Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Nicholas Picholas: Toronto Mike'd #787

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

Mike chats with Nicholas Picholas about his start in radio at CFNY, how he helped the Barenaked Ladies launch their career, his move to Buffalo, hosting Video and Arcade Top 10 on YTV, being on the air at Energy on 9/11, his return to Buffalo radio, working with the Buffalo Bills and more.

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visit patrion.com slash Toronto Mike to become one today. I'm Mike from Toronto, Mike.com. And joining me this week is Nicholas. Piccolis. Whoa. How you doing? Nicholas or Nick?

What would you prefer this? Whatever's good with you. Nick is great. Okay. Nicholas Piccolis. That's a name. I used to hear that back in the day when you were uh heard on cfny and i always mean back then i'd hear it and i'd be like uh that's not a real name

i mean and then no no it's not it's a totally made up uh you know stupid rhyming name but um so i don't know there's a lot of story but but the name was born at CFNY with Earl and Bev. I worked with Earl and Bev, Live Rail Drive, Beverly Hills. Of course. And Bev would just call me that. I think she had maybe a nephew named Nicholas and she would call Nicholas Pickless.

So that name just kind of stuck. And, you know, it's a stupid little name, but it's worked for a while. It's memorable. And not a lot rhymes with Nicholas. So, and pick, you know, pick a list and syphilis and that's about it. So I picked the good one. You picked that. Yeah. Don't go with syphilis. That's not good. But did you ever have a moment in your career and we're going to, we're going to go back to CFY and we're going to talk about some of the, some of the things that we need to discuss here today. I'm really glad you're here. Uh did you ever have a moment where you thought, I'm just going to go by Nick, whatever, Nick Robertson,

or whatever the heck you are? Did you ever consider just... Yeah, sure. In the biz, I guess you have a couple of backups or something. And it just never came to that point. still might i don't know so um you know i um yes to answer the question simply yeah i would go with something super generic but then i don't know there's just something uh delightfully stupid about the name you know and it's it's it's you know branding is everything right like at this point you're nicholas piccolas like like like whether you like it or not it's not like you can you know what i mean you're you're that's the point so i could you know i could move to orlando and be uh nick daniels or whatever uh you know what i mean and why bother at this point uh we my buddy mark wise blot uh has been writing about this stuff forever as you know uh probably and i

know he he mentioned at some point he wrote something about you and he refused to type out Nicholas Piccolis because he felt it was so ridiculous. And I just think that's hilarious. Like he said, this is where I draw the line. I will refer to him, describe him, but I'm not typing Nicholas Piccolis. I'm happy to say Nicholas Piccolis. I know. I don't remember when I talked to him or communicated or I don't know how we, but I know who he is. I know what he does. I don't remember the conversation. And I think if I remember he was nice to me is what I recall. Oh good. So yeah, which is a nice thing, you know?

No good. Because if Mark Weisblatt is ever not nice to somebody, I need to know cause I can fix that. That's not cool. By the way, a lot of people think you're a nice guy so props to you but i'm going to just specifically shout out a couple of guys uh there's a gentleman named brian dunn oh i know brian well yeah so so brian uh i met him we have these toronto mic listener experience well before covid struck we had toronto mic we had one during, but that was in a park outdoors. We have these Toronto Mike listener experiences, and we had one at Palma Pasta, which if you ever get back to the GTA here,

I can hook you up with some amazing lasagna from Palma Pasta. Is Palma Pasta like a restaurant? Yeah, there's four locations in Mississauga and Oakville, and it's kind of a combination, like actual, like you can get authentic Italian food, like a grocery store. But they have a hot table, like take home, there's food you can take home, like, you know, pastas and lasagnas and all the great, you know. So like delicious, fresh food you can pick up, but you can also pick stuff up to stick in your freezer and make it a later date or whatever so like and typically when a guest visits and i know you're obviously you weren't going to visit anyway because of geography etc but when visitors uh drop by when guests drop by they get like they get a case of fresh craft beer from great lakes brewery they actually get

a frozen lasagna from palma pasta they get They get stickers from stickeru.com. I even have gifts from Ridley Funeral Home. So unfortunately, we're zooming. But if you're ever in the hood... Gift cards? Or what are we... It's actually like hand sanitizers. Okay. All right. Right. A discount, right? There's a promo code at our local funeral home. But where am I going here? Oh, yeah. Brian Dunn. Right.

At TMLX5 at Palma Pasta, I met Brian. What a lovely man, first of all. He told me he won a car on The Price is Right. Sure did. Yeah. And just when he heard you were coming on, he wanted me to just make sure I say hi to you. So hello from Brian Dunn. He says you're a great guy. Oh, thank you, Brian. Where did I first meet Brian?

Brian worked on video and arcade top 10 on YTV, which I did for 15 years. Wow. And he was a production assistant or just guy that I don't know, I don't know what he did, to be honest, maybe audience coordinator. He was always there, him and James kind of worked in tandem. And maybe they both went to Rai High. They were great kids, very enthusiastic. Huge fan of Barenaked Ladies. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that.

Yeah, to the point where you're calling security. But he's great. And he's an interesting cat you know he he spends time in um in asia in seoul south korea and then in toronto and he just he appears in places magical like a like a like an elephant a shelf he's always there yeah he seems to be a cool cat so uh he also when i i guess somebody i guess earlier today i made a joke that you know the first real talk we're gonna have on this episode is like is that your real name nicholas piccolas and this gentleman who tweets as to resident he gets a screen cap of our video and arcade top 10

and it says basically is that his real name that's it says nicholas piccolas is that his real name and brian was quick to point out that that was used as the tagline for the entire run of the show yeah yeah i but so you need to understand i didn't know that was i didn't watch the finished product i would do the show go off do my other stuff i didn't know for like three or four years that that was what was under my name until someone they kept is that your real name i'm like everyone keeps asking me that and then someone points at the monitor and said well that's what it says right under your name and i'm like i'm an idiot how could i not see that but but um was it that you just didn't want to see yourself

on tv or like like i just i i think you'd peek at it honestly i've it was like work like it's done i'm going home um i got other stuff to watch. Uh, I don't know. I, I, I have literally, I've, I don't think I've ever seen an episode straight through and I've done over 700. Wow. And, um, I don't know. I couldn't tell you why, but like, I don't, so I do the radio show every day. I don't listen to the show after. Right. Cause, cause you were, you know, it was said cause you were there yeah well that's what i mean i'm not a um i know i know guys in my business that will listen to their air check tapes and all that and it's probably something i should do more probably to get better but

i just once it's done i kind of want to move along next but have you ever had a program director force you to like maybe yeah probably i do remember i remember sitting down at cfny with um a boss who um isn't around anymore but at the time was a great guy smelled like weed before weed was legal oh this is reiner schwartz yeah yeah he's a legend of course those dots um great guy very Very talented. Passed away. Right. I remember him telling me straight heart to heart, you're never going to make it in radio. So, you know, find something else.

And I... Well, okay. Well, maybe this is a good place to start. So, in fact, it's kind of nice because another... Hello. So, Brian Dunn wanted to say hi. And, of course, Andrew Stokely, who I think I've known Andrew for almost a decade now, and he's become a good friend. He wanted to say hi as well.

And Stokely, I think he ran into you during this CFNY period. So let's start there. Like, how do you end up at CFNY? And what were you doing? And why the heck is Reiner Schwartz telling you to get out of the business? No, not telling me to get out of the business. Just find something else. Maybe in the business, not on the radio, not on air. Right. He's probably right.

That's all I can tell you. So how did I get in? It's an interesting story. At that time, so I listened to CFNY. So I went to high school in oakville and that was my radio station to listen to i listened to cfny and listened to pete and geetz and that was kind of what you did and loved the music and in the afternoon i don't know just like pre-internet that's where you found new music right so at some point i'm living in downtown

toronto i'm working at uh on the strip. I'm working at star sound records, which was like a DJ record store, uh, right at young and college. I know it well, man. I used to buy actually, hold on. This is just, just for you. So like, like literally I bought this there, for example. Yeah, I have that. I've, I have like, I'm looking at about 20, 000 records right now and many of them yours is autographed though wow well yeah because he dropped by to do this show and i'm like you

got us and i had this i got an 89 obviously but i used to buy a bunch of 12 inch singles at that was it called star struck work in the kitchen at like like like pat mario's or something like that he was a like a like a restaurant back room kitchen guy with, I don't know what he was doing chef or whatever, but I just remember I worked at that Pat Mario's Mario's, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Pat Mario's back in the day.

So I remember, just remember everyone's like, Oh my God, that's the same guy. He's got this big hit. Yeah. Yeah. For those who are listening to the podcast,

I, I showed my 12 inch single single of Let Your Backbone Slide by Maestro Fresh West. That's a nice piece of vinyl right there. Oh, yeah, but I bought it there. I bought it there. I used to walk in. I used to see what, you know,

I distinctly remember the wall and seeing whatever the chart was. Well, if you remember, so you go to the back of the room and the guys are playing records for you to check stuff out. So I worked there. There was a guy that came in all the time this big australian dude uh named tony tony mance and tony was a character man very lovable big big bear and we became friends and he walks in one day and he goes uh hey mate let's go to joe but a radio station. And he had like just moved here from Melbourne or something.

Right. And I said, well, where are you? You know, I'm thinking maybe CKLN or something cool local. He goes, no, no, no. See if and why I'm doing a weekly show, Australia, Jack the bear, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, what? I'm like, you're working at my favorite radio station. And in my head, I think, oh, they're just giving out jobs to anybody that walks in.

Right. And that's what's in my head so my next day off was the tuesday i get on a bus to go up to brampton to go to the radio station that i'd never been to before i find it i walk in go up the stairs walk to the front desk and there's joanne at the front desk joanne faluna who's now big in the business okay um joanne i i walk up to joanne i'm like do you have applications and she kind of looks at me you know it's not a restaurant right there's no applications she gives me a piece of paper i fill out some info a couple people walk by that i kind of know i knew

i knew neil i knew alan and then is this neil man i like the i gotta find out who we're talking about neil man okay and alan cross yeah yeah and so um but bob lehman was the maybe production director at the time and he comes out and sort of looks at me and says well what do you you know what do you know how to do and i said well i dj nightclubs and stuff i started working probably the next day or the next week or something like that just doing um alan's uh production sort of backroom production for the all request nooner wow and i'll never forget getting thrown into a side studio and they put me in front of a reel-to-reel machine and go you know how to work this right and i'm like sure do i had no idea so motivated by my friend who got the job at the

station knowing that they were just giving out jobs to anybody i got a job and i was right they were giving out jobs to anybody apparently i stayed there for maybe two years or so, which for, well, I was just talking about this with a friend. It's a really magical time in radio at that station. There were no playlists there. It was, you know, pretty much free form radio with a few rules, but you know, make sure a certain percentage is Canadian was the main rule and play good music. And that was, that was, that was kind of it. So that was a really fun place and

really cool, colorful characters that remain in my life at this time. I mentioned, you know, Alan and Neil, and then Joanne now works with Bruce Allen out on the West coast. She was our receptionist at the time. Okay. So when we talk about that, you know, legendary station, and it comes up all the time on Toronto Mic, but there's this David Marsden era in the 80s, and he brings over Pete and Geetz, which you were listening to in Oakville there, because they were working at Chum FM together before, in the 70s.

But this is the era where it's kind of famous for, like you said, within reason, you can play what you want. Yes. This is the Marsden philosophy. Marsden, by the time you get there you mentioned reiner schwartz like he's pretty much mop-up duty to turn things around because there's that era which that era where they're like spinning phil collins and stuff like there's that you know that's about the time i i came in during that hybrid era um I didn't work with Marsden. I came in immediately after that, like he had just left.

Right. And then Reiner was there and the music had changed and then it flipped back or something. And I don't know what the timeline is. Right, right. So, yes, I mean, it goes pretty kind of top 40. I guess they're trying to sell the station. And of course, that means you need to appeal to the masses. And of course, as we all know,

the alternative music, it might be my favorite, it might be your favorite, but that's not how you cut into the Chum FM audience. You know what I mean? The masses, if you will, at the time. So there's this more like broad playlist, essentially, but it sounds like you still had,

at this time you're referring to, with Reiner uh there's that's still a period where you have some flexibility in what you're going to spin on your show like you have got certain can con requirements and certain yeah there there was probably a time where it wasn't like i can't remember the timeline i just know that at some point it wasn't cfny it was fm 102 but when i i think when i first started it was still one thing and then it flipped through these transitions and there was i think as someone described it you know that this executive came in or as i remember it who the hell wants to listen to some band that can't fill a room with a hundred people or something

like that and these were some of my favorite bands you know he's talking about what these obscure uk bands all those hardest hit kind of one hit wonder, 12 inch single bands that to this day I listen to. And this guy did not appreciate those bands. He's like, how about Candy in the Backbeat? They're awesome. Right. Candy, I heard is a teacher.

She's a teacher now. Really? Yeah. No disrespect to Candy. She was awesome. But at the time, you know, we're playing ministry records or whatever. And anyhow, you get the vibe. And I think that still happens in the business.

A lot of alt stations kind of just went down over the last few months because of just what you're talking about. Yeah. They're like, yeah, play less of that and maybe play this band called the Foo Fighters. You know, everybody likes the Foo Fighters. Yeah. It's sort of like you got it. It almost like narrow casting yeah yeah so um sorry yes there was a weird time but I don't I don't remember that part of it I do remember just the characters the people and the you know nothing surprises me at work like the weirdness that goes on and the

fun and the shenanigans behind the scenes well just with you with, you know, Live World Jive and Beverly Hills alone, it just sounds like it'd be a cool place. Now, one gentleman who was in my backyard this summer, and he's been over a few times, he's become a very good friend of the show as well. But you came up in this conversation, Scott Turner. Yes, Scott. Scott's great. Isn't he a sweetheart?

I'll tell you a story about Scott. Yes, please. I don't think Scott knows this. I'm pretty sure Scott was born spelling his name like Scott, S-C-O-T or S-C-O-T-T or something. Two Ts. He was born spelling it S-C-O-T-T.

Okay. Well, at one point, it was Scott S-K-O-T. Right. I started calling myself Nick, just N-I-K. Strictly because of Scott Turner doing that. I'm like, if we're just changing names, let's do it.

I never told him that, but I probably went with Nick for about 10 years, just N-I-K. Wow. And it was strictly because of Scott Turner. That's amazing. Just because I thought it was fun. I'm like, oh, we're allowed to change names. We're adults.

Let's do this. So I went by nick for the longest time which which kind of made me chuckle but i think about him a lot because he was so damn smooth on the air and so cool and so everything and the hair was always on point and he knows his shit like uh yeah yeah yeah yeah he was there you know like he yeah he's he's very he's very smart very aware and just and just a great talent, great everything. So yeah, good guy to have in your yard. When you were there, and how long were you at CFNY for?

Only two years. But at one point, I was living at Maitland in Toronto. I was living in the condo with, who's the condo king? Harry Stinson, condo king of Toronto. And so we're in this tower downtown now with him. I lived with my sister, but he was in the tower. Okay. I would have to, to work at CFNY, I'd have to get on the subway at Wellesley,

take the subway up to shepherd or something, jump on some go bus, take the go bus to Brampton from Brampton. And I'd have to take a city bus. Like it was an adventure just to get to work, to make pretty close to minimum wage right and at one point Earl said we've got this big old car why don't we let the kid drive it and so I started driving what was the Humble and Fred land yacht I got a picture of it uh yeah okay because Humble is like waving out the window i gotta yeah i got a picture because uh i produce humble and fred show now so they have a yeah jesus that's i sorry i didn't know that but

that's great you didn't realize that you were the presence of greatness no i did not when i was doing it was a gentleman named dan duran who i get to see on designated survivor yeah they canceled that show but absolutely you're right're right. Yeah, they can't. I know. I know it was Dan. Dan was, uh, I'll say not a detail oriented producer, but a hell of a nice guy. So he's, he's actually the second,

uh, he is the second producer in humble and Fred history because the first producer who didn't like having the job and didn't last very long, I think his name and his name is Greg Williams. Is that name? Yeah. Yeah. Great. Well, Greg was Greg may potts were like thick as thieves they were super nice friends gotcha and so weird you bring that up i was just thinking about greg and

what the hell are you doing like i don't know um and so that name popped in my head and like i say so many different characters but he was very close with may potts who maybe is at boom now i think she's kicking ass taking names at boom okay good i'm sure i'm sure they're still great friends because they were like brother and sister back in that era um i think i might have produced humble and fred a couple of times when dan was away and i'm pretty sure humble was not happy with me if i remember right um you know what it was i know I know exactly what it was yeah I didn't like the versions of songs that they were playing I'm like oh it's a much

better remix or something and he's like what the hell are you doing and I'm like it's not the music man he's like it's about the show dude and so anyhow they were um they were great characters and I don't know oh that's a great story uh because mean, I'll tell you like the little secret there as well. Humble's playing all this, uh, pretty cool stuff. And then, you know,

grunge hits and all this, his at home, he's like listening to Steely Dan, right? Like, so he's, I know, yes,

this, I do know. I know his, um, he happened, he was a, a normal guy working at a weirdo station. Right.

Whereas Fred though, Fred liked the music he played. Like Fred straight up did enjoy. I like the cult, which is great. So one of the other stories that comes to my head. Snow removal, removal machine is what you're referencing.

Yes. Talking about snow removal machine. There was, so Don Burns worked there as well. Of course. And my very first time in the studio doing the all request nooner, which was ended up being a really nice fun fun show to do because you could basically just it was Alan's lunch break. But I would just basically play music that people liked and play their clips and, you know, call in.

Hey, this is this is Mike from Toronto. Can I hear the Sky Diggers or something? So, of course, anyhow, I'm in the studio. It's just before like two o'clock or something and in comes don burns and don was a large guy like 6 12 uh big bushy hair right and his personality would consume a room and so he walks in and he kind of looks at me and we sort of know each other he's like hey i'm don i'm like i'm nick i know you from here blah blah so uh he goes to one of the cd players press a stop and eject and everything goes dead i'm like hell is what happened i'm like oh my god

i'm like don i was playing that he goes no nobody ever uses cd3 and i'm like well i'm using cd3 and so he goes yeah okay so he grabs the cd does one of those breathe wash things on it puts it back in the player goes what track were you playing i'm like i don't know whatever track and he goes how far were you into it this is all happening live on the air he's like skipping through just to go back where it was and he just kind of laughs because yeah so so just don't use cd3 because he comes into preview music on that but his just his presence in a room yeah um and i remained friends with him long after i used to hire him to do voice work long after cfny but the sad part with that is that he never got over the bitterness of leaving that station like i was fired i walked away and did whatever yeah um he did not he left really bitter

and hung on to that until he passed which is surprising to me because he was dj trance right this is uh he had an amazing career before he came to toronto he worked at kb in buffalo which is a building i ended up working in and i have part of the kb record collection. KB 1520 was a big AM powerhouse on the East coast. I have some records with his notes. I remember his handwriting, his notes are on the records, which to me is very weird. Full circle,

man. I mean, I, I have a lot of the old clips of like the spirit. There was a CD made for like a reunion spirit of radio reunion. Like, so Mars, I have not attended a reunion

unfortunately but um but the cd has all these like so i've got all these kind of old clips of like pete and geese and scott turner and uh like like like uh hal harbour and like just whatever and and sure uh dave charles dave charles there's two charles right there's there's there was nick charles nick charles nick was a lim there was Nick Charles Nick Charles Nick was a limo driver on the side um he was a limo driver on the side um Dave Charles maybe he did news was Dave Charles the news guy I can't I can't recall but bottom line is I don't remember all this the guy to get is uh the British guy Mark Williams who I think he ended up getting fired for working completely naked or coming to work drunk and ended up naked in the room.

And there's the morning show studio news booth on this side. And at some point on a Saturday morning or Sunday morning, he's in there completely naked because it was hot. Well, that's a good reason. Pretty sure that was Mark Williams, if I'm getting the names right. well it's a good reason pretty sure that was mark williams uh if i'm getting the names right well while you're doing these accents i gotta ask you about a guy who was kind of uh he was i guess he was peak his peak time there i would guess if i'm doing the math right in my head uh chris shepherd oh my god yeah like talk to me about chris because uh you know i did not know chris hardly at all because yeah i worked middle of the day.

He was weekend guy. I didn't, I didn't really get to spend any time with him until BTS was a thing. And he came to do one of our shows as like a track act in Buffalo. And I, I, I can tell you, I've heard him a million times,

like, you know, doing this to me, those weekend Friday night live to airs, whatever those were the best from RPM or wherever he was at. Um, I did not know him at the time. I knew him through Earl. Earl picked up on him when he started doing the Sunday nights at the Copa. Yeah. Sunday nights at the Copa. And he used Chris Shepard. I worked at the Copa around that time as well i was working maybe

like like like weekends or no weeknights and something so i was i was a dj at the copa he was part of our dj roster but we didn't work at the same times and so i just can't tell you much about chris other than all the legends you already often imitated never duplicated oh yeah yeah i got we could go on brothers and sisters the whole thing because uh legendary and i'm telling you if you if you were around at that time that was magical radio he was a character and the little catchphrases and all that yeah and and then someone said i ran into him on a beach in costa rica and i'm like that sounds about right well that's that's what i was gonna ask you because uh he was on humble and Fred show. We're going back now though. Like, I don't know if that

was seven years ago or whatever. It was several years ago. He came on humble and Fred show me. I've been hosting the show for around that period of time. And of course he's been a highly sought guest. I've had people like Scott Turner trying to like, we can't seem to find the guy. Like some people say he's in Costa Rica. Others say he's in Barrie, Ontario. I just wondered if you had any inkling of where the heck Chris Shepard is at. No, you know, I could imagine on an Island. I don't know.

I really don't. He would, he, and so here's the thing I know about him through Bev and Bev said, he's just a private guy and um i don't think it's mystique i think he is a private guy um oh okay well that explains me think of martin well okay let's talk about martin then because um we're going i guess it was 19 2019 of course because nothing happened in this past year due to, you know, that damn pandemic.

But, uh, Pete Fowler and DJ Craig G. I wonder if I'm trying to think who else was involved, but there was an, they organized a party for Marty. It was 10 years since his passing. And I was lucky.

I actually broadcast live from the lobby of the opera house. And all, a lot of the names you've mentioned, actually, would kind of come through. Although Neil Mann said no. So I've still got a chip on my shoulder about that. Who's saying no at this party for Marty? I don't know why.

But you caught yourself there. I think, anyway. No, no, no. No, I knew Neil before I worked at CFNY. We worked at O'Tools together. Oh, wow. So that's, yeah, I've known, I've actually known Neil, I think the longest out of anybody there.

I met Alan through Neil when Alan moved from... Winnipeg. Winnipeg. Where's he from? Yeah, somewhere in Manitoba. I think it's Winnipeg. Yeah, okay. So Edmonton or whatever. So his first night in town, Neil brings him to this O'Tools bar where I'm djing at the back playing new order records um and i meet alan and i just remember it was his first day in

town so that's kind of how i knew those guys and um all you know all sweet guys well you know alan ended up with half of the i guess him and iver hamilton split the vinyl that when cfny was getting rid of their record collection like they bought they rented trucks and loaded it up i don't know if you knew i would do the same thing having given the opportunity i ended up grabbing a big chunk of the kb 15 20 vinyl library just because i collect vinyl and there was just so much stuff in there but that's not my era i like 12 inch you know obscure british band vinyl and kb had zero of that now your career and again we're gonna don't worry not every part of your career will be this deep the cfny part's gonna be no i i tell you i i respect the time at cfny

because it was my first radio gig and i haven't had a lot of them but um the people that i met there i'm telling you went on to do really cool, great things. I'm still very close with Earl and Bev, like to this day. And that's been a number of years. And, you know, and Joanne, Captain Phil. Of course, Phil Evans. He's in BC. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we stay close on Facebook and stuff. And, you know, we're not chatting all day. We don't hang out. But the comments back and forth to me is like a relationship in my mind. Hey, did you work with Danny Elwell? Briefly, yeah. know she was very close with reiner schwartz so yes yeah i'm pretty sure reiner brought her over um she again eclectic mysterious um really sweet persona and i'm doing this thing because the voice yeah that she projects in that closeness of the microphone like right um i always when i see when i see billy eilish in my head, I think, Oh, I know this. I know this person.

This is what Danny was on the air back in the day. Real close. Mike, real whispery, real, like she's right next to you. And then, and she had come from CHFI maybe. I'm going to say, I'm going to say CKFM. What's, what's 90, what was 99.9 call? Yeah. You're right. You're right you're right um sorry yeah the other one um and i just remember she's on one of her first shifts and she's saying the wrong station and i'm like and she's perfectly in she's doing the whole delivery and it's very sweet

right and then i hear her mess up and she just kind of laughs and breaks character if it's a character it was it was sweet um and you know she's still in the biz well she does a lot of voiceover work there was a long time where she was like she has a magical voice she has a very special sound and she i should shout her out uh that she has a jazz cast which is actually like a jazz a streaming jazz station uh that she's a big part of so shout out to to danielle while doing that yeah amazing i always wonder like because you're you're a club dj you're you've got the radio chops we know that now uh i am gonna i am curious about what rhino runners is reiner schwartz speaking specifically of your voice like back then i have no idea i don't have i don't think i have a radio voice i don't i don't know

no i know but back then i feel like back then you needed to sound like don burns okay uh which you know and and now where you're having you know you're you're in your peak right here my friend uh you your authentic voice is really what's valued today i guess i don't know i i i try not to think about that stuff i i think about um i think about voice quality because people are like oh my friend needs to be a radio he has a great voice she has great voice i'm like that's not this is not what it's about i don't think maybe it is i'm sure there's some magic to that or there's some element of you gotta if you sound awesome yes put them on the radio but i think it's the you know everything else that counts and i think of uh howard stern has for you know for a else that counts. And I think of Howard Stern has for, you know,

for a radio guy does not have the perfect voice, but everything else is so much more powerful. You get over, you listen to the early Howard Stern where he was much lispier or whatever. It was higher. Like, I think he's compressing it. I think he's doing, there's something where he's compressed it or something where it's sure yeah it's ballsy or now but yeah i don't know um anyhow so i use that as a as a little example of you don't have to sound great you don't have to be this thing you don't have to be um like you got to get it out of your head whatever the mold is of what you think belongs in that position and i've kind of put that template over many things in my life i've've, I've done TV. I don't look TV, dude.

I see everybody else on TV. I looked like zero people on TV, but I pulled off 15 seasons of hosting video on arcade top 10. Right. I went on to do the local NBC station here doing stuff for them. Like, um, whatever it is.

I don't know. I think it's your, your, your, your, your, your authentic self. And I think that that's valued. Whereas I think it's your, your, your, your, your, your authentic self. And I think that that's valued. Whereas I think in the past you had to sound like Tom Rivers or

whatever back in the day. Yeah. I guess. I don't know. I, but I see growing up, Pete and Gates did not sound like announcers. They were just funny guys on the radio. And I, and so, um, Gates and I remained close after I really, I didn't know the other guy. Right. But Geetz was the engineer when I was at CFNY. So he stuck around. So Pete was gone.

Geetz was around and I got along with that guy. Great. Like just super nice. And I always, wherever I go, whatever I do, I feel like the technical guys, like the engineers. Yeah. They've got really good stories and they kind of like, same at the station.

I'm at best friends with the engineer at our station. Geats, David Haydu, I guess is his real name. He dropped by. Honestly, I'm with you, man. He's funny, dude. Very funny. Great characters, which we all know from the Pete and Geats show. I always think we did play a bunch of them because if you're under 40, you've never heard a minute of Pete and Geet's right.

Like there's a whole missing generational thing there. But what I found interesting is just his passion for Disney. He's a, he's a, yeah, he's Geet's is a huge Disney fan. So you can, next time you talk,

you can never pick them. You never know. You never know. I'm here to give you the fun facts. Okay. But you could have been them you never know you never know i'm here to give you the fun facts okay but you could have been i feel like you could have been uh you could have been martin streak i speaking of the late the late great martin streak because you were a club dj with radio chops uh you that could have been you i i won't talk about Martin no okay he's

yeah no I respect that it's yeah he I've never I didn't know him personally I was merely a mere listener

but I absolutely loved the passion he brought to the music and his persona and I listened to a lot of Martin Streak so no I understand it's we can we can talk about something uh that'll make you feel better i think which is uh a tip i'm sorry no that's okay i totally get it man i i chat with as many people who will talk to me about martin streak as possible but i totally understand if you don't

want to talk about streak but i do want to ask you about something brian dunn tipped me off too so we this is really the brian dunn show to be honest and um he he gives you credit and i'll let you speak for you because that's what you're on the show to do here he gives you credit i want to get this right because i copied and pasted how he said it here this is very important he says you played a part in getting the bare naked ladies their first record deal so i need some details and what he's talking about yeah so um a lot of a lot of people did were involved with that but at the time at cfny there was um there was this mandate where cfny had to spend money on canadian talent and hal harbour was in

charge of it and so uh i can't remember what it was there was some grant or something the station for whatever reason had to do a battle of the bands and then somebody had to get some money to help develop them and so they're the modern music a new music, a new music search. Yeah. New music search, I think is what they were called. And, and so their song Yoko Ono made it on that. And it took off at the time with the band. So they became kind of the pet band.

And I'll tell you, so they were friends with Joanne, the receptionist I'd walk out of work and they would be like busking in the front hallway of a strip mall in Brampton to understand how weird this was. So they would come in from wherever Scarborough, wherever it was home for them or Toronto, but they would busk in this little narrow carpeted hallway where, you know, there was the chicken place, there was a doctor's office or something, or an accountant, and then see if and why was at the end of the hall. You'd walk down, you'd have to like walk around the guys. And I just thought that was very

funny. And they, they would do unusual things. At some point, I am working at the record store at, at Star Sound. Guy comes into the store, and he turns out to be an A&R rep for, I think at the time, Atlantic Records, and his name is Mark. The Mark's still alive and well living in Nashville. And Mark comes up to me and he's good friends with Don Burns and very strong personality and very, maybe Boston kind of vibe to him. And he's like, Hey, what are you, what's big local? I'm from out of town. I work for a label and I give him two records. One of them I think was the, the, the cassette or whatever.

The yellow tape. The yellow tape. And the other one was con can. I beg your pardon because Barry worked at star sound. And I said, these are the two really hot things right now. One is like music, music, this is dance music. And that spawned some kind of conversation maybe with seymour in la and this buzz started and so they got signed to sire for like a million right something like that yeah they signed for a million bucks something like that this is the yeah because gordon is the first major label yeah so but and so that's signed to

uh we uh warner canada but i think there was sire sire records in the u.s and then when i left cfny i came to a canadian uh sorry i came to a u.s station from canada and i brought this song with me and the song had just been promoted maybe it was i can't remember the label but whatever it was on their major label reprise reprise i think was i think it was reprise records is what i think it is and it's reprise and i'm trying to picture my head the thing um but we you know you got the promo thing and i'm like oh my god i know these guys and they're amazing and there were a few things that we broke at top 40 in Buffalo. When I, when I started working at kiss, um, that it got its first radio play in the U S on like a

top 40 station. Wow. And from there, the label and really took that to be a big thing, um, to promote it to, you know, you use one station, we were a monitored station. So they would see what we were playing to kind of motivate whoever else. It's a big business and who knows, I'm sure it's weird at times, but it was that transition of having a relationship with the guys and then bringing that across the border to KISS in Buffalo, which is where I work now.

I was like a weekend guy doing an alternative show on a top 40 station and it it's springboarded so um giving the the recording to mark had something to do with it and i've i've seen five different versions of how they got signed so i'm just telling mine but i've seen many people take credit for it and i'm sure it's all valid they ended up becoming a big deal and um i love them all they're they're really good guys they're very funny guys i'm very gracious to this day very gracious when it comes time to say hey what's going on oh i love i love love this story love that band love that i've had a couple of them on i've had tyler stewart's been over and uh i spoke to steven page uh fairly recently, but honestly, what a,

you mean CF and why played such a role too, of course, because I think they, yeah, that was, so that was the, that was the, the sort of the bridge. They would do our backyard barbecue parties and I can't remember if it was captain Phil or maybe there was a, I can't remember who his promotions, but I think Phil, maybe Phil was still there. You know, you'd win a backyard barbecue with a bare naked ladies would come and play in your backyard. Wow. Wow. Amazing times. And then think of what, you know, then they end up with a top, a number one billboard, hot 100 hit,

like just to think of how it, you know, it all begins there. And you playing even any role, small role, whatever is really cool. Like I say, i've seen i remember there was a there was a guy that came in this management guy with black turtlenecks and slick back hair and he maybe replaced earl and i remember watching him take credit for it i'm like um what i'm like i'm pretty sure earl was he well whatever so anyhow stories stories morph and uh everyone has their own perspective so you leave cfny and get a gig in uh buffalo like so how does that happen because most of us don't think you know did you just say let me cross you know the the border no no i'm a dual citizen

oh there you go okay i was born in new york okay went to high school in toronto area like oakville and then lived in downtown and so i have those two passports so um the transition to buffalo happened you know this is all radio talk but i was working at a club in burlington a nightclub uh kingdom nrg they did a live to air with kiss out of buffalo one of the guys there was a fan of my stuff at cfny and said oh my god we'd love to have you at our station once i left cfny i you know we were still talking and hanging out and he brought me down to ironically a bills game and um yeah we'll get to that yeah and so i ended up working at you know staying at that station and i'm still in the same building working with still some of the same

people from i think the early 90s so it's been a long ride there at that station break in between what's the math there help me what are we at how many many i don't know. Amazing. Amazing. But so you're in, you're now working in Buffalo. So how the heck do you end up hosting video and arcade top 10? Bev, Bev, Earl, Earl and Bev,

Bev. Beverly after CFNY or maybe during was working for the production company that did that show as a producer or somewhere, you know, production wise. And I had done some stuff on YTV with John Friedman and I'm forgetting the girl's name. Girls that's she's married to Gelman. And yeah, she had a show. I was on that. And then, so I knew the producer of the show. I kind of knew some people Bev had me audition. I auditioned for a bunch of stuff. I auditioned for 120 minutes MTV. I kind of knew some people. Bev had me audition. I auditioned for a bunch of stuff. I auditioned for 120 Minutes MTV. I auditioned for Rock and Roll Jeopardy

and bitterly lost that gig to Jeff Probst. Oh, right. Yes. So how'd that work out for him? Oh, and but so Bev brought me in and I was just like a third stringer on that show and Fromer was on the show. Yeah, Liza Fromer.

Oh my God. Yeah. Great times on that show. And Fromer was on the show. Yeah, Liza Fromer. Oh, my God. Yeah. Great times on that show. So a lot of good people. Wow. I ended up bumping up when Gord wasn't available or something. I stepped up to the lead spot and kept doing that. Well, let me play a little bit because I pulled this.

Here's a little of like the theme song here. Here's a little of the theme song here. Cream contest. We're giving away top of the line Nomad phoning action. It's from Norman Telecom. It's got everything you need, two-way paging, a speakerphone, call display, and a whole lot more. Plus, we're also giving away a five-pack of Nintendo games to our lucky winners. To be eligible to win this great prize, all you need to do is send us a letter with the top ten list of people you would call if you were to win this Nomad phone. It could be anyone in this world, out of this world.

It could be someone at University of London. I don't know who. Anyone could be. Just send in your list of top 10. Krista, where can they write it into? Get those letters into IDECALL, 550 Queen Street, Suite 330, Toronto, Ontario, M5A1V2. Get them in now. Krista Herman.

Yes. Wow. Why University of London? Why the hell would I do that? This is the final script of Video and Arcade Top 10. That's the last episode we did. Oh, wow. Episode number 768, which I ran across

and thought, oh, I should put that in a bag and keep it. So, for this very moment. Okay. So, okay. So, well, I mean, I understand there's no budget on that show, right? Like what? So what?

No, what are you talking about? It's a huge budget. Oh, okay. I got, tell me about the, am I going to fire my crack research? No, we gave away chicken at some points, watches, budget. It cost money to do the show and the show was on so what do you want that's right okay and liza fromer who's a name because she's actually been on this show but she's a name a lot of listeners know uh uh what was it like working

with her you know early days of your both your careers i guess but especially hers uh a blast i don't know she was she's very so you understand she's very funny she's very matter-of-factly and uh you know dry smart all those funny things um she was just funny and then she'd just look at you and we would crack up with the looks um it was it was a fun time um there were a lot of great they went through a lot of people every year there'd be someone new co-host or something and then uh the other you know uh krista um i don't want to leave anybody out yvonne um lexa went on to do like andromeda stuff out on the coast with gourd um so so star trek folk would know her from that so cool a lot of great people on that show.

A lot of people watching Video and Arcade Top 10. Again, you said it's a YTV show, a lot of fans. But Cambrio, he was a big fan. He also listens to this program. And Cambrio, I got to find out if that's his real name. I don't think so. But that's as real as Nicholas Piccolis, I think. But Cambrio says, could you please ask him how... He says, I'll ask all his questions and you can cherry pick which you can answer.

Could you ask him how video and arcade top 10 lasted so long? What were his favorite episodes? And did he date anyone on the show? There's your questions. It lasted so long, probably, I mean, because of the demand. I think at the time, video games were still emerging. There was no other way to market that product, I guess. If you look at it as a marketing tool for Nintendo, absolutely.

Very effective pre-internet favorite episode. And Nick, am I right that you would you would play video games that weren't actually uh out yet right yeah some depending on the timing that because we taped usually six or eight weeks in advance at least we would do like six episodes in a day so i i don't know when it aired but i assume it was about about a six week turnover or something like that. Right. Trying to think. Yes, I did date someone on the show.

And the moments. The moments that were the favorite were so off camera had nothing to do with the show. It was just between that and clips was the other show that we produced. We had some wild moments at clips, but it usually was stuff like studio stuff. The studio would go down. They'd have a technical thing. Some machine would fail. And because we taped live,

you had to wait until that thing was fixed before you could move along. And so that's when the magic happened. All right. So we leave video in arcade top 10. You said you did 14. How many years? 15 years. About I was the last episode was like 762 or something.

I'm looking at that script. I didn't come on till maybe episode 40 or 50 or something like that. So I did about 700 episodes of video and arcade top 10. All right, my friend, I'm going to take you back to a terrible day. I don't take any pleasure in doing this, but September 11, 2001. Remind me, again, I don't hear a lot of Buffalo. I should listen to more Buffalo radio,

but it's KISS. What is the station again? I wasn't on KISS at the time. I work at KISS in Buffalo, KISS 98.5, which is a big top 40 station in a few around Buffalo, buffalo niagara falls that area um it's still we're still huge top 40 legendary historic whatever you want to call it it's been it's been what it is for a long time with a lot of the same staff so where were you on september

11th 20 i was in uh the studios in hamilton i had left kiss after, and that's where the bare naked ladies come into it again. I had a chat with I had chat with the guys, Jim, doing a show with them. It was, it was our anniversary show for the morning show. And I'm talking to Jim and I'm like, Jim, my contract's up. I have this offer from Toronto. What should I do? And he's like, come back to Toronto, man. And so Jim Cregan was, was part of the mental catalyst to take an offer from Scott Turner was in, was part

of that deal to come back to energy as energy was looking to do a syndicated multi-city. So we had London, we had Hamilton, Torontoonto a stick kind of gta barry and somewhere else i can't remember but anyhow um i came to work at the studios in hamilton the eventual plan was to set up downtown same style as what q has now with like the three street front studios or cfny street front studios they were with like the street street front studios or CFNY street front studios they were going to give us street front studios that never gelled and we sat in a studio in Hamilton the Y108 building um which is legendary hey was was Colleen Rush home a part of this yeah yeah yeah she was part of the show right okay love her I love her I think I think she's good. Her and Darren. Laidman. Yeah. Big D.

By the way, Colleen's in Ottawa now. Ottawa. Yeah. She's, my friend just had dinner with her, Bob State. And I'm not close with Colleen.

I, I, we didn't get along or she didn't, I don't know. That's impossible. What's going on there? I don't, I don't know.

To be honest, I don't know. We just, we had a clashy personality and no wrongs, no rights, there just you know she's great and she's um obviously you know super talented and nice but we we never clicked for whatever reason i i think a lot of it had to do with the americanism or she just didn't like me so there's there's one well there's another fake name to colleen rush home not a real name okay but back to let's get serious here because of course we all know what happens on

September 11th this clip was actually brought to me it's on YouTube but it was it was pointed out to me but when Scott Turner came over we did a whole episode on energy like an energy episode and we played it during that episode so I'm going to actually play it now and just ask you about it afterwards

but I think people should listen to this. This is from your show on September 11, 2001. Tell me exactly what you saw this morning. All I know is that this morning I was opening up the business, and all of a sudden the place, you'd heard this big boom, and the place started shaking. So I thought we were having an earthquake or something. I mean, the windows started shaking, the building actually shook, and it sounded like it was

right on our street. And, you know, I was like, what happened? People were looking out their windows and everything. We were trying to yell down in the street, what happened? All we heard were, you know, police were like going all over the place. And then I came out into the hallway. I saw the super. And I was like, you know, what happened? And then he's like, someone, you know, blew up the World Trade Center or something like that.

Okay, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. And we're looking, you know, like we have a balcony here. The paper, you know, is flying all into our balcony, our yard and everything. And we, you know, we're... Oh, my God! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! What happened? What was that?

Oh, my gosh! What happened, Allegra? Something just blew up. Are you okay? Yes. I was just looking outside, and something just blew up. Now it's the second building also. The second building also is now...

Oh, my gosh i want to make sure everyone comes home comes here safely though you know oh my god allegra i'm gonna let you go okay go take care of stuff thank you okay nick that got chills man i can't i can't yeah yeah yeah wow so tell me about working that morning is this all okay so we were we were in the Hamilton studios I can't remember who was in the room but it was kind of like so it's it was after like it was just before nine or just after like I saw something uh I saw that a Cessna had hit the world trade center i was there the week before um i'd been up in the world trade center so i had just this was yeah i'd been there for like

labor day or something or whatever weekend that was the long weekend right and um my sister was working at an office on nassau street which is a block away from the tower it's for you know very low you know three four story high buildings whatever she had an office there Nassau street, which is a block away from the towers for, you know, very low, you know, three, four story high buildings, whatever she had an office there. Allegra is her assistant at this jewelry office. Gotcha. So I'm very top of mind. I know where the building is. I'm like, how the hell does a plane crash into the trade center? And so she doesn't even know that she just know there was an explosion. And I do the, you know, those, those radio things where I'm like, seize the moment, get someone there and try and find out to describe what's going on. And that's kind of the call.

So I knew from her balcony, she could see the World Trade Center because we were there. And so that's her explaining what she sees as the second plane hits her scream. Jesus. Her scream on that is just blood curdling. Oh, I know. And even though I know it's coming, because I've heard that clip several times now. Yeah. It's like, I know it's coming and it still gets me. Yeah. It was.

So that clip, because we were recording, we sent it to our newsroom. It ended up that day being like one of the audio clips that news was using of audio of the thing of the audio clips that news was using of audio of the thing um of the impact because at the time there um there was no real footage or anything of the impact you know there is a lot now as whatever but this is within hours of that day our program director was in new york i remember he was oh god maybe he was with a record guy they've been in the city for something so driving back. They couldn't fly. They were on the tarmac at Newark when that happened. They had to rent a car and drive back and stop at my house that night. But the actual, the call

to me was meaningful because my sister's office was there and I was afraid that she didn't know what was going on and Allegra didn't really know what was going on. She knew there was an explosion. I finally get in touch with my sister. She's in Williamsburg. She's great. She doesn't know what was going on and Allegra didn't really know what was going on. She knew there was an explosion. I finally get in touch with my sister. She's in Williamsburg. She's great. She doesn't know what's going on. But the call ends up, here's the radio part of it. The call ends up getting played by Howard Stern, I think that day or the next day. And Howard has to play the clip and say, maybe he was on cue at the time or something, but he had to say, here's one of our affiliates from Toronto. This is Nicholas Pickless and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, this guy literally has to say my name and not say anything about it because of the gravity of this horrible terrorist incident.

When any other given day I'd get ripped apart, whatever. So that, you know, side note. But it was one of those moments and, you know, I use it as a teaching moment of whenever something happens, get on the phone, make a call, like get involved. You can't be there, but you can probably talk to somebody that is there. Right. And radio again, still is very, you know, audio. You've got to have someone tell the story.

Yeah. i haven't heard that in a long time i post it for the for the anniversary every year kind of put it up there but i don't listen to it because it is pretty and i know allegra and she's great by the way she's fine okay i know her i had you know met her the week before and hung out with her and my sister and so this was all very fresh top of mind and um it was it was uh whoever pressed record it was a good thing well there's a big anniversary coming up this year because uh that's 20 20 years because that's hard to believe too like for guys our age you know i gotta get a 19 year old you know who's born literally born uh like a few months after the planes hit the World Trade Center. And happy birthday, James, by the way.

His birthday's tomorrow. But yeah, it's a big one too, big 19. But for those of us, because I have a certain age who are old enough to remember this day. It's almost whenever I describe it to my kids or just we talk about 9-11. I have a teenager as well and she knows it as a history thing but doesn't know the relevance of it she's 14 right

and i had a fun moment with her so she she discovers music and she you know usually i'll walk in her room and she'll play me something dad you know this well the other day she's like dad you've never heard of this band and she plays this charming man by the Smiths. Right. And I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty aware of who that is. I'm like, I'm so happy that she found it on her own. And that's a pretty damn good song defined by the Smiths. So the generational thing wows me every time. History, if you weren't there, if you didn't live it. And at the time, I know we got a lot of heat because Canadian station, US target politics. I had friends on that are Muslim that were trying to explain sort of, so after all the, all the fallout trying to explain sort of for the average listener, I don't, you know, I don't know, I don't know what an average

listener is, but someone trying to explain that dynamic outside of my world, like trying to explain why the heat that the Muslim community was feeling, it's different north of the border and south of the border. I'm just saying Toronto is way more integrated. I'll tell you something, after moving to Buffalo, I was blown away by the lack of racial diversity here as far as in Toronto, everybody's from somewhere. There's no, there's no, a lot of anything is everybody has their own different cultures, different races, different skin tone, different accents, different history and all that.

Down here when I first moved here, it was black and white and that was it. And there was no, no anything else, just black and white. And I was like, where is everybody else? Like it was the weirdest from going downtown Toronto to Buffalo was a big leap culturally. Wow. Okay. Now, so speaking of Buffalo, uh, brother Neil, this is, he calls himself brother Neil. He's a listener to the program. He's also a fan of you. Good. Uh, he says, can you please ask him about

his semi alternative music show on Buffalo's number one hit music station called post modern Sundays? Yeah. Um, yeah, real simple. I came from an alternative station, the program director at the time at kiss. I was hired to do my first job at kiss was doing like the weekend DJ mix shows live to air much like, much like what you would hear on a Toronto station, like, you know, Friday nights at 10 o'clock, the station flips to a DJ live at a club type of thing. Right. That was my job. I came in to do that pleasure dome, whatever big clubs were big at the time. Go and do those. Then the PD knew that I liked alternative and said, Hey, alternatives kind of like, there's no alternative station in town. Would you think about doing this show called postmodern Sunday

on Sunday night? So for three hours, I got to just play whatever the hell I wanted. Very Marsden of you. Very Marsden. Yeah. And, and I did, and it was a really special show. Cause you got to play like at the time I broke, um, um that's where i first played bare naked ladies was on that show for buffalo audience alanis morissette weezer was a big one yeah um a lot of songs broke on that show and they would take that in the in the record industry they would take a top 40 spin and say hey buffalo is playing our song weezer was a big example. And so that top 40 thing started for them at Kissin' Buffalo.

And the drummer is from Buffalo. So I got to do an interview with him. I think Radiohead, we were probably the first top 40 station playing Radiohead Creep at the time. Wow. And I would just kind of play whatever records I liked, I guess.

That's cool, man. Yeah, because you're right. We mentioned Danielle. Well, she had the alternative bedtime hour, but this whole vibe of this whole Sunday night programming, I mean the late great Dave Bookman would be, you know, shout out to that'd be like sort of his vibe or whatever. And it's cool that you're carrying the torch like that. That's amazing.

Yeah, I do. I, I work, I literally play top 40, very, very strict top 40 playlist in the morning of what I do now at kiss. We play the, basically the top 10, you know, just the same records over and over and over again. Right. And it works for that formula. I respect that, but I, you know, my passion is, is other kinds of music um i'm super into vinyl for whatever reason i have a ridiculously large vinyl and cd collection and videos like when i dj at night clubs or whatever i play music videos and that's that's the other thing and that all started

in toronto i worked um i worked for a music service called music can that would service clubs there was rpi video pool rock america Music Hand was the one based out of the West Coast or somewhere like that. And I would edit videos for them. Now, Neil also says, well, I'll read what he wrote. Does he feel like he took over the crown after Sandy Beach was dethroned as Morning Man at Magic 102 during the hit music radio war era?

I don't know um yeah that's i i didn't i didn't know sandy on the air at stars to be honest i didn't know what i didn't listen to other stations i didn't hear the morning show at kiss when i started there so i knew that there was a morning show the last morning show and the only morning show i'd really paid attention to was pete and geats because they made me laugh but i ran ran into right now I do the show with Janet and I've done the show with Janet Snyder for years. Right. I ran into her at the vending machine. I had never heard her on the air. Literally she was this pregnant lady at the vending machine and she was cool

and funny and we got along and the show kind of took off from there. And we still do the same thing and kind of have the same relationship every morning where it's like we're hanging out at the vending machine talking about stuff that's going on. Well, good for you, man. I just love the fact, I know that you're a dual citizen, but it's still pretty cool that there's a Canadian kind of kicking ass taking names in Buffalo media.

Yeah, and I always give, you know, whenever a Canadian artist bubbles up or pops up. A funny story we had, Carly Rae Jepsen was in our studio one day and she was doing our show. So she came in, I don't know, whenever a Canadian artist bubbles up or pops up, um, a funny story. We had Carly Rae Jepsen was in our studio one day and she was doing our show. So she came in, I don't know, they perform live in the studio and there's a dude playing like a mandolin and there's another guy, a guitar she's doing. Call me maybe. Right. And the guy, the, one of the guys in the band's looking at me and looks at the other guy and looks at me and looks at the other guy and starts mouthing stuff and nodding to me and i realize at this moment that he's realizing i'm the guy from ytv video and arcade top 10 so as soon as the song's done and carly ray's done singing

and the mics are off they're like dude dude i know who you are i know who you are same thing happened with nickelback um at an interview with them the guy was like oh my god I grew up watching you and I'm like this is bizarre and then Loud Luxury was the last one we did a show with them in 2019 and they were like oh my god oh my god it was very cute so you mentioned Chad Kroger there at Nickelback but is it true that you you helped Avril Lavigne with her like media training? Uh, yeah, I did a, I did a session with Avril with what label was BMG Toronto or something. Um, uh, we, we did a, like a, uh, I did an interview and then they said, can you spend some time with her just to talk? She was like 16 yeah she was really young when that skater was very young and um i don't say bratty or fun or whatever she was 16 yeah well she would

tell you to stuff it i would think if you were trying to tell her how to uh or try to coach it wasn't presented that way i think and i i can't remember who the person was if it's through the station and so we just went and spent like some time with her just to talk about how to do an interview or how to, you know, from the artist side, like, you know some huge oh and and she became a huge artist through our station at kiss when skater boy was a thing like she did one of our our you know station concerts and it was massive so oh yeah i've heard about these uh because you had uh maroon five i guess played uh on one of your christmas concerts twice we had twice right when they started with harder to breathe and then then they came back you know for their for their comeback sort of um we've had a lot of these big shows did kanye west

is that is that a he played a summer concert there before he hit a big yeah he did and um so i mentioned earlier my friend james that worked on video on arcade top 10 yeah james trousey is at universal records now um is iver still yeah i believe he's still there okay so he would work iver's circuit whatever i don't know he's pop promotion for universal which is kind of a big deal yeah he was my guest at the show because we worked on video and arcade top 10 i brought him down with me and he ended up getting um stage. He gets pulled on stage by one of Kanye's guys to like hang out on the stage. And it was just fun to like, he was probably 17 at the time. Wow.

I think he was still in high school, but he came down, got on stage with Kanye West. John Legend was the keyboard player for that band at the time. And I just remember James Trousey getting on stage and he's very much into music. Like he was big with, he was the tour manager for the Arkells and now at Universal. So shout out to James. Great guy.

Good friend with Brian Dunn as well that we talked about him earlier. Of course, it's the Brian show, of course. So we're going to close. You know how we're going to close. I'm going to play a song. I can't wait to play this really short one minute song. We're going to talk about your role. I'm very, very, very excited about what's

happening in Buffalo right now. And it's going to become apparent. I got you. So you know where I'm going with that one. But I do want to just let people know that Barb Paluskiewicz at CDN Technologies, she has a great book called IT Scams. And she's got some great tips and tricks to avoid, you know, a victim of uh malware and a cyber attack and ransomware and all these other scary modern uh modern uh risks when you're online and you have a network so if you email barb it's barb at cdn technologies.com ask her for a copy of her book again it's called it scammed she She'll hook you up. So thanks for doing that. And I just want to thank Ridley Funeral Home

for their fantastic support. They re-upped for January. And it's just, they're great, like I mentioned, pillars of the community. So it's just been great working with the game. Bless the re-up. Well done. Yes, yes, that's right.

Thank you. And here's the song I can't wait to play. And look at him go! He could go all the way! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! The Bills make me wanna shout! Kick your heels up and shout! Throw your hands up and shout!

Throw your head back and shout! Come on now, the Bills are making it happen now! Stand up now, come on and shout! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Say you will! Shout it right now, baby on and shout Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Say you will Shout it right now, baby Say you will Come on, come on

Say you will Come on and shout Say you will Yeah, yeah Shout Buffalo's happening now Shout We're on the move now

Shout The fields are happening now Shout They're making it happen now Shout We've got the spirit Shout A lot of spirit, yeah Shout We've got the spirit Shout I just want to let it keep going. It's been so long, right? Okay, so I have my Doug Flutie jersey on this weekend.

Very exciting times, man. One win away from the Super Bowl. I'm not talking anything beyond the next game because where we sit on the calendar today, they got a big game Sunday. I never talk beyond. I never make plans. I never said anything. Doug Flutie

was, I was on the radio when he was here with his thing and just i love the fact that little guy from canada big deal that's what i'm talking about that guy right there yeah so for those on the podcast yeah it was go ahead maybe three weeks before christmas i'm walking around the galleria and i see doug and doug comes up he's like hey man do you know how to shop yeah i i know how to shop? Yeah, I know how to shop. And we spent a little while shopping together for his family at the mall. And at the time, I mean, dude, it was a huge deal.

Like, it was a big deal. Well, dude, he's been a big deal since college, okay? I know, I know, I know. Boston College. I just want people to do this real quick when they have a moment. Go to YouTube and watch the hail mary pass for boston college but watch it with the radio call because you know everyone got the tv call listen they put the radio call over the footage of uh doug i love i absolutely love the radio call of doug flutie's hail mary uh for boston college but i digress

buffalo bills so you're right. Never look beyond this game because, you know, this is Super Bowl champs. You know, this is a big, the Chiefs, and this is a big deal. And we don't know the health status of their awesome quarterback. But still, one win away from the Super Bowl. Tell the world, tell everyone listening, what do you do for the Buffalo Bills? Not on the field. I am the music coordinator, in-house DJ, horn hitter, guy that plays whatever music from when you walk in the stadium until you leave.

Wow. I'm that guy. And I've done that in different versions. So at the stadium in a regular season, you would go in the field house and you would see me playing music for a sort of a kid centric, no table breaking, no drinking safe zone for fans. That's the field house pregame party. They call the bill zone or whatever. So I play music in there, get people hyped for the game, play the shout song, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I transitioned over to the big house, which is the stadium and play music for,

for all the fans inside. I had done both before this year. We didn't do the fan zone because no fans. We started allowing fans in for the playoff games, which was interesting because instead of 60, 70,000 people, you've got 6 000 people right so whatever music you would hear at the the game um everything from those little you know short clips of songs or sing-along or dance-along songs um just kind of kind of set

a mood have a party let me tell you the music sounds great when they win a game when they don't right it's painful to pick the right song because nobody wants to jump around and dance and whoop there it is when they're losing so did you only work the two games this year no no no i've been at every no we've done we have run operations just like a regular home game as far as game presentation gotcha yeah but that's not weird i guess that is weird of course um no and it so it wasn't weird how do i put it oh hi so come say hi to mike good guy so this is is that my beastie boys t-shirt that's my beastie boys oh hello yes okay i have a 16 year old daughter as well i know that oh sweet well just so i'm same same drill what they look like that's right that's right bye we i didn't

get why we would keep doing that till i saw the first game of the season and i'm like oh my god familiar right i hear an announcer and i hear some music in the background and i hear some crowd noise and then the networks add to it in the truck but in the stadium you want it to sound like a regular game if it was deadly silent it would spook whoever is there i think like it would sound weird you could hear play calls and stuff i feel like you need to have something for the players yeah you hear the same familiar sounds of whatever so i think for familiarity yeah and um and to keep the party moving along in the event that fans were allowed back in and that's what happened so we we were running like um keep your mask on promos or whatever and i'm like there's nobody here

and the announcers thought the same thing but it works and so um the nhl just got to it here i used to do the same thing for the sabers so if you went to a sabers game a lot more music at a sabers game um i did the same thing for them so there's little you know 10 second puck drop songs i would do all that dude that's amazing i think that's really cool like that you're the you're doing it for the bill still and uh you did it as recently as this past weekend and again you you tweeted this but uh usa today took note of uh the good job the game up you guys were doing uh so awesome yeah i i chuckled because stuff like that never gets noticed ever and so the fact that someone took time to write the guys doing the music are doing a bang up job.

And I'm like, well, that's one guy. And so it was it was a nice little what do they call it? Atta boy. Yeah. And I live for atta boys. Like, you know, there's nothing like a little good job. Thumbs up and then move along. So, well, dude, good job on this, man. I think I was going to do an hour and then you never kind of threatened me to wrap it up.

So I just kept going. Honestly, I have to take my daughter to a drum lesson. So this is the same studio I do. So I do the morning show from this room. Like we all do remote now since COVID. Right. So this is a very familiar sort of broadcast room for me. And this is my music room.

It's a production room. And I see you've got a nice little production place there as well. Yes, my little home. So I literally, I was in here this morning from six till 10 doing the morning show. And so just to let you know what I'm doing now, I still do the morning show at KISS. And we've been on the air for a long time. It still keeps going along, which to me makes me happy, gives me something to do. And, you know, Buffalo is, Buffalo has an odd relationship with Toronto, whereas a lot of times we're we're your shopping place.

And that's great. If you're coming down from the GTA or across the border, whatever. Right. You come to the Galleria, you go to Target, Olive Garden, whatever. You go to a wing place if you like. Sammy's in the falls is fantastic. If you like wings, there in the Falls is fantastic if you like wings. There's a lot to do here. Yeah, the Cheesecake Factory. Dude, and everybody has their time over here. It's, I don't know, it's a special place. I've ended up here.

I didn't start here, but this is kind of where I ended up. And to bring it full circle, members of our family were part of the founding families of this city with the holland land company which i'm dutch part dutch and just it's just so weird that i ended up here in western new york and i have a lot of love for toronto my sister does real estate in toronto if you need a house you need to buy sell uh hit me up i'll set you up with the nicest real estate girl you'll ever know she should sponsor your podcast yeah she should there's a spot open for a real estate person yeah she's a right right sister's realty in the beaches so thanks i get my toronto fixes i have a lot of friends up in the six and um i've been hanging out there since before they called it the six i used to dj at sparkles up in the cn

tower which i had to tell my kids there used to be a nightclub up there and i'm like and we used to go up there wow and uh and do you know do a nightclub up there. And I'm like, and we used to go up there. Wow. And do, you know, do little nightclub gigs. So I've been all over sort of your area. And I don't know where you're in Toronto, but. Yeah, I'm southwest. So we call it New Toronto, but it's right beside Mimico. So it's just the other side of the Humber River, but it's the southwest quadrant.

Wait, is that where the Dolphin Motel used to be by the hump? I can't, I never, I only moved in here seven years ago, but there were a whole bunch of lakeshore motels, like you're describing. There was a whack of them. Yeah, that's the place. And you'd hit the hump. Yes, okay.

And that's where you smell Mr. Christie's? Is that the... Yeah, that's it. There was a big water tower. We were supposed to... Yeah, Park Lawn. The Energy Morning Show was going to broadcast from... Oh, God, Colleen would know about this i think

she was part of it um they asked us would you mind spending like five days on the christy water tower and live up there and do your morning show from there and i'm like yeah no i'm good you wouldn't recognize that area today because i come i come up often not since covid but right okay then you maybe wait because the condo explosion in that part of make sure in Perk Lawn is unbelievable. Talk to my sister. She's part of that condo. Well, you talk to your sister and tell her there's a spot for her on

Toronto Mike. That'd be awesome. Nicholas Piccolis' sister. But dude, honestly, I know you got a drum lesson to get to, but dude, that was amazing. And thanks so much. That was just a wonderful conversation i really appreciate it you said over 700 episodes yeah this is 787 that's amazing at a boy that's

great thanks keep telling stories that's what you know that's for me that's what matters i want to hear stories i don't live in the past a lot so i don't reminisce about the old days um but i appreciate you bringing them up and um it was nice to meet you. The Brian Dunn Show. And that brings us to the end of our 787th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Nick is at

Nick in Buffalo. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN that sticker you cdn technologies are at cdn technologies and ridley funeral home they're at ridley fh see you all next week this podcast has been produced by tDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business

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