Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kevin Frankish Returns: Toronto Mike'd #492

Episode Date: July 26, 2019

Mike chats with Kevin Frankish about what the hell happened at Breakfast Television, what's next for him and why he's been Scooter Kev all summer.

492 what was i before i'll tell you early in the episode there we go need some words to this toronto there you go welcome to episode 492 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair StickerU dot com and Capadia LLP

CPAs I can't show you anything That's for Capadia I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is Kevin Frankish

I have applause, do you want it? yeah sure, that'd be nice oh that's not it thank you, thank you all welcome back nice to be back and on video this time too listen may not may

only listen to this you can also see it this is the uh evolution of podcasting there's always now there's a live streaming video components and now i need to like have makeup people and uh wardrobe people so picking my nose is not something i should be doing anymore. Well, you can do it. I actually don't care. That's the nice thing. I'm so interested in capturing good audio. I don't even care if you wear clothes.

I want to give kudos to that song. What is that? That is the Toronto Mike theme song, Ill Vibe. Ill Vibe is a local rapper producer.

Yeah. And he did that prior to episode one. So all 492 episodes. You don't have a theme song. Uh, I have that too. Where is it here?

Hold on here. There we go. You have my theme song. That's trademark. That's the Kevin Frankish theme song. Yeah. You don't remember

that theme song from your first appearance? I do. I do. But I don't know if I asked them who did it. I can send you the MP3 if you want it as a ringtone. Oh, that'd be cool. Just when I call.

A custom ringtone when Mike calls. So you asked before I pressed record, what was your last number? And I'm here to tell you it is episode 221. Oh, okay. So every 200 episodes or so, I come back. Yeah, actually, pretty much. And just for those listening at home who are like, they want to do the bio, I call it the deep dive, but the A to Z of Kevin Frankish's illustrious career.

Which one do you have there? Because there's so many different ones out there. Here's what I wrote for the description of the episode. Mike chats with Breakfast Television co-host Kevin Frankish about his years on CKVR and City TV. That's from the old podcast. Yeah, this is episode 221. Lots have changed. Oh, we're going to talk about it, brother.

We're going to talk about it. And what it was like working with Ann Romer. I guess I was going through my Ann Romer fascination period. I was just thinking about Ann Romer the other day. Did she do a deal with the devil or something? I mean she still looks so fantastic. Is so full of

life. Still. Oh you see her on the Windows ads? Yeah. She's got good genes. Yeah. Oh yeah. The general. Right. The general. Right. And's got good genes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the general. Right, the general, right. And she bathes in a Perrier, I think.

No, she's, yeah, she's great. You know what? She has a zest for life, and that's what happens. We also talked about Liza Fromer. Mm-hmm. Dina Pulezi. Pulezi. Pulezi.

I never had much luck with that one. Lovely, Dean. There's also a frank discussion about Jennifer Valentine. CP24 breakfast. Oh, and this is so like ominous. The target on his back. I think we talked about

the target on your back. Was there a target on my back? Well, I wrote this. Okay, so right after we recorded episode 221, I wrote that description. Okay. And here you are back to talk about that. But before I'm this. Okay, so right after we recorded episode 221, I wrote that description. Okay. And here you are back to talk about that.

But before I'm teasing the crowd, they want to hear what the hell happened. But we're going to start things off with a slightly different topic. And I'm going to let Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com introduce this topic. Hi, Kevin. introduce this topic. Property in the 6.com Hi Kevin, Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. Lately I've been doing lots of leases. Yesterday I listed a brand new suite

at Minto Westside at Bafferston Front and I'm already reviewing an offer. The key was I used a professional photographer to film it properly for MLS. Contact me for any rental or buy and sell needs first in front and I'm already reviewing an offer. The key was I used a professional photographer to film it properly for MLS. Contact me for any rental or buy and sell needs you have at 416-873-0292. Kevin just watched on YouTube Scooter Kev transit access not realizing that you are not doing it for a story but because you are recovering from a broken foot. I was so frustrated watching you navigate your way around the Dundas subway station trying to get to the

southbound platform. Although the way you sped it up at times, I wish you had added on the Benny Hill theme to really complete it. You took it all in stride, but you are only using a scooter for a month or so. Could you imagine doing this all the time? That's, uh, that has not escaped me. And thank you, Brian. Uh, that has not escaped me. You know, I'm very fortunate that hopefully probably in a week or so I'll be, I broke my foot. I broke my foot about six weeks ago. How did you break your foot? I was hiking up in North Bay. Okay. I was at Deshaney Falls hiking and I did something stupid. I knew it was stupid at the time. And I said, you're going to hurt yourself. And I did.

So I've, I've, I, you know what I'm going to say? I'm going to say I've been fortunate enough to be in a, in a walking cast and on a scooter because it's opened my eyes. It's opened my eyes to things that I took for granted. I honestly, I don't know about you, Mike, but I honestly thought that all transit was a hundred% accessible. I never gave it any other thought. I sure haven't thought about this.

You're right. We're fortunate enough. We don't have to consider how accessible these public transit systems are. So now I have to research my trip before I go anywhere because I take the TTC a lot. So only a few stations are accessible. Sometimes the elevators are not working. So you have to research that as well. You have to go into the alerts and find out what elevators aren't working.

So even today getting here, I was at Yonge and Bloor. Okay. Probably the busiest. I don't know numbers, but I'm guessing one of, if not the busiest station in Toronto. It's a big interchange. So it has to be one of the busiest. They do have elevators.

One of them was broken to get to line two, which I needed to get here. So I went up to the info person wearing the red bib. Well, they didn't know. First of all, they didn't even know the elevator was broken. And they didn't know how I would go about getting around. Wow. So I spent 15 minutes going from this place to this place. Staff were great, you know, because I had this one cleaning woman

who came and helped me and I had an inspector try and help me, but even they were stymied. So I finally had to go all the way to St. George to catch a subway to get here because Bay Street or Bay Station and Sherbourne Station, well, they're not accessible. pay station and sherbin station well they're not accessible right okay and then like i'm trying to imagine uh but you you got yourself here like so so then how do you do buses and stuff well the buses are great and can i just say that the operators uh bus operators and streetcar operators fantastic i have not had a bad experience at all with them they get out of their seat they help because they recognize you and they go no no no i know i've watched them do it with a whole bunch of other people they they you know what you're gonna get a bad apple on every bunch but you know what they're they've been fantastic but i could have

gotten here i'm gonna guess 20 25 minutes earlier but i couldn't get off at the station that i wanted to because it wasn't accessible so i had to go to another one right i could have taken a street car but the street cars in your area are the old ones that don't have the ramp so they don't lower down right man i'm glad you made it like can i ask you like where did the scooter come from did you rent i rented it yeah i rented it because i'd broken my foot before and i ended up just sitting down doing nothing because i hated going anywhere on crutches. And it's given you an opportunity to experience how, you know, many Torontonians have to live every single day. Like, I feel like you can now see their perspective on this. I had one woman tweet me saying that her son is confined to a wheelchair and at his school,

if the cafeteria is accessible from one part of the platform, if the cafeteria is accessible from one part of the platform, if the elevator is broken, which he said it quite often is, he either has to buy food or another way. And there's so many people who must be trapped

when the elevators are broken. That sucks, man. But when do you get to walk? When do you get to lose the cast? I hope next week. Okay, next week. I was going to Vancouver. Scooter Kev is coming to an end. Well, I'm going to Vancouver. I was hoping to do some hiking. When are you going to lose the cast? I hope next week. Okay, next week. I was going to Vancouver. Scooter Kev is coming to an end.

Well, I'm going to Vancouver. I was hoping to do some hiking. When are you going to Vancouver? Next week. I'm going, not next week. I'm going August 20. Oh. You'll be gone.

Wouldn't it be funny if we could bump into each other in Vancouver? It'd be fun. And I was really looking forward to going into the mountains hiking. And that won't happen this time. Wayne says, you know know you've kind of answered most of this but he said what happened to his leg that he's on a scooter now you've answered that you're hopefully it's out i'm back out of it next week he showed a dilapidated shack and mentioned that was his first house was that for real yeah not my first house that was it was

uh you know i'm gonna pull it was, uh, you know, I'm going to pull up a picture so you, you know what he's talking about. Okay. Uh, where was the shack? This is in North Bay and it's funny you call it a shack. That's what my mom used to call it. You know, he called it a dilapidated shack. It was, it was what my, uh, you know, what all we could afford at the time. And I just,

I went by and the roof is caved in. Here, I'll give this. Yeah, that shack has had better days. It's a real shack there. It's on my Twitter feed. Go to Kevin Frankish's Twitter feed if you want to see a better view of that. Okay, so that was for real. That was the home you lived in North Bay. Yep, one of the homes. Yeah, we moved around quite a bit, but that was for real. That was the home you lived in in North Bay.

Yep, one of the homes. Yeah, we moved around quite a bit, but that was one of them. And Wayne, we're going to get into why you have free time, or maybe you don't, but Wayne says, is he driving Beth crazy with his free time? I'm driving everybody crazy, including the TTC. I was going to say, you're not driving at all. No, I'm okay to drive. I don't at all. No, I'm okay to drive.

I don't wear the boot, but I'm okay to drive. Thank goodness I don't drive standard. Okay, do you want to get this gorilla out of the room here and just dive right in here? So I have pulled a couple of clips. At any time, if this is too uncomfortable, just make a hand gesture to bring it down, okay? But there's nothing here that's not public stuff.

Don't worry. I didn't hack into uh answering machine messages or anything like that but here is and i listen i was listening to anybody listen to answering machine messages anymore i'm just saying i think everyone's voicemail now just says don't leave me a voice just i'll call you back when i have time but this i'm listening to your voice in this announcement i like i know you pretty well right now like i was feeling emotional for you and i want to play this for you and then have you tell us how this came about okay but today you have a very special announcement this is uh it's probably a very difficult announcement um i'm gonna read it and it's i know there's no real format here so i'm just gonna go ahead and read it um we have there's no real format here, so I'm just going to go ahead and read it.

We have shared so much together for so many years. Many of you who started watching me as kids come up to me now with kids of your own. Some of you may remember I proposed to my wife on the air. I shared with you the birth of all four of my children when I had panic attacks on air. I shared that with you, and we've since gone on a journey with my battle of depression together with you. In fact, you shared so many of your stories with me. Many of you are sharing those stories. So we are truly a family. I've got so many families.

My wife is here, Beth, right now. I know my kids are all watching. I've got my family of people here in the studio here at City TV and I have my family at home and that is you. So what I have to say is very difficult. All good things must come to an end eventually and so sadly is my time here on Breakfast Television Friday will be my last day on this program. But I'm not disappearing from the City TV airwaves. I'll be doing special projects with City TV. So I will come back from time to time to tell you about it when that happens.

My social media accounts will all remain active in the same addresses. So we'll be able to continue. I hope our relationship, I hope you don't drop me. So I want to thank you for, you know what? I'm just going to wait to see the rest of this on Friday. Yeah. Okay. Kev, we love you so much. You are very much forever our family and you're not going anywhere. And we're going to miss working with you in this capacity on this show so much every day. And nobody tells a story like you can, that's for sure. Everything you do is with passion.

I love everybody here. You know, this has been my life for so many years. And Beth's here, beautiful Beth. Hi, baby, I was. You're a beautiful bride. You were emotional. This is CUV. But for good reason.

So we want you guys to keep the love coming for Kev. I know you hate sappy stuff, but too bad. Yeah, I hate sappy stuff. Because we love you so much. And you are so much a part of who all of us are here. So please keep your love coming at BT Toronto, at Kevin Frankish. B, it's so good to see you. And we were just talking about that eight-hour hike that Kevin put together.

This is what we do. All right, Kevin. What day of the week? Can you talk about saying goodbye on a Friday? Which I have a bit of that, too. But what day of the week was this? Like, was this like a Wednesday? Do you remember?

I don't recall. I think for some reason it was a Wednesday. I'm not sure. I had just come back off vacation and uh i i had learned of the news just before i went on vacation so it was it was it was yeah it was uh kind of a surprise okay real talk kevin uh what happened like in your in your words right now can you tell us because i mean you were on how long you on breakfast television 27 years you and with the same company because i was with ckvr

for nine years before that and we were owned by the same people at the time so really it was it was 36 years with the same company you were the i mean obviously dean is your co-host but others were on the show too but you were essentially you were the face of this morning that was one of the faces yeah yeah i would say the the the face if you had to pick one because you were there way before dina was there uh now why like why did this surprise like i need to know what happened like you said it was a surprise so this is not you deciding i don't want to be on breakfast tell me oh no i, no. It was a surprise to me. It wasn't my choice. It was a shock to me.

I found out literally I was supposed to leave for vacation. I found out a couple of days before that that morning was my last show. So even while I was doing the show, I had no idea that would be my last show. So even while I was doing the show, I had no idea that would be my last show. Okay, so you knew the end was coming before you go on vacation, but you don't know at that point what the last show would be. But it sounds like,

just from your voice there, what do I know? That you had just found out Friday is the last show. No, no, no. I'd known weeks before that. There had been a lot of, you know, it, it, it, it just, it came as, I can't say much because obviously there's contracts involved still.

All I can say is that I, it caught me by absolute surprise and it wasn't my choice. And honestly, to this, to this day, it, it was never explained to me why. So, again, your words, of course, because what do I know? But your superior, like the person you report to, just said, Friday's your last day? No, no, no, no, no, no. They allowed me to, what you heard, I was allowed to come back and say that.

Which, you know, in this industry, I do have to thank for small favors. In this industry, quite often you're called in and said, okay, that's it. And you're not allowed to come back because they're afraid of what you might say. Right. But I mean, I love that place too much. I'm not going to screw things up. But no, I found out before I went on vacation. And then that, what you heard was after

i returned from vacation okay because that is because in that clip you tease that you're going to say your goodbyes on friday yes so you're this is like a wednesday or whatever and then in a couple of days will be did you so did you do the show thursday I honestly can't remember. I honestly can't. It was like I was in a in a real haze then I gotta tell you. It's like a we're going through the Zapruder film here frame by frame by frame right right. So you say goodbye on a Friday so why don't I play a little bit of that and then then we'll have a discussion on this. So this was the Friday farewell. discussion on this so this was the friday farewell playing some decent music on this show i've been asking for some some music today i didn't know about free falling though that choice was for but okay uh yeah final day after seeing the sunrise uh for 30 years

the playoffs will start on Tuesday in Toronto. Good morning from the assignment desk in the CityPulse Newsroom. I'm Kevin Frankish. Here's what's happening on the streets this hour. There's a theme song. That's a strike a pose, Frankish. The police are after us. The police are after us.

They're always watching. 52 Division doesn't trust us. You ready? Yeah, everybody. We'll be back. 52 Division doesn't trust us. You ready? Foxy! Yeah, everybody! We'll be back! Forecast, now here's Frank. Frank was just walking by

and I wanted to see if I could worry him a bit. Can you believe it? 10 years! Did I say infomercial? Next week on Breakfast Television, fitness infomercial guru... And my next guest is just moving in. We'll be back with more Breakfast Television.

I can no longer remember how long this goes, but I'll just bring it down a bit because did you have a choice on whether you have this, which is the celebratory goodbye, which really does sound like you want to go and do something else? You know, it's... I realized a decision had been made. I'm not going to argue with it. I'm not going to change any minds. I could go out like a real jerk

or at least have some dignity as I leave. In the long run, honestly, it was probably a good thing. It was... I never would have left. Honestly.

You were very comfortable. I was very comfortable. I loved it. It's all I knew. I was also were very comfortable. I was very comfortable. I loved it. It's all I knew. I was also afraid to leave. I was afraid to try anything different, right? Right. It's a scary world out there,

especially when you've been taken care of for 30-some years. Right. So looking back, so ill feelings don't serve anyone at all. And the show deserves that as well the show the show just changed hands i think these are uh luminaries i'm surprised they didn't ask me for a quote uh to say goodbye to kevin i'm a little disappointed seven years and as a bt fan myself i want to thank you for making justin ch that much more special. Wishing you all the best for this next chapter.

You'll be missed. And my mom sends her best. I love his mom. It's been a privilege. It's been an honor. Oh, come on. Stop crying. Stop crying.

These are good people. These are my family. I've got many families. But I can't forget my family out there watching. So many of you come up and just talk to me as though, hey, Gab, how you doing? I hope you don't stop doing that. Be good to each other.

That's, you know what, that's going to be it. Nothing more to say because i don't think i get through it it's been a privilege um and thank you you are forever our family we love you cap when i wake up in the morning love it's i think it's good when somebody shows real emotion like i'm glad you cried well i know that um they wanted to, you know, Rogers wanted to approve what I said, and they wanted to put it in a teleprompter, and I wouldn't let them. I said, I'll write it down.

You can have a glance at it. I also said, I can't promise I'm going to stay exactly to this. Right. But I can't, I do not like, I don't like a person in a can, you know? Man. Uh, okay.

I, so I've got some questions, but I'm going to read a question from a fan of yours who goes by the name mystery fan. So we'll never know who this fan is. Mystery fan says, ask my mom. It's a two part question. The first part,

it's kind of obvious, but he says, ask him why he was taken off breakfast television. You've already said you don't know why. I don't know why. Do you have any, do you want to speculate? I have my speculations, but there's nothing I could say with any public certainty.

Yeah, you don't know. You have your hunches, but you don't know. Yeah, and it was never, ever spoken. Is it possible it's because you made too much money? I made a lot of money. How much did you make? Two billion dollars. Show me your T4 from 2016.

I'm being audited. I can't release my taxes now, but I'm glad to later. Right. No, you know, there are reasons I can say it was not because of the money, but I can only tell you that. I can't tell you why.

There are, like you're not alone in this, in that I'll just name some real people. Somebody who was here last week, was it last week? Maybe a couple of weeks ago. Gord Marno. You ever heard of him?

So Gord Marno, he did, I mean, he said something to the effect of coming up next, modern family. And then a press release went out that Gord was done after, like longer than you. You know,

he was, except for his cup of coffee at Global, you know, he was, he goes back to the sevents on that station like and he really was oh he was the face you want to talk about the face of city tv it's gordon martineau now if you ask gordon he'll tell you he made too much money definitely you know i shouldn't completely discount that all right that's got it's got to be a consideration. It was not the only considerate, not as, as high up on the list as you might think. And did you want to share what else might've been a consideration? Like, were you, I don't know, hard to work with or something? You always hear like, oh, not a team player,

whatever. But I mean, I can't imagine that could be true about Kevin Frank. It was like, is there other than the, was it just the time for change? Like did the, they think they needed a new direction? Cause I would say, okay,

they fired this guy who's been there a long time and they brought in this, this young diverse replacement or whatever, but they brought in another old white guy. Like, you know what I mean? So it's not, yeah. Roger's a great guy, by the way.

Yeah. Let's get that out of the way with right now. I have no resentment against Roger. I love Roger. Roger's a great guy. Like, you know what I mean? So it's not... Roger's a great guy. By the way, yeah, let's get that out of the way with right now. I have no resentment against Roger. I love Roger. Roger's a great guy. Oh, there was a question about that. Barrett says,

what does he think of Peterson? And this is Barrett's words, not Kevin Frank's words. Roger Peterson is probably the coolest cat you'll ever meet. And when I say that, you have to sort of like close your eyes and say,

he's the coolest cat. But is he cooler than Kevin Frank? Because I guess... I think so. He seems to be cut from sort of close your eyes and say, he's the coolest cat. But is he cooler than Kevin Frankish? Because I guess, he seems to be cut from the same mold as you. Yeah, he's a fun guy. What you see is what you get,

you know, with Roger. You're being very kind and I'm sure Roger's great. I don't have to be kind. He is. That is the kind of person he is. He really is a decent guy.

So no resentment, like you're not hoping he breaks his leg or anything like that. You know, there can't be any resentment at all. What's happened has happened. I wish the show well.

I would never wish ill of the show. Do you, like, you don't, like, hope it sinks in the ratings now just because you're not there? Like, I think that's human nature. You know what, there's probably somewhere deep down inside, but that's also my baby, right? I helped raise that child, and the last thing I want to see is that child to fail.

I feel it's different than that. And here, this is me talking, but let's say I lose control of Toronto Mic'd, okay? And they bring in another mic to do Toronto Mic'd. Or a bob, you know? They can't because it's already branded, right? It's got the logo, the decal from Sticker U. So it's all done.

Like they bring in another mic now and he sits somewhere else, obviously. I do own this home. They can't take that as far as I know, but they start doing Toronto Mike with a different host. I'm personally hoping that the subscriber rate plummets. Like I'm hoping that this show suffers

because how could another Mike do a better job than me? Like that's how I am. You're a better man than I am. Well, I don't know if it's a better man. You know, breakfast television for me was a labor of love, right? Right from the beginning. Uh,

and, uh, you know, I just, I really do want to see it flourish. I really do. Now, Barrett,

this is Barrett again. I don't know Barrett, but he's on Twitter. He said, so he says, what does he think of Peterson? And he goes, I don't watch morning TV,

but my wife has it on. And that guy makes the show unwatchable. So Barrett's not a Peterson fan he goes, I don't watch morning TV, but my wife has it on and that guy makes the show unwatchable. So Barrett's not a Peterson fan. Oh, there were people said I made the show unwatchable too. So it just depends on who you talk to. There's always going to be people who like you and who don't like you. And that's the nature of the business. Mystery fan. Oh no, he just says long time. He goes, please take a deep dive on the question of why you're not on breakfast television because mystery fan says that long time fans deserve a real answer

you know what and that that is true and and i you know any because i'm under obligation uh to contracts i'm not did you sign an nda um did i think the contract itself the termination contract is an nda is considered to be an nda so and you know i honestly have tried to be honest with with my viewers as much as i can and sometimes it got me into a lot of trouble if sure i think that if if you know if they want to allow me or if they want to state the reason themselves, that would be fine. I'd be interested too. By the way, that episode 221 you did was universally acclaimed. Okay.

I don't know if there's podcast reviewers out there. It would be critically acclaimed. People were not expecting you to be so honest. Well, that and I was topless. You remember. And I didn't even have the camera yeah the camera on you yet but um man people were like uh didn't expect such usually when we call it real talk around here but the real talk typically comes from someone like gordon martineau who's no longer

in the gig but people who are in the gig typically are very safe and corporate do you know what i mean you know and i was being safe and corporate. I did get in trouble for... Okay, tell me what kind of trouble you got into. I just, you know what? And it doesn't matter. It was, you said too much. No, but I think people are so sick and tired of spin. People are so sick and tired of lies

or of half-truths. Amen. And it goes from politics to media. This is why people don't trust the media anymore and why they don't trust politicians ever have is because... It's just bullshit. Exactly.

We say bullshit? Yeah. Yes, there's no CRTC. I have never in my life said bullshit in front of a microphone before. You just did. You just did. Can I say booger?

Oh, WKRP in Cincinnati. Booger! Yeah, kids look up WKRP booger. Okay. If you don't know what it is. That's the episode where he told people to take their garbage and bring it to City Hall. I don't know if it was that episode, but I think it was one of the, no, that was on the, when he said booger, it was the first episode.

Oh, the first episode. The very first one. Because Andy Travis was taking it from the soft, like mushy music of your life stuff to rock and roll and kiss and stuff like that. Such a good show. I loved it. Such a good show. Absolutely. But there was that episode where Johnny got stage fright or whatever.

He was afraid to speak in the microphone because he discovered the power he had that people were listening and obeying his words. And it was tough for him. I think there was a garbage strike in Cincinnati at the time. Yes. And he said, take your, here's what I recommend people take your garbage and bring it to city hall. And then people did that.

And then, yeah. And then Bailey quarter said, uh, gave him the same advice that he wants to give her, which is talk like you're talking to one person, Bailey or Jennifer. It was Bailey.

No, no, no. I said Bailey or Jennifer for you. Oh, choice. Oh, Bailey,

because she's smart. It's like saying Betty or Veronica. It's always Betty. It's always Betty. No, no, no. I said Bailey or Ginger for you. Oh. Choice. Oh, Bailey because she's smart. It's like saying Betty or Veronica. It's always Betty. It's always Betty. And Marianne or Ginger? Probably Marianne for sure. Ginger seems really pretentious. They're all bombshells, right?

They're all blonde bombshells. Right. Like Jennifer Marlowe or what was her? Bailey Quarters? No, no. Jennifer Marlowe was, who was the actress name again? Oh, Burt Reynolds X.

Yeah. Wow. Somebody tell us on Twitter. Somebody tell me at Kevin Frankish. The problem is my, people do in real time on this Periscope. I saw somebody wrote in a minute ago, but I can't see it from here.

Who is Jennifer Marlowe? Someone quick, at Kevin Frankish. Well, don't you have Google on that device? Well, I'd rather someone tell me. It's so much easier. Somebody's going to tweet at you. Okay. Yeah. Someone quick, at Kevin Fraggish Don't you have Google on that device? Well, I'd rather someone tell me, it's so much easier Somebody's going to tweet at you, okay Yeah, well, she's a famous actress

Yeah Here, I'll do it real quick You tell the people something Come on, you beat Mike, guys, at Kevin Fraggish Here, tell them something Who played Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati? Yeah, hold on It it's uh very exciting for people i'll probably get i'm gonna get a million like in a minute that's the way it always

works well the answer is lonnie anderson you know what we would know that 100 of the time except when the microphone's in front of our face here so okay so that was mystery fan he felt you just and by the way i love hearing you say like you're sick of the spin and the bullshit because i am too which is partly why this exists sadly and this is not just at city tv this is almost every media nowadays there always was an understood off limits between the newsroom and sales there always always was sure today with with falling revenue um sales has taken on a whole new importance and so you know quite often now some newsrooms i'm not going to say are are stifled i'm going to say they, they think twice before reporting on something that has a sponsor involved.

Yeah. If I'm, if I'm reading this correctly, let's, I'm going to, I'm going to make up a fictional company called John's coffee, which is a big chain, national chain.

Ah, John's coffee. Right. So if there is, let's say there was some story about, I don't know, uh, contamination or something with like bad labor practices at

John's Coffee, if that's a potential multi-million dollar sponsor of your program or a sponsor of your program, the sales guys would be like, soften that story or hold off on that story, possibly? Quite, you know, and it varies. It's just not as much of a firewall as there used to be. Gotcha. And so right now, you know, it's still tough. I have to quite often will second guess what I'm hearing in the media and do a lot of research myself on it. on it and again that is not any reflection whatsoever on city tv or rogers that that is a reality across the board and it's not just tv it's radio it's newspapers um it's it's the truth okay speaking of the truth and our our common allergy to spin and bullshit badass moo that's the name on twitter badass moo says uh, says when you left, he says,

when he left, there was a promise he would be doing some sort of special reporting or something. I think we heard in the clip, you were going to do special documentation. Yeah, so I have done, I was doing some stuff on my own and Citi is going to be airing them this month. It's a series I did said called Try to Keep Up, which I did for my YouTube channel.

Oh, so you'll be back, in some form, you'll be back. My voice will be back on those airwaves, yeah. That's exciting, I suppose. Okay, because I was sure that was bullshit, to be honest. Honestly, I thought that's something you say. They said the same thing about Gord. Like, that's something you say when you pretend somebody is choosing to leave.

You see, okay, now I'm going to play devil's advocate against myself here. It's tough to be a broadcast company when you let staff go. Because they have the public ear, the people you're letting go. they have the public ear, you know, the people you're letting go. They have the public ear and they could say anything they want. And in the past have said horrible things that have put down the company and may not be true, may be true. I don't know. And, you know, you'd have to take each individual case. Right. So you have to be very cautious when you're talking about a personality, a celebrity or somebody who has as many followers as I do.

I would be very, very careful about what I would allow that person to say as well. That's not new to the broadcast industry. That's always been the way. In fact, most radio disc jockeys, unless they have a big name, are let go in that form. They get off the air. They're called into the office. They said, OK, pack your bags. You're out of here by noon.

Right. In fact, you're right. But lately there's a trend I've noticed where people get a farewell, like Andy Frost got a farewell, right? Bob McCowan. I did not follow that too closely. Well, he got a farewell show. So they just told him they're buying out his contract.

And they told him this is your last day. That was the final show. It didn't seem very genuine, to be honest. But there was a bit of like a, congrats, Bob. Well, Bob started like yourself and Gord Martineau. Kind of similar. Long time, like big time personalities part of major like rogers media i would be very very scared if i were an executive to get rid of bob mccown because they

did i but but the thing is with him like you want to talk about a no bullshit guy i mean there's there's a guy i i i you know i there's obviously reasons so you know I there's obviously reasons so you know there were reasons to get rid of me that's okay you know okay so

here's what I speculated with Gord and I've never met what did he tell you well I've never met Bob McCowan I listened to him I thought he did a great job

I would like to have him on the show but he has not come on I've never met the man for those of you listening on just audio I just took a swig of audio.

I can do that now. I'm loosening up, Kev, for even more real talk here. You can't get in any more trouble than you're in already, which is not on the air. Are they going to cancel your documentaries next month? Well, no.

I mean, honestly, they could... You have to worry about your termination pay, etc. Okay, so you're still being paid by Rogers. There's always a severance agreement. There's always a severance agreement. Is that a yes or no, Kevin? There's always a severance.

I'm not giving it. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, it's expected. I mean, I would be extremely angry if they just said, you're off and off you go. Well, you'd have lawyers involved because you were there a long time, right? You weren't a contract. Were you a contract person?

No, I'm a contract person, yeah. Okay. I was a contract. And I was scared of that when I first started there. I was contract year to year to year. So it's their prerogative. Yeah, they don't have to renew your contract. No.

But that's not what, is that what happened here? They just didn't renew it? Or is it that they said we're going to buy out the rest of this contract which is what bobcat had i can't say i can't say because i don't even know i don't even know always no i i just you know i'd rather be i'd rather be honest with you so i'm gonna i'm just gonna say honestly that i i can't say you can't say okay that's a yes all right so back to Bobcat. And what Gordon and I said, so we'll leave you out of it for a minute. Let's put it this way.

For those of you who remember the show MASH. Of course. All right. All us old people. You know what kind of person Hawkeye was, okay? And you know, you know, so that was kind of my personality in the workplace. All right, so I was a very difficult person for bosses.

You know, this is exactly where I'm going right now. Maybe you can, maybe we're on the same wavelength here. Because when I was chatting with Gord Martineau about the dismissal of himself and also Bob McCowan, which had just happened, there was speculation amongst, in our discussion, that both Gord and especially bobcat were not what i would call controllable assets or whatever like when i what i mean by that is that

uh they had strong rogue they had strong yeah they can go rogue right bobcat's gonna do it his way he's got you know this is the way i want to do it he's not going to let management dictate who he has on or what he says and Gord had opinions on how the show should be done and he had been there a long time and had some legacy and stuff and possibly in addition to being highly paid people perhaps also they are

people difficult for the corporation or if you will to control. What do you think of that? I went through many many many many many many many many many many producers uh i you know i ate them for breakfast so i just you know what the only important thing to me was always the audience we're we're our family we're the people who are watching that was that was and i wanted to make sure that they had as honest a product as possible. And sometimes people have different ideas in higher places.

And I was, you know, in the end I would always acquiesce, but it was not easy for them to get me to do things sometimes. So if you want to speculate that, you know, finally it's about time they got rid of him. I would have gotten rid of him years ago. Then so be it. And is it possible? Another gentleman I've never met. I've never met.

I have to do my thing here. I've never met Roger. I think Roger looks, I mean, he looks on TV to be a nice guy. I think I'd get along great with Roger Peterson, but is it possible that he's so kind of more chill and like, okay, I'll do it your way.

Like I'll comply and do it the way you producer person wants me to do it. Whereas maybe you felt far more ownership of the product. Like you said, you gave birth to this show. You're not going to let some producer do something to the show that you don't like. I wouldn't let some other dad come in and start parenting my kid if I didn't like that direction. That's my child. You're encroaching.

No, I don't think so. I think hosting the show is a great opportunity. You'd be a fool to turn it down. I don't think, you know, Roger doesn't have a backbone. He does. It definitely does. So, but I was, you know, familiarity, right? 27 years of being there.

Right. At some point, you become kind of extremely familiar and kind of ornery. And is it possible that you were so closely like associated with the show after decades and possibly, maybe possible that you were so closely associated with the show after decades and possibly, maybe even that you thought maybe you were bigger than the brand and this is a way for them to control costs and stuff?

No, the brand is the kingpin here. We own this brand. We control this brand. Kevin Frankish is not bigger than Breakfast Television. I don't know. I don't know if I could answer that. i think you're bigger than breakfast i don't you know what i don't know because you know what i was there when thousands of people would come out to our fan appreciation days i was there when our christmas parties would have thousands of people as well and they would

line up for hours just to take a picture but you you know what? They went gaga as much over Dino or Jennifer over Frank as they did with me. So, yeah, I think it was all one and the same, you know? No, gotcha. These documentary videos that are going to air on City next month or whatnot, were they made for City or were you making them anyways in City? Oh no, I made them anyway. I was, I'm experimenting with things. I still don't know what I'm going to do, Mike.

Well, I guess at some point I was going to ask you that million dollar question, which is what are you going to do next? You know, one of the problems today is, you know, back in the day, you know, it was like, what other TV station can I work for? Can I work for a radio station? Maybe that was it.

That was your only choices. Now, one of the problems is there's too much of a choice so i know i i want to still be somehow in the public eye i still want to be able to store a storyteller and i want to be a watchdog kind kind of person and speak up for, for the little person. If, if I possibly can whenever possible make change, but I want to be happy, you know, and, and I, I will admit I, the last few years at breakfast television, I wasn't happy. I really was not. They, you know, there were a lot of, there were a lot of changes and there's been a lot of changes. And so, yeah. And I mean, when you were last on,

we talked about one change in particular uh the jennifer valentine change and stuff and you were very clear in that episode because i re-listened to this part uh that you were against you said in your words you said you were against the removal of jennifer valentine yeah i was completely against the removal of her. That was something that spiraled out of control, was poorly handled. And they know it. They honestly know it. And so that was, you know, that was a huge,

there was somebody, if you want to talk about somebody who was universally loved by the audience, that's Jennifer. And maybe, again, if you want the brand to be the thing, like the breakfast television, this is the thing, and we can interchangeable parts within or whatever, but this is the star.

It might be in your best interest to part ways with these larger-than-the-brand personalities, possibly. This is me completely, guy who's never worked in your industry, completely spitballing. I think that would be a poor choice for any executive to make. I think that if you have someone who,

and if they're bigger than the brand, then so be it. I'm not saying I am, and I part company with you there. I think, you know, I'm part of BT. BT was part of me. But, you know, you don't, like, honestly, I stopped watching The Daily Show after Jon Stewart left.

I have nothing against Trevor Noah, but I liked Jon. Yes, but Jon Stewart chose to leave. I liked Jon Stewart. Like, that's, as far as we know, that's like him saying that. No, but what I'm saying is that, for me, he was more important than the brand The Daily Show. Right. You know, I watched because of him.

I liked his delivery. I liked the way that he would say things and he'd fight for the truth. And you could tell that he was always fighting for the little guy and fighting for the truth. Still is, by the way. Still is. The 9-11. And nothing wrong with Trevor Noah, but Trevor Noah is a host.

Now, maybe if I watched him as long as I had watched Don Stewart, I'd probably, I'd probably love him, but I haven't given him a chance. Right, right. I don't think you're alone in that one. Now,

another fan here. So I opened it up. I said on Twitter, if you have a question for Kevin, let me know. And oh boy, do I, he said he would return to do special assignments on.

I lied. Is that still going to happen? Now you've explained that it's, it's still happening. It just took, I'm doing doing I'm doing some special assignments and they're going to air it's going to air on city okay then tell me this since you were going to you did these anyways and not necessarily for city so it doesn't sound like cities produce like it sounds like this is a Kevin Frankish production that is going to air on city tv um like they've done some work to it they put closed captioning on it etc etc run it through some some stuff oh it. They put closed captioning on it, et cetera, et cetera, run it through some, some stuff.

Oh, I can do the closed captioning. Come on, Kevin. Come on. No, you know what, you know what,

Mike, when it comes right down to it, you know, you can take all the personality aside. You can take, you can take who did what was right, who did what was wrong. But in the end,

business is business. And, you know, somebody thinks that this was the best way to do business. Well, that's it. That's their choice to make. Right. Who is it?

They used to have it written on our board in the meeting room. It's called show business, not show friends. Right. Business never personal, as EPMD once said. Do you have any idea of whether the show is more popular now than when you were on it? Or if there's less list like in the ratings? It's much more watchable right now. It really, really is. That might be true.

But are there more people watching now than watched with you? No, I don't have any access to those ratings at all. Okay. I'll try to dig up some numbers for us. The rest of this question though is um because you've answered that part about the special assignments but then it says jen valentine was pissed at him when she left and i have no i'm just reading this it's on twitter so jen valent i don't know what you no idea if that's true jen valentine was pissed at him when she left. Have they now mended their broken bridge? Are they friends again? Does he

keep in touch with anyone from the show? Okay, honesty time. Yeah, there was a big misunderstanding and Jen was mad. And if I thought what she thought, I'd be mad too. But, you know,

I've tried to mend some fences sadly I maybe she's listening you know what I honestly at one point threatened to walk off if they didn't hire her back um and you know that's you know you become so paranoid in this business you really really, really do. And when something like this happens and shatters your life, and Jen, again, keep in mind, Jen also helped give birth to this show. And she was an integral part of the show. You didn't know where BT stopped and Jennifer began.

Right. So I don't know. It must have been so tough for her because it was just, that was her show too. It's funny, breakfast television becomes almost this living, breathing being that we're a part of rather than just a TV show. It's dangerous, right? I know lessons learned or whatnot whatnot but it's very dangerous. It's like if you work for a state, I always think of Martin Streak like he worked at the edge, he worked at CFNY for decades. He

had a tattoo on his ass of the Spirit of Radio logo, right? Like he's so closely identified with that station. That station made a business decision to let him go, right? And I'm not even please don't think I'm tying these events together i'm just saying two months later he took his own life and i'm not suggesting he took his own life

because he lost his job at the radio station i have no idea why martin streak took his own life and i don't pretend to know but it is always a dangerous practice to confuse your identity as a human being with that of the corporate enterprise for which you work for, because it is at the end of the day, it is business. And for a variety of reasons, they could part ways with you. And, and it can be dangerous to lose a vast part of your personality that you had no control over. Like, I think that's a scary place for people. It is, but it happens. You know, it, it, it it happened to you, right? I fell in love. You know, I fell in love with our audience.

I fell in love with, I mean, you know, do you know what it's like to be able to walk down the street? My favorite TV show when I was a kid was Andy of Mayberry. Ask me why. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked, Mike. The whistling, right? No, it was the fact that everywhere anyone went in that town,

they knew their name. And I loved being able to sit down somewhere and someone strikes up a conversation with me and calls me Kevin. Just simply says, hey, Kevin, boy, that was quite a thunderstorm last night, wasn't it? You know, it was nice. It's nice. and i fell in love with our audience because it became my mayberry it became a small town and you were never alone right which was nice absolutely and i feel like i feel sad that you fell in love with something that could leave you through no fault of your own like it doesn't necessarily mean you uh breakfast television you bitch right'm telling you, you can say any word you want. Uh, yeah.

You can say anything you want. You can say booger if you want. Now. Um, so what about like, okay. Is the next, do you keep in touch with like,

like Dina? Dina. Do you keep in touch with Dina? I have a Dina. Winston has become such a good friend. What's Winston up to these days? Winston is up to way too much. Winston.

Honestly, he has a wet, a travel website now. Um, he is, uh, doing a lot of, uh, tech much. Winston, honestly, he has a travel website now. He is doing a lot of tech interviews across the country on morning shows. He's been on breakfast television a few times. He's just having a great time. And you know what? That little jerk is, what, 20?

I don't even want to talk. How can he still be be like 21 he can't be 21 for like eight years i love what you know what winston and i had we developed such a great relationship on air yeah um and at first he was really worried i don't want it to seem like i'm i'm um you know coming coming across poorly towards towards someone who's older than me i said no no this is great because it's millennials versus baby boomers. And it's good fun. You know, it's good, it's good job, which we need. Okay, so Winston's the millennial. You're the baby boomer.

I'm Gen X. Like we could all, like we could cover the bases. No one cares about Gen X. Have you noticed that? You guys went through so quietly and they thought, oh, you know what? They came up with friends. That was good. All right, we like Gen X. You know, you're the, thought, oh, you know what? They came up with friends. That was good.

All right, we like Gen X. You know, you're the likeable generation. You're right. Nobody likes baby boomers. They're millennials. We're wearing our plaid and listening to our grunge and we're all good. That's funny.

We're all good. Now, Rob Sid says, Kevin had, his words again, Kevin had almost disappeared from the air for almost a year. By the way, how long has it been since you were on Breakfast Television? More than a year. I think it was June, wasn't it? I think it was June of last year. So it's a little more than a year.

A little more than a year. Okay. Did he have a no-compete clause in his contract? And if so, can he explain how that works and the penalties if breached? So I don't know how to disclose here, but can you take a job, for example, with CP24 breakfast tomorrow?

I'm not able to say what's in my contract because again, that's, that's, it's illegal for me to do that. However, I can, yeah, it is.

It is, it was not illegal. It is punishable by lawsuit. So, you know, you have certain things you agree to, and I agree to them, and I'm honourable about that. However, I can tell you that any on-air person in Toronto, it would not be unusual to have a non-compete clause. Now, you kind of, I've got to be careful because you did not actually admit to it, but if you were still getting paid by Rogers, is it fair to say that that could stop if you took another job

or is it that you can't take another job until that contract time expires? Do you want to call your lawyer and be famous? That's right. No, I mean, I think I can be fairly honest with what's obvious. I mean, non-compete clauses usually will list a time uh and and that's in fairness to the to the end to to the the company you know because it's like well why would we go to all this trouble to train you and give you a great name all of a sudden someone swoops in grabs you puts you on tomorrow and we we lose all that investment. It's an investment.

Now, usually non-compete clauses are relatively short after your termination. So that's just the way it goes. It's funny, though, because non-compete clauses, most times, if challenged in court, are always, always overturned. I've been told this. Yeah, it is not. I have been given advice several times. It is not legally binding. It's slavery. You can't tell someone where they can't work. But the problem is, in order for it to be overturned in court,

you have to spend money to do that. And I know of one instance where one company spent more than $100,000 to rightfully overturn a non-compete clause but it still cost them a hundred thousand dollars to do it right right so yeah i hear you so this same person robs it then asks you a question you cannot possibly answer but he says would bob mccowan have the same clause even though he quote unquote retired i'm i'm guessing he would i and i don't know. I'm not privy to anything.

So I'm guessing like anybody else. It would be extremely unusual for any on-air person in Toronto not to have a non-compete clause. Sean, big fan of yours, says, what are you doing now? And was he angry about being let go and the general ageism in the TV media? Thanks. So, Sean, and I don't see it as ageism as much as I see it as you're paid too much money and somebody else younger will do it for a fraction.

But isn't that ageism? Well, that's a great debate to have. I'm not sure that's ageism. I would suggest that in almost every single newsroom in toronto ageism is alive and well uh and it it goes hand in hand with you getting paid more but how do you separate the two like let's say let's say it's going to cost you more to have this person however you hope what you're hoping is that because you're paying this person this much they're worth that much that that's what you that's why you keep giving someone a raise as they get older.

You say, you know what? You're worth this now. You've been here long enough. You've learned things. You're better known. And so you get up to a point. And I knew at one point I'm pricing myself out of a job. And you sort of accept that.

But ageism, sadly... sadly see that's the target you had that's what we talked about last time the target on your back was that you weren't you weren't working for you know fifty five thousand dollars a year and and it was well 57 but you know an ageism i mean ask any woman in in media whether ageism plays a place or plays or they've seen it. Now, a woman over 35 on television is a lot more in danger. I would probably put that as someone in my position who is, you know, making a lot of money at 55. So because of, well, we can't have a woman who doesn't have, who has some gray hairs or, you know, may not look young anymore. And that has been something that has been alive and well, sadly, in our industry for years, forever. Now, I've shared this story multiple times, so I apologize for regular listeners.

But I was very naive to all of this until I had Kate Wheeler and Christine Bentley on the show. Okay. Do you know Kate Wheeler and Christine Bentley on the show. Okay. Do you know Kate Wheeler? In the same room? Together here. Wow. I think Christine, I don't, I don't think she thought my basement was up to code. I think she thought it should be nicer, but they were both lovely. Yes. And they both delivered what I call real talk. They told it like it was, they were tired of the bullshit and they just want to tell it like it was. I call real talk. They told it like it was. They were tired of the bullshit and they just want to tell it like it was. And specifically, Christine Bentley told me the true story of how she left CTV, which was spun as a retirement. They had like a cake and a farewell for Christine.

She was retiring, but she, and this is her words. You can listen to this episode. And she'll, I don't believe you, but she got a tap on the shoulder by some unnamed executive and just basically was told your time is up we can do this one of two ways you can either be walked out with a box or we can spin this uh you can save face we'll spin it as you're retiring and it'll be glorious let me turn this around on you you're an executive at cfto and and for those of you who don't know cfto is ctv yeah they now call it ctv toronto but back in the day it was a very political place too uh probably still is today but so so you have this woman who is making a ton of money that you need to save, you decide for whatever reason that it wouldn't be really a bad hit if you got rid of this person.

So what do you as an executive do? Do you A, just say, oh, let me just, I'll just grin and bear it, keep paying the money and not rock any boats. I'm going to go to her and say, well, it's either

we can do it one of two ways. The thing is, we mock TV executives all the time, but they're not just trying when they came to me, they weren't just worried about my reaction. They were worried about

the reactions of a million other people at Of course. At the same time. Which is why they want to spin it as you're going off to work on documentary projects. Well, no, I'm sorry. You said yes too soon there. I thought you were talking about Christine still.

No, I'll come back to Christine. It is, yeah, it's in their best interest not to rock the boat. It's in their best interest. So, you know, that's because honestly, in the world of TV executives, that's kind of the way they live too. Right. One day, you know, a president is gone. Well, everybody under that person is gone too, you know. And so that's how executives live as well.

I find this all incredibly fascinating. It's like a glimpse behind the curtain. It's like, oh man, this is why Toronto Mic'd exists. But it's not as bad as it is in the States. At least Canadian television is not nearly as cutthroat as it is in the United States. And I hope it never will be. But in the Christine Bentley example,

is that an example of ageism? Or is that Christine makes too much money? I don't know. Or are they the same thing? I honestly don't know. I would just not be surprised if they said, oh, we need somebody younger. I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know if that happened.

And it has happened in the industry. Yeah, because she was with Ken Shaw, and Ken Shaw's still there with a younger woman. You look at how many older women are still... Now, it's changing a little bit, especially with shows like The View where you have some fantastic people on there. Could you imagine saying that Barbara Walters was too old for television?

You know, so there are now more and more cases of people, of older women doing well. But sadly, you're going to turn on your TV, and for the most part, you're going to see younger women. And you're going to see older guys. What a world we live in.

Okay, pause, because you mentioned case, and I thought of case of beers. So, okay. So, Great Lakes Brewery, local fresh craft beer. These guys are in South Etobicoke, but you can find them in LCBOs and some grocery stores. But fantastic partners of Toronto Mic'd. Thank you, Great Lakes Brewery. The six-pack of fresh craft beer is yours to take home, Kevin.

Thank you. Will you be able to get that is yours to take home, Kevin. Thank you. Will you be able to get that on the scooter? Oh, sure. Why not? Yeah. Nice. Don't drink and scoot. Or in moderation, maybe.

Okay. Now, yeah, that's a good question. Like, I once asked, I had an OPP officer here, and I was saying, like, if I drink and bike, because I do a lot of biking, but if I drink and bike, is that, like, at all, like, what is the charge there? Just a second. Yeah. Lonnie Anderson.

Someone finally, yeah. Right. Because these two stupid guys can't remember Lonnie Anderson's name. Sorry. I believe, you know what? I think I have seen officers pulled over someone

who was on an e-bike once. E-bike. Because this is what I was told. I was told there has to be a motor. So you've got a motor in the scooter. Yeah. So that puts you in some different category. Like an e-bike has a motor. But I don't know. You know what? But bicycle, what I was told. I was told there has to be a motor. So you've got a motor in the scooter. Yeah. So that puts you in some different category.

Like an e-bike has a motor. But I don't know. You know what? But bicycle, what I was told by this officer is that the worst I could get would be public drunkenness because there's a general charge

for public drunkenness. Yeah. But there is, like for example, if you do, and I'm not advocating, no one should do this. Always be safe, please.

But if you did drink and cycle, because there's no motor involved, we're not in the same category as maybe. I'm thinking though, you and the scooter, you'd have to be sensitive. So according to Toronto police, you cannot be charged with impaired driving if you're intoxicated riding a bicycle

since a bike is not classified as a vehicle. No motor. Yeah. Because it's self-propelled or whatever. Yeah. So anyway. Sorry, there we go wow yeah so anyways i would my mom used to tell me like uh like she was told by somebody that drinking and biking was you could

lose your license and i'm like that's ridiculous this is not anyway it is ridiculous so six pack of great lakes beer for you that yeah and yeah you know what folks just drink responsibly of course every yes it's it Yes. Everything in moderation. This is great. And even if it's not in moderation, make a plan. Don't, you know, it's like, I'm sure once I open one, I'm going to want to have all six, but, you know, make a plan for getting somewhere or getting home. Yeah.

Yes. Uber, cab, designated driver. just just be sensible have a plan absolutely no it's it's a good good advice for everybody but please enjoy your six-pack responsibly from great legs brewery there is and last time you were on i this did not exist this is a new development but you're getting it's heavy right can you can you can your uh scooter handle oh my god you're gonna break my board here that's like a thousand dollars Yeah, that is heavy. Can your scooter handle? Oh my God, you're going to break my board here. That's like $1,000. So this here is a frozen meat lasagna from Palma Pasta.

It's the best lasagna you can buy. Palma's kitchen is near Burnhamthorpe and Mavis. And if you go to palmapasta.com, you can find out their locations in Mississauga and Oakville. Fantastic family-run authentic Italian eatery. And you can even buy it. Like there's a retail store. There's a hot table.

You're going to love it. So you know what you do is you get this thing and then you learn how that delay cooking thing works on your oven. You put it in and you go to work tomorrow morning or Monday morning. Right. And then you come home

and you've got this nice lasagna waiting for you and then you have time to go outside. Right. See? Yes. And it's like, yeah, it's time to go outside right see yes and it's like yeah it's only 45 minutes once it's uh when it's not frozen i mean i mean it's a thought for 24 hours in the fridge or whatever 45 minutes and you've got yourself an amazing and that'll feed

all i met one of your children can i tell the people that i met a frankish child you four of them four good for you i think good for you all the same wife right yeah yes i just i'm curious naturally because yeah i have four kids too but i met one of your kids they had great head of hair i just remember he had a great head of hair that would be bryden yeah bryden surfer dude cool yeah called him and that yeah because he looked like a surfer dude and the name bryden to me that's a cool name like for a cool cat so yeah get a head of hair on him okay so you got that you got stickers too okay yeah sticker you there in Liberty Village they made the decals on

the back wall here and they made these stickers for you so obviously there's a Toronto Mike sticker that's gonna go on your you know you're renting the scooter appreciate it there's a

temporary tattoo because you like the rock the tats this is agit pops this is the new album from lowest of the low fantastic Toronto band with a great new release that I highly recommend This is Agitpops. This is the new album from Lowest of the Low. Fantastic Toronto band with a great new release that I highly recommend. And of course, just so you remember where you're going to go

when you need your Kevin stickers, and you can plaster them everywhere for your new brand, stickeru.com. So thank you, StickerU. So let me just make sure. So we heard from Brian. You got your pasta from Palm of Pasta. You got your beer.

You got your stickers. Let's go in the time machine. This is way back. You're too young to remember this release, okay? But 60 years ago, this was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. 60 years ago.

60 years ago. Okay. Is this on just a moment? No? Hold on. Let's see how long it takes. I'm just a lonely boy? No? Hold on. Let's see how long it takes. I'm just a lonely boy There you go.

Lonely and blue Also a rare, at the time especially, a rare Canadian number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Because this is Paul Anka. Paul Anka. So many. Not just so many great songs that he did,

but he wrote. Yes, he got credit for that Tonight Show theme too. I've got everything I've got everything I've got everything I've got everything I've got everything Someone, yes, someone to love Someone, yes, someone to love Someone, yes, someone to love So remember the time Is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair

They've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for almost 40 years. Kevin, if you need a watch battery replaced, mention that you heard about Fast Time on Toronto Mic'd. They'll give you 15% off. This is a very exclusive, awesome deal. Go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com for a location near you. The newest location is in Richmond Hill, so you know where to go when you need your jewelry or watch repairs done. And when Milan,

and he helps run the family business Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, when he needs to save a ton of money, he goes to his accountancy firm, which is Capadia, LLP CPAs. Rupesh Capadia is the rockstar accountant who sees beyond the numbers. Very cool cat, easy to talk to. He's willing to give you a free consultation. You should call him up about this contract you've got. Find out if you're getting screwed over, if you did well for yourself and how to, how to kind of, he'll give you best practice, keen advice on any business practices of that nature. So let's just hear from Rupesh Kapadia. Hey, hey, hey, this is Rupesh here. And did you know that your company can get a critical life insurance policy on your behalf and pay the premiums? And if it is structured correctly,

those premiums can come back to you tax-free. So in a way, you are taking out some of your company's cash flow to yourself on a tax-free basis. Thank you. Rupesh Kapadia, contact me if you'd like me to put you in touch for a free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia. Now, okay. Do you have any desire to go back to television? Like, would you go back to TV? Sure. Yeah. I would love to.

Anything, yeah. Like, are you applying or are you waiting until, like, I guess we've been kind of coy on this one, but, like, can you work on TV right now in this market? I know I've asked that different ways. Well, no, I can in a few weeks. Oh, see, look at this. You ask questions in different ways.

Well, I mean, there's nothing wrong with me telling you that. I can in a few weeks. In a few weeks, you'll... I'm going to make this up. If TV Ontario offered you a show, okay, TVO, you could... I can't work with Steve Paikin. Holy cow. What an arrogant

jerk. No, you know what? Steve Pagan is the quintessential news guy. He is fair and he is ethical and he is a true journalist. He really, really is. I asked

Mr. Pagan to come on Toronto Mike and he said, sure, I'd love to. Please arrange it with, he named a woman's name. So I would, I've been working, I gave up at some point. Don't give up. He's very, he's fascinating. This person seemed very disinterested

in actually making this happen. So eventually I just gave up. Let me talk to her. I met her, she's a very, she's a very me talk to her. I met her. She's a very nice lady. She's a very nice lady. But she's a busy lady. He's a busy guy. We're all busy.

I deal with such great people. Not just Kevin Frankish but many big Canadian celebrities come over and I almost always deal with the person directly to arrange their visit. With Mr. Pagan and I almost always deal with the person directly to arrange their visit. With Mr. Paken, I have to deal with this person, which is fine if that person worked with me on this. But you need to intervene, I think.

All right. I will intervene. Thank you. Because I think the same. I think very highly of Steve and I think he'd be a great guest on Toronto Mike. So look, that'll be your new gig. You'll be like the schedule guy. You'll get future guests for Toronto Mike. Wayne says, that'll be your new gig. You'll be like the schedule guy. You'll get future guests for Toronto Mike.

Wayne says, I love his YouTube channel. Can he explain the hole? He put hole in quotes. And what his mother's role was in it. Oh, the hole. Okay.

He says, oh, I'm fascinated by it. Finally, ask him if I can get into restricted or hard to get in areas. If I mentioned, I know him, he seems to get a free pass when it comes to that.

Okay. What's Wayne talking about? Okay. The hole, which was known as the rock complex in its, in its later days, originally it was called the sage complex. It is buried in,

we call it the mountain, but it's not really a mountain in North Bay. It's at the Canadian Forces Base there, and it goes underground, and it was built during the Cold War. So the design was that it was supposed to be able to withstand a nuclear blast at the time. It's about a mile underground. You have to go down in a bus, and it has been decommissioned since that time. It was at one point the control point for all air traffic in northern North America. Wow.

There's another one on Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, which is also, it's still in operation. So this was an American-adian uh cooperative effort uh it was a three-story building underground and my mom worked under there and um so she retired many many years ago so it was decommissioned and i took a chance and i got in touch with uh department of national defense and it took me a while i told him what i wanted to do i want to bring my mom back down there for a look-see. Wow. And they said yes.

And so if you want to see the trip down there, yeah, you know what? And thank you very much to them for doing that because it was, it was something that not a lot of people get a chance to do, but they did it for my mom. You know, that's basically who they did. They didn't do it for me.

And if you want to see it, go to my YouTube channel, uh, youtube.com slash Kevin Frankish, I think, or C I don't know. Just, I don't know. Make sure you're on Kevin Frankish, I think, or C, I don't know. Just, I don't know. Make sure you're on Kevin Frankish.

If you find a hole, something about the hole in North Bay, it's North Bay, right? North Bay. And Kevin Frankish YouTube. North Bay was a strategic military location when I was growing up. And it was, you know, the Cold War,

it was ground zero for the Cold War. Not only did we have the underground military installation, we also had the Beaumarc Missile missile base and the beaumarck missile base was uh an american base uh they at the time fancied beaumarck missiles as being uh what they could shoot at the russians or the soviets sorry um should you know should they want to the problem was at the time that Canada had a no-nukes policy. So what ended up happening is we granted some land in North Bay to the United States so they could put nuclear missiles there.

Sounds like a cheat to me. Like when they made that delivery it was they said it was the netherlands or whatever so that juliana could have a baby in netherlands well this is not unheard of because anytime you have an embassy or a consulate so the consulate down on on university avenue the consulate itself is on american land that's a good point the reason they do that is so that their laws will apply within the walls of that building, especially when you start. Now, it's not so bad between Canada and the US because, you know, other than nuclear, we really govern ourselves quite the same. But if you get a country that has completely, you know, could have a, you know, Middle Eastern laws or whatever, they need to have those in their walls.

Yeah. Amazing. Very, very interesting. Uh, Mike Lynch says, Hey Mike, just wanted to ask Kevin if he commuted every day from Barrie to do breakfast television. I believe he lives there. If so, what time was he waking up? No, we, uh, well I did for the, for a long time until about a year or two before I left. Uh, we finally wised up and got a place down in Toronto for me to, uh, to crash at. Which is a good idea. So,

so you were commuting from Barrie and then, then you had a downtown place and it was a, for a while. Yeah. So I would say there are two or three days a week. Okay, cool. Where did you come from today?

Barrie or the downtown? Downtown today. Yeah. Cool. Uh, Lori, faster to come from Barry. Thank you, TTC.

Lori says, hey, Mike, can you ask Kevin why they stopped having Fan Appreciation Day for breakfast television viewers? Also, tell him I'm still his number one fan. Thanks in advance. Thank you. Lori's your number one fan. Thank you, Lori.

It was a cost-cutting thing. Yeah, they cut the Fan Appreciation Day. It was a cost-cutting thing. Yeah, they cut the fan appreciation day. It was a cost-cutting thing. Times and television are getting tougher. You know, the advertising dollar is being spread much, much thinner. Man, I guess that's the internet's fault. I'm trying to think,

what are we playing for this? You know, things change. You know, newspapers used to be the only way to get your news. Then radio came along. And, you know, then change. You know, newspapers used to be the only way to get your news. Then radio came along. And, you know, then TV came along. And everybody thought radio was dead. And they thought newspapers were dead.

Even some newspapers have stopped publishing. But they're adapting as well. So you look at some of the online content from the Toronto Star, and that is, it's fantastic. They're just adapting. Now, yeah, when I think of little things like, okay, breakfast television back in the day, you know, traffic stuff there and everything. But nowadays, many savvy commuters have like an app on their phone for traffic. Yeah, it was something and that was an argument I always had.

I always said that I don't think we should be as heavy traffic anymore, even though I started in traffic, I'll tell you, with David Onley back in the day. Right. By the way, are you in touch with David Onley? I have not been in a while. Because he could help you with the scooter stuff. He was such a great guy. Yeah. So I find that traffic now is not as vital on a TV morning show um maybe on a radio show because you're in the car

because i mike you know mike richards who uh he was a sports media personality and he's on the station in mississauga now and he's decided to double down on traffic like he's doing these traffics on the five and he says that that's the key. And that's fine if you have something to tell people. And so I just said we should only tell people when something's wrong. Because 90% of the time

we'd go on the air and say everything's good. Or not good, but everything's normal. Yeah, and I'm not going to pay attention to that. However, if you only come on when something's wrong, it's like, oh, wait, wait.

Right. Yeah, we'll tell you about things that are atypical. Things have changed. And that's why morning television is still, I think, the best place. If you're going to be on TV and you're going to have a news program, morning television is the way to do it. Because by six o'clock in the evening, that was the time we always used to get our news at six o'clock in the evening. Well, I know everything that's happened. Right. I know everything.

I've been watching my phone all day long, so anything big happens, I know it. In the morning, I've woken up, I haven't been on my phone all night. I want to know what's going on, and I don't have time to sit there and play on the phone for a while. Right.

That's a good point. Now, Linda, not Lori. Lori's your number one fan, but Linda says, regarding women in media, in your experience, did you observe that women had a tougher time breaking into the industry? What advice do you give young women today?

Wow. Linda's bringing the heat. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if I can answer that from a personal standpoint. Well, you've never been a woman,

but I guess it would just be if you observed, unless you have, I don't know. But I've been following your career a long time. Times are changing right now. It's just persevere, perseverevere and don't take no for an answer and you know you don't have to prove that you know you can do this job better than a guy you just have to prove that you can do the job and that's the way it should be for anybody male female other is that the case though like Like it's like that scene in Philadelphia

where he talks about how, you know, we don't prejudice, we're not prejudiced against, you know, people, whatever your sexual preference is. And then the guy says, unfortunately we don't live in this courtroom. Yeah. Like it's, yes. But you said earlier in the same episode, you said something to the effect

of like that ageism click kicks in for a woman 10 years sooner than it kicks in for men 10 20 years sooner so clearly we're not there's not the equality is not actually it's not and and and again i'm going to defend tv executives i don't like to do this because they really are maybe you want to be one one day no no you But, you know, they're not just dealing with the prejudice of a few people. They're dealing with prejudices of their audience as well. So you can say all you want to an audience. Hey, you know what? This person can do this job. Well, if the audience doesn't respond, you don't have viewers, you don't have viewers, you don't have ratings, you don't have ratings, you don't have money, don't have viewers you don't have ratings you don't have ratings you don't have money and that's why you're there so anyone who is a tv executive who says to you oh i am completely open and honest is lying they call it the bleeding edge for a reason i suppose that uh yeah it's i i kind of see what you're referring to there i think i see it in like i watch a lot of live sports

and I've yet to hear in one of the major sports for my teams that I watched, Toronto-based teams, I've yet to hear a woman play-by-play announcer, for example. You're right. I was thinking about that too. I mean, they're relegated to the hallways outside the locker room. Right, like Hazel May will be talking to Montoya

or whatever on the field or whatever. You're right, or the locker room. Right. Like Hazel May will be talking to Montoya or whatever on the field or whatever. You're right. Or the player of the game. It's like women in road construction, right? They're the ones holding the signs. Right.

So, I mean, we have, yes. We still have a long way to go. And, you know, it's definitely,

some prejudice is still out there. And do you think if, and I don't think you can answer this knowing, but you can have an, you could probably have an opinion on this, but with your same experience and everything, if you were a woman, would you have the same pay?

Do you think you would have been making the same money? No. See that, that to me is a problem, right? Like obviously it's a problem. So you, as a woman,

you, and stats will back me up on this. You know, as a woman, you, and stats will back me up on this. You know, as a woman, you make less, but you pay more for everything. So if I was going to. Oh, like a haircut. You know, a haircut. If I was going to go buy the same shirt at the same place, if it's in the women's section, it, you know, it's going to be marked up by probably 50 to 100%.

Same, I mean, these, I'm'm talking identical the only thing is the buttons are on the other side so i'm yeah how did we get into this how did we get into this well this is actually linda's fault so well linda linda i mean she's you know and speaking as a dad you know you can say oh that's just a man but i'm speaking as a dad of two girls me too And so it's, it's, and then I hear that, you know, the provincial government wants to cut back on STEM in, in, in schools. And especially when it's focused on females. And, and, you know, we need to do everything we can. People may think it's unfair. Well, we don't want to give somebody an unfair advantage. Well, no, we need... What's STEM again? STEM is science.

What is STEM? Technology? Technology. S-T-E. Oh, crap. Yeah, okay. But it's a program that... It's...

Sadly, you know, schools have kind of streamed girls towards the more domestic kind of courses and left the STEM courses to... Well, I did once read a stat about like engineering students. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And these are typically male-dominated industry, mainly because the education stream that fuels these jobs is dominated by males. And it's also something that's ingrained in us, and it's something that maybe we don't think is all that bad a thing.

But, you know, there was a... I'm trying to think about it. Okay. Dr. Smith and his son were driving down the road one day. I know where you're going. Yes. Okay. Dr. Smith and his son are driving down the road one day.

There's a horrific accident. They're hit head on by a tractor trailer. Now, Dr. Smith dies right away. His son is rushed into emergency. The old surgeon comes over and looks and says i can't perform surgery on this person it's my son right yeah this is a famous example because people's preconceived notions are that uh that could the mr smith killed that that's obviously it's impossible for this elderly surgeon doing the operation to be the woman, to be the mother.

How can a woman be a surgeon? How can a woman be an elderly surgeon? You know, I went, I just did a piece, and you'll find it on my YouTube channel. I just did a piece on famous people in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. And there's a name you need to know. Her name is Jenny Smelly. Okay. Jenny Smelly, in 1911, was the first female surgeon in Canada.

Now, she was certified. She was a doctor. No hospital would allow her to be a resident, let alone do surgery. So she went to Philadelphia, where she was a resident and did surgery. Came back to Toronto, and again, even with experience, was not allowed to operate in any hospital. So in 1911, she did an ovarian tumor surgery on a woman on a kitchen table in someone's home. And she, along with a couple of other women,

went on to form Women's College Hospital. Wow. And that's 1911. How archaic does it seem that, you know? So this name, Jenny Smiley, you need to know this name. I'm interested in all the famous people in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Do you want to drop another name? Because I can tell you at Park Lawn, we got Harold Ballard and Jeff Healy and Con Smythe.

Well, let me see. There was, well, of course, Timothyothy eden uh who else is at at mount pleasant oh um uh foster um uh foster hewitt foster hewitt the first play by plan he coined the phrase he shoots he scores yes and of course he called the 72 uh the yes the summit series right Right. And we have Banting and Best. Yeah, Insulin at U of T. We have Glenn Gould, Fred Gardner. Is that what the highway is? Fred Gardner Expressway, yes. When I went there, though, I guess he doesn't have family left or nobody comes to visit.

His grave was completely covered over. So I sniffed away a few things to have it out there again. Cool. I'm so glad you're back just so I can ask this question. And just before I go, if nothing else, if nothing else, go to my YouTube channel, watch the part on Mount Pleasant Cemetery just to see Steve Stavro's headstone. Knob Hills Farm carts? Knob Hills Farm, Toronto Maple Leafs,

Toronto Raptors. You have to see Steve Stavros headstone. I'm not going to say anymore. Just go to see that. I need to know what you think of Steve Anthony. You know what? Steve Anthony was the

live-eye guy when I was on Breakfast Television to start with. Steve was always late. Sometimes he wouldn't show up. Steve was, you know, he was the quintessential disc jockey, you know? Sure, well, yeah. He was fun and he was unpredictable. And, you know, and as he got a little bit older, you know, I was sad because he lost a little bit, just a little bit of his irreverence. Oh, he stopped doing cocaine. That's what happened there. But he grew up, you know. But I loved, you know, and I still do. And he's still a little irreverent.

He still is. You know what? Okay, so you're saying nice a little irreverent. He still is. You know what? He's a really nice guy. Okay, so you're saying nice things about him. Uh-oh. I know. It's not that. If it was really bad, I would cut you some slack here.

But you did come up. So he came on before he announced he was leaving CP24. Yeah, what's the story there? He says he wanted to go do something else. And again, I know. We're all wondering. Everybody's wondering. I don't know.

He came on. Yeah, he claims he wanted to go do something else. And again, I know. We're all wondering. Everybody's wondering. I don't know. He came on. Yeah. He claims he wants to go. I think he's working in PR maybe for some companies like cannabis companies and stuff. He's living a good life because he moved out to Prince Edward County. Let me tell you, though, if you have to work morning shifts, which he did forever, whether it was the CKFM or whether it was on you know on on cp24 or with our show right he worked more anxious you are glad to get out of it yeah i think i think yes i think

i think he's doing fine he just turned 60 moved to prince edward county i think he's doing a okay but he um so yeah he came on to brag on his way out sort of he came to brag that cp24 breakfast had caught and passed breakfast television, right? Okay. So I pulled a little clip because you did come up and I thought his reaction to you was interesting. So this is Steve Anthony. And the other thing, the other great satisfaction is that breakfast television had those big,

huge 60-foot towering posters in Yonge-Dundas Square of the hosts, and it said, Toronto's number one morning show. And I was just so happy when it just kind of, they had to take it down because they couldn't say that anymore, which is great satisfaction. I mean, as much as I like some of the people on that show, personally, it's- Do you like Kevin Frankish?

I don't, no. You don't dislike him? No, you do dislike him. I have no... I have no feeling about Kevin Frankish. If he's listening or ends up listening to this, Kevin, I got no feeling about you. Okay, so what's...

That's a weird answer, right? He's such a jerk. What's that about? No feeling about you? You know what? I don't know. Honestly, we... Our paths didn't cross that much.

They really didn't, you know? But it sounds like he's being, it just didn't sound like, I don't know who out there has no feelings and says it that way. I think he was just being honest. Honestly, I don't take anything from that other than, I mean, if he wanted to,

honestly, if Steve wanted to say he didn't like me, that he would. And that was, you know what? That was, there's a huge backstory behind the ratings. The ratings battle between breakfast television and CP24 breakfast. But again, that was some of the things that I had frustrations with as well. So, I mean, that's a whole different thing.

Is that another episode? Like when you come back? I think that might be another episode. Because I would do an episode on cp24 breakfast versus uh breakfast television the the untold behind the scenes true story yeah i would do that it's uh it's interesting it's uh we were forbidden at the time and i can reveal this now when ctv bought city tv what people don't realize is a few years ago, CTV bought City TV and CP24 and Much Music, et cetera, et cetera.

Right. But the CRTC said you have to, you know, you cannot own two TV stations in the same city. Right. So Rogers bought City. They could keep CP24 because it was a digital station. It was not an over-the-air broadcast station. So basically, because they already had CFTO,

which is now called CTV Toronto, I guess they had to choose. You can either have City TV or CTV Toronto. You cannot own both. And they had to choose one. And CTV Toronto is a behemoth. So Rogers took

City TV off their hands so they could comply with the... At the time, we simulcast Breakfast Television on City TV and on CP24. We were not allowed, according to the agreement, or so I was told, to say, hey, we're going this way, they're going that way. So the idea was, for a a few weeks we were the same

and they did not put on their show until we were supposed to go one day we were we were going to disney we were taking the show to disney and their plan at the time was to um all of a sudden start their show to make it look as as they purposely made their show identical to the breakfast television they were taking over from. The times were exactly the same. Birthdays were in the same spot. If I may, to intentionally confuse the audience into thinking they're watching the same show?

That's my feeling. And if it was their intention, it was a very smart thing to do. Because breakfast television was loved. The last thing you want to do is piss someone off by by taking the show off your the first time steve anthony came by because the man does give a good podcast he did say that that was the worst thing he said because i guess back then you wrote in a journal what you were watching like is that right you had to put in a journal so and he said people he said and this and this is Steve Anthony's opinion, was that people would be watching CP24 breakfast,

but would think they're watching breakfast television. Yes. Because our, um, the beautiful thing about, about CP24 is we, our audience, we had,

we were number one on city and we were number two on CP24. Like we were with CP24 because the kind of people who watch CP24 are the kind of people who are, they have a very short time to get ready in the morning, so average viewership numbers are down as far as length of time watched. So we had a huge audience still on 2-4, but it was all part of the same show. So we were supposed to go away to Disney,

and they were supposed to start their show so it would look seamless, as though one part of us went to Disney, and they were supposed to start their show so it would look seamless as though one part of us went to Disney and they stayed here so they had they they they you know they did they called the CP24 breakfast for a reason it wasn't it was it was I think part of confusion and and rightly so I would do the same thing it's a smart thing to do I was in the washroom one day and saw one of the producers and he and he said to me he says oh you're because they were planning to bring everybody in and start fresh on that monday morning and they were going to rehearse on the weekend and that and he saw me he says so you all said to go to disney i said oh no we had to put it off a week oh his face went white right he went running out i found later they changed the

schedules with everybody and they put off their plans right so i mean that's just i mean that's that's the industry it's like you know that that book slash movie, The Late Shift, which talks about sort of like replacing Johnny Carson and Letterman wants it and then Leno comes and he kind of gets it and all this. We could do the same thing for this. Yeah. You know what I got to tell you? The thing is, is that the people, and I would say this even when I'm still working on BT,

the people at CP24 are fantastic. I mean, they really are. I love a lot of them to death. They're good people. They're genuinely fun and you're going to get good information. No one's left from when you worked with them, right? There's nobody left from that era

of the crossover because Steve Anthony's gone. Mika. Okay. Probably Mika. Okay. And what a lovely lady. You know, honestly, honestly, just a lovely, lovely

and you know what? They do a good job. They do a good job. Now, let's keep in mind that we invented CP24. Right. So I'm just going to point that out. This is a nice note I got. This woman named Sandy wants me to tell you that Dana Joseph Maximilian Roberts.

Do you know this name? Yep. That's a great long name. Dana Joseph Maximilian Roberts in Guelph. Guelph. He was a kid at the time. I can't call him a kid anymore. He loved the show and he tried to emulate it himself and he did reporting and i think at one

point we even had him on the air quite a bit well here's the news from uh sandy because sandy is the mother of dana joseph maximilian roberts in guelph he's now a dana's a man because dana that name goes both ways right it's a boy yeah boy, yeah. It's a man now, yes. It's okay. I know female Danas. He's now an anchor and journalist at CTV. And then she goes on to say he was a, you, Kevin Frankish, were a big inspiration to her son. He did it all himself. Honestly, that kid had drive.

You're going to take no credit in the success of, did that name get shortened for television dana joseph maximilian roberts wow that's a long name but uh good for uh good for dana that's uh that's cool so there you go you've inspired people and now on that note if i can change channels just a little bit here um you were very open about like your battles with your mental health challenges. First of all, how are you doing on that front? Was there any, like when you were let go, that must have been, I heard in your voice

how emotional you were. Like, how were you and how are you? I'm fine. I'm good. I'm dealing with it. I did not deal, excuse me, with anxiety. I've been diagnosed with, you know, I wrote it down to get the exact wording

because I never say it right. So give me two seconds here. Lonnie Anderson. Lonnie Anderson. Where is it? Boy. Oh, yeah. So I've been diagnosed with major depressive disorder

and generalized anxiety disorder. And I'm not alone. As I found out, there's a lot of people who live with anxiety. And I use the term live with rather than suffer from. And that's important for a number of reasons. When I really made my breakthrough is I finally decided I'm going to live with anxiety rather than suffer from anxiety. And what that does is it puts me in charge. If it happens, I'm the one pulling the strings.

Right. I understand it better. You know, if you had never sneezed in your entire life, how old are you now? 45. 45. 45. sneezed in your entire life how old you know uh 45 45 so tomorrow you sneeze for the very first time in 45 years what would you think you'd be scared yeah honestly you'd be like holy and i'm i'm talking a big sneeze right you like we take sneezing we sneeze excuse me we move on

if you had never done it in 45 years and you sneezed, it would scare the hell out of you. And you'd go to the doctor and you'd wonder, what was that? It's like I stopped breathing for a minute and I couldn't do that. You know what? Anxiety and a sneeze, they're both physiological. They're both in our body. They're not, if you have stress and anxiety,

I hate it when they say that's a mental disorder. That's a health disorder. If I want to raise my hand right now, I can't. I do this. Why can't I do that? Because my brain is saying, hey, raise your hand. I want to raise my hand, raise my hand. Well, you know, that brain, that same thought process also stores

anxiety up there. Anxiety is, is quite often brought on by environment, things that are happening to you. It's your body telling you a message, sending you a message. It could be sending you a message saying fight or flight. It could be sending you a message saying you need to slow down. It could be sending you a message. Our body tells us so many things. If you have a headache and you take a Tylenol and don't think about it, that's not a good thing. You need to find, okay, why do I have a headache? Your body is giving you the pain. Why? Anxiety is saying you're going too fast. You're doing too much. You need to slow down. You need to take care of yourself and you need to put things in order. That's a good point. We're treating the symptom as opposed to the root cause, the source.

And that's a very band-aid solution, right? It is. It's like everybody goes through some stress and anxiety sometime in their life. There are some people who it is debilitating. Right. And there are some people that they're watching and listening right now who probably haven't been out of their house for anything other than work or anything, like they just went to get food and go to a doctor's

and they got ready to go home because of anxiety. I'm of the opinion, I think, hopefully you'll agree, that at least the stigma seems, I'm of the opinion, I think, hopefully you'll agree, that at least the stigma seems, the way we see people who are living with health issues like that, the stigma is going away. I will use an example.

Are you familiar of John Moore? John Moore is a morning show host on 1010, News Talk 1010. Very recently, he took a month off of work for health reasons. And I know you don't like to say mental health, but I say that just to distinguish between. Yeah, exactly. And that was, I think, I believe, at least in where I was reading, that it was generally applauded.

Yes. Like, look, good. If somebody needed time off, friend of the show, you know look good because if somebody needed time off friend of the show you know jill deacon needs time off to fight cancer for example and it's like all the support you need take your time get better it should be this it's i think it was applauded and i feel like maybe 20 years ago it would have been looked down like people would have said like tough it out you need a month off because you're feeling like sad or anxious or whatever like their mental health days are now becoming part of a lot of contracts um one of the problems with that of course is that sometimes i think some

people could abuse them however if there are times you know if you get up and you're like i just i can't face the world today i don't know why that's your first clues is that you've got some sort of anxiety disorder. If you don't know why you can't do something. So, but mental health days are important. And talking about it is important. And realizing that, like, I don't mind telling you, like, I don't mind telling you I broke my foot. Why would I be embarrassed?

You know, why would I, oh, I got to wear gotta wear this thing no you wouldn't hesitate to share that but but if i'm i'm seeing a counselor right now i'm on anxiety medication i have these disorders i have them i'm not embarrassed by it i'm i'm i'm living with it now you get you get doug ford saying things like what do you call someone recently? A nutcase. He used the term nutcase. And it's old white guys like Doug Ford who still think it's okay to use terminology like that. And that's what creates a stigma. That is what creates people wanting to hide. So mental health is no different than your biological than your physical health they're one of the same thing are you learning how to how to how to manage this like because you're doing fine

and is this a result of learning you know triggers or when you need to slow down and like is it just being aware of what you need to do for your own, your own health? Yeah. Like Kevin, you specifically. You know, and,

and that term, you know what, if you would just adopt that term, uh, or the, or what I said about don't suffer from, from anxiety or stress or depression, live with it.

It's there. When I was a kid, I was in air cadets. You imagine me? It's probably because of the North Bay and all that military going on. One of the things we had the fortune of being able to do often was to go on a glider. Now, at the time, I didn't think it was a fortunate thing, but I didn't want to say no, so I didn't appear like, oh, come on. So i was in a glider once and again i was so petrified that when the glider would would bank left i would bank right completely i would just go the other way because it was just like oh my gosh

right and and it would bank left i would i would bank the other way you know i it just i would go opposite the glider and the pilot said to me he says listen without an engine in this i can feel everything you're doing back there so what i need you to do is when the glider banks left i need you to go with it right and i was like i can't do that i i don't know what our mindset is did i think i was going to turn it over or something so So I did. And you know what? I started to really, really enjoy the flight. It just came out of nowhere. It's like, oh, this is kind of neat.

And to use that as an example, it's because I stopped fighting natural forces. Anxiety and stress is a natural force. It is something that is in us. We may be preordained to it, but the thing is it's there. So what you need to do is welcome it in. You need to look at it, figure out where it came from, try and change something, and it goes away. The more you fight it, the longer it is with you.

It may seem easy, but it's the hardest thing you're going to do okay you're kevin frankish okay so you're i'm gonna you've made a good living for a long time you hopefully invested well and i mean i know you own two homes i mean you don't own two homes but you are you you live in two places you got a home you're got a downtown place like what about those who are not as well off as you? Do they have access? No.

Do they have access to mental health help? No. Because for some reason we have figured out that I can go to Toronto General Hospital, get my gallbladder worked on with surgery, spend two weeks in hospital, and go home and not pay a cent. However, I can have depression or anxiety. And you know what,

it's going to cost you $200 an hour that may or may not be covered by your health insurance. But if it is, it's only covered for five visits. And so you're going to have to go see someone at $200 a week for a few years. Well, no, it's not available. And it's been also, the numbers also show that the number of undiagnosed cases of anxiety, stress, and depression within people who do not make a lot of money.

Like lower income. Lower income people. It's much higher. The undiagnosed cases are much higher because when someone is living paycheck to paycheck or living in debt all the time or running from debt collectors all the time, which I did as a kid, I know. But you sort of feel, well, I deserve this stress. I deserve this anxiety. I understand

why it's there. However, anxiety and stress doesn't care if you're rich or poor. If you have anxiety, it's going to play havoc on your life unless it's diagnosed and you take care of it. Being poor does not in itself mean that it's okay for you to have anxiety. I, you know, you, you have to, we have to do a better job as a society. In fact,

if we spent more money on treating depression in people, we would save trillions of dollars for our health, our, our health system because we would be addressing alcoholism, heart attacks. We would be addressing, we could be addressing hair loss. You know, I mean, it goes right down to that. We could be addressing marriage problems.

We could be, you know, anxiety and stress is the number one sickness that we have in or the number one health ailment we have. So how do we fix this? Like you stated, the people, low or people are not being diagnosed and not getting the support they need furthermore that many of them uh work jobs where they don't get paid if they don't go to work like yeah we you know you come from a job where you if you need it i mean john moore if he needed a month off his employers kept his job kept his seat warm for him, kept paying him, let him get healthy. But somebody, I don't know, make a place, but like Walmart, for example, I can't work next week.

Okay, you get paid zero next week. This is how it works in a lot of low-income jobs. It sounds like, how do you fix this? Well, we first of all have to accept it. Fix it, Kevin. Right now. fix this? Well, I, I, we first of all have to accept it. We, we as, as right now, you know, I,

I think we, the first thing we need to do is, is we have to accept this is true. This is real for years, for years. PTSD was only something that if you went, if you fought in Vietnam, okay,

I can understand you have PTSD, right? You're a firefighter. You're a, you're a paramedic. You're a cop. You know what? Just grin and bear it.

Or go take a couple of sessions and we'll talk to you. And finally now, our emergency services are realizing PTSD is a very real thing. And they are working with that. I know I did a shift with Orange Air Ambulance. And we went to a very, very sad case. I won't get into it. However, afterwards, they are offered counseling. orange air ambulance and we went to a very very sad case i won't i won't get into it however afterwards they are offered counseling i was offered counseling that's how serious they took

it wow so we need to take it seriously i think that you know we also need to teach people how to deal with stress and anxiety do you know what we should be doing starting at kindergarten every day every day we should meditate for 15 10 15 in, I don't care how old you are, from kindergarten up through university. You know, you have recess, you have lunch break, you have, you know, they call them health breaks or whatever now. 15 minutes of meditation a day, learning how to do it every single day. You will have better students, higher marks, more well-behaved students. You will have higher, you'll have less students higher marks more but well-behaved students you will have higher you'll have less dropout rates guaranteed i promise you that are your money back

amazing you're two for two you're batting a thousand seriously that's two fantastic appearances i'm gonna be pressuring you at some point to come back for a third visit. Come back and duke it out with Steve Anthony. Oh, I can arrange that. That would be some compelling. No, don't let anyone else tell you Steve Anthony's a good guy. Kevin Frankish is also a good guy. And again, I appreciate your honesty and dare I say, no pun intended,

your Frank conversation. Oh, Frankish, Frankish, Frankish. say no pun intended you're the frank conversation of frankish frankish frankish and that brings us to the end of our 480 second show you can follow me on twitter i'm at toronto mike kevin tell us all the places we should go to like what are you on twitter well at kevin frankish at kevin frankish instagram is the real kevin frankish facebook is kevin frankish uh and uh on youtube i think it's youtube.com slash c slash Kevin Frankish channel. I don't know. It's something like that.

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