Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Josie Dye: Toronto Mike'd #132

Episode Date: August 11, 2015

Mike chats with 102.1 the Edge host Josie Dye about her years on the air, her butchering of O Canada, her relationships with Martin Streek and Dean Blundell and why Diamond and Dye didn't work. Also, intense air is cleared.

Welcome to episode 132 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is 102.1 The Edge host, Josie Dye. Hey. How you doing? I'm great. I love your intro. Thank you. Local rapper illbe put that together for me. Awesome. I haven't given him a shout out in a long time, so he was due for one.

Thanks for coming because you're like super pregnant. I'm super pregnant. Could you give birth during this episode? That would be amazing. It's possible. It's definitely possible. Yeah, I'm feeling it. I'm feeling like I need to have this baby. It needs to come out. And you're saying the due date is like this weekend coming up. Is that right?

Wow. Well, an early due date. So I was a month early with my first guy. So they gave me an early due date. So I could go three weeks past that. No problem. So we'll see. But I'm ready to go now.

My first guy was five weeks early. Oh, yeah. He had something in common. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's scary, isn't it? When you're like, oh, my God, it's happening. Oh, yeah. It was like an emergency C-section because he had a cord around his neck. Oh, yeah. So they went in and said, let's get him. See, I pushed twice and it came out. So I hear all these stories of all these girls like, oh, I was in for 36 hours. I'm like, I don't want to hear that. I just want to push twice and I want it to happen. That's what I want. Wow. Yeah. Cause I just, well, 15 months ago, I witnessed a natural birth because my first two kids were C-section and then I witnessed a natural birth for the first time. It wasn't to and out. It was like a long arduous process. Yeah. I don't want that either. Give me the drugs and let me push and I'm good.

Well, that's exciting. So I just want you to know, like if you just say the word and I can deliver, I've seen three births. I can deliver this if you need help. Let's not have that happen, okay? Just in case. Let's just not have that happen.

You're in good hands, Josie Day. You, so we've been working on this for a long time. I know. Like we originally were going to do this like a year ago. Yeah. And then you like, and then it was going to, then things were happening like with your work that we decided to postpone it. It was going to happen in the spring and then things were going on.

Yeah. And then you're here now. So it's all good. Well, you know, it's like, what else do you do when you're on mat leave? I'll come do a podcast. Sure. And you've been on like mat leave for a week now? Yeah.

Yeah. So hardly any time at all. But how old's your other guy? He's 23 months. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got a month until he turns two.

Cool. Yeah. He's in the car right now? No, you're right. I just leave him in there. Yeah. Will I come do a podcast? No, he's at home.

Okay. Sweet. You were raised in Pickering? Yeah. I just leave him in there. Yeah. Well, I come to a podcast. No, he's at home. Okay, sweet. You were raised in Pickering? Yeah. I love how that's everywhere. Like born and raised in Pickering, Ontario. Yay, P-Towners. We only know it for like the town center. You got the Pickering town center. And the nuke plant. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, I was there until I went to university and I grew up there and all my friends I still hang out with and talk to and I love Pickering.

So, yeah, shout out to P-Town. And it shares a border with Toronto. That's the first, like after Toronto, that shares a border with Toronto. For the GTA, yeah. I mean, there's Scarborough and then there's Toronto, but now it's GTA. So now, yes, it's the first Durham region area. So it's the east version of Mississauga. Sure.

Although, is Mississauga GTA? No, it's the east version of Mississauga. Sure. Although is Mississauga GTA? No, it's not. No, I mean, Torrey is mayor of Scarborough, Etobicoke. Right. But Mississauga and Pickering have their own mayor. Sure. There you go. And okay, so where'd you go? You went to Ryerson, right? I went to Ryerson for radio and television. And that's the place to go for that. Yeah, it's a fantastic school. A lot of people who go there go right to television. I think it was like 93% of the people who graduated from RTA in my year went right into television. But a few of us went into radio. It seems like the few of us that went on to work at The Edge came from Ryerson, which is awesome. Yeah, it was a great school. I mean, it taught you everything. It taught you how to do a whole bunch of TV stuff, a whole bunch of radio stuff. But, you know, I always feel like you never learn

enough until you're actually in it. You know what I mean? You never do. So I started interning when I was in high school. I started interning at 99.9, which is crazy. And that was because such a horrible story. This is an embarrassing story. That is because I have a crazy mom who called all the radio stations in Toronto. And finally, Wayne Webster, who is like the coolest man in music, was like, hey, yeah, she can like file CDs. So at 16, I went into the mix and filed CDs for two years. That's amazing.

Yeah, it was awesome. So yeah, your mom just hammered the phones for you. She did. And like I would, I've been admitting this now, which is horrible. Is this an exclusive? Can I play the, I've never told anyone that mommy got me my first radio job.

Hold on. I think I have horns for that. Hold on. That's nice. That's nice. Real quick. The 20, what is he?

23 months. Is that how old the other guy? Yeah. Okay. Does he watch, uh, this show where ants... They're like ants.

They're like claymation ants. I guess they're not claymation. They're computer graphics. But they go to kids who have news, and they're always breaking in. The news is Bobby is going to make breakfast for his mom for Mother's Day. Where do you see this? I see... Okay.

My 15-month-old watches this show, and they're ants. On what channel? CBC Kids. Oh, yeah. See? I see. Okay. My 15 month old watches this show and they're. On what channel? CBC kids. Oh yeah. See, like I'm a chorus girl. So we're all tree house all the time. You're very loyal.

Okay. Very loyal. All right. Only cause I just heard that noise and it's like, yeah, these ants and I actually dig it. Like everything is news. Like maybe a kid's going to try the big slide for the first time. And this ant goes there to like live from the scene. And the are like i'm gonna try the sign he's like breaking news bob

billy joe i'm giving these names i come up with bobby and billy joe where is this i'm gonna maybe try to switch to this uh and just watch it once just once i don't know what it's called but they're ants news or what's your new what's your news that's what it's called all right well i'll go look for it it's great okay so i digress, I'll go look for it. It's great. Okay. So I digress. Okay. That was the first of many exclusives in this podcast. So why did you pick radio instead of TV? Because usually, I don't know if it's going to sound terrible, but you look like you could be on TV. Well, I don't look like I'm on TV right now. I do both. So I do do television. That is true. Yeah, I do do television. I'm the face of W Network, and I had my own show with Cosmo, and I started in television.

I started doing YTV when I was really young. I wasn't a host, but I won a competition, and I did some YTV commercials. So, yeah, I do do both. I love music. Music's my passion. Music's always been my passion. I originally wanted to be a musician.

So I think that now that I do both, I do love radio. I could never give up radio. I could give up television, but I could never give up radio. So there's just something about this medium that, you know, it's so fantastic. You're so honest to yourself. And with television, I still love the art form and I still think it's fantastic. But I mean, there's a little bit more, hey, here, read from a teleprompter and do this, do that and make sure you smile nicely and have white teeth. Okay, good. Well, that was by the way, meant to be a compliment. I hope it came across. No, no. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Tell me where you, uh, I kind of know. So the last guest on this podcast was, uh, he's, he's a writer for, uh, Rogers Sportsnet,

Last guest on this podcast, he's a writer for Rogers Sportsnet, covering hockey. Okay. And that's a good thing, I guess. His name's Chris Johnston, and he grew up in Coburg. Uh-huh. And I don't know, is this possible that you actually were on the radio in Coburg? Like, is that possible? In Coburg.

Were you? Well, the edge? No. No, that's hilarious. No, I wasn't. So you were never a DJ at CFMX inx in coburg no i wasn't no that's amazing there are a couple that i've never screwed up before no there are a couple josies out there um there was a josie that worked in toronto at the old i guess kiss fm is that what it was called i don't know if that before that this incarnation of kiss and she did middays and then she went out

to ottawa to be a PD. Great girl. She must have been on the air in Coburg. She was probably very popular in Coburg. You know, honestly, I have a crack research staff and this is like the first time they've got a fact wrong. That's amazing. No, this is the first time you got something wrong? Come on. Are you sure? Are you serious, Mike? You're not hiding. You, is this, you're not like embarrassed of your term in Coburg. No, I love Coburg. I love Trenton and my relatives are from there. It's a beautiful area close by.

So no, I'm, yeah, I wish. Now get me to CFNY here. So you're at the mix and you're doing the interning. Yeah. And you're only in high school. Yeah. So I stayed there a long time. No, I stayed there a long time.

So I interned for two years there. And then I got the job as the mascot where I wore a mascot and skied down the hills. I was in the ski team. What was the mascot though? It was a T-Rex. Wow. Yep. I had no idea.

It was pretty awesome. And then from there, I started opping like, you know, you know, the usual. And then I went into helping to produce the morning show, which was Carla Collins and Steve Anthony. And then from there, produced Steve Anthony's show in the afternoon and then started doing overnights at the mix Steve Anthony's been on this show oh Steve he actually I tell you first of all the man uh has me taste his coffee because he puts I believe he said five sweeteners complete packets first of all sweetener is sweeter than sugar. Anyway, you can't really do one packet in my humble opinion. He does like five packets of sweetener and he has me taste it. It was like a syrup. There's nothing that surprises me about

Steve Anthony. So any stories I'd be like, yep, that's Steve for sure. Yeah, that's Steve. But did you, uh, you got along with Steve? Steve and I are great friends. He was at my wedding. He spoke at my wedding. Him and Kim. Kim was his counterpart at the time. The two of them are fantastic people. And the three of us got along really well. Did he offend anyone in his wedding speech? He talked about me at the time of the month a few times, I think.

But it was awesome. No, at my wedding, you couldn't have offended anybody. Okay. I only ask because I recently, I got married recently for the second time and the last time. And I had a local radio person deliver a speech at my wedding in which, which offended and alienated the entire other half of the Monica's, who you just met, Monica's side of the family. And I just wondered if you had a similar experience with Steve Anthony. No, not at all. Steve was one of the highlights, but I had a pretty fun wedding. I had, um, Barry Taylor was my MC. The guy is insane. Like if you're listening right now and you could just hire Barry to do

anything, you like to hire him to be your MC because I was on the ground laughing, but everybody was, it was, yeah, he was amazing. I think I, he did some standup, right? Yeah. He does stand up all the time. Yeah. He's fantastic. I don't know why he was ever released of his duties. Well, you know what? He was released from his duties, but now he's onto better, amazing things. So he's a comedian and he is fantastic. Cool. And, uh, anyone else, uh, anyone else at the wedding I should know about? Um, at the wedding, we're back to the wedding. Have we left it? Yeah. Well, like my husband works in music, so we had some of his artists there,

which I don't want to like name drop because it's so ridiculous. But it's his artist, not yours. I know, but you know, we had some great artists there that were super close to him and that were in our wedding party. Nickelback? No, Nickelback. No, unfortunately I wish he had Nickelback cause I'd be a lot richer, but no, no Nickelback. Um, and, um, a lot of radio friends, basically. I was, it was a pretty big radio wedding because you know, you work with all these people that are, are with you. Oh yeah. I was going to say, how did we get on the wedding? And it was Steve Anthony. Steve Anthony got us on the wedding. You're back working at The Mix with Steve Anthony.

Yeah, yep, yep. So then I did overnights. I started my first shift on air was from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. on Saturday nights or mornings, excuse me. Very popular time slot. Yep, and I remember the first song I introed was Nelly Furtado, Fly Like a Bird. And I went like that, which was

awesome. But luckily no one heard it because it was four in the morning. Exactly. And yeah, so I started there and JJ Johnson at the time was, he was the program director, but he had moved on to go to chorus to be the GM. And he had kind of reached out and said there was some positions open at the edge. And Dave Farrell, who was some positions open at the Edge and Dave Farrow, who was there, who was the PD, interviewed me. And it was hard to leave a place where you had been for so long. They were my friends. I felt like they were my family at the Mix. And I decided, you know, I'm going to take the swing shift at the Edge and just see what happens. And I've been there ever since. Is it safe to say the music played on The Edge was more aligned with your personal interests anyways?

Yes, but at the time, the mix was not. It was a little more a mix between classic rock, mix, variety, classic rock and new rock. I mean, we still played new rock, but it wasn't, you know, as new as The Edge. But of course, you know, I was in my early 20s and I was playing in a rock band. And yeah, of course, the music was more aligned for sure. And I mean, I'm probably a little old. I think I know I'm older than you. But I mean, The Edge was my station like in high school. Yeah, that was my station. Oh, me too. For sure. I mean, I used to listen to May Potts all the time. I used to listen to Humble and Fred. Is it bad if every time you mention someone who's

been on this podcast, can I say they've been on this podcast? No, you can go ahead and say that. Is that as bad as you name dropping all those superstars that your husband represents? No, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Mae Potts has been on this podcast. She's fantastic. She's an amazing woman and taught me a lot. I mean, I don't think she knows she's taught me a lot just because I listen to her all the time,

right? So that's how she taught me organically. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, yeah. So I loved her on the radio. Do you know she has a 25-year-old daughter? I know, it's crazy, isn't it? Because she was here to protect her from it. You didn't bring anyone. That was dangerous of you.

I didn't bring anyone. But did you vet me? I should have because I'm going to pop. So I should have had like a support team here, but no. But I'm a friend of a friend. Did you vet me or did you call up any mutual friends and just make sure? No, I did not. I mean, I've heard some of your stuff.

I heard when you had Jeff Merrick on. Yeah. Yeah. And you guys talked about me. So I thought that was sweet. I actually pulled that clip. We're going to talk about that.

He said sweet things about you. Yeah. Oh, and Humble and Fred have been on this podcast as well. In fact, Humble Howard was the guy who made that speech at my wedding.

Oh, well, there you go. Just to go full circle. Well, of course it's that guy. That's awesome. So, yeah. So then I went to the edge and that was that. And that's 2002? I guess so. Yeah. Maybe a little earlier, but I didn't get a contract until after. So yeah, around there. Okay, cool. Yeah. What was it like working with Martin Streak? Loved Martin. Martin was fantastic guy. I worked overnights and he worked evenings for a good two

years. So we'd do the crossover and yeah, he taught me a lot about radio. He taught me, don't quit your job because one comes around every 10 years and at the edge, you know, he's, yeah. I mean, you know, what can you say about Martin? He's missed by everybody who has ever worked with him and he was, he was fantastic. everybody who has ever worked with him and he was, he was fantastic. I recently put together like, um, like a, I want to call it retrospective, but I interviewed a bunch of people who are close to Martin and put together like an episode for the 50 year anniversary of his passing, which yeah.

So oh nine and then yeah, believe it or not, it was six years ago now. And, uh, yeah, just talking to people like, like Alan Cross or like, uh, yeah, just talking to people like Alan Cross or like, well, David Marzen was on this thing. And out in Vancouver now, Brother Bill. Brother Bill. Who's not called Brother Bill anymore. No, Neil. I call them Brother Bill anyway.

And people like that. And Captain Phil Evans. Right. And Rob Johnston. Yeah. They were all the people I worked with. Rob's still there, right? Rob's still there.

Is he the only one left from those days? Well, I was there. Rob was there. No, there are a few people. Tara, who is now basically our PD right this second. Tara, who does music. She was there. And I mean, I don't even remember.

It's hard to... What's Tara's last name? Tara DiGiuseppe. Yeah. So Tara DiGiuseppe was there. Yeah. You know, Sean McDonough. I don't know how long Sean's been at the edge.

But it's Rob. So when Strombo was here, he spoke of Rob as if he epitomized the... Rob Johnson. He epitomized the spirit of radio. That probably was before my time, I think. For sure. Yeah, it was probably before my time, a little bit before 2002.

But I mean, Rob, he's been there forever at the Edge, so I'm sure. And Alan, Alan is as well. Yeah, well, he leaves and comes, he left and came. Yeah, he's back now. What exactly? So I'm confused as to what his role is right now at the edge is it tell me because i know he went off and did like the indie 88 and he was like um guidance counselor

he called himself okay that's what he's like a consult he was a consultant he came on the show too i think i actually gonna stop doing that i realize every time we name a name within here and it sounds really uh really sad and pathetic so alan cross told me that he was a consultant for 88.1, the new kids on the block. And then I haven't talked to him since, but obviously there's been announcements that he is back at Edge 102. Yeah, he's been here for a while. What does he do there?

Well, he does all the voice work. I'm sure he does a lot of consulting as well. I mean, he's a huge part of our website, huge part of Music Matters surveys, everything music related. And ongoing history. Ongoing history he still does. And he does interviews still.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on with Alan. Does he have any say in the programming? Like the actual, like what? So Dave Farrell's gone. Yes. And you're replacing Dave Farrell. Maybe. Who is?

Are you? Am I? I'm about to pop a kid. Oh yeah, because I could do that job. No, no, no, no.

Chris Isom is our general manager at Chorus. And Alan, I don't think Alan has much of a programming role. Tara, Tara, who I mentioned, Tara Giuseppe. The name I'm going to butcher if I say it.

Tara is doing a lot for the edge and she has done a lot for the edge you'll hear her voice on q107 she's also the voice of q107 and on the edge and um she is the music director but she does all the music all the program you know all the program a lot of the programming right now um Ronnie Stanton's at the at chorus who is our acting pd right now and I think we're gonna get a new one probably when I have my little baby sweet okay so you are yeah so uh I don't know the titles anymore but uh Dave Farrell was who is our acting PD right now. And I think we're going to get a new one probably when I have my little baby. Sweet. Okay. So you are,

yeah. So I don't know the titles anymore, but Dave Farrell was brand manager. Is that a title? Dave Farrell was general manager. General manager and brand manager. And they're obviously, he's no longer there.

So they're going to fill that spot. Cause I'm curious. And I know you can only say so much. Maybe you don't know anything, which might be your best player. I'm the worst person to ask about all this inside stuff. I know you like this say so much. Maybe you don't know anything, which might be your best play here. I'm the worst person to ask about all this inside stuff. I know you like this inside stuff.

I do, just a little bit. Then we can get to more fun things because I don't want you to give birth right now. I'm horrible at this stuff. But one quick question. You, I understand, I had a chat with Scott Turner

when they canceled the, they had a show on Sundays called Spirit Radio Sundays. On the Edge. On the Edge. God, there's been so much. Okay, yeah. Okay, there was a show. I'm going to, I know because I listened. So they play like, Oh yeah, they did. called spirit radio sundays on the edge on the edge god there's so much okay yeah okay there was a show i'm gonna yeah okay i know because i listened so they play like oh yeah they did

yes of course yeah yeah for sure and they played old stuff from the old spirit radio days or whatever yes like marsden would have wanted of course yes then uh that got canceled and then i asked scott turner like what gives and he, although the show did well, it was the wrong demo. It was an older crowd. Obviously guys like me are listening to the spirit of radio Sunday. Right. And then he said that the station wanted to like, you know, target that younger, much younger than me, even younger than you, that younger crowd. So they were going to basically go whole hog on the younger set. They should fire me then. Maybe I'm next. Don't say that. Come on.

I, you know what? I didn't hear that. So that's news to me. And I'm not even kidding. I didn't hear that. why are you winking at me? I didn't.

I, you know what? I think that what happened was, yeah, for some reason it just wasn't working. And I don't, I wish I knew more of this stuff. Like I'm,

I know, I know. I'm just, I'm just, but honestly, I don't know. And I guess I like i'm just but honestly i don't know and i guess i'm kind of just that person i just love radio and i'm like let's just do this i don't know what happened with that show okay this might then we'll leave the business side of

stuff uh at 102.1 except to say if you were in charge would you be targeting the youngsters or would you be blending it in with some of the older whatever we call classic alternative i guess you can call it yeah or or what if you went and said okay the young kids don't listen to radio that much let's go for the old guys like toronto mike and let's go spirit of radio like classic alternative all the time i feel like indie should have done that indie should have gone spirit because they went hybrid right because they do like indie new indie and then plus classical i think indie should have done a lot of this the older stuff and i think um i think what we're doing right now and i know this is gonna sound like such a generic answer you're gonna hate it but my mom who's 65 years old loves the music on the edge right now so if we are skewing young which we may be um i

don't think it's young or old i actually think like we say which is so cliche the modern right i think it's a lot our rock music is a lot poppier now it really is everywhere and i see that on the in the industry side you know my husband is he works in a record label he does you know he has a lexus on fire and he has these hardcore bands monine and right now you know he is targeting more of the lumineers and um that side that has a pop beat to it. And I just think that's just the wave of where we're at right now. You know, everything kind of, everything moves, everything changes, music evolves, music changes constantly. And the modern music that we're playing right now, which has more of a pop beat is what is really resonating

with our listeners. And we've noticed that even just with numbers, you know, like our station has gone up and up and up. So I think there'll be another wave of, hey, I would love to play Rage every night. You know, I would love to play some hardcore stuff on the edge that I absolutely, I, you know, I'm fascinated with, but I think it just happens in cycles. And we're in a cycle right now where, you know, the Modest Mouse, all of those different artists are like really on a high. Good answer. I don't hate that answer.

I just appreciate your honesty. But you know what? And that's the thing. I come from, I hate the business side. I got to be honest. I hate it because you can skew it any way you want, depending on what you want to hear, depending on, oh, I didn't like this

manager because he did this or this person. But the bottom line is, is that everything kind of, you know, we revolve, all this music is changing all the time and we can't stop that from happening. Right. I wouldn't even doubt in six months for us to go electric and play all these like insane electric rock beats, you know, dead mouse and all these new artists that are coming out that are fantastic, I think are amazing and could be on the edge. So everybody's, it's what you grew up with. Sure. So you grew up with the Pumpkins. You grew up with those artists.

That's what you want to hear, right? I want more Pearl Jam. Of course. Of course. But you do actually play a lot of Pearl Jam. I love Pearl Jam. But the 19-year-old who's just discovering the edge probably wants more Mumford and Sons. And my mom can't handle rage, wants more Mumford and Sons. Sure, of course.

You know, yeah. Okay, cool. Now you mentioned you hate the business side. I do. So you had a bad week on the business side, not actually at 102.1, but I guess is it down the hall? Tell me where Q107 is. Like physically. No, but you have a new headquarters at Chorus Key. Yes. By Sugar Beach there. It's beautiful there.

It is beautiful there. I sometimes bike to Chorus Key. I sometimes bike to Sugar Beach and just have lunch with my wife there because she works at One Young Street. Oh, nice. Okay. There's a lot of sightings.

Like sometimes we see naked people hanging out there crazy people that's me it's way more interesting than young and dundas you wouldn't expect it but it's pretty interesting down at sugar beach so my question is um q107 is one of the two music stations that chorus has in toronto you got you guys at 102 and you got 107 yeah is it down the hall like is it literally like down the hall is a studio that belongs to q like if you're setting it up for people who've never been there we have the first floor where we have all of our radio studios so we have the edge we have q we have 640 and then extra studios as well and then our second floor is basically all the um where all our offices are sure like the advertising yeah and administration advertising like sales us sales, us, right?

You know, so, but we're all divided, of course, still. The Edge has their own studio. Q107 has their own studio. And the second floor as well is divided. So Q made some, I guess this just affected you in the fact that there's probably people

that you enjoyed seeing in the halls that you had to say goodbye to. Totally. Because they did a bunch of people, Dominic Diamond. Yep. Yep. Bunch of others.

But I know that I just. Jeff Woods. Jeff. Yes. Who did the history of rock. What a voice that guy has. Yeah. The legends of rock.

If I sounded like that, I'd never shut up. Oh, my God. I think every woman just falls in love with him. He doesn't even have to look good. You just close your eyes and you're in love with Jeff Woods. Yeah. Lucky son of a bitch. Yeah. I know. So, yeah. even have to look good you just close your eyes and you're in love with Jeff Woods yeah the lucky son of a bitch yeah I know so yeah so I guess uh unrelated to your well you know related in that

you have the same parents if you will but uh big changes I even I actually coincidentally was seeing Kim Mitchell in concert last Saturday because he played down the street like in a free concert and Kim is the guy he I mean he worked the same shift do. And every day we're just coming and be like, Hey, Josie, you know, and like walk out with his newspaper and just such a humble guy and so incredible. The email, the last email I sent him, I was like, Oh my God, you're leaving. And he's like, I'm going to miss you. You're awesome. Yeah. He's a fantastic human being. So it's super sad. I mean, this is radio, right? It's super sad. You this is radio right it's super sad you hate this because everyone goes through it I think everybody who eventually gets to Toronto or in radio at all

has been fired but have you been fired not yet isn't that amazing well no you and Roger Ashby it's not amazing it's not amazing

because who knows what you know is going to happen you're going on mat leave now right so you can't do it I've got a bit of time is that what you're saying

I probably would have been if I wasn't on mat no no you right? So you can't do it while you're there. I've got a bit of time. Is that what you're saying? I probably would have been if I wasn't on mat. No. No. You know what? You never know. You never know. And the best of people have been let go in this industry.

And you know half of them that have been on the show, right? They only come on after they're fired, except for you. Well, I'm on mat leave. That's true. No. Even Erin Davis was fired. Of course. Look at it.

She's Erin Davis, you know? So anyone who's been let go, I mean, I think when it happens, and, you know, I hope it never does, but when it happens, I think that hopefully we're prepared. And you're never really prepared. But you know that it's not your talent. It's just circumstances. No doubt, for sure.

I hope this doesn't embarrass you, but can I play a clip of you at a toronto rock game totally but can i just take my headphones off first yeah okay good of course all right i don't know how long this is i have to play it and then we're gonna have a quick chat about this so do you have to actually play it camp you can just tell people to go to the link no because this is um all right i I knew you were going to do this. I'm not going to punch below the belt, but I am going to let this play.

Two minutes, maybe less. ...Cosmo on Cosmopolitan TV. First back there, isn't it? Rock fans, please give a warm welcome to Josie Dye. And please join Josie in singing O Canada, as tonight she crosses off another item on her bucket list here at the Air Canada Center. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. Come deep our land.

First of all, it's not so bad. First of all. Oh, it was bad. It was horrible. But you know what? It could have been the best experience I've ever gone through. Explain. Okay, so should I explain first how it happened? Of course. I want it all.

I'm fascinated by this. So I was doing TV and they asked me to go. And we were doing all these things that you've never done before, like a bucket list. And they asked me to fly a plane. And I was like, there's no way in hell I'm getting in a plane. I have a fear of flying. So then the second thing they said is do O Canada. And I was like, okay, you know what? I can do O Canada. I'm a singer. No problem. So that was the day before they asked me that. So I didn't really, I, you know, I was working, I was doing the ad, I'm crazy doing the top 20. I didn't really think, I'll forget the words. You know, one thinks they're going to forget the words. So Canada,

you've sung it since you were really little. I got there. I did the warmup. It was awesome. It was amazing. And then the idea of singing in a stadium, the acoustics, as soon as you say, oh, and it jumps back at you, you can't hear yourself. People, there are people who are professional anthem singers for a reason. They're a big reason. And my husband said, if he were home, he wasn't home. Nobody, nobody was home. He was like, I would have never let you do that because I don't let any of my artists do that. The way it comes back and jumps in your face it shocks the hell out of you and it shocked the hell out of me it didn't do that in rehearsal that's us no because it's not full right so

you're empty you're empty and once that stadium is full and it's they fill that up for rock games it was pretty full whatever however many people there whatever it is unbelievable so i choked i choked and uh but I did go through the whole thing at the end. I did get it through. I didn't should have let it play. Maybe I'll have to play the best part about it is that it wasn't televised. It wasn't anywhere, but Toronto rock first asked for an apology. And I'm like, I'm not apologizing. And then put it up online. So they wanted people to see it. Um, the good news is, you you know i got radio across canada all my friends were laughing at me and i started and then i got my top 20 national and they say you know no publicity is bad publicity uh it uh it was hard though i think

hard to deal with that's exactly right like that thing went viral it went viral if i would have put that on youtube do you know how much money i would that's right that would have been that's why rock so the Rock hosted that? Whoever put it up. The video was from the official feed of The Rock. Okay, gotcha. So whoever put that up made a ton of money. A ton of money.

I remember The Edge being like, this is, I remember Dean Blundell. He's like, Josie, you are just going to live this up. He's like, every second, just enjoy this. He's like, because you know what? It could happen to anyone. And I heard everything in the book, you know, like ditzy, dumb blonde, of course, cause I'm blonde. And, um, but you try doing that in front of that many people and have that happen to you. You try having, you know what? Like I recovered. I didn't cry.

I laughed, which a lot of people said too, oh, you're making fun of, oh God, I got everything I got. You are, you know, there are men in Afghanistan fighting and you are laughing at our national anthem. I got everything. But I got through it and it was definitely a learning experience. And hey, I'm in like the same boat as Roseanne Barr.

You know what? Somebody, ESPN bought it from me. Oh, wow. So I think you have to pay them right now. And they play it at least once every four months. And I get probably about 300 more Twitter followers every time it happens. There you go. It's one of those things where you think it's the worst thing ever

and then you kind of dissect it and realize it's actually like a blessing in disguise, if you will. I still can't listen to it. But it is a blessing in disguise. That's the thing, right? I've listened to it several times and it's all because you start off, you owe Canada, we stand on guard.

You start instead of our home and native land. So once you start in the middle of the song, you're lost. It's hard to go back. You can't kind of come back. Of course. And then you restarted and did it again. I did it again.

Third time was a charm. You should have let me play it. Third time was a charm. But you know what? If you're going to F up know what it's if you're gonna f up something yeah and it's gonna be bad like let's go out with a bang you know and now everyone knows what i did so uh merrick and i talked about this in episode 74 he loved it and he was well i'm gonna play the clip in a minute but uh before i play a clip i got a quote that you made and uh

you said that your poor memory is due to the product of inbreeding is that a real quote or is that somebody fucking around around because my dad married his sister and yeah yeah i gotta fire my crack research staff yeah i'm gonna play this i hope this comes out you can listen to this uh because it's all good but this is merrick and i in episode 74 god bless you people so josie i had no idea you dated her so uh because i get i'm i've become sort of this like guy people comes to to for toronto radio stuff okay i just somehow has evolved over the last 11 years and particularly 102.1 because that was my station for a very long time so i write a lot about it a lot i write about fearless fred i'll write about whatever dean blendell whatever uh martin streak all this stuff

people come to me right tell so josie die uh people some people just can't stand her and they can never articulate why yep and i mean i think i think it's because she's an attractive blonde and i think they've given there's some kind of and i'm gonna say it i feel's because she's an attractive blonde. And I think they've given just some kind of, and I'm going to say it, I feel like because she's an attractive blonde, they're deciding she's ditzy. Yes. Agree 100%. And you know what? Josie is a really fun-loving person who likes to, who sort of attacks every day with an authenticity and an energy about her. And she isn't shy about,

like the one thing I always say about Josie is she goes at everything without fear and she will take a lot of chances. And that's how she grows as a person. I think that's the best way to grow is go and fuck up a lot of shit, go and really, you know, really, really mess up.

And Josie, whether it's, you know, singing an anthem and messing it up. Yeah. Which I posted that one. Right. Yeah.

Like she, but she will go and do it. Like, and I remember talking to her after that, she god i'm so embarrassed and i was like i was talking to him like talking to her off the ledge i'm like josie like you went and did that like everybody who's you know slamming you for doing that how many times have you jumped out of a plane and she went back to to do it again right yeah totally like she josie is this wonderful person who puts herself like she's always been the first person. Like she's worked hard for whatever she's gotten and she sacrificed a ton and she's like put up with a lot of crap in her life in order to get where she is.

And she's fought for all of it. But the fact that she still is as optimistic a person as she is right now and can be that person not just on the air but off the air to me is remarkable. The amount of shit that she's gone through and the amount of shit that she's earned. She's been on that station a long time. For radio? That's an eternity. shit that she's gone through and the amount of shit she's been on that station a long time for radio that's an eternity she i mean not that everything is all about q scores and stuff but i mean she she like not that everything is about focus tests because please don't get me started

on the bane of radio and all the media really but um but people overwhelmingly like her but the people that don't are really vocal about it like your point is right she's a galvanizing like she's one of those people that if you know her you can't not like her because she's just that person and if you like her like hey man i like josie die i'm gonna listen to josie die but if you don't like that it's passionate oh man which is the howard streen effect it's it's it's that's good it's better than indifference it's torches of the castle gate i couldn't agree with you more yeah like the worst thing you know the word because mean, I work in sports and when people complain about me, I like it.

He's so intelligent, isn't he? He was fantastic. So great. He's so fantastic. Ditsy to me is almost as bad as slut. And I think that it is only used for females. And it's by a whole bunch of ignorant people who don't know how to characterize a female at all.

And they don't like her. They don't know why they don't like her. So they categorize her as, as ditzy and that's it. So what are they saying? Are they saying I'm an airhead? Are they saying I'm not educated? Are they, you know, there are a whole bunch of things you can say, but the bottom line is there's no merit to a whole, to everything. And yes, I screwed up O Canada. Oh my God, I screwed up O Canada. But I'm still living. I still have a job. I still have a family. You know, I had an embarrassing moment. There are a lot of embarrassing moments out there. I had no idea going into that chat with Merrick, who I've met a few times and we get along really well. And he was here for two hours. Not that you have to do that. Don't worry. But, um, Merrick was here for two hours and I had no idea. He just casually drops the fact, like when he was living with Josie,

like it was just dropped. I had no idea. Yeah. He's a great guy. We, I mean, we worked together at chorus for a long time and then started dating and owned a house together in the beach. Um, and, uh, yeah, it was fantastic. We worked together every day. We lived together. It was a lot. But unfortunately, our relationship ended, but we both moved on to marry our next people that we were with, right? So it worked out. Right, right.

So you're still good friends, it sounds like. Still fantastic friends, yeah. I saw him the other day. I was over at near Sportsnet and he came and had a coffee with me. He's coming back on the show. Oh, good. Maybe we'll discuss this interview.

Okay, that's awesome. All right, and you mentioned, so, uh, oh yeah, so I haven't, yeah. Okay. So you're, I have already mentioned this. You've mentioned this, that you're, it's Dallas Green who your husband represents. That's the name he didn't want to drop. It wasn't that he doesn't, he represents a few artists, not just Dallas, but definitely. I know you mentioned Alexis on fire, but he also dials green. Sitting in Color. Joel has Sheepdogs and Monster Truck.

He has on the label Lumineers. For America, Arkells. A whole bunch of fantastic... Arkells are great. He used to manage Arkells in the beginning. He started with them. He started them.

My ringtone when my boss used to call me was the, oh, your boss is. That's one of his, that's the song that he managed and was on.

Love that track. That's a great track. Max is awesome. The guys are awesome. So yeah, so we're a very musical family. My sister is a music teacher and her husband is in

the Toronto Symphony. So we're all like very, very into music. Very cool. And you have your Josie's top 20 that actually is syndicated right yeah it was syndicated it's not syndicated anymore uh we we do have you know we stopped because I well I'm pregnant first of all I was pregnant I am pregnant I can verify that yeah so it was just a lot of work um but we are still gonna we're doing it right now still in Toronto.

And I think we're going to continue it for a little bit. And we'll see how it goes when the baby comes. And then after the baby comes, we're going to readdress the syndication and maybe have it in London again. And who knows? My question is, depending on the number of markets, do you get compensated? No. So you're just an employee,

right? Like you're a full-time permanent employee. I mean, they gave me a better salary because of the markets. So I guess so. Yeah. Oh, I do believe it's playing in Saskatchewan still.

I do believe that. So I should, I should look into that. But yeah, I married a girl from Saskatchewan once. What? Is that the first marriage? Yeah.

Okay. Saskatoon. Yeah. Yeah. That's where I think we're at. It's playing still. So yeah. Wow. Cool. Yeah. And you mentioned some TV. So that's the Oso? Saskatoon. Yeah. That's where I think we're at. It's playing still. So yeah. Wow.

Cool. And you mentioned some TV. So that's the Oso Cosmo, which actually... Cosmo isn't on anymore. No, that's right. But I heard it introed in that Toronto Rock intro. They mentioned Cosmo TV. Of course.

That's my ditzy side. There's sarcasm. Remember, I defend you. I'm the guy who defends you. Right. There's sarcasm there. You know, I started with Cosmo, which was such a fantastic experience and it's, um, Hearst and Hearst had a bit of it. Chorus had a bit of it. So we were able to go to

New York a lot and see the Cosmo magazine. Um, and it was a great little show for me to get started in TV because you did everything, you know, you weren't just, you interviewed you, you produced, you, um, hosted. I did every aspect of television on that show. And it was a weekly show when there were a lot of hours that were put in. And I felt like that was the best thing to start me off. And now I'm doing W Network. I'm taking a small mat leave from that. So I'll be back at the end of September for that actually. But it's not as intense as Cosmo, but it's fantastic where we just, you know, we just a lot of teleprompter and we intro movies

and it shows my personality and stuff like that. Are men allowed to watch the W Network? Men do watch the W Network because you're all going to sit down on a Saturday night and watch a romantic comedy because what else do you do with your life? That's true. Yeah.

Yeah. Of course you're going to watch it. Except during hockey season. No, not this last one. No. Actually, it's true.

It's my son. I have a 13 year old and he made me watch and I couldn't handle it anymore and he still made me watch the Leafs. He doesn't seem, he seems to enjoy, we won't go too deep in here,

don't worry, but he seems to enjoy, like the season was like we wanted to be as terrible as possible to get a better draft pick and i have difficulty watching my team when i want them to lose right like it doesn't come well as an athlete how do you try to lose well they don't they can't right it's just uh luckily the caliber is such that they're gonna lose anyway but i have difficulty like being disappointed when

they take a two nothing lead like i have this instinct to celebrate the leafs goals but then i remember i actually don't want them to score. And it's a terrible, it's not entertaining. We really do eat our own here in Toronto, don't we? Sometimes when you think of what happened with the Leafs, we really do eat our own. We, but sometimes you have to bounce off the bottom. Like I was, I was tired of the Brian Burke quick fixes and stuff. Like we really did need to bounce off the bottom to have some hope in the future. got uh almost two young children almost almost and like if they want to be like you know enjoying a competitive Leafs team and you know several years I'm thinking of my three kids um hello why aren't we talking about the Blue Jays right now that's all I want

to know I was gonna say what huh uh and I will I have to admit um I was going to say, what? Huh? And I will, I have to admit, um, I love the Blue Jays. Always have loved the Blue Jays and I will watch them, but usually in August when they're like, there are 500 or so team and there's not very little hope. I stopped watching one and a half games, one and a half, but I'm, I'm clinging on every pitch.

Like I am. So I'm going to be there Friday night in the luxury suite with Roberto Alomar. I will be there Friday night too because Monster Truck is opening up. And maybe I'll wave to you if I see you there. There you go. There you go. Luxury suite. That's pretty special. I come from a very baseball family where my mom will not talk to me if the Blue Jay game is on. It doesn't matter if I am giving birth. She will not talk to me when the Blue Jay game is on. She puts her seat up an inch away from the television and watches. She took me to Dunedin for spring training when I was 15.

Beautiful. That's our thing. So I'm not going to ask your age, but I'm trying to remember. Do you remember the 92, 93 back to back? I was in Dunedin. The spring training between them. I know I was a teenager, so you must be very young.

I'm in my mid-30s. Okay, because I'm 41. Okay. I'm doing the math right now in my head. I'm doing the math in my head. I was early teens. Okay. Yeah.

You remember that? Yeah. Awesome. Because this is the first time since 93 that I feel we actually have a chance. I know. Don't say it, though. Just don't say it. Do you believe in jinxes?

Do you believe I have that power to manipulate the universe with my words? I think you do. Thank you. Toronto Mike, I think you do. Do you believe in jinxes? Do you believe I have that power to manipulate the universe with my words? I think you do. Thank you. Toronto Mike, I think you do. Thank you. I got to ask you about the 102.1 morning show that you were a part of. So, well, that's okay.

So forever, well, this is before your time, there was Humble and Fred. Yes. And then about, I don't think, I think it was 2001, maybe 2000, Dean Blundell comes in from like Windsor and he gets the morning show. Yeah. And for a long time, it was Dean, maybe 2000. Dean Blundell comes in from like Windsor and he gets the morning show. Yeah.

And for a long time, it was Dean, Todd and Jason. Todd and Jason, by the way, have each been on the show. Dean gave me a very nice. Love your name dropping. Love your name dropping. I should stop that, right? And then that was for a long time, like a long time. Oh, yeah.

And then they canceled the Dean Blundell show. Yeah. And I think they said it was temporary, but they had a long time. Oh, yeah. And then they canceled the Dean Blundell show. Yeah. And I think they said it was temporary, but they had a fearless Fred. Then they said, okay, we have a new morning show now. Josie Dye and Dominic Diamond. Yeah. The aforementioned Scottish.

And Greg, you forgot about Greg. I wasn't, I was about to say it, but they branded it Diamond and Dye. Yes, they did, yes. And then with Greg Beharal. Yeah. Greg, who is now in San Fran doing radio. That's unbelievable. Yeah, that is cool. So tell me what happened. Like, why did it fail?

Why didn't it work? I don't know. I mean, I don't think it I just don't think it hit the demo. That's I think our issue. What's the demo? 18 to 34. It's our demo. 18 to34 um dominic's fantastic on q107 he was fantastic in q107 and um he has a ton of listeners and i think that he fitted that station better and um greg and i were a lot younger than him so i just think the dynamic wasn't there because we were a lot younger than him um but who knows what they are thinking and what they wanted the good news is I got to do afternoons and as a female in rock you never get your own afternoon show so to go from that to my own afternoon show um was to me was pretty amazing that isn't in fact they it was so successful they're gonna have a woman uh afternoon show on q107 now yes Maureen the mo show oh my god i'm so i'm so upset about

going back and having to go against maureen holloway maureen holloway is women are taking over the airwaves you know and it doesn't i remember there was a pd which i will not name who said to me um before was it before was after bookie i don't know if it was before or after bookie who said to me i said you know i'm really interested in afternoons and they said a female will never do afternoons in rock. Wow. And I was like, oh, I hate you. And you know what?

And you won't name them. I won't. No, I won't. But soon later, I am, you know, I'm doing my own afternoon show, which is awesome. So Diamond and Die didn't work out. And then they brought back Fearless Fred. But they gave him a compadre or whatever. We have Mel.

Mel. Mel and Fred. Mel and Fred. Yeah. Who, you know, Mel and Fred. So, and they, but they gave him a compadre or whatever. We have Mel. Mel and Fred. Yeah. Who, you know, Mel and Fred. Um, so what happened was that when we did the morning show, Mel and Fred were doing afternoons and they have a fantastic chemistry and, um, the two of them together, people love, they just, they get along really well. They're hilarious and they were working. So why not just throw me in the afternoons, throw them up in the mornings. Greg was leaving.

So that was Greg left in his own will before that. He could smell what was cooking. Well, he got an offer in San Fran, right? Which is pretty awesome. I mean, when you get an offer in San Fran, which is going to do afternoon drive in America, you go. So he got that opportunity. And then Dominic went over to Q,

which I think was a better fit for him. And it all worked out. Until last week when they can i know i actually i like him we will pat he i actually saw a tweet from him where he's on the air for a few days in calgary this week oh nice you know i just i don't try out maybe i don't i hate when people get let go and you know you just never know who it's gonna be he was in a wave of a lot of talented people. A lot of talented people got let go. A lot of talented people. And it wasn't just Q, actually, because I just remembered my friend Kelly Kachura. Kelly Kachura, who I took over for Midday.

Yes. Who, yeah. Who's coming in next, I believe. Oh, good. Because Kelly is fantastic, too. She was on, I used to, I still am, but I used to help with the Humble Infant podcast. And Kelly was there between gigs. I think between like CBC Radio 2 and this Fresh.

Is that what they call it? Yeah, she was at Fresh doing afternoons, I think. Anyway, she's... Afternoon, another female doing afternoons. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, they fired her. So we won't use her as an example. No, no.

Okay. You mentioned earlier that you had that conversation with Dean Blundell. Yeah. How was your relationship with Mr. Blundell? Great. You know why I'm asking? I'm laughing because everybody asks that question.

Everyone wants to know about Dean, you know? Do you know why? Do you know? Okay, so I got a, this is real talk time. Okay, okay. So if you need Kleenex, let me know. Okay. I feel like this whole thing has been real talk time.

Is it too intense? Because you're very pregnant. I mean, you have Play-Doh Canada, but go on, go on. Remember iWeekly? Of course you do. An alternative weekly. Yes,

of course, the magazine. Yes, yes. Then it became The Grid and then it died. He used to write,

Dean Blundell used to write a column for iWeekly. I remember that. I remember that. Okay, so he wrote one that was interesting

for radio observers in that he named a bunch of... He never named the names. He described a bunch of people he knows in radio. Oh, I think I remember, but it's so vague. Okay. It's so vague. Well, he's got...

Okay, so he calls out... Obviously, he's talking about Bill Carroll, for example, in one. And there's another one. It's obvious it's Mad Dog and Billy. Okay. And I talked to Billy about this. It's clear. So there was one line.

I've been told by numerous people it's about you. Can I just read the line and ask you if you think it's about you. Like, it's just, it's clear. So there was one line. I've been told by numerous people it's about you. Can I just read the line and ask you if you think it's about you? Yeah, yeah. There's the girl who can't put an intelligent sentence together. Oh, so wait, are you going on

ditzy again here? No, he's doing that. I'm just, I'm just, I should start again. So this is what Dean Blundell wrote in iWeekly. Quote, it's not me talking. There's the girl who can't put an intelligent sentence together

to save her life and bitches when faced with her own stupidity, end quote. So that was Dean talking about a radio person he's encountered. Is that you? No. Who is it? I'm not telling. It's not you.

I'm not telling, but it's not. Why do people think it's you? Because of the ditzy thing? Maybe because maybe it's just you. Because you're blonde? Maybe, maybe. I don't know. Dean and I had,

you know, he, first of all, he's had a lot of confrontations with a lot of people. He's a fantastic guy. And when you really get to know him, him and I are great friends. I mean, I wouldn't say great, but we're friends. We were great friends when he worked there, especially at the

end. We went through a few fights here and there. But, I mean, there's a lot of people that have issues with Dean Blundell, you know, a lot of people. Um, but you had no issues with Dean Blundell. No, I didn't say I had no, we, we had a couple of issues. We had one issue on the radio station, one once, and we both went through it. I remember he invited me to his 35th birthday or his 40th birthday party. And in front of everybody talked about that issue, but it was awesome. It was, there were like 12 of us there.

He's like, I had to go to counseling because I said something bad about you on the radio. We, he is one of the only people that I've been able to fight with. And then we've been able to resolve and then been able to be really good friends with after. He came to my husband's birthday party. I invited him to my wedding. Yeah. You know what? I don't know. During the whole, when he was let go, during the whole morning show thing, he talked to me a lot and we talked on the phone here and there and uh he told me about his possible new job and uh i think that people who really get to know him um see a different side of him than the radio side so is he misunderstood i don't know if it misunderstood i'm sure he said his sheriff

first of all even in your story which is probably the most positive story ever told about dean blendel i worked with dean and Todd and Jason every single day. Don't forget every single day. And it was the point where for an hour every day at the beginning, I would be on the radio with them. So we do a crossover for almost an hour. Then there was about a year in there where we didn't get along. And then after that,

there was a good five years where we were friends again. So it's like a family. You got your fights and you make up and. Yeah. Yeah was pretty i don't know you know i'm trying to think of i don't know the fight was a very on-air fight too so it's not like it was like but you can tell me if it was on air yeah it was on air there was something that was said oh it was a political thing i think he was conservative i was liberal something happened and i was taking the liberal side and he was taking the liberal side and he was taking the conservative side.

And he said he didn't like what I was saying. So we got in a little bit of a feud about that. Okay. So that I Weekly quote was not about Josie Dye. That I Weekly quote. I should play the breaking news again. I think that was almost before my time too. When did that come out?

After your time. Because I can't tell you for sure, but maybe 2006. Oh, okay. Maybe. I'm glad to hear it's not about you. I mean, I don't think it is. I remember going through that article

because all of us were like, oh my God. Billy got a bat. It was something about her face being hit with a spade. And I can't remember. Like, anyway, Billy got a bat and then the Bill carroll and there's a whole anyways a bunch of people were called out yeah and a lot of it was i thought it was pretty clear who we were talking about but

that one i okay i like to be wrong about this maybe i'm wrong i don't know i should call him it doesn't matter you can't uninvite him to the wedding i'll text him right now text him right i would have him on this show. And, but I think he's, um, painted me with the, I hate humble and Fred brush. Well, you've said a lot of stuff, but what have I said? That's below the belt. Well, I think that just in general, I think that you have a thing for the edge. I don't know what it is for CFM. Why? And all of us know that. But pro or con? Con. You think so? Oh my God, yeah. Do you really think so?

Because I think it might be the opposite. But I think the thing is you love the edge so much. I care. But you care like our P1s care. You know, we have P1s and P2s, right? Like that whole, but you care like, you just, you want to run that station. It's been a long time since,

because I admit for a while when I had trouble with the transition from station I like to station I don't like. There was a transition. And it might have been me getting old and gray. We all are. And that's the thing. And then a few things came at me. I didn't think, for example, Fearless Fred went at me for comments on my blog.

Nothing I wrote. All I wrote was that I actually think the line I wrote, the only negative line I wrote about the guy was, why are they bringing in fearless Fred from Edmonton when Barry Taylor has similar shtick and is already here. Like I think something like that, which was just a fan observer thing. You have to understand as personalities,

we are super sensitive. It's fearless Fred sensitive. Our job. Well, I think all of us are. I think our job is our personality. So of course, if you throw around like ditzy twice here on this interview, that is our job, right? That is our job is to go out on the radio and please people. It's our personality compared to someone who works, you know, let's just say like my mom is a physiotherapist. So someone who, you know, you don't put your personality on the line every single day and i think for a lot of broadcasters you like you are really stuck on everything that happens at the edge i also

on that note i think uh stafford told me about this okay which is when the martin streak suicide happened okay yeah i um a few things fell out of that where I wasn't feeling warm and fuzzy towards Chorus. But you have to understand that point too for us. Maybe I knew too much though because I knew people who were on the inside or knew people on the inside who were telling me things about that situation that you wouldn't read in the Toronto Star, for example. Okay. So Martin, you know, commits suicide. And all we hear as announcers who are at the edge is that you killed Martin Streak. Horace killed Martin Streak. That's what we hear. You know, it's a very tough time for all of us. We worked with him every single day.

You know, I have a best friend at my station who was dating him. And, you know, for Fred to come into that situation, Fred had it the worst. How many listeners would email him. And, you know, for Fred to come into that situation, Fred had it the worst. How many listeners would email him and say, personally, you killed Martin Streep? Well, those people are stupid. Well, they're stupid. But I wouldn't, see, I admit,

I have written a lot about your station, probably more than any other station. I would argue that it's not all negative. In fact, a lot of it is fairly positive. I think, uh, I've toned it down a lot lately, a lot lately since the Martin suicide,

because no, since Oh nine, when I probably, there was an apex there at some point, I think I wrote something about like moving on and like not that you can't cast blame on this and all this stuff. Cause you had your, um,

you, you aired your tribute to Martin streak, which was very good. Very good. Yeah. and when i heard it it was great in fact i believe i'm illegally hosting this somewhere i don't tell your bosses but i mean it's that good and marsden did something similar for five hours and that was great too but yours in the way people talked it was clear it was it was presented as if he had worked a shift the week below before like it was almost like rewriting the history that if he had worked a shift the week below before like it was almost like rewriting the history that martin streak worked at the edge and then he killed

himself when the real history was martin streak uh worked at the edge was fired after 20 something years and and two months later killed himself so rewrite glossing over that little gap there changes some context and some things. For sure. And I'm not saying Chorus killed Martin Streak. Chorus did not kill Martin Streak. I don't think it makes the difference. I think it's, you know, it's whether you're let go the day before, let go six months before or whatever. I mean, it's your own, everyone suffers from their own demons. But guys like Freddie P will tell you about how Martin Streak was complaining about

problems with severance with Chorus course like in all this kind of detail yeah so all and no way is chorus in my opinion of course is not accountable for the death of martin streak he killed himself of you know uh of course but he was and i don't know why he killed himself i'll never know but it fell out of a he had the tattoo of the station on his ass and he was there 25 years i think 25 years and then he was fired suddenly and then he had a tattoo of the station on his ass and he was there 25 years i think 25 years and then he was fired suddenly and then he had issues with the separation and the next thing you know what he's killing himself so what are you saying i'm saying i'm saying you're not responsible for the death of martin streak but having conversations about this while we fans deal with at the same

time uh can be understood and expected So this fallout in 2009, I admit there's a period there where I'm sure people at course thought I was an asshole. Stafford told me as much. But since then, I've definitely tried to stop being that way. When I write about CFNY,

it's mainly to say, you know, Dean Blundell's been cancelled or this is the new morning show. It's more factual. It's mainly to say, you know, Dean Blundell has been canceled or this is the new morning show of diamond. It's more factual. It's more factual. I think, yeah, that was a very hard time for all of us, you know, as a station. And not only did we have to deal with it ourselves, but, you know, we had family of his. They were there.

I mean, people who worked with him for 20 years, like, you know, Brother Bill. And then you're right. We had the listener side too. And I think that put our backs up a lot. All of us, we got very angry, very angry. Um, and you know, a lot of us who know a lot of the story and who were with him, you know, days before it's, yeah, it's, uh, it was a horrible time. And then the fact that I had to go on the radio and I felt so bad for the Dean Blundell show because they weren't allowed to say anything. And then they got criticized because they went on the radio and did their show and they joked and they had fun and they did their show because they weren't allowed to say anything. Who makes that call though?

Well, because it hadn't been confirmed by the family. Okay. So there were some people out like, you know, like CP24 had announced it, but we had not got any confirmation. So because of that, they weren't saying, so how do you, as an announcer, who your friend is this person go on the radio and do that. And then, you know, unfortunately, I say, unfortunately, I was the first person on the air after that, because that's a big burden. You know, I didn't, but that was that. And yeah, it was just a horrible time for everybody. And it's still a horrible time for the station. When you even mentioned his name, it's still

like, I'm choking up. It's still really sad. I deal with people every day who are, you know, who were very close to him. I can't imagine what it's like for you who, you know, saw him every day and worked with him because all I did was I hear his voice on the radio. Yeah. And he's a legend. He's legendary. He's got the fantastic voice. It really hit me partly because before CP24 is reporting this thing, I'm writing about it. So it's really like, I felt drawn into it from the get go. I was a huge fan. It, to me, it was so sudden because no one seemed to be more full of life than this guy like and for him to just decide to exit right stage right it really for months it was it stuck with me for a long time and it made me think about everything

and so firstly I'll take this opportunity since I'm sure a lot of 102 people are listening that I am sorry if in that period I was harsh and wrote things because I actually have no ill will towards the station. It was my station like throughout the 90s. And I still, it's still one of my presets when I need to hear a good rock song or whatever. And I know a lot of good people there like yourself. And there's, you know, even though Bookie's not there anymore, I'll excuse that one. I love Bookie, but still Bookie's still a part of the Edge, right?

You know, like Bookie still had his history with the Edge. And yeah, he's, yeah, for sure. Look at how emotional. Did you expect this to be so emotional? No, I knew you would bring him up because I think that everyone does, you know? And it's because he's been such a huge part of our station. So of course everyone does. And I'm so blessed that I was around during that time.

But I was also a lot younger than him and, you know, I, I was just starting out. I wasn't like, I was, I was doing overnights for a lot, most of it. So yeah, but, uh, for sure we all, there's all still, there's a wound there with the edge still. Yeah, no doubt. And, uh, it's well said, well said. And I, oh, that took longer than I expected. No, not your fault at all. Except some lighter things. I just wanted to know about like running. Okay. So you're a big runner.

Oh yeah. I'm like huge at running right now. I'm doing marathons. So how far into a pregnancy do you run? This time I wasn't allowed to do anything. The first pregnancy I was running up until I'd say four months. Okay. And then I stopped.

Yeah. This time was a very different pregnancy. I was like, you're eating donuts. Is this a doctor's orders stopped. Yeah. This time was a very different pregnancy. I was like, you're eating donuts. Is this a doctor's orders thing? Yes. Or is this a Josie orders? No, this was a doctor's.

I had to eat donuts and eat more calories. I don't know what happened last time. I didn't gain enough weight. This time I gained enough weight. Yeah. You know, because I think baby number four

is coming now. Like Monica. Oh, no way. Unannounced, actually. Maybe I edit this out, actually. I can't decide if I'm allowed to say it yet because it's pretty early. Baby four. Yeah.

Well, my baby four, her baby two. Wow. That's how that works. Wow. But yeah, so baby's been on the brain a lot lately. Oh, good. You're at different ends of the spectrum. Yeah, and I'm glad to be done.

I don't want to do the whole pregnancy thing ever again. Would you? Yeah. Is that true? Would you wrap it up? I'm wrapping it up. I think I would have wrapped it up at two. Two is good. Yeah, this is it for sure. That's crazy. For sure. And you do motivational speaking. Where did you get that one from? Is this another? No. Seriously, is there no truth to that? No truth to that. I mean, a long time ago, I guess I did. Is that right? A long time ago, I did a lot of stuff. Where did I get that from? I did Easterseals stuff. Oh, somebody told me

you did some motivational speaking. Look, they're wrong. Maybe these people are feeding me nonsense just to make these silly moments like this. Probably. That's two I got wrong now. You never worked in Coburg and you never did motivational speaking. No. Maybe a long time ago i did some things but not motivational like motivate me

okay maybe you should do some motivational speaking i think i should i think i should congratulations on the baby that is could be uh arriving later today for all we know let's hope not it's like I need a week. Do you know the gender? It's a boy. And the first was a boy? First was a boy. And do you have a name?

Not yet. Is that true, or you just don't want to announce it? No, we don't have a name. We're stuck. I always had a name. Always. Oh, we're not there yet.

We gotta figure that one out. Mike is a good name. Oh, yeah. Maybe I'll do Toronto Mike. Or Fred is a good name, too. I like Freddy. By the way, because now that we've all made amends, Fearless Fred should come on so we can bury this hatchet

because he's mad at the wrong guy, and I would love to chat with him. Oh, I'll tell him that I did this. Just tell him that I'm not a bad guy, and we'll clear up this nonsense. Okay. Enough is enough. For sure.

Thank you very much for dropping by. I'll take you to the hospital now. All right. And that brings us to the end of our 130-second show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Josie at Josie Dye. See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around

And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green