Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dani Stover: Toronto Mike'd #118

Episode Date: April 13, 2015

Mike chats with Dani Stover about her years producing the Dean Blundell Show, why she was fired, her battle with depression and her life on the air in Peterborough.

Welcome to episode 118 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavor. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is radio personality, Dani Stover. Hey. Welcome, Dani. Thanks for having me. And this is where I'd play like Dani California, but we won't do that. But it's a great tune. If I had a dollar for every time someone sang the Oh Danny Boy song to me.

You know what? That's just disrespectful because you're not a Danny boy. You're a Danny girl. But that would be the natural. Yeah. I can sing it. Do you want me to? Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling.

I don't even know the whole song. I only know this, right? From Glen to Glen and down the mountainside. You know way more than I do. That's it. I have Irish roots. Oh, okay. And I've been to Dublin.

Okay. So maybe that's why I know like a whole verse. I've been to Dublin as well. Have you? Yes. Did you know before you got to Dublin that they drive on the other side of the street? I did, but I definitely went to the other side, getting into the passenger side and then opening the driver's side. What I liked about Dublin is at the curb, like before you walked on, they rode on the street everywhere.

It was written in like white paint, letting you know which way cars were coming. I think there might have been a lot of collisions for people. I would suspect like a lot of people just stepped out thinking that they're on the other side. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. You do have to look a different way. I took photos of it. They painted like instructions, like arrows on the street telling you which way to look. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've actually been there twice. Kind of recently. Oh, yeah. Like how recently? Well, like within the past uh four years maybe we were there at the same time maybe uh i think i saw you at the guinness storehouse now that i just i saw you in grafton street so we should mention this is the first time we've met yes which is kind of i don't know i feel like maybe because we have mutual friends or something i feel like we should have bumped into each other yeah you've never come out to like a humble and

fred event or something i have you know You know what? I probably have seen you out and about. Did you see a guy that kind of looks a little like Tom Cruise but like, but the good looking one, the non-crazy one,

I don't know. Is he still handsome? I don't even know if that reference works anymore. Tom Cruise? I think he's kind of crazy. Like if you got rid of his Scientology craziness,

would he be a good looking guy? You know what? He's a bit old for me. I am too. So excellent. Thank you for coming because you live in Peterborough. What a drive for you to come here. Yeah. Well, my boyfriend lives in Toronto. I'm here often. But yeah, Peterborough is a great place. And I live there. Well, let's get to that. But can we start, if you don't mind, can you tell me, because I first

learned about you when you were on Edge 102 in Toronto. Could you please tell me how you ended up working at Edge 102? I knew Fred Patterson and we actually had a trailer in the same park and I was in radio school and I needed an internship. And so I just emailed Fred Patterson and was like, do you have any contacts for me? And he sent me Jason Barr's contact among others, but Jason Barr was the first one I'd reached out to. And I think in the email subject line, I spelled internship wrong. So whatever they say about- So you were perfect for it. Exactly. So I went in and I sat in with them. I think it was one Wednesday morning. It was snowing like a super blizzard.

I drove in from Pickering with my dad who works downtown. And I didn't know what to expect. I'd never even seen them before. I didn't even know what they look like. And after that show, they were like, well, when do you want to come back? And this was like Dean Blundell, Todd Shapiro, and Jason Barr. Yes, yes. And Metis.

You know, I never listened. So I hear about Metis, but I wouldn't know what Metis sounded like. You didn't really talk on the radio. They just beat up on him a lot. He's the whipping boy. Yes, yes. And Midas. You know, I never listened, so I hear about Midas, but I wouldn't know what Midas sounded like. You didn't really talk on the radio. They just beat up on him a lot. He's the whipping boy. Yes, yes. That's better them than you, I guess. Oh, totally. So it's kind of funny that you got your job at Edge 102 the same way, your internship, the same way I used to get like Caspi tickets.

I'd contact Freddie P., who would contact Jason Barr, and Jason Barr would get these tickets to me as a favor of a friend of a friend. Yeah. So that's the same, same way I would go or edge fast tickets. That's how. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, uh, it's, it was pretty cool. Great experience. I definitely had the best internship out of all my friends. And, uh, and then once I was done, uh, school, they kind of, uh, I remember being brought into the office and they were like, we want to pay you and we want to kind of create a job for you. Yeah. It wasn't a lot, but I definitely was like, when can I start? Like, this is amazing. I loved it.

It was great. So the internship, I've always been curious. So obviously internships are unpaid. Yes. And so they expect you, I guess they give you tasks. Like what kind of work do you, unpaid work do you do? Is this like a school requirement or is this just you wanting to get experience in radio? Like were you in school for radio?

Yeah. So I went to Seneca for, it was actually television news broadcasting. So there was a radio side, a TV side, and it was heavily a news-based program. And they just required you to do 100 hours at an internship. It could have been anywhere. In fact, the big one at the time was CBC was getting people. And so a lot of people were trying to go for that. So you just dodged the Q bullet. Yes. Yeah, I know. Because you would be right there. Well, and I got a funny story about that too. So when I was working for the Dean Blundell show, it was, what's his name?

He was the guy that Gian Gomeschi at the time did an interview with. I can't blank on his name. Oh, Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob Thornton. So he was coming to town with his band and I was booking at the time. This was the work I was doing for the Blundell show

was booking guests. So I was kind of worked a couple of weeks in advance, saw who was coming into town and I just wanted people to be on the show. And so, uh, I was like, okay, Billy Bob Thornton, he, what a great guest. They could talk to him about Angelina Jolie and he's got all this stuff. Yeah. You're not allowed to talk about any of that stuff. All he wants to talk about is his stupid band. So I was like, ah, you know what? No, I don't want to set up Dean and the guys to do this interview and then say, you know, their hands are tied. Plus I know they're not going to just talk about his band. It's not, it's not edge music.

Well, it doesn't even fit. But I just thought they would have had fun with it. We had all kinds of guests that didn't really fit the edge mold. Um, but, uh, I passed on it. And then Gian Gomeschi did the interview and it, I felt like that's, I found out who Gian Gomeschi was after that. You know what? I think a lot of people like that's where the masses discovered who this young guy was even though uh we I mean you're way young but uh you're the station 102 was playing the hell out of his band yeah you know you know king of Spain and all that but that's way way before your time yeah yeah uh okay so you were booking did you ever have any like would you ever be booking a guest for the dean blendell show and they didn't want to come on because they didn't like the show like did you ever encounter any like moral objections um not that i can remember

nothing that really sticks out um people pretty much knew what they were getting and a lot of people were thrilled to be on the show of course because it probably had a lot of listeners yeah yeah uh yeah it was amazing amazing just the kind of exposure even I got from being associated with the show. It was a pretty amazing experience. Even I learned about you

from being associated with the show. Well, it's crazy. You go from, you know, being at school and then all of a sudden you're working for this huge morning show

in Toronto and you seem to be doing a pretty good job. Yeah, in that demo, this is the biggest show in the city, right? Yeah, yeah. Which would be, I guess, Young Males? Yep, yep. So, more young, it's likely, I guess, the percentage

of shares, I just saw some numbers from yesterday's rating book or whatever, so the percentage of shares, your biggest chunk for Young Males was 102.1 at this time. I wonder if that's still the case. I don't know if it is anymore. It might be.

I don't know. I don't. I actually don't know. Maybe I actually, I think I do know. I have a feeling there's more young males. And this is my, I think there's numbers to back this up,

but there's more young males today listening to CHFI, I think possibly than 102.1 CFNY. Now I need the metrics. You might be right. I feel like I read I need the metrics. You might be right. I feel like I read a tweet about that. That's the thing. I don't think the edge has as many, they don't hit that male demographic,

but I do, where are they going, right? So I think Indy's probably a strong contender for that. But that demographic that listened to Dean Blundell, they're getting older. So they might be more onto the talk side of things. And who knows? I mean, there is this thing called the internet, which is eating our lunch. That's where I'm on. I'm on the internet. We're in the internet?

You're going to be on the internet, which means it's better to be on the internet because anyone can listen anytime. I love the internet. It's my favorite. I actually, do you remember before the internet? Oh yeah. Which, yeah yeah i kind of grew up in that weird time uh the 90s like the switchover yeah well so yeah so i went from having um like a sony walkman did you have a cassette yeah so i would go i would have to like call on my friends and we if we were going somewhere we'd have to pre-arrange that and i'd have to know where i was going i had printouts of maps and stuff like that all right? Actual map books. But then it goes from that to, you know, being... You're like an edge, no pun intended. You're like an edge person, just kind of pre-internet. Right. So I'm thankful that I got to go through my teen

years, my high school stuff with, you know, having a cell phone that just doubled as a brick. At some point, you actually had to learn how to properly fold a map. I think this skill is missing from kids today. How to fold a map. Yeah. Not skill is missing from kids today. Yeah. How to fold a map. Yeah. Not that I ever did it right, but you know. Yeah, no. That's funny.

It's funny to think like the, and this is a whole separate episode, I think, but the things that we, like we had encyclopedias and we had all these things that just antiquated. Having to go to the library

to do research. Yeah, because I was at university when the, at that edge cusp time. We used to go to the reference library as a school trip. Yeah. Do you think to go to the reference library as a school trip. Yeah.

Do you think kids go to the reference library anymore? If they need microfiche. Do you remember microfiche? I'm sure there's still some stuff that's only living on microfiche. I don't even know what that is. Yeah, see? That's funny. I remember looking at old newspapers like in microfiche.

But okay, so bottom line is the internet is the best. We agree. So what was your title when you got the paying gig at Edge One Hotel? I was, I would call myself a non-technical producer. So like a technical producer would be the guy manning the boards or whatever? Yeah, so Jason Barr did, well, okay, so Jason was the board op and he also did, he had a lot of, he wore a lot of hats. And fireman hat. Yes. Did you know, Jason, I should point out for anyone listening, if they want to hear it, there is an episode of toronto mic'd with jason barr like a recent one i just don't remember the number oh and he's uh he's on 99.7 hits fm yes saint catharines uh yeah

he's actually i saw him recently and he seems to be doing great like i just saw him in passing so who knows but um he looked great he uh he seemed really happy so not a talkative guy like i only met him for the first time in this basement like a few weeks ago and i was surprised that he's a he's a interesting happy guy but a man a few words very few words uh super talented uh super sweet guy and very humble and down to earth and uh yeah he would he did the news and he op the board and he obviously contributed to the show um and then meet us was kind of the technical guy. He would do their promos for the day or if they needed to record anything. Or he would help with some editing projects. What's his real name?

Matt Boissel. And he was okay with this Midas handle? I don't know what the handle is. I don't know what he was okay with. Speaking of handles, Jason Barr was Danger Boy. And spoke only in a Scottish accent when he was danger boy he was danger boy in spoke only in a scottish accent when he was on the humble and fred show yeah so i and you know i think he grew tired of that but the the other one is uh todd shapiro was known as re-tod and then tickles

kind of yeah well toddy tickles he likes i think that's his thing but like re-tod i don't think he liked that very much no um i doubt. I don't think you could get away with that one today. No, it's funny. There's so many things that I think when I think of my career and where it started and then where I am now, I think it feels like way longer than, you know, five years or whatever it's been. That's funny. Okay. So where are we beginning? So you're at the Edge 102 and you're booking guests and you're like a non-technical producer and and how many how long were you at edge 102 uh i think like two ish years so how do you get on the air is it just that they bring you in because you're like is it because you're a female voice yeah so um yeah i had a couple like silly segments like the

hills were popular at the time so like i guess they were trying to go for the female listeners a little bit and i had a segment with uh p Crispo where we just did like what happened on the hills the night before. And it was kind of silly. And the guys would just, you know, take the crap out of us for it. But also, you know, I kind of got them online in the sense that they didn't have a Facebook page, a Twitter page, blogs, nothing before I got there. Oh, they needed some social media.

Yeah. So I was kind of that that person, too, which was fun. I love that. So getting on the air though, because you're on the air today, we'll get to this very soon. Uh, but you, you get, I guess this was good to get some reps in that you actually got to go on the air speaking to, you know, thousands of people and, uh, live unlike this where theoretically you could, I could edit the next thing you say and no one will know, be the wiser. Although I've never, by the way, all the awful things I could edit the next thing you say and no one will know Be The Wiser. I was just thinking of all the awful things I could say. I've never done it.

You know, I have to say this is 118 episodes and I don't do any editing at all, ever. No? No. You know what, I kind of like that process. If I have a gap and I can't think of something for 10 seconds, you'll hear it. I don't spend a minute. I don't edit anything.

It's live to air. Oh, it's real life. This is real talk. Yes. As Strombo called it, real talk. And I'm sticking with that. Hashtag that. Yeah.

So, okay. So. The on air. Well, so moving from the edge to, because that was really, like, I did want to do the on air thing. I didn't want to be a behind the scenes person. Also wasn't making a whole hell of a lot of money. And yeah, I got Fred Patterson offer again. Uh, he called me up and he was the PD at the time for the wolf in Peterborough. And, uh, it was like, I have a weekend job if you want to come in and work Saturdays and get on the air. And I thought,

yeah, okay, so, uh, let's do it. And then basically I just went from that to filling in wherever I could. I was lucky it was kind of the summer month. So people were off and I would just, it was air conditioned. I just went in and I was like, okay, this is like, I have to learn the board and this is like flying a plane. I need so many hours behind it. And I just would go in and, and you know, from six to 10 weekdays, there was no one there. So I would just go in and do the show. You know, I'm editing this whole part out because you've skipped ahead on me. Oh, okay.

But I'm not really going to edit it. Okay. But we're going to, I just need to slow you down a bit. Yeah. Because we're going to get, that stuff's awesome. But I need a little more time here on this Dean Blundell show. Oh, okay. Okay.

So what were the guys like? Okay. So you mentioned Jason Barr. He's a sweetheart. How was your relationship with Todd Shapiro? It was great. He was a lot of fun. Really sweet guy.

I mean, the way they come across on air is, you know, they are very real people, but I think what a lot of people don't realize is, you know, they play these strong and loud and funny guys. Fat boy type stuff.

Yeah, and then, you know, they've got feelings and they've got problems and issues yeah like so it's it's stuff that i think people forget so it was nice to know these people on that level have you ever been on uh so todd's got a uh show on sirius xm have you ever been on that no i haven't i'll get him to invite you all right that's liberty village where the cool people are oh i liberty village fascinatesates me. I like it as a cyclist, but I don't think I'd like it

if I actually were like a car driving person. No, no. Or a TTC taking person. Yeah, I hear they have to like rent buses. There's one streetcar that goes through Liberty Village and you see all those condos in that area. Like all of those people have to get on one bus.

There's a, okay. So I bike, like I said, I bike through it, but I do know like right by the exit, there's an exhibition go thing going on there. I guess you could walk to that and then you'd be on a go, but I know, but, but people who live there love it, but it's, it's not, I don't think it's very transit or car friendly. No, no, but it's cool. It's a, I thought it was one thing. And then just recently I went there and I, it was totally different than what I thought it was one thing. And then just recently, I went there and it was totally different than what I thought it was.

And I was really like, cool. This is a cool place. It's definitely a cool place. Yeah. Oh, speaking of which, so the reason you're here today is because I got an email from a listener, Liz. Yes. Who lives in Liberty Village. Yes, that's right.

And her son goes to school in Peterborough. Oh, get out of here. Because she wrote me an email and said, she said that I never thought to have you on this show because I goes to school in Peterborough. Oh, get out of here. She wrote me an email and said, she said that I never thought to have you on this show because I knew you were in Peterborough. And I just didn't think it'd be very convenient. Well, Toronto, Mike. Yeah, I mean, you're Toronto, Cedric.

I want to talk to you about the Dean stuff, too, but I just didn't think it'd be convenient for you to get here. Like, I just figured that's a lot of clicks between Peterborough and here. But Liz wrote me and she said to me, Danny's boyfriend lives in Toronto and she's in Toronto every weekend.

You should have her on. And I'm like, I think that'll be more convenient on a weekend. And we're recording now on a Saturday morning. And yeah, so thanks Liz for suggesting that I reach out to you. She's somebody I met at a Humble and Fred event.

Actually, to be honest, I don't really know the first time we connected because it was probably Facebook or Twitter or something. But I did meet her at the last Humble and Fred podcast at the Horseshoe. Yes, Horseshoe Tavern. I was there. Yeah, I was there, too. See, I'm surprised we haven't crossed paths. That's because I even went on the stage. So I would have seen you.

You probably ducked out early. I got called on the stage in the last 20 minutes. Well, you know what? I had to go back to Peterborough. That's a long way. Yeah. In fact, I remember that. Yeah, that Horseshoe day was pretty fun.

Yeah. And there was like free pizza, which is... Oh my God, I ate so much pizza. I forgot about that. I was starving. And when I saw that, I was the one hanging out by the pizza table. It was free pizza, but they were smart because the drinks were a million dollars. So it's like you can have your free pizza, but if you actually want a beverage, it's a million dollars.

Okay, now Todd's a sweetheart and Jason's a sweetheart. How was it working with Dean Blundell? How was it working with Dean Blundell? Again, like I feel like people and especially now he's got a bad kind of, I don't know, reputation, maybe not even a reputation because he's working right now. I just think that he's gone through some stuff. But again, a nice down to earth person. I really I really enjoyed working with the guys like I really they taught me a lot about the industry stuff that I never expected.

I was in rooms that I never thought I would be in. But, you know, very real people. And working in morning radio is tough. And not to, you know, toot my own horn, but it's not for the faint of heart. And, you know, you're not just getting up early, but you're trying to be entertaining. And you're trying to be relevant and talk about all of the things that you think other people want to hear. Plus, you've got bosses. Plus, you've got fans.

Plus, you've got, you know, a wife and kids at home. And it's just, you know, it's tough. And I know everybody deals with their own work issues, but it really did teach me a lot, working in radio and what was needed and what it takes. You have to have a thick skin. So is, is that to say that, uh, is that to justify certain Dean behaviors because it's tough to be in his shoes? Um, I'm only talking about from like what I've, um, yeah, well, and I'm not like, he does what he does and he's made, he's done things that I don't personally agree with when I worked there and when I didn't.

So, uh, and there's things that, that I've done that he doesn't agree with. I'm sure of it. Um, but, uh, no, I'm not even trying to, I don't want to make you uncomfortable with this. I just, out of curiosity, did you listen to, and it's okay if you didn't, cause I don't think you did, but did you listen to my episode with todd shapiro or my episode with jason bar no i knew it but i'm just kidding i asked them this question yeah so they they were i mean jason especially but i actually asked him straight out like is dean a nice guy yep so i'm just uh and i don't

want and what was his answer i'm curious i'm gonna go back and listen now I don't want you to. And what was his answer? I'm curious. I'm going to go back and listen now. I don't, bottom line is, now that I've talked to so many people who worked with Dean, he's not somebody I'd want to go grab a beer with tonight. And I should point out, I'm not out to get Dean. I've never met Dean Blundell. If I could take a Polaroid of, you know, in my head, the Dean Blundell show that I know and loved, that I worked with was, you know, I could see Todd.

I could see Jason, I could see Dean, um, laughing and getting along and being happy and positive. Like that is, that is those guys. And, and,

and I can see that in my head and I can believe that picture. I know that, you know, there's been, uh, you know, Jason's had his issues and Todd's had his issues and, well,

they were both, go and suddenly. The rug was pulled out from under them, for sure. Yeah, so separate. So first Todd and then later Jason. And they tell the story. It was Jason first. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course.

It was Jason first and then Todd. But, you know, their stories are very sudden, sort of like your services are no longer required, like just sort of a cut. And I guess it's fair to say that Dean Blundell is a divisive figure in this city in that there's a lot of people who have worked with him or had contact.

He's blocked me on Twitter, for example. And I've actually, like I said, I've never met the man. And I don't have any personal vendetta against Dean Blundell. But I just talked to lots of people on radio. So you start to gather clues. I just wondered if, and it's fair, you can opt out if you want, obviously. No, no, I don't mind. But your personal relationship with Dean, was it pleasant?

And would you recommend to your best friend that they work for Dean? Okay. But your best friend was going to work for Dean at the Fan 590. Would you recommend that? I don't know. Work Danny is different than like friend Danny. Oh, sure. I don't end.

Okay. So there I definitely there's people that I'm like, okay, I don't end. OK, so there I. Definitely there there's people that I'm like, OK, I know you're dealing with shit that I don't envy. So he's definitely a personality. He's definitely rough around the

edges. There were times where I would have to like even I don't know. I don't know. I know you want to be careful to work with him. Like I said before,

our relationship was good. Our relationship now is not. I wouldn't call him up and be like, hey, do you want to go have a beer? He'd probably be like, go after yourself. Because you know what? My exit from the edge was similar to your services are no longer needed.

And thankfully, I had a jumping... No, it sounds like... By the way, my good friend, Freddie P, came through for you so yeah uh but we'll get that in one minute we're almost done this dean nonsense okay almost so you're so close to being done with it but uh i guess the word i've heard by somebody who worked and i won't name who it was but somebody called him a bully called him a workplace bully is that fair um yeah i would say so i just would um okay i why do you think you would let go from the edge 102 um i think i was a bit of an entitled person at the time um and i think i made because you're from pickering it's natural yeah we're

better than everyone um i think i was just young and kind of stupid i think I made... Because you're from Pickering. It's natural. Yeah, we're better than everyone. I think I was just young and kind of stupid. I think I made some mistakes in thinking that I was more important to the show than I was. But again, even you're saying this about Jason and Todd, about them being told their services are no longer needed. And that was essentially, I think I gave them pretty good uh reason to let me go or a reason to say you know what this is just isn't working um and thankfully i kind of had you know the something to fall back on but um he was he was a workplace bully but there were also times where he was a really sweet guy like you can't we can talk about dean being a bully and being an asshole

and all that stuff but there is a side to him that was kind and nice that gave me a chance that, you know, is a, is a good person. So if we're going to talk about the bad stuff, then, you know, there is something to keep in mind that, you know, there's lots of workplace bullies. I work with, you know, I hate workplace bullies. I guess that's why I hate any bullies in my bonnet. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to get into this too. I guess I feel like the good doesn't make up for the bad. Like because you're sweet one morning doesn't make up for the fact that you're going to be an asshole the next morning. It doesn't cancel it out.

Well, and you know what? If you want to talk about somebody who put up with that stuff on a daily basis, you need to talk to Midas. You know what? The one guy I don't know from this show is the guy. Because he was beat into submission but did he but was he uh compliant like i mean was he uh in on the gag or was he literally sometimes sometimes he was and sometimes you could tell that he was dying inside what's he doing now um he was working out west um he was in medicine hat and then he got married and i think he's back here and i don't know that he's working in radio right now.

Wow. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, I, you know, he's coming on the show soon and he's coming on with Kelly Kutrera cause I think Kelly is going to drive him is blind Derek. Oh yeah. Okay. Cause, uh, and I don't, I'm not even sure how they know.

I mean, I'm trying to think like, uh, Derek is now working for new cap, I believe. Oh, is that what it's called? New cap? Who owns Boom? You should know this. You're a radio person. I know, but I get them so confused. It's NuCap, right?

I get my name's confused, too, but I believe it's called NuCap. I know that NuCap is... Okay, I think Boom is owned by NuCap. Yeah, okay. And Kelly's working for a chorus. Does Fresh... Is this a... Yeah.

It's a chorus station, which you should know. They're all... Yeah, there's like... You're working at a chorus station. Yes. Fresh is the new, that chorus has rolled out. And that's Hamilton. No, it's national.

So there are nine or... Okay, okay. Nine Fresh stations across. But Kelly only works for the Hamilton one. So she works the one in Hamilton, yes. But it's all the same. If you were to turn on that station, Fresh in Hamilton, and you were to turn on the one in Edmonton,

they'd be playing the same songs at the same time really yeah it's just a different it's just different jocks oh wow and like social media stuff local but it's all retrofitted colleen rush home was on the show and she works for that hamilton she's a morning show yes yes i gotcha she's a very tall woman is she really yeah yeah i've met her before she hit her head on that she is uh she's i love her she her. She's one of my, you know, radio people I look up to. She lives in the Junction. And by the way, one of the, yeah,

most, I loved having, I would just have her on and not even press record just to have the fun hour chat with her. Yeah, she's fun. She's like a breath of fresh air. No, she's fantastic. Okay, so I won't beat you up anymore

about the Dean Blundell thing, except the reason, everybody's interested because of the way that Jason was let go and Todd was let go and you were let go and then they canceled the whole thing.

And you know what? To be quite honest, I was pretty chewed up about it. Once I was let go, I kind of stopped paying attention. No, I can imagine. I didn't really know the details. So you're not following

his new career at the Fan 590? No. Well, to be honest, I have listened to a little bit. I've listened to some recorded stuff. Don't you work in mornings?

Yeah, yeah. It's all online. Yeah, yeah. We just talked about this internet. I should have known better. All right. So I was going to ask you if you had ever listened to the Dean Blundell show after you were canned, but you probably. I listened to it here and there.

I was never. I didn't consistently listen to it. Can I get personal with you? Yeah. I wanted to speak about clinical depression for a moment. You went public with this, so I'm not speaking out of school, as they say.

But I found it very courageous that you would openly speak about this. So can I just read something you wrote and then we can have a little chat about it? Is this an old thing that I wrote? Well, there's no old with someone as young as you, like everything is recent, but let me read it to you and then you can, yeah. The reason I feel the need to be open about this condition is because with clinical depression comes a lot of stigma and there's no need for it. One in five people suffer from some sort of

depression. And I'm not talking about occasional sadness or periods of feeling distressed or miserable. I'm talking about feeling day to day sadness, anxiety, pessimism and helplessness. So tell me, do you mind speaking about battles with depression? No. It's funny because I remember getting the opportunity through the Dean Blundell show to speak about it and not thinking that anything of it. I just kind of was like, you know what, I'm tired of it being this taboo thing. And this, a personal, pretty personal experience with my family a couple years before. And so it just kind of got me on this path of like, we shouldn't be hiding it. It shouldn't be something that people feel ashamed of. It should be something that we talk about because we can prevent people dying. And we can prevent people feeling, you know, that they can't talk to anybody.

Just by talking about it. Just by saying like, hey, I deal with this. You know what what you want to talk? If you ever need someone to talk to, let's do it. And you never know the power of that. No, absolutely. This thing you mentioned, the stigma that's to me, it's all about the stigma. Yes. If you had cancer, you wouldn't be, I don't want to know what the word, but you wouldn't be have any shame or embarrassment in disclosing that you're fighting this disease called cancer. And everyone would have sympathy for you and would want to help you with that. And with clinical depression, which is a disease, there's such a stigma attached to it that some people would be hesitant to reveal.

As if it is somehow a sign of, I don't want to say, like weakness. Well, like I don't understand why we put so much emphasis on, oh, you need to go to the gym. You need to work out your muscles and you need to be strong and you need to look this way. And we never think about working out our brains or our minds the same way we think about working out a bicep. So I just think it's important. Everybody, whether you're that one in five or whether you're the other four, it's like I think everybody needs to make mental health a topic of conversation. Like yourself, I've had there's been serious mental health issues in my family, like not my stories to tell. So I don't speak about the specifics. But as somebody who thankfully is

not afflicted with this, I find I found it difficult to try to understand. I hear it described as like a black cloud is always over you. And people like you mentioned, the four out of five who are lucky enough not to have clinical depression, they might have something going on in their life, like a loved one might be sick or something, or something that will make them feel what people who have clinical

depression feel all the time like they might have a night where they can't sleep because of serious anxiety in their life it's like environmental depression if you will and that might be something that somebody suffering from clinical depression has all the time and then you have this like moment where you oh like my i'm gonna make this up but my uncle must feel like this all the time like how horrible is that yeah it's just difficult i think for some people to understand what because you can't see it because you can't see that dark cloud it's hard for you to always you know sometimes it's somebody it's sometimes it's easy to be like just get over it just suck it up buttercup like this old mentality of like suck it up buttercup and get out there

like yeah if you have the clinical depression which i'm i'm not a doctor but it's probably chemical imbalances in a brain like there's probably a real science at work here you can't simply suck it up buttercup yeah and there's some it is like there's different for different people i mean obviously there it's uh serotonin levels would be low and so uh yeah I just don't want people to feel like they can't talk about it because that is what like that is the worst. That is what will keep you. It won't get you better. The only way you're going to get better. And it's amazing that after I did this and just kind of dealing with my own stuff and with my family, once you once you do open up about it, you find out that, you know what, it is actually

probably more than one in five people. And you're right. You haven't dealt with it yourself, but you have dealt with it in your family. And that's the truth for everybody. Everybody's got a family that if they're not dealing with it, then somebody else is. Maybe somebody at work you know is dealing with it. Maybe the person on the street that you pass by every day is dealing with it. So we are all dealing with it, whether you're personally dealing with it or it's kind of twice removed. And you know what? It is becoming more of a social problem, I guess, and it is costing a lot of money. And there's a lot of – I read something the other day that millennials in the workplace are taking more mental health days and they experience more anxiety at work.

And, you know, there's kind of studies on that and stuff, too. So it's becoming a big part of the conversation. And I started it. You know what? No, but you deserve a lot of credit for having the courage to speak out about it. Because you spoke out about this while you were on the air in one. Yeah, 2.1. I didn't think of it as courageous at the time. Looking back, I'm like, wow, that girl had balls. Yeah, I wrote an entry of when you did. I do remember that. I called you courageous in my entry. So you knew you were courageous when you read that. Come on.

Yeah, I do remember you writing that, actually. Yeah, no, I thought I thought it was a big deal. I was like, oh, I made Toronto Mike. Yeah, because how many people on our airwaves uh and i know michael landsberg was famous when he disclosed his and it's to this day that's now he works for the the bell empire so they have the whole let's talk thing around that but um which is a whole different episode we talked to amber giro about that recently but it's great campaign for removing the stigma. That one day. Right. Yeah. So anyway.

Well, and that's, it's interesting. We can have this conversation. We can think we've come so far. I notice it all the time, like just the way that certain news coverage happens and things like that. Some of the terms that we still use, you know, committing suicide is a super old school term. Like nobody commits suicide anymore. And so like even those things and even the sort of stigma around it in the news even.

So yeah, I think Bell Let's Talk Day is important, but I think that, yeah. So what is the proper term for somebody who takes their own life? Is that it? You took your own life? I heard something today where I, uh, it was, uh, I can't remember the term, but I thought, you know what? That's smart. Uh, so it doesn't even matter that I, what year did you start? No, I told you I can't do that. It's too much work.

That's why I do the, now you can see this little ding. No, I'm just kidding. That's a trick I learned on the Blundell show. That's a good trick. You probably used it a lot over there. Uh, tell me, uh, what year you started at 102 before I moved on to... Oh, 2008? So I guess I'm wondering, because we mentioned taking your own life, like, did you know Martin Street?

So, yes, I was there when that happened. And was he just a friendly face you'd see now and then at company events or whatever, or did you have any deeper combos in that with the man? Uh, you know what, just, it was like about a month earlier, maybe I went to a second city show and sat next to him. Um, and we had a great time. Yeah. Like we, it would be, I'd see him in the hallways, uh, not every day, but when I did, he was

always like, uh, Hey Danny, how's it going? And he was like always like a friendly, you know, bright person. And yeah, I wasn't like, I didn't hang out with him, but I'd see him at events and stuff like that. And we knew each other. Do you think he was suffering from, and you can't diagnose somebody like this, I realize, but mental health issues?

Yeah, I would say for sure. Do you think anyone who takes their own life has to be, this is a question I've had of myself. Can you have sound mind and body without mental health issues, just decide to like opt out? Like, I can't see why not. Like, I think there are scenarios where someone could take their own life and not be suffering from a mental illness. Yeah, I think maybe mental illness, I think people can suffer from it at different times and it can go, sometimes maybe your mental health is stronger than other times. And I think if you're in a position where you want to take your own life, usually it feels like you,

you have no help. You have no one to, nobody cares about you. And usually I think it's probably a sign of like, this is the ultimate control I can have. I don't feel control in any other part of my life. The one thing I can control is this. Right. And that's a scary thing. But I think that's probably, you know,

at the time of Martin Streak's death, he had lost his job and that was something that he identified with for a long time. I can imagine that being very difficult. And who knows what else was going on with him. But yeah, I think maybe, yeah, I think there's all types of different mental health issues and mental illnesses that maybe you don't suffer from your whole life. I certainly didn't know what mental health was until it slapped me right in the face. So what did you do?

Did you seek psychiatric help? Well, yeah. So when you realized that what you had wasn't normal. Well, okay. So it happened, again, you said it earlier and I liked what you said, not your stories to tell. But this one's your story to tell.

Well, no, it stemmed from a story within the family. And that got us talking about mental health. Gotcha. And I had some post... I would say I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress from that. Okay. No, fair enough.

I don't want to... Well, no, but I don't mind talking about it. But it was an issue with my father. Okay. We can put the pieces together. And to be honest, you know what? He would not have any... He would not have a problem talking about it um so you know what he but it's his story to tell it is and but that's i think that's why i talk about it so openly is because when it

happened to him he was open about it and he was like and he was the kind of guy who you know i barely like growing up he was a great father worked uh left work for work in the morning when it was dark, came home when it was dark. You know, he participated in our lives and he was a ringette coach and, you know, took us, did all this stuff, but very quiet, kept to himself, lived in a house with a girl, with a bunch of girls. So many stresses that I didn't realize, you know, he would have been going through. And, you know, when our world was kind of shaken upside down, we all kind of were like, wow, OK, this exists and we need to have a real talk about it. We need to be open with each other and we need to be, you know, make sure that other people know it's OK to be open. If this can happen to our family that we thought was so together and so, you know, not a problem in the world, pretty lucky, then this like this can happen to anyone. And today you've dealt, you deal with this, you've learned how to manage this or?

I struggle still. I struggle. Yeah. Like, I mean, you have somebody, I guess, if things get dark, you have someone you can talk to. Yeah. And I think it's important to know that if you are struggling with something, it's, it's, you know, and you can probably relate. You don't know what it's, you don't want to be someone's doctor. You don't want to be somebody's, the person that they take it out on or the person that's always kind of being the whipping boy or the person that's like, oh, no, it's okay. It'll all be fine. So I would encourage people who are, you know, talk to somebody, even if you don't think, oh, I'm depressed.

You can go to a therapist know talk to somebody even if you don't think oh i'm depressed you can go to a therapist and talk to somebody it feels great to have somebody to talk to somebody who's kind of like uh like you they can come on toronto mike everyone i'd be i can be their therapist it's expensive psychiatry is covered by ohip and therapists are not okay so yeah um like you can't just go to a therapist and slap it on OHIP. No, no. You have to go to a psychiatrist. Right. And the psychiatrists are different. So they won't

sit down and talk to you so much as they'll be like, okay, what do you want from me? What do you think you're... I find the system a bit... Why won't OHIP cover therapists? Because they can't see what's wrong with people. I'm also upset that they don't cover my dental work.

What's going on here? I know that now is like, I mean, OHIP, I know not every country has wonderful health care like this that week. But I mean, there's certain things I think like the therapist, if you're suffering from clinical depression, your only option if you're not wealthy or you don't have extra money is to go seek out a psychiatrist and do the psychiatric route because they'll be able to cover that. But there's therapists. And you know what, to get on those lists,

it takes forever. And to find somebody in your community and to find somebody that works well with you, I mean, you're not just going to go anywhere and feel comfortable talking to somebody. I think that's why a lot of people are hesitant. Right. Totally. So they're sort of, yeah, it's tough. It is tough. So if you had cancer, it'd be much easier. Like this is the difference.

It seems like you stigmatize it institutionally. You wouldn't turn somebody away like, hey, I have cancer. Can you please help me? Well, you know what? We're gonna have to put you on this list. And maybe you come back in three weeks. Then we'll recommend you to somebody who can actually diagnose what you have.

And then maybe in a couple months, we'll treat it. Oh, by the way, here's a bill for $200. No, you're right. You're much better to have a heart attack than have clinical depression. Totally. Let's, uh, get you to Peterborough here. So, uh, Freddie P who is the Fred from humble and Fred and has been on this podcast a couple of times. He was a program director for the coreorus Cluster. I've got to say that slowly. The Chorus Cluster in Peterborough. Yes. And that includes a station

called The Wolf 101.5. Yes. And The Wolf would be like the Peterborough station that would play The Tragically Hip. Yes. They would also play

Kim Mitchell and April Wine. Yes. That sounds like the trifecta. Yes. Okay. Oh, wait. you forgot Brian Adams. Oh, you got to have Brian Adams in there. So tell me about the Wolf 101.5 and what you're doing there now.

So I'm on the morning show and I've been doing that for three and a half-ish years, maybe four. And I work with Brian Ellisis who is uh you know he's been there for 20 years uh so that's why it's brian and danny in the morning yes danny and brian well he's like the veteran yes yes um but uh but yeah i the wolf is funny because i like i grew up listening to the wolf at the cottage right okay so this is this is the trailer park that well no so um the we had a cottage on sandy lake uh which is where my like grandparents lived and retired cool and then uh we ended up when they passed away they like gave it to the

sisters and then one of the sisters took the cottage so we were like we still want to have some place up north that we can go to so we were like oh a trailer no i mean i haven't been to freddy's but i've been a similar one on uh heartsick lake or i think it's lovesick that's okay yeah i've been i've been to a trailer and it's not like well he's on lovesick okay yeah how do i get an invitation from freddy can i get an invitation to yours well so we're not so now we have a cottage again okay um but uh but it really was uh an amazing space it when you think trailer park i think people think of like boys it's not it's like a cool community of of people and it's all you've got your own green space and lakefront that's what i'm trying to say here is it's more cottage than yeah yeah and a

trailer really is just a a rectangle box and what you make of it what you want you have like you have a bedroom you can have a kitchenette or whatever. That type of housing is very popular now. Condos are basically that in the sky. Yeah, no, I know.

There's a documentary I saw on Netflix about the small house movement. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you're at The Wolf thanks to Freddie P who is program director and you somehow got yourself

on The Morning Show, which I guess that was the goal, I'm guessing. Yeah. At the time, T.J. Connors was doing the morning show. They had a bit of a shakeup. Freddie P. came in and shook things up at The Wolf and got rid of a longtime morning guy. Who was a longtime morning guy?

Jay Sharp, who is working for another morning show in Peterborough now. Interesting. So Freddie shook it up. Yeah, because it's union there. So he had to do a lot of things to He, uh, cause it's union there. So he had to go, he had to do a lot of things to kind of shake things up and get things moving. But, uh, he brought in, uh, TJ Connors. He's Scruff Connors kid. Yep. And, uh, he, I don't think Peterborough is a funny little place. It's, uh, uh, they just didn't take to TJ as much as I think,

uh, well, they don't like change maybe. Yeah. I think there was, it was a big change. I think he was really in your face and people might not have been ready for it. Not to say people didn't like him or respond to what he was doing. I think the ratings did not reflect. But do you think there's, cause I,

when Humble and Fred went to. Jack? Kingston. Kingston. Oh, okay. So recently, yeah. They recently went to... Jack? Kingston. Kingston. Oh, okay. So recently, yeah. They recently went to Kingston on some Rogers station and they were wholly rejected by the entire city.

I know. Basically, the main reason was these Toronto guys come in here. They think that they could just do a show for Kingston. Like we want a Kingston guy or whatever. Do you think there was some sentiment? And I don't even think anyone's aware of who a program director is, actually. I think they only know the talent, but like, like, like this, like maybe this shake up was, I don't know where I'm going with this, but maybe Freddie P comes in from Toronto and he shakes up the Peterborough thing. And we think

this is better. I think I definitely, definitely, I think there was a big divide between the Toronto mentality and well, you know, we've been here for 20 years. We know what it's like. We know what's going on, which is very true, but. And where did TJ,

where was he from? Like geographically? Oh my God. I think he was like born on a railroad track somewhere. Okay. No, he, I think he was,

he was living in the area. He was doing something for a station nearby, but he grew up in Winnipeg and has family in the West. Okay, so they didn't like this change. And I guess neither Fred nor TJ lasted particularly long. No, so yeah, Fred was... Because Fred did go in and wanted to make some changes. He wanted to play some Coldplay, right?

He wanted to change the playlist a bit. Not as much kim mitchell maybe a little more like yeah and i mean what he was doing was great and i think it's something that maybe chorus just wasn't ready for um but uh but yeah he ended up working out great for everybody involved i mean he he's doing what he loves and what he wants to be doing now. But yeah, TJ left not long after that. And then they kind of were like, well, what are we going to do now? We're not going to bring in somebody from the outside. So they brought up Brian Ellis, which ended up being great. Like, I really love working with Brian. So your chemistry with Brian is strong?

Yeah, I would say so. It definitely didn't start out that way. Um, it's awkward trying to work with each other. Yeah. So we definitely, you know, worked out the kinks and stuff, but it's a weird relationship because he's like somebody I, this is going to sound mean. He's somebody that I wouldn't like normally hang out with or anything. Like he's got's got... His daughter just turned 19. He's just... You're calling him old. Is that what you're saying?

No, because he's not. But it's just weird. I just... He gives me a perspective on a lot of different things. And I think he's probably like, Who the hell? What is this girl? I don't want my daughter to turn out like you.

Oh, no. Well, this has come up recently. But morning show duos, if you will, who are good on the air, but don't hang out off the air. Yeah. And it's fairly common. So, Brian, I take it you and Brian don't hang because you're swimming in different circles. Yeah, yeah. I think that's it.

Just we're... I hung out with TJ a lot. And you know what? I think in some cases, when you hang out with the people that you're working with things get inside and I think sometimes that's a problem

when you hang out and you have inside jokes and you bring it on the air and other people don't get it so I think that's you know you can risk that happening but

sure but your on-air chemistry now with Brian is you're happy with that yeah I would say it's good it's funny how chemistry works

sometimes I'll sit down with somebody and it's like within five minutes, perfect chemistry. Just like perfect. Sometimes you have awful chemistry, but over time you develop a kind of a rhythm and a chemistry.

And then there's sometimes you have someone you don't have any chemistry with after five minutes and after five years you have the same amount of chemistry. You're just never going to have, it's just chemistry.

It's so interesting how it works. Yeah, it's... And you can can't fake it like i find that you either have it or you don't sometimes it works over time but often it doesn't like the chemistry test is vital yeah yeah it's interesting because i don't think it's and that's the thing that's that sucks about it because uh you know obviously looking for work in toronto i don't come with a team like brian's not looking to move so it's not like I can... So what's the population of Peterborough? Geez, I think we're like 750,000 people maybe. Actually more than I thought.

Okay, so you're kind of three quarters. So you're less than Mississauga. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I don't know, they're around a million or something. So I'm just trying to understand because I know when Frenny P was program director there, he was very,

it was very clear to me that his goal was to get the job at Edge 102. This was where he wanted to go. It was like a farm system if you think of like in sports terms and you go to Peterborough and you kind of work your game there

and when you're ready for the big leagues, like you get shipped off to a bigger market. And that's what he was trying to do with me. And I'm stuck. Where's, so and I, I guess what I'm asking is, yes, you're having a great time doing mornings in Peterborough and you love Peterborough,

but is the long-term objective here to get yourself into a larger market? Yeah, yeah. You can ask anybody, like, definitely that's, like, I want to be in Toronto. But, you know, a lot of people won't say it because, like, I've, I mean, I've had this conversation with people, you're in a smaller market and you ask that same question and they'll

always say they love where they are because they, they don't want to, uh, disrespect the city that they're currently working in by suggesting that you're, you're aiming for bigger and better. Um, yeah, no, I don't feel that way. No, it's good. I like, I'm freaking, this is refreshing. So I love Peterborough. You're going to do your best there. And then at some point you're hoping that way no it's good i like i'm freaking this is refreshing so i love peterborough you're gonna do your best there and then at some point you're hoping to get called the big leagues i think i kind of went through a bit of like i want to get out so bad and and it's not because i don't like don't get me wrong i i love what i do and i love getting up in the morning i love you know doing a show and i love

sometimes i'm like man i can't believe love, you know, doing a show. And I love, sometimes I'm like, man, I can't believe I'm, you know, some people are having meetings about super important worldly things. We're talking about how to give away Bryan Adams tickets. And this is my job. Like I... Bryan Adams came to Peterborough? Well, no. Okay.

People would lose their shit. We give away tickets to Toronto stuff. But do you ever have a... ZZ Top just came to town. Okay. That's significant. Yeah. Yeah.

Elton John. Really? Yeah. Peterborough is a great... Peterborough is a stop in between Kingston and Toronto so uh it's a really funny little town and it's got its own personality it's got a great music scene an amazing art scene i've met so many talented people i like i do i love peterborough it's a funny little town and i have the utmost respect for uh the people i've met and the things people are doing in

Peterborough. But yeah, I want to work in Toronto. I have career dreams and they involve being a major player at a morning show in Toronto or one of those fun two person afternoon shows. I could I could hear you on 88.1, for example. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Raina and I. So Raina, who's doing the afternoon show yes well uh we're dating uh boyfriends is that right yeah because uh yeah you are about my two youngest blonde guests oh yeah yeah i feel like we're both kind of in the same like yeah oh yeah those blonde radio girls that kind of came up underneath the you know i feel like radio was cool and now radio is not cool. You know,

I mean, no offense to everyone listening. No offense to anyone listening and no offense to anyone at Peterborough because I actually think I dig that town. I just haven't spent any time in it. It looks cool. It's a university town, right? University town and cottage town.

And it's got, it's a downtown. Get over there. It's got beautiful, um, you know, outdoor spots, but it's also got a pretty happening little uh downtown area a cool comedy scene it's great no i'd surprise the hell out of me when i got there i was like

oh my god like people this is you guys are surviving and doing all this stuff like totally separate it it's nice it was nice being out of toronto do you think peter is there any sense in peterborough that they they hate toronto because i find? Because I find some people don't get any of that. No, I really don't. Yeah, it's funny that you even brought up that, the idea that I wouldn't say that I want to get out of Peterborough for fear. But it's funny, like I don't get that vibe. And once you turn off the, once I press stop on the recording,

the person would say, of course I want, of course my goal is to go to Toronto. But they won't, typically they won't say it on the air. Well Well, you know what? It's funny that you bring up like the young, you know, Raina and I being the youngest or whatever. I think that's when I first got into the industry, I thought I was super entitled and I thought, and I kind of got down to myself because I'm like, I'm being too entitled and whatever. But you know what? I think people confuse, especially like this generation of people coming up in the business, people confuse this kind of like go get an attitude as entitlement or, you know, like it's just it's different now. And it's a different the way radio is going, there's not these pooling places where it's like,

go to Peterborough, work and be a part. Yeah, they're not doing that anymore. There's no jobs and there's no opportunities. If I want to work overnights, if I want to work swing, I can come to Petron. And I talked to a swing person who was literally making minimum wage to work swing. I know you can only say so much on this subject, except do you think you're fairly compensated for the job you do?

I remember Fred Patterson saying, like, if you want to make big money in this industry, you can make it. There is big money to be made. Still? Because the Aaron Davis, old Dean Blundell, like John Derringer, as far as, and I talked a lot of radio people, they tell me that that ship has sailed. Like that doesn't exist anymore. Yeah. And you know what? And I was willing, I was as early as a couple months ago to take an overnight job, to take a swing job because I just wanted to be in Toronto so badly.

And I kind of had to step back and be like, all right, what do I want? Like I want to make money. I want to be. Like you still have to eat. Yeah. And so, and I still want to be competitive. I still want to, you know, be able to go on the air every day. Um, I want to be on the radio every day. But if you can get yourself a swing shift or something and start yourself a little podcast or whatever, like you can exercise the

muscle. Well, and that's, that's what changed for me. I was going from being like, please give me a job. I'll do anything to being like, all right, you know what? The landscape is changing. Um, I, I need to do stuff for myself because I'm not, nobody's going to do it for me. And I think I was expecting people. I think that's where the entitlement thing kind of came in. So I do, I started a podcast. Oh, you did? Super underground. It's so underground. I didn't even know it existed. Well, because we barely share it. It's my friend, Catherine Hanrahan, who is the morning show host for Fresh in peterborough uh uh and that's the thing when i went to peterborough i met like great friends like i've

got lifelong friends that i've met that were totally open and katherine's one of them and she and i do uh something called the broadcast which is just two it's two radio gals who need more than a minute and a half to speak their minds and we have a little bit of a kind of leans towards the uh it's longer form chatter female issue yeah yeah yeah well we kind of do like uh we're really we're feminists and we're not we just want to talk about that stuff so no cool i mean i you should yeah you should this is a good you mean people listening to this already understand podcasts if you're hearing this right now, you're podcast savvy. Yeah.

Which I think that's, I would say it's half the battle, but it's more than half the battle. Such a large percentage of the masses are not podcast savvy. Well, and once they get podcast savvy, it's done. Like I've started listening to books on tape. Right.

And like audible.com. And once you figure it out, once you get the system down, I will never use my eyes to read a book again. That's for like poor people. I know. So, uh, so yeah, it's, it's, times are changing and you know what it's about now is content producers, people that can produce stuff that you can share. Like it's not enough regurgitating information because anyone can do that. It's about creating stuff. So I kind of had an epiphany and was like, got to do the podcast. All right. So Catherine and I are doing

like video stuff now. The pad party kind of came from that frustrated, like I need to do something. So it's so it really is about kind of creating that stuff for yourself because this in this the landscape of the industry now, you're not going to get that sweet gig that's going to pay you like over one hundred thousand dollars and you're going to be like the most famous radio guy in town because everyone loves radio. Yeah. I guess I get frustrated because you have these big companies like Rogers, Bell and Chorus, these big monster companies. And I guess it's unfair to ever disclose the numbers, but sometimes people will tell me

like what salaries are like in radio. And I'm always, as a guy in the private, I've never worked a day in radio. And I have no aspirations to ever work in radio. So this is literally just a labor of love on the internet because I'm a digital marketing guy and that's what I do. But I'm always shocked at how little the majority of talented radio people that I listen to are making. I just don't think it's fair compensation.

And I know it's supply and demand, but i mean uh are they so interchangeable that we treat them like they're walmart greeters here like this is it seems to me like an entertaining radio host is a rather valuable asset in a big market like yeah but i mean nowadays i think i think a lot of companies, because there's such conglomerates, look at listeners as dollars and not as people. And so it's more so like, okay, they want to hear this song and they want to hear it this many times. And this is how long the commercials need to be. And don't talk too much because that'll turn them off. It's all numbers game. It's all looking at numbers and charts.

And it's not going out on the streets and being like, hey, guys, what do you want to listen to? And like, let's be I think Indie is doing it right. And I don't know what they're what it's like in the boardroom there. But I do know that, like, I think that they've got the idea when it comes to cool new ideas, kind of like, you know, shocking like shock jock thing. I think that's old. But I think like. They've got such great ideas. Like they're just generating ideas

and content. What they have going for them is they're not Bell Rogers or Chorus. Which I think inspires their moniker, Indie, is that they're a smaller, it's a smaller, they own some other stations,

but it's a rather small radio company. And you know what? I think that's the, I think it's funny. Trends, and I think that that's the trend now. It used to be like everyone wanted to work for the big guys. And now it's like, trends and i think that that's that's the trend now it used to be like everyone wanted to work for the big the big guys and now it's like now it seems more if we're all making

the same shitty money yeah yeah then why would i have a good time doing it yeah like yeah uh like they're they're in a house speaking of liberty village they're in like a house in liberty village and that's all that really that's all you need have you been to that house no because rain has invited me to this house and i was just waiting for the weather to get better. So it's a more pleasant bike ride. I'm going to visit this house and take pictures of this house. Cool, cool. Yeah, I haven't seen it.

I want to take a shower upstairs because apparently it might even leak. If they'll let me take a shower, I'll take a shower. I won't take pictures of that. But I will take a shower if they'll let me take a shower. Well, yeah, I haven't seen it yet. But I definitely would love to. Okay, cool. you mentioned the pad party i'm gonna play something and then uh this thing is a very short clip and then we're gonna talk

about this okay yeah let's imagine you have an average light flow period you use an average of 20 tampons a month at a cost of $10. 12 months, that adds up to about $120. For the average woman, you get your period for 37 years. That's a minimum cost of $4,440. That means the goods and services tax on that is $222. Now let's times that by the 17.2 million women living in Canada. That is a cost of three billion dollars in taxes alone. Now imagine paying that

tax if you have no income and nowhere to live or failing that or just struggling to make ends meet. Imagine having to choose between dinner or a box of tampons. 79% of homeless women are between the ages of 19 to 25. I'd be willing to bet that 100% of those women are on their period. We'd like to lighten the load. So join us March 29th at the Garnet, 231 Hunter Street, for the Peterborough Pad Party. You can bring this.

Or these. Pow, pow! Some of these. Yes, these. Join us at the Garnet from 3 till 7 for the Peterborough Pad Party. For more information, visit us at padparty.org. It's a pad party. It's a well-produced little video here.

So who did the production there? Yeah, so that's Kate Leduce. And she's actually in a band called Robot Eyes. Super talented girl. But she was like, I want to make a video video and she has a green screen in her living room and we did it all just there cool yeah because yeah it looked good look professional yeah yeah she did a great job like i can only take credit for like what you see me doing there everything else was all like her all right so what inspired the pad party concept i mean because you do that video and it's

all interesting and then you mentioned like each person is like 220 dollars and then to me then doesn't seem like a big number to me but you're referring to people who are like homeless okay so yeah so tell me it kind of it kind of came up there was like an article that i read that um like literally like in these days and age, you read so many articles and it's like, great, great, great, great, great. This one was like, whoa, I never thought of that before. So this was about how, um, for homeless women, essentially getting your period is awful because you don't have a comfortable place to stay or, you know, maybe you don't have a clean place to, so you can just understand, I don't need to paint you the picture. Um, but it really

kind of resonated with me and i thought yeah we have food drives we have clothing drives nobody ever has a menstrual product drive right and uh so i i kind of sat on that for a while and then the whole no tax on tampa ponds came out which um is a different from what i wanted to do, but tied in pretty nicely at the same time. It compliments the message. Yeah, because it went from being like, yeah, isn't it, it'd be awful to be on your period

and not be able to afford it or not have a place. But yeah, you know what? These are necessary products and we're being taxed on them too. It seems ridiculous. Yeah. Okay. So I was actually once,

GM sent me to Ottawa where I actually participated in this like food bank thing. And one of the things I saw very quickly was it was much more than food. Now, you're right. There is no pad drives. The first time I've heard of it is from you. But you get way more than just food at these food banks and stuff. There is feminine hygiene things available.

But this drive, so this pad party is people donate sanitary napkins. Well, okay. This is interesting. But sanitary napkins implies that it's unsanitary. So I even got called on calling them hygiene products because it's like, well, they're not unhygienic. We're not being dirty by getting our periods. Okay. Yeah. We are big on semantics now but you're right uh but but i mean that's those are the types of things that i never thought about and people don't think about it and you know what even me i can see i'm making people because i do and that because of the pad party i've been i've been talking about pads and tampons for like the past month sure as though i'm talking about the weather no it's fine i'm uh i am menstrual friendly yeah well even though i've never had one myself but you

live i assume there there is menstruating well uh my wife menstruates yeah and you know what and and one day my daughter comes out of the same bill you know you're paying for you know you guys share the load when it comes to that stuff so i mean it affects you in that way as well financially if you want to look at it that way of course but so does buying toothpaste but you know it also takes the pressure off so and we did kind of get some flack for uh for it it takes the pressure off in other places you know it's not like just this female centric thing when we donate you know a couple hundred dollars worth of tampons and pads,

it's taking the pressure off the food bill that week and the clothing bill that week. So it all helps everyone. So I mentioned the pad parties to my wife and she was telling me there's like a new cup coming out. And basically it's sort of like a tampon, I guess, but it's not disposable. She tells me it's reusable. Yeah. So you, um, homeless woman need one of these. So, so here's something else. So like, um, it actually does, it is a good product because, um, it is reusable. It's right. You think about how much garbage. Oh, I like reusable things. Yeah. So, um, so it really is, uh, good that way. There's the diva cup is the, is the popular name, but menstrual cups is what, what they are. So there's a couple of companies that make them,

but you know what? It's because I approached them about making a donation. Um, it's, and they're willing to come out and do workshops with women and teach them and talk to them about it. It's not necessarily something that's for everyone. And what I didn't realize, and this is like me being just, you know, kind of ignorant to the world in some cases but you know like some women who have dealt with sexual abuse and sexual assault don't necessarily want to use tampons or something that they have to and we're getting graphic here but something they have to insert so uh so that's something i didn't realize until probably other women too like i'm sure not just that i'm just sure i'm sure there's some women who prefer a pad to a tampon.

But I mean, so there's just, it's nice to have a whole plethora of products. But yeah, those things, Diva Cups are great because of the environmental things. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is there are so many things that I learned about, you know, even the sanitary and the hygiene and the terminology to use and what's appropriate and just the types of people that use them and what kind of struggles you might have. So what's the proper terminology? Well, I mean mean tampons pads uh i we call the menstrual products because that's what they are exactly if the napkins is a weird sanitary napkins seem so like passe yeah i guess so i don't get right you don't stop and think about it uh this is my first

menstrual discussion on toronto mic so i'm very excited. And if people want to learn more about pad parties and donating, padparty.org is the place to go. Yeah, so the Peterborough one was the beta. So I would like to do one in Toronto. But yeah, we raised like over $1,000 worth of stuff. And I brought it, like I went shopping and bought like $800 worth of tampons and pads and diva cups. I have an app called Flip, I think it's called, with two Ps.

Okay. So I often go to my local No Frills to buy things. And every product I'm buying, I search it on my app Flip and it goes through every Toronto flyer, right? And then they'll match it. So basically, if I find the basics, for example, has it for $2.99 and No Frills has it for $3.99, I show it to the lady at No Frills, I get it for $2.99.

So basically, it's, I don't have to have paper or clipping of anything. Seems like a lot of work though for every item you buy. Yeah. And you're that guy

at the grocery store that's like, oh, can I get a dollar off? It's pretty quick. It's pretty quick. And it's, it becomes fun.

Like this is what I do now. And if I know that, Cheerios is a big thing in this house now because the one-year-old loves Cheerios and everyone likes Cheerios. I don't want to spend $3.49 on my box of Cheerios if it's $2.49 at, I don't know, make it up.

I refuse to pay five, and I eat a lot of them, frozen pizzas. I will not buy them if it's more than $4 now. You know what you should do? Stop buying the frozen pizzas. I tell you, I do it all the time. Just start making it base it on like a whole wheat pita and then you apply your like sauce and your cheese and your top now i want it in 15 minutes it's like eight minutes it's like eight minutes and it tastes better it's far cheaper and it's much

better for you that's a lot of so yeah you know what i i just try not to think about it too much but i could eat pizza every day for the rest of my life. Yeah, but I could too. I'm with you 100%. That's why I'm in radio. I'm like cheap. And I won't pay more than $5. Pizza, I love pizza. Yeah, it's great.

It's got everything. Yeah, and everybody likes it. Typically, it's great. All right, sorry, we've been a little long here, and I hope I'm not keeping you from anything, but I was very much enjoying this. Is there a radio mentor or somebody in the radio world that you look up to?

Do you have any radio heroes well yeah so like obviously fred patterson is a big one for me um i grew up uh maureen holloway thinking she was like the tits uh is that a politically correct expression now you know what is there's a guy named maddie wheeler that that i work with and he's a weekend guy and he says it all the time and so it's kind of like making a comeback within our little circle of like yeah that's the tits it's fun you'll start saying it and it's yeah you gotta be careful of that one in the board not no well two of the three kids well not all of them are okay because the little one doesn't know what the hell you're saying yeah yeah and the other two oh they've seen it they've

heard and seen so much worse at this point that they're just like it's fine i could say the tits around them yeah that's good um as far as idols i i think i gotta give some shout outs to people i think are doing really great jobs right now um lindsey vanstone at am 640 um i'm loving what she's doing for for those guys because so that's uh that's our 640 in toronto yeah there's a woman on that station uh yeah when uh just Just recently, actually. The last couple months, I think. She does a lot of their social media stuff, so I don't think she's necessarily on air. Okay, she doesn't host the show. No, no, no, no, no. She's just a part of their little crew. But

yeah, if you go to the AM6... I did it yesterday. If you go to the AM640 website and look at their on-air hosts, white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy. Two white guys. You know what? Seriously. You need to listen to the chat I had with Amber Giro, who was on 1010 for 14 years. Yeah. She was let go last time.

You need to listen because it was mainly about diversity in Toronto radio and basically the lack of diversity. Yeah. But also the lack of woman. And we're talking mainly talk radio here. It was mainly about talk radio. But it's all white guys. Yeah.

Pretty much all white guys. Well, and you know what? It's because it's a numbers game and, and you know what? It's funny because TV is held accountable for how much, how much representation they have. Cause radio is not held accountable for any of it.

Right. That's true. So I, do you find a radio is a misogynist? Yeah. You can't know it on podcast. I definitely have dealt. Yeah. Really. It's we celebrate the sexist stuff on radio. We always have. And I think that now that's kind of changing, too. But yeah, you know what? You need to stop telling me things are the tits.

Yeah. Well, that's the thing. I'm taking it back. I'm reclaiming it. That's right. it yeah well it starts with you i'm taking it back i'm reclaiming it that's right um oh yeah so the once amber giro brought this to my attention i did go down the 640 lineup and i did go down the 1010 lineup the weekday lineup yeah and of course fan 590 and you got tsn 1050 uh i think barb di giulio was the only non-dude on uh like of stations during weekdays, which is incredible. Yeah. And Arlene Bynum, she was another one who was on 640. I loved listening to Arlene Bynum. I was really disappointed. Did you find her delivery too slow? No.

I found her delivery was boring. Why do you need to be so rushed? That's a good point. But whenever I heard her, I couldn't, it didn't matter how good the content was, but this is a subjective thing. That's interesting. Yeah. I thought she was, I thought it, for me, I thought it was more thoughtful.

I was like, I like the slower delivery. I like that it sounded like she was thinking about. I can't listen to, Ken Dryden says some very interesting things. He's a very thoughtful person. He's a, you better, you know, you don't want to let the book, don't have him read the book. Have somebody who speaks faster. Ken Dryden's delivery is so hesitant barbara hall you remember barbara hall maybe you're a bit young she was our mayor before the

mega city so before mel okay barbara hall same thing thoughtful interesting person but the delivery was so you know what i just learned actually i'm reading uh well i'm not reading i'm listening to it and uh stephen king And one of the characters has a stutter. And they were like, when he was older, they said, oh, you just talk so slow and your deliverance is so thoughtful and you think before every word. And it's because he had a stutter and he has to. But does he have a radio show? No, but he's a fictional character.

No, I know. But I wonder about that now when I think of people who talk slow because I know a lot of people in the entertainment industry that have stutters, speech impediments that they've overcome. Very good. Um, but anyway, that's just a little side note. Okay,

so Bynum, uh, uh, good. That's another one. I work with, uh, super talented Catherine Hanrahan at Fresh,

um, in Peterborough. I think she's great and doing great things. Um, works hard every single day. Um, yeah, I think,

uh, I really love Raina, what Raina's doing at Indie. I think she's fun and I think she's in your face and I think she's like this new cool, uh, person that I don't know, radio person. I think she's,

I think she's fantastic. Yeah. I really think she's, uh, different. She's got something for sure. Um, she won an award,

you know? Yes. Big now. A prestigious award. Face in the paper. Um, but yeah, I think those,

those are the kind of people who are on my radar right now. And they're all women, so you relate to women broadcasters. I'm trying to give women props. The only woman I can think of off the top of my head who sort of has top billing and seems to be against the

fold in terms of the misogyny, etc., is Erin Davis. Because Erin Davis' show with Mike Cooper is Erin and Mike. Yep. And she was the one who brought in Mike. She was the one who said, I want this guy. She brought in Mike. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think she's... She's a former guest on this show, too.

And we had a great convo. But she, to me, if I'm a young woman broadcaster, I'm looking at the Erin Davis model because she, to me, she got what she deserved. and most women don't. And she's successful. It's interesting because when I think of like what a role is for a woman on a morning radio show, and I just recently applied for a job that was a two guys, one girl situation.

I'm going to say I don't, I think I didn't get it because I would have... You didn't need the third guy. No offense. That's the trend now. I've noticed the three people thing they're doing now. It's a different beast. It was interesting. It felt like I was playing in a band and I was jamming. I'm like, this is different. Cool.

But I'm not the kind of girl who's going to be laugh track for the guy on the show. I feel like that the kind of girl who's going to be laugh track for the guy on the show. And like, I feel like that's kind of what the old school radio thing is. It's like it was always the guy. The guy's the namesake. I've been told Freddie Patterson told me never work for a show where your name's not on it. Like if you're going to be a part of the morning show, don't be like that.

It wouldn't be the Brian Ellis show with Danny. It's Brian and Danny. And sometimes I do Danny and Brian well Jason and Todd can tell you the same thing because they were on the show and only one guy when he went the show went because he was the show yeah so I would I would that I would recommend uh yeah that's why that's why this is Toronto mic'd with Danny with Danny anytime anytime you want to make that that drive from Peter did you have fun on the show yeah a great time I love doing stuff like this so no I almost don't want to play you off because I'm enjoying our convo but my son has a playoff game today I have to go to you

can miss it never in fact what position does he play? Left wing. Okay. Next week and next Saturday is the finals. Okay. And my daughter, who is a competitive dancer, has a competitive dance thing at like by the airport. Which do you love better? Well, no, it was a huge ugly moment. I won't call it ugly, but I would like, I can't miss James's final.

It's a whole season we've been building up to this one game. I'm this hockey guy. I'm there at every game I do is skate. I can't miss that. But now it's like my poor 11 year old daughter is like, she wants me at her competitive dance. They start at the same time in different parts of the city. Like I cannot be at both.

Isn't this terrible? And this has never happened because my daughter doesn't do sports. Like they never had a conflict like this. Can't you just do the dance for you in the living room? Show you what you're missing? I think I'm going to the hockey game

and I'm talking to her about it like so she understands. But I am probably going to this hockey game. She'll understand once you get her like a new dress.

I don't know if that's how she's wired. Although I did take her to a Leaf game last week. Oh, yeah. So maybe we're okay. I'm going to work it out. No interest in playing ringette?

No. I ringette. I would love her to play. Actually, I signed her up for soccer because she was on this podcast, episode 109, which is silly. What's my daughter do at the podcast?

And on the podcast, I said, I want you to play a sport. Like, would you play something? And she said, and I said, if I put you in soccer, would you play? And she said something to the effect of, yes, I think she said yes. I signed her signed her up she is playing soccer so it's her first

sport and like i don't know six years or soccer is great fun and you know what i would recommend all kids play sports because you just meet cool people yes and you just yeah and being on a team is great and that's one to grow on and that brings us to the end of our 118th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Danny is, it's not at Danny Stover. It's at Danny Gray. I do have Danny Stover as well, but like I'm just kind of holding onto it. Danny Gray was because I was like,

what's this Twitter thing? I don't want people to know my last name. Gray's my middle name. Gray is G-R-A-Y by the way. Yeah. I make it really complicated. At Danny Gray. Follow her.

And see you all next week.