Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Humble and Fred: Toronto Mike'd #100

Episode Date: December 9, 2014

Mike chats with Humble and Fred about their 25 years together as they share more Toronto radio stories than you can shake a stick at. In fact, if you work in Toronto radio, we likely talked about you.

I barely hear myself. Am I even on the show? Am I on the show? Welcome to the 100th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week are Humble Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson from the Humble and Fred Show. Glassman and Fred Patterson from the Humble and Fred show. This is Humble and Fred. I'm intimidated now. What do you guys think of that

fancy mixing there? It's great. That's pretty good. You should be very proud of yourself, Michael Boone. Thank you both for coming over. This is the first time you guys have been in the basement. Yeah, the last time I was here was upstairs. Not me. I was here.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We did a second half. Sorry. What's intimidating about this? Intimidating now because when we first heard about this project, we were very excited for Mike. And then you look at the people that have been on the show. And at one time, we might have been one of his

biggest guests, but we've been dwarfed now. Like all the other highfalutin, yes. Who's dwarfing you? Aaron Davis. You had Queen Erin down here, didn't you? That's true. She's tall. She didn't bash her head coming down here.

Colleen Rusholm, USS. She bashed her head. Strombo. Jeremy Taggart. Jonathan Torrance. Strombo came down into the room. No, not yet. He's threatened to. It's pretty impressive. May I be the first to congratulate you on this show on your 100th episode?

Did you guys bring me a cake? No, I'm just surprised we're doing it here. I thought we'd be doing it on a bicycle sidecar. You know? Yeah. Because every day on Toronto Mic or every other day, I see on the website where he's cycled that day. No, Freddie, that's only Facebook,

which I only share with like 45 close friends and family. Okay, here's what I cycled. So I thought we might be beside him. You thought it was going to be like one of those location things where we go along with him on a bike. Maybe he's on one bike, but we're on a bicycle built for two. And you're singing

your signature song. Are you going to favor us with your latest tune or no? You know, sometimes we do mindless things in the studio, especially after we're done and stuff just comes to the top of your or no you know sometimes we do mindless things in the studio especially after we're done and stuff just comes to the top of your head you know a tune will get in your head and then of course we have to make them x-rated so just before we left i was singing this song i'm not proud of it and you got to keep it in context at the time it was funny but he wanted

me to perform it now it goes something like. My cocky lies over my juice bag. My cocky lies over my bag. Okay, now, why that's funny to me is you're close to 60 years old. And at your work this morning, while other men your age and women, captains and captainesses of industry. Captains and Tennilles. Captain and Tennilles of Industry Freddie, that's the best song you've created since

I Wish I Were Aaron Davis Which is still bouncing around my head He's done so many different songs It's beautiful Anyway, continue I don't think you finished the story there No, I think it's cool that this is what we do This is the

Between he and I, we're 112 years old or something, 110 years old. Look at it this way. Right now, as we speak, it's 5 to 11. By 1230, I'll have been to Costco, ate some free stuff, and be having my nap. Yeah, and I will have gone to the golf course and taken the dog for a walk, and then maybe I'll have a nap. You have to have your anguish hour. No, well that's...

Where you just sit in anguish for an hour. Anguish is when the night falls. I want to thank you guys though for coming in for number 100 because the fact is

there wouldn't have been a number one without you guys and you know that. But there's no number one without Humble and Fred. Oh, that's sweet. So number 100

couldn't think of better guests. That's sweet. That would agree to come on. Had to add a caveat. Now, the last time I was here, the microphone wasn't working or something? Okay, I recorded it through the laptop recorder because I didn't test it,

but I have tested it today. Okay. Last time I, I think this is, is this the third time I've done this show? Okay, yeah. So let me, if anyone's interested in one-on-one chats, I actually can direct you to number 34. Go to episode 34 for Freddie and 36 for Howard. And there's where you get the one-on-one introspective.

When you die, that's what people are going to listen to. So I've never done the show in this house, but I did it in the apartment. Right. I did one in the apartment. Your ex did it in the house, and you picked her up. Right, that's right. But that was up in the baby room, which I vacated.

I did an apartment one, and I did one here. You've done two, because I was doing the Martin Streak. Oh, the retrospective. Yes, on the fifth anniversary of his death. The memorial. Right, and you came in to help with that. But I recorded it. Can we tell the story on the podcast of killing Jean Beliveau?

Sure. Tell me, because is this related to the Yvonne? Well, this is actually interesting because this is going to be your podcast gets put up when? Like right away? Yeah, like today. Yeah. So on this Tuesday,

we'll tell this story on your podcast that won't appear on our show until tomorrow, which is Wednesday. But we were just in Florida together, Freddie and I, on a trip. I was hosting some stuff for Club Link,

and one of their ambassadors is Yvonne Cornway, as you know, the Pocket Rocket. No. That's the other Richard. Yeah, no, he was the Pizza Pocket. He's the roadrunner. And it was great. The people I was working for, one of them had never met Freddie. They said, listen, when we get there, we're going to have some drinks.

And I said, hey, Freddie, this is a perfect time to come over and meet my friend Tim. And standing there with Tim is Yvonne, who is one of the ambassadors for Club Link. And we immediately fell into a nice chat. He's the nicest guy. He's got the Stanley Cup ring, one of 10. Yeah. 10 Stanley Cup rings. Told some great stories.

Went out for dinner with him. Tell the story about the 72 series. That was awesome. Well, first of all, we knew about the 10 Stanley Cups. That came up and I looked down and he was wearing one of his rings and I said, is that one of them? And he said, yeah, it was number 10. And you're thinking a

guy that's won 10 Stanley Cups, he'd have one on every finger, of course. That's crazy. That's crazy. Tell the joke he did. Tell the joke he did. Unless he was a pimp. I forget that.

He does this thing, and he's a very soft-spoken, sweetest person. And he's saying, you know, I have 10 Stanley Cup rings, and, you know, I won for each finger. It's a good thing I don't have 11, you know, because you'd have to put it on his finger 11. I like that. You'd have to put it on his cocky, which lies over his juice bag. My cup ring lies over my cocky.

Anyway, yeah. So how did you kill? No, no, in 72. Oh, it's coming. He told the story in 72. As a matter of fact, since I get home, I want it because I have the tapes at home or the CDs. Yeah, Foster Hewitt mentions his name just before. But what he did, he was tired. It was in the

Soviet end. He thought he should go off. This is Cornwallier. He looked at the bench and he thought that's too far to go. I don't have enough energy just to get to the bench. At that point, apparently he's just on his way. He's around the blue line and chips the puck back in. And this leads to the Henderson goal. Because Mahavlij comes on. Frank jumps on. I heard him on a documentary called Summit on Ice where Frank Mahavlij says he was yelling at somebody to get off because he was ready to come on.

Yeah, okay. Hornway is the guy. The puck was coming out of the end. He keeps the play going inside so there's no offside and that leads to the goal. And he's on the ice when the goal is scored. So there's no offside. And that leads to the goal. Yes. And he's on the ice when the goal is scored. Yeah.

And the iconic picture where Henderson's got his arms raised and Cornwallier has his arms around him with the name on his sweater on display. And, you know, it's funny because I knew I had been told months ago that, you know, Yvonne was one of the ambassadors for Club Link. And then it was kind of neat. We saw him there, you know. And you made an interesting point. Lots of times during a player's career, whatever that sport is, but hockey especially,

they don't often want to talk about the game. While they're playing. While they're playing. But he couldn't have been more forthcoming and fascinating to listen to old hockey stories. You know, and when I made that point this morning, and that applies to us, and even in this industry, whereby people, whereby, whereby, when you're current, you know,

it makes up a big part of your life. So you don't really want to spend a lot of time talking about it as athletes do. But then when your career is over, and you look back on it, you have these feelings, and you're proud of it. You know, we may be like that, too, in all seriousness, because often I'll go places and people want to talk about whatever, radio, sports, and it's like, okay, here we go again. But I'm sure there will be a time when I've lost my teeth and I'm sitting on a rocking chair in front of some home. My cock, it lies over my shoe spade.

Sitting in front of some home that all want to reminisce about all these good times. I will tell you this much. I will say I will go even one more than that. I would say that when we were in our 30s and early 40s in the 90s and early 2000s at the Edge and all that, I didn't want to

talk about it at all, but I find this part of my life, meeting the listeners that we have, the people that were our 25th anniversary party listeners, and maybe we can get into this later, I love hearing from them., meeting the listeners that we have, the people that were our 25th anniversary party listeners, and maybe we can get into this later, I love hearing from them. I love the idea that we connected with them in such a way that they actually,

they were taking pictures with Charlie and Spencer. They think of us as family. I find myself more readily engaging with them than I may have as a younger man. No, I get it. Yeah. Back to Cornway. We've connected.

Cornway and I and Fred hang out, have a drink. He's smoking a cigar. And then the next night, a bunch of us, because we're all in the same group because I'm working for the same guys that he is, go out for dinner together. There's six or seven of us in a van. We go to P.F. Chang's. And Yvonne sat next to Fred.

I sat right across from Fred. And our two friends from Club Link were right there. No, actually, it was the guy who's the director of marketing for Club Link and the guy who's the director or VP of WestJet. This is how we move now. I hear it. Pretty impressive. And Yvonne sat next to you and I telling stories about Dennis Hull,

who's his very good friend. One who has been ill but is on the rebound. Lots of stuff about NHL expansion and the Leafs, how shitty they are, on and on and on. And then Howard asked a very profound question. So we have a beautiful evening with Yvonne, and you also made me laugh too,

because he really, Yvonne Cornwall, you're sitting there thinking about him, and I just want to say, you you know I told Freddie the next day there are a lot of experiences that we've had as a group where I can't wait to tell my dad like over the years you know meeting I'll tell you when I remember to a hockey guy meeting Johnny Bauer

we had Johnny Bauer in our student and as soon as I couldn't wait to get off the show just like a call my dad and say Johnny Bauer was here and I had that experience with Yvonne Cornway I was like sort of sad. My dad would have loved that I met him. So Fred pointed out how sweet this guy was. And so we're on the way home in the van,

and I'm just sort of thinking about this guy's NHL career. And I thought, I said, Yvonne, who was your favorite guy to play with in all of your career without hesitating? He says? Jean Beliveau. Jean Beliveau. The gentleman. Number four. Oh, and he went on about that. Not only was he a great player, he was a great person. He was, you know,

you speak about an ambassador for hockey in the Montreal Canadiens. And at that moment, that moment, okay. So that's Tuesday night. Tuesday night. Oh, it's Tuesday night. Tuesday night. Pushing midnight. Close to midnight. It's almost Wednesday. It's almost Wednesday. It's almost Wednesday. Okay.

The next day, we come out. There's like a ton of guys hanging out. We all come down to breakfast. What's the news? Wow. Jean Belliveau.

Wow. Dead. Wow. Another victim. Wow. Of the humble and Fred death curse. Al Waxman and TJ,

what was his name? TJ Walsh. JT Walsh. JT Walsh. JT Walsh. Sat in our studio and was dead within a couple of weeks. And the wing walker. Wing walker was supposed to be on our show. But that's a risky occupation.

But it took us more than a decade, but finally we got Dave Nichol. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got him. These are people. Wow. What are the chances? You killed careers, too, because I was in the room when Giorgio Meschi came on your show. Including our own.

Look what happened there. That pretentious prick. That's what you said after he left. No, I know. It was me, Kelly Cotrera, and you two. I remember at the time, Kelly told me he was nice. They worked together on CBC Radio 2. I had met him for the first time, and he was pleasant enough and I wasn't

sure what you were talking about, but clearly you were on to something. I just didn't like him. I got a bad vibe. Fred's incredibly prescient. Wow. Look that word up. Okay, I just realized this will be a nine hour podcast unless I steer us. Do you want me to tell you what prescient means? Yeah. Can you spell it?

Yeah. P-R-E-S-C-I-E-N-T. You are the smartest high school dropout I know. And what it means is he has a precognitive ability. He sees things that others don't. Isn't that something? No, he's very good at that. I'm an English major, but I can't match his

vocabulary. Oh, I'm sorry. I spelled it wrong. P-R-E-S-C-I-E-N-T. Having or showing knowledge of events before they take place. Like a soothsayer. Prescient. You know that word? Soothsayer? Oh, please. Let me just do a quick review. People are listening

who might not know who you are. Believe it or not. I'm just going to do a very quick review. One second. So we're going to reset here with you guys were on 102.1 for over a decade, all through the 90s because I was listening. And then you moved to Mojo Radio, which was the same company chorus, but on the AM640 with the Mojo experience. And then you guys left Mojo for 99.9, which was the mix.

Yes. And that was owned by Standard, I believe. And then they fired you, Fred. And then they fired you, Howard. And then long story short, you guys did some other things. Howard went to Boom and Easy Rock and then they fired you, Fred. And then they fired you, Howard. And then long story short, you guys did some other things. Howard went to Boom and Easy Rock and then Boom. And then you went and was a program director

in the Peterborough stations. Yes, I was. And at some point, three years ago, you guys start podcasting daily from your own studio. And we're going to get into this in more detail, but this show is not just a podcast, although that's how I listen. It is also a live-to-air SiriusXM event,

and it is cut up, swear words are removed, and it airs on 1010 at midnight. Yes, it does. Did I miss anything there? And we're going to go into more detail later. What you kind of missed, too, was that you were part of some podcasts that we did while we were separate when he was in Peterborough

and I was still working or not working in Toronto. I can't remember. We did. Do you have any idea? Maybe you know everything because I hosted them. How many of those podcasts did we do? Okay, there's the Christmas one at Dan's house, which is the first one, the Christmas special. And then we did a Eastover, you called it, I believe, an Eastover podcast. And then there was this podcast of love and an Olympics one. I think in total there were maybe six, if you include that 20th anniversary show at the bar. Remember the 20th anniversary where

Tyler Stewart showed up? The Dominion on Queen Street. And that's the one where you had a bunch of special guests. And that's where my neighbor John shit his pants. Right. He actually did. He wasn't feeling very well and came down that day

and he was sitting with Nick Kiprios and lifted his cheek off the chair and had an accident and had to leave. Take his underwear off like halfway home or something. I'm concerned. Like I've been to the Boone home before. I was here for a barbecue in the summertime but I don't

know if I'm anywhere nearly comfortable enough to take a poo in his house but I may have to. Yeah, you can. I mean... No, I don't know if I am. nearly comfortable enough to take a poo in his house, but I may have to. Yeah, you can. No, I don't know if I am. You could go upstairs, the nice bathroom. Do you have one here in the downstairs? One right here. I'll see how I feel when this is over.

Your son's bathroom is only eight months old. No, my 12-year-old. Oh, your 12-year-old. Who, by the way, is this close to teenage land. In January, he's 13. He's a man. So he's down here yanking like he's uh around the corner is his bed and uh yeah that's his bathroom so anyways let me know come here buddy oh there you are so uh i got a quick question for you right off the bat here

which is have you guys always got along was there any period during that because you guys are celebrating 25 years together, which is longer than most marriages, I think. Has there ever been any periods where you guys weren't as chummy as you are today? Or has it always kind of been a natural rapport? Yeah. I mean, other than from 2005 to 2011,

we hardly saw each other because we were off doing different things. So other than these podcasts, we just talked about pretty much you guys were doing your own thing. In the time we worked together, though, to answer your question, people want to know that if we get along or do we see each other away from the show. You know, we always

found each other funny. I've always found Fred very funny. I don't know if Fred finds me funny, but I find him funny. Fred, you find Howard funny. I don't know if Fred finds me funny, but I find him funny. Fred, you find Howard funny. Yeah, it's not funny. No, you don't. I don't think...

I find you incredibly funny. You might be the funniest civilian I've ever met. Gentile? Oh, yes. Absolutely funniest Gentile civilian. You can't believe I'm not Jewish. Because you're frugal. Oh, my God.

He's so much cheaper than me. It's unbelievable. With the company money, yes. No, but your own money too. You stole that gift at least. I tell you I buy things. No, you don't. You're always looking for an angle. I told you I bought furniture the other day.

What was the angle? She undercharged me about 500 bucks. I didn't create that. I don't want to... What was the angle? She undercharged me by 500 bucks. Yeah, anyway. I didn't create that. I don't want to... I know you have questions. Yes, we've always gotten along.

And I'll tell you, we've always found each other funny, and we always had a good time doing the show. And once or twice a year, we used to get together with our families. Last week, we just spent five days together golfing and hanging out in Florida. And you know what I'm going to say? On behalf of him and I, very easy to get along. Here's why. We're easy with each other.

That's right. And we have the same sense of humor. We find the same things funny. We seem to have a lot of the same values. So if anything comes up maybe that we disagree on or needs to be debated, it's just very easy because we're coming from the same angle. Howard did use the C word in the first episode. What's that? The C word. Oh, please.

Let's just leave it all behind. About us getting along last week, when I say we're easy with each other, meaning that we always err on the side of good manners and kindness when it comes to actual Howard and Fred issues.

Like I was concerned that he would be alone one day and he couldn't have been more like, don't worry about me. So we don't, we're easy on each other that way. So during your break, did you guys miss each other or was it just you were? Really didn't have time. And here's, miss each other.

I missed the show and i'm being honest here and of course attached to that was missing the person you did the show but we went off and did different things so at the beginning it was like when i was first fired at the mix i almost found it a bit exhilarating because i so didn't like that experience. I so disliked working there, even though the money was great and everything, and it was going to come to an end in three years after he fired me, to be honest. Nice. I found it exhilarating to sort of try something new and do something new. And I did a few things. But over that time, every so often I think of, okay, this is neat, or this is is fun or I'll try this

or maybe this will go. But I still miss doing the Humble and Fred show because it was so much fun. And you don't really miss something until it's gone. You know that old adage. And it's so true. Very wise. Do you have any more questions?

Absolutely. What about you? I'm exactly the same. I think I was in such survival mode. Yeah. Such like, okay, I'm exactly the same. I think I was in such survival mode, such like, okay, I'm only 30. No, I was 46 when I got fired, 45 when you got fired. And I was thinking, man, I better figure out something to do

for the next 20 years because even though it was an enormous amount of money that we were being given, at some point it was going to run out. That's a big question, though. When you guys are lured to 99.9 from the chorus-owned Mojo... Is this on your agenda of questions? It's in my head right now. Okay, so...

I don't even know how to give numbers, but how significant a bump was this? Because, Fred, you especially, I know you were very... I don't want to say loyal, but you were very... You were at CFNY forever, and you were at 102.1 forever, and Mojo was just down the hall. How alluring was this offer from 99.9? It was really alluring was this offer from 99.9? It was really alluring from

this standpoint. Yes. We had made the decision to go to an AM radio station, which was a big decision. But given the plan that they had for the radio station, it made sense that we would go there and you had the potential to make more. We get to Mojo and then it's taken over. The company's taken over by John Hayes, a bit of a prude, really didn't like the mojo idea. Toronto Maple Leafs were giving Chorus some pressure because the games were on there and they didn't like the content. So all of a sudden, a lot of the rules changed. So we went into a mode of, boy, we don't know what the future is of this radio station. With the mix, it was getting back to FM. It was in the same building as News Talk 1010.

We had a great bonus structure as part of the deal. So the potential for more security and to make more money, it was there. So it seemed like a no-brainer from that sense. Stay at this AM radio station that we don't know, is it going anywhere or sort of get back into the real world on FM? Well, I mean, I think what Mike's asking is like,

were we given a giant leap up in money? Right. And I would say this, that in percentages, leap up in money. Right. And I would say this, that in percentages,

my percentage increase to go there was less than your percentage increase to go there. What I'm saying is it was a big step up. And that's the only reason I think you considered it was because you had a lot of security with that company you'd been with for a long time, but it was a chance. And I'm being sincere about this. I looked at it as a chance.

Aside from what Fred said, in terms of the way we were feeling about our position in the radio station, it was a chance, I think, for Fred to cash in on a bigger contract. Because my contract to go there wasn't, it was significant, but I'd already been given a pretty good deal. That and the fact that it was guaranteed, meaning that it didn't matter if we got fired on the second day. Like an athlete.

Well, and that in alone, yeah. See, there's another Humble and Fred connection. I jinxed him. What was that? David Clarkson. I jinxed David Clarkson. Did you call him Wendell Clarkson? No.

Good. I met him the summer that he came to Toronto, hosted a thing with him. He's never been the same. That's true. That's crazy. Would you not think that's true, though, what I just said? Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

Okay. My perception, and I don't know, but it sounds like maybe Howard was Howard driving this bus, and you felt you should get on board, or was there any pressure? It was a lot of stuff. Well, the thing is, if we were going to keep the franchise together, I know he really wanted to go, and we were ready to go well let's not forget in retrospect i wish i had never done

it sure but in september of the year eight nine months before we left we started renegotiating both our contracts with chorus now in this weird environment of john hayes and ken dryden complaining and the radio station not really panning out to what we thought it was going to be, we now started negotiating with the guy that he ended up working for in Peterborough, who also really didn't get us, but it never occurred to him that he wouldn't be able to sign us.

So he kind of offered us shitty money and not very good terms. Calling a bluff almost. Well, no, it was weird. But it wasn't a bluff. No, here's what happened. In September through the early winter, we were supposed to renegotiate, but he was kind of dragging his feet a bluff almost. Well, no. But it wasn't a bluff. No. Here's what happened. In September through the early winter, we were supposed to renegotiate. But he was kind of dragging his feet a little bit.

And then we started negotiating. He kind of made it seem like he was doing us a big favor. We'd been at that company together as a team now at that point almost 14 years. The irony is the people above him thought very well of us. So now comes this point in our contract, and in my contract it said, with six months go to go in this term, if you're not signed, you're able to negotiate with anyone else. Well, that moment came and went.

And again, he never, it was a confluence of events, including the fact that we were getting more and more pissed off at these guys for not negotiating with us, and not in good faith, just not really in a big hurry to sign. And let me say one last thing. When we left, the president of the company, who's still the president of that company, said to us, and me in particular,

I wish you would have come to me when you were starting to have problems because when he found out that we were leaving, he lost his mind. And the guy we were negotiating with kept assuring them, oh, no, we're almost signed. Well, we weren't. You never know what's going up that chain of command. And those people never found out. Check this out. Those people never found out we were leaving until the day we were negotiating our final

deal with the mix. until the day we were negotiating our final deal with the mix. And this, as we rehash this, it makes me ill to actually talk about and think about because in retrospect, I wish I personally had never gone. And if we'd have gone to the president, John Cassidy, and told him what was going on, we'd probably still be there. Easy to say, although 640 hasn't done much, but I think if it had stayed as mojo, it would have done a lot better than it has, because I don't think the numbers have gone up.

Yeah, this hindsight 2020 will kill you. No, no, it really will. And, you know, I had that conversation with my wife so many times over the years after the fact, because i used to say that if only if only if i had a state if only if only and she'd say well you know that that's easy and second guessing is going to kill you and it was good but if you could choose between being right now on terrestrial radio working for chorus or having your own company with howard here and building it from the ground up like you are now for three years, what would you choose? Let's make a deal.

Here's the way I look at it, unless you want to answer this first. No, I'm going to tell you the only regret I have in a second. Here's the way I look at it. No, I love what I'm doing now and it's fabulous. It's great. It's the best money we've ever earned. However, when I think of maybe what could have been, I just think I could have done a lot more for my family. And listen, I'm fine. I'm very comfortable.

You have a $7,000 bed. You know what I mean? There's no doubt about that. I want for nothing. However, I think if things had gone the way maybe they could have, if Mr. Cassidy was true and said if you'd have come to us because even after we signed well I'll tell I would tell that story right we probably could have dictated our re-entry into the company and chose not to out of loyalty so when I think of all that stuff

I think I probably I could have done more for the people I love now and I agree now a lot of things if you ask me this question, am I happy with what we're doing now, and I wouldn't have traded this experience. But, you know, you can go into the Wayback machine, and none of this would ever have happened if we hadn't been

kind of the stand-up guys that we are. We signed the deal with Mix, Standard Radio, on a Monday. Yeah, it was a Monday. We spent the entire day in my lawyer's office. We sign it. We never go back into the radio station again. I get a message from you had gone up North or something. I get a message from our good friend and vice president, of course, how black it already says to me, John Cassidy wants to talk to you. Ironically enough, on Friday, I was going to Peterborough and to play in a golf tournament. And so I said, well, I'm not really going to be around.

Would you meet with John 8 o'clock in the morning at the King Eddie Hotel? All these guys and Bay Street guys. And I wander in with my stupid golf shirt and shorts. There's John Cassidy sitting across me and Hal Blackadar. John says, Guy Howard, I'm so sorry this happened. We had no idea. We had been assured that you guys were everything was on track you know is there anything I could do I said John we signed a contract oh that was only in effect for four days and I said you know I'm not going back to Gary Slate and saying you know we've changed our mind he said I think how I put it

was uh besides what could you do? And he says to me, Howard, I'm the president of the company. I can do anything I want. And my only regret in all these years, and I think I've told the story on our show, is when I told that story to my friend Lou Skizis, he said, Howard, you could have asked for a million dollars a year. Because what Fred's saying about taking care of our families and without divulging what we were making, John Derringer, a million dollars a year. Right. Because what Fred's saying about taking care of our families and without

divulging what we were making, John Derringer, a million dollars a year, Aaron Davis, a million dollars a year. If we had stayed at that radio station and, and as my friend Lou Skies has said, you should have called his bluff.

You should have said, okay, here's what we want. When a million dollars a year, and we want the morning show back on the edge or give us the morning show on cue because we're not going back to AM. And we should have just found out what that was because you know what love gary slate but he fired us yep you know um you know business is business but not only that that's the only part and when he says it makes him sick the only thing that once in a while i ruminate on that conversation

because it was fucking because you never it was fucking... It was so fucking powerful in that moment when he said, I'm the president. Basically, ask me for anything. Oh, yeah? That's what Lou said. He said, oh, yeah? Give me a million dollars a year for 10 years. This hindsight's going to destroy me. No, I know, but it's the only moment where I

think... Because Lou said, when a guy at that level says... There's this phrase, when he opens the kimono, you've got to take a look inside. He's like, dare me. I dare you. Let's move on from this. Let's lighten it up a little bit.

Do you want a hug, sweet boy? No, really, because it's very significant. Sing the cocky song. At the same time as my wife has said many times, he could have said, I can't do that, or I didn't mean that. Yeah. Oh, transition. I like that have said, I can't do that or I didn't mean that. Yeah. Oh, transition. I like it.

Actually, I love these things. So I have a whole bunch of these. I got them from you, Howard. Yeah. At that old palatial estate you shared with your ex-wife. The second ex-wife, not the first one,

which we've talked about in episode 36. So who's that right there? Whose voice am I hearing in that bumper? Jamie Watson. Because that's the same guy. It's the same guy, right?

No, this is Pete. Isn't it? Yeah, this is Pete. Okay. I know Pete. Yeah, I can tell it's Pete. Okay, so the Watson, Jamie Watson. So he's a guy who was working at the station

and you guys just did a bunch of bumpers or whatever. Yeah, he was in the creative department and he was just a natural. And now he's probably the most used commercial voice artist in the country. So what would I know him from? Give me something, just one big thing. He was the voice of the Comedy Network

for the last 15 years. Honestly, Mike, you could line up 10 different commercials. He did all the imaging for the Dean Blundell show. He's the imaging of Mojo. He has such a unique voice. I heard him yesterday on some really straight read, and I was like, wow. The guy's got so much range.

So he wasn't just some guy. He was this creative guy that liked our show and I think volunteered to do some of that stuff for us. They're fun. Yeah. And you guys did a bunch of Christmas ones. This is the month you guys got to talk. I got a ton of the Christmas stuff. I'm just going to play it real quick, only

because this is actually mid-December. I'm the light red. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That was before Jamie. That was just Freddie and I. That's right, yeah. That was all of us. La, la, la, la. Yeah, la, la, la.

But it was actually, there was a guy named Amin Batia, also an incredibly talented kid that we knew from Calgary, Stu Myers and I, and we basically went into all the Humble and Freds, we ain't got no college,

that was all Freddie and I and a group of people. Yeah, and two married guys, but not to each other. All that stuff came from us. That wasn got no college. That was all Freddie and I and a group of people. Yeah, and two married guys, but not to each other. All that stuff came from us. That wasn't outside in. It was basically, hey, we have this idea for some goofy jingles. Let's get everyone in a room.

We three men of the morning show have no gifts because we are cheap. That's Fred and I and Dan Duran. Speaking of Dan Duran, there's a little controversy. The Humble Report. I know two guys do the voice of that, so that's not Dan, right?

Yep. I remember asking you this on 30. That's Dan. That's Dan? Because there's another guy who does the Humble Report voice. Do it again. That's Dan.

The Humble Report. No, it's not Dan. No, it's not. No. That may have been Jamie. No. Let's hear it again. The Humble Report.

No, it's somebody else in the building. It might have been... I can't remember. Norm? Maybe. Okay, so my question is, people, when they listen to The Humble Report back in the day,

one of my favorite bits... Go ahead. No, that may have been when we did it, the mix. Third guy. Yeah, maybe. Remember that guy? Yeah. Because the version I remember is Dan's voice. Yeah. have been when we did it the mix very guy yeah maybe okay yeah because the

version I remember is Dan's yeah I know Dan whose son was in beavers with my son like I knew him from back in the old hood but I know that voice and that that's not Dan but and into some young beaver now you see yeah Adrian nice girl see it all I'd give it enough time. Freddie P accepted. We all end up with someone different and someone younger. Yeah. Anyway, the question about the Humble Report is, you did not write the Humble Report.

You subscribed to some service that delivered you jokes, and then you would create most of the Humble Report from that? Because people are always so disheartened when they learn this. You know, to be fair, what I did is I had a guy named Mike Neighbors who wrote something called The Laugh Facts. And out of 100 jokes you heard in The Humble Report, a lot of the setups came from Mike. And Mike's a great guy.

We've worked with him subsequently. He's a really, really nice person. But his joke style didn't fit me. But what he did do in those days, remember, I was getting it as a fax to begin with. A real fax. What it would do is it would give me the setup to every news story in a couple of sentences.

So all I had to do was supply the punchlines. Right. I was pretty proud of those jokes because out of 100 Humble Report jokes, 60 or 70 were my punchlines and 30 were some I'd get from him or I'd say to who Jason used to do them as well. I'd say, hey, here's a setup. Give me, I need a better line for this. But even when we started the podcast, Mike sent me the laugh facts now, of course, digitally,

because he summarized this day in history, every news story that was going on, there'd be something about, you know about Ferguson, Missouri to John Beliveau was dying, but it was a great thing to look at to go, oh, I should do a bit about this. It would be funny if he still faxed it. That would be funny. No, exactly. Although, it's funny. He just retired it. I used it 20 years ago, but he just retired it last year

still calling it the laugh fax. That's funny. Okay, because it's one of those things where you look behind the curtain like the Wizard of Oz, and then you realize, but I mean, this is like those contests where, I don't know, the 102nd caller is going to win something. No, it's more like this. If anyone thinks that Jon Stewart and David Letterman write all that material, they're wrong.

Go Meshi in his essay. Well, even that, you know, forget everything else about that. People are surprised now to find out he wasn't writing that essay. Listen, you can't forgive a lot of things about the guy. I'll forgive that. Like, lots of, you know, you don't forgive a lot of things about the guy. I'll forgive that. That's just the way it's done. Yeah, you don't think that wherever Barbara Bud on As It Happens is thinking about all those questions? Carol Off, yeah.

Carol Off? Bud's gone. Yeah, Bud's gone. The thing is, if it was a private station, that person would be doing that stuff. Somewhat. I write my own stuff, just for the record. That's why it's not funny. By the way, Carol Off, do you know who's co-hosting As It Happens with her? doing that stuff. Somewhat. I write my own stuff just for the record. That's why it's not funny.

By the way, Carol Off, do you know who's co-hosting As It Happens with her? The I Am Canadian guy. The I Am Canadian, the guy who did that ad. That he, Jeff Douglas,

is the co-host of As It Happens with Carol Off. Speaking of which, that, I really think, have you been reading some of this stuff

behind the scenes, the Gomeshi stuff? Yeah, of course. This guy, I think his name's Chris Boyle, the head of radio. He was a guy interviewed. He should be out. He was that bald guy in the marketplace.

No, I know. And since then, some of the stuff that's come out. You know, they should have. Talk about retiring something. They should not call that show. I'm with you 100%. They should not call it. I talked to Ed Asok about this.

They should call it R or S or something. A new beginning, because apparently Jean was part of the creation of this. They should call it a new beginning because apparently Jean was part of the creation of that. Get rid of it. You shouldn't even call it that. It's like when Bernardo, when they got him, they tore down his house. That's what they should have done with this show. Never thought of it until just now.

Agree 100%. Rebrand it and a new show. Here's what they should call it. Macagula. When you guys started doing the podcast three years ago, you got an interesting letter from Chorus about the name Humble and Fred. And they claimed ownership of this

and they asked for, I believe, $5,000 in order to give you back your name. I was there when this email came in. I remember blogging about it and everything. And looking back, the question I get now and then is that, how much of that was fabricated? How much was that real? Was this a real $5,000 for your name?

Or was it done up for charity and just the goodwill? No, that was our spin on it. That was another great Humble and Fred thing, is that we got that letter for reals and we thought about, first of all, we vibrated like little children. We thought it was the greatest thing we ever saw. Yeah.

Especially coming a month or so after we started. And then we decided to spin it in a fun little Humble and Fred way. Yeah, we did. But to back up a bit, that, which one of you guys is ringing? That's not me. It's not me.

Where's my coat? It's fine. It stopped. Oh. Anyway, I'm sorry. That's okay. I thought that was coming from upstairs. No, we don't have that.

That ring doesn't exist. That's an old school real ring. Haven't heard it in a while. Here's the thing. That letter came to our studios. Yes. So somehow someone at Chorus knew where we were. Went to the website, went to the contact page.

Now, when we asked questions about it, we were told through Dave Farrow, actually, that it was just a little house cleaning by Chorus. And they were going through their files. And this thing popped up. And we were back. Oh, and oh, it just so happens they're doing a podcast now. Oh, and it just so happens they're at this location. So they send us the Humble and Fred thing.

Through snail mail. Through that, that just bothered me a bit because I just thought there's too many things at play in here. And remember, Fred had just been fired from Chorus a few months earlier. There's just too much in play here to make it other than, those guys are doing a podcast? Well, they're using the name Humble and Fred. Wait a minute. Don't we own that? Well, maybe you should send...

That's the impression I get. But the weird thing is, Mike, we left the company in 2003, went to Standard Broadcasting, which became Astral, which became Bell, and we were the Humble and Fred show. They never bothered us. No, that's right. Well, because they probably didn't want to dick with Gary Slate,

and they thought he'd pay it anyway. Part of me... And they have lawyers on staff. That's easy to... What are you guys going to do? I don't want to think it, but part of me thinks they were just sort of trying to cut us down on the knees. Vindictive, right?

But I don't know why we were so insignificant compared to what they were all about. But as I said, they knew our address. And all's it took, I knew all those people. They had my home number. It could have been, hey, Fred, it's so-and-so here at Chorus. And by the way, that name, you know, we were doing some stuff here. And just so you know that we sort of own that.

No, it was an official sort of registered letter. From their lawyer. Did you give $5,000 to Chorus? No, the spin we put on it was to Dave Farrow's credit. He's still there now. He's the brand guy. Sometimes we say some shitty things about him, but in this particular case,

we came up with the idea that if we could raise $5,000 or the equivalent for charity, would they then just sign us over the name and it would all be a good feel-good type of thing. And we called it the Humble and Fred Chorus. We had this long name for it.

But I'll tell you the truth. And our listeners came through. It was really like the first little bit we did back as a team. But in the end, it still cost us $4,000 in real Howard and Fred money because we had to get a lawyer to help us draft this thing. The more I think about this, that's a super dick move. It was a super dick move. real Howard and Fred money because we had to get a lawyer to help us draft this thing. The more I think about this, that's a super dick move. It was a super dick move. Because you guys are literally starting from scratch, your own internet only at the time.

You're not on SiriusXM. We were on nothing. You're on your internet. That's another thing where I think if we'd have picked up the phone and called John Cassidy and say, John, do you know anything about this? He probably would have put an end to it right there. By the way, speaking of John, one of the reasons, back to the story about going to the mix,

one of the reasons when he asked me, why didn't you call us? I just remember this because I said, you know, John, we were dealing with your vice president and general manager of all the core stations in Toronto. We just, again, being the kind of guys we were, pretty sort of conservative, polite guys, we just didn't think protocol-wise that was the right thing to do.

Again, hindsight's great. Maybe I should have had my lawyer call and say, hey, just so you know, this thing's about to blow up. Because we left the radio station at 9 o'clock on a Monday morning, went right to my lawyer's office, and spent all day going back and forth with the standard broadcasting. And when we finally informed them at 5 o'clock in the afternoon that we were leaving, we never gave them a chance to counteroffer.

We have to leave this topic. I'm worried my friend Fred here is going to get sick again. I'm sorry. I'm trying to leave it. I just brought that up, the reason we never talked to John Cassidy. Go ahead. Do you have other questions? You guys have lots of guests.

You guys record five days a week. You have many guests on Humble and Fred radio, humbleandfred.com. But my question is, are you having any difficulty getting chorus people? Only because I asked a young lady at 102.1 and her boss has said she couldn't come on Toronto Mic'd and I've never actually had that response before.

It's the only... It seems like I've got a little of the Humble and Fred dirt on me. Stink. Yeah, I got a bit of the stink. You got some Humble and Fred stink. I do have a chorus person lined up for 102, by the way, but that's the first chorus person who's ever agreed to come on my podcast.

You know, Fearless Fred came on early, and I know you had a bit of a problem with that. I don't have any problem with Fearless Fred. He had an issue with me. Okay, but Fearless Fred came on. Oh, yes, Fearless Fred came on. But even before that, hadn't your friend been told not to come on even before that?

You have a friend, I won't name any names, but at Chorus Own Station who was told don't go on Home of Fred. When we first... You know, we weren't doing the podcast very long and then we went to... We started in the fall and then the fall of 2011

and then the spring of 2012, it was the Canadian music awards. We were doing some stuff with Rogers loosely, right? Oh no, we were already signed by them in, in, in January. I think we signed with them or here's how I know because Julie Adam came to work. Yeah. It was only the podcast running on there, but we had sort of an association with them. And I really,

I remember because she came to our Christmas thing at Gretzky's and we never announced it till after we came back from Christmas that we had a thing with them. So at the time, I remember... She fired Aaron Davis, by the way. We asked, John, did Aaron be on the show? And he said no. We asked, did Ian Blundell be on the show?

He said no. Howard has a friend that he asked to be on the show. He said he couldn't. Josie died after her debacle with the Anthem. Morning Show? No, with the Anthem. Right, yes, yes.

At the Blue Jay game. Remember, I called or I texted her or I emailed her. Was it a rock maybe? No, no. It wasn't a Blue Jay game though. Yeah, it was a Blue Jay game.

Argo is a rock. It was one of those lesser lights. Yeah, it was a Blue Jay game. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I emailed her and said, would you come on and talk about it? She said yes, and then all of a sudden she couldn't. She's the one who said no to me as well.

Since we're so honest here. And listen, from the standpoint of you can't be bothered, I get it. But it just seems so funny. Then we ask, Bob McCowan says yes. Aaron Davis says yes. And then what's the other company? Bell? And then from Bell, I mean... Colleen

Rushome and all these other people. Yeah. Has she been on... I just realized she's a chorus employee who came on. It wasn't then though. Yeah, right. Have you had Alan Cross since he went back to the... No, we haven't talked to Alan in a while.

You know why? Because now that Alan's there, I i'm not sure i'm going to ask my one i have a guest from a special guest for episode 102 who you worked with fred and i was going to ask you about later but i'll do it quickly right now when fred left to go to 99.9 which was called i don't even know if it's called the mix yet but this is back in 90 or 89 or 91 howard left howard sorry yeah yeah howard left so you left early on in the 100, right? I did. I was gone for 15 months. Okay.

During that period, Scott Turner is your co-host. Am I right? Yes. And then they fire Scott. Yes. So then who's your co-host between Scott being fired and Howard coming back? Would that have been Randy Taylor? Was it?

Mm-hmm. Okay. So Scott Turner now is doing... But he always knew he was going to be doing Afternoons. So he left and he bolted for 108 after he got fired. Yeah, he went to Energy. For 10 years or something. Yeah.

Right. But now he, although he does, like, he's like a, I don't know, he's in Kitchener-Waterloo, but... He's a program director, two stations in Kitchener-Waterloo, does a great job. He's been there for years. Right. And on Sundays, he's got Spirit of Radio Sundays, which guys my age are digging. And by the way, pound for pound, Scott Turner may have the best voice for a guy his size.

Like in golf terms, it would be like pound for pound, the longest driver you ever saw. When I first, I actually heard him before I met him, and I couldn't believe that voice was coming out of that tiny frame. Wow. But here's an interesting story about, I'm sorry. Oh, you know, real quick is that Scott Turner will be the special guest for episode 102. Interesting.

So how was it working with Scott? He's agreed to come in. He's coming in today. I was all right. I worked with him and May Potts. And Scott, at the time, he wanted to put on, in fact, I have a little story about that. He wanted to put on sort of a Roger Rick and Marilyn show. And I remember shortly after he had started,

he called me one day and he said, yeah, I'm just putting some ideas together for the show. And I said, cool. And he said to me, and I'm thinking every morning, like at 10 to the hour will be the Fred break. And I said, what do you mean the Fred break? Well, you know, me and May will do the show and then you'll do your sports

and then at 10 to each hour you'll come in. Which is by the way, kind of the Hodge model. Yes, right. The Fred break. And I said, no, I don't think so. Because here I am, you know, I had moved from sportscaster to co-host with Howard. And I knew how your bread was buttered, so to speak. And I don't think so.

I think I'm going to be in that room the whole time. Because that's like a demotion. Yeah. So I fought that and it never happened. But the show didn't last long because that style of show didn't fit the radio station. Even though the elements were not schlocky, Scott had big cred with the audience, was very musically knowledgeable. So did me and so did Fred. But doing that style of show, even with cool people, and it was funny, I didn't realize until later

when I worked with Rick Hodge that I didn't know all through those years of Roger, Rick, and Marilyn that basically Hodge was in there doing sports at the top and bottom, and only a couple of breaks. He wasn't on all the time, which I found out later, I found out the reason why. Scott Turner, so he's doing this thing on 102 on Sundays. It's brilliant.

It's basically the spirit of radio starting at noon on Sundays. Here's how you know we're shit at chorus. I was going somewhere, but you go there first. So we get a hold of Dave Farrow and say, hey, we've tried a couple of different things with him, but finally we come up with this thing a few months ago. We say, hey, after we've tried a couple of different things with him, but finally we come up with this thing a few months ago. We say, hey, Fred reaches out to him and goes, you know, hey, congratulations on the Spirit of Radio Sundays.

How would you like the Humble and Fred show as the lead in? Like, talk about perfect because anyone listening on Sunday is 35, 45 plus. And we're who they think of as the morning show of that radio station. You are the 90s morning show. Here's why nothing will ever happen. His response? Send me a tape. Send me a fucking tape.

So we can hear what it was. I would get that response. Come on. Send me a tape so I can hear what it would sound like. Send me a tape so I can hear what it would sound like. Not only that, but we had a podcast with about 700 episodes. You have thousands of hours that you're clicking. When he said, send me

a tape so I can hear what it would sound like, I said to him, I said, that's it. We're not responding. Because if you didn't hear enough of the 15 years we did at the morning show, because I guarantee you, Scott Turner didn't have to send a tape. No, you're not a dish. You are humble. So that's how you know we're never, ever going to go.

That's funny because I was going to say, if Alan Cross suddenly, I don't know what he's doing over there. I'm hoping to find out. But he's doing something with Spirit of Radio and I think maybe something throwback thing. And you have this new Scott Turner show that's on Sundays. I was going to ask if the door was closed to Humble and Fred. Well, and our idea was, you know, out of our studio, we could even create this show.

And I even said, you know, give us the format and we'll give you the stuff and you can place the music in between it or whatever. And it would be a lead in. And the thing is, the way our business model is, they wouldn't even necessarily have to pay us much, if anything, if we got a piece of the action. Right. It would have worked well. But again, when we got that response, I didn't even respond to his response. You know, Mike, I don't know I can speak for him

as one of the people in the sales department would have done it for free because as long as they would have given us a chance to stroke our sponsors on a terrestrial radio station that we helped build, you know, I know we weren't Pete and Gates, but in the history of that radio station, we were of some significance. I'm being as humble as I can.

We weren't, you know, maybe the, but we had some significance. You'd think that guy would say, forget let's have some tape. What would you guys want to do? And I can't pay you, but we'll let you stroke your sponsors. We would have been doing it. We would have done it special for them every week. We wouldn't have just taken the show. It would have been a pleasure.

Yeah. We wouldn't have just taken the show and thrown in some bits. We would have sat down and just done our show as the old CFNY guys that we were. So I say that's never going to happen. What's going to happen? Unless Cross wakes up one day. I thought, Fred, you would know what Cross is doing for 102. I thought you might know.

And I was wondering if you had any pull in that regard. I want to back up a bit. I want to say Scott Turner, I love him. He's a great guy. I ended up doing the show with him. He was always sweet with me. When I was a program director in Peterborough for Chorus, whenever I had a problem or something new came about

that I wasn't quite aware of, I would phone Scott. He'd phone me back immediately. He was a great help along the way. He really was. Cool. Now, as far as the Sunday show, I'm sorry, I have no reason to listen to that show. And the reason I have no reason to listen to that show, I love that music. I don't need the edge to give it to me.

I have Sirius XM where I can listen to First Wave or Lithium. What's that one? Lithium. Yeah, I started listening to that. I like a lot of Sirius XM where I can listen to First Wave or Lithium. Lithium, yeah, I started listening to that. I like a lot of SiriusXM, but the Lithium playlist seems awfully shallow to me. It seems like it repeats very quickly. Okay, but there's Alt Nation. Alt Nation, I can make my own playlist.

There's all sorts of streaming. What Scott does, though, and what I like is that he will say it was 25 years ago today that Depeche Mode played the whatever, and there's a little bit of a Toronto history lesson. Understood. Maybe I should listen to that. Okay, so he gives it context. Don't you think, and you've been doing broadcasting now

for 100 episodes, and congratulations again. Yes, this is number 100. Don't you think, as a former Edge listener of the Humble and Fred show, that what would make that neat? Like, here's the thing. Ted Wallachian was the morning guy at 1010 on News Talk for years.

They canned him, but they bring him back on Saturdays because there's an affinity and affection and a nice feeling that Ted has on those Saturday shows. Don't you think they would think that, man, even an hour of Humble and Fred 11 and Noon. Makes sense to me. Oh, my God. Makes sense to me.

All right. Now I'm going to get angry. No, here's the thing. And you don't want to sound like sour grapes. Obviously, they don't think enough of us that they think that's a good idea. Or conversely, we think way more of ourselves than we should. I think that's the case.

Well, maybe. We think way more. No, we think we're more significant or think more of ourselves than we should because maybe in the big real radio world, they've looked at something like that and gone, you know what? These guys are small impact guys really in the big and the short of it. So why do we need to even bother at any cost? Maybe that's

what they're thinking. Who knows? And you know, that could be as valid as our excuses. There's some feuds. I want to call them feuds. I don't know if they're feuds or not. Howard, you tell me if they're feuds.

There's something with you and Derringer, and there was something with you guys and Blundell. These are just a couple of big names in the market where there's a sort of feudy thing. What kind of a show is this, Mike? This is what people are dying for. That big yellow board's going to listen, and we've got to make sure we cover some of this stuff. Is that still around?

I know it's around because they linked to my... What's his name? The guy you worked with at Virgin. I should know this guy. He's a mad dog. I interviewed Mad Dog and they wrote about it on Soundy so I see all the referrals coming over. You know, I haven't gone there in a couple of years. They changed the format.

Yeah, the password. I lost my password and I don't care to get it back. You don't need a password because I read it and I don't have a password. No, but they changed the format of that. Oh, the back end. There's another click-through now, which is a big mistake. You used to click on, and one click you could get to a story.

Now you click sort of in a category. I've never commented there, but I have read the odd thing. Once in a while they talk about you guys, or they mention my podcast. Here's what I would say, if I may answer. Please, tell me about this. I find the Blundell thing, we've gone over it, you've gone over it, I find it tedious. As far as Derringer it, I find it tedious.

As far as Derringer goes, there was no feud. It's a long story, but the short of it is we ended up working, after many years of being on our own at a single standalone radio station, when amalgamation came to Canada, all of a sudden you had in one building, you know, Q107 and The Edge and AM640, we were all kind of thrown in together. And, you know, we were all a bunch of big ego, whatever guys. But whatever happened didn't come from us. It came, we reacted to it and maybe sometimes not the best. But yeah, that was a weird thing.

And, you know, there's just so many. Only because we know Derringer invited Fred on his show. So there's clearly more than one. Yeah, but there was a time early on when he referred to Howard and Fred as untrustworthy cocksuckers and he was in that group as well. John

when we first met him was a very troubled guy. Very, very troubled human being and I thought we were very troubled human being. And I thought we were very nice to him. In fact, my boss, my program director at the time, our program director said,

you know, it would be really a nice thing if you guys came to his one-year sobriety ceremony. And I fucking went. Wow. I was never asked. I would have gone. Nobody ever mentioned that to me. Well, I went. So, because I thought, yeah, why not show some port for the guy?

Sure, sure. And so how that turned into, I'm the biggest dick, and Fred can go on his show, but I can't. All I know is a couple years ago, I hosted this thing. I hosted the John Derringer being inducted into the Broadcast Hall of Fame at Canadian Music Week, and he couldn't make eye contact with me. Hey, listen. Weird, weird. Listen, the guy won. He fell into the circumstances. Everyone thinks

of John as this long-time Toronto morning show. We've done mornings in Toronto two and a half times longer than John Derringer. Right, because he went to Montreal for a while. He was at the fan. He was honestly an insignificant player in Toronto morning radio until he took over for Stern and had no competition for 10 years.

So John won. Good for him. He's made way more money than us, but I will tell you this. Money isn't everything. No, I know. You know what? There's still people. He's... No. And again, when you say feud, it's no real feud. It's just he chose not to come on our current show,

and he was cold with Howard one night. It's not like, you know, flinging shit at each other. Do you think when people look back at the 25 years of Humble and Fred, one of their favorite memories will be something that predated Howard's arrival on the show, which is this song. You know, I get emails and I get comments from people asking for a copy of this. No, I know.

It's referenced all the time. Yeah, it's weird. And it's just you, Fred, singing along. Yeah, weird, eh? And what era was this? This is like, is it... It's 1987. 87, okay.

This would have been in the fall of 87. Darren Wozolik, who's still at Chorus, a great friend of mine. He's the fall of 87. Darren Wozolik, who's still at Chorus, a great friend of mine. He's the marketing promotion manager. He wrote this. He was just a creative. Oh, no, he would have been promotions at that time, I guess, or maybe creative.

I can't remember. Was it fun to put together? It was very fun. I mean, all the guys at the station put it on. I hardly knew the song at the time. I was relatively new. Well, it's interesting because Darren wrote it

and produced it. I said this much on the 25th anniversary. I said it's weird that Scary Pete alone and with me and with me and Jason and some with Jamie, probably if I counted them all

up on my computer, there's probably 35 excuse me 35 parody songs. And with Pete's stuff, maybe more that we did after that. But that's the most recognized one for whatever reason. And every winter

when the first big snowfall falls, we're a snow removal machine. And it brings back a lot of memories from... Maybe that's it. Maybe for some people it's such a... Nostalgia. It was one of the first big snowfall falls. Absolutely. Where's the snow removal machine? No, I don't know. And it brings back a lot of memories from... Maybe that's it. Maybe for some people it's such a... It was one of the first ones, too, like for the radio station, if not the sort of first parody song.

I don't know. I don't know. Let's talk about this current incarnation because I listen every day. I haven't listened to today's episode because I haven't had a chance, but I do listen every day. I subscribe in iTunes. The Humble and Fred show magically arrives on my computer

every single day. And when I get a chance, I'll listen to you guys while I work. And I love the show. I know my bias is showing, but I sincerely enjoy the content. It feels local. The references, I like the Canadian. I know you guys present yourself globally. This show isn't listened to anyone outside of Toronto, so don't worry. But I know you guys are bigger than that now,

except I love the show when it kind of goes into Toronto and GTA. Well, we got a fine line. The only feedback we've ever gotten from SiriusXM,

and it's minor, is they want us to remember that we are being heard in San Diego and other places. Honestly, they don't care so much about the States, but definitely across Canada. Right. But there's lots of things that happen here that are local stories that are national. The Rob Ford stuff, you know.

And the way I look at it, Howard Stern will talk about stuff happening in his backyard because that's what he knows. And I'm listening in Toronto. I never feel disconnected because I know it's a syndicated program. Here's the problem, though. Tell me. In the United States, I think people outside of New York City look fondly upon it and they're proud of it.

In Canada, it's not the same way about Toronto. What's that about? I don't know. We've talked about this before, but where Stern can sit there and talk about New York City, not that he does a lot. I think, again, somebody in Oklahoma thinks, ah, New York City, like, you know, the Big Apple.

The Big Apple, right. With Canada, it's different. Somebody in Calgary, somebody in Edmonton, whatever. Doesn't receive it the same way. They're thinking Toronto, yeah, Hugtown. So you guys obviously pay yourselves with sponsors that give you guys real money every month, I suppose, or whatever.

And how many, in addition to you two, how many people are on the Humble and Fred payroll right now? Three more. Three more. So we know... There's five people that draw a salary every month. There's Phil, who used to be our intern, is now the associate producer.

He's mostly the technical stuff. He's the guy who used to be our intern, is now the associate producer. He's mostly the technical stuff. He's the guy who would get rid of swear words and package, edit things. What a lot of people don't realize, and I don't really, I mean, we used to talk about it when I began because I wasn't very good at it, but most people don't realize that Phil doesn't do anything during the show. Right, you do the board op.

I produce the show auditorially, audio-wise, as we're doing it. Phil takes the show and cleans out the swear words for News Talk 1010. But Fred and I still are the ones that package the podcast. He writes the XML. I take the file and make it a podcast. I take all the breaks out and make it an MP3.

So Phil does those things and everything else we ask him. Then Eileen is our producer, sort of third voice on the show. And she also, I guess, would be booking guests and making sure they come at the right time and how to get there. Following up. Don't go to 13th Street. Yes. You know, go to 30th Street, all that stuff. And then, of course, our business manager

and sort of financial partner is Bill Hertz, who he's 70 years old and he looks great. And then, of course, our business manager and sort of financial partner is Bill Hertz. He's 70 years old, and he looks great. He cycles, you know. No, I know. He's a big cycler. And he was the former national vice president of Standard and Astral and Bell, and he's got a lot of contacts in the world. But would it be safe to say he's a commission-based employee?

So he's not getting a salary. He gets commission. Yeah, but salespeople always are in radio. Yeah, but on the payroll, when it's commission-based, he's a commission-based employee? So he's not getting a salary. He gets commission. Yeah, but salespeople always are in radio. Yeah, but I just want, like on the payroll, when it's commission-based, there's a percentage of that. We pay him. He gets commission because we get sponsors every month. Oh, no.

I mean, yeah. So what are you talking about when it's on the payroll? What? Well, I'm just saying some people get a base salary. Right. And then he would get a percentage of what he brings in. That's exactly right. So it's tied to revenues.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you were going to say, what were you leading to in this incarnation of the show? So I just wanted to clarify who's getting paid on the show because, I mean, I listen, but not everybody listens. I hope they give it a shot. It's my favorite podcast, Humble and Fred Radio. The Phil, I'm just, Phil, I've met him many, many times.

He's been a guest on this in the early days when I was like doing reps to figure out how to talk on a microphone. And I had two episodes with Phil. I just want to know, is Phil the real deal or is he an Andy Kaufman-esque, as you would say, Howard? Is he like the Asian Andy Kaufman

who's fooling us all? Is he the real deal? He might listen to this, as you know. I don't think Phil's putting... If you're asking, do I think he's joking with us? Is he aware and he plays a character or is that Phil? You know, there's part of it. Some days he'll go with stuff and you just know he's...

I think like we would. But does he tell you when you guys press... I'll often have a guest and then I'll stop recording and then they'll tell me the answers they wanted to say when I was recording. Does he ever, when you stop recording, let you in on the fact that he was doing this or that? You know, what happens, I think Phil,

the best Phil is when he's not doing what Fred's describing. The best Phil is when he's just reacting as Phil. He does go with us sometimes and that's when I'll say, he'll actually come up with a line or two that I know he's doing that on purpose. But no, I sort of

came up with that a few months ago, that he might just be the Chinese Andy Kaufman because it's impossible to think that the things he's saying to us are actually real. The fact that we can't go to his house, the fact that he told the story about having sex in an elevator in Singapore, and the fact that he says he goes down on chicks but he won't kiss their lips. I mean, you can't make to his house, the fact that he told the story about having sex in an elevator in Singapore,

and the fact that he says he goes down on chicks but he won't kiss their lips. I mean, you can't make it up. And even this morning, we were talking to him about something. Remember, I don't even know what it was, and I said he's like the gift that keeps on giving. We were talking about, it doesn't even matter,

but he might be, and we've had some great characters on our show, but I think we can say that no one, whether it was Danger Boy or Dan Duran or Sandra or Bingo or Shwarma or any of them can compare to this guy for being an endless source of material. Because he's not self-aware. What do you say to that? What do you say to that? Oh, yeah. I agree.

He's something else. I said this to Fred on a personal phone call, but I'm going to say it on the podcast. So I you say to that? Oh, yeah. I agree. He needs something else. I said this to Fred on a personal phone call, but I'm going to say it on the podcast. So I'm listening to Serial. It's a podcast from the This American Life people. Very popular podcast. Yeah, it's going crazy. And this is season one, but I was thinking if somebody

had the time to actually go through your many hours of recorded podcasts and extract Phil's stuff, and you could actually do a compelling series on just, yeah, somebody moderating, talking. On his development. Playing this and then asking the question and then be discussions about it.

Like, could this have happened? Could this be the truth? Like, and just kind of examining the Phil part. You know, it's funny you say that because I said to Eileen a couple weeks ago, I said, here's what we should do before we finish for the holidays. Let's have the Phil top five moments of 2014.

You know, and if we were really not lazy. Yeah, it's a lot of work. But no, but I think we can have a discussion of those top five moments. But to play the first time he told the story. But to play the first time he told the story, and remember, this started the first day back from the January vacation of 2013-14. He told the story of not being able to get a boner with the girl in the hotel room,

but he went down on her anyway, and then it started. So if we weren't lazy, it would be great to get those moments, the original moments, the original moment of telling the story. Yeah, the revelations. The telling of the story in the elevator, his words, and us marveling at them.

The activity on the airplane going to Singapore. The activity. The first time we had the discussions about going to his house. The revelation he has a stepfather he lives with that we had no idea, a Filipino stepfather. That was just like last month after knowing the kid almost four years, three and a half years or whatever, we found out his stepfather is named was just, like last month, after knowing the kid almost four years, three and a half years or whatever,

we found out his stepfather is named Jose. Right, right. Oh, very, yeah, all the Filipinos will get the Spanish names. And the relationship with his sisters.

And the mom who's got, correct me if I'm wrong, but a $70,000 car that had no kilometers on it and sat in a garage for years. Do you remember this? The boys took him out for his birthday.

The boys take him out for his birthday. The boys take him out for his birthday and he brings his sisters, who I refer to as his sister daughters, to the Super 8 with him. The Super 8 in Brampton where, yes, this stuff is too good to be true. We need to have somebody commission somebody to go through. I know you want to talk about it, but imagine if you could

talk about it while playing the clips. You know, he's got a really good point. Put me on the payroll. I'll see what I can do. No, I'll tell you what. We could make it a project for a couple of these broadcast kids. A keen intern or two. Just go through and take Phil's stuff. To go through and do a one-hour Philumentary. A cereal.

Yeah, a Philumentary. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, there's something there, though. And I listen to a lot of stuff This is something like nothing I've heard before Because it's so genuine And ludicrously absurd

And absurdly ludicrous I have a question for you too So I'm looking at this banner I'm looking at this banner on the wall So you're saying the Toronto Maple Leafs Only have one more Stanley Cup Than Yvonne Cornway Yeah Are you saying that Yvonne Cornway. Yeah.

Are you saying that Yvonne Cornway, who started in like the late 50s. Well, how much does the Pocket Rocket have, Fred? Doesn't he have 11? Don't know. Okay. The Pocket Rocket, I think, has the record and it might be 11. So Cornway's career would have started in like 1964, 63. And in that period of time.

64 to 79. Right. Right. So between 64 and 79, the Pocket Rocket Roadrunner has won less Stanley Cup than you guys do lifetime. Moving on.

A real quick question about the York... There's a station in York region that Humble is on. Yes. Did you know this, Fred? Did he tell you? Oh, it's the bomb. So the thing is...

So Howard, you recorded from your Humble and Fred Studios in Etobicoke. Yes. And then it's kind of pre-recorded, and then it goes to this station in York region. 105.9, the region. My question is, let's say while you're on the air, okay, on the region, there's a terrorist attack at the Pacific Mall. Oh, yeah. What happens? Well, they would just cut me off. They'd go in and they'd

say breaking news. So you would just not be... No, because you're listening. They don't fly you into Buddenville and put you on the air to cover it. No, no. Mike, Mike. It's like... It's almost like old times. It's like any television station. They could be running a rerun of

Andy and Mayberry and... Yeah, yeah, but it's not the same as that. This is presented as live. What are you trying to get at, Boone? I'm trying to feed my family. No, I'm happy for you. That's the way it is in radio now.

And radio in general. You mentioned that that's the way radio is now. Is radio really dying? I've heard Fred essentially say radio is going to... I don't want to put words in your mouth. Tell me what the future of radio is. The future of radio, as far as I'm concerned, is people. It's not music.

I'm not saying... I've never said radio is dying. Radio is dying as it is. I mean, the medium will always be here. I just think the future is people. It's not music. But that transition is going to be very expensive. And big public companies own it now,

and they have to worry about the next quarter. So does talk move to FM? Because right now in Canada, talk is AM pretty much, except for CBC Radio 1 and stuff like that. Right, and if you look across the country, especially with rock, radio is having its struggles for whatever reason. I mean, I think you're finding

the older demographics are still holding on to a bit and the little the the smaller kids are listening to their kisses and their virgins and stuff like that like my daughter yeah yeah but like again saturday night i'm in a room full of 28 to 33 34 year olds and i always do my own little polling none of them are listening to the radio. Like I'm telling you, none of them for any reason, maybe they'll allow the odd time they listen for sports if they're into sports, which is the AM dial. But I find that shocking. You know, and then you ask them about, you know, Dean Blundell was, you know, for that demographic was, you know, a very significant player. Well, they don't miss him. They had given up on him a lot long before he had left because,

and not because necessarily of Dean, it's just not where they got that music anymore. They could get it fresher, faster. Right. On demand. They can hear what they want. Yeah. No ads.

So I'm thinking that's just going to be a snowballing thing. And it may not even, I might be dead before the revolution totally. i certainly will be no i i very well could be but i just think that in the there i think there's going to be a day where people will go you know on radio they used to play records can you believe they played music on well i'm going to tell you i've you know i've said basically the same as what you just said but i will say one thing i've thought of that i did that i've now changed my mind about. I used to think that, and this is probably 10 years ago, 8 years ago, why wasn't there talk stations on FM?

And maybe that would be a great thing because, you know, it's the way of the future. But I don't think that's going to happen because when it comes to talk, fidelity is not an issue anymore for people. Like AM stations in your car, the brand new cars, the fidelity is good enough to hear spoken word. What I think is going to happen is that there will always be some music streaming, we'll

call it, on FM radio. I don't think there's going to be a lot of announcers 10 or 15 years down the road on FM because there won't be any need for it. A, because traffic and weather and all pertinent information is either on your phone or it will scroll on your dashboard. Where I think the biggest change is going to happen is the ability to listen to radio stations

from wherever in the world you may choose to hear. If you want BBC radio, you'll be streaming it in your car. So I don't necessarily believe anymore that FM is going to be talk-. So I don't necessarily believe anymore that FM is going to be talk-centric. I don't know.

You know, it's funny. There will be talk on radio, but it doesn't necessarily have to be an FM signal. Well, but isn't it? The AM is a signal. Well, here's the problem. Go ahead, Fred. Like in the evening,

if I'm at my daughter's in Georgetown, I've sort of made the switch from 590 to 1050. As far as sports go go I just find it a better product at this point sorry but 1050 when I leave my daughter's place in Georgetown I can't even get it in the day I can because of pattern changes and everything and I think it's the shift of talk goes to FM you'll actually see AM

maybe phased out but the future would be streaming anyways, right? Web streaming? Exactly. The future is web streaming, but also, maybe the future for FM or radio

in general will be more to what Sirius is, Sirius XM, and this isn't just us plugging it, because I used to listen to sports stations,

and I know you guys don't think of me as much of a sports fanatic as you guys are. No, but I would say this. I'm pretty versed for a guy that doesn't follow a particular team. But I used to listen to sports radio stations so I could hear the golf

scores or hear about my favorite player. But the reason I don't anymore is because I listen to PGA Tour radio. What I'm trying to say is that's where radio will also have to go. Because what else is there for it?

You may disagree with some of the choices that these alt stations on Sirius make, but there's four choices. When I want to listen to stand-up comedy, I've got five channels. It's just so obvious. I look at the Tin Palace, the trailer. I started going there in 1992.

The Wolf in Peterborough was the music of everyone's summer life. Every dock, every boat. Lots of Tragically Hip. You never hear The Wolf now, ever. Why? Because people are playing what they want exactly off their iPods or they're streaming it through their phone for whatever they're listening to satellite radio.

They're just not. Remember, you used to go into stores and you would hear local radio stations. You ever hear that anymore? No, it's either satellite services or they have their own system at the back running it through. Again, their iPod stuff they've downloaded or they're streaming something without commercials or voices. It's just, how do you ignore that?

It's just snowballing. It's funny, again, we have these conversations all the time and you say these words out loud and you say things like, how can they ignore it? But the answer, the simple answer is all the people, this phrase came from Alan Cross. He called it a sunset industry, which is interesting to think about radio. And the guys who are running it, the names we've mentioned and others,

are in the sunset of their careers. They're ignoring it because all they're trying to do is keep the next quarter going. So how do they ignore it? Because they can talk, well, we're going to need to change and evolve, like that meeting we had with Doofus. But the fact is last night I picked up my daughter over here in Etobicoke and we were talking about alternative

Christmas songs. And I started naming some and while I named them, she Googled them on my phone and plugged it into the car and we were listening to the Pogues. In 30 seconds or less, I had the Pogues, the waitresses. So our radio station last night going home was Howard and Spencer FM.

Which is more fun anyways. Way more fun. This is what's going on all over the place. It's for every minute that that's going on, it's another minute you're not listening to the radio. Right. And it's the same way with television. It seems like when you have a news break,

the Ottawa, we had a shooting in Ottawa, and I was listening to CBC Radio 1 while I biked, and it was compelling to me as things were developing in real time. In that instance, of course, but other than that, you're right. You could do all the programming I would hear on the radio would make just be podcasts I'd listen to on demand.

Or the music on demand through streaming services. And you read a lot of this marketing stuff and it's by companies that have a vested interest in the survival of radio and television as we know. And it's all bullshit. Because even me, here a guy in my late 50s now, more often than not, I find myself sitting at my computer at night playing YouTube videos or clicking through news services

to get the news I missed at 6 o'clock. And again, I'm just one guy sitting in Brampton. But for every minute I'm doing that, it's another minute I'm not watching television, I'm not watching their ads. And this is growing all the time. So these people, they have to evolve. Howard talks about radio

becoming a specialty channel. They better figure it out. I mean, again, radio will always be here. It's just how it's going to be used. it's going to, over the next few years, it's going to be pretty. And over the next few years, it's going to be pretty dramatic because it can't continue the way it is. Look at right across the country.

We see the numbers from the big countries. Radio revenues are dropping off the fucking face of the earth. But tomorrow, if Derringer retires and they call you guys up and say, we want you guys to do the morning show on Q107 and the money is right, you would take this gig. Well, of course. But you could also,

as part of that equation, say, yeah, we'll do it, but here, looking forward, I mean, this is where radio's going, yeah, we'll do it, but we'd like to do it this way, and maybe be part of that revolution. You know, Mike, the money would be hard to turn away from, and we might be

said, oh, you guys are hypocritical. Well, yeah, okay. No, you've got to feed your family. I've got to feed my family. One last thing I want to say in terms of, you know, if you're a sports fan, if you're a basketball fan, there are basketball channels. Now, you know, I used to listen to hockey play-by-play on the way home sometimes, or when we'd leave a hockey game, I'd listen to the wonderful one, Magic Man,

Andy Rickerman, What's his name? Andy Kellerman? The guy that does Leaf Talk. No, that's Leaf Talk. Andy Frost. Oh, yeah. But I used to get frustrated, especially around the majors in golf. I'd be listening to regular radio, the fan, and whatever. I'd get frustrated to get an update

on what was happening. But the great thing about radio in my car now is I can actually listen to the broadcast of the British Open on my way home. I don't need to get an update from a radio station. And let's just be clear about this, because you said, and you used the word hypocritical, if a radio station came to us,

nobody said we hate radio, we would never work at radio again. We're just saying it's changing rapidly, and they're not adjusting very well. So again, it's nothing to do with hypocrisy or being against that medium. And you're on that medium at midnight. Well, we're also on satellite radio every day. You mentioned Q107, The Edge, whatever radio station it was, and would you guys be interested in coming to our radio station? We'd say, hey,

what have you got in mind? And if the deal was right, and we could exercise what we like to do to the extent we want it, of course we'd do it. Whether it's terrestrial, whether it's satellite, whether it's a podcast. This is too long for you, by the way. You're starting to look a little antsy.

No, I'm... Because we can wrap this thing up. No, I want to find out, starting to look a little antsy. No, I'm... Because we can wrap this thing up. No, I want to find out, because Fred mentioned he's pushing 60. Would you guys podcast into your 70s, even your 80s maybe? Is it just as long as it's fun? Is this one of the last questions? Because I think I have something very profound to say.

Like, there's no... I remember with the Rolling Stones, they always talked about they didn't want to be up there jumping around in their 60s or whatever. Like, why's no, I remember with the Rolling Stones, they always talked about they didn't want to be up there jumping around in their 60s or whatever. Like, why would you retire? And, you know, in most cases, when people retire, they take a pay cut. Why would you, why would you do that?

Yeah, we had the pay cut already. Yeah. No, no, no. You had the haircut, so now just. Again, I would have to consider, well, you always have to consider your wife. My wife wanted to retire and travel like 50 weeks of the year, which is bullshit. Most people don't anyway. You know, people often say that, you always have to consider your wife. My wife wanted to retire and travel like 50 weeks of the year, which is bullshit.

Most people don't anyway. Right. You know, people often say that, you know, we're going to travel a lot or I'm going to play golf. Well, super. But then what are you going to do the other 300 days of the year? I mean, really, you know what I mean? And I like doing what we do so much that why would you ever leave it unless you had to?

And Fred's also got two brand new grandkids, a two-year-old and a month old. And so sure, you're going to, we've already talked about plans for maybe, you know, down the road doing the podcast or the serious show in another location if we wanted to get away for a couple months. But he's not going to want to be away too long

from seeing these kids grow up. And even outside of that, I'm not, I like to travel, but not for long periods of time. So listen, I have a lot of friends right now that have retired in their 50s. One guy used to climb hydro poles for a living in the cold. Another guy was a surveyor for the city and had to be in the cold. Real jobs. Another guy had to drive a train into Northern Ontario.

They're all thrilled to be retired. Sure. And I understand that. Yeah, none of them were singing my cocky lice over my juice bag this morning. I was with a bunch of them on Saturday, and it almost creeped me out a bit when they were talking about how much they enjoyed retirement, because what they're doing right now is exactly what I don't want to do. Right.

Get up in the morning and have nowhere to go. I'm with you, man. And my final thought on this would be this. You know, we pressed and pushed and had arguments and consultants and managers and bosses for years resisting us cutting back our song count per hour from, say, eight to seven, seven to six, six to five. Now, I was a little bit jealous.

We both have said this about the fact that Blundell got to cut his song count way back and just sit there yammering because we wanted that opportunity. But I said this to Fred, I think in the summertime. I said, you know, when you think about it, where we've come and the success we're having now doing the podcast and the serious show,

in a way it makes us, well, it makes me feel good because we were right. We were absolutely right that our audience would like more of us and wouldn't mind less music because for three years and almost two months now we haven't played a song on our show that's right and no one says hey why don't you guys shut up and play Depeche Mode again. In our audience, we have the number that has exploded. And let's... Getting back to Dean Blundell, take nothing away from him because he was wildly successful

at it. No one denies him that. But as I've said many times, right place, right... It was the right time at the right station with the right people that created that. And honestly, if we'd have been ever... If we had ever been given the same opportunity at that station, we would have had the same results because of what Howard just said. We could just

feel it. That's what that station was about. It was about goofy, fun content, you know, and more of it would have been better, not worse. Yeah. And, and any guy that's, and we've had some interns recently to say, you know, my, my, um,, my professor says, you know, not to talk about yourself. And then you look at, you know, our audience, in order to get into our 25th anniversary, had to write these, we came up with this idea, what have you learned from the Humble and Fred show? And Mike, there were hundreds of emails with this thick, thick, thick, rich memories of us. All it was. You know, I'm fascinated by the fact that professors would give that advice because it just seems counter. thick, thick, rich memories of us. All it was... I'm fascinated by the fact that professors would give that advice because it just seems counter...

Mike, let me finish. All it was was personal stories that we told. What they learned from the Humble Verge show was that Depeche Mode was a band from England or wherever the fuck it was from. Oasis. You know what I mean? None of that. It was all about the trailer and our kids

and our lady friend and this and all the goofy things we did. And so that's why I say we were right. They should have, and you know what? Stern was given the same opportunity 30 years ago. Blundell was given it. And it's too bad that we hadn't been given it earlier because then if you, you want to talk about it,

if we had been given it earlier because you know then if you you want to talk about if we had been given the opportunity to go on fm back in the day and talk all like we're like we do i think you did yeah here when we did the mojo thing they didn't know what to do with 95.3 in hamilton okay that dog with fleas which still lives on that's vinyl right not vinyl vinyl now it's fresh you have more listeners another chorus that's colleen station right listen and kelly chorus had vinyl you know Now it's fresh. You have more listeners than it does. Another chorus. That's Colleen Station, right? Listen. And Kelly Couture. Chorus had vinyl. You know, it was chorus rolled out this classic hits format, which has miserably failed.

They've pretty well abandoned it in every market. And then now they've gone to this fresh thing in Hamilton. Again, dog with fleas. I borrow that from Bob McCown. Back when we did Mojo, do you remember having those conversations? Again, they didn't know what to do with 95.3, and we had said that at the odd time. Why don't they put Mojo on 95.3? It's one of the best FM signals in the province. It goes everywhere. And they've always had this problem in Hamilton, where they get about 75, 80% out-of-market tuning. People in Hamilton don't

warm up to their own Hamilton radio station. Well, they just don't. To give you some numbers, the numbers on that radio station now and the numbers on Mojo are basically not very many pushed together. And, you know, the only time they ever had any success with that signal is years ago when it was called...

Y95. Y95. But then when they bought Q, and that became, they sort of had to protect each other. You shouldn't have a classic rock with a huge signal in Hamilton and a classic rock with a huge signal in Toronto. It's cannibalizing your own station, sure. Absolutely.

So they pieced it off and made the changes the way they did. But that 95.3 is still, it just sits there with this huge signal. And way back when, if they even made that Ontario's first FM talk station, especially with the Mojo format. Would have been monster. You like to think.

No, it would have been. May I just finish by congratulating you on your 100th podcast. And we could not, we would be remiss if we didn't thank you for all the help that you give us and the fact that you kept uh us going when we didn't know what we were doing and how anytime we have a question uh we can call you you know whenever i have a problem with the back end of our stuff, even with my back end. Yeah, it's in your anus. I can phone this guy, and within three or four rings,

whether he's here in Etobicoke, or whether he's in Germany, for Christ's sake, he's picked up the phone. He's always there. And within seconds, I get the email on how to fix what's wrong. And those roaming charges are killer, man. I have nothing further to add. Oh, no, and thank you very much. And again, there's no episode 100. I have nothing further to add.

Oh, no. And thank you very much. And again, there's no episode 100. Hold on. What does that face? Your glasses are very dirty. There's no episode 100 without, there's no episode one without you guys.

I watched you guys and saw how, I watched you, Howard, man the board and what you were doing with your soundboard and everything. And I watched you guys with the content. And then I actually got my buddy Andrew Stokely to help me buy some real adult professional equipment. And I said, I want to do this. It literally jumped on your web server. That's how much support you guys have given me.

Come over and give us a nice hug. Could I come over? Could I bike over to your studios tomorrow morning just to pop on and talk for maybe a couple minutes about this experience. About what? Yeah. About this.

Well, yeah, only because... No, here's the thing, because I'm... Yes, no. I'm going... An unprecedented thing has happened. Tell me. We're doing the show live from 7 to 8 tomorrow, but we've already recorded the 8 to 9 o'clock show.

Oh, I see. But if you get there early, we'll put you on like 7.15. Done. Okay. I'm there. Three clicks. we'll put you on like 7.15. Done. Okay. I'm there. Three clicks. Took me five minutes to bike there. Okay.

And I need you to help me figure out a way to post the show. Oh, the Kron stuff. Not bad, my dude. Howard, would you date a woman your own age? One second. Okay. I don't want to talk about posting the show and you know, and the thing. Yeah, Ixnay on the ombre.

Yeah, because we don't want to know where we're... I'm marking up another tree. I know what you're thinking. Yeah, okay. This is a shitty part of the show right now. Yeah, this is not near as good as my coffee.

Yeah, so would you date a as good as my coffee. Yeah, so would you date a woman your own age? By the way, you don't want to trust that one. We own torontomike.com. Fuck, five grand?

Yeah. What's the price going up? Son of a bitch. I actually bought Humble and Fred from Chorus. That made my wife so mad. The buying the name back. And yes,

I would, Mike. If your mother's available. Wouldn't that be funny if I started dating Toronto mom? Rick Hodge went on a date with my mom. Get out. No. And that's a story for another day.

Are you kidding me? Maybe I'll tell it on your podcast. Don't you think it'd be cool if I started dating Toronto mom? He was my little Toronto stepson. He's doing online dating now. She's going through the websites. I can't remember.

Plenty of fish and all these things. Sure. Is she a babe? I don't know. She's my mom. I don't know. How old is she? She looks like me with longer hair.

Oh, gross. Oh, Jesus. I would say she's born in... If she wasn't your mom, would you do her? Please. Come on. It's ridiculous, Fred. What kind of question is that?

I want to date Toronto mom. What would Dahl say if you asked that question? Come on, you're better than that. No, Dahl would hate you for that. I thought that was a legitimate question. Your wife wants you to stay classy. If your mom wasn't your mom, would you do her? I mean, if she wasn't dead?

And that brings us to the end of our 100th show. I miss my mom. I miss my mom, too. Do you know that? Your mom's a zombie like my mom. Zombie miss my mom, too. Do you know that? Your mom's a zombie like my mom now. Zombie Luba. Zombie Luba and Zombie June.

Aw, June was lovely to me every time we corresponded. Oh, of course. And I saw her at a lot of your events. I'd see her at Gretzky's and stuff. She's my Toronto son-in-law.

You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Humble is at Hum How. You should tweet more. Ah. And Fred is

at Freddy P 55. You probably created more. And Fred is at FreddyP55. You probably created that when you were 55, right? Very short-sighted, Fred. Your age will keep going up and your username will stay the same. Yeah, I guess. You know, we've been talking since 6 o'clock this morning. I'm just tired now. See you all next week.

Bye. Bye. Next week.