Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - David Marsden: Toronto Mike'd #533

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

David Marsden's presentation at the Reference Library in Toronto on October 29, 2019.

Welcome to episode 533 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAs, and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and this is something very different for Toronto Miked, but something I think everybody should hear. Yesterday, on October 29th, 2019, David Marsden spoke at the Reference Library.

I reached out to David and told him I'd like to attend and set up my studio so I could capture the audio for those who were unable to attend. David loved the idea, put me in touch with someone at the Toronto Public Library, and thanks to a great guy named Michael Cole, I can now share this entire presentation with you all now. If you're hungry for more David Marsden after this, he was my guest for episode 106 on January 15th, 2015. And we chatted about his years as Dave Mickey,

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. Tears were shed. Now, here's David Marsden, live at the Reference Library in Toronto.

Hi everybody. Hang on a sec here. I can't, you know, I was worried, well, not worried. I was concerned that there's so much going on tonight. You know, there's something, a baseball game is going on. Are you okay down there? Are you okay down there? I was worried that you were going to know what you did. So I was worried there were so many things going on that we'd have nobody here. So I see a few of you, and that's pretty cool.

Nice to see you all. And I did get around and say hi to a few of you. That was pretty good. And if you're wondering, every time we're somewhere, there has to be a rogues gallery. Do you know what I mean by that? A rogues gallery is where all the people who are annoying sit.

All the people who have power that is unbelievable is where they sit. All the people who have power that is unbelievable is where they sit, actually. And so I'd invite you to look over here. This is the rogues gallery, this whole line here. Oh, except for yourself.

You're very nice. So I got a call a few weeks ago and somebody, I can't remember his name, Michael, said would I come and talk. And I thought about it for a little while because I really don't have much to say. But so I said, yeah, let's do that. And then I thought, golly, there is something to say, but I wasn't sure what it was. So I went to Google, and I found out everything I ever wanted to say. And we were primarily going to talk about CFNY tonight and other things like that. But I thought that it was probably important for you all to know what it was like when I started. It was like a little guy. Oh, this is good. The button isn't working.

Oh, there it is. Hold on. I can't see the picture. Well, that's unfortunate because it was, hi there. That's unfortunate because the picture was me when I was like five years old and is there a reason why that picture isn't showing? Go backwards? Oh now I've really screwed up haven't I? Sorry. Hey? Sorry. What you should do is, leave this one, this is. We're just gonna have a minute here. Here, here, here. You go forward. Okay, next one. Forward.

See that picture's not coming. Yeah, I can't tell why. This is... So you just forward here, backward here? Forward here. Yeah. Pictures. What are we going to do about the pictures?

I don't know. By the way, the picture was me when I was about five years old. And I thought you all should see that. Because I was just this pudgy little thing, and for some reason, this isn't going to work, but, so I had that little five-year-old picture of me, and I thought I'd tell y'all that I grew up in a foster home, and I think I was born in Toronto, and then I ended up in Stratford in a foster home when I was about five or six years old.

And the family I lived with were in the business of dairies, and so they had restaurants and dairies in Stratford. And so I would spend my summers working in the restaurants, being a soda jerk. I don't know, that word doesn't exist anymore, but a soda jerk was somebody who worked behind a fountain and made sodas, obviously. And the dairy bar that I worked in was quite close to the Stratford Theater. So all the performers and the actors used to come in. I was the only one that Robert Goulet would let make a milkshake.

That was me. No one ever knew this, but I gave him extra ice cream. No one ever knew this, but I gave him extra ice cream. But Alec Guinness would come in, and James Mason would come in, and all these actors. And so I was waiting on them and making stuff for them. Yeah, come on and sit down here. Sure, live it up. And when I was about 14, I started running dances at the local Y.

You know, I would charge people a buck or whatever it was, I don't remember, to come to my dances. And we would play records. And I would hire DJs from CKSL in London, actually. And Dick McFarlane and people like that. And then one day this band came to me, and they said, we'd really like to play one of your shows. And I said, well, it's really just mostly records.

And they said, we'd like to play. So I said, okay, why don't we play? So I let them have the stage, and they turned into this. They were called the... Oh, the microphone doesn't follow me. Amazing. They're called the Revels, R-E-V-O-L-S, which is lovers spelt backwards.

And that's myself. We're in the bottom lower corner there, that cute guy. And behind me is Jimmy Winkler, the drummer, and then Doug Rhodes. And then the little guy down in the bottom here was Garth Pico. And next to him was Kenny Kalmusky. And our other guitar player was a fellow named John Till. Kenny Kalmusky ended up with Ian and Sylvia. And John Till ended up being guitarist for Janis Joplin, and he's

on the Pearl album. Kenny's, what would they call that? What do they call that when you're, I don't have the background of that. His son, whatever that is, is a famous producer now in Nashville. And the guy right behind there with the goofy look is Richard Manuel. And you all might remember him from a group called The Band. And so that was my little band. And when I found out that I was an adopted kid, I decided I really had no reason to stay home any longer because

I really was, it wasn't my home. And so the bunch of us, we were all, well, Garth was 15. In fact, Garth had to replace John Till because John Till was only 14 and his parents were allowed to travel. And Richard and myself, Kenny, we were all 17-ish around in that neighborhood. And we opened for Ronnie Hawkins one night in Port Dover. And Ronnie Hawkins fell in love with the band.

And I started to work with him. Eventually we organized that the band would go south to Ronnie's club which he owned in Fayetteville, Arkansas and the club was called I think it was The Rock something or other and I still remember the first time I met for a serious meeting

I went to some hotel here in Toronto and I was to meet Robbie Hawkins and arrange all the move and everything and I walked into the hotel room and Ronnie Hawkins was lying on one bed and

Robbie Robertson was lying on the other bed. But neither of them had any clothes on. I didn't know where to look. Oh, actually, I knew where to look, but I didn't think I should. So that was the beginning. We went to Arkansas. We would play Ronnie's Club for four nights a week, and then we would go on the road and we would play the frat houses throughout the South. Sorry about that. One weekend, we did a show and we were going into Memphis to do a show at some bar in Memphis. And we were driving. Ronnie had given us a beautiful big Cadillac, white thing, four doors, magnificent,

with a beautiful white lengthy trailer on the back end. We looked pretty impressive. But we were all 17 years old and Garth was 15 and so on. We crossed the bridge from West Memphis into Memphis City and suddenly we were surrounded by police cars and they pulled us over and they asked for our ID and ownership of the car.

Well, gosh golly, I had left it back in Fayetteville. So they arrested us all, and we went to jail. And we were all put in separate cells, and we were there for roughly 36, maybe 40 hours, and the food was delicious. Actually, the food was just how many grits, and if you know how many grits, it's pretty awful. So anyway, after about 36, 40 hours, somebody came and let us out, and they said, follow us. So all of us went up to this office place and the detectives and all these guys in suits

started apologizing. Oh, we're so sorry. We didn't realize you were from Canada. By then, Dayton Stratton, who worked for Ronnie, had advised them that, yes, it's okay for them to have the car and, yes, they have the ownership. And he said, we really feel bad about this.

Is there something we can do for you we're in Memphis we're 17 years old and it's the middle 50s and I looked at the detective and I said yes we'd like to see Elvis' house he went away he came back in about two minutes, and he said, here,

this is my card. Give it to the guard at the gate. We thought, well, this is ridiculous, but we thought we'll do it anyway, so we go up to Elvis's place, and this was when it was home, not a burial ground or whatever it is now, and he still lived there, and his dad, his mom had died. And you've got to take the lens cap off. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry, I couldn't. Anyway, we pull up to the gate. You know, you've all seen the picture of the van.

And the gate's open, and this guard comes out, and he's got EP security, silver badges, and all kinds of things. And I handed him the card. And he said, yes, go on ahead. We went up to the house, and Vernon Presley, Elvis' dad, came out. Elvis was away doing a movie. Presley, Elvis' dad came out. Elvis was away doing a movie. And we spent about two and a half hours with Vernon. He showed us the whole house and the stables. And we got a ride. And I don't know, you guys are not old enough to remember any of this. But in the

Hawaii movie that Elvis did, they had these little go-karts with fringe on them, and they were all purple, sort of. Well, we got to ride around in those, and it was a fun event. And then, not too long after that, we decided to go home, and they went off and became the band, and I went off and thought I wanted to be

in this business called radio. So I went and got into this radio business, and that worked out okay. And then one day, there's a picture going to come up, I'm hoping. There's a picture going to come up, I'm hoping. One day, I was doing music hop at the time for CBC. And somebody said, well, the Rolling Stones are looking for somebody. The picture that's supposed to come up is me with the Stones. And they said, you know, nobody wanted to interview the Stones. Nobody.

Because they were dirty. The Beatles were clean. The Stones were dirty. They didn't bathe, apparently. That's what I was told. No, they don't bathe. They smell, and this, and that. And no one wanted to interview them.

I said, I'll interview them. So I went down, and I sat with the four of them, four or five, whatever it was. And we had a lovely time. It ended up on TV. And the picture you're supposed to be seeing is the one of myself sitting with the Rolling Stones. We all looked like we're 12, you know. Mick Jagger had the biggest lips in town. I've never seen anything like that.

So then one day, I'm still doing my Dave Mickey thing here, and we'll get to the real stuff in a minute. I was at WABC in New York, and they were thinking of hiring me. And I walked into the program director's office. His name was Rick Sklar. And Rick was like a nice little guy, but he always dressed extremely well. And I had been in his office two or three other times. And I go in, and he just gets out of his chair, and he just goes, wow, you're in the book.

I didn't know what he was talking about. And I said, what do you mean? He says, you are in the book. I didn't know until later that Marshall McLuhan was at that point some kind of god on Madison Avenue. And he wrote a chapter about this guy named Dave Mickey. And Rick Sklar, I think he got moist. Seriously, I think he did. I don't know what he was.

He brought in Howard Cosell. He said, this guy's in the book. So that was that. And we kind of, from that point, I sort of journeyed on. I never did go to ABC. I think they did an FBI check on me or something. And so I transitioned from Marston to Mickey when I was in Montreal, from Mickey to Marston, sorry.

Because I'm a foster kid, I don't have real names, so I just make them up. And I was in Montreal, and they had hired me to do air show on CKGM AM. But the guy said, you know, we can't have Dave Mickey on the air because if we do, everybody will think we're going to be a rock. So he said, what can we call you? My real mother's name is Marston, but it's spelled differently, but I didn't know that.

So I just said Marston, M-A-R-S-D-E-N. And then I became David Marston. And I worked at CKGM for a while and then I crossed over to CKGM FM and that was in the early days of FM it was free form to be sure

I mean it was so free form I'm amused only because they're celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Their 50th anniversary this week. And they didn't talk about any of this part of it at all. None of it. Zip zero. I mean, it was just a mess of drugs.

And I don't think anybody did a show without being on acid. It was just, it was pretty nuts. And the rules were that if you were doing a show and you just acid. It was pretty nuts. The rules were that if you were doing a show and you just didn't feel like it anymore, you could go on the air and say, I'm going home. The next guy will be in in three hours. There'd just be dead air for three hours.

That's a true story. I didn't exaggerate. I wasn't going to tell you that story, but I just did. So then I went to, where are they? Chum of M. Up there they were asking, hi, Roger. Up there they were asking about my brown paper bag. Well, there it is.

Yeah, there you are. When I was at Chum FM, one day I was on the air. I was saying I wanted to do something. I looked down and I used to smoke pretty heavily. I had a little Becker's bag full of three packs of Weissrohr cigarettes. It was just a brown paper bag sitting there. I said, I know we're going away such-and-such and we're gonna do it in a brown paper bag so that started it became quite famous actually to the point come on and sit down sir how you doing good thanks I know you expected Rick Mercer, but it's me. So, anyway, Chum FM was pretty good. I remember I'm seeing a show one night, a New Year's Eve show.

It was Humble Pie and three or four or five other bands. And Humble Pie was the band that was going to play at midnight. Lighthouse was one of the bands. And when Lighthouse finished their performance, the crowd asked for an encore. Well, Humble Pie had a writer in their contract that said, no one can do encores but us but Lighthouse went on ahead and did their encore

and when the Lighthouse people came off the stage Humble Pie were waiting for them and a fist fight broke out it was like boom boom it was nuts yeah and I shouldn't probably tell you this part but It was nuts. Yeah.

And I shouldn't probably tell you this part, but that was the same night that some cop didn't think I was supposed to be on the stage, and he arrested me for being on the stage. The only quick other chum FM is someone asked me to talk about Pink Floyd. I learned there was a thing called CPI and then it became something else, concert productions, and then it became Live Nation. And it was run by a couple of guys, Michael Cole and David Wielinski, and they would go out and sell drugs. I shouldn't say that. So they'd

get enough money that they could hire a band and they would put on a show. And so I found out that Pink Floyd were going on a tour. This was before Dark Side. Everybody was still getting stoned to amagama.

If you've never been stoned to amagama, you must try it. I called Michael because I was doing their commercials at the time for CPI. I said, you really got to bring this band. They did the Humble Pie show, so they were used to working in the gardens. I said, you really got to bring this band this band because they did the Humble Pie show so they were used to working in the gardens

and I said you really got to get these guys and Michael said no no no nobody knows of them nobody's ever heard of Pink Floyd which they hadn't actually so I decided to I was a lover of Pink Floyd their music everything about them

so I decided to start a campaign to get signatures and letters to bring them to Toronto. And it was surprisingly well, how well it was, it was surprisingly successful how well it went. And I went to Michael, they had a place out in some industrial space, and I had two large boxes of letters and signatures, 100,000 people, because kids set them up in the lobbies.

Maybe somebody here did so. And I took it and I poured it onto Michael's desk. And I said, you've got to bring Pink Floyd. All these people want it. He said, oh, I don't know. But anyway, they eventually did book him. And in those days, you had to line up at best to buy your ticket. And so the tickets always went on sale at 10 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday.

And there are bass outlets all around Toronto. And at 10.20, I get a call from Michael Cole at my home. And he says, I said hey it's 10 o'clock and I'm in bed, what's the problem? And he said it's 10.20 the tickets went on sale at

10. I said so what? And he said it's sold out. And from that point onward Michael Cole was always open to all music. I've seen Pink Floyd eight times. I've had the pleasure of introducing them on stage three times. And only once, I guess, was acid. I don was acid.

I don't remember. That is the problem, by the way. So things were going really well at Chum FM. And then Bob Lane, who was my boss at Chum FM, they sent him, Chum Radio sent him to Winnipeg. And they brought in a new guy. And I go in one afternoon, and the new guy says, I'm just walking toward the studio, and the new guy says, oh, here's your playlist.

And I said, what's a playlist? Never heard of such a thing. And he said, well, this is the music you're going to play tonight. I said, no, I don't think so. And he said, well, this is what you have to do. I'm the program director now. And I said, are you being serious? And he said, yes, I am.

I said, I don't think I said, are you being serious, right? And he said, yes, I am. I said, I don't think I said anything. I just turned and I walked up to the offices upstairs at Chum Radio and walked into Vice President Fred Chirat's office. And I had good ratings. I was number one in that time. And I said to Fred, thinking I had some kind of leverage, that was stupid. So I said to Fred Sherratt, I said, how long will it take you to, I said, I told him the story,

and then I said, how long do you think it'll take you to accept my resignation? And he looked down at the floor, and he looked at his desk, and then he looked at me, and he said, 30 seconds. And that was it. They did allow me my two weeks to finish,

which is a pretty wonderful thing anyway with radio, but I had a great time at CHUM. It's unfortunate what's happened to it. Oh, I didn't. So then this happened. I had a call. Actually, I had bought Thunder Sound, which was a large recording studio on Davenport.

I thought that's what I wanted to do since I wasn't at Chumif anymore. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you okay? Oh, okay. Oh, I know the problem. Trust me. So I... I was trying to see if there was a position for just... problem, trust me. So, yeah, I know, there are some chairs, so I thought, maybe I don't belong in radio, is what I thought to myself, because Chum FM is kind of the height at that time, it was like the spot to be, and so I bought, I got to record myself and another person bought Thunder Sound.

We ran that for a while, and then I discovered that recording studios are lovely, and they're magnificent things. And lots of people come in and record, Brian Ferry and Stan Peters and all these guys. But then I discovered that a recording studio is actually a hole in the ground into which you pour money. recording studio is actually a hole in the ground into which you pour money. And then I got a call from some guy named Leslie Allen. And he invited me to his office, which was in Yorkville.

Very posh. I mean, and I went to that meeting with Don Schaefer. Y'all know Don. Because he was wandering a bit, too, because he also was part of the Chairman of the Fed. And so we went to this office in Yorkville, and it was really fancy. I mean, it was just. And Leslie Allen was a guy who had the best tan ever. And no, he wasn't orange. He also had the best furniture and everything.

And we sat down and this guy who blew it up for you kind of suit said came in and Leslie said get the boys a cup of coffee and I figured he was you know just some guy who served coffee but after he delivered the coffee he came in and joined us and I found out that he was actually Leslie's brother. And I thought, really? Because he was like not even close. The two of them were like a mile apart. Anyway, he talked to us a while, and then he said, I've got this radio station. There's hardly anybody working there anymore. His program director, Dave Pritchard, had left, et cetera, et cetera. And he said, I'd like to hear what you do with it.

We kind of took a couple of weeks, and then Don decided it wasn't for him, so he went to Vancouver. And I went back and made my proposal to him. And he said, well, we're not ready to do all that. Why don't you just go do a show? I had never been in the building at CFNY, and I said, yeah, I think we could do that. So I go out there. And I walk in that door there that you see.

The place is so dirty. You couldn't have imagined how dirty this place was. I mean, it's like this. Every chair in the whole place had three legs. There were no four-legged chairs in that place. It was the filthiest place I'd ever been in. had three legs. There were no four-legged chairs in that place. It was the filthiest place I'd ever been in. And I thought, really?

Should I stay or should I go? I said that once to the guys in the class that they wrote a song about it. So I decided to, Bruce Hayding was there and there were only like two people in the whole building and Bruce showed me where the control room was.

You go up the stairs and around the corner. I'm not a very tall guy, but you had to walk like this in the control room because the ceiling was so low. One night I'm playing, there's two turntables right here like this, and I'm here because the board is here. And I had something playing on the back turntable, and all of a sudden I hear it going, and it's skipping. Well, back in the days, I don't know if you all know this, but we always used to keep a little bottle of distilled water close at hand. And what you'd do is you'd take the distilled water and dribble it on the place where the scratch was,

and then the needle would hydroplane past the scratch so you wouldn't get that noise. But when I turned around to do it, I realized there's a mouse on the turntable. And every time it comes, it goes, and then it goes on. And I don't remember what I did about it. Hey there, how are you?

Good to see you. So I don't remember what I did about it, but that's the kind of place it was. Ted Walsh was there, and I remember one afternoon from Buffalo, they came up to shoot some video of Ted doing his show. And that was in the days of Irv Weinstein, when every time there was something, a story,

it was always a fire. It was, oh my God, another fire. So these guys come up, and they've got the big hot light, and they're in the news area, the news booth, looking into the control room, and Ted is in the control room doing a show. And suddenly we were smelling smoke.

The light had lit the roof of the studio on fire, you see. So it was that moment it occurred to me that I knew how Irv Weinstein got his stories. So one day, somebody else saw it this way. This is a little cartoon that's probably not easy to see. This was when Civitas finally bought the station.

And this is a mess, but here we have, these are the guys huddled around from the CRTC. And here we have Civitas moving in. And that was the little yellow house in someone else's eyes. But I remember once the band Japan, everybody know Japan? They were very, they did a lot of dress-up and makeup and they came out to this little yellow house one day and they walked in and they were in full drag. It's around noon hour

and they are in all the glam they could find. And David Sylvian says to me, we're kind of hungry. Is there anything, is there a place to eat? Well, in those days in Brampton, there was not a place to eat. Well, in those days in Brampton, there was not a place to eat. But across the street was a Loblaws. I think it's a No Frills now. And they had a Ziggy's, remember Ziggy's Deli? And I said, I'll go across and get you a couple of sandwiches.

And all the Japan guys, you know, David Silverman and all the others, said, well, we'll come with you. Now, you've got to remember, this is like 1979. It's in Brampton. And it's noon hour. We walk in, and these guys are in full regalia. There was like 40 blue-haired women in the place, and everything came to a halt. It was like they'd just been taken over by some Martian or something.

And they didn't seem to notice. I guess they were accustomed to that. I don't know. So that was the Little Yellow House. This picture and the previous one are really what it was like. But then there were some who thought it looked like this, which I think means they were on acid. It was just one of those

I don't know. It's funny how the Little Yellow House, it's gone now. They tore it down. It's just an empty lot. But people still talk about it. I see it on Facebook all the time. People yadding on about the Little Yellow House. One thing I don't see that often, and yeah, I do keep some notes, by the way. When you have a memory like mine, you have to keep notes.

I don't think anybody, does anybody remember this? Lee does. Lee Carter, remember him? Lee Carter, live from London? Live from London. He's up there. Give him a wave. Stand up. Come on.

This was the first logo that Civitas had done for CFNY. CFNY was like the hippest thing in town, and this was the logo. We all called it the exploding chicken. But we soon changed it, and we got to the real stuff. I remember once, because by now I was the program director, and how are you doing? Good.

Good. I was the program director, and Ivor Hamilton, you all remember Ivor? He came in to me one day. I was in this little back office in that grummy little building sitting on a chair with three legs, and he said he was an intern at the time, and he said, David,

I really have to find a way to make some money. He wasn't getting paid anything. Interns don't usually get paid for reasons that I've never understood. He said, I've been thinking that if I did, you remember in the old days they used to have record hops? I said, yeah, I do. I remember I started doing that when I was 14. And he said, could I do that?

On behalf of CFNY. And I said, sure, why not? He said, that way I can charge 50 or 60 bucks and I can do the CFNY video roadshow, the roadshow. At that time, it was called Personality Roadshow. Ivor Hamilton invented it. Martin Streak joined somewhere along the way, and we all love Martin. Roger Powell was also part of it.

But then we started... Now we had now moved to a new owner, our final owner, and we had moved into the new studios on Main Street. And Martin Street was brought in as an assist to Ivor. And then I thought to myself, we shouldn't have a personality roadshow. Let's have a video roadshow. And there was nothing.

Chum wasn't doing anything. Much wasn't doing anything. And so we got ourselves a sponsor. It was Milk sponsored it. They paid all kinds of money for this fancy thing called the CFNY Video Roadshow. We had huge monitor, at the time it was really advanced, huge monitors. We had a five-ton truck to move it all.

But nobody really wanted to drive the truck. Big responsibility to drive a five-ton truck. Martin Streak said, I'll drive it. Well, for five-ton, you have to have a special license. He said, I'll get one. So he went and he took whatever it is you do at the driving place, tests or whatever, and that's now three months have passed,

and he's finally got it. He comes into the station one afternoon and I hear him I'm in my, what was then kind of a sleek little posh office and he's running up and down and he's like, I got it, I got it, I got it and he's just screaming this and everybody's getting excited and

all he had apparently was a license to drive a five-ton truck. I thought it was something more than that but what the hell, you can't do anything more than that. Anyway, the CFMI video roadshow became very, very popular, and it eventually turned into this. Thousands of people cheering and ranting and raving. I believe that might have been Ontario Place or Kingswood.

Kingswood? Yeah. So, I mean, something that started four or five years earlier simply because the station at that time was in receivership. Ivor was an intern. I couldn't hire him on because, you see, Leslie Allen and his brother Harry got caught making false claims. They claimed that in the vault downstairs in the old building, they had all of the master films of Charlie Chaplin.

And they were raising money on it, making money all over the place. Somebody decided one day to open the vault and see what was in there. The answer is nothing. So they were both arrested and I think they both did a little time in jail because of it, but it put us into receivership, which means that there was no money to do anything, just whatever money we were making when we went into receivership. And if something broke down, you had to scotch tape it back together if you wanted to stay on the air. And that went on for about a year and a half

until the CRTC decided if they would accept the new owners. And fortunately, it did. The new owners were pretty fantastic, actually. They really got behind it. A man named Bill Hutton became the vice president and I remember the day before the sale was I went down to the head office of Selkirk at Yonge and Bloor and I met with a fellow named Ken Baker who was VP of programming for all the Selkirk

stations nationwide and the first thing he said to me was, would you like something nice and cold to drink? I'd never been asked that question that way before. Anyway, he was, we're okay for that. He said, okay, he said, we take possession of the station tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, whatever. I need to know now who we're firing so that the previous owner, mainly the receivership,

will pay for their termination. And I said, I don't think we're firing anyone again. And he said, we're not? We're not firing anybody? And he reached in his desk drawer and he pulled out all this ream of paper. And it was the staff list. And he went down it name by name. And I had to tell him who or why we wouldn't fire each person. And I convinced him at the end of it. He said, okay, that's good. So off we went.

And Selkirk came in. They built us a new radio station. They built us all new gear, all new studios. It was quite nice. And at its peak, CFNY had 90 people on staff. We had a news department of 10 people. Find me a radio station that does that anymore. I got to say, Selkirk were really wonderful. I've told people here a couple stories about what Selkirk did for me when I was, I told you, didn't I?

So anyway, they decided they wanted to have this thing on the CN Tower. And they tried twice to get it on the CN Tower. And the CRTC twice said, no, you're a Brampton station. That's the end of it. So the question was, how are we going to get on the CN Tower? And I was driving back and forth because everything we did

was in Toronto and the station was in Brampton and I lived in Caledon. And as I did that, it occurred to me one day that I wasn't the only person who lived in Brampton who went to Toronto every day. So I said to the owners, I said, maybe what you need to do is say that the Brampton residents can't hear their station when they're in Toronto.

Well it worked. It worked and we got on the tower. It was really kind of cool. We had a great breakfast in the tower the day we signed on, up in the CN Tower, and we had a breakfast in that thing that goes around up there. And then there was a couple of guys. One of them was working at that time at Q107,

and the other one at that time was working at Chum FM, and I thought, we need to bring these two guys together. So I started having meetings with them separately. They didn't really speak to each other, as happens with a lot of teams, I understand. So, eventually, I convinced the two of them to come and have dinner with me, and I convinced the two of them that they should be working back together again, the way they did on Mornings and Chum FM, and their names were Pete and Gates. and Chum FM, and their names were Pete and Gates.

It was, I'll tell you a funny story. The discussion and the trying to bring them back together, it was six to eight months of real effort. They both finally decided, okay, we're going to come back together. And Selkirk said, well, we're having a do at some Harbor Castle Hilton, I think it was. And just meet us there and we'll sign all the contracts and everything. Now, we had spent all this six or eight months being sleuthy because both of them were quite recognizable. And we didn't want it to get back to either Q or Chum what we were doing because they would have ruined it and the guys would have lost their jobs.

So we get it all smoothened out. It's all secret, secret, secret, secret, secret. And we go to this hotel and we walk in. Well, there was a broadcaster convention going on. We walk in. Well, there was a broadcaster convention going on. And they were everywhere. And they were like, that's Pete, that's Geats, that's David.

Anyway, we went upstairs and we signed the contracts and they came on the air. And they did their wonderful thing. I don't suppose, Peter, of course, put on his wings a few years back. Geetz is with us. I see Geetz on average of about once a week we chat and he's you know he's Geetz what can I say. But the one thing that probably no one ever knew about Pete and Geetz is that they hardly ever spoke to each other off the air. They were not close friends and personally I think that was the secret because they didn't have any of that baggage. They were professionals, they came in, they did what and it was all quite fabulous but you know a team like Pete and Yeats is only as good

as the people who are behind them whether it's the general manager the program director or the producer his name is Kevin O'Leary oh no he's the nice one come on

Kevin is sitting right there. Kevin, there's supposed to be a really youthful picture of you, but for some reason it didn't come up. It seems that all the pictures about when we were younger are not showing themselves. when we were younger, are not showing themselves. Anyway, the real Kevin O'Leary was a major, major part of that show. A major part of keeping them together. A major part of letting them talk to each other, whether it was Laudette or whomever it was.

And the comedy just kept coming. They were wonderful guys together. And I miss them. I miss Peter. I don't miss Gates. I don't miss Kevin because we do still get to talk to each other. But here's the greatest radio team of its time.

They're in no particular order because I'm not that smart. Jim Reed, of course, did, what did he do, mornings? After Pete and Yeats, right? And then James Scott was doing afternoons. I guess I could tell you the real story. He sold a lot of pie. Say what? He sold a lot of pie. Huh? Say what?

We sold a lot of pie. Yeah. James Scott is my half-brother who I never knew. Yeah. That came later. We never knew we were half-brothers. Then we have

the live world job in Beverly Hills. Brad McNally, who's now living in Australia. He was an amazing guy, the work he would do with music. He used to do something on Sunday nights. I can't remember what it was called. Eclectic Spirit. Eclectic Spirit, thank you.

He's now living in Australia. Liz Janik, of course, was one of the all-night team. Next to her is Nick Charles. Nick was on on the weekends, and then when he wasn't on the air doing shows, he was a limousine driver for rock stars. Nick left us quite a long number of years back, but I know the stories of what went on in the backseat of those limousines.

I can't tell you. I really would love to tell you, but I can't. Okay, one night... I won't tell you much, but it was David Bowie and Iggy Pop in the back of the limo. That's all I can tell you. The rest is up to your imagination. And then, of course, Chris Shepard. I was doing Saturday nights, and it was managing this 90 people and doing Saturday nights was just way too much for me.

this 90 people and doing Saturday night was just way too much for me and so I decided that it was time we had somebody who could make it really modern EDM as you will and I went out and I went to all the clubs in Toronto and I listened to the club DJs

and this guy Chris Shepard I think he was about 17 at the time maybe 18 and he was working several clubs but I thought he was so I brought him, maybe 18, and he was working several clubs. But I thought he was, so I brought him in and we talked. He had never done radio before, didn't have a clue how to do it. And I gave him some directions. I watched an interview of him recently, and he said, well,

Marston gave me two directions. One was to not pick up people on the phone. One was to not pick up people on the phone. Because Ron Burchell, of course, was doing middays as well. And I'm sorry the last picture isn't there. It was Don Burns. And, of course, Don was the voice that said the spirit of radio every 20 minutes and he was living

in San Diego I think and I used to go there and record his voice and then of course when when I decided it was your time for me to leave Don came in and took my chair. But, you know, the last guy I hired was Alan Cross. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Don Burns was then doing the PD thing, and he was going to interview, but I still had the final say. And he was interviewing this guy from Winnipeg. And I said, if you like him, bring him up to the house in Caledon. I'll have a chat with him, and then we'll make a final decision. So Don calls and said, we're coming up.

And they arrived in my driveway. And I'm sitting in my living room area, and in walks this guy. And he's got this goofy hair thing going on. It's like this ridiculous, what do they call those, afro? Is that the thing? A ridiculous afro thing going on. He's wearing a white sports coat like it was the 50s.

going on. He's wearing a white sports coat like it was the 50s. And he was just the most, the quietest guy. Didn't jump out at you. It was like, okay, how are you going to fit into what we do? Because what we do is pretty ridiculous. Anyway, I said to Don, go ahead and hire him. And, of course, he is now himself and done extremely well. Now, this next picture isn't going to show up, I think, for some reason. But I guess I wanted to make a point. My point, I'm going to go one more. There were pictures in the middle here. But the on-air team across here, now I'm looking at it and hoping, like,

hell, yeah, there's Lee Carter. There were pictures here, but for some reason this thing isn't, this Microsoft program isn't working. Let me try one more. There we go. At the bottom are people whose names you may not know. Or you may know some of them.

Some of them were in our news department. Bill Hutton was the vice president. Mary Curtis, she was the comptroller. And the only words that she ever heard were, where's my check? So anyway, Mary Ellen Veniger, who was in the news department, eventually married a guy named Alan Cross. So they're making, actually, doggies.

They have lots of doggies. I wish I could just leave them alone. Anyway, so those are the people. You might recognize Greta Colford. She's been on the, what's that channel at Rogers where they sell shit? What's it called? Shopping, yeah. She's been one of those people selling you stuff for about 20 years after she left CFNY. So those

are the people. Austin Delaney, of course, left after I left and went off to CTV where you see him all the time. So that was really the nucleus of it. One day I was, am I going along? Are you okay? Am I going along? Okay.

One day I was driving around in the car, it was lunch hour, and I had the radio on, and they announced that the Junos were coming up, and that this year's most promising vocalist would be Long John Baldry. John was a very good friend of mine, and I knew that he had like 25 albums out at that point in his life.

I knew that he had been a massive pop star in London, in Britain. And the Junos were saying that he had been a massive pop star in London, in Britain. And the Junos were saying that he should be most promising. That didn't make any sense to me. So I was kind of, I was disappointed in the Juno. Oh, that wouldn't have been the first time. So anyway, I go back to the station. Without thinking about anything, I say on the air,

I go on with whoever it was I don't remember, we're going to do an award show. And we're going to call it the UNOS, as opposed to the JUNOS and I had no idea what to do next but I found my way around it and off we went we were on the CN Tower

and we had a pretty good relationship with the CN Tower we had the CFNY 102 studios on top on the CN Tower, and we had a pretty good relationship with the CN Tower. We had the CFNY 102 studios on top of the CN Tower. So we had a pretty good, oh, I should mention, yeah, in those pictures, all-night Andre, of course, was a very important part. But being an all-night guy, he doesn't like to be seen in the daylight, so there are no pictures. So we made a deal with the CN Tower that we would hold the UNO Awards at the CN Tower. So that seemed like a pretty fine evening. Except there's one problem with the CN Tower. I don't know if you know this, but when you're up that high and you're going around, you get drunk a lot faster.

So this is actually from the stage, and that was the other thing, the stage was stationary, but everyone moved around. Once an hour you'd come on the stage and then move on. So they didn't have anything to do in that other 90 degrees, they'd. And it was a hell of a party. The first, you know, award

was actually a silver album, and the CN Tower was bent over so that the top of the tower looked like the needle on this silver album. And that's, like in that picture, it's Ted Wollison, Brad McNally, what's his name from Teenage Head with the red hair?

What's his name? Thank you. Anyway, that's him. I don't know who all the others are. And that was the first time we had done them, did them. And it was because of the Long John Baldry thing that this all started. So our budget that year was $697. Wow.

Later on, we went, I think in its second or third year, CBC got involved. And we also involved radio stations all across coast to coast who would carry the stereo signal of the UNO Awards. CBC got involved, and the idea was that we'd put the thing on the full network and we'd make it thing on the full network, and we'd make it into a real show. The last UNO award was hosted by Jim Carrey, who really hadn't reached a start or stage at that point.

And so then CBC is there, and we announced that we're going on the full network, and that we've got a network of radio stations coast to coast carrying stereo because back in those days, stereo television didn't exist. And, well, by gosh, by golly, we got a call one day from CARIS, which is the Canadian Association of Recording something or other. And they said, you can't do the UNOs on network television because we're the Junos, and it sounds like you're making fun of us. I said, we're not making fun of you.

It's a people's choice of vote. You? No. So they got lawyers involved and all manner of stuff. And we had to change the name. So we held a nationwide contest and people could put in their names. It came up with Casby. I think a woman in Halifax actually won the prize. And we flew her here so she could be part of it. And we called them the Casby. No one ever noticed how close the Casby is to Paris. That was my own private little joke.

Anyway, we went on TV. It was a smash success. And if you hang on a minute. Oh, well, I was going to show you what the Caspys became. And in the picture, there's Martin Short, there's Eugene Levy, there's Carol Pope, there's Paul Schaefer. All those people came and were part of it. We did it for quite a number of years until I left, actually. I remember one night, Martin Short and Don Schaefer and Eugene were in the suite at the hotel that we had given them.

And J.T., who was a chauffeur, some of you may know J.T. He was a great guy. I think he still is. I don't really know. Anyway, he came up. He knew where they were. And he came up, and he banged on the door of the hotel suite. Bang, bang, bang.

And somebody said, who is it? And J.T. as a joke said, it's the cops. That very night, Paul Schaefer and Dave Thomas and Eugene Martin Martin Short, and whoever else was in the room flushed a lot of cocaine down the drain. Because they really thought it was. And of course then they opened it and it was like, oh my god. I was going to show you a picture of something we gave away at the CN Tower, but it's not coming up. So having told you a few stories, five, I'm just going to the end here so we're in good

shape. There's three little things I'd like to share with you. There's the radio that we gave away, by the way. I still have one. I don't know. Do you have yours, by the way. I still have one. I don't know. Do you have yours, Kevin? Yeah. Do you have one?

Good for you. Fantastic. Anyway, everybody who attended got one of those. That was the breakfast when we went on the CN Tower. Anyway, I met this guy one day. I'm sorry the picture's not coming up, but I walked into his store, and I said, you need a good commercial. And he was sitting in the store.

There wasn't a customer for miles. He was a hairdresser. He did people's hair. And he's sitting in this place all by himself, waiting for someone to please come in. I said, you need new commercials? He says, no. I told him the price. No, no, can't do that. So I walk out. I'm walking up the street and I hear this guy, come back here. Y'all come back.

That's a southern accent, but he didn't have a southern accent. And so we talked a little while, and then he took me across the street somewhere, and I played the commercials that, of course, were on tape. And he tried to dicker with me over the price etc. etc. And so I started doing his commercials and again the picture is not coming up, I apologize. The first picture was a little shop on Yonge Street just near Isabella called the House of Lords.

No people in there. The next shot was across the street. The House of Lords. And there were people lined up around the block to get in. And that's how it was every Saturday morning at the House of Lords.

And every Sunday morning and so on and so forth. And that gentleman has been a supporter of my early days at Chum FM and CFNY and when I was at the Rock and somehow or other we made it work for each other. His name is Paul Burford and he's sitting right over there. And so as I close it off, I want you to know I've had many faces.

I'm sorry the third picture isn't coming up. But this was Dave Mickey, and this was Hippie Marsden. And I don't remember what the other picture was. Well, that's because I spent too many years with the long hair. It's like, okay, okay. But now we're here. Now we're here. I just want to say one thing, and that'll be right. We've had a wonderful look back in the last hour of all the things that we grew up with. And yes, I mean we. I grew up with it, too.

My problem is I still think I'm 18, but the body knows the truth. People came to CFNY because we were playing music you couldn't find anywhere else. You couldn't, Chum tried for a little while by playing Elvis Costello or something, but it didn't work for them. And so we all gathered together in the early days of Chum FM to find all this new music by people who nobody had ever heard of, like Pink Floyd and Genesis and on and on it goes. And that was the same that happened at CFNY. People came to us for new music. Today I hear people saying,

there's no good music anymore. Well, yes, there is. But you won't find it on the radio because the radio has lost its way. The radio has said, we don't know where we belong anymore. And every time somebody called and complained about a song, they would take that song off the air. And now they're left with 100 songs, and they just keep playing them over and over, no matter what the format. Keep playing them over and over.

No matter what the format. I still believe that you can stay young and vital. And live a long, long time. If you can find the things that you like. If you can find the things that represent you. And that's one of the things that we try to do at NYTheSpirit.com. Brad McNally is one of our DJs. All Night Andre is one of our DJs.

Anybody else want to guess one? Ivor Hamilton is one of our DJs. Scott Eagleson comes from Vancouver. Brad comes from, his show comes from Australia. I do live shows every Saturday and Sunday night. In fact, I'm going to, as my final note, I'm going to invite you all to come by on Thursday night at 8 o'clock because I'm going to do a four-hour,

my annual Halloween for four hours. And I intend to scare the shit out of you. But please, every show I do, I sign off with two words. And I believe these are the words that represent and make us young. And those words are

stay curious because if you watch a little kid a little baby oh they want to touch everything they're just curious about everything retirement puts you in a place where you're going to make yourself old please don't do that

please don't do that find a place't do that. Find a place that you're gonna feel young again. I tell you my age but God that would be really awful. But let's say this, every year I have a chat room on my current show and every year they give me a birthday party. And a couple years ago I said to the Baron who looks after the chat room, I said let's hold off until I hit a no, a zero.

And I guess next year we'll have another birthday party. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, David. It was a very interesting presentation. It's not Halloween party,

but you never show on any picture tonight. I would also like to thank you and to ask you to tell everybody that library supports free speech. And if you have any questions, we have really just a few minutes left. Yeah, I'm happy to answer questions if you have questions. And after that, I mean, the formal talk is over because I want to go home. Thank you. Okay. Does anybody have any questions?

I do. Is this on Sirius? Where do you get this? It's a website. It's worldwide. All you do is go to www.anywriterspirit.com and I will come.

You're on the internet, I'm assuming. You're not? Oh, what are we going to do with you? You can get it on your phone, you can get it on your tablet. Listen to George Trombolopoulos. He's buying some good stuff. You can get it on your tablet. This is a George Strong monopolist.

He finds some good stuff. George Strong monopolist. He was a CFNY long after I was. I've never met him. Anybody else? Yes, sir? Did CFNY call CFNY before you came here? Yes, it was.

And what kind of music did you play? Well, when David Pritchard had it, and he did an admiral's job, I've got to say, it was very eclectic. It was more jazzy and classical and that sort of thing. But the owners called it CFNY 1021 for one simple reason. Back then, this would have been in the late 70s, there was a station out of Buffalo called WBEN,

and their frequency, I believe, was 102.2 or 102.1. That's why the NY is there, because they're making fun of New York State. That's how simple it is. And that wasn't many choice. That was long. That was the owner. Those guys I told you about, Harry and Leslie Allen.

That was their thing. Reiner Schwartz worked there as well before I joined. Do you remember the first song that you played? No. When you started? I don't remember the first song I played last Saturday. I remember the last song. But I will tell you, if you want to know what songs I played, and if you're Googling, like this gentleman always does,

just Google David Marsden playlists, and it'll come up for you, and they'll see everything I play. My Sunday night shows, I go into jazz, I go into blues. Blues is my... When I was living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I learned the blues from a guy named John R. in Nashville. I've carried that love with me. Hi there.

Just to verify, why exactly did Peter and Kevin get along? I'm sorry? Why exactly did Peter and Kevin only ever get along? Well, I love Pete. Yeah, totally. They were very close. It wasn't poor Kevin there, but we knew. Why weren't they friends?

Huh? Well, why didn't they develop friends? Why weren't they friends? There's no answer to that question. I don't think anybody knows. I mean, one or two times I would have them in a meeting and I would say something to, uh, are you leaving us? Yeah, I'm going to go see my father. Okay. And I would say to, uh, I'd say something and I'd say to Gates, I'd say something, and then Gates would say,

Kevin, tell Peter, and Gabriel, and the next person. I think it was a healthy dislike. Oh, you want me on the mic? Oh, yeah. By the way, I should mention, this is being recorded. It will turn up on Toronto Mike's website, but it will also turn up as a video, a full video,

on nythespirit.com on YouTube. That's where you'll find all my interviews. I've interviewed everybody from mid-year to, I don't remember. There's probably 40 interviews up there. That's at youtube, nythespirit.com. David, I think the next time you've done what the pictures write, really, I would have liked

to see it while we were still on the computer. Well, I have to tell you that I know the pictures were there. I just don't know why they're not showing up. Like this one here, you see two in pictures, but one is missing. And I know they were there. Huh?

Yeah, I mean. The one of you and the stones was in your social. It is on Facebook, the stones. The two pictures of your shop, one was the old place on West Side, and the other was the lineups around the corner at the Yerker. And I will admit, David did make me famous. Well... He did know how to mix music.

He did know how to put the feeling in. He probably still does. Yeah, he does. I really don't like the internet thing. I really can't get into it. I loved him on the rock. I loved the theater, the vine. I miss all that.

Well, one of these days. One of the best DJs in the whole of North America. One of these days. One of the best DJs in the whole of North America. Sorry? It must be some editing software that was used for those particular pictures, photographs. And for some reason or the other, our... Oh, no, we're not upset. ...can support.

So everything else... We're not upset. We're not upset with you. I think they missed that Rolling Stones picture. Where's Mexico? Mexico. Where'd he go? There he is. So some of the pictures didn't show up, but we don't know why. I don't think it's your fault. I think it's Microsoft PowerPoint problem.

Yeah, some problem. PowerPoint is a very nice presentation, but it's not always the way it is that we'd like it to be. Anyone else? Yes, sir, come on back. Was there any, when you first started with the, I think it's called new wave format, I don't know if it was from the beginning,

was there any, you know, I keep forgetting this damn microphone. There is a website called the spiritiritofradio.ca. If you know that one, you'll find a lot there. But I think CFNY originally, trying to be different in the city of Toronto, was playing heavy metal. We were the first station playing ACDC,

the first station playing Black Sabbath, etc., etc. And then along came Q107, and they took that format for themselves. We had a weak signal. What? Oh. So we had a weaker signal, so I knew we had to do something different. And what no one else was playing at that time was punk, and then eventually new wave. So that's how it all happened. Okay. Anyone else?

I spent the weekend with John Lennon. I spent the weekend in his bedroom. I don't know. I spent the three days there. I met Timothy Leary and I can't remember who else. One of the Smothers brothers. Timothy Leary, it was at the Queen Elizabeth and right next to Queen Elizabeth there's a beautiful cathedral

and they have a brass roof on it and of course brass turns this beautiful green shade. And Timothy Leary came in, he literally floated in and he floated over to that window and he stared at that roof for five minutes and he said whenever he said it I was like isn't that beautiful

there were certain things that happened on that weekend to be honest with you that made me have a little less respect for John than I should have. There were a few things that I didn't like. Just things, the way he treated other people. And there was one more. Where was it?

Oh, there you are. I actually wanted to tell you about J.T. Cunningham. He did have a great sense of humor. He had a presidential Lincoln. It was his car. And he had an ad. Who is this again? J.T. Cunningham.

Oh, okay, J.T. Cunningham. Yes, you know him. Oh, he was a great guy. And his ad in the yellow pages read, J.T. Cunningham limousine. If I don't know you, don't call. Yes. J.T. was a... If I don't know you, don't call. He was a wonderful guy.

I mean, think about the joke he played on those guys in their hotel room, saying he was the cops. No, I've ridden with J.T. many, many, many times. He's a wonderful... I think he's still with us. I hope so. I haven't had any time to... Yeah, I've ridden with JT many, many, many times. He's a wonderful... I think he's still with us. I hope so. I haven't met him in five minutes. Yeah, I think he is. Yes?

That's it? Wonderful. We'll do one... Oh, we're going to do one more. We can do that, and then we'll do an encore. You were working at Shawmine with the monitor, Mickey Rose. You worked with Wolfman Jack? No, I never knew... I never knew Wolfman Jack. I never knew.

I never knew Wolfman Jack. I never knew Wolfman Jack. Never met him. But he was never, when he was, was he at Trump FM? It would have been a tape. And it probably was after I left. Dick Clark was the same. When I was doing Mickey over at CKEY,

they brought Dick Clark in as a competitor, but it was all on tape. Nowadays, they just send it about two minutes, but in those days, they had to receive a 10-inch tape. Would that be right, Doug? Yeah. Does that answer you? Yeah, well, I heard he was actually working at the station.

Yeah, that was the imagery that they wanted to put out. Jackson Armstrong worked at the station. He was the second fastest moth in the world. Thank you all so very much. Thank you. Hey, I want you on the internet. Get on the internet there, come on. You have to leave first to come again.

Bye-bye. I want you all to get on that internet thing. Okay.