Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kayla-Marie Williams: Toronto Mike'd #429

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

Mike chats with CP24 reporter and host Kayla-Marie Williams about playing professional volleyball in the Philippines, hosting CP24 Breakfast on weekends and working as a reporter at 299 Queen Street.

Welcome to episode 429 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, ATM Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. And our newest sponsor, Buckle. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com. And joining me is CP24 Broadcaster. Well, actually, she does everything, I think. We're going to find out. Kayla Williams.

Good morning. Welcome, Kayla. Morning? Yeah, it's still morning. Yeah, you can say morning. And then at some point during this episode, we'll switch it over, and you can say good afternoon. There you go.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too, Mike. I know we mentioned that we already chatted too much than what you typically do before we get things going, but nice to meet you. I feel I know too much. My move is this, and it's kind of, I think at first it might be a little, I don't know if it comes across rude, but i'll at the course i'm happy to see the guest at the door and there's like a handshake or whatever and then i give the

whole like don't hit your head on the ceiling please right and then thank you because i definitely would have taken my oh yeah yeah yeah for sure uh there's people who are like five foot seven they could hit their head on the ceiling i think yeah and i'm a bit taller than five seven so five, seven. So that one would have definitely... How tall are you? This is the first big question. About five, nine and a half. Yeah. Just under five, ten. I guess with good posture, I'm five, ten. Well, you need to be tall if you're going to play volleyball, but we'll talk about that later. But yeah, then, you know, I'm like, you got to stay on this mic. Let's go. But with you, we had a few... I got a few questions in there. Yeah. And now you've ruined everything, Kayla. You know, I'm going to shut this down right now.

What's the point? But no, seriously, I'm really happy to meet you because you're in my living room all the time. Am I? Like, I think you're on seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You know, depending on who you ask, a lot of people feel that way. They're like, I go to bed, you're on the air. I wake up and you're on the air. Do you ever sleep get that question a lot do you ever sleep the question is yes of course i sleep but i'm kind of i'm really also i listeners of this podcast know that i'm like a big uh ann

rober fan and she used to be like in my living room all the time and she was on the tv oh just kidding but here we are like you're and so we're gonna talk about all this but my first i mean my first question uh is about your name so like your build is kayla williams right but you've stuck a marie in there like can you just please for the record right so for the record my name my first name is kayla marie that's not my middle name. It is my name. Yeah. Kayla dash Marie, Kayla Marie. However, um, really my principal in high school and maybe two friends of mine, one being my colleague, Christina Tenaglia are the only ones that call me Kayla Marie. Everyone else calls me Kayla Williams. And I know that if anyone is like meeting me for the first time and they're like, and no Kayla Marie Williams, I'm like, okay, they clearly, they don't, they don't really know.

I rarely use it. But I see it on your social. It is. It's on my social only because, uh, at the time Kayla Williams T.O. was too long. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go with Kayla Marie T.O. And people used to think that it was like, my last name was Marietto. Like, oh, I see.

Yeah. It's like a, that's kind of an Italian flavor, I think. You know? And I was like my last name was Marietto like oh I see yes like a that's kind of an Italian flavor I think you know and I was like no no no you know hey I'm from Toronto at the time I was I was living in the U.S. and then I was in the Philippines and so I was like you know I'm gonna represent for home so it was Kayla Marie Teo and I guess when I stuck with um well when I got back into broadcasting I was just like well I'm I'm working in Toronto so it still works so I just decided to keep it. I have more name questions. It's going to be about, if you're okay, 45 minutes on your name.

And then I have a few more things. Go for it. All right. You're not my first Kayla. So you're not the first. And you're a Kayla Marie, which I just learned, which kind of changes things. Right. Because you're not really a Kayla.

But I thought you were a Kayla until like five minutes ago. But I am. I am a Kayla. But you're a Kayla Marie. Like, this is like were a Kayla until like five minutes ago. But I am. I am a Kayla. But you're a Kayla Marie. Like this is like when you have a, oh, my name's Mary Jo. You're not Mary. You're Mary Jo.

Right. But I guess, like I said, only what, two, three people call me Kayla Marie. But you know what? If we're being technical, you're right. I am Kayla Marie. But I heard, yes, I'm not the first Kayla on this podcast.

No, you're not. And we opened that episode with the other Kayla. We opened it talking about you, believe it or not. So I'm going to play it. And we opened that episode with the other Kayla. We opened it talking about you, believe it or not. So I'm going to play it. I actually, I got an excerpt here. You have it? Let's hear it. Let's hear Kayla on Kayla. Welcome Kayla. Thanks for having me. Kayla is a very pretty name and I don't know a lot of Kalas. Me neither. Actually in my lifetime, I've met quite a few, but my mom actually named me after a missing person.

Well, missing and murdered person. That's, Kayla, so is this in Toronto? Yes. Kayla Leduce, I believe her last name was.

Kayla, Kayla. This is, yes, this was a big deal. Yeah. She was like around three, I believe.

Big deal. Yeah. Huge Toronto story. And I remember I was like, maybe I was already a teenager or something, but this is like King and Dufferin or something. Yeah. On King Street. Yeah.

Kayla. That's right. You know, there's another Kayla on CP24. Yeah. Kayla Williams. My good friend, Kayla Williams. You're friends of Kayla Williams? Yeah.

I understand she was a professional volleyball player. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the Philippines. Philippines. And she actually just came back from representing Jamaica in Dominican Republic. Because she can represent three countries. She can represent Canada. She can represent the Philippines.

And she can represent Jamaica. Yeah. Cool. Nice little melting pot. So that's how we opened our episode look at that and you know what that is that's my girl i love kayla the kaylas stick together that is um that's that is so funny although i fun fact i didn't know about the meaning behind her name i can't verify for sure if my parents also went the kayla route because of that situation were your parents

were your parents were your parents were your parents see obviously i'm not on cp24 i can't even say parents uh were your parents uh in toronto like in the like i want to say very early 90s like around 1990 yes they were at that time my mother immigrated from the philippines in the i want to say it was the late 70s or early 80s. So yes, they both were in Toronto in the 90s. It's possible. It is possible. You know, I guess I should verify with my dad.

But they did add the Marie part. Maybe that was to make it I don't want to use the word creepy. It was very tragic. I remember this was a big deal because I remember the Kayla disappearance and they found her body. It was very tragic i remember this is a big deal because uh it was i remembered the kayla disappearance and they found her body it was very tragic but maybe adding the marie was a bit like to give it a little positive spin perhaps but you know i'm like the i'm one of three possibly four no three three marie's in my family oh yeah yeah so i didn't really feel too unique growing up with

having marie in there too so i don't know i think it was a family thing maybe um but i don't know i don't kayla doesn't have the marie in there no no she's just kayla yeah i need to know we're the kayla's we're the kayla i know and i meant what i said like it's a very pretty name kayla uh i do like the name so but i don't you're the only two kaylas i know of on this planet i know some on other other planets, but no, just the two on earth. But did you, why is it like other, I mean,

other Kayla's I should know. Is there a famous Kayla you can point me to? No. Kayla, Kayla, Greg, Kayla and myself were right. Yeah.

So what came first, the friendship or the names? Like, was it that she found out there was another Kayla in town or like, how did that friendship? I can't recall how we exactly met um but it was definitely thanks to the power of social media that is for sure and when we met we we met for coffee and for food we instantly connected it was it was as if like it was just it was meant to be i mean she was already fantastic like i knew she already had great social media vibes does that make sense like you know when you just follow

someone and presence you mean there's yeah there's that strong she had that beautiful presence about her and so i knew when we when we met it just it just carried over into real life and we have been friends ever since and so she's great i'm always really happy when I tune in to watch my Raptors. And Kayla's got the game. I think she's very good at it. I think TSN should use her more often. More. I agree with that 100%.

She does a great job at what she does, whether she's sideline or even for 1050 as well. Oh, right. Of course. Absolutely. And you both work for Bell Media. We do. What a coincidence. We're under the same umbrella.

I got to save the hard-hitting questions. I got questions about the Bell Media empire and where else we could see you, but we'll save those. Now, I want to just give some love or some thoughts with Bob Elliott. So, Bob Elliott was on this show.

He was a fantastic guest. And he actually, we had chatted recently about him coming back and kicking out the jams. And he actually, although he's okay, I got to say he's like,

he's responding well in hospital, I've been told. But he had a heart attack a couple of days ago. So Bob Elliott, he wrote for the Toronto Sun forever, like covering baseball. He's a big baseball writer.

So just wanted to say our thoughts are with Bob Elliott, he wrote for the Toronto Sun forever, like covering baseball. He's a big baseball writer. So just wanted to say our thoughts are with Bob Elliott. Definitely. We need him back to kick out the jams. I want to say a shout out to Paytm Canada because I forgot to tell everybody about the $10 you get from Paytm on yesterday's episode, and I think I slipped it into the extra. But let me just do that right off the top so I don't forget this time.

Is that there's $10 you could have right now when you download Paytm. This is an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. So go to paytm.ca to download the app Paytm. I use it to pay all my bills. When you make your first bill payment, use the promo code Toronto Mike and you get $10 in Paytm cash. You can use it to pay all my bills. When you make your first bill payment, use the promo code Toronto Mike

and you get $10 in Paytm cash. You can use it towards rewards or you can actually use it towards another bill. So do that. Like we can't say no to 10 bucks. Seriously, I don't think. Yes, they're sponsored, right? Because we've already established that.

But I've been using their app for approximately 18 months now. And every single bill I pay, every single bill, I do it through the app because you get rewarded and you can use your credit card to pay things you can't use your credit card to pay normally. Yeah.

It's like a way to like get around that. So my property taxes, they don't want me to use my MasterCard. Through Paytm, I slap it on my MasterCard. I get points on the MasterCard. I get points from Paytm. It costs, you know, there's no surcharge or fee. So it's a win-win.

You're getting all kinds of points. And I got 10 bucks for using my own promo code. Well, look at that. Look, it's all coming up. It's all coming up, Kayla. And this is all good. What part of the city do you live in, Kayla? Currently in the east.

I am in Scarborough. I'm a Scarborough girl, born and raised. I hear good things about Scarborough. Do you? Yes. Good. As you should. I'm very lost when I go to Scarborough girl, born and raised? I hear good things about Scarborough. Do you? Yes. Good. As you should. But I'm very lost when I go to Scarborough. I don't know this. It's unknown territory to a West Ender like yourself. But I'm good at

the southern part of the East End. I'm good at beaches or East York, I guess that's called. But then Scarborough, I feel like I'm in a like a different city you know i i can't knock you for that mike because when i go out to the west it's literally it might as well be a whole new country because that is exactly how i feel too so you know

understandable but uh i grew up not too far from scarborough town Centre. That was my neck of the woods growing up with my grandparents back in the day. And yeah, I lived there until I left. Well, I left Scarborough, left Toronto, left Canada period at 17. And then I was kind of gone for a while until I came back. Is that because you went to school? Yes. And where did you go to school? I went to school at Grambling State University,

Yes. And where did you go to school? I went to school at Grambling State University, a small, tiny Division One university in good old Grambling, Louisiana, which is in northeast Louisiana at the top of the boot. And the exciting thing is the reason you went there. So like, why did you go to Grambling? There is something there's something exciting there, right? Yeah. They offered me a full volleyball scholarship. And at the time, like I mentioned, I was raised by my mother's parents, my grandparents, since I was three years old. My mother passed when I was very young. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. And growing up with them, I mean, it was one of those things where I knew that this could provide an opportunity to get my education paid for. And not to mention the fact that I absolutely loved, I'd fallen in love with volleyball. I definitely played all kinds of sports growing up in high school,

but it was around grade 10 that I really figured out like, hey, you're pretty good at this. And this could possibly even provide you a means of getting an education. And that was kind of the seed that my coach, my high school coach planted into me by around the end of grade 11 that's amazing like i know so my my wife who never got a scholarship to play volleyball never played pro but she went to university of alberta and like she was it was a big deal like volleyball was her sport and she loved it and uh like and i mean i played in some rec teams with

her and she's pretty good although she doesn't have your height, she's not as tall as you. Maybe that's why there were no scholarships. See, I'm starting to clue in. Well, not necessarily because, you know, well, I just mentioned at the top of the show, I'm just under 5'10". With good posture, I'm right at 5'10". Now, in the volleyball world, that is small. I am short.

I'm definitely, I had to play up and find ways to kind of compete against girls who are solid 6'1", 6'2". So in the real world, I'm tall, but in the volleyball world, I am quite short. Now that you know this, I suppose you're right there, but you were successful, right? Like, tell me what this means. I have no idea, but I took a note during my research that you're a two times all SWAC recipient. Like, does that mean something? Tell me, please. So the all conference. So we, Grambling was in the SWAC conference,

Southwest Athletic Conference. And so, yeah, at the end of the season, that was my junior and senior year. So you were good? I was okay. I mean, that's good, I don't know. Did they just hand out these things? No.

Yeah, no, you definitely had to work hard for it. And I was definitely grateful for those awards. But, you know, being not the tallest player on the court, you had to find ways to still play big, if that makes sense. Yeah, like lifts like Tom Cruise would wear in a movie or something. That's why I always considered myself an underdog in many ways, like even from how I even landed in Grambling. Because the story of how I even landed at Grambling State is pretty funny.

Okay, tell me. So in grade 12, like I mentioned, towards the end of going into grade 12, that was when my volleyball coach at the time, his name is Mark Ainsworth. And he was my club as well as high school volleyball coach. And he was the one that planted the seed in my mind that, you know, hey, you're good. You're good enough to possibly even get a volleyball scholarship to the States that could afford you a free education. Why not? And so from there, I took it and ran with it. Now, at the time, YouTube wasn't huge, right? So now you can click on YouTube, Instagram, anywhere and watch, you know, highlight reels from like 12 year olds, eight year olds, right?

So for me, I had that was still back in the day when I had to, you know, cut my own highlight reel at these volleyball tournaments. So I managed to get enough footage of me playing, put together a reel, put together a highlight reel. And I, at the time was working my high school job i worked at taco bell okay and um yeah i'd use up some of my money and i bought you know those those huge stack of blank dvds that you could get at costco of course the spindle yes the spindle of course i bought a spindle and I made as many copies,

that had to have been at least 100, went on NCAA.com, looked up every single Division I university that there was, and I wrote down every single head coach's name, email, and mailing address. I burnt my highlight reel copy to all of those DVDs on the spindle, and I mailed them all out.

I created a generic email saying hey coach Smith and my name is and I created that template. That was like a variable. I just did it every single division. That's amazing. That's a great

initiative. It was successful for you. It was successful but I had to definitely receive a lot of no's a lot of non-ant i didn't even get some responses back from some people you're too short um not good enough uh we're done we're not we're not recruiting for that position i played i played outside hitter so we're not looking for any outside hitters we're done recruiting for the class of 2006 there was a lot of no's until finally closer towards the end of my grade 12 year. That's when I got the email from the coach at the time

at Grambling State. Her name was Kim Young. And she invited me out for a visit. So my grandfather and I, we flew down to Grambling, Louisiana. And we spent just over 48 hours there toward the school. Is it like Scarborough at all?

No, I don't know. What's it like there? It's very different from Toronto. I mean, you're talking about rural northeast Louisiana where there's nothing but trees and you definitely don't see any CN Tower or any major, you know, huge skyscrapers by any mean. And do they speak French there?

No. I mean, there's some Creole. I've only known things from TV and movies. Yeah. I mean, there is definitely a Creole influence in Louisiana, but not more so closer to New Orleans and more south, not really in the northeast portion. You know, it just occurred to me, you're not even the,

now you're my favorite, don't get me wrong, but you're not even the only person this week on the show who got a scholarship to play sports in the USA because on Friday, Caroline Shved, I always butcher that, Shved, I think that's how you say it. She actually got a soccer scholarship. Nice. I just popped in my head there, but she's not in my living room all the time like you are so only only once in a while but uh great now before we continue the deep dive i want to give you some some gifts since you came all the way from scarborough there is a six pack of great lakes beer what this is for me too you can take that home with you or you can drink it now oh if you drink it now i'm gonna make you uh sleep it off or something before you you drive but yeah that's yours why thank you now i was over here eyeing uh this uh palma's

kitchen box over here it's a nice box i was wondering like how much does that box cost like it sounds really good that's okay yes so you you got the six pack of great legs beer that's from great legs brewery they're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in etobicoke you scarborough people probably don't're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. You Scarborough people probably don't even know about the great craft beer we have here. You learn something new every day. GLB, brewed for you, Ontario.

I always tell people in Scarborough, they're in the LCBO. You don't have to go to the retail store here in your Royal York and Queensway. But Great Lakes Beer, great sponsors, great beer for you. But there's also a large frozen meat lasagna courtesy of palma pasta that's yours too this thing is huge thank you could you

let that could i just see you strain uh let's see if you're still in shape oh yeah it's got some heft oh yeah it does who's it mike wilner was here and he has a bad back i had to help him carry it to his car. I'm seeing some sciatic nerve thing. I'm not even joking. There was some sciatic nerve issue, but the Palma pasta is Mississauga's best fresh pasta in Italian food. Four locations in Mississauga and Oakville.

If you go to palmapasta.com, you can find the exact location, but that box is for Palma's kitchen. you can find the exact location. But that box is for Palma's Kitchen. That's their newest retail slash hot table eatery that they opened near Mavis and Burnham Thorpe. And it kicks butt. So get yourself the Palma Pasta.

I hear you spend some time in Hamilton. Maybe on your way to Hamilton, you jump off the Gardner and go to Palma Pasta. You know what? I will. Especially after I try some of this later on this week. Good, good, good. Now let's jump in the time machine for a moment. Kayla, let's go back.

Let's go back 20 years ago. Let's remember 20 years ago today when the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 was this. Can you name that tune, Kayla? Can I name this tune? Oh, baby, baby, how was I supposed to know? I am envisioning myself in the middle of a high school hallway right now, dancing along with Britney Spears.

Wow, 20 years? 20 years ago this week, yeah. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. You know what else I'm thinking about now? Tell me. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in all denim, walking, I can't remember which award show it was,

but I want to say maybe the MTV Awards. The MTV Video Awards? Yeah, I think you're right. But that all denim get-up that they had. We call that the Canadian tuxedo. Yeah, that's maybe why it's etched in my brain. Man, I remember all this, of course. Yeah, Britney Spears, Baby britney spears baby one more time i noticed they purposely named it baby one more time they didn't want hit me baby in the title

you notice that thing that was a smart decision so that was 20 years ago this week remember the time is brought to you by fast time watch and jewelry repair they've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years they were the watch repair shop that you had in sears canada outlets sears is gone i love that kayla's dancing i can see in my peripheral very good uh fast time if you go to fast time watch repair.com you can find a location near you but here's the kicker. This is a great deal. If you mention that you heard about them on Toronto Mike, they'll give you 15% off

any regular price watch battery installation. So if you need a new watch battery, go to Fast Time, say Toronto Mike sent me, you get that 15% off. Did you have like Britney Spears posters in your bedroom or anything? I wasn't that intense of a Britney fan.

However, during that time of pop music, you really had to show your loyalty to one particular artist. So you really couldn't be a hardcore Britney fan and a hardcore Christina fan. Right. You had to pick sides. And I was a Britney fan, just like how I was a BSB girl. I wasn't a fan of street

boys yeah couldn't i just couldn't get down with n-sync i think i was a bsb guy too yeah i never cared for uh the n-sync songs like they just yeah they weren't as good they're okay well i should be honest i'm more of a new kids on the block guy i know it's a different generation that was just a little before my time just a bit but i remember them probably a lot before your time if i'm doing the math in my head no this the fact that this is 20 years old today is making me feel quite seasoned right now all right it's funny because uh some i do this feature and sometimes i think yesterday i went back 50 years yesterday uh to crimson and clover But I'm like, Kayla is young.

I was thinking I couldn't do 10 years because I had already done 10 years with a recent guest. And it was still number one. Because sometimes these songs are number one for like three weeks, right? Yeah. So it's like you got to find a new number one. But what was 10 years ago again? Oh, you know what it was? It was Just Dance by Lady Gaga.

Oh. That was 10 years ago again? Oh, you know what it was? It was Just Dance by Lady Gaga. Oh. That was 10 years ago. Wow. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, Britney Spears. I'm glad you went with 20. This was a...

I like this. This was a walk down memory lane. I thought it might be your sweet spot. Oh, thanks. Doing my best for you, Kayla. I'm always trying to make the guests feel comfortable. One last sponsor shout out, and then we're going to get back to you, Kayla.

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B-U-K-L dot C-O. And normally I would play a question from Brian, but Brian's in a, this is interesting, okay? Brian Gerstein, in fact, he's got a jingle. Let me play his jingle before I tell you about this. Property in the six dot com. In Scarborough, you guys don't care too much for the Galleria Mall, I'm thinking.

Dufferin and DuPont, this is a big West End thing, okay? You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? You're like, what's the Galleria Mall, I'm thinking. Dufferin and DuPont, this is a big West End thing, okay? You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? You're like, what's the Galleria Mall? I can't imagine. Scarborough Town Centre? Where is that? Oh, come on. I've heard of it, but I don't think I've ever been to it. That's the truth. Have you been to Sherway Gardens? Like twice in my life. You know, we have

an Ikea out here now. You don't have to go. You know, I know that just because I drive past it. That's right. We're getting things out here. We have a Costco and everything. Things are happening here. But I want to talk about Galleria Mall. Okay. I worked at the Galleria Mall for five years. I actually did some homework and learned that they opened the Galleria Mall in 1972 and they just never changed the facade or the ambiance or any of the decor. So when I was working there in the late 80s, early 90s,

it was like stuck in the 70s. It was really true. Even today, I think it still looks like it's 1970s. There's parts of it that have pockets of the 1970s in it? Parts of it, Kayla. All of it. All of it.

It's anchored by, the Gallery Mall is anchored by a fresh co now, but that replaced the Price Chop chopper which i helped build it was a food city and i worked like 10 hour days to convert it to a price chopper i remember price because you don't really see too many price choppers you know why because uh who owns them sobies converted them all to fresh cones exactly because i had a i used to walk to my local price chopper and i always wanted a summer job there. That was like my goal as a young...

That's a reasonable attainable goal. It was either that or Staples. Okay. Yeah, I love... You know how most kids dread back to school shopping because it signifies that, hey, you're going back to school and it's like a changing of seasons and whatnot.

I already know that you loved back to school shopping. I loved back to school shopping. I could not wait to go into Staples and just like buy all the paper and the supplies. That just made my heart happy. No, because you saw it as a clean slate, right? Like this is a fresh start. Yeah, there was just something about it.

And I always wanted to work there for some reason. And I ended up not. I don't know. My first ever, first job ever was in, what was that, grade 10? It was Taco Bell, as I mentioned. Taco Bell. Yeah.

Taco Bell. I was, you probably wanted to work at Staples for the employee discount. Maybe. I don't know why those were my two goals when I was about 11 years old, was Price Chopper and Staples. But you knew to aim, like,

I mean, until you decided you wanted a scholarship and it was like, wait, these are tougher goals. But for a while you had very attainable, sensible goals. Like it's, that's smart because then you can hit these goals and you feel good about yourself. Yeah, you're right. And then you can aim higher. Like next time I'm onto you. This is very wise. You're wise beyond your years. So why am I talking about the Galleria Mall? Because there's a big redevelopment happening there. And Brian Gerstein, he's a real estate sales representative of PSR Brokerage. They have the exclusive, what's that called?

When you can exclusively sell a brand new development. I guess that's what it's called. So they're selling the Galleria Mall condos. And today, in fact, I'm looking at the clock. At 10 o'clock today, there was a meeting where I was going to get details texted to me. This was breaking news, but they're delaying it a week. I got note that there's some new guy in charge of sales or something,

so we're going to get the details in a week, but this is going to be big news. The Galleria Mall redevelopment. I'm so excited. I can't afford a condo, another home, but I'm still going to inquire within. I need to know what the deal is there. So anyway, call Brian

at 416-873-0292 if you want him to tell you all these details about the Galleria Mall development as soon as he gets them from the big cheese over there. So that's the exciting Galleria Mall update for Toronto Mike listeners.

And you East End Scarbarians have now been educated that we have a mall from 1972 that looks like it's still 1972 and it's at Dufferin and DuPont here in the West End. We have a mall similar to that in the East. Name one.

The one that kind of is like stuck in the past, I name one um the one that kind of is like stuck in the past i would probably say woodside square and that's right at mccowan and finch that was like that was the plaza slash small mall that all the high school students flock to is it outdoor though like when you enter stores are you outdoors some of them yes and then you can still enter through the mall. Yeah. Okay.

But they've done some recent renovations, I will say, in the last maybe 10 years. So they're not quite stuck in the 70s. Well, when I was working at Galleria Mall, the nearest major mall was the Dufferin Mall. And it wasn't in great shape itself. It was way better than Galleria Mall,

but it wasn't in great shape. But then they put a bunch of money into it and they completely remodeled it and then then the contrast was so jarring because suddenly duffer mall like it's no not quite yorkdale or sureway or whatever but suddenly it was like ready for prime time and our gallery mall like it was really sad like i wish i could i wish i had taken video of like what it was like in there i would i just wish i could go back and borrow a video camera and take some footage but uh all right enough about the gallery of mall there's condos coming there and that's exciting so uh back to you kayla you mentioned uh your your mom is of

filipino descent right but you played for team jamaica yes so explain to me how so my father is of jamaican and lebanese descent and he was actually, my mother was born in the Philippines. My father was actually born here technically in Canada, but before he turned one, uh, they actually moved back to Jamaica and they lived there. Um, just before my father was in middle school. And so they returned to Canada and, they returned to Scarborough but yeah so my uh my dad's side they're they were born and raised in Jamaica my my grandparents were and then they all moved up here and then my mother's side as I mentioned they're from the Philippines and so um yeah the story of just two two, well, not really opposite, but two different cultures, that kind of makes up Kayla Marie.

Well, I'm personally fascinated by this because I have a couple of kids that are, what's the term, biracial? You're biracial? So I have a couple of kids who are biracial. In fact, their mom is of Filipino descent. Oh, okay. So we have something in common here. Well, not us, but, you know, they have something in common. My mom's a boring white woman.

So I'm curious, these two cultures, did it just form a mashup for your... Or did one dominant culture outpace the other? You said your Filipino grandparents were raising you? They did, yeah. My Filipino grandparents raised me. And so that was definitely the side that I learned more from. It wasn't really until, um, I didn't have the closest

relationship to my father growing up. And so therefore, because I didn't, wasn't close to him, I wasn't really close to much of that, my entire side from his side. So therefore I didn't really get to know, um, much about about them so i guess if you had to say which side dominated i was brought up with by my filipino grandparents um and so i know more of that culture well now i when you were singing the britney spears i now understand it's because you were raised with karaoke am i right you know it's not a filipino household without karaoke. And yes, definitely had the karaoke with the books of just different songs. It's a big deal, right? You know what?

After my grandparents... So the house that my grandparents raised their seven children in, they raised me in. That was the staple of our family growing up. That house had the ultimate karaoke machine and that's where we would all kind of just sing like every Sunday it felt. But it was sold or I don't know if it was sold

but it did not make it to the switchover when they ended up selling the house. Yeah. Like I know the two big things I would detect from my exposure to the Filipino community is well, there's many different things. But one is that the karaoke and the other is very devout Catholics. Like, so you were raised very devout, right?

I was raised Catholic. Yes, that's right. And for the most part, I think I don't know too many Filipinos that are not of the Catholic faith. I mean, I'm sure they are because I know there's a part where there is a section, for example. Yes, in Mindanao. Right, but the bulk, especially those new Canadians coming from the Philippines, like, yeah, I would

say I always call it like super Catholic. Like, there's a whole different level for this. I was raised Catholic, but it's like this Irish Catholic Canadian thing. It's nothing like this Filipino Catholic. Like, it's like you took Catholicism and put it on steroids. You know, I wouldn't say,

well, I would say my grandmother was more of a devout, super Catholic, like you're what you're talking about. Um, but she ended up passing when I was 13. Oh no, sorry again.

No, it's okay. It's part of my story. I know it's part of your story, but it is, uh, uh, sad that,

that you had to live that. I think that's sad. Yeah, and I think that's also part of the reason why I'm so close with my grandfather now. So that's my Lolo. Right, yeah. No, my kids, yes, that's right. There's a Lolo and a Lola.

That's right, yeah. Lola passed away sadly and there's still a Lolo. Yeah, and so because we both kind of, I mean, he's a strong man in and of itself too because he lost one of his daughters at a young age and then and of itself too because he lost his one of his daughters at a young age and and then he had to then he lost his wife and so because we kind of went through that together I think that's part of the reason why we are so close um and he still continued to raise me

after like his own and so I I'm a lot of where I come from and where I am now is, is I, it's because of him. No doubt about it. Well, you want to drop his first name? I want to give him a shout out. My little, his name is Ben. Ben. Yes. Lolo Ben. Lolo Ben. So shout out to Lolo Ben. Is he going to listen to this? You know what? He's actually in the Philippines right now. Ben. Is he going to listen to this? You know what? He's actually in the Philippines right now. So instead of flying off to Florida, he's a Filipino

snowbird. So he says, peace out to the winter. Good. You don't have to worry about the US dollars and all that. That's pretty smart. So he'll be back soon. Good. If they have some good Wi-Fi over there, you can flip him a link. I will. He loves his Facebook. That's for over there, you can flip them a link.

I will. He loves his Facebook, that's for sure. So I'll send him a link. I heard, my understanding is in the Philippines, Facebook is the internet. Pretty much. Yeah. And they also, I think the Philippines is like the number one, like they use Wi-Fi and internet the most in the entire world.

And it's all mobile, right? Yeah, it's just different. Yeah, it is. It's a very... Philippines is very interesting over there. I mean, I had a chance to live there for just under a year. Okay, so wait. In the chronological order.

So yeah, you're playing volleyball at Grambling State? Yes. You're playing volleyball, winning some prestigious awards. I always think of a Christmas story. It's a prestigious award. Okay. But then at some point you end up playing pro in the Philippines. But you also get like your first taste of like media broadcasting.

Does the media broadcasting happen in Louisiana? It does. Yeah. Yep. So graduated from Grambling at the end of December 2010. And I started my first on-air gig in my career with an NBC affiliate in West Monroe, Louisiana. And that's like 30 minutes down the road from Grambling. So it was a very small, humble beginning for me, but it gave me the best experience because I had my

hands in everything. I was a reporter. I also got to do a little bit of producing, host. I just, I did a lot there, but that was my first experience. It was KTVE and it was in West Monroe, Louisiana. And I worked there for a year as a reporter anchor. Do you want to hear yourself on KTVE? Oh my God. 10. Okay. Let's hear some Kayla. This is back in the day. Okay. This is West Monroe, Louisiana.

This is after you graduated from a Grambling State University and you got a degree in broadcast journalism, right? So you were, you just took that degree and applied and got the gig. Is that? Well, yeah,

I had, I had to do an internship before I graduated. And so the summer prior to graduating, I came home and I did an internship with none other than CTV Toronto, which is part of the Bell Media umbrella. So it kind of came around full circle, if you will. Did my internship there and the reel, my demo reel that I produced at the end of that internship is what got into the hands of the then news director at KTVE. And her seeing that my demo reel from my internship got my foot in the door and we did an interview.

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yeah it was an exciting time yeah i i was i, I couldn't believe I was there for an, as an intern. She took me on as an intern, like the last two months before I graduated. So October, November, and then I graduated in December. And I remember she, her, the news director, her name was Bonnie Vann. And she pulled me into her office. And at the time, I thought she was gonna fire me. I thought I thought she was like, yeah, no, you're good. We don't need you anymore. I was like, oh, gosh. And she ended up saying that she would love to take me on as a reporter with anchoring opportunities on the weekend. And I was just, I was blown away. And I actually really thought she was going to let me go too because she told me that she hated the tattoo behind my ear. That's the first thing I noticed at the door

because you don't see it on TV, I guess. So I was like, oh, there's some ink going on back there. Yeah, my one and only. I have my mother and grandmother's initials, Rosalie and Esther, the two that I told you have passed. Their initials are right behind my ear, but she hated it. And so she would always, she was like,

I don't ever want to see it. And I was like, you'll never see it. I have a full head of hair I can cover. Full of hair there's makeup that covers that up but yeah we we made that that work we came to a happy medium now but okay so how do you end up i'm gonna get this right okay i'm gonna show you the thoroughness of my homework and my research here is uh you played for um theoton Tornadoes Volleyball Club in Manila. How do you end up there if you're doing the broadcasting in West Monroe?

Was there a huge rivalry between West Monroe and East Monroe? There wasn't an East Monroe. It was either just West Monroe or Monroe, Louisiana. The bridge there is what kind of separated the two. I envision a Shelbyville versus Springfield kind of separated the two. I envision like a Shelbyville versus Springfield kind of like rivalry.

Close. Yeah, close. Which they actually had another new station in Monroe. Oh, yeah. They were the competitors. Oh, this is like, you're way too young for this, but WKRP in Cincinnati with the mascots and they had the WPIG mascot

and then they had a whole like fight in a bathroom or something. There's a whole thing here. Yeah, we didn't do any fighting in the bathroom. No. What a great episode that was. All right. Now, so you're on the air in West Monroe. Yep. And then do you come back here first or do you go straight to Manila? No, a lot happened. Okay, tell me. From West Monroe, Louisiana to Manila, Philippines. And from West Monroe, Louisiana to Manila, Philippines, because of course I am Canadian, my work visa ended up expiring. So I didn't really have no choice but to leave KTV. So it was, I was off to a great start. I loved the station. It was giving me all kinds of experience,

especially right out of university. And I loved where I was, but because of the work visa situation, I had to leave. Now at the time, because I had my love for, like, I wanted to pursue my broadcasting career. There was no doubt about that. But at the same time, I still had my love for volleyball. Those were like my two passions. Right. And I knew that as a young athlete, my window for opportunity to pursue other goals that I wanted and the other goals that I wanted after university ball was to play professionally. The time was now, if you will. So when I knew that I wasn't returning to KTVE, I took an opportunity to try out for a professional team in Europe. I went with this agency that you signed up and it was for North American volleyball players. So whether you're in the US or Canada, you go over to Europe and you hop around for about two and a half weeks, like basically trying out for teams.

And if the manager or coach or owner of the team liked you, they would sign you right there. So that was the whole premise of the tour. Interesting. So I went and didn't get picked up. Well, I was going to say, Manila's not in Europe. Got cut. Yep. Didn't.

No one wanted me. No one picked me no one no one picked because you're too short probably yeah and maybe you know you know what you do about that it was it was tough i thought for sure in my head i was gonna get signed i was like i i had all this confidence and didn't and so i was like wow okay that sucks um so that then brought me back to Toronto temporarily for then for me to go through this chapter of my life where now I was like, well, I don't even know if I want to continue with broadcasting or or with volleyball. What do I even want to do with my life? And this was me as a, you know, what, 22 year old not knowing what the heck I wanted to do. You and your Britney Spears CDs.

Yeah, you know, crying to Backstreet Boys. Yeah, no. what 22 year old not knowing what the heck i wanted to do your britney spears cds yeah you know crying to backstreet boys yeah no i won't exactly so long story short that led me to getting my master's degree in sport administration from georgia state university in atlanta georgia where i lived there for three years i didn't even come up in my research. The missing link. The missing link. So I got my master's in sport admin because I thought if I wasn't going to be in broadcasting, what would the next field be? And I would want to work in athletics. I would want to either coach or work in the front office when it comes to or work in the front office when it comes to university athletics.

So I did that and I managed to... But you had to pay for that. Was that expensive to go to school there? Well, thankfully, and I'm so grateful for the game of volleyball. So for my undergrad, I was a player and I would manage to get a full ride. And then as a grad student, I was a GA, a graduate assistant. And so coaching volleyball is what got me through grad school as well. Yeah. So I was very fortunate.

Like the game of volleyball has provided me tons of opportunities as far as my education, as far as traveling. I've seen so many different parts of the United States, parts of the world, really all because of this. And so I think that's probably why I'm such a firm believer in like getting young women of this and so i think that's probably why i'm such a firm believer in like getting young women into sports and like or like teaching them and showing them that like you can do this like it can be done and like it just provides so many more doors for you uh so yeah that's what so you're like a georgia peach yeah i was for three and i loved atl. Atlanta was fantastic as far as just the city itself was great.

It was a good combination of city life, but then you still had that southern hospitality and you still felt like you were in the south a bit. Outcast is there. Lots of good things. Yeah. Big Boy performed. I saw it.

For all 30 seconds. Was that? Well, don't get me started. I know. I did that with Mark Wigmore yesterday. But was that faux fur? I hope so. A lot of fur he was wearing.

It was. Reminded me of Romp and Ronnie Hawkins at New Year's Eve at Nathan Phillips Square. Yeah. That's a shout out to all you old people. But, okay, so you're... Yeah, I saw Big Boy.

I love Big Boy. I... Yeah, let me... Okay okay i don't like maroon five like i'll have to declare that out from the answer i don't know what your thoughts are maroon five um i i don't not like them but they're definitely not on my top five playlist that's for sure and i was completely i was staring at the TV thinking, what is going on? Like, is this it? Well, you're waiting for some surprise. Like, oh my God, Andre 3000 is joining Big Boy. The surprise was Adam Levine taking off his shirt.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And he was like, show the abs. See, I'm going to spare you. I have the same abs, but I don't take off my shirt at every opportunity. Understood, yeah. I would do, I would say, I'm going to spare you. I have the same abs, but I don't take off my shirt at every opportunity. Understood. Yeah. But I actually, if I was betting in Vegas,

I would have bet that he was going to remove that shirt. Which he does. Yeah, that's what he does. And I mean, it was just very lackluster. I mean, when you compare it to the likes of,

remember Prince, Janet Jackson, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, so much like there's, there's just so much more stage presence. I was just... That's what he lacks. He can't carry it. He can't be the

guy. And I understand, of course, with Kaepernick, there's a whole political situation where lots of great artists didn't want anything to do with this, right? So they went down the list, and I vote 118 or whatever. They said, let's ask Adam Levine or whatever. But that's it. He's very famous, I would say, and he's very fine and sounds good

and the band's fine, but there's not a great presence there. I think that if you announced Maroon 5 as the Grey Cup halftime show, we'd be like, oh, that's okay, I guess. But we would be kind of lukewarm on that for Grey Cup. It just doesn't seem to be big enough for the... Agreed.

My two cents? Our Grey Cup halftime show was much better alicia cara alicia alicia cara yeah even in the year before was uh shania twain right and she you know that was a great halftime performance um but my two cents on this would have been to give big boy well really outcast because let's talk like let's be real they were in Atlanta like it was so Outkast should have been the main event with maybe a song or two from Maroon 5 like well I'm assuming Andre 3000 said no yeah it's for sure they would surprise us I thought for sure when on when I saw big boy come out I thought any moment now Andre was going to just kind of join him on stage and that didn't happen so yeah I'm guessing he said no I think the uh yeah the whole the political atmosphere uh destroyed this uh the potential for that yeah but all of that aside just down to the

fact of what maroon five is i i don't think they're a headliner for a super you know what i'm trying to think of what i would put them they're kind of i think you're probably at a matchbox 20 kind of thing going on there like there's not, it's kind of nice and blase and some nice top 40. But like you said, I mean, how many no's did they probably go through until they finally got a yes with them? So,

Hey, lots, lots, lots. Okay. So that's our, we did our Superbowl recap. There you go.

And again, later, and the game was boring too. Later we'll, we'll chat near the end about your affiliation with professional football. This unique personal manner. So we'll get to that soon. Because I'll be very honest.

We've been talking now for like 45 minutes, almost 50 minutes. And I feel I need to put my shades on because I keep seeing a reflection off your hand. Like there's a big glare, like a very strong light coming off your hands. Like as if you've got the hope diamond in my basement. So something's happening there. I don't know. I don't, it's massive.

Like it's not, I don't know, but don't show my wife that because this thing is a very, very big. Are you, are you approaching like a 10 year or any kind of, I know it just hit five years. There you go.

Well, Hey, maybe, maybe getting some ideas. the wife for five years. I work for myself, Kayla. I work for my own digital services company. I can't afford the bling that this gentleman somehow provided for you. But we'll get to that later. This is all a big teaser, but I might need to put my shades on. So that's why I'm doing that. So where do we have you?

We have you in Georgia. Yeah. How do you get from Georgia to Manila? Well, in the process of going through grad school, being a GA, coaching volleyball, I managed to somehow tear my ACL. Fully or partially? Fully.

I wanted to sound like a doctor there. ACL, MCL, meniscus, the whole shebang. Yeah, that's not good. Not good at all. And it was ironically just for a just for fun labor day tournament that's how it happens right so but thankfully and i feel like everything happens you know for a reason and god can be very strategic at times but at least i found myself in a place where i was working for a university with an athletic department and a trainer and so i was

able to rehab so um during all that time in atlanta the thought of me wanting to still check that that that milestone that athletic milestone off my off my list of playing professionally was still there it was still eating at me i couldn't be clear though god didn't like snip your achilles heel or not achilles it was acl on purpose right you just he just put you in a place that would help you no but i get I get that right. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he intentionally tore my ACL. No, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. Okay.

Gotcha. But, um, yeah, the, the, the desire to, to want to play and experience that, that, that opportunity somewhere, anywhere overseas, like just to play at the next level was still eating at me. I couldn't push it away. was still eating at me. I couldn't push it away. And so, um, I can't remember how, but when I found out that there was, um, volleyball opportunities overseas and somehow some, I found out about the PSL and that was the Philippine super Liga and it was up and coming. It had only like, they had been operating what three years maybe when I found out about them. So the league was, I mean,

um, did a little research, found out, like found out about them so the league was i mean um did a little research found out like found out the teams and whatnot started reaching out um was contacted by one of the coaches over there and i basically booked a one-way ticket to manila right now right after i my time in atlanta was up so i packed my bags i packed my life back into my toyota camry at the time vanna and drove the same one the same camry different camry because you're loyal you're a loyal person i am yes uh but no different one and packed up my car drove from atlanta back up to toronto unloaded it booked my flight and was and left toronto so i packed i was in toronto for all like 48 maybe no 36 hours okay dropped off my stuff booked my flight to man, and left Toronto. So I packed, I was in Toronto for all of like 48, maybe no,

36 hours. Okay. Dropped off my stuff, booked my flight to Manila and off I went. And like, you just, that's your, I mean,

I'm going to guess is that not your, it's not your first time in Philippines. No, it was. It was your first time. Yeah. One way ticket, which by the way,

I'm very courageous. Okay. Yeah. Um, I just, I, I thought that for sure that this would be the time. And so I went over there and the whole reason why I went or the understanding was,

is that they were playing in an upcoming, it was a non-season, um, tournament. So I guess you can say it was preseason if you will, but preseason tournament. And depending on how I played would determine if they would want to sign me for the upcoming season. We ended up winning the tournament.

I played well. They offered me a, offered me a um a spot on the team photon photon photon photon tornadoes okay close yeah photon like the laser tag remember okay there's photon laser tag okay photon tornadoes volleyball club offers you like a contract yeah exactly so and then i like i, I went out on a whim. I didn't have a return flight, so. So you're a professional athlete because of this experience in Manila. Yep.

Amazing. And forever, you could feel yourself as a former professional athlete. Yeah, and it was an amazing experience on many fronts because not only was it the first time I got to go to the Philippines, so then it's like, wow, I'm touching back to my roots as far as like finding out where my mother and my grandparents and my family were brought up at one point. Um, seeing a whole new country, seeing a whole nother side of the world,

meeting distant relatives that I had never met, but I'd heard of getting to meet them in person. All of that was amazing. And then the actual volleyball aspect of this, like I'm actually out here, I'm living out a dream of mine. This is um and and it was fun and the season itself was fantastic in the big scheme of things we were the total underdog photon had never won a psl championship their best finish prior to that season was fourth and we came into the playoffs as an underdog after having a mediocre regular season we ended up beating the reigning champions in the semis. And then we won the finals. It was fantastic.

So we ended up winning the PSL championship. And is this, I got to ask, is this big news in the Philippines? Like, is this like a, like, I just have no sense of like. You know, they, Filipinos love their, they love their basketball and they love their volleyball. They love the P p the pba over there which is like their nba is massive and to your comment as far as like how big it was i'd never played in front of that many people um in in university or anything else prior to so they were selling out stadiums um it was broadcasted on their local sports stations over there in Manila. So you were a bit of a, like a celebrity.

It felt, I wouldn't say celebrity, but it, it, they, they love their athletes there. So it was like, you know,

people swarming, asking for selfies and signatures and autographs. And it was, it was really cool in that aspect because they just, they really loved it. Now, did you need to be like, have roots in the Philippinesilippines or could you have

been so how it worked is that the team was comprised of each team was allowed two foreigners and the foreigners could be from any country any national didn't matter where that was completely up to however you're also allowed to have nationals right and so so i was somewhere i was in the gray area because although I was Canadian, I had Filipino blood. And because of that, I was considered a local.

That's the term that they used. So I was considered on paper a local, although I had actually just laid, like had never been to the Philippines prior to coming out. No, but I understand they do this like for Olympics and stuff. This is commonplace.

Like they tie you through one parent and it's like, like Greg Ruzetski is now going to play, you know, East tennis for England or whatever. Like this is a common thing. Yeah. So we had, we were able to still have our two foreigners,

which were two American players that came over. And then there was me as well. You don't have to hog one of those precious two spots. Uh, yeah, it's sort of like, it's sort of like, I guess if CFL has a, a rule for like an import, I guess there's some kind of a ratio of like Canadians versus. And we weren't the only team that did that. Another team in the league also chose to go with the, she was an American, a Filipino American setter.

So whether you called it a gray area or you just you know hey why not why if it's their rules like exactly yeah so that's kind of where i fell in in all of that i wondered like what did they find it exciting your racial mix like was that exciting to them they seem really into like uh i don't know this is a very big generalization, but like, was it exciting to them that you were Filipino Jamaican heritage or no? It was just, that was, I definitely wasn't full Filipino. That's for sure.

So imports or, or I don't even, half Filipinos were definitely, they stood out regardless of what of what the other half was. And I think that that was also noted too in like the other sports as well. Cause like there were a few basketball players there that came from like the US or from Canada

and they weren't full Filipino and you can kind of tell. But I don't think it was like you were put on any sort of pedestal just because you were different well you you should have been on a pedestal no i'm trying to get you on a few that's okay all right so all good things come to an end because you're here right now in my basement so uh like how long did you play for photon season that, that one and only season. And so it was great because I mean, Hey, um, we ended on a good note. Uh, but initially my plan was to go back for a second season. I was

going to go back. That was the 2015 season we won. And I had every intention of going back for 2016. And then I actually got a job offer in back home here, uh, for the Hamilton Ticats in the CFL. in back home here uh for the hamilton tycats in the cfl amazing it's all gonna come back to the the cfl at some point so okay so you you know i mean i should let you tell me this but i understand you were a sideline reporter and host for tycats tv yeah that's right for the for the 2016 season and it was either go back for a second, keep playing volleyball, keep playing professional volleyball, or, you know, close that chapter and kind of return back to your broadcasting roots and get some experience in your own country. Because prior to that, like, as you can tell, like all of my experience had been stateside because I had been living in the U S.

So I figured this was a great opportunity to get my feet wet again, to network, and to just kind of get myself back. But how did the Ticats know about you to make such an offer? You often go and play volleyball in Manila after being in Georgia for a few years and then at Grambling State University. So I had my reel,

as you were so gracious enough to play a few minutes ago. But in addition to that, I kept my reel as you were so gracious enough to play a few minutes ago. But in addition to that, I update, I kept my reel fresh because while I was a graduate assistant in Atlanta, I was still doing some freelancing stuff as far as broadcasting is concerned in Atlanta. So I still kind of kept my foot in the door in that sense.

And that reel that I put together is they found it on YouTube the the person at the time who was in charge of finding the the next host for the seat that season his name is Taylor he found my reel he came across it on on YouTube and he said that they were interviewing for that position but I guess they didn't find someone that they wanted. And so they kept the search going. And then he somehow came across my reel. And my reel had my email. He sent me an email. And so you can imagine, I'm over here just training, thinking I'm going back to the Philippines.

And then all of a sudden, I get this email from the Hamilton Ticats. And I'm like, okay. Well, that's kind of amazing. Like, that's kind of amazing. He finds your reel. You didn't proactively. I did not. You were buying spindles of DVDs and sending them off to every NCAA school in the States.

But this time, just sitting on this YouTube account, like that's a needle in a haystack. Yeah, I would agree. That's God, right? Is that God? I would say. He didn't clip your ACL, but he did this. We're giving him credit for this one. You know what?

I definitely think that God has orchestrated a lot of things in my life throughout the years. That's amazing. That's amazing. Now, of course, you're now at CP24. I am. So you basically, is it straight from Ticats TV to CP24? Yep. Yep. I knew that my contract with the Ticats was going to be just for a season. It was strictly for the 2016 season. So however far or not far they went during their playoff run that year um i was going to be done as soon as the season was

over so around august of that year i started putting out feelers and i was willing to go anywhere in the country um i knew that whether it be if i stayed in the you would have gone to like uh thunder bay if they needed you. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was starting to apply at stations from BC all the way to the Atlantic. So I actually came very, very close. I'm talking about I was looking for apartments in Edmonton because I almost said yes to a job opportunity.

That's where my wife is from. A lot of Filipinos in Edmonton, I'm told. Really? Yeah. Oh, okay. They're taking over. Yeah. So I was extremely close to saying yes and going, heading over to Edmonton. But then right before I was going to sign the contract, in came CP24. And obviously that was one of the many jobs that I applied for. One definitely towards the top of my list because in a perfect world, I didn't want to go to Edmonton or anywhere else, but I was willing to if that meant getting exposure, getting experience.

This is amazing too because you're right. You're ready to go anywhere and a big Toronto station wants to hire you. Like that's amazing. Like it's way, we can say it. This is Toronto Mike. This is Edmonton Mike. Toronto,

you're from Scarborough. Yeah. Toronto's way better than Edmonton. Come on. You can say it. Say it. It's definitely, you know what?

And considering I had been, I left at 17 and really at this point now I was what, just shy of 28. So I'd been gone for just pretty much a decade. And so for me to be so close to either going towards Edmonton or having the chance and opportunity to not only just work for an incredible company and a great station like CP24 but to stay home and to kind of return and finally be back closer to my Lolo and my family

and friends again finally. Right, Lolo Ben's right here. Lolo Ben, yeah, Lolo Ben. Except he's not here, he's in Philippines but he's coming back, right? Yeah, he is coming back, yeah.

But I mean, I think it was, he was really rooting for that opportunity to kind of go down the way that it did. You crammed a lot, at that point you're 28,

you crammed a lot into short life there. That's a lot of stuff you did in 20. It feels like a full bio. You know, it's one of those things where I know that a lot of people in our industry, they're like, well, as soon as I graduated from, you know, from whichever school that they did, they went from, you know, one market to the next, to the next, to the next. And I feel like I didn't have that traditional. Yeah. Yeah.

You started, you started, uh, you started at the top of the Canadian food chain. Can I say that? Well, but at the same time I started at the, I was at market 136 in the U S too.

So it's just, it was all kinds, you know how they say. West Monroe. It's climbing fast though. It's one day. It'll crack the top 100. I have high hopes for West Monroe. I think so. Do I. It's climbing fast, though. One day it'll crack the top 100. I have high hopes for West Monroe.

So do I. It's going to be fine. I want to play a clip because, of course, you were in Hamilton doing stuff for the Ticats. Yeah. And then you get a gig at CP24. And around this time, I had a guy, you might know him. His name is Bubba O'Neill. You know Bubba.

I know Bubba. So he comes on the show. Yeah. And he's got some very uh strong opinions on diversity in sports media so he starts talking about how i don't want to misquote him but he uh he said he had to work 10 times as he felt he was told by john saunders that he needed to work 10 times as hard as a black man in this space uh as opposed to a white person in the same space this is his opinion and he he was having the difficulties.

Imagine being a woman of color in Canadian sports media. And we were talking about this. And I think I asked him, like, who's going to... I asked him a question, something to the effect of who's the next, like, who's a rising star that you've got your eyes on or whatever. And then somehow, magically,

Kayla Marie Williams, who I thought was just a Kayla Williams, comes up. Let's hear from Bubba. But yeah, you know, but I'm telling you now, there's a girl that I've met in the business that I really think, I think if there's going to be the first black female sportscaster on a national basis, she is at, I think, CP24 right now. Her name is Kayla Williams. She is at, I think, CP24 right now.

Her name is Kayla Williams. Okay, okay. She took over for Jill Colton, who was booted and then went south to become a Tea Party member. I don't know what her true passion is to anchor. I know she's a sports fan and that she participated in sports in the U.S. college situation. And so I think she did some work for the Hamilton Tiger Cats. So I know she's got some roots in sports. If there's ever going to be a girl, that's the girl.

And she's biracial, I believe, but she would look as a black female. She's excellent. She's knowledgeable. She speaks well. I have no idea why she's not at any, at Tia Center Sportsnet right now. But she's just getting her feet wet right now. Yeah, she's not at any, at Tia Center Sportsnet right now.

But she's just getting her feet wet right now. Yeah, she's very young, very young. In the Toronto industry right now, in the Toronto area right now. But if there's going to be one, that would be my prediction. Wow. So look at that. Who knew one day Kayla would come on Toronto Mike

to get to play that clip? Yeah, he sang your praises pretty loud there. Wow. And he's such a fantastic man. When I got to the Thai Cats, I mean, you think about it, like I said, just telling you the story of how I even landed the gig. And so coming in, not knowing a lot of people, I'm learning as I'm going. And Bubba was definitely one of the people that when I was working and because, you know, sometimes not everyone's friendly, not everyone, you know,

goes out of their way to speak to the new person or anything like that. But Bubba was always so kind. And that that's that's awesome. I've never heard. I've never heard that that conversation before so wow now you've just revealed that you're not listening to every episode of Toronto Mic'd you just revealed that now I'm hurt now I'm crying for different reasons now we're both crying but Bubba O'Neill said that

now that leads me to some questions and I have a lot of CP24 questions it's funny when I exerted that clip I realized I'm interjecting stuff that I don't realize I'll ever play for you and I'm talking lot of CP24 questions, but it's funny, when I inserted that clip, I realized I'm interjecting stuff that I don't realize I'll ever play for you. And I'm talking about Jill Colton, of all people, comes up. Because I guess at that time, this was years ago,

she left and she was doing weather specialist stuff and then suddenly you were doing the weather specialist stuff. So in my mind, and I have no idea if this is true, in my mind, you replaced her. That's how my mind had it. So actually, Jill was at the station when i first got there so no i did not replace her because we actually worked alongside each other for a very short time until she decided to part ways with cb24 um i actually came after anika elliott and

anika oh she's great yeah yeah um anika's fantastic and anika's actually, she's great. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Anika is fantastic. And Anika is actually the person who gave me the heads up that one, she was leaving and two, that there would be an opportunity at CP24 if I was so, so interested in it. Um, and so that's actually how that works. So no, I didn't, I didn't replace Jill. I'm glad you're here to set the record straight. Look at me. I've jumped to conclude, but, uh, jumping to conclusion. But Anika Elliott, what's she up to right now? Do you know? I don't keep in contact with Anika on a regular basis, but I do know that she chose to leave

in order to pursue more opportunities as far as whether it be freelancing, acting, and she's doing great things. She has her own platform. And the move that she did was quite frankly it was ballsy in my opinion and um good on her and she's been doing that now for the last couple of years and so i know that she wanted to do that and just kind of to i felt like she wanted to spread her wings more and i'm glad that she's happy she has the opportunity and the ability

to do that cool cool now uh kayla you like is that fair to say you you play the role of weather specialist that's uh always interesting to me that because you don't have a meteor no i am not you're just a weather that's why you have to be called a weather specialist correct and i'm by no means have i ever claimed to be a meteorologist no um i came to cb24 um the the offer was to be a reporter and to host the weekend show um and so in addition when i started working there it was about a month and a half in was when they asked me that hey you know we need you to also kind of take over and and cover uh weather at times and so that's what i I do that on the weekends. Um, that's kind of just part of, part of the role.

Baba O'Neill of all, he's a sports guy who was also reading weather after that CHCH, uh, boom, that's what called the CHCH boom. Yeah. But that CHCH boom gave me the gift of, uh,

Mark Hebbshire, who now records his podcast, Hebbsy on sports here. So when the CHCH boom, I'm the only beneficiary, I think, of the CHCH boom. But anyway, regardless, Bob O'Neill, great guy. Glad he said those nice things about you. You're at CP24.

It's CP24 breakfast on weekends. That's where I see you. Because I guess on a Saturday or Sunday, I guess the kids are doing whatever. And you're kind of like having your coffee and checking your emails of it and the TV might have CP24 on and there's oh look there's Kayla yeah you're just there I'm just there and you know what I every time I I whether it's someone who stops me in person or they send me a message and they're just like you know we love waking up to you that it never gets old and I'm I I'm honored that I get to be a part of people's weekend mornings.

Every Saturday and Sunday, they wake up to me and they wake up to us. And I love that. So who's us? Remind me of the other people on that show. Jamie Goodfrey. He's a very handsome man. I can say that? Yeah.

He's a very handsome man. Always very sharp dressed and nice hair. Quite dashing. Right. I always think like maybe if i cared about what maybe i could focus and i could try to look a little bit if i had like 20 of him i need to need a little bit of help with that but okay please who else he's easy on the eyes uh and then arda zakarian okay arda she seems to have come out of nowhere and is now uh in addition to yourself on uh 24 7 i see her on a lot like so like when does

arda suddenly become on all the time like when did this happen is this a recent thing well it was um less than a year ago the when i came on board it was myself jamie and tra uh uh travis and he left for Global News to cover Queen's Park. Correct. Exactly. I got that one right. Yes. And so since then, Arda has joined the team and so it's the three of us. Now sometimes if it's, you know,

hey, someone takes a vacation or someone might fill in, but yeah, that's the crew along with our team behind the scenes as well. And you have a good time on that. You look like you're having a good time. I have a great time. Honestly, I know people are like, how do you wake up so early?

Okay, what time do you wake up? My first alarm goes off at 3.50, sometimes four. I'll push four, but 3.50 is the first one. And then I have- When's the last? I never understood this. I know a lot of people do this, but I only have ever had one alarm. Like this alarm goes off and I wake up.

I used to be one of those people, but when you wake up that early the chance of you just saying oh just five more minutes and i have like i even just thinking about that gives me like an anxiety attack so i don't want it i don't ever want to be that person that falls asleep and then ends up you know missing my shift which has never happened yet i think thankfully is this on, is this wood? Yeah, I think so. Um, so yeah, I, I'm that person. I have,

I have alarms going off beginning at, well, either three 50 or 4am and every 15 minutes until I'm out the door. Okay. So what is the, I got to get out now to be on time. Like, uh,

that, that comes like around four o'clock or, uh, I have to be out the door, like in my car heading to the station. Um, I'd say no later than later than yeah no later than 5 a.m 5 a.m that's not terrible it's not terrible no regular people are getting up at around you know like 5 36 o'clock yeah exactly so it's really not that it's really not that bad and i know that there are people out there who probably even

wake up even earlier than me so um but but I consider, I love what I do. So I, it really is just, that's just a minor detail is the time. Did you overlap at all with Ann Romer? I did. I'm trying to do the math. Yeah. I came on board November of 2016 to CP24.

And so Ann at the time was, she was still anchoring for us. And I met, I had a chance to meet. Was she nice to you? Like, tell me the truth. Was Anne nice to you? She was lovely to me. Anne was great.

Because majority of the time when we would cross paths on air, that's another thing, too. Some people assume that because you work for the same station, it's like, oh, you get to see each other all the time and you're all buddy-buddy. But the reality of it is, is that majority of the time that I would actually even speak or be in contact with some of my colleagues is on air, which in reality is not even in the same building. So you have the anchors at the station and then you have the reporters who are out there,

you know, wherever. Uh, so I never had got a chance to see Anne in person often, but the few times that I did, she was, she was great. And considering I was the new kid on the block at the time, she was always nice to me and she gave me, um, you know,

she'd give me some words of wisdom every now and then. I'm glad to hear it. Yeah. I noticed she's, uh, found a way to get back on. She did. She did.

In the form of commercials now. Yeah. Cause I, and people like to tell me when there's an role because you know you do know and was on cp24 and then she retired a couple of times right she came back and then she retired and then she came back because for everybody's vacation time or whatever so i get people love to send me like pictures of their tv like oh and citing let's see there hasn't been an and citing on on CP24 for a long time, but then suddenly I started

getting notifications again. Anne's back on, but you're right. It's Anne's in an ad that runs a lot on CP24. So she found a way to get back on CP24 without being on CP24. I think she's a bad genius. She might be a genius.

That's four times if I count this. I haven't had a chance to speak with i haven't seen her since i've last seen her commercials so i i next time i see her i need to ask how she's doing and if there's more on the way horizon she's promised this is uh an ann recent ann promise is to come back on toronto mic and to take me to Ikea for lunch. Like this was... Oh, Big Spender. I know, Big Spender. I can't imagine.

You can keep your lobster and your caviar. Give me Ikea lunch with Ann Romer, right? Those meatballs are pretty good. Yeah, for sure. For Swedish meatballs, absolutely. So they're okay. We've done, I have to do a check mark. We've done our Ann Romer component. Is there anybody at cp24 you just want to give a shout out to because they were

they're kind or nice or something maybe they become good friends or something anything or are they there's any uh you don't have to do this but you can tell me the jerks too i'll take a note on all the jerks no honestly i really enjoy working there like it it's one of those things that i don't take it for granted and I don't take it like lightly. I mean, I get to what I do. I genuinely have fun with what I do. I mean, there's really no...

But do you ever get a crappy assignment? Like somebody got the Scott MacArthur assignment. Like I would think that, I mean, not that you'd be good for your career, I suppose, but like it's not fun. Exactly. Depending on who you ask, you know, covering a Raptors game is probably like, it could be a crappy assignment. It just depends on the type of reporter you are. I guess what I mean is,

you talk about how fun it is, but you must sometimes have to cover non-fun things. Oh, of course. When I mean fun, it's that I genuinely enjoy what I do. And yes, even though at times there are nights where i'm not covering anything did i say scott macarthur did i say scott you may have said you i know you met bruce i know i've been bruce poor scott yeah you think what do you because scott's uh i know yeah that's hilarious you could have called you could have corrected me uh but

it's like i heard myself say it and then i'm like did i say that scott macarthur that tells you what my brain's at i'm'm thinking of Jay's talk because the spring training's coming. But anyway, Bruce McArthur, he's the serial killer and as far as we know, Scott McArthur hasn't killed anybody. As far as we know. By the way, Bruce

is no longer with Bell Media. Scott left your family. He's left Bell Media. Do you know that? Oh, I did not. See, I'm going to mess it up. Scott left your family. He's left Bell Media. Do you know that? Oh, I did not. See, I'm going to tell you something. Oh, okay.

Tell me something. He's jumped to Rogers to host Jay's Talk after Blue Jays games on Five Nights. I didn't know that. I thought he still had this comic artist show. So you won't say about the next Christmas show. No, he's gone from 1050. Gotcha. On that note, and I can't remember where i was gonna start

but i might as well ask you so the bell media empire so at one extent we talked about chch and the bam or whatever and then at some point after that uh a guy like nick dixon for example right gets a gig at cp24 but there's actually a number of chch alumni that have made their way i bet uh nick was one of them yeah nick for sure and then he parlays so now he's in the Bell Media family and he parlays his CP24 thing into kind of a neat anchor spot on CTV

so what about somebody like yourself do you have a plan or do you just want to keep doing your best and see what opportunities arise do you envision yourself at some point take it over for Lisa LaFlemme? Is that the goal? Like, I need to know the goals here. National, CTV National. You know what, right now, I'm still deciding. I'm still going with the flow. I do enjoy what I do here for

right now. I like my variety because not everyone at CP24 or just in this general news market gets to do what I do. So that's why I find myself very fortunate and grateful for what I do, because I do get to do some hard hitting news stories, you know, on some evenings, and then I get to switch it up and have loads of fun on your Saturday and Sunday mornings. And that variety for me personally, I enjoy that. Some reporters, some journalists would actually despise that. And that's totally fine. But as far as Kayla Marie is concerned, I love what I do. And I think it fits me well.

So for right now, I am content with what I'm doing. But of course, you always want to dream. You always want to have goals. You should never just be stagnant. And that's the interesting thing about being with a company like bell media is that like just in this market they have they have like they have news talk 1010 for example right they have tsn 1050 they have tsn right yeah like i mean we talked about and that was kind of a bubba thought and i'm kind of curious now like whether you'd want to ever do sports media or if you think you're gonna stick

with like news i love sports i mean even when i get to cover sports because that's the the great thing about cp24 is that we still do a decent amount of sports coverage because we're always live and breaking um so i get my sports fix from time to time if you will um but it's definitely a thought um that has crossed my mind the other kayla's there like i know and you guys could do something together maybe kayla is fantastic and because i love her not like i respect kayla from as my friend and as well as a colleague and i think she like i i can i we learn from each other you know in addition to and i think that's part of the reason why our friendship has just continued to blossom because she's someone in the industry that it's like, I've,

I, I, I respect her as a woman, but also as a colleague and what she's doing right now. And I think what she is doing is great. And she's literally paving the way as we speak, which is awesome to kind of witness, um, just by her being there. And I think that she represents a lot, but I think that there needs to be more representation, more diversity across the board, especially in sports broadcasting in this country. Amen. Absolutely. Absolutely. And slow changes are now happening,

but we need to make some more progress on that front. Without a doubt. I've done whole episodes committed to this thing. I've had panel discussions about diversity in Canada's sports media. We definitely need to do better. Now, we're going to close with a jam. We're going to kick out a jam. But before we kick out a jam, congratulations

on two fronts. First of all, you have new puppies? That sounds like a... a sounds dirty but it's not this is very uh innocent stuff tell me about these puppies solomon and ivy those are our two amazing rambunctious american akita puppies that yeah my fiance and i um we recently got uh just under two months ago. So life as a puppy, as a fur mom now, has changed.

Okay. So that's great. I saw footage of you with these puppies on CP24, I think, last weekend or something like that. But then you mentioned this fiance.

Yes. This explains why I'm wearing shades right now. So you got very large diamonds and many diamonds on your finger. When did this happen? This happened in December.

And this guy, who is this guy who has managed to land Kayla Marie Williams? To steal my heart. His name's Adrian, Adrian Tracy, who happens to play for the Hamilton Ticats. See, it all comes full circle. It all comes together. So that's obviously, I initially met him when I was working there. And one of the things was people automatically assume, oh, so were you guys dating when you were there as a TV host? No, we were not. It was strictly professional when we first met,

but that is where we met, obviously. But the story behind our, I guess, coming together and us dating, it was the seed was planted there when we first met, but it wasn story behind our i guess coming together and us dating um it was the seed was planted there when we first met but it wasn't until i actually left hamilton and i returned to toronto and i was just you know doing my own thing was single we we kind of reconnected and that's where it all started and that's when you started putting some uh some clicks on the camry i guess because you're in scarborough and now you're off to Hamilton and back and forth. And the puppies live in Hamilton? They do.

Yeah. Tougher fur mom over here. I know. I'm just, I constantly miss them. But they're so cute and they're also so bad at times. But they're good. They are bad, but they're good. Does that make sense?

They're just like real children. I suppose, suppose yeah although i don't have any real children i i really don't know that part of it but if this is just like a preview of what's no i was gonna let that slide like i'm gonna give i'm gonna mansplain to you the difference now between these fur babies and real children no i know it's not even close but it's definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things. It allowed me to be, yeah, it's put things in perspective, learning to kind of raise these little puppies. It's good for you.

And this Adrian Gentleman, he's a good guy. He's a great guy. Just making sure. I was, okay, so when Hazel May came over, her very large professional athlete husband accompanied her.

And I was, because his name is Kevin Barker. And he played for the Blue Jays. And Kevin, so he's a very large guy. I barely fit down here, but he, and he was kind of sitting there

and I'm like, oh, interesting. It's like, it's like she brought like a, she brought a bodyguard or something. Just to make it, what does she think?

Oh, Hazel's Filipino descent as well. She is. Yeah. I haven't had a chance to, I've, I've met her once or I, well, just to make like what does she think i've got oh hazel's filipino descent as well she is yeah i haven't had a chance to i've i've met her once or i well i've been in the same vicinity as her but we've never just kind of chopped it up hazel and i not yet at least well i wondered if uh if you were gonna do the same thing i'm like maybe she'll bring because i'm assuming i actually i have to plead a little ignorance uh but he's big guy guy? Adrian is? Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, about 6'3".

I just figured he'd be sitting there kind of giving me this look like, don't mess with Kayla, you mess with me. No, no. He's actually, he's at the facility right now working out. So he's busy. So congrats on that.

So when is this wedding happening? We don't have a solid date just yet, but it is happening in 2020. 2020. Yeah, next year. See, I knew that was next year because I did that math too. Yeah, there you go.

All right, congrats to you. You got puppy. When I find my mom, let me tell her about her puppies. I'm like, oh, we can't word it that way, but it's just how it comes up. You got puppies.

You got a new fiance and you got a big ring on your finger. This is all good stuff. Do you want to kick out a jam? Kick out a jam? My request, or do you already have something kind of set up? How's this going to work? Kayla, of course it's your request. It's your jam. Well, you

asked me what my favorite song of all time was. Don't even say it. We're going to play it. Here, let me start playing it, and then we'll talk about it. This is Kayla Marie. I'm going to start it. Here, let me start playing it, and then we'll talk about it. Okay. This is Kayla Marie. See, I'm going to start calling you Kayla Marie. Kayla Marie's Jam. I never meant to call you when you're sorrow I never meant to call you when you're pain I don't want to wonder why I'm still laughing Speaking of good halftime shows at Super Bowl.

I see you laughing in the purple rain. It's a good one. I was going to say, don't stop singing, Kayla. You're great. Okay. And yes, great Super Bowl performance. I actually had the chance, the great honor, to see him live in person before he passed,

which was incredible. Was that the Sony Center show? No, it was actually in New Orleans for Essence Fest. Yeah. For which fest? Essence Fest. Yeah. Yes, Essence Fest.

I have no idea what that is, but it sounds... Happens every year in New Orleans, but it was fantastic. I want to say that was 2014 or 2013, but yeah, and it was just as great as I envisioned it. He's a great basketball player, you know, Prince.

Team blouses all the way. That's right. Very good. All right, great. Now, did you always like Prince since you were a kid? Or did you discover Prince later? Later in life? No, no. Pretty early on, yeah. But he's just

fantastic on all fronts. And, yeah, I just, you miss that. I mean, he had, he was so talented in so many ways. Ridiculously talented. Yeah. that I mean he had he was so talented in so many ways ridiculously talented yeah and one of the greatest guitar players yeah not to mention the other what 15 instruments he's ridiculous what happens if husband has to play in Regina? Yeah, that's a great question. This is a reality that we must face, right?

It's a possibility. It certainly is considering he's a free agent. Can you talk to the Argos maybe? Hey, if you're listening, Argos or Digats, don't you own the Argos? I can't remember how that fell down. I think you do. You know what? i think there might

be some i'm pretty sure i know that you owned it all and then you share the ownership now with like i think it's like similar to mls even not quite but yeah you're you definitely own it like you need to talk who's in charge of this bell these days you need to talk go to the top and see what you can do oh i'm just at the bottom of the totem pole, Mike. No, but we're actually going to... It's definitely something that we're going to have to wait and see. Which is a little... It's exciting mixed with a little bit of nerves, too. I've never experienced this before.

I've never done this. We shall see. It's all part of the journey. So when I was starting to play the song, you checked your phone, right? I did. Okay.

So, so what happens in, we're almost done here, but let's say right now you get a text, like, I don't know, there's a fire, there's a fire somewhere in Toronto. Okay.

Like could you, you could get like a, do you, are you on call in any regard? Like, it's like, like how does that work when you cover stories that are breaking or whatever? Well,

we work shifts, right? Just like everyone else. But it would have to be something really, really out there for the desk to call me before the start of my shift and say, Hey, we need you to go here. Especially considering I still have two hours until I have to report in for duty. But there has been times that I've gotten a call the morning of saying, hey, we need you to start early. Can you do that?

Sure. So it's a possibility, and that's kind of what you're dealing with when you're constantly on the go and covering breaking news. So when you checked your phone there, there's no fire I need to worry about. It's all good, right? No fire. We're good. We're good on that front. This will be one of those episodes we look back on where we talked about how there was no nothing happening and then can you believe what happened

later that day oh my goodness it'll be like oh crap everything changed that's the thing when i when i walk into work a lot of the times i don't know what exactly i'll be covering it's very it's always like all right what's what are we going to do today but what about synergies you have a uh all news uh not all yeah i guess it is news talk 10 10 is in your family for example like is there any like i know for example i'm friendly uh two-time guest siobhan morris does uh reporting for 10 10 10 like is there any synergies there like where you share the same anything like uh do you know what i mean by that like yeah um like for instance we often share or rely heavily on our on our sister stations for instance tsn and ctv and the same way that they'll rely on things that

we do as well so it's all it's all one big team do you ever worry that they just at some point to save money they just decide okay now there's one person for. Do you ever worry that they just, at some point, to save money, they just decide, okay, now there's one person for all of you to do this coverage? They could easily do that. Yeah. Who's to say that? Because CTV did let go Joe Tilly and Lance Brown, et cetera,

and now they just feed in TSN people, I think. Or they've kind of shrunk their sports coverage. But, yeah, I think that's probably a thought that anyone in this industry, probably yourself included, think of as far as the future of this business. I was going to say, that's why I've never worked in your industry

for even a minute because yeah, it seems scary if you're in the industry and you only have so much control over, uh, all that, but I try not to lose sleep on things like that. Listen,

I do what I can right now. And, um, what is for me is for me. Could you, if you wanted to, could you go coach, uh,

volleyball in, uh, the Philippines right now, if you wanted to, or no, is this a, uh, a skillset you have?

Like, could you still play? Could you return to? Or no? Is this a skill set you have? Like, could you still play? Could you return to the photon imperial dragons? I've left that note. It's Renato's. Could I still go there and play right now? Yeah, I don't know.

I just like if you, could you go back? I would need to be way more diligent and consistent in the gym and and in order to kind of get back into 100 training so you're not in a game shape right now no i am in athletic shape but am i in game shape there's a big difference big big difference because you can go to the gym i still go to the gym four or five days a week to good life. But to actually be on a court,

I haven't stepped on a volleyball court in a few months. So that's like ages. So if you're really serious about kind of getting back into playing form, you have to be in both like a gym, a good life gym, as well as on a volleyball court in the gym. Kayla, your jam kicks ass though. I'm just going to bring it back. Thank you. Yeah. Let's bring that back. It's not the radio edit. Kayla, did you have a good time?

I had a great time, Mike. That was amazing. I can't believe what you crammed into this life. This was fun. I've got my Prince and my Lois Lolo going together, and I realize that Prince extra goes a long time. Like, I totally would take a tip. It's not the radio edit. This is why I could never work in radio.

I even butchered that but here we go but uh yeah kayla amazing kayla marie i'm sorry for calling you kayla kayla marie that was uh like amazing to to get to know you better and you to hear your personality come out and it's great seeing you on cp24 uh 24 hours a day seven days a week you're always on my television. Why, thank you, Mike. Thank you for having me. This was fun. And thank you for my lasagna. When do you think you're making this? Because you got to let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours before you cook it. You know what? I'm probably going to eat this on Thursday. Let me know. Tweet at me what you think. I think it's amazing. It's amazing. And enjoy the beer. Maybe a fiance will enjoy one or two of those I don't know

if that's in his fitness regime but enjoy some local craft beer and thanks again for coming and if you ever want to come back

and kick out the jams with me that would be amazing too is that an invite that's your top 10 songs so that was like the teaser

like there's your one of your favorite songs of all time Purple Rain Prince you give me your 10 favorite songs of all time I'm doing Purple Rain, Prince. You give me your 10 favorite songs of all time. I'm doing it with Stu Jeffries in a couple of days. We play and discuss your 10 favorite songs of all time.

It's fun. I'm in. Okay. Done. And that brings us to the end of our 429th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Kayla Marie is at Kayla Marie

T-O. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. And Paytm is at

Paytm Canada. See you all in a couple of days when Stu Jeffries kicks out the jam. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of gray

Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash and they're putting down roads?