Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jack Berkovits: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1753

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

In this 1753rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Jack Berkovits about being fired as a talk show host at Newstalk 1010, AM640 and Sauga 960, owning and operating Omni Jewelcrafters, being targeted by a hitman, and what's next for his talk show. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, the Waterfront BIA, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

I'm Jack Berkowitz, and I wear many, many hats, including the Armika on my head, which signifies my Jewishness. I am the jewel of the radio industry. I'm also the jewel of the jewelry industry, and there's so much more. You've got to get to know me to find out how many hats I wear. Welcome to Episode 1,753 of Toronto Mikes, a Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA, Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade and homemade.

Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA. Check out what's happening on Toronto's waterfront this summer. Blue Sky Agency, the official distributor of Silence's quiet, comfortable, and customizable office pods. Create sanctuary within your workspace. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball.

We'll get them next year. Recyclemyelectronics.com.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past and Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut, it's Jack Berkovitz.

Welcome, Jack. Glad to be your Toronto-Miked, first time ever, but you know you'll have me back, right? Well, listen, I would love for Jack Berkovitz to be a regular on Toronto Miked, but let's see how this goes first. Can I tell the listenership that we kind of met through the long-standing, we called it the old yellow board, Humble and Fred used to call it the old yellow board,

but the soundy board, which is like a long-time forum for, I would say, terrestrial radio and network television and discussion about all of that in the GTA, we kind of connected through that forum. We did, and I'm actually quite embarrassed that you announce that on the air, because now they'll be listening and they know that, I am actually a, like, I visit there. I'm not sure they knew that or not, but I don't like that forum. Well, maybe off the top, can we have a little chat about the forum?

Because I, you know, I'm interested in things happening in radio. Even on stations I don't, that's primarily why you're here to talk about your career in AM radio. And then we'll also touch on some Omni Jewelcraft convo. But when I go to that forum, one thing that strikes me is the moderate, of that soundy board seems to be very passionate about what's over the air over terrestrial radio and what

he can bring down through like his antenna over the air television and I think that this gentleman would be shocked when he discovers that there are podcasts and streaming like there's so much great content that you can get on demand through digital channels. I just find that

interesting but why do you not like that board? Well I don't like any board to begin with that has everybody hiding behind a name. Nobody ever, you don't know who they are. And that's a license to do some bad things. That's one. Number two is I find that without exception, there are a bunch of old geysers who made their living in terrestrial radio and never, ever expanded beyond that.

So they're miserable, they're unhappy, the industry's in trouble, nobody's listening to terrestrial radio. These guys have lost their jobs, either because of the doubt. or because of their incompetence, and all they do is bash everything and everybody. One of their favorite victims is me. What do they have against me, including the moderator who goes by the name radioactive? Right. How can anyone be honest and truthful if he claims to be a rabbi, claims to be a social worker,

claims to be a jeweler, claims to be a professor, claims to be a this, like nobody can be all of that. Like, I can't even respond to that because he's condemned me. I'm condemned by Radioactive. Don't know who he is. He knows who I am. I actually know who he is. I won't docks him, as the kids will say, but I know who he is.

I don't like him. I think he's been on my case for 30 years or 25 years. He has no reason to do that, but that's what he does. That's his passion and life. One of his biggest beefs with me is the fact that I don't belong. I don't belong to his industry. I'm a jeweler. I'm a businessman.

I'm a professor. I'm a rabbi. I have no sense. standing in his industry. How dare I want to be a talk show host? Yeah, you didn't earn it, right? Like, you got to put in the reps. You got to go to, I don't know, to North Bay or something and be on the radio and then

finally get promoted to a bigger market and then you're in the big smoke. And now you can, you know, do an overnight shift or something and then cut your teeth there. And then maybe when you put in enough work in the radio industry, you can be, I don't know, a producer of a morning show and then get your own show maybe midday or something, right? You didn't put in those reps. don't qualify, whatever it is. I didn't put in the reps. I didn't take, I didn't go to Humber.

I didn't take any courses. I simply was born with a gift of gab and people like to talk to me and listen to me. That's not good enough for him. I didn't earn the job. Okay, listen. Jack, I can't wait to get into it with you because although I kind of was attracted

to the conversation about you being fired as a talk show host at 10-10, 640, and 960, and we're going to do that. But maybe give us a sense. of who you are like how did you end up on the radio we all know and we're going to talk in detail later more about this but umni jewel crafter like like what made you become a jeweler were you were you always a jeweler a word by the way i struggle to even say can you say that word jeweler jeweler okay i'm doing too many syllables you're doing well you're working too hard you know

i can't say brewery either well then you shouldn't be doing this job i'm sure they've said that on the soundy board, but then again, I don't have a radio background like you. Yeah, right. So that question is so, so, so wide. I can start a long time ago before I became a radio man, and my life

is, I actually should write the book, and I'm actually thinking and organizing it right now. There will be a book, and maybe five people will be interested enough to buy it. But I was born to Holocaust survivors. My parents survived the Holocaust. You know, I think the word

Holocaust survivors is overused and too too much of a the worst they didn't survive they lived but they never actually lived so my father who um both my parents were in Auschwitz my father had had a wife and two baby girls and a beautiful business and he was a wealthy man

until the Nazis decided to deprive him of that and so he survived and he married my mother after the war but that was not much of a survival. So I grew up in a very dark house. I have no bad memories. I feel like I was the happiest kid growing up. But my house was a house where they never mentioned the war.

They never mentioned the Holocaust. I don't have any knowledge or history of what my parents suffered. They were affected people. And I grew up and I was determined to, number one, grow up happy and survive and make their survival worthwhile by being a success at everything and everything. I was their pride and joy. I set out to become a very successful person. I don't value money at all.

I value achieving success. Why? So that my parents, whether they were alive at the time or in heaven today, would look down and say, we're glad we survived. I'm that person that makes them feel it was good to survive. So that was how I set out my life. I was a good student. I did well. I went to Montreal, Sir George Williams University.

I was probably the youngest lecturer in accounting ever in the history of that school. I achieved the status of associate or assistant professor. I don't remember. I was there for many, many years. Well, seven or eight, nine years. And an opportunity presented itself when one of my best friends had to leave the country and had a small little jewelry manufacturing company and asked me to run it while I tried to sell it for him. And I wound up buying it.

I turned that little company into the argument. the largest jewelry company in the world. And we were publicly listed on the NASDAQ. We went through a tremendously important and profitable period where we had thousands of employees all over the world and we sold to the who's who of the retail sector, be it peoples, Mappens, Zales, Nordstroms, Eton's, the Bay, Zellers, Kmart, Wulco, Walmart.

Wow. We sold to all of them. What was the name of this company? This company called DG Jewelry. Originally it was Dynasty Gem, but Consumers Distributing, which was a catalog showroom in the good old days. Of course. They had the trademark dynasty, and they sued us, and we had to change it from Dynasty Gem to DG jewelry.

But prior to this experience, Jack, you're an accountant, like you're a practicing accountant? Yes, so ask me why I went into accounting. Why did you go into accounting? Oh, I'm so glad you asked that question. So I was, you know, I'm Orthodox Jewish, and my wife of 52 years is Orthodox Jewish, and we were dating, and as Orthodox Jewish kids, we're not allowed to engage in premarital sex or have any other. good stuff. So the only profession I could go into was accounting because it's the only profession that allowed me to work while I go to school and achieve my CA degree. Had I been a lawyer or a doctor, I would have had to spend my time going to school and I couldn't have earned

an income so I couldn't have gotten married, in which case I would have been one of these guys who has to abstain. So I didn't want to abstain. I got married and became an accountant so that I could get married. It sounds like you became an accountant so you could get laid. You know what? That's a very crude way of saying it, but it's so perfectly correct. I wanted to get laid. Whatever it takes, Jack.

I get that, you know? I'm embarrassed. No, don't be embarrassed, please. You've been married, happily married for a long time, so it's all good. Okay, so your accountant, and then you have this opportunity with the jewelry, the word I can't say, the jewelry operation. take it up from there pick it up from there so my first day on the job i took a sample line out to british columbia because our company which at that point it's six hundred thousand dollars in sales

annually in its best year ever said we never had a rep in bcc uh it'll be a great training ground for you you won't get any appointments if you do have appointments you don't be able to sell anything because you don't know anything i printed up a business card that said jack berkevitz vp sales and marketing and i went out to vancouver yeah i got there on a sunday night and monday morning started driving around looking for jewelry stores. I went into this basement store just off of downtown Vancouver. And I asked this old man, I was 25 years old. He was probably 60, but he seemed like 100. And I asked him if he would give me an appointment. He said, sure, young man, go ahead and sit down and show me your stuff. So I take out tray after tray. He lifts a ring out of the tray. He looks

at the ticket, the price ticket on it. And he says, is this keystone. Oh, what do I do? I don't get the question, but I can't admit that I don't know the question. I'm a vice president. So I said, I'm going to bluff it, and I said, yeah, all our stones are genuine. He looked funny and put the ring back in its slot, took another ring, and he says, is this keystone? Now I got to double down, right? Like, it's clear that I don't know what I'm talking about, but I can't admit that I don't know what I'm talking about. Right. So I say, yeah, like I said before, everything is genuine.

He takes out a third ring. This third ring doesn't have any stones in it. And he says, is this keystone? I said, I'm busted. He says, oh, boy, are you busted? Is this your first day on the job? I said, yeah, it is, it really is. Sit down, let me teach you a couple of things.

The next hour was the most educational hour I've ever experienced. The white stone is either a diamond or a cubic zirconia. The green stones are emerald, the blue stones are sapphire. The red stones are ruby. There's 24-carried gold. There's 18, 14, 10-carat gold. Here's how you make 10-carred gold. Here's how you make white gold.

you make brown gold. Here's how you make green gold. He taught me the industry. And I called my boss on Monday night and he says, Jack, did you get any appointments? And I said, yeah, actually, I did. Oh, wow, amazing. You didn't get any sales, did you? I said, well, actually, I did. What do you mean? I got five orders. I wrote five orders. What do you mean? What does it sound like I mean? I wrote five orders. How much money did you write? I wrote 50,000. thousand dollars wow he says jack i'm asking you know this is before fax machines before emails before digital in this is like the old days right he says jack stop b sing me did you do any business i said i did and he hung up on me that was monday night i called up on tuesday night and i said um i had another

great day says oh you're going to tell me you did another fifty thousand dollars i said yeah actually i did he hung up the phone i didn't call on wednesday night i took the overnight on thursday the the milk run from Vancouver back to Montreal where I lived. I went to his house. I gave him $250,000 in orders. And I was in love, not with my wife, but with the jewelry industry. And I said, there's good news and bad news here. And he says, what do you mean?

You know the job offer that I accepted to come on board here while I was selling your business? He says, yeah. Well, you were paying me $18,000 a year. He says, yeah, I no longer want to work on a salary. I want a commission. So he says, what do you mean? I said, well, you did $600,000 in business. Give me 3% of sales.

Now, I already had three little children at that point, and he says, Jack, you're going to starve to death. I said, I'll take my kids with me. Don't worry about it. I want to work on commission. He argued, he fought, but he couldn't say no because I was threatening to leave. I then went back on Sunday to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, came back on Friday with another $250,000 in business.

So in my first two weeks on the job, I did $500,000, which was almost the total of his entire volume for the year before. Right. And I became a very, very wealthy man from that. Okay. Now, what is the origin story behind what most people associate you with, Omni Jewel Crafters? So in the year 2000 or 2001, an investor bought into my public company. and he did so through a process called a reg D-504. I won't bore you with the details of the Securities and Exchange Commission,

but it allowed him to profit from my company's shares if he shorted my stock into oblivion. So he did that, and it was illegal in the United States, but it was legal in Canada, so he did it through Canada. Being the fighter that I am, I decided to fight him in court, and I alienated my bank, which was at the time, Bank of Nova Scotia and they said Jack you know you owe us a lot of money

you need us we don't like this fight do what you have to do to get out of the fight or you will lose our support financially to which I said I'm not getting out of the fight what they did is illegal they shorted my stock I should be worth billions of dollars personally and I'm not because of them

excuse me so I want to keep this fight going and they said well then give us back the keys and I hand in them back the keys. They placed the company into receivership. And the very next day, I opened up Omni Joel Crafters, a retail chain. Okay. Where was that first location? In Toronto at Keel and Highway 7, a failed location for Royal Bank, a failed location for so many retailers, I turned it into the busiest location anywhere for any retail store, literally hundreds and hundreds of cars lining up every single day to get into my location. That store did more volume than the

the company that I had bought, originally, in a year. That store from the first day it started doing business had lineups, and some of the promotions we came up with were so incredibly successful. If I were to tell you the details now, you would probably think I'm lying to you, but the promotions all through radio, and I got to tell you, if you'll ask me. What's the question I'm asking? Ask me if how I got into radio advertising. I can tell you hosted your own show, and I can tell that right now.

So how did you get into what? What in that? Radio advertising. How did you get into radio advertising? Well, here I am a retailer now. So I've got a store at Keel and Highway 7 called Domney Jewel Krafers, their flagship store. Right. And I call up CFRB. And I speak to a young lady. I think she, I forget her name, but it'll come to me in a second. Anyway, I say, hi, my name is Jack Berkovitz. I own a retail store. It's almost Christmas time. I'd like to advertise. Oh, terrific. Terrific. Give me your name, address, phone number, contact info. Let me get back to you. So I do that. And I wait a week. And she never gets back to me. Wow.

So I... She's probably glad you forgot her name. I call her back. That's right. I call her back. I said, hi. Remember me, Jack Berkovitz? The guy with a retail jewelry store at Keel and Highway 7?

She says, oh, yeah, I lost your number. I'm so glad you called me back. So I give her my number again. I said, I'd like to come see you and time is of the essence because I've got Christmas around the corner and remember about... Yeah, give it to me one more time. I wait a week. I don't hear from her.

I call her back. And guess what? She's off on maternity leave. So they want to give me another rep. I said, no, I don't want to talk to a rep. Who's your sales manager? Right. And they give me, they put me through to Lori Graham.

I say, Lori, my name is Jack Berkowitz. I've been trying to do this, that, and the other with CFRB, but they're not getting back to me. Can I come see you? She says, let me give you another rep. I said, I don't want to talk to another rep. I want to talk to you. So I go to see Lori Graham, lovely lady. And she says, what can I do for you?

I want to be a well-known name on radio in the GTA in the next 90 days. How much do I need to spend? So she takes out a calculator, does a spend, so many six spots a day, so many days a week, it's $60,000. I said, okay, you have a deal. I'll give you $30,000 in money and $30,000 in product. Not interested. Why not? Not interested in your product.

I said use it as a public service announcement, as a giveaway, as a marketing, as an incentive, as a bonus, not interested. You want to pay $60,000, we'll take your business. You don't want to pay $60,000. We won't take your business. So I said, who's your boss? And she gives me the name of her boss, who is, it'll come to him in a second. I said, would you call your boss? And she says, I don't need to call my boss.

My boss is upstairs on a 12th floor. I said, I'll walk up if you don't have any elevators. And she says, you're being funny. I said, I'm trying to be funny and you're trying to be difficult. Just give me the name of your boss. And she hurts, Bill hurts. So she says, I know Bill. Yeah, so I became a good friend after that.

In any case, I say, tell Bill I want to see him. She says, he deals only with national accounts, Jack. I said, well, then he'll deal with me a year from now. We should get to know each other today. No, Jack, I'm not going to call Bill Hertz. I said, please call Bill Hertz. She picks up the phone and something to the effect. She's saying something to him in the phone that says, I got this madman here.

And he comes down. And he says, Jack, sorry, we don't do barter, we don't do contra. You want to buy in, you buy in. You don't want to buy in. So I say, Bill, I'm going to leave, I'm going to walk out, and I'm going to go to 640 and 590 and 680, and you'll be the guy that says a year from now, it could have been us, right? All for $30,000, to which he says to Lori, take his deal. Wow.

So my first deal was $60,000, of which $30,000 was paid a bulletin money, and $30,000 was payable in product. And a year later, I was by far the biggest local advertiser anywhere in Canada. I spent close to $1.5 million in a 12-month period advertising Omni Jewel Crafters, which became the biggest and most successful single-unit store in the GTA. I brought in my sons later called the Home Improvement People, and they went on to great success through that. that's my entree into radio advertising year later yeah i i hired bill carroll to endorse me i hired

um um yeah at the at the five 90 uh the bob cat bob cat bob cat yeah bob mccown bob mccown um and the two of them endorsed me and i would be in the building at cfrb on two st clair when Bill was doing his show. And I liked what he was doing. I thought he was amazing at being a talk show host. Sure. So I said to his boss, Steve Couch, right? Steve, I could do that.

He says, well, who cares? You're not going to do that. I said, Steve, I could do that. And he says, well, you're not going to get a chance. We don't have advertisers doing talk show. I said, then I'll stop advertising. So he says, Jack, it's not happening. and I kept badgering him and he said it's a conflict of interest I can't allow you to do that I said well here's what take me out for lunch and let's debate we'll do two hours if you feel I'm not qualified then by all means I'll give it up but if I am qualified don't penalize me just because I happen to be an advertiser and if I'm not good fire me you know I it'll be an obvious choice for you to make he agreed and then he chickened out he said no I can't do it so I went to paddle

Holiday, and I convinced Pat Holliday, together with, you might know, Pat Culliari, who was a creative director at CFRB. And the two of them spent enough time with me to come to the conclusion that if I'm going to fail, it won't be by much. So let's give him a shot. And so I spent many years at CFRB. Then I moved on. They fired me. Oh, but we got to slow down here, Jack. I'm going to walk through these details with you. And I'm so I'm glad you got, I've got your show now on 1010 and of course I have questions because if you've ever heard Toronto Mike they have questions but because we are getting to know you we now know about the birth of Omni Jewel Crafters we know about your introduction at 1010 by the way

you still have any relationship with Bill Carroll or Bob McCowan not with Bob McCown with Bill Carroll we have the we know we trade greetings birthday wishes you know every year but we don't really he moved to Ottawa we moved to California then he moved to Ottawa and even though he called me his jeweler for life he now endorses another jeweler in Ottawa, so I'm pissed. Ooh. Yeah, that would piss me off, too. I'm pissed, yeah.

What does life mean to you, Mr. Carroll? Okay, so I'm actually going to read your official bio, just so I can make sure everything is true, because I'm not going to be a radioactive here and say you're lying, because I trust you. You look like a trustworthy guy. But I'm going to walk through this. This will take only a moment.

Jack Berkovitz is our driving force. This is like on the Omni Jewel Crafters website. A rabbi, teacher, educator, jeweler, radio and television personality, and retailer. So I'm going to pause to just ask you this big question. People want to know, are you really a rabbi? I'm ordained, meaning I went through the courses, I passed the exams. I was ordained by a panel of rabbis, that's all it takes, but I never practiced.

You want to hear why I never practiced? Why didn't you practice, Jen? You know what? You got all the questions. You're amazing. I'm you reading the cue cards over here. I really intended to devote my life to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, uh, wayward teenagers. I wanted to bring kids who are on drugs going in the wrong direction back

to the fold to Judaism. And so I accepted a job at the age of 18, part-time job as a youth director at a synagogue. And I had incredible, incredible joy and success in that job. Then they started a school. I became originally a teacher in the school, a Hebrew teacher, like a rabbi. And then they hired my, at the time, girlfriend slash fiancé, and she was a teacher there. And then they expanded the school, it became supremely successful in Dollar DeZermot, which is a suburb of Montreal. And they asked me to come on full time. So we were engaged and we found a house right around the synagogue and they offered me, the numbers may be off, but forgive me for that, I don't recall the numbers, but I think they offered me $19,500 a year to be full time. And we did

a calculation that if we would have the baby that we so desperately wanted to have, we could not finish the month financially. So I went back to the board of directors and I said, I accept the position but I got to get $20,000. And they said, well, it's not in the grid and we don't have it and it's hard for us and you'll have to take the job at 195.

So I said, no, you don't get it. If I can't make $20,000, I can't survive. I'm not looking for extra money. I'm looking for milk money. And so they had a special board of directors meeting and they turned me down. It can't have. It's either 195 or nothing to which I said,

have a great life, and I went out to finish my CA degree and then became an accountant and successful accountants. So I'm not a rabbi because of $500. Okay, well, I do produce a show for my friend Ralph Ben-Murgy, and the name of the show is actually not that kind of rabbi, because Ralph explains, rabbi just means teacher. This is Ralph talking to me. And he says he's a rabbi, but he's not that kind of rabbi. But you are that kind of rabbi. You just never practice. I am like him. In other words, we have the ordination, we have the education, we have the knowledge, we just chose to take a different career path. It's like the fellow who thinks he wants to be a priest, he qualifies for the priesthood and the collar,

and says, you know what, I'd rather be a jeweler. So the qualification is there, but the practice is not. Okay, so you and Ralph have a lot of comment there. Okay, to pick up that bio real quick here, you did allude to this a moment ago, but it says Jack had built, has built a tiny jewelry operation into Canada's largest manufacturer with personnel worldwide. The company went public on the NASDAQ in 1995. So this is what you referred to earlier. So is that true that that company you had before Omni there? That was Canada's largest manufacturer of jewelry?

By far. They're also probably one of the largest, if not the largest in the world. Okay, here. We're doing a little fact checking here. Shout out to Robert Lawson. Jack, longing to spend more time at home, retired in late 2002, and opened his first retail location, as noted above. You've talked about that at Keel and 7.

The premise was simple. Jack had noted that Toronto was the only major North American city that did not have a high-end retail jewelry operation that discounted heavily. Is that right? Toronto didn't have such a thing. It is. So you can buy expensive jewelry if you go to a brand name store like Tiffany or Cartier.

You can buy a very, very low-end jewelry or even better jewelry at good pricing, but nobody established themselves in Toronto. as the guy where you go to for fantastic jewelry at incredibly low everyday pricing. Okay, and then to wrap this up, of course, this is the Omni JewelCrafter website, so it says, Better Jewelry should be in reach of everyone

and should not have to incur debt or be a stressful experience. Thus, Omni Jewel Crafters was born. Okay, so we've covered that official bio, if you will, the sanctioned bio by yourself. And we've got you at 1010. My big question for you, Jack, is, do you get an on-air hosting job at 10-10

if you're not spending a million plus with CFRB? Definitely not. Definitely not. There's no way that a guy from outside the industry shows up. He has no pedigree. He has no history. He has no education in broadcasting. There's a discriminatory element.

And I don't blame them because why not hire the guy that did well in radio somewhere else, maybe North Bay? why entertain the possibility that a Jack Berkowitz, if my name is John Torrey. That's different, right? That's different, right? If my name, if, you know, if you're a Mulroney, you know,

so you could get in, but it's by virtue of the name, not by virtue of the qualifications. You know, John Torre is my friend, but I will tell you, he's a lousy broadcaster. You know, like too many hymns and haze and he keeps on going on, like me, go on and on and on and on. It doesn't stop. It doesn't come up for air.

Is he running again for mayor of Toronto? I'd love to see him run I'd like to see him win I need to get Olivia out of there having said that I think he's finished okay so and you know him well so I feel like you would have maybe

maybe possibly I don't know anything I've never had that combo with him I've never had that conversation with him he's a good man he's a legitimately good man made a terrible mistake and I think he's paying the price for that I'm guessing

but there's no room for comebacks it's a young man's world and they only want young people they will vote Olivia Chats out. That's a good thing because anyone who replaces her will be an improvement over her, but I don't think John's the man anymore. So you're pretty

certain that whoever runs on the right of Olivia will get the majority. If they're younger. Well, actually, you don't need a majority. It's first past the post, but we'll get the most votes. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look what's happening in the world. I mean, you know, in New York, Mamdani is going to be the next mayor. I mean, because young people

just want change for the sake of change. They hate the old guard. They hate everything about what's going on in the world. They think they're going to get free buses and free grocery stores, and they think they're going to get free rent. And, you know, I mean, even an absolute fraud like Zoran Mamdani is going to win by virtue of the fact that he's camera ready and he's very digital savvy. And it doesn't matter that his campaign is based on lies and deceit.

I mean, he's living in a government-sponsored, low, rent, housing unit, even though he's a multi-millionaire. He's a fraud. Okay, there's some New York chatter right there. Okay, so to bring it back to Toronto here, you're on 10-10. Do they have to run a disclaimer on your show at 10-10 that says it's paid, paid programming or it's... It's not paid program. So this is okay, so let me just have a civil little chat about this. So if you only have the show because you're spending, like, I don't know, what did you spend again, a million and a half dollars or something? Yes, I around that, yeah. So you made a threat that if you don't get a show, you're,

pull in that, right? I did not. Oh, you didn't make that threat. I did not. I said, do you want me to quit in order to qualify for the show? That was a joke. Right? I mean, that's what I told them. Why am I not qualified just because I happen to be a benefactor here? Like, it should not work against me. And they understood the logic to that, but they said the optics are bad. I said, well, let's change the optics. I won't be an advertiser, but it was never, it was never a threat. What time slot was your show at 1010? So my original slot was Sunday nights at I think 11 p.m. I think that the listening audience at that point is maybe three people

including members of my family. It's probably radioactive. Who else? Yeah, exactly. So that turned into be an incredible success. When I say that turned out to be an incredible success, I think it went from literally three people to 15,000 people. But when they had us, they purged the entire weekend, the only survivor was me. And they put me back to

8 p.m. from 11 p.m. And then that turned out to be an incredible success. The numbers were... Okay, so I'm going to ask you about this. What kind of numbers are we looking at? You had an insight into these... Well, I was able to connive the Nielsen numbers, which in those days were not the pagers. This is a diary.

The diary thing. I remember. They gave you like a $2 bill or something. Exactly. So I was able to get, you know, I got some clout with your advertising rep when you spent so much money. So I was able to get access. to the numbers, but I don't remember the exact numbers, but I do believe that I was getting 50,000 listeners of the 8 o'clock hour, which is amazing.

Those numbers are insane. You know, so what era are we in again? This is the 2000s? This is the 2000s, yes. Okay. So, again, I've never worked in radio, but to hear that number on a Sunday, to me, sounds extremely high. It was crazy.

It was insane. And I could be off on the numbers. I don't want to give. I would be shocked if that was the universe of terrestrial radio listenership the entire day of Sunday, let alone people tuned in to Jack on 10-10. Like, that's incredible. Yeah, so I'm telling you what I thought the numbers were. If I'm off, I'm off.

It's very possible that I am off. But even if there were 15,000 listeners, that was amazing. So that continued, and then they was trying to find me a better slot because I got tired of working on Sundays. I wanted something more, more, you know, bigger and better. Sure. So I kept lobbying them for more. And then they went to this thing where they had Thursday nights, not Thursday nights, but every night of the week between, I think, 10 and midnight or 9 and 11, they'd have a different guess.

So Joe Warmington had like Tuesday nights and Carly Nation had Monday nights and somebody. I had Thursday nights. Okay. And the numbers were still fantastic. Okay. So good on you. So you had a good rap on you and people were interested in what you had to say and they tuned in. So why the heck would they fire you?

So they never admitted to firing me, except that I was evolved in a major court case that you probably heard of, the Harold of Jewelry. Oh, it's on my list, Jack. Yeah, so at the trial, which was two years ago, they were there, and they presented a letter saying that it was by mutual agreement. No, there was not me. I was fired.

And what happened was I couldn't resist. I'm a man of passion, so I couldn't resist discussing the case. and for those who don't know what the case is, I'll get into that later, but basically... We will definitely, just so the listenership knows, I mean, I think I have the first guest in Toronto Mike's history who was ever targeted by a hitman, so we're going to get into that soon.

Right, so just by way of getting into that, you know, I claim, I made the allegation that a hitman came to tell me that he had been hired to kill me by a competitor. So that took over 15 years of my life. It consumed me completely. I suffered from PTSD. I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist that I had PTSD.

I went through a lot, and so I could not resist the temptation on air of mentioning it. Of course, I should have known, I think I did know, that the other side, the other party, was listening to the show, and they either threatened to sue, or they came to close to suing, or they did sue CFRB for what I said. Am I allowed to mention this competitor? Do you care? Sure, I don't care. Harold the jewelry buyer.

Right. So he or his parties or people representing him somehow informed CFRB, News Stock 1010, that they were going to sue them. I got a very, very strongly worded warning from Mike Ben Dixon and the people at CFRB that I am never, ever to mention the case again. And I agreed to that. But I didn't stick to my agreement. and so I mentioned it again a year later or a year and a half later I did mention it again I get a call the next day from Mike Ben Dixon and he says Jack you did it you did it again I said I am I going to be fired he says no not at all I said he said but would you like to

come down and talk to us I said well I'm heading to Florida today for two weeks are you okay with that he says yeah no hurry no problem but when you get back would you come see us I come back I call him up I said Mike do you want to see me he says yeah Why don't you come down tomorrow morning? I went down the next morning and he's sitting in his office with his boss, I forget her name. And they're just schmoozing. We're talking. So what's going on?

Whatever. It was a weird meeting. They never came out and said, you're fired. They just wanted to know why I would breach the rules and why I would do that. But when I tried to use my PASCII a minute later after I left the building, it was no longer functioning. That's some greasy, may I swear in front of you, Jack? I think that's some greasy shit right there. So they didn't fire you.

They didn't tell you you're done here or anything of that. Your services are no longer required, Jack. They didn't give you one of those. Or even, they didn't do that. They just simply canceled your pass card when you left? That's right. That's crazy. I was so stressed that when I left the building,

I went to the parking lot across the street, and I didn't have any money to pay the parking lot attendant. And I said, that's weird. I know I had some money in my pocket. So the guy says to me, Jack, I know you well. Don't worry about it. When you get a chance pass by, you'll pay us when you come back. So I get to my office and I send a note to Mike Ben Dixon.

It turns out I dropped my money in his office out of my pocket. And so I did go back to the parking lot. And then I tried to use my pass key. And that's when I realized it wasn't working. Yeah. So that's why I got fired because of the Harold, the jewelry buyer story. Okay. So, but my question is at this time,

when you're fired from what was called CFRB. Oh, there's still CFRB, but they called it, I guess. Was it News Talk 1010 yet? It was. Okay. So News Talk 1010, Mike Ben Dixon, I've met him. He's let you go, or they've let you go. Are you still advertising on the station?

No, I'm not advertising on radio at all anymore. Well, okay, so did you stop advertising because they fired you, or did you stop advertising and then they fired you? No, I stopped advertising. after they fired me. Okay. So that was basically, like, I don't want to advertise on a station that would do that to me. That's correct. And as an interesting aside, I owe them $250,000, according to them, at the time that they fired me.

And they made no effort whatsoever to try and collect that money. That's interesting. They were scared. I'm not sure what they were scared of, but they were scared of. Well, maybe they were just scared of this ex-MMA fighter who was, you know, out to kill you. No, I think they were scared of a lawsuit that would have brought about. I think that they were quite sensitive to a potential huge lawsuit. Okay.

Now, what's next? So you're no longer on the air at 10-10. You pull your advertising from 10-10. What station do you approach next? So I was approaching or I was advertising heavily on 640. Sure. And I asked them if they'd be interested in my show and they said they would be. So I started advertising heavily on 640 and getting a show there,

which again was, I think, an incredible success. And I also had been interviewed by Moses Naimer at 740. And that interview went very well, and they were very keen on getting me on board, and my schedule was basically up to me to some degree. But he told me to go easy on the Jewish stuff. In other words, Jack, you identify very, very strongly as pro-Israel, pro-Jewish

and it's not what our audience really wants to hear so go easy on that you have to give us a commitment not to do that stuff and I said I'm not interested in this job and I walked away so I went I stayed with 640 I went to 640 and that went very well there was never an issue until

I owed them they say $15,000 for advertising and they called me up one day and they said Jack we haven't been paid $15,000 I said I don't know what you're talking about well, you owe us $15,000. I said, so call the office.

There's an accounts payable. I don't deal with that shit. Right. So deal with them. If they owe you the money, I can't see why they wouldn't pay. Well, here's the deal, Jack. You don't pay the $15,000 by today.

You don't go on the air tomorrow. I said, now you've done something terrible. You've tied in the show to my advertising and to my account payable. That's never to happen. They're not related. I don't get the show because I advertise. You need a firewall between these two.

You need a firewall. So if you're going to call me for money and threaten me with a show, I'm gone. And so you could say I quit, but I think they quit after they told me I was fired. Constructive dismissal. Absolutely. Okay. I'll call my friend. My friend, Lauren Honickman's on next week.

Oh, good man. I liked him. I liked him on the air. You know what? He would love to be back on the air, but he used to fill in at 640. Yes. And they stopped calling him. And I know he misses it.

Well, he's a lawyer practicing in London, Ontario. So I don't know. Oh, he practices here. Does he practice here? Yeah, he practices here. I've been to his, it was young and, King and Young was where the office was. But now he left that firm. We'll get this update next week from Lorne.

But he now practices with his son, Asher. So Asher Honnickman and Lauren Honickman now work together. But if it's not Toronto, it's like Thornhill. Well, I thought he was a great broadcaster. I think the people that sub at 640, like Peter Sherman and Lauren Honickman, are better than any of the regulars. That voice that Peter, Sherman has. One time he was sitting there, I think he wanted to leap across the table

and choke me out. But Peter Sherman, it's like the voice of God when I hear that in the headphone. Those are pipes. He's amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Good friend of mine. Okay, yeah, these are, he's a good FOTM. You're now an FOTM, Jack, friend of Toronto, Mike. That's right. You've made it here. Now I've made it. Not just made it here. I've made it. That should be like, forget rabbi. You can put it before rabbi. FOTM, rabbi, and then teacher, et cetera. So, this $15,000 that they claim you owed that ended up causing the breakup with you in 640. Is that, like, what percentage of the whole is that?

I'm just trying to understand, like, what kind of, I know you said you spent big money on 10-10, but what kind of money were you spending at 640? Probably $250,000. That's a small percentage. It is, but they were stupid. They were just stupid. That would be like one of my clients owes me 50 bucks or something. You know that I run, my entire life, one of my great mysteries in life is how large

corporations are so stupid and yet they're large corporations. Are they so big that they can be stupid? I just don't. I think the answer is yes. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, really, you run into such stupid people, and yet they work for these very successful multinational organizations, and you say, how did they get here?

Now, Chorus had a bit of a cash flow problem. They still do, of course. There's a lot of issues going on at Chorus. You know what else say? We're not supposed to talk about him, but Mike Ben Dixon, how the hell does he keep rising? The man, in my mind, in my opinion, is useless. How the hell did he get to be who he is?

Lauren wants me to remind the listenership that Jack speaks for Jack He works in this libel world or whatever So I don't know I've won every defamation case I've ever thought Okay well it's good Glad you're here then My experience of Mike Ben Dixon is

He took umbrage with a episode I recorded With a newswoman who came on my show To talk about the racism she experienced In the 1010 newsroom And I don't think Mike Ben Dixon thought that was a particularly fair episode. But Amber Giro speaks for Amber Giro, and I'm really just here to record

and let her share her story. Excellent. I've never worked in the 10-10 newsroom. I want to make sure everybody knows that, okay, Jack? Yeah, no, my complaint with Mike is not that he is in the newsroom. My complaint with Mike is that he doesn't seem to be anywhere. I don't know what effect he has. Hmm.

And every, you know, he's, I mean, he's with 640 now. How long is that going to last? Yeah, he's with 640. So you're right, he does keep, he's back. And program director at 640, right? Yeah, and how long is I going to last? And the job before that was with, he went into business with three other or two other great names in the radio industry,

and he's, this is his job for life, this is amazing. Look at that, I got my own business. I'm going to be a consultant to radio. And then he bails out to go work for Chorus, seriously? Jack, now we're getting interesting because now you've kind of been let go by 10-10. Now you're no longer at 640. So are there any more AM stations left to be? be a talk show host on in this market.

Not after 960. Okay, so 960, which I, okay, let's get it to 960 after I just thank some partners here, okay? Maybe one day I'm thanking Omni Jewel Crafters, a proud sponsor of Toronto, Mike. Maybe one day, but in the meantime, I want to give some love to Great Lakes Brewery, the brew craft beer here in southern Atopico, and they have a big event this coming Saturday. So they have an event called Brewed for You Fest, and there's still tickets available. live music, a bunch of Ontario craft breweries will be

there. You get a special mug, you get delicious treats, good hangs. So Brewed for You Fest is at Great Lakes Brewery, August 30th. Speaking of events, I just want to let the people know that the waterfront has the air show this long weekend. In fact, today I went on a bike

ride, Jack, and I saw them, like, rehearsing or practicing, I guess you'd say. I saw some of the air show kind of advanced preview. They were working some stuff out on my waterfront, my wet waterfront ride. today. So get yourself to the waterfront this coming long weekend. If you have Jack, old electronics, old devices, old cables, go to recycle myelectronics.ca and put in your postal code and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. So those

chemicals do not end up in our landfill. So that address again is recycle myelectronics.ca. Blue Sky Agency is the newest partner of Toronto Mike. It's great to have Doug Mills and the gang from Blue Sky Agency on board. They forged partnerships with established office furniture brands like silent and green furniture concept in Roolyard. And Doug is eager to chat with any and all Toronto mic listeners who are looking for dynamic and creative work environments. It's Doug at blueskyagency.ca.

Jack, Ridley Funeral Home sent over a measuring tape for you. Oh, thank you. I'd like to gift that to you. By the way, fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. I know I already mentioned them, but they want you to take that home with you. Amazing. And this is a bittersweet to say that the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball season came to an end last night in Barry. We lost the best of five opening round series in five games.

So I sadly, and I'll tell you now, Jack, they don't pay me to attend these games. I attended four of the last five games at Christy Pitts because I absolutely fell in love with Toronto Maple Leafs baseball at the pits. No ticket required. It just feels right. I really enjoyed myself at Christy Pitts this summer. and I hope to be back next summer, but because it's basically the end of the month and the leaf season is over,

I'm going to give you a gift here, Jack. It's a book on the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Wow, that's amazing. You can read that and catch up on your Rob Butler knowledge. Wow, that's amazing. You know, I'm a huge sports fan and I'm a huge sports provider of jewelry. So I have sold so many jewelry pieces

to so many maple leaves and so many raptors and so many, oh my gosh, some of my best customers of all time are Frank Mahalvich and Johnny Bauer Wow China Wall Yeah they got married on my wedding band

That's a fun Those are fun facts right there You've got to get yourself to Christy Pits next summer We should go together Jack Next summer see some Toronto Maple Leafs baseball You're on you're on And hopefully it's a night game I'm telling you what a cool vibe that is

It's a pity that the Maple Leafs The baseball Maple Leafs couldn't make it into a sixth game Well, it's the best of five. That's what I mean. I was going to say, it's not a best, yes, okay, it's a game. It's not a best of seven, Jack. Come on here. I'm sorry.

You know what? You know what? As it comes to Toronto Leave teams, we're used to early exits in the playoffs. So I should be used to this. And next year, we'll get them next year, as they say. I'm actually going to hang out with the owner of Toronto Maple Leaf Baseball team on Sunday. I'm going to hang out with him and find out, I don't know, is Joey Votto available for 2026? What's Joey Votto doing?

I feel like he was. be a draw at Christy Pitts in 2026, and I'm going to chat with Keith Stein about this on Sunday. I've got Keith's ear. 960 is a bit of a black hole to me. I've actually never tuned it in. I know it exists because I had these issues

with Mike Bullard, and then I know he disclosed he had to leave the station because they weren't paying him or something. This is what I remember about 960. Richard Surret's been over here, and I know he got a show on 960. But Jack, how did you end up with a talk show on Saga 960?

Well, October 7th happened in 2023, and I'm an incredibly huge Israeli fan. I'm born in Israel. I'm very, very strongly identifying as a Jew, and I felt that the story of the Jewish people and the victimization and the butchery had to be told, so I contacted them, even though I'd never heard the station. I knew nothing about the station. I called them up, and I said, you guys need me. What do you mean we need you?

I said, you guys need me. You don't have anything on the air. I could turn it around for you. So they interviewed me and they said, we need you. So I went on at first for one day a week and five days a week and five days a week, five days a week, nine to 11 a.m. Wow. There was some conversation of taking on Richard Surrett's position when he resigned and take over the drive home show. My numbers were amazing, amazing.

I'm not privy to tell you the numbers. I was going to say, you got any more detail? I can't tell you those numbers because I'm sworn to secrecy and I never saw anything written that confirms those numbers. but they were telling me. But they're not even measured by the numerous people, are they? No, they're not. Because Mike Richards came on, and he talked about how they were going to, but it never did material.

It never happened. So they go to stats. There's something out of Montreal that's called radio stats, and I think they get the raw data that has to be then interpreted somehow, and they do some numerics, and they come up with a number, which I don't think can be verified. I actually doubt the numbers that they gave me because I advertised heavily on 960, and I never saw the return from that advertising.

I'm just a guy who monitors it. My sniff test is we have about 100 times more listeners of this episode than I think Saga 960s ever had. I no longer doubt that. I would have doubted that a couple of months ago. Today, I totally agree with you. But you did have, that's a cool shift, but my question, I have a few obvious questions,

but one is, were you advertising on 960 before you got it? Or was this bundled up? Or did you start advertising after they get? you the talk show. What's the order of things there? I got the talk show first. Okay. And then I started advertising the same day.

So, like, in other words, as part of the compensation, right? They allow you a massive package of advertising. Okay. Okay. I got it now. And then you got, so you're on five days a week, like two hours a date. I was. I was a significant air time for it.

I was fired there too. Well, let me read something that, uh, you posted here, if you don't mind, Jack. So I did a little homework here. And this is a post you put, I'm going to, I think this was Facebook, but you'll tell me as I, I proceed here. But you wrote this. The boss at 960 AM. Bad news, Jack.

Your show has been canceled. Me, that's you, Jack. Just to be confusing. I don't understand. The boss at 960. Sorry about that, but we've decided to go centrist, no longer conservative. You, Jack, in shock. So who else is being fired that's conservative?

The boss at 960. No one else. Jack. I see. The boss at 960. Thanks for being so professional. And then these are, I guess, open questions you're asking the universe, which I will then ask you,

anti-Semitism, advertiser pressure, interest group pressure, business decision, hmm, and then you talked about how you had good listenership on the Jack Berkovich show. Why, what happened at 960 that they fired you? I have no idea. So I was there for almost two years, short of two years, and every conversation was very pleasant. pleasant, very positive. There was never any criticism of anything that I did. At one point,

a few months prior to being terminated at the middle of June, they contacted me. He said, you know, Jack, you're the only show host we have that can talk about social relationships, marriage, raising children. You're an ordained rabbi. You have a jewelry background. You can talk about infidelity. You can talk about sex. You can talk about children. You can talk about marriage. about trauma, PTSD, you can talk about all of it. Try to lessen the amount of time you talk on Israel and the Palestinian problem. And I said, yes, I did tell you when I came on board that I would do all of that, but right now I have a hard time veering away from anything other than the fact that Israel's bombing

Iran or that there's a so-called genocide in Gaza. this is the world's biggest issue. Go to any newscast, anywhere in the world. That is the topic of conversation. Or Donald Trump, the elections, Kamala Harris. Why would I talk about something that is very much a fluff piece when I'm about the most important topics in the world? When those topics quiet and down, when there's peace in the Middle East, which will happen

very shortly, I'll be happy to talk about the other things. right now I'm not talking about why men should be faithful to their wives it's just not important right now and they said okay but you promise that you'll do that I say I promise I'll do that 30 days later I get a phone call from Praveen who runs the station out of Vancouver

or out of Vernon BC hasn't been here and I don't know how many years and he says Jack bad news your show has been canceled what what are you talking about Yeah, we decided we don't want to be a right-wing station anymore. We want to go centrist, so we're changing the shows.

Richard Surrett just left. But had he not left, we were going to fire him. And we have another talk show host who's on the left, and we're going to fire him. And we're looking for people that have centrist positions on everything. I said, this is a joke? I mean, I told him, if somebody gets fired and is shocked by it, then neither it's the biggest mistake ever made or the guy's an idiot. I'm not an idiot. So what are you talking about?

That was it. And you never, you mentioned you had no complaints, no warnings ever. Not one. Everything was superb. Thank you. And I just introduced a talk show host of them

for Richard Surrett's position that may or may not take the job. You know the name. We've mentioned it several times today. And I brought him on board because I think I could turn 960 around. I don't believe that terrestrial radio in Toronto today is listenable.

I do believe that if you take some of the ex-talk shows that were fantastic, and you'd bring them on to a team at 960, and you take a right-wing position. Donald Trump, we may dislike the man, but you can't dislike what he's accomplished. Israel, you may not like the Jews, but you can't discount what they mean to saving the world from these horrible, horrible creatures. So that's where the audience is headed. That's where the people want to hear that.

I don't care that the United States may be different. Well, it's not because Fox News is reigning supreme. It's number one, yeah. Number one by far, more than all of them combined. So, I mean, that's what Toronto needs, not fluff. You know, not fluff. So they never told me no. They never said anything but positive things.

Why would they fire me? So my theory is, and I'm quite certain that I'm right, is that this is some kind of arm twisting coming from an advertiser or a wannabe advertiser or a anti-Jewish group or something. This is not what they were thinking. It's just not. So you're alleging that this might be anti-Semitic?

Well, either anti-Semitic or reaction. Or anti-Israel. Or anti-Israel. Or a reaction to some threat of some either financial coercion or other type of coercion to get the Jew off the air. Who are? I would think you are the biggest advertiser on 960. But I don't pay them.

Okay, maybe I need to clarify this. You know, I'm not, I'm not the brightest light in the chandelier here. So when you're on the air, all these hours on 960, you're on the air, but you're advertising and they're not charging you for the advertising because you're not charging them for the hosting? Exactly. So it's like a barter. It's a barter, exactly.

That's interesting. Okay, so no money changes hands with you in 960. That's correct. And again, I've talked to many people at 960. It doesn't sound like money ever changes hands. They have no money. they're broke. They've told me on it.

But how can there be advertiser pressure when there's probably very little advertiser money, very little advertisers? Well, they have advertisers. They do have advertisers. Okay. So whoever, I mean, if they were to lose a $30,000 a year account, I don't think they could survive that. So if there is an advertiser, they're spending $30,000 who has a leaning towards

the Palestinian side in this conflict, all that the advertiser has to do is threatened to pull this advertising of $30,000. and I believe they're done. What an interesting state. I know so little about it. You said this gentleman who owns 960, lives in British Columbia. Is that what you said?

No, he's the manager. Oh, he's the manager. He's the manager. His name is Praveen. The owners are the original founder, which is Elliot Kerr, and he's partnering with a family called Panu. They're an Indian family, a Hindu family.

They have other media assets. So they together run it, but the Panu family, runs it, and the Panoo family runs it through a daughter, and she has hired a manager called Praveen, who runs the actual day-to-day affairs. Out of BC. Out of BC. It feels like I don't know much about radio, never worked in it, but it would be more

lucrative if this station just became a station that caters to a South Asian audience. Well, they do have requirements under the CRTC, under their licensing, where they are a minority type of station that has to cater and have so many hours of specific... Like ethnic programming. Ethnic programming content, which eventually, which somehow becomes a music station and it's weird, to me, weird music that they have interspersed between talk shows, which I think is very disruptive, you know, but I think they are bound. A, they have a very, very, very, their wattage, their signal is very weak, number one. Right. And their signal is extremely weak.

And number two, they have requirements under their licensing agreement. CRTC, CRTC, right. Now, there's a station out of, I guess it's out of the region, in the region, York region. And although I knew, I know the office used to be in Scarborough, but maybe it's in York region now. But the region 105.9 has a similar requirement, and they have to have a certain number of hours of ethnic programming. And I think they may be up that because it was more lucrative, I think. But just, just thinking out loud on these, these GTA stations that get less pressed than the big ones that we've already been talking about. So I have a question about the Jack Berkovic show, which was canceled by 960 there.

Was it also recorded as a podcast? Like, was there a Jack Berkovich show podcast? Yes, so I didn't have anything to do with that, but the shows themselves were recorded, and they were available on their website as a podcast. You could stream it live. You could scream it on the podcast. And I think those numbers are actually included in their audience size. So when they gave me the numbers, I've come to learn that it's probably including people

who listen via podcast. I'm going to, I don't know, but I bet you they would have more listeners via podcast than over-the-air terrestrial 960, where you probably have to be in the parking lot to get it. A and B, one of the reasons that you might be right is because I generally used to generate a tremendous amount of phone calls to my shows, because I would say things that would trigger people and they'd like to tell me their mom. At 960, that became almost impossible. Okay, so are you completely done, at least for the time being, with advertising on terrestrial

radio stations? Yes, I think that it's no longer a medium that people listen to. With the advent of podcasts and the advent of streaming and the advent of TiVo and the advent of all these things of ways to avoid actually listening to a radio live broadcast, it doesn't pay anymore. It's not a good return on investment. Yeah, no argument here. Now, what if a station offered, because you've had some success with talk radio stations in this market, what if a station, even maybe someone listening to this, a program director, and is like, hey, we should get Jack Berkovitz on our station. Like, if a station reached out and asked you to be on a part of their on-air lineup,

would you consider advertising on that station? Yes, I would, definitely, if I felt that that was value there for me. But right now, whoever is listening to this podcast is saying, this guy's a loose cannon. He's been fired by 10-10. He's been fired by 640. He's been fired by 960. He doesn't seem to want to stop talking. He seems to have a very strong message.

He's not afraid of defamation suits. We are. So somebody would have to be a little crazy to, hire me. You mentioned October 7th, a horrific day terrorist attack on Israel. I had a gentleman here just a few weeks ago named Shy Klein, who was at that Nova

Music Festival on October 7. And it's two hours, Jack, and you've got to listen to this because he is an excellent storyteller, and he talks about basically what he was doing in Israel because he's an Israeli-Canadian, but what he was doing there, why he was at the music festival, what it was like before

there's a period of time before the attack, And I think it starts with, you start hearing like rockets and then you start to hear gunfire shortly thereafter. But he walks through it and talks about it in great detail. And I highly recommend Shai Klein on Toronto Mike three or four weeks ago. Time is a blur to me right now. But I think it was about three weeks ago. And he was excellent.

So October 7th, horrific. But what, I'm just curious, as you mentioned, a proud Israeli-Canadian. What are your thoughts on Netanyahu's response thus far to the October 7th invasion by Hamas? I marvel at the man. I marvel at his ability to survive from day to day, to get out of bed in the morning and face the criticism on the left, the criticism on the right, the criticism in the center, the criticism all over the world,

the amount of people who blame him for the rise in anti-Semitism, I know him personally. I've met him. I've had lunch with him. I've spoken to him for hours. As a matter of fact, about 25 years ago, when he was prime minister, then he lost, and he was out of office for a couple of years,

and everyone said he was finished. I was one of 100 American Canadian business people that was invited to meet with him in New York and Manhattan for lunch and I'm the only one that showed up. That's how much they thought he was done. So I had the privilege of spending five hours with him one on one. And I came to learn to love the man

and believe in his sincerity and in his belief and the strength and the possibilities available to Israelis and Jews. And I think he's a dedicated man. I believe everything he does is for the right reason. And, of course, people are blaming him for everything, saying that he's only trying to hold on to office. He's a corrupt man. None of that is true, in my opinion. I love the man, and I don't know how he does his job.

I just marvel at how strong he is. Now, I feel like I know the answer based on those words you said, but do you believe that Israel has committed war crimes? That is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the Jewish people or on the world on any topic. Israel is the most moral army, not in today's day and age, but in history. If you want to compare overkill, or they like to call it, there's a term for how many people you kill and in terms for how many people they killed, you know, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think, were a few hundred thousand people to end the war. You kill a few hundred thousand people to end the war.

Dresden in Germany at the end of World War II Berlin in Germany at the end of World War II were about killing civilians for the purpose of ending the war The Germans bombed London They bombed all of Europe for the purpose of winning the war The only army in the world that is called upon To explain how many people are dying At their hands

To call combatants innocent victims To call you know to simply accept the Ministry of Health Which is an arm of Hamas to call their numbers official deaths is so outrageous. Israel's the only army that warns people by sending out millions of leaflets, millions of text messages,

millions of loudspeakers saying, get out of your homes now, we're going to bomb. And then who shoots them? Hamas shoots them because they want innocent victims, because that's a good number to spread. And how the world's useful idiots have bought into this narrative that Israel's causing a genocide,

Israel's causing a famine. Israel's causing innocent civilians to die. Israelism bombarded the innocent people of Gaza. How outrageous is that, and I need a radio talk show, simply to discuss the details of that. Okay, and just before we leave, the geopolitical discussion here,

there is reputable news reports of, for example, targeting hospitals, for example. And even when the helpers, the arrive to treat the people who bombed in the hospital, than targeting them. You think this is a propaganda campaign? You don't believe these news reports?

Well, you're talking specifically of what happened this past week. Yes, I'm talking, yes, exactly. So there have been several reports about Israel bombing hospitals. The very first one was an actual bombing caused by a failed missile that was launched by Hamas. Hamas never owned up to that. Israel has proof that this was not them, but that never made it to the news. The current one that we're talking about right now, Israel has acknowledged that at grave error.

So what happened there was on the roof of the hospital was a camera. Israel found out about the camera, and the camera was being used by Hamas to follow the movements of Israeli troops. So Israel was asked to eliminate the camera. Some grave mistake happened, and they used a bomb. They shouldn't have used, and they don't know who gave the order. They're investigating that. That soldier, that commander, will be totally,

totally required to pay the price of that mistake. And now Israel is apologizing. They're owning up to it, and they're apologizing. You know, it happens. It's a war. From one war to another, Jack versus Harold the Jewelry Buyer, would you mind? This story, very interesting. I mean, it was even featured in a New Yorker, this story. And there's so many facets to it, and I don't know what you're able to say at this point. But we alluded earlier to the fact that you met a man who told you that he was, hired to kill you.

I got a phone call from one of my locations that there was a big, big, big guy, very threatening looking, very threatening acting, and he had an appointment with me, and why am I not there for the appointment? I said, I don't have an appointment with anybody at your store. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, he won't leave unless you come. So I went from one store, which was my head office location. I went to this other store, and I saw this guy, and I said, what do you want?

I want to talk to you. Well, talk. I don't want to talk in front of these guys. There were some employees there. well too bad here's what we're going to talk what do you want and he says i want to have a private audience with you and in order to get him out of the store because he was very threatening i agreed to go and we sat in a coffee shop a pizza shop next door and he told me that my life's in danger he's been hired he's offered fifty thousand dollars to kill me the offer was made by an employee of harold

a jewelry buyer but he knows that harold is actually behind it and um and he won't do the job he's not going to kill me because he has no reason to kill me, but he's Harold's bodyguard and he's his muscle. But if they come to learn quickly that he's not going to do the job, they already have somebody else lined up. So they're putting a lot of pressure on him to do the job quickly so they don't have to go to the other guy. I went to the police. I went straight to the police and the rest. The story was broken. I don't know she got a hold of it, but I'm a female reporter for the Toronto Sun for the Globe and Mail. You'll remember her name.

Anyway, she broke the story. She got a scoop from the police and then the whole world caved in. So the police charged this woman with five counts of conspiracy to commit murder and other stuff. They eventually dropped the charges. Nobody ever explained to anybody why the charges were dropped. But the day that they dropped the charges of the very next day, she sued the police and me. for malicious prosecution. She eventually settled with the police, and I refused to settle, and I went to court.

The court case happened about two and a half years ago. There were seven cases, I believe I won six of them, I got a lot of money for it. The seventh case, where I alleged that not only did she try to have me killed, but that the architect of the plot was Harold himself, I did not win that case. I didn't lose it either, but I could not prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Harold was the architect of the plan. And subsequently, Harold's store was firebombed. During this process, yes, it was.

And, I mean, there was, again, allegedly, there was this reverse mortgage scamming business that might have been exposed in this process. I don't know that it was a reverse mortgage, but it was, he was, he became, he got tired of the jewelry business and his business, I think, was slowing down dramatically because the word was out that if you sell your goal to Harold a jewelry bar, you're not maximizing your returns. I'm guessing about that. But in any case, he started lending money for people who were desperate,

and he got himself into a lot of trouble. He's been disbarred. I don't know if that's the right term, but the mortgage industry has kicked him out. He can't practice mortgages, and he went through his wife, and she was practicing mortgages. She was never licensed. So she's been disbarred.

So he's out of the mortgage business. He's out of the jewelry business. I think he's out of every business. And I think the world is a safer place for it. Did you ever see the Adam Sandler movie, Uncut Gems? I started while. watching it. I think I fell asleep. Okay. All right. Well, I was going to, no review then. There are no Siskel and Ebert

style review from you on uncut gems. Fascinating. By any chance in any of this saga, does the cashman, Russell Oliver, have a role? What are your thoughts on him? I know very well. I used to supply jewelry to him when he was in Yorkville, before he went to Yorkville when he was on Eglinton Avenue. He has a role to play here because he and Harold were partners when Harold came into the industry and they did stuff together. In fact, Russell Oliver provided an affidavit pertaining to this case. He was actually quite helpful. He and Harold split up under very, very acrimonious circumstances, so they're not friends

of each other. Well, you know, this is a, forget on cut gems. There's a movie here. I'm telling you, you're living quite the life here. I'm telling you. I wish I had not had that. That movie was not something I should not. I could have been to star in other movies.

I would have preferred that. Have you been, because you mentioned, I think you used the term PTSD, unless I'm misremembering the term you used. But have you been talking to anybody about this trauma that you experienced? I went for a short period of time to a psychiatrist, and I was diagnosed with PTSD. I still, I think I will never get cured from PTSD. But I'm not one to participate in lengthy conversations about my situation. So I didn't feel a psychiatrist would be of any great help.

for me. You just have to avoid anybody who looks like they might have fought in, what, at UFC, any, any MMA fighters. Yeah, this guy had one fight. I actually looked it up. He had one fight. He was defeated in 15 seconds. He had a ponytail and it didn't work well for it. Oh, you know what? Yeah, that's probably a good idea to lose the ponytail if you're going to fight MMA style here. Jack, on our way out here, of course, if there's anything I didn't bring up that you wanted to talk about, this is the time. But the big question in my head as you talk and you You have a good rap on you. I can understand why you would host talk shows on our AM stations.

They're worse off for not having you. But is there a podcast in your future? Because, you know, I told us to Humble and Fred back in 2011. I said, because the guys couldn't get hired to save their lives. And they wanted to broadcast together. And I said, guys, you don't need a terrestrial radio signal to broadcast in 2010. I said these words to the guys. By the way, a name you mentioned earlier who was involved in helping them make

some money off their podcast in the early days, Bill Hurts. So that's how I know Bill, because Bill was helping to sell for Humble and Fred in the early days of the Humble and Fred podcast. But you, Jack Berkovitz, is there a podcast in your future? Great question. So when I posted that Facebook posting where I say I'd been fired, many people reached out to me saying, Jack, you've got to get on the air. We love what you're doing for Israel.

You've got to get on the air. We'll help you. We are podcast specialists. You know, and I've toyed with it. And then I met you. and you and I are going to talk about it. Okay, well, you know what? We're going to talk about it.

Love it. And Jack, I really did love this combo. I've had, you know, I do lurk on that soundy board that you don't like because I'm curious, like, what these, what this group of people is interested in when it comes to radio. They seem very interested in two stations, as far as I can tell. They're very interested in everything going on at 10-10, and when John Moore forgets the word or something. And they're very interested in 640 what's going on. with Ben Mulroney or Greg Brady.

Or they want to know why John Moore did not tell everybody where he goes on vacation. But we, you know, I know you visit the U.S. regularly, but we, I mean, I'm going to say this. Lauren wants me to say allegedly, John doesn't want to emphasize the fact he's going to the United States for vacation at this time. Like, why is radioactive so upset about that? Why is he upset about the fact that I'm a rabbi? Why is he so upset about the fact that I have more than one hat? Why is he so upset about the fact that I'm in the industry? Why is he so upset about he doesn't like my commercials?

We're talking about a man who spends most of his time listening to terrestrial AM radio. So I think that answers your questions. You're right. I feel so sorry for him. I really do. I feel so sad. I don't know if I posted this or if I thought it. Like no longer can remember.

But he went off on something like, why can't I hear any live programming at, I don't know, 6 a.m. on a Sunday. What's going on? And I was thinking, when this man discovers podcast, it's going to change his life. By the way, when you predicted that to Humble and Fred in 2010 or 2011, you were so ahead of your time. This podcast you're on right now, Jack started shortly thereafter because I watched Humble and Fred for a couple of weeks. I know you were a guest. And I said, hey, I think I can do this. And Toronto Mike was born.

Toronto Mike is now celebrating 13 years in your episode 1753. And I loved it. I loved every minute. We're going to take a photo by the tree, and I want to say thank you for making the truck. But I told my office I won't be back for six more hours. Are you cutting me short? Well, it depends.

What more do you want to say? I don't have to tell you now that you're not going to have me back. I know you. We've got to save something for the sequel, Jack. But thanks for doing this, man. I know it's, you had to battle some traffic to get you. I did it for the beer. This is incredible.

I told my wife you might bring some jewels for us. That's on the second visit. Great Lakes Lager. I love it. Great Lakes Logger. Toronto Maple Leafs History Book. And. Palmas.

Palma pasta. Jack, would you come to my, I have an event at Palmer's Kitchen in early December. I'll invite you and it would be amazing if you showed up. Amazing, I'll bring my own pasta because I'm kosher,

but yes, I'll be happy to be there. I'll ask you a question about that because I had on, Mike Wilner came over and he told me, he goes, Mike, I can't combine meat and dairy, but he was able to take a vegetarian lasagna. Is that kosher?

Does that, like, is a rabbi have to bless this or you just can't? Oh, that's not for a 30-second conversation. You've got to have me back just to talk kosher. because I know he couldn't combine meat and dairy because he's a proud Jewish man but I didn't understand whether like a rabbi had to bless the palm apostar

no no there's a whole bunch of things that go into it yeah we'll talk another time but Jack we'll get you back here thanks for doing this thank you very much it's been a pleasure you're really a great interviewer you should have your own talk show and reduce your audience size

maybe on 960 and that brings us to the end of our 1,753rd show go to Toronto mic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. And check out the archives. Somebody you know and love was a guest on Toronto Mike. There's, what, 1,752 other shows to catch up on.

Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. Go to Brood for You Fest, will you? Palma Pasta. We love Palma Pasta on this show. Toronto's Waterfront BIA. Spend Labor Day weekend on the waterfront. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball.

We'll get them next year, guys. We'll get them next year. Recycle MyElectronics.ca.ca. Blue Sky Agency, the latest sponsor of Toronto, Mike, welcome Blue Sky, and Ridley Funeral Home. We just dropped a new episode of Life's Undertaking. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is Sophie B. Hawkins. See you then.