Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Kim Hughes: Toronto Mike'd #523

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

Mike chats with Kim Hughes about hosting Live in Toronto on CFNY, writing for NOW and elsewhere, her work with Original Cyn and more.

Welcome to episode 523 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAss and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and my guest this week is Kim Hughes. Welcome, Kim. Thank you so much for having me.

You really are, you're tucked away in a corner of the city. The southwest corner of this big city. And whereabouts did you come from today? I'm, well, we're still technically Ontario, right? Yes. So the other side of Ontario. You know, we have the same mayor, you know, even though you're on the other side of Yonge Street. You know, I don't think that that's true. In fact, I think

that that's kind of an illusion. I think if you ask most people in my neck of the woods who their mayor was, they would be hard-pressed to even say those words. Just the feel of them coming on time would be so difficult. Is that right? Okay. No, I'm kidding. Actually, John Tory's great. John Tory, I know. I actually like him a lot.

Maybe that's true of the premier, but not the mayor. I'd say that's true. He's kind of down the middle. People don't passionately hate him. You might not passionately love him, but he's sort of down the middle. I think, yeah. You're right.

I'm going to walk that comment out. I'll edit it out. Hold on. But I will say this, that it was interesting. I took transit out here. And, of course, we're coming up to an election. And it was very interesting seeing what's in the front lawns, the sticks that are in the front lawns. I know. This is the time of year where I found out, like, oh, I'm always surprised at this time

of year to find out a certain neighbor, for example, is like going to vote conservative. Like, it's kind of like, you're like, oh, I didn't know that about the guy or whatever. And it changes your perspective on some people. It does, doesn't it? It tells you like who the dicks are. Yeah. Well, I wasn't going to go there, but if you want to throw it out there. That's the only place I know how to go to. Now, I think we should ban lawn signs.

I think this is dumb. There should be no lawn signs allowed. Well, or you could do what a neighbor of mine does and puts one of everybody on the front line. So in a sense, it's almost more discombobulating because you don't really know where their heart is. I mean, he could be posing as an NDP sympathizer, but be lurking around as a conservative.

Okay, so I could buy into that. Like either put all of them on or none of them on. That's, yeah. And I really find that these people who have the multiple signs, I can't tell if it's like maybe the one person who lives there is like a staunch supporter of one party and the other is, you know,

in the other party and their compromises, they each get a sign or something. Who would allow the sign? Do you own a home in this city? I do, actually. Like, have you ever put a sign up? I never have. I never have.

Because you're not like... It just, I don't know. It just, it's just not a look I'm going for. I mean, I spend a lot of time trying to plant stuff and trying to chase squirrels away from bulbs with, you know, ample amounts of curry powder. And it's just not a look I want for my house. Me neither. You know, you can, maybe if you pay me, I'll advertise for your party who knows but kim uh approximately how long did it take you to get here by public transit it took me about an hour i knew it so i warned you i sent you i said don't curse me out when it takes it i didn't i listen mike i take transit all the time i don't own a car anymore i live in the city so i'm i'm well

acclimated to transit and i like to read so it's fine when did you uh oh you read so you weren't doing like podcasts no i'm a super nerd yeah i'm you, uh, Oh, you read. So you weren't doing like podcasts. No, I'm a super nerd. Yeah. I'm a nerd. That doesn't make it nerd. That makes you,

uh, Oh, see nerd. Yeah. Maybe cause nerds are smart. I'm trying. Yeah. So possibly I can do that and I'm female.

So obviously I'm a nerd. I'm doing a Star Trek hand. So Vulcan, uh, what did they call that? The Vulcan. I don't know. I,

I can do it only in my right hand though. On my left. It doesn't, I don't know. And I'm exactly the opposite. I can only do. I can do it only in my right hand though. On my left, it doesn't, I don't know. And I'm exactly the opposite. I can only do it on my left and not on my right. Isn't that interesting? I find it interesting, like the rolling of the tongue.

Like, can you do, can you do that? Okay, you can do it. Okay. Apparently like a lot of people, my wife can't do it. My, one of my daughters can't do it. Like it's. Is this really content suitable for radio? It's kind of visual.

It's not radio. That's the trick. Kim, we're going? It's kind of visual. It's not radio. That's the trick. Kim, we're going to have to educate you here. This is not radio. We've changed things since Live in Toronto. Interweb. Are you...

It's podcasting. You should be podcasting because you have a great voice. Thank you. And you should be broadcasting or podcasting or...

Yeah, maybe. Because I do hear it pop up now and then. Like I'll be... Maybe... Like when was the last... What do you hear pop up now and then like i'll be i've maybe uh like when was the last what do you hear okay now and then maybe i'll be specific be specific uh i i feel like i've heard you on cbc radio not in years not in years see that's funny when okay i have okay so how many years are we talking it's someone who's someone who's stealing my sound someone's stealing my sound uh how many years since you would have been heard on cbc radio well i never actually was on cbc radio

i was on cbc tv um i was you've never appeared on like cbc radio one uh once or twice as a guest but never as a as a presenter no okay okay someone has stolen your voice maybe and i'm like oh that's kim hughes because because i know you best from uh live in toronto on 102.1 and of course the written we'll get into all this your written word for example and now for example um but uh when was the last time you would have been heard on any radio station doing anything uh would have been i guess the early aunts i worked for xm radio before it became serious xm i was on a channel called. I worked for XM Radio before it became Sirius XM. I was on a channel called The Verge for a few years.

I'd just been living in Seattle and came back. And it's been a while. And how long have you been back in the big smoke here? Oh, like a dozen years. Okay. And did you buy then? Like, is that when you bought? Yeah, that's how I managed.

That and I pack my lunch. I mean, really, it's, I could talk for days about something as prosaic as saving money. Just ask my friends. You can hear them snoring from here. Oh, I'm interested. Like, I personally, if I need to go somewhere, I bike. Like, I try to bike. And it's not even so much money saving. Sure. But I just think it's better all around for everybody if I bike and I try to bike everywhere. But I am pretty like I do own a car, but I just think it's better all around for everybody if I bike. And I try to bike everywhere. But I am pretty, like I do own a car, but it's a 21-year-old car. And I don't drive it very much.

But I do try to, I don't like spending money on things. Like I bought this shirt because I support the Terry Fox Foundation. And, you know, I'm pretty thrifty, I'd say. I don't think I'm cheap. I'm just like thrifty. But like how are some ways that you save a dollar or two in your typical day? Uh, so packing the lunch for sure. Um, I never pay full price for anything. I buy everything on sale. You haven't gone to the extreme though, because my wife makes her clothes now.

Like she's got the sewing machine. That's interesting. I can actually sew. It's one of my hidden talents, sort of, but, you know, with the advent of, like, Old Navy. Yeah, but it's, yeah, then you have to think of the ecological damage.

Like, this stuff all ends up in landfills. Yeah, but you know what? You pick your battles. Like, I have other battles that I'm fighting. So, unfortunately for the Bangladeshi children,

I am shopping at Old Navy. Fortunately for the animals, I don't eat the animals. So, you know. You're a vegetarian? I am. Okay. So, I'll do this now since you pointed out you're vegetarian. The lasagna.

Actually, I didn't point it out. You asked. You said you don't eat animals though. Okay. I'm going to go back and rewind the tape. I feel like you said you don't eat animals. I probably did. I forgot.

There is a vegetarian lasagna that you're taking home with you today. Amazing. And it's really good. Like, I'm not just saying that because they paid me to say that. No, I'm super excited about that. It's from Palma Pasta. Palma's Kitchen is going to host the next Toronto Mike listener experience. And if you thought it took you a long time to get here,

from where you live to get to Palma's Kitchen would take you even longer. It's in Mississauga, near Burnhamthorpe and Mavis. That's Ontario too? Yeah, definitely. I think they do vote for Doug Ford over there. But that's another story. That is a grim reality. But they do make great pasta and pizza and cappuccino.

And yes, there's no meat in thatuccino. And yes, so you, there's no meat in that lasagna. That's good news for Kim Hughes. And again, we're going to have a Toronto Mike listener experience. It's TMLX five and it's going to be September. What day is it going to be? Why did I say September?

That's crazy. December 7th at noon. And we're going to do a live recording from a Palmer's kitchen. And I want all listeners to come out because we're going to have some free stuff. Palma's Kitchen. And I want all listeners to come out because we're going to have some free stuff. We're working on getting like a, what do you got to get? Like a license or whatever.

You got to get some kind of a permit, I guess, to serve alcohol at this thing. So Great Lakes Brewery can serve drinks at this thing. So a lot of fun in store. Because I said Great Lakes Brewery, Kim, here's a six pack of beer you can bring home with you too. I can't wait to carry that on the bus.

Oh, yeah. I can't wait. You know what? We might have to stick... Do you have a bag? What do you got, a bag? Yeah. You know, I think I'll manage.

You know, I've been known to carry alcohol great distances, sometimes externally, sometimes internally. So I feel like I can do this. In this hood, though, I've noticed they often drink it, I see, on buses and things just put it in like put it in a coffee cup or like in a brown bag or something so so essentially you're you're advocating for daytime drinking starting now is that what you're saying yes okay i learned this in the wire so i love the wire and there's a scene where uh just just out of respect for the

cops so they don't have to be, like, shamed into, like, enforcing laws. Please, yeah, you just take this. You can stick this, for example, you can stick it in this can of Octopus Wants to Fight. It could fit nicely in, like, a large coffee cup or something or in a paper bag or something. It's an octopus wearing a little glove. Yeah, absolutely.

Look at that. And, you know, that's, like, you know those hooks you hang your jacket on? Like, so somebody saw a hook on the wall that you hang your jacket on, and the screws were kind of wonky, so it looked like the octopus was a bit drunk maybe. And that's the origin of Octopus Wants to Fight, which is a fantastic beer.

So take home the six-pack. Thank you very much, and thank you to Great Lakes. Thanks, Great Lakes Brewery. Maybe there's an LCBO out east where you're from that has Great Lakes in it. I'm sure there is, because actually Troy, who's at Great Lakes, he lives on the Danforth. So is this going to be like an east coast, west coast,

east side, west side thing? Is this what's happening? It's going to be some kind of throwdown? It's always been that way. Is it? Yeah, because us Westenders, we think, why do you need to go? Once in a while, there's a good show at the Danforth music hall you go a little bit east maybe because you got to go maybe to the phoenix for example or something like that you go that all

the way to shiborn street i know holy moly like are you a sports fan no not at all not at all okay sorry sports fans for example never need to go east of Yonge. Every sporting event is taking place west of Yonge. Because even like I'm going to the Wolfpack Championship tomorrow. They're a rugby team. They play at Lamport. Lamport's like King and... Dufferin. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, BMO's not far from there. You know where the Scotiabank Arena is, where the Dome is. Could that be because statistically and sociologically speaking that the west side of any city tended historically to be more affluent than the east side and therefore can indulge in things like sporting events? Maybe. Where the east side is working. Working class. Yeah.

I feel like you could be right. Although you're now, this neck of the woods was where like the rich people had their cottages and stuff i think i don't know what this was back in the day like there was a big good year plant and everybody in this like good year was the big employer of but maybe we're too far west now but i think you might have a point there because there's a whole bunch of east and it's beautiful east of young i should say i like the bike that uh dawn valley trail it's beautiful but like the portlands and stuff there's beautiful East of Yonge, I should say. I like to bike that Dawn Valley Trail. It's beautiful. But like the Port Lands and stuff, there's a lot of underdeveloped stuff going on

East of Yonge. So I don't know. Maybe you're right. Times are changing. Times are changing. So we won't talk rugby because you're not a sports fan, although I'll be there tomorrow. But I did want to talk really briefly about cricket. Do you know anything about cricket?

And do you know where I'm going with this? I know nothing about cricket except I will tell you there is a very famous cricketer. Who shares my name. Right. Kim Hughes. And he's apparently a big deal in the cricket world. He comes up in Google alerts a lot.

I can tell you that. Well, I just want you to know, the SEO on your name has been permanently forever damaged by this cricketer named Kim Hughes. It's not my fault. It's not my fault. No, because you didn't choose your name. No, and actually

my name is Kimberly, as you might have guessed. But am I allowed to call you Kim? I hope you will. You don't look like my grandmother, so you should definitely be calling me. And you know, Kim, like Kim is almost Mike backwards. Like it's E,

E, right? E Kim. Kind of. Almost like, okay. I'm reaching pretty far. Do you think any of this is compelling at all?

Yeah, it's compelling. Okay. So I've given you the beer. Yep. I've given you the lasagna. Enormously grateful. Thank you very much.

Stickers too, because, uh, Toronto Mike sticker and a temporary tattoo from sticker you, sticker you.com. And when you were hosting live in Toronto, which I do want to discuss in like moments, did you ever have Ron Hawkins and the guys from lowest to the low drop by?

Oh yes. Many times. Many times. This is their new album. So this is a sticker because they played at my last, oh, two events ago. They played Toronto Mike Listener Experience 3,

Lowest to the Low. And this is their latest album. It's called Agitpop and Sticker. You made some stickers for that. Those guys were amazing. You know, the Shakespeare in My Butt record was really, is often overlooked. I mean, people look at that Barenaked Ladies tape as kind of the official launch of independence.

But I think Lowest to the Low um were very much a part of that i mean they were they were an engine in in that in that train as well kim do you know i close every episode of toronto mic with a song from shakespeare my butt it's a great record it's i think i was actually thanked in that record yeah yeah i'm pretty sure so you're in the liner maybe in the second maybe in the second record because i championed Shakespeare My Butt. And you have good taste, that means. Fantastic album. Still, I listen to it all the time.

It's really funny. Any of these things like film or music, when you go back and some stuff just wears so well and some stuff just wears so not well. Agreed. And that one wears well. It does. It's a jangly pop.

It's not dated. it doesn't sound like early 90s necessarily It's not like you listen to that album Shakespeare My Butt and you say, oh this sounds like early 90s, I don't get that vibe from it Well also, it sounds like a profoundly simple thing to say, but one thing that I learned in covering music is it makes a really big difference

when people can actually play their instruments Right, and John Arnott, the bass player, was fantastic. And obviously Ron Hawkins and Stephen Stanley and Dave Alexander. If I'm right on that, I'm pretty impressed that I'm pulling that in. No, fantastic. Unfortunately, Stephen Stanley is not on Agitpop. They parted ways. We're still talking about Lowest of the Low.

Lowest of the Low, right. It's still fair game. I mean, it was one of those bands where, and a lot of of those bands it wasn't just like the bass player was a guy who wasn't good enough to play guitar you know what i mean it was like a guy who could actually be part of a rhythm section no no i'm on board absolutely 100 now kim am i allowed to tell the people that uh in i noticed with like some email exchanges and when you first arrived that you don't think you're interesting. Is that a fair assessment?

Be very honest with me. This is called real time. Lay it out there, Mike. Just lay it right out there. Real time care. But you don't think you're interesting. Am I wrong? Tell me the truth.

Well, I don't know that you're wrong. I mean, I think like anyone, I benefit greatly from a martini, but... A beer. Or beer, of course. I got a cold one in the fridge if you want it. Great Lakes beer. No, I mean, I'm just a normal person. I'm just a normal... Well, you're a human being. have beer or beer of course i got a cold one in the fridge if you want great lakes beer no i mean

i you know i'm just i'm a normal person i'm just a normal well you're a human being not everyone would agree but by most measures i guess that's true i can vouch for that but you i mean even and we're gonna open if uh well i want to get you to cfmy but uh you've done some interesting high profile things and particularly a lot of people, uh, enjoyed thoroughly. You're very interesting person to have on Toronto.

Mike, I just want you to know how worthy you are. Gosh, I'm all kinds of blushing over here. Well, I just, I just don't want you to be too, too humble here,

but, um, why don't we get you to CFNY? So like, when did you tell me the origin story of you ending up working in the media. Like, when did you realize you wanted to broadcast? I don't think I ever did, to be honest with you. I'm not being, like, false modesty.

I mean, I had worked as a journalist, studied journalism in school. I'd worked as a journalist for, entertainment journalist for quite a few years. And had been invited on a show as a guest. And, um. Who invited you on? See how good you are. I should know this right away. Scott Turner. No, Neil Mann. Neil Mann. Yeah, I believe it was Neil Mann. And, uh, anyways, because I was writing about music at Now Magazine at that time. And, um, and I mean, actually in retrospect, the fact that I was female. So it's different now. But very few women wrote about pop music at that time, it seemed. Anyway, so they had me on the show.

And it just kind of snowballed from there. And I'd come on once a week. And then suddenly I had my own show. And then I was doing CBC at the same time. And it just kind of all kind of happened. Remind me, I know it was, I know Live in Toronto, because I've had Scott Turner on and I've had Ivor Hamilton on and apparently they take credit for starting up Live in Toronto before you got there. So who was the host of Live in Toronto before you took over as host?

I think probably both of those guys are correct, actually. And certainly Ivor Hamilton's reach is far and wide in that era. And Scott Turner, too. But to answer your question, I think at the time it was Neil Mann. And I think it was like a half-hour show, and it was kind of a throwaway. And that's not a slight on Neil Mann, but it wasn't it could have been um and and eventually became through a lot of people like there was rules back then with regards to what they call foreground programming and like where you couldn't like it's not like now i guess you could just play music all day

but like you had like fm like regulations like a certain number of hours of, like, talking, even if you're a rock station? I guess. I was way above my pay grade. I mean, you know, I just showed up and talked to rock stars. I mean, that's really what, at the end of the day, that's what it was. Tough life. But it was good because at the time, because I had these three gigs, and that was at a time when, you know, the record industry still had some money to play with. I mean, I really had some exceptionally good times because they, you know, I'd get to go on these trips because they'd send one person and I could do something for radio, I could do something for print,

and in some cases do something for TV. So, I mean, I got some wicked trips out of that. Do you want to tell me about the best one? London for the Catherine Wheel was pretty great. I was in LA for two weeks so i could do offspring and oh gosh i'm blanking what's that little australian band and silver chair silver chair that was it uh put up in a great hotel tomorrow was the big jam i'm just thinking and they said it sounded a bit like like nirvana but a little bit of a wannabe sound of kurt there but

tomorrow was a good jam, as I recall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was very nice, and someone was paying the bill. I mean, it sounds ridiculous to say that out loud, but I mean... With the good old days, right? Yeah, for sure. They were throwing a lot of money around. They were throwing a lot of money around. And, you know, I mean, going to Seattle,

this is years before I lived there, and, you know, really in the height, in the early 90s. I mean, Seattle, as you know, was really the place. And I met Soundgarden there and Chris Cornell. Oh, God, rest him. height in the early in the early 90s i mean seattle as you know was really the place and i met uh soundgarden there and chris cornell oh god rest him i just i can barely say his name without wanting to cry uh one of the most superior human beings i've ever met good guy because we i will i will vouch for him having what i believe to be the greatest uh singing voice in rock this is my personal opinion paul rogers paul Paul Rogers. But there's many guys

like that now that are dead. I mean, Michael Hutchins is another one. I saw a documentary on him that came out for Hot Docs earlier this spring. And far and away, one of the loveliest human beings. And this was at a time where I was meeting a lot of these guys. And I had a real frame of reference on who was great when the mic

went off. Well, that's what I want to hear. But maybe even more interestingly is like, who are the dicks? when the mic went off well that's what i want to hear like uh i know but maybe even more interestingly is like who are the dicks like when uh when the mic was off oh gosh ready to name names here kim oh but some of them are dead now but that makes it even safer to name i don't know um you know i hate to say it but david bow Bowie was one of those guys who would never personally do anything, but he had this coterie of flesh-eating publicists around him that he would make do his dirty work for him. And you knew very well that he was instructing them as to what to do. So he could just walk in and be like,

yeah, but good cop, bad cop for sure. And it always works, good cop, bad cop. But don't get confused who's the good cop and bad cop and switch up midstream. But his people were like a nasty piece of work, that's for sure. And it always works, good cop, bad cop, but don't get confused who's the good cop and bad cop and switch up midstream. But his people were like a nasty piece of work, that's for sure. But Chris Cornell,

solid citizen. Yeah, he was great. He was a lovely, lovely guy. Lovely guy. Michael Hutchins. I mean, actually, it's funny,

I don't know why I'm on this tip, but on the bus ride here, I had time to reflect. And I was thinking about, an hour. Well, you know, and I was thinking about how many people from that time are dead, you know? It's, well, you know, and I was thinking about how many people from that time are dead.

You know, it's just like, you know, I have this saying, my friends will tell you that, you know, how are you doing? It's like, well, every day above ground is a win, but it kind of is. You know what I mean?

Okay, so I don't know if it's morbid, but I think about this a lot. Like how many of like, just going back to the early 90s, for example, how many of the artists, like a Scott Weiland, like I was a big Stone Temple pilot fan.

I love Scott Weiland. Or Joey Ramone. I think one left. Or Elliot Smith. Or other Ramones. Or Jeff Buckley. I mean, I'll never get over that one. Yeah, so I mean, you know,

every day really is super precious. Buckley, I mean, he drowned, right? I'm trying to think. Like it's just so, yeah. And I take a particular pride in that one because myself and a colleague at the time who who was at now magazine tim perlich um really championed that guy but long before like i i gotta put my my own props out on pre-grace as they say yeah you know and live at chenet was the the record and i had to fight to get him on the show like fight and uh

but he was extraordinary and uh it's just it's just a sin that that guy was taken when he was extraordinary and it's just a sin that that guy was taken when he was. Yeah, and you mentioned Chris Cornell and I'm thinking, well, I mean, Kurt took his own life at 27. That's, yeah. Kurt never popped on to Live in Toronto.

I never interviewed him, no. No. Okay, I'm going to play a little bit of you on Live in Toronto in a moment actually so we're going to hear that in a couple of minutes but you're at Live in Toronto from from 1992 to 99 does that sound about right that sounds about right and and probably like two years before that is like sort of a guest

right okay so let's hear since we're talking live in toronto i have a few more live in toronto questions of course well this is okay you know? Let me preface this. It's actually... Where did you get this from? YTV. Okay. So YTV did a segment on Live in Toronto. And it actually... Normally, I don't play clips this long.

But this one's worth listening to the whole thing because it's going to run about three minutes. But let's listen and then we'll chat about it. Okay. We're not the only ones who like to hear from our audience. There's one radio station that's actually making its listeners part of its programming cfny in toronto moved its studio into a downtown storefront then it opened the doors and invited people to come on in its interactive radio and ytv's cory atkins went to check it out

what's in your own mind was your biggest accomplishment? These were the old days of radio. Welcome to Toronto. It's nice to see you again. And this is the new breed of radio, 90s style. CFNY 102.1, a Toronto radio station, is the first to offer a new style of interactive radio. People can walk into the station, request songs, talk to special guests, and hang out with the hosts. Moist from CFNY 102.1. The reason that this station is here is so that we can allow people to come in and have a certain accessibility to the artists that they want to listen to,

the kind of people that we play on the radio. CFNY 102.1, that is Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is here signing autographs and talking to the kids, of course. And that was the case on this night. One of Kim's in-studio guests was Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. For many, it's pretty cool to be up close to their favorite artist, and the CFNY storefront offers just that, about 250 people crammed inside just to get a glimpse.

The kind of radio that we're doing, the kind of artists that we're dealing with are people who create a lot of excitement why should excitement be restricted simply to people being at home in the living rooms why can't we bring it to people and moreover have the people come to us and see these artists gets the people in touch with the musicians and it does demystify but it also helps bring it down to a level it brings it down to like street level so that the people like the musicians aren't like rock icons right now though it's 650 with a final look at traffic today here's Marla West well the time kept ticking and the people didn't stop walking in

including punk legends the Ramones this is live in Toronto I'm Kim we're speaking with Joey and Mark from the Ramones a band is performing this evening but why don't we just get to the phones immediately James say hi from the Ramones. The band is performing this evening, but why don't we just get to the phones immediately. James, say hi to the Ramones. Hey, Ramones. Hey, James. Hi, James. It's very sporadic, and, you know, you can feed off the answers,

questions of your fans over the phone. It's nice. It gives you an opportunity to be yourself. I've seen the kids. Everyone's hanging out. It's like, you know, it's nice, man. That's how it should be. One thing for sure is people who thought

that they would never hear their voice on radio are now getting a chance here at CFNY. Yeah, you guys haven't been doing any all-ages shows in Toronto recently, and I'm just wondering why that is. Do you think the artists who come in here, do you think they're kind of relieved to be in a situation like this? It depends on the artist. Tonight, for instance, the Ramones totally loved it.

Joey Ramone was in his element. A guy like Trent Reznor, a little bit more shy, a little bit more laid back, perhaps less comfortable. It really depends on the artist. And the fans? Well, we know they'll keep on walking in to see their favorite bands. In Toronto, getting interactive,

I'm Corey Acton for YTV News. There you go. Isn't that interesting you picked that one because that show, there was two other guests on that show that night. It's funny because a lot of this stuff blurs for me, but we had Trent Reznor on first. The Ramones were there second

and while he was on, they were making he was on the cover of Now. I'd also done a story on the cover of Now. And they were drawing like horns and fangs on the cover of Now while he was on the air. Trent. Yeah, on Trent. So that's what Joey Ramone was doing.

Was it Marky who was there? I get them all mixed up. And then after those guys, then it was live. Remember them? Of course. Kowalski, Ed Kowalski. That's right. Or Kowalczyk.

Kowalczyk? Ed Polish. Well, maybe Ukrainian. Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. I apologize to thek? Ed Polish. Ed, well, maybe Ukrainian. Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. I apologize to the community. Ed the songwriter, I think. And I'm pretty sure...

He was in Fight Club. He was an extra in Fight Club. That was one of the great trips I went on to Pennsylvania to go and interview those guys for the Secret Samadhi. That was a crazy ass... Anyway, and also on that show, I'm pretty sure we had Adam Magoyan on that night. Wow. And I remember by the end of that, it was a two ass. Anyway, and also on that show, I'm pretty sure we had Adam McGoyan on that night. Wow.

And I remember by the end of that, it was a two-hour show, and we had so many people in the studio, and I remember by the end of that night, it was just like so bagged. But boy, was it exciting. But that would be like adrenaline rush. I think that'd be exciting.

Yeah, it was super exciting. And I like live. I mean, we're kind of live here. I'm not going to edit this, for example. This is for all intents. And we are live here. So yeah, it is now this, for example. Like this is for all intent. And we are live here. So yeah, it is now technically live as well. But I think it's exciting that it's happening now.

Like this is going out to the world as we speak. It was. And you know, one thing that that segment touched on that really was so mighty about that whole concept was that the access that people had. I mean, like we have to remind ourselves that it wasn't exactly a lifetime ago, but it almost seems like a lifetime ago.

This was before, you know, Facebook, this was before texting, this was before social media. And so people didn't, there was this kind of natural distance between artists and, and their fans.

Right. Um, and it was really, it was so exciting seeing people, the looks on people's faces and being able to ask questions I mean that was that was always cool I mean

Trent Reznor was a like a fucking rock star like this was I mean massive yeah wow okay in fact

that's a good segue because I wanted to ask you about some people you worked with at CFNY in the 90s oh don't do this just a few no don't do this

well it depends what you think I'm going to do what can I do I don't know anybody who Well, it depends what you think I'm going to do. What can I do? I don't know. Anyone who is holding the guitar is fair game, but I don't know. You don't have to shit talk anybody, but for example, Nine Inch Nails.

One of CFNY's biggest Nine Inch Nails fans was Martin Streak. Are you comfortable sharing any thoughts on Martin? Yes. Martin, yes, because I loved him dearly, and I'm so profoundly sad that he's gone. I remember the day that I learned about his passing. I remember how awful I felt.

I remember frantically trying to get in touch with a friend of mine who lived overseas who had been involved with him before she found out about it on social media and I was too late and that was awful. It's just, it was just to talk about tragic losses. He was a beautiful human being and I'm gutted today. There was actually very recently a, speaking of Neoman, gutted today there was actually very recently a speaking of neil man uh i because i was there the opera house right uh and in fact neil man was the only person at that event that i asked or i had somebody ask to come on uh toronto mic i had a i set up in the like the lobby of the opera house this the studio and people like alan cross and may potts and iver hamilton and david marsden these

kind of people would kind of come on in and pop on a microphone and tell a story or two so neil man's the only one who said no so he wasn't he didn't want to come on the microphone i know so there i am now should talk in neil man but i'm sure he's a nice guy but he did say no but uh i didn't see you there you weren't there right no i wasn't there it actually happened um if memory serves it was tiff i i'm pretty heavy in the film world now, and I just couldn't get away. But it sounded like a great event, and there was a fellow, Pete, I'm forgetting his last name.

Pete Fowler. Thank you. Who works for the OPP now. I know, but what an amazing dude that guy was. And he was in radio for a while at that time. And I saw his name as part of that event, and I thought, gosh, it would be great to see Pete again. So if you're listening, Pete, it would be lovely to see you again. But yeah, what a lovely at that time. And I saw his name as part of that event. And I thought, gosh, it'd be great to see Pete again. So if you're listening, Pete, it'd be lovely to see you again.

But yeah, what a lovely group of people. And I see May all the time. But Martin is a profound loss. I know, absolutely. He's 10 years gone. And I'm going to get all the sad stuff out of the way early here. But I wanted to ask you about Dave Bookman. Okay, so you're writing it now.

Yeah, so you're writing it now. Yeah, so you're writing it now, and Bookie is writing it iWeekly. So is there a story there where possibly, like, Bookie appearing on Live in Toronto became any kind of a conflict of interest at all? Is there any story there? Honestly, I don't recall that. I mean, because I had been at Now for many years

by the time I was on the radio, and I think his stint at I actually came a bit later. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think I am. So no, I mean, the short answer to your question is no. No conflict there. Because people now, looking back, it's almost quaint, but there was a serious competition, like the Now and the iWeekly and the alternative magazines. Yeah, you know, at the time there was, and it had some really

interesting offshoots. Like, for example, the publisher of Now magazine at that time, Michael Hollett, I mean, he might deny it today. But one of the reasons he started the North by Northeast Festival was because, you know, other publications were in with Canadian Music Week and he really wanted to stand apart from that and look what he's done, right? Like, it's amazing. So you're right. There was definitely some rivalry there.

I love hearing about those. Yeah, I love hearing about those days. And like, it was a cutthroat. But Mike, we sound like oldsters. Look at me. Obviously, I started as a child. This was before the child labor laws were enacted. Right.

I know. I was doing the math in my head and it didn't work. Yeah. So clearly. Okay. So I had Mishimi on yesterday. So Mishimi is sitting where you're sitting right now.

And we were talking and I was playing some stuff she did in like the mid to late 80s. Oh really? Right. Okay. But then I was also playing

stuff she did in 2019. And she's sitting, she's right where you are. And I was thinking like, okay, I know, I know I'm younger than this woman

because I remembered listening to Mishimi when I was younger than her. know I know I'm younger than this woman because I remembered listening to Mishi Mi when I was younger than her like I know I'm younger but I was sitting there and she looks young now she looks younger than me like I feel like it's happening again like it's like and am I making you feel that way too? Yes that's what I'm trying to say to you yes I'm trying to throw you a huge compliment here

which is that you were in my I listened to 102.1 throughout the decade of the 90s and I listened to a lot of live in that you were in my i listened to 102.1 throughout the decade of the 90s and i listened to a lot of live in toronto you were very good because you know what you knew big words you even even chatting with you you know bigger words than i do and it was inspiring it's very good that could be enormously off-putting as well i would think but i think they'd also want to run you out of the station just for being a little too smart maybe possibly. Possibly. Really? Who's they? I don't know. Whoever they are who could run somebody out of a station.

With pitchforks, one hopes. It creates a better visual. Pitchforks. Okay, is that a Halloween word? I'm trying to do this new thing where if somebody organically says a word that's like a Halloween word, like somebody was talking about bones and then I talked about skeleton. And then this is just a segue into I'm going to give you a gift here so here let me play a little bit of ministry actually while I do

this you should be honored I'm playing ministry I could be playing uh Boris Pickett and this is a song that Aileen Jorgensen would completely disowned right at some point so yes you're right of course it was their biggest hit naturally for speaking of p fowler here a little comeback i mean with that but p fowler and dj craig g do you know this guy craig g okay he comes later in 102.1 history than you but he was one of the live to air djs for martin streak i think those two guys are the main guys behind that event at the Opera House. I really feel bad that I blanked on Fowler. I'm sorry Fowler. I'm super sorry. He could get you a ticket now, I think. I can totally picture

his face. Pete's a big friend of the show. In fact, every other episode I'm wearing a t-shirt for Pete Fowler's show called The Lost Indie City. I'm wearing Terry Fox shirt today because right after we finish, I have to run to the school because my kid's doing the Terry Fox run

around the school and I volunteered to run it with them. So wish me luck on that. By the way, there might not be school next week. Yes, I don't have children myself. But could you watch mine for me? Not on your life.

I'm looking for childcare. So we're ministry on a Lollapalooza years later and there's another good Lollapalooza story well not really much of a story but Red Hot Chili Peppers were on and it was such fortuitous timing because they were booked long just as

Under the Bridge was breaking and their status changed on the course of that tour it was amazing to watch you're right because I was a big fan of Mother's Milk, and I was like, oh, I love this. I still love Mother's Milk. It's actually still my favorite red chili pepper. But anyway, you're right. When Blood Sugar Sex Magic breaks with

Suck My Kiss and Under the Bridge and stuff. They were on the road on Lollapalooza, and it hadn't happened until that point. And it was an extraordinary thing to watch. I'll bet. I'll bet. Was that the Lollapalooza where

they were with Pearl Jam and Nirvana? Did that happen or did I dream that there was one of all three of them?

Okay. I do know that that Les Claypool band that they put on one of the later ones was definitely to get the

park emptied out faster. There's absolutely no question about that. You don't have a car, I just realized. But if you could get yourself or maybe even pass these on to a friend who can enjoy them.

There is a tremendous thing happening in Milton, Ontario. You know where Milton is? It is Ontario. That's good. That's still Ontario. We're still Ontario. Okay. Country Heritage Park in Milton is hosting Pumpkins After Dark. It's 5,000 hand-carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies at night. So you basically go

to pumpkinsafterdark.com and you book the day and time that you want to experience these 5,000 pumpkins that illuminate the sky with music and sculptures. It just sounds tremendous. I can't wait to go. You can do that. It runs through November 3rd. But I have two tickets for you, Kim. I'm going to email you PDF files. Well, you know, I do have friends that have cars. That's right. I do drive.

You have a license? Can I see your license? I'm just kidding. You don't have to show me. I won't. Okay. Absolutely not. I had a band called strange breed they're um they call themselves five five i want to get it right five queer feminist punk rockers from vancouver four of them there's only four of them anyway

they were here and i jokingly when i gave them the beer a couple of them looked a bit young jokingly i said i'm gonna need some id before I give you that beer. I was doing a joke. One of them afterwards showed me her driver's license. Either she was continuing the joke or she thought I was serious. I couldn't tell. I was like, okay. It was close. I can't remember. I did the math and it was really close.

Despite my dewy, youthful appearance, I promise you I am legitimately old enough to drink. Even if you were born, the first time I heard you on the radio, you'd be legally allowed to drink. Listen, here's a terrifying thought for you. Anyone born on this day or before in the year 2000 is now legally old enough to drink in the province of Ontario.

I mean, chew on that for a moment. Yeah. It's horrifying. That is crazy. Horrifying. And what else is crazy is that tells me that the 90s is more than, is like almost 20 years away. Because when I think of the 90s, I think they're a few years away, like a few years back, I should say.

Yeah. OK, so everyone listening who wants to save 10 percent on Pumpkins After Dark tickets can do so right now. If you go to Pumpkins After Dark dot com and use the promo code Pumpkin Mike. Wow. You are a machine at this stuff, I got to say. I'm very impressed by you. All right, let me do a little more then. Let me tell everybody that Rupesh Kapadia is the rock star accountant. He's at Kapadia LLP. He's offering free consultation to Toronto Mike listeners and guests.

Kim, are you just a guest or do you also, have you ever listened to any episodes of Toronto Mike? I have listened. Do you have a also have you ever listened to any episodes of the Toronto Mike? I have listened. Do you have a one particular episode you remember listening to? Well I know I don't mean to put you

on the spot but you kind of have a thing for Ann Romer I think. Would that be a fair thing to say? Would that be fair to say Mike?

Listen first of all putting me on the spot I dish it out I have to be able to take it as well. I have a lot of respect for Ann Romer and her multiple retirements and I find her very fast. I find her fascinating.

I think that I would agree. I think she's you know, she was there on CP 24. She was and then she had a going away retirement thing where she had a cake and people gave her like gift cards for like the keg and things. By the way, is this an extended mix of the song? It feels like it's been playing for a while.

45 more seconds. You don't cut down on this. By the way, we played at that event at the Opera House they played, no,

it was when DJ, I started a story and didn't finish it but then I'm going to come back to Ann Romer which is the DJ Craig G and Pete Fowler kicked out the jams

for Martin Streak so they played what they thought might have been his 10 favorite songs of all time, and then they told stories about the streak. This was only a few weeks ago. And you know what?

He was also one of the funniest guys in the world. I mean, he was just so naturally funny. I remember being at an event. The event is putting too much emphasis on it. It was a get-together. It was the same friend who lived overseas, and she came back and would have a bunch of people. She didn't have time to see everyone she wanted to see, so she'd have this little event that people would go to and have drinks. And I remember distinctly being

at that event and Martin being there, and I remember him telling me this story about having to get a colonoscopy. I mean, I can't anywhere do it justice, but I mean, I can't anywhere do it justice. Right. But I mean, if anybody could make, you know, colon exploration, enormously funny and awful, but funny at the same time, it was Martin Streak. He was something. Well, one of the jams played for him in that kick out of the jams, which is the 10 songs for Martin Streak, was Jesus Build My Hot Rod. Oh, yes.

Which. And he also, I remember being in a meeting with him one time, somebody trying to figure out how to pronounce a Ramstein record. You know where I'm going with this? No, because when you sing that band, I only know Du Host. And it was just typical Martin. He was so fast in his feet, and he said, I'll tell you how to pronounce it.

It's wah! And he just screamed at the top of his lungs, and it was, I guess it had to be there, but it was funny. That's great. Anytime you have a story, you can just spit it out. of his lungs. And it was, I guess he had to be there. That's great. Anytime you have a story, you can just spit it out. Anne Romer, just real quick. So she retires and there's gift cards and there's cake, right? So then fine.

She goes away for a bit, but not too long. Next thing you know, she's all over CP24 again. Like as if, but they never acknowledged like, oh, Anne's back. There was no like, it was just, they pretended like she never had her retirement. Well, media is so weird like that. It's the same thing when people quit or get fired. They're never mentioned again. It's like they vanish in a puff of smoke.

They just delete you from the website. They do. It's weird. It is weird. Although it's sort of changed. I noticed lately there is some departures that are getting to say goodbye on the air. It seems to be like they're humanizing it a bit there. But like Bob McCowan got to say a bit of a goodbye.

And there's a few examples now. But Anne came back and she's everywhere. And then again, she retired again. Like this is maybe a couple years later and they did the cake

and everybody gave her more like keg gift cards and stuff. Because that's what you do when people retire. You're supposed to give them a gift card for the cake. But I'm going to zero in on the cake thing.

You seem to have a thing about the cake. Like there's some sort of equation. There's some sort of existential Because I see the pictures on social media. There's an existential equation between cake and retirement and Anne Romer and you. Like I'm going to connect those dots. That's because you're

smart. You're going to have those connected by the end of this episode. But she came back. The cat came back like Fred Penner said. They came back again. A little while later Anne was all over CP24 again. That's the third time. But then she did,

she retired again, although no cake this time. That's key. Good trivia question for you. Who was her husband? Famous athlete. Pod Borski, Steve Pod Borski

from the Crazy Canucks. Correct. And she was also married, she's married a few times. Hey, I don't want to sound like, you know, I sound a little creepy of my knowledge of Anne's love life, but... You seem to be making, you know, I sound a little creepy of my knowledge of

Anne's love life. But you're making my point for me rather well, I have to say. Do you know who Anne Romer's prom date was? If you do, I'm going to drop this mic. I can't drop it. John Tory. No kidding. Oh, that's fantastic.

It all comes full circle here. That's fantastic. Anyways, Anne is a great friend of the show. And she's a lovely person. And she's so talented. And she's just, she's so everything, right? And a genuinely beautiful human being. You can feel it.

Oh, gives me big hugs. She's been, she celebrated the 30th anniversary of Breakfast Television together just a few weeks ago. Fantastic. Kapadia. Oh, yes. If you have a question for Rupesh Kapadia, the rock star accountant who sees beyond the numbers,

send it to me at Mike at TorontoMike.com. I have a whole bunch of them I just sent over to Rupesh. He's going to record answers to these questions, which I will air at a later date. So thank you for doing that. And I'm just going to, do you know the name Brian Master? Long time radio guy. He was at CHFI.

Definitely sounds familiar to me. Okay, so maybe the voice will ring a bell. So let's hear from Brian Master. And I need to tell you, he is a salesperson with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage, which is quite the mouthful, Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. Hi, it's Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage.

I like working by referral. I love working with people, finding out what they need and where they want to go. So every month I put out an item of value called the Client Appreciation Program. And this is really great material. It's all about, well, for one thing, the way the real estate market is, but other things like, well, this month is how to turn your home into a smart home. We've also had things about how to throw a party on a budget, some travel tips. It's really great stuff, and it comes out once a month called the Client Appreciation Program. I'd love to get you on it. It's easy to do. Send me an email to letsgetyouhomeatkw.com, and I'll send that out once a month via snail mail and follow it up with an email that's something related to the item of value.

You can't miss. It's great information. It's something you can share with your friends. I'm Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. Thrilled to be on Toronto Mic'd. So do it up. Send an email to Brian and get on the mailing list to get that value add content from Brian Master. Now, I have a question from a listener.

His name is, he goes by the name Basement Dweller. And I don't know what this question means. So I'm going to read it verbatim and you're going to, hopefully it makes sense to you. It's a question for me? For Kim Hughes. Are you Kim Hughes? No, I understand it's a cricket player from Australia.

Yes. Apparently a very good one. And apparently good looking because I'm Googling him, right? And I don't know anything about cricket at all because he might be the Wayne Gretzky of cricket, but I wouldn't know his name. And they're talking about like, he had, apparently he was known for his like blue eyes and blonde hair. Like he had good flow.

Like apparently he was like a handsome man. Okay. Maybe he still is. Okay. I don't know. Still alive apparently. So Beastman Dweller says, this is a question for him. Is it mean? Is it going to make me feel bad? No, no, no. God, I would never read something like that, is. Okay. I don't know. He's still alive apparently. So, Basement Dweller says, this is a question for him. Is it mean?

Is it going to make me feel bad? No, no, no, God, I would never read something like that, please. Okay.

What exactly was the full story regarding her broken leg and that local Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour concert date? Oh, this is, this must be somebody who knows me. Basement Dweller is a frequent contributor

and I do not know if Basement Dweller knows you, but, why? Tell me what this means. don't know i don't know how anybody could possibly know this story outside of have you ever told it in public like on a any radio or in any written form and now i can't say that absolutely because i don't know you probably did i'm gonna bet this this gentleman uh probably read it somewhere. Maybe. He wrote it somewhere. It just, it seems, with the benefit of hindsight, I guess it seems so immaterial.

I don't know. There wasn't any story. I was at a Stones concert. I broke my leg. Okay. You broke your leg at the Steel Wheels. I was 89. It was 89 because I was working the X that year.

Okay. And the Steel Wheels came in when I was working at the Papa Ball, the game booth, Papa Ball. Yeah. Long gone. But okay. And you broke your leg at the pop-a-ball, the game booth, pop-a-ball. Yeah. Long gone. But okay. And you broke your leg at the concert. Yeah. I tripped on, I think I tripped on, you know how when they have all these big cables on

the ground and they have those things that go over, like risers that go over to, I'm pretty sure it was on one of those. And, you know, there might've been some alcohol involved. It's possible. Do you remember what song was, they were playing when you tripped? I don't. I just remember I lived, i was living in parkdale at that time and um somehow getting home and waking up the next day and just like immediately vomiting because it was just so painful and i hadn't gone to the hospital and why did you choose to buy east of young uh you did

live in parkdale so you are i had some West End time. Why did you make that decision? When you had to decide where to move, what were the reasons you chose that location? Well, I didn't move from Parkdale to where I am now. No, because you were in Seattle. Yeah, and there had been some interim moves. I mean, I had actually been living on the east side. I was married at one point, and we had a house in Riverdale, I guess you'd call it. Well, and the now magazine offices were there

had always been at danforth and broadview so i was certainly familiar with that area it's what i could afford i bought where i could afford it's a nice neighborhood simple as that uh yeah i heard parkdale and my ears pricked up and i'm like oh we could have had kim like we i feel like we're all we're trying to get is you know we could have had you well i lived in i lived if here's let's test your knowledge of parkdale at the corner at the at the southwest corner of queen and dunn avenue there was currently an lcbo store but for many many years there was something else there can you name what that building was bargain heralds no i don't know i don't know it was it was the ross craig funeral home and my apartment was above it um and it was one of the best apartments i ever had okay because

it was quiet it was well i mean people always say that it was very clean um and it was just it was a cool place and the funeral director was also the landlord and he was just like this fantastically crazy you know pot smoking beer drinking crazy person i feel like that story also could have prompted the Pumpkins After Dark segment as well because it's kind of Halloween-y. Okay, cool. Now, did you work? Do you have any memories?

We lost Dave Bookman very recently, far too early. Any memories? I know he was doing some writing for the rival newspaper, but you guys must have overlapped a bit there, right? Well, he was on my show. He was actually a reporter um reporter seems too formal i mean he was he was sort of many many things he was a he was a person on the show um so yeah i mean i would i would speak

to him and the show was five days a week two hours a night right so it was long um and so i mean i remember this was this is it's funny now again this is one of these things that was funny at the and so I mean I remember it's funny now again this is one of these things that was funny at the benefit of hindsight but we were having this band on I guess it was Ontario Police Forum could it still have been around at that time and we were having this band on

that had one record at them we were sitting around and we were listening to this record and we were trying to figure out neither one of us really knew we were dividing up who was going to talk to whom we're like what are we gonna ask is they don't seem to have any backstory they just we couldn't grab onto anything in the lyrics and and so it sort of felt to me and of course the band was radio hat um and fun and funny enough um i ended up getting along with them so well that Ed O'Brien, the guitar player,

they had a couple of days off in Toronto, and myself and my then-husband, who was working at the concert promotion company, no, it would have been the amphitheater, I guess, ended up spending a couple of days with that guy. Wow. Just hanging out. We went to Niagara Falls and had them over, and many times they were guests in our home years going by.

It was just so funny looking back now. At that time, it was like... That's hilarious. There was nothing written about those guys like typically you go to the british press and they're you know the british press were just so hyperbolic and they would write about everybody and there's nothing about that band and it was just before loser was going to break i mean i think they were opening for like not loser creep creep sorry creep yes i get that related with back right um. And yeah, it was like some weird gig that they were on and they were nobody at that time.

And it was just like. That's wild. Yeah. No, that's fascinating. Fascinating. Now that, yeah, it wasn't the Forum. I don't, because I don't believe there was any Radiohead at the Forum.

Although my first concert ever was at that old Forum, that Ontario Place Forum. It was Chalk Circle. Oh, no kidding. They were great actually. And Chris Tate, I think was the name of the. Wardman? Was it Chris Wardman? Is. They were great, actually, and Chris Tate, I think, was the name of the singer. Was it Chris Wardman? Is there a Chris Tate? Chris Wardman? Chris Tate?

I don't know. I trust you. The bass player went on to do some interesting things, and of course I'm going to forget his name. Maybe that's Chris Wardman. Maybe. He produces a lot of interesting music, right? Yeah. I'm terrible. I'm going to have to quit heroin. I can see that now.

Have you ever done heroin? I have not. because i've spent a lot of time recently with uh old city tv uh sportscasters john gallagher and peter gross because we did a podcast mini series together that just dropped this week people just should subscribe right now to gallagher and gross save the world but they talk very openly and honestly about their drug use and it was mainly cocaine but a lot of it that's kind of a different animal though i think i haven't seen either in in the in the wild like i've never seen cocaine in the wild or heroin seriously i know that was good i feel like i missed out for a while i feel like this is 523 is that what you said at the beginning yeah 523 wow that's impressive and by the way maybe my favorite Is that what you said at the beginning? Yeah, 523. Wow, that's impressive. And by the way, maybe my favorite.

I'll let you know at the end if it continues to feel this good. But, oh yeah, so where was I? Oh yeah, so you've never done heroin. No, I've never done heroin. No. Should I? No, it's addictive. Yeah, I feel like I don't need it.

I feel like I don't need it. Yeah, like why would you start something like that, right? But drug use, do you indulge in the very legal cannabis no i've never i've never been into that stuff honestly i mean i don't smoke i don't i don't you know because you're healthy well i understand there are other ways you can consume it than than oh like edibles yeah it's just not my thing like i mean i've tried it for sure but I just never liked the feeling. Like, I always felt, I felt watery. It made me feel watery and amorphous and kind of, you know. Oh, like that shape of water, right?

When she's making love. When she's sleeping with a fish. Right? That's a, okay. All right. That was filmed here, you know. Yes, in Hamilton as well. Guillermo del Toro is an amazing filmmaker.

Yes, he is. Absolutely, yeah. And you are a film person which we'll talk about very very very soon so i still got to see if why because that's my my favorite part because that's i feel like we've been talking for a long time no canadian musician described you as one of the best known music radio personalities in canada really that's a quote like one of the best known music radio personalities in canada uh quotes from the 90s though but it's okay and the toronto star uh referred to you as one of the uh one of the

toronto pop music industry's most respected and influential figures isn't that nice so why does it come to an end for you in 1999 all these praise you You were fantastic. Live in Toronto. It's funny. I've never actually talked about this. It's, and I thought about this because I figured you were going to ask me about it. So, you know, to be perfectly honest, I had a lot on my plate and there was a lot going on. But the biggest thing that was going on at that time was I worked for a person.

There was a person at that radio station who was a misogynistic pig. And who really decided he wanted to show me who was boss. And so we sort of fell afoul. And you've never disclosed this in public. Never. Because I did not know that and I have a crack research staff and it works very hard.

Basement dweller. Who is this? So now I need to know. He came to two. Okay, so I have these events. I have the fifth event coming shortly

but he came to two of the Toronto Mike listener experiences, two that we held at Great Lakes Brewery. So I've met him. Who is he? He's just a big fan. He listens to every podcast the day it's released.

He comments quite a bit on torontomike.com about every episode. I enjoy reading his comments. But you've met him. You said you've met him. What's his name? Can you reveal that? I don't know if he wants me to. I know his name. I'll tell you after the recording uh i'll tell you

after the recording but i don't know if he wants because he always wants to be billed as a basement dweller so uh yeah and without the vowels like basement dweller without the vowels like when you speak it it's the same words or whatever but if you type it you don't have vowels basement dweller and there's been some interesting studies that actually in the english language you can put any word basically remove the vowels and people can still figure out what it is i bet optical trick anyway you know let me put it let me just end on this i don't i really want to drill drill down on that too much but i mean you know i had a really really really good run and you know and i've done a lot of interesting stuff. And, you know, I feel like it's very flattering

and humbling to me that I'm even sitting here truthfully. So, I mean, like, I don't feel there's any, you know, any... That surprises me because even if you were, even if your career was just, and your career is far more vast as we're going to discuss here, but even if it was just live in Toronto for those years, it was a wonderful program and you did a fantastic job with the interviews and

hosting. You were great. Thank you very much. Like that, if that was all that was on the Kim Hughes resume, I'd want to talk to you. Oh, thanks.

That's very sweet. That means a lot. It means a lot that you did the hour. Cause you know, you have to go back like that's another hour. Like that's a two hour round trip you're doing. You're starting to regret it. I can see in your eyes,

but that's a lot. It's a lot of effort for you to come here You're starting to regret it. I can see in your eyes. But it's a lot of effort for you to come here and give us your time today. But Great Lakes beer. And lasagna. And stickers. Don't look at the stickers too. I will tell you what I did not know that you disclosed there, but why

you left in 1999, why you left Edge 102, or is it 102.1 the Edge? I always screw it up. But the, not rumor, but the perception out there is that they wanted to maybe, they wanted George Strombolopoulos to take the gig.

Like they wanted to make room for him on that roster spot. Like that's the perception out there. Strombol, because Strombol hosts live in Toronto after Kim Hughes. He did. Well, I mean, it's possible. I mean, you know, I don't know.

I can't claim to know the minds of the powers that be. He wasn't a female. I'll just add that. No. Definitely not a female. So any misogyny would not apply to him. And nothing against him. Like, he's definitely a stand-up guy.

Like yourself, he's a good interviewer, too. Like, you're both actually really good interviewers. I taught him everything he knows. I taught him everything. I bet you. I bet. He's been on the show. I'll have to go back back review the tape he's a cool guy yeah and that's that's all i'm gonna say and i'm not even going to ask you for clues as to who this misogynist pig is because it's your story you put that out there and i appreciate your honesty that's a real talk

i here's the thing i understand he's probably still in radio i was out at the juno covering the juno awards a couple years ago in Calgary and saw him. And the look on his face when he saw me was like, like I knew. I knew that my, my suspicions all these years were absolutely correct.

That's too bad, because that wasn't that long ago. It's just, and if he's still on radio, maybe he's still implementing his misogynist ways, whatever his influence. I hate to tell you, but men keeping the thumb on women like it kind of happens all the time.

I'm sorry on behalf of the gender. I feel I need to apologize. That's okay. You guys have a lot of really good traits. Lots. What's your favorite trait of the male in your species? In my species? I don't know how to word that.

As opposed to the fish of Guillermo del Toro's species? Right. Because he obviously had something going on. She looked like she was not unhappy. She was very satisfied with his performance. So do you have, like, what is it you dig about men? Do we open jars when they're really tight? Everything. I mean, everything.

They're awesome. Thank you. What's up, Mark? They can do awesome stuff. This is not sex. I hope you're not going to call me misogynist, but we are stronger than you, generally speaking. Our hormones and stuff have created bigger muscles.

Is that controversial? No, I can say that, right? Not stronger minded. No, no, no. no no i mean i'm gonna leave this topic now because i don't want to upset anybody i've anyway um tell me about working at now magazine like i mean uh and now like uh you were the music editor there yeah and how many years what how long you were there a long time? Yeah, I was there, um, 14 years, maybe more than, more than, more than 10 for sure. And, and maybe any, any highlights you want to share or any, uh, I mean, it was just such an unusual place because it was, it was a, it was truly a family run business. It was a couple, um, who weren't a couple for the duration, but they started as a couple,

Michael Hallett and Alice Klein. And you could not have, if there was a thousand dollar bill on the table and the bet was go find two people that are more different from each other in every conceivable way, you could not have found two people more different than these two. And yet somehow they made this thing work. And again, this is, it's era specific. I mean, it was just like, you know, the, the alternative news weekly at that time was a very, um, you know, it was a very influential thing. I mean, they had listings, club listings, people would go on Thursdays to get the paper, to find out which band was playing at which club on which night in that week or which movie was playing in first round or repertory. I mean,

it seems it's mind boggling now when you think about it. But it was like a thing. It was really a thing. And it was great. I have nothing but good things to say about that experience. And when did the experience at NOW end for Kim Hughes? So I quit NOW because I had been recruited by Amazon, which at that time was something that very few people knew about.

And I distinctly remember people telling me that I was ending my career by going over into the web. That's funny. Yeah. Like 2001, right? Yeah, it was 2001. Yeah, that's bleeding edge. Yeah, Amazon.

They were just doing books, am I right? They were getting into music and stuff. And the idea at that time was they were already operational in Japan, Germany, I want to say France, although I could be wrong on that, and obviously the United States. And their idea for expansion was that they would bring people in from the country that they were launching in because people like

myself, for example, had a frame of reference on what would be meaningful music content for Amazon Canadian consumers. You speak Canadian essentially. I guess that's what it was. So they moved you to Seattle? Correct.

I'm all choked up here. I'm so excited for you. That's okay. And so you move from Toronto to Seattle. Right. And you're doing this work at basically the launch of Amazon.ca. Correct. That's correct.

That's amazing. Yeah. And like you were recruited. This was like the, we used to call them headhunters, I guess. That's what they did. Yeah.

And they tapped you on the shoulder and said, hey, let's have coffee. I have something I want to run by. That's exactly what they did. And they flew me down there. And at that time in my life, it was like, you know,

I'd gone through this change and I'd been at now for a long time and I wasn't doing the radio anymore. And it was like, okay, well I'd gone through this change and I'd been at now for a long time and I wasn't doing the radio anymore. And it was like, okay, well this could be something else to do. And, uh, so it made a whole lot of sense at the time. And I'm, you know, that's what I did. Amazing. Did you know that? Did your, did your crack team of researchers? I even knew it was 2001. I said that was 2001, not Kim Hughes. Okay. Come on, come on. But I mean, you know, with the advent of LinkedIn, again, it's like... I didn't say it was difficult, but again, I did not have that little morsel about the

misogynist there at that edge, but... Yeah, no, I didn't put that on my LinkedIn profile, honestly enough. After this episode, it might end up on your wiki page. I don't know. I won't put it there. But okay, someone might. Now, so you're in Seattle. What was that experience like?

I mean, that's the land of Frasier Crane, right? I'm trying to think, what do I know about Seattle? Soundgarden? Yeah, oh yeah. Well, of course, all day. I've heard of those guys. It was a, I mean, I don't want to bore you with boring details, but it was hard.

I mean, there was a number of hiccups with the gig. Heritage Canada got involved at that stage with fulfillment about where they were going to, you know, book and music was going to come from. And the way that Amazon was set up at that time was they would have like 10 different balls in the air. Whatever showed the most momentum, everybody would get behind that

and everything else would be backburnered. And so all of us that went down from Canada went down with a great deal of momentum, but we ended up getting backburnered, which was hard because when you go, when you're moving to a new city, you know, with your express purpose of doing this job and suddenly it's slowing down, like it just, it made it hard. It's hard to live in a new city for sure. What's it like when a company recruits you to a new city like okay so they're obviously they're going to cover like moving expenses right like so but do they like tell what's the full extent of what they offer you that you don't get if you take another gig in like the same city you live in like like for example like you got to find a place to live do they put you up somewhere for a certain

period of time yeah they did and and they they assigned me someone to help a place to live. Did they put you up somewhere for a certain period of time? Yeah, they did. And they assigned me someone to help me try to navigate the city. I mean, they were good. I can only speak for what the experience was. They were very good to me. You know, they did all the paperwork. Like, you can't just show up in the United States and work. Like, you need visas, right?

Very specific kinds of visas. Right. And so that was a huge process as well. And they did all of that. So that was great. It just didn't end up being everything I hoped it would be. And how long were you in Seattle? A couple of years. A couple of years.

But it's funny, you know, the West Coast, and I think this is true of Vancouver, it's like they say that people move to, you know, the East Coast for a career and West Coast for a lifestyle. And it's kind of true. It's like everybody's a tree hugger, but everybody drives an SUV. It's like, what's going on Seattle? Come on. That's America, right? But I got to say, did you get any stock options or anything that makes you a wealthy person today or whatever? Did you score on any of that? No, although the way that it was set up at the time, I don't believe the offices are still there, but they were in a building called the PAC-Med building,

which was notable in the Second World War, apparently. It was used as a hospital for returning veterans. It was quite a unique building. And Jeff Bezos at that time and his wife and children would always eat in the cafeteria. He was a very present individual, which I'm guessing is probably not the case today. That would be difficult, yeah, for sure.

Now, I guess you never had a meeting with Jeff in this experience. Not any kind of formal meeting. I mean, certainly you would nod to him in line for your grilled cheese. Good afternoon, Mr. Bezos. Wow. How's it going? And you come back, though. By the way, I want to point out,

so we kind of glossed over some stuff, but we talked about now and CFNY, And you come back though. So, uh, by the way, I want to point out, so we kind of glossed over some stuff, but we talked about now and CF and why, but just to drop some of the like places where you could have read or heard from Kim Hughes, right? You were what you were for David Gilmour. Oh no, you and David Gilmour were,

uh, music reviewers for CBC news worlds on the arts. Well, that was his show. He was the host and I was just one of the reporters. I was, uh, and you appeared on that.

Yeah. For a couple of years, I felt, I don't know. I never got into, and I was just one of the reporters. And you appeared on that? Yeah, for a couple of years. I felt, I don't know, I never got into the, they rebranded CBC News World to like CBCNN or something, and I didn't like it because it was too close to CNN. Like, I just don't know about that move. They didn't consult me on it. But that was a super fun time too, and I really loved doing that. And I remember I had some great interviews.

I did an amazing interview with Sting in New York City. P.J. Harvey was a great one that I did for that that show I did a crazy Sinead O'Connor um so yeah I mean it was that was rich and David Gilmore like what a bright light that guy is holy cow and I mean you also appeared in the I'll just name drop a bunch of places but like the Toronto Star the Globe and Mail Billboard Sal, Salon, the National Post. Yeah, I reviewed books for the Toronto Star for many years. Many, many years. And after Amazon, is that when you go to satellite? XM Satellite Radio?

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, I came back and a friend of mine was working for them at the time and introduced me to someone who was recruiting for the station, more than a station, for satellite radio radio the timing of that was really bad like conceptually it was such a solid thing and it still is a solid thing and i still love satellite radio but at that time xm and sirius were two separate things i remember they were really struggling for market share and they all put their eggs in the baskets they were going to roll off cars are going to roll off the assembly line

with these satellite radios in them. And then like the car industry tanked. This was like 2008 or whatever. I don't even remember. But yeah, that was a few years and that was a good experience too. Okay, so is this happening in Liberty Village or is this like New York?

Like where is this? Where is the Verge headquarters? So at that time it was converted, Is this like out of New York? Like where is this? Where is the Verge headquarters? So at that time it was converted, a former bank building at Avenue and Davenport. Oh yeah, Avenue and Davenport. Okay, I see now. Okay, so now they have their Liberty Village location, I guess, on Liberty Street,

right down the street from Sticker U, if I can give a shout out to the good people at Sticker U. You are so impressive, I can't even tell you. Liberty Street. Do you remember this post Degrassi show that had Pat Mastroianni starring in it called, I think it was called Liberty Street?

Does this ring a bell at all? And you lived in like the cool lofts of Liberty Street? I don't, but I'm by no means a barometer for television. Do you even watch television? Oh, no, because you're always reading books. I read a lot of books. And I see, well, it's a different kind of sensory experience,

but I see a lot of movies too, right? Okay, let's do the movies right after you tell me what the heck you were doing at Lavalife.com. Yeah. Well, you know what? It does make more sense when i explain it to you at the time i mean so lava life for people who don't know it wasn't when online dating was a thing right so this was in the mid mid to late 2000s is it not a thing anymore

oh well i feel like it's still i mean i think in in tinder form maybe it is but not the way it was then anyway um so there was a woman who was the CEO at that time. And I knew her because she had worked at Now Magazine when I was there. And she's one of these exceptional people that just has a vision. Like, you know, we see this much, but she sees this much. So a really visionary woman.

Her name is Marina Golgovac. Anyway, she saw that we had so much information about these people um we knew what their preferences were they smoked whether they play tennis whether they play golf if they were gay if they were straight if they're you know all of these things um and she felt it was a real opportunity to be able to create content for these people um so she hired me to create a companion um website that was all content driven, that would cater to people who were in this mill year. What year are we talking? Like approximately?

Oh God, I'm so bad with years. Like mid 2005 or something? Yeah, maybe around there. Okay, yeah, that's the heyday for this idea. Like that's what this idea would be. And I personally, in 2019, I still like this idea, but apparently they all disagreed with me, but they pivoted elsewhere.

Well, I can tell you what killed Lava Life is that you'd be in meetings and developers would go, hey guys, we really should start working on a mobile app because we get this sense that people in the future are not going to run home and fire up their desktop to find out if they got an email from someone. And people would be like, phones? Really?

You think people are going to use their phones to check text and email? It's like, well, I think we know what happened there. But here's what I'll say about Lava Life. I will say that I work with some great people. I was given an awful lot of latitude in terms of the content that I could put together. I worked with people across the United States and in Australia because they had a very big presence in Australia.

I got a fantastic trip to Australia out of that. Amazing. Yeah, it was. What part of Australia? Throughout the Blue Mountain area in Sydney. Blue Mountain, that's near Collingwood, right? Sydney, okay. I know that word.

And I bought my house. Like, Lavalife helped me buy my house. I got nothing bad to say about that. You own a house in Toronto, which in my book makes you a wealthy person I got nothing bad to say about that. You own a house in Toronto, which in my book makes you a wealthy person. Like, you're a rich person. You own a house in Toronto. Yeah.

You don't get no two ways about it. You didn't score the Amazon stocks or whatever, but still a wealthy person. Good for you. And you seem happy and you seem healthy and you're well-spoken and use big words and it's all excellent. So, Lavalife..com that sounds kind of

you're kind of the ideal person for curating content like that anyways you're like you're like a content producer but the one thing about my career i have to say is that i've always done a bunch of things at once and again this was one of the nice things about satellite radio was one of the nice things about um you know lava life i mean because at that time i would always be doing a bunch of other things. Right. Diversifying your portfolio. Like, there's just a lot of things that make me interested and excited. And so, same with the radio now.

I mean, maybe at a higher profile level, but it was basically the same thing. Doing a bunch of things all at once. And I mean, you do like cutting edge stuff. Like you're always kind of on, I guess you could call it the bleeding edge almost, but you're doing like the Amazon.ca and the verge and lava life.com. These were all very like,

that's very modern outlets for their time. Thank you for saying that. Look at you. You're not. Yeah. And you come from print and radio, which, you know,

are a couple of old school forums, but okay. So I had on this show, a guy you might know named jim slow tech oh of course you know jim i sure do he's out he actually lives in my neighborhood he lives just just down the street from me jim has become a good friend of the show he uh oh i know i met him at the hebsey event i don't think he came to the tmlx but i bump into him now and then i think because we have a mutual friend in mark hebshire and forever he wrote at the Toronto Sun for many, many, many years. That's right.

And, you know, he came on and we talked about something called Original Sin. Right. But you don't spell sin. No, sin, because it's for movies. So sin, C-I-N, like cinema. Clever, huh? Almost too clever, if I dare say so. What do we say?

Too cool for school. Okay. So Original Sin. Yeah. So say? Too cool for school? Okay. So original sin. Yeah. So Jim started that. That was his thing. So, you know, like a lot of print reporters, you know, the train left the station and it's just not coming back.

So he started this blog and he asked a few people, people way, way, way more qualified than me to be on that. You and this humble. No, but seriously, like he approached Liam Lacey, who for years, who's become a great friend and who's like one of the funniest human beings I've ever met, but for many years was the lead film critic at the Globe and Mail.

Right. So he asked Liam Lacey if he would write. He asked Karen Gordon, also a fantastic media person. I hear her on CBC Radio. She's on CBC. If she would write for the site and I basically said to him like I just want to write for you guys

like I'll do anything just tell me what I have to do and he said sure come on so is that the full what's the full current roster then is that it maybe that's it but Jim Slotek Liam Lacey

Karen Gordon Bonnie Laffer-Krebs is also she does a lot of interviews and she has her own YouTube channel. So she does stuff for the site. And another fellow, Tom Ernst, also writes for the site. And there was kind of a dovetail there for me too, because for the last few years, TIFF has been one of my big clients. They hire me once a year for a contract to do, be the deputy editor on their program. Amazing. So it was, so there again, it's like another thing.

I mean, we had this scheduled for like early September, maybe early. I don't know. We had this scheduled. We've been going for like an hour and a half. Do you think anyone is still with us? You obviously haven't listened to many episodes of Tron. See, if I wrapped it up right now, let's say, I would get notes from people saying, what happened? I would get notes from people saying, what happened?

I would get notes. It's like something went bad. That's cool. They'll say something went wrong. Why did it wrap up? But we're almost done. We're almost done. No, I'm not rushing you. You're enjoying yourself.

I'm not rushing you at all. You don't think people are interested in Kim Hughes. I think you found my Achilles heel. But I can't tell if it's like, is it really that you believe that or that you kind of want to present the persona as a humble Canadian? Let me ask you,

do I strike you as someone who, look at the person before you. Do I look like someone who's striking a persona? You could be the persona of the person who doesn't look like they're striking a persona. That could be your persona. Which is possible. That's deep. I have to say uh what are we at now an hour and 16 minutes like it's been all killer no filler like it's been it's been yeah there's a little bit of cricket talk

off the top but uh only because no one can google your name and find out what's going on original sin by the way is not a very google thing either. It's a very smart name. I just, it's almost like it's, that's a, the product is great. You have all these fantastic writers. And we'll get to TIFF in a minute here. But what exactly are, what's the website for Original Sin?

Do you know, where would we, like where would someone go in their web browser to see Original Sin content? They would go to original-sin.ca. And Sin is with a C. Sin is with a C. So yeah, remember the hyphen, and remember the sin is with a C.

And it's.ca, not.com. It's.ca. I mean, I don't know that there was maybe all of the SEO strategy in place when the thing was launched that you might want in a perfect world. But here's the thing. It's like people who really care about what they're doing.

And actually, I ran into a friend on the subway the other day, and I was really, I mean, I was super humbled by this. And she was talking about, she's a friend of Slow Tech's, and she was talking about how much she, you know, enjoyed reading the reviews because she didn't get the sense that we were bought in for any other reason except, you know, if we say we like it, it's because we really thought it was good.

And if we said it was terrible, it's because we thought it was terrible, right? You're not tainted by some big movie company giving you money or something for some, yeah. This is all your true... We are so not being given money, I can't even tell you. I can't even tell you how not

being given money we are. Original-cin.ca People can go there right now and see all this great content from all these great writers. But I also heard podcasts from Original Sin. We were doing some podcasts with a veteran guy, Gene Valaitis, who's on the West Coast. Oh, he's here now. Yeah, he's here now. But at that time, we were doing podcasts, weekly podcasts, and it was great fun. And it was just, you know, it's like anything. It feels like the media landscape is really,

I mean, I'm hardly the first person to make this observation, but, I mean, it is a very fluid and fast-moving thing. And so, you know, you jump on, and not everybody can get to 523 episodes. Like, that's a pretty big achievement. They can if they're really shitty. Like, I feel like I could bang out crappy ones. Now, who is being this humility thing?

I am actually kind of proud. Either I'm rubbing off on you or it's just like you have no business saying what you said. I do find I will match. Like sometimes, okay, this is true. You're a great interviewer yourself. Tell me if you're the same way. If I have somebody on the show

who's really high energy, let's say, I find for that episode I have high energy. If I had i had uh who was it was it roger mooking roger mooking came on he's a celebrity chef now well he was in uh bass's bass right that's all i wanted to talk about trust me uh yeah so we did a lot of music talk in that episode but he was on and he was like so chill i wonder if it was if it was 420 when he drove by he might have been blunted he had a he had a driver blunted like he wasn't dry he had somebody driving him there and back and he was really really chill okay and i'll tell you what if you get me a driver next time i'll i'll invite him along and i'll tell you what happens in that car how about that roger yeah okay

i would i would i would pay an uber for that for that uh feature now bottom line is roger was really chilling he was laughing at my jokes that's how i thought maybe something was going on because i mean i am funny but i'm not that funny now uh and so where you're going with this where i'm going this is i for that episode and i my wife loved bassist bass and she she never she doesn't listen to many episodes on a mic but she listened to that one and she came home and told me she thought it was she told me how much she loved it like she laughed out loud several times and stuff but then i then i i actually decided i'd listen back like what monica likes is what's wrong with this episode let me listen and i was uh super chill like i was super i found i find like i adapt to my guests that's true and actually when you were when you

were interviewing chuck d i felt you were just like, there was just something about you, like you were just so into everything. Like you just seemed so on point. Did you say Chuck D? Yeah, I did. Hey, what's up? This is Chuck D.

You are listening to Toronto Mike right here, right now, in the place to be. He only gave me 20 minutes, so I couldn't do my normal thing. But listen, that's a win. That is a win. One of my very first

stories for now was actually for Public Enemy. Can you tell me about that before I ask you a tip question? Only because

Public Enemy is one of my favorite bands of all time and I absolutely love It Takes a Nation. Can you talk to me

about Flavor Flav? Talk to me about that. Are you asking me? Yeah, I'm asking you. Talk to me about which part? Well, I mean, okay, Bridget Nielsen. Talk to me about that. Can you talk to me about that? Yeah, I'm asking you. Talk about which part. Well, I mean, okay. Bridget Nielsen, talk to me about that.

Can you talk to me about that? That actually, no, I didn't watch any of that. Like, I don't know. I will say, in fact, I had this chat with Mishimi yesterday because she kicked out the jams. And when her first jam is Rebel Without a Pause from It Takes a Nation, I'm going to hold this back. And we were talking and she's friends with Chuck.

Chuck put her on the bill at this beer fest where I was actually talking to Chuck. And I asked her like public enemy, radio versus public enemy. And she said was actually talking to Chuck. And I asked her, like, public enemy, radio versus public enemy, and she said they're both good. And I know she was being very kind there. They are both good, because Chuck D is amazing. He's the guy. But I had to pipe up at some point in this interview to stand up for

the foil that is the hype man of Flav. And how I feel when I listen back to these legendary tracks from It Takes a Nation to Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet, that the, you know, they must be on the pipe, right? Like, I can't do it because I'm not Flav, but what he adds to it, to me, enhances the whole. I like my Chuck D with a side of Flav. Well, I mean, let us not forget that they are entertainers as well.

I mean, sometimes the whole aspect of entertaining is obfuscated by their larger point, right? That they're trying to make their political points. But I mean, even Happy Mondays had some guy named Bez, whose entire job was just to be on stage shaking tambourines. Hype man. Yeah. So I mean, I think that there

was an element of that, of the entertainment aspect. Which is legit. So I like, I mean, I've never met Flavor Flav. He wasn't on this recent recent tour that's why it was called public enemy radio instead of public enemy because you know they don't want to call public enemy if there's no flave but uh i do really hope that we get public enemy again with flave because to me that's the that's the band well putting it out there is half the battle yes and by the way i will say because i've done i don't know i've done hundreds of interviews not as many as you but i've done lots now and i never have any rules of my interviews

like my work you never said to me before we started recording you know don't ask me about this or that you didn't i didn't get you don't mention strong boy and i'm very bitter about this that did not happen so i'm just lying to people that did not happen do people usually do that no never but the just before i went live with Chuck D for 20 minutes, I had the PR person say, please don't ask him about Flav. Well, I mean, the example I cited earlier, I remember having that once with Frank Black.

Do whatever you do, don't ask him about the breeders. Oh my God. Can you imagine not asking? Well, of course I asked him about the breeders. They only had the number one record on the charts in the world at that time. I mean, I'm not going to ask him about Kim Deal. Right. In the cannonball.

Yeah. And, you know, and the publicist from the then label was on the phone in like five seconds flat after that. You will never get another one of our. Yeah, that's the move, right? It's like, okay, really? Is that a threat or a promise did you have to trample a toddler to get to the phone that fast good job first of all on

doing that lots of respect because i actually because i didn't have a lot of time to think about it but of course i was going to ask him about the flavor slave because where the hell slave of course but i thought i would not i was going to i made sure i structured the questions in a way where he would bring it up. Like I kind of... There go the magic of Howard Stern. This is why he's been able, because he will ask these questions.

And I mean, of course, now he has a platform big enough that he can, but I mean, that really was, that was his stock in trade. I like Howard Stern as an interviewer. In fact, he's part of, him and Brian Linehan kind of helped.

Or Martin Short doing Brock Linehan as Brian Linehan. You know, Steve Bacon was on last week and he was neighbors with the Shorts in Hamilton.

Yeah, anyway. Yeah, Brian, and who was just in here talking? Oh, yeah, Jim McKinney was in two days ago.

Jim McKinney from City TV sports broadcast and stuff. And I'm like, tell me about Brian Linehan. Just like I'm asking you about Streak. Tell me about Martin Streak. It's just I need to hear about Brian Linehan. But okay, I digress. So what were we talking about there?

I wanted to get you to TIFF. But Original Sin. So there's no podcast right now. No, there isn't currently a podcast. You know, we're open to any... Because you're so busy doing other things, or it's because of logistics and geography? The opportunity just closed, so it just went as far as it could go, unfortunately. But it was great, and really working with these guys, I mean, this is one of the things,

it's like just doing different things. Going into the film world, I've been associated with music for a long time and books and then you know trying to get into film it's like you know a guy like liam lacey you know he's like he's forgotten more than i'll ever know about film um but the amount that i can learn just from just from hanging out with him and reading his copy how'd you get into film like what segued you into film i mean i'm uh i guess technically i was hired to do i had a blog um uh with a no longer around company simpatico.ca yeah exactly oh my god i come on i'm you know i've been blogging since 2002 i remember yeah yeah okay so anyway so i was doing that and um you know and so i made some contacts in that

in that area and i really liked it and i mean there are there are similarities between reporting on music reporting on film reporting on sports like there's a lot of overlap with that kind of stuff right um and and plus i'm a pop culture fan so i did have some frame of reference and so just went from there everything but sports and maybe uh tv because you don't seem to be too into tv i'm not down on tv i just i just don't ever find myself there's just doesn't seem to be too into TV. I'm not down on TV. I just don't ever find myself, there just doesn't seem to be points in my day where I go, this is the point where I'm going to watch TV. Okay, let me just say, your old employer, Amazon,

has a streaming service called Prime. Yeah, I know. And there's a show on there, I think BBC might have done it originally, but called Fleabag. And I'm just throwing it out there that if you tried Fleabag, you know, you had your pot of tea. I say that because Fleabag is a British show.

But funny as all hell, super, super smart. Like you would love this show. I couldn't believe. I have no doubt. Listen. I know. I have no doubt. It's just I do a lot of volunteer work.

That takes up a lot of my time. You know, I like to read and i you know okay you can visit me periodically it'll give you a couple hours of reading time on the uh subway or whatever okay tiff yeah uh is there anything i should see that was good at tiff i know you're you're you have a conflict of interest though i feel like because you work for tiff well i mean yes i do i i've for the past years, I've worked on contract during the summer. I helped them put together the program. But then I'm also accredited as part of my writing for Original Sin.

So I'm on both sides of the proverbial. Because last year's TIFF, I felt like there was a lot of buzz on a bunch of stuff that came out of TIFF, including Green Book and things like that. Yeah, yeah. But I don't... Not so much this year. No, there was nothing that kind of popped out like, oh my God, this is good. Well, and also, you know, they're not the only...

I mean, they're one of the biggest, but they're not the only film festival, you know, in the world. Like, I mean, Venice happens just before Cannes happens in the spring. And so some of these titles are coming to TIFF from Venice and Cannes. So maybe that steals a bit of oxygen. But we're very big. We're a big deal. We're a big fucking deal at Tiff. It's a big deal, yeah. It's a big deal.

So big they hired Kim Hughes to help out. It's a big fucking deal at Tiff. Oh, thighs are being slapped all across the GTA right now. Well, it's good that I'm glad you got that Tiff gig. Tiff gig sounds pretty cool, but I guess it swallows you whole for a couple of months or something every year. And that's why we're doing this in October.

So I do that. That's my summer. I have another client, the Junos. I do a lot of work for the Juno Awards on their program. Where is the Junos this year? Do you go to it? No. No.

Okay. You don't know where it is, though. It was London last year. I mean, it's been announced. Hamilton, maybe? No, maybe I'm dreaming. Maybe it's out though. It was London last year. I mean, it's been announced. Hamilton, maybe? No, maybe I'm dreaming. Maybe it's out west. I want to say I should totally know this,

and I will know it very soon because I'll be writing about it. I'll edit it. You tell you what, you phone it in, and then I'll drop it in, like Mr. Black, Mr. Black. Well, it's somewhere in Canada for sure. Yes, I bet you it is. But not Ontario, which is, yeah, okay. Now, this is the question i wanted to close with and i held on to it by a guy named steve who tweeted this at me today if you get this in time

i did steve i got just in time he i got it just between hebsey and kim hughes there was a one moment and i grabbed this off of twitter it was was really close, actually. If you get this in time, please ask Kim Hughes if her favorite job before what she's doing now, we got to disqualify that, I guess, but what is, how did he word this? Okay, I think he worded it wrong,

but what's your favorite job you've ever had? I'm rephrasing it for Steve, but I'll finish the Steve question here. I loved her on CFNY. I remember her talking about Oasis in their first show in Toronto. And she mentioned they play I Am the Walrus.

And I ran to see them. They became a huge part of my life. So you changed Steve's life. Wow. By talking about Oasis. Yeah, those guys. I saw the first Blur show. I saw the first Radiohead show,

as I mentioned. The Jeff Buckley was a big one. First Beck, as well. I played the Rivoli in the tiny show. These are all great artists.

I like all of them, actually. Big Beck. Well, I love Beck. I would trample a toddler for Beck. Actually,

I would trample a toddler for almost anything, but particularly for Beck. Oh, not my toddler. Get that kid out of here. You could watch my toddler next week. Actually, I would trample a toddler for almost anything, but particularly for back. Oh, not my toddler. Get that kid out of here. You could watch my toddler next week. That's okay. I'm good. Real quick aside here.

If this happens. I'm in cats. Do cat rescue. I could pay you. That's okay. Because they can't charge me at the... No, I'm trying... There's a daycare for my three-year-old because she's not in school yet. You are asking the wrong person. But it's in a building that the school owns and they told me they might not be able to open the doors. If you need to neuter an intact tom who's feral, you call me.

I got all kinds of information for you. Is that some of your charity work you do is for the, because, okay, so where, do you want to shout out some causes you support? Like maybe it'll inspire others. Well, Annex Cat Rescue, I volunteered at Annex Cat Rescue. West End, right? Many years. Well, actually, most of our colonies are now in the East End. They started, Annex Cat Rescue, I volunteered at Annex Cat Rescue. West End, right? Well, actually, most of our colonies are now in the East End. They started in Annex, it's 21 years.

I'm currently serving, I'm humbled to serve as chair of the board right now. Oh, wow. And coming to the end of my period of that. But, you know, it's like there's a lot of homeless cats in the city city and it's a very solvable problem and the problem the key problem is that people don't regard cats with the same sense of stewardship that they regard dogs if you're walking down the street and you see a cat walking you're like oh there's a cat right and you don't think anything more about it if you saw a dog you'd be oh my god is he lost oh oh spot come here let me see if you've got a collar on and uh and it's just not acceptable it's because dogs have more personality. I think this is not the case.

I think that people who say that don't know cats. You probably never owned a cat. I've never owned a cat. So there you go. That's why you say it. Right. Now, a possible solution, I'm really just spitballing here. I know it's live and all, but what if we ate these cats?

Could we solve some hunger problems? And maybe, I'm just kidding. I see. You're just, that's a joke. That's just too obvious. live and all but what if we ate these cats like could we solve some hunger problems and maybe i'm just kidding i see you're just that's a joke that's just too obvious to answer uh steve's excellent question uh of all those jobs you've had and tiff is out of the running because you might pick it because you have it now maybe you're living in the present day that's a good thing but like did you have a favorite gig in your lifetime that you no longer have now? Well, you know, I mean, I don't want to give a lame answer because I mean, the truth that matter is, is that, you know, all of these different things that I've done have satisfied different aspects of my personality.

There's no question about it. But I mean, if push really comes to shove, probably the radio just because of its time. I mean, it was really an innovative thing. Nobody was doing live radio in front of an audience at that time. Um, and we got everybody, like I spoke to, I was paid to speak to really interesting, mostly really interesting people. Um, you know, and, and, and some of them were just like passion projects. Some of them were people that never had big hit records. But I just thought were really cool. And we're talking about.

I know you're hesitant to name drop here. But if I beg you kindly here, because we'll close here with the live in Toronto thing before we go here. But, you know, play a song from Shakespeare, my bud. Because that's how I roll here. But when they played a live at my event, they changed the words to, from Rosie and Grave, they changed it to, I want to take a streetcar downtown,

listen to Toronto Mike and wander around, drink some Great Lakes from a tin instead of Guinness from a tin. It was really cool. So any artists you can shout out that you interviewed on Live in Toronto that were, maybe they weren't uh as famous as they should have been like and i'm looking for people like that were amazing that you love

talking to but maybe didn't quite hit the way they should have been a just world oh gosh i wish i had some time to think about this because of course yet an hour kim there's an hour an hour to think about coming here to manitoba and you read a book instead What book did you read that was better than thinking about this? I'm rereading a book by a fabulous author by the name of Jill Frane about finding herself. Who was, oh, this is awful.

This is awful. And you can always do the opposite, which would be easier, which is super famous person. You're like, why? This music, this guy's not that interesting. This music's not that great.

Why the hell is this person so famous? I mean, well, that's the thing. Like musicians would always come in one of two categories. They're either super creative and bright or like dumb as a sack of hammers. There was rarely, you know, and then sometimes they would switch. Like I only ever once threw one person off my show.

Who? And he ended up becoming a really good friend. His name is Darren Pfeiffer. He was a drummer in a group called Goldfinger. Yeah, yeah. And he was on 102.1 for a while. Yeah, and he was a cool guy and he ended up marrying a Toronto woman who was his publicist, Vicki Montgomery. And as I said... I like Goldfinger.

Yeah, they're great. Because they kept playing at edge fests I would go to. And I'd be like, I like these guys. The first time he was on my show, he was such a jackass. It was just like, just leave. Just go. I literally kicked him off the air. Oh, that's funny. And just said, just leave. Just go. I literally kicked him off the air. Oh, that's funny. And then he became a friend, so. Yeah, Superman was

one of their jams I dug. Kim. Mike. Should I have recorded that? Because it was really good. You want it ready

to do it for real now? Could you imagine? You know, I have, I always glance over here throughout the episode to make sure squiggly lines are still being produced because I have this like...

You're not a reporter if you haven't had an interview when you've gone home and put your tape recorder on. You're right, I'm not a reporter. If that hasn't happened. That's never happened. That's yet to happen, but I feel like one day it might happen. But I did have during uh speaking of uh people who wrote for newspapers bill brio do you know this name bill he used to write for

the sun as well i've never met him i know him vicariously through slow tech right so nice guy uh bill brio was over we were doing this great thing about uh tv shows that's what he writes about and uh the power went out and when when power goes out, this guy goes down. And when this guy goes down, anyways, it was, it was the closest I've come to losing stuff. And we ended up finishing that one via Skype.

Cause who knows when the power's going to come back on. Okay. Thank you for doing this. You're amazing. You sound amazing. You should be broadcasting somewhere. That's nice of you. Thank you.

You know, this is a lot of fun. I had some, I had some, I was a bit apprehensive, but, but you knew that. And now you realize you are worthy because you realize that you're of you. Thank you. You know, this is a lot of fun. I had some, I was a bit apprehensive, but you knew that. And now you realize you are worthy because you realize,

you're like, I kicked ass. I'm totally worthy. You can listen back on your ride home. Okay, I'll do that. And that brings us to the end of our 523rd show. Woo, 523. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto.

My Kim is at Hughesblog. Toronto Hughesblog. No, Hughesblog. No, Toronto Hughesblog, you should know. That's my Instagram. I don't know. On Twitter. It's all just pictures of cats anyways.

You don't tweet. It's true. But you do exist there as Hughesblog. Yeah, I don't tweet. I don't do tweets. I'm going to tweet this at you and you'll never get it, I guess. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Again, put in your calendar, please. December 7th at noon. Come to Palma's Kitchen. StickerU is at StickerU. Brian Master, you can write him at letsgetyouhome at kw.com to get on his mailing list. Capadia LLP is

at Capadia LLP and Pumpkins After Dark are at pumpkinsafterdark.com to get on his mailing list. Kapadia LLP is at kapadiallp and Pumpkins After Dark are at pumpkinsafterdark.com. See you next week. I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey

Cause I know that's true Yes, I do