Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Marc Weisblott from 12:36: Toronto Mike'd #993

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

Mike chats with Marc Weisblott of 12:36 about the current state of media in Canada and what you oughta know. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

Welcome to episode 993 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA StickerU.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals For your home and your business Palma Pasta

Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville Ridley Funeral Home and pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana, the lowest prices on cannabis, guaranteed. Over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Joining me this week to recap the month that was January 2022 is 1236's own Mark Weisblatt. Mike, welcome to 2022.

My first opportunity to catch up on how it's going in the complete destabilization of society. Brought to me by the 75, 80-minute track on the TTC. I gotta say, Mike, it's tough out there in the middle of another snowstorm here on the 3rd of February. But I'm glad to be in my happy place. The TMDS Basement Studio. And I gotta say, Mike, I'm glad

that you let me inside the house now. Oh, man, I've been letting you in the house for quite a while now. You're boosted, my friend. I don't remember seeing your PDF. Do you have it on you? Yeah, boosted all the way at the first available opportunity. But here as we start the year of our monthly recap episodes,

we've still got the trucker protests going on in Ottawa, threats of it coming around the bend back to Toronto. We'll see what happens. And I think going to extremes here with the protests. A lot of honking going on in Ottawa this week.

But at the same time, increased public sympathy. Right, Mike? Like, how is the pandemic going for you? Are you in the 54% majority who are ready for this thing to end? Oh my goodness, yeah. I was driving that truck, if you will.

So, for the record, I'm passionately pro-vax in the sense that I literally bowled a couple of 90-year-old women out of my way to get that booster shot. I'm like, get out of here, like George Costanza when someone yelled fire. Pro-vax to the extreme,

but we got to learn to live with this thing. It ain't going anywhere, so get vaxed. Be careful, but let's open some shit up now. It's time to move on. While we were waiting, The Weeknd put out his second album of the pandemic era on the first weekend of 2022. Okay, let me hear a bit of this. Hold on.

Let me hear a bit. Whose verse is this? Do you know? You don't know. So here we go again, The Weeknd. Tyler, the creator. My boy is a big fan. My boy is a big fan. Been around for a while.

This track from The Weeknd's Dawn FM album resonated with me because I know one of the voices on this song and it's not the weekend. It turns out that we're coming up on 30 years now that I had a run in on the street with Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Who's doing backing vocals on this song, along with Mike Love's son, Christian. And I had written a review of Beach Boys' album

in iWeekly, Summer in Paradise. This was in the fall of 1992. I heard Bruce Johnston on the radio doing an interview on CFRB, and he referenced my disparaging review, which was probably just a few bad jokes about Kokomo. Right. And John Stamos. The Beach Boys in their Mike Love reincarnation trying to carry on, yeah,

with John Stamos taking the place of Brian Wilson. And it might not have even been one hour later, there I was at Young and St. Clair. Didn't live far from there at the time. I still don't today. And I ran into an FOTM, Kevin Shea, who back then was the promo guy for Attic Records. And he was coming out of the Standard Broadcasting building

where I had heard Bruce Johnston on the air doing this CFRB interview. Wow. And Kevin said, hey, he wanted to introduce me to Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Well, I had never been insulted by a celebrity before. boys well i had never been insulted by a celebrity before and i made a point of telling bruce that i was the one who wrote the record review that he didn't like and he launched into a tirade punched you be befitting befitting of uh santa monica millionaire the man who wrote the song, I Write the Songs, for Barry Manilow. That was Bruce Johnston.

Wow. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Wow. He had an on-again, off-again relationship with the group. Originally, he was there to fill in for Brian Wilson, and he launched into a tirade. And I don't really remember exactly what he had to say, but it ended with him saying the words,

we can do whatever the fuck we want. Sounds like the motto here on Toronto Mic'd. And if I want to have Mark Wise blot over once a month to go three hours, I don't care what Humble and Fred think, because they like to joke about it. They did it this morning. And so almost three decades later, the weekend, he was barely even born back then,

Bruce Johnston shows up doing backing vocals on this hip-hop album with Tyler, the creator, and it turned out how he got there was a track that he produced with Skrillex, which made it into the hands of The Weeknd. And they asked Bruce, you know, he's like pushing 80 years old. I mean, do you approve of these lyrical messages? And him being a staunch Republican, a real free-speecher kind of guy, he said, hey, the Beach Boys, we can do whatever the fuck we want,

and so can The Weeknd if he wants to use my track and bring on a whole new Beach Boys Renaissance. So there was one pleasant surprise at the start of January to see my old pal Bruce Johnston showing up on this album by a guy from Toronto. Quick hello to Dan Jay, who's actually watching this live at live.torontomike.com, and he just popped a gummy that he purchased at Canna Cabana, so there's a big change since your last visit, Mr. Wiseblood.

Yeah, and I think as far as Toronto Mike sponsors are concerned, this one is a little bit controversial. Is it? It's legal. I've heard you doing this spot a couple times, so you find it necessary to preface it with the fact that it's legal so that it has not been normalized as a part of everyday life. It's getting there. Is it also because, Mike, like you and me, for all this legalization,

and even though we walk by Canna Cabana and what, like a dozen other cannabis stores a day, we still have not gotten around to the ritual of purchasing the product for ourselves. Now, at the next TMLX, will there be samples? Well, that's the thing. So there are a number of FOTMs who, of course, love to smoke it, right? Even Stew Stone, Canada Cav, there's a whole bunch. And those who don't want to smoke it, they consume it

in edibles, etc., like gummies, like our buddy Dan Jay here. And if I'm going to partake, and I'm getting there, my friend, it's going to be at a can of Cabana. You know, more than just weed. They got bongs, pipes, vapes, dab rigs, grinders, and anything else a smoker would want. So shout out

to the good people at Canna Cabana. And look, the competition's getting tough out there. So if you are going to get to a cannabis store, it makes sense to walk through their door. And it's just being a good FOTM. Yeah, and let them know, you know, Toronto Mike sent you, and there's 100 locations across the country.

But let's, off the top, Mr. Weisblatt, let's get cooking here, because I'm trying to get this under three hours but uh david cooper uh as you know we've been talking about david cooper the last couple of uh 12 36 episodes and because of your last i think it was two visits ago you were telling me you loved the uh the rap on this david cooper guy doing overnights with jim richards and then i think it was your last visit, not the fromage visit,

but the one before when you told me you had kind of turned on him a bit because you found out he came from money and this upset you. Yeah. Yeah. We, we ended the year doing the fromage 2021 recap in the spirit of much music and, and Christopher Ward.

So before that we were doing, making our usual rounds through what was going on in Toronto media. And initially, I spoke with some enthusiasm. We'll get into the drama of Bell Media and CFRB. But starting here with the fact that the overnight show was suddenly being hosted by a guy working out of New York. David Cooper came upon him doing these nightly bits with Jim Richards. He's a guy who was born and raised in Toronto, but as we learned in his dialogue, he went off to work as what? Like a software engineer at Silicon Valley startups.

He was dropping some big corporate names off on a little bit of adventure. And he was willing to throw it all away to fulfill his dream of being on the radio. And my respect for David Cooper was initiated because I first realized he was pursuing this ambition by trying to get a slot on WFMU. And WFMU is not a paying gig. It's a volunteer-based, independent, free-form radio station from New Jersey. But having a show on WFMU puts you in the club of the hipster cultural elite. There was a documentary on WFMU, and one of the people they spoke to was Adam Horvitz,

King Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys. And he mentioned at the height of his fame, he thought he could waltz into WFMU and they'd just give him a show. And they're like, well, you got to volunteer for a year helping out in the record library. And then maybe we'll consider putting you on the air. So breaking through on that level, again, for a completely unpaid gig, is the sort of

deal where sitting here in Toronto and happening upon somebody like David Cooper, seeing that as central to his ambitions, knowing that he threw a potentially lucrative career away just to be on the radio for free, I gotta figure that's my kind of guy. And at the same time, there he was showing up overnight's Bell Media National Overnight Showgram with Jim Richards. Well, Jim Richards got moved back to the daytime. We'll talk about that in a little while. And because David Cooper happened to be hanging around, consider himself a competent enough fill-in, they just handed him the show. And you got to wonder at this point, which is considered a more prestigious gig, right? Doing like volunteer

radio in New York City or overnight Bell Media across Canada. And here we've got our friend David Cooper. From what I could tell, he kind of saw them on the same level, right? Like he just wanted to be on the air. It didn't matter to him if he was getting paid. But then he started talking a little bit more about himself and about his life. He started dropping the names of his family members. And how could I resist then to start to Google a little bit more

and find out what's behind this guy? Well, it wasn't hard to find, and there's nothing all that to be embarrassed about. But let's face it. This guy, David Cooper Cooper comes from money. And if I have a problem with him, it's not because he comes from a privileged background, but it's because of the fact

that Bell Media, part of the BCE, National Telecom Conglomerate, is dependent upon people with that kind of privilege to fill these low paying roles on national AM radio

you follow me here Mike? what you're saying is you don't get the perspective of somebody who needs to earn money to live in the city and feed themselves and their kids and everything you can only get like kids with money to do with the city and feed themselves and their kids and everything. You can only get kids with money to do with a gig because you can't pay

the wage required. Well, they can. Look, Bell can pay. They are choosing to cut back and do the lowest budget broadcasting possible. Now, I'm still impressed with the fact that Dave Cooper was in the right place at the right time.

Carpe Diem seizing the moment of opportunity. This is what it took to get an overnight national radio show in Canada like the first of its kind. Even though Jim Richards was supposed to get that role, but he didn't want to be there. What did Agnew have? What did Jason Agnew have? They tried him out for a while, but there was never the orientation of saying, this is a show that we're invested in,

and it's something that's here to stay. An overnight Canadian radio talk show in our times is something that at least CFRB never figured out how to do. Chorus had one, was originally hosted by a DJ named Drex, and that's still going on overnight, the shift. But I feel like the bigger radio stations across the country were still leaning on running George Nouri, right? Coast to coast AM. Sure. And part of the origin of where they were experimenting with an overnight show was at the beginning of COVID-19, deciding that maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to put potential misinformation on the air,

American conspiracy theories about the pandemic. Next thing you know, you're hosting Joe Rogan and Alex Jones and people like that spouting off stuff that might end up losing the Bell Media license. I heard that from another guy they tried to fill in in that time slot, Dave Kaufman. He was talking on Bob's Basement podcast. That's where I got the background.

Back to David Cooper. He prevailed over Dave Kaufman, Jason Agnew, and I think he's got the right stuff. He's got a voice and a reverence, a complete disinterest in current events. He's not big on talking about the news. Didn't he reveal as much to you? He just wants to hang out over the airwaves. The problem that I've got with the guy isn't about how much money he

might have in the bank. If there's a trust fund waiting for him at the end of the line. As you said, it comes down to looking at the sober reality of the media business, and they're relying on somebody in those circumstances, and at this point in time, nobody else can break through. But you posing the question to David Cooper elicited, I think, an interesting reaction. Well, let's not bury the lead here. He talked about you talking about him.

Like, this was a key part of the recent David Cooper appearance. And a key part, I realized, of you having the initiative to book him on the show. We're trying to create a big FOTM universe here. And that means somebody's got to play the heel. And when it comes to certain personalities, I'm more than happy to call out certain behavior when I know that the person is going to respond.

And you got that reaction from David from his luxury condo in Manhattan. He expressed the fact, did you pull this clip? Or am I just relying on you paraphrasing? I didn't. That he was uncomfortable. Right. And he sounded uncomfortable

with the fact that I was calling out his privilege. But he seems very much into the psychotherapy, right? He's into this neurotic Woody Allen shtick that he had to evaluate what it was that I said that caused him discomfort. Because if I was telling a lie, he just would have dismissed it out of hand.

And that we might have called his bluff, and yet he was willing to face it head on. And I don't think this disqualifies him from getting this time slot. Bring it on. Let David Cooper be a national overnight Bell Media radio guy for $375 a week. And I didn't know it was that much. I'd apply. overnight Bell Media radio guy for $375 a week. And I didn't know it was that much.

I'd applaud. That's really all I've got to say. Now, he will definitely be listening right now. Anything you want to say to him? Look, I just love it. Here we, coming up on the 1,000th episode of Toronto Mic'd, the fact that I am confident that when we talk about these things here in the basement, anybody who we talk about at this point in time is going to be hearing it, right?

Right. It's so easy for someone to flip the link, tune in at this time. I can't believe they're talking about you. With great power comes great responsibility. And so much of what we do here, and I'm sure again in this session today, is ranking out what's going on in the current state of Canadian media before we get to the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, there's other drama at 1010 that we need to discuss. But before I do that, I just want to let you know that 5151 is a great photographer. I've seen his work and he's on the live stream, live.torontomic.com, showing that he has 5151 stickers that he ordered from stickeru.com.

So what I love about the real-time engagement with the FOTMs who join us in the live stream is that you can see how advertising on Toronto Mic works because we had somebody having their gummies from Canna Cabana. Now we've got stickers from StickerU. And I know, as is tradition, that everybody is cracking a Great Lakes beer and listening along with us.

And here it comes. He's cracked open his first GLB. I'll keep an ongoing ticker here. Now, when I talked about 1010 drama, I'm referring to, and this gentleman, I will confess, as usual, I'm not familiar with this man or his work, but you did point me to an article he wrote about his dismissal from News Talk 1010.

Not just an article. A planned five-part series published on Substack. Why is he doing five parts? Why not one big part? Like, why is he doing that? I think on a podcast with Tara Henley, speaking of media personalities in 2022 2022 she's the woman that wrote at the beginning of the year kicked off January by writing writing a letter that got international

coverage about why she is resigning from the CBC okay so this gentleman is the kind of person she wants to join forces with to fight against the forces of wokeness in the corporate Canadian media. And Jamil Javani, given this nighttime radio show on 1010 CFRB and again across Canada on Bell Media. Is this the old Barb DiGiulio spot? Yeah, they displaced Barb DiGiulio, another FOTM, John Pohl. Oh, yeah, also an FOTM. They moved him out of the way to accommodate this new schedule and very much trumpeting the fact that Jamil Jivani,

defined as a black talk radio host all across Canada, he had a profile with the Ontario government that he was an advisor to Doug Ford's government on youth opportunities, whatever it was. He had a book that was well-received, Why Young Men, working with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. I guess you would define it as a politically heterodox, free speech-oriented think tank group. He was going places at Jamil Javadi. There was an attack article about him in the Globe and Mail, how he was considered some kind of race traitor, because with his background, he was willing to speak out about things like the Black Lives Matter movement, critical race theory being taught in schools, and a lot of these other culture war topics that provide a feast for Fox News every single night.

Jamil Javani was dedicated, taking on on these topics doing a National Bell Talk radio show. You're sighing there, Mike. This is not your sort of thing. You cannot imagine listening to one second of this show. Not a minute, actually. But here... Why?

I mean, how have I failed to sell it for you? Because disclosure here, I'm a big Jamil Javani fan. Oh, I'm shocked. I'm very much riding along with his provocations and what he was saying in the podcast, in the five-part series that he's in the process of writing.

I don't know if there'll be some sort of plot twist that deviates from what he had to say before. In fact, he was representing media diversity. He had the most ethnically, racially, ideologically diverse cast of characters that you would hear on a mainstream talk radio show. What he wasn't doing, and he heard from the top of Bell Media, whatever diversity and inclusion initiative they've got going on there, indicating to him that he was bringing on the wrong kinds of guests, that he was talking about topics that they didn't want to hear,

that he was talking about topics that they didn't want to hear, that he was taking the stance that we shouldn't treat July 1st as a day of reckoning for Canada, that we should celebrate it instead. Okay, but hearing you talk about Jamil, who I'm sure... You can grasp his contrarian position. And plus, he was having guests on his show that you would never hear in any other lowbrow Canadian talk radio.

Sounds like he needs a podcast. Go have a podcast. I think we're overloaded. I think there were too many podcasts covering this stuff. It was something different. There was something creative, you might even say radical, about having some of these guests that he

had on there. I'm not sure. Too many of these AM Talk Radio listeners would know who, uh, Glenn Lowry and John McWhorter and, and Coleman Hughes. These are all black Americans. These were the kind of guests he was having. He was having on the show and the way he tells it.

And again, no bell media will not, will not comment on personnel matters, but it's his allegation, his insinuation, that his removal from the radio coincided with the Bell Media mandarins giving him a hard time about what he was saying on the air and doing on his show. And that's the end, as far as I could tell, of Jamil Javani,

at least as far as having that tell, of Jamil Javani, at least as far as having that kind of corporate telecom-owned talk radio career. Of course, he could do a podcast, there are plenty of other outlets out there. He's well-connected at this point in time. When it came to what he was doing, the medium was the message, and it was refreshing to hear somebody bring the bring these dynamics to radio like that but that's it no more no more jameel javani on bell and and that was part and parcel of a whole bunch of changes that they made suddenly people were disappearing from the airwaves without explanation and so we don't have an official uh we don't have an official statement about why he's gone. It is possible they were just looking to cut back a bunch of people.

Anyhow, and that brings us to our monthly installment of reviewing people who got tapped on the shoulder and told that they cannot have their corporate radio job anymore. By the way, a segment on the 1236 episodes of the Toronto Mike podcast that I would do anything to no longer have to do anymore. But Mike, you hold me hostage. You know that I'm a sucker for talking about these things. And you managed to drag it out for me on hours on end. So yeah, why not? Let's do a round here of talking about

all the transformations that have gone on here in the first month of 2022. Okay, firstly, FOTM Steve Leggett points out that Jamil's show was very, very pro-religious as well. Like even hearing this brief description, so he's going to go off against critical race theory, teaching that. Oh, and by the way,

I mean, he's also going off on vaccination mandates. Like, are you even surprised? That also might have had something to do with them being a little skittish about letting him say

what he wanted over the air. Well, Bell Media slash iHeartRadio, as they like to call themselves, might not want to be, they might not want their brand aligned with such a viewpoint.

But here's the thing, this was not like David Cooper where he accidentally stumbled into the show and they refused to acknowledge that he's there and you don't even know if the people actually running the company even know if David Cooper's on the air or not. Jamil Javani was presented as a marquee personality across Canada. They put out press releases about the guy. Initially, they gave him a one-hour show.

They expanded to three hours across the country every night. And they were very proud of the fact they were bringing a new kind of diversity to the very white, angry, male AM talk radio. And it turned out that Jamil Javani is maybe not the diversity they were looking for. That's his story. That's his story

and he's sticking to it. And I gotta say, in that entire time, I'm not even sure he set foot into a radio station. That the whole time he was broadcasting from his kitchen table at home.

And I think that's another sidebar to what's happened to broadcasting in the past two years, that the way you produce Toronto Mike became the way that most mainstream broadcasting is produced now. It doesn't seem so weird that we're sitting here in the basement, you know, in between your teenage son's bedroom. He's not a teenager anymore. And the washing machines. He's not a teenager anymore. He's in his 20s now. You're making me feel old, okay?

But I still call them the teens, and I realize I can't do that anymore. Entire teenage years. Somebody, either Jamil was naturally gifted or somebody trained him very well. Maybe that was Mike Van Dixon, who's, again, not with the company anymore. And he knew, like, how to make that talk radio compelling enough

because it is just playing the hits, saying the same things over and over and over again. And I thought he did very well, and he alerted me to a lot of stories that showed somebody who was totally plugged in to the daily vortex of Twitter and dissecting the different dimensions of mainstream media, pointing out all kinds of biases that I might not have noticed anymore. But whatever. Like, too hot for Bell.

And best of luck to Jamil Javadi. Get him over here. You know what? I honestly would have reached out because I am interested in his story. I'll tell you where he's coming from. You told me he did another podcast and I lost all interest. It was like, if this guy's coming on,

he's going to do my show, we're going to do an exit interview. But if he did, what's her name? Whose show did he do? Tara Henley. Like, then I'm like, I tap out. It's like, I lost my interest. Okay, but here's the thing.

I think you're willing to look him in the eye and maybe take issue with his approach. Oh, sure. I sure did want to choke me out. Look, it comes down to the fact that at the same time that they're trying in a company like Bell, Bell Media, Rogers and Chorus and all the rest, right? They are trying to make their employees walk a certain line when it comes to these diversity and inclusion initiatives. certain line when it comes to these diversity and inclusion initiatives. Yeah, you probably can't

have a guy on the radio who's saying the opposite of what you want your employees to think. And that's the problem there, and that's where we've been talking here in the last year or two. And that's the problem with corporate radio, and that's why you need to start your own podcast if you want to say what you want. Okay, well I got you to

fire up this song, The Mexican, by Babe Ruth. And this is not some kind of subliminal racism reference. It's the fact that this is one of the classic songs associated with a Montreal radio station called SHOM. And FOTMs know it best as the station that Corey Hart walked into when Steve Anthony was on the air and then referred to Steve Anthony as the boy in the box.

That was Shom. No, CKGM. You're sure that wasn't Shom? Close enough. I'm going to pull the tapes. Are you sure? Well, it's like Chum AM and FM. Okay, so we're talking about Shom.

Shom had the bigger sign on the building. Okay, because, my apology, I thought that was Shom. But this is the station we think J. Mad Dog Michaels has left 1010 to go to. Well, yeah, I thought that was Shum. But this is the station we think J. Mad Dog Michaels has left 1010 to go to. Well, yeah, I certainly hope so. I almost took out

a couple of my teeth with a microphone. I was so excited there. Do you have dental? Talk about our pal Mad Dog. Cool, Mad Dog. J. Michaels, fake radio name, but a very genuine guy. He has two fake names.

Yeah, yeah. Jay Mad Dog Michaels. And Mad Dog is one word. Yeah, his last name starts with D. Do you know what it is? Drolet or something like that? Drolet? Dodolet?

Yeah, something like that. Dodolet or something like that. I'm not keeping it a secret. There was Jay Doodalay and Jim McGrody. Jamie McGrody, better known as Jim Richards. Woo! Two cool guys with fake radio names. Right. Found themselves through the month of January co-hosting this afternoon drive on CFRB

and a bunch of other radio stations called The Rush. How did this happen? I listened to Toronto Mike. I thought The Rush was a byproduct of two of the very best friends, Jay Michaels and Ryan Doyle, of the very best friends, Jay Michaels and Ryan Doyle, and that they were together forever, inseparable broadcasting BFFs. Something went wrong, and we talked about this last fall, if I remember correctly. Where was Ryan Doyle? At first, Jim Richards and some of the other regulars in the rotation

were announced as filling in. All of a sudden, they were not filling in for Ryan anymore. And it might be relatively few people that pay any attention to this stuff at this point in time, but it seems to be important enough to be a central topic on Toronto Mike. What do you want to know? Where is Ryan Doyle going to go? Well, I know the answer because he tweeted about it.

He's got a podcast, and it seems to have a financial support from a sports betting company. This is what I learned on his Twitter. And in a quarter century of hearing Ryan Doyle first as a producer, sidekick, beyond-the-scenes guy, then on air on News Talk 1010, he was always big into sports betting. I distinctly remember him saying on the air,

because this is the kind of nugget that we live for, that at one point in time, he was making more money betting on sports than he was as a minimum wage producer. Wow. That's Brian Gerstein type

achievement. Of News Talk 1010. Draft Kings. You've heard of Draft Kings. Oh my God, yeah. That's the company that has recruited Ryan Doyle to be their voice. If I've got this right,

part of the expansion of legal online individual game sports betting in the province of Ontario. They've been ramping this up for a while. They've already got a date in April. It'll be like the day that we got legal. All of a sudden, you can properly bet on all the games you want. Whoever wants to start up a casino, get a license from the Ontario government.

The Toronto Star has even gotten into the act, saying that they're going to fund their journalism with the proceeds of this online sports betting. And we've got other FOTMs who are paying their rent right now, being sponsored by sports betting companies, right? It's at this point, like like the list is getting longer. I can't even remember offhand how many people you've had on. Mike Richards, am I right about that? He is underwritten by the sports betting business. Yeah, he has some affiliation with Woodbine, I think, as well.

So the same kind of deal. Nick Kiprios, one of the worst interviews to ever happen on Toronto Life. The very disappointing episode 700. Rather aloof. I don't like the answer, it's in the book. If you're going to tell me it's in the book, let's just end this. Yeah, it's true.

Let's find out if you... What is the point of all this? Let's find out if you're getting it on with Joan London. Right. Back at Studio 54. It's in the book. Wherever they were hanging out at the time. And you know what it is in the book? I got the book to find out.

Like, I took it out of the library. Sure. So what's the deal there? What Kiprios had to say about his relationship with Good Morning America cougar Joan London. I don't think he really detailed anything at all. I mean, he insinuated that they were hanging out together. Anyway, disappointing episode. Page six of gossip columns.

I don't know. Can you even remember how many other FOTMs now are being sponsored in the sports betting business? Whatever the number at this point. Add Ryan Doyle to the list, who put out on Twitter that he started some online show. If that's your thing. Okay, good for Ryan.

I guess. When can you get in on the sports betting sponsorship? I'm ready when they're ready. You know, I'll consider any partnership. I think Kana Cabana is a good start. You're well on your way to making a good amount of money off

of these legalized vices. The man who would be best for that I think is the great Mark Hebbshire on Hebbsy on Sports. He's a big Bodog fan. Guess what? I don't think Ryan Doyle only left News Talk 1010 to work as a sports betting podcaster.

No one's suggesting that. Ryan was let go for reasons we... No, no, no, no, no. Where did you ever hear that he was let go? Ryan was let go for undisclosed reasons. You've heard that.

That was confirmed. Someone told you in the DMs. Are you under the impression Ryan Doyle quit? I'm under the impression that Ryan Doyle got a job offer to cross the street to another talk radio station. I know. You've been herping that in my Twitter DMs for a while, that he's taken over for Oakley,

and then the big announcement comes down the plate. You're saying that's a trick? Okay, then where does my pal Greg Brady get off tweeting compliments to Ryan Doyle? I was pleased to meet you January 2022. Where else would these guys have met? Unless they were walking their dogs in the park. I don't know that's not true i don't know what what affiliation would have found strangers meeting face to face

under these lockdowns you couldn't couldn't legally get together anywhere in public that he that he was not roaming the halls of chorus entertainment well speaking of course signing a contract for a new job you're telling me that ryan doyle did not leave one toronto talk radio station to turn up on another that's not no that's happening at all that's not what i heard but i'm not going to disclose what i heard well since what since what does greg brady put put anything on Twitter that is not designed to somehow build his professional advantage. He threw Peter Sherman under the bus. You love Greg Brady.

Look, I'm here to tell you... I thought his warm welcome to Ryan Doyle as a free agent was his way of confirming... Yeah, free agent, sure. They could announce later today that Ryan Doyle's heading to 640. way of confirming. Yeah, free agent, sure. Like, you know, they could announce later today that Ryan Doyle's heading to 640. But by the way, let's acknowledge the fact it's not GNR anymore, right?

They've changed that branding. It's not Global News Radio. Global News Radio turned out to be completely cursed. You know, they brought the brand over to AM Radio. You know, from what I understood understood, they were trying to build some credibility here in National Newsroom. More synergies between television and radio

like you see going on with City News 680 CTV stuff all over Bell Media radio stations replacing live radio hosts with television simulcasts. And Global News Radio was part of that design, a way for Chorus to make it seem like they had a lot more clout.

And I don't think there has been a longer list of dismissals and resignations and little scandalous stories. We've recapped most, if not all, of what happened across the country with Global News Radio. I think they were glad to remove the designation and not be associated with whatever was cursed going on there before. So now it's back to where it began. 640 Toronto. There you go. No longer global news talk radio stations. And I think partly because primarily their on-air product is talk radio.

Fox News gets criticized for the fact that it's not really news programming most of the time at all, that when in fact you're seeing commentary skewed in the rightward direction, how dare you call this news, CNN, currently undergoing its own personnel reckoning, also invested in this style of commentary. People saying it should get back to its news roots. Global news, radio, a damaged brand.

Get that garbage out of here. Get that garbage out of here. And back to being AM640. Okay, but before we leave,'m i'm eager to move on from this radio but i just want to uh point out that ryan gone for a while now from 10 10 jay announces he's leaving 10 10 because he's got a fm gig in montreal which we think might be shown a young mike your adhd is not that. This became a point of contention here. Oh, of Tom Wilson.

With Tom Wilson of Junkhouse. He was saying that you reach a certain age. He's got, what, 15 years on you? He's like early 60s. I'm late 40s. Yeah, he's got about 15. That one day, you're not going to remember to come back around. That's why I have notes here.

I know that. Hey, my friend, this is important because you mentioned Tom Wilson. I need... Okay, here, let's wrap up 1010 really quickly here. So Jay leaves for Montreal. He's gone. Yeah, he's going to Montreal. He said that much.

Yeah. And I guess it's shown because Terry DeMonte, we discussed him last year. They gave him the tap on the shoulder. Time to go, Roger Ashby style. And they never announced a permanent replacement. I guess it's Shome where you will hear Jay Maddog Michaels. I guess we'll know probably tomorrow. They could change the name, the format of the station.

It'll be 97.7 Bounce FM. But Shome came up in some conversation on the big yellow board. A bunch of angry old men jabber all day about the state of radio. That Shome and Montreal, partly because they still have these antiquated CRTCC rules. They can't play they can't play more than 50 hit records

it's hard to believe these laws are still intact because they were made at a time right when you were limited to listening on a on a specific set of frequencies uh but these rules are still in place. And the consequence is like a more creative form of radio. That's Showm FM. I'm not saying it's WFMU, but it's a lot more creative and freeform as far as rock radio is concerned

than you will hear anywhere else in the country. And they've hung on to those songs that were synonymous with the city. A lot of prog rock. Genesis. Chris DeBerg. Woo! Jethro Tull.

Yes. I don't know. What music was considered uniquely big in Montreal? Sticks! Sticks! Chino Vanelli? Played to their biggest crowds of Quebecois Canadians. That Sholm still has a unique identity. And I would say J. Mad Dog Michaels is a very valuable custodian

if he, in fact, has been charged with the idea of going to Montreal. Dream gig. And reinvigorating this form of radio. And I think to do it in a morning show also, you know, you can't lean on the music as much anymore, even if they are playing some songs. And I know that as he was leaving the gig, Terry DeMonte pointed out the fact

they still let him pick his own song. Wow. On morning radio at show. Wow. I guess, at least for now, part of Bell Media that is not completely stifled by corporate control. And I'm very happy for Mad Dog. Oh, no, Matt, I like this man very much. this opportunity for him and that his little uh sojourn into toronto talk radio uh was in fact the the bridge that got him there because he he showed that he had the chops to do that extemporaneous

form of radio and come a long way from kiss 92 5 mad dog and darren j Yep. Mad Dog and Billy. A time at CHFI, which was a well-documented disaster. Right. Mad Dog once did a radio show with Meatloaf on Jack FM. We'll get to that. He was talking about that upon the death of that legend and the time that he spent the last few years after being sacked by Virgin Radio. He must be a really nice guy

because they welcomed him right back into the same building. Very nice guy. Doing fill-in morning shows on Chum FM and even pulling double shifts. He would be on Chum in the morning and on 1010 in the afternoons. Very much deserved, but we'll see what happens

just because Mad Dog has shown himself to be a creative radio personality. It does not always mean that will be manifest when it comes to getting the gig. Hoping for the best. Okay, so Ryan's gone, Jay's gone. That was the rush. I know because when they launched the rush,

they came over together. They came on Toronto Mike together. So that's the rush. Now Jim Richards, I guess, saved from his overnight deal and he's doing an afternoon drive now. And then that's why we've talked about a new fotm uh david cooper doing the overnights at least for february we'll see if he gets the uh

full-time gig got it all good i think and and dave mckee yeah he was doing this news segment with jay and ryan for a while again a part of the innovation that they brought to the radio there. But as they dismantled everything that was going good over in that place, Dave McKee was dismissed a year ago when they shut down the Bell Media Toronto Radio Newsroom. And now, looking at LinkedIn, guess where he ended up?

Working for the Doug Ford government. And there was a very curious course that seems like a lot of these old radio news people in Toronto ended up working for the provincial progressive conservatives. Like you might think that there was some kind of conspiracy afoot. But at the same time... Alex Pearson? but at the same time alex pearson look if you got a mortgage to pay uh you need that uh safe harbor and i think people with that type of media experience at least they they've got that equity at least at least the work that they put in is valued even if what they end up doing is communications for doug ford so if you wonder why fotm col Colin DeMello is indicted on Twitter, right?

He went through like days of dragging over the fact that he was highlighting the fact that Doug Ford went out in the January snowstorm to rescue stranded drivers. drivers wandering through the streets with a mini shovel, helping to dig cars out of their jam, giving young men a ride home who posted it to TikTok without wearing their mask. A whole lot of internet outrage about what Doug Ford was up to. I think it has something to do with the fact that working there behind the scenes at Queen's Park are a lot of people with a seasoned media experience who know how to play a situation like a Toronto snowstorm in order to get brownie points for Doug Ford. But then, across the dial, we had someone who spoke out against these tactics on his show, Breakfast Television, took a stand against the way that Doug Ford was being portrayed in the media.

It wasn't the snow. It wasn't the people stuck for eight hours. It was Doug Ford. Go, Sid. It was Doug Ford. Morning, Dina. Great to see you. Good morning, everybody.

I know your car's still buried. Yep, still buried. Hopefully it gets out soon. So Doug Ford went out in Snowmacron yesterday, and not the biggest shovel I've ever seen. No, it's not the biggest. I have to say listen first off anyone who helped anyone yesterday and there were a lot of people that needed help it was a great

thing heroes it was a great thing legit because nobody wants to be out there longer than they have to be true that's really caring for your neighbor yes i believe my niece had a similar sized um uh shovel yesterday when she went outside okay um no but but listen credit to the premier for helping a few people out. I don't mind that at all because I'm quarantining here. I can do a damn thing. Yeah, you can't. Here's my issue.

Yesterday, and I'm going to say this loudly for the people in the back that might have missed it because there was a lot going on yesterday. Poll numbers for Doug Ford's approval across the province came out. He's at his lowest compared to any other time he's been premier. 30% of people in the province of Ontario, according to Angus Reid, approve of the job

he's doing. So on that day, yesterday, a disaster in the city of Toronto and in various parts around it. Doug Ford went out in a car and called a TV station live and FaceTimed while driving in a snowstorm. That's not only dangerous, but I find it ironic considering for months he would avoid questions from the media because he wasn't tech savvy enough and couldn't go on Zoom. I found that to be rich. Then there's videos circulating all over social media yesterday of complete strangers with no mask getting into Premier's car. Did they need help? Yes, they did. No one's wearing a mask. It's like the Amazing Race people jumping in and out of his car. And those videos are circulating like crazy. And on top of it, considering that he, this premier has gone MIA for months during the

darkest points of this pandemic. The second he called every media outlet for attention on this. We followed him like lemmings. And it was disgusting. He used a disaster in this city and in a large part of this province as a cheap political stunt the day numbers came out which showed he's barely more popular than Kathleen Wynne. And she was hated by the time she left office. I'm offended that he used that for a political stunt. I'm offended that colleagues of mine in

this business didn't have enough sense and followed him along for the ride when he barely wants to talk to any of us in the media and then wants attention that day. And I really hope people paid attention to that. I was born, but not yesterday. I know exactly what that was on a day where people needed legit help, and he used it as a photo op. And I hope people saw that for what it was. People sitting in their car, you want to really help? There's about three dozen tractor trailers on the 401 Premier.

You want to take that shovel built for a child? You go down there and help out. I thought you were going to say something else. I'm standing by waiting for Sid Cicero to start crying again. Because as far as I'm concerned, that was his greatest media moment. You know, half a million people

have watched that Twitter clip there. Remember when the Tim and Sid show came to an end? Sure, yeah. He bawled. We played it. He started babbling and bawling. Remember, I tried to play it for Hebsey,

and he wanted no part of it. At its best. He wanted no part of it, Hebsey. He's like, no thank you. I wanted more tears. Instead, I got Sid. How would you characterize that rant? That was something straight out of the World Wrestling Federation.

Right? It should have been Billy Red Lions, Gorilla Monsoon. Well, Billy Red Lions wasn't really a ranter. He wasn't really a ranter. No, but I meant holding the microphone in front of Sid's face while he was popping off there

like Macho Man Randy Savage. Quarantined, I guess, because of Omicron. I'm glad Sid is is healthy again able to return to the studio but there he was on breakfast tv yeah you're thinking mean gene okerlund i think calling out calling out the the premier of ontario doug ford and uh not not naming names but fotm colin de mello was considered public enemy number one for facilitating this coverage, although it was also on CFRB, News Talk 1010, CP24. All the Bell Media outlets.

There seemed to be a relationship going on there, and I don't think a coincidence that some people with Bell Media contacts are now working with the premier. Well, Doug had a show on 1010, you might recall, with his brother. And then he lost the show, and then he lost his brother. But then he hired the producer of the show to come

and work with him. It's all, you know, as you speak here, it's all very incestuous and this, a little too close for comfort for my liking. Okay, plot twist. They put this clip on Twitter. Many are calling out Premier Doug Ford for

publicizing his assistance to those in need during yesterday's snowstorm. Okay, so this was highlighting the fact that you click on this video in the tweet and you'll see Sid popping off, Dina agreeing with everything he has to say,

not realizing, a lot of people out there, that breakfast television now engages in this sort of energy. I'm sure there are starved for viewers and BT on City TV, not a lot of intersection, not known for making a lot of clips go viral, right? Have you heard anything in the past year or two about Sid and Dina, about what they had to say? And then the trigger finger of somebody involved with Rogers Media,

finger of somebody involved with Rogers Media after this tweet was catching steam, it got noticed that the tweet wasn't online anymore. They deleted Sid's rant from the internet. And people started tweeting back to Breakfast Television City TV wondering what's going on here. The video returned with a different caption. Premier Doug Ford is receiving applause and facing backlash after publicizing the fact that he helped people during yesterday's storm. You can tell that somebody made a call somewhere in the hierarchy of Rogers.

Unless whoever put the message on Twitter to begin with got cold feet or conscientious about the fact that they might get in trouble for framing it this way, even though it was the same video in the end. The next day, Sid gets back on from his undisclosed location. And this is where it got a little too contrived, right? Launches into the same wrestling persona. Right. And he was talking about how nobody tells us what to say on this show. We will not be censored. We've got freedom of speech on here to say whatever we want.

Not addressing whatsoever the specific fact that people were taking issue with, which was the initial deletion of the tweet, it coming back in different words. But hey, you do what you got to do to keep your job. And Sid there was able to play the hero, saying, I don't usually respond like this on social media, but I need to say something. I have never, ever been censored regarding anything I've ever said on air. My opinions regarding the premiere of Ontario not only aired live this morning,

but were also posted. Here it is. Just a way of covering up that there was an issue there about the tweet that went away. There's Dina and Sid on breakfast television at the same time that their former rivals are now working for the same company. And we might want to say breathing down their necks. Well, I was going to ask you. Waiting to move in and take over those roles. Is Sid looking over his shoulder because Pooja and Gurdip are coming. They're coming.

How long until Pooja and Gurdip are the breakfast television hosts? Will it happen by September? Well, okay. So you got your money on this spring? I would bet on September, but you think it'll happen earlier than that. I don't know that you hire away the hosts of your popular competing television morning show. Give them a radio gig at your affiliated station and just kind of leave them there to figure it out. Because as far as I can tell, now a month into doing the job officially, Pooja and Gurdip are going nowhere on the radio.

It's just a different skill set involved with doing that morning TV happy talk. And I tuned in to them doing a couple of bits, bantering back and forth about, I don't know, whatever the topics are of the day, what are the latest streaming shows that you've been binging online, or, I don't know, what's your score this morning on Wordle, whatever constitutes the happy talk radio banter. And you just got to come to the conclusion

that these people were very skilled at doing it in a format that worked on television. It does not translate to the radio. And the fact that they put Maureen Holloway out to pasture, Darren and Moe, Darren B. Lamb, who seemed happy to be done with the job, to move in Pooja and Gradeep and just leave them there and say, this is all going to work out here on CHFI flagship Rogers Toronto radio.

It's just not happening at all. And part of the signal there to me is the fact they did not change the music on CHFI. Along with what you'd think would be this cooler, younger, multicultural morning show, you're still hearing Eric Carman singing Hungry Eyes every hour on the hour on CHFI. They're desperate for a new sound, but I don't think it's going to happen in this era. I think we're going to hear Pooja and Gradeep stumbling around.

Look, they're friendly people. Everybody's best friend on the radio. But their destiny is ultimately to come back to television. Sorry about that, Sid. You did your best. When I wake up, I can't even stay up. I slept through the day, fuck. I'm not getting younger.

But when I'm older, I'll be so much stronger I'll stay up for longer Meet me at our spot Caught a vibe Baby, are you coming for the ride? I just wanna look into your eyes I just wanna stay for the night, night, night When we take a drive

Baby, we can get the 405 Hypnotized by the lights Man, this must be the life When I go to sleep I can't even fall asleep Something's got a hold of me I feel it taking over me But when I'm older

I'll be moving onward I just gotta try and touch Maybe at our spot We gonna fly Maybe I am coming for the ride When I look into your eyes I just wanna hold you all night Maybe we can take a drive

Maybe we can hit the four fives. Hypnotized by the lights. Maybe we can feel alive. When I hear this song on 98.1 CHFI, I'll know that they found a new sound different from before. You know what this is, Mike? No. This is a song by different from before. You know what this is, Mike? No. A song by Willow Smith.

I know Willow because they are the child of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Oh, you got that they in there. I've been practicing. I'm good at this. I'm good at the pronouns. Is that her boyfriend I think in this group? Tyler Cole. Meet me at our spot.

And you know, I've been listening more than ever to American Top 40 radio. I feel it puts me in a more hopeful mood. Where do you find the time, though, between your 1,000 subscriptions to podcasts and all the radio you're listening to? Mike, I've got 3,000. Honestly, there's only 24 hours in a day. Sometimes you just need to listen to some ambiance. It's because you don't bike.

You can always listen while you bike. Okay, sorry. So tell me. Okay, yeah, Willow Smith, meet me at our spot. And you got to think, that sounds like some kind of throwback 80s, 90s indie rock tune, like something you would discover on a cassette somewhere. It doesn't sound that old to me because it sounds like Chainsmokers. You know what I mean?

It sounds fairly old. I was into it for a while, but I'll tell you what. Then I decided to crack open Will Smith's autobiography. He met my daughter, you know. That got a lot of attention. Is there a part in there about meeting my daughter? Is that in his autobiography? I don't think Will Smith can see what's going on beyond his own fingertips,

I don't think Will Smith can see what's going on beyond his own fingertips, let alone worry about the fans that he's running into on the street. Where did Will Smith meet your daughter? When did that happen? His son, Jaden, was filming a movie in the West End of Toronto across the street from my daughter's friend's house. So they would go over to this young girl's house to kind of check out this Jada Smith film that was being

I think it's... Was that around the time that you put on Twitter that the Four Seasons Hotel spiked his pancakes? I will say this. My daughter got a photo with Jaden Smith and Will Smith because we had this contest. Who's the biggest celebrity you ever met? And then my daughter

just won it hands down with Will Smith there. But it was right after Jaden got a haircut. This was the big deal amongst my daughter's friend set was that Jaden cut his hair really short. That's when it was. But I would say it was about four years ago. It felt like four years ago. Yeah, yeah.

I think that was around the time he proved himself to be some kind of spoiled brat. But it was nice that his dad was there. His lemon ricotta pancakes from the Four Seasons room service weren't to his liking. I was digging that song by The Anxiety. That's the name of the band with Willow Smith. Because it was something different, like a dose of indie rock on Top 40 Radio.

Like along with, however you pronounce the name, Moneskin. We've gone through different pronunciations here. Right, the Italian band. They made it Saturday Night Live. This is maybe a little bit of a rock music renaissance, making it onto pop radio. Do you remember I kicked out on a pandemic

friday a willow smith jam with uh travis barker do you remember this it was like a punk pop thing yeah really good that was all right i mean better than travis barker and avril no they've got chops i'm telling you good stuff um but after reading okay but after reading about will smith's But after reading about Will Smith's whole life in his memoir, which is like a very manly self-help book designed to inspire you to get your way through life, talking about what it took for the Fresh Prince to make it with his own sitcom, become a big movie star. But you walk away from reading this book thinking this mofo is the most manipulative movie star on earth. Like, there's nothing adjacent to Will Smith that isn't under complete control. And the fact that his daughter would be becoming some kind of rock star, you just imagine this is all a consequence of Will Smith pulling the strings. And it put me off the idea, right,

that, like, his daughter was having this serendipitous hit record that was just showing up on the radio because a program director somewhere happened to like it. I just, like, I got the sense that this is completely manipulated, right? Like, total control. No surprise there. There are no accidents here. I know.

No surprise there. But I like to believe in miracles. And I like to believe that people have some taste out there. And the fact that a song is all over TikTok is not there because Will Smith paid for it to become a hit. But I got to say, my conclusion... You've got the eyes of a stranger. But I gotta say, my conclusion after reading

his life story, yeah, this is like a total fraud. Willow Smith, meet me at our spot. It's a cool sounding tune though, and you would hear it on Kiss 92.5

with the Rozoss and mocha morning show which is going for a more adult sound which is to say they started adding a whole bunch of throwbacks into into the mix well ross is in his 50s now right like i feel at some close enough oh for sure uh i think he's got a couple on me i think he's in his 50s but uh good for those guys you know uh I heard from both in the last week because I'm approaching episode 1,000. I don't know if you've heard that, but there are FOTMs sending in audio clips

because number 1,000 will be, you know, kind of a tribute to myself because that's how I roll. But there will be no 1236 on this episode because you don't roll that way. But that's another story for another time. Well, I mean, I propose the idea that all the FOTMs should get together and do a rendition of Tears Are Not Enough.

I thought that was my idea. Wasn't that my idea? And Tears Are Not Enough, which has also become the subject of recurring obsession here on the Toronto Mike podcast. And I think something that growing up, I mean, I don't know,

I was a young teen when all these pop stars would get together and sing in a big choir for Ethiopian famine relief. And we were taught to revere these charitable efforts. But I think now that we're coming up on like 35, 40 years

after this all happened, in hindsight, you got to think these were completely ridiculous experiences that these people were having. Absolutely. Over the top. Shout out then to Cam Gordon for putting

the tears are not enough obsession on the Toronto Mike radar. And so in the process, one episode at a time, we are annotating the tears are not enough wikipedia because somebody's got to do it mark who else is going to do it if i don't do it and terry david mulligan whoo a man on the scene with his buddies david foster brian adams jim

valence uh he was there bruce allenance. Bruce Allen. He was there. Bruce Allen. They made it all happen. He was there. He was at the table. Terry David Mulligan on Toronto Mic'd here in what? February? February.

It's the most recent episode, so that would be 992. At least someone's keeping track. I keep track. I'm dying to know what you thought of TDM. One of the most wonderful guests that you've had here in the Zoom era, I think. He was great. I even found the experience of listening to be a little bit emotional. I wasn't even expecting this. I think it's because, like you, I grew up watching this guy on TV,

and he was already well into his 40s. Right. He was the old guy. He's coming up on 80 years old now. Wow. And so in the mid-1980s, he was definitely like the elder statesman of rock videos on Canadian TV that he had been around. Before that, I do remember him a little bit from the CBC.

See, I first saw him on Much Music. I didn't even see him on Good Rockin' Tonight. I grew up with Stu Jeffries on Good Rockin' Tonight. And commercials for The Gap. Right. And he had, I guess, what was it, like a full-time job being the spokesperson for The Gap when it was more of like a general jean store.

You didn't get around to asking him if he got any shares in the company. No, but we left enough for a sequel. This is before it all blew up. There's going to be a sequel with TDM. And before The Gap was in every shopping mall in Canada, there you would see TDM on these very American commercials fall into The Gap.

Right. And not only did I love hearing the anecdotes from Terry David Mulligan, but also the fact that he considered you, Toronto Mike, to be on the same level as far as a broadcaster was concerned. Like along with somebody like Mark. You know what? Like Mark Hebbshire is in that same category too, right? Someone who went through the corporate media experience and now recognizes that this is the way it should be done now.

This is the way that you connect with people. And no, no telecom-owned radio corporation is going to facilitate that experience for you. Like, TDM, totally in our court. Yeah, no, I absolutely loved it

every minute. And afterwards, when we stopped recording, he actually looked me in the eye through the camera from his home on Vancouver Island, and he said he promises

there's going to be a part two because there's a whole whack of stuff. We have a whole Joni Mitchell discussion to have. But I could tell, talking to TDM, hold on. I was going to say, TDM also brings you one step closer to Jason Priestley coming over.

If Gare Joyce couldn't get me Jason Priestley, how the hell is TDM going to do it? Harold Ballard for the Mike Umentary second edition. If Tyler Stewart can't deliver me Jason Priestley, what hope do I have? But TDM, loved it. But let's talk about another three-named guy who was on Much Music. What did you think of Kim Clark Champness?

Yeah, I think, was that your first episode of 2022 right after New Year's Day? Maybe. Something like that. It was recent. And again, look, here was somebody that went through it as far as corporate media was concerned. And as in the past couple of years, what exactly is he suffering with? It was larynx? He had his larynx removed.

Larynx removal for throat cancer. Right. Right. Got that right. And I mean, that was quite the episode because he wasn't even sure that recording daily. He said he won't know until it's time to record whether he'll have a voice or not,

because there's a, an issue with the lubrication of the voice box. He talks through whatever. And I was just honored to have that conversation with the man. And, uh, so I mean, this has been,

I will say as I approach 1000, if I may be reflective for a minute, like I'm sort of been going through the old episodes because I'm getting these clips from people and I'm remembering different things and I'm remembering the, like I'm sort of been going through the old episodes because I'm getting these clips from people and I'm remembering different things and I'm remembering the journey and I'm telling this story in episode 1000, which will drop in a couple of weeks, I guess.

But like, I'm telling you, I feel like I'm just figuring this out. Here we are, early 2022. I'm just figuring it out. What I really want to know, Mike, is how many of these people who sent you messages mentioned me? I want to know if there's something that I got to watch out for.

You'll have to listen to find out. You'll have to listen. Okay, so Kim Clark-Champness and Terry David Mulligan were great. We agree. What about Bill Wilichka, who felt it was like therapy? And I think unique in the fact that he found a life on television after doing his time as a VJ on Much Music. All of these stories kind of fade away.

You wonder what happened to the guy. Where did he go? Bill, who initially reinvented himself as a local TV weatherman and doing these community cruiser events, he was where? Edmonton, Ottawa, and landing in Kingston, Ontario for the past few years, where he faced a potential challenge where he might have ended up being the second most famous person in Kingston, Ontario

if only Stu Stone took the job offer to do the radio morning show. And because Stu Stone turned it down, what might have been the only job offer Stu Stone ever received proactively. He didn't want to do it. He couldn't follow through. He explained it on toast, right? He said it wasn't enough for him.

He wanted to do it with a show like he needed to. He'll do the rate, but there'll be a show tied to him doing it like some kind of like a reality series i guess that five seven productions would be behind but they couldn't work that part out so he wasn't going to move to kingston just to do the morning show for 50k or whatever like there had to be this extra dynamic to it okay bill walachka safeK salary is intact? I don't know what he means. As the host of, what is it, the global morning breakfast, wake-up TV, happy time show in Kingston, Ontario. But every available opportunity there, doing exactly what Stu Stone would do,

interviewing the veterans of the World Wrestling Federation. Right. They also share that. Honky-tonk man. That in common. So TDM, KCC, Bill Wilichka, all three were big hits. What do they all have in common, I wonder? But very recently, like as in last week, last Thursday,

Tom Wilson dropped by for round two. Tom Wilson is the episode I think you should assign to every potential future guest of Toronto Mike to listen to, to understand what is expected of them when they come in the basement. And as we mentioned before, in the process, we had Tom Wilson delivering an ADHD diagnosis upon Toronto Mike. Right. And it was a situation that as far as I know, led to a heated conversation with members of your family, your mother, your wife,

your daughter. Yep. We're all trying to figure out if Tom Wilson was right. And all of a sudden, they all came to the same conclusion. Yeah. And all of a sudden, all these things started to make sense.

Now, again, I've never been diagnosed by a doctor because as far as I know, Tom Wilson is not a sudden, all these things started to make sense. Now, again, I've never been diagnosed by a doctor because as far as I know, Tom Wilson is not a doctor. But interesting conversation at the dinner table on Saturday, no doubt. And it's got me thinking of things in a different way. I will say now, as I said to them, that if this is true, and this is Dr. Google with surveys and stuff

suggesting that, yeah, Tom's onto something. But if it is true, I would not wish to treat it because it doesn't affect like my ability to get things done for work. I'm actually really a kick ass at completing these tasks and stuff. And I kind of like how my brain works. It's the only brain I've ever known. And I dig it. And I don't feel it's affecting my relationship.

It's not affecting my ability to father my four beautiful children. Therefore, I think I'll just leverage it as my superpower and keep on keeping on. And not to make too much light of it, because it is a real affliction. Mike, if you have ADHD, what does that say about me? No comment, my brother. Brian Vollmer from Helix. Well, that was all right.

We got to the bottom of how he ended up working at a hasty market. And I think as far as Canadian celebrity anecdotes go, him saying that he was in a situation where he didn't want to go on welfare, like it wasn't his thing to do. Right. That he wanted to maintain the dignity of doing a job, even though he was the lead singer of Helix. This was the guy that sang,

give me an R, give me an O, give me a C, give me a K. What you got? What you got? What you gonna do? What you gonna do? Rock you. He's doing that Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' video

with the topless beauty pageant. With Tracy Lourdes there. With Tracy Lords there. Tracy Lords. And there, like 10 years later, he's working in a Kitchener convenience store. And, you know, good on him for doing that. Now, I will say this about the Brian episode versus the Tom Wilson episode.

So Tom comes in, he knows the score, and he's raring to go. I blame his brother-in-law, Andrew, for that. Apparently he doesn't miss an episode. Shout out to Andrew. But Tom Wilson totally gets it. He goes in, kicks ass. Brian, on the other hand, I don't think he knows

what the hell to think of. Who's this guy on the phone? It was a phone call, by the way. A phone call, if you couldn't tell by the audio because he had some troubles with his microphone via Zoom. But he's like, I think it took a solid 30 minutes for him to sort of like start trusting me and to sort of get into it.

Because that first 30 minutes, I felt on my end anyways, it was a little rough. And then all of a sudden it's like we started clicking along and then bang, great episode. You also had in the basement in January, Gord Rennie, which is not a name a lot of people know. No, but speaking of CHFI, it was, yeah, Gord came up. What did you think of that one? And he was also let go as part of that purge that took Maureen Holloway away. When are we getting the real talk from Mo?

Well, you know, now there's lawyer stuff involved. Like whenever I got a nice clip from Scott MacArthur for the thousandth episode. And with many of these people that were dismissed, there's these like legal parts and things. And that's why it's not as easy as just Moe coming on over and spilling tea all over my board here. We also got to get to the bottom then of what happened with this guy, Darren B. Lamb,

because it seems like he left a trail of Toronto Radio Associates. And nobody wants to talk about it. But they never heard from them again. Like there he was, there he was, being this gregarious guy on morning radio you know he he reached uh all the way to the top on chum fm then recruited over from uh from chump to chfi and it seemed like in that in that entire time like he he never actually made a personal friend that he ended up ghosting all of them for whatever reason. And when it came time for a situation where his services were not required anymore,

what seemed to be some kind of standoff where he wasn't on the air for several months, Gord Rennie, the guy who was pushing the buttons the entire time, even he had no answer, at least not publicly, about what happened there. People just clam up and don't want to talk about it. And so there's a new mystery to solve right up there with whether or not James B. is famous.

He's coming back, by the way. Whether you've heard of Stu Stone. Whatever happened to Darren B. Lamb. Alright, before I kick out this next jam, I would love to hear what you thought of the Megan Edwards episode of Toronto Mic'd. Well, that's a deep cut because people don't recognize that name. But she was what?

A woman who worked for Bell Media Radio and through TikTok and through other outlets, I guess she was complaining about mistreatment at the hands of the corporation that she had radio dreams and she was put in a condition where none of them were ever going to come true and she ultimately had to come to the conclusion to walk away from it all. But I also heard her on with Humble and Fred. Yep, I did that. Who did not hold back, especially Freddie P.

Right. And said there are the kinds of things that Freddie P has said to hundreds of young radio up-and-coming talent over the years. Maybe you just weren't good enough. And he just laid it on thick. I mean, he didn't hold back as far as expressing himself. I don't even think that's relevant. Well, I mean, to say, look.

Like, if you're not Aaron Davis, then you deserve to be treated like shit. We live in a time where if you are relieved from a gig with a major corporation, you do have the possibility of telling your story on different platforms. You can get the word out. That is how you heard of this Megan Edwards, right? That's how she got on your radar. Oh, yeah, yeah. An FOTM said, here's a TikTok link.

Watch this video. And I realize, okay, whatever. You were performing sociology here on the Toronto Mike's podcast. You were getting your story out. But what did you make of it all? If you throw the next thousand episodes of your podcast over to people who felt like they weren't taken seriously at the hands of a major corporation, eventually it would get tedious. You'd never hear the end of it. No doubt.

I can bring in these stories too about myself i work for this company and nobody paid me properly and they made me work on all these things it didn't turn out to anything people promised me stuff i mean this is this is show business comes with the territory but i don't know what to say like you've got this episode with megan edwards it's it's evidence it's a snapshot of a certain point in time. I'm glad as a kite, I just might stop to check you out. Let me go on, like I blister in the sun. Let me go on, big hands, I know you're the one. You know, this song was played at my wedding to Monica. Fun fact.

And this album, the Violent Femmes debut album, at one point in time it was the biggest selling album that never entered into the Billboard Top 200. Wow, that's a fun fact. It was enough of an underground sensation that it continued to sell at a steady clip, and yet it never was one of the top 200 albums in america wow and that just shows you how things used to go viral once upon a time shout out to college radio right this set passed on from

one dorm room to another this sound to me and i listened to this early violent femme stuff sounds ahead of its time like to me it sounds like this, it sounds like an early 90s type jam. It's ahead of its time. Gordon Gano, the guy from the Violent Femmes, he wrote these songs like when he was in high school. He isn't, he is not even, he's not even

60 years old now. You could understand how Violent Femmes and Barenaked Ladies were sort of simpatico as far as being very young men who managed to get big record deals at a young age. Twister in the sun, let me go on. Big hands, I know you're the one. Are you about to tell me that this jam that I love can be heard on Zoomer radio? Mike, I hate to break it to you, but the Gen Xers, the people who were born in the 1970s,

we must be getting old because all of a sudden, Blister in the Sun showed up on the playlist of this Toronto radio station AM 740. I wouldn't say that it's the only

song that they've ever played that belongs to the alternative rock era but just a few short years ago you might have thought that's a little bit out there but i don't know at this point in time four decades after it came out you gotta figure uh it happens to us all that blister in the sun sort of fits if you're trying to sell people on retirement products, which is the primary reason that Zoomer media exists. I mean, I don't know that they're listening to this radio station. Because you've got to be born in like 65 and then like 65 to like 80 to be Gen X.

I'm just thinking. Well, on the upper end of that would be the Violent Femmes, as far as age group is concerned, and people that knew who they were when that first album came out. We can pick apart Zoomer media here. The fact that Moses Neimer started up this company going on 15 years ago, proclaiming that you were a Zoomer if you were 45 and up. Wow. Which is really one of the greatest marketing ruses of all time.

Because you know that what they were really saying is 75 and up. Maybe even 85 and up. But if you bring it down to 45, right, then at least you are still being inclusive of everybody who's older. That's their story, and they're sticking to it. But in the month of January 2022, we got a little bit of news that Zoomer Media

is finally expanding to a younger generation by acquiring a website called blog to and because they had their quarterly results at the end of the month buried somewhere in there was the purchase price of how much they paid for this website now mike yeah you and i have been involved in, I guess, what you would call blogging all this time. You and me. Right. We were the pioneers.

You and Ramey the Minx. Yeah, but was there really anybody else adjacent to the mainstream media world who embraced this as much as me? No. First time I ever came up in here, you dug up an old email that you were just saying hi and calling me for what I was up to. What was this, 2004? First time we ever corresponded so many years ago.

I mean, look, I'm just also trying to say, like Mike, you and me, we were there first. Right. I might have even been there before you. Well, O2 is when I start blogging. As far as this whole blog deal was concerned. It wasn't only about having your own blog. It was about being able to transmit the fact that you were plugged in. You know what I mean?

Like it was just like there were so few people out there. I think at one point in time, if not me, someone like my pal Colby Cosh in Edmonton, Alberta, we would have known the names of every English language blogger in the Western world. Wow. At that point, the universe wasn't all that big. You could actually keep track of who all the bloggers were, who were the people who were willing to put themselves out there, set up a domain of their own, or piggyback like I did on some kind of free service, and define themselves as being in the blogger tribe.

There were a lot of disgruntled journalists out there, but there were also a lot of people who just like you, right? What were you doing at the time? Working in computers. Digital marketing. Some job, something that you were up to that gave you lots of time to surf around the internet and check out what everybody else was up to. Why not start your own website too?

That was the spirit. That was the Wild West of two decades ago. Good old days. So in all of this time, Mike, when we have just been pacifying our lives away on the computer, doom scrolling day and night, did you know that you and me, we could have put our heads together and made $15 million?

Yeah. Why didn't we do that? Why didn't we do it? Let's listen to a... It's a $15 million question thanks to the open checkbook of Zoomer Media. Check this out. Here we grow again we're making room here at the zoomerplex in toronto's liberty village home to zoomer media's various multi-platform properties that now includes the leading digital source for toronto news culture reviews and all the best the city has to offer

blog to well the blog to staff are here for the first time we've given them a tour of the zoomer culture, reviews, and all the best the city has to offer, BlogTO. Well, the BlogTO staff are here for the first time. We've given them a tour of the Zoomerplex. We just all got really excited when we came in because we were like, oh, BlogTO right there, and it's just a beautiful space. It's a little bit quiet here because of COVID restrictions, but they're very excited to meet their new boss. Ich bin ein blogger.

Funny story, when I first started Zoomer, all the people who knew me from Citi and Much and all that youthful media and style, they said, what's he doing? The guy has gone over to the other side. He's joined the other team. And after a while they learned that I was actually with that boomer-zoomer generation as they aged, as we aged, and found peace in that idea. But now, now that we've acquired BlogTO, they're saying the reverse. What's the story with that guy? We thought he represented older canadians what's he doing now palling around with these youngsters on block deal i love that okay

youngsters i mean this guy that started blog to tim shore he's like somewhere around our age you know guys like 49 years old young youngsters from blog toTO. Although I noticed there in Moses' voice, and he's pushing 80. Born 1942. I don't think he can pull off that mysterious Leonard Cohen timber anymore, right? Like what you heard there is a voice of an octogenarian.

It happens to us all. He can't really maintain that mystique forever. In his syntax, the way that he's speaking. This seems like a mismatch to me. No, no, it's a public media company, and they need to build assets in different ways. I don't know, why not?

I mean, BlogTO. I was reminded when Tim Shore put up his post announcing the fact that he was a rich man. Mike, $15 million. Just dirty paper. You can find it somewhere else. The original tagline on the site was like, Cuz, C-U-Z, cuz we don't live in Tokyo or L.A.

That's why they were starting BlogTO. I mean, this is like cringe content. This would not have been my speed. And yet, as I looked at him announcing this deal, I wondered, should I have replied to Tim Shore's email 15 years ago asking me to come and work with him? Wow, this is a mind blow. Should I have accepted that deal?

Because he knew that I was ahead of the curve. I was in that space. No, I ignored him. I don't want anything to do with your cheesy, You'd be a rich fan today. content. I don't know, because the guy, I mean, look, if you're in charge of managing people like Megan Edwards,

eventually you're going to make some enemies out there. But there was a story a couple years ago where he wanted to start a national website called Fresh Daily. So the blog TO formula, effectively like taking stuff off social media and turning it into news articles. I do the 1236 newsletter.

I'm in that game too, just in a different way. St. Joseph Communications is footing the bill for this project, going on seven years. But blog to you, a whole different animal trying to reach people in a different way. And different competitors have sprouted up over the years. You've got this website, Narcity, which from what I could tell,

got a fair bit of money from Google and other investment, other money flying around out there. You've got another one called Daily Hive. There's a website curiosity.com. You ever stumble upon that one? No. They've got a partnership with Torstar. So BlogTO no longer alone as far as this idea of, what would you call it,

like slapping these SEO-friendly tabloid headlines on whatever's happening in the news, not being, this was a whole promise of blogging, right, not being beholden to these institutional newspaper standards, and at the same time flooding the internet, what I felt was a play to go after these websites that would start like Toronto.com. Tim Schor specifically mentioned the fact that he would look at Toronto.com, owned by the Toronto Star, and poking around their website,

and would think, I could beat this. I could do something better than that. And it turns out that he did, and now he's got the bank account to show for it. But do you think some cognitive dissonance there? Like that Moses Neimer would not be a good steward of the blog to your website? To me, it feels like he's got this one property targeting the boomers

and now he's got this other property targeting millennials or Generation Z. To me, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of synergies there. Either way, it seems like the BlogTO website is better off in the hands of a bigger corporation because when BlogTO was in a situation where they saw other competitors creeping up, they started a national Canadian spinoff website

called Fresh Daily and hired a few smart writers. Sean Craig, Sarah Hagee, Jaron Kerr, who's now with the Globe and Mail, Secret FOTM. Hi, Jaron. Woo! Wow. And after he put them all in place and gave them jobs and told them,

this is a new website you're running now, they wrote a few clever things, two weeks later he let them all go. Right, right. And that's not cool. I mean, that's not the sign of very good boss. But what can you say? Like, he owned the thing. He was in charge, as far as I can tell.

Never took any outside investors. And now, Mike, let me reinforce, underline that again, $15 million. Good for him. For futzing around online and all that time. It could have been us. That's all right. I'm happy. What have we been doing with our lives?

Also with Zoomer, I wanted to mention Bill Anderson. Yes. Who I remarked upon because I'd been listening to him on Toronto Radio. Says at least the mid-1980s, he was on CKFM. Later on, CKEY Country 59, and spent the better part of 30 years on Classical FM, 96.3, which eventually was owned by Zuma Radio.

A very moving retirement speech. He was hanging up his headphones, 77 years old, towards the end of 2021. He mentioned the fact that Moses Neimer wants older people to be on the air, right? Like he's not into tapping people on the shoulder when they turn, I don't know, 50, 60, 65, that it was part of the Zoomer philosophy to have somebody work

until they didn't want to anymore. I'm very grateful for that fact. And then we got the news January 2022 that Bill Anderson died. Never got to enjoy that retirement. Kind of sad. I thought that was worth a follow-up there. Absolutely. In fact, I'm surprised. worth a follow-up there. Absolutely. In fact, I'm surprised.

As far as Zoomer media was concerned. No, I'm glad you mentioned Bill Anderson because he alluded my radar, but I've been reading what you've written and what others have, and I feel like he deserves to be remembered here on this episode. Yeah, yeah, just a friendly voice on the radio.

And there he was running bills classical jukebox first uh at 96.3 doing the morning show and then and then middays and uh a secret celebrity in toronto and we've learned here coming up on a thousand episodes if you don't want to die the secret is to come on toronto Toronto Mic'd by virtue of the fact that you have yet to have a guest who has experienced death. Right. Right. Speaking of which,

NOW Magazine, under new management ownership, Media Central, this penny stock company that claimed they were going to buy every alternative weekly in North America. I don't know what was going on. There was a public chat of some of their shareholders.

They're very confused. What is this company doing? What have we bought into? What is this for? Were they lying to us? Here on February 3rd, 2022, Now Magazine announcing that they are not putting out a print edition today. They will be back next week. It's a little ominous, isn't it?

But at the same time, look, things are very stressed out. When was the last time you saw a print edition of Now? There were comments with this announcement, like you still come out and print? They don't fill up the street boxes any longer. You can find it in the subway, but paper's like, I don't know,

eight, 10, 12 pages. Not a lot happening there. It will be very ironic if BlogTO sold for $15 million at the same time that the original Alt Weekly in Toronto ceases to exist. We're standing by to see the outcome there because I don't think anybody has any control over it, the writers, the editors. See what happens. Close your eyes.

Let the rhythm get into you. Don't try to fight it there ain't nothing that you can do relax your mind lay back and groove with mine

you gotta feel that heat and we can ride the boogie share that beat of love I want to rock with you Oh, I want to dance you into tune Where did you find this? The Laurie Bower Singers.

A name I know has come up on torontomic.com. Well, first of all, Laurie Bower Singers, along with the Billy Van Singers, I always miss that G in singers, dot com. Well, first of all, Laurie Bower Singers, along with the Billy Van Singers, I always miss that G in Singers, they did the Spider-Man theme for the cartoon. And that was clarified because you once heard from Laurie Bower's daughter.

So, yeah, and also I think Retro Ontario came over to kick out the jams one day and we heard some more Laurie Bower Singers. It was me who was confused. Is it the same Billy Van? The Billy Van from Black Eyed Peter Gross' Severance Check from CFNY. I found this one on a YouTube channel.

Canadian Cult Classics. Stellar white bread version of Michael Jackson's song. You know what? All of a sudden memories came flooding back. I remember taking this album out of the public library and playing it on the radio on CIUT.

Wait, Michael Jackson or Laurie Bowers? No, Laurie Bowers. Wow. Some CanCon kitsch, right? You had to... I hope you played it ironically. You had to fill 30%. Ironically.

Who would think of this ironically? You're taking a jam and stripping all the soul out of it. But it sounds good in my ears here. Hey, my friend, listen. We're transitioning here. I just want to let the world know if you want authentic,

tasty, delicious Italian food, you want Palma Pasta, go to palmapasta.com. Support that great family-run restaurant business and retail store because they support toronto mics so get your palma pasta and i have in my hand a burst ipa from great lakes brewery they were the first sponsor of this program and they're still with us as we approach episode 1000 and I'm a very loyal man Mr. Wiseblood and I you know

Molson and Labatt's they can perk that Brinks truck somewhere else get that fucking Brinks truck out of my driveway because I am loyal to the fiercely independent people at Great Lakes Brewery. And Ridley Funeral Home, who present to you the memorial segment of the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mic'd.

There's a ghost in my house. of Toronto Mike. Oh, the past I've seen, time can't seem to erase the vision of your smiling face. Though you've got something new, I can't ignore you. There's a ghost in my house, I can't hide from the ghost of your love that's inside. It keeps on haunting, just keeps on reminding me. In my mind I know you're gone, but my heart keeps on rolling on, to the memories of those happy times, to the love that once was mine. Falling for the fall, you're always in my heart There's a ghost in my house, I can't hide I'm as ghost as your love that's inside There's still such a heart in me There's something deeper inside of me I just keep hearing your ghost and song and dance

But I know there's no one there And I dare not So much more than a day before Sitting in my easy chair I feel your fingers running through my hair Looking down at my coffee cup I think I see your face looking up All alone in my room There your voice in the ceiling, there's a ghost in my house, and I can't hide, from this ghost of your love that's inside, it keeps on haunting, just keeps on haunting, I just keep living off those steps on the stairs.

But I know there's no funny half. This is a heart of mine. So deep is a heart of mine. And I can't hide. And the thirst is the love that's inside. And the day I know. Hey, good thing they made those real short Canadian content songs, huh, Mike? I mean, we're not running 6 a.m. here on a Canadian old-ies-aim radio station,

but managed to get in the entirety of R. Dean Taylor singing There's a Ghost in My House entirely because you needed a bathroom break. That's what happens here. I met you at the door of that large coffee that I brewed upstairs in the French press. What you're saying is it's going to be my turn any moment now? You can go during the next jam, but tell me, R. Dean Taylor.

Well, speaking of there's a ghost in my house, there was a ghost in the machines because R. Dean Taylor, who died at age 82 on January 7th, a singer-songwriter from Toronto, signed to Motown Records, best known for a song called Indiana Wants Me. Are you familiar with that?

No, this is another example of a jam I discovered the day I learned from you that R. Dean Taylor had passed away. A number one hit in the USA, Indiana Wants Me. So I hear. I did not know it. 1970. By that point, he was already entrenched with Motown Records. He was part of a group of songwriters

called The Clan. Motown had The Corporation, which was one bunch of songwriters. They're the ones behind the Jackson 5, most notably of all. And then the Klan, which was like a little more psychedelic.

Yeah, an unfortunate moniker though. That's not a great branding, I think. Yeah, it was Motown, after all. But R. Dean Taylor, I can't wait to hear this. The Klan with a C. And Love Child, I'm Living in Shame.

Those were the two songs, best-known songs, associated with The Clan. But for those of us born in the mid-'70s, like myself, Art Dean Taylor flew under the radar because I honestly thought I knew quite a bit about popular music, especially Canadian artists. All I know about most of this oldie stuff is my dad used to shove this stuff down my throat. My father, who

knew nothing of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but he seemed to know AM pop songs. Anything that was prefab that lacked the rock critic credibility. My dad

was my go-to expert on all this stuff. Well, I didn't understand how you grow up in that era and not know the records that people actually enjoy. Like Pet Sounds. But rather, now you know where I got it from. Right. That's why you're spinning the Laurie Bowers singers on your radio show. on all these one-hit wonders.

But no, I think R. Dean Taylor had, for a guy from Toronto at the time, in the 1960s, a pretty credible career to be part of the Motown label, which at the point was expanding.

And he's a white guy too. We should point that out, right? Well, I mean, they were expanding into white music. The band Rare Earth, which also was the name of the Motown subsidiary record label that R. Dean Taylor was on. What happened early 2022?

Facebook posting started to appear saying R. Dean Taylor had died. And they were coming from credible sources. There were people who actually knew him. We're going to get meta here. Yeah, and this is going to come again during the next death we talk about. And so if a whole bunch of people post on Facebook that they were personal friends with R. Dean Taylor, they're like, why would they be making up the idea that he was no longer around?

Like, where would they get this from? We haven't heard publicly from this guy in decades. You've got that song, There's a Ghost in My House, like in the UK, the Northern Soul movement, all those mods and rockers are into that song. You know, different obscurities from him that were discovered over time, digging through the crates.

But I mean, not a lot of people are giving day-to-day thought about the fate of R. Dean Taylor. As far as you know, you know, he was just another guy into his old age who was living comfortably off the royalties of all the hit songs that he made and all the legendary records that he had. So why would someone just invent this idea that he had passed away? But it turns out that's not enough to get a report in the mainstream media. Like if a whole bunch of your friends say that you've died,

that is not a reliable enough source. And the media has learned its lesson. Famously, Gordon Lightfoot was murdered on Twitter when the journalist David Akin tweeted that he was no longer around. And he was working on reliable sources. It was like a broken telephone trail but it was confident this happened with little wayne gordon lightfoot is no longer around whatever a bunch of people that seem to know what they're talking about they've substantiated this

much i read on tmz.com that little wayne had died little wayne's still with us yeah yeah well that was a black eye in the history of tm, right? Because then, like, this source, it's pretty reliable overall, is seen as not being credible. But for the most part, look, if a bunch of people seem to personally know who you are, and nobody's given you any thought in, like, 30 or 40 or 50 years, and they say that you're dead, you've got to assume this is true. Like, it's not just, they didn't just,

a bunch of people didn't randomly decide one day, let's pull a big hoax and talk about this guy who nobody's thinking about isn't with us anymore. And that's what happened to R. Dean Taylor. So it took two weeks for the official R. Dean Taylor obituaries to appear once people got in touch with his wife. And here's the thing. Like, this is where we are at in society, especially coming out of the pandemic, which is this. If you're not on social media, right, if you don't have an email, if in a situation like this, he didn't have any kids,

so he didn't have anybody close to him who was savvy enough to get the word out in an official way. And I think this is a very interesting phenomenon, which will continue for the next little while. Okay, but a family member can call a newspaper. But at the same time, he was also out of the public eye, right? Like, why would his grieving wife really care if anybody confirmed that he was dead or not? Like, where would it come up in her world if she's not on Facebook, she's not on Twitter, she's maybe not even on the internet at all, how would we know that our Dean Taylor had passed away?

And this is where the mystery comes in. Look, it's all very fascinating right to wait standing by when is the canadian press one of the wire services finally going to announce that he's no longer around it took took 12 days for the official our dean taylor obituaries to appear and very surreal for those of us who are plugged in to the fact and it was in the 1236 newsletter because by that point in time it became a meta story. Right? Like, okay, R. Dean Taylor is dead. I'm pretty sure this is something that we're not going to have to

retract. So we're waiting. Like, when will we find out if it's real that R. Dean Taylor is not around anymore? Pause, okay? We'll pick it up after this. Hey, mister I really like your daughter I'd like to eat her We'll pick it up after this. You'll be crying in your bed soon Messing around, maybe getting high It's not what you did It's not what you didn't

God gave a perfect body Now I'm all up in it It's not, she's a tramp It's not, she's not pure She just likes getting the fuck on it It's a good one, I'm sure Hey mister, I really like your Listen, same spiel. I'm curious to hear you talk about the similarities between Ardeen Taylor and Custom. Yeah, for this Ridley segment, I stuck to deaths in 2022.

But one exception here for 2021, because you knew this man. And while you did your own special Mike Umentary episode about him passing away, this was not like me and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, where we ran into each other on the street. Right. You swore at me. This was a pleasant relationship that you had with a man who was widely known, at least for a minute, his name, recording moniker, Custom, Dwayne LaVolde. Do I got that right? Yep, that's right. You found out through an email that he died, that he was no longer with us, that somebody wrote to you out of nowhere that they knew you had helped them with his website or at least

so I was the webmaster I'm on torontomike.com I was the custom webmaster I think we're going back now to the he was with artist direct and there was a whole clusterfuck there but in about 2003 2004 he was kind of picking himself off the mat and working on

his new material and we became friends because he googled his name and I was basically online because I've been blogging since 2002. I had a thing I wrote about Hey Mister. I was a big fan of his jam and I was a big fan of the album Fast. Like straight up love the album

Fast. Fast was his 2002 release. So Custom and I, whose real name is Dwayne, he's from Calgary, but he's living in Manhattan in a loft they call 120. We became fast friends and, you know, for years and years and years, I would help him with different

digital things like his website and being the webmaster there. And he would send me songs he's working on and we became good friends. We'd chat on the phone. My wife at the time went to one of the parties at his loft in manhattan and met marky mark and other interesting people scott ian from anthrax a whole whack of crazy people at this wonderful party but over the last few years i kind of lost

touch with custom but when custom died on december 18th a few people who knew I was close with him shared the terrible news. And then I had many a phone call with his friends and I had a long correspondence with his sister. So I wrote about it because I knew he had passed. You know, it's like, this is me, a credible source with exceptional sources, including his sister confirming the sad details of when he died, his mom confirmed for me

when he died, et cetera, me when he died etc where he died all that so i wrote a blog entry about it on torontomike.com i did record a episode of toronto miked about the passing of custom all of this happened remember mark custom died december 18th 2021 as we speak here speak here on February 3rd, 2022, as far as I can tell, I remain the only source for this information. There is no Canadian press or... But somebody got in touch with you, a reporter. Who was it?

Who was David's friend? Great reporter from the Canadian press, but also has to live up to the standards of journalism there. He couldn't publish this for Canadian press based on me. Let me ask you then, is it important to you that you see a mainstream media acknowledgement that your friend has passed away? Even six weeks after the fact. Firstly, if you pass away, I think we need a mainstream media acknowledgement. Oh, you know that I would completely cringe from the afterworld

if any event like that ever occurred. Shout out to Ridley Funeral. I don't want to be Googled at all after Well, you might not have a say in the matter because you'll be gone. But Custom got plenty of airplay on our local alternative rock station, 102.1 The Edge.

I saw him on the small stage at an Edge Fest, okay? He had a moment, as you described it. Look, look, your ex-wife was at a party at his loft in New York. Marky Mark was there. I never heard that story before. I got a lot to say.

Look, it was sort of this deal through the 90s that you could get a corporate contract. I think it was Beck Hansen that showed the way that you could present yourself as being this struggling artist. He got big bucks for that deal because he was a bidding war. This character who could create this whole mystique around you. Primitive radio gods.

That was another guy who fell into a little bit of fame. Standing outside the phone booth. There was one guy who went under the name Forest for the Trees. Remember that one? And the new radicals be also in that category. Okay, so custom was like following a certain kind of trend. You see where I'm going here? Where it was like, okay, it was a band, but it was also the guy's name,

but he was also sort of mysterious. But like David Cooper maybe also came from a lot of money, so you don't want to make it too clear. Although not as much as I thought. Not as much as I thought, but yes. That kind of background. But I think also at the same time, and this might have shaded the way that people look back on this song, Hey Mister, and what he did, is that it was a byproduct of a certain kind of misogynist culture that was coming up in that time.

It was like Maxim Magazine or FHM or Vice or whatever 20 years ago, that he was in a position where MTV banned his video, that he goes back that far, that that was still a thing. Of course. This is 02. And tried to ride on the publicity that he had this kind of Lolita-inspired imagery

about, hey, mister, I really like your daughter, right? This is about some sort of lechery going on here, lusting after an underage girl. This is even before Stacy's mom has got it going on. But just to reflect a certain period of time. Yeah, no evidence this is an underage girl. like a certain period of time. Yeah, no evidence this is an underage girl. But his management and promotion,

they played up the fact. Custom, banned by MTV. Sure. Too hot for the radio. Right. With his song, Hey Mister. Well, too hot for MTV, yeah. And that somehow this would propel him

into a certain level of fame, which actually never arrived, right? Like, faded away. No, and he got big bucks for that deal with Artist Direct. Big bucks. But, you know, there wasn't another big payday to follow. So at some point, you know, he couldn't afford the rent. Okay, well, what were the lyrics here?

Like, hey mister, I really like your daughter. I'd like to eat her like ice cream. Maybe dip her in chocolate. When I'm horny, like thirsty, she's my bottle of water. Tommy Lee sort of stuff happening here. And then at the end, he's singing in the refrain towards the end of the song, I hope I never have a daughter. Right.

And okay, like we know there was a certain sort of irony about all this, whatever statement he was trying to make. But you as a man with a couple of daughters. I do have a couple of daughters. At this point in time, you could see where maybe people wouldn't think that this was such an important artistic statement that he was making. It was just like another guy being a creep and playing

to this Threat Boy crowd. I'm not trying to get him the Order of Canada. What had become of this new rock metal audience at that point in time. But what's the relevance there? Oh, Woodstock 99 aesthetic. I think it has diminished any respect that people would have for this guy.

I'm just laying out the real talk here. But I don't think it matters. To me, yeah, but I don't think that means you don't get a Canadian press release about your passing at the age of whatever it was, 56 or whatever. Like, to me, okay, yeah, juvenile, immature lyrics for your 2002 hit.

The fact is, a lot of people knew the song, liked the song, and the album is fantastic. Roz Weston being a fellow fan. Well, of course, Roz. This music was like the embodiment of his personality. Because the lyrics are immature and

juvenile, we don't need to recognize his death in the mainstream media. Look, I don't need to recognize his death in the mainstream media? Look, I don't want to die when I'm 54. You'll still be doing the podcast by that point in time. So what does it matter that it's not... I have to suffer through a tribute show if I'm no longer around. What does it matter that he's... I'll be sending you messages from heaven to delete this shit.

I don't think it matters that his work was not worthy of the Order of Canada. Like, who cares? I'm just giving you a theory about why you would process the legacy that he left with this song. And it might not want to be something, I don't know. That's a ridiculous theory. It might not want to be something that media outlets want to highlight at this point in time. That's ridiculous. Why would you revere a personality like this who was playing to the misogynist side of pop culture?

That's insane. Are you aware of the deaths we recognize in this culture? That's insane. That's insane. So 1.5 months after his passing, there's no hint of any mainstream media news about this. A few blogs and such have scraped my site and sort of I'm the source on it. But there is no mainstream media news about

the passing of Cessna. I have to tell you, it wasn't even in the 1236 newsletter. No. Because I had already signed off for the year by the time. Not even in the 1230. But you know what? He got his entry on torontomic.com. You can Google it and I'm like a number one with a bullet.

And he got his Toronto Mic'd episode, one of the 1,000. And again, you know he was not an FOTM, meaning he was not a guest on Toronto Mic'd, because the man died. And you don't die when you appear as a guest on Toronto Mic'd. Most importantly, thanks to your acknowledgement, he got an update on the custom Wikipedia page with a footnote pointing to torontomic.com. And I think at this point, that's the least you could do.

Rest in peace, Dwayne LaVold, better known as Custom. It's the center of it all It's full time, it's a hotline to this city Part of you, it's part of me It's a heartbeat, it's where you want to be The center It's the center of it all The center It's the center of it all The center It's the Center. Open up. The Center.

It's the Center. Eb Ziedler, worthy of an entry on torontomic.com and obituaries everywhere because he made it to age 95 four days before he was going to turn 96. That's what comes after 95. We lost Eb Ziedler. I think most fondly remembered as the architect of

Ontario Place. Because the fact that Ontario Place ended up being shut down as a full-time facility has built up the mystique of its architecture and everything it represents. I spent a lot of time there, like a lot of time. Like people have fond memories of the children's village,

and I know the Cinesphere is still intact, but you walk around there like the last decade. It's mostly a ghost town. Yeah, and I do that a lot. Different efforts to rejuvenate it, different plans to build, I don't know, some kind of Austrian spa on the premises. What have they got in mind? An e-sports arena uh some new version of a

post-modern amusement park uh big plans finally with the the ontario government to do do something to redevelop all this incredibly valuable land uh on on ontario place what's gonna what's gonna happen there? But anything that people remember about Ontario Place, about what it looked like and what a thrill it was as a kid in Ontario to take in this provincial propaganda space. A lot of it was due to Eb Ziedler and his imagination. So he was born in Germany, got his Canadian start in Peterborough, Ontario, where he designed a whole bunch of buildings, churches.

There's even a synagogue for my people of Peterborough designed by Eb Ziedler. By, uh, by, uh, Ziedler. And then, uh, moved on to the big smoke. And, uh, the biggest vision that he had of all was the Toronto Eaton Center. Woo! For, uh, at the time was the Eaton family, flush with funds, uh, to turn, uh, the main drag of Yonge Street into one big shopping mall. And right after Eb Ziedler died, they announced, like, massive improvements. You catch wind of this thing?

Like, the Eaton Center is going to undergo a whole 2020s renovation, restoration. Going to take down those birds by Michael Snow. Oh, no. They're going to put the cathedral atmosphere of the shopping mall back to its old glory. And reading these articles about what the Eden Center was and what they're hoping it can become in the future, you might understand here, Mike, that shopping malls are considered an endangered species. How are we going to get people to continue to visit these things? But their Cadillac Ferry has a very valuable property, like the main tourist attraction in downtown Toronto is this mall. And reading these articles about its past and its future,

I got to reflecting, I have never appreciated the Eaton Center enough in the hundreds of times I've been there. She had been to Eaton Center enough in hundreds of times I've been there. And the architecture brilliance that Eb Ziedler brought to the property. So definitely somebody worth remembering by Toronto standards. And go to Retro Ontario on YouTube like a whole legacy medley of Eaton Center commercials like the one that we heard. And Eb Ziedler, his architecture firm, and his kids, they carry on. And so when the Eaton Center is put back together again, I'm sure we'll be celebrating his memory.

Eb Ziedler, dead January 7th at age 95. It's a 60-minute slice of metropolitan love. NewsHour. With Fraser Kelly and Valerie Aaliyah. Stay on top of life in Toronto with NewsHour. Weekdays at 6 here on CBLT. Fraser Kelly was once the anchor of the local CBC Toronto News. He was originally known as an editor, as a reporter for the Toronto Telegram newspaper,

the telly predecessor to the Toronto Sun. I'm sure you've seen all sorts of nostalgia for what that newspaper represented as a competitor to the Toronto Star. And after that newspaper folded, Fraser Kelly went off to a broadcasting career and became pretty well recognized as a face first on CFTO-TV and then later anchoring the news on CBLT. Left the CBC to start up his own communications firm behind the scenes. That's where the money is for a lot of these media people. And I think speaking of obituaries that fall through the cracks,

it's a fact that you notice the CBC, when people who are recognized for being personalities on there, I don't think they have anybody around anymore to write these memorial tributes. I think it was up to Mike Wise, who's worked at the CBC for a long time. Is he a FOTM? He's an FOTM, and he sent in his audio for episode 1,000. It was Mike Wise and Steve Paikin. They all remembered Fraser Kelly, who died at age 87.

Paikin sent in his clip, too. There you go. They all remembered him. Fraser Kelly, not around anymore, but reinvented himself at 50 years old to start up a communications and crisis management firm, the Corp World Group, and also worked as a journalism professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Just acknowledging the death of Fraser Kelly because, again, like, someone who was pretty well recognized for folks of a certain age if they grew up watching Canadian TV news in the 70s and 80s and duly noted in the 1236 newsletter, and mentioned here on the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial Segment of Toronto Mic'd.

Thank you. Like the shadows of the morning That climb up to the August afternoon Charlie has a way Of picking up the day Just by walking slowly in a room. Baby, it's a kind of magic. Only little boys can do.

But seeing Charlie smile can make you stop a while. And get you feeling glad you're you. He's only a boy named Charlie. A boy named Charlie Brown.

He's just a kid next door Perhaps a little more He's every kid in every town The world is full of You know, coming up on 1,000 episodes of Toronto Mic'd, we're starting to realize how small the world really is.

Because you hear the voice of Charlie Brown in the animated cartoons died. Peter Robbins. Yes. He was 65 years old. Died January 18th, 2022. And you think, like,

six, five, four, three, two, no, one degree of separation between the FOTMs and the voice of Charlie Brown. And I know who you're talking about. This is Gare Joyce. Yeah, Gare Joyce. Legendary journalist. Friend of Jason Priestley. That's right.

He wrote the book that Private Eyes was based on. That's how that happened. What's the name of the book that Private Eyes was based on. That's how that happened. What's the name of the character? Private Eyes? No idea. Should I have watched? Never watch a show. I don't watch a lot of network television, unless it's sports.

Peter Robbins, who got this gig as a young man, doing the voice of Charlie Brown in the animated cartoon, starting with a boy named Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown Christmas. After that, like a lot of these child star stories, did not have an easy go of things. And it turned out that quite recently, Peter Robbins had been doing some hard time.

Four years in prison, as Gary Joyce explained it, threatening the surgeon who did his ex's breast implants. who did his ex's breast implants. And the realization here that he was in a distressed psychiatric state and needed to be incarcerated for a while based on his behavior. And there was a lot of press attention at the time for the fact this is the voice of Charlie Brown, right? You never maybe heard the name Peter Robbins before, but this guy was once famous for

something. Right. And unfortunately that's what he ended up being infamous for. Do you want to hear a little of him as Charlie Brown? We might as well. I guess you could have hit the post with this one. It's coming. By the way, Matt Shade is the character that Gare Joyce wrote for Jason Priestley. Sorry, Gare.

We're not up on our private eyes. I'll never be able to get this kite in the air. Never, never, never, never! I can't do it! I can't do it! I don't want to see this kite again as long as I live. Take it! Take it! Get it out of my sight! Anybody who can fly this kite is a genius. Okay, look. A lot of groovy music there for a few seconds to pay off.

But that was the sound of Peter Robbins playing Charlie Brown, the original voice of Charlie Brown. Seven or eight years back and forth with Toronto writer Gare Joyce. Now lives in Kingston. I got that right? Yeah, Gare's in Kingston and at some point we'll get Gare back on the program

to share his story of his relationship with the late great voice of Charlie Brown. A blockhead's life was what Peter Robbins wanted to call the book. Gare's idea, what's it called, good grief. But they were discussing the idea of this project as far as how this childhood fame doing the voice of Charlie Brown

turned into a complicated life. In and out of halfway houses, Gareth said he talked to him last around Christmas time. There was a Charlie Brown Christmas special screening in Maine. In fact, he had just been released on parole in October 2019 after serving that sentence. And here we learned in January, January 18th, 2022, Peter Robbins, suicide. Very sad story. And it's just amazing here that we connect this to someone we know among the FOTMs.

And we'll hear more about that when you next get G we know among the FOTMs. And we'll hear more about that when you next get Gare Joyce in on Toronto Mic'd. You are now about to witness the strength of Bob Saget. Speaking of FOTM. Have you ever had one of those nights that started off so damn good? Speaking of FOTM. Saget's in the backseat, rollin' a blunt Ballet opens up the door to park the car The bouncer at the front don't wanna let us in the bar Bob says, Here, let me show him some affection Then he walked up, wound up, cold-clocked, decked him Started screaming for the bitch to respect him

Next thing you know, we're in the VIP section When crew runs deep like this, you wanna brag it Who you rollin' with, man? I'm rollin' with Saget Who you rollin' with? Bob You with, you with Bob Saget No matter who, no Nobody does it better

Who you rollin' with? Bob You with, you Bob Saget. No matter who, nobody does it better. Who you rollin' with? Get with, get with Bob Saget. The illest motherfucker in a cardigan sweater. Not a nice song, but everybody's gettin' tipsy. Bob's in the booth with a chick from Pachipsy. He's orderin' a Dom Perignon, just drinkin' from the bottle. Makin' plans to leave the club at three miles. That's when DMX and 50 Cent walked in. Nah, Bob stood up and said,

Who are you again? At first, all they did was stand around and stare. Till X pushed Bob and 50 hit him with a chair He's in a car, I get in khaki shoes and no socks You want hardcore motherfuckers? Pull out a Glock I got a cock like a donkey, hard as a rock Get this Stewstone CD out of my house, I said It's never gonna be worth anything

Mike, take this out of my hands Before I throw it into the incinerator and never see it again And then it turned out a few weeks later A coveted collector's item of my hands before I throw it into the incinerator and never see it again. And then it turned out a few weeks later, a coveted collector's item, the CD by FOTM extraordinaire Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy, best known for the song Rollin' with Saget, which got dusted off all over the place after January 9th when we heard of the tragic passing at age 65 of America's dad, star of Full House,

America's Funniest Home Videos, which they broke into on ABC like a news bulletin, which I don't even know if they do that anymore, but it was fitting, right? Like this was his show. Right.

How could, you just learned that Bob Saget had died. How could you not have a breaking news alert on TV to tell, you know, whatever tens of thousands of people are left watching this show, that the guy who was most synonymous with 7 p.m. Sundays on ABC is no longer alive. Bob Saget. I also know someone else who was on the bill with Bob Saget 40 years ago. A comedy club, Giggles Comedy Club

at Bathurst and Eglinton. Sure. Where Lauren Honickman, FOTM Lauren Honickman once performed, right? He talked about Giggles here when he came on the show. Yeah. And also a friend at the time, colleague of Lauren Honigman, Lauren Katz.

He shared some memories of being on the bill with Bob Saget in Toronto, 1982. Eglinton Avenue West, Bob Saget paying his dues as an up-and-coming comedian around that same time. He met a teenage Norm MacDonald. And that's where they first bonded on the comedy club scene. And Bob Saget, who paid his dues and made his way onto something I remember watching the debut of. It was a CBS network

morning show. Now there was, of course, Good Morning America, Today on NBC, and CBS was always stranded in third place in the American network morning ratings. And they had the idea at the time, which of course got dragged a whole lot in the newspapers, in the media, of having a stand-up comedian be a cornerstone of the morning news show, right? At the time, like, this was considered sacred ground, right? You could never imagine doing something like this before, even though one of the original co-hosts of the Today Show was a chimpanzee, J. Fred Muggs.

You know, it was seen as like this sanctity on the CBS Tiffany Network. You know, what do you, are you so desperate for ratings that you're going to have a guy tell jokes as part of the newscast? And that guy was Bob Saget. Remember seeing, I remember seeing this show debut. Wow. I think that was the first time I ever knew who Bob was.

Of course, Full House quickly followed on the heels of all that. You know, you hear a lot from the other two guys from the show, Dave Coulier, John Stamos, how they were all very close, the Olsen twins, Candace Cameron, Jodie Sweetin, the fact they came back decades later, the Fuller House show on Netflix, that Full House everybody enjoyed, the fame and the money and what the show represented out there, America's Funniest Home Videos.

And all this led up to Bob Saget pivoting to becoming a filthy nightclub comedian. That's where Stu Stone seemed to enter the picture, right? Like that rap song, Rolling With Saget, was part of the reinvention of Bob Saget getting dirty, down and dirty, with Stu Stone and the Wu-Tang Gang from the streets, and that he could find in Stu Stone a kindred spirit, suburban Jew, who would play this hip-hop part along with him and eventually got Jamie Kennedy involved. Isn't that remarkable then? Bob Saget, one of the biggest celebrity deaths of 2022, just like the boys of Charlie Brown, his legacy can be traced back to an FOTM, not just any FOTM, one of the

most annoying FOTMs of all. A guy who beat down your door to come in your basement and kick out the jams on toast. But you did, I thought, very moving tribute with Stu. Stu, who took the time between his tears to wonder if I still hated him

anymore. I love your fun rivalry with Stu Stone. Now, I will say, so of course, Roland was saying, as you said, but the Aristocrats, that's like the first time I think mainstream peoples realized that this wholesome dad from Full House

could work blue. The Aristocrats. And that was 05. Well, when Norm Macdonald died, we talked about his directorial effort at the helm of Dirty Work. And I mean, Dirty Work, I'm a non-apologetic big fan of Dirty Work. And I remember checking out locations

where they were actively filming that movie here in the West End of Toronto. I think Dirty Work is great, but there is another FOTM. So we've lost a lot of people. Amazingly, Artie Lang is still with us, but we of course have lost, you know, Chris Farley was in Dirty Work.

He's long gone, sadly. Norm MacDonald, now Bob Saget. And Gord Martineau was in Dirty Work. Deanie Petty was in Dirty Work. Right. So long may they run. But they're protected by being guests on Toronto, Mike. Like, it gives you a false hope.

Okay. Now, if I've got this right, you had a Pandemic Friday episode where Stu Stone was on the phone with Bob Saget. And there was the possibility of Bob Saget being what? The mystery

guest on a Pandemic Friday episode of Toronto Mike. If he had only done so, he'd be with us today. So I feel sad that we didn't make that happen with Bob Saget. I think I would have got along well with Bob. He sounds like a good guy. So I feel sad that we didn't make that happen with Bob Saget. I think I would have got along well with Bob. He sounds like a good guy.

But I will say this is the second death in a row that has a direct connect with a valued FOTM. We had, there's Gare Joyce and Stu Stone, so. Bob Saget, dead at 65. It's going to be missed. ain't getting us nowhere I told you everything I possibly can There's nothing

left inside of me Maybe you can cry all night But that'll never change the way that I feel The snow is really piling up outside I wish you wouldn't make me leave here

I poured it on and I poured it out I tried to show you just how much I cared I'm tired of words and I'm too hoarse to shout But you've been cold to me so long I'm crying icicles instead of tears And all I can do is keep on telling you I want you, I need you But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you. Now don't be sad, don't be sad, cause two out of three ain't bad.

Now don't be sad. Cause two out of three ain't bad. When you wake up one day and find out that Meatloaf has died, possibly because of his refusal to take a vaccine for COVID-19, I don't know if that was ever substantiated or not. No, we don't have evidence. We don't have evidence he's not vaccinated. We know he was vocally.

Somebody politically speaking in the camp of those who are against pandemic restrictions for the past couple of years and maybe going down to some kind of martyr because he publicly commented at one point, like, if I die, I die. What are you going to do about it if I end up ending my life because of the way that I'm approaching this pandemic and how the death of Meatloaf became like a political issue in the United States and his last public appearance was on Fox News as a guest on the Mike Huckabee show. And this was, in fact, the first time in a few years that Meatloaf had done any kind of performing. And the reason he was laying low was because he almost died on stage a few years earlier. Remember that one? They brought out the stretcher for Meatloaf.

Well, he doesn't look like the epitome of good health. He never did. But he always seemed a little like he needed to maybe improve his diet and exercise more. Comorbidities is the word maybe you're looking for. I'm going to tap out of this one. Look, June 2016, Meatloaf is doing his casino concert in Edmonton. He collapsed on stage

and the audience, they first thought it was part of the act. No! Basically, the Grim Reaper coming for our man Meat. Is it Candace Burke? Not the new interim leader of the Conservative Party, but wasn't Murphy Brown's dad,

didn't he pass away on stage performing? Like he was a ventriloquist? Do you know what I'm talking about? Mike, stay on topic here. Okay. Or you can Google it while I'm going on about me. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so he finished his Canadian tour,

and in fact it was his final tour, Western Canada, 2016. But Bell Media, Randy Lennox of Bell Media was behind the Bat Out of Hell musical. Right. And that one launched in Toronto at the

Ed Mervish Theatre, whatever, Pantages, CAA, what are they calling it these days? Imperial Six? It'll always be the Imperial to you and me. Elgin, maybe? Wherever it was, it was on Yonge Street, and Meatloaf did a launch, like a gathering on Yonge Street for fans behind the movie theater, behind the stage

where they debuted the musical version of Bad Out of Hell. And he broke out into a few lines. But that was the last we ever heard from Meatloaf on a public stage. So some Canadian connections there. Also a Canadian connection in the fact that Meatloaf's album, Bad Out of Hell,

only broke because of 104.5 Chum FM. Wow. That was the first radio station to give Meatloaf what you would call serious airplay. Wow. It was a guy named Warren Cosford, who's a behind-the-scenes player in the history of Canadian radio, and Steve Popovich from Cleveland International Records, who lobbied for playing this album, Bad Out of Hell, which had a major credit in there. And Todd Rundgren as a producer and also members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and something that I think has come up more and more over the years.

I even heard Tom Sharpling do a great diatribe about it. It's the fact that Bad Out of Hell was mostly just like a parody of Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. hell was mostly just like a parody of bruce springsteen yeah yeah right and that todd rungren took on the project not that he thought this like operatic rock star could be taken seriously but he actually found it hilarious that this guy took this jim steinman music so seriously and that he belted out these songs like two out of three ain't bad, right? With this like dramatic sincerity, this operatic bravado.

And in fact, it was Toronto where Meatloaf had his first breakout. Did a showcase concert at the El Macombo Club, which is preserved. It's out there online. It's on YouTube. The record company put it out to show the chops of Meatloaf on the stage. He had players behind him, crack backup band, the Kulik brothers, Bruce and Bob Kulik, who died a little while ago. Of course, Jim Steinman, also recently enough,

on Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. Now we've lost Meatloaf. Still with us is a guy named Rory Dodd, who was a backing singer from Canada, from Port Perry, Ontario, who worked with Jim Steinman. They're on the front lines of Meatloaf Project. And when Jim Steinman and Meatloaf,

when they had a falling out, because Meatloaf was exhausted from his initial flirtation with fame. And Jim Steinman eventually took some of the songs that he wrote and he went off with other artists, including Bonnie Tyler. Total Eclipse of the Heart was originally supposed to be a Meatloaf song. And Rory Dodd is the guy who was singing the part, Turn Around, Bright Eyes. We've talked here on Toronto Mic'd about how I was a child meatloaf

fan. Right. And that came about because I saw his picture in a magazine. A kid's magazine called Pizzazz, where it was a picture of Leif Garrett. It said meat Leif right next to it. Picture of meatloaf. Meatloaf. And I saw this sweaty,

obese character wearing this tuxedo, cummerbund, and I thought, I gotta hear what this guy is all about. All it took was seeing that picture of Meatloaf for me to seek out a copy of Bad Out of Hell. Never heard it before in my life. I was, I don't know, seven, maybe eight years old. And subsequently, I went to summer day camp

and I said, in fact, not only did I declare my fanaticism for meatloaf, I insisted that I be called meatloaf. Wow. Like, that should be my nickname. This is a mind blow up right up there with Buffy Bale. Through that entire summertime. Right up there with Buffy Bale.

Meatloaf. Don't call me Mark. Call me meatloaf. I want to be addressed as meatloaf. Wow. Or just plain meat. And well-documented then was Meatloaf sort of struggling to make it without Jim Steinman by his side.

On-again, off-again relationships, some really terrible albums. This is a thing. Like, broke out that jam from Bat Out of Hell because anything that Meatloaf, while there were some kitschy mediocrities that he was involved with you can't compare anything to those original bat out of hell first album songs

but by 1993 bat out of hell 2 came the sequel right to went to see meatloaf in the press box at maple leaf gardens from the stage and a couple years later hard rock cafe in toronto meatloaf announcing his follow-up album there was Meatloaf talking to the press, just hanging out, sitting around. Remember, I tapped him on the shoulder just to say, like, I'm a big fan. Loved your work. I grew up listening to you.

And even at the time, I think he was overwhelmed by all the attention that was going on. Maybe the pressure, like the expectation that he would somehow have a number one hit. He was coming on the heels of, I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. And again, without this conceptual

bad out of hell thing going on, I think the meatloaf mystique was very quickly fading away. That without the songs of Jim Steinman, there was nothing going on there. There was subsequently a Bad Out of Health 3 and again Jim Steinman wasn't

directly involved so what they did was cover versions of other songs from other people credited to Jim Steinman so that's where you get Meatloaf doing a version of his Celine Dion song it's all coming back to me now. Which of course you know that was originally recorded by that band with Ellen Foley in it.

So that was not originally recorded by Celine Dion. It was kicking around. It was all part of the catalog. And they had a reunion with Jim Steinman again. Now Jim Steinman is gone and Meatloaf too. So Meatloaf, born Marvin Lee Aday. You knew that, right? Yep.

I did know that. Later changed his first name to Michael. I knew he wasn't born Meatloaf. That's for sure. But it's funny because when I talked to Bill Wilichka, Bill Wilichka had that sit down with Meat at the Dome, the Sky Dome, which was like a special episode of Much More Music on Meatloaf

or whatever the story of. And we were sort of reminiscing about his conversations with Meat and he was good in Fight Club. Let's just say he's not a bad actor. I always thought whenever you saw Meatloaf show up in something he was pretty good I thought as an actor. Rocky Horror Picture Show

and like Ardeen Taylor started out as a white guy on Motown Records. Oh I didn't know that. Stoney in Meatloaf. Oh, that's right. I did dig up some of that Stoney stuff and listen, absolutely. Stoney and Meatloaf.

Wow. Meatloaf, dead January 20th, 2022 at age 74. I feel a hunger It's a hunger A chance to keep a man awake at night Are you the answer? I sure wonder What I feel with my appetite

With all the power you're releasing It isn't safe to walk the city streets alone Anticipations run through me Let's find the key and turn this engine on I can feel you breathe I can feel your heart beat faster Take me home tonight I don't wanna let you go to see the light Take me home tonight. I don't want to let you go till you see the light.

Take me home tonight. Listen, honey, just like a running sign. Be my little baby. Okay, Mike, we're going into year four of monthly 1236 episodes. And that means a monthly Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. Except on episodes like the last fromage one where you threw me out of here. Remember that? Before we got around

to doing the memorial segment. I came in here expecting. You can't tag a memorial section to the back of a fromage episode. That was a special episode. I thought it was happening in 2021. My apologies. All these people who died in December that won't be remembered,

but into January. January 12, 2022 was when we lost Ronnie Spector. Not long after, we lost Eddie Money, right? So here's another case, just like Jim Steinman and Meatloaf, where we are discussing two people involved in the record. Eddie Money and Meatloaf are not dissimilar in appearance. If you think about it, they could be brothers. Well, Eddie Money was like an ex-cop.

And he was from the streets of New York City. No, Eddie died September 2019. I know. Well, we've lost all sense of time, but we did have... We had any money on a Ridley segment, too. And you know what? I consider and pretend that I have all sorts of reverence for the raw

gnats and the back-to-mono songs that Ronnie Spector made with her again. Another recently deceased person, Phil Spector. Who did murder somebody, let's we forget. Before they were married, Again, another recently deceased person, Phil Spector. Right. Who did murder somebody, lest we forget.

Before they were married, she was Veronica Bennett. And hanging out with the Beatles until Phil Spector put his foot down and did not want her to go on tour. Being a jealous husband type, you could imagine what was happening there behind the scenes. In fact, Ronnie Spector wrote a well-received memoir where she talked about being the wife of this fairly violent man.

But in the process, we also got these songs from the Ronettes. Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, FOTM Andy Kim was responsible for reviving that song, Walking in the Rain. But you can't compare, I think, to the mid- 1980s corporate rock majesty of Take

Me Home Tonight. You remember that one, Mike? Oh my god, yeah. Playing on 680 CFTR. And maybe not even knowing the source material. That was like a quote. A sample, what would you call it? Interpolation. Interpolation. That was like a quote. A sample. What would you call it? Interpolation.

That's an interpolation. Of Be My Baby. And you could understand the waves of boomer nostalgia. That survived that. So I'm looking up. Goodfellas is what? 1990? So by 1990.

That jam. That jam is like epic for guys my age. because of its use in Goodfellas. Looking up on Wikipedia, did you know Eddie Money was not very fond of that song? He considered it a piece of garbage. I didn't know that. But he was grateful for the fact that, first of all, it became a hit, drew attention to his catalog, kept him on the charts for a few more years, and the fact that it revived the career of Ronnie Spector, who by that point, when they gave her a call,

this song was written, this whole idea that she would sing on the song, right? She was completely retired. She's washing the dishes at home, and she gets this call, and it's like, you want to be on this Eddie Money record? And she's like, I'm gone. I don't do this stuff anymore. Eddie Money is to Ronnie Spector as the KLF was to Tammy Wynette. Pretty much, and I think Ronnie Spector even

capitalized on it a lot more as far as becoming a bit of a celebrity again. When Phil Spector died, we played her flirtation with the Beatles, which turned into a song she made for Apple Records, Try Some, Buy Some,

which was a George Harrison song, part of an attempt at a Ronnie Spector solo comeback in the early 70s, which didn't work out again, partly because, let's just say, she had a hothead for a husband. A hothead, let's remember. And it put her out of the business for a while.

A very violent killer for a husband, which is more than a hothead. Yeah, that too. And here we had Ronnie Spector writing a memoir where she talked about all the torment and abuse that she experienced in her marriage, but she got back on the comeback trail, the oldie circuit,

and I think when Ronnie Spector died, it was not a situation where people hadn't heard from her in a while. Where did she go? Where has she been? In fact, she was that much more fondly remembered for the fact that she had this resurgence, this profile in the 1980s, all for singing with Eddie Money B, My Little Baby. Ronnie Spector, dead January 12th, age 78.

As I play this, let me just say I'm shocked that this is the jam you chose for this passing. I'm shocked. I'm shocked. You'll have to explain yourself. I'm so angry. And as I listen to this now, I've seen this show, I don't know, dozens and dozens of times, and I couldn't have told you what show this was the theme song to to save my life.

But there's another theme song you could have chosen for this guy that everyone listening would know. But you've got gotta be different with the Lori Bower singers. Oh, I recognize the ending part. Okay. Go ahead. Head of the Class. Starring Howard Hessman. Baby, if you ever wondered

what actual TV show will go down in history of having more successful alumni than WKRP in Cincinnati. It's the teenagers who were on head of the class, at least three of whom turned out to be like rich and famous Hollywood entertainment executives behind the scenes. I didn't know that.

I knew one was married to Mike Tyson, speaking of, like, violent. Yeah, well, that was the fourth. That was Robin Givens. Robin Givens. Brian Robbins, who was what? Like the cool guy? Like the Arthur Fonzarelli? Right.

Vinnie Barbarino kind of character on Head of the Class? He is now the head of Paramount Pictures I had no idea I only watched this show because I loved the actor Howard Hessman because he played Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP that's why I watched this show

and Head of the Class as far as I could tell was essentially what Dr. Johnny Fever becomes a high school teacher. Well, somebody in the chat is comparing it to the paper chase. He hears the paper chase there.

The theme song or the premise of the show? The theme song, I think he's referring to. People used to put a lot of work into these TV theme songs. That's that houseman guy, right? The houseman guy, who I first saw in The Naked Gun. Remember when he's the driving instructor

and he's like, put the car, he calmly says, put the car in reverse. The Naked Gun, by the way, holds up. Check it out. But Howard Hessman. Howard Hessman. So, yeah, to, again, review the legacy ahead of the class, it was two other guys.

Dan Frischman. Oh, yeah. He played, what, the big geek? The nerdy guy. Arvid? Yeah, looked like the guy from Revenge of the Nerds. Arvid. It's a real nerdy name.

Big nose. That's how you know it's a nerd. If you ever met a kid named Arvid, named after the character in the show, kind of like Screech on Saved by the Bell. But he was a Sam. Samuel Powers. And there was a third guy from the cast, the show? Kind of like Screech on Saved by the Bell. But he was a Sam. Samuel Powers. And there was a third guy from the cast,

the fat kid, Dan Schneider. And he was also a kids' TV executive along with Arvid. But he ended up involved in some kind of scandal. Before we get too far from it. Asking for teenage girls to send him pictures of feet? Something like that. Oh, I don't know. That sounds problematic. But Houseman, the guy I remember from Naked Gun, I do want to

point out, yes, I did know him before Naked Gun because he was the grandfather on Silver Spoons. Ricky Schroeder's grandfather in that home. And that home was mind-blowing, right? Because they had that giant, like, train that would run through the house. And I remember I'd watch it, Silver Spoons. I think Ricky Schroeder himself is problematic these days

but I'd watch it and it was like blowing my mind like that and I know we're talking about Howard Hessman, Flight of the Navigator's Own but I just want to say yeah, Hausman was the grandfather on Silver Spoons. Go on. In the words of Tom Wilson, Mike one day you're not going to be able to come around

anymore on all these tangents. Well, when that day comes, I'll hang up my headphones and call it a day. I'm only aiming for a thousand. Anything after that is gravy. Okay, so Howard Hessman, kind of consummate hippie character, especially for Dr. Johnny Fever,

and every wannabe radio person like Mike Boone credits WKRP as their greatest inspiration. There's no Toronto Mike to vote WK me. Credits WKRP as the greatest inspiration. There's no Toronto Mike without WKRP. Even though WKRP as a show had very little to do with broadcasting and radio. It was a workplace comedy show. It doesn't matter. It was still Venus Flytrap with the

lights down and the candles lit talking to the audience late at night. No, man. WKRP made radio seem fucking cool. Howard Hessman was also in Police Academy 2. Right. Filmed around the corner.

Playing a police captain. But really it came down to these couple of sitcoms they had and residuals that he could probably enjoy a good life with forever. And that's how we remember Dr. Johnny Fever. Howard Hessman, dead January 29th, 2022, at age 81. ¶¶ What is this? Sidney Poitier. Yeah, this is In the Heat of the Night. This is Ray Charles, of course, In the Heat of the Night, and this is for Sidney Poitier. Poitier.

Well, you know, you'd know better than me. I always said Poitier. Poitier. Well, you know, you'd know better than me. I always said Poitier. Dead January 6th at age 94. Good for him. Good old age. We like those old age people. There is an older age coming up. Teaser.

Spoiler alert. And this is Ray Charles in The Heat of the Night. I'm legit afraid to have Hazel McCallion on the program because I'm afraid that she'll die of natural causes in her sleep at the age of 101, and I might streak wind. The other movie with a theme song that Sidney Poitier was known for, To Sir With Love, from 1967, and also from that year. So all these movies from 1967.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, a milestone movie in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. And a real elder statesman among actors at the start of 2022. How many more have we got until we're out of here? Because, you know, we skipped a bunch. And you're still going to exceed three hours, so I skipped a bunch here. Let me get back on track. Three more to go. Blue Mercedes in the driveway. Oh, she's just a small town girl at heart.

I'm concerned with what they say. Well, I mean, at this point in the episode, I fell out of order with the ages. But yeah, if I heard Peter Bogdanovich died and I was running a Canadian classic hits radio station, the first thing I'd do is crank this song up. Cover Girl by Prism. And you know why? Why? Because this song was written by Brian Adams, Jim Valance, about Dorothy Stratton.

Yes, I know the story well. Who is embedded with the life of Peter Bogdanovich. bedded with the life of Peter Bogdanovich because after he got acclaimed as a movie director, The Last Picture Show, and What's Up, Doc?, and Paper Moon, a film after he took a break in 1981, they all laughed, cast the Playboy centerfold, who became his muse.

And this was a whole tragedy that related to a jealous boyfriend, husband. She was a Vancouver girl, right? Yeah, led to the murder of Dorothy Stratton. And Peter Bogdanovich was distraught

by these developments and left the directorial scene, even though he came back mid-'80s. A movie called Mask with Eric Stoltz. Oh, no, I loved Mask. Loved it very much. And then later working as an actor, including in The Sopranos. That's where most of us now know Peter Bogdanovich. He was in The Sopranos, yeah. Like the shrink to the shrink, sort of.

Now, what made this story a little more sordid is the fact that after Dorothy Stratton died, Peter Bogdanovich married her sister, Louise. You up on that? Louise Hoog Stratton.

Yeah, I do. I listened to a pretty deep dive into this whole sordid affair. Terrible. For those who don't know, Google, the story's terrible because Stratten is murdered quite young by her boyfriend that discovered her working like a, I don't know, a dairy queen

in Vancouver or something. She's working at a... Anyway, terrible. She was a Howard... I almost said Howard Hughes. She was a playboy playmate and killed very young, but Peter Bogdanovich. Yeah, intertwined with all of that. Right.

And this was, again, like after he became one of those Hollywood directors who rode this renaissance of filmmaking freedom, even before everybody recognized him as an actor, playing what, the psychiatrist psychiatrist in The Sopranos? Speaking of Goodfellas, yeah. And before that, his lady friend being Sybil Shepard, who was one of his movie stars.

Yeah, The Last Picture Show, which was considered his big first breakthrough. Peter Bogdanovich, dead January 6th at age 82. You know my name Pick up the number You know my name Pick up the number You You know the number You, you know, you know my name You, you know, you know my name Okay, I lied. Here's one from December 30th, 2021.

In fact, these last two were from the last two days of the year. Dennis O'Dell. 98 years of age. Nice. Name checked in a Beatles song. You know my name, look up the number. And how did he get there? Well, he was the film producer who worked with the beatles so

here we are right on the heels of the beatles get back on disney plus everybody talking about this dennis odell is one of those characters who's milling around in the background in on these conferences trying to figure out what to do with this film what happens with all this footage how are the beatles gonna end this thing how do they keep all the band members from quitting breaking up the group leaving it behind well dennis odell was one of the people that helped keep it together and brought the movie uh let it be ultimately to the screen and hung in there for a century. 98 years old. December 30th

2021. Given how much we were talking about the Get Back movie and you talking about it, Mike? Figured we would remember Dennis O'Dell. again. Your heart is true. You're a pearl and a confidant. And if you threw a party and invited everyone you knew,

you won't see me. I gotta fade this down because my file is truncated. I can see I didn't get the whole thing. I'll have to dig it up on YouTube. But of course, that's Cher's voice. Yeah, tribute to Betty White. Thank you for being a friend. Betty White died

on New Year's Eve, age 99. I think the cursed year, 2021, it was destined to happen that the year would end on that kind of bummer note. Well, only the good die young. Well, learning the fact that Betty White, who was on the cover of People magazine, an issue that had come out that day about her being 100 years old,

even though she wasn't really interviewed, it turned out she wasn't really in a state where she would have had much to say. But they put out this commemorative special issue. And, in fact, there's a whole glossy digest, which is still on the newsstands. Betty White at 100. And I think that even though they're not saying the quiet part out loud, I think they're excited about how many copies this thing has sold, right?

Like this became like a collector's item magazine that people wanted to buy in an old school way. Get that People magazine saying that Betty White had made it to 100. Well, in fact, she fell 18 days short, dying on New new year's eve 2021 thank you for being a friend betty white now that's like uh i came this close people can't see that it's a small amount i came very close to being uh on here and now yesterday with jill deacon who's an fotm to talk about my 1000th episode in that they the day before they asked me if i was up to it i said yeah let's do it then they confirmed we're gonna do it and then, I said, yeah, let's do it. Then they confirmed we're going to do it.

And then I had a note saying, hey, let's do a quick pre-interview because this is CBC. They actually have people to do a pre-interview. And then I said, okay, give me a call at this time or whatever. And then I got the note, oh, we see you're at $9.93. We should do this when you drop episode 1,000. And my thought was, why didn't you look at that number before you booked me? And then I already tweeted to everybody

that I was going to be on here and now at 520. And then I had to do that very like awkward, cancel that, I won't actually be on here and now at 520. And that's similar to this. You know, I know magazines have to do things well out in front because of course it's print,

but you don't want to count those chickens till they hatch. because, of course, it's print. But you don't want to count those chickens until they hatch. Mike, Toronto Mike, thank you for being a friend as we round the corner here to Toronto Mike, to episode 1,000. Woo! Are you going to submit a clip? It's been a thrill to play a part.

Don't get your hopes up too high. You know, we're exceeding three hours here, but at the rate that the clips are coming in for episode 1,000, that episode might go six hours. Who the hell knows, right? Maybe Peter Jackson has nothing on me. Do you need me in the basement again? Seven, eight, nine?

Every month I need you in the basement, buddy. How low can we go? Looking forward to the spring of 2022 and continuing to deliver the 1236 newsletter with high hopes ahead. And really, Mike, I think it's a fact that I always wanted to be one of those media personalities who just showed up on the air everywhere. Nobody was quite sure why or what they do.

And you've given me that opportunity. Because what was originally supposed to be like a self-promotional opportunity for the fact that I was doing this newsletter project with St. Joseph Media turned into something else entirely. And I've been able to connect with so many FOTMs and people who know what I do only because of this show and that it's become an entity unto itself that I hope we continue here for years to come

GLB Toast because there's no cabana product around to Toronto Mike for getting to 1000 episodes and looking forward to the party throughout 2022 when if rumor has it i will keep coming back until we get this thing right because you know the only reason that i keep coming on the podcast is because i'm never satisfied with the show we're gonna keep on doing it until i can leave please with the product that we've left behind if people have not clued in yet mark wise blot is in my basement until the weather's better and we

go in the backyard the first thursday of every month at 2pm Eastern. And by the way, as I slept here in a winter storm, increasingly defiant about a storm. I find that if the time I spend in your basement is shorter than the round-trip travel time of getting here and back. It's over three hours.

Yeah, but that's how long it takes for me to run bus in the subway to get here and back. Freddie P is never going to listen to this episode. Thanks to everyone who made it this far. And, Mike, I look forward to episode 1,000 for you to articulate, I think, how I helped put you on the map, right? Don't be like the guy from BlogTO. You know, I don't.

If I may. Not give me any credit for my sweat equity in getting you here? The credit comes when I play your clip on episode 1,000 and then I suddenly sing your praises and talk about how much I loved you. I think as far as I'm concerned, Mike, as far as I'm concerned, you were nobody in the media

until I legitimized you. I feel the same way about you. And how did we get there? We got it by shamelessly gossiping about everybody else to the point where people pass the clips back and forth. Did you hear what they said about you on Toronto Mike? We know what's happening. We've got proof from David Cooper, the new FOTM in New York City.

Shout out to David Cooper also if you made it this far. I hope it works out for you. Overnights across Canada, especially because you don't seem to need the money after all. Me? I didn't get paid. I'm going to run out of song. I didn't get paid a thing for being here.

Except you paying me in GLB. And that brings us to the end of our 993rd show you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Mark Weisblot is at 1 2 3 6 that's 12 36 go to 12 36 dot CA and sign up for his daily news burrito that's an email you gotta sign up everybody

should be signed up our friends at great lakes brewery who helped fuel this episode they're at great lakes beer palma pasta is at palma pasta i gotta keep moving here because i'm gonna write out a song sticker you is that sticker you ridley funeral home is at Ridley FH and Canna Cabana are at canna cabana underscore see you all next week you