Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Elliott Price: Toronto Mike'd #298

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

Mike chats with Fan 590 morning show co-host Elliott Price about calling Expos games, working in Montreal sports radio, rolling his own and getting the call to move to Toronto.

Welcome to episode 298 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent brewery celebrating 30 years in the craft beer business. Visit GLB at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard for $5 beers. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot.

Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Fan 590 Morning Show co-host Elliot Price. Welcome Elliot. Good to be here. You didn't freeze your ass off coming here. That's real cold out there. I get into a car that sits in a garage on 333 Bloor East,

and so it wasn't cold when I left there. Although when I left at 4 a.m., it was cold. And I'm one of those guys, one of those snobby guys, like when it's like minus 10 out and people are like, it's cold. I'm like, oh, you know, I just went out in a T-shirt and did a 20K ride. But I will say this, this is cold. This is real cold we're getting I was I was just glad that we didn't have to do this interview on your bike I could get one of those tandem bikes I always wanted to try you ever been on one of those no not happening a bicycle

built for two I thought in my genius I'm like it's cold outside I'm gonna load up Joni Mitchell's come in from the cold but I forget there's this's cold outside. I'm going to load up Joni Mitchell's Come In From The Cold, but I forget there's this long preamble before we get to the chorus. But I'm glad you're here. Although, the basement's not that warm, right? I'm trying to... Do you know your ducks? Are you a duck expert?

Do you know how to help me get even distribution of heat in this house? This 100-year-old house? No. Because the main floor is toasty. Down here, not so much. distribution of heat in this house. This hundred year old house. The main floor is toasty. Down here, not so much. I have this portable heater behind you. If you get really cold, you can always slap it on. I use it for my boy. Thank you for doing this.

Joni's sick. I hope we don't lose her. My daughter is a huge fan. She's 18, but I've given them the proper music to listen in their years. Good boy. It's all good. Good. Did you watch the Leonard Cohen tribute?

I did. I did. I was watching the hockey game. My wife was watching the Leonard Cohen, and I only have one question. Why? Because probably my favorite Leonard Cohen song that's been done by somebody else is the one by Don Henley, and they let Courtney love, and I thought it was terrible.

It was the only bad song I thought of the entire night. Why? Everybody knows why. Why did you let Courtney do it? I mean, did you test it first? Did you listen? Did you watch her? I love the Don Henley version, and that was poor at best.

Okay. And for those listening, there's going to be a lot of, we're going to do a lot of Montreal talk. I've done the Hamilton talk, and of course, this is a Toronto-centric podcast, lots of GTA talk. But I don't think I've ever done a good Montreal talk. So Leonard Cohen's a good way to start. We're going to get into this.

But he's beloved in Montreal. You've got a tribute. Is there a statue or something? Where's the letter to the tribute? I just saw it because I haven't been home in, well, it's not home anymore, in six months,

a mural painted on the side of a building downtown that you can see, I believe, from the Museum of Fine Arts that is absolutely gorgeous. No, that's great. That's great. I haven't been to Montreal since August 2016.

You've been there since, oh, 2016. It's not that long ago. You'd be amazed, though, at the Toronto connections I have that got me here that started way before. The first person I ever did a show with was at John Abbott College in Montreal, and the guy who turned down what turned out to be my

first radio job was a guy by the name of Stephen Gomes, who you might know as Steve Anthony. Hey! He's been on the show. Right. That was the first radio show I ever did at John Abbott College with Steve. That's amazing because he told a story about Corey Hart coming in and referring to Steve.

He was in some kind of a glass box or something recording his radio show, and he called Steve the boy in the box. Steve swears that he's the inspiration for Boy in the Box by Corey Hart. Steve Anthony was running the radio station at John Abbott College just outside of Montreal, and he was years ahead of everybody else. It was clear that he was going places, and he's the guy that they sat me down next to and said, here, you can do this with Steve.

And he was going to get a job in the Miramichi in New Brunswick, Newcastle, New Brunswick at the time. And he'd already received a job from, I don't know, where did he go? Timmins, Ontario? I forget where he was. And so he called me and he said, look, I got a job in Timmins. Call this guy in New Brunswick. He'll take you.

And that was my first radio job. I love how everything's connected in Canadian media. I get people come in, we chat, and it all connects. It's amazing. And the other thing was, at one time, the three beat writers here in Toronto covering the Blue Jays were Jeff Blair, Bob Elliott, and Rich Griffin. They're all Montreal. I've sat next to each and one every one of them

in the press box Jeff was my traveling buddy for years and Rich Griffin is the guy that sat beside me in the press box

and helped me get my first Expos play-by-play job and Bob Elliott sat right next to me when he was covering for the Ottawa Citizen I believe

Elliot Elliot he's so funny he was covering for the Ottawa Citizen, I believe. Did he go, Elliott? Elliott? He's so funny. He's one of the funniest people. He's coming back. He's hysterical. He's going to make a second appearance because he realized on his drive home he forgot one of his great stories. So he has to come back and tell that story.

Well, let me tell you the story with Bob Elliott. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the winter meetings. We're in Houston, Texas. Yeah. And Bob and I go to the Yellow Rose of Texas. And they wouldn't let me in with running shoes. And so what am I going to do?

The taxi driver's still there. He says, I'll give you my shoes. And I went, all right. That's amazing. And so the guy at the door at the Yellow Rose of Texas asked me, are you really going to wear a black man's shoes? Really? Elliot wrote about it.

Bob Elliot wrote about that. And I said, damn sure. Why wouldn't I wear them? You wouldn't let me in with running shoes. This is not the 1930s, right? No, this is 1980-something or other. Wow. Yeah.

Are you really going to wear black man's shoes? That's unreal. That's Texas. Holy smokes. Well, listen, we're going to dive into all this, but you mentioned Steve Anthony. Now I have to tell, because I've never shared this story, because I just got it from John Gallagher,

speaking of Montreal. So John Spike Gallagher just told me that one time he was roommates with Steve Anthony here in Toronto, and one morning, Meat Sue comes out of the bedroom. Meetsu, Steve Anthony has bedded the great Meetsu. I think that's a fantastic story. Meetsu was the first remote I ever did. She was the celebrity.

See, it all connects. And John Gallagher, he worked in Montreal, right? Did the morning show at Showm, I believe. And so he had left Montreal to come to Toronto. And he called me to be on one of his shows to talk about the Canadians or whatever it was, I remember. And he says, how's it going? I said, okay, they miss you here, John. He goes, really?

I said, no, I just wanted to make you laugh. Have you read his book? I have not. I have the book. I lent it to a buddy, actually. But I don't laugh. Have you read his book? I have not. I got to go check. I have the book. I lent it to a buddy, actually. But I got to see if you... I don't think you show up in that book. I think you might have escaped, which is a good thing.

You don't want to show up in the John Gallagher book, necessarily. So a few notes before we dive in. This is a clip from a rap song my daughter listens to. It's this. I'm just like the Rosen. If I shoot it, it goes in. So the kids listening, I know a lot of young people love this show. They'll know

that rhyme, but I'm just... DeRozan scored 52 points, and I shared this on the blog, but I'll just bore you with it really quickly. I was at the Vince Carter 51 game, and I was at the Terrence Ross 51 game. No, you weren't. Get out. In fact, and I don't go to that many games,

which is what made it a mathematical anomaly. The odds were very remote, but I was at both games. I was not at the 52 game, but I found myself as he was approaching the record, I found myself mildly hoping he didn't get it because I like to tell people I was at the 251 point game.

I have a statistical anomaly that goes with that one. Do it, because then I'm going to tell you my son's. In doing Major League Baseball play-by-play, I called Dennis Martinez's perfect game. I called David Cohn's perfect game. And if they would have scored a

run for Pedro Martinez in San Diego because he pitched nine perfect innings, then I would have called Pedro Martinez perfect games. Do you have any idea how many perfect games there have been in the history of Major League Baseball? I would have called three of them, as it is. On radio, only Vince Scully has called more perfect games than I have. No, that's exactly the kind of stuff I love. It's a crazy coincidence.

It is. It's crazy. My son, who doesn't get to many Blue Jay games, he's 16, and he doesn't like baseball, so he only goes when he's dragged, has been at three of the four walk-off Grand Slams in Blue Jay's history. Wow. And I believe he's been to maybe 10 games in his life, and three of the 10 games have ended in a walk-off Grand Slam. So if I can extrapolate that over an entire season, then the reason that the Blue Jays did not win the division last year is on you. That's right. It's not bringing your son to the games last year.

It's true. He went to two games. You're right. He went to two games last year. He went to two games last year, and they both walk off grand slams by the same dude. Okay, and have you seen the Dave Chappelle Netflix specials by any chance? Does that interest you at all? Yes and no. I the Dave Chappelle Netflix specials by any chance? Does that interest you at all? Yes and no. I love Dave Chappelle. I have not seen much of it.

I'm here to tell people that I found them. I know he's getting some heat for some things because he says things that will draw heat, but he's so damn smart and he's such a master storyteller. I found both specials so compelling in that after I watched them, the stories, I'd review them all in my head and how they come together. They're so brilliantly told. And not only is he funny, so if he throws in the funny,

I consider the funny this wonderful bonus. It's the storytelling that makes these specials so compelling. There's only so much comedy you can go to, and of course, Just for Laughs in Montreal. The fact of the matter is, the guy that runs Just for Laughs, I've known Bruce Hills since before he was with Just for Laughs.

And there's one time where I'm downtown Montreal, I'm going to get a burger. And upstairs from the burger place is a comedy place, and Bruce walks by me and he goes, you have to see this guy. And I go, I'm going to get a burger. And upstairs from the burger place is a comedy place. And Bruce walks by me and he goes, you have to see this guy. And I go, I'm going to get a hamburger. He says, no, you got to come on upstairs and see this guy. We're looking at him for the next Just for Laughs festival. And I saw Norm MacDonald for the first time.

Get out of here. This is well before SNL, of course. Before anything, yes. He's nobody. He's from Ottawa. He's some guy from Ottawa telling stories about quitting smoking. With a brother trying to get into journalism, right? That's amazing.

And I still think Norm is grossly underappreciated, underrated. I think that guy's hilarious. Speaking of a good master storyteller, Norm's great. Norm's great. There's one more thing I'm just going to bring up to speed,

the audience, is that I, like a few other people, I took the teenagers to see Star Wars. Have you heard of this franchise? This is a popular film franchise? Scene one. I took the first one when it came back to the theaters

because my daughter's 27 now, the big one. So I had never seen it and I went alright, so let's give it a try. You like this? And she went no, so we didn't see the second one. Then my second group of children have watched them. The prequels and crap. It's not for me.

Listen, I can, well, that's the problem. You did too much prequel. Okay, so I mean, I loved Star Wars. We call it A New Hope now. They call it number four, but the first one in 1977, which I've seen, I saw it as a kid a million times. It's the first movie I saw in theaters. I loved it.

And then Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, I loved it as a kid a million times. It's the first movie I saw in theaters. I loved it. And then Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I loved them as a kid, a young man. The prequels, I watched, like you, I watched them at nausea with my oldest. We watched a lot of these prequels. They weren't very good. I didn't mind that. You never saw them, but The Revenge of the Sith, I did not mind. But the other

two I found really boring and pretty awful. But now these reboots, I'm just here to say that they know the formula and they know kind of how to pull the strings. And I feel like I'm watching, I know people say it was different. I feel like it's the same movie over and over again. Like they just change the names and stuff. But I feel like it's the same mythology.

Like it's just paint by numbers at this point. Like a Nickelback album. Like a Nickelback album, exactly. Although How You Remind Me, not a bad jam. Can we say that? No, but that's a good start. And everything else after that was like Star Wars 1. That's exactly right.

Oh my god, Nickelbacks. We covered all the great successes in Canada. Norm Macdonald, Nickelback, Joni. But we'll keep going here because the last note here is I want to thank a guy named Greg Siskonen. So Greg, and I hope I say that right.

Siskonen. Say it like you know it. Greg Siskonen. Thank you, Greg, because he made a hearty contribution to the Toronto Mic crowdfunding. And I owe you, Greg. That's fantastic. And if anybody else wants to follow Greg's lead,

here's where you go. You go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. There are orange buttons on torontomike.com if you can't remember that, patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. And if you're one of these new, I see this new breed of people who are like allergic to Patreon for whatever reason.

If you're one of those guys, Greg reached out to me and said, hey, can I do this without involving Patreon? And we worked it out really quickly. So just reach out if you're one of those guys, Greg reached out to me and said, hey, can I do this without involving Patreon? And we worked it out really quickly. So just reach out if you want to help crowdfund this passion project. Elliot. And it's really helped now that you've moved

into the $10 million mansion. It's just fabulous. So thank you for helping him out. And with another million, I can raise the ceiling. I guess you lower the floor. You don't raise the ceiling. But then I don't have to worry about everybody. Even Ron James, who is... How do I

say this? I'm not a tall guy. I'm not a tall guy, but he made me feel tall. He had to duck. If he stood straight up, I think he hit his head on this ceiling here. Elliot Price, do you drink alcoholic beverages? Not often. No. I have.

Well, listen. You don't have. I have. Well, listen, you don't have to drink these. You can pass these on to your children. They're all of drinking age or no? How many are of drinking age? One is of drinking age.

One is of drinking age if she was in Quebec. Okay. And the other one won't be of drinking age for another four years. Okay. So at least one of those

children could enjoy. But the six-pack in front of you, you're taking that home with you. Thank you. That's from Great Lakes Brewery. I find brewery a difficult name. You're a professional broadcaster.

You probably do it easily. I have to work at it. Say brewery for me. Brewery. Yeah, so you just roll off your tongue. So I call them Great Lakes Beer. I hope that's okay. Nicely done.

Thank you. Great Lakes Beer wants you to take that home. They're good people. If you ever find yourself in southwest Toronto and you want to go to their brewery, there I said it again, at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, you can get yourself a $5 pint,

and it's just, they're good people. A good local craft, and fiercely independent, too. This isn't Molson or Labatt's or Coors. So not a good time to tell you my brother-in-law makes beer. No, do it. What is your brother? So is he a craft brewer? They have their own little company here in Toronto.

Listen, Great Lakes knows there's lots of options out there. They don't tell me, oh, Mike, you can't mention other breweries. I get no instructions like that. Tell us the name of your brother's brewery. Brunswick. Okay. Named after New Brunswick, right? That's the state. I have no idea why it's named that. That's what it is. Or the bowling alley.

I see in bowling alleys, Brunswick. You bowl? I do. My local bowler, bowlerama is closing so they can build condos. I was thinking coming over here, you interview everybody. Why doesn't somebody interview you? I don't know. I think I have to come back and do that.

I interview people like you, though. Look, we're going to get into this, but you have a whole, like, even the Toronto people who don't know anything about Montreal need to know, you have a great, like, broadcasting history in Montreal before you come here, where you are, what, co-host of the biggest sports radio morning show in the country? Is that right? Oh, now? Yeah, now.

Yes. Now. Yes, now. Okay. I was thinking in Montreal, that wasn't so. No, here. Okay. Now.

So, I mean, you're an interesting person to talk to. I have a million points I want to hit. Okay. I don't have such an exciting history like that. So, what's the point? Well, the point is that it is the task of the interviewer to be able to draw out that information

from anybody. That's the mark of greatness. When you restart, and we'll get to this later, but when you reignite your podcast, I will come on as a guest, and you can do that if you like. Let's talk about a gentleman named Brian Gerstein. He is from propertyinthesix.com.

He's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. He's also a Montreal guy who is a massive Elliot Price fan. I have to play a clip from him. He's going to ask a question at the end of this clip, so you have to actually pay attention. But this is a message to you from brian

hi elliot brian gerstein here sales representative with psr brokerage and someone who has followed your career in montreal and pleased that you're working in the six now. For Mike's listeners, now is the time to call or text me at 416-873-0292 so I can help you plan for the spring market, be it investing, buying, and or selling. Elliot, I've always enjoyed your tennis talks with Stephanie Miles. Do you think that Milosh will stay healthy

and bounce back at 27 years old in 2018 and win his first Masters 1000 tournament or even a major. I am going to the US Open for the first time this year and I'm hoping that Miloš can make a deep run. Finally, who will have the better career, Denis Rokstar Shapovalov or Felix Auger, Ali Asim. Brian's hitting hard with the tennis questions. I know, and it's interesting because the tennis expert on our show is Greg Brady. I should ask him those questions. Who's this guy, Greg Brady? He's from the Brady Bunch? I don't know that guy.

I'm hoping, I'm a fan of Milos. I'm a fan of everything Canadian. I'm a fan of Milos. I'm a fan of everything Canadian. If there was a TiddlyWings competition, I would be fervently behind our participant from Canada. So I am a huge Milos Raonic fan. I can only hope. His history suggests that something's going to happen to him

somewhere along the way, and it's not going to happen. And yet he's only 27 years old. So you cross your fingers and you hope that someday, some way, he stays healthy enough because he's been knocking on the door. And let's face it, those are old guys that are leading the way right now. He should be the next guy. But what happens when you're 27 and in tennis there's 20-year-olds and 22-year-olds. I was going to ask you, part of my ignorance, but in tennis, isn't 27 old for a guy?

Or am I out to lunch there? I know we see this crazy action from the Swiss guy, Roger Federer, but that's not typical. It's not. And it shouldn't be. And yet, how old is the best female tennis player in the world? Or should I say the best tennis player in the world? Right. Is this a Williams sister? Yes. Yes. But I think that you have an opportunity to go deeper as far as age is concerned in keeping yourself right there with the best

in the world. So no, I don't think 27 is too old for him. If he stays healthy, and that's the question. Got to check that crystal ball. But he named two names there. One I know, Denis Shapovalov. Shapovalov? Right, I'm missing a syllable there.

And Aliassime. I don't know. I don't even know that second person, I'm missing a syllable there. And Aliassime. I don't know. I don't even know that second person. I'm not a tennis expert. They'll end up playing doubles together, which is really cool. No, he didn't say Dennis, did he? He said Felix. Felix?

Yeah, that's the other guy. Okay, because I think Brian's asking about Felix or that person. No, there's two of them. One's Shapovalov and the other guy's Aliassime. Okay, gotcha. So there's two young players that are coming up at the same time. Contemporaries, they've both done really well in

junior, and so it's hope that they can at the same time give Canada a double-edged sword. Because over the years, it's always been there's only been a couple of players that have ever had an opportunity to win a Grand Slam event.

And it looks like there's two coming at the same time, so we cross our fingers. I don't know. I'm going to sound stupid here. That other name, I don't know. Can you spell that last name for me? Aliassime? I think it's A-L-I- A-S-S-A-L-I-S-S- I-M-E, or something like that. I do follow

when they get to a certain point. I got into that Dennis mania, and I follow of course Milos, but that name there that's up and coming, that's exciting to me to know there's somebody else out there because I have no idea. Felix Auger Eliasson. Oh, okay.

So I'm just going to call him Felix. Okay, that's good. That's okay. Like the cat. Yeah. All right. You mentioned you saw Pink Floyd. I did.

But you're not a Pink Floyd fan? Is that fair? They're all right. They wouldn't be my top 20 favorite bands of all time. By the way, on that note, if this goes well, and why wouldn't it, would you come back at a later date to kick out the jams? Sure.

And it's like 10? 10. It's 10 songs. It's impossible. That's what makes it fun. It is not possible. I think I've narrowed it down to about 17 now. See, that's how it starts.

Because I've been thinking about it. Because you mentioned that you might invite me back. And so I go over this with my son, who has incredibly the same kind of musical taste that I do. And it is a really difficult thing to narrow it down to 10. You should be actually a kind of, it's kind of flattering that I won't let you kick out the jams this time. Because so Andy Frost wanted to kick out the jams, and I told the man, nope, you got to come in and do this first.

I have a lot of questions for Andy Frost. I have a lot of questions for you. I can't kick out the jams and ask all my questions. Of course not. No, but sometimes somebody will want to kick out the jams, and I'll be like, okay. It just means we have a shorter chat off the top. Oh, you didn't say that.

Yeah, but you're in the group where I want to do the deep dive first. To me, this is a compliment to you, that you're worthy of a deep dive. But not to discredit all those people who just do jam can games. It's too late. They're pissed now. On that note, I should say to Greg Brady,

because we know he's listening, that he's been on here twice, fantastic guest both times, and I've mentioned this before, but when I was doing the ride to conquer cancer for my buddy who had esophageal cancer, Greg was a great help, because I didn't know what the hell to expect. I was going alone on this overnight trip to Hamilton and he had done

it before and he answered all of my annoying questions about the ride to conquer cancer. So when you're talking to Greg next, which I'm guessing will be tomorrow morning. Monday. Monday, because this is Friday. I should know that. Tell Greg he should also kick out the jams. Some more 80s jams would be nice. I feel that's a Brady hotspot. Definitely. His favorite band is Duran Duran,

so at least one from them. Do you know if Greg Brady is friendly or friends with Mike Wilner? I'm only asking because Wilner has the same musical taste as Greg Beatty almost. And Wilner, I think his favorite band might be Duran Duran.

Oh. So we could do matchmaking maybe. Like play Cupid. What's your favorite band? Probably the Tragically Hip. There you go. So we have something in common.

Is that right? Yeah, I would say... And I'm from a different era, so I had all those bands first. The Zeppelins and the Stones, so I had all those bands first, the Zeppelins and the Stones and the Beatles and all those bands, but I was struck by the hip, and it's incredible. And it's a lot of, and I don't know your age, but I'm basing it on, like, I know that you're

oldest kid and stuff, but I would think you would be a Bruce Springsteen guy, only because I get a lot of sports media people about your age, and they're all, like, praying at the altar of Bruce. Bruce is great, but that's always one of their favorite musicians, if not their favorite. I would say of all the media people that I've met over the years, the person, and there's a few of them,

with musical tastes that are close to mine, I would say Bob McKenzie. I need to get him back to kick out the jams. And I know that he is a monstrous hip fan. Yeah, his podcast opens to a hip song.

Yeah, absolutely. He's a big hip fan. I got to get him back. I mentioned Pink Floyd just because I'm going to play this tune as I tell you and everyone else

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He absolutely did not read that. There you go. And we got a little Pink Floyd in too. All right. Montreal. You already touched on this, but I want to talk about Montreal for a bit. One of my favorite cities in the world. I love Montreal.

Is that cool? Can a Toronto guy love Montreal? That's okay. Because Montreal people don't typically love Toronto, right? They don't admit it. They won't say it out loud. They won't say it out loud. Yeah, I don't know if that's a two-way street.

But can you tell me about your beginnings in Montreal? And at some point, we do need to discuss delis in Montreal and which is the best deli. Because guys like me think it's Schwartz's. And we always make a point to go there. Right, exactly. So, in fact, you can start with a deli if you want. And then we can pick up your broadcasting career.

But tell me what you think, then, is the best deli in Montreal. Incredibly underrated. Lester's Deli, who helped me stay alive by being one of my sponsors during the time where I was between Montreal and Toronto. And they had been a sponsor at the radio station that I worked at previously and were gracious enough to stay with me every bit as good as any place you're going to go in Montreal for smoked meat. And you need to go in the restaurant and see Bill and talk to him because he's nuts. But I have to ask now, is there any bias here because they stepped up?

We'll talk about that show. I don't know what you mean. Because you asked me what's my favorite beer. I can tell you it is Great Lakes beer. That's not because of the sponsor, right? But I have a feeling of Great Lakes that screw you and some other brewery came on. I might not be talking so much

about how much Great Lakes beer is my favorite. I might omit that fact and just say, hey, there's great beer at Beer XYZ or whatever. I just want to make sure Lester's Deli, that's a true... What would be the point of telling someone that and then they would tweet on the Twitter that you have led them astray, that what you're telling them is lies and that it would embarrass me and Lester's Deli?

So, no, I'm telling you the truth. What's the difference? This is just a random question that has come to me. What is the difference between smoked, with an E-D at the end there, smoked and and smoke meat because i said i would explain that to you right when i got here i copied and pasted that tweet and i'm like i gotta make the answer is i have no idea oh i just i just threw that to you that i have no idea this is going very poorly i thought i was gonna be educated the idea was to get people to listen to the podcast so if they thought they were going to hear the answer to that, here they are.

That's like, I think they teach you that in radio school, like backselling or whatever they call that thing. So Montreal, are you from Montreal originally? So you're born and raised in Montreal. I was. How does it begin for you in the world of broadcasting? Like, tell me the humble beginnings of how you end up in broadcasting. If you're a sports fan,

you eventually reach a certain stage where it occurs to you, I am not likely to be a professional hockey player. I am not likely to be a professional baseball player. I love to play these sports,

but I'm not good enough to do that. So how do I stay involved with this? And so I always wanted to be a radio announcer. And it's funny because I'm old enough, the Expos did not come around until I was 12 years old. But I would... You know, we had the great hockey games back then, the table games when they were metal rods. Yeah. And I took the nets off the games and I taped them to the floor.

And I took the hockey cards and I would call the games. Nice. Of course, the Canadians would never win, but that's okay. I'm one of those odd people that comes from Montreal and I was not a Habs fan. Yeah, I was about to ask you what that's about. So I didn't even know that was possible, to be quite honest. You would be amazed how many non-Hab fans there are in Montreal.

I mean, even when they were good, there are, and the crazy thing is, considering that the biggest rivalry has been Montreal-Boston, there are an incredible amount of Boston fans in Montreal. Is that a Bobby Orr effect? I'm a Bobby Hall effect, so there had to have been a Bobby Orr effect. That's why I'm a Blackhawks fan, why I've been one my whole life. Although at one point, I was

an ABC. Anybody but Canadians. I would go to hockey games, whoever it was. And my dad had season tickets when I was a kid. I went to the games and people gave me a hard time. I was 10, 11 years old. But I would cheer for the other team every game.

I can't tell you how many playoffs I've watched just rooting for ABC. So we have something in common. Well, they made me cry. 1971. Tell me. The Blackhawks are going to, I'm 14 years old. The Blackhawks are going to win the Stanley Cup, right?

They have a 2-0 lead, Game 7 at home. And, of course, they blow it. Bobby Hull hits the crossbar. That would have been the third goal. He's got dried and beat. Jacques Lemaire scores from outside the blue line on Tony Esposito. And then Henri Richard scores two goals. So the Canadians beat the Blackhawks.

But I have to go to school the next day. I have to go to a high school filled with Habs fans after my Blackhawks lose the Stanley Cup. And, of course, they don't win it until 2010. I waited a lifetime. I understand Leaf fans better than just about anybody because that is your history, my friend. You know, at least then you get them in bunches, right? Like you had to wait so long, but then it's like bang, bang, bang.

It's funny because I told my wife that I'm good. I'm filled up. When they won the first one in 2010, I told her I'm good for life. If they never win another one, it doesn't matter to me. And of course, two years later, they have an opportunity when I'm going crazy again and she said, you said

one was enough. And I said, I didn't say that I wouldn't accept another. Another is okay, but if they don't win, it's all right. I wanted one. I waited forever for one. And that would be enough for Leaf fans, wouldn't it? No, no, I only want one.

One. That's all I'm looking for. Give me one. Remember, I'm of an age where I've never been alive for the Maple Leafs in the finals. What if I tell you that I actually attended Stanley Cup Final 1967 in Montreal? I saw Leafs Canadians. I was at the game at the Montreal Forum. That's amazing.

Yeah. That's amazing. We just laid Johnny Bauer to rest, so there's been a lot of 67 Leafs chatter lately. But, yeah, I mean, I always remind my oldest and my wife that there were only six teams. I'm just saying, you know. I'm not saying. I'm just saying. There were only six teams.

I always think it's like, you know, the Argos win the Great Cup, and I'm really happy. But, you know, you're bound to win one or two just, you know, along the way if the dice rolls the right way. But, yeah, that's 67. So you were there. That's amazing. And I'm going to ask you later about another game you were at in Toronto.

That's baseball. We're going to get to that in the baseball section but uh so you're in montreal and you want to stay in sports but you realize you can't play pro so what like like how do you end up like for example you end up on expos broadcasts and i have a lot of expose questions here but like how do you get from like sports fan calling games on his floor to calling an Expos game. I got interested in music. And being a sportscaster kind of became secondary to I wanted to be that announcer that was the disc jockey. And this is before FM radio.

So our musical tastes were shaped. You could hear everything. So if you were listening to AM radio back then, and it turned out to be like the station that I worked for in Montreal doing the sports was the all-listen-to, all-music station, CKGM. And so you could hear Johnny Cash, and you could hear the the OJs and you could hear Led Zeppelin. And so you got every kind of music. I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be the guy that introduced the music. Hey, you're listening to CKGM and now here's Led Zeppelin, something like

that. That's what I wanted to do. And so I took a radio course. I spent my bar mitzvah money on a radio course. And my answer telling my mom, he's going to need that money. Why are you letting him spend the money on this radio course, National Institute of Broadcasting radio course? And as it turns out, it was quite illuminating. I went there, I was 15 years old. And I looked around at the other people who had laid out whatever it was, $1,200, $1,300. And I thought to myself, none of these people are going to be broadcasters. But I am. Very good.

That's young. That's a pretty young age to pursue. Like, I was thinking when you were going to mention age, I was thinking like post-high school or something like that. But 15. Yeah. Wow. I knew what I wanted to do, and it made all of the I don't really care about school business a little bit easier to take because I figured I always had an end game. Okay, but fine.

You're going to school. You have a lot of confidence, but how do you get a paying gig? How do you get a gig? John Abbott College had... And so high school, I went. I didn't go. It was whatever. And I ended up, I wanted to go back to school as a mature student.

So John Abbott College, more difficult now to get in to the program. You actually have to show them that you're a decent student now to get into John Abbott. Right. But they had the best radio course in Montreal. I believe Concordia has a great one now. And they had a radio station. I told you about Steve Anthony. He worked there.

And I wanted to go there and work at the radio station. They had radio courses. So I enrolled at John Abbott, took some courses. I figured it was time to, A, find out if I could be a radio announcer, and B, if I couldn't be a radio announcer, could I do this school thing? Because it might turn out to be important if I couldn't be a radio announcer. So I went. I took the first semester very seriously. I had enrolled late, so I didn't be a radio announcer. So I went, I took the first semester very seriously. I had enrolled late, so I didn't get the radio course, but I did get to work at the radio station.

And as I said, before the end of the second semester, Steve Anthony didn't take the job in Newcastle, New Brunswick. I sent them a tape and they took me and that was my first radio job. I sent them a tape and they took me and that was my first radio job and now you're both doing morning shows one on television one on radio in Toronto love it I just love how small world it is in the Canadian media

and I don't know I won't ask you you don't have to tell me but did Mitsu ever have breakfast in your home no sir not at once man not only better still my wife had breakfast in my home, so I've done really well. That is the right answer. I was just testing you.

So you grew up an Expos fan. I did. But see, I grew up, there were no Expos. Okay, okay. So I actually grew up... Is it 67? When did they show up? 69.

69. I'm 12. I'm a baseball fan. So I was an Orioles fan. And it's amazing. Let's face it. You say, oh, you cheer for a winner. Everybody cheers for a winner.

So it's easy to nail down. If you ask someone, what team do you cheer for and it's not the home team, I can pretty much tell you what year you became a sports fan. Right? 66, I'm an Orioles fan. All right? Frank Robinson arrives. And it turned out I cheered for every team that my dad didn't cheer for.

He was a Tigers fan. I was an Orioles fan. He was a Dodgers fan. I was a Giants fan. He was a Dolphins fan, Raiders fan, Canadians fan, Blackhawks fan, and then the Expos came. Yes. And we united. But okay, so Dave Van Horn,

he's calling the games from the beginning. Dave Van Horn. Day one. I don't have any clips from late 60s or 70s, but I just want to play a little Dave Van Horn just while we're here. So let me play just a clip from an 85, a 1985 Expos game. Let's hear his voice.

The two-strike pitch. Van swings and drives the ball to right center. Racing back, Marvell Wynn on the run. It's off his glove, rolling into the gap. Coming to third base is Scott Thompson. Going to second is Vance Law, and Expos are at second and third. The big right-hander holds at the belt.

Kicks and deals a 1-0. Dawson swings and pass to left field. It is up, up and away. The Expos win the game on Dawson's game-winning home run. So that's Dave Van Horn on Expos radio broadcast. I've often said that I've probably heard Dave's voice more than both of my parents. That's probably true. And he's, I mean, you know, you can

just listen to him if you didn't grow up an Expos fan, but he sounds fantastic. He's great. And still does, by the way. Oh, yeah. He's the voice of the Marlins. Right. Yes. And probably for a long time, I believe both of Dave's parents are still alive. And he's in his 70s, I think.

Is Dave Van Horn his real name? Yes, it is. Okay, because Jim Van Horn is not really a Jim Van Horn. I did not know that, but I know that Dave Van Horn's his real name. And Jim was doing what you wanted to do, calling those rock and roll hits here on 1050 Chum. Well, I did. I only became a full-time sportscaster after three years.

I was a disc jockey. I was three years. I was a disc jockey. I was a two-year country music disc jockey in Moncton. Moncton, that's where the tides are really low and are high or however you look at it. Well, most of the Maritimes. Right. Well, they have that special Bay of Fundy area where you pay and you go in and you can stand on the ocean floor. It's part of, when you do the weather, you do marine weather, you have to tell people when the tide is in and when

the tide is out. And being a Montrealer, I still don't know why that is, but I know we had to tell them. So we did. In case you're kayaking, maybe. Yes, I have no idea. Your water will disappear. Okay, so you, so maybe, so you're in Moncton, you're doing the radio thing, but how do you end up back in Montreal?

Oh, this is a wonderful story. So I had applied for jobs in different places. I wanted to the sports when the play by play guy was out of town. He also, he worked in Toronto, Marty Kingston worked here. Um, so I had applied for a job in Ottawa and I thought, cause they were opening up a new station, sister station, uh, to CJD and CFRB. And I thought, wow, that'll be so good. I'll be in Ottawa and I'll be close to home. I can go home and watch my beloved expos.

And I had also sent a tape out to a radio station in Saskatchewan. And they called me from Ottawa and they said, you know, we're going to interview you. Are you going to be in Montreal? And I went, yeah, I'm going to be there. So I'll come and meet you when I'm on vacation. And as I was leaving for vacation, the radio station from Saskatchewan called and said, we'd like to hire you. And I said, well, I'm going home on vacation. I will call you in a couple of days. And I thought like when they didn't hire me the first time in Saskatchewan that they just, they tell you

they'll keep your tape on file. I figured the file was like a toilet. Right. Like that, that's it. It's a nice thing to say. But they did. They kept it on file and they wanted to hire me, but I wanted to hear what was going to happen

with this Montreal thing first. So I went home and I did the interview and they told me, we like you, but we've decided to hire someone from Ottawa. Would you be interested if something came up in Montreal? And I went, yeah, right. You're not hiring me in Ottawa, but you're going to hire me in Montreal. So I went, yes, sure. I'd love to work in Montreal. And then I phoned the people in Regina at CJME and Zed 99. They were just starting up the FM station, and they were looking for a sports director. This is great.

And I tell them, I'll take the job. And they tell me, you know, we're looking for somebody that's going to stay here for a while. Our last guy just left in the middle of the night. And I said, don't worry. The only thing that would pull me away from your job is if they gave me one in Montreal. So I take my brother. I get in the car. We go back to Moncton.

I give them my two weeks notice. I pack it up. I drive home with my brother. I go to six Expos games. I go see the Expos and the Cubs, Expos and the Cardinals. And I get in my car, and I drive out west to Regina. When I arrive in Regina a couple of days early, they put me on the radio right away. Wednesday morning, I'm doing a sportscast.

I go out to Taylor Field to do an interview with the coach. I get back to the radio station. Montreal had called. I'm telling you, I had worked five minutes for this station in Saskatchewan. By Saturday, I had agreed to work in Montreal and had to call the guy in Saskatchewan. Do you still have to give two weeks notice?

No, I had signed a waiver that said that they had the right, if they didn't like me, to dispense of me in the first couple of weeks, but I also had the right to, if I wasn't happy, tell them that I was leaving. And they had given me like, I don't know, $200, $300 for moving expenses.

Oh, that's funny. From Moncton to Regina. And the guy says to me, so I said, I've got some bad news for you. And he goes, what is it? I said, I'm going home. He goes, what? I said, I got a job in Montreal. He goes, all right, leave the check under my door.

Oh, that's... Yeah, so they didn't pay for my moving from Moncton to Regina, but CJD did pay it from Moncton to Regina to Montreal. Okay, that's good news. Yes, it's all taken care of. Now, good on you, though, when they said, hey, I know that this is the trouble,

because to earn your, to put in your reps or whatever, to improve, you need to go to a smaller market and kind of do some stuff. You'll end up in whatever, Regina or whatever. But good on you for letting them know

that there was one scenario that would cause you to bolt immediately, and it's getting a gig in Montreal. So I feel like you gave them a fair heads up there. So that's cool. And that's funny. You worked five minutes. You're back.

So you're back in Montreal. What station are you at? CJD 800. And this is what I find fascinating about the whole Montreal scene is I'm so ignorant. I know so little about... You talk Toronto radio. I know it's in my head.

What is this? Is this like rock? my head. Like, what is this? Is this like rock? Let me tell you. What is this? It's like CFRB was for years. So like talk radio. That's right. And we do, and I understand that the station I work at right now is very proud to be the first sports station in Canada.

But we did a micro sports show along the same lines every day. Only we only did it for an hour. And I want to tell you that Bob Dunn, who was the sports director at CJAD in Montreal, hired three announcers. I don't know if people in Toronto know the preeminent sportscaster in Montreal who is Mitch Melnick. And he was one of the announcers of the three of us that were three guys 25 and under.

But the other one besides myself was Chris Cuthbert. There you go. So the three of us, 25, 25, and 23 years old, were the epicenter of that radio station sports department back in the early 1980s. Eric's going to try to find out. So early 80s. Okay, yeah. So because I'm trying to think in my head because 1430, which is the fan 590, but it was 1430.

They did, I know because they had Blue Jay games and I listened to a lot of 1430 for the Blue Jay games. Well, we just celebrated our 25th anniversary. So that's all sports though. But you did have like a, there 1430 for the Blue Jay game. Well, we just celebrated our 25th anniversary, so that'll tell you when they started. That's all sports, though, but you did have like a, there was a good chunk of the day, there was sports programming for part of the day when it wasn't doing the music of your life. Here's another story.

We used to string for a New York radio station, so if the Expos were playing the Mets or whatever, they would call us, say, can you do reports for us on the air here in New York? Can you do interviews after the game? And so that we don't have to send someone to Montreal to cover the Mets while they're playing against the Expos.

And we were going down to New York on vacation during Christmas of 1983, I believe. And they said, why don't you come and watch our show? This is where they are now doing WFAN, right? This is, it was WNBC. WNBC. 66, that's right. So we went, so we're doing this, our show every night. But we're going to New York to see the professionals do their show.

And so they invite us up, 30 Rock, we go upstairs. It was a five-minute sportscast, maybe a seven-minute sportscast. We do an hour, but this is New York. Right. And this is the show. And by the way, while we were in New York, this is 1983, we went to the Comedy Cellar and saw an unknown, relatively unknown comic. Can I guess? Jerry Seinfeld.

That's right. There you go. Christmas 83. It's perfect. We've been on Johnny Carson once or twice. And we saw Jerry Seinfeld, John Mendoza, and I forget who else. I love it when you catch, whether it be a band or when you catch somebody like a comedian or a band, like you said, the Norm MacDonald story. But did you

pass on the Norm thing or did you go to the Norm thing? No, I went. Oh, you went to the Norm MacDonald story, but did you pass on the Norm thing or did you go to the Norm thing? No, I went. Oh, you went to the Norm thing. So yeah, the Norm thing and the Jerry thing, two amazing stories. But the best is like, and I don't have any great examples myself necessarily,

but when you catch that little club show of like 200 people and it's like, that band became U2, you know what I mean? I got one more for you. All right. My favorite artist maybe ever is probably no one else's favorite artist. Well, that's clear. That's Tiffany.

That's Warren Zevon. Warren Zevon. I love Warren Zevon. Okay, but just really quickly, at least two jam kickers have stuck Warren Zevon songs on their jam. Mark Hebbshire and Mike Stafford. Do you remember the songs that they picked? Because when I come back and do that, I will definitely have one, and I'm sure their jam. Mark Hebbshire and Mike Stafford. Do you remember the songs that they picked? Because when I come back and do that, I will definitely have one, and I'm sure

their songs... Well, tell me more about this story while I tell you the answer to your question. I had been at an Expos fantasy camp, and we were so busy, I didn't even notice that Warren Zevon had been in Florida while we were there, and I did not see him. So I had never seen Warren Zevon.

And doing a game in Chicago, Expos and the Cubs were at Wrigley Field. And Jeff Blair walks over with the Chicago Sun-Times, opens it up, and there's a picture of Warren Zevon. And it says, tonight at the Park West. And I got to see Warren Zevon in Chicago at a club. That's amazing. It was amazing. It's amazing. Now, I just want to retract something I said. It was not Mark Hebsher.

I gave him credit. He was the Frank Zappa guy. I like Zappa. I've seen Zappa a few times, too. Well, I've seen. I saw. No chance to see him now. No, sadly. Or Zev seen. I saw. No chance to see him now. No, sadly. Or see Vaughn.

Because there's a, I saw the Chappelle, I said sharpest attack in the specials, but speaking of sharpest attack is that Zappa, man. Holy smokes. Whenever you watch the old clips or whatever of him on whatever show, what a smart guy. I just saw him on with Steve Allen where he was playing a bicycle.

No, musically, seriously. Yeah, you know what? I had heard of this. Yes, yes, yes. It was insane. Now, hold on. This is great live radio, but I am trying to find this. I will find it shortly.

You can do what Steve Anthony did to me the first time we were on the air together. And he went to another room and he said, and now Elliot will tell a joke. Seriously. And I went, think of all the jokes you know and now you can't tell one. Okay, I got it. Mike Stafford picked a Zappa song.

Joe's Garage. Okay, that's a Zappa song. That's a Zappa song. Oh, I said, yeah, he also had a Zappa song. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Accidentally Like a Martyr. Oh, that's a good song. That's the Warren Zivon song.

You're right. Zappa Zivon made my brain as trans. First album. Terrific. Oh, it wasn't first album. First album that I bought. And I'm not going to bore everybody. There could be more, but I'm not fine.

But I remember somebody else also kicked out a Warren Zeevon track. What was the song he wrote? The great song on his last album when he knew he had terminal, when he was dying. There's something, he wrote a song, and it brings me to tears when I hear it. It's a few Z wrote a song and it brings me to tears when I hear it. It's a few Zvon songs that bring me to tears. This one was like...

Something, Keep Me In Your Heart. Yes, that's the one. Yeah, fantastic. Keep Me In Your Heart When I'm Gone. Yeah, that's a fantastic song. So yeah, but yeah. That's funny. Everybody knows the one jam from Zvon

because it was a massive hit and everybody knows the one jam, but very few people, you're right, very few people. But in the conversation with Stafford when he was playing from Zvon because it was a massive hit and everybody knows the one jam, but very few people. You're right, very few people. But in the conversation with Stafford when he was playing the Zvon song, kicking out the jams, I told him that I had just recently,

at that time, I just recently watched Zvon's last appearance on Letterman. And that's when he got any words of advice because he's on his way out and he knows it. Eat every sandwich. Enjoy every sandwich.

Enjoy every sandwich. Wasn't that the name of the album too? Was that his last album? I don't think so. Enjoy every sandwich. That advice is just fantastic. Do you? I enjoy it. Yes. I'm going to go to Lester's and see if I can pick something up there. Absolutely. Next time in Montreal and then I'll let you know if I love it or not.

How do you end up backing up Dave Van Horn on X-Blows broadcast? This is fascinating. I don't know if the Toronto-centric listening audience is aware that you're actually on Expos broadcasts in Montreal. So is that because you're at that CFRB station? It's not CFRB, obviously, but the CFRB-like station in Montreal. Is that the station that's broadcasting Expos games or no? They were not. I joined in 82.

And in 88, there was a snafu. So CFCF had the Canadians. CJAD had the Expos. And they ran into a both games are on at the same time scenario. And CJAD had been chasing the Expos for so long. And they agreed to, how do these two adversaries agree that one of them is going to carry the Expos? So they put the Expos game on. They sent me to the All-Star game. I mean, they were, one year I went on the, in 84, I went on

the road the entire season. They didn't have the broadcast. I went on the road the entire season, did reports and interviews. First time I'd ever been all over the entire season. They didn't have the broadcast. I went on the road the entire season, did reports and interviews. First time I'd ever been all over the United States. So they had made pitches many times. They end up getting the broadcast rights in 1989, but they didn't give me the job. They hired Jerry Truppiano from out of town. He ends up in Boston afterwards. But I'm doing the pre- and post-game show.

And so at least now I have an in. I've been covering them every home game for seven years. Now I'm doing the pre- and post-game show. And there comes a time where it looks like Jerry Truppiano is leaving after two years. So who's going to get this job? They gave me a booth to practice in, which everybody knew that this is the job that I wanted. I would practice in a booth while the Expos games were going on. Rich Griffin would come in and be one of my analysts while I was doing this, and I would present them with the tapes. They even let me go on a couple of times with Dave Van Horn because Ken Singleton, who was about to join him that first season,

was a month late because he was doing other work. Was Bobby Winkles? I don't remember. And then Dave told me, but he was the play-by-play guy and I was the analyst, and he told the radio station it would probably be best. He said, Elliot knows everything there is to know about baseball, but he's going to be a play-by-play guy. He's not going to be an analyst.

So if that ever comes up, that would be a good position for him. And so when it did come up, they gave me the job. When Dave was on television, I would do radio games. Right, and I searched long and hard for some audio of you calling. I should have asked. I know, I should have asked. Yeah, I just realized I should have asked. Because I would play that now and I don't have it. So here's a little bit more.

I just thought I'd play a little bit of Dave Van Horn calling Pete Rose's 4,000th That's a tough one. 4,000th hit. That's amazingly tough. I don,000th hit. 4,000th hit. That's amazingly tough.

I don't think I'll say that again. Pete Rose got a big hand as he went out to his position in left field. Fans recognizing one more time. Second batter to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning. Pete Rose up with Charlie Leon. And his 4,000th hit. Here. Rose driving the ball to right field. That's000th hit. Here. Rose driving the ball to right field.

Exclamation. There it is. He's on his way to second. And Pete Rose takes another big step for baseball immortality. Poor Pete. Will he ever be in the Hall of Fame? I don't think so. I wasn't there that day. And there weren't many Expo games I missed.

I was covering the Canadians and the Nordique in another battle of Quebec. Those were bloody battles back in the 80s. I remember playoff games between those two, and it was like bench-clearing bloody brawls. It was just insane. Insane. So that's amazing.

Now, let me ask you this. As an Expos fan who was calling games when Dave was on TV, you'd be his backup for the radio broadcasts until he left for, you mentioned he's in Miami now. He left for Miami. But how did it feel for you when the, tell me what it was like when the, because I've never had to experience this, but when the Expos moved to Washington, like what was that like?

You know what? We had a fair... It had been years in the making. Until they actually tell you, and they waited, they announced it the day of the Expo's last home game. And everybody had an idea

that this is where it was going. That was an incredibly difficult day walking around. I mean, these are people, aside from the baseball team, you're talking about people at the front office, people, secretaries and people that worked in the press box and other broadcasters and people that you spent all of your time with more than you spend, because baseball's an everyday thing. You spend more time with the people that cover the game than you do with the radio station

or the newspaper or the television station that you work at. Almost all the work you do is at the ballpark. There's no practice. You're not going to practice today. There's no day off, really. There's a game every single day. practice. You're not going to practice today. It's no day off, really. There's a game every single day. And so it was really tough to look in the eyes of all the people that you've known for so long, a very wet-faced day. And I got to tell you, the last broadcast at Shea Stadium in New York, my brother came from California. I did the game with Mitch Melnick, who, like me, had been a long time, grew up with this.

And the game ends, and we're sitting there crying in the radio broadcast booth at Shea Stadium in New York. And I played The Door is the End, and I had to record because I knew I wouldn't make it through the speech that led into the end if I'd have done it live. It would not have happened. See, I would have wanted to hear that live. That hit or whatever happens, that's the authenticity I love.

You walk up to the vocal, which is Jim Morrison, it's just heartbreaking. See, I can't imagine because I've never lost a team. I don't know how many people love the, you know, the Expos were around a much longer time, and it was the only team in Canada for many years, and I could see that love with a bond and having them leave. The Grizzlies left Vancouver. Of course, the Jets left.

The Nordiques left. There's a bunch of examples. But I've never had to experience this. But I can imagine, like, you spend your whole life. I've been cheering for the Blue Jays for as long as I can remember. Been there through thick and thin. We're going to talk about some thin in a moment. But, man, that's got to break your heart.

So I would cry too, buddy. That's tragic. Do you think – well, first I have a question. This is actually from Brian Gerstein who wanted to know that if you had been able to secure an American work visa, would you have been offered that play-by-play position in Washington? Yes. Yes. We were, here's what went down. The president of the Expos moved with the team to Washington. He promised me if he was still in charge that he would hire me.

So we packed up all of our stuff. We put it in storage. We moved to Florida temporarily, rented the house of the Expo's strength and conditioning coach, Kazoo, who was Japanese. He went back to Japan. He was going to come back spring training. We stayed there and we waited for whatever. Got word from Washington baseball team. They wanted to start getting things in order as far as passports and immigration possibilities. And there was a little bit of a snag because I wasn't an employee of the baseball team. I was an employee of the radio station. And so it would have been a whole lot easier, but we were going to see what was going to happen. There were negotiations going on with the city of Washington for the ballpark,

and at one point, I don't know how many people remember, those negotiations broke down. All of a sudden, the city council in Washington decided that there were some things they weren't happy with, with the deal they had with Major League Baseball, and Major League Baseball went, oh yeah, we're shutting down everything. So they stopped negotiations for everything, including the broadcast rights. And they didn't secure the broadcast rights until the week before the first spring training game. And my, according to the people in Washington, it now was too difficult to get me a work visa in time. For opening day.

And so there we were in the middle of nowhere with no job and no Washington. But you were willing to uproot your family like that. You had already made the decision that if you could have put this together, you were willing to take the family, move to Washington. Absolutely. As we were all, I've always been willing to come to Toronto. You know what happened? I mean, right after that, with the Washington job,

there are two jobs open in Toronto. I'm a longtime 13 years of baseball play-by-play, and the radio station, of course, hired. Do you know? Well, okay, wait. This is Toronto? Mm-hmm. Wait. This is when Scott Ferguson left for the team.

Are my clothes? No, I'm off. I'm off. Tom Cheek passes away. Well, Tom Cheek, of course, Tom Cheek passes away. They move Howarth to play-by-play. And who do they hire? I'm going to say, I'm trying, don't tell me here. Nice Joe something.

Warren Suck. Warren Suck. Nice gentleman. So I applied for that job. They hired Warren Suck. And television was. Nice gentleman. So I applied for that job. They hired Warren Sacco. And television was looking for somebody, and they hired Jamie Campbell. Right. So I applied for both of those jobs.

Didn't get either one of them. Okay. And that's exactly, we're talking, that's the same year. It's all at the same time. Right. Right, right. The Expos, will they ever return to Montreal? I have no idea.

No idea. That's the true answer. No, but here's the thing. If you would have asked me five years ago, I would have said 0%. Yeah. It's no longer 0%. Do you believe that the Blue Jays really want the Expos to return? I have no idea.

They own Canada. Why would they want someone to intrude on their territory? Especially because it may involve, I know Rogers owns the Blue Jays right now, and there would be possibly Bell. Bell might be involved in an Expos team, for example. You need some entity with a lot of money. I know Bell. I hear they have a lot of money,

although they decided not to give me any more of it, but that's another story. We're going to get there in a bit. Anyway, so we'll see what happens at the Expos. I'll cross my fingers, but I always think maybe the Blue Jays wanting Expos to return is a bit of lip service. They did actually vote. They didn't abstain. They voted against them.

There were only two votes against, and one of them was the Blue Jays. Tell me about... Tim Raines is in the Hall of Fame. Is Larry Walker next? No, Vladimir Guerrero's next. Is that? Okay.

This year, he'll get in. So Vladimir Guerrero's next, and then it's Larry Walker? I'm trying to think of how we pick up these Expos guys, get them all. It seems to be a big surge here. Larry Walker last year got 21.9% of the vote. That is a no way you are getting to the Hall of Fame. And they changed the rules, right? You used to be able to be on the ballot for 15 years,

and the amount of people that you put on your ballot was unlimited. Now it's 10 years, 10 people. So Walker's in his eighth year, and all of a sudden, he's got the biggest surge of anybody. He's up to 40%, which is almost unheard of to go from 21 to 40 in one year. And this is his eighth year. So he has picked up, at last report, 23, 24 votes from people that did not vote for him last time. And if you extrapolate that over two years, and if he continues to add, he'll be right around

the numbers. So it's possible, but right now he's going to need a real jolt. He's getting one, but it has to continue. Yeah, there seems to be a campaign similar to what we saw with Tim Raines, guys who are kind of overlooked, and here's why they should be there. Okay, but here's one thing that's going to help. Right now, it looks like five guys are getting in. And so if you are only allowed to put 10 people on your ballot, and you take five of those off the ballot because they get in this year, that's going to clear a lot of space, and guys that aren't getting votes right now have an opportunity to be on other people's ballots who have filled up with the 10 previously. Right, right. Because that's a double win, man. That's an Expo and a Canadian, so we'll hope for that. have an opportunity to be on other people's ballots who have filled up with the 10 previously. Right.

Right. Cause that's a double win, man. That's an expo and a Canadian. So we'll hope for that. Only one in the hall of fame, Fergie Jenkins. Right.

Fergie Jenkins, who just had a birthday. I saw there, there you go. Let's talk about 1985 for a brief moment in Toronto. So I was, like I mentioned, I've been a diehard Jays fan for as long as I can remember.

And in 85, we're playing Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. It's our first time in the playoffs. And I mean, we had a 3-1 game lead. Some shit happens. George Brett goes to a different level. That bunch of crap. But in Game 7,

you'll correct me if I'm wrong. I think did Dave Steeb start Game 7? Okay. In Game 7, there's a Jim Sundberg bases loaded triple that takes, that was the, then we're down big and it's like, okay, you realize you're going to lose this series in seven at home. You were there? I was there. Well, I haven't told you anything about my dad.

Tell me about your dad. My dad is a legend in Montreal. See, I don't know you anything about my dad. Tell me about your dad. My dad is a legend in Montreal. See, I don't know this. That's amazing. It's really difficult to, if you don't know, to tell you why he's a legend in Montreal. He was a cab driver. Bookie. Okay.

Knew these kinds of people when I was a kid, and he was also the loudest man in the ballpark. Okay. From season tickets, about 10 rows up from the dugout. So everybody knew him. Everybody knew my dad. He not only yelled at the players, but he was funny. And there is nobody to this day. Now, in this day and age, as you

know, as you can do right now, if there's something that you don't know, you can look it up in a minute. My dad knew that stuff. Your dad was Google. I don't know anybody. If you told him Vic Hadfield, he'd tell you how many goals Vic Hadfield had in his career.

It was nuts. And so he was an odd kind of celebrity in the city of Montreal. He would call, like if he called the talk shows, people knew who he was. What's his name? Jerry Price, but his nickname was Minouche. Minouche. Yes. Named after the Hall of Fame second baseman, Henry Manush.

So if you look at my Twitter avatar, we were at the Hall of Fame last year for Tim Raines, and so I took a picture of Henry Manush's plaque, and that's what I'm using for now. It's funny when you, like, sometimes I'm talking to Americans, and I'm trying to explain, like, what Gord Downie meant to Canadians. And it's like you try to find the American equivalent, but you can't find one. So you sort of merge things. So it's funny to hear you try to explain your dad in Montreal because there's not really a Toronto equivalent. So my dad took three vacations a year.

Okay. He went to spring training. He went to the All-Star game. And he went to the World Series. This is where he spent his money. So he wanted to come down here to the American League Championship Series and see the Royals and the Blue Jays. He said, I want to go.

I want to go. I'll call in reports. I was working at CJAD. And so we came down. He got the tickets. We sat down the right field line, and that's where Jim Sundberg's ball hit. And that's where everybody got hit in the heart.

Wind-aided, right? That was wind-aided. Can we call it that? But I remember... The wind worked for both teams. Yeah, you're right. That's true. That's true. Air went out of a city is what you tweeted at me when you told me.

I was tweeting about that Jim Sundberg hit, and then you tweeted at me to tell me that you were actually at that game with your dad, and then you said air went out of a city, and that's exactly right. It was so... Because we had the 3-1 lead in the series. It really felt like we were on our way to the World Series. But we understood, ergo, out of the city.

We'd already had Blue Monday, and we didn't even have the 94 season cancelled yet. So we knew about we were going to the World Series, and then we weren't. We had been there. We understood. We felt your pain, even if we didn't feel for you. Now, that game in 85, of course, was at Exhibition Stadium.

When you go to a game at the Rogers Center, how does that compare? Can you compare that experience, that environment, to what it was like at Olympic Stadium? And maybe even just maybe do a little, can you compare like the Jays fans to the Expos fans? Is there any worthwhile comparison? I can't really because for many years, those Jays fans are not these Jays fans. These are the best Toronto

Blue Jays fans they've ever had. They're loud. They're boisterous. Whatever it was that you thought about what Toronto fans were, these aren't them. This is a whole different animal going to the games right now. But why do you think that is? I have no idea. I have a theory. I feel possibly it's a TFC effect because I've been going to games in the city since the early 80s.

And you're right. I was at Maple Leaf Gardens up in the Grays, and I've been at Exhibition Stadium in the Bleachers. $2 at Dominion if you get the deal there. But something changed. First year of TFC, I went to a game because my buddies got seasons in the supporters section. And it was unlike anything I'd ever heard. The Raptors had a bit of that. Don't get me wrong, but the Raptors

had to play music and it was sort of coming. It was younger and kind of exciting, but the TFC, it was such a different experience. And I feel there's a bit of that going on, at least in the 2015 and 2016 playoff pennant drives. But some of that is leaked, at least in the 2015 and 2016 playoff pennant drives. But some of that

has leaked in. It's very young and boisterous and passionate. How many TFC fans are Blue Jay fans? You need the Venn diagram? Yeah, so the osmosis of how it leaks in from one to the other. I understand that it's similar

in that they act the same way, but how do they become the other people's person? I don't know. I don't know either, except that, can we sustain this though? Because those were exciting Jays teams, and that 2015 team after the price deal and the Tula Whiskey trade and everything, that was, honestly,

there was a period there where I couldn't get enough Blue Jay talk. My appetite was so enormous. And I'm downloading any podcast coming out about the Jay, everything. And then we get a bit of that, not quite the same, but a bit of that in 2016 when Edwin's got the walk-off and the wild card. And it's similar. We get back to the ALCS.

But now, I mean, we just came off a pretty awful season and it doesn't look like we're going to contend next season. And we have these bridge years before the young guys come back up and hopefully make us competitive again. Can we sustain that? Can they continue to have

that kind of a crowd? I think a critical season coming up, there's always the after effects of having two years where you went to the postseason. So people were still going to the games. But they went last year, even late in the season, when it was clear that this team, they'd been a last place team the entire season and people were still enjoying themselves.

Because very often, as you'll see in Montreal for the rest of this hockey season, the tickets are bought. It doesn't necessarily mean people are going to go. And they did go to the games here at the end of this hockey season, the tickets are bought. It doesn't necessarily mean people are going to go. And they did go to the games here at the end of the year. So it'll be very interesting to see what happens with this edition of the Blue Jays. I'll tell you this, and obviously they have work to do, but it's not a finished product and it's not opening day yet. The Blue Jays have what everybody is searching for.

They have a deep pitching staff. You give them one starter, they have a bullpen, and because their bullpen guys are young, do you have any idea what this, if you compared this bullpen, and I think favorably to the one they have in Colorado, Colorado's bullpen is going to make about $40 million more than these guys because these are almost like entry- to second year to third year guys. So you have a pitching staff.

You have a pitching staff, if healthy, that is capable of contending. Now you've got to fill in the very important offense. Right. The pitching staff is good enough. But you got, I mean, I hear you and I'm optimistic. It's January and there are 80 free agents out there. I know. Do they want to come to Toronto?

We'll find out. But if you get a couple of guys and the offense at least gives this pitching staff something to work with, they could contend for a playoff spot. Good to hear because when you're in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox and they keep rearming as they have been, you consider one will get the pennant, one will get the wild card, another wild card, and we can hope to slip into wild card number two. Do you have any idea how often that doesn't happen? No, no. Teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees

that built up and you're going, those two, forget about them. We have no chance. This was, look at the Raptors. People said, you got to deconstruct. You got no chance. What are you doing? You're going to finish third again to Cleveland and Boston. You're going to get knocked out in the playoffs. Tell me that you don't think that the Raptors actually have a chance this year. Of course they do. And you wanted to get, but don't re-sign Lowry. Don't re-sign Ibaka.

You know, just put some kids in there, get some future prospect, get some draft choices, and I'll worry about, no. That's not what they did. And so Cleveland's not as good as they were. So the Red Sox and the Yankees, they look very good now,

and it's most likely, but not assured. You got to play the games, 100%. I remember my brother telling me after the big moves of the Marlins, well, go ahead. Two Yankee pitching injuries will change everything. That's right. If I have to, I'll Jeff Galooly them. Have you seen this movie yet?

I heard it's good, though. I've got to see it. The Tonya Hardy movie. I hear it's good. I've got to check it out. So back in Montreal, let's go back to Montreal. From 2005 to 2015, you're part of a morning team on Team 990? Team 990.

And so, I mean, I know a lot about the fiasco that was the Team 1050 here in Toronto. Tell me, like, was the team in Montreal a more, hopefully a more successful experiment? Like, how did it go in Montreal? I would say so. It caught the team in Montreal hopefully a more successful experiment? How did it go in Montreal? I would say so. It caught the ear of Montreal. But the problem was when the team went on the air that you were trying to be what sports radio isn't. You're trying to be bigger than your market. Like you're trying to be national.

It doesn't work. I mean, you ask a Stephen Brunt. I've asked them all trying to be national. Well, that's what I mean. You ask a Stephen Brunt. I've asked them all. They come over. Stephen Brunt, what happened to the team? They tried to be national. That didn't work in Montreal. People didn't want to hear about other people's sports.

They want to hear about their sports. No, I don't want to sit down and listen to a thing about the Flames. No, I don't. They can talk Habs 24-7. We would go in, do a morning show from 6 to 10, which would be 75% Montreal Canadiens. You talk baseball, they go, why are you talking baseball? Why are you talking anything? Right. Habs talk.

In Montreal, the number one topic of conversation for sports radio is Habs. The number two is hockey. And the number three is Habs. So that's when they turned it. I mean, they don't get huge numbers, but they do have a listening audience that doesn't go anywhere else.

If you're a sports fan, that's what you do. Well, when I get you to the Fan 590, I'll ask you about that, because that's obviously much different here. Although when I get you to the Fan 590, I'll ask you about that, because that's obviously much different here. Although, I mean, we like our Leaf talk, but there's a lot of other stuff we need to discuss as well over here. But the team saga. So the team in Montreal, for the Toronto listeners,

well, most of the listeners are Toronto people here. So we have Bell. So Bell owns the team in Montreal? They didn't. They didn't. It was originally a chum. Right, because of course, chum did it in Toronto. Right, that was 1050 chum.

And then Bell bought, I don't remember. At some point, they called us into an office, and they said, we're going French. This is going to be a French all-sports radio station. They made a sign, a waiver, saying that we would stay until the transition, and then it didn't happen. We were going to be without jobs,

and then we weren't. They almost killed it. I know. And then Bell bought, Bell owned, and then Bell bought the rest of the English radio stations in Montreal. Okay.

So Bell almost kills it, obviously doesn't kill it, but, and how does it, so how does it survive? Is it because it was an Anglo station? People, people wrote, there's a rule that you can only own so many radio stations in a market.

Four was the number. I think it's, yeah, two and two, like two in each band or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Five was going to be too many, so they were going to get rid of this radio station. And people were writing letters to the CRTC. Please allow them to have an extra radio station.

And the CRTC actually gave them the right to have an extra station. And we were, it's like the governor called it the last minute. Yeah, yeah, pardon you. We were a stay of execution. So it could, okay. And Bell, I guess at some point Bell rebrands it. It's funny, just to bring it back to Brunt for a minute, because why not?

But Brunt tells me that he was trying to broker a deal where they would rebrand the team in Toronto as TSN Radio, well before there was a TSN Radio at 1050. The other thing was that at the same time that this was going on, everyone was fighting over a new frequency, which was 690. 990, there were parts of the city where you couldn't hear it, and not only were they granted the right to have an extra radio station, but they were given the clear channel.

And so that was... That's great. That's huge. So you're moving to 690 from 990, and you're going to drop the team and become TSN. No, they were already TSN. They were already TSN. Okay, so TSN.

So that's kind of similar where you are now, where it was 1430, and they had an opportunity to swap with whatever it was, CKEY, I think, but better frequency at 590. So, of course, yeah, it's a good move. So, unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Why? As Bell likes to...

Why do all good things come to an end? They're good things. Why are you ending them? Yeah. Whose idea was this? We got to start analyzing these expressions we toss off. But Bell, who almost killed it eventually, I guess, Bell likes to do these budget cuts, and a lot of personalities we all know and love are discarded.

I mean, Bell, Rogers, of course, you're all cutting costs whenever possible, it seems. What do I know? I never worked in the industry. But Bell does do big budget cuts, and you're a victim. You were a victim of budget cuts in 2015. Everybody knew budget cuts were coming. It was announced there was going to be a lot,

and it was going to be from, I don't know, where did they own radio stations? Vancouver to Newfoundland? And it was coming to our station. And so there was, you know, there's gallows humor. You'd go in on... Dead man walking? You still here?

Wow. Well, you have to. If you don't laugh, you'll cry. Finish shot. And, you know, you look back on it now, and, you know, there are always telltale signs, and you don't see them. I had done the World Junior Championships

as the TSN's national voice, and we were ticketed. I had my electronic ticket sent to me. We were going to Finland. And obviously the tournament was going to be end of December, beginning of January. And the year before, we had had our meetings. And we didn't have our meetings. And I didn't inquire about it.

And maybe if I would have, I would have had a little bit more of a clue of why we hadn't had our meetings. It was me. We didn't have our meetings because I wasn't going. But I didn't know that. On a November Thursday, we finish up our shift, and I'm walking towards my desk, and the program director's coming towards me, and he taps me on the shoulder,

and he says, we have to go upstairs. And I said, no fucking way. So you knew right away, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, it was going to happen that day, right? And then, I hate to put it this way, but the people that are so fond of, what's their? Let's Talk?

Yes. They took me to an office and left me there with people I have never met before in my life. I'm shaking. I've got three kids. I've got a wife. I have a mortgage. I have a car. Two cars.

They know I just leased, and now I have no job. And they're talking to me, and I'm not hearing them. I'm going, seriously? You're talking to me and I'm not hearing them. I'm going, seriously, you're talking to me here? And they ushered me to my car without being able to take anything, whatever, and I went around the corner and I'm sitting in my car and I'm shaking and I call my wife

and it's like, what the hell just happened? I hear way too many stories like this. Unbelievable. There's got, like, okay, you want to make your budget cuts. I don't understand how I'm your budget cut, right? Your radio station in Montreal, you didn't pay me that much. Right. That taking my salary off the books, off the billions of dollars that you're making,

would make that much of a difference in a city where there's nobody that knows what I know. I don't understand why. But look, it's your radio station. You can do whatever you want with it. You need to find a better way to do it. That was cold. That's it. That was cold. That's cold. That is cold.

And one of my pet peeves is the corporate speak and whether it be, you know, put a pin in this and we'll, there's all these different expressions. I think outside the box and stuff. But I always get, one of them is that when corporations talk about how they're a family, okay? And I know this is like the propaganda, rah, rah, rah, and it's like you're part of the family.

But at the end of the day, you're just a number to these corporations. They're not family. So we're supposed to go on a vacation. We're booked. We want to take—I've saved the time because I want to go away with the family before I go to Finland. But now I'm not going to Finland, and my wife goes, maybe we shouldn't go. And I go, now especially we must go.

We must go. So we go to Jamaica, and I get this idea. I've got to do something. What am I going to do? I'm paid for the next who knows how long, but I need to think about what I'm going to do after that. And I'm thinking because I got a call from a couple of sponsors who said, look, if you need us, we're there for you.

We can't believe that you've been let go. If you need advertising, it's like, okay, can I find airtime somewhere in Montreal? Because it's a limited market. Who needs a sportscaster? Nobody. But can I go and convince people that I can do my own show? Get time from them and then get the advertising so that I can do a show and continue to do

what I do. So I call around one station. At one point, they're going to offer me money. They've got a time slot. And then they string me along for weeks. And at the last minute, they tell me, no, you know what? We'd like for you to pay $200 a show five days a week. And I go, I don't have that kind of $1,000 a week. That's $52,000 before I even start with the advertising. So now there's another radio station, Ethnic Station in Montreal, that doesn't do a whole lot of English.

At first he told me, we can only have a show after midnight. I'm going, who's advertising? I get a call, maybe we can try to work something on a Sunday night. And so we're doing a tent, because I told my wife if I can get a radio station, I know that when they were trying to shut us down, when we were going all French, they were going to take the best of TSN and put it on their AM station in the evenings. They were going to keep their best announcers, so they wanted to keep the brand, TSN and put it on their AM station in the evenings. They were going to keep their best announcers, so they wanted to keep the brand, TSN.

So if it was so important for them to keep the TSN brand, wouldn't it piss them off if there was a Sportsnet radio in Montreal? I said, I think I could get in touch with the people in Toronto and convince them that at least for one show, they could have a Sportsnet tonight and they could get their foot in Montreal and they could hear Sportsnet in Montreal. And if nothing else,

it would piss the people off at TSN. And if we were Sportsnet, wouldn't they let us have some of their people? And if they let us have some of their people, wouldn't people want to advertise on the radio station? Right, right. Great idea. It's a great idea.

And that's how everything came together. Is this CFMB? Yes. CFMB. It's a great idea. And that's how everything came together. Is this CFMB? Yes. CFMB. Okay. So I love, this is like the part of your story, which there's a lot of interesting stuff to come. We've covered a lot of interesting stuff already. But I love this. As you can imagine, there's a guy in his basement who's broadcasting right now with absolutely no terrestrial radio station behind this. Let me know if you know anyone who wants to air it. But when they remove you, they remove you from their airwaves

and they silence you, but you still find a way to, I want to say, roll your own. You're rolling your own. You're going to be responsible for the A to Z and you find a spot on CFMB and then you just sell your own ads. Thanks to a number of people

with ideas that had ideas for me or I bounced ideas off of. One of them was Jonah Carey, who I've known for, like I knew, we put Jonah on the radio. Jonah was on the radio because we put him on. And so he was doing these podcasts. I said, Jonah, what do I have to do? What kind of equipment do I need?

What about advertising? What about the logistics, the interviews, all of that stuff? Another one was John Bartlett, who was the play-by-play of the Montreal Canadiens. He was doing for Sportsnet. He knew Dave Cadeau. So that was very helpful.

That was my intro to Dave. Right, because you're already buddies. You mentioned this earlier in the show that you're already buddies with... Jeff Blair. Jeff Blair. Eric Engels, who covers the Montreal Canadiens for Sportsnet, he was very helpful in some of the idea work.

And eventually, Sportsnet would help me with their people. So I'm running from, once we move from a Sunday night, just a Sunday night to a weeknight, 8 to 10, I have a Montreal Canadiens insider, a different one, five days a week, including Kyle Bukaskas, who's at... I see him on my TV. So he came on one day a week. But he's only 13 years old.

I understand, but he knows a lot for a 13-year-old. And Sportsnet provided me with a bunch of their people to come on and come on once a night to be an NHL expert. Wow. Yeah, it was terrific how everything came together, but then my sponsorship dried up. Okay, so let's talk. So you're 8 to 10 p.m. on CFMB weekdays, and that's a pretty cool time slot, actually,

because you're not after midnight. It's 8 to 10. That's not bad. You're going to do a... Is the show live? Yes. Okay, live show. And is it branded Sportsnet?

So what's the name of the show? It was. I did it for... Let's see, we went on the air on Valentine's Day. And I believe by my daughter's birthday in June, we started with Sportsnet. And they did all kinds of promos for me. It sounded, I had one guy, I got to send you some of his work if you ever need someone to do jingles for you. He turned classic hits into Price is Right promos.

He would do the voices. A Beatles song sounded like a Beatles song, only he changed the lyrics. change the lyrics. So we had a three-man radio station that sounded like a two-hour three-man radio station that sounded like we had hundreds of people working there. It was amazing. That is amazing. It is amazing.

And of course, the people at Sportsnet did promos for me. They gave me their people. So we really did have a lot of people working there, even if it was just a two-hour show, five days a week. And not only, you know, you mentioned the ads dry up. We'll talk about that in a second. But you're kind of

keeping yourself out there and visible and sharp by, you know, exercising this muscle that I'm sure is broadcasting. And this, you mentioned, you get an introduction to Dave Cadeau, and you already know Jeff Blair. And the whole thing kind of works ideal because we're going to get to this in a second.

But I want to ask you about the sponsorship first. But you end up working for Sportsnet Radio in the big smoke here, which that happens likely because of this effort you did at CFMB. Am I right? You're correct. And the other thing is it's months and months of not going completely crazy. Yeah, right. By having a focus, by making sure you have something to do each and every day,

and looking for work at the same time, believing that this makes no sense. It makes no sense that I am not currently employed. Someone will notice that I am out here and hire me, even though this is a very small country. And where do you go from Montreal? Right. There's only one place to go from Montreal

in Canada. Vancouver would have been all right. Yeah, Vancouver's all right too. Calgary would have been okay. You're nodding. You could have gone back to Moncton maybe. I don't think so. On Facebook, you posted this warning to the industry.

I'm going to quote you now. Many had a chance to advertise and chose not to. Although reaching out to you was not one of my strengths, I hope in the future you can see past your wallets. So is this because that sponsorship dried up? Was this just sort of... No, every one of the sponsors that eventually wasn't a sponsor anymore saved my life. I owe them my present and my future.

Without them, I wouldn't be here now because they allowed me to do that show and be heard and have an opportunity to get a job. It is about the advertising in Montreal. It is a very selected English community, and I think that the English community needs to get behind the English community. Newspapers and radio and whatever it is, I think we need to do that. We've seen how the French have risen up by getting behind their language and their people, and that's a wonderful thing.

Well, I thought that this should be a two-way street that we need to help our own, and people should come forward when there's a cause that would help out in the community. And again, Brian Gerstein, he actually told me a little story how he approached you. He almost advertised.

Yeah, he almost advertised. It's just interesting. That was another small world story that he's actually advertising on this show. But he wanted to know if that lack of support reminded you of the lack of business support of the Expos,

who never invested anywhere near enough to keep the team in Montreal. So he just wondered if there was any parallels there in terms of Montreal support. That's Brian's wondering aloud. Well, they certainly had the opportunity after the strike year to keep those players and believe in the product that they had, and they didn't do that. And so all of a sudden, some of the great players in the history of the franchise, Pedro Martinez and Larry Walker and Jeff Fisero and on and on,

Mark Eastgrissom, all of a sudden they're winning World Series for other teams. That was hard to take, to watch. And knowing full well that you still had some of the great players, and if you just believe maybe people will come, because they were starting to come in 1994, and you didn't give them an opportunity and you helped in this franchise no longer being there. Yeah.

You know, what is it here? I see that before I get you to Toronto, I have to finish up my last Montreal questions from someone on Twitter named Arthur. I think it was Twitter. It might have been the blog, torontomic.com. I can't remember. But Arthur writes,

can you ask if it's true what I heard? Every time Formula One comes to Montreal, all the teams descend on one particular now closed establishment on St. Catherine Street. I've not a clue. No clue. I'm not a race car guy. I covered one Grand Prix,

hope never to go back. And I would stay out of town when the Grand Prix came. You want to know? And so even though he has spent most of his life working here in Toronto, it'd probably be better to ask Hugh Burrell that question because he is our gear guy. Right, right, right. He's a great guy. I know not on this subject.

Now, I kind of feel like I relate to what you said about being a salesman. Couldn't do it. I can't do it either. Like, I've never hustled. I've never hustled. If I would have been able to, it's the one thing. I did commercials. I wrote commercials.

I voiced commercials. I edited the show. I did everything that anyone could possibly do at a radio station to help myself along. And I couldn't sell advertising. I couldn't even call people that I did not know. It was easier to send out emails to anonymous people. Maybe they would get back to me. Right. But salespeople do what I can't do. They have it. I never had it. Just before I went back to college, I was in a state where I was not working, and I needed to have some sort of way to pay the bills. So there was this,

uh, vacuum cleaner company, filter queen. And they would, they would send you out on demos. They would teach you their, uh, their conversation.

They would get you in the door. They would give steak knives and then you would go and you would do the demonstration and you would sell a filter queen and you'd make a couple of hundred dollars. And then you would do another one. And I demonstration and you would sell a filter queen and you'd make a couple hundred dollars and then you would do another one. And I had friends that were doing it and they were selling four or five of these a week. It was unbelievable. I went on one demo.

I should have sold it. I called my boss. He says, you've got them. I said, they don't need a vacuum cleaner. I can't do this. No, I'm not too honest. I can't do this. Yeah, you're not a bullshitter. I just can't sell. Couldn't do it. Couldn't even sell for myself

to save my family. I couldn't do it. It's terrible. Lou Skeezes, he's at your rival, 640, and he does the business stuff there, but he's been kind of trying to coach me on stuff,

and he says, you can get a sales guy. Like, you can't sell. Get a sales guy. Give him 15 points on the deal. I tried. Yeah. It was very difficult to get a sales guy. You can't sell. Get a sales guy. Give him 15 points on the deal. I tried. It was very difficult to get a salesperson who's only going to sell one show,

a two-hour show. And we'll do it strictly on commission because your model you want is just to pay him points on what they sell because then you can't really lose. But if they want a base of any sorts, then you're in a whole different problem here. Tell me now in great detail,

how did you get summoned to the Big Smoke Toronto? I want the real story too. Okay, so I'm in because of John Bartlett. I needed to get in touch with Sportsnet because I wanted them aboard. So I traded with them. They were very nice. Let's face it, they don't need me.

But they didn't mind having their brand in Montreal, even if it was for a two-hour show. And they traded their name for commercial time, which was very nice. And apparently I had commercial time to give them. So they would run their promos. They would run the World Cup of Hockey is coming up. And there's Hockey Night in Canada coming up right after that. And they would run their commercials.

What's the other one? I forget. So that was the trade, and they wanted to. Now, I'd been running a podcast at the same time, and they wanted to take my podcast over. And so we sent it to them. They edited it. They put it on their website. And so we

had a connection. Right. And one day I got a call and Dave said, I'm bringing you here. At this point, does Dean know he's gone yet? Is this because you guys replaced the Blundell show. Is this like an NDA type deal where you're told, okay, we're going to cut? I cannot tell you what anybody knows since I don't know what anybody knows at this end. I'm just not to tell anybody at that point. Okay.

I'm not to tell anyone. Okay. But Blundell's still on the radio at 590 at this point. I suppose so. Possibly so. Allegedly so. But he tells me he's bringing me to Toronto

and I have tears rolling down my cheeks. So do you know that you'd be working with Greg Brady yet? Not a clue. Not yet disclosed. Did not know who he was.

Nor did he know who I was. So that's fair. So you come to Toronto, and then how does this roll out? Is it basically like, okay, we're going to introduce a new morning show on Fan 590 called Starting Lineup, and it's going to be... First we're going to see

if we actually work. Good. So you do some chemistry tests. We do. Here's what surprises me as an outsider who talks to a lot of people on the inside. You don't think Dave would just throw guys on the radio? It happens all the time. The number one morning show, number one sports morning show in the country, and they're just going to take two guys and throw them on the radio? Often.

Because I feel that way. As an outsider, I would think, of course, you're going to do chemistry tests and do practice runs and see if these people work together. That's how I think. But I've heard from many a popular duo that they were thrown together and never did a single chemistry test. And it's very possible, and I have never asked, that there are others who have tested, who had tested. Right, but did not work.

To do this, and I don't know. So I don't know. Greg Brady, he's been very honest about it on this show. He hasn't always had great chemistry with his co-hosts on the Fan 590. Jim Lang, for example. So he wouldn't want to... I've heard. He had a good experience

with Andrew Walker, but I'm sure he would rather not repeat what happened with Jim Lang. So I would think that it would be important that you guys do some chemistry tests.

Which we did. Good. Yes. And obviously, did you pass the chemistry test? Here we are today. How does Hugh get introduced into this, Hugh Burrell? Because he's the third guy on your starting lineup.

That's a question you'd have to ask Dave. I don't know how any of us came together. This is Dave's idea. Okay. And he brings the three of us together. And we practice, and there's good chemistry. And February 9th, we do two weeks of real shows that are not on the radio. Right.

And we're already hired and ready to go. And then two weeks later, when the ratings start, I think 26th or 27th of February, we do our first show. I remember the, well, Greg came on just as you were launching, and I remember the breakfast television appearance with you three. So, of course, that was the Hugh show because they were all in love with Hugh already because Hugh was a longtime record. I didn't know anybody. I didn't know. My wife lived here for a couple of years.

She has two brothers and a sister that live here. Her whole family pretty much is here. So she knows the city. I didn't know the building. I didn't know the city. I didn't know the people. But I do now. So now Greg makes sense to me completely

because Brady and Walker was a popular morning show on the Fab 590. If you look at just the numbers and the books, the PPM meters and stuff, it was a well-rated, well-regarded morning show, Brady and Walker.

I was personally surprised when they replaced Brady and Walker with Dean Blundell. I know they were gunning for the Blundell numbers from 102.1. They're looking for a 10 share or whatever that you could get from a Blundell.

So I kind of get the gamble, but clearly that didn't work out, and Dean was relieved of his duties. And then, I mean, then you, what's that, I'm trying to, so you've already let go of Greg. That's an important detail here. Greg was no longer on the air

because it's just Walker at one o'clock. This must have been a cost-cutting thing by Rogers. So you have Greg in the family, but not on the air because it's just Walker at 1 o'clock. This must have been a cost-cutting thing by Rogers. So you have Greg in the family but not on the air. So it makes sense to me to bring him back. But I guess you decide not to remove Walker at 1. Maybe he's established there or whatever. And now he's in Vancouver and he's a happy guy. So you're going to introduce a new voice.

It's interesting to me, though, they go to this guy in Montreal that I honestly never heard of. I never heard of Elliot Price, and I told Greg that. But it seems to have worked out. I'm going to read from PR. I know you're not here to do PR, but I read a press release from Rogers. Sportsnet's starting lineup

dominates the Toronto morning sports scene. First of all, your competition is one other show. You're dominating the sports scene. You dominate who you can dominate, my friend. With an audience share of 5.6. And congratulations, I guess. These numbers don't mean a lot, but it sounds like you guys are doing well

and I'm happy for you guys. Thank you. And so you wonder why why are they bringing someone from montreal right to to toronto and i'll i'll give you this explanation in that um i felt like i was being buried alive in montreal in that and and it is amazing what those people do. To be able to talk Montreal Canadiens the amount of time that they do, make it presentable, make it entertaining, do it daily, do it in the summer, is amazing.

But I know other stuff. I'm a huge baseball fan, obviously. I'm a huge basketball fan. I don't love the Montreal Canadiens. I liked them for a while. I liked them when they won the Cup in 86 because I covered them. I liked the guys on the team. So my lifelong hatred for them dissipated for a while. But I have interest in baseball and I have interest in basketball. I know the sports.

I'm a huge fan of National Football League, and so it fits. It fits. I've been able to talk about stuff that I know about that I haven't been able to talk about for a long time. We would talk basketball once a week. We'd talk baseball during the playoffs. Right. Well, that was my first thought is comparing Toronto and Montreal.

You mentioned it. Habs is 1A with a bullet all the time. This is heaven. It is. I'm doing a show, getting an opportunity to talk about stuff that I know about. It's diversity. And he'll say, sometimes he'll go, that was easy. And I go, yeah, it's easy when they ask you questions that you know the answers to. When the subject is the ones that you know, well, that's what the show is for me. That I get an opportunity to talk about stuff that I know about with someone else who knows what I know. Now, I can't let you off the hook completely here. I read the press release, and it's all going well, and that's great.

Oh, there's a but. Not a but, but I mean, give you the same treatment that I gave. Brunt got it and Damien Cox got it recently. But I have to ask. So all of the weekday hosts are all white males. Okay.

I saw this. You posed for a nice photo. Are you in that photo? Yes, you are. I am, yeah. That's after your arrival. So the last supper photo, I'll call it, with Bob in the middle. And that's sort of what, it became really jarring and like,

hey, there's not a lot of diversity going on in the Fan 590. And it seems like every time there's an opportunity to bring in somebody new, like if it's Andrew Walker going to Vancouver and stuff, it's another white guy that comes into the fold. And I know you're not the program director, and they offered you a dream job and you took it.

But do you feel there's any responsibility on the part of Rogers to diversify the lineup? I think it's incumbent on Rogers to put the best people on the air that can do the best possible show that they can do.

Should I be upset that there are so many women on television, that they seem to hire women over men when it comes to sports television now? It's their prerogative to hire who they want. I will say this. If somebody is out there, a female or a person of color, who feels that they have been slighted here, that they have been bypassed by someone that they think they're better than for any of these jobs that was better than the people that are doing them right now, why the hell would Sportsnet not hire them? On purpose? Because we don't want women? We don't want people of colour? That's ludicrous. That makes absolutely no sense at all. So is it possible that the pool from which you're drawing from, which are interested, qualified candidates, is so heavily dominated by white men that this is just a result of that.

And then maybe if there is a problem, it might start earlier in the chain when you develop broadcasters and stuff that maybe that's where we have a missing link. Maybe this is definitely a better question to ask Hugh Burrell. He works at the broadcasting school. How many people that go to the sports

broadcasting school, women and people of color, I don't know, okay, that this is what they want to do. Radio, right. Yes. Because you're right. You know who went to that school? They always say, like I read online, I mean, oh, why isn't this person doing that?

That person doing that? It's as if you could just snap your finger and be able to do three and a half hours of talk radio because you know all these things. If that person was available to do the show and had the background of having done it for, I've been doing this for 40 years. For 40 years I've been doing sports radio. If there's a person out there that is more qualified for this job than I am, than the white person that Sportsnet hired to do this show, present yourself.

I want to know who you are and we will endeavor to find you a job somewhere that you deserve. Yeah, seriously. Let me, if that's you, let me know. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point. Let me know. I do know that you mentioned that school that Hugh teaches at,

Jim Van Horn used to teach there. Everybody wants to be on television. Yes. I was going to say Faisal Khamisa is a name that jumps in. He was here. He went to that school, and he's on television. You see him on Tim and Sid, and yeah, he's on television. So you're right.

You have to want the job. Right. So now I'm going to preface this. You watched Seinfeld. You mentioned you want the job. Right. So now I'm going to preface this. You watched Seinfeld. You mentioned you saw him early. So you remember Watley converted to Judaism to tell the jokes, right? He was the dentist. I don't have to convert.

You don't have to convert. You already told me you spent your bar mitzvah money. That's true. So you've already revealed. A Jewish friend, and this is not my lawyer or my doctor. Okay, this is an actual Jewish friend, and this is not my lawyer or my doctor. Okay, this is an actual Jewish friend. He points out to me when he heard you were coming on, because you're a white guy, but at least you're Jewish.

So at least we got a little diversity right there. You're the token ethnic in the group, is what we'll say. See, we have one. He says that, and he makes up these numbers. So these are just meant to prove a point. But he says, 30% of sports media people are Jewish compared with 0.003% of pro athletes. And he's Jewish, of course, the person making these points. And he says he believes it's because Jews are outsiders in sports, hence they have the media dream.

Hence, they have the media dream. And I don't know people's religion when they come on the show, but I do know that whether it be Mike Wilner or Mark Hebbshire or Howard Berger or Steve Simmons, Elliot Friedman, there are a number of Jewish people in sports media in this country. And I know Zach Hyman plays with the Maple Leafs, but there may not be... Kevin Pillar. Okay, there you go.

And was Sean Green, is it he went to? Absolutely. So there you go. There's three, at least three. Hank Greenberg, is that going back to far? There's quite a few

in Major League Baseball right now. Ian Kinsler. Okay, good. Yeah, there are a few. Is there anything to that where as you were growing up, maybe Jews were seen as an outsider in sports,

hence you had the dream of being in sports on the other side. No, I think it's the rebel Jews. They're the ones because their parents want them to be doctors and lawyers, and they go, no, I want to be an athlete. I have no idea. No idea. I don't know how that manifests itself. And those numbers, 30%, I have to go, I don't know if that's true or not.

That's not a true number. And the 0.003%, he made that. That was probably true. Well, you named so many there, like at least five. Well, look at Team Israel that competed and did so well at the World Baseball Classic. Those are Jewish baseball. They're not Israeli. They were Jewish baseball players that play in the United States, just like Jason Grilley played for Italy. Right. Oh, yeah. No, that's exactly right. You're exactly right.

Toronto Boris, he's a guy on Twitter. I don't know if he was a Toronto Boris before I was a Toronto Mike. My grandfather was Boris. Is that right? That's true. He's not your grandfather? No, I don't think so. He's no longer with him?

No. Okay. I'm doing the math on that in my head. This is Boris talking. Since he works for Rogers, what will change since Rogers bought into the Argos and CFL? Will they now actually feature it objectively? This is a common question. There's a perception out there.

I don't know if it's reality, but it's definitely a perception that CFL is undercovered by Rogers sports media outlets because it's completely a Bell property. It is covered by the interest level of our listeners. If it is demanded to be heard, it will be.

But will it be heard now that you have an ownership stake in the Argos? When the Argos made it to, there's only so much time. Hey, look, there weren't fans going to the games here in Toronto that were demanding. How many callers and listeners and texts and tweets and Instagrams

do you think that we were getting demanding that we give the Argos more radio time? It's probably the fifth most popular pro team in Toronto. It is. Exactly right. And It's probably the fifth most popular pro team in Toronto. It is. Exactly right. And so they get the fifth most attention of any team. But will they get more now that there's an incentive there? What didn't exist prior? They certainly got more when they won the Grey Cup, did they not?

Right. They did. Yes, you can't ignore that story, I suppose. And there was an appetite for that, so you produced it. Okay. Now, on that note, though, and and there was an appetite for that, so you produced it. On that note, though, you might not know this, but Arash Madani is a bit of a bulldog out there. He covers the CFL very critically, I'd say.

I'm wondering if he will be as critical now that there is more of a partnership relationship with the league. Am I wondering out loud? I guess we'll wait and see. I can't answer that. You'll have to ask Arash. I'll bring Arash back on. He's got to kick out the jams anyway.

He does. I want to hear that. Oh, and Boris wraps up by saying, that's just my curiosity. I want to see the mental gymnastics Rodgers does to make this 180 shift. I don't think they'll be doing any mental gymnastics on this.

When I hear that, you know, the headline, Argos open up season at BMO, and that's the number one news item on the Fan 590 morning show. But it's not the number one news item. It's not the number one news item, period. It can't be the number one news item on the Fan 590 if it's not the number one news item. No, I understand. That's what I'm saying here. I understand, but we have to accept the fact

that TSN is definitely, I can't say definitely, I believe, allegedly, possibly TSN gives more time to the Argos than is demanded due to the fact there's such a vested interest in people tuning in and buying tickets. It's not for me to sit here and to denigrate TSN,

who almost didn't have the broadcasts on last season even though they are owned by Bell. So, you know, it's easy to cast stones. It's easy to throw them in glass houses. I don't think they sent Hoagie on the road last season. He wasn't even going to do the games at home. I know, I know. And they, see, now they heard from their people. That was a very, you're right. And I was surprised. I don't, surprising to you, I don't actually

listen to Argo's games on the radio. I don't know. I'm sure people do. I did Alouette's games. So you're a CFL fan? Even though you did the GDK, that's fair. But you're an NFL fan. Yes, I am. But do you tune into CFL for playoffs?

Will that draw you in or does it depend on what's going on that day? I suppose. Did you watch the Great Cup? I did. There you go. So, one of the arguments around here is, what's the more popular team in Toronto, the Argos

or TFC? Because by all metrics other than television ratings, yes. And I would say that in Montreal, the soccer team has passed the CFL team as well. Interesting. Oh, yes. Because there's quite a rivalry developing in the TFC faithful with that Montreal team,

as would naturally occur. But cool. I mean, I don't know. I root for the TFC. I go to games whenever I can get a free ticket. They're a champion. They're a championship team, and it was fun to watch.

And I saw that 1.3 million people tuned in for this final, whereas you get many more for the Grey Cup. But I think that's because maybe a lot of Canada hasn't adopted the team or the sport. But there are more than nine teams in the league, and they do play outside of Canada. Absolutely. And it's at least one of the top teams in this continent,

but that doesn't matter, because CFL is also number two league on this continent. In the world. That's true, and in the world, and in this continent. Elliot, this was fantastic. Is there anything I missed? You're going to come back and kick out the jams, but you're glad to be in Toronto.

You know buyer's remorse here. When people ask me, what do you miss from Montreal? Leicesters. I think, and I tell them, not much. Not much. I can get Leicesters, and we do. We had an order come up a couple of weeks ago.

They brought Leicesters. My wife, my daughter still has to go back, and we have the orthodontist paid for, so we've got to go back and bring her there. She brings bagels back. I miss my golf buddies from Montreal and not much else. I really don't. I mean Toronto has

everything. Toronto so I don't need to. I miss the comedy festival. Did you ever see the movie The Big Sick? The Big Sick? It's very interesting. There's a plot line in The Big Sick where it's all about getting invited to the Montreal Comedy Festival they call it. But it's a good movie. You should check it out. It's like stand-up comics. It's a true story in The Big Sick where it's all about getting invited to the Montreal Comedy Festival, they call it.

But it's a good movie. You should check it out. It's like stand-up comics. It's a true story and it's interesting. Elliot Price. What was it like in Montreal having the last name Price the last decade? Like, did anybody, is there a lot of jokes? More my kids than me.

Because, you know, kids know Carey Price. You go to school, you see your uncle, see your dad. I can imagine. No, they're luckier than that. They have me. And that brings us to the end of our 298th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Elliot is at Elliot F. Price. That F is very important because there's probably some other goon got the Elliot Price handle. So stick an F in the middle there. Elliot F. Price. Two L's and two T's. Two L's and two T's. Like the guy in E.T. You ever ask Elliot why there's an E at the end of his name?

His mom misspelled it or something? I did ask. She did. Elliot, I bet not. You're too young, but I'm guessing. I'm sorry. You're too old. But Elliot, I would think, would become very popular, but I'm guessing... Sorry, you're too old. But Elliot, I would think,

would become very popular in Canada when Trudeau Mania was happening. Yeah, I'm a former. Yeah, you predate the... Again, I'm getting better at math. I'm doing it all on the fly here. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein.

And PayTM is at PayTMstein, and Paytm is at Paytm Canada. See you all next week when my guest is morning show co-host at, what are they called now? GNR Global News Radio 640, Matt Gurney. That's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't stay today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.