Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - from Marsden URGENT: Toronto Mike'd #1444

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Hi Mike - it seems things can change at the blink of an eye... Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

From the spirit of radio CFNY FM 102.1 you're listening to the David Marsden Radio Show. What? From the spirit of radio CFNY FM. Quick get your hair proved. You're listening to the David Marston radio program. Well, hello everybody. What the hell are you doing tonight? Everything okay? Alright.

Won't you come along with me and join my crowd? We are an elite group here in Vacuumland. Step outside Do you mind if we step outside here, you and I? We could perhaps go out behind the barn and... You never know, you never know. What? Oh, that's not, you never know. What? Oh, that's not that thing at all. What is this?

My God, I mean there for a moment, just for a fleeting moment, just for a fleeting moment, I thought I was at the original album station. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha side and be really creative however I mean you know you can't overwork a good thing so hello to you this is Marsden on the radio CF NYFM is the radio you know as we gather together amongst the briar patches of our minds and sit in the phantom speaker of your nose. Now, what the hell are we gonna do tonight?

I've got some things to do tonight, I'll tell you that. One of which is this. On Wednesday, or call 923-4433 and charge it. A CPI production. The Clash in County, it is a CFNYFM presentation. In the on sale everywhere. Now, I hope that, I hope you're feeling as good as I'm feeling tonight Looks like it's gonna be a nice Thursday evening as we spend it together here you and I some of our friends

I hope you brought along some new ones Marsden CFNYFM and you Welcome to episode 1444 of Toronto Mic'd! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Toronto Maple Leafs baseball.

The best baseball in the city, outside the dome, with 8 championships since 1967. Recycle MyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success, and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Over nine years ago, David Marsden visited my home studio and chatted with me for almost

two hours. It was episode 106 of Toronto Miked, and I'll never forget it. Here's the description I wrote at the time. In this 106th episode, Mike chats with broadcasting legend David Marsden about his years as David Mickey, his time at Chum FM, the spirit of radio days at CFNY, his years at Iceberg and The Rock, and his latest venture, NYTheSpirit.com. Tears are shed. This episode is exactly 1 hour 45 minutes and 39 seconds. Periodically over the past nine years David would message me on Facebook. He asked me to share a presentation he gave at the Toronto Reference Library and you can find that audio in the Toronto Mic'd feed. He'd often tell me how keen he was to return for another chat. As you can imagine, I was just as

keen for that convo. There was a message about how he'd love to come to TMLX14 at Palmer's Kitchen, but it was a show day and he rarely gets up before 1 p.m. There was a great desire to visit me in early 2024, but his difficult bout with COVID left him with some lingering symptoms that he wanted to shake before visiting. Then, to coincide with his 84th birthday on March 2, 2024, David Marsden was locked and loaded to visit me today, March 5, at 2 p.m. to be precise. My first inkling things weren't going great for David was this Facebook post from him on March 3rd. Unfortunately, I spent most of my birthday in the hospital.

Big thanks to all at Western Hospital and Toronto General. I'm still here, and I hope to be here for many more years. Then, yesterday morning, an email from David was in my inbox. The subject line read, From Marsden, urgent. And urgent was in all caps. Hi, Mike. It seems things can change at the blink of an eye. I've been in the hospital for the past few days. It started as an ambulance ride with sirens and all that emergency thing.

After much research, I was taken into the operating room for an emergency coronary angiogram. It was kind of scary. I am now home but limited to what I can do. After waiting for a long period of time, I am frustrated to have to move the date for our chat once again. In these circumstances, I can't forecast a future date at this time. With apologies, D. I told David to take care of himself, to look after his health, and that I'm here when he's ready.

Let's take a moment to think of David and what he's meant to many of us while we revisit highlights from episode one hundred and six recorded in January twenty fifteen. I recently, in fact, last episode I had May Potts in here. Yes, I know. I listened to some of that actually yesterday. She's got a great voice. You got a great voice yourself, but May Potts, that voice just... I heard you talking about her voice and how it's one of the more distinctive ones. I just could play that. She could read the phone book and I would enjoy it. Well, I don't know.

Should we go further with that? Yeah. She told a little story about how you gave her some advice regarding being a character. You said to be yourself. Yeah. Because you had been a character. Yeah.

And then I did some reading, because this is before my time, but you were David Mickey. I was. Tell me a bit about David Mickey, if you don't mind, just to kick things off. I don't know what to tell you. It was something I invented

when I was at CHLO in St. Thomas. And I was, I don't know, 19 years old or something. And I really enjoyed, I really, this was long before FM ever existed. I really enjoyed a guy out of Chicago by the name of Dick Biondi, who is still on the air. I think he's 98 years old. Wow.

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

promo guy tuned in and heard me and called me and said, you know, would you like to be into Toronto radio? And as I said, I'm like 19 years old. And I said, yeah, well, I wouldn't. Anyway, the next thing, his name was Walt Greeles. I don't know if you know him or not. No, no. He owned a magazine called RPM. Oh, yes, of course.

He's left us now, but two weeks later, I got a call from Gene Kirby, who was the program director at CKEY. And he said, I'd like to come down and see you. Actually, it took three calls before I talked to him, because I actually, I had talked a lot in the radio station at St. Thomas about, you know, where I wanted to go and I wanted to work at CKEY. The first two messages I saw on my little pink slip called Gene Kirby and I thought they were just shitting me.

Yeah, yeah, they were gagging you. Yeah. And so it happened three days in a row and finally on the third day I called him and he said I'd like to come and see you. Two weeks later I was working for CKEY. There's a quote I read about you on CKEY in Toronto and it goes like this. It said you were the most controversial thing on Toronto radio. Oh, I don't know. Could that possibly be? I don't know.

It says I want to understand the difference between David Marsden and David Mickey. Well, I don't know. I think I'll tell you how I see it. Dave Mickey was a character, but it came out of my little brain. He ended up on network television for seven years and it was a pretty burned-out situation. I had two TV shows going at the same time. One out of Hamilton called Mickey A-Go-Go and one out of Toronto called Music Hop which went CBC full net. And that's the one where you took over for

Alex Trebek. That is correct. Cool little factoid right there. Well, Alex and I shared the duties for the first year. And he's a really boring fellow, by the way. Is that right? Uh huh. Uh huh. Did he have a mustache back then?

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

And oh gosh, nothing happened. And about two months later, I went to get my mail one day and there was a huge eight by 10 kind of envelope. And it just, it said Jeopardy in the corner. And I thought, oh, Alex is getting back to me. Isn't this cool? So I opened it up and there inside Was an autographed 8x10 picture of Alex. That's funny. Yeah, I treasure it That's a good story. Oh, but back to CKUIs. So what would make you the most controversial thing on Toronto radio?

700 words a minute and It was just no one ever heard anything like that. At that point in Toronto or Canadian radio, DJs were introducing, you know, Elvis Presley. And I just thought that sounded silly. So I really toned the presentation to the music. And if you're going to introduce the Four Seasons, you better do it with some kind of dynamic. Gotcha.

And so I don't know what was, Mr. Marshall McLuhan wrote about it in his book Understanding Media, which of course I'm very thrilled about. I was always thrilled. Absolutely. I didn't, you know, the funny thing about that, I'll tell you a quick story, is I had been talking with WABC in New York about going there,

and I had three different meetings with Rick Sklar, who was the program director at WABC, and the third meeting I walked into his office, and he kind of leaped out of his chair and he said, you're in the book. And I didn't know what he was talking about. And I said, okay. And he said, no, no, you are in the book.

And I finally said, what book are you talking about, Mr. Schlar? And he reached into his desk drawer and he pulled out Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. And of course at that time, that was the Bible. Yes. But I didn't know that. I'm just a DJ. You're in there. And so I kind of played along.

And then the next thing I knew, he was bringing everybody in to meet this guy who was in the book. Awesome. Yeah. Subsequently, I've become pals with Mr. McClough and sons and I was invited to speak at his hundredth birthday celebration. Cool. Yeah. I remember his cameo in Annie Hall. Right. That's my memories of Marshall McLuhan. Well, he really became a giant, an absolute giant. And you're in the book. In the media, and apparently I'm in the book.

That's awesome. So at what point did you decide to take David Mickey out back and shoot him and just be David Marsden? Well, I did the Dave Mickey thing, it lasted, I guess guess a total of what, six or seven, eight years and then it kind of, I was burned out. I was absolutely burned out. And so I just stopped. And I sat still for a year or so and considered where I was and what I'd just been through and the craziness of that. Because it isn't that way for DJs anymore,

but I couldn't walk on the streets, I couldn't go for dinner unless I had my security with me and all this sort of nonsense. And so at the end of it all, I decided I would go to Montreal and CKGM in Montreal hired me. And before they did that, the president of the company said, well, you can't be Dave Mickey because we're not a rock and roll station. So you have to change your name and be somebody else

because we don't want people to think we're going to change format. And I said fine. And I picked the name Marsden, primarily because it's my real mother, it was her married name, but I didn't know how to spell it. I spelled it wrong.

Oh really? Yeah. And, because I never, I really never knew my real parents, but I just picked it out of the air, and we walked right into the hall, and Don Wall, who was the president, he calls some people, this is Dave Mickey, sorry, this is David Micky,

sorry, this is David Marsden. And one of his people said, Don, could I see you for a minute? And took him off in the corner and I could see the two of them, they were kind of whispering and carrying on. And then Don Wall just suddenly broke up in hilarious laughter,

looked over to my direction and said, John thinks you're not really David Marsden, he thinks you're Dave Mickey. So the secret lasted all of about two minutes. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. I had no idea till right now that Marsden wasn't your actual last name. Oh, yeah. Well, it certainly is now. Sure, of course. You've assumed it, because that is you. So David Marsden, it's not a character you put on.

This is actually it. Oh, that's, well, as I said, it's a name I just pulled out of the air. Right. Primarily, I needed a name and I came up with one. So it's David Marsden who comes to Chum FM. At the CKGM, eventually, I crossed from the AM to the FM. And at that time, whenever that was, late 60s, 68, 69 I guess,

FM was nothing. It was for old ladies. And the only way you could hear it was on an FM tuner and they were usually about the size of a Volkswagen. Wow. And, you know, they sat in the living room and they were a lovely piece of furniture and they opened a lid and that's how you turn radio on. And built-in speakers and all the rest of it. And so FM really wasn't that big a deal when it first started because young people

just like, well, what's FM, you know? I remember when I crossed over from AM to FM, all of the folks in the AM station at CKGM AM told me how crazy I was. There's no money there, nobody listens, you can't even get a car, there's no FM in cars, blah, blah, blah. But I was fascinated by the free form of the music. It was totally, you could do whatever you want. CKGM FM was quite extreme in its beginnings.

A DJ, when you're on the air, if it wasn't working and the mixes weren't right, etc., etc., etc., you could open the mic and say that you weren't feeling like doing it today, and I'm going home and the next guy will be in in two and a half hours. You know, this is a constant throughout your career. And as we kind of walk through it, but kind of being on the leading edge, the bleeding edge, maybe even, you know, just a visionary that sort of what's next and kind of go in there. I don't know.

For better or worse. Well, I just follow my heart. It's not a bad. It's not a bad idea when when in doubt, follow your heart. I mean, to me, the reason I, I suppose the reason I crossed over probably was the music. Because I would go home and listen to early Floyd and all that kind of stuff, which AM of course wouldn't touch. And then I would go to my AM radio job and I would play the Fifth Dimension or something.

So the whole concept, it was just I love that music and it would be nice to be able to share it. And FM came along and made it possible to share it. And so I've kind of always felt that it's all about sharing the music and sharing ideas. along and made it possible to share it. It's all about sharing the music and sharing ideas. So how do you end up on Chum FM? And this is early 70s, like 73 maybe? I have trouble with the memory. That all came about actually Chum Radio had attempted to buy the radio stations from Mr.

Sterling, CKGM, AMNFM and a few other Windsor and a couple other radio stations. And so they had come in and they were sub managing while they were waiting for the CRTC to approve. So I had the opportunity to meet some people, Fried-Chietret and others like that through this connection. And then Chum was not successful in buying the radio stations so they pulled out. And I guess it was, I don't know, an extra number of months later that there was a lot going on in Montreal at that time. It was the period for the FHELC I don't know, extra number of months later, there was a lot going on in Montreal at that time. It was the period for the FLQ.

And it was very dangerous and you couldn't walk on the streets because the mailboxes were blowing up. And the radio station, I was, CKGM was an English radio station located on Green Avenue in Westmount. So it was constantly a target for the FLQ people. We used to have to run, we used to all have to leave the radio station about once every week to every two weeks because of bomb threats. So I decided I wanted to get back to Toronto where I was born and I picked up the phone

and called Bob Lane at Chum FM and we met and I got, I started there as a swing announcer actually. Cool. Yeah. And so you were there a couple of years. What was it like at Chum FM at that time? It was wonderful. I mean, the Chem FM was an amazing situation because you had, you had, Beaton Geets were there, you had

Tim Thomas was there, Jim Bauer was there, John Donobie was there, Larry Green was there, and Benji Karsh was the music director. And there was a library, huge room, thousands and thousands of albums. And you picked from those albums what you wanted to play. No one ever told you what to play. That's a key detail because I was talking to Scott Turner recently. And he was talking about, and we'll get to this soon, obviously, but the days of CF&Y when you were there, and he talked about a purple dot system,

and he gave some great detail on, but it sounded like you had this amazing, as a DJ, you had the ability to play a song because you liked it, not because it was on some kind of playlist that you're married to. Well, I left Drum FM for that very reason, and I had some wonderful, I had very, very wonderful years at 1331 Young, it was wonderful.

Bob Lane was one of the finest managers I ever worked for. I learned so much from him and I had the opportunity toward the end of his life to be able to sit down and tell him thank you. The whole thing really was that, yes, there was a mild formula that you followed, but within that formula, there were literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of albums.

Lots of leeway. So I left when they came to me one day and I came in to do my show. I was doing six to ten, I guess. And the new program director said, this is your playlist. And I said, what's a playlist? Yeah, great. And he's, well, this is, these are the songs you're gonna play tonight. Really?

I don't think I'm going to do that, I said. And he said, well, you have to do that. And I said, no, I think I have to resign. Wow. And I did. And then I guess they allowed me to stay on the air for the two following weeks and we had a lovely big sign off and it was exciting. I don't know how many hundreds of people showed up on Yonge Street on the night that I was

finishing. I had a thing called a brown paper bag. Everything I would give away was always in a brown paper bag. And no one ever knew what was in the brown paper bags, except me. Sometimes it would be a head of lettuce, avocados. I loved the word avocado.

It's a nice word. So I would sometimes just put avocados in the brown paper bag, and then other times it would be front row seats to see Pink Floyd. Wow. So during the last week that I was on the air at Chum FM, the folks, people are so kind, that literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

of brown paper bags arrived at the radio station all full of stuff. You know, this about you know get being told there's a playlist now and basically having to resign this is this is a move when is this movie coming out okay this is like that scene in Rudy when they all put down their sweaters okay I don't know if you've seen Rudy but this is a movie because and we're gonna get there soon what you ended up doing at 102.1, but I can just, I can just see that pivotal scene, man. That's the Oscar scene right there. It'd be fantastic. So you, so you just literally, I guess, uh, I, you could afford to just resign

and a principle or? I mean, I would, I guess I, did I, did I starve a few times by being a stubborn little guy? Of course I did. But I always felt that being sure that whatever it was I was delivering to people's ears was what I believed in, it was much more important than having a bank account. Very interesting. And yes, I have starved a few times because of that.

Guys my age learned everything we know about radio came from WKRP in Cincinnati. Oh yeah. You know, I was on evening so I never got to see the show. Oh yeah, I see. I've never seen that show. Okay, you gotta, I mean, there's a whole interesting story we don't have time for about licensing the music

to put this out like on proper streaming and DVD and stuff like that. But when I watched it and I watched it in syndication, so they would do it in like an early eighties, I'd watch it. And I remember distinctly the whole thing was I was fascinated with like, you know, Venus Flytrap who was the nighttime guy, he picked his own music. And at some point when they change formats, I remember like Dr. Johnny Fever being told you got to play like Paul Anka and all this stuff you hated and it was the whole, like kind of the whole, you know, he kind of rebelled against it and stuff. And then you kind of grow up and realize like these DJs don't have a say in what

they play. And it's sort of disheartening when you sort of come to the, it's sort of like finding out like, I don't know, that baseball and hockey are businesses. It's like the same kind of adult realization that kind of. Well, I certainly understand that it's a business. I mean, that's what it is. Baseball and hockey are businesses. It's like the same kind of adult realization. However, I'm of the opinion that if you have the right people on the radio, on the air, doing the right thing, then you're going to win.

I believe that if you give the people what they want, they'll come and listen. I've always believed that. I still do. Spirit of Radio by Rush. Yes. I was trying to hit a post there for him. You know what?

I was trying to be quiet. Like I was just shut up, Mike, because this is like, this is amazing. Um, and you hit it by the way. Tell me though, how the heck do you end up on 102.1? And I'll just let this be quiet. And it's a long song. I'll just keep it in the background a bit. And how do I get to this?

I do want to actually get to this song. So how do you end up on CFNY? Well, I had left Chum ofem and I was running my own little commercial production and I also had a studio called Thunder Sound for a while and I just I love being on the radio. I love sharing the music. I love bringing everything forward. And I'd heard that there were these guys

who owned a little radio station in Brampton. So Don Schaeffer and I went together. I don't know if you know Schaeffer. No. He's in Vancouver. He's a great programmer, a great radio person. As a matter of fact, he's getting the CMW Hall of Fame Award this year.

Cool. Anyway, we went and met with Leslie and Harry Allen in their impressive, very impressive Yorkville offices, full of antiques and wonderful things. Leslie Allen, the older brother, he was one of those people who looked like he'd just stepped out of a Hollywood movie or something, very elegant, nice tan, and $8,000 tie,

and $20,000 suit. His brother on the flip side, I think he bought his suit at Moore's, and it was one of those nice suit who blew it up for ya. And we sat there and we talked to Don and I talked to them about this radio station. Ultimately it ended up that Don went off to Vancouver and Leslie and Harry Allen hired me as a DJ,

only as a DJ, to do their evenings. So on the night I was supposed to start, I went out there and I arrived at what is now famously known as the Little Yellow House, because it really was yellow. It was painted a horrible color of yellow. And I walked in the place and I thought, what have I gotten myself into? It was filthy, it was dirty, all the chairs only had

three legs and you had to balance on them. The control room, I would say the ceilings in the control room were about the height of your ceilings. In other words, if you were larger than you are, or I am, you couldn't walk or you had to stoop over. Terry McGilligot, he's quite a tall fellow, and he had to stoop over to get into the control room. And it was an awful, awful mess.

But I could play what I wanted. And so I went on the air, and I really thought, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? This is crazy. But something said, no, do this, David, just do it. And so we went along with it. One night I was on the air there and we were vinyl in those days and we had two or three turntables just over our left shoulder. And I've got an album and I'm grooving to the music and all of a sudden I hear a lot of music is skipping. And I look over and there's a mouse on the turntable. And the mouse is riding on the turntable and every trip around it hits the needle and plops

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

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

And I think I was just driving my car one night and I thought, you know, I think this probably needs a, we need a name for this thing. And spirit of radio came to me. Tell me the Rush song, it's about CFNY, right? Yes it is. Yes it is. Initially they didn't talk about that because it would have hurt them at other radio stations. Sure, of course. Ray Daniels, their manager, called me

and he said, we're about to release a new album and we're using Spirit of Radio, are you okay with that? And I said, well, okay, I guess we are, why not? But this was many years later. CF&Y had grown up, we had new owners and we had nice studios and everything. And Spirit of Radio was what I called it and so he I said yeah I'm okay and he said okay he said we'll give you two percent of whatever we make now I'm just joking yeah I was gonna I was about to do the math I think they should give me two percent of whatever they did you uh this term spirit of

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

And okay, because you don't own it anymore. I think it's pretty much public domain now because a lot of people have used it, starting with rush and then other radio stations started calling themselves. Oh, so other stations decided to... A few did. Yeah, I can't tell you who they were because I don't really know. It kind of went to... I can't say I haven't looked at the legalities of it lately, but I think it's

pretty much a public domain. Well, the reason I ask is because they started using it again. So after years where you never heard it for years. No, no, I used it in Montreal and Vancouver as well. And, and then Scott, of course, and Dave Farrow, who is the GM at CFNY, a man that I have very high respect for. And before they went with the show, the Spirit of Radio show,

Dave and I did have a meeting and we talked. Oh, that's nice to hear. Yeah, I know. I will say, you know, there's all kinds of people who love to comment about the current CFNY programming. For sure. I don't comment on other programmers, but I will say that Dave Farrow and everyone else at CFNY

have been very professional, very kind to me, very nice to me. I was a guest on Scott's show a few weeks back. Yes, Mae was chatting, she showed up to witness this. That was the most beautiful part of this whole thing is that here we are, we're in the Edge studios. I'm there, Ivor was there, Ivor Hamilton was there, Alan Cross was there, and I look out and there's a window there, and I see waving at the window is May.

Now May works for another radio station called Boom. Yes. Now, May works for another radio station called Boom. But at that moment, Alan or someone said, I'll go let her in. And she joined us. And then about 10 or 15 minutes later, I look and there's another person waving at the window. And Alan or someone says, I'll go get them. And she comes and it was Danny Elwell. Yes, yes. So here's the professionalism that I see with the management at CFNY

as they had Ivar who doesn't work for CFNY works for Universal. He does work some stuff on... Can you hear my text machine going? I have a feeling we can hear it. I have a feeling they can't hear it because you gotta be right on this mic. So that's the good sign. And so you had two or three different radio stations represented. And I'm there representing NYTHESPIRIT.COM. And I'm looking and I'm thinking, this is the first time in my entire career, with the exception of when I had CFNY,

where two or three or four radio situations could be represented and competing radio stations could be represented in one building. And I applaud that. I thought that was really, really wonderful. I saw the photos because they were making their way around Twitter. Yeah. Yeah, it was very cool. Alan Cross is a previous guest and Scott Turner and now May Potts and now yourself and Ivor Hamilton is coming on. Ivor's coming on?

Yeah. We just got a set of dates and he's going to come in. Well, good. He's a pretty tremendous guy. He also does a show at nythespirit.com. Well, we're going to get to nythespirit.com for sure because I mentioned you're on the cutting edge all the time. So I want to get to that because there's the future in my opinion. But just real, I don't want to rush through the CFNY era because especially since most people listening, this is what they look back on as like radio's finest hour. A lot of the guys my age and older. It's interesting because when we were doing it, and I do say we because I may have been leading the team,

but a team leader is only as good as the team that he or she has. And I had a tremendous team of people at CFNY in that 11 year period. It was incredible, actually. Dedicated people. I mean, imagine when we were in receivership and people in the little yellow house

and nobody was really able to make any money, but everybody stayed on and we kept doing it. Is this the famous David Marsden call to arms? Is that, is this the, so you did, you went on the air and did sort of, I call, it's called a, like a call to arms? Is that this is the so you did it. You went on the air and did sort of I call it's called like a call to arms. Yeah, I said this period or is this no, this is in the little yellow house. Right. So I've never heard it called called. Oh, no, I guess I called it so Mark Knopfler, isn't it?

Oh, yes. Yes. Can I do whatever you want? It's your show. You know, that's exactly you know, I asked me pots if I could play something from like 30 years ago or whatever, and she said the same thing. And you're right. I'm going to play this. OK, I call this David Marsden's called arms and the audio is not very good. It's very old audio.

But please, I apologize for that. But remember, it's coming from a control room with ceilings that are a meter high. And mice on the turntable. So here we go. Unless you, and I underline the you, unless you do something, right now for us, this radio This radio station is going to go the way of a lot of other great radio stations in our memories. Right now, I'm going to ask for your help. Somehow or other, each one of you has to organize some little thing that will prove that we here at this radio station are not batting our heads against the wall.

If you like what you hear and if you like what we're doing on the radio and you want it to stay, then you've got to organize together. I'm going to give you some ideas. First of all, whether you work somewhere, go to school, or maybe you don't do anything, but that's okay. That gives you all the more time to do what I'm gonna ask you to do And it's really important that I'm really serious We're gonna start with petitions Not a couple of thousand names we're not going for anything small here this time folks 500,000 that's the number

Can you help? 500,000 names on petitions is what we need for starters. Then, if you believe in the music that we're playing, go into the record stores. Bug those record stores to display the music that CFNYFM is playing exclusively in Canada. Tell them to put those records up front where everybody can see them instead of in back of the store where you have to hunt for an hour and a half to find them. Now, what else are we going to do? We're going to write letters, and we're going to write letters until it hurts. Because we need three hundred thousand letters. Later on, I'm going to start giving you addresses, and over the next couple of days,

if I last that long, I'm going to continue to give you addresses. But first of all, there are two places that you can sit down right now and write a letter to and one is to the management of this radio station at 340 Main Street Brampton and the other is to the CRTC in Ottawa. We need some letters to the editors of newspapers we need telephone calls to newspapers telephone calls to the CRTC letters to the newspapers letters to Wilder Penfield letters to Peter Goddard and anybody else you can think of let them know that you care letters to the CFNY FM management what we have to do now is convince other people that there's

more of us than they ever thought possible. CFN Y FM one oh two point one spirit of radio. Wow. Where'd you get that? No, I can't reveal my sources, David. But I and again, the audio quality isn't very good, but you just when I heard that, I'm like, wow. And I see you're choked up over this. So when was the last time you heard that? I'm not embarrassed to be by it. No, no.

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

You know, sorry that I lost a bit there. No, no, please don't apologize. If it makes you feel better, I cried with Strombo, okay? So I don't feel so bad. I don't think I told anybody I was going to do that. I just think and I, as I recall, it just, I just opened the mic and started talking and I just said what I really believed. People may ask what was the driving force and the driving force was that the radio station

was for sale and seven applicants had applied to get it. And only one of those applicants had said that they would leave it alone, and the other six wanted to turn it into country or middle of the road or whatever. And I think at that point I felt it was necessary to get the people involved. I've always believed in the people, always. You know, I have a theory on all this that when you're your leader and you were the leader and your leader has such passion for the music, it attracts people who have the same passion. Like people are people who the people you want, the talent you'd want representing the music on a station would be drawn to that.

And you end up with basically with talent where music is everything and then you end up with CFNY because CFNY wasn't just the music, it was the hosts that complement the music and it was the perfect combination. You need both. No, absolutely. It was, as I said earlier, the team that I was able to assemble at CFNY once we had new owners and they had agreed to go forward and that's when I was appointed program director. When the new owners came in, Civitas they were called and they were out of Montreal, they met with me

and interesting, I asked for 300,000 letters in that thing I'd forgotten that and whatever I asked there was 500 I heard 500,000 which and I was thinking not good aim high yeah well we actually I think probably I don't recall exactly but I know that the campaign was strong enough that both the CRTC and the new owners were totally affected by it. I called it Save the Spirit of Radio and in my opinion it did. It always comes back to the folks who are listening. Those of us on this side, we can do the best job we know how. I've always believed

that if you just sit down in front of a microphone and you talk or you say what you want to say and you play a lot of amazing music that no one else is noticing, people will say, yeah, let's do that. People will come, I really do believe that, I've always believed it. Even going back to the earlier part of our conversation, I suppose when I was doing the Dave Mickey, it was, again, there was nothing like it in Canadian radio, sure the adults thought it was stupid and wrong and goofy but at that

time it was targeted primarily to teenagers. Today I target anybody who likes good music. Were you responsible for recruiting Pete and Geetz? How did because they they did follow you to NY?, well I knew them of course when I was at Charmin FM, although we were on opposite ends of the clock, I would see them at DJ meetings and that kind of thing. And I just thought that they would be great in the CFNY situation. At the time, they were broken up.

Geets, David, was at Q107. And Peter, did I just pop a P there? I do that all the time. Peter was still at TermeVein. It took me about six months, I guess, of clandestine meetings held in ridiculous burger joints in various parts of Scarborough. Because we were all recognizable faces.

Oh, right, right. And you were essentially talking three radio stations. And earlier I mentioned the openness that Dave Farrell brings to CFNY. But prior to that, if you worked at Chairman of IM, you did not talk to people who worked at Q107, and if you worked at Chimera Vim, you did not talk to people who worked at Q107 and if you worked at Q107 and vice versa. So we couldn't really be seen talking.

And so we really did have secret meetings in weird places. That's awesome. And it lasted, it took about six months and finally we got the deal done and they joined CFNY. It was terrific. No, Geetz is still, he's like an engineer, right? As some, I saw, I talked to him quite frequently. As a matter of fact, he was, he was over. I have a studio at my, in my, in my condo, in my apartment.

Is it as nice as this one? It is. Oh, it's much nicer. Good, I'm glad to hear that. I'm teasing. Is no mice on the turntable? No mice, no. No, I'm just teasing you.

It's a home studio. And when I was getting ready to do live shows on nythespirit.com, Geet had to come over and rewire the thing for me. Oh, perfect, yeah. So I saw him, on NYTHESPIRIT.COM, he had to come over and rewire the thing for me. So I saw him probably, we can have two weeks before Christmas. And we talk on a regular basis. Peter of course has gone and I see his son from time to time.

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

producer and every morning they would just have a lot of fun. Now, a couple of names people will be familiar with sort of started on Pete and Geet's show on air. I believe Freddie P, Fred Patterson, he was doing sports and Mike Stafford, right? He was a news guy. Mike was their newsman. Fred was doing sports. Who else did they have on there?

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

I mean, he's... He was on Jeopardy, right? Speaking of Alex Trebek, there's who comes back. He was on Jeopardy and he's... I don't know if he's Mensa, but he's certainly up in there. Did I see him as a talk radio person? Probably not, because in the CF and Y period, there wasn't really a lot of, quote, talk radio.

But he and I, we don't chat regularly, but I see him from time to time at events. And I wish him nothing but great success. I was just, he does some pretty good things at AM 640. He's definitely the brightest light in that 640 cast, I'd say. I totally agree with you. And not just because of his Simpsons trivia,

which I thoroughly enjoy, which is a sign he must be men's because he knows more about the Simpsons than I do. Well, he also hides a very, very sharp sense of humor, very well developed. Cool. And so Pedingate's popular morning show, when they left, I'm trying to get my timelines right, but when did you leave CFNY? Before they did. Right, okay. I was there till, what is it, 88, 89 maybe.

I did 11 years there, and it just seemed that it was time for me to move on. I think in the last half dozen months, I think in the last half dozen months, my eyes were, my heart wasn't in it anymore, to tell you the honest truth. I felt that I had done what I came to do, and if my heart's not in it, then I'm cheating all the people who are on my team.

And I can't do that. So after 11 years I resigned and I had a very good offer to do television for the CBC Corporation. And so that's where I went. While you were at CFY, are you the man who hired Alan Cross? I am. Okay, he tells a great story about sort of how he applied for that. I think he was in Manitoba, I think. I think he was in Winnipeg. And Alan Cross today, I mean, he's back actually at, I don't know, some kind of consulted role,

but he's back at CFMY today. Yes, he was on when I was on Scott Turner. He was in with that. And I told the story about how he was hired on that okay cool Show cuz yeah cuz Alan told it on I think it's episode 66 like 66 told the real story I don't I got to hear it the real sir. Do you want to tell the real story? well, I it was interesting because I was actually just on my way out and Don burns was the guy who was following me in not as I was actually just on my way out and Don Burns was the guy

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

And if he doesn't come to an event, he inserts a Photoshop picture of himself at the event. Anyway, he was interviewing this guy, and so I said, well, if you like him, then bring him up to my place and I'll give you the final stamp of approval. I was living up on the forks of the credit at the time, not too far away. It was a Sunday afternoon and Desi interviewed Alan and I call him Desi Bell by the way. That has to do with his voice. You're going to ask who Desi was. Dezable.

Dezable, you see. Oh yeah, I see. I see. Anyway, so he brought this guy up and this guy walks into my place up in Caledon and he's got like the world's largest afro and he's wearing a white sports jacket. And I'm thinking, Oh my goodness, what, what decade are we actually in? Uh, anyway, we chatted, I interviewed him and subsequently of course he was hired,

but I did tell the story about that, about him and his Afro. I'd love to see a photo of that. I wish I had run. I did tell it when I sat in with Scott and Alan was there cringing I think. I apologized but at the same time I thanked him for his patience while I told this ridiculous story. You know when you talk about how Dave Farrow was open enough to let competing people working for competing companies, so you had New Cap there and different organizations and talking on a chorus station. There's one other event where I can remember this happening, and it was after Martin the Streak passed away. And you, and we're going to get to your rock program soon, but you aired an excellent tribute to Martin the Streak. Five hours, I believe. It was amazing.

I still have it somewhere, it's amazing. Well, you know, I mean, I hired Martin. He was actually hired as one of the team for the CFNY Roadshow. Right. I think he was the guy who drove the thing. See, I think you told me that story off air. I did?

I know, I guess, we did. So, the Traveling Roadshow, that was so that traveling road show. That was an Iver Hamilton idea that was we didn't. Oh yeah. Because you and I did chat about that. But before I press record. So I just want to quickly you've got Iver coming in. You can ask him about it. But this was again, my we're going back to the little yellow house. I'm out of order now, but the station is in receivership, etc., etc. And none of us had very much money coming in. And of course, because it was in receivership, there was literally no money.

And I was sitting on one of the three-legged chairs one day, and Ivor comes up, and I think Ivor was 17, maybe 18 at the time, and he was in as an intern. And he said, you know, I really, I've got to have some money or I have to go somewhere else. And I said, well, we don't have any money. But I don't want you to go anywhere else. And he said, well, I've got this idea

that maybe I could go and play CFO music at dances, at high school dances or whatever, and we could charge them for that service and I could make some money that way. Generate some revenue, fantastic idea. And so I said, let's do it. And that ultimately became known generate some revenue, fantastic idea. So I said let's do it. That ultimately became known as what grew up to be

the CF and Y video road show. It started in Ivor's little car in the back seat with some records and a turntable, and it ended up in a five ton truck with a staff of four people. And then DJs going out. And the thing was booked year round. So I don't remember where we were heading.

We were heading to Martin the Streak. So how was he involved with? Martin was, he was basically Roger Powell and Martin and one other guy who I apologize if I can't remember. Roger and Martin were really the, they were the men behind the operation, if you will. They were like the roadies, but they were really more than roadies.

And Martin was a key player in the development of the video roadshow. And I'm sure I recall him bounding into my office one day all excited because he'd been able to get his upgraded license which would allow him to drive a five ton truck. Cool. And so the day that he left CFNY, now we're 25 years later. Now you're in 2009.

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

and I gave him a hug. We gave each other a hug and he whispered in my ear, I've just been fired. Is what he said. And I pulled back and I looked at him and I said, what? And he said, I've just been fired. And I said, why? He said, I don't know. And then he said, I don't know what to do. And I said, what do you mean you don't know what to do? And he said, you're the only person that's ever interviewed me for a job.

You were the guy when I was 17 or so, you hired me. I've never been interviewed, I don't know what to do. I said, that let's have coffee. Martin said, I'm going to LA for a week or two, and when I get back, we'll have coffee. Martin said I'm going to LA for a week or two and when I get back we'll have coffee. Because I was quite well ready to help and get back in whatever it was going to take. And he came back several weeks. I can't remember a week, week and a half, two weeks. And we talked on the phone and we talked by email and we were

planning to get together and have a cup email, and we were planning to get together and have a cup of coffee, and I was gonna help him. At the time, The Rock was even interested in giving him a show. Because I had talked to them about it while he was in LA. And he came back, we chatted a little bit, and I opened up my Facebook one morning early, and I saw Martin left a rather cryptic message

that simply said, well folks, it's been fun, and I guess that's it, something like that. Yes. I somehow knew what that meant. I didn't want to know. So I started making phone calls. And it turned out that it was true that he had in fact put on his own wings and flew away.

That was a very sad day. I felt it essential to do something in my radio show about Martin and it ended up being an entire five hours. I think it sits on your website. It does actually. I never knew if that was cool. That was if you were cool with that or not. Why wouldn't I be? You never know these days. You never know. No, no, it's that particular five hour show, it's not about me, it's about Martin. That five hour tribute, yes, so on my website, torontomike.com, I am hosting those primarily and only because I think fans of Martin should be able to kind of easily access it and listen to it. Well, I totally agree and I will tell you straight away, I get a lot of email and some

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

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

So you do appear on the five years after Martin Streak's death. I put together like a I'll call it remembering Martin Streak, like a retrospective thing. So you're you're on that you're you have a so you tell some great if anyone's looking for more David Marsden stories about Martin Streak and his years at CF and why seek out episode 82 and listen to that episode 82 82 and there's others like so Alan Cross is talking on that and Fred Patterson and Rob Johnston who knew him quite well who's still at the edge and people I'm not Iver but oh

because I didn't work with these people sometimes I draw a blank on their name but he was in promotions for the longest time I'm talking about Darren no I didn't work with these people, sometimes I draw a blank on their name, but he was in promotions for the longest time. You're talking about Darren? No, I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on his name. Promotion? He's still, he's in the West Coast now. So I talked to Brother Bill. You're talking about Captain Phil.

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

when they were together, when we were all together at CFNY. It sounds like a magic, perfect story. Alan Cross met his wife there. Yes, Mary Ellen Benninger, yeah. I think he's the only one actually who accomplished that. That's right. And she's a real wonderful person. Speaking of moving out to the West Coast, that's what you did after you left CFNY.

Well, as I mentioned, I had developed a show and CBC had bought the idea, but they didn't want to produce it in Toronto. So they said, you know, you can produce it in Montreal, or you can produce it in Vancouver. I had never been to Vancouver, sad to say. And they said, well, go out there for two weeks and see what you think of the place, and meet people, and so on. So I did.

And it was long about, I don't know, April, maybe late March. And I arrived out there and of course it was March and everything was in bloom, the trees were all in bloom and I was sitting leaning against a, what do they call it, a log, thank you very much, at English Bay Beach and I look over on one side of me and the North Shore Mountains are, you know, peaked with snow. And I look the other way and it's Burrard Inlet and it's wonderful. And I thought I had arrived in Nirvana at least.

When it comes to aesthetic beauty, we can't compete with Vancouver. I mean, they got the ocean and the mountains. Like, how do we compete with that? Oh, the difference is that there's things to do here. That's a good point. It was not as pretty, but there's stuff to do. I'm just teasing my friends out on the West Coast. Oh, it's called Toronto-miked. Nobody in Vancouver will actually listen to anything called Toronto-miked. Well, that is true. I mean, I had a bit of a trouble there

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

in the West. It's this ill conceived notion that we believe we're the center of the universe. I think it has to do with sort of being on top of the mountain, people trying to knock you off. We're not? No, just the center of Canada. That's what I say. So what is the name of the show that you went to Vancouver to?

Well, I didn't have a name for it. It was a television show primarily targeted at young people. It was very edgy, very, very avante-garde. And the CBC put, we did a pilot in Vancouver, and the pilot, of course, then had to be shopped, and the bosses at the CBC looked at the pilot, and they liked it and they said yeah go and then what are you going to call it and I said I don't know let's call it

pilot one and so it became pilot one. Okay. Five hosts on the show all who were like 18-19 years of age. Five writers on the show all of whom were 18 or 19 years of age. Five writers on the show, all of whom were 18 or 19 years of age, except for one guy who was the head writer. He was like 30. We did things that had never been really done before. Sue Johansson was on the show and this was before anybody knew who she was. I knew her from Q107 because she did that little sex thing. Sex is Sue. Yeah. Absolutely. And so I brought her on and she had a five-minute

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

I had her on and then Paula Rembl, one of the hosts, interviewed her about being a drag queen and being gay and all that sort of thing. And people hadn't gotten to the point where this was comfortable yet. She did, Sue did a bit, another three to five minute piece about the size of guys' organs and how it was important or not. And at one point she said, you know, I don't think size matters. She said, what do you need with all that extra

flopping around inside there? So it was pretty outlandish and we lasted one season. Well hey, you're always like just a little ahead of your time, right? I don't think people are quite caught up with that, yeah. And you were at Coast 800, is this? After the CBC, I was hired by the people who own Coast 800.

We moved it to Coast 1040, which was a Vancouver radio station. The plan was to move it to FM, and the first application that the owner made to do that change was rejected by the CRTC, and so he then said, oh, I think I'll just close it down, so he did. So that ended that, and then I had some crazy idea that I was going to

retire and I could sit on the beach every day and rust because you know people don't tan in Vancouver they just rust. Yeah and rust never sleeps I hear so yeah. Sorry to my friends in Vancouver who are going to shoot me. And then I sat on a beach for six months and thought, this is really boring. And that was when I realized that retirement was for people who don't like their jobs. Exactly.

So I decided to get back in again. And you did something very ahead of its time, if you will, in cutting edge. You were involved with the Iceberg radio. Yeah, I was a co-founder of Iceberg, and I did, what, five or six years there. Iceberg was probably the first streaming music channel, certainly in North America.

I can't speak for Europe or the UK. We had a bunch of radio stations in there, each of which, Too Cool for Radio was one of the channels, it was kind of CF and Y for the 90s. Illinois, I-L-L-N-O-I-Z, was a hip hop channel. Prime Ticket was live. Gary Cormier, you probably won't remember Noah, but the two Garys. The two Garys were these crazy guys who promoted all this music that CFNY was playing during

the 80s. Prime Ticket was run by Gary Cormier and it was all live shows. We'd go into clubs or we carried the Toronto Jazz Festival one year. We also had, what else do we have? I can't remember them all. Oh, we had onegroove.com, which was a rave channel, dance rave channel.

53 DJs in total worked in the building. That's incredible. it was unbelievable. In that situation, I think we were 10, maybe 12 years ahead of the stream, and that's a little too far ahead. You need the technology to catch up essentially to make it accessible. Today's stream, we're going to get to nythespirit.com. I mean, I learned a lot in building iceberg. Today's stream, we're going to get to nythespirit.com.

I mean, I learned a lot in building Iceberg. It was quite magnificent. I mean, when I look at the artwork that the guys were doing then, there were seven people in the art department just building websites. And when I look at the work that they were doing then, it was really advanced. It was like so far ahead of itself. And you can't be too far ahead of it, you know? And we were.

I left there after about five years when they decided to turn all of these channels into jukeboxes and just play music, not have any personality or anything. And to me, anybody can have a jukebox, that's easy. If you have an iPod, you hit shuffle, you've made your own jukebox. Yeah, that's right, you need a tour guide, so to speak.

I don't know what you need, but you need to, I've always believed that, as I said earlier, if you build something that can't be found anywhere else, and that includes people making it themselves, then I believe people will come. And you came back to the GTA because you joined the team at the Rock 94.9 at some point. That was after Iceberg. Right. I mean Iceberg obviously was Toronto.9 at some point. That was after Iceberg. I mean Iceberg obviously was Toronto.

Right, of course, sorry, yes, yes. We had the studios, we had 12,000 square feet of space and we took over the, there was a country station called Kiss CIS or something. It's now called Kiss FM and I believe it's part of the Rogers chain. I think it's New Cap. Is it?

Because May Potts is at Boom and I asked her what else is, because New Cap owns Boom, I'm like who else do they own? And they're like yeah, I believe they own 92.5 Kiss FM. Anyway, it was sold to somebody and we actually took over all their studios and everything. And that was on Ontario Street, just down near King. Then that ended, then I saw,

I was doing a radio show to New York for a few years. It was done from here, but it was out of a service out of New York. And a few other things that I could, you know, things just come to you. it was out of a service out of New York. A few other things that I could, things just come to you and if you like them, you do them. And then at the same time as I was doing the New York thing, I was brought on to 94.9. They asked me for lunch, I went to lunch.

The owners said, what is it going to take to get you back on the radio? Because I hadn't been on for a long time. And I said, I don't know, what are you offering? And he said, well, we'll let you do whatever you want. And to me, those are magic words. And no one's hearing that anymore. No, well, I think it can still be found. Smart programmers will say it.

At the same time, however, the individual that it's being said to has to really understand what this business thing about radio is. You can't just be self-intelligent. There has to be, you know, you have to be doing, you have to know what to do to bring people to you. Absolutely. Because, you know, as much as I like to think

that it's just, I'm here and it's all kind of fabulous, it is a business and it has to make money in order that they can pay me and everybody else. But sometimes when you just say to somebody you can do whatever you want, they may not have their own frame on that and you have to put a frame on it somewhere. So you had a show on 94.9 and this show you had basically you could play whatever within reason I suppose you could play whatever you wanted. Yeah that within reason is always my own judgment.

Sure. You know I mean what I was doing and was nothing new it's what I what we all did at CFNY it's what I did at CKGM, is you play the music in such a way that it all fits together so that it's a pleasant experience for the listener. You don't want people hitting brick walls. You can't go from Joni Mitchell to ACDC because it's too abrupt. But I can go from Joni Mitchell and five songs later I can get you to ACDC, but I've got a ladder that I have to build to get you there. So it's less jarring.

Yes, and I don't think in terms of songs ever. I think in terms of music. How is it all going to fit together? So what was the process for you? Did you sit at home and sort of start building your playlist for the night? No, I went at the rock, the rock at 94, nine. Yeah, the only song I ever picked in advance was my first one. Which one was that whatever each night? My first, your first song. Sorry, the first episode. No, no. Okay. Oh, that's 11 years ago, I couldn't remember that.

I have trouble remembering. That's a trivia answer somewhere. No, the first song for each show is the only song that I would ever pick, ever. Fascinating, so on the fly, while you record, you just, whatever you were feeling next. I mean, that's how I did it at Chum FM, that's how we all did it at CFNY,

that's how it was done in the early days of FM. Does it require that you know music pretty well? Of course. But that's what makes a good host anyways, because I can tell the hosts who don't really like or know about the music they're playing. In fact, I remember this long after your days on CFNY. I remember George Stroumboulopoulos was doing, he filled in for the morning show and I was listening and it

was so different to me because you could tell a he cared about the music he was playing and B he had interesting things to say about the music and you could tell it was sincere and it really enhanced the experience and I wrote about it on my blog actually like just how amazing that week was when somebody was hosting who actually gave a shit about the music. I hope that he likes hockey. He does. Because, you know, if you love music and then suddenly you love hockey, I would say the

challenge for George at this point would be to try and figure out how to combine the two. But what he does, which I admire, is that he still builds a show for... He gives it to CBC Radio 2. Oh, does he? I didn't. So he still... Because he does love the music. Yeah, okay. So he's answered my question. He's still doing it for CBC Radio 2. I don't know George. I've never met the man.

You guys should meet. I could coordinate this only because you're both so damn passionate. And he was very tight with Martin streak and he came aboard after, after your days at CFY. Yes he did. I've never had the pleasure of meeting him. I actually was, when I came back to Toronto, I was walking by the city building one day and there was a guy out there and he was doing something I don't know what he was digging in flowers or something and someone said his name was George and so I went over and I said hi you're George aren't you and he said yes I am and I said well I'm pleased to meet you I believe that you worked at CF&Y after I left and the guy got really

quite uptight about it and he said, Oh, you mean, Strablabilo, not him. And it was one of the, he's on CP 24. He reads the news now. Oh yeah. George Lagagannis, something like that. Yeah. He actually got quite upset that I thought he was George. Yeah. The wrong Greek, I think is what he was trying to tell you. So I've never met George and maybe one day he'll invite me to a hockey game. Oh, I bet you you could hook that up. I could sit up there in the VIP box and go, what is this about? You're not a hockey fan. Well, I don't, I, I, I sit and watch some games, but I, I'm not, I don't really know what's happening. It's okay. Just when the

puckles in the net, somebody's either really happy or really sad. That's how I see it. It's fine, but back to the rock ninety four point nine because very recently, like I'm going to say in the fall of twenty fourteen, I believe they cancelled your show. They did. Why they do that David? Well, They did. Why they do that, David? Well, that actually happened. I guess it was November

that that was that announcement was made to me. And there's a new program director there. I have to say that Steve Cassie is the vice president of programming and he has been such a, he was such a strong supporter of everything that I was doing for 11 years because I was there 11 years. It's a good run. Yeah, it seems automatically 11 years CF and Y 11 years. There you go. It's also my favorite number because George Bell wore it for the Blue Jays in the 80s.

Oh, okay. So you're a real sports fan, aren't you? Big time, yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Which would you prefer, hockey or baseball? I can't answer it because equal love for both. Yeah, right.

And playing. Basketball. I watched the whole game last night, for example. I'm a big Raptors fan, yeah. Those are my three favorite sports to watch. I've always thought that with basketball, I've always thought- It's a sports talk with David Marsden.

Yeah, yeah. I always thought that with basketball, what they should do is on the board, they should say, okay, the score is, and then just put up some numbers, 98 to 101, and then have a three-unit game because it seems to me the excitement is only in the last three minutes because it's true you know there's like the scores are so high like

the last three minutes of a basketball game takes about an hour to play have you noticed that everyone called they call their timeouts and by way, to finish three minutes of the last three minutes. But wouldn't that save us a lot of frustration? Yeah. I don't know if the advertisers would think that. Arbitrarily pick two numbers and each team gets a number. You could actually shuffle them in a hat and pull them out and then whoever wins, wins. But it could last three minutes. It'd be so much easier on all of us, wouldn't it? I have Eric Smith coming on soon. He covers the Raptors. I'm going to tell him.

I think that they just do that. At least hockey, there's a tenseness and there's an interest through it. I did go to a Blue Jays game. When I first came back to Toronto, I went to a Blue Jays game with a friend of mine who loves baseball and he also loves beer. Yes, good combo. I don't drink beer, so not for a long time. And so there I am at this baseball game and he's enjoying his beer and I'm sitting there and there's guys on the field and they're scratching themselves and they're repositioning their cup and then they're checking their bum and then they talk to somebody and then everybody stands around and then finally some guy throws a ball and somebody else tries to hit it and then after they're throwing

the ball the guy, nothing happens and they go back to scratching themselves and repositioning their cup. And I'm thinking, this is the most ridiculous. You know, that's what happens when you introduce baseball to an adult. Seriously, and I, yeah, absolutely. You gotta kind of fall in love as a kid or you're screwed with baseball

because that's how slow it feels. Oh my Lord, I thought, what are you just going to just get on with it? So anyway, beautiful sport, but I don't think you could kind of fall in love with it as an adult unless you introduce the beer before maybe. Well, as I said, my friend liked beer and I'd seem to be able to get him through. I think I left at the end of sixth inning or something, but I've never had the body or the brawn or whatever it takes to be a sports person. I was always the... That never stopped me.

Well, you know, in school, you know, in grade eight or grade seven, I was always the last guy picked. Oh, like Les Nessman in the WKT. Yeah, I was. And I was always the guy, oh, well, guess we'll have him. You're stuck with him. So I never really had a great sports. But you showed them because you went on and became a radio legend. So now who's laughing?

But back in 94.9, and it's cool if you don't know or you don't want to answer it, but I guess I'm wondering why would they cancel your show? As I was saying, there's a new program director. And I think what I was told was that he just didn't feel that the show fit what he wanted to be anymore. He's pretty high on repeating the same song every 12 minutes or something. And I don't do that sort of thing. And my contract was that I do whatever I want. And I'm not, I mean,

I did alter the show slightly at his request, but it wasn't sufficient. It just was no longer a good fit because he wanted to hear songs that you didn't want to play, and you're not there to play songs you don't want to play. In his opinion. Right. Of course. So, this is the thing. I got this announcement that the show was cancelled. Well, first of all, they spun it first, as if it was like you... Originally, it did seem like you were stepping down, like you were ending your show.

Yeah, and I was relatively comfortable with that concept, but it didn't end up being that way. I did not get to do my final two shows. That's okay. That's the thing. There was, okay, we were told you were going to get to say goodbye. There'd be a final show. Why was there no final show?

What happened that caused that to be canceled? Well, I don't know that it's appropriate for me to get into all that. Just suffice to say that the agreement was up toward in the last week on the Monday or the Tuesday was, okay, I think probably I'm best to just bow out now. And that's what I did. You mentioned that- The reasons why I don't know that- That's fair, you don't have to show those cards if you don't want to.

You know, I'm really big on honesty You know, I'm really big on honesty and my own credibility, and I just can't feel that it's proper. My audience, they're faithful, they're always there, and I just didn't feel it was appropriate for me to go in under the guise of something that I wasn't. And so I bowed quietly about and read about my business. You mentioned when you were talking to Scott Turner on a Sunday recently, on Spirit Radio Sunday on 102.1, you mentioned that you had some visitors like May Potts and you mentioned Danny showed up.

Danny Olmol, yes. And the famous story, and I just mentioned this with May Potts and you mentioned Dani showed up. Dani Olmo, yes. And the famous story, and I just mentioned this with May Potts, but the famous story I keep hearing about, and I wish I had heard it live, but I did not, was that she quit on the air. And I was just wondering, maybe if you had a final show,

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

We cuddled for a little while and there are pictures of that on the internet which is really going to destroy my reputation. And of course we talk, usually on Facebook or something from time to time, and I think she's wonderful. If I had done my last show, it would have been me thanking people for various and sundry things that had happened during the show for the past 11 years. For example, I have a chat room that started when I was at 94.9, and hundreds of people. The beautiful thing is that it was all started by a woman who I call Sister Mar, her name is Marilyn. And she called me one day or sent me an email

and said, would you like to have a chat room? And this was eight or nine years ago. Yeah, it would have been about eight years ago. And I said, yeah, and this was for my New York show, the one I was doing for New York. And so she started the chat room there. And then she decided that I needed to have a chat room at 94.9 as well.

And so she is a person that would have been on my thank you list. The baron who runs the chat room now, he would have been high on my thank you list. The Baron who runs the chat room now, he would have been high on my chat room list. Every year the folks in the chat room give me a birthday party. Cool. Live music, the whole deal. It's quite swell. Well, give the URL, like the website address where people...

The chat room? Right. Just go to MarsdenGlobal.com and then you'll see a little link that says chat room. It's always open when I'm on the air. Like even now on NYTheSpirit.com, the chat room is open. And, but they give me a party every year and hundreds of people come to the party. That's awesome.

They bring me gifts. Very cool. Nice gifts, I might add. It usually happens at the VIP room at the Hard Rock Cafe. Last year Slave to the Square Wave played and it was terrific. It was a great night and I know they're doing one this coming year. March is my birthday month. Very cool. Maybe I'll get them to send you an invite. Yeah, you know what?

I would love to be invited. I would totally show up. Well, I tell you, you know, Geets Rommel always shows up. A lot of people like that. Cool. People that I've worked with show up. Doug Thompson always comes up.

And it's a wonderful night. It's a great night. So you would have, had you had that that last show you would have been thanking people. Yes that's what would have been important. All right got a piece of audio again and this time it's of all places. You're trying to make me weep again. But this one I'm sure you've heard recently. That's okay if I had known, I would have had more clips. So I'm

gonna play. This was actually from the House of Commons of all places. Oh my god. I'll tell you the story about this after you play it. Very good. Okay, let me play it and then I want to hear the story. Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House of Commons today to mark the end of an era in radio broadcasting in the Durham region and indeed across Canada. This weekend we'll feature the final episodes of the Marsden Theatre hosted by legendary broadcaster David Marsden, the Mars Bar. He has been a pioneer in radio broadcasting in Canada, starting in the 1970s and 80s with the spirit of radio at CFNY in Toronto. He was an early champion for Canadian music in Canada, including helping create the CASB

Awards, Canadian artists selected by you. For the last decade, at 94.9 The Rock in Oshawa, he has hosted one of the final live-to-air radio programs in North America, Mr. Speaker. So I want to thank David Marsden for being a decades-long champion of Canadian music. I want to thank him for his eclectic mix of music, his cheeky humour. David, please stay curious and know that all of us will be listening this weekend. Thank you. I had no idea that was coming. I think I got out of bed around noon

and I got a cup of coffee and I headed to my computer to check Facebook and my Marsden Global where there's a forum. It's my normal morning routine. And when I opened up Facebook that the video was staring me in the face and I had no idea what it was and so I clicked play and that came out. It was quite the honor that's the House of Commons for goodness sakes. It was it was how can I say this? I thought to myself, how do I live up to that? This this gentleman who I didn't know, who is now the minister, a minister

know who's now the minister, a minister, had stood up in the House of Commons. And I really did wonder, how do I live up to that? It was amazing. Sorry. The thing is, you have lived up to that. This is, yeah, I mean, I don't use the word legend for every guest who comes on this show, but. It was quite a moment, I must tell you. What's the MP's name? Do you know? I should have that in my notes. I don't believe it's Aaron O'Toole.

Aaron O'Toole, okay. I believe. He's now Minister of Veterans Affairs. I don't do politics, so I don't, I recognize that he is a politician and I recognize that he is in a party. But I separate that. I just, I was just, you know, I never imagined

that someone in the House of Commons speaking to a situation would ever have used the words, Mars bar. That's true. That is true. And it was a bit overwhelming. Subsequent to that, the minister has sent me a beautiful, what do you call those things? Like a folder thing. What do you call that? Like a book? It's green leather and it's stamped on the front. And when I open it up, on the left

side there's a wonderful letter from the minister and on this side is the minister's. Yeah, some kind of portfolio. Yeah. And he sent me that and I know that he listens and out of respect for him, I won't go any further, but I will say that I think he's a really fun fellow. Oh, excellent. That's a fun guy. And you keep hitting me with these things here. No, don't worry. I know I asked for an hour and I've stolen quite a bit more. So I hope that's

but we're almost done here. I just want to ask you about NY the spirit.com. Yeah. So tell us what it is and what it is. My business partner whose name is Igor Luqueen. What it is, my business partner, whose name is Igor Lukin, he and I, he was, I met him originally, he used to be a DJ, now he's in finance, but we'll try not to hold that against him. But we'd been talking about doing something. I always still, even after Iceberg,

I still always had the feeling that there was a reason to get music streaming on the internet. About 18 months ago, he and I started to develop this thing that we called NYTHESPIRIT.COM. We spent 18 months loading it, designing the and we loaded, we spent 18 months loading it, designing the website, doing all the stuff that has to be done, and we launched it on Labor Day weekend of 2014, which was the beginning of September. This was before I knew that the end was near at 94.9.

I think some people think I've launched it in retaliation. It's not true. I launched it way before. And so we launched this thing and we've added people to our DJ list. Ivor Hamilton does a show. Don Burns does a show. Rob Stewart from Slave to the Square Wave, he does a show from the viewpoint of the musician rather than the viewpoint of the DJ. And I do live shows right now on Sunday from 8 until midnight. Starting in February I'll go Saturday and Sunday 8 till midnight, live show. And it's my normal show, it's like the music is very broad and very wide and we don't

limit it. The stream that goes 24-7 is primarily CF and Y music from the 80s, from the really peaky point of the CF and Y as a radio station. And that's where it's all mostly from. When the DJs are on, they do whatever they want, so it expands quite a bit. We have worked really, really, really hard on the fidelity. We have amazing fidelity. I don't know if you've listened to it, but the fidelity is phenomenal. Not yet, but I was just thinking, hey, finally, technology has caught up to you here,

because now is the time for this. I suppose, yeah. I'm thinking maybe I should get a spaceship and do it from there. But it's a pretty marvelous thing. It's a subscription page. Is it an app? So there's an app or is it just through a web page? No, you can have it on any platform you want. You can have it on your iPhone, you can have

it on your Android, you can have it through Bluetooth. As long as you have an internet connection, you can have this. Yeah, through Bluetooth, it's in your car. If you're TV, blah blah blah, it's everywhere. Just go to nythespirit.com. There are no commercials. I've made the decision that we would not have commercials. I've also made the decision that we will not mine any data, so when you go there we're not looking at you and selling that information.

But there is a subscription fee. It works out to about 20 cents a day and that will do nothing but hopefully eventually cover our costs. Well, in this Starbucks age, I think people don't even hesitate to blow 10 bucks a day on Starbucks. Exactly. So 20 cents isn't much. And Igor Lukin and I love the music, we love the whole feel of the thing, and so we try to keep it extremely honest.

And what you'll, again, and this is, I think this is important, we don't play songs, we play music, so when you're listening, it all fits together. I can't tell you how we do it because that's the secret. That's the secret. The secret's us.

It's nythespirit.com. nythespirit.com. Have you listened to any of the Sunday Spirit radio that's on 102.1 now with Scott Turner? Yes I have and as we both discussed, I've been on there as well. Right, and what do you think, like how do you feel about it, I suppose? How do you feel about them using Spirit Radio,

and what do you feel about the program? Again, I have such high regard for Mr. Farrow, for David. He and I talked before they launched the show, so I was aware that it was coming. Scott Turner is someone that I admire. And you're the man who suggested he spell it S-K-O-T. This is a story he tells anyway. Well, it might be true, I don't remember.

But, as I said earlier, I won't make programming statements on other people's programming because I don't think it would be professional. I will say that I'm glad they're doing it. And it does sound like Scott has a great control over the playlists, so to speak. He's not getting that handed to him by some corporate suit. No, I give them a standing ovation and said so from the very beginning. When David Farrow told me about it, I said, yeah, go to it, have fun. It's about getting the music out there.

It doesn't necessarily matter what the platform is. The platform is not what should be cool. It's what's on the platform is. The platform is not what should be cool. It's what's on the platform. That's just a delivery system. Whether it's in your car on a terrestrial radio, whether you're getting it through download or through streaming, that's just a delivery mechanism. Yeah, the platform doesn't matter.

It's content that's key. The platform doesn't have to be cool. The content, the music, whatever has to be cool. I'm with you, brother. And you know, I mean, there's a new world that we're developing out there, and anybody who says, well, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, if you watch the Globe Awards the other day,

that movie about the transgender people, I think it's called Trans-something. Transparent. Yes, I know, because it's got, hey now, Hank Kingsley. Yeah, absolutely. And it won a bunch of awards, but it's only on Amazon.com. It's not on what would be called traditional television. That is a great example.

You know, House of Cards, another great example, except it actually is on your TV, but it's through a... You're still streaming that thing over the internet only. Yeah, absolutely. So there's a new world coming. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with radio. There is nothing wrong with radio. People always hear, all radio's dead. No, it isn't.

Screw off. Don't bother me. It's about what you put on the platform. It's not about the platform itself. My final question for you. This has been a treat by the way. I could listen to you tell me stories. Thank you, thank you. Last question is, so you.

I obviously feel very comfortable with you. Good, cause I can do another hour. You got me to cry twice. Yeah, that's a new record. You've beat my record of once. I don't usually do that in public. Tell me it's like I'm going to call you Bob or Walt. Hey, if I can make one person cry on this show, I've done my job. Tell me though, if you you've appeared on spirit or radio,

as we mentioned a few times and you speak very highly of Dave Farrow and Scott Turner, who's the host of the show and you have good relations with Alan Cross, who's a consultant there. Is there any possibility at all of you ever returning to 102.1? And just, cause the movie, cause I'm, this chat, I've pictured the movie, we got the great scenes and some great stuff

going on in this movie. But we need a closing to the meeting, we need to finish to the movie. Do you know there is a movie? Are you familiar with that? No, there's a movie? I was going to do this. It's called I Am What I Play.

It was produced by Roger, Roger King. Roger King. Okay. And it's called I Am What I Play. I didn't know this. and there are four DJs involved Three of them are from the United States and one is from Canada. It's like a documentary It's yeah, but I've not seen it. I Spent minimum 15 hours being interviewed for it on camera and you've never seen it. No

I'm totally curious. Is this coming out in it? No, it hasn't been released. Aren't you curious? Of course I am, I'm totally curious. Is this coming out in 2015? Well, what has happened is the movie, Charles Lacadara is on it, you might know him, Meg is on it, and the guy from Seattle. What it is, is it's us, the four DJs, talking about the passion that we have for the music, sharing, communication.

It has been picked up by a major distributor in the US, and it's expected that when the film festival season arrives in America, that the film will be shown at quite a few. I'm probably Sundance and those kinds of Tribeca and that's all I know about it. You can see a trailer of it by going to Iamwhatiam.com I think it is or I am what I am if you want. I'll Google this. Yeah Google. And none of the four of us, the four DJs, have been permitted to see the movie until its premiere.

Interesting. And we're going to be there to see it. That's wicked. And I guess we're going to walk that Ben Mulroney's red carpet. Yeah. Ryan Seacrest will be there. You know, this is ruining though my idea. Mine's a biopic. This is a documentary, which is cool. I can't wait to see this and I'm going to see the trailer.

Have a look at the trailer. I've only seen the trailer since a few weeks ago when Roger released it. And you know, you think documentary, you think, oh yeah, that'll be boring. But this guy Roger has turned it in. It's very exciting. So next year at this time when they announce the Oscar nominations, we should be looking for a best documentary nomination. Well, it's been quite a thrill actually because it's been an ongoing project. I think we're in three years into it now. You're catching up with boyhood. That's awesome. I didn't know there was a talk about it. for 12 years. You see, FNY, I'm always open to anything that's interesting to talk about. Like has anyone there asked you for coffee? I think that's the code for let's talk business, right? Let's go for coffee.

I'll just have to say no comment. No comment. Oh, you're teased. But you know, if you listen when I was on with Scott, I did say that it's nice to be back home. And then I said, I wonder if they'll let me stay. And that brings us to the end of our 1,444th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca,

Raymond James Canada, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, and Ridley funeral home. Get well soon, David Marsden. We love you, man. And wander around And drink some goodness from a tin It's my UI check, ask, just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is coming out

Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the sun's so Warm to me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is

Rosie and Grey