Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ed the Sock a.k.a. Steve Kerzner: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1643

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

In this 1643rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Steve Kerzner, creator and voice of Ed the Sock, about all things Ed, including The All-Night Show! on 94.9 The Rock. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1643 of Toronto Miked, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Ienies sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. and Redlee Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto, Mike, is Ed the sock. No, no wait it's Steve Kersner welcome back Steve thank you I love noticing your board there it's the exact same one that I use doing my show and your show so okay right off the hop here right at the off the top you are on 94.9 the rock that's correct all like all night what is that it's midnight we call it midnight to morning

so midnight to 5 a.m. live the only live show overnight, I think anywhere around and People like oh they make you do that shift. I wanted it it because the the creative freedom is just Unbelievable and it allowed me to build what i've you know what what had i have built with the audience and it's uh... been a transformative experience and i didn't expect that it would be okay and you're calling this the all-night show the all-night show and

of course it's not me it's ed the sock that i'm not that interesting well here's all those cases let me as we set the table here to be we are gonna dive into this all-night show, but if you're using this board, does that mean you're not actually in Oshawa? That's right. I was in Oshawa for the first six, eight months, but the drive, like an hour and ten minutes each way, you know, you're on your way there for a show that starts at midnight. You start relaxing in the drive on the way there. On the drive home, you just want to be home. Like, you finish around five o'clock, you want to be home, you don't want to be driving. Plus, the cost of gas even before it shot up. And so they very

kindly got me the equipment I needed to be able to do the show from my home or as Ed calls it his Stu Stu studio. Shout out to Phil Collins. Okay, are we talking Doug Elliot? Who's the boss over there? Absolutely, Doug Elliot. I've been in this business man and boy as they say for over 35 years. And without a doubt, the most professional, most aware management I have had in media has been Doug Elliot. The man just knows how to manage talent and people and allow you to bring out the best in yourself. And I can't say that that was everywhere I've been. Well it's funny, I've had nothing but good

experiences of Doug myself, but it's funny that you say that now But this is of course he has hired you so it's like the if he changes his mind. I remember he used to have Marsden David Marsden would do a show on the Rock Sunday nights and he could play what he wants and it was just like the spirit of radio days And then at some point Doug realized like it was different than the rest of the time and it didn't make sense and he sort of canceled the show and he went from like hero to zero like overnight, you know what I mean? So it's well, I guess it can be but I don't see that happening because even if this show were to end, the experience I've had with Doug has has actually been healing as far

as my relationship with management. We're going to explore all of this. I can say I did put out into the universe one day. I was looking for a Nintendo Wii because, you know, I wanted my youngest kid to play Mario Kart like I did with my oldest kid. This was a whole thing. So I needed a Wii. But anyway, Doug drove here with a Wii. Doug Elliott drove here to South Etobicoke, and I don't know, he had like a sports car or something, and he's like, hey, here's my old Wii, I don't use it anymore. And that's the kind of guy we're talking about. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. I'll tell you, when I started doing the radio show, I'll back it up. Doug and Steve McCauley, who's the VP of sales there. Who's also from CFNY. Yeah, great guys. Came to me and said, look, we wanna start this overnight show. We think that there's an audience there

that is not being served. And like inside my eyes lit up. I didn't wanna show too much excitement, but I was like, this is exactly what I really wanna do now. Because the regulations and so on art there after midnight you know virgin territory in a sense and it's also

probably quirky audience which i've always loved uh... personalities that are different i mean go back to my cable ten days i was managing the station i really only looked for gave shows to people who were unusual personalities. Characters. Yeah, characters, real people who are characters.

And so we started the show. And I'll tell you, the first show, I was actually shooting bricks. Because it's not that I hadn't done live programming before for thousands of hours or whatever it was just here I was in front of an audio board that hadn't really been given a whole lot of it was more complicated than the one that's in front of you and the one that I use right and I I didn't know what the show would be because I've always found that you can plan as much as you want in advance the show will tell you what it's gonna be as the show would be because I've always found that you can plan as much as you want in advance. The show will tell you what it's going to be as the

show progresses. You've probably found that too. 100%. Yeah, so I didn't, I had a particular position that I thought it was. I thought it was going to be basically talking to, my late grandmother came up with an Yidd word dread legged which is basically sort of low lives and things like that i thought that so i'd be talking to uh...

very quickly was disabused of that notion uh... when i started talking to the people like no i am completely wrong these people are vibrant and fun and hard-working and it completely changed the orientation and the direction of the show. I call the audience the nighttime neighborhood because it's really that. And in like I've always gone

into media saying hmm I can I'm gonna shake this up. I'm going to change this. This is the first time that the show has changed me in that I have... it knocked away a lot of preconceptions that I had lived with or had been inculcated with. And I started to see the audience not as an amorphous thing, but as individuals who are listening. And the dignity of these people, the people especially who are at the poverty line or below or just struggling, you know, working poor, that's not the whole audience, of course, because there's a lot of people who work overnight get paid very well for working overnight. But that particular aspect of the audience, the dignity that they have, the willingness to share whatever they have with others who need it, it totally changed my perception of that,

like of the audience and where I fit and what I see the person I want to be. And it was a slow but then fast change. And I've come to see these people as family in a sense. We have a lot of regular callers. They have care, like some of them have name nicknames, others just their names. The audience knows who they are. They have their own shtick. They're legitimate people, but they have their own particular things. And the interesting thing is Ed was, it was always more the shit-disturber, the

outsider, the shit-disturber now. It is the adult in the room It's still ed and ed still will give you a rough ride if you're being a dummy But ed is now the adult in the room, and it's a it's a very nice very nice shift Because you know like any like any personality you hope grows. It doesn't stagnate. And I think maybe that's why Ed has endured. And I'll tell you that I've never really understood the connection people have with that character.

Really? No, never. I think it's because I don't wanna think about it because I've seen colleagues get full of themselves and I need names Steve nope and you know I say they get high off the smoke blown up their ass and I just never want to do that my my My late father was very much a blue collar type guy. And I just never liked to see myself as above people. I didn't realize I actually did still until the end of the show.

But I just, I, so I just never think about it. No matter how many times people have approached me and told me what Ed meant to them and what Ed did for them in a tough, tough time. I thank them, but I don't like to meditate on it. But the very clearly the connection people have with Ed came through this show. They immediately loved that Ed was there. They see it as like a friend, a longtime friend who they trust and respect. Sure. And there's a emotional, people call me as Ed and off mic, ask for advice on various things. They also ask on the show for advice on various things. But we've also, you know, one caller was

in bad financial straits and her dog needed veterinary care. She couldn't afford it. I started a GoFundMe through the show and we raised almost 4,000 bucks, which is what it took to get the dog healthy again. There was one one of my favorite callers, a lady named Dorothy. She had been calling from the beginning and her 16 year old son had been calling too, Gage. He was great. And then in September, I'm doing the show and I get a message from Dorothy, my Gage is dead.

His name was Gage. And I was knocked off my ass. I couldn't continue the show. I made up an excuse that there was a technical problem. And I didn't know, how do we handle this. I asked some people I really respect and still respect in radio, what have you done in the past when this happens?

And the answers I got were from don't mention it at all, to maybe mention it, dedicate a song, and then don't talk about it again. I was told, you know, the audience doesn't want to be made sad. So just, you know, don't, and don't, keep in mind, people only listen for 10 minutes. So I thought about that, then I went to Doug Elliott, and Doug said, you know your audience, do what you think is right. So I did what I thought was right, which is I opened the show talking about it. We opened the show with something

called The Nighttime Neighborhood Nine. It's nine songs commercial-free, requested by the audience in a row. I said, how about you dedicate some songs to Dorothy or her son's memory? That continued all night, including phone calls, tons of phone calls, offering support, moral support moral support material support and we We did a go fund me because she's a Independent contractor wanted her to have a month that she didn't have to worry about bills So she could mourn and that raised money very quickly Big you know she felt it was a big help to her and the audience just felt this is a this is one of us

we've got to do something. And one of our other callers, Shaner won't mind if I say his name, he was very clearly inebriated when he would call. And then he called one day and said, I had an intervention from my family today. They want me to go to rehab. I'm really unsure about this. And the audience called in offering their experiences with rehab and their encouragement. And I told them, you know what, if you go to rehab, how would you like to record a little audio log every day of what you're doing in rehab? My thought was that when people go to rehab,

it's an artificial world. And when they come back into the world, that's when it all of a sudden, it doesn't hold. So I thought, keep him in the world, keep him getting the support from the audience and his connection. And he did that, he went to rehab, he gave us Shainer's rehab report every day.

The audience was always very much supportive, telling them how they supported him. He just celebrated a year sober. And it's just just it's things like that and charity initiatives that I've done like Socktoberfest, which was to it was a live event music and comedy to gather new socks and underwear and gently used winter clothing for the homeless. It was a huge success. We carried it forward into December as Phil sent a sack with two appearances at sponsor's locations.

In the end, it was funny because at Socktoberfest, we were working with the Durham region. They brought us two rubber made bins for the donations. We looked at them and said, maybe we need more. They went and got a third. That was filled in seven minutes. We wound up giving them over 40 overstuffed green garbage bags of stuff. One audience member or a pair of audience members drove in with a pickup truck. The entire bed was jammed with green garbage bags

of clothing. One of their fathers had passed away and this was all that stuff and more. So it's just I feel connected to these people. I help them off mic when they're having trouble with landlords and things like that and when they don't call, when some regulars don't call for a while, I call them. Not because it's like, hey, I hope you're still listening. It's Is there something wrong? Are you woke? And it's always been a health issue. I totally relate to this, Steve. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because what you have there is you have essentially it's a it's like a family. It's a community. Yeah, that you've built there. And you get attached to the people in your community. You get close to the people in your family. I maintain an open mic on torontomike.com for years now because of one person named Cheryl who is visually impaired. And I know from years of reading her comments that every day she needs a place to go and share her world with. And that's where she's a place to go and share her world with right and

that's where she's chosen for whatever reason and I will keep that and I've told her this as much I will keep that open my going for her as long as we're both on this planet so I totally relate and I will say I've you know we're not buddies I don't think you and I have ever gone for a coffee or whatever but you've been over a few times and I'm going to in a moment let people know where they can hear more from Steve and Ed the sock. If we haven't been explicit about this, you created at the sock. You're the voice of people can't tell you.

I just want to make sure we. Yes. Yes. People say, well, do you do, do you do both the puppet and the voice? I'm like, do you think this is a two man team operation? Look, even Jim Henson was the voice of Kermit, okay? Yeah, but okay, and they had, they needed multiple people to move the different limbs. Head doesn't have limbs. So it's like, and they say, are you, are you the same guy? Like from before, it's like, no, no, we hand it down like a franchise in the family. Of course. You're the one and only. OK, so just want to put that clear.

We'll get back to all of this. But just to say that you seem a little different today, like you seem it seems like you are benefiting somehow beyond just having a gig and having a job on a radio station. This seems to be like fulfilling you in some regard. You look really happy. Thank you. I'm so shocked.

Yeah, thank you. You know what I am? I think the happiest I've ever been because you know, once you've knocked down certain thoughts in your head, certain preconceptions, other doors open and you discover stuff that was there that you didn't know was there that was driving you and you put it to bed.

And I'll tell you, I learned, I gained such a tremendous respect for the medium of radio because only radio is left in local markets that can connect with people. You know, one of the bigger program directors said to me, our benefit is that we deal with a mass audience. We don't have to think of them as individuals. And I'm thinking that is why the industry is dying because you need to think of them as individuals. And what is the... I did a gig in Timmins last year, April, and I listened to the various radio stations as I drove

and they may as well have been the same radio station. 100%. Yeah, the personalities had no personalities. And that was, it's not cause they have none, it's cause this is what they were hired to be. Amorphous wallpaper. And my thought is they can listen to Spotify if they only want music. If they're listening to radio, you've got to give them something

that they're not getting on Spotify. You got to give them something that they're not getting on Spotify. You've got to give them a sense of connection, a sense of community, and a personality. There has to be a reason that something on radio they can't get on Spotify. That is what radio ultimately is. What we've been able to do with the nighttime neighborhood and supporting each other and doing charity and so on, that is the power of local radio. Like we were able to do that because they, I always say I like media where you can see fingerprints on it, where it seems like people are working there,

people are working behind the scenes and so on. And that's what we've got. And honestly, the, just as I said, the dignity of people who they some of them still have active addiction. And so on. And you know, people call last week, somebody called up for the first time. It was funny, because she's 21. And I said, Did you know me for much music? She said, No, I don't even know what much music was. She just loves the show. She picked up the character. Right.

She's I said, so I always said, so what do you do? She says, oh, I'm just a server. I said, no, there's no just on this show. Nobody is just anything. You are a server. You know, you help people. You do a job. You know, and I said, nobody is just anything on this show.

And I thank sanitation workers and things like that, and nobody thanks them. Usually I say, hey, thanks for what you do, otherwise we would be up to our necks in garbage. And it's because, and this isn't facetious and this isn't pandering, I honestly feel this. I honestly feel that we overlook so many people and just we're in an age where people feel ignored, unseen, alone, and the thing that

local radio can provide is they feel seen, they feel validated, they're not cast aside or, you know, unmentionables in society. They matter. And people really need to feel like they matter these days because so much in media is telling them that they don't. That their efforts won't matter in changing anything. That if you don't have a certain amount of money you're not anything. It's just the ability to say somebody's name on radio, give them an acknowledgement, can lift somebody from a tough spot. Steve, you had me at hello. So even just in February, and again, this is not a you know,

the rock, the rock is great. I know people who work there. Again, I said I have good things to say about Doug Elliot. It's a cool station. I just like the fact that there's still stations that aren't owned by Bell Rogers Chorus, right? Oh, and my buddy Bob Ouellette, shout out to him. He is live and local, not during the night, of course, but he's live and local on Indie 88.

So they still in the same vibe as the Rock. sort of still have that spirit if you will. There was news in February that the afternoon drive host on 102.1 the edge was let go and she was very upset about this on social media and I was reading what she had to say it sounded like she wasn't treated very well and she was replaced by a guy who's like the morning show in another market and they record it as the afternoon drive here like yes the whole idea like you talked about you know cookie cutter stations as you drive to Timmons well a lot of those voices you're hearing are in multiple markets like this is the move well and is it making the industry any healthier I would say it is not I

would say that they've not really recognized that the route to go is personalities that stand out. You know, you think of my good friend, Tarzan Dan. Yeah. Thank God he's back to health after that cancer battle. But as soon as he went on the air, on the current, on the Bounce Network, he went to number one

because people what he has is something you can't teach the experience he has is something that you can't just give somebody people love him because he's a personality and a brand and you know you look at reality TV people like like to watch people. People are interested in people, not electronics. So it's, yeah, there are, they voice track. So they're in this market and they voice track for another market and somebody doesn't have a job. And you know, I look at it as if you're, let's just say you're an egg farmer and you get rid of half your chickens. You have cut the cost of housing and chicken feed in half but you have less to sell. So have you really further ahead? So you can let as many people go as you want and

cut as much production as you want but are you ahead? No, you're just you know you're bailing instead of bailing the water out of the boat you're just, you know, you're bailing, instead of bailing the water out of the boat, you're just grabbing it and not pushing it back into the boat. You're sinking yourself. If you do not have personalities that know how to connect to an audience, and especially if you've got somebody like Tarzan Dano, you've got Ed Dasak, who has a long history with people that immediately they know who this person is and that there's a relationship. If you don't have those kinds of things and you're not building those kinds of voices now,

radio is not going to... we see what's happening. It's just falling apart. Radio is not dead. Radio in big radio isn't understanding unique. Like small is the new big as far as I'm concerned. Big, big, big has failed. You know, companies buying companies has failed. The media has dried up in this country. There's no money in it really, and there was a lot more money before. Now, yeah, the internet is a huge factor in that, but people, it's like at Much Music, when people started watching some videos on YouTube, Much Music surrendered.

They said, well, they don't need to watch us for music videos anymore. They didn't understand people didn't watch just for the videos. They watched for the personalities, for the atmosphere, for feeling like a sense of belonging to something. They didn't get that. And look what happened to it. Absolutely. But the personality it's like a chowchee, you know, you can get a cheeseburger anywhere people come to Chowchee

is for the flare. Yeah, yeah, you gotta, you gotta connect. You gotta connect. Okay, well, so much so much ground I want to cover with you, Steve. But I just did my homework and saw that we actually met over a year, over a decade ago. I almost had a year ago, over a decade ago. So your first and I'm going to really quickly run through our visits and then I have some questions and we'll revisit the the all night show. Got more questions there. First, do they pay you for the all night show? Of course. Of course. It's one of my many questions. I don't assume anything

anymore. I know too much, but I'm glad that they're paying you. Of course. It's one of my many questions. Yeah, of course. I don't assume anything anymore. I know too much, but I'm glad that they're paying you. Yeah, of course. In this day and age, you never know, right? You know what? Actually, you're right. You're right. Why? I produce a show for radio guys who gave their show to a station in order to sell their own ads. Yeah, I am not a salesman. I create programming.

It's not my job to go out and sell as well. That's Steve Macaulay's job. Well, yeah. And, you know, they do very well there because they know their audience. Well, it sounds like they care about radio. I noticed with, and again, I'm going to get to this recap in a moment, but chorus stations, it seems like they're just interested in like priming their stations for sale. Like, can we sell, can chorus, who has financial problems you've all read about. But chorus just can we need buyers for our stations. And then you got the two big cable

companies Bell and Rogers, I feel like they're just trying to squeeze the last juice out of the lemon. That's what it feels like to me. You got your public broadcaster, that's a whole separate thing. We'll see what happens in the next federal election. But then you got these pockets, like shout out to john pole, my FOTM john poe, because these pockets like shout out to John pole my FOTM John Pope You got these pockets like that in Durham. You got the rock 94.5 94.9. Sorry For playing I know this okay. I've been to the studios Bob Willett when he was on the air there invited me I got a tour of the place there. So but then you got your your indie 88s, etc, etc

But okay, so you and I Steve go back to October 2014 and it was episode 94. You got in and the double digits. That's amazing. I was there at the ground floor. Well, back then, you didn't have silver hair and I had hair. So I thought that you know, you know, I feel like I had it coming in and I don't know, I had another kid and it all just shot out

This over this night. I envy your hair. I'm sitting here and being your hair we can strike a deal on that front Okay, so it was episode 94 people should go back because I actually was so new at this thing I don't have a radio background or anything I didn't even have a cable 10 show at Newton will talk about that in a minute but I like was figuring it out as I went and I didn't know how to chat with a persona like I wanted to talk to Ed the sock yeah but at the sock is Steve Kersner in a person like doing a persona so I was like I didn't actually wasn't sure how to do it but here's what we did okay so I believe I don't know if you

remember this it's over a decade ago but I talked to Ed I feel like I talked to Ed and then Ed went to move the car maybe and then I talked to Steve that that sounds like one of those Clark Kent oh something's bothering my stomach I have to disappear for a short time so I talked to both of you in that episode okay and here's the notes I took at the time Mike chats with Ed the sock about Gion Gomez. Well, timestamps it. Yeah. Ford Nation.

Oh, that's still going on. Yes, it's still going on. We talked about the storied career of Ed the sock on Canadian television. And then this question, which comes up all the time. We did talk about triumph, the insult comic dog. It seems to be a recurring thing whenever I say I just went on blue sky and said you're coming on and I had people like

they were curious about this but just again you don't have to do that we talked for over an hour that day people can go back to episode 94 but Ed the sock existed before triumph the insult comic dog right? Yeah I actually sent tapes to Conan's show and was dealing with their head talent person who expressed interest in having Ed as a character and then suddenly a little while later, like a few weeks later, said they're not going to go forward with it and then a short time after that triumph appears created by their head writer. Oh, Robert Smigel.

Yeah, and if you know anything about media there is no there's no chinese wall between the talent people and the creative people uh... so smigiel insists that he had no influence whatsoever i can't call the man a liar i don't know all i know is there was a direct contact with my with videos of ed at conan o'Brien's show. And then here comes this dog in a character voice with a cigar doing insults, which is

at that time Ed was just really doing insults. It grew over time. But tremendous similarity and there was direct contact with the original stuff. And then, you know, I was doing much music video awards you know Ed was doing much music video awards interviews with all the celebrities and then a few years later Triumph was doing it at the MTV Awards there's just so many things where it there was an interesting and I tried to make peace with them when Conan was in Toronto because Chum brought them to Toronto.

I was at one of the recordings at the Winter Garden Theatre. So I contacted Jeff Ross, the executive producer, and said look why don't we let bygones be bygones, have Ed show triumph around to some spots in Toronto that aren't on the tourist maps and he said yeah that's not gonna happen I need you to do me a favor. He just lodged it to, he wanted me to stop the news from running a particular he said, yeah, that's not going to happen. I need you to do me a favor. Just launched it. He wanted me to stop the news from running a particular story that gave away a joke from Conan's show that they had pre taped. So, you know, I made an attempt.

And you know what? I think he blocked me from being in the States because I had an opportunity. And then Comedy Central was already in talks with him for his own show They weren't going to do too, but I think ultimately it was for the best because Ed staying in Canada allowed the character to grow and evolve and Become something that I don't think he would have become in the u.s. Because it's a very disposable culture there. The fact that all these years later people are still thrilled to see...

I was at a dinner at the table where diplomats and politicians, when they found out I was Ed Dasock these are people with some power they're, oh you're Ed Dasock? And they started asking me a million questions. Like I said, I don't think about how the character has connected over the years with people, but I keep seeing signs of it. The only people who don't understand the connection Ed has and the power Ed has with the audience is people in legacy media

haha um... because that uh... i think legacy media also doesn't like anybody who comes with their own audience because then you have uh... you have a some leverage and they want all the leverage i've noticed that it in this country but when you said it all worked out for the best does your accountant agree uh... uh... it's not his opinion

uh... it's my opinion and i have i think you know what there are some some money is too expensive earning some money is too expensive i know somebody whose job took him constantly out of the city uh... and he didn't see his kids grow up really and he was constantly away and you

know what yeah he made good money but how much what was the cost of that money? Money is not the ultimate goal. I just and also I mean I don't need I don't I don't need fancy cars I don't need fancy anything. It's just not me, I learned that from my dad as well. I'm not out to impress other people. When I see somebody in a very expensive car, my thought is, you schmuck. Why did you spend the money on that? And also, if you've got that kind of money to waste,

there are charities you can give it to. Like, I just, I have no respect for that. It's one thing if there's somebody who really appreciates cars. Like a car aficionado. That's different. But somebody who buys a car because they're trying to show off that they can afford to buy the car. Like a status symbol. Yeah. It's like if you're trying to impress people, you've you've gone the other direction with me. You know, so

Steve, once again, we I agree fully with you. And it sounds like you and I cut from similar cloth where money isn't everything. I have this argument with clients of mine about where they don't want to leave money on the table. And I say like so many times in my career, I have left piles of money on the table. Like there's nothing wrong with leaving money on the table and prioritizing other things. It's not all about the money.

It's not all about your bank account. Well, the concept of enough. Remember enough? You're old enough to remember when there was a thing called enough. I think you've only got a couple years on me. Maybe. I don't think we're that different. No, probably not. Maybe not. But you remember enough. There was a time when enough was a respected thing. I don't have everything. I have enough. I'd always like a little bit more and I will strive for a little bit more. But what I have is enough. I can be satisfied. I don't feel empty because I don't have everything. Enough has gone away. There's no such thing anymore as enough. There's no such thing as enough of a dividend to shareholders.

You know, the cost, the human cost of increasing dividends and care about there's no such thing as enough any anymore and i think you know you reach a certain age if you're lucky you realize there is such a thing as enough very sage you you talked about these uh... imported people at this uh... dinner or whatnot who were excited that they were talking to uh... at the sock what's it like for steve kersner'm going to talk like your third person now.

What is it like for Steve Kersner when people, maybe they prefer Ed, like does that weigh on you at all? Like, cause you're not Ed Dasock. No, not at all. Uh, the, like poor Steve is like, Hey Steve, no offense, buddy. I'm going to be sitting with you for this dinner Can you become ed? Isn't somebody who they grew up with isn't somebody they watched on TV isn't somebody they related to isn't somebody who spoke truth to power it was ed and

So do I know not the least there's a reason you will not find pictures of me with ed reason you will not find pictures of me with Ed anywhere. Some people now snap them when I'm doing something. Oh, just sneakily. Yeah, but I never pose for them. Oh, so by the tree afterwards, I can't get you to pose with Ed? We can work something out. I think that'd be, let's say, if you're going to do it, do it here, fiercely independent over here.

There's a way we can work that out and not break the illusion. I don't want to be the face they see. Years ago, I watched the 60 Minutes thing about the Simpsons. And I saw Nancy Cartwright in the audio booth doing Bart's voice. After that, every time I watched Bart, I just saw Nancy Cartwright sitting in the booth. It took away an element of the magic for me. And this reminds me of the friendly giant who when if anyone's heard any retro Ontario episodes of Toronto Mike

didn't we do one in every holiday season he refused to do public appearances. His name was Bob Homme. Bob Homme yeah. He wouldn't do public appearances because he presented on TV to the kids as a giant and he was a regular-sized man Yeah, yeah people would be kids would be traumatized Five ten or something. Yeah, and where's my giant? So he wouldn't do public appearances. Yeah, and Right, I feel like I feel like you could be like, yeah, I'm a guy. I'm a regular. Yeah, I'm Steve Kersner You know what that would be self-centered for me to do would be egotistical I don't need that people get something out of Ed

I appreciate that they've got that connection whatever it is. I don't need to shove my face in their face and Claim some kind of credit. I don't need it. You don't need it. Okay Oh gotta just gotta burn through these because you came back in May, 2017. It was episode 237, but you weren't alone. Okay. Leanna Kay and Stephen Kersner. And that K stands for Kersner, doesn't it? Yes.

I mean, her maiden name started with a K too. Is that right? Okay, I didn't know that. Okay. That's a fun fact. We're still in love. Everything's okay. Yes. Okay. Good for you, buddy. We're still in love. Everything's okay. Yes. Okay.

Good for you, buddy. Mike chats with Leanna Kay and Stephen Kersner about live from Canada. It's Ed the sock, Leanna's lady bits, Gamergate, which I still don't understand. Don't tell Leanna. I'm still embarrassed by that. It's too late now. I don't need to know. Yeah. It's like, I just, we've moved on to worse things. Yeah. It much worse the worst timeline what went wrong at much music we had a really good friend discussion of what the hell they did wrong Bell Media fucked up much music no hold on I it was fucked up long before Bell Media took it over right okay so I need to revisit episode 237 get those details the Hard Rock Cafe was closing we talked about that. Yeah. And we

had been doing our show from there live. That's right. And why Canada prefers to eat her own. I don't know why I gave Canada that gender. Who knows? But that was all a really long discussion you and Leanna K. That was May 2017. Yeah. Then we're going to fast forward to I guess a pandemic happened and then something like that yeah yeah yeah June 2023 so now we're not going back too far here uh 18 months or so uh in this 1266th episode of Toronto Mike Mike chats with Ed the sock about his new gig doing overnights on the rock so now I know it's been about you've been doing it for what 18 months now? So yeah in May it'll be two years Okay, your maturity as a social commentator the much music documentary

Fromage and more. Okay. Let me revisit that documentary for a moment Have you see were you I can't remember were you at Roy Thompson Hall to see 99 Queen Street West? I I was out on the red carpet They requested to have it on the red carpet. They requested to have it on the red carpet so I did that. I actually had a meeting that night across the street at one of the restaurants so I came did the red carpet. I did not watch, I didn't watch the movie because there's no way I could be satisfied with that movie because all I'll think is all the things that aren't there. So it's not, I couldn't

I couldn't be a fair judge of them. movie so no close to the subject well I there's all I'll see is everything that was missed and so I Wasn't but Ed was in attendance, but weren't you cute wouldn't you have been? I know you had a median across the street So you were a double book there, but wouldn't you have been naturally curious what they missed no No, everybody has their own take on what much music meant to them and everyone is legitimate. So no, not at all. But I did, Ed did make appearances on the big screen at all of those screenings answering, asking questions of the Q&A panel.

So you know, Ed was a part of the evening of the experience. Okay. Are you surprised at all that here we are talking 18 months later or whatever it is and other than people who attended these live viewings like I did at Roy Thompson Hall, you can't, you haven't seen this doc. This doc never did stream on Crave. No that's a, But it was promoted as such, people saw ads saying Friday night the premiere of 299 Queen

Street West. I think it's very sad because he put a lot of work and a lot of love into that. Yeah, Sean Minard. Yeah and took financial risks and the fact that the the legal issues that have stopped it from getting aired weren't worked out well in advance. It strikes me as somebody somebody somewhere wasn't wasn't paying attention uh... i know there's listen there's there's ins and outs and nuances and

i want to get into it because i'm really not an authority on it all i know is that i feel it's really sad that uh... people aren't seeing this because there is a tremendous abiding love an interest in much music and I think

this would have filled that for some people. I could tell you that every couple of months a little birdie tells me that its release is imminent and they've cleared up the legal issues. I hope it's true. Yeah, I think I hope it's true too. But it really is becoming like a Mike Richards gig announcement. Like it's just something you can bank on happening every couple of like it's like I hope it does come out but I was told it was imminent and then I was told it was imminent and that

that's sort of that cycling has been happening for it's possible they believe that it's gonna happen and then another another you know problem crops up I don't know but I do hope people get to see it because he put a lot of work into that. Oh yeah, a shout out to FOTM Sean Menard. Quick pick up a few things here on our way back to The Rock. I'm not in a rush, no problem. Okay, I'm just wondering if I might end up in a rush, but that's okay because I got Steve Kirzner in the basement, Steve of course creator and voice of Ed the Sock. I did not know this never maybe I just forgot to bring it up or I knew it and then I forgot I knew it but you ran in the 1990 Ontario general election the riding

of Wilson Heights. You were a part of the progressive conservative party when Mike Harris was the leader. That's right. So my question is you were aligned with the Progressive Conservative Party in 1990 and that was a long time ago, but your political alliance seems to have shifted since then. Like was there an epiphany or was it a slow progress? There was a bit of an epiphany uh... okay first of all uh... i was what was i twenty three at the time so that's the foolishness of youth you know that's being raised

new somewhat comfortably middle class and thinking because of that you know everything right uh... and i didn't but i thought i did uh... there was after mike harris actually he didn't win that election after the the tories won the next election with the common sense revolution and they were going after welfare moms, even internal research I saw from them showed we're talking a, well they're far as like 0.1 percent.

It was nothing. But the fact that they were going after such vulnerable people didn't sit with me because that wasn't my brand of conservatism. And when I brought it, I was the president of the writing association, the local writing association, and when I brought it up in a meeting I said you know I'm really not comfortable with this. They started saying oh comrade as if I was like now a communist. And I left the meeting, I resigned, I had nothing to do with them since, and moved, as I gained life experience and realized life is not as cut and dried as conservative philosophy,

the way that it is now shows it, I just became, I consider myself a centrist, because I consider basic human rights and things like that not right or left wing. They're foundational to our society. So I consider myself a centrist with a leftward lean, but I don't fall over like a lot of people. Is there a difference between Steve Kersner's politics and Ed the Sox politics?

No, not really, because I think that would be disingenuous. It's funny, there's a lot of people on the right who think Ed was right wing, who think Ed was anti-immigrant. Never was that the case. But Ed delivers material and delivered material with a certain level of aggression and directness and bluntness which is now associated with right wingers. But what Ed said was never those things.

You know, the editorials we used to do were always sympathetic to the underdog and so on and to basic human rights and anti-racism and so they say you know you've sold out it's like no you just misremember who who Ed is and who Ed has always been. Right. Fascinating. Okay so I'm gonna bring you back to Newton for a moment here so because it sounds like when you're running for politics in 1990 you're already you know working at Newton Cable right? Yeah Newton Cable was a family owned cable company and not my family the Newton family right and when I volunteered there from the time I was like almost 15

and then got hired full-time and became full-time program director when I was 18. And this is where Ed the sock is born. Yes. Well, Ed the sock was kind of born in my head, kidding around with a friend of mine before that. But the first time you saw Ed physically manifest was there. Do you, like, do you have the original Ed? Yes.

I have every Ed except for one that I gave to somebody from Chum who had been especially supportive. OK, OK. How radically different does the original Ed appear versus today's Ed? Completely different. First of all, he's a brown sock. OK. Right. And he yeah, he the green hair is there. The eyes are made from the same thing. And he, yeah, he, the green hair is there. The eyes are made from the same thing. The tops of you who glue sticks. So the mouth is still made of felt. So that, and he's a sock.

Those basics are there. But over time, Eddie evolved. Like there was a time I didn't wear clothing, you know. All right, now, so maybe I've asked you this in the initial. We're doing a few greatest hits here maybe. But how did Ed get the name Ed? Actually, he was named after the actor Ed Asner who played Lou Grant. Only died fairly recently.

Yeah, it was a thousand years old. He was an up, you know, so even kids know the voice. That's right. The schtick was that he was claiming to be actually Ed Asner, that he was the actor Ed Asner. That was the initial schtick was that he was Ed Asner. And that went away quickly. But that's how the name Ed got there.

Well, that's funny. And this has come up on Toronto, like quite a bit, because during the pandemic, I'd record weekly with a couple of guys named Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. Oh, Stu Stone. Yeah, good guy. He's coming back. He was booked last week. He got covid. So we postponed it. I know. Geez. How many times have you had covid? Do you keep track?

I had it once and that was enough. Yeah. Yeah. That was enough. All right. My wife is still feeling the effects years later. She's the long tail. Well, I've heard some horror stories about her sense of taste never really came back. And yeah, it had a long tail. Hopefully Stu doesn't have to endure that. But he's coming back. But you're not just a show on cable 10 there, the Newton cable 10. And I, I lived, where was I living near Jane and Dundas? And I was watching a lot of cable 10 there, the Newton cable 10. And I lived, where was I living? Near Jane and Dundas. And I was watching a lot of cable 10.

I was thinking about this when I watched the Tom Green documentary. Oh yeah. Have you seen the Tom Green documentary? I haven't, not yet. It's good, it's good. And then I realized, oh yeah, I remember your show, Ed the Sock, I would watch on cable 10, absolutely loved it. And I would see shows like, geez, what's the Mr. Moe and Darren Jones buzz

buzz you know I created that well this is where I'm going I could you could we could you share a little bit about like who were you working with like at when you were at Newton Cable were you working with a young Stu Stone and Cam Gordon for a very short period of time oh very short period of time sports Stu said that he was he did a show there. I don't remember. I've seen footage of a show on cable 10 with Cam and Stu and somebody else, maybe a buddy of theirs from Thorin Lee Collegiate or something.

But they're talking sports, basically. It's like, let's talk sports. I don't. You know, I remember just about everybody that came in those doors. Right. I don't remember Stu doing a show there. I don't remember approving that show. But tell me about the buzz. So I knew I went to UT and I remember seeing Darren Jones on campus and I was watching the buzz and Mr. Moe.

What was your role in the buzz? Bit of a sore spot, to be honest with you. I created a show called Street Beat, which was basically The Buzz, but it was before The Buzz. And we did it on Newton Cable. And when I was still working for Rogers, I agreed to bring it back. But the thing is, I had an agreement with the owner of Newton Cable that anything I created, I owned.

It was that stopped him from having to pay me more. Okay. Um, and I had a letter setting this out. So in the meeting, executive producer meeting at Rogers when we talked about bringing it back, I said I would bring it back but I retain ownership rights and they agreed uh... i'd had found darren jones club called comedy would it steals in bathurst uh... and i went there one night looking for comedians and he was about fifteen

and he got up there i just saw something good in him i said okay this kids got something and so i decided to bring back uh Beep, we were going to call it the buzz, I told the guy who was who I'd assigned to work on it, Mike, that contact this guy, get the contact information. This is Derek, Darren Jones. And he did. And they decided to add Mr. Moe to it. We did the show. Rogers purged all of us on the executive level. And I said, you guys can keep doing the show.

Basically, it was Mike's reason for being there with Rogers. He was getting paid. And if it went away, he wouldn't have that. So I was like, just keep going. Then I heard rumors that it was going to the Comedy Network. So I took Mike to lunch and at the keg yet. And I said, I hear that this is going to the comedy network and he's eating. He says, yep. And I said, okay, the first seasons of a show, you need all the budget you can on camera. You know, I said, so all I'm looking, all I want is the created by credit. And he said, yeah, me and Darren and Mo are taking the created by credit. And

I said, but you didn't create it. We said, well, you can talk to our agent about it. And I said, your agent will talk to my lawyer. And to this day, I think Darren still says Mike discovered him, but it was me. You know, I'm very glad to see how well Darren's done for himself. I he is a talent. And in the end, I wound up making as much from the buzz as I think they did individually. So but I was prepared to let them have it for nothing just for credit. But they just they wanted to claim they created something

they didn't create. That's disappointing to hear, man, but I'm glad you're sharing this stuff. I feel like, what's the point of that fiercely independent podcast if you don't get real talk like that? This is not, I mean, I've spoken about it before. It's not a secret. That's one of the most duplicitous things I've seen

that I've been involved with in media. Disappointing to hear. Disappointing to hear. What about the... I just referenced Let's Talk Sports because I would watch this show. There was a guy named Aaron Lobel. Lobel? And Mike Willner. Was that a Newton cable thing? Mike Willner did do a show with us. I don't remember Aaron, but I remember Mike because I also went to school with his brother Norm the film critic also an FOTM. Okay, so let's talk just he's in the calendar. I want to say he's in the cover next week. So Mike's very

COVID Cautious is the term I'll use and he won't come in the basement, but he just got COVID So I guess he feels there's a period of time where he's like immune. Yeah, that's right. You've got a grace period. Yeah. So basically, he's coming down to the basement during this period of time. Yeah, we'll be chatting. This is coming up maybe next week. I got to check.

Here's another guy who I've been really glad to see his success, because I know what it takes to succeed in that kind of thing. And his success is a testament to hard work and talent. No doubt. But he did get a raw deal because he got his dream job, which is calling Blue Jays baseball on the radio. Right. The Mike Willner dream job and Rogers,

Roger did up. Yeah, I'll tell you that in my lifetime, I have yet to see evidence that there's a creative bone in anyone at Rogers. They're all basically accounts a creative bone in anyone at Rogers. They're all basically accounts and they don't understand how to create anything or how to build anything creatively. They understand how to tear it down and make it bland. Sure. They're experts at bland which goes back. We saw this at City TV when they took over. Oh, TV from why does

City TV exist anymore? Like what does it do? Nothing. It adds nothing to the landscape. It's just there. And it was once a vital cultural force. And they figured they couldn't, they didn't know how to do it. So they stopped doing it. And it was, I mean, I worked with them for a year with Ed's night party, the final year. And I knew that it was the final year because there was no way they could countenance something with that personality on a Rogers channel. They, it goes back to their history as a cable company when they wanted to keep, they wanted complaints very low. So when they went

for rate increases, CRTC wouldn't trot out complaints about their programming. And I think it's just built into the bones of the company to just be bland. Yeah, that's interesting to hear you say, because you did have that year with them. So but when you originally moved Ed from cable 10 to city, that was still much, what were they called again? Chum City? Chum City, yeah. It's interesting because when I moved the show, they wanted Ed on Much Music as well. And that wasn't my idea. And I was like, I don't really know if I want to do Much Music. And it turned out that the Much Music stuff is the stuff that has endured in people's memories and their hearts longer and I'm and I'm glad of that actually because while I'm proud of the subversiveness of our late night show it was of its time

right the much stuff seems to be a little more timeless and you get the national exposure too so yeah yeah and it was it it was great not be not not grow up growing up loving music or worshiping artists because then when I interviewed these big big shots they were not big shots to me right that's how I was a you know and they they like talking to Ed because Ed talked to them like a peer like a regular like a buddy and not like a slavish fan and that's why they would keep asking to get interviewed because Ed allowed them to be who they really were and actually think about questions and answers

and laugh because if you want somebody to seem humanized get them laughing. I mean when I got Lenny Kravitz to break his cool guy frame and start laughing. It was a whole different guy. Right. And yeah, so that was, I was lucky in that when I met them I didn't care. When people say, who do you, who'd you interview? And I honestly, you know what, I remember a few names, but they were, and they said, did you interview X? Oh yeah, I interviewed them. and it just wasn't something that I I was that invested in who they were there were some bands I made them wear hello my name is stickers and said I'm not gonna waste my time learning your names it's interesting to hear you say

see is I understand you shouldn't idolize musicians of course you shouldn't idolize hockey players either I have a question for you coming up about that but do you listen to music when your own private time? Do you enjoy listening to music? Or is music just not a huge part of your life? It's not a huge part of my life. Listen, I listen to music five hours a night, five nights a week. Right. Okay. I've become much more acquainted and familiar with rock music, and I'm enjoying it, honestly.

But in my spare time, I listen to podcasts like yours, conversations, and I read. Now my spare time, I don't have a whole lot of that. I've just taken on, they've hired me at Durham Radio, which is the owner of the rock. I'm creating social media video for all of their stations. So I'm keeping busy. Yeah. You're busy, busy man.

You still friendly with Rick the temp? Oh yes. Oh yeah. Because you were, and I don't, I gotta get it. He's been on a few times, but I need to find out what had something happened. I fact, last time he was on, I think I got the story and I forgot, but You would appear on

Z 103 with the temp back in the day. Well, yeah, I actually Co-hosted for an entire month a December with him And that was actually what got me thinking about radio when I had never thought of it before like I don't miss television I miss what television was but I don't miss what television is. But what got me thinking about radio was working with Rick doing that. And maybe I get a little real talk here. What the hell's going on at 960?

Like you were there for a bit, right? You were ever on Saga, Saga 960? Oh yeah, still. You're still? Yeah, we do the Ed and Red podcast. Okay, okay, okay. Ed and Red radio show. Oh, is it, so that's like, is that like,

they just play the podcast? Well yeah, we just record it. Okay. And send it to them, and then we turn it into a podcast. Okay, Ed and Red podcast with your wife, FOTM Leanna. Okay, good. Okay, a lot of ground I wanna cover. Actually, by the way, I mentioned,

she does a podcast called It's Not Therapy, which is fantastic because she's now a peer counselor with clients around the world. She's full nine to nine every day with peer counselor clients. Nine to nine. Holy. Yeah. She's been, she started out, she said, I'll do it on Monday. Then it was two days. Now it's like at least five and she's had tremendous success helping people get through some difficult things and the podcast is a lot of topics people would be very interested in. I learned like one or two things every time I listen I'm

like I didn't know I needed to learn that. No, very cool. Shout these out from the from the rafters. It's not therapy it's called. Yes. It's not therapy. I know you are not an alcohol consumer you might be allergic to alcohol. I'm allergic or intolerant All I know is if I have the least bit of alcohol it feels like someone punched me in the stomach Well, listen, no Great Lakes beer for you. Okay, we wouldn't do that to you, but shout out to Great Lakes who are hosting FOTMs, I don't know your schedule. You know, what time do you wake up if you're all night on? One or 2 p.m.? I go to bed about very early for you.

Yeah, yeah, I'm still my pajamas. I go to bed about six because the thing is, when I'm done the show, I'm not tired. You got to wind down. I'm still like my body clock. I was always more awake at night than during the day. So we will say, how do you stay awake? It's like, no, no, no, you don't understand. I my brain starts to wake up at nine p.m. Right. Well, then this is the gig for you, man. Amazing. So

I was going to invite you in no pressure because of your crazy schedule, but we are all collecting by we, I mean, the FOTM is the listenership. We're all collecting on June 26th. That's a Thursday night from six to 9pm. We're all going to gather at Great Lakes Brewery, which is easy for me to say, and that is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard down the street from the Costco in South Etobicoke. We're going to gather there, Great Lakes will buy us our first drink, and Palma Pasta will feed us. And Steve, I'm going to send you home if you're a fan of Italian food, I food in the send you home with me and lasagna today

in courtesy of palm up on stuff that's great and i'll tell you that i i love breweries like great lakes because you look at the explosion of creativity in these brewers like great lakes you look at their cans you look at the names of the things i mean their their drinks are quality i i don't drink them, but I know that they're, you know. Well, I drink them and I can vouch for it. I mean, I'm just here looking at the Canuck Pale Ale with this, you know, Gordy Levesque,

Paul Bunyan type guy on it. And it's just, but the amount of creativity that exists in these microbreweries. There's more, there's stories about Gordy Levesque. Yeah, there's a whole. Oh, yeah. It's just the creativity is amazing. You know why? It's the same reason you can be creative on the rock.

Yes, because it's not a huge conglomerate. This is not InBev, which used to be known as Labats or Molson Coors. I can go talk to Peter Bullitt today, who owns the brewery. Like, I can imagine talking to the owner. Yeah, oh, it's, well, you're not a Karen, right? Can I talk to the owner, please? That's the manager. Yeah, that's the manager.

Well, when you're not satisfied with the manager, that's Karen part two. But yeah, it's amazing because as the world, companies got bigger and bigger and bigger. The argument was we need to get bigger to compete. So they get bigger, they take on massive amounts of debt, which means they have to fire a bunch of people. They do cost cutting and cost cutting.

In the end, they're not producing more than they were before. They're not any healthier, but they've got a massive amount of debt and competition has gone away. Right, so I love these family run places that includes Poma Pasta. That includes Ridley Funeral Home, who have sent a measuring tape for you Steve.

This is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. That is very funny. That reminds me of all those western movies where the Undertaker would come by when the when a guy was going to have a gunfight and he was still alive and they'd measure him for a for a coffin. Yeah, I remember that. I also remember the WKRP episode. Ferryman's commercial. He wanted an upbeat, Ferryman's funeral home wanted an update,

upbeat thing. It was no use trying to deny it. Someday you're gonna buy it. Good memory, Steve. That was, and again, because you revealed earlier how old you were in 1990, I can tell you, you are precisely four years older than me. Yeah. I've done the math. But I was, when it was in syndication, I would watch WKRP, early 80s or so, mid 80s maybe. But I loved WKRP. And even though I never worked in radio,

and now you are in radio, I gotta say, my love for radio, I think comes out of WKRP in Cincinnati. Well, the thing is WKRP in Cincinnati was a lot like my cable 10 station. And then I now I'm thinking so I loved watching cable 10 too. And I think to this day, and I'm going to ask you about a different online show in a minute, but I feel like in many ways, what I'm doing here in the basement now, it's if you took like if you took like the cable 10 stuff I saw and you took the Wayne's world skits I watched on much music or whatever yeah you sort of smashed it up of WKRP like in a blender or whatever you might come out with something like

this like so I kind of get the the happiness that you're feeling there by the way on the live stream live live.torontomike.com, Jeremy Hopkins, the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast, says there's a non-alcoholic beverage in front of you. So I don't know what you're allergic to, but there is no alcohol in the hot pop. So you could bring that home

and you could enjoy that with your lasagna. Shame on me for not remembering the hot pop. Liana is a wine snob, but she does like beer every now and again, so I will take some. She'll, yeah, she'll slum it with a craft beer now. That's right. But there you go.

I do want to shout out a few podcasts very quickly. One is an excellent podcast from Great Lakes Brewery called Between Two Fermenters. Clever. New episode drops tomorrow. It's a great podcast from them. Also Ridley Funeral Home has a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. I strongly recommend it. Very clever too.

All these clever titles. But here is my long-winded way of getting to a podcast from Nick Aynes called Building Toronto Skyline. And Nick Aynes is with Fusion Corp Development. And this is a great podcast. If you want to hear his take on the condo industry, state of developments, he just wrote a new book called Battle of the Skyscrapers. And we love Nick Ienis on this program because he opened his wallet to help fuel independent real talk like this. So thank you to Nick.

And last but not least, before we get back to Steve Kersner, I've got a few more questions, of course. I do want to let the people know that if they have old electronics, old devices, old cables in a drawer, a room, a closet, in the Kersner household, don't throw that in the garbage, Steve. Cause those chemicals end up in the landfill.

Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in your poster code. You can never throw that in the garbage Steve because chemicals end up in the landfill go to recycle my electronics dot see a put in your post you never know that stuff out don't if I find out I'm coming over there okay you can never I got a friend been boss bill he's one of the callers been one of the callers works at a transfer station and he talks about how the trucks would come in on fire because somebody threw out batteries like just regular batteries they would throw batteries and the truck would come in on fire because somebody threw out batteries. Like just regular batteries, they would throw out batteries and the truck would come in on fire. Now imagine trying to put out a fire in a Tesla. I wouldn't.

I wouldn't. If I gave you a brand new Tesla, would you proudly drive that free automobile I'm giving you? Right into a tree. Bless you, bless you. Okay, so here's a name I'm going to throw at you, and he's been on Toronto Mike, but do you know the name Jeff Silverman? Yes, from Yuck Yucks. Correct, okay, absolutely. So he, yeah, he's now known as the Yuck Yucks guy, but in the early 80s he created a show. With Chaz Lawther.

With Chaz Lawther. So Chaz, this is where I'm, good, it's like you could read my mind here, Steve. Chaz just very recently made his Toronto Mic debut. He came down here. He's better known to us as Chuck the Security Guard, and Chuck the Security Guard hosted the All Night Show on CFMT. But because I know you're only four years older than me, there's no chance you watched the All Night Show on CFMT. Am I right? Like the math's not working.

You couldn't have been watching Allnight TV in the early 80s. Why? What were you? I wasn't. Well, I mean, okay, I was. I mean, I was actually, I was. You're born in 70. 67. I'm 57. Then my math was wrong. I had you born in 1970. Okay, so you could have possibly. Okay, so that's seven years. Okay, so the all-night show was all- all night live and local Chuck the security guy was the host. There were others on the show, a gentleman they called Ryerson. I just recently kind of got into this because I didn't watch it when it was actually airing. It only aired for like a year or something like that. Was it at all an inspiration behind the show

on? So can you talk? Oh no. Was it an inspiration for the current radio show? Well for, did it inspire you at all? Only because the vibes of the All Night Show as it aired on CFMT in the early 80s, and this is after like watching episodes on YouTube and talking to Chaz Lother, remind me of how you describe your show when you first, we first turned on these

microphones like an hour ago. You're kind of creating the same community of these people who are up at night and there's a wide, it's not just, you know, you said you had misconceptions and they were all... Completely wrong and you know we constantly get new callers because I've been listening for a year and a half but I just now decided to call. So it's a broader thing. I mean there was one sub shop in Scarborough that a caller said, I'm bringing you a smoked meat sub from, we named the place. He brought it.

I ate it. I said, hey, this is pretty good. He went back a week, two weeks later, the guy couldn't keep it in stock because people heard it on the radio and went in. Again, power of radio. Well, you told me that story about Dorothy earlier. I was just sitting here like listening and I thought I was going to cry for a moment. It's just so beautiful to hear you talk about how the community came to help Dorothy, a regular caller whose son passed away suddenly.

Yeah. I mean, she's a beautiful person. The thing about Dorothy is she will tell you every small detail about a story. And that's her brand is she will tell you every small detail about a story. And that's her brand is she will talk and talk and talk and talk. And sometimes I will just turn the mic down and do like a traffic report and then go back to her talking. But she's also extremely honest about things most people wouldn't be. That would be embarrassing. But she's so authentic.

You don't look down on her the other way around uh... and her son was so sharp and funny it's such a loss he was he was a great kid it's heartbreaking yeah great kid absolutely absolutely heartbreaking uh... to hear you talk about that story but there's similar uh... beautiful vibes going on with how Chas described what was happening for that year so that he was doing live local overnight stuff on cfm t isn't it amazing did a free year the

impression that it left on so many of us for something that was only there for a year i mean that's powerful yet you know what things like that that were very clearly handmade like handmade television not to be confused with handmade films which is who's an Eric Idol anyway like I said it had fingerprints on it you could tell people put this together you could tell it was made up from inspiration that and the fact that it was in Toronto and somebody from Toronto could make a show like this that was creative and different Absolutely inspired me things like that. Absolutely that and Fernwood tonight with Martin mall and Fred Willard

Which that's that satire of small-town talk shows. That is the DNA of Ed's night party Amazing. I gotta ask you about something that happened back in the day here you were in a Frank D'Angelo film? Yeah that's right yeah. I gotta so okay where do I just basically it was called the Joke Thief. How'd you get that gig like and what was it like working for Frank D'Angelo? Okay, first of all, how did I get that gig? You make it sound like it was something that people were coveting and chasing around. I know Frank. I knew Frank. Frank, when he had Steelback Brewery, was a big sponsor of Ed's Night Party.

Did he pay his invoices? I'm assuming that he did. I didn't hear otherwise. It's because Hawkenight in Canada had an issue. Yeah, I don't think- Allegedly, Lauren Honigman wants me to say allegedly after I say all these things about Frank. I believe that he did. I heard, I didn't hear anything that he didn't.

And it was funny, because the first time we met Frank was when we were doing, Ed was doing a tour of the brewery. And Frank was very standoffish at first. And slowly, then we went for dinner and slowly he got a measure of me and Liana and changed completely. I understand why the guy would be guarded initially. And then we've been friend friend ish for for years. I Ed was on his his late night show Being Frank, which was hugely fun for me because Ed would like poke fun at Frank. And I don't think Frank got the joke, but the other people there did.

And but it. Yeah, Jim Taddy might have been like a. Jim Taddy was there, too. Yeah. But the thing is, Frank was gracious enough that even if he knew the joke was at his expense, he's every week. There was Ed and I wasn't doing much with it at the time. So yeah, I was on his show. I did that movie. I did not have a bad experience with Frank D'Angelo. Okay. No, good to hear. Was there like a, was John Gallagher a part of the show you were on, being Frank? No. Okay. What about like Perry Lefkoe?

No. I'm just trying to think. Okay. Just. I know both those gentlemen, but no. Okay. No, they're okay. All right.

Well, I will tell you a Frank D'Angelo story if you want. Oh yeah, please. Of course. So I'm sitting with Frank D'Angelo at his restaurant and one of his drivers, because he delivers, like he runs juices or something, juice company. Yeah, apple juice. Yeah and so one of his drivers called and said that he was at this particular grocery store and was told it was going to take five hours till he was able to unload because of the other the you know the the weight and Francis

wait you just sit there I'll take care of it so Frank gets on the phone and I hear him start talking and he says you son of sons a bitches my guys not gonna sit there for five hours doing nothing I'm he's you know I'm paying him you're not gonna make me lose money by making him sit there. You'd better get him in sooner or I'm going to come over there and take all of you out. Pause. Anyway, call me back.

That was a phone message. That was a phone message. Oh, and take all of you out for a drink. Yeah, okay. That's the ticket. Okay, here's the thing. Frank fronts a bit as this Italian stereotype gangster. A little bit. A bit. You think so? Okay. He told when he went to dinner

at his restaurant with Humble and Fred, who were also in this being Frank, he said, I can't have my back to the door. Like, like as if he's in the Godfather 2. Well, the thing is, I found Frank to be underneath that, to be a good guy. To be honest with you. I found him to be a good guy when I was on his show. The deference that he showed to the women who were there, the servers, the guests, the people working on the show, the deference, the old school traditional deference he showed to women. He was, he's not the guy people think he is. He may not even be the guy he thinks he is.

Well, to be Frank, see what I did there? Being Frank with paid programming. Yes, of course. Yeah, I know, you say of course. I just, I'm throwing it out there because for sure there's listeners who thinks that's like, it's like a, it's like a Bullard show or it was it was actually better than Bullard show and but yeah but that's a lot but the bar is on the floor for a Bullard show

what was your relationship like with my I hated the man absolutely hated him now you have my attention yeah I found him to be an asshole. And everyone thought he was an asshole until he died. And then he was a saint. But he was an asshole. Every experience I had with him, he was nasty and jealous and like just not a good guy. And he used his power when he had his show.

I have a good friend who was a producer on a remote bit with him and he was just a complete asshole full of himself. You know, I'm the big star here and he was shit on television too. He was not good. His forte was live stuff with audiences. Why they picked him out of all people, I don't know. But I will say this, I have heard, and I don't know how reliable this is, as Ed, I would make fun of his show and make fun of him and expose the fact that the numbers they said he got were not actually accurate. And I've heard that that really rankled people at CTV. So when CTV took over Chum, that's why I wasn't part of anything there.

It was a grudge. They were angry. They were angry. This is like Norm MacDonald losing his weekend update because he wouldn't stop making jokes at OJ. Yeah, I only found this out recently because Ed's brand was huge at the time, possibly one of the biggest in Canada at the time possibly one of the

biggest in Canada at the time and my thought was well the brands too big to you know that it's I'm not gonna have a problem and I did you know I went places people would call me for meetings and then say well one place said your brand is bigger than ours and it'll over it'll it'll eclipse it and I'm thinking and this is a problem how in the states? That's not a problem Yeah in the states is not well. Here's another thing. That's not a problem in the states one place said They will remember you from much music and city TV so when they see you on our channel

They will go to much music in city TV hilarious How did you get into television? So what you're telling me is people really like Ed the sock. So when they watch him on television, instead of watching him, they will go to channels he isn't on because that makes sense. Yeah, that sounds, that's insane. It's insane.

You wonder why the TV industry is where it is. So back to Bullard here. I gotta be careful how much I share here. But he's dead now, so I feel like it's okay Well, you're supposed to speak not speak ill of the dead but if I didn't speak well, so I actually personally struggled because when when I found out Bullard was dead and I found out before It was public. Yeah that Bullard had passed and I will be very honest with you. My initial guttural reaction was relief

That he was gone because he had been tormenting me. Really? Yeah. Afterwards, I'll send you, if you Google it, I think Mike Bullard's bizarre threats about me on torontomike.com. I wrote about it in great detail. He seemed to think he got in with the Dean Blundell podcast network and he seemed to

think that he was defending his only friend, Dean Blundell podcast network, and he seemed to think that he was defending his only friend, Dean Blundell, from Big Bad Toronto Mike. So he sort of decided to focus on me, target me, if you will, with just, yeah, when you see it, you'll be like, oh my God. But when he passed, the people about what a great guy he was, you're right, there's this thing that happens when somebody dies where everybody sort of says nothing but positive things. And if you had a terrible experience, I had an absolutely terrible

experience with Mike Bullard that I'll after the recording, I'll tell you where to go to read. There's even a Toronto Mike episode about it and how it all ties in with Fearless Fred and it ties in with Dean Blundell. It's a whole class of whatever, but it is difficult to be like, It's a whole class of fuck whatever. But it is difficult to be like, it's almost like you don't get to talk now because Bullard just died and he is the saint of all great talk shows and comedy in this country. And yeah, and to hear you say that.

So Ben Mulroney and I were, this is a weird way, I think it was last summer, but it could have been, I think it was last summer. Ben Mulroney, this is while Mike Bullard was still alive. Ben Mulroney and I were having a chat, a private chat, quite a long chat about all these things. And it turns out when Ben Mulrooney was breaking into media, he was working on the Bullard show.

And I won't, you know, Ben, one day he might be Prime Minister, so I won't say anything ill, Ben, we had a great chat. It was a great chat, actually. I had a great chat with Ben Mulrooney. I've had good encounters with him. So yeah. Yeah, so I'm not here. Nothing negative about Ben, except Ben was very honest about how shittily, is that a word? Yes, it is. How shittily he was treated by Mike Bullard on this show and his horrific

experience early in his media career working on the Mike Bullard show. And he was scheduled to come on Ben Mulroney to talk about everything including that and somehow he got busy and asked to postpone it and somehow it never got rescheduled so he you know maybe a smart decision by Ben Mulroney but to hear your what you said about Mike Bullard it sort of aligns with everything I well when I heard a somebody who's a comedy authority in this country saying he was always great with young comedians in support of those like there is not a single story i've heard

like i've heard lots of stories and being awful uh... it's the with he and i it started years ago i was doing a uh... uh... it's night party live at yuk yaks uh... the club on bluer he was the lead insult guy at the time. Right. And people were saying things like, oh, gotta watch out, Ed can match you with insults or whatever. So he came on as a guest. And when I outsmarted him or

whatever a couple of times with his jokes, he pulled the puppet off my hand. Geez. Which is like the cheapest way. And the audience hated him for it at the time. And from, now I could forgive that, but he was an asshole after that. I'm not surprised at all from my experience. Not surprised at all.

All I heard from people was that he made comedians who were his colleagues crawl over broken glass to get a spot on his show. And it's funny how this conversation comes full circle, another great, great appearance, although maybe my favorite appearance actually, I feel like this was like a guy because you're in a great place professionally and everything. But it all comes full circle because that week of shows that Conan O'Brien did in Toronto in 2003 when he stole Ed The Sock idea over the triumph, the comic

insult, whatever it was called. I was at a taping. Adam Sandler was the guest, Stomp and Tom Connors was the musical guest. I'm there with my brother Steve and here I am with a different Steve. And they had a whole thing where he insulted Koubeckers. This was the whole thing. They got in trouble with the CRTC and all this stuff. But I was there for that episode. But the, uh, I remember reading about how, oh the CRTC and all this stuff Yeah, but I was there for that episode but the I remember reading about how oh like like Mike Bullard was recording that week in the same city and and I think He was booking like the Gardner or whatever like like not there's anything wrong with that But there he's basically it was kind of exposing how Starving he was for some kind of attention or gas or something that this bright light of Conan

Completely eclipsed him. That. Oh he got very angry about it. I remember when they were trying to bring David Letterman to town. He was saying things like this is when Giuliani was mayor. He said why don't we bring Giuliani in to be mayor? Like he was just rather than being gracious. I don't think the man had a gracious bone in his body. Let's not even talk about the stalking. Oh, Cynthia Mulligan. Yeah. Yeah, and I knew Cynthia. Cynthia was a very sweet, decent woman. How she even went out with him, I don't know, but yeah, I had a lot of respect and affection for her. Have you had any conversations with Frank D'Angelo since the uh... terrible murder of barry and honey sherman

i did talk to him about it briefly i mean barry sherman was a good friend of his well good friend that brewery you toward was financed by the action and he finance frank's movies yet yes uh... and uh... joke he even even the jokers and uh... frank was uh... you're torn up by it. Very upset because not only were they dead but they didn't know they couldn't put it on anybody.

They couldn't bring someone to justice. Does it say no arrest? Yeah because I think it was a professional job and they didn't leave any fingerprints but yeah he was very upset by it like legitimately upset as it makes sense you know. No I he was very upset by it, like legitimately upset as it makes sense, you know? No, he was on a podcast by Kevin Donovan that was a Toronto Star podcast. They also produce a podcast for Mike Wilner, going back to the the new Dinbrook, new Din Cable days. OK, but yeah, he did chat with Kevin Donovan and sounded distraught. And yeah, I can. Yeah, terrible. The the the fact that

that's now a cold case like I don't know I don't know how you can go into a home on the bridle path and murder two very rich people and sort of get away with it that's kind of wild to me well if you're a professional who does that for a living that's what you get paid for okay all right now on our way out our way out here, you've been amazing, so just remind people if they want to hear this, this all-night show that's on 94.9, The Rock, that sounds like it's quite the community you've built and there's always room for more, what time are they going to, I was going to say, turning their dial, but a lot of people just go into the browser or whatever Well, a lot of them say Alexa turn on 94 9, right?

Right. Yeah, it's Monday to Friday live midnight to 5 a.m weekends is Basically a best-of show called the all-star all-night show midnight to 5 a.m. Saturday Sunday It's also available at the rock FM and on the rock app. We've got people I've got listeners in Kuwait, in Argentina, in Australia, Portugal. Are they expats or are they locals? Some because I will say summer local. And some are Americans or Americans and guy in Japan who's an expat.

So but people can listen like there are drivers who drive across, you know, from Canada to the States, they listen on the app. Right. Cause they can get it clearly. Sure. And also I'm a little slack in this, but the All Star All Night Show gets put up

on the on-demand section of the rock.fm. And that's the calls, the best calls of the week without the music so it's just like an hour some 45 minutes to an hour of the best calls very cool Scott Lyons wrote in when he heard that he didn't know I didn't know I think I teased it so I could say Steve Kerner's coming on and people are like who the hell's that but exactly Ed the sock aka Steve Kersner now you've got their attention okay that's the branding there yeah Scott Lyon says obviously you have to I

think he's talking about Ed but we're only talking to Steve today I guess yeah obviously I have to ask him about 99 so what are your thoughts about Wayne Gretzky and for those who've been living under a rock he was at Mar-a-Lago on election night he's been photographed with his Make America Great Again hat. His wife Janet goes on Instagram. They loved, clearly a friend of Trump. And then with all this 51st,

and I'd be interested in your thoughts on this on the way out too, this 51st state nonsense coming from Trump that's been bugging me, just so offensive. Wayne has not said a word on it so now Trump has said something on Wayne's behalf and Janet has said something on Wayne's behalf. We have never heard a single not a statement not a word on this topic of support for his home in Native land. What do you have to say

Steve about number 99? Fuck Wayne Gretzky that's what I have to say. The guy he Janet says it breaks his heart. People think he doesn't love Canada. When is the last time he lived in Canada? He's been living in the States for decades. He hangs out with Trump. He's a buddy of Trump. He hasn't come forward as a buddy of Trump and said, stop, you know, stop bothering our country he was pals with the u.s. team at the uh... the hockey uh... thing uh... he he's not a canadian anymore

it's like you know william shatner he's a canadian yeah was last time he did anything in canada uh... he first of all when graig redskis a hockey player so he's a dolt uh... these are not geniuses right uh. You know, I was brokenhearted to discover Bobby Orr is a right-winger and not on the hockey sent. But these crocodile tears of Wayne and Janet Gretzky, give me a break. You are essentially right-wing Americans. I don't care where you were born or what team you were on

the last time you know you were you played hockey for a canadian team was decades ago uh... and since then you have made yourself an american and you've allied yourself with uh... right wing elements that are endemic to canadian interests you've not come forward and said anything about it so spare me your tears and your heartbreak. And he never picked up his Order of Canada. Did you hear this?

Yeah. He never picked it up in Ottawa. Yeah, what? Talk about an insult. Right. Talk about people. I mean, it's such an honor, the Order of Canada. And it's like he didn't, he forgot to pick up dry cleaning.

Can you think of an example of somebody who's a stature in this this nation plummeted so far so quickly? Like this is a guy who even myself, even not that long ago, but thought of him as like, he's the great one. I think of Gretzky, I had these warm fuzzies because I watched him on the oilers when I was growing up and what a team, what a player. And now like you said it, fuck him.

Yeah, fuck him. Yeah, fuck him. Like that's a rapid fall. I've never been one to hold hockey players in high esteem. It's funny because I don't hold people, hockey players, actors, musicians, I don't hold them in giant esteem. So it's not far of a fall for me.

But I can't think of anybody who went from being sort of seen as part of brand Canada to being fuck you and I think it's gonna be fuck you forever like that's it you know he's not gonna be he's not gonna make amends he's an American that's what he is his spot his silence speaks volumes yeah well mean, you ever hear him open his mouth, it's better to get shot. He had that great speech in 02 about how he was hot. And then we did win our first gold medal in 50 years. But yeah, you're right. He's not, he's not a first. He did a guest spot on Saturday Night Live. No, a soap opera. Yeah. And other

play and the guy you couldn't have cardboard deliver lines worse. Geez. Okay, but hell of a playmaker. We'll give him that credit though. He deserves that one. Any thoughts on our way out here about what's happening federally with the Liberal Party of Canada? I think it's, we're only days away from finding out who is the new Prime Minister? Well, I think it's very likely to be Carney and I think that Paul Yev, who I find detestable, not because of conservatism but because of his lies and his using the playbook of MAGA, he put all of his eggs in the anti-Trudeau basket.

Everything was blamed on Trudeau, not the government. It was all personified by Trudeau, not the government. It was all personified by Trudeau, which is a dumb thing because then his pressure made Trudeau have to basically resign and now he's got nothing. You know, great, you succeeded. You said Trudeau should resign. He did. And now you got nothing and people are looking at him and in in facing trump you put you stand mark carney in his accomplishments and who he is next to polio and polio looks like what he is which is the kids sitting at the back of the class story spitballs he's not serious uh... he's uh... uh... he is an acolyte of mago uh... and if you want someone is going to stand up for the country carney has the backbone, the international experience, the diplomacy, the grace,

to represent us at a very difficult time. And you see it in the polls, Poliev's support was very soft. It was basically they didn't like Trudeau, so they parked it there because they hated seeing more uh... and once trudeau is gone uh... as far as polyeth has been describing it the problem is gone and people like a lot of liberal policies so uh... and they don't want people associated with maga so i think

uh... certainly i think that uh... is likely that if he gets government it'll be a minority but i don't think it's a guarantee that he gets government it'll be a minority but I don't think it's a guarantee that he's gonna get government. Well that was my next question. What does your crystal ball say? Let's say Mark Carney wins liberal leadership becomes Prime Minister and he calls an election immediately let's say and we're going to the polls. I feel we were just at the polls we won't talk about that but you are in a riding right now that flipped from progressive

conservative to liberal in this election we had so I am with the right at this minute oh in this writing okay yeah okay when you're sitting in okay not your writing my writing my writing but so we won't talk provincial because we're out of time here but what is your prediction I kind of heard you allude to it right there but do you think I would say we had this chat four months ago it felt like a conservative majority was a foregone conclusion. Yeah, it probably would have been. I don't have a crystal ball. Politics today, we see it shifts with the winds. You don't know what's gonna happen.

I mean, are Poliev's calling, what's his name, Carney a liar? Is that gonna stick? I don't know. I think Poliev is, again, contrasted with Carney. He just seems like a crank. He just seems like a troublemaker, a grievance monger. He doesn't seem like a statesman, and right now we need a statesman. So how will that affect Canadians? I don't know. We've certainly seen the polls show that a lot of support has gone back to the liberals to the point that in some polls they're at a dead heat. In some polls the liberals are ahead. Again, national polls don't tell you the story. You got to go province by province, riding by riding.

National polls are a really bad indicator of what's gonna happen. But again, politics turns on a dime these days. So I don't know I just I know I don't want Polly of I don't want People focusing on trans issues. That's no one's frickin business except for the trans people I don't want people focusing on making the military's Manually again, which is a stupid thing that making warriors our our military are professional military We're not Rambo thank you and the things that he has emphasized are things I don't want they're not things that should be in the public conversation you know like that idiot Ford on announcing the the provincial the project or the

conservatives platform mentioned that he's gonna get rid of the basement on alcohol costs. This should never have been something brought up in your platform. It's not something a premier should even be friggin concerning himself with, with all the things we've got going on, but he keeps going back to booze, booze, booze, make more booze more available. Like I was incensed. It's like you're, you don't give a damn about people on ODSP, but you care about making booze cheaper. And who's the booze? It isn't connoisseurs who are buying cheap, cheap booze. It's alcoholics.

And his family was destroyed by addiction. So I don't know where he's coming from. Steve, fire, fire fire fire. We got Ed Dasog on the rock. Continued success. This won't be your last visit, but thank you for giving me 90 minutes today. This was a great chat. I'm always glad to come talk to you.

You are a great interviewer. You could have done 90 minutes on that. And that brings us to the end of our 1643rd show. Wait, I gotta interrupt you. You gotta mention Ed's socials. Doing that right now, that's the next part. I say go to Toronto Mike for all your Toronto Mike needs. Where can we follow Ed the sock on social media?

He's still on Twitter X at Ed the sock, but on Instagram and TikTok, it's Ed underscore the underscore sock and Ed the sock official I believe on Facebook. Are you considering abandoning musks? No, not right now. I think there still needs to be some voices of sanity there. What about blue sky? Would Ed come to blue sky? Ed has an account there but Would Ed come to Blue Sky? Ed has an account there, but I'm managing the accounts of six radio stations plus Ed.

And I'm going to add more, please. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto's Skyline, and Ridley funeral home. See you all Wednesday when my special guests are Blue Rodeo keyboardist, Mike Boguski,

and OG Blue Rodeo member Cleve Anderson making his Toronto Mike debut. Shout out to FOTM Ingrid Schumacher. We're gonna have a great chat Wednesday. See you all then. Music