Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - KJ: Toronto Mike'd #172

Episode Date: May 7, 2016

Mike chats with boom 973 DJ KJ about his years on 680 CFTR as Kris James, how he ended up on boom and everything in between.

Welcome to episode 172 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is Boom 97.3 DJ KJ. How's it going KJ? There's no point. It's 97.3 DJ KJ. How's it going, KJ? There's no point. It's 97.3. Is that right? Get it right.

I'm sorry. I got in trouble because I accidentally referred to an AM station as CFRB, but apparently it's been rebranded as well. We do that a lot in random. You know, it's tough to do the DJ and then KJ. I almost tripped up on that, but I'm not the pro. You're the pro. Welcome.

Welcome. Try KJ the DJ. KJ the DJ. That flows a little easier. Right off the bat, when I'm already upset with you because I'm trying to promote this episode by tweeting at you and you're not on Twitter. I knew you were going to bring this up. Yeah, I tweet on the Boom Twitter.

Okay. So I'm on there, you know, tweeting every day. Do I need my own personal one? Yeah, even if you don't tweet from it, if you have it, at least we can tag you on things. I understand that. And also, too, I think pretty much every announcer in the world is on Twitter, except for whatever reason I'm not on it. But, you know, I'm on Facebook. I do the texting thing. You know. Okay, I'm on Facebook. I do the texting thing.

You know. Okay, I'll get a Twitter account. Leave me alone. Okay. I can tell you this. Rick Hodge has no interest in Twitter, but he has a Twitter account. He tells me he never tweets from it,

but at least it's there and he owns it, and then you can kind of... Oh, I know people that love it, but I don't really go on Twitter all that often, although I'm on it every single day at work. I know that doesn't make sense, but if I'm not working, I don't think go on Twitter all that often, although I'm on it every single day at work. I know that doesn't make sense, but if I'm not working, I don't think I ever work at it. So if nothing else is accomplished in this interview,

at least you've promised me you're going to go on Twitter. Did I promise? I think so. I recorded this. You did? This is being recorded. God! I should have mentioned that off the top.

I apologize. The microphones, okay. We had a brief chat, but just, yeah, you've got to be right on these things, and you're such a pro you're going to drift off as we talk. No, no. I'll go right on it. That's better. There you go.

Thank you. A long time ago, I used to get chastised by one particular listener who felt when I told a guest to get on the mic, it was a power move. Like I'm asserting some authority over you. So I don't want you to feel like I'm asserting any power. I just want this to sound good. Just do your thing. Hey, my first question, and then I got some topical things I need to mention off the top, but I need to ask you, you're KJ, but I remember you as Chris James. So when did Chris James, Chris with a K, obviously, become KJ? I'm not quite sure, but I think a program director somewhere along the line said, obviously, become KJ. I'm not quite sure, but I think a program director

somewhere along the line said, you're now KJ. We're going to go with KJ. I remember when I left, I can't remember where I was, but I was going to go work for Easy Rock, and I said, I'll be so glad not to be KJ. And he said, not so fast.

I was Brian DePoe. So for whatever reason, it works. But it's Chris James, KJ. KJ works. But I wonder, because I didn't know this for the longest time myself, how many people out there don't realize KJ is Chris James? Well, you know, that actually has come up. So every now and then I'll say it's KJ, Chris James.

Because basically you build up this legacy in the city, and then you're like, that was easy. I'll do it again.J, Chris James. Because basically, you build up this legacy in the city, and then you're like, that was easy, I'll do it again. I'll start again. Well, next week, I'm going to be Bob somebody. We'll see how that works out. See if you can do it three times.

Oh, I got a tune for this. Let me see if this brings us back here. By the way, in the mid-90s, I pick up this disc at Sam the Record Man called MTV Buzz Bins, and it's got all this cool stuff on it. It had Cranberry Zombie, and it had Plush by Stone Temple Pilots, and it had, what else was on there?

Radio Heads Creep? Like this good stuff I liked. And it had this cut, and it's like, this is Danzig's mother. And it's just, it was the last cut on the album, and I'm like, I never knew what a Danzig was at the time, but this tune was great. I loved it.

I like the voice. Danzig. And I play it because I have to say a sincere happy Mother's Day to all the moms listening in Toronto Mike Land, but also to the wonderful mother that my first two children have and the wonderful mother

my third and fourth children have. She's upstairs right now. Yeah, she's the one upstairs. She was the one holding the baby when I came in. That's right. And also to... Didn't you just have a baby? Yeah, so that the one upstairs. She was the one holding the baby when I came in. That's right. Didn't you just have a baby? So that baby is fresh. A fresh baby. What smells better than a fresh baby?

Maybe a new car. Close. Maybe a little close, but I can tell you why they smell so good. They don't eat anything but breast milk. I think we all stink because of the crap we eat. And a baby's got one thing in their diet. You may be onto something, but babies do smell good.

Because even their craps, and like I've been through this four times, the newborn craps, like I call them the mustard seed craps, they're like bright yellow. I can tell you, it's almost a pleasant odor. Are you serious? I am serious right now. It's almost a pleasant odor. So you've actually had am serious right now. It's almost a pleasant odor. So you've actually had a whiff and said, you know, that's not so bad. Correct.

Cool. Because once you introduce solids to the diet, the bowel movements, that's the term I'm looking for. The bowel movements change and then you never want to smell it again. You know, I've had a few kids and I've never once thought of any of this. It's never occurred to me. I never thought, hey, that smells kind of fresh. That mustard's not so bad. It makes you a little hungry. Never even thought of hey, that smells kind of fresh. That mustard's not so bad. It makes you a little hungry. Never even thought of it.

Maybe I'm sorry about it. But now I know. How many kids do you have? Three. Nice. And what age? It runs the gamut. It's all over the place. Well, mine runs the gamut, too. I have a 23-year-old at home. I have a 25-year-old daughter and a

26-year-old son who just got back from Tokyo. And when he left, he Facebooked me from the airport and said, I'll be, you know, we'll Skype and do everything and I'll let you know when I land. Of course, he gets there and he can't get online for whatever reason. And then he said to me later, I don't even know your email address. What's so hard about KJ at Boom973.com? I figured it out. Yeah, anybody could figure it out.

But I didn't hear from him the whole time he was there. Wow. And my mind was racing, and this is the thing you do with your kids if you're... But that's not nice. He should show you the courtesy of somehow getting to an internet cafe and saying... Little bastard never once tried to get a hold of me, but eventually when he was at

LAX, and he said, hey dad, I'm fine, and the weight of the world went off my shoulders. Yeah, that's a long way, Tokyo. That never goes away, that, with your kids. I bet. I bet. Like, if my kid goes away to camp for three weeks, I might not hear from him, but I don't

quite like it, but I know I'm not going to hear from him for three weeks, but that's not Tokyo, you know? This is like, it's still Ontario. Well, not only that, but what do you say to a 26-year-old kid? Make sure you phone me. That's right. You know, maybe if I get around to it, I'll give you a call, Dad. So I hope I remember to say happy Mother's Day to my mother,

who just bought a new laptop from Dell, and already she's telling me the S key is sticking. So fresh from the Dell oven and already an S issue. My mother killed me. She's no longer with us, but happy Mother's Day. My mother, her computer at home, I went on it once, and it was just knitting sites and gambling sites. Oh, and gambling.

That's all she did. That's funny. How to knit, and let's roll some dice. A couple of good passion projects. Yeah, that was what she was into. Do you follow basketball at all? Not really. Although, I mean, how could

you not watch the Raptors in this series with Miami and the one before that with the Pacers? How about Kyle Lowry's half-court? I mean, come on. That's pretty exciting stuff. See, if they had won that game in overtime, that would be right up there, like in the Toronto sport legend. Forever and ever. Forever. But losing in overtime takes all would be right up there, like in the Toronto sport legend.

Forever and ever. Forever. But losing in overtime takes all the shine away. Like Joe Carter. Boom, and his home run. Can't give him that. But close. Really close. Close to the bat flip.

Because the Joe Carter homer clinches the championship. This is game one of the second round, so you can't quite get that. That's true. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite as important a game, but it was still very cool. But it's all for naught because we didn't score in overtime, which I noticed in the second game's overtime, the Heat didn't score. It seemed like we took turns. I don't know what's going on in basketball.

I don't really follow it. I like hockey. Oh, yeah? But are you watching? Of course. A lot of Canadians are not watching this. Oh, come on. It's playoffs. It's pretty exciting. I'm watching.

But I may not know what's going on, but I know when they win because everybody's freaking out. I fell asleep. End of the second overtime, I fell asleep, and there was a triple overtime game the other night. It was San Jose Predators, and Nashville won in the third overtime. I'll give you an example. If the Leafs are playing the first game of the season and say the Raptors were playing for the whatever. NBA championship. Whatever they call that.

I'd probably go over and check out the Leafs. Okay. See how they look. Okay. You know, come back and just take a quick gander at the Raptors and then back to the Leafs again. I'm into hockey. That's fair. You're not a basketball. That's fair. Because my son, my 14-year- a quick gander at the Raptors. And then back to the Leafs again. I'm into hockey. That's fair. You're not a basketball.

That's fair. Because my son, my 14-year-old, he's such a puck head. I'm a big, I like Jays, Raptors, and Leafs. And then I wait them. Like right now, for example, it would be Raptors because it's playoffs and then Jays. But I think it was like late September. We were in a pennant race, the Blue Jays, and there was a huge series against the Yankees. And I went to one of the games at the Dome.

I was at a game at the Dome. So my 14-year-old was home with my wife. And this is when that Blue Jay fever was like, we were all like sweating with this Blue Jay fever. And my wife tells me my son sat and watched a Maple Leaf preseason game. He's a puck head. Yeah, he's a puck head.

And I told him, I said, and he's like, Dad, I don't like baseball. Like basically, he only watches baseball when I make him watch with me. But he will watch highlights of hockey before he'll watch a Blue Jay game. I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, and my grandfather listened to the Detroit Tigers on the radio. So that's Ernie Harwell, George Hill. And boy, that guy could paint a picture. So there's a bit of a romance with baseball

when you're listening to Ernie Harwell. I could listen all day. Yeah, I heard a bit of him and he was fantastic. Unbelievable. Yeah, yeah. And my Ernie was Tom Cheek. Tom Cheek was fantastic. Touch them all, Joe.

Touch them all, Joe. The beer in front of you, I don't want you to think I'm sending you a message by giving you a beer that includes pompous ass. But I've been told you're not a pompous ass, actually. Oh, really? But this beer goes home with you. Oh, well, it is.

It's called Pompous Ass English Ale. Very nice. I'll take that with me. We'll put that in the trunk. Yeah, don't crack it open on the drive. Stick that in the trunk. No, I wouldn't do that. At least one guest of the show is an OPP officer, so I want to make sure he knows.

KJ is not going to drink that. It'll be in the trunk, secured. And there's also winter ale, too. There's a bottle of winter ale. Do I get this as well? Yeah. Wow, that's very cool. Thank you.

I'm glad I came. You know, somebody recently, I won't out them because I thought it was cute. So during the show, I do this little presentation where, hey, that beer goes home with you. And after the show, this person was shocked to realize it's true. It's true. Like, they thought it was just a prop. And I was like, at the end of the show, I'm like, oh, I just say that. Well, you don't think we mean for you to have this, do you?

That's there. It sits there for every guest. Why do you think I came? When you contacted me, you said there's beer. And I said you had me at beer. See, I wish it was always that easy. I'm trying to get, Do you know Bob McCowan? I'm certainly well aware of Bob McCowan. Aware, yes. See, I have been in discussions with his producer because it's hard for me to... So you don't get a direct talk. You can't talk to Bob.

You have to talk to his producer. I tried talking to Bob and I got nothing. Silence, okay? So now I'm talking to his producer. You're not on his radar, Mike. What can I tell you? But the producer, who's a great guy, a great guy who's actually

pitching on my behalf and putting this in front of Bob, who is warming up to the idea. He's not eager to make the drive like you did. I don't know why because I think he'd be perfect on this show.

Bob's one of those guys who does what he wants. I like Bob on the air a lot. I mean, Bob's one of the few guys who can go on the air in a pissy mood, be cranky, and still be totally listenable,

you know? Yeah, because I think his curmudgeon act, I think we're all in on it. Like, he's sort of like a curmudgeon with a smirk. Like, he's sort of, it's sort of like, you know, it's sort of a persona, if you will. I don't think he's... Hey, Bob McCown, about as good as it gets. As good as it gets. Hey, speaking of as good as it gets, it would be great

if people went to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike, or just click over, I have big be great if people went to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike or just click over. I have big orange buttons on torontomike.com to crowdfund this podcast. So on this front, and this is all

a great experiment. I'm in the Wild West here trying the crowdfunding as a guy who doesn't have a name brand from Terrestrial Radio. Are you begging for money right now?

Pretty much. Okay. But I have to point out, I have to say, things have cooled down on this front. You know how it is. You launch sort of a Patreon thing, and there's some momentum there, but it's cooled down to a point where...

So is this just going to go off in the middle of the interview somewhere because the money ran out? If nobody pledges during this next hour... You're asking for pledges? That's hilarious. Call now. Let's keep KJ on the air. Like Goldie. Goldie from WNED.

What was her last name? I have no idea. Goldie. Yeah. She was a long, yeah, that anyway, she was always begging me for money when I was trying to watch like Sesame Street or something like that.

So things have cooled down on that front. So I'm trying to shake my fist really hard that I need people to crowdfund Toronto White. Good luck with that. All right, let's talk. I mean that. Good luck. I didn't see you open your wallet there. I didn't come with it.

You're only here for the beer. But I'm still taking the beer. You're right. So, KJ, I want to hear how you start in radio, but I'm anxious to get you to 680 CFTR because, and I'll say this off the top, that was my station in the mid off the top, that was my station in the mid-80s. That was my

station, and I woke up to Tom Rivers and we'll dive in. When we get to the CFTR part, obviously we're going to talk a lot about Boom and everything, but we're going to get to the CFTR part. I have a lot of annoying questions. Is that okay? Sure, whatever. You promise not to walk away if I get annoying? No.

So how do you end up in broadcasting and basically help get yourself to CFTR so we can get there? I just remember being a kid that listened to the transistor radio in bed at night. I would listen to WLS and whatever other station, WoWo and Fort Indiana, WoWo Radio and Fort Indiana. And I would listen on my transistor and then the battery would start to die down. I had to learn to live with the batteries that I was given for a certain amount of time, because otherwise I'd want batteries every day. So I would listen in bed, and once the radio cacked out,

I'd shut it off, go to sleep for about 40 minutes, then wake up, and I'd get another 20 minutes of radio. And I did this all night until it was time to wake up. And this is Sault Ste. Marie. Yeah, it was in the Sault. And I had a cousin who said to me one day, it was my mother's sister's son, and he said, guess what I've been doing? What have you been up to? I've been on the radio. Really? You have my undivided attention. What's that like? He goes, oh man, all I got to say is

I'm hungry and someone brings me food. Get out of here. And chicks. And it was just like, are you kidding? So that I was pretty fascinated with that. And then I started listening. He had a friend who worked at the local radio station in the Sioux and I was a total fan boy. And hey, how are you, man? I heard you on the air last night. I was just mesmerized by it. I was the kid with the with the, walking around, talking into it, and all that sort of thing. My father went to Brantford, Ontario, Mohawk College. He quit his job at the steel plant and went to Mohawk College. And he was gone for quite a while. I'd get letters. I have letters from my father. He'd write me nice long letters. And I would say,

are you listening to the radio? Because I was fascinated by it. And I remember he came home and for a visit and I couldn't wait to get a minute with him. Right. I mean, I just waited and waited. Finally I got a minute with him and I said, Hey dad, what's it like down there on the radio? My father lights a cigarette, looks off and says, Oh son, they're so good. I exploded. I mean, he knew how to, you know, push the dream. It was like, no way, they're that good? Oh, yeah, fantastic. Oh, I got to get into, you know,

so that was totally right from the beginning. No, I love that story. And a lot of people, that whole transistor, I can relate to it because I had the transistor radio and actually we talked about Tom Cheek. A lot of my nights, I'm listening to Tom and Jerry until that's done, and then I'm starting to kind of, I liked it when I could pick up something from like Cleveland or like just.

Oh, that was part of the fun. Yeah, and it was just on the, usually the AM band, and you just kind of roll it slowly until you get a signal and you listen in. And I loved those transistor radios. We'd fade in and fade out. If you were lucky, you'd catch a couple of breaks. Yeah, it was great. It wasn't so much I didn't really care about the songs.

I mean, I liked the songs. But let's hear the jock do an intro. Right. Yes. And then, so it's great to hear, like, that you just knew that's what you wanted to do. But so many of us, like, I can tell the same story, except the difference between your story and my story

is you do it. Like, you end up on the radio. I've certainly not cut out for much else, to be honest with you. I can't imagine. I remember one time I had a job before I got into radio. Radio was pretty much all I've ever done. But I had a job when I was 15 once working at a store. And a friend of mine drove by, parked, looked up at me.

I was on a ladder cleaning a window or something. He said, hey, man, I'm going to the beach. You want to come? I climbed down, got in the car and went. None of it mattered to me. I just wanted to be on the radio. And what was the first station you got on? CJIC in Sioux St. Mary. I worked local radio in the Sioux. So how do you end up at CFTR? Well, you know, you just put in the time and then I went to North Bay and then I went to Sarnia and then I went to London,

Windsor, and then Toronto. So in this whole put in the time theme, a lot of, you know, you hear this, it's almost like

going to AAA. You've got to be a bison before you can be a blue jay. Just trying to get to the bigs. Right. Yeah, exactly. But then, there's a new phenomenon

I've detected from young radio people who, they want to start in Toronto. I've seen that happen. Absolutely. There's exceptions here and there've detected from young radio people who they want to start in Toronto. I've seen that happen. There's exceptions here and there where people who started in Toronto and you start big. But typically, you have to kind of put your reps in. And back in the day, the only way, I mean, nowadays, I suppose you could do what I'm doing, right?

But back in the day, you had to go to somewhere like North Bay or to Susie Marie. I'd go wherever they were. It really wasn't about money because there was none. I remember once I was, I think it was up to $750 a month and I took a job in Sarnia for $600. What's the difference? $600, $750, I mean,

come on, I'm starving, I have no money, and I live in a hovel with 10 other DJs. So it's like you just go and do it. So was it always your goal to go to Toronto? Like was that the goal? Yeah. The biggest market in the country? Right. Toronto. I remember I came for a

visit to Toronto. Went to Brantford. Drove through Toronto. And it was just electric. I've always wanted to I wanted to work here. So is it quite simply that you would apply to everything or just you would just phone? What do you do? You hammer the phones? What do you do?

Yeah. Sometimes it's guys you work with. I think I worked with a guy, a couple of guys in different cities that ended up in Toronto and they'd say, oh, I know this guy. It's just connections. And actually more than anything else, it's, you know, if you're any good. That has a lot to do with it, I find. Yeah.

That's probably a good thing too for us who have to listen to you. Hey, listen, he's a great guy. Kind of sucks on the air, but he's a good guy. Well, then let's hire him. It doesn't work. Okay, so now tell me the story of how you ended up specifically at 680 CFTR. I was in London, Ontario, and I went to work in Windsor at a station called CKLW. That was a big thrill for me. It was basically a Detroit station. I was very, very happy to be there. Some terrific announcers, but I wanted to work in Toronto and something, an opportunity came up. So I, you know,

absolutely went after it. What year? I don't remember really. I think it was 1984, if I'm not mistaken. Sandy Sanderson hired me at CFTR. Yeah, so my sweet spot for 680 CFTR is like 85 to 89 kind of deal. It's like when I'm kind of... It was a great radio station.

Can you tell me everything you can about... Actually, you know what? Before you dive into the CFTR, I'm going to sound like a real fanboy here, but hey, what else is this podcast but a fanboy talking to guys like you? So I'm going to play a clip of you on CFTR. This is a short clip of you on CFTR.

How the hell did you get this? Actually, this I got from YouTube. So this is out there. But here's a KJ, Chris James, as he was known at the time, soundcheck from CFTR. Let's hear this. Offer in. Sit down. CFTR. Let's hear this. Offer ends at 5.

CFTR! Hang in there. Silver's along with a 68-second news update. In a few minutes, we also have a traffic update with Daryl and Russ. Stevie B, Debbie Gibson, Tom Petty, and the Doobie Brothers are on the way. And the top 6-6 countdown.

You can vote at 872-HITS. Barney Bentle at CFTR. All the way at St 6 countdown, you can vote at 872-HITS. Barney Bentel at CFTR. All the way up to Sturgeon. We have to hear a little 68-second news break here. CFTR 68-second news break. I'm Larry Silver. That's a trip. The Doobie Brothers.

It's amazing the Doobie Brothers found their way back on to Top 40 Radio in the mid-'80s. They're at the Molson Amphitheater in June with Journey, yeah I'm still playing that stuff, by the way Yeah, you are, you're playing a lot of that stuff and we'll get to this for sure Boom, but I gotta tell you when I'm in the car, especially

because that's my main terrestrial radio time Boom, if I go to Boom, I'm gonna hear something that I'm gonna find, and I'm gonna end up hearing myself and my kids are gonna be embarrassed by the fact i'm gonna sing along at the top of my lungs like it's really just you're gonna hear death leopard you're gonna hear journey yeah yeah and it's and we're gonna yeah i'm gonna save my boom stuff because i'm i gotta i can't change channels i'm stuck on 680 cftr so um that was you and when i played that on the last episode i did i actually as a teaser for this episode,

I played that clip. And it's like a time machine, man. That's how radio sounded to me as a kid, just like that. I don't even know if it's any different now on Boom. I mean, we just do what we do what we do. Yeah, but, yeah, Boom's doing a great job at doing what you do.

Do be brothers. How's that? Not bad. No, that's why. why oh i just remembered why i never ended up in radio hey i'm sure you would have been fine yeah yeah um there's so i have so many cftr questions but when i was doing my youtube when i was trying to hear stuff of you back in the mid 80s and stuff i came across this like it's a couple of minutes long but it was a really nice encapsulation of cftr in the

mid to late 80s so if you don't mind i'm gonna play it in its entirety and then we're gonna dive into this rabbit hole so this is cftr then um i got a bunch of questions about this clip now this is a podcast so people can't see it but the visuals for this are fantastic because it's so 80s it's just great to go down memory lane. But here's CFTR. Have you got a minute? Have you got 30 seconds? Well, let us tell you where you can put it.

Time to give up. Let's do it. Here with All Hit Radio, Tom Rivers, Larry Bedorek at 29 after 6-6-29. Come on, stretch, give a big yawn, face the day. It's November deuce. All hit radio 680 CFTR. Here's Paul Abdul from 680 CFTR. All hit radio 680 CFTR. There's Peter Turner.

680 CFTR. That is Andy Cash. And what am I going to do with these hands? Crying out loud for love. 680 CFTR is all hit radio in Toronto. All hits, all the time. Mr. Bedour, is it true Thursday morning you're giving away $10,000? Oh, that's right. Contest and promotions send a sizzle through the airwaves.

Somebody's going to win $5,000 Thursday morning at 7.15 on CFTR. It might as well be you. A lot of visuals going on here. That was a corporate thing I think sales had done to play for clients to try and sell the station. Can I ask about the voiceover guy? This is the CFTR voiceover guy. This is Optimus Prime, right? Yeah. I don't know who it is? This is the CFTR voiceover guy. This is Optimus Prime, right? Yeah.

I don't know who it is, but yeah, he had some balls, that's for sure. Every time I heard him, and yeah, he was like the voice, and I guess we'll talk when

they went to All News or whatever, I think he kept going with the station as the imaging guy or whatever. I think so, yeah. But I'm pretty sure, and I should have

Googled this to find out, but here it is. Not just any Tom Dick Dick, or Larry. How's that traffic this morning out of Buttonville? Here's Russ Holden. All these fields out of you. He's still doing it, right? Traffic helicopters and guys in helicopters.

That's pretty big time. Yeah. Sports traffic and more next at 7. Chief Bill McCormick visited Colleen Lewis yesterday. She is the mother of... Yeah, we're going to talk about all these cats in a minute here. Middays with Steve Gregory. 680 CFTR with Steve Gregory

and you Rhythmics are coming to town. I work with Steve in the suit. Wow. You can hear them right after these. Evenings with Chris James. This is Kix.

Don't close your eyes. What do you think? Is it smash or trash? Listen to it. And then call me at 72 CFTR. All that stuff. Afternoon Drive with Jesse Dillon and Gene Valaitis. Jesse and Gene, Is it smash or trash? Listen to it. And then call me at 72-C-F-T-R.

Afternoon Drive with Jesse Dillon and Gene Valaitis. Jesse and Gene, and by the way, we already apologized for anything they may have said to offend you. I said we're calling the mayor of Baltimore. But I'm not too sad. That must have been 89 when the Jays in Baltimore were in the pennant race, I think. Is this thing ever ending? No, I know.

It goes on forever. High five. I'm enjoying it. That's what matters pen race, I think. Does this thing ever end? No, I know. It goes on forever. High five. I'm enjoying it. That's what matters. Here, I'll wind it down. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that this voiceover guy is about to say, Autobots, roll out. Yeah, you don't necessarily have to have a big, deep voice anymore.

I mean, creativity is more a thing. But yeah, he was one of those guys. You're right. Nowadays, I hear a lot of voiceover. They do the slacker thing, where it's almost like the opposite of that, where it's like, I don't give a shit what I sound like. Let's start with Jack. Yeah, Jack. Howard Cogan. Blame Jack for that one. You're right. It is a Jack thing. We don't give a shit what you want to hear.

We're going to play what we want. Screw you. If you don't like it, go buy an iPod. Change the channel. We dare you. I never got that, but you. If you don't like it, go buy an iPod. Change the channel. We dare you. I never got that. I think that's like out of a textbook for psychology where it's if you just tell people you don't give a shit, but if they listen, they're going to want to listen. I guess. If you tell people to listen, they're gone.

Yeah. All right. Let me start with some questions. First of all, I heard the Jesse and Gene in that clip, but you were the afternoon drive guy until they came, right? You know what? Honestly, Mike, I don't remember how that whole thing unfolded. You're lucky I remember.

Good. I'm glad. But I think I did middays for a while, then I did drive, and then I did middays again, and maybe weekends. I'm not quite sure. See, I think you're doing middays, and then you're doing drive, and then Jesse and Gene, they come over from Q107. Yeah, I remember that, too. That was the big thing.

Because I used to listen to them a bit on Q. And one of their bits they did is they always made fun of AM radio. This was like one of their things. And then, of course, they move over to AM radio. Hey, listen. I think they were getting ready to do the morning show. Yes. And that was a really difficult time with Rivers

because you knew that he was going out. Yeah, that's right. They took over for Rivers on the morning. So yeah, they came into the afternoons and then moved. So when they come in and do the afternoons... But I don't know if Rivers left on his own accord or what. Okay, so... All that stuff is fuzzy.

Do you... What kind of guy was Tom tom rivers he was a good guy he was a great guy he's a great big guy uh he was an interesting cat i like tom he you know tom could be overbearing rude in your face and then turn around and and do something incredibly nice so he was a contrary he was a walking contradiction i remember one time i came to work and there was a walking contradiction. I remember one time I came to work and there was an axe stuck right into my mailbox with a note. He was pissed at me for something, and that's how he delivered the message. He was a unique guy. I distinctly remember I saw a commercial on TV.

See, when I listened to him, I had no idea what he looked like. Today, we all know what DJs look like. We didn't have a clue. We just heard a voice and then we painted a picture in our head. And I don't remember what I painted, but the picture I had

of Tom Rivers, then I saw an ad on TV. Let me guess, it was nothing like the one you thought of. It was nothing like... Well, it never is. It never is.

And it's so remarkable that I had painted this whole picture of Tom Rivers, the voice I woke up to every morning. And then he was on this commercial.

I'm like, oh, that's what Tom Rivers looks like. I'm pretty sure you thought he was 10 feet tall, bulletproof, fine hair. A bit more Don Draper, I think. Yes. Because that voice was great.

Yeah. So I actually had lunch with a guy yesterday who worked at TV Ontario for 20 years in the 80s. Well, for 20 years. 70s through the 90s. But Tom Rivers had done some work at TVO and I actually asked him this question. Tell me what, I can't have Tom Rivers on this podcast, unfortunately. So now I, anyone who's worked with Tom Rivers, I'm just curious what kind of guy he was.

Super creative. I mean, Tom basically did his show alone. Every once in a while there was somebody with him. I remember Larry Fedorek was in there with him. He would just grab whoever was around. I mean, I remember Evelyn Macko being in on bits, his producer Doug being in on bits. He was just a creative guy who had a great time on the radio. He loved it. I mean, he did some pretty outrageous stuff. I remember once he did a bit where he walks into McDonald's and he wasn't happy with his order. So he pulls out an Uzi and, you know, shoots everybody. A couple of days later, you heard him on the air. I'm sorry.

I apologize. He was outrageous. Yeah. And I remember things like, and this is all off the top of my head. When I was young, I just remember like, was it Super Chicken? What was the chicken? Okay. There was an ongoing cereal bit that would play in the mornings.

There's been an awful lot of this, so I don't remember. He's holding the Great Lakes beer, everybody. Yeah, that's great. So Tom Rivers and Bill Hayes was there, right? This is Bill Hayes. I worked with Bill in London, Ontario at CKSL, and Bill came into the radio station and he had Toronto experience. And of course, Bill had the greatest laugh, you know, of all time. He could screw up and then, it was funny. He was terrific. And another reason, one of the guys that I knew, because he went back to CFTR, and when I was in Windsor,

it's like he vouched for me. Oh, yeah. Steve Gregory, oh, yeah, I know him. Good to know people, that's for sure. His son, of course, is on the air. He has a show on 1050. Brian. Oh, yeah, I know him. Good to know people. That's for sure. His son, of course, is on the air. He has a show on 1050. Brian. Brian, yeah.

Fantastic. And people don't know, his brother is John Derringer. I worked with John. Well, I didn't work with him, but I worked in Sarnia when John was in Sarnia. And you kind of knew that John was going to be a superstar. He has done quite well for himself, hasn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he's done okay.

I think he got the last big 10-year deal that exists in the radio industry. I think I heard a little something about that. You never know what's true. What have you heard about that? That's a fiction? You dig for dirt, don't you? I don't know. I just heard it was good.

I heard he's doing okay and he doesn't have to drain the pool, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I've heard similar things like that. What about, okay, the recently retired Mike Cooper? Wow, Cooper. I'm saying. Yeah, I've heard similar things like that. What about, okay, the recently retired Mike Cooper? Wow, Cooper. I loved Cooper. Cooper was interesting. I remember I went in once, I was brand new there, and I walked into a studio that he was in doing a show, and I said, oh, Mike, I've got this great idea for a bit, and he said, oh, yeah, tell me about it. So I told him. Then he turned around, turned the mic on, looked me in the eye, and did my bit. He said, hey, don't ever do that again, kid. Yeah, good, good, good, good advice. You learned a lesson.

Yeah, so Mike Cooper was great. Larger than life. Mike Cooper. Yeah, I mean, that's so recent, that retirement. It was 2016, I think. Hey, listen, if you can have half the career, you're doing okay. And it's always nice in radio when you can say goodbye. Like, you know, leave on your own. And it's always nice in radio when you can say goodbye.

Like, you know, leave on your own terms. Yeah, that doesn't happen very often. Like him and Don Daynard, you know, Daynard riding out of the Sheraton on a horse. That's right. It doesn't happen very often. They send him off quite nice. Well, now we know the common denominator there is Aaron Davis. So that's the trick, right?

To get to say goodbye, you have to work with Aaron Davis. I worked with Aaron in Windsor. Oh, yeah? She was just a kid. Brand new. She did the news there. I don't think she even quite got what CKLW was, but I think they gave her an offer,

and she's like, I got to go work there. And she was great then. Did you ever hear my episode with Aaron Davis? No, I haven't. I put you on the spot there. Yeah. You could have lied to me. I would have let it go. I haven't heard it, though. Davis. No, I haven't. See, I put you on the spot there. Yeah. You could have lied to me. I would have let it go.

Well, I haven't heard it, though. No. No. I'm sorry, I haven't heard all the episodes. That's my test, though. Now I know I can trust you because you didn't lie to me. I'm not going to lie.

No, I haven't heard it, but I've certainly heard Aaron on the air for years and years. Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's with Darren B. Lamb now. That's the new co-host on CHFI. Oh, I'm not supposed to talk about other competitors.

No, it's good. So Steve Gregory, you mentioned you work with him and the Sioux. Is that right? So he's one of the guys you knew? He was one of those guys trying to make it

and the Sioux was one of the spots that he ended up in. I think he was in Espanola before he went to Sioux St. Marie. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, ask him about Esplanola raining. No, I will. I'm going to pull that clip. Are you If you ever get a chance to talk to him, ask him about Esplanola Rainy.

No, I will. I'm going to pull that clip. Are you kidding me? Okay, here's a guy I grew up listening to, always liked what he did. I always got like a, well, now I would compare it to what like Larry King did. It's kind of that kind of a thing.

And I always felt he was, like, I don't know where he is today, but I know that he seemed to leave this market too early. I felt like we were missing the guy. I really liked his stuff. But Dick Smythe. What kind of guy was Dick Smythe? Oh, an interesting guy. I mean, Dick was a superstar.

He was so unique. The greatest thing about Dick was just watching him do it because it was all hands and spit flying everywhere. And, you know, like he would use his head to make a point. He was incredible. At some point, there was some partnership between the news station 680, because he stayed on,

and CFMT. And there was a period of time where I could see on CFMT, which I remember it was Channel 4. Oh, yeah. The news people did 68 Second News. Right. I think Evelyn Macko.

Sue Scambatti. Yes. And I remember, and I got to see Dick Smythe deliver his, whatever, his rant, not rant or whatever, his commentary. I wonder if he told it down for television. You think so?

Because on the air, listen, hey, I filled in for Rivers once. Yeah. And Dick Smythe did the news in another room. You could see him through the glass. And then when I was done after three days or whatever, I went in and I said, hey, listen, you won't have me to kick around anymore.

He didn't know what the hell I was talking about. I said, well, Rivers, he'll be coming back. He had no idea Rivers wasn't there. So, you know, he did his own thing. He was an island unto himself. Gotcha. So also in the news department at that time, Larry Silver, who we heard a little bit of

in that first clip. He's doing a 68-second news break. He's one of the greats. Keep going. You're throwing out big names. Well, Evelyn Macko. The queen. So correct me, Evelyn, she's not on the greats. Keep going. You're throwing out big names. Well, Evelyn Macko. The queen. So, correct me,

Evelyn, I don't, she's not on the radio right now, right? No. I don't think so. Because she, yeah, I remember now that actually there was

But she was down the hall at News Talk 1010. Right. Not CFRB. Don't call CFRB. She was down the hall at News Talk 1010. I'll get notes.

When I was down the hall at Easy Rock and then boom. Right. Evelyn's been around. And that's like the, we'll get to this, but that's like Standard became Astral, and that's when that hallway had those,

that was to St. Clair. Remember, Bob McAllen tells you the business of sports, he does that under the business of radio, just to see who's paying attention. Are you serious? All right, almost there. Like, I don't remember all this stuff, just people. Inside baseball is too inside.

You just want to watch the dingers? Let's hit home runs. Oh, Batista got a hold of one yesterday. That was nice to see. Did he ever. And Pilar, they showed. Pilar, you can count on that guy, right? And just the whole team.

How about Edwin? Yeah, Edwin, he's had 201 career homers as a Blue Jay, and I think that puts him like sixth or something. Pretty exciting team. Pretty exciting team. We'll be fine. Although, Dickie, I have to say, because as we talk, I don't know, it was 4-1 when I left the game,

but Dickie's a problem. Dickie's a problem as a starter. We have a pretty good rotation, I think. Yeah, but those guys, knuckleballers, they're up, down, and all around. I mean, that's a tough life. I agree. A couple of years, they're just, you know, bah.

And then it's like all of a sudden they're back again. Well, he's 41 or something. I just think maybe we have a problem there. When he's on, though, you can't hit him. Yeah, but he's off more than he's on. Okay, then fuck him. Fuck Dickie. I like him as a man.

I'm not sure about him as a starter for this pennant-winning blue team. He's not good. He sucks, man. All right. Eric Thomas. So he goes on to be like the race line guy. Eric actually worked with Rivers in the morning at CFTR.

Very talented, very creative guy. Eric Thomas. I have a clip of the unfriendly giant. Do you remember the unfriendly giant? Now that I remember. So you don't remember The Super Chicken. Sometimes they'd be writing that thing just before they'd go on the air with it. It was a really great piece of radio.

And I remember he'd be a part of that. And I'd always say, hey, that's the race car guy. Yeah. So great. Everybody has a history. Okay. And then to close out the CFTR guys I wanted to pepper you about, these two guys were doing traffic.

I'm not going to date you or anything, but I'm like 10 years old, and these two guys are doing traffic. And now I'm like 40 years old, and I'm pretty sure they might still be doing traffic. Maybe. Russ Holden and Daryl Dahmer. Right.

You know what? I worked at CFTR for 13 years. I might have seen Daryl twice. And Russ, I don't think Russ would know me if he ran into me on the street. They were doing their own thing. They were up in a helicopter or an airplane or whatever. But the longevity is impressive because they stay. I guess, and we'll get to what happens in 1993,

but I guess all the news guys stay and then all the non-news guys have to go. Well, yeah, they became an all-news radio station, so they certainly had pretty good people to pick from. All right, so you're 9 to 2, and Jesse and Gene come in and do the afternoons, and then I guess Jesse and Gene, they take over for Tom Rivers, like you mentioned, and you don't have any insight, you don't have any dirt on, I guess they pushed Tommy out, my boy Tom Rivers? I don't remember. I just remember I'd come to work one day and, hey, it's

Jesse and Gene this time. You know what? I honestly don't remember a lot of that stuff. And I'm not trying to... You know what? I just... If you don't remember, you don't remember. That's cool. But I think Jesse and Gene, they go to do mornings. I think Tom Rivers does afternoons.

And then I think Tarzan Dan, who I coincidentally, really coincidentally, I spoke to him this week because he's in town. He doesn't live in Toronto, but he's here till May 17th, Tarzan Dan, because he's filling in for somebody on one of the Moses, Zemir, Namir, don't pronounce that Z, come on, Zoomer Radio, 740.

740, right. Is he working on that? He's doing that till May 17th. So on. Zoomer Radio, 740. AM 740, right. Is he working on that? He's doing that until May 17. So because he was in town, I was trying to get him to come by because I got Tarzan Dan. You know, he's a big guy. I remember when Tarzan came to see FTR. I parked in the same spot for a couple of years.

Guy there never spoke to me. I show up at work one day. He's got a Tarzan Dan T-shirt on. He's got Tarzan Dan things hanging on the wall. And he says to me, you know Tarzan Dan? Yes, yeah, yeah. Fucking good guy. So, you know, Dan made friends wherever he went.

I think Dan would work a grocery store. You know, he'd go in there, hey, how are you? I'm Dan. I'm Tarzan. Here's my card. Tarzan Dan. An interesting guy. i mean he's he did a ytv show for a while you know the hits list or whatever i had pj fresh pj fresh phil was

in here like two weeks ago so we went right we did a whole yeah trust me i'm too old for this pj fresh phil i like him great chat but you know unless you were a kid in the 90s, pretty much, you don't know this world of YTV. Kid in the 90s. Maybe your kids might know PJ Freshville. Probably. And they might be impressed that you're on the same show as PJ Freshville. I'll have to... If you can ever get him to email you, you ask him.

I don't know who you're talking about. Your son. You can ask your son if he was a big PJ Freshville guy. All right. Wait a second. He was on. All right. Wait a second. He was on television. On YTV. I remember him. He was fantastic.

I know Sugar Baby was on there for a long time. Worked with Sugar Baby at Kiss. Stephanie, I loved her. Yeah, Stephanie. Yeah, so it's all coming together here. It's all coming together. So Tom Rivers goes out, Tarzan Dan comes in.

Okay, so June 1st, 1993, all music personalities are let go because CFTR has decided they're going to go all news. So how did that go down? Did they put you in a room and just say, I think that there was a memo that came out and said we want all the air staff to meet over at some hotel across the street. Just tape a half hour of your show.

It won't be that long. And I had a funny feeling as we were walking over. Something's up here. I don't know what it is, but something's up. And, yeah, we were sitting in a room, table, everybody in a circle, and in walked management, and they said, gentlemen, we have decided to go in a different direction, and your services are no longer, and then they hand you the envelope, and that was that.

I think Jesse and Gene had a job by the time they got out of the elevator on the bottom floor. Right. Yeah, they probably 640 or something like that, right? They went to The Hog? Yeah, The Hog. Yeah, The Hog. I remember the trailer at the C&E. You're much better at remembering all these things than I am.

You're doing all right, man. You're right. Some guests have this encyclopedia knowledge, and they're like, the weather was 16 degrees, and it was sunny, and I remember. And sometimes, Barb DiGiulio, for example, and I'll be like, hey, you're a day one-er at the Fan 590. Like, what was going down? She doesn't remember anyone she worked with.

She doesn't remember. Like, it's just some people remember these details. Some people don't. We deal in the now, but that's all part of history. I'm here to coach you. I'm like your memory coach here. I hope I'm not disappointing you. No, you're doing great.

Good. You're doing great. So you're let go, June 1st, 1993. Yeah. So what do you do next? Well, you go home. That's probably a good thing. And you wait.

I've been fired a few times and have always been lucky to get another job. But I don't remember how that all came about. I don't even remember where I went after that. I think I ended up in Hamilton at Y95 doing an overnight show. And I think I said, have headphones, we'll travel. And I got a job. I think I was doing some fill-in work at The Mix or CKFM. I can't remember what it was. Yeah, it would be The Mix, I think, since 1990.

And then I went to Kiss as a country station. And I took that job because everybody said, don't do that. You don't want to play country. And I thought, oh, maybe I do. Okay. Well, that Y95, that was country, right? No, it was a classic rock thing Yeah, yeah I only think I did two shows there I don't remember a lot about it All right, well, Kiss 92.

So you go to these stations And then they flip formats I think they say, hey, there's KJ We're going to change things up That happens in the States a lot more I remember going to bed at night Waking up, flipping on my favorite American station and all of a sudden,

they're country. Right. Or they're polka or something like that. But yeah, it happens. It happens. So let's talk about Kiss 90, so Kiss with a C, by the way.

Kiss 92. So you're there and so tell me though, how long were you there, if you can remember, how long were you there before they get rid of country and they decide they're going to be Power 92, like a Top 40 station?

I don't know, maybe five years. And then everybody had to go meet at the Rosewater Supper Club and we're all in the elevator to go down, and someone reaches in and says, you're not going anywhere. And I thought, okay, I'm fucked. Something's up here. I didn't know that they were all going down there to wait to be told that they were flipping over to Top 40.

I guess they kept me around because they needed someone to fill in for the time being, and I ended up staying there for about five years. Wow. Here, this is a good segue. I'm going to play. This is from episode 92 of Toronto Mic'd, and this is Jay Mad Dog Michaels. Oh, Mad Dog. My friend J. And J, this is a very brief clip. He's talking about some guy named KJ.

So let's listen to Mad Dog here. Are we in late 90s here? This is 99. This is the original Kiss Morning Show. When we took over for KJ, the DJ, Chris James, who's still on Boom, who, by the way, is my favorite DJ in the city, and the guy that got me my job at Kiss, actually.

Yeah, I met him at my brother's wedding on the East Coast. And he came up to me and we became instant friends. He's like, anything going on where you're at? What's happening? And I thought, yeah. We just started this new Top 40 radio station called Kiss. So I gave his tape or mentioned his name to Julie Adam or whoever was in charge

at the time. I don't remember who it was. I think it was Julie because when I pulled that clip, I found myself listening again. It was Julie. And I remember because I was doing

the morning show and I wanted to get off it because my first question every morning is, what's cancer feel like? I mean, I just didn't enjoy doing the morning show at the time.

It's not for everybody. I was a night owl. owl. And then having to be on the air at five, are you kidding me? This is killing me. So I was really pushing for Jay to get that morning show. So I typically I'll wake up at like 730. And then my two year old recently has started waking up like quarter to seven, like something like that. Seven o'clock, quarter seven. So I get up with a two year old-old so that my wife can sleep because she's got the newborn. So I've been complaining about this crazy early wake-up time, quarter to seven, like can you imagine?

Like it's just not for me, this quarter to seven. So I cannot imagine what you morning show guys, and I have a lot of friends who do mornings, like 3.30 alarm clock things. Like are you kidding me? Like that's the time you go to bed. I've heard morning men say that they were asked, so do you ever get used to it?

Never. Never get used to it. Looking forward to retirement. It's a tough grind. It's a higher calling, I think. It's not for everybody. I guess then you have to adopt the nap, right? You have to introduce a nap.

Did you nap when you were doing mornings? Probably. Probably. Okay. Probably. I probably got off the air and went to sleep until I had to go back on the air.

All right. So, okay. So we now... And now Power 92. When does it become Kiss 92? Like were they power for like a very brief period? I think it was Power 92

at first and then there was some kind of legal thing so they had to change it but jeez, they had all these cool jackets made up that had Power 92 on it.

If you have one of those, that's a... Do you got one in your closet still? No. You know what? I never kept much. I usually ended up giving it all away. Oh. Because I want a CFTR shirt.

I was hoping you might have it. I think I might have a neon one if you want one of those. Remember that period of time? All neon. Yeah, neon was big in the 80s. It was really big in the 80s. You know, I was... It's in the bottom of my drawer somewhere. I was working the C&E

as a 15-year-old when I was 16 and 17. There was a game booth I worked, and it had a microphone. This is the closest I ever came to radio. I would go on the mic, and I remember I'd have to say it was called Pop-A-Ball, and our thing was one end to win, and I would do this whole thing to get people's attention

to come over one in to win Papa Ball, right? And I was doing it one day and I saw this crew, CFTR, people with CFTR gear walking and I remember

I got on the mic and I said, 680 CFTR, all his radio, number one in Toronto or something and they heard that and they came over

and gave me tickets. The bleacher creatures I think they were called but they were Skydome it was early in the Skydome's life like maybe it was one year old if it was even and I remember we had free they said come here and you got free pizza pizza I remember it was pizza pizza and it was the squares I don't think they make these party size things anymore and then we all watched this Blue Jay game and it was a whole group of bleacher we all got shirts like CFTR bleacher creature shirts or something like that. You just reminded me when we mentioned

the CFTR t-shirt that this happened to me and it was a wonderful experience for me. I'm happy for you. That's great. And there was the pitcher on the mound. I think I remember the bleacher creature thing. There's a pizza pizza party. There'd be 25 people Something, yeah. I remember, there was a pizza pizza party. Because the promo teams, there'd be 25 people.

Yeah. 25 kids. I remember Kiss 92 had a staff of 100. It was unbelievable. These kids would just go out and blanket the city. And when they were country,

they were just, those mugs would go everywhere because my mom had the Kiss 92 mug. She loved that country because Garth Brooks was all the rage and she was all in.

Wow, memory lane. This is a great time, KJ. So, the Morning Man, so you mentioned your Morning Man and then you mentioned you get Mad Dog,

his gig. And Mad Dog, I guess he takes over for you on mornings, is that right? Well, listen, I didn't get him the gig. I just put his name out there.

You got him the interview. Yeah. He came in and it was Darren. Darren Jones. Yes. Right. From Buzz.

That was a pretty unique morning show. Yeah. And I like, in fact, Darren's in LA. He's based in LA now. Okay. But he comes here a lot to do different things. I just saw he was on like breakfast television like last week doing some guest thing. I remember Darren Jones.

I remember when I was doing the Kiss morning show and the PD said to me, hey, by the way, this kid named Darren Jones will be joining you tomorrow. And sure, I didn't even know him from television. No idea who he was. Yeah, you didn't see the buzz. I didn't see the buzz. Of course I found out what it was later. But anyway,

I think around 5 o'clock, 5.30, this guy roller skated into the studio. Hey, man. I'm Darren. You must be KJ. So he plops down in the chair and he goes, so how does this radio thing work? And I said, I'll just follow, follow my lead. And yeah, he was good. But I don't think it was what he wanted. He was he enjoyed it for a while. And then it's like, yeah, this radio thing sucks. I saw him every day at U of T. We were both at St. Michael's College at U of T at the same time.

I think he wanted to be on TV. Yeah, definitely. And I think he's still trying to be on TV. So Darren Jones and you, and then Mad Dog, I guess, with Darren, because you wanted off mornings. And then Mad Dog hooks up with Billie Holiday, and then they go on to have a pretty long run as a very popular morning team. Mad Dog and Billie. So Mad Dog, who's a friend of yours, and he's go on to have a pretty long run as a very popular morning team. Mad Dog and Billy.

So Mad Dog, who's a friend of yours, and he's on the East Coast right now because I chatted with him the other day about you coming on. Oh, yeah? Yeah. And he's on the East Coast because he's going to come back in early June. He's coming back to Toronto and he wants to come in and update his fans on how he's doing because that's the tough thing about radio is when they say goodbye to you, it's tough to...

You don't get to say goodbye. You don't get the Mike Cooper treatment very often. He'll land on his feet. I mean, you know, jail, it's not like... It's over for him. It's not. It's just a matter of finding the right fit, the right station, and he'll be back.

Any room on Boom for my friend Mad Dog? Fuck no. No, I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know. Probably the best answer there. That's a loaded question here. I'm trying to get you in some trouble here.

Okay, so he did call you the best DJ in the city, so that was high praise. He says a lot of things. He did. He told me I have the best podcast in the city. Yeah, I see. That's what I'm telling you. He's a great guy. I like Jay. That was what I'm telling you. He's a great guy.

I like Jay. That was nice of him to say. And after... It only cost me $40. That's a deal. That's a deal. How did you end up on Easy Rock? I think I got fired from Kiss 92.

And the funny thing about that is Brian DePoe phoned me a couple days before I got fired. And I said, well, you know, I think it's the natural thing. I have to go and do that adult radio eventually, and they're not going to... I think I was 40 years old or whatever on Kiss, and it was just, you know, these guys are, hey, we're going to go see the Moffats. Great, I'm going to go home.

That's right, Moffats. You know, I just love that format, though. And then two days later, I got let go, and then he phoned me up and he said, hey, are you ready now? Yeah, I think I'm ready. Suddenly you were motivated to talk. Yeah. So Easy Rock is, obviously, it was 97.3. And I know a little bit about this era of Easy Rock. Well, so Easy Rock, I mean, guys my age didn't listen to Easy Rock. This wasn't our station. This was for a different demographic. It was direct competition to CHFI.

Right. And so Easy Rock becomes, it's rebranded as Boom. So basically, they don't say goodbye to KJ when they rebrand. You get to stick around. Lucky me.

Yeah. Yeah, I was really excited about it too because, I mean, that's the stuff I, all that music is the music I cut my teeth on. And it's like, I wouldn't mind doing that. The original Boom Morning Show

was Colleen Rusholm and Humble Howard. Humble Howard, yeah. Then they brought in Kim Stockwood and then Rick came over from Chum FM. Is that on the Boom side or the Easy Rock side? That's where my memory is not working. Sorry about that, I was wrong. And Rick came over from Chum FM. Is that on the Boom side or the Easy Rock side?

That's where my memory is not working. Sorry about that. I was wrong. KJ, that's what I'm here for, to keep you in line. Well, you have it written down on your iPad. I have a couple of things. A couple of things. Okay, so, yeah, that four-man. Speaking of Rick Hodge, we talked about him earlier.

But that four-man crew, that was just a bad idea in hindsight. But, you know, he gave it a shot. But he was doing double duty because he'd run down the hall and do the 10-10 back when it was CFRB. He was doing 10-10 hits and stuff. Radio is tough. They're all very talented people, all of them. And sometimes it works,

sometimes it doesn't. I've been on stations that had bad ratings. I've been on stations that have had good ratings. It's just a ride. You buckle in and you go for a ride. Well, the Boom ride sounds really exciting because, first of all, for people who don't know, Boom is a new cap station, which is interesting to me because it's not Rogers and it's not Bell and it's not Chorus. It's just radio. They do just radio.

And I love it. I, you know, and I'm not just saying that. It's like this is, I mean, it's nice to think back on CFTR, but I don't think about it very often. I'm kind of doing this now. And my thing is I'm doing the drive show on Boom and it's all that matters. I owe you another case of beer

just because you put up with all that CFTR stuff because I want to talk boom big time, but first I got to appease the 12-year-old version of myself. Gee, I just hadn't thought about a lot of that stuff. The timeline is where I get a little off. I don't remember, but I was there through the whole thing. It's a blur.

And there was a lot of big... Of course, there were big piles of white powder on all the tables back then. Nah, I didn't see any of that. Did you never see it? No. I talked to Fred Patterson. Plumbers didn't do cocaine.

Neither did whoever else was there. None of that shit. They certainly drank a lot, though. Maybe smoked a little weed, if you know what I'm saying. Well, nothing's changed then. That's fine. But the legends we hear about radio back then is cocaine. But every time I talk to somebody who was working in radio back then,

they'll say they don't remember seeing it. No? No. No, never. Good. That's good because it's bad for you. Yeah, because I hear that's terrible. I hear it's bad for you.

Then you can skip that other parting gift I was going to give you. Just leave that here for the next guest. All right. Now, Boom. I have no idea where you're going or what you're talking about. That's okay. Boom 97.3. No dot in there. Just Boom

97.3. Boom 97.3. And you play like 70s and 80s. And 90s. And 90s. You're heavy on the 80s, though. Heavy on the 80s. People love it. If I want to hear like... I should... Previous guests from Boom 97.3, just if people want to go back and listen.

So I've had Mae Potts on. Who doesn't love Mae Potts? Yeah. So she's great, right? She's wonderful. And her daughter came too. And yeah, it was just fantastic. Unique relationship between those two.

It's very, very cool. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. So Mae Potts has been on. Stu Jeffries, who's the morning guy on Boom right now. You made him cry. But he tells me he been on. Stu Jeffries, who's the morning guy on Boom right now. You made him cry. But he tells me he cries easily.

Yeah, no problem. A dog running in slow motion will make Stu cry. Come on. I was actually kind of proud, like, hey, it's not proud. I'm not trying to make anyone cry. That guy's a warrior. You're talking about May Potts, Stu Jeffries. These guys have been around for a while. They know how to do it. They're pros. They're pros. And so, I mean, with May Potts there and Stu Jeffries there and KJ there, there's a lot of, I know, sadly, people don't know KJ's Chris James. That's unfortunate. But there's a lot of Toronto radio history at that station. And like you said, NUCAP just does radio. So it's radio first and radio last, as opposed to all the convergence and synergy nonsense that we see in all these other places. You're onto something there, though, because every now and then I'll get a phone call.

KJ, were you Chris James at CFTR? And it'll be some guy who said, you know, I met my wife and we used to listen to you and make out listening to, you know, love him or leave him on the radio or whatever the show was. And I just found you. So, yeah, that's... I'm telling you because I i as a guy who listened to cftr and really has his ear to the ground in terms even if i don't listen to a station and i

do listen to boom but if i have someone in aaron davis was in here and i actually don't listen to chfi i've never listened to chfi but of course you know aaron davis anyways and we'll have a great conversation but um like i have to admit it's i keep my ear to the ground even if i'm not listening and i was surprised to learn and I'm trying to remember who told me but I was surprised to learn that the KJ on Boom

was the Chris James from CFTR. As long as you're aware I'm certainly aware of it now. I never gave it much thought. I'm not a big fan of the name KJ but still. It's not too late to change it. If Ann Roszkowski

can go on the air without changing her name you could although and we don't need to know your real name but I'm pretty sure Chris James is a fake name too. It's not too late to change it. If Ann Roszkowski can go on the air without changing her name, you could, although, and we don't need to know your real name, but I'm pretty sure Chris James is a fake name too, right? My real name is Bill.

There you go. So that's, that's like what Mad Dog did though, because Mad Dog introduces Mad Dog when he comes to Toronto, but he was going, he was Jay Michaels, but Jay Michaels was a fake name. So what he did is he tacked a fake name onto a fake name,

which is pretty much like doing a KJ on a Chris James when neither are your names. I feel like such a fraud. That's all right. I'm sorry. Brings us back to the fun days of radio when everyone had a fake name. So we have Blind Derek was also on the show recently.

Yeah, Derek's cool. What a producer, man. That guy, he's just in a room all by himself. Sometimes you don't see him. It's like having a hedgehog. You forget you have a hedgehog, and then he comes out of his cage every now and then and says, hey, check this out. And of course,

it's spectacular. That was a great chat. Went a little long, but not long for me. I just worry sometimes about the listeners. An hour and 57 minutes your podcast was with Derek. How many installments did you have to make to get through it? Like, did you have to kind of...

I did two. Only two, okay. I, yeah, you know, because I don't have a boss... I hear noise upstairs. That's the two-year-old. Is that the two-year-old? Yeah, he was on a nap when you showed up. He's trying to come down here.

What's going on down there? I would put, I have a third mic. I would stick him on the third mic. That's Jarvis. Yeah, he's... What would you ask him about? Oh, I got lots of questions for him. Like, does he want, I always say.

Do you remember being born? Do you want a little kiss? I go, this is my thing with him now is, do you want a little kiss or a big kiss? And he'll think about it for a second. He'll go, a big kiss. Are you sure you don't want a little kiss? Are you sure you want a big kiss?

And he gets excited now because he's excited. He's asking for the big kiss and he knows what's coming. And I give him a big one. And that's our big back and forth right now. That's a beautiful story. It's a now because he's excited. He's asking for the big kiss and he knows what's coming. And I give him a big one. And that's our big back and forth right now. It's a fun age. Hold on. Hand me a tissue. KJ's crying, everybody.

I did it again. Stu Jeffries 2.0. Do another kid story. I've got to say this about your competitors. So recently, Q107 has started adding songs like what were the great examples like a Duran Duran song or a song from the spoons basically the kind of 80s

new wavy kind of poppy stuff that they simply just did not play I am convinced it's because they've lost their the target demo that they had locked up for a long time has discovered boom and they're bleeding it out to 93 7 They've lost their, the target demo that they had locked up for a long time has discovered Boom, and they're bleeding it out to 97.3.

So now they're trying to sort of, if you can't beat them, join them kind of deal. Yeah. Any thoughts on that? Not really. But is it safe to say? No, seriously. I don't, you know, it's like radio, there's ebbs and flows and, you know, let's try this. Let's try that.

You know. Radio, there's ebbs and flows, and let's try this, let's try that. But do you, because you target, and correct me if I'm wrong, do you care who you target demographic-wise, or do you let the bosses worry about that, the program directors? Do I care personally? Do you care, for example, if they say, and I think with Boom, it might be something that men, I don't know, I'll make it up, like 34 to 54, whatever the age range is, men, that's our target demo.

Let's say Boom makes that decision. We always keep it in the back of your mind, you know, when you're looking at things and trying to decide what to talk about. And, you know, yeah. Do you want to do some gloating? Because once, although I never get my hands on the freaking books, like these books come out and I'm not, obviously they don't send one to Toronto Mike.

I'm not a subscriber and I don't belong. Such bullshit. But people who get it... You'd be in your glory if you had one. I would like one, because I would love to have the numbers and be able to report on it. I would love it. It's all on a website, isn't it?

Some of it gets leaked to different websites, and then that's where I'll learn things like, oh, look, the number one station for men 34 to 54 is Boom. It's not cute. And what I've seen, because I talked to Stu about this, I've seen that the boom ratings go up to a point where in your target demo, you're number one. Like you must have some pride, some feeling of accomplishment.

Oh, it feels pretty good. Yeah, it feels pretty good. I can tell you're ecstatic. Well, I don't know what you want from me, but I don't try to get too caught up in all that because then it's analysis paralysis, Mike. You become like, the numbers. God damn it, we went down yesterday.

What happened yesterday? It's like sometimes just do your thing and have fun and do good radio. And good things will happen in the end if you're lucky. No, and you're absolutely right. So Boom's having success, which is good for everybody there. Yeah, it's great. And you're playing songs that you enjoy. You don't have to hold your nose and play these tunes.

More often than not, you like what you're playing. I know them all so well. I know them inside and out. I could talk them in my sleep. But yeah, I still like listening to Def Leppard. I still like hearing all that stuff. I love it. Was there ever a time in your radio career

where you could choose the music you play? I think no, never. Although I remember doing that a little bit when I first started until someone told me, we don't do that around here. Oh, because I brought in some albums. I thought I'd play this track, and it's like I quickly learned that

it's not up to me to decide what gets played. They pay somebody for that. I basically just come in and do what's on the sheet. The only exception is when I talk to 1980s CFNY DJs. Wow, that's a whole different story. I mean, even May Potts could tell you a little bit about that. Who's on the Scott Turner, for example, or Alan Cross or May Potts, like these people come in

and then David Marsden's on and I guess he's the architect of that where basically they had a system. I can't remember exactly. There were dots and you could play, you had to play from a certain dot thing, but the DJs could choose, within reason,

they could choose what they would play. I wouldn't want that responsibility. I mean, it's a pretty big... Well, what's your favorite musical act? Or one of your favorites? I go up and down. Are you an ACDC guy? Sure.

Who doesn't like ACDC? That's about as rock and roll as rock and roll dance. You could play Back in Black on Boom. Boom does play Back in Black. But I like everything. My taste is... I don't know if you'd call it eclectic, but there's a little of this, a little of that, a little of this, a little of that.

And what I play on the radio is a different thing altogether. Some of it I like, some of it I don't. Cool. Some songs I've never actually listened to the whole song, but I know the beginning and I know the end. That's right. So I've been in the studio, so I've seen it, but you've got like a countdown clock thing that

tells you how to hit the post, right? Well, you know what? I don't know. I can guarantee you this. I know that Stu Jeffries, May Potts, myself, anybody that works at Boom, I don't think they really look at the countdown clock. It's just a feeling.

They don't need it. It's just there. It's a feeling. You have timing and yeah. Is there a particular song out there that has this false start that's fooled you more than once and you're just aware, don't fall for it,

no, don't bite? Hey, so... I feel like I'm not giving you what you want. No. Is that how you really feel that way? Yeah, I do. It's like I don't know about any of that stuff. No, honestly.

I'll ask a bunch of questions to prompt different combos on it, but I have no expectations. Like when somebody comes in, like I don't need them to come in as some encyclopedia and spill,

and I don't need dirt. Like I know you joked earlier, I'm looking for dirt. Sometimes I'll ask the question like, who fired my hero Tom Rivers?

Like I need to know this stuff, but it's not really dirt. It's more like I'm curious was he jumped or did he push, but you've been fantastic. Like, this conversation, I've enjoyed it.

I just don't want you to leave thinking you disappointed me. I'm not that worried about it. But I know what you're saying. Because you reached for another tissue, and now you've tied Stu Jeffries. He cried twice. You're a master. KJ's right.

Just a master. Did anyone ever, and my last question on the Twitter thing, because I know you don't want to be on Twitter. I never said I didn't want to be on Twitter. I'm on Twitter. I use the Boom Twitter to do tweets. But you know that's not the same thing. Yes.

Because I guess the new cap PR or marketing people, have they ever gone up to you and just said, Hey, KJ, could you do us a favor and create an account on Twitter? Has anyone at Boom asked you to create an account ever? Never. Never? No. See, they give you a lot of freedom over there.

Hey, I'm on Facebook. I manage my own Facebook page. I have my own personal page. I contribute to the Boom page. I communicate via text every day when I'm on the air. Some of those texts end up as tweets. I'll put up tweets and all that sort of thing. It usually relates to whatever I'm doing that day.

Hey, listen, yesterday George Thurgood came in. That was pretty cool. So, you know, hey, George Thurgood's coming in. But other than that, like, this steak is fantastic. I don't care. Great breakfast. There's a picture. That's more of an Instagram thing.

I got to tell people, though, if they want to find you on Facebook, it's KJGoBoom. Yeah, that's my, I think it's a fan page. Oh, it's not yours. It is mine. Oh, but you're the author. Everything that's on there, I put on it. Yeah. And I enjoy doing that.

And you can find me at Kjatboom973.com. I'm on Boom every day from 2 to 7. And, you know, the phone number, 416-870-0973. There's a million ways to get a hold of me. There's a million ways. Just don't tweet at them. The Spoons, you play a lot of The Spoons on your station. And I love it because that band, that takes me right back

to the spoon stuff. Like, I love it when I hear the spoons and you're really the only station, I think, playing the spoons and it's great.

What is that video they do where it's the TTC, they go down? Yeah, the subway. Romantic Traffic, is it? Romantic Traffic, maybe?

What a great video that is. It's like, wow, look at the Red Rocket. Yeah, that is a great video. That's a piece of Toronto history right there. That is, it is. That's a great video because, yeah, that takes you back to the Red Rocket. And Gord's a great guy. I's a piece of Toronto history right there. That is, it is.

That's a great video because, yeah, that takes you back to the Red Rocket. And Gord's a great guy. I've met Gord a number of times. Gord Depp, yeah. That's a band where I see them often. I'll see them in concert, but I don't believe I've ever paid to see them. Like, I was thinking back at the times I've seen The Spoons. I saw them last summer at a park near my house where they did a free concert.

And, you know, it was great. Oh, man, that's the best. You can do a little walk to a park and watch The where they did a free concert. And it was great. Oh, man, that's the best. You can do a little walk to a park and watch The Spoons. It's fantastic. And I saw them at Ryerson pretty recently. But I was thinking, have I ever got paid to buy a ticket to see The Spoons? No, but I've seen them many times.

Wow. Great band. How do you do that? How do you get in to see bands? I think they're... I gotta get a podcast. Well, I can't get in to see Pearl Jam, so it's not all that that great

yeah they just announced they're coming yeah and they had to move the dates for the second show because the Raptors are gonna at least go five same thing that happened

with the Who right they had to change the date these are all good things this is fascinating go Raps and that brings us to the end

of our 172nd show you can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and KJ. We won't go down the Twitter road, but you go to Facebook and KJ go boom. And you can even write him and phone him. And there's so many ways to get ahold of KJ.

But KJ is going home with the beer in his trunk. And he's going to have a good, the game's at five o'clock today. So you're going to be home just in time for the Raptor game. I'll be watching. For sure. Go Raps and see you all next week. There's a thousand shades of gray Cause I know that's true Yes I do

I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you All that picking up trash And then putting down ropes