Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kevin Frankish: Toronto Mike'd #221

Episode Date: February 25, 2017

Mike chats with Breakfast Television co-host Kevin Frankish about his years on CKVR and CityTV and what it was like working with Ann Rohmer, Liza Fromer and Dina Pugliese. There's also a frank discussion about Jennifer Valentyne, CP24 Breakfast and the target on his back.

Welcome to episode 221 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And Chef's Plate, delivering delicious and locally sourced farm fresh ingredients in refrigerated kits directly to your door. fresh ingredients, and refrigerated kits directly to your door. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and joining me this week is Breakfast Television co-host and producer, Kevin Frankish. Well, good morning. I'm going to say good morning whether people are watching this or listening to this in the afternoon or the evening. Producer, too. One of the producers, yes. That's cool. You had to negotiate that title into your contract.

Definitely. You have to, right got it's all in the name is the headphone volume okay for you because greg brady wanted it really quiet and uh is it is it okay do you want it louder this is wonderful okay why do i need it why do i need the headphones i'm gonna play a clip or two okay i have audio i was worried because he's sitting right in front of me, folks, and I don't know if I can hear Mike. You know, I've only had one guest refuse the headphones. Who is that? Damien Cox. Wow.

But he wore a hard hat. He wore a hard hat. But the thing is, I had great audio clips, and he can't hear them. Just stick on those headphones, and we can all enjoy them. So, folks, let me describe this for you first. I literally arrived here 60 seconds ago. We have barely said anything except shook hands. I met his wife, his son.

We came down. I cracked my head on the basement floor, or basement ceiling. And now we're all of a sudden on the air. You know, I do that by design. I don't even want to like, don't talk to me. Let's do it all live. Like, let's get to know each other.

Because that's the best part. There's a lot of talk show hosts that do that. They don't want to talk to me, let's do it all live. Let's get to know each other. Because that's the best part. There's a lot of talk show hosts that do that. They don't want to talk to anybody because what happens is... And I tell this a lot to people who ask me for advice about learning to be a reporter. The more you talk to someone before, the more you know about them, and then you sort of take it for

granted everybody at home knows about them too. You brush over stuff that... What's Mike talking about? Why is he not wearing pants and like what if you told me a great story about your commute here and then on the recording i ask you about it and then i have to do like some fakery like i gotta pretend like i'm hearing it for you know what i mean yeah i don't want anything to be phony this has got to be organic real talk that's the one thing i hate about when you hear in an interview you know as i was telling you before, Mike,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. And the worst thing, uh,

related to that, but a little different is when you're listening to like a call in show on like the fan five 90 or something. And they're like, as I was just telling your screener, just skip that part. That's right. You know,

who cares? You were, as I was telling your screener a minute ago. Yeah. That's a useless. Now folks as well, there is a six-pack of Great Lakes Brewery beer right in front of me. I'm going to... There.

Can you hear that? You just destroyed my $330 microphone, Kevin. But with a great beer. By the way, that word, I heard you say... Can you say brewery? Brewery. Okay. I was about to say brew.

Okay. Then I added on. You're right. It took me many, many episodes to nail that word. It's a tough one. Yeah, it's tough. It's like rural juror. Yes.

Rural root. Right. Yeah. Or the brewery and the rural juror works at. I can't do that. February. You're the professional, not me. I am far from professional.

I am a little disappointed, by the way. Why? You're not wearing suspenders. I got rid of those years ago, and people keep asking me about them. Do you know what? I honestly got tired of them. I got tired. I almost felt as though it was becoming a uniform, and it just added a different kind of anxiety to me.

Yeah, it's because once people expect it,, that's your job to wear the suspenders. I thought maybe you got a cease and desist from Larry King's people, because Larry King owns this suspender trademark. Well, I thought he would give you a cease and desist for these microphones that we're using. Oh, that's right, which you broke, by the way. Do I send the invoice to Rogers, or do I send it to...

You go right ahead, and we'll see how far that goes. Okay, since you mentioned the beer, let me do that right now, which is to say, Kevin, that six-pack, it's not just a prop. Oh. You're bringing it home with you. Ooh, all right. I don't know if you enjoy beer or not. I love beer. But if you don't, you probably know someone who does.

Yes. I made it. It's like a variety pack, so they're different. They're like a southwest Toronto craft brewery. The nicest people. Do you know they're also voted the Canadian Brewery of the Year, Mike? Every year, right? No, I love local.

I mean, that's the great thing. Well, they're not owned by Molson or Labatt. So they're independent and they're good guys. So that's for you. By the way, we're both in the Father of Four Club. Yes. That's an exclusive club. Except you're a lot further behind me. I just got one more left

at home. How old is your youngest? 18. And our oldest, oh my gosh, she was born in 89. Oh my gosh, she's 80 years old. 80 years old. No, actually she's an RN at Sick Kids now. That's cool. No, actually, she's an RN at SickKids now. That's cool.

I mean, that's nuts. That's crazy. And as a guy who's had two of my four children spend some time in the, what's it called, the NICU, the natal intensive care unit for periods of time. They're all good now, but they had things to work out. Those nurses, they're the best. And it's 24-7 at SickKids, and you can go anytime, and they're just amazing. I mean, I don't want to badmouth doctors, but I mean, they're with your kids there constantly. Doctors come in, come out.

I mean, they have their need, but for the most part, the ones who are in charge of the care at SickKids are the nurses. And a parent with a kid in there, they need a compassionate person with empathy. The nurses there, they have to have good bedside manner, and they have to be good at what they do. They're so key. They are yelled at, attacked.

They suffer severe, not only physical abuse, but verbal abuse. It's a very emotional time for some parents. And, you know, some of the things they go through is just horrendous. I can imagine. Because I was lucky. My kids were only going to be there a short time,

and then we were going to go home. But I can imagine there's parents whose kids are in there a very, very long time, and some might not leave, and it's just tough for the parents, so the nurses have to be here. So good on your... And yes, your youngest is older than my oldest and I'll let you know how it goes. But father of four club,

I've seen you at the meetings. I only joined this club like 11 months ago. Yeah, dads, get ready for it. I was in a meeting yesterday. And hold on. I'm going to show you this text. I'm in the middle of a meeting and my 18-year-old, who has

a girlfriend... Let me see. Find his text. So this is the text I got. You can just start right there, Mike. Just read that one. That's the text I got during the meeting yesterday. Hey, could I go to Costa Rica with Chelsea on March 17th of 28th?

Mom said yes, but I'm going to pay for myself. 18? Yes. So what's your answer to that? I'm going to be there soon. I need to know how to handle this stuff. This is what you have to look forward to. Let me give you a scenario.

This hit me three years ago. My wife and I were in Vegas at doing it we were doing a show um and we get a phone call from our 16 year old son and he says i'm going to such and such as for a party tonight and there's going to be drinking is it okay if if okay if I go and if I drink beer? So this is the first time we'd ever been confronted with this. Our two girls who are older, we never had that. Okay, gotcha, yeah. So here you go, Mike. What do you do?

Well, first of all, I'm blown away because you're doing what I'm hoping I'm doing, which is you have a relationship with your kids where they'll tell you everything. I'm working so hard on that and so far so good, but my being only uh 15 years old i haven't quite got to this whole going okay but this is okay he is going to parties right now i will tell you right now is he going to parties uh i mean as far and i mean going to friends houses he's going to friends houses yeah of course yeah i i you know what there's probably a really 50 50 chance they're they're drinking or

some of their friends are drinking. Yes, yes. That premise is true. With my son, though, we have the kind of relationship I think that you have with yours where we have all these private face-to-face time chats where I ask him, has the duchy been passed around at a party? Have you smoked weed yet? I've told him

wait until you're an adult because your brain is still developing and I'm not even judgmental. I'm just trying to give him... and I'm like, we talk about drinking. I don't believe at age 15, I don't believe he's yet been at drinking parties, but I could be wrong. You could be wrong, but again, next year, maybe. Maybe tomorrow, maybe, and not even through any intention of his own. It might just be he was hanging around with a friend who was hanging around with a friend.

This is 16, you said, right? Yeah. So what did you say? So what we said, I said, you know, I got to talk to your mom. So I hung up the phone because I'm not going to say yes without, you know, you have to share the responsibility. So we both said, you know what? He phoned us. He asked us. Yeah, which is amazing. Because I remember going to my first party where I drank. I was not anywhere near 19. And I did not ask my parents or tell them or tell them the next day.

You hid it from them. So he's asked us. So I said, here's what's going to happen. Either he's going to go anyway and not tell us. Next time he won't call us. Or he won't do it, but he's going to resent us forever because of it. Then you say to yourself, okay, but you're a parent. It's okay to be resented once in a while.

But I thought, you know what? What kind of hypocrite would I be if I said at 16 I wasn't having a beer? Right, right. So we let him. We said, okay, thank you for telling us. But then we also had a chance to have the safety talks. You know, things get out of hand. Right.

You know, in some parties, especially, you know, you're going to see this or you're going to see that watch your drink especially for girls oh yeah of course now you have a chance to say so if they're going to be passing around the duchy you say okay where did it come from I'm not going to be able to stop you if you're already doing it

honestly I agree what you did is 100% what I think I would do and I would really my big thing is like let's just keep this down so your younger son doesn't hear this. All right, I'm going to be 10 years old. I'm going to be drinking some beers.

My big thing is that if my son, who's now 15, if his buddy's been drinking and his buddy's going to drive him home, I'm like, I don't care if it's four in the morning. You call me, I won't be mad. I will come and get you. Like, that's my big thing is I don't want him in the car

with somebody driving who's been drinking. And I don't think you get to that without when he, you know, at 16, he comes to you and says, I'm going to a party. There'll be booze. That's amazing you told me that. You can go, but that's a chance for you to talk about all the things. Yes, like you did. Now, he also was going to a place, and this was the thing, is the parents said, you're not allowed here to drink unless your parents know you're here drinking. And we had the same rule at our house.

So now, just about a year ago, our now 18-year-old, who was 17 at the time, was at a party. They were drinking, and it was getting out of hand. So he called me, and he said, Dad, I'm not comfortable here. Good. And it was about 2 in the morning, and I was just like, you know what? I'll be right there. And I said, if you need to go out, just tell your friends, oh, my dad is on my case. Right.

He's coming to get you. Good cop, bad cop. You can be the bad cop. Yeah, I'll come in and I'll tell you, get in the car. You know? I'm not going to. But he knew this is getting out of hand. Some guys arrived who weren't invited.

This is getting out of hand. I know right from wrong. That's amazing. Because that escalates so quickly. Like, it goes from, you know, zero to trouble, like, in 10 seconds flat. And just that you have a relationship with your dad, you can phone and know that you're not going to be in trouble. He's just going to come and get you. And that is what I'm aiming to do. So good on you. That sounds ideal to me. So far, like I said, I'll come back in 10 years and I'll let you know how it all went. My daughter will be a teenager in July.

Oh, good luck to you. You know what? You want girls until they turn 12, and then you want boys once they turn 12. She's amazing right now, but she's like, I get a call the other day. It's like, Daddy, I really want to see Chance the Rapper. This is what she tells me. You know, they renamed Molson Amphitheater

Budweiser's stage. Oh, is it now? Yeah. In fact, they've taken off the... I bike by it every day, so I can speak of authority. They took off the Moulson Amphitheater signage, and there's nothing right now. But the tickets I just bought for Chance the Rapper say Budweiser stage. Oh, Budweiser. Okay. So every day I go by, oh, is the Budweiser stage sign up yet?

Because I haven't heard that term yet. Yeah. So it's already on the tickets. In fact, they arrived yesterday, these tickets, and it's Budweiser stage. It's going to be the Budweiser stage. So yet. Because I haven't heard that term yet. Yeah, so it's already on the tickets. In fact, they arrived yesterday, these tickets, and it's Budweiser stage. It's going to be the Budweiser stage. So it's like effective immediately.

It's like, I mean, how many times have you tried to keep up with what the Hummingbird Center or the Yokeef Center is called? It's the Yokeef Center. It's the Sony Center now, right? The Hummingbird Center.

It's the Sony Center. Yeah, that's right. So I will probably always call it the AMP because that's how I know it. But yeah, it's the Budweiser stage and I'll be seeing Chance the Rapper with my 13 year old. You're going? Yeah,'s the thing i actually so my son wanted to go too i bought two tickets and i said to them you know hey you guys can both go we were gonna bike there

you guys can go and then i'll meet you and bike back with you because it'll be like whatever late and i'll be there and they're not yeah so i said and then my brother my brother my son james said actually dad i think you should go with michelle She'd like to go father-daughter because we went to Selena Gomez. And this, to me, is a step up now because I actually like Chance the Rapper. So now I've promised to go try to find a third ticket because these are the general admission lawns. So all three of us can go, me and the two oldest. This is the plan. So that plan came to fruition.

That plan was like instigated this morning. So you're getting some fresh news, Kevin. Breaking news. By the way, I have to say this before I forget. Hugh Burrell says hi. Hugh! And you know he's got his new gig starting Monday. And just coincidentally, my last guest was Greg Brady.

So it all comes... Be listening to them Monday morning on the fan. Right. With some guy from Montreal named Price, who I will plead some ignorance on i'm sure he's great but who knows uh and i gotta ask you because you're a berry guy you're a berry man you live in berry and you work but this is a saturday so so how are you in southwest toronto right now once in a while i stay at my daughter's who lives downtown just to keep

some sanity from from the community good idea yeah very smart i was just trying to make sure you knew what you were into. And on that note, and I need you to level with me because we had some email exchanges. Did you have a clue? When I asked you to come over and chat with me in my basement, did you have a clue what this was or who I was in any regard? Oh, yeah. I looked you up.

Okay. Because that's my question. Did you vet me before you agreed to chat with me in my basement? I vet you somewhat. did you vet me before you agreed to chat with me in my basement? Like, who is this guy? I vet you somewhat. However, there's not a lot out there on your site about you personally. You got to do that. I think people want to know a little bit more about Mike.

But you would see names you know and trust who have been here. Yes, well, yeah. And that would give you the... Yeah, and I would listen to it. And you know you're not going to get... You know you're not going to be tied up here or anything. And you're going to survive this. I was just curious because I could tell to it. And you know you're not going to get, you know you're not going to be tied up here or anything, and you're going to survive this. I was just curious, because I could tell by our chats

that you were not familiar with the podcast. No, no. And I got more good news for you. That beer goes home with you. We mentioned that. But also, I'm going to, my friends at Chef's Plate. Tickets to go see Chance the Rapper. Oh, I wish.

You know what? Real quick, I'm used to bands like Chance the Rapper, who's got like one solid album he's Plate. Tickets to go see Chance the Rapper. Oh, I wish. You know what? Let's say, real quick, I'm used to bands like Chance the Rapper, who's got one solid album he's released. They should be like $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Yeah. How much? I think when add up the taxes and the service charges, we're looking at very close to $100 a ticket for Chance the Rapper. Yeah. But you're paying that to go see a hockey game, you know?

Well, I'm not, but some people are. Some people are. But,'re paying that to go see a hockey game, you know? Well, I'm not, but some people are. But, I mean, that's it. They will keep charging you whatever people are willing to fork out. And then someone's going to take those tickets, and they're going to sell them on StubHub, and they're going to get even more sometimes for it.

I feel like you have to have a couple of, at least, I don't know, you need to have a catalog larger than one album and some Kanye appearances. Yeah, to charge $100. Yes. And that's, by the way, that's lawns, okay? Forget the seats you get underneath the shelter there.

Anyway. But isn't that what's great about going to a Marley's game? Well, first of all, I was going to say, what I've been doing is the Ford Fanatic 600 level at Leaf Games, where they actually serve you, like, sometimes it's all-you-can-eat popcorn, but I've been there when they had the wings and the pizza it's all-you-can-eat popcorn, but I've been there when they had the wings and the pizza out, all-you-can-eat.

And you're really far away. You can apparently see the puck, but it's like you just have to tweet at somebody and they give you these tickets. It's the best value in town, the Ford Fanatic seats. Yeah, you know what? It's so sad, though, that there's some boys and girls out there who are not going to be able to go to Leaf games and Jays games and Raptor games who should be able to.

It's a bunch of guys in suits. And, you know, that's the sad thing is that these games are going out of the reach of people who can afford it. You're right. So you've got to go to the Marlies and watch, I guess, future Leafs and past Leafs, I believe. All right. So Chef's Plate, they're going to send you, Kevin, even to Barry, they're going to send you a couple of free meals. All right. So I'll send you a link and you pick your two favorite meals and then a shipping address. And then I will make sure they send you this pre-portioned, locally sourced, farm fresh ingredientsresh ingredients in easy... They're in refrigerated kits, so even if you're not home for several hours,

it's still good. And this recipe is like dummy-proof, I say. I did it. You can put this together even if you're not a culinary artist. Yeah, I've heard of it. I love Chef's Plate, yeah. And everyone else can go to chefsplate.com

and use the promo code TRONOMIKE to get your first two plates for free. Right on. Alright, see all that? We got to know each other. Now the deep dive begins. You ready? Now, folks, you can turn off your devices now. You're about to hear the most boring episode of

Toronto Mike ever. Do you want to bet I can make this interesting? Do you want to bet I can bring it right back down? Okay, let's have a duel here. I'm ready. So, I want to get you to see KVR. So bring it right back down. Okay, let's have a duel here. I'm ready. So I want to get you to CKVR. So please let us know, like, how do you know you want to end up on television? And how do you end up at CKVR? It all started, Mike. It all started when I was 14 years old at Scholar Hall in North Bay, part of a high school TV show at the local community access channel, Cable 12. And I fell in love with the industry. And I ended up spending three years there as a volunteer

doing everything, every waking moment. You know how some kids are away from the house and they're hanging out at the pool parlor or pinball. I don't know what the kids are hanging out these days. The video, the penny arcade. But I hung out every waking moment there. I did everything. And then I managed to get a part-time job at the local TV station, which was CKNY and CHNB.

It's now called MCTV. And worked there for three years part-time while finishing high school and going to college. And that's in North Bay? In North Bay. Wow. So by the time I was 19, I got my first full-time job at CKVR in Bury.

I got my first full-time job as a three days a week as a reporter and two days on the weekend as a sports anchor. And I know nothing about sports. Is that right? Zero zilch. You had to fake it until you made it. Oh, yeah. Is that what they say? By the way, Cable 12.

I only know of Cable 10. So you're telling me it's not always 10? It's not always 10. See, the problem with it would have been Cable 10 in North Bay, except the main TV station, CKNY at the time, broadcasts on Channel 10. So they couldn't do a Cable 10 in North Bay. For some reason, I thought that was like a standard across the board. It's always Channel 10.

They try to be, yeah. But sometimes it's 12. All right, so CKVR, which I remember fondly, like for older shows in syndication. Leave it to paper. Yes, and I think maybe the Andy Griffith show. Oh, yeah. At one point, they had everything on,

the old stuff. And I used to consume, like I would just gobble that up as a youngster on CKVR. Absolutely. And at CKVR, how did you end up? I guess you were doing the total news for a while. Yeah, total news. It was a great start.

Again, it was a small operation, so you got to do a lot more. You had to do as much or as little as you wanted to. Yeah, I started at $14,000 a year. That was my full-time yearly salary. They still pay that for some time. And they still do. I started out at $14,000 a year. That was my full-time yearly salary. They still pay that for some time. And they still do. But I have a clip for you. So you're wondering why you're wearing headphones.

Here's our first. So this is, and then I got some questions about your voice. Oh, no. But this is CKVR's Total News 1985. The voice you hear, believe it or not, belongs to Kevin Frankish. That same schedule may be revised later on this week. Hansen was told to spend an extra day of rest in London

today. Doctors there examined his shoulder at a clinic. There they told him it will be some time before he is free from pain. In other news, a new idea in nightclubs for teens has expanded. Earlier this year, Club 404 began a new market this weekend the operation to open its doors in berry club 404 caters to teenagers

between the ages of 13 and 18 no alcohol is served at the club it operates until midnight on weekends club 404 is there there's a team to give him a job okay so that guy that guy i think that first part too i think that first news story if i I'm not mistaken, was about Rick Hansen. Absolutely. That was about Rick Hansen. Who is now a friend. Man, what a guy. Man in motion. Yeah. And still to this day.

He doesn't look any different. I told him he made a deal with the devil. He doesn't look any different. He's still out there doing what he can, raising money and awareness for spinal cord research. That's amazing. But what's more amazing to me is the voice change. Is there much of a change?

Okay, so my wife, I got to disclose, my wife and my mom both watch breakfast television in the mornings. My wife's on maternity leave right now, and I work from home, and sometimes I'll see you. Do you know what's funny? And I'm sorry to interrupt your thought, is that we have so many people who watch us on maternity leave. So much so that Melanie Ng, who is coming back on Monday from a year of maternity leave, her first story is going to be about maternity leave and going back to work and watching breakfast television during maternity leave.

And it's when a lot of people discover us. My wife goes back middle of March. So yeah, about a month from now. So yeah. So I hear you quite a bit in my living room. In my opinion, I'm not an audiophile here, but there's a pitch difference. Like you in 1985 sound more like I do now. And now you've got a deeper... What is this? Is this something that you just trained yourself? No. I've never trained myself to do anything. How did your voice get so much deeper? It's relaxing. It's just more

conversational. I hope now I just... That was not the way I talked. So I hope now more... So now it's more natural and then you were doing what I call the reporter voice. Yes, that's right. But you think you go deeper for the reporter voice. You can always, and folks, here's a little secret

to being a reporter. There is a tune that you must follow. If you follow that tune and just put any word in there, you will sound like an anchor. See, who did I have on? Siobhan Morris from 1010. And I remarked that she's on the air. She sounds different. And she says, well, it's enunciating.

This is essentially the difference, right? We're talking now. I'm mumbling. You're talking casually. But when you over enunciate, then you get that kind of cadence. Yeah, you get that. You do it as well. You probably do it on your phone when you answer a phone. You talk differently to someone on the phone and your voice changes and your enunciation changes when you're on the phone. Yeah, that could be true. But so good on you that your balls dropped since 1985. Yes, they did. And I'm sure that helped because at some point,

by the way, and I got a question. CKVR, great. At some point, I guess coincides with the Raptors. The Raptors show up and they have their games on CKVR. Yeah. But you rebrand as the new VR. Yeah, that sucked. So tell me, okay, is this the chum people moving in

and trying to make it a hipper place? Like what happens there? I'm trying to go back to the different manifestations of CKVR. They reinvented themselves so much. Before it was new VR, it was, it became, now, the reason, first of all, let me go back. Okay. The reason we ran Leave it to Beaver and all the old shows, and then we became CKVR Classic Television, is because we were too damn cheap to buy anything from primetime.

I guess that much, yeah, for sure. So we were owned by chum at that time but it just it just was it was a tv station in barry right so they're not going to throw money and throw a lot of money at it but they found a little niche and it worked until those shows started getting more expensive classic television became a thing now we can't afford that anymore so now what they say uh is they say okay we need a new shtick because we we don't want it just to be a regular TV station. So we're now going to call it CKVR Television to Explore. And for a few years, they became what they wanted to be was a PBS kind of nature channel.

But all they could afford was really crappy documentaries. So nobody ever watched it. Then they became the new VR. Yes. And that was Moses Neimer, who had stepped in there when he took over CKVR, or the operation of CKVR. So he decided, let's make it the new VR. And his argument was New York, New Orleans, whatever, and this will be the new VR. And then it became VRr land again moses but okay they

were the new vr for a long time yeah way longer than you should ever be called knew anything exactly i don't know what the statue then i joked who was here uh kate uh who's the long-time ctv reporter that i'm having a mental block uh k. I'm sorry, Kate. I'm sorry. I'm more sorry. They were here. Starts with a B? Okay, let's do this one. This is great live. I'm not going to edit this either. Kate.

Darn it. That's terrible. I know it is terrible, so I'm going to look at it. Kate Wheeler. Kate Wheeler. And also... Wow. That'seler. But not, but Kate Wheeler and also, wow, that's terrible. There's another,

another anchor, I believe CTV that was on VR. Maybe, maybe not. Oh, another anchor. Okay.

There were a few. But Kate Wheeler was here and we talked, we talked a lot about this and I told her that there should be a statute of limitations on using the term new.

It was a long, it was a very old branding to be the new anything and it it was like i think mojo all new mojo or something went on way too long too or maybe all new 640 or something but yeah you guys milked that new way longer than you should have been you know what it's it's a lot of times what happens is you get people making decisions way up in the upper floors. They surround themselves with people who really aren't that into the product, you know?

And they're not listening to people a lot more, as much as they should, who are down in the trenches. What was it after New VR you said? It was... Was it New VR and then it became VR Land and then it was A Channel? I remember A Channel. And I remember they always used to laugh because I hadn't worked there at that point.

But they were saying, yeah, we're A Channel. We'll decide on a name later. That's funny because you leave, I guess. Well, A Channel, again, A Channel was we had owned A Channel in Alberta. It was the Alberta Channel. So for some reason they brought it here and called all the different, the CKVR, the CFPL in London at the time, there's

Channel 2 and 7 in Calgary also. So they were all called A Channel. So that was the first manifestation of a second network, which soon became CTV2. And you, I guess I'm very curious how you parlay your CKVR fame to move to City, to move to City TV and the big smoke.

I guess that's in 91. You'll know better than I will. But so how do you, how do you make that move? Well, again, City TV owned by Chum at the time. So I asked if I could, I always loved City TV since I was in college. I discovered them. I was in North Bay, but I'd read this little newspaper article about Moses Neimer, about City TV, how he wanted to put cameras on every street corner. He wanted to let the city breathe and he wanted people to hear it. I still love that.

It was cool. It had character. Yeah. And so I always aimed to work there. So I once asked, hey, listen, can I write there on the weekends? So I worked seven days a week for a while, up in Barrie, and then I worked there writing news. And they had a position open up on Breakfast Television at that point, and as a traffic reporter, David Onley was doing the news at the time.

Right. And that's where it is. Now, that was when, again, Chum still owned them, so it was more a transfer than it was getting hired. Right, right, right. And by the way, before we leave CKVR, this is where you start your practice of ending every broadcast with a wink. Yes. And this is the, well, you tell us, what does the wink symbolize? It's to my wife. That's just sort of a, I love you to my wife. And that's because you borrowed Carol Burnett's pulling of her ear. Right, for her grandmother, I think it was.

I proposed to my wife on television. Is that right? At CKVR. Did she say yes or no? She said no. What are you supposed to say? Yes or no? How many times did you have to ask her? Just once. Just once. Did she know at the time that she'd have to have four children? That might have been the deal breaker.

And also, Bob McIntyre. So you actually got to interview him just before his passing, right? He agreed. I mean, he knew he was going to die. Bob McIntyre, for those who don't know, I mean, he was a legend in central Ontario. He had been with CKVR for so many years. He was known through cottage country,

and everybody remembers him if they went to their cottage because the only station you could get was CKVR. That's right, that's right. And he was a legend, still is a legend. And he got cancer. He fought it, won, but it came back, and we lost him a few months ago. And I think the day before he died, I asked him if I could interview him one last time.

I said, this is the ultimate homage to an on-air person. And we just chatted. so tell me what that's like when you when you realize this is the last hurrah so to speak i can't imagine like there must be you try to keep it casual but that must weigh on you that this this matters in some regard this is not just a normal chat well he made it easy like that was the thing he had he had really made peace with himself and with with the fact that he was going to die the next day. Wow. And because he was making the choice of when to pull the plug, so to speak. And you were honored that you had this opportunity. Yeah. That's cool. That's absolutely amazing. I mean, I hope one day the last thing I ever do before I pass is say something on the air. Wow.

Wow. And now to bring us back to 1991, or not 1991, but yeah, I guess 91, you're at City TV. And I got a question about this guy who was doing the news on breakfast television. Did he ever amount to anything, this David Onley? He just sort of disappeared and nothing happened to him. He got a cushy government job somewhere. Is that right? Yeah.

And got driven around and all this. I mean, where is he now? The 28th. He's the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. So good on David Onley. So I guess when he leaves Breakfast Television, how do you end up co-hosting with Ann Romer? Well, it started out as news. And then they wanted to expand

the show into having a couple of hosts or to do a little bit more chatting in that. Because it was very ABCDE and every day it was ABCDE, but now they wanted to sort of mix things up. And we had a good rapport and a good chemistry together. Ann Romer, one of the

legends of broadcasting. Are you still friendly with Anne Romer? I don't talk to her or see her very much anymore. I mean, you lose touch. But I've seen her leave CP24 a few times, but she's the best thing they have there. And I'm always thrilled when she comes back.

That's a very proper and safe answer. I believe that to be true Because you know my next question is Do you have any insight into Why are you leaving If you're just going to come right back I think Anne's a restless soul

You know honestly I think she's a restless soul And she's so dedicated To her parents To animals To so many things. And I think, you know, maybe she gets bored. I don't know. I think for sure.

Yeah, for sure she's getting bored. Now, she's coming on. She has promised to come on the show. I hope she does. You tell her I said hey. Because I need answers. I've been peppering everyone you can think of. You know, I asked Dwight Drummond about this.

I asked Steve Anthony about this. I had been peppering everyone you can think of. I asked Dwight Drummond about this. I asked Steve Anthony about this. I had Stephanie Smyth in here. I'm asking her about this. I need to hear from Anne. I think sometimes, too, we always think when we're in this business, and all of us do. I mean, there's so many times I wish you know what? I want to do something

else. I am tired of this. It's usually after a day where you've had somebody, a viewer, say one bad thing about your hair or something like that, and you're saying, that's it. Screw this. I'm tired of this. You know, and it's usually after a day where you've had somebody, a viewer, say one bad thing about your hair or something like that. And you're saying, that's it. Screw this. I'm out of here. And so, and then you leave. Like I go on vacation and I can't wait to get back to work. Honestly, I go on vacation and think, oh, you know, I miss this. So I think that she is a, she is a broadcast professional through and through. And like I said, and I'm honest about that, she's the best thing CP24 has. Nobody else can ad lib like her. If a teleprompter goes down, oh my gosh,

some of those people... You're done. There's a lot of young talent on there. Some of it's very good. Some of it is not. I'm sorry. They should be... It used to be you paid your dues.

You went to Sudbury, you went to North Bay, you went to Barrie, you paid your dues. You didn't come right out of school and go right on to a Toronto television station. That's right. That's right. Same with radio, right? People, they go off to Thunder Bay

and they put in some years there. That's where I learned all my mistakes. That's where I did all my mistakes. That's where I covered mall displays and where I covered city council in North Bay. And I learned. I learned all my mistakes. But the way TV is being run right now,

and it's not just 2.4. It's everything. CBC is just a shadow of what it used to be. It used to be the hardest thing in the world to get into CBC News. Now it's a lot easier. I even turned down an offer from CBC News. There you see. Just kidding.

So Anne Romer, though, and I'm with you, of course. She wants to do something else, and then she gets the itch to come back, and she comes back. That's fine. The first time, okay? So fine. So you retire once. Well, I was there for three retirements. Is that right?

Two, yes. Because I only know of two. Is there three? Is this an exclusive? See, when she retired from... Hold on. I got to clip. Hold on.

Hold on. Okay. We have breaking news at this hour. Kevin Frankish reveals there were three Ann Romer retirements. I'm thinking. Annie, you're going to have to help me. So play this for Annie, okay? I will.

I think she retired from Breakfast Television. And then she retired from CP24 while I was still there. But then I remember a retirement when I wasn't there. So that's why I'm thinking it's three. Okay. Because I know she retires from CP24 twice. So if you're telling me there's a retirement when I wasn't there. So that's why I'm thinking it's three. Okay, because I know she retires from CP24 twice. So if you're telling me there's a retirement

from Breakfast Television... There was a retirement from Breakfast Television. She was going to go off to a completely unrelated line of work. See, that I believe... The first retirement from Breakfast Television was she wanted to be back into the aviation industry.

She wanted to go and into the aviation industry. She wanted to go and run. So is that the one you're referring to as the first one? I believe she wanted to go and be public relations for Porter Air. Every on-air person, when they get very frustrated, wants to, dreams of being a public relations person somewhere for something that doesn't need a lot of bad press. Right. And that would make sense because Lindsay, is that the...

Yeah, Lindsay DeLuce. There's some bloodlines here to the poor girl. Yeah, her father is the owner. And so have you ever heard that maybe she wanted to become a stewardess again? I don't think we call them that anymore. We call them stewardess. Flight attendant. Flight attendant, that's the word.

There you go. I don't know how that worked. There was talk about that. You'd have to get that directly from her. And I just want to watch you sweat here. Oh, I'm not going to sweat. I don't know how that worked. There was talk about that. You'd have to get that directly from her. I just want to watch you sweat here. Oh, I'm not going to sweat. I don't sweat. You know what?

I'm going to be honest with you. And if I can't tell you something, I'm going to say, hey, I can't tell you that. I sweat, by the way, just trying to say Dina's last name. But we'll get to that. Pugliese. No. But the G is silent, right? G is silent.

Pugliese. My wife, actually, I asked her yesterday, and I'm going to get to Dina in a minute, but I asked her, can you say the last name for me again? And I was butchering it by making the G sound. Anyway, I'm going to try to say it soon. Ann Romer, so she retires, you say, three times. I think it's three. I know of two, maybe three, but it's safe to say each retirement has a cake and people, right?

And they buy her parting gifts. I mean, I always say keg gift certificates and this sort are given to her, right? You're with me? So, and then you come back and then they do it again. I've seen it happen twice. One of the worst things that we, okay. So Hugh Burrell and I, Hugh was on the show at the time with me and we had the big retirement party for her and breakfast television. And we were about, you know, half an hour away from the end of the show. And I said to Hugh, I said, did you get her anything? And Hugh says, I thought you did. So we, Hugh and I, and Anne, I'm sorry.

Hugh and I went across the street to St. Patrick's Variety Store. And we spent $2.49 on some flowers. Brought them in, found a vase in someone's desk, stuck them in it. When she returned to the airwaves, you must have been relieved you didn't break the bank on that, right? You have to do it again. So here's, can she do it again? When she, because she's on CP24, probably as we speak, she's probably on, because she's on a lot. Right.

When she decides she wants to go do something else or maybe actually retire, can they possibly roll out another cake and do it again? I think that, you know what, and that's where you have to just roll with it. And I think Anne would be willing to do this. If I was her producer, I'd say, you know what, We're going to do the fourth annual Anne Romer retirement party. That's what it is. You know what? You've got to laugh at yourself. Because she was restless. There's nothing wrong with that.

How many times did Cher retire? That's very different, Kevin. That's very different. All right. By the way, and again, I need to repeat this for listeners. I'm pro-Anne Romer. I'm in the Anne Romer fan. I'm a card-carrying member

of the Ann Romer fan club, and I'm looking forward to sitting down with her. I'm just so fascinated by the multiple retirements in the public. They're not quiet, private parties. I see it on Instagram. They telecast it. It is a cake. You know, you had a...

You mentioned Melanie Ng is coming back from her maternity leave and you had a fill-in, if you will. Tammy Sutherland. Right. And then I know on Friday, she had some kind of a cake

or a massage for her and stuff, right? Yeah. So Anne keeps going to this well. But okay, so we'll leave Anne Romer. I'll find out from Anne

what's going on. But that was some good insight. Three retirements. Oh my goodness. That's more than I even thought. Let's talk for a moment about Anne Romer's retirement. Anne Romer's replacement, Liza Fromer.

What was it like working with Liza? It was good. She was honestly was not there as long as Anne was or as long as Dina was. So we never really, we developed a bit of a rapport, but it was not something that we grew into. But she was there years.

A few years. How many years do you need to develop the rapport? I don't know. We developed the rapport in 15 minutes. Exactly, in 60 seconds, actually. I don't, you know, yeah, definitely. Chemistry has to be true. And you can't force chemistry.

Chemistry has to be true. And you can't force chemistry. And, you know, we have, I think, a little bit more of a challenge developing a chemistry by becoming co-workers. Because it's so very important. You know, when you see a new show start up, you know, like CTV Your Morning, you see this show start up and you know they've been told, love each other, laugh, have fun. And so you can tell it's uncomfortable. Greg Brady last week said it was like an arranged marriage because he did not choose Price as his co-host.

And I'm always fascinated by this because you'd think there would be chemistry tests. Like since chemistry can't, I mean, Greg Brady is an interesting example because he he lacked chemistry with jim lang and eventually this resulted in jim lang being pushed out for andrew walker on the old morning show i know you're not a sports guy so you probably never listened who that's fair that's fair even though you work for the same company but that's okay

but uh different different places but um i guess i always thought did you have a did you have a say in the hiring of Liza? Oh, definitely. Oh, she was the right hire. But isn't the chemistry key? The chemistry is definitely key. Especially in your kind of a show. I think we had a bit of a chemistry.

I think we had a chemistry. I think we did. I mean, it was just, it was, I think what happens is we grow on air. Our viewers watch us all grow and come along. So it was for me, I was still so young, and it was the first time I had ever had to experience getting a new partner. So for me, I mean, maybe I just didn't do it right.

You know, it was just I wasn't good at this. I didn't know how to do that. And, I mean, she did move on to do some other things and then eventually ended up on the competitor station, Global. And then was moved out from there. For what it's worth, I had great chemistry of Liza. I'm just throwing it out there. She's a wonderful lady. Yeah, I'm a card-carrying Liza

Frommer fan. The aforementioned Hugh Burrell wanted me to ask you about the time that you stole Liza's desk, put a fake mustache on her billboard. What's that about? The stuff we did to her. Yeah, we went in,

Hugh and I went in one afternoon and we took everything, her desk, her phone, everything, and we brought it up to the roof of the Chum building at 299 Queen West. Like, I mean, not just on the roof. We had to go through

wired staircases and things like that and put it out there on the roof, and then we put a live camera up there. And we recorded her when she came in. Where's my desk? That's amazing. It was almost like a Dwight Schrute kind of moment, right, with the office. Jim! And that's the famous roof where they would throw the Christmas trees.

Well, no, this was even higher. The Christmas tree one was basically from a balcony. So, yeah. We put a mustache. We had a big billboard across the street. I hate being on billboards. I hate it. So, there's Liza and I on a billboard, but it's big. It's big as life. So, we managed to get this window

washing equipment, and we had this big huge mustache, and we put it on her. Oh, poor Liza. That is a great prank. I'm glad Hugh tipped me off about this one. Would you pull a similar prank on Dina? Oh, we have. I mean, not like that.

I mean, we've got to come up with something original, right? The problem is Dina, like, Liza could get a little bit more like, what did you guys do? Whereas Dina will roll with anything. So you can't get her goat because she's on. She's into it. What do you call it? Yeah.

Yeah. That means it's not that we haven't done things on her. All right. I'm going to try to say her last name and then you're going to say it. Okay. So my wife told me last night. Hold on.

Pugliese. Pugliese. Pugliese. Pug Hold on. Pugliese. Pugliese. Pugliese. Pugliese. There you go. You just read that. Don't say it again. Yes.

There you're done. We'll call her Dina for now. Just like Cher. You mentioned Cher. So Dina. So Dina, by the way, not too far from here is the southern campus of Humber College. Yes. And I walk there a lot, especially with the kids in the stroller.

And there's a 50th anniversary thing going on for Humber College, and they have some prominent graduates on flags. Their faces are on flags. There is a Dina flag. Is there really? So I took a photo of this and I tweeted it at her. Yeah. I haven't seen that. I'll link it to it. Oh, yeah. I'll link it to it. So her face is on a big flag like down the street from here. And by the way, we had a little exchange about it because she hadn't seen it yet

and I tweeted it at her. And I said to her, hey, you should come on Toronto Mic'd and talk. And she says she has to clear it with PR. Okay, so here's my question to you. There's not a prayer. Like this is my 221st episode. You did not clear this with PR.

I don't clear anything with PR. Right. You know what? I get into trouble a lot. You know who I am? I am, for anybody who watched MASH. Did you watch MASH? I did watch MASH.

I'm Hawkeye Pierce. I'm Hawkeye Pierce. I am the guy who doesn't like authority and will flaunt things in their faces. And I get into trouble a lot. Is that right? A lot. But you know where the line is. And I get into trouble a lot. Is that right? A lot. But you know where the line is and you just like to dance to the line.

You know, I've been in the business for umpteen years. And at some point, you just sort of have to relax and stop saying yes sir, no sir, and start being your own person. She's still, yeah, I can understand. I mean, it's a corporate atmosphere now, right? These days, no matter what. I mean, I, okay.

So like, I'm not, that's, I think it's a big number, 221. At this point, I've had so many Bell Media people, so many Rogers people. I've had a bunch of CBC people and Chorus people. I've had all four groups. Very few people have actually cleared PR. All the CBC guys have, by the way. They must have a rule, like a hardcore rule, because Matt Galloway, Dwight Drummond, they all had to run it through PR. There is probably a rule

somewhere in our ethics course that we take every year. So Dina did the right thing. She's doing the right thing. I'm doing the wrong thing. Because it does irritate me that, what do you mean? Come on,

just control what you say. You're not going to come in and bash Rogers or whatever. You're going to be careful. No, I'm not going to bash Rogers. No, you're not. That's why you're here. Maybe she would

and she needs to be saved from herself. So, okay, great. So Dina and things here. Maybe she would, and she needs to be saved from herself. So, okay, great. So, Dina and things are great with Dina. How many years has she been there now? What did we celebrate? Just the 10th anniversary? Oh, wow.

It's been a long time. And, yeah. I recently, I'm Twitter friends of Dina. I've never met her. But I feel very badly for her because she is often asked about, like, when are you going to make babies and this kind of stuff? But instead of ignoring them,

which I would do, because first of all, you, me, we would never in a million years ask a woman that question. Yeah, I know. You never do because you don't know what's going on.

I would never ask that question. But she always publicly responds and I just feel bad because she doesn't have to do that. No, she doesn't have to do it. And the thing, Athena, is she will answer every single person on Twitter. I don't have that time. I really don't.

But you should see. She sits there for hours. Yeah, she's very engaged. And one of the things, and I'm going to tell you. Yeah. I'm going to tell you, it bothers her. I'm going to be frankly honest. Yeah, it should bother her.

You don't ask anybody when they're going to have a baby. When are you going to have a baby? Are you pregnant? She gets a lot of, are you pregnant? She'll wear a certain outfit, and the way it falls, well, I mean, are you pregnant? You don't ask that either. Never in a million years.

The things that people, now, and both Dina and I agree on this, is that sometimes the things people ask us show a familiarity that you would have. Yeah, because you're in their living rooms every day and they forget that. So we keep saying, you know what, this is just one of the things that goes with it. But by us being that close to our viewers and by allowing our lives to be so open that, hey, sometimes some people want to ask these questions and that's OK. You know, and I kind of I kind of see that because sometimes like for example i just met

you for the first time like let me check the clock like 50 minutes ago i met you for the first time correct yes i have never seen you before i've never seen you in person before but you're seeing oh this guy i met him for the first time but meanwhile i'm meeting you for the first time but i almost have to remind myself because how many times have i seen you on the big screen for many years right i get it all the time i'll be in the grocery store and someone will look at me and they go you um did i go to school with you there's something i had one woman uh i was at the grocery store i meet so many people at the grocery store um i i met this one woman uh it was a sunday uh i felt like crap that day and i

just had to go get some groceries and I'm in the lineup. She's ahead of me. I hadn't shaved and I looked like crap. I felt like crap. I was in a grumpy mood. And so this woman looks at me and she's putting her stuff on the belt and she looks back at me and she says, are you Kevin Frank-ish?

I didn't want to engage anyone at that point. I've never done this before at all, but I did it this time. I went, no. Wow. Okay. All right. You've mistaken me for someone else. She keeps putting her groceries on the belt

and she looks back at me and says, he's put on a lot of weight lately. That's great. So that's what you get for not being honest. That is what you get. Yeah. She might've said the same thing if you said you were Kevin Frank.

Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? But I think people do forget that you don't know them the way that they know you. I think you do have a moment where you forget you're not as familiar with them. They're a stranger to you, but you actually are familiar face to face. But they're our friends and they're our family too.

I mean, we have our yearly Christmas party. We used to have Fan Appreciation Day and things like that. And we meet these people face toface all the time. We have our regulars who we talk to all the time. I got to ask you a tough question now, but you seem like an honest guy and you're going to be very honest with your answer.

Or I'm going to escort you out of the building. I'll get my three-year-old, almost three-year-old to escort you out of the building. Alright, recently a member of your cast, your Breakfast Television family, was Let Go. Jennifer Valentine.

Jennifer Valentine. And she had been, and I did the math quickly in my head, but if you consider she was the prize girl or whatever, music prize queen, right? Like, we're going back with that company, I don't know, over 20 years.

She was there before me. No, so you're going back, you're going back. Look, I've been there for, I've been at City for 24 years, 25. She was there before me. Yeah. And in this...

Part of... It happened on April Fool's Day, which was a bad day to do that because I... Somebody... You know, I kind of cover you media guys and not many people are doing it anymore. So I get tweets.

I heard Jennifer Valentine was fired and then it's April Fool's Day. And then I read the press release kind of cover you media guys and not many people are doing it anymore so i get tweets uh i heard jennifer valentine was fired and then it's april fool's day and then i read the press release okay so i saw a press release i honestly i'm telling you kevin i thought it was a joke because the way it was worded in the day it came out the morning of april 1 yeah i thought it was a joke you know her services are no longer required like this long time member of the breakfast television family oh and i thought it was a bad joke like that's not funny but i thought it was a joke but a bad joke and everybody did everybody did for the first couple of hours it was like this is funny this is funny this is not funny or whatever not funny but definitely intended to

be and then it turned into anger once people realized that it was true like how can this be true yeah the whole incident was like a tornado. It came from nowhere. And when it left, there was destruction and a lot of bad feelings. And you and Dina probably have to field all the anger, right? They're going to direct it at you guys. We're in the front. Yeah, we're definitely on the front line. And then everybody has their opinion about what happened.

And you did this and you did that. And some of the horrible things that came across, even other members of our staff were like, you should have been fired and things like that. And you're horrible. And Kevin, how could you have fired her? Oh, I bet you they think, oh, the alpha male guy who's been there since the 90s.

Of course he did this. It was, you know what? This is the business. There are some extremely prominent names in radio and television that are here one day and gone the next. And its decisions made much higher than my pay grade. And you don't know why they are. I had been privy, sadly, to the decision for a couple of weeks. So I was living with this horrible, horrible feeling for weeks and argued it, argued it and argued it and argued it.

Then it happened. There are other matters that I'm not allowed to discuss of another offer she was made. On both sides, there was a lot of emotion and there was a lot of wrong moves on both sides. Because that's a long time. I think that's part of it. Jennifer's a very emotional person, extremely emotional person. I mean, that's what's beautiful about her is what the Jennifer you see on the air is the Jennifer you get. I mean, she's in your face and she's very big. She has a huge personality, huge personality. And so after she'd gone, I was the one who was told,

all right, you've got to go in the air and say something, so we're going to prepare a statement for you. I said, absolutely not. I don't read anything on air. I'd rather not read anything on air. I'd rather talk. So they said, okay, well, you can write it, and then give us a script we'll approve. And I said, no, I'm not writing it. I'm going to say it off the top of my head. So you're a Hawkeye. I like this.

You know, and they were really like, I said, that's the way I do it. I either do that or I don't come to work this week and you get somebody else to do it. So I went on and I had said my piece and, you know, this is all decisions. They get made all the time. We don't agree with everything that happens. And that's what happened. But afterwards, I, again, got into trouble for what I said. Because I said, I really, really, really want Jennifer to come on here to say goodbye.

No one should work that long with someone and be a part of a family without at least having a chance to say, hey, let's look back. Let's bring out the cake. Maybe we could have brought out one of Ann Romer's cakes. Sorry, Ann. Probably in the freezer. So that's a huge, huge regret that continues to hang over my head today. I tried to get her back even after. We worked so hard.

But, you know, I still to this day don't know whether it was a money decision. I don't know whether it was a programming decision. I don't know. Okay, this is another. Okay, so I told you this would be a tough go. I'm surprised you came over knowing how tough these questions are going to be. But I need you to level with me. And so far, I'm going to tell the listeners how I'm getting a super honest vibe from Kevin.

I don't think I'm getting any bullshit. You can say bullshit? Yeah, you can say bullshit. I'm pretty sure you can say that on the breakfast television. Well, we probably could. Level with me. Because in this press release, in the company line, if you will, from Rogers, was that the live eyes were gone. So there's no job for her. Something was from Rogers was that the live eyes were gone. So there's no job for her.

Something was offered to her because the live eyes were gone. Come on. I mean, I'm telling you. On Friday, I peek in and I see Winston's at the zoo with a polar bear, apparently feeding a polar bear who's going somewhere else. That's a live eye.

I don't care what you call it. They're the same thing. Live eyes didn't go anywhere. I can't answer it. I's a live eye. I don't care what you call it. They're the same thing. Live eyes didn't go anywhere. I can't answer it. I know you can't. I can't answer that one. Not because I'm hiding anything, because I don't know. Honestly, I don't know that comes from a whole different building, a whole different

address, that press release, than we're in. And that address didn't realize April 1st was a bad day to do that. Yeah, and I think they admitted that later on, but again, there's the importance of spinning a story when you're a PR person,

you know, how to release this. I think, you know, and it happened about the same time Gord Martineau left too, and a lot of questions about that. A lot of parallels, and that's a good example, because Gord did eventually come back for something, like some on-air goodbye thing. Yeah. But initially, it was like, Modern Family is up next.

Go to credits. Never done. That was it. Then a press release goes out. Is that the new reality? I mean, is that the way media is now? Is that what happens when someone leaves now? I mean, that's always happened in radio, right?

When a big name leaves. radio is just heartless. You have big names. How many morning shows have been canned and you don't hear them the next morning? They're not coming back to say goodbye. I've actually done some homework on this. So nowadays, when you leave to go to another station, more often than not, you're permitted to say goodbye.

I've noticed it with people like Maureen Holloway, Josie Dye, Raina from Indie, who showed up on CBC Radio 2 the next week or something. Darren B. Lamb leaves Roger and Marilyn and then ends up with Aaron Davis. They all

got to say goodbye. They don't say where they're going. They just say, goodbye. I loved it. and then they'll show up somewhere. When you're let go, like walked out, like Ingrid Schumacher who spent 40 years

at Chum FM and was walked out with a box on a Thursday afternoon after 40 years on that station. She was great, by the way.

She was here once too. She never gets to, she doesn't get to say goodbye. No. And Jennifer Valentine gets to say goodbye. Sometimes, and this is Mike's turn, I'm talking now,

but Christine Bentley, which by the way, a name I was trying to remember when I was talking about Kate Wheeler was Christine Bentley. Christine Bentley was told by her boss, because she told me this, so straight from her mouth, your time is up. We can do this two ways. You can be walked out like Jennifer Valentine and there's no goodbye.

It was before that, obviously. Or we can spin this, and spin to me is this nice fancy word for lie, but we will spin this as you're retiring, even though she didn't want to retire, and then you can have cake and we can say goodbye nicely. The secret in the industry is that a lot of times when you hear someone say goodbye after they've been there for a long time, and this is everywhere, this is every single media outlet,

when it looks all pleasant and nice, like, oh, I'm deciding to retire, and I've decided... I'd say 50% of the time, it's all lies. 50% of the time, they have been encouraged to retire. Or told to retire. Yeah. So, yeah. Or you're being retired or

walked out. Which one do you want? And there's, you know, your pride cometh before the fall. It's sometimes, like Christine Bentley, so many years of service at CTV and CFTO and everything. She didn't want to be walked out like Kate Wheeler was. She wanted to be able to say goodbye and keep her face. But she did not want to retire. Gordon Martin was a good example. Gordon Martin didn't want to retire, but they sort of spun it like a retirement. And things had changed for him as well.

I don't think he was as enamored with the business as much anymore. And it's a changing, changing business. Does he talk to you? No. I mean, no, because we were never close. I only ask because Ann Roszkowski came in and was super honest about the fact that she said that Gord would not talk to her when they were not recording. Oh. For three, four years.

Well, I had heard stories. I mean, if Anne Hraskowski is saying it, I've heard stories. But we were completely opposite ends of the spectrum. I was gone by 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning. Right. Gord came in about 1 or 2. Right, right, right. So I rarely saw Gord unless he was on the show.

But again, one of the best anchors rarely saw Gordon unless he was on the show. But again, one of the best anchors that Canada has seen. And they're forever, forever on City TV. I mean, you know, you think of City TV News, you think of Gordon Martin.

But Jennifer Valentine, sorry, you go ahead. And Mark Daly. The voice, but that's, yeah. And we'll go back a few years, Glenn Cole. Glenn Cole, I don't have a lot of memories

of Glenn Cole. It's going back a few years. It's going back a little bit before don't have a lot of memories of uh glenn cole it's going back a few years going back a little bit before my time but mark daly holy smokes he came up actually in a recent episode where the voice of late great movies like just that guy was amazing and he's missed for sure so jennifer valentine you don't you know what happens you don't know why i speculated had to do with maybe she was making too much after 20 years i don't know i don't know they sure didn't get rid of these live eyes like they told us. I still see them all the time. I honestly don't know.

Yeah. She, by the way, as you know, is now John Derringer's co-host on Q107. Yeah. She's in the chorus family now. She's a valuable asset in broadcasting. You got to have her in. She's a valuable asset in broadcasting. She has great... You could... You got to have her in. She will...

You know what? So I mentioned PR earlier. When she was let go by City TV, I actually reached out to her and she had just started doing some Bachelorette Canada thing in Vancouver. And she, I guess as a new employee, she didn't want to come on unless PR blessed it,

but Chorus PR. Yeah. Chorus PR, it's the only negative experience I've had with PR since I started doing this podcast was my experience with Chorus PR over Jennifer Valentine. So I rescinded the invitation because Jennifer was great. It was PR.

Yeah. You got to appreciate Chorus though. I think out of all the major corporations, they're the ones running the most scared. So they will tend to overstep when it comes to PR. Yeah, I mean, it's always been, when it comes to PR, very badly mismanaged. It really has. No one knows what the heck global is. Is it a Toronto station? Is it a network? Is it a national network?

Is it an Ontario network? It's funny you say that, because Ann Roszkowski went off on them, too, for not knowing what they are. Yeah, and they don't have any identity. And yet, there's some incredible people that come out of there. Some really good people that come out of there. You know, that's a good thing you bring up there, which is that, you know, so breakfast television is like the first breakfast news thing in Toronto. Like this is in the 90s.

This is kind of a revolutionary thing in this market that you have this breakfast television. And through the years, people have ripped you off, quite frankly, right? Yeah. Yeah. the years, people have ripped you off, quite frankly, right? Yeah. Well, you know, this is, let me tell you, let me tell you something about CP24. Well, that's the one that ripped you off so blatantly, right?

It was a really bad breakup. When CTV bought us and the CRTC told CTV they had to divest themselves of City TV, we were under orders at the time when we were on there, because we were still simulcasting Breakfast Television even though we were City TV and owned by Rogers, we were still simulcasting on CP24 owned by Bell. It was very weird. We were under orders

not to say at any point, and these were legal orders, not to say folks, we're going to be splitting away, and so there's a new morning show starting on CP24. The plan was to, we were going, at that point, we were going to do a road show. We were going to Disney for a week.

The plan 24 had was in order to retain the audience they had, which was a huge audience that we had with them, to retain that audience, they would just start their morning show and make it look as though, well, there's two morning shows now, and because City is in Disney, now we started our morning show.

So they had exactly the same format. Celebrations were exactly at the same time. Commercials went exactly at the same time. We used to have this phrase, here's what you need to know. Well, they started with that. So everything was exactly the same. Problem was, our Disney trip got pushed back a week, and they didn't know about it. Right.

Out of all places, I met one of their producers in the washroom at 299 Queen. And he goes, hey, looking forward to your Disney trip? Oh, yeah, but they got to push back a week. His face went white. He said, what? This is on a Friday afternoon. And he left. He just ran out.

Do up your fly. They had apparently, from what I had been able to find out, they had gotten everybody ready that weekend. And they were going to hit it hard on Monday. They were going to hit it really hard, full promotion, everything like that.

Now they had to push it back a week so they were panicking. But that's how it was. It was at the point where they were trying to fool people into thinking

they were the same show. No doubt. The very first week they went on the air, they lost 80% of the numbers. So it was often imitated. But don't you think

it took a long time for a lot of people to realize cp24 breakfast was not breakfast television people still ask me yeah well steve anthony came on the show and he actually tried to blame that for some ratings woes like that that people think they're breakfast television so maybe i don't know if this was when they were writing in diaries or whatever maybe they were writing in they were watching breakfast television. So maybe, I don't know if this was when they were writing in diaries or whatever, maybe they were writing in, they were watching breakfast television or something. Even though they're on CB24. They wanted to go out of their way to call it CB24. They wanted to create a confusion.

And to this day, I still get people complaining about something they've seen on CB24. I bet. And I say, why did you guys do that? Well, we're not part of them. Right. And there's a lot of similarity, similar faces. People that you knew from breakfast television were showing up on CP24 breakfast,

and the name is similar, and they used to see it on that station, and nobody pointed out they were different. There was a lot of confusion. And again, you know what? I have no knock against the people there. Sure. I just have a knock about the way sometimes

that broadcasters in this city tend to screw each other. And I mean the bosses. It's these games that we play. Because there's some fantastic people over at CP24. I've worked with them. I'll probably work with them again. More than just Ann Romer? And it's a good service.

What's the first thing you do in Toronto when you see smoke in the sky? You turn on 2-4. Or if you've ever been to a pizza joint in the city, or even today, I was at Cloverdale Mall, and they had this big screen, and it had CP24 running on it. Yeah. I mean, the longevity of it, when you think how long that screen is, it's very old-fashioned by today's standards. Right. And yet they haven't changed in years.

I mean, they've got a good recipe. It took them a long time to go to HD, actually, the aspect ratio, 16 by 9 or whatever. All right, so your potatoes were really boiled by the... That's the most blatant example. I mean, they popped up everywhere. Like you mentioned that morning show with Brian Mulrooney's kid.

I should know these. Ben Mulrooney, that morning show pops up on CTV and you got Globals popping up but that CP24 one is the most blatant rip off of Breakfast Television The Today Show years ago sent producers to actually sit in our control room and see before they

went street front the way they are, they were the first American morning show to do it, they actually came to see how we did it and that's fine, you know what? They came in, they said, we're doing what you're doing. And that's okay. That's fine. But I mean, it really is

the sincerest form of flattery, though, if they're going to imitate you. I suppose. That's a positive way to look at it. For sure. For sure. And they were obviously trying to get people to keep tuning in, right? Instead of flipping over to Channel 7 or whatever. You have to go back. We're going to go back into the early 1900s

when the Telegram and the Star were going head to head. Go back and read some of that stuff. It's fascinating the way they tried to screw each other. And they tried to one-up each other. Marilyn Bell Swim, there's a famous story of Marilyn Bell. And you know, everyone knows Marilyn Bell Park. It's named after Marilyn Bell

who swam across Lake Ontario, first one to swim across Lake Ontario. And in those days, if you were a marathon swimmer, you were like a huge star. You were a huge star. Marathon swimmers were all the rage. So what happened, and I hope I get the right paper right, who did what to who. The Toronto Star sponsored her swim. Who did what to who. The Toronto Star sponsored her swim.

And the idea being is that once she got to the other side, she would give them the quotes first, and they would have it in the morning edition first in Marilyn Bell's words. Her first words are to the Toronto Star. They even went so far as to have an ambulance waiting for her to take her to the hospital, because the first place they take her is to the hospital. So they had a Toronto Star, hired an ambulance to take her to the hospital, because the first place they take her is to the hospital. So they had a Toronto Star, hired an ambulance to take her there. The telegram went over and ripped off the distributor cap

of the Toronto Star's ambulance. I guess I'm not going to the early night, but we're going back. But they ripped off the distributor cap and brought their own ambulance. So while she's in the ambulance, they asked her, hey, how was the swim? She brought their own ambulance. So while she's in the ambulance, they asked her, hey, how was the swim?

She gave them a quote. The next morning the telegram was, in her own words, Marilyn Bell. So the star got scooped by the telegram. They had paid for everything. And Marilyn probably thought she was talking to the star, right? That's amazing.

These are the stories. And again, folks, I'm sorry for you old-timers, whether it was the star, right? That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, these are the stories. And again, folks, I'm sorry for you old-timers, whether it was the star or the telegram, who did what. But the stories, go back and read some of the things the star and the telegram did to each other, because that's rivalry, you know? And so we have a rivalry with CP24 Breakfast.

It's a rivalry, and that's what there's going to be. Who are you rivals with, Mike? I'm unrivaled, actually. This is an original. Yeah, I don't have any rivals because I don't make enough money to have rivals. I think that's the key. Speaking of money, speaking of money, you mentioned Gord Martineau.

If Gord Martineau is expendable, do you ever worry you make too much money and that you could have a target on your back? Oh, yeah, yeah, and I'm 53 years old, right? You're 53. I was wondering. on your back. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'm 53 years old, right? You're 53. I was wondering. You look good. Wow. Thanks. The lighting is really bad in here.

My eyes are failing. Mike only has one candle going here, folks. But it's quite dreamy. It's romantic. Yeah. Always. These days, especially. Because you've been there forever.

Yeah. And before you leave, you'll show me your T4. Because you've been there forever. Before you leave, you'll show me your T4. Yes, I will. So we speculate. We don't know, but we speculate. Maybe Jennifer Valentine was making too much money. Just by the nature of being in the same company for decades, you might even increment the raises every year or something. It could go more than your position is valued at by your bosses.

That's why you always have to remain valuable. That's why you always have to remain valuable. That's why you always have to keep reinventing yourself. You're the straight man. You and Dina are the co-hosts of this breakfast television. But again, if Gord Martineau is expendable, everyone is expendable at City TV.

It's like that with the bosses. But everywhere. I mean, let's talk about the people who end up getting rid of us. They're expendable as well. I mean, I've gone through more vice presidents and presidents at Citi and its various incarnations in years. So, I mean, I know that someone who may have gotten rid of Gordon, I think he's gone now. So, you know, there's no one who's not expendable. But how is that?

So, you do a great job people like you people find comfort in that your familiar face a familiar voice for maybe decades and you have a target on your back because you make x so then you know that's yeah again that hasn't that has not changed really everything these days is the same as it was years ago when we talked about the Telegram and the Star, whether or not it was silent movies turning to talking movies, whether or not it was early radio, CFRB, and CF...

I'm trying to think of an old... CFRB and CFTR was an old... Well, at the time. 10.50 Chum of the Chum Bugs. There we go. That's who I was thinking of, yeah. You mentioned their movies. So I got a question.

So this Sunday, which is tomorrow, the Oscars take place. I know you're not a movie guy, but do you have a responsibility to watch just so you can talk about it on Sunday morning? Yeah, and that's the same thing with the Super Bowl, right? I don't really watch a lot of football during the year, but you have to watch the Super Bowl.

It's just what you have to do. So you don't do a little cheat maybe like on Monday morning, catch some kind of like... I just watched the Raptors in 30 minutes from last night. Sometimes, though, I'll just watch the highlights the next day. So the Grammys, didn't see any of the Grammys. But we have highlight packages. We have people who can get me stuff.

So, you know, I'll say what happened. But I'm not a big awards person. Well, it's a circle jerk. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Can you say circle jerk? That's the other word you can say.

You can say it on BT too. You're in Barrie. You're in a morning show. What time are you waking up? Usually about 2.30, 3.30. It depends. You can't watch the Oscars. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it's like 12.30 or something. You got30. It depends. You can't watch the Oscars. Yeah, exactly.

Sometimes it's like 12.30 or something. You got to pull an all-nighter to watch the Oscars. Do you think maybe, even though you claim to be a terrible interview, do you think this was interesting at all? It was interesting listening to you.

I just don't know anybody really cares about me. This was great. And I would just like to toot my own horn and say, I made the very boring Kevin Franklin. Exactly. See, there you go.

He's that good, folks. So no regrets. And you have. Oh, yeah. I'm going to quote you before I play you out. I'm quoting you in an email. Oh, no. That's OK, because I wouldn't screw you if anything.

You wrote, would you be up to letting me take over your show for episode 222? We can call it Toronto Kevind, working title. Yeah. And I grill you for an hour and 23 minutes. People want to know about you. Like I get this email from this. Can I say who I got the email from? Yeah, sure.

Mike Boone. Who the hell's Mike Boone? Did you think my name was Toronto Mike? I thought your last name was apostrophe D. Mike D, great beastie boy. That's right. Where did you come from? Why are you here? See, this is actually, it's funny because I just had this conversation

with Mike Richards where we talked about why my show is different than some others you might have on more mainstream media, proper terrestrial outlets, etc. is that I sincerely believe, and I think I'm right, that nobody cares about me. It's all about you.

So I come in as sort of this guy, and I'm only here to get the most out of you. No, and you're lying. You're wrong. Because, for one thing, you do put stuff of yourself in there. Sprinkle a little bit. You sprinkle in your memories and that, and you give it context and

and i think that's and people can identify with you as though they're sitting there talking with me or you know uh whoever adam styles adam styles international man of mystery is what i told adam styles that i was confusing him sometimes with Adam Wild. The names are too similar for the same station. Exactly. But we call Adam Stiles the international man of mystery. Is that right? Well, that's what we chose. He's a big beer guy.

He does his own stuff. You mentioned the craft beer. He's all about the craft beer. Oh, yeah. He loves that. He's a good guy. And he drank the six-pack during our episode. No, he didn't. But I think he wanted to. He's a good guy. And he drank the six-pack during our episode. No, he didn't, but I think he wanted to. That was fantastic. And you're going to go tell Dina that she doesn't need PR's approval.

Just do it. I'll probably get in trouble for this. No one will listen from Rogers. Don't listen to this show. Don't worry. You were great, and I really appreciate you. A lot of fun. Thank you very much.

And that brings us to the end of our 221st show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike, and Kevin is at, creatively enough, at Kevin Frankish. Yeah, I know. Woo! And our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer, and that's what I should call them because I can say beer. I just have trouble with brewery. Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. And that's what I should call them because I can say beer.

I just have trouble with brewery. Brewery. And Chef's Plate is at Chef's Plate CA. See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin