Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Devine: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1662

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

In this 1662nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with radio veteran Mike Devine about his years in radio, especially his lengthy runs at Energy 108, 915 The Beat, 1075DaveRocks and CJOY. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainisand RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Mike Devine on Energy 108. Welcome to episode 1662 of Toronto Mic'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Yes, we are open! An award-winning podcast hosted by FOTM Al Gregor from Monaris.

Silverwax.ca. Use the promo code TorontoMike10 at the checkout to save 10% at Silverwax.ca. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aienes, sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today making his Toronto mic debut, it's Mike Devine. Hello, hello.

From one mic to another, welcome to your Toronto mic debut, it's Mike Devine. Hello, hello. From one mic to another, welcome to your Toronto mic debut. Thank you so much for having me, you know, I'm 1662. That's a good number, right? I like that number. I heard that's a lucky number. It's one off from a mirror reflection of Celsius to Fahrenheit and how I remember temperatures, 16 is 61. So you're old enough to remember when we gave the temps in Fahrenheit? I don't believe that. Well I wasn't on the radio at that time but I do remember being in grade four and Mr. Mullin said you know what we're gonna do these things backwards and forwards he'd have us come up to the front of the class and he would say how many inches in a mile? How many feet in a

yard? How many bushels in a pack? And we'd have that thing memorized and I'm going home feeling good about myself going, you know what, I know this stuff backwards and forwards. The first time I've ever known anything backwards and forwards, I walk into grade five and they give us this ruler and it's got these itty bitty little things on it. I'm going, where's the inches? And there are, there are no inches. They're now centimeters. And I'm like, Oh man, I just learned all this stuff. You mean we're changing everything? we're changing everything. We're changing everything. And then all of a sudden at lunchtime, I'm seeing kilometer an hour, but, but yeah, 50 becomes 30.

Well, listen, uh, I just read a piece about some CFRB news guy who refused to convert. So, you know, we were all moving over to metric and he refused to switch from, uh, Fahrenheit. And I was just reading about this guy. What are the veterans? One of the, I, I'm sure he's a very famous news person from CFRB back in the day, but Mike, the question off the top. Sure. Is this a fake name? Mike

Devine. That's too perfect a radio name. You know what? I get that a lot and it's actually, I'm gonna come clean. It is not an egotistical self-explanatory name. I didn't give myself the nickname. It's actually Irish. So I come from. But is that your birth name? Yeah, it is actually. You know what?

You were blessed with a kick ass birth name. Why change it if you're born Mike Devine? I kind of lucked out on that one. Yeah, Irish. It's Michael John Devine is my real name. So yes, Mike Devine. Yeah, thank you. And I, you know what?

Yeah, I'm I lucked out and my daughter, she's her name is Tia Tia Devine, yeah, thank you. And you know what, yeah, I lucked out. And my daughter, her name is Tia, Tia Devine. People go, she should be in show, but she wants nothing to do with show business. She's got the better name than I do, and she won't use it, so. Well, what a waste there, but okay. And I root for the Mikes. There are a lot of us though,

like if you're born in certain decades, like the decade you're born in and the decade I'm born in, like half the guys are named Mike. There are saints called Mike. Well, there's a major, major saints and like, uh, what's that top tier angel archangel, I guess in the Bible, like there's an angel. Yeah, I think he rates up there. So a lot of Mike's out there. You, my friend have had, and you're, you're not done yet, but you've had quite the career in radio. Is it fair to give Scott Turner credit for connecting us? Absolutely. Yes. I go back with Scott Turner back at the old Energy 108 days and yeah, yeah, I definitely would credit him for us meeting. That's for sure.

You mean these days right here. North America's dance music powerhouse. CIG FM 1079. Energy 108. Now those are the ones from the first frequency when they were in 1079. Wow. That's the early days, that one. Okay, but am I nuts? So, but wasn't, isn't 108 1079?

Yeah, they kind of rounded it. One of the things that when you know seven is q107 point one Yeah, but you round it off back then it was just 107 because the digital didn't come in yet Right then digital did come in and we called ourselves energy One away to dance 108 at first and people when we were at the clubs They'd come up to me and they'd say, you know, I can't find you on the dial. There's one. No one away point Oh, right, and I said, find you on the dial. There's one, no one to 8.0. And I said, yeah, it's one oh 7.9. So then we started, we kind of brought it up in a meeting and said, can we just say one oh seven nine energy one oh eight?

Right. At first the owners did not want to do that. And then they kind of, we just kind of did it anyway. And the popularity went up saying that because we actually were telling them where to go. Uh, yeah. One oh seven nine is energy one oh eight. And then all of a sudden it was like, Oh, I can find you. But up until about late 1992, people were like, I can't

find you. There's no one to wait on the dial. So to answer that, yeah, we had, we just kind of threw the 1079 in with the ID back then. Okay. I'm going to get, I got a bunch of cool IDs and I'm going to burn a couple now. And then we're going to bring you like pre 108 and then we'll talk about talk about you know dance 108 becoming energy 108 okay talk about that then you're at a whole bunch of chorus stations I got some air checks we're gonna find out what you're up to now you're gonna get some swag I'm gonna get some swag this is gonna be the time of your life Mike Devine this is just gonna be in complete technicolor panoramic I'm not even record this. I just wanted to have a chat with Mike Devine.

So let's listen. It's not how big our tower is. It's what we do with it. Energy one oh eight. Yeah, there were, there was some, uh, it's a penis joke. Definitely a lot of the, uh, the dick jokes. Um, it was the early nineties. Uh, people nowadays get their shock from tick tock.

Uh, back then it was radio and you learn new music from radio now people want to hear the hits back then Yeah, we kind of push the envelope. There was some other IDs in there I think there was another one that said is that the CN tower in your pocket or you just happy to hear us Why not right? And you know, you can make a dick joke now if you like Mike Devine But this is a measuring tape courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home pillars of this community and I'm giving you this measuring tape right now Mike so I would normally say measure what you wish and then I would expect you're either gonna do a joke about measuring what size coffin you need which is a common go-to one that's a good or the noise lady who was here

recently was she was she had a penis joke so it the hands on your vibe well I think we'll just stick to centimeters because the numbers more impressive we got back to see this is why you're on the radio you got back to the metric system had to get back to the metrics at 1661 but this is episode 1662 absolutely my friend I want to find out when you fell in love with radio and what you were up to before you got to 108, which is really 107.9. There's a lot we've already just learned. But please, how old were you when you realized I'd like to talk into a microphone? What gave you the courage to

do so? And where does it all begin? For Mike Devine! Okay, well there was no courage at the beginning. I had a record player at three, my dad DJ'd. He gave me a spares. My mom dusted off my toys. Wait, your dad DJ? I know I'm going to interrupt cause I'm rude, but like, is he like doing like school dances and stuff or weddings?

Like he was doing the weddings, the mobile, the legions, that sort of thing. And school dances at that time. Can I ask you, was he with a company? No, he's on his own. On his own. Okay. Only because, uh, Bob will let he company? Um, no, he's on his own. On his own. Okay. Only because, uh, Bob will let he's on indie 88 now, but his dad would DJ as part of this DJ company that would go do like weddings and stuff.

Yeah. Do you know the name? What? I'm going to, it's going to come to me, but it's like DJ limited or I don't know. Something like that. Oh, disc jockeys unlimited. Yes. My dad knows who they were.

Yes. Yes. What a small world we live in. Yes. They almost did some stuff together, but it never really materialized, but yeah, he they were. Yes. Yes. What a small world we live in. Yes. They almost did some stuff together, but it never really materialized. But yeah, he did mention them quite a bit. But if your dad's DJing and you, that almost answers the question.

I mean, you're going to watch your dad. He's doing this thing. You're going to be like, I want to do that. Well, you know what? It was funny. He, he, he was always playing the records. We have a very musical house and one time he took me out with him. I was 12. Uh, there was no one to watch me, my mom was busy, and so it's like he never wanted to

really take me because you know there's alcohol and adult stuff. So yeah, he actually took me once and he used to do lip syncing really, really well, and I didn't know he did that. And he just did this really amazing, you know, show and everybody was watching him. All of the waitstaffs stopped to watch him. And I'm like, Holy smokes, this is my dad. Like I didn't know, I've never seen this side of my dad perform. And it was just like, Whoa, this is incredible. How, how does he have the guts to do this? I don't have, I am so nervous. I'm, I'm the scared, most scared person in the room. How am I going to be able to get through to do that? Right. And that was the question I had for a long time. So I started DJing, but I was with a partner.

He did the talking. I did the spinning radio came a little later than it was CKLN. CKLN. Okay, man. Now that's 88.1 out of a now TMU, but it was a Ryerson University at the time. Yes, although it wasn't a university at the time. I think it was a polytechnical. I know when I was at U of T, I would never make such jokes

because I was impressed if anyone had a brain to get into any institution of higher learning, but others who are less appreciative than I would joke it was Rye High, the polytechnical institution. That's right, Rye High. I do remember that name. I remember getting poked on that. That was not the assholes I saw at U of T. Not me.

Ryhi! You can come over here to 89.5 CIT. So what are you doing at CKLM? Well, I first started there. I was just like, I went in and I said, what is this all about? You can volunteer to be on the radio? I got to try this out because I love the DJ booth at the Terrace. I skipped that part. When I was 15, I started working at the Terrace, Roller Rink, and I just loved it. And at that time I started watching WKRP. So watching what my dad could do live, watching WKRP and then this little DJ booth in a roller rink.

Is that, is that Venus flytrap phoning you right now? Mike Devine his case. So Mike Devine's phone is that it can't be a fever. He died. I feel like this has to be the, maybe it's Les Nessman. Let's turn this thing off. Yeah. Where her toilet was in a new court or something. Oh yeah. He did the sow pig reports or whatever for the file reports. This thing just doesn't want to talk to you.

You're talking to a WKRP fanatic over here. I love it. I think that show made me want to be in the radio, but you know how you had no courage, but you saw your dad in the middle of it? Couldn't come at a worse time. I just never even considered I could ever. I couldn't even imagine my voice in a microphone coming out somebody's speakers because I didn't

sound like the voices I heard on the radio. Yeah. Everyone hates hearing themselves at first, especially, especially at first. Well, I got used to it after 1662 episodes, but back to your story, I'll try not to interrupt as much, but what are you doing at CKLN? CKLN I started there as a volunteer

and this guy who's really street smart, real good talker, he walks up to me, puts his arm around me, real fast talker, one of those guys you just wanted to know, he was one of the real high energy guys. And he put his arm around me, he goes, how would you like to be a production manager here? And, and I go well, I was at Trevice Institute I wanted to be recording engineer, but I'm trying this radio thing out

This seems to be a good fit recording. Yeah, I took school for recording and he goes well Have you ever heard of futures? Well futures was a grant back in Ontario back in the 80s They place you somewhere to give you a grant, you get 12 weeks paid. Amazing. He said, well, I found it for myself this place, so I tell you what, why don't you go to Futures, tell them that I got a job here for you, and you'll be funded for 12 weeks. Wow.

So I went and got these interviews, I got an interview with Dave Barker and Rick Lijic over Q107, I got an interview with Chum FM, CHFI, CKEY, and I sat down with all the production managers because I had no idea how a production department worked. So I was like, okay, tell me all about these production departments. And then I built my own and I made my own production department.

I was a production manager there for about a year. And then I started, then I met up with Ron Fitzpatrick and started going into On Air. Okay. Who was the person who put their arm around you and who you didn't name the person? Do you want to name that person? Craig Hamilton. I don't know where he's gone. Craig Hamilton. Uh, just one of those characters, you know, you meet and then he's gone. Um, and his spirit still resonates. I don't know if he's still with us, but he had the highest energy ever. Uh, did you ever see that movie?

The couch trip with, um, Dan Aykroyd and Walter Mathow. You know, I don't think I did. Okay, well, Dan Aykroyd's character in that movie was so much like this guy. Oh, wow. This guy, like he actually went to prison. He actually fit in like perfectly. He was actually running things. This guy is the kind of guy walk into a room and just run things.

Did you so in your four years when you're at CKLN, which was eighty eight point one, of course, now that's the home of Bob Willett on indie radio, of course, CKLN no longer on the terrestrial airwaves. But please tell me, anybody who crossed paths with, like I'm thinking was DJ Ron Nelson there. Oh yeah. Yeah. So maybe just shout out some of the CKLN voices that were there at the time. Oh, wow. Okay.

Taking your way back here. Yeah. May Ponce and Brian Wilson were there. David Amad, I used to do Dave's Dance Music, fill in for him. I used to do an oldie show playing old funk once every three months. That show ended up becoming The Phoenix Later. We'll get to that.

Also Ron Nelson, I used to fill in for him whenever he was away. Like on Fantastic Voyage? Fantastic, yeah, I used to do that show for him whenever he was away. Wow. I'd bring in my R&B and hip hop records. For Dave's dance music, I'd bring funk stuff

and dance music in house. And yeah, and I'd do production during the week and make the commercials and fill in for the dance music shows there. It was a lot of fun. Okay, cool. Now, I don't even know, do they pay you? Well, yes and no.

To be on air at CKLN, it was volunteer. Okay. But I was on that future. But if you're a on air at CKLN, it was volunteer. Okay. But I was on that futures. But if you're a production manager at CKLN, is there some stipend or some stipend that they give you a couple of bucks or? Well, I had that futures. You were doing it for the experience though? The futures grant. Futures grant. Okay.

And then they took me on and they kept me for a while and they kind of made room in the budget for me. But at some point, you end up on $640, is that right? Yes. When I was at, I was a board op at Q107 and AM640. But at some point you end up on 640, is that right? Yes. When I was at, I was a board op at Q107 and AM640. Oh, Q107 and 640, right? Yeah, they were joined together. And at the time one was at Yonge and Bloor way before the Yonge and Norton days. I was at the first tower at Yonge and Bloor looking south. Okay.

And at the time they weren't bunked in with their AM station, AM640, which at the time was CFGM country. You know, people my age probably don at the time was CFGM country. You know, people my age probably don't remember it as a country station. So that's wild. I mean, I'm thinking now it was like the hog for a while. I became the hog when they, yeah, they were believed classic country. You know, they're playing deal D, uh, D I V O R C E divorced by, uh, you know, Tammy Y net, uh, Dolly Parton. Is that the IV? Are you sure? You know what you should check? I actually got to do the Google. I feel like dolly IV or C.

I feel like that's Tammy Y net. I turned my phone off so I can't look now, but you know, guys like us only know Tammy Y net from the KLF. Oh, of course. Cause she was Sam. Yeah. Yeah. That's going to rock you. Yeah. We didn't have that yet. All right I'm gonna wasn't rocking you. So tell me a little bit about what you were doing at 640 and q107 at this time. Well, I confirm that Tammy Y. Net wrote Well, I was back then was I was a board op So I was basically doing with on air people do except I didn't open the microphone and talk yet And so I'm a wine at 1968 D IV O R C yet. And so Tammy Y net 1968, D I V O R C. So we're playing stuff like that. And then boom, I'll tell you a little I can I

can say this now. Yeah. So I was one of the only people that knew that classic country was going to become a metal station. I told one of the bosses, I can't, I got to be careful what I say here. Okay, I told you, like, listen, this is the home of real talk. There is no careful. Let's let's go. Okay. So I went to this one particular boss He said you go and do take that on-air position in Cambridge. You're fired Well, I took the job and he screamed at me and made me go leave the building. So I got this call I'm driving home. I'm just shaking. Yeah, I get this call from a really good PD the PD of

home, I'm just shaking. Yeah. I get this call from a really good PD, the PD of Q107 at the time, Gary Obey. And it's like, my nickname back then was Divinal. Like the group, like the group, Divinal. Divinal, sure. Yeah. So it was like, Divinal, what the hell happened up North at CJ, at 640? I told him the story and he goes, well, you know what? I'm going to tell you something. And he goes, well, you know what? I'm going to tell you something. Nobody knows this, not even our head of sales, which by the way, one of our heads still complains that he didn't know until he heard it on the radio.

I knew in May, and this happened in July. He said, Mike, I'm so sorry that you got let go in that manner. That was kind of verbally violent. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm actually going to fire that guy, and we we're gonna go heavy metal in about two months and we're gonna call ourselves the hog, we're gonna have pig snorts and we're gonna editorialize the news and only you know. And I was 20 year old that didn't know what management knew because he felt so bad for me the way I got fired.

Oh that's funny. So he actually said you come here I'll give you a couple of air checks at your station in Cambridge. It was Ron Fitzpatrick gave me my first break out there. It was Gary Obey. He said, come into Q107. I'll give you an air check. Like I give my guys at AM six, four to the hog and Q107. You know what my, my level, uh, my level shot up because of Gary Obey's, I think two, maybe three air checks. He gave me that in Toronto, uh, as, as, as just as kid, you know, and, um, Wow. He, he really took the time. He took the time and at six 40, and this is, this is, uh, the hog. I saw the, this is the hog era, right?

I was your country and hog. Are you there for the flip? No, I was, I was blown out just before the flip. That's why I was told about it when I was like, you know, oh, sorry don't feel so bad Mike Because you got blown out that way. I got something to tell you It was a lot of Guns N' Roses as I remember Yeah When I got let go that was still in the Tammy Ynet days and they told me in three in two months from now

We're gonna be playing Motley Crue and then they told you at some point You'll be playing KLF with Tammy Ynet on a different station. You didn't't believe them. He said, I don't believe you. So at Q you're producing at Q 107. You're also producing the Q morning zoo, right? I was filling in. I've worked with, um, well, Jesse and Jean at the time. Well, I need these, these are the names. Now you got my attention here. Okay.

So Jesse and Jean also FOTMs like yourself, friends of Toronto, Mike. And I would, I remember Jesse and Jean on Q 107. Great guys. Yeah. I loved working with them. Well, Gene is back in town. Oh, is he really? Maybe it's like Burlington, but close enough. Nice.

You know, I'll count that as in town. So Gene's back, but I've been following him on social media and he's looking for new gigs, et cetera, et cetera. But what were they really like, Jesse and Gene? Oh man, they were so much fun to work with now We're dealing with an era that was not digital So you better go to the bathroom first because things are moving so fast with Jessie and Jean were calling people in their hotel rooms Waking up Madonna that sort of thing because Jessie had a way of getting the code names of people in their hotel rooms Wow. Yes, like Robert Plant would be the Rex King band. We called him up. He didn't answer, but we did get a good healthy F you out of Madonna at seven in the morning. And when

it once she hung up, it was like Jesse Jean just had that laugh. They would just let it go. Right? I'm just sitting there watching. Was there any Peter Gross? Was he at all a part of this Q and O seven show? Do you remember this? Jesse and Gene? I think he was in sales, I think. I know that name. Geez. He was on City TV, but I know that gross. Yeah, there's a period of time where Peter Gross is with Jesse and Gene, like just a

short period of time. And I believe it's on Q. Yeah, I wasn't there for that period. I think that was before me. He's a, he's a hall of famer. That gentleman, I have to ask, I have to ask Peter Gross questions at all times. So before we move on to, gosh, some stations I'm not even familiar with, like CIAM. Oh, that's AM96.

It's now known as Dave Rocks and many reincarnations. AM96 was, yeah, that was where I got my first on-air radio gig there. Okay, and that's after this experience with, uh, and who owned Q and, uh, 6 40 at this time is it? I think at the time, I think it was WIC. Yeah. WIC or Westcom or I think it was WIC radio.

Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Pre-chorus. Okay. Kept changing. Kept changing. Yeah.

Fascinating. So yeah. And if I skip any highlights, cause we're on, we're on our way to one to eight, but I'm enjoying the journey here with you, my friend. So now it's known FM but it was uh I think it's Dave Rocks now Dave Rocks so you can't keep track but this is I know Barry Cambridge Cambridge yes so that's Cambridge but there is a station now it's B-101 I suppose it was CKBB AM and that was Barry so I've worked on a couple stations that flipped from AM to FM and I returned in their FM versions. So, yeah, CKBB, I was there for the AM, B101 for the FM later on, like just a few years ago.

Cool. Yeah, it was an interesting... And yeah, obviously anything I'd be interested in, you'll spit it into the mic. But then there's a stop at Z103. Yes, yes, I actually had two stops there. Once from 97 to 99 when it was HIT hits 103, I was a music director there for a while and, um, came back in around 2002 to 2008 and I was just doing some swing there and doing some gigs and wow, what a talented bunch over there. I mean, uh, and they're still there.

They're still doing it. Well, they're not far from here. No, they're just around the corner from here Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was driving around getting reacquainted with the area. I'm going oh man Yes, I do I have the courage to go and visit, you know Because I think they're next door from the build like they're not in the same building when I was there Oh right next door. Yeah, okay, but this is obviously this is gonna get you to 108. So, okay What gets you because I got some clips I'm going to play once we

get to, and I will shout out, shout out once again, Scott Turner, who came over one day during the pandemic in the backyard. And we did a whole episode of Toronto Mike where we dove deep into the history of energy one away. So I'm very interested in, in that story from your perspective, because you were there so very long and you were there for the flip to energy one away. And I got some cool audio of that as well. But how do you get the job at Energy 108? I'll tell you something. When I was working at CKBB, we got an announcement that we were going to have a little one on the way and radio didn't pay so well when you were part time in those days. So I gave up.

Still doesn't pay very well as a part time. That's right. Yeah, well, even worse when you're getting started, believe me, so much so I had to quit radio for a while. I started working for a medical supplies company while the baby was coming. This is about 35 years ago. And every day I'd get home at 4.35. And from 4.35 to five o'clock, I was building my list of radio stations and I was just phoning them and phoning them and phoning them and phoning them. And I would send the tapes in fluorescent socks and put the fluorescent paper just to make it stand out. Right. Do not do not erase on the tape so that it would never go to production and become a commercial, all of that sort of thing. So I applied to to one of the people that that I was driving along the highway and all of a sudden FM 108, which was at the time,

daytime light, rhythm at night, all of a sudden they're playing dance music in the day. And I call up Wayne at the station and I go, hello, this is Mike. Is this Wayne Webster? Wayne Williams, actually. Wayne Williams, you know, a lot of Waynes out there. A lot of Waynes, a lot of Mikes.

And so I called up and I said, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he goes, yeah, he was talking on the air saying, we're now dance one Oh eight. We're an urban station dance one away. Um, you know, we're, uh, well, I've just hit my, I'm throwing tapes at them like mad. I'm, I'm showing up at their gigs, you know, but I'm Mike, I'm Mike, I'm Mike, I'm Mike shake my hand, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

Just kept saying my name over and over again. And I got the, I got a position there, uh, part time doing Saturdays. I started playing old funk on Saturday nights. Basically it was my old show that I did for Dave Amon and CKLN. Right. But it was now Saturday nights. And instead of it called the only show we call the only jam. Do you want to hear a, do you want to hear a Mike divine air check from dance?

108? Okay, sure. This is little dusty here, but it goes a bit, but you're, feel free to talk over it like pop a video or we can just listen together let's enjoy okay the tears of joy on the rhythm 107.9 dance 108 and that is Cheryl how you doing it's 14 minutes after 11 o'clock and a reminder to you also that the adult basic education Association of Hamilton Wentworth would like to remind you yes a time adult learning does not have to stop at all in fact the number of reading and writing programs are open all year round.

And if you'd like more information, you can give a call to the Adult Basic Education Hotline. Their number is 527-2222 for the program nearest to you. Never but always and Shirley Murdoch just around the corner. Visit McDonald's for the great... All the old ads. Oh, yeah, I kind of like the old ads. We got a McDonald's ad. Would you like Mexico with us?

I'll bring it down and tell you we eat palma pasta around here. Do you like Mexico with us? See. I'll bring it down and tell you, we eat Palma pasta around here. Do you like lasagna? You love it. I got a lasagna in my freezer for you to take home. Oh, perfect.

OK. You'll love it. Thank you, Palma pasta. They'll feed us at TMLX 18 on June 26. Palma. Palma pasta. Listen to those prices. They're a lot lower than now.

I remember going to UT and I could get a combo for $3.99. Change for my fiver. It's the ultimate party for your student body. Sounds like Kenny Coughlin there. The Dance One-A-Way Roadshow. Pumping out the latest and the best new music in a sound and light spectacular. That sounds like Kenny. Or call Dance One-A-Way to host your next community or club event.

Our Dance 108 personalities are taking our show on the road. If you like our music, you'll love the Dance 108 Roadshow. Call us today at Dance 108 in Toronto, or use the soccer phone [phone]. Burlington Hamilton, call 681-1079. La Vie, a new way of life. La Vie, a new way of thinking.

La Vie, a new way to party. At La Vie, no cover and no limits. Bust into the weekend Thursday with a beat band at formerly of Still Life. On Friday, the light and sound spectacular continues with DJ Winston Thompson. And DJ Chico keeps the party going Saturday. Love be a new way to party.

No cover, but a serious dress code. Make this your weekend to check out a new way of thinking. Love V 655 Dixon Road in the Skyline Hotel. Keeping it going on at 16 minutes after 11 o'clock. Mike Devine with you until three. And this is Shirley Murdoch. Let there be love on Dance 108. Dance, wow. 108, wow.

Whoa, we're only danced for Dance 108 for one year. Okay, only one year here. And is Scott at the station yet or is he still at CFNY? No, this is a good story actually. This is while Scott was still over at CFNY. And CFNY was still doing their original format. Well, one of their original formats was more pop, more of a pop format.

And they were just about to go into this new grunge thing that was about to come out with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And there was this big firing that happened. They just let a whole bunch of them. The bloodletting date. It was a big, big. Was Don Burns part of this? Yeah, it was a big flush.

And so Scott Turner was hired. And then we heard that he was gonna be the program director for this new version, it was a big flush. Scott Turner was hired and then we heard that he was going to be the program director for this new version of Dance One-A-Wake that was coming. And so we took a vote and it ended up being Energy. There was like One-A-Wake jams, One-A-Wake hits, Keep It a Dance. It ended up becoming Energy. It was launched. And they hired Scott as the program director and he brought everybody over. He brought over Donnie, Don Burns, he brought over Pam Blair, he brought over Reiner Schwartz, Rhonda Katz, Deadly Headley, Chris Sheppard,

he brought them all over and next thing I know, our hallways are filled with people from CFNY and it was amazing. What an infusion of talent to join up with the already amazing talent that was there. So it was no doubt this was going to blow up, but we had absolutely no idea how much it was gonna blow up because we were doing a format no one's ever done before.

And we had a few things stacked up against us. One, we had to do a lot of spoken word back then. The FM laws back then, but up until 1993, mid 93, had to play 15% spoken word. Hence I was doing that PSA for about a minute and a half. Right. And also we had to play 51% non-hits back then. Now this is the genius of Scott Turner. What he did to make us sound really hip is he took the hits

from the British chart. Yeah. That we're on- CFO did the same thing. Yes, yes. This is, he did the same thing there. And so we had these upcoming songs that were being released in England first. So they would just end up, yes, this is he did the same thing there and so he had these upcoming songs that were being released in England first So they would just end up. Yeah, we would be on it before the American channels We had like kiss 98.5 in Buffalo, you know up against us and they could play all the hits they wanted We had to play 50% none

So basically by bringing in songs that were future hits in North America That got us six months to nine months ahead of all of our competition. And it satisfied that promise of performance that requirement there as well. Very smart. Yes. And CFOI did the exact same thing. They couldn't play the hits. They played the British hits and it was just, you were just ahead of the curve. Yeah. And that's the brilliance of what Scott Turner did with energy. He did that and it really worked. And then when, you know, when it was time to play all hits then, you know, he made the adjustment.

But wow. What did you do? I'm curious in this format. Actually, you know, I almost want to play the flip because I've got an audio where we can hear the flip. Okay. Then I'm curious because you have to play can con. Of course, we have the can con regulations. So for this, a lot of times this is the big, when there's enough CanCon you can play, then it's like you can do the flip or whatever. But who were, like who were the CanCon artists that you would tap into to satisfy that requirement? Do you remember? Well, yeah, there was-

I mean, Shepard had stuff going on. He had a few things going on. BKS, and he had a bunch of stuff. Well, he was in, he was the S in BKS, right? Becker, Kavanaugh, Shepard. And then they should have put Simone in there somewhere. Maybe she yes I don't know but yeah there wasn't too much we had snow we had to play a lot. You know snow is in the calendar, I gotta shout it out snow will be in the basement for a deep dive May 5th. Wow. So don't miss that Mike. We played a lot of

the snow back then there wasn't enough Canadian pop at the time so we really had to play the good ones over and over and over. And then with the law, you know, in pop music coming to FM, um, a lot of that woke up a lot of young aspiring artists. Now you can't tell. Now you can't tell. We had to really fish for the Canadian stuff. I'm thinking like, who would it be? Is it like before four? Like I'm trying to think of who the heck was love and sass, love and sass oh boy Mitsu bye bye Mon Cal boy I'll land us before she was more asset never too hot never never too cold take your best shot too hot the holes

god you had to go hunting for what about candy in the back beater that's a little old I guess a little dusty by then you know what I had an interview with Alanis and she had the perm and she was still doing the pop music. Little did I know a month later she was going to come out with Jagged. And I'm thinking to myself, when CF and Y started playing Jagged and they played that first song with the whole theater line. And I'm driving the car going, oh you, I didn't know that. Well, they played James's laid and that had the line about, she only comes when she's on top.

Yes. So I mean, you know, you talk about being edgy. Well, here we go. Okay. Yeah, but she was, she was all pop too hot to hold and then boom. And I was interviewing her while she was just about to release it.

So it was up her sleeve. You know, good one. Good one. Story is amazing, but only possible because pop artist Alanis didn't break in the States. So the U S didn't know this artist at all. We had this, uh, Tiffany style, Debbie Gibson style Alanis. We talked about never too hot, never too cold. Take your best shot to hold.

I can't name a second song, but that one was not much music, et cetera. But there's a bunch. She could introduce, Jagged could come out in the U S would be like, this is a new artist. This is who Alanis Morissette is. So yeah, because that first stuff didn't break there. Like they just simply didn't know it. Yeah. Well, it'd be like bringing, uh, let me take you dancing from Brian Adams to the States. They'd be like, what? Oh, the, yeah, the disco stuff. Well, yeah, well that was the, that was the track. Uh, just for our listeners to know it was the seventies. They speeded his, his, um, his voice up. He

actually had people go and buy all of the copies I heard according to Terry David Mulligan on discumentary. He said that he had someone buy up all the copies so that no one would have a copy. That's what Terry David Mulligan would know. He was all part of that scene at the time. Okay. That was playing discumentary at Q107. I remembered I was listening to what he was saying. Yeah, gosh, uh, Mr. Much West. Okay. Yeah. Let's listen to the flip. This is dance 108 becoming energy 108. It's like we're in a time machine here. That old urban stuff. Oh, what's this? Vinyl.

Oh, the classic, the classic flatliner. Format changes were a big deal back then. Doing the whole flatliner. It was exciting, right? You wanted to get out your cassette deck and record it. Oh, this was 12 noon, by the way. 12 noon. This is what is going to crash in now. OK, here comes the new IDs.

Wow, they really stretch this out. Go big or go home. Yeah. Wow. OK. This was at midnight. There we go. There we go. Baby, if you ever wonder. Yeah. Energy on a way. If you ever wonder... Yeah. Energy 108. If you ain't cranking it, you must be yanking it. 50,000 watts in FM stereo.

107.9. Energy 108. Oh, fitting song. Get ready for this. Absolutely. Wow, okay. That's the very first moment of Energy 108 right there. History, this is a bar room trivia question. Too unlimited.

I feel like I'm in a hockey game. You know, this is definitely a hockey song. Or maybe No Limits is a bigger one than that. Because they had the two big hits, but I think No Limits, these are both good hockey songs, absolutely. Do, do. Y'all ready for this? ["No Limits"]

That's an anthem. Wow, what a time. ["No Limits"] Okay. Hm. All right. I don't know what happened to that place. It's 2.0 unlimited, Gary Thomas and Sari Energy, 108.

As we get busy, it is a brand new day, a brand new sound. We're kicking it Southern onto your August 31, end of the month straight up. As we get busy with the new sounding Energy 108. This is Betty Boo and we will be shaking it, rocking it and doing the do. Of course, doing the do with Betty Boo. You know I enjoyed this period. It's pre-grunge, but it's, so where are we? Hold on. Let's get a check here. Are we in the early 90s, right? So grunge is just breaking.

September 92. I think this is the day after Labor Day. Okay. Okay. Alright, so we've got...never mind, we've got ten on the CD player, but we got all this great stuff too. Okay. All right. Bury me in stories, Mike. I gotta know. Tell me... Oh, what do we got here? Okay. All right. It's part of the skimmer. So we're now Energy 108. Yeah, there was a switch. Now, there was a longer version of that where they were playing all of the dance 108 IDs and they were pretending to cry saying they lost their job. And then we

just went to the part where they were fading out that last song. So, but it was a lot longer than that. But yeah, it was pretty stretched out All right So you heard the actual moments of switching from? No, it's a story of one into the other and that imaging voice and I know Scott Turner tells a story when he does this Deep dive into energy went away, but do you know the name of that imaging guy with that voice? Yeah bumper Morgan see that That's that's a voice of the early 90s. That's the that's the voice of energy He had a really processed sound because in real life he had a much higher voice and always mean I could sound like that Yeah, you could yeah, he really did something press is it or whatever

I would I did a session with him once we had to do like all these numbers for a countdown number 20 So I'd say, okay, just say number 20. Number 20. Like he'd really make it big, but his voice would change. Kind of like Shaggy does. You know what? Now, and then next thing you know what he sounds like Optimus Prime, right? Yeah. You know what? I'm going to, if I find out the filters he's using, I'm going to start recording in that voice. That is the secret to success. Right.

Yeah. And you were there. Toronto mic. That's what I think. Jeez. Okay. I've been missing out on the filter. I can't do it like him.

Let me play this. We got the power to move ya. Energy 108. It's definitely a bumper more. It would be funny to hear bumper. He's recording and he sounds like me. And then he goes and he presses some buttons and next thing you know, next thing you know what? It sounds like this.

If you don't listen, you won't be able to hear us. Energy 108. 108. He always had that really big sound. Geez. Really big sound of the nineties. They're run through a wall here. Goodness gracious, Mike.

So you spent, my friend, you spent over a decade at 108. You're basically there for Energy 108. Yeah, pretty much all of it. Pretty much all of it. Any highlights? Shout out, you mentioned Chris Shepherd. These are all names that come up on the show all the time.

Yep, I've worked with all of these people. I've had the pleasure of working with these people. They're my second family. They are my second family. They are my second family. Um, can't wait for the reunion cause everyone's gone in their own direction. But, um, what reunion is there reunion I should know about? Well, there was a, before the COVID, uh, lockdown, um, Turner would actually, he had a ranch and we'd usually get something there going on there cause there

was no, no neighbors. He was on a farm But he's moved so I don't know if they're gonna have parties anymore. That's right. Yes, but now that farm Let me ask so you we've lost Don burns, but can you tell us a little bit about Don burns? No, he was DJ trance dr. Trance dr. Trance like what can you share with the listenership because Don burns is uh he's American But he is also man of La Mancha in the seventies in Buffalo Buffalo Manila Mancha. Speaking of Buffalo, Nicholas Pickles there's another name. Oh yes yes Nicholas I worked with him at the when we were at we just switched over to 95-3

Don Burns though Dr. Trance he's the guy who was he was the guy behind all the biggest raves in the nins. Here he was, he was the guy behind it. He was running it. Atlantis, um, nitrous, that sort of thing. And he knew everything about the newest and the, of the newest of trans music. This guy would go up there. He's triple everybody's age and he's like outplaying the guys in their 20s. Uh, he just completely shined right to the very end. So yeah, big ups to Don burns big time. What about Chris shepherd?

Yeah, Chris, Chris, very animated fella. He's very personable. He had that addictive personality that you would be addicted to. You just want to talk to him because he was really good at remembering people's names and he had that way. He had all of the right things to, to the ways of talking to you. That makes you want him to talk to you more. Yeah. You know, speaking of voices that might not be the same, but on a Friday night Chris Shepard

coming at you. Like when you're talking to him in the lunch room, he's like, hey Mike, how's it hanging? And then he's all of a sudden he's kind of British or something. Yeah, that's kind of that is thrown. But if you watch his earlier stuff when he was on CFNY and when he was on CHCH, yeah, doing the video show, the live, he totally didn't have he had the Canadian Club 102 I think they called Club 102 and it was like hey everybody we're here and we're having a good time I think was when he switched from 102 to 108 that all of a sudden this rascal but I do know one when I was listening to Live Day as Chris Shepard on a Friday night yeah did have that on one of you love he definitely had that he had that rhyme he used to

say that it starts with an I it ends with a Y it gets me high every time okay because i i'm trying to think now i he say often imitated never duplicated yeah that's the ones that everyone copies there's a lot of people copy do the shep thing the mind's body soul and all of that right on the flex but he had these other ones that he used to say that people don't usually use now like and it starts with an i it ends with a y it gets me high every time it's it's funny because we talked about don burns shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. He's no longer with us, but we talked about Chris Sheppard. I noticed lately we were talking about Chris Sheppard like he died, but Chris Sheppard did not die. But because we haven't heard from him in over a decade publicly, we haven't heard from him in over a decade. He just disappeared. Yeah. Like and it's funny

that we're talking here on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025, because I produce humble and Fred's podcast. Love those guys. I'm going to tell them humble Fred, Mike Devine, big fan, but they went on vacation. They went away for a couple of weeks, get away from this cold. We have a wildly windy cold day out there today and they're in better places. But I put together these best ofs I drop in the humble and fair I'd feed just to keep it warm from when they come back and today I Dropped the what I believe to be the last public appearance of Chris Sheppard when he waltzed into their studio in 2014 no way that's 11 years ago

okay, and the famous question on this show and I've talked to Scott Turner and Iver Hamilton and Oh god, David Marsden, you name it. I've been asking but I'll ask you anyway, like do you know where Chris Shepard is? You know what he is everywhere he's he's kind of like taking on die. No, I don't think he died He's kind of like the way he died. Do you ever American Gra you remember American graffiti? Of course. Yes. The Wolfman is everywhere, man. Wolfman Jack. I think that's what he did. He went up into the air and he's still around, but no one knows. So I don't know. It's wild, right?

Yeah. He's even everyone still talks to about like everyone's doing that. Where is Chris? Where's Chris? I defend a person's right to disappear. Okay. I want the right to disappear. You have the right.

We have the right to disappear. So I'm not actually going to go to Costa Rica and ask the locals if they have you have you seen a guy talking like this? Yeah, you probably wouldn't do it. I'm not looking for him that kind of way, but that would be funny though. If all of a sudden you heard some screams over there and all of a sudden a micro crazy that would like I'd run over. Okay. That's gotta be him, man. So, but I just can't think of an equivalent and I've been doing this a long time. You've been in this business a. But I just can't think of an equivalent, and I've been doing this a long time, you've been in this business a long time. I can't think of somebody who dropped out in that manner

because they made a documentary about Play the Record. Okay, this is called Drop the Needle. That's right. They had to use archival footage of Shep and Shep would have been, he was heavily sought for that documentary. I know the filmmaker, he might be making something about Electric Circus.

Oh really? I talked to Joel Goldberg about this yesterday, yeah. Oh, he might be making something about electric circus. Oh, really? That would be great. I talked to Joel Goldberg about this yesterday. Yeah. Oh, that'll be exciting. Yeah. There's been a lot of talk about EC lately. Yeah, but they had a 30th.

And it's, it's, there's definitely, and shout out to Ed Conroy, an FOTM Hall of Famer himself, and of course, Joel Goldberg, one of the creators of electric circus. And you know, Monica Dior, who will, who will make the trip from the West Coast for these. But there is a lot of EC talk and there is some buzz about a documentary. It's tough to do because Bell Media owns this IP and you know it's not an enjoyable experience I don't think. But there's another doc I'm just going to shout out which is in the can but not available and I don't even know if you'll ever see it but they made a

CF and why documentary and it's the film that the filmmaker wrote me an email the other day to say it's finished he's got it in Scotland I guess they're looking for distribution I'm not sure if this is ever going to see the light of day but they made it and I know humble and Fred were interviewed for it and I know Alan Cross and Iver Hamilton and Scott Turner were the executive producers. I don't know their exact title, but they were helping to get the people and interview. And I know this thing was done,

but it's nowhere in public, but you can imagine getting Chris Shepherd for the CF and Y documentary was a high priority. Could you imagine? They didn't get them. They didn't, okay. So, you know, they could- I was wondering about Okay. So, you know, they couldn't about that. So, you know, if he's not resurfacing to do a quick, you know, be a talking

head in a CFY documentary, he's not interested in being found. I guess he just doesn't want to be a part of the old life. He wanted to disappear and he did it. And, uh, I certainly can't, I think it's a fascinating story because you don't see it very often. I can't think of an equivalent in this I haven't seen him in person since I think 99 and passing okay 2014 beats that yeah still 11 years ago yeah goodness gracious okay if you get a text from Chris Shepherd let me know okay yeah I'm just checking here no not yet are you

listening Chris Chris shepherd any other personalities at energy before we move you off energy one to wait and find out why it ends for you there. Uh, but you were there like almost 11 years. You had a good one. That's a long run in radio. It was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Any other names you want to check? Wow. There are so many amazing names. I've worked with Wayne, Wayne Williams, Scott Turner, uh, Roger day. I, I, I've worked with Wayne, Wayne Williams, Scott Turner, Roger Day. I, I, I'm going to start going blank here, but there is a many dimensions. So many dimensions because there's different eras, you know, um, you know, Tony Monaco, he was, uh, with us at,

at energy. Then he went to Z. Um, then I went back and forth a couple of times from energy to Z 103 a couple of times, but that energy, a lot of people came through, a lot of artists came through the door, met Missy Elliott, Joe Public, there's so many people we've had in there. Sure. Because we had those magazine shows,

the Street Beat Show that Scott and Pam used to do. Because you needed that foreground programming. Yeah, we had that commitment we had to do. So we had magazine shows. Followed us to performance. So many artists and club owners came in through those doors, absolutely incredible. Yeah, I've had the pleasure of working

with so many amazing talents there. I have some sad news about Bumper Morgan. I hate to break this to you, but my special correspondent, 1236, reports that in May 2020, Scott Beals, who was professionally known as bumper Morgan, passed away peacefully at his home. He was only 59 years old. Really? He had ALS. I didn't know that. Right. Formerly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS. And yeah, that's awful. And yeah, so that's the thing Bruce Spring. I'm sorry, Bruce Willis has. No, that's actually a

different thing. It's a different one. I thought it was ALS, I'm sorry, Bruce Willis has? No, that's actually a different thing. It's a different one. Yes, a different one. I thought it was ALS. I don't think Bruce has ALS, but he has something in that family, but I don't think it's ALS. Okay.

But. My bad. That's okay. Scott Beals was the real name of Bumper Morgan, and he won't be recording any new Bumper's sadly. He's no longer with us. Well, not in this level, not in this plane. Maybe it where he is now. Maybe he's up with Don Burns. So, well, not in this level, not in his plane, maybe it where he is.

Maybe he's up with Don Burns and they're making a, because Don Burns did a lot of the imaging for CF and why when Marsden was the program director, he was telling me about bringing burns in to do the imaging, be the imaging for us. That's right. Look at this. Look at this conversation. do a swag exchange and then I have another air check and I want to talk to you post about post 108 maybe we do a little swagger so I've already given you lasagna from palma pasta absolutely delish by the way thank you well you can't say that yet have you ever had palma pasta I will be delicious Mike I'm putting this back it will be delicious but you know you're gonna report back it's the best lasagna you ever had by way, if you come to Great Lakes Brewery on June 26th from 6 to 9 p.m., you will get fed by Palma Pasta and your first fresh craft beer is on the house.

That is TMLX 18. Mike, it's worth the drive to South Etobicoke. It certainly is. Okay, good for you. This is a speaker for you to kick out the... Who are you kicking out there? You're going to kick out the, who are you kicking out there? You're going to kick out the two unlimited, no, two unlimited. Yeah, it was two unlimited. Are you ready for this? This is courtesy of Minaris.

Minaris. Minaris wants you to listen to Season 8 of Yes, We Are Open. This is an award-winning podcast. It's wonderful. Al Grego has gone to Saskatchewan. He's gone to Regina. He's talking to small business owners about their trials or tribulations, how they adapted, how they became successful. It's inspiring. It's informative. It's just good listening. So you're going to listen to season eight of Yes, We Are Open, which these episodes are dropping now. You got it, Mike? Enjoy that speaker. Absolutely. Thank you. Got it.

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Building Toronto Skyline. He has a brand new podcast we're launching called Building Success. Can't wait to share more information about that. Much love to Nick Ainiis from Fusion Corp. Okay, Mike, you have any swag for me here or did you want to or am I being too presumptuous? Give me something. I gave you so much. Silver wax, lasagna. This is a record. You know what? Fresh craft beer for you too. You can bring, you love some fresh craft beer. I'm going to give you some Great Lakes beer as well Great Lakes make sure you go and get yours now great nice this guy knows this guy knows okay what's going on here Mike I have I have some pens here I want to give you okay I am currently in undergoing a

project project tell me about this project it is an online radio station party dog radio dot com dot com It's on the pens in case I forget the music for generation X. Online. Yeah. Just that's us. I kept hearing people saying you generation X people have such cool music. So I did some research and said, yeah, you're right. Yeah, there's no contest, you know, and no one's doing it. Yeah. I'm tired of these boomers talking about their, their, their sixties, man. The gen X got it figured out in the nineties. So right now in 2025, no one's doing a generation X music yet. This explains your T-shirt.

Party dog radio.com music for gen X. Party dog radio.com music for gen X. Like I have to, I don't think there's a listener now who won't try the sample the wearers at party dog radio dot com because the Gen X music we play a lot of it on this program. You're in the right place man. Thank you for the pens. No problem. I got some stickers too. Whoa. I made up. Okay. Ernie dog. It was before I had switched over to generation X. So just as party dog on it. But it is party dog radio. I love stickers.

These are my earliest stickers. You know what? You could collectors item. Yeah. Shout out to sticker you. These are amazing. Party dog. Honestly, I love the logo. So I mean, we'll revisit party dog at the end when we find out, you know, what happens post chorus or whatever.

But thank you so much for these gifts. Your sweetheart. And I just saw now your cup that you're drinking what is in there what's in there Great Lakes beer but you got a yes it has definitely I'm gonna be putting this in here party dog radio calm you got all the swag man so we have party dog radio time swing and also if I can do a shameless plug for the morning show Mike and Mandy which is is me and Mandy. Okay, who's Mandy? Mandy is my co-host. She does the Mike and Mandy show her first radio show and Mandy, yes, and it's now being played on seven different online radio stations across the world at this as we speak

I feel like this is a bit like a Tarantino film like we've introduced this party dog and we're gonna wrap up your radio career because there's still more Mike Devine post energy 108 I just wanted to spend some time in a minute sure, but why does it end for you? Yeah Okay, you mentioned Bruce Willis moments ago. Yeah, he's in Pulp Fiction. Okay, geez I think that in 20 years the only Bruce Willis movies people will care about our diehard in Pulp Fiction I'm just saying that now on the market and Yeah. And blind date. Nah. Just no. Just pulp fiction and diehard. In Christmas. Because it's a Christmas classic. Okay. Christmas movie. Please tell me, Mike Devine, why it ends for you at Energy 108. Why it does? Or? Like what happens that you're not,

like what happens at Energy 108 that you leave and then you take that take a gig with a new station Oh, they switched a country and fired us. Well, this is the story Okay, is this when does Jeff Lumbee come in with Mike Richards or do I have a different era here? No, he was on the Rock station 95 3 at that time and we just missed each other But Jeff and I started working together at Dave FM and Ker. I was producing. He's in France now. He's in France now. Yes. Him and Mrs. are in France. Okay. They fled the coop here. Yep. They have left before the invasion. Well, they left before everybody else did. So they're good. Yeah. They moved to France during a global pandemic as I recall here, but they did it before,

you know, anything weird happened. They, they did this on their own accord. They're not afraid of anything. They're good. Right. They're good. We're all going to be moving into their rural estate because we need to come into visit. Yeah. Jeff the invasion. Okay. So, uh, you got a tap on the shoulder at a one to eight and they said, Mike, you've been here over a decade, but your services are no longer required. Um, usually it's two sentences in a row. It's usually Mike, can we see you in the office? And the second question or the second question is, and can you close the door behind you? If you ever work in radio and you hear those two sentences,

you know you should be packing. Grab your keys. And if you see someone else there, like a member, like an HR person or somebody, and they have like a folder with them, it doesn't matter your industry. Like you're going to be told, your services are no longer required.

They're gonna slide a piece of paper in a folder or something to you to review and sign, and then you're going to not sign that until you talk to a labor lawyer. That's my advice anyway. Yeah, yeah, it's good advice. Good advice, because they're always gonna try to lowball you on that thing.

But you bounced back, my friend. You got back into the radio game. Tell me about what you did post Energy 108. Post Energy 108, well I've been working the last dozen years or so with Dave Rocks and I did some stuff with 91.5 The Beat, that cluster. My last job actually was doing mornings on CJOY 1460. I was thrilled to be able to fill the shoes of, uh, McAdory, Mr. McAdory, who did that show before going to see TV or, or television anyway. Um, you mean Bob McAdory? Yeah, yeah. He went to global. Yeah. It was a

global. Okay. But his, we talked about his, um, niece Michelle McAdory, okay. Who was in the early, uh, blue rodeo videos like Try. I didn't know that. And she's a singer, she's in Crash Vegas, kind of a cool 90s band with Greg Keeler. But yeah, her uncle, Bob McAdory, I used to see him on global TV. Yeah, well my last job was at CJY and he did that job and it's like, every day I was like, Bob used to stand here. I feel good. Bob, I'm doing what Bob was doing. I felt good there just because I was standing in a place where legends were once shut up to Bruce Barker too. Oh, Barker, yes. Oh, I love barks. Yeah. Well,

actually we left, we, we departed the building the same day. I kind of want this story here and then we'll get back to what you're up to now. But, um, so you were doing lots of things. So this, these are a bunch of chorus owned stations, but you were doing mornings on CJO Y. That's correct. You were doing like a midday show possibly on, uh, Dave Rocks. Yes. At the same time. And you were doing evenings on magic 106. Yep. Yep. And you were doing Sundays on 101.1 big FM. Um, yes. Okay, so Mike Devine, that's one, two, three, four, is that four jobs? Pretty much, well, one was kind of volunteer. But that's the, you're on four different stations,

even if it doesn't matter what you're being paid or not, you're on four different chorus entertainment stations. And you were there a long time. Why the hell would they tap Mike Devine on the shoulder when he's the value you're getting? Like he should be given four salaries. Yeah, that's a really good statement. I agree with you 100%. Yeah, that's a good comment.

But yeah, thank you for that. But good question. I have no idea what they would do that. Now, Khor chorus is no secret. We're not telling tales at a school. They have a major financial problems in that company. That probably would be it. So essentially I, you know, global stations that were two people became one.

I know my, we talked about Bob Willett a couple of times. He's going to have to cut me a check for all this Bob Willett talk here. He's saving radio and energy one to eight, you know, but Bob Willett was his program director for the chorus cluster in Kingston and he was tapped on the shoulder. And then the whole freaking like Kingston empire from Bill Willichica L outward were tapped on the shoulder. Like the taps coming from chorus are fast and furious. And you just caught got caught up in this wave of cost cutting. Yeah, it's really fast. It goes quickly. But is it still hurt? Does it hurt? Like you were there a long time. You did amazing at all these stations.

I can imagine you must be bitter. Well, I'm not angry. I know that's just the way it is. The economy, the advertising dollars have changed quite a bit. Although there is new information that came out last week that stipulates that Gen Z happened to have defaulted to regular radio again. So that could be a new thing. So because I have I don't know what Gen Z is exactly but I have a 20 almost 21 year old and a 23 year old. I don't think they know how to get radio like I don't think radios on their radar at, but you're telling me young people are rediscovering radio. According to a story that was released, I think it was Friday.

It was going through the prep services and a lot of people have been talking about this, like milkman even posted, can you believe it? Gen Z, they're taken to FM radio. So this could be a resurgence, who knows? Is it because they like the ads or is it because they don't wanna listen to anything on demand? They wanna just be surprised when something plays.

Yeah, I'm hearing that they're getting sick and tired of all of this on demand, stream, stream, stream, and they wanna try the stuff that we did. They hear that Gen X is really cool. I don't want to know what's going on with plane until I hear it. And then I don't want to be able to skip and I sure don't want to pause. And I don't want, I think that's the, you know, what we had is Gen X and boomers Gen X. We had a lot of, um,

the thrill of anticipation. And when you have everything on demand, you don't have that anticipation. You don't get to wait for something I mean the thrill of holding that pause button for your favorite song to come on is gone But you know that thrill existed because we had no other option But there was a thrill. You know, I like I'm trying to go with you on this except that there's no thrill now as much I guess and that's whether I think they're trying it out. I think Alan Cross himself Referred to radio as an unprogrammable iPod. I just, I don't know who's spinning what and again I'm rooting my personally and we're gonna

talk about this in a minute more deeper here but I'm rooting for party dog radio com that's what I'm rooting for and maybe I need to understand more about exactly what the format is over there like this is an internet-based radio station yes it's an online station in, I guess you would call it DAB, Digital Audio Broadcast. In North America, we call it streaming. So yeah, if you just go to partydogradio.com, you'll see a little listen live.

You just hit the button. You can stream like you could any other streaming device. OK, so we can hear the mic and Mandy would be the morning show. So is it like regular radio where you have to catch it live or you miss it? And it's just a constant stream? Well, the Mike and Mandy show goes six to 10 Eastern on weekdays and Saturdays from 10 to three.

And yeah, it's just, it's just basically they come in for about a minute or two and talk about lifestyle and different things, very, very relatable stuff. Like the top five things people would argue about in a car ride or on a long trip. Things that are really uber relatable. And the music of Party Dog Radio is music of Generation X, because I've heard that Generation X has very popular music. Well, we loved radio. Well, also we loved radio.

I feel like I know this, I'm just not buying the, I'm not buying the Gen Z into radio radio bullshit. Like I just don't believe it You know, I mean like that sounds like a radio. I was surprised but I don't I just don't it doesn't pass my sniff test It just sounds bad. But I you're you're Seducing Gen X right like Gen X is Gen X your target audience Because you're playing Gen X music. Are you trying to get Gen X to listen? Is that the deal? I'm trying to get everyone to listen because Gen X is a, a, Gen X is just, you know, it's been targeted. It's been targeted as a cool place, a cool place for music. It's a cool attitude. Um,

you know, it's, it's common knowledge on Tik TOK. You don't mess with them. Um, there they are playing just enough to get me blocked from Spotify here. Okay, especially because it's Led Zeppelin here. Okay. Yep, Jimmy from 50 years ago. You can listen in the browser or you can listen via your favorite player, you know, be it QuickTime or VLC, my favorite player or Windows Media Player. Okay.

And it's a, are you live? I'm live during the afternoons. Yes, and Mike and Mandy we have that Well, I would love to say that we're live but that's not a live show but the afternoon drive show is yes So who owns a party dog radio.com music for Gen X that would be me So my this is my mind right now Mike. Okay, so I had no idea I did no idea what was going on with you after you got that chorus tap like so many great broadcasters But it sounds like you you know picked yourself off there. You are. Okay. I'm reading now Mike and Mandy mornings. Geez The Mike and Mandy show is a morning radio program airing on party dog radio a station that brands itself as your Gen X music airing on Party Dog Radio, a station that brands itself as your Gen X music channel. The show is scheduled on weekdays from 6 to 10 Eastern.

Party Dog Radio, in addition to their morning slot on Party Dog Radio, Mike and Mandy's show is featured on other platforms. Okay, there are some other places you can catch the Mike and Mandy show. Good for you, man. Thank you. Good for you. I'm glad that you're gone. You're going to tow your own garden.

Is that what you call your own garden? You tow your own road? What are you doing here? But that's very cool. I hope everybody listening checks out partydogradio.com. Would you consider if a station, like a good old fashioned terrestrial station, by the way, they're now playing, there's a Canadian connection to this. Shout out to Alexander Mayer

and the good people at Attic Records. But they're now playing Katrina in the Waves. Okay, partydogradio.com. Oh, you got it on live there. No, you have no idea what's gonna come out of this. This is live. This is great. I'm just watching.

Okay, cool. Great history with Attic Records on that channel. Oh yeah. You gotta get that history. Attic Records, I love them. Yeah, well they did the Maestro Fresh West stuff too. Because he dropped the needle opens with a sample from Haywire. Haywire, yeah.

Right. Dance Desire. Yes, you know your shit, man. That's why you should be on party dog radio.com. But the Hey, they didn't clear that sample. So the deal made from no attic and maestro The deal was that attic would distribute maestro's music in Canada. This was like the deal that was struck Is that how that works? That's how that worked. Okay, I got all I'm here one-stop shopping for everything maestro Fresh West, but it's kind of ironic that they couldn't do it in the States, even though Haywire was

also Canadian. Well they had LMV or whatever Stevie B was with, whatever his label was, had distribution in the States. It was just the Canada deal. But here, so we now know what you're up to now. We kind of burned through the chorus years, but you were in radio a long time. Looking back at your radio career, not your internet radio career, but your terrestrial career, what station brings you the most joy to reflect upon?

Oh geez. Okay. Well, um, I would probably, I would probably have to say a cross between energy one to eight, especially in the early and mid years, because we were treading new territory. We'd never done it before. It sounds like an exciting place to be. Yeah, it was all trial and error.

And fortunately for us, when the ratings came out, we were getting good books. We were going up 50,000. One time we went up about 70,000. We were getting up to about 600,000, 700,000 listeners at one point weekly. And it was very exciting because you're doing this on no budget.

You're doing this purely on the love of music and you know, you're getting, it's trial and error. It's a, you know, we're not going by any charts. We're reading off a bunch of charts and developing this new thing. Yeah. And Scott really had his ear to the ground on everything. All of the DJs and announcers were really, really, uh, vibing with the entire thing. And, uh, it was a very exciting time. I'd have to say. Energy and also Z103, it was very-

Well Z103 I'm gonna play here, let's listen to this, hold on. See what I got here at my sleeve. Four. Four. Hangin' out with your party dog, yes baby. 1998, February 2. No, it's February 7th, I can't even look at them that properly. Allow. Allow. I need to go to the telephone lines and put some people on the radio. I have a special person I want to put on the radio right now. Who's this?

My name's Tia, and the next song is Dr. Joe Hicks 103.5. Well, thank you very much. Hot Hits at 6, number 5. Okay, so that's Hicks 103. We'm going to keep track of all this stuff here. Okay, so do you mind, here, on our way out here. That was my daughter, by the way. Okay, say her name, Tia? Tia. Tia, beautiful.

That's amazing, that's your daughter. Amazing. She was like seven at that time. Okay, so here's what we're going to do on our way out. I actually loaded up a bunch of clips, but I didn't play them all, so we're going to actually walk through them all, okay, and see if they jog a memory or anything like that. You ready? So here's my remaining clips here new music music new remix interviews club and concert list and concert announcement

Exclusive property of energy you want to wait Yeah, that's that news magazine show with Scott and Pam six o'clock to seven o'clock That was a part of that commitment we had to do back then. Amazing. And now I hear that I know bumper Morgan shout out to Ridley funeral home. Okay. One more bump. Dance music nation, 79.38 West latitude 43.4 Oh North music station.

Energy one awaits. That's a definitely a statement there. It's our legal, legal top hour there. Yeah. Here we go. Guantos best party 1079, Energy 108. Yeah, they're the original IDs here. And this is your show, I believe.

Now, Canada's number one old school jam. Oh, there it is. This is the original old school hour on Energy 108. Yeah, that's that noon hour one. Okay and then I want to hear a bit more of you again. Hey everyone, this is Maggie. I'm Jackson Bramford. I just say hi to everyone at Red Jackson School, especially Carly B, Joey, Joe, Jordan, Nick,

Jacob, Brett, Brett, Matt, Tina, Dave, Aaron, Shasta, Paul, Peter, and Ashley Watson. Oh the long list. And next to special hi to Carly B, I'm Jackson Bramford. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. I'm the new coach for the Red Jackson School. Especially All the long list The number eight song is asked by Blackburn on the Hit Music Station. Energy 108! Dwayne Blackburn. Rob Blackburn.

This is Brooke Blackburn coming at you. Yes, it's Jamal Cornell Blackburn and we are Blackburn! Picking up my man, Mr. Mike Devine, the Doggy Dog Dog on Energy 108. Tell me that day! The Doggy Dog Dog. One more here, Mike. I'd about to witness your DJ for this evening. Hello! Hit me!

This is a test. It's serious. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together. Ladies and gentlemen, let the rhythm take you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm.

The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm.

The rhythm. The rhythm. The rhythm. The yeah. The rhythm. The rhythm. The music. The music. Oh, I love stuff, though. Here comes the music. Are you ready? Okay, boys. Here we go.

Yeah, you know, man. You get your party dog in for Wayne Williams this week. And boy, I hope you're marking down all the songs. Welcome to the top 10 at 8. Be marking down all songs number 10 right through to number 1. And this is what we got for you, okay? A nice little prize pack. It includes this, the energy one-way pick of the week, a copy of Janet Jackson's soon-to-be-released

The Velvet Role. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of a surprise. And a little bit of number one. And this is what we got for you, OK? A nice little prize pack. It includes this, the Energy Wanna Wait pick of the week, a copy of Janet Jackson's soon-to-be release,

The Velvet Rope, which features the current hit, Got Till It's Gone, and a couple of passes to join Energy Wanna Wait this Friday, October the 4th. And the joker with Scott Turner for the official CD release party of Janet Jackson's new CD, The Velvet Rope. Also a couple of passes for Canada's bridal show. 97 taking place at the Metrotronto Convention Center this weekend, October 3, 4, and 5, and a couple of tickets for Canada's Bridal Show. 97 taking place at the Toronto Convention Centre this weekend, October 3, 4 and 5. And a couple of tickets for Canada's first Star Wars Convention.

You can meet the men behind the mask this Sunday, October the 5th at the Colony Hotel in Tee. Oh, let's get on with the countdown. Who's this? Hey, this is Laurie from Okra. I'd like to say hi to my friends Lisa, Teresa, Tanya, Beverly, and all the guys. I'd like to say hi to my friend Mike. And the number 9 song is Peace in My Heart by Shaggy. I'm gonna hit you with the station energy, one-o-eight. Wow. Radio sounded kind of different then. You know, it brings me right back.

No, but I dig that. I dig that whole vibe there. Holy smokes. We hear about Canada's first Star Wars... It brings me right back. No, but I dig that. I dig that whole vibe there, holy smokes. We hear about Canada's first Star Wars convention or something. Do you know the person who designed the lightsaber for Star Wars, A New Hope, the original one, and also designed the Millennium Falcon? I think R2-D22.

Did you know that person lives not far from here in Mimico? I did not know that. See this is, he's come over for a deep dive. His name is Roger Christian. People can Google it and check out his bonafides. He was like a set decorator who worked on that first Star Wars and he's responsible for the lightsaber R2-D2, the Millennium Falcon. Just a fun fact for you, Mike Devine, that you could share, and you could borrow that and spread it

throughout the country on partydogradio.com. Music for Gen X. Music for Gen X, I am Gen X. Dude, I love this chat. Did we, we didn't miss anything that you were burning to talk about on your drive here, did you? Or... We covered so much and I'm so anything that you were burning to talk about on your drive here, did you? Or, uh, we covered so much and I'm so, thank you so much for having me on. I'm very grateful.

I love talking radio. The last radio app I did, I think it was Andy Wilson from Zoomer. Oh really? Who's now the program director over there. And, uh, so it's been a few weeks and, uh, just love hearing about your adventures in radio. We needed a little more Jesse and Jean, I think, but I get stories. We'll have to do this another time. Let me guess those stories are going to be in the book. Yeah. Yeah.

The book. Thanks for doing this, man. I think you set the record for most swag because you've got the speaker and the silver wax and you still get the lasagna and the beer and the measuring tape. So you're gonna have to start jogging. I'm getting big. Share that lasagna with the family, but maybe the kids don't get the beer. How old are the kids? Is it just the one daughter? Yes, I'm my 34 year old daughter now. So she can have some Great Lakes beer as well.

She can too, yes. And yeah, I think it's like, I'm hearing these clips from long time ago and it's like, oh yeah, a lot of time has passed since those clips. That's wild. Yeah, some of those are upwards to 30 years. I can't believe that little girl we heard in that clip. She's only seven. She's 34 now.

That's amazing. That's my girl. You live in the life. Thank you. The party dog making his Toronto mic debut. I can't wait to take the photo by the tree. Hopefully it's not snowing out there. Like the forecast today is really ugly. And it's summer tomorrow. It's like 20 degrees tomorrow. Yeah. This is a weird time in Toronto. I guess. What happens when you live under a jet stream? What happens when you live under a jet stream? So it's a good thing.

And that brings us to the end of our 1662nd show. 1662. You can get a tattoo with that number on it, like to commemorate. I'm going to put it on one of these stickers here. 1662. And thanks for the stickers, man. And thanks for the pens. I'm always looking for a pen. I've got a bunch here. Geez. And every time I pick up this pen I'll be like I gotta get my ass to

partydogradio.com. Does this show up like in forward or? I don't know. I'll find out when I'm gonna throw it on YouTube and they're gonna be like you played Led Zeppelin get out of here. Much love to all who made this possible. That is... Katrina and the Waves. And shout out to the Lake Great Almer. Absolutely. They're both gone now. The two addict guys are gone. Mr. Williams and Mr. Mer. So sadly, but Great Lakes Brewery, if you want fresh craft beer, they're still here for us. And they're hosting us on June 26th. Palma Pasta is feeding us on June 26th. Get your ass to

Great Lakes from 6 to 9 PM for TMLX 18. Thank you, Monaris, for coming back. We can't wait to hear Al in Regina for Season 8. Silver Wax, brand new sponsor. That bucket, that kit, you can buy it at silverwax.ca. Use the promo code TRONOMYK10. Dude 10 dude your car is gonna be so freaking clean you won't believe it and look at that shine recycle my electronics.ca building Toronto skyline with nick ienies and of course brad jones and the good people at ridley funeral home see you all gotta go to my calendar man i who's next. I just heard the friendly giant riff in there. Yeah. It was in there.

Rob Pruss from speaking of Burlington. Rob Pruss from Spoons did that. Really? Cool. Tomorrow's Ed Keenan. Ed Keenan from the Toronto Star comes on once a quarter and we have a lot to discuss actually. Ed Keenan on Toronto Miked, 2 PM tomorrow. See you all then. You