Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Richards: Toronto Mike'd #575

Episode Date: January 23, 2020

Mike chats with Mike Richards about his upcoming surgery, his show on 960, why 590 and 1050 suck and what's wrong with sports radio in Toronto today.

Welcome to episode 575 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. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. StickerU.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. And Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack. One of the most celebrated roots, country, bluegrass bands in Canadian music history. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and joining me this week is CKNT Morning Show host Mike Richards.

Am I allowed to use the call letters? You know what? No one does, for obvious reasons. They're the most humiliating call letters in the history of radio. And when people said, you know, what do you call it? I said, well, it's Newstalk, Saga 960. Yeah, but what's all this CK&T stuff? I'm like, yeah, we try to not talk about that a whole bunch just because it's sort of fitting that I would end up in a place that's CK&T. Right.

Well, it's one of those, yeah, it's fun to say CK&T to be quite honest with you. But right off the top, there's lots here to cover here. Lots, lots of stuff going on today. But this is the anniversary, okay? So this is January 23rd.

And it was on January 23rd, 2001, that 1050 Chum, Toronto's first top 40 music station, and a widely influential music tastemaker from the 50s to the 70s, announced it was switching formats to all sports radio. Their last song was the same one that launched the station in 1957. All shook up. The team. Yes.

On this day. The team. Yes. On this day. The team. It was this day? Was it really? January 23rd, 2001. Sounds wrong. I got it from a tweet. How can it be wrong?

Because we started in, it was May, was the launch day. Now they may have announced it, but we didn't go on the air until... Oh, you know what? It was announced. Okay, I'm reading it. It does say it was announced.

Yeah, we... Eventually, it was May or June. It might have been June, even, when that happened. That was the second time. That was my second time at 1050. As we all know, it was the third time at 10 50 as we all know it was the third time at 10 50 but as uh the great larry mcginnis always said he said uh also known as gagman in the business he said you can't really be like one of the chum like giants until you've worked here three times so i figured ted although

i wish it was the waters family uh the last time around but as we all know that never happened and we've covered this this is by the way your fifth appearance is it really yeah like i'm I wish it was the Waters family the last time around, but as we all know, that never happened. And we've covered this. This is, by the way, your fifth appearance on show. Is it really? Yeah. Like I'm supposed to give you a jacket, right? Yeah. I'll take the beer.

You're going to get a lot of stuff. I'll take the free lasagna. I'm not proud these days. I'm looking for apples on the side of the road. This is, yeah. We're going to get into that. I need to know exactly how dire these straights are. I need to know exactly what's going on.

Let me, like since we brought it up here, let me just give you now the six-pack from Great Lakes Brewery. That's fresh craft beer going home with you, Mr. Richards. Yeah, that's outstanding. They're at Wonderland now. Yes. They're at Wonderland. I know because the kids were all excited to see, you know,

like Snuffy the dog or whatever they have going on in there. Fruit Loop the clown. When I was a kid, it was Smurfs. Smurfs were there. They also had a tie. You know what else it was? It was Hanna-Barbera. Yeah, Hanna-Barbera was one of the big ones when they first started.

Right. But now what is it? Just something else. Something less expensive maybe? It's Tom the Crackhead. Crackhead Bob. That's right. What are you looking for, bitch?

The beer. No, so they were sold right there, so that was pretty cool. That was very good. That would be good because it's always fresh and it's always tasty. And a family-run business, man. You're doing it yourself. I have so much respect for you because you're rolling your own. You're doing it yourself.

I'm trying to do it myself. You are doing it yourself. And I look at you and say, I like it myself. You are doing it yourself. And I look at you and say, I like this guy because he's doing it himself. Great Lakes, you know, what's the, I'm not, you know,

like crap on any of the conglomerates, but you got like InBev and Molson Coors and stuff. And these guys won't, they don't sell out.

Like they stay family run. It's really difficult to do that because, you know, even when you have Mill Street who are no longer independent, who haven't been for a long time, and people see it as a sellout.

And the hard thing is when your brothers or your friends and you got together in a basement, you thought, you know, it'd be a good idea. We should make our own beer. Yeah, that'd be a great idea. And then all of a sudden it catches on and they do something for like three, four, five years. And then a Labatt or a Molson or whoever comes by and said, how would you like a, how would you like $50 million? How would you like $100 million or whatever?

It's really hard to say no. It's like when Krusty said they drove a Brink truck to my house, like a Brinks truck. So, okay. So you got your beer. I'm also going to give you, I know you love your Palma Pasta. Yeah. We're talking about Anthony. Yeah.

Anthony Petrucci. Yeah. The godfather. That's his name. Of course. It's like the best. You were going to do an Italian accent, right? You thought, should I do it? No, I was going to say some Italian swear words,

which is the show is filled full of them. Go ahead. Yeah, he's a morto da fama, schifoso. He's a frosch. Are these really bad words? I don't know. Oh, the last couple get you in trouble. It can't be worse than CKNT.

Nothing's worse than CKNT, just so you know. Right, and we're going to get into that too. It's't be worse than CKNT. Nothing's worse than CKNT, just so you know. Right, and we're going to get into that too. It's all a bunch of teases here. So you've got your, you've got a lasagna in the freezer for you,

but it's going home with you. Yes. I've got to make sure you're well fed and you've got your beer. I'm going to give you more gifts later, but I'm going to ask you

for a health update because, you know, you've been very upfront and honest about your challenges. Like, may I be blunt with you? I can be blunt with youmed with you right are you wearing a I don't know what the term is again sack yeah so it's a what well they like they like to call it a pouch an ostomy pouch good sack is not a cool word for this but bag is what they and they you have to say bag all the time well what do you think it is and they have really weird names for them like the one I'm wearing right now

is called the censura. Oh, that kind of makes it sound fancy. Oh, it sounds all sexy. It's filled with human waste is what that censura is filled with. It's not that sexy. So yes, I am wearing it. Remind us, for those who haven't heard the first four episodes, like there was a complication, right?

This is why you have this pouch. Yeah, so I had rectal cancer. And so therefore, when they took the tumor out so there's the the colon there's the pipe and they remove the tumor it sort of gets tied off on the one end and therefore something has to go somewhere so the intestine they pop it through your stomach wall just to the right of uh your belly button if you want to put it that way called a stoma and this is great you having breakfast people having lunch with this and uh then this uh it's real talk application they call it goes over top of it almost it's kind of sticky it's like a rubberized thing right it goes over that so inadvertently because it's it's i i don't have any control over it um as you eat it comes out so people like you mean you have a poo bag no it's not poo it's it's uh it's like a muffin mix is

what i tell people it's not a good muffin mix can i fix this though like can you live your life okay so here's here is this is the update we need. This is the update and it's, and it's finally after, this is going almost five years now, but going on four years, but the fifth year, I guess actually technically five. I went in to see my surgeon, Dr. Shadi Ashramala at Sunnybrook. And so I'm four years at that point in the summer, four years cancer free. He said, you realize after the third after the second year that's when it's most likely to come back so we really don't even do anything after the third year it like it falls off a cliff and now that you're four years clean i can tell you you definitely

just don't have cancer you and so which is amazing it's great to hear well it's you know what as much as you know sometimes i may take it for granted, my wife's sister literally died the same day as I had to go into Sunnybrook. So the day that I sat in front of my surgeon and she was getting funeral arrangements done, she then had to call her husband to see if he was going to live or die that's how bad it was that's how bad i mean if i look at if i look to the last three to four years um there there at times was almost no happiness there were times i would say it was i would describe it as dark and and look i know people go through a lot of different things i'm not the only one and um you know i think those that probably fight with mental illness depression um they don't have a stretch of only three or four years. They might have 30 or 40. So I don't look at myself as someone

who's going through something that others have not. But for me, there almost was no happiness. Everything within four to five years that I'd worked for, it was all taken away. Every single thing that I'd come to know and work for was all gone, taken away. But here you are, man. You're here.

Yes. You're a survivor. Yes. And you're doing it. We're going to talk about varying degrees of success and exactly what exactly is going on. Basically, we're going to get a State of the Union address from you. But to follow up on that health story, he said, you realize now, because it's herniated badly, which means even around it, it's huge. So I am now, and this is something I probably haven't said publicly,

but eight pant sizes bigger. Eight. So if you wonder what that would look like, just figure out whatever your waist is and then get eight pant sizes bigger. Like inches? Like if you were a 32 waist you're now wearing 40 yes yeah gotcha i'd have to and it probably would stretch on that too because it comes way out so it is you know in some ways it's there's a humiliation to it i mean you're

trying to understand that you yeah you're alive and this is but when it's herniated like that i mean i don't wear normal pants or clothes. I mean, you're going to see me. Now, if I'm looking at the camera, I'm straight on and stuff like that. It's not that noticeable. But it is significant. So when I found out that it was,

I was told that maybe a stent wouldn't work because that's kind of what I was hoping about before. He said, no, no. Shad, he said, I was told that maybe a stent wouldn't work because that's kind of what I was hoping about before. He said, no, no. Shad, he said, I can go in again, do the entire operation all over again, and I can reverse it, which means it all comes off. All of it.

He's going to do reversal, and I'll get rid of all this. And that could happen in May or June. I was going to ask you, can we set a date? May or June. It will take me months to recover from this. And it is a massive operation, but it will give me my life back now. And anyone who's had a reversal, which is what they call it,

I had someone yesterday who had gone through the reversal on Twitter publicly saying, don't do it. Oh, wow. Don't do it. Like the cure is worse than the disease. Yes. Yeah. There are some people. Are you considering not doing it? No. No, I'm do it. Oh, wow. Don't do it. Like the cure is worse than the disease. Yes. Yeah. There are some people.

Are you considering not doing it? No. No, I'm doing it. Because you're doing it. I'm doing it. But is it all vanity? If I may, I'd lean in on this. Go ahead.

This is not, no fault of your own that you got sick. You got sick. And now you carry this with you, like literally, as a result of your illness, which you were just bad luck. Like this is just a, right? It's bad luck, but it's also my own inability to get checked up when I should have, knowing that my aunt.

So do you feel you deserve this? No, I didn't deserve it, but I played with fate. I should have, and I tell other other people if it's in your family you know an aunt uh an uncle uh a parent anything why would i not have done this and i do what all other guys do which is what do you mean you what is a colonoscopy well it's ridiculous to do that because literally they put you under uh it's it's probably 15 to 20 minutes tops and if you do that when you're 40 or 45 i would have avoided all of this all if it's not in your family history though it is 50 though if it's not in your family like 50 only because my

dog i asked my dog i just i turned 45 right and my doc says you don't we don't need to do that yet till you're 50 so basically my doc has said basically like i haven't had a colonoscopy because he says he's gonna wait till i'm 50 because i don my doc has said basically, like I haven't had a colonoscopy because he says he's going to wait till I'm 50 because I don't have family history. I'd do it anyway. I mean, you're probably talking to the wrong guy because I'm just nervous about everybody. And because it is such a brief,

and you know, because you have these prison-like feelings of being in a cell. Well, the people aren't anally raping you. See, I don't have that fear or anything like that. Most guys, they're really not wanting people in there. Which is silly, right? Well, when it's life-saving, well, it almost cost me my life.

I mean, I think I was probably very borderline. I don't think I've ever revealed this, but my doctor for other symptoms and things wanted to look at my prostate right so i did go in and uh yeah i wasn't put under anything but they lubed me up and a camera went inside yes uh my rectum oh of course my doctor would come and talk to me we're all friends here and yeah it's an uncomfortable feeling like be very honest here it's not it doesn't hurt it's uncomfortable but i didn't hesitate to do it because oh i don't want i don't want anyone going in my butthole you know what i mean like to me so

if my doctor said you know you're 45 now for colonoscopy i'd be raring to go yeah no you would do in fact and this is what i kind of don't understand but there is i guess some guy at st mike's because more than one just so know, generally when you have something like this, if your surgeon probably gives it to, it's like this group of surgeons. They all see it from different hospitals because it's this, I don't even know what you would call it, this collective.

A consortium? Yeah, that looks at all this. And so one guy in St. Mike's who's their top guy somehow must feel that maybe a stent might work because it's an easier of the surgeries if i go back in it could be like a 10-hour surgery and it's going to be very difficult when i get out but he thinks maybe a stent which means they put it in yeah it's like a slinky or you know like people have heard of with with hearts so it goes in and then slowly because it's kind of spring-loaded it opens up like a balloon

well it would be okay but i know it opens it up but it's kind of spring-loaded, it opens up the colon. Like a balloon? Well, it would be... I know, but it opens it up. Balloon-like because when you get what they call a dilation or dilatation, it actually is a balloon that opens up the colon this way. And once it gets to a certain circumference, then they can put me back together, way easier surgery. But I've been going through this for four years, and so Johnny Hotshot's going to take a crack at this on February the 24th.

So I contacted my surgeon and said, I don't know if you guys are just collecting pictures. I don't know if there's a free club that you've got going on. Oh, that's a kink on it. I'm like, oh, this is because Richards is easy. So I don't know. Because I'm like, well, he thinks that he can dilate it. And I'm like, okay.

As a betting man, I'm giving him less than 2% chance. I just don't think. And for me, when they rip me open like that, because they have to continually try to open it. 10 hours, you said? Well, no. Not this particular. It's called a sigmoid, whatever it is.

It's where they go in and they try to open me up. And then they have to put all kinds of gas and air, which because I'm not connected, there's no way out. It's very hard for the air to get out. And I got to tell you, between the fentanyl and all that other stuff, it sometimes can take four or five hours for the air to come out. And there's blood everywhere. Like it literally rips me apart.

Now, pain doesn't really bug me. And especially if I think it's getting too. And you'll be anesthetized? What's the word I'm looking for there? Anesthetized. That's the word. Okay, that wasn't even close either. I don't know. They can put me out. Where the wrong guys at? But they don't put me full out. That's the problem. They only do

halfway out. So it's what happens to me after this. Before I was a dry heaving, for whatever reason, it's a reaction, I think, to not only the gas, but the drugs. So on the 24th, they're going to do this. And I'm really not wanting to do it. Do you remember The Devil's Advocate?

And Pacino plays the devil. Of course. He says, vanity, my favorite sin or whatever. I feel like, okay, first of all, fuck vanity. Like you got sick and now there were some complications and now you have this, we'll call it a pouch. And I feel like you're so,

you're very self-conscious about this. Oh yeah, very. This growth or whatever, what's the term for this? Stoma. Stoma. And you talked about, maybe you're making up these numbers,

but you're a 32 waist normally, now you're weighing 40 because it extends out or whatever and you want to fix it because you want. And I'm just thinking, this is your scar from surviving this health if it were just if it was just the bag yeah then maybe i don't but because of everything else and the possibility of it coming right off i you have to remember as long as that bag is on the way that you're when you sleep or

kind of try to sleep the subconscious is a is you're horrified that it's going to open up. You're horrified. Has it ever opened up? Oh, sure. Yeah. And it's just, it's just the humiliation on that one is. Well,

may I get, may I prize? And that's what I'm doing here. But do you sleep with a person? Like, do you share a bedroom? I'm a married person. But I don't make any assumptions.

Like I meet guys your age. It's not an ageist thing, but I meet guys who have been married a while and they actually don't necessarily sleep with their wives. Have you heard this? Right now, I'm in the other bedroom because of getting up at 345. Well, this is what I'm saying here.

So I just wondered, I could see that if you shared a bed with someone that you'd have another level of... It just doesn't go well. Whether I'm in the same bed or not, it doesn't matter. There's still a horror that I will look forward to when it's gone. Well, keep me up to date, and I think we'll live stream the procedure.

Let me know what day, and I'll set up shop. I'll tell you what. You joke about that? I want to do it. Well, I only have jokes. Because my surgeon has done live tweeting. He's kind of a modern guy. He's actually the official surgeon,

a surgical expert for the Toronto Maple Leafs now. Oh, wow. He's actually the Leafs guy. Well, that's a big deal. Okay, so... He can't fix that, by the way, with surgery. He's going to have a tough time. Do you want to play us? No. I'm borderline on it now.

Yeah, well. After Columbus and after what I see Florida doing. 50-50, right? It's 50-50 to me, yeah. It's going to be a dogfight to the end. Okay, I really want to get updates and ask you about some things going on radio, but speaking, this is a great segue,

but speaking of cancer. you're a rock guy you're a rock and roll man yes i am you're a rush guy. You're a rock and roll man. Yes, I am. You're a Rush guy. I'm in the parish. I worship at the altar of Rush, especially the man playing the drums. On your show, which we're going to talk about in depth, of course, you had an emotional moment. I actually got a recording of it. So what I think I'll do is I think I'll bring down YYZ here and I'm going to play a clip from your show and then I'm going to ask

you about Neil so this is actually from what's the full name of your proper name of your morning show so it's raw Mike Richards raw Mike Richards okay here this is an excerpt from raw Mike Richards some Okay. Here, this is an excerpt from raw Mike Richards. Some very tough news for all of us that were rush fans are rush fans and

will always be rush fans. The passing of Neil peered at 67 was something that was very difficult. I think for a lot of us, he influenced us in so many ways, more than just music. And I think of the first time I heard this, I was at Bay Bloor Radio back in the mid to late 70s. And a friend of mine who was an audiophile had brought this album to test out their speakers. And this was the song that was played. And I listened to it and I thought, I think this just changed my life. I think this is going to be significant.

And for a lot of us, we feel that way and have always felt that way. It's like being a part of this club when you're a Rush fan. Now, Mike, have you ever had a response, an emotional response like that live on the air before? Never. Never. That was the first time in, you know, 30 years, over 30 years now that I was openly crushed,

emotionally thrown off to not be able to talk. And to, you know, on the cameras, the Twitch cameras, where it shows just how difficult that was, that was a first. That's never happened before. And there have been moments that have been close. I think the passing of Brian Budd, Budgie when I was out in Calgary, so I wasn't in Toronto when that happened, but when that news came across,

the guy who was reading it, it was the news update. And I looked at him and I said, wait a minute, what did you fucking say? He goes, do you know Brian Budd? And the music comes on, and now I'm going to talk. And that was started

that that you could see me going and uh my buddy my doug kirkwood who was who was running the board said uh turn the mic off said go home just uh go go and i did and i phoned james sharman and i said i'm hoping this is a mistake. He said, you know, sorry, pal. And now he's gone. That was hard. That,

that was very, that was very difficult. That was, that was another time. And, uh, you know, I think of these people that, uh,

tell a lot of hard stories. It's probably one of the reasons my show is, you know, mostly sports, but a little goofy, you know, some entertainment, a little comedy,

a little, a little, uh, you know, a little Victor Newman but a little goofy you know some entertainment a little comedy a little uh you know a little victor newman a little victor newman about when when when that went off um you know a couple of weeks ago i i had nowhere to go the we were on the air dave can't help me the cameras are on and And I went through it. Now, the whole thing's about four minutes and 37 seconds. And so that went out. The Peart family saw it. Neil's sister saw it.

And I just got a message yesterday, as a matter of fact, that they're having a special, I don't know if it's closed. It might be closed. But a celebration of Neil Peart's life Victoria Day weekend in Niagara and the family would like me to go with them wow and then she said and you should know this uh first of all my family just can't thank you enough for what you said it's their of all and of course you know how many tributes have been around the world sure they thought that that four minutes and 37 seconds that I basically barely made it through was their favorite.

And that Rush themselves, as the company, Rush, not the record company, but Rush as an entity, which is very massive, they sent, they didn't realize the connection between myself and Nancy, and Rush distributed my tribute to her. So she goes, it's making the rounds far and wide.

So that certainly was not the purpose of it, but it was, again, probably the most emotional thing I've ever done on air. Tough. And I personally like it when broadcasters show emotion. Like I'm not talking newsreaders.

I'm talking about people doing what you're doing. Like I like it when, I like it when you're not, you're not afraid to, if something hurts and maybe something hurts to a point where you're breaking down and crying to me, that's,

that's real. Like that's happening and that's compelling. It's hard. It's because you're used to, and you're told to always, I need to be in control. Like I have to be in control when that microphone comes on because there's an expectation that I'm a professional and that

I need to hold it together I can't be the next door neighbor who starts bawling but I think in makeup when I look around at guys who are similar in makeup like I would say when it comes to someone like myself I also think they're probably you, a guy like John Derringer is probably similar. We're probably similar that way in that he would, I don't know if he has or not, but if he did, it'd probably be in a very similar manner. John and I are very similar. I look around, you know,

at those that would convey that kind of emotion, even though they don't want to. Because I think if it was regularly, you know, you look like, you know, Dick Vermeule. You look like Jim Baker's wife. Like all of a sudden it's, here come the tears. And I think people would really hate it and go, okay, so he's trying to, it's like the fake anger

that sometimes people talk about that certain announcers have. Oh sure, you can't cry every time a celebrity dies. But if one strikes you like that, I don't think you should be ashamed or afraid to be real. I mean, that's once in 30 years. So that was a... It was significant, I think, for us. And then on the show as well,

because we are a rock and roll show. I mean, it's always been that way since I've been able to try to create a kind of morning show within the sports format that sounds like this, that makes sense when you hear the heavy music and sometimes the talk of

other rock stars and rock concerts and whether Pantera is the band for the Dallas Stars, which they were for years. We have that style. we have that style. We have that style. So a loss like that being an aspiring drummer when I was a kid and in a band

and designed my kit to be exactly like his and played his music every day for, I don't know, 20 years, double kick the whole thing. Um, that was, as is, it is very crushing for people.

Very crushing. Yeah. And I'm, I'm sorry for your loss and, uh, great musician i totally have nothing but massive respect for his skills and it sounds like he was a a mensch he was a good guy well he was he was brilliant he was he was a brilliant man he's an

incredible lyricist he is uh he's a very he's he's almost by definition a renaissance man. He also in some ways is almost in the Greek sense of tragedy, the heroic, tragic hero. He had a very, at the same time, very difficult life, losing his wife, losing his daughter, which was very difficult. Then he'd go and travel. He'd get on his bike, and then he would write a book,

and then he comes back and plays better than anyone else in the world on the drums, and it reinvents his own style, even the way that he played the drums, only to find out at the very end that he has brain cancer. And he keeps it private in the family. No one knew.

Nobody knew. Which is why I think it hit a lot of people like yourself so hard, is unlike when Gord Downie had the same disease we were let in and uh got to say goodbye yes prepare brace yourself i would say with neil peart uh you just woke up one day and learned he passed away and you didn't know he was sick no nobody did it hit me like a ton of bricks and i like i didn't know what it was and then it made it it almost worse. I thought it was a heart attack. And then you realize that that family and the people close to him,

he had it for three years. And that was really hard. And I think that was part of also the pain as well. Right. He's a notoriously private individual. Incredibly. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Okay. Now, you mentioned that you're kind of a rock and roll show. So I'm going to ask you, well, actually, maybe first I'm going to get a baseline update on it. Tell us exactly where we hear you and what way we can hear you or watch you. Like, remind us exactly where the hell Mike, Ron Mike Richards is at. Well, News Talk Saga 960 is 960 AM. We're basically broadcasting just north of the airport.

Really, it's where we are, Rexdale, even though it's Mississauga. But that's where we come out of. That's where the studio is. So 960 AM, it is also heard and you stream it on 960AM.ca and then... So that's live streaming. So like, what hours

are you on? So it's 6 to 9. It's 6 to 9. And then of course, we go live on Twitch. If you have the app and you click it on, you get to see us do this show including the conversations in between the commercials. You don't hear the commercials. You hear Dave and myself. Okay, yeah.

You keep the mics open during the breaks. Most of the time. Does that ever get you in trouble? Well, certain. Because Humble and Fred had to start muting themselves during the breaks because they realized they were shit- shit talking everybody during the breaks and everybody could hear it. There's only some where I think if it's subject matter that would be that so occasionally people are like

what the fuck what's going on where's the exciting talk where's the problems in the marriage where's the outing of your son what's going on so we occasionally not often but occasionally do it oh man sounds like it's a recipe for disaster but that would just make it more interesting i need to be again

more real talk because as you know maybe you don't know but i now produce the humble and fred show so i'm now on the inside over there yes i was almost there anyways but now i'm really in there so we when they were last on which was a couple of months ago it was kind of a controversial episode a lot of stuff went a lot of shit ago, it was kind of a controversial episode. A lot of shit went down in that episode. But we had a very open conversation about Twitch. So I need to ask you, how is that going for you, the Twitch TV live streaming? The way that I use it now, because the audience basically on all levels is so small.

Because it's small. It's small to what I'm used to. Because I mean, I think I can tell you because I think they've been saying it in public. But typical day at Humble and Fred is like average of 18 viewers on Twitch. Yeah, it depends on how, like live, I don't know. Maybe it's something like that. By the end of the day, it might be slightly bigger than that. But the way that I use it is to promote segments.

So it's like promos. So I'll put out promos during the day. They can be 60 seconds or they can actually go where I'll take that four minutes and 37 seconds. But in comparison, because of the numbers. So that Neil Peart thing that I did on Twitch, I think like a hundred and some odd people watched the four minutes.

And I look today on YouTube. We still have our YouTube channel. Okay. That's okay. That's key. You're in multiple places. I don't do it very often. It's not like when we did the podcast when we were doing

stuff every day. I don't know. It's a couple of thousand and just going up like every day. My question is, okay, and I'm only asking because we're having the same conversations at Humble and Fred because I think you and Humble and Fred have the same Twitch deal.

Yes. So if you've got like 18 people on Twitch and you've got thousands on YouTube, I guess I wonder why not just be YouTube? Because there's no additional effort to be on Twitch. But yeah, Twitch is, don't get me wrong, I love Twitch. I think it has changed the way that I even broadcast, to be honest. It has changed me. We've always liked the cameras. The biggest, when we were are on tsn 1050 when our numbers were the biggest we were

live from seven to eight in the morning even back then when we were getting beat by the technically the 2554 uh by the fan this is when we first started they didn't beat us for one minute between seven and eight and people well, what is the correlation? Why would radio? And I said, look, the one thing that I do know about camera, that camera beats no camera. And so even by that measurement, even when we lost the 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 for some reason,

or 8 to 9, 7 to 8, we still beat them. How can this be? How is that possible? Because when you see the high level PPM ratings and stuff, at the time, who was it again? Was it Brady and Lang

or Brady and Walker? Do we remember now? Well, it changed a couple of times, but I mean the... Brady and Lang maybe? Or was it Blundell? No, it wasn't Dean because we were off television by then. They had already destroyed... Probably Brady and Lang maybe? Or was it Blundell? No, it wasn't Dean because we were off television by then.

They had already destroyed what we were going to do. Probably Brady and somebody like Brady and Lang. Or was it, it wasn't a stellar, no. No, no, no.

Because it might have been, see, I know this is another conversation. Yeah. But the best the city ever had it in terms of sports radio, the one where if you're going into a restaurant

and it had the most stuff for all different people depending on what you liked on your menu, there is no question the best that sports radio enthusiasts, the best they ever had it, was Dave and myself on TSN and Brady and Walker. Like it's not even close. And when you look at those numbers that we both had combined, I think it was close.

They had like a seven share, and I almost, they must have had almost an eight share. We had almost got to a six. This is 25-54 at the end of. Yeah, males 25-54. Yes. So this is at the end of May in 2014. So we're almost at, in terms of the chunk of that audience,

we're almost at 14%. Do you see what it is now? But then why did both companies, Bell Media, who owns 1050, and Rogers Media, who owns Fan 590, why did both of them blow up those morning shows? Idiots. Moronic.

If you saw the background on those that made those decisions to be in that business, if you translated it to any other business and allowed those guys to make those decisions, you wouldn't believe me. You wouldn't believe that someone who is running in Toronto as a program director has zero radio experience, not sports radio, zero radio experience, not sports radio, zero radio experience, zero sports radio experience, and he's the guy making decisions.

That's like me coming to your company, whatever your company happens to be. Let's say it's real estate. Let's say it's computers. Let's say it's lasagna making. And you hire me as the president or the top guy who oversees production. And Anthony Petrucci says to me, so what do you think we should do with the sugo? And he does talk like that.

What's that mean? The tomato sauce. Put lead in it. You heard me? They are so far over their heads. They are so far out of their... All of them? All of them.

That's quite the broad stroke though. All of them. Well, the numbers would say, now that they're fighting, it went from 14% between the two of us to four. Right. 10% of that already niche audience

has been burned off. Can't we blame podcasts? Or is it just a combination of factors, I suppose? There is a combination. But the problem is those that are making the decisions are sometimes being told, right? They're being told to make them, so they really don't have that autonomy or power anyway.

And two, it's money. So you get an inferior product for people who are working for much less at times and they think nobody notices but here's where you lose me on this argument there's no way landsberg plus because now it's koliakovo i can't remember who it was at first actually but this is the show that replaced you right well this is like the third or fourth but it's landsberg and somebody that replaced you. Landsberg's been there 100 years. There's no way he's not working for free after 100 years at TSN.

They may have saved 50 bucks. Right. If. Yeah, yeah. They may have saved 50 bucks. So when I'm told by the larger people in the industry saying, well, obviously it wasn't you. You're the best guy they had. You had the biggest numbers they had they said it was money yeah i go but uh he's not working for free no so so when you try to then make sense of the move it just doesn't it just doesn't now what

they did was they cut everything else so dan patrick is a free show that comes yeah that's the syndicated show after right actually, so let's get into that. So maybe here, I took a note actually to remind myself because of what the heck is going on over there. And then I have so many questions. Oh my goodness, I just noticed. We effortlessly blew off 37 minutes there. Okay, so on your old station, 1050,

it opens with Landsberg and Koliakovo. I know you're on the air at this time, but do you ever hear any of it in podcasts? No. Do you ever peek in it with the competition? No, but I do hear that people like Carlo a little bit. They say that he holds his own and he's actually kind of interesting

and has some pretty good points. Beyond that, I wouldn't know. I don't know. Because I said I'm on the air at the same time, so it'd be, you know. Okay, but those two guys, yeah, they can't be saving $10.50 a lot of cash. You wouldn't think so.

I just don't. I don't mean to beat the dead horse, but it's not like they brought in some, like, 25-year-old fresh off of, like, a Ryerson thing or something that's going to work for $35,000 a year. I would think that after Michael's show was done, that's when they cut a deal with him to do that. I mean, everything was done while I was on the

cancer table. Let's put it that way. So if you didn't get sick, you think you'd still be at 1050? I don't know. I don't know. It seemed like kind of an easy out for them. I still don't know how they got away with it. I still, you know, of lawyer friends I talked to said, well, how can you do that?

Well, I guess if you sever someone fairly, you don't need a reason to fire someone, right? Well, I think that's at the end of the day, he said, well, if you want to fight it, if you want to said, well, how can you do that? Well, I guess if you sever someone fairly, you don't need a reason to fire someone, right? Well, I think that's, at the end of the day, he said, well, if you want to fight it, if you want to fight Bell Media, you go ahead, but you'll go broke doing it. Right. So it never came to lawyer up, as they like to say.

It never did. Do you think they needed to find a spot for Michael Landsberg? Yeah, I do. And that was just the path of least resistance? Yes. Yeah, I don. And that was just the path of least resistance? Yes. Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that. Because it's not like if we put him on, we'll kill. Where?

Where would you be killing, aside from the ratings? But I don't think ratings necessarily, right now, in that world between the two companies, if you can justify some of these moves that they've made, and of course they get rid of Bob on one side, they get rid of, and have the minuscule, like, look, if you play back the last time we were on the air, we'll look like we're somehow some minor league Nostradamus

or a Kreskin-like people. Because you know I can do that. Because everything that we talked about happened. Right. The fan came plummeting to the earth. Right. All the big names, I think roger just been let go gordon martin oh all these names i said well guess who's coming coming next i mean you could just see

it it's not we're not brilliant in that respect everyone saw it coming but what they were going to replace it with on both stations and what they went through i thought tsn is going to do nothing like they always do and the fan is going to come crashing down to earth at record speeds. And at some point that morning show that they have on the fan is going to be low enough that it will start to broach the terrible levels of TSN. And then TSN 10 50, we'll start bragging that they've caught the fan. Right.

And that's what they've done. No, you kind of haven't caught. What? You've kind of just watched the other one fall out of the plane. Right, right, right. It's not that you caught them. They just fell down to your level,

is what you're saying there. That's exactly what happened. Man, there's so much stuff there to unpack. First of all, you dropped the name Bobcat. Like, what? So, were you surprised that Bobcat got fired? I'm not surprised just because I know where the, well, I'm sitting on the sidelines

and Bob made way more than me and was way more influential than I ever was. I mean, I've known Bob for a long time. Bob basically put me into the industry. But didn't Bob, I know he had a high, he made a lot of money, but didn't he earn revenue for the company? Sure, his revenue should have been higher,

but I think the real problem is, Mike, and the reality is, when you look at both Bell and Rogers, the income generated by broadcast, I would imagine, I don't have numbers in front of me, but it would be single digits. It would be small compared to everything else that Rogers and Bell do. So why are they in the media business? Well, they shouldn't be.

Like, if it's not going to make you any money, like it's almost like is it a point of, you know, is there a pride in just kind of keeping in that business i don't because right now bell i can tell you right now bell should never ever have their hands even remotely close to any radio station they are a nightmare and a disaster they are uh they are bankrupt i think in terms of morals. They are morally bankrupt. Ethically, they have none. This facade, which is almost, it's genius. They're an evil genius in that the whole Bell Let's Talk program,

which helps and has helped countless millions. Like you can't deny what that program has done, countless millions. Like you can't deny what that program has done, but what it has done, like a beard has hidden the unscrupulous, horrible nature of how they have destroyed the industry city by city, station by station, destroyed lives,

depressed, more people depressed, more people put more people in anguish and then turn around and show their profits. To me, disgusting. Is Rogers any better, though? I mean, Rogers is the one who told Bob Cole, you're done. They're the ones who, well, they had pretty good cause,

but they let go Don Cherry. They fired Bob McAten, they fired Nick Kiprios, they fired John Shannon. I kicked Aaron Millard. You know, we can keep going. Greg, and now I don't know what happened to. You know, we can keep going. Greg Brady. And now I don't know what happened with Greg Brady, so I'm not going to say it.

I don't know either. But Greg Brady left the morning show, and I know now I hear him guesting on AM640. No, no, no. I almost called it Mojo, and that's funny, but it's actually GNR. Yeah, you have to remember what it is. Well, to me, Rogers, though, is still, at least I like to think, is still a radio company.

There are still radio people that exist in that branch of Rogers. And I'm hoping at some point, at some point, one of them or collectively they step up and say, okay, I get the money they make when you're talking about CHFI, when you're talking about 680 News, which is kind of a brilliant format when you think about it, which is why I've sort of manipulated my format to take a little bit from theirs. Yeah, with the traffic updates. Yes. But at some point, the people that they have currently at higher positions in the fan, I mean to the fan only, if they don't

see that those people are horribly out of their league, then I don't blame them for how low this thing's going to get. Because remember, there's an influence that they have across the country on all Rogers stations. And I think that it is such a piss poor attempt at trying to, you know, disguise a horrible and inferior product that people, you think sports fans still appreciate it or listen to it? Well, they don't. People aren't stupid. And that's why the numbers reflect what they do.

They have given the controls to an individual who has made it a nerd fest. Now, you're purposely not naming this individual? No. Okay. I mean, people will just Google it. Yes, they will. But if that's the station you want to build, then when you have one shares across the board... Okay.

So we're talking about right now, I got lost. Are we talking about Rogers or Bell right now? We're talking about Rogers. TSN and Bell, they don't care. They have one show on their radio station, Overdrive, which is done properly, right, with the right guys.

Looking at what that has been built, because I assume that they would build something that would mirror what they have in the mornings, which would be myself and David. For me in the morning and them in the afternoons, right? It,

it makes all the sense in the world, all the sense in the world, but they don't have that. So, so back at five 90. So, uh, the show you're probably most aware of.

Cause I would think last time, at least you mentioned that you considered the fan five 90 to be morning show to be the competition. Like you were coming for them. So Elliot Price was fired. This happened. They replaced him shortly thereafter, eventually, with Ashley Dawking. Have you heard any of Ashley?

Do you have an opinion on Ashley? I've heard some of it. I've heard some of it. I don't know a ton. Here's how I would pretty much describe what they have done with their morning show just like it mirrors a little bit of of tsn 1050 for those days where it was extremely difficult just to get to toronto so we're going back quite a ways i'd say let's say let's go back into the 80s maybe the 90s okay in radio in toronto when you looked at those lineups starting with

the morning show the morning show was populated by and i'll use them it's not a sexist term but they're morning men right there it was it was scruff connors it was brother jake it was you know john derringer it was even though he wasn't doing mornings at the time but they were morning men you know Roger you just said the names Don Dander they were people that had almost been singularly created to do mornings and their resume said so they'd been to many different cities they'd been to different provinces and on that resume they had worked their way to the show to toronto and were a creature that specialized in what it takes to do morning radio when you look at q107's lineup of that time so this is the era where it was almost my dream at one point to be

there and you look in the 80s and 90s and aside from the morning men, it was those who populated with them. John Gallagher was on there. Steve Anthony. Bob McEwitt Sr. All the news people. That station where you had the brother Jake and Spike and John Gallagher all the way up through Derringer and all those, that's a Hall of Fame lineup you can't crack

that lineup, I looked at it and went oh god I'd like to be on there one day but see I saw them as a little bit older because I started really late into it, they've had many more years ahead of me and never thought that I'd ever work with any of them, strangely enough I never did, but I was like can you imagine being on that station?

It wowed me when I looked at the lineups of people. When you look at the resume of a Bob McCowan, what, you think you're going to go on the air with him? You think you're going to have a shift on the same station that has Bob McCowan? Do you know Bob McCowan jogged with Muhammad Ali? Did you know that Bob, like you could go on and on about these people. And what do I say about them now? What am I going to say about the fan morning show now?

I knew Scott MacArthur because he was the baseball guy. I've known Scott. He's a good guy. He covered baseball. He's had different shifts, but I'm not for one second calling him a morning man. I'm not for one second calling Michael Landsberg a morning man, nor would I call Dave Naylor a morning man. I'm not for one second calling Michael Landsberg a morning man, nor would I call Dave Naylor a morning guy. Dave Naylor is one of the best football reporters, north or south of the border. To me, the problem started once there was that line in the sand between TSN and

Rogers. You have to remember, at that time when I'm in Calgary, that doesn't exist. So my show had all of those guys on it. My, you know, it wasn't just Pierre Maguire, but I had Darren Drager. I had Steven Brunt. Like they were all on the show. Dave Naylor was my go-to football guy. They, like always, they had all their theme songs. My show was jam-packed with anybody who was anybody in Canadian or American sports. So you're describing this, a lot of testosterone in this discussion.

Like this is, and you're talking about these morning men and stuff. But I mean, yes, this was the way rock radio was and sports radio was. It was very male-centric, if you will. Like you couldn't, you know, the woman would do traffic and maybe news updates and maybe sometimes there'd be a third wheel to laugh at the guy's jokes, like literally. But that was the, that old school way, don't you think we're better to have it reflect

the actual people that live in the city? Well, if you show me then, you know, because they're like, we need a bigger female presence. Okay, well, who? Show me someone. Because we got on this tangent by talking about Ashley, right? So I assume that this was because Ashley is a woman.

So it's that she can't be a morning guy. Well, if her number's reflected, if the fan comes out and they have a seven share, then we'll know that we're all wrong. But we won't know what to blame for this because there's too many different parts here. And you mentioned Scott MacArthur. You never once considered him a morning guy. You knew him as the Blue Jay guy and you never considered him a morning show man. So how did we get to this place where that he is the morning show. Because you have people in control, apparently, that feel that the direction to go,

which is incredibly sports-centric, right? So Scott would be someone who would know every single minutia of almost every sport I can think of. It's not like he's not a knowledgeable sports person. But if he's sitting in this room right now, I'm saying the same thing to his face. You're the morning man now. Just like I would say to Michael Landsberg

or Dave Naylor or any of the other people. My God, my good friend Matthew Cosby on that show. You're going to sit there and tell me after the years that I've spent in this thing that got to a certain point, that got to a certain ratings, until I get sick and they lose hockey for 12 years you're telling me up to now I considered us all to be morning men oh fuck off that's that's so ridiculous they're like I don't consider myself to be the greatest

afternoon jock of all time because I never did it I never did it I don't consider myself to be anything but what I have created and what I worked for. That's what I am. It's who I am. I'm going to tell you that. If they're going to sit there to my face and go, you go ahead, you tell me that you have more skills as a morning person. There are individuals, and I mentioned John Gallagher, right? John Gallagher is a walking circus. There's nothing that he wouldn't say or do that I wouldn't watch him on camera or in his backyard over at Chateau Chardonnay. There is, John Gallagher is entertaining when he walks into a room. John Gallagher, who also knows all the minutiae of sports, however, also can tell you about music, acting, pop culture.

Well, John Gallagher is a Hall of Fame broadcaster, like literally. And he's also... So who hired him lately? Who has hired Mark Hemsher lately? Why has he... Why are you dropping the names of all my good friends? Why was he not on the fan for years?

Why was he not on sports radio for years? Why was he not hired? I'd like why was he not on sports radio for years why was he not hired i'd like to know why none of these guys were hired even to a degree why did humble and fred have to go to podcasting are you serious you're telling me around toronto all the stations that are available unless the bottom line in all of that the answer is so embarrassingly obvious it is the enormous elephant in the room is they just don't want to pay for that kind of talent anymore, ever.

It can't be just that because they're not as expensive as you think. Like, it can't be that. I think, I don't have the answers. I sure don't. I've never even, I've never worked in radio. Well, I don't have the answers because these guys are talented,

too talented not to be on conventional radio. Okay, well, what about yourself? Although I just heard you shit all over Bell Media, but if you hadn't shit all over Bell Media, there's a morning show spot open on Hits 97.7. Wouldn't you sound perfect there? Oh, 97.7? Yeah, of course.

Yeah, so that's a Bell Media company. Yeah, so out. I was Jerry Forbes, who just got into the radio uh hall of fame i was going to fly out there because i was there and i was going to jump in and bell has always said because i went that hard on them said i'm going to go on because we were longtime partners and and and he's like one of my best friends in the world no he can't go on why not assholes whatholes? What are you afraid? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of that? I started almost doing Pacino there.

What are you afraid of? What do you think I'm going to say? I'm in the dark here. Because the reality is I've always got along great and still do for the most part with anyone from Rogers. I still have an affinity for them. A lot of the guys I knew are now gone, but I still consider them and some of those people in that organization

to still be radio people that I hope at some point, even if it's not me. So let's stick near the equation. I'm not getting a job there. Let's say I'm not getting a job there. Can you just reflect upon where you believe the talent is to get audience back. Who is that? So if you believe that it is the sports nerd fest, and again, maybe I shouldn't even use the word nerd,

let's just say those that are so adept at knowing everything about sports, you realize that is the equivalent of me saying that I think you need a radio format for the guys who collect toy trains because toy trains i look at the magazines and we figure there is uh 257,000 toy train collector guys in this area let's do a format that only deals with these guys who collect toy trains it would be a disaster just like would be a good podcast though well if there's a toy train i'm sure there's one out there but the problem is when it comes to how much does someone know about sports right yeah i got the internet here i i don't need to hear how much you know because nobody cares how much you know.

That's not a show anymore. There are no shows anymore. All it is is two guys who have agreed to a certain amount of money who are agreeing to get up at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning, go in and then interview all the other people on your network and your network only. That is true.

That is what's happening. It's the Rogers Sportsnet people will appear on Fan 590 and the TSN people will appear on 1050. Now, do I like some of them? Yeah, I do. But what happened to getting a hold of, I don't know, Ed Werder in Dallas from ESPN to talk about the Dallas Cowboys? He's an awesome guy, like super awesome.

To look outside what the norm is. I mean, the one thing that we've tried to do with this new show, we've got all kinds of guys, guys from Raptors Republic who never were on the air beforehand. Right. Louis Zatzman. He shows up at the Blue. He's fantastic.

Rob Furnish, who does something called the Talkin' Buds podcast. You should hear the guy. We have a blast, and they're really good at what they do. And this is the joy of being independent, is you're not beholden to any cable company. No, and it's very difficult to get ones that do belong because we're sort of in the GTA, and we're just sort of building up.

I don't think they have any great love for giving me any of their people, although some do show up. But I don't use that often simply because I think it puts them in a very awkward situation. Right. I guess the difference between your show and my show is that I can have a Sportsnet person on tomorrow and I can have a TSN person on the next day where, yeah, you need the independence because those two roads are blocked, probably. Well, generally, for most of us who have been around and for those that work on the two different companies, they don't have animosity with each other,

at least the people that I know. I don't have a dislike necessarily for those that are on the air at those two stations. It's not like I can't believe. What I'm saying is, if you want me to be honest, I'm being honest. The honesty is, and the take that I have, because it comes

from what I believe is a place of honesty, is that those people that sit in a lot of those chairs shouldn't be sitting in those chairs. But you don't want to name names. Okay, the only show that makes sense to me is Overdrive. Okay, so everybody else. Okay, so Overdrive is good.

And I know a lot of people, maybe the way they've gone with Tim and Sid because it's the television show on radio. Yeah, so do you think that was a good move? Well, I get Tim and Sid. Like I, as I said beforehand, I honestly think there should be one sports station. And maybe there will be.

Paul Romanek wrote an article on LinkedIn the other day. I read it, and it was great. It was very good. Very good. And he's very good. There's another guy that got pushed out. Well, Paul made a... You're right.

I think he's very good, too. Paul made a good point, which is that there's a rule. There's a rule in... What's NAFTA called? Whatever the new name of NAFTA is. They renamed this thing. So it's just a screw if I say it. USCMA or something like that. It's a new name. It's a new name of NAFTA is, they renamed this thing. So it's just a screw if I say, USCMA or something like that.

It's a new name, this new name. Trump wanted it renamed, I think. So NAFTA has a rule in it about foreign ownership of Canadian media companies. So you can't, like, for example, I don't know, name a media company. Like, yeah, Fox can't just go buy up Chorus, for example, because you can only have X percent ownership.

And that's why I know ESPN owns a part of TSN, like 20 percent or something. It's something like that. Because they can't own more than X percent or whatever. So as a result, there's not a lot of buyers for Rogers Media and Bell Media. Like there's, so some, Paul's idea, which I think is interesting, is that to fold it into MLSE, right? So MLSE exists. Yesterday, I had a guest who works for mlse uh paul hendrick he was great but uh mlse i think it's 37.5 percent of it is owned by bell

and 35.7 37.5 is owned by rogers mlse could own a merge of bell uh radio bell and rogers could merge and be owned by MLA. I think that's correct. There's a lot of things that happen. I think that's correct, yeah. CRTC would probably force the sale of stations maybe. And it would suck. I think it would suck for the talent.

Can you imagine if the best thing for the sports media talent, many of whom we love and enjoy listening to, is that they have the two options down the pipe. But if there's only one, that would really suck, I think, think for the talent actually but uh well it's nice that you call them talent i don't know i i would think some of them are it to me for if i'm the audience if i'm a sports enthusiast that likes to listen to sports radio give me the one station one sports station just get rid of all all the uh all the waste. As far as we are currently constructed, there's always going to be the two, I would think,

because I think 1050 needs to exist. I think. I'd like to know what the understanding is on that station. I don't get it. The ratings lately have shown, as you said, the gap has closed incredibly. In fact. One has fallen to the earth

and the other has stayed lying on the ground. Right. Okay. Do you think the Fan 590 morning show is better with or without Greg Brady? Well, again, like I don't listen to a ton of it because I was always on the air at the same time. So, to me, it's a very different style to begin with.

Like, so when you had Brady and Walker, that to me I thought was a good team. I mean, Andrew Walker was with me in Calgary for the last year. Well, you know the guy who brought in Dean Blundell. So the reason Brady and Walker was removed from the morning show is because they brought in Dean Blundell.

Right. So I guess a couple of questions here. One is, what did you think of the, because I've never asked you, what did you think of the Dean Blundell morning show on the Fan 590? Well, at the time, after that book came in, I said that, and it was by far my best book,

and hugely under the age of 35, where Brady and Walker had like a five share and I had a 20 share. So the thinking was at the time, if it continues to go this way, eventually I'll catch them. But because under, you know, the 18-34 number was so big that they wanted to do something, as they saw the trend at the time, to get someone who would also bring in younger numbers.

So that is kind of my assumption. When I wasn't able to go, because I re-signed again with TSN 1050, like an idiot, then Dean comes in on that side. So I kind of, again, historically, are on the wrong side of history. For like the second time, or third or fourth time in a row. Okay. And you could possibly draw a line between Blundell showing up in 590 might have led to you being moved from the morning show on 1050, possibly. Because you were similar, like maybe before you had your show,

which is more of like a, not a variety show, but yeah, not a sports, it's sports related, but a little bit more of a general show, generalist show. Whereas the Walker and Brady show was far more sports heavy. Is that fair to say and then you bring in blendel who his his sports knowledge was far more shallow than brady and walker therefore it's now too similar to what you've got going on i don't know if that i mean i i can't i mean it's it at that point because dean's numbers weren't as bad as people like i know people mock that mock him and and talk about his sports knowledge and stuff because he also became very, very straight to me from what I understand.

Like a lot straighter, like not the crazy stuff. Almost vanilla at times was the complaint. And his numbers, so he basically traded around a five or a six share. That's triple what they have now almost. Double for sure. Are you aware that the uh just yesterday chorus uh got rid of their morning show on 102.1 have you heard this so they had a brother sister duo that came from vancouver yeah that was weird i didn't know that ruby and alex car that kind of creeps

me out just the idea of it i don't know you know what did it wasn't there a time when bill hayes was on with john derringer yeah but, but... So what's the difference? Well, I can see uncle and nephew. No, Bill Hayes and John Derringer are brothers. Oh, I see what you're saying. Oh, yeah. So brothers, I can see. I just...

Anytime you start talking about brothers and sisters, I start thinking about Oklahoma and Tennessee. Well, okay. Mike, that's on you, my brother. I started to get a little... I don't know if that's good. Like, do you have any thoughts, just because it happened yesterday, do you have any thoughts, and it kind of ties back to Blundell,

because since Blundell was removed as morning show on 102.1, they've had a lot of changes there. It's been the only constant is change. This new show they just stopped doing yesterday was there only one year, and it's gone. So do you have any thoughts on how Chorus is doing things at old 102.1 just while you're here? No, because when you're talking about music radio,

what you're doing then is what I just talked about at the beginning of what not to do, which is when you've not worked in that format beforehand, all of a sudden you're an authority on it. I'm not. I could not tell you in music radio what needs to be done right now when you can get Spotify and satellite radio

and literally play every favorite song I've ever had ever. Well, how about this? How about live and local? Like there's a lot of movement on all the media companies, but particularly the chorus to do what's it called?

Live voice tracking. Like so you'll have one person will be in several markets. Yeah, it's it called, live voice tracking. So you'll have one person. We'll be in several markets. Yeah, it's terrible. It's an awful idea. Again, it's another thing that just stinks, kills. There was a time where you could go out. Now, I never worked for Moffitt,

but my friends like So Humble did, Jeff Lumby did, Dan Duran did, because they were out in that part of the world. And the company was Moffitt. And they had certain cities that you worked your way through. As you got bigger, went from like Swift Current to whatever to to to uh you know Saskatoon uh maybe you go to Winnipeg maybe it's it's Calgary there it was like a farm like a farm system it

was a farm system and it produced all the people that I just mentioned you know them all because they are people of substance creamer rise so uh in Toronto, which would be in Canada, is the top. Well, it was supposed to be, yes. And now it's like, hey, what's that guy in the back doing? Which guy? The guy talking to the other guy. Hey, how much do you think he'd work for? That's how bad it is.

I see. Look, and again, to go back to the fans, so I'm listening to Good Show, I think it's called. Yeah, Good Show. Ben Ennis and what's the other gent's name? I'm going to look it up while you talk about it. But his name is J.D. Bunkus. Okay. By the way, Ben Ennis is my guest on Monday.

So I'm listening to the show, and they're talking about, I don't know, I think it was Raptors. They got this basketball conversation, and it was very good. Like from a, and I'm a basketball guy and I'm listening to what they're talking about and I don't know what people say about it. I don't know what they say on Twitter. I have no idea, but I'm listening to it and I like, I kind of like it.

And I think for nine o'clock in the morning, for those that are enthusiasts of, of, you know, you know again sort of the detail of sport because they were very well versed in baseball as well for me for two hours of that that makes sense to me like that made sense to me i they're not a morning show and then don't put them in the afternoons like give give me could they work their way to being uh no no because the thing is why not well it's like saying too sports centric yeah you're all of us so why why is someone funny so the question is like what you think you're funny look pal it's not so much about that it's about your life experience so something tells me probably because of my off-centeredness and then i started going to yuck yucks when I was in grade 12,

performing in Yorkville. So if I kept going back that way and I open up a couple of times for, you know, Celine Dion and Andre Philip Guignan, Don Osmond. You opened for Celine Dion? Yeah. Where?

Yeah, Ontario Place. So I think it was her first English. Okay, yeah, yeah, because she was French first. Thing. I was at first, her first English. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cause she was French first thing. I was at a, and so my,

my background was kind of in that way. I was a goalie, a drummer. So you're a little not right in the head. Right. And you know, you did the impressions when I was in school. I just sort of married all the sports stuff that I had to this thing,

thinking that people always don't want to hear about the fourth line center. That's just my thinking. And so if someone said, does he know everything about hockey? I don't pretend to know everything about hockey. There's certain sports that I do know a lot and that I pride myself on, but I think this is where you get insiders

that are really good, really cool. Guys who will tell you, like I loved having- You bring in the subject matter experts when you need to get deep on a particular sport. If a coach is being okay so let's go back and now it's the hot tub time machine and it's a little sort of you know not blue sky because i kind of have to make some stuff up here to make this work but if i go back and let's say we're at tsn 1050 mike babcock and we find out about the Marner list

and all the weirdness behind closed doors. And I'm appalled by it. So that guest that has to come on next has to have somewhat of a knowledge of maybe that. I don't want to say he doesn't, but at least an opinion because he follows the team, he watches the team play, talks to the players,

and he knows the coach. So for me, it's probably going to be a guy like Pierre Maguire. So Pierre, I'm going to have to ask you something, and you've got to be honest with me. Is this the reputation? Because what he did with this list, to me, is probably one of the worst things I've ever heard. I couldn't imagine anybody in any business,

any line of business, thinking that making the newest person to your company write down who he thinks is at fault and then standing up in front of them and reading the list. So if this is the person and this is true, then Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment have essentially put a horrific person in charge of these young men. And the fact that they started the season with this,

the blame isn't on Babcock. The blame is on Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. The blame is on Kyle Dubas. The blame is on every single person who hands are bloody knowing that they put that person in that dressing room with those young men and everyone's mad at Babcock. I get it, but it's the people who hired him that are worse. And so, Pierre, tell me I'm wrong. Well, Pierre with me was always very honest. To me, it's not about what I know.

Now I'm leaning on a guy who I expect is going to be honest with me. I'm not going to ask that of Darren Dreger because he probably, Darren's going to maybe compromise himself. He might not say it. Not his fault. I just got to know where people lay. Maybe I have to go outside of the TSN. Maybe I got to find someone out of Chicago.

Maybe someone out of Buffalo. Maybe I have to go to Fox. Maybe I got to find someone out of Chicago. Maybe someone at a Buffalo. Maybe you have to go to Fox. Maybe you have to find someone on ESPN. Maybe you have to find, you know, like Mike Bucciagross or not. Is it Mike Bucciagross? Bucci. Anyway, so maybe it's him I got to talk to. That's a show that you're standing in the car for and saying, so he's an asshole or not. Is this guy the biggest dick in the world? Is he really incapable of acting like a human being in the dressing room? Tell me this story. Tell me I'm wrong. Well, I'm going to hang around.

I want to hear this. Instead of just going, here's our insider. Here's Bob McKenzie. Here's whatever. Because they can only say so much. And you have to understand that as the host. You can't make someone say something that they don't want to say. But you can find someone. That's a show.

Okay, we're going to take a breath here, because then we've got more coming, more coming. But I need to give you some more gifts. So, I have a coveted... By the way, are there raw Mike Richards stickers? No, there are not. You should go to stickeru.com.

They're in Liberty Village. They're a global company because they're on the internet. Have you heard of this thing? Yes, very popular here. StickerU.com. Again, I got a bunch of stickers made up. I got fantastic magnet badge

things for people who come out to the TMLX events. You can get the decals on this wall. We're by StickerU. We're actually going to get a sign made for Humble and Fred. We have this idea that I don't want to give it away yet, but this little tweak to the branding, if you will, and the imaging and stuff. And that's coming

up. So StickerU, they're fantastic people. That's your Toronto Mike sticker, Mike Richard. I don't know what to say for the second. I'm going to choke up again for the second time in 30 years. And I got more for the listeners, the FOTMs. This is a contest I'm running. I'm doing it via Twitter.

I tweeted yesterday a picture of a wall at the Bricks and Mortars sticker used store, which is 677 Queen West. And if you can reply to that tweet with a guess as to how many stickers are on the wall, I'm going, when will I do this? Now, there's an event on Thursday night. That's January 30th at 677 Queen West where Dr. Draw is going to be there and Humble Howard, myself, and a whole bunch of cool people are going to be there because they are, what they're launching is the new exhibition museum at Sticker U

and they're having a little party. I have four tickets, four tickets to this party, and I'm going to give them out via Twitter to the people who get the closest guess as to the number of stickers on that wall. I'll retweet this later today to make your life easier and to help you find it. But thank you, StickerU. Banjo Dunk, have you ever met Stomp and Tom Connors? No, I never did. Did you ever see him? Well, no. See him perform live' Tom Connors? No, I never did.

Did you ever see him? Well, no. See him perform live, I mean? No, no, I never did. I never did. I think he was down sometimes. Was it the Horseshoe I think he would have played down there? Yeah, a lot, yeah.

Yeah, but I did not get a chance to see Stompin' Tom. You were there. You were more of a rock guy. You were more of a rush guy. Yeah, that's right. I hear you. No, there's not a lot of overlap. There's more gas works.

Right. You know, a lot of hair bands. Right. A lot of explosions. I hear you. No, there's not a lot of overlap. That's more gas works. Right. You know, a lot of hair bands. Right. A lot of explosions, spandex. That was me. Well, I want to thank Banjo Dunk, and I want to give you a copy of his book. So this is actually,

this is My Good Times of Stompin' Tom by Duncan Fremlin. I call him Banjo Dunk. You're taking that home with you, so you've got the sticker, the book, the lasagna, and the beer if we're keeping track of all the good stuff you've got. And here's a message from Banjo Dunk. You're taking that home with you so you've got the sticker, the book, the lasagna, and the beer if we're keeping track of all the good stuff you've got. And here's a message from Banjo

Dunk. This is Banjo Dunk and for the last few weeks you've been hearing my ads on Toronto Mic'd about the Big Stompin' Tom show coming up on April 16th, 2020. But, there's another Banjo Dunk production that's happening

very soon. My music buddy douglas john cameron and i known internationally as doogie and dunn are going to be performing in oakville at the moonshine cafe on february 27th not too far from toronto mike head office so if you live in toronto oakville mississaugalington, Milton, and surrounding areas, you'll find all the information you need at themoonshinecafe.com. We look forward to seeing you on February 27th. Remind me, Mike, whereabouts in the GTA do you live? Way outside. I'm in a town called Curtis.

Past Oshawa, just before you get to Bowmanville. That's what I'm in a town called Curtis. And now this is going to sound ignorant. Just before you get to Bowmanville. That's what I'm looking for. Okay. So you do your show live from near the airport? Yes. In beautiful Rexdale? Yes. And you live in Curtis?

Correct. And you're happy. You're going to stay in Curtis. You're happy there. Oh, I'm not leaving from Curtis. It's a long drive. It's 130 kilometers a day is what this is. I'm not leaving from Curtis.

It's a long drive. It's 130 kilometers a day is what this is. But you're not interested in moving closer to the big smoke here? No. Because I'm driving at 4.30 in the morning. There's no one on the road. That's true. Right?

So if someone said hello, my drive basically is about 45 minutes. What do you listen to on that drive? Oh, well, I would say, you know, because I'm getting up to see if I missed anything. So I'm listening to ESPN a lot. There's Mad Dog Sports that I listen to. I listen to ESPNU. So that's all the college stuff. And then you have. Like doing homework, basically.

Well, if I missed anything, because a lot of times I'm in bed when a lot of this. When Zion Williamson was going. What time do you go to bed again? I've been getting close. So it's like 9, 930 I try. But you know what? I lately, and I think maybe I'm fighting a cold in my defense, but lately I've been feeling pretty zonked by 10 p.m.

And I'm not even waking up for a morning show. My alarm said for 7, 7.05. Yeah, well, we're getting a little bit older too, right? But it's an early one, so I try to get the $9.95. And then if I'm not, there's three comedy channels, and then, of course, Spotify, where I listen to, as you call it, your jams, or what is the... Kick out the jams?

I kick out the jams, and it's... You've never kicked out the jams, right? That's an oversight. Yeah, it could be weird depending on the mood, but generally it's going to be pretty heavy. But I will throw in stuff that people go, what? Like polka?

Did you just, did you? I will play, I have, there's symphonic music that I listen to. Okay. And as I say, when you listen to Mozart, it's great because he has nothing but the hits. He cranks out the hits. You're right, you're right.

Here, let's pledge this now while I'm live recording this, that your sixth appearance on toronto mike should be mike richards kicks out the jams and can we finally do that and i think post surgery which will be maybe during the surgery can we do or during the surgery little little uh pantera during the surgery sure post surgery you're gonna kick out the jams now i brought up real estate because a new sponsor of the show, thank you Kytner Group for stepping up and fueling the

real talk. As you know, you sell your own ads, right? Do you sell your own ads on the sponsorships? Yeah. That's how I literally just started in probably October, November. I didn't sell for the first year. Not one. I didn't

sell anything. But not for lack of trying? No, I didn't go. I didn't sell for the first year. Not one. I didn't sell anything. But not for lack of trying? No, I didn't go. I didn't. It just, we weren't, I couldn't promise. You were building up your content and if you build it, they will come is what they say, right? 2020 has been very kind to us. Oh, good. Yeah. No, I'm glad to hear that because

and that segues nicely into what I want to say about the KiteNaitner group which is a bunch of uh like honest hard-working real estate professionals who just want to help you find your dream home buying and selling they're good people kaitner group and austin kaitner has been answering questions from listeners of toronto mike so fotms have been sending me they've been dming me on twitter that's at toronto mike or they've been sending an email to mike at torontomike.com with real estate questions. And then Austin comes over and answers them. So let's hear a Q&A with

Austin Keitner. Welcome to another Real Estate Minute with Austin Keitner at the Keitner Group with Keller Williams. Sheila asks, what are the up and coming neighbourhoods in Toronto where there are still deals to be had? Sheila, that's another amazing question. We get it a lot. There are a handful of up and coming opportunities and it depends what you mean by up and coming. But usually when there's municipal redevelopments happening, when there's large scale projects happening, when there's highway extensions, those are areas that are good purchases, especially if they're a long way out and you're planning to hold it for a long period of time. So the investment strategy will definitely factor into what an up and coming area is by that person's definition. But there's deals to be had in any market because there's people, it really

depends on the motivation of the seller. So when you've got an agent who's prospecting and finding off market opportunities, that's usually your best opportunity is to partner with an agent who has their finger on the pulse or to just put your finger on the pulse and make that as part of your part time job or or or psychic or or go into that full time and actually proactively look for potential sellers. But to get more information about some of the up and coming areas that have been identified for the majority of people or to get an assessment of what you're specific based on what your needs are, what the best area or the best type of investment opportunity would be, just text Toronto Mike to 59559. And then we'll set that up for you.

59559. Thank you, Austin. Mike, okay, so we're like an hour and 20 minutes in and I've been listening to you. And I'm fascinated by your take on the current state and learning about where things are at with raw Mike Richards. But what about somebody listening right now? Somebody's listening and screaming at their phone or whatever laptop, and they're saying, that's sour grapes, because Mike Richards was fired from 1050, and now he thinks they're all idiots

and that he's the only one who has all the answers and knows how to create compelling content and get the ratings. Like, what do you say to that person right now? Okay, so if that person maybe wasn't listening as closely as they should, what I said is, if you take me out of this conversation

and I'm never going to work for either, that they still have to put talent in that reflects what people deserve, and from a business perspective, what is actually going to attract the kinds of listeners where you can get a saleable product on the air that satisfies both the company and the people listening to the station. So take me out of that. Just do that. on the air that satisfies both the company and the people listening to the station so take me out of that just do that find some answers if it's younger talent if it's just

find some talent and go back to what makes a station special which is personality of which now unless you want to argue unless that person i said well you tell me who's tell me who you find entertaining entertaining on the shows. Tell me. Now, if they say, well, I like Tim and Sid, I all agree with them. So Tim and Sid on the 590 side, they're big personalities that you think are worthy of the time slot. I like them.

I wish it was just radio or just television. I don't know. I don't know if it will translate. So your show, if I'm, your show is live streamed, but it is a radio show that you can watch. Correct. So that's what this is. This is absolutely not, as you can tell, this is not a television show,

even though people can, you know, Chromecast or Apple TV, the Periscope live stream to their TV, and we're on TV. Look, hey, hello, I'm finally on TV. But we are a radio show, and we're a podcast, actually. And you can watch us on television. So Tim and Sid and you're, we're a podcast actually, but, and you can,

you can watch us on television. So, uh, Tim and sit on that side. And on the other side, you say overdrive is a good show because of the personalities. Correct. I,

I believe that those, those are the kinds of shows that are still shows that it, that it is not just regurgitation on something over and over again. You know, you don't know what, Oh, dog's going to say you've got a noodle saying what he says. And of course, Brian's a very good host.

Right. Like it all works for me. And that is the only show I would suggest that's even worthy of being on the air. Like don't make me listen or watch Leafs Lunch. Like don't do that. Leafs Lunch, that's the Andy Petrillo show. And she brings in a lot of people like Bob McKenzie and Darren Drager

and those kind of Bell Media hockey insiders. I would rather stick my head. But what is it about that show? And I'm going to plead a little ignorance. I never listened to this show. I'm busy doing things. And I'm really a hardcore podcast guy these days. But tell me why that show doesn't work.

Is it Andy is not a big enough personality for you? I don't find anything appealing about anything that show has to offer. I find it unlistenable and unwatchable. I did when I was there. But that show would be okay if you put in a, it sounds like, I think you're a fan, and I mean, I like big personalities too. I like character and sandpaper.

I like the big personalities. But you think it's too, what's the word I'm looking for? It's almost too tame. It's not interesting. It's almost too safe. It's not interesting. And, you know, people can say they have these big opinions and you know who they are.

If most of the names that i could mention that the people would know off the top of their head so we'll just start in this format let's just say it's bob let's start with bob bob mccallan yes so you don't have to say the last name i can say bob and everyone knows what i'm talking about um you would know based on subject matter whether it was a guest or something that was up his ass that day, that you will sit in the car, wait until the diatribe is over. Think about what he said five minutes later, maybe throughout the day, because it was well stated, it had passion, and there is a there is a drama to certain people's delivery and their voice and their opinion that has a weight to it. If I watch Leafs lunch, there's nothing that I would ever find gravitating.

There's nothing that I think that I'm missing. Am I missing something? No, I'm not. It's stealing my life away when i watch that i said show that to people it's not interesting get if you want to drive someone to talk you know like you have the prisoners in guantanamo bay who have secrets just turn on leaf's lunch for an hour they won't get more than five minutes into it and they'll tell you every secret their government has ever had.

Is Hockey Central on 590 any better? I don't, you know, that, I don't know at all. I literally know zero. Now,

who's hosting that one? Who's on that show? I think they bring in people like Jeff Merrick and David Amber. Yeah, I like Jeff. I like Jeff a lot.

Jeff's a good guy. Like, there's some people that I just kind of like. Okay, so what makes Jeff a good guy and Andy Petrillo boring? I guess I'm just trying to find the actual good guy. There's some people that I just kind of like. Okay, so what makes Jeff a good guy and Andy Petrillo boring? I guess I'm just trying to find the actual

substance. Now, not that I listen enough, but see, Jeff Merrick is someone that okay, so a lot of things I talked about this, you know, sort of the drama and the big voice. He's kind of the opposite of that. He's very knowledgeable. He doesn't try to

be controversial. Like, he's not saying something going, wow, he doesn't try to be controversial. Like he's not saying something going, wow, this is going to get some traction. This is a, as they like to say, a hot take. Right.

Where I think a lot of the others, including at Leafs Lunch, they're like, here's what I think. And I'm like, okay, well no one, no one cares what you're saying.

Where Jeff doesn't do any of that. Where he's just very factual, very knowledgeable. And I'll be honest, some guys are just good guys and pleasant and he's one of them you know who doesn't like him uh john gallagher he would be i mean but see that he's the opposite the opposite of john is that john's a walking circus he can't help but be entertaining in anything that he would ever do in his lifetime okay now i'm gonna pull

it a thread and you can tell me when we're off base here. But okay, so we talked, Ashley Dawking and Andy Picciolo have something in common. Do you want to guess what it is? I don't know. What, that I don't like women broadcasters? Well, here, let me, I'll ask

and then you can tell me, I'm an asshole. You referred earlier to like the guy, like you put testosterone on it, like a morning man, okay, man. And these big personalities, to like the guy. Like you put testosterone on it. Morning man. Morning man. Yeah. Okay, man. And these big personalities.

Is it possible, like do you believe a woman can do a good job on sports radio or rock radio for that matter? Well, I've worked with a, certainly in rock radio where there's been a lot of women

that I've worked with. Like Joanne Wilder? I've never worked with Joanne, but when I first started at 99, well, one of the shows, 99.9, Carol Alexander was co-hosted with us and she was just an enormous talent. Like I just, I thought she was,

she could do everything. Okay, let's leave Roth Radio out of it then. Let's get back to sports radio. Like is it, I'm not, you're going to speak for yourself. That's why you're here. But is it possible that you have a preference

for a big male personality to drive your sports radio? Well, I think it's just the personality itself. Like if you can carry yourself and you have good points, it really doesn't matter who you are or what you are. It also probably comes down to delivery. So there's a chemistry, right? So I don't really know. I'm not spending any time listening to the fan 590 morning show because i'm actually on the air so i i don't pretend to know what happens but in the moments in the summertime where they put this group together and i'm listening to it for i just had a sense of they

were just a collection of two or three people in that room that didn't necessarily gel in a way that would make me it's not that you hate it it but it's like it's like it's it's subjective it's like listening to a band it's like listening to an artist for instance some people can't stand rush they hear getty's voice that's true yes and they're gone um some people for me you could not and cannot make me listen to brucesteen. Interesting. I can't stand it. Is he terrible? No. The guy's like the most amazing musical entity

that rock and roll's ever seen. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean that it's not good. And there's a difference. Have you ever enjoyed a female broadcaster on sports radio? Because there's not many of them. No, there's not.

I go through and look, I've been doing it since what, 94? Let's do this game, okay? There was Mary Ormsby back in the day. Yeah, I never. Way back there. No, but people really liked her. I do remember that. She still writes at the Star.

Yeah. Married to Paul Hunter. Then there was, of course, Barb DiGiulio. Oh, I love Barb. Yeah. But she never drove a show like she was always a no but but barb okay her okay her appeal um if you're listening on the air is that she comes from a place that is incredibly honest as well like she doesn't

have to know every sport every player but she and her opinion isn't necessarily all that large but it gets almost back to almost the Jeff Merrick thing. So if I was on the air and they said, okay, you're going to work with Barb, and this is not realistic. It's not like Dave's gone or whatever. I'm just saying in this weirdo world, all of a sudden it's myself and Barb the Julio.

Well, I'm a pretty happy guy. That makes sense for me. And guess what? The chemistry would be fantastic because she wouldn't put up with my shit. So that's part of that thing. Do you think diversity matters at all when it comes to who's on your radio?

During the weekdays, like from morning show through the afternoon drive, does it matter if they're white guys? Does it matter if they're all like white straight men? See, there's a huge, just because of the way society is right now, what is considered to be acceptable, what is considered to be inclusive is a big word.

People like that word. And I'm like, okay, well, to be the opposite of that, you're a bastard person. Like if you truly are that biased against a gender or color or religion, I really don't know. Like a lot of people who really, you know, aside from an Archie Bunker or someone who's really horrible, like I honestly can't relate to that. But what I really, really dislike is the fact that someone is going to go out of the way to tell me because of race and gender and color that they should have a show that's bullshit

okay so let's put that on the surgeons now by the way it's not the greatest surgeon probably but we found ramon and i'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa you're telling you not on top of the class we're not whatever like whatever that happens to be and know, if you want to make the name Steve, go ahead. Whatever. Knock yourself out. What I'm saying is the obsession with, for instance, and I'm going to blow the name here because I've asked a couple of people. I want to say it's Desmond something.

Cole. Desmond Cole? Is he on the fan sometimes? No. I believe he was on 1010, I want to say. No, this is, there's a, you know, I'm going to say, I don't know who he is. I thought it was some young black guy

that was on the fan that never seems to get a common shift. He's been moved around and someone probably can correct me on who that is. Because I didn't know who he was. I didn't know, I didn't know what race he was, right? Because there's really nothing distinguishing him one way or the other. And I listened to him and said, that's one of the best talents I've heard in a long time. I wish you knew the name because now I want to know what race he was, right? Because there's really nothing distinguishing him one way or the other. And I listened to him and said,

that's one of the best talents I've heard in a long time. I wish you knew the name because now I want to know who this is. Why is that guy not going to shift? He knows his sports. He was very clever, very funny. One of these guys who was able to tie things in. And I haven't heard that on the radio in quite some time. I didn't know what color he was.

Oh, I mean, the young black guy. Is that wrong even to say that? Who knows? But I said, well, whoever he is, get him a show. And he always bounces around other people's show. I've heard him interview people. I've heard him speak different languages to people.

I don't know who it is. Because I know on Tim and Sid, you'll often hear Faisal Khamisa, but this is not who you're referring to. No. I don't know who you're referring to, but I would like to. But the problem is. Is it a Donovan?

Like a Donovan Bennett? Or, well, maybe later when you let me know. Yeah. I mean, I just think that in trying to, look, we're going out of our way to try to figure out if someone by the criteria of gender race or religion or whatever it happens to be whether we can find them a slot or not and that's to me that's where that's wrong

you just want the best broadcasters on the radio yeah for instance why is it not considered really chauvinist like really embarrassing that every single football game I watch that the sideline reporters are all girls or all women. Why? You're telling me out of, out of the, wow, I don't know how many jobs would be on all the different networks. Let's say it's 200 and all of those positions are filled by women. So do you think that's because the play by play and the analyst are always men? Well, there's all, they need to have a female voice on the broadcast?

It's not about balance anymore. And it's not about who, sorry, it's not about who the best is anymore. They are trying to balance a ratio. They're trying to do something mathematically that makes sure that they're off the hook if it ever came to a lawsuit. That's what I think it is. Because guess what? Some of them are real good.

There's a girl, a girl, I keep saying girl. People get mad at that too, probably. Well, only because you would never say boy. So it's like, because I can't, I don't think you'd ever. Okay, there is a woman on the sideline. Her name is Allison Force, Allie Force, I think it is. She played basketball at the University of Ohio. She's an athlete.

She's stunningly gorgeous. But when she talks to the coaches, when she talks on the sidelines, like I'm sure there's a guy in a truck maybe that's feeding her stuff, but she's the type of person I think you wouldn't even need the earpiece. She is literally almost the perfect balance of every single thing that I want from someone on the sidelines. Her delivery is perfect. Her candor is perfect. She is someone that if you're up against her, I don't like your chances because she's that good.

That to me is what the world should be. You're not as good as her. You're not going to cut it. You're not going to, unless you can do what she does on all these different levels she checks all the boxes uh and i think that person is then deserves the job it's like the uh reporter the girl that um had to take that crap from you did girl again all right it's the the uh the female reporter uh that took all that crap from saban at the very beginning of the year when she started talking about quarterbacks and Saban pulled his garbage.

And she held her own as good as any broadcaster I've ever seen. Like she was so cool under fire. Then I look at a person like that and I'm like, you're outstanding. But I'm not looking at, she's a black girl, is she attractive, is she tall, is she whatever. No, no.

Her as a broadcast entity would be, in that situation, I don't know if there was anyone better in that moment. But I'm not looking to make the piece fit. I think that's what the problem is.

At least to me it is. Okay, we're going to close up going back to 960. Okay, so we've now done a great job explaining why 590 and 1050 suck. Suck. Okay. Suck. And you're on 960? Yeah.

News talk 960. No, saga. So it's news talk. So saga was something that we all inherited because it was Mississauga. So I said, we can't get rid of that. No, you got to keep the Saga. Well, yeah, because you don't own the station.

No, I don't. No, I do not. Who owns it again? It's the Panu family. Okay. And you are the morning show on 960. And is it still a podcast? This is a question.

Somebody said the feed was broken. Is that person, maybe that person's broken. That person's probably broken. No, there's a podcast that goes out every day. Right. It originates, I think, SoundCloud. And then. And you're live streaming.

And then it's, yeah. And it's on Spotify and iTunes. It's everywhere you should be. Okay. Now, is Barry Davis still on the channel? Barry Davis is in the afternoon with Michelle Storino. Because everybody listening knows Barry and remembers him from Sportsnet Baseball broadcasts,

maybe even 590 before that. So good for Barry. I like Barry. Yeah. When you lost Neil Peart, that's sort of how Barry was when he lost Tom Petty. Exactly. Yeah, I think it's a very fair comparison.

Maybe even more for him. Well, yeah, because he's in a cover band. Yeah, I wasn't going to pretend I was Neil Peart because no one can. That's right, that's right. And last time, or maybe the time before when you came over, you talked about how you were going to be measured for radio ratings at 960 in 2020. We need an update on that.

So my hope still is, and again, when you're working at this level of broadcast, sometimes what you want to have happen, maybe you don't get it, but I am hoping that by the time September rolls around, so that would be the fall book. September 2020. Yes.

So the first ratings would come out the Thursday of that first week of December that I would actually have a number. And for me, any number is good. Someone was making comments on the big yellow board or whatever. It's a radio blog thing. And there was this guy going, oh, you shouldn't do that because this station did this and you're going to be like

wheelhouse radio in Vancouver and blah, blah, blah. I said, okay, except one thing. this and you're going to be like uh wheelhouse radio in vancouver and blah blah i said okay except one thing all those comparisons that you've made they're not what we do like you you're welcoming the measurement because you uh you think it'll work in your favor because then people will know that there are people listening am i reading that right if if you look at ratings this way um and once again i've always been in mails 25 54 that's always been my thing right but it's changed because of the station because of traffic oh yeah they had traffic i had a question about traffic steve wants me to ask you if you could add traffic updates to the podcast i think that's

called sarcasm i'm pretty sure that's sarcasm. And yeah, so traffic is that you're, and it's local traffic, right? Well, it's all West End for the most part. Like Mississauga. So if you're coming in from Hamilton on in, then because that's where the signal is the strongest, currently.

Right. Currently the signal is the strongest. And so for the 1.5 million people that go through us every day, we do traffic on the fives. Except for 15 and 45, we killed that because the audience said,

you just started interviewing someone and all of a sudden that stupid jingle comes on again, we can't handle it. So I killed both of those but that was from the audience. And remind us who else is on the show because I don't know

if we've shouted them out yet but David Bastel is on the show. David Bastel, so he does the traffic and he's really good on it. I don't know how all of a sudden it's like you hit this button on him. He'll beat 680 most days doing this thing. It's really incredible. And then Kelsey Lusk.

She hasn't moved on to bigger and better yet? No. No, apparently. Apparently she's still hanging around. She's a godsend for us. I think that's called Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe she does have that. And so she produces all our stuff and hangs out.

And we have just the greatest time. I really enjoy it. The part I don't enjoy, we're super, super small. Starting this small is really hard. The fact that I've had to wait a year to go out and find people which we've had great success in doing that um after a year um i hate that our signal sucks that's really that's really hard i think it's hard when i have to give a seminar every two or three months to those that uh run the station kind of on how this works a little bit

but it's um you know it's a little bit of a labor of love, but now we actually have salaries. And for me, that's the first time in three years. I haven't had a salary in three years. Wow. And you mentioned 2020 had been very good to you so far. I guess that's related to money. Yeah.

So a company, and this is the real kind of ironic... Well, tell me so I can post them. Bell. They're called Bell. Can you believe it? Oh, a different Bell. But I said the good Bell. This is the good Bell. These are the nice Bells. Bell Lifestyle Products is what they are. So it's a national, sorry,

natural health product. So you'll find them in, well, everywhere. So you'd find them in health stores. But you're going to shoppers and GNC and Popeye and all those places. And they cut you a check to be like a title sponsor. So they're the title sponsor of the show. And they're also the title sponsor of the studio. So we now broadcast live from the Bell Lifestyle Studios.

So when you look at Twitch and when I put those little things out, you're going to see their logo. Like Chiron's, whatever they're called. And whoever I talk to, and then their logo and stuff all over it. So they are the title sponsor of everything that we do so far. That was started January 1st.

And how long do you hope to run? Like how long do you hope to run? Like, how long do you hope to continue? Like, there are plans to do this for five years, ten years? The reality is, if you want to be successful at this, it would be still, I would say, another four years. It's a question that's almost impossible to answer, and I'll know more probably after the operation

probably after the fall because the fall will be everything for us okay good luck on the operation first and foremost I want you to be healthy and happy I strongly root for you because you're doing this yourself this has been a lot of work

not very lucrative yet but you're building something here. You're building it from scratch. I have so much freaking respect for that, man. Honestly, keep going. Anytime you want to drop by, you're going to kick out the jams next. We're going to keep the count rising.

This is appearance number five, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thank you for coming, man. Well, like everyone says, I don't know who would say no to you. I wouldn't understand that. You want me to give you the list? No, it's okay.

I've got a few no's. No, it's okay. But you know I love coming here. Not everyone agrees with what I say, and you're always very honest in saying, look, it just sounds like you got let go, so you're pounding on these other ones because you're the answer. I think at the end of the day, I think that their results will pretty much verify

everything that we talk about every single time that we're on here. And if you listened to the last episode, everything that we talked about just happened. Nostradamus. Well, I like Kreskin, about just happened. Nostradamus. Well, I like Kreskin, but you can go Nostradamus. And that brings us to the end of our 575th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Mike is at Raw Mike Richards.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. They have a great Super Bowl special on the lasagna. So I think you have to pick it up on a Saturday, though. But make sure you get the deal on the lasagna for Super Bowl Sunday. He's a Mississauga company. Huh. And he's listening right now.

Is he? And he's a big Mike Richards fan. Well, then show it. Sticker U is at Sticker U. sticker you is that sticker you the Kytner group are at Kytner group.com K E I T and E R and banjo dunk is that banjo dunk see you all tomorrow this podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone.

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