Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Darryl Henry: Toronto Mike'd #1026

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

In this 1026th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Darryl Henry as they talk about his career in radio working on the air at HTZ-FM, EZ-Rock and CHFI. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

Welcome to episode 1026 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos,

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joining me this week making his Toronto Mike debut, is CHFI's Daryl Henry. Welcome, Daryl. So nice to be here, Mike. I just want to say it's an honor to be the 1,026th most interesting person in your Rolodex. I won't lie. I was hoping to get under the 1,000 threshold, like something in the 900s. But I understand. And 1,026. It could be worse.

It could be much worse. You could be the next guest, right? That's right. Spider Jones is on tomorrow. Oh, I love Spider. And he's got to say the same joke. He's got to say he's the 1,027. I'm sure you get that all the time.

I think I was getting that joke at around, I don't know, 250 of the people. i'm sure you get that all the time yeah i think i was getting that joke like at around like i don't know 250 the people's that i'm like oh my goodness but my friend you have two first names uh is this a real name or is this a radio name this is uh not a not a radio no it's a real name are you kidding i wouldn't pick henry oh henry was i was hen head in school oh no or henry i got all you know henry is if I was going to pick a fake, you know, it would be like Mike Thomas. Right. You know, Richard Roberts. Yeah, it would be those two first names.

Well, Daryl Henry's a good name. I feel that's a good radio name. Am I crazy? I don't know. Daryl Henry. Like, it sounds like it's like that's a middle name, Henry. Or Daryl Henry Schmorgasbord or something like that. Yeah, no, it'saryl Henry Schmorgasbord or something like that.

Yeah, no, it's just my stupid name. I think it was Tish Eyston who said, Mike, you should have Daryl Henry on the program. Oh, God bless Tish. I love Tish. I think it's mutual. Like, she says nice things about you. Yeah, well, Tish actually got me into CHFI. She told me about the job opening.

I was between gigs, as we call it. Other people call it unemployed. She called me up right away and said, there's going to be an opening in Weekend Swing. I was like, oh, great. She's like an angel. She was. She saved my bacon. I was only out of a job for six months, which isn't bad at all. I got to stay in Toronto, which was good.

Okay, we're going to cover all this. Now, you mentioned unemployed you know we unemployed between gigs that means unemployed i always think if i see a linkedin update that says consultant like suddenly if you've become a consultant that's code for between gigs which is code for i'm out of a job and i need one yeah and couldn't find a job actually on the air so i I've become a consultant. That's part of that. I think anyone, yeah, anyone can be a consultant, I think. Those who can't do it.

So right off the top, you mentioned to me via email, Daryl Henry, now that I know that's your real name, a la Roger Ashby, no fake name required. You're from this neck of the woods, right? Is it Alderwood you're from? Yep. So just a little bit further west of where you guys, where you are right here.

Right. Yeah. I grew up there, born and raised on Dunning Crescent, right behind the Alderwood, like the Etobicoke Creek. And it was a great place growing up. I loved it here. Although it was two buses to get to Kipling Subway and it took about an hour and a half to get into downtown to go play pinball or when I was older going to Ryerson.

So it was a bit of a trek, but it's a great area. And the lakeshore has always been a fun spot too, which is close to where you are here. So when I think of Alderwood, I think of Il Pisano. Il Pisano, yes. Still there. Yeah, no, it's still great too. Well, in the old great, too. Yeah.

Well, in the old days, I mean, the pepperonis would sort of shrivel up and turn into little bowls of grease. Right. But they fixed that, and it's a pretty solid pie now. That's the best part. They just don't stop fixing things. That's right. But Alderwood, there's now my wife tells me that the if you want a good bagel,

Kettleman's there's, Kettleman's. There's a Kettleman's there now. There's a Farm Boy and a Kettleman's. All this is going on. I want to say, I've got my right streets here, Browns Line and Horner? Yeah, that's probably right. Okay. I speak Alderwood. Here I go.

Alderwood's one of those neighborhoods where I feel like most of Toronto doesn't quite know where Alderwood is. Like there's some neighborhoods in Toronto that get high, like good PR. Like people just know these neighborhoods. You know what I mean? Like if I said, everyone knows Mimico. Yeah. But like now we're in New Toronto.

How many Torontonians know there's a New Toronto? Like and how many know there's an Alderwood? It sort of mimics my career in many ways. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Firstly, the career. Before we get you, because I want to get you, I guess I have a tiny clip of you on Easy Rock,

but I want to get you into radio. But if you take us back to your childhood days in Alderwood, like, what is it, what possessed you to get into this profession? Like, what made you want to be in radio? Well, I mean, I grew up in the golden age of top 40 radio in Toronto. So I was listening to Shotgun Tom Rivers and Diamond Jim Brady and all those, you know, Keith Rich on CKEY. We all had our transistor radios, you know,

listening to these great disc jockeys. So I always loved listening to the radio. But believe it or not i wanted to get into television production because this is true story yeah i got lucky once with um a pair of gold tickets to uh to the leafs at maple leaf gardens my sister and i and we went down there and there was this guy sitting near us on with its, and it was a swivel camera, so he'd go back and forth following the play-by-play. And I said, I was probably 10, and I said to my sister,

that's what I want to do. So that was my goal in life, was to be the cameraman at Hockey Night in Canada at Maple Leaf Gardens. So then, you know, fast forward, I'm in high school, and I hear that Ryerson had, you know, they say, the best radio and TV program in the country or whatever. So I set my sights on going to Ryerson to achieve that goal. So you kind of failed, right?

I did. You never did. Did you ever get to operate one of those big swivel cameras? Not at a hockey game, no. But second year of Ryerson was all television, so we're in studio and stuff. But the first year was all radio, no TV at all. And I had a great professor. This is probably a common story for a lot of people. His name is Jerry Good. no tv at all and uh had a great professor this is

probably a common story for a lot of people his name is jerry good hey jerry he's a good professor it was a very good professor indeed and he was the father as it turns out the father of modern ac adult contemporary radio in canada smart smart guy and um i'd always loved listening to the radio i loved the wolfman jack character and American Graffiti. Yes, me too. But he turned me on to a career. He really set my sights on something different than television production, which I found out later was really boring anyway. Okay, well, listen, before you proceed any further,

I just want to let you know that a very recent episode of Toronto Mike features Scott Carpenter. Do you know this name? Yeah, of course. Now, it's not his real name, by the way. So Daryl Henry might be a real name, but Scott Carpenter. Do you know this name? Yeah, of course. Now, it's not his real name, by the way. So Daryl Henry might be a real name, but Scott Carpenter is definitely not a real name. He's like a Patrick Bergen or something. Not really.

Yeah, he's a Pat Bergen. At least he didn't go for the two first names, you know. Like Jay Michaels? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Mad Dog, how you doing? He's got a fake name on a fake name. That's like another dimension of Inception here.

Okay. So, and whenever he wants to like class, not class it up, but like become more mature, he drops that Mad Dog part. Like it's just, I'm just Jay Michaels right now because it's serious talk over here. That's right. That's right. Yeah. All right.

Shout out to Jay Michaels who's in Montreal right now. And that's probably where you get better bagels and kettlemans but if you're in uh you're in toronto and you want to get something that's you know the best we can do that would be the the kettlemans montreal style bagels they're not a sponsor i just wanted to shout them out because we talked alderwood off the top uh what was i saying there uh it's god it's god right there's an episode of toronto mic to scott and he talks a lot about Wolfman Jack, and he did the whole cruiser thing,

because he really tapped into that American graffiti thing that got you and then got me when I'd watch it years later on late great movies on City TV. I love that whole cruiser scene, 50s vibe. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was the focal point, kind of the glue that held that whole community of teenage teenagers together driving around cruising the boulevard and i've got the

soundtrack was one of the first albums i ever bought and and some of the songs have the wolfman jack clips on them and oh yeah i mean that was pure pure magic so can you do an impression of wolfman jack who's this on the wolfman telephone the secret agents bias group no the wolfman telephone who it is man the secret agents yeah that was one of the things from the movie that's pretty good well everybody like you know if you wanted to be a disc jockey you tried to be able to sound like that who could sound like that guy though amazing yeah all right so you basically did a pivot i guess and at ryerson you said hey maybe i'm not to be the camera swivel guy

at Hockey Night in Canada. Maybe I'm going to be a radio guy. Yeah, that was thanks to Jerry Good. And also thanks to the fact that when we did television in second year, which is so deathly boring, and also you rely on too many people in television. You know, you can have, you're the director of this great production you've written and produced, and then, you you know somebody's hung over from too many courts at the imperial the night before and he's the sound guy and he forgets to turn the mics on and you

got to do it all over again and i thought no radio you just it's just you and pretty much it's live it's you don't have to wait around and it's fun yeah so that's a good point you know that you can kind of you can have this, you know, that you can kind of, you can have this idea or whatever, and then you can kind of produce it all, and you can touch the knobs and the pods and the faders. You can do all the engineering stuff, but you could also be the guy spitting into the microphone.

You can be completely independent on the radio. And you're right, on television, you require so many other bodies to make it happen. And some of them are dumb or hungover and they ruin it. So yeah, that part of radio really appealed to me too. So what's the first station

where your voice could be heard on the air? 880 CKLQ in Brandon, Manitoba. Q Country Radio. I knew nothing about country music. My boss said, well, you know what? You just pick the records out of the wall, and you'll pick and find your favorites.

And that was my first, 1984, the fall of 84. I hooked the U-Haul up to my 74 Chevy Impala and drove up through the states, through the upper peninsula of Michigan, and lost a muffler in Ashland, Wisconsin, and settled in just before Halloween, and it was probably minus 35 in Brandon, Manitoba, and stayed there for two winters.

That's how you measure time on the prairies. And learned all of it, because Ryerson didn't really teach you how to be a disc jockey. We always used to joke afterwards that Ryerson taught you how to be a middle manager at CBC. It gave you this overview of everything. But the actual specific nuts and bolts of, say, being an announcer weren't really covered that much. You had to get your hands dirty by actually going.

And this is a story I hear often, which is like, get out of the big city and go to a smaller market like Brandon. And then do a bunch of stuff. Get your hands dirty and put in your reps and then get better absolutely and that's the one and only time i dropped the f-bomb live on the air which was on the all-night show and i called my program director steve antea and i said uh steve i just said the f word and he went it's like three in the morning right uh did anybody call right and i said nope he goes never mind don't worry about it don't do it again and that was it it's like three in the morning. Right. Did anybody call? Right. And I said, nope.

And he goes, nevermind, don't worry about it. Don't do it again. And that was it. So yeah, you couldn't get away with that here at this level, but there, you know, all nights in Brandon, you could, you know, your boss could let you let it go. Well, I suppose it's like those who would be up

to hear it aren't going to complain. Well, no, that's very true. It's not like you're in the car, in the station wagon with the kids or complain. Well, no, that's very true. It's not like you're in the car, in the station wagon with the kids or whatever. Yeah, no. And that was actually because I had, I remember it well. What's the context of this? Okay, let me tell you.

Let me tell you, Mike. We're playing records back then, and it's a 45, and it's Conway Twitty, tight-fitting jeans. And I'm talking it up, and I look over because it sounds a little funny and i realize i've put it on 78 and not 45 and um and i went fuck you can swear on this show yeah well this isn't chfi it's still it's still a you know it's a habit you don't yeah in the round of

life you don't want to slip on the real no so No. So I realized I hadn't turned the mic off, and then I did something terrible. I went and stopped the logger tape and backed it up to hear it. That's highly illegal, and we could have lost our license. Okay, that's a CRTC thing, right? That's a CRTC thing. You've got to be recording all this stuff, so if someone does complain, they can hear it, right?

They can pull the tapes and listen. It could have been like Watergate. There's like 30 seconds missing from this. Like trump's got like 47 hours missing or something from his tape well i had to listen to it to see if i'd actually done it and sure enough i had and that's when i called steve and that's when he said just don't do it again and you haven't done that again thank goodness no no that would be a bad thing to do in your last day of work as the old joke goes. Right. It's a famous story in my circles, I guess, for my age group,

that Martin Streak dropped an F-bomb intentionally during the Thursday 30, because I guess he was supposed to do, I'm trying to remember which band it was. I want to say Tool, but it could have been Nine Inch Nails. It's one of those two bands where he was supposed to do something there and it changed. And he said Pete Fowler was his co-host who's now with the opp by the way and he like just drops a huge f-bomb and the program director at cfy at the time stew myers sent a memo to everybody because i got a copy of the memo so i have the audio which i dropped on

episode 1021 by the way and then i got the the memo and it was basically like you you know this is a privilege to be on these airwaves and you don't it's not unacceptable but yeah this was like a i don't know what time the thursday 30 was 8 p.m or something but it was like a like an 8 p.m f-bomb on cfy in the mid 90s i'd say one of my favorite if we're going to just you know as an aside with the with foul language, we were doing a live full Saturday remote from Sherway Gardens, and it was a fundraiser for World Vision, I think. Okay. And we had Fred Penner on the phone. Who's in FOTM like you are now.

Is he? Yeah. Well, then maybe I shouldn't tell the story. No, please do. He's not listening. All right. He's in Winnipeg. My producer on site is uh yeah uh

is christina she says she's saying okay we've got fred and i hear that okay good all right we're gonna go to fred penner now as we were raising money for world vision canada how you doing fred there's dead air i said fred are you there then all we hear is oh god shit and i look over and christina and she's got the same look i have which is the look of what just happened and then it was oh well you know we'll get to uh we'll get to fred later we never got to fred later that's a great you know what you know shout out to fred penner keeping it real there you know i love the fact that when he's doesn't think he's on the air that's the fred penner you know it's a good old shit bomb yeah it was a big one yeah and that was

fun that was a fun but you think of it because you know he's a good old shit bomb. Yeah, it was a big one. Yeah, and that was fun. That was a fun moment. But you think, because, you know, he's a children's entertainer. You think they'd really treat, I know he's on the phone, but they'd treat anything like it's live and hot or hot as you'd think. It's a live mic or whatever. That's pretty risky for a children's entertainer. Well, we were worried that maybe it was something severe, like he was in a car accident or something, but apparently not.

It was just one of those things. Yeah, good to know. I've got a, I should have wore my, I have a, what's he called? A Fred Head t-shirt. The silhouette of Fred Penner with his pork pie hat. Proud Fred Head over here. So that's a great story you told there. Very nice.

Okay, so you're in Brandon. That's home of the Wheat Kings. Yes, it was. And they were terrible the two years I was there. I just missed, what's his name's year? Ray Ferraro. I think he scored 98 goals or something. And I got there just after. And they were terrible. But it was fun. I loved was there. I just missed, what's his name's year, Ray Ferraro. I think he scored 98 goals or something

and I got there just after and they were terrible. But it was fun. I loved living there. I was back there. I still have friends there. But only two winters. Two?

Well, only. Only. Well, no, no. Hey, is it true? Is it the Paris of the Prairies? What do you say? I would say emphatically no, it's not.

Is there a Paris of the Prairies? Well, I thought that was Saskatoon. Oh, maybe you're right. You know why? Because I'm thinking of the Trag? Well, I thought that was Saskatoon. Oh, maybe you're right. You know why? Because I'm thinking of the Tragically Hip song. It's a great song. Yeah, Sundown. Sundown in the Paris of the Prairie.

No, I don't think Brandon's even the Paris of Manitoba, to be quite honest with you. But it is the second biggest city in Manitoba. 50,000 people surrounded by 18 million miles of wheat. So 50,000 does get you second place? Or was that just, is that a joke? Is that real? What's that?

Where were we? Okay, where, where? Like, okay, so Winnipeg is obviously the biggest city. Oh, no, yeah, 50,000 is the second biggest city in Manitoba. That's amazing. Mm-hmm, that's what I thought. Yeah, no, it was quite a culture shock. I think New Toronto's got more than 50,000 people, I think. Alderwood does.

Probably. For sure. Yeah, yeah. So no, that was two interesting years. I really had a good time. So what happens after your tour of duty in Brandon, Manitoba? Well, so I couldn't take another winter.

I mean, the wind chill was honestly minus 61 night and my roommate's eyes froze shut when we were shoveling the driveway. So I had to get back east. So I, you know, you realize you're two years out of college and you've been in a small station in a small market. You're not going to go to Toronto.

So you put tapes together and you send them to medium-sized places. So I sent them to London, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Niagara, and got a nibble from a brand-new station that was just launching Hits FM in St. Catharines. It had been a country station. Wow. Golden horseshoe country, but they were going to flip to rock. Yeah.

And they had one slot to fill, the all-night show. And so I got it, and I was so excited. It was a union shop. I was going to be making $15,000 a year. Okay, what did you make in Brandon? Oh, about $700 a month. So do the math. I was making quite an upgrade.

$700, yeah. It was worse than when you were a month. So do the math. I was making quite an upgrade. 700, yeah. It was worse than when you were a student. And you're a short drive from the big smoke. Yeah. So I was coming closer to home. I was going to be playing rock and roll. And it was a union shop where I was making what I thought was a lot of money.

And this is 1986. And that was so we launched Hits FM and it's still, you know, still rocking today. The White House of Rock. Well, let's talk about the White House of Rock. Yes. Because Paulie Morris. Paul Morris.

Yeah. Not the guy who says goal scored by number 93, Doug Gilmore. That is a different Paul Morris. But Paulie Morris, whose daughter is in media now. Siobhan Morris. And she's an FOTM as well. But Paul Morris. I remember when she, whose daughter is in media now, Siobhan Morris, and she's an FOTM as well. I remember when she was knee-high to Grasshopper. She's not much taller now, I don't think.

That's true. I can make that joke. She's a lovely person and very good at her job. But yeah, she's with CTV, I believe. And so tell me what it was like those early days at the White House of Rock in St. Catherine. Well, it was great. We were flying by the seat of our pants because, uh, our PD, it was his first shot at it. Eric Samuels, great guy. Um, and Paul, he had been at Chum FM. And,

um, so we were all sort of all new. And, uh, I remember those, we didn't have like music was still done by hand and Paul would have us type up up the music sheets and so it was that first summer was pretty pretty bonkers and uh you know it was about a year in that we hired scruff connors and then that was a game changer and uh you know i we do we have three or four hours i could tell you the stories but he was an incredible incredible guy to work with uh a genius. And that put the station on the map. It was a big deal. It still is.

He comes up often on this program. It came up very recently. And in a moment, I'll remember who the hell I was talking to about it. But the Scruff Connors stories are absolutely legendary. Oh, yeah. And they're true. He was in Philadelphia, right? So he left Q and he got a job doing mornings at WYSP in Philly,

which was a big rock station at the time, but had the unfortunate turn of events to be, that became the first station to simulcast Howard Stern. So all of a sudden the great Scruff Connors was out of a job. And so we think, you know, he probably reached out to his good friend, Gary Slate, and Gary said, well, I've got this rock station. I've just, you know, flipped it in St. Catharines.

It was a standard station. Right. And sure enough, next thing we know, we hear that Scruff Connors is coming. He arrived with just the clothes on his back. We thought he was kidding. But no, then he set up a tent on the front lawn of the White House. Wow. And next thing you know, because he was so revered and loved,

the good listenership would come out. And he had a hot tub there. He had a manicurist and a pedicure. Wow. Yeah. No, no. I've never seen anything like it. So that recent ep where we talked, Bruce Barker was on.

And Barks had some Scruff stories. Yeah. I guess from 640, I think. They worked together, maybe elsewhere too, but there was that mojo. Bruce Barker was ahead of me on your Rolodex, Mike. Come on now. Just kidding.

So Scruff, you name it. Let me dial up a couple of Scruff stories. Yeah, please. One day, he did a New Kids on the Block. You heard that story. Yeah, that reminds me of the Super Bowl in Miami and I guess there's a Miami

Manitoba Manitoba right the New Kids you know he was hyping that that's when they were the biggest thing on the planet and so the day of the arrival of the New Kids because I guess they were playing in Toronto and so it sort of made sense that it was possible that the New Kids were coming to Hits FM in st catherine's for a chat with scruff well we had

the front lawn was loaded hundreds of screaming teenage girls and then the limo pulls up and it's a bunch of women with their newborn babies the new kids and the new kids on the block and these 14 year old girls went from ecstatic and excited to maniacally. One of them yelled, we know where you live, Scruff. Your ass is grass. I remember looking out the window going, what is going on? So there was, I remember the time, we were right near Ridley College, just across the bridge was Ridley College,

a very fancy private school in St. Catharines. And one day, I'm prepping because I was doing midday, so I'm prepping. I look out the window, and it's like the Ridley College marching band. It's like 100 high school students in the full epaulets and the costumes and the hats and everything else. It's coming across the Burgoyne Bridge, and I'm going, what is going on?

And then I hear Scruff saying that it's his birthday and this is his birthday present. And they come and they park themselves on the front lawn and play happy birthday for Scruff Connors. Wow. Like he just did all this sort of stuff. He was unbelievable. Yeah, and you know, he left us with all these great stories.

I had his boy on the program. Yeah. Who has also been on the air at Hits FM. That's right. And then he went back to Winnipeg and now I think he sells real estate, to be honest. It's not an unfamiliar for me. Maybe that's a smart move.

Yeah. Well, yeah. You got your license yet? Not yet. Shout out to TJ Connors. Okay. Yes. So here, let me quickly, because you mentioned

the word Ridley. So let me just quickly give you a courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. Oh, yes. You never know. Like keep this in your, I don't know, Home. Oh, yes. You never know. Like, keep this in your, I don't know, in your car or somewhere. You never know when you have to measure something. Right, buddy?

A Ridley Funeral Home tape measure? You got it. Oh, wow. That's a weird sort of promo item for a funeral home, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. You know, people seem to dig it, though. It's like maybe they figured out what people actually need. But Ridley Funeral Home, that's, so you're Alderwood,

that's obviously New Toronto, but still that's the same neck of the woods. Have you been to a funeral or two at Ridley? Yes, far too many. That's like all of my family. That's where everybody, all my aunts and uncles and grandparents are. You going to be there one day? Maybe. It'll be up to my wife. We'll see if she can be bothered. Well, if you're there,

and again, hopefully this is not for many, many, many years, I will make the long walk to 14th and Lakeshore to pay my respects to the fallen FOTM. Very nice. Nicely done. That's a promise. And here, this is Mississauga and Oakville, kind of West End, but

Palma Pasta, they make the delicious, authentic Italian food. I have a frozen meat lasagna in my freezer for you. That is fantastic. Thank you so much. I can't wait. I hear it's fantastic. You're going to be letting me know shortly. It is really

fantastic. Absolutely. That's the best word for it. Fantastic. There's a sticker you.com Toronto Mike sticker for you. We'll find it. I know Barks put his on his amplifier or something, but we'll see where you put yours, Mr. Henry. It'll get a revered spot somewhere. Now it's chilly here by the lake.

They say it's cooler by the lake, but this is a toque courtesy of Canna Cabana. Wow. Canna Cabana will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. Lovely toque. Thank you. Is it made of hemp? Can I smoke it? You can smoke it. Lovely toque. Thank you. Is it made of hemp? Can I smoke it?

You can smoke it. Yes, absolutely. I don't know if it's made of hemp, but you can definitely smoke it. Very good. Canacabana.com to find it where they are, but there's a hundred locations across this fine province

and you can become a member of the Cabana Club if you go to canacabana.com and you'll be made aware instantly when there's a sale going on. Just a great, great program. So you do that. And last but not least, again, not quite Alderwood, but like Alderwood adjacent, down the street from the Costco

in South Etobicoke here, Great Lakes Brewery. Yes, I see that. Fresh craft beer you're going to take home with you. Darrell, listen, tell your friends. You get taken care of on Toronto. Even if you're number 1, I take, listen, tell your friends, you get taken care of on Toronto Even if you're number 1026 No, especially if you're episode 1026

This is, like, when you think of it as a whole, when I'm done episode 10,000 you'll say, I got in on the first 2,000. You know, you're right. That's what I'm going to tell my grandchildren. Thank you, Mike. Alright, so you're at the White House of Rock in St. Catharines. At the White House of Rock And again, those who don't know,

and I don't know how you can't know, but this is sort of a Q107 vibe in terms of what they were playing at the time. But it's hard rock. Oh, we were better than Q by far. I mean, we had Scruff for one. We had a great air staff, Christy Knight, one of the all-time greats, KK.

She's on Giant FM. I listen to her every day. She's still one of my very-time greats. KK. KK, she's on Giant FM. I listen to her every day. She's still one of my very favorites. And we were actually broadcasting from a cool, it was an old white mansion, the William H. Merritt House, and he was the first guy who designed or built the Welland Canal or some crazy thing, and it was part of the Underground Railroad. It was sort of an end stop for a lot of that part of history.

And I remember working all night. People were telling me that it was haunted. So I'd go, you know, I'd put on the long version of The Friends of Mr. Cairo, which was about 15 minutes. And I'd go spooking around, looking for, you know, ghosts and things in the attic or in the basement. No, never did see anything scary. But it was a beautiful old White House.

And there was a lot of spirit. It was really the spirit of rock and roll. The Bird worked there for a little bit. I don't know if you remember The Bird. He was on cue. Okay. You know, it was... Did he have another name?

John Kempf, maybe. I forget. He went to St. Louis and Vegas. He had a really good career. But we were sort of like the, you know, David to the Q107's Goliath and John Gonzo Mark, you know Gonzo. And yeah, that was a great radio station. I was there for four years and that was a ton of fun.

And who's the gentleman passed away? He had the afternoon drive there I listened to. Gone far too soon. Oh, that was after me, but Reverend Randy. No, it wasn't. He was from Buffalo, an American fella. We're going to do this. Okay, here.

Yeah, that was after I left. After you left. Actually, just after that he got there. Okay, I'm thinking actually of Iron Mike Benson. That's who it is. Yeah, you're right. That's who that is. So Iron Mike Benson, I would hear him do an afternoon drive.

He had this great voice, and he would be there again, again after your time there. But I think he got sick and died far too young. Great loss for the station. Yeah, and for radio, he was really talented. Fire Mike. That was a really fun time, and of course, I was in my

20s, and we were presenting every rock act because they all came through, St. Catharines or Thorold or Welland, so Kim Mitchell and Lee Aaron and Chalk Circle and all of the big names from that era. And we'd be there every night pretty much, you know, we're in our 20s. And our GM was Greg Slate, Gary's brother. And he would always show up.

He'd put his American Express Platinum card on the bar and we could just go up and help ourselves. The good old days. Yeah. And, you know, one of us would have to bring the band on and, um, and, and usually the rest of us would go just for support and for fun too.

So I'm surprised you played Chalk Circle cause that was more of a new wave sound. We all, we played all that. Yeah. We were, uh, it was pretty broad.

Yeah. Right. You know, that we're only four days removed from, uh, the day of the year. I always play Chalk Circle because, uh,

April Fool. Yeah, that's right. It's their big hit. Yeah. It was a big one, but they were a good band. Although they were one of the few bands always played Chalk Circle because April Fool. Yeah, that's right. It was their big hit. Yeah, it was a big one, but they were a good band. Although they were one of the few bands, I remember they didn't like you coming on

to introduce them. They were a little above that. So you had the, it was no fun because you'd have to go up and say, Chalk Circle in about 15 minutes. So thanks for coming out, everybody. And you felt like a bit of a knob doing that, but it was great fun.

Great fun. First concert I ever saw was Chalk Circle at the Ontario Place Forum. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I don't think I chose it. It was sort of like it was chosen for me.

I see. I think once you got on the grounds, it was free to see the concerts at the forum, as I recall. That's correct. So what was after Hits 97.7? So after Hits was Montreal. So it was owned by Standard, and the PD at CJFM in Montreal, Jeff Fidler, had an opening in middays.

He'd heard me and talked to Eric, my boss, and next thing I know I was being offered this gig and to my mom's chagrin she was happy to have me back close to home but I couldn't pass it up it was middays at CJFM which became Mix 96 and it was right downtown Montreal and a chance to live in one of the great cities of the world which was great fun for five years

this is early reporting here and not confirmed but my daughter has been accepted to mcgill and she's like it's right now with the front runner you know wherever she does she's going to take her talents to montreal but wherever she ends up going but there's like a good chance now that she'll be spending the bulk of the next four years in montreal and i was thinking like oh man like i'm gonna be spending some time in this city. And I'm, you know, it sounds like a cool place to visit. Oh, it's so much fun. And it was, I mean, St. Catherine's had its own vibe.

It was a very work boot sort of GM town, which was cool. It was all, you know, chicken wings and beer. And then I'm going to Montreal that has a subway again. And it's, you know, it's all about bagels and French food and smoked meat. And yeah, so it was, uh, it was like the total opposite, but it was great fun. And your daughter will love it. It's a great place to live. And we had a really good radio station there. And that was a fun experience too. So, uh, what happens after your,

uh, soar, soiree? That's the word I'm looking for. You're the French guy. Well, soiree. Soiree. You know, my mouth doesn't make those words, that sounds. But you were in Montreal, but you come back. Yeah, I'm in Montreal for five years, and it's funny, I'm just getting ready to,

I was a little, my mom had been sick a little bit, and I thought, you know what, I got to get home. I've been, you know, I've only been visiting for five years. So just as I was thinking about doing that i get a phone call from the guys who are launching easy rock and they were looking for a new air staff for that radio station 97.3 telemedia had just bought it and um sure enough i ended up going for an interview and getting the job so i was able to come back home it was

funny it was like divine intervention okay Okay. Quick question from a listener. And I won't name the name because this person wants you to guess their name. This is a really embarrassing, awkward moment where you can't guess his name and you feel awful. Are you ready for that? Yeah, sure. I'll serve it up. I've had many of those. I'm good at it.

Okay, Mike. You have to ask Daryl Henry who his favorite Habs fan is. It's got to be Laurie. Okay. You nailed it. Yeah, there you go Laurie. Okay. Yeah. You nailed it. Yeah, there you go. I was worried you would never get it, and then I'd feel so awful for Laurie.

Oh, no. And then in post, I'd be going, Laurie. It's like I'll stick it in. No, yeah, right. No, no. Yeah, we go back and forth on Facebook talking hockey all the time. Okay.

You know, because I make fun of the Habs. I couldn't. For five years, Mike, I had to pretend I liked the Montreal Canadiens. And one of those years, god damn it, they won the Stanley Cup. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. And then Terry DeMonte, our morning man, damn you,

Terry, he outed me on the air. Luckily, it was almost near the end of my tenure. But I had to pretend that I liked that team for five years and live through their Stanley Cup win. That was really hard. That was the last Canadian team to win a Stanley Cup, and that was supposed to Cup win. That was really hard. That was the last Canadian team to win a Stanley Cup, and that was supposed to be ours. That was Toronto's

Cup 93. That's the Wayne Gretzky-Gilmore high stick. I know, I know. Speaking of Paulie Morris, goal scoring by number 93, Doug Gilmore. That's all I got. Can I do my Paul Morris? Yeah, it's got to be better than mine. Toronto goal scored by number 27, Daryl Siddler.

Assisted number 7, Nanny McDonald. Yeah, I think I've done better. You know, he's still with us. I just want to say, if anyone can hook me up with Paul Morris, I would like him on Toronto Mic while I can get him there.

They've played him at the games a few times I've heard over the course of the season. I guess they have him in the can somewhere. Yeah, because he was there until they moved to the ACC

and then Andy Frost took over. Yeah, oh, Andy. But yeah, it was a great time in Montreal, except for having to pretend I liked the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, because he was there until they moved to the ACC and then Andy Frost took over. Yeah, oh, Andy. But yeah, it was a great time in Montreal, except for having to pretend I liked the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, it was up to you, but I know Strombo never pretended to like, I mean, he's from here, which makes it even worse, I suppose, but he's always, you know,

loves rubbing it in the Leafs fans' faces that he's a Habs fan. Well, you know, there's a golden rule of radio, Mike. It's the number one golden rule of radio, and that radio rule is it's know your audience. And when you know your audience, you know that you better love the freaking Montreal Canadiens every time you talk about them in Montreal.

I know my buddy, John Gallagher. Oh, God. Do you have any John Gallagher stories? Barker and him don't like each other, I learned. But there's a lot of guys I find I don't like. Oh, John's a character. No, I don't know him well. I didn't work with John.

But here's a guy, he's not only on Q, but he's on City TV doing Sports Night and a proud Habs fan through it all. Yeah, that's true. I mean, if it's truly who you are and you're not obnoxious about it. Well, he's from the Maritimes, so I feel like he's got some...

So that's okay. It's okay, I think, if you're from that, from down east or whatever. Trust me, Montrealers don't like Torontonians as a rule, and they would certainly not like, especially if I was to say something ill of the Habs. You know, Terry DeMonte was just only, was there until very recently.

Yeah. And I know he started a podcast. I put him on Humble and Fred, and I got the whole story there. But isn't that the gig that Jay Michaels has left for? Yeah, Show'Em. Right. Yeah, so when I was in Montreal, our morning show lasted about a year or so.

That was Karen and Dan, Dan Wilmot. Okay. He's in the Molson Canadian ad where it's, this is our beer and, you know, your neighbor is a Sins fan and you're a Leaf fan. He's the dad in the Boston Bruins jersey. I don't know. Anyway, that's Dan.

Hey, Dan. And he was our morning man along with Karen Evans, who became a great friend of mine. She's now down in L.A. as a talent manager. Anyhow, they didn't work out. So they ended up, it was a big deal. It was a blockbuster. We stole Terry DeMonte from Showm.

Terry and Ted Bird, Terry and Ted. And so Terry and Ted were our morning show for uh the rest of my time there so wow and then i think he didn't end up going to calgary or something and then he went back to show him which was where he started show him as the rock you know the legend the q107 of montreal right now i got a little clip this is really short and it's potato quality but just just a little bit here. Okay. All right. Running away with me. The station with Toronto's real show for lovers, Delilah. 97.3, Easy Rock, The Temptations with Just My Imagination.

It's 335 with Daryl Henry and Andrea Roos. I was just doing some calculating because you are a vegetarian. I am not, and therefore I'm less healthy than you, according to you. I never get sick. Just doing this calculation. You've taken off twice as many sick days as I have this year. So just a little taste of what you could enjoy there on the Easy Rock. Yeah, that's all me and Ruzi.

That was great fun. We were a team for quite a while, and we had great laughs. We're still best of friends. Yeah, that wasn't a bad break. Although the time check was maybe superfluous. I don't know how the recording could be that awful to be honest. How did this person

record it on the moon? This is not that long ago. When do you get to know? It's on YouTube. If you search for it, it's literally the only taste of Daryl henry uh well i'm surprised there's even one taste that's fantastic um so what year is it you join uh 95 or i'm sorry 90 i was uh no wait a minute no no because you were in montreal yes montreal 90 to 95. Even I know your bio better than you do. Yeah, you do.

95. So that's when we launched Easy Rock. Right. And it was crazy. It was telemedia. They had a big station in Montreal called Cité Rock de Tente. Okay. And that was a monster station.

Yeah. So they tried to emulate it in Toronto with Easy Rock. And some of the things didn't quite work. We took their jingle package and translated it. And one of the jingles was, It feels like you're running your fingers through my hair. I love Easy Rock. And I remember we all looked at each other when we heard these

and we said to my boss, this is Toronto. We don't want anybody touching our hair. But that I love Easy Rock you did there, I remember that so well. Maybe there was a lot of TV ad campaigns and stuff. Well, and it just stuck in your head. Like it's what, four and O's? Yeah.

It became one of those, what do you call them? Monomics or whatever. And it became sort of the signature. The station, you know, we scuffled. I think, you know, because they tried to translate the French product into the Toronto product and it didn't quite work on a few levels. you know we we scuffled um i think you know because they tried to translate the french product into the toronto product and it didn't quite work on a few levels and of course chfi was a gigantic monster and nobody was unhappy with chfi so there wasn't really a need for another ac

station in town but we stuck with it okay now this is all fresh in my head because you know you mentioned 1050 off the top and i talked about Scott Carpenter. I should also mention that there's going to be a special episode 1050 of Toronto Mic'd. That's all I can say right now. 1050? Yeah, see what I did there? I did the same thing with episode 1021.

Ah. So you can see what's going on here. CFNY. CFNY. I'm an expert guy. Right, right. So Marsden was on that one, et cetera, et cetera.

But okay. So the 1050 episode hopefully will feature Mike Cooper, who dropped by like about a month ago. Yeah, I watched that one. Yeah, so then there was a lot of chatter because it is at Easy Rock where Mike Cooper is paired up with Aaron Davis to gun for CHFI.

Yes and no. Close enough? No, tell me. So what happens is, so we're scuffling, we're not doing that well, and we finally abandon the telemedia model, and we hire a guy named Brian DePoe, who's a great friend of mine. I had an email from him recently. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I think I probably know the content of that email. I would love to read it on the air, but I don't know how he'd feel about it. It's in response to the Cooper episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so Brian came and he put like, you know, he's one of the smartest guys I've ever worked for. He's really strategic, attention to detail. And he put into place a lot of the fundamentals of good AC radio, which we weren't really doing before. And, you know, another stroke of genius.

Everybody thought it was crazy at the time. Lisa Gibbons became our spokesperson on television. For sure. And then we went all Christmas. We were the first station in Canada to do that. Pause for a second. So this Lisa Gibbons thing. Mm-hmm.

Was there already a syndicated show of John Tesh? Like what came first? Because these were old school Entertainment Tonight viewers will know. These are a couple of OGs. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. No, I don't think John had a show yet.

The big one that we carried, it was Delilah. I mentioned it in the clip. And she was out of Seattle and she was all like touchy-feely, lovey-dovey. This is like candlelight and wine kind of vibe. Yeah, there was a real, yeah, mellow,

but it was good. She's very good. She's like, if you were to take Howard Stern's talent to connect one-on-one and put it in a 45-year-old frumpy woman, then you'd have, because she could really connect with the audience. And we became number one in evenings with Delilah, and that began the evolution of us from being this sort of mid of the, we really were an afterthought ratings wise.

And then, you know, Brian took over. He did some of these things. Delilah was a big hit. And then CHFI blinked. They put Mad Dog and Billy on in the morning because they thought Aaron and Bob were too old sounding. They tried to make themselves sound younger and hipper. Right. And it was a disaster.

And not that it was anybody's fault. It just wasn't a good fit. It just wasn't a good fit with the audience. That happens. And so we became number one. We actually took over number one from CHFI shortly after they made that change with their morning show. And at the time, our morning show was

Mike and Christine. Right. Christine Cardoso. Yeah, still a dear friend of mine. And we were, yeah, we were riding high, doing great. And then Christine went on mat leave. And when she went on mat leave, they auditioned a few people to be Mike's co-host and Ruzi got an audition, Jane Brown, a few other people.

But Erin, who was just, she was ready to move back to Kelowna from what we understand. The story I hear, and I hope I'm not stepping on any toes. No, let's hear it. Was that Gary Slate wanted to poke Gary Miles in the eye the big standard guy wanted to poke the Rogers guy

and he said let's bring Erin Davis on which was funny because Erin hated us when she was at CHF5 she would openly make fun of us on the air all the time and I remember thinking who are you come on so anyways it was a little odd but that was what Gary Slate wanted to do apparently make fun of us on the air all the time. And I remember thinking, who are you? Come on. So anyways, it was a little odd,

but that was what Gary Slate wanted to do, apparently. And so she comes over, and she and Coop, they didn't get along at first, but after a while, it worked. And from my understanding, that's when Sandy Sanderson, who was a big deal at Rogers at CHFI and 680, Sandy said to Julie Adam, there's your morning show. Okay, so interesting because my feeling is, again,

this is only from having numerous conversations with people like Aaron Davis and Mike Cooper and stuff, but it sounds like CHFI tries to get Aaron back, like Julie Adam or whoever. I don't know. She seems to wear this one, but who knows who it was. And then Aaron says, okay, but I'm bringing Cooper with me. It sounds like this might become like an Aaron Davis demand

for her to return to CHFI. I heard it differently. I had a, I heard it differently. I heard it was, it was the two of them. Like they, they were great together. And,

uh, so why is it though at then, why did it take, why at the beginning did they not love each other? Cause I think that's something that I've only recently, uh, realized. All of us were a little cheesed off at Aaron for having made fun of us on the air.

Like, I mean, you know that who does that? It's not very nice. So I think we were all in when she on the air. Like, I mean, you know, who does that? It's not very nice. So I think we were all in when she came, and she came in, and she was, you know, bounding and happy, and I was like, wait a minute, but you hate us. What is this?

This is kind of a fake. She's like, all's fair in love and war. I guess. And so I think there was a little bit of, you know, hmm, everybody wondering what's going on here with Erin. But, you know, before long i come had come to see that she's a total pro and uh and was all in with us and they sounded great and the next thing we knew rogers had stolen them from underneath our nose and um and they you know and they and they righted

that ship they went back musically to where they were before they hired mad dog and billy like it seemed like they just they took a big step backwards to what they used to be which was you know ac radio's got to be kind of dull you know what it is like that worn out old pair of slippers you know and every year somebody gives you a new pair of christmas but it's like you know what i'll keep the bill and take it back because you like those old comfy slippers. And so every time AC tries to get sexy or tries to get hip, it usually backfires. And this time they, uh,

they fixed it and then they went back to the old ways musically, as well as, you know, on the air with their talent and, uh, kaboom. Right. So,

uh, what was it like, what was it like at CHFI when, uh when the morning show leaves to go to the competition? great show. They're great people, still friends of mine. And I thought every bit is good. But just, you know, they were new to the market, except Stu. You know, Stu Jeffries has had some with Good Rockin' Tonight. Good Rockin' Tonight. That's right. So he had some name recognition. And Colleen had been on cue.

But it was just, you know, the Aaron and Mike thing was CHFI had such tonnage. Their audience was so big and deep that even when they stumbled and maybe made the wrong call with Mad Dog and Billy and they shed some audience,

it didn't take much for it all to come back. I remember Neil Mather, my good friend, he was our music director, and he said, you know, Daryl, when we were number one, he said, we're number one now, but after everything CHFI has done wrong, there's still only that, you know, a smidge behind us. It's so tough to catch these heritage stations.

It is. Like, you know, like there's so many examples, but even how long did it take for, you know, sports radio 1050 to, you know, knock on the door of 590? Like just 590 haven't been in that market for so much longer. Yeah. Like, and there's a lot of examples like that. I know Indy's been knocking at the door of, you know, you mentioned CFY, of Edge 102. You know what? Technically, I believe it is 102.1 The Edge, but for a brief period of time in the mid-90s,

they were going by Edge 102, and it got imprinted in my brain as Edge 102, and I've been saying it that way ever since, but I digress. But yeah, it is so tough to catch these heritage stations in this market. You really have to stick to your knitting, do what you do, do it well, and then the door cracks open a little bit, and you're able to jam your foot in there, and that's what we did with CHFI when they blinked and made their changes. And yeah, TSN 1050, same thing, you know,

because the fans scuttled Bob, Bobcat, and they made their changes and TSN had been doing a good job. And then all of a sudden now they're in the driver's seat. Yeah, it only took like 15 years. It took a long time. You just got to be patient. Yeah, that's right. And keep at it. But okay.

So Aaron Davis and Mike Cooper leave Easy Rock for CHFI. Mike Cooper kisses the ground every day that Aaron took him along for the ride. This was a great windfall for him. Yes, it was. Yeah, it really was. I mean, Mike was a great disc jockey. He was my Toronto radio hero when I was realizing that's what I wanted

to do for a living. You know, the 510 stupid joke of the day. It had a million people listening to it, which is unbelievable, back at 680 CFTR. I remember once he introduced, I forget what honking record it was, but it was 680 CF and TR.

I mean, Coop was Coop. He was a classic. But as a morning man, like, you know, he didn't, you know, Key 590 was his first morning job. Oh, you've got the, what is that? Evelyn Mackle gave this to me. That's fantastic. I won't open it up,

because I think it's supposed to be like a towel or something. Oh, it's a, with a CFTR 680 load on it. But I just like the, you know, it's like keep that, whenever someone mentions 680 CFTR, I bring that up. It was a great radio station and Coop was the best. And, but as a morning man, like I say, it

didn't really, you know, Key 590 didn't work out really that great for him. And then, you know, he came over, he was an Easy Rocks morning man at the beginning. It was Terry Michael and he was the co-host with Terry. Terry is so sad. We lost her a couple of years ago in a car accident. And she was great, but, you know, Mike was sort of the sidekick.

And so when, you know, this happened with CHFI, from what I gather, he was finally given his due in a financial sense. And also kind of, you know, he was on CHFI, the legendary CHFI, working with Aaron, who was, you know, established as one of the greats. And yeah, I think that must have been very satisfying for him. And I mean, it's only, we'll get to this because we're going to get you to CHFI,

but it's only very recently that Mike Cooper, because he leaves, he comes back, but it's only very recently that mike cooper because he leaves he comes back but it's only very recently that he left for seemingly for good chfi but that's very recent news but okay so let's get you there so uh you're why does it end for you at easy rock well i still don't know to this day mike well it's a typical radio thing right you don't know it's a subjective medium so a new boss comes in and they hear something that they, they, or they have somebody else in mind or whatever it might be. I mean,

I was doing middays at easy. They were the top rated day part of the station. The station was doing pretty well. They were looking to flip at that time. They knew they were going to change format and go to this boom format. Right. But, you know,

I, I knew the music and stuff. i used to do an oldies hour at noon or whatever and blah blah blah but uh we had a new guy in uh rob farina who'd been at chum fm and uh i i don't know for for sure but i you know i wouldn't be surprised if he thought it would be good to have an ally there and in may and because he'd worked with may at chum and you know may had worked at cfny so she you could say she has uh you know the cred with that with a lot of that 80s music and stuff right and so uh one day i went into work and was told uh by the gm hey can you come see me well there is no shame in being replaced by may pods no exactly so uh and they say when i first got started someone told me you know you're nothing

until you've been fired three times in radio. Okay, so is your morning show, because you mentioned Stu and Colleen, but then Stu's let go. You know he's there now. It's all very confusing because I have, I should fully disclose, I produce the Humble and Fred show right now, but Humble Howard Glassman is doing mornings.

There was a whole thing with four people. Yeah. And then it's down to two people, Colleen and Howard, and that's who's in place when it flips to boom, I believe. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. There had been Humble, Colleen, Kim Stockwood, and Rick Hodge.

Rick Hodge. So we called it the four-headed monster. So it was a pretty big room. But they had fired Rick and Kim just before me, hodge so it was we called it the four-headed monster so it was a pretty big room but uh they had fired rick and and and kim uh just before me and that's when i thought i was getting called into the office to be told that they had just fired but no it was to fire me also oh yeah yeah hey whatever it's all i'm sorry but but uh yeah at some point you do land at uh chfi so how long are you like between gigs? Six months.

So six months. Worried. I'm thinking, oh, man, I'm going to have to get my real estate license or something. Because I didn't want to pull up roots. We'd had, you know, our daughter was about four years old. And I'm from here. And I don't want to do that up and down the dial thing anymore. You know, I don't want to go to Edmonton.

No offense, Edmonton, or wherever. So then I get this phone call from my good friend Tish Eyston who says, you know, there's an opening here. Give Julie Adam a call. And so I did. And it was me and Jeff. He ended up going to do evenings at Boom. I forget his name.

Anyhow. Kogan? No, Jeff. Why did I say Kogan? I forget. But I get it. And he ends up going to Boom. But luckily, I had people in my corner.

So Coop, Gord Rennie, even Aaron, they were all saying to Julie, yeah, bring Daryl over. He's a good egg. And yeah, so I started. Jeff Spindle? Yeah, that's who it was. And so I started that coming up to 12 years. It'll be June of 2010. Okay. Well, firstly, that's amazing. Secondly, Tish Eyston, in my brief experience with her,

it was just wonderful. Like she's just like a ray of sunshine, great attitude, great voice. Oh, beautiful. I mean, you have a great radio voice yourself, but man, that Tish Eyston, that's next level. Like, what the heck? She creates a mood. That's something that every disc jockey wants to be able to do. It's very, very hard to do, but when you listen to Tish, it was like you're, you know, having a coffee and a warm

hug with, you know, that favorite person in your life. She was, is, is exceptionally talented. I wish she was still working with us, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. that's the way the cookie crumbles. That's the way the cookie crumbles. So I do have some more CHFI questions for you, but first I have a question,

and I didn't write down who asked this question, which is awkward, but I'm to ask you about Elton John in London. Oh, Elton John in London. Well, that's verbatim what I was sent, but they got the city wrong or they got something you tell me is there a story anywhere with you and Elton John yes there is it's a bittersweet story Mike so buckled up here let's go I was um I was asked to do an interview with him

on the release of his album Peachtree Road so it's going probably back about 15 years or so he was doing the residency in Vegas at Caesars Palace. He took over from Céline. So I go down there. My lovely wife, she comes with me. And we're given this DAT machine to go and to record the interview. I'm nervous as hell because it's Elton freaking John. Of course. And he's

also the Tantrums and Tiaras guy. So maybe he's going to rip my head off. I don't know. And so I make sure I bone up on this album. I listen to it backwards and forwards ten different ways. And I wrote these questions. I really worked hard on it. So we get there.

Oh, I also brought a bottle of HP sauce because I'd read somewhere that he was missing HP sauce. And he lives in Atlanta and he couldn't find it. In Vegas he couldn't find it. So I thought that'll be the icebreaker. Yeah, that's a smart move. Thank you. So we get up.

Giving you lasagna. Exactly. We get to the elevator in Caesars and we go up to the penthouse, which is where he lived during this residency. And we're waiting in the hall and we can hear him, David, David. He's yelling for his husband, David. Furnished. Yes, the Toronto lad and uh we're looking around it's like wow this place is like palatial so um finally some handler or someone says okay he's ready to see you now so we walk into his uh magnificent um you know dining

table area and uh it's elton this is uh daryl henry from the toronto station um oh daryl it's Elton. This is Daryl Henry from the Toronto station. Oh, Daryl, it's lovely to meet you. And I present him the HP sauce, and he's totally blown away. He's going, oh, my gosh, this is fantastic. Daryl, thank you. I've missed this. Oh, my goodness. It's great. So we sit down, and we get the DAT machine set up,

and I hit record. I don't know if you've ever worked with DAT machines. No, never. Yeah, there's a reason why no one works with DAT machines anymore. So we hit record and I'm like, the needles are moving, the VU, it's good. And then I couldn't focus on it anymore. My wife is there and she's also noticing it's fine.

It's recording. And so we sit down, we start the interview and it goes great. And he's telling me towards the end, he goes, you know, the last interview I had it was from dutch tv or something and they were just asking me about the sex clubs in vegas and you know daryl thank you so much you know you're asking me about the album and you're asking me about gus dudgeon and it's wonderful daryl thank you daryl and thank you canada and i'm going wow this is like the highlight of my career yeah and it's so great

and he and afterwards we uh we you know he gives us a tour of the place. And he asks us if we want to pop. And he shows us where he's got his CD collection and his dogs and everything. So we get into the elevator. And we head down to the room. And we said, we've got to listen to this back. And we were put on play. And it stops 10 seconds into the interview.

Oh, my god. Yeah. It didn't record any of it. Oh, my god. Yes. I knew't record any of it. Oh my God. Yes. I knew that's where this story was eventually going. Yes. And still I'm shocked.

Greatest interview of my career. Yeah. I mean, thank you, Darrell. Thank you, Canada. From Elton John. So it's not there. And now as a sidebar, this was for Sound Source Radio Network. It was a standard broadcasting thing.

They would put these shows together and then they'd send them out to radio stations right right so i was left i've been flown down to vegas put up i got tickets to see his show and i don't have any interview yeah so luckily the person who followed me was sonia benezra who at the time was at music plus and she so she interviewed him and then after that night at the concert i went and i I said to Paul Jessup, the record rep, I said, I'm going to talk to Sonia. Can I get her audio? This is what happened. I need audio for the sound source thing.

And Paul goes, yeah, you know, go talk to Sonia. So Sonia very graciously gave us her audio. I cut it up, pretended it was mine. We got the sound source special recorded and done. Did they ever know or did they ever find out i did yeah i told gary mottola yeah that's that is like you know and i'm that's like my worst nightmare oh yeah because it's one thing if it's like okay you know mike wilner's on this show because you can be like wilner can we do that again and he'd probably do it again you know

what i mean but this is elton john right in vegas like i had this 20 minutes of chuck d and it would be like, okay, this one shot at this, you got Chuck D. I know that's my Elton John story, but I got the recording. That's the good part. It worked. It sounded fantastic, but there's always that thought like, oh, you only get the one shot on this. It adds that extra layer of anxiety.

This is a big deal. And yeah, that's wild. Oh, that was the worst. In that elevator, the pit of my stomach, I just felt it again when we found out there was nothing on that tape other than the first 10 seconds. So do we know, did it run out of tape or something?

Or is it just some technical glitch? Yeah, it's just some technical glitch. Yeah, that's scary. Is this the day before smart, is this an age before smartphones? I don't know how far back. Yeah, this is probably going back. So you can't have a backup thing running in your pocket just in case. No, we didn't have any.

No, so it was before all that stuff. Because today you could do the thing and then you'd have the, well, yeah, you'd have a couple of different things going today probably. But yeah, that's awful, buddy. So sad. That's awful. But it was great and the concert was great. And Sonia Benezra, thanks again.

I owe you. You sure do. And he's probably the biggest guy I've ever interviewed tooenezra, thanks again. I owe you. You sure do. And he's probably the biggest guy I've ever interviewed, too. Well, that doesn't get much bigger. Yeah. It's funny. With all this, well, what happened at the Oscars.

So in our family, we always have, like, who's the most famous person you've met? Like, meeting, meaning you had some kind of a one-on-one exchange and ideally a photo or whatever. So my answer is still Chuck D, okay? I'm sticking with that because i had the 20 minute chat and we took the photo together and i really got to you know meet him i met chuck d that answer is not going to change as of right now okay all right definitely i'll take a back seat to chuck definitely not yeah you're gonna have to i'll be number two but

my daughter michelle who's going the one going to mcgill yes, she had a conversation in a photo with Will Smith, who was in town because his son was doing a movie. And Michelle and her girlfriends were kind of in that neighborhood watching this because they were Jaden Smith fans. And then Will was there and he walked over to meet them and Jaden met them and there's some video. And anyway, so forever that's, we're like,

oh, you know, no matter what I, you know, you can't beat that for a global, unless you can meet Obama or something. But it's funny that this, it's like maybe we've been kind of giving her a hard time. Like, oh, so how's your buddy Will doing? Like, what's new with Will? That's her answer to that one.

Okay. So I want to hit you up with some CH. I know we have a, we got a, we got beer to drink. And Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home is coming to hit you up with some CHFI. I know we have a... Yes. We got a... We got beer to drink. We got beer to drink. We got beer to drink. And Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home is coming to pick you up. Oh, jeez.

Not yet. Not yet. No. So CHFI. Yes. You know, Tisha's no longer there. Yeah. First question is,

and you've been there for what? Since... 12. For 12 years now. It'll be almost 12. It's a good run here. So firstly, Gord Rennie was recently on the show. So let's say hi to Gord.

God bless Gord. Is he a good, is he a good guy? Best in the business and a great guy. Like that's a pretty killer combo right there. And he's, uh, now he's, uh, technically producing a couple of FOTMs at 640. He works with Greg Brady and Kelly Cotrera. Who I love. So shout out to Gord, Gord Rennie. Yeah. Speaking of CFNY, Kelly Cotrera. Who I love. So shout out to Gord Rennie.

Yeah, speaking of CFNY, Kelly was at CFNY. Kelly took over for May Potts when May Potts left 102.1 for Mojo Radio. Yeah. Shout out to Spider Jones, who I'm talking to tomorrow. Okay. So Aaron Davis and Mike Cooper. Yeah. Mike Cooper leaves because his wife is ill.

Yeah. And that's a terrible story. We heard that from mike because she's passed on since but we heard that from mike recently here then uh they bring in from uh it's so incestuous but they they you know we talked about how rick hodge went to uh easy rock yeah and he was replaced by Darren B. Lamb. And Darren B. Lamb was then reproached from Chum FM, 104.5 Chum FM, to take over for... Coop. Coop. Yeah, thank you. At Easy Rock. No, sorry.

At CHMI. I knew I screwed that up. So here we are. Aaron Davis and Darren B. Lamb. Then, of course, Aaron moves out west. Yeah. And we've kind of covered that a great deal. And now they bring in Maureen Holloway from Q107.

Yes. And it's Darren B. Lamb and Maureen Holloway. Yes. Fast forward, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Suddenly Darren's not at work anymore, but he's still on the name of the show. But Darren's not coming to work anymore.

Can you tell us anything about the mysterious disappearance of Darren B. Lamb on CHFI? We weren't told anything. Nothing. No. So it was very mysterious. It was the strangest thing I've ever worked through in my 38 years. And I worked with Scruff. So, you know, that says a lot.

That's true. I have never seen anything like it. He just vanished. And the management didn't tell us a thing. They also didn't tell the audience really much of anything. That's true. I have never seen anything like it. He just vanished and the management didn't tell us a thing. They also didn't tell the audience really much of anything. That's true. And I felt terrible because CHFI is a special place. The audience is, it's more than

just a box playing songs. It's part of the fabric of their everyday and it has been for generations. You know, their mom listened to it, now they do, now their kids. So I thought we did a bit of a disservice. Not really. Maybe we couldn't. Maybe the hands were tied. Yeah, there might have been an HR thing. You they do, now they're kids. So I thought we did a bit of a disservice. Not really. I, maybe we couldn't, maybe the hands were tied. You never know. Right. But even anything that would have said, you know,

we can't say, but you know, here's what we can say or whatever, but. Or you can say that you can't say, because then I'll stop getting the emails because you know who suffers. I'm the one who gets the emails, Daryl, just so you know. Oh, and we did. I mean, people, you know, like I said, this station's a part of their lives. It's not just like the place where they hear music. So we never found out.

I never found out what happened, never. And I felt really bad for the audience and for the people in that room, Gord, Ian, Mo, and Christine, because they had to deal with it every day. And of course, dealing with the texts and the phone calls and the Facebook messages, the audience wondering, what's going on? Why aren't you saying Darren's name? Where is Darren?

Blah, blah, blah. So it was very, very difficult on them. And it was really not a very, very fun year, I don't think, for them especially and for us and for the people who listen to us. And Mike cooper comes back to kind of uh co-host with maureen holloway because darren's not there and then at some point uh the whole show is gone because uh gurdip and puja are the new chfi morning show have you met

them yet oh yes oh yes yeah i'm not sure who's at home, who's in the studio. Are you broadcasting in the studio? We've always been in studio, even through the hardest part of the lockdown. And also your time slot is a little off for them. Their mornings, your evenings, right? I get in there

Friday morning because I've got a countdown show to do and this and that and other things. So I do see them. We cross over there. Nice, nice people. I think Coop said it best. Way too good looking for radio. They have faces not made for radio. Way too pretty and handsome.

Well, breakfast television is in the family. Right, exactly. But I am seeing now, I am now seeing on my bike rides billboards across the city with Gurdip and Pooja's face on it. You've got to get the word out, because otherwise how would people know? So especially if they've got a following,

and I'm sure they do, people will look at that and say, oh, good, you've got to market it. So I'm glad we're doing that. Now, yeah, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, I mean, it's a tough transition. I mean, a new morning show is a big deal,

and for our audience and for them too. I mean, a new morning show is a big deal. And for like our audience and for them too. I mean, television and radio are very different animals. Well, we wish them luck. It seems like they're getting all the support in the world because they got a new producer. Was it Blair Bartram? Blair Bartram, that's right. And they got this big billboard campaign,

which I know a lot of radio people would die for. And so guys like me will bike around and see their faces everywhere. It's fun. They love each other. They're great friends. And so it creates a nice, fun atmosphere on the air. Were you friendly with Maureen Holloway? Oh, yeah. I actually knew Maureen from my

time in Montreal. And so when she was coming over, it was pretty exciting and pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, I like Maureen. I like Mo. She's a straight shooter. Have you heard from her since this all went down? Well, Christine Cardoso got into a car accident back in November. Okay. And

she's fine now. But it was a little, you know, it's never an easy thing. Right. So we were in touch over the course of that. Same like with Ian and Gord. Just letting them know what was going on from Christine's end because, uh, she wasn't able to text her that for several days and whatnot.

So, yeah, we were on, we were in touch over that time and, uh, it sounds like she's doing just fine. I've heard her on CFRB and 1010 in the last, uh,

you know, a little while. So, you know, she's a great broadcaster and I'm, I'm, I mean, if she still wants to,

I hope there's a place for her. Radio needs people like that. Well, she's very, she's so good. I, and I mean, if she still wants to, I hope there's a place for her. Radio needs people like that. Well, she's so good, I can't imagine she won't surface somewhere, resurface somewhere. I hope so. Whenever she's able to, who knows what's going on with the paperwork. Who knows? I haven't reviewed them yet, so I don't know yet.

All right, and there's another name I want to ask you about, only because she lives in my hood, so New Toronto. Shout out to Michelle Butterly. Oh yeah, Michelle. Love Michelle. One of my favorites. And she was my competitor for many years. She did middays at FI, still does.

And I was doing middays at Easy Rock. And I would curse her name because she would often beat me. But she's lovely people. And she's a great announcer and a great person. Okay, this is your opportunity, Mr. Two First Names Daryl Henry, to tell us exactly when can we hear your voice on 98.1 CHFI?

Okay, Friday nights 6 till 9, Saturday morning 8 till 2, and Sunday 8 till noon. So even my notes are out of date because I've got you Fridays 7 to 9, but you get an extra hour now. Yeah, they changed the hours for the evening show, and it's now 6 to 9. You've got to change that website too, Daryl.

Come on, is that your job? No. I'll have to get them on that. That's surprising. Yeah. Because I've got my copy and paste here. It says 7 to 9. Yes. Okay, and tell me a bit more. So that. That's surprising. Yeah. Yeah. Because I got my copy and paste here. It says 7 and 9. Yes.

But you, okay, and tell me a bit more. So the now and then countdown. Yeah. That's a fun thing. They introduced that when Tish was doing this weekend morning shift. And what it used to be, there used to be a Best of Aaron and Mike show that would run Saturday mornings. And then there was no more Aaron and Mike. So they figured we need a specialty show.

So they put this countdown in there. So they pick a year. So the now is the current top 10 in Toronto. And then the then is whatever year. Like this past weekend it was 2008, I think. And we just count down the top hits that we were playing back then. See, I like this.

Yeah, it's cool. Like this is my kind of thing. I like it. Yeah, it's cool. Like, this is my kind of thing. I like it. Yeah, kind of like you go in the time machine and take you back to what you were hearing on this week and whatever year. It's a ton of work, Mike. It's a ton of work, but it's fun.

Okay, but now this begs the question. When you're not on the air and you've got your own, you know, Daryl Henry personal time. Yes. Like, are you a jazz guy? Are you a heavy metal guy? What are you into, man?

When I'm at home, I mean, when I'm not listening to CHFI. Well, of course, that's the greatest station on the planet. That's right. Everyone knows that. I'll have Jazz FM on. Heather Bambrick is great. I love her. Yeah, Brad is great.

Yeah, he's from the Pursuit of Happiness. That's right. And I like jazz, so I'll have that on. There's a station, I like oldies, and there are pure oldies. I mean, Boom isn't really anymore. They're playing a lot of Q107 90s, trying to attract that audience.

You mean Bon Jovi? Yeah. Or Collective Soul. The 90s just left me cold. Anyhow, WECK in Buffalo. I listen to them online on my smart speaker. The Big Weck. I don't know if you know what a weck is.

Do you know what that is, Mike? I know what a weck is in a candle. No, a weck is, have you ever heard of beef on weck? No. Okay, okay. See, Buffalo's known for wings, but it's also known for beef on weck, which is sliced roast beef on a weck roll. Weck is a bun.

It's a bun. So they're very clever. They call their station WECK. So I'll listen to them online because it's American, so it's all the oldies. And do they play bread? That's what I need to know. You know, they actually do. They actually do play bread. And you know what? I actually like bread. You know, make it with you.

I found this yesterday. Was it yesterday? What is yesterday? Sunday. Yeah, yeah okay so saturday i think i'm gonna walk in this neighborhood and some neighbor has got like a suitcase full of eight tracks that they're putting out and i just took a photo of it because it's like oh my god it's a suitcase full of eight guys every time i hear bread i think it like what a great eight Yes, absolutely. But I take a photo and I tweet it. And somebody replies, can you hold on to that for me? Like he collects like found media and he's excited. So I grabbed it because no one else took it, shockingly enough. No one else can play it.

I'm going to grab it. It's in my shed, man. Okay, I'm going to go get it. You're going to have to fight this guy for it. That's pretty cool. Yeah, so found media. But yeah, Brett. So okay, so the Jazz FM thing, shout out to Ralph Ben-Murgy. Yeah, so found media. But yeah, Brett. So, okay. So the Jazz FM thing,

shout out to Ralph Ben-Murgy, who used to have a show there, and now I produce a show for him, and he still shows up there now. But yeah, I know a lot of the people there at Jazz FM. It's funny, the ratings have always been soft there. Classical 96 kicks their can, but I don't know why.

Well, sometimes I do. There's a little too much talk for my liking on Jazz FM. Just saying, whoever's running it, less talk. Just play the jazz. But they're public broadcast. Yeah. Well, not really. They're not like CBC public broadcaster, but they're like fundraiser.

They can't air many ads. Yes. They can only air about half, I think. Something like that. If you don't know, we are strictly, you know, we were only allowed to sell, what, 12 minutes an hour or something. And I think for them it's four or five minutes now so they have to get the uh the charitable component and you know uh here i gotta i should here oh the record collection mike is pulling out this guy's

big on the fundraisers for jazz fm this is james do you think james b is famous i do yes absolutely do um i remember when, yeah, I remember when Ralph was the morning man. So I listen to that. I listen to the Big Weck. I listen to, I mean, I love KJ and Stu at Boom. I love John Moore in the morning on CFRB. I worked with John in Montreal, a good friend of mine.

Christy, she's the best rock jock in the country, I think, and she does middays at Giant FM, Niagara Falls, 91, seven. Cool. So yeah, that's what I listened to when I'm not listening to CHFI. All right.

Before we wrap up here, I'm going to ask you about something. So I got a neighbor a few days, a few doors up from here, uh, who, uh, is born and raised in Toronto,

Ontario, Canada. His family is from Croatia. Okay. Last world cup, uh, as usual, a big Croatian flag is flying outside of his house.

He's always wearing the jersey. Looks like a tablecloth. He's dying. Yes, it does. He's a diehard Croatian soccer fan, passionately rooting for Croatia. And they did very, if I remember, they did very, very well.

Like, is that the last World Cup we won before? Anyways, they went to like the semifinals or finals and they had a great run. Anyway, Canada is slated to play Croatia in the World Cup. Yeah,

they're in the same group and they have a match scheduled for whatever that is, late November, early December, whatever it is. And I was asking him

and it sounds like he's going to fly that Croatian flag and root for Croatia. Like, what say you, this man again, he's about,

he's mid-40s or so, he's born and raised in Canada, he's going to fly that Croatian flag and root for Croatia. Like, what say you? This man, again, he's about, he's mid-40s or so. He's born and raised in Canada. He's as, you know, Canadian as maple syrup, but he's going to root for Croatia when Croatia plays Canada in the World Cup. What say you? Well, I think we're going to see a lot of that this time around, right? I mean, except for the Italians. I live, you know, in Corso, Italia, so they're not going to be a part of it this year.

But I think the Portuguese fans, Brazilian fans, I think they're all going to be sort of torn between two lovers. Yes, feeling like a fool. But this is different to me in that you can root for Portugal and then maybe also Canada. But direct competition, same group. There's a conflict. You need to pick one.

There might be some issues in the neighborhood, Mike. Yeah, I'd say batten down the hatches. I think that stinks. Like to me, I think it stinks because in a head-to-head, if you would root for the, yes, your parents came from Croatia. You could be proud of your heritage. No, there's no, nothing's wrong here, except that it's now directly colliding with Canada, where you've chosen to live your life

and raise your family. I just think that you need to root for Canada. I still see people walking around with Montreal Canadiens jerseys on in our city, and that offends me, but I'll be all right. You know, that's because they're Montrealers who came here for jobs. Right, so they should cheer for Toronto, just like you're saying the Croatia guy.

That's different. No, because he's born and raised in Canada. His parents can root for Croatia. Okay. Okay. If I move now to Rome, I'm going to cheer for Canada when they play Italy in the next World Cup. Not this one. Because I'm a born and raised proud Canadian.

But if I was born in Rome, I probably wrote... It's all ridiculous, but none of it means anything except John, my neighbor John, should be cheering for Canada in that match, and I'll be watching closely, giving him a hard time. Daryl Henry, this was thoroughly enjoyable. Are there any stories you said to yourself on the drive

here, I want to tell this story, but you did not tell because I will bring down Lois the Loa if you wanted to tell that story. No, there is a few more Scruff Connors stories, but they're legendary and I'm sure other people will tell them. But yes, it was fun, Mike. This was great. Now I'm going to go drink beer and eat lasagna and measure something with my funeral home measuring tape.

Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Yes, Ridley. Beautiful. And that brings us to the end of our 1026th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. I was going to ask you about this because you have a Twitter account that you don't use. No, I'm not a big social media guy.

You just gave up on it. Yeah, just tedious. So there's no point in following Daryl Henry T.O. Not really, no. I don't... He's still going to tag you on these... Unless, if my job requires me to do it, I will do it. But really, I just can't be bothered.

You know what? I've been posting social updates for 38 years. It's what I do for a living. Right. You know, I've had the radio to be able to say to people, hey, you know, I do for a living. Right. You know, I've had the radio to be able to say to people, hey, you know, I baked cookies today or whatever. And that's what I love about my job.

I'm able to talk about me and my life. No, I'm hungry for cookies. I'm sorry about that. I didn't, by the way, bake cookies. I'm lying. Just lying. He's a liar, everybody. That's right.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Don't leave until I get the lasagna out of my freezer. Yes. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow when my guest is... Spider Jones.

Spider Zone. Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true Yes, I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash

And they're putting down roads