Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Marc Weisblott from 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #1008

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Mike chats with Marc Weisblott of 12:36 about the current state of media in Canada and what you oughta know. 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 1007 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in... Hey, I'm shutting this down because I don't think it's 1007. What was my Lumbee episode? I should know that. I don't think I've updated my notes since Lumbee because I did the double hitter.

Mike, this is episode 1008. You know, I caught myself because I remember thinking of Q107 when I was talking to Lumbee. Okay, fuck it. Let's do it again. You ready, buddy? We are really starting again.

This is not just a work for you to put this on top of the file when you post a podcast. I don't do shtick. I'm getting the sense that I've been played here. False start. I told you it was a bad idea to number your episodes, by the way.

Me and your brother Steve, we were wondering what was up with that. And look, here you are doing this victory lap for episode 1,000, and it only took you eight more episodes to get the number wrong. Now I have to talk really fast. This is episode, wait, let me do it again. Welcome to episode 1008 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 are 260 tools in the system, and it's available at Home Depot. system and it's available at home depot joining me this week for i'm caught up now for his february 2022 recap is 12 36 his own mark weisblot mike not only did you get the number wrong off the top but you lied to the audience of cbc radios here and now by saying to them that you don't do

schtick. Stu Stone has rubbed off on me. How do you explain what you wrapped me into there with that false start? But now that we've got the numbering correct, which around here has suddenly become the most important aspect of

all, if you weren't keeping count, you probably wouldn't have noticed you got to episode 1,000. And Toronto Mike, take a bow for having issued the longest episode in the history of your podcast, the initial reactions to which was wondering if now there's going to be something wrong with me. Somehow I'm going to have to exceed that record. A few tweets that came back figuring this was about the duration of the average 1236 episode. And the same FOTMs who've stood by me were then challenged by the fact that you put out a show that was nearly twice as long.

But look, you've got access to the statistics. You see behind the curtain how many people have been tuning in and checking it out. What has the reaction been like to episode 1,000 of Toronto Mic'd? Oh, far exceeding all my expectations. Just mind-blowing how many people have checked out episode 1,000. I don't know exactly how many people finished it. Like, anecdotally, people will, like,

send me a note or tweet me or send me an email to say, just finished it, awesome. So I don't know, like, what percentage of the whole actually finished the 5 hours and 40 minutes. I will say that Mike Willner listened to all five hours and 40 minutes. I will say that Mike Wilner listened to all five hours and 40 minutes. And he let me know that at the four hour mark approximately, just maybe just prior to that, that I had made a slight editing mistake where I might have said

a few words and then said it twice as if I was supposed to clip that first time I said it. And I made that repair just the other day. So the episode is five seconds shorter now than it was when it first dropped. Mike Wilner, who I've known for coming up on 40 years. We went to school together for a time. Historically speaking, with all his appearances here on Toronto Mic'd, we're still trying to figure out if he has any idea whatsoever what I do, how I got here, how we have a relationship.

And I was wondering, had I appeared on episode 1,000 of Toronto Mic'd, would Mike Wilner have finally learned what I've been doing here? Let me ask you, was it a conscious decision not to appear? Like, this is something... It's off-brand. I don't consider participating in things like this

to be good for the mystique that we're cultivating here every month. So just three hours a month, not a minute more. Not that extra 90 seconds. I'm not getting in the ring with Stu Stone. What does he want to do? He wants me to be a special guest star in an episode of

Toast. He wants to go mano oh mano about one of his Stu Stone style schticks. Although at the same time I feel, look, me and Stu Stone are building bridges. We're mending fences. And in listening to episode 1,000 of Toronto Mic'd, I was counting the number of people who I am absolutely convinced do not like me.

Like, you have a number of FOTMs who are not in my corner. And a lot of times the feeling is mutual. I'm not here to undermine everybody on the list. I'm just saying some of these were personalities that we discussed on previous episodes here. Got in touch to express their disfavor with how they were being portrayed. And also some of the characters out there who I just know in interacting with them in the world of Toronto might.

They have very little interest in what I do, consider me an annoyance at most, if they're even thinking of me at all. And in the process of listening, I got reflecting. What is my standing with this person

who is leaving a voice memo, getting in touch with Toronto Mike, expressing their congratulations on the podcast? Like, do they consider my monthly appearances here to be bad for your brand? Mike Epple gave me a shout out. I was also

represented there by Neil Morrison, brother Bill. I think Cam Gordon had a kind word or two. My PPM co-star. Jay Ferguson of Sloan, who I connected you with to do the deep dive episode and hopefully more to come. He's a good Epple to you. I was represented. I was in the air of episode 1,000.

So what did you think of the five hours and 40 minutes? Even if my voice did not appear. Like, what is your review, if you don't mind? I mean, that was a lot of effort. I don't want to get all Freddie P on your ass, but I'm thinking, who was going to listen to this thing from beginning to end? Okay? Besides you.

I'm here every month, a practitioner of a of a three hour podcast. And when you when you drop nearly six on me, I'm thinking, what what is this for? Who's going to make it all the way to the end? Have you ever heard a longer episode of any podcast? Well, you realize that I'm going to be tuning in on double or triple speed, whipping my way right through the whole show. We'll talk in a bit about an episode of Toronto Mic'd For from the past month that I actually listened to three times because I wanted to hear it on single speed again, but I'm not going back for the whole five-hour and 40-minute experience.

I'm saying, Mike, you set out what you wanted to do, which was celebrate all your supporters here on a thousand episodes of the podcast. And the glory just keeps on coming, huh? You were in the Toronto Star, and I think we got to test how many people only pay attention to you in 2022 when your face appears on the front of a section of a daily print newspaper. So what was your verdict on the reaction to that? I was surprised. I heard from people I haven't heard from in forever,

like that just were telling me stories like they were drinking their coffee, like you're drinking right now. They were at the, whatever, the kitchen table. They're reading their Sunday Star. And then they get to the Together section. Because remember, like, it's almost embarrassing. The size of this photo, could it be any larger? Now, we're not recording the video, but I am going to hold it up.

Just maybe just for those on the pirate stream. But like, that's an enormous, and that's a two-page spread with four color photos. And that's an enormous photo. I mean, Lorne Honigman called me to say, he almost spit his coffee out. He's at his table reading his paper on Sunday. And he said this huge photo of Toronto Mike just staring right back at him. And it was like surreal for him. Now we know who the boomers are who are still getting the paper delivered to their door.

You'd be surprised. Now, as for the article itself, this was written by an FOTM who happens to work for the Toronto Star, Torstar Corporation, the rock enthusiast. Je le blanque. And I thought it could have been worded a little bit better. Elaborate. I'm not going to say that's the editor in me, but it reflects the fact that the Toronto Star,

and I think any newspaper that wants to be taken seriously should have staff reporters, regular writers who are assigned to this beat. So that when they're writing about something, they're presenting it in a way that's already familiar to the readership who's out there, and that their endorsement means a little bit more, right? Like, this is what you would have once gone to specific columnists for as content creators once we put our label, our brand on a specific thing. It's able to draw in the interest of people who wouldn't pay attention to the thing otherwise and i i i'm just thinking look they don't have anybody on staff there who would necessarily write an article about you on the occasion of your thousandth podcast but even

on we got to work with we got to work with what we've got and so in the in the case this article i thought it was adequate. I'm just saying it made me wish for more. It made me wish for the idea that there were still staff writers out there who would take on the challenge of

explaining what it is you do. Otherwise, it's just like this freelance patchwork approach to community journalism? But I don't think any of that matters because the superficial effect of you having your big head in the newspaper. And did you read the headlines?

It says, talk of the town. As far as earned media is concerned, this was some valuable publicity. And that's the key word, earned media. And I think it's something you can bask in for a long time. I only pay Jill with lasagna and beer, so I don't know if that's still earned media. But I just want to say thank you to Jill.

It was all right. Thank you to Jill. I thought it was great, and it's an honor being in there, and it's just great for awareness, because when you're an independent podcaster, awareness is everything, and that really helps being on the front page of a you know toronto star section on especially on a sunday so thank you jill uh mark i hear you with

regards to the uh writers at toronto star you know all those entertainment writers are gone but could do you have any specifics of what you would have done differently look i mean the the writers are everywhere i mean the writing the production of putting some words on a screen is essentially free. We've watched the devolution of it all here, 22 years into the 21st century. I'm just saying the article about may gave me a little more pining for the idea of what what can be done better and how i can be doing it better myself right right like last time

last time we were here we were hypothesizing about uh you and me mike had we put our heads together could we have made 15 million dollars for inventing a website like BlogTO. That's right. That's right. And I think this story and its position in the newspaper and your appearance on CBC, it's all a reflection of how the tide is turning. How is that? And how might this outside media, this outside mainstream media validation, I don't know, at a certain point in time, the podcasting manages to eclipse all that.

It might have already happened. For anybody listening to us now, you having an appearance on CBC is only moderately more profound than the fact that you bang out a podcast every single day. Like, it's the same platform, right? It's the same audio experience of listening. And yet, we're still in the part of the cycle where there's a certain Frison effect that when you're on CBC radio, is that how you feel?

Like this is the big time that you could no longer access on your own. Well, when I went to see Ron Hawkins at The Only with my buddy FOTM Cam Gordon, I was chatting with Ron Hawkins from Lowest to the Low, and he was telling me him and his wife were in the car, and they were listening to CBC Radio 1 because they were tuning into Here and Now with Jill Deacon, and then suddenly I was on his car radio for 9 minutes and 40 seconds. That's still kind of cool.

Yeah, yeah, you're probably right, and that's why the Bobcat, Bob McCowan, could not make it as he imagined quite right now in the world of podcasting. Was he on episode 1,000? I didn't hear his voice. I'm saying there's no app that beats the effect of having your voice come out of the dashboard when you turn on your car. Right.

And that on-demand listening requires that extra step of intention. And here is where broadcasting still has a little bit of an upper hand. But I feel on this visit here that's something we're going to talk about in a few different ways. I brought you that song before that I played underneath there, Realist K. We didn't really meditate upon that one but it was uh the 17 year old bedroom tick tock rock star from scarborough who's now got the same manager as the weekend sounds a bit like the weekend and he's uh he's doing what the weekend did the same mysterious uh lack of disclosure about who he is and where he came from.

Look at The Weeknd now. You must have noticed that thing where The Weeknd was launching the announcement of his big stadium tour. He spent two years hunkering down, having some of the biggest hits of all time, and there he was building up anticipation on Twitter. It's all going to happen tonight. Let's go! Only to find out that Russia invaded Ukraine.

Fuck Putin. And he had to apologize and back off and say, I'll be announcing my tour dates and another day. 1236, Mark Weisblatt. Go to 1236.ca to subscribe to his daily burrito. It drops at 1236pm. Yeah, yeah. Have we said anything here

that would possibly entice a new subscriber? Because coming out of the two years of pandemic purgatory, I would like to make some new things happen. Above and beyond putting out the 1236 newsletter every day still enjoying it but you might have noticed

some days I've been ghosting the audience lately have you considered podcasting? I haven't completely been up to it I had to fold on a few days of the week I thought these were technical issues is that just an excuse? that's what you publicly say. It's kind of like going into rehab for exhaustion.

Real talk. But I hope to continue to have fun as long as things are happening and as long as I have this support from St. Joseph Communications to keep making the newsletter. But look, spring has almost sprung. I think people are getting antsy about the masks. Everybody knows that the announcement is going to come eventually,

at some point in our lifetime, before the weather turns too sunny outside that we'll be liberated from having to wear these face coverings everywhere. Have you noticed that people are getting a little more mellow about enforcing the mask mandate and the bylaws? There's always going to be self-appointed Karen cops out there who are looking askance at you if you move your mask off its position on your face.

We are sitting with some anticipation, right? Of getting back to normal. Yeah, it's happening. I went to Raptors 905 the other day and nobody wanted to see my papers. I didn't have to get my vaccination passport scanned. Hey, really quickly before we leave this, so for 10 years I've been podcasting

and looking for some sense of mainstream media. I wasn't like desperate for it or whatever, but I thought it'd be nice if the mainstream media... Well, I think you're less desperate than Hubble and Fred. We will chastise you for getting any attention. How did that Toronto Star coverage go over with them? Did they even know that it happened?

Yeah, because Howard is active on Twitter and you could not miss it because there was a firestorm going on. But Howard and Fred have been in the States on vacation last week, so we haven't touched base. So I'm going to jump on their show on Thursday. But quick. So back to back, we get the two things, right? There was the CBC radio thing and then the Toronto Star thing. And it's like, oh, wow, mainstream media media just noticed Toronto Mike. And it all took the milestone episode 1000 to get their attention. So, Steve, if you're listening,

what a smart idea it was for me to number my episodes because all that earned media, as you said, is because I numbered my episodes and I had a five hour. I think that it had to be monster. The five hours and 40 minutes was to get noticed. I didn't make it 540 on purpose, but that's how long it was. I like the segments where you were doing a phone call. You had one with Kelly Cotrera also. Yeah, I didn't know she was recording.

Where she recorded you on the phone. Yeah, Dave Charles, radio consultant. I thought that was actually a heartwarming exchange where you talked to this old school radio consultant. Right. And I wasn't sure what we were talking about. Who was extrapolating about how the experience of going on your podcast brought him to some level of self-actualization

that he had never achieved before in his entire life. And I noticed a little bit of that with these old boomers. You had Jeff Lumby on a podcast you recorded this morning. There he is chatting with you on Zoom, kicking out the jams, his favorite songs. And there he is, driven to tears, right? He weeped. The waterworks started flowing.

And where is he? Where is he? In the countryside of France? South of France. Toronto Mike, is this the effect that you managed to have on people? A real tearjerker there from Jeff Lumby. Before, because I want to move. I don't want to spend three hours on my

episode 1000 and then the CBS, but I do want to know, I'm just curious, what did you think of the nine minutes and 40 seconds of me on Here and Now? I'm just curious what you thought of my appearance on Terrestrial Radio, because it almost never happened. And on Toronto Star Podcast

with Mike Wilner. I haven't even heard that yet, so that just dropped. That's Deep Left Field. I'm the guest today with Mike Wilner. I haven't even heard that yet. So that just dropped. So that's Deep Left Field. I'm the guest today on Mike Wilner's podcast. And, okay, yeah, give me all the above, the review, and then we'll move on to Donovan. I think you've taken this seriously. The whole idea of figuring out how to be articulate as possible.

Can I crack open a GLB while you tell me? It's something we could all learn lessons from. And I have listened to so much of the voice of Mike Boone. Oh my God. Mike adults. It's like a dog whistle. It's alerting me to the fact

that this is something I have to pay attention to. So how was the Jill Deacon thing though? Because that was... How can I come here and do the monthly recap without doing my homework about everything that you do? Well, you do your homework. That's why you're here. And I do my homework too. That's why I'm here. But the Jill Deacon thing though? Because that was a monthly recap without doing my homework about everything that you do. Well, you do your homework. That's why you're here.

And I do my homework too. That's why I'm here. But the Jill Deacon thing, so that was on the phone. So I don't see, I'm literally phoning a number. And it's all unedited. And I'm aware I'm on real radio. So it changed my like mindset. And I felt like for the first time in a very long time, like nerves, like I'm like,

oh, I don't want to fuck up live on CBC radio. Like it was like, I was really like, I don't want to sound stupid. I don't want to sound like an idiot because people are going to hear, you know, I think CBC radio should have commercials because, you know, that day you were on, I was listening live more than I have in a while to the afternoon drive show. And I think there's something to be said for the talk radio format where they've always got to cut to a break, traffic and weather and news and commercials, because they do let these interviews drag on.

So, like, I think you probably could have said everything that you had to say. We'll play a song here and there on here and now. In 80 or 90 seconds. It's okay, but so you're saying it was too long, my appearance on here and now. It's too long for what it was. Really? As we settle in here for three hours this afternoon. Wow.

Okay. So let's get to recent guests. Talk to me about Donovan Bailey. Donovan Bailey, who now have we estimated he is the most famous FOTM? Depends where you put Chuck D. Because you had your usual selfie that you take in the front yard by the tree. as the most famous FOTM? Depends where you put Chuck D. Because you had your usual selfie that you take in the front yard by the tree. And the first picture you had for the episode

with you and Donovan Bailey, just the man's posture. You know this is a star, right? He knows, unlike me, how to pose for a photograph that not only will he be satisfied with, he's not going to be emailing you in the middle of the night to delete it and replace it with the alternate option. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But yeah, Donovan Bailey, I mean, I wonder, like in your neighborhood, was he recognized when he comes out of your house? It's cold. Down the street? Like, there's not the same activity out there. Do the neighbors know that Donovan Bailey comes into your basement every single week? No, because at this time of year, me and Bojana are the only two people on the street that emerge. Like, we're out there doing our thing. I bike every day, and she's going for a walk.

Everyone else is, like is hibernating. I got excited about Mike Apple. That's the level that she's operating on. I just need to know, for the record. If I saw Donovan Bailey strutting up and down the street, I think I would be pretty thrilled, even if I didn't recognize him.

You just know that this man is a star. Globally famous. He is acclimatized to being in the limelight. So for the record, Mark Wiseblood. That's what I got off your photo with Donovan Bailey. Do you think Donovan Bailey is the most famous FOTM? I think he is the most famous FOTM who will remember you.

Okay, that's key. Which comes out of the experience. He's recording his podcast, Running Things. Yeah, he's been in my basement every Tuesday for the past six weeks. Okay, well then, Donovan Bailey, he did not chime in for episode 1,000? Yeah, he's on it.

He's in there? Yeah, he's in there. I was thinking, what's his problem? He did. What's in there? Yeah, he's in there. I was thinking, what's his problem? He did. What's my problem? We're going to have to do a correction section because somebody wrote in. You're going to have to do a turnaround? Is that what you're telling me?

Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around. Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around. Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears. Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by. Turn around. Every now and then

I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes. Turn around, bright eyes. Every now and then I fall apart. Turn around, bright eyes. Every now and then

I fall apart. Every now and then I get a little bit ready. You know, the reason that I opened my can of GLB at this time was to make sure that we didn't get around to this in the state that I was in the first time I made this mistake when I was two, maybe three beers in. Rory Dodd, the turnaround guy on Total

Eclipse of the Heart. Now, we're going through in the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment, the Canadian connections of Meatloaf. I mentioned that Rory Dodd was from somewhere different than where he actually lives. Rory Dodd from Port

Dover, Ontario. What did I say? The bikers go there. Port Hope? Oh, you might have said Port Hope. Port Carling? I got to admit, I don't know the difference between one place and another. No, but Port Dover is on Friday the 13th. The bikers go there.

This is all I know about Port Dover. Port Hope is where Wheels' dad lives. And now Retro Ontario, I think. Oh, okay. And maybe Ziggy. Well, then this is the wrong side of the tracks. You're going to be visiting Ed Conroy this summer, right? Yeah, I got an invite.

The whole family's going to visit him, yeah. I got to see that studio he's built in a barn or whatever. Dude, he didn't invite me. I even got invited to France today. Although that's a longer bike ride. You got to buy your own plane ticket? I guess so. I guess that's part of the deal. Okay, to buy your own plane ticket? I guess so. I guess that's part of the deal.

Okay, I'd like to clarify then. The singer who worked with Jim Steinman and Meatloaf is Rory Dodd of Port Dover, Ontario. Glad you corrected this. And the brother of Cal Dodd. And I knew Cal Dodd from the show Circus, which I saw taped live at the CTV Glenn Warren compound in Scarborough. Remember Circus? Vaguely. Cal Dodd, like a Canadian version of Donny Osmond, his brother.

Rory, one of the last surviving legends associated with the album, bad out of hell. So most of them might be surviving, but so two main guys are gone. I think you'll enjoy this. Uh, a recent guest, which I'm hoping we'll talk about right now is Mike Cooper. And Mike Cooper was a very like,

um, a sudden thing. Like I got an email saying I'm in town for one day. I can do Thursday at one or something like that. And then I like quickly rearranged one day. I can do Thursday at 1 or something like that. And then I quickly rearranged my schedule so I could do Thursday at 1 p.m. with Mike Cooper. I didn't even tell anyone he was coming over. I just said, I have a surprise guest today at 1 o'clock.

Mike Cooper comes on. I pulled a couple of clips. You want to set these up? Well, okay. I listened to the live stream of you talking to Toronto radio legend Mike Cooper. Okay, I listened to the live stream of you talking to Toronto radio legend Mike Cooper. Then I listened to it again in the podcast on the usual double speed. And then I thought, I've got to hear this thing one more time all the way through.

And perhaps, keep in mind, I subscribe to 3,000 different podcasts. Insane. And I made time to listen three times to Mike Cooper because there were so many layers of what he brought to the table here in the basement. It was like a revelation of this guy who has been on Toronto radio for the better part of 50 years. Yep. And with everything he ever said into a microphone, I don't think he was ever as candid as he was in the 90 minutes.

And it was only 90 minutes, right? He had the stopwatch running. Wouldn't give you a second more. Which is really a pretty good amount of time to give anybody. Yeah, better than Roger Ashby. Yeah, three times as bad. Who was in and out in half an hour. Right.

Mike Cooper had a lot to say and revealed quite a bit about himself, which left me wanting so much more. Like, there was so much that Mike Cooper brought up in that episode that could be thin-sliced and discussed further. I think you could have other guests come on to argue with Mike Cooper about different claims he was making.

Seems like he's interested in doing a podcast reunion with Aaron Davis. I think Mike Cooper will be a renewable TMDS resource for years to come. But the one point in the episode where I had to interject, I got on the bat phone to Toronto Mike. This is a service that I don't take for granted, which is my ability to get your attention after an episode is underway. And it related to the claim made by me, because it really happened, Related to the claim made by me, because it really happened,

that I met Mike Cooper at the Canadian National Exhibition, not in, what was he, 1975 when he was doing the stunt? Three weeks on the Ferris wheel, Guinness Book of World Records, even though he cheated when some hoodlums got to the Ferris wheel, started punching him out, gave him a black eye. I think that's been out there somewhere. Okay, because I wasn't sure. And he actually didn't set the record right that, well, can I play the clip? Some dudes roughed him up, and he didn't do the whole three weeks. This was Mike Cooper's explanation of the aftermath of the Ferris wheel stunt.

Well, okay. I got it wrong. I'm trying to see what I have. I have a clip of him making a false claim, and then I have a clip of me bringing up your experience that suggests he's wrong. So let's play the first clip, though. Hopefully we have an X this year. It's been a couple of years since we've had a CNE, but

that's... I've never been back. Really? Yeah. I've had enough of that place. 21 days, 10 hours going around and around. That's a mind blow. Coop, that's a mind blow. I still have the hemorrhoids from it. Okay, so that's 75. So you have not been to the CNE since 1975. Yep.

Wow. Okay, so there's the claim. Cooper has not been back to the CNE since that Ferris wheel stunt in 1975. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so there's the claim. Cooper has not been back to the C&E since that Ferris wheel stunt in 1975. I actually, before I saw any bat phone remarks from you, I remembered you DM'd me that memory of bumping into him in, I don't know, was it 89? 1989. Okay.

At the C&E. So let's play that. I would have seen a young Mike was it 89? 1989. Okay. So let's play that. I would have seen a young Mike work in the Midway. Okay. 1989. So here, let me call him out on this. Here we go. We're an employee.

You'll enjoy what he says about your newsletter here. All right, I have a mind blow for you, and this might even surprise you, but you made a comment earlier that you haven't been back to the X since 1975. Yeah.

So, Toronto Mike correspondent 1236, Mr. Mark Weisblatt, who visits me once a month to recap the previous month. FOTMs know that. He swears he met you at the X in 1989 when you were repping CKEY 590. No. Is that possible? No. No. Now I don? No. No.

Now I don't have the best memory in the world. I trust you, but you wouldn't forget returning to the scene of the Ferris Wheel stunt. No. And what year was that? He says 1989. He said he met you at the C&E. You were repping Key 590.

No, because I was at Key 590 in 1990. Okay, well, Wiseblood, he's here next Thursday. We're going to discuss this. But he has been wrong before. And who is he, though? He has a newsletter. It's called 1236. And every day at 1236 p.m., he sends this newsletter where he covers,

sort of similar to the same thing I'm kind of doing but he covers what's going on in the zeitgeist if you will the media. Boy that sounds riveting There you go What say you Mark Weisblood? Well I brought a song to you as a piece of evidence

to back myself up on the memory that I have. I thought you'd always be by my side You never told me that your love was untrue I never thought I'd be missing you Well, I always make the same mistake Believing every single one of those lies Maybe love is just a chance you take Every time you step in Make sure you're ready for the full of culture

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Missing you There's a baby in my heart Okay, look, this song is torture. Can't Candy. Remember Candy? Candy in the backseat. Are you kidding me?

I'm a CFDR guy. Of course I do. Under a Latin moon? Under a Latin moon? Mike Cooper would have introduced your records Right, right. You see me? I'm a CFTR guy. Of course I do. Under Aladdin Moon? Under Aladdin Moon? Mike Cooper would have introduced her records on 680 CFTR before he left CFTR for CKEY, Key 590. Right. And picture this. It's August 1989.

And through CIUT-FM, the University of Toronto Community Radio Station. There'd be different press passes, invitations to launches and stuff, but this was usually pretty low-end events, like things that publicists were trying to wrangle members of the student media to attend. So if you found some invitation lying around there, the station wasn't organized enough for anybody to open

and organize the mail. If you came across something, chances were you could get on the guest list, get admission to show up. And this was some kind of press conference for the opening of that year's CNE. I worked there that year, you know. It was tied to some sort of video game. I was racking my brain trying to figure out

what kind of video game companies might have existed in Canada in the late 1980s. But what they were touting at this press conference was a tie-in between this video game firm and the pop music group called Candy.

And that this was a press event. Could you imagine? At which this initiative would be unveiled. Wow. With the hope of getting that earned media attention wherever they could find it. I don't know if Candy and her sidekicks were actually in the room. They're called the Backbeat Mark. What I do remember was

they made us sit in the, I don't know, automotive building, Queen Elizabeth Place, some building on the CNE grounds. Mike, you could name them all. Sure. And one thing that we had to sit through from beginning to end was the video for Candy's Missing You.

That was the Better Living Center. And Candy's Missing You was going to be her new hit single. And somehow this video game company was going to ride the glory. And, of course, after they showed this video to everyone, they just shrugged and wondered what was this all about. And then we could go on our way and enjoy this CNE for the rest of the day. I was there with my pal Adam Sobolak.

His name might have come up here on the podcast over the years, but a longtime influence of mine. Going back to the days of CIT, and they were wandering around the Centennial Square, part of the exhibition, and they're sitting at a table from the radio station, Key 590, at which, contrary to his claim, I found proof that he started working at it

in August 1989, was a legendary Toronto DJ, Mike Cooper. I remember he had these cards, maybe a big postcard, in which he was signing autographs for all of his fans. It was also a little bit weird, because this was the opening day of the Canadian National Exhibition, and it might have been somewhere around noon. So it's not like there was a big crowd around.

I guess from your experience working at the X, it might have attracted a lot of elderly people who were roaming the grounds during the day. This wasn't the experience of the nighttime midway in full flight. Right, the concert crowd. This was a sleepy afternoon scene. And what we observed, me and Adam,

in talking to Mike Cooper for a minute or two, was he seemed kind of traumatized. Like he was still experiencing some sort of PTSD. And I feel by his denying that he was there 14 years later, I get the sense that, look, he had just gotten this gig on Toronto Morning Radio. This was a big opportunity for him after so many years, climbing up from overnights to afternoon drive. Why wouldn't he fulfill the request to put in a little appearance at the CNE to promote this 590 radio station,

which was at the bottom of the ratings. They were trying for a revival, a resurgence. The owners at the time, McLean Hunter, this was actually the sister station of CFNY. But it's not like anybody remembers this. Also, RAN has been Oldies AM radio station, which never got much traction. And from what Mike Cooper talked about, that's the place where he had the worst bosses of all, working on that radio station over there.

And in fact, after that point in time, he disappeared from Toronto for a little while. First to Hamilton, then to Peterborough, then back to Toronto Morning Radio again. 1989, at the CNE. You were there. I met Mike Cooper. I might have even shaken his hand, but he looked a little disturbed by the whole experience,

like he was kind of out of place, that it was just a little obligation that he had to fulfill for his new radio job, and that we were reflecting afterwards, he looked like he didn't want to be there. Can I blow your mind? And now we know the rest of the story And now we know the rest of the story. Now we know the rest of the story.

So the first day of the C&E in 1989 was my very first day of employment anywhere. That was my first day on my first job. So I worked the C&E, as you know, and that was it. So the first day of the 89 season was my debut in the workforce. Just imagine, August 1989, you, me,

Mike Cooper, all of us in the same place at the same time. Mick Jagger. Right. Tell Steve Stone that. Wasn't that the year? Steel wheels? Yes, absolutely. And the funny thing is, so I did the three years at the C&E. The next year, the summer of 1990, everything was about

Bart Simpson. So that was such a dramatic change. Bart Simpson was absolutely everywhere during the C&E in 1990, and that was the big prize you'd win at our game booths with Bart Simpson dolls. Okay, so amazing that

you clarified that. Well, I don't know if I clarified it, because now you have to get Mike Cooper back in the basement, and you've got to play him the tape. And the fact is that Mike Cooper, who's been around. He's only here one day a month, I hear. For so long. And, again, like so many different layers to that episode.

Learned a little bit about what happened with Darren B. lamb right uh even mike cooper who was filling in for him did not exactly know the answer but sounded very grateful for the gig you know there's been a few between gourd renny tom jokic and uh of course mike cooper the darren b lamb question has been posed to a few people who might be in the know and the reaction is always like you're talking about like, who's D.B. Cooper or something. It's just such a bizarre reaction when you say the name Darren B. Lamb to these people. And we learned

Mike Cooper, who has been mourning his wife, who passed a couple years ago, how he retired from doing daily radio specifically to take care of her against her wishes.

And I thought it was a great episode. Very moving how he described the circumstances and how if it wasn't for that tragedy he would still be on the air

to this day. Right. And Mike Cooper, yes, still around on CHFI doing Saturday Night. And I think Derek Welsman, an FOTM Derek Welsman,

produces that show for him, by the way. At the end of that episode of Cooper, where it's gone great, it's amazing, epic, awesome, we're winding down, and then he drops the whole,

like, I just went on my first date bomb, which I thought was like, he felt so safe and so comfortable, he was going to let me know he just went on his first date i didn't see that coming got a great reality show unfolding here with coop

she can get a taste fuck what a nigga say well it's not the radio edit but they probably didn't play this version on uh so tell me the significance of this song. It's a... Who's singing this wonderful song, Taste? How do you feel about the N-word creeping into the podcast? Because it does make me a little bit uncomfortable. See here, if it's by somebody, a black person is saying it in their art. Actually, I don't mind it as long as a black person says it. It doesn't, you know, it's their license to say it.

As far as I could tell, Taste, the 2018 single by Tyga featuring Offset. You know these names? You know who these guys are? Tyga is a name I know. I don't knowga featuring Offset. You know these names? You know who these guys are? Tyga's a name I know. I don't know the name Offset. Offset is from Migos. Okay. Who have also worked with Drizzy Drake. I don't want to sound like Abraham Simpson here,

but my ears don't enjoy it, so I don't care to dive deep into who's behind it. Well, not only do your ears not enjoy it, apparently none of the Toronto radio audience did either. Because this, as far as I could tell, was the final song ever played on Flow 93.5. This is the answer to that barroom trivia question you're going to be pummeled with for the rest of your life. Now, okay, I'm going by what I saw on the website. I was not listening to the switchover at the time. But we had a few dramatic days by Toronto Mike standards as we speculated what was happening with the radio company called Stingray, where they relieved the remaining Flow DJs of their duties.

Shout out to Blake Carter. And announced that the dial position of the Flow brand would be switching. This is where it got a little bit too complicated. People couldn't understand what was happening here. The station will still be around, but it'll be something else. And it will have different owners and it will have different music,

but they're still going to be calling it the Flow. We're only trading logos here. The stations are the stations and then they traded off some logos. Traded off some logos. And I think also they had to do what they could to avoid a backlash.

Well, first of all, it's Black History Month, for goodness sakes. Yeah, there's a cultural thing here. Now, look, it doesn't matter when they did this. Flow 93.5. It was the 21st anniversary of when it signed on, February 2001. Originally, it was a black-owned radio station, Denim Jolly Milestone Communications. This was big news, a huge deal for Canadian broadcasting.

After, at that point, what was about 15 years of trying, here was the opportunity for Toronto to have this format radio station of its own. In the previous opportunities for CRTC license, they had given it to stations that would have been portrayed as the polar opposite of black music on the radio country. And then it goes all the way back to... And CBC. And also EZ97, CJZ 97.3.

Wow. That was also a situation where the license was not given to an application that was related to the Toronto black community. This was a hard-fought, hard-won radio station. But facts is facts. There was never really that much love for the flow. I think through the years, through the 2000s,

it managed to grow a bit of an audience based on its programming at night. It was a certain Degrassi actor named Aubrey Graham who gave a lot of credit to that evening programming, OTA Live, that here was a show that they were doing that was playing Toronto rapper demo tapes, inviting them into the studio to do some freestyle, really picking up what had originally started on CKLN with DJ Ron Nelson, Fantastic Voyage,

and here it was getting some more commercial applications. But in the process of trying to make some money by selling commercial time, it was always an uphill climb for Flow 93.5. And after the first little while, it seemed to be such a disaster as far as formatics were concerned, as far as the people that they hired trying to figure out what to do with this frequency and reach an audience, they actually hired David Marsden to be the program director, which I thought at the time was a pretty cool move.

David just celebrated his 82nd birthday. So here he was, like, in his 60s. And this radio programming legend who was given the task of trying to save the flow, trying to fulfill these haughty obligations that came with the license and try to do it in a way that would attract listeners, but never really figured out how it would happen. What music should be on this station? What format should it be? How are we going to get people tuned in?

And again, this is before streaming online music became what it became to this day as a competitor. There was still a terrestrial audience to be had as far as FM radio was concerned. Rogers took KISS 92.5, and at first when they felt they were being threatened by flow or that it was a possible contender, Kiss 92.5 started playing totally black music. Remember this one? This was in the early 2000s. It was J. Mad Dog Michaels.

I remember he took a stand against playing Ignition by R. Kelly on the radio. And he might have been ahead of his time as far as refusing to acknowledge that name. Definitely a tumultuous enough time for the flow. But look, the people with the license, the owners of the station, they got what they came for, which was the opportunity to sell the frequency to Chum. which was the opportunity to sell the frequency to CHUM. And there we had a situation where Flow 93.5 and 104.5 CHUM FM, do you remember this at all?

They were actually affiliated, sister stations. They were broadcasting from the same building there, 250 Richmond Street in the Queen and John area. But so much of this is forgotten because it really just came down to the fact that here Canada's first black-owned black music station was kind of orphaned. It was twisting in the wind. Nobody knew how to make it happen. And then when these different consolidation deals were concerned, when Bell swallowed up Astral and some stuff had to be

sold off to Rogers and they also had to get rid of a couple Toronto radio stations. The flow ended up at the property of NuCap. And NuCap really didn't know how to make it work either. And then at one point in 2016 they changed the name of the flow. All of a sudden it was

Move. Right. Move 93.5, FOTM. Scott Turner, the program director. That didn't work either. Like, they couldn't draw the audience, the advertisers, the whole idea of doing a throwback dance music radio station in Toronto. What was the calculation?

Right, they figured there were all these fans of Energy 108, Hot 103, Z103.5. All these people are getting a little older. We can get the aging electric circus crowd. This music,

it goes to show. It's not that easy. Right? Like, just to figure all these people were into this stuff once upon a time. We could just bring

all those listeners back. It wasn't happening. It didn just bring all those listeners back. It wasn't happening. Didn't happen. It went back to the flow. Then at one point, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, they announced an American morning show. It's going to come in and save the floor. Remember what we're talking about?

Of course. Of course. Big news here. And I think what I had to say about it was pretty optimistic, which was to say, like, here was a breakfast club. Well, I mean, I'm not optimistic about very much at all. That's true. But I thought, okay, they're putting on this Charlemagne the God.

He's got this following for this more political talk radio style, and they put it on the flow interspersed with their own music in the morning. And I didn't think it would work. You didn't think it would work. I tried to counter, okay, you know, this guy's got enough of a name for himself that will bring people to a hip-hop rap radio station that would never listen any other time because the music isn't doing it for them, right? When they hear Tyga featuring Offset, a song like Taste, this is a tune-out. And if you were hearing a conversation

that was based on what was happening in the world in the news and celebrity gossip and celebrity guests, you'd be more likely to stick around. But super American. Super American. And it got to the point towards the end where Charlemagne was on the show, and he was saying,

why are we even on air in Toronto, right? Like, you deserve your own Toronto, your own Toronto radio hip-hop morning show. Right. You're the place where the six god is from. What are you doing pumping in our show? Which is a great, great point. People are interested enough in us, they can listen on the internet. Why are you wasting Toronto airwaves?

They bring back the morning team, which was an FOTM, Blake Carter. She had been around the block of Toronto radio stations, which she had chum, kiss, flow, the move. And Peter Cash, Blake Carter and Peter Cash. And they seemed to develop a bit of a following. Like before them, it was another pair of guests you've had. JJ and Melanie. Right.

Your favorites. Certain kind of hip-hop radio banter. Doesn't matter if you're black or white. Didn't seem like it. Right? Because these DJs that were on the flow, Mastermind in Afternoon Drive. I'm not a racist. I don't audit people's skin color, their family tree, or where they are from.

But if the whole idea was certain authenticity comes from having black hosts on the black radio station, I don't know if Flow 93.5 was ever making the grade. But then again, they're in multicultural Toronto. I mean, would it have mattered to you if the skin color of the host on the rap radio station was not aligned with the artists they were playing? How important would this representation, you think, be to an audience member out there, Mike? Super fucking important. But at the same time then, though,

the Flow 93.5, based on the backlash it received for the fact that it was folding, the reaction was, why are they taking our black radio station away from us? Right. But the ownership of the radio station

isn't black. And historically, most of the people who were the stars on the air weren't either. And yet, this is the nature of the game, right? If you want to build a mass appeal audience and sell advertising and be accessible to everyone,

you can't limit yourself to a certain type of voice on the air. Unless you want to set the record for a long episode. Okay, but all this is building up to say... Hold on. So Stingray eventually buys NuCap. So Stingray owns Flow 93.5. And then a couple of things happen, and I will pass the baton back to you, but they do two things. One is they license this new format from another company, which you'll discuss in a moment, and they hand over this Flow branding, like the logo, basically,

and they pass it on to another station with not as strong a frequency, but give us those two updates. Thank you, Mike, for getting me back on track. Because G98.7 was the more authentic black music radio station in Toronto, which is to say it was founded by Fitzroy Gordon. Right. The late Fitzroy Gordon.

Right. A Toronto media legend who had this dream. After whatever went down with the flow, failed to serve and satisfy the community, that he could do a more genuine form of black radio, more eclectic, not obsessed with these commercial considerations, but at the same time he could make it sustainable. Well, it turned out in the process, G98.7 went bankrupt,

and with his failing health, there was nobody at the wheel. And it was a situation where Fitzroy Gordon's dream was falling apart at the same time where he was not in a position to do anything about it. A new owner comes in who's associated with ethnic radio stations. The rallying to get a bidder from the black community didn't come through. They couldn't find anybody who had the cash to put up who considered this a worthwhile investment, a lower power terrestrial

FM radio station in Toronto. But it was hobbling along. A new owner comes in and says, okay, we're going to bring in more American sensibilities and we're going to try and make this G98.7 thing work, whatever it takes, and we are going to do our best

to maintain the original black community aspiration of the station. Well, what better strategy could you have than adopting the name of Flow 93.5? And I feel like behind the scenes, it was a situation where they were looking for something to ignite the format. And if you called G98.7 the Flow, maybe you would pick up the momentum

from the other side of the dial. Well, I think what happened was pretty predictable. You know, the assumption there that Stingray was in fact letting the community down, that this was a typical white supremacist situation in the Canadian media

where they couldn't make the black music thing work, that they were indifferent to the audience that they had and the potential that was out there. And the people at Stingray tried to spin it that way, where they said, you know, we were exploring what we could do with this format, but maybe we'd bring the flow back to its community roots. Do you buy this explanation at all?

They said, but then we realized we would be competing with G98.7. competing with G98.7. So instead of burying a rival, we're going to donate our name. I mean, did this spin make any sense to you? No, because it's 100% PR spin. Like, they're trying to save some face. So in Black History Month, when they dumped the black music station in the city

that had had you know its origin story which we've covered with farley flex and uh maybe jonathan sinden like we've covered it many times on this program and i'm trying to do a deeper dive into it actually with those same two fotms but this let's face it this is a failure to the mandate of the station and they're trying to find some pr spin to say like, hey, look, we handed this logo. But whose mandate are you talking about? Because the original mandate

of 93.5. The original mandate, but it doesn't matter anymore. They can do whatever they want. There are no more conditions on the license they had. I'm speaking to optics, not law.

Optics, being a corporate citizen, I guess, right? You want to make sure that you're coming out okay. So hold on, though, but people aren't accusing you of letting a whole community down. I mean, 98.7 existed before this deal.

Like, 98.7 is an actual station owned by a different company, and it exists. The only thing that changed was they took this logo because there were some marketing efforts for 20 years behind this logo, and that might help them get some awareness in the marketplace. Yeah, get some awareness. At the same time, look. So they got the logo.

They got the logo. Well, it's not a hip-hop jukebox. I mean, it's Flow 93.5 from the start, and even more so in its later incarnation. We're a very repetitive top 40 hip-hop radio station, right? I mean, this is a station playing like two or three Drake songs every single hour. Sure. They're lucky that they had them around to fill the quota of Canadian content. Sure.

Okay, but one more clarification here. No one was mistaking Flow 93.5 for some form of high art, right? This was a lowbrow attempt to reach a mass appeal crowd. It wasn't working at all. It's not like the fans of Flow 93.5 can tune in in the mornings to hear Blake and Cash on the new Flow 98.7.

None of the personnel were retained. This is completely a logo and branding. Okay, but then Mike, we get to the point where who cares about any of this at all? You're talking about an audience that is fully dialed in as far as their access to streaming music platforms.

Being able to hear a radio station from anywhere in the world. Well, Mike, I can't be the only one who cares? You might be the only one. Is that right? Hold on, let me read my paper from Sunday. Okay. Well, look, it's a source of curiosity, but what goes on behind the scenes? What optics are involved? So the flow 98.7, and the assumption Well, look, it's a source of curiosity, but what goes on behind the scenes? What optics are involved? So,

the flow 98.7, and the assumption is, okay, you know, whatever audience they had the flow, it was in the basement of the ratings. They'll all migrate to this other radio station. And, you know, if they want to hear, like, three, four, five Drake songs an hour, they're going to be real disappointed when they hear gospel and

soca and reggae shows, because that's part of the license they have some talk shows over there i mean it's if if they liked the flow at 93.5 they're gonna despise what they're trying to do with it at 98.7 so nobody's happy but the 98.7 station and the format i i think, is done with pure intentions. Right. And at the same time, trying to figure out how to make a buck, still doing radio that way.

But the complaints came pouring in, people that couldn't pick up that 98.7 signal. It is terrible. But it doesn't matter at all. Again, like, how few people are left who can't just access this stuff on their phone? If nothing matters, what matters if nothing matters? Do you know what I mean? So this must matter to somebody in the most diverse city in the country. Well, we're just standing by waiting for somebody to find something resonant about the fact this form of radio broadcasting is still around.

Look, there's another station, Element FM, 106.5. I think I've got that right. And they've got people who used to work at the original Flow. And they've pivoted to a hip-hop format. Mark Strong is there. Yeah, that's Mark Strong, Gemini, Morning Show, and the Juice Man, Jonathan Shaw.

These were veterans. These are ones people that they miss from the Flow. The station there, it's a new beat of Toronto. And they have to play at least 25% indigenous music. And they have a corresponding talk show. That's a license that they got. It's a way of... They're in the chorus key building.

I got a tour. Doug Thompson gave me a tour. Exposing these indigenous artists to a wider audience. And before that, they were doing something more eclectic, kind of mix of hip-hop, alternative rock. Now it's more straight down the line, old school flow

style. So these people are on 106.5 at Toronto Frequency. Nobody knows that they're there. This is the point. All this commotion, all these articles, all this social media backlash, I don't see anybody who knows that there are other people who are out there trying on the same FM radio dial and crickets like nobody's hearing about them at all.

And of course, I pride myself and try to project this upon you. These are our obsessions. That's what we talk about here every month that we're tuned into what's going on out there. The thing is, LMN FM 106.5, they've got no budget, they've got no platform, they've got no way to get anybody to notice that, in fact, the old school flow radio style

is alive and well on the Toronto dial. So what do we hear today if we tune in 93.5? The best radio station that I have heard in Toronto in decades. I am all over this thing and hearing song after song after song that takes me back and makes me feel vindicated for the fact that I have paid so much attention to all these radio records in my life. And when I ask you to the night, you say, you've got to be cruel to be kind in the right measure. Cruel to be kind, that's a very good sign. Cruel to be kind means that I love you, baby.

You've got to be cruel to be kind. Mark, can I ask, is it like the old Jack FM? They just play what they want? I don't know. I'm going to be like Jeff Lumby here and start tearing up when I talk about hearing Nick Lowe's Cruel to be Kind. But can I just, before you tear up there,

Monica, my wife, she enjoyed Flow 93.5, one of her stations. So in the car, it's a preset. And she came in the other day, I guess she was running an errand, and she said she was on her preset, and they were playing something that wasn't like a Flow song. Oh, well then, Monica is married

to the right guy. I mean, it was either going to be me or you. These are the only people who could answer her question. But she's listening. She said it was some throwback, and she was enjoying it. But then she said the next song was a country song, and she got the fuck out of Dodge. Like, boom, gone.

I don't know if she'll ever be back to that piece. I don't think it's going to last, okay? But I love it all. And it's a fact. This is where I'm at. And I think enough people who listen to these 12 36 episodes can relate to me if i was hearing this uh from stingray right they own those streaming tv music channels do you subscribe to those you get them i have some yes on my uh bell there's something about the fact that even if i'm listening to these things online

you know i have i still have my old clock radio, but if they're coming out of my same computer speakers, there's something about knowing the fact that this is being broadcast through an FM radio transmitter on that signal that takes me back and makes me emotional about the fact that I have lived long enough to be familiar with all of these songs. So it's not only the stuff they're playing, the throwbacks from the 80s, 70s, 60s. It's the fact that they're playing new songs and that I have managed to keep up on the pop charts through my whole conscious life. And that I know all of these songs.

It makes me feel finally there's a radio station listening to me and me alone. A recipe for disaster is targeting Mark Weisblatt with your radio station. Okay. Here we go. Look, I'm not saying it's going to stick around. I'm just saying I'm basking in the experience. So, you know, I don't have a horse in this race. You know that, right?

So I just want people to be happy. But I need to be a realist here. I need to tell you that if you're playing songs, first of all, there's a thing called Spotify. There's streaming, Apple Music, et cetera. People have their playlists. People on demand can hear any song they want. And you've got this sort of Jack FM mentality.

We're playing this. You never know what will pop up next. They don don't actually i don't believe they do a good job of like discussing the history of that song or giving it some you know that's what i like that's all that is interesting to me hold on here so the personalities on this news station because i was interested to hear who's going to be the voices. Not a single voice known to any regular Torontonian. Will you admit

that's fair, right? There's no person on this station that any typical Torontonian will have ever heard of, correct? Not quite. Great, okay.

The afternoon drive guy. So a bunch of nobodies spinning songs like this trying to take people away from their favorite station. You've already pissed off all the flow people.

They're not sticking around for this. Trust me on that one. Not when you get the country song next to the whatever. I'm here to tell you, this song is going to, this song, this radio station will be a disaster. This is for nobody. Who is this station for? Mark Weisblatt? How many Mark Weisblatts are there?

We're lucky there's one. The Afternoon Drive is co-hosted by a guy named Paul McGuire. Remember Paul? He was on YTV. He was kind of like the straight man. I know, Mark McGuire. Talking to puppets. He'd be on with PJ, Fresh Phil, and all the gang.

And then subsequently he was a VJ on country music TV. And he's still around with Stingray doing this voice track national country. I wish him well. And I would love to have him on. I was surprised he's managed to develop this, uh, real radio guy voice, uh,

kind of, uh, but that's another thing I've, I've stopped liking bedside manner. And he's doing a, a afternoon drive show with, uh, Vanessa.

Uh, I'm not sure who Vanessa is besides the fact that she's in Vancouver. She's not even in Toronto. Interesting. Not even local. So what do they talk about on this talk station today? They don't talk about anything at all.

The topics are totally air-headed. It's talk radio, right? Well, here's the deal. And you think this will be a success? It's the idea that if you talk about these lifestyle topics, like here's on their website as we speak, what's the worst thing you ever texted to the wrong person?

So it's Eric Alper Radio. If only the questions were that deep, because they're not really asking about music at all. At least get Eric Alper. Eric Alper's available. Put him on the station. At least that's a name typical Torontonians have heard of. If you have these friendly voices on the air, it doesn't matter who they are.

It doesn't matter their name. It doesn't matter if anybody's heard of them before. What world do you live in? Go on. Katie and Ed, who do a show in the mornings in Calgary. You can hear them on Today 93.5 at night. The banter is cloying and contrived. I don't know how many of the calls are genuine. Does it really matter? Does it really matter if you're listening to a phone call from somebody who's being paid, an actor who's getting five bucks to call in a radio station.

This is 2022. Pretend that they're excited to be listening, thrilled to get the chance to talk on the air. I'm saying this is the glue that keeps the ridiculous playlist together. Okay, so they've got a morning show. It's Paul and Nikki. Nikki was somewhat famous in Montreal.

That's good for Montreal. Nikki Bolch was on the beat of Radio Station Montreal. I'll take your word for it. I think she got fired. Scooped up there, and it's a morning show with Paul, a Scottish guy. Okay. Do I have to pretend like I remember his last name? No, but I don't even think this is particularly interesting.

He was on Boom 97.3. The Midday Dude, also from Montreal, Tyler Barr. So what's with all these people? I think this guy's terrific because you're hearing a contemporary hit radio style, okay? And he's queuing up a lot of songs that are current top 40 hits. But at the same time, throwing in some country music. Some classic rock. But if you're going to launch a new talk station.

You never know what curveball you're going to hear next. If you're going to launch a new talk station in a market like Toronto, you need to have names people know. You can't have 100% no names. They talk a lot, but they don't talk for long. This is the way the format works. They're always throwing something new at you. These are really tight talk radio bits.

I don't know how many of these are prerecorded. I don't know how much they edit these things down. But I'm having a good time listening to this radio station, okay? Like, this is the first radio station in Toronto to play both Jay Ferguson from Sloan and Jay Ferguson from Thunder Island.

And that's why it's gonna fail. I can't remember Jay Ferguson from Thunder Island. Would I like him? I think you mentioned him. I know. I just can't remember. He came up in my SEO searches

for doing my homework on Jay Ferguson. Just one of those 70s Yacht Rock generation sounds. I'm not a radio guy. I'm just a listener. I'm just telling you I'm a bit puzzled by all of this in the aftermath of

leaving the flow behind. I just find it all puzzling. Today, I will point out also I'm the guy who broke the story as to what 93.5 was turning into. That was my exclusive. If somebody tunes into this Today radio station,

like your wife Monica, I don't think they're going to clue in right away that this is a different format. I think they'll clue in right away. They're still playing a lot of Weekend and Justin Bieber and Drake. They're playing everything. There's still enough of that,

but the way people are tuned in. You know, they still have a commercial that you can tell was an advertiser from the old flow because it's for a black funeral home. And they have a jingle, New Haven Funeral Home.

Sending you hope at the end of your rope. I've listened to the station so much that the jingle is now burned in my brain. That sounds like a WKRP episode, right? With the funeral home jingle. It's just a reminder. Ridley Funeral Home is not alone in my brain. That sounds like a WKRP episode, right? With the Funeral Home jingle. It's just a reminder. Ridley Funeral Home is not alone in bringing a little bit of irreverence to the business of paying tribute without paying a fortune.

Look, okay, so the owner of this Today format is a company called Momentum Media Marketing. And we got thrown for a loop because we thought they're in business with Patterson on the Today Radio format. And Stingray is a different company. But I was not fooled. It's like Jack FM or these other formats where these radio owners can buy into it. Well, Boom. Because Boom is owned by different radio owners out there. So Momentum Media Marketing are responsible for bringing life back to the Toronto radio dial on Today FM 93.5. You know, I brought this song by Sophie Simmons.

Talked about her before, right? Daughter of Shannon Tweed. Right. And what's the name from the band? Gene Simmons. And that's a typical kind of pop song that you hear on these lesser... No, I don't know about that. Oh, no, sorry.

Yeah, this is just... Chum. C-H-F-I. Because we're getting to the point where we're going to talk about what's going on with these other radio stations. I feel like we could have just talked about the fact that Chorus championed the program director at 640 Toronto, championed her appearance on Toronto Mic. Like, they wanted it.

What does that mean, championed? They listened to the episode and they were satisfied with the results? They were keen for me to have her on Toronto Mic'd. They got in touch. They offered her up as a guest. Correct. To go on the Toronto Mic'd hot seat. And knowing fully well that she's new to the job, right?

She just came in there at the end of 2021. Very new. And there was no way she was going to be able to answer any questions about the disaster that preceded her there. No Stafford questions would be answered, correct, or, you know, skeezes. That was before my time. Just like last month, Mike, where we contemplated whether we would have had the confidence to start up a blog TO kind of website. And hit the big time with $15 million in our pockets.

I'm still bitter. We let that slip away from ourselves. You can't buy happiness. We were in the thick of it all. Mike, could have made it happen. Me and my lofty, pretentious, journalistic ambitions. You and your responsibility to feed your family. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Had we put those aside for just a few weeks, who knows where we would be today. Much like that situation, coulda, shoulda. Had we put those aside for just a few weeks, who knows where we would be today. Much like that situation, listening to Amanda Capito on Toronto Mic'd. I'm pretty sure you and me could be the program directors of AM640. I think we're working our way there. I feel like I might get a call soon. What gets me is Amanda was doing something similar to TMDS here,

like her own podcast production company or whatever. I don't know. I didn't get a list of any podcasts she produced. I have a list of mine if you'd like to hear them. But she got a tap on the shoulder. She tells me. Tap on the shoulder can be both positive and negative. Right.

But this is the good one. Like, hey, can we give you a job? Would you become our program director? Okay. I just want to point out. Because I thought we related tap on the shoulder to getting a pink slip. Right, but this was her words.

That you're being summoned to the corner office and about to be fired. Absolutely. But you used tap on the shoulder. Well, she used it first. In a positive vein. She used it first, so I borrowed it. And where would they have tapped her shoulder?

Like in what physical office space have these people getting together? And listening to what she had to say, and don't get me wrong, it was a fascinating peek behind the curtain of what's involved to get a job like this where you've been assigned to the task of trying to figure out AM talk radio for a different generation.

We've been down this road a few times before. They wanted to find someone who would be coming in with a clean slate, but also responding to the reality that in two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been very little talk radio broadcasting, very little radio at all that has involved face-to-face interaction between the practitioners and the participants. And as a result, the product has suffered.

It's not only resulted in situations where there was a big exile from Global News Radio, a few other people who found themselves in a situation where due to complaints or HR issues were relieved of their duties, a few people who voluntarily quit because it was a scenario that they didn't want to deal with anymore. Here you are in a situation where you're assigned to this form of verbal expression over the AAM airwaves, and they were saying,

as far as we can tell, the ability of what we can get away with saying is being stifled. And there are greener pastures out there. And so, as a result, there was a big body count associated with this concept of global news radio. To the point where they reverted back to the original brands of the radio station. And no longer using global news radio as a positioner anymore. There's one global news radio left. It's in Edmonton, but that's an all-news radio station. Similar to 680.

How did Amanda Capito explain it? They didn't want to conflate on-air opinions with the integrity of global news. Here's the thing. That means bringing in programs where nobody says anything memorable at all. Just like trying to find a new form of happy chat, bringing it to the AM dial, and somehow satisfying all the stakeholders

with the fact they're doing something with that frequency and maybe making a few bucks. You got to enter the idea that Toronto Mike could buy some time on the AM640 airwaves that it was up for grabs. And here's a way to get a bit of a cash flow through the radio station. Good luck to Amanda Capito. In the course of listening to your conversation with her, you brought up my name a couple

of times. And I gotta say, as much as I love to be acknowledged and I find out what people really think of me, we learn Mike Cooper's impression about a concept like the 1236 newsletter, not interested at all. Well, Mike Cooper also isn't interested in listening

to the radio, period. His livelihood for the past half century, he listens to even less radio than you. Right. But where was I? You brought up my name. Yep. These are the... The Ryan Doyle.

Some of the stuff we talk about here with Ryan Doyle. Right. And let me just preface this by saying... And John Oakley. The reason we get into these discussions is you invite me down here. Right. And I got to bring the goods. This is what you want to talk about.

You got to entertain me for three hours. That doesn't mean that everything I'm saying has been well thought out. That doesn't even necessarily mean that I believe any of it at all. I figure this is just a harmless banter about Toronto personalities who have interfaced with the world of the Toronto Mic Podcasts and the FOC. But you do know these mics are live. Like, you do know when you speak into these mics, it gets shared with the masses. And you do know there are real, like, there are a lot of people listening.

Okay, so I do know that when I talk about Greg Brady and the style of broadcasting, he now brings to the Chorus Global Toronto AM 640 morning show, and he writes to you responding. I didn't ask to see what he wrote, by the way, that I just have to figure, okay, we're giving these people attention that no other media right now is willing to do. The only person who gets a full-page picture in the Toronto Star is Toronto Mike. Right, right.

And you know these people are pining for anybody to pay attention to them. You bring up my name in regard to Ryan Doyle, because I speculate what happened to him on CFRB, News Talk 1010. He disappeared under some complicated circumstances. He was let go. That's what happened in the end, and I was maintaining, no, I don't know that he was let go, because the way that it played out seemed to indicate that he was given an opportunity to offer somewhere else.

And the reason that I speculate as much is because, look, AM640 has a history of bringing voices over from a competing radio station and on the level in which they're operating at the bottom of the Toronto radio rating since the beginning of time, why wouldn't you want to do that? Like, you know, this is, this is, this is not an, this is not an avant-garde broadcasting experiment.

This is, this is corporate commercial radio, right? If I'm reading you right. If you, if you bring over somebody who's familiar from the competition, what quicker way, you know,

here we are a few minutes ago, you're complaining that none of the names on 93.5 are recognized, right? So the corollary is to bring on voices who are familiar to the audience you want to take away because they're not cultivating any new ones. It's just like here's another station that's got to share. Let's take their people. Let's grab it away from them. But you had a logic behind

working this way. I guess in your imagination, you had decided that Ryan Doyle quit an afternoon drive show on 1010 because he was going to take over for John Oakley. He was going to retire on 640. When did you ever hear anybody disputing that?

Maybe besides an email from Ryan himself. I have been told from excellent sources that that's not true, but we've had the same discussion in the last three months, I think, on Toronto Mike. What if Ryan wants the job? And here's where I got into talking about it. John Oakley has been

in Toronto Radio for a while. Right. And John Oakley, who tilted towards, I would say, an arch-conservative style on the air. Arch-conservatism. How many beers have you had? Remember John Oakley was credited with the rise of Rob Ford.

Yeah, I remember. That he would have this obscure city councilor. Rob would rally against councilors who had coffee machines in their office and were expensing this. And that he found a winning formula there to ride on. That included bringing on guests like Conrad Black,

after he was released from prison. Mark Stein, a man of many foreign accents, doesn't hold back in telling you what he thinks, and what he thinks is generally quite right-wing when he's not breaking out into show tunes. And Sue Ann Levy of the Toronto Sun. And how would you characterize the writings of Sue Ann?

Sal, a Toronto legend, who is very fond of giving politicians nicknames as Socialist Silly Hall. And then goes on Twitter to complain when anyone turns around and says something nasty about her. All these people had been on...

Well, she's still working. She's on a website. But not on 640. True North. All these people were banished from the airwaves. This seemed to be the show that John Oakley was reveling

in doing every day. Right. That he was giving these people a platform and a voice. And they were told one by one, you're not welcome here anymore. It's part of the attempt to make the radio station safe for the shareholders of Chorus Entertainment. And I just figured John Oakley now, around 66 years old, he doesn't want to do this anymore. Like they've taken the spirit of his show away from him. And here he is talking to consultants and lobbyists and PR people in the afternoon.

Doesn't sound like much fun. Bring in somebody like Ryan Doyle. He can deliver the goods. Now here's where I step in to let people know who have not heard amanda copito on toronto mic then you should because i thought it was uh pretty good you uh i asked her straight out is there any truth to the rumor that ryan doyle is going to end up on 640 and amanda shot it down right away and called ryan a uh 10 10 cast off like she had no interest in 10 even though she herself could be uh described as a 10 10 cast off but she has no interest in 10 even though she herself could be uh described as a 10 10 cast

off but she has no interest in bringing in 10 cfrb 10 10 cast offs like ryan doyle like it sounds like this is absolutely not in the plans for amanda cupido now your argument will be because i know how you're wired is you're going to say it's going to come from above it's going to come from above amanda cupido's pay grade and she's going to be told to hire Ryan Doyle. I say this is not happening. Okay, yeah, sure, why not? So meanwhile, you've got Ryan, among other things, fighting online

on the Southern Ontario, Western New York radio TV forum. A gentleman who uses the online name Radioactive, who has some very bizarre listening habits, such as he refuses to consume any content that is not available on the traditional AM dial. Wow. He's allergic to any form of digital listening. Well, that's not true, because he listened to my Amanda Capito episode of Toronto Mike.

Whatever. Gritted his teeth. It was a little bit of research for his pursuit and his passion. Now, Radioactive has a long history in the Toronto broadcast media. But he will not reveal his real name. What do you think of this trend here in 2022? That if you won't use your name

on an online radio forum, I mean, I know at this point this is an ancient idea, but it serves a purpose when there's something to gossip about. It's a way to post on it. You can see on the soundy.ca website, occasional plugs for Toronto Mike.

You post there too. What do you think of someone who constantly refers to their own experiences, gives different identifying details, to their own experiences, gives different identifying details, will express very particular grudges that they have against certain people, and yet to this day, never revealing who they actually are. Do you think at this point in time, over a decade into the social media age, that this is the right kind of etiquette that you should use online in order to be taken seriously.

It depends. And I know the comments from Radioactive, and it's fine. Okay, but what's the value there in being anonymous? Do you know the true identity of Radioactive? Not only do I know the true identity of Radioactive, I once applied to him for a job at a time when he was running a big Toronto broadcaster's website. I was a little bit desperate, might have needed the work,

but I couldn't write him on the grounds if I wanted to be taken seriously, that I kind of knew who he was. Well, turned out that he got laid off from this job. And it's a typical enough story of someone who was, still had a lot of years left in them to work and was no longer welcome in the new telecom-owned media reality. What I'm not into so much is the idea of this guy posting all this stuff online about

Ryan Doyle. He's not a fan of the man. Which is fair. He didn't say Ryan Doyle's ugly. He said I'm not a fan of his talk radio. If you've got a platform, if you've got a pulpit to say these things. It depends on what you're writing.

You should be accountable for what you're saying. For saying that, not my cup of tea. You should be like me. 1236, okay. Be willing to be cursed out as people send links to one another to listen to certain points in every episode. So Ryan Dahl doing one of several podcasts that are currently being sponsored by sports gambling enterprises.

Right. The Guaranteed Money podcast. He's got a lot of competition out there. And it was only one month ago that I was trying to remember all the different ones who were being backed by the soon-to-be legal operations, sports betting that is being made official in Ontario. I believe the Toronto Star will be playing a part in it all. They've got a casino on the brain. They've got someone in charge. I wouldn't be surprised any day now.

Mike Wilner is Can I ask you? While we're chatting here, I see on Twitter that this episode I'm on, this deep left field of Mike Willner that I'm the guest on has dropped. I have not heard this yet. I know I had the conversation but other podcasts, editing

stuff. You listen to this on your way here. I know this is a very tangent but is it did i do an okay job i just need to know uh if i embarrass myself on a blue jays podcast mark weisblatt what say you did i do all right am i supposed to have an opinion about this yeah like like not in terms of like because because uh you got was it uh entertaining look i listen to mike willner a man I've known since 1984. I don't care what he has to say about anything. But it's fine because the feeling is mutual.

Well, okay. You did listen though. Yeah, but he's blabbering about baseball. What about the other side? What about me? None of it means anything. What about Toronto Mike? How did Toronto Mike do on deep left field?

Do you have an opinion on that? You did listen. For a little bit. Never mind. Never mind. You were better than the host. So Dan O'Toole was ubiquitous on the Beijing Winter Olympics, right? People couldn't stop talking about

why is Dan O'Toole popping up? They couldn't get, I guess, the usual high-end advertisers on these Olympic Games. A lot of Dan O'Toole on those CBC. Dan O'Toole and his backer, whatever the company is. I don't even remember. Dan O'Toole then, an FOTM. Yes.

On the comeback trail in this form. Different format from before. No more Jay and Dan. No more Dan O'Toolele Jay on rate on TSN. And what came up in his promotion for the new podcast was the fact that his exit from TSN

breaking up this late night sports center duo. He was fired. But it was preceded by a particular incident that involved Twitter. And I guess what was playing its way out as a domestic dispute with the mother of a newborn child, and he accused her of abducting a baby without really giving the details.

Talk about internet etiquette, turning sideways, maybe a situation where he was hoping that the cops would be alerted to the situation. I think the kids call it a swatting. I don't know if that was the motivation here and bring it to everybody's attention. And right, like he's got an ex-wife, first marriage.

And people were Googling, who's this woman who abducted Dan O'Toole's kid? And they started going after his ex-wife. How ridiculous is that? And then in the process, had to concede that it was maybe a mental health issue. They had to get some support for and had to overcome. And it was only a matter of time before he was gone no

more no more tsn jay and dan do you have sympathy for the man and what he went through in that situation i'd have to talk to him because when it came when it came to the coverage of this right like the general framing and he's he had a following in the united states there was jay and dan on the fox sports network out of LA for a few years. He was well known enough, given the bizarreness of the story, that people were wondering what exactly was going down here, but he never really explained. Listen, I'm an open-minded, open-hearted, fair individual. I would want a conversation with Dan O'Toole. I don't know enough. We're all going through something, especially under lockdown. But I will give Dan O'Toole some credit because in the process of promoting the podcast,

he did say in a couple of interviews that it was a situation that, of course, he deeply regrets. Who would do this, like kibosh their career under these stressful circumstances? And maybe it was a situation where you should just take the Twitter away from him. Ryan Doyle, where were we at? Ryan Doyle is also doing a sports gambling podcast. Good for Ryan. I like him. You're trying to shut this one down, aren't you? Yeah, because there's nothing to

say. Amanda Capito, who at this point is in charge of the personnel on that station, said that she's not interested in Ryan Doyle. I like the guy. He's an FOTM. It doesn't sound like it's happening. Time to move on. Shout out to Jay Michaels, Mad Dog,

who debuted on Shome 97.7 in Montreal. Good for Jay. This happened after my last visit here. Wondering what did they hire Jay for. It is, in fact, to carry the torch of the spirit of rock in Montreal. They paired him with two other veterans of the station. And there he is now doing morning

drive and sounding fine in Montreal. So shout out to J. Michaels, good FOTM himself. Now I want to ask you a very specific question about the Cupido interview here before we thank some sponsors for their patronage. I want to ask you specifically about this CRTC rule.

So right now, you can only own four stations in the city of Toronto, right? So Bell's got four, Rogers has four, Chorus has three, but apparently there's potentially a new bill will be passed where it'll depend on the size of the market as to how many stations you can own, and because

Toronto is the largest market in the country, you could own up to maybe up to six stations in Toronto, which means Rogers, for example, could own two more stations than they currently own. And there's great speculation. I want to know what you think about the fact that Amanda Cupido is in her spot to ready 640, to clean it up and ready it for sale to Rogers.

Mike, we sit here every month and we speculate about stuff and we, between the two of us, pretty much have no idea what we're talking about. But when I hear radio guru Bob Ouellette on the podcast called Bob's Basement discuss fait accompli. He says, done deal. All but happening.

Is he in those meetings? They invite Bob to those meetings. With more of this consolidation going on and Rogers buying the digital side of Shaw Communications, that the way that it's currently structured means that Chorus, which is a separate company, public company,

with some overlap ownership, will also end up being tied into this. And it will be a situation where there is no more chorus entertainment, at least in the radio game. Right. Right? Like, they've got different assets going on, different levels, a lot of children's entertainment. It was when chorus was setting up 20 years ago,

they bought Nelvana. Right? From Mellie Fresh's husband and her? The Canadian legendary children's husband and her. The Canadian legendary children's TV production company. But when it comes to the stuff that really doesn't matter much to the bottom line,

stuff that's shrinking, in other words, the broadcast media that Rogers will end up swallowing stations currently owned by Chorus. And that'll be the end of Chorus, as we've known it as a modest-sized Canadian radio empire,

which makes a little bit of sense, because if you compare Canada, over-regulated, compared to the United States, there are still too many owners in Canadian radio and television. How do you figure? Like, it's a superfluous selection of networks that are out there who are all tethered to these different

regulatory arrangements. And I think one of them can drop off the scene. If City TV and Global are competing in a particular market, neither of those stations are profitable on their own. They're being propped

up by revenues that the CRTC forces them to steer to this broadcast media. They're dipping into all these tax credits and different programs out there that keeps this form of local broadcasting alive. And one of the things that's been brought up

as the Rogers-Shaw acquisition seems imminent is that money which Shaw is required to send to local broadcasting, Rogers is going to keep it for itself. And that money will now go to improve City TV and spend more money on the City TV stations, which are themselves suffering. And the global network, as we know, will be no more. And this is the game.

This is the movement. This is the action that is in the air. And as a result, I suspect, based on the comments from Bingo Bob, Bob Ouellette, we will see an even larger development of Rogers Media,

which means more stations who are playing the exact same thing with the exact same hosts, more opportunities for the Raws and Mocha show to appear on national radio stations. And just like what we were talking about with today, 93.5, more of these happy chat broadcasts,

which could be coming from anywhere at any time, completely generic banter back and forth, which brings us to one of our favorite recurring themes is what's going on with Pooja and Gurdeep. No, wait, hold on. Before you go, okay? So quick math, though. If Rogers owns four stations

and they're allowed to buy two more and Chorus has three stations, four plus three is seven. That's one too many. So what? Chorus buys CFNY. Sorry, not Chorus. Rogers buys CFNY and Q107 and 640 and then sells 640 to, I don't know, someone else.

Mike, we've just been through a whole global pandemic. I don't know. All these operations have been buckled. I think all bets are off. I don't think you can apply that same 20th century thinking to how these things are going to be sustainable in the future, right? Like the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission, they have to make it possible for these stations to be sustainable. Like they have

to modify the rules in order for them to stick around. Otherwise you just turn all the transmitters off. That safe phony radio you're describing as the future to radio in the city sounds so fucking horrific. It sounds to me like they're just telling all radio listeners to go subscribe to a podcast or two or three

and get your music on Spotify or Apple and stay the fuck off the terrestrial radio dial. That's why we put a Bluetooth connection in your car. Okay, well, that's the story of Toronto Mike. So why was Alan Cross on your thousandth episode applauding you for caring about the radio business. Because Alan Cross gets a good chunk of money from special radio. I've never heard anything more condescending, okay?

Pooja and Gurdip. By the way, is this what it used to be like to talk to a friend on the phone? Because I don't do that anymore. When you would call a buddy and talk to them, were you able to keep the conversation in one linear direction because i'm realizing here this this 1236 podcast experience is like the only time that i that i get together with a pal and talk to him for this vlog and i i don't know what's happened to my brain this is how this is how uh the internet has damaged us forever for

sure like we are completely incapable of staying no on topic and keeping things in line yeah yeah you're you're saying i know what you're gonna say mike you're the one who's keeping me on track but i don't believe it and i think you are the one who are who who who is creating all these digressions i have no appetite make any sense in what i'm saying anymore i have no particular appetite in another puja and gurdip update unless there's actually something to say about them they're on chfi they were there last time you came over they're still there and gurdip are breathing down the necks the host of breakfast television in fact there was a sighting of them hanging out on the couch sure they're Pooja and Gardeep are breathing down the necks. The hosts of Breakfast Television. In fact, there was a sighting of them hanging out on the couch.

Sure. They're attractive people with a television background. Come listen to our radio show, which happens to compete with this thing on television, which we'll be hosting any day now. There's a new duo, Adele and Ryan, who come from Kitchener. And they gave them a weekend morning pre-recorded thing on CHFI.

I have a gift for you. Okay, keep your eyes out for Adele and Ryan. The phone call is coming from inside of the house. The replacements for Pooja and Gardeep have been installed. Wow, it's happening. They are a hop, skip, and a jump away from the GTA. I have a gift for you. Adele and Ryan.

Keep your eyes on Adele and Ryan. They will be taking over soon. Canna Cabana sent over a hat for you. We got to keep you warm, man. It's cold outside. That's a Canna Cabana hat. Enjoy that toque. Canna Cabana was created. Canna Cabana.

Unbeatable. Unbeatable, because the prices are unbeatable. You will not beat them on the prices of cannabis and smoking accessories. Canna Cabana was created by and for people who love weed, love to smoke it, love to chat about it, love to buy it, and share it with their friends.

The guy, you had him here from Canna Cabana. What's his name? Andy Palalas. Is he into calling the product weed? Because I thought that was like a pejorative, right? Like it makes it sound like something you buy from a sketchy dealer. You've got to know your audience, right? He talked about the head shop background, and this is not your pretentious Apple store type retail outlet there's 110 across the country uh people call it weed so you call it

what your customers call it as far as i'm concerned but shout out to canna cabana we already cracked open our great lakes beer fresh craft beer brewed here in southern ontario the big news this week i to wish the legend that is Troy Birch much luck. In his future, he has left Great Lakes. Tomorrow's his last day. He's actually going to work for the Daily Bread Food Bank. And Troy Birch has been an amazing champion of Toronto Mic'd at Great Lakes

Brewery. I'm going to be still working with Great Lakes, even though Troy won't be there because there's great value for all parties involved. But I just want to wish Troy Burch a great deal of luck. Shout out to FOTM Troy Burch. And Palma Pasta, authentic Italian food. Go to palmapasta.com.

A number of great FOTM sent me notes last weekend to say they went to Palma's Kitchen, they picked up some lasagna, some pasta. I love it. Thank you so much. I want to thank StickerU.com. Get your stickers and decals and such at Sticker U. And Mark,

there's an exciting new sponsor of the program, Ryobi. Do you ever find yourself doing any, you have a handy guide. Do you do any woodworking and construction work? Absolutely not. But our friend Andrew Ward, right?

Was on Twitter showing off the fact that he's the kind of FOTM that as soon as he hears about a new sponsor, goes right to the store. Thank you, Ryobi. Ryobi's supporting Toronto Mic'd. Ryobi, this is a drill on the table. Jeff Lumby was eyeing it.

He wants to get himself a Ryobi drill. The 18-volt, 1-plus, high-capacity lithium battery. If Andrew Ward comes to my door with a drill, I'm like, Andrew, you look after that. Four times more run time, four times longer-lasting charge, and 20% lighter weight than the NiCad batteries. The fuel gauge lets you know the battery status before the work begins.

These batteries provide fade-free power for maximum performance throughout the charge. And again, you get this one... Monica swears by the Ryobi tools. All these tools work with the same battery and charger. It's just a fantastic system. Much love to Ryobi. Yeah, yeah. I'm the guy who's standing there looking at my phone, checking Twitter while Monica is building a house.

Shout out to Monica. Shout to Monica. And shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, Mark. It's that time in the program. to Ridley Funeral Home, Mark. It's that time in the program we're going to pay our respect to those we lost in February 2022. And as always,

the memorial section, sorry, the memorial segment of the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mic'd are proudly brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home. Have you, Mark, checked out Brad Jones' new podcast, are proudly brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home. Have you, Mark, checked out Brad Jones' new podcast, Life's Undertaking?

The most recent episode features your friend and mine, Ralph Ben-Murray. Oh, oh, I thought you were going to announce that Ralph Ben-Murray was going to be discussed. No, because no FOTM has passed away. No FOTM has passed. Well, thank God for that, because I have work to do with Ralph, too. Right.

He's our rabbi. He's our rabbi. Let's pay tribute. If you want something done, you gotta do what you say Yeah, I think this is gonna be another one of those fun ones Hard soul, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah If I was you, and you were me, you'd wanna be winning We'll see you next time. You feel the same as me. You gotta want to take the ball. Now find out that nothing is given. Don't know where the cards may fall.

All I know is that we've gotta get it. We've gotta make it or not. Grow. Now I guess we're gonna have to take control. You know, we heard that Ivan Reitman, the Canadian filmmaker who died on February 12, 2022, passed away, age 75, I got to thinking, what in the legacy of Ivan Reitman did I enjoy the most?

And I came away realizing, you know what? Not very much. It wasn't my thing. Ghostbusters, I know. There's a fondness for that film. What about Meatballs? Everything it represents in the hearts of billions. You don't love Meatballs?

Meatballs, again. Like, it's very much of its time. I saw Meatballs in the movie theater. I saw Meatballs in the movie theater. My cousin is on screen for about one and a half seconds. One of the extras at the camp where they filmed the movie, where they used the actual kids. Right.

They're with Bill Murray. That was my introduction to the work of Ivan Reitman, far as I know, and also, of course, National Lampoon's Animal House. Of course. Which was his big break into the USA, thanks to his association with the whole world of Second City in Toronto. And Dan Aykroyd was a buddy of his. They worked together in the early days of City TV, even though there's a clip where Ivan Reitman

talks about being fired by Moses Neimer after like six months on the job, and it was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. He was producing the movies of David Cronenberg, who I have a celebrity sighting of. Have I ever mentioned that? I see David Cronenberg a lot due to the proximity of where I live to him. More or less often than you see Storm and Norman Rumak?

Well, either way, less often than you're hanging out with Donovan Bailey. Well, I see him more than I see my oldest. Stripes. Where were you with Stripes? Like growing up 1980s, that was a big VHS video film. Yeah, I like Stripes. You'd see that on cable TV or the censored version, broadcast version. It wasn't one of the movies I would watch over and over again, though.

I wasn't a huge fan. I thought it was great, but it wasn't one of those movies I would return to over and over again. But, of course, you knew there was a whole cult out there of people who would memorize every line, know every word. No, I... Movie like Stripes, watch it over and over again. And the writer on Meatballs and Stripes,ivan reitman's friend len bloom and len bloom's name came up a lot in the mid-1990s when he got a job writing a movie script called private parts right the howard stern movie produced by ivan reitman and thanks to uh mostly uh the blockbuster success of ghostbusters ivan reitman, and thanks to mostly the blockbuster success

of Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman created a kind of monoculture that, of course, you could never replicate to this day. It was definitely a thing of the past, which was the ability to get a movie into every multiplex in America, right? Make it like a big event.

Not just opening weekend, but the idea that these movies would create a whole mania around them. That was the Ghostbusters template. You had the Ghostbusters theme song by Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters 2 theme song that we heard from Bobby Brown on our own. And that you'd have these veteran comedy performers. And that everybody would be fixated upon this movie. Like it would be all you heard about that weekend

was the movie opened up by Ivan Reitman. And that was the thing he perfected, you know, first as director of these movies and then later as a producer. Like Stop or My Mom Will Shoot. Oh, that was under the hand of Ivan Reitman. Terrible. Space Jam. I think that was

seen as his great achievement to put the pieces together for the original movie of Space Jam. Ivan Reitman, this was mentioned on my blog, TorontoMic.com but not on the podcast yet, that Ivan Reitman was the keynote speaker at my convocation at Convocation Hall when I graduated from U of T.

Okay, but here's the thing. And you've hit on the Two Live Crew. Remember this? Yakety yak? Mildly. Mild memories of Two Live Crew. I mean, not the band. Okay, but this song, this version, was part of the storyline for the movie Twins

with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito I don't remember this song Two Life Crew of course as nasty as they want to be

and then the follow up I remember and I do not necessarily remember this one actually but it does remind me of course Yakety

every time I hear Yakety Yak, I think of Yakety Sax, and then I think of Benny Hill. So shout out to Benny Hill. What it reminds me of is, I don't know that I really understood Ivan Reitman's sensibility at all.

Like, this was a style of comedy that I think might have taken some of the personalities. Twins wasn't bad though. It had its charm. I felt Twins was okay. And applied them to projects that were I would say made for the masses. Like Kindergarten Cop.

Yeah, that wasn't bad either. That was a certain sort of juggernaut. Again, like based on the idea that all of America would be fixated upon this one movie, right? Like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger. But you see the difference between Stop or My Mom. Wild and wacky scenarios.

The difference between Stop or My Mom will shoot and then Kindergarten Cop and Twins is that Arnold Schwarzenegger could pull off the comedy Sylvester Stallone could not. And the later movies were like Junior, also with Danny DeVito, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not as good. And Dave.

Right. Remember the movie Dave? Dave wasn't bad. That was what? What was the idea? It was Kevin Kline. He became the president of the United States. Was that it?

Regular guy named Dave? Yeah, sounds right to me. A Father's Day with Robin Williams. Which I didn't care for. Billy Crystal. And there we get into the late 1990s. As far as things Ivan Reitman had a hand in, I don't know if that Howard Stern private parts movie

was something to be proud of. I thought it was good. But the Brian Linehan interview with Howard Stern, which I'm pretty sure came about because of Ivan Reitman's connections. Because it's Brian Linehan doing the interview in that typical Hollywood junket scenario, but you could tell deliberately they gave Brian Linehan a lot more time to do a whole deep dive with Howard Stern.

There he is, discovering the excitement of wearing a wig and making excuses for his whole career. But Brian Lanahan asks Howard Stern questions that are a lot more probing than anything you might have heard before. And I think that is one of the more curious parts of the whole Ivan Reitman legacy. But past that point, you look at his filmography, like, okay, here's a guy who got to the top of the Hollywood heap

and was entrusted to bring his formula to all these different movies. I don't know if they were clicking anymore. Remember Six Days, Seven Nights? Evolution? No. My Super Ex-Girlfriend? Does that ring a bell? Vaguely. No Strings Attached? Oh, there were the two movies that were

twin movies. Natalie Portman. Forgettable little film. 2014, it was a football movie, Draft Day. Which I watched on an airplane. With Kevin Costner. And I liked it on an airplane,

but I like a lot of movies on an airplane. He produced the big screen version of Baywatch. Didn't see it. Remember that? That was with The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, and Zac Efron. By the time he got to the 2000s, maybe his best contribution was taking his son Jason,

who had become a filmmaker of his own, and backing a movie like Up in the Air. Which was very good. I enjoyed it. And then, over the last couple years delayed a couple times by the pandemic we had ghostbusters afterlife which was supposed to compensate for the failure of the female version of ghostbusters remember that one i didn't see it but i heard of it stuff of considerable nerd controversy online how how dare they make the ghostbusters a bunch of ladies and it was uh jason reitman ivan's son who restored it back to its own glory and bringing back aspects of the original films ivan Reitman's legacy that lives on in Toronto

as Reitman Square, home of the Toronto International Film Festival and the Festival Tower. And in fact, his screenwriter Len Bloom lives there to this day. A reflection of the fact that he had connections. And so even though we look at the filmography of I'm a Right Man

and see a lot of lowbrow stuff that is maybe kind of forgettable today, although you were more fond of meatballs than me. Charming film, meatballs. His legacy lives on because Tiff found a new home on the site of Forbes Car Wash, which was one of the investments that his immigrant parents made. There were refugees, Holocaust refugees from Czechoslovakia. They came to Toronto with nothing and in the process bought this piece of downtown Toronto real estate first a car wash, later a parking lot and now the home of the Toronto International Film Festival

you can't get a better story than that even if, like me, you never got much out of Ivan Reitman's movies and in that sense he is hailed as one of the most important figures in the history of Canadian cinema, that he had never forgotten his roots or where he came from, and that the Ivan Reitman legacy lives on. Coming up sometime in March, I'm led to believe that Ed Conroy will be doing an online event,

a panel discussion about the legacy of Ivan Reitman in conjunction with the Canadian Jewish News. Wow, Ed Conroy. That's amazing. I did not know that until right now. That's amazing. There you go. Our connections are paying off,

and Ed Conroy, I think, is a very sincere enthusiast of the work of Ivan Reitman, and that's why he's doing it, not me. Look out for that sometime in March. Oh, lost, oh, but forgotten My dearest departed, oh, where have you gone? I search through the heavens And down in the underworld The circle is broken You've been away for so long And one

Two Where these lips have gone wrong Rise, rise to dawn of creation Lucifer, Lucifer, what have you done? Fall, fall, last chance for salvation The end of all nations, the darkest of ages Has come from the world Too many ways to go Yeah, song from the Sadies, which makes me a little sad

because I think this tune that they released in January called Message to Belial, Mike, doesn't this strike you as the kind of song that could have been a breakthrough, like brought this Toronto rock band to a whole other level, that there was an accessibility here. It reflects songs that they had made before, but they were trying to ramp it up,

working with Richard Reed Perry, producer, a member of the Arcade Fire, who had produced a new album for the Sadies. The single was put out there. The album is wrapped and ready to go. And then we found out the tragic news on February 17th, 2022, that Dallas good of the sadies died at age 48.

That scares me. I don't like it when anyone dies uh under the age of 100 but when i find out somebody who like i'm gonna be that age at some point in 2022 and uh the fact that you know when it snows i get out there and i shovel like a maniac and i don't think twice about it but it's scary uh dallas good had recently had a heart condition detected by a doctor just a few days before we learned of his death. Shocking news under the circumstances. Here he is between your age and mine, 48,

and though in the process here's maybe the other side of learning about somebody's death you find out how famous they actually were right like dallas good you might not have thought he was a big bold-faced name but after 30 years on this indie music scene you know from what i thought was as close as a band could get to not having a corporate association, but at the same time managed to rise to a certain level of fame. I think the Sadies might have scaled those heights better than any other Canadian band. I felt very differently.

So I noticed that the accolades and the love that was expressed when people learned that Dallas had passed away, it was all coming from inside the industry. I do follow a number of Canadian musicians and such. And anyone who had anything to do with the gentleman on stage or in the music industry in this city had nothing but great things to say about him and were really affected by the loss but when you left the industry uh i don't think anyone knew who dallas was i don't think there was any uh like some people kind of knew the name

the sadies but i think it was primarily like people who are really tapped into the Toronto music scene. Okay, so in the sense that this was one of the rare Canadian Arts World obituaries that was like front page news after it happened, maybe that's just some editors trying to be cool. Well, I mean, if we could rewind to the day before we learned Dallas Good passed away and then we just randomly ask a hundred people who, you know, aren't musicians like the name Dallas Good. I think very little name recognition there. And then the Sadie is a little more like I saw them open for the hip.

So when you're opening for the tragically hip, you're going to be known by music fans. But I mean, for example, my wife. Tragically hip. What, what, what was your anecdote?

What, what the test, the Monica test. Would your, would your wife. No. Have heard. What was your anecdote? What? The test? The Monica test. The Monica test. Would your wife have heard of the Sadies in Dallas Good? Never heard of the Sadies and didn't know a single song by the Sadies. And then I stepped back and I realized, and we're playing what you would consider the biggest Sadies hit.

Yeah, in the sense that I hear this on Canadian-American, British radio stations. But you'll concur that there are no actual Sadie's hits. This song, this song they did with Nico Case in the world of non-commercial radio. Non-commercial radio. This was a big hit. Okay, non-commercial radio. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it on my new...

Because Indie88 wasn't going to play this. No, I'm not too sure about that. And I wouldn't even be surprised to hear it on my new favorite radio, I'm not too sure about that. And I wouldn't even be surprised to hear it on my new favorite radio station today, 93.5. Hold on, hold on. It's the honeymoon period for you today. By Nico Case and the Sadies. And I say this as somebody,

I think, tremendous musician, and I love the band, and I love a lot of bands that nobody knows about or cares about, okay? So I'm not here to say you're, you know, you don't have to be the weekend or drake i'm actually like a fan of the the indie artists and stuff this was dallas good famous i would argue in toronto james b is more famous than dallas good uh my familiarity with him goes back a long time this is like 1993 94 because he was on the cover of iWeekly as the coolest musician

in Toronto. I don't know if it was a complete accident that he would get a status like that because his father and his uncles were considered Canadian country music royalty. A group called the Good Brothers. Right. Shout out to Pat Burns. Do you think 102.1

would play this 80s? Now? Well, ever. It's a lost cause. Ever. Back in the day, maybe. I don't... A little bit. Maybe. I doubt it, though. I doubt it. They would be featured if they were playing at the Horseshoe that night.

And the Horseshoe Tavern was their main hangout. They had an eternal booking every single New Year's Eve. And in fact, if you look at the horseshoe calendar now, there they are on the calendar, the Sadies. I don't know if Dallas's brother, Travis Good, these were two brothers that were sons and nephews of the Good Brothers. And the Good Brothers were in Tears Are Not Enough, right?

Or it was just one Good Brother? Ask Cam Gordon. Cam Gordon, let me know. Only Cam Gordon knows. I think there was a Good Brother representation on the Tears Are Not Enough sheet. Blue Rodeo, the Sadies had an association with. So that was you saw them open a Blue Rodeo concert. Do I got that right?

No, it was Tragically Hip at Fort York. Tragically Hip also, and they recorded with Gord Downie. Sure. Andre Williams, American old school soul singer who died himself just three years ago. Terrible loss. Neil Young. Neil Young they also worked with. That was on a Garth Hudson tribute album to the band.

And a shout out here generally to the band. And a shout-out here generally to Dallas Good, I think, for managing to become an icon, again, who was as off the radar as you could get, yet at the same time still becoming sufficiently recognized, recognized enough for what he wanted to be. And I think that's where the sadness sinks in, that he died unexpectedly February 17th at age 48, and leaving that legendary music behind of the Sadies,

still with one more album with Dallas and Travis Good yet to be released and I think when that comes out it will be kind of a big deal in Canada and beyond you know that that they were able to put this last effort together and have it on deck at the point where he died. Rest in peace, Dallas Good. She's faced the hardest times you could imagine And many times her eyes fought back the tears And when her youthful world was about to fall in Each time her slender shoulders Were the weight of all her fears

And a sorrow no one hears Still rings in midnight silence in her ears Night. In her. Let her cry. Let her dream. But she's a child. She's a free. Now the brain fall down upon her. She's a free and gentle flower growing wild. Where do you come in on this song? It just goes on and on,

and you just want to bathe in the light of Wildflower by Skylark. What did we name songs that I discover after someone dies? Well, yet another, Singer from Tears Are Not Enough. Yeah, I honestly only learned this song, as far as I know, after I learned that Donny Gerard had died. You mean you weren't jamming to the 1993 cover version by Color Me Bad? No. I didn't even know there was a Color Me Bad cover version of this song. Feel free to pull that up while I talk a little bit about Donny Gerard.

Donny Gerard, born in Vancouver March 19, 1946, died in February 2022 at age 75. And a voice that I remember hearing enough on the Canadian oldies AM radio airwaves. And a song that came to prominence because it was one of those tunes discovered by Rosalie Tremblay at CKLW in Windsor.

And this was part of the legacy of that. On top of it all, though, there were a lot of hip-hop songs that have sampled Wildflower. But I remember this by Color Me Bad. She's faced the hardest times you could imagine And many times her eyes fought back the tears I'll take the original, Alex, for $200. And when her youth was gone

Yeah, I don't think this one could even crack the Canadian content. Eek. Airplay Matrix. You don't think this one could even crack the Canadian content airplay matrix. You don't hear it anymore. Go back to the original, then, of Wildflower by Skylark. I was going to say, the keyboardist in Skylark was David Foster, a man who enjoys fathering children of various different generations. Speaking of tears are not enough.

And in the Canadian Press obituary for Donny Gerard, unlike custom, it was published soon after his death. And our friend at

Canadian Press, David Friend, and our friend at Canadian Press, David Friend, he pointed out on Twitter that he was excited to include one detail because I would like it, which goes to show you I've got friends in high places. You got some pull. Look, a guy's writing an obituary for all the national Canadian media outlets, and he's thinking of me? And the detail was the fact that just a few years ago,

Donnie Girard found out that he had a long-lost son. And it's you who was, unfortunately, no. My pigmentation doesn't match. In his early 50s, here's what happened. He gets one of these DNA tests. Online finds out that his father, also in the registry, Donald Girard, starts Googling around. Who are the Donald Gerards in this world

and he finds a clip of Donnie Gerard on the Midnight Special. He's thinking, this guy kind of looks like me. Imagine that. You're already like over 50 years old. And like Toronto Mike, you've lived your whole life

never really hearing Wildflower by Skylark. Missing Skylark, yeah. Your real dad is on television like half a century ago singing the song and they had a reunion a reunion in 2019 and the reason that uh donnie gerard was still traveling all kinds of places is because he was working as a backing vocalist for Mavis Staples. Love Mavis Staples. And his later years, he had a steady gig. The guy that had sang Wildflower.

And that is the story of Donnie Girard. I mean, look, this song came out in what, like 1972? So by the time Tears Are Not Enough came out, he had been around the block. Right. But you could tell that was like David Foster throwing his buddy a bone, right? Getting right in there for famine relief alongside Brian X. Oh, because Buffy bailed. Yeah, Buffy bailed. Yeah. Buffy bailed.

Conquistador, your stallion stands in need of company. Like some angel's hailed pride, Eureka purity. I see your armor bled to the breast since lost its sheen And in your death-mask face There are no signs which can be seen Though I hope for something to find Like a sea note, here's to unwind A twisted door in a vulture sits Upon your soul sheath

And in your rusty scabbard now The sand has taken seed And all your jewel and cross to play Has not been understood. She has washed the cross in faith, taken all its fail. Though I hope for something to find, I can see no... Yeah, this is another song where I don't know where to come in. What do I look like?

What do I look like to you? Some kind of AM radio oldies DJ? Mike Cooper would know where to speak. Right. John Donabee, that's another guy who I'm sure was on Canadian radio a lot throwing to the song

Conquistador. Speaking of Mavis Staples, because John tells me he was there when the band was recording with Marty Scorsese. Where the hell's our SCTV doc, Marty?

Gary Brooker from Procol Harum who made it into the 1236 newsletter, which is a designation that is limited to things with Canadian content. How come episode 1,000 didn't make the 1236 newsletter?

That's not worthy? How many independent podcasts in this city make it to 1,000? What's it going to take for you to throw me out of your house? out of your house. Whiter Shade of Pale would be more of like funeral music for Procol Harum and Gary Brooker.

But just like Wildflower. A song that I heard way too many times on the Canadian airwaves was Conquistador. You know this one then, right? This one. Did you know that this is CanCon?

This is Canadian content. That I'm learning. I'm learning that now. Because Procol Harum one then, right? Did you know that this is CanCon? This is Canadian content. I'm learning that now. Because Procol Harum in 1971 made an album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. And here was the pioneering

progressive rock pomposity that got in just under the wire, by the way. Like, after this was recorded, a few weeks later, it would not have been CanCon anymore. Interesting. That they were still allowing 1971 Canadian content to be songs that were recorded, like Give Peace a Chance

by the Plastigono Band, that you could count as Canadian content simply for being recorded in Canada. And it was only 1972 going forward that you had to have two out of four designations. Artist and producer and lyrics. Music, lyrics, not artist. You went over that with Bingo Bob, right? If the artist is Canadian.

Artist is one. Artist is Canadian. Artist is one point. It's Bob, right? If the artist is Canadian. Artist is one. Artist is Canadian. Artist is one point. It's Maple, right? Maple. Maple. It's M-A-P-L. M-A-P-L.

Artist is A. So what's M? Let's do this. Music, lyrics. Music, artist. Production. Where it was produced. Right.

And artist. You need two points out of four. But artist alone is not sufficient. We know that because of Brian Adams, right? Okay, so if The Weeknd records a song without the sufficient weight of Canadian writers, the fact that it's by The Weeknd alone is not sufficient.

That itself is not sufficient to be Canadian content. No, but if he did write, like if he co-wrote it or somehow had to write it. There's usually like 17 names on every song. I'm not sure what they do in that case. Breaking news, Mark Weisblatt. So in Cam's absence, Moose Grumpy, who's watching this on the Pirate Stream,

live.torontomike.com, has looked it up, and yes, Brian Good was on Tears Are Not Enough, as I suspected. Brian Good. Not the father of the guys from the Sadies. Right, so just Brian Good was on that recording there. Right.

Conquistador by Gary Brooker and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, but really the best-known song for those who were not subject to regulated Canadian radio airplay was A Whiter Shade of Pale from 1967. Huge jam. Huge jam. And the effort to try and follow it up,

well, let's just say eventually it reached a point where they were doing a 20th anniversary Procol Harum concert in Edmonton. And the legacy of conquistador, rest in peace, honorary Canadian radio airplay legend Gary Brooker. Daylight, all right I don't know, I don't know if it's real Been a long night and something ain't right You won't show, you won't show how you feel No time, ever seems right To talk about the reasons why you and I fight It's high time to draw the line

Put an end to this game before it's too late Head games It's you and me, baby Head games And I can't take it anymore. Head games. I don't want to play the head games. I'm looking around, like, what kind of concerts do I want to go to in the after times? Kind of blew the opportunity in the middle times when there were some shows going on. But here in March 2022, rock and roll is coming back. Yes.

Where are we going, Mike? Which show do you want to see? Where do you want to go? I'm ready. Catch a bill of Journey and Toto, Yumi and Sue Stone. We'd be into that one. What an honor and pleasure that would be. Not one original vocalist in the bunch. Wow, so many options.

And Foreigner, who I'm sure are hitting the road with no original members. Wow. And over the years, it's been the source of some fascination. Now, Mick Jones of Foreigner was determined to be the guy who could let his band live on without him. And I got to say, he's made a pretty convincing argument for this to happen. I think Foreigner are on the road with an incarnation with no one who was in the original band, right? Like Mick Jones. He's just like hanging out in his Manhattan penthouse. He needs nothing to do with this.

The checks are coming in one way or the other. And then he sent out this group of musicians to simulate the foreigner experience as a tribute band. And over the years, they've made the catalog their own what do you need what do you need lou graham anymore uh hobbling around on stage trying to make these things happen you've got a a younger surrogate i don't even know if he's that young anymore kelly hansi brings the goods he delivers the power of the foreigner songs all which to say, I want to see the fake Foreigner. I hope to catch them live at some point in time.

YouTube videos are not enough. And just proving the value of getting a cover version of yourself on the road, somebody from Foreigner has died. That was one of the original members, Ian McDonald, who died February 9th, 2022. He was originally one of the founding members, Ian McDonald, who died February 9th, 2022.

He was originally one of the founding members of King Crimson and involved in the early albums of Foreigner, primarily on keyboards. I remember we talked about Michael Fonfara, Toronto keyboardist, involved in the Foreigner song Urgent. Yes. Well, that job opening was there because of a dispute where Ian McDonald quit Foreigner and left it behind after their first three albums. He was not around for Foreigner 4. And look, in the history of progressive rock,

I guess you'd have to be really into this stuff to know his name, but he was one of the founding members of King Crimson. Isn't Mark Hebbshire a big King Crimson fan? That's right in his wheelhouse. He talks about them a lot. And there was the lineage that connected the corporate stadium rock of Foreigner to the adventures of King Crimson around to this day with Robert Fripp. And you can still see Robert Fripp online doing videos with his wife

Toya Wilcox, digressing here, but I'm fascinated how Toya, producing these music videos from their kitchen every week, is each week advancing to an increased state of undress, which is very impressive for a woman of a certain age. And there's a shout-out to Robert Fripp and Toya Wilcox, providing entertainment value in the last days of lockdown digression from talking about Ian McDonald. Rest in peace from Florida. aggression from talking about Ian McDonald. Rest in peace from Florida. Did you hear

the distant cry Calling me back to my sleep Like the one you knew before Calling me back once again I nearly, I nearly lost you there And it's taking us somewhere I nearly lost you there Let's try to sleep now

Let's try to sleep now Now Mike, I did notice they played this song on your beloved 102.1 The Edge CFNY. I know you don't listen anymore. Not even to the FOTMs in the morning show. I love those guys in the morning. Shout out to Jay Brody. But we got to play that game that the FOTMs love to play, which is how long will it take a pre-programmed radio station to acknowledge that one of their guys died?

How long? Somewhere between three and four hours between learning of the death of Mark Lanigan and them being able to break into the system. And that's because of automation. And acknowledge one of the legends had died. Yeah, automation and the fact that all the bits between the songs are

canned and pre-recorded. Don't you think that's too long? Multiple cities, multiple stations at once. Well, look, Mike, everybody's got social media. Everyone owns a phone. That's not the point. If you want live, immediate reaction to something, that's what radio is for.

Well, I mean, the alternative and perhaps the power move is not to acknowledge it happened at all, which is increasingly the case when it comes to some of these musical deaths.

What's the point of radio anymore? What is the point of radio? I know we're in the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Center. You drag me into your basement every month for three hours to try and figure it out. If I haven't given you

an answer at this point, Mike, it's never going to happen at all. If you can't hear a song by Screaming Trees, the passing of the lead singer of the band, what the hell are you here for?

I can tell you. Look, Indy 88. 88.1 in Toronto was faster. They had a tune on the air. When did they break into your place? Oh, like right after they found out. See, thank you, Indy 88, if you're listening. What is Alan Cross doing on your 1,000th episode talking about the resonance of radio.

Why does that bother you so much? Alan, lifelong radio fan and person who has profited from radio. Why would he not want to give a shit about radio? Listen, man. He's going to be one of the last guys alive who was part of grunge. I'm talking to him next week. Yeah, well, Eddie Vedder's still with us. I just want to shout out Eddie Vedder.

But this loss. Clean living Vedder's still with us. I just want to shout out Eddie Vedder. But this loss... Clean living. He's done... Look, he's stayed healthy. I know he's a runner. Long may he run, Alan Cross. But Mark Lanigan is the topic by virtue of the fact that he died on February 22nd

at age 57 after a lot of hard living in his life. And that was part of what he wrote about in a memoir that I did read. 2020, it was published, Sing Backwards and Weep. And always a great material for these memoirs where somebody becomes semi-famous, and it was the last thing that they ever thought would happen to them. Right? Like, here's a guy singing for this Washington State grunge band,

putting out these albums on SST, driving around from one shithole town to another in a van. Remember with the Screaming Trees, it was two heavyset brothers in the band, the Connor brothers. Okay. And he writes in the book some memories of hanging around with these guys

who in the rock and roll tradition of sibling rivalry, they were prone to rolling around the floor with one another, throwing their weight around. And there was Mark Lanigan, the front man of the band, wondering what he had gotten himself into. And the Screaming Trees was, I think, like a lot of these Seattle acts, just a disaster in their ability to hold it together

and follow through on that, which was presented to them on silver platters, starting with a soundtrack to singles. Go to torontomic.com. You can see an exclusive audit how the mind of Toronto Mike works. This is why he was in the Toronto Star. Here's a Mark Lanigan dies

that instantly produces a piece of content. Who from the single soundtrack is still alive? How are we doing, Mike? Pearl Jam, obviously. What is the tally? The Heart Sisters are on there. On the token. The Heart Sisters.

Paul Westerberg. Right. Who I think in his retirement, Paul Westerberg came back with the replacements a little bit here and there. But I think that was like self-preservation. That he knew better than to bring himself to death on the road. That he couldn't party so hard after he was 30 years old. And shout out to Mark Arm. The replacements were no more.

Mark Arm, vocalist for Mudhoney, is still with us. He was also with Green River, and any Pearl Jam fan knows the history of Green River. But yeah, he's still with us. And with Mark Lanigan, look, after the Screaming Trees thing fizzled out, he was a household name in your house. Anyone who was riding the wave of grunge, collecting all the records, would know who the Screaming Trees were. The last thing you would have thought after that little bit of fame was that the singer of this band was homeless.

But that's exactly what happened. See, last I was hearing about him was with Queens of the Stone Age. Because he was a big part of Queens of the Stone Age for a while. Yeah, cleaned his act up. He came back. And that included

collaboration on the Queens of the Stone Age albums. Was that the one with dave dave grohl sure yeah exactly exactly exactly exactly and then a solo artist on his own and a lot of critical acclaim for his voice right like it was a scratchy voice yeah as scratchy as a three day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather

wow what rock critic was responsible for that Cameron Crowe this is the problem right you can't make a living as a rock critic anymore and I'm still going back to Cameron Crowe that's how bad it is now

Peter Howell wrote that You can't make a living as a rock critic anymore. And I'm still going back to Cameron Crowe. That's how bad it is now. People will never again have words like that assigned to their Wikipedia page. I know we've skipped way past this, but we did talk quite a bit about Mike Wilner because I'm on his podcast today. But what was the Now Magazine news that was so upsetting to Norm Wilner? Let's leave that as a cliffhanger for next month.

You're the boss. You're the boss. I'm saying Now Magazine Alternative Weekly in Toronto, but I think it relates to stuff like... Okay, next month. It relates to stuff

like Screaming Trees because I'll tell you why. That would have been in Toronto a platform where you would have read about these bands. Right. It was at the time

Tim Perlich. Right. Okay, so you're teasing that for next... We're going to talk about this. But is Norm still with now? Is he still with Norm, or does he have an end date? If there is still a now, then Norm is still with now.

But it's possible, because he was very, very cryptic, but he did tweet about how he had had one of the worst calls of his career. Well, this is what happens when you're just about to shut things down and then you find an owner who's willing to salvage your brand and take it on and tether it

to a penny stock. Maybe some shady stuff going on with investors in Germany. Leave it with me. We'll get back to it at that time. Okay?

Rest in peace, Mark Lanigan, dead February 22nd at age 57. I said if I'm in love, I just might get picked up I said I'm fishing, tricking you, call it what you want I said I'm wiggling my fanny I'm raunchy dancing, I'm doing it, doing it This is the night I I want you dancing, I'm doing it, doing it. Get down.

This is my night out. So all you lady haters Don't be cruel to me Don't you crush my feather Don't you rub on my feathers neither You said I'm crazy I'm wild I said I'm nasty

I can dig it. Hey, you know, I see you. I know where you're coming from. Say it well, say it well. Okay, the sound of pornography, courtesy of a singer named Betty Davis. And, you know, these songs like WAP with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B. They Got Nothin' On Digging in the Crates.

Track like that from Betty Davis. What was that called? If I'm in luck, I might get picked up. Enough innuendo there in that title from 1973. A woman perhaps best known for her association with certain men, which included being the second wife of Miles Davis.

And she took on his surname. Kicked out today with Jeff Lumbee. People should Listen to Episode 1007. Did he cry about that song too? Not that one, no. I like it when people cry on Toronto Mike. It's real, man. Okay, if you've

been married to Miles Davis, who can compete? Betty Davis had a brief relationship with Eric Clapton. I thought he was kind of a racist, but apparently in the mid-70s had fling with Betty, but she refused to make any records with him. Which may not have been good for her bank account, retirement savings.

But she left with her dignity intact. Unlike somebody like Sheryl Crow, who now has to say she had a romance with an anti-vaxxer. Whatever else is wrong with him.

And Robert Palmer, another lover who helped her try and get a comeback record deal in the mid-70s at age... Sorry, in 1975. The age at which he died was 70 76 and again like the coverage given to the death of betty davis did you put a betty davis memorial piece on uh the toronto mike website i definitely tweeted about it i'm not sure i did actually i'm not sure i did but I definitely tweeted about it. I'm not sure I did, actually.

I'm not sure I did. But I definitely tweeted about it. A fascinating character, but, I mean, let's face it. It's just people trying to seem hip and cool. They were into this music all along. And I'm one of these people because I don't think I ever listened to the music of Betty Davis before beyond reading a couple

Miles Davis biographies and knowing who he was and it's not that long ago that another spouse of Miles Davis died. That was in January 2021. Cicely Tyson. That's two Miles Davis wives. Cicely Tyson, though, was 96 years old. And there's Betty Davis.

Lots to discover from the music she left behind what a time to be alive huh like you just have to go to the record store dig through the crates to find this stuff maybe we would appreciate it more but thanks to Spotify and YouTube and everything else that makes the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment possible. And again, to this day, March 3rd, 2022, there is yet to be a guest on the Toronto Mic'd podcast who has died. Thank you. You know, you're listening to something from the early days of rock and roll. Because when the genre first got going, there were a lot of records in which people thought the drums because when the genre first got going, there were a lot of records in which people thought the drums could be the predominant instrument on a song. One of those songs was Teen Beat

by a guy named Sandy Nelson. And we lost Sandy on February 14th at age 83. He was a classmate of Jan and Dean. Was a teenage friend of a rock and roll impresario named Kim Fowley. And then got known as a studio drummer in Hollywood, California. He's on To Know Him Is To Love Him, the Teddy Bears, the Phil Spector song that was based on an inscription on his father's gravestone. And I'll tell you why Teen Beat by Sandy Nelson resonated with me.

Last month, on the 1236 episode, We played a new track from The Weeknd, which had Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Right. The guy told me to F off at the corner of Yonge and St. Clair. Right. Bruce Johnston is also on that song, like Teen Beat. So we are talking here. You know, we're trying to chart, like,

who will be the last old rock star standing. Before in the background, we heard that new Robert Plant tune, which I think is becoming a little bit of a hit record, looking for the best song by the oldest recording artist, in the case of Robert Plant, with Alison Krauss, is mostly because they're digging up these old songs. The 1950s, kind of like the Honey Drippers. Right.

I digress because Bruce Johnston must be setting some kind of record by the fact that he's on that Dawn FM album by the weekend, and he's also on that song from 1959. Wow. That's a pretty good streak. Only Tony Bennett could beat that streak. Shout out to Bruce Johnston, still with us, writing the songs.

And they're one of his earliest recording gigs. Sandy Nelson, Teen Beat, three, four. out come on come on come on baby come on baby come on and work it out work it on out well work it out honey work it on out you know you look so good look so good

you know you got me going now got me going just like I knew you would knew you would Knew you would Well, shake it up, baby Shake it up, baby Twist and shout Twist and shout

Come on, come on, come on, baby Come on, baby Come on, I'm working all out Working all out You know you twist, little girl. Twist, little girl. You know you twist so fine. Twist so fine.

Come on and twist a little closer now. Twist a little closer. And let me know that you're mine. Know you're mine. Sally Kellerman. Sally Kellerman died at age 84 on February 24th, 2022. Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield was one of her movie roles. And based on her filmography, it's possible this is the movie of all the movies she made.

This was her most famous role of all. You think this is more famous than MASH? I think in terms of the number of teenage boys who watched this Rodney Dangerfield movie on video, they put MASH by Robert Altman to shame. But yes, Major Margaret Hot Lips

Houlihan. That was the character that she originated in the MASH movie, but not the television show. Right. That's Loretta Swift. Swift? Swift?

I'm just visualizing the name on the screen. Anyway, she's still with us. She's a little younger there, obviously. But yeah, this was the movie where I always drop the fun fact that Robert Altman claims his son made more money off that movie than he did because his son wrote the lyrics to Suicide is Painless. Rest in peace, Sally Kellerman. Fun fact on the heels of

another great memorial segment, but fun fact is that the Pandemic Boys, that's Cam Gordon, Stu Stone, and I, we came this close to kicking out Suicide Jams, okay? And then I won't name who, but somebody on the team decided that might be in poor taste, and it never did happen. Well, in that case, I know it wasn't Stu Stone. So to recap here, before I play some lowest of the low to play a song. Well, I had queued up the ram ranch song to talk about the the trucker convoy and the pandemic and where things are at and where we're can you do it in one one two minutes i don't actually have it anymore okay you gave up but

i just here i just want to uh revisit something really quick before we say goodbye which is that you didn't particularly care for the Toronto Mic'd article in the Toronto Star. You didn't care for the Toronto Mic'd appearance on here and now on CES Radio. If I come down here and I say I like everything that you do, what are we

going to talk about for three hours? And you didn't particularly care about the Toronto Mic'd appearance on Mike Willner's Deep Left Field. I just want to make sure I understood all that. I am really negative. Do I have? I know. So I'm 0 for 3.

Even though, well, you know, maybe you're the only one telling me the truth and I appreciate it. Okay. So I'm 0 for 3 on my three big mainstream media appearances in this past week. Is that right? Mike, you're doing all right. And I think this episode was a little loopier than most. I would like to assure you that Canna Cabana products, while a proud sponsor of Toronto Mike,

did not play a role in this production today. Although given our respective states of mind, I wonder if people are thinking about that. You know, I appreciate you, Mark. And I look forward to the first Thursday of every month. Cause I know you're going to visit at 2 PM and I know we're going to record

for three hours and I'm going to know everything going on. Another kick ass job, my friend, thanks for coming over and doing p.m. And I know we're going to record for three hours and I'm going to know everything going on. Another kick-ass job, my friend. Thanks for coming over and doing this. Yeah, we got a follow-up in mind with Mike Cooper to present him

with the evidence that he actually did return to the C&E 14 years after the fact. You know Mike Cooper's life better than he does. The scene of the crime that was perpetuated upon him. Right.

Which I did not know about until he told me the story. So as I'm sitting there, I'm learning about that for the first time. So if it was common knowledge, it did not make its way to me. And that. And that. And that. By the way, were you out? You were out seeing Lowest of the Low, right? You went to a show.

Well, I saw Ron Hawkins solo. Ron Hawkins. Ron Hawkins solo performed live. How did it feel getting back out there into the world? It felt good, man. There was about 80 people in that side of the Only Cafe. And because we had beer, shout out to Great Lakes Beer, they served that at Only Cafe.

Because we had beer, you know, that mask spends more time under your chin than it does over your mouth. So you're barely masked. But then, so I'm kind of out there now, man. Like I took the kids to see Raptors 905 at the arena formerly known as Hershey Center, which is now like like I forget the name of it now. But anyway,

we didn't have to show vaccination status. It felt good, man. Are you out there? Are you doing stuff? Mike, I'm trying my best. Your house is about as far as I go, but may we all get to put our masks under our chins here going into March of 2022.

You're not going to call me an anti-vaxxer for believing that way. No, firstly, you're not an anti-vaxxer because you're boosted, right, buddy? Yeah, that's the story I told you. Oh, I need to see those papers. I am boosted. Where's Dr. Mike Hart? Get him on the line. He's boosted. I need to see those papers. I am boosted. Where's Dr. Mike Hart? Get him on the line. He's boosted.

He'll take me seriously. I'm fully boosted. I urge all FOTMs to get boosted. I don't know what I have to say. Just kidding, by the way. I boosted the first moment it was available to me. I pushed an old lady out of the way to get myself boosted. So there you go.

How long until you force me to sit in the backyard? We never, as soon as it's warm enough. We never did touch, though, that Matt Hart was let go at Indy 88. Well, he didn't reply to me trolling him on Twitter to get the real scoop. Let me work on that bunch of stories, too. We'll come back

with more Canadian media stuff, whatever you want to know. I'll be probing the Today 93.5 playlist and keeping copious notes. See if they flip by then. Lots to talk about this year. Lots to do. Thank you, Toronto Mike, for making it all happen,

even if I have nothing good to say about the way that the other media talks about you. The story of Toronto Mike is a story of leaving it all behind. And I think we're well on our way. And I'm grateful to be one of the most prolific participants in what you've made happen here. Let's look forward to more in the year to come. in what you've made happen here.

Let's look forward to more in the year to come. And that, that brings us to the end of our 1008th show. You got the number right that time. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark Weisblot is at 1236. Notice I'm really into the idea of doing like the, the scenes, the bonus beats,

the stuff that comes in during the credits. This was the kind of thing that people used to enjoy about Hollywood comedies. You would hang around, and even though everything was winding down and most of the people left the theater behind, some of the most amusing moments would happen then. That's what we're going for here. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palm of Pasta is at Palm of Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH. Canna Cabana, they're at Canna Cabana underscore. And Ryobi are at Ryobi Tools USA. See you all next week. I realize and I can see That suicide is painless It brings on many changes And I can take or leave it if I please

The game of life is hard to play I'm gonna lose it anyway, the losing card of some day late So this is all I have to say Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes And it changes, and I can take or leave it if I please. The sword of time will pierce our skin. It doesn't hurt when it begins. But as it works its way on in, the pain grows stronger Watch it grin

Suicide is painless It brings on many changes And I can take or leave it If I please A brave man once requested me To answer questions that are key Is it to be or not to be? And I replied, oh, why ask me?

Suicide is painless. It brings on many changes. And I can take or leave it if I please. And you can do the same thing If you please