Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - David Kines: Toronto Mike'd #838

Episode Date: April 20, 2021

Mike chats with David Kines about all things MuchMusic and Hollywood Suite.

Welcome to episode 838 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. 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. beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. in Mississauga and Oakville. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Contact Barb Paluskiewicz.

She's barb at cdntechnologies.com. Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majewski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is the president and co-founder of Hollywood Suite, David Kynes. Hello, Toronto Mike. David, how the heck are you, buddy?

I'm doing great, thank you. Yeah, I can't complain at all. Now, did you get my notes? I'm doing way better than many people, so I'm good. Did you get my notes? This will be part three of my deep dive into the history, the ongoing history of Cloverdale Mall. You ready?

Not. I don't even know where Cloverdale Mall is. And I already learned way too much from that Bill Brew episode about Cloverdale Mall. Bill did a good job, though, right? He's got that steel trap memory. Oh, he is. He's got a steel trap memory

and he's a great storyteller. So, yes. But man, you guys went deep. It's a mall. You know, that was part two. Okay, whatever, whatever. That was part two. Amazing.

What was your, like, when you you were growing up what was your local mall like if you had to do an episode about a mall which one would you be able to do um there really wasn't one the closest i came to a mall was i lived in brandon manitoba for five years and uh the westman what was it called anyways there was the mall but i did not spend any time there home of the wheat kings not a mall not a mall guy oh yeah the brandon wheat kings for 100 for sure the keystone center yeah okay well when i get to the keystone center episode i'm calling you back. Okay. I saw the Stampeders there.

Oh, yeah. I saw April Wine there. Who else did I see? The Canada Winter Games were there in 1979. That was a big thing in Brandon. Yeah. Miles Goodwin is booked on Toronto Mic'd. Speaking of April Wine.

Wow. So I'll promote that. Is he bringing the fire bell? Like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, I don't even know the reference. Like I'm a... What? I know.

Their biggest hit. Ooh, what a night. Oh, yeah, no. Okay, I forgot how this... I have the... Okay, so David, we're going to get into this. But I have the fourbox set. It was called Oh, What a Feeling. It was put out by

the Junos. When you mention the Stampeders, I think of Sweet City Woman, which is on this. And you mentioned April Wine, that song Could Have Been a Lady. Could Have Been a Lady, yeah. That's on there. So it's like these big CanCon hits are known to me

because I spun them on that four-CD set I bought way back when. lady yeah yeah that's on there so it's like these big can con hits are known to me because i spun them on that four cd set i bought way back when yeah yeah that was uh that was a great great cross actually they did a follow-up too there's a second set i think i've got it somewhere but yeah it's a great you know catalog of of can con So second only to listening to the radio station, the dock, which is located, I think in Gravenhurst or somewhere between Barry it's up by my cottage and the dock is like basically that CD. And then it goes even deeper. It goes into prism and all sorts. It's, yeah, the sounds of summer, lots of trooper.

Okay, so when I was a teenager, my good friend Chris, his family owned a cottage in Huntsville. And I still remember I went into like the record store in Huntsville. I don't know what it was, a Sam the Record Man or something, whatever it was. And they had like charts on the wall or whatever. I always like to see what's the top 30. And number one, and this is like, I'm'm gonna say this is like 1990 or something like that 1989 or

something number one was uh back in black by acdc so i remember huntsville was like that was like the most popular album and that was like 10 years after its release or something like that yeah that's the center of rock the dock cottage country the dock all right happy for great imaging they were they were bought by bell media a few years ago but they still have great imaging on that radio station i like small town ontario stations like that like i still remember like uh the wolf in peter. I'd hear that when I was in that neck of the woods and those kinds of stations are kind of cool. Yeah. The wolf there's the bear, right? Yeah. All sorts of animals in radio. That's right.

I'm sure there's a beaver somewhere, a beaver. I don't know. Hey David, no comment. Happy 420 to you. i don't know if you partake or not but i hope you're into the spirit regardless i'm into the spirit i i am probably one of the squarest people in the media space uh but uh i'm definitely into the spirit yeah i like me too i actually i don't partake but i'm glad it's legal uh and i'm happy for everybody who's, you know, partaking. I just personally, it just isn't a part of my day to day. So, you know, but I love the spirit. Yeah, absolutely. Be chilling, man. Be chilling. All right, my friend, I'm going to play a little song. And we are literally chilling because it's freaking snow coming in tonight. I heard.

So in honor of the snow, I'm wearing my Snowjob 95 T-shirt, or long-sleeve shirt to stay warm today. Do you remember, like, who was Rick the Temp? Is this, like, his era? Like, who was at Snowjob 95? Or is this before Rick the Temp? Like, I know I'm, do you remember who? It was was Rick the Temp? Is this like his era? Like who was at Snowjob 95? Or is this before Rick the Temp? Like I know I'm, do you remember who? It was before Rick the Temp.

It was, I was just researching it to post. I just posted this shirt a few minutes ago on the social media. It was 1995. Yeah, Rick the Temp didn't come along until a few years after that. Okay. Although I think the movie The Temp on which The Temp didn't come along until a few years after that. Okay. Although I think the movie The Temp, on which The Temp,

I don't know, a little piece of history here. So there was a movie called The Temp. I've forgotten the release date. And there was a contest. They came to MuchMusic to do a contest. And it was so much fun and so successful, we did it again the next year and the year after so i don't think rick actually won the original temp contest i don't know who did but then he won one of the

ones we did the next year the year after and then he just you know he would come down he was working in the promotions department he'd come down with the ballots for some contest and he'd sort of be on air and poking around. And that's how it eventually came to be. But anyways, 1995, Natalie Richard was there. Terry David Mulligan was there. I think Mike and Mike were there. I'm not, I'm not sure. Maybe not. No, I think at that point, Mike was on the East coast. Mike wrote, Mike Campbell was on the East Coast. Mike Campbell was on the East Coast. And then the bands were Sophie B. Hawkins, whom we recorded in the Banff Springs Hotel.

The Dream Warriors were there. I think that was recorded at one of the hills. And Hootie and the Blowfish were recorded at the jasper park lodge and then the headliners at the banff community high school was uh were the watchman from winnipeg and 5440 from vancouver you know you named a bunch of fotms uh in there but i love all that stuff i don't know about hootie, but he's all right. Yeah. You know, but I got a fun little story about Hootie. Cause when they were booked, I, I, I mean,

I'm not super plugged in, but I was like, who, what? I kind of, they were, and I went and looked it up. So in January, they were number 40 on the billboard hot 100. So not bad, but not a boom. Right. By the time they came to Banff in March and for some reason I was driving the van that took them from their hotel to the shoot they were like top 10 and I was I remember we were driving along the highway from Banff to Jasper and they got a phone call and it was their manager saying hey you just uh you just cracked through to number six and you just sold another and i really wish i remember the number but it

was an impressive number of records even for the time and certainly by today's standards it was mind-blowing because you know i think i think it was a hundred thousand records they'd sold that week and uh you know these days you're lucky if you do that in you know a year and then that was a crack rear view i think and they were they were crack rear view number one that year in on billboard i looked it up i only want to be with you yeah i only want to be with hey can i can I think out loud here? Trigger some stink rights there if you're not careful. That's right. I'm always dodging those.

Okay. Is it possible that it's at this snow job, 95, that that's where Hootie and the Blowfish first hear the song by 5440, I Go Blind? It is possible, though. They'd left by the time 54 40 showed up, like Hootie came in, shot their thing at the, at the Jasper park lodge and then scooted. But I think I read somewhere that they'd heard it. It had been,

he'd heard it. Darius had heard it before then. It would have been on the club circuit or something somehow, but yeah, I mean, whatever, Hey, works uh neil and the band have done great because of that so oh no doubt it's on the friends soundtrack you know that's a big that's a big deal big big hit for uh for uh i think i think it's helped by a few guitar strings for that band i'm gonna play a song because okay i don't know if you mr okay, I don't know if you, Mr. Kynes, I don't know if you're familiar with the fact that throughout this pandemic, every single week, and that's, I don't know, almost 60 weeks of this pandemic, Stu Stone and Cam Gordon have been joining me for Pandemic Fridays. jams and we kicked out baseball jams. And I kicked out this song as one of my baseball jams. I'm just going to play a few seconds of it and then I'll explain why am I if it happened only yesterday.

All right, just a taste because I will get dinged for this one. But do you know why I'm playing a paradise? Well, someone's estate is going to come after you as of a few hours ago. Right. That's surprising that he's passed away. Jim Steinman has passed away. Yeah. I saw that just before we came on here to do the podcast. Songwriter of many songs, not just for Mr. Loaf,

but also Celine Dion. And he did that Bonnie Hart song. Bonnie. Total Eclipse of the Heart. Bonnie, Bonnie. Tyler. Bonnie Tyler. Yeah.

Yeah. He have the big expansive songs. I think he was in Toronto when they were doing the musical. I think he was hanging around for a bit. Our mutual friend, I don't know if he's your friend, you can tell me, but Mark Weisblot was telling me he saw Jim Steinman on stage when, I don't know, he was on stage with Meatloaf, and apparently that was a super, super rare occurrence that they would both be on the same stage at the same time. And Weisblot was telling me he was witness to that.

I did not know that. I don't think I've ever met Mr. Weisblot, but I've certainly heard him on your show, and I'm a big fan of the 1236 newsletters. Do you listen to those episodes of Toronto Mike with Mark Weisblot? Do you listen to them at real-time speed, like one times, or do you have to go into like triple time? I gotta say, for the first time ever, I availed myself of the multiplier on the speed playback on the last episode, and I did listen at one and a half times. I still didn't get through it,

but I got, you know, 35, 33% further through it than I would have. That's funny. Shout out, I know he's listening. That is a good thing you're not paying for tape. What I liked about the most recent Wise Blood episode

is that he was physically in my backyard. Like I'm, and I'm not suggesting, I'm not enjoying this, David, but I really love that in-person energy that we've kind of said goodbye to for most of this pandemic. I was willing to make the trek to Western Toronto, but the weather is just, you know, and they are telling us to stay home.

So I'm trying to be good. Cam Woolley slipped in under the wire there, I think, just before. What? He can do so, though. He's got friends in high places. So he's not setting a good example. But it was just before the lockdown. So Jim Stein. Did he talk about his car rental business? Yeah, he's not setting a good example. But it was just before the lockdown. That might be interesting.

Did he talk about his car rental business? Yeah, yeah. Did he talk about his car? Yes, he did. And the most interesting thing to me is the origin story on how he got into that business, which is he was working for the OPP. And up north, like, I don't know, in Orillia or something like that, he saw this, like, like beat up OPP car and

he followed it because it's not supposed to be there and it turned out that that car do you know what was being filmed that that car was being used for do you have any idea strange brew that's a good guess but it was later than that but it was uh schools

out the Degrassi movie in which uh Caitlin utters the phrase, you were fucking Tessa Campanelli. So it's a big deal in my circles here, David. But Schools Out. And anyway, it was good to talk to Cam about his work there, for sure. For sure. Yeah.

Now, it's 420 20 we already discussed that but this is also kind of a big day uh for gen generation xers in this province of ontario i i identify as a gen xer and uh i'm gonna get my first vaccination shot a couple of hours after we stop recording today oh congratulations thank you i don't know if you're going to the cloverdale are you going to the cloverdale mall for that i wish i'm actually going to the uh the walmart near shirway gardens that's where i'm uh i'm off so i'm gonna bike over and get my shot but it's kind of interesting to me like the the gen x nostalgia that kind of spun out of this announcement,

because you're kind of all over Gen X nostalgia. Like if you think about your life, your career with much music, and then now with Hollywood suite, like you're sort of serving up the goods for guys like me who are, uh, hankering for that, uh,

the, that shot of, uh, you know, nineties nostalgia or whatnot. Yeah. I like, I'm on the cusp of um i'm on the on the edge of the baby boom so i'm sort of almost almost a gen xer but yeah that you that generation

for sure uh grew up with all that right you know all the mayhem and chaos and creativity that we were accidentally pumping out at Much Music. Well, we're going to get into it. That's for sure. I actually just booked for his return. I booked Christopher Ward. And I know that he's one of the first. He's tied, I guess, with J.D. Roberts as the first VJ, I guess, to appear on the station. Yeah, but of course he predated Much Music by hosting City Limits, which started in October of 83. And of course, so he was arguably Canada's first VJ. And yeah, good to hear you have him back on.

He's got a new record out. And he's finally recorded a version of Black Velvet. Yeah, it just dropped on Friday, and it's a different take on it, and yeah, it's a neat interpretation, and I've heard some of the other stuff, and there's some newer stuff on it, and it's good. Yeah, he was a yacht rocker in his pre-Chump City, whatever much days, he was kind was a yacht rocker in the you know in his pre you know chum city whatever much

days he was a kind of a yacht rocker i kind of remember hearing his song on 1150 ckx brandon in the late 70s and uh ask him if he has the ward times he has a bunch of copies of this promotional thing that the record company did. I think it was called Ward Time, like a fake newspaper thing to promote the record. I forgot what the record's called. But yeah, he had a bit of a hit there in the 70s, the late 70s. No, and I came to this kind of late. But when I had him on the first time, I was definitely, I definitely loaded up some of that late 70s yacht rock he was pumping out. And yeah, it was quite something. So, okay, so I mentioned the whole Gen X nostalgia thing,

and we're going to get into the much music here. But when I think about like, you know, Generation X, and again, I'm right in the middle of Generation X here. But like, you think about it, we're the last generation sort of to line up for concert tickets. We don't shy away from a little risk. We kick it old school with the phone and the lineups, but we can also kick it digitally because with the phone and the lineups,

but we can also kick it digitally because we were all pretty young when the internet showed up. I was in, I know I was in university when I first got online and this is kind of an interesting storm. So you have a generation X now eligible to get their first vaccination in this province. And I know a lot, I heard from a lot of my friends and other FOTMs who have already got their

shot today. And I'm just looking forward to joining that club later today. Yeah. I got mine about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, cause I'm a tiny bit older and, um, yeah, it's just kind of real, a little bit of a relief that you're, you know, we're halfway there on, you know, I'm not going out hugging people and licking lampposts yet, but, you know, you just feel a little sense of relief that you have a slightly, somewhat reduced chance of getting something, a nasty variant. No doubt.

And it's nice to know that if you do contract, if you do get COVID-19, you'll avoid the hospital, which I think is all we're all looking for here. I'm okay getting sick. It's not good news for one of your sponsors. I'm sure they've had a good year. Ripley Funeral Home.

Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. I was wondering what they were thinking. Were you watching the Prince of Wales? i caught a bit of it philip yeah like hey wouldn't wouldn't ridley love to have the contract to look after the vault like when the when the coffin was going down i'm like oh there's a whole vault royal thing going on underneath there is that when they sort of like they said okay the rest of this is going to be private and they turn off the cameras? Because I don't know, I was watching and it was very nice because it's a beautiful architecture and beautiful music. And then they're like, okay,

the rest of this is a family or like it's private. Yeah, but they went back to the main building. And then what goes on underneath? Like the coffin just disappeared. And there's, I guess, a whole little industry underneath there. I'm kind of curious. You know, the people at Ridley Funeral Home are so decent, they're probably happy to have less business. Like I bet you they're delighted

to have fewer customers. But maybe they could get on their little funeral network and get the goods on what's going on in that vault. I'll ask, I'll ask. These people, they'll have a little network about, you know, vault, you know, top 10 vault maintenance tips and stuff like that.

Oh, I'll definitely look into it here. Okay. So my friend, you said Brandon, Manitoba. And of course I said, that's home of the Wheat Kings. That's all we know about Brandon is the Wheat Kings are there. Now, so what brings you to Toronto? Like what causes you to make the move to the big smoke here? there. Now, so what brings you to Toronto?

Like what causes you to make the move to the big smoke here? Canada's only degree granting radio and television program is at Ryerson at the time, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. So, you know, you start at the top and applied everywhere. And I applied to Ryerson and I got in and came here in 1980 and haven't left. I see here in your CV, as they call it here, I see that you start as like a video editor. Like, are you a video editor for the new music and Chum FM 30? You're asking my origin story? Yeah.

Like, how do you... I just want to know how a guy gets in the door as the video editor for the new music or whatever and then ends up kind of, you know, running the show with the big-ass title you end up with. I think if there's one word, it would be curiosity. So the family lore is that when I was two or three years old, I was poking around at the stereo or something curiosity so um the family lore is that when i was two or three years old i was

poking around at the slide the stereo or something and my dad apparently i was always interested in the stereo and wanted to operate the stereo and then it just it just kind of that really led to running much music so with a few stops along the way like i wanted to run the stereo i wanted to run the slide projector the film projector in high school in junior high school i was like how does this work how do i do this and i became a dj in high school and i ended up somehow learning about television equipment made a film in high school and then ryerson helped that along and just yeah i was just really curious and i do seem to have um an affinity for the technical and operational parts of things, which helped me advance.

And I just was at the right place at the right time. And I learned some editing. And actually, it's a Winnipeg, Manitoba connection. I was talking to a friend after school and he said, Oh, I've got a friend who's the editor on the new music and they're looking for an editor to come in. Why don't you, you know, apply? So I did. And you had to work every Friday night. I had to go in at Friday at six o'clock and finish the show.

Cause it aired the next day saturday it aired saturdays at 6 30 uh until i got bumped by fashion television there at seven um so yeah and i went in and i was like i showed them i could edit and they said so you're willing to work friday i was oh yeah tv i get to work i get to work the new music i was like i get it hey i'm hey, I'm just out of school, so I get a job. I realized with the whopping $100 a shift I was getting, I was like, okay, my rent's covered for the month. And yeah, and sometimes I'd leave there in six hours and sometimes I'd leave there in 24 hours.

But it was a great experience and at the same time City Limits was going on and um sometimes I'd go out when they were still there and sometimes they'd be leaving and I was still there and uh yeah it just kind of curiosity and just willingness to work you know just what is this need to be done that needs to be I'll help out like I loved working in TV I just wanted to work in television production and put on a show ever since I was a kid. And I mean, I've talked to others you worked with at I guess 99 Queen Street East

and then 299 Queen Street West. And it sounds like this was sort of the Moses way. Is that fair? It's like basically, you know, there wasn't a lot of budget, but you had an opportunity to touch a lot of the parts and figure it out kind of, right, as you go. Yeah. Yeah.

There wasn't, well, certainly you've heard stories and certainly the stories have been told many places, including on the Eric M podcast. But yeah, well, certainly in the early days of much, much music, not so much City. City was more discipline involved, but much music. It's just like you got an idea. OK, let us know when it's done and, you know, give us the tape. And there, you know, Because it was pretty free form. Because you could afford to be. I mean, you're filling six, well, when it started,

it was six hour wheel and it was eight hour wheel pretty soon. And yeah, it was pretty free form and anything goes. I mean, Master T will tell a story about like he has his idea for some, I guess that was for the move, right? I guess they were moving from 99 Queen Street East to 299 Queen Street West. And I guess he was going to put together some kind of much music rap song or some video. I can't remember. I've seen it because my good friend Ed Conroy had a copy, of course. Too Much Music Groove?

Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that was great. That was great. I didn't know that it was tied to the move. I just remember him doing it. I think it was. I mean, sometimes I conflate. I get so many stories, I conflate them sometimes. I think everybody get up to the much music group. But there's an example of, like, I think he was a camera operator.

I'm trying to remember what he was doing at the time. He was camera and then VTR. I saw him in a clip. Actually, I was looking up a clip the other day and I saw him. He came on camera. I think he leaned over from VTR. No, I think

he was camera. And so was his brother Basil. Basil's still there. Basil's still doing camera. Basil, the ambassador, still hanging around, carrying the 25-pound camera on his shoulder. Unbelievable. Wow. I haven't seen him in the last year,

but I would run into him at Juno press conferences and the like. Amazing, man. And Master T is out there. He seemed to be off the radar but i found him on instagram and he's doing all sorts of stuff now yeah there's an episode of toronto mike from i think it was from 2019 uh when he was in my tony young there tony uh master t was in my basement and we were talking about everything yeah he's doing something with a company i don't want to get it wrong but i think it's called rx or something like that but he's doing some videos

yeah he's hosting an instagram live stuff and yeah looking good and he's still married to uh roxy right the the voice of roxy was his uh yes his wife and he's still with roxy yeah shout out to uh to master t but there's an example of a guy who, he just had an idea and he's a camera guy and they just said, okay, do it. Like it was just do it. And then it got aired, so. Yeah.

Yeah, there was lots of people like that. Erica was working behind the scenes and ended up on air, so. Right. And I'm trying to think of, I mean, so many great characters came through those those doors but uh like ziggy uh ziggy lawrence who i love chatting with ziggy but yeah there's another example of uh sort of just just kind of do it like get in the door and then do it or you

know what a good one i like to talk about dwight go ahead um marcia martin uh Martin, Andrea Martin's sister, coincidentally, but she was a receptionist at City TV, 99 Queen Street East, now the Carbon Bar. And yeah, she ended up being head of production and a very senior person in the company. And so she started there like in the 70s and worked her way up yeah absolutely now what what when you were at your peak there i guess around the year 2000 or whatever like what what was the big title you had there at much music i'm not dead yet um but uh

in that that part of my career, I was a senior. I think I was a senior vice president of music and youth or something like that. So that was when Bell had come in. It wasn't so much Bell at the time. It was CTV Globe Media. And so there was all the much music. There was much more music, much loud, much vibe, much more retro, MTV, Razor, which then became MTV2. There was another one. I forgot. There was eight. There was, I think, eight channels at the time. I asked some people, you know, I asked everybody,

what would you like me to ask David Kynes? And one of the big, most frequently requested topics was, if I could ask you about Ed the Sock. So you can, of course, tell me anything about Ed the Sock. That's very broad. But specifically, Ed's made a lot of, and Ed slash Steve Kersner. Well, I know he's not really a sock, although let's just think of him as a sock. It's more fun that way.

I know. I know. It's like telling a kid about the let's just think of him as a sock. It's more fun that way. I know. I know. It's like telling a kid about the tooth fairy, but we won't talk about that because I have kids upstairs. But Ed the Sock has made a lot of noise about, you know, Much Music sucking down. We'll get into that because Much Music is pretty much just airing, like, I don't know, reruns of The Simpsons or something. I don't even know what Much is anymore, but it's still alive. But it's a lot for you to comment on here, but specifically Ed wanting to launch a new Much music.

So he's trying to raise funds like through crowdfunding to launch his new, I'm curious what you think of Ed and his initiative here. initiative here? Well, Ed is a font of creativity and drive, and I applaud him for, you know, trying something different. Like the guy is always, you know, he's not lying down. I don't, I don't know if there's a place for that, but he's certainly got some traction on it. And I know Much Music Memories, hashtag Much Music Memories, was trending like crazy on the weekend. And there's an appetite for that. You know, whether people will actually watch, I don't know what his business model is, because the challenge is getting people to watch a linear stream.

You know, Apple just launched in Canada a video stream and it's just it's in the Apple app and it just streams music videos nonstop. I don't know if people want to put that on in the background. And if there's also an appetite for like the idea of videos with, with hosts in between, I don't know. You look at the George Strombolopoulos and the Apple radio thing. Yes. And they're doing kind of old school radio, right? With hosts that are engaged and telling stories and putting music sets

together. I don't, I don't know. It's, it's, it's tough to figure out right now. Cause it's, there's so many options, you know, and there's all these little things eating away at your time, like two hour conversations with Mark Weisblot. I think it's three hours. An hour, hour, yeah, three hours. And if you play it at one and a half times, I guess it's three hours. watch the countdown right wow i mean thank you um that helped pay my rent right um but i don't know if people have the the attention span and to watch 60 minutes of of of music videos

and the commercials that come in between well it's tough to put that gv back in the bottle like it's a you know it's it's it's at the, it's what we did because what other option did we have? And, of course, we have these great memories. Yeah, of course. It's tough to go back. You know, you had your little channel converter box, and there was only about 20 channels on it. So there wasn't a lot of choices. And then you had your Pong and your Intellivision, and that was about it. So, yeah, there's a lot more choices and then you had your pong and you're in television and that was about it so

right yeah there's a lot more choices out there but you know he's he's he's passionate about it and um you know i applaud him for trying to do something there what did you think of ed as a vj ed was the um only vJ that managed to, this is my favorite moment I was watching one day, and he somehow weaved in the Maginot line. You know what the Maginot line is? No idea. The fortification that the French built before World War II

to keep out the Germans, and then the Germans just went around it. And we all know how that ended. Anyways, but it's a famous historical item. And they're coming around like Germans at the Maginot Line. It's like, wow. I mean, that was what was so great about Much Music and Ed in particular is you could weave in you know some booty grinding

video with the Maginot line you can have your cod liver oil uh with your milk or you know whichever analogy you want you know that we had rock and roll and reading and literacy um pieces going on and human rights, you know, in the eighties was human rights was a big thing. And of course kids help phone and all those things in and around Madonna and, and whomever slick toxic and other, other bands like that. Killer dwarves.

The great, yes. The killer dwarves and so many other bands like that. Killer Dwarves. That was the great, yes, the Killer Dwarves and so many other bands. White Snake. Oh, sure. But it was, that's, and that's what's great about Ed

is, you know, he's a really smart, erudite guy, Sock, and with a, with an angry side to him,

so. Okay, on the topic of Ed the Sock and Christopher Ward, who we mentioned earlier, Mark Weisblatt knew you were coming in. He was very excited. You're not in, actually. You're on Zoom.

But when you do come back to kick out the jams, you'll be in my backyard. We'll do that in the summer, and it'll be awesome. Because when we do it in the summer, David, I got to get you a fresh eight pack of Great Lakes beer. You're going to love this fresh craft beer. And I'm going to get you a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta, which is delicious. So you got to make the trip in the summer. Yeah, I look forward to it. But most importantly, sorry, like what kind of deal can I get from Ridley?

Like what kind of deal can I get from Ridley? Like can I get two for one tombstones or something? Or like can they supersize my tombstone or what? What can we do? No, you know, no joke. If you talk to Ridley Funeral Home and say you're a listener of Toronto Mic'd, I'm certain there's a deal for you out there. They're more than just pillars of the community. Oh, and sticker you.

I got a Toronto Mic'd sticker you sticker for you as well. And you might enjoy the visit to New Toronto so much. You're going to want to move to Mimico and you're going to want to contact Mimico Mike, Mike Majeski, and that's realestatelove.ca. So you'll end up my neighbor here.

But why am I talking about Wiseblood? Okay. He says, he wants me to ask you about the perversion of the fromage brand and art. So I don't know if you caught the December visit by Mark Weisblatt to my backyard, but we tried to capture the spirit of fromage and we did a fromage 2020, but we did it in the spirit of Christopher Ward, not the spirit of Ed the Sock, because we're of the opinion that Ed the Sock

kind of perverted the whole fromage concept. And we're dying to know your opinion of what you think of what Ed did with fromage versus what Christopher Ward intended it to be. And any thoughts you have on the fromage brand, I will hang up and listen, sir. Well, first of all, the origin of fromage, my recollection, I was not at the birthing of it. My wife was because she used to work at Much Music and she was an on-air PA and then became a producer known as Strawberry Shortcake by Dan Gallagher because she produced the Power Hour.

By the way, the most unlikely Power Hour, like me, the most unlikely Power Hour producer ever. Talk about straight edge. But anyways, I think it started, well, I know it started with the Philip Michael Thomas video. And I don't know if it was J Roberts or Michael Williams but someone decided they it was one of those spontaneous as I understand it and maybe other people who are there have a better recollection it was a spontaneous creation of that this is just the worst video of the year and then it kind of snowballed from there and then I got involved with christopher and we got mitsu one year to host it and we flew christopher in from because he moved to la and then we actually one year we flew a crew

to la to get christopher wow and um we never did canadian artists and uh you, we just tried to find bad videos, and I guess Ed took it to another level of production and criticism, and to be honest with you, I haven't seen it for many, many years, so I don't know if I can really speak to what he did, but, you know, he evolved it. Well, Ed took it to a place where he was kind of like, he'll play something from a boy band, I don't know, NSYNC or something something like that and he'll kind of make fun of in sync for this like no number one billboard hot 100 hit like you know what i mean whereas i feel like christopher ward and it was more of like the true cheese like stuff that was you know so it it was a different spin on the fromage. Yeah. I think, yeah, Ed went a little harder.

We were just like, okay, this is a bad video, and I don't remember what the videos were now. I just remember the Philip Michael Thomas, and there's lasers, and low-angle shots, and yeah. But Mitsu, that's a good choice, because I... Oh, shoot, that was a great episode. We went out to, and We went out to a cheese factory in North York somewhere.

I remember driving out there and we shot it. And I was on the shoot and Jim shoots that and we shot it. And then one year we shot it at St. Lawrence Market at one of the cheese shops there.

Okay, now before we get too far removed from... You dropped the name Dan Gallagher when you were talking about your wife working there. Okay. Now, before we get too far removed from, you dropped the name Dan Gallagher when you were talking about your wife working there. And Dan, I mean, to me, we're kind of lucky. We haven't lost a lot of our beloved VJs. Thankfully, I got a knock on the wood

because I don't know what Steve Anthony is up to right now. But Dan Gallagher left us far too soon. And i was wondering if you could spend a moment talking about dan dan um yeah what a wonderful guy we had some great experiences together um we shared a room together at spring break in daytona beach um and uh yeah he was just always the life of the party and incredibly energetic, and you could throw anything at him,

and he'd just go with it, and he's one of those guys that just people, you know, he just connected with people instantly, and yeah, gone far too soon. Really talented guy, and yeah, I miss him. Did you have any, lately lately have you had any con contact mike speak english with uh kim clark champness just on um electronically uh you know i know he's he's obviously i think most people know he's had a lot of health challenges lately

but he's still you know cranking stuff out and connected i know he was had a lot of health challenges lately, but he's still, you know, cranking stuff out and connected. I know he was traveling out west during the summer and connected with some old much people that are out. Some people formerly of much calling them old, but people, the much people who are out there. And, yeah, he wrote a book a few years ago. and yeah he wrote a book a few years ago in fact I think just before he had his throat problems I remember going to reading of it

he was fantastic he was in full voice no doubt no I heard he lost his ability to speak but I'm really happy to hear that he's up and about and feeling better otherwise that's great oh yeah he's definitely out up and about and I think he lives in Eyre Falls and he's moving around and yeah he's posting i see stuff from him but i haven't actually had a

conversation with him oh i'm not sure how one does that these days but i've certainly emailed back and forth with him so okay well that's good news on that front so he was he was a bright spark and uh yeah he was i was wearing my woodstock 94 shirt last yesterday. And I remember he, he was down at Woodstock and he, we heard rumor that there was an alternate Woodstock going on. And, so we said, okay, well take a camera, go off and try and find it. And we were doing video flow backstage with Erica. And, and I remember we always like fun of this. He came back and we'd just gone off the air, you know,

for a break and he said, fire up the birdie, David, the party's in Bethel. And there was some other not quite as glamorous Woodstock going on in Bethel down the road. Fire up the birdie. One gentleman I do want to ask you about here before I move on to the Much Music Video Awards is I want to ask you about a guy who was never a Much Music guy, but he was a city chum guy. John Major. So, you know, Toronto Rock.

So before, you know, I had... The Mage. The Mage. The Mage. So we've been, like I said, for the most part, our on-air music presenters are all alive and well, but we also lost John Major far too soon. And if you could spend a moment

chatting about The Mage. Yeah. I remember seeing footage of him doing his show, his radio show at 10.50 Chum, and I think he did it bare feet, and he did it standing up super high energy and then he came in to do a toronto rocks and i i think i directed that show

a couple of times you know he was like he's like jd roberts like those guys that came up through radio those people that came out through radio like just consummate professionals. They'd been really well trained and they knew the discipline of, you know, talk about what you're going to talk about and just give people a sense of place and what's coming up. And you could throw anything at him. Oh, you got to fill 10 seconds. And he, he was great. He had a fantastic voice. And then he went on to the U.S. after Toronto Rocks and, yeah, sadly succumbed to cancer, I think, in the early 2000s.

But I remember he recorded a greeting for John Martin, another one who passed away from the Big C. who passed away from the big C and, um, and he sent this recording. It was beautiful. And he just ad libbed this little remembrance for, you know, he was for John, uh, John Martin and, uh, just, and he had, you know, he's got the voice. It was fantastic. So he hosted, remember he hosted a TV show in the States for a while. I don't, he wasn't aware. I know he left, left town and I wasn't sure what he was up to down there. They had like,

it was a synd, I don't think it was on network. It was a syndication, but I can't remember the name of the show. But yeah. Love Toronto rocks though, because before we had much music in my home, we had,

well, we had a couple options. You could watch a video hits of Samantha Taylor, which I did, or you could watch video hits of Samantha Taylor, which I did. Or you could watch the heavier Toronto Rocks. And it was either, you know, John Major or maybe it was J.D. Roberts or Brad. Remind me of his last name, Giffen? Giffen. Brad Giffen.

Right. Brad Giffen and then Lance Chilton. Right. Okay. That's right. Now a big real estate powerhouse in Barrie. Okay. That's wild. And then Brad Giffen was on CTV News Network. Right.

Yes. Right, right, right. I think he's retired from there. And yeah. Before we get too far removed from John Martin, though, because I mentioned this. I mean, you know, this is the home of Real Talk. So when Ziggy Lawrence comes over, she lets it all hang out. And she did not enjoy working with John Martin.

So, you know, that's just one person's opinion. But she felt maybe, and I don't want to put words, I won't even continue that, just that she didn't have a great experience working with John Martin and I'm wondering what you thought of John Martin. And to tell those who don't know, I'm assuming everybody knows at least 40% or at least 30% of what Weisblatt knows, but for those who don't know, John Martin, one of the originators of much music along with Moses, how would we describe John Martin? originators of much music along with Moses. Is that,

how would we describe John Martin? Well, he was the, I mean, I wasn't in the room. Right. When it happened. But he was the, the creator co-creator. Right. Of the new music, was north america if not the world's first music magazine television program started in 1979 he was an unemployed tv producer driving a cab i i don't know the whole story but anyways he somehow pitched this idea to moses and they were

like yeah okay go i don't know how much moses played into that but john was like let's go and do this show and then um um fun john martin fact he was an unemployed television producer he used to work on 90 minutes live the zosky show yeah i mean we're going way back before my time but um he once he told me this story about producing a they were they would broadcast from different countries around different cities and they were in newfoundland and the guest was great one of the guests was graham chapman from monty python right and so i guess this is in the 72, 73 era. And yeah, he was hammered the whole time. And John Graham Chapman was hammered the whole time. And he'd broken up with his boyfriend and he was unconsolable.

And they took him out in a boat and it was just this gong show. But he got him on the show. Anyways. Yeah. So he created the new music or co-created the new music. And then that begat much music. And it was, as Ziggy tells me, if you wanted to have an audience of John Martin, there's a pub across the street where you would find him. Friar.

Right. And before the Friar, it was Emilio's. So when we were at 99 Queen, it was Emilio's. Owned and operated by one Christina Jennings. Knew nothing about television, but learned at the feet of all the city TV, much music people that went to Emilio's and now is the founder and owner of

co-owner of Shaftesbury Films producers of many shows whose names have temporarily eluded me anyways yes Emilio's is where you go to find him and famously that's where Bob Geldof found him in order to say, hey, you got to carry live aid. And then when we moved to 99, to 99 Queen West, it was the friar in Furton. But yes, you did. Do you rarely? I mean, I do have a picture of John at his desk, but it usually he wasn't at the desk after 11 or 12. So that's just the way it was.

I mean, certainly when I, when I was doing the new music and I'd come in Fridays at six o'clock and I'd have to find, there'd be a piece of paper taped to the pin to the wall by Janice groom and say, this is what's been edited. And this is how much there is to fill. So it'd be 10 minutes or 20 minutes and you'd go, okay. And no other plans. So he said, well, go find John. So there was actually a bar. I think this is before Emilio's.

There was a bar across the back lane from 99 queen. Uh, he was known to be there. That was the first time I think I found him there. And then there was Hearts, which was another bar on Church Street, Church and Dundas. Emilio's. And then the Friar was the big hangout. Friar and Firkin on John Street. Big hangout.

Much was planned there. The train was all planned there. The Spinal Tap Canada Day thing, that was all planned out there. They should put up a plaque. Yeah. We'll get on that. Hey, before I forget this, because you mentioned

fashion television earlier. See, I'm just going to pepper your questions that come to the top of my mind. But Ed Conroy, again, he's better known as Retro Ontario and he's coming back to the program everybody. He took a pandemic break but he's coming back to the program everybody he took a pandemic break but he's coming back and that's exciting for all the listeners and the FOTMs but

he was telling me that and I hope you're going to confirm this to be true or false at this moment but like a show like Fashion Television which would use a song like Obsession by Animotion or whatever he says City TV at the time would sort of use these songs

without any licensing at all and just sort of like until they got caught and then they would sort of like apologize and maybe switch it up or whatever. Do you have any idea, like all these songs, I'm thinking of like I'm Still Standing, I think is that the Deanie Petty show?

I'm trying to remember what, but City Line maybe it was and then I'm thinking of Brian Linehan and the City Lights, although I don't think that had a popular pop song attached to it, but please tell me. Big bag. Oh yes. But that was for new music. New music theme, yeah.

Right. Right. That's a great jam too. But was there any attempt to get permission? That's a great jam. I think at first, no but i i it took a i i do i certainly signed some checks to pig bag later on so certainly by the 90s uh and i and i think i remember hearing stories about the animotion song you know it was they they they got paid okay maybe not at first it may not have been by the book at first but certainly it very quickly became by the book on on that stuff you do have to remember the time though right um the music industry was thrilled to bits if you played their song because they'd

sell a shit ton of records so there wasn't as much of a demand. There was a certain amount of, you know, turning a blind eye, I think, to some stuff. Some. And to be clear, turning a blind eye, as in you're supposed to pay. But it was like, well, you know, you're playing the crap out of this song and giving it some life or selling records.

But I think with, you know, something like Animotion for fashion television, because going around the world and the pig bag um yeah they like i said the folks in pig bag did okay by the new music uh certainly in the last 10 years that it was on the air well that's why you're here david to set the record straight on these things here okay talk to me about the much music video awards because it's it's during your era that this really blows up well it started at the fryer uh somehow john got involved he's the pepsi train i don't know if it came through the sales department they had the pepsi train they want to do a thing. They wanted Much Music to cover the Pepsi taste train that was going to go from Vancouver to Halifax.

And he had this idea, or I assume it was him or somebody, that let's do an award show. I should say we'd previously done two award shows, the World Music Video Awards. And the World Music Video Awards, and the World Music Video Awards were in 88 and 89, I think. And it was an association of all, everyone but MTV. So there were other video networks around the world before MTV munched them all up. And we all got together and we did two shows, the World world music video awards it was a segment from

toronto segment from la segment from germany segment from london and um and uh and actually i field produced the segment from moscow which was that that's a whole other episode but it was me kim clark champness he and i were like john John was like, just go and just get the performance. So it was me, Kim, Brian Adams, Keith Scott, his guitarist, Bruce Allen, his manager, Thomas Dolby, and his manager, Mary Collin. Just like, go there and figure it out. And we went there and we had three days and they put us in a studio and filled it with people and shot this segment anyways um the uh so john said well we're gonna have this train and we'll stop and we'll give out an award

and each place the train stops which is kind of what happened and booked talent and built a control room on the train to shoot and edit the performances and doug mcclement had a mixing room and did all the audio mixing in there in a baggage car and that was the first video much music video wars and then all this footage was coming back and we edited it a lot of there's a few overnight editing sessions and then we rolled it all out with a live segment from halifax and um that was the first much music or called canadian music video awards at the time was the train and i remember we got on the cover of tv guide and it was dan gallagher and lee aaron is my recollection. Wow. That's when TV Guide, you know, Bill Breo worked there, I think at the time was a big thing to get on the

cover of TV Guide. For sure. And yeah, that was, that was, that was an intense three or four weeks of, you know, chasing the train and getting footage back. We had an uplink that followed along and transmitted every place the train stopped. And that was a big, epic project. And then the next year, I was like, well, we'll just do it at the building. And I think we set up the morning of. Like, you know, well, we're going to have a bunch of bands in, so we should probably set up in the morning, maybe rehearse them. I don't remember if there was rehearsals or not, but it was pretty loosey goosey. And then it just, you know,

it got more and more refined to the, you know, finely oiled machine that was up until a few years ago, the much music video awards and, you know, 14 days of setup instead of four hours. But I kind of remember the second or third one. I think literally we had a production meeting at noon and it was like, okay, so here's the rundown and we're just going to run through everything this

afternoon and we're on the air at eight o'clock. Wow. That was the extent of it. Yeah. And then it, as I said, it became a well oil finely tuned, finely-tuned machine. Right. Now, it's sort of gone now, right? Because in 2018, they said they were postponing the MMVAs, but it seems unlikely that we'll ever have another MuchMusic Video Awards show. It sort of just faded without ceremony.

That would appear to be the case. I cannot imagine it making a comeback. Okay, two quick fun facts before we get into the state of how things are now. And then, of course, I desperately want to speak to you about Hollywood Suite. Bruce Allen, you mentioned it. So all I'm going to say is there's a 2.5 hour deep dive

into Tears Are Not Enough. So when you say the word Bruce Allen, I think about Tears Are Not Enough, naturally. There's a 2.5 hour deep dive into tears are not enough. So when you say the word Bruce Allen, I think about tears are not enough naturally. And I would just like you to know, David, I don't know if you've tuned in yet, but it's just Cam Gordon and I, and we're just talking about everything you'd ever want to know about tears are not enough, but we're afraid to ask.

So I'm just putting that out into the universe right now. You can check that out if you have two and a half hours to burn. I can tell you tears were not enough was a sore point with John Martin because we were not invited to the shoot and we were locked out. And I remember, I think all we got was a very last minute heads up that they were doing it and that, you know, we could go and stand outside the studio and interview people coming in. And John was not a happy camper about that. Interesting. Is this before?

There was, I mean, they obviously had a cruise in there and there's a big CBC special and, you you know so we were kind of snubbed on that one but we ultimately did end up with live aid you know from 7 a.m until 8 p.m and then cdv took over the prime time um slot which is a simulcast i think with abc but uh that that was a lot of fun the back to really briefly two Tears Are Not Enough. Is this before Terry David Mulligan was part of the Much Music family? I believe so. I think he might have been on the other side. All right, because I know he was in the room.

There's a lot of footage you can find in these docs that were made at the time, and TDM seems to be right in the mix there with bruce allen and the gangs and david foster david foster for sure because he's making the music and then jim valance uh who's of course brian adams guy there and then even brian uh adams himself punches up some of the lyrics but i think jim valance writes most of the lyrics and then yeah tdm's just kind of there like yeah yeah he must have been yeah he was cbc at that point it wasn't until a few years later that he moved over to much west right he's good rocking tonight he's a yeah it was good rocking tonight before stu jeffries right and um yeah he's he's going strong actually i i

kind of exchanged phone calls with him a few weeks ago he He's over, I think he's 80-something now, but he's got his radio show every week on CKUA. He's big into the wine and promoting BC wines. If you don't want to know anything about wine, just boom. Okay, David, you want to do me a favor since we've become good friends here? You want to do me a favor? Maybe. Is it legal? Yeah, it's legal. Make the connect, as we say in the business. I want to invite TDM on Toronto Mic'd because, well, for obvious reasons.

We'll make that happen. He's not a Toronto guy at all. It's okay. It's funny. This is the one-year anniversary of Jodie Vance coming on Toronto Mic'd, and she's very Vancouver. So I can do the Vancouver thing. Okay. So the other quick fun fact here is that Leigh Aron, you mentioned Leigh Aron, who was actually on Toronto Mic'd pretty recently.

Leigh Aron, she's a Karen, but Leigh Aron was the name of her band. She did the Alice Cooper thing where she just took on the name of her band, which I think is a fun fact. Yeah. What you do to my body. Woo! Yeah, man. You're bringing me back.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I believe that was a Don Allen video from Revolver, and that was a smoking hot video. revolver and that was that was a smoking hot video i remember her telling a story about much music started playing the video and then she went i don't even know if it was getting any radio airplay but she went did a concert somewhere and like she says here's something new and like everyone knew the song and she's like holy shit that much music thing seems to reach people yeah absolutely uh i always think uh some of these much music jams i get high rotation i i know this is

before you were the man the man there but you were there but i always think of pursuit of happiness as i'm an adult now like like that you know they film that at queen and spadina in a parking lot and i think mo says he just drops it off at $2.99 Queen or something. And then that thing, next thing you know, that thing was, I don't know if it was high. I don't know how the rotation segments work, but it was, I saw it all the time. And I just fell in love with the video. Well, there was certainly in the early days, there's the music committee that decided on rotation, you know, you would get an earful from the record company, but really at the end of the day, if they really liked the song

and the video, and it had to be both, with a few exceptions, sometimes it was just the video. Like there was some stuff there was they're terrible songs was it nitango dinero i can't remember there was some stuff that we played in the 80s which is like what the video was we played a i remember we played a star wars video they sent in a video of like the star wars theme for the new star wars film in the early 80s and we played that because it was Star Wars. Wow. But yeah, the Proceed of Happiness, I'm an adult now, got the crap played out. Yeah. It was good to see.

A rotation. A rotation. Yeah. Well, there's heavy, medium and light rotation. And then we had super heavy, which came in later, which was like, bang, I'm every four hours. Oh, that was for like Spice Girls, right? Like, I think. Yes.

I might've been partly the author of that. It picked up a few tips from radio programming. And, you know, we did some research that said, you know, the crew, the crew may be tired of this video, but your audience has only seen it three times. So it's like, oh, we can play these. We have to play these we have to play these things twice a shift so i think the super heavy rotation was at once every four hours

and i have memories like 89 i guess summer of 89 that i feel like uh i saw prince's bat dance uh i feel like and this is just like this is a long time ago and i have no uh analytics to back this up but i feel like every half an hour I saw the video for Prince's Bad Dance. And I wasn't even like disappointed, but it was on all the time. Wouldn't have been half, but it would have definitely been every four hours or three hours. For sure. Okay. So much like I realized. The engineer on that same, you know, the Canadian connection,

the engineer on that record, and as much as he let anyone engineer his records was the same woman that produced the big hit bare naked ladies hit one week i've forgotten her name but really that okay drop those fun facts uh as often as possible okay yes yeah she's a super she's a university professor now and there's some great interviews online of her talking about starting off as an engineer and working with Prince. And she'd go in and set everything up and then leave. She had to leave because he would operate all the equipment, but she'd do all the patches and stuff and then leave him with the 24 track and all his guitars and drums and keyboards. And he'd record.

She'd come back in the morning and he'd go, here's the song. Fascinating. Fascinating. Oh, and I mean, you mentioned now that you mentioned Barenaked Ladies and that is, that's their one there's their that's their one billboard hot 100 number one hit. But I mean, most of us saw them for the first time on Speaker's Corner. So it's all comes full circle here. And I'm not sure i have this distinct memory

of them i don't know if it was right after they'd done the speaker's corner thing like literally a minute or a few days later but they i was sitting on at my desk on the on the floor of much music on the lower level and there was me and simon and all those people and then the band they just kind of walked in and I remember they stood at the end of the row of desks and said hi we're Bare Naked Ladies we want to invite you to our show at the Rivoli and then they sang a little song I can't remember what it was and of course no one had cameras or anything to record this and then they they walked out and I somehow remember seems to me they were wearing the same

thing that they were wearing in the speaker's corner and then they walked out and then you know you started hearing about the yellow cassette and everything and the rest is you know we got Lovers in a Dangerous Time was the first video that came in and the rest is yeah the rest is history. Oh my god yeah absolutely

and I do a lot of episodes with people from I like the spirit of episodes with people from, I like the spirit of radio era of CFNY. And if I have a Mars, you name it, I'll have all these cats, remember, in the Brampton studio that the Barenaked Ladies would just kind of, like you described, they would come on in and do a little busking

and kind of just in the lobby and no recording or anything. It was just those those times so yeah amazing and look at them now we did a lot of did a lot of shows with them i've been good friends with them all and still stay in touch with them done some work with them and uh they did some spring breaks uh daytona beach and they did a snow job and they did many eye and eyes and we did TV specials with them. Um, yeah. Amazing.

What a success. For sure. Okay. So now I realize I thought I had a lot of time. Now I don't have a lot of time. So I'm going to ask you about you. You mentioned at the era that you were at much music, there were all these specialty stations like a book television and fashion

television. And those two are kind of the more recent ones to be killed off by bell so uh most of them i think are gone now but uh much music remains so i'm just curious about uh like your perspective on those specialty stations and like i think everybody's wondering like what is what is Bell keeping? Bell's keeping Much Alive for some purpose, but Much Music is not what it was. So I'm curious for your thoughts on the current iteration of Much Music and whether you think the future is shuttering the thing

or what you think Bell has in store for Much. So a lot there. Just to go through the air, as if we will, I was there when it was just City TV. So they answered the phone, City TV. And then as of August 31st was there when it was just city tv so they answered the phone city tv and then as of august 31st 1984 it was city tv much music and then i don't know when bravo launched that being city tv much music bravo and then it was i think they still answered in city they tried to get in space i think city tv much music bravo space and i think at that point by this time it was the 90s they gave up on trying to name rhyme off all the channels and um in 2001 it was when the crtc

basically said you can launch any channel you want as long as it doesn't compete with existing channels. And they licensed 75 channels or something. And on September 7th, 2001, so think about that date, September 7th, 2001, or like two o'clock in the afternoon, the industry launched like 40 channels because you all had, at this point there were cable boxes pretty well everywhere. So there was this more capacity for channels. Right.

Including, so that included Much Loud, Much Vibe, and Drive-In Classics. And I think Chum launched 10 channels that day or something so it had a rough start for a number of reasons including what happened five days later right um and um but they did those channels a lot of them did did eventually establish themselves to a certain degree um i don't know i don't know how much how policy wonky you want to get, but why are those channels still there? Because they still make money because they still get cable subscription revenue because of the legacy packaging pricing structures that exist in the television distribution business.

So there's still a business in the channel. It's called Much Music, and there's still a business in rerunning those shows. Wasn't there, I always hear from radio people about promise of performance and the CRTCs, back in the day when you had foreground programming or whatever it was, or back when CFNY couldn't play top 40, so they went and got all the UK hits because they weren't on the American top 40 or whatever.

So promise of performance, like why doesn't Bell Media have to play, like how can they get away with like Seinfeld and Simpsons reruns? Can you explain this to me? Like I'm four years old. Is that Moses on the line? Can you put him through? I want to talk to him.

That's Pierre Junot's ghost. Yeah. Industry joke. I get it. That's CanCon requirements. Well, but Pierre Junot was the first chairman of the CRTC and he brought in the CanCon requirements. And then they named the Juno Awards sort of after him because the CanCon

requirements, you know, kickstarted the Canadian music industry that, you know, it got, it did, it took a long time, but it got us to where we have the weekend and Avril Lavigne and everything in between is because of kickstarting and forcing CanCon to be played and getting a generation of engineers and songwriters and recording studios and musicians. So good question. Did so much. I forgot what your question was.

Oh yeah. But this is actually going to help me get there because. I know, I know you're going to promise. I'll gather a promise of performance. So the, the, the regular,

this is going to get super wonky. I like wonky. I like wonky. The regulatory bargain in the early days was, first of all, scarcity of bandwidth, limited frequencies. If the government, the frequencies belong to the people, the government is going to control this and the bureaucracy. And if you want to have one of these very rare frequencies, you have to show that you're going to do something different or that there's room for you. So that's why, you know, CFNY carved out a, well, we're going to be in Brampton and we're going to play on the alternatives. So we won't cannibalize 1050, Chaman, 104.5 and Q107. So, you know,

they would hand out these licenses and the regulatory bargain was, we're going to give you a license. You're going to have the only one. Like MuchMusic, you're the only people who can play music videos, but you're going to have to play a certain number and you're going to have to play French language

and you're going to have to contribute a certain percentage of your revenue to video fact So these are all these regulatory bargains and promises of performance and conditions of license that existed in the early days Well come come digital world sort of unlimited supply and then Comes the internet and actually unfettered competition coming across the border. So that regulatory bargain has become much more, it's still there, but it's much more simplified. And so in the case of those stations that you think, yes, they're playing nothing but Simpsons repeats,

somewhere in their schedule, they're playing nothing but Simpsons repeats. Somewhere in their schedule, they're playing Canadian content. There is a minimum requirement of 35%. It doesn't have to be in prime time anymore. So it could be at six in the morning. But they also have to spend a certain percentage of their revenue on original Canadian programming within the group, the group of stations. So maybe not on Much Music, but whatever Much Music brings in counts towards how much they have to spend on Letterkenny, nurses, what have you.

So there's still definitely a contribution going back to the Canadian system, the Canadian producers and Canadian artists overall. It's just not as specific to that TV station. That's a pretty good explainer, actually. I appreciate that because I've been wondering that on these bike rides I take, I wonder, I pull at the whiskers in my chin and I wonder, and now I have some good insight there. So thanks, man.

All right, Hollywood Suite. Sorry some, some good insight there. So thanks, man. All right. Hollywood. Coffee maker is going, but you know, but like, I don't think that's the wrong way, but you're part of the problem. Like how did people, how did you get interviewed? You had to go to, there was 18 when I came to Toronto in 2000, in 1980, there was 18 radio stations, 9am and 9fm. My radio professor taught me that. And if you wanted to be interviewed, that's it. And then 3 newspapers, the only media outlets. And now, you're a radio station. Before, if you wanted to do what you did, you'd have to raise millions of dollars for an am transmitter

and then apply to the crtc find a frequency apply to the crtc so i'm going to do the show that just talks to people and uh or do a news network like cko the news network in the late 70s i started i worked there for a bit and um now anyone can you know with a laptop and a, well, you've got some sort of audio board going on there, but otherwise you don't need too much to be the equivalent of talk 10, 10, right? Like you're doing the same thing. Talk 10, 10 is doing that cost millions of dollars to do, and you're doing it for 5,000 bucks.

Yeah, no, I'm, and I'm kind of, uh, honored to be a part of the problem. I suppose that, uh, you know, I'm not saying honored to be a part of the problem, I suppose. Yeah. You know what I mean. I'm not saying you're a problem. It's a great opportunity. It's, you know, so many conversations and ideas floating around and not controlled by a very select few, right? Like anyone can, sadly sometimes, everyone has a megaphone.

Right, right, right, right. Now, okay, so the next stop on our journey here is hollywood sweet so i'm really ready to dive in there but firstly one thing that i as a consumer of media that kind of drives me nuts that is if you have a bell media production i'll make something up like the social or something it really does feel like it's most of the content on it would be cross promoting other properties of bell media. Like, so if bell media, I don't know,

they own crave TV, for example. So if they've got some new show coming there, maybe letter Kenny is a good example. There's a segment that's just all about really selling letter Kenny to the viewership. And it really, what I like about what I can do is that I don't have to,

like, I can have someone from bell, then somebody from Rogers and someone from CBC and then some independent, and then maybe somebody from, you know, Hollywood suite. Like you, I can, I can do that where I don't see much of that anymore in mainstream media. Um, there is a temptation to only promote, um, your own properties. And I think ETALK and ET Canada have wrestled with this. ETALK perhaps was a little more narrow-minded about that. I would argue that that's short changing your viewer

and ultimately short change your viewer, you're gonna have fewer viewers. So if you become nothing but a big brother promotion machine and don't talk about Letterkenny, those are Bell and Chorus properties, then you're short changing yourself. So I think I can speak from recent personal experience. I don't know. So it says here we're live on Facebook. Are we really live on Facebook? People can see me.

It's like, yeah, people can see you. Yeah. So is there five people watching? I'm not sure there's that many, but that's more of like, that's sort of the emergency backup in case everything blows up. Anyways, well, if you're watching on Facebook, you'll see I've shamelessly put up the Film Independent Spirit Awards as my background, which is an award show. It's kind of the anti-Oscars.

It's usually the day before the Oscars this week. This year, it's three days, four days before the Oscars. And it's being hosted by Melissa Villaseñor of Saturday Night Live fame. And they gave us some interview time. It's being broadcast on Hollywood Suite in Canada. And they gave us some interview time. And actually, ET Canada took it, which wasn't a surprise.

ET, sorry, ETalk took an interview with him. And Global Morning Show is going to do something with them with her. So I'm like, oh, OK, so great. I'm really thrilled and happy to hear that. He talked, which is owned by Bell Media, which someone's crave and, you know, they're going to do something on on her. And, you know, hopefully we'll get a little bit of a mention and a little bit of plug. And it raises the awareness of the show. And people will flock to Hollywood Suite to watch the show on April 22nd at 10 o'clock Eastern Time on Hollywood Suite. That's my plug.

No, anytime you want to plug something. Because that's where we're going next. So that's where we're at now. Plug city. So for those who don't know, and by the as you know because you mentioned it off that's a famous partland brothers song plug city that's oh yeah that's right sun city i think yeah that's right it's called soul city okay um something like that This is important. Sun City was a little Steven. That was the anti-apartheid thing in the 80s.

Right. Right. Yes. That's South Africa. By the way. Yeah. No, no, no, no doubt. For sure.

All right. This is important now. So, David, very important. So, Stu Stone is a very good friend of the program. What an FOTM. Every single week, he's co-hosting Pandemic Fridays with me. every single week. He's co-hosting Pandemic Fridays with me. So we did a huge campaign to get the word out to all FOTMs

across this fine country that Stu Stone, he had a movie called Faking a Murderer. And Faking a Murderer was exclusively available on Hollywood Suite. I watched it on Hollywood Suite. And still is. Thank you for subscribing. And yeah, and it still is. And watched it on Hollywood Suite. And still is. Thank you for subscribing.

And yeah, and it still is. And there's a cameo. I want to hear, what do you remember about your experience? Because you, David Kynes, can be seen in Faking a Murderer. I am in the award-winning viral hit, Faking a Murderer.

You know, they filmed, we have an annual, or filmed, we have an annual, or we used to have an annual party, breakfast actually during TIFF, full of industry weasels and friends and enemies. And they set a scene in this party and we filmed it half an hour before the doors opened. And then they actually filmed something

while everyone was there. I don't think people had any, they were like, what is going on? These guys are on stage and they're talking nonsense. And then everyone went back to their croissants and scrambled eggs. So yeah, that was shot at the King Edward Hotel. They restored their big ballroom upstairs.

It's stunning, as you see in the film. Yeah, it was really great. And now, is faking a murderer from... And I get a good credit. I know Stu doesn't work alone here. He's got a partnership with his brother-in-law, Adam, I believe his name is. Adam Rodness.

That 5'7 productions. But is this wonderful movie up for any Independent Spirit Awards april 22nd at 10 p.m eastern it is not oh an oversight a snub as we say yes yes which probably gets me thinking who is up for it and i i'll look it up while we're talking okay you look it up and i'm gonna uh tell people that okay so I signed up for Hollywood Suite. I subscribed because I heard they had exclusive rights to Faking a Murderer

from Stu Stone. And there's four channels, Hollywood Suite. So you got there's a channel for the 70s, there's a channel for the 80s, there's a channel for the 90s, and there's a channel for the 2000s. And I'll pass this mic to you in a moment, but i heard you once describe it as classic

rock radio for movies uh do you still think of that that way uh maybe speak to us like what is what makes hollywood sweet special in terms of like a station where you can watch movies well i actually refer to it as the q107 of of movie channels um it's it's classic rock uh you know from the 70s 80s 90s and 2000s and um um you know we have our we play casablanca which is kind of our stairway to heaven. And we have the born identity, which is perhaps more of a you too kind of song and everything in between. And it's just the best of, of cinema for, you know, if you like movies, you're, you know, last night I ended up watching like half an hour of stripes. Right. Right.

Stripes was on. I was just like, and I just, i just yeah it's it's like a guilty pleasure you turn it on on on the tv and you'll you'll probably see something you like and there's comfort there's comfort in the familiar which is why nostalgia does so well and especially in these pandemic times where you want the familiar and the comfortable. So, um, uh, I mean, nostalgia has always been big. Uh, there's always been Q107, classic rock. And then of course, um, oh boy, what's the boom, boom, sorry. 97.3.

97.3 boom. Well, speaking of Stu Jeffries. Mm-hmm. Right. Is he on there? He's the morning show guy on Boom. Yeah. And Mae Potts is there, too.

I don't know if you ever listened to Safe and Why, but Mae Potts is there, too. Oh, she was a year ahead of me at Ryerson. Oh, she's Estonian, I understand. I don't know why I know that, but apparently people would hear her talking estonian with her mother but okay but yeah so there's there's four channels and there's like 200 movies on demand uh as well uh so you can get it on your cable tv or satellite or you can get on

amazon prime yeah now amazon prime has it and that's probably the easiest way to get it. And there's just lots of great movies there. You don't have to worry about going down to the video store and renting them. Not that anyone does that anymore, although Bay Street Video is still going strong. I was thinking of video stores. So because this pandemic, sorry,

the vaccine was available to people between the ages of 40 and 55 for the first time today. And that got me thinking of Generation X. And then it got me thinking a movie. How much I relied on the local video guy for what to get. I still remember him telling me about this movie called Reservoir Dogs. And he said, you got to watch this. And it was like, okay, now my mind's blown.

So how much of Hollywood Suite, the four channels I mentioned, how much of that is curated? Like, is it like, is there a committee? It's 100% curated. So yeah, I mean, we pick the movies that are going to be on there and schedule them and program them and buy them, first of all, or acquire them from various producers. And we look low and high

to and high and low to find these films it's not as easy as one might think it's easy to find lethal weapon it's not so easy to find the 1970 miniseries jesus of nazareth or or even uh on golden. Oh, I like that. Yeah, so that was actually not at any major studio. We ended up finding it at a British studio. So no, it's absolutely a curated experience. We run like between 500 and 600 movies a month. So, you know, you're going to find something

to put on your PBR that you're going to like. And, um, uh, you know, I think part of it is, you know, you ever heard of the, the paradox of choice and, uh, you know, have it with toothpaste. With toothpaste. Yeah. Like I liked, I just need toothpaste. And then I go to shoppers and there's like 400 types of toothpaste and I don't know what to do. And I end up paralyzed.

Yeah. So, um, um, so, you know, I think it can be the same way with people going down their Netflix queue or, or whatever their on-demand services. So we've narrowed it down. You can go to the four channels. There's something on, um, chances are you'll find something you want to watch and then you can go to the four channels there's something on um chances are you'll find something you want to watch and then you can go to the on demand and it's not thousands of titles it's just a couple of hundred titles a month so you'll probably find something you want to watch there so and of course you can always scroll through the guide and like i just i just

got the programming highlights for june yeah tell me. We've got 732 movies running. Including Faking a Murderer. Is that correct? Maybe. I shouldn't put you in a spot like that. Might have taken a rest. I'm having fun with you because when Stu found out you were coming on he did a little joke about how I should put in a good word.

I do urge you to get more Stu Stone content because he's a very talented guy. I agree. Okay, good. And he promotes the stuff. I was actually explaining this to someone the other day. It's like, why do we license films?

Well, you know, because they will get attention. Maybe the title is good. Will the producer promote it? Will the producer go out and bang the pots for Hollywood Suite? That's one reason to get involved. Well, I put him on Humble and Fred and I did my best to help him as well.

But one thing we did battle games, which I think it's worth noting, is that this Faking a Murderer came out during a pandemic. And I just, I can imagine that when Stu Stone releases something on Hollywood Suites post-pandemic, I think we literally have, we have these Tmlx events toronto mic listener experiences and we would do complete tie-ins like we would put the promotion machine into overdrive so that's just some light at the end of the tunnel i think for all of us so do you produce the humble and fred show yes i am the

producer of the humble and fred show so are you up at 4 a.m.? No. Well, they aren't even up at 4 a.m., but they're live 7.30 to like 9-ish. And I'm not actually on the show due to parental responsibilities. But I book people on the show and I do a variety of other things.

So production means something different for every show. But for that show, I fill up the guest calendar and et cetera, et cetera. So I'm not actually on the show except Thursdays. You're not, you're doing, you're no Tom Chokchik,

Chokchik, Chokchik, the guy that produces Roger Rick and Marilyn or whatever it's called now. It's called, I can tell you it's because he's been on the show. Jamar, it's Marilyn and Jamar is who you got there. He's a good the show Jamar, it's Marilyn and Jamar he's a good boy and then I was talking to

Marilyn's son who does the morning show on Adam Wild I think he said did they move up their start time or they moved it later oh I don't know they shifted their start time because I was teasing him about he had a new baby

and I was like you gotta be at work at 530. Oh, they moved it. The pandemic, we're starting later. I was like, okay, that kind of makes sense. I'm not surprised. Like there's no one stuck in the car. But he goes till noon, I think. He's like, it's a lot like noon or 11.

It's like a longer shift. It starts later. Yeah. And he's joined his mother in the Bill Media empire. He used to be on a Roger station and he switched over to Virgin. Okay. So real quick here before before i lose you uh we kind of jumped quickly from like you went much for a long time

and the next thing you know at your uh your founding what's your title i have this here don't even tell me i'm the uh el presidente the president and founder uh of hollywood suite okay so well co-founder a bunch of us that started it, including the late CEO of Chum, Jay Switzer. Yes, because his mom also, we should point out, was part of the original City TV. His mom was the original. So there was four co-founders of City TV.

Jerry Grafstein, Phyllis Switzer, Moses, and a guy I've never met. I think his name is Ed Cowan. And they were the original four. And there's a picture of them out in front of the building. And yeah, so Phyllis became the program director. And Jay was like a floor director on Friday Night Fights or something. And then he went off to business school and then he came back and he was hired. I'm not sure what his job was, but one of the things he did was he kind of built the original Much Music

application in 1983. And you had to put in business plans and marketing plans. It was this thick. Oh, right. This is radio. It was like thick. Oh, right, this is radio. It was like a two-inch thick legal size, two or three-inch thick legal size document that you had to submit to the CRTC. And of course, everything then was paper. So there was 20 copies of this thing had to be made and given to them.

And he wrote the business plan is my understanding. And then he worked his way up as well. And he was very much a mentor to me. And he became the CEO of Chum. And then Chum was bought by CTV Club Media. And all the top brass was pretty well gone within a year. And then we started, him and I and a few other people, including the current CEO of CBC, started Hollywood Suite.

And here we are today. Probably the last Canadian broadcasting channel to launch. How long? In the last 10 years. I was going to ask you, what year did you guys launch Hollywood Suite? 2011. Yeah, it's our 10th anniversary this fall. And you're going to have a, if we're all vaccinated,

you're going to have a big bash. You want to do something together? Yeah, we really want to. We, we every year have had a bash at on the Friday of TIFF. And, but we already said no to it this year. There's no way we're getting 500 people in a room in September. So, you know, maybe next year. Unbelievable, eh? What a clusterfuck.

Here comes some music. Well, only because I have to go get my vaccination. Otherwise, I could go all day with you until you say, I got to go, Mike. But, David, you got to have a part two. So i'm thinking uh less is more keep them wanting more so here's the plan in the summer come back and to my come to my backyard to kick out the jams and i'll pick your brain for some more much music in hollywood sweet stories and maybe we can announce like a the next endeavor with stew stone maybe we could do a whole joint announcement thing with Stu.

I need to get my free pasta. I thought the only reason, you know, the big reason for coming on the show is I see, I used to see people walking out with food. Well, Cam Woolley last week left with a large meat lasagna, which him and his wife,

April loved. And he left with eight cans of fresh craft beer from a great lakes and his Toronto Mike sticker from a sticker. You it's all going to be yours this summer, David, you're coming to the back. loved and he left with eight cans of fresh craft beer from great lakes and his toronto mic sticker from sticker you it's all gonna be yours this summer david you're coming in the back it's worth the drive to mimico well new toronto but close enough new toronto home of the numbered streets that's that is correct you've been listening and paying attention i like that and that, or as Stu would say, and that brings us to the end of our 838th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I am at Toronto Mike. David, he's at Dkind, so D-K-I-N-E-S. He's on Twitter. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

CDN Technologies, they're at CDN Technologies. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike, he's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you Thursday evening when Brother Bill and Cam Gordon and Stew Stone join me. We're going to kick out the 420 Jams for Pandemic Friday. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.