it is Toronto Sports Media.

So I think he might have confused Toronto Mike with Mike in Boston. This is what I think. I don't know. But I never heard from him again, and I no longer desire to have Bob McCowan on Toronto Mike because why do I want someone on who doesn't want to come on? That would suck.

Yes. Fuck Bob McCowan. That's where I was going. I was like, well, fuck him then. Right. want someone on who doesn't want to come on that that would suck yes fuck bob mccowan that's where i was going i was like well fuck him then right i gotta be like whatever i gotta go talk to i'd rather go talk who'd i just have on i just have jamie campbell and it was amazing yeah jamie campbell just came on it was fantastic i'd rather have a great you know two hour chat with jamie campbell that was amazing than some grumpy some grumpy bob Bob McCowan who doesn't want to be there. I'll pass. It's okay. Just kidding. I'm so shocked to hear you say that.

Fuck Bob McCowan. I would have led with fuck Bob McCowan. That's all Messiah Jury's fault because ever since he said fuck Brooklyn that's become my, I'll just say fuck whatever. Anything Messiah says I'll run right through a wall. I'm like, I'm down. I got to get him on the podcast. That'd be wonderful, wouldn't it?

For sure. It's your Toronto Mike, so have you lived in Toronto your whole life, pretty much? I was born at St. Joe's in Parkdale, and I've lived in Toronto my whole life. Always down here, yeah. Give me your, just because, going back to the cyclist thing, any competitive cycling, or are you just all recreational?

No, I'm not fast enough, I don't think. No, it's all for joy. Yeah. Man, it's riding bikes. What's the best thing in the world when you just all recreational? No, I'm not fast enough, I don't think. No, it's all for joy. Yeah. Man, it's riding bikes. What's the best thing in the world when you're a kid? You'll ride bikes with your friends. Why do we stop? I did stop.

I stopped for 15 years. I biked everywhere. And then at some point in my early 20s, I stopped biking anywhere. I just stopped biking. And for 15 years, I didn't bike. For 15 years of these core years. I never biked in my third. I was in my mid thirties when my wife bought me a bike, she bought me a bike. I didn't even have a good bike. And I, that first year, I think I did a total of a total of like 200 kilometers,

like just a few 5k rides here and there. And then I decided when my buddy got his esophageal cancer, I said, I told him, I said, uh, Mike, I'm going to do the ride to conquer cancer. It was for Princess Margaret. And they were treating him. And then he was the first guy to pledge. He pledged me $250 he didn't have. What a sweetheart my kick was. But I realized it's like $225,000, this thing.

You go to Hamilton, you climb the mountain, then you come back. And I had to train. You can't just go from $5,000 to that. So I learned how to train. They said, OK, well, if you can do a $60,000 ride, you can do this. But here's how you build up to train. You can't just go from 5K to that. So I learned how to train. They said, okay, well, if you can do a 60K ride, you can do this. But here's how you build up to that. And I just started year-round cycling. And I have never stopped.

Like, I've just never stopped. I got back into it because I had just through the gym and fitness. And I got into it because I had some friends who were really, like, they're cyclists. Like, competitive. Like, fucking insane. And I started kind of going down that road and then I was like, you know what? I stopped tracking.

I stopped wearing a watch. I just go ride a bike until I'm tired and then I go home. It's the best. And Segway. Yeah. What's your greatest? We'll get better at those eventually.

I still came back. I like that you told me it's a Segway. That's the other thing too. At some point, you don't have to say it's a Segway. You don't announce it. Yeah, I know it's a segue what I took from that earlier was the fact that like he had a segue we went way off and he was still able to come back to it I can't usually do that okay that's the other thing I've got I'm telling you all the things I've improved at but I sucked at at the beginning I'll take notes I'm a big tangent guy like like I actually like them

people say stick to that no I'm like no that's not high rock okay so if we're going down this road and you said something that goes takes us off and we're going to go down there i want to go we're going to go there but now now i'm very good at coming back so we can continue on the road i think at the beginning i'd go off on the tangent i would never come back i've got much better at i'm okay we're going to go there i i feel like i've seen the movie before we're going to go there but i feel like I've seen the movie before. We're going to go there, but I know where we were when we have to continue north on that trail or whatever. So that is the tangent. I'm pro-tangent.

There's a lot of things. I think they teach you. I think maybe my secret weapon or the secret to my success, if you call it a success, is no formal training in radio, like zero broadcasting training. So it's really,

you're influenced by some things you like and then it's all instinct. So you basically all have people. I know my Freddie P from the Humble and Fred show, he said, oh, you had on Sean McKenzie. So yeah, Bob McKenzie's son, Sean McKenzie. And I was interested in listening to it, but I saw it was an hour and 25 minutes and I will not listen to anything an hour and 25 minutes. If you had edited that down to 25 minutes, I would have listen to anything an hour and 25 minutes. If you had edited that down to 25 minutes, I would have listened. This was Freddie P talking, long time radio guy. And we, you know, we obviously, we respectfully disagree with each other on that one. But that's how he, he, he thinks like he's not even going to press play. So I basically have

come to accept the fact that the Freddie P's of the world who will not listen to an hour and 25 minute podcast are not going to be hour and 25 minute podcast, are not going to be Toronto Mike listeners. But I'd rather accept that reality than completely reshape the show so it mimics what radio people have been doing forever. Gallagher and Groh save the world. Their episodes are

22 minutes each. That number, that 22 minutes is because they're hardwired that these things are 22 minutes long. It's a half hour content. Stag ads in it and it's a half an hour. This hour has 22 minutes. What's the point of a... And it's fine.

They're clients and we do that. Fine. But really, what we're doing now, and I have no idea what we're at or how much time you want to go, but this will end when it ends. Unless someone's got to go to a doctor. Unfortunately, I have a hard out in about 10 minutes. Which brings me back though I need your greatest

Toronto cycling Fucking incident You gotta have You mean like crashes? Riding your bike down here is insanity You'll never catch me doing it I've never had a crash of a car I've been downtown all the time

Never had a crash of a car So I've never been doored I think I'm the only that's pretty rare yeah and I'm thinking I do approximately like I do 10,000 plus kilometers of Toronto

slash Mississauga those are the only two places I bike Toronto slash Mississauga cycling and no but I have had like I had a

I was at the ubiquitous Synergy Seeker 10th anniversary concert and what fucking great night love those guys. And I'm biking on the West bound on the, on the trail.

So there's no cars. It's just, you know, people walk in and people cycling on the Martin Goodman trail. And some guy was coming towards me and he went out of his lane and hit me head on. And I went, I went over top the bike and I broke my pinky and I thought I broke my

ribs, but the x-rays came back negative. It was just bruises and stuff. And that still hurts to shake hands. So that's like 18 months ago or whatever. So I've had a lot of those kind of things. Luckily, nothing with a car. I'm actually really surprised. Have you been hit by a car? Maybe I hit the car. They didn't necessarily hit me. But I really,

and I think because I do it a lot, I feel I can anticipate bad driver stuff. So I'm pretty, and that doesn't make you invincible or whatever, so I'm careful. Also, yeah,

I don't want to die on a bike. I really do bike because for my mental health and my physical health, and so I don't have it. It's not another car on on the road there's a lot of reasons i like to end it because it's fun i like to bike for a variety of reasons but the one reason i definitely don't bike to die like so i'm very careful and i pick my roots strategically so if i can you know like i took bay had a bike lane for a while that it did disappear but most of this ride here was waterfront

trail and then some bay bike lane stuff. So most of it, it felt pretty safe. I've seen some nasty stuff down here, but yeah, that's a dangerous gauge. You'll have to play them Frogger down here. It's crazy. I'm actually surprised you haven't got more mangled. No, Broken Pinky is the worst I've had, I think.

That could happen to me. When I was in the 8th grade, I was riding past an intersection. Someone told me to go, and then they clipped my back tire. Yeah. Somebody over at the bars broke my hand. I've got some good biking stories. I got to go. But you look like a maniac cyclist.

I feel like you're a maniac. No, I follow the rules of traffic. You have to. That's when you get lynched, right? If you're not driving a car, you can't not match. Well, downtown, I follow the rules, too. But when I'm at Etobicoke or something, I follow the rules too, but when I'm like in Etobicoke or something,

I follow, I do the Idaho stop. People get mad at me for this, but I do the Idaho stop, which means essentially stop signs to me are yield signs. No, they're yield signs.

So if there's like somebody coming or a car, they're a stop sign, but if there's nothing and if it's completely safe, I'll slow down and go right through, a stop sign.

Red lights, again, this is not downtown, but red lights are stop signs to me. I will come to a complete stop at a red light and if there's no traffic at all, I'll keep going. I know it's not legal in Toronto, but this is what I do. I'm just

being very honest with you. I practice the Idaho stop. I wish it was legal, but I'm very safe, very careful, never hit anybody. I get around for me throughout the whole city. Pretty much, not Oshawa, like you want me to go to Ajax or whatever, not yet, but like I would probably go to the Bluffs. I'd probably go that far. Like there's, I know my, where I can go.

It's, yeah, you should try Oshawa one day. It's very flavorful. Once you get to a certain point,'re just talking you'll enjoy the waterfront shopping carts and syringes that's what I'm looking for that's when you know you've crossed from Whitby into Oshawa that's when you're getting hepatitis from riding a bike

I guess I do have one more thing to ask you before we get out of here you had a bit of a public back and forth with Dean Blundell within the past year or so. I don't know if you want to get into it too much. But essentially, what happened? I think you were trying to produce his podcast after he was trying to make a big comeback. No, never, never, never.

No, never, never, never. I've never met the guy. So what happened was I asked him on my show. Again, this is where all the problems start. That's what it was, pardon me. You were trying to get him to be a guest on your show. If you Google when Dean Blundell attacks. Actually, do it right now.

So Google when Dean Blundell attacks. Because I actually recorded like a 30-minute thing, which explains this in great detail. Episode 412.5. I like that. Right. So it's unnumbered because I planned to remove it. And I never did remove it.

I forgot. I should probably do that. Can I read Dean Bl Lindell's tweet here that you quoted? Yeah, go ahead. It says, some guy did a podcast about why I won't do his podcast and played our whole podcast, which is now his biggest podcast. Which is not even close to true. That's the thing.

So that's a good example. He tweets that, first of all, how does he know it's now my biggest podcast? It's not even close to my biggest podcast. It was very low interest, to be honest, compared to a lot of the episodes. But he just tweets that out

like it's fact. And that's basically what caused the problem is he had a podcast and on his podcast, he said many, many things about me that were just invented. At some point,

he said every episode of Toronto Mic'd was Todd Shapiro coming on to take a shit on him. Meanwhile, you can see these. This is all public. My podcast is public. I've only had Todd Shapiro coming on to take a shit on him. Okay. Meanwhile, like you saw the, you can see these, this is all public.

My podcast is public. I've only had Todd Shapiro on one out of 593 episodes was Todd Shapiro. And I don't know if he took a shit on Blundell, but we probably talked, you know, there's probably 50 minutes of Blundell content in there, but like, that's the kind of thing.

Like, so when somebody famous broadcasts that every episode of Toronto Mike is Todd Shapiro shitting on Dean Blundell, people who love him and follow him will take that as fact and that'll be the end of the story. Oh, that Toronto Mic'd? Oh, fuck, that podcast only exists to shit on Dean Blundell. Meanwhile, you know, 593 episodes are unedited and in the

public domain right now for anyone of half a brain to take a peek and say, oh, it's not all about Dean Blundell. Dean Blundell only comes up when it's relevant to the conversation. If I'm talking to blind Derek Welsman or something like that. When Jason Barr was on,

there was probably a little Blundell content, but I haven't mentioned Blundell on my show in forever because it hasn't been relevant. He just invents things, which I think is very uncool. When Dean Blundell on my show in forever because it hasn't been relevant so he just invents things which I think is very uh uncool and yeah so that was that so yeah so when Dean Blundell attacks I shared clips from his show where he lies about me and I retort like how else do you retort if you if you record a podcast in which you say terrible things about somebody that's not like that person's in the room to respond like what do you do so I did the only thing i knew to do which is play the lie and then explain your side of it which is that this is completely

untrue because this is what's true and yeah so that's what that is when dean bledell attacks so i've never met the guy i got no time for that move his move i don't i don't i don't have any interest in that what we thought what i do spend some some time with me, and then we'll do, if this situation ever comes up again, Jason Statham will teach you how to win in a fight to the death. Yeah, I was thinking, now that we're friends, if I do have any trouble, I know who to call. I've possessed very few skills, but fucking people off is one of them. I was thinking Ross. Awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, I need, I'm sorry guys. I was thinking Ross. Awesome.

That's awesome. Yeah, I need, I'm sorry guys, we could probably talk to you forever. He's got the hard stop here. We do. I have to get to work

and I apologize to everybody. So have us on your show. And then we got all fucking day. I can't afford the rates here though. You'll have to come to my studio.

Fair enough. This whole thing has been a big excuse to find out where you live. That's all it is. That guy is cute. Just find the tree. Find the tree.

That'll take a bit. I will say this to you just at the end. When I was in college, I graduated in 2017, but people told me that you couldn't be successful in podcasting, and you were the person that I found and looked to as an example of somebody who could be successful. So, yeah. We didn't want to kiss too much ash right out of the gates. You're supposed to open with that because then my guard comes down.

See, I'll hit you up for all these pointers afterwards because I do want to become better. Yeah, I can help you. Get them relaxed and then a false sense of security and then bam. Yeah, hit them with a good one. Then you hit them with the Dean Blundell stuff, right? So it's like friends first, then we get into controversy. I'm starting to understand. I was waiting for the fuck you, Dean

Blondel, at the end of that, but that's alright. I think everyone got the point. That would require passion in the belly. Save that for Mr. McCow. I saved it for Bob. It's been a pleasure. Yeah, I literally could do this for hours. I learned so much shit today. We really appreciate your time.

Thanks for inviting me, and I'm glad we could finally do it. I think it was in my calendar three different times. I apologize for that once was a snow storm and i didn't want to bike in the snow yeah that one's on you yeah but the first one was on you maybe if we do this long enough we'll have you on on here as many times as you have 12 36 on yours every month for two and a half hours he's uh by the way since you just mark wise blood just because i know you gotta go but uh, God's Gift to Podcast Content. Who else would I have on once a month and say, basically, you need two and a half hours? This is going to be two and a half hours. The last one went

longer. That's how awesome I think the content spilling out of his cranium is. That guy is amazing. Every month, end of every month, he comes on. We'll have to get him on here. Awesome.

Steal shit. Excellent. I dare you. We're just going to go through. I give him beer, and I give him lasagna from Palma Pasta, and you could not steal him. I didn't even get a glass of water on this visit. Yeah, we're a little ghetto over here.

We apologize. It's all spent on the studio rates. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, cut some fucking slack. And you all spent it on that logo there. No, that one was free. Actually drawn by this, the guy that does... Oh, English Rose Tattoo Club.

Yeah, Mr. Nate. Awesome. The world is not flat. And you crazy motherfuckers out there who believe the world is flat, this podcast is not for you. I don't need you. Fuck the flat earthers. out there who believe the world is flat this this podcast is not for you I don't need you but that but again we the flatter oh man you guys are alienating our conspiracy theory audience right now yeah well come be on our show motherfucker we got a lot of people that can prove the world

is not flat so I don't think I could do an episode of a flat earther like I don't even think I can do it no yeah I lose my mind because if they believe that they believe all sorts of wild shit how do you have a reasonable discussion with an unreasonable person? You don't You put it up for content because it's amazing You can because you're big and strong And you can beat people up Yeah but you're witty

I don't know you well Justin You're stronger than me but I know I'm smarter than you So it all comes out even Can't read or write Made it this fucking far I'm pretty smart. I'm good to go. I'm sorry we had to

cut you short, because that really was Yeah, we'd love to apologize. No problem. I think we went for about an hour or so, but thank you so much

for coming. We really appreciate it and we'll gladly have you back on anytime you'd like to come on. Absolutely. And you're going to get hit by a car

when you leave here. Well, if that happens, you'll feel very guilty. We'll see. It's all a joke until someone gets hurt, right? Yeah, excellent. Yeah, thanks for coming, you'll feel very guilty. We'll see. It's all a joke until someone gets hurt, right? Yeah. Excellent. Yeah.

Thanks for coming. Thanks for the stickers. Toronto Mike, guys. Check them out. Yeah. Go check out torontomike.com. I always say, without a doubt, the best podcast in Toronto. Oh, my God.

Absolutely. You can pull that clip, too. Yeah. Absolutely. I was going to say, that one's from Jonah Hill. Yeah. All right. Thanks for listening, everybody.

We got to get out of here. See you later.