Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Glen Baxter: Toronto Mike'd #997

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

In this episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Glen Baxter about his years on MuchMusic and CityTV and why he moved to the Fashion Television Channel. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

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cannacabana.com Joining me this week making his Toronto Mike debut is Glenn Baxter. The dancers need a dance floor The swingers gotta swing Fashionable people

Doing questionable things. Fashionable, fashionable, fashionable people. Fashionable, fashionable, fashionable. Glenn Baxter, welcome to Toronto Mic, buddy. Thank you so much for Mic'd, buddy. Thank you so much for having me, Mike. Appreciate it. Especially on Valentine's Day.

I'm wearing some red for you. Happy Valentine's Day to you. Will you be my Valentine today, Glenn? I sure will. I can't be your 1,000th podcast, so I'll be happy to be your Valentine's instead. Well, close, man. What's it, nine?

Congratulations. 997. 997. Pretty darn close, though. And's it? Congratulations. Nine, nine, nine, nine, seven, 997. Pretty darn close though. And if it makes you feel any better, there's no single individual that gets to be episode 1000. I know, yeah. It's a great idea. Great idea to have a greatest hits and some great quotes and commentary from

your past guests. Yeah. But congratulations. This is pretty impressive. Well, thanks so much. And shout out to Joel Plaskett, who I like to think of as a future FOTM. Because when I, when I, I can't even remember now, like maybe I, it might be a LinkedIn thing. I feel like I saw your name on LinkedIn. You know what it was? Yeah. I think I know what it was. Tell me. So it was LinkedIn. And it was, I think, a couple of weeks ago on the anniversary

of David Bowie's passing. And a great photographer who you may know in Toronto, David Lays, sent me a few snapshots, like four or five snapshots that he took way back in the 90s when I was at Much Music. And I was on the red carpet with David Bowie. And I remember, I think it was the weekend. And I woke up and turned my phone on and I'm scrolling. All of a sudden, I see this message and I open it up and I see these pictures. And you know what? To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I interviewed David Bowie. So when I saw these pictures and they weren't just like posed pictures in front of his camera. They were sort of like candid action shots on the red carpet in front of Much Music during the MMVA.

MMVA is the Much Music Video Awards back in 1999, when David Bowie was not only a guest, but he performed in the parking lot as part of the live telecast. And as a City TV entertainment reporter, it was my job on behalf of the host station to interview all the people on the red carpet. But that whole period of our lives is a bit of a blur. And I had no recollection of interviewing David Bowie. And then when I saw these pictures, I was like, you know, I was like floored. The only thing I remember of that event with David Bowie was I was doing the weekend news back then for City TV. And during the day, I was heading out the building to grab some takeout, some lunch. And during the day before the show, all the bands are rehearsing. All the tech guys

are there, the sound engineers, the floor directors, the producers. And David Bowie was on stage on a beautiful summer afternoon on the weekend, 10 feet away from the sidewalk on Queen Street West near John Street. And he's rehearsing with his band. And I walked out, we had eye contact, and we both kind of smiled at each other. And I remember walking away thinking, okay, this is insane. David Bowie is like 10 feet away from the sidewalk and passersby will get to see him interact with his band, be himself. It was better than any backstage pass that you could ever get, right? I mean, and that's all I remember. And then when I got these pictures just a few weeks ago, I was like, oh, okay, that happened.

And it kind of like made my day, made me smile. Oh, so much there. I mean, you say insane. I say Aladdin sane. But that's right, right? That's how you sort of maybe came across my name as a possible guest for your podcast. So this is kind of how my brain works is that you know because there's you know this is 997 but there's probably to be honest with you there's probably 10 000 conversations i want to have maybe more but it's like glenn baxter i would love to talk to glenn

baxter uh but it's like not necessarily top of mind at the moment but then i i saw these pictures and i'm like i wonder if glenn would talk to me like that would be really cool and then you were game which thank you so much of course of course flattered like it tells you what kind of life you've had that you forgot about the david bowie like and who would who like serious but it's i listened to four uh podcasts uh from beginning to end before coming on board with you today. Okay. But before you proceed, are you going to tell me, you're going to tell me which four? Yeah, sure.

Okay. You can do that now, or you can do it after your story. It's up to you. I'll do it right now. So, so Gord, Gord Martineau. Right. And one of the reasons was Gord actually commented on that LinkedIn post with the David Bowie pictures. And he said something very, very flattering that brought me to tears. And then there was Bill Wilichka, who I love. That's a recent one.

A while back. Yeah. And oh, Phil Guerrero, PJ Phil. And it's funny, we can go on about this a little later if you like. But I had Phil over, he's a friend of mine, and I had him over on my terrace this summer. And I call it the therapy terrace because people go out there and have a few drinks. And then, you know, it's like your podcast was exactly the conversation that PJ, Phil and I, and the exchange we had on my terrace, except with lots of vodka and tequila. So it was the same conversation, but a different energy. And the other one was Terry David Mulligan, who you just had a long ago. And Terry, it's the same thing. He also has sort of memory lapses from that era, right? And I could totally relate to some of his moments where he couldn't remember certain things.

Because there was a lot there, and we're getting on with age. Okay, so if you had listened to these four episodes and they were just complete garbage, would you have said, oh, sorry, Mike, my schedule filled up. I can't do this anymore. No, but that didn't even come to mind because, hey, listen, when you invited me and I

clicked on to your roster of guests and there's Mike D. Oh, you mean Chuck D? Oh, Chuck D, sorry. Although Mike D would be great too. It's Mike Diamond, yeah, from Beastie Boys. I would love that too. I mean, you got Chuck D, sorry. Although Mike D would be great too. It's Mike Diamond, yeah, from Beastie Boys. I would love that too. I mean, you got Chuck D, legendary public enemy artist. So I thought, okay,

yeah, sure. Yeah, if I can do, I guess if I could slum it with Glenn Baxter after a Chuck D. Are those Chuck D's? So Chuck D has handlers, okay? So I'm not, you didn't have handlers. Most of my guests, like 99.99% of my guests, I just99 of my guests i just talk directly to the guest and we just do it like we're doing now but chuck d of course is chuck d

so i spoke to his handler and she told me she goes 20 minutes don't ask about flavor flave okay this is just before i press record i'm in the back of the band shell to record with him so it's like of course i want to ask about flavor flave i'm a huge polygamy guy and it's like don't and so i had if you don't he'll he'll at the end he'll go well why didn't he bring up oh yeah and the whole 20 minutes thing is like well you know i guess i'll make the exception for chuck d but normally i won't play that game to be honest but it's chuck d i said okay 20 minutes so i'm like okay 20 minutes uh and then at about the 20 minute mark well firstly i kind of figured out a way to get him to bring up Flavor Flav. So I did do what I wanted to do,

but I just kind of, I didn't, won't say I tricked him, but I figured I had to like get myself off the hook. But then at the 20 minute mark, Chuck's having a blast. He's talking, now he's talking basketball and Raptors and he's really into it. And I look over and the woman's looking at me

and she does some kind of a wrap up signal. Yeah, wrap it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? Well, you know, and, and I've, I've dealt throughout my career with, with people who hold that position. And a lot of the times they're just trying to, you know, validate their paycheck, right? They're just trying to stand in the way between you and their client. But, but really, you know, the, the client in the end, once you, once that door is open, it's it's all yours to, to, to work, right?

It's yours to discover. Yeah, quick public enemy story before we get into this. I remember being with City TV. I remember how we used to do live eyes all the time for the late news. And we used to get the live truck and set up somewhere. And I was the arts and entertainment reporter. So it would be my job to pick a venue, pick an event, pick something. And I think it was 99 Opera House, Public Enemy. And we had set up and it's a crazy job because you basically are a one man show on late night news and on the

weekends, you're the producer, reporter, writer, everything. And it's always a race against time because the news goes on at a certain hour and you can't have all be, give me two minutes. No, no, no at the opera house, but it was, you know, public enemy. We're on the balcony. And I think they were, yeah, I think we, like it was magic. Like they were on stage and it was an intimate venue and I'm up there and it's loud and I'm, and I'm throwing, and I'm setting up the live performance and then the camera takes a live shot and people at home are watching Public Enemy live as it happens on,

on, uh, from the opera house. You know, those were like such memorable, amazing, uh, TV moments. Well, I love getting a taste of all this off the top actually, because you should know that, uh, prior to a certain change of ownership, uh, City TV was my go-to news. Like as a, as a young man, I just thought that was the coolest vibe, that environment. And to this day, I'm friends with a lot of people who... I got my Sunday night phone call from Peter Gross yesterday, and I go, did you ever cross paths with

Glenn Baxter? He doesn't think he crossed paths with you, but you might have been there at the same time. He's a little hazy. And I heard you speak about Peter Gross with Gord Martineau. And I look at your lineup, your roster of guests over the years, and a lot of them have spent time at 299 Queen Street West. Well, that's not a coincidence, my friend.

Yeah, you go to what you know, right? So it's sort of like, yeah. In fact, Dana Levinson, who's become a dear friend, Dana Levinson was on CFTO for 19 years. I didn't know her at all. Complete blank. And it's like, because it's a complete,

and I know that's the most popular, like by eyeballs. That's number one in the city. Complete black hole to me. You know, now we're dear friends and I'm kind of catching up, but that's why there's less CFTO personalities. Cause they're like,

I'm discovering them now in my forties. It's like, oh, I miss, you know, this era. But speaking of 290, speaking of the whole, you know, Moses Zneimer empire, I'm going to just open with a recollection. Okay. So we lost Ivan Reitman. Did you hear this news? Yes. Yes. I woke up to that news and, you know, lots to talk about with Ivan Reitman.

I've only met him once and it was when he opened his great restaurant on Adelaide Street, not far from MuchMusicCityTV, 289 Queen Street West headquarters. And he was hosting us. So we were about eight people and it was like a tasting influencers, media types, and he was a gracious host and that restaurant really meant a lot to him. Unfortunately, it closed about a year ago before he passed away. And that whole lot, you know that sort of block, that's where the TIFF Bell lightbox is? Absolutely. I bike by it all the time. Absolutely. So that was owned by the Reitmans and it was donated to TIFF.

And, you know, that's when TIFF kind of took their organization to the next level by setting up, you know, a headquarters and a cinema and an office space. And that was through Ivan Reitman. Now, Ivan Reitman, I know him as as the obviously I know him for you know Meatballs and Stripes and Ghostbusters I could go on and on and his kids are awfully talented too

Jason yeah of course the work in moms on CBC is on like season 7 or something and that's her creation so but he spoke at my U of T convocation so he was the keynote Ivan Reitman this is like... Drilling. That's awesome.

Late 90s. Talented guy. Like I mentioned, talented kids. But his first gig was at City TV and he was fired by Moses Snymer. And I pulled a clip.

So I just want to credit... Oh, awesome. FOTM Ed Conroy, who people know better as Retro Ontario. He's provided me with this clip. So we're going to listen for a couple of minutes, and then we'll talk on the other side here.

I don't know how many other people got fired from City TV, but it certainly happened to me. It was just six months after I started working there. It was good for me because then I could get on with the rest of my career. But Moses, who I understand is hosting this evening, was kind enough to give me a job when I needed it the most. I was broke. I was looking for something to do. And I'd never worked in television.

In fact, I'd never worked for anybody before. And frankly, I've never worked for anybody since, because I got fired. We don't care how you do it, as long as you don't wind all the toilet paper. That was it. Terrific. paper that was it terrific greed was a terrific show it was live it was 90 minutes every saturday night congratulations and zap katroni from joliet parish prison in new orleans louisiana we have for you a sony battery operated solid state portable radio from the masters of techtronix Sony. The other show that I did was Sweet City Women. It was on at about 4 o'clock every single day,

and I guess it started the career of Patricia Murphy, someone I went to university with. She was the hostess. We had a lot of interesting segments. One was called Losing It I think Losing It was a weight program with a 300 pound host called Monica Parker

there's an astrology section and there was something about all about men Linda Haynes I think was the hostess of that and I think the most important part of that show was her asking men about their sex lives I've never been able to be true to a woman why not I don't know I'm too weak I love

women I have to have a woman every day a different one well I used to do you feel you're outgrowing that? Sort of. Because don't you think that's sort of a very childish attitude? I guess so. Maybe I'm a hog. I think, yeah. It's a possibility. No, but I love it. I love to make love. I thought it was a terrific show, but nobody watched.

Maybe that's why I got fired. There's Ivan Reitman. A blessing in disguise, getting fired. Best thing that ever happened to him. And yeah, you recognize the voice, of course, Dan Aykroyd's on that old City TV clip. Wow. What era was that?

What year are we looking at? Definitely early 70s, I want to say. This is, and it makes me think. So I didn't watch any City TV in the 70s because I was busy watching TVO because I was, or Sesame Street and, you know, Mr. Dress Up. any city TV in the seventies because I was busy watching TVO because I was, or, uh, Sesame street and, you know,

Mr. Dress up. This was no friendly giant, sorry, friendly giant, but these were my jams back in the seventies cause I'm a bit young for that. But I just thought it's very interesting to start my chat with you by playing the Ivan Reitman clip about his six months at city TV working for Moses before

he got fired. Yeah, yeah. Oh, best thing that could have happened to him. Without a doubt. So where do I begin with you? Well, maybe I'll say hello to you from Naomi Parnes, who heard you were coming on. So how do you know Naomi? Well, we talked briefly about my stint at City TV and Much Music, but I spent the second half of my career in that building at 299 Queen Street West, working for the Fashion Television Channel.

And that's how I know Naomi, who's the co-founder of a great Toronto, long-lasting Toronto label, Rock and Karma. She used to be in Yorkville. Now she has a great shop on Queen Street West, West or West Queen Street West. And that's how we know each other through the fashion community. Amazing. I'm actually producing a podcast that she hosts called Mind Over Matter about a woman's brain health. Very interesting stuff. And I've got to know it quite well. And now you know pretty much why I opened the episode with a song called Fashionable People. Yeah. Well, it all makes sense. Yeah. But yeah, thank you. So we'll bring you back and then we're going to do a little, as you know, it's kind of, I try to keep it chronological and I'll mess up now and then, but you're a Montreal guy. You're

not a Toronto, you're born in Montreal. That's right. Yeah. I left Montreal in the mid-80s to study journalism at Ryerson. And I thought I'd come here, get a degree, and head back to Montreal. But as soon as I arrived, I started working for the French CBC part-time as a student. And one job led to another. And it was always because of my bilingualism, because of my French. So I ended up staying here. And that wasn't the original plan. And of course, I have no regrets. No regrets at all. And it is also true that at this time you have a brief stint, I suppose, at YTV? Yeah. So when I was a Ryerson student, I started working with the French CBC as a morning traffic reporter on the morning radio show, even though I never owned a car.

But it was a great paying gig. And, you know, all my classmates were jealous. You know, you're like a couple of years into journalism and you're the morning traffic reporter. And I was working next to Jim Curran, who was doing it for Metro Morning in the afternoons, English CBC show. And then I'd head to classes, et cetera. And then I took a year off, traveled around the Mediterranean for a year, let my hair grow. And when I came back, I went to visit all my friends in the French CBC newsroom. And they said, listen, we're starting a new weekly half hour arts and entertainment show. We have our host and we have one reporter. The reporter will be covering all

the ballet, Toronto Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company. We need someone to do a little more youthful street stories. So they said, here's a camera, go do a story. If we like it, you're hired. So it was that easy back then. Now, if you're going to apply for the CBC, it's a two and a half month procedure with all kinds of interviews and tapes and whatever. So I did that. And then with the Mulroney cuts from the Conservative Party back then, they shut down the TV station. And then I end up the next day working for French TVO. And then I end up the next day working for French TVO. Worst experience of my life. It was like horrible.

I ended up quitting, getting fired and filing a grievance in that order. But we won't get into that. Oh, but how much can you give me a taste? I don't need, you know, anything that gets you in trouble. But like, you know, you got to give me a little more than that. Well, it just felt like it was at Young and Eglinton. And I didn't feel after, you know, after working at the CDC that I was working in a creative milieu that it felt like an accountant's office on the sixth floor of an office building. And most of the people back then that ran the French TVO, I think had backgrounds in French school teaching or whatever. They weren't like, and anyway, so we kind of butted heads and I thought, okay, this isn't working out. I'm just going to quit.

They said, but can you please stay? We still need you to host a few shows. So instead of working Monday to Friday as a producer host, just come in and record the co-hosting on Tuesdays. So I did that, but they were doing that in order to get, anyways, so, you know, I get a call from my co-host that there's a letter on your desk and I said, open it and read it. Okay. They're firing you, but they were doing it in a way that would absolve them from paying me an extra two weeks or something. So I didn't show up and then they

weren't paying me. So I filed the grievance and the guy goes, listen, they're offering you half, just take it. So that's, and then after that, it was devastating So I filed the grievance. And the guy goes, listen, they're offering you half. Just take it. And then after that, it was devastating. I thought I would never work in the industry again. It really shook me up. And it was terrible. But the one saving grace was I remember when we were developing that youth magazine show, there was two shows that they really admired that they wanted to sort of emulate. One was Peche d'Enfer, which was a show out of France.

And the other one was a show called Street Noise from YTV. So that was my saving grace because after not working for a few months, I went in. And unlike PJ Phil, I don't have that personality. I mean, I love Phil, right? He's one of a kind. And I get a guy who says, listen, they're looking for PJs or something. And I didn't really understood what the gig was. So I went in there and I think I read from a children's book and totally bombed. But I brought my demo tape and I left my demo tape with a few stories that I had produced and appeared in and my resume.

And then the next day I got a call and it was from the producers of Street Noise and they hired me right away so I spent the summer I think it was three months working behind the camera producing segments for an award-winning youth show that is that was groundbreaking at the time Street Noise. Amazing and you know just to go back to PJ Fresh Phil I will say that it was a fairly early episode of these 1000 and it, I still remember how surreal it was to kind of have Phil at the table. Like it was sort of like, yeah, this is why I'm doing this. Cause you know, PJ Fresh Phil will come over. You know what I mean?

No, but it was, it was a great one. What a great podcast. The first half of the podcast was a discussion on Phil's experience at YTV and being, you know, like the face of YTV. And you mentioned other PJs who passed through those doors that none of us would know today. I mean, not to say that they haven't gone on to do amazing things, but as far as the PJ world, it's PJ Phil. Oh, I understand. Yeah. And he can't cross the street without people coming up to him. And I grew up on you, dude. It's an amazing phenomenon.

And then the second half of your interview was his years post-YTV, when he was in LA and was broke and was doing stand-up comedy. He was a fashion designer. That's the conversation I had this summer with him on the terrace over several drinks. And it's like the stories are endless. I mean, I remember because I legit, like I was a big,

I would go to the Phoenix every Monday night for Strange Paradise and he was a regular. Like he would, and he would just, moshing was kind of in vogue as long, you know, you could get kicked out. I was kicked out many a times for moshing. Sounds like this crazy time. Yeah, I got kicked out of the Phoenix for moshing.

But, you know, PJ kind of was a one-man mosh pit at times, sort of like a Tasmanian devil or something. And it was like, we all like, everybody's around my vintage, and we're all like, that's PJ Fresh Phil. Like, give the man his space, let him do his thing. But that's why TV's Phil. So shout out to PJ Fresh Phil if he's listening.

You mentioned Jim Curran. I know he retired fairly recently. I just wondered if you're still in touch with Jim. No, no. I'd love to hear his voice again. And I have absolutely beautiful memories of, and back then it was before they built the headquarters, right? On John Street in front the cbc back then was like spread out over jarvis and mutual street there was i think 17 buildings in total and metro morning uh was brought was being broadcast out of a a film um uh theater on uh parliament street south of wellesley um i forget the name of it and we'd walk in there and there'd be all the chairs and stuff. And by the stage, he'd have his desk with all the scanners and the police scanners and the TTC.

And I would, and he's listening to the guys who were up in the helicopters. And so he had all that information and I'm sitting next to him and I'm like piggybacking on all of his information. And I'm, you know, and I'm a full-time student. So some days I haven't slept because I've been up all night writing essays and stuff. And I'd be like baseball cap and sweatpants because it's radio, nobody knows. And I'd never driven before and I'm new to Toronto. And I'd say, I'd always like fall back

on the same kind of bits, you know, c'est par choc contre par choc sur Le Gardenaire en direction ouest à l'approche de Jameson. You know, it's like bumper to bumper on Le Gardenaire approaching Jameson. Like's like bumper to bumper on the Gardner approaching Jameson. They were the go-tos. But then you get reports on Watermain that are broken or accidents.

But what a sweetheart, that guy. And that was his career. I think he had done it for a couple of decades, right? At least. I feel like more, maybe 40 years or something. I mean, I listened to a lot of Andy Barry and then Matt Galloway. I mean, I listened to a lot of Metro Morning.

So he was just a voice that was just a consistent, pleasant voice there every single day. Soothing and gentleman, right? Right. Yeah. Amazing man. Got to find out. Now, because you mentioned Parliament, I just want to let all the FOTMs listening know that there is a Canna Cabana location on Parliament in the east end of the city.

And Canna Cabana was created by and for people who love weed, love to smoke it, buy it, chat about it, and share it with their friends. So I want to thank Canna Cabana for jumping on board and sponsoring Toronto Mic'd and fueling this real talk. And I would just like to urge everybody to sign up to the Cabana Club because there's always a sale going on you could be the first in the know if you uh sign up so that's canacabana.com and uh i have andy from canacabana actually kicking out the weed jams with me tomorrow so glenn you're 997 andy will be 998 doug sm of the Toronto Star is 999. And then if all goes according to plan, Thursday morning, episode 1,000 drops. And if my media team, which is me, myself, and I,

we're looking for coverage in the Toronto Star and on Here and Now, which is the Jill Deacon. CBC, yeah, amazing. Speaking of CBC Radio 1. Great, great recognition. Congratulations. This is good. Thank you.

No, keep that coming, man. No, just kidding. That's awesome. French TVO sounds like a, I know you're not giving too much detail there, but it sounds like you settled for half of what you thought you deserved and you moved on with your career.

Like who quits, gets fired, and files a grievance in that order. Anyways. Yeah. Shout out to Steve Pagan. But I'm like Ivan Reitman. It was a blessing in disguise. So the three months at YTV, I come home one day and there's a message on my voicemail and it's in French and it's some guy impersonating Moses Neimer. And I thought it was one of my buddies playing a joke. And then he switches from French to English.

And once he was speaking in English, I went, no, no, this is Moses Neimer. Yeah, you could tell that cadence he has is very distinctive. Oh, my God. Yeah. And so he called me and he hired me to work at MuchMusic, primarily at the beginning as an arts and entertainment reporter, cultural reporter for Facts, which was a daily live half hour weekly show on Much Music, co-hosted by Monica Deol and Lance Chilton. And then I was like the new kid in Much Music and ended up working in

that building for 20 years straight. Wow. Okay. Moses calls you directly. So here, okay. So I don't actually have any Glenn Baxter on fax, but I just, I have that, I have that audio clip if you want to hear it. Yeah. No, no, I don't. I don't. But wouldn't that be cool? The thing I love about your podcast that sets it apart from most podcasts are the, you know, the, the, the audio clips, the videos that you're able to, to, to put on. Okay. So I don't know where you get those. That's pretty impressive. So here, let me play a little tape. It won't be you, but it'll be Monica Duel, but let's hear a little to get a feeling for this.

This hour in rapid facts, she's going straight to the top, but for Janet Jackson, that's just the way love goes. But the big leap on the charts this week is in the rap singles category, where Illegal's Head or Gatch debuted at number one, an amazing feat completed almost entirely by word of mouth. Not bad for a song that's been banned by most American radio and video outlets because of its lyrics, which incidentally are rapped by 13 and

14-year-olds. The song Head or Guts is from Illegal's debut album, The Untold Truth, which will be out on Rowdy Records in August. And that's Rapid Facts at this hour. Stay tuned for Facts tonight at 7.30 and 11.30. We'll continue our coverage of the Tory Leadership Convention where Ziggy goes head-to-head with Kim Campbell

and we'll take you live to Ottawa with Erica M and Master T. That's all coming up on the big show on Facts. See you then. So, think about that. This is an era where much is sending correspondence to cover the. You've just transported me. I, for a few seconds there, I was in the much environment and I was at my desk and I looked over and

there's Monica live on the air doing a rapid facts, rapid facts were hourly interstitials leading up to the show, which was in the evening, I think six o'clock or five o'clock. I forget. But during the whole day from noon till then were hourly sort of updates. So news, like somebody passes away or some news, and you're promoting the upcoming, you know, half hour live show. And I got to do those as well, because, you know, Monica might be doing a story, whatever. So it's like, who's around from the fax team? Okay, Glenn, you're doing the interstitials today. So while you're working, you have to jump out and it's all live and you're in the middle of the environment. There's maybe a band setting up because they're doing a live

performance. And it was like an unbelievable, unique place to work. And I remember the first time I walked into those doors, I have to tell you this story because it just came to me. So I'm from, I had worked at, you know, because a lot of people, like you had Bill Wilichka, who was 22 years old when he started working there, right? Right out of school. When I got there, I was in my late twenties and I had already worked at the French CBC radio, French CBC television, French TVO and YTV. So I had a bit of experience, but I remember walking into the much music environment, which was, you know, a workplace, a newsroom, you know, a studio, and there's so much going on. But the one thing I remember was walking in

and seeing all of the on-air personalities, some of which have been on your show, like Kim Clark Chatnest is there, and there's Steve Anthony, and there's Erica M., and Michael Williams, and, you know, Lance Chilton and Teresa Ronca. They're all there and they're all in one room. And it felt like an amphitheater. It felt like gladiators, like on-air people battling for airtime and for, you know, the interview and the show and who was going to. Like it was like a room full of like egos and personalities. And it was like so intimidating and weird to walk into that

environment. Okay. Tell me what it was like working with Monica Dior, like specifically. Yeah. I love Monica and we still keep in touch to this day. And I have a lot of love for her. She was very supportive and very helpful to help me navigate that crazy world because she was, I think at the time, the biggest star in that building. The biggest star. And I'll tell you why. Well, first of all, all of the on-air time that she had, all of the different shows that she was given. So she was the 6 o'clock entertainment news anchor. She was the co-host of Facts, which unlike City TV was Cross Canada.

City TV was Cross Canada. She was, of course, as we all know, the host, the original host, the one and only of Electric Circus, one of the most talked about shows to come out of that building every Friday night live, an hour and a half. And for a while, she was hosting a show called Ooh La La, which was like a spinoff of fashion television. So she had all of these shows, all of this like a television exposure at the time before, of course, the internet and everything else that we see online. Like I remember just watching her cross the street to go to the convenience store to pick up a, you know, something to eat or what she would be mobbed. She couldn't, you know, everybody like talking to her like, and she was so good at what she did. Right. And the fact that she came and represented the South Asian community like she did before, I think, before anyone at that level.

And she handled it beautifully. And she was really, she was a great writer. She was great on air. Yeah, lots of love for Monica. My goodness, my friend. This show spends an awful lot of time talking about electric circus. So shout out to Jay gold, uh,

as I call him, but Joe, Joel Goldberg. Yeah. Yeah. Joel Goldberg. Yep. Who actually speaking of episode thousand.

Uh, so I've been building it over the last couple. Here's a little, how the sausage is made, if you will, is that it's a, it's a monster. So I can't just like build it on Wednesday night or whatever.

So it's been, I've been kind of chipping away at it over the last couple of weeks. How long have you been working on piecing it all together? About two weeks now, to be honest. In in fact just before we met on zoom here i uh was piecing together the last two percent actually like i'm gonna put this is gonna be from beginning to end when i don't even know if i don't even want to say except it's going to set a record but uh it's it's a big one and uh yeah but uh so joel goldberg one of the co-creators of electric circus like this whole uh and again fotms i've heard this story a million times but the cowboy dancer like

i will have on like a dwight drummond or a maestro fresh west and we'll talk about the cowboy kenrick who uh it turned out would father two major league baseball players yeah so i didn't know that right but this was a guy who spent a lot of time in the gym right he was a big guy he uh he recorded his shirt off a lot and he recorded a 12-inch single called summertime summertime because he clearly wanted to be like in this era early 90s or like he wanted to be like a dance he would rap in this 12-inch single called summer summertime sometime But for those who love the Blue Jays, everybody who loves the Jays knows

the name Dalton Pompey. Well, the Cowboy is Dalton's dad. Wow, I did not know that. But that's the thing with Electric Circus. There are so many people that were involved with that show, whether it was behind the scenes or dancing on a riser every Friday night for,

for, for airtime. Like, like even to this day, like I still work with and, and have interaction with people who have an electric story past. Right. I mean, it, and, and, and like, for me, I was like doing the late news on Fridays. Right. And for a while, I had a show after the 11 o'clock newscast called Last Call. It was a phone-in show. So from 11.30 till midnight, I kept going.

But on Friday nights, that building would vibrate. It was on fire, right? You had everybody on the sidewalk, on the street, just yelling, screaming. They'd had guests. I'd go to the washroom, the men's washroom. And it looked like a locker room. They'd be like, everybody's spraying themselves with perfume because they're sweating for 90 minutes, dancing hard under bright TV lights and stuff. But it was like an amazing energy-filled building. And then after the show, we'd all go to the clubs. That was in the nineties.

That whole area was club land. There were more bars and clubs in one square mile than New York City or Miami or anywhere else in North America. And you'd walk out there, especially in the summer. And it was insane. It's so different from when I first moved to Toronto. I came to study journalism at Ryerson in the mid 80s, late 80s. And the first year, I was going to Montreal every other weekend because there was no nightlife here. It was Sunday, everything was closed. You could hear a pin drop. Last call was at 1, which meant that you better line up at the bar at 1230 because it's over, right? Happy hour was illegal. You had to travel blocks to go to the beer store. It was fun without laws.

These blue laws, right? But then in the 90s, things completely changed for this city. Wow. And hearing you talk, and I do remember the 90s vividly, like in this city that you could almost feel the the pulse of like uh uh the basically the kinetic energy of the city but a lot of it was like ruminating from 299 queen west like a lot of it that was sort of like a focus point you you started this chat talking about david bowie like he's there and you know queen and john he's kind of doing his thing there and now we're talking electric circus but like do you ever look back and say like i was there like i was a part of that oh we all do we all do i mean everybody who

experienced uh that workplace uh feels you know like just i don't know how to describe it there's there's a facebook group the chum whatever and it's it's all of us who've worked in that building, who share memories and share stories and photos. Like, yeah, it was an amazing place to work. It was a privilege, creativity milieu to work in, where you had complete creative freedom. As you know, a lot of your guests have spoken about that, and it will never be duplicated in a time where Toronto was completely transforming and on Queen Street which was the arguably hippest street in the city you had this box that kind of like sat there and helped to energize helped to promote the artists I mean now if you watch any kind of entertainment show it it's about, you know, haircuts and who broke up with who and whatever.

Back then we gave airtime to a lot of artists, small theater, fine artists, indie bands, just, you know what I mean? Like people who, and we just kind of took it for granted that this, this was the way to do things. And, but now it's like, if you bring a camera, TV camera to a small theater, they're like through the moon because it never, never, never happens. And the monetary value-

Well, that's what I'm doing. That's what I'm here to do, right? I'm here to- That airtime is immeasurable. But back then we really supported and gave airtime to so much, so many of the artists in this city and across Canada

who normally would not be heard or seen. Well, I just today, coincidentally this morning, I was chatting with Mo Berg from Pursuit of Happiness. And of course, I'm an Adult Now was filmed in the parking lot. Well, now the mech is there. The mech is, but it was Queen and Spadina. And, you know, that got high. Like that was, I think it's 89, I want to say.

But I'm an Adult Now gets high rotation on Much Music. You know, this is Moe Berg and the pursuit of happiness. You know, Moe came from Edmonton and now he's a proud Torontonian. But like today it would be, not that there is anything like Much Music. It's not existing today on TV,

but it would be today would be, you know, The Weeknd and Bieber. It would be a completely different, polished, overproduced vibe as opposed to what we were kind of getting in the late 80s, early 90s there. Yeah. Unbelievable.

Okay. So Monica D, all we cover there, but a quick word because I haven't actually had the pleasure of speaking with this gentleman yet. Lance Chilton. What was he like? I think he's a real estate agent now, I think.

Am I right? That's right. Yeah, yeah. He walked away from the whole broadcasting thing. And I think he's a real estate agent now, I think. Am I right? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. He walked away from the whole broadcasting thing. And I think he's, yeah, he's currently a real estate agent in Barrie. He married someone who worked in the newsroom. So yeah. And that happened a lot back then. I mean, people were paired up. Right. Because we were all kind of, you know, like we were all working together and we were all

socializing together. We all, you know, worked the crazy hours and then we'd go to the concerts that we had free tickets to this and that so we were always spending a lot of time together and a lot of uh people were coupled in that building but he he married uh went to but he yeah in my eyes lance was like the ultimate broadcaster right chiseled features and perfect delivery and perfect hair and yeah he was a pro he was a pro. He was really good. And long time at the, I think they were branding at the new VR at the time. I feel like he was on the, the Barry. Oh, you're right. He was the anchor. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. After he left, that's, that's correct. He was a six o'clock news anchor. And don't get me started

on the statute of limitations on calling anything the new, because they call that the new VR for like 15 years. I mean, at some point, right? Good point. It's not new anymore. Okay, so I'm going to play a little bit of you because then I'm going to, well, then we'll talk a little bit more about your, you know, City TV, much music time here.

But here, this is actually you, not Monica Duhul. Here we go. Very tumultuous inside of himself or he had very conflicting feelings about that. I'd really rather the people not even think about me as a face or a name or a body and just come and listen really. When most artists would kill to have the attention that you're getting. Well, that's great and the music business is really actually made for them.

What made you so clued in? What makes you so smart to sort of think this out at your young age and your relative inexperience? How did you get to be so wise about the whole industry? Am I wise? More than most. I'll tell you why. Pure, unadulterated concentration of experience

because I pretty much grew up in southern california and when enough you know every time i picked up a guitar there was a friend of the family who was a failed you know musician or in their mind failed not in my mind because i loved them but they would take me aside and give me the talk all my life as a child and then i went to you know i lived in hollywood i lived in los angeles and you see people, like the turnover is amazing, people getting signed, dreams being inflated and just bang, bang, bang. I really admire great artists. I mean, totally admire great artists that have, that, you know,

were allowed to fail, were allowed to be human, were allowed to make the most glorious dances they could ever imagine and totally fall and get back up because it's all human. He was pretty sure he would be making a choice of one kind or another very soon, but that he wanted to get the best deal possible. Okay, now we haven't said the name of that individual. Glenn, do you know who you were interviewing there? Yeah, without a doubt.

And what a thoughtful clip. What a thoughtful response to my question. And it's funny because that, for some reason, I get asked a lot about that interview in that moment. People on Twitter who come across, it's from a documentary, right? And who come across this and they want to they they ask me if i have the raw footage they want they want more you know they they because there's so much respect and love for jeff buckley right and it's one of those things where uh you know because we lost jeff so so young when he was just starting to peak like in fact i think was grace released posthumously maybe like

literally now he's probably best known for his cover of leonard cohen's hallelujah but i think he dies i think before that album comes out although i have to check my uh check my facts there but bottom line is you know i can't get jeff buckley on toronto white it's like the fact that that exists your conversation with him and like you said yeah he was so thoughtful. And I feel like you had something to do with that. I don't know about that. But I do remember, you know, I do remember it. I do remember where it was, first of all.

It wasn't in much music. It was actually at Ultrasound, X-Rays, right? Which was a two-story bar and concert venue at the corner of Queen and Duncan. And we were, I think it was owned or co-owned by Dan Aykroyd. And we, Jeff and I, were at the bar sitting on stools and we had, you know, shoulder camera, no additional lights, very kind of casual. And we just had a nice conversation. And I remember also, I talked about this not too long ago with, do you know Yvonne, who was booking the bands in that venue? I think she, yeah. Anyways. Yeah. So that's obviously a highlight, a career highlight to have had that opportunity and a privilege to spend time with one of the most amazing and respected and accomplished, well, youngane there, of course. But tell me, what are the most memorable conversations

that you look back at your time in the Moses Empire there at MuchMusic and City TV? What were the people you spoke to that kind of still stick out in your cranium? That is such a difficult question and I should have a great answer. But people ask you, you've interviewed so many people. What was the best interview? And it's impossible. I didn't even know I interviewed David Bowie and I look at those pictures again and it's like, we look like we're having fun on that red carpet. He's got a hand cam, he's cigarette. I don't know. There's just, there's so many. And the thing is with working at City TV and Much Music, it wasn't just the Jeff Buckleys. It was also

the top filmmakers and actors. It was also the great contemporary dancers and even writers. It was the whole gamut of all the disciplines in the art world, in the entertainment world. So when we're talking to Terry David Mulligan, who was one of your guests a couple of weeks ago, he was working with another colleague of mine, Jeannie Becker, as the co-host of Movie Television. I remember when I started working at Much, I used to do those film junkets that he briefly touched on.

Now, for those listening who aren't familiar with film junkets, I think they still go on to this day. It's basically film studios that send a group of a handful of journalists, mostly to either New York city or LA to, to interview, you know, the, the actors and filmmakers behind the latest release. But like for me, it was like, I did it for, for still a little over a year. So we'd error on much with where I would be seen and heard. And then I would produce it and the movie television would use excerpts and put it on their show.

But my goodness, that was like winning a contest. Like think about it. It's like we will fly you business class to, you know, L.A. where you'll stay at the five-star Hollywood Four Seasons in Westwood. You'll order roast duckling in your room and we'll put you in a limo and you'll go to the advanced premiere of the blockbuster film, blah, blah, blah. And then the following day, you'll meet and interview all of the top actors and celebrities and you'll get paid to do this. It was unbelievable.

And we'd do this like a couple of times a month and sometimes it'd be two or three films strung together and you spend like a week or a couple of nights and but uh and and you're you're actually you know you're you're interviewing daniel day lewis and johnny depp and you know like johnny depp was such a thoughtful fun interview like there's and but those are those are brief moments those are like there's a stop watch and there's a whole uh you're working with a crew that are based in LA. So you don't know it. It's pretty intimidating. Like the first time I did it in New York, I remember I was interviewing Chevy Chase

for memoirs of an invisible man. And you're in the green room. And then they bring you to a chair outside of the hotel room suite. And then you're like on deck and then it's your time and you walk in. One reporter walks out, you walk in. There's two cameras, one on you, one on the guest. There's like producers and stopwatches and okay, go. And I was so nervous that halfway through the interview, I was blacking out.

And I had a little voice in my head going, no, you don't have a follow-up question. You're done. You don't have nothing. It's going through my head and I'm getting psyched out. And I had nothing. And then all of a sudden, Chevy Chase finishes my previous question, answering my previous question. And then I'm like rambling.

And then finally, I kind of like, you know, find the track and ask the question. And at the end of it, I was so embarrassed. And I said, listen, I apologize. I blacked out. And he was very gracious. He said, no, no, I was so embarrassed. And I said, listen, I apologize. And he was very gracious. He said, no, no, you did a great job or whatever. But yeah, so there's just a million interviews. And again, it's like 10 years after that,

I'm working at Fashion Television and I'm interviewing a whole set of other leaders in their fields. And it's just amazing people as well. So, and then even before know, even before that, working at the CBC and everywhere I was like doing a meeting, a lot of just really accomplished, amazing people. Right. All right. So let's get these nuts. So to answer your question, Mike, I don't know.

Okay. So 91 is when you get that call from moses like this and we didn't i should pull out that thread just a little bit because why the heck did moses neimer call you and offer you a job at much music because i hadn't applied for for for the job at fax but a year earlier when i was working on that french cbc television show as an arts reporter uh Laurie Brown had just left the new music. And someone in my team said, hey, there's an opening at Much Music. And I was starting out like I was that, you know, I was nowhere at the level of a great interviewer like Laurie Brown. And but they said, you know, just do it. Just give them a demo and send them your resume and who knows. So I did that. And I remember meeting with Denise Donlan.

And I put three stories on a demo tape. So Denise Donlan, for those listening, she was the director of Much Music at the time. And a great broadcaster, great interviewer. Married to Murray McLaughlin. And so she's going through my tape. And I remember there was one story that I did on a busker in Toronto from the 90s. He was a drummer and he would set up like in front of honest heads and at these intersections with a whole drum kit and he's just beating away and stuff. So I thought,

okay, this is an interesting guy. I'll do a story on him. And we really did a nice job on putting together a fun story on this busker. And I remember Denise at the time said, oh, yeah, we did a story on Graham, Graham Kirkland, but yours is better. And I remember at the time thinking, okay, that's very flattering. But at the same time, I'm thinking, well, it's kind of like condescending,

like you're surprised that someone could have done a better story than you at MuchMusic, right? Because that's the way it felt to me. Well, but anyways, I didn't get the job, but I think they kept my resume and my demo tape. And a year later is when they called me in. And the reason I got called in was,

and you know this because you've had past guests who've worked there and who've talked about Moses and Moses's vision, was that he really hired people that reflected the community that he wanted to serve. So I was the French dude, right? I was there because we were a national show, and I was from Quebec, and I spoke French, and I had experience, et cetera, working in television.

And that was great. I think that was the reason. I didn't have to go through hoops. And I remember talking to John Martin and Nancy Oliver and Denise and they said, I don't know, Moses likes you. So I'm in. And it's like, now it's just a matter of negotiating contract and feeling. But it was always a problem because my name is not Jean-Glant Baxter. It's Glenn Baxter. I don't have a huge French accent, if any at all. I've got, I'm a ginger. I mean, I look English. I have an English name. I don't, so he's like, you know, he's not getting any bang for his buck. Where's the accent? Where's the,

so I was like, well, what do you want me to do? Like every standup and every intro go, well, as we say in French, like I can't do that, right? It's going to come across as pompous and it's not going to be natural. So it was a problem. He hired a French dude who, you know, who spoke French, but it wasn't obvious. It's not like skin color or, or, you know, like it's, it's just not obvious. Right. Right. You needed to change names with Gord Martineau, I think. And it was funny because at the time i was working with natalie richard of course does that ring a bell french kiss yes well that was my show i produced that and created that ring a bell do you know who you're talking to right now does that ring a bell so natalie and i when i was when i mentioned i was a traffic reporter on the morning radio show

when i at the french cbc when i was a student she was doing the weather. So we worked together, albeit in separate studios. So we knew each other back in the, like this is 88, 89, around 88. And no, no, I think it was more the radio. Yeah. So, so mid to late eighties. And then we ended up working together at Much Music and she had already been working for Music Plus, which was broadcasting out of Toronto. So she became, she was a Music Plus VJ and then she became a MuchMusic VJ. And then, you know, having worked at the French CBC and coming from Montreal, the one thing that I realized was there was a massive divide between French Canadian culture, Quebec culture, and the rest of Canada. And I had interviewed like Celine Dion a few times. And Celine was a massive star in Quebec, but no one knew who she was in English Canada. And I remember when I, one of the first stories I did at Much Music was when she launched her Unison album, which was her first English album. And I was on

Queen Street near Trinity Bellwoods, stopping people on bicycles and walking. Do you know who Celine Dion is? Nobody said like who? Celine who? And she had won more Felix's, which is like the French equivalent of the Junos. She had won Eurovision. She sang for the Pope. Like she was like a huge star, but no one in English Canada knew who she was. And I thought, this is insane, right? There's a whole world that's part of Canada that people here don't know about. So I wanted, I developed, well, this is still while I'm working as a city tv and much music arts and entertainment I developed the show and I put it together a pilot it was a half hour long and it had stories on and all kinds of things and artists that needed to be known in English Canada but weren't and I showed it to Denise and and you know, okay, this is going to be a great window into what's happening in French Canada. And then it was called French kiss. And

I was trying to be clever. And I said, you know, French kiss, the meeting of two tongues. Right. And, uh, so it came back to me and Denise was very good at what she did. So, so this was a changing point for, for much music because French became, instead of what I wanted it to be, like a news magazine show, it turned into a half-hour French video show, right? And it was a way to meet the CanCon regulations, right? So before that show, you would have French videos throughout the day. So Erica M would be sitting on a desk going, you know, coming up Nirvana, blah, blah, blah, and Paul Pichet. And it's like, and this would be in the middle of like a Michael Jackson, after Michael Jackson would be like a French Canadian artist.

You didn't know if it was a new release or five years old. You didn't know what the, you didn't know if they were from France or from Quebec, like there was no, nothing attached to it. And I'm sure I've always visualized people at home grabbing the rem it. And I'm sure, I always visualize people at home grabbing the remotes. And when that French video came on that they didn't know anything about, no context, they would switch channels. So this was a way to get all of those videos. And instead of playing them throughout the day, just package them into one half hour. And then if you watch, great. If you don't, it doesn't matter. We're just going to get them out of the way for the rest of the day. And I was very disappointed because I wanted it to be so much more.

Well, you know where I got my Mitsu videos from, of course. Yeah, yeah, Mitsu. Yeah, go ahead. I got a couple of Mitsu stories. But yeah, and the other thing, too, to note was that, you know, Mitsu one year wins Music Video of the Year at Music Plus for Dzi Mwa Dzi Mwa, which is a beautifully shot black and white video. I remember this well because there was nudity in that video. And it was banned at MuchMusic.

Right. But there was a show like Too Much for Much or something. I definitely recorded it to VHS late at night. Maybe you're right. Yeah, they aired it. Maybe they could play it there. Yeah. But during the day, they couldn't play it.

And so it was banned on MuchMusic. But it wins Video of the Year in Quebec. Just to show you the difference. Another fun play it and it was so it was banned in on much music but it wins video of the year in Quebec just to show you the difference and another fun story with love it and again I don't know if it's a myth it's a much music myth or it did happen but one of the funniest stories was uh remember Avi Lewis Stephen Lewis's son of course yeah so so so Avi and this is how the story goes Avi is in the makeup room at much music and and he's waiting to get some powder before he goes on air. And Mitsu's in the room, and he didn't know who she was. And he said, listen, I got a zit here.

Is there anything you can do with this? And she's like, ooh, I don't know. Let me try. And she did Avi's makeup. He walked out of the room and went on the air, and he didn't know that that woman was not a makeup artist, but it was the one and only Mitsuji Lina. Bye-bye, Mon Cowboy.

Bye-bye, Mon Cowboy. Oh, my God. Yeah, awesome. Shout out to FOTM Steve Anthony. Okay, so before we get you out of there to the fashion part of the discussion here, why does that call you get a 91? Why does it come from Moses and not John Martin? Wouldn't that be a John call? I don't know. I don't know if John had to approve it or

what his role with that hiring was. But at the time, I felt that Moses and, you know, people might dispute this, but Moses kind of had to approve all those who were on air. And I think some of your guests had said that wasn't the case, but, but I had heard that, that I had heard that too, though. Yeah. That he's the one who had, who had the final say into who gets hired and who doesn't, but he made the call. Yeah. He's the one. And he could speak French on the voicemail. Yeah.

John couldn't do that. Oh, yeah. Perfect French. Of course, of course, of course. Okay. So tell me at this time, you mentioned Jeannie Becker. Now, I will let all the FOTMs know that Jeannie Becker is in the calendar. For next month. It's funny. I mentioned, that's right.

Naomi Parnes, she is the host of a podcast I produce here at TMDS called Mind Over Matter. But there's actually, we have Jeannie Becker doing like an intro and an outro for that podcast. So it's like, I got to know Jeannie during that same project. I got to know Naomi. So it's all like a, such a small world story here, but Jeannie's in the calendar and I can't wait for that. But so maybe just quick pause here.

So that's 2001, right? When you're going to, is that where you take work? Yeah, that's correct. So at the time I'm working in the newsroom and as an entertainment reporter and weekend anchor. And then the CRTC approves a license for a new digital channel back in the day that's called Fashion Television Channel. And I thought, oh, my God, this is a great opportunity. And I went into Moses's office and I said, listen, I would love to make the leap from the newsroom and work on Fashion Television Channel. And I remember also I had come up with a show idea.

And he always loved show ideas, as you know, right? And the show was going to be a male version of fashion television. Because at the time, fashion television never covered menswear. It never covered male models or anything to do with men's fashion, menswear. And I thought, let's do another version that could appeal to men who are interested in dressing and gay men who like to see good looking men and women who are interested in good looking men and want to dress their boy, like whatever. It's part of the industry and it's not getting covered at all. And I thought he was going to look at me in his Moses way and go,

wow, did you come up with that yourself? Like just kind of like, you know, kind of like just put me in my place and humiliate me. But he thought it was a great idea. And I remember in the Toronto Star, there was a little story on me leaving the newsroom and going to work on this startup channel. And the show that they had, the name of the show that I had proposed was in this story and it was called Glenn for men. There you go. Trademark. Glenn

for men. Anyways, it never did happen because the creator and supervising producer of fashion television did not like menswear. He thought it was all great. Two button suit or three button suit. Yawn. B boring. And it's really not the case. I mean, you go to Milan for menswear fashion week, and it's still Roberto Cavalli and Vivian Westwood and Dolce & Gabbana. And it's the same top designers who are doing menswear and womenswear. And the shows are like, I remember seeing a show in Milan by Tom Brown in the Velodrome with like, you know, 50 models and 50 extras in this insane outdoor show. Like the shows were over the top and they weren't as hyped as women's wear, obviously. And you can talk to Jeannie about this next month, whereas women's wear, you have maybe triple the amount of media.

You have supermodels, which you don't have in menswear. And so there's bigger budgets. But the problem is also because there's more media, your access to the designers are like shorter time, right? You might have, you know, with Tom Ford, you might have three minutes, but you might have 10 minutes if he's doing menswear. So anyways, yeah. Yeah. I feel like if your show Glenn for Men had existed, I might be a better dresser today because I have zero fashion sense and I feel like maybe that would have helped me out.

But what I ended up doing is they did give me a show. It was called In Fashion. And with that show, I just covered a lot of menswear as much as I could. So I inserted it in this other show, which wasn't going to be like a male version, a man's version of fashion television. But I did, and it helped to differentiate my show

from what Jeannie was doing. Because we were- You used, in fashion was like the Trojan horse and you got the Glenn for men inside of that. This is of course airing on Fashion Television Channel. Also CTV and 30 countries around the world. So now help me out with like ownership and stuff. So, okay.

So obviously Rogers ends up owning Chump City at some point. And Bill ends up owning the whole CTV side of things. So at this point, is this like when there was that period of time i guess where uh they they were like help me out i know yeah yeah so i know you spoke about this with gordon marno who outlined it very clearly yeah but basically when ctv bought chum yeah uh they uh they had to like split up a few shows like breakfast television city line and city city news right? City Pulse. Fashion television remained at $2.99 and it remained a part of the CTV portfolio.

Right. So instead, and it was a pretty good thing because instead of $6.30 on the weekends on City TV, now you had it across Canada on CTV nationwide, right? So as opposed to just locally here in Toronto. So it turned out to be a good thing for the profile of the show and the viewership. So you don't actually have to change anything. You just suddenly your checks are signed by a different company. Yeah, I'm still working with the same talented people in the same building. Nothing changes for us.

Okay, so here's a moment, just a quick pause. I want to thank a few more partners of the program that helped to fuel the real talk. Here we are at 9.97. I'm so excited. A thousand is coming soon. But shout out to Great Lakes Brewery, the very first sponsor of this little show that could ever had.

So much love to Great Lakes. Glenn, when I do get to meet you in person, I'll hook you up with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. And much love to Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta just sent some uh new frozen lasagnas for guests that come in person so tomorrow andy will get one but i'll also hook you up when i can mr baxter so delicious authentic italian food go to palmapasta.com uh for all your sticker needs

decals etc great liberty village company but it's e-commerce. So if you have Wi-Fi, you can go to stickeru.com and upload the image and then order your stickers. They're great people. And last but not least, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. They're pillars of this community. Brad Jones there actually was my

last guest on Toronto Mike. That was 996. Very interesting conversation. He's raised six kids in a home that's attached to the local funeral home here in my neck of the woods, New Toronto. So if you're curious what that's like, listen to episode 996 of Toronto Mike. All right, Glenn. So your whole kind of career shifts into fashion like were you you were always a fashionable person was this always a natural uh passion of yours um it really began uh in the early 90s when i got a clothing deal an exclusive

clothing uh partnership with hugo boss um it was probably the most envied clothing contract in Canadian broadcasting history. It lasted 20 years. And for 20 years, I was outfitted from head to toe with Hugo Boss, first with the Hugo red label, and then later with the Boss black label. So through that, you know, I was wearing jackets where, you know, the guys from Big Sugar would be watching the news and their girlfriends would call and say, where did you get that coat? Especially in the early years at Hugo, it was very, very fashion forward before it came into its own. They were sending me to New York to events. So then that's how I got immersed and got a feel for fashion. Going to Hugo Boss Fashion Show, which were rare in New

York, and Anna Wintour's in the front row, and Julianne Moore, and the girls from Sex and the City. And then after the show's over, you got Woody Allen playing live with his jazz band at the party. It's just another world, right? So that's where I first sort of got a serious taste for fashion. But the reason I wanted to make the move was less about, because I'm a media guy, not a fashion guy. So it was out of respect for the fashion television brand that creator and supervising producer, executive producer Jay Levine created. And, you know, Jeannie Becker, the one and only, built over the years since the late 80s. It was an international brand that I respected and admired. And it was seen in 100 countries.

The production value was quite high end, especially for most of the quick stuff that we were doing on a budget in that building. for most of the quick stuff that we were doing on a budget in that building. And so I just really admired the brand, the product and the team working there. And I thought, okay, after 10 years of just like, you know, crazy daily news, live television pace, I'd love to work for a weekly half hour show. And it was, you know, in the end, it was like lifestyle. I mean, while I was still in the newsroom, quick story, Mike, I'm in the newsroom and I'm working for City Pulse. And I've got the job at Fashion Television, but it hasn't officially been announced. And I still have a, you know, a couple of weeks to finish off at City before they announced that I'm leaving. And the supervisor, like Jay Levine comes over to me at my desk and goes, any plans for the weekend? I go, no. He goes, you want to go to Italy to do an automotive design story on the new Mini Cooper

and I'm like I work at City TV we don't leave city we're always in this and you're like going to send me business class to Italy to drive this new you know this new car in a CZ where they just paved the road after like it was just it was like after. Like, it was just, it was like, again, winning a contest. Wow. Pinch me. And it was so funny because after that story aired, Saab saw it. And the marketing agency calls me and they go, we'd love to send you to Scandinavia to drive the new Saab from Copenhagen over the bridge into Gutenberg in Sweden.

And again, spend a week. Like, it's okay. So this is a whole new world and a whole new lifestyle. And to be able to live that, but also to do great television and to do content, and this will never happen again in my lifetime,

to do content that reflects your tastes and likes, whether it's interior design and architecture, which we were covering, photography, which I've done, and fashion. And so, you know, it was just a great, it was the best gig. And even after, I did it for 10 years. And I remember towards the end, I'd run into people, hey, you're still doing that fashion television thing. And I remember thinking in the back of my head going, dude, I will do that until they tell me I can't do it anymore. Like seriously,

find me a better gig. This is insane. By the way, Saab, you mentioned Saab. I'll just say, uh, if anyone's seen the movie,

drive my car, I consider like, which is a great movie out of Japan, but it's, uh, the best like three hour infomercial I've ever seen for Saab, to be quite honest. And when you see the movie,

you'll know what I'm talking about. And so anyway, anyway. Okay. So what's it like taking over for Jeannie Becker though on fashion television? No, I'm not taking over. Okay. So let's be clear. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you're going to have her next month. So you're... Yeah. I'm going to get this deal, but yeah. I hope you have three hours with Jeannie because you're going to need at least double the regular time. I'll make the time. No, no. Jeannie was still doing her show, which she launched, I think, back in 87. Right. And she did it until they dismantled the department in 2012. Okay.

So it was like, I think it was a 27-year run. It was the longest running show dedicated. So you're just doing in fashion then? I'm doing another show, yeah. On the same channel, fashion television channel. Yeah. And we're sharing the same footage, same producers, same cameraman. Her show really hit the fashion capitals.

So Paris four times a year for haute couture, spring, summer, fall, winter, for ready-to-wear, spring, summer. And she'd go to New York for fashion week. Producers like myself would go to Milan, and we'd go to other fashion weeks like in Istanbul or Berlin or, you know, Medellin, Colombia and all these places around the world covering fashion, right? But Jeannie was interviewing the top players in the fashion world. And the first time that I got to do a major fashion week was in Milan in 2005. And it was like

the hardest thing I've ever done in television, but it was the most exciting and rewarding thing I've ever done in television. And I also remember thinking, I think I was at a Prada show and stuff. And I remember thinking the two best, and I'm in my hotel room watching, you know, all these different shows from Europe and around the world. But I remember thinking the two best shows, television shows, and you could talk to Jeannie about this when you have her on, dedicated to fashion and design were out of Toronto, Canada. These are the two best shows in the world. So there was fashion television and there was Fashionphile,

which was produced two blocks away from 299 over at the CBC building, hosted by one of the top fashion journalists to this day, Tim Blanks. And those two shows were beyond a doubt the two best shows dedicated to fashion. And they're both from Toronto, Canada, which is miles away from Paris or Milan, right? It was an amazing thing.

Fun fact, Milan's getting the next Winter Olympics after this one. And Paris is the next Summer Olympics, right? Right, that so okay well paris is the next summer olympics right that's correct yeah so lots of fashion tie-ins here okay so you mentioned photography i'm gonna ask you about that here before we say goodbye but uh basically how does it all come to an end at this uh fashion television channel for you uh so yeah so so after CTV picks up chum and CTV was a big fan of fashion television, because we did things on a small budget. When I went to Milan or to Istanbul, whatever, I had to find a way to do it for free. So, I had to find a way for someone to sponsor the flight,

to put us up in a hotel in exchange for great content, right? So I worked that angle and I got pretty good at it. Jeannie had a good budget for Paris and for Milan and New York. But CTV is saying, dream big. We want to come up with bigger shows and specials and we want to support the Canadian fashion industry. We'll be at Toronto Fashion Week with a studio under the tents. But then Bell Media picks up CTV. And like Gord Martin will mention, Bell Media are, how did he call it? Like bean counters. So, so no offense to Bell Media, but they're not a. I don't think you can offend Bell Media. I think it's too big to be offended by us. So bottom line, once Bell Media picked up CTV, they were canceling left and right. They were canceling shows and they were canceling channels.

And at that time, we were seeing our colleagues get laid off and things being canceled. And I remember thinking it's like being in a dodgeball game. And you started the game with about 50 players. And now you're down to like four or five and you're bobbing and weaving. And in 2012, we get hit in the noggin and we're benched. They basically canceled the whole department. But there's must be at least some sense of almost relief that you've been dodging. Like you sort of like every day you're like, there's no relief. There's no relief. Okay. I'm dreaming in Technicolor. Yeah. I'll go back to that, that,

that, uh, you know, people coming up to me and say, are you still doing fashion television? And I tell you, I would be doing it to this day. And I'm sure Jeannie would, you know, I'm sure Jeannie would still love to have that show. There's no, like, it's not even close. But this, this is, you'll tell me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this show generate revenue? Like, isn't this a revenue generating? So I don't understand why you kill things that, you know, generate revenue. Yeah. At its peak, it was seen in 100 countries. It was making a million dollars an episode. I mean, obviously, things changed with the internet and the watering down of advertising dollars, which were in short supply and smaller audiences, maybe. But the one thing they could have done that made sense at the time was

we were seeing now the rise of the bloggers, the fashion bloggers, which became a phenomenon. And a lot of the bloggers became stars and got front row seats. But we had fashiontelevision.com. We had a whole department of bloggers and writers who were covering fashion all over the planet that could contribute content online, but they didn't value it. I think even Jay Levine had a magazine, a fashion television magazine, where we would put into print some of the interviews and stories that we were doing for television. There were so many ways to expand the brand and to create revenue for the company, but they weren't interested in, I they weren't interested in i think developing these ideas they were interested in uh cutting production and not spending money

that's unfortunate my friend to it's unfortunate now i have a question about the ip so ip for the for the normies out there that is the intellectual property like so this whole the whole branding like you mentioned since the mid-80s i'll talk a lot deeper into this with genie becker but there's a fashion television brand that is respected world like around the world and bell guess owns all that so they just sort of like yeah genie will be able to address that well that's the thing just to give your your your audience an idea yeah of of the the content uh that fashion television owns and has. And again, it's a 27-year run where they went to all of the most incredible events,

parties, fashion shows, interviewed the top people in the industry. So when a filmmaker is doing a documentary, whether it's on Valentino, The Last Emperor, or Alexander McQueen, more recently, they or the last, the Vogue, the last issue, I mean, they go to fashion television, because they know there's endless content there and old interviews, like you watch some of these documentaries. And, you know, you could not only see the fashion television, Mike Flash,

in the documentary, but you'll see in here, Jeannie Becker, who was at, you know, in the trenches and like, you know, it's, it's invaluable. I don't know where it is. I don't know who owns it, but you know, someone, yeah, someone needs to be the caretaker because that is a museum like possession. And Jeannie will be able to tell you more about the status of all of that raw footage.

Well, I have friends who were trying to make a Much Music documentary and were very frustrated at how difficult it was going to be to use stuff from the vault. I guess it's called the vault, but somewhere. I think there's a warehouse in Barrie, yeah. So I'm sure that's where all your stuff is.

And quick aside is that when Chum was purchased, so Chum is in this, obviously we talked about Chum, but the radio station, 1050 Chum is a historical station, really. It's this top 40 station and they had these Chum charts and all these Chum charts were online. Like you could actually go and say, let me see the Chum chart from like June, 1974 or whatever. And then this site was just sort of shuttered and taken offline very suddenly during this you know bell media takeover and when

they flipped it to a sports station and it's no not accessible i feel like there's a good chunk of toronto history that sort of got gated and it would be i just wish that we had access to this is what i'm saying when you see genie uh next month ask her about this so there's also another uh story where genie who obviously understands the value of all that footage uh that she shot with with her team over the years uh brought kate moss to 299 queen when kate moss was in in town to meet with some of the VPs. I don't know if you know and understand who Kate Moss is. I do. Of course I do. I know that. Yes.

Right? I do. Yeah. I mean, she's just a legendary, larger than life, iconic model from the UK. There's very few who are at her level. And to have her come in to the, this is the story. And again, ask Jeannie about it because I'd love to hear whether it's true or not and the details surrounding the story and the circumstances that led to it. But the story goes that Jeannie brought Kate Moss to meet with the VPs to kind of come up with some kind of understanding or deal to preserve all of that raw footage i will definitely ask genie

about that 100 i got because i need to find out what's going on there okay so 2012 this is sort of d-day for uh television man everybody's everybody's everybody leaves nobody gets to say goodbye on air or thank our viewers and it's just you're out the door that day boom and that's now it's 10 years ago does Does it get easier with time? Like, are you still a little bitter about this or is it something that you've sort of, you know, Well, yeah, I mean, you're disappointed and, and, but you understand that the industry changes and the,

I guess the revenue is not there and the advertising's not there and it's, it's a whole new, you know, media landscape and so on. But yeah, of course, you look fondly at those years and, you know, you still think of moments. Yeah, it's still with you. But I mean, you leave with a lot as well, right? I mean, you build your brand, your exposure, and you're able to translate that into other work and stuff.

I, you know, like to this day, though, I got though, it's so funny. I still have dreams, like those reoccurring nightmares. Of course. There's one I keep getting where I'm in the newsroom. Mark Daly's there, the late Mark Daly, who used to anchor the late news, and a few other of my colleagues. And I'm about to go on air live with my for to deliver my entertainment package for the news and I have no script I don't know what I'm going to say something came in late and it's like okay now that's like you're 45 seconds away and I'm like you know I'm like fumbling I have and it's like you know you're you're sinking and you're you're you're drowning and there's no yeah I still get that from 10 years working in live television and news.

Well, I still get the odd, oh my God, I forgot to study for this exam because I thought I dropped the course. Like I still get that. And I haven't been in school since the 90s. So I totally relate. It's that phenomenon. It's that, yeah. All right. So I want to find out about the last 10 years.

But now that you've mentioned twice Mark Daly, how well did you know Mark? So I work with Mark. So I was doing entertainment when he was the news anchor. And, you know, geez, what can you say about Mark? He was the voice of City TV everywhere. What can you say about Mark? He was the voice of City TV everywhere. He was, and I know Gord spoke a lot about him when he was a guest with you,

but he was so good at what he did, as was Gord. He had an incredible wit. The one thing that people should understand when they watch a newscast is the people that are on screen are not only there because they're good reporters or journalists, but what employers look for is their ability to chat with the sportscaster, with the person delivering the weather, with the entertainment reporter. It's the banter. And there was nobody better than Mark Daly at that. He was so quick, so witty. I was terrible. I couldn't match wits with Mark. He was so fast and so talented.

And that's what makes, I think, a good newscaster is that ability to transition from entertainment to sports and have two quick little exchanges before moving on. And he was the best. What I will do, Glenn, is I'll send you a link to basically a retrospective that I did with Ed Conroy on the life of Mark Daly with just clips from the Big Eight. And then we talked about his relationship with the police. And we uncovered a lot of great stuff, a lot of great audio.

And it gets heavy, of course, because Mark, we lost far too soon. But I will link you to that because I think you'll find that pretty fascinating, actually, the Mark Daly retrospective. Okay, so the last 10 years. So life does not end for Glenn Baxter in 2012. You're here, we are talking in 2022, 10 years later.

And you mentioned a few things, like you mentioned photography. Why don't you bring us up to speed? What have you been up to the last 10 years? So just working on various projects that come my way. So working with Hamilton Watches, working with Toronto Fashion Week when they relaunched a few years ago, working on events, hosting events, and also working on video production, content producing for various clients. So basically, and that's what I like the most, especially in the architecture and interior design world, is basically putting together high-end video for clients. Okay. And it's funny too, I returned back to the French CBC radio as their fashion and design commentator. So that was kind of fun.

Amazing. Great pandemic. Is it right that you've had a few exhibitions of your photographs? 10 years. I would host a photo exhibition in support of various charities, most notably Right to Play, which is a Toronto-based international humanitarian organization that improves the lives of children in impoverished countries around the world. So I would take three weeks and then later a month, I was able to take that vacation time and I would find some of the most remote places on the planet, mostly in Asia and Africa, and just go on a self-financed solo trip with my camera and take photographs, which later would be shown in an exhibition sponsored by Hugo Boss with 100% of the money going from the sales of the photographs to CANFAR, Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees one year, and then several years directly benefiting Right to Play.

Good for you, man. And we used to get lots of media attention because of the job I did. So lots of cameras and raise some money. And then later that sort of evolved into what I found to call the right to play ball. So it was a play on words on right to play and right to play ball. And we had celebrity DJs like Russell Peters, DJ and Keith Richards's daughter, Alexandra Richards, who flew in from New York. And so I did that for a few years. Yeah. And I know you're being a humble Canadian here. You said you raised a little money, but like i did a little digging into this canadian foundation for aids research and it seems like uh we're talking about uh close to a half a million dollars for hiv and aids

research like yeah so that's a lot of money yeah so but we i think it was closer to a million that okay i'm selling you shorts still we were called the Canfar Junior Committee. This was back in the late 90s and we would throw these insane parties in the city and with all of the money going to benefit the Canadian Foundation

for AIDS Research. My friend, this was amazing. I feel like I should have played some ZZ Top sharp dress man. But Don Cherry kind of stole that from us. I wore some red for you. I wore some Valentine's Day red. Okay, so happy Valentine's Day to you, Glenn.

Thank you for this. Loved it. And we're going to have to do this again sometime. Maybe when this pandemic is well in the rearview mirror i get you to the studio i'll be tuning in uh for sure on thursday to to help uh recognize your 1000th podcast and also when genie comes on another reason why i did make the switch to fashion television really quickly of course uh while while i was an entertainment reporter um there was a feature story on genie becker in tor Life written by Robert Fulford.

And Jeannie said that she left the new music and left music, rock journalism to move to fashion because it was an area where she could age gracefully. And I had this thing where I would still be doing live eyes from the Rivoli or the El Macombo on a Tuesday night with some indie band and five people in the audience when I'm like, you know, 50 years old. And I had this vision of my buddies drinking a beer, watching television, going, is that Baxter? Is he still doing these live eyes? So I got to find, you know, plan B or the next chapter. And I remember reading that that Jeannie was making the leap so she could, you know. And I thought, OK, that's and that's one of the reasons also where i kind of wanted to follow in her footsteps but you're going to enjoy your conversation with it well now i'm thinking of terry david mulligan who is always

the the old man in the building right he was and the way he was dismissed by denise that was a great that was a great story yes and that by the, when you make your time on Thursday to drink in episode 1,000, you might want to cancel everything on your agenda. You're going to need the whole day. That's my little clue there. You're going to need the whole day. Sounds good. Congratulations.

And it's such an amazing feat and milestone. And yeah, here's to another 1,000. a feat and milestone. And yeah, here's to another thousand. And that brings us to the end of our 997th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Glenn, you're at Glenn Baxter TO.

That's right. Yeah. In case you forgot. I know you know this, but followers. Glenn Baxter TO. Give Glenn a follow. He's a good FOTM now. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow when my episode 998 features Andy Palalas from Canna Cabana kicking out the weed jams. I know it's true. How much is all that big of trash in there? Well, now I'm thinking of Terry David Mulligan,

who is always the old man in the building, right? He was... And the way he was dismissed by Denise. That was a great story. Oh, my goodness. And that... By the way, when you make your time on Thursday to drink in episode 1000 you might want to cancel everything on your agenda just you're gonna need the whole day that's my little

clue there you're gonna need the whole day sounds good congratulations and uh it's such an amazing uh a feat and milestone and uh yeah here's to another thousand And that brings us to the end of our 997th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Glenn, you're at Glenn Baxter TO. That's right. Yeah. In case you forgot.

I know you know this, but followers. Glenn Baxter TO. Give Glenn a follow. He's a good FOTM now. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow when my episode 998 features Andy Palalas from Canna Cabana kicking out the weed jams.