Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Brian Master: Toronto Mike'd #489

Episode Date: July 18, 2019

Mike chats with radio vet Brian Master about his fifty years in radio.

Welcome to episode 489 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is radio veteran Brian Master. All the way from Mimico. Yeah, all the way over. Now, you know your real estate,

so you know exactly when Mimico turns into New Toronto. Yes, I do. Tell me. It's just a little west of here. Dwight, right? Dwight is the... Dwight, which is kind of... I can't remember the street.

Yeah, Dwight. Okay, just checking. I always check with my guests. Do they think they're in Mimico right now? Where's Long Branch start? 23rd? Very good. Oh, I got that, eh?

It's my job to know these things. I should be in real estate. But no, thanks for coming. You might get the award for shortest distance to come here. But I think you'd be tied because, do you know Biff Naked? I know the name. I don't know who that is. Biff Naked.

Oh, it's a singer, isn't it? Singer, yeah. She's a singer. And she's living at like Park Lawn in Lakeshore. Oh, a neighbor. Yeah, in the hood. And I think, I believe, Hazel May. Do you know Hazel May?

Yes, I do. I don't know her. I love watching her on TV, but I understand. Now, my wife goes to a gym where somebody from Sportsnet also goes, and they all live west of Park Lawn. Yeah, that's right. Like, right. Yeah.

Just, I guess, just east of the, no, sorry, just west of the Humber Bay Bridge or am I getting, yeah, kind of like, yeah, they just, what just went up there? A Scatterbush, right? There's a new Scatterbush. I'm trying to think of a bike that, yeah. Like, you know, Eden Trattoria? Yeah. I'm trying to think of a bike that, yeah.

Like, you know, Eden Trattoria? Yeah. So like, I just, I guess to compete with Eden, poor Eden Trattoria, Scatterbush came in like in that strip. Really? Yeah. We ate at a Scatterbush over by Sherway a few weeks ago. Yes. There's one at Sherway too.

Right, right, right. Well, Hazel May. I mean, she's, she's fantastic. And so is her husband, Kevin. I love, I could listen to Kevin Barker all the time. Is it that drawl he's got? No, it's his enthusiasm and that southern drawl, the ambition, and his knowledge. I remember a couple of weeks ago, he was talking about, you know, these guys get in the batter's box to click their shoes, check the Velcro.

And he said, just stand there and hit the ball. We wish. It's funny that we're talking about Hazel only because my guest yesterday was Barry Davis. Do you remember Barry? Barry Davis during the, yeah, he, so if you were watching during those, you know, I call them the good old days,

you know, 2015, 2016, you had Hazel and you had Barry, kind of the two on field kind of i remember barry davis i remember him getting doused in a in a locker room after a playoff game that's barry yeah where'd he go well they didn't have room for him anymore on the telecast so uh yeah he's uh media management and i i mean just yesterday barry said they offered him something else and he decided to part ways so i don't know what they offered him uh maybe they offered him a role in like the shopping channel or something i don't know but uh he he didn't tell us what his offer was but he

yeah he's no longer with uh sports net too bad he was really good he was really good but at least he doesn't have to watch this uh terrible team i mean, you know, the team is not quite what it was back in the... What's the team? No, I'm kidding. Oh, man. So, yeah, all the way from Mimico. I should tell you how you came to be on the show because I think it's a neat little story. Oh, yeah?

I got a lovely note. I actually went to my email. I use Gmail and I don't delete an email. So I went to search for this email and I could not find it, which tells me maybe it wasn't an email. Like maybe it was a Twitter DM or maybe it was like an Instagram personal message,

but some digital, maybe it was through torontomic.com. Somehow I got a message from a fan of yours who loves you on The Jewel. The Jewel, right? Not just Jewel, but The Jewel. Jewel 88.5. Jewel Radio.

Yeah, they kind of dropped the The. Okay. Jewel Radio will suffice. I once called The Tragically Hip. I put a small lowercase t on The Tragically Hip, and I got a little spanking for that. So I'm trying to be very like precise with my uh thus so further to that it's eagles not the eagles but i asked gordep of the

spoons once like is it spoons or the spoons and he said he just didn't care just call us like like those record company execs that said uh here's the pink floyd oh that that did not stick no okay so you heard from this person. This person, and I wish I could give credit to this person, but they wrote me this lovely email or DM or Instagram message, or was it smoke signals maybe? I don't know. The crux of the note was,

please have Brian Master on from The Jewel. Please have him on Toronto Mike. Like this was the gist of the note. And I was so touched by this email. I think I wrote you like 30 seconds after I replied. I just said, okay. And here you are. And here I am.

Yeah. I'm thrilled to be here. I've heard so much about you, but in all honesty, once I knew I was going to be on, I didn't listen to any of your podcasts. You want to be surprised? Yeah. I like spontaneity. I know you didn't listen because you were surprised when you saw the Great Lakes beer.

Before we pressed record, you saw the six pack of Great Lakes beer. And straight up, you told me, is it your favorite beer or one of your favorite beers? I'd say one of my two favorites, the Canuck. And now that I know the Canuck, I feel like I might go back and get you. My wife's favorite beer

is the Blonde, and I actually have none in supply right now. I've got some Blonde Lager at home. I should have brought it over. That's the best deal. What is that, like $2.90 a can or something? Something like that, $2.75, $2.90. It's such a funky place, Great Lakes Brewery. They have that food truck going on through the summer.

Actually, I think it's permanent now. Like, I don't know which day they open it, like Thursday, Friday, Saturday. But I think that food truck is more than just the summer now. Oh, good. Because they parked it parallel to the building rather than perpendicular now. It's good. You ever tried it? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I actually, it's all ties in nicely. I've definitely tried it. And I'm there a lot. Like, so I host, I'm there. You don't have a problem, do you, Mike?

I don't have a problem at all. Actually, I definitely don't, which is surprising because I'm surrounded by Great Lakes all the time. I literally poured Great Lakes beer for customers

at the Rib Fest in Centennial Park like two weekends ago, okay? That's how close I am to this beer. Wow. But they host my events, so I have these

Toronto Mike listener experiences. Here, I'll put that guy outside. Nice. And I'm there quite a bit and they're proud sponsors of this program so when you saw the six-pack and you told me how much you love it I told you you're taking that home with you and you were legit surprised that's clue number one you don't listen so every guest gets a six-pack and Brian this is for you man you're taking this home with you well thank you very much that's awfully that's awfully kind of you and uh looking forward to trying some of these other samples in here like the sunny side yeah the session ipa ipa that's a good one some of these i haven't tried so here you got two of these they look similar but they're different here let me labels are fun aren't they yeah for sure so this is the humumber Hell's Lager.

Hope it's not a swill. The Lula's Kentucky Common. They're very similar coloring, but they're different. What's that, Lula's Kentucky Common? So those two are brand new, and I have no idea what they taste like because I haven't tried it yet. You know the one I like? I was in there the other day, and I had some rosy. It's this raspberry.

It's too good to be true. It's amazing. Raspberry lager or ale? I'm not sure. I don't know. It was fantastic though, but it's, go in and get yourself some,

just ask for some rosy here. So, okay, the great, that's your Great Lakes beer. Thank you. StickerU.com, they're in Liberty Village

and they're a fantastic company. If you go to StickerU.com and upload your image, you can get things like temporary tattoos, buttons, stickers, decals, all these wall decals are from can get things like temporary tattoos, buttons, stickers, decals. All these wall decals are from sticker you for you,

Brian. I got an assortment here. You got a, you got a temporary tattoo. That's the Toronto Mike logo. So you can wear that. And you got a sticker Toronto Mike sticker for your, your car.

I like this. Yeah. And a Toronto artwork. And okay. That's from Capadia that it's called a pop socket. You put it on the back of your car. I like this. Yeah. And a Toronto artwork. And okay. That's from Capadia that it's called a pop socket. You put it on the back of your phone and then when you're watching the screen, it holds it up. So that's courtesy of Capadia.

Thank you for that. And a sticker you sticker. Yeah. Just so you know where to go when you need your, your Brian stickers. These are great. Enjoy that. Lots of gifts.

And since I'm doing all the gifts up off the top here, this is actually an empty box, but I have in the freezer, I do have a large lasagna for you from Palma Pasta. Oh, yum. Palma Pasta. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. You can go and look at this. He's a showman.

I love it. You go to palmapasta.com to find out where they are in Mississauga and Oakville. I recommend Palma's Kitchen, which is near Burnhamthorpe and Mavis because they got the 10,000 square feet of retail space. They have the hot table. You can get yourself a nice cappuccino, slice a pizza,

go there for lunch, take home. It's everything, best Italian food in the GTA. Thank you, Palma Pasta. Burnhamthorpe and where? Like Burnhamthorpe and Mavis. I forget.

Wow. You got to go to palmapasta.com to find out exactly where, but Seminac Court, I want to say. Wow. You got to go to palmapasta.com to find out exactly where. But Seminac Court, I want to say, there's a street really close to Mavis and Burnhamthorpe,

which I can never remember the name, but I can bike to it. While we're in the gift-giving mode, I brought you something. Oh, I love it when guests bring me something.

There you go. Oh my God. So Jewel, yes, you're right, they have dropped the from the, you know why? Because I,

as you know, where I live, I'm close to the Evanoff building on Dundas there. And I'm pretty sure I always saw. The old Cycle World. That's what it was. Yeah, it was a Cycle World, sorry, Cycle World dealer. In fact, in the engineering department,

they have a storage area about, and there's a counter in that area, and above the counter is a big sign that says parts. Oh, I got to get in there. I had a buddy, how long you've been at jewel 10 years so you remember bob willett yeah bob's a good buddy he's a great guy he was he was a pd of proud then he went out to uh durham i think he went to durham for yeah he went to the rock and now he's at bell media doing he's at hits and he's doing some there's a mat leave going on

and he's doing some kind of i can't remember but there's some clusteritz and he's doing some, there's a mat leave going on and he's doing some kind of, I can't remember, but there's some cluster of stations. He's going to be program director. Good for him. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. So thank you so much. I have a Juul 88.5 mug. I love it. Yeah, that's the new design. I love it. Today's light hits and yesterday's

favorites. I love it. And, well, there's more. There's a few things in there. I could be like Bob McCowan. Oh, yeah. Oh, those look good on you. Do they? Yeah. I would wear them. I don't know if I could see in this dark corner

here. But, oh, cool. Oh, yeah, I see. You can put this on luggage or something. Cool. Oh, and this chapstick? Just in time. Lip balm. Lip balm. thank you so much i love it and a handy tote bag too yes that's perfect when i make my uh my trips to no frills there that's fantastic no thank you so much i will take off the sunglasses for now but that's beautiful thanks so much brian good i'm gonna have you on more often you bring me gifts? Awesome. Now I mentioned that location of Evanov.

They've really done like a, an amazing job. I know they're not finished yet, but that whole, like that's six points. I want to say Kipling and Dundas intersection was, was a, like a disaster,

right? Yeah, it was, it was, it was scary. I, I go to work up Kipling and I would usually, um, um,

when, before they started finishing it, I would have to make a turn and then try to merge with something that was coming westbound on Dundas. It was always a crap shoot. It was, it was dangerous because people coming west on Dundas would try to cross over to get to whatever,

whatever, whatever it was, Bloor or Kipling North. But what they've done now, they're straightening everything out and it's beautiful. And west of there, there's a whole new neighborhood spring up. There's a high rise that's popped up called the Kip and they're going to build east of it

and they're going to build west of it all the way down to Honeydale Mall. The Honeydale Mall is like the deserted mall, right? Is there anything going on there anymore? Did you ever go in there? Yeah. I'm trying to remember, wasn't that where the Walmart was

before they built that one-year sure way? I don't know. See, I'm pretty good at this West End stuff. I went to Michael Power when it was at, not far from Six Points, actually. It was at Dundas and Bloor, where Islington and Dundas and Bloor kind of all merged there.

But I remember that Honeydale Mall, the anchor of it was a Walmart. And then that Walmart shut down because they opened the new one right near like North Queen, near Sherway, right? And that's when sort of, that was a kiss.

And I feel like there was a grocery store there. Was it a Basics? There are no frills? I don't know. It's been boarded up for a long time. The memory I have of that was going into a friend of mine's father had an antique store in there, an antique records and CDs too. up for a long time yeah the memory i have of that was going into a friend of mine's father had a

an antique store in there an antique records and cds too oh cool yeah it was a lot of cool stuff see the way i look at the malls in the west end since we're west end guys here is that you got your like your expensive rich person mall now is like shirley gardens and then you got your poor person regular person dixie value mall and then right in the middle there, you've got your Cloverdale Mall, which they've actually done, I think, a pretty decent job fixing up the Cloverdale Mall. But the ghetto mall or the deserted mall, that's the Honeydale Mall. Weird. And you spoke about Cloverdale.

There's a huge empty store there that was a Zeller's and then a Bay. It was a Target. And then a Target. And then that kind of imploded. Yeah, I think there might, maybe there's like exercise, like fitness stuff going on there. Nothing in there now.

No, nothing in there now. No. But you see a lot of seniors over there. Oh, are you kidding me? I've never felt so young. It's a lunch spot once in a while. Yeah. You'd walk around there,

they'd be saying, hey kid, what are you doing here? Yeah, you're right. I always, whenever I'm in there, because my daughter's orthodontist was in there and I was there every month for her tune-ups or whatever. And I'd walk around. First of all, the home hardware is like the best kept secret

because in there, they get somehow discount chocolate or something. Yeah, the other day I went and I bought eight dark chocolate Kit Kats. Yeah, but it was like probably a buck 99 or something. Yeah, something like that. Not even that. I'm trying to behave now, but I'd get these big bags of M&Ms

and they'd be like $2.99 or something. But you go buy that in a grocery store and it's like $12.99. I'm like, what's going on here? Is this like tainted chocolate? But yeah, the deals in that home hardware for chocolate are tremendous. Or go to Six Points Plaza and the Bulk Barn.

Right. Dangerous place. No, I'm with you on that one. There's one at humbertown too that uh yeah i'm with you they have they have the i'm a big potato chip fan they once in a while they get uncle raised from detroit potato chips that's a good tip good thing we're talking about radio here listen we gotta i'm enjoying it we gotta get to know each other here oh yeah so basically now So basically, now that I see the improvements happening near what they want to call, you're a real estate guy, so I'm sure you'll be calling it the KIPP district. It's called that already, yeah. Yeah. They're trying to make it like Liberty Village West or something, right?

They better put a lot of amenities in. Well, I know that Kipling Station, they're building it up to be some kind of a bigger transit hub. Yes, there's going to be access from Dundas over the railroad tracks to the Kipling Station. Look at this happening. And right in the thick of it all is the Evanov Group and Jewel 88.5. So that's where you are now and for 10 years, and we'll get there for sure. I wanted to start with where you're from, which is you're from England. So when do you come to Canada? I came to Canada when I was about four, just four and a half. Any memories of anything at all in your memory bank from England?

Oh, absolutely. I remember my grandmother's house in Brentwood where I was born. I remember seeing the trains a lot. And I have memories of London with my beautiful cousin Anne. My mom and I went back, I guess a few years after we got here, because my grandmother, her mother was ill. We went over for that summer. She pulled me out of school early. And we went over on a ship called the Mauritania that we had come to Canada on. And to make a long story short, we came to Canada on that ship,

went back to England and came back to Canada on that ship. Well, back to New York. Fast forward to the mid 80s. And I was between stations. I was between CHUM FM and CHFI. And I had a month. My parents had moved back to England in the late 70FI. And I had a month. My parents had moved back to England in the late 70s, and I used to go and visit them at least once a year. So I had a month. I had a little money saved up, and I booked myself a first-class ticket on QE2.

And the second night out, there was a captain's party, and he said hello to everybody and asked everybody the same question. And I, is this your first crossing? And I told him, no, this is actually going to be my fourth. And I told him the story. everybody and asked everybody the same question and i have you is this your first crossing and i told him though this is actually going to be my fourth and i told him the story and he said when you and your mother were on the martini that year i was the captain wow yeah that's amazing father that's right that's right so well so yeah and uh my wife and i just went back in may to have a look

see my cousin Anne. Okay, good. In Brentwood. England's stayed the same a lot, but a lot of it, London's changed so much. But it's still got that great feeling. I've got to get my butt over there. I've never actually spent any time beyond the airport. Oh, you'd love it. E305 is crazy.

It's like a shopping mall with an airport attached to it. Right. I notice that's the new trend now. These airports have become big malls, essentially. But you were raised in St. Catharines. Yes. So how old are you when you get there? Is that four?

When we first moved here, we went to Vineland and lived on a farm, the Philbrick Farm. There was three of us in a two-bedroom or a one-bedroom one-bedroom apartment in one of their properties it was pretty tough i remember because it was there was one bedroom and i think the kitchen living room dining room were all one it was like early open concept but it was tight that was back when you wanted walls and nowadays you're tearing them down. Yeah. It's all open concept now. It's, it's, it's fun. All those walls we built up for like, they're all coming down now. Maybe we'll keep one up for the bathroom. That is it. But yeah.

Now, when did you fall and maybe I'll even share my story here, but when did you fall in love with radio? I want to know, like, when did you first kind of realize, hey, I love, or did you fall in love, maybe I'm assuming that you fell in love with radio at some point. Maybe not everybody in radio fell in love with radio. In high school, at Sir Winston Churchill, I used to go on the PA and make announcements.

And I was in the variety show doing stand-up, and I had a band, a jazz band and a rock band. I was always fascinated with the radio. My parents actually gave me a Remco toy radio station once. But anyway. Oh, cool. My big thing was to go back to England and be a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy.

I loved to fly and I thought that would be fun. Then that kind of changed and I thought I'd like to be a photographer. Love photography, still do. Cool. And I didn't have the marks to get into Ryerson. It was a couple of marks shy, not knowing I could have gone down the street to OCA and I would have got in.

But anyway, I even tried to get into a school in California, the Brooks Institute. Well, I made inquiries and it was expensive at that time. It was, I think it was around six or $7,000 per semester, plus books, plus equipment, plus lab time, plus room, plus board, plus, plus on top of all that. So I was kind of bummed that that didn't happen. And I was reading the back of a photo magazine. It was called photo magazine. and I was reading the back of a photo magazine. It was called Photo Magazine.

And there's an ad for famous broadcasters. Okay. And I took a correspondence course. Okay. To this school in Wisconsin, and they had some named broadcasters who were on the board. I mean, it was all, you know, it was, looking back, it was, how can I put it nicely?

A cash grab? What is this? No, it was an opportunity for people who didn't have a university education to try and make a go of it. Okay, gotcha. So I applied and a guy came over to talk to me and listen to my voice. He didn't, I think he wouldn't care what I sounded like.

They just wanted that 900 bucks. Yeah, right. So I did it and it took about 10 months, 10 or 11 months and you had a tape recorder. I've still got that tape recorder at home. Actually, you did it. You did a lesson and put it on tape and there was various things to the lessons. There was a project to do and it had to do with maybe writing and voicing a commercial

that you, you know, they teach you how to do it. Then you'd have to do it or covering a, what they call a spot news story that is chasing an ambulance or get an offbeat news story. I climbed up a pole at Penn Center to interview a pole sitter. And if at the end of every lesson, Mike, there was four columns of foreign names, classical music names, geographical names, and they expected you to, they taught you how to, how to parse them, to pronounce them. And they expected you to get this course. They expected you to get everyone right. And a couple of times I didn't. You had to redo the entire lesson. So it was good learning.

And I was learning from a guy in the States. He was an announcer somewhere in, what's a big city? Milwaukee. Yeah, Milwaukee. Yeah, that's a big one. And so I finished the course and came to Toronto for 10 days. They had a closed circuit studio at Young and Victoria, or Young and King, and spent a few days in there.

And I had been working at a company in St. Catharines called Commercial Photocopy, a graphic arts production house. Oh, yeah. And it came to the point where I was going to go to this closed circuit and I wanted time off. And the head of the Commercial Photocopy he knew what i was doing i they knew i wanted to get into radio at that point and i asked him for time off and he said to me these are the exact words no you ought to quit i'm not going to let you go but if this is what your heart's desire is

you ought to quit and if it doesn't fly back. We'll find you something to do. That's good advice. Great advice. So I went to my parents and told them they were going to support me. They said, we'll give you two months. So that Christmas came and went. I hit the road January, early January. I went all the way up to Kingston, met some really nasty people in radio

because I was cold calling. It was door knocking, basically, with my little demo tape that I'd made at the studio. And remind us what, like, what about what year are we talking about here? That was a 69. Okay. Yeah. So I went, I, I went to go West,

stopped in Kitchener and met a wonderful guy named Vern Rombo. You ever heard of him? No. You should try and track him down. He was just so great to me. I think he's still around. I'll never forget him. He was the program director at Chime FM, 1490 Chime, C-H-Y-M.

It was owned by Great Lakes Broadcasting that also owned CFO Arnaud and CFCO in Chatham. He listened to the tape and he said, I think I've got something for you. Would you work in Chatham? And I said, I think it's worth a shot. Yeah. I'm like, yes, yes, yes. So he made an inquiry and what had happened was a guy there unfortunately was fired for being drunk on the air on New Year's Eve. And as the story goes, that should be allowed, I think, but go on.

The program director, bless his heart, the late Bob Nelson, he got a call from the station manager and said, go and get that guy off the air. This is New Year's Eve. And he went and he found his booze in the toilet tank in the men's room. That's when you make a problem, by the way. Make a long story short, I got an interview, and I was going to drive down in my trusty old Volvo 122S, not knowing the temperature gauge wasn't really working well. and I was going to drive down in my trusty old Volvo 122S,

not knowing the temperature gauge wasn't really working well. Right around Ingersoll, dug, dug, dug, dug, dug, dug, dug, dug, and threw a rod. So here I am. I'm supposed to be there at 11 o'clock. It's 8.30 in the morning, and I'm having kittens. Right, right. I didn't have no cell phones. I didn't know what to do.

I thumbed right into Ingersoll, got a tow, but before they came back to me, I asked to use the phone, paid them to use the phone, called the station. I had to make, stopped in Ingersoll, couldn't do anything. Guy towed me to London before we left for London, called them again. Got to London, got to a garage, an SO station off the highway, called them again. And finally, it was getting dark, and I was at the ESO station.

My car had been towed to the Volvo dealer in London. They couldn't do anything with it. They didn't have to hold on to it, excuse me, for a few days, and there was a guy came in for gas, and the gas station owner said to this guy, yeah, go into Chatham by any chance, and the guy said, yeah. He said, can you give my friend here a lift? He's had car problems. He's got to get to Chatham. Yeah, I called chat him by any chance? And the guy said, yeah. I said, can you give my friend here a lift? He's had car problems.

He's got to get to chat him. Yeah. I called the station again. I said, I've got a ride. I'm coming. The guy was a guy named David Padgett. Do you know that name? No.

He worked for GRT Records. He was a promo man. Oh. Going right to the station. Oh, perfect. That's great. So I got there. I ran in and apologized for being late.

And Bob said, sit down. Let's have a chat. He said, and before he sat down, he said, you got the job because anybody who keeps in touch with us like that, a communicator, this is the kind of person we want. Right. Okay. So, but I do have to listen to your demo tape.

So he puts it on. It's cheesy music. Hi, I'm Brian Master. Clicks it off. Okay. You got the job. That's fantastic. And I was swing shift and production manager. It was my first gig. And that's'm Brian Master. He clicks it off. Okay, you got the job. That's fantastic. And I was swing shift

and production manager. It was my first gig. And that's CFCO. Yeah. Now, okay, when I had, who was on here? When John Donabee was on the show, you're friends with John,

of course. Great guy, yeah. A lot of overlaps. We'll get to that. But I was wondering aloud, and you can help me with this. I'm interested, who was on the air?

Yeah, I'll call the GTA. I know Chatham's not really i'm interested who was on the air yeah i'll call the gta i know chatham's not really gta but who was on the air in the 60s and still on the air today can you think of anyone because donabee was in that and then he left the ckln was no ciut stuff he was doing he stopped doing so he kind of fell out of there ash Ashby, Roger Ashby was in that club. But as you know, he's no longer on Chum FM. No. You are in this club.

You were on the air in the 60s because you started on the air. Well, it was really 69. But that counts to me. This is a deck. Yeah, it counts. I'm going to allow it. I'm going to allow it, Brian.

Okay. Can you think of anyone else who's still on the air today but was also on the air in the 60s? Off the top of my head? Yeah. Obviously. I can't,

I honestly can't. I'm trying to think of who Ashby would have been at. And you know, I used to listen to Ashby driving home from Seahow and Welland every night in 69. Oh, he was on in Hamilton. No,

he was on CKOC. I heard him on, I heard him on 10 50 chum. Cause that was the station, right? The chum bugs, right? That was the station.

Okay. So that's interesting. I will have to hear from others if I'm missing somebody, but I'm sure there is, you know, one of the, Oh, one that came to mind,

unfortunately passed away a little while ago, Bob Durant. Uh, boy, I, I can't think until Ashby signs with another station. Until we hear him on. Bud Riley.

Oh, no, he's not on the air. Bud O'Reilly. Yeah, you got to still be on the air. Because I always thought maybe Ashby would end up on. What's the Zoomer station? Was it 740 or whatever? Something like that. Yeah, AM740.

Right, but nothing yet. So, okay. Nothing yet? What do you know, Mike? I know nothing. Although, I know nothing. I know okay. Nothing yet? What do you know, Mike? I know nothing. Although, I know nothing. I know that, I know nothing. Let's leave it at that.

But, interesting. Now, I'm just going to pause us for a minute here. So, we've got you on the air in 1969, and we're going to kind of go on the journey, because you've been around and done some interesting things here. Okay, I would like to go back a bit to before that. Okay, go back, and then when you get us to 1969, then I'll pause us so I can play a little game with you. You want me to go back now?

Sure. Okay. So I'm out of high school and not a lot of opportunities. I was playing in a band and we were one of the house bands at a club that the great late Ron Metcalf, bless his heart, ran called The Castle. It was a teen club. And they would get in amazing acts from all over the place on Sundays for some reason.

And I was in the house band. I became the house DJ and MC. And Ron, see how he used to broadcast once in a while. They had a studio there and they do a remote from there on Friday or Saturday nights and with Bud O'Reilly. And I was just enamored with Bud, and I was kind of looking, and he says, come on in, come on in. It's a room not much bigger than this, lined with, you know, holy, not asbestos, but acoustic tiles.

And lo and behold, Ron took me to, he knew somebody that owned CJRN in Niagara Falls. And he took me there one night. And there was, I think Chuck McCoy was on the air that night. And I was just enamored. I also got in, he took me to CKTB, beautiful, beautiful old station in a beautiful building owned by the Burgoyne family who owned the local newspaper. And Ron was really the impetus to, for me to start this course. He knew, he knew, he knew it was available. And he said he was another one who really pushed

me. And more than anything, I wanted him to hear me on the air. And unfortunately, a couple months after I got the gig in Chatham, he had passed away. But he was really a huge part of my life for a lot of reasons, especially that, you know, being that guy. Give you that push you needed. Yeah, yeah. And you know, Mike, nobody does it alone. You, if you, sometimes, you know what it's like, you need someone in your life that believes in you

more than you believe in yourself to do things. Where do I find those people? No, just kidding. That's what I need. Amazing. Okay. So we're talking about 50 years ago. So I thought it'd be appropriate if we go in the time machine right now.

So come in the time machine with me because we're going to go back 50 years ago. This was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 50 years ago this week. If woman can survive They may fall In the year 3535 Ain't gonna need to tell you Tell you everything you feel Everything you feel Wow, that would be a good mix with Paint It Black. Oh, Paint It Black, I love Paint It Black. Zeger and Evans are, this is called, I'm going to get the full title right here, but it's called In the Year 2525, in parentheses.

I'll need your enunciation skills here, but it's Exordium and Terminus. That's good. Thank you. You're not supposed to talk over a vocal. Oh, yeah. Yes, the DJs are like, what are you doing? I'm like, I make the rules around here. But, yes.

I'm surprised that that was number one on Billboard. And it was multiple weeks, believe it or not. I know. Sometimes you get these strange, I want to say novelty type songs that kind of rise to the top. But, yeah, I wanted to see what was number one 50 years ago. And I'm thinking like... I thought maybe Aquarius Let the Sunshine In. That was number one earlier this year.

Okay, do you know what the number one song was on the Chum Chart? I don't know. I don't know. But you know what? It's funny. Once a month I have Mark Weisblatt from 1236 come on. And we don't use the billboard. For his episodes we use the Chum Charts. So I always know what was number one at the end of the month. But yeah, great question.

There's a great book that I think it was Ron Hall wrote about the Chum Charts. Do you know where somebody could find... There used to be a great website with all the Chum Charts on it. And then when Bell took over Chum, it got like it didn't even get archived, like it just got tossed. Like I don't know, so I actually would be interested in like resurrecting the archives if you know where I could find a copy of all the Chum charts. Do you think Bell tossed all her old phones too? They might have. A lot of things got tossed. Alexander who? That's right.

Anyway, to seriously answer your question, Doug Thompson has put together a tribute site to Chum, to 1331 Young. Do you remember the URL? I do know it. When I Google things like this, I always end up on his site. I'm sorry I don't. That's okay.

Very Google-able. I'll look when I get home. But yeah, Doug Thompson, I've had the odd run-in with him on the soundony board, the South Ontario, I don't know if you ever spent any time on that. No,

I used to, but not anymore. Yeah, you know, it has its moments where sometimes it's a place where you're like, I can't hang around here,

there's idiots here and then sometimes it's pretty like, pretty good discussions about some, you know, it depends on who's kind of, like you know,

when Donabee chimes in, it's always good, like it depends who is chiming in over marshall right there's some good ones out there but then they get over it depends if the bad ones get in the way but why am i playing a song that was number 150 years ago because remember the time is brought to you by fast time watch and jewelry repair do you wear a watch i sure Okay. Whenever you need repairs on that watch, this is where you go. Because do you remember there used to be these watch repair outlets inside Sears Canada locations? Yeah. Well, Sears, as you know, they declared bankruptcy in this

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And when you need that battery, mention Toronto Mike to get the 15% off. What a deal. That's good to know. Good to know. I'm telling you, these guys, family-run business sweethearts. I'm rooting for them because Sears screwed them over.

Oh, dear. Let's root for the little guy, right? There was a guy downtown on Cumberland in that little arcade there between Yorkville and Cumberland who specialized in electronic watches, and he had to leave because the place is gone. They demolished it. Condos? Yep.

I just heard the Second City, remember this? Wayne Gretzky's is going too. There's so many different hot spots. I know Gretzky's is going because that's going to be condos. I think, I don't know when the last day is, but it's coming up. I mean, Wayne Gretzky's, I didn't grow up in Wayne Gretzky's. It showed up, I don't remember when it showed up, in the 80s?

Yeah, it was the 80s. Late 80s, maybe? Late 80s, early 90s. Right, that's what I'm thinking too. Whenever they, remember that was Peter Street, and then they said, okay, this stretch of Peter Street is now Blue Jays Way. So they had Blue was peter street and then they said okay this stretch of peter street is now blue jay's way and then so they had blue jay's way and i remember wayne gretzky or whatever got them to change their address to 99 blue jay's way even though it's not really 99 like that's the power of the great one yeah bless his heart bless his heart yeah he's

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He legit saves Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair a ton of money. He can save you money too. Now, we've got you in Chatham. You're in Chatham, CFCO, 1969. Tell me where you go next. See how. Welland. Yeah.

Yeah. And I was only a chatter for almost six months and I moved home, live with my parents in St. Catherine's and I commuted to see how every day. And it was kind of a, um, like father, like son.

Cause my late dad, bless his heart, used to be the manager of the Simpson Sears catalog sales order office in Park Holborn. There you go. So after he wasn't working there when I was working in Welland. When I started in Welland, I was a board op running a show that we get from a place in Bellingham, Washington. I can't remember the name of it.

It was semi-automated. Like they'd send us these 14-inch reels of tape with a voice and music on it. And the voice was Don McMaster. I do swing shift on the weekends and people would get Don McMaster and me mixed up. Right. So the program director, the late Jay Jackson, another wonderful guy, he said, how about your middle initial? So I used my middle initial. Well, they wanted to change the name to Brian Masters and and that's not my name so we put the middle initial in and became brian h brian h master and it kind of went from there and i think within about six or seven months they put me in full time and i was working six nights a week and the funny thing was it was from 6 30 till midnight and the

funny thing was the whole slash or uh quote unquote underground scene was starting to happen moby grape blood sweat and tears led zeppelin laura nero um all those kinds of things right so i went to the pd and said could i stay on an extra hour i'd like to do a show but oh sure just shut the transmitter off when you leave. Oh, my God. Every Friday night. Every Friday night. Did you know that?

Yeah. Well, you think there's a coincidence, Brian? Come on. Imagine that if there was a coincidence. I wish I were so lucky. Wow. Is this bringing you back to Midnight Friday Nights, the Friday Symmetry Show?

Yes. Yes. Wow. Now, I won't play all 17 minutes or whatever the heck it is. No sense. Was there a radio edit? Or no, you had just the 17? I just let her roll. Right.

Yeah. And we got a lot of response to it. It was a remarkable time. And I remember going to the station one day and the sales guys were just going bonkers over the book. And I didn't know what the book was. Right, right. And I asked one of these guys, what's the book?

And they said, oh, you had a great book. And I said, what's it mean? And a guy basically said that it shows us how many people are listening, how old they are, and how long they listen for. I said, oh, that's good. Do people listen to my show? Yeah, they do. You have a 36 share.

I said, what's that mean? He said, well, it means that, is it like 36 people listening? He said, no, 36% of the available audience listens to your show. And I said, oh, is that good? He said, yeah, it's pretty good. So then I went to tell Jay and I said, hey, I heard I did good in the book. He said, yeah, not bad. Because you're going to ask for more money, right? Well, I guess that was the thing. But anyway, I didn't know. And further to the adventures at see how yeah promo guys like um tom williams wonderful guy have you had him on no you got to have him on he's a fountain of knowledge and the late jerry lecourzier would come out and oh guy from capital i can't remember his

name but they come all the way up to the way to see me and plug their records. But the crowning touch, maybe of my entire career, was being on the air the night they landed on the moon. 50 years ago this week? Yep. Wow, what was that like? It was unbelievable, Mike. It was just unbelievable.

I was an aviation hound anyway and watching the whole thing unfold. And then being on the air that night, I was rushing back and forth to the newsroom to watch the TV, the little 14-inch black and white TV, and taking reams of copy off the teletype and running back to talk about it. Right. And being breathless and also shaking because there's men on the moon.

And I still got the copy at home. I still got the teletype copy. I saved it good for you it was just the most incredible exciting inspiring time to be on the air and when things have finally calmed down I can't think I got off the air around 2 or 2 30 in the morning I had to shut the transmitter off before leaving right and I walked out and looked up at the moon and then looked at my car. The closest building to the station was a farm, just basically kitty corner of the station.

This was out in a rural area. There's a cow in the parking lot. Maybe it was the cow that jumped over the moon. But anyway. Oh, I love that. Love that story. It was an amazing, just the most amazing experience. I can imagine.

Like when you look up at the moon, you're like, there's human beings on there. Yeah. There's people up there and the journey to get there. If you haven't seen it, try and see,

maybe you can get it online. It was on CNN, Apollo. Okay. Just fantastic. I saw the movie, First Man, with Ryan the movie, uh, first man with, uh, Ryan, uh, Ryan Gosling, uh, playing. Yeah. And that was really good playing Neil Armstrong. And, uh, that was

really, I thought it was really strong, uh, from last, I think last summer, I think, or last fall or something, but yeah, amazing. I've been catching some of the stuff, just kind of hard to believe that was 50 years ago, but it is, it's like, yeah, that's funny how some of the stuff. Just kind of hard to believe that was 50 years ago. It is. It's like... Yeah, that's funny how life... In the jungles of time and space, it's... Wow. And I'm glad you said the see how first because I'm reading it as chow.

So I'm just glad you said see how before I said it. Yeah, I was see how. 1470. In Welland, right? Yeah. Okay, so you've got this share. It sounds amazing. I don't think that could ever happen again.

I don't know. That one, like one third of everybody listening is listening to the same station. That was in the whole Niagara area, the Niagara Peninsula, so. So what kind, like this, you were playing like just progressive rock? It was top 40 from 6.30 till midnight,

and then from midnight to one, it was underground or progressive rock. Right. And it was, like I said, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Laura Nero. Oh, there's a whole slew of them. Pretty much the Steve Miller band when Boz Skaggs was in it. I can't remember, but if I had a book, I'd say, oh yeah, I played that. And you got to create

the playlist? Yeah, play what you want. There was no CanCon rules. Oh, that's right. When does CanCon show up? 71, I think. 71, okay. When I was on the air in Chatham, I got a record.

I got to do a Top 40 show there on the Chatham I got a record I got to do a Top 40 show there on the weekends and I got a record by a group called Motherload and I put it on and it blew me away and I played it every night and then when I got to Welland same thing I just love that song

we still play it at the Jewel you talk about people have been on the air there's music that's been on the air that still stands up and Motherload band from London just terrific. There's music that's been on the air that still stands up. And Motherlode band from London, just terrific. Okay, speaking of music that holds up, because I know my,

I guess she was, I guess I told her, I had a guest come in at 11 and then my 14-year-old daughter said, okay, I'll go upstairs. And I guess she didn't want to pollute the process or whatever, but she's really into the Beatles, okay?

Like a 60s band. And this is a great segue here because I have a question for a 60s band. And this is a great segue here because I have a question for you from another Brian. And this is an interesting, because I learned that you're also into real estate, like you're an agent, right? I am. So I won't call it a conflict of interest

because as Sammy Cohn from The Watchman told me, there's like 50,000 real estate agents, but this is one of the real estate agents out there in Toronto is Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. He's a broker with PSR brokerage and he recorded a message for you. So here's one Brian to another. Hi Brian, Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. Lately, I've been doing lots of leases.

Got two clients' condos, a young in Eglinton, one at Townhouse in Richmond Hill. Late next week, I'll be listing a brand new suite at Minto Westside at Bathurst and Front. Contact me for any rental or buy and sell needs you have at 416-873-0292. Brian, I have asked this question of many of Mike's guests and always enjoy listening to the debate. Your favorite Beatle and why?

Keep in mind that there are so many ways to measure it. So explain yours. Firstly, are you a Beatles fan? Huge. I mean mammoth. I wanted mom and dad and I to move back to England when the Beatles fan? Huge. I mean, mammoth. I wanted mom and dad and I to move back to England when the Beatles broke. Right.

And I played the drums. Okay. But Ringo wasn't my favorite. Because that's a rare... You get the odd George. You get lots of Paul, lots of John. You rarely, in fact, I don't think we've yet had somebody say their favorite Beatle was Ringo.

No, he wasn't my favorite. I love them all, but George, identified with George for some reason. I guess seeing, because I could do his accent at the time, and seeing him in Hard Day's Night, well, they all had a wicked sense of humor, but his was so dry. Right.

And then he went on to work with the Monty Python gang and did some movies with them. Yes. But brilliant writer, and his spirit is undeniable. And he was a traveling Wilbury, too. Yeah. Yeah. I have a George connection.

Okay, tell me. I was shopping in London. I'd gone over to see my mom and dad, and I'd always stop in London on the way back to Canada. And I was looking for something different. I love fashion. And I was in this shop that sold a designer called kenzo you ever heard of kenzo no kenzo yamamoto and looking at this stuff and who should be looking at for stuff right

next to me but olivia george's wife and i picked it up this sweatshirt up that kind of had a it was a black sweatshirt with red and white ink on it and it was like a a dragon kind of motif i held it up and i looked at her and i said what do you think of this and she said put it on so i put it on and she said oh you have to have it and i said well thanks very much and thanks for looking after george and she gave me a smile and said you're welcome nice yeah that's great now a good answer i mean uh you know while my guitar gently, yeah, sleeves and you got a lot of, here comes the sun.

There's a lot of great George stuff. And he was, I believe, tell me if I'm wrong, was he the first solo Beatle to have a hit with My Sweet Lord? Am I getting my facts right? I think John was. I think John was before him

with Instant Karma or Cold Turkey or one of those things. I got, yeah, I guess I'll look it up later. I mean, there will never ever be that time, that kind of time cold turkey or one of those things i got yeah i guess i'll look it up later but uh i mean there will never ever be that time that kind of time and there'll never ever be that kind of uh music that just totally encompassed the world it's remarkable and it's still like i said with my daughter i mean it comes out in different formats now right like now you have like is it guitar hero

or rock band i get them confused but video games where they have monopoly right and then and their rematch i mean i guess they i just learned this from uh this podcast i was listening to because they were talking to george martin's son and uh and he's remastering a lot of the old like he's going through the old notes and the old the original like the four track recording stuff and he's remastering them because i guess they were made for mono and then now he's remastering them properly the way they were meant to be heard in mono but for stereo like there's this whole process he's going through yeah so for example i know he's done the white album for example and he's done sergeant pepper so i gotta see those two are done now like so he takes i guess it was yeah it was four it's funny

because today of my little podcast here i can have like as many tracks as I want. I can have a hundred tracks right here, right? But they recorded four tracks and with his father's notes, George Martin's notes, and with the original four track and all these outtakes and recordings where you can hear them and like working on things and talking about things,

you're able to try to capture the essence of what they wanted it to sound like in mono, but in a, you know, a digital stereo world and without having to worry about little things like too much bass makes the needle skip and all these different things that they had to think about that we don't have to think about anymore. So anyway,

it's fast. I'm just fascinated by the whole idea. You can take a near perfect album, like the white album or a Sergeant Pepper, and you could you know go through a process to theoretically improve it like think about that like you know anyway it's uh george martin's son's doing that with brilliant you know and he's are they out yet they're out yeah they're out to check that out you know a few years ago there was a cd set put out and the

mono one sold out immediately and then um I got a gift from the record company, from Capitol Records, of the CDs, the British CDs, and there was a mono mix and a stereo mix on one CD. But I'd just like to, oh, I'll tell you a story about the Beatles at Chum FM. Not at Chum FM. Okay, so yeah, let's do it. So now you're at See How, big numbers,

and where do you go from there? From there, I had an offer to go to CHSC in St. Catharines. And it was probably a good thing. There were some great guys there. Mike Hanson was there. Danny Lewicki was one of the sales guys. Oh, the hockey player. Yeah. Yeah, of course. And guys. Oh, the hockey player. Yeah.

Yeah, of course. And Breen Murray, the sports guy. Chris Ford, who I eventually took his show. Don Gordon, John LaRock. But I figured out what had happened. They literally bought me out of the market. CHSE was AM and FM. And they put me on overnight simulcasting bought me out of the market. CHSE was AM and FM.

And they put me on overnight simulcasting town and country, which was about 30% town, 40% country music. But it was a great education. And I convinced the owner that in order to be competitive, we had to have a music service. So I got him to spring

for Ted Randall's music service, which was great. Tell us regular folk. got him to spring for Ted Randall's music service, which was great. Tell us regular folk. What exactly is that? Ted Randall. Well, guys like that, they're basically a,

an out, a promo outlet. The record companies would go to them and they would shill tunes for, for, for the record companies. And you'd get a package every week of about five or six new releases, new releases. And they were kind of releases that were like one play.

Remember the 45s were really tinny, clanky. Yeah. Really cheap. And I remember the first one I got was a horse with no name. America. America. Doing a very good Neil Young impression, right? Right.

Every time people hear that, if they don't know, they think, oh, Neil Young. Because it sounds like Neil Young, but no, that's America. So I'd had words with the with the owner and it came down to do you mind if i call you by my by your first name he's no everybody calls me mister and it just kind of soured me you know we're in radio we're all supposed to be pals here right so there's a promo guy that came in from toronto he worked for london records i can't remember his name for the life of me really cool guy remember he had blonde hair and he wore glasses. And he was promoting a new Poppy family single.

And he asked me how things were going. And I said, eh, I don't know about this place. I see what's happened here. And I mean, they put me on the Top 40 show about two or three months after doing Overnights. And, oh, worked with a great guy there, great producer, bless his heart, the late Zeke Stebiak, just fantastic producer. He would eventually come to CHUM as well.

But anyway, so I said to this guy, do you know if there's any jobs in Toronto? And he said, I'll ask. Two weeks later, I got a call from Bob Lane at CHUM. Wow, he's the program director. Yeah, bless his heart wow so that's uh i mean to people who might not familiar be familiar with the old chum it was like progressive rock right this is a progressive rock chum fm right chum fm but there was bob used

to do overnights at 10 50 chum and he became the program director at chum FM. They switched from a classical music format to rock, to underground, if you will. Right. And this is when you drop the H, right? You can now be Brian Master. No more H. Is that a chum? Yeah, I did. I dropped it.

Dropped it. And okay, so tell me, yeah, tell me a lot. I mean, I've had, what I did is I actually decided, and I don't know, maybe it was, I can't remember where I scored it, but somewhere there's a, like you're able to see lineups from certain years.

So I just took 1974, just randomly took 74 because it's my birth year. Okay. So yeah, I wanted to see. You're a puppy. Well, everything's relative, but okay. And I wanted to see like, what was the Chum FM lineup in 1974?

So Pete and Geats is your morning show by the way geats romo was just here oh was he about a month ago yeah is he polite amazing he why was he not a wonderful guy i was gonna say he was a sweetheart actually uh if if i don't know if geats is out there listening i know he's not on social media but uh geats is a was a sweetheart he was yeah just tremendous and he had the best stories and you know as advertised but uh geetz is a was a sweetheart he was yeah just tremendous and he had the best stories and you know as advertised but uh yeah so pete and geetz is your morning show tim thomas was 10 to 1 great guy he just passed away recently oh sorry to hear that uh where are we how um i guess it was a show called in toronto that was yeah uh larry wilson brian thomas

um i think rick ringinger was involved in that too. You know, I talked to Rick today. Oh, how's he doing? Good. There's a bash tonight that I actually got invited to myself. I'll see you there. Well, because I have a problem. The two little ones, I'm supposed to get them to their swimming lessons at six,

so I actually doubt I can even make an appearance. Oh, too bad. The dutiful father. I was there last year, though, and it actually helped me because people like Keith Hampshire, I met several people there at the last year's party that I ended up getting on Toronto Mike. So it really worked out. So when you see all these people there,

tell them all, especially Ashby, but they're all invited back here. Okay, I'll tell them. Tell them all. But yeah, it's funny you mentioned Rick Ringer because we were tweeting back and

forth and DMing because he lives in Owen Sound. I remember when he got to the station and Bob wanted me to sit in with him for he was going to do an overnight show. And sat with him, showed him the board. About 20 minutes later, I said, do you need me to be here?

He said, no, I'm good. I pulled this picture off my phone to see if you recognize these guys. Oh, well, Mars Bar. Are you kidding me? Well, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't give them that name, Mars Bar?

I think it was Dan Aykroyd. Was it? I think so. It was a commercial for, I can't remember who it was. Was it Baca? And the line was, take off those glasses, Mars Bar, and let me see your eyes. Amazing. Okay, so he's been on this show.

He was episode one. Oh, he's still on the air. He's got his own, uh, internet station spirit, the spirit and why I want to say it's called, but yeah,

he's still on the air. I mean, Ivor Hamilton's doing some stuff over there, a bunch of people, but, uh, and I actually saw him at the last party, but I just recently got a whole bunch of audio clips of him as a Dave Mickey.

Oh God. Cause I, I didn't, I, anyway, so I had a whole bunch of audio clips of him as a Dave Mickey. Oh God. Anyways, I had a whole bunch of Dave Mickey stuff from, yeah, yeah. Can I, will this show on, on camera?

You can try, but I don't know how that'll come out, but if you send me that photo, I can definitely share it for sure. That's a cool photo. And what was I going to say? Yeah. So he's,

okay. So David Marsden. Yeah. So first let's do my pal, John Donab photo. And what was I going to say? Yeah. So he's, okay. So David Marsden. Yeah. So first let's do my pal John Donabee because he was on two to six. Donabee has been everywhere, you know. Yeah. Marsden, six to 10. Yeah.

Jim Bauer. Right. 10 to two. And David Pritchard, two to six. The David Pritchard program. You know, you're also on the show. So you're on the show, Benji Karsh? Is that? Yeah, he was the music director.

I was Benji's assistant and the program director's assistant. And also did Swing Shift. Any shift. It's funny because there's a name here, which I know is Romo, right? Phil In? Yeah, he was a Swing Shift guy too. It was Geetz. I know, Geetz, right. And the traffic reporter

was Warren Down. Right. Yeah, we got a. And the traffic report was worn down. Right, right. Yeah, we got a bunch of that. There's some other characters that if they were surfaced today, there would be lawsuits galore.

Oh, yeah. Times have changed. We talked about that too. People are so sensitive, aren't they? It depends.

I always say, who is the butt of this joke? It all depends who the butt of the joke is. But tell me, before we get you out of Chum FM, this is kind of a cool place to be with some amazing talent there.

Anything you can share about how long were you at Chum FM? I was at Chum FM off and on for nine years. Wow. And the talent, Pete and Geetze in the morning were just hysterical. And Pete's sense of humor was just wicked. I remember he was having a tussle. He was having a tussle with his Actually in America album. It was a gatefold.

It didn't just fold open, fold into three. And he's trying, you know, you've announced operating. You're trying to get this album back in. And he went bananas. He went bananas. He came into a meeting with, Duff was the PD at the time, he came into a meeting with Duff, Benji and me because he had these

issues and he just railed. I mean, he'd sit there cross-legged in a tank top, muscular build, smoking a cigarette, just going off on a tangent. And we're all sitting there trying not to laugh. That's hilarious. So finally Duff levels a playing field and goes, Pete, I don't know, you can be so unhappy and still want to work here.

I listened to a whole bunch of Pete and Geetz. Pete was just so clever and talented, great voice. And his big champion was Claire, his wife. I mean, huge. He was just the most amazing guy. And same with Geetz. And filling in for Geetz was always a treat because everything was off the cuff like there was nothing scripted you never knew right what you were going to get

and sometimes he would do lardette who's like the you know the the voluptuous uh um foreign woman who would want to know everything about you right and we were going to do a lardette bit one morning and i said well oh look who's here up and early It's what a pleasure to see you addressed Lardette. And she goes, hello, hardcore, stuff like that. And there's so many great experiences and seeing that talent like Tim Thomas interviewed Quincy Jones at the time, Larry Green had done some great stuff before Tim, David Marsden,

people, people listened to every breath he took. And I remember one time we got the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album in. And as soon as Benji gave it to him, he put it under his coat and he said, this will not be taken out until it's played on the radio. And he had great fun with that. Jim Bauer. More knowledge you can shake a stick at. And David Pritchard, well, what can you say?

He was probably the most creative, eccentric person on the air at Chum FM. And his musical knowledge, his musical talent, just unbelievable. So it was a very fertile time to be bringing all this new music. And Benji and I did a show called The New Music and we would play just crazy things just right out of the box. And the audience at that time was so adept at taking it in. It was a very exciting time.

Wow. Yeah, it sounds amazing. There's an old clip, actually. Mark Weisblatt turned me on to this clip, which was Brian Linehan talking to Howard Stern. Oh. And in this interview, which was great because it was really, you know,

how good Linehan was at interviewing and Stern really seemed to appreciate it. And this, I guess they were promoting private parts or whatever. So this is like, I don't know, mid nineties or whatever. But in this interview, it is revealed when,

when Howard learns that Brian's from Toronto, But in this interview, it is revealed when Howard learns that Brian's from Toronto, Howard reveals that Chum FM tried to recruit him in the mid. So do you know anything at all about this? No, nothing about it. No, nothing. But it was interesting that he apparently he was offered a gig at Chum FM. In what era? It was definitely the progressive rock era. So when did they switch to the whatever?

It was probably I wish I knew it was late 70s or era. So when did they switch to the, whatever the, it was probably, I wish I knew it was late seventies or early eighties, like something. I left there in, I left there in 78 and came back two years later and stayed till 83. Well, just an interesting little fun fact, I guess,

is that Chum FM did offer a job to Howard Stern. I got to find out what year that was, but okay. Excuse me. I think Murray and the K was one of the first people to be on the is that Chum FM did offer a job to Howard Stern. I've got to find out what year that was. But okay. Excuse me. I think Murray McKay was one of the first people to be on the air at Chum FM. They brought him in from New York. There you go. And I might say at this point that working for that family, the Waters family, was a blessing to every one of us.

Didn't his wife pass away? Just recently. Yeah, there was a memorial for Mrs. Waters a few days ago. Just recently, there was a memorial for Mrs. Waters a few days ago. And whenever there's a couple of people working at the Jewel, while John Terminese is doing the music for Proud FM and Barry Stewart's programming for some other Evanoff properties. But whenever we talk about it, it's always about Mr. Waters, Mrs. Waters. And all we learned just by being there, all the experiences,

the way we were treated especially the way that we were that we were treated as somebody one of the sales reps told me once which we were talking about mr waters what a wonderful person he was and he said he's the kind of guy that if you were shy 20 bucks before payday he would expect you to come to his office and he'd spot you 20 for a week. That's a, sounds like that's one of the big differences between radio now and then. Now it's all conglomerates, right? Well, typically, I mean, you're working at the Evanoff Group, but there's Bell Media or it's Chorus or it's Rogers.

It's, you don't, you know, there's rarely do you get an opportunity to chat with the owner. No. Well, when I worked at Rogers, Ted would come and do a little chat with the the owner no well when i worked at rogers ted would come and do a little chat with us every month or so it had gathers in the cafeteria this was at the property on on victoria street 25 adelaide street at the corner of victoria okay and he would come and he'd tell us what was going on with the company good or bad and

he was on everybody was on a first-name basis with him. But he was a real gearhead. He loved technology stuff, I guess like his dad, right? And a guy who, pretty feisty. I'd seen him in action once at a meeting we were privy to that I'm not going to talk about. Oh, that's the story we want right there. No, I'm not going to talk about that one. But a wonderful man and a wonderful family

and his wife Loretta too. Wow. Now, you mentioned you leave and come back. So who got you to leave Chum FM? Why did you leave Chum FM? I left on my own accord to go to Q107 to be the music director for a couple of years. Did Donabee have a role? Wasn't he a day one or two? I'm trying to think of it. be the music director for a couple of years. Did Donabee have a role?

Wasn't he a day one or two? I'm trying to think of it. He was a Q for a while. Right. Ted Walsh was there. Right. Scruff Connors, of course. Scruff.

I had a son on this show. Oh, did you? TJ, yeah. Well, we got lots of great Scruff stories out of TJ. Did he tell you about Scruff doing showers, having women in the shower with him on the radio? No, I don't think I got that one. You should have him

in and talk about it. Well, he's in Winnipeg now. TJ got a good gig doing mornings in Winnipeg, so he's left St. Catharines, almost a year ago, I guess, but St. Catharines for Winnipeg, one of the stations there.

But TJ's doing well for himself, so good on him. But yeah, he does a great Scruff Connors imitation too, which is great too. But Wallachian was in here fairly recently. Was he? Earlier this year.

How's Ted doing? He's good. He's on the air weekends on 1010 with his musical director, Bill King. Oh, really? Yeah. So this is, yeah, I want to say,

I should know this, right? I never dial in 1010 very often, but I think it's Sunday mornings, I want to say. It's a right I never dial in 1010 very often but I think it's Sunday mornings I want to say it's a morning weekend morning thing but that's kind of

yeah he's still on the air there yeah he's doing well he seemed to be doing well so Q107 now you got your music director so what was it like

this is the yeah early days of Q and Q essentially I guess they're there to take a piece of the Chum FM progressive rock pie. Is that the deal there?

Yeah, we went a little harder than them. And at the time, I think it was, like you said, they were trying to take a piece of the pie. We had a wonderful consultant, Lee Abrams, with Superstars. And you'd listen to recommended music or some of the things that came in that might catch the eye and then talk to Lee once a week, then run it by Gary. And sometimes it would get added. Sometimes it wasn't,

it wouldn't. There's a interesting quote. Actually, maybe when I get you to CHFI, I'll, I'll play this. But when you're at Q107, there's a photo I found on the internet of the police at the edge.

Oh yeah. I've seen that. And you're in that photo. Yeah. So that's kind of, that's cool. I had one the internet of the police at the edge. Oh yeah. I've seen that. And you're in that photo. Yeah. So, uh, that's kind of, that's cool.

I had one of the Gary's who had Gary Cormier on the show. I still have to get his Gary tops, right? The Gary's I got to get the other Gary on this show. And Gary Slate was in that pic too. Right. Okay. That's okay.

Yeah. Okay. So Gary Slate, uh, there's a, there's a man of a couple of bucks, right? And he did all right.

So, yeah, you know, he's, uh, he did do all right. And bless his heart, he's become a very philanthropic person. Very careful about what he does with the fortunes that he's been privileged to take over.

Well, good for him. Yeah, he was a great guy. No, that's good. If you're lucky enough to come into a whole bunch of money, then yeah, please find a way to give some of it back to those who need it. So very cool. I have a real estate trainer who was like that. When you become successful,

you, you really won't know until you look back and see what's happened. And he said, if you come into a lot of money, be generous, give it away to things that touch your heart. Right. Very,

very true. Now, so you, you moved to Q107 in June 78 and you're there until i guess june 80s you're there a couple years yeah uh can you share any uh what it was like working at uh q107 it was a lot of fun we had some great guests come in grace slick uh david lee roth and alex van halen came in uh michelle phillips from the Moms and Papas, Melissa Manchester. Were David and Eddie behaved?

They came in on roller skates. Oh, yeah. Okay. Actually, there's a picture of them, Gary, Nick Panasico, and Donabee and me in the lobby with our Q107 mannequin. Wow. And Sam, Samantha Taylor worked there as well. I got her hired. From Video Hits.

Yeah, great girl. Another realtor. She's in Realtor too? Yeah. Interesting. I got to get her on this show because I love that show. I watch that all the time, the Video Hits. She did well with that.

Yeah, for sure. So Q was, it was a crazy place. I mean, two blurries, 30th floor. There was a stockbroker down the hall. There were some hijinks we won't go into uh well that's the good stuff right there so you have uh you why do you return to chum fm like you have a couple years of q sounds like a fun place to be and it was back at chum yeah we just didn't uh we weren't seeing eye to eye on things and had a, you know, Gary was, was good. Gave me some time. And, and I talked to Bob Wood, another wonderful person and got back to Chum FM and I was going to go back and

do weekends. Oh, they wanted to try something in the morning. Brian and co-host Paul Fisher came in, another great guy, the late Kelly J, another wonderful person, John Rohde, and none of it seemed to click. And it was right around the time that the shock jock, the toilet tongue denouncer was becoming the thing. And I don't know if they were trying to emulate that, but it wasn't my style. And actually, Barry Taylor was my producer

when I first got back there in 1980. Yeah, I actually read a Toronto Star article about this, so this very topic topic from 1983. So I guess in 83, you moved to CHFI. Right. Right. Now, let me just play the kind of music you might have been playing at Q107 back when you were there in the early 80s. Something like this.

Now, this might have come out a bit later. I can't remember, but something like this. So this would be a song, whenever this came out, Q107 would have played this. Absolutely. I still love this song. So that's sort of what you were getting on Q107. And Bob Makowitz and his visionary thinking brought in,

we've got to play the police, the clash, all that new British wave that was coming. Right. Yeah, that was pretty important. Funny, I chatted with Mako Jr. today. Oh, really? Wow. I know, it's just all really weird coincidences and yeah just a weird coincidence can i just add a little story here i think it was labor day weekend and gary had a connection and we got the new led zeppelin album uh what was it called was

it not in through the outdoor no it was the one that had four different covers physical defeat i don't actually know i can't remember i can't remember the number, it was the one that had four different covers. Physical Geek? I don't actually know. I can't remember the number of it and the name of it. But we put it on the air Sunday of Labor Day and played it nonstop. And apparently the powers that be at Chem FM were having a bird. It was kind of like, you ever heard of Buzz Bennett? No. An American programmer, consultant. It was kind of like, have you ever heard of Buzz Bennett? No.

An American programmer consultant. I don't know if it's true, but his legend is that he rocket bombed a radio station to get them off the air. Oh, today you'd do that with drones, I think. But Ozzy Osbourne, crazy train. Okay, so there's that. And then when you go to CHFI, it would be something more like this, I would think. Air Supply. Correctamundo. All Out of Love.

So personally... I think I played it once a week for the last 20 years. Right. Yeah. So personally, though, if you had to choose between your Ozzy Osbourne Crazy Train and your Air Supply All Out of Love. Nice pose. Although I'm not done yet, so I blew it. But who does Brian Master choose?

Ozzy. Is that right? Yeah. Okay, so here's a fun... And all the music of that era. Okay, so here's a fun... And all the music of that era. All right, here's the article I dug up from the Toronto Star in 1983.

So it says, Master, 36, who has spent six months at CHFI after nine months at Chum FM and two as music director of Q107, still remembers his feelings of revulsion on being told to play an Ozzy Osbourne album whose cover featured a half-naked Ozzy dripping with blood. The message was sex, drugs, and violence, incredibly negative and shallow.

I thought, what must parents think of Chum FM if their kids bring home an album like this? You sure I said that? Yeah, you've been quoted, yes. Wow, that's fake news. That's fake news. Interesting. Wow. It was a lousy record, but we played it because aussie was big so the it's i'm glad hey look at it it's never too late to correct the record on this right 1983 and they got the dates all wrong too interesting so this was yeah so uh because of the my with my uh toronto library card

i get to go in and you can go in and search old, you know, old Toronto star. Right. So, yeah. So the, basically the gist of this article was basically Donabee's in this article. You're in this article. The gist is that at about,

you know, you are 35, 36, but at 36, you were too old for Chum FM or Q107. So you found a home at CHFI. That was the gist. I just think it's interesting how times have changed.

That's ageism. I know. And you know, I'm in Toastmasters and I've formulated a speech about ageism. How it's one of the most annoying things these days. Part of ageism though is that you are older and therefore you're commanding a real salary that an adult can live on in Toronto and there are people maybe one-third or half your age who are willing to do the same job.

Not necessarily as good because you might not be as good. Might not have as much experience, not as good. But we'll do the same gig for like a third of the cost. Like I feel like this is a big thing now. And then they'll stay there. Right. At that salary. Speaking of Rodgers, real quick,

one of my guests last week was Gord Martineau. Oh, a great guy. I did the music for his wedding, or his first wedding. Is that right? Yeah. Everything's connected here today, Brian. He's a great guy.

It was a great chat. He gave me like 90 minutes. We had a great chat. But I mean, Rodgers, he was, I asked him like, why did Rodgers let you go? You were on our airwaves for decades being the head anchor at City TV. And he said, basically, he made too much money.

So is it ageism or is it too much moneyism? I think it's too much moneyism. Or if you're not earning it. Well, who knows? I mean, the minds of the people in accounting at those conglomerates, it's all about the bottom line. It's all about the bucks. And if we can get somebody to do this, like you said, if we can get somebody to do the same thing for half the price, are you going to build a station on that?

Because you're not paying for age, you're paying for experience. However, the two or three people that left the station that i worked at we were all around the same age and it was like what's going on here but anyway i mean i'm grateful for the for the opportunities that i had and the money i was paid but the thing where it just i remember you could almost feel it changing where it was like the emphasis is on sales rather than programming. Well, now it's that on steroids here. But here is the station. You leave Chum FM.

So the second time you've left Chum FM, you leave for CHFI in, I believe, May 1983. And you're at CHFI for almost two decades. Almost a few months shy of 20 years, yeah. Here's where you went. There's a little... I don't remember that jingle. That must be recent. 1990, I want to say.

It's definitely when you were there, but it's not... You're right, it's from, I think, 1990. Our positioning statement was where we always tell you the names of the songs we play. Which is helpful. I appreciate that. Yeah, people love...

That's not said enough, but anyway, that's just me. The time at CHFI was wonderful. The opportunities were great, and it was a real learning experience. Peggy Peggy Colston Weir was the, was the woman who hired me. Sandy Sanderson was there. Paul Fisher became the PD. Uh, John Jones was a music director and, but the on air, Don and Aaron in the morning. Don Daynard and Aaron Davis. Yeah. Uh, Tara McElligot was there for a while. Sandy Hoyt, Sandy Hoyt. He was like an encyclopedia to me.

I mean, it was just so much fun to work with the late Sandy Hoyt. Bless his heart. And Don Jackson with that wonderful show, Lovers and Other Strangers, in the evening. But I learned so much from Don Daynard. We went out one day to, or one year, we were going out in the wintertime to hand out coffee coffee mugs and we went to the young finch subway station we went to the oakville go station and i said to don what do we just hand he said no watch me and he'd go up and he'd say hi i'm don daner from chfi here's something for your morning cup of coffee hope you listen to us oh thanks a lot and he said you build an audience

one person at a time because that person will say, hey, I met Don Daynard. And they, oh, what's he like? And then it kind of blossoms from there. And I believe that still holds true. And that's one reason doing remotes are such a precious thing. I love doing remotes and getting out and meeting the listener

because they have no idea what we're like. They only hear the voice from two inches from the microphone. Right. I was thinking that whole one person at a time. Now you could apply that to social media, like on Twitter, for example. Like what I think is amazing is nowadays, not everybody, but a lot of people that you kind of watch on the TV or you listen to on the radio, you can actually have one-on-one

communication with that person via Twitter, for example, which is, you know, something kind of new. Pretty neat. Here's a little bit. I think this is also from that same air check that I took that CHFI jingle from, but here's a tiny bit of you on CHFI. CHFI FM 98 rain, and that's three deep. And I love you always forever from Donna Lewis.wis 557 and now chfi can't tell at&t traffic here's our chfi in the sky russ holden airborne thank you brian gardner west

physio to downtown heavy to 427 multi-vehicle collision left lane west queenie doorbell all the way down to burlington those guys russ hold Holden and Daryl Dahmer, were there forever, right? Forever. Since like the late 70s or something. They were. We had so much fun. I think the program director thought we were nuts and had to rein us in once in a while.

But Daryl and I worked up a bit and it was named by Sandy Hoyt called Stump the Chump. Yes, I've heard a bit of this. We had so much fun with that. And Daryl would just do the craziest things. For example, I came off back selling an Ambrosia song, did 98.1 CHFI. And I always have his pot up, his fader up a bit,

and I could hear the plane. And I did the back sell and said, and there's the biggest part of me, and I hear in the background, excuse me. And I did the back sell and said, and there's the biggest part of me. And I hear in the background, excuse me. Or Elton John, a word in Spanish, and over the two-way here, guacamole. I mean, it was just so much fun.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, I mean. And isn't that the deal? You want to be fun and engaging? So what happened? I mean, well, maybe let's tell me a little bit more about 19 years at CHFI. Like, for example, and Aaron Davis has been on the show. What was it like?

You know, Aaron Davis was a juggernaut. Yeah, she was formidable. That's for sure. She and Don were like the yin and yang. It was a perfect combination. I'd fill in for Don once in a while. And it was great working with Aaron, but it wasn't the same chemistry. Don and Aaron were both off at one point, and they brought Carla Collins in,

and we hit it off like a house on fire. It was great. But you respected what Don and Aaron did. I mean, they just had that certain magic. And Aaron's involvement with her listeners in the community, second to none. Without a doubt. And then, of course, the infamous Toronto incident where Aaron's let go and then basically is asked, I guess, Julie Adam, I guess, says,

hey, we made a mistake. Would you come back? Not too bad. And then Aaron gets to call some shots on that one. You know, now it's going to be Aaron and Mike as opposed to like coming back. It was always Don and Aaron. So, you know So her name first.

But before Mike, I think it was Bobby McGee. Yeah, it was. And Bobby McGee, that's a great point. He's on the air still on, is it Element FM? Do you know this? I think he's on the air. Oh yeah, you're right. So he was in the 60s. But was he in the 60s though?

He was a chum. He's a guy in the 60s because I had him arriving in 72. But I mean know mark edwards okay see this is the kind this is why you're here you're here to help me out here so so he wasn't on the air he had a different name in the 60s is that what you're thinking yeah in fact edwards the first time first time he was gonna pull a rank that that means you go to a place and let me in because I'm so-and-so from Chum FM. Right. And I never liked doing that kind of thing.

I do that. Well, if you can do it, all the better to you. But it wasn't my shtick. And we were going to see a tribute to the Beatles that was playing at the North St. Lawrence Market. Rain? Or no? No, I can't remember what it was.

And I said, I don't have a ticket. He said, come on, I'll get us in. I said, I don't want to do that. I can't remember what it was. And I said, I don't have a ticket. He said, come on, I'll get us in. I said, I don't want to do that. I can't handle rejection or couldn't at that time. Right. So we go, and it's curtained off. And this guy said, do you have a ticket? And he said, we're supposed to be here.

I'm Mark Edwards from Chum. This is Brian Master from Chum FM. Oh, come on in. Because they want you to talk about it on the air. Exactly. Exactly. I'm Mark Edwards from Chum. This is Brian Master from Chum FM. Oh, come on in. Because they want you to talk about it on the air. Exactly. Exactly. That's how the game's played. But I didn't, you know, I'm a little formal that way.

Like if you get an invitation, great. And I learned that from this course I took, that there's going to be opportunities for people at whatever station you're working at. There's going to be promotional opportunities that are maybe rewarding materially or financially. Sometimes it'll happen to you. Sometimes it won't. And if it doesn't happen to you, it's just because you weren't in line for it. Don't take it the wrong way.

Were you ever offered cash to play any particular song? I was. Tell me. This is, we call this payola, right? Yeah. And do you have any details? I want to hear a little bit about that. I won't mention any names.

That's up to you. Because the person's passed away. I'll have to rough you up. The person's passed away. But I was playing this song. It was by a Canadian artist. And it was a wonderful tune. And I was in charge of making the chart every week at See How.

And remind me to tell you another story about making that chart by the way anyway to go back to this okay um he called me and he made me an offer and i said first of all i would never take it from you or anybody and secondly i was going to make your tune number one next week anyway because it's so popular it's a gordon lightfoot tune no it wasn't i'm trying to guess now what wonderful, it wasn't. What wonderful tune. Is it Zane Murray? No. I won't tell you.

Can I get a clue? Okay, don't tell me who made the August. Okay, it's up to you. I don't want to put you in an uncomfortable position, but I need to know. Okay, so tell me the story about making the charts at Seahow. Well, we got this record in by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin called Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus.

And it was basically a three and a half minute orgasm a lot of heavy breathing and you know the French Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus and she's breathing heavily in the background well the phones went nuts people loved it I played it one night I played it every hour you know being on for six hours it was right so um actually a good it was close to four minutes i think i remember it was a good record to go to the bathroom too but anyway i got a call from the head of the roma catholic archdiocese of well and port colburn okay demanding to take that record off the radio because it's my question why that's great and the answer because it's degrading disgusting and it's very you know like stack them up whatever it was it's morally yeah whatever i said i father

understand your position and my position is to my god's gift to me is to entertain people the song stays he hung up and you made that song number one three weeks in a row i did i know i did my homework oh you did i didn't know those charts were still around oh i have my sources i'm the the brian line of hand of podcasting that's great so what okay so tell me how you uh why do you leave chfi after 19 years that's a great run though okay you want to hear the story yeah it was actually closer to 20 mike i i had a dj service and i used to do stuff for the rogers family and other facets of the company and um i got asked to do the executive christmas party they would have it in jane early january and i'm going to set up it was at the what was that hotel? It's now a Intercontinental down on Front Street.

And I was wearing my 15-year pin. And the woman who was my liaison for the party, she said, oh, you've been here 15 years. And I said, actually, it's more like 19. And if I make it to June, it'll be 20. She said, oh, you'll make it to June. They love you here. Great.

That was a Friday night. Tuesday, I'm on the air. Paul Fish calls me into his office. And that was the end of it right there. Do you have any idea why? Because I was having trouble with the format, so I was told. That sucks because you didn't get that pin, man. That sounds like a lethal weapon movie or whatever.

Like, my retirement's in three days but i i mean we had words and um anyway we'll just leave it there okay well that's okay so that happens a long time ago under the bridge so that happens i don't think it was his doing i'll tell you that that's that's too bad yeah i mean i know that chfi obviously doesn't isn't air supply anymore now they're trying to be more more top 40 R&B-ish to compete with 99.9. And who else? CHFI is competing with Chum FM now. The top 40, whatever.

So I don't know. It's too bad that happened to you. But how do you end up at Juul 88.5? Everything happens for a reason. That was January that year. I guess it was January, 2002. And I was,

yeah. Like, do you take a breather? You've been working a lot. I did. I was living with a wonderful woman and I was doing a DJ. I was doing a wedding at a golf course and I got a call from my dad in England. You better get over here.

So we dropped everything, uh, got a flight out the next day, went over and my mom was in a really bad way. She was in the hospital. And a couple of days after we got there, she passed away. Oh,

sorry, man. And, um, yeah, it was, it was, she passed away. Oh, sorry, man. And yeah, it was tough. But I mean, my mother, bless her heart, she was a really tough cookie. Sharp as a tack. It was pneumonia that got her.

She was 92, almost 93. So stayed there for a couple of weeks and did her funeral and then I came back and my girlfriend's mother got really ill so it was that stacking on top of it right and I kind of didn't get to finish grieving with my mom and then I got a call from a neighbor of my dad's in England that he hadn't been seen for a while, but the policeman climbed up the ladder so he'd been in bed. They got him out, got him to a cottage hospital.

I went over. That was Boxing Day that year, same year as my mom passed. Wow. I went over for three weeks and got him into a long-term care. I didn't know it was lung cancer. He didn't tell me. I only learned it from reading the Christmas cards he got. And he came back here. And I've been here less than two weeks and he passed.

So lost my mom. Ten months later, my dad. And two months after that, my girlfriend's mother. Wow. But you see, I had the time to spend on all this so now i'm thinking i i took the next year off just doing nothing and wondering what i was going to do with my life i went to a seminar called the power within and saw the most amazing array of speakers including a woman named Kathy Bull. She did a presentation on who moved my cheese,

and I thought right then and there, I want to be a public speaker. I want to be a paid public speaker. There's other people on the bill. Loretta LaRoche was hysterical, but I still got that notebook at home with that little thing on it, and I started to pursue it, and I was doing a lot of work with Remax at the time,

and Pam Alexander, bless her heart, she took me under her wing, and she got me involved with people to try and get me to a public speaking thing, and I said, do you think I should get my real estate license? She said, yeah, probably a good thing to fall back on, so I took it,

and became a realtor in 2005. Had a thin year, and then things started to pick up, and then 2008 hit, and then, dundun-dun-dun. So I saw an ad. I check Milkman every once in a while. I saw an ad. They were looking for somebody at Evanoff, and I applied, and I got it.

Awesome. So you've been, I guess, what is that, like 11 years or something? Ten years. Ten years now. April 09, yeah. And remind us, when can we hear your voice on Jewel 88.5? I'm on every afternoon from 3 to 7, and every Wednesday night from 7 till midnight

on a show called The Lounge. It's music with style, like the Elephant Sheryls and Frank Sinatra's Diana Krall and Michael Bublé's. Sure. And some other stuff. Cool. So no Ozzy on that program. No Ozzy on this one stuff cool and no ozzy on that program no no but after that a show called the instrumental concert series where it's a lot of instrumental stuff played and that's great and

any any insight into what it's like at jewel like uh you work with good people you're enjoying yourself really great people uh gary Gary and Stacy in the morning. They're a lot of fun. Gary's the operations director, so I'm the assistant PD for the network. There's stations from Brantford to Halifax. And just basically my thing is to do some scheduling and do air checks and work with on-air talent,

which I love. And yeah, do a lot of remotes, which I love. It's family-owned, and it's pretty easy there. It's easy to work there. And you're, yeah, you're playing oldies essentially. Well, you're playing, I guess, how would you describe it? Light favorites. That's the new positioner.

Okay. So like Paul Anka? Like I'm just thinking like we talking. Yeah, we'd play him in the lounge, but we'd also play, I mean, we'd play stuff from the seventies to the nineties. Like the air supply, for example.

We play some air supply. Yeah. But we'd like the other day I had, uh, Len Barry, one, two, three,

you know, it's, it's dotted with, it's gravy, stuff like that. Interesting. Yeah. And the listeners love the music.

When we go out and do remotes, we'd like to get, we'd like to get a little insight. Well, I mean, everybody loves the music they loved, for example, when they're teenagers, right? So if you have a demographic that were teenagers when these songs were played, I mean, I would love when I'm that age,

I want to tune into a station and hear, oh, there's Pearl Jam or there's Beastie Boys. You know what I mean? Like, that's the same thing. You just get a map. Who's playing that these days nobody really nobody

there's a gap isn't there well see 88.1 and 102.1 are I blame the Lumineers but it seems to be more of like an indie rock kind of vibe

going on there so you don't hear I don't think I would say nobody's playing that I feel like there's an opportunity there for a station to do what I call like adult alternative.

Like maybe get Marsden on this thing or something and bring over whatever, Alan Cross and let's do it up. But yeah, just play like adult alternative. The stuff like, you know, early mid-90s stuff, bring it back. Yeah, there's definitely an audience. Because us 45-year-olds and yeah,

we still, like unlike the new millennials who don't touch radio, we still, we grew up with radio. We still know radio and will listen to radio. Just give us something to listen to. I think that one of the people through my entire career who's been really precious to me is a guy named Dave Krillman. He's on the air at our Brantford station.

He worked with me when I did DJ service, and we did a lot of great things together and he's really blossomed as an announcer and he was don danis producer for a while he'd have some stories for you well listen your stories were absolutely like fantastic there's more but wait there's more well here's the thing so i'm sure there's more and i do this thing where guests return to kick out the jams like you tell me your 10 favorite songs of all time wow so you come in I'm sure there's more and I do this thing where guests return to kick out the jams. Like you tell me

your 10 favorite songs of all time. Wow. So you come in, we catch up where you can finish, tell more stories for like a half an hour.

Then we play your songs. Many of those songs will lead to more stories which is the glory of this. And after 90 minutes we learned more about you, got more stories, we heard the songs you love,

why you love it. You might have introduced some people to these songs. And yeah, it's not a very far trek for you coming from Mimico. We got to do this up. I'd love to come back for the beer and lasagna. No, you don't have to do that again. But I appreciate you taking the time to have me on.

It's been a blast. And I'll say hi to your radio buddies later on today. Do it and tell them all to come to Toronto Mike and tell their stories. I'm collecting stories from the good old days. And that brings us to the end of our 489th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Brian, are you even on Twitter?

Yeah, I am. What's your Twitter handle? Brian at 88.5. Okay, Brian at 88.5. Okay, Brian at 88.5. Good. I'll tweet at you when this thing goes live in 20 minutes. Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptor's Devotee.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all next week when my guest is former Toronto Star writer Dave Perkins. Ooh. Thank you. 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 stay today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.