Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Lance Chilton: Toronto Mike'd #1237

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

In this 1237th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Lance Chilton about his years at CityTV, MuchMusic, The New VR and why he left the industry. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1237 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

Season four of Yes, We Are Open, the award-winning podcast from Moneris. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future podcast from Moneris electronic products recycling association committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our

electronics of the past the moment lab brand marketing and strategy PR advertising and production

you need the moment lab and Ridley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is Lance Chilton. Nice to meet you, Lance. It's very nice to meet you, Mike, and it's a pleasure just to be nominated.

You're one of the pioneers of podcasting and you've been prolific. And if I still had a TV show, I would interview you. Okay, listen, that's high praise from the great Lance Chilton. Listen, I saved my best for episode 1237. I just want you to know that. My lucky number. So before I press record, you mentioned you're actually speaking to me from a church elaborate like okay what do you mean you're talking to me from a church and

whereabouts are you in the universe lance okay so i'm at our office in our horseshoe valley office which is in the um burg of craighurst Ontario. So it's just about an hour north of Toronto, not quite that much. And we have an old 1881, it's the former Knox Presbyterian Church built in 1881 that we have converted into one of our offices. That's where I'm talking to you. Hence the churchy audio. This would actually be a wonderful recording studio. It's the audio

the acoustic properties of this place are really fabulous. I was going to ask how's your voice? Do you want to belt out a hymn or something and we can hear the acoustics? I would pin all your needles on your board if I did that. I think I read somewhere that a lot of churches

are being refocused as office space or even residential. Repurposed. You know what? Refocused. Yeah. See, I needed the stories.

You're talking to the right guy about that because, as it turns out, my wife and I own two churches, which is really kind of an odd happenstance. But we had clients in the village of Midhurst, which is not too very far away from here, probably about 15 kilometers. Many years ago, they wanted to sell their church that they'd been using as an office. And they didn't want it to be plowed down and turned into something else. So they sold it to us for a ridiculous price if we promised to keep it as a church. So we kept, we remodeled the church and it's like a loft apartment. I mean, picture the candy factory lofts, for example.

Big open spaces, really cool kitchen. And we built a nice bedroom and bathroom in there. And it's now an apartment. And the first person to rent it was actually a musician and he rented it because our first tenant was a musician. So, yeah. And then we bought this place about a year and a half ago just because it's the most beautiful building here

in the little crossroad of the Craighurst. And I just love churches. I mean, no one's going to accuse me of being a religious man, I suppose. But I just have such an affinity for these old buildings. And it's a pleasure and an honor and a financial challenge to be their steward. Well, look, even an atheist can acknowledge beautiful architecture, right? Like this is a beautiful building. And I mean, not to, you know, spoil, I feel like after this episode that aired of Succession, everyone's

talking about spoilers and stuff, but spoiler alert, you're no longer in the television industry because this is your full-time job now, right? You're in real estate. That's correct. Yeah. I left full-time television in 2010. I was the senior news anchor at what was then a channel and it was owned by Chum City, the owners of City TV and Much Music, where I got my start in broadcasting in 1987. But after 20 odd years, I felt that I'd done everything I could do in broadcasting. Anne and I, my wife, we'd been active real estate investors while we were landlords, like since 1998. So, and we thought it was a natural progression because, you know, real estate, much like broadcasting, is research and communication. Smart move, Lance. Smart move, man.

I mean, like what a wise decision that was for you. It's worked out for us. Yeah, it's worked out. Now, Craig, I can't even pretend I know of Craig Hurst until you talked about it right now, but this is 705, right? This is what we might, we Torontonians would call the 705.

You would call it the 705, yeah. Okay. A lot of people listening may have skied or gone for a summer getaway at horseshoe resort i've heard so we're just yeah we're just a click like well three minutes away from the front gates of horseshoe resort and in fact and i've lived in horseshoe valley for 18 years now it's a beautiful beautiful place okay so we're gonna go back you mentioned 1987 we're gonna go back and we're gonna to get you at some point, we're going to get you to, uh, what we affectionately called the new VR, which of course is a Barry station. You called it a channel because it went through

a bunch of names, but is that like your introduction to the 705? Cause you, prior to that, you were a Toronto guy, right? Totally. Yeah. I, I lived, um, and I lived in downtown Toronto in Cabbage Town, actually. Anne was pregnant with our first child. Moses Nimer, the boss, the chief, realized that I was coming to a place in life where it wasn't necessarily appropriate to be hanging around in nightclubs and talking to bands for a living every night because we were starting a family. And he made me the wonderful offer to go to Barrie and take over as the news anchor at the new VR. And so I leapt at it and haven't looked back. It was a terrific move for us, for our family professionally. I mean, it was just a great challenge. We had lots of successes. But then, you know, like anything that you've done for two decades plus, you kind of get a little bit tired of it. And, you know, I've spent three hours on live television interviewing Bill Gates before a live audience. I mean, that's sort of a pinnacle that'd be tough to repeat.

Well, listen, now we're going to walk through all of that because i want to know back in 1987 how you got the gig at city tv how how did you land there were you always interested in media give us the the origin story so i really really wanted to be on television and i really really wanted to work in television at only one place, and that was City TV. And this was, you know, I started my campaign to land a job there in 1985. Back in those days, there was no direct path from education to a broadcasting career. The only course in the country was at Ryerson, then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and it was the radio and television arts course. I'd done languages at the University of Toronto, so not really related.

But in those days, what you did to get experience in broadcasting was you went and did volunteer broadcasting. In my case, I did that at a Rogers Cable 10 channel. It's called Community Access Broadcasting. And so I did a lot of different shows. I did production. I did videography. I did production, I did videography, I did reporting, anchoring, hosting, all that kind of stuff. And I just kept sending, every month I

would send a new tape to City TV. And I just kept hammering on the door and hammering on the door until on my 25th birthday, I sat down with Nancy Oliver and John Martin at the Friar and Firkin Pub across the road from City TV. Of course. And they offered me a job. All right. So when you're at Cable 10, can you name check anybody? I've had a lot of people on this show who talk about, you know, cutting into... Yeah, Mike Stafford.

Okay. Because he was at... Mike Stafford. Pete and Geetz. He was the news guy at Pete and Geetz. Yeah. So this is not a bad story. news guy at Pete and Geetz. Yeah. So this is not a bad story. So I think the thing that did it in terms of me giving City TV a tape that they perhaps couldn't and didn't ignore was we produced,

they used to have the spirit of radio was their logo, as you recall. Yeah. David Marsden. That's right. And so I concocted this live three-hour morning broadcast called The Spirit of Breakfast. So we had marching bands. We had live music. We had comedians. And Mike Stafford and Geetz Romo in white tuxedos with blue sequin lapels. And so we did this simultaneously. It was a simulcast.

It was simulcast on Rogers Cable 10 and on CFNY. And it was three hours of freewheeling, unscripted, improvisational multimedia fun. And gosh, it was one of the best days I ever had in broadcasting. And it really sort of popped the cork for me. And, you know, shout out to Mike Stafford, who to this day, he was also in broadcasting at Rogers Cable 10 at the time, but he's one of the funniest individuals and smartest guys to walk the planet. Well, he was on Jeopardy, you know.

Well, he was on Jeopardy just before we did this program. And this is going a long time back for a lot of your listeners. They may not even know what CFNY was. Lance, have you never heard an episode of Toronto, Mike? We spend hours and hours talking. Fair enough. Your listeners, actually, yes.

I stand corrected, Mike. You're dead right. In fact, your homework when we're finished is you're going to go find episode 1021, which is episode 1021, and give that a listen, because, I mean, Marsden, May Potts, Scott Turner Turner Ivor

Hamilton then Alan Cross and Humble and Fred I mean Brother Bill I mean all these greats are on that episode so that's your homework Lance I will listen to that with pleasure because I you know I cross paths with a lot of those people and I listen to the I listen to CFMI religiously and and watched much

Liz Janik I'm going to keep naming the people on that episode Liz Janik yeah and I I to keep naming the people on that episode. Liz Janik. You could, yeah. And I recognized them all by voice and some by face and some by sitting across the table from them at a pub. That's for sure. Now, let me ask you, though, when you're doing this Spirit of Breakfast simulcast, is Fred Patterson involved?

He was doing sports on that. Freddie was there. Yeah, yeah. Freddie was there. Absolutely, yeah. So here's a mind blow for you. Literally this morning, I did my weekly appearance on Humble and Fred who are a podcast now, and I'm the producer of that show. I didn't know you were producing that. Yeah. And how's Howard doing and how's Freddie? Okay. Well, both are great. Uh, they just spent like a month

or something in, in Mexico. That's how good it's going for these two. That's great. Howard's still obsessed with golf, so he's golfing all the time. I was on the driving range just before coming to do this podcast. You know what? Let me know if you want to jump on Humble and Fred one day

because I also fill the guest calendar, so we'll put Lance Chilton. Dude, I'm in. I'm in. All right. Just to even talk about that, even though it's pre-Howard, but just the memories of you, Mike Stafford,

and Freddie P there, and Pete and Gates. That's amazing. Freddie P will know what that was about because he was an integral part of the spirit of breakfast. Somewhere in my archives, which means boxes in the basement at home,

I've got the sweatshirts that we had made for those as well. They were pretty radical. Oh my God. What I would do to get a hold of one of those sweatshirts, Lance, I would bike to Craighurst and grab that. That'd be amazing. That's a good ride.

It's all uphill from where you are. That's okay. Because then you get to go home, right? So you get to go. And then you get to go home. It's all downhill. That's right. I would do that.

Okay. So cable 10, you're cutting your teeth. And on your, what go home. It's all downhill. That's right. I would do that. Okay. So Cable 10, you're cutting your teeth. And on your, what, you said your 25th birthday. That's right. And that's funny you talk about, because I've had many much music people on, and they talk about that bar across the street where John Martin basically held court. Yeah. Yes.

So, and in fact, you know, I misidentified it because when I started at City TV, it was actually at 99 Queen Street East. And it wasn't the Friar and Frick and it was something else. And I'm, oh gosh, I forget the name of it, but it's now the George Restaurant, which is one of Toronto's very best restaurants. It's a fabulous place. What it was called back then, the name is Capers. Well, it's interesting because 99 Queen East, the original home of Much Music, that was the old electric circus. Yes. Yeah. And then I did a story about one of the anniversaries of Much Music. I suppose it might have been the 10th or the 15th. And I went up to the fourth floor where the original Much environment was located.

And at that time, it had been taken over by the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, CARP, which Moses Snyder went on to purchase. But I thought there was some rich irony there because this temple to youth culture had become a temple to, you know, codger culture. And that becomes Zoomer at some point, right? It became, yes, and we became Zoomers, thank goodness. Moses, as usual, came up with a cooler name for something. Have you ever received an offer to join the team at Zoomer?

You know, I've had like a couple of little tickles from some of the gang back there. Moses hasn't called me, but that's cool. I mean, I'm really, frankly, done with television. It was a ton of fun, but i i really enjoy i think i'm a better employer than i was an employee to be honest with you so i'm quite happy having me as the boss well shout out to fotm joel goldberg one of the founders of the electric circus uh television program we all joel was a superbly talented and i should say it is because he's still active a superbly talented producer yeah he's i worked a good producer. I worked with Joel.

He was the producer on Toronto Rocks. So I had a very, very brief tenure as the host of Toronto Rocks. And at the time, so John Majors, I think, was my immediate predecessor. And they let John go and replaced him with me, which I don't think was a particularly wise move, to be honest with you. But there we go. Well, you're handsome enough. Not compared to John. And so they changed the format.

So we had a little live studio area at the front window of Queen Street, 299 Queen West. It was to the left of the front doors. And we had a little stage there. And we had everyone from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the Ramones live on that show. But the funny thing was that the live audiences that they brought in

were busloads of school kids. And so you got Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and or the Ramones playing live before a bunch of grade five kids. And it was surreal is a word that I think is overused but appropriate in this case. But it was loads of fun. And Joel was the producer on that.

Well, you know, he had that, he got that gig cause he was on, he was known as Jay gold on something else, a CFM video show. So it all connects here. Okay.

So let me just get these details right. Cause this is like going to outlive us both. Okay. So you get the gig at city TV and hopefully that's a long way off, but we, you get the gig at city TV in 1987 hopefully that's a long way off, but you get the gig at City TV in 1987, and you're working at City Pulse News, and you're doing that before Toronto Rocks, right?

Because Toronto Rocks is kind of between, I guess, City Pulse and Much Music, right? Well, I was kind of doing them all at the same time, I think, because so my original, my first gig at City TV was I was the weekend entertainment anchor and producer and writer. And then I did spot news through the week on City Pulse. Simultaneous to that, they said, hey, we want you to host Toronto Rocks because John Majors is going. So you say, what do you say? You say, of course. host Toronto Rocks because John Majors is going. So you say, what do you say? You say, of course.

And then subsequently shut down Toronto Rocks. And then they asked me to front a section on Much Music that was called Fax, as in fax machine, because that was the cutting edge of digital technology. I wasn't even digital, it was analog technology at the time. So I co-hosted with the wonderful Monica Deol, this show called Facts, for many years on Much Music. And it was a real sort of amalgam of pop culture. The favorite part for me was covering literally the birth of the internet. I did a lot of design, kind of technologically minded, I suppose. So we did a ton of work. I flew to New York to cover the launch of MSN, the Microsoft Network. I got Bill Gates. We did a show with Bill Gates called Internet and Interactive,

and it was the first time he'd been on live television in Canada. And so we did the same thing we normally do, except for a band in the middle of the live audience, there was Bill Gates and me. Bill Gates was wearing a Much Music baseball shirt. And I asked him, the first question I asked him was, what does Shift F7 do? He didn't know.

At the time, it was the MS-DOS command for print. Right, right, that's right, that's right. Amazing. By the way, I was an avid viewer of facts on MuchMusic. Because pre-internet, nowadays, we're used to it all being at our fingertips. But if you needed to get some fun facts and some mind blows, where else are you going to go?

Well, we had a fantastic production team. It was a really strong production team. I hope I wasn't the weakest link in that chain, but they were smart people drawing content from all of the different City TV properties. We generated I hope I wasn't the weakest link in that chain, but they were smart people drawing content

from all of the different City TV properties. We generated our own content, and it was everything from architecture, literature, music, street scene, fashion, the whole thing wrapped up in a ball. And like you said, there was no internet at the time, so it was a real direct channel to popular culture. I was proud of that show. That was a ton of fun.

And it was live at the corner of Queen and John too. So all kinds of stuff happened. In the environment. I mean, I love talking to city people. Oh no, outside the environment. Okay, outside. Literally right on the pavement, on the street corner of Queen and John.

And Monica and I would stand out there and we'd read our bits and do some interaction and do a pile of improv stuff. Cause you know, stuff happens on the corner of Queen and John. I was going to say, you ever look back and like, yeah,

that happened. Like, you know, that was something we did. Cause it was a really cool time as a, me as a viewer. Like I just thought that whole, that whole concept was like the kinetic environment

concept was really cool it was amazing you know to be a part of it was just literally a dream come true i mean it's all i wanted to do by that point in my life and there i was smack in the middle of it you know as much an observer as a participant a lot of the time um and and i shook my head every day that they were paying me i can say it now because I've got their money, but I would have done it for free. In fact, I might have even paid them. Let's see that T4. Hold up the 1988 T4 to the screen. Long gone. Long gone. There wasn't a lot of numbers on it. We were paid fairly, but not lavishly, which fine um right but but it was really yeah it's hard to explain if if i mean your your audience will probably be familiar with what it was but for people who are not like just jump on youtube and go back and look at some of the much music live stuff we did

because it really doesn't exist anymore there's there's no contemporary parallel for it no i mean the primary audience here, that's not to say older and younger people are not listening, but this is such a Gen X-centric show. So we're right in the wheelhouse here. But I'll tell you, I did produce a podcast for a couple of former City TV people, John Gallagher and Peter Gross.

And John, so two things here. One is John used to be very... He just had a birthday. Happy birthday, John. You know, who would have thunk it, right? Long may he run. He's in Halifax. He moved back home to Nova Scotia.

No longer here. But so that was Gallagher and Gross saved the world, by the way. Some amazing stories that they told. But Gallagher was very honest about like what he was paid. He would say, he would do City Pulse sports on the television

and then he'd maybe stay up all night doing who knows what, right? I can only imagine. And then the next morning, the next morning he'd be on Q107. He would do it in their morning show. And he says the amount of money they paid him for radio dwarfed the money that he was receiving from City Pulse.

Well, Agony was the same. Steve Anthony, he would do the breakfast show on CFNY, and then he would be driven in his Mazda RX-7 to the much music environment where he would be your blonde VJ pal for the afternoon, and then we would be out all night. And I was, I got to participate in some of those nocturnal journeys, but those guys were really burning it at both ends. And, and there's,

you know, John's a sports guy, right. But really he's a comedian. And, and, and so Steve, I mean, they're both just such hugely talented individuals and that's where I was more a spectator than participant, but it was just so much fun to hang with those guys but yeah they were they were making the big bucks in radio right because they both had huge morning audiences and uh and you know i guess much music was sort of uh beer money for those guys yeah it's interesting because uh from an outside perspective you would think tv would pay better than radio. This is just one of the myths.

You'd think so, right? I think if you're just looking from the outside, but not true. By the way... Yeah, I think people think that everyone on TV is rich, but you're dead right. It's not true. I know it's not because Peter Gross keeps asking me for money. By the way... Do you get money?

I give him lasagna. By the way, Lance, this is one of the downfalls to you having to zoom in from Craighurst there. You don't get a Palma Pasta lasagna, but if I could meet you in person, I would give you a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. I will look in my local frozen foods case for Palma Pasta because who doesn't love a good lasagna? Delicious. Palmapasta.com. And while I'm celebrating Toronto Mike sponsors who give product to people who make the visit

to the Southern Etobicoke studio here, Great Lakes Brewery would be sending you home with fresh craft beer, but I can't reach you to give it to you. So you're going to have to go to your local LCBO and pick it up. I buy it anyway. It's among my favorite craft beers. Great Lakes, where they were pioneers in the craft beer spaces.

You were a pioneer in the podcast space, and absolutely. Well, they started brewing craft beer the same year you started at City TV's... Yeah, yeah. There was Great Lakes. There was the Connor Brew? Yeah, there was Great Lakes, there was the Connor Brewing Company which was based in Port Credit and gosh, was there another one? Was it Waterloo? I mean, there were literally a handful of them and now of course there are

dozens and dozens. Yeah, literally, there's a whole bunch of them here. I'm going to ask you a couple of names and don't be shy about dropping names because you were working with some pretty interesting people at city tv but i'm always curious like for example uh did you work with ann romer i did yep um and i also worked with her father the great general richard romer who is uh god willing still with us well i'm still with us yeah yeah and i work together yes and uh i mean you don't you can share an anecdote or just say hi to her.

But Anne Romer is a good FOTM. And you're now an FOTM, friend of Toronto Mike. But I always like to. Hey, Anne. How are you? We work together in all sorts of different contexts. Yeah. And she was a weekend anchor when I was a weekend entertainment anchor.

And, you know, we crossed paths for literally the entirety of my 23-odd year career with the Chum City folks. I'll bet. What about Lorne Honigman? Oh, geez, Lorne. He used to tease me mercilessly. Because Lorne is a highly intellectual guy. And during the course of being, you know, a full time and very talented TV reporter, he was studying for his law degree. That guy had and has a huge intellectual horsepower, which I can't lay any claim to. So, you know, I was the pretty boy entertainment reporter.

But I mean, it was all in good fun. And we would we would certainly tilt an ale or two after a broadcast more than once. But Lorne was a terrific guy. It was such, you know, I mean, really a wonderful cast of characters. Lorne Honickman is a very bright man, but he wastes all those brain cells on Bob Dylan history. And there's no shame in that game. But it's really, it's all gone towards, like,

knowing everything there is to know about Bob Dylan. history and uh and there's no shame in that game but it's really it's all gone towards like knowing everything there is to know about bob dylan uh it's it's it's more than just a trivial pursuit answer i'll tell you that it's there's there's there's some gravitas there for sure it's impressive okay anytime a name strikes you feel free to spill it out uh we talked about facts where you of course were uh anchoring facts with uh monica deal i'm gonna play a quick clip here just to give us all a taste so oh boy just a little one uh something i pulled from 1994 here we go with the song that we're leaving well you know what's the frequency kenneth now what's the frequency kenneth this is an obscure piece of knowledge but when dan rather the cbs news

anchor down the u.s was mugged in new y City in the mid-late 80s sometime, 87, 86. Apparently the guy who was beating on him kept saying, what's the frequency, Kenneth? What's the frequency, Kenneth? What's the deal with that? Hopefully Michael Stipe will explain that tomorrow in an interview we did with Janlyn White out on the West Coast. But in the meantime, we'll leave you with that. What's the frequency, Kenneth? We don't get it either.

Don't feel bad. Bye. So precisely. Where on earth did you find that wow precisely though lance precisely the kind of fun facts and mind blows you couldn't you wouldn't get anywhere else so basically you learn what the frequency kind of means by watching much music and hearing you tell us on facts and then you tell everybody like annoyingly so everybody you meet in a bar at school or whatever you're telling them did you know this is a guy went up to dan rather and said what's the frequency kenneth like now you know the rest of the story but these days you just got to google it yeah well it's no fun now it's easy now but back then you had to kind of you had to work for it so So there you go. Well, that was again down to that fantastic production team.

I mean, and we had, if you can picture a paper file, we had cases of paper files full of every single article written about every single musician who passed through the doors at 299. And we would put notes in them so that everyone sort of built on everyone else's work. So that, you know, if someone six months after that clip that you just played was going to be interviewing Dan Rather or whoever, they'd have that little factoid at their fingertips. So we were our own Google.

So what was it like working with Monica Dior before we get you to the new VR? So Monica and I had at times to be candid, a fractious relationship, mainly my fault. But she has a remarkable background and she's a remarkable person. And we did do some good TV together. We really did, because there was sort of that frisson, as you would say. But she was hyper-talented, and boy, did she work hard, too. I mean, everyone did, right? My first month, my first summer at Sydney TV, I worked every single month of the day of August,

and I got to the end of the month, and our producer,, Nancy Oliver said, Hey, you should take some time off. And I didn't realize that I hadn't had any time off because I was just having so much fun and everyone. So Monica, she had the fax gig and she also was hosting electric circus. And then she was doing anchoring on the six o'clock news. And, you know, you just went in and you did like three or four different kinds of shows on two or three outlets. And then you went home and you collapsed. And then you got up with a smile and did it again the next day.

Wow. All right. So approximately, or you probably know precisely, what year was it when they came to you and said, the new VR is calling you, Lance? 1998. Actually, it was late 97. I started in 1998.

Yeah, I remember Moses. So our first pregnancy was a little bit difficult. And I was a little bit distracted because it was a little bit touch and go, frankly. And Moses just did me such a solid. He said, look, you know what? You need to take care of your family. Here's this gig. And I thought, holy cow, I just won a lottery ticket.

Wow. In fact, maybe I'll take this opportunity to ask you about what it's like working for the living legend, Moses Nimer. So I don't have a bad word to say about him. I mean, he did so word to say about him. He did so much good for Canadian culture. He really broadened the horizons

of who gets to have a public voice because pre-Moses, it was all guys who looked like me, middle-aged white guys. But post-Moses, of course, that is normally the case, and he probably doesn't get enough credit for doing that. He had the strength to trust people

to go and do what they hired him to do. It was rare that you got a note from Moses, and when you did, it was either good or really bad, because he just basically said, you know, go and broadcast, don't make it boring, and don't get it wrong. And, and that was pretty much the sum total of the instructions that you received from him off the hot. And, and he was, you know, he, I, I once asked him, we were sitting in his office for some discussion or other. And I, I thought I just said, and it was probably an inappropriate question. I said, Hey Moses, like what, why don't you have kids? And he said, well, you know what? I've got like 348 kids. Yeah, one's named Peter Gross.

Yeah, and one was named me. John Gallagher. And you see it to this day. Because if you look at the roster over at Zoomer, a lot of those people, and I know them personally, are people who have worked for and with Moses for literally decades and decades and decades. And he engenders loyalty because he does what, I mean, he still does things in a very non-corporate way, to the best of my

understanding anyway. That was certainly the case back then. And it's organic. And yeah, I mean, it was a thrill. I really still have no idea how I talked my way out the door, but I did. So he basically gives you this opportunity to move to Barrie. So did you guys literally up and move to Barrie? Well, it took a bit of time, but yeah, we lived in Cabbage Town at the time. And our first daughter, Ella, was born, and she's thriving and wonderful. She lives in downtown Toronto right now. She's an analyst on Bay Street and doing very well. She's a very successful gal.

But anyway, it was a bit frightening because at the time, I'm driving up, I was a city guy. I didn't even have a car. The idea of living in a relatively small city in Ontario was utterly foreign to me. But I recognized that from a, you know, a life point of view, this was probably the best thing I could do. So I got in my little gray, beaten up, rusty Acura and drove up the highway. And the first thing you see going up at 400 is the big tower, the CKVR tower, which is a thousand feet tall and snow. And I did have, you know, a moment

of trepidation, but I thought, you know what? No, I've got this opportunity. I'm going to make the very most of it and do what I was hired to do because Moses was aiming to do, you know, a scaled down version of what City TV was, which was an accessible sort of non-corporatized broadcast entity. And, you know, I knew how that formula works. So I was part of the new VR ethos there. And it turned out to be a lot of fun. And he hired a producer named Bob McLaughlin who came on as our executive producer. And Bob, he still lives not far from me here in Oromadonte, the township of Oromadona. Well, that's where Dan O'Toole's from, I feel.

No, no, maybe not. Maybe that's Orono. I might be confusing my Oromadonte to Orono. I think it's Orono. But you know who does live not very far from me is Margaret Atwood. Wow. Yeah. I thought she was like in the annex very far from me is Margaret Atwood. Wow. Yeah.

I thought she was like in the annex or something. I can't believe it. Okay. Well, Margaret can afford more than one house, as I'm sure you can imagine. But yeah. And Charlie Pachter's up here now, too. So Charlie, the great Canadian painter, famous for Queen Anna Moose, among other things. Right.

He and his partner, his husband, have a wonderful, it's called the Moose Factory North, I believe, is the name of it. So he's bought up a bunch of buildings in downtown Orillia, much as he did in downtown Toronto back in the day on the Queen Street strip, and created this fabulous art gallery, and he's the presence here as well.

That's a bit off topic, I suppose. No, no, no, nothing's off topic here. You're talking about famous Oromadontians here. Now that what now that i think about the reason i hear a lot about it will be like there'll be some big rolling stones concert right in oramadonte this would be like the big i was at it yeah it's at a place not far from our house probably about i don't know eight nine kilometers from our house and you see it if you're driving up to cottage country it's on highway 11 right and it's called the burles creek event center and it's basically a farmer's field beside highway 11 but i saw that show and something told me that and we we spent far too much on the tickets as you do for a stone

show right um because mick's got nine kids and so uh we went and and i something told me this would be the very last rolling stone show in can. And I know they're still playing, but Charlie's not with them anymore, so sorry. They're not the Rolling Stones anymore. And Mick, as he does, he's got, I don't know if you've ever seen, from the stage side for the Rolling Stones, Mick has teleprompters. And he's got

his teleprompter, and he always makes local references. And to hear Mick Jagger say the words, Good evening, Oramadonte! Because he, I'm sure, had no flippant clue where the hell Oromadonte was or is. Well, most Torontonians don't know, so how's Mick going to know? Fair comment, yeah, fair comment. It's the wonderful township north of Barrie.

Okay. And it spans from the western shore of Lake Simcoe on over to, say, the village of Coldwater, if that means something to you. And it's about 21,000 farmers and us. See, it sounds like a beautiful place to be in the summer, but it doesn't sound like a place you might want to be in, I don't know, the middle of winter. It sounds awfully snowy. Unless you like to ski, in which case it is a fabulous place to be. Good point.

I'm four minutes from Mount St. Louis Moonstone, about 30 seconds from Horseshoe Valley, and there's the cross-country ski trails. I ran into Piers Handling, you know, the founder of the Toronto International Film Festival, which used to be the festival of festivals. Right. So I'm in our little grocery store across the street from my little church, and I'm walking around and there's this guy wearing his cross-country ski gear. And it's Piers Handling. And I knew Piers for years because I covered the Toronto Film Festival. And I said, Piers, what are you doing here? And he says, well, that's Brian Linehan.

Well, I'm going to let you finish your point. You said festival, festivals. I was going to ask you about Brian Linehan. Only because the Watchmen, the rock band from the 90s was over here the other day and they gifted me this because of course one of my interviewing idols is the great Brian Linehan. So I was going to ask you if you had any Brian stories, but I didn't mean to interrupt your story. And I don't. No, that's fine. And I don't. And I'll tell you why, because Brian was literally on his way out the door um as i was

on my way in the door so so i didn't like he had a desk in the same environment that i had a desk in for only a very brief amount of time and he was cordial and and you know all that kind of thing but he was gone not long after i arrived there so sorry i don't have any brian dirt for you okay but you were at this rolling stone show in ormidonte and now i'm just curious before i get some new vr stories out of you what are your jams of choice like are you a classic rock guy like when you're listening to music uh what are you listening to so i i'm universal i really am i love the rolling stones but i also love jazz music one of the things i'm looking forward to this year seeing the the great Herbie Hancock in June in downtown Toronto. Yeah, I've got a good story about him, too.

But, you know, I'll listen to the Headstones. I'll listen to Moe Berg. I really have a very broad spectrum of stuff that I love, from Led Zeppelin to Herbie Hancock. Well, I'll tell you, I had Moe Berg on the program two weeks ago. Is he still an adult now? Well, it's funny. That's why it's his second appearance,

because I needed to talk to him about, there's the two versions of I'm an adult now. So they record it independently in, I guess, around 87, I suppose. 86, 87. And then there's the Todd Rundgren-produced version for Love Junk. So I had some questions about how the opening riff comes together and how it sounds similar to another song. But then just earlier today, I was chatting with Stephen Page,

and Stephen Page tours with Moe Berg in, uh, the, uh, trans Canada highwaymen. So it's, uh, Craig Northey from the odds. Yeah.

Craig Northey. I'll run them down quick, but Craig Northey from the odds is a great band. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Chris Murphy from Sloan. Yeah.

Moe Berg from the pursuit of happiness and Stephen Page, of course, from bare naked ladies. They, they, uh, they tour together and apparently they just recorded some original material together, so that's coming soon.

Well, thanks for the tip, Mike. Now I'm going to look these guys up. Stephen Page with the Bare Naked Ladies. So I am told by them, and this is many years ago, that I gave them their first live TV appearance, and it was at the Alma Combo, and it was a fundraising concert on a Sunday night for the Daily Bread Food Bank, and it was in 1987 or 88, I believe. And part of my job, the producer, the late Clint Nickerson said, okay, Chilton, go out and find a live band that'll go

on live TV for us. And that was a big part of what I did every weekend was go and find bands and put them on TV live and then talk about them and talk to them. Pretty good gig, huh? So I talked the Barenaked Ladies into letting us shoot their thing live at the Elmo on a Sunday night. And it was a fundraiser for the Daily Bread Food Bank. And I remember after the live hit, I think it was Steven. I mean, it was one of the other guys.

But he said, you know, that was our first time on live TV. That was pretty cool. Wow. That was pretty cool. Wow. That's unbelievable. And that name you dropped, the late Clint Nickerson, I hear that name all the time because I produce a show for Peter Gross called Down the Stretch, which is a horse racing podcast. And Peter's always telling me stories about him, Jim McKinney,

and Clint Nickerson watching horses at like Saratoga, for example. Yeah. So Clint was a watching horses at like Saratoga, for example. Yeah. So Clint was a news producer at city TV and he was a wonderful guy. He died in 2017, sadly six years ago now, I suppose. So, but he was,

he was very bright. But they used to also, he called himself Nick Pickerson. Cause if you've got something wrong in a broadcast, holy hell, were you in trouble but he gave me free reign with the live buying he gave me the greatest praise I'd ever had actually

at a young point in my career I was doing live hits at the C&E every single day of the C&E back in 1988 or whatever the heck it was and Clint in front of the whole newsroom after my live hit on one Friday afternoon said that was the best use of live television I've ever seen.

I dug some stuff that I suppose was entertaining. But Clint was a terrific guy and one of the ones we miss. Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear he passed because it sounds like he's missed at these Saratoga trips that Jim McKinney and Peter Gross still do these trips. That doesn't surprise me. Jesus, McKinney's got any money left after how many years of doing that?

Holy cow. Well, you know, with those NHL pensions, even back then, you still made a few bucks. Yeah, he deserves every penny. He's a terrific guy. You know, Jim McKinney was, so people always, I won't push this too far, but you know, he was a jock, right? He was an athlete. Of course, trauma, I believe. Yeah, good one. And so people make

these stereotypes about athletes that they're maybe not particularly intellectual, which is not always correct, obviously, but he coined one of the greatest phrases that I'd ever heard for a garbage time basketball game. You know, when They put the third bench out and it just doesn't matter because the score is 120-42. And McKinney called that the guerre de rien, the war of nothing. And I thought, holy cow, McKinney, you are actually way smarter than anyone thinks you are. And he was a wonderful person too. He used to ride his…

Okay, so some of us smoked cigarettes back in the days, you may imagine. And so, but McKinney was still an athlete and he would ride his little tiny little 10 speed home from his racing bike from City TV to his home in High Park. And he'd get his cycling garb on, but before he left, you know,

back having a smoke. And he was on his way out the door and one of the denizens of queen street a person who was homeless at the time said oh jimmy jen she was in dire straits and he dropped his bike and he brought her in and he sat her down he helped her out and did whatever i think you know got her a can of coke or whatever the heck it was before he got on his way and didn't make a deal of it it was just like holy cow this lady's in trouble bring her inside put her in a quiet corner, look after her. And it's like, you know, man of heart there.

Yeah, no, I've, by all accounts, he's been here too a couple of times, actually, because not only for my show, but for Peter Gross' show. Sweetheart of a man. Yeah, tremendous. And he told me straight out, he said he knew he was in trouble the day Catherine Humphrey showed up because he says in his words she was so much better than he was so he was uh his days were certainly prettier yeah and Catherine was was so witty as well I mean it's funny like the sports people or two of them

anyway Catherine and and John Gallagher they were as much much comedians as they were sports anchors. They had a gift for language. They knew how to land a line. And there are imitators these days, but I'd put those two on a pedestal as the funniest, most entertaining sportscasters ever. You're so right, but I will shout out, he didn't work for City TV, but he did work for Global.

I would shout out Mark Hebbshire on Sportsline, who is, you know, my... Hebbshire was a witty guy, yeah, there's no question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'll give you that one. Okay, shout out to Hebbsie, who I'm, by the way, fun fact, I will be live with Hebbsie tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. for another episode of Hebbsie on Sports. So we'll be live on his YouTube channel. And of course, you can subscribe to the podcast.

Okay, I got to get you, Lance, to the new VR. But really quickly, I would love to shout out the award-winning podcast from Moneris. Yes, we are open because season four is now available. And FOTM Al Grego has been traveling this country talking to small business owners and sharing their inspiring stories so if you're an entrepreneur like me I think you would really love this Lance uh check out yes we are open from Moneris and again unlike Toronto Mike that's an award-winning podcast so there's there's your mark you should send them my way because I'm an entrepreneur and I'm in a

small Canadian ex-urban center well I'm going to pass it on to Al, Al's listening right now Al's the host and the producer of that program and absolutely you'll be hearing from Al Grego Lance for sure for sure for sure and if you have

any obsolete technology there in that church that you're speaking to me from, maybe some old printer or fax machine that you haven't got, don't throw it in the garbage is what I'm telling you, Lance, because then it ends up in the landfill. The chemicals are terrible ending up in the landfill. But you can go to recyclemyelectronics.ca and find out where you can safely dispose of such tech. And thank you to the good people at EPRA for setting up recycle my electronics.ca. And last but not least,

there is a new sponsor on Toronto Mike. And then we're going to get Lance to the new VR because I do have questions about the new VR, but I would like to welcome the moment lab to Toronto Mike. And they specialize in public relations, and they have a team of experienced professionals who know how to craft stories that resonate with your audience and generate positive media coverage. So whether you're launching a new product, building your reputation, or managing a crisis, they have you covered. So let me introduce you to Matt and Jared

at The Moment Lab today to learn more about how they can help you achieve your public relations goals. Lance, this name, the new VR, I remember it very well because it seemed like the station was like 15 years old and they were still calling themselves the new VR. And I felt there should have been like a limit on when you have to get the word new out of there. So, and, and, you know, if Moses had another million bucks for every time someone answered him that asked him that question, then, you know, he'd be even better off, but his, and I asked him the same question because yeah, I guess it's legit. And he said, well, is it, is it,

is it York or is it New York? Like, is it still, why isn't it just York now? It was a new Amsterdam. I have no idea if that answer made any sense whatsoever. But that was his answer. Hey, look, it's still New York. It's still the new VR. Well, he's Moses. You know, whatever he says goes.

But this is CKVR where we all watch Leave it to Beaver reruns. And then the new VR and this show, I do remember the Barry news there coming out of the new VR that you were the anchor for, was sort of modeled on that environment at Citi. It was Citi Pulse-esque, right? That was the model for the new VR. Yeah, so it was the model. I don't think to this day that it was

viable in that marketplace simply because the city was too small at the time. And also the TV station itself, the physical location, did not lend itself to the same live street-oriented dynamic that City TV did so well. The station was and is still perched at the top of Beacon Hill, which is way off the highway and not close to anything but a subdivision. So it wasn't really the kind of busy urban environment that made the magic at City TV.

There was an effort many years ago. This would have been very early 2000s. We put an offer in, the company put an offer in on the old Allendale Railroad Station, which is on the Barrie Lakefront, and it's a beautiful old building. And we were picking offices. I mean, it was that close to being done. We were picking our offices there. But then something business-related happened that made it an unviable prospect.

I think maybe it was Bell deciding they were going to buy the company so they weren't going to spend any more money. But we did have the open environment. So the technology to produce and create the content was not separated from where it was delivered. Right. Which was one of the tenets of Moses's sort of theory of the broadcast environment. So so for all the people who worked at CKVR for all those years when it was a CBC affiliate and so high bound that this was like completely flipping the whole thing on its head. It was it was new to them, but everyone adapted really well. And it was a ton of fun.

The city just needed to be bigger than it was then for that to really succeed. You could probably do it today. Barrie's doubled in size since we moved north of Toronto. And I think you might probably get away with it today, but that's after the fact, isn't it? I hear it's doubled in size. And I also hear from people who are looking to move to the hotbed that is Barrie, Ontario, Canada. And they're like, what happened to those days I used to hear about when you could pick up

like a detached home for like $195,000? Like these days are long gone, I suppose, in Barrie. Now you're in my new wheelhouse, and I can answer the question with a lot of specificity. Yeah, the average sale price of a home in Barrie right now is about $770,000. Wow. Yeah.

And what is it? We bought our first home here for $200,000. Yeah. And it's beautiful. It's still there. Someone else lives in it now, but we moved out to the country some years ago. You it's wild even in this city though of toronto when i think back to the first home i bought with my first wife and we're going back now to like 2002

or something like that 2001 and i think oh yeah we bought a house for like 200 000 in toronto like you could do that in 2000 that was 20 years ago oh and my first house was on albany avenue uh oh in mimico just no no no no just between davenport and okay because there's an albany okay east of uh east of bathurst and a little little sandwich there by the factory theater okay and um that house was 179 000 and it was like a 10 and a half foot wide half house with wooden walls. And I could smell my neighbor's pot plants through the walls. He was an early urban agriculturalist. But that was $197,000.

And the house that we sold in Cabbage Town, we bought it and we kept it. Bob Hepburn from the Toronto Star was our tenant and he offered to buy it from us. And I sold it to him, which I regret to this day because I sold it I don't know for 400 grand or something in 2002 and I thought it was a financial genius right but now it's worth a buck six or whatever yeah oh my god if I had a if I had a dollar the only one I let go the rest I've done okay all right well you're my go-to guy when I have real estate questions. I'm going to Lance Chilton. Yeah, I do. Well, I've been doing this now for 13 years, and we've been fortunate to enjoy a lot of success. And, you know, we're winning all the real estate awards

and all that kind of stuff that's not quite as exciting as showbiz. But it is good to be your own boss, and it's good to still do research and communications for other than which is essentially what we do yeah so i'm going i actually have a great great piece of audio that'll like segue us from your media career to your real estate career i know your last newscast was anchored on june 15th 2010 so but because you actually said i think about i don't know 15 minutes ago lance you said the word subdivisions. You were talking about, Barry, and you said subdivisions.

And then it triggered this, of course, there's a great Rush song called Subdivisions. But here's where I'm going. Okay, so listeners of Toronto Mike know exactly where I'm going here. But there's a voice in that song, subdivisions. You can kind of hear it in your head, subdivisions. And me and my friend, Ed Conroy, also known as Retro Ontario, we are of the belief that that is Mark Daly

saying subdivisions. I may know. If you play that back, I may be able to tell you. Okay, you know what? Now, I will do that then. I'm going to go to... Work with me. This is live. You lost Mark some years ago, too. He was a wonderful, wonderful guy. and he had

of course the best pipes in the business by far. Well, you want to hear a little of that? So this will kind of get us ready when I go to play subdivisions in a minute here. But this is Mark Daly. The following program contains adult themes, nudity, and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is

advised. The great Mark Daly. Absolutely. The voice, we called him. And he was a sweetheart too, right? He was a good guy. Yeah. And he was one of the few people on TV who was taller than me. Oh, wow. I'm 6'5". Mark was about 6'6".

You're 6'5". Okay, that's why you're not in my basement. You'd hit your head on this ceiling here. Okay. You can't really tell in audio. You're 6'5", eh? Okay, that's why you're not in my basement. You'd hit your head on this ceiling here. Okay, so... You can't really tell in audio. Okay, so can you hear this? I can.

I have to find it. Hold on. Okay. What did you say there? I said that's got to be him. Yeah, okay. So I also believe 100% that is Mark Daly. Ed agrees with me. Apparently, maybe at some point they were asked about it and they said it was Neil Peart,

but I think they were saying that for whatever reason. But I believe absolutely absolutely saying subdivisions that is mark daly in that rush song so you agree with me lance chilton i do and i know neil pert's voice relatively well because i used to speak with him a lot one of my favorite interviews was with neil and it was on the rooftop at 299 queen and it was when he released a solo album called burning for buddy and it was a tribute to the great jazz drummer Buddy Rich. And whenever there was anything to do with jazz, I got it because I was the only person who liked jazz at the station at the time. And I was so thrilled.

That means I got to interview Charlie Watts, too, at length. But I was up on the roof with Neil talking about Burning for Buddy. We turned it into a fairly long feature, and I think you can still find it on YouTube. But he was a, you know, everyone knows Neil Peart for his drum kit that would fill the back of a 53-foot trailer, but really, he was arguably at his best when he had, you know, snare, hi-hat, tom, bass drum, and a riding cymbal, because that's all he had for Burnin' for Buddy. Same drum kit as Buddy Rich. So, yeah, you just dredged up. You're really good at dredging up excellent memories, Mike. Well, look, it's not often I'm Zooming with somebody

who knew Mark Daly and worked with Mark Daly. And then of course, it's going to come back to Rush and Subdivisions. And it's like, you're just playing a, you know, you're playing all the notes here. But earlier this conversation, you mentioned the name Herbie Hancock and you said you had a story.

So before I segue you from media to real estate, why don't you share that Herbie Hancock story? Oh you had a story. So before I segue you from media to real estate, why don't you share that Herbie Hancock story? Oh, it's a very quick story, but I'll tell it to you very quickly. I was at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival with my great friend Basil Young, who was the coolest man in television. He was a photographer. Brother of Master T, right? Tony's brother, yeah. Basil taught me to eat with a knife and fork and taught me how to be a gentleman. He's a terrific guy. But we were in St. Lucia together because Basil loved jazz as he loved

all music. And he and I were sent down to St. Lucia to cover the St. Lucia Jazz Fest because Herbie Hancock was there, Rochelle Farrell, and George Benson. So we were put up at this really lavish place where Paul Simon was staying. I bumped into him and really knocked him on his ass, literally coming around the corner, going to the pool, blah, blah, blah. But there was one night we all got invited back to George Benson's villa

after one of the concerts. And I have this picture. Again, it's in my archive, the box is in the basement. And Basil Young took this photograph and gave it to me and said, don't ever lose this. And I'm sitting beside Herbie Hancock at the basement. And Basil Young took this photograph and gave it to me and said, don't ever lose this. And I'm sitting beside Herbie Hancock at the piano. George Benson is at the other edge of the piano looking at Herbie and me. And everyone's got a flagon of brandy in front of them, but as deep as a kiddie pool. And Herbie, and I think he was playing Cantaloupe Island,

although I may be wrong on that. And they're just shooting the breeze and talking and we were enjoying ourselves. And Herbie's saying, okay, so he showed me how to do a C chord or whatever on the bass line. He just says, do this and just, that's the only one I'm going to give you. Just do that. So there I was playing piano with Herbie Hancock. Wow. And Basil captured it.

Sadly, not on video. It's an old-fashioned film photograph that I have somewhere. But amazing. Yeah. And I ran into Herbie a few times again over the years here and there. And he is an amazing person. He's a lifelong Buddhist, which a lot of people don't know. He's well into his 80s now. He doesn't look at sound interactive. He's been married to the same woman for, gosh, 50-odd years. And he's still one of the best minds for gosh 50 odd years and uh and he's still uh one of the best minds not just to music but anywhere wow amazing amazing okay so i mentioned i had a clip now ckvr

you join it it's the new vr at some point it becomes a channel and then so is it a channel when you leave? Yeah. In 2010? Yes, it was. Yeah. It was. I used to call it a channel because they used the nonspecific pronoun as a brand. And I was never sure that made a lot of sense. But they were trying to create a brand that was a non-brand because it was for sale and it was in the process of being purchased by Bell Media. It was Bell Globe Media at the time.

And today we would call this station CTV Barry, right? CTV 2, I think. CTV 2 or CTV Barry if you look at it on your channel guide, yeah. Are there still Leave it to Beaver reruns airing on CTV 2?

Not to the best of my knowledge. Alright, so I got an email, so I just mentioned hey, Lance Chilton's coming in. I got this great note from Dan Spearin. Dan was actually on a recent episode of Toronto Mike because I recorded live from the GLB Brew Pub, which is at Jarvis and Queen's Quay, and it was basically a party

with like 19 people from Chorus, which means Global News and AM640 Toronto. And one of the people there was Dan Spearin because he's got a show on weekends on 640. And Dan writes in, ask Lance about all things new VR and maybe this interesting news segment

from a few years back. So I'm just going to play a little bit about this because it's going to segue us nicely into, let me make sure I've got it, into your new career. So it's a little low in the mix, but let's listen to this. Tonight we continue our weekly series, Ask an Expert. Casey Colby speaks now with Lance Chilton, now of Chilton Real Estate, about when to sell and about home renovations.

Lance, we often hear that spring is the best time to sell. Is that always the case, and why or why not? Well, it depends what you're selling. You know, if you look at any given year in the past sort of five or six years in Barrie and Simcoe County, the peak months for sales are usually May and June, and that's driven by families. Families want to be out of their old house by the end of July and into their new house and their new school zone by the end of July.

So that moves a huge amount of the market, about two thirds, but that leaves the other one third. So if you're selling a family home, then yes, spring is the best time to sell. But if you're selling, say, a condominium or you're selling a bungalow on a golf course or a recreational property, then it almost doesn't matter. Then the answer, when is the best time to sell, becomes, well, what's the competition like? And that's sort of independent of the seasons. And what about the question of whether to renovate your home

as a way of adding value to it versus maintenance and general upkeep? So good question. So people often say, you know, I just redid my roof. How much more is my house worth? Well, the answer is nothing, because we expect a house to have a functioning roof so that it doesn't leak. On the other hand, if you say, I just spent $20,000 on my kitchen and it now has granite countertops and heated floors, well then, yeah, that is an upgrade and it's going to make your house worth more money. So

the stuff like the furnace and the roof and all the mechanical stuff that you can't see, you have to maintain that. But all that does is maintains your home's value. Things that you improve, most notably bathrooms and kitchens, you'll get back between 75% to 80% of the value of those when you go to sell. And you'll get a quicker sale because I'll tell you what, everyone thinks that they want to renovate their house. Nobody wants to actually renovate their house. They want to buy the house that you've already taken care of. So they'll get you a quicker sale because I'll tell you what, everyone thinks that they want to renovate their house. Nobody wants to actually renovate their house.

They want to buy the house that you've already taken care of. So we'll get you a quicker sale. All right, Lance, I played the whole thing. So I have to send you an invoice. This is so awkward, but you know. That was actually pretty good advice, I have to say. All of that still stands true today.

So thank you for that, Mike. I appreciate that. So what was that? That was not a broadcaster at the time, right? I was a realtor at that time. And that was actually a series that they did that, yeah, that they asked me to participate in. So, I mean, you're a familiar face to viewers of the program. So it's like, let's bring our old anchor back as a real estate expert because that's what he is now.

Like, is that the deal there? That you pretty much nailed it on the head there. Yeah, right now. I was actually, they interviewed me about a month ago just to talk about where the market is because obviously it's been through a huge transition in the wake of the COVID pandemic and lots of things have changed, mainly price.

As you pointed out earlier, real estate is, there's no such thing as affordable real estate. No, man. I mean, we used to talk about barriers. oh, I can't afford to live in Toronto. I guess I'll have to buy a mansion in Barrie. Like, it's like, you know what I mean? It's like. Yeah. No, when we, well, we bought our first house here and it had like a half acre lot and a swimming pool and it costs like nothing. And I thought, oh my goodness, like now I get it.

And still, you know what? I mean, value still drives people north because the average price in Toronto has crept back well up above a million dollars. And I think it's about one, two or one, three as of today when we speak. And whereas in Simcoe County, the average sale price is eight hundred and thirteen thousand dollars as of this very day. So, you know, you can still and it's not necessarily Barrie. It could be Innisfil. It could be Angus, Esso, wherever, anywhere in Senko County, is absolutely more affordable than Toronto. And that has been and continues

to be a driver of our real estate marketplace. It's not nearly as much fun as talking about John Gallagher with a go cup full of white wine before a broadcast getting out of his BMW convertible. But still still there it is. That he's still using that white,

that white, uh, Tumblr or whatever. He still uses that. I mean, cause when he would come here every week to record Gallagher and Gross Save the World, I had to put certain bottles in the freezer so he could keep that,

uh, Tumblr topped off. And he's, by the way, we're not telling stories at a school because he literally put it on the Gallagher and Gross Save the World cover and has been very open about the fact john gallagher that's like his medicine absolutely so lance you were amazing with these stories about city tv and and uh basically much music and you mentioned toronto rocks then we get you to the the new vr so here before we say

goodbye and you're now at FOTM, one day I'm going to meet you in person, even though you're a tall guy. I'm going to have to look up because I'm not quite as tall as you. But this is your chance. If somebody does want to talk to Lance Chilton Realtor, how can people reach out to you, follow you,

and maybe ask you, the expert, about, can I buy a mansion in Barrie for $200,000, Lance? I ask you the expert about, you know, can I buy a mansion in Barrie for 200,000, Lance? I'll do my best to find you one. And we'll get to know each other in the process. It's very easy, Mike. Thechiltonteam.com. Thechiltonteam.com.

Or just Google my name because I still Google pretty good. But you know, you're a cyclist, right? Yes. One of the reasons I moved here is because of cycling. Three kids in my neighborhood were on the Canadian National Cycling Team. People train for the Ride Across America here because the roads are smooth and

hilly. It's one of the reasons I moved here was because the cycling is so good. We have my attention. You might be making a sale on this recording. Are you a road warrior still or are you on off-road? No, I have literally a single speed Fuji feather

here. I did 35k earlier today. I'm on the Martin Goodman Trail mainly, but today I did Ontario Place. I should tell you, I'm in South Etobicoke. Then I went across to Ontario Place and then I went up to High Park and did a couple loops because they had a controlled burn and I thought

I could see some fire, fire, fire. But, uh, anyway, so that we can, we can,

we can toss a match in the forest for you when it come up, but the cycling up here is terrific. And, and, uh, amazing for a lot of Canada's best competitive cyclists actually, uh, hail from,

you know, I might be talking to my wife tonight about, uh, Barry Mike. How does that sound? Barry Mike? Well, you,

you know you you know you know how to find me so if you need some recommendations on trails and that sort of thing then uh you make sure and reach out thechiltonteam.com thechiltonteam.com and and i gotta ask the obvious question which is how big a team is this is because sometimes i talk about tmds which is stands for toronto mike digital services and i'll refer to it like it's a big team. And then, oh, who's on this team? And I'll be like, oh, it's me, myself, and I. But how big is this Chilton team? So we have four full-time operations staff,

a business manager, director of strategic operations, a marketing communications manager, and a listings manager. And then we have 10 realtors. All right, awesome. That's a real team. Yeah. We cover from Collingwood up to the southern part of Muskoka, like Bala, that area, over

to Orillia. It's a geographical footprint, something about the size of PEI, but we've got people in all those corners. Well, thanks for doing this, Lance. Thanks for doing this. This was great fun for me. Oh, hey, listen, you know what? It's been a real pleasure, Mike,

and I really appreciate being asked to do this because it's been a very enjoyable trip up and down memory lane. And that brings us to the end of our 1,237th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. To contact the Chilton

team, go to thechiltonteam.com Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Moneris is at Moneris. Recycle My Electronics are at

EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. See you all tomorrow when we dive deep into the history

of Glulay. Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the snow wants me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well you've been under my skin for more than eight years

It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray Well, 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 gray

Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah, I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? I've been picking up trash and then putting down ropes And they're broken in stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am

But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've kissed you in France, and I've kissed you in Spain. And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you

Yeah, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy and everything is rosy and gray. Thank you.