Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dan Dunleavy: Toronto Mike'd #406

Episode Date: December 6, 2018

Mike chats with Buffalo Sabres play by play announcer Dan Dunleavy about his years on The Fan and calling pxp for every sport you can imagine.

Welcome to episode 406 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Paytm Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, and Census Design and Build. watch and jewelry repair and census design and build. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is Buffalo Sabre's play-by-play announcer and many other hats I'm sure we'll learn about, Dan Dunleavy. Welcome, Dan. You know what I'm already missing right here? I just had a snack before I rolled into your studio.

I missed my cough button.? I just had a snack before I rolled into your studio. I'm missing my cough button. Oh, you got a... No, it's just got to be one of these. I have your cough button here, but we'll have to give you like Inspector Gadget arms or something. Something like that. You know the rule, right? Just before you go to air, don't eat the pretzels,

don't eat the potato chips, don't drink... Well, I didn't drink pop, but don't drink it. It's not good. Definitely don't have milk. You'll have the hems for the entire game. Is that it? No dairy? Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, that can come out the wrong way. Well, I feel like a jerk because we were so quick to get going here that I never offered you a beverage. Oh, I'm good. No, please. I'm good. Terrible host here. Well, if it's a beverage from your sponsor, I really shouldn't anyway. The drive back to Fort Erie is not going to be a fun.

Plus, I've had my eyes dilated before I came over here today. They're just calming down now. So right now I'm just a blur. No, not really. Actually, you're in really good focus, which is really good news for me anyway. Good. But I was actually going to offer you, I should have offered you like some water. No, I'm good.

Thanks. I've got a six pack of something in front of me if I'm really desperate. That's right. You could do worse. Everything in moderation. Now, the last guest I had, at the very end,

I mentioned you were next and he started telling me how he's worked with you, Stephen Coldwell. Oh, yes. TFC matches. Yeah, well, if anything that you'll find out and we'll probably find out about each other, but certainly from this corner in this chair, for me in this business, it's all about meeting really good people.

And when you find those really good people, it wouldn't matter if Stephen is a former professional footballer, current broadcaster. If you just ran into Stephen in any walk of life, he really would give you five minutes of his time after hello for anybody on the street, as you know. And then you would just have a conversation. Now, in all honesty, as my wife would tell you, when she met Stephen for the first time, you might not understand half of what he's saying because of his Scottish dialect and where he comes from. But at the end of the day, the man has a really warm heart and a great smile. I'm just so happy I got to meet him

at one point on this broadcast journey. He's a beauty. He's a sweetheart, especially considering, you're right, he's not Canadian, and he's still a nice guy. He is a sweetheart, but he's also a tough guy. I felt bad. I asked him to tell me about his first goal as a member of TFC,

and then he said, well, my first and only goal, and I felt bad. I didn't know this. I was thinking it's his first goal in a series of goals. Well, he didn't say own goal, did he? No. Well, there you go. No, no, no. So I didn't realize he only had one goal in his TFC career.

Were you a soccer fan before you interviewed him? A mild one. Like I go to games at BMO. Okay. I watch all the playoff games on TV. Is that where I've seen you before? Why do I feel I've seen you before? When you started this entire thing and you started sending messages out to people and

I'm looking at your picture and I'm thinking, where do I know you from? You would know me from torontomike.com. I don't know. Yeah, no, but even before that. I mean, were you kicking around press boxes or something? No, never. I wish. Really?

Nowhere near. You don't always wish. Trust me. Well, it depends. What kind of food do they have? Yeah, well, that's my point. Certain are great, and others you're not missing much at all. No, I don't have a clue.

No, I don't think you actually... You don't have a twin? No. Some people have twins walking around out there. Some people confuse me with Tom Cruise. I'm just kidding. No. You've been watching Risky Business.

Yeah. So, no, I don't think you'd recognize me. But now I get recognized, which is a new phenomenon, from the pictures I take with guests like yourself. Like after we finish recording, we'll take a picture. And then these pictures, I'll tweet them and I'll put them on my blog, torontomic.com, and say, hey, listen to Dan DeLevy. It was awesome.

Whatever. Hopefully it's going to be awesome. Skip Dan DeLevy. Get to 407. Right, right. Yeah, don't waste your time. But so now I get recognized. I met No Frills and I get recognized.

I got recognized at an Argos game. I get recognized actually here and there. Like, hey, are you Toronto Mike? How do you feel about that? At first it was a bit jarring because I was so like, but now I actually kind of like, now I'm kind of used to it. I hate to say it because it sounds a little

arrogant, but I'm used to it now and I think it's really cool. Like I was once recognized by my voice when I was lining up to buy groceries. Like I'm Dan DeLevy or something. Yeah, I mean anyone in our business, you've interviewed some greats that have been in this business longer than me. And yes, we've all at some

point lined up to pay for our meal, especially while working in Toronto for myself at the fan and someone will just hear your voice and all of a sudden they'll look up at you. I mean, they've completely ignored you until you speak. And for me, just like, you know, you say for yourself, it's nothing I ever really thought of that all of a sudden I'm just going to open my mouth and say, you know, what shake and bacon? And someone looks at you and says, where do I know this voice from? But that's the way it works out

after you work in the city for 20 years. Yeah, you're in a lot of people's living rooms and I'm going to make a man cave. Well, you know what? And listen, because this is storytelling time, we'll get to one real quick because you mentioned that about where the voice goes and others I'm sure have had this very same story.

But this was a first for me while working at the fan. We had this Monday night football evenings where we'd go to different bars in different areas and they're sponsored, just much like your show. So they'd send out a personality, a talent or on-air personnel, however you want to phrase it. Because we never, I mean, I certainly never look at myself that way. I'm just going to work and I love what I do. But you'd get paid 500 bucks to show up at a bar and watch a football game basically and then say, hey, I work for the fan

or I work for CJCL 1430 and let's have a great time tonight. We have some trivia and prizes to give away and that's what you do. And then you just kind of hop around the bar and you have a few, whatever, if it's iced tea or if it's Great Lakes, you do what you do and you meet people. So one night we're in Oshawa and I didn't get as many of these as other people because obviously when you worked at the fan, there were a lot of very high profile personalities. And when you're, at that point for me starting out, it's not why I was in it, but like you,

I was still probably the no furls recognized guy. I'm not walking into a BMW dealership and someone saying, I can sell this guy a car. No, I was still down at the... You were no Gord Stelic yet. No, I'm with you. Same car you're driving out front. I have a different brand, but with the same amount of rust on the right side and 450,000

kilometers on it. So I'm still in that club. Yeah, I get it. But we're at a bar one night in Oshawa, and it's the usual thing. We're having a great time. Promotions people are there. And I start walking around, and I felt, okay, I should at least introduce myself to people. And you do open yourself up to, I don't care who you are, when you're giving me the prizes.

I've never heard of you. I don't listen to your station. This is my bar. This is my pub anyway. Could you just get out of my face? You open yourself up to all those possibilities. This is my bar. This is my pub anyway.

Could you just get out of my face? You open yourself up to all those possibilities. But one lady, she says to me, she says, Dan, it's a pleasure to meet you. She said, I have to tell you, I think you have a great voice. And I listen to it every time. I listen to you every time I'm in the tub. There you go. I kid you not.

And I, well, I didn't know what to say to that. I mean, I'm still fairly young in the Toronto end of the business. and I'm thinking, what do you say to a woman who just said, I listen to you when I'm in the bath? You're honored. I guess. It's better than being mistaken for Tim Haffey. Does that happen? Like, you know, one of the other guys?

You are hitting on a lot of things right away. You're a prepared guy. Well, remember, that's the station I listen to. I don't have to fake it with you. Sometimes you're right. Sometimes I'll have someone on a station that I actually didn't listen to or talk to. Actually, with Stephen Caldwell, I had to fake it. I'm talking about these club teams in England.

He's used to that. And I got it from the Wikipedia page. I really don't know. Is this something like saying they played for the Toronto Maple Leafs? Or is this like saying they played for some East Coast hockey? I have no sense of what I'm talking about. And you know enough about the Wikipedia pages that I could edit your Wikipedia page.

And if you don't change it in time, I don't know how many people will read it, but they might believe it. But you're awesome here. You're hitting on names. So what I'm saying is I listened. I was listening to 1430, the fan. And then I was listening when it turned to 590, the fan.

And I listened quite a bit because I'm a massive Toronto sports fan. So yeah, so this is all straight up. No BS here. All right. But we can't go off to Tim Haffey because you bring a name up. And I don't know if you were going to go. Were you going to go back there?

No, no. Give me a Tim Haffey anecdote. So here's, I would not be sitting here right now wearing this Buffalo Sabres. Well, I shouldn't say would not. There would have been a different path that I would have had to take to get to where I'm at now in my career, which I'm very thankful for in working for the Buffalo Sabres. Excuse me.

And previously for the Toronto Maple Leafs and World Juniors and all this stuff we're going to talk about. Yep. If not for Tim Haffey. And here's the story. Have you had Tim in yet? No. Okay.

I thought I'd start with you and then work with Tim. Tim's 406.5, right? Or 706, whatever we are, 406. You're 406. So Tim Haffey and I, you're right, we're both working at CJCL 1430 All Sports Radio. Tim and I are both young. We're starting out. Tim, at the time, is the voice of the Toronto St. Mike's Majors of the Ontario Hockey League.

He is calling the games on Rogers TV. Andy Chiodo's end of his run and goal for St. Mike's majors of the Ontario Hockey League. He is calling the games on Rogers TV. Andy Chiodo's end of his run and goal for St. Mike's and really good teams and I used to listen and watch when I could because I didn't live downtown Toronto at the time. Excuse me. But Timmy

I knew was such an expert on junior hockey and I thought to myself, how on earth does he know so much about these players that nobody's heard about and one day they're going to be in the NHL. How do I get to myself, how on earth does he know so much about these players that nobody's heard about? And one day they're going to be in the NHL. How do I get to that point? But I then left it at that. And then one day I remember Tim talking in the station about, I don't want to steal his story because it'll be his. And he might tell a different, but here's my version.

Tim's version is, I've been doing junior hockey for a while. I know my thing. I'm good at what I do. And when we're young in the business or starting out often we want instant gratification and i think for tim that gratification included being able to buy bmws instead of what you and i are driving so he wanted maybe a bit more of a payday than he was getting calling ontario hockey league games and who doesn't we all want that so the story I've been told is that Timmy, who was really great at calling these games,

and as I say, he knew the team inside and out. All of a sudden, he kind of took a stand, and that stand didn't go well for Tim. And as a result, there's always somebody waiting in the wings. And I got a call from Don Jackson, who was the producer for rogers sports television in toronto back then and don asked me i believe at the time i probably was calling toronto rock lacrosse for a little bit of time on the fan uh i might be off of the timeline but don had heard my work

somewhere starting out yelling and screaming uh like a young kid thinking i was calling a stanley cup final every game and he asked he said would you be interested in calling OHL hockey? And I basically took a half a second to say, are you kidding? How is this even available to me right now? And he said, well, Tim is out and we need a guy and I'd like you to step in and be the voice of the Toronto St. Mike's Majors. That's how that started out on Rogers TV.

Wow. See, and I just picked Tim Heff. He just randomly picked another guy whose voice I heard in the same era, like doing sports. And before I came in with you, because I'm not a good rememberer, I'm not a good recollector. I misremember a lot. Is that the phrase?

That I thought, I better remember some stories here about how this all started before we have a chat. And Tim's name was the one that came up. I thought, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Tim, first of all. That's funny. Wanting to be a rich man. And then for Don Jackson with Rogers Television, because I do think it's important for those names, as you probably will attest to as well as your career moves along.

There will be certain people that you look back on that sometimes you forget. If it weren't for that call or that suggestion or that piece of advice, you wouldn't be sitting where you are today. Fascinating. No, that's great. And I'm glad I mentioned Tim's name to get that story off the top. And it does open a nice quick segue because Scott M asked a question of you, Dan, on Twitter. He has two questions, actually, and they relate to the majors. So the first question is, who's the best player you've ever seen play for the St. Mike's majors? That's the first question. Okay. And then the second one is, how many pucks did you have to dodge calling games at that beautiful old barn? More than pucks.

The first names that come out of my mouth every time when I look back on the St. Mike's teams, especially in Toronto, because we started in Toronto and then the franchise moved to Mississauga where they're now the Steelheads. But Toronto St. Mike's Majors, I have never seen in my life in junior hockey more talented, I'm going to say players. This is a double here, and I think your listener will understand where I'm going when I bring up Tyler and Justin Donati. They were twin brothers who played in the OHL,

and when they wound up with St. Mike's, I would watch them in every pregame warm-up, and they would saucer pass the puck from board to board. And I kid you not, they never missed tape to tape, no bounce, you know, the whole twin thing, twin brothers, extremely talented players. And then when the game started, they were the type of kids that when they wanted to change the makeup of a game, they just would. Now that's not to take away from, I really think when you look at the captains and players

that went through there. I work with Matty Ellis now, who's part of our Harbor Center and player development with things down in Buffalo related to the Sabres. Tim Brent, I think, is a guy who was, at the time when he captained that hockey team, someone that I, as someone who was older than Tim

Brent, I looked up to him. There's not many times, I should say there's not many, but I think when you look up to someone who's younger than you because of how they handle themselves in certain situations, I think, you know, for me, you've kind of found someone pretty special. And Tim and I have never been close. Tim would, to this day, never know I thought that of him. But just when I watched him carry himself and be a captain of the team,

I thought, I kind of wish I was playing for this guy, that kind of a player. And, you know, the Wendell Clark kind of personalities. Tim didn't go around fighting and things like that, but he stood up for his teammates and kind of represented what Toronto St. Mike's majors should be during his time. So those are three names, Tim Brent, Matty Ellis, because I work with him now and I see where he was and where he's come to. And he's such a genuine human being.

And then as far as talent goes, Tyler and Justin Donati. The puck dodging is an interesting question, and I should perhaps set the picture if no one's been to Bathurst and St. Clair. Have you been there? No. Okay. Like many Torontonians, I forgot to support the OHL team.

Yeah, well, you can still go to the rink at Bathurst and St. Clair, and I think everyone who is a hockey fan in this town, you need to go and just check out this rink. First of all, the hot dogs are the best I've ever had in hockey, period. And that includes the Coliseum in Quebec for me personally. Other people would say that Montreal hot dogs are better as well than the NHL press boxes. The hot dogs at St. Mike's, there's something about them.

They wrap them in foil. They steam them, wrap them in foil, and they just sit there, and the bun was soft, and the dog was tasty, and every time you'd been into it, it was just amazing. Oh, you make me hungry, man. Yeah, so you got to check that one out. So St. Mike's, it's an old barn, obviously. A lot of history there as far as hockey goes,

and you walk into this tiny bit. It's the smallest rink in the Ontario Hockey League at the time, the smallest. A lot of teams didn't like coming in for that reason, especially if you were in Belleville, because they had the largest rink in the OHL, which was Olympic size. But about the rink, our play-by-play broadcast spot actually hovered right over top of the penalty box and came right to the glass. And I don't mean near, but you were pretty much almost, you weren't standing over the ice, but if you went out another foot, you're standing over the ice.

So the question is, how many pucks did he have to dodge? There were pucks that would come flying up there quite often. Sam Cosentino, who was my color commentator for a number of years and worked alongside me there

and another great human being. I love talking about these guys. He and I had to duck a number of pucks, but there's another story as well about ducking, not pucks, but I was ducking. It was either pennies or hard candies were being thrown at me because someone didn't like what I said about somebody on the ice. It was a playoff series.

I think it was against the Mississauga Ice Dogs at the time before they moved to Niagara. Dan Carcillo, now retired from the NHL, played for the Ice Dogs at the time. And Dan was, and I remember saying this on the show, this might be the best player on the ice in this series, Dan Carcillo. Dan also had a habit at times of playing a very fine line of within the rules of the game.

So there was a moment where Dan, twice in a season leading up to, he had hit upside the head two members of St. Mike's with a high stick. Again, that happens in a game. I don't judge anybody by it. But one was pretty severe, and if my memory serves me correct, he was allowed to play in the playoffs, despite what a lot of people thought would have been a suspension that should have been carried on. So one of those situations. And if my memory serves me correct, he was allowed to play in the playoffs, despite what a lot of people thought would have been a suspension that should have been carried on.

So one of those situations. It's long in the rearview mirror, but it does tell the story. So we're in the playoffs. St. Mike's is losing the game, and Dan Carcillo is really winning it for the other team. And I remember saying on the broadcast, look, this guy is incredible. He's the best player on the ice tonight, but let's not forget that he maybe shouldn't be playing here tonight based on, so I'm kind of telling his story. The next game, I am getting something thrown at me

because you're only four rows from the back rail. People are throwing hard candies and something or pennies, and Sam Cosentino to my right, he's looking at me and he says, are you getting hit with stuff? I said, yeah, someone's hit me. And I turn around and I see these, there's about three or four guys and they don't look happy. And I'm not a big dude either.

So they're throwing these things at me and I thought, what the heck is going on here? So at the end of the game, I went and got one of our St. Mike's security guys standing down at ice level or in the intermission. I said, do me a favor. Keep an eye on me at the end of the game because I need to confront somebody, but there's four of them and one of me. So just keep an eye on me.

So I did. I got in the face of the one guy, and I went up and I said, what is your problem? I'm trying to do my job, and you spent the whole evening just throwing things at me. Who are you? So he then told me he was a cousin of Dan Carcillo. And I said, oh, so wait a minute. This goes back to last game. My comment about maybe he

shouldn't be in the series. Is that what this is all about? And he said, yeah, it is. You said you don't like my cousin. I said, well, obviously you didn't listen to the whole broadcast. I said he was the best player on the ice and maybe shouldn't be playing based on his past history. I was telling the story of your cousin or brother, whoever it was at the time. And I said, see that big guy down there staring at the glass? I said, you can tell your other two buddies to take a hike right now because he's got them. It's just you and me. And that really deescalated everything. And I couldn't believe I was doing it at the time, but I thought, okay, I'm not a tough guy, but I will stick up for, hey, if you don't like something I said, which you

will have happen in your businesses too as well, doesn't mean you should have to go to work and have things thrown at you all the time. You can have someone tell you, you suck, I don't like you, I think you're terrible, but the throwing things stop there. So that's my St. Mike's, not only dodging pucks, but having things thrown at you.

You can't hit us in a broadcast booth in the NHL because we're the furthest guys away from the game. That's right. And they have better security in the NHL arena. They do, but honestly, you couldn't hit us. I mean, we're too high. That sounds like a challenge. Yeah, we are.

If anybody tries, you'll get kicked out of a ring. We are so far up. That was a great story. Before I proceed, I need to say hello to Andrew Stokely, who wrote a note to say that he said, get him talking about guitars. It'll fill up hours and hours of solid content. So you're a... I don't have a guitar. I'm looking. No, I have no... Sadly, I have no guitar in this house. Tell me, you're a big guitar guy. Charlie, I have no guitar in this house.

Tell me, you're a big guitar guy. I am. All my life, like anybody, I've loved music and was a real rock head growing up. Well, Slash is back there. I don't know. He's draped over the monitor. Spent a lot of time at Maple Leaf Gardens going to see shows,

and those stories would take up far too much time before we have to shut things down here. But one day when I was living in Burlington, I was just driving by a music shop and I had just seen the movie This Might Get Loud. Yeah, the documentary. Yeah, with Jack White.

And Jimmy Page and Edge from U2. It was very good. And anyone who hasn't seen it, real quick story, they sit in a warehouse, they tell stories about how they got into music, how they, for Jack White, how he builds his guitars really out of nothing. And the guy that, obviously Jimmy Page you're interested in, obviously, the edge you're interested in for his kind of new cutting edge way of getting your attention with a guitar and different sounds. But then Jack White started telling his story about not taking lessons and just picking up, you know, building his own guitars.

And I thought, okay, so at the time, I believe I was either late 30s or just turning 40. So I was not going to go skydiving. I'm not going to buy a motorbike. I can't afford a convertible. So I'm trying, you know, everyone says, well, this is your... Yeah, you need a midlife crisis. This is your midlife moment, yeah. I'm Marty Brodeur, and this is my midlife

moment. So I drove by the music shop, and instead of driving by and just continue passing it after seeing this movie, I did a U-turn. I turned around. I'll never forget it. It was in Burlington. I walked into the shop and I said, I don't know if I can do this, but how do I start? So I bought a starter ramp and a starter, uh, strat and I still have it. It's a red and white guitar. I got both for 150 bucks and I went home and I just started playing with, you know, out of a chord book, just how to make chords and what have you. And I thought, okay, maybe I won't be good at this.

And I still feel that way a lot because I'm not really that good at it. I'm still a self-taught guy. But I had someone come to the house eventually. I thought I better take lessons. So I had someone come to the house in Burlington and give guitar lessons. And to your point about no frills, this gentleman, very nice guy, I can see him, pulls up to the front of the house. He pulls his amp out of the back seat.

He pulls his guitar out of the back. And already I'm thinking, holy smokes, this guy has some great gear. Wait till he sees my little stuff in here. This is embarrassing. Not knowing that's how everybody starts. He gets to the front door. He walks in and we start talking. And like you already referenced, are you dan dunleavy

from the fan and i said yes i am so now the conversation and i only have an hour with him right you pay for one hour lesson but the conversation turns into much like if i started interviewing you for all this time you're gonna say hey i'm not gonna tell you i have a problem with it but i came here to talk to you so it turned into an hour of him saying i can't believe i'm here teaching you how to play guitar. And I'm thinking, listen, I'm not Bob McCowan. I'm not Joe Bowen. I'm not any, you know what I mean?

From my perspective, I'm thinking, it's really not that big of a deal. I'm not Tim Haffey. Not Tim Haffey. This isn't that big of a deal. So then we'd sit down and we'd, I said, look, I do want to learn chords and chord progression. I get it, but I'm 40.

I really just want to pick a song and play it and turn the radio on and pretend I'm a rock star. Nobody will know. My own Tom Cruise moment without anybody seeing it. It's just for me. And the guitar thing really is for me. It's not to brag on anything or anybody. Plus, I love the look of the guitar. It is

a bit of a drug when you start to get into collecting the different colors and the shapes and the sizes and everything else. You might pick one up and maybe say, I haven't touched that guitar in a year. But it's hanging on your wall. It's your artwork, right? It's your artwork. How many do you own right now?

I have five now. Okay. Only I was worried you were going to say like 50. Well, I wish I could. I just saw one yesterday I liked online, but it's $10,000. So I'm not there. But so I'm taking lessons. But it just turned it every day.

It was kind of the first 15 minutes we're spending about how I'm telling my friends who I'm teaching guitar to. And again, I thought, look, okay, my name's not Russ Cortno. I'm not Wendell Clark. I'm not Gary Lehman. I'm not any of these guys. I really just want to learn to play. And I did. I learned a few songs.

But at the end of the day, it kind of just came down to, listen, there's this thing out there called YouTube. Yeah. And you can learn anything, right? I mean, from how to cock a crack in the window, how to insulate your own attic and everything else, which we all do. So I did, I've been self-taught on YouTube and there's some great lessons on there. And that's how I go about it. Last night I got home, that was my first night home from a long road trip. And we were in Nashville and there was a house band playing while I was getting my stuff together at Bridgestone

Arena. And they played Cheap Trick, No Surrender, and they played Leave Your Hat On. So both songs, they absolutely killed. And it was just one guitarist, a bass player, drummer, and a singer. And I'm thinking, wow, these guys were awesome. So I give them a standing O while they're rehearsing. And they laughed because I yelled, it's the guy from Buffalo. And they're Nashville musicians. We're about to play the Predators.

They loved it. And I said, no, you guys are awesome. So I came home. And last night, I sat down guys are awesome. So I came home and last night I sat down and I tried to learn You Can Leave Your Hat On, which has a ton of chords, which for a lot of your listeners is probably easy to play. But I'm still that guy where I'm thinking fourth fret finger here,

quick twist your back. So it can be a painful process. Cheat Trick Surrender was a little bit easier. Not that it's an easy song, but it was easier for a novice, which I still kind of classify myself as. So I was playing that by about 1 in the morning yesterday. Okay, but if you have a guitar right now and you want to impress the chicks,

what's your go-to jam that you play? No one in particular. I mean, you could just chord progress if you've got... You don't have like that... I always pull out Wonderwall or whatever. You don't have that one song you go to... Well, I'm a very in-the-moment guy, so I would probably pull out Cheap Trick, Surrender.

And this generation would never probably have heard of it unless it's been covered. You know, I saw them open for Pearl Jam in 98. Did you? I've actually seen them. Yeah. Yeah. Were you mind-altered at the time, or were you?

No. The only reason I bring that up is because I saw them too, and they opened up for Cheap Trick, opened up, I believe, for Ted Nugent who opened up for somebody else. And it was at the C&E Exhibition Stadium. And I think it was one of my first times ever as a teenager that I did try

stuff that at the time now it's legal in Canada. But when you were teenagers it wasn't legal. You know that stuff that comes out of a little white rolled up thing? Yes. That stuff. When it stuff. It's legal now so we can talk about it. Well, I don't think you should talk about it because I'm worried about you

going back to Buffalo. I think we should move on for your own safety. Because it's Buffalo, I'm safe, alright? Dudes are okay with it. No, it was just an experience. I remember that. I felt like I was sitting in some kind of eggshell I couldn't break out of.

It was a really weird experience. They had a string of hits, though, like I Want You to Want Me, and there's a bunch of other ones. Well, the Live at Budokan album really put them off the charts as far as recognition for, yeah, I Want You to Want Me and Surrender and all that stuff. Good band.

And there's been a few bands that have done some covers of their songs lately. And one band that I love in particular that we won't talk about on this podcast good band, and there's been a few bands that have done some covers of their songs lately. One band that I love in particular that we won't talk about on this podcast, just because it is a bit of a touchy... This is a touchy generation for sometimes admitting, hey, I like this band. No, no, no, now you have to tell me.

Well, they're a band that sing a lot about... It's a sex, drugs, rock and roll hair band. They're a cover group that play their own stuff. A cover band. Well, but they start, the guys in this band, and anyone who knows me is going to know who I'm talking about. They'll start tweeting it. They come from different cover bands and their own bands, and they're excellent musicians, and they have a shtick of their own that is very much a guy's 80s metal band.

So the killer dwarves. Well. Slick toxic. Yeah, it's not something that the softer side would really get into because their sense of humor through music might not go over well with certain people. And at times too, you know,

if you find a joke to be funny and in public, if you admit it, maybe it doesn't go over well. It's that type of thing. I hear you. No, say no more, say no more. I mean, we're in a joke to be funny and in public, if you admit it, maybe it doesn't go over well. It's that type of thing. I hear you. No, say no more. Say no more. I mean, we're in an era where Baby, It's Cold Outside apparently is not being played anywhere. I heard that, yes. And I also

heard, and this one's kind of upsetting me because I realized there might be some validity to this. And it's my favorite Christmas song of all time. But they're talking about banning Fairytale of New York because it's got the derogatory, the F word, not F-U-C-K, the other one for derogatory term for homosexuals. Oh, really?

Is in that song. And it's always been there. And it's funny, it's also considered a Duran Duran song, too. Money for Nothing has it, too, right? Yeah. But now, is that acceptable to play that? Meanwhile, I play it a lot.

I love the Pogues and I love that song. For me, can I just say, because I wondered too if we ever got around about the social and culture today because we're talking about careers. But for me, I think this whole baby, it's cold outside. I'm always afraid to take a stand because, as you know, your employer

could not see that as a right way to do it. But I will just say this. I think whenever you have a judgment of anything that's done through art, you need to look at it through the artist's eyes first. This is my opinion. Before you start suggesting it's about blank and then fill in the blank. And for me, I really think Baby, It's Cold Outside, whoever wrote it, think baby it's cold outside whoever wrote it it was a flirt from my take is it's a flirtatious um you know boy and girl thing back and forth i don't think there was any

intent by the writer back in that era to have anything wrong happen and we have music that airs on all the stations that abandon now that i know for a fact have language in it as you mentioned yeah that is far worse than we have language in it, as you mentioned, that is far worse than we hear in Baby It's Cold Outside. And yet they not only play it, they top ten it, they champion it, and make money off of it.

You're so right. You know, it's a tough one. I guess because it's holiday music, it's got to be much more family-friendly than like your typical top 40, you know, song you hear. But I hear,. I'm with you, except... Yeah, but it's a precedent,

isn't it? I know. It's just... And it's art, right? So you have to... And that's my point, yeah. Context is everything, so you're right. I mean, you have a hockey mask hanging up here that somebody could come down and it could scare the living daylights out of them. Oh, yeah. I used to scare my kids, yeah. But that's not your intent, right? The intent is not... So you can be asked,

could you please just put it somewhere else? Cover up that mess. Well, put it somewhere else. But why should you have to take it down? I mean, that's part of who you are. No. And anyway. You're right, my friend.

Okay. So that's it. Now, Dan, so you're a hard rock guy. I'm hearing all these bands. You're seeing Ted Nugent, for God's sake. Like, you're a hard rock guy. Meanwhile, I got to play a couple. I won't play too much of it because it's not really my cup of tea, to be honest.

But this song here, Make My Life With You. This is the Oak Ridge Boys. Okay. So hold on. Give it a few seconds. All right. Yeah. Now, what I did was, you'll appreciate this.

I don't know anything about country, but I went to the top 100 country songs on Billboard of 1985. Okay. And I randomly chose three songs that hit number one on the charts that year, okay? Yeah. So this is the Oak Ridge Boys. What else do I got here?

Hold on. 85, yeah. 1985. This is Alabama. I'm still in college. Well, this is where I'm going somewhere. I know where you're going already. That's why I'm trying to get the years nailed down.

But I believe this is my country. And it's when country really started to just start to change. You mean to suck? Is that what you mean? No, to go from, I mean, back in those days, yeah, this Alabama was kind of newish, rocking-ish country. Yeah. It sounds like Joe Jackson a little bit.

Yeah. It wasn't Tammy Wynette. It wasn't George Jones. It wasn't the classics. It wasn't even Dolly Parton. It was poppy. But you can't go wrong with Dolly. Okay, one more.

All right. Let's get some female voices in here. Is this the Judds? Yes, sir. You know your stuff. I almost wanted you to hit the post. I recognize the guitar. They had a certain sound, yeah.

Nice twang there. They were massive. Massive. Harmonies, harmonies. I love harmonies. They were massive. I remember them too. And theies. I love harmonies. They were massive. I remember them too. And the non-singing Judd became a big movie star.

So Ashley Judd is Winona's... Well, Mom Judd is the one I know growing up, at least for a lot of guys back in that day. He kind of had a mom crush on Mama Judd. She was a good-looking girl. You know, I remember. Are you kidding me? I do remember, for sure.

Now, tell me, Dan. Were you playing songs like this? Tell me where you were playing jams like this in 1980. Yeah, Welland, Ontario. So I went to college at Niagara College in Welland, and the back story is when you get to, at least at Niagara College in those days, at some point your teachers would tell you

that there'd be an internship, as you're well aware, that would become available and that one of the internships could possibly come at 1470 CHOW AM Country Music Radio. So they didn't call it CHOW? Yeah, people called it CHOW, yeah, but I never went on the air and called it CHOW and I don't think we were ever told to.

But that was one of the stations we were told in class that you could be approached by and feel proud because a lot of graduates work there. But the joke in class was there's not a chance I want to play country music when you're, what, 18, 19, 20 years old in college. At that time, I wanted to play Led Zeppelin. I wanted to play ZZ Top. I wanted to play Black Sabbath, ACDC, Van Halen, all that stuff. There was not a chance.

I had knowledge of country music through my dad, who listened to all sorts of music as we were growing up. But anyway, it did turn out that Stu Black, who was our instructor at the time at Niagara College, he came up and he said, listen, I think you need to take this internship that's at chow and i just sat there much at a desk like this at the other side of the desk and in his small office and i thought oh really country music oh gosh and you didn't have google

you didn't have all this stuff back then where you could start looking up who are these people i mean you just had to go off of what you heard from dad really or mom and dad right and that's what happened so my last two years a three-year course so for two of the three years i worked at chow uh interned overnight on the weekends the shifts that nobody wanted but the shifts that interns got and i operated a talk show first of all uh a couple would come in and they would give counseling to people so like a lot of kids do you hop on the board and you figure out how to work a board, how to fire up commercials in what were then called carts, much like 8-track tapes,

which again, this generation has no idea what that is. But you'd just learn how to work all the equipment. And then eventually they'd let you become an overnight disc jockey, if you will, and that's what I became. And I remember one quick story about really kind of setting myself up for not knowing what it was I was talking about. I was about to play a song by Conway Twitty. And I don't know if it's 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. The scene is it's a station out in the middle of nowhere, dark country.

And on the wall to my right, it's a big glass window that looks out to a field. So at nighttime, and it's pitch black, you can't see anything, but there's enough of a light reflecting on this window that you can see. And I kid you not at least a hundred spider webs and at least a hundred spiders make, cause you're in the country, you're out in the hay fields and whatever. And they've all made a home on this window.

And at nighttime, it's you and the spiders playing country music, which is really cool. It freaked the heck out of me at the time, but once I got used to them, they kind of become your buddies overnight. So I played Conway Twitty, and I teed it up, and I said, all right, ladies and gentlemen,

and here's a song by Mrs. Conway Twitty. Ah, right. As soon as I hit the song, I thought, that's not a Mrs. Second of all, the phone started lighting up, and I thought, oh, my, I am about to hear it. So I answer the phone, and I actually caught a break because it was a lovely elderly lady who picked it up,

and she says, hi, sweetheart, you're new, aren't you? Yes, and I probably knew the number of students had gone through. She says, well, you know that Conway Twitty is not a missus, right? And I said, yeah, I just heard that. I'm really sorry. She says, that's okay. I just thought I'd call

it, you know, darling, you have yourself a great night. That's a nice call. And it was a nice call, yeah. Wow. You got lucky there. It could have been a lot worse for you. And it's so quaint to hear you talk about this 1985 where that's kind of how it was. Somebody's listening in the middle of the night. They pick up the phone. They phone in. They can talk to the DJ. That's

kind of quaint. I had some girl phone up and she told me, again, if you had John Derringer or somebody in here, he'd have stories probably hundreds of these because Mr. Pipe's from the age of 17, right? Well, you know, I asked John. He said maybe one day. So he's still like...

Oh, he's not in yet? He's not in yet. Well, he has to come in because he'll have a hundred of these stories that he can't tell. His brother came on, though, for what it's worth. Billy? Yeah, Billy was coming. But yeah, one day and

again i'm i'm this kid and the phone rings and it's a woman on the other end of the phone i'm a single kid she calls she says hi how are you she sounds cute uh and she starts to tell me that she's a model and that she thinks we should hang out and then when my shift is over i should come to her house and all this stuff so she she keeps calling, you know, week after week and tries to convince me to come out to her house. And I'm sitting there again as a single, young, fired up kid. I'm thinking, how do I get to this girl's house? And is she really a model? Because again, you didn't have cell phones you could send a picture to. You couldn't email a photograph of each other. So you're having this like, oh, this is kind of... Where do I park this? Because

the 18, 19-year-old guy in me who's now never going to be a rock star but I'm on the radio, someone actually wants to meet me because of my voice and she says she's hot. Where do I go with this? Now, it didn't go anywhere. I didn't meet her, but as I say, JD would have

a ton of those stories. I know. I think that's why he hasn't come on yet. Too many of those stories. That's part of the path. It's all good. Hey, that's what I say. JD would have a ton of those stories. I know. I think that's why he hasn't come on yet. Too many of those stories. Yeah, that's part of the path. We'll see. I know. Hey, that's what I say. That's what I say. Hey, before, let's take care of some business just before we get you to CJCL. Time has come today.

Time has come today. Time. Remember the time, Dan Dunleavy. On this day, on this exact day in 1930, the Toronto Balmy Beachers won their final Grey Cup. Did you know there was a Toronto Balmy Beachers? I'll be honest and say no. No, and I didn't either until I was looking at what happened on this day.

They beat the Regina Rough Riders 11-6 in the 18th. I'm not surprised there was a Regina Rough Riders back then, though. That's right. In the 18th Grey Cup. Here's a fun fact about this Toronto Balmy Beach Beechers that I did not know about. They were a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union,

and that was a league that actually preceded the Canadian Football League. So there you go. We had a team called the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers, and they actually won at least a couple of Grey Cups in their short history. So that's Remember the Time. And Remember the Time is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. They've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years. You might remember, maybe, Dan, you'll remember,

you grew up in where? You grew up in Burlington? Where were you growing up? No, born in Toronto at the age of three. Parents moved to Georgetown, Ontario, 45 minutes west of the city, and that's where I spent most of my years. I'm still trying to grow up, so that's where, until I was 25. Well, they must have had a

Sears. Did they have a Sears in Georgetown? Not in Georgetown, no. You had to go to... Zellers. I worked at the Zellers there. There were Van Halen logos everywhere. Yes, I can't. Yeah, because I mean, I don't know how,

I'm probably, I don't know, I'm about your age, but Van Halen was the biggest deal when I was in primary school. Like Van Halen was the band, man. That was a big deal. Yeah, well, they were the summer, fun, rock and roll, harmony, kick-ass, David Lee Roth with the long blonde hair,

Eddie Van Halen with the licks, and then Michael Anthony kicking the crap out of his bass, and then Alex on the drums with the... I don't know if he was first to have the double bass drum kit going, but he might have been. He was certainly right around first, if not. Well, the reason I brought up Sears

is because back in the day, people used to get their watch battery replaced at Sears and get their watch repaired at Sears. And the people doing that repair, it wasn't Sears. It was always Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. They were basically in the Sears, but they had to call themselves Sears Watch Repair

or something like that. So Sears are gone. So now Fast Time has opened up a bunch of new locations. I remember that. You'd walk in the Sears, but they had to call themselves Sears Watch Repair or something like that. So Sears are gone. So now Fast Time has opened up a bunch of new locations. I remember that. You'd walk in the Sears and they'd be right there on the left-hand side or right-hand side. That was them. So they've been doing it for over 30 years. So here's the deal for listeners of Toronto Mic'd. If you go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com

find a location near you. They have a new location in Richmond Hill. You can go and get 15% off any regular priced watchriced watch battery. Just mention Toronto Mic'd. And this is not a deal they toss around lightly. Milan there told me they never do this. But you get 15% off your watch battery installation

if you just mention Toronto Mic'd. Well, Milan sees the names that you have coming up on your show, including Scott Moore and others. Tomorrow's Scott Moore. You've got some heavy hitters coming in. Do you know that Milan's got a question for have coming up on your show, including Scott Moore and others. Tomorrow's Scott Moore. You've got some heavy hitters coming in. Do you know that Milan's got a question for you coming up later when we get to the CJCL? Do you want to know about my watch? It has

a picture of me and my dog on it. He wants to know if the band needs replacement. They do the band replacement too. This one's fine. This is fairly new. It's a gift from my wife. Let me know when that thing goes on you. But Milan does have a question for you coming up. Cool. But I want to give you some gifts first.

You mentioned, at some point you mentioned Great Lakes Beer. There's a six-pack of Great Lakes Beer in front of you that is yours to take. Oh, thank you. Where do you go from here? Buffalo? Where do you go from here? Fort Erie. That's home now.

Fort Erie, Ontario. Somewhere hidden in the darkness, which I won't divulge right now. But yeah. I'm an 11-minute drive to the rink in Buffalo, which is perfect. Oh, wow. Thank you. That's awesome. Take your fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.

Thank you. I want to tell people listening that I'm going to be at the Christmas market at Great Lakes Brewery on Saturday. So from noon to 6 p.m., they have their annual Christmas market. There's vendors there. They got, you know, obviously they get fresh beer on tap. Obviously, imagine they didn't have that. But what's Santa's coming too. Like I'm bringing the kids because Santa's going to be there.

Santa shows up at 4 p.m., I think. So that's what I'm aiming to get there. But Great Lakes is a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. 99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario. And Dan, there's a box, a beautiful red box.

There is. I've been kind of reaching out. It looks like it's heavy, right? Yeah. I don't want to take you away from here. It looks like a box of donuts or a cake, but it's not. Well, it's definitely not that

because it's frozen lasagna. It's an amazing lasagna courtesy of Palma Pasta. So Palma Pasta, they have four locations in Mississauga and Oakville. Palma's Kitchen is their newest location. That's near Mavis and Burnhamthorpe. You got to go to

palmapasta.com to get the address and check these guys out. Get your holiday party catered by Palma Pasta. That gift is yours. That is, no, I know I'm biased here, but catered by Palma Pasta. That gift is yours. I know I'm biased here, but I was enjoying Palma Pasta way before they were a sponsor. I actually got them to cater my wedding.

Really? Good for you. So that's how much I enjoy Palma Pasta. Well, thank you very much. My Italian wife will be all over this. Get her to review it for us. I will, yeah. We'll get Brenda to do her thing. Do it? Okay, cool. That's very, very cool. Thank yeah. We'll get Brenda to do her thing. Do it. Okay, cool.

That's very, very cool. Thank you. And I'm going to play a question here. Is this the same lasagna that Scott's going to get tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. No, come on. Yours is better.

Okay, good. So do you know Scott? Yeah, I have a Scott story, but we can wait. Do you want to do it now? Because sometimes people have a story and they say, I'll tell you later. And then we finish recording, we take our picture, you're on the road back to Fort Erie, and then it hits you. Oh, you forgot the time. No, I'll never forget the Scott

story. I mean, we didn't directly work together, but there was a time at the fan that, and I won't go back to the meeting, but this juncture at the fan turned out to be my last year at the fan. Not by my choosing and not by the fans' choosing, but Scott Moore and his people at Sportsnet

had just decided to have a weekly junior hockey game of the week, which is now the Friday or Saturday night junior hockey showcase, whatever the title is now, and I apologize for not remembering, but RJ Broadhead and Sam Cosentino do a fabulous job with that. Scott and his crew were starting that out. They had contacted the fan and me and asked me if I'd be interested in being the play-by-play voice of that. And this was off of years of doing World Junior Championships. I, of course, didn't hesitate and told the guys, yes, I was all in on it.

I didn't talk with Scott directly. I talked with different people in the company that were setting this up. But we get to Scott. So I'd said yes to this. And then the people that I had spoken to and said yes to, the main point man had gone golfing in Scotland for two weeks. But in that time span, like about a week into his trip, I get a call from a gentleman by the name of Chris Hebb. I'm about to board a plane to Chicago to call a TFC game on the fan on radio. And I see my phone ringing and it

said Toronto Maple Leafs Chris Hebb. Now I didn't know who Chris was at the time, but I certainly knew it was a Toronto Maple Leaf number. It came up on my phone. Holy cow. So I just answered it thinking it was going to be about the TFC call coming up because they own the same team. I take the call. Hey Dan, it's Chris Hebb.

Just curious if you'd like to be the play-by-play voice on radio for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I just went completely sheet white. I started sweating and first of all thinking, I know it's not a joke because it came up on my phone. This is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Second of all, the guy knows who I am and I've never given him my number before. But I've never sent a demo or anything. I've just been doing my thing. And I

remember saying to Chris, I said, well, the answer is not no, but I don't know how to say yes and I can't believe I'm saying this to you. And this was the entire phone conversation. He said, well, what do you mean? Well, I just told Rob Cortay at SportsNet that I would be

happy to be the junior voice for their game of the week. And I don't want to go back on my word to Rob. I'm not, I don't want to be that guy. And, and Rob's not here right now to go back to and say, Hey, so Chris said, well, and I didn't realize how everyone is so tied in at this point in time, how all the people at Sportsnet, including Scott Moore, knew everyone at Toronto Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment so uniquely. And people were married to other people and all these ties that I'm this scared guy thinking, I got my break.

I got my break. How do I not lose both of these opportunities? And especially, obviously, when it's a Toronto Maple Leafs calling in the National Hockey League, I wasn't going to say no. So I said yes to Chris and I said, but how do I do this? You know, he says, well, I can look after it. And I said, no, no, no, I have to do this on my own. I'm just curious from your experience if I had given you my word on something and then something else came up.

Let's say the LA Kings call and they offer me 82 games, and he was offering 40. Dennis Bayek had left to go to Winnipeg. So Joe Bowen, when he was on TV, I would take over and do Dennis's games, which amounted to about 40 games a year. That's what I was being offered and what I accepted. So the Scott Moore story is Rob Cortes out of town. I get in touch with Scott directly. I think I've got to go to the most important guy who knows what's going on and let him know the situation. So they don't look at me as if I'm some kind of jerk for saying yes

and then backing out because I didn't want that impression of me. And I was, and still I'm forever grateful they even thought of me. So I go into Scott's office and the funniest thing, you know, when you're the guy working at the fan and getting these first breaks and then you go into Scott's office, it can, if you let it intimidate you, you will. And I will admit I was nervous, but only because I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't nervous of the human being because I just see people as people. Even if someone in power, I'm thinking it's just another, it's a woman, it's a man,

we can connect and we'll go from there. But from a business point of view, they have a job to do, I have a job to look after myself. So we sit down and I tell Scott the situation. He says, well, look, I'm not going to tell you, you can't say no to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the National Hockey League. This is probably your dream is to get to the NHL. And I said, yes.

And he said, you're born in Toronto. It's the Maple Leafs. Okay. So I accept the job and Scott's walking around. He has a baseball bat in his hand while we're having this conversation. And I'm sitting on the couch and really in pure manager employee positioning. I'm low on the couch. He's standing with the baseball bat walking around.

Yeah, the power move. And I know this going on. I'm thinking, dude, this is the rock and roll conversation I wanted to have with him. I was like, dude, this is a great power move you're pulling on me right now. But I'm sitting there and again, I'm a little bit, okay, I don't want to burn a bridge here because I might not need to, but even want to come back to this bridge. So Scott looks at me and he says, look, I appreciate you came in and you told me face-to-face what's up and you're straight up with us. And he says, normally,

this is where I tell someone you're dead to me. Because they did. They offered me a great spot. And who knows? I could still be working that spot or somewhere else within the company. But he said, in this case, you're not. And good luck to you.

And we may meet down the road. Who knows? That's my Scott Moore story. How he's like, wow, I don't. This guy's carrying a baseball bat. Am I going to be okay here? He got that from the untouchables. Yeah, probably.

Now that's a power move. Yeah, it was. Doing the baseball bat. Yeah. See, I carry the baseball bat when he comes on my show. The little tiny dairy cream ones that you got. Oh, the Catelli ones. Remember the Catelli bats when you went to the exhibition stadium? Yes, that was them. The little tiny dairy cream ones that you got? Oh, the Catelli ones. Remember the Catelli bats?

Is that where they were? Yes, that was them. Catelli, the pasta people, these two sponsored the bat giveaway. Not quite Palmas. Palmas will cook it for you. You've got to do it yourself with Catelli. It's a whole bunch of work.

No, not quite Palmas. Tell me how you got to the fan in the first place. Out of college and after I stopped working the CHOW country show because it didn't make enough money to support yourself and what have you. So I went back home and I started working eventually and pretty quickly actually for a radio station up in Orangeville, Ontario called DC 103.5 who became I think Hot 103.5 or whatever. Z 103? Z 103, yes. They're actually an Orangeville, Ontario, called DC 103.5, who became, I think, Hot 103.5 or whatever. Z-103?

Z-103, yes. They're actually, they're an Orangeville station. Yeah. And you could, in two minutes from here, you'll be at their broadcast location. Yeah, so I didn't know that. They're still based out of Orangeville. So that's where I went.

I worked there for eight years. Did every possible job you could do there from morning announcing, afternoon announcing, split shift announcing, where I slept in another guy's apartment while he worked in the office all day between morning and afternoon shifts. And I'd sleep on the floor in his extra bedroom between the morning drive and afternoon drive just to get some sleep in because you're up at 3.30 a.m. for the morning drive and then you have to do the afternoon drive. So that's the Orangeville part. And I just, in my eighth year there,

is when 680 News was launched in Toronto or in and around seven or eight years. And my boss who worked there as a news director, anyway, was Joe Snyder. He came to work at 680 in a news position. He was hired by John Hinnon and their people. And then I got a call shortly after from 680, but to backtrack a little bit, in my sixth or seventh year in Orangeville, I thought, because the fan had just gone in the air, I had enough people telling me,

they said, you should take a shot at this all-sports station thing for at least reading some updates because we hear you up here and you're really good. So I thought, oh, whatever. I got to wait till I'm ready. So I felt I was ready. I sent a demo tape into a guy by the name of Alan Davis at The Fan in

Toronto. Alan sat at his desk. He put his feet up on the desk. He popped my cassette tape into his ghetto blaster or whatever he had on his desk. And he hit play. And I had every lesson on how to make a proper demo tape and put the right stuff at the beginning. But he was looking for something. And then he stopped it. And then he said, where's the whatever? And I said, well, let's got to fast forward it a little bit. And right there, I thought, I just screwed. I'm done.

That was your one chance. He fast forwarded. He found what he's looking for. Excuse me. He says, OK, nice to meet you. He gave me five minutes. And he said that. When I called up, I said, look, I'm not mailing my demo tape to you. I need to come in and see you. He says, I'll give you five

minutes. And that's it. And he literally gave me five minutes. I was out of his office. I was walking down the hallway and I thought, oh, I don't know if that went well at all. I got a call the next day from Scott Metcalf, their news director, who said, we'd like to hire you. Can you come in and read for me? I came in and read for Scott, and I was hired by the fan. Now, at that time, I worked Monday to Friday in Orangeville doing afternoon drive or morning drive news and sports. On the weekends, I would work at the fan. So I worked seven days a week for a couple of years. Wow. And as you know, that's just what you do in this business, right, especially back then, too, because you're making $9,000 a year.

So I did the seven-day-a-week thing, and then John Hinnan called from 680, and he called me in Orangeville, and he said, hey, I'd like you to come and be our, was it afternoon? Peter Gross was already there. Peter Gross was recently over here. Yeah, Peter Gross was there already, and then I'm drawing a blank on the other name I should remember, but they needed a second sportscaster for the afternoon drive, I think. And that's

the spot that I was. So again, I went into John Hinnan's office and I couldn't say no. It was a Monday to Friday sports gig on this station. And I said to him, I said, well, I can't say no to that. I'm talking to myself. I can't say no. It's an opportunity. It's Toronto, blah, blah, blah. But what do

I do with the fan? Because deep down in my heart, I knew that the fan is where I not only wanted to be, but probably should be for what it is I wanted to do, which was play-by-play broadcasting at some point. And I accept the job, and then I go back to Alan Davis's office. It's easy to walk away from Orangeville because I've been there eight years, and those were my junior, like a hockey player. Those are my development years. And say goodbye I'm leaving I'm going to 680 in Toronto now I have to go to Alan Davis and tell him that I'm leaving the fan

so I get into his office and I said I've got an offer from John Hinton at 680 I'm I'd really love to stay here but I'm gone Alan looks at me he says you're not going anywhere I said what do you mean by that he says well I don't have a sports opening for you right now, but if you can handle being a traffic and weather guy until a sports opening comes up, I want to keep you here. And right away, I'm thinking, look, I'm all in on this, but how do I tell John Hinnan what just happened here? Because I sat in his office on Adelaide Street not too long ago, and I just told him, I'm all in on your offer. And again, I was flattered, and it's my first Toronto job. He says, I'll handle it.

So it's kind of a before it all happened with Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, it happened years before, which was kind of interesting. It's good to have options, right? Well, but like I say, you got to be careful you don't burn both, because... But it sounds like you're uber careful, I'd say. You're always... I think uber honest to be... I think if we're just honest with everybody up front and if

someone tells you... If Scott Moore had said, you're dead to me, that's his choice. It's not mine. I still handle things in an honest manner with him and I can take that home. But in this situation, Alan Davis, he did. He picked up the phone. He called John Hinton. He had him on speaker. He says, John, Alan Davis over here.

And again, I don't know they know each other. So I didn't know that this radio community is so tight because you're just a kid starting out. He says, I got done. Leave me sitting here. He's not going anywhere. And then he hangs up the phone. And he offers me, I think back then it was $30,000 a year

to do whatever and just wait and literally wait because you still had Ken Daniels, Joe Bowen. You had a heavy lineup there that I was not about to crack. Scott Ferguson was there. It's funny how all you guys do play-by-play. Ken Daniels, Joe Bowen. You had a heavy lineup there that I was not about to crack. Scott Ferguson was there. It's funny how all you guys do play-by-play. Ken Daniels, Joe Bowen. But Fergie was a big one. Scott Ferguson at the time, a legend at the fan, he wasn't going anywhere.

Well, here, can I pause you there? Sure. So we can hear from Brian Gerstein, a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. He's got a question for you. Propertyinthe6.com representative with PSR Brokerage. He's got a question for you. Hi Dan, Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. Now is the time to have me evaluate your home or condo if you're looking to get it on the market in the new year. If you are buying, December is the best time to get a great deal with less competition and motivated sellers. Call or text me at 416-873-0292 to get the ball rolling either way.

Dan, let's go back in a time machine to 1997 when you were working with the likes of Bob Durant, Barry Davis, Tim Haffey, Scott Medcalf, Doug Faraway, Barb DiGiulio, and Scott Ferguson. I wanted to ask you about. Scott was anything but polarizing, unlike his successor, Mike Wilner, who handles Chase Talk. What are your feelings on call-in shows in general? I am not a fan. We have Twitter now,

where fans can express their feelings 24-7. I find them a waste of time and avoid them completely. Interesting. And I shouldn't be surprised. First of all, that's a really cool way to get a question through. You're a creative dude. I like this. Thanks. Yes. Thank you. High praise.

Yeah. I mean that sincerely. It's very well done. Callers, we had this conversation down in Buffalo recently with WGR 550 who air our Sabres games. We simulcast our MSG call and a lot of that is because of Rick Jenner, right? Obviously the Hall of Famer.

Or maybe all of it is because of RJ. Oh, we'll get to him. Yeah. It's interesting. You know, I still think for call-in shows, I get it as a listener that the days might be a little past the newness of it for getting a voice opinion. I am not, how do I say this? I could definitely live my life without Twitter easily. It's a necessary

thing for our business now and for where we are in 2018 going on 19, I get it. But there is, going back to the whole thing about meeting good people you meet a lot of good people on twitter but you also have to mute or block or deal with a lot of really negative things that in any other fashion you'd never hear you'd never invite into you into your life into your day um here's a quarter call someone who cares is kind of what I refer to as Twitter. That's an old Travis Tritt song, is that everyone has an opinion, I get it, and not everyone's going to like what you do for a living,

but the whole thing, and I'll get back to answer the question, but it kind of sets up my answer, is that the whole thing for me about Twitter is you don't have to say who you are. You don't have to be accountable for what you say. You can say the meanest things that do leave a dent in somebody's soul, even if they say, that doesn't bother me. And I just think it's a really mean

medium, unfortunately. There's a lot of good that comes from it. I get it because I'm part of it. But the caller part, I still think that if you call up a radio station now and you have an opinion on something, you're going to kind of be held accountable for, A, you're putting your voice out there. A lot of times the stations now, I don't know what their philosophy is, but we would take a call and actually call you back. If we had doubts about what you would say, I'd say, hey, Mike, how are you?

Look, we'd love to have you on the show. Give us your number. We'll call you back. If you were going to be someone on Twitter that was going to drop an F-bomb, you suck, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then you're probably not going to give me your number to call you back because now I know where you are or have a way to find where you are if you're at all abusive or nasty or if I have felt

threatened in any way. So for me, that still exists in radio that, you know, I listen to talk radio driving home from our Sabres games all the time. And I like hearing calls from different people, but I will say this to answer the question. I don't want to hear a long call in segment. So here's Mike from Toronto. Hey, Mike, what's your thought?

As long as I'm going on with my answers to you here, I don't want to hear that from a caller. It's kind of like Twitter where keep it to 140 characters, have your say, and then I'll move on and you kind of set up the rest of my show or segment for me. So I'm okay with that part.

I like the sound of a voice. It's part of who we are. It's part of, to me, the whole characters on a screen is very cold. But if you called me up to say, I don't like what you do for a living,

I think you're terrible at it, I can actually stomach that. It's the faceless stuff that kind of, you want to say it doesn't punch I can actually stomach that. It's the faceless stuff that kind of, you want to say it doesn't punch you in the gut, but it does.

No, I totally, totally relate. But what Brian did there, thank you, Brian, for mentioning Scott Ferguson. Yeah. He segues us nicely because I have great memories

of listening to, I listened to Tom and Cheek call the Blue Jays games and then Scott Ferguson would do the out-of-town scoreboard and stuff after. So I heard his voice just before I'd fall asleep.

It's like, I'd fall asleep to Scott Ferguson's voice or whatever. And then, of course, he took the gig at the team. Yes. I've had a long list of guests come through this,

down into this... bumping their heads in this basement who were seduced by the team. And it's from Mike Richards to Paul Romanuk to Jim Van Horn. There's a length of Stephen Brunt, I think. There's a whole bunch of people who end up going there. So tell me a little bit about working with Scott.

Let me know if you're still in touch with the guy because I don't know how to get to him because I'd love to have him on the show. Well, I don't know if he's still at TSN Radio anymore. I don't think he is. No, I'm not in touch with him and I wish I was. And he, again, back to the hole

where we started on just genuinely nice, decent human beings, Scott Ferguson is definitely one of those. And I'd love to somehow find out where Fergie is right now

because, you know, when he left for the team, again, he was a Tim Haffey, that was a Tim Haffey moment for me because then I became the afternoon sports announcer update guy at the fan

and I did that for I don't know how many years. It was certainly over a decade and that was all because Scott, you know, saw an opportunity for him. I can't speak to that for him. 2001, I think,

is the year. I think that's the year. You know, I remember the whole team thing. I remember when the score first went on the air. They took a lot of guys away from us at the fan. Was Friedman?

Friedman, Greg Sansoni, Todd Macklin, I think, may have gone with that group. A lot of really good, young, talented people. Listen, they sought opportunity. Not much like the discussion we've already had where you have to make a choice. For me, I chose to do weather and sport weather and traffic updates for two years at the fan it had nothing to do with sports and i thought there were definitely

moments i thought what on earth am i doing but i again i just stuck with a i'm not going to say foolishly but some people could suggest it i guess but i i did have faith in alan davis said he meant every word he said that look i like you uh I think you're good at what you do. I just can't move Scott Ferguson, Ken Daniels, Joe Bowen, any of these guys. Dan Shulman was starting up in those days. I can't move these guys out for you right now. But if they move on, and Fergie did, door opens and you step.

And then all I can do at that point is. You trusted somebody who kept his word. But in this day and age, can you still do that? And that's what I was suggesting in that. you know, I mean, I just read something about a radio station. I think it was in Toronto. Is there a Toronto station that had really great ratings and they just gassed everybody and that.

Okay. Well, uh, those stories. You're talking about Virgin 99.9. Could be. I mean, but that's not, that's nothing new. It used to happen. Uh, when I worked in Toronto, you were, the big fear was being taken out for a company lunch. And you did.

You feared it because you would come back and not be able to get back in the building. Your card wouldn't work, and now you're out of work looking for a job. I'm not saying it's good that it happens. I'm just saying it's nothing new to this business. But a lot of guys took those opportunities where I just trusted for me that I was going to stay in a place where I felt, first of all, the fan would be around forever because they're the first in, uh, the good at what they do under great leadership with Alan Davis and Nelson Millman and Scott Metcalf.

And I trusted those three guys to have obviously their best interests, you know, at heart first and the stations. But I also felt that I don't really think these guys are going to screw me over. have obviously their best interests at heart first and the stations. But I also felt that I don't really think these guys are going to screw me over. I mean, I think if anything, they would come to me and say, look, it's just not going to happen. I can't make it happen. If there's an opportunity for you somewhere else, you should take it.

And an opportunity did come up, and I even turned that. It was a play-by-play job. I turned it down to stay at the fan. Which opportunity? Interestingly enough. I'll tell you if you made the right call. Yeah. When we were with Telemedia before we became members of, I think, for one day Standard and then Rogers,

Telemedia had stations out across Canada. One was in Kelowna, BC. And the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League were looking for a play-by-play voice. And when that came open, A, I've always wanted to live out west and be somewhere in the mountains because I love it. B, it was play-by-play. And I went out and I met the team owner of the Rockets who took me golfing at an amazing golf course. I golfed with a guy who owned a radio store, electronic store,

and I think maybe the mayor or somebody. I mean, I was wine and dined as much as you could be for that position. And I went out there at the blessing of everybody at the fan and who ran the station because he knew that was my dream to do play-by-play. I get out there and I don't know why, Mike, but a thought came into my head and I thought, why are you even thinking maybe not now? I mean, this is what you want.

So I actually picked up the phone, and I called someone who was a really good fan of mine. At least he said he was, and that was Bill Waters. And Wilbur, who worked in the business, former GM in the National Hockey League and with Toronto, had always said he really liked my work, and he thought I could really go places if I just stuck with it and what have you. So I remember calling Bill and I asked him, I said, look, I have this opportunity. What do you think?

Should I stay at the fan and wait for something to come up? I don't know what it is, but there's something in my gut telling me maybe I don't go out to Kelowna. So we had a conversation and Bill suggested, hey, Kelowna is a beautiful place. You can go out there and live the rest of your life and do junior hockey and hope somebody hears you. His take on it was, or you stay at the fan, which is the number one most listened to sports radio station in Canada and see where that takes you.

And it was an interesting way to put it because when we're chasing our dreams sometimes we see it and we get so focused on it we we go directly for it instead of thinking that maybe something else along the way will be a better fit and we don't even know what that is yet so i picked up the phone first of all i went into the owner's office in colona and on the board of directors for the western hockey league and just a man that I had a lot of respect for and only knew him a few days, but I heard a lot about him. And kind of like the Scott Moore situation, I went into his office, and I said, I can't believe I'm telling you this.

After everything you've done, including flying me out from Toronto, taking me golfing, taking me to dinner, something in my gut is just saying, not now. And he just looked at me and he said, I'm going to use male anatomy words here. He says, we stood up to shake hands. And as soon as we shook hands, he says, you've got balls, kid. The fact you had the guts to come in and tell me that face-to-face

after what we did for you, I wish you nothing but the best. And I felt that that too was just a reassurance for, this is how I have to handle my life. Not Bruce's life out in Kelowna not anyone's life in Toronto, my life, that I want someone at the end of the day to shake my hand and say, dude's honest, he gave me his so I came back, actually at the airport, I picked up the phone, I called Nelson Millman and I said, I'm staying at the fan and I'm kind of thinking, I haven and I said, I'm staying at the fan. And I'm kind of thinking, like, I haven't quit,

but I'm staying at the fan, and I'm hoping he's not already moved on in his head, thinking there's not a chance he turns this down. He wants hockey play-by-play. I call Nelson, I tell him that, and in the same phone conversation, he says, well, get home and pack your bags. You're going to Australia.

I went to cover the Olympics in 2000. Wow. And that turned into covering not one, but two, but three Olympic Games, which, thank goodness, I'm not going to say that I didn't take the Kelowna job, but just the way the journey has worked out here, the experiences from covering the Olympics in Athens and in Sydney and in Vancouver and having play-by-play work out, it's been a blessing. Well, you've called play-by-play for like 100 it's been a blessing. Well, we're going to, I mean, you've called play-by-play

for like 100 different sports, I think. I don't know. 1702, yeah, 1702. We're going to get to that. This is actually a pretty cool spot to get Milan's question in while you're still the fan because it's worth noting,

you stay at the fan until that story you told about you getting the, not the Joe Bowen, but getting the play-by-play opportunity at the Leafs, right? That's when you leave the fan. So you were at the fan for like 19 years. And we'll cover a lot of the other cool stuff you did.

But here's a great question about your years at the fan. Hey Toronto Mike, it's Milan from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. Hello Dan, congratulations on all of your success as the voice of the Buffalo Sabres. Two-part question related of your success as the voice of the Buffalo Sabres. Two-part question related to your years at the fan.

As a longtime broadcaster on the various fan morning shows, if you were a program director for an all-sports radio station and had your choice of a morning show host, between Bob McCowan, John Derringer, or Mike Richards, who would you choose? And part two, would you be able to share any Bob McCowan stories after working with him on the Fan Morning Show for so many years? Thanks, Dan and Toronto Mike. Great question.

And so the choices are Mike Richards, John Derringer, and was it Bobcat? Yeah, Bob McCowan. Okay. Let's start with the choice first and I'll get to the McCowan story. Okay. And it's not, Yeah, Bob McCowan. Okay. Let's start with the choice first, and I'll get to the McCowan story. Okay. And it's a good story.

It's a really good story, and it says a lot about Bob, the human being. I think Jim Richards would be hilarious because he was on the station. I'm going to go with Derringer for one reason because I worked with him, and I just remember how many times I'd be crying, I'd be laughing so hard

on the other side of the glass. I did traffic for John on his show. One morning, well I was or one night, so the night before once I'm courting some girl somewhere in Toronto and trying to make her my girlfriend and whatever. I wind up staying I think out till three in the morning. I have to drive

back to my place at the time in Brampton, Ontario, then get back to the station, all showered and what have you. And this is just from going out. This isn't from any hanky-panky. Just I've been out till three trying to get a girl to pay attention to me. I go, I drive to Brampton,

which is about half an hour away. I have a quick shower. I change, so I've not gone to bed. I come in for the morning show. Scott Metcalf is reading news. John Derringer might be hosting... Was it Jim or Mike Richards, the name that came up? Mike. Mike, okay.

Well, Jim would be funny too. Jim did the Saturday shows. No, but he could. He did the Richard and Womack. And the Saturday show was priceless. Halfie was a good team on that one. No, you're right. I have a lot of fan alumni come in, and we just talk about the laundry list of guys

who used to, from Mike Inglis to Dan Schulman to Elliott Friedman. You can just go down. Strombo, Merrick. You can just go down the list. Yeah, it's a good list. So I'll quickly finish the story. So I come back, and of course, I'm dog tired.

I'm doing traffic updates every 10 minutes, which traffic has a pattern, right? Unless there's an accident, traffic's the same every day. But we have to repeat it every 10 minutes, and it's your job, and you can't slack off on it. But there's one more, that morning, I'm sitting there, and I'm in the booth like this, and I used to put my head back on these black office chairs,

and I would just lean it back as far as I could go, and I'd put it on the back of the chair, and I would close my eyes, and I'd say, as long as you can hear the show, you're fine, because I knew I could just wake up in a heartbeat and say, oh, no accidents in the moment. And if there was. Sounds dangerous. Yeah, if there was at the time, I thought, well, I'm on in 10 minutes.

I mean, I'm really just going to start getting details anyway. So I'm kind of admitting maybe a lazy thing here. But again, this is out after chasing a girl. So I actually do fall asleep at one point. Scott Metcalf's reading the news and he throws to the traffic report. Scott's in another room down the hall. I'm in my traffic booth, but the glass between me and the morning show

is John Derringer sitting straight ahead of me. So what wakes me up is Derringer laughing, because I've got my headset. I've fallen asleep with my headsets on. Derringer's laughing, and all I hear is, I think Danny boy was out a little late last night having some fun. And I woke up

and I lunched and I hit the on button and I said nope John I'm just checking with the authorities and all the cameras and there are no problems on the roads right now we'll have the next update in 10 minutes so you know John both had my back in that moment and also made light of it to bring

a real like a real human moment to early morning radio. So, but yeah, he and, he and Mike obviously had a lot of fun in the mornings and. Yeah.

So let me, there are other, I mean, Craig Venn was your, was he the board op guy? Like what was Craig Venn doing? Yeah. So didn't he become Lobster Boy?

Yes, of course. Yeah. He's in Oshawa on the rocks. He does mornings in Oshawa. Is that where Jim Lang is? No. Jim's at the region or something, right?

He's at Witness Relocation Program, I think, out in Markham. I ran into Jim at a Swish LA once. Anyway, in Niagara. Yeah, Greg Venn, another great human being. That'd be a dude I'd love to see. I would love to see that guy right there. For your drive back,

you can listen to the Craig Venn Toronto Mic'd episode. Yeah, I will. Catch up on Craig. Yeah, I will. So yeah, and Richards, of course. Mike Richards, of course. Yeah, I will. Catch up on Craig. Yeah, I will. So, yeah, and Richards, of course. Mike Richards, of course. Yeah, Mike Richards, by the way,

is going to be doing mornings at a brand new Mississauga station that's aligned somehow with the Steelheads. Like, the guy who owns the Steelheads owns a radio station. Right. And so, Mike, starting on January 7th, he actually came on this show to break the news.

But on January 7th, Mike Richards is the new morning show guy on CKNT oh Harry he was good that guy's a person who I see at work every day which is awesome Harry Neal first guy I ever called in NHL

my first NHL game I ever called was with Harry Neal so okay since we'll do Harry Neal real quick soon we'll get you to actually get you to Buffalo Harry Neal real quick, soon we'll get you to actually get you to Buffalo. No worries. Harry Neal. I'm going to be there anyway. I've got lots of time.

I don't know if I do, though. But, okay, Bob Cole's last game for Hockey Night in Canada is going to be this month. They haven't announced which game yet, but I'm assuming, yeah, it's going to be this month. Scott Moore told me this. It's going to be this month, and it's going to probably, he didn't admit to it, but he said he'd be surprised if it wasn't,

although he's not in charge. He's not doing a playoff game. Nope. No, he's not even working into 2019. So this month is going to be the final Bob Cole game. I know this sucks, but not my call, of course. It should have been my call. I would have had him work the playoff game. Let him work the finals of the Leafs versus whoever.

So what am I saying here except to say that my dream is that Harry Neal does it with Bob Cole. I don't know what mountains have to move to make that possible, but my greatest memories, play-by-play memories, are Harry Neal and Bob Cole. Yeah. The best.

Yeah. For me, when you talk about play-by-play greats and teams, there's no real one and one A. There's just greats. And so for me, they fall in that category of greats. The other greats for me are Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin. See, I'm too young. I don't remember any of them.

Which were great. So they did mainly the Montreal Canadiens broadcast. But if you grew up watching Hockey Night in Canada in the Montreal Forum, Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin. For Danny Gallivan, he's this guy that I try to incorporate in my calls where he just got the feel like he's hovering over the play, as if he's almost like this ghostly figure that's floating over every pass that's happening.

And he has this hand over the line, into the corner, center right back in front, and just have that kind of thing going on. You know who states him as a massive influence? Paul Romanuk. He grew up listening to – Oh, yeah. He would for sure, yeah, because I'm not sure where Paul's from, if he's from... Peterborough.

Yeah, well, they would have been big Canadiens fans, yeah. Chex TV, I think, back then for sure. Yeah, and then, you know, Dan Kelly's another one, another great voice. We won't get too much into that, but I see Harry a lot. And for me, when I'm working at the fan, I eventually get Jack Armstrong telling me that, hey, you know, I've heard your World Junior stuff. I think you're great. Why are you not in the NHL? And at that point, I'm working at the fan, I eventually get Jack Armstrong telling me that, hey, you know, I've heard your World Junior stuff.

I think you're great. Why are you not in the NHL? And at that point, I'm thinking, too, well, first of all, do you know how I get there? Because I don't know where to start. I'm just doing my thing. And then it turns out he knew, at the time, the president of the Buffalo Sabres

and heard that RJ was going to start cutting back. He's a Buffalo guy. Yeah, and he heard that RJ was going to start cutting back. And I'll stop the Buffalo story at Harry, and then you can take it where you want. Oh, yeah, yeah, because we're going to start cutting back. He's a Buffalo guy. Yeah, and he heard that RJ was going to start cutting back. And I'll stop the Buffalo story at Harry, and then you can take it where you want. Yeah, I want to get you to Buffalo and then spend some time. But the Harry Neal story is that I contact Buffalo.

I meet Mr. Quinn, the president of the team at the time, and he doesn't even listen to my demo because he says, if Jack Armstrong recommends you, that tells me that you're good. And that's how tight is jack's great by the way can i just say that well again we talk salt of the earth human beings right people that will never bs you and even if it's something that it's a little bit of a critique but it's to help you they're good people not that jack did that but anyway so he he directs me towards mr quinn mr quinn says if you're coming here courtesy of Jack,

then I'm giving you a game. Can you do a game in Anaheim on whatever date? And it turns out that that game is with Harry Neal. Nice. So my first NHL game, I'm not nervous for the game and that, A, I can't see because I'm used to the broadcast booth over the ice. Right, right. Now I'm in Anaheim and I'm pretty much calling the game from Disneyland because you can't

see. You're watching it on TV. Yeah, you can't see the far away. You have a better view on TV than you do when you're in the press box. And I'm working with Harry Neal, and I'm thinking, what just happened? This is Harry Neal of Bob Cole and Harry Neal Hockey Night in Canada. Right, right, right. I'm calling a game with this guy?

He was an absolute saint to me and still is. Oh, no, it's great to hear that because, yeah, I was a big fan of Harry Neal and Bob Cole. I was sad when he left. Keep being a fan. Come to Buffalo. I'll get you in the press box. Harry's up there all the time. Sweet, sweet. Now, let's talk about

some... So you called, you mentioned, World Junior Hockey Championships. You called those for a number of years, right? Yeah. I think we had maybe nine of them. Wow. And that included the five in a row for Canada, right? The five golds in a row. That's pretty sweet. You know what? It was. It spoiled, obviously for this job, it spoils you and it was great. I listened back to all the hollering I did back then and thinking, okay, I learned a

lot since then. But at the same time, same time, we've gone through so many drought years when I worked with TFC for, I think, seven or eight years, and they were the worst years ever for a team as far as trying to accomplish what they wanted to on the pitch. Yeah. And then working with the Maple Leafs, who at the time, when I was leaving and when Buffalo was asking me to come to Buffalo,

the Leafs were just getting into that series with the Boston Bruins. when I was leaving and when Buffalo was asking me to come to Buffalo, the Leafs were just getting into that series with the Boston Bruins. And there's another crazy story about that series. We can get to that. The James Reimer, right? Do you want to do that now, the story about that game? That game haunts me. It still haunts me.

Well, do you know, okay, but there's a broadcast story to that game if you ever get Bonesy in here as well, or Scott. I'm working on Bonesy. Scott Moore might know about it too. So, well, here's the situation. Joe Bowen's the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs. At this time, the Leaf

broadcasts are on the two stations. They're on TSN Radio and Sportsnet Radio. So it's kind of this new two-headed monster thing that the announcers are caught right in the middle of. Like they take turns, essentially. Yeah, and you don't know what station you're on. You'd have to have a sheet of paper or look to your right to see who is

hopping the board because they were from, you know, for me, if they were from the fan, I knew them because I've been there for 19 years. If I didn't know the guy to my right, I must be on TSN. But on this particular instance, so the Leafs get they're in the playoffs and we're going back and forth with games.

I think Joe's calling the entire series at this point, if I remember correctly. And then we get to the game that's going to be played in Boston. And I'm out front with Mark Osborne in the rain under a tent at the Air Canada Center. It's called at the time. I can't believe we're saying that. And I get a call from Don Collins, our now program director at the fan. He says, I need you to call

this game. Can you get on a flight and go to Boston? And I said, well, why isn't Joe calling the game? He says, well, it's TSN's game, but in the contract we both have rights to the game, both stations. If it goes seven, you each get the game? And because I guess there were no Raptors or whatever

was or wasn't going on on that night, bottom line is it was TSN's game with Joe and Ralphie, Jim Ralph calling the game. The fan calls up saying, hey, we don't want to be left out of the party. We're also part of this dance. We're going to have Dunleavy call it. And Don said to me, do you know a color commentator you can grab to fly to Boston with you? Well, Mark Osborne standing right beside me, he and I did the 2008 World Hockey Championships in Halifax and at the Coliseum in Quebec.

Canada lost to Russia in the final. And I look at Ozzy and I just said, you want to go call the game in Boston tomorrow? I got the fan on the phone. And it's just happening so quickly. Wow. And I hand him the phone and he and Don work out whatever deal they work out. So then Joe and Jim are already in Boston. Ozzy and I are catching a flight the day of the game to go call it.

So it wasn't a personally awkward situation, but you walk into the media dining room at the TD Bank Garden, and there's Joe Bone and Jim Ralph sitting at the table eating the dinner, and they look at us walk in, and they've already heard probably what's going on. Sure. And then I walk in, and I've traveled with them the whole season. We're on the same flights where Joe you know, Joe and I are great. And I know he's the voice.

I'm not here to push him out. I'm here to take whatever games I can get. And then that was the one moment though, we kind of all looked at each other and just thought, now this is getting silly. Because one team had two play-by-play broadcasts for the same city. Yeah. And that.

So unique, right? Yeah. It's funny. I guess that's the fairests for the same city. Yeah. And that... So unique, right? Yeah. It's funny. I guess that's the fairest thing you could come up with. Yeah. We got up in that game and Mark Osborne looks at me

and he's texting his buddies and he says, we're going to play the Rangers in the second round. I said, if you say that on the air before this game is over, it is not going to end well for you. And it turns out

maybe he should have said it because he didn't say it and that's what still happened anyway. Oh, you're thinking of a jinx. I'm thinking of because it ain't over till it's over. So I'm thinking, at what point is it safe to say that the Leafs, like, do you have to wait till there's 40 seconds left

and you're up by like three goals? Like, where is it safe? Yeah, no, even if you don't believe in it, yeah, even if you don't, so if the Sabres are up, let's say the Sabres get to a point where we're into clinching a playoff spot for the first time since 2011

and it's, that moment is happening and you're thinking about that call coming up, whether it's myself or RJ. Even if you believe it doesn't matter what you say because it all happens on the ice. If you say it and it goes wrong, it doesn't end well for you. On Twitter and social media.

They won't let you forget. They'll pull that clip. It's sort of like, do we win? What is the famous American presidential race where the papers went to press and they said, Dewey wins, but it turns out he didn't win.

Yeah. Well, that's why you got to get Derringer on too. He's probably the most knowledgeable historian that I've ever worked with in the business. Well, listen,

it ain't for lack of trying. You need to intervene on my behalf, I think. Maybe you need to get Derringer and Bob McCowan. Those are the two guys who I have yet to land, as they say. The day Bobcat walks down these stairs and just misses bumping his head on this ceiling,

that would be awesome. Not going to happen? Is that what you're saying? No, I'm not saying it won't happen. I don't believe that at all. Brunt said I'd have to pay him, I think. He said, I think you have to pay him. There are certain guys in the business you'd have to pay him.

Well, he's getting lasagna. Well, you are paying. Lasagna and beer. What else does he want? I know. Well, you are paying. A lasagna and beer. What else does he want? I know. That's actually better than most podcasts. That's right. That's for sure.

You don't have to claim it on your taxes. That's the good news. That's right. So World Junior Hockey, you mentioned the World Hockey Championships with Mark Osborne. You did that back in 2008 for the Fan Radio Network. You mentioned Olympics. So you did the bronze medal game in Vancouver and you did the women's gold medal game in Vancouver as well.

That's cool. And so the story there real quick, Peter Marr did the men's hockey play-by-play for the Olympic Radio Network in Canada. I was the host of that show and was told I would call the women's gold medal hockey game. And I had hoped to call the men's tournament, but Peter Marr, Hall of Famer,

still working at the time of the Calgary Flames, part of the Rogers Radio Network. So Peter Marr had that opportunity, and I'm thrilled I had a chance to work with Peter because, again, what a salt of the earth human being, just the nicest man ever. Peter started to lose his voice near the end of the tournament. So that's how I ended up calling the bronze game.

I believe it might have been Sweden against Finland. So it actually turned out to be a really good game because those two countries, hockey-wise, don't like each other at all. So it was a good game. But I was also on standby because Peter had pretty much lost his voice and was getting a cold. And I'm thinking, holy CRAP, I might call the

men's gold medal hockey game. Oh, you can say crap on this show. Yeah, holy crap. I might get the men's gold medal hockey game coming up. But you're not wishing anything on the guy who should be doing it because you wouldn't want them wishing that on you. But you are kind of sitting there thinking, am I, am I? Oh, could you imagine calling that game? But I was in the chair, obviously, hosting and in the stands.

Our position where we did the games from was right in the stands in Vancouver. And it was, I didn't even, once the goal went in and Peter gave his call, I just turned around and I looked at everybody in the building, including my boss, Nelson Millman, who stood right behind us. And I think because I'd seen those five junior championships in a row, I already knew what the reaction was going to be like

if Canada won because I've been in that chair. You've seen it, yeah. I've seen that moment. And some might say, well, that's Olympics, one's world juniors. The world junior championship, as. I've seen that moment. And some might say, well, that's the Olympics won the World Juniors. The World Junior Championship, as we all know, when Canada went on a roll.

I've been in the stands for Canada winning a gold against Russia. I was in the stands. Where were you? Pretty good seats. They were from TELUS, so they were like corporate.

No, but what tournament? Oh, the one where McDavid was in it and Domi, Max Domi was in it. Yeah, so that was post. The one where we were up big and then Russia came back. That's post Miller and Dunleavy.

That's Miller and somebody at TSN. That's John Abbott doing it. Okay, see, I don't know because I was in a building, and I was watching on TV, right? So that's the thing. Now, so I can kind of, when you tell the story, I know what it's like when the seconds tick off, and you've hung on

to win the big one. And then, right, the place goes bananas. You can't go to 11, right? You're already at 10. So I'm assuming that when Crosby scores the golden goal, you can't go. Oh, you can. Listen, from a rock and roll aspect, there's always an 11. Oh, a spinal tap.

A spinal tap, there's always an 11. Could you hear? I always wondered because when I watch the video and stuff, you hear, so Sidney calls out Iggy really loud. Iggy! Like that. He screams it and it gets picked up by the mics and it's on the TV and the radio calls.

Iggy! And that's when Iggy gets the puck to him and then he scores the goal against Ryan Miller, whatever. I always wondered if you were at the game, do you hear the Iggy call? It's amazing. I don't remember hearing it no because at the time I think I'm listening to

I think I'm listening to Peter with my headsets on. Right. At the time I may not but I'm pretty sure I was just to hear his call because I you know the other way to look at that for me in that moment was what can I learn from Peter how he handles this big moment. I already know how I handle it. I used to attach some rock and roll

phrases to goal calls and Mr. Zeljkovic, who wrote for the Star at the time. Yeah, he's been on the show. Yeah, he once wrote, he said, I like Dan's call, but I'm not sure what he meant by sweet child of mine, or I'm not sure what he meant by it's a beautiful day, or I'm not sure what he meant by... I had to write him once way back

in the day. He wrote something about... Somebody said, Feeling Minnesota... I can't remember, but it's a lyric from a Soundgarden song that I knew and loved. And he didn't understand, and I wrote him an email or something. Like, dude, it's a... To let him know. So he doesn't get

the... I was getting texts from all my buddies saying, I can't believe you worked a Guns N' Roses song into a goal call. But that song is not... It's such a mainstream, massive song. It's not just for metalheads. Canada scored to win, and I just said something like, sweet child of not, it's such a mainstream, massive song. It's not just for metalheads. Canada scored to win, and I just said something like, sweet child of mine, Canada's up, whatever. And, you know, I didn't have a child at the time.

It was just a rock and roll thing. And I used Beautiful Day from U2 in one win. And Glenn Clark used to play for the Toronto Rock and coach the team. He sent me a text at the time. He said, dude, that was awesome. I completely get the U2 in there. Oh, that sounds really great. Now, just because it's a long list, I got to get through it,

but you also called Canadian Hockey League, American Hockey League, and National Lacrosse League games. The NLL was where I really found out. I already knew I loved the play-by-play aspect of it and certainly from doing junior hockey. In 1999, I'm given the opportunity to work at Maple Leaf Gardens via the fan and call Toronto Rock Games on radio, which is really obviously to be in the building. And when Bonesy was calling it on TV with Brian Shanahan, I believe it was Brian, or I don't know if he was working with, if Harry did some games with him or not.

Joe would tell you better than me, but Bonesy was doing the play-by-play. than me, but Bowen Z was doing the play-by-play. Those times were really magical and probably some of the most exciting times calling any sport play-by-play in my entire lifetime. The energy in the building at an NLL game when Toronto was winning championships all over the place and in very exciting fashion. We're talking on last shot of the game, one second left, all this craziness at Maple Leaf Gardens. You know, like Caleb Toth with one second to go with a shot over the shoulder from what

you would call the blue line, but the white line and the zone line. Just great, great moments. And I remember once standing at the Air Canada Centre and the Rock are about to play. And I had these, we're just about to face off and I had these chills and I thought, damn, kid, you made the right choice to keep, you know, you made that weather and traffic choice and this is where you are in this moment. This is, you're reaping the benefits. You know, you're just thinking good for you. And it doesn't mean everything's going to go right from here on in, but in this one moment right now, you live this because you said yes to traffic and weather

and good for you. So it was a little pat on the back to myself. And I had these chills just up and down my whole body. And I thought, you know, obviously like anyone says the day that you don't feel like that before you, certainly in our aspect, I don't want to speak for everybody, but when your job is to be at a live event and describe it to people, if you're not jacked by it, if you think it's about you more than the sport, if your ego takes over, just, you know what,

hang up your jacket and walk out the door because there's other people behind you that really just want to live in that moment and have that excitement. And that's what we try to do. Well said, man. Toronto Lynx? I've got to plead ignorance. I didn't even really know about the Toronto Lynx.

They're a development. So USL, a development soccer league, they played out in Etobicoke at Centennial Park Stadium. And at times with big tire tracks going right through the middle of the pitch. But that was a league with Adrian Siriu, who I later worked with, who played with Toronto FC and played in the MLS,

and then was a color commentator with me on Goal TV Canada and Sportsnet. Right, because as we started this podcast, we talked about how you did some work for Toronto FC, calling Toronto FC. So the Toronto Lynx was just kind of the first foray into that. I played soccer my entire life and coached it growing up and loved the game.

I hate the divers and the fakers in it, but I love the sport. And it was just, you know, you spend a summer afternoon at the soccer pitch and somebody actually paid you 50 bucks a game. And then you also knew that maybe it turned into something down the road. Well, you really did do it all because you were a public address announcer at Argo Games. It's funny how I don't on purpose forget those games, but because it was so long ago. Right. Remember the name Greg Manzik?

Yes, of course. Yes. So Greg, who worked at City TV. Yeah. And then he went to work for the Argos. And see, I'm not shocked I remember his last name, but only because I'm not good at remembering a lot of things. His face is in my head right now.

I see him on City TV. So Greg, great guy. Again, really good sense of humor good energy about him and uh i believe it was bonesy who was doing joe bowen who was the in stadium voice for the argos for a little bit maybe i could be wrong and then he stepped aside because he got too busy at something and again the door opened and i got a call from greg and he said hey would you do this And I believe I did it for three years during the pinball Clemens heyday years there at the stadium anyway. And I absolutely loved it.

I've never done football play-by-play and I would really want to do it at some point if the opportunity came up. That was as close as I got because you're pretty much calling every down, you know, how many yards, whether it was a pass or a run and what have you. And it's sad for me.

I watch the Argos now, and I see how many people are not going to games, and I know we can't get it back. I know we can't reverse the clock, but there were some real good times for Argo fans back in the exhibition stadium days and for a little bit there at Rogers Centre or whatever we call it now in Toronto,

then Sky Dome. So it breaks my heart a little bit to see nobody going out to BMO. I don't blame anybody. I get it. Times change. We could bring back the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers, maybe. Yeah.

My picture was in the Toronto Sun as a kid wearing this ugly purple jacket. I would go to the Argo practices down at C&E Stadium, and the Sunshine Girls were there, and I remember my picture being taken, but it's the back of my head and I'm at Argo practice and it was in the Toronto Sun the next day

and I thought that was so cool. That is cool. And maybe that's what doesn't happen anymore with the Argos. I don't know. Maybe there's no connection. Well, they talk about all those blacked out games. Like I know my brothers watch a lot of NFL

and don't watch any CFL. I feel like they were kind of lost in this. Yeah, I don't want to say people aren't working at it. I'm just, like I said, I don't know why it's... I would like to... I would love... If I had the answers, I would... It's such a hometown feel-good thing

when the Argos are a big story, and they're just... It's faded. I hope it comes back. I do, too. I hope it comes back as well. Okay, so we already talked about how you did the Leaf games.

So then we're really close. Here, I'm going to get the story of how you get to Buffalo, but I just want to share a couple of details with listeners. I want to tell listeners that they can get $10 right now if you go to paytm.ca and download the Paytm Canada app for your smartphone. This is the only app in Canada that gives you rewards for your bill payments, and you can choose how you pay. You can pay by credit card, bank, or cash. And then watch your points grow.

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call them at 416-931-1422 or go to censusdesignbuild.ca today to schedule your zoning and cost project feasibility study. And Dan, I have a song for this. Let me cue this up here. That's a familiar horn. Where's my song? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Here we go now. Here we go now. Here we go now. Here we go now.

Here we go now. Here we go now. You can't see what's going on here right now. Goosebumps? Goosebumps. I love hearing. You know what? I'm not a big fan of needing a goal song, and this has grown on me because the Sabres are doing better this year.

Everything's tied to that, yes. You love the goal song when you're doing well. Well, it's true. I mean, I'll be honest. I came into the season saying, you know what? A, we hadn't heard it a whole lot over the last couple seasons. But B, I just wasn't a fan of it. I'm a fan of the horn and let the fans take over.

I'm not a big let's force them to react any certain way. But I know teams have goal songs, and I get it. I get that I was born in an era where they didn't have advertising on board. So you learn to change and adapt with the times. Yeah, but we also didn't have that horn. We didn't have the horn back in the day. That's a relatively new concept anyway. You're right. You're not wrong. But now it's like, yeah. So the last hockey game I watched was a Buffalo Sabres game.

Okay. Because I watched Austin Matthews. Anyway, let's talk about the Sabres. There's so much here to go for. Wasn't that goal offside? I'm just kidding. It wasn't anywhere near. I'm just kidding.

I've got to say, true story, I leap out of my seat because I see the play developing. This is the overtime winner by Austin Matthews. I see the play developing. And then the puck's on Austin's stick, and then he does the snipe, and it's so perfect, and it's like two seconds left or something. And I left out of my seat.

No joke. In fact, she's going to be home very soon, and I could put her on the third mic and get her to tell you. But my wife said, this isn't the seventh game of the Stanley Cup. That's what she tells me. It felt like it in the building for Toronto fans. I know Buffalo fans were having a great night as well.

You know, the thing and the uniqueness of that rivalry has been the fact that so many Leaf fans get into the Buffalo building for those games. And it's their own business how they do it. It's their own business what Sabres fans do with their tickets and stuff. You know, from a Buffalo perspective, we kind of long for the day that it's

maybe 80% Buffalo fans and 20% Toronto. But I looked down from the booth. I called it on the radio back home with Rob Ray. And I looked down from the booth as soon as Austin scored. Took the drop from Kappen and then, yeah, he just rifled it up over the glove

of Linus Allmark. And by the way, it's Linus, not Linus, for those on the other network who are calling the game. And not being critical, it happens. I get names wrong all the time, but it's Linus Allmark. But as soon as that happened, I looked down below me from the Ted Darling Memorial Press Box, and I looked down and I see,

you already knew there were a lot of fans there from Toronto because there always are. And I live, as I mentioned, in Fort Er erie so i come over really early in the day i do not mess with the bridge because it is stupid especially it's down to one lane right now in fort erie but i look down i see the number of now i'm getting the real visual because they're upstanding the sabers fans have gone because they're racing to their cars it's like ah crap they're out the doors but toronto fans are hanging around. They're living the moment. And I took a look to see how many people are there. And I thought, oh, my goodness me.

When will this be all Sabres fans? What percentage would you guess? Because on TV, I have to admit, on TV, it looked, I know it could be true. I saw so many Leaf jerseys. It looked like, I don't know, it looked like 60% Leaf fans. You're probably not wrong. Yeah, I'm not great in the numbers.

But it definitely was more than 50 Leaf fans. And Sabre fans were great that were there. The building has been electric, as you know, from going on a 10-game winning streak, even though nine of the 10 wins were by one goal. So you know it could go either way without getting too analytical on hockey here. But it really has brought the fever

and the frenzy back to a hockey city that's not that much different from Buffalo as far as, you know, everyone goes to a city and they say, well, there's no fans like a Bruin fan, and there's no fan like a Montreal fan. Fans are fans are fans are fans in every city. There might be fewer in some cities, and there might be more in others,

but the love and the fandomonium, to quote a former Buffalo Bills broadcaster, and a great one, it's the same with everybody. I think it's just the magnitude and the cost of tickets and whatever kind of lights and show you put around it,

which in the NHL, every show is kind of catching up to each other. So listen, it was a good night. And I don't think there's anyone that doesn't hope that Buffalo and Toronto continue to be on the same trajectory now that the Sabres have turned a corner a little bit. What a fun game that was.

Yeah, the next meeting is February 25th. I mean, it's already in the back of my head when that game is because I know people in Buffalo can't wait for it. I know in Toronto, you're looking ahead to Detroit tonight, which at the time of this conversation happening and trying not to date the show. No, you can date the show.

Okay. And then you've got Boston on the weekend. And for us, we've got Philly in next. So, you know, it's a lot of things will happen in between now and February 25th. But if the Sabres stay where, at least within shot of a playoff picture, and we start playing Toronto in February and March,

I mean, look out. Yeah. And I think that's just great for the game. I have a great note for you from... This is somebody on Twitter. Here's the handle. Buffalo Senrab, but it's B-F-L-O-S-E-N-R-A-B. So I'll say Buffalo Senrab.

Hi, Dan. I'm a Sabres fan currently living in Maryland. I remember when Rick Jenneret scaled back his schedule and you started filling in for him around eight years ago. I just wanted to say that although RJ is irreplaceable, I am glad that you are calling our games and will eventually be his successor. That's nice to hear. The folks in Buffalo have been really good to a guy that, you know, when you come into a situation where you have Rick Jenneret and the Hall of Famer and really unique Hall of Fame broadcaster that he is, and by unique, I mean you can't, it'll never be copied. It'll never be duplicated.

I know fans in Buffalo, you know, you talk about Bob Cole not wanting him to go anywhere. You put Rick Jenneret in that category as well, and you start to wish that, you hope he never retires. But there will come a day that Rick will just say, I'm good. I've lived my dream.

But didn't he say that already? Didn't he say, okay, you correct me. That's why you're here to help clarify. Wasn't he going to retire, and he said he was going to retire, and then didn't he say okay you correct me you're like that's why you're here to help clarify wasn't he going to retire and he said he was going to retire and then didn't he change his mind is this how I remember it or well I mean to be again okay I'll go down being truthful yes that was the plan so I was working with the Leafs I'm in the second year of a three-year contract mowing the lawn in my backyard in Burlington I get a call from the Sabres who I've called a couple of games

for in the past but since moved on to work for the Leafs. I'm told by the hockey club that Rick is going to scale back even more and retire eventually. We would like you to come and be his successor. And the plan is to have you ease your way into this thing, and also for the sake of the fans, not to have Rick just all of a sudden disappear and have everyone

wonder a is he okay you know you worry about anybody's health and and what have you so the plan was to have me come in and do um i think at one point it was going to be eight they wanted when i first got the call i got a call back saying well you'll do eight games the first year and then you'll do 25 the next and then 30 from the next and then we'll go from there i thought well i'm not going to leave a 40 game schedule with the toronto maple leafs to do eight And then you'll do 25 the next and then 30 from the next and then we'll go from there. I thought, well, I'm not going to leave a 40-game schedule with the Toronto Maple Leafs to do eight in Buffalo. If you're really interested in my work, call me in a year. Call me when we get beyond to the fact that Rick is sitting out eight games.

And a lot of that is because I don't want to step on Rick's toes. I don't want to be the guy being brought in to force Rick into retirement. He's a Hall of Fame announcer. I don't want to carry that. That's not for me. Of course I want to live a dream and call every game. But then the way the plan is laid out is that Rick's going to retire in three years. We sign you to a five-year deal.

The last two years, you're the sole voice of the Buffalo Sabres, and we will go forward from there. When year three came around, Rick, by that time, had just gone through a battle with cancer. Thankfully, he's won that battle and has come back sounding extremely good, looking good, looking healthy, feeling good, and Rick decided that he didn't want to end his broadcast career. So, again, you know, in my situation, I sit back and I'm thankful to have the job.

I'm very fortunate to be where I am. And it's Rick's show. When Rick is ready to retire, I will be very fortunate and very honored to share a booth that he and Ted Darling have occupied for a number of years. And, you know, Ted before him being the voice of the Buffalo Sabres and who I grew up watching Sabres games of. And Rick would tell you the same, even though he's been with the team now for 45 years. So, yes, that was the original plan to have been the sole voice by now.

But when you look at the other side of it, that you get to work amongst a Hall of Famer for a little bit longer and be around him and what could be a really fun season here uh and more so that he's healthy and he's he's happy and he's doing what he loves to do i think we treat others with respect and the same respect we hope that they give us back that that only serves us well in the long run has rick this is also from buffalo senrab uh has has RJ given you any pointers? No, to be honest. We haven't had that kind of back and forth. We've had brief conversations about, you know,

I've asked him about maybe a moment in a rink or do you remember a highlight? But we haven't really sat down and had that chat. Once our season gets going, it's pretty busy. And we get on the road and we start doing our own thing. We have lunch over the summer and kind of talk about what's going as far as the season coming up. But, no, we kind of just let each other do our own thing. But I'll tell you one thing.

He's been very supportive. I remember one call, I forget the game, he was the first to send me a text and he said, hey, great call on the winner. Not everybody would do that. Nice, nice. Hickster. Tom from Iowa Western New York here. Aside from Lonely End of the Rink to open roadcasts,

any other hip references that you use regularly? I do that every broadcast, home or away. I know I do a lot of road games right now at this stage in Rick's career. But no, it just turned out to be something that as soon as we all lost somebody that we really loved from a musical standpoint, I wondered how I could pay tribute. I started looking up, as I told you before, I use a lot of rock lyrics or tried to in some instances. So I was looking for some lyrics and I thought, well, you know, Joe Bowen has his description of the net. However, he will say, guarding whatever cage. I thought, well, I can't do that, so what else can I make mine?

And then I thought, maybe this tribute is something that I can kind of make my own. And really, so every night before we play hockey, I think of Gord, and I think of the hip and what they mean. Gord's right there. Yeah, what he hip and what they mean. Gordon's right there. Yeah, what he meant and what he still means to this country. I mean, when people we love are gone, and you don't have to meet them to love them, when people are gone that we love, they're with us forever. So every time I sit down to call a Sabres game, radio, TV, home or away,

our starting goaltenders tonight brought to you by, right now, it's by a certain sponsor that I don't know if I should bring up here. You can if you want. It's brought to you by Tim right now, it's by a certain sponsor that I don't know if I should bring up here, but it's brought to you by Tim Hortons, another great hockey. And starting tonight at the lonely end of the rink, Carter Hutton and Andre Vasilevsky, and I just go from there. Similarly, not at all,

but similarly, every Tuesday night when I sit at the lonely end of the rink, I just heard the almost 17-year-old came home. I can hear him upstairs. I sit at the lonely end of the rink and watch him play house league hockey. And I always tweet the picture. I take a picture of the ice

and I go lonely end of the rink. So that's what I do too. Oh, it's great. I mean, you know, you think every, the thing about hockey is there's more than a game that goes on, right? And certainly for those of us up here in Canada, I don't know anywhere around the world.

I'm not taking away from experiences being in Sweden, Czech Republic, or anywhere in the US, in different barns that people grew up playing hockey in. There's something about everything else going on aside from just the game, and I don't mean screaming parents. It can be annoying.

But I mean the smell of the rink. I mean the look of it. I mean the lighting, the color of the seats. Just the first second you walk in the door and whether it's a cold blue door or a black painted door you just picture it walking in and all of a sudden you walk into the National Hockey League and you get to a point where you're in shiny elevators, you're riding buses and chartered planes

and staying in Ritz hotels and then part of me just wants to say I need to connect again with St. Mike's, I need to get back to the barn at Bathurst and St. Clair. And that's where we stand at the lonely end of the rink and watch a hockey game. And so I try to do that every night. So the same gentleman who had this question, Tom from Iowa slash Western New York,

he says, do you want to name some of your favorite 90s CanCon bands or songs? Do you just want to shout out some 90s CanCon? CanCon. Yeah, I know. You'd actually have to name some bands, and I'd say, oh, I love the song by these guys. Okay, no, I can let you off the hook there.

CanCon. Yeah, just basically Canadian rock bands. Yeah, they weren't a 90s band, but listen, I mean, the era I grew up, I was, I remember going to a concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, and the opening act was Brian Adams, and the headliner was April Wine. Really? That is funny.

Things kind of flipped from there. Or it was Lover Boy. Brian Adams opened for Lover Boy, and April Wine might have been on the same ticket. There was probably a moment in time where Brian Adams would open for Lover Boy. Absolutely. Early 80s. I can see it now. That's not 90s for you.

No, no, of course not. But still, that's great. Loudest Sabres fans outside of Buffalo. Where would you find your loudest Sabres fans? Everywhere. You know what? People talk about how Steelers fans travel so well in the NFL. You see the terrible towel everywhere.

And I'm not a Steelers fan. You just can't help but notice them. But Sabres fans travel extremely well. And every rink we go to, there's a tweet that's sent out from someone that's called Displaced Sabres Fans. And a group of them gather at every rink in every single city. And there's at least 25 to 50 of them, if not hundreds, depending on the arena we're in.

And they take a photo of every road game of all the Sabre fans. And Rob Ray cannot walk anywhere in the rink without... Every single night, a Razor gets spotted by Sabre fans somewhere. We can be in Carolina where admittedly there aren't many people going to the rink now or you can be in Los Angeles,

Pittsburgh... Speaking of Rob, okay, so this is a tweet from some guy named Dan. It says, It's not me, by the way. How many times a night on a Buffalo Sabres broadcast does he take a punch

from Rob Ray? Well, it is from me. It is you. When you started saying it's not me, by the way, I was going to jump in there. I'll let this play out because it was Dan.

It is for me, yeah. Dan D'Olivi. No, every Razor gets fired up before every game and he likes to have fun. Yeah, he's got big mitts, and he still likes to give you a little jab once in a while. So I'll be sitting there doing my prep work and getting ready, and he'll just walk, and he'll go, Hey, Dan, what's going on?

And then I take one in the shoulder, and it's a bit of a jolt, but I can take it. Well, here's the guy who's not you. So, yeah, Dan Dunleavy, that happens to be you, but the tweet I got from Doink Dunleavy, I don't know. Doink, yeah. He says, why has he stopped saying doink on broadcasts? I haven't stopped. I just don't do it every time for

reasons. Don't let this guy get to you. Don't stop doinking. It's a new dance, doink. No, you know, that comes from my wife, actually. My wife, Brenda, she would watch, she worked in the TV industry. She's a new dance. Doink. No, you know, that comes from my wife, actually. My wife, Brenda, she would watch. She worked in the TV industry. She's a graphics coordinator in the truck, and that's how we met. We met in Buffalo and got married after I thought she was gone forever

and then actually came back. And I said, well, you're not going anywhere. Would you marry me? And she said yes. So she, when she would watch in the truck and also just in the living room, if someone hit the post or if you hit the upright in football, you know that thud the ball makes? But her, it's a doink.

And I thought, I'm going to use that in the game and just see how that goes over. So Razor and I are calling the game at one point to hit the post, and I said, there's the doink. And Rob kind of took it. He kind of gave me the sideways look, and he said, on the air, he said, doink. What does that mean? I said, well, it's a sound when it hits the point.

I could say ting, I guess. But, you know, then I sound like Marty Baron saying ting instead of thing. That's right. That's right. But that's where that came from. And, no, I've not stopped using it. It's like the other day someone sent a tweet out saying, why does Dan Dunleavy say Carter Hutton every time he stops the puck?

Why does he just say Hutton? Why does Dan Dunleavy say Carter Hutton every time he stops the puck? Why doesn't he just say Hutton? Well, over 41 games in a season and 30 shots on net per game, if he plays three-quarters of those games, I will say Hutton. It's just you happen to maybe pick one where I maybe said Carter more often than just Hutton. Right. Do you have a favorite sandwich in western New York?

Favorite sandwich? Yeah. You know what? I believe the place is called Joe's Deli. And I believe if anyone listening from the Buffalo area, I think it's off of Hurdle and something. I'm just going to say that much because I'm

still learning the area. But they have a deli there and a Reuben sandwich that is just unbelievable. I know beef on whack is something everyone's waiting to hear. I do like it. It's a very salty sandwich with roast beef on it.

But I love the Reuben. I believe it's Joe's Deli, if I remember correctly. Here, last question from Tom here. He had a lot of great questions. But favorite Sabres call. And I don't know if it's yours. He just wrote favorite Sabre call. Because I think of Rick Jenner.

It's got those memorable ones, like the Mayday call. I remember Mayday, Mayday. And I remember the la-la- yours. He just wrote favorite, favorite call. Because when I think of Rick Jenner, it's got those memorable ones, like the Mayday call. I remember Mayday, Mayday. And I remember the la, la, la, la, la, Fontaine. And there was a McGilney one I remember. Well, I think for me, I mean, if there's a favorite Rick call, it would be Mayday. I mean, that's just the thing of beauty that was, you know,

I'd have to let Rick tell the story, but I'm pretty sure in talking with him or overhearing conversations and working for a couple of years with a great friend of mine that I consider a brother that I never had in Brad May. You know, that's just pure genius in a moment. But that's the thing about this job is that there are times we can come in and we can write, you know, we have an idea. Boy, if this happened, this would really work. And Tom Cheek, bless his heart and rest his soul, if he was here, would tell you.

And he did talk about this before because the touch them all thing, and you probably know all about Tom Cheek. Yeah. That was not rehearsed. That just happened in the moment. Right. Because he was disappointed in his call

from the year before, which I'm looking at a poster beside me here from the Sun in Atlanta. He didn't like his call of the World Series win in Atlanta. And then when Joe did it, that was his signature call. And for Rick, I think the same thing happened with Mayday it was just it just happened so for you know for me so far I did have a thought of rhyming Jack Eichel and the Eiffel Tower and the Eichel Tower thinking of this turned out if this guy turned out to be a wonder because it'd been a while since the Sabres had a wonder player. Yeah.

I thought, well, maybe this would work. And I really debated whether I'd use it. And I used it one night in Ottawa for the first time. And it didn't quite, I thought when it came out, I thought, oh, I didn't really sound convinced on that. And I listened back to the call and I think, okay, you know what, for an introduction, not bad. Because it's not a Stanley Cup moment. It's not a playoff moment even.

You know what I mean? So you're always taught in this business to make sure you leave yourself a ceiling to get to. Right, because that's going back to the 11 we talked about earlier. Exactly, yeah. You need to have a notch. So in that moment, I'm thinking, oh, the Eichel Tower. I'm thinking, don't Eichel Tower it over the – don't jump the tower yet. Just introduce the tower.

It's kind of what I did. And then this young man, CJ, who lives down in Nashville, took it to heart, and he actually has built an Eichel Tower full of pucks. And I've met CJ twice now. We just got back from Nashville. I've met him twice. I consider he and his family friends of mine now, and it's really a neat thing where you go back to those Harry Neal days

for you listening to Bob and Harry. And there will just be things that certain calls in a game, it's not really for the adult. It's for the kids watching. And that's the thing for me with the Eichel Tower was it wasn't the fact that I decided, let's go with this Eichel Tower thing and see if it works. It was more the fact that some young guy who's taking me back to when I was 10 or so watching hockey on TV, it inspired him to do something creative. It had nothing to do with me,

but it's just that hockey moment, and that's what we want from sports. That's where I've taken that one, and since then, the other night Jack scored, or a couple weeks ago, he scored an overtime goal in Pittsburgh, another come-from-behind win for the Penguins. And that one I could give a little bit more. And the Eichel Tower wins it in overtime,

so now you're giving it a little bit of, you know, and if the Sabres win the Stanley Cup and he scores a winning goal and I'm on the call, you can only imagine, you know, there's lots of things you could do with that, whether the Eichel Tower's involved or not. But, you know, for me personally, I've had some fun with that one. Sam I.M, I did one. Sam Reinhart scored.

And the interesting thing was my boss, who now is the one who signs my contracts, he said to me, he said, I'd like the Sam I Am one. And his kids got it. And that goes for those who aren't getting it. You're already getting it. I can see it. It's, you know, it's a Dr. Seuss thing. Yeah.

Green eggs and ham, right? Green eggs and ham, yeah. Sam I Am. Who doesn't get that reference? I think that's time. But that was, and I didn't rehearse that one. That just came up. Reinhardt scored a big goal, and I just said, Sam I Am.

Well, I mean, the Tom Cheek Touch-Em-All Joe was, Dan Schulman recently was on, and he was telling the story. But, of course, it's because he was being mobbed, and then Tom was legit concerned he wouldn't touch all the bases on his way around trying to score. So it's Touch-Em-All Joe, like basically telling Joe Carter, make sure you touch each bag on your touch all the bases on his way around trying to score. So it's touch them all, Joe, like basically telling Joe Carter, make sure you touch each bag on your way around the bases here because you're never going to hit

a bigger home run here. And isn't that great? He's literally talking to Joe in that moment. He's not, and this is the thing about the greats, is that they don't really, you don't think about, you do think about your audience, but you don't. When you put yourself in that moment, that you're so engulfed in the moment,

you're the same as everyone else. And to your point about, and that point about that, someone sent me a note from Buffalo recently and I had made some comment, no, it was on Jack's goal. He scored in Pittsburgh in overtime. I actually jumped when I made the call in the booth. And I've never, I don't think I've ever done this.

I actually left my feet and I pumped my fist in the air, but then that gave it that extra punch to the call. And I tweeted out, I said, hey, to be honest this. I actually left my feet, and I pumped my fist in the air, and that gave it that extra punch to the call. And I tweeted out, I said, hey, to be honest, folks, I left my feet, and I kind of punched in the air. Everybody that replied said, I jumped off the edge of my couch, just like you were talking the other night about the Austin Matthews goal. I jumped out too, yeah. And so what it did was it brought the fan into my chair,

and I thought, well, we all just shared the moment the exact same way, and that's pretty freaking cool. Dan, this was pretty freaking cool. thought, well, we all just shared the moment the exact same way. And that's pretty freaking cool. Dan, this was pretty freaking cool. Oh, thanks, Seth. I'm glad I could finally make it, yeah. One day, if you're ever in town again, kick out the jams, buddy. You tell me your ten favorite songs and we do that. Come back anytime.

I'm sorry it took so long, but I'll come back anytime. We've left a lot out and yeah, we'll come back. We had to leave something for the sequel yeah blow the whole line D2 yeah

no thanks so much that was amazing just tremendous I'm honoured to be invited on I look at everyone you've had on the show and some great news

and radio greats that do you have Maureen Holloway on already yep yeah she was great growing up listening

to these people too and then working in the same industry it's great hearing everybody's stories to these people too. And then, you know, working in the same industry, it's, it's great hearing everybody's stories. You're doing a fabulous job. I thank you for the opportunity. And that brings us to the end of our 406th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Dan is at Dan underscore Dan Levy. Don't forget the underscore. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Propertyinthesix.com is at Raptors Devotee. Another big win last night for the Raps. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. And PayTM is at PayTM Canada. And brought to you by the future Stanley Cup champion Buffalo Sabres. Toronto Maple Leafs. You've been under my skin for more than eight years.

It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you.