Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Brent Bambury: Toronto Mike'd #1212

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

In this 1212th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with CBC's Brent Bambury about Brave New Waves, Midday, Go, Day 6 and fatherhood. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1212 of Toronto Mic'd. 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. in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh,

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Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is Brent Bambury. Welcome, Brent. Mike, hello. Hello. Very nice to be here and proud to be part of episode 1212. You know what? I saved it for you, buddy. Thank you very much.

Sounds like a lucky number. I feel like we had this in the works for a while. Like there was a little bit of like a DM tag. Is that a thing that kids are playing these days? And I'm so glad we finally put this together. Here you are, Brent Bambury in the TMDS studio. And the only reason why this was in the works for a while was because I took a year off and we adopted a kid.

Congratulations. Thank you so much. So I'm a dad. I'm a dad like you. Okay, wow. And I know for a lot of people, that's nothing special. But for me, it's been really, really great. And I kind of let everything go for a little while but but you know when when the year ended yeah uh and i went back to work i was so

glad to be back back to work i didn't realize how much i missed it until i actually got back into it again like sometimes you got to step away to like appreciate what you've got going on there maybe absolutely yeah so so now i'm back in and uh back and thinking about radio again in a way that I really didn't for a long time when I was off. And at the same time, kind of digging being a dad and doing the dad-like things. And my kid's only three and a half years old. So little things that he's achieving have been really, really fun to, to, to be part of. So, so I've got two things going now, which is work and dadness. And, and, and I'm, I'm amazed that I'm in both of them at this age. I mean, well, what age you look young, you're forever young, but you don't have to give me your birth year, but where are we at here? I'm 62. Okay. You look great.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You didn't know you were getting all these compliments when you came over here. But I mean, I'm reluctant to say that because I don't want people to think 62, you should be retired and you shouldn't be a dad that because I don't want people to think, 62, you should be retired and you shouldn't be a dad. Like, I don't want people to turn against me right away with the kind of ageism that I know is

rampant in our society. But I mean, both of those things have been, are a blessing and I recognize that. You're a young dad compared to like a Mark Breslin, right? You had to go to Mark Breslin to find him. Well, I was thinking of people who've been over here. You know who I almost went to?

Because he was an older dad when he had his, but he had already had kids. And I was going to bring him up anyways, because I'm a friend and I produce... Who am I going to say? You're going to say Ralph Ben-Murray. Yes, I am. Right, right, right.

Okay. So I proudly produce Ralph Ben-Murray's podcast. A lot of P's in that sentence. Not that kind of rabbi. Yeah. And I remember like literally having conversations with Ralph where he would tell me that people used to come up to him at the CBC and say, hi,

Brent. People thought we looked quite a lot alike and we were in similar jobs for, I mean, we actually had the same job for, we both hosted midday for a while. Right. He hosted it before I did, but we were both,

he did nightlines, which was a sister show to, hosted it before i did but we were both he did nightlines which was a sister show to to brave new waves and we were so we were both on the late night for for a period of years as well but ralph was like meteoric like ralph was he was so generous and so kind to me and and i was gonna ask you how because i feel like he's mellowed a lot like i mean he's always been probably i mean i only got to know him in the last six, seven years. And he's a sweetheart now. He's literally my rabbi, not that kind of rabbi. But was he always a decent dude? I feel like

he might have been a little rough around the edges, maybe. Like a little sandpaper going on with Ralphie. How was he back then? Not to me. He was always sweet to me and always really generous to me. But yeah, I mean, you don't get to be the host of a late night television program like Ben Murgie Live without burning with ambition.

And he had that. And I think some of the people that worked with him, who I later worked with at Midday, found that it's not a Canadian thing to want that kind of fame and bright lights. Why didn't Friday night with Ralph and Ben Murgy succeed? Like, why did it only get like a year and a

half? And then it's, it is a punchline. I saw Jim Carrey was on, I think Q of Tom Power. Yeah. And he made a remark about like, leave Ben Murgy alone because there's, there's still jokes about the Friday night.

Like, why did that fail? You know? Okay. So I, I actually. Right out of the hopper here. Okay, Bram, let's get this done. Well, Ralph would know better than I, than I do. I, I, I, but, but I actually... Right out of the hopper here. Okay, Brent, let's get this done. Well, Ralph would know better than I do. But having done comedy in Canada,

you need, in order to compete with American, you need a writer's room of 20 people, 20 brilliant, brilliant people. You know, we just do not have the kind of economy that can support that, you know? I don't know how many writers were on that program, but I'm sure it probably, in order to compete with the other stuff that was on the air, it would need a lot.

And he probably just didn't have the support for it. But he's definitely smart and fast on his feet and fun to watch. And I've seen him do great television. And as I said, he was always, there was always, I mean, he's very philosophical now, but he had that side to him. He always had a deep side to him. And I like that very much. I don't know if he ever told you this story. Tell me.

So we were, I went to Israel in 2004. And I didn't know anybody there. I didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to go because so many news stories about Israel were intriguing to me. And I didn't feel that I could actually understand it unless I was there, unless I walked through those streets,

talked to some of the people, and tried to understand what it's like to be an Israeli living the kind, because obviously there's lots of people with interests in the conflicts that are articulated in our own news and the stories that we tell here. So anyway, I was in Israel, and I landed in Tel Aviv, and I was incredibly jet lagged. And I got up, and I was walking along the beach, and I thought, oh my God, this is a beautiful city. I'm on a Mediterranean beach.

Look at these high rises. And suddenly there was this guy standing in front of me in a Toronto Maple Leafs cap, right? And he said, hi. It was Ralph. That's amazing. It was Ralph Ben-Murdy. That's amazing.

I was in Israel for like three hours or something. And there he was. And you two guys who are mistaken for each other over here in this country, that's a random happenstance that you guys bump into each other there but it's amazing to me that he knew it was me like like he was he looked out and said that's Brent Banbury walking along the beach and and you know I would not have I would have said oh look there's a guy in a maple leaves cap I guess they like that crazy team here

too but but uh anyway so it was him and so we hung out a little bit in in israel and i enjoyed it very very much you know because his perspective as a jewish person was much different than mine and you know and he was interested that i was interested in israel so we had this little thing in common uh uh at that time that's wild yeah so what took you so long to get over here like it sounds like you you were were custom made to be an FOTM, Friend of Toronto Mike. Well, I don't think you ever, I mean, you did extend the invitation a while ago,

but I think it was during the pandemic. It took me a while, right, to get the courage. It took me a little, oh, no, don't say that. No, but I've also been a fan of your stuff. Really? And the people you've been talking to. And I was really pleased that you talked to Steve Paken last week about somebody that I knew, who's Peter Herndorf, who was incredibly

influential. The program that Ralph and I both did midday was in some ways because of Herndorf, because it was from that group of programs that he created for CBC. And Peter Herndorf's wife is the person who hired me, Eva Siegler, to host Midday eventually. And I did a lot of work with her. And then when I lived in Ottawa, I was away a lot on weekends in Ottawa. I would leave Ottawa to go to New York or to visit people in Toronto. And his family continued to live here while he ran the National Arts Centre. We would bump into each other on Monday mornings at the Ottawa airport.

And, you know, he's always really sweet and kind, but oh my gosh, the things that he achieved. Well, you know, he's the kind of guy where it's not a name I knew, but he's been involved in all these things I'm like quite passionate about and trying to cover. So when I learned about, you know, his role in basically recruiting Steve Paikin from CBC to come join TVO,

the one thing, the nice thing about the show is now I have like, I have a Rolodex. Let me show you. No, it's not really a Rolodex, but I do have these people I can call and they'll take my call and talk to me about people.

And I can learn about people like Peter. And yeah, it was a great combo with Steve Pagan about Peter Herndorf. Yeah. Yeah. So I apologize for not picking up the phone when I was off and not really thinking

too much. Don't apologize for that. I love the fact that you took some time to bond with your child and I'm excited for you to be a dad. Thank you. There's no better gig in the world. Thank you. No, no, I know. And you know, there's lots of things i mean i i want to now i just want to show you a bunch of pictures but i can do that later well you know one pet peeve i have is that often people like you don't have to say how old your

kid you'll say three and a half and they go oh that's a good age but what are the bad ages like i've got my oldest is 21 and I had brunch with him yesterday. Nice. And I'm like, what a great age this is. Yeah, I look forward to that. Where's, like, so far that's 21 for 21 in terms of ages. They've all been great. I'm really glad to hear that.

You know, so when you adopt, and I don't want to talk about my child too much, but when you adopt, you don't really know what's going to happen. You don't know if that child is going to bond with you or if it's going to be traumatic for them, you know? And in his case, he had a foster mother who absolutely loved him and adored him, which is so great. I mean, that's so great. He knew love from a really early age. And so there's, you're worried about that. Like I really did have a lot of anxiety about, uh, you know, what, what if, if, if being with, with us is going to be the worst thing that ever happened to him, right. Instead of the best. And, uh, and so, so having that time, you know, to be with him and the fact

that my employers, uh, allowed me to do that, to step away from a network program to do that, you know, uh, it, it really was a gift, but, but he, you know, it really was a gift. But he, you know, in those early years, he was speech delayed. He was a pandemic kid, so he didn't really have a lot of contact with other children his age. And there were a bunch of other issues that you didn't know how they were going to resolve. There was a question about whether he might have autism or, you know, lots of things that we had to think about.

But we have lots of neighbors with kids who are really, really great. And, and one of my neighbors who has three kids said to me, um, you know, when they get to be four, that's when it really clicks. And so he didn't say this was a great age, right. And it did make me feel like, oh, it is going to, you know, things are going to fall into place and get better. And that's exactly what happened. Yesterday, we put skis on him for the first time. Wow. And I love to ski and snowboard. I love to snowboard.

I'm not much of a skier. But I'm looking forward so much to the day when we go out and we can just spend the day on the hill boarding and skiing our brains out. And he was amazing on skis. He did it. he just totally did it and that that kind of thing that sense of you know it's it's all coming together is is and i know that there are going to be bad days when you think what am i doing and stuff like that but but it does feel like things are coming to get better and are coming together and getting better and uh you know

and he's rolled with everything so so you know, oh, my child is my hero or whatever. But I do think for an adopted kid, when you see them succeed, it's so great. It just feels so great. Well, that's beautiful, man. I love hearing this. Thank you. Fantastic. Honestly.

I was going to ask you, have you ever seen this movie, The Whale? I haven't seen The Whale. Okay. So I won't spoil it. I won't accept a spoiler. It's not a spoiler. There's nothing specific. Except I watch a lot of Whale. Okay. So I won't spoil it. I won't accept this. Well, it's a spoiler, not a spoiler. There's nothing specific. Except I watch a lot of movies with my wife. She's like my movie watching partner.

And we watch a lot of stuff. And usually we're pretty close in what we think. Sometimes I like something more than her. Sometimes she likes things more than me. But we watched The Whale. And I was like ready to applaud the ending of this movie. Like I said, what a great movie. And she says, I hated it.

Okay. So I can't remember the last time this happened when we were on completely different spectrums of a movie so if anyone wants to come break i don't know we need some tiebreakers here but i thought it was great well he was amazing brendan frazier was absolutely amazing and we'll probably win best actor at those oscars coming up but uh it it's funny to see a movie and have this, you know, at the end you're like, I react, I look over for the, do you agree, do you concur? And I got the opposite reaction, which blew my mind. So that happened on the weekend. So I've heard both of those reactions to that movie.

So I'm curious too, because I've heard some people really, really loved it and others didn't. It happened in my home there. So reach out to me and let me know who's right, me or my wife on that one. So we talked Ralph Ben-Murray. I'm wearing the shirt.

Didn't wear it for Ralph because he's not at the CBC anymore, but I have worn it. I'll just let you know who got to see me in the shirt. Tom Harrington. Okay. Do you know Tom? Of course. I got to ask if you know these people.

I've been there for a long time. So I know a lot of people. I know the most. Well, you've been there for a long time so i know a lot of people i i know the most you've been there since 79 right ah 79 was my first my first gig at cbc correct that's amazing yeah yeah that is a long time i'm doing the math now that's almost almost as old as i am almost wow that's great that's over uh well over four decades now that you've been working for the cbc okay so uh diana swain yes uh didn't wear for joy drummond uh jill deacon oh yeah for for the CBC. Okay. So Diana Swain. Yes. Didn't wear it for Dwight Drummond.

Jill Deacon. Oh yeah, for sure. Jill's great. I love Jill. Yeah, just one year ago this week, I was on Here and Now with Jill Deacon because I was celebrating my 1000th episode and was chatting with her and that popped up in my like

on this day memories thing. It just popped up. And I understand she's not feeling very well these days. I just shout out to Jill Deacon. I just popped up. And I understand she's not feeling very well these days. I just shout out to Jill Deacon. I just hope she feels better soon. Oh, so do I.

She came public with some symptoms. She's, I don't know, long COVID. I don't think she called it that, but whatever it is, I hope it resolves itself. I didn't realize that. Jill and I were both in Montreal at the same time. So we, we.

Bag of hammers. Yeah. Yeah. So that, yeah. Did you ever see Bag of Hammers live? No, no. Okay. But, but, but, but Montreal was and that was. Bag of Hammers. Yeah, yeah. So that, yeah. Did you ever see Bag of Hammers live? No, no. Okay. But, but, but, but Montreal was, was a great place to be in radio.

There was just such a rabid kind of small group of, of Anglo fans. And so it was really, I mean, it was a great place, period. And a great kind of period in my life. And that was, that was, that was the first big city that I actually lived in. So. Okay. Cause you're from St. John. I'm from New Brunswick. Yes. So near St. John? No. Oh, in. Okay, because you're from St. John. I'm from New Brunswick, yes.

So near St. John? No. Oh, it is St. John. Born in St. John. St. John. Do you know who lives there now? Maestro Fresh West lives there now. I heard that.

Well, is he doing something related to basketball there? I know he's on the, like he does a radio thing. I'm just showing you my autographed copy of the 12-inch single of Let Your Backbone Slide. Shout out to Maestro if he's listening. He's a good FOTM himself. Looks great. But he just up and moved, I think, during the pandemic. He wanted to leave the big smoke.

I don't know if it was because of how expensive it is to live here. I don't know how we live here. I don't know how you live here. I don't know how anybody lives here unless you have multi-generational wealth or something. I don't know. Which I don't. Let me see your T4. Do you mind if I take a peek at it? Okay. So you're from New Brunswick. Yes. So that's where you start. We talked about 1979, but maybe even before you start with the CBC in 1979 and you were at St. John, what is that? CBC FM in St. John. Like, did you always know you wanted to be in radio?

Like, did a young Brent say, I want to talk into a microphone? I mean, the young Brent didn't have any idea at all what he wanted to do. But I loved radio from a really early age. And radio, I didn't grow up in a CBC house. My grandmother listened to CBC, which was completely in keeping

with what CBC represented then. Like it seemed to be something that talked to people who are over the age of 70. Right. That was what it felt like at the time. Right. And I, but I listened to the, the, you know, the AM radio station there that played music and in, you know, in those. Was it like top 40? Yeah. So it would be like 10 50 chum for St. John. It was like that. It was like that, but,

but it wasn't in those days. It seemed like the, it seemed like the, the charts were not put together by an algorithm. Right. So, so there was a huge mix of different kinds of music, you know? So I knew a lot of like Atlantic rhythm and blue stuff.

I didn't know that they were black artists. They were, they were just, they were just played along with, you know, bubble gum and Engelbert Humperdinck or whatever else was being played on the radio. Well, Brent, because it was not put together

by an algorithm. Like there was some, maybe there was, I do a lot of CFNY episodes on this program, okay? You know, they had a committee that would meet in a room and they would go through the new releases and stuff and they would go, make passionate pitches for we should add this and this is a new band whatever and these were human beings who were gathering to discuss what music would sound good on uh the cfny airwaves and that's that's what it was like and it felt

human right it really did it felt like this mix represented something that was bigger and outside myself outside you know it was a little kid as ateen. And when I got a little older, I had a cassette recorder and I used to record songs off the radio so I could listen to them on my own, you know, and, and, uh, what kind of music did you like?

I liked everything. I mean, I can tell you the first seven inch single that I bought was crimson and clover by Tommy James and the Shondells. And you know, one of the great things was I got to interview Tommy James, wrote a book about how the mob controlled absolutely every aspect of his, of his musical career. Wow.

Yeah. And, and, uh, so about 12 years ago, I think I, I interviewed Tommy James and it is kind of amazing when you're sitting outside. I mean, Tommy James is. Well, he did Moany Moany, right? He did Moany Moany. He did Crystal Blue Persuasion. Like all, and these are all songs that I listened to on the radio as a kid growing up. And, uh, you know, just, and, And Crimson and Clover was this amazing song.

I Think We're Alone Now. Yes, that was him. That was a more poppier one. Crimson and Clover is a much sort of heavier. No, I'm just thinking about it. Because they were all covered, right? Because Billy Idol brought us all moany, moany, people my age or whatever.

And Tiffany brought us I think we're alone now um and and dragging the line dragging the line dragging the line yeah just really really amazing stuff so so i think that that was the first seven inch single i bought but then i remember also getting nancy sinatra like these boots are made for walking and uh uh you know and and actually i think that the song that i heard that i I loved was Jackson, which she did with... I'm going to Jackson, that one? Yeah, I'm going to mess around. Yeah, yeah.

And she did that with Lee Hazelwood. So all of this stuff was extremely important to me. And other kids were watching TV. And I was much more interested in... I remember sitting in the kitchen where the radio was and listening to the radio and recording these songs. And later in life, like when I was probably in high school, I started, for some reason, I started listening to CBC.

There were a couple of things. I had a neighbor who listened to it. My grandmother, as I mentioned, listened to it. And it seemed like a, it just seemed insane how old fashioned it sounded. A friend of mine at the time said, everybody sounds like they're bored on this station. And there's a Conan O'Brien joke where he says NPR, where they read the news as though there's a baby sleeping in the next room.

And that's what it sounds like. But, but and, and CBC just, it seemed, it seemed goofy to me in places and seemed extremely old fashioned. And then there were these hip radio programs like at the time, as it happens with Barbara Frum and Alan Maitland, which was funny and kind of, it had a sort of attitude to it. And-

Here, quick aside, I'm going to do a few sides and then we'll get right back. But when I had this idea for the podcast about 12 years ago, because I was helping Humble and Fred with their podcast and I said, I think going to do a few sides and then we'll get right back. But when I had this idea for the podcast about 12 years ago, because I was helping Humble and Fred with their podcast. And I said, I think I can do that. Like leave my comfort zone talking to a microphone. I knew I wanted like an original theme song right off the top.

And I went to my buddy, rapper, producer, Ill Vibe. So shout out to Illy. And I said, yeah, I want like a hip hop version of the As It Happens theme. Like that's literally my instructions I gave him. I said, you know, the dun dun dun dun dun dun so you got and then so he went away anyways you heard it at the beginning but what i got as my which i've used for every episode of the 12 12 uh 1 112 there i 12 12 yeah 1 212 right okay gotta get the math right. But basically, what you hear here. It's practically a Rush album. Yes, 2121, right?

Yeah, we're getting there. 2112. It's the dyslexic Rush album. But I got the, so that's the hip-hop version you hear at the beginning of this as ill vibe rapping over some beats that are like a hip-hop version of As It Happens. Okay, back to you. Barbara Frum.

Well, so there had been what they call the radio revolution. That happened, it's sort of, it's kind of unclear when it actually began on CBC. But so there were some programs that would pop out. You know, CBC radio was still really interested in kind of rural Canada. It had this idea, you know, there used to be a show called Voice of the Pioneers, where they would actually talk to people who had settled the West. And, you know, that wasn't that long ago. That like it was like 1920 they were living in sod houses you know and

that kind of thing and so they were remembering that and they would have been in their 60s or 70s they're all gone now and so all this stuff is is there it's it's it's been recorded right but but at the time on the radio i was like i was like are you serious people want to listen to this but then you realize you start to learn things while you're listening to the radio and that seemed huge to me i remember taking notes when i was listening to shows on the radio and i heard a documentary at the time as it happens change their format but they used to do documentaries in the final hour of as it happens and i remember hearing a documentary about love canal which i'd never heard of before and this was a toxic waste dump that they built housing on top of near Niagara Falls.

Right. And, uh, and, and just, you know, it's being so emotional listening to what happened to these people and, and the kind of injustice of it all. Um, and it was very, very, it was very, it was extraordinary to me that, that I could get this sitting in my kitchen chair, you know, doing my homework. Right. Um, and, and so so i was i became interested in cbc but i but i also still thought it was sort of it was sort of a weird kind of goofy place it was

it felt out of step with the time mostly you know so so i aspired to be kind of i aspired to the the programming that that really really interested me and i I also felt that maybe we could move some of the other programming into the present in a way, the way that young people think. Why do they sound like old fogies or whatever? Haven't they ever heard of contemporary music and that kind of thing? I think that you have to have a little bit of a, you have to have a little bit of that irascibility to, to try to figure you could change something.

And I did think that I could go in there and change things. So did you just find out they were looking for a reporter? They weren't. CBD FM? CBD. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and it wasn't FM then. It was all AM still. It was, you know, it was. Sounds like a cannabis station. CBD FM. Yeah, exactly right. Shout out to Can't FM then. It was all AM still. It was, you know, it was- Sounds like a cannabis station, CBD FM. Yeah, exactly right. Shout out to Canna Cabana. You want some CBD oil?

No, I listened to that in 1979. But yeah, they had a morning show and they had a sports guy and the sports guy was leaving. So I went in. Do you remember the names of these at all? Do you remember the name of the sports guy? No.

I don't remember the name of the sports guy and I should because I kind of went to high school with them but uh but i but i certainly remember all of the other people that because i never worked with him yeah name check i know i feel like there's a some underlying code amongst canadians that it's rude to name drop and i'm always shaking it out of people because it's like i love the name drop like drop names like it's raining i was on a morning show with george j, who was a broadcaster from Halifax, who was great, like an amazing private radio guy who later in his career switched over to CBC.

He was amazing. And with Leslie Hughes, also known as Molly Hughes, who was more of a CBC type. And she was amazing. They were both like strong broadcasters. Wow. And they, so this was a morning show,

six to nine. They were extremely competitive. So you're in the middle of these two powerhouses, right? And there, and there I was like trying to squeak out sports scores, you know, while I was sitting between them.

And I didn't really know what, I didn't know what I was doing. I had, again, I felt like I could, I could do this. Like you just, you just said about yourself, I could do this, but i was way in over my head just reading sports scores i was

so young because i just did the the bath you 1979 i was 19 yeah wow yeah yeah yeah so and it was just a summer job i was in university and and so i did this for a summer and i know i know i must have been awful at the beginning but but it didn't really matter. The station was new. The show was new. You know, it used to be that all of the broadcasting came from Frederick and they created a station in St. John and this was the first iteration of their morning show. You know, I think that's how they were able

to get such talented people. The producer was Havoc Franklin, who still works at CBC and he was the person who hired me. So, yeah, you should talk to Havoc. Get Havoc in. Dude, introduce me. I'll make it happen. Yeah, absolutely.

He's great. But it was a real education. And I didn't think I was that good at it. And I didn't think that I was going to return to it, to be honest. But I couldn't let it go. After I left and went back to school, I thought about it a lot.

And then I said, you know what? Maybe I can actually do some, you know, maybe I could do an item for the morning show. I was in university in Halifax at the time. I can, maybe I could do an item for the morning show there, you know, and I, and I started kind of working as a freelancer. Uh, and then I ended up freelance sports, doing freelance sports as a, you know, fill in host and fill in a sports caster and that kind of stuff. And, um, you know, it was, fill in a sportscaster and that kind of stuff and um you know it was it was all it was all kind of like accidental but uh i started working continually as some in summer jobs with cbc as i was going to university and then uh that continued through through grad school and and uh and then you know around 1983 82 i was working with a woman named Sophia Hatzipetros.

And she was brought in to be part of this team to start an overnight show for CBC. Because CBC realized around, you know, the early 80s, hey, we don't have anything that speaks to young people. You know, like they did because they had these hit programs that I talked about. But like I said, they tended to favor kind of rural over urban. They tended to favor, you know, like if you listen to This Country in the Morning, later Morningside, which was one of their flagship shows, it always kind of tracked towards the rural audience and rural characters, you know. With the exception, Michael Enright did it one year from Toronto,

and he was more of a kind of in the Letterman mold. and rural characters, you know, with the exception, Michael Enright did it one year from Toronto and, uh, and he, he was more of a kind of in the Letterman mold before Letterman, you know, before Letterman was known, it was, it was a little bit more kind of, uh, ironic and, and it had an edge to it. And it was definitely, it definitely had an urban sound. I loved that, that season with Enright, but, but that was widely thought to have been a failure. Enright himself told me that he, that he, that he failed at it. And I, and I've, I've always said to him, no, you're great. I can, I can actually quote things that you said on the air that summer. So, so, so I, I knew about the creation of the overnight youth oriented radio before it ever went to air. And, and I was involved with the people who were,

who were creating it. And, you know, and, and I was a huge fan of Augusta LePay, who was the first, the first host. I have a clip.

Yeah. All right. This is a day one of brave. Oh my God. New waves. I should tell you right away that you're probably listening to the only show on CBC, stereo or AM, that features dim lights, a bar, and a producer in a tuxedo. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the people who run this fair corporation for us all,

for giving four bright, talented, and interesting people a chance to do something in the nighttime We're going to be playing you a lot of music on brave new waves What's loosely termed I guess new music? some of it you would probably be familiar with some may be new to you because it doesn't get a lot of airplay or Because the group or the artist just hasn't made it as they say in the North American market yet We're also looking forward to getting as much Canadian material on the air as we can so that we can let people in Winnipeg and Calgary know what's going on in Halifax, so that we can let people in Toronto know what's going on in Vancouver

and all the towns and places in between, too. Brave New Waves is going to be with you five nights a week, six hours live a night. That means when real big bloopers happen you have the enjoyment of knowing they're live and we certainly encourage you to take part in how shall i say it our evolution feel free to write us tell us what you like about it what you don't like about the program what you'd like to hear the music you'd like to hear maybe something that's going on in your neck of the woods that you think we should know about that we can spread the word around to the rest of the country we're at box 6000 in montreal very simple

there is a postal code if you want that it's h3c388 and we encourage strange letters wow okay that's the first episode of brave new waves what year is that um approximately 1983 i think yeah i think it's february 83 so at this point you're just a fan you're a listener are you uh i was in the studio for that night i was i was not i was in the control room i think that night i was she shouts out like the four people or whatever yeah so that's the staff i wasn't working on the show i was still i was going to university i was a i was a grad student at mcgill at that time my daughter goes to mcgill oh yeah yeah mcgill's great i have so much fun there um and and uh uh yeah and so i was living in montreal um and a couple nights before that they did some dry runs and i was a guest on one of the dry runs

so i was there you were in they were there yeah see i didn't know you were there i was a day one yeah and i was and i knew i knew that the four bright people that were putting together the show, I worshiped Augusta Lappe. Like I thought she was the greatest broadcaster and that voice, just listening to it now, you know, and, and her dryness, her sense of humor, her ability to laugh at herself, you know, inviting people to, to insult her. She was just a, she's a powerhouse. She was a powerhouse.

You know, definitely when when i i i followed her on that show and i definitely modeled like for certainly for the first year or so that i was on that show i tried to just do everything in augusta's voice you know that that that was the the that was the template for me so you're going to mcgill uh and you're essentially like a correspondent i suppose for uh for brave Waves at the beginning? No, I was still doing freelance for other programs. So I was still kind of, I still would get gigs in the East,

you know, like fill in, I was filling in. I remember I got a job in Moncton for part of one summer and I would stay up and listen to Brave New Waves while I was there. That's how I felt connected to the culture, you know? Right. And that was really powerful. Like know there was music that that i would hear in brave new ways that i knew i wouldn't be able to find anywhere else and so i was probably still recording

it you know i was probably still recording stuff off of brave new waves to listen to when i was driving around in the cbc vehicle to talk to lobster fishermen you know that that was the kind of that was the kind of, that was the kind of life that I was living. I remember getting up really early one morning when I was working in Moncton to interview Steve Fonio, who was running across the country that summer and, and listening to the last hour of brave new waves as it petered out and

dawn broke, you know, and just that, that it was, there was something about that time and about the way that that program made you feel connected to something that was i don't want to use the word alternative but it was an alternative to whatever whatever mundane thing you were doing you know i have you know a number of fotms who reached out when they heard you were coming on and so i'm going

to read you a few notes here about brave new Waves and what it meant to other people. You mentioned Steve Fonio. Yeah. So I just want to tell people the documentary that fellow FOTM Alan Zweig made on Steve Fonio. Alan's an old dad too. You know what? Yeah.

And I think I dropped the same references on him I did when I think of old dads. I'm like, oh, there's Breslin. There's Ben Muraghi, you know. Am I an old dad? I have a six-year-old still, but I guess that's not that old. That's a good spread, though, six and 21? Yeah, that is a good spread, right? I always say, like, when I'm with my 21-year-old and my McGill-going daughter, who's 18,

and this is actually reading week this week right now we're in, so she's actually in town. Oh, nice. But when I'm with them, always when I was with them, I was the young dad like because i was 27 when i was born and i was kind of the young dad and there would be like 40 year old dads and there's me in my 20s or whatever but now i'm the older dad you know what i mean so i can kind of play both roles depending which kid i'm fathering at the time okay so i'm going to play uh well here's a question and then i am going to play a clip i want to because you take over Brave New Waves in 1985 right? Yes.

Okay look at you. Okay amazing. Okay so Andrew Ward writes in he goes can you ask Brent if he knew of or listened to CFNY 102.1 when he was living in the Maritimes or in Montreal? I always wonder now he's asking about like who freelanced on the show because of

the shooting budget, but were you aware of or were you at all listening to what David Marsden was doing on CFNY? No, there was no way to listen to that stuff. This is pre-internet, right? There was just no way. You'd have to phone somebody. These long-distance bills were so exorbitant. If I came

to Toronto, I wouldn't listen to the radio when i was here and i i probably should have i i was probably aware so i was more aware of what was happening in campus radio than what was happening sort of in cfny right and i was really interested in what was happening in campus radio because i knew that some of it was really good you know and i i heard some of it i could hear some of it because i lived in a, in, in, in Montreal where we could hear it. And so I knew some of it was extremely, um, rudimentary, but, but I always felt like brave new waves could aspire to be the best of campus radio. And that was so, and a lot of people who are in campus where you were like, you get paid for what you do and we're doing it

for free. And I was like, good. Uh, it's, it's great that you care that much about it. And, and there were absolutely people who are doing it that, that, that were better than we were. Um, but, but no, I didn't know that. And, um, you know, I, I didn't know much about CFNY at all. And I, I didn't, I, I probably knew that I did know that, that some of the stuff that we played, the more commercial music that we played, you know, the, the major label stuff was getting airplay in, in certainly in Toronto and, and probably in certain other cities too. But, but a lot of, uh, you know, I, I honestly, I didn't listen to it. I wasn't, I wasn't influenced by it or anything like that. So nobody was like sending you cassette tapes and saying, uh,

Well, people sent us cassette tapes of their music and we would play it. Like, like here's, I don't know, this show on Save and Wine. Okay. Uh, by the way, he also, so Andrew Ward, who I've met at a few TMLX events, he's a good guy. He wanted to know if I was going to wear the shirt. And Andrew, I am wearing the shirt. He's wearing the shirt. You'll see it in the photo.

Brave the cold by posing in this short-sleeved shirt for that photo with Brent. He did want to know, he just wanted you to know, he considered Brave New Waves radio gold on a shoestring budget. So I don't know what the budget was like, but he seemed to think it was shoestring. Do you think that's fair? Okay, so by CBC standards, it absolutely was shoestring. Because, you know, we were on a network and we had to pay union wages to technicians, you know.

we had to pay union wages to technicians, you know? Right. So it probably had a bigger budget than you could imagine and probably a bigger budget than a lot of shows have now. I don't, I mean, I don't know. But compared to other shows at that time, absolutely, it was very, very shoestringy, you know? And we worked really hard.

We did, as Augusta said at the beginning, we did 30 hours live a week overnight, you know? And you have to fill that time um but but you know it was supposed to sound it was supposed to sound like it was being done kind of live by people you knew you know uh maybe in someone's basement that was that was part of the appeal well this is now brave new waves it's called toronto mic'd and uh speaking of cfy speaking of all night shows, FOTM Danny Elwell heard you were coming on

and Danny, of course, had the alternative bedtime hour on CFNY and she just wrote nice with an exclamation mark. Thank you. Danny's really nice. She's another great radio personality. John Moore, morning show host at the Mighty 1010, says that he is very nice. So John thinks that you, Brent, are very nice.

That's a quote. John's great. And John interviewed me. I have a cassette. I still have a video cassette of an interview that John did with me as host of Brave New Waves. I don't know when that would have been. It was when we were still doing the show overnight. So probably sometime in the 80s

um john's younger than i am um but uh uh but but and and and i really enjoy listening to john um on on on uh 10 10 now um and it's just it's it's it's great that i still i still bump into him i still see him and and you know and John's just so great. He's so fast. Maureen Holloway, who's a very good friend of John Moore's, Maureen says, say hi for me, will you? Oh, so now I work with Maureen. So I get canned by CBC. I get let go.

What year is that? That was 2000, in the year 2000. How dare they? It was very weird. So I just turned 40 40 and then they were like hey okay out the door and i've been working there every day since i was 25 yeah and uh i did a a program on what was then life network uh where i was i was a film reviewer so so that's why that's maybe why you wanted to ask me about the whale and and maureen worked on that show and uh so so i

actually worked with maureen and then now I see her on billboards and stuff. So she's having a great career too. Well, she's a podcaster now. Yeah. She's a podcaster now. Yeah, she had a good run though. Good run. Q107, then CHFI.

She left Q for CHFI. She took over for Aaron Davis. Right. Talking about radio royalty here. And she had a very good run. And she did quite well so uh and she's a good FOTM herself there's a photo I have speaking of kids like when uh I think my youngest I mentioned is six now but when she was like one years old there's a photo of like

Maureen Holloway holding one year old Morgan in her hands for our official photo and it's like I can always time check things like that so Connie says uh I picked up so much great music from brave new waves just that's it just wanted you to know so connie that's really great and i you know and i i understand that because i did too and and uh we did have a pretty good we had a pretty good um i don't even know how to describe it we were plugged in to British music as it came out, and we had a pretty good pipeline to new music as it was released, even when it was super independent. So we would get lots of, at the time, seven-inch singles.

And I know I don't have to explain what that is to some people, but we would get the latest stuff from Britain as it came out, and then we would be plugged into the hardcore and and punk scene and stuff too and um you know it was all analog at the time at the beginning uh we started getting cds as well but what was also analog was our information gathering there wasn't even a fax machine when the show went on the air we used to get british newspapers and the british music press and we would literally cut up the articles and put them in files you know so there was a cocteau twins file and here's an interview from the nme from 1983 and that kind of stuff and you know that was how we kept track of stuff we used to do profiles of artists and that was how we had you know some information because

you couldn't you couldn't go online and look there's no wikipedia there was no wikipedia but there wasn't even a fax machine like you couldn't even get their latest press release so so it was um you know it was definitely an analog process but i get people coming up to me i've had a lot of different jobs in broadcasting i've been really lucky and i'm i'm still working but i've had but people who come up to me that want to talk to me, want to tell me, usually want to tell me how much it meant to them to feel connected to that world in their bedroom or in their apartment, you know, as sometimes as they were studying to be doctors or sometimes when they were, you know, in architecture school in their, in their studios, working all night on a project or in a model, or just, you know, when their mom thought they were in bed asleep and, and feeling that they had music that spoke to them or that they had, that there was a culture out there that spoke to them. And I know how powerful that is. And, you know, I was just a conduit to that. I, I, I like,

I liked being there. I loved that culture myself and felt that I had an affinity for it. And, but, but, you know, I, I do understand how important that show was to people and, and, and how it connected them. And, you know, and it went on for another 10 years after I left in 95. And it went on for another more than 10 years with Patti Schmidt hosting. And I really admire what Patti brought to it because I think then the show ceased to be analog. And then there was an internet culture and electronic music culture that she was plugged into in a way that I wasn't. I don't think I could have done it as it continued. And it remained relevant and it remained important to people. And it remained on the outside of the mainstream, which is, you know, a weirder, it's a weirder prospect when, when culture gets fragmented the way it did by the internet, you know, and there was no longer a monoculture that you could kind

of push against. Everybody had their own little thing, you know, and that show continued to, you know, then, then in its second or third decade, it continued to, it continued to matter to people. And, and, and that was, I think really that was, that was Patty that was able to do that. Well, Brent, I have more notes for you. So before we get to Patty there, we have Dr. Gregory Klages, who actually is an FOTM. He came on and we did a deep dive into the mysterious death of Tommy Thompson. Oh yeah. It was really quite an episode and he's written a book about that and quite

a story of course. Every Canadian should know the story of Tom Thompson but he writes and this speaks to exactly what you were just saying Brent. He says as a 1980s rural Ontario teen Brave New Waves was cool music 101. My static laced late night conduit to music Ontario teen, Brave New Waves was cool music 101,

my static-laced late-night conduit to music. I still treasure today. It was where I first heard Swans, Lloyd Cole, Jim Thirlwell's Flotus Projects. Fetus. Fetus. British spelling. Okay.

Green on red, et cetera. He has got fond memories and gratitude. So that's from Dr. Gregory Klages. Yeah. Thank you, okay. Green on red, et cetera. He has got fond memories and gratitude. So that's from Dr. Gregory Klages. Yeah, thank you, Gregory. I'm sorry that you didn't have a better signal wherever you were, because one of the great things about the show was if you, you know, and I didn't have the money for this,

but if you had a nice stereo system, oh my God, it sounded amazing, right? We were broadcasting in stereo on this network, on this giant network and uh it sounded terrific if you had it you know what what we called a really expensive receiver and some good speakers um or even headphones um yeah and jim thirwell i i interviewed jim thirwell on the show i interviewed michael giroff swans on the show i got to talk to a lot of these guys you interviewed lloyd cole i got to talk to a lot of these people I interviewed Lloyd Cole. I got to talk to a lot of these people too, which was also kind of cool. And, and, and I remember at one point, I remember, um, reading

a rave review in the New York times of this novel. And I said, we should talk to this guy. And the next week we had him on. And so, so we were able to, we were able to connect to that world. Uh, and, and, uh, you know, I, I learned a lot about interviewing there. I'm sure that I'm sure I did some terrible interviews too. And I apologize for that because we didn't have any resources. I didn't, you know, Did you ever have an interview go south on you? Oh yeah. Very fair. Is there one that sticks out? Like, um, one of the greatest misses. I mean, you, you learn tricks about, about how to, how to handle interviews that don't,

that don't go well. And, and you know, if you haven't learned those tricks, you're really kind of, you're going to get hung out. And, uh, out and uh uh yeah we we did an interview and i'm not gonna say his name because he's no longer with us um but he came on and i think he was quite heavily uh drugged at the time and i didn't i just didn't know what i didn't deal with him or handle him at all you know he i didn't think that he was really present for most of it. But at the end, he said something that made me think that he actually was present through all of it. So I didn't, I don't know. But, you know, that was one.

You know, there's always. Is there anyone that you can name? Like, is there one that you could just name the guest? Maybe they just weren't in a talking mood. I interviewed, like, I love New Order. And I interviewed Peter Hook one time. I didn't think Peter Hook was all that fun to talk to.

I didn't think it made for a very good interview. Sometimes you're a dentist, right? You're pulling teeth. That's no fun. Yeah, there's that. I think sometimes they don't like you and they don't want to have to spend time with you. Why did you agree to have this conversation?

Why are you here? The interviews that, of course, the ones that are always the greatest ones are the ones that you don't have any expectations for. And they turn out to be, they return to be wonderful. And the person's warm and kind and everything, you know. Okay. Do you want to shout out a couple of those before I get back to these notes that people left for you? Some interesting names coming up too. Okay.

So we had the jazz butcher used to be on the show. A lot of you was Pat fish, who was kind of funny, a funny guy. Uh, I, I really liked, I really liked talking to him. We had Laurie Anderson on the program many times,

and she was kind of, she was identified with the, with the aesthetic of the show in a lot of ways, you know? And, and so that was, that was really, that was really great.

D'Amanda Gallus. I just, I just saw someone, and there was a story in the New York times this week about Yoko Ono turning 90. And one of the stories they told was that she came to a Diamanda Gallas show and afterwards Diamanda, who was not afraid of anything, uh, wept when, when she, when she embraced Yoko Ono. And, and I, I remember Diamanda Gallas being one of the people that I asked if I could hug her after the interview I met her I met her in studio and uh she was just so towering and great and so you know there's

there's so many of them and I I don't I I know that after I leave I'll think about it that doesn't this is a long time ago you're gonna leave something for a sequel here yeah I'll come back anytime but this is a long time ago. See you tomorrow. I did that with Rod Black, actually. Rod Black was guest for 800. Not as cool as 1212, but 800.

And we were like, there was so much to cover. We did 90 minutes, so much. And I still, I had so much more I wanted. I said, hey,

can we do it again tomorrow? And he said, sure. We did next day. We did 801 together. So Brother Bill, who was a personality on 102.1 CFY

and his real name, by the way, Neil Morrison. He was also on the air at CFOX in Vancouver. And this is fun for all the listeners for the first time ever because Brother Bill's been on this show many, many times, but always remotely because he lives in White Rock. But Brother Bill is in my calendar for his first ever in-person appearance he's going to be here at the end of may so finally i've actually never met brother bill which is hard to believe because he's a good buddy but brother bill writes when i first started doing overnights at 102.1 i

would listen to brave new waves on my days off for new music to bring it to our airwaves brent and his staff at cbc introduced me to so much. So there's evidence. No, I'm asking, were you listening to CFNY? What's going on there? We now have evidence. CFNY is listening to you guys to hear what they could be bringing

to the airwaves here at 102.1. Oh, that's cool. That's very cool. Yeah, I mean, like I said, the stuff that kind of got pushed our way was so obscure in some ways right and some of it some of it probably didn't warrant being played anywhere else you know but we played it we put it on and uh i'm glad that i'm glad that we were able to help build the show well

here's an artist and a musician that you know and i i he's been over here and i think he's amazing ian blurton ian writes brent and the whole brave new waves crew were incredible to change of heart and helped music communities across canada come closer together that's ian from uh from from uh change of heart i want to take my hat off right now because i think ian is one of the greatest songwriters and producers. And yeah, Change of Heart did a session with Brady New Ways that was just amazing, amazing. So yeah, I love that band and I love that time. You know, the kind of music that they were making

was representative of that time and, you know, in the best possible way. And yeah, so thank you possible way. And yeah. So thank you, Ian. Thank you. There's a band that once I get down the rabbit hole of Change of Heart, I can spend weeks just listening to Change of Heart. And in a lot of these songs you do recognize

like they're, you know, radio hits, whatever at 102.1 or whatever. But then you're like, like this, this band is so great with so many like hook laden, great rocky, like that great 90s can con old scene that we had here in canada and you wonder how is it the change of heart wasn't bigger like it's there's a bunch of bands like that that jumped to mind like i'm still trying to figure out how how's how is how was hootie and the blowfish bigger than rusty right but okay i mean right hootie blowfish

is fine uh darius roger is a great singer but um, you know, but yeah, I don't know how those things work. No, some of it's political. There's so much stuff at play, but yeah. And some of it is chance. But the physicality of Change of Heart's music was the thing. And it was so full of adrenaline for me. And then at the same time, this great craft behind it. Speaking of craft, I'm going to send you home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes

Brewery. Oh, thank you. That's so kind of you. Thank you. Local craft brewery here. You can find them in LCBOs and grocery stores across this fine province. So shout out to Great Lakes Beer. GLB.

GLB. And while I'm giving you stuff here, I'm going to give you a lasagna, a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. Oh, wow. Delicious. You're going to love it. It's in my freezer right now. Daddy's bringing home the lasagna tonight. Lasagna and beer. What more do you want for your visit? Delicious. You're going to let me know when you cook this up.

It's just delicious. And thank you Palma Pasta. They have four locations. Three are in Mississauga. One's in Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home has sent over measuring tape for you, Brent, so measure what you wish. Oh, wait. I thought this is for my box.

Your casket. You got to make sure, yeah, if you pre-order a casket from Ridley, you got to make sure you're going to fit, so that's your measuring tape. Enjoy. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. They've been great supporters of this podcast forever, forever. I already shouted out Canna Cabana, but they will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. You go to cannacabana.com to find a location near you. And one last shout out is to EPRA.

They have a website called recyclemyelectronics.ca. and I'm sure there's people listening right now that have old technology, maybe that's in your basement or piled up, like stuff that doesn't work or is antiquated and obsolete, but you don't want to throw that into the garbage because the chemicals and everything in that technology is very bad. You don't want it to end up in the

landfills, but if you go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, you'll see an EPRA-approved site to drop it off, and they will safely recycle all the parts of that tech, and I want to thank EPRA for doing that. All right, Paul Dearborn writes in, I just heard him. That's you, Brent, not me.

I've never been heard on the radio, although I was a year ago this week. I was on the Jill Show. I just heard him on the radio this morning, and now I see this. It was a tweet from me saying you're coming on. Late night memories of listening to Brave New Waves are flooding back. As a young teen discovering

great new music, there were a few ways to do that. CFNY was one day, sorry, was one way. Prowling through cool record stores was one. And staying up very late to listen to Brave New Waves was another. I definitely, it definitely inspired my

short-lived college radio career. Nice. Nice. I wonder where he was. That's Paul, right? I wonder where the. Paul Dearborn. I wonder where you were on the air, Paul.

Let us know, Paul. Yeah, let us know. What's the name of the station at McGill? It was called Radio McGill, I think, when I used to listen to it. Okay. Is it over, is it, now it has a like terrestrial station? Yes. Okay. Do you know what the call it?

No, I don't. I wouldn't know. So they went terrestrial while I lived there. Like they, I think that they were, they were a closed circuit station for a while. Yeah. And same thing when I was at Dow, when I was, I did my undergraduate at Dalhousie university and CKDU, I think was the name of the Dalhazy's station, but they were only, they were only in-house, you know, but then, then they, they acquired a license later after they'd left Halifax.

Cool. Real Neo, say that five times fast. Real Neo says, can you please ask Brent Bambury if he sent Lou Reed the two packs of Buckingham smokes after their telephone convo. This is regarding Ulrich, what is it? Oh, yeah. Mayes, is that how you say it?

Mayes? I never know how to say that name, but discussing performance of metal machine music. Okay, so I've interviewed Lou Reed twice. Okay. I think twice. And the first time was a television interview for, for midday. And I was terrified because I just thought he was going to,

he was just going to take one look at me and chew me up and spit me out. Right. And he was actually quite sweet. He was actually, he tried to be a little bit kind of hard edged and that he kind of came around. And then the next time I talked to him was when we had a cellist named Ulrich.

And I think it is mice uh last name um on on go which was the sort of comedy performance show that we did and uh alrick had um alrick had had done a transcription for string quartet of lou reed's metal machine music you know and so it was played and this this is that Distortion album, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And honestly, you know, I don't know. I don't know whether it's a real, I'm going to sound like that.

If it's a work or a shoot. Yeah, I don't know what Reed was up to with that record. And I know that probably there's a lot of music heads out there going, no, it's absolutely a work that's a composition. Right, it's art. Yeah, and others, because I actually said to Lou, some people say that this record was just your contract obligation record. Many say that.

For RCA. And I think Lou said, people say a lot of things. I think Lou said something like that. But we did an interview with lou uh for when when all rook was on the show and he immediately said yes he would do it because he respected all rook so much you know okay because a real neo says that this is one of the great uh unresolved cliffhangers of his life is knowing whether you ever sent lou the two packs of buckingham smokes i don't recall probably. Probably didn't. No, I don't

recall doing it. I will say, as a host of a podcast, lots of promises are made on this podcast that never actually happen. Well, I'm going to hold you to the lasagna. That's happening. That's happening, Brent. But, you know, first of all, I wouldn't have wanted to do anything that would have hastened Reed's death.

So, but as far as I know, both he and Laurie Anderson smoked to the end of their lives. I mean, Laurie's still probably out there smoking. I remember Laurie did a, Laurie Anderson did a piece about, she did a test drove the Mazda Miata when it first came out. And one of the things that she said, and I always remember it's because I had a sports car once too.

And she said, she said, what I loved about this car is that you can open the door and you're low enough that you can stub your cigarette out on the pavement. But no, the answer is no. I didn't send Lou any cigarettes. And I guess I must have felt that he didn't really think that he was going to get them. Because I would not have wanted to do anything to cross Lou Reed.

Do you know who was with Lou Reed in the final days of his life when he was dying? Well, probably multiple people, but one person because I had a very long conversation with him about it on this very program, is current Baranega Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn, who was also

in The Look People with James B. Oh, wow. Isn't that a small world story? In fact, it was quite a conversation. Actually, we's quite. We did two parts to this thing, too. But the second part, which was all about Gord Downie, because Kevin Hearn was there with Gord Downie also.

And Kevin spoke about how being there for Lou Reed helped prepare Kevin Hearn for how to be there for Gord Downie. So what was Kevin's connection with Lou? Was it a Buddhist thing? I don't think it was a Buddhist thing. I feel like Kevin was somehow playing with him as a musician and got to know him as a musician playing with him, I think. But yeah, so Kevin Hearn talks awfully and carry a big stick.

That guy's been there for many a great musician in their most vulnerable moments. I think about Lou a lot because I love the records he made at the end of his life and I love the records, of course, that he made with the Velvets and the first solo records I really, really enjoyed as well. But then, you know, there's the records that people didn't like very much, like New Sensations and stuff, and I like those records too so you know

I I do think that that he was I mean look it doesn't matter but he's Lou Reed so but I always thought that there was there was a lot of brilliance there and then his his his persona was so irascible and so incredible that you know, this, this character that he created, that he, that he embodied, um, you know. Amazing. Yeah. Now, David Ryder, who was my guest, uh, so he was a head of the team at the Toronto Star that broke the story about, uh, John Tory having an

inappropriate relationship with a city hall staffer. Yeah. This was big news. Yeah. Well done. Well done. That story breaks on the Friday.

Yeah. About an hour before John Tory announces he's going to resign. And then the very next morning, David Ryder came on Toronto Mike, so I could pepper him of all the questions we have. Like, when did you find out? When did John Tory know you were working on it?

All these things. This note comes from that very David Ryder. He says, hey, Mike, suggested questions for me. He goes, when I moved to brandon manitoba from toronto for my first job i was horrified to realize the college radio station didn't broadcast beyond campus so that would be the closed circuit thing we were talking about earlier earlier with no cfny or ckln to listen to staying up late to hear brave new waves was my pre-internet lifeline to new music from bands like Voivod.

Yes. Shout out to Ben Rayner. Loves his Voivod. Yeah, yeah. Voivod, Flesh for Lulu. Flesh for Lulu. Or Swans. Yeah. Did you realize at the time how much of a vital service you were providing for people

in smaller centers or only after the show ended? Also, how sleepy a lot of people were at work because of you um i did know because we got you know you heard you heard augusta from the very first program saying send us mail and we got what we called snail mail uh and i i don't think the term snail mail no no no it would be mail it was just mail we got lots of mail from lots of people all over all over North America because the signal leaked into the northern United States too. We had lots of listeners in Michigan.

And for a while, we were actually heard in Philadelphia through a deal with NPR. So we were broadcast on WXPN in Philadelphia for a long time. Because the idea was that you were going to get a U.S. syndication deal from NPR. And I guess that never happened. I honestly don't know i just know that there was a special deal that we did with with the with xpn and um i understood though i want to hear if it's true that it was the deal that the reason that you didn't work out was you guys weren't censoring objectionable lyrics that's true you can't do that in the united states you can get sued and

lose your license and everything if you say the F-bomb, right? Or something much milder than that. But I just want to say, it's really interesting to me that David Ryder was into such heavy music as Swans, Voidwild, and Flash for Lulu.

I don't know what I thought he would listen to. His favorite band of all time. Here's a real fun story. So I actually am friends with uh david rider's uh brother-in-law so when david rider who made his by the way he's the last in-person guest before the pandemic hit in march 2020 because i had to move it off out of the basement for a while as you might remember doors right i did get it outdoors but it took a little

before i got i had to move it remote and then i moved it outdoors because i hate i hate the remotes. You're here in my basement now. We're connecting. There's an energy palpable. I can feel it. I can feel his energy. We do this on Zoom and a month later, I'm like, did I ever have Brent Bambury on the show?

It's literally like that. But okay. So David Ryder, last guest, it was actually the Friday the 13th of March 2020. He's here. I said to Chris Brown, his brother-in-law, and I said, uh, Hey, Chris, what's his favorite music? I'm going to play it for him. He goes, yeah, he loves the Beastie Boys. So I had some Beastie Boys loaded up. Okay. But this is Friday the 13th of 2020. So there's lots of news about how we might be all sent into isolation. I said, you know, you might have to go into isolation. And this was the big talk. I didn't even shake his hand because I'm like,

I don't know what the rules are anymore. So I decide I'm going to play Joy Division's Isolation. I play that just because we're about to go into isolation, but I have Beastie Boys loaded up because Chris Brown has told me that's David Ryder's favorite band of all time. I play Isolation from Joy Division. He looks at me, David Ryder, and he's like, how did you know that's my favorite band of all time? Joy Division, not Beastie Boys.

He shows me his phone. The desktop, the screensaver thing on his phone is joy division he says that's his favorite band of all time so just complete coincidence i ended up playing his favorite song even though joy division is not beastie boys there you go so i that's a that's that that happened on uh friday the 13th i'm just two things first of all I'm imagining that he calls John Tory's office and says, we have the story. We're going to run with it. Could you please ask the mayor if

he'd like to make a statement before we publish? Yes, that did happen, yes. And they say to him, we'll get back to you. Well, you know, it was actually more specific questions. It was like, here are specific questions for John Tory. And it went through his lawyers, like John Tory's lawyers, I should say. But they were But it started eight days out with more of a generic, like

do you have any comment on this allegation or whatever? And then the next day before, like the Thursday, so it drops on the Friday night, but the Thursday the questions from the Toronto Star to John Tory's lawyer were very specific questions. A series of specific questions.

And we all know what John did next, which was basically the press conference on the Friday night. Right, right. But, but I'm imagining that David's, David Ryder said, so,

so will you get back to me? And they say, yes, we'll get back to you. And he says, you better. I listened to Voivod. But,

but it is amazing that the Toronto Star took on the last two mayors of Toronto and, and sort of ended their mayoralty in each case, right? I mean, it's kind of the power of, of, of journalism is in the city is, is really strong. And there's lots of things that people complain about, about Toronto.

And there's lots of things that don't work. Right. But, but this is something that we should be proud of. And David Ryder and his team did amazing work. Absolutely. One last, uh, wait, wait, I have one more thing. Yeah. I want to talk about Joy Division. Oh, Joy Division. Absolutely. One last Wait, wait, I have one more thing. Yeah, please, go ahead. I want to talk about Joy Division. Oh, Joy Division, yes. Joy Division and... You were talking about Peter Hook earlier. I talked about Peter Hook earlier, and

of course, you know, Peter Hook and New Order split. They parted ways now. But I was in Cincinnati. Wait, where's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Cleveland. Cleveland. I was in Cleveland. Cleveland Rocks. Ian Hunter, I think. And I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Cleveland. Cleveland. I was in Cleveland. Cleveland Rocks. Ian Hunter, I think.

And I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it wasn't, it didn't seem like it was going to be my thing. You know? Right. And I went in and there was some like costumes that David Bowie wore and I thought, oh, cool, good. You know? And there was some ticket stubs, you know,

and for bands that I respected and stuff. I didn't, I wasn't feeling emotional or anything like that, right? And then I walked into a room and there was a piece of paper in a lucite cube and i went over there and it was a piece of foolscap paper like line paper and on ballpoint ink written on that paper was where the words to love will tear us apart and ian curtis's handwriting right and i just stood there and shook like honestly it felt it just felt being in the room with that icon you

know and that and that that little piece of of of history was just really really extremely uh moving to me and and and it and it again it's the connection with the music and i and i felt that connection to that piece of music and i guess to to ian's life and struggle too and and and uh I guess to Ian's life and struggle too. And, you know, the whole story there. Well, you know, the Garys had Joy Division booked for The Edge. Like that was booked. There's tickets, tickets were sold.

Yeah, it's crazy. Obviously a tour that never happened because Ian took his own life, I think on the eve of that departure. That's right, just as they were about to leave. Yeah, what a, wow, wow. All right. So Brian K, I want to shout out because Brian K wrote in that he listened to you every night and he loved Brave New Waves. But there's a million people who love Brave New Waves, but I'm sure you've heard all that.

But I want to ask you about a couple of names of people who have been over that have connections to Brave New Waves. Sure. Jim Shedden. Do you know the name Jim Shedden? I do, but you have to refresh. Okay. So right now, Jim Shedden. Do you know the name Jim Shedden? I do, but you have to refresh. Okay, so right now, Jim Shedden now works at the Art Gallery of Ontario

curating content. I should know more, except that Jim Shedden had an involvement in Brave New Waves, but it could have very well been after you left. You departed in 95? Yes. Okay.

Well, here's a gentleman I believe overlaps with you, but you'll let me know in a second. You overlap with Michael Barclay? Michael was there a little later. Little later, okay. Michael wrote about Brave New Ways and Nightlines in his book, I think it's called Have Not Been the Same? Yep.

I thought wrote really well about what it meant for Canadian music at the time. Michael continues to be, actually, I don't think I've ever met Michael, but he continues to feed me through his social media feeds information about stuff that's happening.

And he's connected to the world that Brave New Waves represents, represented in a contemporary way. So I have a lot of respect for Michael. He wrote a sequel to that book, Hearts of Fire. Yes. But he skipped five years and then he did a decade. So it's like 2005 to 2015.

Anyway, it's great too. All these books, Michael Barclay's books are all great. Yeah, and I've heard great things about Hearts of Fire as well. Let's listen to a little bit, so we heard the very first episode of Brave New Waves, but let's just a little random clip here. I won't play it all, but it'll just give

us a taste and then I'll bring it down. This is actually from 1987. That petrol emotion from Derry, Ireland and Spin Cycle from the LP Babble, which is brand new from that Petrol Emotion. Good album, too. It's produced by Roley Moseman of the Swans, and Petrol Emotion are politically correct post-

punkers, members of the Undertones formally, and they claim they still retain a lot of the indie spirit which guided them after being a top-ten punk band in the undertones before that we heard echo and the bunny men from liverpool and lips like sugar promising cut from the upcoming lp called echo and the bunny men hasn't been released yet and you'll know it when it is released because it will be played everywhere you won't get you'll be able

to get more than enough of echo and the bunny man when that lp comes out i promise you in fact you probably it'll be so popular we won't play it anymore in this program. Have you noticed that? Something gets too popular, we just don't play it here? It's sort of this policy we have. Like, all of us on this program listen to Prince. I mean, I hate to tell you this, I have to break it to you now. We all listen to Prince,

but it's CBC policy never to admit that you listen to Prince. I know, it's a crazy policy, isn't it? But I mean, this is what we work under. Our bosses are in Toronto. We're here. We just sort of get the guidelines, hand it down the pipe. And if you don't like it, you can take a taxi to Toronto

and talk to our bosses, ask for Keith Duncan, and tell them that you want to talk about Prince. Okay, tomorrow night on Brave New Ways, we are profiling X from Los Angeles, who have a new LP out. Tonight, we're going to be listening to the music of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. There we go. A little bit of 1987. Oh my gosh, what was I on that night?

I loved it. To me, it's just like your buddy talking to you about music and spinning some jams for you. But it's true. We never played Prince on Brave New Ways and we all love Prince and we I don't know if it's true that we wouldn't I mean, I think, I do believe we played Lips like Sugar many, many times after that time

but I'm amazed that that would have been the first time that it had been played probably. We just got the single probably was one of the first times to me that's a classic song now but that was when it was brand new. So, yeah. So you mentioned a couple of times

you leave Brave New Waves, I almost call it Brave New World, Brave New Waves in 1995. And that's to go and do Midday? Right. It was a real 180 turn for me because I went from, you know, the alternative overnight show

to like the noon hour mainstream kind of show. But to me, it made sense because, as I said to you, I always loved CBC. And I liked the eclecticism of CBC. And I felt that Midday had that aspect to to it and it still had a little bit of an edge because because ralph had been there and um you know and and so i and then and i was spent five years on television every day and and it was it was definitely an odd time for me you know i was i was still pretty young uh i didn't i really didn't have a lot of tv experience but now i was doing doing a television program every day

that ended up going live. It wasn't live at the beginning. And it was definitely fun. And it was also my introduction to Toronto. I never lived here. So I was 35, I moved to Toronto, and that was the beginning of my Toronto years. Right.

And I really loved it. I was, I was pretty happy in those days and it seemed like a pretty good gig. So, so yeah, but it, it, a lot of people thought it was odd that I would leave the alternative show for something that was so mainstream. Right. Well, and then it's 2000 when a midday ends its run. And as you mentioned, that's when you leave the CBC for a bit. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I got cast out into the wilderness for a while. They couldn't find something else for Brent Bambury to do.

Well, I think it was up to me, you know, to find something. And I don't really think that, I never really felt that I've been, I was never somebody's project, you know, like I, I kind of charted my own course. I didn't really, I didn't really feel that I had ends with management or anything like that. Um, you know, and, and, uh, um, and I, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I'd been, I'd been, I'd been doing TV. I'd done radio for a long time. I didn't feel like I would necessarily wanted to go back to, um, you know, I was older to, to,

so to go back to something that felt like youth music, I felt like it would be a little bit of a fraudulent thing to do at that age. After five years of, of TV, I would have been 40. Um, you know, and so, so I didn't think that I wanted to pursue that, even though I was still kind of connected to it. And so I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I ended up doing a little bit more TV with life. Flick. Yes, that's right. I did the program Flick.

And with the right font, it looks like fuck. Flick, okay. So that was your Life Network movie reviewing reviewing i'm sure that was unintentional you edgy life network people i have one word to describe this movie just look at the title of our program um uh yeah and i did that for a while and and then that ended and uh uh you know and a daily program came up in ottawa and I really felt that doing a daily current affairs show in Ottawa was going to be interesting. And I wanted a change in scene.

But just as I was getting ready to do that, I met up with these two guys, David Carroll and Kai Black, these two producers from CBC. And they said, we want to do a game show. And so we did a game show on on on for the radio uh for the as a summer project and it was called um it was called uh um off the cuff and it was a strange kind of amorphous rule-less game show but you know bob ray was on it and uh um and we just had a bunch of different people come on

and they were playing these kind of games that were sort of made up on on the fly um and it ended up being really fun and it was kind of a comedy show because anything could happen um and and uh and and we did it before a live audience and it was just a different kind of vibe. Um, and that ended up continuing for a while. And then we did another game show called groove shinny, which was a musical game show. And I loved doing groove shinny. Um, and, and, uh, that, that was, that ended up being quite popular and all of this ended up kind of coalescing into, into go, which was a Saturday morning program, which we eventually did live again in front of a live audience, um, comedy

based, but also, you know, there used to be a television show called, um, um, it wasn't to tell the truth. Um, but, but you know, where, where they would bring people on and then they would surprise people with truth or consequences, right? And so it was kind of like truth or consequences in that we would play these elaborate games that we created. It was an indescribable show, as you can tell. I'm not able to really kind of distill what it was,

and it lasted for a long time. Yeah. And it kind of worked in on on saturday morning but it it really wasn't something that could be exported and at the end of the run of that show i remember that the the head of cbc programming at the time said you know i can't sell this to somebody i can't at the time we were we're big on exporting programs through prx to american market or you know podcasts or whatever it It was getting to that, that phase, but no one, you couldn't even describe what it was. And, and, and I remember, uh, what a line that was written by either David or Kai at one point, which, uh, which,

which was something like, is it a game show? Is it a talk show? Nobody knows. And it was true. We didn't know ourselves. Um, so, so it was experimental and it did, um did put me into a live situation. You had to be fast. I had to script stuff as well. I wrote scripts. I wrote a lot of comedy stuff. I wrote jokes. Tried to understand the rhythm of comedy and how it worked and stuff.

And it's definitely, it was definitely, it speaks to the eclecticism of the stuff that I've done. It's probably the reason, I mean, the kind of weirdly eclectic career that I've had so far probably speaks to, you know, I mean, I would, it just, it is not, it is not the career path of someone who knows what they want to do, right? It's the career path of a dilettante. And that, I guess that I've embraced that. And that's's kind of that's kind of maybe been the secret to to why i've had some longevity but i wouldn't recommend it to anybody you know like i wouldn't say oh yeah follow my path right it doesn't make any sense right it wasn't boring and i've never really

i've never been in a situation where and i know other people who have where you go into a studio and you think oh my god this show's a pile of crap right i've never felt that i've never been in a situation where, and I know other people who have, where you go into a studio and you think, oh my God, this show's a pile of crap, right? I've never felt that. I've never felt that, you know? And when I was doing the Daily Show in Ottawa, which was a drive show, it was the drive radio show in Ottawa.

All in a day. All in a day. Every day we went in there, I thought this is a really good show that we're about to do. And I always felt proud about that. And of course, sometimes you do a show and you think, wow, that really sucked

because it didn't work out. Oh, sure. It can fall flat. Sure. It can fall flat. But I never went in there thinking that. I always went in there thinking, oh, we're going to do something really good. And so that's been great.

And it continues to be the thing that makes me happy. Okay. So let's get you to current day here. So basically, Go gets you back to Toronto, right? Yeah. Because you leave Ottawa, come back to Toronto here because you're doing Go. And then post-Go,

how do we get you to day six? What's between Go and day six? So there wasn't really anything between Go and day six. So day six continues in Go's slot on Saturday morning. Right. And Saturday morning is a great time for, for CBC radio. We have a huge, you know, relatively large pool of listeners at the time. Um, and so I've sat there now I've been in that, that, that slot for, for many, many years. Um, I can't remember when go first one on the air, so I can't tell you when,

when go first one on the air so i can't tell you when um but but uh um and so so when 2002 2002 so yeah so 20 i've been in that slot for over 20 years which is crazy it went like that like it really did um but but uh um but yeah when when when we realized so one thing about go is is that when we talked about ralph ben murphy's show earlier, and I was saying, you need writers, right? And so we were, this was not even a program that had a format that was the same every week. Like we were reinventing the show every freaking week. And it was a lot to ask of the two or three people that wrote the show. So at the end of it, we were all tired and done, you know?

And the head of radio programming at the time said, so I think probably we should end it. As he said, he couldn't sell it to anyone. He couldn't get other people, other markets into it because he couldn't even describe it. So I worked with a bunch of really talented people on a pilot for what I would like to do in its place. And I tried to imagine something

that was a little bit more kind of user friendly. Um, and, and that's how we came up with day six. And, you know, I,

we had a really great team, um, that, that we, we did two pilots and both of them, I think were really pretty good pilots. And then the show went to air and my team was so great that the, it was really,

it sounded terrific from the beginning. And, uh, uh, the team's changed a lot because it's been on the air now for over 10 years. But, but so, but, but the, but you know, it's, it's, it's, it's heard on, on PRX stations. They were able to sell it, you know, and and it, it's continued to do really well. But as I said, radio audiences, the numbers are, you know, after the pandemic people's people's days have changed. They don't take public transit anymore. They don't, you know,

they, they, they don't go to the office, they don't come home in cars or they don't, um, you know, and, and so we're in a, we're at a crossroads right now in terms of, of audiences for terrestrial radio. And so we, we, I don't know what the next five years are going to be like, you know? Um, but, but I, I,

I'm, and I, I don't know, uh, I don't know what the future of radio is going to be like. But do you ever want to retire or no? Um,

you know, it's funny. I, I, I don't, I don't see that. Like I, when I took a year off,

I thought, well, let's see how, how this feels. And as I said to you, I was so glad to be back. Right. I, I really liked being being back uh on re-energized i'm re-energizing and i like doing the show and i like being connected to you know the question of what what it is what's happening today and what does it mean you know and and uh so so all of those things

continue to stimulate me um and i like radio i like like being on the radio, but, but I don't know what, I don't know what the future for years now, for like for decades, they've been saying, okay, terrestrial radio is doomed. It's not going to last, you know, and, and, and yet there's, there's quite a, I think there's quite a lot of evidence that we're not there yet, but we could, I think we could be one of the things about the pandemic and the way that things change so quickly and people's lives change so quickly is that I think we could be there sooner rather than later but maybe not you know maybe things will change in another way that we can't anticipate i don't know here's a little clip just to hear uh this is the late great norm mcdonald and he's on day six with some guy named brent bambury norm mcdonald

he's anchored snl's Weekend Update. He's roasted Bill Clinton and Bob Saget and nobody, nobody can mumble their way through a lame joke like Norm can. Check him out at last year's Comedy Central roast of his friend and comedian Bob Saget. Norm MacDonald at the Bob Saget

roast. The Canadian comedian stops by Richmond, B.C. tonight for a stand-up set, so Day 6 thought we'd say hello. Hey, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you? Excellent. I'm great. You're doing stand-up tonight in Richmond, B.C. If you bomb, will your fans riot?

Yeah, they'll all riot, except two of them will start kissing each other. Hockey's, obviously, it's been a really crazy summer for hockey, and earlier this week Sidney Crosby announced that he's recovering from his concussion, but we have no idea when he's going to play again. Have you been following the Sidney Crosby story at all? Yeah, it's pretty depressing. I mean, obviously there's been a lot of concussive stories, which is bizarre that it just came out of nowhere like that because hockey when I was a kid was way rougher.

Did you ever take a hit on the ice? Oh, yeah, yeah. Because when we were kids, like, because I'm real old, 47, so when I was a kid, the Philadelphia Flyers were crazy, you know. Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, I met Dave the Hammer Schultz when I was a little boy outside of Montreal Forum, and I went out behind there, and there was the bus, it was like Slapshot, you know.

Right. And he had a big fur coat on and stuff and i went over to shelty and i wanted a uh autograph you know and a hammer he just looked at me and he threw a cigarette at me you didn't get an autograph at all no i didn't i was real sad as a kid and then later on and I was happy because it was much funner that he threw a cigarette at me. Listen, I could listen to this whole thing, man, but it's a little taste of day six. What an amazing storyteller.

And timing. Just brilliant, brilliant. You know, this is not my observation, but the thing about Norm that was so great was that it didn't really seem like he gave a F-U-C.

Yeah. Well, you can swear on the show. This isn't the CBC. It didn't seem like he didn't play by anybody else's rules but his own. And I love that about him. So great. So is there a particular guest you've had

on any of your programs, really? Like that you were almost speechless because i can't believe i'm talking to this person yeah patty smith yeah i love patty smith and uh yeah i mean kind of like shaking with just shaking with appreciation for being close to her you know and she also an in-person interview no that was a phone call and during the phone call the the line dropped like we were having this conversation the line dropped and and i and i was like what are we gonna do what are we gonna do and then the phone rang it was her she called us back right yeah and i don't even remember what we talked about it wasn't that long

ago that was that this was on day six yeah um you know but um when um, uh, when Joe Weider died, the Canadian weightlifting, um, uh, guru, right. When Joe Weider died, we called Arnold Schwarzenegger's office and said, would, would, uh, would the governor talk to us? And, uh, they said, they said just a second. And they said, yeah, when do you want to talk? You know? So, so he came on and talked about Joe Weider and it's, it's just one of those things where

it was something that was, he was passionate about, probably nobody else asked him and, and he wanted to say what Joe Weider meant to him. And, and, uh, uh, and he was great. He told funny stories and, you know, and, and I'm, it's, I was, you know, it's hard not to be starstruck by that, you know? Uh, and I, and I, when I was on flick, I interviewed a lot of movie stars, right. But, but, uh, um, but usually on, on those circumstances are that you were interviewing them about a project, and whether it's a good movie or a bad movie, you have to talk to them like you're enthusiastic about it. But here was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He wanted to talk about something that mattered to him in his life, and that was great. And that's that connection, right? That's when you think, oh, this is going to be amazing because it's touching somebody, you know? And so it was great. And that's that connection, right? That's when you think, oh, this is going to be amazing because it's touching somebody, you know? And so it's great. And I can only imagine that just CBC would open some doors. Like, Toronto Mike on the line, Mr. Schwarzenegger,

do you want to talk? And he's like, you know, like, who's this guy or whatever. I don't know if that's true. Like, I think if you find the thing that they're passionate about and you can get that message to them, you know? So we i still we we try it and we don't we don't get anywhere when you know when um uh let me see if i can remember this was just like two weeks ago so let me see if i can figure put it together but uh when um when when um okay so i wanted to talk to elvis costello about burt baccarat when burt baccarat died yes you know but we couldn't get them and i i was sure that elvis would talk to us if we could

get the message to him you know and i don't think it would i don't think it was because we're cbc i think it's because he cared so deeply about burt baccarach. And that didn't come through. And, you know, when you're doing a show, as you know, lots of stuff doesn't work out. For everything you hear that makes it to air, there's four or five story ideas that didn't get that far. And some of them get pursued quite far.

But we weren't able to get Elvis and I was just really disappointed. I thought it would have been great. But were you able to get to Elvis? Because it's the gatekeepers that, especially when you get to a status of Elvis Costello. Like, I was just really disappointed. I thought it would have been great. But were you able to get to Elvis? Because it's the gatekeepers that, especially when you get to a status of Elvis Costello. Like I was able, so Chuck D,

I did an in-person with Chuck D, which was like my Patti Smith. Chuck D, oh my goodness. But I was able to get directly to Chuck. Like I didn't have to go through gatekeepers. I was able to directly connect to Chuck, told him what I was about, what I wanted to do. And he said, okay, let's do it. I got to Chuck.

If you had got to Elvis, he probably would have said, yeah, I'll do it. I think he would have, but I don't think it's because we're in CBC. I think it's because it was something that I know that he was passionate about. And I think it would have been great. I just think it would have been great to hear him talk about it.

But just another story. When I lived i lived in when i lived in ottawa it was the last years that the radio stations were in the chateau laurier so we we had a we had a studio up under the the copper eaves with gargoyles outside of it right and and it was amazing going to work every day because i went to work in a frigging castle. And I lived downtown in Ottawa, which at the time was not something that people did. More people live in downtown now than when I lived there 20 years ago.

So I'd walk to work in a snowstorm and then suddenly this castle would come out of the, loom up out of the snow. And there were these guys that worked at the front door that Fairmount hired in these giant fur hats. And they'd open the door for me and say, good morning, Mr.

Bamberie. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was, that was the, how my days began.

But the great thing about being there was that if anybody was playing at the art center, they were staying there generally because right across the street. Right. So you could get on the, on the elevator and Elvis Costello would be standing there. Right. Which that didn't

happen to me that happened to my my buddy pierre millet but so every day there was this possibility that something cool was gonna happen remember he did marry a canadian he did we have a we have a connection here dana crawl yeah absolutely so so brent this has been amazing for me awesome i don't want you to be like on your way home thinking oh oh, I wanted to say this or I wanted to share this story. So this is just your opportunity before lowest of the low play us out here. Is there anything you don't want to live to regret? I didn't tell this. Oh, I was on Toronto Mike, then I forgot to mention that.

Anything at all that you drain there? The only thing that I want to say is just that, you know, just talking about the the the decades of work that i've been doing there's so many people were so kind to me and uh you know and and uh and and many of them were people that i worked directly with and many of them are people that just were good to me along the way and uh and and and the people who want to talk about brave new waves remain the people who who make me think brave new waves remain the people who, who make me think that there was an effect to the stuff that,

that, that I did, you know, that, right. Cause, cause this feels, you know,

you do these things and they're gone, right. You create content and it's gone. Right. And, and yeah. And, and,

and so I do radio. So of the moment, yes. Like I got to know yesterday. Oh, I just heard Molly Johnson on your show. Like it was happening. It's like, that's sort of a different phenomenon than radio Like I got to know yesterday, oh, I just heard Molly Johnson on your show. Like it was happening. It's like,

that's sort of a different phenomenon than radio, which is, you know, as it happens and then it's in the abyss. And then, and,

and, and I really do appreciate that people want to tell me that it mattered to them. It's like, it's like me standing in front of Ian Curtis's words, you know,

I don't want to compare myself to Ian Curtis, but, but I, but it's, it's the experience. It's the connection that they have with the music or or whatever was the experience that we put on that night uh and where they were in their lives uh and and the fact that they want to tell me about that that they want to bring that back and say that it meant something to them means a lot

to me and so the people that reached out to you through your, through your program today and you reaching out to me, um, is just, is just a great, it's, it's a, it's a lovely part of, of, of doing this kind of work. So that's, that's all. Well, from Ian Curtis to Ian Blurden, there you go. A lot of great, a lot of people loved what you brought to them. Uh, you know, that intimacy of radio, I grew up loving radio. And I remember having my blue transistor radio, you know, under my pillow. And if I wasn't listening to, you know, Tom and Jerry bringing me Blue Jays games, you know, I was just surfing the dial. And I still remember, oh, my God, this station's in Cleveland. Like, it felt like magic that I was pulling down the signal from Cleveland. Yeah, we get Boston and the East Coast.

Still a mind blow to me. Always loved radio and I loved this conversation, Brent. You got to come back. Congrats again on parenthood. Thank you. You're going to have a blast. Thank you.

Thanks, thanks. And that brings us to the end of our 1,212th show. 12-12. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. I love Brent's Twitter handle because it's not Rex Murphy.

Not Rex Murphy. I think a couple of people are like, oh, Rex Murphy's coming on. No, it's not. Not Rex Murphy. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. I'm going to get you a lasagna right now. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. Listen to Brad Jones' excellent podcast, Life's Undertaking. I get to co-host that. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow.

And I don't know what the future can hold or will do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't speed a day And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is

Rosie and Gray Well, I've been told That there's a sucker Born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of gray

Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? I'm picking up trash and then putting down roads And they're broken in stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am

But who gives a damn Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and great.

Well, I've kissed you in France, and I've kissed you in Spain. And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything

is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy, yeah. Everything is rosy now Everything is rosy and Everything is rosy and gray