Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Marc Weisblott: Toronto Mike'd #1263

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

In this 1263rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Marc Weisblott about why he took a break from Toronto Mike'd and all the changes in Canadian media. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1263, 1263, not 1236, 1263 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Season four of Yes, We Are Open,

the award-winning podcast from Mineris, hosted by cuddly FOTM, Al Grego. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Moment Lab, brand marketing and strategy, PR, advertising, and production. You need The Moment Lab and Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mike for the first time in 2023 is FOTM Hall of Famer Mark Weisblot. Toronto Mike, was it possible that you were thinking that you would never see me again, right? Given the way that I was here at the very end of 2022, and we did what in my mind after I left you behind, we experienced what I thought was a very fraught episode in December at the end of the year.

Remember, I postponed a couple times during that month. I was contemplating exactly what I wanted to do. We had the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. And in the middle of it all, I even started questioning, is this something that I want to carry on with, keeping notes throughout the month and obsessing over all the celebrities who are now dead, making that recap the second half of every visit that I had here over the preceding four years. I felt like I needed a change. I felt like I needed to get to another place in my life and how I perceive things in the process.

I think over the course of last fall, Toronto Mike, you were making comments that to me came off as little microaggressions. One of the issues was the fact that I no longer had the sponsorship support for the 1236 newsletter. That was a dramatic thing. That was a change of scenery after this company, SJC Media, said they didn't see a future in what we were doing, but I could keep the name, I could keep the brand, I could keep the mailing list, I could go off on my own, I could make something happen with the assets that they had given me. And I thought about it for a while, I couldn't get to the right place. And as I talked to you about it on your podcast, you started telling me, without naming names,

that you were getting emails. Notably enough, these people weren't writing to me, but they were telling you that I sounded a little sad, that people felt sorry for me, that maybe I was a little disoriented. I didn't say that, actually. I said sad. disoriented. I didn't know what I was going to do. And it was dragging me down to come to your basement with no compensation. And at the same time, the wheels had fallen off the arrangement, which was the original premise for me to come over here, which was to promote the newsletter and also to fulfill my fantasy of being one of those media personalities in Toronto who shows up on the air everywhere, and no one listening is exactly quite sure about what they do, right?

Like I would have this newsletter out there, and I think a lot of people figure it out from my appearances on your show. But on the other hand, I enjoy the idea that I was just this eccentric guest who made a point of coming to your house every month for no reason whatsoever, right? And how I managed to accumulate these areas of expertise. And it's you, Toronto Mike, who said to me when I suggested that you could find a replacement for what we were doing here every month, the monthly media recap. You were the one that said I was irreplaceable. There's no surrogate that can come in.

It's not like you had toast with Cam Gordon and Stu Stone, and you found your Coy, you found your Vance. Suddenly there's two different guys doing this concept that you created there with Rob Pruce and Bob Ouellette, that I dared you to find somebody who could come to your basement every month and do the thing instead of me. And how did you react, right? Like your reaction was, I'm not going to find that person. I'm going to hold down the fort. You are invited back here every single month. Come back whenever you are ready.

What was the feedback you received about my sudden disappearance from the show? Because from what I could tell, it was a number of emails, people absolutely convinced that you were mad at me, that I got angry at you, that there was some kind of falling out. Can you explain? Because you've been holding that all in. Like, you didn't even give me any spoilers about what you're going to explain. Do you mind if I pop open my Great Lakes beer right now? Okay, I'm cracking open my Sunnyside Session IPA.

Thank you, Great Lakes beer, for sending over fresh craft beer. Fresh Craft Beer, why don't you crack yours open too? I think you need a little bit there. I asked you a question, and here you are. Well, I want to sip some beer here because I'm still processing that six minutes there. So you said you say now that you left the show, so we recorded at the end of December, say now that you left the show so we recorded at the end of December and we had, in fact, you produced, you managed

this that you wanted to talk with Ed Keenan, the first... Okay, but that's the thing. Yeah, that's the point where maybe you should have reigned me in, right? Because I was all over the place. I was scatterbrained. Do you think you could be reigned in? I said we would come back. No, I said we would come back the week after January and we would restart all over again. Ed Keenan of the Toronto Star. You asked

can I come in with Ed and talk? Well, because I just wanted to change the channel of what we're doing here. And I want to talk about the history, the evolution of Gen X media. Well, I said okay. And I thought it would be something that would be a good starting point for 2023, but I couldn't get there. Look, I was not in the mood. Hold on, let me talk.

See, I'm receding into the background already. It's been a long time, but here I am. Okay, listen closely. So, you and I had a scheduled recording with Ed Keenan early January 2023. You sent me a note and said you weren't feeling up to it. And I said, okay, I'll go solo with Ed and I'll just do something different because it was your idea to talk about like Gen X alt media. That was your baby. I didn't feel the love for that.

I wanted to just talk to Ed Keenan. And then actually he came over. It was great. And I said, let's do this every quarter and he'll be back in early July. And I'll be back here eventually with me. But what responses were you receiving about the fact that I wasn't coming over anymore?

I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Listen, I carved out two hours plus for you. Don't worry. I, well, first of all, you were auspicious by your absence anymore. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Listen, I carved out two hours plus for you. Don't worry. I... Well, first of all, you were auspicious by your absence because you were here every month for years, right?

Every month for years, you, like clockwork, would come in and we'd do 2.5 to 3 hours. This is something the listenership got used to. Love him or hate him, you took note of the fact there was 2.5 to 3 hours of wise blot in the Toronto Mike feed once a month for years then all of a sudden in January I dropped the

Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode solo so I did that for January I also did it for February March April and I'm going to drop it uh maybe tomorrow for for May so May'm going to drop it maybe tomorrow for May. So May is going to drop soon. So I took that on because I knew you weren't feeling that. But in terms of you coming in and doing what you do so well, where you kind of surmise the Canadian media zeitgeist and give us your perspective on it and what you've heard and how this affects that. I deem you a unicorn. I've told you this.

I've been very public about this. You're a unicorn. There's only one of you. I was able to replace Stu and Cam, although I do hope they return like you just did. I hope they return because I'd keep Stu and Cam going with Toast. But I love the new Toast with Bob and Rob.

And I feel like it's just as fun as the old Toast. I enjoy the new Toast. There's two Toasts. I couldn't replace you for this media zeitgeist part because I couldn't find somebody who can do what you do. So there's that. And now to answer your specific question, after you weren't here January, then you weren't here February, the wise blot lovers out there who listen once a month have already taken note. Something's amiss. He's missed a couple of weeks. Then you weren't in here March and you weren't in here April.

So I would get notes from people, something to the effect of, firstly, where's Mark Weisblot? What happened to the 1236 episodes? Did you have a falling out with Mark? Because people would just assume in this absence of any information or specifics, although I kept saying, you know,

that you just sent me a note to say you needed some time. And I said, of course. So why don't you tell us in more specifics, did we have a falling out? Did we have a fight? And why the hell did it take you so long to get in here? I was worried that something like that could happen. Really?

This is fascinating to me. Because when I left here on that episode in the last week of December, I was in a foul mood, okay? Yeah, that's on you. And I thought I would feel bad about it for a week, and then I would forget about it, right? I would come back, and I wouldn't have to mention it. It would have been like nothing

ever happened. Why were you in a foul mood? I didn't quite get there. I think it's because, as the song goes, my mind was playing tricks on me. And I spent most of the winter, there you go, 2023,

living in some kind of twilight zone. Are you comfortable sharing more? I think your fans and those who love to hear you on Toronto Mike would appreciate a little more, but of course, only if you're comfortable. But did you get stuck in your own head? I think I am

still coming at it from a privileged position. Okay? All along the way, I've managed to stay employed. I have this job of being Canada's number one Jewish journalist for the Canadian Jewish News. That's still happening there. It was partly the fact that the 1236 newsletter was no longer a going concern. I had the liberty to do anything I wanted with it, but I couldn't find the right allies to get me in the mood.

And I think based on my experiences coming to this point in time, I think that's where the evolution of the Gen X journalist comes in. I just could not bring myself to the idea that I would have to go back to the beginning, even if it was a situation that I could figure out how to monetize. And maybe, Toronto Mike, you can relate to this. Sure, but you're not your job. Getting something started entirely on your own, it was still depressing the hell out of me. I wanted to get out of my physical space.

We had been through the pandemic. I think a lot of us experiencing a certain number of aftershocks that are only coming around now. It wasn't immediate that everybody could come to the conclusion about the effect that all these lockdowns had on them. And I spent a lot of time, I'm sure a lot of people out there did too, thinking about the fact that when this is over,

I am going to get to a new place in a new world. And when that wasn't happening, I could feel the frustration continuing to mount. It was bad enough that I had to go over this talking to certain people on the phone. over this talking to certain people on the phone, the idea that I would take the TTC all the way to Islington and Lakeshore to regurgitate the same stuff over and over again with you, not that you are not a compassionate caregiver

when it comes to dealing with the angst of certain media personalities. We'll talk a little about that during this visit here because I noticed it was something of a trend on episodes of Toronto Might. But a dark night of the soul happened to me. I had to take my turn, and I was a little terrified of the idea that if I came on your podcast and things took a

turn for the worse, let's say an episode where I actually stormed out in the middle of the show, and future Mike had to make an appearance on the edit to explain I do it in real time. You thought that Molly Johnson was bad

when she had an eruption in my basement? Just wait till you hear this episode with 1236. Then you would be talking about it afterwards with Humble and Fred. Maybe Elvis. Freddie P would have said, I knew, I knew it. I knew this guy was trouble all along. I would be

listening to it all. I would be monitoring all these discussions about my meltdown. And I wouldn't feel the freedom to come back and apologize for all the damage I had wrought. We have to make this a discourse. Okay, back and forth. I need to ask you specifically

why the hell would you be storming out of my basement? We are friends. You've got the second or you've probably got the third most appearances in Toronto Mike's history. You know I mad respect you and I respected what you do since long before I met you.

Why are you storming out of my basement? I'm actually missing that part. The thing is now we know it's not going to happen. At least it's not going to happen now. This song is literally Ghetto Boys, My Mind Playing Tricks on Me. Oh, yeah, this song was my personal anthem in my early 20s.

I had a single. I would play it over and over and over again. This beer is delicious, by the way. I was also missing a lot of the music cues, which I took very personally on the last episode we did in December. I can't remember anything abnormal about the last episode of December. It seemed like a regular appearance. What is it that was different?

Just remind me. I record a lot. Like, help me out here. Did I say something that upset you? I actually have no memory of us having any issues. I'm just looking forward to everything getting back on track. But is this all to do with the fact that you received this bad news from St. Joseph Media? It wasn't necessarily bad news, though.

It wasn't good news. Yeah, but it was an invitation to be a new kind of media entrepreneur and do it on my own. And I still want that to happen. I want it to happen in tandem with you. But at the same time, you've got multiple mouths to feed. Your penchant for adventure may not be what it once was. Your business plan lacks specifics. Like real talk, I can't operate on,

oh, we should do something, something, something. Like, I totally am working hard every day to send the kids to university and feed the kids and everything. And I did build this TMDS from scratch, right? With the help of great FOTMs like you. But I need, when it comes to us working together, now I need more than just motherhood and

apple pie. Like I need specifics. What are we doing together and who's paying the bills? Maybe we can get there. Somebody's listening to this podcast. And I think once again, as we'll do in this monthly recap or recapping here the first five months of 2023. I think it's a significant period of seismic change in the communications industry. I think there's opportunities all over the place for everyone, even during an economic downturn. That's when the ideas start to flourish. I'm also keeping in mind here, trying to remember that a rebound from the pandemic is still far from over. We're still not back to normal yet in all of our heads. And I was living a life, I wouldn't say it was irresponsible or anything that resembled debauchery. But at the same time, I think I needed a whole different framework to emerge

and it hadn't been happening. It kind of started to go in that direction, started to develop some different new allies, maybe some reunions with people who I knew before and going back to some old familiar places. This was all very deliberate. Some of this has worked out wonderfully well. But I read a book from Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist. And it was one of those early books

about what would happen after the pandemic. Apollo's Arrow, name of this book. And he did outline in there that in fact, that even if the World Health Organization, as they did announce that the danger, the state of emergency is not happening anymore, it will take to 2024 for everyone to feel like things are back in line. And then the orgies will suddenly begin all over again. And everybody will be looking for a good time. So if we can just hang in there, right? Like six, seven, eight more months,

I think this new approach to living, this new outlook on society will emerge, but I couldn't have been the only one who felt like they fell into a trench over the previous few months. I mean, Toronto, Mike, you've got different dynamics going on here than I do, right? Your kids? Your kids are all doing okay? Yep. All four of them?

Yep. Right? Both sets doing great? Older ones off to university? It's one big blob to me. The younger ones who you wouldn't let go near me because you were convinced that I wasn't vaccinated back in 2021? Yes, I know.

You were coughing. Is that what the issue was there? No, you were coughing. Is that what the issue was there? I know you're back. I know, please. That's another thing. I don't have any patience for the hyperbole here. Hold on here.

Okay, hold on. That was it. You literally were coughing up a storm in the middle of the pandemic. Why would I let my kids get too close to somebody who's coughing up a storm in the middle of the pandemic?

Okay, see, you've even forgotten our recurring jokes because in the past you went over the fact that at that point in time you were, of course, a wonderful father. You were looking out for your kids. You weren't letting them walk in proximity to anyone. I wouldn't let the neighbor's kids near you.

Now listen closely. I want to just surmise everything before we move on here. I do want to shout out James Patterson, who when I just said, hey, I got wise plots here tomorrow, he wrote a tweet. Where have you been? We missed you. So I'm sure many people did miss you,

and I'm glad you're back. Yeah. Did I not manage to answer enough of that question? You said FOTM. Mike Epple had some questions for me. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no. He actually just wanted me to know that he misses you very much

and he loves the 1236 episodes and looks forward to your return. So he's like one of many people who are. That was it. I thought it was going to be some sort of interrogation. No, no, no, no, no. I have to follow through on meeting up with Mike Epple soon because it's been a while since I've had that experience of being out in public with someone who gets recognized. Have you ever been like on a patio with somebody who people recognize from TV?

Well, we could talk about that too. How I'm here hot on the heels of Toronto Mike on national television. Okay, before you go to the debate on CTV News Channel, I'm glad we can talk about that because that was earlier this week. I'm going to surmise everything, though, and then you're going to basically bless it or you're going to be like you got it all wrong. But okay, so in late December, you come on Toronto Mike.

It's your monthly. You've been here for years, every single month. And for whatever reason, again, I don't judge. December, you come on Toronto Mike. It's your monthly. You've been here for years, every single month. And for whatever reason, again, I'm not going to, I don't judge. There's no, you don't have to come on every month. A late December appearance that I postponed. That I spent an entire month

trying to get out of. Whatever. So late December, you come over, you do your thing. We have in the calendar that you'll return in early January with birthday boy Ed Keenan. And not, not it was his birthday then, but it's now. And you, uh, kindly, like you're always kind, of course you're like, uh, I'm not feeling it. Do it, do it yourself with Ed. And I did it with myself. And now it comes over every quarter and it's fantastic. I took on the Ridley funeral home

segment because I wanted that to continue continue but of course you're not visiting so I've got to do it myself which I'm happy to do and I'll keep doing it myself so between so January, January, February, March, April, May so five months elapsed without you visiting what changed that you DM'd me on Twitter

and said let's book my return is it just you needed some time to just process everything? that you DMed me on Twitter and said, let's book my return. Is it just you needed some time to just process everything? I needed some time. I mean, we're crawling out of the winter in April. I think the time you had for me, it coincided with the Jewish holiday season. I didn't want to be tempted by beer and pasta oh yeah shout out to palma pasta week of passover okay no nothing like that was going to happen but but i think it took a turn

and recognizing what a compassionate podcaster you are do you want to do that first or the debate like i want to hear about all of this it's been a long time since we had a talk. Why are you interrupting me in the middle of this colossal thought? I'm about to heap this massive compliment on you. I'm ready. Because there were a sequence of experiences that I was

hearing, which originated from this basement where I think you had a succession of personalities here who were also going through something. And they all had different stories to tell. But you were here in the basement and you were willing to listen. And the most dramatic guest of all was when you were visited

by a man named Mike Stafford. Ever since you did that episode with Stafford, who was about two years removed from broadcasting on course radio, AM640. You said it generated a level of reaction that was unprecedented in the history of your show. Am I right about that? I don't know if it's the most, but I doubt it's the most. But it's absolutely a much higher level of engagement

than your average episode of Toronto Mike, without a doubt. And you think it was a situation because ultimately he was vindicated that he found himself in a corporate media situation that actually found him backed into a corner, unable to pay the bills, unable to make a living. Because initially it might have been considered a little bit dangerous if you had said that based on what he lost his job for, which was racial humor expressed online, on Twitter, in an internal work chat, right? Whether it was racist humor or not,

perhaps that's in the eye of the beholder. Right. But ultimately, what this corporation did to him is a cautionary tale for others out there that if the company wants you gone for one reason or another, then they will use every available opportunity to make that happen, and you cannot guarantee on, no matter how many years of service you put in, no matter how much money you paid into the company pension,

you can find yourself in a situation like Mike Stafford has, where he can't access that money. And he was expressing to you the circumstances that he found himself in. And I think in the process articulated something that no one else can, which was the degree to which chorus entertainment had done him wrong, that there had to be some sort of justice delivered there, or at the very least, somebody in the world willing to give him a job, a new opportunity to get back on his feet and make things happen. How is that going so far for Mike Stafford?

So since the episode, what was it? 1250, I think, was the episode number. Mike Stafford came over, a lot of reaction, very polarizing. A lot of people feel very sorry for Mike Stafford and feel he was done dirty by chorus. Other people feel like it was all self-inflicted and he has only himself to blame. And he sounds a little pathetic in that episode begging for money and then there are the people who can see it both ways that maybe they're both true like maybe these are self-inflicted wounds maybe he sounds a little pathetic and sad that he's begging for money and maybe he was done dirty by chorus so i think it's one of those episodes like that dress is it gold and blue like whatever the colors of that dress where i can't remember now but it's like people interpret that episode differently and it's fascinating to get

people's reaction and I noticed a lot of people want to talk about it like they want to talk about the Stafford episode many people tell me they listen to it many many times I can tell you immediately thereafter when I posted the Stafford like almost right away because I got a call the next morning from a lawyer there is that multiple lawyers that were willing to take on this suit against Corus on contingency, which means no money up front. So Stafford doesn't have to pay them until he gets paid and then they take a percentage or whatever. And that's what he was looking for. So multiple lawyers stepped up to do that.

There was a two year limit. Apparently you have to initiate this within two years. And we got in under, I say we, like I'm fucking part of the team. It's not we. He got in under the wire. And that's good news. Also, an FOTM who owns radio stations reached out and said, if I could help Mike Stafford with the tech, like making sure he's got a good USB mic set up and everything, there's voiceover work for him so he can make a few bucks. Because the one thing that man still has, and I can tell you after that 90 minute chat, he still has his voice. Great voice. Oh man, I think that's what happens when you smoke a couple of packs a day. You sound like that.

I might take up smoking just to sound like that. Great voice, still has his wit, still sharp as a tack, of course. So I hope things turn out for this man because I am sympathetic to him as a human being who's down on his luck and I root for him to bounce off the bottom and be a contributing member to society again and somebody who has a job

and has money and I'm rooting for him. Liza Fromer. Yes! Somebody who didn't come to you with a sob story per se, but at the same time she is now many years removed

from full-time broadcasting. We talk about people getting a tap on the shoulder where there's no longer considered a place for them in the media world, all of a sudden, seven years have gone by, and she shows up on breakfast television again. Unfortunately, the package deal meant if you wanted to watch a return of Liza Fromer, you also had to deal with

Sid Cicero, who was sitting beside her on the couch on that City TV morning show. What do you think of Sid? Liza Fromer is someone who I think has a story to tell about the media experience being a member of Generation X. And I think it speaks to the state of the industry where perhaps it was financial or economic. Maybe she was considered not as young anymore for the sexist standards that people associate with broadcast TV, that she was talking here about the fact that she had been laying pretty low, right? She came down here to kick out the jams. And in between, we got little bits and pieces about her story.

We got little bits and pieces about her story. And I found that was another episode, another situation where we had a very specific Toronto Mike approach to talking about someone, their experience, their career, what they had been through. Of course she wants to get back on breakfast television, right? Right. But it's not like she was going to say – she wasn't going to say anything insulting about Sid. Like, her getting that old job back might be contingent upon having to sit next to the guy for whatever it's worth to have these corporate morning show broadcasting jobs.

I think that is her rightful place, sitting on that TV morning show sofa, don't you? I mean, it doesn't make any sense that she's not there, let alone the idea that they would bring her back for two weeks, but it was framed as like a guest appearance. I mean, come on. She's essentially talking about how she's in the job market and needing to get back into the groove of doing things. So I found that a little

bit suspicious at the same time she is playing the game here, right? Like she's going along with what she has to say. The idea that she came back after seven years, seven years after being let go from global, and that she was just doing it for fun seven years after being let go from Global, and that she was just doing it for fun. Like, for the same reason she's coming over to Toronto, Mike. I mean, come on. There's something more at work there, and I hope it works out for her.

Now, an interesting fact is that I had actually talked to Liza about kicking out the jams when I first invented Kick Out the Jams episodes, so we're going way back right now. She was like going to be an OG of jam kicking alongside Mark Hebbshire, who we'll talk about in a bit, and Mike Wilner and some of those OGs. Somehow it never happened and we got it back in the calendar. And then it was not until like a few weeks after she booked her return to Toronto Mike that I

learned about her coming back to Breakfast Television for a couple of weeks. So I can't speak to how good she is on Breakfast Television. I haven't seen a minute of that program. I know my buddy Elvis loves his breakfast television, but I think Liza is amazing. Like when I sit down for 90 minutes to kick out the jams with her, it is 90 minutes of great fun. And I love the way she talks. I love her passion for the music. I love it all. Like, so if she's even half as good on breakfast television as she is on Toronto Mic'd, yeah, sign her up now. What a jam kicker. She's coming back

to kick up more jams. With or without Sid Sixero. Emphasis on the without. Elvis hopes it's with Sid Sixero. I think he's got a very big boy crush on Sid. Mark Hebzer. Yeah, let's talk about Mark.

Also during the month of May. Yeah, let's talk about Mark. Hebzy on sports. Yes, please. Also during the month of May. Lots of ground to cover. Did you time stamp the exact date that Mark Hebzer did the very thing that I'm saying I wanted to avoid with you? That is to say, walked off the show without any advance warning. Now remember, though. Although, yeah, in the case of Hebsey on sports,

this is a situation where he was paying you. Yeah, right. No, I should point out. Yeah, yeah. So I don't pay you, but I do give you free beer, and I do have, by the way, a wireless speaker for you, Mark, courtesy of Moneris, so that you can listen to the cuddly El Grego as he hosts season four of Yes, We Are Open.

I know you love that podcast, and it inspires entrepreneurs like us, so I urge everyone listening to subscribe to Yes, We Are Open, the Mineris podcast. It's award-winning, Al's award-winning, and you have called him cuddly in the past, and I think you're correct.

You have a speaker that's going home with you. What happened to Mark Hemscher there right he dropped a bomb on you in the middle of his own show okay so i have the news here okay so may 5th 2023 that's still uh less than a month ago i log in as i did every friday morning for hebsey on, you know, ever since he figured out he could do it from his home, he hasn't been dropped the first few years. He came here physically like you do, and we did it in person,

but then he got a bit lazy, I think. And he did it on zoom. So no, no. At first it was the pandemic. We're not supposed to leave our house. I don't want to go outside.

If I, if I, if I enter your premises, you're going to have to quarantine the children, right? I mean, there was some caution there in the process. I just can't remember what came first. I feel like we had gone remote before, but whatever. Okay. So, on

May 5th, which was a Friday, I logged in at about 10 to 9, because 9 o'clock we go live. And we go live on his YouTube channel and I record it for the podcast and we have it down to a fine art. And I said, Mark, you never sent me the notes for this episode because he always sends me a Google document with notes. So I know where he's going. So I don't steal his thunder, et cetera, et cetera. And he goes, no notes for this app. This is my final episode. He says that to me. And I said, I kind of thought he was joking. Like

it's a bit or whatever. And I go, you're kidding. And he goes, nope, this is it. I'm done. And then I said, let's go live and get into this thing. And the rest is all on the episode. So people should find that final episode of Hebsey on sports. I posted it on torontomic.com. I actually posted the YouTube channel. I'm looking at it now. I'm wearing a Great Lakes hoodie. But that was the final episode. I think it was episode 332. He just wanted to stop working completely, and he retired, and he seems happy, and I'm happy for him. What a bombshell, in which Mark Hebzer,

who I remember hearing, doing his earliest days of sports talk radio in Toronto, my dad used to call in and talk to Hebsey, a young Hebsey, on his show. Mark Hebsey, pledging in the future, he will be paying even less attention to professional sports than me. That is quite something there

for a guy who's been synonymous with obsessing over this stuff. What do you think the factor was? Was he moving? He had a relocation. He did relocate. Moving in with his lady friend. It seemed like he had some different changes going on in his life. Yeah, I think a lot of this has to do with

the fact he gave up his basement apartment at College and Clinton and he moved to Markham, but at the border of Stouffville. So I don't know how big Markham is. Really? He had a basement apartment? Yeah, all that time. I'm not going to get too personal. He didn't own a house?

When he started Hebsey on Sports, it coincided with a bunch of big changes he made in his life that made him a lot happier, one of which is leaving a marriage. I can relate to that. So he left a marriage, and part of that was giving up his... See, if only I had a marriage to leave, maybe my mind would not

have been playing tricks on me. Right. So Hebsey became happier. He had a girlfriend in a basement apartment and he got to talk sports and Hebsey on sports as opposed to whatever Liz West wanted to talk about. And he was a happy duck. And we did it for five frickin' years.

And then he had a new girlfriend. He's had her for a while now because she came to TMLXX, which was last summer. Serena is her name. And she's lovely. And Serena had a home in Markham, has a home in Markham. And Mr. Hebbshire said, I'm going to give up my apartment and move in with my girlfriend in Markham, almost Stouffville, which sounds further away to me. And he moved there,

and we did a bunch more Hebsey on Sports. And then he said, I'm tired of thinking about what I'm going to say on Thursday. It's ruining my Thursday nights. It's ruining my Friday mornings because he wanted to golf. And he said, that's it for me.

And he seems to be enjoying retirement. Okay, well, aside from being surprised that Hebsey was not a homeowner, although anything is possible when you spend 45 years in the Canadian media. He got no money for leaving CHCH, like not a penny. It was just like, stop coming here.

And he got divorced a couple of times. I can tell you the worst thing you could do for your finances is get divorced, and he did it twice. I'm learning more about Hebsey here than I ever did listening to his show. And yet yet even though i don't speak sports right generally along the way i praised hebsey's show yeah you love you you relayed this enthusiasm back to the guy and hebsey by the way hebsey was a real deal okay yeah as far as paying attention to what was going on in the media.

His concept of what was happening out there, it didn't end at his own fingertips, which we usually associate with these big egos from television. I would get emails from Hebsey over the years, different journalism, online things that I was doing. He would just email me out of the blue. I would be excited. Here was an email from an actual Toronto celebrity, Mark Hebbshire. Shout out to Hebbsy for all those years in broadcasting. Now that I am talking about this here,

I come to realize that he went out in the only way he could have, right? Like you could tell that he was looking for a dramatic ending. How do you make that happen when you're trapped on Zoom and doing a show with Toronto Mike and you won't even leave your own basement to go over to his basement to do the show? It's a long bike ride. I think Hebsey left a tremendous last show behind.

What are the odds that you're ever going to see him again? Will he just drop by to do a regular episode? Sports media roundtable, hanging out? Oh, he's going to make any excuse not to show up. I've thought about this. Is that where this whole thing is going now? Well, because it's less than a month ago that we had our final Hebsey on sports. So I'm going to give him a bunch of space, sort of like I gave you a bunch of space.

And I said, just let me know when you want to come back. And here we are like five months later or whatever, but for Hebsey, I'm going to give him the summer. I'm going to like, maybe after labor day, I'll reach out and say,

Hey, do you want to do a sports media round table or something like that? But I'm going to give him a bunch of space to just, you know, decompress, enjoy the summer. He's golfing a lot. I'm not going to bug him at all until after Labor Day.

That's my plan. Scott MacArthur. Yes, Scotty Mac. Here we go. Coming on your show in the near future. I think it's next week. I'm going to check it out. Well, you keep talking about Scotty Mac,

and I'll tell you specifically what he's going to do. As we tend to do here on the 1236 episodes of Toronto Mike. Is that what this is? When we learn about the fact that a certain radio personality whose new job at News Talk 1010 was introduced with tremendous fanfare. June 15th. It was a new era for the rush on News Talk 1010. Reshmi Nair.

Never heard of her. And Scott MacArthur were going to be this new afternoon drive duo after they got rid of Ryan Doyle and some sort of restart refresh, trying to turn CFRB News Talk 1010 into more of like a CTV adjacent radio station. Because, of course, Mad Dog, who's also a good FOTM, moved to Montreal to be on Shome. Scotty Mac was conspicuous by his absence from the airwaves, and we heard a situation where they would still mention him as a host of the show, but then several months went by in which he was nowhere to be found.

Like, he never showed up again. It was Reshmi doing the show with a rotation of guest co-hosts. And like Chuck Cunningham on Happy Days, they never made reference to Scotty Mac again. through the winter of 2023, where I was spending way too much time just catastrophizing everything that was going on around me. So I have the utmost empathy for someone who emerges to say that they found themselves in the same situation, that he got this job on CFRB, this legacy talk radio station position, and in very short order, and he did post about this, right?

It was on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter or different websites. He confessed to the fact that he was in a very dark place, and he could no longer show up for work anymore. And it seemed to be based on, well, we look for clues out there. The end date that he put on his job on LinkedIn, at least Bell Let's Talk isn't entirely a fictitious thing. That in his case, it sounds like they kept paying him for a while under the circumstance during this mental health leave.

It's not the first time that we've heard a story like this relative to what's happening at CFRB. But in the case of Scotty Mack, unlike other personalities that are on the air, there was no return to the airwaves for him. And

torontomike.com had a piece about this that he relocated to the East Coast. Peggy's Cove. Peggy's Cove to start his life all over again and kind of erase this news talk 10-10 experience from his

LinkedIn history. It's like it never really happened. Well, he had back-to-back bad experiences, right? Just a matter of months. His exit from Rogers was not good, and then he had that epiphany of sorts where he realized he didn't want to be on the radio on 1010 or anywhere else, and he decided it was time to make

some significant life changes. And again, on June 15, he will be here in my basement, sitting where you're sitting right now, to tell me exactly what happened, and I'm going to ask him the questions you'd expect Toronto Mike to ask his guests. So we're going to get basically much like,

I'd say much like Stafford and Stephen Brunt. This is another voice we haven't heard in a while who will be on my microphones and discussing what happened, what's next, and how he's doing. Viewers of the CTV News Channel on a sunny spring night, all 17 of them,

at the end of May 2023, would have seen Reshmi Nair with a new sidekick on a show that absolutely no one was aware exists. Something on the CTV News channel called The Debate. Toronto Mike, how did this happen? I got an email from a, let's call this young woman a chase producer. I think that's the term they use. Who asked me, would I be willing

to do be on the show? And I had not heard of the show, but she said, it's called The Debate. It's on CTV News Channel. Would I, I'd get three topics, you know, the day of the recording, and I would debate somebody on these three topics. And I, of course, had questions. So I said, give me a call. And we had a chat. And and my first question was why are you asking me like what is this about how did you get Toronto Mike on your radar because I knew that the Monday episode that was gonna be Rashmi Nair versus somebody and I know Rashmi because I will tell you and I hear people criticize her on 1010 I haven't heard her on 1010 maybe I'll ask you how she's doing on 1010 because I know you would have listened but I loved my Rashmi Nair Toronto Mic'd episode I felt great chemistry with her I thought she was delightful she was just the right

mix of like like there's just the right spice in there to keep me very interested I loved my Rashmi Nair episode and if again if her 1010 show is like 50% as interesting as she was on Toronto Mike, I would think that would be a good show. I think it might be like 0.5. So just to wrap this up in a boat. She's got a job to do. She was hired for Quibi to do this app video newscast.

And when that didn't work out, I guess I had to put her somewhere. And she swore to you when she was on the show that being on the radio was the only job that she ever wanted to do. I don't think so, but at the same time we're seeing that

CTV has this airtime and they put Reshmi on camera right after she did a four-hour radio show. What's one more hour of work? Okay. To show that you're a team player,

go on this show and have a debate with Toronto Mike. Now here, to put a bow on this, it turns out somebody on staff, and I didn't ask who it was, for all I know is the host, I have no idea, but somebody on staff at the debate, and again, the host is a guy named Mike LeCouture. Does that sound right? LeCouture?

You might want to do a fact check on that. But much like the situation a lot of these corporate media people find themselves in, the guy invites you on his TV show and you can't even be bothered to remember his name? I dealt with producers. I think it's Mike LeCouture. He wrote me a lovely note after. But let me finish this thing. Let me finish this.

Hold on a second. He's an Ottawa Parliament Hill correspondent. From Global, right? I think they, now for CTV, but I think they make him do this show like as an extra thing at the end of the day.

I would think he wants to do it maybe, but what do I know? I haven't talked to him. Maybe I'll get him on Toronto Mike. But he sent me a great note and I actually ended up liking the guy and it was a great note he sent me. But okay,

Mike LeCouture, I believe is his name. And it turns out somebody on staff at the debate loves Toronto Mike and thought I'd be good on it. So I agreed on one condition. This is where I feel a little, I want to share this with everybody, a little insight. I agreed on one condition. I said, because I envisioned, I said, do I want to,

it sounds like a lot of work. I might look stupid. And they're not giving me palm of pasta lasagna. They're not giving me a wireless speaker from an air... They're not even giving you a flashlight from Ridley Funeral Home. Oh, I got a flashlight for you. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. We'll talk about...

I'm doing the Ridley Funeral Home memorial segments on my own now but there is one dropping maybe tomorrow. But okay. So I said, I don't know if I want to do this. I'm busy enough. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I'm at Hyde Park watching soccer. I'm very busy. But I said, I'll don't know if I want to do this like I'm busy enough like I got Tuesdays and Wednesdays I'm at Hyde Park watching soccer

I'm very busy but I said I'll do it on one condition I want to bike to 299 Queen Street and do it at 299 Queen Street like this to me was a story

I wanted to have I wanted this experience because 299 Queen Street is such an important building to me in the zeitgeist of things that we talk about

it's true it's true they won't let Ed the sock in the door, but they'd be willing to give you a security pass to give them free content for one hour. Get this. Get this. Okay. And I'll wrap up quick

and get it back to you. But basically, they said, okay, yeah, you can do this at 299 Queen Street. So I'm kind of excited now. This is going to happen Monday. It's live on CTV. By the way, I wasn't even sure it was live, but of course it was live. From 6 to 7, seven is live on the Monday night. So I'm like, I have it in my calendar where I think, uh, whatever, four 30, I jump on my bike, I go to two 99 queen street and then someone there sets me up and everything. And then I get

a note from the producer, a note, not only a few hours before the freaking recording of this thing, I could have already biked down saying there is no staff at 299 to take care of me. So basically they don't have a body there to walk me from the door and get me to where I need to be and set me up. So basically, please do this from the TMDS studio. Literally, that was the note hours before. And now I'm kind of dismayed at this point, but I've committed and it's like fine. And I did it from here.

That's good for Great Lakes and it's good for Moneris and it's good for Palma Post and it's good for Ridley because all the signage is like on the background in this national TV that 17 people are freaking watching like you said. But I did it. I think it went fine, but I'm not doing it again unless I can do it at 299 Queen Street.

I'm listening to this thing on an iHeartRadio app. Oh! Can I say one more thing before you finish? One more thing. They said, can you FaceTime? This is a MacBook Pro that I record on. They said, can you FaceTime? I said, yeah, MacBooks can FaceTime.

So I FaceTime in, but I only see a black screen. And I realized very quickly that it's essentially like a phone call where I can hear the audio in my headphones. Can't hear ad breaks or anything, but I can hear what Mike is saying. I can hear what Reshmi is saying in my headphones. I can even hear what Angie Seth is saying before they throw to this thing.

And Angie Seth is a person who wanted to come on Toronto Mike and I invited on Toronto Mike and Bell Media PR denied Angie Seth the privilege of coming on Toronto Mike. She was literally told, you can't go on Toronto Mike. Bell Media PR. Meanwhile, here they are asking me to come on their hour live show.

That's bullshit. But let me get back to this. All I see is a black screen. So I hear it in the headphones. I can't see a thing. I can't see Mike. I can't see Reshmi. I don't know when I'm on TV.

I don't know when I'm in that three panel mode. I don't know when they're showing some clips. When they talk about graphics, I can't see the graphics. It's essentially like I phoned this in and I just think that's kind of crummy considering it was my first time. I would have liked to see something, but what were you going to say before

I interrupted you? What a time to be alive in which you are doing this national news channel broadcast from your basement. Right. And I don't have I don't have to have a TV. I don't need cable. I know that you can access through this app. You can listen to what's happening on the CTV news channel at any given time. And I've never had that experience before. That is any reason to tune in to the news on CTV happening live there.

Maybe you can also get CTV local news and CP24 has a feed. So I knew that while I was walking around and walking on sunshine, enjoying the nice weather out there at 6 p.m., I didn't need to be captive. I didn't need to be captive. I didn't need to be indoors. I could listen to this experience of the debate, which is a whole other discussion. I don't know if this show was a debate at all. I know. I was on the verge of falling asleep on the sidewalk while I was listening to this show. It was so tedious. I was wondering, when did television become a boring version of podcasts, right? Because it is absolutely no different from what we're doing here, except it's structured in a way that you can't go off on any tangents, right? Like, I'm sure you tried to slip in a few Seinfeld references.

I said Tori Spelling's name. That was for you. That was for me. I gave it some cues because I saw what the topics would be. I talked about the friendly giant. That was for Ed Conroy. I dropped the Seinfeld reference just randomly out of nowhere. It turns out the host is a massive Seinfeld fan, and he loved that.

He said he never laughed so hard on TV. I tried to make it like pop culture the first topic sucked like there was nowhere you did what you could in terms of extemporaneous spontaneity oh i dropped the star wars reference from admiral akbar but at the same time they give you three topics and the idea is that you're on there and you're having a debate but you agreed on pretty much i didn't know her takes on anything right like i knew my takes but really this is that You're on there and you're having a debate, but you agreed on pretty much everything. Well, I didn't know her takes on anything, right? Like, I knew my takes, but really...

This is a tremendously undercooked show. But we did disagree. They don't even put any advance work in anything, right? They didn't give you any cues about what position you might want to take or any kind of pre-interviewing to Would you want them to do that? To know what Reshmi would be saying over there? Well, if this is a show that's supposed to influence public policy, but obviously that's not what's happening here. I think what it is, my assumption is they have a CTV News channel.

Yes. And at 6 p.m. during the week, they also run CTV local newscasts. Of course, World Beat News on Channel 9, Cable 8. I don't know, whoever's doing that newscast now today, the CTV local newscast. Remember the anchors? It's the guy who Mike Tyson wanted to punch out. Do you remember their names?

Who did Mike Tyson want to punch out? Nathan Downer. I'm completely drawing a blank. There you go. So the pie of people who are watching, there are only so many old folks homes in Toronto who have a television tuned to the TV news. I think this is deliberate that they can have some semblance

of live broadcasting on the CTV news channel, right? But at the same time, it'll be a show that absolutely nobody watches because they actually want everybody to tune over and congregate around that one specific newscast show. So you're just providing filler for the fact that they don't want anybody watching on this channel. Where's my palm of pasta lasagna? Look, Mark, I just want a pointed question. Okay, yes, you find the show boring. The format's boring to you. Okay, no, no, no. Look, Mark, I just want to point a question. Okay, yes, you find the show boring, the format's boring to you. How did...

No, hold on. I'm not saying that everybody there wasn't appearing with good intentions, okay? Okay, but this is your friend Reshmi. She's trying to get back on television. I've only met her once. Get her off the radio station. She doesn't know what she's doing. She doesn't belong there. She has no enthusiasm for the format.

Okay? Like, we might get to the point where on 1010, they're just simulcasting CP24 anyway, and she can keep her time slot. We got to get her back on the air. She's got to be back on television. She's a national treasure. This guy, the host of the show, Mike LeCourteur. Like I said.

He's moonlighting being a parliamentary reporter. He's not. His dream is not to host some game show that isn't supposed to get any viewers. How do you know this wasn't his initiative? It just. The whole thing was terribly lame. This is why. Just a pointless exercise.

The lowest level of Canadian media. And because you're Toronto Mike, you got to live the experience. And here you are talking all about it, giving this show attention that it hasn't received and never will again. It's only been on for a few months. I heard the debate. Brittle started an episode. 6 to 7 p.m. There you go.

Yeah, that's all the confidence I need about the quality of guests on this show. You're not coming back again. You're not going to do it anymore. I said if I can do it at 299 Queen Street, I will do it. I still want the 299 Queen Street. They can't do a bait and switch, though. I protest I'm going to swear on their live. Yeah, well, that's one more person they're going to have to hire at $15 an hour to escort you into the building there.

I can do it myself. They don't even want to spend that $15. Even once. They would rather not have that expense. Before I die, just once in my life, I want to record at 299 Queen Street. And this was my opportunity. It was a bait and switch. But in hindsight, I'm glad I did it.

Everybody has given me positive feedback except you. I can't control how exciting the show is, but I want to know from you right now before we move on, how did I do? I don't have an answer. I did my best to give you every thought that was in my brain of listening to this stultifying television exercise. Let's get on with the song of the summer. How about that? I gave you a bunch of jams to play. Where are we at? me when i'm looking good enough did you ever thought me would you ever picture us

every time i pull my hair i was only out of fear but you'll find me ugly and one day you'll disappear because what's the point of crying it was never even enough did you ever want me was i ever good enough but boys are we are but boys are we are he doesn't see us you're not looking at me It's no, uh, Steal My Sunshine. Oh, no. Oh, come on. This is great. We've got, check out this rap from Ice Spice.

I prefer Donovan Bailey's jams. You're not buying it? I don't know. I'm the wrong demo, I think. Ice Spice. Do you know Ice Spice? It turns out I found out she was born on January the 1st, 2000. So remember when we were all standing by wondering what would happen? I was at a Tragically Hip

concert. What would happen on Y2K? That's what happened. The question now has an answer. It was the birth of the biggest rock star in America summer 2023. Give me the list of Toronto stations that are

playing this right now. That's another thing that I think happened to me over the course of the winter. I don't have the same enthusiasm for keeping track of this stuff anymore. All I know. Well, I'm flipping around. It really sucks. If I want to listen to Boyz Aliyah, right? In print, the word is liar, but the way that Pink Pantheress, vocalist on this track, she's British.

She's opted for a different pronunciation because it rhymes better with the other words in the song. Boyz Alia. All over the place. And I want to listen to it 47 times in a row. The Kiss would play that. Might have actually happened there. I'm sure Kiss is a row. Like Kiss would play that. Might have actually happened there. I'm sure Kiss is playing it. Virgin's probably playing that.

Here's the whole thing. This is one of those songs that originated off of TikTok, right? Yeah, I've heard of that. And this is the new punk rock. Like the fact that you can make a song like this out of nowhere. And the next thing you know, you're an established corporate music superstar. And that's where these young women have come from. And that is why Ice Spice is on the new Taylor Swift single.

Taylor Swift invited her on the stage. I've always enjoyed over the years, despite your complete lack of interest, bringing Toronto Mike, what's happening here in the teen trends of today. I'm a Gen X guy. Soon enough, I might be old enough to be these people's grandfather, but I pride myself on having listened to the radio long enough that I remember another brick in the wall part two. And now I'm jamming to Boys A-Leo part two by Pink Pantheress featuring Ice Spice. featuring Ice Spice.

Pink, not to be confused with Pink Floyd, shout out to another brick in the wall. And Roger Waters, a anti-Semite in some trouble. Yeah, pretty much. I liked on one episode, you admitted you regret taking those free tickets to see. I do. Roger Waters.

So I went in not knowing, like I know you're going to say, how did you not know? I had no idea. It was literally the day after somebody linked me to comments he made, and I read them. I read them objectively. I read them two, three times, and I left that reading feeling like, this man is anti-Semitic, and I regret attending his concert.

You heard it here first. Toronto Mike, still a friend of the Jews. Even though there were microaggressions in December, it was not because of your religion. Boys Aaliyah, yeah, top 40 radio hit. I don't know if it's trending yet in Toronto, but in recapping our local radio news, a big bombshell this week. Virgin Radio, 99.9.

Right. So Adam Wilde, who was poached, you might remember, and I know you are the only one who does remember, in addition to me. He was poached from Kiss to be, there was like a time delay because he had a non-compete or something. But he was working down the hall from his mother, Marilyn Dennis. So Marilyn Dennis, morning show host at 104.5 for many decades now. And Adam Wilde was the new morning show host at Virgin Radio 99.9. There was a, what, TJ was the co-host. TJ, where did TJ go?

Remind me. TJ went to the country radio station owned by Bell. In London, Ontario in London, Ontario. Why did he leave Toronto for London? Yeah, we might have talked about that here. Yeah, we did. It definitely came to mind when it mentioned that the current sidekicks on that show, the other members of that morning team, were moving on.

It was TJ confessing that he was moving to London, Ontario, taking a smaller market radio job because the salary he was receiving from Bell Media was not enough for him to live in Toronto at the level that he wanted to. He was getting married, imagining starting a family soon, and he just couldn't see it happening. imagining starting a family soon, and he just couldn't see it happening. TJ, oh, holler in. Being a member of Virgin Radio, a major market morning show, which then leads me to suspect that the other people he was working with, despite that little bit of nepotism, weren't necessarily being paid a lot of money either, at least to the point where Marilyn Dennis' son, Adam Wilde, if that is his real name.

Not his real name. Who has been associated with an FOTM, Steve Dangle. Right. Who got early into sports podcasting, right? His thing is what? He does a live stream? Yeah, you watch him watching the Leaf game. You watch him

watching the Leaf game? Wasn't it a YouTube? I never saw it, but I thought it was a YouTube thing. But I thought it was, I thought it was sanctioned by Rogers.

That was my understanding. I don't know if, I think he's parted ways now. Maybe it initially was. I think until last season. Okay, so thank you compulsive sports gamblers who have made it possible for sports media.

Is that Brian Gerstein? To be more profitable than doing a top 40 radio morning show, I guess. At least the way this Adam Wilde was spinning it. That's not necessarily the case, though. Can I chime in here? There might have been a tap on the shoulder involved. Can I chime in here? There absolutely was a tap on the shoulder.

Now, we should shout out the current co-host, and I say current meaning for one more morning, okay? Jax, who by all accounts, Jax is great at her job, right? Well, that's what I told you. Jax Irwin, yeah. What's my source for that? Definitely brings some great self-deprecating energy. She is a big lesbian.

That's a big subplot of the show. I think definitely an innovative character as far as Toronto Top 40 radio is concerned. Way better than Roz Weston, who as far as I know is still keeping his job and in fact dominating to the point where they were willing

to blow out this whole Virgin Radio morning show. Just wasn't cutting it in the ratings anymore. When did you review his book? That wasn't the December episode when you up and quit, basically, right? That was before that, right? Yeah, I think that month all my negative energy went into doing a live reading from Ross Weston's memoir. I still like Ross for what it's worth.

Ross, I still like you. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, look, he got a street named after him years before Roger Ashby. Right. Who now has a laneway around Queen and John. Yeah. Rogers is in Toronto. That's where FOTM Jerry Howarth is as well.

But Roz Westons is in Acton. But okay, let me finish this. Okay, yeah. So it's not every day we hear on Virgin Radio an announcement. Hold on. Right? On Bell. Like, we're done.

We're leaving. We're not going to be here anymore after Friday anymore. I had this story way before Adam went public. I had the story that Adam Wilde and Jax had been tapped on the shoulder and they had to decide how to spin their exit because their last day was Friday because a new show was coming in. And I guess Adam spun it as he's going to work with his buddy Steve Dangle, which is great.

I never met Adam Wilde. He politely declined my invitation to appear on Toronto Mike. Jax, I haven't met either. Jax, if you're listening to me right now, I would love to have you sit here in the TNB basement. Of course he's listening. Who else is talking about the Virgin Radio morning show?

And I hear good things. And also, my dear friend Rosie, who produces the morning show on CTV, what's that called? Your Morning, says that Jax is great when she comes on. Okay, that's my, you and Rosie are my sources for Jax being great.

All this is to say, they were tapped on the shoulder, you're out Friday, say what you wish. And I was told that, it's kind of ironic maybe, that Adam Wilde was poached from KISS, which is a Rogers-owned station,

to come over to Bell-owned Virgin down the hallway from his mom, Marilyn Dennis, because who have you heard Mark Weisblatt is taking over for Adam Wilde and Jax on Virgin 99.9? I have such respect in the Twittersphere that Adam Wilde replied to my tweet speculating that they were going to move talk radio over to CKFM 99.9. Not yet. Okay, we'll get into that.

You're a little ahead of that. We'll discuss that momentarily. In the meantime, TorontoMike.com has informed me that a guy who's been around the toronto media for a while one of the original voices on kiss 92.5 and even though he was gone for a while even though the station itself disappeared for about six years when they were doing jack fm darren jones has a long history with this uh contemporary hit radio in Toronto, even though the Gen Xers who are a little bit older remember him as a guy on Canadian community cable television. Buzz.

And you liked this show? I loved it, actually. So there's a period of my life. It's funny that tomorrow Ed the Sock is going to visit. It's funny because there was a period where the three big Cable 10 shows that I enjoyed were Ed the Sock, Tom Green, and Darren Jones with Mr. Mo on Buzz. And from what I recall, Darren was like a goofy high school kid doing these stunts on

the street. But here's a small world story is I went to St. Michael's College at U of T and as did Darren Jones. And even though I feel like I've got 10 years on Darren, I would bump into him on campus during my years there. So I guess at some point, maybe I have a few years on him and we overlapped at some point. But I remember seeing Darren Jones on campus

because I was already a Buzz fan. Let me just point something out, though, that you said. So you learned about it on TorontoMic.com. But you have since corroborated this story with another source. This is important to me because I published it because I had a source on it, and then I decided I needed a second source. So I unpublished it. But you're telling me that you have learned this Darren Jones news from a second

source. Is that correct? A shock to the system that there's anybody out there talking about these things anymore, but in fact, yeah, a reliable Toronto radio message board poster. That's important to me because I had one source, I needed two.

Not only Darren Jones, but another veteran of K Kiss 92.5. Crossing the street, Deepa Prashad. And she left at one point and there was some speculation she was going to this Virgin Radio. And it turned out it wasn't to join Adam Wilde on the morning show. It was to be part of this whole other construct that they were creating with Darren Jones in the morning, I guess. For all intents and purposes, the idea is that Darren Jones is some kind of comedian,

whereas Adam Wilde is more like the straight man in the operation. Never heard a minute of Adam Wilde. I only know Darren Jones from Buzz. Okay, different radio personality types. Maybe they're going somewhere. More realistically, not just being cynical. This is the way the business is going.

This Darren and Deepa radio morning show is probably one designed to run in multiple markets at the same time because that's the way the wind is blowing everywhere. So you've got a Virgin Radio

in Kitchener in London. They're not spending money on radio. Have you seen this show? Yeah, if you're working at these stations, if you're working at these stations, if you're at this smaller market, Bell, Media, Virgin station,

stand by because that tap on the shoulder is probably coming for you. Steven Brunt was just my guest. This was last week. I loved my chat with Steven Brunt and he's a guy who got the tap on the shoulder. He says it was kind of a mutual thing, but I never know how the tap comes

at the exact same moment that you want the tap. To me, it's like, okay, something comes first here. But bottom line is, neither Rodgers, nor Bell, nor Kouros are spending any significant money on radio. This is just, they're not doing that anymore. Well, they're certainly not spending any money on promotion, right? Because, like, how is anybody

finding out about any of this stuff? They're usually ending up at your website. Pooja and Gurdip are heavily promoted. I see the billboards. Is it because they're television faces and people want to know where did they go? And if they're not getting back on breakfast television, if they're invested in this radio show,

perhaps there is some familiarity with the fact that they had all this time being on television. I've been waiting for you to return so I can tell you a little story. Mother's Day was in May. My wife, Monica, mother of my most recent two children, my last two, I like to say, and my mother, I took them to a brunch place in Etobicoke. Nice brunch place. Guess who I saw having brunch in this brunch place? Guess who your wife thought, once again,

you're an absolute lunatic that you would have any excitement whatsoever seeing this guy in public. Like, what would it take for someone to think that they were in a presence of a celebrity except for Toronto Mike? I left him alone because I deemed it he's having family time.

He's having brunch at this place. I'm not going to bug the guy. But Gurdeep was at the same brunch place as me at the same time. Gurdeep and Toronto Mike in the same building at the same moment. Do you think he recognized you? I'm sure. I don't know. I didn't talk to him, but Gurdip famously,

much like Angie Seth, wanted to come on Toronto Mike, was booked on Toronto Mike, and received word. Why am I playing ball with Bell Media when this all keeps happening? Received word from Bell Media PR that he was not allowed to come on Toronto Mic'd.

Tucker and Maura. Remember when Tucker and Maura were on Virgin 99.9? Of course. You loved the podcast they recorded when they were let go because you said it was authentic truth. Real talk. They got the tap on the shoulder. Yep. They didn the tap on the shoulder. Yep. They didn't see it coming.

They thought Marilyn Dennis's son was riding out a non-compete so that he could work with his mom. Remember, Roger Ashby was retiring, and this would have been some speculation in the air. would have been some speculation in the air right ended up ended up hiring fotm jamar mcneil who came here via chicago right that was that was a bit of a plot twist that was that was unexpected because you just figure as per this update we're providing it's the same people who kind of shuffle around also from one station to another he's also jay Nice, the DJ of FOTM, Mishi Me. Please continue. So Tucker and Mara were absolutely blindsided

by the fact that there was probably some nepotism involved, and they didn't have a job anymore on 99.9, and they recorded a series of podcasts in which they were venting about what had happened to them. Short of doing an exit interview on Toronto Mic'd, I thought this was an extraordinary experience.

I'd listen to every single episode of Tucker and Mora begging to have somebody else hire them, venting their spleens about what happened between them and Bell. Next thing you know, they're hired for chorus. It's going to be the rebirth, the reboot of energy radio. Right. 95.3. And this is technically a Hamilton frequency, but they were broadcasting from Toronto,

and maybe the natural assumption was technically a Hamilton frequency, but they were broadcasting from Toronto. And maybe the natural assumption was that they could move some of those prior listeners over to a station and they were rebranding it to Energy. Everybody remembered Energy 108 as a dance music radio station. That was something else that Chorus dropped the ball on. They had this great legacy there. We had Scott Turner, who was the program director making it all happen, and so many stories from Energy 108, and Chorus didn't know what to do about it, but they still owned the trademark, the copyright, whatever it was,

and it was going to be Tucker and Moore over there, and it just wasn't working out. There weren't any inroads in the toronto marketplace i'm with you the dominoes start to fall right one year ago a gentleman named john derringer right i remember him and uh all of a sudden even though there seemed There seemed to be an internal investigation, legalities involved, a severance payment, which was rumored to be several million dollars. Also rumored to be much less. Chorus Entertainment, which has a collapsing business model, cratering stock price, just not happening there anymore. A hiring freeze was put in place. And it was not a situation where in 2022, 2023, that they were going to proactively hire and promote someone to replace John Derringer. So instead, they shuffled some people around.

And that included 102.1 The Edge, CFNY. Jay Brody, extraordinary FOTM. One of the greatest ever. A non-starter at his dream job at CFNY because the pandemic came crashing down. I don't think he ever got the break that he was waiting for after he spent so many years standing by for this job. And I have complimented Brody on this show

that he was working on construction sites, collecting piss bottles, listening to Dean Blundell saying, one day I will have that job. And miraculously enough, he managed to pull it off on like, I don't know,

February 29th, 2020. Right. Bad timing all around. He decamped to Vancouver. Now does an afternoon drive show on that Rage Against the Machine radio station over there. Right. With what may or may not be a significant other. You were sworn to secrecy about this reliable fact.

I have no comment on this. And left behind were another couple sidekicks on this 102.1 The Edge morning show. Right down the hall, you had Tucker and Mora, and they never really found that audience at 95.3. So, lo and behold, even though Jay Brody had pledged to be the last ever morning man on CFNY after they went through a rotation of seven different morning show teams in seven years, it didn't work out.

They need a quick fix. They're not in a position to hire anybody. We're going to promote them. Tucker and Mora on 102.1 The Edge, a development that partly because there was not a 1236 newsletter publishing at that time and just the way the wind currently blows, no promotion whatsoever, right? Like nobody even cared.

Like this might as well have not been happening at all as far as the outside world was concerned. And I think you, Toronto Mike, also observed as much, right? Like, where are the comments? Like, where are the people who are infuriated? Where are the characters who would come out when they would make some controversial decision like hiring Fearless Fred, right? And everybody would, like, vent about the fact that they were demoting Dave, Bookie, Bookman, right, to make room for this guy. A decade ago, we saw it happen, right?

These anonymous randos online would be genuinely passionate about this stuff. And today, taking over 102.1 The Edge, it is a tree falling in a forest. And to me, it's fascinating to watch. I mean, we see it all across the board when it comes to the corporate media. It's not only that their internal operations are diminished. That's not what it was. But I don't think you could do anything whatsoever

to get people excited about a new morning team coming into 102.1 The Edge or any radio station of that format at all. I listened to this Tucker and Maura morning show. I have never heard so much contrived, forced fun as the two of these people, aging Gen Xers bantering back and forth, right? Like the culture has changed. We've moved away from this idea

that a rock radio morning show will be this exercise in bullying on the air. That was the whole Dean Blundell persona over there. We're not sure whether or not he actually stands by anything he did on the radio or if he disavows it all. Of course, Humble and Fred had their own approach, their own kind of characters. Well, we've moved on from all this. The style of humor has changed the kinds of things you can get away with and also the boundaries. You don't want to be Mike Stafford called into Chorus HR

for something you say on the air over there. So instead, you get this Tucker and Maura bantering back and forth about, like, the sexual situations that they find themselves in. You see what I mean? So they turn it on themselves so that the whole idea is that you're hearing some titillation.

It's incredibly contrived. Like if people came into your basement with these kinds of stories. So why do you listen? Like you wouldn't stand for any of this over there. Why am I listening for the same reason that I've kept up on this stuff my entire life? So when they're not, I don't know, there was a whole thing, this Tucker, he's like, I was riding in the car with my daughter, and I was listening to a clip from my show

where I was talking about I'm a grower, not a shower. I mean, this is just cringe, completely. But it must be for somebody, right? Or, I don't know, the speculation. Like a less intelligent listener would enjoy it. They must be assuming that there's someone out there that would rather hear this than, like, what's going on in the world.

I realize there are other options out there. You could listen to Metro Morning on CBC. It doesn't matter that that show doesn't have a full-time host anymore. Like it has a baked-in, built-in audience, and they're just trying to generate something different, something that they can maybe sell a few commercials in between. Still great. Bantering about this stuff. So when they're not doing this potty talk, instead they're mostly talking about smoking marijuana. Right? Like back and forth about different situations.

I like how you call it marijuana. That they found themselves in based on, yeah, whatever. I took an edible and this is what happened to me. Like, this is what somebody has decided somewhere. Whoever has been entrusted to come up with content on this show has decided that's the thing their listeners want to hear. And we're so far gone from caring about the legacy of 102.1 The Edge or CFNY. Like, the whole idea that they would use this talk time

on the morning show to talk about, I don't know, like, anything that's going on in the world of music, right? Like, that's all long gone. The way they banter on these radio stations, that really doesn't come up anymore. I like it when they talk about the music, and that's one of the reasons I don't listen to these shows

that you listen to. Instead it's like some attempt at comical self-deprecation. Maybe it's like, oh, they're having a concert, whatever, whatever, but it's like, I actually like the stories, you know, and that's why I do what I do on Toronto Mike. Like, I like the songs and I like to hear the stories behind the songs and the fun facts and how it's connected to this

and this influence that, whatever. And also, Mike, in the end, this is why you are winning. Am I? Yeah, look down the dial. Down the dial. No, you gotta say it like Charlie Sheen. I, yeah, okay. That's the tiger blood, right? Hey, but can I ask you a question? So that same frequency

you're referring to that has Maura and Tucker on the mornings now, because they moved Shawna Whalen, of course, to, and I'm curious for your thoughts on this, but they moved her to Q107 to co-host with the two gentlemen who were with Derringer. So that's interesting. John Derringer, he who shall not be named,

even though- Even though I just named him, because he's a human. You came a little closer on Toronto Mic'd when you had a gentleman down here named Dave Charles. Yeah, I know Dave. Great FOTM. Radio consultant, program director.

He was part of the originators of Q107, right? How old is he? Early 80s or something? He looks great. He looks younger than me. He's been around forever in radio. And I think, once again, he mentioned when he was down here the fact that he still talks to John Derringer. And he thinks what happened to him maybe wasn't all that fair.

And you haven't heard a lot of that in the media, right? The assumption is justice was done and we should send this guy off to a desert island. Would you have John Derringer on Toronto Mike as part of his rehabilitation tour? So let me ask you, do you think I will not have someone on because maybe I disagree with something they did? Because I often get, whenever I have somebody on who has a bit of a, whatever, checkered past or

whatnot, I get people telling me, why am I having this person on? And I don't understand it because I'm just having a conversation. If anything, you should want me to have Derringer on, because I'll ask him all those pointed questions you would like him to answer.

You know, you should want me to have Derringer on. I have no, somebody's like, you had Mike Stafford on, he used the P word. And I'm like, I'm going to talk to Mike Stafford about him using the P word and try to understand why he thought that was okay. I'm going to have a long form conversation with Mike Stafford. So would I have John Derringer on Toronto Mike?

Of course I would, but he can't tell me anything's out of bounds. I can ask him anything I want and let's find out what he's accountable for. And let's find out what he thinks he did wrong. Does he think he did anything wrong? Let's expose that and understand that. So yes, is the answer to your question. John Derringer, the radio icon, whose name I'm confident has never been mentioned again on Q107.

That's true. Is now represented by these two gentlemen who were longtime sidekicks of Derringer in the morning in dissecting what happened there with how Derringer treated female employees at the radio station. There was some suggestion that they might have been accomplices to his behavior. Others have— Well, Jennifer Valentine said they never, you know, never, never, never spoke up.

They were vaping in the studio all morning long. At the same time, maybe, though, there was an investigation that took place and they've managed to keep their jobs for about an eight month period of time. They were paid to not work at all. And then this past January, they made an announcement. New Q107 Morning Show. And now, these two guys who were sidekicks, Derringer and The Morning

will be joined by Shauna Whalen. Do I got that right? FOTM. FOTM, Shauna Whalen, because she's been here twice. Both times, once with the Y108 Morning Show, which was Jay Brody and Chris Z. And then once when she was on CFNY as the morning show host

with the aforementioned Jay Brody and Chris Z. So yeah, FOTM, Shauna Whalen took over mornings on cue. On Q107 now, you don't get any of this locker room talk, right? Not even the self-deprecating female version. From what I could tell, mostly talking about just being parents, bantering back and forth about their experiences of being these middle-aged people

and trying to navigate their way through life. It's okay. It's benign. Nothing that is ever going to be offensive to anybody. But they didn't really get a hit. When they moved from John Derringer to, let's say, Dan Chen, for example, there wasn't really a ratings hit, right?

People kind of tune in at a habit and for the tunes, right? Yeah, that's what, Dan Chen, for example, there wasn't really a ratings hit, right? Like, people kind of tune in at a habit and for the tunes, right? Yeah, that's what they learn along the way. Maybe we did not have to pay somebody seven figures a year to do this kind of radio morning show. Maybe we can have three people combined making a fraction of that.

Yeah, you know, it's the same reason that Rogers parted way with Bobcat. It's like, maybe we don't need to pay these big salaries anymore. And I would say if you had a big salary in radio or even television, to be honest, yeah, there's a big target on your back. And, you know,

maybe this is the year. And I feel bad for those people. No more locker room talk on Q107. No more tool of the day. Right. Although John Derringer was going in that direction anyhow of just being a friendly voice. The new Wally Crowder.

Q107 in Toronto. And that he'd hang in there and maybe his time was coming to an end anyhow. There would have been enough speculation there that those big salaries were something that they wanted to get away from. Like who's got the biggest salary in radio now? it john moore like where is there any big salaries left i mean i guess it's maryland dennis because she's been there 100 years but check your dms maryland dennis also uh leaving ctv television right maryland dennis morning show

at the same time that her son is leaving Virgin Radio, leaving traditional broadcasting behind. What do you think then of that move? Even if he's spinning the fact that he got a tap on the shoulder, you're enough of a sports media consumer. It does seem like this Steve Dangle thing is an actual business, right? There are revenues to be found from that style of podcasting. No, I have no idea. Okay. I have no idea, but of course there is. What I find disingenuous, but I get it of course, is when somebody's told your last day is Friday and they sort of make it

sound like, okay, I'm quitting my morning show gig on Virgin 99.9 to do this digital work with my friend or whatever. They make it sound like they quit for that when in fact they wanted to do both. Like it was always, the plan was always to get your paycheck from Bell Media to do your morning show on Virgin 99.9 and see what you can do, you know, because your shift is over

by like 10 o'clock or whatever. See what you can do with the digital enterprise and Steve Dangle operation, right? Which has a lot of upside. So it just sounds like it's just typical that I'm used to now after many, many years blogging and having this podcast. It's bullshit, but bullshit baffles brains.

Remember when Tarzan Dan lost his job at Calgary's Q107? course i do yeah i think it was the first time most people learned that there was a q107 in calgary that's what i learned yeah uh classic hits radio station tarzan dan formerly of cftr what am640 for sure 92.5, the hit list on YTV. And the reason that Tarzan Dan got his tap on the shoulder was they were moving talk radio from Chorus in Calgary, QR77, over to the FM dial. And in the tradition of how it's better to ask for forgiveness

than permission, of how it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Right. The CRTC did not provide approval for this flip. They didn't take kindly to the idea that there are these regulations in place to protect AM radio. And a few months later, Corus filed its submission

to the Canadian Radio, Television, and Telecommunications Commission saying talk radio on AM is unsustainable. We don't want to be in this business anymore. All of these live and local radio stations are going to disappear if you don't give us the permission, the rubber stamp, to flip to FM. They're playing chicken here with the CRTC, essentially saying that the only way that we can keep these talk radio stations going is if we get off the AM dial. They're starting to make cars without AM radio. A lot of signals in the air that are making these stations more and more difficult to receive.

that in every major market in Canada where AM talk radio stations are owned by these corporate conglomerates, that they will be doing everything they can as soon as possible to transfer the signals to FM. It was only in Calgary where they framed it as an emergency. But if they get permission, the other cities will follow. That's where the assumption comes in, right? That Bell Media is going to take this talk radio format,

whatever that entails, and move it to a frequency like Virgin Radio, 99.9. It's only a matter of time. It might not be this year, but it's going to happen soon enough. And I think when it happens, it's going to happen fast. Remember, you had Brent Bambury in the uh in the basement yes i did early in 2023 great new fotm yeah he's fantastic and i think he was reflecting as a guy even though it's uh all been with the cbc a lot of history of

being a voice on the dial right on the waves and and now with uh day six on cbc and he was reflecting that uh he can he can see the twilight of this terrestrial radio thing, and that we have to keep in mind that, like the pandemic, it accelerated a lot of trends, technologically speaking. And when it happens, it's going to happen very fast. It will just all of a sudden be a situation where all these talk radio concerns, in order to stay alive, are going to be on the FM dial.

And this whole idea of this pre-programmed music radio station will be a thing of the past, everywhere that these companies can't generate any money off of it anymore. Okay, I have some specific questions for you, Mark Weisblatt, and I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're here. This has been great. I hope you're enjoying your Grey Legs beer.

RecycleMyElectronics.ca is where you go Mr. Wiseblood when you have an old piece of tech or your old laptop, your old phone, your old printer, your old 8-track machine, your old VCR. You take that to the local depot that you learn about

on RecycleMyElectronics because it will be disposed of properly and ethically so that those chemicals don't end up polluting Mother Earth and ruining this planet. So they're committed to our planet's future. Thank you to recyclemyelectronics.ca. And The Moment Lab, you've been hearing, because you've been listening to Toronto Mic'd,

even though you haven't been on this year, The Moment Lab, they specialize in brand marketing and strategy, PR, advertising and production, and a couple of great guys I met there, Jared and Matt. I am more than happy to broker a call, if you will, between you and Matt and Jared if you'd like the Moment Lab to tell you how they would help you with your PR strategy. And a lot of people we know and love like Stu Stone and Rick Campanelli and Donovan Bailey

work with the Moment Lab. Oh, well, good thing you threw in Donovan Bailey there because I might have had some questions about how it's working out for the other guys. Stu Stone just finished. This is my update. I only got it from social media how it's working out for the other guys. Stew Stone just finished. This is my update. I only got it from social media. That's how close we are.

Although I believe I'm at a wedding with Stew Stone in early July. That's only a month away. But the new season of the wrestling, what's it called? Dark Side of the Ring. That just dropped, apparently. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Remember when Rogers announced a $100 million deal with Vice? It turns out that wrestling documentaries were the only thing that anybody actually won. And that's due. Now Vice has filed for bankruptcy right on the heels of BuzzFeed closing BuzzFeed News. And it turns out all this stuff I was ranting about all these years, about this contrived wokeness that was infiltrating the media, it was all a ridiculous idea all along.

We're unlikely to see that form of hectoring and lecturing online clickbait. Good riddance to bad rubbish. But Stu gets paid. He produces some, not that I've seen the new season of Dark Side of the Ring, but I know of people like Cam Brio who seem to be enjoying it.

And I think he does a great job because he's a talented mofo, that Stu Stone. And there will be, I want to pledge this to the listenership, there will be Classic Toast in 2023 featuring Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. 2023?

Yeah. So between now and New Year's Eve. It's happening before you know it. So I said I'd pointed questions. Mike wrote a note. And when Mike heard that you were coming on Toronto Mic'd again, he's been holding on to these questions. Can you, Mark We weisblatt provide updates

on the employment law cases involving the following people jennifer valentine jameel giovanni patricia jagernoth and michelle graham wow that is quite a list i don't even know who that last person is that's the uh over there woman the white woman on E! Entertainment, some entertainment thing owned by CTTK. Oh, Danielle Graham. Oh, what did I say? Michelle Graham. Oh, so Mike called her Michelle Graham, but her name is Danielle. I'm fixing that now.

Okay, my apologies. What is there to say? I couldn't pick her out of a lineup. I haven't seen much. Is there any? Well, you know, Jamil Javani, someone who I tried to rouse discussion about, you had no interest whatsoever in talking about this guy. No, but I do ask questions.

But he's in line to be a member of parliament to replace Aaron O'Toole in Durham, like in the by-election. He'll probably win. So I think Jamil Javani has a bright political career ahead of him. When is that by-election, Bill? The Federal Conservative Party. It's somewhere between now and when we're talking.

But Jamil Javani, I remember that story. You're right, I'm even bored remembering it, actually. But he seems, it was a bit of a, I don't know, whatever. So it's hard to be sympathetic towards Bell Media, but he made me feel a little sympathetic towards Bell Media. Let's go to Patricia Jagernoth, because this was kind of a high public high profile case of Patricia, who was like a part time pay as you go weather person on CP 24 doing weekends.

And she never got the shot. She felt she deserved to be like a regular anchor. And she's suggesting that is because she's a woman of color. Do I have that right? Are you talking about the Emmy winning Patricia Jagernath? Can we talk about that for a minute? Can we talk about that? Because I did have, and I will preface this

because people are like, oh, you're bitter. I had a bad experience with Patricia's husband. And not that we, you know, he tried to beat me up in an alley or whatever, but Patricia Jagernath was booked on Toronto Mike to talk about everything. And this person who was, you know, tweeting me and emailing me on behalf of Patricia Jagernoth, Team PJ, I think is the term that was used.

I learned was her husband and was not particularly nice to me. It was a bit rude and demanding things that I didn't think were fair. And I basically rescinded the invitation. So I did have this experience that was negative with Team PJ. But I don't think were fair, and I basically rescinded the invitation. So I did have this experience that was negative with Team PJ, but I don't think I've ever had communication with Patricia Juganoff directly. I don't believe I have had that, I don't think. You know who else used to correspond with the media using a fake publicist?

Donald Trump. But just so I can speak to the Emmy, because as you know, because you listen to Toronto Mike, Jason Agnew is a good friend of my brothers from high school. So they go way back together. You know, the name Brian Dunn,

because you listen to Toronto Mike, and he not only is a huge Barenaked Ladies fan, he's an FOTM. He's been on the program. Those are two people I'm just throwing out there who are FOTMs and worked at Byte TV. Byte TV won a, you'll tell me what it was, maybe

you don't remember, but it was like a technical Emmy, a digital Emmy? It was like a channel much like Viceland, which came along a decade later. We can take digital content and we can put it on conventional cable television.

It was during that period of disruption where maybe somebody thought that was a good idea before YouTube caught on, right? Like, we'll take all these online videos and we'll just stream them on television and nobody will ever have to get paid, right? Like, we'll just get free, infinite content forever provided for this ByteTV channel.

But the fact is, Byte TV did win some, an Emmy. Like, I don't know if there's different flavors of Emmys, but this was like a digital Emmy. It won a digital Emmy. This is a fact, okay? So, Byte TV won an Emmy. Patricia Jagernoth was one of many, many, many, many people on the air on that station. I think she hosted a show on that station. So to me,

Patricia Jagernoth has not won an Emmy award. Bite TV won an Emmy and Jason Agnew and Brian Dunn would never go around saying that they're an Emmy award winning person because it is disingenuous. What say you Mark Mark Wiseblood? Patricia Jagernoff. Oh, you're not going to respond to that. Well, Patricia claimed a wrongful... Did she win an Emmy, yes or no?

No, but she said a wrongful dismissal, right, from doing the weather reports on CP24. But she would always mention the Emmy, right? She would say I was disrespected as an Emmy winner. She has in her bio... She would try and leverage this credential as a reason why she was discriminated against from keeping a job as a part-time freelance weather forecaster. Even though she was not a meteorologist. She didn't have those credentials. was not a meteorologist, right?

She didn't have those credentials, but she claimed to have this enormous social media following and that it could only have been some kind of racial issue that she was discriminated against at Bell Media, even though at the same time this is happening, we have the case of Danielle Graham, who was saying the opposite. She's saying she was frozen out of the same company because they didn't want a white

woman to be synonymous with e-talks. You've got, yeah, it is a bit of a mess here because you've got these multiple cases going on in which people are trying to drag Bell Media into court, trying to argue that they didn't deserve this tap on the shoulder. And BJ team is a human rights complaint. It is not, as far as I know, it is not a case of looking for financial compensation. It is saying, in fact, that they are looking for the tribunal to rule that there were racists running the company.

And Jamil Javani's case was also surrounding the fact that they hired him as a black man to do news talk radio, and they didn't like what he had to say. As it turned out, he was conservative. He was saying the opposite of everything that they imagined would happen if you brought a black host to talk radio in Toronto. Like, they hired the wrong guy to tow the corporate party line. And that's what his lawsuit was about, a modest amount, but just looking to get paid

for six more months after they let him go. Those were the lawsuits. Were there any more? I've lost track. How many other names on that list? What about Danielle Graham? Danielle Graham.

If I can surmise this, you basically... Jamil Javani. You have no update on any of this. Patricia Jag Danielle Graham. If I can surmise this, you basically, you have no update on any of this. Well, you've got to admit, based on everything I've said, I've stayed on top of things, okay? Oh, I know, but there is no update. For a guy who hasn't come over to your house in five months,

I'm doing all right. Jennifer Valentine, that was not any kind of lawsuit. That was just her looking for justice, right? She was looking for vindication. I guess it was received. I don't know. She's not getting a chunk of John Derringer's payout. But didn't she file a complaint with the human rights, whatever the human rights?

That makes sense. Yeah. Now you're reminding me. Yeah, I'm reminding you. That's what I'm here for. Yeah, so we have no updates on that. Well, they got rid of him from the company, so they took action.

Jen Valentine has threatened to come on Toronto Mic'd and I do believe it's only a matter of time. So at some point I'll be able to chat with her directly about this. And if Jameel,

Patricia or Danielle are listening they can come on too. When this drama ended I think it was like Chorus said didn't they put out a statement? Yeah.

It was a bunch of legal baffle gab. It was nothing. We've completed our investigation and we've taken confidential action and life will go on and

everybody's going to be fine and we'll never say the name John Derringer on the air here ever again. Here's a good question for you, Mark Wiseblood from another Mark, but this is a Mark of a K, not a Mark of a C. Mark says, I've always wanted to know the significance of 1236. Is this a real question over there?

Somebody actually expects an answer to this. What is the story behind that number and time? Is there anything significant about 1236? I thought it sounded right. It was originally... Put out the newsletter, Toronto's Daily, Lunchtime, Tabloid. The domain name is available.

Let's name the product after the time that this thing is coming out. When it comes to what happened with me and SJC Media, by the way, I am very grateful that that relationship came to an end because it is a very different kind of company now.

I came here over the course of a couple years saying that maybe I was going to be validated. I was going to get some bigger opportunities out of what I came here over the course of a couple years saying that maybe I was going to be validated. I was going to get some bigger opportunities out of what I aligned here with the newsletter. And times have changed. The people I originally worked with aren't there anymore. And we'll move into a brighter and braver new world somehow. So the original premise of the newsletter,

the people I was working with, everybody involved, the whole thing has moved on. But is the newsletter coming back? We're not getting the 1236 newsletter anymore. The newsletter... Are you aware of that? The newsletter will return.

When? If I can develop a confident infrastructure for the things that I would like to do. Do you need to get paid to do it? I need a certain level of creative motivation and the possibility of fulfillment. So it's not coming back. So it's not a sense of deja vu that I'm sitting there along with my computer. You don't owe us anything.

Blogging into the abyss. It was something that I already went through to pay my dues. I want to harness the energy of the The Abyss. It was something that I already went through to pay my dues. Blair Packham is reading. I want to harness the energy of the connections that I have met and the other people who want to make things happen. Toronto Mike, you happen to be one of them. You're coming at me. You're telling me if I have an articulate pitch

and some money attached that we can make things happen. Oh, of course. And I still believe this to be true. But that's true for anybody. There's no deadline. Not just you. There's no point in which this has to happen. The thing that I want to avoid is making any kind of announcement,

any kind of determined public statement about what I want to do and not being able to follow through. That would be the absolute worst. You think I was depressed before when I came to your basement in December? I didn't say you were depressed. I want to, no, but I want to leverage

all these links that I have developed and turn it into something for the future. I don't know what that's going to entail. Maybe it can't happen this year. And on top of it all, I'm very lucky because I do have other things going on for which I'm paid. And none of it would have happened without doing this newsletter over there. But this whole idea of being this kind of media know-it-all, you're telling me I'm a unicorn.

You're telling me I can't be replaced. You're telling me that I've got something that we can make something of, we can do something with. And I just, I hope we can get there, okay? Okay, but you gotta stop saying things like, I said you were depressed. I got a couple of people, a few people, who wrote in and said you seemed sad

during your Toronto Mike appearances. I actually never felt you were depressed. Just to throw that out there. I know you make these grandiose statements. I never thought you were depressed. I hope we're out there. I know you make these grandiose statements. I never thought you were depressed. I hope we're alright now. We were never wrong. I hope I'm allowed back on your show again. You were never booted from this show.

Why don't you turn up this terrible boy band music before we can't figure out what we're talking about. Why am I playing terrible music on Toronto League? We missed our Fromage 2022 episode.

Okay, so tell me, who is this? It's a boy band called No Lonely Hearts. A song called Special Treatment. You want to get into this? Listen to these retroactive boy band sounds.

Yeah, it sounds like your typical cheesy boy band pop single that I personally have no appetite for. Fromage? I'm not so sure that's fromage because that seems to be just typical of that genre, right? Courtesy of Canada Land land i learned that uh we day the kill burger brothers remember that was a big scandal big canadian pandemic scandal about what was happening there in that organization that they claimed was was disbanding going out of business uh turns out that that we Day returned with a new branding. Did you know about this? It was called We Believe.

And in St. John, New Brunswick, they went back. Did your kids ever go to a We Day? My daughter did, yes. They would take these schools in the buses. She actually met Gordoni at one. They would go and they would pile into an arena, a stadium. Michelle went to one. They would watch a whole bunch of performers, some B, C, D-list Canadian celebrities. No, Gord Downie was there.

He's an A-lister. And they would rally the kids around this whole idea of We Day, a business that was based on volunteerism run by the Kilberger brothers who somehow got these school boards to agree to get these kids to all gather together over the idea of getting excited about this brand. I mean, that was the whole structure they had there. Some of it was non-profits.

Some of it was a charitable organization. That whole structure there that they tore apart over at Canada Land. And the fact that there was a We Day revival in St. John, New Brunswick included noticing this boy band from Orlando, Florida, birthplace of the Backstreet Boys, called No Lonely Hearts. And it was a subject of some curiosity for me like where these people come from because if you're if you're trying to make it look like people are excited about a boy band what better thing to do right then then have them perform at an event where a

whole bunch of kids are getting a day off school just to get excited about this this contrived prefab pop music because all these teenage girls are going to start screaming, right? It doesn't take anything to rouse that kind of crowd when you've got this music playing. It doesn't matter about the fact that it sounds like a bad parody from Saturday Night Live, Digital Short,

one of those dick-in-a-box kind of things. Yeah, Lonely Island. This is a genuine boy band assembled in the footsteps of the Backstreet Boys, a guy named Johnny Wright, who was originally the chauffeur for New Kids on the Block. He's still in that business, and he had auditions for a boy band called No Lonely Hearts,

and they made their debut at We Belong, the new version of We Day. I just felt this was an important thing to talk about here because nobody else ever would. Now, we've already shouted out Ridley Funeral Home, and no, Mark, you don't have to do a memorial segment with me. I'm taking it on. I'm hoping to drop it tomorrow.

I've got to finish it up. I'm not going to have to go home and wonder what's going to happen if I die tomorrow and you're on the podcast with me dead and gone talking about the irony about the fact that your friend who would come over every month to do the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment himself was not alive anymore? Well, you know, everybody dies, but you've got many decades to go. But I'm going to ask you a few pointed questions

about a few specific people, and then I'm going to play a couple more songs and hope you will share some thoughts on the passing of two A-level musicians who passed away in May 2023. But do you have anything to say about, you know, we kind of talk a lot about, you know, KISS and Virgin and CFNY and QN07, but Sheila Rogers is hanging up her headphones.

I don't know if you ever listened to the next chapter with Sheila Rogers on CBC, but I always like Sheila Rogers, and I'm wondering if you have any words to say about her as she announces her retirement. Well, you're the one who says that you're not listening to all these commercial radio stations because your dial's only stuck in one position. Right.

That's true. 99.1. You get emotional about these things? Not emotional, but I think... I feel there's so much going on right now, especially in Ottawa. They're still debating in the Senate about this Bill C-18, which is premised on the idea that Google and Facebook have to be forced to pay for the expense accounts of a newspaper,

like the Toronto Star owner, Jordan Bitov, basically saying that Google and Facebook took 80% of our money and we want the government to pay for 80% of our payroll. What do you make of all that? Do you think anything like that could happen? Because I think that does relate to the current state of the CBC. That something's got to give here.

Like either the CBC is entrusted to take over the entire Canadian news media, or somebody finds a solution for these newspaper companies out there. How do you think this story ends? Because nobody knows

how it's going to turn out. Isn't your boy, Pierre Polyev, going to defund the CBC? Is this what I've heard? Well, if, does defunding the CBC make it better,

make it more possible for the Toronto Star to stay alive because the owner, Jordan Bittoff, he's getting emotional. He's getting up and doing these keynote speeches, getting weepy about the fact that he's losing a million dollars a week to keep this thing going because he thinks it's good for democracy over there. Meanwhile, as usual, we're doing this podcast in your basement, right?

You've got no federal government funding. No. We're doing this podcast in your basement, right? You've got no federal government funding. No. There has never been any kind of bill passed in the Senate, the House of Commons, that makes it possible for you to get payments from Silicon Valley. Nobody ever did that. You didn't need that as motivation to do what you do.

No. How bright is the future going to be in which everything is so regulated to the point that everybody's leaning on these payments? And there's a general concern. Globe and Mail sounding the alarm. The CRTC has to stay out of the news business. We can't have a situation where suddenly there's like a federal government agency providing oversight to journalism. This was supposed to be something that was protected. We can't have all these things regulated based on these payments.

In the end, my best, Google and Facebook, just get out of news. Stop linking everything. Don't make it happen anymore. Torstar is dying whether we like it or not. Is that the condition that we're in? Should we get Ed Keenan down here? Oh, he's here in early July. Shout out to Ed Keenan

who on his 50th birthday May 31st, 2023 got to be the moderator of a Toronto mayoral election debate. Did you listen to Matt Elliott here in the basement talking about the 102 candidates?

Graphic Matt, always fantastic over there. Yeah, I mean, what kind of vortex are we living in now in which Toronto is having a mayoral election? It was only months after the fact that John Tory got his third term that he had to step down. But you'll notice, though, in the dialogue, in the debates, in the diatribes, nobody ever mentions. It's like John Derringer being gone from Q107. Nobody ever talks about, like, why this is happening, right? Like, it doesn't come up. It's almost irrelevant.

All these candidates were on the periphery. They were all ready to go, right? The whole apparatus, the whole political apparatus of Canada, which thought, okay, our springtime thing will be the Alberta election. All these people are ready now with their consulting, with their election signs, with their spin doctoring, right? They all moved in. There are people making good money out of this Toronto municipal by-election, a $14

million cost to the city. Is John Tory going to pay this money back? Of course not. Of course not. That this expense that's come out of the result of his affair? By the way, people are spotting John Tory around Toronto, right? He was hanging out with FOTM Steve Paikin at the Blue Jay game. Right.

And people see him wandering around the path, downtown Toronto, looking a little lost over there. You think I was in bad shape, a bad state of mind, right? I never thought that. Sitting downcast on the subway, people snapping a picture. there you think i was in bad shape a bad state of mind right john i never thought that sitting downcast on the subway people snapping a picture do you think maybe he should have disappeared for a while or i don't care is he trying to own it like the fact that uh even though he destroyed his entire family life made a fool of himself all this humiliation that doesn't mean he has to go

into hiding and all these people don't even care. They would vote him to be the mayor all over again if he had his name on the ballot. Oh, what did you think of the... If he was a 103rd candidate. What did you think, since it's been so long since we've had you on Toronto Mic, what did you think of the David Ryder episode the day after that story broke?

Well, it was testament to the fact that, I don't know, the Toronto Star needs to be in business in order to do what they do. Who's going to pay David then? Toronto Mic is what they do. Who's going to pay David then? Toronto Mike is on the phone. Who's going to pay David? Well, they could have. I think if they knew this election was coming, this by-election,

if there was enough warning, it would have been a great time for somebody to do some kind of newsletter startup thing with actual boots-on-the-ground Toronto City Hall reporting. So you've got Graphic Matty at his own business there, City Hall Watcher, and there's a lot to build on over there. So no, I don't think you need the infrastructure of the big municipal newspaper.

And this Jordan Bitov is complaining that he can't figure out how to not lose a million dollars a week with what he's up to over there. But those are legacy costs. And the other stuff I'm working on involved with the Canadian Jewish News and beyond.

Hopefully it's about figuring out models for the future. And that's what I want to bring to Project 1236. If we ever figure it out. If we don't figure it out before I'm gone. Where are you going? Well, I'm going to just regret it for the rest of my life. But where are you going? That I have a finger on the pulse of all these things.

Where are you going? Probably back to your basement every single time you will have me so that we can do this over and over again. Three quick hits. I know that's impossible, but here, we're going to do these three in five minutes, okay? Meredith from 102.1 has quit the afternoon drive. After all of that, this is what you spring on me? Oh, that's another radio item that

gets no attention outside your website. Okay, fine. They had Jack FM Rogers in Vancouver, and can you believe up until like summer 2023, they didn't even have a live DJ on the air most of the day? What is the point of this radio station?

So they went looking for new people to put on the air. Everything now is so these legacy cable companies can keep the frequency. If you're employed by one radio station, we're learning today with this update, I guess you can get a job at another one. Until that tap on the shoulder comes for you. The tap on the shoulder never came for somebody i want to ask you about because i don't watch this channel i've been clear about that i've never seen this woman

deliver a newscast but i know of her because i know of what's going on the zeitgeist and she's just i just absorb her through the uh the atmosphere like osmosis but sandy rinaldi hit 50 years at ctv you can't even pronounce her name. What's her name? Sandy Rinaldo. Oh, fuck. I can't believe it. I knew that. Most recently, yeah, the Weekend Acre. Well, she managed to dodge a lot of the drama around Omar Sachedina.

Yeah, and Lisa Laflamme. And Lisa Laflamme. What's going on with Lisa? Her husband's still with Navigator, right? What's her next move? Well, it seems like once every two or three weeks, she breaks her silence by giving an exclusive interview. Why won't she come on Toronto, Mike? She was first in line to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth,

and then she did another round also for Rogers City TV at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Did you watch any of that kind of thing? No, I don't think there's an audience for this stuff. I think she was kind of back in the wrong horse there. I don't think the appetite for King Charles content is such that she could amount to come back on the basis of that happening.

But something else going on is because of the sale of Shaw Communications to Rogers. It means some changes in the air with global news because a certain amount of the revenues from Shaw, from all of their telecom, from all of their technology expenses, was going to fund global television. It's part of a complicated deal that they made

once upon a time a few years ago. And that money is not going to go to global TV anymore. It's going to go to city TV stations because now Rogers is the owner of Shaw instead. And the assumption is then global news might be fading away for For whatever that's worth, you've got to get Colin DeMello over here to talk about how things are going global.

Okay. And then after you record, you'll turn off the mics, and then you'll find out what's really going on at Global. And that's how I know everything. Okay. So I'm going to play a song, and we're going to talk about one of the great Canadian gourds we lost

very early may 2023 but the last topic before i kick out this jam so to speak now magazine sold their like logo and url to the brandon gones group and it was as underwhelming as you would have anticipated and i want to know your thoughts on this Now Magazine comeback. I don't know that it had to be this bad, but that's a culture that we're living in. It's pretty much forgotten that there was a Now Toronto URL, and you were even speculating, like, how much did this cost? How much did he pay?

Right. Brandon Gones doing his own startup media thing online, TikTok and YouTube videos, his own spin on the news. Not a terrible idea. I don't really know the metrics. I don't know how to measure it. It seems like he launched with some well-connected sponsors

out there. I don't hear about it in the wild, but maybe I'm not the devil. He seems to have good representation, but as soon as he bought the assets of this Now magazine, which went through this wild and wacky ownership transformation, people assumed he would do something with this web address, these social media accounts, nowtoronto.com. Best idea he had, I guess you would call it a slightly more professional version of Six Buzz,

that is to say like news for young people that don't watch television, don't read a newspaper. But in the process, a bunch of people who worked for now, they were totally burned because they were promised that they would get a share of the proceeds

if they sold the company. And they hung in there working for free. Glenn Sumi. Several months. Yeah. A whole staff, one by one, they disappeared uh richard trapinski and they were hoping they were promised by the guy who was in charge of this stuff some hustler some player some infrastructure that was looking around for a buyer of this thing and then they ended up burned and there was no

recourse so that was just like bad publicity for the idea that Brandon Goenig was making all these pronunciations like I'm bringing in like a new mindset into the media. Well, it starts by paying the employees that kept the thing alive so that it could be worth anything at all. But didn't you hear some speculation how much it even paid for this thing to begin with? They just wanted to get out of there.

I think he found the change in his coach. Like he went through the coach, got some loonies. Several hundred dollars were exchanged in exchange for getting the Now Magazine social media accounts. Not much there. Nothing left behind. Good luck to everybody involved. It's just a tragedy if indeed I was commenting before.

Okay. A lot of the contrivances of Vice and BuzzFeed, it was all built on quicksand, right? All these venture funders who came in, you know, they're not getting anything in return. But at the same time, we can't have the only news outlets being BlogTO, Narcity, Brandon Gones. There does have to be something a little more credible out there. And unfortunately, the economics are not great for anybody to start up. We kind of have to clean the slate and start anew. It might happen here in the basement.

Toronto Mike Digital Services, TMDS. ¶¶ In my life, in my time and in each line I've ever sung. And in my life, was it my imagination or are you still the one who lingers on? I'd do anything for you, you'd do anything for you You'd do anything for me We'd do anything for love Oh, you'd use any means And I would try any scheme Oh, we'd do anything for love

Toronto Mike, a little throwback here We'd do anything for love. Toronto Mike, a little throwback here to when we would do the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment and when a musical giant like Gordon Lightfoot would die, I would bring in a song, put it on the playlist, and your reaction would be, this guy left behind this whole legacy of music and you picked that as a representation of what they

meant to you? But that song by Gordon Lightfoot is, as far as I can recall, is the only Gordon Lightfoot song that I heard on the radio in real time, like when it was happening, when it was a hit.

Of course, all this Gordon Lightfoot stuff was in rotation, right? Canadian content, every radio station out there. I'm with you. You would hear Sundown all the time. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, of course. Although that wouldn't get as much airplay as a longer song

because CanCon was based on the number of songs that you would play. So you would go for the songs of shorter length. You can read my mind. It would be a big one. Rather than the long ones. But I do remember 1986, a year after Tears Are Not Enough, Gordon Lightfoot made an album with producer David Foster. And this song, I don't know, Toronto Mike,

you ever hear this song before? Of course. This song has all the texture of tears are not enough. And this was banked on to be like a big American comeback for Gordon Lightfoot. Never happened, but that seemed to be what they were hoping for. I agree 100% that this would be a rare Gordon Lightfoot hit, if you will, that we heard in real time, right? Because you're right.

If you could read my mind, probably came out the week I was born, okay? And FOTM Maureen Holloway had what I thought was some interesting observations about Gordon Lightfoot's death, and it included the fact that she was a young broadcaster at CKFM 99.9, and there she got to interview Gordon Lightfoot. Right. And she was just starting out in the media at the time, early to mid 20s. And she met Gordon Lightfoot and she figured he was just his daughter and old man.

Right. Like this old perv coming into the station. What like what's this guy thinking? What's what's he doing here? Trying to make a comeback. Meanwhile, it turns out at the time he was like 46, 47 years old, right? But at the same time, whether it's Gordon Lightfoot or Leonard Cohen, in the mid-1980s, same with Leonard Cohen.

Hallelujah, right? Like everyone assumed that song when it came out was a big anthem. No, it just lingered and languished in obscurity forever. No one in the 1980s wanted to listen to Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen. Shout out to Gordon Lightfoot, who I never heard on the radio in real

time except for that one jam. Anything for love. Prisoner of your love Entangled in your web Hot whispers in the night I'm captured by your spell Cha-cha

Oh yes, I'm touched by this show of emotion Should I be fractured by your lack of devotion Should I Should I Oh You better be good to me That's how it's gotta be now Cause I don't have no use

Once you lose me the call of truth And you better be good to me Yeah, you better be good Yeah, this one goes out to fellow FOTM Hall of Famer Cam Gordon, the humorless Cam Gordon, who, as far as I can tell, has agreed with me about absolutely everything except my claim that the Fix were the Beatles of the 1980s. The band The Fix.

Yeah, because Duran Duran was the Beatles of the 1980s. No, it was definitely The Fix. It was the Beatles of the 1980s. No, it was definitely The Fix. And provided here as empirical evidence of the catalog The Fix left behind was their collaboration with Tina Turner. And I feel vindicated because when Tina Turner died May 24th, 2023, 83 years old, this is one of the jams everybody remembered, right? As we were looking back on the nostalgia.

And 1984, Private Dancer. I remember I would be shuttled off to summer camp around that age, deprived of the top 40 radio and music videos, everything that gave me life. And catching up August 1984 on those after-school music video shows, and suddenly, What's Love Got to Do With It was in heavy rotation. I knew a little bit of who Tina Turner was, but it was entrenched by that point in time.

I guess Tina Turner is famous now, right? She's got a comeback. entrenched by that point in time. I guess Tina Turner is famous now. She's got to come back. But the Tina Turner comeback in Toronto was already heard on CFNY, which would have spawned

Ball of Confusion and then Let's Stay Together, which were collaborations with Heaven 17. General Idea, the artistic group in Toronto, avant-garde artists, they had Tina Turner on the cover of their magazine.

She was at the Imperial Room, so that was a reflection of how many bases Tina Turner covered, even during her years in the wilderness, where Tina Turner was a cult figure, I think. This is part of what made her an icon, the fact that she had lived several different lives. But remember when we were into the mid to late 90s, early 21st century,

and when Tina Turner would release an album, go on tour, I don't know if there was that same reverence for her that we saw after she died. Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes. Did you see that clip? Making the rounds where she's talking to Mike Wallace. He's confronting her. Is this in France or something?

Yeah, in France. Do you feel you deserve all of this? Yeah, I deserve more. Yeah, reply, I deserve more. And I'm enjoying the posthumous demonization of Mike Wallace. I think the legacy of Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes, what he's leaving behind here is like he's going to eclipse Ike Turner as being one of the worst men.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain. Mike Wallace has left a lot of evidence behind. And here, remember Tina Turner just doing a couple of little bits on the way out because that's what we do here on Toronto Mike. How do you rate my appearance here after being gone for so many months how did i how did i do on this show has it been like no time uh no no time has passed at all a plus plus yeah it's like you were here last month uh i enjoyed it i'm glad you're here we covered a lot of ground i'm glad you're doing well. I can't wait to take the photo with you by the tree.

And I hope you don't wait another five or six months before you return. When are we doing this again? Are you still keeping your calendar open for me? Or do we leave everyone in suspense about the nature of my next appearance? You never know when a 1236 episode of Toronto Mike is going to drop. By the way, I didn't mention the intro to your episode 1236. The one with Stephen Page where you talk to him about the death of Seymour Stein. And once again, that was another one of those moments where I thought,

okay, I got to figure out a way back. Because it was, again, like listening to my own eulogy. You made sure to dedicate the episode to me. A lot of people, as you can imagine, said I hope 1236 is the guest for episode 1236. Meanwhile, little do they know

I can't make Mark Weisblot come into my basement and talk to me. You have to be willing to participate. So I couldn't get you for 1236 even into my basement and talk to me. You have to be willing to participate. So I couldn't get you for $12.36, even though I did offer it to you. So Stephen Page did it. And what number is on this episode? $12.63, which is $12.36 with a little rearrangement.

It works for me. It works for anybody who's dyslexic. Thank you, Toronto Mike, for leaving the door open. And I look forward to how we continue this relationship through this coming year. And let's see what happens with the 1236 newsletter or other things that we can do. Thanks to putting me in the FOTM Hall of Fame, and thanks for everyone who wondered

what happened to me because it helped to bring me back. And we'll do this again sometime. Thank you, Toronto Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 1,263rd show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Mark is at 12361236. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Mineris is at Mineris. Recycle My Electronics are EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH.

See you all tomorrow when I either drop the May 2023 Ridley Funeral Home Memorial episode or you get an episode with Ed the Sock maybe both see you all then the best that I can Maybe I'm not

and maybe I am But who gives a damn because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today