Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Erin Davis: Toronto Mike'd #84

Episode Date: July 9, 2014

Mike chats with Erin Davis about getting fired and re-hired by CHFI, her classic Blue Jays songs, sleeping with the boss and lessons learned along the way.

Welcome to the 84th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is Toronto radio legend, Aaron Davis. Thanks for coming, Aaron. Thank you. Thanks for calling me a legend. Wow. Well, if you're not worthy of that title, who is in the Toronto radio world? Well, it's very kind. Thank you.

There's only four of you with that title. You, Bob McCowan, maybe a couple of others. And McCowan calls himself that. It's on his Batman. And his welcome mat. I believe it. Oh, we love Bob. So thanks for coming.

I know you don't live around here, so you brought your personal driver. I did. And you know what? Inside scoop. I'm sleeping with him. Yeah, it's my husband, Rob, my husband of 26 years, which proves that we have absolutely no ambition, the two of us. And we met in radio. He was actually my boss. How do you like that story? So were you dating when he was your boss? you like that story. So were you dating when he was your boss? Yes, yes. And it was just, it was so wild. We were at CKO, the all news network. And what's strange about it is, you know, everybody thought the biggest scandal was that I knew what everyone was making. But we were far too busy making something of our own to worry about what was on everybody else's paycheck.

That's interesting. Okay, I want to get into your start in radio. Sure. So we'll get to the CKO stuff, but that's already some breaking news tidbits. That's some juicy stuff. Come on in, Rob. He's sitting back. He's being all laid back.

So I can... Here, the mic's open, so just know anything you say is now on the record. All right. That's good to know. Oh, goody. It is good to know. So Aaron, right off the bat,

I got to thank you because you pledged my ride to conquer cancer even though this is the very first time we've ever met. Yeah, well, I don't know. It just struck me

as a really good thing you were doing and you kept updating people on your progress and what you'd done and holy nally, you rode a lot. You have logged

a lot of miles and for a man of 427 pounds, I think, come on. That's just, no, he's slim, he's fantastic, and good for you. It's a wonderful thing to give to something other than, you know, our own lives. No, thank you. And you retweeted it, and that was really helpful because I hit my goal. I doubled my goal, which was unexpected. And, yeah, thanks again.

Yeah, our pleasure. And I see a little tidbit. My wife, who you just met, was born in Edmonton. Oh, wow. Was she an Air Force brat? No. Was she military too? No. Okay. But she was, yeah, she lived there till, I guess, till she was like in her early 20s. So yeah,

she's a real Edmontonian. But you were born in Edmonton as well. I was. Yeah, I was the third of four daughters. And I was actually a Christmas visit. My dad came home from the Arctic that winter. And he and mom got conjugal. And nine months or so later, there I was born in Nemeo in Edmonton, which I think is the same hospital Michael J. Fox was born in. Oh, really? I have no idea. I'm name dropping wherever I can, right? But that's great. And so tell me, let's start at the beginning. What got you interested in radio and where did you begin? Oh, wow. Well, in 1980, when I was finishing up grade 13, there weren't really any jobs for women in radio. It was nothing

really that occurred to me. And it was April of that year when, remember in high school when your class would all go to a local college or whatever, and you'd listen to a bunch of speakers and whatever. Okay. So I went and being late as I often am, the two that I signed up to here were already full. And so there was this professor from the local college in Belleville, Loyalist College, talking about radio. Okay. So I went in and sat in his class and it was like I was hit by lightning. I've only had that feeling two other times in my life.

One was when Rob and I went on our first date, which wasn't even a date. And another one was when I met the woman who would go on to become in a small way my radio mentor, Valerie Geller. Just that complete electric static, Valerie Geller. Just that complete electric static, this is something. So I listened to it. And although they had the class for the fall already full, he said, okay, we'll give you an audition. And I got in. And it turns out, you know, I'd been a radio geek without even knowing it growing up. And so, you know, going to sleep with the little red transistor under the covers. Me too. God, I listened to... You probably listened to rock. Mine was blue, though. You know what?

I actually fell asleep most often to the music of our life because I would listen to Tom and Jerry called Blue Jay Games. Oh, of course. And then I would drift away. And then I'd left the radio on, and at some point I'd wake up to Paul Anka. Al Martino, what the hell is this? And I'd be like, oh yeah, because after the game,

I guess they did a little post-game show and then it went back to the music of our life. Oh God, was yours realistic? Was yours a realistic, like a Radio Shack or something? I think it was from Consumers Distributing. Oh my God. That is a blast from the past. Consumers Distributing is where you used to go

and give them a little ticket and then they would give you what you were buying. Well, first they would tell you it's out of stock. Then you would have to get something else there's crappy little pencils you'd have to find a pencil that had any lead in it uh and probably was real lead then because we didn't care well it was uh i even remember it was like the dundas they had a dundas location like between runnymede and jane they had a consumers distributing and that was like yeah where my go-to place when it was like my birthday or something like i'd go through the catalog pick

out a thing and go in and almost almost always i was disappointed to when it was like my birthday or something, I'd go through the catalog, pick out a thing and go in. And almost always I was disappointed to hear it was out of stock, which might explain why we don't have consumers. Yeah, maybe. And we don't have nice things. That explains it all. Yeah. But yeah, so that's great to hear you talk about falling asleep with the transistor, but please continue.

Yeah, it was CBC. It was As It Happens, and it was Barbara Frum and Mary Lou Finley picked up by AM800, CJBQ in Belleville. So I would listen to it and just get this excitement in me that these women were asking all these very important men really tough questions and like, oh my God, how are they getting away with this? So that was my first introduction. Also, I sang with my grandfather's orchestra as a kid. So I was really comfortable around a mic. I'm, you know, third kid of four. So a born either introvert or show off. So there was all that that kind of came together and made sense for radio for me. Cool. And what was the first station you started on? at CJBQCIGL. And so I did that weekends and then it turned into full-time in the second year. So I

would go to school in the morning, be on the air from about two till eight. And then some nights go across the street and play piano at a little French restaurant called Dinkles to help make some more money. That sounds so French, Dinkles. Dinkles, I know. But the escargot were to die for. Very good. So this is in Belleville. My cousin used to play for the Belleville Bulls. Oh, wow. So a little shout out to Mark. He was a goaltender for the Belleville Bulls, like the early 90s.

No kidding. That's my only Belleville story. That's all I got. That's all right. You know, it's a great place to stop in at the Quinney Mall on your way somewhere else along the 401. Belleville, some good radio came out of Belleville. I would like to think.

And how did you end up? I know you end up in Windsor at some point. Yes. So is that after Belleville? After Belleville. Or did I miss a step? Okay, good. Yeah, in April of 82, I graduated.

And a great story I love to tell, Mike, is the importance of volunteering. And the Christmas before I graduated, I had a week off. And I've told you how busy that schedule was with college and the restaurant and the radio station. I had a week off at Christmas. And I decided to go and work for free at CFRA in Ottawa. And so I did. And then after that, I reported I did whatever they needed me to do for a week. When I graduated in April, there was a job waiting for me.

Wow. And it's fast forward to, I don't know how many years ago now, but our daughter now is working at CFRA in Ottawa. Oh, get out of here. I know. Isn't that great? And her boss is a guy who was my buddy when I was there. So CFRA, and she did not get her job there from me, through me. I want to say that right out there.

You have to say it though, because everybody will assume that once they hear. Yeah, nepotism. And that's exactly why she wanted to move out of Toronto was to start on her own, get a career of her own out of what she perceived to be my shadow. So CFRA, I was there for six months. When I got a call, I couldn't refuse. The news director from CKLW came to Ottawa, wined me and dined me, lobster and everything, and offered me morning news at CKLW. And I couldn't turn it down. This is a legendary station, right? This is the big eight. The big eight.

This is a big deal. It sure was. I had no idea. I was just told by the noses in the air that I worked with in Ottawa that it was a lunch bucket town. I wouldn't want to live in Windsor. I wouldn't enjoy it. Munchpucket Town. I wouldn't want to live in Windsor. I wouldn't enjoy it. But all that station, it was pretty amazing to do morning news there and then eventually become the first female co-host in the Detroit market a couple of years later. And got to be there when the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. 84? Yes, sir. I became such a Tigers fan. Lance Parrish, the whole nine yards. Okay. I actually have some exciting baseball stuff to play and discuss with you. I want to hear about baseball.

Except to say that in 84, I became a big Jays fan in 83. And 84 was the year the Tigers got off to that incredible start. I don't know, 45 and 5 or something? Something like that. It was unbelievable. I don't even remember. I can never remember how close we got. We were never in it, but we did finish second in the AL East.

Really? Yeah. See, I didn't, you know, my dad was a Jays fan. You guys had it locked up in July. Yeah, dad was a Jays fan. So I would, oh, it was a great little rivalry. My Tigers, his Jays. It was great.

Oh, I bet. Actually, recently, just sitting in that same seat, we had a fellow Rogers employee, Greg Brady. He used to work in Windsor and he became a big Tigers fan as well. Well, it's hard not to. I mean, even now with Detroit in the shape that it's in, the Tigers are still just last night. They beat, forget who they beat, but it was like 14 to 5 or 14 to 3 or something. They're an exciting team to watch and they always bring it at the end. Well, I remember the Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker years. Oh yeah.

Sweet Lou Whitaker. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Jack Morris. And those were some great broadcasters there. Ernie Harwell. Oh yeah.

He was great. Oh my gosh. Yeah. He was great. In fact, uh, I used to hear him sometimes over the air and next to my Tom Cheek. That was, uh, that was the guy. Yeah. Absolutely. He was fantastic. Uh, I have, I don't even know what you call this person, to hear him sometimes over the air and next to my tom cheek that was that was the guy yeah he was

he was fantastic uh i have i don't even know what you call this person but my brother's mother-in-law so i don't know if there's a term for that like your brother's mother-in-law maybe that's the term okay uh she used to listen to the big eight and i promised her that i'd uh get a shout out to fanny aaron davis to fanny becauseonny today is a big fan of yours. Oh, thank her for me. I know actually someone named Fonny. She works at Frida's, a store at King and Bathurst. And so, wow, there's another Fonny out there.

There's two of them. Wow. Two Fonny. So Fonny, I'll make sure somebody shows her how to listen to this podcast and then she can hear her shout out. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, even I can do it. I listened to talk to Barb barb de julio did you yeah okay so i love barb we we just she's we're such big fans of hers my husband and me and we just love her to death so

no she's great she's very nice person and she was always pleasant to hear on the air absolutely always pleasant yeah the real deal surprisingly good looking for a woman in radio. Oh, stop it. Oh my God. You know what he said, right? You need to say more things. So just get on that mic though, because these are like million dollar mics. I want you nice and close. No, the reason he said that you brat is because you said to barb only ugly chicks. Well, if you listen to that episode, okay. Yeah. If you listen to that episode, which you might not have heard by no errand it, I actually said, why didn't you ever get into TV? Because you have a face. I wondered that too. Yeah.

She is absolutely gorgeous. And she, but you know what? As she said, it wasn't that she didn't have the need to. She was happy. She did gun for that sports line spot co-hosting with Mark Hebshire. So she gunned for that and just missed out. She did a gambling show too. She did a, like, we followed her as much as we can.

She did some television, but people on radio shouldn't apologize for not doing television because radio is its own medium. It's a different, yeah. People just assume, you know, well, how come, when are you going to get into television? That's what I got when I was a lot younger too,

was that. And, you know, it's funny, the double standard though, if you get back to the ugly chicks in radio, because you look at most men in radio and you go, if you went to a sperm bank, you wouldn't pick one of them either. So what's important, I think,

is what comes through and what you do. So anyway, where were we? We were somewhere in Windsor. We're getting to, yeah, we're in Windsor, and I'm dying to get to Don Daynard. Yeah. Now, if there's something interesting before Don Daynard, don't be afraid to...

It's the husband. Okay, so this is in Windsor where you met this schlub here. No, he was a Sudbury and a Brantford boy. But 1984, CKLW went almost Music of Your Life. In fact, that is what they did. Oh, is that what they called it? That same tagline? Was it owned by the same company as CJCL?

That sounds like a trademark or something. It was Bayton that owned CKLW, I think. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know who owned the format, but it was a format that you could buy. Okay, yeah. You called it Music of Your Ex-wife or dad's wife or something. It was like, ugh. But anyway, so CKLW, they locked the doors.

They fired about 30 people. It made the evening news in Detroit. And when you're firing can make the news on TV, that's a – well, I did manage to repeat that later in my career. We'll get to that. That's for sure. It's not something you want to do. We'll get to that. It's not something you want to do.

So anyway, 1984, I packed my little bags right after the World Series, headed to Toronto and applied and got the job at CKO doing mornings and went through, I don't know how many co-hosts there, but CKO was, it was an interesting experiment in radio. Can you explain it to me? I don't remember it at all. Like, is it, is it, what's, what were all. What was the call letters? What was the channel? Well, it was 99.1. Okay, 99.1 is where CBC is today. Yes, it was CBC without the money and the people. Gotcha.

And let's see the resources and what else. But it was a network. And Rob was there. You were there before I was, or you came from NewsRad what was it how do you describe it it was a network of eight stations across the country and um most of it was network programming it was news talk it wasn't all news it was news talk uh and it because it wasn't local I think that was part of the reason it didn't do well right tried to serve so many masters I could see Toronto had a local morning show Vancouver had a local local morning show. Calgary and Edmonton shared one. Halifax carried, they did a network morning show. I mean, it was just kind of a mishmash. A cluster fluff in so many ways. John Gilbert was there doing a talk show. Remember Gibby from Chum? There were some really, really good people.

Robert Holliday. Robert, yeah. Yeah, really good people. Robert Holliday. Robert, yeah. Yeah, he was there. He was my boss. You were Aaron's boss at CKO. It was just something I fell into. I didn't know. He failed upwards. Yeah.

You've heard of the Peter Principle. This is the Robert Principle. I just, I rose to the level of my incompetence. He's one of the few humble people in radio too. But we met there and we married, we were engaged like how many weeks, three weeks after our first date. We just knew. Wow, that's fast.

Yeah. And now we've been married. Well, when you know, you know, like it's just like a light, like a switch, you know, this is the guy I want to be with for the rest of my life. Why bother waiting? Yeah. And he'd been married 10 years before that, so he was good and broken in.

Yeah, that's actually important. It is true. It is true, and I'd had plenty of relationships to find out that I knew what Mr. Wrong was like, and this was Mr. Right. So yeah, and then CKO, we both got out just a few months or a year or so. Less than a year.

Yeah, 1988, just before they pulled the plug on it in 89. And here's a kind of a neat story. August of 88, I got a phone call. I had left CKO. I was sick and tired of it. Went to Easy Rock, which was then owned by Redmond. It was, yeah, Easy 97. Yeah, 97. And I was working there. I decided to go back to my music roots and just play music, get out of news. And I got a call the same week from Taylor Parnaby. No, no, no. Yes.

From Taylor Parnaby at CFRB and from John Hinnan at CHFI. Both news directors, both asking me if I wanted to do morning news on Wally Crowder's show and Don Daynard's show. Legends. Yeah. Speaking of legends. Yeah. So I decided I wanted to go where I was going to have the most fun. And I chose CHFI and it ended up being just a great choice. Yeah. The Don Daynard CHFI. I mean, you guys had a lot of commercials. I noticed you had a commercial the other day, actually, because I never see commercials anymore for radio stations. And then I saw one like yesterday, I think it was. It's kind of neat. We still believe in it. Not as much as, you know, we spend our advertising in all different places. But, or our money actually goes more towards prizes and giving away, you know, the big bag of cash and that sort of thing. but we uh yeah don and i did a ton of commercials

and we had some great great times like we would go down to nashville to a place called film house okay and they would procure some of the the best names you know like from tv les nassman and uh herb tarlick and gilligan um uh terry gar gosh speak up if you're thinking, if you can remember anybody else. I missed there, Robbie. Oh, you said Les Nassman. Yeah. So it was fantastic. We had such a good time.

And I remember one of the gimmicks, I guess, was Don Daynard. It was Day Donnard? Day Donnard, yeah. He was trying to remember the call letters. I got to remember the call letters. Got to remember the call letters. That was when he first came to the station in 87. He came a year before I did.

And so that whole thing was, and then the polka dot shorts and all of that. So that kind of followed him along during his whole tenure there until 1999 when he retired. And he retires and Bob McGee takes his place. Yes. And it's you and Bob. Yes.

Okay. And something big in the world of Toronto radio happens because you are released of your duties. Can we say you were fired? What terminology do you like? Oh, sure. D-jobbed, fired, blown up. What else? Right-sized.

S-canned. Right-sized. You know, Mike, and I have to say this, and I know that our boss, Julie, has laughed at this as long as I have, too, that it turns out CHFI was going for a different audience. A smaller one. You know, I know Julie because she worked with Humble and Fred for a period of time early in the podcast where I was really involved and I would meet her at their studios all the time. She's fantastic. She seems like a very nice lady. She absolutely is.

She's a Tigers fan, too. She lives and breathes Tigers. Where are all these Tiger fans coming from? Come on. We've had a team since 77. Yeah, she was born and raised. Her dad was a huge Tigers fan. So what the hell happened?

Why the hell, pardon my French, but why did they say goodbye to such a successful one? Well, okay, there's a lot of things that happened that made it look like a good decision on paper, and I completely get that. Bob and I were not doing the same kind of numbers that Don and I had been doing. It didn't work out quite the way that we wanted to. It started in 1993 together, or I'm sorry, 99 together. So then we get to 2003 and they have just pulled the plug on Kiss, the morning show and the whole station. They pulled the plug on Kiss over at 92.5. There was

a point then. And so they had spent all this money promoting Mad Dog and Billy and Kiss and all this. So what do you do? You've got these 30 somethingsomethings, they've got a following, and your morning show is kind of starting to be a little bit, you know, still huge, but not as big as it was over on CHFI. So Julie gets promoted over to become program director at CHFI. And it seems like a great idea to say, okay, we've got Mad Dog and Billy, they're not doing anything. Let's move them over to CHFI. Bingo, bingo, you've got a hit morning show, a hit radio station. It's going to be fantastic. So I was the collateral damage in all of that.

I'd been there. I almost got my 15-year pin, which just about hurts as much as anything because I'm all rewards-oriented. It is tough to get that in radio anyway. It is. So there I was, June 14th of 2003, got the phone call, don't bother coming in. And Bob moved to afternoons because his contract didn't exclude him from other day parts. So he moved to afternoons and I feel so bad for him

because he's the one who had to sort of be the last man standing like, what happened to Aaron? Where's Aaron? Where's the morning show? So on and so forth. So that's what happened there. And they paid me for a year to do nothing. But Julie was gracious. So what's the rule there? Is it just in the market or can you leave the market? I offered to leave the market.

I said, look, if you pay for my move, pay for our cottage move, pay for the house move, move me out to BC. I will go and open a yarn barn and I will never come back to Toronto. To another Rogers station. No, never. I didn't even want to. I said, I will get out of radio. I don't care. And to my great relief in retrospect, Sandy Sanderson at the time said he was flabbergasted, which I think had to do with either the money that I wanted to get out of the market, which wasn't that much. I mean, it was just going to be, do you remember Rob?

Well, in truth, we asked for something a little more than that. There were retirement. Oh. Yeah. See, that was your job. Rob's always been the guy who takes care of me. You need a guy like that, though. Oh, God, do you ever.

This is why I'm still upright is because of this man. So we asked for a little more than they were willing to pay. Oh, okay. Well, anyway, happy ending. Okay, so there's one year where you're not allowed on the radio, basically. Right. And that's what you know is radio. So what do you do during this year?

You drink a lot. Your stomach eats itself. You worry. You think, what's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my family? What's going to happen to my career? Why did this happen to me? Poor me.

But you are getting paid. So for this one year, you're getting your paycheck. Yes, you are. And I even got a raise in there, which was great. It was crazy. But if you knew how it was going to end up,

oh, I'd have enjoyed it so much. Of course, of course, of course. But you're so anxious, I guess, about what's next. Like, what do you do next? Yeah, but a couple of things happened, though. I mean, I was let go in June, and in July,

the Toronto Star comes out with this story about it. And I answered, how many emails, Rob? There were... 2,000 initially. Initially. And then the Star Story came out and then... Another 2,000. Yeah.

I answered every single email. Good. And held on to everybody's address so I could tell them when I landed somewhere. So that all happened. And then the day the Star Story came out, I got a call from Ford Management, which is not the mayor. No. But it's like the modeling and that sort of thing. This guy wanted to know if I'd be interested in being in a musical.

Ross Petty puts on these pantos every year. And Ross had what? No, he was about television. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, two things happened. These details are important, Erin. Come on. I know. I'm so proud because this means that I've kind of moved on from that. Yay. I'm forgetting the details. Yes, that's right. He was asking if I would be interested in doing a live TV show

on W Network and every morning at 11 o'clock taking phone calls doing it across the country, having guests and stuff. And I said, yeah, okay. And then that same week, Ross Petty called and said, I'm doing this musical. Would you like to audition for Fairy Godmother? So that all happened. So I had a very, very busy year off. So you're doing this television show,

and that does not violate the non-compete. No. That's fair game. No, and Julie even let me go on CBC one afternoon. I was a guest and stuff. She was just as nice as she could be. And, um, there was never anything personal with her. And I'm so glad because when it was time to, to answer the call and say, do you want to come back? And, and for me to say, yes, I had always wanted to work for Julie Adam. I always had. And, um,

and so she turned out to be everything I wanted and more. So, okay, so you do go back to radio after a year. Was it like right after the year? It was like you had a deal in place and it's like you're just waiting for this calendar to kind of flip over and then now it's legal? Almost. Almost, yeah. I recall the day I heard Christine Cardoso at Easy Rock was pregnant. Someone emailed me and said, guess what? There's going to be an opening at Easy Rock.

And I thought, oh, no, no. I don't want to do that. I don't want to fill in for somebody. And also I'd had a chance earlier to work with Mike Cooper because he was approached and I was approached about us working together when Daynard left. And I thought, oh, this is, I'd been through all these co-hosts at CKO who had big voices and just nothing between their ears. And I've told Mike this, so I'm not telling tales. I just thought anybody who sounds that good is going to be just such an a-hole. And no, he, and then we did our first show together in about September, wasn't it? Well, whenever. It was right after Labor Day.

Right after Labor Day. It was a Tuesday after Labor Day. And I was sort of gently handed the position, Christine's chair, for a little bit. Five months. Yeah. And, oh, my God, the sparks between us right away. Oh, boy. Okay, so you had great chemistry with Mike Cooper on Easy Rock.

And Easy Rock, just so people know, that's not owned by Rogers. That's a competitor of the CHFI. It was standard. Easy Rock chased CHFI forever. And then when CHFI blew up the morning show, Easy Rock started to make more and more gains. And then when Mike and I teamed up, Easy Rock won.

They won for the first and only book. Very cool. So they did it. And meanwhile, meanwhile, back at the ranch, so back at CHFI, you've got Mad Dog and Billy.

Yeah. And you know, just Mad Dog and Billy, everybody in Toronto radio knows. I mean, they actually, I think they took over for Humble and Fred

when Humble and Fred got fired from, I could be wrong, but 99.9 when Humble, Fred gets fired and then Humble gets fired and then Mad Dog and Billy come in there,

I believe. Oh, that could be. I mean, that's their job. The mop-up crew, they come in when the legends are Yeah, geez. let go.

So what, I guess, what insight could you share? So Mad Dog and Billy are at CHFI. You're with Mike Cooper on Easy Rock. Right. And then something happens that never happens. Yes. Yeah, well, the numbers at CHFI just kept plummeting and plummeting and plummeting.

And they were losing millions of dollars. And it was because of loyal listeners who just, it maybe wasn't that they didn't like Mad Dog and Billy. I don't even know if they gave them a chance in all fairness to the two of them really, because obviously they were talented individuals or Julie wouldn't have, you know, banked on them the way that she did. But the, the fact was that the numbers were falling and somebody said, where are we going to find somebody like Aaron Davis? And it came up at a board meeting. Well, has anybody ever thought of asking Aaron Davis?

Yeah, I know somebody like that. I know a person just like Aaron Davis. So then Julie called me one day and I'll just... This was March of 05. March of 0, Oh God. This is March of 05. March of 05. Okay. This is my official historian here. Thanks Rob.

See, you know what? This is good because if you heard on the Barb to Julia episode, I was asking her questions about early days of the fan. She had to Google it. She had to take out her phone and Google it. Right. I was yelling at the podcast.

Mike Inglis, Mike Inglis. Yeah. Yeah. Mike Inglis. That's a good example. So this is good that we have the historian here. Yes, thank you.

Yeah, you're so handy, honey. And so, yeah, the phone call came and she said, would you consider coming back? And so we met for coffee. And first thing she did was apologize. And again, I'm not telling tales out of school. She told the same story to the Globe and Mail business when bosses make mistakes. And boy, she's amazing. Because this never happens. I can't think of another example like this. There might be one that you guys know, but where somebody is fired and then brought

back for the same position shortly thereafter. I can't think of it. It's rare. It's rare. It is rare. It happened to McCowan. But was he fired? Was he fired? Yeah. Yeah. Our contract. He was doing primetime sports.

Rob was his producer, by the way. This is how he knows. Miles Long was his name. Miles Long. Great name, by the way. Yeah, right. We were brought in to replace Mike Inglis on the morning show. And the program director changed,

and he wanted to bring in John Derringer. So after two years, Bob and I were let go. And less than a month after that, Dan Shulman, who was doing primetime, got offered this great gig at ESPN. So suddenly primetime sports opens up again. So they asked Bob back. So yes, it's happened. But it only happens at Roger's owned property.

Is that correct? They were telemedia then. That was telemedia at the time. Telemedia, right. Sorry. It was telemedia at the time. It's very rare. That's for sure.

It is rare. Okay. So you come back, but there's a deal. I guess Mike Cooper has a non-compete clause. It's not clean, right? And Cooper's 10 years older. But I said, it has to be Cooper. And I knew how good it was and how good it could be. So eventually it came to be. And it was so funny.

I tried to approach Mike about it without letting on what was exactly going on because, you know, we were expecting Christine to come back and everything was going to be as it was. Well, I, when we were out doing an event, reading books to kids at the zoo and, uh, I said to him, you know, I had the strangest dream that Julie called and asked me back. I said, wow, if I, if I went back, would, would you go with me? And he said, in a heartbeat. Oh, brilliant. So there it was. Well played. So yeah, we let them know in April or so that I was going back to CHFI, and then I was shown the door. Yeah, I guess, okay. Immediately. We'll stop promoting you now. That's right, yes.

And then Cooper had a six months, and they made him work every single day of it until the end of the go. And then he joined us the end of October, right? Yeah. Mike Cooper, I listened as a kid to CFTR 680. That was my go-to station. And Tom Rivers was like my morning show. But I heard a lot of Mike Cooper on CFTR through the 80s.

And he had the, I tweeted this at you earlier today, the 510 stupid joke of the day. Yes. Now, forgive me, I'm not a big CHFI listener. I hope that's all right. I noticed that your husband just stormed out of here. Yeah, that's all right. That's okay.

But I guess 510 stupid joke of the day, there hasn't been a morning equivalent. I guess that hasn't made it to the CHFI. There hasn't been, and he's been encouraged to do that. And he'll... Who's encouraging him to do that? Oh, the boss, for sure. I mean, everybody loves stuff like that, and everyone needs a laugh in the morning. Um,

so he'll, but he, he likes to sprinkle it in and not be predictable because he says now, you know, with the internet and with our more sensitive times, um, which is of course, accurate and appropriate that you just, there aren't that many jokes. And so I think he's afraid of hitting the wall. It's true. If you're going to avoid offending anyone, it's going to be a lot tougher to do a stupid joke. And he's afraid of that.

And I respect that. So once in a while, like today, I sprung one on him. I gave him the setup for the joke to say, okay, you tell me how this ends, just to see if he knew the joke. A sandwich walks into a bar and the bartender says, okay. And then we went to commercials because I can hook like that. I'm a hooker from way back. We'll be back with whether Mike got it. So he didn't Google, he thought it

out and he says, I'm sorry, we don't serve rye here. Ah, that was very good. I said I would give him that. The answer was, I'm sorry, we don't serve food, you know? So, and you know, that was very good. I said I would give him that. The answer was, I'm sorry, we don't serve food. You know, so. And, you know, that would probably be cheesy. But they're like dad jokes. Exactly. And you know what? There's room for cheesy, and here's why.

So that dads and kids and moms and kids can listen to CHY together, and nobody is, like, having to explain fellatio to the kid in the backseat. Oh, he's an Italian soccer player. You know what I mean yeah no you know that's a station when i think of chfi i think of a safe station right the kids can listen with you know grandma everybody can listen and you won't have to have any awkward conversations yeah and and we're we are loving our demographics and they are 25 to 54 and beyond and 18 to 54 and beyond. We aren't a demographic. We're a family reunion and it's just, it's, it's an honor and we take it very seriously and we like to try and be clever enough to try and do humor on a couple of levels. So if the

kids get it, if the parents get it great and if the kids don't even better, you know? Right, right, right. So there you go. And is it true i'm assuming that you uh target females primarily this is uh i don't know yeah is that fair uh it is um when when our sales staff look at the numbers the first numbers they look at are females 25 34 females 25 54 and 34 54 and men are are closely watched too because we will never never knowingly or purposefully get rid of male listeners. I mean, every set of ears is welcome. Cool. And now we have Mike Cooper and Aaron Davis on CHFI, where you remain to this day and doing very well. Oh, yes. Yeah, extremely well. Thank goodness. And just gaining and gaining and gaining. And that's what's so amazing. We're having the time of our lives. We really are. I would consider you like an early blogger.

Yes. You were blogging before any known personality that I can think of was blogging in the city. Was it? Jan Arden? Yes, Jan Arden, actually. She was one of my inspirations. In fact, she was my inspiration. And I started in March of 2003. Two months later, I was canned to talk about divine intervention. Because in radio, usually if you're let go, nobody knows where you are, and they won't tell you where that person has gone. But with my website, erindavis.com, I thought about CA and Bob McGee said,

no, make it.com because.com is what it is. So with that, people knew where to find me. It was unbelievably good timing and good luck and I've kept it up daily to this day.

I'm devoted to it. I was going to say, so what was it again? 03? What? Okay, because actually I started my blog as a blog in November 2002. Ah, so I beat you, Aaron.

Got it out of the wire. You did. But OK, you would write. My friend Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred, who you know, he got let go and he then started blogging heavily at his website, Canadian thinker dot com. Right. blogging heavily at his website, CanadianThinker.com. And he said that was basically saving his life almost because he had a place to

communicate with his fans and to share and you could kind of stay sharp. And your blog, it's like you call it your journal, I guess. I do, yeah. I didn't like the word blog when it came out. It's not an attractive word. Yeah, you scrape it off under the table or something.

But yeah, weblog, blog, journal. I call it a journal. It gets, gosh, how many readers? Now, this isn't just page views. This isn't hits. This is actual readers a day. Between 1,200 and 2,000 unique visitors a day. Yeah, very good.

So it's made it worthwhile because initially it was 35 readers. No, I remember those days. Why am I doing this? And he would say this. You're spending an hour and a half, two hours but little did I know that would kick the door open to me living on the internet for the rest of my career. Yeah, very good. Now, one thing

is I noticed you can't like access archives like unless I just didn't hunt long enough. You can only go back a year unless you know how to do it. Okay, so because what I like about blogs is like I like to go back. It's like a time machine.

What were people thinking and saying back in 2004? You can go back and say, okay, SARS was going on in Toronto. What's Aaron Davis saying about SARS? It's just things of that nature. And the power outage, we had the big 24-hour. Sure. Yeah, well, I started keeping a diary when I was about 12 years old. And I kept a nightly diary, one of those little five-year diaries, until about the year 2004.

I kept it for like 25 years or so. Wow. Until the journal just got the better of me. And I thought, dear God, how much can you write about yourself every day? Get over it. So I stopped. But I was dedicated to it. No, you were an early adopter.

Because a lot of people, up until I'd say like maybe 2006, until about then, I noticed people were sort of, yeah, what's the point of that? Like, what's that going to do? And some start and then it peters out. Most start and peter out. Right. If you don't do it every single day, that is my thinking anyway, or at least on a regular basis when people know when to find you and what to find, then they'll come and go, nah, this again, especially in this age of instant gratification.

Yeah, in the Twitter age and everything. Yeah, it's an hour ago, it seems like forever ago. Yes. Absolutely. So good stuff on the AaronDavis.com. People should check that out. And Toronto Mike too. Toronto is just, you are Toronto Mike. Yes, and I just, I got onto it because you had a little bit of a perspective on radio that is sorely missing to me anyway in the Toronto market. Well, I actually write about

it. So, you know, I think there's like a yellow board somewhere where people kind of complain that radio is not like it used to be. And then there, other than that, there's like, there's nothing else. Yeah, the Sony board has just undergone a facelift. Right, the Sony, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I've dropped by it every now and then,

but I posted back there back in the day when I was canned, and it was so mean and so violent. You know what? I can't read it because I even remember some of these names, but these people like Ziggy and these names of these people, they're just there to stir the S, and it's like, I don't have time. And it was so mean when I was already just so gutted that I...

That's the last thing you need. Yeah. Avoid places like that. Yeah, it's true. And yet we're masochists, so we look. Right. It's like I looked at the questions that you asked people. Oh, yeah, and I'm going to get to those.

But first, good. First, I must play something for you. Oh, a commercial. And discuss something with you. Yeah, there's a commercial. We must go to commercials now for you. Oh, a commercial. Yeah, there's a commercial. We must go to commercials now. Now, it's got a long intro here, I think. Yeah, so listen to the bass player.

That's Robbie. We did three albums for Sony when the Blue Jays were big. This was our band Generations, and this was approved by Chuck Berry. Here we go. Way down inside the sky on a sunny day Generations and this was approved by Chuck Berry. Here we go. You're a good singer. Thank you, Mike. I was a huge fan in 1990, 91, 92 guess that was like the era these albums i love them oh wow i love them and i still like if you

google most of these songs i promise you my site will be like one of the top few results because i i share a lot of them i'm sharing this one on the site somewhere i've got goosebumps it's just i don't looking back it's kind of like what the heck was that? Lightning in a Bottle or something? Because today, if you were putting out songs like this about the Jays, I think we'd all be too cool for school. That's cheesy. We'd get

out of here. But it worked for some... Maybe it was the right day. I don't know. Oh, we were so excited. It was our first time. It was so amazing. These guys, four of these guys are dead now who are on this song. They were our great, great friends. So remind me, you said it was, what year did you

say this was? This was 92. 92. So the band, it wasn't called the CHFI Lights. That's what we called ourselves for Sony. Here comes, listen to the bass, here comes guitar lead break Paul Morrison. We just did a gig with these guys about a month ago.

Wow. Do you still remember the words? You want to take it? I wrote it. I should remember, but I don't. I'm like. Oh, come on. I wrote it.

I wrote it myself. Listen to those lyrics. Great production. Oh, God, it was. And we were in the Sony studios. That was a little bit of something.

It was a hoot. Oh, my gosh. Thanks for that. That's so cool. Well, I've got one more little thing to play since I'm on the topic here.

Okay. Oh, boy. This was the week length. This is the weak link. We're not as proud of this effort? This is like Toy Story 2. But you know what?

No. Bad example. Because Toy Story 2 was amazing. Toy Story 3 was the best. All three were amazing. This is me on keyboards again here.

Stay in school, kids. Take your lessons. Oh, gosh. Nice long intros intros yeah the long intros aren't convenient for this i guess you couldn't foresee that podcast you'd be on in 2014 huh where the blue jays are winning all season long So who's doing background there? The Four Dead Guys. Who are the Four Dead Guys?

Is that the name of the band? Well, no, they could have been. One of them was Ted Kowalski, who was with the Diamonds. So Little Darling and all that. Some real pedigree there. Yep. Carl Moos is a very, very, very, very good friend of ours. And his widow still is

And she is like Lauren's surrogate grandmother So Carl Moese And then Jack Marsh And Bob Troughton Those were the guys Cool And then we were an 11-piece band We were a little bit of a deal then

Did Canada's Wonderland Did Cruises Did all kinds of stuff Okay, so I have these two in my collection. These are MP3s on my laptop here. And I Googled this the other day when I knew you were coming in, and they said there's three of these. So I'm missing one.

Which one am I missing? I'm a Jays fan. Okay, yeah. Yeah, we brought in Warrens for that one. Oh, yeah. Yep. I have to score that somewhere. I've got to dig that up.

I'll get you a copy. He knows people. I've got a hook up here absolutely it's good very convenient so what do you uh you mentioned you're a tigers fan but you're also a jays fan because i follow you on twitter and there's lots of great jays tweets yeah i gave up the tigers when i moved to toronto i mean who couldn't uh from 85 onward it was just so exciting yeah that's that decade like really you start in like 83 and you go through 93 like that's like oh man yeah i'm still like living back then like yeah you have to and i see your stanley cup pennant there well that's even i want to give you more money i want to donate to something else to get you over that mike oh man that's worse because i just see that like in black and white footage like i don't even have memories that's true we have a friend out in

bc vancouver canucks and whenever whenever they fail, we tweak them a bit. And he says, that's okay. At least my Stanley Cup memories are in color. Oh, shut up. Well, they are good, but they're finalists. They aren't champions. Oh, my goodness. No.

Not yet. Okay, so, Jays, I mean, I know we won last. I fell asleep. I know you have to wake up very early. But I fell asleep after the third inning last night. Yep. You probably fell asleep before the game started. Well, you know what? Like, what time do you have to wake up very early, but I fell asleep after the third inning last night. You probably fell asleep before the game started. Well, you know what?

What time do you go to bed? Well, it varies. Lately, it's been between 10 and 11 p.m., but we get two to three hours in the afternoon. Mike, I am giving up my nap for you today. Yeah, this is my beauty rest. I am honored. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's fun to do stuff like this, so I'm enjoying this.

I am. Good. Then I'm going to pepper you with questions from fans. All right, go. I'm ready. I'm just going to read them as they were written, so these are not for me, but Detlef wants to know, what did you learn from Don Daynard? I learned not to take myself too seriously. not to take myself too seriously.

He didn't. And some of the most magical moments we had were when he just, you know, would collapse in wheezing spasms of, of laughter. And people remember that most about him too, but they also remember how crabby he was. And that's another thing, you know,

nobody wants that in their morning, unless it's just part of who you are. And I think that's what endeared Don to everyone too, is that he was just, he was real. He was very real. Is that like a curmudgeonly persona? Yes, that's exactly right. Because you know, Bobcat does that well.

Oh, doesn't he? That's a Bobcat thing. Yeah, do the Bobcat, the bear cat. Yeah, and there's a place for it. And he played it very well. And how is he doing these days? Do you know? He's, oh gosh, he's going to turn 80 in October.

Right. And I remember that because he's one year younger than my dad, who is also Don. So there was a Don and Aaron before there was a Don and Aaron. He's living outside of the city and has done a really good job of disconnecting himself entirely from just about everybody in radio and the industry itself, including listeners and fans and stuff. He just wanted to step away, and he did it completely. And here's a loaded question for you. Totally loaded and unfair, but somebody wants to know

if you could only pick one co-host, Don Daynard or Mike Cooper. Wow. Remember, it's not for me. This is actually anonymous. They were afraid to even put the real name. I know, I know. There's a couple of anonymous ones there. Yeah, I looked.

Oh, Mike Cooper. Mike Cooper. Because he makes me happy and smile and laugh every single day. And I am so grateful. And he thinks I'm hot. So, I mean, you've got to bless those low standards. Come on. You can't.

I actually think that's the only acceptable answer to that question. You have to say the guy you got to see tomorrow morning, the guy you got to work with tomorrow morning. That's the only acceptable answer. It is, but you know what? If I couldn't give it honestly, I would say I'd rather not answer that. That's true. Honestly, I would. It's a loaded question to begin with. Sure, why not?

You have to thank, sorry, you have to thank Daynard because he gave Aaron the chance to be Aaron. Absolutely. He had a generosity of spirit that we didn't expect. Yeah. And he opened his show and let Aaron in. And if he hadn't done that, none of this would have happened.

Yeah, because the Lone Ranger might have had Tonto, but he sure did not have a female sidekick. And, you know, Daynard was completely from another generation, but it was our differences, gender, age, everything, viewpoint that made it work. It was the differences in our case that really made us work. Well, that's a good segue, because the next question asks about breaking into this male-dominated industry. And you kind of alluded to this earlier, but they just want to know how you did it. But we did cover your history there, but it must have been tough. Was it tough?

Have you seen me? I did it with T&A, talent and ambition. Nice. Thank you. I thought of that in the shower today while I was looking at my spectacular body. No, how did I do it? It was a combination of a lot of things, just blind ambition. I was raised in a household that was female dominant. My mother raised us a lot of the time because my dad was off being an Air Force officer and flying and saving the world for the armed forces. So no brothers, four girls, and there were no double standards.

I didn't know what I couldn't do. Except that. What did your mom say when you said you wanted to get into radio? Why would you want to go and just do the stork reports and recipes on the radio? Because that's what women on the radio did in Belleville.

They announced that babies were born. Stork reports. You don't hear stork reports in Toronto. I know, but I will happily do baby Jarvis's at any time. Oh, good. Three months ago. That's right. Three months today.

Yes. So, yeah, that was mom's reaction. How did I break in? I was thinking about this, you know. You didn't know any better. I didn't. And at CKLW, you know, the guys in the newsroom, I learned to swear there. I didn't swear in high school.

I didn't swear. And now, oh, my the newsroom, I learned to swear there. I didn't swear in high school. I didn't swear. And now, oh, my gosh. Oh, boy. But I learned to swear there in the newsroom. Thanks, Dick Hildebrand. And they took me to a strip club. I went to a strip club one day, and I went just because I felt like I had to be one of the boys. There was a general manager who called me the C word.

He's dead now. Because you killed him. Oh, no. Oh, geez. No, I didn't even know then to be flabbergasted. I didn't know. There were just a lot of so, so many double standards. And eventually, you know, you live, you learn. There was a lot, you know, even when Daynard left and they wouldn't put my name first in the show. And I thought, you know, this was the right thing to not fight about because somebody and Aaron still sounded smooth enough that listeners might go, yeah, okay, it's the same show. We'll like him. We'll like Bob and Aaron.

And I had earned my stripes by then. And they didn't see that. So eventually I got those stripes. Rob, and they didn't see that. So eventually, I got those stripes. Rob, you wanted to say something before. You wanted to chime in there. You were blessed with good timing. Oh, God, that was the other thing. That was the main tea.

Thank goodness Rob is here. I know. Timing. One, two, three. Timing. Yeah, that's right. Timing, because it was just at this moment in radio that they were starting to see that men and women together made for good combinations in the morning.

Good chemistry and good rapport, yeah, absolutely. And why should we only hear what a man thinks of anything going on? It's like Barb DiGiulio said, people love the he said, she said sides of things. It was wonderful. And Rick C. in Oakville wanted to find out if you were taken by surprise at the support your fans offered when you were let go. We were flabbergasted.

There's that word again. Yes. Oh, God, yes. I had no idea. I really thought that this was the end of me. I don't know. My name was always preceded by the letter CHFI. I didn't know who I was, what I was going to do.

And then all of these letters of support and people who voiced their anger. And more importantly, I guess, in my case, made their anger known by going away. It was like a hive of a big cloud of bees went from this station to this station. And you could see the numbers change. And that doesn't happen. There's, you know. Numbers speak volumes in this business. Yeah, it's true, and you just never get to see that.

And two, it's credit. CHFI on its website at that time had a bulletin board, and the listeners were posting their upset over Aaron being let go. They weren't moderating it? It was mind-boggling. Well, if they were moderating it, it was hands-off. They were letting it happen. And that's how the Toronto Star became aware of the situation,

was all of these, I believe, thousands of posts, angry posts on the CHFI website that Aaron had been let go. And the Star said, what? What's going on here? I would read them and cry. Yeah. So the headline of that star article

was angry fans soothe jilted Davis. I mean, and it was the angry fans posting on chfi.com. It was just astonishing. Yeah. Today they scrub those out

before they see the light of day. You would think. Sure. Or you'd go on Twitter and Facebook and whatever and it would just disappear into the ether. Well, I know this because today i'm your go-to guy when your favorite

radio person is let go like you end up on my site leaving a comment because i don't scrub any of the comments and it happened with humble howard in 06 and it happened with uh todd shapiro well yeah well shapiro and jason particularly, like just thousands, hundreds and hundreds of people like missing them and wondering where the hell they are. Sure. Yeah, it happens there now. Yeah, well, good. Good for you for doing that. That's my role in this world. You are.

Help the radio people. I was amazed to hear that you actually hadn't done radio. Oh, no. Have you heard my voice the last hour? Come on. No, but how did you get doing this? I'm an eat marketing guy digital marketing so i'm this because in 06 or so when humble and fred uh had no radio station they decided let's try this internet thing and i was the digital producer the back end guy like writes the xml puts it on itunes does all the digital part and they would record the audio and then hand it over. So that's basically how you get

here. There you go. Thank you. I wanted to know. Sammy wants to know if you'd ever do talk radio. That's a good question. You know what? I would, I'm so lucky. CHFI lets me say and think everything that I think as long as I can back it up. Julie is there. She will back us up no matter what. Would you assume, let me take a real life example. Let's say you didn't like something Rob Ford said today. Oh, okay. You mean everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Today they did a standing ovation for the World Pride effort in Toronto. Everyone stood up and clapped. And he obviously would not stand up or clap. And he's sitting there all alone,

like refusing to acknowledge the efforts for World Pride. The equivalent of a three-year-old holding his breath. Exactly. So when you're on CHFI, how would you say something about how disappointed you were in that or how embarrassing that was for the city? Absolutely. Or as Rob would say, absolutely. Since this whole thing broke open a year ago,

I have been biting my tongue because I do believe our place is to reflect our listenership and not to, not to offend them. And there are, have been some loyal, loyal members of what they call Ford Nation, because everything has to have a nation these days, who are standing by him, even though he has unveiled, you know, layer by layer by layer, this rotten onion of misogyny and racism and sexism and lying. And homophobia. Homophobia, let's not forget that. And just lies, lies, lies. And, you know, goes to rehab.

Okay, let's make this better. And then comes out the exact same person, to my mind, that went in. I agree. I know, only God can judge. I am just saying that as a taxpayer, we deserve more. And that's all he talks about is the taxpayers. We're not humans, we're taxpayers a taxpayer, we deserve more. And that's all he talks about is the taxpayers. We're not humans. We're taxpayers.

And so we deserve more. And it infuriates me. It offends my sense of fairness and justice and my love for this city that I've called home since 1984, that there are people who only care about their tax bills. They only care what those umbrellas cost at Sugar Beach. I know. And then when he says, well, you can't even see Sugar Beach, well, that's because the condos are there. And get out of your car and walk to the beach.

He doesn't even know where Sugar Beach is. He doesn't. He probably thought it was a drug hangout. He knows the price of everything, the value of nothing. It's exactly true. Now, would we get this involved in the show? Yeah, so this is what I'm asking.

I guess that's where I'm going. So I have to, even believe it or not, I have to suppress my rage on Toronto Mike I can't inside I want to write an entry every day about the stupid crap coming out of Rob and Doug's mouth and why we deserve so much better but even I I would get bored having this so I try to I try to restrain myself yes and and you're smart to do that because you know it just it is how long can we just keep... So you must bite your tongue a lot on the radio. But what's interesting is that Mike voted for him.

And Mike comes out and says, you know, I voted for the idiot. I feel so bad. So we have that side. And now he can do it as someone who has seen the light. And, you know, I just'm i'm out of words and poor rob he's just he just even today told me okay i really don't need to know what doug ford said today because it's just it's eating me up and i don't know what it is you know it's really but i don't know either something about it really strikes a chord in me that just it's just it's dividing our city it's so divisive it's so

divisive and people are saying well if you support if you don't support him uh then you don't have a job obviously and now the shirtless protester thing i'm not in favor of the shirtless horde i thought this was going to be good but it makes him look like a victim and we don't want that i'm at a point now where i think you've got a 25% that will believe anything. I call it the crazification factor, okay? You can find 25% of Americans who believe the sun revolves around the earth. Right.

This is a fact. Right. There's 25% of people who will believe anything and will vote for anything. Right. And I think we're stuck at, I think that there's that 25, we just have to accept that there's 25% of people

who are either crazy or want to watch the world burn and we can't like, we should not be afraid to express our feelings and share this common sense because of that 25%. Like we can't be afraid of that 25%.

That's very logical. It's just going to be there. He can murder a man at City Hall tomorrow for no good reason and that 25 will vote for Rob Ford. Well, like there's a good reason. Yeah. No no good reason, and that 25 will vote for Rob Ford. Well, there's a good reason.

No, but I know, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. What does it take? He's in gatherings with people who he has directly maligned in terms of racist comments. I'm telling you, Mike, and you know this because I've said it before. I said it on the Humble and Fred podcast. I used to drown my sorrows in gray goose pretty well oh that's the next question okay okay i never got drunk enough to say something about someone that i never it doesn't make you homophobic it doesn't make you racist it'd be no veritas yes that is what's in your

heart or in your soul is going to come out of your mouth. If it's not there to begin with, there's no way that it can. Right. And him not standing today, being the only one, like a baby in the corner, like that, was he drunk? Like, yes. Okay. You know what? No more Rob Ford.

Can we? Our blood pressure suffers. But the next, yeah, I don't want you to hit the bottle because the next question says that you discussed your move to sobriety on the Humble and Fred podcast yeah and the question so this person it's i can boo i don't think that's a real name but uh they made the same decision to uh i don't know if i'm reading it right but they made the same to say you've read this already you know what i'm asking but uh they want to know about the change like what what did you notice different when you stopped drinking? Wow.

Um, the evenings are harder. The mornings are better. I can tell you that for sure. So how long has it been for those who haven't heard the Humble and Fred podcast? Eight years. July the 4th, 2000. So eight years of nothing or just eight years of not getting hammered? So you won't even have like on a hot day, you won't have like some sangria or whatever? Okay.

No. Just no more. No. And it's a decision I made and i didn't do a program i read a wonderful wonderful book called the thinking person's guide to sobriety uh if anybody wants to look it up i have no idea if it's in print anywhere i just it was one day one of those things left on a table in the lunchroom at the radio station um long before i was fired or anything like that. And before anyone makes a correlation between drinking and being fired, I will tell you that I was an extremely high-functioning drinker.

Was I an alcoholic? I don't know. If you go through the list of things that say, are you an alcoholic, I'd probably say pretty close. But you weren't late for appointments or work. No, no, no. You weren't missing days. Never, never, ever. Functional. Yeah, there's a lot of high-functioning alcoholics.

Especially in this business. I did it because I was just raw from so many years of hurting and being oversensitive and all of the things. Plus, once you get good at drinking, you get better at it. I was really good at it.

I just thought, you know what? Okay, I've conquered this. Let's try something else. That's excellent. Eight years ago you decide that's it. And I was really good at it. So I just thought, you know what? Okay, I've conquered this. Let's, uh, let's try something else. So that's excellent. So eight years ago, you decide that's it. And you, is it hard? Yes. It wasn't my first time. I had quit just before I got canned, but then I saw that as a really good excuse. Well, that is a good excuse. It really is. If you're going to drown your sorrows, you might as well. Um, and then I just realized it was hurting me a lot more than helping me. And I didn't have my, I don't think I ended up with my, what do they call it? The bottom, the bottom, like when you hit ground. The bottom. The bottom. Okay. I don't know if I actually did that, but this book also points out that everybody's ground floor is different. Right.

You don't have to wake up in a ditch somewhere and not know where you are. Exactly. Exactly. So it just turned out to be the best thing that I could do for me. Very good. Yeah. Aurora Bob wants to know about CKO Radio, but we definitely covered that. And you were sleeping with your boss at CKO Radio.

I know. It's so tawdry. Which is scandalous. Right? Did he sleep with all his employees? Pretty much. Just one. There was one other. Is that what he told you?

No, there was one other, and she is a lovely woman, and we are friends to this day. But that other was before you? No, it was about the same time. Oh, yeah. They kind of crossed over. There was a slight crossing over, and it caused Rob a great deal of trouble. And did you know about the other when this crossover was happening? Were you aware, or did you find out later? She had stepped out of the picture to kind of figure out

if this was going to be the man she wanted to spend her life with. And while she was gone, I had these free tickets. Well, I'd done a commercial for a restaurant, so I had a free meal. I had free tickets to Second City. Is this not a radio story? Freebies! And that night wasn't supposed to be a date. Turned into one and that was it.

Got down on his knee. She got her release notice or whatever on that front anyway. Well, yeah, they kind of got back together for a little bit and it was just not to be. So that's how it ended up with Rob and me all these years later. And you guys are happy, obviously. He still drives you about. It's good days, bad days. Yes, no, we are nauseatingly happy, as a matter of fact.

Oh, last question from a guy I know personally who helped me set up my audio. His name's Andrew Stokely, and he does the audio for Jay's games you hear on Sportsnet. Like when you hear the ball hit the glove, it's because he's doing that mic work or mixing or whatever the heck audio people do. His wife used to work with you. I don't remember her maiden name, but her name is Carrie.

Carrie something German. Can I call her Carrie something German? Yes, blonde hair, petite. She worked in promotions. Carrie, oh, oh, oh, oh. Did it start with an s you know what this terrible i know her new last name which starts with an s stokely but i know that she went by a different name back then and it was german because i guessed it was german when he told

me the name which i can't remember okay but she yeah she's like she's with ford canada now not the modeling agency or the mayor so So the question he had is, ask Erin about all her fancy costumes from the Don Daynard oldies dances and your awesome guitar case find. I don't know what the guitar case find. Oh yeah, you read this earlier and you have no idea what we're talking about.

No, I don't. That was during the drinking period. No. Oh God, no. The costumes were great. I had poodle skirts and crinolines and all kinds of neat stuff. And one year I dressed up as,

oh, come on, with the beehive, the blonde beehive. She died to Dusty Springfield. Blue-eyed soul. Yeah. I just don't remember the guitar case story. That's okay. I'll find out more details and email it to you. I'm dying to know that.

Oh, Carrie. And how's Bob McGee doing? Do we know how Bob's doing? I hear him on commercials all the time. He's doing a lot of voiceover work. And I run into him rarely but occasionally at the radio station when he comes in to do some stuff, especially for 680. He seems to be doing just great. He's always been just so good at, you know, being comfortable in his own skin and whatever it is that he wants to do. He's just a great guy. I didn't know Bob well, but I did a little research because I need to know a little bit

about Bob. And I found out he was married to Jeannie Becker. Yes, he was. That's a huge Toronto factoid. Yes, it sure is. And I was working with him at the time that her book about her life came out. And I was surprised that he didn't read the chapters about him. He didn't? No, he said he didn't. How does he resist? How do you resist? I know he said, I don't need to. I lived it. And even if that's not true, that's a darn good line. That's true. Okay, so that's all the questions. And if there's anything else you have, I was just going to let you know I don't like black licorice.

I saw some tweets about black licorice. Oh my God, black licorice ice cream. I hate it. I can't do it. That's okay. The world has to have more than one kind. I mean, he's the red licorice guy. Yeah, red's great.

It's the black. That taste is terrible. It's awesome. And you love it, right? I like it. It's dark like my soul. You were doing great till right now. Disappointing. I'm going for Sambuca. Thanks, Mike. No.

Any final thoughts before I play out? Anything for the Toronto Mike faithful? Okay. Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise. There you go. Words of wisdom from Aaron Davis. And that brings us to the end of our 84th show.

You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto, Mike and Aaron at C H F I Aaron. See you all next week.