Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jim Van Horne: Toronto Mike'd #180

Episode Date: June 17, 2016

Mike chats with Jim Van Horne about his years as a jock on 1050 CHUM, being the first on-air hire at TSN, leaving TSN for The Team 1050, his years on Sportsnet, his reinvention as a teacher and his recent battle with bladder cancer.

Welcome to episode 180 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. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is Jim Van Horn. Welcome, Jim. Hi, Mike. How are you? Good. Number 180 on your program, number one in your heart. You took the words right out of my mouth.

You know, 180, it's a nice round number. I'm like, who's special that I could get on the show for 180? And you couldn't find anybody. And I'm like, well, I'll take Jim if I have to. So the reason you're here, though, is because episode 179 was me and a couple of guys talking about the old 1050 Chum. And we're all about my age. And so it's like our mom's station with 1050 Chum. No offense, but that sounds terrible.

Your mom may have been part of my fan club. You never know. Probably. Probably. She was a Chum Bug. Is that what they were called? Chum Bugs? So I'm playing some clips. And you know, you're roger ashby and you got different clips uh chuck mccoy you know and then uh i play jim van horn and i'm like did you guys some of the

people out there probably have no idea you know tsn's jim van horn sports nets jim van horn was actually a 10 50 jock like the younger folk probably have no idea. You're absolutely right. It's, if anybody does remember, it's usually people of my vintage, you know, so it's when kids find out that I used to be a DJ there, it's really? Well, I played the sound check, which I'm going to play soon again. And it was so fantastic. I'm like, I had to track this guy down. And here you are.

So thank you very much. My pleasure. I'm glad you called. This is a great merger. Can I go now? If you do go now, you'll be the first to bail this early, but it's the first time for everything.

But you'd have to take with you the Great Lakes beer, that beer there, not just a prop in this wonderful studio. You get to take that home with you. That's great. I look forward to it. And those guys, I should point out, they're local. They're rural York and Queensway, and they're great guys.

And we did like a six-month deal to see how this would work because we're in the Wild West here. The guy in his basement is doing this podcast. I'm not affiliated with any big organization. I'm completely independent. And these guys, these independent brewers, were like, let's help them out. And I'm happy to report that we just this week renewed

this deal for another six months. That's great. Good for you. So more beer for you and your friends. I ride through here a lot, so I'm going to have to stop by the brewery. When you ride, is that like a motor here a lot, so I'm going to have to stop by the brewery. When you ride, is that like a motor vehicle? No, no, no, bicycle. Okay.

Okay, let's start with this. I'm on the waterfront trail almost every single day. I'm not every day, but probably three, four times a week. And what kind of distance are you doing? I did 60 yesterday. Okay, yeah, okay. Yeah, great.

Fantastic. I don't know if you ever, do you ever go up the Humber Trail as well? Like, do you ever take that turn by the White Bridge? Yes, I've done that up to the Old Mill and then up to James Gardens. To James Gardens? Killer of a hill. Oh, that one at... Up to Annette and Baby Point?

Yeah, that's called St. Mark's. Well, that's, St. Mark's is the devil. I recently altered my route so that I would do that hill every day because I felt like I needed some hills. There's no hills. There's not really any good hills. That's true. That's true. There's not that many. Well, I'm, uh, no, I like you even more now. I had no idea you were, because sometimes guys are like, I ride through here and I'm like, oh great, this is another, uh, like Harley Davidson guy. No, no, no, no, no. I love the smell of exhaust as long as it's coming from someone else's car.

Jeff Woods was on here a couple of weeks ago, and he's a Harley guy. And, you know, when he rides somewhere, he's snickering at a cyclist. Everybody snickers at cyclists, especially if you've got the, you know, the Lycra, the gear on. Do you wear the full? Oh, yeah, full gear. See, I haven't gone that far. And you do 60, which is, that's awesome, because my average ride is about 30 to 35.

That's like a typical ride. I would say I average between 40 and 60. I'm going to do a big one tomorrow. I'm going to do 70 tomorrow. Awesome. I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer once. Congratulations. Thank you.

And that's where I, by the way, that's the ride where I realized I need to do more hills. Yeah. Okay. Because you go up to Mohawk College, you're going through that Niagara Escarpment and all that. And it's like,

in my training, it's like, I do a lot of rides, like good 60K rides, but they're also flat. So then I was like, I got to do more hills, you know,

anyway, so I'm trying to get in hills. Hills are not my friend. Or I should say, gravity is not my friend. I'm going to play that clip. And those, you know, those of you who listened

to the last episode, 179, heard this, but I'm going to play it again. In fact, I'm going to play it longer than last time because I'm going to get a good feel for Jim Van Horn in the 70s on 1050 Chum.

Are you afraid you're going to run out of things to talk about? Oh, no, no. But this, I think, for the sports media guys out there who think of you like on par with like, I had Vic Router on recently.

You still friend with Vic? My friend, my friend. Yeah, Vic's a great guy. I've known Vic 40 years. Wow, yeah. Yeah, when he was back at Global before he went to CBC, before he came to TSN. And I was working in Calgary and And our station in Calgary was affiliated with Global out of Toronto.

So we used to talk and trade stories all the time. And that's how I met Vick 40 years ago. Wow. Yeah, now he's Mr. Curling. He's like the Bob. I called him the Bob Cole of curling. Oh, he must love that. The highest praise in the land

if I call you the Bob Cole of anything. All right, let's hear from the Bob Cole of chum, 1050 chum here. And we're going to let this go. You highest praise in the land, if I call you the Bob Cole of anything. All right, let's hear from the Bob Cole of Chum, 1050 Chum here. And we're going to let this go. You can, by the way, if you get bored by listening to yourself and you want to talk over it, go ahead. But I'm going to let this go a couple of minutes,

if that's cool. Seven o'clock at Chum Toronto. How you doing, babe? This is Jim Van Horn coming on strong with the sound of summer of 1973. Got tickets to give away to the Summer Series of Stars. I just want to say, I'm ready. I'm ready.

Shroud where four Pontiac Astra GT hatchbacks go on the line starting Monday in the summer of 73. Saturday night in the city with Jim Van Horn. Time to take it cool with Tony Orlando and Don. I'm a star. It's not on steroids. Shroud with Tony Orlando and Don. A'm a tornado. I'm a steroid. Sean, Tony Orlando and Don. A tiny yellow ribbon around the old 03 at 707 with Jim Van Horn. Toronto weather, we can expect a few clouds tonight.

It's going to be warm through tonight and tomorrow. Make that hot. Chance of a thunderstorm expected late tomorrow afternoon. Maybe cool things off just a little bit while you're coming home from the cottage. Lows expected tonight near 65. Highs tomorrow, man, 90 to 95. Yellow for Monday, mostly sunny, continuing hot. Currently in the city, it is 89 degrees.

Here's Carl Bennis. Good question here. When did the forecast turn to Celsius? Do you know? I had this discussion on the last episode. That's a very good question. Honestly, I can't remember. Because that was 19, this is 1973, and you're telling us it's going to be 95 degrees.

Yeah, it must have been in the mid-70s later, maybe 75, 76. I don't remember. What's it like when you listen back? I don't know when the last time you maybe, for all I know, your ringtone is you hitting the post. No, no, it's not. Interestingly enough, I've always wanted to go back and do that kind of show. I mean, those, the eight years that I was at Chum were probably the happiest years that I've spent in the business as a disc jockey. And it was so much fun. It was like a party all the time.

And yet the pressure was there to perform. And I had the opportunity, Chum invited me back when they were, I think they were celebrating their 50th anniversary a couple of years ago. And they called me up and said, would you like to come back and do a show? So you can pick all the music you want. We'll have an operator for you. And you just be Jim Van Horn. So I went back. And I've still got it at home. And it was so much fun.

It was a riot. Because when I listen to these clips, it's still going, but let's hear you now while I got you here. But you always hit the post. That's why we were paying the big bucks. But was that like, you just knew the song at that point? You just knew the tune? Or was it like some ornate ability?

I just try it sometimes for fun and it's hit and miss and I work at it, but I don't know. You guys always hit the post. Yeah. We always knew what the intro time was, whether it was 10 seconds or two seconds or a minute and a half. And during the course of the music that was playing, you would sit there and you would think about what am I going to say to fill this time? Do I have anything appropriate to say? And then you would just get into the, you actually literally got into the rhythm and the feel of the music. And I had an operator, Zeke's Debiak,

bless his heart, who's since passed. But he and I would work together on Saturday nights and it was like a party. It was probably the most fun we could both have with our clothes on. I mean, it was that much fun.

Yeah, it sounds like it. We would crank up the music in the studio. We'd be dancing around the studio. It was spectacular. So you really got involved with the music. And the listener can tell. I think the listener can tell when the jock is into the tunes and having a good time. And we were actual disc jockeys back then.

We actually selected our own music. So you have, but Did you have certain stipulations with CanCon or anything like that? Yeah, you had to reach the 30% limit or whatever it was, but we selected all the music that we played. There were things called day part shades,

and you couldn't play Led Zeppelin at 9 o'clock in the morning, and you couldn't play Anne Murray at 9 o'clock at night. So you had to be careful careful in in that regard but other than that it was entirely up to the jock to fashion the show that's amazing I don't I don't I always wondered like when did that happen where jocks stopped programming their own shows but I guess it was happening already by the 70s I'm sure yeah actually I went uh I was at Chum 72 to 80. In 75, I took a brief hiatus, six months I think it was, went to Vancouver to CKLG,

and they were already starting to program computer, computer program their music. And literally all the jock did was push one button, and when the music ended, hey, push the next button. And the programming was all done in another room by someone else, and we had no control over it. But that must have sucked a bit. I'm just thinking, is part of the fun just kind of having the hands-on, or am I missing the boat on that one?

No, back then it was. You have to remember, Mike, back then, 1972 to, I'd say, 1980 was the golden age of 1050 Chum. It was one of the top five radio stations in North America, not just the number one station in Canada, but it was one of the top five in North America. Guys, we were influential everywhere. If your record got on the Chum chart, it became a hit. If we played it, it became a hit. And we were treated like rock stars. I mean, there were groupies waiting for us and things that I can't get into. Come on, this is real talk. But it was really, really a very high profile job to have at that time. It was a very exciting time.

Yeah. It's all fresh in my mind from a couple of days ago in the 1050 episode, which people, if they're interested in the 1050 stuff, they should listen to 179. I listened to it. There was just a very interesting points brought up in that show. I really enjoyed it. Did we get anything completely wrong that you want to take a moment to clarify? No, I don't think so. You know, I mean, 20-20 hindsight is always easy. I don't think there was any glaring errors that you had.

You know, you talked about the Drake format. You talked about the popularity of a lot of the guys, John Major and things like that. And no, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Let's talk about some of these jocks from the 70s at 1050 Chum. So the morning guy, this is Jay Nelson, right? Jungle Jay Nelson, yep. What was Jay like? He originally had a children's show out of Buffalo on WKBW.

And that's where I saw him first. And he left, I believe, Alan Waters, Mr. Waters, who was the father of Chum, brought him to Toronto to do mornings. And he became the biggest, next to Wally Crowder, he was the number one morning man in the country. Funny guy, natural sense of humor. Everything with him was spontaneous. The very first night I did the all-night show at Chum when I was first hired, I had to call him. The all-night guy always called Jay Nelson at 4 o'clock in the morning to wake him up. Mr. Nelson, hi, it's Jim Van Horn calling.

It's 4 degrees outside, raining, and this is your wake-up call. Click. You know, he would never say anything. So about 10 minutes before my shift ended at 6 o'clock, Nelson comes by, and he just sticks his head in the studio door. He puts his head, and he says, Hey, I've been listening to your show on the way into work today. I said, Oh, really?

He said, Yeah. He said, Have you ever thought about plumbing? And he walked out. He walked out. And I'm sitting there crushed. And he came back about 10 seconds. He says, I'm just kidding, you kid. Welcome aboard. That's funny. That show he was doing in Buffalo, is that like for my generation? Would that be Commander Tom?

Yeah. That kind of deal? Yeah. Yeah. He probably invented or was the precursor to Commander Tom. You know, because when I was growing up, Sunday was a terrible time, Sunday mornings, because on Saturday mornings you had cartoons, wall-to-wall cartoons. But Sunday mornings, there was nothing.

All we had was Commander Tom and like Davy and Goliath. I mean, do you remember this? Which is like a Church of Latter-day Saints propaganda film or whatever. Well, J. Nelson, Jungle J. Nelson, was known as Jungle J when he was in Buffalo, and he always wore the safari jackets with the pith helmets and all the rest. Oh, man.

Yeah, you're making me think of Irv Weinstein. It's 10.30. Do you know where your children are? Come on. Just had my face paved this week. That's right. What about the... He's still doing it for 104.5 Chum FM, but what about Roger Ashby?

Roger Ashby was, and probably still is, the biggest music geek radio lover that you would ever meet in your life. He would do a simulated show in his basement at home in Hamilton and pretend that he was a disc jockey. All he ever wanted to do, and I think, to be honest with you, I don't think he's ever done anything other than being a disc jockey. You know, I can say I had the honor of meeting him. He sat in that very seat. He's a good guy. He's a legend.

I mean, he's iconic. How long can he run? There's no odometer going here. No, he's going to go as long as he wants. You know, as long as the ratings are up, especially with the way the media is today, as long as the ratings are there, he'll be there.

And he's, I mean, talk about establishing a fan base and a loyal fan base. I mean, yeah, Marilyn and Roger have been there since the mid-80s.

Interesting story about Marilyn Dennis. Yes, let's hear it. When TSN first went on the air in 1984, Marilyn was working in Calgary. We needed a reporter in Calgary.

They hired Marilyn because of her look. She was and is stunning. She knew nothing about sports. Nothing about sports. So we would write the scripts in Toronto, send them out to Calgary. She would memorize them, memorize her stand-ups,

and she would stand there in her bright red dress and her high-heeled shoes and beautifully coiffed blonde hair and come across with these stories that we showed her how to do. And we supplied her and knew nothing about sports. And she said, chai chai rod. Is that where we went? You know, she's one of the few people who has told me they're too busy to appear on Toronto Mic'd.

Really? Yeah, because Roger's done it. Rick Hodge has done it. Like, naturally, I want Marilyn on. Well, she does have the daytime show, the Marilyn show. Yeah, I know. You know, once she's finished the show and she has to. I can be very flexible.

I can be very flexible. But yeah, great. Roger Ashby, he's great. What about the late Terry Steele? The Bear. His nickname was The Bear because he looked like a bear. He was a very big man. Big presence, big voice, physically biggest heart I've ever seen in anyone.

Loved to laugh. He was a very, very dear friend of mine. When he passed, I was absolutely crushed. And he sounded like the bear, Terry Steele. He had that voice of God when he was on the air. And he really got into it. He was another one who was thoroughly into what he was doing. He absolutely loved it.

You know, Tom Rivers, Terry Steele, and Jay Nelsen, yeah, a number of the 1050 jocks from the 70s have passed young. It's terrible. Unfortunately, yeah, and Tom Rivers as wellcks from the 70s have passed young. It's terrible. Unfortunately, yeah, and Tom Rivers as well. Shotgun Tom was bigger than life. I mean, he was about 6'8", 6'9", weighed about 350 pounds. I mean, he was a very large man, and he was an absolute rebel. I think he was hired and fired by Chum three or four times.

Bob Wood just kept on bringing him back because of the influence this guy had. The best Tom Rivers story that I remember, I did a commercial, a voiceover radio spot for a condom company. And it was a 30-second spot. And they really wanted to press the name. And so at the end of the commercial, I can't remember the name of the product. At the end of the commercial, it might have been Trojan, I don't know.

At the very end of the commercial, I would say, and the name is, pause, right. And they were supposed to say the name in that spot. Well, while this commercial was running, we had a contest going on on the air called the Great Zip-Off. When you heard the sound of the zipper, you called in and won t-shirts and records and

tickets and all that kind of stuff. So Rivers is on the air one night. This commercial plays and the name is Zip. Right. And that was the Great Zip. Right. And that was the great zip off and Rivers was notorious for that kind of stuff. I grew up

listening to Top 40 on 680 CFTR. Tom Rivers was my morning guy. Yes. So yeah, I love any Tom Rivers story. You can interrupt this podcast anytime with a Tom Rivers story. I can't get enough. He's a guy. I just need a time machine. I need to get Tom Rivers story. You can interrupt this podcast any time with a Tom Rivers story. I can't get enough. He's a guy. I just need a time machine.

I need to get Tom Rivers on the podcast. Here's a couple of names. I got to plead a little ignorance here, not having listened in the 70s to Chum, 1050 Chum, but Scott Carpenter.

This is a boogeyman. He was on Nine to Midnight. Another crazy guy. He was nuts. Still is nuts. He's retired, living down in Virginia. Unfortunately, he's battling leukemia right now. But he's doing okay.

Again, he and Rivers were of the same mold. Two insane guys who would do and say anything when they got on the air. And if you told them what to do, they would do the opposite. And that was part of their success. And Pat St. John? Pat St. John trained me for the all-night show.

When I first was hired by Chum, I didn't have a name. I wasn't Jim Van Horn. And so I had to say for the first couple of days, this is the Pat St. John show, and that was it. And he would sit in with me. And eventually, long story, they figured out, they asked me to change my name because they didn't like David Melnick. They didn't think it was rock and roll enough so i couldn't think of a name so he bob wood gave me

a list of names said pick one of these so i picked jim van horn and uh and then i had to have this huge sign in front of me like like a foot wide and two feet long with jim van horn written on it so that i could remember who i was i can't remember i can't remember pat st john trained me i don't know what happened to him. I don't know where he went. You just reminded me of the Johnny Fever mug. Remember that in the morning, Dr. Johnny Fever can't remember his name

in that market at that station. He's like Johnny Sunshine, Johnny Caravella. He's like, yeah, he's got the mug. What people don't know is that I was Jim Van Horn on AM and I would do shifts on FM as well as Charlie Parker. Get out of here. Yeah. Yeah, no, I had no idea.

That's cool. I don't think I've ever told that story before. See, you got to keep those exclusives coming. We have a quota to fill here. I promised my subscribers a certain number of Toronto Mike exclusives. So keep that coming. Yeah, the name change thing. Back then, you're right,

they all changed their name, right? I'm pretty sure, I know Roger Ashby is Roger Ashby, but I mean Terry Steele and Jay Nelson, those are fake names, right? Yes, Terry Steele was Jim Stromberg. Jay Nelson was Frank Cox. Frank Cox is a great name for the 1050.

He just reminded me there's a Twitter controversy going on right now with Damien Cox. You got to be careful on Twitter. Are you careful you don't get your DMs mixed up with your regular tweets? You're trying to stay out of that one? I'm on Twitter, but... You're careful. Yeah. You're careful.

Damien wasn't careful. He's in lockdown right now. There's quite the sports media Twitter controversy. You want to stay out of that one. It's getting lockdown right now. There's quite the sports media Twitter controversy. You want to stay out of that one. It's getting messy. Okay, so I have a note here that says you were named Billboard Magazine's Disc Jockey of the Year in 1972. Correct.

But you're the only Canadian to win that? Yeah, no one's ever won it since. That's amazing. It was pretty impressive back then. But that was like your rookie year. I was Rookie of the Year, yeah. Because I'm trying to think. It's like when they said Gretzky wasn't really a rookie

because he played professional before the NHL. Yeah, I had two years radio experience before that, so I don't know if you could consider me a rookie. It depends how many shifts you did. We'll have to take it to the tribunal. But that's pretty cool. Yeah, I was the only Canadian. And for those who are not familiar with Billboard magazine,

if you don't follow the music industry, it's still the Bible of the music industry. I still track when Canadians are number one on the Hot 100. Yeah, it's a very, very influential magazine. For sure, and I think everyone knows it. They have a big award show and all that jazz. Now, is there any other names from your eight years at 1050 Chum I failed to mention? John Major. Yeah, is there any other names from your eight years at 1050 Chum I failed to mention?

John Major. Yeah, of course. John was just a huge talent, went on to a very successful television career. Unfortunately, he passed with cancer a number of years ago. But he was very, very popular. And he had those rock star looks. You know, he had the long flowing shoulder length hair and the square jaw and the big voice to go with it. So he was a magnet, a chick magnet.

I bet. One of the questions I often have... Oh, and Mike Cooper. Oh, yeah. Hold Mike Cooper for one second because... And I don't know

if you'll know the answer. Unfortunately, we can't ask John Major, but it always seemed natural he would end up on Much Music. Like, this was the... Like, why wasn't he an early end up on Much Music. Why wasn't he an early VJ when Much Music

launches? Because he was already with Chum and he was doing Toronto Rocks. It just seems to me and my friend Retro Ontario, that's a name for you. That's a fake name, believe it or not. That's not on his birth certificate. But me and Retro Ontario wonder aloud

why Major didn't end up on Much Music. I think because Much Music wanted two unique individuals, and J.D. Roberts and Jeannie Becker at that time were pretty unique. And Major had already had his record show on City, so there was no point taking

him away from something that popular and starting something that they had no idea what was going to happen. That's rather plausible. That's why you're here, to help us with the John Major questions. Talk to me about the recently retired Mike Cooper. Cooper, another larger-than-life personality. You should Google this one when you have a chance.

The Halloween prank that he pulled. I had been on the air. It was Halloween. No, not Halloween. It was April Fool's. Sorry, April Fool's. I'd been on the air nine to midnight. He came in to do the all-night show.

And at that time back then, we would do live commercials for Knob Hill Farms. live commercials for Knob Hill Farms. It was a grocery chain that was around for many, many years. Steve Stavros. That's right. And we would read

these 30-second live commercials. So he... And we were also taking live requests on the air. Hey, man, I'm up late. Can you please stairway to heaven? That kind of stuff.

Right. So Mike started this thing and a guy would phone and he'd say play Stairway to Heaven? That kind of stuff. Right. So Mike started this thing, and a guy would phone, and he'd say, play Stairway to Heaven. Okay, we'll get to it. And 15 minutes would go by. The guy would call back. I still haven't heard Stairway to Heaven. What the hell is going on?

So this went on for a couple of hours, and I'm listening to it on my way home. And the guy got more and more violent and more threatening and all the rest. So finally, Cooper is reading this live Knob Hill Farms commercial on the air. You hear the door open and it's like, what are you doing here?

What the hell's going on? I told you to please stay away to heaven and now I'm here to fix you. What are you talking about? Get out of here. That's not a real gun that you've got. All of a sudden, you hear this bang.

This gun goes off and you hear, down to the floor he goes. Dead silence for about what seemed like two hours. It was probably five seconds. Richard Maxwell comes

running in from the, oh my God, stop, stop. Cooper's been shot. Cooper's been shot. And then again, there's silence. And then all of a sudden you hear, April, fool.

And it goes into Eric Clapton, I shot the sheriff. By the time Eric Clapton hit the air, the SWAT team had been dispatched. They closed Yonge Street at St. Clair. The building was surrounded. Wow. And the police chief came down, or the assistant police chief came down the next morning demanding that he wanted to charge him with public mischief and all the rest. police chief came down or the assistant police chief came down the next morning demanding that he wanted to charge him with public mischief and

all the rest. Bob Wood, bless his heart, stood up for him, managed to talk the guy off his ledge and he went away. He called a jock meeting that day. He called everybody. All 10 of us said, get your asses in here. We're doing a jock meeting, 10 o'clock.

Be there. You have to be there. So we all went in and sat down. And everybody knows what's going on. So we're sitting there, and Bob sort of looks around. And he said, if I hear of anything like this ever happening on the air again, your ass will be fired immediately. You will be terminated immediately. And then he looked at everybody, and he had a tendency to look you right in the eye.

Everybody. He looked around the room, and then he got this big smile on his face, and he said, that was the best goddamn radio bit I've ever heard in my life. Get out of my office. I thought you were going to say, April Fool's. That's great.

You know, when he was retiring, I didn't do it. I wasn't told as well as you just told it. That's for sure. But I did see some of the highlights of Mike Cooper. And I think there's brief mention of that one for sure. And the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel, right.

Of course. Yeah, the CNE. Did you ever do any of those CNE appearances? I hosted a lot of concerts at the CNE. I hosted, not the Beach, but Bachman Turner Overdrive was probably the biggest one and they were like taking care of business and let it roll.

Which is like 1974. Yeah. And they were huge. They were probably the biggest. Yeah, Let It Ride is. Yeah, Let It Ride. They were one of the biggest bands

in North America at the time. And you ain't seen nothing yet? Yep. And I'm standing on the stage and I got my blue jeans, my denim jacket, my brown turtleneck sweater with a big chain in the front. 22,000 fans at the old exhibition stadium.

And you know that you've got them right in the palm of your hand. And the band is not going to play until I introduce them. Kids are going crazy, just nuts. And that kind of feeling, that adrenaline rush, that power that you feel in those situations is incredible. And I also hosted the Evel Knievel 13 bus jump at C&E Stadium. Get out of here. And what happened was they called me up and they said, you're doing this. I thought, Evel Knievel 13.

What, is this crazy? What a stunt. What kind of a stunt is this? ABC Wild World of Sports was taping it for their show. Keith Jackson, who was one of the big announcers for them back then, was there. And I had to go down that afternoon to go over the script with Evil, Mr. Knievel. Call you Evil? So I get there, and I walk into his trailer, and he looks at me and says, who the hell are you?

I said, I'm your emcee for the show tonight. He said, all right, okay, everybody out. Everybody except Jim, leave. So they're all leaving. Keith Jackson's still standing there. He said, you too, Keith. Get the hell out of here. It's just Jim and I.

So we sit down next to each other, and he's got this script handwritten that he's put together himself. And he's got everything highlighted and bracketed. And he said, I want you to raise the level here. I want you to bring it down here. And I want you to really build the drama. When I've got the motorcycle, I'm going to take it up the ramp and down and a couple of fake runs and then make sure everybody is silent for the run because I put my life on the line and I could be killed here tonight.

And I'm sitting there saying, holy crap. No pressure. What the hell is this? But he pulled it off. It was a great jump. And I kept the script. For years, I kept the script.

I'm sorry I didn't still keep it. Rumor has it that Evel Knievel is also a fake name. That I don't know. That's a fun fact. That I don't know. I got to ask, it sounds like an amazing gig, so much fun.

So why do you ever leave? Why do you leave 1050 Chum in 1980? I'd been there eight years. It's 1980. I was close to, I was 29 years old. And I'm saying to myself, is this what you want to do for the rest of your life? Do you want to take requests for Stairway to Heaven for the rest of your life? I didn't want to go into management. I didn't want to be a program director. That's probably the most thankless job there is. And I decided it

was time for a change. And I called up Dave Reynolds at City TV, who was the sports director there at the time. And I said, Dave, I'm Jim Van Hoorn from Chum, blah, blah, blah. I'm interested in breaking into television. Do you think I can come down and talk to you? He said, sure, come on down. So I went down and Dave was a really, really decent human being. He used to host the Montreal Canadiens games before he came to Toronto to be City TV's sports director. I sat with him for about two hours and he just fired questions at me. You know, just why are you doing this and what's your motivation and all the rest. And at the end of this interview, which I thought was just an interview, he said,

you know what? He said, if you're serious about this, he said, why don't you come down for a couple of weeks and go out with my reporters and do stories with them and see how they work. Peter Gross was there at the time and Debbie Van Kiekebelt. Right. And Dave was also going out. So I said, sure. And I ended up being a gopher. Like, I carried the equipment. And back then, when you carried equipment, you carried equipment. I can imagine.

It was heavy, heavy stuff. So for a couple of weeks, I went out with Peter and Debbie and Dave and watched how they did things, how they put features together and all the rest. And then after two weeks, Dave said, do you think you're ready to do a story? I said, sure. He said, okay. Humberside and Runnymede playing basketball this afternoon. Go give me a report on the game.

Okay. So I went down there and watched the game, filmed it, scratched out the highlights, figured out a standup opening, an on-camera opening and a closing, took it back to the station, put it together. And he said, if it's good opening, and a closing, took it back to the station, put it together, and he said, if it's good enough, I'm going to put it on the air. If not, we'll sit down and discuss why, and I'll get you to do another one. So he took a look at it. He said, I'm putting this to air.

He said, first chance. He said, first opportunity to do this. Pretty good job. I'm throwing it on the air. So I said, great. So he put it on the air, and he said, you coming back he put it on the air and he said, you coming back tomorrow? I said, yeah. He said, I'll have another assignment for you tomorrow.

Next day I go back. And he says to me, Bobby Orr is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame tonight. He's at the Royal York Hotel in the Imperial Room at a press conference. I want you to go down there and interview him. I said, are you serious? He said, absolutely. I said, OK. Grab the camera guy.

Go to the imperial room. This place is packed. I mean, there is not a room to turn around. Maid or D standing there, or the concierge, whoever, I said, is Bobby Orr here? He says, he's in the middle, the concierge, whoever I said, is Bobby or here? He says, he's in the middle, right there in the middle.

I said, Oh, great. So we were weasel our way up. I come up beside him. I'm standing there and he sees me looking at him and he sees me with the mic. And he said,

uh, hi, I said, Mr. Or Jim Van Horn from city TV. I was wondering if we could spend a few minutes together. He said, sure, Jim. Where do you want to do it?

I said, how about right here? He said, great. So we set up the camera, threw up a light, fired it up. We're doing this interview with him about his career and the Hall of Fame and everything else. And I asked him a question about halfway through. And he started, he prefaced the answer by saying, you know, Jim. And at that point I thought, I love this guy. He actually remembered my name. What a classy guy. And so we finished the story. He shook hands with me. And you know,

ever since then, this was 1970, no, 1980, 80, 81. No, no, no. Yeah. It could have, 80, 81. No, no, no. Yeah, it could have been 80, 81. So ever since then, he's remembered me. He's always said, hello, Jim, and referred to me by name and all this, which to me is the ultimate compliment. That's classy.

And I thought after that, I thought, you know what? I love this business. I want to be in sports. Yeah, just cover hockey. That's where you get the classy guys. So that's Bobby Orr. But did you ever meet Gordie Howe? Once. I met Gordie Howe once.

He had just come back from the WHA and was playing with the Hartford Whalers. He played one year in Hartford. I was covering hockey for the Flames back then, living in Calgary. And we flew to Hartford to do the game. Gordie Howe, we always interview a player during intermissions. Home team was always the first intermission, visiting team was the second. First intermission, our guest, Gordie Howe. Western Canada, floral Saskatchewan, we're going out of Calgary and all the rest. It's a local broadcast. He comes in, and he sits next to me. And, you know, he had this blinky situation.

They used to call him Blinky after the fight with Lou Fontanato and all the rest. And so he's sitting there, and he's got the eyes blinking away and sweating like crazy. And a giant of a man, just hands like ham hocks. I mean, this guy was magnificent. I'm sitting, and I couldn't take my eyes off him. I just couldn't stop looking at him. Next thing you know, I got the earpiece in and my director, Larry Brown says, cue Jim. And I'm still looking at Gordie Howe. I turned to the camera. I look at the camera. I point to Mr. Howe. I said,

I'm sitting next to Gordie Howe. And he looked at me and he started to laugh. I did the interview. We shook hands. He said, nice job, kid. And away he went. That was the only opportunity that I had to meet Gordie Howe. The great Gordie Howe. Everything I learned about Gordie Howe.

I was obsessed with Wayne Gretzky as a kid. And I had this, what's the author's name? He wrote in Edmonton. Anyway, somebody wrote a book. This is like 83, like around that. Anyway, someone wrote a book about Gretzky

and I read it over and over again. And in it, Gretzky talks about how he was a big Gordie Howe fan. He wears number 99 because Gordie Howe is nine. And they talk about playing, you know,

that all-star game, I guess they played together. And anyway, so yeah, I mean, so my heroes, he's sort of like my hero's hero. So that's sort of my quote. Yeah, to me, Gordie Howe is second best player of all time. Those are always fun debates.

We're having that debate now in the NBA because this LeBron James is something else and I'm trying to figure out where he ranks, but it's hard to do that with guys you never saw play. Plus you got to win something. Well, yeah, but LeBron has, at least he has a couple of rings. But yeah. Okay.

So in 1980, so how do you end up in Calgary? I'd been at City for a year as an intern while still working at Chum as a disc jockey. So I would spend my days at City and go and do my six to nine shifts at Chum at night. And I was working basically seven days a week. And I wasn't paid for the City gig. I was learning. Okay. Like an unpaid internship.

I was an unpaid intern, yeah. But I was learning so much. And doing television is something that I wanted to do. And then after the first year, John Saunders had been hired. So there was Peter Gross, John Saunders, myself, and Dave Reynolds. Debbie Van Kiekebelt had left. We were sitting in the sports office, and my desk was behind the door. So when the door opened, you couldn't see me.

We were sitting there chatting one day, and somebody from marketing, a young lady from marketing came and started to talk to the three guys, because she didn't see me, about how they were going to promote them, whether on bus billboards or roadside billboards, newspaper advertising and all this kind of stuff. And then she's talking to them about the three of them. And Dave says, well, what about Jim? And she said, well, I'm not going to mention the manager's name.

So-and-so doesn't think we need him anymore. So we're not going to promote him. And of course, the three guys look at me. Yeah. And she realizes that I'm sitting there. And she goes, oh, my God. I said, you know what? Don't worry about it.

I'm not going to shoot the messenger. I understand. And she said, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I said, OK, it's fine. There was an empty box there. I grabbed the box. I start to fill my stuff. Take all my personal stuff. And I was leaving. Dave says, where are you going? I said, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I said, okay, it's fine. There was an empty box there. I grabbed the box. I start to fill my stuff, take all my personal stuff.

And I was leaving. Dave says, where are you going? I said, I'm done. I said, I got to go. He said, why? I said, Dave, you just heard. I mean, I have no future here. I've been doing this for a year.

I think I can probably get a job if I really want one. And I've still got my radio gig. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. I gave him a big hug with Peter and John. And as I walked out the door, I'm going to the elevator. And again, the city was still at 99 Queen Street East at that point. I walked to the elevator because the newsroom was on the fifth floor. And I stopped and I thought, I'm going to make one call before I go. So I called Molestar Network. Molestar was the company that controlled midweek hockey in Canada back

then. Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver. And Calgary was just moving up from Atlanta. Nelson Scalbania had bought the team and were moving them to Calgary. So I called Molestar and Frank Selke, Mr. Selke was head of the organization at the time, a wonderful, wonderful guy. And I said, Mr. Selke, hi, it's Jim Van Horn. He's, Jim, where the hell have you been? He said, we've been trying to get you all day. I said, what's going on? He said, the Atlanta Flames are moving to Calgary. They're going to be doing 25 midweek game packages on CFAC in Calgary. We think you'd be perfect to host those games. We'd like you to go out there, host the games, and be the late-night sports anchor.

I said, wow. And he said, when can you go? I said, I can fly out this weekend for an interview. I flew out that weekend for the interview, met the station manager, agreed to terms. And two months later, I was in Calgary. Wow. And that's, of course, where I get to know you, obviously, is TSN, which I guess that's the next move, right? Because I guess you're at Calgary.

You're covering the Flames there. You're part of their NHL broadcasts. So does TSN come calling or how does that work? How do you end up at tsn okay 80 to 84 i was at uh um at at in calgary at two and seven cfac i'd heard about this rumor of a canadian sports network starting up it was called at that time the all canada sports network acsn and it was headed up by mr gordon craig who was a longtime CBC guy. My wife at the time used to work for CBC, and she knew Gordon Craig and Jim Thompson and Michael Landsberg and all these guys that were involved in this. I said, you know, Jim Van Horn, you say, Jim, I know who you are, blah, blah, blah. I said, I'd like to work for you.

He said, we'll have to wait and see. He said, we don't even have a license yet. He said, call back when you get one. We get a license. So a couple months later, they get a license. I call back. He laughs and said, I still haven't had hired my vice president of programming yet. Call back when I hire the VP.

A couple of weeks later, they hire the VP, Michael Landsberg, not Burry. No, Michael Landsbury, not Burry. Right, right, right. So it's Michael Landsbury. And I call him and said, what do you think? Can you hire me? He said, and Michael and I were friends. We knew each other quite well. He said, listen, if I give you a job, it has nothing to do with our relationship. It's because we feel that you might be able to help us. I said, I understand. He said, leave it with me. A couple of days later, he calls back. He said, do you want to work with us?

When can you be here, and how much money do you want? I said, yes, I'll be there yesterday, and pay me what you can. Oh, yeah, that's a terrible answer, but yeah. It was a terrible answer. It was, and that's how it started. And I was the first guy they hired and ended up 17 years. So you're the first on-air guy. First commentator they hired, yeah. Wow. I have a clip here. I'm not going to play the whole thing, but I'll play the first, they hired and ended up 17 years. So you're the first on-air guy that TSN hired. First commentator they hired, yeah.

Wow. I have a clip here. I'm not going to play the whole thing, but I'll play the first, I don't know, 45 seconds because you're in there. But it's basically from September 1st, 1984, and it's called Introduction to TSN. And it features John Wells, Jim Van Horn, Michael Landsberg, not Lansbury. I can see a lot of confusion happening there. Michael Landsberg and Terry Leibel.

Terry Leibel, yeah. Right. And I'm going to, let's hear it. Well, we'll get through your voice and then we'll clip it off here. Welcome to this historic broadcast of TSN, the Sports Network. Hi, I'm John Wells. And for the next 60 minutes, we're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves, how we got started, and what you can expect to see in the exciting days and months ahead, right here on TSN. TSN is proud to be the first Canadian network ever to bring you round-the-clock coverage of professional and amateur sports,

24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We'll be coming to you from all around the world via satellite from our studios here in Toronto. Our philosophy at TSN is to bring you sports events both live and via satellite from our studios here in Toronto. Our philosophy at TSN is to bring you sports events both live and on tape and to keep you abreast of the latest up-to-date news from the world of sports, but also to be taking you behind the scenes to give you all the insight and information you need to get on and off the It was mayhem. We worked 12, 14, 16 hours a day to get us on the air. And we did everything. The commentators produced the shows. We cut highlights, voiced the highlight packs, just everything that you could imagine. Early days, I would host the early show. Then I'd run to the next studio, host the hockey show.

And then at 7.30, host a hockey game. And then the post-hockey. It was nuts. We did everything. And it was back then, they didn't hire you to do anything. You'd walk in and say, mind if I do basketball? Mind if I do baseball? Mind if I do hockey? Yeah, sure, go ahead. Now it's a little different. Yeah, now it's a lot different.

How much of a role did your mustache play in all this? You had a great, you still have a great mustache. I've never taken it off. I wasn't sure if it would still be there when you came to the door. and all this. You had a great, you still have a great mustache. I've never taken it off. When you were coming, I wasn't sure if it would still be there when you came to the door because, I mean,

some legendary mustaches have disappeared over the years. You know, the host, Alex Trebek, for example. Come on, that was a great mustache.

What are you doing? So you, Gino Retta, there were some great TSN mustaches. Yeah, Gino had one. Who else? Rod Black. Yeah, yeah.

This is pre-TSN before he went there, had one. And I can't remember who else. But an interesting rumor started that because I was the senior guy, I was the only one allowed on the air to have a mustache. And everybody else was told to take it off, which was complete BS. But I thought that was pretty funny. No, that is great.

Like it's in your rider or something. You know, no one else can have a mustache. That's great. Yeah, and you're at TSN for a long, long time. 17 years. So what were your favorite events to cover at TSN? Olympics. 1988 Calgary Olympics.

I was in Calgary when they went for the bid, and the bid was awarded. So to go back to Calgary in 88 to host the Alpine events with Todd Brooker was really, really something. It was Brooker's first time on television, and he's gone on to a great career with NBC. Yeah, cool. And of course, Sports Desk was now at SportsCenter.

Yeah. And I asked Vic Router, and he agrees with this, that the only reason you changed that to SportsCenter is because with the ESPN relationship is because ESPN has a vault of like athletes saying like, hey, coming up next on SportsCenter. And that's the only reason you did that. Probably, yeah. Yeah, I'd already left by the time SportsCenter had taken over.

Oh, so as you leave in 2001, and it's still SportsDesk when you leave. Yeah. Yeah, I think they realized they can't have a SportsDes desk without Jim Van Horn, so we better rebrand this thing. Well, it's interesting that Rod Smith has done it ever since. Oh, yeah. He's a good man, by the way. Rod Smith?

Yeah. Yeah. Who are the other? So we talked about John Wells and Jim Van Horn. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. We talked about yourself and Michael Landsberg. But who are the other early day TSN guys?

Terry Leibel. It was her first. She was a former national equestrian. She had been to the Olympics and was a very bright girl, had been called to the bar and decided to try television instead. She was with us for a very short period of time and then went on to CBC. And she went on to host Olympics for the CBC and has since retired. But she was a very, very bright lady and really did some good work.

There were also a couple of others behind the scenes who usually appeared on weekends or as reporters. Steve Cooney, who used to be at CBC, was sort of a weekend guy producer who was just very, very intelligent, knew his sports like crazy. And Peter Watts, who worked with John Wells in Edmonton, and he came to Toronto with John. And Peter became one of our top college reporters. He had contacts that you would not believe. He had a Rolodex that would probably today would be worth $5 million. He knew everybody. If we needed to call somebody, yeah, just a minute, let me check my Rolodex here,

and away we go, and he'd pull up a name. Wow. Let's hear a quick ad here. This is a Sports Desk ad, so Sports Desk with Jim Van Horn. Let's hope this audio is okay. We'll have more Cascar F1 cart and NASCAR highlights after the break. Come on, guys. Let's go.

Okay, Jim, nice and cool, nice and cool. Okay, a quarter turn on your shirt collar. Nice and easy. Come on, guys. We're running out of time. Reset your monitor. Hold it. Hold it.

Watch your speed, Jim. Go, go, go, go, go. Welcome back to the show, everybody. What a great day it was for Canadian race fans. We've got highlights. Thanks. They were fun to do, those. We did a whole series of them.

Probably the most notable one was Van Damme Good. It was me playing an underworld character, a spy, an action hero type thing, driving a big Hummer. I remember one with the mustache. I guess you're at the desk and you're hiding your mustache and they had to put on your mustache. Oh, my God., oh my God. I don't know. You know what? Over the years,

I've tried to grow a mustache many times and it comes out looking sad. Well, you'll grow up one day. Yeah, that's my hope. I keep waiting and then my voice maybe, that'll deepen too. And then I always get,

I see guys like you and I just get so envious of these thick, great mustaches. Well, the only reason I kept mine was it took me three years to grow. After taking so long to grow, I decided it's not coming off. I am not giving it enough

time. I actually asked my son not too long ago, I said, should I take it off? He says, don't you dare. He's 40. He's never seen me without it. It's like the girl from Ferris, the sister in Ferris Bueller. She's also the dirty dancing girl whose name is alluding me now. Gray?

Something gray? Anyway, she got her nose done. Jennifer Gray? Yes. Okay. Jennifer Gray got a nose job. No one's recognized her since. That's right.

The worst thing she's ever done. So don't lose the mustache. You'll end up like Jennifer Gray. So you leave. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you leave. And this is going to get a little dark for a moment. It's been all happy-go-lucky here, but we're going to talk about the Team 1050.

Who's on here recently? Simmons was on here, Steve Simmons. You know, every time I have somebody on who worked at the Team 1050, they kind of do this head shake, and it's like, what a cluster F, basically, I'm told. So I don't want to put words in your mouth. I want to hear from you.

I guess, do you leave TSN for the role at the Team 1050? Mr. F, basically, I'm told. So I don't want to put words in your mouth. I want to hear from you. I guess you, do you leave TSN for the role at the Team 1050? Yes, I did. After 17 years, it was time for me to move. I was actually getting really bored. And I remember coming home from work one day and my wife looked at me. She said, what's wrong? I said, you know what? It's not there anymore.

I'm not interested. I don't want to do this anymore. I need something different. And it just so happened that the team approached me, the chump people approached me and asked me if I'd be interested in coming over and to host their afternoon drive and be sort of their main guy over there. So we talked, we negotiated, and I agreed to go. And they made a commitment to me. I made a commitment to them. And the rest is history. Honestly, I can't talk too much about it and I agreed to go. And they made a commitment to me. I made a commitment to them. And the rest is history.

I can't talk too much about it. I really can't. Is that like a legal thing? Or is it snuck because you'll break down in tears? No, no, no. Oh, God, I wouldn't break down. I'm just kidding. You know what?

I can tell you, Mike, it was the hardest job I ever had. It was the most difficult daily job that I've ever had to do to come up with interviews, story ideas, something that you thought was compelling, and to present it in a way that you thought was entertaining. Now, I would never consider myself to be in a class of Bob McCown. Bob McCown, to me, has been and still is the best at what he does. He has a shtick that is impenetrable. He can be controversial. He can be condescending and all the rest of that stuff, but it works for him. And I've never been like that. I'm not a controversial kind of guy. And when I was hired by the time, I said, if you're looking for somebody to go head to head with McCowan,

I'm not your guy. No, no, we want another direction, another direction. But he had such a reputation back then that they could have put Dan Patrick in there, and I don't think he would have stood a chance against McCowan. Steve Simmons thought one of the mistakes made by 1050 was the team is that you guys were trying to be a national show, and of course, people in Toronto, we might not want to hear about the Flames. Exactly. You know what I mean?

Yep. They aren't national anymore. No, they aren't. No, they aren't. They're very regional now. They've got Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton. Yeah, and it's almost, and I won't dwell too much on the 1050.

I'm trying to think of who, Paul Romanuk went over with you? Romanuk did mornings with Mike Richards. Right. Yeah, Mike Richards, who's back there, technically. I guess we'll back at TSN 1050. Yeah, so Mike Richards, who's great, by the way. Do you know Mike Richards?

Oh, yeah. Funny guy. Yeah, he's been on the show. Funny guy. He came over after his morning shift, when he was doing mornings at 1050, and then he cracked open a beer at like 9 a.m. But as he reminded me, it's been on the show. Funny guy. He came over after his morning shift when he was doing mornings at 10.50, and then he cracked open a beer at like 9 a.m. But as he reminded me, it's 9 a.m. Yeah, yeah.

And it's 9 a.m. to me, but like he's been up for many hours. Sure, he's probably been up since 3 o'clock, yeah. Yeah. So it's all relative. Yeah, so and Romanuk, who after 10.50 actually left the continent. He moved to London with his wife. His wife took a job with a major corporation, moved to London, actually left the continent. He moved to London with his wife. His wife took a job with a major corporation, moved to London, and he was there.

And he did a lot of freelance work over there as well. Yeah, like the Davos Cup and all that stuff. Spengler Cup. Spengler Cup, right. Not the Davos Cup. Close enough. It was always the same teams in the fight. It always felt like it was Canada versus Davos.

Yeah, exactly. Anyway. Okay, well, 1050 didn't work out. I guess it went about a year or so. 16 months. 16 months. Yeah, exactly. Anyway. Okay, well, 1050 didn't work out. I guess it went about a year or so. 16 months. 16 months. Yeah, you know. Hey, what more can we say about, they tried

something, it didn't work, and then they went back to the favorites of yesterday and today. That was one interesting angle. You know what the kicker was? Tell me the kicker. The kicker was the day they called us in and said, at three o'clock this afternoon, Jim Rome's show was on. They said, three o'clock this afternoon jim rome show was

on they said three o'clock this afternoon we're going back to music thank you very much good luck in your future endeavors and they left so 50 of us are standing there saying what just happened here anyway at three o'clock they came back and the first record they played was elvis presley a little less talk a little more action what is it a little more conversation a little less conversation yeah a little less conversation i Yeah, a little less conversation. I thought to myself, oh, talk about it. Yeah, that's a dig, right?

Kick in the ass. You just reminded me of the Mike Richards story about being let go. He tells me that whoever was letting you go, what was the company there? Is that Chum, I guess?

Yeah. He tells me that they didn't even pay for the drinks. This is the Mike Richards, Mitch McRichards telling me something. I don't remember having drinks.

He says, somewhere they're having drinks where they get the news or something. I don't remember having drinks. He says, there's somewhere having drinks where they get the news or whatever. I don't know. He thinks they're there for something else

or something. Anyway, he gets the news that you guys are out of job. And at some point, Mike Richards says, who's paying for the drinks?

And he says, he ended up paying for his own drink or something. And that's what pissed off Mike Richards. After they made the announcement, everything to me was a blur. Right. Cause I'd never been,

I'd never been fired from a job before. And who would fire Jim Van Horn? And especially, that was like your homecoming because, uh, and they made some noise about that. Like the return of Jim Van Horn to 1050. Yeah. Any, uh, any, would you ever go back to TSN 1050 for a third, a third go with the, uh, no, no? No desire. No desire. No interest, no. Okay, we'll get to that. I just have to ask you, after you let go from Team 1050, first time you were fired,

how long were you out of work before you ended up back at Sportsnet? Is that the next time? Yeah, I went to Sportsnet next. I decided I was going to take the summer off. I'd gone 36 years without any kind of a vacation. Pretty good. So I said to my wife,

I said, you know what? I'm taking the summer off. She said, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to golf. I played 130 rounds of golf with my pals. Not once did we get rained on. Wow. And we walked every round.

It was fabulous. So I took the summer off. Scott Moore, who was in charge of Sportsnet at the time, had contacted me and he said, are you interested to come and work with us? And I said, well, I said, not right now. I need some time. And then he called me again and he wanted me

to work with Jody Vance. And I did. I ended up staying there for three years. I think it was three years. Let's hear it. This is very short, but this is like a promo for Jody Vance and Jim Van Horn. And they were called, was it connected?

Is that the Rogers version of SportsCenter? I think so. Okay, let's hear this. Vance and Ben Horn. Weeknights at 6.30 on SportsNet News. SportsNet News. Okay, so they call it Vance and Ben Horn. I always loved that voice.

Who is that guy? All right, so tell me about what it was like with you and Jody Vance on SportsNet. Jody was and is a great lady. She's still a friend of mine. She's living in Vancouver now. And she was just terrific. Knew her stuff really, really well.

Was totally devoted to the industry. Just loved being on camera, being in the spotlights and all the rest. And I thought she did an excellent job. It was just, I think, you know what, back then when you compared Sportsnet to TSN, Sportsnet was very worried about what TSN did all the time

instead of just doing their own thing. You know, they, well, they did this, so maybe we should react. It was more of a reaction to what TSN was doing. Right.

And it wasn't until Keith Pelley and Scott Moore took over that they decided, you know what, to hell with TSN. We're going to do our own thing. And they started to make inroads. And now that they've got hockey, it's really changed around. Well, they figure out what they've got to do is spend a whack of money to get sort of like the monopolies on these products, these properties, if you will. Yeah, especially hockey. And now, yeah.

Especially hockey. Yeah. Well, even, I mean, they own the team, so it's a whole different kettle of fish. And the Blue Jays is almost by default that they have it. Sure. Anyway, so I think back then there were a lot of very young people, and it was, again, it was more reacting to what TSN was doing instead of what they should be doing that they do very well.

And they did a lot of things very well. William Houston, at the time he was at the Globe and Mail, he wrote back in 2006, I guess they broke you up. You and Jody Vance, they broke you up. Yes. And then he wrote then that you were being phased out. That was the crux, I think, of the William Houston. So what happened there? I was told I was too old.

Is that right? Simple as that. They bought me out. I don't even know what to say about that. Yeah, go ahead. A couple of weeks ago, I had a friend come over, not a friend, a guy who was doing some work for us in the house, a woodworker. And I hadn't seen him in about 15,

20 years. And he came into the house and he looked at me and he said, you look a lot wiser than you did 10 years ago because of the gray hair. I'm not far behind you on the white hair. No, you're getting there. I've been getting there since I was like 22 years old.

But just remember, Mike, you'll never be as old as me. And you will never be as young as you are right now. I think that's the other half of that. So they phased you out for getting, they felt you were too old. And that's the other half of that. So they phased you out for getting, they felt you were too old, and that's stupid and that sucks. And then, so what was next for you after the, was that 06 when you were bought out or what?

Yeah, I think it was. Maybe. Honestly, I can't remember the exact date. So at that point, I'm at my wit's end. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm not going back to TSN. Sportsnet doesn't want me. What can I do? At that point, I heard about the College of Sports Media and David Lannis, who David and I had worked together briefly at TSN. And he went on to be

a reporter at the score. And he had decided that he was going to start his own broadcast school. So I thought, well, maybe you could work part-time doing a little bit of teaching. So I called David up and I said, I don't know if you remember me or not, but it's Jim Vann. He says, what? Come on, give me a break. So we ended up sitting down talking and I said, you know, if you need any part-time. He said, no, no, no. He said, I don't want you part-time. I want you full-time. I want you to run our television program. I said, wow. I said, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can be a teacher. Because I had the reputation

of being a little volatile at times. I wasn't afraid to let people know how I felt if they weren't doing the job properly. And I felt if I take that into a classroom, that could be dangerous. Right. So I said, I'll tell you what I said, I'll give you a year. If it works great. I'll, we'll renew.

If not, no harm, no foul, but I only work Tuesday to Friday. I don't want to work on Mondays. He said, okay. Agreed.

So, uh, I, we put the program together, and I started teaching. And the first day in class, I had to go two and a half hours. And after 15 minutes, I had no idea what I was going to say or do. And it started to evolve after that. I fell in love with it.

I've been doing it eight years, and it's just been spectacular. That's amazing. Among other things. So you probably learned a lot about yourself. There's constructive criticism and nurturing and coaching. And that mentoring. Continuing to learn as well, Mike. It's been probably of all the things that I've done in my career, and I've really managed to reinvent myself a number of times.

This has been the most satisfying because I feel that I'm giving something back. because I feel that I'm giving something back. I feel that I'm helping people follow their dream and see the passion that they have and helping them to find their road to hopefully a lot of success. Would I be too old for the College of Sports Media? I would say yes. I should try plumbing. Producing, maybe.

Hey, it's never too late. Look, I started my own school of podcasting here. Maybe the College of Sports Media can add it. Well, you're doing a heck of a job. Can add it. Is this what you expected when I reached out and you said you could come on over? Did you expect a more professional studio or less?

Maybe you thought it was just a laptop? No, I really had no expectations whatsoever. That's the safest route, I think. Yeah, you know what? Listen, I've heard your show before, and I know what you do, and you do a very good job, so I wasn't concerned at all about the way this was

going to turn out and what we were going to talk about. One thing I do want to tell you as well is in addition to the teaching that I do at CSM, wonderful CSM, I'm doing a lot of descriptive video these days. I'm doing a lot of reading for the blind. I do baseball for the blind. I'm doing the NBC Olympics for the blind this year, this summer.

And that's another thing that is very, very rewarding. And there are a few things on the horizon that I'm not allowed to say yet that may be coming. I have a question about you providing the described video for Blue Jay Games. Is it AMI-tv? Yes. My question is, what is the difference between the

radio call of a game, a baseball game, and what you do? Okay, let's instead of talking baseball, let's talk golf. Okay. Because I do all the description for the PGA as well. Okay.

I will sit in a studio on my own, much like this, with a big screen TV in front of me, and I'm watching golf. If you are sitting at home, a fully sighted person, and Jim Nance on the 18th hole at the Masters, and Jim Nance on the 18th hole at the Masters, and Jason Day comes up and strikes a perfect shot, and he goes, oh, my God, what a shot! Right. It's, oh! You know, you can see it.

You know that it's two inches from the hole, or you know that it's a foot from the hole. A blind person or a visually restricted person is sitting at home saying, where is it? Where is it? Tell me, where is it? Where is it? I have to tell them. So I tell them it's two feet or one foot to the left,

two feet to the right. Or if somebody is lining up a putt, I'll say they're approximately 15 to 20 feet away from the hole, putting left to right on your television screen. Right. And I fill in the blanks. I describe the golf course, you know,

describe the trees, describe the traps, anything that is faunted that they see, you know, say, let's go to the 10th hole. They don't tell you it's a par four, 445 yard dog leg left.

They'll put a graphic on the screen. They'll put a graphic. So I will tell them that. That's amazing. And that's exactly what we do with baseball as well. If you listen to baseball on Sportsnet, Buck and Pat very seldom talk about the game. You're right.

And I find that you can't do what I used to do back in the 80s when the games were on TSN, for example, where I used to, I could put on Tom and Jerry on the radio and it would sync up with my television. This is like the pre-digital era, I guess. But nowadays, that's long gone. I think it's four or five seconds. I actually, I don't know how the thing's getting to my TV. I got like the pre-digital era, I guess. But nowadays, that's long gone. I think it's four or five seconds.

I actually, I don't know how the thing's getting on my TV. I got like nine second gap. So literally, I can, I'm watching the game. I hear, I'll hear him hit a double and then I'll turn and look and the pitch hasn't been thrown yet. So you can't do it because that's horrible. So yeah, you can't do the old sync up. Yeah. Anyway, I used to do that back in the 80s. But doing the description is very, very special as well because I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. And I have to tell you as well, honestly, and I don't say this very often. While I was in sports media, I never felt that I was doing anything that really meant much of anything. Sure, I was an entertaining guy,

had a bit of a sense of humor here and there, but in the big picture, it was like, what difference am I making? What am I doing with my life? Is this really what I want to do? And that was always in the back of my mind. And that's why I left radio because of that. I left TSN because of that. I didn't leave Sportsnet because of that, but they probably would have assisted me anyways. But now that I'm teaching and giving something back and doing this description

and giving something to the community, it's great. It's fulfilling. Absolutely. Totally fulfilling. It's like food for the soul. Totally fulfilling.

And nourishment for the soul. I totally see that. I look forward to going to school and seeing the kids. Where physically is the school? School's downtown Toronto. It's on George Street between Richmond and Adelaide, a block east of Jarvis. Cool.

I mean, if I could rewind like 20 years, that would be right up my alley. Yeah, absolutely. That'd be cool. Well, how old are you now? 41. Yeah, you're too old. I'm way too old. I'm going into plumbing.

Now, if you were mid-20s, late-20s, I'd say give it a shot. Yeah, I'm way too old. Plus, now that you've got a family, you don't want to go to Moose Jaw for $15,000 a year. No. I have a lot of radio guys on, and when we stop recording, and I always jokingly say, like, oh, my dream job was to be Dr. Johnny Fever because I love that show, WKRP, and I loved radio. That's one of the reasons I do this.

And they always say, like, you can't afford to go into radio. And I loved radio. That's one of the reasons I do this. They always say, you can't afford to go into radio. No, not anymore. You're not going to get the Bob McCowan contract or the Aaron Davis contract. My first job in Midland at CKMP, I was paid $100 a month. What kind

of dollars would that be today? That's not... It'd still be below the poverty line. It'd still be below the poverty line. And I was working six days a week. That's where the Martyr's Shrine is, right? Yeah, I don't know. That's not, it's still below the poverty line. It's still below the poverty line. And I was working six days a week. That's where the Martyr's Shrine is, right? Yeah. Yeah, I know Midland.

We always knew they were doing, taking stock downstairs. We were on top of a shoe store. Okay. And they'd draw boxes and the records would skip.

Oh, that's funny. I get, like you also do, you hosted like Nature Bites. This is like a nature show on Oasis. Yes, yeah. So, I mean, you're doing a whole bunch of like voiceover.

Yeah, I've done a lot of stuff. I mean, I've had fun for 45 years. I tell people I've never worked a day in my life. You've had fun for 45 years. I need to get serious with you because you recently battled a serious health issue. Yep, still am. So can we, do you mind if we can talk about this? Absolutely, absolutely.

So, and I'll let you tell the story, but it sounds like one day you woke up and went to the washroom and... Filled it with ketchup, for lack of a better term. I was, it was eight years ago. It'll be, yeah, eight years ago this Christmas. Uh, again, I woke up early one morning to go to the, go to the washroom and, uh, filled it with blood and scared the daylights out of me. I'll bet. I immediately, uh, I went to my wife, said, I'm going to the hospital. Um, I think it's an infection, but who knows? So I went to Mount Sinai, thank goodness,

and they checked me out. And within two hours had done an MRI and said to me, there's a fleshy mass in your bladder. And I thought to myself, I have cancer. It's the first thing that came to my mind. I said, well, what can it be? He said, well, it could be stones, could be an infection, worst case scenario, it's cancer. He said, but we'll have to have a urologist check you out. And I said, I'm going away on vacation in a couple of days. He said, well, you're not going to get in to see him until January anyway. So that's fine. So they gave me antibiotics for the bleeding and everything else. And I just told my wife that it was an infection. I didn't say anything. Went away on vacation, came back in early January. And Dr. Jarvie, Keith Jarvie, who's the head of urology at Mount Sinai, he and his resident, it's a teaching school, so the residents do all the work.

The doctors just stand there and supervise. The resident, I'm having a cystoscopy. Cystoscopy is when you lie on a table, your legs are 90-degree angles. You're exposed to the world and they take a catheter about the size of your baby finger with a camera on the end of it and insert it into the head of your penis and it's pushed up into the

bladder. Now, you are given anesthetic, but you're wide awake throughout this whole thing. It doesn't hurt. It's a little uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt until it hits the prostate. And then you get that. Prostate just sort of goes, I'm not letting you in. You're not going to get past me.

You're not going to get past me. I'm protecting the bladder. So it finally got in, and they took a look, take a look around. And I'm lying on the table watching. I'm watching this on television. And I said to the resident, I said, Doc, I said, you know, you should come to my school. Your camera technique is really shaky. I thought you were going to do some descriptive audio.

I said, you really should come and take some camera lessons. He said, no, man. He said, this is serious. I said, okay. So, and it was, if you think of an inside, to describe the inside of you, if you look at the palm of your hand, it's relatively clear.

You can see the odd blood vessel and vein and, you know, the lines in your hand. That's what the inside of your bladder looks like. So it's clear on one side. Then he pans to the left and then it goes black. Okay. And by the time they finished, they'd found four large tumors. And he said, well, he said, that's got to come out. I said, okay, when? He said, as soon as possible. I said, okay, when? He said, as soon as

possible. I said, well, when will you know if it's malignant? He said, oh, he says, it's malignant. You have cancer. It's like you've won the jackpot. And I'm lying on the table thinking, holy cripes. So he can tell just by looking at it? Oh yeah, it was nasty. Looked like road rash. You know, a couple of day old road rash that you've the scab forms. Anyway. So I get up and Dr. Jarvis said, he said, I think I'll be handling this over to an oncologist. He said, we'll be in touch. So

within a couple of days, they brought me in and put me on the table, removed the tumors. And that was eight years ago. And since then, I've had cystoscopies every three months. I've had oh boy, six or seven major procedures to have tumors removed that kept coming back. And then in February of this year, I underwent my first round of chemotherapy. And it was a specialized chemo that goes directly to the bladder.

So it doesn't invade the rest of your body. It's not the shotgun approach. And it's there for an hour. They take it out. And thankfully, since the touch wood, since then, my tests have come back negative. So I don't know if I'm cancer-free. I won't know. They don't officially declare you cancer-free for five years. So I will continue to be monitored closely and all the rest. But this all just transpired in the last couple of weeks. So it's continue to be monitored closely and all the rest, but this all just transpired in the last couple of weeks. So it's the best news that I've had in eight years.

No, I'm very pleased to hear that for sure. I can't imagine, and I hope I never have to find out, but that's got to scare the shit out of you. Well, you know what? I mean, when you think of cancer, it's pretty devastating. And bladder cancer is a very unsexy kind of cancer to have. Nobody wants to talk about bladder. I mean, do you know anybody with bladder cancer? No. Exactly. I thought bladder cancer, where the hell is that? But bladder cancer is the most expensive cancer to treat on an annual basis. On average, it costs $250,000 per year, per person to treat bladder cancer because 80% of the time it recurs. It's always coming back. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. And there's been no progress in research

There's been no progress in research that has advanced studies to help cure the disease. In fact, when I was first diagnosed, I asked my doctor, Dr. Zlata, who's one of the top five oncologists in the world. I said, Dr. Zlata, how would you have treated this 40 years ago if I had it? He said, same way. He said there have been no advancements in treatment. So research dollars are desperately needed as well. Is there any preventative measures? Nothing. You just don't know until you get the...

Don't smoke. Don't smoke. That's a good rule anyway. So basically, your first symptom is the blood in the bowl. Yeah. And that's your first symptom, which is a pretty big, loud alarm bell. Yeah. There's no pre-screen.

There's no pre-test for bladder cancer. There's no way to detect it unless you go right in and literally remove the cells from your body. Or a urine test comes back positive. But to think that you go walk into a doctor and say to your doctor, I'd like to be tested for bladder cancer. He said, it's not going to happen. We're not going to spend that kind of cash. Maybe if there's a family history.

Major cause is smoking. Second major cause is chemicals. If you're working with chemicals, say you work in a paint plant. Okay. You know, producing paint or wallpaper or anything to do with chemicals is carcinogenic and it causes bladder cancer. And it's primarily a men's disease. It occurs not regularly. It's the, I think, the fifth leading cancer in men, 12th overall.

But women do get it. And it's primarily an older person's disease. So you have something to look forward to. Oh, boy. That's good news you got recently on that front. And so how do you feel now? I feel great. Yeah, I mean.

I feel terrific. You don't look like a sick guy. I don't feel like a sick guy. But you know what, Mike? A lot of that has to do with attitude. You know, I was exposed to an individual when I was first diagnosed who had bladder cancer. And I sat down and talked with him. And within 20 minutes, I wanted to kill myself.

This guy was paranoid. He would spend 500 bucks a month on additives, you know, on, on, you know, quackery to, because he was afraid of being sick again. He wouldn't travel. He wouldn't leave his home. I said, well, why don't you go on vacation? He says, what happens if it comes back? What happens if I get it again? I said, well, chances are, even if it does, it's not going to kill you in 12 hours. And he was just totally paranoid. And yet another individual that I met a couple of months later, as a matter of fact, Bob Lane, who was a disc jockey at Chum for years. And one of my favorite guys.

Same thing, bladder cancer. He said, screw it. Don't worry about it, man. He said, you want to talk? You come to me. I'll help you through anything. He says, not a big deal, man. It's all about your attitude.

Unfortunately, we lost Bob a couple of years ago. But a lot of it has to do with attitude. And if you have a positive attitude and refuse to lose, just say, screw you. You're not taking me. I think that really, really plays a big role. Yeah, I think it's very important to maintain a positive outlook. Yeah. And if you're negative about it,

and yeah, it's just no good for this type of thing. I taught school through it. I never missed classes. I mean, there'd be days when I'd be standing in front of the class lecturing, and I'm burning inside because of the BCG treatment that I was having. And I'm thinking, nope, it's not a factor. And most importantly is you never lost the mustache during the treatment. That's all that matters. It's all that matters. The mustache rules.

Jim, I got to say, this was an absolute pleasure to finally meet you. And I've known that voice and that face for so long. I really appreciate the call. That was great. I don't even think I'm going to put this on the internet. It'll be my private collection. My chat, I recorded my chat with Jim Van Horn. And we learned Jim Van Horn is a fake name. Yes, David Melnick rules.

If today they let you be David Melnick, that was a product of the times. Yeah, they probably would, yeah. But I changed it legally, so. Okay, because they let Ann Roszkowski keep her name and that was like the early 80s. They've come a long way in that regard. And that, that brings us to the end of our 180th show.

You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Jim is at JVANH J-V-A-N-H J-V-A-N-H See you all next week. You didn't hit the post. I did not hit the post in front of the legendary post hitter. Didn't score a goal in his

career. Thank you.