Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jeff Spindel: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1561

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

In this 1561st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with radio veteran Jeff Spindel about his career in radio, why it came to an end at Stingray / Boom 97.3, and what's next for him. Toronto Mike'd... is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to episode 1561 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Learn how to plan, invest, and live smarter.
Starting point is 00:01:01 Season 7 of Yes We Are Open, an award winning podcast from Monaris. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today making his Toronto mic debut is Jeff Spindel. Welcome Jeff. Hey, happy to be here. You're not only a long time radio personality whose voice many will recognize, but I consider
Starting point is 00:01:37 you a friend of a friend. Do you know why I've given you that moniker? Why do I think of you as a friend of a friend? I do not know. Okay, FOTM Hall of Famer Cam Gordon, when he heard that you were coming on Toronto Mike, he wrote me a little note. So now that you're comfy, I'm going to hit you with the Cam Gordon and then we're going to crack open some Great Lakes and talk about your career in radio and what's going on. Tell him that's you, Jeff. Tell him Cam remembers him as a very solid dude. Also,
Starting point is 00:02:07 by the way, that's high praise from Cam. I like it so far. Okay, I guess it gets better. Okay. Also pretty sure Jeff and I were teammates for a Thornhill little league team that won the championship in its age bracket in 1993 or so. I'll pause to get a reaction from you does cam remember correctly yeah yeah I'm not sure we won because I didn't win very many times but he wouldn't forget if you won no I think we only won it all maybe twice but cam yeah he was on my team I believe his father coached one year yeah so we go back and then we went to high school together as well. So you're a Thorin Lee guy.
Starting point is 00:02:48 Okay, I'll finish the cam note and then I'll hit you up with more Thorin Lee questions and then we'll get to radio at some point, but he says Spinny. Was that your nickname, Spinny? Yeah, that's been an ongoing thing. Even on boom, Matt would always call me Spinny. That was my thing. That's a hockey thing, right? I feel like we just take names and we add like
Starting point is 00:03:08 Y's to the end or something. Pretty much. We're so creative here. Okay. Spiny was a slugging third baseman and the two Jeffs on that team, Spindel and Strauss, were real fan favorites. Also, our uniforms look like the New York Mets These are some great memories cam has yeah. Yeah, it did. Yeah, we have I remember Jeff Strauss had a white glove Wow It wasn't very often you played with a white glove, you know, they're either brown or black or red But yeah, he had a white glove Daniel Rowland, okay. Okay. I was trying to think did Willy Mays Hayes, remember he would when he would steal a base he would pin the gloves to his like board or
Starting point is 00:03:50 whatever. Do you remember this at all? From Major League. Yeah, yeah, those were the batting gloves. I'm talking about an actual glove. The glove was white. Baseball glove. Like a hockey glove, like a trapper. That takes balls to have a white baseball glove. Like's a that's pretty Pretty brave of them. Yeah, but so the two Jeff's and you may or may not have won a championship for your age bracket We could have to be honest with you My dad has all our baseball my parents have all our baseball pictures like our team photos in the basement and I could check I could check and I could let you know.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Are you still a baseball fan? Yeah, huge. Okay, so the Mets are doing pretty well. I love playoff baseball. Like it's just playoff baseball. Regular season it kind of drags on. It's 162 games. You know there's nothing less important than a regular season baseball game. But these playoff games have been amazing so far. Yeah, I've been, you know, it's funny because I was talking to a friend last night. I don't care for the Dodgers. I hate the Padres, I don't like the Yankees, don't care for the Royals and then I'm like who am I gonna cheer for? Don't care for the Phillies. What about the Guardians? Well that's a
Starting point is 00:04:56 major league. Yeah that's one of the best movies of all time. Absolutely. Do you know that movie may have invented walkout music? I think it invented the walkout music for a closer. Like prior to Wild Thing, there was no, you didn't have a special piece of music that would be played for a certain closer. No, I mean, look at the Jays, like Tom Henke, he didn't come out to any music like that. Dwayne Ward, all those guys, but Wild Thing, Rick Vaughan. Absolutely. And you know, there's a song, I don't know how into like the baseball variety village charity singles that came out in the early 90s and late 80s but there was a great song called the Ballad of Tom
Starting point is 00:05:33 Hanke I don't know if you're aware of this the term there. Vaguely. Okay. Vaguely. Alright so we're your baseball fan we're gonna get more to know you we're gonna get more to know you I see clearly I've never been on the radio we're gonna get to know you better but are you ready Jeff to crack open your Great Lakes beer that's in front of you? Let's do it up. Okay on the mic. Ready? Yeah. All right. Cheers to you. Good to meet you. You as well. Any friend of Kam's is a friend of mine. Perfect. So going, let's go back. Okay. So Thor and Leein Lee just a little we went way back with you man We're gonna find out like when you wanted to get into radio and how you made that happen
Starting point is 00:06:10 And then we'll talk about Stingray and any boom and and where things are at for you now and I have some nice notes from people who miss hearing your Voice on the radio, but when you were at Thorin Lee collegiate, did you know Stu Stone? I Did yeah, he was the voice of Chucky on My Pet Monster. That was like his thing. So what was it like? What kind of guy, I know Stu and Cam were pretty tight, but from your perspective, what kind of guy was Stu?
Starting point is 00:06:38 I'm going to be at the premiere of Stu Stone's new movie. He directed a new movie with his brother-in-law, Adam Rodness, and it's premiering at the Young Dundas Theatre tomorrow night. That's where I'm going to be tomorrow night. What was it like knowing Stu Stone in high school? Yeah, no, he was a good guy. I remember his father owned a card store, Sluggers, and I used to be a big baseball card guy. And have you seen his, I think it's called Jack- Jack of all, of course I have, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:07:09 And his father sadly passed away, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, but it was Jack Eisenstein, I believe was his name. And it was Stu Eisenstein, and then Stu Stone was the stage name. Yeah, yeah. But you didn't go with a stage name because you really are a Jeff Spindel.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Yeah, I kinda sometimes I I'm like I wish I switched that up but yeah, no that is my real name. We did talk a little bit about this before I press record but you considered, was it Shawn Jeffries? Yeah, so my middle name is Shawn, obviously my first name is Jeffrey so I was gonna go with Shawn Jeffries but I wasn't working with Stu at the time. But I'm like- Stu Jeffries, not Stu Stone. Yeah, so I can't do Shawn Jeffries because it's too close to Stu and then fast forward
Starting point is 00:07:52 25 years or whatever it was, it's like, oh hey. That's wild. Jeff Spindel works and I think it's kind of in vogue now to use your real name. Like instead of all this like mad dog J. Michael'sels like he's neither a mad dog nor michaels i just to go back to my name for a second i have people who think that uh it is not my real name because they think they think because we spin records right so they think that's what i made up and it's like nope nope that's that's my name spinderella cut it up one time i've gotten that one too yep see instead of spinny i'm gonna gonna call you Spinderella. That's your new nickname. Do what you gotta do. Okay. So you're at Thornley Collegiate. When do you realize, hey, you know, I want to be like that guy in My Pet Monster. I want to be in front of a microphone. Oh no,
Starting point is 00:08:35 I didn't want to be like him. But he was in Donnie Darko for God sakes at some point. No, you know what it was? I started DJing for some parties and I would bring like a stereo and my tapes and all that kind of stuff and then I'm like, you know what, this is kind of fun. Let's see if we can do something with this. And then yeah, finished high school, tried to get into Humber, miserably failed. And then I got into it the second time around and that's how it all began. See today if your check clears you're in Humber I think that's how it works. Back then they would actually have standards you're telling me. What I was
Starting point is 00:09:14 told is there was 53 out of 3,000 people I mean now I don't know how many people they... And what are we mid where are we late 90s? Where the hell are we? Late 90s. Okay that's mid to late nineties. Yeah. What a time to be alive, right? Like, like you could get a job in radio. Like this was a realistic dream for young Jeff that you could get a job in radio.
Starting point is 00:09:32 Yeah. Yeah. No, but it was fun. It's fun. Okay. So you're, you're going to school now at Humber and you're going to be on the radio. What's your first on the radio moment?
Starting point is 00:09:45 Like, where's your first break there? Well, they allowed you to job out. So I actually got a job at CHFI and I was just doing promotions there. We drove around in a car and we gave out stuff and blah, blah, blah. But Aaron Davis and Bob McGee were doing the morning show and they they put me on the air to just talk about the promotions vehicle and it was just it's kind of intimidating because my my parents were huge CHFI fans you know with Don Danner
Starting point is 00:10:16 there and they listened all the time and then here I am sitting in the booth with Aaron Davis and Bob McGee who are absolutely lovely by the. And they put me on and just talked about the car. That was my first on air, you know, major market experience, I guess you could say. And that's a monster station. CHFI. Are you kidding me? And did you know, fun fact, Bob McGee was married to Jeannie Becker. Did you know this?
Starting point is 00:10:39 Okay. See, if you have any fun facts like that, spit them in the mic and collecting them. Okay. I thought that was a great Bob McGee fun fact. He was on the radio super recently. Even though he's been around 50 plus years, I believe he was on Element FM, which is a station that broadcasts out of that chorus key building
Starting point is 00:10:57 there. I feel like he was maybe up until a couple of years ago, Bob McGee was doing the mornings there. I didn't know that. I did not know. See, I got to give you some fun facts, Jeff. Okay. Learning experience here. And how did the great FOTM Erin Davis treat you? I mean, it sounds like she was lovely, but did you ever catch her on an off day? No, no, she was fantastic. I mean, I didn't see her very often, but I mean, every time I saw her,
Starting point is 00:11:20 she was great. I remember I went up to her with a shirt and I said, I'm sorry I hate to bother you but my parents are huge fans. Can can you sign this shirt for me? And she did yeah Aaron did Bob did Think that was about it. All right last there Aaron Davis fun fact is she's married to a guy who was known on CJCL as miles long and was the first producer of prime time sports of Bob McCowen didn't know that either. Listen that's another one for me I'm gonna keep score over here okay you drop your fun facts I'll drop mine. I was gonna tell you earlier that Major League the the scenes were filmed at in Milwaukee did you know that? Yeah and that explains Bob Euker. There you go. But I did I did it was
Starting point is 00:12:02 somehow I don't know cheaper or easier I don't know but you're right I did. Then Major League 2 was somehow, I don't know, cheaper or easier. I don't know. But you're right. I did. And then Major League Two was the new Kamiski. See, Major League Two, I've erased from my memory bank. Like I saw it and I never felt like seeing it again. But Major League, I could watch if I stumble upon it. Not that we stumble upon things as much anymore. But if but you know, once in a while you I do flip just to see what's going on. Usually I see Rocky. while you I do flip just to see what's going on. Usually I see Rocky like this is I'll just like I don't know when the kids are going to bed or something and I'm in front of the TV I'll start flipping what do I have on this Bell 5 and I'll usually come across one of the Rocky films and then I'm stuck like I gotta watch it out. That's like me with the Bourne Identity. It's on every day and it's just like all right am I gonna watch Identity, Supremacy or Ultimatum?
Starting point is 00:12:42 Those are one of my favorites. I heard stories about Charlie Sheen would like, I guess when they're filming major league, he would coordinate, like a different woman would visit him like every day in his, he had somebody making sure they didn't like bump into each other. Oh really? The Charlie Sheen move. So that's, that's, that's the move right there. Holy smokes. Hey, when you got it, you got it. Love that move. But apparently Willie Mays Hayes, um, who's the actor who plays Willie Mays Hayes again?
Starting point is 00:13:08 Wesley Snipes. Right. Apparently not a fast guy. So that's why whenever you see him running, because he's supposed to be a speedster in this movie, he's in slow motion. They're trying to make it like to trick you into thinking that, oh, he is actually running fast, but apparently he's not a particularly athletic guy. Well, he seems that because I mean, you remember white man can't jump.
Starting point is 00:13:25 Yeah. Apparently Woody Harrelson was a better basketball player than him. And, uh, I was reading that they actually played at like a low NC double a level when they were finished training for that movie. Like that's how they rated them. I don't know how they do that, but that's what I read and I read it online. So it's probably true. Wesley Snipes had a moment.
Starting point is 00:13:43 Uh, I'm glad he's in the midst of a comeback now, I think. I think the IRS tried to take him down, but here he is. He's back now. Okay, so you're on CHFI. So you- Well, I was just a guest. Okay, well you're driving a car, giving out what? Like bumper stickers?
Starting point is 00:13:56 What are you giving out this way? We gave away film, which, you know. You're dating yourself. We gave away film, breakfast burritos. I don't even remember. Stuff like that. Okay. Sometimes the odd like hat.
Starting point is 00:14:11 We would just pull over places. Usually at Sky Dome before the Jays games or whatever before or after. Get people to... Basically, you filled out a ballot and then if you won at the end, you'd win the car. So Jeff, earlier I was telling you about the ballot of Tom Hanke. It just randomly came to me because we talked about, I don't even know how it came up, but yeah, major league in the walkup music for closers and Aaron Davis is all I have in point and everybody who's listening, I've got these variety village CDs.
Starting point is 00:14:38 You can hold them. These take you way back. But Aaron Davis is all over these CDs like singing songs with the CHF I lights is this is this the one along came Joe? You know those are exactly what I'm talking about songs like that exactly and They were a big deal back in the day How come stations aren't do what this is gone now like I guess it's cuz Rogers owns the team So why the hell with a stingray or a bell-owned station even bother with a parody or well?
Starting point is 00:15:04 I will say it at boom the ok blue J's. Let's play ball our Music director Wayne Webster has a copy on vinyl of that of that song of that seventh inning stretch song Oh, you have it there is over you're getting Of course, let Keith Hampshire who's an effort in Wayne Webster is too but I have in my hand exactly what you're talking Yeah, that's exactly webster and I have this a, yeah, Keith Hampshire did vocals and this was, yeah, 19, it wasn't released in 77, but it was an early Blue Jay single. Yeah, there it is, see? Yeah, we would play that like 15, 16 when they were doing well. You kidding me? Joey Bats and Josh Donaldson, what a time to be alive there, holy smokes.
Starting point is 00:15:43 2015, 2016, last playoff victories in franchise history, but we can talk more and Josh Donaldson what a time to be alive there holy smokes 2015 2016 last last playoff victories in franchise history but we can talk more about that later okay so what's next after you're driving this car giving out CHFI swag I ended up getting a job in Alberta on air did that for three plus years at the time my life out there we're like Edmonton whereabouts where you know it's about five hours north more west of Edmonton in Grand Prairie. Okay, I'll pretend I know where that is, but okay, I know where Edmonton is. So you're you live there? Yeah, it was great. I moved from Toronto. I had no idea about the Alberta life.
Starting point is 00:16:19 And it was well, it was cold when I got there like minus 40, which I never really experienced, but that's a different story. But that was July. It was actually was March. Well, it was cold when I got there, like minus 40, which I never really experienced, but that's a different story. But that was July. It was actually, it was March. But have you ever experienced cold like that? No, you know, my only visit to Edmonton was in like September or something.
Starting point is 00:16:39 I didn't get the minus 40, but. Oh, you feel it in your nose. Everything freezes, your jacket starts to crinkle. It's just, it's, we had that NBA all star weekend. I feel like that might've been the Toronto weather during that NBA all star game. If you remember that that was bad, that was like this is why they have the block heaters were invented, right? Like they simply just, you had to plug in your car. Well,
Starting point is 00:16:59 it's funny you say that because I had my Ontario car in Alberta and I had to get a block heater installed. Right. Yeah. Geez. Okay, but you were there because that's where the work was, right? Like this is how it used to, I'm trying to like, part of this is kind of a nostalgia trip because you're not, I mean, you're younger than I am. You're not that old a gentleman. You're a young man like Cam Gordon, actually. I've done the research, but like I'm trying, so this is a time where basically if you wanted to put in reps, maybe there wasn't an on air position at CHFI, which of course has been a ratings juggernaut forever, but you could go to Grand Prairie Alberta and you could get
Starting point is 00:17:34 on the air and you could maybe suck at first, but you can get better and put in your reps. And then at some point you can get yourself on the air in Toronto. Like this is the model, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I went out there, the salary wasn't anything fantastic. And, you know, we did a lot of remotes to make some money. Had a lot of mayonnaise sandwiches to survive. But you know what? You make the best of it. And it was a blast. I don't regret it at all.
Starting point is 00:17:58 I'm still friends with a lot of people that I worked with over there. And yeah, it was just tons of fun. Unique experience. There's stuff there that you just don't experience here. Yeah, like minus 40. Well, minus 40 in the summertime, the sun doesn't set till midnight. It rises at like four in the morning. If you're a golfer, you wanna go golfing at like four or five in the morning,
Starting point is 00:18:19 go ahead. If you're partying really hard and you go into a place at 1130, 1145, and you come out at like 345 You barely missed any you missed nothing. That's funny. I could just think about it at 1130 at night. It's what it is now It's sunny outside and it's just it's awesome now. It's the complete opposite in the wintertime But it's fun and how long are you there? Like three and a half years. So what is it? What are those winters like when you don't see sunlight?
Starting point is 00:18:45 Well for me, I didn't really see, it's kind of depressing because I did midday, so I was on nine to three. So the sun would rise around 830 and set around 315. And it's like, all right, well, I guess it's dark again. Okay, but that didn't dampen your spirits. No. You didn't suffer from the John Gallagher disorder, sad, seasonal affective disorder. No, you're good, we the John Gallagher disorder. Sad, you know, seasonal affective disorder. You were okay. Okay. Young man, you know, you wanted to get somewhere
Starting point is 00:19:10 and you were going to get there through Grand Prairie. Okay. So what kind of music, what's the call letters? I'm just curious. What was it? CFGP? It was 9.7 Sun FM which is now I think 97.7 Rock or something like that. It's now owned by Rogers. It used to be owned by OK Radio Group I think it was called. But it is kind of amazing that there's still money to be made in Grand Prairie Alberta on your small station. This is an FM station right? 97.7 of course it is. Yeah so it was us and a country station but now there's more. Now there's more FM stations there. Wow. Okay. Have you applied for a gig maybe to return to Grand Prairie, Alberta?
Starting point is 00:19:52 We'll get to that later, maybe. They asked me to come back. Not the station I was at, another station asked me if I was interested in coming back, but I declined. You looked at the Grand Prairie rate sheet there and you said, holy smokes, I need to stick to the big smoke. Yeah, well, I wanted to come back home. I mean the- Yeah, your family's here. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:14 By any chance, since so much time has passed and it really doesn't matter anymore, can you remember like what they would pay you to do mid days in Grand Prairie, Alberta? 19.5. And this is again, late 90s or are we in the early 2000s? We're in the early 2000s. Okay. So that's like Walmart greeter kind of pricing.
Starting point is 00:20:29 Oh yeah. It was great. I think my rent was $635 a month. Okay. You know, that's something to be said. You can live on 1905 if you're paying that kind of rent. A lot of remotes. And like you said, you got, you talked about the mayonnaise sandwiches. I distinctly remember being a poor student and eating mustard sandwiches. Like I have, I remember like you said, you talked about the mayonnaise sandwiches. I distinctly remember being a poor student and eating mustard sandwiches. Like I remember, you'd get a Kaiser or something for 40 cents and you'd fill it up with mustard and there you go. There's variety right there.
Starting point is 00:20:54 You got your mayo sandwiches, your mustard sandwiches. We should open up a cafe somewhere. Jeff, we'll talk about that after. I think that's a great idea. But now that I said it to you, I'm actually feeling myself craving a mustard like a crisp like a crunchy Kaiser filled with like just hot mustard. I'm actually craving it right now. Don't let me stop you and it pairs nicely with this Great Lake. So Jeff, I'm gonna send you home With some fresh craft beer from Great Lake. So that's that's Grand Prairie Grand Grand Prairie. Why am I struggling if that is Grand Prairie, right?
Starting point is 00:21:23 Yes prairie, Grand Prairie? Why am I struggling with that? It is Grand Prairie, right? Yes. No relation to Prairie Oyster. Pretty good band back in the day. And not the Grand Prairie in Texas. This Grand Prairie in Canada is with an E at the end of Grand, whereas Grand Prairie Texas is no E. Okay, good to know. Because I know you care. I do care because, you know, Paris, Texas. It confused me for a long time, but it's a whole different place. All right, so how do you get yourself out of Grand Prairie, Alberta? What comes next? Timmons.
Starting point is 00:21:51 Timmons, Ontario. Got a job at a Roger station. They had a rock station and an EZ Rock. EZ Rock actually was the same similar logo as 97.3 here in Toronto. And yeah, I started out on the Rock station doing afternoons and then I think they put me in mornings and then they're like, Oh, well, uh, the Easy Rock station isn't, uh, I guess the mornings wasn't doing as well. So they flipped me over to mornings on the Easy Rock station.
Starting point is 00:22:20 Very impressive. Cause we just talked about Erin Davis and here in Toronto, of course she was famously fired from her CHFI morning show gig. This was a shocking development and she ended up on Easy Rock and then she kind of rebuilt herself and eventually with Mike Cooper there and then she came back for Big Box. So she kind of rewrote her own story. Yeah. So Easy Rock is in your survey. And of course the tragically hip song, my music at work is absolutely,
Starting point is 00:22:48 uh, inspired by posters or I guess billboards in the city for 97.3 easy rock. Is it really? Yep. Cause that was the slogan was my music, my music at work. And then a Gord, I guess saw it and he wrote my music at work. Oh, okay. I'm up now three to one, Jeff. Okay, I'm up now. I didn't know that. Three to one, Jeff, this is going well, okay. I gotta reach deep in my pockets for some stuff here. Do it, man, do it. Even if it's just, hey, Cam Gordon went 0 for three
Starting point is 00:23:13 in a key playoff game or something, that would be great to hear too. I'm sure he did, but I don't remember. Just kidding. All right, and did you shoplift at Sluggers? That's the big question. Did you ever shoplift at Sluggers? No, no, I'm not much of a shoplifter.
Starting point is 00:23:26 No shoplifting experience. Well, everything was behind the glass, right? Cards that I wanted. Well, that's true. But I will say that Jeff and I, sometimes we would open up the packages, we would keep the gum, take out the good cards, and then iron back the packages
Starting point is 00:23:40 and try and sell them to other kids in the... You know, in my books, that's worse than shoplifting yeah get the hell out of my base you discussed me you know what we we did that but we never sold any any packs people were smarter than that see the real talk already spilling out okay so I'm well I'm curious about Timmons versus Grand Prairie like is this like a big city now to you that you're in Timmons no no Tim Timm is, I think it's a little bit smaller than Grand Prairie. I would have lost a bet there. Yeah, it's honestly it's night and day. It's night and day. Timmons, I had a great time. It's all how you make it. I met a bunch of people
Starting point is 00:24:20 there that were in the same boat as I was and it was like let's just do our time and and and figure it out but yeah some of my best friends are again we still hang out we still talk so these are people you met at the radio station in Timons yeah they've all gone on with careers in radio elsewhere and yeah anyone I've heard of? No, probably not. But some good people. All right, good, no, sounds good. So I've given you the Fresh Craft beer and I'm just gonna let you know, Jeff,
Starting point is 00:24:54 I have in my freezer right now a large meat lasagna from Palma Pasta. Do you enjoy lasagna? Absolutely. Okay, you're going home. If you didn't know, you'd be going home with Fresh Craft beer and lasagna, did you? Hey, that's a perfect gift. Couldn't ask for any more. But if I see you stealing my Blue Jay, those very rare Stephanie Wilkinson gifted Blue Jay compilations, I'll say
Starting point is 00:25:17 you did shoplift, Jeff. It was in my basement. You shoplifted. Well, we'll see what happens. Thank you to Palma Pasta. They're hosting us. Everybody listening is invited November 30th from noon to 3 p.m. at Palma's Kitchen. That's in Mississauga. Google it. Palma's Kitchen. Come on out because they'll feed you and Great Lakes Brewery will provide you a can of fresh craft beer and we're gonna record at Palma's Kitchen. So everyone's invited. Jeff you should come out and then be reunited with Cam Gordon on Trenemite. Oh, he's coming?
Starting point is 00:25:48 He's gonna be there. You should come out. November 30th, I'm putting you on the spot now. What are you doing at noon on November 30th? I do not know. You're at Paulmas Kitchen, buddy. What neighborhood do you live in now? Danforth, Danforth Village.
Starting point is 00:26:00 Okay, well, it's a little bit of a trek across the city, but you know, it's worth the drive, as we city but you know you're it's worth the drive as we say screw Acton it's worth the drive too. I dropped that reference on a young woman younger than us but she's a podcast aficionado and we were talking just a couple weeks ago Katie her name is except she spells Katie with two T's the way I feel Spindel needs two L's but who am I to judge but anyway Katie's here, quite young, and I referenced Milton, Ontario came up and then I said something about, is that near Acton? And then I said, well, it's worth the drive.
Starting point is 00:26:31 And she, this reference went right over her head, it's worth the drive to Acton. The kids today don't get this reference. The old hide house. Yes, the old hide house, exactly. It's worth the drive to Acton. So do you think you gotta be like over 35 to get that reference?
Starting point is 00:26:44 Where's the demarcation point for worth the drive to act? And there's a lot of stuff that you can throw out where kids just don't know. Consumers distributing. I was talking to, um, uh, I would say she was about 16 at the time. And this would have been, I would say maybe 2008. And she didn't understand that when you used to order pizza, it didn't come with dipping sauce. You know what I mean? Like it sounds so minor, but-
Starting point is 00:27:09 It's still extra, right? Like your default order, they say, do you want dipping sauce? But it's like a whatever, a buck 50 or whatever for the dipping sauce. Like it's still defaults to no dipping sauce. Am I wrong? No, you're not wrong. But I'm just saying like, you know, back in the day,
Starting point is 00:27:23 there was no, as far as I know, you ordered pizza, you just, you got the pizza. Like that was it. There was no dipping sauce. You know, wait till this person finds out. We had to phone to order that pizza to get delivery. Like we had to phone. There was no app. Remember the star phone. Of course. I remember the smart phone. I used to get sports and sports results. I used to, there was like a certain numbers and I remember the one for getting my sports scores I would call in and get get the sports books and the movie times Why don't you tell me the name of the movie you want to see Jeff? Okay, look at us. This is like the Gen X nostalgia here. Okay, so I still have you in Timmons. I
Starting point is 00:28:00 Just want to get all the gifts out of the way because you got the lasagna and the beer But there's a speaker there. That's a wireless speaker courtesy of Monaris. It's a high quality Bluetooth speaker, Jeff. And you have one promise you have to make me in order to have that speaker. You have to subscribe and listen to Yes We Are Open, an award winning podcast from Monaris hosted by Al Grego. But once you've listened to season seven, which is dropping now,
Starting point is 00:28:26 you can listen to anything you want, man. Just listen to your jams. You're going to love that speaker. You have my word. Okay. I'm going to be quizzing you, buddy. I'm going to be calling you up and go, when, when, uh, when, uh, Al Grego went to Winnipeg and he talked to blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:28:39 Cause I believe Al goes to Winnipeg. So he doesn't get the Timmins or Grand Prairie, but he's going to be in Winnipeg for this season seven. So I'm super excited about it. And last but not least on the gift front, there should be a measuring tape somewhere. I believe Al goes to Winnipeg, so he doesn't get the Timmons or Grand Prairie, but he's gonna be in Winnipeg for this season seven. So I'm super excited about it. And last but not least on the gift front, there should be a measuring tape somewhere. Do you have a green?
Starting point is 00:28:51 Yep, there you go. Courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. Perfect. So you can measure, what are you gonna measure, Jeff? What do you wanna measure? I'm probably gonna measure my waist because I need to go on a diet and I wanna know how much I've put on.
Starting point is 00:29:01 And then I might get a little angry. All right, well I'm gonna tell you right now, because knowing Cam's age, I'm going to tell you right now, cause I'm knowing cam's age. I can now, you know, cleverly decipher your age and many guys, your age, I see now are carrying a big pot belly. Have you noticed this? Like a beer guy? Yeah. You don't have one. I know I'm hiding it. I'm hiding it under that hoodie. Yeah. That blue J's hoodie. Cause I was thinking, no,
Starting point is 00:29:24 no, no one's as fit as cam Gordon. I don't think he eats. I haven't seen him in years. I think he's a popsicle. He's, I remember him. I think he's a little bit taller than I am. Not too much. Yeah. He's taller, but uh, yeah. If we lift that shirt, can I see what are we hiding under there? Really? No. All right. So what happens? You get the call in Timmons. What's going on? You apply to every job available in the big smoke here. I need to know what happens next for Jeff Spindel. Okay, so yeah I mean I wanted to get closer even closer to Toronto and people who I met in Timmons one girl who I met She ended up getting a job in Barry and there was an opening at the chorus station in Barry
Starting point is 00:30:07 Che 93 1 and She ended up getting a job in Barry and there was an opening at the chorus station in Barry, Che, 93.1. And yeah, I got a job in Barry, which was fun because I got to work with her and we were good friends in Timmons, still friends now. What's her name? Victoria Madiasz. I know this name. She does fantasy. You know where I know her from? West End Phoenix. Do you know this is a newspaper in the, Dave Badini is behind this, the guy from the Rio Statics. Okay. I know her through that. Yeah, I absolutely, and maybe she did some 1010s. Yeah. I know this person. I've met her. I think Tyler Campbell, shout out to VPSales. I believe he was with me. I was his plus one at some West End Phoenix event and she was there. So you're buds with her. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:30:50 quite liked her. Yeah, yeah. She does stuff with ESPN, fantasy, hockey. So she's very busy right now. She's got a podcast as well. And yeah, she helped me get the job in Barry. You never know how small the world it is till you spit out that name that you're gonna assume I don't know and I'm like, I've met that woman. You know what's interesting is that, and to rewind a little bit to my radio class in Humber, our teacher, Jerry Shaman, he tells everybody to stand up
Starting point is 00:31:20 and there's let's say 53 of us, I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't a big amount. He tells us all to stand up and then he says, look to your left, look to your right, look in front of you, look behind you. And then he says, never burn any bridges because one day this person could be your boss. Good advice.
Starting point is 00:31:35 And you know what the funny thing is, my former boss from a month ago. Oh, to be discussed, absolutely. Was in my class. And who is that Josie? Josie who's the who's the program director at hot 89 9? Okay, does Josie have a last name? finish
Starting point is 00:31:55 Okay Shout out to Murray my plumber. It's got the same last name. Okay All right, so something goes down about a month ago. We're gonna get to that. Okay, so you're in Barry now That's pretty damn close. You know, that's where Kevin Frankish started right like you're just down. That's the four four hundred You just just a bit north of here I used to go to all those concerts at Mollison Park in Barry all those edge fests worth the drive He's a park at the Walmart and then walk over it was great times the Dust Bowl. I saw Pearl Jam in 98 there It's still one of my favorite concerts of all time was Pearl Jam 98 at Molson Park and Berry. So shout out to Barry
Starting point is 00:32:31 What are you doing exactly on Barry and then what happens next? I was doing afternoon drive with Vicky so we did the afternoon drive show ratings were doing Pretty good but yeah I saw my former PD Troy McCallum he used to work at Barry at the same station he was he was living there and you know bumped into him a couple of times and yeah I I was talking to him and also with CHFI. And CHFI actually put me on the air to do an audition. This would have been, I don't know, 2009, 2010.
Starting point is 00:33:15 They ended up giving the job to Daryl Henry. FOTM Daryl Henry, who is no longer there, sadly. Yeah, Julie Adam was the boss at the time, and she was like, hey, listen, you're sounding good, you're good and blah, blah, blah, but we're just going to give it to a known name and that was Daryl Henry and I totally got it. And then I don't know, I don't know the exact timeline, but maybe like two weeks later Troy's like, hey, why don't you go on overnight at Boom? Went on from like two to four in the morning and fast forward a couple of
Starting point is 00:33:45 weeks they put me on weekends. Very cool so now you're on in Toronto at Boom. Boom of course was EZ Rock and before it rebranded to Boom. Shout out to Humble Howard from Humble and Fred because he was there when it flipped to Boom from from EZ Rock. He was the morning show host with Colleen Rusholm who was a and Fred because he was there when it flipped to boom from from easy rock he was the morning show host with Colleen Rusholm who was a longtime co-host of the aforementioned Stu Jeffries and shout out to good rockin tonight but you're now at boom so how does it feel to to get this gig at boom you're you're ready to rock here it was great I mean it was a foot in the door. I left a full-time gig with
Starting point is 00:34:27 Benefits to do part-time work on the weekend. It was a little intimidating to be honest with you because like you said, Humble, Colleen, May, KJ, Stu, you know they're all there and here I am kind of, you know, not a Toronto guy. Sorry, not a Toronto radio guy at that moment, but it was nice. I mean, they were all nice people. That's a good crew, because I've met them all and that is a solid crew. There's no assholes there. No, not one, not even a little.
Starting point is 00:34:58 So Howard wasn't even a little bit of an asshole to you because he's had his moments. No, not at all, not at all. We didn't chat that much because I was more on the weekends. I think I operated one of his remotes, but uh, I mean that, that was pretty much it. I didn't really talk to, to humble or Colleen as much. Colleen's a sweetheart and Colleen is waiting for an NDA to expire before she comes back to Toronto Mike, but that should be fascinating. I always like this woman and she, she's been muscled out of this industry and we're gonna get to all this in a minute because now that we have you at Boom,
Starting point is 00:35:31 I'm gonna play just a little taste of how you sounded on Boom. You ready for this? How do you even have this? Well, I just have a little bit. Like it's actually tough to find. You're a tough guy to find, but I do have a little bit. So let's listen.
Starting point is 00:35:41 You're talking to FOTM Andy Kim here. Let's listen. Boom 97.3, the Eagles, best of my love. I'm Jeff Spindel on Andy Kim. It looks like you wanted to break out into song there. You know, I just, I love everything you're doing here. I love this music so much. It takes me not only back in time, but it made me realize how great records were made and great songs were written. and it's just awesome. So it's great to be here. You appreciate the hissing and the popping. You can't
Starting point is 00:36:10 have a hit without the hiss. All right we got a police tune coming up for you as well but first we're gonna talk about Wednesday December 10th the big show at the Mod Club. I'm excited about it I tell you what this is our 10th anniversary. I'll bring it down there's a big promotion for Mandy Kim in the Mod Club of course, run by Mark Holmes from Platinum Blonde, who came up two episodes ago on Toronto Mic, because Leona Boyd was my guest and she sang on, or maybe she just played guitar actually, and I think about it, on Tears Are Not Enough. and Mark Holmes famously arrived at the recording of the charity single Tears Are Not Enough in a stretched limousine, which was an interesting look
Starting point is 00:36:51 as they raised money for famine relief. Even the great Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, they took a cab that day. Breaking news, and I will not credit this to anyone specifically, I have to keep this person's identity anonymous, but I have been told that Timmons is where you'll now found find the woman who played Stephanie Kaye did you watch Degrassi? Degrassi? All the way with Stephanie Kaye
Starting point is 00:37:13 which was the first episode of Degrassi Junior High the legend Nicole Stoffman she now works as a newspaper reporter in Timmons Ontario. Wow. That's like not even a fun fact. I feel like that's more of a mind blow, Jeff. Yeah, wow. I did not know that. I did not know that. But now you know by listening in your headphones how good you sounded on boom, like that you
Starting point is 00:37:37 sound like a radio guy. You're too kind. That was a... I am too kind. That was like a turntable Tuesday. You know, a lot of people don't believe that we played vinyl. I can't tell you how many calls we get. You guys don't play vinyl and we do. You do. You would. They do. Well, you used to. And then they told you to stop doing that. So I'm doing
Starting point is 00:37:55 that. Why is that? Why not just go digital? Is it that you want some hisses and pops in there? It just makes it. I remember I was playing a 45 of American Pie and you play the first four and plus minutes on one side and the next was on the other side. And I remember I went on the air and I'm like, yeah, I got it. Sorry, this is vinyl. I got to flip it. Hang on. Flipped it, continued the song and went on with it.
Starting point is 00:38:22 But it's just one of those, you know, it brings back memories of, you know, maybe when you were growing up and you had your milk crates and you had all your albums. I don't know about you, but I used to play hockey in the basement with a buddy of mine. We would put albums on. Next thing you know, the pucks of the balls would hit the turntables, scratch it. Can't tell you how many times that happened. No, I was a big top 40 guy. Well, most kids are, I guess, your top 40 guy. Well, most kids are I guess your top 40 guy and I used to buy the 45 singles of all the songs I love like I'd walk to my local Sam's because I could get there easy. It was at Jane and Bluer. And I would pick up I'm gonna I remember I I want this Madonna one I want I wanted I loved that damn cover that George Harrison did got my mind set on you. It's like I had that 45. I used to play a lot of vinyl, but today I get gifted vinyl all the time.
Starting point is 00:39:08 And there's nothing in this home right now that can play vinyl. That's the problem. I found some old tapes, some old air checks and just some old tapes, like I said to you earlier, when I was DJing. Anyway, long story short, I had to borrow my dad's car. He's got a 2004 Nissan Pathfinder and he's got a tape player in there. It still works. I have that I have
Starting point is 00:39:29 That's a tape player and actually I can play tapes because I was trying to rip a bunch of old Humble and Fred episodes to mp3 because I produce their show and we're gonna use it for something or other and I have that Connected to the board here so I can easily digitize a cassette It's the vinyl where I've got no hardware in this home right now. But here a little bit more of you on boom before we get into that. Here is, I don't know, 20, maybe 10 seconds. Here we go. Yeah these bring back memories. I used to record, I used to sit in front of the stereo and have it on record, pause and play and every time a song came on I was clicking, pressing record. Let's go with this one.
Starting point is 00:40:05 So there's a little taste of what we're talking about here. The nostalgia, you growing up, it's you know, you're playing your vinyl and you're copying songs off the radio like we all did. Oh yeah, no, absolutely. I don't even remember doing that. It's like a mixtape thing on YouTube. So it's tough to find, you know, I go to YouTube and I just do my, I'm gonna find some Jeff Spindel. I thought it'd be easier than it was, but I just played basically everything I found. But that was like a mixed tape compilation. KJ's talking on it, Stu Jeffries is on there,
Starting point is 00:40:32 May Potts is on there, and you're on there. Yeah, we used to do little snippets, I guess you could say. There you go, I extracted all the good Jeffiness out of that one. All right, now you're at Boom. You were there for over 14 years. Yeah. All right, now you're at BOOM. You were there for over 14 years. Yeah, quite a while. That is a long time. So you're there and you were coast to coast, right? Like you weren't just on in Toronto. At some point
Starting point is 00:40:54 you became, I guess at some point you went like syndicated across the Stingray radio network. Yeah, so I did 10 years I was doing the evening show and then they asked me if I would actually the way they worded it was kind of funny. They're like, Hey, do you want to see your kids again? Because when you do evenings, I mean, think about it. Your kids are at school. They come home and then it's like, okay, I got to go to work.
Starting point is 00:41:18 So I thought that was kind of funny the way they worded it. So I'm like, yeah, sure. I'd love to see how many kids you have. I've got three. Good for you, man. Thank you. So, so yeah, so after about 10 years or so of doing evenings, I did, actually, when COVID started, like 2020, March of 2020, I just, I recorded shows from coast to coast on like the classic hits network, they have a breezeze network, there's a Rock network, and yeah, I would do that, but then part of my gig was also, I filled in for Stu in the morning
Starting point is 00:41:52 and I filled in for KJ in the afternoon. So that was part of my contract, I guess you could say. Quick controversial point on KJ. So when I grew up watching, sorry not watching, listening to Top 40 Radio on 680 CFTR, he was Chris James and on Boom he's KJ. Shouldn't he stick with the branding by which all us oldies knew him by? He told me this story and I'm trying to remember, I think, what was it? I'm gonna screw this up. I think he always wanted to be KJ, but there was a program director who wanted him to go by Chris James.
Starting point is 00:42:32 I think that's it. It's something like that. So essentially now he's living his best life as he always wanted to be known. So he was only Chris James because some PD interfered and told him, you're Chris James. Sure, I guess you could say that, you know,
Starting point is 00:42:46 I'm just to clarify in true KJ form. I think he was okay with, with Chris James and I think he's okay with KJ. He just wants to be on the air, loves what he does. And yeah. And he's like a long, I mean, may pods of course was from CF and why and we've, we've had her on and had chats with her, but these connections to 680 CFTR, it's kind of awesome that he's at, at had chats with her, but these connections to 680 CFTR, it's kind of awesome that he's at Boom there.
Starting point is 00:43:07 So 14 years at Boom, the last four years you're coast to coast on the Stingray radio network. What the heck happened? I'll read you a couple of notes that came in. A Gord Lambert, I think that's how you'd say it, he says, please tell him Gord Lambert, and it could be Lambert, okay, I've tried to make this as French as I can, him Gord Lambert and it could be Lambert okay I've tried to make this as French as I can but Gord Lambert he's a listener he's a boom listener I know I know I know that name he says Gord says hi and wishes you all the best Gord's missing your voice on boom as many are because Kevin and Alberta wrote in to say he's missing. I got all these notes from people that miss your voice. So please why the hell do we no longer hear your voice on boom 97.3 and across the stingray
Starting point is 00:43:51 radio network? They made a decision to to downsize and I unfortunately was let go. I get it. You know, obviously it sucks. I've been in the industry for 25 years. I've never been fired, never been laid off. This was this was a first for me. It sucks. I mean, anybody would say that. But hey, it is what it is.
Starting point is 00:44:14 You got to move on and we'll see what we can do. Well, hey, I'm sorry it happened to you, but I don't know if I've ever had. Well, maybe oh, even May Potts, I feel maybe was she fired at Chum? I'm trying to remember now if May Potts has ever experienced this. I don't know if I've ever had well, maybe oh even may pots. I feel maybe was she fired at chum I'm trying to remember now if me pods has ever experienced this. I don't know where she was let go
Starting point is 00:44:29 You know what? She was I just remembered mojo. Okay, here's what happened She decided to leave the CF and why for mojo radio, which was in the same building the same company at chorus And that's what humble and Fred did too They left mornings at 102.1 and they went to mojo radio and where the morning show there. And then that's when Dean Blendell comes from Windsor and blah, blah, blah. But Maypots didn't work out on Mojo. Like she was so beloved on CF and Y 102.1 and then on Mojo, it just didn't work. And I believe she was let go from Mojo radio. So if Maypots can get fired, Jeff Spindel can get fired. You know, the thing with radio is everybody says this. You haven't had a radio career until you get fired or until you get laid,
Starting point is 00:45:08 laid off or whatever. So it took me 25 years. So be it. And how are you holding up? This was about a month ago. When did you get the tap on the shoulder? September 3rd. Okay. So it's just a little day of school. So the Tuesday. Yeah. Oh man. Okay. So like, if Yeah. Oh man, okay. So like, if I may, I'm gonna pry and you can tell me if it's none of my business,
Starting point is 00:45:29 but do you get called in a room by your boss and there's some HR person with a portfolio binder? What's going on in there? No, I got an email. So Josie, who is the national talent director, I think is her title, as well as the program director at Hot 899. She was like my voice tracking boss, let's call it, and then Troy was my boom 97 3 boss. Anyway, I got a note from
Starting point is 00:45:57 her saying, Hey, we need to chat. And I said, Do you want to do phone or by video on Microsoft teams or whatever? She said, let's set up a time, yada, yada, yada. And then, uh, yeah, I got the, uh, the video call, the zoom call, the teams call, whatever you want to call. Were you blindsided or were you smelling it possibly coming or did this just, Oh, I didn't see that coming. I was hoping it was for something else, but I, I, I had an idea. I had a hunch.
Starting point is 00:46:23 Well that's better because you can brace yourself a bit if you think that this might be it. Because a lot of times people will tell you, this happened to Humble Howard at Boom, actually. But you know it's coming, and then you get the, hey, we need to have a talk, or you get called into a room, or can we have a Zoom, or whatever the hell it is.
Starting point is 00:46:41 And you kind of go into it under the assumption that you're going to get whacked. And then if you're not whacked, oh, that's relieving to know that I got a bit more time left. But if you get blindsided, sometimes I can just wreck a guy. Yeah, I mean, it still sucks. Don't get me wrong. Like, I mean, it's awful. It was a horrible feeling. The timing is brutal because my wife has been laid off for a while as well. So that just sucks too. Um, yeah, I mean it is, it is what it is. Um, you know, I can sit here and, and, and just, you know, cry about it, or I can just, you know,
Starting point is 00:47:15 move on and try to make the best of the situation I've I'm going to, you know, reach out to some radio stations and see what we can do. Uh, and then yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens. So have you been doing that? Have you been I guess you've been checking in with different program directors across this country like like how do things look only a month into this? How are things looking? I haven't really tried. I've had some people from other radio stations reach out, but I haven't really tried and the reason why is my lawyers and the my lawyers my lawyer and
Starting point is 00:47:51 the stingray lawyers were working out stuff and once that's all signed and and dealt with I'm gonna I'm gonna you know move on and see what I can do. The other thing is now we're now in a fall ratings period. Nobody usually gets hired or fired during this time and then once that rating period ends you now have Christmas. Nobody usually gets hired or fired around that time as well. So maybe I'm looking January, February. I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing that out there but I mean in a perfect world I get I work in Toronto Radio again. Yeah that's what I'm hoping for too, that you get back on Toronto radio because
Starting point is 00:48:27 you sound great and you belong on radio. But are you aware of the shrinking pie that is our radio landscape? I've heard of it, yeah. Like, have you considered maybe the next chapter of Jeff Spindel's professional life is in a different space, a different industry? Like, is this something you space, a different industry? Like, is this something you're thinking about these days? Or are you really just like licking your wounds,
Starting point is 00:48:49 waiting till the legal stuff is figured out, and then you'll pick yourself off the mat and get back in the game? I've thought about it. My problem is that this is my skill. This is what I went to school for. I didn't go to school for other, you know. Yeah, but your skill, Jeff, is communication. Yeah, but again, let's go back to other you know. Yeah, but your skill Jeff is communication.
Starting point is 00:49:05 Yeah, but again, let's let's go back to what you said. I think right now I'm just in the licking wound stage. Yeah, I, you know, we'll have to see what happens. The plan is to be back on on Toronto Radio. Fingers crossed. Who knows? No, that's the thing. That's that's probably the scariest
Starting point is 00:49:25 part, right, is who knows? You don't know. You don't know what's next. You don't know where that next paycheck comes from or what it looks like. And that's an uneasy feeling. So I'm just hoping you're you're holding up. OK, you got a
Starting point is 00:49:37 good support system and that you're realize that this is the end of a job. You were a number at some big stingray company, and then you will, you'll find something to pay the bills with sooner rather than later. You know, I just want to say one thing. I have a, I have a personal Facebook page that I've basically made public anyway. And then I have a, another Facebook page and it's,
Starting point is 00:50:01 it's just Jeff Spindel on the radio. That's what it's called. And the people that have made comments on the radio page, these are people who I don't know, I just don't know them. Some of them are saying where they're from. The amount of calls, or I shouldn't say calls, but like messages via Facebook through this page that I have received and then publicly on the wall, so to speak, have been absolutely phenomenal. It's been appreciated. And yeah, it's just really nice because you feel like you've, one person wrote, oh, you helped me out during the pandemic
Starting point is 00:50:40 and just, you hear stuff like that and you're like, you know what, thank you. I appreciate you reaching out. And'm glad that that my show could help you in some sort of way. I like a friendly voice with the bringing the fun facts and the great music and everything. Well, that was that was my thing on on on boom. And you could ask any of them.
Starting point is 00:51:00 I mean, even, you know, Matt's another one. We were they called us phoneores because we were always getting calls, talking to people, you know, making these, uh, these friendships with these, with these listeners, just, you know, people would call and feel like they were your buddy. And then next Gord is one of them. Gord Lambert. I always pronounced it Lambert. Maybe, you know what I, I just decided this guy's from like, uh, like sort of like I think he's already, uh,
Starting point is 00:51:27 he's from Oshawa. Okay. So Lambert, he could, he could, he drives, he drives truck. Do you remember the, you remember the key he bear or any guy he believes there was the, uh, there was, it wasn't there the quarterback he bear, but it was guy. Hebert. Am I, you know, my collection of this. Oh yeah. Well, it's like, there was also a, uh, a basketball player, his last name, I'm just going to spell it B E N O I T where we say it is Ben Wah, but in the States they called them Benoit. You know, the also, yeah, you're right. And absolutely. And here we'd say,
Starting point is 00:51:57 Hey man, I'll meet you in the foyer. No Americans going to fucking meet you in the foyer, right? They'll punch you out before they meet you in the foyer. They're going to meet you in the foyer, right? They'll punch you out before they meet you in the foyer. They're gonna meet you in the foyer. Exactly. Exactly. And then they're gonna say, take Toronto Mike, take your Chesterfield
Starting point is 00:52:13 and stick it up your ass. I don't think I've ever used the word Chesterfield, but I know what you're talking about. You know, good point. I haven't. Wasn't there the Chesterfield shop? I grew up with Chesterfield and couch being like synonyms. Like, and I know now that I'm talking to you, I, they may be different
Starting point is 00:52:34 things. Like maybe you need like, I don't know, wooden armrests or something to be a Chesterfield, but that term was around anyways, when I was growing up Chesterfield. Well, it's kind of like the, you know, some people, porch, veranda, deck, balcony. Right. You can throw that in there too, maybe. You know what, I actually like this game. It's like, you know, the different names are different things and my wife, so we, okay,
Starting point is 00:52:56 my wife, she works for a bank and someone puts on Teams, speaking of Teams, but do you get like PTSD now when you think of that Teams? Because I worked for a German software company and I had a similar tap on the shoulder that you had, but I got mine in 2018. So I know exactly what you're going through. Like I'm here for you, man. I know exactly what you're going, going through.
Starting point is 00:53:13 But that place, because they were all in Germany and I was here by my lonesome, it was all Skype and absolutely at some point the sound and I don't even have it installed on anything anymore because the sound of the Skype ring Gives me PTSD. I think because some crazy German is gonna ask for something crazy No, no offense to the Germans listening, but these particular Germans might have been crazy. Okay, not all Germans are crazy There's some lovely German shout out to Rob Proust who I'll see on Friday at 8 o'clock for toast. But okay, so Chesterfield. Okay, but where I'm going with this is my wife
Starting point is 00:53:47 got this team's thing at work that said, oh, today is national or maybe international cinnamon roll day. And then we ended up at Ikea to get cinnamon rolls and then became the discussion, cinnamon rolls versus cinnamon buns. I should have recorded it. This is a crazy wild conversation
Starting point is 00:54:07 on what is the difference between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon bun. There was heavy research involved. There was passionate thoughts on the subject. Like who cares except you and I, right Jeff? Cinnamon roll versus cinnamon bun. So what is the difference between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon bun?
Starting point is 00:54:22 It's like the roll is literally like you take like a pastry and you roll it. I know it's so it's rolled and twist. You know, you can see it twist and you can almost unroll it. Like you've ever seen one of those. Whereas a bun is a bun. But I yeah, it's very hazy and I'd rather not revisit it all. But there is a difference apparently between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon bun. But in my entire life I've used these terms interchangeably. Do they still have the cinnabuns at the food court in the mall beside the orange Julius? Dude, they probably do. And I can tell you what I used to go to Islington station for
Starting point is 00:54:58 high school because that's where Michael Power was. And oh, you know what? I might have a be conflating my memories but I have a memory of a Cinnabon's being in the station and it might not be the Islington station now that I think of it but it could be but I just have this memory of always going to the certain subway station where it just smelled like Cinnabon's it was ridiculous delicious smell oh it's fantastic there should be cologne like Cinnabon cologne right there probably is it just might not be called that. Now you're a married guy, right?
Starting point is 00:55:27 Maybe it's a cinnamon twist. You're a married guy? Yes. Okay. So, you know, for all you unmarried people looking to meet up, the Cinnabon smell is irresistible. You will have your preferred gender all over you if you use Cinnabon cologne. I wish I knew this.
Starting point is 00:55:42 Well, I just realized it right now. All right, Jeff That's shitty what happened to you and it sounds like you've got a lawyer making sure they don't screw of your severance here And hopefully that's resolved soon because you were there 14 years and I don't know any I won't Pry and what is full-time and what is part-time and all that crap that matters when they come to crunch this freaking number But they always offer you less than you're entitled to. This is sort of a general rule. So I hope you, uh, you're not taking advantage of here. Nope. So far, so good. We're all, uh, we're all sitting pretty. Okay, good. There is a name of somebody who dropped by and I had a lovely
Starting point is 00:56:15 conversation with her and I believe she would be somebody you worked with, but Stacy Thompson. Yeah, I know Stacy. Okay. So what was your professional relationship like with Stacy Stacey? I think I trained her back when we were on the second floor and I remember we met because I think she was doing some personal training at the time yeah and then and then yeah she got hired on she did did weekends and stuff, but her and I, sometimes if there was ever kind of any carryover of, you know, she was in for May or I don't know whoever, we would just chat and chat and chat and chat.
Starting point is 00:56:55 And she's been, she's been really nice. She's reached out to me a whole bunch of times over this last little while. And yeah, she's been great. I mean, there's some great, great, great radio people that have been victims of cost cutting like it's almost like you're just a you're just a dollar figure on some spreadsheet and it's like hey we can get that down to whatever if we just get rid of that massive Jeff Spindel salaries so you're just you know victim of cost cutting it just it's just a shitty thing that happens to many a great broadcaster. Yeah, no, unfortunately, that's the way it is.
Starting point is 00:57:26 But like I said earlier, just got to as my buddy KJ would say, you just got to keep on keeping on. Keep on keeping on. Okay. My last episode of Toronto Mike, let me just tell you the story about this and get your thoughts on on this because it was an FOTM named Jesse Hirsch. I don't know if you know this name, but he's been on CBC radio.
Starting point is 00:57:46 He's a good writer and he's very interested in all things tech. And he basically fed a couple of episodes of Toronto Mike, specifically he fed these two FOTM cast episodes, which happened to feature your old buddy, Cam Gordon, who you haven't seen in a while, but you might see at TMLX 17 on November 30th
Starting point is 00:58:05 at Palma's Kitchen. I feel like that's the place for the reunion. I feel, yeah. And another reason before I get back to this episode Jesse Hirsch helped me with, I will say that because I think your skills of communication are not restricted simply to radio, I feel like somebody like Cam Gordon
Starting point is 00:58:22 is a good networking person because Cam Gordon is a good networking person because cam gordon is a communications guy and He's currently at Seneca college Doing communications, but he's very tapped into this communications world I feel like you jeff if radio doesn't want you because they're pinching pennies and sunsetting I think there is a future for you in the world of communications for for companies and Doing kind of what cam g does. I'm open to anything. I'm not saying forget LinkedIn. Okay. Shout out to Elvis. I don't even I don't have a LinkedIn. I don't have a resume. You got to start somewhere,
Starting point is 00:58:57 Jeff. Come on. Start with a LinkedIn profile. That's actually a good idea because when I was even trying to find your bio, that's why we walked through your career. So slowly It's not like I can Google Jeff Spindel bio or whatever Usually I end up on a LinkedIn page and I'm like, oh, you know He was in the Grand Prairie for his spell and then he was in Timmins and he was in Barry Yeah start there and then have a heart to heart He said such kind words about you with Cam Gordon because Cam Gordon was fired from Twitter Canada. I feel like this is public right Cam? So Cam was famously because Musk fired everybody practically in that Twitter Canada office that day. So Cam Gordon was
Starting point is 00:59:34 fired from Twitter. He ended up at Rogers and then he left Rogers for the Seneca gig. But he's very dialed in with the industry and the openings and stuff. And I'm just saying radio is not the be all end all for a young man like Jeff Spindel. Yeah, no, I definitely got to reach out to that guy. It'd be nice, actually, we were in touch, I don't know, maybe two, three years ago. He was helping me out with something on Twitter or whatever.
Starting point is 00:59:59 And we were talking about how our dad should meet up and have a beer and talk about the old baseball coaching, you know, when we were 14, 15, or however old we were talking about how our dad should meet up and have a beer and talk about the old baseball coaching, you know, when we were 14, 15 or however old we were. Right, well, we're gonna reconnect you at, maybe we'll do it on the air, TMLX. I'm trying to do the math because there's one before that, but TMLX 17, we're gonna get you there. But when you get in that teams meeting where they're like,
Starting point is 01:00:21 your services are no longer required, I'm reminded on the live stream my buddy mark hebscher story He worked at chch and they basically pulled this stunt It's really awful what they did but they decided to declare bankruptcy and then like in the footprint there in the from the ashes of this Bankruptcy would rise a new numbered company and rehire people at a smaller rate. So you had two rooms. You had a room of people who are like, no severance because we're bankrupt loser. Get out of here and we're not even going to offer you a new job.
Starting point is 01:00:55 Just go home. And then you had a room of people like, oh, you're fired, but we have a job offer for you to work at this new. This is CHCH in Hamilton to work at this new company. It's not CHCH. It's like got a new number name thing, man. It's yeah, we're doing the same shit in the same place and you have the same people, but it's a different company. Trust us. Wink, wink. Like it's so greasy and go ahead. Go ahead. Didn't CHCH used to broadcast Leaf games and Paul Hendrick was the host. Remember they switched from CH CH to on TV. Of course I do.
Starting point is 01:01:28 Is that, is that, is that where you're telling me? Well, that's the place, but this is after the on nonsense. But yeah, that's what I think of when I think of stage stage is a tiny talent time was a big stage stage production. But here's what else I think of hilarious house of frighten Stein. Do you remember the best Billy Yeah, Billy Van the best. And you mentioned the Leaf Games, of course, Paul Hendrick, who's been here, he's a sweetheart of a guy, actually.
Starting point is 01:01:52 But remember the Leaf Games, but also Maple Leaf Wrestling with Billy Red Lions. I remember that one. Don't you dare miss it. Remember the Maple Leaf Gardens had that instead of walking on the floor, they had like that podium that led up to the air to the area with King Kong Bundy and What's his name? Joe Murdo? There was
Starting point is 01:02:15 I was watching I looked at that. I had that guy. It's too stong gave me this. Oh, maybe this is yours It's to steal yours and he gave it to me. He's a bit of a thief He was he didn't have, well, maybe he did. I still have my, my wrestling figures. I've got hill, Billy, Jim, Paul Orndorf, Ricky the dragon steamboat. Wow. I've got all of them. Paul Orndorf. I was at that big CNE day when, uh, what would they call it? The main event or whatever they called it. And he, uh, John stud, I think. And, and, uh, remember the killer bees would wear masks.
Starting point is 01:02:46 Stu was heavy into the, uh, still is. He does. Well, he does dark side of the ring. He literally goes on the road and talks to like, he'll talk to like, I don't know, uh, Jake, the snake Roberts or something in some old dark motel room. And it'll be an episode of vice's dark side of the ring. Like he's working with vice on that right now. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:04 You should show up at this, uh, this premiere tomorrow night at, uh, this is his new movie. Don't fuck with ghosts. Jeez. Now I'm trying to remember how the hell I got here. Jeff, does this ever happen to you? And boom, they don't let you talk long enough. You're talking about Mark Hemsher, Mark Hemsher. Thank you. So Mark Hemsher finds out he's supposed to be in this room and he's a bit late to it or something. So Hepsi goes in this room and he's a bit late to it or something So he goes in this room and this is the room where they tell you oh, you don't have a job
Starting point is 01:03:30 but Sign this paper and you can come back tomorrow It's a new job. That's exactly what you were doing yet the rates I'll make it up the rates like 33% less or whatever But you still have a job which is you it's better to have something while you look for something than to have nothing because We're not giving you severance So he's like, oh this sucks, but at least I have a job and I go figure out what's next or whatever And and then his boss comes up and goes, what are you doing here? He's like, oh, I was late, but I'm here now He's like you're in the wrong room
Starting point is 01:03:57 You're supposed to be in that room where we said get the fuck out of here Your services are no longer required and we're not paying you a penny in severance because we just declared bankruptcy. You're in the wrong room. It was the best story. You came, he crashed one of my episodes of David Schultz just to tell this story. But that to me is the story of like the worst shoulder tap. So at least you have a company that owes you severance. The worst is when they hide behind some bullshit bankruptcy or whatever and they're like we're not giving you a penny. So hopefully you get something out of that. Yeah no I mean that would suck but no things are all good on my end with that. Okay no no no no further discussion on that.
Starting point is 01:04:36 Stick to this last episode so Jesse Hirsch that's where I was. This is fun right? Shout out to Great Lakes Beer you know it only takes one so jesse hersh is playing around with google's new artificial intelligence software the name alludes me right now but he basically feeds it two episodes of toronto might f otm cast episodes there's actually a new one next week but so google ai sucks in these two episodes of toronto mike and then spits out this fake like two people chatting about Toronto Mike basically for like 15 minutes and it's all AI no humans involved in this they suck in this and they spit this out and I dropped it in the Toronto Mike feed yesterday like just because I was Jessie her shared it
Starting point is 01:05:18 with me and I thought yeah they sound they sound like humans talking they sound a lot like Dax Shepard and his co-host of that podcast that Dax Shepard has So they sound pretty real But you can hear and they you know what they're saying is kind of close But not right like it sounds like it needs a human editor It sounds a bit like AI wrote it and of course AI did write it and I sort of dropped it in as like the worst Podcast because I found it lacked completely lacked any humanity and I don't want to be like that's it There's no sequel every episode of Toronto Mike will be a human being talking to a human being. You're a human being, Jeff, right?
Starting point is 01:05:50 I think so, yeah. Just tear your skin to bleeds. I need to know there's no circuits under no circuit board. But all this is to say any fear from you as a 20 plus year radio guy that AI is going to gobble up all these on-air jobs. I'd be lying if I didn't say that some radio people haven't talked about it. I remember there was a lady in like Nashville, I think, or somewhere in the States and she posted this AI feature that she did. Somebody had won Taylor's, have you seen this? No, no. So somebody won Taylor Swift tickets and instead instead of her, I'm not gonna pretend
Starting point is 01:06:27 I totally understand how this works, but instead of her calling the winner of the Taylor Swift tickets, she had the AI do it. And it was so, it was just bizarre because here you have somebody who's just losing their mind because they just won Taylor Swift tickets, whether they're gonna go or not, that's a different story.
Starting point is 01:06:45 They could resell them. But the AI was matching her voice and basically say, hey, congratulations, you won tickets to see Taylor Swift. Oh, my God. Yes, way to go. You're going to go to see Taylor Swift on October, blah, blah, blah. And it was just there was no emotion whatsoever behind any of that. And it just to me, it's just not the same.
Starting point is 01:07:07 Now with that said, I don't know what the... Well, because you're mimicking somebody that sounds like they might be a robot, right? Like the way that your speech pattern... Well, I was trying to... Yeah, but the problem with this Toronto Mic'd episode is it does sound like... And I'm a realist, you can call me a skeptic, whatever, but I, I will say it's getting pretty damn good at mimicking the cadence in the speech patterns of us human beings. So really it's the content now where you feel like there's Rob Pruss's name and
Starting point is 01:07:37 Mrs. Ocmonic because you do know Mrs. Ocmonic from elf. Do you remember Mrs. Ocmonic on elf? We're talking about Alf. Do you remember Alf? Alien life form. Yeah, of course you do. Yeah. That'sonic on elf? We're talking about elf. Do you remember elf? Alien life form.
Starting point is 01:07:45 Of course you do. Yeah. That's where they were. They're eating the cats, Jeff. From Melmac. Cats Melmac. And Mrs. Ocmonic was the neighbor then went on to play Jerry Seinfeld's mom on Seinfeld's and people know her best from that. But when she was a younger actress, she dated James Dean. So this is in one of the FOTM cast. So this is kind of in this 13th to 15 minute thing that I dropped in the Toronto Mike feed. Sounds like two real people having a real conversation, except for these little differences and the fact that it completely lacks soul. My fear for radio is that they don't have human. I'm already
Starting point is 01:08:20 upset at the older voice tracking and that things are not local anymore you I should you know You don't have this gig anymore, but you'll be doing a show you voice tracked your show. Am I right? Yeah Okay, so you voice track a show and how many markets were you in? I don't even know but a bunch You cross the coast. I was I was reading coast to coast. I got me very excited coast to coast Okay, so coast to coast you're on many markets voice tracked. So you're not live or local. And the one thing we had going is that you're still a human being because it can reach out and punch you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:51 But once you lose that humanity, uh, what the, what, what's the point of it all? What's the point? Yeah. I mean, there, there were times where, I mean, I can tell you right now there, when the queen passed away, I wanted to, uh, to I you know, I wanted to go on and say something about it But all my songs were like these fast songs and it's like and I can't control where my automated because I'm hitting posts I'm not stopping down and doing a break. I'm talking over song intros So it's like, you know, hey, you know, here's some sad news. The queen died. Oh, black Betty, bam,
Starting point is 01:09:26 a lamb, you know, it's just, it's, it's not the same. And then, you know, right, you know what I mean? And then there's stuff, there's stuff also with, and I felt bad about this because I would get, I would get emails from people asking me when Alberta with the, with the wildfires, I would get an email, Hey, Jeff, do you know if such and such road is closed? And I don't know. And you're like, I was in Grand Prairie about 20 years ago. My goodness, you're so right. And I often joke about, you know, like back in the day, let's say 1980, December 1980, when John Lennon
Starting point is 01:09:59 was, it was announced John Lennon was killed outside his apartment in New York. it was announced John Lennon was killed outside his apartment in New York. Q107 and Chamifem particularly, but many a station in Toronto would stop down with a live person talking about John Lennon, talking about the Beatles, and they just played Beatles songs and they played Imagine and they played John Lennon songs, and everybody would tune in and hear this live immediate reaction to the depth of this icon. It's tough to do that nowadays with all this automation. Like it's tough to break in. Yeah. I mean, uh, well, you remember when John Lennon passed away, uh, Howard Koseli
Starting point is 01:10:37 went on the, uh, the football broadcast. But I'll, I'll say this at boom at Boom, we had the ability to change things up on a dime. And one of the best, I'm getting goosebumps right now actually thinking about it. When Gore Downey passed away, Boom switched to, I know some other stations played some hip songs, but we went all tragically hip. And not to get like sappy here, but when I came on at night, first of all, the phones were just off the hook and everybody who called had a story about Gord Downie. And the common denominator was that Gord Downie was just such an incredible person. Gord Downie would spend time talking to you to the point where his
Starting point is 01:11:21 crew had to say, Gord, it's time to go. And everybody, I'm getting goosebumped, everybody shared these stories, people were calling, people were crying. Some of us announcers were even shedding a tear over the stuff that people were telling us. But that's the thing that we were able to do as a radio station, you know, Wayne, Troy,
Starting point is 01:11:39 whoever decided, hey, we're gonna switch things up and get all hip, we knocked out every song. Can Con was great that day. But mean that's what we did we turned I see you are you a hip fan you got him I'm a big time hip fan absolutely but yeah when we when we flipped a switch on that one it was just it was it was one of my most memorable moments in in in radio was was that day and then the and the the amount of feedback that we got from listeners so you are able to it, it's just whether it's worth it or not. So you can't...
Starting point is 01:12:08 Well, that was live though. That wasn't a voice track show. That was live. That was live. Because I do wonder like when the next big rock, I mean, these people are getting older. We got Paul McCartney's in his 80s, you got Mick Jagger. Like these rock icons are going, spoiler alert,
Starting point is 01:12:23 shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, but they're gonna die. Like gonna die like the core down you're right and that you have no can-con worries with gore down he passed it away because you can just nail those hip songs no problem but we are gonna lose Roger Daltrey and we are gonna lose you know Robert Plant and you know q107 is gonna have to deal with when when I don't know Steven Tyler and Ozzy Osbourne I mean let me tell you more people who will die but this is absolutely when radio should shine, right? A live local voice being able to play these songs and talk about these people with the fans.
Starting point is 01:12:55 But you were able to do that for Gord, which is amazing. Yeah, I mean, with that said, even if you are doing the voice tracking thing, technically you could switch it out. So let's say, let's use Steven Tyler if he passes away. If you wanted to flip and do all Aerosmith, you could do it, but it would be more work for the voice. The voice tracker would have to go back on
Starting point is 01:13:13 and redo their voice tracks. But you couldn't do, like I said earlier, with the phone calls. You couldn't take those phone calls and get people to share their experiences. I also don't think you could get that being, you know, maybe if you, again, you, Steven Tyler, maybe if you're a Boston station, sure. But with Gore Downey, everybody had a story. I mean, Canada,
Starting point is 01:13:34 well, what were those memes going around? Canada's closed right now. Well, yeah. Or the, the final show in Kingston, you know, Canada's closed. Yeah, Canada's closed cause we're all watching're all watching you know Gord Downey's last show. Did you watch the documentary on Prime? No I have not yet. You'll love it man it sounds like you're a hip fan in fact that's close to where I wanted to close things if he was on the music front. We did shout out earlier my music at work actually. Easy Rock. I love Easy Rock. Lisa Gibbons Rock. I remember that too. Lisa Gibbons and John Tesh.
Starting point is 01:14:07 What the fuck did they have to do with Toronto? Don't ask me. John Tesh. John Tesh is still on, isn't he on CHFI? From nine to midnight? You know, if you say so, my terrestrial radio listening is not what it used to be, but I'm sure he's somewhere. People seem to dig that.
Starting point is 01:14:23 Oh no, no, no, he is. I remember we had him in Timmons He was doing a syndicated show and he would tee up his episodes and I'll never forget I'll never forget it was like hey, this is John Tash tuned in tonight Have you ever been trapped on a roller coaster upside down? Yeah, I'm gonna let you know what you need to do with more information for your head or whatever. He called it It's like really how many times have you been stuck on a rollercoaster? Shout out to Fabio who got nailed on a rollercoaster once.
Starting point is 01:14:49 It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where the DJ 2000 or whatever. Remember like, how about those clowns in Congress? And he's like, how do they know? Like it's never it's evergreen content. Scary times to be a radio professional. I got secondhand anxiety, but, um, I know you'll, you'll be okay, but I feel like this pie just only shrinks. It's not growing. I think it's I think we're gonna have a reunion of cam Gordon and we're gonna get you into a new industry where you can not worry so
Starting point is 01:15:19 much about that tap on the shoulder every every six months. Okay, so we did briefly touch on the hip. I really enjoyed their prime series, by the way, but I'm a big hip head, but I thought it was great. What are your jams? Before we say goodbye today, and I've enjoyed this very much, and I do want to shout out recycle my electronics dot ca because Jeff, that's where you go. If you have old electronics and old cables, you don't throw it in the garbage. The chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to recycle my electronics dot ca Put in your poster code and then it'll be like drop it off here and we'll properly recycle it and that's amazing So take a note on that. But what are the songs you listen to?
Starting point is 01:15:55 I'm a big Bob Marley guy. I like the cure. I like a lot of I like the hip. I like zeppelin I like I like a lot of stuff that that boom plays like, you know, I like the hip, I like zeppelin. I like a lot of stuff that Boom plays. Like, you know, it was just kinda my music. But I also love a lot of Latin music. I like reggae music. Yeah, those are my jams. Those are your jams. At some point we should get you back
Starting point is 01:16:21 to kick out the jams here. Like just play your 10 favorite songs of all time and you can talk them up and you can pretend you're back on the radio and then it'll be a lot of fun for both of us. That's something we should definitely do. Any final thoughts? Any final stories you were driving here and you were thinking, I got to remember to tell this one or the time that I was, you know, I interviewed Robert Plant and you got anything here on our way out?
Starting point is 01:16:47 I couldn't say that I ever interviewed Robert Plant. No, actually the one story I wanted to tell you, because I thought you might have asked me like what was like a big show on Boom for you. I was going to say. Oh, I should have asked that. The tragically But I got the story anyway. The tragically hip day. I remember I covered for Stu once and Robin Williams died and a lot of people called
Starting point is 01:17:09 and it was like Robin Williams was everybody's friend. Yeah, you already asked it. So you came up organically because how long, when you were on Boom, how long did you talk between songs? Like was there a rule? How much time? Like I think when you were on boom? How long did you talk between songs like like like was there a rule? How much time like I think when you're was it basically you just had to talk over the intro and over you talk you talk over You talk over intros and then you have one Stopping break where you can you know you get about 45 seconds to a minute, which is plenty of time to do whatever you want
Starting point is 01:17:42 Yeah, there's no I mean there's rules, but there's, you know, you can, you can, so that's what I was saying earlier about, you know, specifically Matt and myself, we would always bring on- And Matt, what's his last name? Story. Okay, Matt, story. We would bring on a lot of callers,
Starting point is 01:17:56 like that was our thing, like we were known to be like the interaction, like whenever we needed like audio bits, our program director would reach out to us and say, hey, can you maybe get somebody saying blah, blah, blah, or like, hey, it's a totally eighties long weekend, woo, kind of thing. We would be the ones that would try and get that.
Starting point is 01:18:12 Not that the others didn't, but it was just kind of our little thing, right? But yeah, no, it was great speaking with the listeners and just getting to know them. And one of the biggest compliments I think that you can get in radio is when you do a bit, regardless of what you talk about,
Starting point is 01:18:30 you don't say, hey, what are your thoughts? Call me at blah, blah, blah. You just do the bit, you get out, and the next thing you know, they call you up with a response to your bit. And second, they say, oh, hey, Jeff, or hey, Mike. You know what I mean? Like they know your name, they're your friend,
Starting point is 01:18:45 they talk to you. I didn't give you the number, I didn't tell you to call me, but you're calling me and you're saying my name. I think it's a huge compliment if you're a disc jockey or if you're on air personality, whatever you wanna call us these days. I realize now before I play some lowest of the low
Starting point is 01:18:58 and then say goodbye and don't leave without the lasagna from Palma pasta, it's in my freezer. And then we do have to take a picture by the the Toronto tree but on the way out just Toronto Radio Talk is basically recently fairly recently 88.1 in the 88 and 102.1 CFM Y 102.1 the edge those two stations seem to be boomifying their lineup okay so if you check out the playlists and they have it on their websites and stuff, you'll see eighties, boomy type songs slipping in more often than it used to. Like they're definitely in Q did this, of course, back.
Starting point is 01:19:35 I was just going to say that. Yeah. Well, Q's got, I guess you guys, thanks to your fantastic broadcasting, Jeff, you guys started to eat Q's lunch and then lunch. Then suddenly Q's like, we got to play some Duran Duran too. Like why have we never... Cure, Depeche Mode. All those they would never play, right? Those were like, I won't even use the phrases they used to use, but those were the songs that they left for like Safe and Why or whatever.
Starting point is 01:19:57 And they didn't touch those songs, especially the synth stuff. But they suddenly said, hey, we need to boomify our playlist. And I think 88.1 and 102.1 who are like alt rock stations are starting to boomify as well and all of this should be good for a comfortable professional voice like yours. Like if you needed a DJ on 88.1 or 102.1, Jeff Spindel is a known name for that format and will be comfortable when you try to take some of those people and bring them over like you might find out there is a an appetite for what you offer. It's a nice compliment to boom though you got to think about it that way too. I mean it's that way the guy who gets all the credit for that Wayne Webster. He yeah he schedules everything not only that but he I don't know if you've ever scheduled music before but he does it one song at
Starting point is 01:20:43 a time. You have the option, you basically have the option of just throwing it all out there and then you can kind of, sometimes they call it massage it. You fix things for time. And I can tell you, I used to schedule music, I hated it. It's time consuming and I would do it on one hour at a time. He's doing it one song at a time. And that's public knowledge, because I've read that.
Starting point is 01:21:06 Oh, and he's been on this show, and he's talked about it too, absolutely. Well, he had called me yesterday. So he knows you're here? Did you mention he was on this? I said I was coming here, and he said that, yeah, he was here, that he has been here. But no, he just called because I, you know,
Starting point is 01:21:19 he just wanted to see how I was doing, yeah. Which is very kind of him to do that, actually, because basically, other than the death of a child or spouse or something, the losing of your job is one of the more stressful events that will occur in your life, Jeff. So this is not easy what you're going through. So I'm glad he checked in on you. Yeah, no. Everybody who I thought would check in from the station and friends or stuff,
Starting point is 01:21:45 they've all checked in. All nice dudes, man. All nice guys and girls at Boom. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say. Good, because you haven't shored up that severance yet. I can hear your lawyer on the other line. Jeff, don't shit on Boom. We haven't cashed that check yet.
Starting point is 01:22:05 No, Jeff, honestly, we talked about your radio history. You've been 20 plus years, 14 plus on Boom, now owned by Stingray, which puts you coast to coast. But I'm happy I got to meet you and I'm sure our paths will cross again. And when you do land that next gig, you can come on and talk about it. November 30th, aren't we doing the... Well, that's when I brokered the deal to tell Cam basically, one of the many communications jobs he didn't take because they were only offering you know 200 grand a year.
Starting point is 01:22:34 One of those could be yours. Would you settle for that? Yes. And you'll eat for free that day okay. Peter Gross will tell you it's the greatest lasagna he's ever had, so you're gonna have a good time at Palma's Kitchen. Everyone's invited November 30th, 2024, noon to 3 p.m. And that brings us to the end of our 1,561st show.
Starting point is 01:23:02 Only humans on this program. There will be no sequel to episode 1560. You can go to my website, torontomike.com and follow me everywhere. Jeff, so you mentioned Facebook. Jeff Spindle on radio, I believe, but what's the best way to follow what's going on? Yeah, Jeff Spindle on the radio is a good way on Facebook. I'm also on Twitter, but I'm not a big Twitter guy, or sorry, ex, but it's Jeff underscore Spindel. You can call it Twitter on this program, Jeff underscore Spindel. And remember, Spindel's got one L just to keep you on your toes. Yeah, I should have switched that.
Starting point is 01:23:38 It's too late now, unless you're KJ, in which case you can do whatever you want. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. Jeff's got his craft beer going home with him. Palma Pasta, he's got his lasagna. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, he'll be heading there in his browser as soon as he gets home. Raymond James Canada. Minaris, you've got your speaker.
Starting point is 01:24:03 And Ridley Funeral Home, you've got your measuring tape. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is Mary Jo Eustis, who was on Traders Canada Season 2 and is now available to talk about it so you can read between the lines. Oh, did I mention spoiler alert? See you all then. There's a thousand shades of gray Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true, how about you? All them pickin' up trash and them puttin' down rogues
Starting point is 01:25:00 And their broker in stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am

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