Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - David Marsden: Toronto Mike'd #106

Episode Date: January 15, 2015

Mike chats with broadcasting legend David Marsden about his years as David Mickie, his time at CHUM FM, the Spirit of Radio days at CFNY, his years at Iceberg and The Rock and his latest venture, nythespirit.com.

Welcome to episode 106 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is broadcasting legend David Marsden. Oh my god, legend even. I don't use that word lately. Ah, thank you. It is honestly quite an honour to have you in my little Toronto Mic studio here. Oh my God, legend even. I don't use that word lately. Thank you. It is honestly quite an honor to have you in my little Toronto Mike studio here. The pleasure is mine, Mike.

Who did the music here, little theme there? Ill Vibe, he's a local rapper, producer. Pretty cool. I got my own theme. I've had it since day one. I want it to play when I enter parties and enter rooms. It'll be like my theme. You don't think it's too cool for me? No, no, I think it's just cool enough. I think you've stepped up to it,

so what the hell? I had to, yeah, it took 106 episodes to kind of fill those big shoes, but I'm there now. It's nice to see you. No, great. It's nice to see you. Great to have you here.

I recently, in fact, last episode, I had Mae Potts in here. Yes, I know. I listened to some of that actually yesterday. She's got a great voice. You've got a great voice yourself. But Mae Potts, that voice just... I heard you talking about her voice and how it's one of the more distinctive ones. I just could play that.

She could read the phone book and I would enjoy it. Well, I don't know. Should we go further with that? She told a little story about how you gave her some advice regarding being a character. You said to be yourself because you had been a character. And then I did some reading because this is before my time, but you were David Mickey.

I was? Tell me a bit about David Mickey, if you don't mind, just to kick things off. I don't Tell me a bit about David Mickey, if you don't mind, just to kick things off. I don't know what to tell you. It was something I invented when I was at CHLO in St. Thomas. And I was, I don't know, 19 years old or something. And I really enjoyed, this was long before FM ever existed. I really enjoyed a guy out of Chicago by the name of Dick Biondi, who is still on the air. I think he's 98 years old. Wow.

And he's still on the air in Chicago. And when I was a kid, a little 14-year-old kid, I would listen to Dick Biondi every night. And I loved what he did. And so it really came sort of from Dick Biondi, and then I took what he did and exaggerated it by 10. And people seemed to like it, and it got me from St. Thomas to Toronto in a matter of about a year. And it all happened. I was doing my Dave Mickey thing in St. Thomas, and a record promo guy tuned in and heard me and called me and said, you know,

would you like to be into Toronto radio? And I'm, as I said, I'm like 19 years old, and I said, yeah, well, who wouldn't? Anyway, the next thing, his name was Walt Grealis. I don't know if you know him or not. No, no. He owned a magazine called RPM. Oh, yes, of course. He's left us now, but two weeks later, I got a call from Gene Kirby,

who was the program director at CKEY. And he said, I'd like to come down and see you. Actually, it took three calls before I talked to him. Because I actually, I had talked a lot in the radio station in St. Thomas about, you know, where I wanted to go. And I wanted to work at CKEY. And the first two messages I saw, my little pink slip uh said uh called Gene Kirby and I thought they were just shitting me yeah yeah they were gagging you yeah yeah and so it happened three days in a row and finally on the third day I called him and he said I'd like to

come and see two weeks later I was working for CKEY there's a quote I read about you on CKEY in Toronto and it goes like this. It said you were the most controversial thing on Toronto radio. Oh, I don't know. Could that possibly be? I don't know. I want to understand the difference between David Marsden and David Mickey. Well, I don't know.

I think I'll tell you how I see it. I just, I think, okay, I think I'll tell you how I see it. Dave Mickey was a character, but it came out of my little brain. He ended up doing network television for seven years, and it was a pretty burned-out situation. I had two TV shows going at the same time. One out of Hamilton called Mickey A Go-Go and one out of Toronto called Music Hop, which went CBC Full Net.

And that's the one where you took over for Alex Trebek. That is correct. Cool little factoid right there. Well, Alex and I shared the duties for the first year. And he's a really boring fellow, by the way. Is that right? Did he have a mustache back then? I don't remember.

Maybe the mustache gave him, it's like Delilah and Samson. He wore cardigans, sweaters all the time. Like Mr. Rogers. When I was living in Vancouver, I kind of wasn't really doing much, and I thought I should send Alex a letter. And so I sent him a nice letter, you know, I remember this and I remember that and all this. And I sent it to his office in Los Angeles.

And, oh, gosh, nothing happened. And about two months later, I went to get my mail one day, and there was a 8x10 kind of envelope, and it said Jeopardy in the corner. And I thought, oh, Alex is getting back to me. Isn't this cool? So I opened it up, and there inside was an autographed 8x10 picture of Alex. That's funny. Yeah, I of Alex. That's funny.

Yeah, I treasure it. That's a good story. Oh, but back to CKUI. So what would make you the most controversial thing on Toronto Radio? 700 words a minute. And it was just no one had ever heard anything like that. At that point in Toronto or Canadian radio, DJs were introducing, you know, Elba, Elvis Presley.

And I just thought that sounded silly. So I really toned the presentation to the music. And if you're going to introduce the Four Seasons, you better do it with some kind of dynamic. Gotcha. And so I don't know what was going on, but Mr. Marshall McLuhan wrote about it in his book, Understanding Media, which, of course, I'm very thrilled about.

I was always thrilled. I didn't need a funny thing about that. A quick story is I had been talking with WABC in New York about going there. And I had three different meetings with Rick Sklar, who was the program director at WABC. And the third meeting, I walked into his office, and he kind of leaped out of his chair, and he said, you're in the book.

And I didn't know what he was talking about. And I said, okay. And he said, no, no, you are in the book. And I didn't know what he was talking about. And I said, okay. And he said, no, no, you are in the book. And I said, what book are you talking about, Mr. Sklar? And he reached into his desk drawer and he pulled out Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. And, of course, at that time, that was the Bible. Yes. But I didn't know that. I'm just a DJ.

And so I kind of played along. And then the next thing I knew, he was bringing everybody in to meet this guy who was in the book. Awesome. Yeah. Subsequently, I've become pals with Mr. McLuhan's sons and I was invited to speak at his 100th birthday celebration. Cool. I remember his cameo in Annie Hall. That's my memories of Marshall McLuhan. He really became

a giant. An absolute giant. And you're in the book. In the media and apparently I'm in the book. In the media. And apparently I'm in the book. That's awesome. So at what point did you decide to take David Mickey out back and shoot him and just be David Marsden? Well, I did the David Mickey thing. It lasted, I guess, a total of what, six or seven, eight years.

And then it kind of, I was burned out. I was just absolutely burned out. I was absolutely burned out. And so I just stopped. And I sat still for a year or so and considered where I was and what I'd just been through and the craziness of that. Because it isn't that way for DJs anymore but uh you know i couldn't walk on the streets i couldn't go for dinner unless i had my security with me and all this sort of nonsense and uh so at the end of it all i decided i would go to montreal and uh ckgm in in Montreal hired me.

And before they did that, the president of the company said, well, you can't be Dave Mickey because we're not a rock and roll station, so you have to change your name and be somebody else because we don't want people to think we're going to change format. And I said, fine. we don't want people to think we're going to change format. And I said, fine. And I picked the name Marsden primarily because it's my real mother. It was her married name.

But I didn't know how to spell it. I spelled it wrong. Oh, really? Yeah. Because I really never knew my real parents. So I just picked it out of the air. And we walked right into the hall. And Don Wall, who was the president, he calls some people.

Obviously, this is Dave Mickey. Sorry, this is David Marsden. And one of his people said, Don, could I see you for a minute? And took him off in the corner, and I could see the two of them. They were kind of whispering and hearing. And then Don Wall just suddenly broke up in hilarious laughter, looked over to my direction and said,

John thinks you're not really David Marsh, and he thinks you're Dave Mickey. So the secret lasted all of about two minutes. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. I had no idea until right now that Marsden wasn't your actual last name. Oh, yeah. Well, it certainly is now.

Sure, of course. You've assumed it because that is you. So David Marsden, it's not a character you put on. This is actually you. Well, as I said, it's a name I just pulled out of the air. Right. Primarily I needed a name, and I came up with one. So it's David Marsden who comes to Chum FM.

At the CKGM, eventually I crossed from the AM to the FM. I crossed from the AM to the FM. And at that time, whenever that was, late 60s, 68, 69, I guess, FM was nothing. It was for old ladies. And the only way you could hear it was on an FM tuner, and they were usually about the size of a Volkswagen. Wow.

And, you know, they sat in the living room, and they were a lovely piece of furniture, and you open a lid, and that's how you turn the radio on. And built-in speakers and all the rest of it. And so FM really wasn't that big a deal when it first started because young people just like, well, what's FM? I remember when I crossed over from AM to FM, all of the folks in the AM station at CKGM AM told me how crazy I was. There's no money there. Nobody listens.

You can't even get a car. There's no FM in cars Nobody listens. You can't even get a car. There's no FM in cars. Blah, blah, blah. But I was fascinated by the free form of the music. You can do whatever you want. CKGM FM was quite extreme in its beginnings. A DJ, when you're on the air, if it wasn't working and the mixes weren't right, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you could open the mic and say that you weren't feeling like doing

it today and I'm going home and the next guy will be in in two and a half hours. This is a constant throughout your career and as we kind of walk through it, but kind of being on the leading edge, the bleeding edge maybe even, you know, just a visionary that sort of, what's next? And kind of going there. I don't know. For better or worse. I just follow my heart.

It's not a bad idea when in doubt, follow your heart. I mean, to me, the reason I, I suppose the reason I crossed over probably was the music because i would go home and listen to uh early floyd and all that kind of stuff uh which am of course wouldn't touch and uh and then i would go to my am radio job and i would play the fifth dimension or something so the the whole concept, it was just, I love that music and it would be nice to be able to share it. And FM came along and made it possible to share it. And so I've kind of always felt that it's all about sharing the music and sharing ideas.

So how do you end up on Chum FM? And this is early 70s, like 73 maybe, or am I missing? Well, you know, I have trouble with the memory, but that all came about, actually, Chum Radio had attempted to buy the radio stations for Mr. Sterling, CKGM, AM and FM, and a few other, Windsor and a couple other radio stations for Mr. Sterling, CKGM, AM and FM, and a few other, Windsor and a couple other radio stations. And so they had come in and they were sub-managing while they were waiting for the CRTC to approve. So I had the opportunity to meet some people, Fred Charette and others like that, through this connection.

And then Chum was not successful in buying the radio stations, so they pulled out. And I guess it was, I don't know, an extra number of months later. There was a lot going on in Montreal at that time. It was the period for the FLQ. It was very dangerous, and you couldn't walk on the streets was the period for the FLQ. It was very dangerous and you couldn't walk on the streets because the mailboxes were blowing up. And the radio station, I was, CKGM was an English radio station located on Green Avenue in Westmount. So it was constantly

a target for the FLQ people. We used to have to run we used to all have to leave the radio station about once every week to every two weeks because of bomb threats wow so i decided i was i wanted to get back to toronto where i was born and i picked up the phone and called bob lane uh that's chum fm and um we met and met, and I started there as the swing announcer, actually. Cool. Yeah. And so you were there a couple of years. What was it like at Chum FM at that time?

It was wonderful. I mean, the Chum FM was an amazing situation because you had Pete and Geetz were there. You had Tim Thomas was there, Jim Bauer was there, John Donnelly was there, Larry Green was there, and Benji Karsh was the music director, and there was a library, huge room, thousands and thousands of albums,

and you picked from those albums what you wanted to play. No one ever told you what to play. That's a key detail because I was talking to Scott Turner recently. And he was talking about, and we'll get to this soon, obviously, but the days of CFNY when you were there. And he talked about like a purple dot system. And he gave some great detail on it. But it sounded like you had this amazing, as a DJ,

you had the ability to kind of play a song because you liked it, not because it was on some kind of playlist that you're kind of married to. Well, I left Chum FM for that very reason. I had some wonder. I had very, very wonderful years at 1331 Young. It was wonderful. Bob Lane was one of the finest managers I ever worked for. I learned so much from him.

And I had the opportunity toward the end of his life to be able to sit down and tell him thank you. sit down and tell him thank you um the the uh the whole thing really was that yes there was a mild formula that you followed but within that formula there were literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of albums lots of leeway yeah so i left when they came to me one day, and I came in to do my show. I was doing six to ten, I guess. And the new program director said, this is your playlist. And I said, what's a playlist? Yeah, great. And he said, well, these are the songs you're going to play tonight.

Really? I don't think I'm going to do that, I said. And he said, well, you have to do that. And I said, no, I think I have to resign. Wow. And I did. And then I guess they allowed me to stay on the air for the two following weeks. And we had a lovely big sign off and it was exciting and

uh i don't know how many hundreds of people showed up on on young street on the night that i was finishing um i i had a thing called a brown paper bag everything i would give away was always in a brown paper bag and uh no one ever knew what was in the brown paper bags except me sometimes it would be a head of lettuce uh avocados i loved i love the word avocado yeah it's a nice word so i would sometimes just put avocados in the brown paper bag and then other times it would be front row seats to see Pink Floyd. Wow. So during the last week that I was on the air at Chum FM, the folks, people are so kind, literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of brown paper bags

arrived at the radio station all full of stuff. You know, this story about being told there's a playlist now and basically having to resign, when is this movie coming out? Okay. This is like that scene in Rudy when they all put down their sweaters. Okay. I don't know if you've seen Rudy,

but this is a movie, uh, because, and we're going to get there soon, what you ended up doing at 102.1. But, uh, I can just,

I can just see that pivotal scene, man. That's the Oscar scene right there. It'd be fantastic. So you, so you just literally i guess uh i you could afford to just resign and it wasn't a principle or i mean i would i guess i did i did i starve a few times by being a stubborn little guy of course i did

but i always felt that being sure that whatever it was I was delivering to people's ears was what I believed in was much more important than having a bank account. Very interesting. And yes, I have starved a few times because of it. Guys my age learned everything we know about radio came from WKRP in Cincinnati. You know, I was on Evening, so I never got to see the show. Oh, yeah, I see. I've never seen that show. Okay, you got to, I mean, there's a whole interesting story we don't have time for

about licensing the music to put this out like on proper streaming and DVD and stuff like that. But when I watched it, and I watched it in syndication, so they would do it in like, in like the early eighties, I'd watch it. And I remember distinctly the whole thing was, I was fascinated with like, you know, Venus fly trap,

who was the nighttime guy. He picked his own music. And at some point when they changed formats, I remember like Dr. Johnny fever being told, you got to play like Paul Anka and all this stuff. He hated it. And it was the whole,

like kind of the whole, you know, he, he kind of rebelled against it and stuff. And then you kind of grow up and realize like these djs don't have a say in what they play and it's sort of disheartening when you sort of come to the it's sort of like finding out like i don't know that baseball and hockey are businesses it's like the same kind of adult realization that kind of well i certainly understand that it's a business i mean that's

what it is uh however i'm of the opinion that if you have the right people on the radio, on the air, doing the right thing, then you're going to win. I believe that if you give the people what they want, they'll come and listen. I've always believed that. I still do. Spirit of Radio by Rush. Yes. I was trying to hit a post there for you. You know what?

I was trying to be quiet. I was just, just shut up, Mike, because this is like, this is amazing. And you hit it, by the way. Tell me, though, how the heck do you end up on 102.1?

And I'll just let this be quiet, and it's a long song. I'll just keep it in the background a bit. How do I end up? I do want to actually get to this song. So how do you end up on CFNY? Well, I had left Chum FM, and I was running my own little commercial production and I also had a studio called Thunder Sound for a while.

And I love being on the radio. I love sharing the music. I love bringing everything forward. And I'd heard that there were these guys who owned a little radio station in Brampton. So Don Schaefer and I went together. I don't know if you know Schaefer.

No. He's in Vancouver. He's a great programmer, a great radio person. As a matter of fact, he's getting the CMW Hall of Fame award this year. Cool. Anyway, we went and met with Leslie and Harry Allen in their impressive, very impressive Yorkville offices full of antiques and wonderful things.

And Leslie Allen, the older brother, he was one of those people who looked like he just stepped out of a Hollywood movie or something, very elegant, nice tan, $8,000 tie, $20,000 suit. His brother on the flip side, I think he bought his suit at Moors, and it was one of those nice suit who blew it up for you. And we sat there, and Don and I talked to them about this radio station. Ultimately, it ended up that Don went off to Vancouver and Leslie and Harry Allen hired me as a DJ,

only as a DJ, to do their evenings. So on the night I was supposed to start, I went out there, and I arrived at what is now famously known as the Little Yellow House, because it really was yellow. It was painted a horrible color of yellow. And I walked in the place, and I thought, what have I got myself into? It was filthy. It was dirty. All the chairs only had three legs, and you had to balance on them you know uh the control room uh i would say the ceilings in the control room were about the

height of your ceilings in other words if you were larger than you are or i am you couldn't walk you had to stoop over right terry mcgillicud he's quite a tall fellow and he had to stoop over. Terry McGillicud, he's quite a tall fellow, and he had to stoop over to get into the control room. And it was an awful, awful mess. But I could play what I wanted. And so I went on the air, and I really thought, what am I doing? Why am I doing this?

This is crazy. But something said, no, do this, David. Just do it. And so we went along with it one night i was on the air there and uh we were vinyl in those days and we had two or three turntables just over over our left shoulder and i'm i'm i've got an album and i'm grooving to the music and all of a sudden i heard i hear a lot of music is skipping. And I look over, and there's a mouse on the turntable. And the mouse is riding on the turntable,

and every trip around, it hits the needle and wops it over a bit. And so that's really how it all started. And then, as I mentioned earlier, the thing went into receivership, and we all kind of hung in with no money and did what we believed was right. So you were just a DJ there at the beginning? I was, yes, initially. I mean, ultimately, when the thing went into receivership and the Allens were taken out and the CRTC was holding the license, ultimately what happened is I was kind of the one guy there

who had had radio experience from John FM and so on. And so everybody kind of looked to me to say, what should we do next? And so I sort of, I was not appointed a PD because there was no management to appoint anybody, but I just felt it was worth doing. And I did a campaign on the radio about Save the Spirit of Radio because I had called it the Spirit of Radio by then.

And people asked me why. And I think I was just driving my car one night and I thought, and I think I was just driving my car one night and I thought, you know, I think this probably needs a, we need a name for this thing and Spirit of Radio came to me. Tell me, the Rush song, it's about CFNY, right? Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

Initially, they didn't talk about that because it would have hurt them at other radio stations. Sure, of course. Ray Daniels, their manager, called me and he said, we're about to release a new album and we're using Spirit of Radio. Are you okay with that? And I said, well, okay, I guess we are. Why not? But this was many years later. And I said, well, okay, I guess we are. Why not?

But this was many years later. CFNY had grown up. We had new owners, and we had nice studios and everything. And the spirit of radio was what I called it. And so I said, yeah, I'm okay. And he said, okay, we'll give you 2% of whatever we make. No, I'm just joking. Yeah, I was about to do the math. I think they should give me 2% of whatever they make.

So did you, this term, spirit of radio, because, I mean, it's been brought, but I want to talk to you more about this in detail, because you came up with the term spirit of radio. Did you own that term, or was it just you just started using it? Was there some kind of a legal ownership? Yeah, it was. Trademark? It was trademark, yes.

And, okay, because you don't own it anymore. I think it's pretty much public domain now because a lot of people have used it, starting with Rush and then other radio stations started calling them. Oh, so other stations decided to... A few did, yeah. I can't tell you who they were, because I don't really know. It kind of went to...

I can't say I haven't looked at the legalities of it lately, but I think it's pretty much a public domain. Well, the reason I ask is because they started using it again. So after years where you never heard it for years. No, no. I used it in Monterey and Vancouver as well.

And then Scott, of course, and Dave Farrow, who is the GM at CFNY. Yes. A man that I have very high respect for. to CFNY. Yes. A man that I have very high respect for. And before they went with the show,

the Spirit of Radio show, Dave and I did have a meeting and we talked. Oh, that's nice to hear. Yeah. No, it was, I will say, you know,

there's all kinds of people who love to comment about the current CFNY programming. For sure. I don't comment on other programmers, but I will say that Dave Farrow and everyone else at CFNY have been very professional and very kind to me, very nice to me.

I was a guest on Scott's show a few weeks back. Yes, May was chatting. She showed up to witness this. That was the most beautiful part of this whole thing is that here we are. We're in the Edge studios. I'm there. Ivor was there.

Ivor Hamilton was there. Alan Cross was there. And I look out and there's a window there, and I see waving at the window is May. Now, May works for another radio station called Boom. Yes. But at that moment, Alan or someone said, oh, I'll go let her in. And she joined us.

And then about 10 or 15 minutes later, I look and there's another person waving at the window. And Alan or someone says, I'll go get them. And she comes and it was Danny Elwell. Yes, yes. So here's the professionalism that I see with the management at CFNY. As they had Ivor, who doesn't work for CFNY, works for Universal. He does work some stuff on... Can you hear my text machine going there?

I have a feeling we can hear it. I have a feeling they can't hear it because you've got to be right on this mic. So that's the good sign. And so you had two or three different radio stations represented and i'm there representing ny the spirit.com yes and uh i i'm looking and i'm thinking you know this is the first time in my entire career with the exception of when I had CFNY, where two or three or four radio situations could be represented and competing radio stations could be represented in one building. And I applaud that. I thought that was really, really wonderful.

I saw the photos because they were making their way around Twitter. Yeah. Yeah, it was very cool. Alan Cross was a previous guest and Scott Turner and now May Potts, and now yourself. And Ivor Hamilton is coming on. Ivor's coming on? Yeah.

We just got to set a date. Well, good. He's a pretty tremendous guy. He also does a show at nythespirit.com. Oh, we're going to get to nythespirit.com for sure, because I mentioned you're on the cutting edge all the time. So I want to get to that, because there's the future in my opinion but uh just real i don't want to rush through the cf and y era because especially since most people listening and this is what they look back on as

like radio's finest hour a lot of the guys my age and older uh you know i i it's interesting because when we were doing it and i do say we because I may have been leading the team, but a team leader is only as good as the team that he or she has. And I had a tremendous team of people at CFNY in that 11-year period. It was incredible, actually. Dedicated people. I mean, imagine when we were in receivership and people in the little yellow house and nobody was really able to make

any money, but everybody stayed on and we kept doing it. Is this the famous David Marsden call to arms? Is that, is this the, so you did, you went on the air and did sort of, I call, it's called like a call to arms. Is that this period or is this? No, this

is in the little yellow house. Right, so I've never heard it called the a cult arms. Is that this period or is this? No, this is in the Little Yellow House. Right. I've never heard it called the cult arms. No, I guess I called it. It's so Mark Knopfler, isn't it? Oh, yes, yes. Can I actually. You can do whatever you want.

It's your show. You know, that's exactly. You know what? I asked Mae Potts if I could play something from like 30 years ago or whatever. And she said the same thing. And you're right. I'm going to play this. Okay. I call this David Marsden's cult thing. And you're right. I'm going to play this. Okay.

I call this David Marsden's called Arms. And the audio is not very good. It's very old audio, but please, I apologize for that. Remember, it's coming from a troll room with ceilings that are a meter high. And mice on the turntables. Here we go. Unless you, and I underline the you,

unless you do something, right now for us, this radio station is going to go the way of a lot of other great radio stations in our memories. Right now, I'm going to ask for your help. Somehow or other, each one of you has to organize some little thing that will prove that we here at this radio station are not batting our heads against the wall.

If you like what you hear, and if you like what we're doing on the radio, and you want it to stay, then you've got to organize together. I'm going to give you some ideas. First of all, whether you work somewhere, go to school, or maybe you don't do anything, but that's okay. That gives you all the more time to do what I'm going to ask you to do, and it's really

important and I'm really serious. We're going to start with petitions. Not a couple of thousand names. We're not going for anything small here this time, folks. 500,000, that's the number. Can you help? 500,000 names on petitions is what we need for starters Then If you believe in the music that we're playing

Go into the record stores Bug those record stores to display the music that CFNYFM is playing exclusively In Canada stores to display the music that CFNYFM is playing exclusively in Canada. Tell them to put those records up front where everybody can see them instead of in back of the store where you have to hunt for an hour and a half to find them. Now, what else are we going to do? We're going to write letters and we're going to write letters until it hurts because we need 300,000 letters later on i'm going to start giving you addresses and over the next couple of days if i last that long i'm going to continue to give you addresses but first of all there are two places that you

can sit down right now and write a letter to and one is to the management of this radio station at 340 Main Street, Brampton. And the other is to the CRTC in Ottawa. We need some letters to the editors of newspapers. We need telephone calls to newspapers. Telephone calls to the CRTC.

Letters to the newspapers. Letters to Wilder Penfield letters to Peter Goddard and anybody else you can think of let them know that you care letters to the CFNYFM management what we have to do now

is convince other people that there's more of us than they ever thought possible CFNYFM 102.1 The Spirit of Radio more of us than they ever thought possible. CFNYFM 102.1 The Spirit of Radio Wow. Where'd you get that? I can't reveal my sources, David.

And again, the audio quality isn't very good, but when I heard that, I'm like, wow. And I see you're choked up over this. I am. So when was the last time you heard that? I'm not embarrassed to be by you. No, no. I don't remember ever hearing it.

Well. I don't hardly remember doing it, but it was quite a trip. Thank you. No, no, please. I thought it was amazing when I heard it, and I call it a call to arms because I don't know what else to... That's what it is.

I, you know... Sorry that I lost it a bit there. No, no, please. Don't apologize for that. If it makes you feel better, I cried with Strombo, okay? So now don't feel so bad i um i don't think i told anybody i was gonna do that i just think and i as i recall it just

i just opened the mic and started talking and uh i just said what i really believed and people may ask what was the driving force? And the driving force was that the radio station was for sale, and seven applicants had applied to get it. And only one of those applicants had said that they would leave it alone, and the other six wanted to turn it into country or middle of the road or whatever. wanted to turn it into country or middle of the road or whatever. And I think at that point,

I felt it was necessary to get the people involved. I've always believed in the people, always. You know, I have a theory on all this, that when you're your leader and you were the leader and your leader has such passion for the music, it attracts people who have the same passion like people are people who the people you want the talent you'd want representing the music on a station would be drawn to that and you end up with a basically with talent where music is is everything and then you end up with cf and y because cf and y wasn't just the music. It was the hosts that complement the music.

Absolutely. And it was the perfect combination. You need both. No, absolutely. As I said earlier, the team that I was able to assemble at CFNY, once we had new owners and they had agreed to go forward, and that's when I was appointed program director. When the new owners came in, Civitas they were called,

and they were out of Montreal, they met with me and interestingly, I asked for 300,000 letters in that thing. I'd forgotten that. And whatever I asked. I heard 500,000 and I was thinking, good, aim high. Well, we actually, I think probably, I don't recall exactly, but I know that the campaign was strong enough

that both the CRTC and the new owners were totally affected by it. And I called it Save the Spirit of radio and and in my opinion it did uh and so you know it always comes back to the folks who are listening those of us on the on this side we can do the best job we know how uh i've always believed that if you just sit down in front of a microphone and you talk or you say what you want to say and you play a lot of amazing music that no one else is noticing, people will say, yeah, let's do that. People will come.

I really do believe that. I've always believed it. Even going back to the earlier part of our conversation i suppose when i was doing the dave mickey it was it was again there was nothing like it in canadian radio and sure the adults thought it was stupid and wrong and goofy but at that time it was targeted primarily to teenagers today i, I target anybody who likes good music. Were you responsible for recruiting Pete and Geetz? Because they did follow you to NY.

Yeah, well, I knew them, of course, when I was at Chum FM, although we were on opposite ends of the clock. I would see them at DJ meetings and that kind of thing. And I just thought that they would be great in the CFNY situation. At the time, they were broken up. Geetz, David, was at Q107. And Peter, did I just pop a P there?

I do that all the time. Peter was still at Chum of M. It took me about six months, I guess, of clandestine meetings held in ridiculous burger joints in various parts of Scarborough, because we were all recognizable faces. Oh, right, right. And you were essentially talking three radios.

Earlier I mentioned the openness that Dave Farrell brings to CFNY. But prior to that, if you worked at Chamber of M, you did not talk to people who worked at Q107. And if you worked at Q107, and vice versa. Sure. And so we couldn't really be seen talking. And so we really did have secret meetings in weird places. That's awesome.

It took about six months, and finally we got the deal done, and they joined CFNY. It was terrific. Now, Geetz is still, he's like an engineer, right? I talk to him quite frequently, as a matter of fact. He was over, I have a studio in my condo, in my apartment. Is it as nice as this one? It is.

Oh, it's much nicer. Good. I'm glad to hear that. I'm teasing you. There's no mice on the turntable? No mice, no. No, I'm just teasing you that. I'm teasing you. There's no mice on the turntable? No mice, no. No, I'm just teasing you. It's a home studio.

And when I was getting ready to do live shows on nythespirit.com, Geats had to come over and rewire the thing for me. Oh, perfect, yeah. So I saw him probably a week and a half, two weeks before Christmas. And we talk on a regular basis. I, you know, I mean, Peter, of course, has gone. And I see his son from time to time. They were wonderful people together.

They weren't the best of friends. Like Siskel and Ebert. They were good together, but they weren't the best of friends. Like Siskel and Ebert. They were good together, but they weren't the best of friends. I mean, I think that's how it has to be, actually. But it was a great run for them at CFNY. Kevin O'Leary was their producer. Not that... No, not the obnoxious CTV guy.

Not that awful guy on television. This is a real Kevin O'Leary. I hired him as their producer. And every morning they would just have a lot of fun. Now, a couple of names people will be familiar with sort of started on Pete and Geet's show on air. I believe Freddie P., Fred Patterson, he was doing sports.

And Mike Stafford, right? He was a news guy. Mike was their newsman. Fred was doing sports. Who else did they have on there? They had another character. Oh, gosh. I can't remember his name.

I apologize now. But he was also a regular character. They had a lot of people who would come in and out. Did you know Mike, because Mike Stafford today is regarded as one of the better talk radio guys in the city. Did you see that talent in him when he was doing news at CFNY? Mike is actually an incredibly brilliant guy. I don't know if people really understand how brilliant he is. He was on Jeopardy, right?

Speaking of Alex Trebek, it all comes back. He was on Jeopardy. I don't know if he's Mensa, but he's certainly up in there. Did I see him as a talk radio person? Probably not because in the CFNY period, there wasn't really a lot of, quote, talk radio. But he and I, we don't chat regularly, but I see him from time to time at events. And I wish him nothing but great success.

He does some pretty good things at AM640. He's definitely the brightest light in that 640 cast, I'd say. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Not just because of his Simpsons trivia, which I thoroughly enjoy, which is a sign he must be Menzo because he knows more about the Simpsons than I do. Well, he also hides a very, very sharp sense of humor. Very well-developed. Cool.

And so Pete and Gates, popular morning show, when they left, I'm trying to get my timelines right, but when did you leave CFNY? Before they did. Right, okay. I was there until, what is it, 88, 89 maybe. I did 11 years there. And it just seemed that it was time for me to move on. I think in the last half dozen months, my eyes were, my heart wasn't in it anymore, to tell you the honest truth.

I felt that I had done what I came to do. And if my heart's not in it, then I'm cheating all the people who are on my team. And I can't do that. I can't do that. So after 11 years, I resigned, and I'd had a very good offer to do television for the CBC Corporation. And so that's where I went. While you were at CFO, are you the man who hired Alan Cross?

I am. Okay, he tells a great story about sort of how he applied for that. I think he was in Manitoba, I think. I think he was in Winnipeg. Winnipeg, yeah. And Alan Cross today, I mean he was in Manitoba, I think. I think he was in Winnipeg. Winnipeg, yeah. And Alan Cross today, I mean, he's back actually at, I don't know, some kind of consulted role, but he's back at CFNY today.

Yes, he was on, when I was on Scott Turner, he was in with that. And I told the story about how he was hired on that particular show. Because, yeah, because Alan told it on, I think it's episode 66. I don't know if he told the real story. I got to hear the real story. Do you want to tell the real story? Well, it was interesting because I was actually just on my way out

and Don Burns was the guy who was following me in. I was director of operations and programming and Don was coming in as program director. That's a great voice, by the way. Speaking of great voices. Yeah, I know. But he shouts, doesn't he? Doesn't he drive you crazy?

Short drive. And if he doesn't come to an event, he inserts a Photoshop picture of himself at the event. Is that right? Anyway, he was interviewing this guy, and so I said, well, if you like him, then bring him up to my place, and

I'll give you the final stamp of approval. I was living up on the forks of the credit at the time, not too far away. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Desi interviewed afternoon, and Desi interviewed Alan. And I call him Desi Bell, by the way. That has to do with his voice.

I was going to ask who Desi was. Decibel. Decibel, yes. Oh, yeah, I see. I see. Anyway, so he brought this guy up, and this guy walks into my place up in Caledon, and he's got like the world's largest afro, and he's wearing a white sports jacket.

And I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, what decade are we actually in? Anyway, we chatted, I interviewed him, and and uh subsequently of course he was hired but i did tell the story about that about him and his afro that's uh i'd love to see a photo of that i wish i had one i did tell it when i sat in with scott uh and alan was there cringing i think i i apologized but at the same time, I thanked him for his patience while I told this ridiculous story. You know, when you talk about how Dave Farrow was open enough to let competing people working for competing companies, he had NuCap there and different organizations and talking on

a chorus station. There's one other event where I can remember this happening, and it was after Martin the Streak passed away. And you, and we're going to get to your rock program soon, but you aired an excellent tribute to Martin the Streak. Five hours, I believe. Five hours. It was amazing. I still have it somewhere. It's amazing.

Well, you know, I mean, I hired Martin. He was actually hired as one of the team for the CFNY Roadshow. Right. And was the guy, I think he was the guy who drove the thing. See, I think you told me that story off air. I did? Oh, we did. We did.

Okay. So the traveling roadshow, that was an Ivor Hamilton idea? Oh, we didn't do that. Oh, yeah, because you and I did chat about that, but before I press record, so I just want to... Well, I'll quickly... You've got Ivor coming in. You can ask him about it. But this was, again,

we're going back to Little Yellow House. I'm out of order now, but that's... Yeah, the station is in receivership, etc., etc. And none of us had any very much money coming in. And, of course, because it was in receivership, there was literally, you know, no money. And I was sitting on one of the three-legged chairs one day. And Ivor comes up. And I think Ivor was 17, maybe 18 at the time.

And he was in as an intern. And he said, you know, I really really i've got to have some money or i have to go somewhere else and i said well we don't have any money uh but i don't want you to go anywhere else right and he said well i've got this idea that maybe i could go and play cfny music F&Y Music at dances, at high school dances or whatever. And we could charge them for that service, and I could make some money that way. Generate some revenue. Fantastic idea.

And so I said, let's do it. And that ultimately became known as what grew up to be the CFNY Video Roadshow. It started in Ivor's little car in the back seat with some records and a turntable, and it ended up in a five-ton truck with a staff of four people. Wow. And then DJs going out, and the thing was booked year-round. So I don't remember where we were heading. No, we were heading to Martin the Streak so how was he involved with

Martin was, he was basically Roger Powell and Martin and one other guy who I apologize I can't remember it. Roger and Martin were really the, they were the men behind the operation if you will. They weren't

they were like the roadies but they were really more than roadies right and martin was uh was a key player in in the development of the video roadshow and um i i i can i'm sure i recall him bounding into my office one day, all excited because he'd been able to get his upgraded license, which would allow him to drive a five-ton truck. Cool. And so the day that he left CFNY, now we're 25 years later. Now you're in 2009.

Whatever it was. Yeah, 2009. I was playing a gig at Andy Poole Hall on College because I used to go out and DJ just for fun. And a whole load of CFNY people were there because they were celebrating someone's birthday. I can't remember who it was. And Martin came in and he came up on the dj stand and uh i gave him a hug we gave each

other a hug and he whispered in my ear i've just been fired that's what he said and i pulled back and i looked at him i said what and he said i've just been fired and i said said, why? He said, I don't know. And then he said, I don't know what to do. And I said, what do you mean you don't know what to do? And he said, you're the only person that's ever interviewed me for a job. You were the guy when I was 17 or so you hired me I've never been interviewed I don't know what to do I said that let's have coffee Martin said I'm going to LA for a week or two and when I get back we'll have coffee because I was quite well ready to help and get back in whatever it was going to take and he came back several weeks i can't remember a week we can have two weeks and we talked on the phone and we talked by email and we were planning to get together and have a cup of coffee and i was going to help him at the time uh the rock was even interested in giving him a show and uh because i had talked

to them about it while he was in la and uh he came back we chatted a little bit and i opened up my facebook one morning early and and i saw martin left a rather cryptic message that simply said, well, folks, it's been fun and I guess that's it. Something like that. Yes. And I somehow knew what that meant. I didn't want to know. So I started making phone calls. And it turned out that it was true,

that he had in fact put on his own wings and flew away. That was a very sad day. I felt it essential to do something in my radio show about Martin, and it ended up being an entire five hours. I think it sits on your website, doesn't it? It does, actually. I never knew if you were cool with that or not. Why wouldn't I be?

You never know these days. You never know. No, no. That particular five-hour show, it's not about me. It's about Martin. Okay, so that five hour tribute yes so on my website torontomic.com

I am hosting those primarily and only because I think fans of Martin should be able to kind of easily access it

and listen to it well I totally agree and I will tell you straight away I get a lot of email and some of it is asking about Martin.

I always direct people to your site for the access to that show. The night that I did that, it was a very difficult show to do. Very difficult. And you did it right away? Like this was the weekend after he passed? Yeah, I believe it was like a Wednesday when Martin left us. Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday or Wednesday?

I can't remember. Anyway, it was as quickly after that as possible. Because in those days, I think I was on the air Thursdays and Fridays. So it would have been probably the Thursday night. My timeline is not, I don't remember timeline. I should point out to listeners that you and I spoke once before via phone, and I recorded it. And so you do appear on the five years after Martin Streak's death,

I put together like a, I'll call it Remembering Martin Streak, like a retrospective. So you're on that. So you tell some great, if anyone's looking for more David Marsden stories about Martin Streak and his years at CFNY, seek out episode 82 and listen to that. Episode 82. 82. And there's others like, so Alan Cross is talking on that and Fred Patterson and Rob Johnston, who knew him quite well, who's still at the edge. And people, not Ivor, but, oh, because I didn't work with these people,

sometimes I draw a blank on their name. But he was in promotions for the longest time. Are you talking about Darren? No, I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on his name. Promotion. He's still, he's in the West Coast now. So I talked to Brother Bill. You're talking about Captain Phil. Captain Phil Evans.

Yes. That's the gentleman I'm thinking of. So I chatted with him. You know, Martin was the best man at a wedding. Yeah. The wonderful thing that happened during that 11 years at CFNY is that there were a lot of friendships formed that have remained. All these years later, people are still best of friends

because of what happened when they were together, when we were all together at CFNY. It sounds like a magic, perfect story. Alan Cross met his wife there. Yes, Mary Ellen Benninger. I think he's the only one actually who accomplished that. That's right. And she's a real wonderful person.

Speaking of moving out to the West Coast, that's what you did after you left CFNY. Well, as I mentioned, I had developed a show, and CBC had bought the idea, but they didn't want to produce it in Toronto. So they said, you know, you can produce it in Montreal or you can produce it in Vancouver. I had never been to Vancouver, sad to say.

And they said, well, go out there for two weeks and see what you think of the place and meet people and so on. So I did. And it was along about, I don't know, April, maybe late March. And I arrived out there. And, of course, it was March and everything was in bloom. The trees were all in bloom, and I was sitting and leaning against a, what do they call it, a log. Thank you very much.

At English Bay Beach, and I look over on one side of me, and the North Shore Mountains are peaked with snow. And I look the other way, and it's Burrard Inlet, and it's wonderful. And I thought I had arrived in Nirvana at least. When it comes to aesthetic beauty, we can't compete with Vancouver. I mean, they've got the ocean and the mountains. How do we compete with that? Oh, the difference is that there's things to do here.

That's a good point. It's not as difference is that there's things to do here. That's a good point. It's not as pretty, but there's stuff to do. I'm just teasing my friends out on the West Coast. Oh, it's called Toronto Mic'd. Nobody in Vancouver will actually listen to anything called Toronto Mic'd. Well, that is true. I mean, I had a bit of a trouble there because

I couldn't hide where I was from and the fact that you're from Toronto right away is a big negative on your forehead. I hear this. I had people walk up to me at various cocktail bars and whatever and say, you came here to take my job, didn't you? No, I didn't actually. But it's unfortunate that for some reason our city has a negative attitude

or a negative picture for people in the West. It's this ill-conceived notion that we believe we're the center of the universe. I think it has to do with sort of being on top of the mountain, people trying to knock you off. We're not? No, just the center of Canada. That's what I'm saying. knock you off. We're not? No, just the center of Canada. That's what I'm saying.

So what is the name of the show that you went to Vancouver to? Well, I didn't have a name for it. It was a television show primarily targeted at young people. It was very edgy, very, very avant-garde. And CBC put, we did a pilot in Vancouver, and the pilot, of course, then had to be shopped,

and the bosses at the CBC looked at the pilot, and they liked it, and they said, yeah, go. And then, what are you going to call it? And I said, I don't know, let's call it Pilot One. And so it became Pilot One. Okay. Five hosts on the show, all who were like 18, 19 years of age. Five writers on the show, all of whom were 18 or 19 years of age,

except for one guy who was the head writer. He was like 30. We did things that had never been really done before. Sue Johansson was on the show, and this was before anybody knew who she was. I knew her from Q107 because she did that little sex thing on Q107. Yeah, absolutely.

And so I brought her on, and she had a five-minute segment each week. And we really let her go. She did one five-minute segment was on masturbation, and she talked to the girls. And in the bit, she's walking in her kitchen and she's talking about the female masturbation and she opens the fridge door and she pulls out the biggest cucumber you've ever imagined. So we really did push the limits on it.

Yeah, yeah. the limits on it yeah yeah um i had i had a a drag queen uh who who did uh impersonated divine uh i had her on and then paula remble one of the hosts interviewed her about you know being a drag queen and being gay and all that sort of right right and people hadn't gotten to the point where this was comfortable yet um she did a sue Sue did a bit, another three to five minute piece about the size of guys' organs and how it was important or not. And at one point she said, you know, I don't think size matters. She said, what do you need with all that extra flopping around inside there so it was pretty outlandish uh and uh we lasted one season well hey you're always a like it's just a little

head of your time right i don't think people have quite caught up with that yeah and uh you were at uh coast 800 is this uh after the cbc uh, I was hired by the people who owned Coast 800. We moved it to Coast 1040, which was a Vancouver radio station. The plan was to move it to FM, and the first application that the owner made to do that change was rejected by the CRTC. And so he then said, oh, I think I'll just close it down. So he did. So that ended that.

And then I had some crazy idea that I was going to retire. And I could sit on the beach every day and rust. Because, you know, people don't tan in Vancouver. They just rust. Yeah, and rust never sleeps, I hear. Sorry to my friends in Vancouver who are going to shoot me. And then I sat on a beach for six months and thought, this is really boring.

Yeah. And that was when I realized that retirement was for people who don't like their jobs. Exactly. So I decided to get back in again. And you did something very ahead of its time, if you will, in cutting edge. You were involved with the Iceberg Radio. Yeah, I was a co-founder of Iceberg.

And I did, what, five or six years there. iceberg and um i did what five or six years there iceberg was uh probably the first streaming music channel certainly in north america i can't speak for europe or the uk um we had a bunch of radio stations in there each of which too cool for Radio was one of the channels. It was kind of CFNY for the 90s. Ill Noise, I-L-L-N-O-I-Z, was a hip hop channel. Prime Ticket was live. Gary Cormier, you probably won't remember or know about the two Garys. The two Garys were these crazy guys who promoted all this music that cf and y was playing during the 80s and prime ticket was run by gary commier and it was all live

shows we'd go into clubs or we we carried the toronto jazz festival one year uh we also had what else do we have i can't remember them all oh we had one groove.com which was a rave channel dance rave channel 53 djs in total worked in the building and um that's incredible it was unbelievable but it it we were probably in that situation, I think we were 10, maybe 12 years ahead of the stream. And that's a little too far ahead. You need the technology to catch up, essentially, to make it accessible. Today's stream, we're going to get to nythespirit.com in a bit. I mean, I learned a lot in building Iceberg.

It was quite magnificent. I mean, when I look at the artwork that the guys were doing then, there were seven people in the art department just building websites. And when I look at the work that they were doing then, it was really advanced. It was like so far ahead of itself. And you can't be too far ahead of it, you know, and we were. And you can't be too far ahead of it, you know, and we were. I left there after about five years when they decided to turn all of these channels into jukeboxes and just play music and not have any personality or anything.

Right, right. And to me, anybody can have a jukebox. That's easy. If you have an iPod, you hit shuffle, you've made your own jukebox yeah that's right you need a tour guide so to speak i don't know what you need but you you need to you know i i've always believed that as i said earlier if you build something that can't be found anywhere else and that includes people making it themselves, then I believe people will come. And you came back to the GTA

because you joined the team at The Rock 94.9 at some point. That was after Iceberg. Right. I mean, Iceberg obviously was Toronto. Right, of course. Yes, yes. We had the studios we had 12,000 square feet

of space and we took over the there was a country station called Kiss CIS or something it's now called

Kiss FM and I believe it's part of the Rogers chain I think it's New Cap is it because May Potts is at Boom

and I asked her what else is because New Cap owns Boom I'm like who else is, because NuCap owns Boom. I'm like, who else do they own? And they're like, yeah, I believe they own 92.5 Kiss FM. Anyway, it was sold to somebody, and we actually took over all their studios and everything.

And that was on Ontario Street, just down near King. Then that ended. Then I was doing a radio show to New York for a few years. It was done from here, but it was out of a service out of New York. And a few other things that I could, you know, things just come to you, and if you like them, you do them. Cool. And then at the same time as I was doing the New York thing,

I was brought on to 94.9. They asked me for lunch. I went to lunch. And the owners said, what is it going to get you back on the radio? Because I hadn't been on for a long time. And I said, I don't know. What are you offering?

Right. And he said, well, we'll let you do whatever you want. And to me, those are magic words. And no one's hearing that anymore. No. Well, you know, I think it can still be found. Smart programmers will say it. I think it can still be found.

Smart programmers will say it. At the same time, however, the individual that it's being said to has to really understand what this business thing about radio is. You can't just be self-inteligent. There has to be, you know, you have to be doing, you have to know what to do to bring people to you absolutely because you know as much as i like to think that it's just i'm here and it's all

kind of fabulous it is a business and it has to make money in order that they can pay me and everybody else and so but sometimes when you just say to somebody, you can do whatever you want, they may not have their own frame on that. And you have to put a frame on it somewhere. So you had a show on 94.9. Yeah. And the show you had, basically, you could play whatever,

within reason, I suppose, you could play whatever you wanted. Yeah, the within reason is always my own judgment sure you know i mean what i was doing and there's nothing new it's what i what we all did at cf and y it's what i did at ckgm is you you you you you play the music in such a way that it all fits together so that it's a pleasant experience for the listener. Right. You don't want people hitting brick walls. You can't go from Joni Mitchell to ACDC because it's too abrupt. But I can go from Joni Mitchell and five songs later I can get you to ACDC,

but I've got a ladder that I have to build to get you there. So it's less jarring. Yes. And I don't think in terms of songs, ever, I think in terms of music. How is it all going to fit together? So what was the process for you? Did you sit at home and sort of start building your playlist for the next show? No, at The Rock Rock at 94.9.

The only song I ever picked in advance was my first one. Which one was that? Whatever. Each night, my first song. Oh, your first song. Sorry, I thought you meant the first episode. No, no. Okay. Oh, that's 11 years ago. I couldn't remember. I have trouble remembering. That's a trivia answer.

No, the first song for each show is the only song that I would ever pick. Ever. Fascinating. So on the fly, while you record, you just, whatever you were feeling next. I mean, that's how I did it at Chum FM. That's how we all did it at CFNY. That's how it was done from the early days of FM.

Does it require that you know music pretty well? Of course. But that's what makes a good host anyways because you can tell i can tell the hosts who don't really like or know about the music they're playing and my favorite in fact i remember this long after your days on cfny i remember uh george strombalopoulos was doing he filled in for the morning show and i was listening and it was so different to me because you could tell a he cared about the music he was playing and b he had interesting things to say about the music and you could tell it was sincere and it really enhanced the experience and i wrote about it on my blog actually like just how amazing that week was when somebody was hosting who actually gave

a shit about the music i hope i hope that i hope that he likes hockey. He does. Because if you love music and then suddenly you love hockey, I would say the challenge for George at this point would be to try and figure out how to combine the two. But what he does, which I admire, is that he still builds a show. He gives it to CBC Radio 2. Oh, does he? Yeah. Because he does, which I admire, is that he still builds a show for, he gives it to CBC Radio 2. Oh, does he? Yeah. So he's still, because he does love the music.

So he's answered my question. Yeah, he's still doing it for CBC. I don't know, George. I've never met the man. You guys should meet. I could coordinate this only because you're both so damn passionate. And he was very tight with Martin Streak. Yes.

Because he came aboard after your days at CFNY. Yes, he did. I've never had the pleasure of meeting him. I actually was, when I came back to Toronto, I was walking by the city building one day, and there was a guy out there, and he was doing something. I don't know what he was, digging in flowers or something. And someone said his name was George.

And so I went over, i said hi you're george aren't you and he said yes i am and i said well i'm pleased to meet you uh i believe that you worked at cfny after i left and the guy got really quite uptight about it and he said oh you mean strablabla not him and it was one of the he's on cp24 he reads the news now oh yeah george lagaganis something like that yeah he actually got quite upset that i thought he was george yeah the wrong greek i think is what he was trying to tell you so i've never met george and maybe one day he'll invite me to a hockey game oh i bet you you could hook that up but i could sit up there in the VIP box and go, what is this about?

You're not a hockey fan. Well, I sit and watch some games, but I don't really know what's happening. It's okay. Just when the puck goes in the net, somebody's either really happy or really sad. That's how I see it. It's fine. But back to the Rock 94.9, because very recently, like I'm going to say in the fall of 2014, I believe they canceled your show. They did.

Why'd they do that, David? Well, that actually happened, I guess it was November that that announcement was made to me. And there's a new program director there. I have to say that Steve Kasse is the vice president of programming, and he was such a strong supporter of everything that I was doing for 11 years because I was there 11 years. That's a good run. Yeah.

It seems automatically 11 years, CFNY, 11 years. There you go. It's also my favorite number because George Bell wore it for the Blue Jays in the 80s. So you're a real sports fan, aren't you? Big time, yeah. Yeah? Which would you prefer, hockey or baseball? I can't answer it because equal love for both.

Yeah, right. What about basketball? I watched the whole game last night, for example. I'm a big Raptors fan, yeah. Those are my three favorite sports to watch. I've always thought that with basketball, I've always thought that. It's a sports talk with David Marsden. Yeah, yeah. i've always thought it's a sports talk with david marsden yeah yeah i always thought that with

basketball what they should do is on the board at each they should say okay the score is and then just put up some numbers 98 to 101 and then and then have a three-minute game because it seems final three minutes yeah it seems to me that the excitement is only in the last three minutes because... It's true. You know, like the scores are so high. And the last three minutes of a basketball game takes about an hour to play. Have you noticed that?

Everyone called, they called their timeouts. And by the way, to finish three minutes of the last three minutes... But wouldn't that save us a lot of frustration? I don't know what the advertisers would think of that. You just arbitrarily pick two numbers and each team gets a number. You could actually shuffle them in a hat and pull them out, and then whoever wins, wins.

But it could last three minutes. It would be so much easier on all of us, wouldn't it? I have Eric Smith coming on soon. He covers the rappers. I'm going to tell him. I think that they just do that. At least hockey, there's a tenseness and there's an interest through it. Right.

I did go to a Blue Jays game. When I first came back to Toronto, I went to a Blue Jays game with a friend of mine who loves baseball. And he also loves beer. Yes, good combo. I don't drink beer., not for a long time. And so there I am at this baseball game, and he's enjoying his beer, and I'm sitting there, and there's guys on the field, and they're scratching themselves,

and they're repositioning their cup, and then they're checking their bum, and then they talk to somebody bum and then they talk to somebody and then everybody stands around and then finally some guy throws a ball and somebody else tries to hit it. And then after they're throwing the ball, the guy, nothing happens

and they go back to scratching themselves and repositioning their cup. And I'm thinking, this is the most ridiculous. You know, that's what happens when you introduce baseball to an adult. Seriously. Yeah, absolutely. You got to kind of fall in love as a kid or you're screwed with baseball because that's how slow it feels.

Oh, my Lord. I thought, what are you screwing? Just get on with it. So, anyway. Beautiful sport, but I don't think you could kind of fall in love with it as an adult unless you introduce the beer before, anyway. Beautiful sport, but I don't think you could kind of fall in love with it as an adult, unless you introduced the beer before, maybe. Well, as I said, my friend liked beer, and I seemed to be able to get him through.

I think I left at the end of sixth inning or something. But I've never had the body or the brawn or whatever it takes to be a sports person. I was always... That never stopped me. Well, you know, in school, you know, in grade eight or grade seven, I was always the last guy picked. Like Les Nesman in the WKRP. Yeah, I was.

And I was always the guy, oh, well, guess we'll have him. You're stuck with him. So I never really had a great sports but you showed them because you went on and became a radio legend so now he's laughing but back in 94.9 and it's cool if you don't know or you don't want to

answer it but I guess I'm wondering why would they cancel your show? As I was saying there's a new program director and I think what I was told was that he just didn't feel that the show fit what he wanted to be anymore. He's pretty high on repeating the same song every 12 minutes or something.

And I don't do that sort of thing. And my contract was that I do whatever I want. And I'm not, I mean, I did alter the show slightly at his request, but it wasn't sufficient. It just thought it was no longer a good fit because he wanted to hear songs that you didn't want to play and you're not there to play songs you don't want to play. In his opinion.

Right, of course. So this is the thing. I got this announcement that the show was canceled. Well, first of all, they spun it first as if it was like you... Originally, it did seem like you were stepping down, like you were ending your show. Yeah. And I was relatively comfortable with that concept. But it didn't end up being that way.

I did not get to do my final two shows. That's okay. That's the thing. There was, okay, we were told you were going to get to say goodbye. There'd be a final show. Why was there no final show? What happened that caused that to be canceled?

Well, I don't know that it's appropriate for me to get into all that. Just suffice to say that the agreement was, in the last week, on the Monday or the Tuesday, was, okay, I think probably I'm best to just bow out now. And that's what I did. You mentioned that... The reasons why, I don't know.

That's fair. You don't have to show those cards if you don't want to. You know, I'm really big on honesty and my own credibility, and I just can't feel that it's proper my audience they're faithful they're always there and I just didn't feel it was appropriate for me to go in under the guise of something that I wasn't and so I I bowed quietly out and went about my business. You mentioned when you were talking to Scott Turner on a Sunday recently, Spirit Radio Sunday on 102.1,

you mentioned that you had some visitors like May Potts, and you mentioned Danny showed up. Danny, oh, yes. And the famous story, and I just mentioned this with May Potts, but the famous story I keep hearing about, and I wish I had heard it live, but I did not, was that she quit on the air. And I was just wondering, maybe if you had a final show, like maybe it would have been one of those.

First of all, I think we'd all be listening and just to see what you would do with a live radio show knowing that you were done at the station. What I would do, and I don't disregard what Danny did. I mean, I wasn't here. I was in Vancouver and I only heard about it third-hand. But I love Danny. It was a joy to see her.

We cuddled for a little while, and there are pictures of that on the Internet, which is really going to destroy my reputation. and of course we talk usually on Facebook or something from time to time and I think she's wonderful if I had done my last show it would have been

me thanking people for various and sundry things that had happened during the show for the past 11 years. For example, I have a chat room that started when I was at 94.9. And hundreds of people. And the beautiful thing is that it was all started by a woman who I call Sister Mar.

Her name is Marilyn. And she called me one day or sent me an email and said, would you like to have a chat room? And this was eight or nine years ago. Yeah, it would have been about eight years ago. And I said, yeah, and this was for my New York show, the one I was doing for New York. And so she started the chat room there.

And then she decided that I needed to have a chat room at 94.9 as well. And so she is a person that would have been on my thank you list. The Baron, who runs the chat room now, he would have been high on my chat room list. Every year the folks in the chat room give me a birthday party. Cool. Live music, the whole deal. It's quite swell.

Well, give the URL, like the website address where people... The chat room? Right. Just go to MarsdenGlobal.com, and then you'll see a little link that says chat room. Okay. It's always open when I'm on the air. Like even now on nythespirit.com, the chat room is open. But they give me a party every year, and hundreds of people come to the party.

That's awesome. They bring me gifts. Very cool. Nice gifts, I might add. And it usually happens in the VIP room at the Hard Rock Cafe. Last year, Slave to the Square Wave played, and it was terrific. It was a great night, and I know they're doing one this coming year. March is my birthday month.

Very cool. Maybe I'll get them to send you an invite. Yeah, you know what? I would love to be invited. I would totally show up. Well, I tell you, you know, Geetz Romo always shows up. A lot of people like that. Cool.

People that I've worked with show up. Doug Thompson always comes out. And it's a wonderful night. It's a great night. So you would have, had you had that last show, you would have been thanking people. Yes, that's what would have been important. All right.

Got a piece of audio again. And, that's what would have been important. All right. I got a piece of audio again. And this time, it's of all places... You're trying to make me weep again. But this one, I'm sure you've heard recently. That's the difference. If I had known that, I would have had more clips. I'm going to play...

This was actually from the House of Commons of all places. Oh, my God. I'll tell you the story about this after you play it. Very good. Okay, let me play it, and then I want to hear the story. Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House of Commons today to mark the end of an era in radio broadcasting in the Durham region and indeed across Canada, Mr. Speaker.

This weekend will feature the final episodes of the Marsden Theatre, hosted by legendary broadcaster David Marsden, the Mars Bar. He has been a pioneer in radio broadcasting in Canada, starting in the 1970s and 1980s with the Spirit of Radio at CFNY in Toronto. He was an early champion for Canadian music in Canada, Mr. Speaker, including helping create the CASB Awards, Canadian artists selected by you. For the last decade, at 94.9 The Rock in Oshawa, he has hosted one of the final live-to-air radio programs in North America, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank David Marsden for being a decades-long champion of Canadian music. I want to thank him for his eclectic mix of music, his cheeky humor.

David, please stay curious and know that all of us will be listening this weekend. Thank you. I had no idea that was coming. I think I got out of bed around noon and I got a cup of coffee, and I headed to my computer to check Facebook and my Marsden Global, where there's a forum. It's my normal morning routine.

And when I opened up Facebook, the video was staring me in the face, and I had no idea what it was. And so I clicked play play and that came out. It was... Quite the honor. That's the House of Commons, for goodness sakes. It was, it was, how can I say this? I thought to myself, how do I live up to that? This gentleman who I didn't know, who is now the minister, a minister,

had stood up in the House of Commons and I really did wonder, how do I live up to that? It was amazing. Sorry. The thing is, you have lived up to that. This is, yeah, I mean, I don't use the word legend for every guest

who comes on this show, but... It was quite a moment, I must tell you. What's the MP's name? Do you know? I should have that in my notes. I believe it's Aaron O'Toole. Aaron O'Toole, okay. I believe.

He's now Minister of Veterans Affairs. I don't do politics, so I don't... I recognize that he is a politician, and I recognize that he is in a party, but I separate that he is a politician and I recognize that he is in a party, but I separate that. I just, I was just, you know, I never imagined that someone in the House of Commons speaking to a situation would ever have used the words Mars bar.

That's true. That is true. And it was a bit overwhelming. Subsequent to that, the minister has sent me a beautiful, what do you call those things, like a folder thing? What do you call that? Like a book? It's green leather, and it's stamped on the front.

Okay. And when I open it up, on the left side, there's a wonderful letter from the minister, and on this side is the minister's speech. Yeah, some kind of portfolio. Yeah. Very nice. And he sent me that.

And I know that he listens. And out of respect for him, I won't go any further. But I will say that I think he's a really fun fellow. Oh, excellent. That's fantastic. A fun guy. And you keep hitting me with these things here. No, don't worry. I know I asked for an hour, and I've stolen quite a bit more.

So I hope that's... But I'm almost done here. I just want to ask you about nythespirit.com. Yeah. So tell us what it is and... What it is, my business partner, whose name is Igor Lukin, he and I, he was, I met him originally, he used to be a DJ, now he's in finance, but we'll try not to hold that against him.

We'd been talking about doing something. I always still, even after Iceberg, I still always had the feeling that there was a reason to get music streaming on the Internet. So about 18 months ago, he and I started to develop this thing that we called nythespirit.com. And we spent 18 months loading it, designing the website, doing all the stuff that has to be done. And we launched it on Labor Day weekend of 2014,

which was beginning of September. This was before I knew that the end was near at 94.9. I think some people think I'd launched it in retaliation. It's not true. I launched it way before. Yes. it's not true i i launched it way before yes uh and um so we launched this thing and we've added people to our dj list iver hamilton does a show uh don burns does a show rob stewart from slave to the square wave he does a show from the viewpoint of the musician rather than the

viewpoint of the dj and i do live shows right now on Sunday from 8 until midnight. Starting in February, I'll go Saturday and Sunday, 8 until midnight, live show. And it's my normal show. It's like the music is very broad and very wide, and we don't limit it. The stream that goes 24-7 isf and y music from the 80s from the from the really peaky point really peaky point if you will uh of of um of the cf and y as a radio station and that's where it's all mostly from. When the DJs are on, they do whatever they want, so it expands quite a bit.

We have worked really, really, really hard on the fidelity. We have amazing fidelity. I don't know if you've listened to it, but the fidelity is phenomenal. Not yet, but I was just thinking, hey, finally, technology has caught up to you here because now is the time for this. I suppose, yeah. I'm thinking maybe I should get a spaceship

and do it from there. But it's a pretty marvelous thing. It's a subscription. Is it an app? So there's an app or is it just through a web page? No, you can have it on any platform you want. You can have it on your iPhone. You can have it on your Android.

You can have it through Bluetooth. As long as you have an internet connection, you can have this. Yeah, through Bluetooth. It's in your car. If your TV, blah, blah, blah. It's everywhere. Just go to nythespirit.com. There are no commercials. i've made the decision

that we would not have commercials i've also made the decision that we will not mine any data so when you go there we're not looking at you and selling that information but there is a subscription fee it works out to about 20 cents a day and that will do nothing but hopefully eventually cover our costs. Well, in this Starbucks age, I think, you know, people don't even, they don't hesitate to blow, you know, $10 a day on Starbucks drinks. Exactly. So $0.20 isn't much. And

Igor Lukin and I love the music. We love the whole feel of the thing. And so we try to keep it extremely honest. which will, again, and I think this is important, we don't play songs. We play music so that when you're listening, it all fits together. I can't tell you how we do it because that's a secret.

That's a secret. The secret's us. It's nythespirit.com. nythespirit.com. nythespirit.com. Have you listened to any of the Sunday Spirit Radio that's on 102.1 now with Scott Turner? Yes, I have. And as we both discussed, I've been on there as well.

Right. And what do you think, like how do you feel about it? How do you feel about them using Spirit Radio and what do you think, like how do you feel about it? How do you feel about them using Spirit Radio and what do you feel about the program? Again, I have such high regard for Mr. Farrow, for David. He and I talked before they launched the show, so I was aware that it was coming. Cool.

Scott Turner is someone that I admire. And you're the man who suggested he spell it S-K-O-T. This is a story he tells anyway. Well, I might be trying to remember. But as I said earlier, I won't make programming statements on other people's programming because I don't think it would be professional. I will say that I'm glad they're doing it.

And it does sound like Scott has a great control over the playlist, so to speak. He's not getting that handed to him by some corporate suit. No, I give them a standing ovation and said so from the very beginning. When David Farrow told me about it, I said, yeah, go do it. Have fun. It's about getting the music out there. It doesn't necessarily matter what the platform is. The platform is not what should be cool.

It's what's on the platform. That's just a delivery system. Whether it's in your car on a terrestrial radio, whether you're getting it through download or through streaming, that's just a delivery mechanism yeah the platform doesn't matter it doesn't content that's king platform doesn't have to be cool the content the music whatever has to be cool brother and and you know i mean there's a new world developing out there and anybody who says well yeah if you watch the Globe Awards the other day, that movie about the transgender people,

I think it's called Trans-something. Yes, I know, because it's got, hey now, Hank Kingsley. Yes, absolutely. And it won a bunch of awards, but it's only on Amazon.com. It's not on what would be called traditional television right that is a great example you know house of cards another great example except it actually is on your tv but it's through uh you're still streaming that thing over the internet only yeah absolutely so there's a new world coming that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with radio. There is nothing wrong with radio.

People always hear, oh, radio's dead. No, it isn't. Screw off. Don't bother me. It's about what you put on the platform. It's not about the platform itself. My final question for you. This has been a treat, by the way.

I could listen to you tell me stories. Thank you. Fantastic. Last question is, so you. I obviously feel very comfortable with you. Good, because I can do another hour. You got me to cry twice. Yeah, that's a new record. You've beat my record of once.

I don't usually do that in public. Tell me... I'm going to call you Barbara Walters. Hey, if I can make one person cry on this show, I've done my job. Tell me, though, you've appeared on Spirited Radio, as we mentioned a few times, and you speak very highly of Dave Farrow and Scott Turner, who's the host of the show, and you have good relations with Alan Cross, who's a consultant there. Is there any possibility at all of you ever returning to 102.1?

Because the movie, because this chat, I pictured the movie. We got the great scenes and some great stuff going on in this movie. But we need a closing to the meeting. We need a finish to the movie. Do you know there is a movie? Are you familiar with that? No. There's a movie?

Because I was going to do this. It's called I Am What I Play. It was produced by Roger, a guy named Roger King, Roger King. Okay. And it's called I Am What I Play. I didn't know this. And there are four DJs involved. Three of them are from the United States and one is from Canada.

Okay, it's like a documentary. Yeah, but I've not seen it. I spent minimum 15 hours being interviewed for it on camera. And you've never seen it? No, it hasn't been released. I'm totally curious. Is this coming out in 2015?

Well, what has happened is the movie, Charles Lacodara is on it. You might know him. Meg is on it and the guy from Seattle. What it is is it's us, the four DJs, talking about the passion we have for the music, sharing, communication. It has been picked up by a major distributor in the U.S., and it's expected that when the film festival season arrives in America,

that the film will be shown at quite a few, probably Sundance and those kinds of, Tribeca. And that's all I know about it. You can see a trailer of it by going And that's all I know about it. You can see a trailer of it by going to IamWhatIAM.com, I think it is, or IamWhatIAM if you want. I'll Google this. Yeah, Google it.

And none of the four of us, the four DJs, have been permitted to see the movie until its premiere. Interesting. And we're going to be there to see it. That's wicked. And I guess we're going to walk that Ben Mulroney's red carpet. Ryan Seacrest will be there? You know, this is ruining, though, my idea.

I know. Mine's a biopic. This is a documentary, which is cool. I can't wait to see this, and I'm going to see the trailer. Have a look at the trailer. I've only seen the trailer since a few weeks ago when Roger released it. And you think documentary, you think, oh, yeah, that'll be boring.

No. But this guy, Roger, has turned it in. It's very exciting. So next year at this time, when they announce the Oscar nominations, we should be looking for a best documentary nomination. Well, it's been quite a thrill, actually, because it's been an ongoing project. I think we're three years into it now.

Oh, you're catching up with boyhood. We are. That's awesome. I didn't know. I was 28 when we started this. And I've had nothing to do with it other than be a guy sitting in front of a camera for 15 hours being interviewed.

But have a look at it. I what i play for sure and uh and there as for the cfny i'm i'm always open to anything that's interesting to talk about like is anyone there asked you for coffee i think that's the code for let's talk business right let? Let's go for coffee. I'll just have to say no comment. No comment. Oh, you're teased. But, you know, if you listen, when I was on with Scott, I did say that it's nice to be back home. And then I said, I wonder if they'll let me stay. They should let you stay

because that's how I'm going to end the movie, whether it's true or not. You always can take liberties with these movies. I'm going to end it that way regardless, so you might as well do it. There is a Facebook page also that I think is Bring David Marsden. Bring David Marsden back to CFNY.

It just seems like that feels right to me. I'm going to see what I can do. I got some contacts over there. I'll see what I can do. Thank you again. This was amazing. I think we went like an hour and 45 minutes. Are you serious?

So I am. Got it. I hope I didn't bore anybody. Please. This is compelling. You said distribution methods and everything. This content is king. Thank you very much, Mike.

I appreciated it. You're very good at what you do. Thank you very much, Mike. I appreciated it. You're very good at what you do. You're very good at interviewing. So good. I don't make a penny doing this. It's not about money. No, obviously not. Obviously not. And that brings us to the end of our

106th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and David Marsden is not on Twitter. I look for you. Actually, I am. Are you? What's your top secret handle? I think I can't remember.

Oh, no. I think it's just David Marsden, but I can't remember. You know what we got to do? Get you verified then. I am Twittery. Okay. I have trouble figuring it all out. If you need help, let me know.

I'm a Twitter professional. Oh, I am on Facebook and I am on all it all out. If you need help, let me know. I'm a Twitter professional. Oh, I am on Facebook, and I am on all those other places. And of course, nythespirit.com is where you go to sign up for what sounds like an awesome project. I encourage you to try it. I really think you'll love it. nythespirit.com And see you all next week. Well, you've been under my. It's been eight years of laughter

and eight years of tears.