Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jay Maddog Michaels: Toronto Mike'd #178

Episode Date: June 12, 2016

Mike chats with radio broadcaster Jay Maddog Michaels about why he was fired from Virgin 999, what he thinks of radio today and his recent spot duty at Newstalk 1010.

Welcome to episode 178 of Toronto Mike's, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is radio broadcaster J Mad Dog, Michael. Hey Mike. Welcome back. Thanks, man. Your episode, what number? Do you know your number?

I do, because I worked at Kiss 92. It was episode 92. That's right. Okay, good. It's also your address. That's right. Without giving too much away. Now I got to censor that.

Now I have editing to do. So that episode got a lot of super positive feedback it was one of the first episodes that got sort of traction in terms of people like like just they were super impressed by your honesty your forthcomingness like you came in intending to be completely honest and you could tell and it was like that's when i realized the difference between a good episode and a great episode is when the guest is willing to sort of give a little bit of themselves and share. Some come in a little guarded and careful. And then that's, you know, it turns out. And you can tell when they are, can't you? I mean, I can tell too. When I interview people,

it's like, well, I'm not going to get much from you, but thank you so much for saying that. And thank you to everybody that listens to you that, uh, I read the comments and I was, uh, I was overwhelmed because, you know, we just had a conversation and I just went home and I never really thought about it. I just enjoyed it. And then people started to contact me and tell me how much they liked it. So I almost didn't come back for just that reason.

I'm like, well, what am I going to go back? And there's no way. There's no way. I don't have anything to talk about anymore. Hey, one of the things afterwards when I was writing about the episode to promote it, I was torn between whether you're mad space dog right or mad dog one word and i got some conflicting reports but it

look according to my research you're mad dog no space tell me the truth well i think it used to be with the hyphen before we needed to do twitter names and stuff like that. And that's when it became MADDOG. And it's funny because, you know, as my career changes sort of directions and stuff, it's almost like I have two entities now because I'm doing some shows right now on CFRB, filling in on the live drive for Ryan Doyle and doing talk radio for the first time in my career.

And, you know, they said, we're just going to bill you as Jay Michaels. And I said, whatever you guys are happy with. I just want to do the show. I just want to hang out. That's like your adult name. Yeah, I guess so, right? Because when you were doing, we talked about this in episode 92,

but when you were trying to adult yourself up for CHFI, you became Jay Michaels. Yeah, and that was them. It's really funny, too, because for me, there's a lot of talk about the name. And for me, it's one of those things that I don't really care what anybody's name is. I also think that a CHFI listener could easily swallow a Mad Dog. If you heard that person's conversational style, you wouldn't think that, you know, I'm certainly not a maniac.

But at the same time, I mean, is it one of those things where it's been your nickname your entire career? Do you stop using it? And then all of those people that are your fans, that enjoy what you do, do you lose them? I mean, I've had people text me directly on news talks since I've been filling in to say, is this J. Matt? I remember you from the station and hey, man, sounds good, or blah, blah, blah, or how you doing?

Okay, did you ever listen to my chat with KJ? Because you, I played a clip of you in the KJ episode because you're on the record as saying KJ, greatest DJ working in the city. Greatest top 40 DJ in the country, I think, as far as the formatics and the style. And KJ talked about it in your podcast. And anybody that's a jock knows this because you said to him, and I said, oh, God, I know where this is going. You said, yeah, you guys have that clock where you, you you you had back times the song so you guys can hit the post and kj is

like yeah but the good ones don't use it and the great disc jockeys guys like kj i call it you're a you're a pot rider yeah and by pot rider i mean that the faders on a board you'll ride the music up and down like a song like owner of a lonely heart like it's got it's got like 16 posts in it yes you can just ride it ride it like a wave yes stew jeffries is another guy that's great at it yeah yeah and for me that's one of the things that i loved doing top 40 radio for and that's why i've never really had an op so that i could run on my own gear and hit those posts the way that i wanted to and that's more fun right like way more fun because i with this podcast which i do it for fun,

pretty much, you know, free beer notwithstanding, but I do it pretty much for fun and most of the fun comes from all the stuff I got to do. Yeah.

These hand gestures cannot be seen by the audience. And once you get to a certain comfort level, I like to call it, it's like forced spontaneity or easy autopilot. And you can be

your most creative when you are actually doing all of those things at once. And you know, it's funny too i want to mention something about the kj episode because then i get a point there yeah because i've known him for so long and he's such a good friend and such a great guy and such a sweet human being i discovered because i've only ever talked to him as a buddy and listened to him on the radio when he was talking to you i thought to myself wow he doesn't like talking about himself. You know, I got some, I can tell you, because we know KJ is not listening to this episode,

I got some interesting feedback from people who felt it was a little off for Toronto Mike, the KJ episode. Right. And they, I don't know, one guy thought I was talking to him, but the fact is, I think I talked more than usual because I found it difficult to get him talking. Yeah, I don't think that he's the kind of person that really gives a lot of thought to sort of the path that he's been on or his career. It's just kind of...

He didn't like talking about... He just likes going and kicking out the jams and going home. It's funny. He told me before we pressed record, he said, I don't like talking about myself. Okay. And I'm like, oh, shit, because I got like 45 minutes of CFTR stuff I'm going to do now. Right. And you're not going to remember any of it.

Yeah, right. Because, you know, but on that. So that's the reason I brought up KJ is because KJ was billed in my youth and that I knew him as Chris James. And then suddenly on a different station, he's KJ. But my brain never. I don't know if it's because it was. They weren't my go. I wasn't, you know... I had a few stations,

but they were my less frequented stations or whatnot at that time. But I never... And I'm a big radio fan in Toronto. I never clued in for the longest time that KJ was Chris James. And Cage is one of those guys that sounds today, at whatever age he is, that he

sounded exactly like when he was 18 or 19 years old. His voice is, it is absolutely timeless. Like it will never, it will never, he could do top 40 today and not miss a beat and no one would know. When we were on Kiss 92, he was the oldest jock at the station, you know,

and we're all going to see Hanson and he's like, I'm going home for meatloaf. Yeah, that's right. You guys have a good time. See you later. That was a great story. So, but you, everybody knows you as Mad Dog. Yeah.

So that's, I guess that's where I'm going. It's a long-winded way to get there. But I think you got to be Mad Dog because that's the brand you've established for, you know, years and years in this market. We know you as Mad Dog. And I, tell me if I'm wrong, but didn't you tweet about another Jay Michaels on the air in Toronto? I did, actually. A broadcasting student, Kid that Goes to Humber, I think, wrote me and said, you know,

I'd like to name myself Jay Michaels, but there's already a bunch of them. So I tweeted him back and I said, there's always room for one more young Jedi. Because it's just a name. And then, of course, he tweeted out the other Michaels, so I tweeted them as well. And all of a sudden, now we're all talking to each other. Sure, but there was only one Jay Michaels

in this market. That's true. And he's he ever was he on chum fm or something yeah somebody told me that he does like dj sets on so that's the difference to me you got a j michaels and i don't know where the other j michaels is he's on the states yeah there's one like yeah in new york but to me that's different like there's only room for one j michaels in this market right aaron there's somebody named aaron davis on the air somewhere like a traffic person or something oh really who is that's a fake name aaron davis okay purposely given to them by somebody who sort of wanted to stick it to i guess stick it to rogers or something and they're aaron davis so i know that there there's a lot there's examples of same named people in different markets it's when it's the same market where it's kind of confusing

rogers actually copyrighted my name when I was with them. Is that right? So that nobody else could use it. And then, and you've heard her name a ton, great lady, Julie Adam. Yeah,

I do hear that name a lot. When I was no longer with the company, she gave me my copyright. So she gave it to you? Yeah, she gave it to me. Because, you know,

I, they could have kept it. Did I tell you the story of when I was helping Humble and Fred start their podcast and Chorus wrote them a letter saying that Chorus owned the trademark for Humble and Fred.

Yeah. And they said, we'll give it back to you for $5,000. Yeah. And this was going to cover all the costs. The legal costs. Right. And I remember,

because I, Humble and Fred, this is early in their podcast and they wanted some publicity and they gave me the letter and I verbatim posted it on my site. Like, here's the letter from Chorus and I'm trying to remember the name of the guy, Dave Farrow. Okay.

That's the guy's name. Yeah, I know the name. So he was spearheading this initiative from Chorus and five grand from an upstart, like independent business. Yeah, which just comes off as a corporate sort of money grab and, I mean, just sort of doing it for the sake of doing it. So good on Julie Adams and Rogers for giving it to you. Also, when I left Bell and I immediately started putting together tape

to try and find new gigs, everything I was using is copyrighted by Bell. They own all of the material, but they know that I'm not using it, I'm not selling it or putting commercials on it. I'm just using it to get gigs. So they've never said a word, I've never had a problem, and I'm back there right now working. So it's cool. I find that interesting. My friend Kelly Cotrera was let go from a chorus station. The Fresh? Yeah. Fresh 253.

Hamilton? Is that Hamilton? Yeah. That's Hamilton. Colleen Rush home in the morning. Right. Yes. Yeah. Who's been here. And she hit her head on the ceiling. Yeah. She's tall. She's very tall. She's great though. We're talking about how real estate agents expand boundaries and stuff, and we were talking about how the upper beaches is going. I don't know if it's going to hit the 401. Scarborough, basically.

Right. Kingston Road. I was just thinking how they're stretching Junction. Okay. So when I was growing up, Junction was pretty much, are you ready for this? It was like Kiel and Dundas, and there was a little circle around there that was the Junction.

Right. Kiel and Dundas, okay, which had a big Canadian tire. You know, that's special. That's when I was growing up. I think the new Junction Triangle is like a third of the city i don't know where they're stretching that thing but i digress and it's all real estate agents yeah basically yeah we need to this is the name that sells that's that's exactly what it is so uh where was i going at kelly catrera is now although they don't bill it as the kelly she's doing bill carroll's old job that's old job. That's right.

On Talk 640. Right. So that's chorus. So what I've noticed now is it's good. You're wise not to burn these bridges. When you leave, you leave gracefully. Humble Howard was hired at Easy Rock after he was fired by Mix when they were both standard. You know, at the end of the day, if someone wants you, they're going to hire you.

But it does help to not have, you know, burn those bridges. Because I mean, there's also a radio existence now for all of us where there's only three companies anyway. That's got to be tough, right? Because there's, again, there's only three bridges. Yeah. What it really does, I think, is what it did in the States, which is drive salaries down. Because you own so many properties across the country, you can syndicate people, you can, you know, you can, our company only pays X for said shift because that's what the company pays. And it's an interesting time.

The big money days for so many personalities are gone, except for like the big three, Roger and Marilyn and Aaron and Derringer. So the big four. And then I still think Bobcat gets in there, right? Doesn't he? Yeah, probably. Yeah, you're right.

There's not many more. Yeah, and it's also interesting because you're finding now that new morning shows aren't necessarily out of the gate as successful because radio stations are just putting the drive guy on in the morning that's never done it before, and he's all alone,

and it's not the same. It's not as engaging, but hey, if it works like it worked for Boom, Yeah, that's a yeah you know we can start doing that we'll start doing that in other markets and it works on boom because stew jeffries is incredibly talented and someone else who would have gone in there might not have been able you know to have a one-sided conversation with a listener it's kind of tough you know i enjoy having someone to to go back and forth it's easier's easier. Yeah, it absolutely is. I wouldn't want to do an episode of this podcast

without somebody sitting in that seat. Yeah. I've had that conversation. Two people have said to me, would you start a podcast? And I said, well, I would never do one that was just me. I'm not interested in hearing myself talk for that long. But if I had someone in to have a conversation with,

because I think that's when you get the really, when you get really engaging people that have a back and forth, you find out new things about each other every day you'd have to do it like andy rooney on 60 minutes yeah and that's what ron mclean was in this show recently i was on the show recently and he said if you know if they ever he told don this is ron mclean told don cherry you know if they ever fire me or i can't do it do it alone like andy rooney don't don cherry just doing it like andy Rooney and I don't think Don could

I think he needs that he needs Ron where are we going? what are we doing? what's next? and you know it's funny I've been flying around the country for the last few months

interviewing for gigs and working places and stuff like that and that's when I've been catching up on my Toronto mic so I heard the Ron McLean podcast cool I love that

one of the things I loved about it was when you two spoke about Hockey Night in Canada and you know whether or not he thought it should have been his job or he could have done it. And what I took from that that he said, which was great, he said, you know, I don't know that it's my Hockey Night in Canada now. Because it's more about hitting your mark and getting the right graphics and working with blue screens. And I just want to sit there and talk about hockey. So that was really, I thought, that was really cool. I had a conversation with somebody who I will not name,

but worked for Rogers Hockey. It sounds like there's a tough place right now. I think there's going to be some changes, and I think there's a lot of unhappy people in terms of direction and decisions that were made. Right. And there's a lot of head scratching going on. And I think, you know, I speak from just this conversation that it almost

sounds like they've lost their way from the hockey night in Canada we had when CBC controlled the content. I find it tough when, as a viewer, I never know where to go to find my hockey. It's a 1500-channel universe, so I'm on my bell or whatever, and I'm like, okay, is it on TSN tonight, or is it

on Sportsnet, or is it on CBC? And I also think it's tough. Anytime a company is losing money on something, their patience with its growth, it dissipates pretty quickly. So that's the problem that George is having probably is that it's a micromanaged growth thing that's happening for him. So how do you get better at what you do? How do you not worry about sites on your back and stuff like that from upper management? And how do you how do you get better at what you do how do you not have you know worry about sights on your on your back and stuff like that from upper management and how do you appease everybody and it's a tough gig although knowing george i don't think he'd give a shit like i just get the feeling i think george gives a shit from the standpoint of

i'm gonna work my guts out to be the best i can at this job and if it's not successful then that's not my fault because i gave it everything i had. And what I loved about his podcast with you was when he said, how could I not take that job at Hockey Night in Canada? And I have sort of that same opinion as well. Since I've been off, I've done things that I've never been asked to do in my career and I've had opportunities I've never been presented with before because I was always working. And I said yes to everything. And if it scared me, even better. Like doing news talk 1010 is incredibly intimidating. Jim Richards and Jerry Agar and Ryan Doyle, excellent, incredible. John Moore, just such great talk personalities.

And I thought, and Mike Ben Dixon called me and said, hey, how do you feel about maybe doing this with Ryan? You were on once. If you like it, why don't you fill in for him for a week? I said, you know what? I would love to try it. But I will tell you right now, Mike, if I don't think I'm doing it it, why don't you fill in for him for a week? I said, you know what? I would love to try it, but I will tell you right now, Mike, if I don't think I'm doing it justice,

I won't take the week's worth of gigs because I can say that about myself. I don't think I can do this, but I did it and I felt comfortable enough to do it. And it's probably the most fun I've had on the radio in a really long time because I'm being encouraged to talk, not being told to dial it back and play more music.

Well, Steve Leggett on Twitter asked me to ask you if you prefer talk radio to spinning music. If I could talk as much as I do on talk radio and spin music, Do you need to spin the tunes, or you just need to have the microphone? I don't even know if I have an opinion yet, because I've only really done two shows on talk radio. But I will say that I find it

absolutely exhilarating. It's just, and it's a lot of work, man, because you're flipping topics every half an hour. I'm not a huge political guy. My wheelhouse is like pop culture and entertainment and lifestyle. So anything that has to do with that, I have hundreds of opinions, but when it gets pretty political, like Kevin O'Leary is on and my head does spin a little bit. So that's a bit of a learning curve, but you know, I've never had to be so prepared

to be on the internet. I can imagine. There's no net. There's no safety net. You could be exposed pretty quickly as a fraud if you don't know the content that you have.

Yeah, and the great thing about that and Mike Bendixson said to me, he said, don't worry about what you don't know. Just focus on what you do know and just talk about that. And that's kind of what I've been doing. Yeah. Is that like an audition? So when Mike Ben Dixon asks you to fill in for Ryan Doyle, is it essentially to see if you have the talk radio

chops? I think that Mike Ben Dixon is one of those guys that really likes to help personalities grow in different ways. So when him and Ryan Doyle were talking about replacements for summer fill-in, my name came up and it just was like, well, why don't we give Jay a shot and see if he likes it? I could tell you for sure, as far as I know,

it's not an audition for anything. It's just an opportunity. But I will tell you, and I'll tell any aspiring radio DJ that's a student, everything's an audition. The remote broadcast is an audition. The interview's an audition.

Is this an audition right now, this appearance? Yeah, absolutely. You know what? Your podcast did so much for me because so many people said, I have never realized that he was not exactly the same guy on the radio. Because of Top 40, I didn't get to share as much of myself as I probably would like to. But on the podcast, I can be completely 100% open. And that's what people seem to respond to.

So that was great for me because that had different people then calling me and going, hey, I'm thinking about you in a different light now. And maybe this job down the road will work or something like that. And I did all kinds of opportunities came from it. In that episode 92, you opened up about, I guess, cleaning up. So you're no longer party guy. Definitely not a party guy. I'm probably the happiest and the healthiest I've been in my entire life.

So is it grossly inappropriate and rude of me to give you beer? Because that's my thought. You're the first guest I've had since the beer sponsorship started where I realized, because I had a similar discussion with Aaron Davis, actually speaking. And I realize if Aaron Davis comes on, do I give her a six pack? Like it sounds like a cruel thing to do. Here's the thing. A gift is a gift and a gift can be regifted. Right. And I look at this and I'm thinking, my buddy Jim

will love this. He's a craft beer guy. Okay. So you have to promise me you're not going to, you know, down those and go into some kind of a vicious bender or whatever. That's where I went off the rails was after Toronto Mike. Toronto Mike gave me some Great Lakes beer and the rest is history. I think we're good. Okay.

So that is your beer to take home and re-gift to somebody. That's courtesy of Great Lakes Beer. They're local to here and they're a great little company. Good on you guys for sponsoring Mike. Smart move. I'm going to cut that out and send it to him. Let them know. Because I think the six months, we signed for six months.

Okay. And it was, what are we now? Like mid-June? So this is the... Yeah, so at the end of this month, they either re-up or whatever. That's one of the things that I admire about guys that podcast too, is you guys got to hustle, man. Get your sponsors. You have to hustle if it's your job. You got to sell them. True. Like Humble and Fred,

they have a lot of live reads on their show. Same thing with Todd Shapiro. I did his show as well on Sirius. And it was like, yeah, you guys have a lot of masters that you have to speak to. This is like the longest intro chat ever. We haven't even started. It's always started. Let me tell you a quick

funny story. You mentioned Todd Shapiro. Right down the street, they closed Lakeshore right near here for Grilled Cheese Challenge. The one that was in the King West Village or Liberty Village last year. Wasn't that macaroni and cheese? Oh, that's right.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. This is something else. Yeah. I don't know. It's grilled cheese challenge. And I had a crazy day yesterday.

I'm going to get into that in a minute. But me and the kids, me and the two old, the baby two, the two-year-old did not show up. Everybody else was with me walking this Great Lakes Challenge challenge and somebody taps me on the shoulder and goes hey buddy and i turn around todd shapiro he was like the celebrity um judge of the great of the grilled cheese challenge yesterday so yeah it's a great gig for him yeah i said and i go how long are you here till five and yeah they're paying him till five so he was there and yeah so i met bumped into todd shapiro but earlier in the day yesterday my daughter my 12 year old crazy day yesterday so she had a tournament a soccer tournament at high park so me and her we 7 30 in the morning we're biking to high park for this thing and then we're biking home because she

has a dance recital we got to get to okay two of them. Crazy day. But we're biking home and we're biking along the waterfront. I see James Johnson walking with his kid. Toronto Raptor, James Johnson. My daughter happens to be a big Raptor fan. And I'm biking. First of all, it's like surreal.

I've never, I almost never see a Raptor outside the Air Canada Centre. You know who I saw? Tell me. A Canadian tire on the lakeshore. Jonas Valanciunas. Get out of here. Walking in.

And I looked at him, and I'm not a huge basketball fan, but it's something registered. And my wife looked at me and said, he has to be a Raptor. He just has to be. So, of course, the memory fresh in my brain, I went home and I Googled it. I'm like, ha! He shops a Canadian tire! My boy, my 14-year-old, plays for a Lithuanian

basketball team. And Jonas Valentunas is like one of their guys like heroes or whatever yeah I have a friend who actually used to be their head of security and one year it was Christmas Eve we went down to his house in the beach and all the Raptors came over and they were like playing basketball out on the street wow yeah and they were they were they were there and they were these were guys that weren't going home necessarily because they're European or whatever the for the for the holiday and they were just there and chowing down we had a buffet and just the nicest guys in the world you know just standing around hunching to not hit the ceiling so i i'm telling my daughter i go that was

she i go did you see that that's james johnson first of all james johnson has a tell a very unique neck tattoo okay you're never ever gonna mistake somebody for for James Johnson. So I see James Johnson and I'm telling my daughter. And she can't believe that. Long story. Short story. Not a long story. Short story is I took my daughter to a hockey game once. And there was a gentleman outside the game.

And I said to my daughter, that's Mike Gartner. And I'm telling her who Mike Gartner is. Later, she gave me flack that I didn't let her take a picture. She never heard never heard of mike gartner of course until i told her but she couldn't believe afterwards she was upset i never uh took a photo of her introduced her to mike gartner and took a photo because she's excited about meeting like famous people right it's a big deal to her and i had this memory in my head when i'm biking by james johnson and i'm like look unlike mike gartner my daughter actually watches james johnson and it was james johnson and i'm like well he Mike Gartner, my daughter actually watches James Johnson and knows James Johnson.

And I'm like, well, James Johnson's with his kid, like his little boy. And they're just walking on the waterfront. And I'm like, I don't want to bug the guy, I guess, you know, with his kid.

But then I'm like, well, I have my 12-year-old daughter with me. That's your in. Right. That's your in. Yep. So we do like a loop and we're almost stalking the guy.

And then I'm like, look, I'm just going to ask him if he'll take a photo with you. I'm not taking a photo with the guy because then it looks like a dick move. Right. But maybe he'll pose with you. He was the nicest guy.

We took a couple of shots. His kid wanted in on the shots. Yeah. So James Johnson was a sweetheart. My daughter was shaking the rest of the ride home. Like she had this, she met James Johnson.

So that happened before I had the excitement of meeting Todd Shapiro. So all that happened. And then my daughter's recital, ready for me to close the story. Fine, there was one at 1 p.m., nothing exciting there,

but I went to the 7 p.m. recital to watch my daughter for the third time in two days, and Mike Wilner's there watching his daughter in the very same recital, Mike Wilner of Trotter. Wow, eh?

So there you go. Three, you know, two of them had been on my podcast. You can't swing a cat in the city without hitting somebody that's been on your show. Well, I haven't had James Johnson on yet. I'm still working on that one. Okay, so that was the exciting story of my encounters with fame. It's a quality day. And today I met Mad Dog.

Hey. There you go. We've actually crossed paths a couple of times since we hung out. And one of them was at the memorial for Aaron Davis' daughter, Lauren. Right. Although you told me afterwards you were behind me. I didn't know you were there until afterwards. I was staring at the back of your head.

I was honored to be invited because I'm not, you know, I've only met you a couple of times. Yeah, as was I. Lauren was very close with my son, Ashton. They went to high school together and they're on an improv team together. Okay. So Aaron and Rob and myself, my wife, Sherry, we would see them at tournaments in Ottawa and road trips and hung out.

We never ever talked about radio. We only ever talked about our kids, so we had that. And her daughter was just such a wonderful, talented, beautiful individual. It's just my heart is just... I'm going to pull a Stu Jeffries in a second. Yeah. Sometimes I think about Aaron's appearance

because there's a segment at the end of her episode where she starts glowing about her daughter and talking about... And it's not the same... It's not Rogers and it's not leaning on her, who her mom is and stuff. And she gets it on her own and she's doing a great job. Lauren was the kind of...

Mom's just proud. Totally. And Lauren's the kind of kid where there's moms that love their kids so much and then you meet the kid and you're like, I don't get it. I seem like a bit of a dick.

And with Lauren, it was like, I understand it. Like, I understand how she could be that in love with her daughter because her daughter is that bright a light

and that beautiful and individual. You know how you sort of meet someone and you just know they're a really good person? That was Lauren. I did not...

I never had the pleasure of meeting Lauren, but when aaron invited me i knew i had to go like absolutely just pay my respects and it was very classy and well done like from the mike cooper reading the book just yeah just the whole thing the performance is amazing davis in one word and she's she's the classiest lady i know so yeah uh that is right and i did not know you were sitting behind me that's where that's where I'm there by myself. And then I didn't want to, like,

because there's a lot of family there and people who've known her for years and years. Yeah, it feels kind of odd. So I did, I did my disappearing act because I didn't feel I belonged in the mingling part.

Like I wasn't there to schmooze, you know what I mean? Right, right. So I disappear and then you reached out later and said, hey, where you at? Because you were behind me,

but I didn't know you were there. Yep, that yeah so we have uh bumped in hey have you ever bumped into ann romer yes i spoke with ann uh let's see we're working retired retired working which time was she back my son my son did animal house calls because he has a service dog so ann was there to do the interview and we spoke for for a few minutes and it was actually the first time that I had actually really gotten to speak with her. And another classy, smart, super talented lady who's just boomeranging back and forth. Before I dive into the Anne Romer though, how was your son? So last time you were in episode 92, he was doing much better. And then I started following him on Twitter. And yeah, I mean, he literally had to learn to talk again. Is that right?

Everything. Walk, talk, eat, you know, absolutely everything he had to learn. Some of the long-term, well, lifetime effects of my son's stroke is he's lost 50% of vision in both of his eyes. His short-term memory is not very good. Other than that, he is pretty high functioning. Like, you wouldn't really notice a lot of things unless you hung out with him for an extended amount of time. I mean, he's probably, and I am blessed and humbled and love him so much. So when I say this, you know, it's not with any ill will at all that he's going to live with me for the rest of his life because he needs some help. But just to have him with me, it's just worth it. I mean, he's like one of my best friends too,

so that really helps. Do you know what I mean? Of course, yeah. When you like your kids, that really helps. Tell me about it. And I have the two. I have my younger son, Dustin, who's playing senior A men's lacrosse

out in Langley, British Columbia, following his dream. He just finished a sports journalism program, did an internship at TSN. Wow. I hope he gets into the lacrosse broadcasting business. I think he'd be great as a color analyst. He's one of these rain men, stats type guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has four TVs on at once as he plays Xbox, NHL 2016. Yeah. lacrosse broadcasting business, I think he'd be great as a color analyst. He's one of these Rain Man stats type guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has four TVs on at once as he plays Xbox NHL 2016. Yeah. And he's filling out, you know, Pro League and he's got pools on the go. Right.

So yeah, he's pretty cool. Very different kids. My older son Ashton's an actor and he's still acting. Him and I actually both auditioned for the Trailer Park Boys on the East Coast recently.

Oh, wow, yeah. Which was kind of cool. I just, speaking of former guests, I was just listening to Jonathan Torrens talking about how he's left, that he's no longer

going to do the character J-Rock for Trailer Park Boys. He's still doing Mr. D, though. Yeah, he's definitely doing Mr. D, but no more Trailer Park Boys. He's a talented guy, Jonathan. Very talented.

Street Sense, come on. Yeah. After that episode, I went heavy on Street Sense and light on Trailer Park Boys and I got a lot of emails from people feeling it should have been the reverse and i'm like it's my show we're going heavy on street sense you should reach out to mike smith bubbles oh yeah him and i are actually from he went to school with my wife and we're from the same musician right he was in what was the band he was in sandbox right which is crazy because sandbox

was comprised of this is how small the world is i'm'm from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. That's where I was born. And the band Sandbox was fronted by a guy named Paul Murray, who's Anne Murray's nephew. In that same band was Mike Smith, who becomes Bubbles, and a bass player named Scott McFarland, whose brother is Chris McFarland, who's the drummer for Great Big Sea, who's married to my wife's sister, making him my brother-in-law.

That's amazing. Crazy, huh? And it was like, I wonder where you are. Was that the big hit my brother-in-law. That's amazing. Crazy, huh? And it was like, I wonder where you are. Was that the big hit? Curious. Curious, that's it. Great tune.

Yeah. Yeah, like the rotating. The CanCon 90s classic. I watched that recently. Hey, if you ever want to do, I'm serious, Google Bionic Sandbox, the song is Curious,

and you're going to be like, that's friggin' bubbles. Oh, absolutely. And he's a super talented musician. So I should have gone harder on the J-rock stuff, but I never watched a lot of Taylor Perk Boys. I'm afraid to even admit that now. It's a good show.

It's a great show. I hear it is. I don't know. I'm missing out on some. There's a lot of things I'm missing out on. It's filthy. It's filthy. Check it out.

Ann Romer. Yeah. So I just wrote about this this morning, and I wrote the untold true story of why she retired the two times because she's retired twice but she's back now did you know that yes yeah i thought i thought she was just doing summer fill-in yeah probably uh that's the one question i don't have an answer to is is it just summer fill-in i know she's on the website now as like lead anchor but i don't know how long this is so there's an untold story about her retirement yeah i know that she

left for for an aviation job right but that's all we ever were told like is that i don't know how long this is. So there's an untold story about her retirement? I know that she left for an aviation job. Right, but that's all we ever were told. I don't think it was what she expected it to be, and she probably left. So I shared, if people go to TorontoMike.com, they'll see I have the story of why

Anne Romer retired the two times, basically the untold true story. So now I want to pause and read it. So yeah, she did leave the first time. She did leave for the aviation. And the second time, I thought it was to give somebody another gig.

That's right. I saw a tweet about that. No, she said, yeah, she said somebody tweeted that she had stepped down in order to save a job because this was during the Bell Media cuts of November 2015.

Right. And I found out, you know, what her ambition, because she said she had a new chapter. She was going to start Media cuts of November 2015. Right. And I found out, you know, what her ambition, because she said she had a new chapter. She was going to start moving to Collingwood. And then I found out what she was aiming for. Okay. But yeah, she's back.

So do you know she's just back for the summer? Like, or is it more longer term? I have no idea. I find it interesting too that people care. I care. You know why? Whether you're there or you're not. Because two public farewells with cake slices.

Maybe don't do that again. That's the thing. And I don't mind. You know, you can do it once and come back, I guess. But it's the fact that it's twice and she's back now. And every time she comes back, they don't acknowledge that she retired in the first place. It's sort of like she's just back and they never speak again. It's almost like on Married of Children, the first time.

So the actress, Katie Segalal who plays peggy bundy she was pregnant so they wrote the pregnancy into the show right and then she had a miscarriage oh my god and they it's cruel and unusual speaking of saying it's like giving you beer okay if you if you were to keep the baby in the show because she lost it although since then i believe she had a healthy child right it's good but uh they decided, I think what they did is they just decided to never refer to it again. Like the baby never existed or something like that. And that's sort of what CP24 does. So I actually like Anne Romer.

Yeah, me too. And I like seeing her face on there. She's great. She's really good at what she does, which is why I always think it's great when she's back. Because Anne's a no-brainer. You can just plug her on and she'll just be great. Yeah, I hope she's there forever. I just find it amusing as a media watch guy

that she's had two public farewells. You know what I love? Gifts are given, and cake is sliced, and then she comes back, and we don't acknowledge that happened. What I love about CP24 is that everybody gets to anchor. And I think whoever is the person that's in charge of that is brilliant,

because you're developing talent. And you know what? When you're Jamie Goodfroy, and you're out doing the Oktoberfest sausage-eating competition, and then you're at the Dream Home, and then you're back in studio for the weekends, then you're developing talent. And you know what? When you're Jamie Goodfroy and you're out doing the Oktoberfest sausage eating competition and then you're at the Dream Home and then you're back in studio for the weekends, then you're anchoring.

What a great way to develop your talent. I think he's the next Steve Anthony. Is he? For CP24. That's who I have my money on. When Steve's finally ready to spend more time at the cottage

with that giant voice just raking in the dough. Steve, one of my favorite, speaking of my favorite guests, you're up there and Steve Anthony is right up there. Steve's great. Now, when you first met Steve, and Steve knows he does this, so I'm not letting any tales out of school. Did he get really close? Because he's a close talker.

Is he? He had me drink his coffee, which no one's ever done. That's pretty close. Right. Yeah. He said, come sip my coffee. It's kind of a weird request. Steve's the kind of guy that will have four or five simultaneous conversations going on inside his head aside from the one

that he's having with you because that's how fast the wheels turn in his brain. He is great. I'm amazed he doesn't stutter because that's how fast he thinks. I didn't know what to expect because to me,

he's just a much music VJ. Yeah. You know what? When I got to meet Steve Anthony, Jeff Semple used to be his producer at Breakfast Television. he was my producer breakfast television we were in toronto to interview to do breakfast television in london myself and jeff and he introduced me to steve anthony and it was literally the greatest thrill of my life and for him and i

to become friends has been just just icing on the cake because i grew up steve anthony was the guy i wanted to be he was the he was much music. He played golf through the studio window. No, he was great. He would just go off on tangents, and you just knew that he wasn't scripted. I mean, I was a much music kid, but Steve was my god. He has also stopped partying,

much like Mad Dog. Steve's the busiest guy I know. He's out everywhere doing everything. So when he started on CP24 Breakfast in the helicopter, I said to myself, I think I said to my wife, Sherry, I said, you know what? They're going to need him in studio to fill in one day,

and he'll never leave. And he'll be the anchor on that show within six months. And sure enough, boom. He was doing something crazy the other day. I don't know if he was climbing the CN Tower or something. Wow. Something like that. Which he's done before.

Yeah. He's done that before. He was doing something, and I'm like, don't just watch your hip. He's got that fake hip now from Monster Town. Yeah, that. Which he's done before. Yeah. He's done that before. He was doing something and I'm like, don't, just watch your hip. He's got that fake hip now from Monster Truck. Yeah,

that'll slow you down, eh? Don't be kicking Monster Truck tires. Oh yeah, we talked about that. Here's what you shouldn't do. Don't do that. But I can,

and I told him, I felt like, I feel like that's something I would have done. I don't know, I feel like I would have done that. Yeah. I could see myself doing that.

Something stupid, like then afterwards going like, why did I do such a stupid thing? I was at the 25th anniversary of Q104 in Halifax where I was a morning guy before I came to Toronto playing rock music. And they flew us all back for the reunion and they introduced all the personalities

and we all came out on stage. And lastly, they introduced the current morning guy who walked out and walked right off the front of the stage. Oh, wow. And fell about 10 feet. Wow. Poor guy. I felt terrible for him. But you talk about things that you do. guy who walked out and walked right off the front of the stage oh wow and fell about 10 feet wow poor guy i felt i felt terrible for him but you talk about you know things that you did he like break anything i think he rolled i think he rolled his ankle probably bruised his pride more than

more than anything but there he was and there he went oh man and everybody thinks there's a stick right is that what happens when you're on stage do it again he's like everybody's laughing they think it's a stick and he's like he's like, I broke my ankle. So we got to get dark here for a minute. There was a couple of gun stories out of Florida. Yeah, the Orlando club shooting. Okay, so first, there's this story. I don't know if you've probably never heard of Christina Grimmie.

Yeah, I'm aware of her. I love The Voice. That's one of my favorite shows. Okay, you know her from The Voice, right? So I know her because my daughter the aforementioned daughter who's 12 her first concert ever

was Selena Gomez and I took her so I'm there to see Selena Gomez the first act that night so basically the first act I ever see in concert with my daughter

is Christina Grimmie she opened up that show and I'm there and I never go to pop concerts it's the only one i've actually ever been to right so i'm there and it was nice and she did an original composition called uh love something love with like with love or something right and i really liked it like after this concert my daughter and i like download this song and we both love this song and and she's

got the album and we dig this christina grimmi since this is 2013 like august 2013 right so this is the that's how i know her if it wasn't for that i would never i don't think i would ever have sure but somebody targets her like somebody actually travels ex-boyfriend is that what it was yeah ex-boyfriend went to confront her she's signing autographs yeah i believe so and then shot her and then and then her brother tackled him. Yes. And the guy fatally shot himself. Took himself out. So that happens.

I guess she died yesterday morning. And then last night is 50 people. At the time we're talking, anyways, 50 confirmed dead and 53 in the hospital. Yeah. Some guy shoots up a LBGT nightclub. Yeah, it was just, yeah, just a nightclub in Orlando and a really popular busy club at about 2 a.m. I guess he just walked in and we've since found out that he's linked

to ISIS. Is that right? I guess I'm behind. I thought, and you know how the news changes at the beginning, but I thought it was the basis for this, I thought, was homophobia. Yes, they're saying that he had vocalized to someone that he's in in miami he saw

men kissing and that made him uncomfortable so i guess that was one of the things radicalized him i did hear he was uh muslim but i did not hear of any links to isis but uh hey do you want to hear a selena gomez story i never told you. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Selena Gomez is in town. She just done Spring Breakers, and she's doing my show with Maura on Virgin. And the record company was like, you can't talk about Justin Bieber. And I remember thinking, because they were on again, off again.

I just remember thinking, well, God, all people really want to talk about is Justin Bieber. So I came up with this idea where I wrote a public service announcement because Justin Bieber was getting in all this trouble. And I had like, and the public service announcement because Justin Bieber was getting in all this trouble. And I had like, and the public service announcement would say,

Selena Gomez, on behalf of Canada, would you please take Justin Bieber back? He's going down a dark path. And it was just very cute and very funny. So we did the interview and it was wonderful and it was great. And when it was over, I said, hey, can I play something for you?

And I started to play it for her. And as soon as she heard Justin Bieber, she kind of perked up. And then she was listening. And her people that were with her from the States started hearing Justin Bieber. And it got about 10 seconds in, and they told me to stop. Yeah. And they started screaming at me and screaming at my producer. And then Selena Gomez left.

And we were, because it was after the show. It was a pre-tape. And I just remember thinking, oh, God, that went south really fast. And the guy came in and started yelling at me. And, you know, you're an F in this and an F in that. I said, hey, man, number one, you're in my studio. Number two, you didn't even hear it. It's actually very complimentary.

I'm asking Selena to take Justin Bieber back because he's going down a dark road. Right, right, right. So if you gave it the opportunity, I think you might find it funny. No, he leaves. Two minutes later, Selena gomez comes in okay he's crying and says you know that was really mean what you did to me and i just remember i just said to her that that's not what my it wasn't an ambush it was actually a really positive thing and the fallout was was ginormous i ended up in in touch magazine in america radio out of here. Radio DJ Mad Dog Bullies makes Selena Gomez

cry, which of course I'm sure was probably done by her people. It's incredibly great publicity that I was this horrible guy. So for months, the record company wouldn't even, I didn't get guests anymore. And I just remember thinking. You're like blackballed. I just remember thinking, wow. And then I then got the opportunity to meet with the record company. And I said, you know what? Every day on our show, and I know so many guys that do this, every day you swing for the fences. You know, you want to have a home run every day. You want to do the greatest radio ever.

And every once in a while, you're going to whiff. And that was just a whiff. You know, and it was not mean-spirited. And I'm not a mean-spirited person. I would never, certainly never want to bully an artist. Because I love talking to artists. And just let me say publicly again, Selena, I am so sorry

if you were upset in any way, shape, or form. I actually think she listens. Probably. She'll hear that. She should, but I mean, there you go. I mean, it was just one of those things

where that stuck with me. And is there anything worse than being told, okay, here's the interview, but you cannot ask the one thing everybody wants you to ask. Yeah, I mean,

we talked about Spring Breakers and I was very informed about her and her career she's just in a movie with ethan hawke called the getaway she was a lovely girl and very nice got all that stuff out of the way and then i saved this little bon mot for the end and i was like take a listen to this and oh it'd be like having steve anthony on and not asking him about the cocaine rumors of the early much music years well yeah yeah yeah i'm just trying to think of what a good example it would be of so i have okay so i have uh while you think of that uh i wanted jim tatty on because i was a great big sports line fan okay hebrew's been on three times right i wanted jim

tatty on and i hope i'm not in trouble for saying this i don't know what i'm allowed to say but he he said he'd come on but he didn't want to talk about the past this was his rule okay so similar to katie but katie dropped it on me just as we're starting to record and and i ignored it but yeah this was like i'm coming in but we can't talk about like sports line okay he's because he has this firm belief jim tatty that the past is the past he only moves forward he so we can keep he'll come in and talk about what he's doing now right but no sports line and i. And I said, no, thank you. No interest. Wow. Like, can you imagine?

Well, that's what I love about your show is I got to hear things about KJ, who's been a great friend for over a decade and a half, that I didn't know about him because he talked about it on your show. Or Jeff Woods talked about it on your show. You had no idea KJ was Chris James. So you got to hear that he was the same. Well, I got to hear things about, like, when I hear guys on your show, cause I'm a radio nerd. Yeah.

I want to hear where they worked, when they worked there, what skills they learned from it, what mistakes they made. I mean, if you don't talk about your past and your mistakes, how are you ever going to learn? How are you ever going to get better? And I think one of the things for me is I hear people on your show and it makes me aspire to be better at what I do. So I can only imagine cause I get, I get, uh, since being on your podcast more so so than now, I get a lot of guys that are young in the business that write me and say, hey, man, you know, how's it going? I just want to introduce myself. And I always say to them, like, if I can be of any assistance to you at any time in your career, I can give you an opinion because I've made mistakes and I've been here and I've been there and I've had success and not

success. And I don't think that we have that a lot for young broadcasters. So I'm just putting it out there. You ever want somebody to critique tape or give you advice about the market you're in or I'm your guy because I had great mentors.

I had great mentors and it's so important to have a mentor. I've been told that this program is listened to by the students at Humber College.

It should be. It should be required listening. Some professor has, I don't know if they're called professors or teachers, I have no idea. Are they profs? Yeah, are they profs? Okay. Some professor has, I don't know if they're called professors or teachers. I have no idea. Are they profs? Are they profs? Okay. So somebody has ordered

because I got a note from somebody in the class to tell me the story, which I thought was fascinating. So yeah, that's a great offer. You just mentioned Jeff Woods. So did you listen to the Jeff Woods? That's the last episode. I went to his book launch. Like Jeff Woods is... Oh, you went to the horseshoe with John Deregret. Because my daughter is soccer that night. I couldn't make it.

But I wanted to go. I wrote Jeff Woods and I said I wanted to go. Yeah. Yeah. I wrote Jeff Woods and I said, I got there for the tail end because I just got off the live drive at CFRB and I wrote Jeff

and I said, great Bowie story. The David Bowie story was incredible. Derringer's shirt was horrible. And he wrote me back because Derringer

was wearing this psychedelic button-up shirt and I was just like, great interview, terrible shirt. You know what? I really wanted to go. It was cool. I saw on Facebook, Bigel, terrible shirt. I really wanted to go. It was cool. I saw on Facebook, Big Bo Bob

was there. He told me there were a lot of radio guys there. I saw Bob, yeah. The Jeff Woods podcast, I listened to I was tweeting about it because I was flying I have a place on the East Coast and I was flying up to do these shows and it was just epic was the word I used. It was just phenomenal. It made me think, God, I'm lazy.

I've only ever done this. I've never owned a record store before. I've never been a program director before. Have you written a book? Have you considered writing a book? I don't know. Maybe someday. I think I'd be the kind of guy that might.

Look at how thick it is. The radio and records. Yeah, and there are some pictures, but it's mainly words. Jeff's got great stories. You know what I'd actually like to do is, what I'd like to do is go around to, I'd like to do an audio book because I think it's radio people. I'd like to go and interview guys in small markets to talk about the craziest shit they've ever seen.

Because you see weird stuff in small markets, things that are strange. You see stuff in big markets. I'd like to do like a series of just like vignettes with guys, which is kind of what you do, but in long form. So you have a great voice, but Jeff Woods has a special voice. Is it not so great that you wonder if it's affected? Like you wonder, does he put it on at all?

If he puts it on, he's putting it on all the time because I had a phone call with the guy. He sounded that way. He was chatting up my wife, who you just met, and then he was chatting up like my two-year-old.

Right. Same thing. So if he does put it on, it's all the time. Aren't you the sweetest little baby? You remind me of an early Van Morrison Astral Week session that I had. I can't even imitate him.

That's the thing. If you can't, I can't. He says it's because he smoked at eight years old. And bourbon. And Jeff looks like the singer from James... Metallica. From Metallica. He could be a

stunt double i got several jokes uh they thought it was a photo because i posted a photo of me and jeff wood they thought it was a photo of me and uh yeah the guy from metallica yeah because there's there's three guys in the world that look like james hatfield who else they are jeff woods yeah james hatfield and dean blendell is that right yeah dean reminds me a lot of i don't i don't know so much now i I haven't seen him lately, but back in the heyday of The Edge, he definitely had that vibe.

Speaking of Todd Shapiro. There you go. He comes full circle. He's a guy I would love to have on the show, but he's politely declined my nice invitation. Yeah, I heard your episode

with Derek where he said, you know, this really wasn't his thing. And you know, he just said, I'm going to pass, thanks. He wasn't a dick, but a lot of people just don't answer me at all just said, I'm going to pass. Thanks. He wasn't a dick. But a lot of people just don't answer me at all.

Yeah. I noticed, too, with Dean, when he was off, you didn't really hear from him. Well, he had his own podcast. I think his tweet was, when he came back to go work at the fan, was, I guess it's time to put down the remote, which I thought was pretty funny. Yeah.

That was a controversial hiring because some people don't like the guy. Yeah, but I mean, I think you sort of need that in a sports radio broadcaster. You need to have that polarizing difference of opinion. Not everybody can love you. And that was a great move for him, a great reinvention, which is so necessary in our time. And that's something you'd be open to doing, of course, like if you could, you know, finagle a nice slot on 1010, for example, we could have a Mad Dog show. Right, right.

You know, it's so funny that, I mean, maybe in another market, but for me, I listen to News Talk and just the, I said to Mike, I said, you have such a great bench. Like everybody here that does a show from morning until like two o'clock in the morning, they're all great talents, you know? And I was actually a little freaked out when they said, hey, your co-hosts are going to be, you know, Jerry Edgar is going to do a show with you. Barbara Julio is going to do a show with you. And Jim Richards is going to do a show with you. And I'm like, wait a minute, these people have their own shows and they're going to co-host with me. So I'm doing the host job and they're just going to be co-hosts. Like that's a little intimidating. And they, and they

said to me, no, not at all for them. It's a treat because you're doing the heavy lifting. They can just react as a co-host. So I did my first one with Jerry on Friday and it was, uh, I kind of felt like, um, he's, he's so great at what he does. It's almost like almost like being, you're the yarn being batted back and forth with the cat's paws. That's how incredibly talented. Is he the guy who stands up for his show? Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, I'm a stander as well.

Are you? I'm not doing it at CFRB, but I was definitely doing it at Virgin and Mix and earlier in my career because you get a better, it focuses the energy a lot better. So I actually enjoy standing. Yeah, I think, I don't know. I've never had a radio show, but I would like to think I'd be a stander. KJ's a stander

because he's like, man, he's off the mic. And Stu Jeffries is a stander, I think, isn't he? Yeah, because they do have, well, they did. I walked by him

when he was on the air once. Yeah, he has a stand-up board. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He has a stand-up board. That's funny. Some people are standers and some are sitters. Yeah.

So, Agar, that show went well. It was fun. Have you done the Barb one yet? Barb's next week and Jim Richards is next week. I'm doing three more shows. Jim Richards, man. But, yeah, all the podcasts are up at CFRB.com. Cool.

That's cool. I think it's 1010CFRB.com. I'm not sure. News Talk 1010. On my Twitter. On my Twitter. Mad Dog is live. There you go.

Yeah. They're all there. Yeah. But, yeah, it's a fun station. Sorry to answer your question their their talent is so their roster is so strong that all i could really hope would that maybe down the road some other talk station might have heard me and thought hey you might be cool to do a show here but i'd be open to that i mean i just love radio i just love it so much i'll do just about what's the gig man what do you need chfi new year's i'm

in yeah i heard that yeah so you did okay okay let's go back then let's do this okay last we talked to you you're half of mad dog and mora yeah that's right virgin radio yeah so since then uh maybe you could tell me like what happened why did virgin say goodbye to mad dog um i think why did they say goodbye to me well Well, it was, as far as I can tell, it was simply, like Jeff talked about, it was money. You know, we need to save money to serve our shareholders, so we need to save X amount of dollars, so where do we go? So across the country, you saw guys like myself, my brother, Mark Michaels, who was at Virgin in Calgary, Tarzan Dan, just about anybody that was the morning guy that made the most money at the station, you left and everybody got moved up a slot and they didn't hire new people or they brought someone in that was cheaper. And, you know, I got the, we're going in a new direction

was what I was told. But I mean, it happens to everybody. So you have to take it with a grain of salt. And for me, the toughest part of it was our show was doing really good. And that's blood, sweat, and tears, and passion, and giving of yourself. And then it gets taken away, and you feel as if, when it doesn't do as well after you leave, you think, well, why did you do that in the first place? We were doing so well.

I was a top five show. My brother was just an iota out of number one in Calgary, and he got gassed as well. And it was like, wow, if our talent's no longer our commodity, how are we going to survive? Oh, right. So when they say goodbye to Mad Dog, they bring in Tucker from another market.

Yeah. What market? Do you remember? Scott is from London. He was working at Virgin Radio in London. Okay. Yeah. And I noticed the name of the show

lost the Maura part. She's on the show, but she's not billed in the title, I don't think. I think it's like Tucker in the Mornings or something like that. Yeah, yeah. All right, so Maura's still there.

Yeah, Maura's on Mat Leaf. She just had a baby, Harvest Marie. Really, Harvest? Harvest Marie. I don't think I've ever heard that name. She did the birth at home, so anybody that knows Maura, that's right in tune with Maura. She's very much an earth mother.

Okay. So yeah. So she's got to be in her glory. Congratulations to her. No, that's excellent. And her husband's a sweetheart. Cool. No, I'm happy for Maura.

My aunt's name is Maura. I like the name Maura. But I have... So Tucker comes in. And are you suggesting that the numbers, like when we talk about ratings, were better? Like, Mad Dog and Maura had better numbers than Tucker in the morning.

Yes. Interesting. Interesting. But not in and of itself unusual. You know what I mean? You're a bigger name in the market, and if I were a betting man, I would guess you would have a bigger audience than a new name dropping in that no one's heard of.

Hey, that's hard. Anytime you come into a market and you're new, it's really tough, and it takes a long time to build up that audience. How long does it take? How long has it been? It takes five years for people to remember your name, generally.

I find the whole ratings just came out, and then I had people like, when are you going to write about it? I'm like, I don't, like I don't really. Are they not the most tightly guarded thing in the world? It's funny that we know

celebrity salaries for movies. We know the ratings for every TV show that comes out. But when it comes to radio ratings, they're just like, keep the ratings,

keep the ratings in the vault. We can't tell some people to learn about the ratings. And you can find like, for adults over the age of 12, these are the numbers. But like, what does people learn about the ratings. And you can find like for adults over the age of 12, these are the numbers. But like, what does that mean? Because we already know whenever you talk to a radio guy, like we target males 1834

and we don't give a shit about anyone else. That's pretty much, that's a sweet spot for everybody. It's females 1834 and adults 1834. That's your money demo. No one cares about old guys like me. No, you guys are kind of lumped in with sort of the other. Well, there's like a station like CHFI, though.

For them, it's like 2554 and 1849. So they are a little bit higher. And Chum FM, is that up there, too? Chum FM is a monster. I know you're younger than the Chum FM CHFI crowd. Not you, but the old you. The virgin. Right, yeah.

Okay. All right. So then I guess if you get a hold of these numbers, I don't know, you find these numbers somewhere and you say, hey, how come... Yeah, it's funny. Sometimes they magically appear in my inbox. And you know what it is? And it's not to take away from anybody. It's that people that are

in my industry, when you're not working, they want to look out for you. So you'll get a note from someone that goes, I can't believe they let you go because you were doing so well and look at where they are now. And you have to sort of look at it within the third person.

So that would cause like, okay, so who is it? Bell Media, right? And I know you're going to be careful here because you're auditioning for a Bell Media company right now. Yeah. So this is Mike talking here

that it must cost, we're talking big cash. Like if ratings go down from a Mad Dog and Maura to like, I'm assuming the money lost is greater than that rock and roll salary. They were paying you like, like from a business standpoint, one would think, yeah.

So radio is kind of messed up that way. Right. Cause it's not like you were, no one ever said a Mad Dog sucks on this show or he's the problem. And at some point, and here's, this is one thing I got to ask you about. So when it was Mad Dog and Billy and the branding on that i gotta tell you

like huge even if you didn't listen to mad dog and billy you knew who they were yeah still that's the great that was that's how great rogers is still thinking together i bet because they're still talking about roger rick and marilyn he hasn't been there in how long you know what i mean that's right that's right yeah so uh so okay okay so when you were on the show and you were very honest about the fact, and you tell me if I'm paraphrasing wrong, but basically it's almost like you went to management and said it's her or me, something like that, right? And by her, I mean Billy.

With Billy? No, no. Actually, what happened was, and it's in podcast 92. 92, yeah. Yeah. How it happened is I was going to turn down a contract because I just got representation in the States at the time. Right.

And I was thinking about literally recreating my entire career and going to America and trying something different because I didn't feel that the show was growing anymore. And Billie herself has said that she was going through a rough time and she needed a change and she needed a rest. So what I did was I went to them and said, look, I'm turning down your deal. Thank you very much. And then, of course, it became, what do you mean you're turning down our deal? Let's talk. So then we had a conversation, and I said,

look, here's some scenarios that might work. We might need to recast. You might want to recast me. You might want to recast Billy. I don't know that we're growing. I don't know that we're in a good place. Or I'm going to leave, or I'm going to stay, and here's some scenarios.

And then they came to me and said, we're going to make some changes. See, I'm a lousy paraphraser. I'm glad to leave or I'm going to stay, and here's some scenarios. And then they came to me and said, you know, we're going to make some changes. See, I'm a lousy paraphraser. I'm glad you could clarify that. No, it's interesting, too, because Maura then comes in, who had been Billy's understudy, and we worked very closely together for two years or three years or however long it was. And again, this is not a personal dig at Maura

because I think Maura is kind of a private person. I've spoken to Maura once since I left. She sent me a text that day when she found out that said, hey, sucks about today. And I just wrote her back and I said, hey, well, at least I won Word Wars today, which is a segment we did on the show, which was a game. And she's like, yeah.

And that was it. And that was it. Wow. But that's something like there's different radio people. Like, for instance, Steve Roberts and I, Steve left my show. He was fired. He goes to CHFI. There was never a period in there where we didn't talk just about every day and we still talk just about every day. But Maura isn't that type of person. And I'm okay with that. Like you can go home and have your life and I'll go home and have my life. We don't have to hang out on the weekends and we can still

be great on the radio. Sure. And Billy and I were never, we never hung out outside of the show either. You don't need to have that, but I'm not necessarily that type of guy. Like I, I feel pretty invested in the people that I work with. So that,

I mean, that's kind of stung a bit that she didn't, you know, reach out. But I guess she's just trying to, it's awkward. It's awkward for someone, right?

It's probably awkward. And you're just trying to preserve your gig. And you know what? She's probably going through a lot of stuff there. Her name got taken off the show. To me,

that, who was it who said, was it somebody? The problem with the 100 and whatever this is, 78, is some of my stories are blurring.

I can't remember who it was, but somebody said, get your name on the show. Don't let it be the morning show. It's got to be, get your name on the show. They took her name off the show.

There's two things that you need to have, really. You need your name on the show and you need the commercials for the radio station to feature your name or your face, and not just a montage of artists, which is what we see so much.

Oh, right, right, right. I mean, there's Kiss Radio now straight across the country. There's Virgin Radio right across the country. So they just run the same commercials in every market with the same four artists. But when I see the Aaron and Darren commercial, or the Raz and Mo but when i see the aaron and darren commercial right or the rosa mocha commercial yes or the roger and maryland commercials which are fantastic yeah i i just i jump up and down and applaud for my fellow personalities because you're

in the spots those might be the only three though i can think of you name the three yeah but look how huge they are yeah and when rosa mocha came into the market and they were competing against us i said to i said to the folks at astral at the time, I'm like, I know how Rogers works. They're going to spend money on this show starting today, and they will never stop. They'll be on buses. They'll be on TV. And they will become huge because they will put money behind it. I know they put money behind me, and it really helps.

And after every book, they'd be like, what's going on? What should we do? And I'd be like, they're going to keep spending money. It's branding. And the Raz and Mocha brand is huge. after every book, they'd be like, what's going on? What should we do? And I'd be like, they're going to keep spending money. You know, it's branding. And the Razamoka brand is huge. And they just won

Morning Show of the Year at Canada Music Week, which is frigging fantastic. I mean, that's a great show. They've both been on this show. That's right. Another good sign

that they're a decent folk. Eventually, everybody feels the pressure. They're like, I guess I'll come. Raz must have smoked his head down i was gonna say he's one of the big three there's like three giants that came down here and ross is one of them ross is tall man yeah for sure so okay so do you have any contact

at all with billy none none because she just tweeted that she's gonna be on the move 93.5 yeah that's awesome. Congratulations. It's so great for her. And there's no, obviously, you're not in contact with Billie. I always have these little thoughts in my head. Billie's going there. Mad Dog would sound good there. Is there any talk of reconciliation in the bank? Only because I've seen a popular duo on Toronto Radio not talk for a long time.

Yeah, and then get back together. And then patch up and get back together. I've seen it. Right, yeah. So it does happen. Oh, I think if we were approached, we'd probably both absolutely consider it, to be honest with you.

So you would never like, there's no thought in your head of sort of preemptive strike, like, hey. Of not doing it? No, of like reconciling with Billy and then marketing yourselves. Well, I don't think that there's anything that we need to reconcile. Do you know what I mean? I don't think

there's anything we need to necessarily iron out. It would be like, would you guys do a show together? Then we should get in a room and have a conversation and look at each other and say, do you want to do a show together? And I think, because that's the thing is, she's that talented. And here's one of the other things about it is you cannot buy

chemistry. no matter how much money you spend on your morning show if they don't have chemistry it's not going to work and her and i had chemistry in the first five minutes and that's why it works but then why did it break down i guess and i don't want to repeat the 92 stuff i know you've done this before but you have chemistry with billy and at some point you essentially you don't want to work with her anymore that's not even so much that is just that we weren't enjoying each other's company as much You have chemistry with Billie, and at some point, essentially, you don't want to work with her anymore. Yeah, it's not even so much that. It's just that we weren't enjoying each other's company as much.

And I think that can be just a growth thing. Had they have said, you know, why don't you guys take a break from each other, and we'll bring you back together after that, that might have worked. Who knows? But it's so tough to forecast, you know what I mean? And to look back on it, I just know what I lived through,

and it just wasn't, we weren't having fun. I got to make sure sure i don't go too hard on you because you'll start cracking open those beers no i'm pretty good i'm pretty safe don't you worry hey uh quick aside is did somebody graffiti mad dog is a wanker on your house yeah and then uh when i went to chfi right and it i somebody told me uh you said it was an Aaron Davis fan. Is this a joke or is this real? Oh, because it was when Aaron got let go

and Billy and I went into CHFI. Right, and it was some Aaron Davis fan who pissed off thinking you took Yeah,

I remember them. I had security that monitored my house for about a week. And it was Mad Dog is a Wanker? Is that an exact quote or did they soften that?

I think it was, I really doubt I said it was an Aaron Davis fan. It was probably a Kiss 92 fan because they had killed Kiss 92 and put us over there. So they probably thought I was a sellout or a wanker.

You know, that's why I... Great word. You know, why are people interested in, you know, Ann Romer coming back a third time? This is like a, this Toronto radio scene

is like a soap opera. There's just a great excitement. Aaron goes down here, Aaron comes back, Mad Dog and Billy move over here, a great excitement. Aaron goes down here. Aaron comes back. Mad Dog and Billy move over here. Humble and Fred move out. Stu Jeffries comes in. Like it's, you know, the parts, the people are the same.

These people, if you just whiteboard it like the wire. I love people that say, how can you recycle the same people over and over again? Well, because they're great. Because they're great. And they're familiar voices and faces. And it might work and it might not. Like, personally, I think that, you know, and I've made, I have no problem talking about it because I have actively promoted to be the morning guy on the move.

I have talked to management multiple times and said, I think that if you ever reunited Mad Dog and Billy on the radio on the move, it would be massive because you're playing the music that Billy and I played when it was new. Right. The Backstreet Boys and Ensign, Christina Aguilera and Destiny's Child. And people have that mindset when they talk to me. It's like, you were my show when I was in high school.

You were my show in university. You were my show when I got my first job. So to bring us back in that capacity, as it is a bit of a retro station. Yeah, it is. I think it's a no-brainer. There's a lot of Fugees on that station. Not my decision to make, but. So when you have a great idea that just makes sense does it ever get to a meeting or a coffee like the right people oh yeah i've told i've i've met with everybody i've met with everybody

everywhere and pitched them a number of things because you have to you know you you got to be not everybody can can say that i'll never have to audition again as long as I live. Sure. And you want, make no mistake about it, you want to be back in radio. Oh, yeah. And ideally in the city, is that right? I haven't left. I'm just not working. I'm just not working as much as I'd like to. You know what I mean? But I'm still working. I'm also very much, I'm a proactive person. I'm not going to sit back and wait for the phone to ring. If I see something that I think would be a great opportunity, there's jobs I've turned down. There's jobs that

I've applied for and not got. Like I just said, I don't have any problem saying it. Put me on the move. It'll be massive and I'll improve your ratings. You guys need it. The aforementioned Erin Davis, she comes up a lot in these Toronto Radio discussions, but her long-time

co-host, Mike Cooper, who came over from the Easy Rock. It's all in 92, the sort of history of what happened there uh he retires yeah so on the surface you look at that and you go mike mike cooper is retiring who would it makes you need a big name a big brand name to slip in beside aaron because that they're printing money over there and let's keep that going yeah so you're an obvious like candidate. Oh, I think my name was mentioned. Yeah.

My name was mentioned along with other ones. When you hear, okay, Mike Cooper is retiring. Is it like right away you're like, I'm going to make some calls? Is that how it works? And you're going to put out some feelers?

I don't even think the calls were necessary. I mean, they knew I would have loved to work with Aaron, that I'd love to be on CHFI. So it was a given that I would want my name to be considered. But I think in that instance, the Mad Dog baggage comes into play.

Number one, I was on that station once and it didn't work out very well because of whatever reason, the music or Billy and I weren't a right fit. Because you weren't a Mad Dog, you were Jay Michaels. Yeah, or I wasn't the right fit at the time. So I think going with Darren was, for them, it made the most sense because he was on such a huge show, and he's Darren B. Lamb,

and he's fabulously talented, and it just makes more sense at the time. That was the decision that they made. Okay, so there's a domino effect. So Darren B. Lamb, as I remember, he steps down, but he can't say where he's going. I guess there's some contractual stuff. So he says, I'm going to be back, but I can't say where he's going. I guess there's some contractual stuff. So he says, I'm going to be back, but I can't say when and where.

Now that's an opening. That's been a three-man booth since like 86 or something like that. And very successful. My buddy Rick Hodge was there forever and he moved on. And then they slipped in. And I tried to get in that room too. That's right. Absolutely. Right.

So that's what I'm saying. Roger, Jay, and Marilyn. That's right. Absolutely. So that's what I'm saying. Roger, Jay, and Marilyn. It's rolling off my tongue. First of all, it would have been Roger, Marilyn, and Jay. Is that right? Yeah. Or if anything, it should be Marilyn, Roger, and Jay. But I thought you got to keep the song or whatever. In that instance,

I don't think they... I applied for it. I made myself known to be... I would love the gig if there is a gig. But I think they realized, and rightly so, you don't think they, I applied for it. You know, I made myself known to be, I would love the gig if there is a gig. But I think they realized, and rightly so, you don't need a third on that morning show on Chum FM. The show is Roger and Marilyn. It has always been Roger and Marilyn. And it will always be Roger and Marilyn.

They don't need anybody else. And they've also started using Caitlin, their producer, a lot more in the air too, which is great. And they're just such a great show. By the way, have you ever met Ingrid Schumacher? Yeah, I know Ingrid. Yeah, just only mentioning that because she came over

a couple of weeks ago and I've decided she's the longest serving Toronto radio personality to be at that same station the longest. Even more than Wally Crowder? Well, I mean active.

Active, right. Oh, still working. Yeah, still working and longest. So she's got that title if we don't count Traffic Guys on 6 working and longest. So she's got that title, if we don't count Traffic Guys on 680. Right.

Because there's a... Russ Holman. Russ, right. Who's that? Daryl Dahmer. Daryl Dahmer. I think he's got a couple of years on Ingrid. I had Fly Guy and Double J. They were my guys.

Oh, yeah? Fly Guy. You know, speaking of Colleen Rusholm, she used to do different names and voices for some service that would do this for Toronto Radio. So that was like something she used to do, which I thought was kind of amusing. But okay, so yeah, so it makes sense to have you fill in,

you know, all these big morning show spots you gun for and then just miss out on. And then hopefully something changes on that front soon because I don't know how many opportunities there are in radio. I don't work in radio. Well, I mean, there's opportunities all across the country, but there are less opportunities right now

for big shows because so many people are on the sidelines. When a guy like Jeff Woods is let go, which makes no sense. Right. And you get guys like Todd Shapiro and there's just so many names. There's just less gigs and there's less money.

So you have to be willing to reinvent. You to be willing to to hustle just a little bit but i mean i'm very fortunate i'm pretty versatile i could do just about i have done almost every format including classic rock and country and top 40 and now news talk so i also you know because i have been off and i have had time to do this. I also hooked up with a consulting firm slash headhunter. And I've actually talked with people in the United Arab Emirates about working in Dubai. Get out of here. Which would be a pretty sweet gig. So I'm on a roster for that. If something comes up, I might go to Europe or, you know, it's a pretty portable job. I wouldn't mind working in a beach city, you know, working in, you know, probably not going to get on Cuban radio right away, but maybe in Cancun or something like that. I mean, I just love the

medium so much. I just know that I need to, in getting back to turning down jobs, I just need to know that the right job I take is the one that's the best for me and for my family. Like, it's a bigger, it's bigger than just me. And I don't want to just jump at something to have a gig, you know? So until the money runs out, I'm going to be, I'm going to be picky. Jeff Woods told a great story about how he learned he was fired Q107 last year. If you listen to that episode, he just talks about, you know, he was told to go to me. He tells it great. I'm not even going to bother telling it.

So how were you told? Was it like, hey, come in for a meeting and then someone there have a piece of paper, a portfolio binder or whatever? Show ends on a Wednesday. Yeah. So how were you told? Was it like, hey, come in for a meeting? Someone there with a piece of paper, a portfolio binder or whatever? Show ends on a Wednesday. Yeah. Get a text message that says, hey, can you come upstairs and see me? I go upstairs and my boss isn't in the normal place that he is. And he opens up a door and says, hey, we're in here.

And as soon as he said that, I knew I was done. You knew it, yeah. And then I walked in and it was my boss and my boss's boss and the HR person and the manila envelope. And I just remember going, oh, wow, I did not expect this. But I mean, it was, it was fine. I mean, what's the sense of getting upset? I mean, it's a done deal for me. And you know, I'll, I want to, I want to make sure that I get this in. So even if it doesn't make sense right now, there's a girl I need to thank. Her name is Sarah Buchanan. And Sarah did a petition online that said, I forget what it says exactly.

There is no Virgin Radio morning show without Mad Dog and blah, blah, blah. And the response was fantastic. But what I took away from it was, reading people's comments, there wasn't a single person that said, you played the best Justin Bieber song. All the comments were, I love how you talked about your wife. I love how you All the comments were, I love how you talked about

your wife. I love how you talked about your kids. I love how you talked about your struggles. And I love how you talked about yourself and how you were real. And that to me is just a testament to what radio audiences are like in Toronto. We grow so accustomed to these personalities. So to have that living forever on the internet, for me, it's just such a treat that people will go and look at that and see. I mean, if you're hiring somebody, that's the kind of stuff you want to read. Like I would never hire anybody anymore

without reading their Twitter feed and their Facebook feed. And if they're not posting all the time and not talking about themselves and their lives, it's if it's only- Well, you got to talk to KJ about that. I can't get him on Twitter. Yeah, exactly.

If it's only ever like pictures of food, you know, if you don't have something to say, a commentary on what's going on around you, why would I ever put you on the radio? So I would hope that that's going to serve me well as I find the next gig. And it has already served me well because I never would have gotten the opportunity

to be on CFRB if they hadn't thought that I could go a little bit deeper. You know, they want you to call it News Talk 1010 now because I once called it CFRB and I heard from somebody who nicely asked me to please call it News Talk 1010. Just say News Talk 1010? Yeah.

Okay. I got you. In-depth, time- to please call it News Talk 1010. Just say News Talk 1010? Yeah. Okay. I got you. In-depth, time-saver traffic on News Talk 1010. So, okay. And you have no fears that they're just looking for guys half your age, you do it for half the money? But that's always been... That's not just radio, right? That's a corporate fear everywhere.

Yeah, it's always been the case. It's always been the case that they'll try and hire somebody cheaper. And when I came here to Toronto, I was the youngest guy in the market. I was 29 years old. And I wasn't making nearly as much money as the big guys were making. And that got better as time went on. But that will never end. You can't bemoan that fact about the industry.

You just have to go where you're then needed. And I don't necessarily want to be 29-year-old Jay anymore anyway. I like to be able to talk about more than... I have a deeper pool to draw from now. You know, I'm pretty well read. I like a lot of cool things in pop culture and history. And I like to be able to talk about the eighties if I want to talk about the eighties, cause I'm an eighties baby. Yeah. I like to, I like to not be told, don't talk about that. They'll think you're old. Well, they're going to know anyway. Just let them know how old Roger Ashby is next time they drop that line on you. Yeah, yeah.

Roger started at Chum FM the year I was born in 1969. It's just, you know what I mean? Just such an unbelievable. And that's the struggle right now, I think, that CHFI is having against Chum FM is that every day that Aaron and Darren are on CHFI trying to find their way together live across town. You have Roger and Marilyn who are the same every single day, and they've got that 35 years of heritage to draw from. So it's a pretty big deal to put this new morning show together,

and it's a pretty big deal for them to be under that microscope of not only are we trying to do great radio every day, but we need to develop a relationship. And that all goes back to the chemistry thing that you cannot buy it. You cannot manufacture it. It's either there or it's not. And Maura and I had a chemistry, but it wasn't as deep as the chemistry that Billy and I had together where we just got each other's sensibilities. You know, I've been so fortunate that just with everybody I've ever worked with, I've had a great time with them. And I think that's just because I just enjoy working with other people like the Ryan Doyles and the Jim Richards of the world and stuff like that. So there's just so many great talents out there. But that's an interesting struggle that they're facing. And like I said,

it's public. You know what I mean? Every day you're being judged. These ratings that just came out, the ones I did not write about because- You didn't have them. I didn't have them. And then I didn't think I could do it justice and then I didn't, you know, it's like, oh, here they are

but it's like, what does that mean? Like, who's got these devices and it just, I don't know, the sample size is a little small.

It's ridiculous. Like, literally, if two people have those little pagers, you can, your ratings can increase by a few share points which is utterly ridiculous.

It seems ripe for corruption as they say. Like, sniff out who's got one and meet them in a dark alley. To me, what's stupid is they did diaries first, and then they were going to go to this, and it was going to be better. And I have a friend who was approached to do it,

and he wouldn't do it because they wanted him to, I swear to God, Mike, strap the devices on his babies. He's like, what, am I going to pin them on their diapers? On my twin girls? So he just sent them back. So it's such a messed up. I just think that eventually you'll be able to just know from our phones and know from our cars who we're listening to. And here's the best thing about it. When you do get the data back, I think it'll be different,

but it won't be necessarily as different. There's no doubt that CHFI is a huge radio station because you hear it everywhere. And there's no doubt that Roger and Marilyn are the biggest show in the city because you just know, because they've been that big for that long and their audience is that big. You just say the words beat the bank, boom, you immediately think of Chum FM. So I don't think it would change all that much anyways.

It only really would maybe help out the fringier stations, the smaller stations to maybe do a little bit better if it was a bit more, you know, regulated? Yeah, I don't know. Like, I'm sure there's a lot more people to listen to Indy 88 than the ratings actually dictate. And I'm not an expert on these most recent books, but I did read somebody's analysis that 88 had taken a chunk out of the 102.1.

And rightly so. That's exactly what you're hoping to do. Like, they're punching way above their weight in Liberty Village. And it's a lean shop. I applied there too. I applied for that morning show too. Right. Yeah. Raina just took over there. I was politely told, yeah, no. Did they say, no, that, you know, Bookie's there. He's an old man. Here's the thing. I wrote, I wrote Q107. I wrote Blair Q107. I wrote the guys at the edge. I wrote everybody because I just want to work. And if you don't see me in that light at your station, well, that's okay.

That doesn't mean I can't do it, like your Kid Craig's who was on a Virgin Radio. So often we just get typecast, right? That's a good point. Kid Craig's got a show. Yeah, and he was totally a top 40 guy, but he's not a top 40 guy. You don't go home and listen to the music

on your station anyways. See, I assume Kid Craig will work for much less than Mad Dog, and that's why Kid Craig is there and Mad Dog's sitting here in my basement. I don't know. Am I way over the lunch on that? I don't know. I also think that, you know, with a station like The Edge, you know, it's like, yeah, you know we're The Edge,

and, like, you're a top 40 guy, and our audience will hate you. Right, okay. But I guarantee you, if I went on and did that show with Fred and Mel, and I just said I was Jay Michaels, and we just sat here and did what we're doing, people wouldn't even know who I was. They'd either just like it or they wouldn't. And Blundell spent all that time trashing you, so trying to poison the 102 audience.

Yeah, he really had it out for me. I asked Billy about that. I thought he was harder on Billy, I think, than you. But he said some awful things about you both, actually. Did he accuse you of stealing from him? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Which is the classic Howard Stern move, right? Everybody steals from me.

Yeah. Which is interesting because, and I know I talked about this in the podcast too, is we all look at the same stories every day. Right. So to give me shit for talking about Survivor or the Leafs, how's that stealing from you?

No. But it's also one of those things that, it's an adversarial, either, you know, it's one of two things, either Dean Blundell legitimately hates my guts, or he needed a target, and I was a big, fluffy, top

40 target to go after. Which makes sense, because that Edge radio back then was adversarial. It was very much a, we're the Edge army, and they're dickheads over there. They suck, and they play crap music and boy bands, so we'll make them a target.

Right, right. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they started to sort of slowly like devour themselves. You know, next thing you know

Jason Barr's out and then Shapiro's out and it's like your friend Billy's there and then everybody's out. I think Todd was the voice of reason on that show and I think that's maybe

why it went the way it did because Todd is a very gentle, kind human being who was performing when he was on the edge. That wasn't him. He really was. It was a character. It was a character.

He really likes grilled cheese. He loves the grilled cheese. How did the New Year's Eve, you mentioned New Year's Eve on CHFI. Yep. And you were teasing that. And I was having fun with it on Twitter, like trying to guess like where you're going

because you dropped some clues and I was trying to figure it out. So how did that come to be? Was that sort of an audition? Yeah, absolutely. Because everything's an audition as we talked about. Yeah, everything is an audition. And I hadn't been on CHFI in a really long time. And my name came up because they needed somebody on New Year's. And Julie Adam and Wendy Duff, who's the program director at CHFI, they called me and they said, hey, do you want to do a one-off on

New Year's Eve? And I said, yeah, of course. It's funny because I just realized that I still haven't invoiced them for that show. Really? Because the last thing in my mind was the money. All I wanted to do was the show because I couldn't wait to get on the air. Did you get any feedback?

Great feedback. Yeah, really good feedback. They were both very, very supportive and very kind. And they said, you know, you really engaged our audience and you clearly can talk to a CHFI audience. And to me, it was like, well, of course I can. This is what I do for a living. But what it did for me was it proved to them that I could do it. So that was why it was a great audition. And it was six hours of commercial free radio. And my son, Mike Dustin, produced my show.

Get out of here. I did my call screening. It's a real cool, real cool moment for me. That's very cool. Would you ever consider a job outside of radio, or is it like radio or bust, like it's in your blood? I see the tattoo. Yeah, the on-air tattoo. I actually just came from a touch-up that I'm my other arm. This one says family, and it's an anchor underneath it.

But this is my radio side of my body. I've got the big on-air symbol, and this is my family side. That's my wife's name, Cher Baron. I don't care about her there. Would I consider a job outside of radio? You know, I always used to say to people, they're like,

hey man, you want to be a program director? And I'd be like, no, I can never program. Why? Because when you leave for lunch, you have to come back.

I like going in at five o'clock in the morning and kicking up the jams and doing my show and having a meeting and planning and being home by noon. I love morning radio.

I just, it's ridiculous how much I love it. So you're okay with that ungodly 3.30 a.m. Oh yeah ridiculous how much I love it. So you're okay with that ungodly 3.30 a.m. alarm or whatever? Oh, yeah. I love it. There was no greater feeling than driving past the CN Tower at 4.30 in the morning on the way to the radio station. It's the biggest

adrenaline rush you could ever have. And I had that when I worked in Truro, Nova Scotia, and I had that when I worked in Halifax. And I'll probably have it forever. It is in my blood. But I mean, I don't know what I do, man. Like, I don't know what I do. Like, I'm thinking like communications, PR. The PR guy?

Yes. You know what I'd be good at? You're a well-spoken guy who can deliver a message on point. You know what I'd be great at, I think, is if companies that need someone to decipher ratings and tell you what they actually mean so that the bullshit you're hearing from the sales department at the radio station you're buying from.

The spin, yeah. The spin, I can disseminate so that the bullshit you're hearing from the sales department at the radio station you're buying from the spin yeah the spin i can disseminate all that information for you so say if you're a large car like your dawn valley north lexus's if you need somebody to translate that speaks sales and speaks on air maybe that's maybe that's my future like that because i could totally do that i'd be like yeah they're full of shit i'm just curious i know a part wasn't the same as you but it was somebody doing the weekend swing shifts and weekends on virgin who left and become like a salesforce.com consultant oh yeah and never looked back okay like and she's happier now and making way more money than she was but again she wasn't uh she didn't have a morning show permanent she was doing they were apparently paying her an hourly rate to do the weekend stuff in the

swing shift there's a guy on um c100 in halifax his name's JC Douglas. Super talented guy. And JC left the business for a while and was a 911 dispatcher for a few years. Then he went back and now he's on Morning 7 now. That's like David Lee Roth. Yeah, he was a paramedic. He was an EMS guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he had the shortest radio gig ever

on replacing Howard Stern. Right, that's right. Lasted like a week. Who the hell thought that? That's one of those decisions where you're like, what are you thinking? I forgot about that.

It's funny. There's a podcast I got to listen to of Artie Lang on it because he's talking about his breakup of Howard Stern. Oh, yeah. I'm into all that.

Like, what happened? I thought Artie was a funny dude. Yeah. Too fat to fish. Pick up the book if you're a radio kid. Such a great book. Artie Lang, funny dude. Yeah, too fat to fish. Pick up the book if you're a radio kid. Such a great book. Artie Lang, what an amazing storyteller.

And what a tragic figure. He's just not a happy guy. Although still, yeah, but still kicking. Yeah, and he's got his own show. He's got his own TV show in New York City. Yeah, he's... Nights with Artie Lang. The Artie Lang Show.

Is that, because is he, there's an HBO thing or something that he's in? He's involved in something. Yeah, he's on like... Something new? It's the D or something that he's in? He's involved in something. Yeah, he's on like... Something new? It's the Dish Network that he's on in America. But it's a show that he does every night and it's his show per se, just him. Wow.

Yeah, but he was great on Sturdy. Yeah, I root for Artie Lang. And he was buddies with Norm MacDonald, who I always thought was a funny mofo. Norm's very funny. Yeah. Very dry. And they filmed Dirty Work. I used to live down the street from Dirty Work. and arty lang i think is in that too but uh there's a cameo in that by chris

farley which anyways dirty work was like it's an underappreciated piece by uh norm mcdonald arty lang talks about filming dirty work in toronto and overpaying hookers because he didn't know the color coding of our money yeah he had to leave uh i think it was on jane street near annette where most of that dirty work stuff was going on i think he'd have to to leave, I think it was on Jane Street near Annette where most of that dirty work stuff was going on. I think he'd have to leave that area to get the hookers. But, okay, so, yeah, that was my Artie Lang update. But, okay, so... What else you got?

Alan T. wants to know if you would rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses. That's his big question the hundred ducks the hundred the hundred as opposed to the one yeah yeah you know that's a great question it reveals a lot your answer always reveals a great deal really what no that's a stupid question uh do you listen in like are you listening to a lot of radio these days you know what i had to do I had this conversation with someone recently. I had to stop listening in Toronto.

I couldn't listen anymore because I was starting to spite the people that had jobs. I could see that. And I didn't, and I would critique them. Like, why does this guy have a gig and I don't? This guy sucks. Yeah, I couldn't listen to Virgin. I just couldn't.

It was too close to my heart, and it just made me sad to listen to. Especially Tucker, right? Why would you want to hear the guy they took? Well, yeah yeah why would you want to listen to the guy yeah exactly and and i know that's not personal that's a business decision and of course he's going to take the gig you'd have to but i couldn't listen to them so i'd listen to other people and i would i would just i got to a point where i knew that i wasn't in a positive space anymore and i'm a positive person and i love radio so much that i don't want to spite these people. And I'm not that guy. So I

just stopped listening completely. And I just listened exclusively to Satellite. So I would listen to Stern every day. I would listen to the morning show on the highway, which is a country morning show, which is great. I listened to the Hits One crew, who are like a very zoo-y based. And I would listen to shows from other parts of the country, like Vancouver and Calgary, but could not listen because it just made me angry. And as soon as I would listen to shows from other parts of the country like Vancouver and Calgary but could not listen because it just made me angry and as soon as I stopped listening to Toronto Radio in the morning it just everything got better you could always try uh Matt Galloway on Metro Morning that'll calm you down a bit yeah that's a pretty chill show eh you know ads which I love uh I guess you can't do that on Virgin but uh yeah no ads and it's just uh to me it still

feels like a show that it's they're not going to gun for the lowest common denominator we're not going to lead with yeah like taylor swift broke up with whoever like that's not going to be your lead story yeah everybody's got the same entertainment stories they just call it something different it's a little refreshing that you might lead with something that actually matters and well that's one of the great things about news talk is you can still be you know pop, pop culture centric, but you're getting deeper on stuff. And just the conversations that I've got to have in the couple of days I've been on the air, it's like, what'd you talk about today? Well, we talked about rats, we talked about vacations, we talked about Gordie

Howe, we talked about, you know, the Canada 1972 Summit series. And, you know, we told stories that I forgot I even knew about. And that's, I like that. I really enjoy that aspect of it. And they're doing very well over there at Newstalk 1010. They just had a huge book. Yeah. Barb DiGiulio, who does the evening show,

I got this stat. From this year to last year, she's up 62%. Because she used to do it with John Downs, right? John Downs. And for the longest time, I think she had wanted

her own show. I'm not sure when she was somewhere else and they wouldn't give her one because she was a woman. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's nowhere else for her. Now look at her, man. She's got her own show. I'm not sure if when she was somewhere else and they wouldn't give her one because she was a woman. Oh yeah. Fan 590. Yeah.

And now look at her. There's nowhere else for her. Now look at her, man. She's got her own show by herself and she's. Okay. I'm going to take partial credit because she, between the two gigs, Fan 590 and 1010, she came on this show.

Right. And look at her now. Well, maybe I'm sitting in the magic seat. It goes both ways. Somebody, because I also had Greg Brady on this show. Right. And Jeff Samet as well. And they were let go the same day.

I was actually let go the day after I was on CFRB, on News Talk 1010. Okay. That's a great point. I did the show with Ryan. Right. The next day. There's that radio forum.

I think they shut down. Soundy. Soundy Board. Soundy. shut down. Saony. The Saony board. Saony. South Ontario. Western New York. Although, never talk about Western New York. The yellow board.

Yeah, the yellow board. Oh, that board, it's literally, it's got to be the same five guys. Yeah, like old chum guys or something, right? Yeah. Who think, yeah. So when you were let go, I saw something there because I was I'm curious too why my buddy Mad Dog is gone and I did not write this

because my only source was this yellow board which is not a good source at all except somebody said there that you were going to be starting on 1010 and you were just leaving

this was the rumor on Saturday you must have read this yourself I may have it doesn't really ring a bell there was no truth in that at all no it's just

it just spins somebody I don't remember the names of these people and this was a different incarnation of that board. Yeah, it's different now. Yeah. I think Ian Grant is running it like the quieters. I find now the people that I go to to get industry stuff

is I go to Milkman and I go to you and I go to 1236 with Mark Weisblatt. I love that. Who's coming over next week. If you don't have that, if you're not subscribing to that little email every single day, you don't know your city of Toronto

because he's so inside. It's fantastic stuff. And it's a really well put together little thing too. And what's great about it is, you know, you actively ask for it and I watch for it every day. I'm like, oh, there's my 1236. I said, well, yeah,

I had him on a few weeks ago, Mark Weisblatt from 1236. And his delivery was mesmerizing. I had only ever a few weeks ago, Mark Weisblot from 1236, and his delivery was mesmerizing. I had only ever communicated via email. I listened to some of that, and I thought he had an interesting cadence as well. I would say it's Gilbert Godfrey-esque. Yeah, a little bit.

Definitely personality voice. And yeah, so he's coming in next week with Retro Ontario. That'd be good. We're going to talk about the 30th anniversary of Chum, 1050 Chum leaving Top 40.

Right. And then the birth of, the rise of much music coinciding with this mid 80s, early mid 80s. So that's the, so those two guys,

they're going to come in next week. And yeah, the Mark Weisblot delivery, it's quite, once you kind of get into that cadence, I almost found myself

mimicking a little bit. Right. Like it starts, it's kind of contagious. That can happen. And when I that cadence, I almost found myself mimicking a little bit. Right. It's kind of contagious. That can happen. When I listen back, I found it entertaining to listen to him. The content's good.

He's a smart guy. But it was entertaining regardless because of that delivery. It's funny that you say that you listen to stuff back. I can't. You know what? My buddy who's sometimes co-host, I say he's co-host,

but he's in here like once every, yeah, once every four months or something, he comes in for an episode. He will not listen to himself. I listen to every single episode at least once in its entirety. Right. I listen to it if I'm editing it

to use it for something else or to post it, but I have a hard time. I've never listened to episode 92 because part of me is like, I almost want my memory of it to be the memory i have of you and i hanging out not necessarily listening back to it and then critiquing myself or something like that so i very rarely interesting listen to a ton of tape i like that's because i think

you're a professional like i i'm still working on all those things you ironed out many many moons ago right because my only broadcasting time is when i do this. And I can hear a difference from like 92 to now. There's a big difference just in terms of... You probably find that you're not as high-pitched as when you first started. And you get the questions out. Now you're kind of more chill. I wouldn't say that. The high pitch is still there.

That's my trademark. That's my thing. But it's almost like just a comfort level and confidence that I have now that I definitely did not have at the beginning. I find your podcast is directly proportional to who you're talking to. If someone's giving it, it's a great show. And I think any show is like that. I mean, I've listened to podcasts where I'm like, well, that person's full of shit, clearly. And I'll just shut it off, you know, of guests that you've had. Or I'll listen to someone clearly lie to you or clearly speak.

And you know it, right? And I know it. And you're yelling at them. I'm like, oh, well, that's not how that happened. But if that's how you want to interpret it, or if that's how you know it right and i know it and i'm like oh well that's not how that happened but if that's how you want to interpret it or if that's how you see it yeah that's cool or you know you're listening to somebody that you've had on that's like buying their own hype a bit too much and they're just like well you know mike and you're like oh geez who's that guy now i need to know who that guy is yeah well that's that's probably my limit i'm not i'm

certainly not here because i i'm such a huge fan of talent that if you want to be a little douchey now and again that's cool if you don't like me whatever i'll still i'll still i'll still respect your talent like that's why i've never had a an ill will or an ill thought about dean in my life i mean there was times where i'm like why does this guy hate me so much yeah but i was like oh well whatever i mean you're in good company i still think he's i still think he's a great broadcaster you know what i mean? Maybe. I can separate church and state really easily. You don't need to like me.

I don't need to like you. But is he a great broadcaster? It's kind of you to say. And maybe he's all right, I guess. I was a Humble and Fred fan, so I didn't stick around when the Dean Blundell show came on. It was jarring to me, the difference.

And I personally moved on to other things. And I never listened to even Shapiro when he was on that show, or Jason Barr. Yeah, because you were a Humble and Fred guy. And I came to the market when Humble and Fred pretty much had just given the reins over to Dean. So I got to hear the two of them. Two distinctly different shows.

But I mean, I don't know. I haven't listened to him a ton in the fan, and I'm not a sports radio guy. But what I did listen to, I thought it certainly was smooth. I do feel as if he's been kind of neutered a little bit. I think that there's a lot more edge underneath. I almost think he could take it up another level and still be himself. Oh, he's definitely been.

I'm sure. They used to advertise his new show as— The kinder, gentler. Reprogrammed. Was that the word they used? Yeah. Reprogrammed. Reprogrammed.

Essentially, I think for sure he's neutered. Image rehab. Right. Yeah. Androgrammed. Reprogrammed. Like, essentially, I think for sure he's new. Image rehab. Right. Yeah. And that's the thing, his image never needed rehab because what he did with Blind Derek wasn't,

he's not homophobic at all. And Billy, who's on with him, all of her friends are gay dudes. Right. She's got her own mafia. So there was certainly no malice there. And it was just misconstrued

and it was just, it was not the dirtiest bit he's ever done. Right. He's done far dirtier stuff. So I guess they just looked at it as, you know, we need to do some sort of image rehab. But I don't know, It was not the dirtiest bit he's ever done. He's done far dirtier stuff. So I guess they just looked at it as, we need to do some sort of imagery hub.

But I don't know. I mean, where is he better? Is he better in his Edge days or was he better now? Well, that's the thing. So I didn't listen to the Edge show. In fact, George Strombolopoulos guest did the morning show at 102.1 for a couple of weeks. And I actually wrote on my blog how much better it was. Like a guy who had passion for the music

can talk to me about the music. Like that's what I wanted to hear. And I was just so great. I compared it to the Simpsons when the Substitute Teacher episode You Are Lisa Simpson. So it was like Lisa Substitute. Yes, but he did it as Sam

Etik. Lisa, be the best person you can be. It was a piece of paper he left with her, and then it said, you are Lisa Simpson. Yeah. What a great episode. What a great episode. George is a great communicator,

so I think you're probably right. I just thought Strombo was just great, and I know he told me a story about they offered him that job or something, and he turned it down. There's a whole history there. But Dean, so I have no ill, I don't know, good for Dean. I'm glad you had success had success i didn't that wasn't my cup of tea that morning show i

haven't heard the fan because i don't have a commute anymore i don't the only morning radio is in the bathroom i listen to matt galloway and i'm just to catch up on what's going on in my city or whatever so i don't know maybe dean is a great broadcaster but i do know a lot of people have come on the show personally don't particularly like the guy. I think I met him once. I think I met him at the Much Music Awards when he first got here. I think we had a four-word conversation.

Hey, man. Hey, how are you? And that was it. So I can't... Well, Billy seemed to like him. I have no idea. I think they got along great. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's great. And Josie Dye seemed to like him. Mm-hmm. You know? So not everybody seemed to. See, that's the thing. And Josie Dye seemed to like him. Mm-hmm. You know? So not everybody seems to. See, that's the thing. He's your white whale, right? Because you've never got him.

Now you're, because anytime you have someone on, you always say the same thing. It's like, you know, a lot of people don't say nice things about him. But if you just got him on, then it would be over, right? Yeah.

He's your white whale. Is he? I've been gunning for Maestro Fresh Wes. I thought he was booked. He was not booked with a day and time. He was, I'm definitely, I want to do it. We're definitely going to do it. And every once in a while, he tells me he hasn't forgotten about me and we're definitely

going to book it. But until I get a day and time, like, I don't, like it's like. You know who you need to have on your show? I need to write this down. You need to have on Taylor Kaye. Okay. Who I worked with at Kiss, who has filled in and done mornings with me, who I worked with at KISS, who has filled in and done mornings with me, who I think is probably, without a doubt,

the hardest working woman in Canadian radio. Taylor Kaye. She has three little girls. She has a YouTube channel. Her daughter's doing a TV show. Her husband's the head of creative writing for Rogers. They're a very creative household. And she has been hustling forever. And she's a very... I think if she was to get her own morning show right now,

she could be absolutely huge because she has worked so hard to get there that she would appreciate it more than anybody else. And she's worked everywhere and worked with everyone. And she has a crazy energy that you'd have a hard time keeping contained in this room. But she's got stories, too. And she's a funny, funny lady. I like funny. So have her on.

I will. And then you should have Maura on as well. She's on that lead. I reached out to her and we have Maura on as well. She's on Matt Lee. I reached out to her and we were going to wait for things to cool down at Bell Media because this was last fall. You'll be waiting a while.

Yeah. I don't think it's ever going to cool down anywhere. But there was a bad month. The bloodletting was, I guess, mainly November 2015. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we were going to wait for all that to come. And then I guess now she's Matt Lee,

like you said. So yeah, I will eventually get more on. The morbid part of me was when I got let go, as soon as other people started to go, I was like, oh good, it wasn't just me. Yeah, that actually does make it feel good that it's not just you. What a horrible thing to say.

You're just a number and you're one of many numbers that had to be kind of scratched off the books. And it is really hard sometimes when you're so intensely personally involved in your show and you want to give and you want to share and it's your baby and then it's taken away. That's hard. But at the same time, you have to maintain a sort of business sensibility whereby it's like, well, I'm probably going to be back in the halls here in a different capacity. So I shouldn't take it as personally. I should just move on, which is sort of what I had to do. And maybe in five years, I'm going to look back and go, thank God it was the best thing that ever happened to me because now I'm here. You know what I mean? Are you here or are you living in the East Coast? I have a place in the East Coast. Do you have a place here still? I do. I still live in Toronto. Yeah, absolutely. Real estate magnate. Yeah, right. Let's just say that the place I have in Toronto is significantly smaller than the place that I had when I was

working on Virgin Radio. But the cottage that I have on the East Coast, I bought coincidentally the last time I was let go, which is when I left CHFI. I took some of my settlement and I bought a cottage. And we're down there now, living there. It's a great place for my son and his dog can run. And my wife is a stager and a designer and a decorator. So she's hard at work renovating the entire place. So I've been kind of like coming up here. I'm stationed there a decorator. So she's hard at work renovating the entire place. So I've been kind of like coming up here. I'm stationed there for the summer. So it's like, wow, I'm interrupting my vacation

to come do some radio. Right. And so we're recording this on like a Sunday afternoon, June 12th. And you're scheduled to be doing the Ryan Doyle show. Yes, Ryan's show tomorrow, Monday, sorry, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Barbara Julio and Jim Richards will be co-hosts,

and there's one other co-host who I can't remember right now. That's not a personality on News Talk 1010. But hey, do me a favor, check it out, and I would love your feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. I'm doing something different, and I'm having a really good time, and I'd love to hear what you guys think of it. And if Mike Ben Dixon has any sense,

he's going to try to make this a permanent thing. And I hear he does. Like I've had dealings with him via email. He's great and he's so smart and he's so passionate about what he does. And just for me, like he said, hey, you know, here's what the gig pays. And I said, Mike, it's dude,

this is just about you giving me an opportunity to show a different side of my personality and learn a new skillset. Like I'll take the money, but you know what I mean? It's so not about that. It's just like, thank you so much for the opportunity. And I know this is going to help me out. So I'm really, I'm so excited about it.

Did you have as good a time? Your second round is your first. You never forget your first, right? You can never top your first, but does this measure up at all? Well, you know, the fact that I'm hearing the extra music now, and I have no idea how much time went by, we must have had a great time. Do you want to guess? This will be a fun game, too. Guess.

I also started looking at the lengths of your shows after I was on, because you told me it was one of the longest ones. I'm going to say 90 minutes. Yeah, you're very close. This is like, yeah, 97 minutes. Wow. Yeah, and I only, only even now and a lot of them are ending up being like 90 minutes lately just and i always target 60 minutes right and then if i'm having a good time i'll blow by the 60 minutes and if i'm i'm not that's how you can

tell i can also look at my list of your of your podcasts on my ipad and i know which ones i'll never listen to because they're they're shorter than an hour. Because I know you didn't have as much fun. No, sometimes Ashby, for example, he said, yeah, I got 30 minutes. I got to get out of here. That was different because he had to get back for a ratings meeting. He had to go back and get the giant novelty check

for his 7 millionth bonus. You're right though. Sometimes it's those 34 minute episodes. Something went wrong typically. The person didn't come ready to share. Or if it's, I will always disclose during the episode, like, Hazel May came in. Although, she was very corporate, very careful. Right.

That's fine. I had a lovely meeting. Her big husband was sitting right there. She said to me, I have a half an hour, and I think I took 34 minutes just to steal the next four minutes. Right. But, you know, so once in a while, I'm told I have a half an hour. But usually, if they're like 35 minutes, it's because I've decided,

I've decided it's not going the way I like it to go. And I'll wrap this up. Thanks for coming out. So you got an hour and 34 and the longest episodes are the same collective. Like it's, um, Strombo, Merrick and Eric Smith.

Right. Those are like the three longest episodes. And apparently they were all buddies at some point at the fan 590. Can I leave you with this yeah go ahead if this is the first time you've ever heard Toronto Mike is my episode

the best episode ever recorded of Toronto Mike is Ron McLean that's good feedback for me to hear unbelievable Ron is my

all time favorite interview he's this I think he's the most talented broadcaster we have across the board. Anywhere. He's fantastic.

His mind. Oh, he's well-read. So well-read and he's so well-thought-out and he'll take bits and pieces. Like when I had him on, I mentioned three things offhanded.

He just wove them into the first piece of our conversation seamlessly. One of my favorite episodes. So good. Looking back, 178.

Some of them, I forget I did. I don't name those people, but there's a handful that just were like amazing experiences and then I always say, that's why I invested

the cash in the setup for moments like that. Like I could, you know, your episode, your first episode, this one, but you know,

Aaron Davis and Strombo and there's a number of these great episodes, Merrick and so forth, but you're right, that Ron McClain episode was something amazing let me tie this up

in a tidy bow for you if you really are enjoying the Toronto Mike podcast make sure you check out his crowdfunding page you know I've been hesitant to promote the crowdfunding because it's almost like

I feel guilty asking for it I shouldn't right Ed DeSoc told me that Ed DeSoc said because I shared this info with Ed DeSoc who was doing a similar venture and I'm like I don't know I feel like Ed the Sock told me that. Ed the Sock said, because I shared this info with Ed the Sock,

who was doing a similar venture, and I'm like, I don't know, I feel like asking people to give a dollar a month so I can buy equipment to this podcast, it's like I've stopped pushing it as hard. Right. Like I feel wrong or something.

It's hard. Yeah. But you know what? It's voluntary taxation. Like no one has to give anything, but you're right. If someone wants to, if someone wants to,

why not? Because if they don't want it, they're not gonna. Because on torontomike.com, there's a big orange button that says become a patron, patron, patron, either or,

click it, and then patreon.com slash torontomike and give what you feel is fair if you want to help support this podcast. Be a patron so Mike can buy Patron. That's right. Thanks for having me on, man.

No, thank you for coming on. And when you get the new big gig, you're going to come back. Of course. And I'm going to come up with more names for you to interview, too. Don't forget Taylor Kay. Taylor Kay, who I can't... What's the name of the New Jersey or New York singer from the 90s? Taylor Dane. Taylor Dane. So don't confuse Taylor Kay or the 90s. Taylor Dane.

Taylor Dane. Taylor Dane. So don't confuse Taylor K or Taylor Dane. Taylor Dane, who was in the Twisted Sister musical that played recently in Toronto. Did you read the reviews on that? With Dee Schneider, who I actually have worked with. Okay.

Did you read the reviews of it? I did not, but I did watch Dee do We're Not Gonna Take It with the Barenaked Ladies at Massey Hall. Get out of here. So cool, man. YouTube it. It's really good.

Barenaked Ladies, who I first saw on a Speaker's Corner episode on City TV. Back when City TV was fucking cool. Yeah, it was cool, man. Very cool. I gotta get Moses. I need Moses on this podcast. That would be interesting. I gotta work on that. Yeah.

I know where he runs. He runs in Hyde Park. So if Moses won't come to Mike, will Mike go to Moses? I'll go anywhere for Moses. That's for sure. Is that Mohammed? You lost me. You know what? I don't know.

Do I play it again? No. I've never had my rosy and gray run out during my extra. Wow. We should go. And that. It sounds weird, though. Here, let's do it again.

And that brings us to the end of our 179th show. Does that sound right to you? Sure. This is the kind of homework I'm supposed to do before, but 179 or 178? Hey, man, I'm just happy that I'll be below Jeff Woods. I'm just happy to be in his company. You're right there, man.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike, and Mad Dog is at Mad Dog is live. Not Mad Dog is live. No, it's live because my website is Mad Dog live.com. Mad Dog live.com. See you all next week. Thank you.