Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Ross: Toronto Mike'd #664

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

Mike chats with Mike Ross about getting the Maple Leafs PA Announcer gig, whether he'll be working the 2020 NHL playoffs, his career in radio and his connection to dozens of FOTMs.

Welcome to episode 664 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. Garbage Day. Weekly reminders for garbage, recycling, and yard waste pickup. Visit GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up now. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business the kaitner group they love helping buyers find their dream home text toronto mike to 59559 and our newest sponsor cdn technologies your it and cyber security experts i'm mike from toronto mike.com and joining me

is the pa announcer for your toronto may beliefs mike ross nice to be here thanks for having me i should have had you read the intro you've got the uh the announcer voice so what am i trying to do here? Welcome to the show. Thank you. Very happy to be here. I know we're going to talk a little bit about Michael Landsberg later, but when I opened up by asking him how he became a Michael versus a Mike, and he said, you know, Mike is a guy who fixes my car. Mike is a guy who fixes my car. I don't know. Did you find that at all offensive?

He was putting down Mike somehow, as if there's anything wrong with fixing a car. I wish I was handy with automobiles. But please, how did you end up Mike Ross instead of Michael Ross? Well, first, I started as Michael. My parents gave me that name, but even they, at I think like the earliest age I can remember, would go between Mike and Michael. So it was never really any big deal. The only thing was that when I started school and I went to French school as a kid when the teacher called me Michelle. That was a problem. And that was the only time my parents ever disliked.

Well, I'm sure they disliked some of the other names I've been called over the years. But Michelle, they did not like because that was not my name. But Mike and Michael, to be honest with you, when I got into radio and I started on the on-air side of things, it was at a time when so many people getting into the business were coming up with stage names, radio names. And so I, at the time, didn't really think much of my own name. I just thought, well, if I'm going into the biz, I need to come up with something original and of course i came up with all kinds of very unoriginal names like taking a last name and making it a first name or a first name making it a last name etc etc until someone finally said you gotta you got a good name mike ross just go with that right use it and so i did and uh that's been my my everyday uh name and and professional name

ever since whether it's been in radio or little stint in television and and some writing here and there as well so well it's you know you got the four character first name and the four character last name which i can totally relate to like the full name is eight characters, you know, and, and you don't have to mess with, no one can spell Michael unless you are a Michael, like everyone gets an A and E backwards, you know? That's right. And I'll tell you what, you know, I wish I could fix a car. I I'm, I'm a little bit handy,

but not when it comes to cars. I remember taking a auto shop in high school and our soccer coach was our teacher and i had to bribe him by washing his car once a week he would pull the car into the shop i'd wash it with my buddies once a week so that i would get a 51 grade and pass the course wow so not handy when it comes to cars well me neither um but uh well it's nice to have another mike on the show and uh whereabouts are we catching you here are you in ajax where are you i am i i live in ajax so we've been in ajax for 18 years this year we lived in toronto for about a year and a half when i first moved here in 2001 um but after uh after a year and a half when I first moved here in 2001.

But after a year and a half, we found a place out here in Ajax. We're not more than a little skip and a jump from the shores of Lake Ontario. It's a beautiful spot. Oh, nice. Snug right in between the 401 and the lake. You can't ask for better. Do you ever bump into Greg Brady? I'm trying to think of who do i know from ajax but not not too many people no greg yeah greg and i have we've met once it was on uh landsbergs off

the record okay um and that's the only time we've ever met we we've had last year he was hosting one of the uh jurassic park East events here in Ajax. And then I hosted the next one a couple of nights later. But otherwise, we've never crossed paths. He just went golfing with Hebsey and Hebsey's two boys. I saw that. I saw that on Twitter. But they flaunt this relationship. I think they enjoy it.

Because, you know, I spent a lot of time with Hebsey, but it's been on Zoom since I think the last time he came over here was March 13th but they Hebsey and Greg Brady they go off to England they go golfing like I never get I mean should I be taking this personally what's going on

here I never get these invitations but well I know Hebsey Hebsey's never invited me anywhere so I don't know what that says about him or about me but uh i think i run into glenn healy most when it comes to ajax guys because glenn lives here in ajax as well and he's uh he's a man about town you see him at all kinds of events and at the local pub and so i've uh i've run into a glenn all over the place there's a man i need to get on uh toronto yeah uh yeah i'm gonna hit up glenn healy and make that happen now mike i'm so excited

to have you on we're gonna learn all about you i got questions about you being the uh you know pa announcer for the toronto maple leafs there's a whole i gave you some homework lots to cover is it okay with you if i crack open a cold, I got an octopus wants to fight from Great Lakes Brewery. Do you mind if I crack one open? I'm going to live vicariously through you. Well, I can't. If I could, I'd pour it into the microphone, but it was short circuit everything.

By all means. So I toast to you, Mike. Thank you. Nice to meet you. It's weird these days meeting people for the first time on Zoom. Like I just find it like kind of bizarre. We did a Zoom about, I'd say about two or three weeks ago with probably about 16 of the NHLPA guys.

And we're all in a Facebook group together and we exchange information and tips, advice. It's a great resource for us. But other than a couple of guys that I have met because I've gone to their city or they've come to mine, it was the first time talking to these guys. And it was really cool. I mean, it really has opened up a whole new world to so many of us that video calls you know it used to be a thing on star trek wasn't it like sit on the bridge right right that giant screen there's a giant ferengi coming but um that's probably more of a met or

anything but um in any event yeah yeah you're right i'm playing along i kind of know what you mean you know i've never seen an episode of Star Trek. Really? Yeah, there's your first. Not even in passing? I think I've seen maybe most of an episode of The Next Generation. I feel. But I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode of Star Trek, even in passing.

My dad, Sunday mornings when I was a kid, it was Star Trek and Coronation Street. Then Next Generation came along. I jumped on board with that. Right now, I'm trying to get into the new Picard. And I've only gotten two episodes in. But we're so not used to Star Trek being this sort of long arcing storyline. It's usually always been one episode at a time. Oh, right. So they stand alone, right?

Like standalone episodes. Yeah. Right. And it's not happening with Picard. one episode at a time. Oh, right. So they stand alone, right? Like standalone episodes. Yeah. Right. And it's not happening with Picard. Hmm. Now it's a serial. Yeah. So I can't even like, I can't play along with all the Star Trek stuff, but.

It's okay. I hear you have to be smart to like Star Trek. So good on you because I hear it's well-formed English. I think you hear wrong. I think you hear very, very wrong. Are you like, I got to ask wrong. Are you a Doctor Who guy? No. Again, there's another one that my dad loved.

I just never could get into it. I tried. It was just too out there for me. There's one where you really do need smarts. Okay. That explains why I... Well, since I was very, very young, I was traumatized by the opening of Doctor Who

in the late 70s when it would come on out of the polka dot door on TV Ontario. And really ever since, and I really, really was traumatized. Like I say it in passing, but that, what's the, how does it, I don't even know what that instrument is

that makes that sound. And I'm not doing it justice, whatever it's called. That whole sound, like even now remembering it, like I basically couldn't even consider trying any of the like more modern dr who's because of this traumatic traumatic childhood no absolutely it just it wasn't one that i could get into in any way shape or form i didn't find

it entertaining i didn't find it interesting it never never hooked me at all now if you want to talk about shows that had great openings that did hook me, get smart. There was probably one of the best openings to a TV show in history. Right, and he was the voice of Inspector Gadget. That's right. Don Adams. Don Adams, right.

Oh, man. Okay, so let me ask you these interesting, timely questions first, and then we'll go back in the time machine. Tell us, for the record mike ross have you heard anything at all from mlse uh regarding whether your services might be required if toronto is a hub city for these uh you know these nhl playoffs that we're supposed to get in 2020 absolutely nothing um back when we were facing the the possibility of finishing the regular season with no fans in the building at that point the feeling was yes we're going to want pa announcers in the building and and that was something that i confirmed with with the other pa guys that i talked to that that all the

buildings wanted an announcer there it was about a feel thing right it was for the it was to try and give the players as much of the regular feel that they would get in a building right so have some music have your announcer um and i guess some buildings were're looking at, I don't know what our guys were looking at as far as piped in crowd noise or not. But beyond that, once we got into a situation where the season was officially postponed, we're in a wait and see mode, just like everybody else waiting to see

whether we're a hub city and what the plan is moving forward if we are because you kind of answered my next crashing down right well my next question was going to be uh you explained it as it's for the players to make it feel kind of as normal as possible because you would think you thinking logically, okay, you're the PA announcer. That's for the 19,000 people in the stands who need to know who's got the penalty for what and who scored, who got the assist and all that or, you know, whatever. If there's no one in the stands, then if it's a made-for-television event, well, then you don't need a PA announcer because there's no P, no public. Correct. I guess in theory, though, I have talked to people who have sort of bandied around ideas of how to sort of integrate what happens in the arena to the TV audience. So are there things that you can do with, for example, I don't know,

contesting that happens within the arena? Can you somehow bring the TV viewer into that experience? I don't know. I never think in terms of those things. The people that work on that side of the business are a lot more imaginative than I am and will come up with some great ideas, I'm sure. But the feeling was that the players, they want as much of a sense of normalcy as they can probably get.

And the comforting tones of Mike Ross on the mic, that would probably do it. It would, you know, for a moment, it would feel like you're at a normal NHL game with actual people in the stands like we're used to. Yeah, yeah. Now, well, since we're talking about you as the PA announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs,

how the heck did you get that gig? That sounds like an amazing gig. How did you score it? It is an amazing gig. There's no doubt about it. And I got lucky. I mean, I auditioned for the job just as 22 other people did and went through what was probably the most nerve wracking, anxiety filled summer I've ever lived. anxiety-filled summer I've ever lived. Going from the initial audition,

which was at the Time Air Canada Centre, now Scotiabank Arena, and it involved going up to the booth and reading out a script that they had sent out to us. And that was being listened to live by a variety of members of the organization including uh brendan shanahan and lula amarello right and from there as we're we're doing that reading they're also recording it and they then whittled it down i believe to five people and from there to two and then it was a one-on-one interview

with Brendan Shanahan and then some members of the marketing department at MLSE. And so it was about a month and a half start to finish. And even then after the the the interview it was still another eight days before i got a call so you sort of and i was on vacation at the time so i've never looked at my phone that much on vacation it's not wanting to miss a call and i and i did by the way i did miss the initial call oh which was just imagine they're like no answer. Move on to the next number. He lost. Right. Right.

Yeah. Thankfully not, didn't happen that way. Now, do you have any insight into, uh, and I have my own theory in this. See,

my theory is, and, and, uh, Andy Frost, he's an FOTM like you are now, Mike Ross, you're an FOTM,

Andy Frost, FOTM. He's been on the program, but I felt like maybe in Brendan Shanahan's mind that, uh, the, the voice of Andy Frost FOTM he's been on the program but I felt like maybe in Brendan Shanahan's mind that the voice of Andy Frost legendary psychedelic Sunday Q107 voice was more like really indicative of like goal scored by number 13 Matt Sundin and it's really that era and then with Austin Matthews arriving like it was a refresh right you kids are here, Mitch Marner, Austin Matthews. It was just time for a tonal change.

To me, it made sense. A refresh, it's a new era, and you would be the fresh new voice of the new Toronto Maple Leafs. I think given all the changes that happened that summer, that certainly speaks to that that um you had new in arena hosts and instead of a hostess you had a host and a hostess danielle and scott working together um you had uh you had a dj along with our organist j Jimmy Holmstrom. And then a new voice in the booth as well. And the new logo, the 100th anniversary,

was just really, I think, a chance for them to sort of, as you say, refresh everything and get a new sound. I've heard people say, oh, it's all about going younger. Nobody ever said that to me but it was it's pretty clear to me that it definitely was about wanting to i guess getting you have a fresh new start on things well you know this isn't the mad sunday and maple leaves with ty domi this is a whole different uh you know but i will say going younger like hearing you know you just shared a story about how much you enjoyed watching Get Smart.

We didn't exactly, you know what I mean? You're not a millennial here. Oh, you're talking about the team. Okay. Because I was thinking, you can't even be that much younger than an Andy Frost, really. You're probably both. I'm 46. Actually, I'm 45.

But I can see 46 from here. I can see 47. Okay, you got one year under, I guess. It's a little daunting right now, but let's not talk about that. Well, when you're dropping the Get Smart references, I'm thinking, Get

Smart? I'm thinking, oh my goodness. Well, I didn't see it originally. I saw it on reruns. Come on now. I'm thinking, get smart. Like, I'm thinking, oh my goodness. Well, I didn't see it originally. I mean, I saw it on reruns. Come on now. I'm not that old. Holy cow. It's like when,

when, who died again? Eddie Haskell died. The actor who played Eddie Haskell. Never, never saw it. Oh,

okay. Cause that was a lot like a CKVR summertime, lunchtime rerun staple for me for a bit. Yeah. Okay. You never saw it. Seer summertime lunchtime rerun staple for me for a bit yeah okay you never saw it see our lunchtime uh programs when i was a kid uh you had spider-man um and there was a romper room okay miss fran looking through the mirror and seeing i see paul and i see sam and i see michael

and you used to just jump for joy because she saw you and I think probably the oldest show that ran at that time at lunchtime was the Forest Rangers Forest Rangers where is this by the way where in the world are we right now where the Forest Rangers

this is probably about I'm thinking probably about 1980 81 ish and the this toronto rangers was a canadian show okay and it was um i think it was like i think it was meant to be based in like manitoba or saskatchewan or something and there were these young forest rangers that worked alongside uh uh the the the main forest ranger. Wow. They were in this old wooden fort out on the prairies.

Okay, but can I ask you- I can't give you more details than that. Where geographically were you living at the time? I was in Ottawa. I grew up in Ottawa. Right, okay. So born and raised in Ottawa. I moved to Toronto in 2001. Maybe it's an Ottawa thing.

I don't, I got to say, I'm only one year younger than you and I have zero recollection of the Forest Rangers. I remember on TV Ontario watching Fables of the Green Forest. Okay. You mentioned Polka Dot Door. Yeah, of course. So do you remember one of the hosts by the name of Rex?

Yes. It was a guy who hosted that, Rex. Well, Rex was one of the young Forest Rangers. My mind is exploding right now, Mike. This is too much, too much. Okay, now I know about it. I watch way too much TV. No, and now I wish, I mean, you got the gig,

so maybe I'm glad you didn't do this, but if you had reached out, I could have told you, you know, put in the word that Brendan Shanahan went to my high school. That might have secured you the uh pa announcer gig but you got it anyway so maybe it's best you didn't do that we didn't we didn't do that but you're the voice out well what's your favorite maple leaf player's name to say when he scores um i don't like to play favorites that way but but i can i can say it this way um certainly matthews gets a great

response um i love to announce frederick anderson in the starting lineup i just i just really like freddie i like him as a player sure uh i like his intensity i like uh his honesty and i don't know there's just something about his name the way it rolls off uh my tongue that i i just love to announce it um but i think the one that gets the most reaction or has gotten the most reaction from a lot of co-workers is william nylander they love the William Nylander. I can see that. Sort of like when you heard Murray Eldon say Tony Fernandez, right? It's got those syllables.

Unlike your name and my name, it's just sort of like a song. It's, ah, William Nylander. It happens to be my six-year-old's favorite player on the Toronto Maple Leafs, William Nylander. So shout out to Nylander. So really, if you're a betting man, Mike, are we going to finish this season like if you were a betting man like if we take away

the fact that you actually might have a professional interest in it all yeah I think they I think it happens uh where it happens I don't know but they seem to be I think the NHL has been, they've impressed me much the way the NBA has about how they've approached this. Like baseball, I love baseball. I grew up playing, umpiring, coaching. I'm a huge baseball fan. But the one thing that I've said on my daily show on AMI is that baseball is being so baseball about this whole thing. Right. Like they just keep stepping on their own foot, tripping over their own shoes.

Hockey and the NBA to me have they're taking their time one step at a time. Let's negotiate this. Let's get agreement on this before we move on to that. So I think if local regulations and national regulations allow it to happen, I think both those leagues are going to get it done. Baseball, on the other hand, I don't know. Interesting time. It's interesting that a labor dispute might kind of interfere with baseball returning in 2020.

Right. So yeah, it's so baseball, but, uh, okay. So here's, here's my hope.

My hope is that, uh, we do get a 2020 playoffs in. I think that would be great fun. This 24 team, uh, tournament sounds interesting. It sounds like,

and I know last time, who did I speak to? I was speaking to Dave Randolph like a couple of weeks ago. And at the time, that first round was going to be a best of five. But I think it's a best of seven now. So I think you have to win. I mean, you don't have to, but it's possible that a team like the Maple Leafs wins 20 games to win the Stanley Cup this season, which is kind of amazing.

Right. I mean, you've got to win four rounds. Four rounds of four games. Yeah, so you're looking at 19. It's five rounds, right? Your first round,

your playing round, I don't think is a best of five. Okay, that's where I get confused. I thought, because I just booked Darren Dreger on a Humble and Fred show this morning, and I thought the first round was going to be a best of seven now,'s where i get confused i thought because i thought i just booked darren drager on uh a humble and fred show this morning and i thought the first round was gonna be a best of seven now and it was a five but you would know better than me mike uh yeah okay so the talk was originally that so you've got your play-in round which is three out of five and that's for sure three out of five okay that's my understanding okay i had that understanding and then i thought it changed but you might be right and then what what they talked about was what are we doing with the first two rounds

of the playoffs not the play-in but the playoffs and those first two rounds the debate was are we going five games or are we going full seven hope it's seven right it's got to be seven well and and from what i gather gather in the last several days, that's what it is. So yeah, you're going to have to win more games. If this happens, you'll have to win more games than you have in the past.

If you're the Leafs anyways, you got to win the 19 games. Okay, gotcha. Correct. Well, very interesting. Okay, we're going to get to your radio career because some people listening only know you as the PA announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs,

but you can't actually raise a family and buy a home in Ajax if that's your only gig, right? You actually have to have additional streams of revenue. Am I right? Yes, you do. Yeah, it is a part-time job. It is a part-time job. It's a full-time passion, but a part-time job

as far as the pay goes. But I mean, I always think like, you know, you're at the game, you're part of the energy. That's a fun gig. Oh my goodness. When I got into public address announcing back in the 90s, I mean, this job never crossed my mind. I mean, even all the years that I lived in Toronto, it never crossed my mind. I mean, even all the years that I lived in Toronto, it never crossed my mind. So to be living it now, and even more so during this pandemic,

where I was doing the goal call initiative that I did, where fans could email me with a goal call request and I'd do a video for them. You know, talking to other PA guys around the league and they're saying, oh yeah, I did a, I did a hundred of those,

or I did 250 of those. And the, how many did you do? Well, I did two more yesterday. Cause they're still trickling in. And with that, I hit 1, 200 videos whoa yeah

and that to me i mean i go to the rink i do my job as best as i can i'm thrilled to be to be part of the ambience at that arena and part of the experience that fans have. But this goal initiative, this goal call initiative really put it into perspective for me as far as just how much everything about the Maple Leafs is important to their fans and means something different to their fans. Like it's been, it's been absolutely mind-blowing. I mean, you could argue it's the biggest franchise in this country,

if any sport, is the Toronto Maple Leafs, right? And maybe that's, I don't know, because I know the Raptors have become very popular because winning does that. Sure, it sure does. When I got the gig, I had a buddy of mine who said, when it comes to announcing, it doesn't get bigger than that in this country. I mean, it really would be at the time, four years ago. Right.

It would have been Maple Leafs, Canadians, Raptors, Blue Jays right there. Right. Now, you bump the Raptors up, certainly based on last year and the exposure they got and maybe put them ahead of Montreal. But when you're talking about worldwide exposure, I mean, the Maple Leafs are... I got goal requests from people in Hong Kong, in Thailand, in Vienna, Austria, Norway, you name it. Are they all transplanted Canucks? Are they actually natives of these places? Because I know there's a lot of Canadians

throughout the world and they all remember, they keep it. Actually, I have listened. I noticed that. That's an interesting thing about hosting this show is I'll hear from somebody in Vienna, for example, who listens and, you know, they listen because it keeps them connected with home.

There's this guy in Toronto talking Toronto-centric stuff with people typically based in the GTA. And it's like, yeah, you can leave Toronto and have a life in Vienna and work and have a home and a family there, but you still can't. You're still connected to your home and Toronto

forever is your home. Well, I certainly did get a lot of expats, but I also encountered just local people who are fans from afar. And that speaks to the expansion of sports via television, via the internet. I mean, there are more fans than ever right across the globe.

Amazing, amazing. Now we're going to get you to talk about your radio career in a moment. But of course, if you were here, Mike, and I'm hoping one day we'll get you here, things will be turned to normal, a vaccine will be discovered, and we will have you here where I can give you a fresh case of Great Lakes Brewery. I mentioned I cracked open an octopus wants to fight. I can't wait till they open the patio over there, like a safely open the patio at Great Lakes.

I think it's coming soon. But thank you, Great Lakes Brewery. Thank you, Palma Pasta. In better times, I would be giving you, Mike, a frozen lasagna, courtesy of Palma Pasta. And I know you're in Ajax, so that's like the other side of the GTA. They're Palma Pasta. They I know you're in Ajax, so that's like the other side of the GTA. They're Palma Pasta.

They're in Mississauga and Oakville, but they've been open through this whole pandemic, so they've been very safe and careful and love their support. StickerU.com. Mike, I can't wait to get you a Toronto-miked sticker. Oh, cool. Nice. Get you one of those and maybe two because you're such a great FOTM. get you a Toronto Mike sticker. Cool. Nice.

Get you one of those and maybe two because you're such a great FOTM. Thank you, StickerU. Garbage Day. I know this is full effect in Ajax. If you go to GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike, it ends the guesswork related to the collection of waste and recycling. Subscribers don't need to worry about missing a collection or trying to figure out what bin to put to the curb. I signed up. You can get it through SMS,

or you can get it through email, or you can get it through the app. Very slick, easy to sign up, and very convenient. It really does come in handy. There's nothing worse than having to run back into the house, dig through the utility drawer looking for the calendar that the region

sent you six months ago, trying to figure out, is it yard waste day today? And Mike, the whole COVID, for example, messed with the calendar a little bit in some regions. And with the alert you get from GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike, you're always in the know. So that's your take home, Mike. You're going to sign up at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike, you're always in the know. So that's your take home, Mike. You're going to sign up at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. And yesterday's episode, we got to know Barb Paluskiewicz. Barb Paluskiewicz.

It took me, like, you know, Mike Ross. I didn't have to practice pronouncing that name. Mike Ross, Mike Ross, Mike Ross. But Barb Paluskiewicz. I practiced for days and days. I finally nailed it. You can call Barb. If you have any issues with your home network or your office network or any computer issues at all,

chat with Barb, 905-542-9759. And if you have any questions about the Toronto real estate market and you're considering buying and or selling in the next six months, text Toronto Mike to 59559. That's 59559. Chat up Austin Keitner. He actually has a waterfront property in Long Branch. And I just biked by it like an hour ago.

And to me, the price seems rather reasonable for a waterfront property. And I have these like dreams as I bike by. Like, man, imagine, Mike, you're close to the lake, right? You can probably, but you're not on the lake. No.

No, I'm about a 10-minute walk. 10-minute walk, me too. So I'm about a 10-minute walk. And I can't, imagine your backyard was onto Lake Ontario. Like, imagine. I mean, listen, spent a little bit of time in Newfoundland last summer

and looked at a property out there, just literally driving through this little town. And there's a house for sale. And so I went online and looked at it and it said oceanfront property. Actually, it's ocean back because your backyard, your beautiful grassy backyard, literally rolled

into the ocean i mean come on yeah and you know what they wanted for that okay i was gonna say can i guess okay so i you know i have no idea what that market's like but i do know like so it's a place called uh grand bank i'm going to guess western side newfoundland uh you know the three big things in real estate, location, location, location. I'm going to guess, and this is a completely guess. I have no idea, and you can tell me about the lunch. But I'm going to say something reasonable, like that's $400,000. You're out to lunch.

You're completely out to lunch. It's on the south. It's on the southern. $4 million. You're way off. $40,000, Mike. Okay, well, now you're undercutting it by about $30,000. It was $70,000.

See, I am out to lunch. Because $400,000 to me sounds like I'll just open my wallet and here you go. Yep. $400,000. Because I know the house I'm sitting in is like suddenly all of a sudden it's worth a million bucks. I'm like, when did that happen? $70,000 because I know the house I'm sitting in is like suddenly all of a sudden where it's worth a million bucks. I'm like, when did that happen for $70,000 for oceanfront? Like, why didn't you just buy it with like your pocket change? Right. And believe me, we're still talking about it.

We're still looking at that. Well, there's so many great places in Newfoundland. And, you know, there's lots to sort of take into consideration given the size of areas and aging population, healthcare and all the rest. But good gosh, if you were looking for a vacation spot. It's now or never, buddy. You're a healthy, you're only 46 years old. You're still, you know. Oh, believe me. I'm inching closer and closer. Have a chat.

Have one conversation with Stephen Brunt, and you'll be signing the papers tomorrow. I was at Steve's place last summer, actually, in Newfoundland, and he showed us some beautiful places. And believe me, spending half a day in his little house there was like, that sold me.

That was it. I'm absolutely sold. Okay. Absolutely. Here's what we're going to do, Mike, before we move on That was it. I'm absolutely sold. Okay. Absolutely. Here's what we're going to do, Mike, before we move on in this episode, you're going to,

you're going to buy that place. Okay. Get that property. Yeah. And, uh, maybe, hopefully the vaccine has arrived before next summer and things are normal

next summer. Uh, I'm going to get my ass to Newfoundland to visit you at your new place. Okay. Okay. Done. I'm excited. Grand Bank, here we come. I'm excited.

This is great stuff. All right. Before we get to the homework I assigned you, give us like a, just walk through your radio career. Because I know you mentioned your show on AMI. And is that the same place where you might hear, on AMI and is that the same place where you might hear an AMI? Is that like where Jim Van Horn might have a show? Like, am I completely out to lunch here?

Like educate me on your radio. Absolutely right. Yeah. Um, so, so let me, I'll go from the beginning where I wasn't even, I never even thought of radio as a career. Like I, I, I didn't go to school to get into radio or I was, I went to university to, um, to be a career. I didn't go to school to get into radio. I went to university to be a teacher. And after three years and three different majors, I realized this ain't working out very well. In the meantime, I had discovered that the university, I went to Carleton university in Ottawa, great radio station there. CKCU 93.1 on the FM dial.

The first campus community radio station in the country. And so I, I don't even know. I mean, I grew up watching, you know, WKRP and news radio and always sort of intrigued by media, by radio, always enjoyed listening. And as I said earlier, been a big baseball fan growing up listening to Dave Van Horn and Expos broadcasts. And I got into the radio station in Ottawa

that ran those Expos games with CFRA. And so the radio I had, it wasn't like now where you could put like a sleep setting on your radio and it radio shows. So from a real young age, I was always into radio. I just never thought of radio paying the rent and buying groceries. And once I got into university and became aware of the campus radio station, I just walked in one day and said, you know, I'd be, I'd be interested in, in learning more and, and helping out. And they said, well, what do you do? What do you like? I said, well, I like sports. They said, great. Monday, 12 o'clock. We have a sports show. Be here at 1130. All right. And, and that was it. I mean, I was, I was on the air within a couple of weeks and working with the producer and the host of the show, who within four months had both moved on, graduated, and the show was all mine. And suddenly I was going to NHL games, CFL games, AAA baseball games.

I was covering sports. I was covering the university sports as well. And that gave me my first sort of taste of it. And after three years of university and realizing that the teaching thing wasn't really going to drive me, I started to fall in love with radio and I got a job as an overnight operator at a local radio station. It was called Energy 1200. And I started working there and I worked both as an op and then in promotions for several years before getting a crack at doing some on air. And so 97, I began my professional on air career and with, uh, oh geez, less than a year later, they pulled the plug on it and went all sports. And thankfully, I was able to convince the program director

and who was also hosting the morning show to give me a chance. I knew my stuff. I knew sports. And he gave me a shot as producer and one of the co-hosts of that morning show. We helped launch sports radio in Ottawa. Hebsey was there. Hebsey was doing the afternoon drive show. Hebsey shout out. Love it. That's right. Yeah. And off we went.

And I've worked in sports in one way or another, whether it was broadcasting or working for a team ever since. And so all those years of watching sports and my dad telling me, you know, if you paid as much attention to your math homework as you did to these sports broadcasts, you'd be a genius. You're never going to – not that you weren't going to amount to anything, but this wasn't going to amount to anything.

Sports wasn't going to get you anywhere. Well, I made a whole career of it. He and I, we both chuckle about it to this day. I got to say, it's funny to hear how, like, when you were falling asleep, because I had the same experience. I would fall asleep to Blue Jays games on CJCL. But when you woke up at 3 a.m. and heard, like, some vintage radio program, I was waking up to the music of your life on CJCL.

And it would be like, I don't know, it'd be like, I'm not supposed to say big banks i'm like a big bang big band you'd have perry como perry como probably old like some old tony bennett or some uh you know so it's amazing like i didn't become like a some kind of a musician with the throwbacks because of this you know it's like what you wake up to at three in the morning that will determine your future so you were lucky i wish i could wake up to that at three in the morning i'm telling you it was uh and when i got satellite radio all these years later when i was ended up working there yeah one of the first channels i discovered was classic radio so they have an entire channel all they do is run classic radio

shows right from the from the 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s is phenomenal and one of the greatest times i ever had was when they invited me to fill in as a host on that channel uh over a couple of different summers for like a week at a time cool and uh that was that was just cool because it was taking taking me right back to my sort of initial love of radio and and what sort of brought me into it like theater of the mind right like i mean this is completely yeah a shadow right you know all the old westerns gun smoke uh we were just listening to a show the other night uh dragnet so dragnet was a famous tv show in the 50s right what was a radio show before that and as it's celebrating its 71st anniversary this year the radio show show is, and still runs in all the replays

on classic radio. So when you're listening to a 71-year-old radio show and it still kind of stands up today, it's kind of cool. Although it is kind of funny when you juxtapose a radio show where they talk about all the kids

smoking pot. And you juxtapose that with today it's pretty it doesn't exactly stand up but still entertaining so but yeah so so end up uh jumping into sports radio in ottawa and um within three years of that i end up being offered a job in Toronto with Chum as part of the team radio network that they launched. And so I came to Toronto as a producer of the afternoon show there with, with Jim Van Horn and Steven Brunt and was producing for them. You know, it's funny.

I mentioned them, but I actually wasn't conscious of that fun fact. You just spilled. So just coincidentally, those two people have already been mentioned in this episode. That's right. Like one for living in Newfoundland and one for the affiliation with AMI. And so, yeah.

And it is now an appropriate time for me to, because I've had a lot of the team people on the show, but were you at that meeting they called when they announced? Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, what can you share about that? Because I've heard such, you know, I heard- I can share everything. Okay, because Paul Romanoff-

I can share everything. Did Paul Romanoff- Yes, Romanoff. Yeah. Oh, okay. Romy was- He turned red, right? Romy said things to ownership there that everybody wanted to say

and asked the questions that everybody wanted to say and, and ask the questions that everybody wanted to ask. And it was funny because when I got let go at Sirius XM after a decade, I, I did get the opportunity to ask those questions myself of, of management as they were letting me go. Of course I didn't get any answers, but, but at the time we,

with chum, so many of us were just young guys 26 27 28 some of us getting our first real big break a lot of us having moved um you know and and it was at the time they sold us on a on a five-year plan right and it it didn't happen that way uh for all kinds of reasons and so when uh it it was a monday afternoon that we got an email saying come in tomorrow and we got a meeting at noon and so van horn and i were in there at our usual time. Brunt was on the road. I can't remember what he was covering, but Steve was still working for the Globe at the time,

so he would still be traveling at times. But when you see security guards, like rental security guards being brought in through the back door, things are probably going to go your way. So I guess i was curious uh you must like seeing all these things you picked up pretty quick of what was about to go down right because that's some people are like i guess would be uh naive in denial right naive denial right but you well the thing is there'd been there had been some people let go roughly three months before that.

So some of the management of the radio station at the time had been let go earlier. Now, I was on the road when that happened. My wife, she's a vice principal in an elementary school now, but at the time was a teacher. And we were on an end-of-year school trip trip off in woods in quebec somewhere kind of sports camp no media of course back then you know you don't have smartphones so when we pull over at the mcdonald's in kingston on division street that i'm sure everyone has been through at least once in their life. Right. I pick up a newspaper and flipping through the sports page, and there's about a third of a page article, and the title says, Team Fires Management,

or something to that effect. And I start reading through it and realize they're talking about the place that I work at. Wow. And all management basically has been blown out and the last line was some producers were also let go and now i'm panicking sure i figure i'm out right right so when i got home i must have had about 25 voicemails the first one was from Van Horn who said, don't worry, you're okay. We're, we're still going ahead here.

And that, that was the plan at the time that we were going to, we were going to sort of refocus and, and keep doing our thing and do some things differently, but that we were going ahead. Right. And, and things changed pretty quickly. So yeah, it's tough. It was, it was the first time in my, when I woke up the next morning in our apartment, it was really the first time since my very first part-time job that I, that I didn't have work, that I was out of work.

We had just bought a house. And just like a lot of the guys that I worked with, they just bought homes. They just got married. Some of them were starting their families. And we'd been led to understand that we were moving forward and that things were going to be different, but that we were part of the new plan. And then within three months, we weren't. And where did you go from there? Like, when do you next get a gig?

I followed my friend Van Horn. I got really lucky. Jim went to Sportsnet eventually i actually got to sportsnet before he did but jim put me in touch with scott moore and scott got me an interview and within two weeks maybe i'd i'd switched over into television working in the highlight department at sports net and i was at sports net for three years i worked at highlights and then i worked on their assignment desk for a year and a half and i learned so much i made so many great long-lasting friendships there but the one the one thing that I was really happy about was working with Jim again, because Jim Van Horn, and I can say this because I've told him this before.

I mean, the first month and a half I was here alone. My wife had to finish out the school year in Ottawa. And Jim was the father figure for guy who's been there for me with fantastic advice or just a great ear. Um, and so when I, I, I moved on from, from Sportsnet to go to, to XM and NHL radio and was there for 10 years And then move on from, and then get laid off there to find myself at AMI, Accessible Media Inc. And once again, find myself working with Van Horn from time to time. It was,

it's just, it's one of those sort of cosmic tumblers clicking into place. Well, you're preaching to the converted here because, what,

I'm trying to do the math in my head yeah three times i've had jim van horn on this show twice in person he came he came for the deep dive we hit it off he came back to kick out the jams and then we did a pandemic like one of the early pandemic episodes was me checking in with jim van horn so I, I, I'm wondering, did you ever cycle with him? Did you ever hit the trail with him? No, we played golf. We played golf, but no, I've, I've never been much of a, of a, of a cycling guy. Well, you got good trails there in Ajax.

Oh, I know. I know we do. I know we do. And when I was probably about 15, 16, I was really into it. And being in Ottawa, I mean, I biked to school in the summer. In the winter, I would skate the length of the Rideau Canal because I lived right down in the market. Of course. So I would skate to school in the wintertime, which was fantastic.

Right. But, you know, the Gatineau Hills and everything on the Quebec side, I mean, we would get on our bikes for hours and hours and hours. But I don't know, as I grew older, I sort of moved away from it. Now, my friend, unlike Jim. So you're, you're describing my life in that as a teenager, I biked everywhere, everywhere to U of T to working at the X, like the bike was everything I rode everywhere. And then I would say for 15 years, like from maybe, uh, like from approximately, uh, there was a good 15 year period when I'm like from my age of 20 to 35, where I never touched a bicycle, like 15 years, never touched a bike.

And then my wife, Monica bought me a bike, I guess, for my, like, I don't know, my 35th birthday or something like that. And, you know, that first year I clock everything. So the first year I, my 35th birthday or something like that. And that first year, I clock everything. So the first year, I rode maybe 200K total for the whole year. But then all of a sudden, the next year, it's sort of like I got the bug and I literally bike every single day. I'm just saying 46 is a perfect age to hit those trails, buddy. I'm a walker.

So I like to get out for nice long walks and hikes um but i think back to to my teenage years and i mean i didn't get a driver's license till i was 20 or 21 um and the only reason was i'd just gotten the first radio gig was working in promotions and was gonna have to drive station vehicles so i had to get a driver's license. Plus, the graduated licensing system was coming into Ontario, and I didn't want to go through that. And I got in with like two weeks to spare. So that was great. That was a 365 when you got the 365.

That's right. I know. That's how I got it. It's true. It went away kind of in our early 20s. So do you remember the homework assignment? Oh, by the way, I guess so AMI just I want to just tell people they don't know what AMI is like I happen to know but many people listening are like what does that mean AMI? So tell us what AMI is. Well, thank you for for asking because AMI is

Accessible Media Inc. They are on your TV channel or your TV set either with AMI TV or AMI audio or both. They're also online at AMI.ca. And Accessible Media Inc. began many, many years ago under a different name as a reading service for the blind in Canada. And so people would read newspaper and magazine articles. They would read fly grocery flyers. They would read anything. Right. And it grew over the years to the point where it is now known as AMI. There is still a reading show component to that,

which is what Jim does. Jim hosts the guardian this week, which is a reading of articles from The Guardian. There's the Globe and Mail show, which runs every week. But over the last four years, they also went from producing sort of longer form documentary programming to getting into live programming. And so I was brought in as the original host of their morning show for their audio channel. And from there, they've developed a midday show as well as an afternoon drive show. And all of our shows are always done through the lens of disability,

Always done through the lens of disability, focusing as much as we can on blind Canadians and Canadians living with disabilities, issues that affect them, but also how issues that aren't necessarily related to being blind or having a disability can still have an impact on them. And we dig into those stories, whether it's technology, whether it's news, whether it's current affairs, we dig into those things and we've got community reporters from across the country. We have contributors that come on every day and we've grown it to the point now where the morning show is now hosted by Dave Brown, who's a longtime radio guy, was in Ottawa and Montreal, and then with AMI-tv. And Dave now hosts it. It's called Now with Dave Brown. It's on every morning from 9am to 11am Eastern time. It's also on AMI-tv. Right now,

kind of difficult because we're not in the studio so it's it's audio with some graphics rather than the actual cameras being on but that'll come back at some point as well but everything we do is is about Canadians with disabilities and Canadians who are blind or partially sighted and and bringing them the news so so i started hosting that show i'm now uh part of the production team but i also do host a show every morning called the gazette which is our new show from 8 to 9 a.m eastern and we've got news entertainment weather, you name it. And it's a phenomenal company. The people that I've been able to work with there over the years, I mean, I mentioned Van Horn, but Lloyd Robertson.

Wow. Roger Ashby. I know. Nancy Wilson. Wait, wait, Nancy Wilson from Heart? Who are we talking about here? Nancy Wilson from CBC. Used to be at the news world i don't know why i was thinking heart there for a moment i'm like wait a minute here okay please continue yes but they you know it's just a tremendous uh

roster of uh of on-air talent of fantastic production people amazing uh in you know in uh behind the scenes and it's really been tremendous for me um because it as far as i'm concerned it is the most um relevant broadcasting i've ever done and i say that after doing 10 years of NHL radio across North America, which when I was doing that and starting that, I thought, wow, this really means something to people because there's guys listening in Texas who don't have hockey coverage and this is everything to them. But when you start hearing about how marginalized some people with disabilities and people who are blind or partially sighted feel as far as media goes, and you start sort of filling those gaps for them, it's really quite rewarding. And certainly the most rewarding part of my broadcasting career. Oh, no, that's great to hear.

And thank you for the great description of what AMI is up to. I think unless you've heard the Jim Van Horn episode of Toronto Mike, you might not know what AMI is all about. So very, very, very cool. Now, Mike, do you remember the homework assignment? I have it right in front of me. All right. So since you've got the announcer voice, announce the homework assignment. I rarely do this. I don't know if I've ever done it before, but I have a guest coming on and I assign you a task. What did I assign you, Mike? Okay. So let me sort of set the table here. you know chris cooksey oh my god you know chris

cooksey yeah how do you know chris cooksey chris and i met uh as oh my god i think we would have been like 12 years old oh yeah he's an ottawa guy right well at the time he he didn't live in ottawa he was still in pickering but his grandparents were at the same campground as my family was. Okay. All right. And so one day I see this guy walking down the road, and he's got this really cool Brooklyn Dodgers cap on. And I just said, hey, nice hat, man. What is that?

He says, the Brooklyn Dodgers. And we literally just hit it off there, started talking baseball. And we would see each other every summer and of course this is back in the day where you'd write letters from time to time because you didn't have a fax machine or anything like that so we were we were buddies and um wow we ended up we'd play a little ball together and all these years later, I ended up moving to Toronto. We reconnect and I coach youth baseball and have for many years. And so does Chris. And so, so after not really seeing much of each other for almost 20 years,

we met on a baseball diamond with my team playing his team with my, with our kids, a youth team playing his youth team and uh so so that's how i sort of got into your podcast was was through chris chris telling me about it i had no idea can i let me just say that we're recording now on uh what is today a wednesday is this wednesday or tuesday wednesday right okay it is wednesday it's garbage day at my house okay well if you had an app you would have yeah you gotta subscribe if you haven't already right you're not a good FOTM come on so I recorded Monday morning and again I never talk about the corporate podcasts I record I talk a lot about

Hebsey on sports or down the stretch of Peter Gross or Humble and Fred or whatever uh or Ralph Ben-Murray's fantastic podcast which I was a guest on last week not that kind of rabbi but i never talk about the corporate podcasts but i recorded monday morning with chris cooksy and he didn't even give me a heads up that he knew you uh i had no idea so cooksy's a been a great we become friends i took him to see the watchman at danforth music hall i think that was like 18 months ago or something like that. And we've become buds, but he's also a TMDS client. So awesome to have a little cooksy chat and hear more about him. That's cool.

Great guy, great family. And not just his wife and kids, but his mom, his dad, his sister. I got to know all of them over the years so so he got me onto your podcast okay and as i started following along and listening i started noticing man there are a lot of people that are on this podcast that i've either worked

with um or had some kind of association with through through my work as a host or a producer or an announcer. And so you sent me multiple pages here with all the guests that you've had on your podcast. So if people want to follow along at home and why wouldn't you if you go to torontomic.com i have a link at the top i think it's called notable guests i think but if you click the link link for notable guests it's basically like i throw people in a bucket like

you're either radio and a lot of people belong in multiple buckets but you only get to go in one bucket that's the hardest decision where do i put you but radio television music print miscellaneous so i throw you in a bucket and you get onto the notable uh guests page and i sent you there and i and what did i specifically i asked you to document everybody yeah okay document everyone that i've that i've worked with or have had some kind of association with. Page one. I'm sorry, but this is going to take a little bit of time. I'm ready. The floor is yours, Mike.

Kevin McDonald from the Kids in the Hall. Kevin McDonald liked one of my tweets a few weeks ago about the Kids in the Hall, which I just thought was amazing. That is amazing. But, um, that's,

if that would, you know, by that rationale, I could say Ricky Gervais is a buddy of mine because, uh, once he, I didn't say buddy. Okay.

We're not buddies. All right. I just, that's, that's the mild association. I love kids in the hall. So that's fantastic. Strombo.

Yeah. I interviewed, I interviewed George, uh, at the all-Star game, the NHL All-Star game in Montreal. Jack Armstrong. Okay, but hold on. Here, I get a chance. How about this? You name the

FOTM that you're connected to somehow, and then I get to kind of chime in. Okay, sure. Just to say, George, who grew up in Rexdale here in Toronto, is unabashedly a Habs fan, and when I asked him when he was on the show, and I said, is unabashedly a Habs fan. And when I asked him when he was on the show, I said, why the hell are you a Habs fan? Because I grew up in this city and to me, we're a Leafs fan.

Basically, it sounds like he became a Habs fan just to be a dick. Just because that was the arch rival of the team everybody in the city was rooting for. So the origin of Strombo's Hab fandom was basically I think just to be a dick. Continue. Jack Armstrong. Get that garbage out of here!

GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. That was really good. Well you started off really strong. Then you faded into Mike. Right. Well, you started off really strong. And then I weakened. And then you faded into Mike. Right. How do you know Jack? So Jack and I worked together at Sportsnet.

And Jack will always have a special place in my heart because at the time, my wife's school had a couple of basketball teams, grade seven and grade eight students basketball teams but no coach and so my wife signed me up i had tried out for our basketball team in high school in grade nine got cut never played again didn't didn't know a lot about the strategy of the game i understood the game i watched the game. I watched the game, but I never played it.

So Jack actually became my coaching mentor. And so Jack would actually give me drills. He would draw out different drills that I could run during practice. And when I would see him a couple of days later, he'd always pull me aside so how'd it go how'd it go how did this work you know are they picking this up is this working all right what's the problem what do you need help with it was just phenomenal it's just phenomenal so jack armstrong always always has a special place in my heart jack's a sweetheart uh in fact

it's hard to believe i had in-person guests in 2020, but he was one of them earlier this year. I'm glad he helped you. I heard a lot of stories like that where Jack would just help people out best he could without fanfare and publicity and stuff. That's really cool. Absolutely.

Bob McKenzie from TSN. The Bob father. That's right. Bob was a daily contributor on Van Horn and Brunt. So I would talk to Bob every day for a year and a half. And the great thing about Bob was you never had to set anything up with Bob. You call him up. He'd answer the phone and he'd say, I'm ready.

You didn't have to say, okay, we want to talk about this. We want to talk about that. Didn't matter. I'll talk about anything. Let's go. All right. Phenomenal radio. Wow.

Ron McLean. Oh, no, you got to give me my chance to chime in. Oh, sure. That was during the period of time. There was a brief period of time where there was a nanny watching my two youngest and she was upstairs,

massive hockey fan, although she was a Bruins fan for some reason, which I think might be for the same reason Strongbow was a Habs fan and a big Habs, but she had no idea

who was recording with me. We came up because they were on a walk or something and then they were in the kitchen and all of a sudden emerging from the basement

was Bob McKenzie and her brain literally exploded because she had no idea. She's like, what's going on? Why is Bob McKenzie coming out of the basement? So she had this moment. And she got a picture of Bob. And Bob was great. So next. Bob was phenomenal. Absolutely. Still is. Ron McLean. Ron McLean. I've interviewed Ron many times in the decade that I was at NHL Radio, but I also once got a chance to go out drinking with Ron McLean. Wow. And it was a wonderful evening. He had been the emcee at the very first ever sports celebrity dinner that we did in Ottawa. And Ron said, OK, where are we going after this? So off we went to Elgin Street. We ended up at a piano bar called Maxwell's and Ron bought drinks for everybody for the rest of the night. Wow. Phenomenal gentleman. And when I told Ron that I was making my very

first trip ever to Maple Leaf Gardens about a month later, Ron said, okay, end of the first intermission, come to the hallway at the Maple Leafs dressing room. There'll be a security guard there. His name's Bert. Tell Bert that I'm expecting you. So my wife and I mosey on down late in the first period. And the security guard brings us to the hockey night in Canada studio, which is right across the hallway from the Leafs dressing room.

The old, you know, half wooden half glass pane door with the old hockey night logo on it. Right. And we watched Ron and Don do coach's corner in the bowels of maple leaf gardens in my first ever trip to the gardens. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. So thankful and always will be thankful for that memory. Thanks to Ron. Now, Ron's a true sweetheart in that he came, I don't know, he might've come on time. Maybe he came early, but I was on a business call with

Germany and he sat on the couch and listened to the call, which was about web development and asked me many interesting questions afterwards. And he seemed genuinely interested and was very cool about the fact that I made him wait through this phone call. Real, real great experience of Ron McLean. I'll never forget it.

And I know he loves his Great Lakes beer because shortly thereafter, he decided to drop in at his Great Lakes beer because shortly thereafter, he decided to drop in at the Great Lakes Brewery on 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard. And I was wondering, that day he paid for the beers, but I understand because we have

mutual friends as well that Ron has pretty high tolerance for the beer. It must have been quite the night. It was a thrilling night. It really was for all of us. Next up, Steve Pakin. Who's on the show next week?

Oh, is he really? I don't know. I'm going to tell you this story. I'm sitting here saying, well, yeah, I know Steve Pakin. Steve Pakin will likely not have an ounce of memory of me. Okay, let's hear it.

We had a mutual connection who did our business reports when Van Horn and Brunt were doing their show on Chum. And so when we were in Montreal for the Grey Cup in 2001, our mutual connection said, hey, let's go out for dinner. Steve Pagan's in town too. He's going to join us. So I once had dinner with Steve Pagan. He may not remember it, but I did. Van Horn was there. Brunt was there. And, uh, it was very nice.

Oh, those are some Hamilton guys there. Cause, uh, Brunt and, uh, Pakin are kind of Hamilton guys. Yeah. Amazing. So that's the Pakin connection. Okay, so what's happening next week, and this might segue next into another name you'll drop soon, but I'm reuniting.

So apparently back in the olden days when they were very young, there was a Cable 10 show, came out of some show on CIUT radio, U of T radio, that featured Michael Landsberg and Steve Paikin. So they worked together. This is like, I guess, early 80s. And they're reuniting on Toronto Mic'd on next Tuesday. So Paikin and Landsberg on Toronto Mic'd on Tuesday.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Crazy that we could do this kind of stuff next on the list is jerry howarth hooking hooking foul go ahead hello fans welcome blue jays baseball is on the air i love jerry um and in my role at the team radio network, we were the blue Jays radio station. Right. So had a chance to talk to Jerry, to Tom, uh, to Sarge, uh, Gary Matthews, and, uh, also, uh, Don Chevrier, who of course was, was long affiliated with the blue Jays. Don would fill in as a, a host or co-host with us

from his place in Florida if Van Horn or Brunt were unable to host. So Jerry Howarth was a pretty regular guest with us because of the Blue Jays. So love that. Okay, so he came over. We had a great 90 minutes where he answered all my questions

and it was unbelievable. But apparently I left quite the mark because we've been very friendly ever since like i think he really uh appreciated and enjoyed the experience this is me patting myself on the back i guess but when i was trying to hunt down and maybe this is another name we'll hear soon but when i was trying to hunt down uh scott ferguson uh i i decided to write a note to my buddy, Jerry Howarth, who he's such a sweetheart. He literally like called up. He called up Scott Ferguson and basically had a chat with Scott, checked in on him and then asked Scott if he'd be willing to do Toronto Mike and vouched for Toronto Mike. And next thing you know, during this pandemic, actually, we had a phone call, me and Scott Ferguson. And he was one of those names I really wanted to connect with.

So Jerry Howarth is a mensch. Absolutely is. And you mentioned Fergie. There's another great connection in Scott Ferguson that we worked together at 1050 in Toronto, Blue Jays baseball. And just a pro's pro. And just a pros pro. If you want to learn about the business of radio, what it takes not only to get in it, but to stay in it,

Scott Ferguson's the guy that you want to talk to. All right, Roger Ashby. I've already mentioned this slight connection. Let's hear it. This is one of the great radio legends we have in the GTA. Right. So when I was at 1050, Roger was still co-hosting on Chum FM. And now, well, up until about three months ago, we were crossing paths pretty regularly at AMI because Roger is the host of The Walrus this week on AMI and also one of the regular readers for the reading service on AMI. I didn't know that.

Yeah. And now he's hosting some oldie show that's syndicated into different stations across the country. But I think this is the sweet spot for Roger Ashby, talking about those golden oldies he loves so much. He knows his music that man. Oh my goodness. A lot of the folks that I got to meet at CHUM in the day, just absolute encyclopedias, right? Of rock and roll and radio history in this country.

I mean, if those walls could speak, boy, oh, boy, it was a phenomenal place. Wow. So we've mentioned Brunt. Yes. I don't need to dwell on Steve. Except to say that I got a Facebook, I guess I got one of those Facebook memories that said it was, I don't know how many years, I guess it was a couple of years since Stephen Brunt came over to kick out the jams. So I revisited that episode, and that's a special episode. I mean, both the Brunt episodes of Toronto Mike, they're

really awesome. I don't know if you've checked any of them out. You probably have because you worked with Brunt and you know him from... Well, he's going to get you to buy a home in Newfoundland. But Brunt's a special guy in that he's an amazing talent when it comes to writing about sports and talking about sports. But he's also

quite an amazing music fan who can speak eloquently about, especially Canadian music. Like that was a great experience for me was the two visits by Stephen Brunt. And I think he digs this show. So he might be listening to us right now. Hello, Stephen.

Hello, Brunski. One of the best things and things I was most impressed with about steve you're right he's i mean his writing is phenomenal his knowledge he's just such a smart well-spoken guy um but it's how passionate he is about things and so when we were in woody point newfoundland uh visiting steven last year um he was a big part of starting the writers festival in Woody Point and going through one of the local restaurants where they put on a lot of the activities there just photo after photo of Steve with all these you know amazing Canadian

icons of music of literature of of acting and you And he was able to get all of these people from all parts of the country into this small little town in rural Newfoundland. Right. But that's the power of his passion. He will draw you in and he'll make you feel it. I mean, we're talking heavyweights. We're talking like Gord Downie once was Gordon Pinsent.

Right. Right. All the Gordies. All the Gord. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Anybody named Gord. Watch out. Brunt's coming after you. Is Stella going to make an appearance one day soon? Is that? There you go. Yeah. And with Steven, the other the other thing was I love talking boxing. I mean, he's such a such a just a a real student of the game yeah um and and through steven you know the opportunity came up that you know talked to don king once um you know back back in the day when we're

heavyweight fights still meant something in back in the early 2000s and yes so to have steven there um as as the guy sort of telling these stories for us there was nobody better well in the in in my opinion to to talk boxing well my i've shared this story far too many times but for my money the best uh one of the best things is hearing Stephen Brunt chat with Burt Randolph Sugar. Oh, my goodness. You know, this would be primarily on Primetime Sports with non-FOTM Bob McCowan. But unbelievable. Like, I could listen to that for hours.

Well, he got us Bob Sugar. He got us, or Burt Sugar, rather. He got us Don King. He got us Bert Sugar, rather. He got us Don King and Double Shock Power. Double Shock Power. I remember it as Double Shock Power. See, I remember it as Double Shot.

Isn't that funny? Because I would love to go back to the video and hear what the heck Don was saying. Because I thought it was Double Shock Power. But you anyways. I digress. Continue, please. Tomato, tomato, shot, shot. Scott McArthur. Hey, morning show host on the Fan 590.

So Scott, I ran into Scott about three years ago in the press box at a Leafs game. And we hadn't seen each other since I'd gotten a gig, but we had the mutual connection at the time. He was at TSN radio and his producer had been my producer at NHL radio. And prior to that was our sports director at 10 50, 20 years ago. And so Scott was congratulating me. And he said, he said, who would have thunk when I was your intern back in 98 or 99 that we'd be where we're at now?

And I said, what? we'd be where we're at now. And I said, what? I had no recollection that Scott had interned on my show, but it had, it happened at a time where I think the sort of the wheels had sort of started to be in motion with me moving to Toronto. So I had a lot of, you were distracted and a little bit distracted, but it started coming back to me. And it was amazing to me to think that the guy who's now hosting mornings on the fan, right. Actually interned with me. And it got me thinking about

when I started at AMI and I would take vacation and they'd say, okay, well, we're going to get Van Horn to fill in for you. I was like, whoa, man, worlds are colliding here. Because I was Van Horn's producer. Now Jim's filling in for me. Like it really is the circle of life. It's just, you know, as I say this often, again, I'm not from your industry at all.

I just chat with you guys, but it's just such a small such a small world you know like you're all kind of connected somehow you're all like very closely connected but quick to bring it to the show here real quick is that austin keitner who's a fantastic real estate agent with the keitner group he and i hope i have this story right i believe scott macarthur's brother was like best friends growing up with austin keitner from the keitner group i think there's a so i know when scott macarthur has been on this show 399 i thought that's why we're talking about him he's an fotm he was episode 399 uh he when when he heard austin keitner was uh the show, he sent me this note about how he's connected to Austin. So small world after all. It is.

It really is. I remember one of the notes I got when I left Sportsnet from one of the managers said, you know, it's a small business. Media in Canada is a small business and, you know, you've done good work.

We wish you the best and and I know we'll likely meet again right and last year I was hired by a radio station in Montreal on a freelance gig to to do an interview with the right now the guy's name escapes me, but he's a place for the Houston Astros, a Quebec kid. And I'm fully bilingual. So they said, hey, can and they've hired me for other gigs. So they said, can you go down and interview this guy? And I said, sure. So I'm sitting in the dugout waiting.

And as people started to clear out, I noticed the guy sitting a couple of spots over from me was that manager who sent me that note when i left sports net and went to xm abraham toro rick brace no i'm sorry oh the player yes abraham toro that's right yeah sorry so rick brace was the was was the management guy who had sent me that note. And 19 years later, we're sitting in the Blue Jays dugout together. And I got a chance to thank him in person for that note all those years ago. But that just, again, shows you how small the world is.

Yeah, I know. You can't burn any bridges because there's only a few bridges and you'll get yourself stranded. Gord Stelic. Hey, the aforementioned Gord, Gordourd stellick who i chatted with the other day talk to me about gourd so gourd and i had crossed paths numerous times through sports through sports broadcasting um and and i'm gonna say this with the most humor and and and honest to god no hard feelings no ill will when i got let go at xm and serious

xm and nhl radio gordon stellick took over he got hired to to take my my spot on that on the morning show right and and so we'll always be connected through that and i know you know so many people in the days and weeks after that you know in trying to be supportive of me you know weren't necessarily supportive of of gourd and his new co-host and all i could say to them was gourd's a great guy you cannot wish anything bad for gourd stelic there's just there's just nobody nicer right and and i know that if the shoe had been on the other foot gourd stelic would have said the same thing so that's the connection to gourd will always be connected through something that some people

would love to perceive as negative but it was anything but because that change in my career opened up a whole bunch of new doors. I wouldn't be the PA announcer for the Maple Leafs if it hadn't happened because there's just way too much of a conflict of interest in being a PA announcer and covering the NHL for NHL radio. So, so that's a, that's a good connection.

Now, Gord's been on the show twice. And in fact, last week, so I also, what do I do? I produce the Humble and Fred show, and primarily that means I put guests into the Humble and Fred calendar,

so today I put Darren Drager in there, I put my buddy Peter Gross in there Monday, I have Deanie Petty in there tomorrow, so basically I'm putting FOTMs in the Humble and Fred calendar, basically. And I was chatting with Gord last week because Gord's become a great FOTM. And I'm like, hey, it's time for you to make your Humble and Fred debut. So he's, I think, on the 22nd.

He's going to appear on that show. But yeah, Gord's a good guy. Has Draeger been on with you? Yeah, of course. Draeger came over. but yeah, it was a good guy. Has Drager been on with you? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Drager's Drager Drager came over. I collected the whole TSN hockey crew there. I got,

well, not all of them, but I got James Delty's been here by McKenzie, Darren Drager. Absolutely. Absolutely. Cause I, Drager was another guy at sports net when I was there.

Right. He's one of those rare guys who crossed the parking lot, as they say. Yeah. Well, until Chris Cuthbert last week. I know. I actually was thinking, like, it doesn't happen that often. Like, I would think it would happen more often. But it's almost, and I did say this to Scott Moore when he was on the show, and I don't think he liked me asking the question, but that's what I do.

I provide the real talk but i uh i felt like maybe there was some unwritten collusion rule like why isn't there more poaching of like a sports net asset by tsn or vice versa so it's interesting to see chris cuthbert uh it's kind of because because drager that was like early like 2006 or something when he crossed the parking lot and went to TSN. That's a long time ago. And Chris Cuthbert did just do it, but it doesn't happen that often. It's very interesting. And you know, when I was at Sportsnet, they were at Agent Court as well.

So you had TSN in one building, in the CTV building. You had Sportsnet in the back lot building. And we both shared the same cafeteria, which made for really interesting dinners. I bet. I bet. That's too funny. How that works. Mike Richards.

Wow. There's an FOTM for you. Talk to me, I guess. Yeah. At the team, right? Well,

at the team, uh, Mike's brother, Scott is my best friend, uh, was our technical producer on Van Horn and Brunt. And I'm the godfather to his daughter. So Mike's niece.

I'm the godfather. So I've gotten to know Mike very, very well over the years because of knowing his brother, Scott. Well, there's a sweetheart. I mean, I would have him on every couple of weeks if I could because he brings the real talk. That's a man who just shoots from the hip. Love having that guy on the show.

And funny. Oh, yeah. It's just, oh, my God. And ask him about kicking. He'll deny this, but everybody who was there knows it remembers it we were watching the great cop and he he and his brother scott they both have it in their heads that if they just tried a little bit harder they could have been professional football players oh my god nothing is further from the truth for either one of them right but they also think remember when tsn ran that field goal kicking contest sort of yeah

well they both were out at the field practicing because they thought that they could still do it and and mike did it in the living room at scott's house during great cup but he kind of missed the imaginary ball that he was trying to hit and he actually kicked my glass full of rum and Coke right into my face. I can break it too. So yeah. Okay. So I got all the time in the world for Mike Richards.

He knows this. He's been on several times. Have you, by any chance, have you heard every Mike Richards appearance on Toronto Mike? I have not. That would be impossible. I got to set,

I got to set a, set aside. What a week. I think so. It's full value though. Uh, in fact, got to set aside, what, a week? Either. I think so. It's full value, though. In fact, I know from some people who love to listen, like I'm thinking of you, Brian Gerstein, that Mike Richards' favorite old-time Toronto Mike guest.

So he brings it every time. So I'd love to hear these stories. By the way, how many more on your list? Just approximate. Well, that's page one. Okay, how many pages? Well, how many pages did you send me? I don't have a time limit or anything. I'm just, okay. No, that's page one okay how many pages well how many pages i don't have a time limit or anything i'm just okay oh that's fine but how about i just read through them

and if something really huge jumps out at you we'll jump in okay so page two uh tim langton who we talked about well we talked before i press record though so the podcast listeners didn't okay so so tim langton of course blue j announcer, PA announcer. He and I worked together at 1050. Tim was one of our update guys. And you guys are in the brotherhood, right? There's only so many. You and Herbie Kuhn. And I know they haven't announced who it is yet,

but they chose a brand new public PA announcer for TFC at BMO Field. Yeah, he did one game. Oh, he did one game. Oh, he did one game. Who was it? And then the lockdown. Anybody we know?

Well, I think he'd been at Ryerson before. That's right. There was one game, yeah. And he and I worked together at the Pan Am Games. I was doing baseball. He was doing softball. And I'm kicking myself right now. Because I know multiple people who tried out for that particular one

who's a neighbor, a voiceover guy who tried out. And I know Hebsey himself was interested, although he didn't get to that final round of auditions. But Hebsey was interested in the position as well. But interesting. Okay, yeah yeah he did do one game that's right but okay so yeah tim langton uh is very keen on uh basically having a pa announcer pa uh public address announcer i always get that confused a pa announcer at the

games even if there's no one in the stands like he's very keen on this for obvious reasons. But yeah, he's a good FOTM. Who else you got? Absolutely. Eric Alper. So Eric and I... Alex Bloomfield, by the way, is the TFC announcer. Alex Bloomfield from 680 News. Okay. Interesting. Eric and I were

at SiriusXM. We would cross paths at SiriusXM all the time. He's a nice guy. And still works on the Canada Talks channel and other shows there. Hooked me up with Gino Vanelli, so people know.

Oh, there you go. Yeah. Scott Moore, we mentioned already. Yes, twice he's been. Got my interview on at Sportsnet. Mark Breslin.

Oh, yuck yucks. Mark Breslin was actually at Yuck Yucks. He was, he actually ran the first comedy channel, the first Canadian comedy channel at XM before the two XM and Sirius merged. So I would see Mark around the office all the time. He's an old dad now.

Like he has his first kid who might be something like 10 years old. But meanwhile, Breslin, I don't know. I don't want to speak at a school, but I think he might be like seven who might be something like 10 years old. But meanwhile, Breslin, I don't know. I don't want to speak at a school, but I think he might be like 70 years old or something like that. So he's an old first time dad. But quick thing on Breslin is he came over. We had a great time.

He was very interesting. So he's physically here. That's how we used to do this, Mike. But then I booked him on Ralph Ben-Murray show. And we did that via Zoom. And I could tell he had no memories of me. So I didn't want to like embarrass him or whatever but it's like I didn't leave an impression

on FOTM Mark Breslin. I could just tell he had no idea he'd ever encountered me before. I'm like dude you sat here in my basement in my studio for 90 minutes but okay continue please. Well if you ask Mark Breslin or Steve Paikin about me you'll get the same

i'll ask steve next week i have him on next week i'll ask him uh clint bubba o'neill chch so bubba and i worked together at sportsnet so when i was uh cutting highlights with the editor bubba was the associate producer who would work alongside us. So I worked with Bubba a lot while I was at Sportsnet. Great guy. I got an email, a nice email from him the other day

to tell me how much he enjoyed the, and was grateful for the episode I did with Garvia Bailey and Donovan Bennett. Basically, I did a lot of listening and they talked about- Yes, it was phenomenal. Oh, thank you so much. We're actually,

we're getting Donovan on AMI tomorrow. I think Donovan's making the round. I feel like I'm not trying to get credit for this. But I had him on that Sunday, a couple of Sundays ago, and I noticed, yeah, Donovan's out there. He's making the

media round, so it's good that you get him on. His presence on media, but also on social media through the last few weeks has just been phenomenal well as cam gordon from twitter canada tells me donovan gets it he gets it yeah yeah he gets it and he'll help you get it he really will right um all right steven page and tyler stewart whoa bare naked ladies yes indeed Whoa, Barenaked Ladies. Yes, indeed. The connection there, I once got to hang out with them for an entire day when I first worked in radio promos because we were presenting them at a CD warehouse in Ottawa, a live private show. Wow.

And then saw them again when they played for us a private show at the radio station when I worked for for chum in Ottawa cool and they're probably I think they're probably the band that I've seen most live it's bare naked ladies so do you have an opinion uh like like what do you because I've seen the ladies without Stephen and uh yes I feel they're missing Stephen but I agree but yeah it's just and I always get sad when Stephen, but not, I agree, but yeah, it's just, and I always get sad when they play a song, like,

I don't know, like, like if they do a Brian Wilson or something. And, and of course Ed's doing the lead vocals and I just feel like that Stephen song, Hey, what's going on here? It just doesn't feel quite right.

But having said that, I gotta be careful only because what a great FOTM Tyler Stewart is. He listens to toronto mike that he's probably listening to us right now and the band still sounds great but i miss stephen page and bare naked ladies like a lot of canadians i do too um but so happy and proud that the band that i've i think i've seen most of any in my life is Canadian. True. That's true. I think maybe mine is the Tragically Hip. Dave Bedini?

Dave Bedini from Real Statics. Dave Bedini from Real Statics. We interviewed Dave a lot when I was at NHL Radio. Both about hockey, but also about his baseball book, talking about baseball in italy which was just a phenomenal read uh just a great great guest no matter pretty much no matter what the topic

he's a good talker the man can talk and he's interesting i think he's uh that would be yeah he i have a lot of time for dave badini uh mark hebscher we've mentioned a million times no need to uh to hebsey on sports that's right mornings yep um arash madani at sportsnet arash and i uh crossed paths uh in ottawa when he was at the new ro and then multiple times over the years here in Ottawa. Paul Hendrick, of course, the Leafs Connection. Of course. So we'll run into Paul. And he's another 2020 guest. Like, it's funny, the people I met in 2020 in person,

it's a short list, really, and Paul's on that list. He was fantastic. Kyle Pekuskas at Sportsnet. So I run into Kyle all the time, but Kyle is responsible for one of the really cool moments that I've experienced as the Leafs PA announcer. And it was a producer

or one of the camera guys at Hockey Night had noticed that Jake Gardner would mimic my introduction of the starting lineup and the anthem singer. And so they put a camera on him, isolated him lineup and the anthem singer. And so they, they put a camera on him,

isolated him and they ran it during a game as one of their features, uh, a few weeks later. And, uh, the feedback I got from that was just tremendous. It was just hilarious. Oh,

you know, there was conscious, sorry, sorry. Did you, I didn't mean to interrupt your thought there. that's okay. Yeah.

It was just, it was a first for me that a player paid that much attention to what I was saying. And I just thought it was great. That is great. And of course, there was great controversy after Kyle Bukakis made his appearance on Toronto Mic'd because I was told by numerous people I spoke of his hair too often. So I have to be more conscious of how often I comment on people's hair. So this is a good opportunity. I don't speak of his hair too often so i have to be more conscious of how often i comment on people's hair so this is a good opportunity i don't i don't speak of his hair

but i mean you you know you don't know i i'm bald i've got there's no hair on my head you're bald but i was about to say mike you have the best beard and i actually think it works for you and i would recommend you keep the beard. There have been discussions. Keep it. You look fucking great, man. Thank you. Just keep that thing. Much like Chris Johnston, okay?

Chris Johnston, before and after the beard, no contest. That beard works for him. The thing with mine, though, is that there's so much more white and gray in it than the last time i had any facial hair that there you're not gonna you're not gonna uh get me confused with chris johnson anybody you're gonna get me confused with mandy patinkin that's who i'm going for now yeah so i'm gonna just but but with but with kyle i just end up staring at

the hair because i'm jealous right Right. Just such a good hair. Well, he's like 27 years old or something. Like, that's not really fair. You know, that's 20 years younger than us. Still. Still. Mike Toth, I worked with at Sportsnet. Toth, how's he doing?

Do you have any idea? Because I've lost touch with Toth, and I always wonder how he's doing. Same here. Same here. I worked with Mike at Sportsnet. I worked with his wife, Kathy, who is one of our producers there. And just good people. And just, again, small world, right?

I mean, you go to Calgary. Half of Calgary has worked with Mike. You come to Toronto, half of Toronto has worked with Mike. And it's just that small a world. To me, he was sort of like a more difficult to restrain Jay Onright, if you will. I'm just thinking of zany, funny kind of people who could present sports highlights and stuff.

And Toth, he's his own worst enemy. I don't think he's a listener. I don't know. I've lost touch. I really did enjoy my time with the man. But he'd say things, and then when he had an opportunity to walk them back or clarify things, he would sort of lean in. And sometimes I think it came across a bit dated and stuff.

So I would say he was his own worst enemy in that regard. But very talented and funny, and I wish him nothing but the best. I know he's very public about some mental health struggles he's had, and I hope he's doing okay. Matt Gurney, i crossed paths with at serious xm he was hosting the morning show on the national post or the national post show on canada talks and uh i would jump on there talk hockey talk all sports with matt all the time great guy yeah i met him the one time and uh enjoyed our combo and i know uh i think was it supriya duavetti that he

was co-hosting with okay yeah so i know she's still on with at 640 right okay so but not at the national not no not at the national post gotcha gotcha because i know she's yeah she co-hosts with mike stafford now but uh uh gurney yeah good guy and i'm glad he's uh he's writing i think with the national post again i believe yeah i saw that i that was great. I mean, he did a great job on the radio, but he's a tremendous writer and a great opinion writer, which is something I really appreciate. Don Landry. Hey. So Don was, of course, a member of the Toronto Brotherhood of PA announcers because he was the voice of the Toronto Argonauts for many years. Right.

And he's a sweetheart. He's in Stratford, which must be 100 million miles away from you. But I did do a pandemic episode of Landry just to catch up. I caught that. I caught that. Yeah. Nelson Millman. Hey.

Nelson Millman fired me at SiriusXM. Oh, I get it. That's right. I forgot he went to SiriusXM. Oh, I get that's right. I forgot. He went to Sirius XM after the fan there. He was brought into, uh, to shake things up and to make some changes. And,

and he went to his buddy and buddy Gord. I was the only guy. I was the only major change, uh, that happened. But again, as I said, it led to great things for me.

Um, and so I never really got a chance to work for nelson uh but that is that's the connection you though and you know you know when i look at that situation right like being the youngest general manager of the toronto may beliefs uh gives you a pretty high profile so it's oh sure so it's tough to compete with that but i feel for you buddy sean fitzgerald okay yeah he's at the uh athletic now that's right so sean and i because of the hockey coverage over the years he was a guest many times with us uh and the great thing about sean he would always come in studio like he'd gladly do it over the phone right but if he could be in studio he was there and tall guy too nice and tall you know i mean, but if he could be in studio, he was there. Tall guy, too. Nice and tall.

You know, I mean, it's always better in studio. Way better in studio. I like that guy. We have a long, ongoing feud about where I live. He likes to call it Mimico, and it's not Mimico. It's New Toronto, but I just think that guy's great. A lot of time for Sean Fitzgerald. And he recently wrote a book that seemed to do quite well. So good on Sean.

Marty York. Okay. I got to hear your thoughts on Marty because I had the most pleasant experience of Marty York. But when I would go to his Twitter feed, I'd want to punch the guy in the face. So there's two Martys out there. Tell me about your experience of Marty York.

So the Marty York i worked with was at sportsnet and um for for tv he was phenomenal of course this is pre-twitter pre-social media uh so i would argue that tv marty was kind of like social media Marty. He was an entertainer. And he was the type of guy that could get himself into trouble and didn't necessarily seem to want to walk it back. No way. But some would say that that's what made him really good.

And that's what made him entertaining. And he had that one finger point at the end of his commentaries. that's what made him really good. And that's what made him entertaining. And, you know, he had that, that one finger point at the end of his commentaries, he would like jam a finger into the camera almost. So entertaining. He's hardly, I would say entertaining is a good word for it,

but he's not particularly beloved by his colleagues in the media. Cause every time I bring up his name with somebody i get this look like this oh yeah you know this look and i know the look now because i've had it multiple times and it's like oh i guess we're not supposed to discuss his existence or whatever but uh again in my you know i had a couple hours with the guy and it was very pleasant he was very sweet but man on twitter he's a bit's a bit of a train wreck, I'd say. But interesting guy. We need further analysis.

David Schultz, who was at the Globe and Mail. So Dave was a panelist with us on Van Horn and Brunt the whole time that we were there. He was a regular panelist with us and just a salt of the earth guy you want a guy you want to have a drink with david schultz is a guy you want to have sit down and have a beer with right unless you're howard burger i think and then maybe you don't but i gotta say i again one of my favorite guests and i've had him multiple times and i would do it again somebody suggested the other day get schultz back on. I don't know if I want to bug him. I know his wife has him doing a lot of

work on the yard and stuff. He's trying to enjoy his retirement and stuff. I don't know if I want to pull him back into all this. He came on here to announce he was leaving the Globe. He opened up about the tragic death of his son when he was on the show kicking out the jams and brought me to tears. One of my

all-time favorite Toronto Mike guests, David Schultz. I'm just going to whip through the rest of these because otherwise we'll be here for days. I know. I'm thinking it should have been a two-parter. We should do the deep. But I'm enjoying this. Burn through it. Barry Davis, Jeff Merrick. Jeff Merrick

threw all the hockey coverage. Barry Davis at Sportsnet. Quick Barry Davis story. Sure. I was on the assignment desk at Sportsnet. Quick Barry Davis story. Sure. I was on the assignment desk at Sportsnet. Barry was covering the Blue Jays, and they were playing against, I think Lou Piniella at the time was with Tampa Bay.

Oh, Tampa Bay. Okay, gotcha. I think he was with Tampa Bay at this point. But they'd gone through a period of, I don't know, this point but they'd gone through a period of like i don't know something like five or six straight games of uh a tampa pitcher getting ejected for throwing at guys and panella getting tossed too right so i said i call barry and panella gotten it kicked out again and had another guy ejected and i said you gotta ask. We need this in your report. You got to ask him about, you know, just is he at all concerned about being pegged as that guy, the guy that throws at everybody

and throws his pitchers under the bus. And Barry said, I can't do that. I said, you've got to ask it. That's the story tonight. You have to ask the question. So he did. And Lou Piniella went up one side of Barry down the other. So much so that ESPN called for the tape.

They ran it on SportsCenter that night on ESPN. Barry was a star. And it's because I forced him. Because you made him ask the question. Ask that question so and your bff mike richards works with barry at the uh saga 960 because barry's doing that drive home show there he's good guy barry david and he's in a great tom petty tribute band saw him saw him play last year at rib fest yeah wow hadn't seen barry in years and then find out that he was playing so we went up to rib

fest for that uh norm rumak of course just running a norm everywhere the late night vampire storm sarah burke from sirius xm yes of course sarah and i were uh we we've uh crossed paths many times uh you've got uh humble and fred because they were at Sirius XM at, uh, when I was still there, they were doing their show out of there. Well, not out of there. Kind of. Kind of. They would come into the office from time to time.

Only when forced. And they never say hi to, yeah. And say hi to everybody. And they would steal a coffee. I remember. I think Fred would try to steal some coffee or something. They got caught. Oh yeah.

There was a one that I was right next to the coffee machine. That was my desk. And so, yeah. You know, I went in a couple of times. So I've been in that. I don't know when you left there, but were you there during the Todd Shapiro era? Yes. I left in 2015.

Okay. So at least a couple of times, a few times, I've been there to be on Todd's show and talk to Todd Shapiro. So yeah, my desk was right there next to the coffee machine. So maybe we saw each other and we just didn't know. Probably. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Ken Daniels. Oh, yes. Talk about wonderful people.

Ken Daniels, through the hockey world, of course, I've met many times. Hazel May was at Sportsnet when I was there. And the few times where I would work the overnight shift or the very early morning shift where I'd run into Hazel. Elliot Friedman. Wow. Over the years, we've found ourselves on many a show together, usually with me as a host or producer. And he is guest. Rick Hodge was at Chum FM when I was working at Chum.

Ingrid Schumacher was as well. And Ingrid is also the voice of the Gazette on AMI, a show that I don't do now. So the nice welcoming voice that you hear. Well, she's got a great voice. Are you kidding me? Oh my goodness. Are you kidding me?

They tried to change it on me. Isn't she out here? Like, isn't she near you somewhere? Is she like got a great voice are you kidding oh my goodness are you kidding me they tried to change it on me isn't she out here like isn't she near you somewhere is she like a i don't know i think she's in your neck of the woods maybe it's like whitby or something like that you know i get my uh oshawa whitby and ajax all mixed up you know but uh somewhere out east there well you need to take the go train because when you're on the milk run they'll you'll learn it real easy okay whitby ajax sorry oh i messed i messed it up i've been on the go training years pickering ajax whitby and nashua wow you know you did burn through a bunch of names there but some really great uh great fotms you burn up there i just merrick i want to shout out merrick who uh helped me find harold ballard's

grave and uh hazel May brought her very large husband with her Kevin Barker who sat in my basement and you know watched the proceedings and who else about every Elliot Friedman man there's a guy who can grow a good summer beard but oh my goodness are you kidding me that thing what did it take him two weeks I know I mean I'm look I'm going on just over three months, and I'm impressed with the growth. Elliot would have had this in about a week and a half. All right, so Mike, let me ask you this.

Approximately how many names left? Two, four, six. Okay. Then we're in the homestretch. Let's rock it. I'm enjoying this. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't like 60 names left okay not a problem is great uh elliot price jamie campbell oh you can slow it

down if it's only six slow down so okay elliot price how's he doing since he was let go from the fan 590 do you know i don't i knew elliot again back in the chum days. He was in Montreal and he was one of the broadcasters for the Expos. Oh, right. And so we would have Elliot on to talk Expos baseball with Van Horn and Brunt. Right. He even called a few games. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was phenomenal.

And I didn't know him because I don't know Montreal media, but a great time with him. But they didn't give him, and I know radio stations do this sometimes and it upsets me because they recruit somebody who moves and you might, you might be able to relate to this, but then they give them like a year and they then discard that person. But what's a year for you have to establish, you know, I just, I feel it takes more than a year, you know, as you know, from your team days.

Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Jamie Campbell, I feel it takes more than a year, as you know, from your team days. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Jamie Campbell, Blue Jays broadcaster over at Sportsnet. So Jamie and I worked together at Sportsnet. But prior to that, I knew Jamie from his time in Ottawa working at CJOH. And I was in Ottawa at the time as well. And I worked in media relations for the AAA baseball team back then. So

we'd see Jamie at various events. And yet another of those 2020 guests who actually came in the studio for the first time. Oh, there you go. So Campbell was great. And he's done some amazing stuff as far as raising money to get to PPE out to,

to various organizations. He's been doing, doing a lot of work there. We mentioned Darren Drager that I worked with at Sportsnet, Jody Vance. Jody at Sportsnet was my desk mate. She sat right behind me. And we had many, many, many dinners and conversations.

She was an absolute sweetheart and really made me feel welcome and part of the team there at Sportsnet. And she's just like yourself. She's somebody who I've only met via Zoom. And it was great because she was in Vancouver and we did a Zoom. She was've only met via Zoom. It was great because she was in Vancouver and she was on the show via Zoom. She's Jody Vance, for goodness sakes. I think she took over for Hebsey at that 6 o'clock news or whatever

Sportsnet had at the time. I think she replaced Hebsey, if I'm not mistaken. She did, and then worked with Van Horn as well. They co-anchored that show. Romanuk, Paul Romanuk, we mentioned earlier from our Chum experience and then ran into each other again when he was broadcasting Leaf Games. And he's another music fan. We talk about these sports guys.

Oh, my goodness. He loves his music, especially his 80s CFNY stuff. And a Beatles savant. You ask him anything about the Beatles, he's kind of like Jim Taddy in that way. Taddy's another guy that I worked with, but he's just brilliant.

The reason Taddy hasn't come up is because he's not an FOTM because I cannot get that man on the show. I don't know what it takes. We had a chat about it once and he told me he didn't want to look backwards, only wanted to look forwards. And I thought, okay, well, that would be a really different Toronto Mic'd episode.

But yeah, so I can't get him on. Scott Morrison. That's the last one on my list. Scott Morrison and I worked together at Sportsnet, and I don't know if there's a nicer guy out there honestly uh when you talk about some of the original hockey insiders right scott morrison was right there but when i got to sports and he was part of not only on air but part of management as well and was a tremendous tremendous ally to have at Sportsnet. I recently bumped into him at the,

so they reunited the reporters for a live event. Right. At the Paradise Theatre. And so, of course, the reporters, of course, are Bruce Arthur, Steve Simmons, and Dave Hodge. So Dave Hodge asked me to, hey, can you make this, uh, this,

uh, an episode of Toronto Mike? Then I was like, yeah, I was ecstatic. I'm happy to do that. But, Oh,

who's the other guy? Who's the Barber? Yeah. I almost forgot. Yeah. Michael Farber. You know, out of sight,

out of mind. He's not here. So I never think of him, but Michael Farber is the other reporter, but, uh, a lot of interesting people in the crowd, like,

uh, but including, uh, Scott Morrison. So it was nice to see him again. He was a great FOTM as well. You know, Mike,

this was a fantastic conversation. We got to learn more about your radio background and, uh, we got, I got some pertinent questions about you being a PA announcer when there's no P at the, uh, Scotiabank arena.

And you'll basically, when, when MLSC tells you what's going on you got to let me know so i can break that news to the toronto mike listeners okay all right mike thanks very much for having me this has been a lot of fun appreciate the opportunity to do a little homework for you uh but also just go down memory lane and talk to your audience about how small the world media is in this country. It really is.

And as soon as it's safe to do so, you and I got to meet in the flesh. We got to, we got to do it. I'll get you some great lakes. And that brings us to the end of our 664th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Mike is at Rossi on the mic, but that Mike is M I C is at Rossi on the Mike, but that Mike is M I C. So Rossi on the Mike, our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes beer. Palma pasta is at Palma pasta. Sticker you is at sticker. You the Kytner group are at the Kytner group. CDN technologies are at CDN technologies and garbage day are at garbage day.com. Slbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike.

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