Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Lee Eckley: Toronto Mike'd #1011

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

In this 1011th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Lee "Beef" Eckley as they discuss his career in radio at CFNY, Q107, CHUM-FM and 94.9 The Rock. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and RYOBI Tools.

Welcome to episode 1011 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. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Canna Cabana, the lowest prices on cannabis guaranteed.

Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. And Ryobi, join the cordless revolution with Ryobi's 18-volt OnePlus system. There's over 260 tools in the system, and it's available now at Home Depot. Joining me this week, making his Toronto mic debut,

is Lee Beef Eckley. Welcome, Lee. Nice to meet you, buddy. It's nice to be here. It's nice to hear your theme song in the headphones. Is it too cool for me? What do you think? It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Okay, that says yes. Okay, that's a yes. Okay.

I will say I've been kind of talking back and forth with you on social media for, I think, several years. Like, you're a guy I've wanted to get over here to the TMDS studio for quite some time. So it's like, what an honor it is to see you here in the flesh. Thanks for being here. The pleasure is mine. Thank you very much.

Is that true? Is it the pleasure? Yeah, it is. Okay, well, we got to get into that. Okay, firstly, I have a nice note for you from a gentleman. I know this gentleman, but Roger King. Oh, Roger. He's my agent. Okay, firstly, I have a nice note for you from a gentleman. I know this gentleman, but Roger King. Oh, Roger. He's my agent.

Okay, he says, I've heard of him. Happy face. It'll be a great episode, I'm sure. I'm all ears. Now, Roger King, he directed the documentary that had David Marsden in it. Yeah, and Roger will slap me in the head for this.

I forget the name of it. It's called We Play What We Want or something like that. We Are What We Play. We Are What We Play. Yeah. And I haven't seen it yet. And I'm sorry, I still haven't seen it. I have seen it. It's very good. Yeah. And I mean, we'll get into all this. But that was, of course, when David Marsden had a show on The Rock. Yeah, some of that was was was filmed in the in the rock studios we've we've upgraded the studios there since then so i'm trying to think old look i got a tour i was visit i went to do like i was speaking to durham college about podcasting and then i visited my friend bob willett when he was there and i got a tour and it was very cool. Doug Elliott was there and it was,

it was great. But has it been, has it been fixed up since then? Yeah. Yeah. We got new studios three summers ago and they're beautiful. Yeah. Cool.

They were fine before, but you know, they just, they were getting a little old in the tooth. So it was time for a little revamp. Some paint. And this is a, for those who haven't been to the Rock Studio in Oshawa,

it's like there's an airplane hangar, like there's an airport there. It's an airport. Okay. Yeah, there's an airport there. Yeah, we're in the main terminal, which is fantastic because I love airplanes. So there's lots of cool stuff that flies in every once in a while. And sometimes, well, especially before the pandemic, the guys from the Canadian Armed Forces

would fly in in the big Hercules, and they'd park on the apron right outside the studios, and they'd go to the Mandarin across the street for lunch. It was pretty funny. Used to love that. Would the noise of the airplanes ever interfere with the broadcast? Not for me.

No, it just needs to play it louder. Yep. I hear you. Okay, well, we're going to talk more about The Rock. That era that they covered of David Marsden, he was able to play, if I remember correctly, he had a Sunday night show on The Rock that he could play whatever he wanted.

Yeah, Saturdays and Sundays, yeah. And that was part of the deal in the doc that like Marsden was, see, I'm doing a Zoom with Marsden tomorrow night. Okay. Tell him hello for me, please. I haven't seen him in a while. For sure.

But I think maybe even before this documentary came out, the rock parted ways of David Marsden. But it didn't ruin the doc because they just left that part out. It's still there. Hey, another note came in here before we dive in. Tom Jokic. Yeah.

Jimmy. Fantastic fantastic he says great guy who will tell you great stories and i'm sure you worked with tom at chum fm yeah i did yeah yeah quite extensively tom was there for i guess since the mid 80s but we're gonna so we're gonna get into this now so even we just mentioned marsden he's gonna come up in a minute so i i got a interesting nugget from Mark Wiseblood, who comes on the show once a month here. Yeah, Mark. But before that, I called you Beef. Where the heck did the nickname Beef come from?

Do you remember, there was a horrible movie with Paul Williams years ago called Phantom of the Paradise. It was a takeoff on Phantom of the Opera. Okay, okay. I don't remember this. And in the movie was a flamboyant rock star whose name was Beef. Now the movie was horrible, but this character

Beef just made me laugh my face off. And he used to go, Beef! And so we started doing Beef all the time. And eventually you do that all the time. And when somebody says started doing beef all the time and eventually you do that all the time and when somebody says beef to you all the time it kind of sticks so that's where it came from okay and is this movie from the 70s when does this movie yeah paul williams i feel like he's a 70s cat like 74 75 around there yeah there's good reason for you not to hear about it. It's horrible.

That horrible movie is about my age now. Okay. So let me give the first question to, now that I found out the origin of the name Beef. Do you mind if I call you Beef? Sure, go ahead. I just think it's cool. If someone's nickname is Beef, then I'm going to call him Beef, yeah.

And you're not a vegetarian, right? Like you eat beef? Oh yeah, absolutely. Glad you said that. I have a meat lasagna in the freezer upstairs for you, courtesy of Palma Pasta. Fantastic. So, and you're here in Southern Etobicoke.

You came from Durham region, right? Do you live in Oshawa? I live in Whitby. Oh, so close. Okay, okay. So how was the drive? Just curious. You know, I always get anxious when I have to drive into the city

just because I hate driving into the city. I love the city. And having to come over the top today, I was concerned about the traffic on the 401. Luckily, it was a really good drive. It was 45 minutes and nice and easy. But expensive, right? Because that tank is more expensive to fill up today than it usually is.

You know, that added another layer of anxiousness. It's like, this better be worthwhile. So I don't know, the lasagna will help. So I will just give you a couple of gifts off the top. And then I got a question from Mark Hebbshire, who's a huge, he's a big beef fan. Oh, Mark, great guy. I haven't seen him in ages. Oh man, he speaks very highly of you, but we'll get to that in a minute.

I'm going to give you some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery to take home with you. Amazing. You're going to get some meat lasagna from Palma Pasta. Beautiful. Do I get any cannabis? That's the thing. I don't have the flower for you, but here's what I have for you.

Alright. Okay, so I have two things. I have a toque for you. Yeah. So Canna Cabana sent over that toque. You can never have enough toques, the unbeatable toque. They have unbeatable prices on cannabis. Go to cannacabana.com.

And I have a handpipe for you. This is called the Afterglow. So, you know, you got some nice accessories there. Yeah, crack that open. Make sure there's... Too bad I'm not holding. Well, you got some nice accessories there. I know. Yeah. Crack that open. Make sure there's... Too bad I'm not holding. Well, you know. Wait till Monica finds out we're now smoking in the TMDS studio.

But yeah, you know, when beef sparks one, you know, go for it. So much love to Canna Cabana for that and sending that over. Thank you. That's very kind. And it's here. And yeah, okay. So you got a nice handpipe there. That's really nice.

And there is a Toronto Mike sticker for you from stickeru.com as well. Well, I have a fridge. I was going to ask where that's going to end up here. I'm going to stick it on your car before you drive away here. Okay. So Hebsey wants me to ask you about the time you played in the media hockey league and a certain sportscaster who was much bigger hit you with a blindside check

in a cause date. And these are Hebsey's words, a brouhaha. I don't feel we use that term enough. We need more brouhaha expressions. But tell me about this and I need you to name this sportscaster. I'm wondering if Mark

is getting instances confused. Okay, he's conflating the story. Yeah, I played hockey with Mark and a whole bunch of guys from Global and some other media guys for a few months back in the mid-'80s. There was one instance where I got into a brouhaha with somebody that everybody got into a brouhaha with. But a couple of weeks later, I bumped into a certain sportscaster by the name of Greg Manziuk from City TV.

Oh, I remember him. Totally. Big boy. And he stuck his hip out, and I took a funny fall. And it wasn't a dirty check. And the fall was... It wasn't unusual. But I fell in such a way yeah that i landed and absorbed the uh fall with my left shoulder and something went well like a separated shoulder yeah well you know i just left separate shoulder playing hockey okay so worst yeah well this is this was

put on a shirt like and i was on percocets for days it was horrible well i didn't i didn't have to go that far but what happened was um i fell down, knew something was wrong, went to the bench, and thought I'll be okay after a couple of minutes. I'll shake it off. Right. I couldn't bend my arm. My arm was just jammed. Wow.

So I called one of the guys on the ice. Actually, Mitch Azaria. I don't know if you remember Mitch. He's an FOTM. Oh, there you go. There you go. He's worked on Sportsline with Hep C. And Mitch very kindly drove me to Sunnybrook Hospital.

And in those days, emergency wasn't such a bad thing. They pulled me in right away, and they gave me some x-rays. And it was funny. They put me up on a gurney. And they had to cut my uniform off because my arm was jammed to get me into the x-ray machine. And then they had to put my shoulder back in place. So it was dislocated, not separated, because they're two different things,

but it sounds like it was dislocated. Well, I dislocated my rotator cuff. I tore it. So to put it back in place, they put me on a gurney on my stomach, and they grabbed a big bottle of spring water, and the nurse said to me, can you grip this with your fingers?

And I said, okay, I'll try it. It was even hard to move my fingers. It was so weird. So she dropped it into my fingers and it popped back into place. And she went, woo! I told you it would work. You know, I was her little experiment. And anyway, it took me about a year to recover from that.

It was six months later, I couldn't raise my shoulder this high and I didn't think I would ever get better, but I'm fine now. And I was going to ask, any lingering effects? Because I still, because I do a lot of biking and I can still feel where I broke my wrist. Like I can still feel it. It's pretty normal and functional, but it's not the same. But do you have any like reminders where you feel like some sore shoulder

and you're like, oh yeah, that's from Greg. No, no. Okay. Good. I'm lucky. Now I mentioned wise blood because when I think of, you know,

beef, now I'm hungry, but I think about, okay. Q 107. Yep. And I think of chum FM. And now of course the rock where you've been for many years.

And we're going to talk about that. Doug Elliott, before I forget, tell the listenership who Doug Elliott is. Doug Elliott is my boss. He's the program director of 94.9 The Rock. And yeah. I put out a plea. I needed my Wii broke. That sounds dirty, but it's not.

My Nintendo Wii broke. It does sound dirty. And he biked over his old Wii, and literally this past weekend, my two youngest were playing Mario Kart on that very Wii just around the corner here. Oh, that's not great. So I just want to say shout out to Doug Elliott.

Yeah, that's something he'd do. I know. He's just, yeah, he's like, hey, he brought it over. And that's got to be a long drive, but gas was a lot cheaper then. So, you know, don't, you know. But's just, yeah, he's like, hey, he brought it over. And that's got to be a long drive. But, you know, gas was a lot cheaper then. So, you know, don't, you know. But what a nice gesture. Okay.

So Wise Blot goes, Lee Eckley goes back so far that David Marsden replaced him at CFNY after he was lured to Q107. So. Go ahead. he was lured to Q107. Go ahead. I need to know how do you end up at... I need the quick backstory of how you end up

at CFNY and then we got to talk about that because I'm planning a special episode 1021. That's why I'm zooming with Marsden. And I think of Marsden from the start of CFNY.

That's how my brain thinks of it. But of course, he's obviously not there at the start. But you take over, man, because no one wants to hear my voice now. How do you end up at CFNY? And how the heck does Marsden end up replacing you there? That's wild. Well, how does David end up replacing me is a very easy question to answer. He's David Marsden.

But no, CFNY was my first job. I started working there when I was in college, at Humber College in 1976. And I think it was October or November of 76. I remember the day because it was the day that guitarist Tommy Boland died, and I was on the air that night. Hung on there for about eight months. We were 875 watts.

You'd blink and the signal would be gone. Well, there, just because I'm just going through this history. So it's like there's chic, chic. CHIC, Chick FM. Right. Or Chick AM and Chick FM, which later became CFNY. And that happens. Doesn't that happen in 76?

Or did that already happen before you got there? It happened before I got there. And then we got the power increase to a hundred thousand Watts a few months later. We did not expect that to happen. Um, I was still going to school at the same time. I was actually juggling a couple of jobs, including my job at CFNY. Um, and, uh, near the end of the school year, I was asked if I wanted to stay on full-time so I didn't go back to school and I stayed on there full-time until December of 1976 when the first rating book came out and we didn't do very well and I guess they were looking for they were looking for excuses to make changes and and I got caught in the shrapnel and you you must have been very

very young uh 1920 in it around there yeah that's very very young yeah i was in a little over my head but you know what the heck and at that time what was the format of cf and why complete free form could do anything we wanted played everything from dvorak to black Sabbath to the Sex Pistols to Miles Davis. It was amazing. It was my dream job. When I got fired, I was devastated. Wow. Yeah.

So I think the whole fun fact that you were at CFY, I had no idea. I'll be honest. Yeah, that's okay. A lot of people don't know that. And so Marsden comes in, and Marsden was a known, we'll forget the Dave Mickey era on 590, but he was David Marsden on Chum FM.

Right. So, and then I know he went off and did some CBC stuff and this and that, but Marsden replaces you on CFNY, and how much time surpasses before you end up at Q107? A couple months after I got blown out at CFNY, I went to work up at CKBB and CKCB, that's Barry and Collingwood, for a company called Four Seasons Broadcasting.

Spent about eight months up there, and after about eight months, I decided it was time to make a move, and I happened to make a phone call at the right time, and I got hired at Q107 a couple of days later. Now, when does your arrival at Q107, how, like, isn't that when Q107 launches? I feel like you're close to the origin

of these, like, historic Toronto stations. Yeah, it was 78 when I started at Q107, and they launched in, it was the long weekend, the May long weekend of 1977, so they were just a little over a year old. Okay, if anyone wants, we did a pretty good deep dive into the origin of Q when Dave Charles was my guest and we

got into that for sure. Okay, so before I leave CFNY, do you remember like any of the online lineup, on-air lineup that would have been at CFNY when you were there in 76? Absolutely. Al Spring did mornings.

Terry McElligot did middays. Who did drive? Oh, excuse me. Terry McElligot was doing drive. Oh, I might be getting my memory might be a little hazy on this. Who was doing drive at that time? Might have even been David Pritchard. I forget. And I was doing evenings.

And then Dave Booth was doing evenings as well. And Reiner was doing some evenings. Oh, Reiner Schwartz. Yeah. Yeah. But I think, I think Dave, I don't think Reiner wanted to be there full time. I think he just wanted to do a couple of days a week. So he moved to weekends and then Dave Booth, daddy cool came in and, uh, did nine to 1, 9 to 2, something like that. Wow. Yeah. And do you remember, I love that you have a better memory than, you know, not a bad memory. Sometimes I have you radio vets on and some people can run down the line of verbatim and some are like, I have no idea.

I don't remember anything. But who was at Q107 when you arrived there? The morning show was hosted by Ted Wallachian. There you go. And he was at CFNY as well. Yes, he was after Q107 when you arrived there? The Morning Show was hosted by Ted Wallachian. There you go. And he was at CFNY as well. Yes, he was after Q107. Right. For a couple of stints, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah. Middays. Who was doing Middays? Okay, so I did a little looking into this. Bob Say? Was he there? Bob Say was there. Maybe he was doing Middays at that time.

And then John Donabee was doing Afternoon Drive. And a guy named Dean Hill was doing the evenings. And Ron Bruchel was doing the overnight show. So this is all starting to come back to me. And very good. And here's a name. This is a guy I want to get on Toronto Mic at some point. So maybe if you can help me do that.

Wayne Webster. Ah, Wayne, yeah. Worked with him in the music library at Q107. wayne and i went to humber college together as well wow and uh here's the news department i believe in 1978 on q107 you had jane hodden was there jane yep and uh chuck bridges chuck bridges he was great i i was i loved working with him because i worked with him at uh or i didn't work i listened to him on chum fm and i just loved his delivery and uh and and working alongside him was fantastic he used to uh he used to come in literally 30 seconds before his first newscast and he would rip and read and i it just blew me away how a guy could just come in and just rip the the top stories off the off the teletype sit

down and uh and ace a newscast the way he did i think he's out east now uh paul harrington was in the news department paul harrington paul harrington yeah yeah he he went uh he was from brantford he used to commute from brantford all the time and he ended up getting a job back in Brantford. And if I'm not mistaken, he and I just hooked up on Facebook a couple of, uh, a few months ago. I haven't seen him posting much lately. So sorry. Sorry, Paul. I had to, my memory jogged again. And here, you know, cause we're going to be talking a lot about Chum FM and, uh, you know, you were at CFNY, but here you are doing traffic. Geetz Romo. Oh, yeah, Geetz.

What a trip it was working with him. Wow. Because I, you know, I loved listening to Chum FM when I was in high school. Right. And I think Pete and Geetz kind of helped form my sense of humor. They weren't, they were more bizarre than, they were slapstick and silly. They weren't one-liners or anything.

I just liked the way they presented things. And Pete was such a great straight man and Geetz was so out there in his characters, Lardette and McTavish, McRomo and all that. It was so entertaining. If anyone wants a deep dive into the Geetz Romo, he is an FOTM as well.

You are now officially an FOTM. Thank you. So welcome to the family, as we say. But Geetz Romo's episode of Toronto Mike is pretty epic too. And I was talking to Freddie Patterson this morning because I produce Humble and Fred's show. And Fred, same thing.

I mean, he got to work with Pete and Geetz on CFNY but he said those are the guys who you know shaped his you know sense of humor and he modeled his radio career after he loved those guys so the late the late great Peter Griffin and of course Geetz are almost still with us Peter was such a fantastic broadcaster and he just he just knew how to sit in the pocket and when he when he wanted to improvise a bit he could do it beautifully he was fantastic so again uh beef any stories that come to mind as we kind of walk through all this uh just spit them out man because that's what we're doing here capturing these stories so you know there there's a lot sitting back there it's kind

of hard to see the forest through the trees sometimes. So hopefully I can pull some stuff out for you. So I wanted to see, like, what was that lineup, you know, with Ted Walsh and John Donabee, two FOTMs as well. I mean, I'll shout them out just because they have their own episodes. But there was also on, at the time, the 6 o'clock rock report, Bob Malkowitz. Yeah, it wasn't the 6 o'clock rock report back in those days. Well, when I started there, it was just a short 15-minute,

maybe even 30-minute feature. It was called Performance. And the 6 o'clock rock report evolved from that, and I'm not sure when it did that. It was a couple of years later. But that evolved from Bob Mackiewicz moving from a weekend position to his music director position. And he created the Six O'Clock Rock Report out of that.

And speaking of foreground programming, I think there's an episode of Scott Turner where we just talked about this sort of mandate, the CRTC mandate and all the foreground programming that pops up, but barometer. So I mentioned Bob say he'd be on like from 10 to 1, and then barometer would be on from like 1 to 2. Yeah.

And then Bob Say would come back 2 to 3 before John Donabee takes over 3 to 6. Yeah, I actually did that for a little while when I was doing middays at Q107 in the early 80s. And it was nice. I'd work for two hours, head downstairs, have a little lunch, and then come back and finish my two hours.

So while we're at Q107 here, and as we progress here, so that was like 70, when you get there, it's like 78, 1978. But here, let's get to the mid-80s on Q107, so you're still there. But I don't remember Samantha Taylor being on Q107 because I don't discover Samantha Taylor being on Q107 because I don't discover Samantha Taylor until Video Hits. Right. But Video Hits was a CBC show, but before that she had a CFMT show called Video Singles.

Correct. I have stories about that I can tell you about. Yeah, I love it because anyone my vintage remembers Samantha Taylor bringing us the videos. Let's hear it. Well, I was one of the original hosts of video singles yeah originally we shot a whole bunch of us shot the pilot um it was myself john major yeah rick ringer and samantha taylor so the idea was to have five

local radio hosts right hosting the show well this is on a competing television station. You had the Chum City Connection and Q107 didn't have any conflict. But it didn't work out for the Chum folks. Ringer and John were discouraged from doing the job. John Major actually quit his job at Chum because he wanted to do the television gig. And for whatever reason, we were discouraged from taking on that extra workload

by our managers at Q107. Yeah, interesting, because, you know, I get the conflict if you're in the Chum City family, and they have... But when does Toronto Rock show up? Isn't there Toronto Rocks in 84? Yeah, it was around that time. I think maybe John was doing the video singles thing solo for in 84? Yeah, it was around that time. I think maybe John

was doing the video singles thing solo for about six months. Maybe it was a year. And then Chum came back at him and said let's get you back in the fold. They created the show for City TV and that's when Samantha went to do video singles. So that's when she became the host. So she became the host.

And it's funny because they call it MTV, but it's not music television. It was MTV back in the day. Yeah she became the host. And it's funny because they call it MTV, but it's not music television. It was MTV back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Multicultural television. Yeah. Right, CFMT.

Okay, there's a shout out to FOTM, Joel Goldberg, because Jay Gold, what was that show called? You know, somewhere, I have a poster, I think maybe from Jay Gold. I have a poster somewhere

of the cover of a magazine with all the early video jockeys. Like Denise Donlan's in there, or Michael Williams is in there, Erica M. But you also have Jay Gould, and you have all these... I've got to come up with the name of that CFMT show. It's going to drive me nuts. I'll check it in a minute.

But that's nice? Why do I want to call it That's Nice? that CFMT show. It's going to drive me nuts. I'll check it in a minute, but that's, that's nice. Why do I want to call it? That's nice. It can't be called. That's nice. CFMT. You doing a search?

Yeah, I'm doing a quick search here because, um, something else. Okay. 1985. Okay. Something else.

Do you remember this? Uh, so Shirley McQueen. Yes. Speaking of Q107. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of Q107. Speaking of Q107. Absolutely.

So I'm just looking here now. It's funny. I Googled this and guess what? My episode with Joel Goldberg is the top result. There you go. So we talked about something else on CFMT. You got those butts working for you. It's working here.

All right. That's wild when that happens. Okay. So other than mid-80s, so Samantha Taylor left Q107 to host video singles. I wonder if she did. I don't remember.

Now, other announcers here, again, anything that strikes, you just say it into the microphone, but what can you tell us about? I want to imitate him. Scruff Connors. The listenership needs to know more about Scruff Connors. The listenership needs to know more about Scruff. I should point out, his son is an

FOTM, TJ Connors. Yeah, TJ. Tyler. I remember him when he was a baby. That's funny. He's a real estate agent now, by the way. Yeah, I know. Too many talented people aren't working in the business anymore, but talented people. What's that about?

I agree with you. I thought TJ, well, Freddie P actually hired him in Peterborough when he was the program director at The Wolf. And then he, of course, had the hits in St. Catharines, which I always think is funny. The rock and the hits are like each side of the GTA, kind of the rock stations. And then got like a dream gig at Winnipeg to do mornings.

And then whatever went down there, he's now selling real estate. So that tells you how that ended up. Yeah. I can't speak to what happened out there. All I know is that sometimes if things don't take very quickly, these large radio groups lose their patience and move on to the next thing because they think that's the thing to do. But it wasn't always like that, right?

Like you used to, you know, nurture a program and, you know, give it some time to find its legs and its audience and its voice and all that important stuff, right? Well, you could afford to do it in those days. It's a completely different landscape now. So it's the internet's fault. It's, well, it's the internet's fault. But I think the powers that be are at fault as well. Well, it's the internet's fault, but I think the powers that be are at fault as well.

When the internet came into prominence, a lot of the big broadcasters pulled back. They stopped investing in talent, and that's to their detriment. Well, more on that as we progress here. There's some names I want to ask you about, but what can you say about... I feel like we should make a movie about Scruff. Like I just feel the stories I've heard about Scruff,

like some of the stories, like I'm almost afraid, I don't even know if I should repeat them, but some of them are just wild, like absolutely wild. Some of the Scruff Connors stories. Yeah, he was a challenge. I guess he was a challenge

in that he was a very complex person, exceedingly talented. He could light up a room and man, when he turned on that microphone, it was just the most incredible things would happen. You know, he had a reign, you know, that was kind of on and off. But when he first launched in Toronto, nobody had done to Toronto Radio what he did. He was kind of like our Howardard stern right and um i remember i used to walk into bars on a friday night after i finished my shift right and i would hear people talking about did

you hear what scruff connors did today and it was very common it wasn't just once in a while it was commonplace and the stuff he pulled off i don't know how he did it but he was always pushing the envelope right which is probably the best thing to do it's easier to pull people back than to than to push them into something that they're not comfortable with well i'm i'm buddies well i guess i'm still buddies he moved to halifax and i haven't seen him in a while although he's on episode 1000 but000, but John Gallagher. And I saw that. John Gallagher! But man, what a voice Johnny has.

The on button's always on with John. Right. That's right. Yeah. But okay. So, but he's, he would talk about Scruff. You know, he might've been on six to 10, but Scruff wasn't always on the mic by 6 a.m. Yeah, that depended on what he was up to the day before or the night before.

Yeah, he was a pretty complex guy. You know, guys like that can be up and down, and I think that Jeff Scruff had a lot of emotional issues like a lot of people do. And he had to manage those in the public eye. And that was a challenge. And sadly, I guess it was in 1982, his wife Rita was tragically killed in a car accident. And that was a very, very difficult time for him and all of us as well because we were very close with Rita. And I was with

them the night before wow and i remember being i remember i remember being really upset because i went to visit them up at the house and scruff says we're going out and he says to rita we'll be back in a little bit now we weren't back in a little bit we were gone for a long, long time. And, uh, so the next morning Rita was very upset at Jeff and, uh, and she was a little upset at me too, I think. And, uh, and before I left, I just gave her a big hug and a kiss and said, you know, sorry, you know, if we upset you last night and, and I left and, and the next morning she, you know, I found out that later that day she was killed in a car accident. So that was a really hard, that was really hard because I left her on that note, even though I tried to make it right. And I'm sure I did, but, you know, that way was very

difficult. And, you know, I was young too. Not too many people that were close to me had left us prematurely. It's a little easier to deal with now. Back then, it was a lot more difficult. Yeah, it was a hard time. Well, I can imagine. As sudden as it gets, wow. Yeah, that's some heavy stuff, but I explained some things. So Scruff is 6 to 10.

And again, here we are, 1984, Q107. Then Beef, Lee Eckley're you're 10 to 3 yeah but they again did you do were you doing barometer because barometer is one to two it seems like a slap dab in the middle of your uh shift there i left the room for an hour you left the room for an hour okay nice little break there for you to get some lunch. Okay. The Iceman. Yeah. Cigarini. Yeah. He's an FOTM as well, but it was a bit,

what do I say? It was a phone call, so he couldn't see me, and it kind of left me sad. Like, sometimes I do these things, and they inspire me, and they lift me up,

and then sometimes I just felt sad. And then he made a comment about how, like, if he could get royalties from the Edison twins, because he wrote and performed the theme song to the Edison twins, he said, if I could get the royalties, I think he was blaming Nelvana,

which is owned by Chorus, but if they could stream it or whatever, then he could get his teeth fixed. And I was thinking, that's kind of a sad sentiment when you think about it. You need this huge company to stream this old eighties Canadian show, uh, shout out the stew stone.

Who's in, uh, the Edison twins, I believe, but to get your teeth fixed. And I just left me feeling kind of sad. One of the most talented, fascinating people I've ever met in my life.

And he was a killer on the radio. I remember when I was doing evenings on Q107, he was doing late evenings on Chum FM. And I turned on the radio. I remember when I was doing evenings on Q107, he was doing late evenings on Chum FM. And I turned on the radio one night, late evenings on Chum FM in those days was 10 to 2 o'clock. And I turned him on one night when I was driving home and I thought, oh my God, how do I compete with that? Because he was spectacular, a remarkable talent, remarkable talent. And, you know, a guy that's done so much, I mean. Right.

Television themes, he's been a very successful musician, he's been a successful broadcaster, he's a fantastic writer. He's one of the most talented people I've ever met. Without a doubt. And he had this shot to be a much music VJ himself. But then there's a famous story about him sort of shooting himself in the foot with the opportunity there as well.

I think that Bob would tell you that in the long run, he could have been his own worst enemy at times, which is unfortunate. But that's true of a lot of geniuses, I find. I mean, that's a big word, but a lot of talented, gifted people, their biggest obstacle is their own damn self. Yeah, yeah. They like to carve their own path and be damned if you don't let me. So, yeah. So Bob Sigurini, three to six, and then Bob Makowitz with the Six O'Clock Rock Report at six o'clock.

And Mako and the Iceman, Bob Sigurini, together were fantastic. It was great listening. It was must listening every day. You know, I've had Mako Jr. on the program, but I've got to get Mako Sr. on this program. We've got to make that happen. Yeah, another one of my favorite people. He doesn't live too far from here.

I haven't spoken to him in a couple of years. I'm due. You know, you've got to email him and you've got to introduce him to me and then we'll make this. He's got to come on. He'd love it. And there's so much ground to cover with Matt Gossignor there. Yeah, I'm sure he knows about

you and I will do that. Does he know who I am? You might have to give me a reminder because I'm going to get into this pipe when I get home. That's okay. Do you know who Toronto Mike is? Do you know? Do you read the Toronto Star and you just kind of wave the front page?

By the way, are you doing the don't you know who I am yet? I just started doing it. Now I do it now. It's like, yeah, absolutely. I just started that. This is the new phase of my career where I start to believe the hype. Chuck D warned me. He said, don't believe the hype i'm ignoring that advice okay a couple of names still on there and then we'll get

you out of q but uh kelly rose kelly yeah i haven't seen her in a long time i think she's in kitchener oh yeah i liked working with kelly she didn't last too long there i don't know why but um she was doing like a seven to midnight i think uh she was only that I've got there's a radio scrapbook log of like show times and I pulled this from the 1984 Q107 section I think they brought her in to do middays when Tasha

left and I was doing evenings at that time so yeah so yes i see it now in june okay so i actually have a note on this kelly rose does move to middays in june but she was seven at midnight and then she moved to middays you moved to afternoon drive yeah when bob segherini quit he walked out one day um i don't remember what the circumstances well that

comes back to getting in your own damn ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was too bad because Bob and I had a band together. We had the Ice Band and it was basically the Segarini band. I played drums and his Segarini band. You look like a drummer. I feel you.

I get drummer vibes from you. Oh, really? Which is a compliment. The drummers, they're the best. The drummers are always sort, they're sort of like the, I always consider them like they're the quarterbacks of the team. The drummers are key. So we played a couple of gigs and then Bob quit his job and the Ice Band was no more, which was too bad because we made good money

and it was in the days when people would come out to see live music all the time. And of course, we had a platform to promote ourselves. And, well, it was short-lived, but it was a wonderful experience. Eight weeks of rehearsals, two gigs. It was still great. But yeah, at least you had that experience there. And then, so yeah, you moved to the afternoon drive.

Dusty Shannon. Yep. Became the evening announcer. And here is an FOTM. Of course, more on Dusty, if you like. But Dean Valaitis was doing news at thisOTM of course more on Dusty if you like but Dean Valaitis was doing news at this time

of course and I always I actually get confused here's the three I get confused because I was tuning in here and there to Q107's morning show

before there was a you know a humble and Fred on CFNY but I there would be like a Scruff Connors I'd be hearing like maybe that's right here

Chicken Man or whatever I don't know it was a Scruff Connors thing but then there was also Scruffowners thing. But then there was also a Brother Jake thing. Brother Jake would do the champ and everything. But there was a Jesse and Gene thing. And I always get, like they seem to kind of, I get, my memory can't remember the, I think it was like,

first it was Scruff and then it was, then was it Brother Jake and then was it Jesse and Gene and then was it Brother Jake again? Like it's all kind of, but this is, we're going to get you to Chum FM here in a minute. and then was it Brother Jake and then was it Jesse and Gene and then was it Brother Jake again? Like it's all kind of, but this is, we're going to get you to Chum FM here in a minute. I think Jake came after Scruff and then after Jake, it was Jesse and Gene and then Jake came back for an encore.

And I think Scruff had at least, he had at least two tenures there, maybe three. Yeah, it's multiple tours of duty just to muddy the water. Here's a name, I believe this name, just before you leave Q, John Derringer shows up. He replaced me at Q107.

Okay. Yes. So you've been replaced, let me get this right. You've been replaced by David Marsden, John Derringer, so that's kind of the key of success, I think. Just replace the Eckley on the radio

so why does it end for you at Q107 Wayne Webster who was like I mentioned a friend of mine from Humber College and who I worked with at Q107 went to Chum FM to run the music

department there. And from almost the get-go, when we got together, he would say, you know, if you're not happy here, they're always asking about you there. They're always asking. So this conversation would go on and off for about two or three years. Then there was a day, there was a morning when I was living up in Don Mills at the, what do we call it, the Rockentine Palace. It was a beanbag and a backgammon table and a couple of mattresses in the bedrooms, me and my colleague Gary Whitten,

who I worked with at Q107 and up in Barrie as well. Anyhow, one morning the phone rang. It was 10 o'clock, and I got up and answered, and it was Ross Davies, who was the program director at Chum FM at the time, and he wanted to talk. So we went out and had lunch a couple of times, and we had a nice meeting.

I wasn't particularly ready for a move, but I wanted a raise. So I decided to leverage what they put on the table for me and get it out of my boss at Q107, which I managed to do. I was also told by my friend Terry McElligot years before that, you know, if chum ever comes to you, tell them no. It'll make them really mad and they'll come at you harder the next time. So smart. So a year later, Ross Davies called me and he said, J. Robert Wood and I want to take you out for lunch. And I thought, oh, okay, they mean business this time. Not that he didn't mean business the time before.

So went out and had lunch with Ross and Woody a couple of times. Woody did all the talking. He really impressed me. Ross did too, a fantastic boss. And I was getting a little restless. I found that my boss at Q107 was, I found this a little friction between us. Who was your boss?

It was Gary Slate. Of course. And in hindsight, everything he got on me about was he was absolutely right. And I treasure the years working with him. And I think he's an amazing guy. But I was just getting a little tired

of the way things were going there and just restless and i thought it would be nice to make a move and besides i grew up listening to chum fm why wouldn't i want to you know so uh they came back at me and offered me um a really nice little package so i went to gary and i said guy you know, I'm going to give you an opportunity. And he said, nope, it's not going to happen. So I thought, oh, great. I'm going to get the summer off. And he says, but I need you to do me a favor. And I said, what's that? Well, you got to work for the rest of the summer and don't tell anybody you got hired. Okay. You know, so I, I was doing,

uh, I did afternoon drive for, for most of the rest of the summer and then one morning i went downstairs to get the newspaper and um and on the front page of the entertainment section was a headline that said where's the beef and it was a story about me leaving q107 to join chum fm in the fall and uh and so the cat was out of the bag. That's back in the day because this is the era I was growing up in where I feel like radio news was news. I would read in the paper and you'd read about different...

I don't see a lot of that anymore. Where's the beef? What a headline. Lee Eckley gone from Q. To me, that would be news. But now there's nobody really covering Lee. Is anyone covering the radio beat in the mainstream media? No. No.

Is that my job now, Lee? Is that my job? Yeah, it is. Well, you know, and you do a great job at it. But frankly, there's nothing much to cover to tell you the truth. Unfortunately, you know, as much as radio is still a regular part of people's lives, it doesn't have that emotional connection that it did in another age. And that's unfortunate. That's because now you have so many audio options beyond the radio. But we get back to the point that they don't develop talent like they used to. You can't listen to an all-night show

and hear somebody making mistakes anymore because there are no all-night shows anymore, especially in small towns. So you don't have talent developing. So that's part of the problem, or a huge part of the problem. You know, you're right. And it's funny, we talked about Macco Sr., right?

And I talked about how Macco Jr. has been over here. But when Macco Sr. was program director at the Fan 590, his son, Macco Jr., and his buddies, some guy named George Strombolopoulos and some guy named Jeff Merrick, were basically given an all-night show to suck and then get better. And look what happened with that group

of young broadcasters who had that sandbox to play in. What a trio, eh? Wow. That wouldn't be a hard decision to let those three go and suck for a little while because you just know that there's something brewing under there and just giving it a chance to develop would create some great things. Sure, but today they'd say, you know, go podcast. Yeah, yeah, but you know, it's not the same thing.

It's not as immediate. I mean, I know we're live streaming now and it's going to go up. Yeah, yeah, but you know, it's not the same thing. It's not as immediate. I mean, I know we're live streaming now and it's going to go up. But no, you're right. They're watching, they're literally, you're right. By definition, like by definition, you cannot have a live podcast because of course you need an audio file baked

before you can syndicate it to the podcast aggregator because it is a technical impossibility. So the fact that, you know that you can watch us record this, I know from the numbers, like 99.9% of people will be consuming us as an episode of Toronto Mic'd, which means they're not hearing us live. That's right.

It's impossible. That's right. So you're right. And radio, but as you just said, if you think about the fact small markets are now getting raws and mocha, right? I don't't know how many markets Roz and Mocha are in, for example. And that doesn't do radio any good. Radio, if it wants to be vital, has to be local. And Roz and Mocha, however talented they are, are irrelevant in Manitoba or Timmins or, you know, wherever they might be repeating their broadcast. I think I realized like, wow, this is where we're going

when you would tune into a Toronto station and the host would be Ryan Seacrest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, now, hasn't that happened already? Yeah, no, that did happen, of course. But now I'm sort of ignoring the fact that, that you know you mentioned derringer took over for you and eventually derringer takes over for howard stern on q107 so yeah howard stern was that big syndicated show that was you know that was the first time i think maybe we had a morning show in this market that you know from

people who didn't like live in this market i would think that was the first time. Well, Howard was one of those rare personalities where he could transcend whatever market that he was broadcasting into. And I will say that the coolest thing about him arriving in Toronto was it got people talking about radio again in a really positive way. And it made people scared,

made us scared at CHUM. It made people scared made us scared at chum it made everybody scared and the amazing thing was how the chum fm morning show endured through that our ratings actually went up when howard stern came and i think it was just because of well roger rick and maryland's enduring quality and two that people were more interested in radio again. All of a sudden they got excited about it. And that might have been the last time that anybody was. And that's like 25 years ago. And maybe Howard Stern chased all the women away. Like, you know what I mean?

Because I, you know, in this market, because I, yeah, that's a fast. That's a really good point. Like, I feel like, like, you know, who was, who was it before? Jesse and Jean? Who was on? I think so, yeah. I think it was Jesse and Jean. Like, you know, so it was a like like you know uh who was who was it before jesse and gene who was on i think so it was jesse and gene like you know so it was a big you know so they're like finding

roger rick and maryland but um the uh the the morning show that was most scared of howard stern and had a right to be when you look at the numbers was my friends humble and fred because uh how many dudes left humble and fred that first bit there to check out howard stern on q107 yeah a lot a number took a huge bite overnight of that market share but uh yeah so oh i love the radio talk with you buddy i could we'll chime in you know it's interesting what you know once howard came in it was a huge thing but then it wasn't too long until he was just a regular part of the landscape. Right.

You know, so yeah, it's a tough biz. And there was so many issues with, like if he said anything against French Canada, for example, where that would fly fine, but the CRTC was a huge issue. So there was a delay and it would be chopped up. And then I remember when I discovered that WBUF was carrying the Howard Stern show without being all chopped up, like the Q simulcast.

And then it's like, why don't I just listen to the Howard Stern? Yeah, I think it became more of a hassle and it was just something they wanted to rid themselves of. Right. Yeah. And the original buzz was gone.

And then Derringer takes over Mornings and he's still there, man. He's still there. Yeah. And Craig Vann is at your station. Yeah. Yeah. So shout out to Lobster Boy. I don't know if we're allowed to call him that.

See, I can call you Beef, but I wouldn't call him Lobster Boy. Yeah. I don't think anybody calls him that anymore. No. I should. I'm going to have to edit this in post. I'm sorry, Craig. Don't edit it. Don't. Don't. I won't. Don't worry. That's a lie. Okay. So Chum FM. Yeah. No. I should, I'm going to have to edit this in post. I'm sorry. Don't edit it. Don't, don't.

I won't. Don't worry. That's a lie. Okay, so Chum FM. Yeah. So, wow. Firstly, I'm curious about

the format at Chum FM because of course we know Chum FM at some point in the mid 80s turns to like a top 40 station but it was a rock station

before that. You've alluded to, like I got to talk to you, like were you there, was it a rock station when you went there? Yeah, they were starting to change a little bit but it wasn't until a year later when um when duff roman took us into a meeting and gave us a big presentation and told us that there were going to be big changes and why the big changes were going to

happen and he was confident that we would be very satisfied with the results. So on and ahead. And boy, he was right. Now, is this, so Paul Morris, who's also on FOTM, and not the guy who would say, gone scored by number 93, Doug Gilmore. That's a different Paul Morris. But Paulie Morris, so he was the musical director at Chum FM, right?

Wayne Webster was. Paul worked in the library and he went to Hitz FM to run the music department there. This is when he goes in to build the White House of Rock in St. Catharines. And okay, and you're right. So in Duff Roman's, you mentioned Duff Roman is the operations manager. Okay, so you weren't upset at all that you kind of came in because, I mean, Chum FM was like Q107 was a rock station. And then suddenly it was not like suddenly it was like top 40. Yeah. All of a sudden I had to make an adjustment from being. Cause you look like a rock guy. Yeah. You're a rock guy. Yeah,

for sure. But you spent years at Chum FM. Yeah. Years. Um, it afforded me the opportunity to become a, a, a more rounded broadcaster. Whereas, you know, when I was at Q107 and CFNY and, and the early times at Chum FM, it was all about the music.. It became a different challenge. So I had to reinvent myself there. And under the guidance of Ross Davies and some great colleagues, I was able to do that. Okay, so I'm going to run down just a lineup from like your early days at CHUM and then your final days, if you will, at CHUM. But that juggernaut morning show you referenced roger ashby rick hodge and marilyn dennis uh anyone who's heard the tom jokic episode of toronto mic we dove pretty deep into yeah it was a good episode by the way oh thank you yeah no tom was great he was great uh that that was your first well and you know and this was covered in uh tom's episode but until

rick hodge leaves uh that leaves, that was a long time successful morning show in this market at Chum FM. Yes, it sure was. So how well did you know those guys? Did you ever see them or was it just at Christmas parties? Well, for the longest time I did evenings. I think it was about 10 years that I did evenings and I got moved to middays. So for the first 10 years, I didn't see much of them. After 10 years, I saw them quite a bit. Yeah. Nice people?

Fantastic. Roger's like a legend. He was on the air for 50 years in this market. Roger was always great, really unassuming. And when he turned on that mic, it was just magic. The chemistry that he had it was just magic. The chemistry that he had with Marilyn was magic. And Hodge was Ricky, uh, Hodge was, uh, Hodge was like the icing on the cake. He just added another dimension to everything. And I loved Rick Hodge doing the,

the sports commentaries. You know, I used to marvel at how he used to come up with stuff every single day. I thought, I can't do that. I can't do one of these. Can you imagine doing it every day? And this was the glory days of sports commentary on Toronto Radio. Because, you know, Brian Henderson. Oh, wow. And he was, I mean, there's so many.

I mean, him and then, of course, Rick Hodge and even Freddie P was doing this on CFNY. But you had, who am I missing? John Gallagher, I guess, was doing this on Q. Did you know Brian Henderson? Yeah, not very well, but we had a few drinks over the years and nice conversation.

Wonderful guy, really approachable, very unassuming, but so scary smart and talented. Yeah, he was extremely talented, that's for sure. Here's some, I got to shout out a fellow FOTM, Rick Ringer here. Rick Ringer is there. I mean, I could just run down some names. Of course, you're there.

Michael Williams is there. For a short while. Yeah, I was going to say, because we know him better from much music, but it's all the same family, of course. This is the Chump City empire there. Okay, Gore Johnson. Yes, Gore Johnson.

Yep, yep. He was doing swing when I started there. Really good announcer. I think he's in London now. I don't know if he's still in the business or not. Roger Bartel. Roger Bartel. He did Late Nights.

He used to follow me on occasion. Last I saw Roger was quite a while ago. He was working for Capital Records, I think, and I don't know what he's doing now. I'd like to see Roger sometime. Good guy. Dan Michaels. Dan Michaels. Funny, funny

guy. He's out in Winnipeg again. He's one of those radio vagabonds. He's worked all over the country yeah i'm surprised if you ever wonder did you watch wkrp oh of course i did yeah yeah you know what's funny about wkrp yeah in those days people used to ask me is that what a real radio station is like and i'd say uh well no not really but any radio station is like? And I'd say, well, no, not really, but any radio station I've worked at would make a great television series. Now,

the primary reason I said that it wasn't like a real radio station is because there were only two announcers, Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap. Well, guess what? Radio stations many times on many occasions run with just two announcers a day. Not 94.9 the rock

we're live most of the time no we're getting there my friend we're gonna get you to get so chum fm we're gonna finish up with chum fm and yeah yeah yeah uh yeah i just wanted to make sure i qualified all that right yeah hey and before i forget there was an episode of wkrp where uh like a funeral home had a jingle i can't remember yeah Yeah. Yeah. And it's like a memorable episode. But I wanted to give you measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. So Ridley Funeral Home. Put that in your... All right. You never know when you need a measuring tape there.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to size myself up, huh? Yeah. He'll fit in here. That's right. You'll see how often you'll need that. Okay.

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issue like with the right tools now my wife does like this is before ryobi was a sponsor my wife was using the 18 volt one plus uh high capacity system because they got the the one battery and then you got these like 260 different tools that work with it and it lasts longer the charge lasts longer it's lighter the fuel gauge you can know exactly what the status of that battery is before you start your start your work and these lithium ion batteries provide fade free power for maximum performance throughout the charge. And it works with all the tools. Like I said, all the Ryobi 18-volt 1-plus tools and chargers are compatible here. So if you are handy or if you need a boost of confidence, Ryobi helps to fuel the real talk here on Toronto Mic'd,

and we highly recommend them. Nice segue. Speaking of tools, speaking of power tools. Alright, so I'm going to shout out what I think might be the lineup before you leave Chum FM. You ready for this? And there's a name on here

I'm really eager to talk to you about because she's an FOTM and we miss her on the airwaves to be quite honest here. So you still got, you know, Roger, Rick and Marilyn are there still. And I'm now in the year two, in the year 2000. So you got Roger, Rick and Marilyn. There's still a morning show.

Let's talk for a moment about Ingrid Schumacher. Yeah. What can you tell us about Ingrid? Because Ingrid and you are the two that are like there when it's heavy metal and then you're there when it's what it became. Yeah, it's funny. I remember the first time I ever heard Ingrid on the radio.

I was driving to Humber College and there she was doing afternoon drive. And I thought, wow, a woman on the air. Not only a woman on the air, but on a rock station. on the air, but on a rock station. And yeah, little did I know that about six or seven years later, I would have the opportunity to work with her and become very good friends as well. Used to socialize with her a lot. Used to get together with her and Cleve, went over to their place for dinner on occasion and they would come out and see us on occasion. And yeah, a lovely couple. And Ingrid's just one of my favorite people. Do you know how she's doing these days? Because we haven't heard anything in public in a while.

She's laying pretty low. She's retired. She lives out near Port Coburn, if I'm not mistaken. You know, she's turned into a marvelous painter. Okay. A wonderful painter. And she posted some stuff on Facebook last year. And I sent her a note.

I said, Ingrid, can i buy some of this stuff and and she said she said i'm not ready to sell my stuff yet i'm not good enough well she is she's fantastic that's good and she paints in acrylics and i don't like acrylic that much because unlike oil it's not very warm but she has a way with making acrylics look warm and uh just knocked me out she's fantastic and i she should just put her stuff up i think she could make a living doing it so you mentioned cleave uh yeah he's in a band now with fotm uh mike baguski who's also the keyboardist for blue rodeo okay i think they call themselves west of Jane or something like that. And I know, so Cleve is, yeah, he's the drummer in that band.

But yeah, very, very, very cool. Haven't seen Cleve in a while. Last time I saw him was up on a big picture at the Dominion Tavern down on Queen Street. He was up on the wall with Teddy Fury and a whole bunch of other local musicians. Yeah. Very cool. Okay, so shout out to Ingrid if you're musicians. Yeah. Very cool. Okay, so shout out to Ingrid if you're listening. Yeah, I'll send her a note today.

And I mean, she was on the air the night John Lennon died. Yeah, so was I. So you were at, where were you? I was at Q107. Q107. That Monday night, yeah. So that's wild that you're on the air at Q and she's on the air at Chum FM. Right.

And the night. So we play a little game here. and she's so that's wild that you're on the air at q and she's on the air at chum fm right and the year the night so i always we play a little game here in we have a secret dm group of fotms and when there's a like a rock star dies how soon like the station that would be like playing like like like when neil peart died for example right q107 that's your rush station uh of course the rock all these rock stations how long before they can break the automation and the programming of the music and actually start playing a bunch of rush like because because back in the day it was instant right like you could you can just pull a beatles album off the shelf or whatever and then you can still do it now you can still so i feel like some stations will very can be very nimble and kind of break

formatting and go straight to the the rock star that just passed away and then others you can see it's like hours before they can kind of they kind of can break in with changing their music we've kind of talked about this already haven't we um staffing issues oh nobody's there and automation what are we gonna do staffing and automation like because like i don't know i've seen the like i can see the countdown thing i've seen it in radio stations and oh this is this is how much time is left in the song here's how much time before the first post and if there's a second there's all this interesting stuff there that you can use as a dj but how like how far how much is loaded in?

Like, do you have your whole, is the whole day automated? Like, I'm always just curious how much is like automated into that software. Yeah, the whole day is automated. All the music and all of the commercials. So then when someone does die, you just got to know who to call to break the automation? Yeah. Well, when Eddie Van Halen died, for example. Right, that's a great example.

You know, I was working in the afternoon, found out he'd passed away, so I just jumped off the reservation and did what I thought was appropriate. Well, good for you. That's the whole idea of being live. Exactly, exactly. But you got to be live.

You got to be live. Because radio reacts. Right, and that's what The Rock, and a shout out to The Rock, because live and local, man. You guys are there live. Because radio reacts. Right. And that's what The Rock, and a shout out to The Rock because live and local, man. You guys are there. I've been there. Yeah.

And you know, we have a really nice connection with the community and I really like that. And I felt an extra bond has been created during the pandemic because we've been,

I think, an assuring voice throughout all of this. Okay, so let me get you to The Rock here, Mike. Get out of jump in. So last few names here. So we talked about Ingrid,

Gord James. Yeah. Gord. He's living in North or South Carolina now. He's been retired for a few years. He's probably golfing right now. Probably. Probably.

Bruce Marshall. Bruce Marshall. Yeah. I haven't seen Bruce in a long time. Bruce. I know he's doing some acting. He does a lot of voiceover work. And I know he ran for local council in Brampton,

but that was about five or six years ago. Really interesting guy. A lot of fun. Kathy Wall. Kathy Wall, yeah. I worked with Kathy only for about a year. She's out in Kitchener now. Messaged her regarding some opportunities for her,

possible opportunities for her a few years ago. She's selling real estate. Okay. That's a good place to be, I feel, with the price of homes these days. Yeah, provided you can get a listing. Right. Shelly Fraser.

Shelly Fraser. Shelly was great was great loved working with shelly um i don't know where she is now i we're friends on facebook i don't see her posting too often but it's uh that reminds me i should reach out and and try and catch up and i love this uh this gentleman's been over and i just love his story because of you know what he's doing now versus what he was doing back then but bob callahan bob yeah i i don't know bob well uh we met him this is this is weird that's right this is kind of weird uh they had him come in and do some auditions uh when i was working late nights in my in my final days at chum fm in words, they had me training somebody who would be

replacing me. That was a treat. But Bob was a really nice guy. He's a policeman and loves being a cop. Yeah, absolutely. And Jimmy James. Jimmy James. Jimmy James. He had a short tenure with us at Chum FM.

I used to love listening to him on Q107. He was such a natural. Just had such a nice, warm, easy presentation. And I thought he sounded great at Chum FM. Too bad he didn't catch on there. And why does it end for you at Chum FM? Hmm. This is kind of hard.

No, it's not really hard. The company was going through big changes. Mr. Waters had passed away. For whatever reason, I had fallen out of favor with my program director. I don't know why, but it happened. I had been thrown onto late night shifts in my second last summer there, when normally I would be kind of the first guy out of the bullpen, you know, do drive, do middays when somebody was on holiday. And I was finding people in my old

shifts who really hadn't done any radio before. But it was summertime, and I decided I wasn't going to upset the apple cart. And I thought, I'll address this with my boss at the end of summer. So it was the day after Labor Day, I guess it was, and I phoned and I said we should have a chat. And my boss told me that there was really no room left for me anymore and that I was kind of flailing in the wind and that I should go and find another job because there was no severance waiting for me.

And... Is that legal? I don't know. I don't know. So I just said to him, you know, you owe me six weeks of holidays. I'm supposed to be working tonight, but I'm not. I'll see you in six weeks. I thought it might force his hand. It didn't. I ended up

staying there for another year, a year and a half, something like that. And what they tried to do was humiliate and ostracize me to make me to quit, to make me quit. And I was not going to take that. Constructive dismissal. Well, that's what happened at the end of the day. And that's how it went. Lee, that's shitty. Yeah, it was. It was horrible. It was awful. I'm sorry, man. That's shitty in any industry, obviously.

Yeah, far more common than it should be. Yeah, I'm just sorry to hear that because you seem like a decent chap who just delivers good radio wherever you go. Yeah, well, you know, I try. But, you know, the company was going through changes. Mr. Waters had passed away. Sorry, I got sidetracked.

That's okay. And the company was... Have you never heard this show? Always sidetrack on this program. No, but the company was for sale and I think that they were trying to get rid of heritage salaries. They were trying to make it

a more appealing buy. So, you know, for whoever would come in and buy it, which turned out to be Bell Media. So, yeah, yeah. You know, a lot of people had been let go throughout my 22 years at Chum FM, and I

had a wonderful run there. And don't regret a thing. The heritage salaries, with a few exceptions I can think of, basically it seems in this new era of radio where it's so fragmented and we've talked off and on during this conversation about what's different now versus in the 80s, for example. But it seems like those salaries are no longer part of the radio story. I don't know what Derringer's current contract looks like.

We heard about this 10-year monster dollar deal. Spaceball contract. That's what I understand. And good for John. Good for John. But as Aaron Davis once told me, you know, like the vault's empty. Like if you're looking to, you know, that ship has sailed. Yeah, unless you have a morning job at a major market station,

you're not going to make big dollars. And even if you make those big dollars, you better save them because it might not last long. So that's essentially, that's Marilyn Dennis. I'm just, she's, she's,

yeah, but, but yeah, right. Invest well and yeah, the, the,

the Marilyn Dennis deals don't exist in 2022 for the next gen. No, they don't. So, so it sounds to me like if I'm reading correctly,

so okay, we talked about the small markets of getting, there's a lot of simulcast. What do they call that? Voice tracking? I don't know. I guess voice tracking. So you have a lot of out-of-market stuff going on.

So there's fewer spots, especially in smaller markets. But we also have a lot of the overnights now are syndicated programming or re-rolls, like reruns essentially. And so there's there's very few i had because a guy he's got a 10 10 uh afternoon show uh and uh cooper his name is uh david cooper and like yeah he does it out of manhattan like i don't he doesn't like he's live from his manhattan home or whatever and he's in the on 10 10 or whatever but even that like the

fact that there's a live person overnight is kind of a new new thing there but very few of those so so it sounds like there's very few jobs and if you get a job you're not going to make much money because all those big contracts that only ever went to morning show people anyways really like they're all they're all gone so what like you know you mentioned hum Humber College. What do you tell somebody who's in college, who's in school right now to become a radio star? Do you just tell them to go become a plumber or something? What do you say to these people?

You just tell them it's not radio anymore. It's creating content and pushing it out wherever you can, just like you do. It's as simple as that. I didn't even go to college for this. No, you didn't. I went to the school of hard knocks. You know what?

You don't have to go to college for this. It's all about experience. I learned more in my first week at CFNY than I did in my two semesters at Hunter College. Yeah, so it's really about creating the experience for yourself. If you've got an idea and you've got a little niche that you can tap into, like you have, Yeah, so it's really about creating the experience for yourself. If you've got an idea and you've got a little niche that you can tap into like you have, Mike, get out there and do it. But you have to work at it,

and you have to work at it for a long time. Oh, it's not easy. I mean, who is it? Freddie P had an expression. He'd talk about somebody on the radio and say, oh, they're only as good as their call letters. This was his expression, essentially. And I think the argument there was if you pulled this guy from Chum FM

and you dropped him here, you know, the Chum FM, these call letters, Chum FM, were more responsible. And, you know, not everyone's the same, but we're more responsible for the ratings than necessarily the person behind the mic. Oh, there's a lot of truth to that. A lot of truth to that. But you still have to bring something to the table. There's a lot of truth to that. A lot of truth to that. But you still have to bring something to the table. Right. Yeah. Right.

If I'm only as good as my call letters, I'm in big trouble here. So, okay. But how long did it take you until you realized that you could make a go of this? You really had to be dedicated and do it for a long time. Oh my God.

I did it for years as a passion, a side passion project just to see if I could do this with zero sponsorship money coming in. It would cost me money to do this for years. So, I mean, I don't know. When did I really go with this? Maybe I would say I was probably

like six years into this thing, probably. So, there you go. So, you have to be dedicated for six years and to do something consistently and be consistently interesting. And it's a huge challenge. It helps to be a little crazy maybe as well. But that's another story.

So how do you end up at 94.9 The Rock? Well, let's see now. While I was at, you know, when things are going well for me at Chum FM, I knew that one day I wouldn't be working there anymore. And I live in Whitby, which is about five kilometers from the radio station. The sales manager and one of the vice presidents is an old high school friend of mine. So when I moved out to Whitby 20 years ago, I decided I want to just reach out to these folks, let them know who I am, let them know I'm close by. And for years, I cultivated relationships with them. So that when an opportunity presented

itself, they thought of calling me. And that's what I did. Yeah. Very smart. Exactly. Very smart. Yeah. Now, who called you? Steve Cassay, the operations manager.

He's from CFNY, right? No. No. Is there a Steve there from CFNY? Yes, Steve McCauley. And he's the vice president sales manager that I'm talking about. Okay, so shout out to Steve. Yeah, for sure.

So Steve Cassay called me. He needed somebody to fill in for a month. Well, was it a month? Yeah, something like that. Anyway, this is over 10 years ago now. So I was doing contract work with them on and off. Then their midday person, Vanessa, was off on maternity leave. So they called me back and said, hey, you want to work on contract for us for the next 10 months? In between that time, Doug Elliott became the program director. And I managed to hang on, just managed to

hang on there. Good for you. So you've been there, how long have you been there now? You know what? It's going to be 10 years in November. I can't believe it. I cannot believe it. You know what?

I will say this. I mean, you know, CFOI notwithstanding, but I only just learned you were there, but like the Q run, well, okay, I'm trying to do the math here because the Q run and the Chum FM run and now the Rock run, like these are, these are lengthy, lengthy stints. Yeah.

These stations. Good for you. Okay. Long may you run, Beef. Thank you. Long may you run. Can you shout out the lineup

at the Rock right now? Because 94, one more thing. So 94.9, yeah, it's an Oshawa station, but it's sort of positioned as like, like, it's an Oshawa station, but it's sort of positioned as like East of Toronto station,

I noticed. Yeah. The positioning, like I know you're local in Oshawa, obviously, but especially the East End of Toronto is a target market for you guys. Yeah, definitely, definitely. All right, shout out that lineup there. Okay. Rock Mornings, Craig Venn and Lucky.

Middays, Laurieann. Laurieann, I met her at the Party for Marty at the Opera House. I recorded for three hours in that lobby when Friends of Martin Streak

were coming by to talk about. And she was on the program that day. And she, I did meet her when I got my tour with Bob Ouellette there.

She's a good FOTM. Yeah, she's awesome. And Doug Elliott on Afternoons. Right. And I do evenings, Wednesday to Friday. And then I do Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. And I voice track Monday nights. So I voice track Mondays on Sunday.

And other than that, I'm on the air five days a week live. Good for you and I see you rock in the Crownlands. Crownlands, great band. Yeah, and that's the kind of music you're going to hear on 94.9 Rock. Yeah, a lot of new stuff.

A lot of new stuff. It's quite current. Awesome. And you did have, again, FOT and Bob Ouellette was in the family for a period of time there. And he was working at the station too. But yeah, so what's the plan for you, my friend? You're going to rock out there until your last breath or what's the deal? You're putting me on the spot. Don't worry, Doug's not listening. He might be. I think he responded to your tweet this morning.

He wants to know if I mentioned the we, that's all. He wants to see, will he mention the we? That's right. Yeah, near term, longer term, keep working as long as I can. I got divorced seven years ago, so retirement got thrown back 30 years. We've been there, buddy. Luckily, the house that I was able to keep has gone up in value. But then where would you live?

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I enjoy working. I like to stay active. I love where I live, and I like the people I work with, and I like to be around them. So the longer I can do that, the better. And, uh, you know, to carve out a living is a, is a really good thing. Yeah. Like you, you know, let's not bury the lead here. You make a living, uh, talking on the radio. How many, how many guys had that dream watching WKRP? Like, like think, I think I never dared

dream it like as a, as a realistic thing for me but without a doubt like as a kid that would be like a fantasy where you'd like you know you'd you'd have the mic and you'd be talking to your city and you'd be playing music and you get paid to do that yeah that's pretty damn cool it is it is pretty damn cool the thing is though you're up front and if you're having a bad day everybody knows about it you can't walk into the office and close the door you have to be on all the time and that's that's always been a primary challenge not only for me but everybody else true but i feel as we progress here and we're in 2022 here that like authenticity is valued more than ever like you could just be your you're

having a rotten day like you could just incorporate that into the program. I'm having a shitty day. Um, you know, I don't know if you take callers or whatever, you know, yeah, yeah, you know, commiserate and here's the, here's a jam about how I'm feeling. And then you could kind of share. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, uh, that's something that, um, that Doug Elliott likes to cultivate. He, he's really big on personality. He's really big on bringing content to your show every night. Not This Is, That Was, which you get on voice tracks in smaller markets because those people are doing six radio

stations that day. Or on The Simpsons, they had the robot DJ with, how about those clowns in Congress? Just the evergreen. I've never seen an episode of The Simpsons. I will say, I own the first 10 seasons on DVD. That's how much I love that show.

And I was there since day one. Actually, I won't go into it now because it's a lengthy tangent, but I have memories of being there day one, and I have evidence it was impossible that I could be there day one. This all speaks to the copy of a copy, faultiness of your memory. Like you ever had a memory where you were sure you were somewhere

or you did something on some point where, and then to find out like that, that's not how it actually went down. I'm sure this is something most people. I very often have conversations with people and I correct them. I'm pretty good with recall, although it's selective. But I'm finding as I get older that a lot of stuff is piled away

and my brain works like a hard drive. And sometimes that folder has to be found. It has to be opened. Defragmented. The file has to be downloaded. So 20 minutes later, it'll come back. It downloads very slowly sometimes. That's what I'm trying to say.

That's funny. You got to warm up the hard drive first. Now, okay, so before I say goodbye and we take our photo by the tree, it's about time I have Leigh Eckley taking that photo by the tree with me. I actually do have a bit of you from 1989. So if you would, so I know.

So this is... Don't, don't, well, I'll do it. You tell them. If you really glare at me like fiercely enough. Who was I doing?

Oh, Mike Cooper was here the other day. Oh, okay. And I wanted to play, he did a prank on, where was he?

1050 Chum. Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about. April Fool's Day prank where he kept dropping hints that somebody was pissed at him and they were going to come over

and then there were sounds of gunfire and then the air goes blank or whatever. And then at some point, it's like April Fool's Day, but it sounded to people like War of the Worlds style, like he had been shot and killed by some jealous boyfriend or something.

Bruce Marshall was the producer that day. Okay. Yep. So I have all of these clips lined up, okay, how he sets it up and I'm going through it and I'm very excited to play these clips because this is a part of like Toronto Radio history and I got my Cooper here. And at some point, he's like, okay, how he sets it up and I'm going through it and I'm very excited to play these clips because this is a part

of like Toronto Radio history and I got Mike Cooper here and at some point, he's like, okay, that's enough. Like, he just didn't,

like, basically, I got the whole like, okay, turn that off now and I was like sad. I was like, oh,

Mike Cooper doesn't want me to play the rest of the April Fool's Day prank. I know. So, you can do the same as Mike Cooper. You can be a dink like Cooper

but let me start this and then you can tell me. Maybe you can do like same as Mike Cooper. You can be a dink like Cooper. But let me start this, and then you can tell me. Maybe you can do like pop-up video. Tell me what I'm hearing here. Brian, this is on Chum FM, and the fine young cannibals don't look back. And Lee Ackley here on a Thursday. 6.42 our time. We've got more nonstop rock coming up in a little bit.

And in about 45 minutes' time, the Toronto Argonauts face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the Sky Dome. Both teams are 2-2. Tonight's winner takes over the second spot in the CFL East Division. We'll have all the scores for you as they come in. Elsewhere in the CFL tonight, Hamilton, undefeated, 4-0 on the year, puts their perfect record up against the Calgary Stampeders in Calgary. I don't remember that break. Look, it's a CFL break.

How many of those do you do these days? Yeah, really. Especially in 1989. Poor James. Wouldn't happen today. The Jugglers and clowns, ten wonderful acts in all, for 20 days only

at the Canadian National Exhibition, August 16th to September 4th. Chum FM and Diet Coke are presenting the Muscle Circus. I was working

the X that year, so 1989, that was my first year, my first job ever, working the CME that summer. Nice. So I don't remember

the Circus thing. That would have been a great job. And now, can you name this. So I don't remember the circus that well. That would have been a great job. I can name that tune in five notes. I can name that tune in four notes. Go! Randy River. Oh my God, remember the Randy River ads?

I was just going to say, yeah, I remember this. Who is Randy River and what has he done to our clothes? Yeah. Who could forget do-da-do-da? Ah, Randy River, sing this song. Wow, it's like a time machine. I remember seeing a documentary about the making of this campaign. It worked on me because I was like, who the hell's Randy River? Like, I found myself asking, who is Randy River?

Because of billboards and stuff said, who is Randy River? That's how they launched it, yeah. Yeah, stuff like this. We'll just do a little more here and then we'll bring it back. This is great. Randy River. Who is he?

Where is he? And why are they singing his song? Help free Randy River. I remember this campaign. Visit his store in a shopping center near you. Stand by, Ontario. Your Toronto Ford dealers have teamed up to bring you I remember this campaign. Should be, where is Randy River now, eh?

We should do an expose, what happened to Randy River. Hey, Johnny Osmond. Yeah. Cool. This was like his comeback, Donny Osmond did. Cool. This was like his comeback, Donny Osmond. And I think they might have released this song without telling you it was Donny Osmond. I feel like there was some stunt the record company did

where they called it like a mystery artist and they released the jam. And that's new music from Mark Hasselbach and used the power of our love Marvin Gaye and sexual healing in there as well. Coming up, it's Danny Elwell for Lee Marshall. No, there's no Entertainment Toronto tonight. Maureen Holloway still on vacation.

Is that Dan Williamson? It's our Entertainment Toronto show on Monday. Jeff O'Neill. No, no, no. I know Danny's got some great music lined up for you. She'll kick it off with Bill Medley and Jennifer Warrens right after these. And that's CKFM. Oh, we changed the station.

Yes, yes. That's funny. Okay, so this sound, I found it on YouTube, actually, this air check. So it's funny, Danny Elwell, I'm going to be chatting

with her tomorrow night as well. Cool. Which is funny. Yeah, Maureen Holloway, Danny Elwell, that's definitely CKF. Yeah, and that was Ingrid just there, right?

Right. Having just moved to New York City, were involving themselves in political causes and rallies and demonstrations. Wow. They had a complete reversal of all of that. What channel was that?

They hosted the Mike Douglas show on television. Do you remember that? I don't know. I literally Googled, like, Lee Eckley air check. Oh, isn't that funny? And I found this from 1989. I wonder if it's Dale Patterson. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But, dude, yeah, funny that the Argos were playing at the Dome, I guess, because it sounds like we're not yet at the C&E time. But it's summertime. But it's 89, and that Dome only opens in June 1989. Was it 89 or 88? Oh, it said on the thing 89.

I forgot. Okay. 89. But that was like early days for Argos at the Dome, that's for sure. Yeah. Because they only opened that thing in June. But Beef, Lee Eckley, that was awesome. Yeah.

And there's nothing, like you're not going to be driving back to Whitby and thinking, oh, damn, I forgot to tell him this story. Oh, sure, I will. Well, if there is one, is there anything that right now you want to, you know, because I can always bring down my friends from lowest to the low. I'm cool. You're cool like that. I had a really nice visit.

Cool meeting you. I'm going to get you that lasagna before you go. You got some beer. You got your... Living large. You got your handpipe there from Canna Cabana. You got a sticker. You did all right buddy. It's worth the price of gas to get your bottle. It sure is. And that

brings us to the end of our 1011th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. And Lee, you're at Lee Eckley 949? I think it's Eckley 949? What are you? I think it's at Eckley 94.9 or something like that.

Yeah, at Eckley 94.9. Yeah. If you just go to the Rock website, you can find all my socials there. Listen to the Rock, man. That's a real rock station. Yeah, listen to the Rock. It's a great radio station. Listen to the Rock and let people know about the great Lee Eckley on the air at the Rock

and that you heard about it on Toronto Mic'd and then everybody wins. Okay. Yeah. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Great beer, by the way. One of my favorite breweries. Do you have a favorite? I like RoboHop.

I love the Canuck. And I love the Hayes Mama. Yeah, that Hayes Mama is, yeah. I'm going to see if I can get you a couple more Canucks, actually. And I haven't. That's a lager. I haven't tried the lager yet, so. Okay.

I'm looking forward to that. Enjoy, enjoy. Yeah. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. With free tape measures. Free tape measures.

Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. Free tape measures. Canna Cabana are at canna cabana underscore. And Ryobi, they're at ryobitoolsusa. See you all next week. 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 Rosy and gray

Well I've been told That there's a sucker born Every day But I wonder who Yeah I wonder who yeah I wonder who maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a

thousand shades of grey cause I know that's true yes I do I know it's true yeah I know it's true how about you? I'm picking up trash and then putting down roads

And they're broken 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 Cause everything is rosy and green

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 Cause everything is Rosie now Everything is Rosie

Yeah, everything is Rosie and Gray Yeah, yeah Everything is rosy and great