Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Hugh Burrill: Toronto Mike'd #240

Episode Date: June 5, 2017

Mike chats with The Fan 590 morning show host Hugh Burrill about his years at CityTV, Rogers Sportsnet and The Fan 590.

Welcome to episode 240 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. estate done right. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is fan 590 morning man, Hugh Burrell. How you doing, Mike? Good. Yeah. Hey, before we begin, congrats on the theme music. That's some tight stuff, as the kids say. I don't know, do the kids say that? I have no idea. Do I look like I know what the kids say? That's cool. Who is that doing that? Okay, that is... I'm glad you asked that question.

That is Ill Vibe. He is a local rapper producer, and he was a friend of a friend. Well, he's still a friend of him. Sadly, our mutual friend passed away far too young of cancer. Okay. But I met him,

and he did this for me for episode one which was almost five years ago. Wow. It'll be five years in August. And I refused to change it

because I love it. No, why would you? It's perfect. It's excellent stuff. I always, whenever I have somebody on from like, I don't know,

Kiss 92.5, like if I've got like a mocha here or something, I'm like, why isn't, why can't that song be on the playlist?

It's good, right? It sounds as good or better than most of the stuff that's out right now. Because it's got a jazzy kind of quality to it. Thank you. Again, flattery will get you everywhere. I'm going to remove all the hardball questions. I'm going to wipe them from the screen.

I was just going to throw up a no comment anyway, so it doesn't matter. It's great. Refer me to your PR department. That's the standard line, right? That's right. Now I got to talk to you about Hugh. Okay. Let me just let this brew a little bit here.

So that's some headstones. Nice. Hugh Dillon. Right. So Hugh Dillon, and I won't tell the story again because I told it recently on the episode with Ed the Sock and Leanna Kay. Yeah.

But Hugh Dillon was scheduled to come in and sit in the seat you're sitting in right now. Well, you can't get one Hugh, you got the other. Thank you. So I realized, I already started typing out notes for Hugh and I'm like, I need another Hugh. So I thought, I thought, I thought initially I thought a Hugh Beaumont. Sure. But he's dead. Okay. Did you know, I thought initially I thought a Hugh Beaumont. Sure. But he's dead. Okay. Did you know that? I have no idea who Hugh Beaumont is. Oh, he's the father on Leave it to Beaver.

Oh, okay. Nice 1950s television reference there. But syndicated on the new VR and elsewhere. That's right. That's an old reference for you. But then I thought Hugh Hefner, but he would only do it via Skype. Yeah.

He wouldn't come into Toronto. He might be busy. But then I thought of Hugh Burrell. Not busy at all. And you said you would do it for beer. Absolutely. And we had a deal. We'd do almost anything for beer.

So thank you for being my Hugh. My pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for having me. In your tiny basement with a very, very, very low ceiling. Well, you're a big guy. How tall are you? 6'1".

Okay. So you see everything. 6'1'' seems big to me. You look bigger than 6'1". Oh, thank you. I think. Taller. Well, you know, I've been letting my hair grow.

I saw you pulled up in the Harley. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Do you have any badass tattoos? No, no. I think I'm the only person, only guy on planet Earth that doesn't have a tattoo. Oh, look at us.

I got no ink. The only two guys. Well, because you look like a guy who would have ink. See, we were talking about this on the air the other day. And bald guys always get the bad rap of always looking mean. Sometimes we'll be walking through the mall and my wife will get on me

about that. Like, would you smile? Why do you look so mean? It's like, I'm not looking mean, I'm just looking. Unfortunately, for better or worse, this is my face. Look, I've already dropped the 1950s reference, so now I'm going to go to the 80s. Remember... Oh, I'm a go to the 80s. Remember the Cher movie with

Eric Stoltz called The Mask. The Mask, yes. Is it The Mask or Mask? I think, no, The Mask is Jim Carrey. Mask is Cher and

Eric Stoltz. Do you remember, I mean, what a wonderful movie, but I'm allowed to spoil a movie from 1983 or whatever the hell that was.

If you haven't seen it, shame on you. But the biker guys, the tough-looking biker guy, was the sweetest guy in the world with the puppy and everything? Usually, us tough-looking guys are the sweetest guys in the world. We've got to look out for guys like you who look like you. Fresh-faced, baby-faced, those are the guys we've got to keep an eye on. Well, if I dye my hair, then you know, be careful.

So you're a child of the 80s like me. Do you wear glasses? I used to for the longest time I did. Then I got contacts and then I had eye surgery back in February to fix it. Oh, like the laser. No, well, yeah, like it was laser surgery to fix a cataract because apparently I'm 87 years old.

So now I just wear the one contact in the left eye. The right eye is like perfect now. I can see, I can see through time. It's so good. But yeah. Okay. I am,

I'm asking cause I've had, you're not my doctor. So I'll just, I'll just disclose that. I know you're not my doctor, but you play one on the radio anyway. I, like I have a headache. Okay.

And lately I've noticed... Take an aspirin. Yeah, take an Advil or something. But I've noticed like, and no one can see me because this is a podcast, but like I have to move text a little further away to read it now.

Yeah, absolutely. And it makes my head hurt if it's too close. And I feel it's related. I think maybe I need glasses. Yeah, well, I wear reading glasses now too. So on the air,

I mean, you don't see it because it's radio, but I'm usually wearing glass, like reading glasses on the air. And once I finish my sportscast, I wear reading glasses now, too. So on the air, I mean, you don't see it because it's radio, but I'm usually wearing reading glasses on the air. And once I finish my sports cast, I take them off. So when did you start doing the reading glasses thing? The reading glasses? Probably, I don't know, a year and a half ago, I guess. It happens fast.

Are you allowed to disclose your age or you have to keep it a secret? No. Like when they didn't tell the world that John Lennon was married, remember? That's right. Well, I was born in 68, so what's that? I'm 40... I'm 48 right now. Okay, good. Mike, don't make me do math.

Like, seriously. So this is recent. So you were actually, when you got your reading glasses, you were older than I am now. Yes. How old are you? 43. Oh, no, I'm 43 later this month. Okay. I'm technically 42.

Around this time, the sight starts to go. If I die today, they'll say I died at 42. But I've always advanced it. Like, now you're close enough. Like, my daughter, who turns 13 in July,

I've been thinking of her as a teenager. Like, she's been 13 to me for months now. And technically, she's 12. It's like, you know, you do that, I think. You're in the neighborhood of reading glasses. And I know this headache thing.

It's either like a terrible tumor. Boy, this is an uplifting show so far. We've had a death. We've had the if I die and a possible tumor. Right. But the if I die and the tumor are related, potentially. I just think, yeah, I got to go see an eye doctor. If I'm going to get reading glasses, I think I'm wondering what would I get or whatever.

I'm going to say, give me whatever. I just went to Costco and get like the three pack. Okay. They're just reading glasses. Can I use your membership? Absolutely. I think I've made a lot of laps. Yes.

Yeah. And the one on Queensway. I call it the $200 store because you go in there just to wander around and you're walking out with $200 worth of stuff. Or, if you're like my wife and I, we're the ones standing in line with a book. Oh, that's funny. And everyone else is preparing for the apocalypse

and we've got a book. That is hilarious. The best stories are the guys that go for the $150 hot dog. Because you get the hot dog and drink for $150 and it's crazy until you walk out of there with $200 or $300 worth of stuff. Say like Ikea, 50 cent hot dogs. Oh, $75 now.

Oh, $75. What's wrong with this world? They had to change the signs and it pissed me off too. What the hell is happening? But those are the little hot dogs but this $150 with the drink and free refills too. It's a bargain at twice the price.

Huge dog. Huge dog. I don't have a membership for Costco so yeah, we'll have to go together. Sure. But you're a West End guy. I am a West End guy. This is going to be very convenient for you.

Like, this is really convenient, right? Yeah, I'm just like a short drive home. And your mall of choice is the Sherway Gardens, right? Sherway Gardens. Love it. Even now, they're going to open up all the really rich stores, like the Saks. Yeah, the Pusateri's opened up. So if you ever want like a $300, you know, roast beef, that's where you go.

Those who could afford a $300 roast beef will have nothing less. Like, of course they're going to have a $300. Of course, it's nothing to them. Yeah, they've really kicked it up a notch. Shurway was always kind of top shelf kind of stuff. Now it's out of this world. There's store names in there I can't even pronounce. I only use it for indoor walking purposes.

Yes. Like it's raining out and I want to walk. It's like a figure, well they added the extension, but it's like a figure eight so you can just keep kind of walking. It's you and all the old folks. They get there early and on Sunday too. They open it up for walkers before the stores open. You know this, right? I do know that. Well, getting off at nine o'clock now

it's like, I can be there when the mall opens up at 10, and I see what's going on. But there's lots of Rogers properties that need your charm. I would think they would have you working around the clock. Oh, sure, sure. Okay, so you mentioned the Costco. Did you know pretty much down the street from that Costco is Great Lakes Brewery?

I do know that. I pass that almost every day. In front of you, in front of you right now, Hugh, is a... You're going to tell me now it's a five-pack. Yeah, it looks like there's one missing, Mike. I don't want to nitpick here,

but a six-pack usually has the six. It's a figure of speech. It's like a baker's dozen. This is a Mike six-pack. I drink one before you get here. Oh, good. Pour one out for your homies. You're taking that home with you.

Cool. Thank you. You know what you're going to have? Like a new stop. Like they have a nice patio there. So after you go to Costco, you're going to go down the street and have a $5 beer. Oh, they've got a patio out there? Yeah.

They just opened it like late last summer. Great. And it was there on Friday. It's fantastic. Cool. And I was there on Friday. It's fantastic. Cool. I will definitely check that out. And I was actually there on Friday with Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. He wants you to have that pint glass that you stuck into the seat.

I just kind of assumed it was mine. So I put it in there. What do you call it? I commandeered it. You should never assume. It makes an ass out of you and me. I've read that. I wrote that. I live that.

I first heard that on Benny Hill, if you're wondering where I first ever saw it. Oh, with the Yakety Sax? That's one of my favorite songs. Because remember, WUTV used to air, you're an 80s guy, WUTV used to air that Benny Hill every night at 6 o'clock. All the Britcoms yeah the old Brit

there was like the two Ronnies and then well that's really it really on the buses on the buses Benny Hill the two Ronnies can I tell you I remember I used to watch a lot of Benny Hill and there was one episode where there was a girl in a shower and I saw a breast and I

never forgot it like I was it was the best thing that ever happened. It was like a nip slip with a shower scene. Yeah, the Yakety Sax and these girls were in an outdoor shower. That stayed with 12-year-old young Mike. Yeah. And I was like, wow, man, WUTV at 630. And there's a woman's breast.

That's wonderful. They were ahead of the curve, so to speak. Pretty much. You're a West End guy. Do you own property? Dare I ask? No, so to speak. Pretty much. You're a West End guy. Do you own property? Dare I ask? Is that a personal question? No, we're renting.

And we've been renting for a long time. Because you're waiting for the bubble to burst. Exactly. Well, if you look at the latest figures, the Toronto housing bubble is not bursting, but the price is way down. Okay, I think it's like numbers sold is down, but the price is still up.

Is this a great segue to give DAP to your sponsor as well? It's pretty smooth, Mike. I'm not going to lie to you. Well, if you're interested, I'm going to tell you, Hugh, if you're interested in living in the Annex, I know it's a little east of you, but it's still West Toronto, there's a Tridals Bianca on DuPont is ready for occupancy

in 2021. So call Brian, Brian Gerstein, who bought me some street meat at Great Lakes Brewery on Friday. Nice. He's like,

can I get you, the dog was like four bucks and I'm like, can I have the Italian sausage? It was five bucks. I'm going big. Come for the beer, stay for the street meat.

Oh, nothing's better, by the way, on a nice Friday afternoon. And by the way, every Friday afternoon this summer, they're going to have street meat at vendors at the Great Lakes Brewery so you can get your beer and then have your

tasty dog or whatever. Okay, so Brian is at 416-873. You writing this down here? Yes, yes. Although you have the business card in the cup. I do. You don't need to. I'm on the cover. 0292, 0292. Call Brian to get all the condo floor plans and pricing. So again, Tridals Bianca on DuPont.

This is in the annex. It's ready for occupancy in 2021. And Brian's got the floor plans and pricing. You just give him a call. He'll send that to you. You don't have to sign anything with Brian. Just have a chat with him and take a look at what the floor plans and pricing looks like. That number, once again, 416-873-0292.

When did you get those pipes? Did you always have them? Or did they come with the goatee? I don't really have a deep voice. I have like a piercing, annoying, screeching-like voice. I was going to say, but I'm trying to be nice to my guests because you flattered me from the beginning. Yeah, thank you.

Everyone sounds like they have a deep voice when I compare it to mine. So I was thinking you sound like Tom Rivers to me. Yeah, thank you. Everyone sounds like they have a deep voice when I compare it to mine. So I was thinking you sound like Tom Rivers. Yeah, sure. I wish I sounded like Tom Rivers. Speaking of the 80s, I used to hear him. I know he's a chum guy,

but I was a bit young for chum and I was more into CFTR, 680 CFTR. See, I moved down here in 93, so I kind of missed the... That's the year it turned to all news. Yeah, I kind of missed

the golden age of CFTR. 680, or no, it would have just been CFTR. I think it's all hits CFTR, I think. Yeah, I missed all that. That's actually, yeah, maybe you're the one I blame. That's actually the year it all fell to pieces because all the on-air talent that wasn't news got canned. Yeah.

So thanks, Hugh. Apparently it's my fault. Mike, I hold that much sway in this industry that I'm in charge of who gets hired and who gets fired. Well, it was a Rogers property and you seem to have your fingerprints all over the Rogers empire.

Where did you come from in 93? I came from, I started, well, let's back up here. Let's tell the story of Hugh, shall we? We have any background music for this? No, I guess not. I do. Oh, do you?

You know what sounds like a Hugh song? No, this is what I would play for you. Perfect. It all started back... No, I went to school in North Bay, taking broadcast journalism, Canada College. Go Panthers!

I'm not even sure if they have teams or not. And so I graduated in 91. Then I went, I'm from the Ottawa Valley, so I went back to the Ottawa Valley for my first job, which was in Renfrew, Ontario, at CHVR. And I was a reporter there, news reporter. I started out in news. For the first six, seven years of my career was in news.

So I was covering everything, you know, hospital board, police board, city hall, well, town hall, I guess, back then. And I did that for about six months. And then I actually got hired back in North Bay. And I was like morning show co-host slash sports director slash news reporter. I did a little bit of everything. You had to. That's a big business card. Yeah, I did a little bit of everything. You had to. It was a small station, right?

Which is the fun thing, right? Absolutely. You know what? You get your hands dirty everywhere. Back in the day, when you first started in radio, you're not making any money at all. But none of you are. So you're all having a great time.

You're all hanging out together. You're going to the same bars and same pizza places. It's great. It was a lot of fun. bars and same pizza places. It's great. It was a lot of fun. So in April of 93, I get the call to come to Toronto.

It's akin to getting called up to the major leagues from AAA. When Dancing Homer got the call from Capital City. Yeah, the Capital City goofball. Exactly. Yeah. That's a much better analogy for you. Simpsons reference right in my wheelhouse. And I'm glad you got that because now I can drop more and I won't feel bad. Sometimes I drop them with someone who looks at me like, what are you talking about?

The blank stare. So April of 93, I moved down here and I got hired to come down and do weekend news at Country 59. 5.90 on your dial. Back then it was a McLean Hunter station. So they were paying me 30 grand a year basically to do Saturday and Sunday morning. Wow. Yeah, not bad.

That would be good today. For a 24-year-old guy, 30 grand a year to work basically two days a week, I'll take it. So that lasted. Seriously. Not surprisingly, that didn't last long. I got called in for a staff meeting about six months early in November of that year. And everybody got laid off. I was one of the ones that got laid off.

And then you knew how they felt that it all hit CFTR. You know what? It's funny, though. One of my very first weekends on the air, it was like a Saturday morning or Sunday morning, I think. Obviously, it would have been on the weekend. I got a call from John Hinnant. And I had just moved to Toronto. I didn't really know any of the names of the major players. And basically, he asked me if I would be interested in coming to work for CFTR. Okay. But again, not knowing the market and not reading the writing on the wall, I said, thank you very much. I'm flattered. I really am. But I just got here and there's a sense of loyalty to this place because they gave me a chance. They

brought me down. I said, thank you very much, Mr. Hinnon, but no thank you at this time. So I get laid off and it becomes 680 News. Right. So I had a chance. You could have been Dick Smith. I could have been on the ground floor of 680 News, far and away the biggest, best news station in Canada. You were this close to being Evelyn Macko.

Yeah, exactly. You could have been Evelyn Macko. I could have been. I could have been somebody. She has a better voice, though. I could have been alyn Macko. I could have been. I could have been somebody. She has a better voice, though. I could have been a contender. And before we... Let me pause you here.

Let me use the... I just watched the Sarah Silverman Netflix special. Okay. So let me put a pin in that. Okay. She does that line a few times

and it reminds me... Let me put a pin in that because you mentioned... So is it growing up in... You're North Bay, Ottawa value. Yeah. So is this where the love of the Montreal Canadiens comes from? Yeah. See, I was born in Pembroke and raised in a tiny, tiny town

called Chalk River. Pembroke, is that Hockey Town? Pembroke is Hockey Town. Yeah. The Pembroke Lumber Kings, Central Junior A. Now I think they're just Junior A. They keep changing the name of the league. Anyway, they won the RBC Cup a couple of years ago. Yeah, so the Pembroke Lumber Kings. Yeah, but growing up where I did, you were either a Leafs fan or a Habs fan. And this was in the days before the Ottawa Senators were a thing. They didn't exist.

So my dad was a Habs fan, so I was a Montreal Canadiens fan. That almost, now I might almost excuse this, because now that I learned the history, that's a pretty good reason to be a Habs. Strombo, for example, grows up in Rexdale as a Habs fan. I know. Now, see, that's weird. That's a dick move.

That is weird. That is a total dick move, George. That's like a conscious move by Strombo to be a contrarian, okay? Where you have a, you know, Pembroke and your dad. I come by it honestly. Yes. George's great. I used to work with George the fan. I knew him when he had long hair, and he used to wear the Montreal Canadiens jersey

all the time when he was a board out there. Contrarian. Yes. I called him out on that, and that means you were, that was the trifecta, that was the Jeff Merrick Strombo, and was Macko Jr. part of that trifecta? Maybe. I don't remember Macko Jr. being there, but I do remember his dad being there.

That was Barry Davis was there. Jim Richards was there. I was there all around the same time. And then the intern, Elliot Friedman, the young intern, had he shown up yet? Never heard of him. Some guy named Dan Schulman from Barry. I remember Dan.

Don't remember Elliot at all. Yeah. Like talk about. Oh, and Eric Smith, right? He's there. Yeah, pretty strong lineup back then, you know, me notwithstanding. But there was some talent in that room back then.

It is kind of like, when you think about it now, like, if Elliott Friedman is the best hockey guy this side of Bob McKenzie... Absolutely. And Strombo is, like, Canada's boyfriend? Yeah, I've never heard that, but that's a good way to put it. I think he's trying to get that way to catch on.

If I were to have a boyfriend, I would want him to be just like George. And Eric Smith is the Rogers Raptors guy for 100, well, since they've shown up. Smitty, he's fantastic. I love Eric. Does a great job no matter what he does. He helped co-host the starting lineup last Friday, and he just did a bang-up job. Just a tremendous talent. But he spilled water on your laptop, didn't he?

Did I hear that right? I saw it on Twitter or something like that. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he knocked it all over the glass tabletop, almost into my computer. No harm, no foul. Can you picture Eric Smith without a beard? No, I cannot.

That's his look. It'd be like trying to picture me with hair. I'd look ridiculous. Come on. Or Russell Martin without a beard. It just doesn't look right. Yeah, it's not going to look good. Not going to look good.

All right, so I'm going to move on. The Habs fan thing, though, I had to ask you about it because it's kind of disgusting. But since you came by it honestly, I'm going to allow it. Because you even appeared on Habs podcasts. I have been on a Habs podcast. Just one? Yeah, just the one time so far.

I have an open invitation to come on, but they haven't contacted me since. But then you got a gig again. Then I got a gig again, so it might not be. All right, now the pin. I'm removing the pin. Now hang on a second. Now, because I grew up as a Habs fan, that does not mean I cannot look at the Leafs objectively and understand what a tremendous

future this team has. And, you know, as a purely selfish reason, if the Leafs do well, we do well. So, go Leafs, go. That's for sure. Your livelihood is enhanced by Leafs success. Yeah. And it's

good for the city. It's just, it's fun to talk about. I mean, you talk about the leafs no matter what, but there's so much more fun to talk about when they're actually doing well, you know, because they've been hammered on for so many years.

Oh my goodness. So yeah, it's nice to, it's nice to flip that coin a little bit and talk about them in a positive light. Is Austin Matthews going to be named captain this summer? Not this summer. Lou Lamorello came out, I think it was last week, said they're fully prepared to go another season without a captain.

And I guess you don't really need one. You don't need a letter on your sweater to be the leader. Although in Toronto, I'm of the mind that it's Toronto and places like Toronto, Montreal, maybe Boston, New York. These are places where it doesn't hurt to have a captain. It doesn't hurt to have the face of the team, especially when things go sideways a little bit. You know, so I think he will be captain sooner than later.

I just, not next year. Maybe one more year. Yeah, yeah. Give him another, I mean, the kid's like, how old is he? Like 20? Oh yeah, yeah. He's 20. He's got some time. That's right. Give him another... I mean, the kid's like... How old is he? Like 20? Oh, yeah, yeah. He's 20. He's got some time. That's right.

There's no rush. All right. So you're... So you're at radio stations. Yep. So you got let go from 590, which was a country station. It was a country station. Why do I remember it as Key... It used to be... It used to be...

C-K-E-Y. C-K-E-Y. No, no. C-K-E-Y. No, no, C-K-E-Y is in Ottawa. C-K-O I think it was. I don't know any Ottawa stations, but I know about C-K-E-Y. I'm sure it's C-K-E-Y because it was key. I remember that the ad had a key in it. Maybe it was, yeah. The key to your life or whatever they called it. C-K-B-Y. Oh, C-K-B-Y

I think it was a station. Whatever. Neither here nor there. Not important. Yes, it was kind of almost like a CFRB before it went to the country station. And then they pulled the plug on country. Yes. Yes, they did. Because apparently a country music station

in downtown Toronto at 1 Yonge Street didn't work. But Kiss actually had a good run. Yep, they did. They had the mugs. They did, yeah. Mocha, who we mentioned off the top, worked there. He was a charger. I think he was responsible for the mugs, maybe.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Well, that's the thing in radio. Everyone who's on air now and who kind of grew up in radio did all of those jobs, right? You do everything. You're an intern. You're licking envelopes and mailing do everything. You're an intern, you know, you're licking envelopes and mailing them out. You're making phone calls. You're doing the t-shirt canon thing on the weekend. You're driving the community cruiser. It's all part of it, right? And if you

grow up in radio, then when you do get a chance to kind of, you know, finally get on the mic, you appreciate what's come before and you have the right attitude going into it, right? And there should be more of that, I think. Do you think it's important for a person who wants to make it in radio, is it important that they go to a smaller market? Definitely. Because I know, have you sensed a trend maybe that the kids want to start in the big smoke? Well, I teach, right? I'm a teacher at the College of Sports Media. And over the past, this is my first year teaching, but I mean, I've been working in this market for a long time. And I have noticed, excuse me, I have noticed a change. coming out of school now, I don't know if they expect to, but they want to work in Toronto as their first job. They want to work Monday to Friday. They want to make $100,000 a year. Well, they need their head shaved.

And I don't do nights, by the way. This is called a sense of entitlement. Yeah. I mean, it really, it's an eye-opener because when I was coming up, back when I was a young boy, I remember, when we were coming up, you had to, I alluded to, it's like being called up to the major leagues. You had to spend your time in the minor leagues. You had to go to Renfrew. You had to go to North Bay. You have to go to places like London and Windsor. Not that those are tiny markets, but smaller markets. It's very Ottawa even, which again, is not a small market, but it's smaller obviously than Toronto.

You go to those, what I try to tell the kids, other than stay in school and don't do drugs, I say go to a small market and make your mistakes in a small market. Because in a small market, nobody really cares at the end of the day. You make a giant mistake in Toronto, people are going to notice, and some of those people are going to be your bosses. And so it's so competitive down here in this market that anything that you do to mess up, that's going to be remembered.

And it wasn't that long ago when people like Strombo and Merrick could have all-night type shows, like shows that would air in the middle of the night. And just basically goof off And that's another opportunity to make mistakes and get better.

And those are gone now. Yeah, because a lot of the overnight stuff is syndicated. Rerolls or best ofs and all that. I don't think there's any live Toronto overnight stuff. Unless it's 680, I think. But again, I mean, that's a news wheel. That's different.

That's not an overnight talk show. Yeah, everything is syndicated. It's coming out of the US for the most part. Yeah, you used to have that kind of training ground. Because even Stormy Norman, the late night vampire, he came back to 590 because they wanted to have a show to compete with 1050s overnight. And then when 1050 chopped theirs,

Norm was once again let go. Yeah, unfortunately. And that is too bad because that is a real training ground, Mike. That's kind of where you can cut your teeth. You can have a lot of fun in that segment. You're dealing with callers. You're dealing with like a shoestring budget, obviously. That's where everything is going to go wrong overnights. And that's where you kind of learn to handle it. You mentioned the Canadian, don't tell me yet. Okay. The sports, oh my goodness,

School of Sports Media, The College of Sports Media? The College of Sports Media, yes. Okay, yeah, yeah. George Street, downtown. Right. So I've had a few guests on who taught there. One of my favorites was

Jim Van Horn. Oh, my God, yeah. So are you still in contact with Jim? Yes, absolutely. And how is Jim doing? Jim is retired. This was his final year. And let me tell you,

I mean, I watched Jim coming up in college. He was the guy you watched on TSN Sports Desk, right? He was Jim Van Horn. Oh, yeah. His fantastic mustache, the whole bit. Great mustache. And the voice of God, too.

This was my... I'd met Jim for the first time this year at College of Sports Media. And you know how sometimes you meet people and they're a little bit different than what you'd expect? 240 episodes? I can, yes, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, and you know what I mean by different.

Maybe not quite the person, not quite the idol that you thought they were. Sure. Jim Van Horn surpassed every expectation I had. Truly, truly, truly one of the nicest people. One of the, just, I've ever met in this industry. Truly one of the good guys. And I wish him nothing but the best.

Did you know about his rock jock past? Or did you just know him from TSN? Just a little bit. That's what fascinated me. I don't remember 1050 Jim Van Horn. He was spinning the stacks and stacks of wax. All the platters that matter. Exactly. And he could hit the post

every time. Yeah. He's such a pro that I can totally see him doing that. By the way, if I were in charge of marketing for College of Sports Media, Bob McKenzie, Mr. Bob McKenzie, his son,

who's in sports media, went to the college of sports media. Of course he did. Yeah. I worked with Sean. Yeah. Think about, just parse that statement. Canada's greatest hockey guy. Yeah.

And most famous this side of Don Cherry, I would argue. His son is going to learn about the trade. From the college of sports media. And I bet you the old man picked up the tab. So endorsed, in a sense. Absolutely, sure. And look at what Sean's been able to do. He's been able to build himself a tremendous career.

Fantastic, good for him. Seriously, CSM, if you're going to plug the real estate guy, I'm going to plug CSM. But CSM hasn't given me a dime. It gives you a great hands-on background. Go ahead. By the way, I just did the best endorsement ever, Bob McKenzie's son.

And I didn't even talk about Faisal Khamisa. Oh, and all the people that have graduated from there, for sure. Yeah, go ahead. Not to mention all the amazing instructors you have down there. No, it's just, you know what? All the schools, Duke, Ryerson, and Humber,

and Centennial, all of these other great schools, as long as you're getting the hands-on background, that's the most important thing. And College of Sports Media certainly does that. Okay, back to the, this is your life, Hugh Burrell. How did you end up at City TV Toronto the first time? Okay, all right. So I came down, got laid off from Country 59,

about three weeks before I got married, too. That was fun. That was fun. The severance, they actually gave me, went a long way to paying for a lot of the weddings. It actually worked out. After that, kind of kicked around part-time in radio a little bit here and there, did some part-time work at the Fan,

did some at 97.7, no, not 97.7, 97.3, I forget, CJZ, which then became Easy Rock. So I was kind of part-time. Oh, no, because Easy Rock was 97.7. No, no, that's Hits FM. 97.7, Hits FM, Hits FM. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, 97.3, Easy Rock. I should never argue for Radio Gay, because I knew right away I was wrong. So I was working on a part-time for both, a little bit at Easy Rock and a little bit at The Fan, kind of bouncing back and forth. And then a writing job came open at City TV, morning news writer on Breakfast Television. And again, I was still in news, so this was a great job for me. I applied, and I was lucky enough to get it. And I wrote for a year, and then the news producer of Breakfast Television at the time, Dan Comey, shifted to the night show, and the BT news producer job came open, and I was lucky enough to get it. And I did that for two years and then made the transition on air at Citi. All right. You mentioned Breakfast Television. So you worked with Ann Romer. I did. Can you tell me a little bit about my good friend, Ann Romer, what it was

like working with Ann? Ann was, I mean, Ann, consummate professional. I've met few people in this industry who work as hard as Anne and who are as good at what they do as Anne. She's in the same category as a Gord Martineau in terms of like, Anne, we don't have a script. All of this stuff is breaking right now. Just tap dance for the next 10 minutes. And she'd be like, yep, no problem. Here we go. And that's really the true, I think the true measuring stick is when you take away the script, take away the teleprompter. What are they like? And Anne hit it out of the park every single time.

Well, Anne is so good at her job that she cannot stay away. No, she can't. She loves it so much. I know. And I know you worked with her at City TV. Of course, she ends up at CP24. Yeah. We shared the same newsroom for a little bit. How long did that last, that sharing?

It was really kind of strange. That's kind of weird. We moved, well, City moved up to Young Dundas Square in 2008, I believe. Late 2008. So it was probably a couple years, I guess. I think. So when she's on CP24, at some

point, there's a big public retirement. Yes. And there's a party. Yes. I've seen photos. There's cake. Yes.

And gift cards. Yes. Did you? I don't think I was there. I think I'd heard your earlier podcast with Frankish. That was our kind of going away. Frankish argues she retired three times.

I'm only aware of twice. Kevin says she retired once at City TV. I think maybe he's confusing her farewell party with a retirement party. I'm not quite sure of the two, as far as I know, and I'm going to write a book about this Sunday,

but there's two, we know of two Ann Romer retirements. Okay. But she has come back after each retirement. Stronger than ever, I might add.

She's fantastic. I can disclose, I'm comfortable disclosing to people, I have had correspondence with Ann Romer as recently as this past week. Oh, really? And when's she coming on?

She's resting her voice this month. It sounds funny to say that. She's going to talk to me in July. It was supposed to be June for my birthday. This has been arranged. But she's resting her voice. Well, you get me instead. But if I do see her... What a letdown that is. I'm not going to lie to you.

Womp, womp, womp. If I see Ann Romer on CP24 in June, I'll know she lied to me. Uh-oh. So if anyone sees her, please let me know via Twitter or email. No, she is... Yeah, I only know of the two myself. But did you personally, because you worked with her, did you actually give her, for example, a $100 gift card for the keg?

Did you give that to Ann on one or both of the retirements? No, I don't think I ever gave. I'm not... You're not thoughtful? No, that's right, Mike. You hit it right in the head. I'm not thoughtful at all. No, I don't. It's more or less just Kevin and I gave her some flowers

but I don't think I was at the second one. I honestly don't remember. I know of it, but I wasn't there. There was another cake. I'm just curious if you've had... I hate missing out. When I have Anne on in July, all questions will be answered because I am going

to be very tough. Yeah, like my timelines get a little fuzzy. Sure. I mean, I'm getting old. A lot of drugs. So you're on City TV. Yes. Breakfast Television. You're now like... Yeah, you're doing Wicked Ass. And later I on City TV. Yes. Breakfast television. You're now like, yeah, you're doing

wicked ass. And later, I'm going to circle back. That's the term the PR rep used when she told me

Hugh Dillon wasn't coming on. But we're going to circle back and talk about how

beloved you are by the breakfast television crew. I'm not so sure about that, but okay.

Trust me, I have evidence. But then you move, at some point, you move City News at noon, I'm not so sure about that, but okay. Trust me, I have evidence. Okay. But then you move, at some point you move, I guess, City News at noon and then City News at six. Yeah. Okay, so what had happened,

I'd been doing breakfast television, I think, for 2000, so about five years, I guess, in 2005. Basically done everything kind of there was to do. And then there was an opportunity. I was on weekends to do weekend anchoring and then reporting three days a week. Now, most people would look at, well, you're working Monday to Friday. Why would you want to go back to working weekends? Well, because it's different.

Because I wasn't doing a full sportscast on Breakfast Television. It was like a couple sports cast on Breakfast Television. It was like, you know, a couple of minutes here and there. This would have given me an opportunity to do a self-contained sports cast where I was the producer of it, all that kind of stuff. So I did that. I started doing that. And that really, that gave me such a fantastic background. That allowed me to do so many things, cover so many different things. Like, you name it, I've covered it. Go ahead, name something, I've covered it. There's a Lakeshore,

it's a grilled cheese festival that the Lakeshore has. Oh, really? Damn it. I wish I'd known about that one. I kind of meant more sports, like polo, water polo, ping pong. I think you're supposed to call it table tennis,

Mr. Sports Guy. Table tennis, yes. And don't ever call frisbee ultimate. Yeah, yeah, it's a flying disc or something. You have to call it ultimate, not ultimate frisbee. So yeah, I did everything there was to do. And one of the joys of my career was covering the high school sports. You get to see these kids up close and

the reactions are genuine. Oftentimes it was so much more fun than being in a professional locker room because these kids, they're, well, they're doing it for love of the game. And you ask them a question and they give you an honest answer. And a lot of the times it's completely different than what you expected. So that, that was, that was a real joy. And of course, working with Catherine Humphreys, I mean, how can you go wrong? Did you ever have to sub in for the T-Ball Tuesday? Many, many a time I subbed in for T-Ball Tuesday. It was a distant second compared to Catherine,

but I held my own for the most part. My son, when he was playing T-Ball at High Park, one Tuesday, I don don't remember was it tuesday i guess uh katherine humphries showed up and covered it and recorded it and it was great yeah she's what a talent what a talent she is and she is married to a tragically hip band member yes but that's a fun fact you know about already yes yes and she's got twins. Yes. And she's not on TV anymore. She's not. And we're all worse off for it. Yes.

The market is not as good for it, for sure. For sure. Back at BT real quick, because we ran over it very quickly. Liza Fromer. Yeah. I like Liza. Liza's fantastic. Good.

I want to make sure that we agree on Liza being fantastic. Because Liza takes over for Anne, and then Liza is eventually replaced by Dina. By Dina, yes. And what's Dina like? Dina's amazing, too. I mean, I'm not just saying this because I'm on a microphone right now. I better say this.

It's true. Liza I always thought of as like my goofy little sister kind of thing. Kevin and I teased her relentlessly on the show, and she was such a great sport, and she gave as good as she got. Dina really, she's so glamorous. She's so beautiful, and here she is. She's tall, and she's so smart,

and I don't know how she puts up with Frankish every day, but still. So that show has been blessed by so many strong female co-hosts over the years. Can you say Dina's last name properly? Pugliese. Very good. Just checking.

Pugliese. I nailed it too when I was with Kevin. You heard in the camera. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Good job. And Kevin, you alluded to him. Don't get me started. You know you mentioned sometimes you meet people and they might be underwhelming compared to what you expected. He went the other direction with me. Not that I was expecting him to be rather. And I said it when I was working with him,

not just with him, but I guess technically his news producer. So kind of sort, not, I'm not, I hate to use the word boss, but I was never his boss, but I was the guy who would line up the show. Right. I used to say this about Kevin

to everyone who would listen. I'm not exactly sure what Kevin does, but nobody, nobody does it better than him. He has this grasp of live television that it's unsurpassed by anybody. His ability to draw people into the show, make them part of it, and make them feel at ease and inform them all at the same time.

More than a pair of suspenders. Yeah. Oh, so much more. So much more. Good. Yeah, I thought so, too. He was great. Good guy. Now, this is the boring corporate part, but let me get...

So, in 2007, let's get... So, Chum Limited. Yes. This is where you were. Chum Limited. CTV Globe Media buys Chum Limited in 07. And at this time, Rogers

Media, Rogers acquires City TV. Yes. And I guess this is because CTV Globe Media already has CTV. Yes. Right. So you end up working, through the shuffle, you end up working for Rogers. Yes. Because you stay with Rogers and City TV. Yeah, they either had to hang on to City TV or CP24.

Right. But not both. Exactly, right. So that's where you had that. You mentioned already this period of time where you're sharing a building at Queen and John. And then the Rogers people end up at Jane. I said this, the last episode I alluded to Young and Dundas, and I called it Jane and Dund Jane. I said this the last episode, I alluded to Young and Dundas

and I called it Jane and Dundas. Isn't that terrible? I told you I spent too much time here, Jane and Dundas. Young and Dundas. Don't go looking for Rogers at Jane and Dundas. No, do not, kids. There's a library there.

Yes, there is. It's a nice library. Yeah, but it was a real strange dynamic during the last few months because I had mentioned that we kind of shared the same newsroom. We were physically in the same room. I was, even though I worked for City TV, I had a show on CP24 every Sunday night, Auto Shop.

I was hosting a show for the competition. It's like a transition period. Is that what we call that? So I would work during, it was on the weekends, I was anchoring on the competition. Transition period, is that what we call that? So I would work during, it was on the weekends, I was anchoring on the weekends. So during the day I would go out and I would do story, I would do the six o'clock news. And then at eight o'clock I would appear on CB24 with Auto Shop.

And once that was over, I'd go back to work. That's funny. Yeah. And at some point did Rogers come to you and just say, hey, can we stop that? No, because by then we were kind of on our way out. It was more, you know what, it was more just to kind of help them out. Sure.

They didn't really have a host for that show. And being a car guy, a gearhead like I am, I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll do it. Well, you look the part, right, with all your fake tattoos. Oh, yes, yes. Absolutely. All of the studded bracelets that I've got on right now. Absolutely. All of the studded bracelets that I've got on right now. And so, yeah, that was interesting, though, when CP24 Breakfast launches, because people were used to the simulcast of breakfast television on CP24.

And I talked to Steve Anthony. I've talked to a bunch of people about this, but Steve Anthony, who is still on the CP24 Breakfast. Yes, he is. He was complaining that people would be, he was complaining that, you know, people would be watching his show and think they're watching Breakfast Television. There must have been an awful lot of confusion

for a long time. He's complaining about that? I know, let me hear you. How many times would I be out covering a sport, like a high school sport, like a basketball game

or something, and somebody, hey, CP24, how you doing? I'm like, well, or hey, CTV, well, you're close, you, CTV. Well, you're close. You're not quite. Well, it's

safe to say that they were, and you're right, it is funny that Steve's complaining because it was an intentional, it sounds to me like Bell, whatever they're called, CTV, whatever they were called. BCE. We'll call them Bell. That's easier for me. Bell wants the confusion. It's an intentional. Yeah, it worked

out better for them, I think, because it was easier for people to Bell wants the confusion. It's an intentional. Yeah, it worked out better for them, I think, because it was easier for people to say CP24 because by then, CP24, and let me say, they do a tremendous job. They are absolutely

incredible with what they do. We started it, though. Right, yeah. You know what it's like. City TV built that model for us.

We were CP24 before they were CP24. No. Anywho. So it worked out better for them because we would be recognized, even though we worked for City, we'd be CTV built that model for us. We were CP24 before they were CP24. No. Anywho. So it worked out better for them because we would be recognized, even though we worked for Citi, we'd be recognized as CP24. After a while, we stopped arguing. I would just say, yep, absolutely.

Thanks for watching. Appreciate it. Well, in a moment, I'm going to ask you about a station that people might not even remember called Citi News Channel. But before I get to that, because this just speaks to how difficult it is to conquer the heritage station, if you will, the legacy station. I'm thinking of 1050, right? 1050, it's been a tough haul. Look at the numbers.

Because the big head start was owned by the Fan 590. You see similar things in, like, I got to check the numbers, but like a station like Indy 88 will come in and try to take a slice of the 102.1 pie. It's tough to beat those guys. So maybe this is a good time to do it, actually. Tell me about your experience on City News Channel

and maybe start by telling us what was City News Channel for those who don't remember. I remember City News Channel. City News Channel was... You see, City had... Like I said, we created CP24. We weren't allowed to keep CP24 in the Bell Rogers split. After a while, they thought, okay, well, let's create our own 24-hour Toronto all-news channel. And you just mentioned it.

It's tough going up against heritage stations. It is. Because whether you're a television viewer or a radio listener, you're a creature of habit, right? You're comfortable. Yes. You watch a certain show, you listen to a certain person because you're comfortable with them. And people, by the time City News Channel came on board, people had already built a comfort level with CP24.

So it is really, really difficult to crack that, especially when there's not a lot of resources being thrown at it. Basically, it's like we're starting an all news channel, away you go. Well, okay. But it's really, really difficult to do that without money. So it didn't last long. It didn't last long, but you were a part of this experiment, if you will. Yes, yes. I would do the night run.

Yeah, so I'd be doing the 11 o'clock and then before that, it would be half hourly kind of sports updates as the evening went on. I think we drew slash marks, I think, for ratings. Well, I'm trying to remember. It wasn't big. It wasn't big.

I found it at Channel 15, I believe. I hope I'm remembering. Or maybe I misremembered. I don't even know. Misremembered? Yeah, it's possible. Are you Rogerremembered? Yeah, it's possible. Are you Roger Climax? Yeah, that's right.

That's right. Or Ronald Reagan, maybe. He just didn't remember. No. But there was a Toronto Star Station, too. I think 21. I don't know. It really is hazy to me.

Oh, they're right. Yeah, then you throw in the Toronto Sun. Oh, they were 15. Sun TV was 15. Yeah, I you throw in the Toronto Sun. Oh, they were 15. Sun TV was 15. Yeah, I forget what channel. But the City News channel was Rogers trying to create their own CP24. Yes. Because like you said, it was there and they had to give it up.

Yep, yep. And it did not last very long because it is tough to get people to change their habits. And when people want something like that, they go to what they know. And it is very, very, very difficult. Yeah, I mean, it's not a knock against any of the people who worked on CNC, City News Channel, or anything like that. It wasn't for lack of effort. We gave everything we had.

It's just CP24 was a tough nut to crack, especially there wasn't a whole lot of time to crack that nut, and we didn't. And they had Ann Romer. Yeah, absolutely. Sure, why not? Ann's beloved. Like, why wouldn't you watch Ann? I'm with you.

Yeah. If you're preaching to the choir there. Yeah. Okay, so now I'm going to talk, I'm going to play a clip, actually. Okay. This is, and I don't know how this works. I'm going to play it.

I might have to end it, because it's really a visual thing, actually. But this is the final edition of the Hue Lights. Oh, God help us all. So this is really visual. So I'll start it off and then I'll have to fade it out. Actually, it's so visual, I don't think there's words. I think I...

Yeah, it's... The green suit makes an appearance. Tell me about, I'll fade this down, and then you can tell me a little bit about the Hue Lights. Oh, my goodness. That was just something that just kind of started organically. That was me in my wrestling days, by the way.

I'll Hugo. So the sports director at City TV was and still is a guy by the name of Perry Gray. And Perry and I worked very closely together for years and years and years. And one day I just threw out the idea, you know, on a Friday, Friday at noon, why not kind of just do like a weekly kind of wrap-up, not necessarily of all the best highlights, but just some of the wacky, crazy stuff that goes on in sports. And why not include some of our stuff that happens on that?

So I started that during BT. So I'd run them on BT and then on City News at noon as well. Dwight and I would always get a kick out of them. Yeah, it was just basically, you know, just funny plays. Anytime that I screwed up, I'd make sure to put that in because if you can't laugh at yourself,

then you should get out of the industry. And so, yeah, so you're listening to kind of like the final edition of the Hue Lights, the best, or sorry,

worst of Hue World. And this is 2013. 2013, before I went to Sportsnet. Right, so you're saying goodbye to City News. Saying goodbye. A tearful goodbye.

Were you at all inspired by the Hebsey Awards? No, the Hebsey Awards were kind of different, and Mark was good at those. Yeah, I was not competing with the Hebsies, not at all. I figure Hugh, Highlights, Hugh Lights. No, Hugh Lights rolled off the tongue. Absolutely. It's one of the few things in my career that's actually worked so tell me about your uh the few years you spent at

sportsnet yeah well what had happened was in the uh summer of 2013 i guess i'd um i had been approached to kind of help help fill in a little bit on the desk over at Sportsnet, just anchoring or whatever. So Scott Woodgate was, at the time, he was the one making those decisions. And we started talking. And then he said, would you be interested in coming over and just kind of filling in on the desk, see if you like it, that kind of thing. I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? So I did. and just kind of filling in on the desk, see if you like it, that kind of thing.

I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? So I did. I guess I didn't make too many people angry or whatever. I guess he liked it. Then we talked a little bit more, and he said, would you be interested in making this a little bit more permanent? And by that time, I'd mentioned earlier that on BT, I'd kind of done everything that there was to do. Well, by that time at City, I had been weekend anchor and night show anchor, whatever, probably for eight years, seven years?

Right. Eight years. Kind of done everything there was to do and looking for a new challenge, as they say. So I said, yeah. So I went over to Sportsnet in, I believe it was December of 2013. Yes, December 2013. Because one of my very first assignments for Sportsnet was the outdoor game between the Leafs and the Red Wings in the big house in Michigan. Yeah. And that lasted a little. Till March 2016. So, yeah. So, and that lasted a little.

Till March 2016. A little less. Not quite as long as I wanted it to last, but hey, you know, things happen. So, as we leave City News, real quick, did you sense any tension between Gord Martino and Ann Roszkowski? Oh, you're talking like, because Ann had left. When did she leave? 09 like, because Ann had left. When did she leave? 09?

Yeah, Ann had left. Because Gord left a couple years ago. I realize I haven't asked any tough questions, so I got to ask that one. Only because Ann has been open about it on the show, and I haven't had Gord on yet.

But I wondered if anyone picked up on it like yourself. I work, keep in mind, I remember during that time I was mostly weekends and just reporting. So I didn't notice that. Although, let me say, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for co-anchors not to get along off the air.

I mean, you hear that from every aspect of this industry. Just because you work together doesn't mean you have to like each other. But yeah, they were a great team for a long time. When that red light came on, they were true professionals. Complete pros. Absolutely. If you ever have a couple of hours in a car or something you're going to kill, listen to the Ann Mrozkowski episode.

I will. It'll be very interesting to you. I have it on good authority that Moses himself listened to the Ann Mrozkowski interview. Really? I think he should as well. I think in all the time I worked at City, I think I spoke to Moses maybe half a time.

Probably works in your favor, actually. Probably does, yes. In the long run, yes. Right. So you mentioned what, in March 2016, and I remember

three big names that day. So this was a part of a, it wasn't a Hugh thing, it was a general, like a Rogers cuts across the board. Well, that's what they told me anyway. It was, because in addition

to you that day was James Cebulski and Jamie Thomas. Jamie Thomas the board. Well, that's what they told me anyway. It was because in addition to you that day was James Cebulski and Jamie Thomas. Jamie Thomas, yeah. So yeah, that's too bad. This happens a lot in your industry. Yeah, three veteran handsome sports guys all let go on the same day. Seriously, this is just terrible, terrible.

Yeah, I mean, you said it. It happens in this industry. And I do tell this to the kids that I teach. I said, if you're said it happens in this industry and if and i i do tell this to the kids that i teach i said if you're going to work in this industry you will get laid off it's not a question of of if it's when you're hired to be fired you are you're like a coach you're like an nhl coach you got about a four-year lifespan but and hopefully you find something else in that time. I mean, a lot of industries have an issue like this, but I've never worked in your industry. But the sense I get from talking to people in your industry is it's almost like if you make too much, you get a target on your back. It's almost like you need, and I don't remember exactly who I had this conversation with, but it's almost like you need to keep your salary.

You need to manage your salary to avoid the target on your back, which is a terrible kind of premise to work with. You know what? Take the extra vacation days. Don't worry about the salary so much. I mean, sure, that's a huge part of it. I mean, it's all about budgets, right? It's all about doing more with less.

And it was the perfect storm, or I guess in this case, the imperfect storm. Rogers had just paid billions of dollars for the NHL rights. And then two years into it, zero Canadian teams make the playoffs. So they're going to take a huge hit, right? So now all of a sudden, you're starting to look for efficiencies and, uh, Hey, I was an efficiency. But that must drive you nuts because you know, your salary and you know, over the 365 days, what Rogers gives to you for what the value you add and you know, the billions at play. And then you do, you take out a calculator and you realize, like, how many Hugh Burrows have to suffer to make up this difference?

When will the suffering stop? I'm just saying, I know, I think it's, you know, the problem is shareholders, okay? There's some,

there's... Yeah, and I'm, and I have to be honest, I'm a Rogers shareholder. I mean, I have... You're the problem.

I have stocks in the company, so, so I was happy that I laid myself off. Oh. No, it's, it's,

it's just one of those things. It happens. And it's not just, it's not just Rogers, things. It happens. And it's not just Rogers. It's not just Bell. It's not just the television or the media industry. This is happening everywhere. This is a really, really tough industry. It's just we're a public industry.

Like, we're in the public eye. You're in our living rooms. Yeah, you're in cars. So when we get laid off, all of a sudden, oh, a lot of people are talking about it, right? People don't blog about the account manager at that software company that got fired. It doesn't hit the channel sports media website or whatever. That's true.

That's true. But then again, I mean, we're lucky enough that you hope throughout your career you've built up enough of a positive reputation that when something becomes available, that perhaps you're on the short list. And that's what happened with the Fanta 5.

Perfect segue, because I talked to a bunch of people who know you, not to find any dirt, because that's not the game I'm interested in playing. It was actually just like an FYI, this guy's coming on or whatever. To a T, everyone I talked to said you were a great guy. Oh my goodness.

Thank you very much. I haven't, and now I've only spent, let me do the, I'm going to tell you, I've spent an hour with you. Has it been an hour? Seriously? Oh, yeah, it has. 58, 14. Wow.

It, I think they're right. Possibly they're right. So I know you're turning red, right? I know it's too early to make a final decision. Well, that's very nice of them. And that actually, in all seriousness, that means a lot. Because I alluded to it a little bit earlier when I said, if you don't make fun of yourself, then you shouldn't be in this industry.

I always make fun of myself first before anyone else can. You kind of disarm them. Self-deprecation. It goes a long way with me. If you can make fun of yourself, then I immediately like you because you don't take yourself too seriously. And I've worked in this industry for 26 years now.

I've never saved a life. Never. Never, never, never. I even think Ron McLean saved a life once, right? He's Ron McLean. He can do anything. So, the best I can hope for is to entertain and make people laugh a little bit. And if I could do that, then great.

Perfect. Um, don't, don't take yourself. So, but yeah, so by all accounts, it sounds like you, uh, treated people well throughout your career and that they like you. And I believe this works in your favor. So when something like what happened earlier this year, in fact, I got an exact date. Okay. February 8th, 2017.

It was announced that you would be part of the Sportsnet 590, The Fan. By the way, I can call it the Fan 590. I don't know if you can call it Sportsnet 590. No, you can just call it The Fan. It's too cumbersome. Yeah, Sportsnet 590, The Fan. I can't do that. But the Fan 590's new morning show, which they call Sportsnet Starting Lineup. Yep.

Everything's got to be branded now. Sportsnet Starting Lineup. It's easy to remember that way, I guess. Okay. So Brady. Yep. Anyone who subscribes to Toronto Mike knows this Greg Brady chap,

because he's come on a couple of times, and I always play some Brady Bunch stuff. You know what I mean? And I don't think he's... It's a show I've never seen, actually. And quite honestly, I've never seen the Brady Bady bunch they syndicated the mess out of that just like i saw leave it to beaver i saw the brady bunch wow more 50s tv no brady bunch is 60s i didn't think it might leak into the 70s yeah i think so those bill buttons yeah so okay so brady

and elliot price comes over from montreal a new name to me, by the way. Quite honestly, a new name to me as well. I hadn't known of Elliot until we all sat in a room together. And right away, you could tell that he was something special. I mean, I always say I am certainly not the best at what I do. Certainly not even close, my God.

But I am fortunate enough to work with two people who really are amongst the best at what they do. Quite honestly, Mike, three and a half hours of sports radio every morning, that is a really, really tough job. And Greg and Elliot pull it off like I've never, ever seen before. Elliot may be one of the smoothest people in terms of radio transitions, like being able to move from one subject to another, which is a skill in and of itself, right? To not have the show sound herky-jerky. Is that a segues? Yeah, segues, sure. And being able to lead the conversation to where it's supposed to go.

And on the other side of the desk is Greg. And I've never met anyone with a deeper knowledge of sports than Greg Brady. It's a joy to work with these guys every morning just to sit and listen. I try to soak up as much as I can. And I jump in with the stupid jokes and the updates every once in a while. So there you go. That's my role. Yeah.

and the updates every once in a while. So there you go. That's my role. Yeah. So just back to that point about you being somebody people enjoy being around and working with, I'm going to play a clip of you, Elliot Price, and Greg Brady. Okay. And you're promoting your new show on something called Breakfast Television. Okay.

Now, again, this is a clip designed for video and it's not going to work but I'm going to start it, then I'm going to speak to it, and then we're going to pick it up again. That's what I'm going to do. Do it. They are the cool kids and they're about to shake up the mornings on Sportsnet 590. The fans' brand new morning show called

Starting Lineup with Brady and Price. Please welcome Greg Brady, in the middle, Elliot Price, and we know that guy, Hugh Burrell. Hey, guys. Really? Come on, let's go. The crowd's going wild for you.

The crowd is going wild. I paid them. Hold on. Guys, I'm going to state the obvious. First of all, congratulations. We're missing a name. Brady and Price. Does that bother you at all? No, not at all. Get your name on the show. I'm going to state the obvious. First of all, congratulations. We're missing a name. Brady and Price. Does that bother you at all?

No, not at all. Get your name on the show. I'm going to start a letter writing. Not at all. No, it's Brady and Price. Because Brady and Price and Burl is too clumsy. Or that one. We could go with that one.

I'm going to give him all the money, but us the name. Now, this is three minutes long, so I'm going to just say that. So I've watched this. In my opinion, you are like, this is like the queen visiting, you know, let's go with Prince William. Prince William showed up. I decided not to make you the queen. Prince William shows up at Breakfast Television.

Sure. Dina is just so excited to see you, to talk to you. Well, I mean, keep in mind, too, that Dina and I worked together for years. Right. And we're actually friends. Like, we actually really do enjoy each other's company. So she was happy to see me.

I was really happy to see her. At some point, they show a compilation of like Hugh Greatest Hits. Oh, God. Like, this is really the Hugh Burrell love him. Yeah, it was the homecoming,

as it were. Now, I bet you Price and Brady loved that. They might as well not even be there. You know what? Those guys get so much attention. This was my one shining moment. Now, I bet you Price and Brady loved that. They might as well not even be there. Those guys get so much attention. This was my one shining moment.

Those guys shine every morning. This was mine. Conquering hero returns. Those guys do all the heavy lifting in the morning. They make my job. Don't tell my boss Dave Cadeau this, but they make my job very easy. On that note, though, is there enough room on the mic for all three of you? Those are two. I don't tell my boss Dave Cadeau this, but they make my job very easy. On that note, though,

is there enough room on the mic for all three of you? Like, those are two... I don't know. Again, I'm new to Elliot Price, but I have a question coming in about him from somebody who listens. I don't hear enough morning radio right now of my current lifestyle.

Okay. So I just closed that right away. But I know Greg Brady very well. I've heard... I have heard his morning show and I've heard his one o'clock show. I've had him here twice. I know Greg Brady very well.

I know he would be sort of a... I don't know if that term is appropriate, but alpha male? Like he would be the driver? They really both are. Yeah, right. So you get two alpha males. You don't get to where they are in their careers without being the so-called alpha male or the A chair, I guess. Do you ever want more mic time? No.

You know what? I'm, I'm happy with my role. I really, I truly honestly am because I, I mean, if you want me to be, I don't think I couldn't do what they do. They have a different background than me. I'm coming from a reporter news side of it. They're the, the, the, the hosting side of it. Do you know what I mean? They're two very, very different

animals. I'm very comfortable with what I do and I think I do a good job with it. On the other side, I'm not sure I could do what they do. How many months into this are we? It starts in February, March, April. Four months, roughly. So far, anything you would change?

How's it going so far? Anything we change? Well, we actually have lightened up the show a little bit in the first hour or so. If you listen, we're on from 5.30 until 9. If you listen from 5.30 to 6, that's pretty light.

I know it's very, very early, but that's where a lot of the kind of the really off-the-cuff strange stuff happens. But that's a good idea. You know why? Not only do you have less listeners, but to me, that would be to start the day to get your rapport kind of going.

Yes, and that's something that we've... It's funny you mention that. I'm glad you brought it up. That is something we've actually tweaked. Our producer is a guy by the name of Ryan Fabro, who is undoubtedly the best sports producer in the entire country. His associate producer, Mike Sesney, and our board op, our technical guy, Ryan Maughan. You could not ask for three better people behind the glass. These guys are there early every day and they work their butts off just as hard, if not harder than we do. That's a 5.30 start. Are they there at like 3?

Well, I'm in there at 3.30 in the morning. I know Ryan Mon, the technical guy, he's actually there before I am. And then Cessny comes in at about 4 and then Favreau comes in at about 4.30. What time do you go to sleep?

Oh, it's strange. People always say... I'm dying to know. Now that you're back on mornings, I love my job. Can you watch the Cavs and Warriors last night? Let me preface everything I'm about to say with I love my job.

However, getting up at 2.30 in the morning is still getting up at 2.30 in the morning. It's tough no matter what. So what I try to do, I try to get the majority of my sleep during the day. Probably 1.30, 2 o'clock, I'll wake up again at like 5.30, 6 or whatever. And then I'll be back in bed by 9.30

or 10 most nights. Unless there's a game on. So talk to me about last night. So even though you could have shut this down as a dog of a game at the third quarter. I watched the first half on my couch and I streamed the next quarter and a half in bed. But you know what?

That's pretty much what I did. I watched the first half downstairs and I watched the rest in bed. And at some point I gave up on the game and I turned it off. Because it was an 8 o'clock start. Now, when those games go back to 9 o'clock, I might only be around for the first half.

But I have the luxury of coming in the following morning and seeing all the highlights and going through all the tape and all the clips I need to use and everything. But it's funny because we did the same thing last night, except I did it knowing that the 3-year-old or the 14-month-old would probably wake me up sometime between 7

and 7.30, okay? Yes. 7 and 7.30. I've already been at work for four hours. Wow. So do I need more sleep? Maybe. I don't have that nap you're doing, so that'll be the thing. So is there other, I mean, okay.

So by the way, I hope that this new lifestyle doesn't shorten your life. I've heard some nasty things about waking up at that time. Oh, well, I went for, yeah, it's taken years off my life. Absolutely. That's my worry for you. I mean, you asked me how old I was.

You look terrible. I'm actually 23 years old. I just look like I'm 60. No wonder the cataracts are coming off. No, it's, but I mean, it's cliche, but once you're up,

you're up. Really? That's true. And then I actually, I really enjoy finishing my work day at 9 a.m. That's great. You can walk the mall

at Shrew Way Gardens. Absolutely. And now that summer's here, I can go golfing. It's perfect. That's right. I go golfing poorly, but whatever. You golfers always have something Shrew Way Gardens. Now that summer's here, I can go golfing. It's perfect. I go golfing poorly, but whatever. You golfers always have something to do in the summer.

Yeah. Now, okay, I have a tweet from at Toronto Brent. I don't know if he was inspired by me. I was at Toronto Mike first, and then this guy's at Toronto Brent. I'm not familiar, but okay. He listens to your show, even though he's living in LA. Oh, very nice. He listens to your morning show because he's a Toronto guy. Well, he's Toronto Brent.

Of course he is. Ask him, this is you, if Brady is upset that Price dominates the show. I sense tension. No. This is Toronto Brent sensing that Brady might be missing out on being the alpha male, that Price might be dominating as the alpha male. Is there any tension there? No.

Not at all. And I'm being honest when I say that. Okay. They as the alpha male. Is there any tension there? No, not at all. And I'm being honest when I say that. Although, okay, they're both alpha males, right? And they both have such strong, informed opinions about sports. Sometimes they get into a heated battle and it's great. That makes for great radio.

But in terms of like personal tension or, oh my God, this guy's hogging the mic or this guy won't let me. No, there's none of that. None of that at all. me no there's none of that none of that good to hear none of that at all good to hear uh all right now i'm going to enter uh a more controversial topic nothing oh great nothing low ball here but just an observation i made so i'm speaking for myself now so toronto brent i don't need to use you as my puppet anymore all right i think i know what's coming and i will preface this by saying i don't know that this is wrong i don't know that this is wrong.

I don't know that there's anything sinister at work here. So I'm just going to start with some facts. Okay. I saw a great looking ad. It looked like it was a table. It was all the hosts of the 590 shows.

Greg Brady's there. Elliot Price is there. Hugh Burrell's there beside my former Toronto Mike to guest Damien Cox Bob McCowan is at the center of course he's our fearless leader right

that makes sense then Stephen Brunt who I would love to have on this show if you could put in a word Stephen Brunt amazing talent

Jeff Blair yep former Toronto Mike to guest Andrew Walker Andrew Walker yeah and future

because he's agreed to come on. We're going to schedule him. Uh, Ben Ennis. Yep. Up and up and rising star. Handsome guy,

right? Very handsome guy. Got the good face. Uh, whatever that angular thing going on there. Um, you can isolate that clip and send it to him. I said he was handsome.

Okay. So that's fine. This is great. One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, nine. Good. Thank you. Add that up. So these are the nine hosts of the Fan 590. So two things you notice right away.

The first thing you notice, you can't miss it, is that they're all male. Yes. Last time I checked, yes. Yep. They're all, at least they all identify as male. Yes. That's what we say now. Hang on, let me just check.

Yep. The other thing you notice is that they are all white. White dudes. They're all white guys. So again, I honestly am not saying anything sinister at play. I'm not saying there's anything racist or sexism. I'm just saying you are nine for nine white men, and Toronto is not that way.

Toronto is a very diverse multicultural city, and at least half of Torontonians are actually female. And I know sports is a guy thing, but I know it's been a long time actually, because off the top of my head, I think Barb DiGiulio might be the last female host of a regular fan 590. Barb DiGiulio, by the way. Who now hosts the Nightside on 1010. Yeah, she does a

great job doing that, too. Yeah, she's been on the show, too. So what's your question, Mike? Do you think it's important that the fan 590 reflect the listenership or the city it serves? Is this okay? Should they make an effort to diversify their lineup? Okay. Let me say that I had nothing to do with the hiring, and I'm sure there was nothing, as you stated before, you're not trying to insinuate anything.

There was nothing insinuated by the hiring of all of us, right? Okay. I can't speak to what the higher ups, you know, what they base their decisions on. I'm assuming, and they've never led me to believe anything different, I'm assuming they're hiring the best people for the jobs. Right. Right. That's not a cop-out. That's just being honest. They're hiring the best people for the jobs. I can only speak from personal experience. Again, I go back to my teaching at College of Sports Media. I think we have seven or eight young women in the first year class, writing and television presentation I teach, not a single one has ever expressed interest

in a career in radio. They're all streaming toward television. And that's probably the right thing to do because quite frankly, television is a much wider industry right now. There's simply more opportunity in television than there is in radio. Think of how many radio jobs there are. There aren't many.

There's nine, apparently. Yeah, but that's for the whole station. I know. All day, from early morning to late night, that's it. Right. So there's nine here. But if you flip to the television side of things, a lot of our anchors on Sportsnet are women. Absolutely. I've had a bunch of them here. Carolyn Cameron, Jackie Redmond. Carolyn, Carly Agro, Jackie Redmond. And even like Sofia Yurkovich is often... Yeah, of course. So women are definitely represented.

We have Donovan Bennett on to talk basketball. He has a basketball podcast. We have him on Bennett on to talk basketball. He has a basketball podcast. We have him on the morning show. So there's nothing sinister. There's nothing contrived about the hiring practices. Right. I got a call and said, hey, would you like to be part of this?

And my first response wasn't, well, how many women or people of color are you going to hire? No, of course not. I mean, I'm looking for a job. I need a job. I'm going to take it. So let's work with this assumption, which I believe, I hope is corrected, that these are the nine most qualified people, the nine best people for the job. I'd like to think so, yeah. So I know what I know. And if I may, the ratings so far would tend to reflect that

because I'm pretty sure we're doing pretty well on the ratings. So I have a buddy. He goes by the name Elvis when he's on this show. Nice. And yeah, he's a big Elvis Presley fan. Thank you very much, Lane. He works in the world of HR for a company you've heard of. And I asked him on a recent episode,

he came on a chat with me and because I don't know, I just wondered if this was, uh, like, this is what it is. Is this okay? Uh, and he steadfast, I would pull the clip, but I don't, I didn't pull the clip, but he just basically, no, this is, this is wrong that you need to make an effort to hire outside that. He said people tend to hire people with similar backgrounds, similar experiences. And what ends up happening is you end up, I'm not saying you would,

but you might hire somebody who ends up a middle-aged white guy, maybe. As long as they're bald. Right. They cannot have hair. No. So he's saying you have to make an effort to give people an opportunity and hire outside of that which you know. So this is just Elvis.

And I wish I'd pulled a clip now that I think about it. But maybe if these are the nine best people for the job, maybe there needs to be. And I don't know if there is a farm system at play with 590. I'm not saying anything has to change. But maybe there needs to be an effort to groom people. And I asked Faisal Khamisa when he was on the show, and he had no interest in radio either. So he wants to be on TV.

Sure. And you mentioned... Young, good-looking guy. Why wouldn't he want to be on TV? So maybe this is the pool you draw from is a bunch of white guys. So you end up with white males on your show. Well, I think you're also drawing from experience, too. I mean, the nine middle-aged white guys

you're talking about. I call them the white men of the fan 590. Yeah, of course. Yes, we appreciate that. Now, one of the five, one of the nine men. But you add up all of the years of experience there. There's a lot of broadcasting experience there. So are you going to say we shouldn't hire a guy

that's worked 25 years in the industry so we can specifically hire someone else who's got three years experience. You have, this is Toronto. You have to be able to, you know, tread water here. I would never say that because I don't know that to be true. And I'm not saying that, I mean, it's the optics, admittedly, the optics aren't great,

but there's nothing, there was nothing untoward about that. It wasn't, oh, we're not hiring women or black people. And I'm certain it was not done in any sinister. But then I wonder maybe if there needs to be some effort on the back end to groom people who are diverse faces. Well, we would have to peel back the pages a little bit and figure out how many women or people of color are applying for these jobs. And not only are... Okay, if they're applying, that's one thing.

What's your skill level? What's your experience level? I mean, if you've been in the industry for one year, I'm sorry, we're not going to hire you. Right, and then you have the whole chicken and egg syndrome. Like, maybe there's not enough opportunity to develop your skill set. Well, that speaks to a bigger issue than just what's happening at Sportsnet 590.

I wish I had more answers, Hugh. I don't have any answers. But if I didn't ask you that question, it would be a clarion omission. It's an absolutely fair question, and I'm not dodging it. All I can speak to is my own experience, and not only from the station, but from the school as well. Right. You mentioned... But that is fascinating insight that you have there.

Yeah. So it's mainly white men who pursue radio careers in sports media? In sports, maybe in this country, maybe, I don't know. And would that have anything to do with the fact they don't hear anybody like them on sports radio? You know what I mean? It's almost like when Tiger Woods broke in golf,

suddenly there was a, Oh yeah. More than white guys golfing. Yeah. But how many, but absolutely. But it's just Tiger Woods, right?

But how many of them, how many, how many people of color are playing on the PGA tour? It's one thing to pick up and to pick up something because you see a role model doing it. That's one thing. It's another thing to do that professionally. Then my new analogy is that there's a

lot more Toronto basketball talent since Vince Carter. That's my new analogy. Sure, sure. You handled that well. It's a very tough question to answer because I don't have an answer for you. And you don't want to lose your gig to a less qualified person

because of their gender or the color of their skin. That's not fair either. I don't care if you're green and purple. I don't care. Like, if you're better than me, then you get a job. And there's a hundred million people out there better than what I do. Well, I don't know

if there's that many of you. They asked me to do the job. And you're good at it. Well, so I'm told. I don't know if there's that many of you. They asked me to do the job. And you're good at it. Well, so I'm told. I don't hear enough from ordinary people. Now that Ben Ennis has heard this, he might not come on anymore. No, Ben will come on.

He's the least experienced of the nine. Least experienced, but he is certainly a talent, and that guy is a really, really bright future in front of him. He's a rising star. Ben's just getting started. Ben is just getting started. He's going to be amazing. And he's on with Walker now.

Yep. Yep. Cool. Walker's a good guy. He came over from Calgary. Yeah, I don't know Andrew a lot. Only really had a couple of conversations. That's the thing.

Coming from television, my hours were completely different. I never saw any of these radio guys before. Now I'm kind of just easing my way into seeing some of them. By the way, Jeff Blair blogs me on Twitter and I have no idea why. I've never said a negative thing about the guy. Come on. Jeff is a wonderful

guy. He's a little grumpy, but he's okay. He's great. He's a very interesting guy. Really into music. He's like a musical encyclopedia. Well, tell him to unblock me. By the way, one of the nine, and it's not you, but one of the nine really laid into me via Twitter DM.

And I'm not going to name the person, except about this horseshit thing I wrote about the white man in the fan five and i just ripped into me for just asking the question which is all i'm doing what they say question uh how will some unfair snow job and i was somehow somehow i'm in alliance with bell media and then you get it now i'm like wearing is he wearing a tinfoil hat because i promise you i've never had i have no allegiance to bell media if anything if you look at my lineup, I probably had more Rogers people on this show than Bell, and that's just a coincidence.

Fair enough. I mean, everyone's entitled to their opinion, right? And people are going to think what they're going to think, and it's very hard to change people's perception. All you can do is say what you can and then move on. All right, now let me turn

the channel here just a little bit. Now you're on the radio. I am on the radio. Have you noticed, I guess you've noticed, there's more video now in your universe. So this is,

in the olden days, I'm guessing, when you were on the radio, you didn't have to worry about what you looked like or all that stuff. Well, thankfully, they haven't started videoing

our morning show yet. That'll come. Thankfully. That'll come. Thankfully. That'll come. No, I mean, look what I'm wearing. I'm wearing a T-shirt and a hoodie. I've had enough of dressing up. My kind of style.

Yeah. But I've seen some fun videos with you on YouTube, for example, and with people like Danielle... Danielle Michaud. Michaud. Yep. So she's somebody I got my eye on only because she seems to be the new Catherine Humphreys. Another graduate of College of Sports Media.

Is that right? Yes, absolutely. See, we do good work down there. And as I recall, I think Sophia had it for a bit. And then I know Sophia talked about this. She had it. She enjoyed it. But she went on vacation.

And then Danielle ended up with the Catherine Humphreys spot, I will call it. That was after I left. So I could not speak to that. But she's good. Yeah, Danielle. You know what? And Sophia has landed not speak to that. But she's good. Yeah, Danielle. You know what? And Sophia has landed on her feet. Oh, she's great.

She's on hockey night in Canada, so she's doing just fine. If I could afford her, she would be my permanent co-host. If I could afford her. That's how much I like her. Totally, totally out of your price range. I can only pay her in beer, so I don't know. Well, you never know. Also, I've seen you in videos

with people like Stephen Brunt. Okay. Chris Johnston. Yep. And Mike Wilner. Of course. Mike Wilner. I'm going to Mike Wilner.

Chris Johnston, much better with the beard. The beard works for the guy. CJ looks a little older with the beard. Yeah, yeah. I didn't get the bearded CJ. Yeah.

But when I started seeing him on, you see him on the commercials for Hawkeye in Canada and he's got the beard, absolutely works for the guy. Look, he's such a young-looking guy, right? He's actually 64 years old, a little-known fact. But no, yeah, the beard looks good on him. Steven Brunt, again, we go back to what a professional.

I could listen to Steven Brunt talk about boxing 24 hours a day. The guy, though, you need to bring back from the dead, Sugar Ray... Sugar Ray Robinson? No, the commentator. 24 hours a day. The guy, though, you need to bring back from the dead. Sugar Ray... Sugar Ray Robinson? No, the commentator. Burt Sugar. Oh, Burt Sugar, yeah. Because I have memories of long segments on Primetime Sports.

Yeah, him and McCowan, for sure. McCowan and Stephen Brunt and Burt Sugar. I'm not a boxing guy, but I couldn't get enough of it. It's funny you say that because when I was at City and working with Catherine for our sports director, Perry Gray, one of the biggest compliments

we ever heard was, I don't really like sports, I don't really watch sports, but I'll watch you guys. That is a compliment. Yeah, it is because we never really did sports at City. I'm not sure what we did, but we just tried to... Maybe you just tell a good story.

People want to hear a good story. Yeah, entertain them for three, four, five minutes. That's what it's about, right? Willner gets a lot of flack. I'm a big Willner fan. He's been on a couple of times, but there are people who really dislike Mike Willner. I don't know if you know that. They shouldn't dislike Mike. Mike's problem

is that he engages people on Twitter. Don't do that. People are going to say what they're going to say on Twitter. You don't have to respond to everything. But Mike can't let stuff go. Well, Mike is very passionate. He's extremely passionate about the Blue Jays. And if you're going to argue with him,

if you're going to go toe-to-toe with him about the Blue Jays, then you better know what the hell you're talking about. Because he does. He's very pragmatic, too. So he doesn't let the emotions cloud his thought process. No, no. And fans are so emotional, right? And Mike, and I say this with much love,

Mike is just a little bit sarcastic and condescending. So it's a good thing. Well, that's the knack. That's the feedback. Arrogant and condescending. Yeah, yeah. Which might work for you as a Jays talk host. But you can back it up, right?

He can back it up. Of all people, he can back it up. And that's right. And I like his, he's got deep knowledge. Yep. And I like the fact that he's not emotional. And if the Jays did start 1-9, heaven forbid that would ever happen.

2-11. 2-11, right. What, two games under? No, one game under.500 right now. As we speak on June 5th, 2017. That's right. We just split the series with the Yankees. So when you start a season 2-9, I guess it was.

2-11? 2-11. That's terrible. It is terrible. There's no sugarcoating that. And then you whip out your, everyone's whipping out their calculators. Oh, we got to play 600 ball the rest of the way.

Yeah. Not going to happen. And then the injuries set in. Yeah. But I will say this, and I believed this all throughout April. This team is a proven winner, this team, and it's a good team.

And I felt like the 1989 team was a good team, and they were 12 and 24. This team never had... That's worse than anything this team had. Maybe skip that 2 and 11 thing. But so I always felt like it was, and I hate to sound like Mike Willner, too early to write this team off.

It is, and he's right. It turns out he's right, because now people are watching. People get tired of hearing that. It's early, it's early, but it is still. We're in the first week of June. Right. The thing that Blue Jays have going for them that will work in their favor in terms of this kind of not panicking is the fact that they're the oldest team in baseball.

They're experienced. These guys have been here before. They get it. They have a manager in John Gibbons who handles his veterans very well. He knows what these guys can do. There's no panic. Nobody panics. Nobody's running around the clubhouse with their hair on fire. You're right.

They had all those injuries. Now guys are starting to come back. Look at Josh Donaldson. Three home runs in the four-game series against the Yankees. He's starting to find his groove a little bit now. They're going to be just fine. Do they make the playoffs? I don't know. Wildcard.

Maybe a wildcard. The fact that we're going to probably be in the race for wildcard is all I ask. Save my summer because there's nothing else I want to watch than Jays. You just want to be excited watching baseball in mid-September, right? Absolutely. Now, Hugh, normally

when I give you that pint glass from Brian Gerstein, I play his jingle. Okay. Off the top of this episode, you remarked you liked my opening theme song. Absolutely. The Toronto Mike theme by Ill Vibe. Ill Vibe is also, and I've never disclosed this on the Palm Cup podcast. Oh, here we go. Ill Vibe is the composer of the Property in the Six jingle.

Now, I forgot to play it off the top. I'm going to play it now and I want you to give me your honest feedback. You seem like an honest guy. If you think it's shite. Okay, I will let you know. You tell me.

Okay, here we go. Property in the Six jingle. That's it? That's it. There's no more? Shouldn't there be like another? Shouldn't it go up? PropertyInTheSix.com How long is the Fabricland jingle?

Fabricland, Fabricland. This is six seconds. It's okay. Then you got the piano. It's not knocking my socks off. Wellricland, Fabricland. This is six seconds. It's okay. Then you got the piano. It's not knocking my socks off. Well, let's do it again. Hold on, because this is the kind of thing you got to hear it a few times.

Propertyinthe6.com It just feels like there should be something more. This is the feedback we're looking for, Hugh. I'm telling you. You know why I'm saying that? Because the voice goes up at the end. Well, you know what? There's no sense of closure to that.

Let's really peel back the layers of this gene. Like an onion, right? The idea is you play this. Property in the six dot com. And that's like six or seven seconds or something now there's piano that continues now i give you brian's tip over the piano so i speak over this piano part and i tell you his tip he has a different tip every week uh there's some uh some annex condo you need to talk to brian about or whatever.

And that's so I'm talking over this and then this will play until I'm done and then I'll fade it out. So you feel like, yeah, so you feel you got your property in the six dot com. Now, here's one thing. If you end up singing this to yourself tonight or you wake up tomorrow and you get in your head,

let me know. It's a bit of an earworm. The goal is to be an earworm. Yep. Now, Ill Vibe composed that, but feedback is always desired. In fact, you can give your feedback directly to Brian. He's on Twitter,

at Brian Gerstein, or you could phone that number I said a hundred times off the top. Yeah, and let him know. That number, once again, 416-873-0292. Call Brian and tell him what you think of your jingle. If it's been in your head and you've been singing it

like as you mow the lawn on a Sunday, I think that's a goal. I think so. That's a goal. Yep. It's in your head. Hugh, this was an absolute pleasure for me. Mike, I had a lot of fun.

Thank you. I hope you enjoyed your, this is your life, Hugh Burrell style. Sorry to bore everybody. Feel free to fast forward through the parts you don't like. You know, you went 90 minutes. Wow. Did you know you had 90 minutes of highlights? It only seemed like four hours for the listener. It was 90 minutes of Hugh lights. And that brings us to the end of our 240th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike and Hugh is at Hugh W. Yes.

Burrell. Don't forget the W. That's right. You'll end up with some other guy. It stands for the middle name. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. And propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein. See you all next week.

Bye. Smile, you out check ass, just come in. Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow won't be today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine. And it won't go away. Because everything is fine.