Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Harold Hosein: Toronto Mike'd #1307

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

In this 1307th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Meteorologist Harold Hosein about his years at CJCL, CFRB, City-TV, and 680 News. There's also talk about his calypso, the grand opening of SkyDome, and what he's been up to lately. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

City Pulse weatherman Harold Hossain has a lot riding on his shoulders. Toronto's fastest weather expert is the official consultant to Skydome. Okay guys, open her up! Dependable weather, City Pulse every night at 6 and 10. Toronto. VK on the beat. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm a Toronto Mike, you wanna get the city love. My city love me back for my city love. Welcome to episode 1307 of Toronto Miked.

Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca.

Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Getting hip to the hip. An evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund on September 1st. Save 10% with the promo code. FOTM10. Pumpkins After Dark. Use the promo code. TOMIKE15.

And save 15% this month. At PumpkinsAfterDark.com. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut, is Hurricane Harold Hossain. Welcome, Hurricane Harold. Thank you. Do people still call you Hurricane Harold?

Sometimes, yeah. Depends on the location. When was the last time, I'm naturally curious, when was the last time you sat down and somebody interviewed you about your life and times in Toronto media? Never. Never? Really? Okay, I'm honoured that you said yes. So, I did, like, why did you say yes?

I'm so excited to have you here. I'm going to ask you a million questions until you're so annoyed you storm out of here, Hurricane. Why did you agree to sit in this guy's basement and be peppered with all these questions about your many excellent years of service in our community? Probably because you mentioned my daughter's name. I thought that might have something.

So I want to shout out somebody right now. Retro Ontario, Ed Conroy. Ed is the reason basically this is happening because I reached out to Ed who reached out to your daughter and your daughter was like excited that you'd come on Toronto Mic'd and then you somehow agreed

and here you are and you're looking fantastic. Thank you. Did you just come back from a trip? You were just traveling? Is that right? Yeah, I went for a little drive for 36 days and 12,000 kilometers. Wow. Whereabouts did you go?

Through eastern Canada and Newfoundland. Okay, beautiful. I've never been that far. I got to Prince Edward Island and then I had to bounce back. I just didn't have the time. But what's Newfoundland like these days? It's beautiful. Always has been.

I was there 25 years ago and decided to go back and take a further look at places I hadn't been and revisit old locations and found out that everything's hunky-dory on the rock. It's all good on the rock. Okay. So I'm going to read some notes that came in from people. So I went on Twitter and I said, Harold Hussain is finally making his Toronto Mike debut, which people were very excited about.

And I collected all these little notes. So I'll share the little ones quickly now, and then I'll start to pepper you with specific questions about the life and times of Harold Hussain. So are you ready to receive some positive feedback? Always ready. Imagine you said no. Okay.

So Diamond Dog chimed in first. Diamond Dog heard Hurricane Harold was coming on Toronto Mic'd and he wrote, that's a great summer forecast. Yeah, hot. Hot. Peter Myers. Now. Peter Myers. Now, Peter Myers is the brother of an FOTM.

FOTM means Friend of Toronto Mike, because Peter's brother is Paul Myers. His other brother, who's not an FOTM yet, is Mike Myers from Wayne's World. And yeah, so you might have heard of Mike Myers. But Peter Myers just wanted to say, love Harold. So Peter's excited to hear you again.

Well, thanks, Peter. That Love Harold was actually echoed by a woman maybe you remember, Jennifer Valentine, who when Jennifer Valentine heard you were coming on wrote Love Harold. Yeah, I've known Jen for a long time, ever since she came to city. When she was Jennifer Peck.

I had forgotten the last name. Well, I'm here to remind you here, Harold. Yeah, Jennifer Peck. I had forgotten the last name. Well, I'm here to remind you here, Harold. Yeah, Jennifer Peck, and then married a Valentine, and became Jennifer Valentine. Yeah, Greg, yeah. Absolutely. Greg the Hammer Valentine.

No, I didn't know that name. No, I think you're the Hurricane, he's the Hammer, but that's a different Greg Valentine. Okay, AG wrote, Harold's a legend in Toronto. Do you feel like a legend? Nope. Do you recognize the fact that there are tens of thousands of us who when we think about you

and we hear your voice, there's this nostalgia time machine that takes us back to a simpler time and we look back fondly and it warms our hearts to even hear your voice right now. Do you recognize that? I do and I don't. It's nice to hear that, but it's not something that I think about or that, you know, is on my mind. There's no entourage with you. I do hear people saying it and I'm thankful for that. You're grateful. Okay, so more compliments

coming your way. I hope you're okay with that. But Kevin Ahoy wrote, tell him thank you for me. He visited my dad at home when my dad was ailing. It raised my dad's spirits. I never forgot meeting him hosting a dance about 30

years ago. I didn't believe that my dad knew him from Trinidad. Hey, Harold. Hey, Charlie. He's the voice of weather in Toronto. So this is somebody who knew you from Trinidad. Oh, yeah. I knew his dad.

I don't remember Kevin, but I knew his dad way back. Oh, boy. Somewhere in the early 60s, Charlie and I worked together. In Trinidad? Mm-hmm. So help me understand what brings you to Canada, and what were you up to in Trinidad before you emigrated? Well, Charlie and I worked at a chemical plant,

and conditions in Trinidad were such that I just decided it was time to make an exit. There's a much longer story to it, but it's not something... I don't mind the long version. Yeah, but it's not something that... Some people may not agree with my thoughts. Well, that's the real talk. I need that. You sure you can't give us a little bit of that?

Well, you know, politics were changing. The economy was changing, like things are changing here in Canada. And I decided it was time to move. I was at a movie one night, and I had just finished painting my car in a very special copper metal flake paint. Right. Nobody else on the island had anything like that.

And I went to this movie and suddenly I started seeing people walking out in the middle of the movie. And I couldn't understand what was happening. So I thought I'd better follow them and see what was happening outside. I got to the front, and there was a group of guys coming down the street, knocking little pieces of steel, and they were banging on all the cars which were parked on the side of the street, and the police were walking together with them. And then I realized it was the night of a municipal election,

and these folks were celebrating their candidate having won. And I thought, oh, no, they're going to bang on my car. Right. And that's going to be the end of that very expensive job. But they all stepped back from my car, left it alone, and went on banging on the other cars. And I just thought, you know what? I'm getting out of here.

And the next day I went to the Canadian embassy and got papers and filed them. Wow. What year approximately are we talking about here, Harold? Like what year is it when you moved to Canada? I came to Canada in 1967. and that may have happened in 66. Okay. That was our centennial, the 1967, big year in this country. Oh, yes.

Okay. And why did you choose, is it Toronto that you moved to specifically? Yes. Okay. So glad you chose Toronto. Was it a no brainer just go to the biggest city in the country, or did you know anybody in Toronto already? No, I actually was thinking of going to Edmonton

because my background was in the oil industry and the chemical industry, and that's where those industries are. But I had a good friend here whom I met here quite accidentally after I arrived and he suggested that I look around here and I thought, you know, he could be right. So I looked around and things worked out. Things worked out. Okay, so you arrive in 1967. Okay, before we continue with the Harold Hussain story,

I got a couple of more notes for you. Jody's jumpsuit just wrote in and said, it's going to be great to hear that voice again. So I just think your voice alone, I think your voice alone would trigger a happy sense of nostalgia in a number of Torontonians of a certain vintage, right? Yeah, I guess so. That's nice to know.

Thank you, Jody. Hedley Westerfield said that she, is Hedley a woman's name? I'm assuming it's a woman's name, but I actually don to know. Thank you, Judy. Hedley Westerfield said that she, is Hedley a woman's name? I'm assuming it's a woman's name, but I actually don't know, but you'll tell me. Hedley Westerfield said that this person worked beside you for years.

Do you remember Hedley Westerfield? No. Hmm. Okay, Hedley, I'm assuming gender here, which can get you in trouble, but Hedley loved your pronunciation of the word umbrella. Oh. I don't

recognize that name. I wonder where we worked. Okay, well, I'm going to have to dig for more details there, but Michael Ball just wrote in to, oh, I'm going to save this because I have a clip. I want to thank Ed Conroy from Retro Ontario because he sent me some great clips.

And there's a great clip of you saying a certain word and then I'll revisit these notes when we get to that word here. Before we get you to where I first saw you, which is City TV, one more note here from Aaron. I sat beside him when I was 17 and he was doing a weather report

from the fountain at the CNE. So there you go. Lots of people remembering you. And Moe from TO just said, don't forget your umbrella. Would you say that word for us? I feel like I'm asking you for your greatest hits here. The way you say umbrella brings a lot of people joy. It's just regularly umbrella.

Okay. Well, you say it's regular. I don't know that there's anything different about it. Gerald writes in, I remember hearing him on CFRB in the late 70s, early, sorry, late 60s, early 70s. He's been on a fixture on the scene for many decades. He used to broadcast from his home studio.

Please ask him about his early days in Toronto. So let's pick it up here. Before we get to City Pulse, it doesn't begin for you there. Where and how do you end up in the media where we hear you on the radio? Well, I was working at the Hamilton Weather Office. I believe it was 1970 or 71. or 71. And CHML got a broadcast from us once or twice a day, I think. So while I was on there, I did some hits for them. And the news director at CHML liked what I did. And he moved to CFRB. When he did, he asked me if I would come over to CFRB on a part-time basis covering for people going on vacation and all that.

I don't remember who did weather for CFRB at the time, and I don't remember his name. It might have been David Johnson. But anyway, he took me over to CFRB. And I started there on a part-time basis and then wound up going full-time with them in 93, I guess. Yeah, I did part-time with them. And then I went with CJCL 1430.

I saw a great photo of you and the cap just is like from the Toronto, there's some Toronto archives and there's a great photo of you and it says, Weatherman Harold Hussain is all over the radio dial these days

working for Environment Canada and on off days for CJCL. Yeah, well, actually when I worked for Environment Canada, they would phone in and whoever was on the desk would do the hits for them. And then I did hits for them from home, early morning and afternoon drive. You were ahead of the curve because now people do that regularly.

But this is just literally over the phone. This is how you rolled back then. No, we had a microphone on a dedicated phone line. And yeah, I started working for CJCL in 1987. Wow. Was that called an ISDN line? It might have been. It might have been.

Yeah. Okay, okay. So at this point, Harold, pardon my ignorance, but are you a meteorologist? Yes. So when did you, you weren't a meteorologist back in Trinidad, right? Correct.

So when exactly, because this is real, like I have had chats of meteorologists, like this is an actual, like you go to school, this is a real accreditation. How do you become

a meteorologist? Well, you go to school, like you say, and I was looking for a job here and I happened to be walking into Union Station and saw an ad on the wall asking people who were interested in training in meteorology,

and I had an interest in going to the Arctic. And this ad suggested that the training would include stints in the Arctic, and I thought, oh, I'll be good. So I applied, and they accepted me. And off I went to school in Ottawa in 1968. Okay, look, so the story's coming together here. Okay, we get you to Canada in 1967. You're going off to school to be a meteorologist in 1968.

Before we know it, you're on the radio in Hamilton. That leads to being on the radio at CFRB 1010. And then of course, you're working for Environment Canada and on CJCL, which was 1430 at the time. Right. Okay. I actually had two jobs from 1987 on. My job was, my permanent job was at environment canada and the radio gig was a side job but but i always had two jobs from then on okay all right we're going to cover all this ground now unrelated to meteorology uh but i know because you were a member of the toronto media on august 16th 1977 so this as we record today it it's August 16th, 2023. Do you have any memories of,

do you know why I'm asking you about the significance of this day? I'm curious if you have any memories of hearing that Elvis Presley had passed away. No, I don't remember that. You're a Calypso guy, right? Were you, you were, any love for Elvis back in the day?

Oh yeah, of course. Since my teen years. All right were you uh you were any love for elvis back in the day oh yeah of course since my teen years all right you were all shook up i hear yeah so august 16th this is an anniversary there's a lot of like you know buzz in the media about this anniversary but uh august 16th 1977 1977 is the uh the date that elvis passed away okay so how do you end up at city tv how does that happen uh quite accidentally um let's see now it was 1989, I got a phone call from someone I don't know. He was in Halifax and he was the news director at ASN. And his name's Dick Pratt. And he phones me up and says, I have a job here for you if you want it.

Oh. And I thought, well, I don't know you. How do you know me and what's this job? And it was a job on TV presenting weather. And I thought about it, and I didn't want to move to Halifax. And my wife thought, well, if it's going to enhance your career,

maybe you could go and come home on weekends. And I thought, no, I'm not coming home Friday night or Saturday morning to go back Sunday night. So I politely declined, but one of my colleagues, a guy named Peter Code, was originally from Halifax, and he had a hankering to get back home. originally from Halifax, and he had a hankering to get back home. Now, we had both been at the end of our tether at Environment Canada. We both wanted to leave.

So this was an opportunity for him, and I said, you call Dick Pratt and tell him I passed the call on to you and see what it gives. Well, he did call, and he did get the job, and he was hired, and tell him I passed a call on to you and see what it gives. Well, he did call and he did get the job and he was hired and he worked there for well over 30 years. I think he just retired a couple of years ago and that was in 1989. Well, I think he went from ASN to CBC or anyway, he had a long TV career in Halifax. And a few days later, I get a phone call from David Unley,

who was presenting weather at Citi, and to whom I spoke on a regular basis on the phone. And at that time, I was already at CJCL. So Environment Canada produced a three-day forecast, but at CJCL, I produced a five-day forecast. And David wanted to do a five-day forecast at Citi. Now, he couldn't get a five- day from anybody else on the desk at Environment because we didn't produce one. But he could get mine off CJCL. So he would listen and take my five

day forecast and use it at Citi. And when he told me what he was doing, I said, well, here's my home phone number. When you need it, give me a shout and I'll give you what I have. So out of the clear blue, I get a phone call from him saying there was a new show being started at City that was breakfast television. He was moving on to that. He had to be replaced and he suggested that perhaps I could replace him. So that's where it started. So you took over the weather desk from a fellow legend

the late great David Onley. Yes. Well I'm so sorry that he passed away recently. David Onley was on this show actually with Ann Romer and we had Steve Anthony and we were, uh, discussing and,

and a producer named Bud, I want to say Bud Pierce. Bud Pierce. Yes. Okay. So we, and, and,

uh, sports, was it Greg Manz? Uh, oh, I'll have to get the right name. There was, uh,

no, there was, um, Hmm. Something Whaley. Yes. John Whaley. John Whaley. Of course. Sorry, John. So John, when was, hmm, something Whaley? Yes, John Whaley. John Whaley. Of course, sorry, John.

So, John, when you're listening, that's my bad. I got brain damage over here. Okay, so this is like the OG crew that launched breakfast television on City TV in 1989, as you say there. So, David was on the show, and I know Anne was close with him to his very last day. She was visiting him in the hospital when he passed away. So my condolences to everyone who knew and loved David Onley. But do you have any specific additional memories of David Onley? And then just give us an idea,

like what is it like when you take over the weather desk from a legend like that? Well, I never thought anything about it taking over. It was like my job to do, and that was it. But David was a very kind person, very nice person to deal with, a true gentleman. And once I started there, we didn't interact very much because he was on in the morning and I was on in the afternoon.

So I went and he was gone. But we did see each other from time to time and always maintained a good friendship. And we kept up a correspondence on email. It's good to have friends in high places. Well, he wasn't in a really high place when I knew him. It took a little time. It took a little time. Great question that came in from the aforementioned Ed Conroy. He was curious if you have thoughts on the other local TV weathermen from the era, particularly the early 90s. And he's referring to three people specifically, but there's Dave Duvall on CFTO, there was Susan Hay on Global,

and there's Bill Lawrence, who just passed away himself, on CBLT, which is the CBC affiliate. Any thoughts on your comrades there, your fellow TV weather reporters in Toronto? I did meet David Vall a few times, but I didn't speak to him on a regular basis. I did speak to Bill Lawrence, and he and I had a great relationship. speak to Bill Lawrence and he and I had a great relationship uh we talked every day and he knew it was me on the other end if the phone was answered on the first ring so if I picked up

the phone on the first ring the first thing I heard was bon après-midi, monsieur. I love it. And so he and I had never met, but in 1989 or 1990, the Toronto Star wanted to do a photo shoot for their TV program cover. You know, we used to have that little TV program. Star Week? Star Week or whatever that little TV program. Star Week? Star Week or whatever it was. Yeah, Star Week was in the Toronto Star.

It was like a standalone magazine for TV listening. It was all the TV programming. Okay. Right. So they wanted to do a TV shoot with Dave Duvall and Bill Lawrence and Susan Hay. Right. And Matt, I can't remember Matt's last name. He was on CHCH TV.

And me. And so I walked in and Bill Lawrence had never seen me. And we were just telephone friends. And as I walked up to him, I said, Bon après. And he looked up and he him, I said, Bonaparte. And he looked up and he said, Harold. Is it Matt Hayes? Matt Hayes, that's right.

Yeah, so that's when I met Bill for the first time. And we maintained a great friendship right up to several years ago. I last saw him at his house down in Ancaster, where he lived, and he was fine then. I was quite surprised to hear that my daughter, my second daughter, actually found out that he had died and sent me a message because she knew that he and I were good friends. Yeah, I mean, he was the host of Tiny Talent Time. That's right. That was the claim to fame, but also like we're talking about now.

So not only do you hear people from different segments, you either know him from Tiny Talent Time or you know him as the weather person on the city, I'm sorry, on CBC, but you might also have been taught by him at Toronto Metropolitan University. He was a very popular teacher there. Oh, yeah.

He was there for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. What are your daughters' names? You want to shout them out here? Because I hope they're listening to this. My older daughter is Lise.

And my younger daughter is Jill. Okay. Shout out. I love it. Love it. Okay. I'm going to play a clip because I want to get some more information about your time at City Pulse there.

So first I'll play, because you didn't hear it, but I had a cold open to this episode. I did not go through the headphones, but this is what I played off the top. City Pulse weatherman Harold Hossain has a lot riding on his shoulders. Toronto's fastest weather expert is the official consultant to Skydome.

Okay, guys, open her up. Dependable weather, City Pulse falls every night at 6 and 10. So, is that true? You made the call whether the dome would be open or closed? At one time, yes. I love it. Right at the start. From the very first opening.

Yeah, from the very first opening until 1993. Did you ever get it wrong? Like you ever ordered it open and then a surprise storm? No, but there was a day when I told them to close and they took too long in closing. And the players on the field were so enthralled with the closing that they were looking up and they had to stop the game. But the roof was almost shut

and they got a little sprinkled through the last couple of feet. But they just took too long. But on the opening night, I had told them from 7.30 in the morning that they should not open. And they never told me that they were committed to opening because they had parachutists coming in. Right.

And around five o'clock in the evening, they called me and they put me on speakerphone. And I told them if they opened the roof, they would be soaked to the bone within a few minutes. And they went ahead and opened the roof anyway because they were committed and there were thunderstorms and these guys actually parachuted into the dome and slid on the wet floor. And my exact words to them were, if you open that roof,

not only would you be soaked to the bone in less than five minutes, but you are likely to be flooded out. Wow. Because this is sort of an infamous day in Toronto weather history. It was. This dome ceremony, which was, by the way, June 3rd, Saturday, June 3rd, 1989. And it's very interesting.

I'm just glancing at a little report about that. And they talk about to jog everyone's memory, the late Alan Thicke and Andrea Martin, they hosted this gala. And there was like 30,000 balloons, there were fireworks, 45,000 people were there, songs, dances. And then, of course, as you tried to warn them, there's threatening thunderstorms. But people got wet, I guess. And they, what is that here? I'm just reading here. But it became a welcome to the world's first fully automated retractable dome where you can enjoy the sun on sunny days and stay dry on rainy ones. So that's the ironic statement being said while everybody was getting soaked.

Well, the funny thing was that there were people there in special costumes for dancing and all that. And those costumes, I don't know whether they were ruined or badly damaged in the rain. But anyway, weeks or months later, I get a call asking me

if I could resend the original forecast. So when I inquired as to why, it turns out that they were being sued. Wow. So I guess they were looking for somebody. This is a story, Harold. They wanted to pin this on you, blame their weather guy. Yeah, they wanted to pass the buck.

So then I get a phone call after I sent the original, and the person talking to me said, you just sunk us. I said, me? How would I sink you? Well, the forecast you sent showed that 7.30 in the morning you told us not to open. I said, well, I didn't sink you. You sunk yourself.

You sunk yourself. I told you not to do it. Good for you, man, because they're going to pin, blame it on, this is the famous, just blame it on the weather guy. Meanwhile, you're not just a weather presenter here. You're a meteorologist, and this is science, and you warn them.

They didn't listen. That's on them. Good for you, buddy. Yeah. But there might be more to this story. I feel as I scratched, I've got to find out more about these lawsuits on what happened when this happened.

I don't know what happened. I never followed up and nobody ever told me. Fascinating, fascinating. Okay, I have another clip I'm going to play for you. You're going to hear it in the headphones. Hopefully, this will, after I play this clip, I've got two questions related to a word that you say in this bit.

So here we go. I left my ticket at home, but if I'm not here tomorrow, you'll know. Harold has the forecast next, Harold. Well, I'll be here tomorrow because I didn't even get one number. But things are going to be changing tomorrow. Beginning to feel that wind starting to pick up a little bit. If you do take the umbrella tomorrow, be careful. It'll be windy enough to turn it inside out.

Four degrees up here on the roof now, and the wind out of the east-southeast at nine kilometers an hour. Humidity at 79 percent, and the pressure, well, that's moving down from 102.3 kilopascals. Sunrise will be at 717, sunset at 451. Our high today was eight degrees, but we'll drop to two degrees overnight tonight, ahead of a new system coming in from the Midwest. Take a look at the satellite picture and as we fly in you can see the storm center itself heading up towards lake superior rain has already stretched into western michigan and it looks as though we'll

start to see some showers here during the morning hours tomorrow and they should be on and off through the day well nothing to show you on our radar around here, except that cloud on that satellite shot. But down the Ottawa Valley tonight, it's going to be fairly cool. From Petawawa down to Ottawa, minus 7 to minus 8. Peterborough to Kingston, 0 to minus 4. Warmer in central Ontario, 0 to plus 1. Two degrees Toronto on the horseshoe. And for the southwest, anywhere from 4 to 7.

Goderich to Windsor. Tomorrow, with the mild air coming in, 10 to 13. The highs for the southwest. Toronto on the horses Goderich to Windsor. Tomorrow, with the mild air coming in, 10 to 13, the highs for the southwest. Toronto and the Horseshoe, 10 to 11 degrees. In central Ontario, 8 to 10 from North Bay down to Barrie. And for eastern Ontario, 5 to 10 from Petawawa down to Kingston. And of course, it'll take a little longer for the Ottawa Valley to warm up tomorrow, but as this system comes in, brisk southeast winds will be gusting to 40 kilometers an hour.

We'll see some showers and temperatures climb to 10 tomorrow night down to five and then on friday morning we'll have some showers ending a high of eight during the morning hours but in the late afternoon cooling off with the chance of flurries developing heading into saturday sunday and monday though big high pressure system coming in southwesterly winds coming in too we'll be at around six degrees on saturday but sunday Sunday and Monday up to 10 with a brisk southwest wind. So it looks like anything but wintry weather for the next few days.

Mark. That's good. Thanks, Harold. Some stories to watch for tomorrow, huh, Sidney? What a pro. What is it like listening to yourself from way back then? Tell me what it's like for you to hear yourself. That's what I was just thinking about.

I haven't listened to myself very much, and I'm listening and thinking, oh, that's the way was just thinking about. I haven't listened to myself very much, and I'm listening and thinking, oh, that's the way I used to sound. Well, you sound pretty similar today. I'm listening to you in the headphones for the last 40 minutes. You sound pretty similar. But that's a very polished weather report. You were very good.

Thank you. Well, that's how you kept so many jobs for so long. You can get a job easily, but you've got to hold on to the job. You've got to be good. So you were good. But there's a word you said, and multiple people wrote me about this use of this word. So I'll first read Michael Ball. Michael Ball says, please just have him say kilopascals over and over again.

I missed that. And then David Angus said, I learned what kilopascals are from Harold. But for those of us who didn't learn that from you, what's a kilopascal? And we heard in that clip, but why the usage of this obscure term? Well, it's how you measure air pressure. You can measure it in millibars of mercury

or kilopascals. I'm saying it wrong. And I used to say kilopascal or kilopascals. I'm saying it wrong. And I used to say kilopascal or kilopascal. And somebody actually corrected me because the man's name was Pascal. Right. And when I was corrected that one time, I changed it and I never stopped.

And it's kilopascal it's kilo Pascal love it love it sounded so good but David Angus had another note which he basically because most of these clips I play of you you hear Mark Daly introducing you the voice gone far too soon can you David says you're almost as iconic as Mark Daly that's very high praise from David Angus here. But can you please share any stories you can recall from the late, great Mark Daly? Well, I would say Mark was my best friend at City. A very, very nice person. And he came out to a few parties we had.

He and his wife came out, and we had a great time. And always stayed close to him. And I used to mimic him, you know. City TV. I can't do it now, but... Everywhere. Everywhere, yeah. Yeah, he had a great voice.

Definitely a really great person. Man, I'm so sorry for your loss. You know, us fans get hit pretty hard when somebody that we watch on the TV every night passes away. I can't imagine what it's like for you, people who were friends with the man. So yeah, he's gone way too soon. Yeah, way too soon. Still have pictures of him at his last wedding, his second wedding. And his wife was a very nice person too here's an interesting story

so uh mark had like a an archive of like vhs cassettes i don't know if it was in the basement or the attic but somewhere where you store that stuff and just recently like very recently mark's wife had it wanted didn't know what to do with all this like archived material of mark dale apparently he saved everything like apparently there's there's like thousands of like vhs cassettes didn't know what to do with all this like archived material of Mark Daly. Apparently he saved everything. Like apparently there's like thousands of like VHS cassettes of stuff Mark Daly material on it. But what was revealed on this program

when Ed Conroy came on is that she reached out to Ed and apparently now Ed's going to have access to all this and we're going to try to digitize it and make something from it. So share it with the world at some point. Well, that's nice. I had several which I saved over the years and then in the last couple of years I've moved

and had no way to keep these things and eventually I just said, you know what? Nobody's going to look at them. You don't know that, Harold. You also probably said, no one's going to call me to sit in his't know that, Harold. You also probably said, no one's going to call me to sit in his basement for an hour and talk about his career.

And I chucked them out. See, that breaks my heart, because I bet you we could have got that to Ed and we could have done something wonderful with it. Well, I still have a couple of them, so perhaps I could get those to you. I'm going to connect you. Look, this is my role in the universe, Harold.

So my role is to connect the people to archive all this great content. So I'm going to see if I can salvage what you saved, get that to Ed, digitize that, and share it with your many fans. And many of them are going to be hearing us right now, but it would be great if we had more footage. I played pretty much everything I have.

I have a couple more clips, but they aren't you doing weather reports. We're going to do that. You and I are going to talk later about saving that. Is it VHS? I can't remember now. It might be beta. Don't worry.

We can salvage it. I don't know if I still have them because I moved last October and in that move I may have toved out some more, so I don't know what's left. them because i moved last october and in that move i may have toved out some more so i don't know what's left you see i hit you up too late i should you know this is my fault why did i take so long you know what happened okay you finish that thought and i'll tell you what made me realize uh i have to get harold on toronto mic if you had caught me two years ago, October, in October 21, I had everything that was saved from original, from 1989.

Wow. You know, this is the greatest reason I've heard yet to invent a time machine. So I know what I'll be doing for the next little while. So recently I recorded live at a place downtown called the Myseum. little while so recently i recorded live at a place downtown called the myseum myseum toronto had a great exhibit on uh local like children television like mr dress up and today's special and even degrassi so young people's programming coming out of toronto basically there's a lot of great stuff there uh the friendly giant okay and i'm there to chat up people and there's a lot of great stuff there. The Friendly Giant, okay? And I'm there to chat up people. And there's a gentleman there named PJ Fresh Phil,

who was a, they're called PJs, but he was on YTV targeting the youth at around the time you were delivering weather on City Pulse there. And PJ Fresh Phil, kind of randomly, I guess you came up somehow, because Harold Hossain comes up just all the time, right, in conversation, you know that.

But you come up and PJ breaks into like an imitation of you Because, you know, Harold Hussain comes up just all the time, right? In conversation, you know that. But you come up and PJ breaks into like an imitation of you. And I should have pulled it, but I laughed. It was so perfect. He used the word umbrella and he used the word gotterich. And I just heard those two terms. And it was like, oh my God, I loved. You're like my favorite weather, my favorite meteorologist of all time I'm like where's Harold at these days

like let's get Harold over here I don't want to have this regret where I find out you passed away at the age of 99 or something and I'm like I missed him but here you are I'm recording this so I'm a happy guy so thank you for being here man and I'm glad you're doing it too

and your daughters are going to listen, right? I want to know that your daughters will spend an hour with this and listen to your stories. Well, I don't know that I've even told them that I'm coming down, that I was going to come down today. Surprise, surprise. Okay, well, this will be quite the surprise when you send them a link and say your old man did this here.

Okay. I'm going to shout out some partners of the program and then I have these additional questions and clips for you, Harold, because at some point we got to talk about clips. So, okay. So we got some things to discuss,

but I want to shout out two events coming up. One is called getting hip to the hip and evening for the downy Wenjack fund. And that's September 1st at seven 30 at the rec room, go to getting hip toothehip.com. Use the promo code FOTM10. That's FOTM10. You save 10%. Join me on September 1st for this fantastic event.

Jamie Du is behind this. There's a hip cover band. There's a live recording of Getting Hip to the Hip. If you're at all interested in the Tragically Hip, you gotta be there. An evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund. The tickets are very reasonably priced, and you're at all interested in the tragically hip you gotta be there an evening for the downey wenjack fund the tickets are very reasonably priced and you're getting the 10 off so getting hip to the hip.com promo codes fotm10 and i want to welcome back a sponsor that's been here in the past and they're back because i hate to say it because it's still very hot outside but

halloween is coming harold okay this this always comes. Okay, Halloween's coming and there's a wonderful event that takes place in Milton but this year it's actually in other cities across the country but for us GTA people, Milton is where it's at. This event is called Pumpkins After Dark.

It takes place from September 23rd to October 31st. That's Halloween and if you buy your tickets now, you get 15% off if you use the promo code TOMIKE15. TOMIKE15. So go do

that. PumpkinsAfterDark.com. Get your tickets there. Go to Getting Hip to the Hip. Do you drink beer, Harold? I do. I'm sending you home with some Fresh Craft beer courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. they're available uh across this fine province and it's a wonderful family-owned fiercely independent brewery good i'll come and

hand you on the weekend well do you enjoy italian food yes i do that's the correct answer harold because i feel like i'm doing a game show now but there is a uh frozen large lasagna in my freezer and you're taking that home with you too that's courtesy of palma pasta and they have locations in mississauga and oakville and palma pasta this is a fun fact palma pasta is going to feed everyone listening you're invited to harold you can bring your family i'm hosting an event it's a free event it's called tmlx 13 the 13th tor Mike Listener Experience. And we're going to do that at Great Lakes Brewery. Everybody gets their free first beer for free,

courtesy of GLB. And everybody gets some pasta, courtesy of Palma Pasta. And we're just going to hang out 6 to 9 p.m. on September 7th. That's a Thursday night. Come to the Southern Etobicoke Great Lakes Brewery location. Man, I'd love to see you there.

That's happening soon. So everybody put that in your calendar. That's right after the Labor Day weekend. Yeah, it's like, yes, it's exactly right. Well, I'm going to eat well for the next few days because I'm a bachelor for the next few days. This is perfect. You make it up tonight, like 45 minutes at 375.

I've done this many times when my wife's out of town. And then you have leftovers for like three, four days. It's unbelievable. I love leftovers. Lasagna is good. I actually, sometimes I think I like the next day lasagna better than I do when it comes right out of the oven. Like it's just something about pasta I really enjoy when it's a day old or so. Well, if you like spicy foods, the next day is better because the spices soak in overnight.

That's it. Listen, that's it. Okay. And last but not least, recyclemyelectronics.ca is where you go to find out where you can drop off your old electronics, your old tech, your old devices. Because you don't want to throw that in the garbage because those dangerous chemicals end up in the landfill. So go to recyclemy electronics.ca find a an accredited depot where you can drop that off thank you to ian service who just did that let me know by the way on twitter at toronto mike when you do that because i like to share it with epra they're behind recycle my

electronics.ca so that's what you got to do and of course shout out to ridley funeral home there's a measuring tape on that red box for you there, Harold. And that's courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. You never know when you got to measure something, right? All right. You never know. Okay, let's get back to it. I have a clip of you and it's got nothing to do with weather.

And you need to explain what the heck this is. But let's go back. And I think it's also at the Dome. Let's go back. Great crowd think it's also at the Dome. Let's go back. Great crowd, great costumes, great show, and we've selected one here as a winner. This is Al Vizina. Al, what's your character? Yes, I am Captain Chang Sutai Kirtash.

My costume is fashioned after my great-grandfather, General Chang. Good. Well, we've selected you as a winner. Here's a gift. It's Star Trek The Next Generation, a trivia game presented by Classic Games. Now, let's introduce Star Trek The Making of and the upcoming movie. Back to the show. Federation Heaven in the dome and at your home.

This is City TV, everyone. Brought to you by Labatt Ice Beer. Uniquely brewed to be strong yet smooth. Boo to Labatts. But do you remember this? This is the Star Trek TNG, the Next Generation finale that aired at the Dome. And you were apparently like an in-house host of some sorts. I'm here in there.

Do you remember this? Not really. Well, that was a good night for you then. It was the Cheers finale when the cast got drunk and they went on Jay Leno. I remember that. This is the Star Trek finale. So there's footage I've been watching

and you're hosting this thing and it's like a live viewing at the dome, but you don't have this memory in your memory bank. No. But that is your voice. There's so many, well I know it's me, but there's so many memories that

there are lots of them that fade away and a few that stay. Can you share, I mean, you mentioned a few of those memories that aren't going anywhere. Do you want to share a few of those before we get to your Calypso career? It's difficult to remember. Well, little snippets here and there. I remember, you know, we did the show outdoors and I'd be standing on the sidewalk sometimes and somebody walked up behind me and poked me on both sides of my ribs

and I didn't flinch. And the security guy grabbed the person and wrestled him to the ground. I didn't see all that. I found out afterwards because I was concentrating on looking at the camera and doing my job. And so I remember somebody poking me and everybody was surprised that I didn't flinch.

You didn't flinch because you're a pro. I remember another one. We were down at the dog show down at the CNE. Sure. And I had to lay down just in front of the barrier that the dogs were going to be jumping over. And one dog touched the top rung and it popped out and dropped on top of me. But I managed to not flinch.

Little things like that. See, you don't have a story like the aforementioned Steve Anthony where he drop-kicked a monster truck tire and shattered his hip. Have you heard this on live on breakfast television? Oh, no, I didn't. Like on live, yeah. I guess, I don't know what's going through Steve's head, you know, but there's a big monster truck, so the tires are taller than us, I guess,

and he decides to drop kick it, but he just goes down and shatters the hip. Wow. Yeah. No, I wouldn't attempt something like that. No, you're too smart for that, but Steve Anthony wasn't, but people can go to the first episode of Toronto Mic'd with Steve Anthony and get that full story, because it's quite something.

Jamal just says, it's amazing you're on. Jamal says, you must have some great City TV stories. That's where we're at here. Ian wrote in to say, I've worked with his successor, Frank, quite a few times over the years, and I'd love to know Harold's best story of someone getting angry at him

for the weather forecast versus reality. Great question. Like, have you ever said it was going to be sunny and then somebody, maybe they had a family picnic or something, and then there's a surprise storm that you didn't see come in and they blame you?

Well, I remember a letter that was sent to cfrb back in the uh must have been it would have been the 90s i guess yeah where a lady from oshawa wrote in to say that I should be fired and she should have my job because she could do a better job. Right. Because, she said, I predicted rain and it didn't rain at her house. So I pulled up the files and I had predicted showers for the city of Toronto and where we measure rainfall is out at Pearson Airport. And I had predicted showers for the city of Toronto. And where we measure rainfall is out at Pearson Airport.

Right. And I pulled up the records and showed that we had, I think, 11 millimeters of rain. And so I said to her, well, you're entitled to your opinion, but I predicted showers, which are not everywhere not everywhere right they're hit and miss we did have showers we had 11 millimeters of rain i rest my case and i never heard from her again i don't let her shut her up now it is this city of ours is a very big city there's now that we have you know twitter you can see in real time so So in real time, I'll have, I don't know, people in Scarborough will be tweeting pictures of the storm they have, the rainstorm

currently happening in Scarborough. Oh my God, it's raining cats and dogs. And then I'll be sitting here in southern Etobicoke and it's sunny out. This is a big city, right? So it's often where you get these localized outbursts that don't affect the entire city at the same time. Yeah, well, there was one.

I had predicted showers and thunderstorms, and most people got something. But out in the Keele and Finch area, around Sentinel Drive, I think it was, near to York University, a massive storm just developed and did not move. I don't remember the year, but anyway, on that day, we had, I don't know what washed out up there, but there was a piece of a road that washed out. But this storm just developed, and while everything else moved,

and while everything else moved, it didn't move. And so we got a whole ton of rain for which I had to take the blame. I didn't see it until it happened. Nobody knew it was going to happen, but that happens sometimes. I remember a day way back, it might have been the late 70s or early 80s, there was not a cloud in the sky

except for one massive thunderstorm over Oshawa. It was so huge that from my office at Pearson Airport, I could see the thunderstorm tops in Oshawa. That's how big it was. But it was the only cloud in the sky, and it was the only thunderstorm. Well, the dirty schwa needed a cleaning. You can borrow that line.

Okay. Yeah. Here's a loaded question for you that just jumped into my mind. But do you feel, because there was kind of a famous case recently, I don't think it's been resolved yet, but with, I won't name names,

but at CP24 there was a weather presenter. And my question is, a weather presenter. And my question is, a weather presenter, meaning just somebody who presents the weather, like reads it, versus a meteorologist, do you believe a meteorologist should receive more, higher compensation than a weather reader, a weather presenter?

Because a meteorologist has the big degrees, the education? Yes, I do. I agree with you. I think I agree with you. The meteorologist, that's the real deal here. I could be a weather presenter.

Anybody can be a presenter because anybody can rip and read. Right. But if you're writing, you're creating the forecast and you're taking responsibility for it, then I think you should be better compensated. And who else can say kilo pascals, right?

I don't hear any weather presenters. Anybody can. And then you have to say, what does that mean? And they have no idea. Well, okay, thank you for that. Any stories at all about your boss at the time when you're at City TV? And then I have a question about how you're also at CFRB

and then we've got to get you to 680. Oh, my goodness, I'm going to start talking a little faster here. I realize I need several hours with Hurricane Harold here. But any stories about Moses Neimer, your boss at City? Great man, visionary, great respect for him didn't really interact much with him he hired me and when I was going to the interview

I was told take a book because you'll probably sit outside his door for an hour and you'll have an interview of five minutes well it turned out to be the exact opposite. I sat outside for perhaps 10 minutes and then I went in for my interview and I thought we'd never stop talking. Amazing. Because he asked so many questions.

He wanted to know everything about me, where I went to school, why I got into meteorology, and things about my family, and my likes and dislikes, and hobbies. When he was done, he knew a whole lot more about me than many of my friends. He was a curious cat, a sincerely curious person. And I find that that's fascinating. I mean, I'm a curious person, but I'm no Moses, okay?

So you were in good with Moses and that can't hurt at the Chum City complex. And when he was done, he said, now I'm going to hire you, but if you don't satisfy what I want, I'm going to fire you. And I said, that's fair. That's fair. At least, yeah, you told your face. So just to get the timelines right, because you referenced being on CFRB in the 90s.

So when do you leave City TV? 2006. Okay, so that's quite the run. So you've referenced in this conversation, you've referenced the fact that you like to have two jobs. This is smart. Diversify. Okay.

So you're also on CFRB at the same time as you're at City TV? Yes. When I went to City, I was already at CJCL. When I went to City, I was already at CJCL. So between 89 and 91, I was doing City and CJCL. And then 1430, I don't remember whether they shut down or they changed their format. To 590. Okay, they went to 590. Yeah, they were all sports. They're still there,. To 590. Okay, they went to 590.

Yeah, they were all sports. They're still there, the fan 590. And so that's when the job with them ended. Right. And I wasn't doing radio until 93. From 91 to 93, I was off radio. And then in 93, I went to CFRB. So how long were you at CFRB?

In 93 to 99, I got a phone call one day from 680, from someone who had worked with me at CJCL. Can I guess who that is? You probably could. Scott Metcalf. No, the phone call wasn't from him, but I had worked. He was at CJCL when I was there. This is Scott's binder here.

Oh, wow. I'm holding up the fan sports radio 1430. And Scott returns next week with Mike Epple and Richard Southern. And I'm going to sneak in. Nobody knows this. I'm giving you an exclusive here. I'm going to sneak in Peter Gross.

They're going to be talking about 30 years of all news radio on 680. Oh, yeah. Well, actually, I got a phone call from Steph Smythe. Who's here next week as well. In a different episode, though, with her husband, Paul Cook.

Yeah. And she said, I'd like to talk with you. smythe who's here next week as well in a different episode though with her husband paul cook yeah and she said uh i'd like to talk with you and okay and make a long story short i went down had a chat with her and then she had me chat with somebody else and then they made me an offer and i was still at rb and my contract hadn't been renewed at RB yet, and I don't know what the delay was. So when they offered me something better, I went in, and my news director at RB says, what are you doing here?

He said, I came to tell you I'm leaving. Right. His jaw hit the floor. Anyway, so two weeks later, I left RB and joined 680. Is there a moment at RB where they have that, you know, because I've pulled that move in my corporate career, which is long in the rear view mirror now, but like where you're like, I got a better offer.

I'm sadly leaving. And then they say, what's the offer? And then they match or beat better offer. I'm sadly leaving. And then they say, what's the offer? And then they match or beat this offer. Was there any attempt to retain you at CFRB? Yes, there was. This is the good time talk here. Okay, but you still made the move to 680. Yeah.

Well, the question was, what could we do to keep you? That's the question. And I said at this point, because i said wrong answer harold no i suspected that if if they up the ante to keep me what would stop them from letting me go shortly after yeah so right i thought i would be better off at 680 and i i went and spent 20 years 20 years at 680 uh did you ever catch Peter Gross sleeping when he should be reading the sports? No. I wasn't at the station. I worked

from home. That's why you lasted 20 years. That's a pro move there, Harold. Just get my timelines right and then why does it end for you at City TV? Somebody else could answer that. I went away on a vacation and got a phone call

telling me I won't be needed when I came back. You got the tap on the shoulder, Harold, your services are no longer required. Yeah, the equivalent of that, yeah. Paraphrasing, of course. I'm angry on your behalf, though, because of all those years of service. But this did happen to a number of people i mean jim mckinney got the same tap like oh i didn't know that jim mckinney but uh yeah got that tap and i've had a bunch i had a

bunch of people on this very program who were part of what i call these like these these glory years of city tv uh that that simply uh were told their services were no longer required. So that's unfortunate because you were such a fixture on that station. And is it just, in your opinion, you just made too much money and they thought they could save some cash? What's going on there? Usually it's cost cutting. I don't know. It can't be that.

You're still a great, you're great at what you do and you're a good meteorologist. It must be money related. Well, I don't know. Could be. Who do you want me to talk to? Who is the person who told you your services are no longer required?

That's water under the bridge. But I remember somebody who worked for another radio station who was, this is a hearsay story now. I was told that he was transferred to Ottawa because they were expanding and he had packed up and was on his transferred to Ottawa because they were expanding.

And he had packed up and was on his way to Ottawa when at noon, the radio just died. And he called in to say, what's going on? Did we lose the signal? And they said, no. We're done.

We're off the air. That's it? Yeah. And I know somebody else. And that's Ottawa? That story's from Ottawa? No, that story's from Toronto. What station was that?

No, I've not. Here's why I ask, Harold. Because I learned yesterday about an FM station in Toronto is going to turn off its signal at the end of the month. And I might as well tell you because I wrote about it on TorontoMic.com,

but Proud FM, which caters to the LGBTQ plus community. At the end of the month, that station's gone. And I can't remember in my, I can't remember, and at least I can't remember an FM station in this market where they just turned off the signal. Like I'm sure it's happened, but I just can't remember one. So that's why I'm curious what station this was. I think it was CKO.

I think they just shut down. Okay. And there was somebody else who worked at that station who went to CHFI. Can I guess? I like playing this game. Can I guess? You can guess, but I'm not going to name names. But anyway.

It's Aaron Davis. She and I had known each other from talking on the phone. And when I went to 680, actually my first airtime was at CHFI because she had seen me in the station and said come on over and uh who was she she worked with um who was on in the morning with her now i can't remember his name um mike mike cooper mike cooper right fotm mike cooper. Right. In the same club as you. And FOTM Aaron Davis. So anyway, but I think the same thing, something similar happened to Aaron.

I think there's a story where on a Sunday night she was told she wasn't needed anymore. Exactly, yeah. And Julie Adam told her that, yeah, they were going in a different direction and she was let go. But there was such outrage by the public that they, because they ended up bringing her back at some point,

but she ended up on Easy Rock and she basically was kicking CHFI's butt at Easy Rock. So CHFI said, we screwed up, come back, please. And then she got to like write her own ticket. It's the great Aaron Davis story. And I heard of somebody at CBC who had pulled in to

park her car and there was somebody in her parking spot and so she went to security and said there's somebody in my parking spot and security asked oh who are you uh i'm so and so and oh i don't have your name here you you don't work here And apparently that's how the person found out. That's, you know, what a cutthroat business. Although I would say it's exclusive to your industry, but I've heard some similar shitty stories from other industries as well. But it's no way to treat a human being.

Well, that's how it goes. So why does it end for you at 680? Oh, I was getting too old. I wanted to. But when was your last year at 680? August 2019, I packed it in. Okay, so you got out just before the pandemic. Yes.

Another smooth move. Well, I had gone from working full-time to working weekends. And so it was time for me to go. I'd put in 60 years of work from when I started working until I stopped.

Would you mind if I played a couple of minutes of you, a little bit of you singing. Is that okay? Sure. I write calypso music. Let's hear it. minutes of you uh a little bit of you singing is that okay sure here we go music and anything goes in calypso music oh i think i know where this is from it's not in perfect english it's a legion it's in caribbean english i'm out of trinidad and it's what we called trini speak so when Canadians get together and they're just sitting around talking what are they doing shooting the

breeze right yeah well you see was Rodney? Yeah. Rodney knows about this because when Trinis do that, what they do is they're talking shit. They're just shit talking. talking because there's no topic. You see, I might say something about you're here and you might say something about the way she's sitting and he might tell me something about the way I'm dressed and it just keeps going. So, you see, this is a little one called shit talk and it goes like this. Guyanese, they could g gaff they really know how to

laugh Canadians shoot debris but trainees shit talk with the greatest ease so I want to discuss something about shit and I'm feeling sure you'll agree with it It is powerful, this word shit I hope when you're laughing is that my shit Shit talk, shit talking tongue Shit talk, it's spreading around Shit talk is a trinity thing Man, we the best at shit talking

Somebody might call you shit face Trini thing, man, we the best at shit talking. Somebody might call you shit face. You could be shit out of luck. Have all your shit in place. Decide if the shit will get off the pot. Well, we know people who full of shit. And others who just talking bullshit. But a shit expert is a man who know how to when shit hit the fan.

Shit talk, shit talking talk, shit talk. It's spreading around. Shit talk is a trinity. Man with the best at shit talking. What event was that at, Harold? Some kind of an idol thing, right? It was something

in Streetsville. The guy named Rodney was a good friend. He was a neighbor of mine and he asked me to come up there to judge a singing competition right and no one told me that the judges were supposed to sing also so i get there and i don't have any music with me and they asked me to sing so i did acapella well you did a great job and if you go to discogs which is a place i'll go where you get like a

different albums they only have one listed here hurricane herald does have uh here it's called hurricane on steel but you do have cds right you've you've released albums yes how many albums have you released i don't know but six or seven. Are these Soca albums? How would you describe? No, they're Calypso. Calypso, yeah, right. Soca is dance music. Calypso is story and song.

Okay. And so true Calypso is usually some kind of a story. It could be comical, historical, political, whatever. But it's usually a real story. And so what I do is calypso. And yeah, the one hurricane on steel is a collection of some of the songs I wrote done on steel pan. And that was down in the war.

I think that was probably around 1998 or 99. Were you always interested in performing Calypso, or is this something you've done since you were young? What caused, because I mean, six albums. I'm not going to release any albums in my life. You've got six under your belt. Well, I always liked music and I'm hanging out with friends

who encouraged me to write some music and it kind of took off from there. And for a few years, I was really having a good time doing it but it's very expensive to do music and you don't make a whole lot of money when you're not a known person you got to be uh you got to be drake oh yeah the weekend to make money at this game oh yeah i've heard that story so i i did it for a while and it was fun and i haven't done anything now for many years now i told you when i met you uh i don't know what i was and I haven't done anything now for many years.

Now, I told you when I met you, I don't know what I was expecting. I haven't seen you in a while, but you look vibrant and young. You look great. I was shocked to hear you were in your 80s, but I did notice if you feel a little jealous of my thick head of hair, please, Harold. It's okay. I understand. You're herstutely challenged. I made up that word, herstutely. I don't even know if that's a word understand uh you're her stutely challenged i made up that word her stutely i don't even know if that's a word but uh you you're challenged in the hair department i do have 20 seconds or something just to you can explain what this is but here we go harold was a baldy he went to dr larry they did some micro surgery now, Harry is a hairy. See the hairline growing on TV every evening.

Or hear them talk about it on the radio. Henry Shannon here. When I started balding, I thought it was irreversible until I met Dr. Larry Fraybon. Dr. Fraybon has had such success with his hair transplantation procedure that people are actually singing his praises like Hurricane Harold Hussain. Okay, let me understand this. Dr. Larry gave you a hair transplant. Right.

Okay. Again, you tell us, but it didn't take? It worked. It worked for a long time, and now you've decided to bowl this beautiful? Yeah, and if I let it grow, I'll have a hair header here uh from what he transplanted um it's still there it worked well but uh back in 2008 i just decided i had enough

of here yeah take it off okay i will say that damn is cat that damn that jam is catchy as heck like i'm digging the harry was a baldy, now Harry's hairy. It's a great little song there. That's an original? That's a Harold Hussain original? That's a song I wrote about Carabana, and that's the music from that song. In 1967, we had a celebration,

the 100th anniversary of the Confederation. Right. We asked everybody to join in culturally. Some Trinis and their partners promoted Carabana. So that's the music from that song. Amazing. It's quite a long song. It's about 10 minutes long.

Okay, I've got to get myself the 12-inch version. I've got to go find that. All right, Harold, this has been unbelievable for me. But just to recap here, we had you on CJCL. Then we had you eventually on CFRB. Then you were on City Pulse, City TV, where you worked with people we know and love. I'm thinking of like Gord Martineau and Ann Roszkowski.

We shouted out Peter Gross. John Gallagher was there. Gallagher got hair transplants too. Yeah. It's quite a story about 9-11 and 2020 and there's a whole story there. Shout out to John Gallagher. But you're at City Pulse.

That's where I really discover you. Meanwhile, then you're back on the radio on CFRB, but then you're on 680. You're there for a good 20 years. What are you doing now? Just enjoying retirement, traveling? You were just in Newfoundland. What's life like for you these days?

Just laid back, taking it easy, doing whatever I feel like doing, whenever, wherever. Living the life. Yeah. You're living the dream. I mean, what's the next trip you're taking? September, I'd like to be in Thunder Bay just for a little drive.

And I'm hoping that next May I could go back to the Yukon and yeah. Good for you. Honestly, love this so much. I could go back to the Yukon and yeah good for you honestly love this so much you're a good FOTM here Harold and I appreciate like I think

I said I'll take an hour I took 71 minutes I hope that's okay so I owe you 11 minutes but anything you wanted to share or any story you wanted to tell that you didn't get a chance to tell now is the time I'm all ears oh there are lots and lots share or any story you wanted to tell that you didn't get a chance to tell now is the time i'm i'm all ears oh there are lots and lots of stories that um we could take a half a day on all the

stories all right let's put that in the calendar because i would do that harold okay let's get a let's get a we'll do a sequel so you're going to do a couple of trips then you come back and it's just story time with harold and then maybe you tell like five or six of your favorite stories from all these years in media. How does that sound? I don't know that I have a favorite but no the stories may not be from my days in the media

but you know. The Yukon life stories. Life stories. Experiences. Always leave them wanting more. We're going to do a part two of Hurricane Harold Hussain. Thanks again, Harold, for doing this. And send me a note if your daughter's listening. I want to know what they thought.

Let them know you did this. Don't keep it a secret. My pleasure to be here. Thank you, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 1307th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery

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Subscribe to Brad Jones. Excellent podcast. Life's Undertaking. I even get to co-host. See you all tomorrow when my special guest in the studio is Neil Osborne from 5440. See you all then. Oh, you know that's true because

Everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me today And your smile is fine Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't stay today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day.

But I wonder who. Yeah, I wonder who. Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of gray. Because I know that's true. Yes, I do. I know it's true. Yeah. I know it's true I know it's true How about you?

All that picking up trash And then putting down roads