Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Michelle Sturino: Toronto Mike'd #722

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

Mike chats with Michelle Sturino about her career in sports media and why she's stepped away after 15 years because of sexism in the industry.

Welcome to episode 722 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Pumpkins After Dark, save 10% with the promo code MIC m-i-k-e-d cdn technologies your outsourced it department call barb 905-542-9759 sticker you.com create custom stickers labels tattoos and decals for your home and your business. The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text TORONOMIKE to 59559.

And Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Michelle Sterino. Welcome, Michelle. Hi, thank you for having me. I like your name. It's the name of my oldest daughter. So already this is, yeah, it's a great name, Michelle. Michelle to L's. Yes, exactly. Michelle. Michelle 2Ls.

Yes, exactly like yours. Okay. So you're already, I've already got it in my, like a soft spot in my heart for you. That's one thing when you meet people with your daughter's name, it's like right away,

you're like, I like that name, you know, so. So welcome to Toronto Mic'd. Thank you for having me. I got a question right off the top here. Because I went to University of Toronto. Oh, okay. You know where I'm going.

I totally know where you're going with this. Here, let me get there anyways. But in fact, my first year at U of T was 1993. And the U of T Varsity Blues won the Vanier Cup that year. And it was like a big deal. Like they haven't won it since. I think it was their second ever. It took a long time.

And I felt like, oh, wow, look, my first year here, we won the Vanier Cup. And the star quarterback for the U of T Varsity Blues was a gentleman named Mario Storino. Mario. Mario. Mario Storino. And are you related at all to Mario Storino? I am actually. How's that? I know. It's not like we're close cousins or anything, but yes, we are related. I think it's like fourth cousins. Is that even a thing?

It's like his grandfather or something and my grandfather were second cousins or something like that. grandfather or something and my grandfather were second cousins or something like that i don't even know but we are related yes and i think i've met him probably a handful of times in my life so that's how you know the close relation okay and unfortunately i think every time i've met him it has been at a funeral oh yeah weddings or funerals right yeah sadly you're on a funeral streak there um okay because you're right you're the only two streak there. Okay. Cause you're right. You're the only two Storinos I know. Hey, we're two pretty good Storinos to know. That's all I got to say. I'll be the judge of that, Michelle. Give me, give me an hour and I'll give you my verdict. Shout out to Elephants and Stars because they also, they, I think Elephants and Stars is a

they, but they also wanted to know if you had any relation to Mario Storino. So we were great minds were thinking alike on that one. And you're like, I've heard you identify as a jock. Yes. So what sports like did you play? Do you play? Okay. What makes you a jock?

What makes me a jock? Okay. Well, I started my sporting career pretty young but i've played everything pretty much so basketball volleyball uh soccer lacrosse rugby hockey uh martial arts i do martial arts now yeah i've pretty much tried everything yeah that was one thing i did i did i I tried track and field as well growing up. I tried as much as I could. And my dad was super supportive in that regard. And my sister kind of got me into it

because she started playing and then, you know, sibling rivalry. It's good sibling rivalry. You got a little bit of competition going. It pushes you. It does. It did all right for Serena Williams. Yeah, exactly. But that's how I kind of got into it. My dad was a big sports fan and then we all became sports fans because my dad was a big sports fan. So we watched sports together on Saturdays and Sundays. We

listened to sports talk radio in the car, driving places. So, and that's just pretty much how I grew up and it stuck. Like, are we going back to the heyday, like the early days? Do you remember the 1430? Yes. Okay. You're going way back here. Yeah. We had a, I think I believe my father had a mug and a cup of 1430. Yeah. Oh, like, yeah, like a 1430 cup. That's worth something. I think it's worth $2.50 on eBay right now. Well, you know what it was worth eventually?

Nothing because we gave it to Salvation Army eventually. Now I'm thinking back to those early days and I'm thinking maybe I'm going to mess all this up. But if we go back that far, you actually have Mary Ormsby on the program, right? Oh, right. Yeah. Did she do a show with Steve Simmons? I know I'm asking you as if you'll know.

I remember personally Mary from being on with Bob McCowan. Yeah, she would come on with Bob McCowan. She would be on with Bob in terms of the roundtables. But that's the only kind of recollection I have of her being a regular. Like she literally, I think this month is her last month at the toronto yeah i know it's a retirement i saw that yeah and her and her husband are both leaving at the same time because uh yeah and they're supposed to come over and do toronto mike so i'm gonna get them in the there you go but i'm trying to remember the first morning show i think if you go back to the 1430

days is mike inglis who now i believe calls like Miami Heat games in Miami. Like he went south and calls basketball. But I think Mike Inglis is your first morning show host. We're going way back here. But I have a note from somebody. Sure. From those glory days of the fan when it moved from 1430 to 590. Norm Rumack.

Yeah, Norm. I was Norm's producer. Yes. So Norm, great FOTM. Shout out to Storm and Norman Rumak. Hammerhead alert.

Yes. Hammerhead alert. Do you have a sound bite of the hammerhead alert? I don't actually. Who does? I know. Norm doesn't either.

He doesn't? I made him recreate it so I could cook it up, but I'd rather have the actual. Yeah. I mean, we could Can you track that down? We could potentially talk to a few folks at the Fan 590

and just... Do you know anybody? I do. I do know people that still work there. Somebody told me if you're looking for a clip from the back of the day, Sid Sixero is a guy to talk to. Oh, really? Have you heard this? I don't know. Somebody said he keeps everything. Oh, so he's a hoarder is what you're saying. But a good digital hoarder. Digital hoarder. The best kind of hoarder there is.

I think I'm a digital hoarder. Yeah. Well, I mean, it doesn't really take up that much room, so it's okay. Gigabytes. I really sincerely believe

when the internet was, ever since the internet arrived, I've been a digital hoarder. Like I hold on to like, but I hold on to digital copies of things thinking one day, like if worse comes to worse, I have a,

that's not really digital. I know. I know. Sorry. Continue. These are no, but I'll have like, I collect this crap. I mean,

I've been archiving it at torontomic.com for over, you know, for a long time now, almost two decades. But so back to Norm Rumack, who's now working in security. Oh, he's got a new life as a,

and he's very happy. Like he, he left, and he's very happy. He left, and this will be a theme, it'll come back, we're going to talk about this, but he left sports media in the rearview mirror. He realized he wasn't going to be able to pay his bills doing it, and he changed his career, and he's now a security guard, and he's quite happy.

So look for that recent catch-up with Norm. Norm says, and we're going out of order here, but we'll come back. It's all good. Michelle was very ambitious. She was producer for Roger and I. Now that's Roger Lajoie. That's right. Yep.

Who has the record for most appearances on The Fan. Oh, does he? Yeah, of course. That man's been there for eons. And by there, no, I like Roger. He's been here, but I don't think he's ever been a full-time employee no no so he he invoices like pay as you go correct so do you know what his rate is i don't know but let's jump on that rate i guess let's go 14 bucks no it's not i'm just kidding i have no idea get him like get out of here i hope it's at least 100 not the roge yeah no roge is a wonderful

guy so uh she was producer for ro Raj and I for a year or so. Very bright. Again, these are Norm Womack's words. Very bright, thoughtful, and took direction well. So far you sound like a wonderful employee. We had a common interest in martial arts. She trained in MMA. And then Norm tells us as a teen he was training with twin dragons kickboxing and

Kung Fu. Norm closes up this lovely message by saying I wish her the best! Exclamation mark. Oh Norm. I always have a soft spot in my heart for Norm because that's where I got technically that was my first job

actual paying job in media. And how did it come to be? I was an intern at the fan first. Were you an unpaid intern? Correct. Yeah, most internships are unpaid. Come on, Mike. This is the media industry.

I don't know. I learned from you guys. I've never worked in the media. Media industry is like, let's see how far we can stretch things without paying someone. Because I hear about the unpaid interns, but I've never, you know. Oh, yeah. I'm just a caveman, Michelle I've never you know oh yeah I'm just a caveman Michelle I don't know no I'm just saying I'm and that has that's not a bad reflection on

the fan 590 or anything like that that's just the industry itself it's let's see how much people can do because they need the experience right now I worked for a many years b2b software companies so I had a job a seven-year stint at a Mississauga-based company where I was in a position to hire people. And I had a budget for interns. But we paid the interns... Like a bursary? No, an hourly rate.

Okay. It was something like twenty dollars an hour or something but we definitely definitely paid that's good that's a really good rate twenty dollars an hour i feel like i don't i don't know 15 or it was something yeah it was bottom line is it was above minimum wage yeah and uh i always wondered how was media because i work i produce the humble and fred show okay and forever they've had unpaid interns and you know these unpaid are getting them coffee are doing digital things and and and helping out with you know taking photos and doing things and they never you know people they could because these people typically they're in like humber

college or something and they need x number of hours of experience or something to get their degree i always wondered how these media companies many of which are very humble and not rich, but Bell Media and Rogers, like these are very big, large, wealthy companies, how they get away with unpaid internships just the way it is. It's just the way it is. Like you said, so if it's something associated to the schooling, then you're like signing off the amount of hours that kind of stuff they're getting their experience so that's the quote-unquote equal trade-off but it's also the stature of being and working for that said company because you could

be the intern that takes a photo and gets to meet you know triple h as they come and visit the radio station or you know what i'm saying like um kyle lowry if he comes in that kind of stuff so it's also the distinction of being in that environment because you love sports so much or you know it well this was definitely the sports industry i don't know if it's the same thing for entertainment and so on but you love sports so much and you've been in it and this is all you want to do so you're like yeah i'm an intern here and there's also i kind of want to say an unwritten rule where it's like know your role you know like you have to know and understand that you got to climb up this proverbial ladder right like pay your dues that's right is that what that is okay so you're gonna we had to do this for free. You got to do it for free.

But when you're producing for Roger and Norm, what show is it, by the way? Is that just... Norm's show, the late night show. The late night vampire. Yeah.

I used to listen to late night vampire. Oh yeah. Were you around when he decided to start rooting for the Sabres? Yeah.

That was just after. I went in there just after that turn. It was your idea, right idea right no it was not my idea he had already started rooting for the sabers at that point when i joined the show yeah and that's the thing so and you all you always hear these stories it's like this folklore of broadcasters past because george strombalopoulos also produced his show. And so it's like anybody who's anybody in this industry has gone up the ladder, right?

It's never fair to me. And then George, amazing, right? What he's done. But George's BFF was the son of the program director. This isn't the same as... No, it's not the same. But George also did that job. So you have to do that job too, right?

Merrick started with that show too. This was a great overnight show. They don't even have overnight shows, right? No, they don't. There's no live overnight shows. Which is an atrocity, but that's just my opinion. Damn it, I know. That's why Norm's in security now.

Yeah. That's why a lot of us are saying, we're going to cover a lot of atrocities here. Yeah. And we're going to talk about PC now. But when you are a producer for Roger and Norm, you're getting paid, right? Yes. So you start as a producer for Roger and Norm, you're getting paid, right? So you start as an, and then they bring you on as a producer.

And then you get paid. Yes. And so that's your first foray into actual mainstream media. And that's, of course, that's the Fan 590. And it's owned by Rogers at the time. Yep. So what was that like? How long did you go with Roger and Norm?

About a year and a half i think it was yeah oh i mean first of all they're so easy to work with so they're not like prima donnas you know what i'm saying both nice guys oh both amazing guys amazing amazing very nice humble guys even though they've been in the industry for eons and they could be a-holes you know what i mean like they could be if they wanted, but they weren't. And so easy to deal with. You know, I'd come up with ideas. They would come up with ideas in terms of what they wanted to do and use and this and that.

And then that's it. I would just go out and get the people that they wanted. And when you're, and correct me, I don't know how this works because I actually produce a lot of podcasts. And I do something different for each client. Like what does it mean to be a producer? Like it's not technical producer, right? No, no, no, no. Are you booking guests? Yes, I am. And as I get attacked by a wasp. Just to let you know, those wasps are really weak right now. And I don't even think they're capable of like stinging you. I'm just letting you know, this is September wasps. They're pathetic. They're pathetic. I've been laughing in their faces um so yes i was not a technical director or technical op or producer or anything like that i literally just set up the

show and then i would also be the person to take calls if we ever had live phone-in segments so i would take the calls screen them give them the information so there's a software that basically the host had and I had, and I would put the information in terms of what they wanted to talk about. I'm glad you're here. I need to know. Like when somebody says, I want to talk about why the Leafs should get,

you know, Wendell Clark out of retirement and we need Wendell and stuff. And then you put them through, because this is going to be great. Cause you know, Norm, Norm loves Wendell. No,

usually we, well, that's part of the screening process, Mike, come on. But what happens when a guest, when a phone caller says they're going to talk about one thing and then when they're live,

does something completely different? Does that happen? Oh, it does. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought of pulling that move a few times, but I'm chicken shit. I thought about it.

Okay. Well, I'm glad you didn't because you're a producer's worst nightmare. However, it will say like, like I said, the software gives you an opportunity're a producer's worst nightmare. However, it will say, like I said, the software gives you an opportunity as a producer to write a brief description of what the person is supposed to talk about so the host already knows.

And then if the person comes on and talks about something completely different, it's a glass, right? So you can go like this and go... Yeah, and it's like we're both looking at each other like, what the heck is going on here? You're doing like the... Oh, you do like... Yeah, yeah. They'll say like, cut this guy looking at each other like, what the heck is going on here? You're doing like, yeah, yeah.

Like they'll say like, cut this guy off or this girl off or whatever. And then, yeah. And we can cut them off. Like, so the board op would be the one to cut them off. So the board operator or the technical. Right. Because they can bring down the pod or whatever for the phone call. We also have like, there's a six second delay.

So if something does happen, we can kind of fix it. We don't have that here. No, we don't. No safety net here. No safety net. That's why podcasting, people love podcasting and people love you so much, right? Oh, is that true? Have you heard that?

Yes, I have actually. Who besides Norm? Barry Davis. Oh yeah. We're going to talk about Barry soon. I love Barry Davis. My boy Barry. Oh yeah.

He's in a Tom Petty cover band you know. He's also in the Cars cover band. It's called Driven. Yep. I have a lot of time for Barry. We like our team Barry.

Yeah. Okay he's coming up. That's a teaser. We're going to have some Barry Davis talk very soon. So you work for 18 months with late night vampire

FOTM Norman Rumack. Storm and Norman Rumack. When he this is a story I heard 18 months with uh late night vampire uh fotm norman rumak storm and norman rumak uh when he this is a story i heard i think from howard burger i think that when norm rumak was let go uh i think maybe nelson millman told howard i got my name's all mixed up but uh maybe it was nelson millman who said that uh the fan 590 lost a piece of its soul like the first time when he was let go like this is this is how significant a character he was on the roster 100 because him you know the whole shtick like you just said the late night vampire and like he was he got hockey talk going in all hours of the night you know like that show kind of made the um the radio station as kind of as popular as it was so people would come to the radio station to talk

hockey especially in the 90s you know what i mean when the leafs kind of had a little thing going i remember right gilmore yeah so i mean those were like the last heydays of the Leafs kind of thing. Pat Quinn had a little heyday too. Because there were a late 90s, early 2000s Pat Quinn spike where we got into a conference final or two. Right. And lost against Carolina, but whatever. It's fine. Marty Gelina.

Marty Gelina. Right. Sorry. Jeff O'Neill was on that team, right? That Carolina team. Yes, he was. Yeah. Right.

Never heard of him. Yeah, me neither. Okay. So, he was. Yeah. Right. Never heard of him. Yeah, me neither. Okay. So, yeah. Norm was a significant cat. And did he mentor you at all? Like, was he teaching you the ways of the samurai, like, during your 18 months there? I learned a lot.

It's okay. We've already established he's a sweetheart. I learned a lot from both him and Roger just because they could literally talk about anything. They were just ready to go. You didn't even have to give them all that much stuff and we would be in contact

throughout the day. So I would call Norm during the day and be like, hey, this is what I'm thinking. I've got this, this and this lined up and then he tells me what's up. So the communication was always very good. Right. And like I said, he,

they also taught me things like off mic, I guess you could say, and that's, or out of the studio. And that's to treat everybody with respect because both of them never treated an intern poorly, never treated producers poorly. Like they were good all around people all the time. Glad to hear it.

Cause you can learn a lot about a person by how they teach, how they treat that unpaid intern. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. For sure. One thing, how they treat the, I don't know,

the CEO or the VP of finance or whatever, but no, it's how do you treat the guy who waters the plants? That's what I always like that. You gotta, you know, treat them with the same respect. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Shout out to Norman. What did you do? So why did it end for you after 18 months there at the Fan 590? What did I do from there? Where did you go, Michelle? Yes. What did I do?

Where did I go? I believe at that point I was, I got hired at Sportsnet. So I was behind the scenes at Sportsnet and writing and editing highlights and all that kind of stuff. I also did some technical work there too. That was like my first stint at Sportsnet. Okay. And then I was also while doing that, I was doing on-air work for like Rogers Cable TV. Cable 10.

Yeah. So I was doing like. That's gone too, by the way. It is. Exactly. I know. Right. That just shows

how old i am no no because even you know carol and cameron and these people grew up you know they were cutting their chops uh getting their reps in at cable 10 yeah and i don't think she's i don't think yeah you can still be pretty young and have cable 10 experience um sure i'll say sure to that one uh yeah so i was doing like on camera work for cable 10 doing like anchoring stuff but also being on air in terms of hockey so i worked for first the miss saga st mike's majors at the time now they're the steelheads and then i also worked for the brampton battalion and ended up being full-time with the battalion. Cool.

Yeah. So being the full-time host. Yeah. You're putting in your reps with like OHL. And I loved hockey. So it was easy. Yeah. Cool.

Cool. Cool. At this point though, like, like at this point, have you decided you want to work in sports media? Oh yeah. Yeah. I had decided that before, before i even got my internship at the fan right yeah i decided that long and that's because you and your dad would uh enjoy uh early days of the fan 590 or 1430 590 and basically you would hear these people i'm guessing that this

is a bit of me being theatrical but maybe you'd listen you'd see how your dad was so engaged with these personalities over the radio. And maybe he made a spark on you. It was radio and TV. So, for instance, growing up for me, it was Teresa Herger, which she then became Teresa Cruz. Yes. So, and now she's in politics. You go, Teresa. Yeah, no, good for her. I know.

So, yeah, those were my influences. I would see her on TSN and she was really the only female out there. And then Catherine Humphries was the only one and she was City TV. Yeah, Catherine Humphries was fantastic. Am I bringing back some memories or what? No, because my oldest, who's 18 now,

he played t-ball at High Park. And who doesn't remember the day that Catherine Humphries showed up for T-Ball Tuesdays? Amazing. Yeah, and I mean, for a period of time, she was married to a member of the Tragically Hip. Who doesn't remember the day that Catherine Humphrey showed up for T-Ball Tuesdays. Amazing. Yeah. And I mean, for a period of time, she was married to a member of the Tragically Hip. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But she was great. And because I work closely with people like John Gallagher. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Talking about the great Catherine Humphreys.

I'm pretty sure maybe that's the reason John lost his gig is how good katherine was humphries was you know what though katherine here's what i liked about katherine a she could like she could laugh at herself which i am very much that person she was sarcastic could laugh at herself so her and i have very similar personalities which is why i identified with her so much and she always did people would think oh she's such fluff and would never do like those hard nose interviews. But you know what? It wasn't that. It was she wanted to know the person behind the athlete, which is also what I liked doing.

So her whole personality, her persona, I gravitated towards a lot. And Teresa Cruz, I gravitated towards because, yo, she's the OG. She is the OG of sports broadcasting as a female. Now, you know, I'mitated towards because yo, she's the OG. She is the OG of sports broadcasting as a female. I'm thinking back now. I was raised with TSN Sports Desk. Oh yeah, Jean Loretta with the stash. Jim Van Horn, you gotta love it.

Another great stash. Name more stashes. How many stashes can we name on this program this afternoon? Those are two legendary stashes. Chris Schultz I know he was on Sports Desk. No, absolutely. I could talk about the stashes can we name on this program this afternoon? Those are two legendary stashes. Chris Schultz, I know he was on sports desk. No, absolutely. I could talk about the stashes all day long. Are you new to Toronto Mike?

Of course, that's what I do around here. Really? Okay. When it comes to women on the Canadian sports media scene, now I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but yes, you mentioned Teresa Hergert, now Teresa Cruz. And then it was a long time. Like who's the next, is it, who's next on the desk? To be honest, I think it's Jennifer Hedger was like the next big, you know, like, and

Jennifer's done a phenomenal job. She's been there for ages too. She's been there a long time. Yeah. She was on The Loft. Was it Lofters? Oh my God, Lofters. What was the reality show?

Lofters, yeah. I tried very hard and I hard and maybe now that her children are getting older that she can do it but I tried to get her on Toronto Mic and she said she was busy with her motherhood duties but it's been a while.

Like I might have to take another crack at Jennifer Hedger but yeah, she's still on. Okay. But yeah, and Martine, when did Martine Geyer... Yeah, Martine started really early on too, right?

Yeah, a while ago. But it's interesting. She was almost like first Sportsnet female. And when does Hazel May show up? Sorry. Sorry, go ahead. So it's actually Jodi Vance too, right? Oh my God.

F-O-T-M Jodi Vance. There you go. Jodi Vance and Martine Geyer were the first two in my recollection for Sportsnet. Teresa Herger is TSN. You got Catherine Humphries, City TV. See? Am I bringing back some memories here? It's all coming together. Now we're skipping over, I don't know, maybe because she moved on from sports way before

you were old enough to watch probably, but Anne Romer was also, if you want to go back to like, yeah, she was most recently probably, oh, she was on CP24 most recently, but she was on Breakfast Television. She's the original host of Breakfast Television. Short blonde hair with glasses? Yeah, she wears glasses now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now I'd say she's most famous for being on ads for like Windows companies. Yo, that makes good money. We can't laugh at that. That makes good money. I would never laugh at Ann Romer. Are you kidding me? I'm in love with Ann Romer. But she did sports in the early 80s.

She was on the sports team. Oh, okay. She kind of did more of like lifestyle stuff. But it's interesting how they're kind of like unicorns. Like there's only, you know, we talk about like Mary Ormsby we mentioned. Because to date, I believe Mary Ormsby and Barb DiGiulio and Ashley Dawking are the only three women to have like an actual hosting gig on the fan during the weekday lineup like

from like morning show to afternoon drive that's three yeah can you name another because you might know better than me no i know and i love barb barb is another great woman too i looked up to her as well she was hard worker knew her crap sorry am i allowed to say that you can even say shit yeah she knew her shit um and yeah she was always really nice she's still she's on 10 10 now yeah she's got a show on 10 10 but uh that i think she was caught up in one of those large cutback yes waves at rogers sports net the fan 590 whatever it's called now. 10 different names. It's fine. Right. Sportsnet, The Fan. I don't know. But Barb DiGiulio, lovely lady.

So Mary Ormsby, Barb DiGiulio, Ashley Docking. By the way, are you at all friendly with Ashley Docking? No, I don't know her at all. So I know her better than you because she's actually been on this show. I'm just curious why she didn't last very long on that morning show, but how

would you know if you're not friends with Ashley Docking? I know a few things, but I'm not going to say what I know. No tea you can spill here. That's right, exactly. When you're looking for people to emulate, if you will, climbing the ranks in sports media, you've got your Teresa Hergert

Cruz and you've got your Catherine Humphries basically, which are two damn good role models. Yes. Yeah. I'd say. Cool. I have a question by the way, and it kind of ties into what we're talking about. Charlie Misner. Misner? M-I-S-N-E-R. Is that Misner? Misner. A little bit of both. Who was Michelle's biggest influence and what led her to getting into broadcasting? So we've kind of been all over the place but just to put that in a bow those two pretty much those two if we're talking about canadian media it's theresa hergert slash theresa cruz and uh katherine humphries and then american media it would be suzy cobbler and pam oliver oh yeah i know pam oliver i'm not sure who the other

that is a really big that's a that a B. That's a bumblebee. Listen, you know what? We used to do this in our basement and then COVID came. So now we're out in my backyard. Susie Kovler, she's probably like cute little 5'2", older woman, short brown hair, light brown hair. She also does, she's very versatile. She does indie, but she's on the NFL beat as well. So her and Pam were usually the NFL gurus.

And the reason why I liked them is because they were damn good. And I liked the fact that they were a little bit more diverse. They were older, right? They had some seasoning. Yes, exactly. Pam's African-American and both, you know what I mean? So they knew what they were talking about. They were older, they were diverse,

and they had great presence camera presence do you think america is more diverse when it comes to sports media than canada i think they're getting less diverse have you seen what's going on the air now like i mean i put out that statement but we're gonna get to the same but i mean because i i mean uh i think they're getting less diverse. Canada's getting less diverse. No, I think the States is getting less diverse. OK, OK. Yeah, because I feel like you're seeing the same look of woman on air. What look is that?

All the time. Like a Barbie almost kind of thing. You know, you got that Barbie-ish look. I hate to say it, but look at some of the look at some of the people that you're having on air. There's no real discrepancy in race that much that not that much to be honest in terms of females i'm talking about females only there's not a lot of discrepancy in terms of race or age okay and they're like it it'll all look the same to me and that's from i'm sorry but that's the female perspective you you would be noting

such things uh as a woman in sports media. Like, you know, where I, I know, I don't think I consume, I honestly don't, I see, you know, I see some, a lot of NBA coverage, but I'm not consuming very much American sports content these days. So what I am consuming though is more Canadian content. Would you say we're better in terms of, okay. Sorry. okay because like off the top of my head when i think i think like the barbie so you're suggesting like blonde right like well just like even that look of like they're all now i feel

like we're only hiring women that are in their like mid-20s they have this certain like look about them so they might be maybe even light brown hair, but they're light. It's the same look over and over and over again. And this is a broad statement in terms of Canadian sports media. Okay. Think about who you see on TSN and Sportsnet. Now think about who you see on CBC News Channel.

And see the difference. There is a huge difference between what's happening in sports media on television and what's happening with news on television. Oh, I see. Yes. A huge difference. So CP24 is very diverse. I'm not saying that I get where both sports stations are becoming more diverse. I get that.

Totally. It's awesome. But at the same time, you're really not getting a range of look here either. You're getting, like I said, still mid to early 20s. And it's a certain look. You're a certain height, certain weight, certain this, certain that. You know, when Peter Mansbridge, is he good because he's a hot young stud? No, he's good because he's Peter freaking Manbridge. But he is hot, just not young. I'm just saying. You know

what I'm saying? And the woman who took over for him, Anne-Marie Barton, Rosemary Barton, right? Yeah. Well, four people took over and now it's down to two, but yeah, Rosemary Barton was one of them. Yeah. Okay. That woman, she is good. She is good. She is cute. She's got, but she's an older woman, right? She's got a little bit of thickness to her. I'm allowed to say that as a, you know, woman who's got meat on her bones too. She is really good.

So same with, I look at Susan Hanamansing. She's really good too. You mean Ian Hanamansing? No, there's Ian Hanamansing. Susan. Oh my gosh. What's her name? Armit.

I know who you're speaking of, yes. She's got short, black, now she's starting to gray, but she's been on the air forever, and she's beautiful, she's got great poise, amazing delivery, and it's like when I hear them deliver, I want to watch, I want to listen, and it's just there's a difference there. And like I said, you're seeing diversity, you're seeing different shapes size colors whatever whereas sports media you don't really see that who are you kidding i mean you're putting uh i'm not saying that adrian

arsenault by the way no not adrian arsenault i'm gonna look her up you'll look i'll look her up and i'm gonna like punch myself in the face after. But yeah. Okay. Cause yeah. Andrew Chang and Adrienne Arsenault, I think are the prime hosts of the national now, I believe. And then you have Ian Hannah Mansing.

Ian's very good too. Yeah. Ian is the guy I thought was going to be the heir apparent, but no, but okay. And then Rosemary Barton, I think she's doing like a political coverage. Yeah.

But she's phenomenal, right? I know. I think she's great. So good. Absolutely. Okay. So let me get us back on track here because doing like a political coverage. Yeah. But she's phenomenal, right? Like, I know. I think she's great. So good. Absolutely. Okay. So let me get us back on track here because there's a lot there,

lots there to unpack. So just to wrap up your career, cause I want to get you to Saga 960, where you worked with Barry Davis, FOTM Barry Davis. so did you, you worked at, you worked at TSN?

So I was, yeah, I did updates for a very short period of time at TSN Radio. That was also while doing, so that was after my... And did you work with Kayla Gray during that stint? No. Okay. No.

Okay. I was before her kind of thing. Gotcha. Yeah. So I did on-air stuff, sorry, at Sportsnet slash City News Channel. So I was doing some Sportsnet World stuff and then working with City News Channel. City News Channel goes under

and I don't really get an opportunity to kind of audition for Connected. And they're just like, see ya. I'm like, wow, thanks. I don't even get an audition. Sure, I don't know why. If people like you, they like you. If they don't, they don't. And that's just the rudeness of the industry

and that's the cruelness of the industry. I feel like from reading, and we're going to read this note in a moment and talk about it, but I feel like you're feeling like it's because you didn't have that look you just referred to. That too. I think, yeah, I've definitely experienced that, if that's what you're wondering. Well, of course, that's what I'm wondering. Because you feel that if you looked, I mean, I'm going to say it because she's an FOTM, Carolyn Schwed, for example.

Do you know Carolyn Schwed? Yeah, I don't know her. Okay, but she's young, but she's blonde and thin. Certain looks, right? I'm not, I mean, am I just- There's a lot that aren't that look, only because I'm thinking, I see Carly Agro is not that look, right?

She's an athletic, taller brunette. I feel like I'm dissecting the woman host. No, you're not. We're talking about it. It's okay. No one's going to get that. But that's one. That's one.

Jennifer has a little bit of an athletic look. Kate Burness, I know she's a redhead, but you're right. She's also very slight. But you know she auditioned to TSN as a blonde. Did you know that? No, I did not know that. She did. And then she changed her hair color.

Bait and switch. Smart move by Kate Vanessa. Yeah, she's a smart girl. On the TSN side, I know Kayla Gray is kind of a rising star, but I think she's the only black woman I can think of who's hosting shows. You're kind of right. Ivanka Osmak is a blonde. Tall, thin, blonde.

And Danielle Michaud is a... Bl thin blonde and danielle michaud is a blonde small blonde yeah i got um uh jody looked like that too martine they had a glass she told me a story i had her on this during from she's in vancouver hazel's a cute little thing well hazel so hazel is here yep she left and did her New England Sports Network stuff. And then she came back. You could fit that girl in your pocket. She's a tiny little thing. You know, I say that just because I'm 5'9 without heels on, Mike. So you feel you're too tall?

In general. In general. I'm curious about this. No, but like look at how many people we've just mentioned. And you could only come up with the one. Carly. Jennifer Hedges tall. Yeah.

And who's could come up with like an athletic different look build. But Jennifer's got that like the blonde look right. So think about that. And I feel like you're absolutely right that on the men's side. It doesn't. You don't care. You could be whatever

the hell you want as a man. You can go on good beard gut if you want. Thank you. Elliot is an amazing man honestly i love the man to death but if that were a woman and she for some reason wanted to go on air without makeup okay because of the beard you would hear it for like you know what i'm saying like there's a complete double standard bs about the industry and that's why i decided to say what i said because okay we got to get to that i feel like we've teased it enough here, but I just,

so, so we get you. How did you get the gig? If you'll call it that, you'll tell me at Saga 960. Like how did that come to be? So the gig at Saga was ironically enough through my pal, Jason Portwondo.

Who I know, you know how I know him? How? I produce a podcast for Peter Gross called Down the Stretch. Okay. Yeah. I think I know that name through horse racing. Yes.

He's a horse racing. Gigantic horse racing. Yeah. He, he's a correspondent of sorts. Yeah. For TSN and Woodbine. And for Peter Gross's Down the Stretch podcast. Amazing.

Yeah. So there's how I'm connected there. Please continue. So through working at Sportsnet, excuse me. Okay. Um, him, like I knew barry we talked a little bit when i was on air too and i was on camera for city news channel because everything was in the same building kind of thing so i knew barry just kind of in passing not really on like a friendship level but i knew porty a lot better because I just talked a lot more to Porty and so yeah we actually connected through just a fluke of a circumstance about a month prior to Saga and

Barry needing a co-host. Barry actually asked Porty if he could co-host. Portwondo said he couldn't but said you know who would be great for you? Michelle. And then Barry contacted me, whatever. And that was pretty much it. And as we alluded to earlier, Barry's a very nice man. Yes. Yeah. And you've had no problem with Barry, Barry Davis.

Yeah. Yeah. Him and I, we get along real well. I mean, we call each other work husband and wife. We were like radio husband and wife. Yeah. I like him a lot. I really, he's been over here twice and I got a lot, I got a lot.

We like our team, Barry. I got a lot of time for Barry he's been over here twice and I got a lot, I got a lot, we like our team, Barry. I got a lot of time for Barry. But the big news, so I'm trying to get the timelines right. So you're on, and this station,

I mean, I have, I won't, I like Mike Richards a lot. He comes in here and talks about the, you know, the share of the,

the big share that he's going to deliver. They're not even being rated. I guess it costs a lot of money to get on the Numeris. Like apparently, I don't know, something like 20,000 a year or something. They're not even being rated. I guess it costs a lot of money to get on the Numeris. Like apparently, I don't know, something like 20,000 a year or something just to be measured.

So this station 960 is not being measured right now. Yeah. By an independent company, just not by Numeris. Right. Not by, by Numeris. Yeah.

PPM devices or whatever. And so Mike, who I like very much and is a great guest at Toronto, Mike has these pine, he's got these ideas for, you know, what he's going to do at that station. So if I park that aside though, I mean, I've heard from people, like Mike Bullard, for example, and stuff,

or, you know, he went off about not getting paid. There's, I guess I'm curious, were you paid for your, were you paid by 960 Saga? Okay, good. Yeah. Good, because I give you a number of a lawyer for it. But the big news from 960, this show with Barry Davis, which is called The Spin. Yep.

Barry Davis got a full-time gig selling boats at Bass Pro Shops. Yeah. So you don't hear that too much. No. You know. Well, I mean, you talked about Norm off the top in terms of leaving the industry and that was barry's thing so barry didn't want to work for a big name company anymore because he kind of did not have a a good send-offs you know i guess you could say is um well you mentioned hazel may uh and she had not to shade anything

to do with it but uh sports day made a decision i think to not have hazel and barry doing that sideline reporting for blue jays and to go hard on Hazel. And Barry was let go. Yeah, yeah. I mean, whatever. Like, Barry's got his, he knows the truth, a different story. So, but that's pretty much the gist of it is that, yeah, they were going to take him off the Blue Jays beat.

And then he, and he started, uh, eventually, uh, he was the host of the spin on Saga 960 AM and you were his co-host. Yep. So what came first? Like, like what's the timelines here?

Did, did Barry say I'm going to quit cause I'm going to work full time at Bass Pro? Well, okay. So, uh, we pretty much, I put out my statement last month and that was more regarding I have,

I was with NHL Network Radio for eight seasons. So that's, yeah, I forgot that part. I was with NHL Network Radio for eight seasons. So right after my TV career kind of wrapped up, I went and ended up getting a job with NHL network radio and pretty much I've only done like nights and weekends for like eight seasons. And then, like I said, I, and that's in Liberty village at that. Okay. I know it. Yeah. I know people there too. I got, I got some stories from there too. Uh, Todd Shapiro used to have a show out of that building. Right, right, right.

No longer, but yes, I helped him set that up. So, up. So you were on NHL Network Radio on Sirius XM. Yep. Is Gord Stelic on this program? Am I getting the right show? Gord is on the morning show, yeah. Okay, and he used to be with Mike Ross. Ross, he's now the lead guy for, he's the announcer for the Leafs.

Yes, absolutely. He's at Scotia Bank Arena. He's a good guy. Okay, so let's read the statement and then we'll get back to you leaving Saga 960. Okay, so the big statement here. I actually, well, it's, I got the screen caps here. I feel like I want you to read it, but I'll read it here. You ready?

Okay, sure. I'll do my best Michelle Storino here. Impression? No, you don't have to. Yeah. No, I wouldn't. I don't do impressions. Come on.

As the playoffs are set to begin, you may have noticed that I haven't been on the air for a while. And it's not for lack of trying. The reason why is a massive, all caps massive, by the way, a massive reason why I am stepping away from sports broadcasting. Whatever you think or believe about how far we have come as an industry society in terms of equality simply isn't true. Sexism and gender bias are still prominent.

During this pandemic, a professor from Ryerson University by the name of Lori Beckstead approached me about a study she was doing on Women in Sports Radio. Her statistics were not only alarming, but sad, maddening, and unfortunately validating. There are only 13 women in all of Canada who are hosts in sports radio. I'm calling bullshit right now. There's not 13. Well, now there's two less with me and Ashley. Still, I only know Andy Petrillo. Like, who am I missing?

Yeah, you're missing some people in Montreal. They have a couple. Okay. Same with, anyways, continue, yeah. I know, I just, I feel that's, because I feel Toronto's got most of the sports media. So if we only have one, because we have one. Yeah.

Right now, Andy Petrillo on TSN. Okay. There are only 13 women in all of Canada who are hosts in sports radio. That's 4% of on-air talent. I am one of those clearly undervalued 13, and all that comes to mind is that it's unacceptable. Equality? How can that be? Even though I am one of the lucky few in this position, doesn't mean I have gotten the same treatment or opportunity as men in my field.

It's definitely not for a lack of knowledge, talent, or experience. I've been at this for 15 years now. Because when you aren't given the same prime time spots or amounts of airtime or other opportunities, what else could it be? Perhaps my style was too different? When I was on air, I didn't talk about the same stuff men did, like fantasy sports, gambling odds, certain analytics. I saw the game differently, talked about the person behind the player, mental acuity, et cetera, because that's me. But no matter what I talked about, I did it with passion and knowledge.

Sports aren't life or death. It was a privilege to talk about them. One of my mentors told me that in media, you have to be informative or entertaining, hopefully both. And for the last 15 years, that's what I've strived for, whether it was on radio, TV, or through the written word. What makes me the most upset is how this impacts

little girls out there who listen to the radio in the cars and never hear a woman's voice talking sports. This could be your daughter, your niece, or granddaughter. Her growing up thinking that's normal, that we don't deserve to be in the same arena, that her potential dream may not be possible. That same little girl may put on the highlights and never see a full figured woman on camera. Has sports broadcasting be more inclusive on TV? Yes, somewhat, but there are more females. But in my experience, I know I have been passed over

because I don't fit a certain mold. I'm 5'9", with an athletic build that intimidates most. I don't match a BS stereotype of the sports media industry, much like most industries in North America. Sorry. The sports media industry is run by insecure middle-aged men who have a narrow-minded idea of beauty and are scared of change. But guess what? Change and evolution are inevitable. I didn't write this for sympathy or pity, rather as a harsh reminder that society really hasn't changed.

Women injure and overcome inequalities every single day. But most importantly, I'm writing this for my fellow woman. Understand your value, because when you truly know your worth in a relationship, job, or any situation, you will never accept anything less, which is why I'm choosing to leave this behind to focus full-time on my business that promotes empowerment and overall good mental and physical health. Thank you to all those who have tuned in over the years. You have always kept me on my toes and motivated me to keep getting better. The end of this season for me is bittersweet,

but preparing for the next one brings hope. Wow. That's quite the pros. Like you're throwing just a lot there. Okay. Okay. Okay. So. So what do you want to ask about first?

Get it out. It's okay. Don't worry. It's all good. All right. Are there any specific examples like where you feel you didn't get airtime or like. Yeah. A hundred percent.

Okay. Spill it into that microphone. We got it. We got to capture this so basically like i said i was on the air for eight seasons eight seasons right the only time in which i got a chance to co-host a morning show i believe it was two times so two separate times in eight seasons during the summer when it's completely dead and it wasn't even at the direction of my boss saying like hey you know what i think this would be good for you it was

the person that is filling in as the host saying you know what i think michelle would be a really good co-host for me who was that person what that said michelle would be a really good for me yeah ryan payton pates yeah good on him um. Ryan Payton. Okay. Yeah. Good on him. Yeah, I know. And him and I had phenomenal chemistry on there. I'll ask some dumb questions, but you were clear with your boss that that was your desire to grow in your profession was to... Would you stay at a company for eight years

and do evenings and weekends and then think that, yeah, you know what? This is going to be my life. Come on. You know, everyone does the nights and weekends to get on air during the day. You pay your dues, this and that.

And at this point, like I said, yo, I've been at this for 15 years. I am not a spring chicken. Like, I'm not as young as you think. I'm not as inexperienced as you think. I'm clearly not inexperienced or that young that I need to be slugging it out all the time at night or during the weekend and I know I'm definitely good enough and I know my shit like I definitely know my shit so it's like all I need is an all I need is an opportunity and it's like oh okay and it's like why oh, so-and-so can fill in to do the power play,

but Michelle can't fill in to do the power play, which is like the afternoon drive show. Like I've never been once asked. So if you can tell me what your reasoning would be, if you were my boss, I would love to hear it. I would love to hear that. Okay. On the television side, I understand your belief that your body type or that you didn't fit this mold. Yeah. No, but on radio. Yeah, who gives a shit what you look like?

Right. So is it just you think that it's just general old good old fashioned misogyny? Yeah. And they don't think women. It's the good old boys club. It's the good old boys club. And it's like, I get it.

In a lot of industries, it's you hire your buddies and this and that and whatever. I get that. That happens in a lot of industries. It's not just media, Michelle, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? I am the only female, only female on air presence. And I have been the only female on air presence. That station's been around for like 15 years.

They had one other female that was there. She didn't even last a season. So I'm the only female that's actually had a presence on the station. And yet we, this is, this is how, okay. If you can explain that. Now, Michelle, I have heard this story before in a quite a little different form, but I did a diversity canadian sports media panel with shirali najak from hockey night in canada and uh scott moore who was leaving his he was

hiring you know big wig and as far as that you might have heard him and uh sofia yurstakovich i'm saying that correctly too because i practiced it many many times but sofia told similar stories because she was on Hockey Night in Canada. She did this opening part, I think the 6.30 part before. So 6.30 to 7, where she would do this kind of like social media hockey thing. This is at the beginning of the Rogers contract. She was on. And she also talked about how people told her to kind of stick to the light stuff,

not the sports. Like there was a general, uh, she experienced a, what I can only describe as a misogyny trying to cover hockey in this country. Well, I mean, so here's the thing. I was on NHL network. Okay. It's technically the, it's the league's radio station, right? So if I sucked, you would get a call from Bill Daly to say, maybe we shouldn't have her on the air. You would. They would. They've gotten calls from the upper echelon of the NHL to say,

listen, maybe you should tell so-and-so whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There has never been a complaint about me from anybody in the NHL. So in terms of me not knowing, in terms of me not knowing what I'm talking about in order, in terms of me not being able to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, in order to be in that conversation or have those conversations. And on,

this is the same, you're on the radio side, right? Yeah. It's in Liberty Village there at the Sirius XM there. But on the TV side, they, they brought Jackie Redmond down to New York to work at the NHL network.

Right. And it's so Jackie, is this because Jackie fits that mold? Jackie Redmond? I'm sure. I would say, I would say. Oh yeah.

I know. I, a little bit. Sure. She's not, she's petite and yes, attractive. Yeah.

Yeah. Small, petite. That's what I'm saying. I'm quite like, like, uh, am I wrong? You look extremely fit and attractive. little bit sure she's not she's petite and uh yes attractive yeah yeah small petite that's i'm saying i'm quite like like uh am i wrong you look extremely fit and attractive like am i allowed to say that thank you sure it's on the record yeah so i'm surprised that you would think you'd be slighted for how you look because you look camera ready so do you want me to tell you what i experienced this is like literally back in the day so when i was doing those um ohl coverages so here i am hosting a school day game which is usually right like the little kids they do they do the teddy bear toss at this or am i

get the wrong thing no they do at some school day games yes but but there's a lot of kids in the audience correct because like all the schools in the area bring the bring the kids and whatever so i'm the host spitting out stats, doing all sorts of stuff, wearing, you know, like a, I guess a pantsuit, you know, trying to be all like professional and whatever. Amanda Woodward from Melrose Place. Oh, nice. Yes, exactly. Thank you. I'm older than you.

Oh my gosh. But I was like, yeah, that's it. So we hire someone or not hire because it's rogers television right so we get someone to be the fan in the stands now this fan in the stands i know for a fact had very little sports knowledge and very and even less hockey knowledge and especially knowledge for the game and the team that I was covering. Right. These were the snippets. I will do an impersonation of the snippets. Okay, so who's your favorite player?

Oh, great. And why is he your favorite player? Like, this is the tone. I'm emulating tone. So you could imagine, just imagine what we've just been talking about, plus that tone. All right. Two weeks later, she's on a marley's broadcast okay okay so if you tell me that that's not a little bit of a bias there with like okay

well we can just we can just feed her info and then have her sit in front of the camera which basically is what happened because they actually the real host was there they had this young guy who was very good actually and he was the main host and then she literally sat beside him in a chair and was like he kind of made her and had to allow her to chime in you know what i'm saying yeah it was like so uncomfortable watching it and i'm like wow okay that's two weeks later with no experience and here i am sligging it out memorizing stats and you believe it's because how she looked oh i know i can't what would you say is the present what would what would be the presumptionary thoughts that you had for the reason i think that fits the narrative. Okay. And I have seen the in-arena hosts

at Leaf games and Marley's games, and there does seem to be a type. Right, right. I'm not lying with the type here. I'm not making crap up. There's a type. There's definitely a type. Has the type opened up a little bit over the years?

Sure. But there was definitely a type as i mentioned you look at news television and you look at sports television and the people on air those are very different those are very different people so that was my definite first experience of that happening and then yeah now in your, also in line with this narrative, though, is the fact that you can't, like, some of this is speculation. Like, we don't know. We think it's this. Like, no one ever says.

Yeah, yeah. But who the hell is going to say that, though, Mike? Let's be honest. Yeah. But what we do know is that we have about, we have three decades of that, the Rogers Sportsnet station, for example, 1430, then 590 now. the Rogers Sportsnet station, for example, 1430, then 590 now. Like there's three decades of data to look at and see precisely three daytime hosts over 30 years.

Like this is a fact. That's creepy as hell. That sucks, no? That's terrible. I think it's terrible. And I think Ashley, Ashley Docking being the most recent didn't last that long.

Like it was about a year, I think. Okay. I think it's about a year. And we don't know why she's no longer there. But, you know, she was on with, for example, most recently with Scott MacArthur. Right. And, you know, Scott's still there. And Ashley Dawkins not there.

And we, you know, I'm sure, I don't know why. I have, you know, I've heard speculation, but nothing that I know concrete for sure why. And, yeah, three daytime hosts in 30 years. It's not a great record. I gave the number of 4% across Canada and I said 13 total. So in terms of the 13 total, obviously you subtract myself and Ashley now, which would make it 11. And you're like, I can't even think of 11.

Yeah, because I can think, I know one. Andy Petrillo has a hosting job during the daytime. So these numbers don't have to be daytime, by the way. Okay. It's just having a host. So being categorized as a host on sports radio, which, so for instance, I know that one of the women that they counted towards this,

I don't know her name, but I know she is technically the host of canucks broadcast on the sportsnet station out in vancouver okay okay so that's just how you define host on that's right so that's what i'm saying which makes the number even worse like who are we kidding four percent across the country and it's even like a bullshit do you know andy petrillo i don't know andy actually no okay because she's uh, she's a unicorn because, uh, she,

she's very good at what she does and she hosts a show during the day. Yeah. Toronto, uh, sports media stations. So, and that's the thing. It's like,

you don't even have to say during the day, just a host in general. And you still can't even come up. I know you're right. I don't have to say during the day, but I like to say during the day because, we've all heard stories of like weekend hosts and, you know,

it's not the same. They don't get, you know, it's not the same. They don't get the same compensation. No. It's not the same. I know I don't get the same compensation of Steve Koulias. Steve Koulias is a daytime guy. I know I didn't get the same amount of money as Kouli. Kouli's a great guy and everything, but it's definitely not even close to comparable. So the NHL Network Radio on Sirius XM, not a good experience for you

those eight years. Okay, so hold on. Yeah. No, everything's like, yeah, I'm a glass half full kind of gal. Yeah. All right.

So for me, what I loved about the station was I got to communicate to my listeners as kind of like a fan, like an Uber fan and show my passion for the game. And like I said,

show how I see the game differently. And I would, when I talked about mental acuity, I look at the mental side of hockey because I think that that's 90% of why Alex Ovechkin is so damn good and consistent, you know? And I look at coaching and cause I'm a coach. So I look at all these things because I was a former athlete. I played pretty high level

things. I, and you know, competed in high level, different sports and I'm a coach. So I look at different aspects like that. So I don't look at the same crap that other people does that other people do. Excuse me. Um, and like I mentioned too, that people kept me on my toes. Listen, you want to give a, I'll give you a perfect example. Yeah. I'm talking during one of those Sunday afternoon shows that I hosted. And I made a general statement, a general statement about the young up and coming stars on the Minnesota

wild. And I happened to mention Nino Niederreiter at the time he was on that team and Nino at the time was on a 10 game goal list route. However, it doesn't refute the fact that he's a very good talent, but in that moment, he sucked. I,

that was, I got a, I got a tweet from Minnesota wild fan. Yo, Nino sucks right now. I don't know what you're talking about. And from that moment on, I was like, thank you.

I appreciate you. You're right. I should double check that. I will never throw a name out into the wind. And it always made me fact check. It always made me double, triple check my stuff. Even though I know in general this guy is good, this guy is good, and this guy is good, and their up and coming talent

does not make them a consistent part of the offense at this moment or whatever. Right. So that's, these fans are going to be less forgiving. Like if that, if that's because you're only talking about hockey, it's so specific, right. And they're hardcore. Imagine hardcore leaf fans listening to you and being like, what the F are you talking about? Right. Yeah. I would be, uh, I would be exposed as the fraud I am very quickly. Plus 30, plus 30 now. So you got to be that good with 31 teams. Right. So, right. I mean, yeah, I couldn't have sucked that much to be on air for eight years. That's my point. And if I did, I wasn't given the criticisms and the critiques in order to improve my craft, which is another really big downfall of the media industry.

No one tells you, hey, you know what? Let's try to improve you by doing this, this and this. And you've done a great job. I really like how you do this. No one does that. If you do have these pitfalls or these downfalls, they say, okay, we don't really need your services anymore. Well, you know what? Even if you don't need my services anymore,

you should probably tell me what I could work on because me as a broadcaster, I want to improve. Right? So that's another crappy thing about the industry. There's no, I guess you'd call that like mentorship. Nothing. Basically to help you improve, to achieve the goals you've set out for yourself uh that yeah that's crummy man so and i mean it's very rare where you do have the mentorship and i

did have it earlier on in my career but later on i didn't so early on i had it later on not really and do you think that's because they didn't look at you as a future star of the industry? Like they simply just. That's hogwash because if you own a company, do you not want the best from all your employees? You need to get, it doesn't matter if the person's working on the line or the person's the VP of finance. You still need the person working on the line to be good at their job. Otherwise, that broken key, right? That broken cog is going to F up the entire

line, right? You need the best from all of your employees. So that I don't, sorry, Mike. I'm like, no, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I was going to be a gigantic star or not. You should still help people and mentor them. When I said you were coming on the show, Michelle, do you know this song? Of course I do. Perry Lefkoe. Yeah, that's right. Good for you. So Perry's listening right now. Thanks, Perry. I met so many. Yes, I know.

So Perry, several notes actually. I don't know which ones to read, but I copied some of them. Tell Michelle Storino not to look so serious and intimidating. That's the pick I used to promote your appearance you're looking tough like it looks like a workout pick yeah i'm i was like i'm flexing there i'm a little bit i call myself a mean head a bit but it's fine because you do like you mentioned the uh mma and

stuff but you're uh i don't even know how to say this my tie muay thai okay my ties the drink muay thai is the martial art This is why you're the professional. Boxing? Yeah, Muay Thai, boxing, and Krav Maga, which is... Krav Maga. Yeah, right? Yeah, have you heard of Krav? No, just from your Twitter bio.

Oh, okay. Yeah. And meditate. So, okay. So, I'll just finish Perry's thing here. So, he says, ask her if she's the girl on fire. I suggest you play the song to get her all emotional. So he's hoping you cry here.

Perry. It's very sweet. I totally dig that lady. There, I said it. Now, he gave me a little tip. Every time I talked to Perry when he came on Toronto Mic, I was very, very interested in his work at Planet Frank. Oh, yeah.

Do you know where I'm going with this? Yes, I do. Yeah, that's how I met Perry. Now, okay, I'm going to be careful here because Planet Frank, I don't want to piss off Frank. I could have goons at the door. I'm going to be very careful, okay? But this was known as Next Sports Star.

Yes, yeah. So you had your own show and everything like what happened in the the frank d'angelo universe um i mean it was good because it got me that was like my first foray into podcasting and basically being doing a radio show like what we're doing right now talking into a camera while doing radio at the same time and just being able to banter with the, yeah, I don't know. You had a positive experience at Planet Frank. Yeah, I mean, it was what it was. That's it.

Like it was just an hour show and it got me through. That's it. It kept me still practicing. How's that? Have you ever seen a Frank D'Angelo movie no i don't think i want to but i've seen a lot of clips of them because of working there you know he likes to act in his movies he's like the clinton tarantino yeah of uh yeah local cinema and uh he even likes to sing in his movies and I don't know you. He's recorded several songs. I know all these things, yes. I'm just looking closely into your eyes right now to see what you're willing to divulge here.

I've heard and seen a lot of those movies and CD compilations. How's that? I think you're going to be okay. I think you've been well-groomed, as they say. Joe Hedberg, going back to the eight years you spent at SiriusXM, Joe Hedberg says, she's amazing. I miss listening to her on

SiriusXM Evening Ice Cap. I hope she's doing well, and as a former sports radio broadcaster, she has my full support. Oh, thank you. When does she plan or does she plan on getting back into sports broadcasting? I know.

A lot of people have asked me that. It's been two weeks, folks, literally. It's been like, I put out that statement on August 10th, so it's been just over a month. But I mean, for me, leaving Saga, it's been just like two and a half weeks. Okay, so what is the official reason you left Saga 9-6? Saga, for me, leaving was to focus on my business. And Barry was leaving at the end of August. And I thought to myself, instead of kind of prolong everything,

I'm just going to do it at the same time. And that's because that way it gave them a fresh start in terms of finding another show for the drive home. So, and like, how would you summarize your overall experience at this? Like, this is a very new, very, very small station. Yeah. New, small family run. Yep.

Oh, even though it's Saga 960, I hear it all happens in Etobicoke, but that's a wink, wink. Yes. Don't worry about it. The original station was in Miss Saga and then they had to move. Yeah. Right. Now, so, so how would you like surmise your experience there? I mean, other than the fact you worked with the great Barry Davis,

which was positive. Yeah. So was it all overall good experience? Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. Because it's super inclusive there as well, which is awesome. And they were super encouraging. So they loved me as a host. And I know it sounds like, well, of course, you're going to love them So they loved, they loved me as a host. They, I, and I know it sounds

like, well, of course you're going to love them because they loved you, but it was more like they encouraged me to be myself more on the air. So they're like, Oh my God, we think you're hilarious. Can you please do more of this? Or can you please chime in more? Yeah. So they encouraged my personality to kind of come through more and Barry and I worked really well off together. So we were just, we were just, you know, joke around with each other and stuff.

My sarcasm with him and stuff, we just meshed really well. So, uh, it, it worked out quite well in terms of the on air experience. Like how many people get to do a rap? Like I,

I joked around and was like rapping on the air and stuff, you know, it was just doing silly stuff like that. We've had, we had some really funny, funny moments on that show and it lasted like 17 months. So, and I made some amazing friends too,

not only at the station, but Barry's introduced, Barry introduced me to so many amazing people. Hal, Hal Johnson from Body Break. Who made a lot of news this summer himself. He actually told us that story before he released the YouTube video. So we were like.

He had the exclusive. We had the exclusive. And then he came on with us and we had, because we had him on every Wednesday for our Wellness Wednesday show. So I met him, Damon Bennett, who worked with Mike Holmes, Holmes on Holmes. So Damon Bennett, I got a chance to meet him too and

chat with him. He was an awesome guy. We had different types of psychotherapists on for our Wellness Wednesday segments. So just Bill Harris, entertainment writer, just so many amazing, amazing people. Did you ever meet raw Mike Richards? Yeah.

I didn't know if he had like left the, you know, if he had ever crossed paths. Oh yeah. I co-hosted with him a couple of days when Bastl wasn't there. So yeah. And Mike and I meshed really well together as well. He's a firecracker. Oh, he's so funny. I think, I think Mike, I like Mike Richards.

I think he might be uh god's gift podcast like i just think he's the best guest because he shoots from the hip yeah he doesn't sugarcoat anything no he completely tells you what he believes to be true yeah and him and i joked around pretty much the entire time but he's irish i'm italian he's like you know that's a great mix right i'm like yes i've heard i've heard we watched goodfellas okay wasn't that the mix of uh henry hill i have no idea i think he was irish italian but he loved that whole mix of irish italian and he said that i will always have a piece of like his heart kind of a thing because we talked about tackling and he you know how big he is into football right yeah and especially college football gigantic into football so I played rugby for eight years.

I played provincially. I played for the University of Guelph. That's what I mean. I'm a pretty big jock. I played everything and at pretty high levels. And university level is very high. I played provincially too.

I played for province of Ontario. So I played for a couple years for, yeah, it's a pretty high level. And I just talked about the mechanics of a proper tackle on air with him. And I was like, football sucks because they just don't know how to tackle. They suck at tackling. And I just broke down how to tackle properly and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And he was like, oh, my God. He's like, I have been saying this for years. They don't know how to tackle. That's the way to Mike Richards' heart. Yeah, apparently. Apparently, I didn't know anything. I had no idea his obsession with football college football tackling no idea and i just spewed that just from sheer experience and playing the game and yeah we hit that's how

we hit it off okay now i want to uh see if we can constructively figure out how to you know correct some of these ills uh in our sports media but first, but first, because I'm going to make a big assumption. Sterino, that's Irish, right? Definitely. That's Italian. So I'm going to make another assumption, another broad stroke, which is that you love Italian food. Yeah.

Right. Okay. So this is a big moment because the Petrucci family, they own and operate Palma Pasta. All right. Four locations in Mississauga and Oakville. They have sent over a large frozen meat lasagna for you to bring home. Oh.

So it's in front of you in the red box. Okay. So yeah, it's got some heft to it. There it is. You're going to bring that home. Stick that in the fridge. Okay. And then maybe you'll have it tomorrow night.

I was going to say, I have to cook it ASAP kind of thing? No, because you can, you know. Or I can't refreeze it, clearly. It's not, it's still frozen solid. Like, it's going to be good. You couldn't mess this up if you tried. Okay. You're going to give me an honest review because.

Oh, what are you doing putting me on? You're going to put me on notice with your sponsors? I don't want you to compare it to like, I don't want you to compare it to like what Nona makes in her kitchen or whatever i want to know the truth is it the best lasagna that you've ever got from a store like i mean that's from a store i'm gonna put out nonas and okay you know yeah and no nonas give me the name no no no no and nona yeah okay because i got i got kids with like a lolo and a lola. Yeah. But Nono and Nona. Okay. So let's see how it compares.

And thank you, Palma Pasta, for that. Thank you, Palma Pasta. And I see now on Twitter here, I'm just taking a peek at Twitter, and Garnet Barnsdale, he's looking at the live feed here on Periscope, and he wants that box of Palma Pasta. So Garnet, you're going to have to hook yourself up. He actually covers horse racing too. So he probably knows that. Porty?

What's his real name again? Jason Portwando. Okay. Jason Portwando, a name i've heard peter gross say many times uh is also probably uh in fact i think jason portwondo might have been in my basement for episodes before covid hit but uh garnett i'm sure garnett is uh good friends with jason portwondo from the uh you know woodbine racetrack there and everything. He's an amazing amazing guy, Porty. I know, you can tell, that's my jock in me coming out, right? I call everybody by their last name and then we shorten them. When you cover

the Blue Jays, were you calling John Gibbons Gibby? Gibby, yeah. I think everybody calls John Gibbons Gibby. It doesn't matter if you're friends with him, you cover the team, doesn't matter. Okay, got your pasta. You're taking home some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Ooh, okay. Awesome.

Thank you, Great Lakes. I'm going to record from their patio next week. Oh, awesome. And we're going to kick out some like beer drinking jams. It's going to be great. There's also a Toronto Mike sticker

on top of the Palma pasta bag and that was created by StickerU.com. Ooh, okay. And StickerU.com have been great partners. Go to StickerU.com. You upload your image and you can create, you know,

any quantity you want of their fine assortment. Are these guys located in Liberty Village? Yeah. I've seen them. I walk by them. Yeah, that's exactly right. Really close to the SiriusXM building. Yeah, okay.

Absolutely. So, yeah, they're local. All my sponsors, all my current sponsors are local and fiercely independent. It's very. Awesome. It's very, it's very, very cool. So I want to thank Pumpkins After Dark. So Pumpkins After Dark is a drive-through event. So, you know, you buy like a ticket at pumpkinsafterdark.com for your car.

You book your day and time that you're going to drive through this Milton, Ontario, 88 acre farm. And they have thousands of like sculptures and tunnels illuminating the night sky. It's an amazing kind of Halloween event. And if you use the promo code MIKED, M-I-K-E-D, you save 10%. So do that. And by the way, on an unrelated note,

if you're looking to buy and or sell real estate in the next six months, Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group has been a fantastic sponsor of this program, helping to fuel the real talk. Have a conversation with Austin. Text Toronto Mike to 59559. And last but not least, CDN

Technologies. They're there if you have any computer or network issues or questions. I consider them your outsourced IT department. You can call Barb Paluskiewicz. That's also an Italian name, Paluskiewicz. She's at 905-542-9759

or write her at Barb at CDN Technologies and tell her Toronto Mike wants her to send you a free book. She's got this fantastic book and it's free and it's got great tips and tricks. So Teller Toronto Mike says send the free book your way. So now we've kind of heard from you, Michelle, about the state of the sports media industry in this country.

And I'm dismayed. Like it sounds like it's an uphill battle for women who don't fit a certain mold like i'm hearing like if you don't look like this it's very difficult to crack the sports media television market am i tell me if i swing off base here well no so hold on yeah the reason why i said that statement is just so that we can all kind of shake our heads and open our eyes and if i'm the espresso that wakes you up to this, then that's exactly what I'm here to do. Because at this rate, I don't even think I'm going to get back into sports broadcasting

because I know what a statement like that does. You're not being quiet about it. I'm not. I think you've made a decision that if this burns bridges, so be it. You're going to be true to your cause it's not even about burning bridges because i've done i've done it right for 15 years i haven't burned a friggin bridge for 15 years i've been respectful i have done things the right way i've worked my butt off all these things so it's not even about that it's just about telling the

truth and that's it and i've been honest my whole life, my whole career. This is the truth. This is like the numbers don't lie. So you could say what you want about me and my experiences. But at the end of the day, if 4% of on-air talent are female in terms of sports broadcasting, I'm not just talking out of my ass here. And again, in 590,90 1050 we know there's three we can name three hosts and i i know you say all of i'm only looking at daytime i don't think

you know evening and weekends counts for this but uh three hosts and we mentioned they were mary ormsby and they were barb de julio and they were Ashley Dawkin. And none of them are there right now. And that's over 30 years of time. So, I mean, that's just the reality of it. And that was my main concern is just telling people, like, we think we're all about equality. And, again, appearances would seem that in broadcasting we have gotten more inclusive and diverse because there are more women on television. But look at the radio side, it's complete BS, right? There's like nobody in radio. And then I happen to put the other part in terms of, as a woman, we come in all shapes and sizes and we don't, we're not fully represented. Because you're five foot nine. Yeah,

we're not fully represented. But I'm just saying like, as a woman, you're not fully represented at all, right? Right. So you're a little girl in the car driving around with your parents. Because this was my experience growing up. In the car, I heard Barb to Julio. I did. I heard Barb. But she was the only woman I heard.

Regardless, I at least heard Barb. Who are you going to hear now? Unless it's between 12 to 1, you're only hearing Andy on that one radio station. You're not going to hear a lot, right? And not that we're talking about that today, but everyone else is male and white. Although Paul Jones, I think, is doing an hour show with Eric Smith right now,

which is new, I think. And Jonesy's the best and one of the best human beings ever. He's also not white. I love, yeah. But I'm just saying, Jonesy's the best and one of the best human beings ever. He's also not white. I love, yeah. But I'm just saying like Jonesy's the frigging best human. Like he's so good and he's amazing at what he does. And yeah, anyways. I know.

I had the pleasure of meeting him once at a Boots event. And I wish I had the name of the Boots off the top of my mouth. It's going to come to me in a moment. But Great Lakes sent over beer. And that's where I met Jack Armstrong there. Eric Smith was there. All the Raptors peeps. All the Raptors peeps were there,

and it was really, really cool, actually. But this is... So my question, before I get to Gregotsky's final question, which is about meditation. Cool. So it'll take us out, chill us out before we get out of here.

Oh, and I want to remind people about TMLX6, too. Make sure I do that before I go. But how do we fix this? Like what is the how do we correct this like is it like i i what's the term i was here like i always people seem to get angry if you suggest hiring someone because they're a woman like so so like if you're like tell me what we can do and what the decision makers at these sports media institutions can do to reflect, just reflect the society at large. Like if you're, if you're, if the, if Toronto is 50% female and I don't know, like, like to be as diverse as the community you serve. Well, first, I think the first thing is the awareness

and then admitting that there's an issue here, right? Like, I think that's a huge one because I don't think people are really willing to admit that there's an issue here, right? Like, if you think about it, I don't know how, if you guys talked about on your diversity panel, anything in terms of about these numbers and of course we did like that's why i had the yeah for sure michelle that's why i orchestrated the

panel because i have eyes and ears and it's yeah there's nobody white and very male yeah it's so stupid but it's it doesn't make sense to me so um the awareness and then admitting to it right it's kind of just like any other, it's like AA, you have a problem. Legit. You do though. Right.

Right. No, I mean, you can't fix something if you don't admit it exists. That's right. Exactly. So, and then we've got to make sure that obviously people are getting opportunities that deserve the opportunities, regardless of,

you know, if they've got boobs or not, like, you know what I'm saying? Like you just, if you're worthy of the opportunity If you're worthy of the opportunity, you're worthy of the opportunity. End of story.

And that's pretty much it. And if they're not worthy of the opportunity, what can they do to get to that point? And I think that was a really big thing for me where it's like, okay, I'm obviously still good enough to be here. I think, so you come out of Guelph? This is where you went to university?

Yeah, Guelph-Humber, actually. out of Guelph. This is where you went to university. Yeah. Guelph Humber. Okay. Guelph Humber. Sure. Okay. And, uh, like I think if you, if you identify, uh, woman candidates who are interested in the profession and you give them a path, like, like, like literally give them a path, like, okay, maybe it is starting with the unpaid internship and then doing some production and then some weekend shifts or whatever, but like at least having a career path to one day be a midday like i know you're friends of this guy so i'm gonna ask you straight out do you think you're as good a talk a sports talk show host as ben ennis oh you know i'm friends with him you heard you heard that we went to school together right so

yeah would you say you're as good i'm not gonna even ask if you're better than ben ennis to be honest i haven't even listened to him to be him I haven't listened to him in a long time I don't think it's going to hurt his feelings I don't listen to sports radio anymore so I mean but I would say you know he's got one of those coveted weekday hosting slots

for sure and I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve that of course he does he's worked hard in the industry too I've seen him work hard in the industry but yeah sure I think I'm just as good why not especially talking hockey because that's pretty much all i've done for eight seasons is focus solely on hockey and knowing everything there is to know about like 31 teams and whatever right and the whole thing is if you've heard me my my former oh this is oh you hear that okay i already hear is, if you've heard me, my former, oh, this is great.

Oh, you hear that? Yeah, I already hear it. But if you've heard me on the station, I'm not, I'm not dumb, right? And that was always my big thing where it's like, I definitely want to come at you

with passion and with knowledge. And a lot of the people that have reached out to me over the last month have said like, I've enjoyed how different your perspective is because it's the same old BS over and over again during the day.

It's about different perspectives. Yeah. That's everything. That is everything, though. And I don't understand why we don't celebrate that. You know? The statement was for women out there to understand that, you know, when you're sitting with your girlfriends and you're in a relationship that sucks and your boyfriend's not treating you how you want to be treated or whatever. It's easy for your girlfriend to say to you, oh, girl, you got to get out of that toxic relationship. Move on.

But when it's a career, that's hard to do. That is hard to do. It was no longer serving me. that is hard to do it was no longer serving me it was no longer being it took honestly the passion and the joy out of what i did because of that and it's like i don't need to be part of negativity anymore i'm a positive person and that's it so that sounded really good over this peter gabriel yeah right oh man man. What a tune. I always think of Say Anything. Right?

The movie Say Anything. It's got the boombox. Oh, my God. Okay, final questions goes to Mike Rogodsky here. But as I'm listening to you talk there, I'm wondering if Barry Davis doesn't quit for the Bass Pro Shops gig, uh, do you, are you still on the air at Saga 960?

That's the, that's the real talk here, Michelle. Yeah. That's a tough question. Like, was that the, that was sometimes you need that nudge,

that push. It was a good, it was a good nudge. Honestly, it was a well-timed nudge because like I said, it gave me the opportunity to focus on what I'm doing now, which is training and teaching teaching martial arts on a full-time basis I train clients I teach at different studios

and I also I'm trying to integrate more of the meditation because I did a lot of it during the quarantine I did a lot of online meditations during quarantine for free but if I could do that and help people with their mental and physical state, that's what I'm all about. This is what it's all about, right? Being healthy mentally and physically. So, yeah. I think I probably would have left is the moral of that story.

And I guess to tell people why am I playing this song. This is one of your favorite songs of all time. It is. Yeah. You messaged me and I was with family on Sunday and you're like, I guess to tell people why am I playing this song? This is one of your favorite songs of all time. It is. Yeah. He, you messaged me and I was with family on Sunday and you're like, what's your favorite song? And I was like,

Oh my God, I don't know. That's such a hard question to ask someone. Right. I asked the tough questions. You asked the tough questions. So I came up with like three or four off the top of my head. Prince,

um, Tina Turner. And this song by Peter Gabriel. Those were the ones that came off the top of my head. And my cousins, I asked them, I was like, if someone asked you what your favorite song was, would you know off the drop of a hat? And they're like, you have to say the first two or three that come to your mind. Beautiful. Yeah.

What a tune, right? Such an underrated love song this one is. Man. And well used in a great movie. Oh, yeah. Mike Gregotsky, he's a good FOTM. I hope I see him on Friday night. So let me tell you really quickly before I get to Mike's question for you is that FOTM, you're like, why does he keep saying FOTM?

FOTM is Friend of Toronto Mike. You're now an FOTM. You're like, why does he keep saying FOTM? FOTM is Friend of Toronto Mic'd. You're now an FOTM. Yay! Congratulations. All FOTMs are invited this Friday at 6pm to a very low-key chill, and I say chill Dale, because the forecast looks like it might be like

13 degrees. Wear a sweater. Wear a sweater. Right. Layer up, okay? We're all going to collect in Marie Curtis Park, which is the southwest corner of the city on the Toronto side. There's a map at torontomike.com.

Just Google TMLX6. We're all going to just collect. We're going to check in with each other six months after this shit hit, you know, and we're trying to just make, we're all trying to get through this thing, man. What a curveball. What a clusterfuck. Here we other six months after this shit hit you know and we're trying to just make we're all trying to get through this thing man it's what a curveball what a clusterfuck here we are six months in we're all going to check in low-key you know and i'm going to bring some beverages and we're just going to have a chill time together all fotms are invited that's this friday at 6 p.m will Will you be there? Probably not.

Because you have a hair appointment. No. Yes. Yes. I have a friend coming in from out of town. So actually that's what's up. Your friend's invited as well. Okay.

Mike Gregotsky says, can you ask Michelle what are the first steps someone should take who wants to get into meditation? Sure. I would say there's a few first steps. That's not a first step. I know. Because there can only be one first step.

I know. And that's why you didn't make it in sports media, because you should know that. There's only one first step. So breathing is your first step and making sure, I know you're like, I breathe every day, but being conscious of your breath. That is a really big one. So, oh yeah. A little background music.

I know, you don't understand. I'm just going to start dancing though. Okay, being conscious of your breath is a really, really big one. When everyone always talks about mindfulness, this is actually what they mean. It just means being in the present moment when you're breathing. So a great moving meditation in which you can practice doing this, go for a walk. When you're out for a walk, focus on your breathing, focus on your breath. You can even do something like this, which I kind of call this like a spot meditation.

So say you're pouring this Great Lakes beer into a glass with ice. Which I'm going to do later, but not with ice. Maybe not with ice. Okay. So say you're, okay, no ice. But say you're pouring the beer into a glass you're actually going to focus on the liquid slowly coming out of the spout into the glass how it goes up the glass the bubbles that form all that kind of stuff you're being in the true present moment of what you're actually doing. No other thought, just focusing on what you're doing.

That's literally how you get into it. That along with your breath and you're focusing on the big inhales, the exhales, and actually paying attention to you, to your breathing. Because when you're fully present, paying attention to yourself breathing, this turns off. And that's what meditation is. You just want to clear it so that you don't have 3,000 thoughts a minute, which is pretty much what we go through. Yeah, I never turn it off.

Right, because you're always thinking. I heard smoking weed is good for that, but meditation is even better for you. It's better for you, yeah. And I would suggest too, if you can do small things. So like I said, the pouring of the beer in a glass or pouring of water in a glass and just fully being present and all that, these are things that you build up towards every single day. So that might only take you a minute, but it's a minute where you're not thinking about

anything else. Then you can elevate it to two minutes, three minutes, five minutes. Right. And you could do it in different ways. Right. So I mentioned taking a walk and having it as a moving meditation. Do that as well. Moving meditation, big, deep breaths in slow exhales out, stuff like that. Michelle, somebody wanted to be trained by you. Like I can see somebody's going to be looking like, like I want it. I want MMA training from Michelle. Okay. So I don't do like ground, ground game stuff.

Okay. So if you're wondering if I don't know Brazilian jujitsu, unfortunately, and with COVID jujitsu is kind of hard to do because you're grappling on the ground. Um, but yeah, Muay Thai,

if you want to learn how to kick, punch, knee, elbow, uh, I'm all about that. Um, yeah.

Like how, how would you like them to contact you oh okay you my dms are open on twitter you can dm slide into michelle's dms which i've done i've done it's a great experience yes yeah i mean tastefully you could do that tastefully oh i try i try yeah exactly and um i have the exact same handle on instagram at Michelle Storino. So you can do that as well on Instagram for the time being. I want to thank you for doing something not enough people do,

which is sharing your feelings like on what's happened to you in this industry after 15 years. Like it would have been easy just to like not say anything and whatever. But you wanted to bring attention to something you see as a problem and your perspective is valued because i don't have the perspective of being a woman in sports media yeah i don't have any perspective in sports media but that was really like interesting to hear it like hear your perspective in your words because you you've walked the walk for 15 years yeah and you know what uh mike i'm it's funny because i'm not that person so i'm not that one where it's like you're gonna be because technically someone like myself right now i guess i could be categorized as a whistleblower

so to speak right but i'm not the person to like always complain about things or whatever, you know, like people get categorized, unfortunately, very unfairly when there's an injustice towards them. I see what you, you don't want to be cast as like troublemaker. Correct. Because I've noticed all these things and have experienced all of these things through 15 years now.

So I haven't said a bloody thing for 15 years. You've been biting your lip for 15 years. You've been biting your lip for 15 years. You've been tasting that blood for 15 years. That's right. You're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. It was, it's just like, I don't want anybody to think I'm this like angry person,

whatever that, that shit's done. I let it go. It's over with. But you know what? You should all know that if you think we're all great and dandy and whatever here and inclusive and equal in Canada. Yeah.

Take a look. Don't think our shit doesn't stink. That's right. Take a look around and be aware of what you're watching and what you're consuming. And I'm sure Andy's back is hurting from carrying the load for the entire gender. Yeah. At this point. Yeah.

You know, and remember that she's only on the air for one hour to remember that as well. True. You know, yeah. You know? And remember that. She's only on the air for one hour, too. Right. Remember that as well. That's true. That's true. You know? So everybody else has these, they have these three-hour shows, and she's the lone wolf carrying the torch for us at this point now,

and it's only an hour. So there's all these things where it's like, you never really notice that. You never really notice this. You never really, but, yeah. The shit's real. Real talk. the shit's real, real talk. That shit's real talk. Yeah.

Michelle, keep me up to date with everything. Let me know when they make that big offer to take over for Don Cherry. Let me know when that offer comes in. They probably, honestly, you know how many people have asked me now, Mike, and said, so has T, have TSN or Sportsnet or blah, blah, blah reached out to you? No. And you want to know why? Because I said what I said.

That's why they ain't going to reach out. But they were reaching out anyway. Yeah. So it's like, let's, let's. But this is like even more so. No, they ain't going to say anything. Right. And that brings us to the end of our 700 and.

This is, you know, the wrap up. Well, you know, I have all the time in the world, but I feel like I don't want you to put in, you know, two hours here, but we've... I know, sorry. Is there anything else you want to share while the mic's still hot? Nice.

Well done. Well done. Yeah. No, I mean, at the end of the day, yeah. I just don't want, it sounds too. I, I know there's a very fine line between speaking your truth and then this bitter and resentful person. That's, I'm not, I don't care anymore. You're out of fucks to give. Yeah, that's exactly it. And that's exactly why. You can use that.

Yeah. I sense it. Thank you. It makes for good podcast episodes when people are out of fucks to give. They tell the truth. That's right. And you know what? It's fine.

And how I see it is just like, if I am taking the proverbial knife in the back because of the fact that I probably will never get hired again, like the Colin Kaepernick of, I'm not comparing myself to him, but at the same time, look at this man. You would be blackballed for different reasons. Hundo. 100%. Like, I know that. I don't care. I don't really care because you know what?

At least the truth is out there and let's create this awareness. Let's maybe start to do something else, something about it. And I think for right now, because of the fact that this is so new, I think just having the conversation. And continuing the conversation. Is what is going to get the wheels of change turning. So that to me is a really big thing. And you're seeing it all over in terms of social injustices. Right? Black Lives Matter.

We're getting the conversation going more so. And we're doing more about it. Because the conversation has kept going. Right? So hopefully, hopefully this is what comes out of all of this. Hopefully a change is going to come now. See,

I ran out of my theme. Therefore I'm now playing your, one of your jams. So this is a Michelle Storino. We don't need another hero. Everyone's like, I know, but my Tina Turner,

this is from the Thunderdome soundtrack. Mad Max. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. She kicked ass in that. Oh, man. Tina's the best.

Sorry. No argument here. Yeah. I got no, no, please. Earlier today, I had an episode and we kicked out some Dolly Parton

and I said, you know, everyone likes Dolly Parton. We did a nine to five because this guy just lost his gig in radio and he's looking to get back in. And I realized Tina's in the same boat.

No one has a negative thing to say about Tina Turner that woman killed it on stage when I saw her in concert she was like 72 or something when I saw her 73 she yeah two hours straight like all energy voice was on point was amazing she's so good anyways and that brings us to the end of our 722nd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Michelle is at Michelle Sterino. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. See you all Friday for Pandemic Friday with Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. this podcast has been produced by tmds and accelerated by roam phone roam phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.