Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jason Barr: Toronto Mike'd #114

Episode Date: March 13, 2015

Mike chats with Jason Barr about his years as Danger Boy on Humble and Fred, his decade as co-host of the Dean Blundell Show and his current gig at 97.7 Htz FM.

Welcome to episode 114 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is co-host of Biggs and Barr on 97.7 Hits FM, Jason Barr. Hello. Welcome, Jason. Nice to finally meet you. You too, Mike. Yeah, it's kind of funny we've never met. No, just passed tickets off to different sources. That's right.

I used to be your ticket source. Yeah, yeah. Caspi Awards and Edgefests. And you would bring them to Freddie P. That's right. And I would hook up a Freddie P and get them. So, yeah, you were my source and I never met you. Freddie was the middleman.

That's exactly right. I'm kind of surprised you don't have a Scottish accent. No, that was a long time ago. And you have lost that. I never actually had it. That's my first question. So you started as Danger Boy on Humble and Fred. Yeah, I did.

And so what made you be Danger Boy with a Scottish accent? It was Howard. Howard liked accents and things and thought it was funny when he heard me do mine and then it sort of stuck forever. Yeah, so basically as Danger Boy, you always had to have a Scottish accent. So it must have been easy for you to do. Yeah, it was fairly easy for me to do. That's funny. And so people remember you as Danger Boy, but then when Humble and Fred leave 102.1 for 640, the Mojo radio years,

we actually just had Mike Stafford in. So we talked a lot about Mojo. He says hi, by the way. Yeah, Mike's a good guy. Yeah, he's a great guy. And you stayed on CFfny 102.1 i did yeah i uh because i had run the board i was the producer for the humble and Fred show for many years and then when they wanted to go to the talk radio station at a time that wasn't really for me so to be honest we didn't know who was going to come in and replace them so but i thought well whoever's, I'll stay here and we'll work with

if everybody's cool with that. And they were. So we did. Cool. Maybe we'll step back real quick. How did you get the producer gig at Humble and Fred? Oh, that was our good buddy Dan Duran used to produce that program. And he was quite often late.

And I was doing the overnights. So they would say, can you stay and just do this? And I used to volunteer for free on the show anyway. So once I learned to do the board and everything when I was young, I just started to do it. And then Dan started to do other things and his voice acting and stuff like that. So it was sort of a natural progression for me to just stay and do it. Yeah, Dan, you know, Dan and I, he used to live in the same neighborhood as me and our sons were the same age and they were in beavers together. Okay. And we used to do these father-son beaver trips. And Dan was famous as being the dad who would wake up

early and make everybody coffee. That was the Dan Durant thing. He wouldn't injure himself or anything like that? Oh yeah, the chainsaw. You know, I got to, yeah. The only guy I know got hit in the face of the chainsaw and lived is that guy. And he still gets, like, I see him sometimes advertising whatever on television. Like, he's still a handsome man. No scar whatsoever. That's the most handsome man in the universe. He survived the chainsaw.

Rob Johnston, and that time, is that back? Rob Johnston talks about sort of, I'm going to quote him him but 12 overnight op shifts and staying awake falling asleep and all robbie j i've known robbie j for a long time i met him at uh ryerson actually he was my lab uh my labby i guess you call him back then but he worked at cfny and i think the incident he was talking about well one of them anyway um i used to do shifts that are illegal now i used to do 6 p.m to 6 a.m and i used to do uh like live in tor. I used to do 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. And I used to do live in Toronto at the time. And then I would monitor live at the Kingdom or the Phoenix or something like that when Martin Streak was on the air.

And then I'd do the overnight until 6 in the morning. And so that's a long 12-hour shift, right? So at one point, I think it was on a Sunday morning because Rob used to come in and do production work on the weekends. I think it was on a Sunday morning because Rob used to come in and do production work on the weekends. And I guess I had fallen asleep at the just sitting in the chair, sitting straight up in the chair in front of the soundboard. Yeah. And Rob heard it on his way to work. He heard the station go dead.

He's like, oh, there must be a problem there. Uh-huh. See if he fixes it. Waits and waits. No, not fixing it. No, not fixing it. Oh, yeah, he's asleep asleep so that bugger stopped at tim hortons got his coffee and muffin and then came and as soon as the uh door swung open and

we had a squeaky door in the studio i said bolt up and i hit the cd i was supposed to hit i remember i always remember collective soul shined oh yeah that was you know i always remember it that's a great summer track that was like uh yeah mid 90s-90s or whatever. That was good shit. Robbie J, I've never met him either. We talked, I did a Martin Streak retrospective episode, and I did talk to him, and he appeared on that. But then when Strombo was sitting in that seat, Strombo said that he called, I think, Robbie J

the true spirit of radio. Like, he was the guy. He's been there forever. I mean, he was there before me, and he was he was i mean there were lots of people there before me uh i started in cfmy i guess unofficially like october of 93 or something like that just in time for joe carter man yeah before is it pre touch them all or post touch them all i think pre all right there you go yeah and so yeah he's seen everyone

and knows everyone and has seen everything and has managed to outlast everybody there yeah yeah and because he's behind he's not

in front of the microphone or whatever he's not talent so he's sort of an unknown name there don't say he doesn't have talent he'll get so mad yeah

definitely has talent because everybody like from Alan Cross or whoever they all talk just positively about this guy. He'll be there forever, right?

I think so, yeah. You watch, you'll get fired this Tuesday. You know what? That happened to Mad Dog. There's a little gap but I don't want

to scare you. There's no jinx or anything. Oh, it's all right. I've been fired before. We'll get to that. So, okay. So Humble and Fred

trot down to AM. Yep. If anyone's interested in that story episode 100 they talk about that decision which fred regrets in retrospect but at the time they decided to go talk radio and you stay on and then they hire a guy out of uh was it windsor yeah dean used to work at 89x in windsor and he did a show with a girl named Kelly something. I forget her last name. But yeah, so he came, I stayed, and Sandra Blagakis was there, who now works in Ottawa. Right, yeah.

And yeah, so we started to do a show together. And Todd Shapiro was there because he was left over from the Humble and Fred show. Yeah, Todd was hanging around. He was doing interning and promo stuff. I know he would write some jokes and stuff for Humble. Then he was still there. We actually had a guy on the show that lasted like a day, and he didn't like it, so he left.

Then that opened a spot for Todd. He was like, I'll do it. That's sort of how it came to be. Cool. Basically, how long did Sandra last? Sandra was, I'm bad with dates, but at least a year, maybe two. Okay.

And then she wanted to go off and do her own thing. And I'm not sure if she had family in Ottawa or whatever, but she got her own gig there and she's been doing well ever since. Yeah, she had, I remember, a big laugh, right? Yeah. Sandra was great. I still talk to Sandra now and then.

Well, by a keyboard anyway. Yeah, yeah. That's how you, I talk to almost everybody. I'll talk to my kids that way. Yeah. So a lot of people who listened to the Dean Blundell show when it was you, because for the longest time it was you, Dean, you, and Todd. Like this, we're talking like we went over a decade. 10 years, pretty was you, Dean, you, and Todd. We went over a decade with that.

Ten years, pretty much. Ten years, yeah. And whenever I talk to somebody about the Dean Blundell Show, often they talk about you as the voice of reason. You had a reputation as sort of, I would call the glue, but the voice of reason in that crowd. I guess so. I mean, I like to tell everyone it was all planned out and everything.

We just kind of worked that way. I mean, I like to tell everyone it was all planned out and everything. We just kind of worked that way. Our personalities sort of worked together for a show purpose. And it was a good show. You know, I'm not going to lie. Did you get along with your co-hosts? Yeah, pretty much.

So this question I got to ask. Sure, you can ask anything you want. This is the question I get for a while. I guess when you were let go, first your webpage on edge.ca or whatever disappeared. That's typical. Yeah. They just, when someone gets fired from a radio station, they just didn't exist kind of thing.

But the difference was when I got fired, it was sort of the time where people were starting to use social media more. Whereas in the past, if someone got fired from a radio station, they just disappeared. And then you never heard from them again. You just thought they were on vacation. Unless someone else, oh, no, they showed up here in my city over here. Oh, that's where they went, sort of thing. But with social media and stuff, we're able to keep in touch with people and say, no, this is where I'm going. This is what I'm doing.

So I wrote a blog entry about, I can't remember exactly except i remember i i had pictures of your site disappearing on cfm1 and ask basically asking the question like is is jason barr okay because uh like the signs were there and i'd seen these signs before uh you could recognize these signs but there was no official announcement and so a lot of people would actually Google like Jason Barr fired or something to that effect and end up on this page. You know, it was for a long time, it was the most visited page on my entire site. Well, that's very flattering.

For years. And I've, you know, I'll write about lots of, you know, locally famous DJs when they move on and stuff. But yours was number one. I think people Googling, where's Jason Barr? What happened to Jason Barr? Jason Barr fired was enormous. Well, that's nice to know that people cared.

For sure. But the question is, what happened? So why did you leave the Dean Blundell show? Because by all accounts, especially if you look at the ratings and stuff, it was a very successful show. Well, I mean, I've told this before on ratings and stuff, it was a very successful show. Well, I mean, I've told this before on the very first podcast

that Biggs and I did. I actually told the story. We did, I was like, to go back, what was it, 2010, August 2010.

So we were at Sausage Fest and everything's, hey, see you later. We had a week's vacation. I went on vacation and then I got an email from my boss. He said, are you around? And I said, no, yeah, I'm around.

So I gave him a call. I'm like, what's up? And he said, we want to talk about your deal, like you're redoing your contract or whatever, which we had briefly mentioned before. Are we on a vacation? I'm like, yeah, okay. He goes, do you want to come in

or do you want to do it on the phone? I said, well, I'm on the phone. We might as well just talk about it on the phone. And he said, well, we don't need you anymore. We're going to go a different way. And that was it. So that must have caught you by surprise. Yeah, a little bit by surprise because I said to him, I said, are you joking?

And he laughed and he goes, no, but I can see why you would say that. that and then that was that that would be an awful joke if that were a joke yeah but um no i mean but i had been there for about 17 years so it was a good run right no but in radio that's an enormous run actually but uh okay so i'm just trying to understand so you have a kind of this three-piece set you know you know you todd and dean and and it's it's successful and people seem to like it and there's there's you guys complement each other well because like i said you might be the straight guy and then there might be todd doing that and then dean being dean so uh you you want to know why yeah i just wondered if you know i don't really know why to be honest i mean the the thing i was told was that it was a different direction and that's fine um i can you know i can guess and and i can hypothesize about why and in the end it probably as with most situations came down to money

um and i'm not sure who was responsible for it and to be honest it doesn't even really matter no and i and we're gonna get to you're at a great place now and we'll get to that in a minute but uh there were no fisticuffs at sausage fest like you know what i get a lot of stories my favorite my favorite one was that there were so many rumors flying around about what had happened one was that uh there was a fist fight which is totally untrue uh another one was that i uh i took my dick out and started whipping that was my favorite one that's one. That's a good one. But you started that one. No, I didn't. I was like, I wish that had happened. That would have been awesome.

But no, nothing happened. We had a good time. We went on vacation on the Tuesday, which is when Chorus fires people generally. I know different companies do it on different days. I know Bell does it on Thursdays. But on Tuesday, I didn't have a job anymore. So that was it.

And okay, nothing more to it. People will be disappointed to hear that the dick thing wasn't true anymore. So that was it. Okay, nothing more to it. People will be disappointed to hear that the dick thing wasn't true. I wish there was more. I wish there was an elaborate story that I could tell you, but that is the honest truth. One last question on this. Your relationship with Dean, because some people think Dean might be behind this.

A falling out? A falling out. Basically, up until Edgefest, was everything okay with you and dean everything was fine um we never actually had a fight ever in 10 years interesting um todd dean and i never fought about anything you have disagreements like you would with anyone you work with about different things but we never actually fought there was one there was only one time and it was early on it was maybe 2003 or something like that,

where Dean and Todd were arguing, and I yelled at them both to shut up, and I slammed my fist on the desk. Nice. And that was it. Voice of reason. That was it. That's the only time we ever had a somewhat serious disagreement, which we all laughed about later. But no, we never fought about anything. There was never we never fought about anything. There was never any bad blood that way. We got along well in the show. Were we best of friends? No.

But I'm not best of friends with lots of people I work with, right? No, and I mean, Mike Stafford just talked about Pete and Geetz. You know, they never talked outside of recording, and they were great on the air. What people don't understand about guys or men, women, whatever, do morning shows like that. People ask Biggs and I if we spend any time with each other after work. And we do sometimes, you know, if there's a station function or something like that.

We play on the same hockey team. We do all that sort of stuff right now. But we spend five or six hours a day four feet from each other. Why the hell would I want to see him at night? Why the hell would he want to see me at night? And you got kids, man. There's all sorts of things. We all have different lives and whatever.

And it's not that we don't like the other person. It's just that everybody's different. And, I mean, I don't keep in touch with some people that I worked with years ago at CFNY, but I also don't keep in touch with some people I worked with at Wendy's. That's right. But some of them I do. That's right. Now, it speaks to, I think, how popular the show was, though,

that here we are, people are still talking about it. People are still talking about where did Jason go. So that was 2010? 2010, yeah. Okay. And then in 2013, I't know 13 i'm gonna 2011 but okay 2011 for todd right oh for todd yeah okay so 2013 yeah something like that so uh then todd was let go and i know todd's been on the show and he's he's addressed this so i don't

60 something i can't remember find the todd shapiro episode if you want to hear him talk about it but uh how did you feel when you heard Todd was let go? How did I feel? Empathy or just like any schadenfreude or anything? What happened? I was actually on vacation. Again.

You know what? You need to stop taking vacations. I just started going on vacation. Bad things happen. I was in Florida. It was pissing rain in Daytona Beach. So I was in a music store in Florida and I heard my text alert go off on my phone.

I'm like, who is texting me in Florida right now? Right. So it was someone else that we had worked with and she said, Todd just got fired. Oh my God. And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, that doesn't really surprise me. I mean, at some point something was going to happen.

We don't have jobs forever. Right. So I reached out to Todd and he's like, yeah, I got fired. So I don't know what I'm going to do. That's pretty much it. How was he when you got let go? Did you hear from Dean or Todd after you were?

I heard from Todd right away because I didn't know what it was. I emailed them both before the company shut my email down. I'm like, hey, guys, just so you know, I just got fired in case you don't know or something like that. Because I didn't know what was going on. And Todd was like, oh, my that because i didn't know what was going on and todd was like oh my god i didn't know what's going on i don't know what happened and uh and that was it that's who i heard from todd todd tells the story that when he was let go he's he's yet to hear from dean so dean doesn't like to reach out to colleagues i guess i haven't i haven't spoken with with Dean since the night of Sausage Fest in August 2010. I did.

I sent him an email when I found out that Wade Belak had died. Right. Because I know he and Dean were close, and we all knew Wade very well. And so I sent him an email, and he replied, thanks. And that was it. That's the only communication I've had with him since. Oh, my God. People wonder, like, am I mad about it or anything?

No, I'm not mad. No, I'm not mad. I think people, and this will be my last, this is my last Dean question. I got lots more to cover. I don't want to go too hard on the Dean. So Dean's been in the news lately because he's back on Toronto Radio Waves.

He's got the Fan 590 morning show. So it's sort of been a new influx of Dean stuff. So this is a question from someone who worked a decade with Dean Blundell. Is Dean Blundell a nice guy? You can play the fifth if you want. To be honest, and I'm going to say this might sound like a bit of a cop-out, but it depends how you know a person, right?

Like if you're to meet Dean on the street or at a function or something, you'd probably like him, right? You would. He's a nice guy. He talks to people well. He's interested. He asks you questions. If you worked with him for a long time, you might not want to hang out with him. That's all.

You know what I mean? That's fair. And some people would. Some people, you know, but he and I, and he would probably tell you the same thing. He and I were like totally different people. And that's's okay and that's probably why the show worked very well right he was different from me i was different from him we were both different from todd and that's why it worked no i agree i think you guys complimented each other brilliantly really and i'm not like i'm a kind of person that doesn't i don't really need a lot of

um i guess personal contact with people you know like we like we never hung out he and todd hung out at some they would go to parties and things like that sometimes or different station functions and or things like i just never did it wasn't me i had two young kids i was coaching hockey i i lived uh you know i worked in tri lived in brampton it was just a whole bunch of different things you know yeah i just wonder like i've never met him. I mean, I've been at like, thanks to your tickets, I've been like 10 feet away from the guy at like Casby Awards or whatever. I once was going to come in and live blog your morning show. I don't know if you have any memory of this.

I don't know. I have a bad memory. And then I got a note from you that Dean thought I shouldn't come on because I wrote some entry that said I didn't like the show. Oh, yeah? Fair enough. That's probably true. So I didn't come on because I wrote some entry that said I didn't like the show. Oh, fair enough. That's probably true. So I didn't come in and do it. But the reason I ask if he's a nice guy

is because you just said he'd go partying with Todd and then Todd gets let go and then Todd never hears from the man again. Yeah. It just seems to me, and I don't know the guy and I don't want to judge him because I don't know him at all. I just know him from his radio persona. But it just doesn't seem classy.

It seems like you reach out to people that you worked with when they're down and out. know him at all i just know him from his radio persona but just doesn't seem classy like it seems like well you reach out to people when that you worked with when they're when they're down and out you you would think you know i mean like i said when when todd got let go i reached out to him and todd and i communicate uh fairly i wouldn't say like regularly but we from time to time i mean he's been at my house uh since uh since i moved and i i talked to him like he i think i talked to him last week have you been on his uh his podcast his podcast yeah although he doesn't want to call it that because it's serious xm right i think it was still a podcast when i when i was on it yeah okay yeah i was on it for that yeah i helped him out with

that so i mean i'm uh i'm happy to help anyone who needs the help to get back in it speaking of that you did something i think was rather genius. And from here, I was applauding you because you hooked up with Chris Biggs. Yes. But what you did was you got a humble and Fred out there who have like 20 years of name brand recognition because they've been on like terrestrial radio for 20 years. And then they go do a podcast. And that's completely different to me because now you're a name brand already,

and now you're podcasting, and your fans will find you. But what you did is you essentially, for a podcast only, you invented a dynamic morning show duo. Biggs and Barr was invented by you guys for this podcast. Yeah, well, I'll give credit to Chris. I mean, I had never met Chris Biggs prior to getting let go from The Edge. So I think it was the Tuesday that I got let go.

And on the Thursday, he messaged me through Facebook. And he's like, do you want to go have lunch? I'm out of work, too. I've listened to your show. He was at 99.9. Yeah, he was on Virgin Radio. And I'm like, well, I have no other option. So yeah, let's go have lunch.

So we met up at a Swiss chalet in Vaughan. Nice. And we didn't hate each other right away. Good sign. So we thought, okay, let's give a go of it. And it was actually Chris's idea, I believe, to start the podcast, because he knew more about that stuff than I did. And he was like, would you want to give it a try?

And initially, we were thinking that well it would be good um to just keep your skills active right you know and and then get to know each other and stuff so we actually started doing this podcast and it was um no one knew where we were doing it right right so because it was kind of a funny story tell me so I had a bunch of audio equipment at home because I used to produce stuff when i was with the edge just old an old computer or an old board but i used to produce stuff like that so i think they thought that i was doing it on that stuff so they immediately asked for it back is that right so i'm like okay so i packed it up and took it down and took it back but that's not where

we were doing it right um chris worked at virgin and he was i guess quote let go but it was very amicable so um the guy at the time who was in charge over there i don't know if i should say his name right anyway it was a good guy okay he was in charge and he said anytime you want to use the studios nice you come in and you can use it so uh chris had a friend named jamie alton who worked with him when they both worked at z103 he said i have this other guy and he's really funny and whatever and he's like you want to work with him too we'll we'll go and do this podcast and see how it works yeah sure like i have no other options i had no idea what i was going to do so on on monday nights we would go into the virgin studios like a production room in the Monday nights, we would go into the Virgin Studios, like a production room

in the Virgin Studios, and we would sit there for a few hours, and we would basically just do a morning show without songs and talk with each other. And we all got along really well. And I give credit to a guy named Tristan, who basically volunteered his time to record that for us. And I think he's still waiting, maybe for a job offer or something. Yeah, he's like, where's the payback? Right. No, he never asked for anything. He was a really good guy.

And then we just started putting these things out. And we made a package. Chris is really good at graphic design. Yeah, yeah. And he's a really good video editor. And he made all all these uh silly little videos we made them in his basement and we made those and then we would send it out to people who we thought might be interested or need a morning show and it just so happens that 97.7 needed a morning show and um because um iron mike he was he had been sick at the time he has since

passed um but he had been sick at the time. He has since passed. But he had been sick at the time. And mornings were hard for him. He lived in the United States. And he'd have to get up 3 o'clock in the morning just to drive. Oh, I didn't know that. I had no idea. Very taxing on a guy who was sick. So he moved to afternoons.

And we went in the mornings. And then two weeks into it, we brought Jamie Alton, who's now known as Pasty Jamie on our show. He's our producer, and he's a really funny guy. And that's what we've been doing for the past four years, basically. That's amazing, because you invent a brand. I remember you had a logo, and it's like, screw this 20 years brand equity in the market,

because you guys will just start from scratch with your new name, new combo brand name, put it out there as a podcast, which I was naturally fascinated with watching that, and i used to write about it and it was a great podcast it sounded good and next thing you know what it's it's actually a pain gig yeah it sort of worked out and i mean i don't know i'm i'm sure there was someone who did it before us somewhere i don't know that's what i'm trying to figure out like how many people have done what you did which although you were on the radio and he was on the radio so it's not quite the same as if like suddenly toronto mike appears on hits

you know well i'm not i'm not exactly sure i'm i know that being on the radio public eye for years before certainly certainly helped but i'm not sure if anyone had ever ever done a package like that at least in this area anyway i don't know at least for a pain gig i know people who've done that but bell basically airs it on like 10 10 but doesn't actually pay for it yeah like so this is happening a lot with podcasts but that to me is very different than what you have what you got hired by hits fm right yeah it just it just sort of worked out that way so and and there was a lot of um you know we prepared a lot for it but i mean if there wasn't an opening if somewhere something didn't come up right it probably wouldn't have worked out so we sort of lucked out timing wise as well and and in the end i mean i'm i'm really happy like at the time when i got

fired uh or let go or however it wants to be told um you know you don't really know how it's going to work out you think anyone who loses their job no matter what it is they're like well how am i gonna you know pay for this i got two little kids um you know how is this going to work out but in the end it worked out great yeah because you were living in brampton right because you were living near freddie p yeah we live in the same neighborhood yeah you moved out and in your you're living like, you tell me, St. Catharines, right? Yeah, I live just outside of St. Catharines, about 15 minutes away from the radio station.

And I live in the country. And not like I don't have a huge farm or anything, but a little bit of property. It's nice and quiet. And I mean, I've got to experience a whole bunch of things that I never would have experienced had I stayed doing my gig that I got fired from. Yeah, it all worked out.

I just remembered now that Siobhan Morris was there. Her dad, right? Pauly. Pauly Morris. Yeah, he's our music director. He's a good guy? Yeah, Pauly's a great guy. Siobhan says he's a good guy, but I didn't know if I should trust her.

No, Pauly's a great guy. He's one of the nicest men you could ever meet in radio. All right, here's another guy I need to ask you about because you mentioned he passed. I want to talk about Iron Mike for a minute because this voice, like for a guy who grew up in Toronto and I would tune in 97.7, that voice of Iron Mike, like it was just a great voice and he was just always there

and he passed away recently. So what kind of guy was he? Tune, like not last November, the previous November. Mike was great. He was always really nice to us when we first started. Like he was thinking it this way. I mean, I know he was, it was kind of, it was his choice to move off of mornings.

But still, I mean, anyone with any sort of ego is going to be like, who are these guys coming in? Young whippersnappers. Right, exactly. But he was never like that. He was always really nice to us and he was a classy guy you know i i can't uh there's nothing bad i can say about mike can you do an iron mike imitation by any chance no i can't do an iron mike invitation

another guy i'm gonna ask you about uh this is just going back now i'm out of order now but back to 102.1 how well did you know martin streak uh? Martin and I, I mean, we worked together for, well, the 10 years that I worked there, or 17 years that I worked there. Martin and I, we weren't like best friends or anything, but, you know, we were good to work with each other all the time. You know, I used to do promo work for, like, I'd be at the Phoenix on a Saturday night and stuff like that. And I actually used, I was the guy sitting behind the board when we used to do the Thursday 30 from Blur and Bathurst. Right. Because at the time, we didn't really have the technology to have them play all the songs from Blur and Bathurst, him and Pete Fowler. And I was the guy sitting in Brampton, and I would play all the songs and stuff like that.

And the time that he yelled fuck on the air was amazing because I was still pretty new at the time. I was probably maybe a year or so into it. Like I said, I'm bad with dates. But I'm sitting there, and I can hear them through the talkback speaker. And Pete and Martin are going, okay, Peteete says what are we going to do here and martin says just just go with me just go with me on this right and so i'm gonna start talking about and martin starts talking about this nine inch nails concert that he wanted because he loved nine inch nails and uh he was getting mad about how he couldn't get the day off work and then he just leaned back in his chair and you know and and p goes, and I'm supposed to follow that.

That's a funny story. By the way, just in passing, Pete's a cop now. Yeah, Pete's a cop. I haven't talked to Pete in many years. I've had emails from him recently. Yeah, he's with the OPP or something like that. I don't know. It's got to be at least 10 years or more

since I talked to Pete. So did you share the opinion that Martin Streak was, I'm trying to say Martin because I've been told I say D's instead of T's. Oh, really? Because unlike you, I have no like training. I have no training. Do you have any day at Ryerson where they talk about D's and T's? Probably.

Yeah. Bill Lawrence was our teacher for that sort of stuff. But I didn't go to Ryerson very much. Right. So I'm trying to say Martin. And I find it just sounds awkward to me. But Martin doesn't apparently fly in the broadcasting community. So Martin, Martin, uh, Martin Streak, uh, did you share the, uh, uh, perception of him as a, as a larger than life

alpha male? Like, uh, people talk about him as being like always on life of the party kind of guy. Yeah. Martin loved that sort of stuff um and when he was out in public even in the radio station he would uh there were very few moments where you could catch martin quietly and those knew him better than i did uh i'm sure would tell you that they caught him quietly more often but for the way i knew him because we i would do the mornings and he was never around we meet at meetings and stuff like that or at station events and things like that but yeah he was always on and he was always the life of the party and he was always trying to have a good time yeah for sure when you found out he had taken his own life was this a complete

shock to you or it was it was totally i i mean i found out we all found out uh myself uh todd and dean um the morning that it happened like i got up for work at four o'clock or three o'clock i used to get up when i lived in brampton right my alarm went off and i checked my phone like i normally would and there was an email from a listener and it said martin streak had died and i was like what the hell like i had no we had no idea we all went to work and we had no idea what the truth was so we started to we call our bosses and whatnot and then we just we sort of had to go on the fly with with that day and it was yeah it was it was a total shock to us because i guess he had only been let go two months prior.

So I guess, so you worked with him up until two months before. And yeah, I mean, I've had a bunch of conversations about this now, but, you know, it just sounds like this guy decided. I don't, you know, it sounds like a sound-minded body. He just decided to opt out. Like he decided to just. Yeah, I mean yeah you can't claim to understand or or know his mental state like people knew him a lot better than i did even

though you know we worked in the same place but i i mean i don't i don't claim to understand why anyone would do that but i i guess he had his reasons and uh you know it it it it makes me sad still when i think about it you know there'll be times when I'll hear like a Nine Inch Nails song or something like that because, like I said, it's his favorite band. And you immediately think of Martin. You can't not think of Martin when you hear that. Or like a Front 242 song or a song you used to play that I would hear over and over again at the Kingdom of the Phoenix.

Like, you just can't escape it. Keep it locked, keep it cranked. Yeah, that's it. So it's, there's nothing you can do about it um it's really it's just very unfortunate no sometimes shitty things happen yeah yeah for sure it's too bad um you're a big hockey fan yep so you coach hockey yeah i've coached hockey um since my kids were like four years old yeah and now they're 117 116 now i just i just got my son just became a teenager so uh yeah he's still playing hockey though but uh you're uh you were born and raised in toronto or no in brampton

you were a leaf fan or you're always a leaf fan yeah so how are you coping okay because i've been a leaf fan my whole i'm wearing my optimist rhyme today i've been a leaf fan since I discovered them in like early 80s like 81 82 or whatever and I've every year at this time we'd be either we'd have a chance like it always seems like we still have a chance at eighth spot or something this is the first season in my memory where we so early checked out and I find it very very it's very disappointing because no I have no interest in watching these games anymore i don't mind watching i mean hockey for me like professional hockey i've never been like a super fan okay like what i call myself a leaf fan yes and i probably always will be but uh i watch it more for the

entertainment value would it be great if they could be in the playoffs and and win something sure but it it doesn't really bother me but now aren't you at a point now I'm at this point, like when we win games, I'm disappointed. Yes. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

So it's tough, but I find the dynamic of watching the game because I'll tune in a Bozak will score. And my initial guttural reaction is yeah. Yeah. And then followed immediately by, what are you doing? Yeah.

Followed immediately by, Oh no, I don't want that. And it's just so counterintuitive. I hate it. So I've stopped watching. Although when Luongo went off and got dressed in his street clothes and the backup goalie went down with the injury,

I saw it on Twitter. I tuned right back in. I'm like, I'm not missing this. There was a Leaf game many years ago. And don't ask me the date or how old I was or anything like that. But both goalies got injured and one defenseman went in net. could probably find it out on on uh on the internet but yeah it was that was amazing yeah yeah and if you go back long enough they only used to dress one goalie yeah if you go back long enough I heard Don Cherry talking about that the other day but yeah that was

crazy so um Leafs and is there any hope like uh like I don't even have any hope here like we're not gonna draft a McDavid no so we're not going to draft a mcdavid no so we're going to get a good draft pick but you know i almost feel like we're going to put him into this poisonous atmosphere and destroy him like we have with everyone else what's happened throughout the years so yeah so i don't i don't know i know that we i don't expect you to have the answers but there's not a lot of there's no one calling me to coach the Leafs. No, but it couldn't do any worse. Probably not. Yeah.

Somebody, I had an argument last night with a guy, and we were talking about Phil Jackson's value, and Phil Jackson is a great coach. And I was like, but I would have liked an opportunity to coach the Pippen-Jordan team just one season to see how I would have done. Just out of curiosity. Well, they were pretty good.

They may not have needed your help. I don't know. Right. So I was wondering, did Phil Jackson, it's just an interesting argument, the value of a coach when you have an all-star team. Interesting. Okay.

All right. Anything else going on that you want to talk about? Anything more you want to tell everybody? They want to hear you talk about Dean Blundell until you run out of oxygen. I wish there was more to tell, but there really isn't. If you didn't have to work mornings, would you tune in and hear the new show?

On 590? No, I wouldn't tune in. To be honest, growing up, I never really listened to radio. Okay, that's interesting. People always ask me that. Who's your radio idol and stuff like that? I guess the only person I ever used to listen to fairly faithfully was Rick Hodge when he would do Sunday Night Funnies.

And now Rick works in our same building because he works on the Easy Rock station with Lori Love. He's coming in. Yeah. Oh, is he? Yeah. Good. And yeah, so I get to see Rick and Rick's a good guy.

And he was the only guy i used to listen to regularly like i i i would listen casually to like q107 or or cfmy back in the day when it was the spirit of radio and stuff but i was never like a a huge radio fan at all the only reason i ever got into radio um is because when i was terrible in math in high school and when they're doing your university selections whatever so i applied to journalism programs because that's what i was going to do i was going to be a newspaper writer glad i didn't scourge of the earth but uh so i i uh i applied to that and i needed to pick a third program and ryerson offered this radio and television arts program so when i got all my letters back i got accepted uh to i think it was carlton they accept everybody cartoon you yeah because they want your money but i got accepted to journalism at ryerson and also the radio and

television and radio and television was three years journalism was four so i picked radio that's funny that's the only reason that's amazing i knew my close friend my former co-host rosie was in that program and like around the same time but I think we're like the same age probably born in 74 73 yeah okay yeah yeah uh and she went to U of T with me and then she transferred over to do like whatever they had a radio thing they had at Ryerson but uh you were I think you would be like the envy of your classmates because like so quickly very quickly you're you're on a major radio show well I I mean I mean, I went to Ryerson for the first year entirely. And then the second year near the start of it, I forget what class it was, but they said you should try and get an internship somewhere.

That's the way. And then Humble and Fred were doing this campus tour. Right. And so I said, oh, they're coming to Ryerson. And I know the radio station's in Brampton, which was about 10 minutes at the time. It was about 10 minutes from where I lived. So that would be a good fit if I could do that, right? Because then I could go to the station and then go to – anyway, so I showed up because – well, Robbie Jay already worked there.

And the other lab technician, Matt, who has also since passed, which unfortunately, he was Humble and Fred's intern before me. And he's like, yeah, I'm not going to be there for much longer, so you might as well apply. So I showed up at this campus tour right at Ryerson. I was going to school anyway. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I showed up, and there they were. And I gave them some bananas and whatever.

And I'm like, if you need an intern, I'll be happy to be your intern. Went on my way. Two weeks later, I was getting ready for work to go to Wendy's, and Dan Duran called me and goes, would you like to come in tomorrow and see if you want to be our intern? I'm like, yeah, sure. And that's how it started. That was it.

And then I went sporadically to Ryerson for the second year, and then third year I just wrote tests and handed in essays, and that was it. I was working so much. That's amazing. How is your relationship with Humble and Fred today? You guys keep in touch? Good. I talk to Fred now and then. I don't talk to Howard as much but I see him from time to time at voice auditions

and stuff like that. I am friendly with most people that I worked with. I keep in touch with Howard and Fred and Todd and Sandra from time to time and some other people whose names you wouldn't know but work behind the scenes and stuff.

What happened to Matt? Is that okay if I ask? Oh, Matt? He was an intern before you? He was, yeah. He also worked at Ryerson. He was a lab technician. He unfortunately drowned when he was on vacation.

Wow. Yeah. That's too bad. Yeah, it was very bad. Did he have a nickname?. He unfortunately drowned when he was on vacation. Wow. That's too bad. Yeah, it was very bad. Did he have a nickname? I don't think so. I was listening to the Humble and Fred show at this time. I just don't remember.

No, I think he was just Intern Matt. It was a long time ago. No, I know. What did you think of the nickname? I think it was Howard. I think Todd tells the story that Howard gave him this nickname, but Re-Todd, because he was re-Todd when he was Danger Boy, right?

I don't remember how he got the name. I don't remember how it came about. All I know is at some point, the note came down from above saying, no more. I guess we probably got complaints about it, CBSC complaint or something like that. I can see that, yeah.

I don't remember exactly, but that's probably how it worked. That's one of words that was like a lot more acceptable when we were in grade school like the r word was tossed around then but today like my kids would never use no they never would no but they still have like special ed on uh on virgin right oh you know what i didn't know yeah but it all depends what people complain about right that's the the way of the crt soon they would Soon they would complain about Danger Boy doing a Scottish accent when he wasn't a Scottish. That's racist. For sure. I think that's one of the last

accents you can still kind of poke fun at. About one of them, yeah, for sure. But that's going to end soon, too. Hey, listen, thanks for coming out all this way. I know this was a good haul for you. Oh, it's okay. It was good to come down here. I used to come down here when I was a kid. My parents used to live just a couple streets over oh yeah new toronto yeah i heard long before

i was born well someone told me that chris biggs grew up in this neighborhood or maybe a mississauga oh east mississauga yeah i'm not sure exactly where it was but yeah he's uh he's a mississauga boy gotcha so any regrets about your uh toronto mic appearance no i don't think so you didn't feel like you're on the hot seat too? No, I'm a pretty honest guy. I got nothing to hide. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, man. You too. Thanks for that.

Thanks, man. And that brings us to the end. And I got to get the numbers right because I screwed this up last week. But that's the end of our 114th show. 114. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike.

And Jason is at j bar b-a-r-r see you all next week well i want to take a streetcar downtown read and remember and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow won't stay today.

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.