Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Brother Bill: Toronto Mike'd #650

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

Mike chats with Neil Morrison b.k.a. Brother Bill about everything with a particular focus on his years at CFNY 102.1 the Edge working with Humble, Fred, Maie Pauts, Alan Cross, Bookie, Martin Streek, Strombo, and others.

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buyers find their dream home text Toronto Mike to 59559 and our newest sponsor CDN Technologies your IT and cyber security experts I'm Mike CDN Technologies, your IT and cybersecurity experts. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is the radio personality formerly known as Brother Bill, sloppy droopy pants himself, Neil Morrison.

Hi Mike, how are you? Neil Morrison. Hi, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Again, I know you haven't been Brother Bill for a very long time, but I would like your permission to call you Brother. Yeah, you're in Ontario. Everybody, all of my friends in Ontario who know me through radio

still call me Brother. So that's absolutely fine, man. That's no problem. I even get it. I even get it out here once in a while too. Yeah. I don't know who this Neil guy is. I just know I follow you as Neil on Twitter, but, uh, you'll always be brother to me. How the hell are you doing? Uh, I'm doing really well. It's, uh, been 16 years now since I signed off for the last time at 102.1 The Edge. And living out here in Vancouver has been what I expected, more than I expected, different than I expected. It's a different part of the world. And I know you know my little part of the world is White Rock, British Columbia. You were there last summer?

Yeah, I was there last August. That's right. Last August. Didn't come say hi. That's okay. You've got 16 kids. I know you've got a lot, bus loads of people to take care of. But yeah, I'm living down there in White Rock now, and I absolutely love it down there. Well, yeah, I was looking for you on the beaches of White Rock. You literally have that big White Rock because the kids were climbing it and jumping off of it. But yeah, it's an amazing part of the world and you obviously love it because you haven't come back. Yeah, it's funny. I first went to British Columbia in 1992 on a trip.

I had a friend out here. His name was Derek, and he lived in East Vancouver. And my friend Barney and I flew out for a week of, you know, pretty much what you do in Vancouver when you're in your early 20s. Hey, we're in Back Beach, you know, that kind of thing. And I came out, and I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. And I thought to myself, you know, one day I think I'm going to live here. I didn't have anything in plan or anything like that. I just felt something that this was drawing me to it. And, you know, years later, in the end of 2003, a wonderful man gave me an opportunity to come out here, and I had to take it.

What wonderful man was that? Well, it was actually a combination of wonderful people. It was primarily a guy named Jeff Woods, who I think has been on the show, F-O-T-T-M. Correct. I would do a Jeff Woods imitation, but my vocal cords can't, can't do that. Yeah. Yeah.

Neither can mine. They, they stretch and I, you know, it's like pulling a muscle in your leg or something like that. Yeah. So Jeff, Jeff Woods came out here from Toronto as well.

He was the program director at Q107 at the time. And he approached me and said, hey, I'm moving to Vancouver in a year or so. I might be changing things a little bit out there. Would you be interested? And I said, well, let's talk in a year. And sure enough, a year came along and I had run into the music director slash assistant program director at CFOX, who was a guy named Chris Dunner Duncombe. And Dunner said to me, I think Jeff's going to come to talk to you pretty soon. And so they did. And that was the end of probably December of 2003. And less than a month and a

half later, I was on a plane moving to vancouver and that's when that's the story of how we lost brother bill that's our loss right there it's like i feel like when sundine went to the canucks you know what i mean like well i don't know if it's quite that but maybe when my old program director stew myers used to call me ste me Stevie Thomas all the time that means anything it's stumpy yes I don't think that's what it was but uh it was you know it was uh it was an opportunity for me to have a change I'd been at the edge for 16 years um I I was feeling a little burnt out to tell you the truth and this was a fresh new opportunity and it sort of took me back to 1992 when I was out here and went, well, here's an opportunity that you're not going to get every day. You're single. You don't own a

place. You don't have a lot to tie you down. The only thing I had were my two parents who I eventually moved out here anyway. So I went to them and said, I'm going to move to Vancouver. What do you think? And they said to me, I have their blessings, blah, blah, blah. Now they're here. Okay. Because you mentioned your parents, i'm going to ask you about your dad if you don't mind uh sure and then we have a special uh a special birthday greeting for somebody who's listening uh in uh i don't know east york i think i don't even i get my uh east of young neighborhoods confused but first let's start with your dad because outside the Prince's Gates here in Toronto, there used to be a Lancaster bomber

because I've seen you talk about this on social media. And tell us about your father and his relationship to the Lancaster bomber and World War II. Sure. Okay, well, I'll start with the sadder news. And that is my dad passed away in July of 2018. He was a month and a half away from 98 years old.

Wow. He was September 6th of this year. He would have turned 100 years old. Well, my condolences. I almost was going to call you brother, but I feel for condolences. You should use the birth names. Neil, my condolences, I almost was going to call you brother, but I feel for condolences, you should use the birth names. Neil, my condolences, man. Thank you. I appreciate that.

It was a tough loss for my family. I'll tell you that. But my dad was born in 1920 in Toronto to Northern Irish parents and to immigrants. And when he was 21 years old, he went down in Toronto to, I'm not even sure where, to join the Navy. And the Navy said, no, we don't need you. We got enough people. The Air Force is down the street.

Go sign up with them. So he signed up with them and was trained first on aircraft like Chipmunks and Harvards and Wellingtons and Sterlings, which mean not a lot to a lot of people, but working his way up to the ultimate bomber of the time for the Allied forces, which was the Lancaster bomber. And my father had the distinct honor of being able to serve his country for the RCAF in World War II from 1922 to 1942. And he was the actual bomber pilot. He was the guy who flew the planes. Amazing. Do you know how many did we have? Do you

know? Do you have any idea how many Lancaster bombers we had in World War II? Neil. Okay. Neil's disappeared for a moment due to an internet issue. How inconvenient is that? But here, we're going to see if he comes back. Then again, I'm live on Periscope, so although I can edit this out of the podcast, I should just tell the people who are tuning in on Periscope

that Neil's internet sucks. So Neil's got a shitty White Rock internet right now, and it's been shitty since we started talking earlier. But where did... So just to let you know at home, Brother Bill is reconnecting to Zoom right now. And hopefully we can get this thing back on the tracks here.

I want to hear about the Lancaster Bomber. And then I have my cold Great Lakes beer, Octopus Wants to Fight, ready to go because we're going to do a little toast to somebody who's having a birthday today. We'll pretend like that never happened here. How about just, what happened? Oh yeah, that's Fred, you know, that's Fred Willard

who passed away like three days ago. Yeah. What happened? Yeah, what happened? Exactly. Well, it's also taught Shapiro, but anyway. Well, they took it from a mighty wind, right? So they just took it from

Fred Willard. Well, you know, everybody steals from everybody, Mike. That's the way it goes. We call it sampling. It's not stealing. Sampling, right. Right. All right, Bill. So we were talking about uh your father flying the lancaster and i was wondering because i know now now we have one lancaster bomber that still

flies it comes out of hamilton two okay so one's out of hamilton where's the other one one's in the uk oh yeah okay so i meant when i said i meant Canada, right, right. So, uh, that's amazing. Your dad flew the Lancasters. It's a, and it's also kind of amazing. I guess it's amazing. We have that one that we can still see cause I'll go on a bike ride and I'll see it in the summer. Like it, I'll say, Oh look, there it is. Like it's kind of cool that I, you know, I don't think it makes its way to White Rock, but, uh, Not often, not often, but no,

I know what you're saying because I have seen it. When I lived in Toronto, I did see it too. But not that I'm trying to put myself up on any pedestal by any means, but the feeling that I get when I see that aircraft, when I saw it fly by, I think is a little different than the way the average human being would see it. Because I can personalize the people on that plane. I can picture my, well, actually I can't. But, you know, my father, he was the pilot of one of those.

You asked me how many I thought there were. I'm not sure how many there are. I know how many are left. I know how many actual planes flew. But my father had just a plethora of stories. Actually, I lie, Mike. He had 25 stories that he told over and over and over again while he was alive. And I've got a sea of medals and some great pictures and some great memories of my father.

And they aren't under glass yet, but they're going to be one day. Well, you should be very proud of your father. And he lived, that's a great life. It's a great run. He went 98 years. That's, I mean, if you told me now, Mike, you can get 98 years, I'd sign right now. Like, where do I sign?

Funny you say that, Mike, because my mom's 92 now, still going. She's a child of the Blitz, so she was involved with World War II as well. And I'll tell you something. For me, I hit about 90. I think that's about it for me. You can come and get me that. Okay, I'm going to take note of that. Let the Grim Reaper know.

It's easy to say now, and you get there, and you're like, I can still do the crosswords. What are you doing here? So let's wish happy birthday to somebody who's uh who's listening so uh today is robbie jay's birthday okay i'm i'm i'm a little confused so i know when we're recording this but are we is this going to be aired the day after no it's gonna it's i don't i never do that so uh today which is the 20th uh 20th of uh yeah okay is the day not only are we live on periscope but i'm gonna put this on the podcast feed like i don't know 10 to 15 minutes after we say goodbye oh wow okay i apologize i didn't realize that rob Robbie J, I wish he could see me because I'm giving him the finger.

I know Robbie J likes the pompous ass from Great Lakes Beer. I'm going to pop open an octopus wants to fight here. It wouldn't surprise me that he likes that. I mean, do you want me to talk a little bit about my friend Robbie J? Only if they're bad things. No, just kidding. Yeah, talk about Robbie J if you don't mind. Absolutely no bad things about Robbie J.

Robbie J and I had some wonderful times together at the Edge. Rob is one of the best producer, radio producer. And I mean, from commercials on down to producing shows. And now I know he's in the podcasting game with Dunner, is his boss, the guy who brought me to Vancouver. And, you know, it's hard for me to say things about people because unless you really know them the way you do, you really can't explain to people, really explain to people what they mean to you.

can't explain to people, really explain to people what they mean to you. And Rob started not too long at The Edge when it was CFNY after I did. He was a guy who answered phones for Humble and Fred and stuff. And I watched this guy work his way up to world-class producer. And he's a phenomenal human being. And I had the pleasure as well of introducing his lovely wife to him and so you know he's one of my best buddies we don't talk as much as we probably should but uh he's a great guy and i can wish him nothing but a happy birthday to him and say hi to nancy and the family as well he tells me it was Studio 69. One of your club gigs at Studio 69 where Robbie J met his

wife. I know this is going to seem strange to you, Mike, and no one's ever said this before, but working in radio, major market, you needed to supplement your income. And if you could do it under the counter, even better. So yeah, so I worked at a club at King and Bathurst called Studio 69. And that's where Nancy and her friends would come and Rob and his friends would come. And a couple other hundred people would show up every Friday night. Myself and a guy named Greg Williams would spin music and I'd get drunker and drunker and talk on the mic. And I just for some reason saw Rob standing there, saw Nancy standing there.

I said, hey, I should introduce you guys, you two. And I did. And the rest is history. Bill, I got a question for you about this name, Greg said, hey, I should introduce you guys, you two, and I did, and the rest is history. Bill, I got a question for you about this name Greg Williams you just dropped. Is Greg Williams the Greg Williams? Because I now produce the Humble and Fred show. Yes. For the listeners,

Howard tells me I'm the ninth producer in the history of the program. I said, oh, name all the producers. And I actually wrote them down. And I knew, like personally knew everybody he mentioned, except for the first producer. And the first producer's name was Greg Williams. And I said, Howard, Fred, who's Greg Williams? And I think the answer I got, they just said he didn't like us very much.

That's what. Greg. I don't know who this is. I can't speak for Greg. Greg was my roommate for, somebody said that, I remember on your show episodes ago, they thought that Huxley Workman was my roommate. Right. No. No.

It never was. Huxley and I are buds, but no, it never was. We cleared that up when Huxley was here. Right, that's what happened. You asked that question and we cleared up that. You're right, you guys were never, but yeah, continue please. Okay, so Greg Williams was my roommate from, I want to say 1990 to about 1996 or 7. We both moved downtown into the same house off

Crawford Street was a Crawford Queen and Crawford area With another couple of roommates and Greg was my DJ when I did all my club gigs I did a club called Club Max. I did catch 22 for a while And I did our most our most fun one that we did no offense the other ones but was studio 69 and so yeah okay so greg was the producer of steve anthony before humble and fred so before they brought dan duran in to produce the humble and fred show right um and see on steve anthony's exiting uh greg williams was the middleman the producer between both and i'll tell you something i think the reason why greg didn't care for humble and fred was because he had no story to tell me when

he got home whereas when he worked with steve anthony there was a story every time he came home so i'd sit there and because i did the overnight set and i'd wait up or whatever and i'd say so what did steve do today And the story would start. Right. I mean, at that point, I think, well, Fred's already got kids, I think, by that point. So it's like these are going to be boring stories. Not like, yeah, for sure.

Not like. Let me say, though, Mike, sorry to interrupt. Let me say that. Look, man, do not get this from my mouth that I'm saying Humble and Fred were boring because Humble and Fred are not boring guys. Working with Humble and Fred every day was an absolute it was an experience. It was a pleasure. It was great.

But you know in the you want to put up like Steve Anthony versus as a morning van versus Humble and Fred. Humble and Fred they showed up. Bill, Bill, I've had, as you know, Steve is an FOTM, Steve Anthony. And I've heard the stories of, was it?

Debauchery? Right, like literally. And I hope it's, is it Andy Frost or John Gallagher? I can't remember the roommate Steve Anthony at the time. It might've been Andy Frost. John Gallagher. John Gallagher, okay. And he's like-

Love his show too, by the way. Him and Peter Gross. Oh, you know, I love that show too. My only regret with that show is that I, well, during non-COVID times is I have to hear the show being recorded, which means I know what was said. I always wish I could just have someone else produce Gallagher and Gross Save the World so I can go on a bike ride and listen to these guys I love it but okay it's a great show man but the Steve Anthony um story is just that you know you'll be John Gallagher will be in the kitchen and meet Sue would walk in one morning you know what I mean like this is the kind of stories you could get from Greg Williams would get when you're producing Steve Anthony's show? Well, walked into the studio or walk into the kitchen,

like, uh, wasn't doing remotes at their house though. He was back at the studio. So I got, uh, okay. Okay.

You want to hear a funny Steve Anthony story? I don't care. Cause Steve doesn't like me. So, well, let's just go this way. So, okay.

Early days. There's a convention every year in Toronto where there's a music industry convention where they give away radio awards and music industry awards and et cetera, et cetera. Then they all have all these big parties up in the towers. And I kid when I say Steve Anthony hates me because I'm sure Steve Anthony doesn't even know who the hell I am. But at the time, I was sort of friends with his wife, and his wife's name is escaping me. But I went over to say hello to her. This is 15, 20 years ago now. And started talking to Steve.

And I said, do you remember me? I worked at The Edge. I was a producer, blah, blah, blah. And he said, I remember you. Try and punch me in the face. And I said, try and punch you in the face. What do I want to punch you in the face for? And he's like, no, just hit me as hard as you me in the face. And I said, try and punch you in the face. What do I want to punch you in the face for? And he's like,

no, just hit me as hard as you can in the face. And I said, uh, I looked around and I thought, well, well, you want me to punch you in the face because you want me to get kicked out

and to get kicked out of here. And he said, yeah. And I was like, why? What did I do? I have a theory. Do you want my theory?

Sure. Okay. Steve Anthony has an issue with the brothers, okay? What I mean by that is he had an issue with brother Jake. Right. And the fame that Jake got from the champ, which Jake will tell you. You know Jake. In fact, I know you're as big a champ fan as i am

so jake will tell you that he didn't invent the champ he he changed i who are the what's the duo that uh invented the champ mclean and mclean so he you know he licensed it from them he changed it a bit but anyway steve so i this came up recently when i had brother jake on uh who was also i heard it yeah i heard it yeah I think that the brother Jake the brother Bill I'm sure he's got an issue of brother love by the way Steve Anthony's wife's name is Tanya

Tanya yes absolutely so hi to Todd and hi to Steve as well because I listened to Steve he did a he did a an episode two did he not twice yeah he came back twice okay I heard one of them and and i heard you know he talked a little bit about his drinking and things like that and and and i think that i caught him maybe indulging in a few pops what have you that night and i think he was just i don't think it was

anything personally i don't think it think it is personally. But I will say this. Listening to your interview with Brother Jake the other day, Brother Jake is the reason why I switched my name back to my real name when I got out here. Right. That makes sense. Was he at Seafox? He was at Rock 101, which is down the hallway. He was the morning guy.

And you have to understand, when I arrived here in 2004 in Vancouver, there was nobody else on the radio except for Brother Jake. It was just that big. There was another couple of guys named Larry and Willie who went from CFOX to Jack FM, had their audience too. Larry and Willie, who had come, went from CFOX to Jack FM, had their audience too. But as far as heritage went, as far as popularity went, as far as morning radio DJ, old school guy went, there was no other guy than Brother Jake. So when I was coming out, I had no idea.

And I got a phone call just before I was leaving from Jeff Woods. And he said, I can't do the voice he said there's a brother Jake out in Vancouver and I said yeah he's the morning guy at Rock 101 and he said well what are you going to do

about your name I said what Neil Morrison and that's how I was you know gladly willing to discard my name because Mike, here it is. I fucking hated my name. I'm like, Oh,

what? I hated, I hated it. I hated it. I wish I would, I would love to be known as brother, Mike. Sure.

No problem. This added to your name and business card. If the back in the back corner over the Toronto mic, son. Go for it. Remind us, how did you get the name? Remind us how you got the name, brother Bill. Okay, I'll give you the encapsulated version of it and the true story. So I was going on the air.

My first airship was in 1990, mid to late 1990 on CFNY. And I was coming in after, I believe, the jazz show, the guy named David Haidt. And I thought to myself, no, sorry, Danny Elwell was on before me. So Danny Elwell and I were talking and she says, are you going to use your real name? And I said, I don't think I am. And she said, why? And I said, well, because my name is Neil Morrison. And Neil Morrison to me is sort of what I've gotten all my life. Hey, Neil Young. Hey, Jim Morrison.

And I thought if I worked at Q107, man, I got it made. But I'm going on to the edge with the likes of, at the time, Deadly Headly Jones, Live Earl Jive, Chris Puppy Dog Shepherd. I'm trying to think of some other amazing names that were there. Anyway, there were a lot of people using different names. Was Hal Harbour there? Has he gone by that? Hal Harbour.

Hal Harbour, who Brother Jake mentioned. Yeah, he worked with them out east. Hal was there. Just, yeah, a bunch of people with names like that. And I'm thinking to myself neil morrison sounds too rock uh i mean keep in mind mike this is before nirvana this is you know this is this is the the end of the say the manchester scene out of the uk going into what we wouldn't know but would be the biggest wave of rock music of all time in my opinion uh anyway so i i thought what name am i going to use and so i took the name brother because i went to school with these four lovely individuals one being terry hart who i know you

know absolutely yep terry, friend of Toronto Mike, and a couple of more. They used to call me their brother all the time. They'd see me, hey, brother, hey, brother. I'd be like, okay, I guess they use that. Maybe they're blind and don't realize I'm a Caucasian man, but anyway, that's what they would call me. And then Bill came from, and this is highly embarrassing, Mike,

Bill came from my hair in college. Like a duck, Bill? What are we talking about here? No, Billy Idol. Billy Idol, right? Okay, that's much cooler. So that's where it came from. And I took that name two minutes before I went on

and did my first shift in Illinois. And it's, well, it's stuck for your Toronto career. Anyways, we got to wrap up some loose ends here because I see here, I have another note from Robbie J whose birthday we celebrate today. He said, not only does he meet his wife at one of your club gigs at studio 69, but he tells me that you brother, Bill closed the bar at their wedding. Oh, did I?

Yeah, apparently. And there's another side note just to wrap it up. Robbie wants us to know that you, Neil, he refers to you as Neil, is one of his favorite people that he's gotten to know in the business. And he had so many great memories and adventures and you're a true and ever long friend.

That is a nice thing to say and happy birthday to Rob. Rob and I have some great stories about just things that happen. Did he tell you about the tool story? Did he give you that tool story? You better give it again. Yes, but I want to hear from you. If I start going too long, you

just start cutting me off. I think it was an Edge Fest or it would have been a Lollapalooza, one of the two headlining, Tool were headlining. I had a few cocktails in me and Rob and I somehow managed to make it side stage for Tool. And I thought to myself, this would be a great opportunity as the band's coming on stage to go say hello to my pal Maynard It wasn't a good thing to do there was that they had a personal bodyguard whose name was Hawk He looked a lot like you Mike, maybe not without without the crazy hair, but he had a little tiny Mohawk and he was an ex Green Beret He took this radio DJ down in a matter

Five seconds and I was out of there. Yeah, that's one story he took this radio DJ down in a matter of five seconds, and I was out of there. Yeah. That's one story. I went a bunch more. Our Edge Fest and Lollapalooza is for the Edge staff. Every time we did one of those, we looked forward to it. It was always our highlight of the summer.

It was fantastic. 35,000 people. Molson Park. Did you ever go? Oh, yeah. Several times I went to Edge Fest. Yeah, at Molson Park and Barrie for sure yeah fantastic venue great great great it was just a great time oh the best like neil like i would get there i don't know when the first the first bands would

start at something like i don't know 12 31 o'clock or something but we we drive up and park in the like the walmart parking or something like that and'd walk over so that you didn't have that pain in the ass to get back south on the 400 after this thing was over. But I actually just loved it. So many bands I'd see just because I wasn't there for the band, but they'd show up and I'd just get into them because you see a band live and you like them more. That's just how it works.

But I loved the address. Yeah, and we love putting them on. I mean, I've got a guy out here who I think you may have heard of via Twitter and stuff named Phil Evans. And Phil was our promotions director and had a lot to do with organizing these, along with the great people of, at the time, MCA Concerts Canada. And it was just magical. The weather generally held up. But for me, personally, one of my favorite intros, introing a band, there's been a couple.

But one that really stood out for me was, I think I introduced the Tea Party at Molson Park. And it was the year, were you there the year they were throwing bottles at the bands? At Cake at the at the bands at cake right is this the year cake yeah yeah collective soul as well yeah and so the tea party were the headliner that year and uh their manager the late Steve Hoffman uh came to me and said look the band's not going to perform with like people shoving rocks into bottles and tossing them at them because it's dark now and you can't see them coming through the lights.

He says, you've got to figure something out and get them to stop and the show is over. I went, okay. I thought to myself, why don't we do the opposite of what I should be doing? I got out there and I said to the crews, cover yourselves. We're going to get a little

bit of an entourage or a bombardment here. And they said, okay, no problem. So I said, let's just all get it out now. Throw everything. And it was just a barrage, you know, and I just said, can we just get to the rock and roll? Tea party, boom, came out, taken care of, good. Nice. Yeah, I got lucky on that one.

I'll tell you, I thought I was going to lose. I thought he was going to lose a limb. Now soon we'll do that traditional Toronto Mike thing where we kind of walk through the, uh, career with a primary focus on a one Oh 2.1, as you can imagine. But,

uh, today being, this is the 20th. So we celebrate Robbie J's birthday today, but tomorrow is the, uh, on a much sadder note, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary

of Dave Bookman's passing. Yeah. And I knew you were going to talk about it. And I tried to come up with something that I thought would do Dave's Bookman memory justice. And I don't think I did because it's been a year uh i think everybody said what

they need to say and for the most part most of the things that were said about book i think were rightly said uh by the right people and uh and you know i hadn't seen dave in 15 years i had very little contact with him maybe a quick messenger back and forth. But, you know, the Dave I remember was in my head and behind me a lot longer back than for a lot of people who were shocked. But I will say this. The people, and this is more towards the people that knew and loved Dave, the people who did really did. And, you know, we all know what he did for independent music and what he did for the music community in Toronto

and what he did helping the likes of Josie Dye along the way with her career. Dave was always about putting somebody else before himself. And even when I was working at CFNY with him side by side on a show called Live in Toronto, when I was going through some personal issues, he never once called me up and said, man, you're not pulling your weight or anything like that he just there was a joke that he said that i like to ease into the weekends and ease out of the weekends but anyway another story uh but you know did you ever meet dave you know i've never i've never i've never met dave bookman no okay Okay. Most people, I think, who first meet Dave Bookman,

especially if you went to see a Tuesday night show at the Horseshoe Tavern, you'd probably think he was a little odd. He wasn't the kind of guy that liked to be in big social settings, shall we say, despite the fact that that's what he did. He was never super comfortable with attention on him um like a lot of people including myself are on radio um but man you see this is the thing about dave i'm sure you've seen it the introduction at massey hall of the rio statics with the bass thing going one of the greatest if not the greatest intro of a band of all time and that was

book you know if you gave book the job no matter how uncomfortable he was he took it and he went with it and it was just it was book well you know uh i do those monthly episodes with mark wiseblood from uh 1236 which are outstanding, by the way. So do you listen for the entire two and a half hours? Maybe not in one sitting, but Phil Evans, who is a very good friend of mine out here myself, talk about Mark

quite often, and it's all good, Mark. We're blown away as we are blown away with you, if we can. Slow down, Neil. Slow down. A different kind of blown away with you, if we can. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Neil. Slow down. A different kind of blown away. No, Mark has that memory that I wish I had.

I cannot believe the things he can remember. And it's just phenomenal to listen. Because I find myself listening to Mark telling a story, and then I'm going, Oh yeah, that's right. Maybe I was involved. Maybe I wasn't, maybe I heard about it. And, uh, my friend Phil as well, but, but with your show, um, your show, we just, and I'm speaking for Phil right now. He should be here. We always discuss the fact that you ask the best questions and you can ask, you can ask the questions that people of Canada else ask like you could have asked brother Jake the other day what his first name was and I

bet you he would have given it to you I actually could I think he would have as well by the way and I actually decided not to do it just because I know he'd give it to me and I knew he probably didn't want to do that so do you want it I don't even know what I would do with that information. So I'm not, I would, if he's not willing to give up, Hey, not only say that I brought,

did I say that brother Jake has like, you know, he knows everybody knows brother Jake. He knows everybody. So I'm not telling you, you know, I only got brother Jake because, uh,

Jean Valaitis was on like just the week before Jean and, uh, Jake are, uh, attached at the hip. And Gene basically said to Jake, you know, I know you've never done anything like this because Jake had never done a podcast or anything. He said anything over the internet.

But Gene just said to Jake, this is different. You got to do it. And that honestly, like even hearing your words right there and shout out to Captain Phil Evans because I've never met Captain Phil Evans and I've never met you,

but you're two guys I feel like I know, like just from like tweets and emails and just from chatting with you, you both contributed to Toronto Mic'd episodes before, even though you haven't been on. And we'll get to it later, but the party for Marty, I saw the video presentations you sent in and we're going to

get to the party for marty later but uh it means a lot to hear you tell me you enjoy the show because i have a lot of respect for you guys and uh and you as a broadcaster so thanks man oh thank you right back at you mike it's no lie i mean i i we i i'm blown away. The latest thing that's blown me away, and that's why I wanted to be involved, was the kick out of the jams with FOTMs. I mean, this is the new way of doing request shows. You don't call radio stations anymore. You send your voice via email to Toronto Mike. You put it together.

But I will say this, Mike. One criticism. The song I gave you was one of my favorite hard rock, punk rock songs of all time. And I'm partly to blame too because I talk too long. But you put my voice over the best part of the song. That's a tough call I have to make. But you did give me a very long...

I did. It had to go somewhere. I got to say, but you did give me a very long... I did. It had to go somewhere. I gotta say something to the listenership. That's Scruff Connors, the listenership, about the FOTM Kick Out the Jams episodes, which is that they were through the whole pandemic, it was

two every week, and that's slowed down in the past week. And I just want people to know, it's not that I'm done with the series after 14 episodes or whatever it's that the entries have slowed down like I really I can't put one together till I get 10 audio clips emailed to me so I was getting 20 a week for weeks and I got 14 done I think it's 14 and uh suddenly I'm waiting for the 10th to come in so I can make a new episode so why don't you do you want to do the sales pitch? Tell people listening what they should email me. Why don't you?

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, for sure. No problem. So what you do is you choose a song, any song. There's no censorship here. So, I mean, I imagine it is kind of a family show. You want to keep it within reason, but the odd, you know, F or whatever that word. Are you okay with that? Somebody submitted Killing in the Name Of. Would you play it?

Yeah, I played it. Okay, well, there you go. That's the precedent right there. Okay, so there you go. So what you do is you just email Toronto Mike. Mike at torontomike.com. And what did you put in the subject line again, Mike? You know that I stopped caring about that. Cause,

uh, that was originally, so I didn't miss it. Then I realized I'm not going to miss this. Okay. So you, okay. You just put,

you put song and then you put the name of the song and song, and then you record your voice. Uh, and all you do is hit send and Mike puts it all together. And it's a lot of fun, especially listening for me anyway. Like it was great to hear Tara Sloan and her Ramones. I was like Tara Sloan Ramones.

I love this woman anyway. And, and there's been a couple of other known people that have called in with theirs. I had, what's his name from Corky and the Juice Pigs, Sean Cullen. Yeah. And Hoxley Workman, your former roommate. Hoxley Workman. No, he's, your former roommate. Huxley Workman. Not really. Huxley Workman. And people like

that, it's great to hear celebrities give their song. Peter Gross. Yeah. Hebsey. Hebsey. There you go. I got another story. But anyway, another time. No, but it's great

for everybody who's listening to toronto mike do not think that oh i'm not no nobody knows me i don't have a story about the song just send the song in for fotm so mike can put out more episodes because brother bill loves him and everybody else does too yeah please i really like putting them together and there's one a listener chris, I think his name is, his parents recorded this sweet as all hell piece of audio

about their wedding song. It was a Carpenter's song. And I'm listening to this thing and it's, you know, it's an emotional time, Bill, because, you know, we're all in lockdown and there's a virus out there.

And it was the sweetest thing. I actually decided to lead off the episode with this and just like i know they're probably not toronto mic listeners but their son is and their son's like hey mom and dad you guys should do this just you know and they did it and it was amazing so you know just tell your loved ones to send me an audio file of uh them talking about their favorite song or one of their favorite songs and and you don't have to have the song tell the story, but I will tell you as a listener that if you tell a little story,

it makes me want to hear Stairway to Heaven one more time as opposed to, oh, here's a station playing Stairway to Heaven one more time. Please, someone put a nail through my head right now. No, but if people come up with a story, hey, the reason why I'm playing this song is this is what happened in my life, that's great. Oh, you know, Dani Elwell did it too.

Ah, yes, that's right. She picked Bowie, Heroes. Right, right. I think she was on that same episode as Tara Sloan. I think I opened with one and then I closed with the other. Yeah, Tara opened it. That's right. That's right. Tara, by the way, Tara, is she amazing or what?

I just had her on the Ralph Ben-Murray podcast, not that kind of rabbi because she's a Buddhist and she's a practicing Buddhist, but she's like a rock star slash sports media presenter person with Ron McLean slash Buddhist. Like she's really cool. That's fantastic. And without crossing the line line obviously it is 2020

she's also an incredibly talented and attractive lady yeah i uh yeah obviously i that goes yes she's a very very attractive very easy on the eyes as we say but uh so um i'm gonna get you to cfny and then i'm gonna have more cfny questions uh Okay. But let me just take a quick moment to tell you that if you, brother Bill, were sitting right here where you should be, and I know that's a long drive from White Rock, I'd be giving you a Palma pasta lasagna. And you know, I really... And you know, you don't want me...

Sorry to interrupt again, but I keep hearing about Palma between you and Humble and Fred, because I listen to them too on a regular basis. And I'm going to come out there and I'm going to steal one from either one of you guys, or someone's going to put me on their show again, because it just sounds really good. I promise you this. When you come out here, I will put you back in for another episode. And I promise you a lasagna from Palma Pasta.

I'll make that happen. Done deal, man. Thank you. And I can stick one of these in the mail for you. I got a Toronto Mike sticker for you from a sticker. You would love to, have I ever, have I ever, have I ever mailed you a Toronto Mike sticker? No, you never mailed me a Toronto Mike sticker and I would gladly take it. And I would put,

put it somewhere where it would be the most effective in promoting you as an industry. Okay, good. Cause Alan cross put it on his garbage can. So, well, that's one step.

That's one step further than I thought he would do. I thought he'd just rip it up and throw it in the garbage. Just, just kidding. Alan. How often, how often would you see Phil Evans in non-COVID times

a couple of times a year two three times we have a group of us out here that worked at CFNY in the 1980s and 90s I'm sort of the where I came in was 1988 and that was as a producer I didn't go on the air

until 1990 and that was sort of the, some would say, the bad times for CFNY. I can tell you for sure when you look at I think 1988 was it? Was it 88 when, before Reiner Schwartz comes in to mop it up or whatever?

When you're playing the Madonna and the Phil Collins and all that? Is that? It would have been mid to late 1988 to 1989. Yeah. When that's when Reiner came in and made a life happy again. I don't know too much about it because I really wasn't in the studio that long, that long.

I was there once a week to produce on a weekend. So wasn't really there for the hands-on. So I can't really get into it with being without just being a person who's how did you get in though? Like maybe tell me how the hell do you end up, uh, getting in the door in the first place at, uh, in, was it a Brampton strip mall at the time? 83 Kennedy road, Southern Brampton. So I grew up in Bramley, which is East Brampton. It's not Brampton. It's Bramley F section represent,

you know, Russell Peters. Oh, he's actually G-section. But anyway. So, okay. So I'm a pizza guy in Bramley listening to CFNY. And then I always thought I want to work there one day. And in June of 1988, of all things, I went on a little bit of a Car ride if you went on a trip with a buddy of mine down to down to visit some friends in Birmingham, Alabama And we got to Alabama The girl was nice her family were nice, but her parents were in the midst of a divorce and things weren't going well there So every time her father came over she's like, oh, she doesn't like any of my friends blah blah blah

Anyway came over and and he sat down And talked to me for about 20 minutes and you can see them all in the kitchen going What's he saying to him because he's punk rocker. He's not gonna like that and 20 minutes half an hour and he said, you know, you should get into radio So I went it was just like that light going light bulb going off in my head. And I thought that's what I want to do. So I went back to school for a year to try and figure out what I was going to do. And I got into this certificate program where you could hopefully get placed in a job somewhere and then take it from there. So I tried forNY didn't get it but I got a job at Sam the record man in the Brambley City Center and one day Ivor

Hamilton who was the then music director at CFNY walked in and we started talking and long story longer he found out that we went to the same high school Chihuahua secondary inary in Bramley. His teacher, his mother was a teacher there. He went to Humber College. I went to Humber College. And also he worked at CFY, and I really wanted to work at CFY. So he said to me, I want you to call me every Wednesday.

And I think Carlos Benavides told a similar story when he was on the show. Do you know he's never been on the show? Pardon me? Do you know he's never been on the show? Well, where did I hear that from then? Only because I know this, because at this party for Marty, which we'll talk about soon, I saw him in the corner of my eye,

and he never made his way onto the mic. And I remember thinking, like, that was a chance to get him on the mic. And I remember thinking like, I, that was a chance to get him on the show. And, and yeah, he's never, I don't believe in it. How could I forget?

I would know he's never been on Toronto mic. Oh, okay. Well, I nominate him if I can do that. So Carl, anyway, so,

okay. So, so Ivers said, I want you to call me every Wednesday, three 30, every, every, every Wednesday at three 30,

until I can tell you, I've got something for you. Six to eight months went by, kept.30, every Wednesday at 3.30 until I can tell you I've got something for you. Six to eight months went by. Kept calling him. Finally, he said, I think we have a job for you. That was my foot in the door. Don Burns and Ivor Hamilton are the reasons why I work at CFNY. They're the people that got me the job, gave me the chance. Reiner Schwartz, two years later, because I worked on the video road show with Martin streak and a guy named

Bobbo for a year or so. And then I was driving around pizza driving one night and I heard Craig Van. Has he ever been on? Craig Van's definitely been on. Yeah, absolutely. And in fact,

maybe he was the one telling the Carlos story at the party for Marty. Cause he had a few pops that night. He was definitely telling you a story and I want to, I'll go back to that story in a bit because I think I want to repeat something he said. But anyway, so Craig and I grew up together in Brampton. His parents and my parents were friends

and I heard Craig on the air on the overnight show and I heard him call Michael Stipe Michael Stripe and I'm like, okay. Okay, if Craig can do it, I can do it. You just reminded me of the infamous

editing mistake he made with Ted Wallachian's. Which I got from Ted. I got that story from Ted and again from Craig. Craig should cringe every time you hear it. It was back in the days when they used tape. And I guess he missed a bunch of bad words well i think he uh i think when when ted did the mess

up he sort of did one of those uh i do them too these these runs of curse words like shit fuck like that's like yeah yeah that's right yeah yeah and he and it aired it's still a great story uh he got his job back eventually. But no, so, okay, so Craig was on the air, and then Ryan, I went into Reiner Schwartz, who's now gone as well, and I asked Reiner, can I have a shot? And he put me on,

and then he asked me to do it again, and then he asked another girl by the name of Stephanie Eccles, who's not in the business anymore, would the three of you mind doing like rotating shifts? And the story I was always told, and no disrespect to Craig or Stephanie, because I don't know where Stephanie is, but Craig is a great, great jock. At the end, a couple months in, Reiner pulled me aside and said, so you're going to be the

overnight guy three days a week week and Neil Mann will do the other two nights. So I got the job on a permanent basis. And that was the rest. I worked my way up to afternoon drive and it took 16 years to do so. So those names. Okay. So firstly, Ivor Hamilton's an FOTM and he's a very sweet gentleman. I really like talking to Ivor. He's, he's done pretty okay for himself too, but he don't, I don't know if he's still doing it, but he was running marathons for a while after his big weight loss. He had some problems with his knees for a bit. Ivor's been out here a couple of times. He's,

he has seen the presidential palace in White Rock where somebody else lives. I'm next door, But he's been by. Don't you feel too young to live in White Rock? Don't you have to be what? Don't you feel too young to be living in White Rock? Funny you say that. Yes, and I'm 53, right? Well, because my first wife's grandparents lived in White Rock.

So back in 1998, I spent a good run in White Rock visiting her grandparents. And I remember, Deb, distinctly, the average age seemed to be about, I don't know, 106. Yeah, newly wed and nearly dead

without the newly wed. That's Victoria. It is an older community overall. It's sort of gentrifying now. You're seeing some younger families come in, but it is a very wealthy community as well. There are some places you can find on the cheap, which I was lucky enough to do in the front of my landlord's in-law suite in their house on the side of the mountain. But yeah, overall, it's an older community. But it's got... Mike, the reason why I like it so much is,

first of all, I grew up with a sewer in my backyard. Now I have a Pacific Ocean in my face. Oh, yeah. That's beautiful. No, I kid. It's actually wonderful. Is the pier open again? If I was there, the pier was closed.

Well, the pier's had a couple of problems. It was hit by a hurricane force winds and damaged by a few boats a few years ago. That's probably when you came by. And now because of coronavirus, it's closed again. So it hasn't been open. But it's beautiful. I mean, you got the oceans. What

more do you want? And it's beautiful. You know, they did a... I know a lot of that stuff still from Expo 86, I guess. Yeah, they use some of the chairs. You know the best thing to do, Mike, so we don't turn this into, hey, National Geographic's White Rock. Just Google it and you'll see some pictures. Google White Rock. There's a big white rock and there's a Pacific Ocean.

There's some eagles, too, for those who like to see the airborne traffic. Right, right. Okay, you mentioned a couple of names of people who are no longer with us. So I just want to... Don Burns, for example, is a guy. And Don Burns, much like Bookie, although Bookie, I was able to ask Bookie if he would come on Toronto Mic,

then he gave me a polite no thank you. But Reiner Schwartz is a guy who just passed... I know, sorry, Don Burns is a guy. I was literally like going to approach him because he had just come on Humble and Fred. And I was going to ask him if he'd do Toronto Mike. And he died suddenly of a heart attack. And that never, never was never came to be.

But Don Burns and Reiner Schwartz are a couple of guys who played a big role in getting you on the air at 102.1. They were. And Don Burns, just to prequisite that. So Don Burns was the guy who was brought in by David Marsden to continue the spirit of radio, to make sure it went to the next, where it needed to go. Presuming that management on the other side wouldn't get in the way, which they did. Management on the other side wouldn't get in the way which they did so dawn

Dawn was the guy who Gave me a shot to since little nervous kid sitting in a studio at 83 Kennedy Road South Brampton And I remember how he was a big man He was six four probably he was a big guy back in those days Big burly guy and he had this big booming voice and he calls me into his studio and he says, okay, so what stations do you listen to? And I said, well, I listened to CF and Y pretty much. I'm occasionally CFDR, sometimes Q107, but for the most part, I'm a CF and Y guy. And he asked me a whole bunch of really serious questions.

And then he put his, I remember a pause and he leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head and he put his feet up and he was wearing moose slippers and i just thought you know that's that's my my story i have about dawn but that to me was dawn um he liked to to test you a little bit and well then once you kind of passed all the silliness began you know right you know could be a tough program director but when it came to being a human being dawn there was no nicer human being than Don and I think that Danny Elwell told you about his funeral and how it was probably the best funeral of all time I wish I could have been there but, living on the West Coast and dealing with some elderly parents, I couldn't do

that. But I just remember Don being kind, fair, and honest. And you know what, Mike? Not a lot of management for a long period of time after that were like that. Not all of them, but just some of them. Now, you mentioned mentioned off the top we talked a bit about humble and fred and uh maybe i could ask you about a few more uh personalities you worked with that okay what about the mysterious one i don't even know where he is i have uh scott maybe well yes so i have scott turner who we should also talk about because i think scott turner is one of our underappreciated uh gems in this uh marketplace but uh uh talk to me about chris shepherd like firstly do you know where he's at and what was it like working with shep

well first of all i heard what scott said something about costa rica or something the last time i saw chris shepherd was at one of those industry award parties because after Steve Anthony asked me to leave, he asked Shep to leave. No, just kidding. We were walking through a hallway, walking through a bar, going to the main venue, and I heard, hey, brother. And just Shep had this voice, just had this great, great voice that you could just tell it was him in a second.

I turned around, there he was, gave me a hug and gone. And I've never seen him again. That's 20, 20 years ago. Don't know where he is. I mean,

was that voice put on? Because I always assumed it was a character voice that it couldn't have been him when he's like alone on a, like that whole, like kind of a faux British accent thing he did. Can't be real. It was his voice. He did add to it.

I, he's not, and I don't mean like adding fake this and fake that, but he projected his voice the way a broadcaster projected. And when he did, that's what it came out. That's how it came out. So that was his voice.

But, you know, more importantly, importantly, we're also talking about a guy who had a big heart, a great personality. Because Mike, when did you start listening to CFMWireTheEdge? Do you remember, Chris? Yeah, yes, absolutely.

I used to record him to cassette his all-night, often imitated, never duplicated live to airs. Yeah. Right. all night uh often imitated never duplicated live to airs yeah right well even though i'm going to use this this kind of uh what he was in comparison with i mean he still was his own entity and without a doubt in my mind the best club dj to come out of the city of toronto uh and that personality one of the greatest radio personalities too, and there's been tons. But Sheppey had a way of delivering

and a way of treating everybody with kindness and respect and very similar to George Stravallopoulos, had time for everybody. But when Shep was given the piece of paper and said, you no longer have a free-form radio show, Shep did what Shep would have done. And without a doubt in that is he ripped it up on the air,

and that was his last show. Wow. without a doubt in that is he ripped it up on the air and that was his last show wow he said that's uh i i mean like i said i didn't record much radio to cassette but when uh shep was doing a live to air i would record it because you'd hear stuff in the mix there that you just never heard and it was mind-blowing to me as a as a young as a younger guy yeah well you know i i maybe i'm speaking out of line here but uh i mean shep would get a lot of great mixes sent to him from an independent firm in new york city called dmz i think it was called this is the real talk i've been waiting for yeah so he'd get a lot of the mixes from them but he still had to mix from one piece of vinyl to the other. So he was doing stuff. But I'm not going to lie to you.

And I'm not trying to throw Chris under the bus by any means. But not a lot of that live beat mixing was going on in the studio at Brampton. I'll tell you that. I remember when I first found out, because I was helping Humble Howard and Fred Patterson with podcasting in December 2006. And I found out the Humble report was just something that was faxed to him. Like these jokes were like he subscribed to some service and these jokes would be faxed to him.

Yeah, that's common. Common for morning show DJs, for DJs. But the problem, the thing is, the way Humble was able to make him humbles was because of his personality and the way he delivered. And that's, the thing is the way Humble was able to make him Humble's was because of his personality and the way he delivered. And that's still the way he does things. Oh no, I know. I now, in my

40-something-year-old mind, I totally get it all and how it all pieces together. But it is something that you sort of like just blindly believe that, you know, early in the morning Humble Howard takes out his notepad and his pencil. He reads the newspaper or whatever. And he starts writing jokes that he's going to do in his humble report that

morning. He's doing crossword puzzles. So, so Howard, okay, here's a great story for you. Humble and Fred, when they first started in Brampton,

uh, Howard would ask me cause I was the overnight guy full time at that time. He'd always say, Hey Bill, can you give me a call at like 4.15, and then if I need you at 4.20 just to get me out of bed? And I'd say, sure. So I'd call him up, and meanwhile, at this point, I've had like 19 cups of coffee, and I'm mid-afternoon,

and I'd call him up, and I'm like, hey, Howard, time to get up. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this kind of stuff, and all of a sudden there'd be a pause in the air. Bill, I'm just waking up here i'll be back in five minutes and be a lot quieter that was one of the memories i have a humble howard i always i always thought that was kind of funny that and we went to florida once freddie and and humble and myself and some promotion people freddie's buddy darren jimmy veal went, went down to Florida and I used to fish off the, during the, where we're waiting

to set up for the morning show, I'd fish and taught Humble Howard how to fish actually. And after that trip, every time I saw Humble Howard, he called me the same thing and that was, hey, there's do that. And I'd be like, do that?

What's this? He's like, you know, do this, do that, that do this so the next time you're talking i'm saying i was talking to do that the other day i don't remember totally totally great great people though man how about uh the sweetest voice i ever heard may potts nicest lady in the world ever period that's it okay uh and she's still on the air at Boom here in Toronto. She was also Miss Estonia in 1976. Wow.

I don't think I knew this. That's because it's a lie, Mike. See, this is why I don't record in the evenings. I believe anything in the evenings. Her background is Estonian and I used to call her don't record in the evenings. I believe anything in the evenings. Her background is Estonian, and I used to call her Miss Estonia all the time. But I made that up.

I'm pretty gullible because you had me go in there. I know Diana Swain was Miss Chilliwack. Oh. That is a true story because she told that to me. Before you ask me the next question, I don't want to skip a header and like that but can we take maybe five minutes at the end so i can talk a little bit about the lowest of the low uh better than that i pulled a quote from you that i actually i know

i heard you with ron so you're very up to date because ron i'm trying to think this is wednesday right so ron was monday i've laid off mike i got all the time in the world spoiler alert come on here tease everything through here i i wake up i look out the window great day and i sit i listen to you guys uh yeah we're gonna we'll carve out some time to talk about the low because i already have that my notes uh for sure for sure for sure i gotta say as i get older i enjoy the lowest Lowest of the Low more and I listened to them like crazy back in the early 90s, but we'll get to the

we'll do a whole Lowest of the Low segment shortly. I won't hit you up with too many names more here, but what about Alan Cross? Alan took offense to me going into the kitchen once years ago and stealing his roast beef sandwich really yeah i know it doesn't sound like anything now but let me tell you something to alan cross it was a big deal and it went on it went on his show for at least two months every day Alan was trying

to find out who the thief of his roast beef sandwich was in all honesty though Mike oh that's a joke too but that's true I don't know because you told me the Miss Estonia things and now I'm a little guarded

if you hear a long pause like a really long pause you know i'm lying uh alan and i you you always want the truth mike and i believe in giving the truth real time and i uh didn't always see eye to eye um as a program director he had to deal with me when i was going through some pretty rough patches and and i i thank him for that because he could have easily just... And if you like, we can talk about these in detail. I'm glad to talk about them. Well, it's if you like.

I don't want to put you on the spot. Like, they're personal. I have no problems answering any question or talking about anything. So anyway, let me just start by saying that when I was in college and I had a paper to write, my final paper, I interviewed Alan Cross and he was the first guy to let me into the studios at Kennedy Road, South and Brampton to watch him work. I'd done a pizza drive into the shift and I called him and I said, would you mind if I came up? And he said, sure, come on up. And he was very kind to me.

Come on up. And he was very kind to me. I want to choose my words correctly because I love Alan like a brother, but some of it is bullshit. And I don't want to get into detail really right now because I don't think this is the place. But Alan is a very, very well researched individual however I want to say this and that is and I want Alan to be my friend after this too yeah Alan wasn't there that's about the I'm to be as honest as possible. When we were going to all the concerts, seeing all the bands,

myself, my buddy Shagasaurus, and other people, Alan Cross was rarely there. And I think sometimes that Alan takes a little too much credit for things that he has researched very well, but shouldn't be putting his name attached to it it shouldn't be him talking about certain things but this sounds a bit to me like uh shep playing a mix that he had nothing to do with and sort of people forever just saying oh that's the chris shepherd mix or humble howard reading the humble report and then it was a fax subscription thing. Alan's sort of the

authoritative voice regardless of whether he's got the cred to make the claim. You're right, Mike. That's the way I should be looking at it. I guess maybe it's coming from a bit of a jealous side of things because I'm not going to lie to you.

Alan is a way better broadcaster than I was. He always will be. I even got a letter when I left from somebody saying, when I was afternoons, because I took over afternoons at the Edge for Alan, and they wrote me a nice long letter. At the end, it said, just enjoy

what you had because you'll never be the announcer Alan Cross was. That's fair. That is fair. I just found sometimes I see Alan doing things on television or through the media or press, and it doesn't – I'm not jealous. That's not what it is. But I just think, is this the truth? Is this my truth from what I remember?

And sometimes it's not. And, again, I hope Alan doesn't get upset with what I'm saying now, because you're absolutely right. I don't think it is any different than what Chris Shepard did and what Humble Howard does. And it's just a personal thing that I guess I just take away from that. And I'm just being honest. Well, brother, I appreciate the real talk.

I mean, a lot of people come up on the show and they blow smoke up my ass for 90 minutes. Well, you know what, man? I'm pretty much dead in this industry as it is now. So what else do you want to know? A lot of times people will say, let's say somebody's actively working for, I don't know, Rogers Station or something.

And then somebody is out of the biz, a little older, mid-50s, late fifties or something, and has come to accept that maybe they will never work again for like Rogers. Okay. That person that's, that is the guest you want because that's the person who's out of fucks to give.

And they will tell it like it is like warts and all, which is really what I, what I crave. So I, I appreciate it, but we don't, we'll, we'll catch up to this before we get to the lowest of the low.

Uh, I want to ask about, uh, Marty streak. Sure. And at the risk of getting all those notes, I get that. I say Marty with a D apparently I have a speech impediment and I,

and I say, I'll say Marden, duh, Marden streak. I call them Marty. But Marty, I need to hit the T really hard so I don't get these angry emails. But last time I saw you,

which is not in person, I've never met you, but when the party for Marty, that's really hard for me because it's party for Marty, you did submit a very, a video and I was actually, uh, recording live from the lobby and catching a lot of people, uh, as they came in and left people like May Potts and Alan Cross and Craig Vann, et cetera, et cetera. And Robbie J and, uh, Oh, before I forget, Bingo Bob and I were chatting this morning about something else and bingo bob says that

you're a fine man and that you hosted a new year's eve party with him dj'ing at zen lounge in 02 into 03 and it was an absolute blast so bob says it was a blast and bingo bob's an amazing human being i see him with humble and fred once in a while i know he's in saint catherine's now as being a program director. So hi, Bingo. So hello, Bingo Bob. You looking for somebody? No, no, no. But we did that Zen Lounge

and they were going to pay me $1,500. They said, take 12 and leave early. And I did. Oh, okay. That's big money to me for a night of... That sounds like big money. And you're probably not telling the CRA about that. No, no, no, no. And it wasn't really

big money for me either after I went to where I went afterwards. But again, another story for another time. I don't know. Okay, hold on. I want to talk about Martin Streak, but just a moment here. My understanding is, as a guy who never worked in radio, I don't know if you knew that, never worked in radio.

I would never have known that mike you'd be surprised you'd be surprised how many people will sit there who don't know who i am and then they'll be at the end of it all when we stop recording they'll be like what stations did you work at again and i can tell them none of those stations would have anything to do with me but i didn't apply so okay so what am i talking about i'm talking about my understanding being that the big money the real money is in these club appearances like it's the that's like you got you that the the club gigs are how you got your money right well i mean i was uh at the time i think i was doing evenings and an overnight and a weekend shift as well. If you were Chris Shepard or Hedley Jones or a morning

person who wanted to make some extra money, which you really didn't in those days, let me tell you, you would do these club gigs for extra money primarily. Yeah, you know, if you were smart, you claimed some of it. Sometimes you didn't. Depends how they paid you. And what I was talking about there, those specific numbers were for New Year's Eve only. Okay, right. I wouldn't make anywhere near that. Okay, I think that's right. Per night.

And my DJ would make half of what I made. But we used to get free drinks. So, I mean, that was pretty good. But would you be willing to tell us what, like, know how michael jordan made three million dollars a year from the bulls and then he went off and made like a hundred million from his endorsement deals or something like that like like what did a brother bill make from the radio station uh i made what i considered until i moved to cFOX, subpar money. I mean, do you want actual numbers?

I mean, I do. I'm curious. Okay, here you go, bud. I'll give it to you. I left CFNY doing afternoons, the afternoon drive program, and co-hosting live in Toronto, and I was making $56,000 a year. And remind us what year this is this is 2000 to 2004 let's say and is it fair to say somebody like a humble howard is making like

200 or something 250 or something um not sure at this time um but i do know of announcers and i'm not saying this is howard and lord knows I'm not going to even guess what Howard makes because that wouldn't be fair to Howard either. But okay, let's put it this way. There may have been someone I dated in the 1990s, Mike, who may have worked for a company that may have been able to show me what everybody made at that time at the edge. that may have been able to show me what everybody made at that time at the edge. So this is how I came to the conclusion that I was being severely underpaid. What in,

what imagine you could see that and just, that is the, that's a, I won't even, I do know, I won't name any of these names at all, but my, and I don't remember,

I don't remember what people made now. I can't, I can't remember what they made, but i did see it on paper at one point i was like and you saw you relatively speaking you were being underpaid uh for for the job i was doing compared to the job say that martin streak was doing uh-huh because as uh i've learned the only two uh like positions uh the only two time slots on radio that are revenue generating are that morning show and that afternoon drive.

And now I just think it's morning. I don't even think it is afternoon drive anymore. Okay, so when Derringer's contract expires, that'll be the end of the big paydays for Toronto morning people, maybe. You know, they say that, but,

um, will it, I don't know. Uh, it depends on what, how radio evolves. I mean, if radio can evolve the way you've evolved doing this,

you know, um, I mean, look at this successful program that you have, Mike. And I know, I know you're thinking, oh,

thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you have, Mike. I know you're thinking, oh, thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But radio has not really evolved the way it should have for many years now. And I think with – I'm surprised, actually, Mike. Maybe I'm just blowing smoke into the breeze here. But I'm surprised that you have not been approached by the likes of Chris Dunner,

Duncombe, or somebody over at chorus who have that huge, um, um, uh, department where they're doing, working on podcasts. Where, where FOTM Robbie J works. Yeah.

They do great work over there. I'm not saying they don't, but why wouldn't they come to Toronto Mike and say, look what you've done for all of these people. Would you come on board and help us out? I truth. Truth is I've never even had a nibble not making it you know not that i necessarily would pounce on such a thing but i've never even had anybody say

hey you want to have a coffee and talk like i've never had any nibble from any mainstream media outlet ever in my life so i don't know i think that will change one day my friend i really do maybe i'm when i'm 20 years into the biz, maybe then I'll get that first nimble. You know what? If I may, funny you say 20 years because some people ask me what it was like when I worked at the Edge as far as celebrity-wise,

the F-level celebrities that we were. But it was funny because I was on the air at the Edge for 10 years and literally to the it was funny because I was on the air at the Edge for 10 years, and literally to the 10th anniversary that I went on the air, no one ever recognized me. And then for some reason, I remember walking into the then cool house to see a band, and I just maybe started, did I start doing drive now? I can't remember.

But that's when I realized that people kind of knew who I was all of a sudden. It was really weird the way it kind of transformed overnight like that. So don't be surprised if that doesn't happen with you. Well, I can't wait. It's going to be very exciting when this does happen. All right.

Martin Streak, who took over the live to airs from the aforementioned Chris Shepard. Tell me a bit, if you don't mind about like your relationship with him and anything else you can share about the, the late Martin streak.

I wish I was the thing I love the most about this. And I wish, like I mentioned with Bookman, I wish I could add to what's been said about Martin. I can reiterate a couple of things that I heard that I completely agree with 100%. But first of all, I'll just tell you that I met Martin in 1988, the first day I walked into the studio. I was working with Ivor Hamilton, Neil Mann in the music department, and Martin came in. He was the head of the video roadshow at the time.

He would have been early 20s at this time. He was a few years younger than me, or older than me, pardon me. And Martin and I rose through the ranks of the Edge at the same time. We got put on the air at the same time. There was a big problem, as you've heard, not problem, but a situation on Martin's side with Chris and Club 102 and him not wanting Martin to use it. But, you know, Stu Myers and the station were like,

well, we own the rights, so we're going to use it. And Martin really had no concrete foundation to stand on and say, Chris, I want to change it. I will change it. He was, you know, we were just being put on the air. We had to do what they told us. And they did give us a very, very long string. But that thing with Chris was tough for Martin because he, like you, like I, were big fans of Chris's work and what Chris had built there.

But anyway, he, so Martin and I kind of came up simultaneously, if you will. I came up in the on-air part, studio, blah, blah, blah. He came up in the clubs. Martin was a great ambassador for the brand that was 102.1 The Edge. Good looking, very friendly, very upbeat energy, friendly, very upbeat energy, smart guy, loved people, you know, and he was just a wonderful human being. But like Craig Venn said at the party for Marty, I wish and Craig wished that Marty could have brought his personality, the persona we knew onto the radio and projected it even more. Because if they, if he had done that sky would have been the limit.

Because one of the things that you notice when you look at Martin Streak's career is that he never, you know, we talked about those revenue generating spots, but Marty never gets a spot on the dial i mean on the station you know between morning show and afternoon drive like uh marty is a thursday 30 and live to airs primarily yeah and and here's something humble howard said to me and maybe i'm talking out of place now and i love martin and i don't get me wrong but martin are sorry humble pulled me aside once after his show standing in the hallway and he said you know what the

difference is between you and Martin streak and I said what's that he goes you love radio you love doing radio you get your you work on the craft and again not trying to put Marty down in any way shape or form but this is what I remember Howard saying. He said, Martin is into the showmanship of it, wants to be the guy that everybody likes in the clubs, but he doesn't work on the craft. That's the difference between the two of you guys.

And to me, that was a true statement. I always found Martin to be a little too the same, the same all the time. He kind of had a routine that he would use, hold on, you know, Beastie Brothers, things like this, you know. And for me, it was great in the clubs. But the problem was, let's get Martin out of the clubs and start seeing a real personality they gave him the thursday 30 with pete fowler right hi pete um but he couldn't translate and he never

could translate and that's the only negative thing i would say about martin because other than that he was my brother i knew him closer than anybody else at that station with the exception of probably ivor hamilton you just reminded me that the reason I got the, uh, the infamous, uh, Martin streak, uh, F bomb during the Thursday 30 with Pete Fowler. And by the way, Pete, I have four Pete, if you're listening, I got the four t-shirts, the lost Indy city, and I wear them with pride. I should have wore one today. What was I thinking? I wore my left wing pinko shirt instead, but, uh, uh, Pete, I need a new shirt. So come on. I need have wore one today. What was I thinking? I wore my left-wing pinko shirt instead.

Pete, I need a new shirt. Come on. I need a medium Lost Indies City shirt. Pete Fowler's great. Been a great friend of the show. The reason I got that audio is because you sent it, so you had it. How did we get that audio of Streak swearing on Thursday

30? I either got it from robbie j happy birthday robbie by the way it's been 15 minutes uh it was either uh uh robbie j sent it to me or took it off the log and put it on a cassette and then i had it transferred what about bar could it have been jason bar or no i feel like why do I again I never yeah I never worked at the station yeah that sounds right actually Jason Barr could have been the guy who took it off the log you're right I thought it was Robbie J but anyway I have a whole bunch of stuff on cassettes all my early air checks and stuff they're all on cassette man I can't play them back I don't know what to do with them anyway somebody somebody can help you out in the uh you know Neil talks if you got an idea.

But anyway, though, but yeah, you could be right. It could have been Jason. Because my memory of that moment, I feel like it's a Pruder film. I've dissected it, had many people on that talk about it from different angles. But you got Pete and you got Marty in the studio. And I guess, is it Bathurst and Bloor? When he said that?

Yeah, I'm thinking it would have been. I think it's Bathurst and Bloor. But I said that? Yeah, I'm thinking it would have been. I think it's Bathurst and Bloor. But I think you got Jason Barr and Brampton. Probably producing it. Right. So I think Barr is the guy. I think you're right. I think so.

I think you're right. And I think it's interesting that I got it because you sent it to me. It's like herpes. Jay, can I just say something quickly about Jason Hart? So when Humble and Fred did their show, One Dundas mostly, when Howard would go away, Freddie would always ask me to come and co-host the show with him. And I hated it because I had to get up early and I hate getting up early. I probably would have done it if I was making Howard or Fred money It would have been a little easier. But anyway, so I would stay up all night if Jason was the producer and

Some of the funnest times for me on the air We're working with Fred and working with danger as well because just a lot of things went on on the air But off the air it was just hysterical all the time and i can just imagine what that was like for danger jason when he worked with humble and fred because it must have been just you know a times 10 a multitude of of comedy that was on the air and off the air as well well shout out to jason because uh he's done quite well for himself. Like here he is. He's in Ottawa now. And I haven't heard the Ottawa show, but I heard the Hits FM 97.7 show. And yeah, look at him manning his own morning show.

Good for him. He's a grumpy old Scotsman. That's what he is. And again, he was the, and I don't know what number, Greg Williams, Dan Duran. Is he Jeff Domette maybe? And then Jason Barr? And then Bingo Bob?

Jason to me seems like he was the longest. He would have been the producer the longest. But did he come after Jeff Domet? Do you know how that works? Like, does Jeff take over for Dan Duran? I know I'm asking the wrong guy. I should know this stuff. But I think something like that.

Something like that. But hey, those stories about... Sorry, I'm all over the place. Those stories about Dan Duran falling off the chair, they're all true. They are. The funny thing about Dan is I knew Dan from the Humble and Fred show, but I knew Dan personally because his son and my son were in the same class at Humbercrest. And they were buds. We used to go to beaver camp and stuff together. So like I knew Dan is this like neighborhood dad whose kid was very tight

with my kid. So it's just funny that I don't want, I don't want education, post-educational institution or your son's going to go to, but if Colton, Dan's son doesn't go to OCA, there's something wrong in the world. Oh yeah.

I see those Friday doodles that Dan posts on Facebook. Yeah. Incredible. Incredible. Well well my boy pre-covid the whole plan was my boy wanted to go to laurier for this business uh thing and now we don't know what's going on because as you know we don't know what nobody knows is it online who knows but it will save me a bundle if it's online like this was going to be a lot of money i don't necessarily have right now but that's that's a whole, a whole other.

Well, I was going to say you could homeschool them, but I mean, that would put you through university to become a professor. So I can't even home. I can't even homeschool the, I have a six year old and I can't even homeschool him. Like, so forget about it. It's like, I'm trying to build an empire here. Come on. Okay. It's not, it's Mike. Every time I hear people talking about the kids, especially in this COVID thing. And, and and again no disrespect to parents everywhere i don't have any children and at this point in my life i'm like yeah i'm okay with that decision no regrets no regrets no no maybe one day

you know when my diaper needs a changing and i'll have to do it myself. And I'm 90. Maybe that's what I'll say. Boy, it would have been nice to have a son just to kind of take care of this for me. Maybe captain Phil will do it. Who knows? All right. I'm going to,

I'm going to read a quote. I think, I think it's from, I knew it was it from chart magazine. What was this from? Chart magazine. Yes. Chart magazine from 1991 or two.

Right. Okay. I'm funny. I'm'm gonna read this it's you could read it it's your voice but i first saw lowest of the low at clinton's tavern back in 1991 at the time canadian music had its big names but independently no one had come along with anything great in quite some time after that night at clinton's all that changed in the late fall of that year the low released released Shakespeare My Butt, an album that couldn't have defined

their live show any better. The album, to me, seems to be a collection of those shows I'd seen, but it's the lyrical content of Shakespeare. That's what made me admit that it's one of my favorites of all time, Canadian or not. To this day, I don't really know why that is.

Like anything, that is a personal favorite only you truly know why you like it so much but judging by the success of this disc and this band many people could obviously relate somehow some way to what the low had to say and play and it's good to know sometimes that you're not alone. And that was you, Brother Bill. What a load of bullshit. No, first of all, I heard Ron the other day. Ron is a primo human being. Thank you for your kind words, Ron.

I appreciate it. You know, okay, I want to tell the true story, and I'm not going to sugarcoat things, but I want to tell the story of the lowest low from my perspective from a show that happened that I'm talking about there called Clinton's Tavern at Bloor and Clinton. So a few days before that, Mike, a friend of mine, a very good friend of mine, Darren Hallsworth, called me up and he said, hey, have you ever heard of lowest to the low? And I was doing overnights at this time at CFNY, and I said, no, I haven't. Like what's going on? I mean,

we were working with Hal Harbor was the independent guy at the time with my other friend, Joanne Faluna at the time. And, and I hadn't heard about them. And he said, they're playing Clinton Saturday. You really should go see them. And so first of all, to let you make you aware, my favorite bands in the world tend to be on the punk rock side, which you know from the Kicking Out the Jams. My favorite band of all time used to be The Clash. It's now Social Distortion, but it's The Clash. So that's the reference point here. So I went in expecting absolutely nothing.

I hadn't heard them. I didn't know what they were about. And they came on to a room of about 50 people small tables everybody's sitting around and for me it was like seeing and at this point i'd been to quite a lot of concerts but i i i saw them play and to me it was like watching the clash play in 1976 it was just raw energy, honesty, no fake whatsoever, and lyrical brilliance. Ron is such a performer on stage. It's incredible. And I went up after the show, and I said to, I think it was Steve Stanley.

I went up to Steve, because he ended up pretty much, I knew them all, but Steve was a guy that I talked to on a regular basis. He was no longer in the band, obviously. But I said to Steve, I said, how long have you guys been together? Blah, blah, blah. Do you have an album coming out? He's like, yeah, it's coming out in a couple of weeks. I said, will you do me a favor?

Will you let me know where I can get the album the day it comes out? Because I want to play it on my overnight radio program. The claim to fame that I guess I can take is I was the final person on, on the edge to play, be able to play whatever they want on the overnight program. So that was pretty special to be able to do that. So a couple of weeks later they were playing Yvonne Matt sells club on Bloor street. Do you know who Yvonne Matt sell is by the way?

No, I just, no, I don't think so. Don't tell Weisblot, though. He'll be ashamed of me. Mark, if you're listening to this, Mark Weisblot, please tell Toronto Mike

who Yvonne Matzell is because it's important. Anyway, I can't remember the name of the bar, but they were playing there and they gave me a copy of this CD and I heard it all the way through and that was a life changer for me not only is that my favorite independent release out of toronto it's my favorite independent release of all time and had it not been for the bare naked ladies damn

you style tyler stewart and company had it not been for them the lowest the low what you know the bare naked ladies were such in 91 were such a phenom you know the the lowest of the low were kind of didn't really get the look they should have and they did later on but man the lowest low in the early 90s were the greatest band that city seen in a long time there's been a lot of great bands out of Toronto. But my point is this. When I'm saying I'm bragging, I'm going to brag and say this one thing. Ron says Hal Harbour, Alan Cross, Dave Bookman. And yes, all of them did have something to do with the career of The Lowest of the Low. But if anybody ever asks you, Mike, who was the first person to bring that album into the studio in Toronto or in Brampton?

It was Brother Bill. The first person to play it on the air was Brother Bill and it's because it's the greatest independent album out of Toronto ever. Shakespeare in my butt. I'm applauding you but I'm only one guy so it's going to sound wimpy but it's interesting how things can come full

circle because that album that you played you brought into the Brampton studios there at CFNY. As you know, this is episode 650, by the way, kind of a milestone episode for you. So I hope you're duly honored to be 650. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And Mike, and I know what a low fan you are.

You're a massive fan of the band. I know you're running out of time. Do we have to go because I'm talking too long? No, finish that thought. I want to hear low fan you are. You're a massive fan of the band. I know you're running out of time. Do we have to go? Because I'm talking too long. No, finish that thought. I want to hear where you're going. Am I responsible for their success or no? No, no, no, no, no.

Well, of course you are. Everybody's responsible for their success. And I'm not saying it was me, me, me, me, and only me. I was just the guy who played them first. That's all I'm taking credit for. But you were a little bit younger than i am and i wonder how they impacted you because for me there was such a time stamp on where i was in my life right that it just made it easy now you guys at 102.1 uh played the hell

out of that album like i was listening to a lot, which is why I love having people like yourself on the program. I don't know. I'm trying to think of the timelines, but I started high school in 89, and I listened to CFNY pretty much every day from when I started high school

until I finished university, which is like late 90s. But I heard so much of Shakespeare in my body, and I straight up legit, absolutely loved the sound and, and, and loved, loved the band.

And, uh, yeah, like I, I, I often wondered, in fact, you probably heard it a couple of days ago when I brought it up again.

And I think Ron wants to like shoot me now that I brought it up so many times, but the two sources I had for music really were 102.1 and much music and i never at the time we're going back to the early 90s when i watched a lot of much music too i never understood like where is like where is the kick at the video for you know for uh tonight hey mike those you asked two really good questions of ron if you don't mind me saying you asked one question where you talked about ron versus ron hawkins and he got into how he wasn't really into all those bands,

which I thought was brilliant. I would never have had the balls to ask that question. And the second one was talking about video for much music because you were absolutely right, man. If you wanted to be known across this country, you had to get much music video play. Ask Moe Berg,

like ask Moe Berg. What, what, what happens when much music puts your, uh, can like ask mo berg what it what it what happens when much music puts your uh can con video in high rotation or if i may ask johnny sinclair he was the bass player in that song anyway that video but anyway you're right you had to get i mean cf and y was great for southern ontario right and for people who knew about us. And Buffalo. Buffalo was incredible. Why we couldn't get our signal

stronger down there, it wasn't too bad, but we'd go to Buffalo to do club gigs and it was just, it was like when Cheap Trick played Budokan or when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. Okay, maybe not that much, but to us it seemed that way. Well, you know, the Low can

go play a bunch of gigs in Buffalo, and the reason they're popular in Buffalo and they have that fan base in Buffalo is 102.1. Yeah, thanks, and I think that's true to an extent because we really were the only ones playing them. I did go on a trip with the lowest of the low out west here. We saw them. They played a couple of gigs in a place called the town pump in about 92 or 93 both sold out so we're talking about 500 people a night

then we saw them in victoria club packs they were getting known across the country the way the bare naked ladies were before they had much music support and before everybody knew who they were they really had to tour they had to tour and they tour and they tour. And that's when, that's how the low got, got their audience. They didn't get it from. Well, you listen to Toronto, Mike.

So I feel like I'm, I'm, I feel like you'll get this reference, but are you familiar with the, the comments that Sammy Cohn from the Watchman made that I found surprising? Like he would tell me, you know, Oh,

the low can't sell out the comment or the comment or ballroom. Is that the official name of? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he tell me, you know, oh, the low can't sell out the Commodore, the Commodore Ballroom. Is that the official name of? Yeah. So he's like, you know, the low can't sell out the Commodore Ballroom because the low, he said. And at the time, I was like, really? And then now I realize, of course, he knows what he's talking about. He's a Winnipeg guy who, you know, you know, from the Watchmen who are much bigger in this country than lowest of the low. But the lowest of the low.

He could have a point, Mike, he could have a point, but that's because, you know, the Watchmen got some great video play. Right. Right.

So because Ron Hawkins, Ron Hawkins was almost like he was so punk. He suppressed the channels of like popularity and fame. I don't know about that. i think honestly that that the lowest of the low never made music for the masses and low close to the load made the music that they wanted to make and if the masses liked it that's fine and they maybe they didn't whereas i'm not saying the watchman i don't want to start this into this and that but there were certain bands in the 1990s where who were strictly trying to write commercial albums just to get famous and big and be able to play the edge fest and stuff like that ron hawkins florence nichols uh john arnott stephen stanley uh david alexander and the rest of those guys

i knew they weren't like that from the beginning. And that's why I liked them so much. Because the only reason I wanted to work at CFNY was because CFNY was the only station I believed had that sort of mindset where we were not there to make a ton of money. It's nice that we had a great run with the end. It is. But we were about the music first always and and we were led by the likes of martin streak and dave bookman and uh and and scott turner and

alan cross and may potts and danny elwell and and uh even dean blundell um yeah i know i know whole other hour but believed in the power of, and that's why we were there, the number one reason we were there. Yeah, I've never met Dean Blundell either. I'll come back sometime. We'll get into that. Do I have to record that episode? So we agree. We'll do it as a duet with that girl that also hit that really bad.

Molly Johnson. Yeah, what do you think? So we agree. We'll do it as a duet with that girl that also had that really bad. Molly. Molly Johnson. Yeah. What do you think? Molly gave me a big hug though, at the end of that episode, like, uh, it felt like a genuine hug.

And she told me to bring the kids to the Kensington market jazz festival. So I don't know what the Molly deal was. I have an idea, but I don't feel like putting it in public, but, uh, the, yeah,

the Dean thing is a whole different, that's a whole different kettle of fish i'd say but a very interesting your relationship with the low and you bringing that album in there because then you then playing the mess out of that album i mean everything from like henry needs a new pair of shoes to bleed a little while tonight to salesman cheats and liars like of course i close every episode of rosie and gray right to me these songs were as big as anything that you know mtv would put on high rotation or whatever like like bleed a little while tonight i never understood like what why are my toronto ears any different than the ears that people have in like i don't know halifax or

in white rock you know what i mean like like like what like like this is just an amazing song but distribution maybe the 90s were different than they are today as you know i mean you needed This is just an amazing song. Distribution, maybe. The 90s were different than they are today, as you know. I mean, you needed decent distribution. You didn't need necessarily major label distribution, which helped, though. There's some great people working at the major record companies, despite the rumors that you may hear. Trust me on that. Well, Ivor's there.

Well, Ivor's there. The punk rock president, Steve Cain, is there. Steve Codyvers there the punk rock president steve kane is there right cody's there and that list just goes on and on and on and on anyway uh but in the 90s you know the the independent companies ron was touching on this the other day the independent companies didn't have the funds to back and to shift as much as they could and they just didn't get the promotion but right you know i did i I think Ron subtly said it in that, is we may probably made the odd bad decision as well. But when it comes down to music, you're right.

They should have been discovered. They should have been huge. It should have played out a lot different than it did. Not that it played out horribly. I mean, they played the most in amphitheater. Let's not forget that. They played big venues in Buffalo. It's not like they just kind of

shriveled up and died, but I thought they could have gone a lot further. And really, what more does a band want than to be the closing song for 650 episodes of a great local podcast? Now, I do see the clock now, so I'm going to do some quick hits. Firstly,

you, Brother Bill, need to order everybody to go to garbageday.com slash Toronto Mike and download the Garbage Day app. It's very convenient. It lets you know

when is it garbage, when is it recycling, when is it lawn, yard waste pickup. I get my notification. I love it. And it's free and it really helps the show.

So, garbageday.com slash Toronto Mike. Let me just add quickly that I tried to set it up where I am in white rock. It's coming. It's not there yet. So if you have the same problem where you are,

don't give up, keep trying. It'll eventually get to you. Right. And if you're, uh, in Toronto right now, uh,

it's already here and, uh, sign up today. That would be a great help to the show. Now, brother, you already told us, uh,

why you left CFNY for, uh, Vancouver. I blame, uh, brother, you already told us why you left CFNY for Vancouver. I blame Jeff Woods, who's a great FOTM, and Dunner, who should be trying to recruit me. It sounds like Dunner should be trying to recruit me to the Chorus Podcast Network. So I blame them. Actually, you know what? Am I cutting over you again? No, go ahead. Okay. I didn't really tell you why I came out here. And if you know what? Am I, am I cutting over you again? No, go ahead. Okay. So I didn't really tell you why I came out here. And if you want to know the truth, I will tell you the truth. And I have never told this story in public before. So you want to hear this story? Of course. So at the end of my days at, at CFNY at the edge, I had an addiction problem and I needed to change my life up or I was probably

going to lose my job or I was going to end up in jail or dead to tell you the honest truth. And, uh, of all places you think, well, if someone's addicted to a drug, best place to send them is Vancouver. And so I came out to Vancouver and I was clean for about three months. And then I found somebody, shall we say, and I had about an eight-year battle out here with cocaine addiction. And one day, it was a weeknight. I was primarily a weekend warrior, Mike, but it was a weeknight.

And I got high and I stayed up all night because that's what cocaine does. It's a horrible drug for horrible people. And I couldn't go to work. It was in ratings. So I called up Dunner and I said, and and I couldn't go to work it was in rating so I called up done or and I said look I can't come to work and and he said why what do you mean I said I can't come to work and then he said well I just lived in Yaletown pretty close to the station so Donner came over and Donner said what's going on and I told them that I need help and I reached out and I got help because it was spiraling out of control and again I was going back to the behavior from before so they put me and full kudos to chorus entertainment and I want to say this to

anybody who's listening to my voice right now who is maybe suffering the way I did but wants to get and wants to get out or is not ready but will one day, the company you work for, if they're as good as Chorus Entertainment was with me, will help you. And I did something called Day Talks. I didn't go to total rehab. Day Talks was like classes. So I went to classes in East Vancouver, Main and Second.

Anybody who knows the downtown eastside knows what you see there. I had my eyes opened by what I saw there, and I completed a six-month program, and I'm happy to say that I've been clean and sober for a number of years. Well, clean, I still drink, but clean and sober, clean for, I don't even know how many years now, but I just wanted to make sure the reason I'm telling everybody this is because, you know, I hear John Gallagher and Peter Gross, uh, the Peter, the Gross and Gallagher podcast making all the funny jokes about cocaine and drugs. But I can tell you for some people, it's no joke for me, Mike, it was no joke. And had chorus not helped me, I would not be here today. And I truly believe to an extent that Martin Streak would be alive today

had he gone the same route I did. During our conversation, my phone was vibrating. I looked over it. It was Peter Gross calling. And Peter, you're right. They do kind of have fun with it on the show. But he definitely will tell you that he blew up his entire City TV career that first round due to his cocaine addiction.

So I know. But I just, you know, I just want to make sure that people understand. And I haven't told this story to anybody, Mike. And I fought whether I was going to tell you this story. But I think your listeners are wonderful people, first of all. But there may be somebody out there who's going through that. And I thought it was important maybe to share it with you, my experience, because this is the only platform I'd have to do that. I would never tell this story on the radio.

So congrats on sobriety. story on the radio so congrats on uh sobriety and that's that's great that you've been uh like you said not not doing drugs for a number of years now so congrats on that and uh thank you mike listen listen to me brother if you ever get tempted by uh the foul temptress there you give me a shout now you got my cell phone number you call me i don't care what time of day it is brother you call me and we'll talk about it before you dance with the devil. Are we going to end on this high note? Great.

Well, you know what? Actually, I'm going to make sure I don't leave anything too big. I did promise one listener I would ask a question. So Jason said, Jason Miller says, and this ties into something I learned about from Mark Weisblot today where he told me KROQ in LA is now K-R-O-Q. Like rock is the bad word.

They had to get it out of there. It's like poison. And so there's a natural question about whether you think like the edge can survive and that whole rock radio can survive. And then Jason Miller, I'm going to just read his verbatim, but do you think a hard rock format would work today? I look at Toronto radio today and it just seems like it's gone to shit q107 and the edge are not even comparable to what they once were even hits htz even hits fm uh quickly went downhill once

bell this is again this is jason miller talking once bell took it over and fucked it up this is jason miller talking but uh like now and again we kind of we kind of had you at sea fox and then i know chorus did these cuts across the board and you were a victim of the cuts and then you were on the air uh the pulse and it sounds like you're not there anymore i don't know it's a coronavirus layoff so i'm not sure about that so i just won't comment about it but do you have a comment before i uh play us out with some rosie and gray here from shakespeare my butt which is still a kick-ass album i listened to the other day uh it's an album yeah one song is does not

does not uh an album make and that's true with that oh shout out shout out quickly to andrew stokely i know he's a huge low, and he loves listening to these Edge episodes, so shout out to Stokely. Stokely's one of the best. Worked with him. He's one of the best sound people in this country. Absolutely. Hey, Andrew. Okay, so to what Jason was saying, I think that in this day and age,

first of all, the major label stations are not going to take the chance because hard rock is so monopolized. It doesn't have a big enough crowd that listen to commercial radio for it to fly. And this is the 53-year-old me talking here. The 23-year-old would have said, he's absolutely right. But no radio station who's run by a corporation is willing to take the chance because of the polarization. If they do it and they fail, well, they're failing on a lot of

things right now to tell you the truth, but I just don't think they're willing to take the chance. And also, let's be honest, if you're going to have a station like that in the market, you better bloody well make sure that the program director and the GM and everybody involved with that station lives that lifestyle. Because we clearly know that trying to make, letting people run stations of a format that they know nothing about does not work. The edges prove that. It does not work. So what I think they should do is the station in Oshawa that Craig works at. Yeah, the Rock. Yeah, the Rock. They're not, are they heard in Toronto? I don't even know.

Yeah, you can pick it up in Toronto. Okay. I don't know why they don't go heavier. I don't know a station that's up in Aurora right now doesn't go, or Barrie doesn't go heavier and covers the market at Hamilton even. I'm not 100% sure. But when it comes down to it, there's a lot of things at play. And I think it's advertising dollars as well. But in 1975, or whenever it was, David Marsden took a chance and created a format and created one of the greatest radio stations. No, the greatest radio station of all time, CFNY 102.1, the spirit of radio. Somebody could do it. Somebody could do it with classic rock.

I guess my thinking is do what David did. Start in a small station in Brampton and move it down. Do that, but it's possible. And I know the guy who should run it. His name's Lyle Chassé. Wow, Brother Bill bringing it today you get it my friend honestly you get it and uh this won't be the last time you're on toronto mic but thanks so much for giving me i don't even know how long that was because we had the internet outage in the middle of that thing but uh i loved it and i hope you did too i did my friend i go. There's a salmon latte waiting for me.

Bye. Thanks so much, man. Go, go, go. And that brings us to the end of our 650th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Brother Bill is at Neil Talks. N-E-I-L, believe it or not, that is his real name.

Neil Talks. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. The Octopus Wants to Fight is fantastic. Happy birthday, Robbie J. I know you love the pompous ass. We got Palma Pasta. They're at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

The Keitner Group are at the Keitner Group. Text Toronto Mike to 59559 and get that Zoom URL for the virtual open house. And CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Garbage Day, they're at garbageday.com slash Toronto Mike. If you like what you heard today, sign up. It's free, it's fantastic, and it helps the show. See you all Friday with my Pandemic Fridays

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