Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Marc Weisblott from 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #1078

Episode Date: July 7, 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 Duer Pants and Shorts.

Welcome to episode 1078 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. home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals

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on cannabis, guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me this month to recap the month that was, June 2022, is FOTM Hall of Famer,

1236's own Mark Weisblatt. Mike, I'm back on with the masks in making it down here on the Toronto Transit Commission. If only because I've now reached the point where I'm standing in solidarity with you. It's not that I enjoy covering my face. It's that I don't want the hassle of some stranger making me sick and then having to be having to be laid up with the coronavirus for a couple of days. I got a lot of stuff to do this summer. And and that's how I feel here after after a couple of years of maybe maybe dabbling with some anti-mask ideology, much to your chagrin, your fear that I would infect your children after doing a podcast in your backyard. This is what it's come down to here on the seventh day of the seventh month of 2022.

Me making sure I don't catch anything on my way down. So look how far we've come from a few episodes ago when I came into your basement and said I was having symptoms and terrified you and your entire family, right? No terrified place, if I may. You came over here, did not tell me about your symptoms. You were a stuffy nose. You had like a congestion. You didn't tell me. I would have moved this to the backyard. You just surprised symptoms. You were a stuffy nose. You had like a congestion. You didn't tell me.

I would have moved this to the backyard. You just surprised me. You're down here. We talked for three hours. Please. That's common courtesy. If you have symptoms, you don't come into somebody's house.

Okay. Well, the tables have turned now here at Toronto Mike. And it's me feeling a little worried about you because you've been having guest after guest after guest here in the basement. Yeah, but full disclosure, I feel fucking fantastic. I'm not going to lie to you. And here recapping June of 2022, what I think might have been the most eventful month in the history of TMU, the Toronto Mic'd Universe. So there's a lot of ground to cover because it was eventful,

and I'm not sure that's all good. But we're going to talk about it because that's what we do every month, the first Thursday of every month. You, Mark Wiseblood, visit me for a three-hour tour. It's funny, I dropped that fun fact on you before I pressed record that Ginger from Gilligan's Island is still with us. She's still alive, everybody. That's a very fun fact, along with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Coming to a comic book convention near you, along with special guest Stu Stone. Well, hey, let's talk about Stu and Drake. Okay, so where do we start with this? I'm playing a song by fellow Torontonian Drake. So how does Drake bring us to Stu? And then we can also discuss Faking a Murderer, the premiere, which you and I both attended. We have to talk about that. And then today, breaking news from Stu Stone himself, that what I think might be the best part of Faking a Murderer.

He passed away. The actor who played the character passed away. So much ground to cover. Let's start with Drake. Yeah. He passed away. The actor who played the character passed away. So much ground to cover. Let's start with Drake. Yeah, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, and we'll get to the memorial segment at the end there. But somewhere between the last time we had a 1236 episode of Toronto Mic'd and even following your last Toast episode with Stu Stone,

and he was down here in the basement, and another very dramatic thing that happened, an episode that you had to reschedule, and then Cam Gordon couldn't make it. He had to be replaced by a robot, a Cam Gordon robot, an animatronic version of himself, and the whole time, Stu Stone was sitting

on a secret non-disclosure agreement that he had signed. He could not reveal the fact that he was part of a secret video shoot for a secret song from a secret album. Well, he couldn't reveal it publicly,

but I was aware of him filming that video. Are these the revelations we get when the That's the real talk. when the microphones come off? Are you going to tell me after the show who Kevin Donovan thinks killed Honey and

Barry Sherman? You know the answer to that question. You know the answer. So, Stu Stone is in the new to that question. You know the answer. So, not to bury the lead here. Stu Stone is in the new video by Drake. Him and his brother-in-law, Adam Rodness, who are the guys who made Faking a Murderer, they're playing a house band.

I actually haven't watched the video. Who the hell is Stu playing in this video? Well, I mean, look, the nature of this video, a lot of Drake's videos have increasingly become like movie productions involving Director X. Director X from Toronto,

Julian Lutz, and so the point of the music video doesn't seem to be the song itself, and this tune, Falling Back, it wasn't even the number one single from from this drake album honestly never mind it was uh the more traditional rap tracks that that got

more streaming after the fact so in the middle of of the video is this this comical lounge singer, Dan Finnerty, the Dan Band. And he's performing like a lounge act parody version of Best I Ever Had, the first big hit song by Drake. Sure. And he's doing it with a band that features Stu Stone, his brother-in-law,

Adam Rodness, backing him up, miming in the background. And the whole occasion happening here is Drizzy Drake getting married to 23 women at once. You caught on to this fact, correct? This was the entire storyline of the video. This took place at the Royal York Hotel. of the video. This took place at the Royal York Hotel. The fictional wedding, this polygamist ceremony is being presided over by

a Jewish man of the cloth. An actual rabbi by the name of Ari Sitnik lives in the Clinton Park neighborhood of Toronto. He's an associate of Stuart Stone. Also, the Megan Boys, a couple of party planners. Every year, one year I attended in a backyard up there

around Bathurst and Wilson, Bathurst and Shepherd, they would do a charity wrestling event. One year I attended. I was there in person. I saw Stu Stone in the squared circle before I ever really heard

of that guy. Wow. And so this actual rabbi, not a rabbi at a synagogue, but also not a rabbi like Ralph Ben-Murky. Not that kind of rabbi. He's actually learnedly Jewish and fully observant, always dressing the part.

There he is at the beginning of the Drake video putting on what I thought originally was some kind of cliched comical accent asking Drake and his brides at the beginning, you only see one, whether you promise to uphold this marriage according to our values and traditions. It turns out he's South American originally from Brazil. That's his actual voice. So I have another job along with the 1236

newsletter these days. I'm the number one Jewish journalist in Canada as the managing editor of the Canadian Jewish News. And I started to do a little bit of Googling and I wondered who is this rabbi at the beginning of of Stu Stone's Drake video I mean this is surreal enough that we're talking about this stuff here right a guy comes into your basement every month he's always begging to be on this podcast was at the at the forefront his production company making a making a video with Drake which had an actual rabbi begging to be on this podcast was at the forefront. Oh, it was at US2.

His production company making a video with Drake, which had an actual rabbi involved. And Ari Sitnik, Rabbi Sitnik, easy to track down. I mean, his home phone number was on his LinkedIn page. Subsequently, I produced, I oversaw, I supervised a Canadian Jewish news feature article, podcast interview with the rabbi who pronounces Drake and his 23 girlfriends, man and wives, in this video.

And the Canadian Jewish news story dug real deep. I even managed to impress stew stone so i so i think our our feud is over okay let me chime in actually collaborated and worked with stew on a story and it wasn't even about stew himself which was which was hard enough to believe okay so since we're opening with lots of stew and then we're going to move on because there is lots of stew to cover off the top, I just want to say that I knew the feud was over when you appeared at the premiere of Faking a Murderer.

I want to say hello and much love to every FOTM who came out. I saw Al Grego there. I saw Ian Service there. I saw Cam Brio there. I saw Mark Carey there. All FOTMs. You were there, Mark. That was quite the night, too. And you seemed genuinely shocked to see me. Yeah. Like,

you didn't think I was capable of leaving the house. This is a Octopus Wants to Fight IPA, courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. I just want to say as soon as I wrap with Mr. Wiseblood here and we take our picture by the tree, I'm going to hop on my bike, head east to the Great Lakes Brewery,

the GLB Brew Pub, for the grand opening of the new location, which is like Lower Jarvis. Shout out to my third born. And Queen's Key. So tonight's the grand opening. If you want to head over, you can say hi to me. GLB was on my mind because little TMU get-together in the bar next door on Roncesvalles next to the Review Cinema.

Steve Leggett bought me a beer, so much love to Steve Leggett. Steve Leggett showed up for a little while, and they insisted that I have a drink on them. Nice. And I turned it down because i didn't know how long i was going to hang around right i thought i could just sort of bail at any any moment in time right uh but in the process i managed to bond with uh some of these superstar fotms including cam b, a mysterious character.

Unmasked. Surface showed up in your comment section over, what, 86 episodes of Pandemic Friday? He declared himself a FOSS early in the Pandemic Fridays. He declared himself the judge, jury, and executioner of every single show, every single podcast. Yeah, Stu wins, I think. After giving Stu Stone 86 wins in a row on Pandemic Friday. Least he could do. The fix is in. Was show up at the movie premiere.

But I wasn't sure that I was going to hang around. So I came up with a little strategy for myself. After you, Toronto Mike, the scout leader that you are. Were you ever a camp counselor? Did you ever have a job like that? My children are, actually, but I leader that you are. Were you ever a camp counselor? Did you ever have a job like that? My children are, actually, but I was not, no. Okay, well, I mean... I'm a natural-born leader.

You've had to herd multiple kids into different social situations for two different generations. You're used to this idea of making making sure that everyone got into single file and took advantage right of the complimentary admission i had a 10 i had 10 you had obtained for fotm vips under the circumstance and i was hesitant i was hedging you saw me i was on do i really want to go into this movie premiere of faking a murderer which i kind of tried to watch online i'm not really saying i would do it but look here i am like having lived for half a century at this point in time i know myself pretty well right and if i'm

at the movies by myself and i don't really want to be there and I don't really have much of a social obligation to hang around what am I going to go through the ritual of sitting there for like six or seven minutes and starting to fidget around with my phone and then within 10 or 15 just walking out the door but I wanted to see Stu Stone and Adam Rodness do their shtick, do their ceremony before and after the film. Right. So I came to the spontaneous decision that instead of looking at the back of Gord Martineau's head for 90 minutes. Yes, Gord was there.

FOTM Gord was there. I was just going to go for a walk. So while the actual movie was playing. Oh, I didn't know this. I was not in the theater. I hadn't been around that part of town for a while at Roncesvalles. Yeah, Ronces. West End.

It seemed like there was a lot of street life I wanted to reunite with, wanted to catch up on what was going on, wanted to just sit on a park bench in the dark of night, scroll through my phone, knowing I could make it back to the theater in time on a park bench in the dark of night, scroll through my phone, knowing I could make it back to the theater in time to catch the wrap-up show. And it was delightful. And it was enough just to be there

to see these guys celebrating the fact they had made this movie happen, that they hung in there during the whole pandemic era to see this whole thing through. And I think we're still in the stage where it's kind of a novelty to feel a part of an event like this. I hadn't really made it to anything of this sort up until that point in time. When was that? In the middle of June 2022.

I just wanted to reunite with society. So then after the fact, you take off on your bike. Yeah. You know, you've got to get up early the next morning. Right. Shipping the kids off to last days of school. Yeah, school is still in session. You've got podcasts to produce.

Right. You've got tweets to do. A lot of busy stuff in the life of Toronto Mike. And a lot was happening, as you know. But me and Cam Brio had the luxury of just like hanging around for a while on the sidewalk. And there we see, and it was Cam Brio, not his real name.

No. I know his real name now. Yeah, me too. We can't dox the guy. He's a T-shirt. He recognizes former Canadian teen idol Devin Sawa. Right, right. Right, friend of Stu, yes.

And Devin Sawa. From Casper, right? And from the Eminem video. I think that might have been the first time I knew who he was. Stan. Oh, Stan, of course. And I wouldn't recognize this man today. It's a cambrio showing that he's much more literate than me

in the world of former T-Night Owls. People were taking selfies with him. So a lot of wattage in the air. But I felt you too, Toronto Mike. Who do you remember? As we do this Shanann Govani style recap, the bold-faced names. I got one name.

One name. The only name that mattered as far as I was concerned. Trudy. Okay, I want to just say so much love for Trudy. Trudy is Stuart Eisenstein's mother. Okay. Trudy had a very heartfelt conversation with me about how much she loved Pandemic Fridays,

how much she loves Toast. Her one desire is that Toast be more frequent because right now it's just once a month, just like you. And I told her she's going to talk to Cam Gordon about that. But a great conversation with Trudy. I got a selfie with her. That was, to me, the start of the show. But I'm going to just, I know I recede into the background

once a month for the 1236 episodes. Shout out to FOTM Blair Packham, who's listening at home. But I know we're going to do a Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment at the end of this episode, and it's going to be very home. But I know we're going to do a Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment at the end of this episode, and it's going to be very thorough. But I do not have this gentleman in that, and I just want it off the top,

separate from the Ridley Funeral Home segment, since we're talking about Faking a Murderer, which I've now seen twice, because I saw it on Hollywood Suite, and then I saw it in that premiere a few weeks ago. In my opinion, maybe the actor who steals the show. Now, there's a lot of great parts of this movie, but there's a character named Detective Richard Lynn who Stu and Adam hire in the movie.

And it's a Jamaican-born Canadian actor who is hilarious. His name, Philip Jarrett. And I got the awful news only about an hour ago from Stu Stone himself that Philip Jarrett passed away. And this is actually the second actor from Faking a Murderer, which is a 2020 film, to pass away. Let's hope that's it for many, many decades. But I just want to say my condolences. Philip Jarrett was excellent in Faking a Murderer, and I know Stu planned to have Philip Jarrett in many, many other 5-7 films, productions,

because he was that strong, and it's terrible to hear he's no longer with us. Gordon Martineau. He's still alive. Still alive. Great hair. I know that for a fact, because I saw him in the flesh.

I saw him, too. So how many minutes is he in faking a murder? Just the closing credits. Well, I did see the closing credits while I was waiting for the show to end. And they've got Gord Martineau working blue, saying a few

four-letter words. He was in Dirty Work, remember? I think Dirty Work was his first work in blue. F-O-T-M, Gord Martineau. But you didn't interface with Gord in the process, did you? No, because I just found out he was there at the end. And then he was gone before I got out there. So I did not hang with F-O-T-M, Gord Martineau.

Faking a murderer. Thanks, Stu Stone, for hooking us up, even if I've come here with the confession that I still haven't seen the movie from beginning to end. You're missing out, buddy. Doing what I can. You want to try and hit the post? How's this going to work?

What do we got, Mike? It's a strange post. I mean, I only heard this song like 324 times. So let's talk about it. I kind of did this, though. I'll just warn you. I did a progressive past of modern melodies of Brother Bill, Cam Gordon, and Scott Turner. And it came up because that was very timely.

And I kind of went off on this, but let's hear what you have to say because this does involve a beloved FOTM named Jay Brody. He's involved in this story, but this is essentially the story of a radio, a traditional good old-fashioned radio stunt that gained a lot of attention. What say you about the Sonic Vancouver stunt? Sonic Radio, the latest brand expansion

by Rogers Communications. While the parent company is trying to close the deal fighting the Competition Bureau of Canada about whether they can take over Shaw and pretty much own the whole wireless market in Western Canada and beyond. A lot on the line there. Rogers making headlines for an entirely different reason,

which was the KISS radio format. Not as CHR Top 40 as it used to be. The outlet in Vancouver, and now also the case in Toronto, more into playing throwbacks, skewing to an older audience, not as teenage as before. But announcing that their on-air personalities,

which included a morning duo named Kevin and Sonia, were no longer going to be doing the morning show, Kiss Radio Vancouver. And they said their goodbyes to the audience on social media

along with another live DJ on the station. They were also airing stuff like Roz and Mocha, syndicated filler programming. This was not a highly rated Rogers station. Vancouver undergone a whole bunch of different format tweaks, changes over the years. And in the early 2000s, it happened to be an alternative rock station, XFM.

And so what at first glance seemed like a case that they would just be cheaping out, bringing more syndicated programming to Vancouver, suddenly bringing them the Roz and Mocha morning show, putting the puzzle pieces together. It turned out FOTM Jay Brody, a man who, as chronicled here on the Toronto Mike's podcast over the years, had a dream while he was working construction sites,

cleaning up piss bottles from people, wondering what would it take for him, what strategy did he need to employ. He wanted to be the morning man on the legendary Toronto radio station CFNY. And lo and behold, over a series of strategic moves, which included working for free, some kind of intern, middle-aged intern for Todd Shapiro, Sirius XM, not being treated very well,

doing parody songs that he sent into the Howard Stern Show. With Roddy Comer. Because he managed to find a secret Sir serious email address to submit his stuff. Even though Howard Stern won't be playing any of his looter songs anymore. Got him on the air just in time. And eventually ascended to the summit of being the morning show host on 102.1 The Edge. A job he and the B team acquired from Hamilton just a few days before a global pandemic.

I remember we were celebrating, commemorating. Jay Brody, finally going to make it. He's going to take over the Toronto Airwaves. And I think he had an awesome story to tell. Yep. But the story never really got out there, partly because of COVID-19. But I also don't know if Chorus Entertainment

did that much for him, right? Like, along the lines, of course, everything was upside down. But a wider audience, people that still weren't tuned in to 102.1 The Edge, which is a diminished demographic from what it used to be. No one really would have known what was going on with Jay Brody. And like everything on that station, things were very restrained.

It was, as far as I could tell, very hard for them to rise above doing this generic radio format. And I thought here on Toronto Mic'd, we had a curious subplot. Because you had Jay Brody and his radio sidekicks, maybe co-hosts. Yep. Chris Zee and Sean O'Whalen. You had them in the backyard. Yeah. And I thought it was a very excruciating exercise.

Because you could tell that they were on a leash. They wanted to play the corporate radio game. And even though they had been on here before, several appearances from Jay Brody, didn't you get the sense, remember this episode at all? This was in the backyard during the pandemic. I think you even wrapped it up early. They just weren't delivering the goods.

There seemed to be an unease. Not the same cocky confidence that you would have expected to compel you to listen to what they were doing on this radio station. Okay, but Mark. It seemed like they fell down. But again, I understand the nervousness where it was coming from i've been in that situation before they had not remember they had been recording from their own homes for throughout the pandemic and the first time

they were actually recording in person together in many many many many many many months was last summer in my backyard okay so we had a backyard episode during the pandemic and yeah, Chris Z, Shauna and Jay all together. So I think it was just a little bit of like, oh, we haven't been together in a long time. It was a little bit of that, but I thought it was a great episode.

Look, the whole world turned upside down. Okay. Nobody got the deal that they signed up for. We're all going through it, but all that is a prelude to saying when I found out that Brody was leaving CFNY exiting the airwaves, a dream job, right? Seven morning shows in seven years.

He captured the flag. He was a king of this kingdom. And even the type of guy who, when you did episode 1021, your CFNY Zoom reunion, the type of guy who when you did episode 1021 yep your your cfny zoom reunion yeah even though his association with the station was 30 or 40 years after all these other people that you had on the zoom for the most part anyhow sure i mean alan cross was on still got some kind of presence there voice tracks two or three minutes a day uh and it's a way of saying that he still has an association with the station but so much has

changed and i i understood that uh here here here was someone who was on the air and had respect for the situation he had come into right he he Big time, big time. He wanted to represent everything that was going on with that radio station. I do not think the management that he was working for understood any of this, that had any concept whatsoever of how to harness that, how to turn the awareness of CFNY into something that would draw any new listeners to the station.

He was kind of caught in undertow. And there you were sitting on another secret, possibly even bigger than Stu Stone lip syncing behind Drake. And that was the fact that Jay Brody was quitting 102.1. I have so many fucking secrets. A Toronto Mike.com scoop. An exclusive. And a bit of a melancholy conclusion

to someone that I related to. I've never met the man in person. I hope to someday. Oh, you should have come to TMLX8. He was realizing his dream. I think anybody out there who ever imagined that they could somehow reach a pinnacle if they were on the outside, right? Working jobs, cleaning up piss bottles at construction sites. And wondering what would it take to be a radio morning guy in the major market of Toronto?

He made it happen. I think an inspiring character for everyone. So what was going on here? That's like two and a half years later. He's walking away from the entire thing. It turned out that Jay Brody is now known as one of the voices of this Vancouver radio station that spent a better part of, I don't know, two days? At least 30 hours? There were different estimates about how much this was going on.

Playing over and over again, the sanitized edit of Killing in the Name by Rage against the machine. And there was a lot of suspicion out there what was going on, what was happening here. Was this the fired morning hosts of the radio station, Kevin and Sonya, who after years of trying to make it by doing their, I don't know, morning show reality TV recap

or keeping up with the Kardashians on Instagram or whatever qualifies for the jibber jabber on a Kiss radio station. They had barricaded themselves in the studio and over and over again, they were playing this 30-year-old protest song. I think the legend that was printed in far too many places was that engineers had gone rogue in protest.

This was the legend that was spreading, sort of like airheads or something. But I will say that I can no longer tell whether people are dumb or acting dumb because it gets clicks. Was it a lack of research or maybe just a limited understanding about the people who

produce this clickbait on these websites or even folks on Twitter but they don't know anything about the corporate media culture. Rolling Stone, The Guardian. A very limited familiarity with the dynamics of FM radio.

So then it asks some fucking questions of people who know. It comes down as if you have to explain it this way, right? I don't know. If I'm talking to your little kids about what's happening here, how do I explain this? Rogers Communications, the parent company, which is now negotiating with the federal government about whether it can complete a $26 billion telecom takeover.

Right. It's not going to be broadcasting. What's the line? The rude part? The Zack Delarocca rage against the machine? Yeah, fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. F you, I won't do what you tell me. Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me.

Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me i won't do what you tell me i won't do what you tell me fuck you i won't do what you tell me fuck you i won't do what you tell me you listen to way more martin streak on the radio to that song more times than i can remember know those lyrics oh big time uh that wasn't happening what we were hearing in in fact was uh contrived corporate marketing radio stunt and yet it worked yeah you can't fight you can't fight the fact that they got attention for this like nothing else on Canadian FM radio in recent years. Wild. What they were heralding was the return of Alternative Rock,

a format which is currently on like two other Vancouver area radio stations. That's right. But now Rogers. What a rebellious company. Rogers Media, right? We recently lost the matriarch of the family, Loretta Rogers. We've talked about their antics here over the family, Loretta Rogers. We've talked about their antics here over the years, whether it was Edward Rogers III meeting Donald Trump and his wife, Suzanne, having to apologize for that, and then the

family feud for control over the company. I think what was going on in the boardroom behind the scenes, a lot more punk rock than playing a censored Rage Against the Machine song over and over again. And then when they unveiled the lineup, I guess it all made sense. There in the afternoon drive, one of the two hosts happens to be FOTM. Yeah, we should point out the second host, of course, spent many years at CFNY as well. Okay, now what's going on? Is this a personal relationship that they exported to another city?

I'm not commenting. That seemed to be implied in the little bit that I listened to them. But let's face it. No comment. Here I'm willing to say this, okay? Willing to judge after a week of listening here. I'm sorry, Jay. This station sucks.

It's not only the fact that they have a predictable, homogenized playlist trying to go after that imaginary young male listener, trying to find those people who had all but given up on terrestrial radio, the whole FM radio thing is not in their vocabulary anymore. Maybe there are a few out there. But what I fail to understand, and this was also voiced by FM radio veteran

Neil, brother Bill Morrison on PPMM, is why does the banter on what's supposed to be a radio station for music aficionados, why does it have nothing to do with the songs that they're playing on the air, right? Like, Mike, I mean, we talk in these 12, 36 episodes, dissect here what's going

on in the broadcast medium month after month, and you have very little engagement with the actual on-air product. I'm the guy who's coming to your basement every month here explaining to you what's happening on the air. And I don't know if it's gotten through to you let alone everyone else if you're not listening to these radio stations what they actually sound like these days which which are which are these very packaged sound bites right like there is no there's no there's no presentation on the air which gives the idea that you're listening to like dr johnny fever is sitting in the studio with a stack of wax next to him and kind of engaging with the sounds that are coming out of the speakers and commenting on

the music that's being played in fact what you tend to get on these stations is what for the most part sounds like pre-recorded even even heavily heavily edited interactions between co-hosts on the radio or maybe talking to callers, which is more what this whole Today Radio format is. I've completely given up because it got too conventional. I mean, there was nothing there. But if that's terrible, then all the stations are terrible because they're all doing the same thing.

That's why I don't listen. Again, I want to hear my hero, Jay Brody, cutting loose, but he made a deal with the devil. He traded teams from Corse to Rodgers. It's great that they wanted him there. I'm rooting for this guy, and I still don't think they know what to

do with him. But he had a dream, and he's seeing it through, and he's working within the limitations of what's being offered to him as far as an opportunity goes. But, of course, being a new radio station launch in 2022, they're putting out a whole bunch of TikToks. Did you watch any of these? They're putting these videos on Twitter.

I saw one where Jay was coming out of the ocean. talks. Did you watch any of these? They're putting these videos on Twitter. I saw one where Jay was coming out of the ocean. Trying to talk in like this affected, sarcastic voice. I guess you would consider it like a modern day version of Valley Girl talk.

This sounds like something that was trained by a lot of consultants. I hear it in the morning show host they have, this woman Angela Valiant. Oh, like a slacker tone. The midday host also was once a morning guy on CFNY, Alex Carr. And at the same time, he's on the Sonic station. He also has a shift on another Roger station, Jack Radio in Calgary.

And I don't know what other markets he's on, doing double, triple, quadruple time. And that's also part of the game here, as we've discussed, where these radio hosts are, in fact, they're not only producing these bits for the market in which they're broadcasting, right? They're also doing these tight little items so they can send them elsewhere,

and they can be interludes on what's happening on other radio stations. Yet another personality who had some history with 102.1 The Edge, a guy named Greg B. Harrell. He ended up in Los Angeles, and he figured out a formula, his own kind of deadpan radio voice, and he's now being heard on like dozens of American radio stations. He's making money with this character, with this personality that he has,

because he's serving the marketplace, essentially what they want, which, again, are these tight little bits of dialogue to play in between the songs. It doesn't matter what the songs are, and the hosts aren't making any reference to the music because they're not even in the studio when the music is being heard. And so this is the disjointed style of commercial broadcast radio. And there's a whole logic behind it about where the stop sets end

and where the talking begins. And there's a lot of, you know, I found this story that I want to tell you. Stay tuned. I'll tell you the story in seven minutes. This is all playing to the you. Stay tuned. I'll tell you the story in seven minutes. This is all playing to the PPM rating system. And as far as I'm concerned, best of luck to everyone involved in this style of broadcast radio. It is entirely different from podcasting, right? Any appeal of listening to

real talk delivered digitally is completely separate from what's happening here on radio. The big question is whether anyone will figure out how to harness the idea of these long-form conversations. I know FOTM, bingo, Bob, on his podcast, Bob's Basement has gotten into discussions like these. What is it going to take for the AM FM dial to adapt that which is appealing to people online? Do you think, Mike, that it ever has to actually happen?

Or are we best just laying this stuff all down to die? Do you or I actually care whether a telecom company has a long-term investment in radio? Because you and I aren't working for these places. We've got nothing on the line about whether

Bell Media continues to employ people at their radio station. But we grew up with the assumption that if people had reached this summit, had these broadcasting opportunities, they'd made it in some way. That was Jay Brody's dream. I want to see him able to see it through. I'm standing by waiting for it to happen.

Jay, we love you, man. We wish you all the luck in the world. You're going to be an FOTM for life, regardless of what happens in Vancouver. But we do wish you luck. And as regarded, in my opinion, I'm still surprised here in 2022 that radio, terrestrial radio is a viable distribution format for music. That surprises me.

I don't know who's getting their music from AM. Well, no one's getting AM, I guess, but FM radio. But the people on the payroll tend to be very staunch defenders. Alan Cross will throw all these statistics at you. We're still reaching 97% of the population. One of his many, many gigs is being on Q107, etc. I don't think you can take the opinion of somebody working in radio seriously on this matter.

They're completely biased. We've seen this movie before, and it happened to the newspaper industry. And we've just gone through a 20-year period where I think it was assumed. No one ever imagined a day that there wouldn't be demand for a daily print newspaper anymore. And, of course, you had the early adopters who got into it, the people who were all cybernetically connected,

and suddenly they were distracted and they had no time or patience for reading things this way anymore. And then over the period of a couple of decades, any authority that the newspaper had just got chipped away, right, to wherever it is now. And yet at the same time, there's still an older demographic that appreciates getting their newspaper on the doorstep in the morning. They're the ones that you heard from when Toronto Mike was on the cover of the Together section of the Toronto Star. And the game became that even though this is an industry in decline, especially all the different hedge funds who moved in on companies like Post Media, and they said,

okay, there's still money to be had, and we can just kind of strip this away for parts until the last newspaper rolls off the presses and there aren't any readers around anymore. And that cycle seems to still be continuing. And there are still advertisers out there who still value the attention that the daily print newspaper gets over and above what happens online, which is turning into more of a monetary subscription-based thing. Some people are making the adjustment better than others, like in Baltimore, Maryland, home of The Wire. like in Baltimore, Maryland, home of The Wire. In fact, a new digital startup just came along to essentially challenge the old school newspaper, which was being stripped to the bone, right? So they hired a way, they got some billionaire's money,

and they just said, look, we can do a newsroom in a proper, respectful way. We're not here answering to some hedge fund. That's what's been happening in the print media business. I don't know if there's any analogy in terms of radio. I don't know what happens with all these frequencies on the dial. All I know, by way of segueing to another topic, is you've got an increasing number of people

who were burned by the radio industry going on certain podcasts, including their own, making, shall we say, false claims that the Toronto Mike's podcast has somehow been on a 10-year bender to ruin their lives, employing different tactics. A discussion which got to the point

where we had a special emergency edition of Toronto Mike. A second installment. 1066. Of when Dean Blundell attacks. Mike, give us the recap. Oh my God. Firstly, it's hard to believe that all this happened since your last visit.

The timeline on this is strange. It feels like we've lived a year since you were last here, but you're here on the first Thursday of every month, so I know that can't be true. But basically, if I remember correctly, last time you were last here, but you're here on the first Thursday of every month, so I know that can't be true. But basically, if I remember correctly, last time you were here, we had Dean going off on me on his podcast the Tuesday after the Jennifer Valentine video dropped. And therefore, the Tuesday after I wrote the aggregation piece about the allegations against John Derringer. So he accused me of piling on and he called me a loser and a human piece of garbage.

And he called me these terrible names. And at the time we spoke, Mark, I did not know exactly where this rage was coming from. Like the vitriol in his voice, the human piece of garbage, stay away from him. Like it was just, where the fuck is that coming from? I know myself pretty well for almost five decades here. And that't sound like me did you think that sounded like me okay well it was after my last appearance here on toronto mic that then right our previous monthly recap became the topic of the dean blundell podcast right three jars you took some shots too three jars of mayonnaise uh sitting on zoom talking together about about the things that they heard including me

do you want to name the jars i feel like they didn't like the sound of my voice i don't know they didn't they didn't seem to catch on who who i was they didn't identify me by name no they claim they claim to know nothing about us to do didn't occur to me to do anything in return. Right. I do know that when I recorded 1066, I was sure to defend your honor because I absolutely love your voice and I hope you

never change. Well, the guy in the Dean Blundell show said I was smart. He also likened me to a Nardwar character, which is, as far as I'm concerned... There's worse insults than that. Yeah, that's... So in a nutshell, though, again,

all of this is in... I don't want to repeat episode 1066. If you're curious, I very meticulously and calmly go through all the evidence, and you can hear from Fearless Fred, who the update on the Fearless Fred front is that he's been radio silent.

I have not heard a peep out of Fearless Fred. I did my very best to have a private conversation with the man to make sure he realizes he's had the wrong guy for 13 years. And all I expected Fearless Fred Kennedy to do was the right thing to man up. And I won't even say man up, to addled up and apologize

for spreading these falsehoods around but he's saying by a chorus waiting to find out whether he'll get a a bigger and better job well he's why he clearly he wants the derringer's replacement on q107 this story is everything's so connected so okay and it also relates to dean blundell who uh defending john derringer's conduct because it was the same kind of behavior the people who who shall remain nameless but you've heard you've heard from them correct like you you would confidently say i think you mentioned in our previous episode there there is a there is a record of of unbecoming behavior by Blundell, which may not have been the stuff of complaints, and I'm not saying it was anything criminal,

but it was part of the personality, right? Being that radio shock jock, that bullying character that he put across on the air, how much of that translated to real life, how he behaved in the office and in the studio. I don't know. I don't really care. When it comes back around to him spouting off about how Toronto Mike, Mike Boone, the

guy sitting before me, is involved in all these tactics like what? Emailing Dean Blundell hundreds of times. This might have been your biggest mistake. We're in good faith, right? While you were first trying to figure out the Toronto Mike podcast, you would invite local celebrities, whoever you could figure you could have

a decent, long-form conversation with, but not at the point yet where people were writing to you. You still had to make the first move. You yourself invited Dean Wendell were writing to you. You still had to make the first move. You yourself invited Dean Blundell on the show. The only reason Leo Roudens and Rod Black are going to be sitting here together on Monday is because I invited them over

and they wanted to come over. So that's what I do. I mean, Rashmi Nair, we'll talk about some recent episodes soon, but Rashmi Nair was down here for a couple of hours the other night, Monday night, and it's because I invited her to visit. Okay, you cleared that up.

I don't even want to really talk too much about this because it made my life very, it was very tough for a few weeks. We haven't mentioned it because I'm not going to say his name, but the former talk show host on the television who came out of the woodwork to defend dean's honor and completely uh completely threatened me uh via twitter which is why because dean will have him on the show right and he sees his only friend as an ally well he did like an emergency late night podcast in which with another in which he accused me uh blundell right in which he went on this podcast because i was told to listen so i did and he went on this podcast and said that several years ago i invited him over

but i had planned to have cynthia mulligan hiding don't know, around the corner or something. So when this gentleman showed up, Cynthia would leap out, and then the cops would put cuffs on him, I guess, and take him away for violating his parole order. Well, that definitely would have made the Al Grego recap of the Best of Toronto Mike for that quarter. Okay, but here was the thing. It was his claim, speaking here about Dean Blundell, that you were involved

in a years-long harassment campaign. Against Fearless Fred. Right? And Dean Blundell, too. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's always been saying that. Yeah, that's been his... Because these guys ended up

on the same radio station as Martin Streak, they were somehow involved in the circumstance that led to his firing. Later, Martin Streak taking his own life this time, July of 2009. 13 years ago yesterday. And then when he gets into the whole idea

that you were sending gangbang photos, which I got to admit, right? As far as like the shock jock lexicon is concerned, right? When you start talking about gangbangs, I feel that's like a go-to word in the Dean Blundell vocabulary, right? Like you hear about gangbangs. I feel that's like a go-to word in the Dean Blundell vocabulary, right? You hear about gangbangs, and you just picture something in your own mind that's somewhat unseemly, and yet at the same time, it's like a dog whistle for the kinds of young men who dream about having an experience like that.

I find this also exhausting. And your personality, your character, a husband, a father of four, building up this podcast empire that you would be involved in anything like that is just like such an outrageous claim to make. And I don't want to be tied to anybody who would do anything like that, but I don't have that problem because I don't associate with such people if such people even exist. Right.

How much truth was in all these claims? All I know, by the way, that I listened to was Alan Cross, a reliable narrator on the Toronto Mike podcast, saying that Tim Blundell used to storm into his office and demand that my friend Dave Bookman be removed from the radio because he thought he was cramping his style. He wanted a fellow member of the Sausage Fest to be on the radio so you could be branded with this frat boy style of broadcasting. He thought this whole idea of having Bookie on CFNY

was actually diminishing the station's ratings and having an effect on Blundell's ability to make a living. Alright. All this stuff is subjective, but through Alan Cross, okay? Like, does

Blundell want to start attacking Alan Cross next? We got some insight into his character and i think i think there if you want to peel away at this whole thing maybe we can bring a few psychologists on the show to pick this whole radio drama apart uh i i think we're we're learning a lot about the environment of that radio station, of CFNY, and the circumstances which allowed Dean Blundell to thrive. What I hear is a lot of bullying going on everywhere. And then the parallels with John Derringer and the current situation where they took him off the air,

what was the legal terminology that they used? Suspended his show? They haven't made any announcement about their third-party investigation or what they're going to do there? And it is possible. I mean, it was theorized that, look, maybe the management there encouraged him to behave this way, right? Maybe the company is culpable under these circumstances.

This is something for the management to figure out. This is for John Derringer's lawyers to get to the bottom of because if they prove a situation where the company owes John Derringer something, if they've got to write him a check to go away, it's potentially going to be a lot of money. And there might be a few former executives involved in the investigation here. And so this is a steaming cauldron, Toronto Mike, that you and me have walked into,

that John Derringer does have his defenders and his protectors. And it was our discussion of Derringer that seemed to be the catalyst for what these three jars of mayonnaise were going on about. They couldn't stand the sound of my voice. I beg them to stop listening here and leave Toronto Mike alone. That's all I wanted to say. I'm so hard for a rich girl My heels are high

My eyes cast low And I don't know how to love I get too tired after the day, lately I take it out on my good friends But the worst days end Oh, where would I begin? My office grows all night long It's a nuclear show and the stars are gone

Elevator, elevator It's a new real show and the stars are gone. Elevator, elevator, take me home. Last month, Mark, when you were here, I asked you about the Torque, FOTM Torque-coiled Campbell. He was on Toronto Mic'd. Here's his voice right now in the Stars Jam. I loved my chat with Torque, but you said you had things to say, and I waited a whole month for these things. I want you to tell me about the Torque Will Campbell episode of Toronto Mike

and any other recent Toronto Mike episodes you want to recap. Go ahead. I will recede into the background. I've got to do this again. I've got to get all riled up about another thing. Well, you're on fire already. Let's rock. I listened to Torque Will Campbell, the co- front person of the band Stars.

I know that's Amy Milan. Yes. Also sing along with him. I fondly remember this song, Elevator Love Letter. Stars from Toronto, from Montreal. What's the geographic origins of this group? I think Montreal, but there's Toronto Roots. Okay, Toronto Roots, and then they also assembled in New York.

And the fun fact that Torquil's dad, who I think has the Order of Canada, he's passed on, but he had the Order of Canada, he's the one who says, when there's nothing left to lose, you have to set yourself on fire. Even before that, I remember hearing Elevator Love Letter. I heard it on American radio stations. I probably caught it on Six Music from the BBC. This would have been about 20 years ago.

The early days of having a high-speed internet connection, listening to radio from around the world and then using a program like LimeWire to illegally download my favorite songs. This was before Spotify, before YouTube, before even any kind of legal streaming music.

We're still in that phase where for the most part the assumption was you would go to your local indie record store and buy a CD. And even though people like Torkel Campbell of Starz would have advocated for this behavior, I've never even paid a cent to listen to and even occasionally enjoy the music made by him and his friends. Like elevator love letters. So that tune put Torkel Campbell in the arena, and stars also had an association with Metric.

This week, Metric are releasing their latest album. You've got Emily Haynes, sister of FOTM Avery Haynes, on a promo campaign. She did a long-form deep-d dive interview with Bob Lefsetz, where I learned stuff I didn't know about the origin of metric. But I would say generally, metric versus stars,

like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I prefer stars over metric. Let me get that out of the way. But they're both great bands. And they both have ties to Topical School of the Arts, so shout out to is that Mimico? It might be North of Mimico. Please continue.

But one of those bands turned out to be more successful than the other. And I know that for a fact, because I see tour dates, Metric, playing arenas and stadiums. Stadium love. When I tune tune into stars what do i get torkel campbell complaining that it's impossible for him to make a living and how they just went

on tour i think after he appeared on toronto mic'd and how they lost i I don't know, tens of thousands of dollars based on going on the road. Do you think anyone has ever had musical success based on complaining about the fact that people won't listen to them? We've had multiple characters trying to play this game. The most persistent of all is also an FOTM, Danko Jones. We've discussed him over the years.

Kind of always putting out that wrestling personality, making these claims that he's performing at these heavy metal festivals all over the world. Doesn't matter that he's like the 17th opening act, you know,

playing at like 1230 in the afternoon. He's still able to say we open for Iron Maiden or whatever on a festival there. No one's auditing statements like these. And seems to have been quite successful at playing the Canadian grant system game, right? Because somebody's paying for all these generally unprofitable tours and maybe even making it possible not to have a day job. And here I can relate as a fellow Gen Xer, as Torkel Campbell hobbles into middle age. He's wondering, why don't I have any money in my bank account? Okay, listen, Torkel Campbell hobbles into middle age. He's wondering, why don't I have any money in my bank account?

Okay, listen, Torkel, I have been there. But I don't see any road to success based on publicly complaining about that, right? Even on this podcast, I try to limit my gripes. If, in his opinion, the system is broken and he makes a compelling case that it is uh would you rather he just shut up about it keep that to himself or as i prefer share let's let's deliver the real talk tell it like it is look i'm all with you there he's providing fodder for me to discuss okay he'd tell it like it is so we know that the system is broken

instead of pretending like he's, you know, he's a rich dude in his Benz or whatever. But Mike, here's the thing. Stars are in the arena. Like I said. Well, they've had radio hits. I heard them on non-Canadian radio, right?

Like the non-commercial radio big time 20 years ago. What were college they were they were not college radio non-commercial radio kcrw from santa monica the influencer radio stations the the stations that made the arcade fire and the new pornographers but thanks to a whole bunch of other canadian bands who managed to ride this system into riches, and I think there's a bitterness that Stars got left behind, right? But he's in the field.

I don't know. I mean, you had this Vancouver group, Mother Mother. Suddenly, they're kind of a big deal again because people rediscovered their songs on TikTok. You know about that? So Stars are fully capable of having that breakthrough TikTok hit. Maybe have a song in a movie,

a TV show, a commercial. Yeah, something that could pay them big dividends. I'm saying he has come so much closer than 99.99999% of the other hopefuls out there. I think he needs a little more gratitude about the fact that he got that far. I don't know what to say about the fact that he put in all this time

and maybe he ends up in personal debt. Relish the experience that you had. Like, relate that to other people. Be an inspiration that way. We talked about Jay Brody before. I think he's an example of somebody who climbed up and made it all happen. I wanted to also add about that Tarkle

Campbell appearance. He was defending Factor, the foundation to assist Canadian talent on record. Because, like a lot of these other bands, stars have been beneficiaries of this system. But he was talking about it in terms of it being government money. It's not.

Factor is not the government. Factor are the Canadian broadcasters who came together about 40 years ago, and because of the regulations from the CRTC that said that a radio station had to invest in cultivating Canadian talent. Do you follow? They set up this organization so they each wouldn't have to, like, produce records of their own,

that it would all be kind of funneled into this central source that would dole out the money based on the radio profits. And 40 years later, I don't think this whole idea was a very good one because here is what has happened 40 years later, okay? Radio pays money into these funds for all these different recording artists, but radio is not obligated to pay for people on the air. So in fact, the revenues for radio are going into music, people that are well-connected enough to access those funds,

and consequently, no one is actually being paid to be a radio DJ, right? Like, all this money that would have otherwise gone to on-air salaries, because it goes back 40 years. And when they were putting this whole system together, they were thinking, how could there ever be a time in history, right? When you wouldn't need someone in the radio studio playing the records. Of course, there's always going to be a DJ at the station sitting around talking at the mic, right? Like nothing could ever could ever happen. There, there's no, there's no technology in the world that could replace this, this human intervention. You would

always, you would always need a DJ at the radio station. You couldn't possibly imagine a thing where, where, where a radio station basically turned off the lights at 6 PM and just let the computer take over for the rest of the day. You could never imagine a scenario where someone was doing like seven different midday radio shows in seven different cities at the same time. And subsequently, we've got a situation where, in fact, it's the recording artists who are benefiting from the radio money and not the broadcast industry itself. So in that diatribe from Torkel Campbell, he also touched on Bookie, Dave Bookman, and some of the other radio people that he encountered.

He was advocating for them as these characters who were on the air. He was lamenting the fact they're not around anymore. Guess what, Torkel Campbell? The reason they're not on the radio anymore is because the system was set up back in 1982 for people like you to take the money. And there was the inconsistency in his argument, what he had to say.

Okay. Have I stated my case? You're not buying it. Well, I just, you know, you used Bookie as the example, and the reason he's not on the radio is because the man passed away, right? So he was on the radio until his last dying breath i do need a cold shower mike but i wasn't expecting it to come from you where was that kate bush song you had it you had it faintly in the background i'm actually

tired of it is that bad to say well but it's a sign of the times i give you a playlist with things that reflect where things are at right now okay well, well, I'll put it in the background while we talk. But I found it refreshing that Torquil Campbell was willing to tell you that, hey, we went on tour, we lost money. Hey, here's the kind of money Spotify is giving us. It's not even enough for, I don't know, a Big Mac. And yeah, it's tough sledding for this band that you love on the radio. I had the same dose of real talk from the guys from Sloan.

Unfortunately, the heavy-duty real talk came after I stopped recording. But it completely opened my eyes. We're here to collect the real deal stories. Reshmi Nair told me that when she was on the 680 News equivalent in Vancouver as a reporter, they were paying her $40,000 and she couldn't

afford to live in the city. I think that's an important story to share. That's the kind of stuff you don't hear on mainstream media. Yeah, real, real talk there from Reshmeen Air. She was not an example of somebody who was guarded because she was worried that the bosses were... I noticed, by the way, refreshing his thoughts.

That's the worst kind of Toronto Mike guest. You could tell she wasn't going for any of that. In fact, we got a glimpse of the personality that explains why she made it. And a lot of insights there about what it takes to break through in broadcast journalism and make it as a news person. Canada, 21st century, she definitely paid her dues. But where things got a little spicy and contentious was you parodying, parodying, not parodying, but maybe you were parodying to something that you might have, you might have heard from me. Okay, let's hear it.

The whole idea that she's on the air doing this news talk, 1010 talk radio show. I'm not going to call her a scab. Well, she's on the rush. But they got rid of a lot of heritage personalities. Ryan Doyle was gone for reasons I don heritage personalities to make way for her. Ryan Doyle was gone for reasons I don't wish to say on the microphone. But Ryan Doyle removed. And then Jay Michaels took a job in Montreal that he would say, in his words, a dream job.

To be the morning show host at Chome FM in Montreal. So, you now have... Now, Jim Richards does leave overnights to fill in for Ryan Doyle but the because Jay was leaving whatever Bell Media decides to bring in a new rush and that is FOTM Scott MacArthur and now

FOTM Rashmi Nair. It's funny how I struggle with the name Nair like because she told me it's two syllables and I always say it Nair which is one syllable right? It's Nair. She told me it's two syllables, and I always say it Nair, which is one syllable, right? It's Nair. Rush me, as Scott MacArthur says every 30 seconds on the radio. I did give you

credit for that when I told her that I said Mark Wiseblood says you say that every 30 seconds. He says that every 30 seconds. I think that's like a branding situation. You responded like soap operas, where they want people to get to know the main characters. That's true. Scotty Mack wants to get that awareness

out there. Rush me. It's fine to say rush me. She argued with you that she does not see being on a Toronto talk radio station as a demotion. Oh.

That she sees this as the pinnacle of her career, even though she was known as a TV anchor. As far as I'm concerned, she has all the qualifications to take over the CTV national news or be the global chief correspondent. You know, wherever they're looking for someone to be that authority, right? Someone better than anyone that they tried out to host the national.

I would give Reshmi a shot, and I think she would be a star. I agree. Not doing this milquetoast version of of Toronto talk radio on CFRB in the afternoon like it's a disservice her personality and her character so maybe I should retract what I said that she in fact was holding

things back because she was worried what the bosses would think I mean I don't I don't know what's really in her heart we have to trust her when she tells us that she desperately wants to be on the radio and if you want to be on the radio in the market of Toronto and you work for Bell Media, then you want to be on 1010. Do we agree with that?

But it's an old white man radio station. And every move that they've made to try and transcend that reality, as far as I can tell, has not been successful. They've got John Moore in the morning. So I noticed John Moore playing footsie with you about the idea of coming on Toronto Mic'd. Oh, yeah. I took a photo of Casa Loma.

He heard Reshmi Nair on the podcast. Well, how could he resist? Wouldn't you listen? He does live near Casa Loma. Yeah, yeah. So I think his joke was... How do I know this? Because so do I, and I see him on the street all the time.

Well, you should have told me. I did a nice bike ride the other day. Well, he doesn't want to talk to me. Well, he hasn't come over here either, so... But he's not allowed to. He's not allowed to talk to me. And so, look, best of luck to this afternoon drive-style talk radio on CFRB. In the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment, we'll talk about Ed Needham,

The Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment, we'll talk about Ed Needham, what he represented to CFRB and the origins of talk radio on 1010 in Toronto. Just like my pal Greg Brady on 640. I feel that we're getting a real watered down simulation of what talk radio used to be. and yet it fits the current climate, this style of programming. May I ask you a question? No one has an argument on the air. Everybody's all friendly. We're just going out with the same party line. John Oakley makes an aside about transgendered people

and the fact that he called it transgendered rather than transgender. He had to make an apology, like a recorded apology. They played on the air. I'm listening. I'm learning. This is the climate. This is the atmosphere that we're in. And CFRB going down the same road, even though I will hand it to John Moore. I feel he's keeping a fire burning on that morning show. Talk radio, it just ain't what it used to be. And I feel bad for anyone who's in a situation where they're just kind of like in the cleanup crew,

getting ready for sundown, like the end of an era there. What do you think of the rush with Scott McArthur in Reshminar? I don't think anything about it at all because I don't think the scenario of what I'm listening to, I don't think they're capable of creating those viral moments. But why was she so good here? It's just not happening. For an hour and

51 minutes. For the same reason they were talking about the downfall of like the Sonic Radio of Vancouver. I feel you've got two entirely different types of voice-based broadcasting media and the kind that involves having a break for traffic and weather and commercials every few seconds. I don't think that can compete. And I feel sorry for anybody outside of the fact they're getting a salary for what's happening there. Okay?

Again, let's hand it to Reshmi. She is bragging on your podcast about the fact that unlike at the CBC, she did not get a pay cut from Bell Media, right? They hired her. Top dollar, she was going to be the star of Quibi. Right. And it sounds like she is not being paid $1 less as she moves through the company in different roles. I just wonder if we'll be revisiting this interview you did with her on another 1236 Recap episode

where I can say I told you so, not because she was terrible on the radio. If anything, it's just like afternoon drive wallpaper. But nothing was happening there at all. And I feel like the sparks that she's looking for to be the personality she can be, that will mean having to become the next Wendy Mesley. See, I gave you a segue there. Well, hey, since we're mopping up the June episodes of Toronto Mic'd I do want to ask you about the Maureen Holloway

slash Wendy Mesley episode of Toronto Mic'd and then maybe if you have time before we segue to our Ridley Funeral Home funeral segment and cover a couple of final topics Liz Braun is another one that stuck out but here you take it away just mop up the June episodes you want to shout out well Liz Braun is another one that stuck out. But here, you take it away. Just mop up the June episodes you want to shout out.

Well, Liz Braun, a secret celebrity there, I think. Semi-anonymously at the Toronto Sun for now 37 years. Yeah, at least. And she already had like a decade-long career even before that. She started in 85. She had like a decade-long career even before that. I wonder if today she is the oldest freestanding person writing with a full-time salary in a Toronto newspaper. She might be.

Christy Blatchford, I think, was a few years older. If it wasn't for her tragic death, I cannot imagine she would have retired. She probably would have even worked for free if it came down to that at Post Media after all these years. So give it up for Liz Braun, I think, and having that persistence. And once again, a personality exhibited here on the podcast that you would never have known from what has become of the Toronto Sun in the 21st century here, that she was part of that all-star entertainment department at the newspaper.

That's why people still talk about Gary Dunford. Shout out to Dunford. Who loves your episodes. He's still listening. The people used to worship to get a Toronto Sun in the morning, would fill you in on the culture of the city and everything that was going on regardless of your political slant and liz was there in the glory days learned a lot from that episode in terms of her career both in uh in journalism writing for the entertainment section now covering covering news and covering the derringer uh allegation not not delusional about

the situation that she's in, that the newspaper ain't what it used to be. Well, she's a very progressive-minded liberal who disagrees with the political slant of her paper. Yeah, look, shout out to anyone who can get a proper retirement from a newspaper rather than a thing where they're like a 27-year-old recovering journalist who got burned out of having to make the clickbait. All these people who were like 53 and they got that tap on the shoulder.

Oh, like Ben Rayner. We don't need you here in the newsroom anymore. Liz is seeing it through to the finish line. I find her persistence fascinating. Now, a couple other media veterans from TV and radio who also got taps on the shoulder are on here promoting the new podcast they're doing together. And I think at this point, they have done more podcast interviews about their podcast than episodes of their actual podcast.

Women of ill repute. Have you listened? I have actually listened. What's your review? You listen to lots of podcasts. Not only have I listened to their podcasts, I've listened to them doing interviews about their podcasts. Okay. And I listened to them talking about their FOTM.

Sarah Burke on the Women in Media podcast that she does. I don't know how much circulation this thing gets. Does she do that independently, or is that part of indie or part of SiriusXM? Part of the SoundOff podcast network. Also independent. Hopefully not part of Dean Blundell, although you can never be too sure. I'm not sure how much these things are intertwined. Shout out to Matt Cundall.

I will, you know, it depends if you believe the press release. And once again, another situation on a podcast where I heard a dog whistling reference to me. Do you tell? And it was Wendy Mesley and Maureen Holloway, okay? Women I've been familiar with listening to uh on on the radio for on tv remember wendy mesley on cbc i mean pretty much my whole yeah yeah she was there 41 years life as a as a broadcasting consumer and i was uh

i was a mo fan early on. CKFM in the mid-1980s talked about that. Here, we go way back. Like that Oil of Olay commercial where the Top Gun guy runs into the woman and he's hitting on her. Bugsy Brown. Remembers her from school. Yeah.

You were in my class. Okay, so he recognizes her and was, uh, you were in my class. You know, he, okay. So she, he recognizes her and goes, whatever class of whatever, whatever. So you were in my class. And then she goes,

um, I was your teacher. And she goes, Bugsy Brown. I remember that commercial vividly. So as far as I'm concerned, the host of women of ill repute were my teachers. Like they were people I remember as a teenage boy trying to navigate, uh navigate the media business and figuring out if it was something I could ever be a part of someday.

Back then, I was just like a consumer sitting alone in suburbia taking all this stuff in out there. five, 40 years later that I'm listening to an indictment of my journalistic integrity on this Sarah Burke podcast because Wendy Mesley and Maureen Holloway did not appreciate the fact that I knew the name of their podcast and when it was going to launch. And how did you know this? Did you hack into her email?

Before they were ready to make it public. How did you know this? Did you hack into her email? Before they were ready to make it public. How did you know this? Did you tap her phone? I listened to another podcast that they were on. It was the podcast from Terry and Ted, like Humble and Fred. Montreal people. Right, like whatever, old boomer Montreal radio guys. They're from Shome.

Am I right? Shome. Once upon a time, Shome and The Mix in Montreal. guys. They're from Shome. Am I right? They're from Shome. Once upon a time, Shome and The Mix in Montreal. Okay. But Ted is still on the air. I think that's, what is it,

Jewel, Light, Evanov, Evanov Radio in Montreal there. Whereas Terry was retired against his will. Good banter there

with Maureen Holloway. But she mentioned the podcast. Like, she talked about it. The name, Women of Ill Repute, what they're doing, what they're planning to do. And I heard it. I listened to the show, typical double speed, some morning. I put it in a 1236 newsletter. And I learned on this podcast that they considered this to be classified information that was leaked by the media.

Maybe she forgot she said it on the podcast. Because, of course, once you say it on a podcast, it's fit for public consumption. You've dropped it into the wilderness. Yeah, those are the rules. And yet implied in there was the fact that I tied it to the circumstances under which Wendy Mesley was no longer at the CBC.

Because in a private meeting, and I think we'll look back in history that this was a ridiculous period of time when people were on Zoom meetings all doing surveillance on one another. This was actually a phone call. It's absolutely destroying the entire nonprofit,

nonprofit, liberal, do-gooder world out there in which everybody is trying to stab each other in the back, and essentially all these organizations out there can't get anything done. I mean, could you imagine this situation, Mike? You're on Zoom with your colleagues, and you're not discussing the cause that you're in it for together. You're trying to micromanage one another's behavior. And this has, in fact, consequently crippled a lot of organizations out there in this society

and can't figure out what to do because everybody's a cop. Wendy Mesley got caught up in a situation like this at the CBC, which I think she has done well to articulate like what happened there and the circumstances that led to her being pulled off the air. But Wendy and Mo did not appreciate that the Daily 1236 newsletter

renewed attention to what happened there, only in a couple of words, maybe threw in a link, link to a story on Canada land, perhaps, which is also moved away from snitching stories like these, maybe all for the best. And that this was an impediment to them getting guests. Can you believe that? That they said on this podcast there, like, that somehow I had publicized a situation that Wendy Mesley went through. And that people would not appear on the show because they didn't want to catch cooties from her. Yeah, well, listen, that's not on you. I mean, that story was well known. I don't think it's on anybody anymore.

And, I mean, we're going for hours about the situation. But what about them on Toronto Mike? I don't care about them on Ted and Terry's podcast. How what did you think of their appearance on Toronto Mike before we move on to the next? Well, I think they're also really nervous about whether they'll be accepted in this new media world. And I also get the sense that for people like that who are doing this form of podcasting, this is why everyone can use the services of TMDS. Because you are a reality-based enterprise. And I think it's another situation where people think, weren't they going to start this Women of Ill Repute podcast and it was delayed like two or three times? Like, don't put out a press release and

say, we're going to do this a certain day. And then you retract and then you find some kind of bug. If you're going to do the thing, just start doing the thing. That's advice to all digital media entrepreneurs. That's what made Toronto Mike great great, right? You're not going to claim that you were brilliant from day one, that you had any idea that you knew what you were doing in the first year. That's how we got to this point. Well, anyone who listened to episode 1,000 knows that it took me about, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 episodes, maybe 60, before I figured out what the hell Toronto Mic'd was.

So do you think veterans, people who work for 40 years at a corporate broadcast media, do you think they're equipped to ride this world? Like, do you think that here in 2022, going to roaring 20s, that's going to work out for all these folks who think that doing a podcast is a way to not only continue their careers, I mean, you can do it for a hobby.

You could just email it to your friends. I don't know. You could post it on Facebook. But that they'll be able to build that sort of momentum because they were on with you, right? And they're like, gee, are we going to get six sponsors like Toronto Mike? Like, we better stand by. It's going to happen any minute now.

I don't think it works that way. I wish them all the success in the world. And I won't bore you with my old rising tide floating and lifting all the boats because it does confuse people. But that's what I believe. I mean, more people listening to podcasts, the better for all of us podcasters. And I like those. I liked my conversation with those two. Hey, why do you think I brought up the oil of Olay?

I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I learned at their feet. But I think it's a long way to go in terms of selling what they're up to there. And in fact, Wendy Mesley, on Mother's Day, she had a piece about her mom. Very nice first-person thing, Globe and Mail. It was about my mother was a woman of ill repute, right? And it was like a foreshadow for the podcast. The podcast was not ready to go, you see? Right.

You know, you can over-orchestrate these things and it loses all sense of spontaneity and authenticity. And that's the kiss of death to a podcast, in my humble opinion. Mark, last question. It's really a yes or no question, unless you say yes, but did you enjoy

episode 1071 about the 45 year history of Q107? Can I take a rain check? You haven't heard it yet. You haven't heard it yet. Okay, I'll give you an extension. Every single second of the show. Did you enjoy it? I do want to say thank you. It was a great pastiche. Thanks

VP of Sales for taking notes for all the years of Toronto Mike. He helped me immensely. I don't have... Bodies were buried. I don't have the bandwidth to do some of the grunt work

to excerpt some of these clips. And there were like 29 different unique voices in there. And he really does give me a boost on those Mikey mentories. And there's a couple of big ones on the go right now. I should tease them, but they're big and they're going to be fucking fantastic. Here's a couple of big ones on the go right now i should tease them but they're

big and they're going to be fucking fantastic here's a cliffhanger is scruff connor's son actually going to be the next morning show host on q107 here's hoping We are new, we're talking the truth We are new, we're talking the truth now I hate music, What is it worth It can't bring you back to this world Superjunk Me and you and Jackie Matu There was a wonderful photo on Twitter Of Mac

What is it? Mac McCawn, a singer from Super Chunk. And he went, have you ever been there? The Friars Music Museum in the old Hard Rock Cafe. I have not. Young and Dundas. I have not. And it's very impressive, like the meticulousness of these exhibits there. Even though it's just like a corner of a shopper's drug mart,

which itself is kind of strange, right? It's just like every other shopper's drug mart in the city. But there you've got this curated Toronto Music Museum commemorating that this was a site of Friars Tavern. And for the last little while, they've had a reggae exhibit. And there was Mac of Superchunk

with, what do you call it, a standee, like a cardboard statue of the reggae legend Jackie Matu. And the fact that Superchunk a few years ago had that jam, me and you and Jackie Matu. He had a great photo there. But there was a development at another Toronto music venue turned drugstore, and that was the Rexall that was in the Brunswick house, in the Annex, Blue and Bathurst,

right? Of course. And what was it? Albert's Hall, and it was some off-track betting place. I don't know. Did you ever see, did you ever drink there? Was it like a U of T hangout back when you were in school? Absolutely a U of T hangout, but I wasn't really hanging out with U of T people back then.

I was kind of in and out for school, and then I was gone. But people wondered what will happen with this building, and then it turned out to be a Rexall drugstore. But it was FOTM Raina Duras who had a great laugh. I don't even think I went inside this Rexall. You've seen one Rexall, one Shoppers Drugstore. You've seen them all, right? Like, what's the...

Except the one at the Runnymede Theater. There's a special Shoppers. If there's nothing you're looking to buy, what's the motivation to get in there? More of a Shoppers Drug Mart loyalist anyway. And the economics of Rexall, you've got to pay a pharmacist in the back.

I know a pharmacist there. There's some overhead in these places. So if a new Rexall isn't working, they'll shut it down pretty quick. It's costing them a lot of money to keep this place open. You have a lot higher overhead, right, at a pharmacy. You got to pay the pharmacist. You can't just like get a – Yeah, it's not a $14 an hour employee.

You can't get some pimply-faced kid like at 7-Eleven. That makes sense. But it was Reina who pointed on Twitter at the time, had a good laugh at the fact they had a curatorial statement at the Brunswick House Rexall from Alan Cross. I know. And I don't know, he was probably paid like $100 a word to rhapsodize about the relevance, the historical situation that you find yourself in.

This is not just your average Rexall. This was an important monument in Toronto. He's a good FOTM at Ellen Price. History. If they had put more of a museum in there, maybe they would have seen more foot traffic. Anyway, the end of the day, coming soon, that Toronto Annex, a blue and bathroom street place will now become a value village, but not just any value village, like a higher-end value village,

which then gets people hitting on value village, right? Because it used to be a place to get cheap donated clothes. But now, speaking of curation, they're paying a lot more attention to how much everything is worth, and it turns out that value Village prices have spiked, especially over the pandemic. And now you've got a situation where like going to Value Village eventually is like it's a place you can only afford shopping at

if you're rich. That seems to be the situation there. I also want to mention in Toronto, because we're seeing the end of the downtown Toronto strip clubs. It's been a few years since they were talking about the Zanzibar Tavern. How much longer can this place last? Even the family that owns it, the Cooper family, and it was the same family lineage that owned both the Brass Rail,

which is also a site that's now been sold. So that's running on borrowed time. And then the Zanzibar, further down, between Girard and Dundas. Now, way south. Yeah, I just took a selfie with it. Same block as Sam the Record Man. So Fillmore's, Fillmore's Hotel, Fillmore's Tavern,

is another one that, again, sold for tens of millions of dollars. Condo development coming that way. And there was a piece on BlogTO I thought a pretty useful one. Maybe it could have been written a little better because they buried the lead. And it was a developer talking about the fact that even though this Fillmore sign is not of any historical significance, the neon sign there, I don't know if they were paying lip service or something,

that they're hoping to preserve it in an upcoming Toronto sign museum. And while people have talked about this before, this was the closest it came to being confirmed. Are one of these condo developers going to use their Toronto Section 37 money? Like, you would want to visit a museum. Like, that way you would be all over that place taking selfies, Toronto Mike, right? Like, being around the historic neon signs of Toronto on one place. Where 15 years passed, people wanting to save the sign of Sam the Record Man. I don't know what that thing is they put up above. TMU.

Above the square at Yonge and Dundas is not the original Sam sign. They said it was some kind of restoration, but there was no way. I don't know what parts they salvaged. Wait, wait, wait. Slow down for a second. You're telling me that's not the sign

that was outside Sam the Record Man? Look closely. But it's got to be the sign. It's not the sign that was outside saying the right thing? Look closely. But it's gotta be the sign. It's not like a JFK assassination conspiracy here. I think they took parts of the original sign, but what it is does not bear. Look it up.

It's not... Well, compare, but I bought that hook line and sink it. Well, because it's all way up in the air. And the other sign, of course, is the... No one's gonna pay that much attention to it. The Honest Ed sign is still lingering. It's still in some warehouse somewhere. A warehouse.

Yeah, they said they were going to put that on the back of the Ed Mirvish Theater, the former Imperial Six that Honest Ed's from Bloomer Bathurst would be there. And so, stand by. Stand by. Buriedly, bit of a scoop. Oh, another scoop. Before we get into the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment is something that was leaked on the grand radio in Wellington County.

Okay? I'm the one who found this, and I sent it to this troll on Twitter because he puts up these audio clips, and he's into tracking the whereabouts of John Tory. Okay, this involves an FOTM. I know this story. Go ahead. Billy Holiday.

Yes. Who, who I got, I got it. I got to admire her persistence because anybody else who has been through what I've seen her have to deal with would have long ago left radio behind, right? Is what was the drama going on there?

You had Jay Mad Dog Michaels on here talking about his falling out with Billy, the Mad Dog and Billy morning show. This goes back about a decade now. She ended up in the last days of Dean Blundell. She was on the co-host with him. I don't know, she was on the Move radio when the flow, when they changed format there. Then all of a sudden, radio, when the flow, when they change format there. Then all of a sudden she's doing this country radio in Kitchener, Waterloo. Now she's on Wellington County,

some kind of adult pop, top 40 something radio station, the grand. Not a lot of listeners. And I was thinking about radio topics for this month, and I'm listening to this clip of Billie on her morning show, and she's saying,

I was at the cottage of my friend, who happens to be the mayor of Toronto, John Tory, which is a relationship that has been chronicled in certain ways. Is she a family friend? She seems pretty close with the Tory clan.

I don't know if that was related to her working for Rogers or or what and and reveals there on the morning show um the weekend when he's starting his big stadium tour in toronto it's being given to the key to the city and then she demures and it's like i don't know if i should have said that but that clip was on the radio station's website. Yeah, she said it on a live break on the radio. So I wonder if behind the scenes that, in fact, she was given permission to kind of leak this information and see what would happen. And I was very excited to find it,

because if I played any role in giving this woman who uses the radio name Billie Holiday, if I gave her career a boost, I'd put it in a 1236 newsletter. Maybe people will know about it more. She broke the news of the weekend, getting the key to the city of Toronto from John Tory, who's got another election to win, and it'll be good PR. I'm sure that'll put him over the top.

Look like a great picture, right? Whatever. He'll look like he's hip-hippity-hopping along with Norm Kelly that John Traore will be hanging out with the weekend. Okay, good for everybody involved. I'm going to see if Billie Holiday's insider info premonition comes through, and maybe she'll get back on Toronto Radio in the end. A couple of months ago, Mark, you told me that in 2022, you were going to become a pothead,

okay? And since you made that declaration, I just want you to know, yes, I got high on a special episode of Toronto Mic'd with Andy Polalis from Canada Cabana. But last night, so just this very past night, I was at the Budweiser stage to see the Black Crows. And I was there with Stew Stone, FOTM Stew Stone, and Canada Kev. And Canada Kev, who's a sweetheart,

and gifted me the ticket. Thank you, Kev. He would light, he'd light, he'd light, can I call it a spliff? Okay, he'd spark a spliff and he'd pass it to me and i'm outdoors at a concert and having a great time no no no wait is smoking anything legal there doesn't matter is it doesn't matter i don't know behavior is it legal to drink great legs beer in public parks who gives a fuck so guilty as charged okay so so i'm you know i'm fine and i think uh it's from canna cabana they may they they won't be undersold on cannabis or cannabis

accessories find a canna cabana location near you but then i guess so i've smoked some weed and i'm enjoying myself and then this and i don't know i have to find out the specifics of strains and such but then kev sparks up this fat a much fatter like something straight out of a cheech and chong movie it's not like a homer simpson's sandwich that he was eating over several days but much fatter than the uh joints i was you know stew stone had been recommending to me and he passes it over and it's sort of like, again, when in Rome, I smoked the thing. I had the best time.

Good people, good music, good weed. Shout out to Canna Cabana. That was last night. Look at you, Toronto Mike. So when are you going to catch up, buddy? I'm doing my part. You are now two smoking episodes ahead of me. Well, I didn't record last night's smoking,

but it did happen. I might need the consultation of Andy from Canada Cabana. Stu's got a great story. He's going to share it on Toast. So this is a teaser, but Stu Stone witnessed, no one but two people in a crowd. I showed up late. I showed up at nine o'clock

and that's when Black Crows hit the stage. They were right on time. You don't expect that from these rock stars, but they were right on time. And I'm finding Canada from these rock stars, but they were right on time. I'm finding Canada Kev on the lawn so it's getting dark and I'm walking around the peripheral of the lawns and I see him, but not one, but two

FOTMs in the crowd spotted me and made a beeline over to tell me how much they loved Toronto Mike. So if one of those two people were you, shout out to you. Thank you for listening. You are getting recognized more and more these days. The Dome, I had the best just because my daughter was there, and I wanted her. My daughter was with me at the Blue Jay Games Sunday,

and I think seven people in total listened to the program and wanted selfies with me. And Michelle, at some point, Michelle was like, you're never going to, like, because one woman who, I want to shout her out, I think her name is Judy, and she was a sweetheart. Judy, I hope you're listening. But she said that this was more exciting to her than the time she met Paul McCartney.

Now you finally understand what people mean when they say, I had a famous father and it never impressed me once. Okay, well, Michelle, we'll be, because my wife and two younger kids are out of province for a couple of weeks so whenever we're all together again Michelle's promised

to share that story so Monica can hear it okay because we know she's not going to hear it right now because she's not going to listen to three

and a half hours okay where are we I think I gave you a I know I think I gave you a jam to play I'm going to play a jam while we pondered

all of the people who keep the real talk I want to tell people this is important FOTMs this is important while we pondered all of the people who keep the real talk flowing here every month. FOTMs, this is important. Dewar makes the most comfortable, the world's most comfortable pants and shorts and shirts, and they're online at Dewar.ca, D-U-E-R.ca,

but they also have a retail store on Queen Street. And I urge you, now's the time to save 15% with the promo code Toronto Mike. All one word. My life, my life, my life, my life in the sunshine. Are you going to shout out Palma Pasta over there?

Well, I want to do like a 1236 episode book club about a book written by a guy named Nabel Ayers, who is the biological son of Roy Ayers, the jazz musician, vibraphonist. That's what he's playing, right? The vibraphone. You know this jam, right? Everybody loves the sunshine. And his offspring's book called My Life in the Sunshine. And it was a memoir about how his mother was a woman who was looking for a father for a child

that she wanted to raise as a single mom. She was motivated. She had this idea in her mind. Her brother was a jazz musician acquainted with Roy Harrison. She kind of picked him to inseminate her 50 years ago. Like David Crosby. to inseminate her 50 years ago. Like David Crosby.

And that she was going to raise this boy on his own. And then Nabal Ayers ended up becoming a musician in his own right, like an indie rock drummer, started in Seattle, Washington, Sonic Boom Record Stores, no relation to the one in Toronto here. And subsequently ended up being in the record industry. And now he's the head honcho of the Beggars Group and 4AD Records, 4AD Record Label. So it turns out he is like the top indie rock mogul in America.

The National and St. Vincent and Future Islands. A whole long list. And I was surprised because I don't expect a lot from these memoirs. I have read far too many library books that could have just been a magazine article.

So there's my recommendation for this month. My Life in the Sunshine by Nabal Ayers. And part of the book is his attempt to reunite, to reconcile with his father. How do you have a relationship with a dad when him being in your life was never part of the deal? And then you've got a biracial element in there in terms of how he was raised and how he was perceived, how he found other people who were also the children of Roy Ayers. So a fascinating life and a book I wanted to recommend here.

And it supplies the soundtrack to our bridge to the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment. And before we get to the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment. And before we get to the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment, much love to StickerU.com and Palma Pasta, who will be feeding us all at TMLXX on September 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. When they turn the lights out Faces in the shadow When they turn the lights in Tapping at your window

Skinny up out of your bedroom Shimmy up on the Drink bar Stand tall on the rooftop And let's slip into the night Would you surrender to despair Or go on as if you're unawares Would you let them tear apart

Your mind Or would you come running with our kind Now go on as if you're unawares. Would you let them tear apart your mind? Or would you come running with our kind? 3-Badass! And they'll hate you for what you are, boy And they'll say you ought to be ashamed They'll lock you in the pantry Till you learn how to behave But days of ash and cinder are the good boys' last reward. Cause once they got you where they want you, they don't want you anymore.

Big Rude Jake. Mike, did you ever hear of Big Rude Jake? Of course. Toronto swing, punk, music legend, 1990s. He was ahead of the curve in what became the swing revival. And a popular actor at downtown Toronto clubs. First album, Boutin Fumes and Bad Cologne. Produced by Gordy Johnson of Big Sugar.

And that goes back three decades ago. Big Root Jake, Jacob, I before E, Hebert or Highbert? I've got the E-I thing in my name, too. But it's always a crapshoot. What are we ruling here? Just call him Big Rude Jake. Big Rude Jake. Because that's what

he was known for. And through the 90s, the situation where he was packing them in in the nightclubs, but at the same time, I think like a lot of music that was popular for being live didn't necessarily translate to selling records in the stores.

A lot of ska bands, a lot of acts that were popular on the university circuit, even stuff like the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. They would be popular in Toronto clubs. Or the Shuffle Demons or something like that. They could never translate that into a large record deal. But then Big Rude Jake collided with something that was going on. All of a sudden, 1997, 1998. Shout out to James B.

This swing music became popular again. There was actually money behind this stuff. It wasn't like a jitters situation where they got a record deal and you couldn't imagine anybody actually going out wanting to buy a Big Rude Jake record. There was actually the possibility of him hitting the American big time. And I know a little bit more about the Big Rude Jake situation because I know a guitarist who was in his band.

A friend of mine, Jesse Barksdale, now lives in Montreal. He performed with Big Rude Jake and he shared stories about a situation where he got his big break. I think he might have even, at the time, dropped out of high school like it was his opportunity to move to New York

City. Big Rude Jake had signed a deal with a big heavy metal record label, Roadrunner Records, later known for Nickelback. And Big Rude Jake was on his way to being a big American star. And you won't believe what happened next. Nobody cared. But in

1999, he had a bit of a shot, and my pal Jesse had something of an experience, but everyone came back to where they came from, and Big Rude Jake back to playing around

in the clubs in Toronto. So he died of bladder cancer, age 59, June 16th, 2022, kicking off the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Summit with Toronto's Big Rude Jake. Thank you, guys. Thank you for laughing. I meant to say this after every joke, but thank you.

Thank you for laughing. I didn't want to say this, but truthfully, I got, on the way to the show tonight, I got some pretty devastating news from the hospital. I found out that my dad has been pronounced dead, and just sort of made me think a lot about his life and how hard he worked to raise me,

and my brother, and my baby sister. I just can't believe that we've been pronouncing it wrong this whole time. Just kidding. Just kidding. It's pronounced Howard. Nick Nemiroff, who died at age 32. And here in our rapidly advancing age, Mike, it's always a little weird to see an obituary for anyone decades younger in a situation where it's not explained how he passed away.

But it made Canadian headlines, and partly because Nick Nemiroff, a couple years ago, was nominated in the revived comedy category for the Juno Awards. So he got a nomination for This Pursuit of Comedy Has Ruined My Life. Ironically, that was the name of Nick Nemiroff's album. A couple years before that, he was on the Conan O'Brien show, where he did a set.

And you look back in a short period of time, he certainly got on the radar with this particular style of his. He was on a CTV comedy channel thing, Roast Battle Canada. There's a Just for Laughs thing, sets uh that run on on cbc gem and he's up in there and he was a comedian on the rise and all of a sudden that's it life is over age 32 yeah i was listening to a couple of comedians out there on the Boys cast, two guys from Toronto. I think they've been on Humble and Fred. Ryan Long and Danny Polachek.

Did these names ring a bell? Of course. Kind of like anti-woke Toronto comedians who moved to New York. And they were talking about the death of Nick Nemiroff. And they said, I think it was Ryan Long, I don't know, he's in his late 30s. Like, I don't know anybody from school or work or anything like anything in my life, but I know six comedians who have died

at a young age from the comedy scene. And so I'm not saying there's a curse. You have had increasingly a number of stand-ups on Toronto Mike. Kenny Robinson was just here. Life and the lifestyle. Darren Frost. These guys are a little bit older.

Maybe into... Darren's a titch older. Late middle age. They're survivors. They've been through a lot. Ron James is on Tuesday. I'll just shout him out because he's my guest Tuesday. Maybe you can, and Ron James is on Tuesday. I'll just shout him out because he's my guest Tuesday. So maybe you can talk to Ron James

about what it takes to stay alive in the comedy scene because it is like, I don't know what happened here. So Nick Demeroff died, but we hear a lot of stories about comedians at a younger age passing away than a lot of other professions

out there. When a comedian at a younger age dies, and nobody discloses the cause of death, more often than not, sadly, they've taken their own life. Yeah, thanks for cheering me up, Mike. So, that was the situation. It's real talk. And there you go. And that's speculative.

I have no knowledge of how he died. No more stand-up in that style from Nick Nemiroff. This pursuit of comedy has ruined my life. I got the album done. It's out there in perpetuity. You can stream. You can hear what it's all about.

Just wanted to shout him out here. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Julie Amato. Yeah, it's not in stereo. I was doing my best. Maybe the other clip is alright. I held this over from last month and I promised to talk about it here. Let me try the other clip. I know, I did.

Oh, here we go. Hey, listen. Can I tell you something? We've never met before, right? But did you know that not only is Ian Tyson a great singer-songwriter, but he's also a farmer and a rancher and a real down-home sort of a guy, you know? I just hope he's going to feel comfortable here in the big city. I'm sure he will, ma'am. Yeah.

All right, you ornery critter. Hit him up. Move him up. Go! Go! you ornery critter hit him up move him up go go the Joey show with special guest Ian Tyson featuring R.G. Brown and Patrick Rose

and special guest appearance by Rita Moreno. Still with us. Ladies and gentlemen, Julie Amato. Okay. Julie Amato, who died back in April of

2022. But I wanted to mention here because, look, Mike, you're the one who is always fascinated when I'm able to bring you Ridley Funeral Home shout-out from someone who you would not have found out who died in any other format. Anywhere but maybe

in this case, the 1236 newsletter. And I'm dedicated to surfacing those stories wherever I can find them. But this woman, Julie Amato, who was an American, she was once Miss New York State. She was in the Miss America contest.

She was 1964's Miss Cajeniality, like for real, Miss America show. With the Vietnam War, her and her husband, they vowed that they were going to move to Canada, and they actually followed through. And in trying to make it in Canadian show business, because she wasn't going to cross the border, Canadian show business because she wasn't going to cross the border. At one point in the late 60s, she did a CBC show with Alan Thicke.

She was on This Is The Law, which is a widely remembered CBC panel show with recently deceased Paul Soles. He would do these skits and then like front page challenge. He would ask the panelists, what law did he break? Shout out to the Cowan brothers. Real wonkish 1970s Canadian TV. But 1976 at

CFCF TV in Montreal, Julia Motto got her own half hour variety show and it was stuff like this. So there would be like D-list celebrities. I mean, whoever they could get. Rita Moreno in there in the intro of this episode.

You would have all these variety show regulars like Paul Williams, Avery Schreiber, Artie Johnson. I think Howie Mandel did an early appearance on the show. And Julia Motto made the cover of Maclean's Magazine around this time, 1976. Like, this woman is going to be the next big Canadian star. She has been anointed by Canadian television. She will be on all these CTV TV stations all across the country. And in the tradition, people like Torquil Campbell,

it didn't take long for her to start complaining about the fact that the system was working against her. Nobody was really interested in her cheesy, watered-down Canadian variety show. It all fell apart and there was amnesty for all

the draft dodgers, and she just moved back to America, where she worked as a lounge singer, she was some kind of spokeswoman for White Westinghouse Appliances, that was supposed to be the other clip there, and generally, she just lived her life doing some performing, community theater. I don't know what somebody did in this situation. Maybe she was just a regular person with a regular job. But she had this time in the late 70s of being in the Canadian limelight. So a real secret celebrity there in the form of of julie amato and i i suspect in the tradition of a lot

of canadian content on tv even though even though this show was a dud uh even though nobody was watching it when it was on i think the reruns just kept on coming, right? Like in a weekend afternoon on some Canadian TV station, they needed some CanCon time to fill. Let's throw an episode. Let's throw an episode of Julie on and we can remember this variety show in turn. I wouldn't be surprised if this thing ran into the mid-1980s and beyond, even though nobody... I have never heard of it. Nobody ever thought it was any good. Did you hear of it before she passed? I don't think so.

I'm not going to pretend. But actually, in the Canadian Jewish news, it just so happened that there was a writer for the show, a guy named Paul Perlov, and he wrote a piece that was mildly amusing about what it was like to work on this obscure 1970s Canadian TV show. And the primary reason I was interested in this piece,

how it got published, is this guy's a close personal friend of Rick Moranis. As far as I'm concerned, any friend of Rick Moranis should be a friend of mine. I'm a Dave Thomas man myself. When Rick Moranis wants to make his media comeback, I'm standing by to serve as a conduit. Before I play this next clip here,

how do I get in the Canadian Jewish News? What do I need to do to get coverage there? Well, outside of the Canadian Jewish News itself, TMDS is the foremost producer of Jewish podcasts. I think a lot of your roster seems to be connected to that heritage. So in that sense, we're going to keep it close. Ed Conroy, not a Jew. It's like an Adam Sandler song.

I collaborated with Ed Conroy in a piece that is running. You can find it online. It's a Canadian Jewish News quarterly magazine. I'm still in the process of figuring out what exactly this needs to be. In the meantime, I might as well have some fun. I called on Ed Conroy to say, what can the CJN do for the upcoming 50th

birthday of City TV? Ed Conroy has a not-so-secret association with Zoomer Media. He was helping out there at the Vox Box, the new Speaker's Corner. Did you see I'm airing on Channel 5? Made it possible for Toronto Mike

to have his say. Did you have to put a loony in the machine there for it to record you? Doors open Toronto. It was free all day. I think the open secret is it's always free. And that the loony is essentially a way of speaking that

trolls don't show up and record on there. According to Jay Gold, who I trust, Joel Goldberg, he says that Moses had to approve every clip that aired on that TV listings channel 5. Therefore, at the end of my clip, which I shared on Twitter, it's on my YouTube channel, but where I said, Moses, I want you on Toronto Mic'd. Moses had to watch and approve that before it went on air. He approves the idea that he's so important

that you're on your knees. I hope we don't end up a Dean Blundell situation where he uses it against you. Like this guy, Toronto Mic'd, has been stalking me my entire life. No, you politely asked him on the VoxBox. Go to the Canadian Jewish News Magazine. You will find a Jewish point of view on the 50th birthday of City TV

with a group of illustrious City TV personalities and curated photos from Ed Conroy of Retro Ontario, who also recorded a Zoom tribute about the early years of Ivan Reitman, which is also at the CJN. And don't bury the lead. He's the only other member of the FOTM Hall of Fame. I look forward to more collabs with Retro Ontario in the future. But I digress, because this is the memorial segment brought to you by Ridley Funeral Home. Got up this morning

You were on my mind And you were on my mind I got some aches and I got some aches and I got some pains and I got some wounds to buy. Went to the corner just to ease my pain. It was just to ease my pain. It was just to ease my pain I got drunk and I got sick and

I came home again I got a feeling Down in my shoes. He's way down in my shoes. I've got to move on. I've got to travel. Walk away my blues. You notice we had Ian Tyson referenced in that Julia Motto clip. And there we have Ian and Sylvia again.

Going for a little symmetry here in who we're remembering. And before we talk about who we're remembering, I love the production where I hear, I'm wearing headphones, I should say. Sylvia's in my right headphones on the right, and Ian's on the left, and it's quite a lovely mix. Please continue. Oh, Ian and Sylvia got their start as a duo,

at one point a married couple in Toronto at a club called the Bohemian Embassy, which started in Toronto in 1960 under the management of a guy named Don Cullen, who died on June 26 at age 89. And when it came to the Toronto coffee houses of the Beatnik era, going into what was happening with the hippies,

Don Cullen. Purple Onion hippies. Don Cullen. Purple Onion? No, Don Cullen, all the way, was the guy in Toronto who was ahead of the curve. He was on top of it all in terms of what was considered independent arts in Toronto. It would have been happening on the stage of the Bohemian Embassy. happening on the stage of the Bohemian Embassy. A brand name that was so legendary that there we were like, do the math here, 1960 to 2006, 2007, all those decades later,

the Bohemian Embassy was suddenly the name of a condo development on West Queen West. And that was, as far as I can recall, it was the first new construction that was seen as like the gentrification that's going to kill this part of the city, right? You had like the Gladstone Hotel and the Drake opening there, and already like the old school people, mostly kids who had grown up in the suburbs of the 905 who moved into downtown Toronto, right? And they would be, like, all nostalgic for some Parkdale that never actually existed. Right.

These, like, crime and grime riddled streets. And they're like, this place is losing its touch. Everything that ever made it great. You know, meanwhile, like, they grew up in some bedroom community somewhere. They never actually touched the pavement in downtown Toronto, but it became the cool thing 15 years ago to protest the idea that these condos were coming in. They were ruining the grittiness of everything that makes the city

great. And here we are 15 years later. I don't know. I mean, obviously they drove out a lot of the artists. A lot of the actual bohemians can no longer afford to live there going into a recession. Maybe another real estate crisis. We'll look back and wonder if any of this was a good idea at all. But I think generally people are all right with the fact that you can have a residential life in a neighborhood like that, that it's better than any idea that people had there before. So the Bohemian Embassy condo development drew renewed attention to the fact that Don Cullen had run a club with that name, and the name was appropriated by these developers

building on West Queen West. But it was only in the 1990s there was one last incarnation of the Bohemian Embassy, and I met Don Cullen as a journalism student at Ryerson. I think the last days of me even trying to think that I could graduate. I did one of these student assignments. Somebody put me onto this idea. I should go out and interview him, talk to him about the history of the club. And there he was along that same Queen West, maybe not as west as these condo developments were, somewhere around Queen and Bathurst, and we talked about the old days.

We talked about the fact that at the same time he had ended up owning, speaking of strip clubs on Yonge Street, remember there was one called La Strip. It was upstairs. It had one of these gaudy signs. It was the same era as the Cinema 2000 or the Rio movie theater. This was like a symbol of the Yonge Street I grew up with, but I never imagined actually stepping foot in the place. But thanks to Don Cullen, I think he put me on the guest list, or he gave me a free pass. I was all doing research, and I went into Le Strip to see what it was all about.

He was trying to maintain the integrity of the old-school burlesque strip shows. He was lamenting that they had turned into these gynecological examinations. Have you ever talked about here what your strip club history is? Did you ever set foot in any of these places? I'm almost 50. Here I am actually admitting to having attended one, but I was doing it for research, Mike. I'm almost 50. I've been in a strip club exactly one time in my life. Was it anything like you see on The Sopranos? No. What was the experience like? By the airport, I went with buddies when I was 19. It was a one and done for me.

It wasn't my jam. I think it was a losing battle. But Don Cullen finally remembered for all the characters who moved through the Bohemian Embassy, which included Lorne Michaels, getting his start there, trying out routines on the stage. Don Cullen was a performer in his own right, and in the mid-'60s, he was diverted from running this club in Toronto

because he was invited to join the touring group of Beyond the Fringe. Beyond the Fringe was originated by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. So this was royalty as far as satirical comedy was concerned. And Don Cullen actually toured with them. Coming back to Toronto for 25 years. He ended up a regular in the writer's room. Being on camera with Wayne and Schuster. Wow. Shout out to cynthia dale and stew

stone uh cynthia dale and stew stone who are both on wayne and schuster correct and also also both in the movie heavenly bodies i know what a world reunited together here on on toronto mic'd right Right, in June. And also with Don Cullen and Wayne and Schuster. He was a writer for other shows on the CBC. He was on CBC Radio. He was a co-director of the Leacock Festival of Humor. Stephen Leacock. Of course. Later in life, he was also a very outspoken atheist.

There was something else to know about him. 2007, he tried to reclaim the Bohemian Embassy name that he had wrote a memoir about it, memoirs and poems from the Bohemian Embassy. What else to say about this guy? I mean, a real bon vivant on the Canadian scene. Gordon Lightfoot, Bram

from Sharon Lewis and Bram, Halifax 3 Plus 1, which was a group that had Zal Yanovsky of the Love and Spoonful, and Denny Doherty of the Mamas and Papas. They had an opportunity on that stage.

Joni Mitchell. We learned Liz Braun has some kind of long-standing feud with Joni Mitchell on a recent episode of Toronto Mic'd. Bob Dylan dropped by one night.

He offered to sing on the stage, but they didn't know who the hell he was. Figured we're not adding you to the lineup. We're not pushing people out of the way so that you can strum your guitar in here. There you go. Another secret celebrity among us in Toronto. Dead June 26,

life well lived, at age 89, Don Cullen. Which reminds me, I have this record, someone sent me that record, it's a tape, and it has the William Tell Overture on it

by a barbershop quartet, if you can imagine that. I cannot. I found it in my office today along with some letters. I'm trying to get caught up on stuff. Finally, there it was. Sitting down there now, and I just got to thinking about it. I said, the William Tell Overture by a barbershop quartet. It's got to be pretty special. So maybe later, when I leave here, I'll go down to my office and I'll get that. Richard, if you please, would you open up the lines? The numbers are 872-1010, 872-1010.

Here's the drill. You get to call and talk about whatever it is you want to. I don't care. 872-1010. There's a few things I'll cut you off for, you know. But I had a good time today. You know what I did today? Ed Needham. You got a recording on torontomike.com.

I was going to say. Who sent this your way? Ed Needham's last radio show. You know, John Pohl, who was in FOTM, he was one of the last people to work the board. Yes, I knew that. And FOTM Richard Surrett. And Stormy Norman.

And Stormy Norman. And Stormy Norman. All the FOTMs worked this guy. And Ed Needham was the kind of guy I think there would have been a lot of turnover, working the booth, screening the calls for a guy like him. Ed Needham, who pioneered talk radio on CFRB. So when we were discussing the current state of things with Reshmi Nair, once upon a Time, the style of talk radio there was a lot more inflammatory.

Grumpy old white man. Ed Needham was the greatest of all. And it's Sid. Sid is the gentleman who sent this clip. So it's funny when you send me, like, YouTube clips, and you're like, I want to play this, I want to play this. And when I get one that's actually the Toronto Mike to YouTube channel, it's like, oh, it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy here.

I'm the source for this clip. Thank you, Sid, for sending it my way so I could share it with the masses. Born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 22nd, 1932, Ed Needham ended up living in Ottawa after at one point working as a war correspondent for the ABC network in Vietnam. I think he also claimed to have written for Esquire magazine.

There he landed north of the border, marrying a woman from Ottawa, and getting into talk radio in Canada's capital city. And when it came to redeveloping, figuring out the future, something beyond Wally Crowder on CFRB, Ed Needham was one of the people they recruited that they called in that he would do this style of what was presented as freeform, except there was always some planning involved. I mean, the magic was in his ability to make it sound like it was all spontaneous and off the cuff.

He was doing, you know, it was like David Marsden was to music radio. Free form, right? Like Ed Needham, just go in the studio. What do you want to talk about? I have nothing planned. I have no idea. That wasn't necessarily the case. You could imagine he spent the whole day meticulously making notes.

This was part of the magic of the medium at the time. Like everything, you got to know, just like the glory days of Howard Stern, a lot of advanced planning went into making a few hours of nighttime radio sound spontaneous. And with Ed Needham, it was about creating this community, doing a show that wasn't necessarily political, but when he had any politics at all, it was the sort of thing that would get him in trouble with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, usually for taking a

right-wing position, which wasn't too kind to people of certain sexualities or minorities. I mean, you know the drill. This is what talk radio was. This is what he was hired to do. This is something that you was. This is what he was hired to do. This is something that you don't hear on CFRB anymore.

I don't even know if CFRB, maybe I'll give John Moore credit, possibly in the morning show. I don't know if CFRB, where he was one of the most famous talk show hosts of all, I don't even know if they acknowledge it and need him died. That it was that kind of thing that you would only know about if you read the 1236 newsletter, the Toronto Mike website. I don't know. See something about it on Twitter. See his former producer, John Pohl, mention it somewhere.

Right. That it was not... Strange. This was not considered a passing that was worthy of the mainstream media. I've heard from people like Lauren Honigman and people of that vintage who have... They remember this guy. He was a memorable character on the Toronto airwaves at night.

Because when he went on CFRB, I think six 30, seven o'clock at night, it was showtime. I mean, you listen, cause you didn't know what he'd say. Want to stay tuned.

He pretended that he didn't know what he was going to say. Regardless for the audience, you don't know what's coming and it's exciting. Listen for this. He won like the highest Canadian award, ACTRA, Best Talk Show, Nelly Awards. All right, good for him, man. Three years in a row.

Now, part of the rhetoric was in the early 90s, the Gulf War broke out. And he was playing the part of the patriotic American. And there he had his colleague at Tom on CFRB, Andy Barry, who was a draft deserter. 25 years ago, I was corrected on this front when I was on a Howard Stern press conference and called Andy Berry a draft dodger.

That was incorrect. Andy called me at home. Okay, could you imagine? You pick up the phone, it's Andy Berry on the phone. I can't. And he's like, I heard you on this press conference. You think Humble and Fred were mad at me. Imagine that.

So for fun, explain the difference. Dodger means you don't want to be drafted until you leave the country. No, Dodger means you were drafted to Zerner, man, like Julia Mata, who we mentioned before. You were a conscientious objector to the war

that was going on. So Ed Needham playing the part of the rah-rah, let's go America, whatever, you know, let's go America, whatever, you know, let's bomb Saddam Hussein's palace, whatever it takes. And at the same time, you had a passive as like Andy Barry playing against each other. And things got so heated,

the process, Ed Needham, like he walked off the air. He quit the radio station. I don't know if this was part of the performance or what, but it was genuine because he was gone for a while. I think he actually quit his job, which led me to believe there was a circumstance. If you look back at all this, I mean, here's a guy riding high.

He worked his entire career in obscurity, and he's into his mid-50s, mid to late 50s, and he gets a shot on a Toronto radio station, and he just like, he has a tantrum, and he walks away from it all. Was it a shoot or a work? Like, which one was it? Well, the fact you're not sure means it was brilliant.

Well, he was exiled. You're not sure. Like, for months, they tried to replace him with other people. They tried Lowell Green from Ottawa. Remember, they brought in Charles Adler. Today, Charles Adler is on Twitter all the time talking about him, a former conservative. Right.

Today, Charles Adler is on Twitter all the time talking about him, a former conservative, you know, like Justin Trudeau is the only person good enough to be prime minister of Canada today. I do remember back then, you know, Charles Adler also also traded in these tropes, which which today you would think were maybe a little bit hateful. It was all show business back then. Michael Corrin, another guy who came in with that right-wing talk radio style, now he regrets it all, talks about how evolved he is in the Anglican church as Reverend Corrin there. But I think it was Ed Needham who stuck to his principles. So he quit CFRB, and then comes back only on the weekend.

So at that point, he's living in Florida, and they flew him in to do a weekend afternoon show, and that's when I was on the Ed Needham show. Wow. Because I was writing an article about talk radio for iWeekly, so I want to interview him, and he invites me into the studio. We're going to perform this interview live on the air. And I had one weekend afternoon,

a half an hour, maybe more, me talking to Ed Needham, doing an interview on his show. Wow. Live on the air. And then he subsequently read the article out to his listeners. It's 30 years later. I didn't appreciate the significance

of any of this at the time. I don't think I figured out how to capitalize this at all. The fact that I had won over a guy like Ed, that I had kind of entered his realm, that I was going to be part of his cast of characters, I guess I just figured I had to be a journalist, I had to be aloof, I had to keep my distance there.

Maybe we could have kept up a relationship. I don't know. CFRB brings back Ed Needham on weeknights, so he's still commuting back and forth to and from Florida and he considered a victory lap because it was a fact they tried out all these replacements and they couldn't find anybody to get ratings like him

then once he got to 1993 he stepped aside once again it didn't seem like money was an issue for him if you look back at the biography for this, it seems like there's holes in the story. Like he might have had some family funds or some good investments or whatever. Because I don't know,

we're talking about all these media layoffs. Like, can you be so nonchalant about whether you're working or not? But no, he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory and he did an actual final show. No tap on the shoulder for Ed Needham. This is 1993. We're talking about 29 years

ago now. Came back, Ian Grant, who was a program director of 640, he had Ed come in, he was in town, did a couple shows on Talk 640, kind of reunion of Ed Needham, but that was the last we heard of him in Toronto. Where was he all these years? He was back living in Ottawa. It turns out he became a Canadian citizen after all.

We learn that in his obituary. Why didn't you tell me to get him on Toronto Mic'd? And we could have asked him all these questions and had this great A to Z of his career. Do you really need one more dead Toronto Mic'd guest? Well, shout out to ridley funeral home will rogers used to say that life begins at 40 well for my guest tonight it began at 40 it began again at 66 and today at 85 it's still going strong. Kentucky Fried Chicken's Walking Advertisement. Our subject, Colonel Harlan Sanders.

His recipe for success. Mike McManus, who died June 27th at age 91, who I remember as the voice of TV Ontario. So he did all the voiceovers in the first stretch of time. You could call him the original Steve Paikin in the sense that not only was he a face and a voice of the channel, doing all these educational public affairs shows, but also interviewing people like Colonel Sanders,

Colonel Harland Sanders, like in this clip. Colonel Sanders? I actually cut it and faded it down, so that's all you're getting. I was very nostalgic about the fact that I'm watching something filmed at TVO, TV Ontario Studios at Yonge and Eglinton. I mean, could you imagine like Colonel Sanders, who at the time lived in Mississauga, Ontario.

Right, shout out to Scott's chicken villa. Walking in his white suit, like the actual Colonel Sanders. Right. This actually happened, Mike, in our lifetime. Well, the hospital has that. 1977, you could just see Colonel Sanders. He donated a bunch of money to Trillium or something.

Anyway, at one of the Mississauga hospitals. Hanging out like a regular guy in Toronto, but there are some real magical Mike McManus interviews. FOTM, Andrew Ward also noted that he remembers fondly, recalls watching interviews by Mike McManus, including with Stan Lee of Marvel Comics. Right. Timothy Leary. There's one of Margaret Atwood where she talks about, I'm an old lady.

I'm 36. They're back in the mid-1970s. Wow. And Marshall McLuhan. And just like a beautiful guy. And I think part of that character, part of the personality came by the fact that Mike McManus originally was an ordained Catholic priest and that he started out as a broadcaster. Here's something that FOTM Steve Paikin would be jealous of.

It was right there in the obit for Mike McManus. He was on Montreal CJAD. He interviewed Frank Sinatra. Woo! So he's got that all over his successor, who considers himself, what, Canada's biggest Frank Sinatra fan? Willing to defend the honor of Frank? Up against Bruce Dobigan in a recent episode of Toronto Mic'd?

That's right. So from broadcasting to the priesthood and then wanting to start a family, went back to broadcasting again. He became this icon of TV Ontario. Moved on to start up a channel with Canwest Global called Prime, which was a non-starter TV channel for senior citizens, but hopefully made some money there.

And then in the 21st century, got into digital broadcasting, so Catholic broadcasting, the Daily Mass, which is part of his legacy there. Remembering Mike McManus, dead June 27th at age 91. Leonard Cohen is a Canadian poet, novelist, and despite an air of frail vulnerability, he's a very confident young man. He's the author of a new novel called Beautiful Losers, which many critics are respectfully rejecting. Cohen lives in Greece and comes home to Montreal only once or twice a year to, quote,

renew his neurotic affiliation with Canada. We meet him with Burl Fox, who attempts to define his personality to his face. We meet him with Burl Fox, who attempts to define his personality to his face. He's a very mild man who writes brutal, startling poetry. I thought I was a very startling, brutal man who wrote very mild, lyrical poetry. Okay, introducing that Leonard Cohen interview there from a show called This Hour Has Seven Days. Yet another broadcasting veteran. A bit of a threat here, I feel, with Mike McManus and Don Cullen and Ed

Needham. And they all live pretty long lives. And they were all Canadian broadcasting rebels in one way or another. And all of whom died in the past month. In this case, it was July 4th when we heard that Patrick

Watson, not the that Patrick Watson, not the musician Patrick Watson, you know, there's an indie rock guy, Patrick Watson, not to be confused with Patrick Watson who died at age 92. His association with the CBC got him into the idea of 1964 developing this irreverent current events show, This Hour Has Seven Days, which has run in the last few years, at least recently enough, a bunch of clips on YouTube of FOTM Wendy Mesley introducing old episodes of This Hour Has Seven Days.

But back in the mid-60s, this was a very contentious production at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because they dared to ridicule the news but this wasn't like some kind of this hour has 22 minutes thing right where they were just doing like bad woke comedy uh based on whatever was happening but they didn't want to get in the way they don't want to offend justin trudeau cbc might lose its funding if they they make fun of the wrong person and the government of the wrong way.

I think we're on the same page as far as that's concerned. It's a very tame idea of political comedy on the CBC. FOTM Rick Mercer did his best, and I think he found the soft spot. He found a niche where he could be a likable guy even when he was taking shots at those people in power. even when he was taking shots at those people in power. I don't know if any successor that he's had since on this satirical CBC show, I don't know if they've lived up to the template that he left behind.

This hour, 22 minutes, has now been around for 30 years. The show that inspired it, they canceled it after two. They fired Patrick Watson from the CBC for insubordination because he essentially wasn't following the rules. He was doing too many subversive things on camera. But fortunately for him, it was a situation there. He wasn't, like, exiled from polite society or anything like that. In fact, if anything, it helped his reputation in the long run

that he had pushed the envelope as far as news broadcasting was concerned, and he was on the CBC in straighter ways. He had the Watson Report and Witness to Yesterday and Venture and also part of his resume, Patrick Watson, was the original creator and narrator of the heritage minutes now when i was in the gifted program uh they used to take i remember they would have us watch witness to history like this was a program we'd watch uh and i i remember like for example he would interview like joe devark or something an actress playing obviously an actress playing

joe devark and it was like a cool way to learn about history, which was watching this guy, Patrick Watson, interview these long dead historical figures. It was a great show. He was around for so long that autobiography about his career was called This Hour Has Seven Decades, which came out in 2004.

And then he hung around for 18 years longer. And from a child actor at the CBC to this hour at Seven Days and then being like, you know, great grandpa of Canadian broadcasting, Patrick Watson, dead at 92. I want you rocking back inside my heart. I want you rocking back inside my heart. You remember this one, Julie Cruz,

Rockin' Back Inside My Heart, and yet is not the song that she's most known for. The song that is most synonymous with her was based on the theme from Twin Peaks, Falling. So singer Julie Cruz, synonymous with the was based on the theme from twin peaks falling so uh singer julie cruz synonymous with the work of david lynch uh collaborated with angelo great name angelo battle amante and the julie cruz album floating into the night which uh captain phil evans reminds me was considered a huge record at the time in early 1990s for CFNY. If you were listening to CFNY, this song sounded like the future.

That, as far as the alternative rock world was concerned, we've talked about that here over the years. There was a point where more artful music was moving into the forefront and that's where the recognition for this song came from. I don't know how much Radio Airplay would have received overall, but a song with a horn section like this one, skronking away, this was

something that clicked in Toronto. I even remember hearing Julie Cruz, they brought her to Brampton, Ontario to do an interview on CFNY. She was royalty as far as that was concerned. But beyond that Twin Peaks breakthrough, any record of her own did not succeed as well as she did on the road with the B-52s. For a number of years in the 1990s, she was filling in for Cindy Wilson in the B-52s. Woo! For a number of years in the 1990s, she was filling in for Cindy Wilson in the B-52s,

and she died June 9th, 2022. Suicide at age 65. Great singer, American singer, Julie Cruz. Do you remember when we fell in love? We were young and innocent then. Do you remember how it all began? It just seemed like heaven, so I did it. Do you remember?

Bernard Bell is someone you find on the credits of what I think was the last genuine hit single by Michael Jackson. Remember, Remember the Time? Toronto Mike, do you have a segment called Remember the Time? First of all, do I remember Remember the Time? No, I was living on a remote island. Of course I remember Remember the Time. But what about like, wasn't Scream a hit? There feels like there was Scream.

I think so, but that was like all about special effects. After a certain point, Michael Jackson's singles started. To me, like they were just like commercials for the concept of Michael Jackson. What about that Free Willy song? Wasn't that after this? Will You Be There? No. You are not alone.

I am here with you. Is that the one? That's R. Kelly. No, that one struck from the record. Once Michael Jackson was hanging out with R. Kelly, it was all downhill from there. Okay, Bernard Bell. His sister was a singer. Regina Bell.

Which Disney song did she sing? Can I guess? Aladdin. Aladdin song. Peebo Bryson. Regina Bell. A Whole New World. A whole new world.

Her brother, Bernard Bell, a producer, new Jack Swing-style producer, worked with Teddy Riley in Remember the Time, which is his biggest success. And there was also a 1992 Bobby Brown album, which he has a bunch of credits on. There's a bell in Belle de Vauve in New Edition. This is Belle, B-E-l-l-e okay like albert bell disney joey disney character gotcha gotcha uh bernard bernard bell also a member of high five uh died not long ago and bernard bell was on a right uh on a few high-five songs as well. And you know, they're taking fake Michael Jackson songs off Spotify after he died.

Did you see this story? There were a few Michael Jackson songs. There was a court case, fraudulent fake Michael Jackson songs. But the real deal, remember the time. We're talking at a world talk. We've got jobs because there's bills to pay. We've got something that can't take away. Our love, our life.

Close the door, leave the cold outside. I don't need no... You finally found a Bon Jovi fan to come on Toronto Mike. How did this happen? And here I was thinking she was just an Oasis fan, but no, big Bon Jovi fan. Rush me there. We've been trashing Bon Jovi, the whole fake band that he created in the 80s,

fleecing us all with the idea that these were... And getting that banner at the Air Canada Center, don't get me started. These guys came from the streets with sound that couldn't have been any more manufactured, cosplaying a heavy metal hair band when the reality was anything

but. But he was very handsome. Bon Jovi needed some backing musicians who could play the part and one of those guys who passed the audition was Alec John Such and he was the founding bass player of the band known as Bon Jovi.

Even though the guy who was on the first Bon Jovi hit, Hugh McDonald, he's still in Bon Jovi. But you see, he didn't have like the heavy metal hair poodle look. This guy, Hugh McDonald. So today he's like a normie Bon Jovi bass player. I mean, he's been around this band now for like 25 years. Okay. Right? But he did not look the part when Bon Jovi was trying to be that heartthrob arena act.

It was Alec John Such who did it instead and died June 4th, 2022 at age 70. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, which is another ridiculous thing. I mean, Bon Jovi, but Hope Reshminer is back to defend their honor. Alec John Such. Rock and steady in your daddy's car. She got the stereo and the big guitars. And that's all right. such. Gonna go for a walk tonight. Yeah. Woo. That's all right.

Another rock band backing guy who died at age 70. This is the thing, Mike. I think it's only going to increase the number of songs we remember from our teenage years who are showing up in the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. In this case, it's a keyboard player named Brett Tuggle and his major contribution to the solo career of David Lee Roth was co-writing, which leads me to suspect

he wrote the thing and David Lee Roth took half the credit. Brett Tuggle, who was part of the David Lee Roth band on the album, you remember this album,

1987? I own this album. Skyscraper. It was an EP. I think this was an EP. No, the first David Lee Roth band on the album. You remember this album, 1987? I own this album. Skyscraper. It was an EP. I think this was an EP. No, the first David Lee Roth was a cover version EP. And then Eat Him and Smile. And by then, people were tired of Diamond Dave.

No, Eat Him and Smile? Why do I think it's called Crazy from the Heat? Is that a different? Crazy from the Heat was the EP with the California girls. Eat Him and Smile with Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan. And then I think at that point, like the Sammy Hagar thing, it eclipsed David Lee Roth. No one wanted to hear from him again.

But he squeaked out one last hit. This was like the last song, the last real hit song by solo David Lee Roth. Before we, and again, I know we're paying respects here, but the cover EP, Crazy From the Heat, there's still a line I drop on my kids all the freaking time. The six-year-old particularly likes it. Want me to try to do it right now for you? Are you ready?

Okay. Orgy boogy bop, bitty bop. There you go, from just the gigolo. That's my David Lee Roth. So, Just Like Paradise was a big enough hit. It was in high demand. It was originally... It's a good jam.

They originally invited it to be the theme song for Beverly Hills 90210. Wow. And so the theme from 90210 is a ripoff of Just Like Paradise. Wow. But the original theme in season one is not the one we all know from 90210. Like, they had a different... Because Aaron Spelling, Darren Starr, his people, they wanted the David Lee Roth song.

And I guess negotiations fell through. Think of the royalties that could have come in for this guy. So Brett Tuggle, the keyboard player, he ended up joining Fleetwood Mac because Christine McVie had left the band. And he essentially was her replacement. That is to say he was playing

the keyboard parts and not singing there. So a name deep in the credits of a lot of records, but he was on a lot of big stages from David Lee Roth to touring with Fleetwood Mac. Died of cancer.

70 years old, June 19th, 2022. Brett Tuggle. Now, you mentioned 90210. So before I turn up this jam, I just want to tease that next time you're here, so first Thursday of August, I will have an interesting update from TMDS that might involve the name Tori Spelling. Push, push in the bush.

From Muzik. What does that mean? Patrick Adams, a disco producer who died June 22nd at age 72. Patrick Adams, because in NHL we used to have the Patrick division and the Adams division. I don't think he was thinking of that when he produced this disco song. Now I'm thinking of that Guy Lafleur song we kicked out that time. Okay. There was another one that Patrick Adams was involved with

that ended up being a bigger hit as a cover version by Kathy Dennis, Touch Me All Night Long. Did you know that one from the early... I want to feel your body. From the early 1990s. No, no, that's Samantha Fox. This was Touch Me All Night Long by Fonda Ray. And it was from the soundtrack of Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2.

Oh, yeah. Freddy's Revenge. Later on, Patrick Adams, who worked in the studio with Eric B. and Rakim and Salt and Peppa, among other hip-hop acts. But really one of those discographies that wasn't only a seminal part of the disco charts, but also a lot of samples out there. So deep cut Ridley Fandral home shouted here. Patrick Adams dead at 72.

I really want to hit the post here. 590 CKY. Seals and Crofts. Thank you. me Darling, if you want me to see See only you Then see only me Summer jams for pandemic. Diamond Girl, another jam from Seals and Crofts. But my favorite here was Get Closer, which put them a little closer to the yacht rock vibe. For sure.

In 1976. And it was Jim Seals, who died June 6, 2022 at age 79. I once talked to Jim Seals on the phone. Really? For a matter of minutes. Okay. And it was at the same time that I talked to his brother, Dan Seals.

Bop. And Dan Seals responded to the success of his older brother in Seals and Crofts by starting a similar soft rock duo of his own. And that was England Dan and John Ford Coley. So you had a situation where there was like Seals and Crofts. It was like Miley Cyrus and her younger sister. Andy Gibb. The Bee Gees and Andy Gibb, where one act was a spinoff of another.

And at the time, this was like an iWeekly article. It was like a novelty. They were both at a Toronto concert, a fundraiser awareness for the Baha'i Faith, which they were both outspoken members of. And I spoke to both of them on the phone. And they were both equally hostile to this teenage reporter talking to them. Oh, you were a teenager? Looking for a laugh.

Close enough. Okay. You've been around forever. There's my connection. The world's oldest 50-year-old, Mark year old mark wise blood seals seals and crofts did you cover the water gate okay so we lost seals right seals we lost um we've lost seals we've we've hung on to crofts who was four years older for those keeping keeping score. And you know, originally they were part of the band called

The Champs. The Champs were best known for tequila. Except they weren't on the actual record. They're not on the Pee Wee Herman soundtrack there, but it was where they first musically connected as teenagers

of their own. And moving through the 1960s, they'd be icons of 70s soft rock. Where are we here? Oh! I see there's a late-breaking addition to my notes here. And I think worth noting, it might not be a name that you know,

but part of Ridley Funeral Homeworth talking about Nazareth. I've been around for so long. I remember hearing Our Love Leads to Madness by Nazareth on my favorite radio station, 1050 Chump. And by the early 80s, Nazareth were not popular anywhere else but in Canada, even though they were a Scottish rock band. And I think what kept them more popular in Canada than anywhere else? Once again, shout out to Liz Braun,

their connection with Joni Mitchell, their cover version, Nazareth, This Flight Tonight, which you can hear to this day every three hours on Q107. Right. And from that CanCon, they stuck around Canada, it seemed, more than pretty much anywhere else.

Manny Charlton, he was a lead guitarist of Nazareth. And this you might find fascinating, the original producer of Guns N' Roses because Axl Rose wanted the producer of the Nazareth album, Hair of the Dog, to oversee Appetite for Destruction. And so when they did the reissue, it's on all the streaming services,

there's an original demo version of the album and it's a lot rougher and it's a lot raw, but it's more genuinely what Guns N' Roses, I think, were supposed to be. Well, this explains it. If you're inspired to look up this stuff, there you hear the impact, the influence of Manny Charlton

and the original concept of Guns N' Roses, and the work was rejected by the record company. It wasn't what they were looking for in the end. And they just added it to the end of the reissue. And rejoining Nazareth seemed to be a priority because, I don't know, what was going to happen with these Guns N' Roses guys? He had to get back to this day job there and got back to Nazareth seemed to be a priority because I don't know what was going to happen with these Guns N' Roses guys. He had to get back to this day job there and got back to Nazareth.

On the spaghetti incident, Guns N' Roses cover Hair of the Dog. Hey Mike, it's part of our heavy metal heritage. July 5th, 2022. Rest in peace, Manny Charlton of Nazareth, age 80. I'm 80 with a bullet.

Got my finger on the trigger. I'm going to put it. I'm a pititty click now. I'm the son of a gun. So hold it right there, little girl, little girl. We're gonna have a big fun. Maybe an oldie. 18 with a bullet.

You know this jam by Pete Wingfield? This is like a mid-70s Casey Kasem countdown kind of song. You can listen to the old Casey Kasem shows on the iHeartRadio app. Something like that will pop up on there. You will not hear it anywhere else these days. But this doo-wop parody tune, it was a genuine hit in America. And how I knew fun facts like that one

about records that I had not necessarily heard as a younger man was thanks to a guy named Joel Whitburn who died at age 82 on June 14th, 2022. Anyone who is a chart geek diehard. Scott Turner, I think, is the only one who can compete with me in this category here. I did talk to Scott over the phone the last few weeks. Okay, so did I.

Hopefully, we're getting together in some other way soon. Let's get a bike to you. Details to come. You're the one with the podcast show. If you were interested, if your idea of a fun time was to sit around

and read a book of statistical information from the charts on Billboard. Joel Whitburn was your man because he was the one who had the idea that I'm going to collect and compile all these records. I'm going to make sure I own a copy of every record that ever made the chart. I'm going to be the chief statistician of Billboard magazine. And he wrote all these books.

And so when he died, I showed off my extremely dog-eared copy of Joel Whitburn's top pop singles. It looked like it had been in a dog cage, chewed over a number of times, just to show off I'm a real deal and my indebtedness genuinely to Joel Whitburn. Which jam is this? We got, I think, the wrong one. This is Nazareth again. See, we're running out of time. We're running out of patience. Whitburn. Which jam is this? I think the wrong one. This is Nazareth again. See?

We're running out of time. We're running out of patience. I will repair this unfortunate happening here. Well, as usual, if anybody made it this far, they can forgive us falling apart. But I think one more to go on the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment, and I

believe this one relates to past and future guests of Toronto Mic'd. See what I did there? Well done. I was almost perfect, Mark. It's been a long episode. Don't even know my name I guess that I'm to blame Don't know the right things to say So I pretend away That I'm Rudolph Valentino

Pull up in my limousine Oh won't you come in out of the rain? Things will never be the same. And then just like Freddy Garbo, you'll stare like the snow tomorrow. And you'll know what I'm thinking of right before your eyes. I'm falling in love with you You know, it's not very often we acknowledge someone whose claim to fame

is that they were somebody's mom. But I think this was a good note to leave on. Maureen Thomas died May 18th at age 94, and she got a full-fledged article, obituary in the Hamilton Spectator, because two of her sons are legendary characters

from The Hammer. One of whom was recently a guest on Toronto Mic'd, and the other one was booked until he found out that his mother died. That was Maureen Thomas. So Dave Thomas was a guest on here, and sadly it was the death of their mother which forced Ian Thomas to postpone.

But in the process, on the Hamilton Spectator website, he talks about her in a terrific obituary about the influence that she had over their lives and careers in the entertainment industry. She had grown up playing the harp and the piano in Hamilton. She was a piano teacher. She was a church music director, but ultimately based on this article, The Biggest Legacy She Left Behind was inspiring her sons. So, shout

out here to Maureen Thomas for giving us Toronto Mic'd FOTM. Dave Thomas and Ian Thomas is he back in the calendar? We're going to reschedule that ASAP

Okay well he's got to like the fact that we talked about his mom and I think we're just about done recapping June 2022, according to

the creator and curator of the 1236 newsletter. That would be me. Sorry about that, everyone. There's already today a significant passing in the celebrity world

of a godfather actor and I'm sure he'll be... Godfather actor? What about the movies of Frank D'Angelo? To be discussed the first week of August. Can't wait for your return, Mark. Another stellar three hours. Who? Jimmy Khan. James Khan. Yeah, well we'll save it

for next time because we gotta do it justice. Right? The Salvatore. We have to do it next month. If we can even remember. I did not get into deconstructing Stu Stone and Cynthia Dale reuniting over heavenly bodies, but I feel there are more reunions to come with the mother and son team from that Canadian cinematic classic. Oh, TMLXX, everybody. It's going to be at Great Lakes Brewery

on September 1st from 6 to 9pm. We're planning a big one to celebrate 10 years of Toronto Mic'd. Did this episode seem longer than usual even though we're hitting the typical three hours here? Leave your answer in the comments.

And that brings us to the end of our 1078th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark Weisblot is at 1236. That's 1236. Go to

1236.ca and sign up for his weekday news burrito delivered safely to your inbox at 123636 p.m. every day. That's Eastern, by the way. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. I'm going there right now. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Now I'm hungry. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Dewar Performance. Again, the promo code is Toronto Mike. Say 15%. Let them know you learned about the world's most comfortable pants on Toronto Mike. Ridley Funeral Home. They're at Ridley FH.

And Canna Cabana, my best friends yesterday night. They're at Canna Cabana, my best friends yesterday night, they're at canna cabana underscore. See you all tomorrow when my special guest is Jeff Woods. There's a thousand shades of green Cause I know that's true Yes I do I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you

All that picking up trash