Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kenny The Hitman: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1835

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

In this 1835th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Kenny The Hitman about his life in radio. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Throwing down more before seven. KZ&D. Welcome to episode 1,835. That's 1835 of Toronto Mike. An award-winning podcast hosted, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great Lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmaPasta.com for more. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aini's.

He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronics.cate.catech, MyElectronics.cate.cate.a.com. committing to our planet's future means properly recycling or electronics of the past and Ridley Funeral Home Pillars of the community since 1921 joining me today making his Toronto mic debut

it's Kenny the hitman Hello there How you doing Kenny? I'm doing great man how you doing? Good. Where do I find you in the world today? I am in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Well, that means it's cold A.F. where you are today. Yeah, it usually is at this time here.

Believe it or not, though, I'm an avid skier, and I love the snow. In fact, I'm a believer if it's going to be cold, it might as well snow like hell anyway. So the more the merrier, bring it on. Okay, well, I wonder, like, would you rather be in Turks and K Coast right now? Yes, I would, in fact. So right off the top, though, we've got you in Collingwood. I think sometimes we get you in Turks and Caicos. Like, do you want to tell us, because we're going to dive in,

we're going to go in the time machine, we're going to talk about your radio career. I got questions for you, Kenny. But, like, why do I bring up Turks and Caicos? What are you doing in Collingwood? Maybe off the top, you tell us what's going on with those two geographical regions, and then maybe we'll go back. Well, it all started, I came to Collingwood about 23 years ago when I lost a radio gig in Toronto, and I was really down and out.

I could not find another gig if my life depended on it. I was like, what am I going to do? I'm going to go work at Sears. Like, what the hell is going on here? So Tom Malone, a really nice guy who I had the pleasure of meeting in the radio business in Toronto, said, listen, I'm in the area. I thought I'd drop by and have a little chat with you. So he came over to my house and he could see it was quite down emotionally.

And he's like, listen, man, why don't you try doing voiceovers for a living? And I said, well, do you think I could actually make a living doing that? He said, oh, God, yeah, if I can, you can. And I said, well, I'll give it a try. And so I borrowed a little money from my parents and bought the necessary equipment to set up the home studio. And started doing voiceovers. And at the very beginning of starting this business, I thought I was going to specialize in one particular field. So I did some research to find out who advertises on the radio more than anybody in the United States, the big pot?

And the answer was car dealerships. So I thought, well, I've often been told I got a pretty decent hard sell delivery. Maybe I should specialize in that. It was at a time when nobody wanted hard sell in Canada. They wanted the guy next door who doesn't have that deep voice, you know? And so I thought, we don't screw them and what they're saying they want the guy next door. I'm going to focus on being that balls to the wall in your face, hard sell car dealer guy. And fortunately, I'm really blessed.

I started with one dealership and it just snowballed. The next thing you knew, I was doing hundreds of them across the United States. Now, I played something off the top there. That's like one of those big, ballsy voices. Is that you, Kenny? Yeah. No, I know. I'm just pretending like I'm not, come on.

It's a special machine I have that. I heard, select the switch. So like, I started doing car dealer commercials here in Collingwood in my home studio, and it was extremely lucrative for me. I was so blessed. And I was on vacation with my wife in Turks and Caicos. And I always would bring a Walkman with me. Wherever I go on vacation, I like to listen to foreign radio.

So I put the Walkman on, and the record was skipping. And I thought, isn't that funny, huh? Well, I'm going to go for a dive in this beautiful ocean and go out some lunch. come back and see what's happening later. I come back about an hour and a half later on the record still skipping. So I ask one of the waiters, like, what's going on, man? The record at this radio station's been skipping for like an hour and a half. This is all what happens all the time, man.

He goes, just right around the corner, you should go and say hello. So I'm like, okay, right around the corner, I'll go there. So I walk over to this radio station and there's a local dude sitting outside drinking a red stripe and smoking a cigarette. And I said, do you realize your record's been skipping for an hour and a half? looked at me and said, Yeah, man, I was at a barbecue, and it took me a while to get back.

So I explained to him, well, you know, that happened to where I come from. You'd be gone, and that's hilarious, and I'm glad you've got so much leeway down here. Good for you. And good for you, and good gig. And I said, you know, who owns this radio station? And he said, oh, it's owned by a very wealthy American businessman in Rochester.

He was the guy that basically didn't invent the satellite dish, but was the first guy to start selling satellite dishes in North America and made it kill a glitch. Remember the big huge ones people had in their backyards? Of course, of course. Yeah, he was the guy that brought all those over. Anyway, so he was a broadcast engineer by trade. He fell in love with Turks and Caicos back in 1984 before there was anything there,

bought up a whole bunch of land for nothing, and then sold it off over the years for millions of dollars. Every hotel on that beach was on a plot of land that he owned. So he did very well with that. And so I basically spent about a year emailing this guy with no reply. And I told him who I am that I've been in radio since I was 13 years old. And, you know, I know what I'm doing. And I love the Caribbean.

And this island deserves a proper radio station. And I was this close to giving up. And I thought, you know what? No, yes. He said no yet. So don't give up. And then sure it is. One morning, I look at my computer and there's a reply.

Literally, my finger was shaking when I went to open up the email. He said, listen, I've read all your emails. I believe in everything you've said. Let's do this. Let's just keep it sensible. Don't blow too much money. Just let's do this the right way. So we launched six radio stations right off the get-go.

A top 40 station, a hot AC station, a Baptist music station, and an island music station. I'm sorry, four stations, not six. Okay. So we kind of had all the ground covered there, you know, a little bit of this, on that station. I wanted to be format specific on each station. I don't like going from Jay-Z into a reggae sign. It just doesn't mix in my mind. So you stick with each format on each station.

So we started up these four stations, and it was like Jesus Christ had come to the island. These people had never had a real proper radio station before, and all of a sudden I'm giving them weather. news and most importantly hurricane reports. I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and put their hand on my shoulder and said, listen, man,

I just want to thank you for what you've done for me and my family. I'm like, well, what do you mean? Well, your hurricane reports, man. We never had those before. We had nothing. Literally, they relied on the fishermen to say, oh, judging by the way, the water's splashing on the coral reef out there, it looks like we might get a hurricane.

That's but all they got. So when all of a sudden they had, you know, in-depth forecast saying where it was, where it's going to be, when it's going to be here. They really appreciated that. So I've been treated like, I can't even explain it to you. I'm like an honorary truck and Caecus Islander. Everybody on the island knows who I am. In fact, it's the strangest thing that's ever happened in my career,

and it's never happened in any other market. When I walk into a store and I start talking to somebody, generally the entire store stops talking, turns around and looks at me, and somebody will point and say, you're the guy on the radio. And for the longest time, I couldn't figure out why doesn't that happen anywhere else? Well, in Toronto, there's a hundred guys on the radio. So they're not going to recognize your voice as easily. In Turks and Cape goes, I was the guy.

And so, and I have been for 23 years. So it's just been the most incredible opportunity I ever made happen on my life. And I really manifest that, to be honest with you, I locked myself in my office for about two years and said, I don't care if it kills me. I'm not coming out of here until I'm successful. Okay, when, remind me, what calendar year did you launch these four radio stations? I'm not very good with calendar years, but it was about 23 years ago.

Okay, so, yeah, like, I don't know, early 2000s, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so I did a little homework. So power 92.5 FM, 102.5, Kills. F.M, 93.9 Island FM. And then, of course, my most, my favorite station, 90.5, Praise Him FM. So, okay, are these, are you still running these four stations? No, we gave praise and Island away. We, we had two employees that were stealing money from us for years that we just said here. That's the real talk, Kenny.

Here's the keys. You can have the radio station, but we don't want to hear from you. anymore. So, dumb question. Now it's just, it's Power 92 and Kiss now. Okay, so Power 92.5 and Kiss, are these like top 40 stations? Yes, indeed.

Okay. Power 92 would be like Kiss 92 in Toronto and Kiss FM would be like, oh God, who's a good hot AC station? Boom. Okay, because, yeah,

boom, playing like great jams from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, basically. Yeah, that's exactly what we're doing. Okay, so if Stu Jeffries wants to retire in Turks and Kikos, you might be able to help him out. He can get in line.

He's after me, okay, hold on. So let me just digest this and we'll get you to Colleenwood. And then I'm going to put you in the time machine, Kenny. This is going to be fun. But so you now, Kenny the hitman in Collingwood, where it's freezing cold right now, because I know how cold it is here in South Atobico, Toronto. But you've got Power 92.5 and 102.5, KISSFM. What's the name of the island in Turks and K Coast where these stations are located?

The island of Providenciales. Okay, I'm writing this down because I'm on my way. They call it Provo for short, P-R-O-V-O. But the official name is Providenciales. Well, I got to stick with Provo because I have trouble pronouncing the word brewery. That's no joke. You're a professional voiceover guy. You don't have problems with a word like brewery, right?

Can you say it for me? Well, it depends on many beers I've had. Okay, Great Lakes Brewery. Let me say, say shout out to Great Lakes Brewery. Shout out to Great Lakes Brewery. Are you going to send? Even though I don't drink beer, they could get me to. I was going to ask if you're going to send me an invoice for that one.

No, it's free of charge, but that's on the house. Okay. So you're still running these stations even though you're in Collingwood. Is that right? Yeah. So when I came up. with the idea, I thought, could you run a radio station in a foreign country from Canada with one of these new automation things? So I called up Scott Studios, one of the first great automation systems that I were with. And I said, listen, I have a question for you. If I put one of these in my home and Collingwood, Ontario and connected it to the internet, could I run a radio station in another country? And they said, absolutely, as long as they have reliable internet, which at the time they didn't, when we originally started, it was on an awful lot. There were a lot of technical problems. in the very beginning.

Right. But now I'm safe to say that they've got better internet Turks and Kikos than we do are calling it. Okay, well, there you go. How often do you get yourself to Turks and Kicos? Since you're a big celeb, you probably don't have to buy yourself any a drink in Turks and Kekos. So like, let's get this radio star a drink.

But how often do you get down there? I have been 55 times. That's 55 times more than I've been there. And I'd go another. 55 tons. I absolutely love it. I unfortunately got divorced about eight years ago. And when that happened, I thought, well, you know what? This is kind of neat. I'm a free man. I can do what I want, what I want. And so I was going down like every two months. And I loved it. And then what's happened in the last, I have a barter deal with an amazing hotel chain in Turks and Cape Coast five-star

top-of-the-line hotels. And you're right, they buy all my drinks. But what happened was, In the initial stages, they had always had rooms. At any time, there's 30% vacancy. So they would say to me, Kenny, you can come anytime you want. Like, you don't even have to ask, just come. And then about a year ago, Turks and Catoz took off with so much popularity due to all of these hip-pop stars and movie stars going there and doing photo shoots on the beach, that all of a sudden they went from having 30% vacancy at all times to no vacancy.

Like they were just booked up all the time. So they're not going to give me a $7,500 a night room for free when they can, you know, rent it out to somebody else. So as such, I don't go down as often as I used to, but I try it for a minimum of four times a year. So is there a physical presence for this station there? Or is it all virtual? Like, it's all like, do you have it? There's no studio there, I guess, if you're doing it from Collingwood? We did.

I built a spectacular studio there. and it just sat there empty for the longest time until one day I just said to my business partner, I said, listen, we're paying like $3,000 a month for this studio that we never use. Wouldn't it be better to just, you know, stop doing that? He's like, well, it's up to you. You're running the station.

You do whatever you think is best. So I made the determination that we don't need a studio. I can do anything just like you're doing it now on Zoom. I can go and meet with people to record in person. you know, meet them at a cafe, whatever. Things have changed big time. You don't need a fancy studio anymore. And if you notice, nobody gives a shit about sound quality anymore.

Like in the past, you know, when I started in radio, you had to be in a room you could hear a pin drop, you know, like super airtight. I mean, no noise from the outside world. And now, like with, you know, social media, there's just noise everywhere. And nobody really gives to give a crap. Well, it's true. Like, I produce shows for many people. And there are still some people who are.

like warning me that they have a dog in the next room and sometimes if a squirrel goes by the window, the dog might bark. And I, the truth is, I like a little, give me a little dog in the background. Like to me, this is all the authentic sounds of somebody living a real life in the real world. Like, I mean, if your kid might come home from school and I hear a door close and maybe I hear a little bit of noise, this is no longer, you know, a violation of some cardinal. I don't think anyone even notices it. No, and nobody cares.

No, exactly. Okay, so feel free to have any dogs. You have a dog? I've had four German shepherds in my time. I am a huge German shepherd fan, but my last one died. The day of my divorce, unfortunately, in my living room. And this was years ago now, but it was so traumatic that I don't think I can ever go through it again. I've had family members die.

And believe me, I love my mom and dad to death. couldn't love them more. But when my dog died, it was worse than when my parents died. So your marriage and your dog died on the same day? Well, pretty much. I had a divorce trial that lasted seven days in a row. And on the final day, when they made the very unfortunate judgment, I came home to my dog, lying dead. Oh, my... Kenny, this is like, we haven't even, you know, the sweet, for me anyways, I'm very interested in, you know, talking to you about your, particularly your, your Toronto radio career, but we're learning a lot about you off the top here.

So we learned that's sad. Like, I'm sorry for your loss. And I'm not even going to, like, taint this sweet moment here by saying shout out to Ridley funeral home, because that would be disrespectful. I'm actually really sorry that you lost your dog there. And I'm sorry you lost your marriage. But, like, you've got a couple of stations in Turks and Kikos, and I'm going to drop two fun facts on you.

You tell me if they're true or false. Okay. Okay. You're the first. broadcaster to run a foreign radio station from Canada, true or false? So I'm told, yes. So that, to me, that's significant. You're the first guy to be running a foreign radio station from this wonderful sovereign nation of Canada.

It's my Marconi claimed a fan. Okay, well, that's awesome. Now, the second, is this true or false? You're the only radio DJ who's on the air every morning in two different countries. allegedly. I don't have any proof of that. Although many people have said, hey, you know, you're probably the only guy that's doing a morning show in Collingwood and in Providency Alleyes at the same time.

Okay, so we need to get Robert Lawson to fact check that one, but that might be true. We just don't know for sure. But now you've kind of opened this can here. So you're on the air in Collingwood. I know you're talking to me from Collingwood. What station are you on the air in Collingwood at? Max 97-7. It's been around for, I think about six years now. Very similar to boom, almost identical to boom in Toronto. And I do the morning show from six to ten so that I can afford to pay my spousal support. And how long have you, no, how, listen, okay. That's true, by the way.

Okay, well, listen, I know how expensive divorces. It's the worst financial happening any human will ever, uh, you know, within reason, we'll undertake. It's very expensive to get divorced. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. And I unfortunately had a female judge who believed that I was an extremely wealthy man, that my ex-wife told the judge that I come home from Turks and Haco's with bags and bags of cash and that I hide it under my beds. And the judge believed her.

And so, yeah, I got hit really hard. I'm paying what's called high end spousal support, which most people don't have to pay. Okay, so you will be sending me an invoice. Definitely. There's no end to it. It'll be forever. This sounds terrible because you've been painted as like Tony Soprano.

Remember when Carmela was finding money like in garbage cans around the house and stuff? Yeah, yeah. I wish. Okay, geez. Okay, well, this is awful, but we're going to bring you down memory lane anyways. And shout out to Jenna, right? This is Kenny and Jenna in the morning. Yeah, Jenna's been gone for.

quite a few years. It was funny. She said very early into our, and we, we really clicked. I thought, oh, boy, have I ever lucked out here? This, this girl's fantastic on the air. We, we just hit it off. We talk well together. I thought this is going to be great. And about, I guess, three months into it, she came to me and said, you know, you told me once that you look forward to coming to work, that you love what you do, you love being a top 40 jock and talk it over the intros and doing all that stuff. I said, yeah, she goes, I don't. You know, when I wake up in the morning, I want to cry. I don't want to go out to the car at 5.30 and go to this radio station at 6. And she goes, you know, I want to have a real job.

I want to buy a house one day. I want to make some money. And of course, radio is not very famous for paying a lot of money. So she made what I consider a very bright career move and went to work for a brewery and is doing fine. Great. Okay, so that's obviously my researcher is getting fired after this conversation. Well, you're looking at old information. Well, that was the press release, right? This is the press release. And obviously, they don't update these press releases three months later to say,

Jenna got a real job. But okay, so are you solo? You are the Stu Jeffries of Collingwood? I am indeed, yeah. Okay, and you've had that gig for, I guess, several years now? Five years I just realized. Okay, and it's going well? Yeah, they love me, I love them.

Nobody gives me any crap, and I get to do what I like to do. And, you know, I'll be honest with you, a morning show is hard on anybody. Like, it destroys your sleep. So you're constantly dealing with being tired and insomnia and sleep issues. But there's no better time to be on the radio than in the morning waking people up. And, you know, I just, I grew up listening. to Brady in the morning and and all the famous Toronto

morning men along the way and I just thought that's it. That's what I want to do. I want to be on the radio. And that was 1050 chum, right? Where you're waking up too and as a kid. Yeah. And so I called who did I call

Bob Cook. If you can remember Bob Cook was the voice of City TV and prior to that a newsman on City TV and prior to that a newsman on 1050 chum. And when I was 12 or 13, I called him and I said, listen, I want to do what you do? How do I do that?

Like, what do I do to become a radio guy? He's like, well, how old are you? I said, I'm 12. Because you know what you want to do, and you're 12 years old? I said, yeah, I've always known what I wanted to do. Since the day I just knew my whole life. I wanted to be on the radio and in the entertainment business, I guess he would say.

I also dabbled in television commercials and modeling and stuff like that. But I just, I was blessed that I always knew what I wanted to do. And I'll remember when I, so I called Bob Kluck, and he said, come on down and have a tour with the radio station, bring your parents. And we did a little tour, and he said, listen, I'm really impressed by your son's, you know, inspiration here. If you'd like, he can come down after school every day and rip the new, wire and cart things for us and record things for us and get us coffee and you know it'll be a real

gopher job but it's an opportunity of a lifetime to learn from the best and I said that absolutely so I spent more time at chum than I did at high school really honestly I rarely went to school I would just go to chum and hang out with Bob McGee John Major Terry Steele um Jeannie Becker wow so many amazing talent did people that opened up their arms from me and said, hey, you know, well, come on in, come on down after school, you can sit in the studio and watch me for four hours. I don't care. I'll teach you.

I'll teach you how to do this, that, and the other thing. These people were amazing. John Major bent over backwards for me, as did Bob McGee and countless other people in this business. Bob McGee was married to Jeannie Becker. Yes, he was, yeah. Okay, all these pieces are fitting together here. But I actually, I can't believe I feel like I'm going to fact-check you.

you on your own origin story, which is what a terrible thing to do. Are you sure it was Bob Cook? Yeah. Okay, so I'm just going to play a little clip of who I thought it might be, and then you'll tell me, Mike, you're out to lunch. How dare you tell me my own origin story? I am Kenny the hitman. But here is, let me play this.

Let me play this. I am right. Okay, but let's play this and you'll tell me if I'm right or wrong. Here we go. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and course language, Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Yes, that's the proper person. Mark Daly, I have all, guys.

Ironically enough, I ended up becoming the backup voice guy for Mark Daley at City TV a number of years ago. See, all of this is very interesting to me, but I am most fascinated by the fact that you got the wrong chap at Chum responsible for your origin story. I don't know why Bob Cook came into mind, but he was responsible. from my success at City TV. He believed in me and said, I think you can be the backup guy for Mark Daley and made that happen for me. Okay, so when you're, I guess you're a teenager, but you're like 13 years old or something, you call up Mark Daly. So he's a newsman at 1050 chum. This is before the Mark Daly I know, who is the City TV Mark Daly, the voice. By the way, quickly here, since you are a music DJ who is friends of Mark Daly. Is that his voice on Rush's hit song? sub-divisions. Oh, my God. You know what?

I'd have to hear. Nobody's ever pointed that out to me. So how about this? Because why don't you take this as homework? Like when we're done, go to YouTube or whatever you use, Spotify, whatever. Listen to subdivisions and send me a note if you believe that subdivisions is a sample of Mark Daily on City TV.

I'm going to say no, but. Well, get back to me. Nobody had a voice like Mark. Like Mark was just off the charts. Listen to it and get back to me. And if you still think it's no, that's, of course, that's what you think. But just, yeah, have a listen

because it's been a while probably since you listen to subdivisions and get back to me on that one. So, okay. So Mark Daly, the voice, gone far too soon. We talk about Mark Daley quite a bit on this podcast. He was so impressed with you

that he's basically like, hang out after school, watch us work at 1050 Chum, which is your station anyway. Like, what an education you received as a teenager? It was unbelievable. I literally shake my head every day and say, I can't believe that all came together,

and I'm extremely fortunate and grateful. And let me ask you if this is true. So, obviously, what, by the way, what high school did you go to? Well, a couple of times I went to one called Thorneal High School, which is just north of Young and Steels. And then I transferred,

in grade 12 to Thorn Lee High School on Bayview Avenue in Thorn Hill as well. But I did not graduate high school. Okay. I was one credit short. I thought, do I stick around and do another year of school for one fricking credit or do I want to go work in radio? So I asked Alan Waters at the time. I said, excuse me, sir, you know, I've just spent the last four or five years here at

Chum learning from all of your amazing people. what college do you suggest I go to? And can I say the F word on here? Yes. He said, fuck college. You just have the best education that anyone could ever ask for. What you need is experience.

He said, just like a tennis player. I could teach you how to play tennis until the cows come home. But until you get on that court and start pounding that ball, you're never going to be any good at it. So you need to go somewhere and start pounding that ball

and it can't be Toronto. This is chum. This is the biggest radio station in the country. We're very impressed with you. We'd like to hone your skills, keep you within the company. We have stations from coast to coast. Would you like to start out in St. John's, Newfoundland? And I said, absolutely.

Yeah, fantastic. There was a station called Q-93, the Rock of the Atlantic, just like 1050 chum, program director was Steve Bolton, another great guy in the business. And I'll never forget when I got to Newfoundland. I'd never been there before, and I'm a city boy, basically. one. And I called my parents the very first night bawling and they said, what's wrong? I said, I can't understand what anybody's saying. They don't speak English, Mom. And she's like, no, you'll just have to get used to it. They have an accent there. And at first, I thought it was the

end of the world. I thought I had landed in a place that looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. Everything was gray and rock. And it was just like overwhelming to a city boy. But in no time I learned that there were three girls for every guy on the island of Newfoundland and I was 18 years old. I didn't know this, Kenny, I had no idea. Is that true? Yeah, and it's even higher than that now, I believe. So when you would go to a bar,

I would sit down at the bar and all of a sudden all these women would start coming up and asking me, can I buy you a drink? Would you like to dance? And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And I said to the bartender, dude, what's going on here? And he goes, isn't it like that in Toronto, I'm like, no, bye, it's not like, out in Toronto. And so I ended up spending a year there and really enjoying myself and had a great time.

It was a fun party town for an 18-year-old. Oh, my God. I can only imagine. So Chum sends you to Newfoundland for a year. And then you get the- Well, I quit to go elsewhere. Okay. So where did you go after that? To CHSC in St. Catharines, which was an oldie station. And for an 18-year-old guy, that was just not really, the right format. I was like, I can't stand playing this, all this presley shit. Like, what the hell is this crap? So I was there hating it for about six months. And this is funny. I get a call on the request line and it's Gary Slate from Q107 in Toronto. And I didn't believe it at first. He said,

hi, is this Kenny? And I'm like, hey, it's Gary Slate from Q107 in Toronto. I'm like, oh, hey, how you doing? He's like, listen, I got your stuff, got your package, your regular like a demo. I'm impressed with your education, your experience. I'd like to hire you. Would you like to do our evening show, six to midnight? And I said, well, absolutely. He said, okay, well, how soon can you be here? I said, well, it's three o'clock, and I'm on the air doing the afternoon show right now in St. Catharines. He goes, oh, well, you start at six. I said, well, I don't know. Can I even do that? Like, it's possible for me to get from here to there by six. He goes, well, you don't want the job. I said, no, no, no, no, I will be there at six, sir.

Thank you very much. Hung up the phone, walked into my programmer's office, and I said, listen, man, I got some news for you. I just got hired by Q107 to be their new evening guy. He's like, oh, he seemed a little disappointed. And I hope you can give me two or three weeks notice. And I said, dude, I can't even give you five minutes notice. I've got to leave right now. But you're on the air. I said, I know, but it's Q107, man. Like, come on. what would you do? And I don't think he was very pleased.

He probably never was, but I left and went to Q. Well, you got to love a boss who calls you at 3 p.m. and says, if you want this gig, you got to be in the studio for six. That's scary sleep for you. Well, can I say fuck that? That's not fair. But, you know, you... Well, it led to good things.

But eventually, then I got fired from there again. I've been fired from there twice, actually. Oh, yeah, you have a second tour of duty. So here, we're going to go on chronological order. So this is your first stint at Q. At this point, are you Kenny the Hitman? No, I was Kenny Coglin, my real name. Okay.

So when we get to the station where you become Kenny the Hitman, you'll let me know, right? Right. Okay, okay. So this first stint at Q107, because you leave the province again. So how long are you at Q this first round? It was just over. I'm going to guess a year and a half. And I was up here in Collingwood skiing,

and I let my Camaro to a buddy of mine to go return his rented ski equipment. I said, do you meet me at the bottom of this chairlift at 4 o'clock so we can drive back to Toronto? I can be home time to do my show. Well, 4 o'clock comes around and he doesn't show. I'm like, where the hell's my car? And where's my friend? And all of a sudden, I see him walking down the road. I'm like, what's going on?

And I walk up to him. Where's my car? He goes, oh, geez, dude, I had an accident. I wrote it off. I hit a telephone pole. I'm like, oh my God. So I phone,

oh, God, Maco at Q107. Evelyn Maco. No, not Evelyn Macco. Oh, Maccow. It's Bob McQuitt, Senior. Yeah, Bob McQuick. And because Gary wasn't in at the time,

and Bob was kind of a second in command. And I said, Bob, listen, here's what's happened, and I don't know what to do. And he's like, okay, well, you know, shit happens. So don't worry, but get home tomorrow, and we'll figure somebody out.

for tonight. So apparently Gary Slate went home, turned on the radio at 10 o'clock expecting to hear me and heard another woman on the air, and without asking any questions to me or anybody else, she picked up the phone. He called my house,

at the time I was living with my parents. They were having their 50th wedding anniversary at the time, and he screamed into the phone, where the fuck is Kenny? My mom said, well, he's in Collingwood, and before she had a chance to explain what had happened. He said, well, then if he doesn't care enough to show up for work, he's fired, and just hung up the phone on her. So I get a call

for my mom during her 50th anniversary saying, I got bad news for you. Your boss just fired you. So I thought, you can't fire a person for that. Like, that's like, there's, you know, there's got to be a line somewhere. And so I went to the head management above Gary, his father, Alan Slate. And I said, you know, I'm not here to cause any problems, but I don't, you know, I think I got a pretty legitimate reason for missing one day in a year and a half and I'm hoping you'll reconsider and Gary said, well, I'll tell you what,

I'll give you this job at Q, I think it was like three overnights or something. Or there's a new station in Halifax called Q104, the Rock of the Atlantic, and they're looking for a new afternoon drive guy. You could go out there and make a lot more money. Didn't end up being a lot more, a lot more, but it was a bit more.

And so I went out to Q104 for four fabulous years. Loved working there. Love the staff. Everything. Love the island, the food, everything. Okay, so I'm just processing all this, Kenny. But firstly, this Nepo baby, Gary, what a piece of work this guy sounds like.

I don't know if he's listening to us right now. But yelling at your mom like that bugs me. Like, leave mom out of this. Like swearing at your mom because you didn't come to work, that bugs me. This is her 50th wedding. anniversary and this whole idea of, you know, be in Toronto for six or forget about it and not on the air, not even asking what the reason is. You could have been in the hospital. You know, you could have been getting a blood transfusion or something, but no, you're gone.

Like, this is an egomaniac. Well, you know what? I'm not going to badmouth, Gary Slate, because I think he's a tremendously successful and generous man. But we all make mistakes. Okay. You know, you're a better man than I, as they say. Now, I'm going to, to, so I've got you at Halifax here. Can you just name, before we get you to, speaking of Evelyn Maco, before we get you to

680 CFTR, can you please tell me, who are you working with at Q107 at the time that you liked the name check? And then who was that Q104 that I might know? I'm jogging your memory here. I actually made a little list because I knew you were going to ask me this question.

First of all, there's too many people to mention. It just simply is. But I'm going to start off with Mark Daly, John Major, Bob McGee, Danny Kingsbury. Oh, so I'll tell you when you hit on an FOTM, okay? Danny Kingsbury is an FOTM. Gary Slate, Gary Obie, Mike Cooper. Probably the most influential announcer to me ever.

Like, I just learned so much from that guy. And I went on a vacation with him. I was just fortunate enough to meet him in Aruba once while he was staying at the same resort and bought my drinks the whole week. We hung out the entire time. Just a super guy. And then Evelyn Maco. Okay.

So, Evelyn is not only the best female newscaster I've ever heard of my entire life. And an amazing person. I mean, we don't really know each other that well, but she even showed up at my mother's funeral. And I thought, isn't that classy? Wow. This lady, you know, who's only met me a few times,

we know each other and we know of each other, and we're cordial, but we're not best buddies. because we've never really hung around together or anything. She's one of a kind. Jeff Chalmers, KJ. the DJ, Deanna Nathan, Randy Taylor,

Scruff Connors, brother Jake, Jesse and Gene. And the list goes on and on. Okay, a lot of those people, I know and respect, never had a chance to get Scruff on,

but his son, T.J's been on. Oh, yeah, Spruff was such a talent, an amazing talent. Well, whenever I refer to the list, That's because Scruff used to call the

the listenership. So I do an homage to Scruff on many an episode. But a lot of these names you drop there, big time legendary Toronto radio names. But you're obviously, that's an overall list, so it's not by station. So, because Mike Cooper, I'm guessing you meet Mike, did you know Mike Cooper from 1050? No, I did not. 680 then. Okay. 680, yeah. Okay. So let's do this. Okay. So

you got four good years in Halifax, but what brings you back to the big smoke? I had been dating a girl out there, the love of my life, and it ended badly, and I was really upset, and I just wanted to go home and be with my friends. I was like, I'm so lonely out here. This is not where I belong. I want to get back to Toronto radio again.

So I went back to Toronto, and I was living with a buddy of mine in between radio jobs, and he had a girlfriend who worked for, for a company called Adventure Tours back in the 80s, I guess it was. They were like a travel agency. And she had this brochure lying on the coffee table, a beautiful turquoise blue water at a beach and palm trees. I said, what is that?

She said, that's Accumel, Mexico. I said, well, what are you doing with it? She said, I'm supposed to find an activities director for the resort. I said, well, what does an activities director do? She said, oh, you know, he gets up and talks on the microphone and introduces these nightly entertainment and stuff. And I went, well, fucking hello. And she goes, you wouldn't want to move to Mexico, would you?

I said, fucking right, I'd move to Mexico. And literally two days later, I was at a job interview. I got hired. I had to go to the Mexican consulate and get my work permit. And I was off to go live in a place called Accumal, Mexico, 65 miles south of Cancun. At that time, there were no hotels, no television, no telephone, no conference. contact with the outside world. I had to drive 65 miles to use a pay phone to call my parents in Thornton Hill and let them know I was alive and doing well. And that experience of living

in Mexico for a year was probably one of the, if not the, greatest experience I've ever had because every week you're meeting hundreds of people. So me and the two other activity directors, both from Toronto, would stand in a line and all these buses would come in every Friday. They were all planes from Toronto. I don't know why that was, but every guest that ever came to this hotel was from Toronto for some reason. So hundreds of people arrive, and me and these other guys were single. So as the girls are getting off the bus, it's like, she's mine, she's mine, she's mine, she's mine. And for a single young, horny, 26-year-old guy, it was the best job you could ever imagine. It was because all these women would get there and then realize,

say, wait a minute, we're in the middle of nowhere. There's no discos. There's no bars. There's nowhere we're going to go and pick up a guy. So where is there a guy? Oh, there's one. And so one day, I'd be playing tennis with a priest. The next day, I'd be playing tennis with a Hell's Angel. The next day I'd be with a cop. I got to meet people from every single walk of life and profession. And it was very interesting, especially to meet the Hells Angels. That was quite an experience. And I will tell you this, no effect. against our constabulary, but the worst guests that we ever had at this hotel were Toronto police officers. They would come down, they would drink way too much, and then they'd want to fight,

and then they'd want to fight me. And I'm like, guys, I'm not a security card. I'm an activities director. I'm not here to fight you, and he'd had way too much to drink. And unfortunately, I'm six to or a while. I was at the time. And everybody in that area of Mexico are mines, So they're like four feet tall. So they had a word for me. I can't remember in Mayan that meant the giant one. So whenever there was a fight going on, go get the giant one, which meant me.

And then they'd bring me, and then I'd have to break it up. I'm like, because I don't want to be punched in the face. So it was an interesting job for sure until one night we all got fired because my roommate. So this massive yacht. pulls in to the harbor and a guy gets off and says, I'm an oil guy from Texas or whatever, and this is my yacht.

Do you want to invite everybody on so we can have a party? So they go on the microphone and invite everybody on my boat. I'm like, okay. So, hey, everybody, there's a guy in town, everybody on the boat. So there's hundreds of people on this guy's yacht and they're all drinking and having a good time. And my buddy meets a girl and they kind of take a fancy to one another. And next thing, you know, they disappear and go off into one of the, cabin rooms or whatever you call it.

The next thing you know, an irate man shows up on the boat saying, where's my fucking wife? And it turns out that was his wife that was in the room with my co-worker. And he walked in on them doing the dirty deed on their honeymoon. Wow. Yeah. So his response to that was, I'm going to sue you. He was a lawyer.

I'm going to sue you. I'm going to sue you. I'm going to sue you. I'm suing Canada 3,000. I'm suing everybody. The fucking hotel, you're all getting sued. And so we were literally sent home. Guys, you've got to go home.

There's a plane leaving in two hours. And I'm like, I can't find my running shoes. And they're like, well, I don't care. If you don't get that on that plane, you're going to have to find your own way home. So I couldn't find my running shoes. And this is in the middle of February and flying back from Cancun to Toronto. So I get off at Customs of Pearson and I'm going through the customs line and I'm wearing a tank top shorts and no shoes and the custom guy kind of looked over the counter

because, sir, you realize it's February in Toronto and we've had like eight inches of snow and I'm like, yeah, I couldn't find my shoes. He broke out laughing. So that was a moment. Kenny, that's a wild story. But when you talk about your colleague who was caught in bed with the wife of this oil tycoon, was it really your colleague who was caught in bed or was this a pseudonym for Kenny? No, no, no, no, no.

I was a good boy. Okay, just checking. Just checking here. Because sometimes, oh, my best friend did this, but let's face it, we know who really did that. Okay. So, you're now forced, you're back to Toronto, no shoes, but you're back to Toronto. How do you get back in radio? I took in between radio job selling radio advertising in downtown Toronto.

And one night I got home from work and my sister had written a... giant note on the kitchen table. Kenny, call Gary Obie at Q107. He wants to hire you. I'm like, I'll fuck right on. Here we go, yeah. So I call Gary, and he tells me that they're starting a new station called

AM 640, The Hog. And it was a wicked radio station, probably the most fun radio station I've ever worked out of my life. It was just a riot work in there and yelling over the intros. It's like a super jock kind of station. I don't even know how to explain it.

the processing that they put on everything. And we had a signal, man. We, I didn't even know, like, we went hundreds of miles north in Ontario. Like, I don't even know that, like, Chaplow. I don't know how far that is from Toronto, but it's a long way. And 640 was basically the only thing they had to hear up there. So when we would go up north of Toronto, we were like superstars. I mean, I got pulled over.

Yeah, go ahead. I got pulled over by the cops and calling with speeding doing like, 135 and an 80. I thought, and I'm fucked. And the guy looks at my license and he goes, hog on the hog, you're not, you're not the cog on the hog, are you? And I said, yeah, why?

He goes, hold on a second. Goes back to his car. Next thing I know, your lights and sirens and three other cop cars show up, but they all get into the car. Hey, man, so nice to meet you, blah, blah, blah, what are you doing? And they ended up saying, listen, have you added anything to drink? And I said, well, yeah, to be honest with you,

yeah, guys, I had a couple of beers. but I don't think I'm drunk, so they're like, all right, well, get in your car and follow us. We're having a party in Wasaga Beach tonight, and we'd love you to come. So just follow behind us. So I'm like, it's just really fucking happening. I've been drinking and driving, and the police are giving me an escort to their cottage party. Just like, okay. So, yeah, so anyways, AM 640 was an amazing radio station until it somehow the management became convinced

of if they switched to talk radio, that they'd get bigger numbers and more revenue. And so it became a series of different formats over the years, Mojo and AM 640, the beat of Toronto. And I was the last guy to ever play music.

Like the song as a music-oriented radio station. I played Don McLean, American Pie. Of course. Yeah, because the music died. Okay. Not part of our format, but applicable. So, I remember the hog and I remember the

right they had they had that that grunt that whatever that pig sound effect or whatever right and I remember that was my ex-life well so I'm tell me if I'm wrong am I wrong that

we're talking early early 90s where are we here I think so I'm so bad at that when people ask me because here's what I remember Jesse and Gene have been on this program and Jesse and Gene were morning show at 680

CFTR and then and 640. Yeah, but that's where I'm going with this. They were the morning show at 680 CFTR and then they got told, hey, we're going all news. So, you know, Maco and Dick Smyth, like the news guys, Larry Silver, you guys are safe, but all the music jocks are basically fired

and the story Jesse and Gene tell is that they go basically straight from being fired at 680 to go to 640 and make a deal and become the morning show at 640. So like, I feel like 640 is playing music after the hog, but you remember it differently. Uh-huh. Okay.

Yes. You know what? And I'm sorry, my memory is fried. I'm 60 years old now. So what happened was the hog switched to AM 640, the new beat of Toronto. And at that time, now this here's where Kenny the hitman comes in the play. Okay, okay. Ariobi says, listen, man, you can't keep calling yourself the cog because it sounds too much like the hog. And we're changing the name of the station to AM 640, the new beat of the Toronto. So you've got to come up with a new name. And this was like 20 minutes before I was going on the air to do the evening show. I'm like, oh, fuck, what am I going to do? So I had just happened to be listening to something called California air checks. It's air checks of really good jobs all over the world. And there was a guy from Los Angeles named Chio the Hitman. And I just thought to myself, Chio the Hitman. That's kind of a cool name. What about Kenny the Hitman? So I looked at Dave Sprague, another great guy that I worked with. He was my newsman. I said, What do you think? Kenny the hitman?

He said, sounds good to me. And turn the mic on and became Kenny the hitman. Okay. So all coming together now because, you know, post-680 CFTR,

you got Jesse and Gene doing mornings. And that format, they brought in Tarzan Dan. Yes, they did. And he, I remember, the top 40 or whatever they were doing

had a lot of like, let's say, new kids on the block, for example. Yeah, yeah, Backstreet boys. Right.

Well, even pre-backed boys. Boy band era, really. Yeah, but that first, that new kids, before the Backstreet Boys, you had the new kids on the block and Tommy Page and these kind of guys.

And I absolutely now, I recall this era of 640. By any chance is John Gallagher at this station? I worked with John, although we never really seemed to cross paths. We were just at different times a day. Okay, because based on some of your stories, I wonder if you could challenge John in terms of a number of women bedded in his radio career. Well, probably not. Well, nobody can. He's the king, right?

Like, unless he's full of shit, which I like to give him the benefit of the deal. But I produced a show for John Gallagher called Gallagher and Gross Save the World. He did this with Peter Gross, speaking of City TV. And 680, because he was on the news part of that show. But there was an episode we did about, you know, how many lovers you had in your life. And I think Peter Gross had like nine lovers in his life. life or something. And I'm trying to remember the exact number, but Gallagher said he had over like 600 lovers.

And I was doing some quick math. And I was like, okay, these are Kenny the hitman numbers. No, no, I would say, and this is an interesting story. So when you work at a resort like that in Mexico and there's all these women there, they want to have sex to be perfectly honest. You're young women and they're on vacation and they want to get it on. So every week you are with a different woman. some weeks you're with more than one.

And one funny story, a woman came down from Woodbridge, beautiful aerobics instructor, 44 years old and I was in my mid-20s, but she looked just super. And she said, listen, this is kind of embarrassing, so I'm just going to come right out and say it. I'm happily married. I've been married for 25 years, but my husband is impotent when we're unable to have sex. So he sent me on this vacation to go and meet a guy and have sex and just be careful about it. wear a condom and be clean in that. And I was wondering if I could pay you to have sex.

Oh, my God. I'm not a prostitute. I'm an activities director and a district. You don't have to pay me. And then this is true. And a lot of guys will just shake their head at this and hate me forever. But her girlfriend walked up to the table who was equally as good looking and said, can we all take a shower together?

And I got such an anxiety attack. or just over the thought of the whole thing. I just got to go. And I backed out and I didn't do it. I have friends that will kill me to this day. You did what? There's a Seinfeld episode about that. I'm not an Orgy guy or something like that.

You remember this episode? Some guys can't handle more than one. Do you want to hear a number though? I mean, I'd be happy to share it. But 109 is my estimate. When I came back to Toronto, that was the time of eight. So I went to a doctor and I said, I'd like to get an AIDS test. And he said, well, why do you think you need an AIDS test?

Are you homosexual or an interviewist drug user? I said, no, no, I just, I've had sex with a lot of women in the last year. And he's like, well, what do you consider a lot? And I said, about 109. And he just looked at his face. I'll never forget it. He just walked out of the office kind of speechless and said, yeah, you're going to need an AIDS test. Unfortunately, it was negative.

Oh, well, good to hear that. You, John Gallagher, and Dr. Jay, I think that's the big three. I'm not sure. Well, no, it was Chamberlain, right? Will Chamberlain. Who somebody said? Yeah, I think it was Will Chamberlain. Okay, so to get, well, so that was like our, um, Dr. Ruth Westheimer's segment.

Okay, I'm thinking, uh, she was on CFTR at the time. But did you, were you ever on CFTR? Yeah. So, um, Sharon Taylor. Let's give me. FOTM, Sharon Taylor. She hired me. to be the Sprite Spotter.

So I got a van that said CFTR across the side and Sprite across the back. And it was full of shirts and frisbees and Canada's Wonderland passes. And I was to drive behind somebody who was displaying a CFTR sticker, read out their license plate number, ask them to pull over and award them the merchandise that's out of the road. So I did that for a number of months. And I guess Sharon liked my work. And one night she said, would you like to go on the air and do it? do an overnight show.

And I said, I'd absolutely love to. That would be a thrill of a lifetime. And so I did several overnight shows. This was back at a time when their jocks spoke for like five seconds. Since 80 CFTR, it was like in and out as quick as you can't even

like, what? Did he just say something? And so one break, I think it was my first show doing the overnights. And I think I talked for 30 seconds. And she just stopped the air chat machine. She says, you know, what, Kenny? Normally you'd be fired at this point. We don't let anybody talk for 30 seconds on CFTR. And I'm so sorry you didn't say anything. I didn't know. And so I go home from work.

And it goes that night. And that's when that brochure was sitting on the coffee table. And I went back to Sharon the next day and I laid the brochure on her desk. And she said, what's this? And I said, that's where I'm going to live next week. She was, what do you mean? I said, just got offered a job as the activities director for this resort and I'm going to take it. And she goes, Kenny, nobody ever quits from CFTI. I said, well, let me put it to you this way, Sharon. This has been the most incredible opportunity ever and I can't thank you enough. Radio will always be here for me.

This opportunity will never happen again. Yeah, you needed to pad those stats too. Okay, so I'm glad we got back to that, okay? Only because I was a big 680 CFTR listener at this time, as I told Sharon myself. and a client and friend of mine now is Larry Fedorick, and he was on the air at that time, right? I know Larry, yeah. Yeah, okay, so just shutting out these guys.

If there's any bad blood of any of these people, you need to tell me, Kenny, because I did. No, not at all. Larry was a super kind, sweet gentleman. I agree. I agree 100%. Okay, I'm actually going to now just thank a couple of partners, and then we're going to kind of wrap up your Toronto radio life here.

I find all of this pretty damn interesting. I'll be honest. I'm enjoying this. I hope you have it a good time. Yeah, I am. Okay, good. Because I'm not deleting this, no matter how much you beg. Okay. Hey, let me just say, we just recorded the 100th episode of Life's Undertaking, which is the official podcast of Ridley Funeral Home. It's hosted by, yeah, it's hosted by Brad Jones, who is the funeral director at Ridley Funeral Home. And our special guest for episode 100 was Rob Pruse from The Spoons.

and it was pretty rad. And I urge people to go find Life's Undertaking and check out that episode 100. Then subscribe for new episodes, which drop every two weeks. Speaking of a great podcast. I just had a call from Nick Aieny's and he is the host of Building Toronto Skyline

and we have a new episode we're recording on Friday and we're cooking up another little thing with me and him, like a Nick versus Mike type chatter thing. I'll have more info on this later. but I want to thank Nick Aini's for his support. Couldn't do this without you, Nick. Recycle MyElectronics.com. That's where you go.

Kenny, if you have any old electronics, old cables. Actually, I said dot com like an idiot. I've only said this for three years now. It is Recyclemyelectronics. We all know this. Why the heck that I say.com? We all know this. Okay.

Go there if you have old cables, old electronics, and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. I just got a love. A lovely note from a listener named Lucas Ioneta who told me he just did that because of my mentions and he was telling me all this stuff he was getting rid of his old electronics, old devices, and he was thanking me for the tip because it was really convenient for him. So shout out to Lucas with the lid off. And last but not least, if you were here, Kenny, and instead you're in Collingwood. But if you were here, I would be giving you right now a delicious frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. Yeah.

They're in Mississauga and Oakville. They should be in Collingwood. What's going on there? But go to palma pasta.com for more. They also cater events. And you know what? Pairs nicely with Palma pasta lasagna. Great Lakes beer.

I'd have some fresh craft beer for you from Great Lakes. Instead, we're going to get you right back to Toronto Radio. So we've had you at CFTR. Then you went away and let's face it. You got laid and then you got back here and you went to 8. You went to 640. We talked about the hog. Tell me.

what's after the hog? Oh, 640 turned into a different format, but you were still at 640. Why do you leave 640 and where do you go? Memories, memories. I'm trying to remember leaving 6.3. We all got fired and then I got sent over to Q&O 7. Okay. So same owner. Is this WIC? Yes, or a new cat. I think it's WIC. I think it's WIC. I think it's WIC.

quick. Right. So they fired me from the hog and said, but we'd like to move you over to Q107. And I'm like, all right, here we go again. And so I did three overnights a week on the Rock Radio Network all across Canada. And then I did weekend afternoons, frequently filling in for the great Andy Frost on psychedelic Sunday. That was a great experience, too. Andy Frost, you know,

living legend, his son is an NHL player, as you know, Morgan Frost, and he's an FOTM, not Morgan, but Andy, and I think a lot of people still miss Psychedelic Sunday. Oh, that people loved that show.

It wasn't really my cup of tea, to be honest with you, but there were people out there that just lived for that show. That's all they cared about, and when it deviated from its original format in any way, people would freak out. What do you do? Right, right.

Okay, then, so what is, what happens after Q and 07? So are you still in Toronto Radio? Yeah, I eventually went over to, just trying to remember the order of all this. Right. Because there's so many of them. But I went to Z103.5 for a while in Toronto and did the morning show. Okay, is that Evinoff group? Yes, it was, yeah.

Okay. I have an interesting story about that. Yeah, that's here. I was doing the morning show there and really enjoying it. and got a call from a guy's son that I, a guy I had worked with in radio, he'd actually been my program director at one time, and his son was a young kid getting into radio. And this young kid said, Ken, can you do me a favor and hand my demo tape to your program director so I make sure that he gets it and listens to?

And I said, yeah, man, no problem doing that for you, no problem. Gave the tape to the program director. Two days later, I was fired and he was a new morning, man. Do I get to know who this guy was? Scott Fox. I hold no hard feelings for Scott Fox. He's a very talented young man. Okay, he's also an FOTM, so you're in the same little club there.

I know Scott Fox. Okay, that's a great story. Okay. And then so I want to say Z-1035. I know they go Z-103, but that sounds American to me. I'm sticking them Z. They always say Z. They've never said Z.

Because it rhymes of three. And they say dot-fod. instead of 0.5s, just to be different, I guess. After Z, I went to Mix 999 for a while. Are you back with Larry Fedorick at Mix 999? Yes, he was there at that time. Is Tom Rivers there? Maybe you come after him.

I don't think so, not at that time, no. Okay, and by any chance is Carla Collins there. Yes, and I am friends with Carla. She is a fantastic woman in so many ways. Big shout out to Carla Collins. Yeah, well, she was here a few weeks ago. She was in this base. Yeah, she's back and forth between here and L.A. a lot. Well, she has a gay fiancé who's in Barry, and so she comes back here and spends time with him.

Yeah, so that she can tour all over southern and central Ontario, I guess. Yeah, because, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So much love to Carla Collins. One of the legendary Toronto Radio station stories, I guess they paired Carla Collins with Steve Anthony on Mix 99.9. Were you around for that? Yeah, and I know Steve very well. Didn't Steve Anthony live with Andy Frost? Yes.

And isn't there a story? I feel like there's a story. Again, we're telling tales at a school, but they've all been told in Toronto Mike before, but Mitsu, the Quebec Chantous, the very attractive. You know Mitsu? No.

Oh, Mitsu, the artist. Bye, bye, bye, Mon Cowboy, that was the big hit. And de Mois, this was a big, too much for much video, as I recall. Might have to watch it after this show. But anyway, apparently there's, I don't know,

stories of Mitsu coming down the stairs, Steve Anthony enjoying them enjoying each other. This is definitely like, this is an episode of Trotamike that could rival heated rivalry. Like we're in the, you know, the,

sexy space here with this particular episode, I think. Yeah, I'm not going to tell too many, Steve. All right. No, Steve Anthony's stories. Fine. That's fair. That's fair. I know. I'll just say, I happen to really like, he's been over a couple times, and I really like Steve Anthony. Yeah, he's a really good guy. But had very bad chemistry. Well, I don't know. He went to, he opened an air for, during COVID. He opened an Airbnb in Prince Edward County, and it was a bad time to do so. It was beautiful. Yeah.

And then he was trying to get involved in medical marijuana or... Oh, I got pitched. Did you get pitched? I got pitched. Put some money into his Jamaican cannabis company. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know whatever happened to that. I don't, I don't know.

But I do know Steve, I think he's back in Toronto, I think. Really? I got to find this guy and get him back in the basement here. I don't think he even smokes weed, which was kind of odd. No, he was more of a cocaine guy. Well, I'm not... I'm just listening to you square over there. As far as I know, he lives a good clean life.

Oh, no, no. I want to be clear about this. He did talk about this in the 80s, and he is absolutely. As far as I know, he's only addicted to like aspartane. Like, he's got to have the, what do you call that, the sweeteners that you put in your coffee. Like, he might down a few of those every day, but as far as I know, he's not on any drugs of any nature. I think he's very clean. No, I think he's super clean, to be honest with him.

Clean, Steve, is what? what they're going to start calling him. Okay, so you're... I met him because I had gotten clean as well. I quit drinking for 18 years. Okay, well, no gray lakes for you. I'm glad you told me before I handed you some fresh craft beer, you know? You've got to stay on that wagon there.

What an asshole. The guy made Kenny drink. Right, exactly. Oh, God. You think he's the hit man now. Wait till you see what happens when he gets... All hell breaks loose after one beer. Mix 99.9.9. Now no one is virgin, but the first person who said Mix 99.9 on the airwaves was a gentleman I work with. Rob Christie. No. Good guess, though. Humble Howard. Because he was at CFNY, Humble and Fred, but he quit to take a job for Gary's sleep at Mix 99.9.9. And he was there on the air the morning that they became, CKFM became Mixed 99.9.9.

He said, then he was there for about 18 months, and then he went back to CFNY, and the rest is history. What a crazy business. So, yeah, so let's get you, let's tell, just to wrap all this up, I find this all rather interesting. But Mix 99.9.9. Why does it end for you there? I quit to start the radio stations in Turks and Caicos. I realized that I didn't have time to be doing a part-time, you know, swing shift at a radio station where I had to drive all. the way to Toronto, and that it would just be better off focusing my energy on owning a station. I never made any money in this fucking business. It's horrible. The most I ever made was $65,000 a year. And that was a country 95-3 in Hamilton and went a brief stint there.

You know, while my brother and friends were making $150, $200,000 a year, and I'm thinking, this sucks. Well, you know, I had actually grown up with the misconstitutional. that guys like Mike Cooper and Jesse and Gene and all these guys were making $500,000 a year. I think they did make some pretty significant coin, but it's only like a handful of guys. Literally, just one small handful. You're right. You know who makes the money? I know Aaron Davis did well.

Of course, John Derringer did very well. Yeah, yeah. Deservidly so. Whatever happened to John, does anybody know where he is? Yeah, he's spending a lot of time at a Muscoca cottage. Oh. But he's not as, he is laying low without a doubt, but periodically he pops up and you'll see somebody like, let's say Greg Godovic, okay?

He'll post on social media, a photo of John Derringer interviewing him for some kind of a Toronto music documentary series. But I haven't, like, obviously this hasn't been released, and I don't know who's paying for it or anything. For all I know, John's self-financing, I have no idea. But without a doubt, he does pop up now and then, you know, you'll see him. Somebody will post a picture of him at a bar or whatever.

So he's laying low, but remember, we're talking now January 19th, 2026. I believe the next part of this human rights tribunal that Jennifer Valentine has filed against Chorus, I believe that's happening in February this next part. So I feel like we'll see what happens after that, but I think John will have to testify at this thing. everybody deserves a second chance. You know, we don't really know what happened in that studio, doing. I sure wasn't in that studio. So I'm not saying Jennifer's a liar, by any means, but I think people do make mistakes.

I certainly know I have made many, and people deserve the second chance, and John was one of the most talented broadcasters in Canadian history, and I think he deserves a second chance. Now, it's worth noting, though, it's not just one person who's making allegations, right? I can think off the top of my head about five women who have made very serious allegations. So it's many, many women, right? Against John? Yeah, like Maureen Holloway is one, and Colleen Rushholm is another. Jackie Delaney, who kind of was like a little bit of a whistleblower on this very program, she's another.

Andrea Ruse, like how many women have we talking about right there? and then of course Jennifer Valentine's, so that's one, two, three, four. You know, and again, I never, I wasn't in the room. You'll never hear me. I won't be at this human rights tribunal. But I do produce the Humble and Fred show. And Humble and Fred were the morning show at 102.1, which was like down the hall at from where John Derringer was hosting the Q107 morning show.

And I mean, they've witnessed a lot that they've told me about. So I would say none of this, I don't believe any of this is criminal. that's a key differentiator. We're not talking about criminal activity here, but... So this is not like sexual assault. It's more like just he yelled at me. Workplace bullying, yeah. Like this is like not, we're not,

no criminal charges have been laid. There's no, nothing that I've heard of that I would put in the category of criminal behavior. We're talking about like grossly inappropriate workplace behavior that was enabled by the ownership, allegedly. So we'll see. you know interesting stuff interesting stuff and your life

they can all get over it and move on to be honest with well I mean they have moved on because the two the two gentlemen that were in the room of Derringer when he last broadcast are the morning show at Q107 today right like Shauna Wayland and them so I mean they fired Derringer and I think he got a lot of money to go away

I think you got a pretty sweet severance package and the other two chaps are the current morning show with Shauna Wayland. So everybody has kind of moved on, but this human rights tribunal has to run its course, and I think in February there will be more of that. I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, well, I'll be, I'm hoping the CBC's covering it, because otherwise I just, I'm curious. I am naturally curious what's going on. And a lot of these people, you know, Maureen Holloway and Colleen Rush Home and Andrea Ruse and Jackie Delaney, these are all people I can say,

I'm friendly with that have all been on the program. And although Jennifer Valentine has never been on the program, we've had many one-on-one chats, and I'm just, I just want to let this process run its course, and we can all learn from this and make sure it doesn't happen again, right? Right, right. Here's how I want to close. So off the top, we talked about the Turks and K-Kos.

That's a fun country name to say, Turks and Kikos. It's just so you know, it's a group of 40 islands. Eight of them are inhabited. It's a British Commonwealth, so it's run by Britain. And there are no taxes, no taxes of any kind. You know, don't tap me if a good time. I'm going to be running one of these radio stations of yours from Turks and Kato soon. And I have a feeling because I was just outside and it's like a windshield.

It feels a bit like maybe minus 17 or something right now. And Turks and Kikos is probably a little warmer. It's sunny in 82 every freaking day of your life. And I'm going to assume that's like 20 something. Yeah, like 28, 29, 27. Geez, I can't compete with that. This is all amazing. And this chat was amazing, but we did touch on it, but you didn't make any money in radio,

but you do pretty damn well with your voiceover career, right? Yes, thank God. Yeah. And, I mean, I did do a cold open, but can I play a few seconds or something? Just so we can get a thing? Yeah, sure. Go for it. These demos were produced in Hollywood, California, by one of the best.

voiceover demo producers on the planet. Oh, geez, here we go. Once you believe in him, he takes control. Don't think you. Don't let him. In your head, the bye-bye man, rated Radeye. In times of war, violence is not the answer. I was dreamed about being a doctor, but didn't get much school.

This November, based on the extraordinary true, You have to go back up to mine. One of America's greatest heroes. Never fired a bullet. Help me get one more. Hacksaw Ridge, rated R. This Christmas, you're invited to a totally epic party that will bring new meaning to the holiday celebrations.

If you are going to have intercourse tonight, please do not do it on company property. Ho, ho, no, you didn't. Jason Bateman, Courtney B. V. V. Vance, and Jennifer Aniston, Office Christmas Party, in theaters, December, Number 9th, unlocking the memories of his past could save the future. No longer exist.

Go inside the secret society. Assassin's Creed, rated PG-13 in theaters everywhere. From the studio that assembled the Lego movie, Batman is back. In order to save the city, this time, he may need a little help. Wow, do I get a costume? Don't touch that. This February, the Lego. Batman movie.

Kenny, that's balzy stuff, man. Thank you. Okay. So what I always wanted to do. You want to hear a funny story about that? Yes, please. I took that demo and I sent it

to the top voiceover agent in the world. Buckwold talent in New York City. Howard Stern's agent. Yeah. I get a call on a Friday. She says, I fucking love these demos, man. I'm going to make you a rich man. You're going to be on Fox.

You're going to be on ABC. You're going to be on CBS. She just went on and on and on. about how I basically won the 649 and my dreams had finally come true. I literally cried. I'm like, all this hard work, my whole life, it's finally come to fruition. The best

agent in the world wants to represent me for network promos on the top networks in the world and for movie trailers as well. I get a call on Monday. She says, I'm afraid I've got some really bad news and I'm saying, well, what's that? She goes, I can't bring you on after all. I said, why is that?

She said, because you're Canadian. I said, well, that doesn't matter. There's lots of Canadians that are actively working in voiceover in the United States and acting. And then I just listed off like all these different people that were famous Canadians. And she said, well, here's the deal. The guy that owns this agency is best friends with Donald Trump. And then it was at a time when Donald Trump was on his higher American thing. So the owner of the agency was like, I can't bring a Canadian in here. We're all about hiring America. America! America! America! I lost out on the biggest potential thing in my entire career. Is that keeping you up at nights? Like, is this, you wake up in a cold sweat? You know what? I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest.

It really did. It got to the point where I'm just going to back away from this for a while. The rejection is overwhelming. And I had that happen three or four times where top agents would say you're the fucking balls. You know, you're it, man. I'm going to make you a rich man and welcome aboard. And then just for whatever unfortunate reason, it never came to fruition. Now, I've still done a lot of movie trailers and stuff, but I've never had. I do have an agent in New York City, Stuart Talent.

They're considered one of the top voiceover agents in New York City. But that's it. I don't have any LA representation. But Kenny, you have 109 reasons to feel lucky, feel blessed. Something like that, yeah. Dude, thanks for doing this, man. I love talking radio, and it was great to talk to Kenny the hitman. Great to talk to you, too, man.

and I'm very impressed with all you got going on there. That's a great little setup. Well, no gray legs for you, but you're still allowed to have palm pasta, right? Absolutely. Okay, next time you're in the T-DOT, I owe you some palm pasta, okay? And next time you're in Turks and Caicos,

come on by for some conk. Is that mean your number's going to get to 110? Is that what conk means? And that brings us to the end of our 1,000, 8,000. 135th show 1835. Wow. Go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible.

That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. That's Nick Aienes. That's RecycleMyelectronics.ca.c.a.com. I don't know what that website goes to. I don't know anything about it. And Ridley Funeral Home. I got to check the calendar.

Kenny, hold on here, buddy. Who's up? At sea. Right. Recycle My Electronics.com. You're paying attention. Oh, my guest tomorrow. No, I made that up.

My guest Wednesday is Dean McTaggart. We played some arrows on a recent episode of FOTM cast, and I'm like, what's Dean up to? Dean McTaggart making his Toronto mic debut Wednesday. See you all. Then.