Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jesse and Gene: Toronto Mike'd #212

Episode Date: January 11, 2017

Mike chats with Jesse Dylan and Gene Valaitis about their years on Toronto radio as Jesse and Gene, what they've been up to since and what's next for the duo.

Welcome to episode 212 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer, and Chef's Plate, delivering delicious and locally sourced farm-fresh ingredients and refrigerated kits directly to your door. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com, and joining me this week are Jesse Dillon and Gene Valaitis, better known to you as Jesse and Gene. Hi, how are ya? Hi, how are ya? Hi.

Hi. How are ya? Hi, Mike. It is great to hear that again. Hey, it's great to have you both on at the same time. This is a personal treat for me. I listened to you guys, particularly on Q107 the first time, but then I caught up with you again here and there, and we're going to dive into your career on Toronto Radio. But what a pleasure it is

to have both Gene Valaitis, and Gene, you're in California, is that right? Huntington Beach, California, looking at the ocean right now, sitting here at my desk. Jesse lives up in beautiful Whistler, B.C. in this unbelievable mansion. It's like the guy's a billionaire. It's sick. Is that right, Jesse? This is a mansion? Well, Mike, I think what I do and where I spend my money and time is none of your concern.

So let's stop that nonsense right now. I want you... The kudos that I'd like to pass out that Gene and I would both like to recognize because we appreciate this. We were the kings of scam. I'm just totally impressed that you've been able to scam a free beer sponsorship so early in your career. It's amazing.

And you sound a little, I don't know, maybe a little buzzed this morning. Have you been drinking that beer already? I caught a bit of the Donald Trump presser, so I dove in. I think I needed some Great Lakes beer for that one. By the way, Jesse, I need you to please release your tax return. I'm going to need to see your tax return when I publish this episode. No problem. But if you want to be current and relevant, you should get Gene to tell you the snake lady story with respect to the alleged allegations against Donald Trump and the golden showers. Dates back to Ottawa. He probably doesn't want to remember that. Michael Boone. So Gene,

the first letter and Mike, the first letter I ever got from a program director, his name was Harry Boone. Are you related to Harry Boone, Michael? I don't think so, but you never know. Tell me this story. Who would name their kid Harry Boone? I don't know. Gene graduated from Ryerson. I graduated from BCIT years ago when they would accept assholes into the broadcast communications program at both those fine institutes. when they would accept assholes into the broadcast communications program at both those fine institutes. I sent an audio air check. Mike, and you know what that is. You know, you take the show, you send it to somebody and say, hey, love, can I get a job somewhere?

Yes. So I sent this to Harry Boone, who was the program director of CJVI in Victoria, British Columbia. He sent me back an email or a letter. It said a letter. And it said, you have no talent, no personality. We couldn't possibly hire you. Of course, he was right. I should have never got in the business, but I'll never forget that name, Harry Boone.

Gene got a similar letter just recently also from Gary Slate. Gene continually sends out these letters looking for employment. I think you got the exact same vernacular from Gary Slate, didn't you, Gene? I'm not going after a guy who is a billionaire, a philanthropist, and does tremendous things in Canada. No, I didn't get that letter from him. Stop it. Yeah, you did. It's definitely something I've got letters to look for.

Hey, did you keep the letter from Harry Boone? Did you keep it? You know what I did? I don't know if I still have it. We've moved so many times since, but I did keep it. You know, it was great. You know, to be honest with you, I went back into the plastic room where we played radio with the asbestos falling down your pants, where you eventually would die of cancer because you spent too much time in the BCIT, your real formaldehyde broadcast booth.

But, you know, he eventually hired me. I kept bugging him. So give me a chance. So he actually did hire me for the all night show. Oh, wow. I want to dive into this. So let me start by saying the beer that you're not getting because you guys are remote. So if you had been sitting beside me right now, I would give you each, not even a six-pack to share, I'd give you each your own six-pack of Great Lakes beer. So I owe you, if you're ever rolling through Toronto, let me know and I'll get you your six-pack of Great Lakes beer. Well, no problem. I'm a club soda guy,

so you enjoy the beer on my behalf. I might do that during this episode, actually. That's a good idea. He says that, Mike, but listen to him. He's hammered. That's right. Sounds hammered. It's 9 o'clock in the morning.

Are you crazy? Mike, before we move on from the free beer episode, Gene and I are writing a book. Gene will make that announcement shortly. We're actually not writing the book. We're contributing into it. We're hiring a ghostwriter and a publishing firm and it had very little to do with us, but if we can make a buck out of it, we'll schlep it on whoever will buy it. The truth of the matter is once upon a time, we were hired by a radio station

from a radio station and the new radio station that hired us said look guys thrilled to have you guys back in the building we're sending you out for the first day to to sonoka where you guys get to give away free gas to toronto but do us a favor no more free stuff you're gonna love this story it's so good you guys are notorious for scamming things. Jesse drives down the streets of Unionville on the weekend. The doors open up. They throw shit in his car. No more free stuff, guys. So Gene and I show up

at a Sunoco gas station. We're giving away free gas. Created a traffic jam. It was a lineup of 500 cars. Welcome back, Jesse and Gene. Sunoco was the sponsor. What happened, Gene? Well, somebody from labatt's showed up because uh they liked us and they were a huge sponsor of uh q107 and the jesse and gene show and um well they showed up with these refrigerators that look just like molson

canadian beer cans and they put one in my convertible and they put one in Jesse's car. And we just looked at each other and it was just like, here we go again. Man can scam. But I have to give Jesse credit. Jesse was always the scammer. I wasn't very good at scamming.

I sort of sat back and Jesse did all the scamming. But it was just like everything they said not to do on the first day, we totally undid, and here we are driving away from the Sunoco gas station with these giant beer can refrigerators stocked full of beer in the back of our cars. Exactly what we were not supposed to do. That's the good old days, right? That's when there was just so much swag and stuff just flying around with DJs and radio stations.

But are those days gone? Like, is that dried up now? You know, I mean, back in the, you know, it's interesting. We were paid a great amount of money when we were out in public to only drink Labatt Blue. And Labatts would fly us down to Dunedin for the Blue Jay Spring training. We just had an endless expense budget from Labatts at the time. Eventually, you know, we got sponsored by Molson's as well. I think we did a brief episode

with Coors Light. But, you know, I mean, it was kind of like a clever way of doing endorsements. But the expense accounts were ridiculous. Gene and I bought the entire volleyball team of some chicks from Boston at Clearwater, live on the beach one day, hammered on margaritas on Labatt's tab. We just went insane with the expense accounts because we could. The interesting issue is those endorsement kind of deals are coming back because it's so hard for sponsors now to rise above the noise, right? Who's going to watch a commercial on television?

Television advertising is giving way to digital. Digital, for the first time in 2017, $80 billion, will eclipse television advertising. And I know this is radio, but they're going through the same thing. So how do you get your message to rise above the noise? You start looking for influencers like you, Mike, to promote your beer. You know, I just read a press release from Rogers Radio

saying that they're doing something revolutionary at Kiss 92.5. They're going to have like Roz and Mocha, the morning guys, are going to do live ad reads. This was the revolutionary new idea that they've come up with at Rogers Radio. And I'm thinking, come on, podcasters, we've been doing that. That's what we do live. There's no canned ads on this show. It's always a live read. And this goes back to the olden days, if you will. But

you're right. People are like, they don't hear ads anymore. It's got to be sort of embedded into the show almost, I think, nowadays. But guys, let me get you to cue the first rain at cue. Let me get you to Q107 for the Jesse and Gene show in 1987. Is this the first time you guys team up on Toronto Airwaves? Yes, and it was awful. September 5th, 1986. Awful. Just terrible. Okay, tell me, and Gene, awful. September 5th, 1986. Awful. Just terrible.

Okay, tell me, and Gene, this will be nice, because I do want to talk right off the top here about Scruff Connors, who recently shed his mortal coil, and I want to hear a bit about that. So maybe tell me a little bit about the mid-'80s at Q and what you were doing there and how you and Jesse got teamed up. Shed his mortal coil. He died, you mean. Yeah, that's what I mean.

You know what? It was a very interesting time. Q107, I could only relate it to like a tree fort. And, you know, somewhere in your neighborhood, some kid would have a really great tree fort and you'd all be friends, but only certain people were allowed to come up into that tree fort.

And that's what Q was like. It was very innovative. It was totally different from what was happening in Toronto Radio. And everyone wanted to be a part of it, but there were only a certain number of chairs. So it was just everything we did was just so different. And I have to give credit to Gary Slade, who became the program director after he was in sales and his dad owned the radio station at that point he just let us go crazy and it was basically like don't break the law but do everything different and i mean you know somebody came up dave barker a copywriter came up with this song that Scruff recorded called Chum Busters. And Peter Gross, a reporter from City TV, did a feature on this because the song was so popular because it was

all about, you know, busting Chum FM. Right. And he was and City TV, which was owned by Chum back at that point, said, no, no, no, you're not airing this on on City Pulse News with Gord Martineau. And we just did everything a little different, everything a little riskier. Instead of not talking about the competition, you know, we would always say, you know, we want to welcome all Chum FM listeners to Q107. And it was just a very, very innovative time. And I spent five years with Scruff. I was news director of the radio station at that point. And I was doing the morning

news and also sort of being his co-host. And I've got to tell you, he was just an absolutely crazy, crazy person. And I think the best story, and I won't get into the details, but we were out doing something and I had to drop by my parents place and he actually handcuffed himself to my parents refrigerator and said he was going to refuse to leave unless my mother made him dinner and and she did and that was just kind of the absolutely crazy kind of a guy he was now yeah the only other crazier person I've worked with, which is my longtime brother and pal, is Jesse, of course. And if you think that's a crazy story, man, we can get into stuff that we did. Generally all my fault, but I blame Jesse.

But man, it's a partnership for the ages and it remains intact today with love and brotherhood. Now, Scruff Connors, is he the guy who came up with Roger, Dick, and Marilyn? Is that the Roger, Dick, and Marilyn? Was that the Scruff line? No, that was Jesse. That was Jesse. And it wasn't that. It was Roger's Dick in Marilyn.

Right. That's even better. Okay. You know what? I was a young man, but man, that stuck in my mind, man. That's Roger's Dick in Marilyn. That, of course,

was before she had the sex change. Oh, man. She's slowly turning herself into Ernest Borgnine. Okay, so, wait a minute. So, Gene, you're sort of like the news guy. You're doing like grown-up news stuff sort of as a foil to Scruff. And then you sort of...

How do you and Jesse get teamed up where you start doing more like shock jock stuff, if I can use that term. Tell me how you and Jesse get teamed up. Well start doing more like shock jock stuff, if I can use that term. But tell me how you and Jesse get teamed up. Well, you know what? Jesse tells it best. So I'm going to let him do it. I phoned Gary Slate one day.

I came from the coast, spent two years in Calgary. I was at a radio station there working for a horrible Nazi. I was at a radio station there working for a horrible Nazi. And one particular meeting, he told me to get a metronome because my cadence was off with the way I was speaking. And I thought, I'm not applying for the Edmonton Symphony fucking orchestra. I'm doing a morning show. So when he told me to get a metronome, of course, I told him where I thought the metronome would best fit and wasn't in front of my face measuring my cadence while I spoke. So I phoned Gary Slate. I said, hey, I got a hold of him back in the day.

And I said, look, it's Jesse Dillon. I'm calling from Calgary. He said, what the fuck are you doing there? And I said, I'm asking myself the same question. He said, are you talented? Yeah, send me a tape. I sent him a tape. He flew me out almost immediately.

He said, look, I like what I hear. I want you to go down the hallway and meet Eugene Valaitis. He's our news director. See if you can work with him. Okay. Walked down the hall. I found the newsroom at Young and Bloor. What floor was that on, Gene?

30th. I said, hey, my name is Jesse Dillon. Yeah, Gary told me you were going to pop in. How are you? Great. Gary wants to know if you and I can work together. Yeah, I can work with you. Yeah, I can work with you.

Yeah, I don't have an ego. Boom. That was the extent of the meeting. Literally. Right, Gene? Yeah, really. Honestly. So that was the chemistry test.

I said to Gary, yeah, we can work together, no problem. It'll be fine. Great. You start Monday. Then that began what I consider to be the worst 10 weeks of radio in my career. And mine too. It was just awful radio. I don't know.

It just didn't click. We were thrown together. It just wasn't happening. And Gary pulled me in the office one day and said, man, dude, this is not what I hired you for. You know,

you're, you're awful. Where's the funny Jesse Dillon telling stories. Where's the chemistry. You guys sound like shit. And he was right. We really said it awful. Oh God,

it was terrible. And he said, have you gone out and got stoned with this guy? I got drunk with him. I said, no. He said, well,

for fuck's sakes here, I think he pulled out some money and he said, take Jean out and, and go get high, no. He said, well, for fuck's sakes, here. I think he pulled out some money. And he said, take Gene out and go get high, get drunk. And we did. And it worked so well. Like, the magic was on. Boom. The next day it worked so well that we made a

very, very strong point of doing that almost every day. Is that right, Gene? No. No, not every day. Come on, dude. You became an alcoholic. How long have you been off booze? 16 years.

Okay, well, dude. What are you talking about? Yeah, it was pretty bad. But what I'm saying is you were into working out. I was into working out my drinking arm, and you didn't do that every single day. I mean, we did that quite frequently. Maybe it wasn't every day, but how often would you and I be walking around from Remy's to whatever else in Yorkville?

Come on. Six out of seven days a week. All right, six out of seven days a week. That's great. That's great. Hey, I'm going to play a 30-second ad. This is a Q107 ad from 1987. So I guess after you guys get your shit together after 10 horrible weeks or whatever at Q in late 86,

you get your shit together to a point where they actually start to promote the show. So let's hear this. 30 seconds. Every weekday morning on the Q Morning Zoo, Jesse and Gene ask the 107th caller to spin the wheel of cash. Q107 is giving away a total of $107,000 cash. Other radio stations would spend this amount of money on a fancy TV commercial

with marching bands, monkeys, and rock videos. But we'd rather give it away. Listen every weekday morning at 7.10 for your chance to spin the wheel of cash on Tarada's Best Rock, Q107. So there you go. 710 for your chance to spin the wheel of cash on Toronto's best rock. Q 107. So there you go. The spin the wheel of cash.

That was the big promo at the time. That's back when $10,000 could actually buy you something. Yeah. We gave away, we gave away $107,000. See that promotion led to, uh, one day during ratings, during fall ratings, which were the most important to the radio station. I love this story.

We were giving away $107,000 to the 107th caller. Remember that, Gino? I sure do. I know where this is going. And instead of $715,000, we made a special dispensation. So this was at 8 a.m., which was the biggest quarter hour. And to self-aggrandize for just a moment, Gina and I are both humble businessmen now, but back in the day,

our average quarter hours at that time were 140,000, which were beginning to eclipse chum. And Q107 really had to come of age. It was making a lot of money. And each rating point back in the day, I think each, I don't know what we had, a 10 share or a 12 share at that time, but each point was worth a couple million dollars. So stations billing $25 million. We've gone from the two biggest assholes in the world. That didn't change, but the two highest rated assholes in the world.

And now we're giving away $7 000 instead of a six pack of beer no disrespect mike so um uh eight o'clock rolls around uh we open up our mics perry our producer was supposed to hit the timpani he didn't i thought i was off air so all you hear at eight o'clock is dead air then you hear hear me saying, Tiffany, ass fuck. I don't think that had ever happened on the air up until that point, had it, Gene? No, no, no, no. The F-bomb was not dropped up until that point. Wow.

And then we say, okay, congratulations, your caller number, you know, who's on the phone? Hi, my name is Ian. Ian, do you know what just happened? No, what? Your caller number, you know, who's on the phone? Hi, my name is Ian. Ian, do you know what just happened? No, what? Your caller number 107. Gene says, do you know what that means? Now the timpani's going and all the accoutrements, sound effects, Perry finally

put the hatch pipe down and started pushing the brake buttons. And the guy says, no, what? Gene said, you just won $107,000. Cool, man. Thanks. Like no reaction at all.

Oh, man. And so you see the look on Jesse's face. It's like he becomes so angry that the veins are popping out of his forehead like a Rand McNally roadmap of Ohio. And he says to the listener who's just won all of this money, the following. Dude, we have $107,000 cash, certified check. Unless we hear some screaming, and I mean real screaming, something that we can use in a promo tape down the road, we're going to hang up on you.

It's going to be called a phone accident. It's completely legit and legal. And we will go to caller number 108 and gauge their reaction. I'm going to count to three. No screaming, no money. Three, two, one. You have never heard such blood-curdling screaming in your life. I got to ask you guys, I like to peel the curtains back and see how radio really works, but I've been in the room, I won't name the show,

but I've been in the room where they said something like 95th caller gets whatever, and I watched them pick up the phone and it was like the third caller they said was the 95th caller. So back in the day, that's not really,

you can tell me, that's not really the 107th caller. Gene, I want to get you to say something in the day, that's not really, you can tell me, that's not really the 107th caller. Gene, I'm going to get you to say something in a moment. But before he does, let me put it to you this way. Mike, I'm a clean living family man. I've been with my wife, don't laugh, Gene, not again. Just let it go. I've been with my wife for 38 years. Back in the day, 15, 16 years ago, 18, whatever it was, it was 20 years. If you ever took a composite makeup picture or analysis of the demographic of the people that were on a Jesse and Jean hosted trip, all of whom won those trips fair and square on the Q107 morning show, you would see nothing but a plane full of the most gorgeous, buxom women.

And this is a sensitive subject. You would see nothing but attractive women and single Jean going through them like a rooster in a hen house. Now, I ask you this. Do you think we took the third caller on those trips? That's amazing. That's amazing. And guess who's laughing because he knows it's true. That's how I figured.

Gene went through the morning show demographic of women like a lawn sprinkler, spilling its seed by the veritable bucket's fault. Okay. While I have you guys at Q in the late 80s here, still a couple of people you guys worked with at Q are still on the air at Q107. Can you just, maybe one of you tell me a little bit about what it was like working with John Derringer and Andy Frost at Q in the late 80s? I'm just trying to think who we didn't offend that we could say something nice about. Well, John... I'm just kidding. Derringer's a great guy.

But initially, Gene, we were offside with Derringer. Well, he was doing the afternoons, we were doing the morning. You know, it was a different time. John has had tremendous success. You know, a 10-year gazillion dollar contract. His ratings are still right up there. He's a really great guy.

He's a great father. He's got beautiful girls. You know what? John, what a great guy. And Andy Frost I knew from Winnipeg when I worked in Winnipeg. And I would always do my Andy Frost imitation in front of Andy Frost, and he would always say, I don't sound like that. Can I hear it?

This is Andy Frost here on the Rock Radio Network. The former... Andy Frost, you're the former announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Anyway, and Andy would say, I don't sound like that. And I would say, Andy, honest to God, you really do. It's a bit of Kermit, right? It's a little Kermit, rock Kermit. You said that, not me.

But you know what, Andy, you know, just like another great guy. The brotherhood of broadcasters who came out of Q107 and who were friends are just so fantastic. And they've all done well. And just, you know, well, just what a what a great community. And it's safe to say, right, Jesse, that Derringer's mellowed out as he aged like this, because I've heard stories from other mutual friends and people. It sounds to me like Derringer is a great guy, but when he was younger, maybe he was also a little feisty.

Well, we all were. Well, what happened was John was doing the afternoon show at Q. We were doing the morning show. I think he went to Montreal for a little while and then came back and did 590, the fan. And then, you know, I mean, just back and did 590, the fan. The fan, yeah.

And then, you know, I mean, just like we did with Roger, Rick and Marilyn, made fun of them until the point where we got suspended. We literally got suspended by the management at Kirino 7 for making fun of Roger, Rick and Marilyn. Duff Roman called Don Lucey. Don Lucey pulled us in his office. He was the president of the chorus, the chorus clusterfuck at the time. And he pulled us in the office and said, look, man,

uh, not cool. That was a good friend of mine. Uh, hands off the making fun of Roger Rick and Marilyn. It's like Burger King and McDonald's, right? It's like,

what? You know, we're chasing them now in the ratings. We're getting really close. We're working our asses off, which is one thing Gene and I always took very seriously. We work with like Yeoman on that show to make it successful. And it was.

We put our hearts and soul into it. And so, you know, part of being successful back in the day was, you know, frankly competing. And so for him to neuter us and say, don't make fun of Roger, Rick and Marilyn, it was kind of like, you know, telling the management of Burger King to stop trying to surpass McDonald's. So it didn't happen. I got suspended. I said some things that I shouldn't have. Of course, as soon as I got back after the suspension, which happened over the holidays, suspended without pay, I personally phoned Duff Roman on the air with Gene, got his answer machine. This is Duff Roman that left him a message saying, hey, Duff, I just had the best holidays I've ever had thanks to you.

I had an extra two weeks on the Christmas holidays. Can we start working on Easter now? But the point was that's what we did, right? We did things that were fun, and we felt if we felt they were entertaining and it made us laugh, which everything did, we just knew that the listeners would laugh because laughter is effective. So when John took over the reins at 590, we started making fun of him. And, you know, we made fun of his personal habits and his alleged personal habits. And we bumped into him one day at a golf tournament. And he took us aside and he said, yeah, motherfuckers, it's really funny to you guys, but to my family, my friends, yeah, it hit home.

And so we apologized on the air, buried the hatchet. And we've been pals ever since. He's a great guy. And that's kind of a cool story. That's kind of a full 180-degree turn. I'm really glad that that friendship occurs now. People, by the way, are a lot more wanting to be your friends when you're not competing against them. And I found since I've been out of the broadcast business, and I know Gene's the same way, we're cool, man.

We're like Switzerland now. We're agnostic. We can't harm anyone. That's good to hear that you guys buried the hatchet with Derringer there. In the late 80s, when you guys were cooking at Q, why this is a big question for you guys, why would you guys leave Q107 for 680 CFTR?

Money! Money! A great big giant truck full of money! You know, that was the bane of a lot of conversations with Gene. You know, Gene was a very selfish asshole back in the day. And I said to him, look, you know, we built this.

We should stay. We should be good to the new program director, Don Schaefer, and Christopher Grossman, the salesman. Please, Gene, let's not go. And he said, no, buddy, it's money. We're going. Remember that, Gene, let's not go. And he said, no, buddy, it's money. We're going. Remember that, Gene? I sure do. And the interesting story was, again, I could not scam. Jesse was the scammer. And quite honestly, I'm not very good at negotiating. So I always let

Jesse do that. And I'll let Jesse tell you the story about when we were at the home of Sandy Sanderson, who was then the general manager of CFTR, and Tony Viner, who was then the, I don't know, the head pooh-paw of something in Rogers. And we had this negotiating thing, and we settled our deal, and we left this guy's home. And I'll let Jesse pick up the story from there, because it's probably one of the most immature, stupid things we've ever done, but it was really a lot of fun so um we we got a phone call one day from sandy sanderson

i was just leaving for the west coast for holidays and he said hey man uh why don't you guys why don't you guys come over here and do uh do to uh do a show well why would we do that? We're killing it at Q right now after sucking for so long. Why would we come over to AM when we're on the top FM station? Money. Okay, well, we'll certainly consider it. But I'm going on holidays. Can't you come in?

No, I'm going on holidays. So I packed up my wife and my three sons and we went to Vancouver and we're staying at the beautiful Bayshore Hotel and I got a knock on the door one night and room service brought up a bottle of Dom Dom champagne with a silver pen and strawberries dipped in chocolate and a 17 page contract offer and I'm reading through this thing and I'm just literally going, holy fuck. You know, it was just, it was, it was, it was really, you know, although we were doing extremely

well at QNF7, we were paid at the time, journeyman wages. And this would have been like going from AAA to a full ride and, you know, major leagueball. It was a big deal. Even back in the day, it was a very big deal. So I think, Gene, you received one almost simultaneously wherever you were. Yeah, that's right. And Jesse called me from the Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver, and I was living in Toronto at the time, and I get this phone call. And, you know, and this is like before texting and cell phones and email and all that sort of crap, right?

So it's like, you know, a hotel phone to my home phone and I pick up the phone and I go, hello. And Jesse goes, have you fucking read this contract? Oh man. So, so that was the last weekend of the holiday. Uh, you know, it ended organically. We cut the flight back. I think the Monday morning we were in, uh, we were in Sandy Sanderson's home. Or was it Tony Viner's home? It was in Yorkdale. No, no, no. It was in Rosedale, Sandy's home.

Yeah. So Sandy's mansion in Rosedale. Sharon Taylor was there. She was the program director of CFTR. Tony Viner was there, who went on to become the president of the world, broadcasting. And I was sitting there. And it's everything you can imagine. It's a 17-page contract.

I think the longest one we had signed before, that was a term sheet on one page, ever. It included interest-free mortgage money, $1,500 a month car allowances, which, frankly, 30 years ago was a lot of dough. It was definitely a Major League Baseball contract. And then in the middle of this all, when it's going all so well, Jesse said, I think I need a few more days off. And I said, and it's not enough car money.

We need more car money. And Gene starts kicking the end of the table. They agreed to it all. And finally, Sanders-Anderson said, okay. And they made some changes. he looked up and he said he actually screamed he said can we sign the fucking contract now we signed the

contract and they had bottles of chilled champagne and a beautiful white table white tablecloth we all toasted we drank champagne we talked about the future then Gene and I get in his car we drive a block away we're not saying a word he stops the Gene and I get in his car. We drive a block away. We're not saying a word. He stops the car. And I just said, not yet. It's like Starsky and Hutch, right? We just knew how

each other thought. We drive a few more blocks. And I said, OK, now he stops the car. The door is open. And we both started screaming. Yes. And running around the car and hugging each other. Oh, man. I knew it was money, but that story is amazing. And I remember listening to you guys on cue in the late 80s, and you guys would always put down AM radio. Like, this was one of the things you did, like putting down AM. So it was just too funny that you guys left for AM.

But, of course, the Brinks truck that was parked in your driveway kind of sealed the deal. Michael, Michael, Michael, two words, two words. Bought out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know what's interesting? And you're right, we were making fun of AM radio. And we did go to what at the time had been a legendary AM station. There was CHUM, there was CFTR. Those were the two big top 40 stations in Canada.

And we did initially settle in the afternoon show. Right. Because Tom Rivers, legendary Tom Rivers, who, you know, even coming up in broadcasting on the West Coast, you knew who Tom Rivers was, man. He was the dude. He was the man. He was the king. He did the phone calls.

Shotgun and Tom Rivers. And so, you know, we started in the afternoon show and then came the day about a year later and it was really bittersweet. You know, when they, Sanderson pulled us in the office and said, you know, okay, guys, you're going to mornings and Tom is retiring. And, you know, whether Tom retired on his own or whether he was retired, it was bittersweet because there was no glory in replacing a guy that was that good in broadcasting for a couple of dumb fucks like us. The late, great Tom Rivers. Yeah, the Rivers Air Force Base or whatever, and it was fantastic radio. What kind of guy was Tom?

Did you get to know Tom during your year and a half there together or whatever? Oh, sure. Three words. Biggest dick ever. When I say that, i'm talking honestly he had the largest penis on any man i've ever seen is that right it was a donkey penis i swear to god that's a toronto mic exclusive i think right there that's that's great and i'm told to go take all the radio announcers out for dinner and gene rang up a ridiculous tab and we got in trouble for that but anyway anyway, that's another story.

Everyone got hammered, and I'm standing at the urinal next to Tom, and I came out of the washroom. Gene, what did I tell you? He said the largest hung guy he's ever seen in his life. Said it looked basically like an elephant penis. That's how he had that voice, I think, that deep, deep voice. That was perfect. But Tom was a great guy. Yeah perfect. Tom was a great guy. Just a great guy.

Why Jesse was staring at his penis in the urinal is something I don't even want to know. But apparently he was very well hung. It was hard not to see on my hands and knees looking up. Oh, man. That's great. So Tom moves on. You guys start doing mornings.

I'm going to say this is June 91 when you guys become the new morning show at 680 CFTR. I think it might have been a bit earlier than that. I think it was like end of 89, wasn't it, Gino? Don't you guys start? You guys start at… It was 91. 91 works, sure. It was 91.

Yeah, no, no. Yeah, 91. Yeah, June 91. And then you're the new morning show and you basically keep that spot uh until cftr decides to flip formats which uh they're still all news so they they switched to all news i guess in june 93 and i guess that's when they they said goodbye to jesse and gene well they had a gangbang firing yeah i guess yeah i gotta tell you that was a cool firing, in my opinion. Okay, tell me. Generally speaking, it was always me that was getting fired.

Mostly, right, Gene? Yeah. You somehow would, you know, you were a little bit better at kissing the brown hole than I was. That's funny. Somehow Gene would hang on to a news position. I'd get fired and that fucker would hang on to something but the greatest day of my life was when we got fired together and that was my

fault and that was before cftr but that's another story for the book um yeah remember that gene acute oh yeah you begged me to not to open my mouth okay so you guys were sorry let me get this right so so cftr yeah i get a phone call one night from Rob Farina. Rob Farina got his start in the business because of Jesse and Gene. He was our fax boy. Before the internet, before emails, Farina used to come in as an intern in the music department and collect our faxes for us. Nice young guy. We liked him.

We helped groom him along. And he became the large hairy asshole that he is today. You know, in a great position. And that's terrific. We wish him nothing but success. Sure sounds like it. So when we were

we got a phone call from him one night. He said, hey man, we got a breakfast meeting at this hotel up the road from CFTR at 10 a.m. I just said to him, well, we're all going to get fired, right? No, no, no, no, no. It's just a meeting. So I phoned Gene five minutes later. You get the call?

Yeah. I said, we're getting fired tomorrow. He goes, yeah, I know. I mean, why would you have a breakfast meeting outside the radio station? You just don't do that, right? You've got boardrooms at the radio station. Why would the radio station, and generally speaking, stations are pretty cheap. Why would you have a breakfast meeting outside the radio station? You just don't do that, right? You've got boardrooms at the radio station. Why would the radio station, and generally speaking, stations are pretty cheap.

Why would they rent a hotel? Well, we were getting fired. Everyone was getting fired. All of us, the entire on-air staff, with the exception of Dick Smythe, were marched into this room up at a hotel, and Sandy Sanderson said, we no longer need the employment employment services of anyone in this room and i went holy shit thank christ he said what and i said i said look at my invite i've got the

wrong room this is 702 i should be in 703 so as i started to walk out thinking it was funny people started crying guys had mortgages they're literally jocks crying there remember that gene oh it was it was the worst. Just terrible. But about half an hour later, we were gainfully employed. I phoned Danny Kingsbury. I said, hey, we all got fired, which was a great ploy to go into negotiating your next contract. So we basically cut a deal on the phone within 35 minutes, literally driving up Yonge Street. But it was a crap. If you remember, that was a crap deal.

Like, I mean, we took a gigantic cut in pay. But what Danny Kingsbury came up with was this rating bonus thing where if we did really, really well in the next couple of ratings books, we could make some extra money. And we went into that show. It had a 0.6 share. So basically it meant that whoever was hosting the show, their parents were listening, and that was about it. And in one book, we took it from a 0.6 to, do you remember what it was?

Was it a 7.5, Jesse? 7.5. Wow. We went from slash marks back in 7.5, Jesse? 7.5. Wow. We went from slash marks. Back in the day, they had the diary system. Yeah. They would send you a small diary. They'd give you a loonie, and you'd fill out every station that you listened to for every quarter hour for a week.

And that's why everybody said the diaries were rigged. Who would ever do that other than kids? So parents would give their diaries to their kids, and ratings were always rigged. But anyway, if you were so bad you had no listeners, you've got something called slash marks. So at 7.15, the station that we were going to had slash marks, no listeners. In December, early December, when the fall book, which is the most important rating period, comes out, we call it the book in the business. We used to. Now it's PPM. It's all electronic, which has its own interesting proclivities and challenges. But

December 5th, when the ratings came out, we had 750,000 listeners and a 7.5 share. They went from billing nothing to billing in the multiples of millions. And to your point of seven and a half minutes ago, that was AM radio, which was thought to be unsalvageable. And that was a big deal for us. And, you know, frankly, to self-aggrandize on the self-aggrandizing show with Mike Boone today, you know, we worked hard at it. We did things, you know, we, we, we, we went to town, we worked really hard. No, we, you know, one thing about us was show prep, show prep, show prep. And we worked very, very hard every single day. And when we would finally leave the radio station, we would call each other, you know, like, you know, three, four or five times a day.

And we would have things ready. And we had a great producer who would edit our phone calls down so they would sound live even though they were pre-recorded but it was it was a really really strict work ethic even with all the drinking and partying and all the rest of it you know i mean we we really worked at this we really did and you moved the needle like that's a great example so just to summarize because it all came together quickly. So CFTR goes all news. So everybody who wasn't like a news person like Dick Smythe or whatever was let go. So it was a mass firing because they changed formats. They're still all news today. So yeah, we know 680 now is the all news station.

No room there for Jesse and Gene. You're let go. But right away, you strike a deal with 640, AM640 to be the morning show there. And you guys mentioned, of course, the huge jump in ratings when you guys arrived. Do you remember who you replaced on AM640 to be the morning show there. And you guys mentioned, of course, the huge jump in ratings when you guys arrived. Do you remember who you replaced on AM640? Yeah, we do. Adrian Bell. Poor Adrian. He's got the slash marks,

right? And then you guys committed to whatever it was, 7-5 or some enormous number like that. And you guys stick around at AM640 until they decide to flip, right? They flip in October 95 or something? They got rid of us. Here's the deal. I phoned Danny Kingsbury after we got fired from the hotel at CFTR. I literally phoned him 30 minutes later after I concocted what I thought would be the

topography and constructs of a decent deal for Gene and I. But I was calling them for Q. I was assuming that they'd want us back at Q107. That's where we really moved the needle from that station's infancy to really a commercially viable signal in that city, billing $25 million a year, which back in the day was top dog. There was CHFI and there was Q. So I thought I was calling Danny for Q107. He said, look, I think Jake was on at Q at the time.

Jake had been in and out of the building as well. He said, look, I just hired Jake or something like that. I can't put you in Q. But we've been thinking about making a move with AM640. You know, and I said, fuck, I don't know if we want to go back into AM radio. We're just coming out of AM radio. Weirdly enough, when we left CFTR, we were

maintaining 120,000 quarter hour average in the morning, which was very competitive in a world of FM. We were still very competitive. But after 9 AM, the numbers just dropped. They just felt like a cement block from the CN Tower. And they knew that they couldn't just maintain a three-hour time slot. They couldn't sell a station. So they probably retrospectively made the right move going to Newstalk. It seems

to have served them well. Got a great staff there, people like Paul Cook, et cetera, who we both have a lot of respect and admiration for. So when I phoned Kingsbury, I thought it was cute. When it turned out to be AM640, it was interesting. When we moved 750,000 listeners, we didn't do it alone, of course. There was an entire accoutrement of staff that they hired, some great people. And, you know, also CFTR went dark and Chum had gone dark, so whatever available audience there was left in top 40 AM came over.

But, you know, 749,500 of that was Jesse and Gene for sure. Why they got rid of us, you know, that's a long story. I really don't, I haven't figured that one out yet. Neither have I. You know, we kept saying you should syndicate us and Don and Danny kept saying we could never syndicate you. Your humor is puerile. You're rude. You use bad language. We really wanted to syndicate the national show. They said we could never syndicate you. After they fired us.

They get Howard Stern. They bring in Howard Stern. Okay. But yeah, but that's a cue, right? But how do you leave 640? It was 640. We were doing the morning show there. Because Q107 does, yeah, Q107 boots you in 96 for strength. But they rehired us at Q107. Right. Okay, okay, there you go.

Okay. And they brought us back. And the late Pat Cardinal, who tragically died from cancer last year, And the late Pat Cardinal, who tragically died from cancer last year, he was the program director, and he liked us for about 30 seconds, and then he hated our guts. And he was the one who fired us from Q because we weren't paying attention and we were immature and stupid and said bad things. But they did do an ad.

So here, let's spend 30 seconds listening to your... So this is your second tour of duty at Q107. This is an ad from 1996. Start your day with Jesse and Jean. Jesse and Jean in the morning. Toronto's best rock all day. Cube 107. Wherever you are.

Now, we should point out, because this is a podcast, that guy's in a bathroom stall. So he's sitting on a can laughing his ass off, I think, literally. So they did, at least, yeah, so you come back. But you're right, like less than a year, you're at Q107 the second time. So just, I'm sorry for, just want to find out. So how do you make the transition from 640 to Q107? Like, was that because it's the same company? Let me just go back quickly.

We were at Q from 86 to 89. Then we went to CFTR until 92. We came back to the building, the chorus building at Young and Norton at the time, which is now Young and Jesse and Geneway. We came back there

in 92. I think we were there from like 92 to 95. Then we got fired. That was really like The Firm. I don't know if you've seen that movie with Tom Cruise. That was a labyrinth of madness. That's a book in itself. So then we both got fired.

I think I got fired first and you hung in there for a while. Right, Gene? Yeah, a couple of months. A couple of months to do some news. And then there was a year where we were not together. Gene hung on to do news there. And I went, I went out to a Bill Evanoff station in Brampton. They had just got a signal from Orangeville and brought it down to Brampton, called it hot 103.5.

You had to step over the Indian cookware in the mall in Brampton to get into the studio. The Pakistani rugs and incense and all that stuff. And I kind of deal with Bill. I said, look, man, I'll give you a morning show. Don't pay me. I'll hire my own team. But I want 33% to 30% of the revenue for the morning show. And I want to syndicate it.

And I want to use this as a flag. I really wanted to syndicate a show. And ultimately what I was going to do was hopefully make that successful, hire a few people. Gene was gainfully employed in news. And then eventually we'd get back together and we'd get our show syndicated. Anyway, it didn't work out. The station worked out. They went from nothing to about 500,000 listeners, brought on board some talented people to help with the morning show.

And then Ted Smith called me one day. About a year into that program, he called me. And they basically called me from Vancouver. They said, hey, Jesse, it's Ted Smith. Hey, Ted, how are you doing? Long time, no talk. He said, look, Q107 has fucked itself up beyond reproach quote unquote would you and gene come back i said i don't know man i mean how many tyrants can you get fired from the same

station in the same organization he said i know i know we haven't treated you well but would you come back how much yeah i'd probably come back for that being that i'm eating my own excrement stepping over pots and pans to get into a fucking hole-in-the-wall radio station in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I think I could do that. Let me talk to Gene. I phoned Gene, and I think you said the same thing, Gene. Yeah, I said, let's do it. So we came back, but, you know, there's a story that goes along with it that's quite a story.

I don't know if you want to hear it or not. I do. I definitely do. Do you want to start this one, Gene? What story is that? The backyard barbecue, the call from Tuscany. I'll start it. Yeah, you start it.

Ted Smith phones. Ted cut a deal with Gene and I. He was the president and CEO of... Wick. No, Wick. Wick. It was the president and CEO of... WIC. No, WIC. WIC. It was WIC at the time, but WIC sold to Chorus, right?

Yeah, but we were working for WIC. Okay. Was that WIC when he came out here? This was the third time at Q, though. No, no, no. Yeah, but it was Western International Communications. Okay. So Ted was still in charge. It hadn't yet sold itself to Chorus or become Chorus. So Ted cut the deal with Gene and I over the phone, confirmed it. And then he phoned Don Luzzi on his holiday. Don was the president of the Chorus clusterfuck and phoned him in Tuscany and said, hey, your new morning show is Jesse and Gene.

and said, hey, your new morning show is Jesse and Gene. And Lucy said, well, no, it can't be. We've already hired Jeff Lumby and his team from Y95 in Hamilton. Correct, Gene? That's right. Oh, wow. And Danny, I think, is with them now. We've already hired them.

In fact, we've just press released it. Well, cancel, renege, Jesse and Gina are in a morning show, make it happen, click. So that's how I heard the phone call. And then Danny Kingsbury, who was in the backyard barbecue with Jeff Lumbee and the Y95 morning show team celebrating the new move from Hamilton to Toronto, had to put the phone down and say,

guys, turn the music down for just a moment. Yeah, I'm just going to set my beer down here for a second. Wives in the house? Yeah, I just got a call from Don Lucy. I just got a call on his holidays from Ted Smith. And yeah, we got some, a little bit of a challenge here. Boom. So the reason I'm telling you that story, when we went back into that building, it was like a funeral, actually, for Jesse and Gene.

I said to Gene, dude, what is the vibe here? No one wants us here. Remember that, Gino? Yeah, no, I do. We weren't their first choice. We weren't on their radar. And it was one of those rare occasions where the West was dictating what happened in the East. And it was a rough ride for us. There was no joy in Hogtown for Jesse and Jane. No one wanted us there, we felt. And it was difficult. It was difficult to maneuver around that. And so when Pat Cardinal came in and gave us our marching orders, it was understandable. We just knew that we were short-term.

And as you mentioned earlier, you guys were supplanted by syndicating the Howard Stern Show, which of course is a whole chapter unto itself in Toronto radio history with the Stern entering the Canadian market there. I guess if you were going to get replaced by somebody, I guess we should take that as a backhanded compliment. The guess if you were going to get replaced by somebody, I guess we should take that as a backhanded compliment. The only guy they could find to replace us after a six-month search was Howard Stern. And is that the last time that you guys were on the radio together? May 5th, 1997, Cinco de Mayo. Last time we were on the air together, with one exception, we did a three-minute stint at CFRB. They were experimenting with maybe bringing back a brand. I think,

I think we did a show or two there, but other than that, yeah, May 5th, 97 was the last show we did. Wow. And we all know how the Stern show, they eventually ended up going with Derringer,

I guess. Derringer was the morning guy after Stern and he's still there. Wow. Yeah. So one of your albums you put out was called the greatest bits. Derringer, I guess. Derringer was the morning guy after Stern, and he's still there. Wow. So, one of your albums you put out was called The Greatest Bits. And there's some great phone calls and different bits that you guys did over the years. But one thing you did,

remind me, it's called Wreck-A-Wedding Wednesday. I'm going to play, and I'm not going to play the whole thing because it's a few minutes long. I'm going to play 25 seconds of it just right now for everybody, and then I'm going to ask you about your infamous crank calls if you will.

Hello, Lena? Yes. It's Officer Swanson calling from 52 Division. This is a joke, right? Excuse me? Is this a joke? What the heck are you talking about? I don't know because I'm getting very nervous. My sister just called me and told me that something horrible has happened and I'm getting very nervous. My sister just called me and told me that something horrible has happened and I'm

getting very nervous. Nothing horrible has happened. We did call your phone number at home. It's the police calling. It's not a joke at all. Now, your wedding dress was recently damaged in a fire, as I understand. So I guess the deal here is that you tell brides

that their wedding dress was burnt in a fire., ruined in a fire. Yeah. So what's the origin of that? And tell me a bit about the calls you guys did through the years. Because a lot of people, when I said Jesse and Gene's coming on, a lot of people sent me notes about how much they loved the phony phone calls or crank calls or whatever you call them. Record Wedding Wednesday was our most popular feature. Yeah.

call them? Record Wedding Wednesday was our most popular feature. People would call us, phone us, fax us, email us, and they would say, my fiance, my sister, a friend, a cousin, my daughter, someone's getting married. We want you to, you know, fuck their wedding up beyond reproach. And we would do that, whether we called as Hans and Franz and Lederhosen, the marching band that was replacing, you know, Justin Bieber. I mean, we just had an endless parade. We had thousands of requests per month. We could only accommodate a few. But I'll tell you an interesting story about how far this thing stretched. Years later, both Gene and I became entrepreneurs.

We both built and sold businesses since then we've remained great friends and speak or text every single day and we do have machinations to bring the brand back but only as a digital brand because we were blacklisted from the broadcast business and were unemployable that's no question no compunction no remorse but we both become entrepreneurs and through our unique skill sets and core competencies and network reach in that area we've developed a technology platform for live broadcasting it's interactive and we'll be launching that this spring and we'll be releasing the brand archival interactive it'd be a lot of fun um but one day I was in a business meeting long after all this shit.

And I was meeting with Bill Foley. He's the guy that just bought the NHL franchise for Las Vegas. And my company, Megacast, was building him a food and wine society online. Bill's a billionaire. He's the chairman of a big company in the U.S. called Fidelity. He owns 2,500 restaurants, golf courses, ski resorts, and now an NHL hockey team and 50 wineries. He wanted to build a tech platform that could accommodate all of that and do everything from sell wine to sell real estate to putting asses in hotels, et cetera. So we became fast friends. I met him at his 1,400

acre flagship estate in Napa Valley, Chalk Hill, Great Chardonnay. And as I'm sitting there with his chief marketing officer in Healdsburg, Napa Valley, California, talking about building them a tech platform that could accommodate all of this through Megacast, his very cool CMO said to me, you know, your voice is so familiar. You're not the Jesse Dillon from Jesse and Gene, are you? Now think where I'm at, right? I'm talking to one of these great billionaires. He owns one of the world's biggest financial brands, Fidelity. He now owns the NHL franchise in Vegas. And this chick is saying to me, are you Jesse from Jesse and Jean? I went, yeah. And she goes, holy shit. Do you remember the time you ruined my wedding when I was in the

Dominican Republic? And Bill Foley's going, what's up? And she said, oh my God, this guy's a legend. This is what he used to do, Wreck-It Wedding Wednesday. She's singing my praises. And he looks at me and says, where did I signed? Let's do this deal. Wow. That's awesome. So that's how far, I mean, just over and over again, and I'm sure Gene can quote the same things, almost always when we bump into a listener, they mention a Wreck-It-Wedding Wednesday story. Yeah, and it's great to hear from the former listeners. I mean, I had a similar story. I lived in Hong Kong for a little while, then Dallas, and it's great to hear from the former listeners. I mean, I had a similar story.

You know, I lived in Hong Kong for a little while, then Dallas, and now California. And I still have family back in Toronto. My sister is there, and in-laws are there. And I can't tell you the number of times when I go through customs, I'll have somebody, you know, if they're between 50 and 60, something like that, you know, they'll look at my passport and, you know, ask you the usual questions and then they'll say, so whatever happened to you and Jesse? It's like, it's just, it's hysterical. I love having that happen in the Toronto airport. It really, it just, it means, you know, everything to the

two of us that people still talk about it. And you know what? It paid our mortgages and it brought up Jesse's family and his three boys. And man, it was just a fantastic time. We just loved it. And to this day, like Jesse said, we stay in contact every day. We text message back and forth. And if anybody saw our text messages, they would lock us up in a hospital and probably charge us with something. And you know what? When we get on the phone and just talk to each other, we just absolutely, to this day, continue to just laugh our bags off.

You know, being on Toronto Radio mornings throughout the 80s and 90s, one of your competitors was Humble and Fred. A, I'm curious what your relationship was like with Humble and Fred, but also I'm wondering if you have, what they've decided to do is they just podcast actually out of Howard's house. He's got a studio in his house and they podcast every day.

And I know that Jesse alluded to something happening in the spring, which I'd like a little more detail on, but I mean, people ask me, will Jesse and Gene ever come back? When are they coming back? So what would you say to that? So, well, yeah,

Humble and Fred did the morning show at 102.1 The Edge, CFNY, when we were doing QNF7. Their highest quarter hour averages were about 75,000. Ours were 140 at Q. Fred will tell you a different story. The archives and the analytics

will prove what I'm telling you is correct. You know, I think it's obligatory when we speak about another broadcaster that we always begin on The Jesse and Jean Show with demeaning them any way we can first. Then we can move into a proper conversation once we're on solid foot and we understand the ground rules.

So yes, we crushed them in the ratings. I'm very impressed with what they've done. It's very difficult to build a business. You see these uber billionaires that pop up, that come up with an idea like Snapchat, whatever's being developed now that we haven't heard of, which would be the next rage for interactive social media tomorrow and somebody would be worth billions of dollars. But it is, as an entrepreneur, excruciatingly difficult to build a business, let alone a successful business. What those guys have done in a world of old school broadcast transmitters, people that they've had to overcome, they've literally had to crawl across hundreds of yards, if

not miles, of crushed glass to become successful. And they deserve a huge pat on the back, both from Gene and I. Very impressed with what they've done. And great talents and have withstood the test of time. We, on the other hand, have been quietly developing the relaunch of a digital version of Jesse and Gene, which will have no parental supervision, which will be part of a new app that we're co-developing, and which we're launching on or around the 1st of May. We've also secured Rob Salem from the Toronto Star, who's going to ghostwrite the Jesse and Jean book,

which will be a compendium of the changing tides of broadcast versus digital versus new media, and how we fit in, how we fit in now, and how we're still relevant. One of the biggest concerns about the Jesse and Gene brand, every time somebody thinks about bringing it back, they're not relevant anymore. Well, it's not really true. I think you can understand that we're completely relevant. We understand technology, and we work in that field right now. In fact, the company that I own is going public on the Toronto Stock Exchange this spring called Megacast, and it's nothing but an uber ad tech programmatic technology company. So, of course, we're relevant. Of course, we've kept ourselves current.

But more importantly, we have remained the best broadcast friends that this planet has ever seen for over 30 years. And that's too precious to let go and not have fun with. And on a certain psychic, cosmic, karmic release valve, it gives us great pleasure just fucking around with each other every day. So why not do it digitally in a way that people can understand and have some fun with? And what date did you say the launch date for the app is? Well, I think it should be May 5th, 2017, because that would be the 20th anniversary of the last day that Jesse and Gene were in conventional radio. You've got to make that happen.

That's perfect. And Rob Salem's going to help you write a book. This is cool. I know John Gallagher, of all people, is writing a book right now. Yeah, it's called Melanoma Man. Safe 10. Oh, shit. Yeah, it's called Melanoma Man. Safe 10. Oh, shit. Yeah, it's a safe 10.

And live to 30. Oh, man. Johnny's one of our great friends. I just turned 60 recently. And Jesse and his wife flew in from the coast and bought me an unbelievable birthday gift. And Johnny was at the party. And it was a really, really great reunion.

Johnny's a great guy. I've learned he shows up at all the parties. This is what I'm learning. If you show up at a party, he's probably already there. You know, and I know, that when Johnny dies, and hopefully it's many decades from now, we are all going to have to stand around the open casket and beat his liver to death with baseball bats.

Oh, man, that's great. Hey, I'm going to ask you some questions, if you don't mind, some questions real quick that came in for you guys. You've already answered one. So Tor Habsfan on Twitter wants to know when you're coming back because he misses you like crazy. And you mentioned the app's coming in hopefully in May. I have a horror hat, Stan, but I've never heard of that as a name.

Tor Habsfan. Oh, Tor, sorry. Tor, yeah. A Habsfan. I hate him already. Yeah, me too. Me too. And another question.

So somebody got a, I'll read it out loud. It's from Gillis, I think, is how you say this on Twitter. Got a bottle of Jesse and Gene branded beer nuts for Christmas once. Best I ever had. Who was their supplier? They still make them? John Penny, Loretta Foods. John Penny owned Loretta Foods.

They made spices. His friend Brian, what's his name? Brian from the clothing line. It'll come back to me. It's been so long. Yeah, John Penny, Loretta Foods. We sold like the first three weeks, we sold 600 fucking thousand bottles of those.

That's great. You still have a bottle of those beer nuts lying around anywhere? Remember that? The Jesse and Gene brew nuts. Snap a picture and send it to me. I'll share it with the world. That's great.

I've got a photo. Sure, I'll send it to you. Send me share it with the world. That's great. I've got a photo. Sure, I'll send it to you. Send me a photo. And Jesse, what's the good life? I used to get off the air when we did the morning show, Jesse and Gene, QNF7, CFTR, AM640. I got off the air at 9 o'clock in the morning. There was no one to play with.

Gene drank and I started doing triathlons. I became a member of the Canadian team, went to a few world championships. I've done about 55 of those over the years. You know, when I wasn't on the air, I was swimming, cycling, running. And then at the World Long Distance Championships in East France, June 8th, 1997,

the World Long Distance Championships, which took me eight hours, 56 minutes, and 42 seconds to finish that race. During that time, you go deep, you meditate, you get into these weird states because you're in a constant state of pain for almost nine hours. And during that time, I had an epiphany on the bike to build a media brand related to health and lifestyle. And so I founded a company called Good Life Networks, Inc.

I syndicated that show after we got fired. I syndicated that on XM Sirius Satellite Radio. I partnered with a guy by the name of Steve Case, who used to be the CEO of AOL Time Warner. And we built a brand called The Good Life, which I still own today. And I published a book in 2009, which weirdly enough became a bestseller. And it was called The Good Life with Jesse Dillon, parenthetically, redefining your health with the world's greatest visionaries. So a little bit of a hobby of mine and a hobby of Gene's health and lifestyle.

Wicked. And Gene, give us a little update. What's happened? And I know I've heard you on the radio since Jesse and Gene stopped being on the queue and Howard Stern shows up. But tell us just quickly what you've been up to since then, just so everybody can hear what's going on with Gene. You know, I had somebody at CFRB, I forget their name now, ask me if I would fill in for Ryan Doyle when he was on vacation. And I did that maybe one or two weeks, but really, that's been the extent of it. And I've just worked in a completely different industry from broadcasting since the Jesse and Gene days. It's in the direct selling industry.

And recently, I've just partnered up with a friend in British Columbia, and we are starting a new company called Euclips, which is all about user-generated content and people posting testimonials on our site. And we broker the sale of these testimonials to brands. So it's a nice new emerging industry and it has a lot to do with what Jesse is doing. But I think the most exciting thing is we just decided on the night of my 60th birthday in Toronto back in November 18th, Jesse and I just said, you know what? No screwing around anymore. We're going to do what it takes.

We're going to relaunch the brand. We couldn't care less about what people think. And we're just going full steam ahead with the digital Jesse and Gene, May 5th, 2017. And the book with the assistance of Rob Salem. So that's, you know, that's... That's huge. Like, that's huge. I had a...

Huge focus in both of our lives right now. And we're both really, you know, we're like little teenagers. We're so excited about this. I had an interesting vantage point when Humble and Fred launched because I was part of the digital backend launch team when they started that thing over five years ago now. And it was really because I believe I just want this content out there. You know, people have the right to listen or not,

but just having that content available is, to me, that's all that makes me very happy. And it makes me very happy to hear that Jesse and Gene will return in 2017. That is fantastic news. That is great. Well, you made the announcement. You brought the news here. May 5th, 2017 will be the first live broadcast.

And just before I close, you mentioned it briefly, but the fun fact about you guys is that there's still a Jesse and Gene way, right? This is still parallel to Young from Norton to Church. Is that still there, right? Mike, there are three signs in the world. I have one in my office here in West Vancouver. Gene has one in his home that we had nicely framed for him for his 60th. And the other street sign is actually on the telephone pole on Jesse and Gene Way.

It's at Young and Norton. So you go up to Young and Norton. If you're heading north, you hang a right on Norton, and then immediately left onto Jesse and Gene Way. Fantastic. And thank you both, Jesse and Gene, thank you both for doing this. It's great to hear your voices again. I look forward to hearing it again in May.

That's fantastic news. Mike, say hi to your father for me, Harry Boone. I amounted to nothing, but at least Gene was able to drag me along. again in May. That's fantastic news. Mike, say hi to your father for me, Harry Boone. I amounted to nothing, but at least Gene was able to drag me along to some degree. Thank you, Michael. And you got the news first here on your podcast. Awesome.

And that brings us to the end of our 212th show. And you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Jesse, are you on Twitter? I can't find you on Twitter. Jesse. dylan jesse are there dots on twitter okay uh jesse dot dylan on twitter and gene is at bolt the dog one that's numeric one i got that right right gene yep and our friends at great lakes brewery are at great Lakes Beer and Chef's Plate are at Chef's Plate CA see you all next week

send the beer motherfucker send the beer to Jesse send all of the beer to Jesse send the beer, send all the beer send all the beer now on behalf of all of us we hope you enjoy the Quotly family programming we're bringing your way

now go fuck yourself now go fuck yourselves. And for all of us, and especially Mike Poon, whose last name is all about vagina, goodnight and aloha. We'd also like to say hi to the hospital patients and shut-ins. And no disrespect to Meryl Dennis or Rob Farina. Love you is only romantic in love, buddy. You dickhead, Michael. Thanks, guys.