Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Paul Fisher: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1682

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

In this 1682nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with radio veteran Paul Fisher about his years at Rogers Radio, particularly CHFI, and his foray into writing. There are great stories about Don Daynard, Erin Davis, CFTR and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainis and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Here I was born. 1682? You look good for your age. My goodness gracious. Here we go. I'm standing on the world stage. For Canada. Hi, this is Leona Boyd.

Nothing compares to the feeling I always get, performing as a Canadian. I've toured with Gordon Lightfoot. You don't get more Canadian than that. Please, buy Canadian. Shop as if your country depends on it. Keep your money in Canada, for Canada. Welcome to episode 1682 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer.

Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Yes, we are open! An award-winning podcast from Monaris, hosted by FOTM Al Greggo. Silverwax.ca. Use promo code TORONTOMIKE10 at checkout and save 10% at silverwax.ca. Recycle myelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling

our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aynes, sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut, it's radio veteran, Paul Fisher. Welcome Paul. Thank you.

Thank you. Nice to be here in your cozy little studio. And thank you for not hitting your head on the ceiling. That's half the battle here, Paul, but, uh, it's good to meet you. Uh, I have a little housekeeping and then I want to set up, you know, how we got connected, but I feel like right away, cause you drove a great distance to be here right away. We should crack open our fresh Great Lakes beer on the mic.

What do you say? I think that's a great idea. And since I won't be driving for at least another 90 minutes to two hours I can have a beer. You can have a beer. What are you drinking there by the way? What is that? I have a Great Lakes Brewery Premium Lager. Okay you've got the Premium Lager and I have the Sunnyside Session IPA so we'll go three, two, one. So cheers to you, Paul. Cheers to you. Good to meet you.

Good to meet you. So a little housekeeping off the top. How does that taste? That's a good beer. It's very good beer. I bet you it was canned like two weeks ago. So they brew that beer in Southern Etobicoke and you're in Southern Etobicoke right now. And, you know, I do regular pickups

because I give beer to every guest. You're bringing home some Great Lakes beer with you, Paul. Fantastic. And it's always fresh and it's delicious and they're fiercely independent, proud Canadian company. So we love our Great Lakes beer here. But okay, so speaking of Great Lakes, Paul had previously announced to the listenership that TMLX 18,

that's the 18th Toronto Mic listener experience, was going to be June 26th from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery. And I announced to the listenership that Paul Mapposta would feed us all that night and everyone was invited. You're invited as well, Paul. So I'm here to tell people that is still happening. TMLX is happening on June 26th at Great Lakes Brewery, but it is no longer TMLX 18.

That is now TMLX 19, because here's the breaking news, Paul, you ready? I'm ready. We're gonna have a TMLX 18 on May 11th at 1.30 p.m. at Christie Pitts. a tmlx 18 on may 11th at 1 30 p.m at christy pitts we're going to take in some toronto maple leaves baseball and we're all going to gather just beyond the left field fence so everybody is invited to hang at tmlx 18 on may 11th that's a sunday at 130 p.m at christy At Christie Pitts where the maple leafs play baseball and then we'll get together again on June 26 for TML X 19 you got it Paul. I got it and I'm available of those days. Well if Paul Fisher came out to these events I think that would be huge. So we would love to see you there

By the way, I mentioned palma pasta is feeding us at TML X 19 on June 26th. Can I send you home with a large? frozen lasagna from Palma pasta is feeding us at TMLX 19 on June 26th. Can I send you home with a large frozen lasagna from Palma pasta? Seriously, Paul. Are you my grandmother? I'm your Nona. Do you have a Nona? Not an Italian Nona. Actually, I'm all out of grandmother's this lifetime, unfortunately. Well, I am too. So shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. I would love Pomma pasta's lasagna frozen or otherwise. Now Fisher, that is an Italian name. Of course, Fisher.

No, I kid. I kid. I kid. Is that a real name? That's a, you know, when I was a kid, I hated my last name because everybody could make fun of it in school. Right.

And, um, and to, to make matters worse, when I first moved to Canada from England, I had a very strong Cognac, when I first moved to Canada from England, I had a very strong Cockney accent. I was eight years old. I have no accent now at all whatsoever. Except after a few scotches maybe, but. And I hated my name.

And then I get into radio and I use my real name and people are going, that's a great name, that's a great radio name. How'd you come up with that? What's your real name are going, that's a great name. That's a great radio name. How'd you come up with that? What's your real name? Well, that's why I asked. So many radio guys come over and I find out, oh, that's, that's not their real name at all.

You know? Well, there was a whole thing that went on, you know, in the sixties in particular, especially AM radio, you know, everybody was Scott Carpenter or, you know, John Baker or, yeah, that's a made up name, but. Yeah, but Scott Carpenter who's been over here, example. John Baker or, uh, yeah, that's a made up name, but. Yeah, but Scott Carpenter who's been over here.

That's a great example. Yeah, yeah. Pat Bergen. Yeah. That's right. Okay. Well, we'll get to, we'll get into your bonafides as a, as a radio guy for sure.

Uh, one guy who did not change his name though, was, uh, Roger Ashby. Like he's actually a Roger Ashby. And a great radio name and a great radio guy. And you're a great radio guy. You've got a great radio name, but that's actually a Roger Ashby. And a great radio name and a great radio guy. And you're a great radio guy. You've got a great radio name, but that's your real name as well. So this is what happened, Paul. So follow along with

me, and then we're going to hear all about your life in radio. But about a year ago, FOTM, Jeff Lumbee, FOTM means friend of Toronto Mike. You're now an FOTM. Oh, thank you. Jeff Lumbee is a great friend of mine. So Jeff Lumbee wrote me aboutM means friend of Toronto Mike. You're now an FOTM. Oh, thank you. Jeff Lumbee is a great friend of mine. So Jeff Lumbee wrote me about a year ago. In fact, I pulled his email from about a year ago and he wrote, I have an idea

for a potential guest for you. Do you know who Paul Fisher is? He used to be the PD at CHFI during the glory years. He was the last guy I worked for when I decided to retire. Now he's got a new book coming out that has a very interesting theme. So I get this email from Jeff about a year ago and Jeff links me to a chat you had

with a woman I'd referred to as almost FOTM because she was in the calendar and then she was too busy or something was going on and it never happened, but maybe one day it'll happen happen but Glenda Fordham. Oh yeah yeah. And I was reading Glenda chatted with you about your debut novel Like a River to the Sea. Yes. Which I'm hoping maybe after our radio chat we can chat a little bit about that and I can find out if there's a second book in you. So this is all going to happen in this conversation. But I don't remember, I think I said to myself, oh, I would like to talk to Paul Fisher,

but I don't know why I never reached out to book this in my calendar. But let's fast forward a few months, several months, to an email I received from FOTM Dave Charles. How do you know Dave Charles? Well, I think most people in radio know Dave through his consulting work and the work that he and John Paracol did together for many, many years. So I knew Dave way back when, but when he moved back from Australia, I,

I forget the year it was maybe 2009, 2010, something like that. year, it was maybe 2009, 2010, something like that. Um, and one day, uh, he called me or emailed me actually, and I said, we should have a coffee. He and I went out, had a coffee and then spent the next two or three months, uh, looking for locations where we could open up a coffee shop together. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was crazy because you know, we, I, I did a spreadsheet on it and showed it to Dave and Dave says, yeah, this makes sense to me and let's go look at locations. And we went so far as to checking out rents and you know, where would we end up?

Neither one of us really wanted to work in the coffee shop to be honest, but we wanted to own one. Sure. It never happened. It's interesting. Cause you do hear stories about people who like they have, they get together and they're like, Hey, let's open a bar or a restaurant or whatever. But yeah, coffee shop. So why did it never happen? You just did the math and you realize

it would be a lot of work and risky. We sort of came to the conclusion that, and I've heard this from people who own actual, you know, franchises like a Tim Hortons or a McDonald's or something. They say, you know, franchises like a Tim Hortons or a McDonald's or something. They say, you know, you buy one and you're working seven days a week. You buy two and you take off a few days a week. You buy three and you say goodbye to the whole mess and just cash your checks.

So we didn't see ourselves becoming owners of a coffee chain. So instead, um, we went off in a different tangent and met with a couple of people. Bob Makkowitz was one of them, Gary Muth was another one of them, and we were looking at trying to buy a radio station. How long ago was this? About 2012-ish, I guess. Okay. Makko Sr., I had Makko Jr. on the show and actually tried to to get Mako senior on the show because I really wanted to talk to Mako

It's and it never came together one of the many episodes that never came together Would you say a word or two about what kind of a chap Mako senior was? I didn't know Bob that well to be honest I mean we knew of each other through the industry, but around that time we used to have meetings at my house on Florence Avenue, which is up around Young and 401. I don't live there anymore, but I did at the time. And I had a big dining room, so that's where we'd

have our meetings where we were going to take over the world. And he was very insightful. We were looking for a format and, uh, he wanted to push us towards country and, uh, I, you know, I was willing to follow, but I was much more going in a different direction. But, um, uh, it turns out, uh, one of the stations we were trying to buy.

Yeah. And of course it didn't go anywhere, but, uh, was the old wave in Hamilton which then became that fantastic country station owned by Durham Radio. They did incredibly well with that format and had we followed Bob's advice and had we actually did the purchase, I'd be too busy to do this interview right now. He knew what he was talking about. He was able to sift through and find the little gem in there.

Wow. Now to read, uh, this is what Dave Charles wrote me, and it's only earlier this year, actually early, early 2025, Dave Charles, similar to Jeff Lumbee. He writes, have you interviewed Paul Fisher yet? Formerly of CHFI? He's a good friend of mine and worthy of a Toronto Mic'd episode. He'll have some great stories about his time with Rogers Radio in Toronto. Paul will be taking over running our annual records and, sorry, radio and records party

at Roy Thompson Hall with Cam Carpenter. Gary Muth and I, after 15 good years, will continue to enjoy the summer party we started, but as guests, this is a lovely note from Dave where I really, it's a humble brag that I'm reading this because it's very kind. He says, your energy and love of broadcast music podcasting gives this salty old dog reason to believe that the next generation of communicators is in great hands. So we love Dave Charles on this show and I finally said enough is enough. Let's get Paul Fisher in the calendar.

Well that's that's very kind of Dave to see all that and I had no idea Jeff contacted you. I was in touch with him just a few weeks ago, just because we're, we're going to be spending some time in France in several weeks. And I said, here's where we're going to be. How close are we to you and Julie? Cause they moved to France a couple of years ago, as you may know.

Yes. Um, and we're about four hours away, so we're going to try and make something. Jump on that train. Great trains. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, uh, we'll see where, um, we're going to be mostly make something. Jump on that train. Great trains. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll see. We're, we're going to be mostly in the Provence area and he's, he's going to meet us halfway and it'll be about four hours. I was going to say, I've never been to the, the Lumbee estate in France, but. And I don't think I'm invited this time either. Well, I produce a show for humble and Fred,

a couple of names, you know. Yes. And humble did go to France to visit his buddy Lumbee. In fact, remember it was humble and Lumbee that were on the air in Montreal when humble gets recruited to come to Toronto and create humble and Fred. So they go, they go back. They're, they're very good friends. All three of them.

Yeah. And they got the, uh, the Saskatchewan roots and they go back to Western Canada days, but so, uh, Howard, and he tells me that Lumbee's got like a, I don't know what the word for it is, but it's like a cabin on his property for guests. But like he's, you could have your own like living and you could, you could cook there. Now you wash your clothes. I know. And it's like you're in France, but you're on his property and you could live there for a couple

of weeks. Like it sounds like a pretty, uh, sweet deal. Yeah. Well, I'm, you know, Jeff normally does things very well, so I'm sure he did his move to France very well. He's a, he's, he's, I'm just putting this out there cause you know, Lumbee is going to hear

this episode and then he'll invite you to live there for a little while. Or perhaps you. Well, maybe we'll go together. I would love it. Okay. So take me back. Uh back some people listening will know Paul Fisher well from from CHFI and some will be learning about you right now but can you just take us back in what made you want to get into

radio? I think the moment I wanted to get into radio was probably around midnight one night. We had just moved to Toronto from London, England and my bed was literally a blue fabric covered beach chair in the kitchen. We moved over with not much and didn't acquire much after that. So I'm laying in bed with a transistor radio that my dad had bought me. I didn't have a transistor radio in England. I didn't even know if I could pick it up much. But, um, so I was listening in 1964 when the Beatles landed at Malton airport.

Right. And I was, I think eight, uh, was I eight? So that math check out 64, what year were you born? I can do this for you. I was nine. Was I eight? Is that math check out? Sixty-four? What year were you born? I can do this for you. I was nine. Math is tough. I was nine.

We came over when I was eight. And I wish I could remember who was doing the reports that night. I want to say it was Bob McAdory, but you'd have to check. I know he was with Chum. I don't know if he was with Chum in 64, but for but for some reason, his image stays in my mind, but I'm laying in bed. The transistor is laying on the pillow. My ear is on the transistor. And, you know, had I know and then what it did to hearing that, but that's another matter. And I'm listening to this guy,

whoever it was described the Beatles arriving at Malton airport. And I thought, to me, he was the star. It wasn't the Beatles that night. I mean, I loved their music even then, but, but, but he just had command of, of, of the kingdom. Right. And I thought, Oh, I, I just love to be able to do something like that. And then years later, I think, um, you know, I was, I, I grew up in Toronto, so I'm listening to people like David Marsden,

David Pritchard, Jim Bauer. Oh, the Chum FM guys. The Chum FM guys. And I listen to all the Chum AM guys too. But really, I had in my mind that if I ever got into radio, there's one station to work at, Chum FM. And I finally got there after a little while. And anyway, so I'm around 15, 16.

What am I going to do with my life? Uh, I'm at this point either going to be a rock star or the guy who plays them on the radio. And I listened to my guitar chops and they weren't that great. And you know, uh, I, I played it safe. I thought if I get into radio, I'm going to have a regular paycheck, regular. And you know, I played it safe. I thought if I get into radio, I'm going to

have a regular paycheck, regular job. You know, I can buy a house one day, you know, settle down the whole bit. Uh, none of life on the road is a rock star. And, uh, kind of wish I'd taken that rock star route a little bit for a little way, but, uh, uh, radio filled that desire in me as much as being in a band would have, I think,

because back in the day, you got to remember, you could be really creative. Even, even when I got to Chum FM, we were still picking our own music, which was great. That doesn't happen anymore. No, I mean, a good close friend of mine who, people who listen to this program here on episodes of toast every month Bob well, let he's got this six days a week

He's on Indie 88 and once in a while will be like hey why don't you play a spoon song or something because my his co-host for these toast episodes is a guy who was in spoons Rob Proust and he's like very honest with us Which is he has zero input, zero influence on any of the music that gets played. And that's the way it is. And in some ways, that's the way it needs to be or needed to be at the time. But you know, one of the main reasons I got involved in radio was I wanted to create things

because I was listening to David Pritchard at two o'clock in the morning and you know, Reiner Schwartz and all these great names I Hesitate to have a shopping list cuz I'll forget somebody like Pete and Geets, you know go. Oh my god how could you forget Geets and Pete and it's my Contractual obligation to tell you when you name an FOTM So I wanted to shout out David Marsden and Geeds Romo, a couple of guys who've spent time in this space. Yeah, you know, Marsden was just incredible, you know,

back then, and he was very, I remember calling him once or twice, you know, on the, on the, on the, the chum, the listener line, whatever. And I was not in radio at the time, but I just wanted to reach out to him. And he was very gracious, very gracious. But did did you I don't even know of these timelines work but did you listen to Dave Mickey no no and I know he was Dave Mickey on EY but no the first I heard of him was as as David Mars because he goes to Montreal I guess

and then he comes back to some something like that yeah and when I see the old pictures of him as Dave Mickey yeah I feel like I'm, uh, you know, watching some teen dance show, which is probably what he was hosting back then. He was for CBC. He was hosting one of those shows. And, uh, one of the, when I hear the audio of Dave Mickey and I think about the guy I know,

who's David Marsden and his it's night and day, right? Like one is just, just rapid fire delivery. And then David Morrison's kind of like, kind of chill, like the Mars bar. Yeah. Yeah. No, he, uh, he, he honed his talent beautifully.

Beautifully. Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, so we're going to, I want, I'm curious, like what's your first radio gig? My first radio gig. So I, I went to a Humber college. Uh, it was the second year that they were having the radio program there and, oh, uh, 72

or three, I forget exactly when that was, but somewhere in there. Um, and, uh, after about three months, my instructor at the time said, I have a friend who works at a station in Oshawa. It's now, what's it? The Rock. The Rock. Sorry, I was going to say Rock 95, but no, it's the Rock. The last terrestrial station to employ David Marsden. Yes, there you go. So back then it was CKQS, QS for quality stereo. And they played, we played, you know, Montevante,

100 and one strings, all these horrible crooners. But it was radio and so I went out there and the guy said well I have this gig and here's what it pays nothing it was a David Lenick who hired me who David's still around still you know making noise on the internet but I'm not sure what he's up to these days besides selling a bunch of old 1920s, uh, discs that he found in some garage, uh, underwater somewhere. Oh wow. Anyway, I went there and I said, okay, look, I'll

work free for you for a month. And then if you like me, hire me. And if you don't like me, I'll go back to school because at the time Phil Stone, who ran the course was, uh, was saying, oh, you're taking a month off you can't do that this is a three-year program and blah blah blah and so a month later I go to him and I say Phil and David Spencer was the other guy who was we all have to be named David that's like three I think those is a real name too I said Phil they've offered me a job in Oshawa.

I'm, I'm taking, he said, what are you going to do? I said, I'm taking it. He goes, you're crazy. Finish your course. I said, well, sorry, I'm the impetuous type and I took it. And so I worked there for two and a half years. Um, it, it was wonderful and awful all at the same time. And I wouldn't change anything about it.

I lived in Oshawa for a few months in this basement apartment that was so damp. You almost had to wear a bathing suit in it. And, and you know, I'd get to work my, my shift was noon to six, but I'd get to work at about eight in the morning and I'd leave around midnight and I had, I didn't care. I just wanted to be immersed in it. You loved it. I loved it. I loved everything about it.

And you know, I spent 40 something years in radio, never worked a day in my life. Well, if you love what you do, that's you're never gonna work a day in your life. That's exactly it. Quick question. So you mentioned you were like the second year of the Humber radio courses.

Yeah, which I think now they've just recently closed it. Well, this is where I'm going, Paul. You know, I'm playing 3D chess over here. Any thoughts on the fact that, I believe I just saw a video with FOTM Evelyn Macco, like the final, saying goodbye to the program. I believe that program has been shuttered. Yeah, I don't know if Evy was teaching at Humber.

I thought she was over, um, um, centennial or somewhere. I'm not sure. Okay. But I, I know she was teaching radio to students and I've certainly had a few friends, uh, do that and gone to lecture at, at one or two.

Um, but, uh, about all the courses closing. Well, on the one hand, I think it's very sad. On the other hand, I think it's a reality of what's going on, not just in the business, but in the communications industry in general. You know, radio is fragmenting like crazy. Everything has fragmented. And what was radio 20 years ago is just a different form of radio now except some of its podcasting some of its Spotify-ing you

know I mean we're we're still doing all the things that radio does it's just it's happening on so many different platforms now well you're actually reading my mind Paul I don't know if if you do that as a side hustle, but you're doing it right now. Well, I do in your pocket right now. You have $42. If I had $42, I would be out of here spending it. That would be amazing. But Paul, here's what I'm thinking. I do read about all these radio courses going. And again, I never worked in radio a day in my life. I don't know anything about working in radio.

I just enjoyed listening to radio. And I love talking to people like you because we're going to do a nice jog down memory lane revisit like the 1980s radio wars. Like this is going to be great, have a great interest to me. But when I hear about these like closures and shuttering of these radio programs, my first thought is why not like pivot? So they're not radio programs, they're broadcasting programs that aren't necessarily for terrestrial radio, like we're, but, but you mentioned podcasting and all the other, I mean, what I'm doing now is just something somebody's

going to listen to instead of CHFI. You're doing radio by appointment. That's all. Right. So why not continue to teach people? It doesn't have to be, oh, you're going to get a job at chum. It can be you might be able to start your own podcast, join a network. Who knows? Listen, I think I think what has happened in radio and and in print and in TV and in movies at the at the theater or the cinema. I think the same thread is going through all of that and what happened maybe a

decade ago, I didn't bother to note the exact date but we went from a push to a pull industry, the communications industry let's call it. So back in the, the six o'clock news came on TV at what time? Six o'clock. Six o'clock. I'm ready for the pop quiz. You know, and there were two editions of the Toronto Star and the Telegram and the Globe and Mail, the morning edition, the afternoon edition and all of that. And if you wanted to hear your favourite group or song on the radio you had to wait till they pushed it out to you unless you

knew a good jukebox unless you had the secret phone number to the bat phone right and and so when it became more of a poll industry now I can listen I can watch the six o'clock news at eight o'clock right because back in the day and even now who the hell is home at six o'clock to watch the TV news look at the highways nobody's home Well people are home obviously, but but but you know it's an on-demand world I and and and when things move to on-demand it fundamentally changed the entire radio landscape The entire TV news landscape the entire radio landscape, the entire TV news landscape, the entire newspaper landscape. You know, I used to wait for the newspaper to arrive, right, and you go, geez, what's happened?

Right, you need both. And now, God, I consume news 24-7 on my laptop, my phone, occasionally on the radio, but mostly I pull it all when I want it. Right. I pull it to me rather than waiting for them to push it out to me. And that was a huge change.

100%, I think the last bastion of real time consumption of media is sports. And maybe there's a few exceptions, maybe the Oscars and things like that where people want it, but sports. You're right about sports. When I moved down to Niagara-on-the-Lake things like that where people want to put the sports. You're right about sports. Um, uh, I, uh, when I moved down to a nag around the lake a couple of years ago with my girlfriend, um, we decided not to get cable. I hadn't had cable for years,

all online watching, right? Um, yeah. And so I had to put a TV antenna on the roof so I could watch NFL games on Sunday and watch them live. And for that, yes, I had to, I had to convert to their schedule. Last night I made sure I was in front, I'm in front of that TV at 7 PM because the puck was going to drop in a few minutes and I wanted to watch the Leafs clinch it in five. That did not happen. No, it didn't. And, and, and, and live sports, that's one of the few exceptions to the on-demand route

because some people if they're going to miss a game because they're working or they're at some event, don't tell me, don't tell me, I'm going to watch it tonight at 11 o'clock. This is a Seinfeld scene and I never understood it personally but yeah. I've tried that and I can't watch something knowing it's taped. You and me both. And going yeah, yeah, come on team because Cause all I gotta do is flip to the back and I can see who won. My mind is blown by the people who will be like,

oh, I PBR the Blue Jay game and I'm gonna be watching it later. So they kind of avoid spoilers or whatever. Blows my mind because I can't do that. And I've never been able to do it. Like this is a real time news happening and it happens, it happens. And if I missed it, I missed it. There is, happening and I, it happens, it happens. And if I missed it, I missed it.

There is to me, there is no watching it post on demand. Some, some things just have to be live, I think. Right. And you know, uh, radio is much better at that than podcasting, although not that much of radio is live these days anymore. No, but let's go back in time, uh, to when you

were, uh, so were some curious what happens after Oshawa because you're of an era when radio was a BFD, a big fucking deal. This is what we can swear on this show too. It was an HFD to me. A huge fucking deal. That's okay, it's a huge fucking deal. So what happens to you after the station that eventually would become known as the Rock? What was it called back then? CKQS. Oh yeah. And then it became QT and then it became the Rock.

Okay. But I, you know, I don't even know if they're in the same place. I think it was 360 King Street West. Well, I can tell you where they are because I've been there fairly recently. It's an airport. Oh, that's right. Yeah. They moved away years ago from 360 King.

I remember Doug Kirk told me that they were going to be doing that airport location, which kind of makes sense. It was cool. I mean, when I dug the tour of the studio and the airport there, but okay. So what happens after Oshawa? So I go into Oshawa and I am just on top of the world. Immediately start sending audition tapes to Duff Roman at Chum FM. Wow. Duff Roman immediately said,

stop sending me audition tapes. Cause that's your, but you wanted to be on, yeah, you wanted to be on Chum FM. I wanted to be on there at Chum FM, something awful. And I guess I was awful. So, you know, Duff finally convinced me, he said, I'm not gonna hire you from Oshawa, you gotta go somewhere else first.

And then, much to my surprise, I get a phone call from a guy I didn't know at the time, whose name was Ross Davies. And I knew who Ross's dad was, George Davies. George was a consultant for Chum and maybe others but certainly for Chum and Ross was about to start managing possibly his first managerial job or program director job in Calgary at CJ92 and I get this call from this Ross Davies guy say I'm gonna be in be in Toronto. You want to meet at the Sheraton Centre.

I have a station out West I want to talk to you about. And I said, okay, great. I didn't know anything about it. Right. And it turns out his dad had heard me and said, you're starting this new station. Duff wants this guy to, I don't know if Duff specifically said this to him, but you know,

somebody at Chum wants him to get some experience. So why don't you hire him in Calgary and then maybe they'll bring him to Toronto one day. So, uh, that was very cool. I got a job, uh, in, at CJ doing mid days, uh, worked there for 14 months, loved it. It was terrifying cause I'd never been west of Mississauga.

Anyway, uh, that worked out and then, uh, 14 months into it, I get a call from Warren Cosford. I got a bunch of tapes here from you. Send me a current one. Sent him a current one and I was in Toronto 10 days later doing all nights on ShumFM. Wow. So that's it? You're like living the dream. So I should have retired. That's it? You got to... I learned this from Seinfeld too. Go out on top. Everything comes back to Seinfeld. Go out on top. Oh, that was such a fabulous show.

You know, I didn't watch it when it came out. Oh. I remember we were living in the country just north of Toronto near Aurora. And my wife at the time was, oh, watch the show. It's fantastic. I don't like sitcoms. And I think I watched one. I said, oh, this is not for me. And then one day, not too much later, you know, the light went off and I went, I got to check out this Seinfeld show. I swear I've seen every episode a hundred times, like most people, but the, the, the writing, I mean, Larry, David was brilliant.

Uh, the characters who they cast and, and you know, on Netflix, you can go back and you can watch episode one, like right from episode one, the Seinfeld Chronicles. And, and, and, you know, you see the first half dozen episodes and you go, Ooh, that's a little raw, a little rough. And, and then it came together, you know,

George became George, Elaine became Elaine. Well well there was no Elaine in the first episode I don't think Elaine exists in the first episode I don't know when she came in but you know she obviously became such an integral part of my god yeah yeah so I I still think to this day Seinfeld's probably the I don't even want to call it a sitcom but it's just one of the very best TV series ever. Agreed. And it's rare that a day goes by when you don't drop a Seinfeld reference. Like I actually happened to have the same experience with the Simpsons where it's rare a day goes

by I don't drop a Simpsons reference, but between the two of them, many a references dropped by yours truly. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Exactly. Okay. So, okay. There's our little Seinfeld tangent. I love it. Okay. So, we have you in, how do we get you back to Toronto? Warren Cosford, by the way, shout out to Warren Cosford, who not once, not twice, but three times was in the Toronto mic recording calendar before he regretfully pulled himself out because some plans had changed or whatever. So he's like the, the FOTM who got away,

but you end up on Chum FM at night and pick up the story there. Okay. So, um, I fly home to Toronto, uh, middle of the afternoon on, I can't even tell you the exact day, but it't even tell you the exact day, but it was February, 1979. Might've been the 15th or something, but, um,

there was around the middle of the month. So I dropped my stuff off. I go back to my parents' house. My dad's, uh, deceased by a couple of years at that point, but, uh, my brother's sister and, um, and a stepmother living there, drop the stuff off, uh, take a nap, show up at the Chum FM front door at 11.30 p.m.

Ingrid Schumacher is on the air, I love Ingi. I love her too. And I had been told up front by Warren, show up anytime after 11 but before midnight and Ingi will show you the board. So it was, people could tell you what kind of board it was. It was one of these beautiful old boards time after 11 but before midnight and Ingi will show you the board. So you know it was people could tell you what kind of board it was. It was one of these beautiful old boards that you know it was it was knobs you know it wasn't

faders we ended up getting that while I was still there but so you know I buzz her buzz the door and Ingi's lovely and to this day it remains so. What year did you say it was seventy nine it was uh... february seventy nine okay and um... uh... she said so uh... uh... what are you gonna do for your uh... uh... for your first song and i said well i want to pick something long

because i'm nervous so i think sweet judy blue eyes crotch b sales and ashland and like i say back then we could still pick our music uh... what more more more less i mean you you wouldn't bring something in from home, but the library was wide open pretty much. Occasionally there'd be a piece of splicing tape over a track or or somebody would get very upset and use a nail and scratch out a song. Oh no. But you know essentially you could play what you wanted and

so Inge does this extra to her show and says, by the way, our new guy, blah, blah, blah, Paul Fisher, you know, midnight, keep you company. And she says something to me and I say something to her and she goes, what's your first song going to be Paul? I go, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, Ingrid, and here we go on 104.5 Chum FM or whatever we were calling it back then. Hit start, it was turntables. I hit start, fade up. Stephen Still is going crazy on guitar. I look at Ingi and smile and turn my chair and I hit the turntable with the chair. The tone arm goes up in the air, but I'm young and smart. I grabbed the tone arm.

The mic is off at this point and I'm holding the tone arm and then he's going, put the needle down. I'm going, I can't put the needle down. It's funny. So I dropped it at the beginning of the song. Baptism by fire. And, and you know what? Oh, what a, what a perfect introduction. Wow.

Cause things have to get better after that. Well, and this begins your Toronto radio career. Yes, it did. Okay. Ingrid Schumacher, uh, who was on Chum FM for. Oh, 30, I was going to say 30 years. I could have been that forever. More than 25.

Absolutely. Forever. And I had her over a couple of interesting Ingrid facts, uh, I liked that Chad very much actually. Uh, one is that she was on the air the night John Lennon was killed. And I was on the air doing the morning show the morning after. Morning after. Okay.

And it was, it was Brian Master and I doing the morning show. Brian Master, who you'll work with again at CHFI. I got to shout out another great FOTM who comes out to TMLX events. So Brian, if you're listening, I hope to see you at TMLX 18 and 19. And I'll see you at one of them. Which one? Or maybe both.

Well, at least come to 19 at Great Lakes Brewery, which I have to remind myself is 19, not 18, because for the last six months, I've been calling it TMLX 18. And then now we have a new TMLX 18. It's very complicated in this business. You understand, Paul? Okay, so back to Brian Massey.

Too many numbers. So, Pete and Geets had been doing the morning show and then Geets left, if I have the chronology right, Geets left to go to NCFNY. Pete followed sometime after that. So, they didn't know what to do with the morning show. And they, they, uh, it was probably Ross Davies, but I'm sure in consultation with others, uh, uh, Brian and I did the morning show for, I think it

was close to three months. Uh, it was never given to us as the morning show. It was like, you guys are filling in. Okay. No problem. Right. Interim. Happy for it.

So, uh, the night, given to us as the morning show was like, you guys are filling in. Okay. No problem. Right. Interim. Yeah. Happy for it. So, uh, the night that Lennon was shot, I was living just north of, um, uh, Chum FM, uh, up

around Young and Davisville. And, uh, you know, late that evening, I get a phone call from Ross Davies who's received news from others and he goes, uh, John Lennon has been shot and he's now being declared dead and you're on the morning show tomorrow. I go yeah I know he said well Brian Master just called me he's he's sick he can't do the show you're doing it yourself. I said oh shit okay he said don't worry we'll have lots of support. And I mean, it was a terrible situation, obviously with the Lenin shooting.

Um, but you have to move things forward from there. So that next morning, uh, yeah. So Ingi was on the air that night leading up to midnight and I was on the air at 6 AM. And is it simply, uh, did you take calls for example? I do remember playing a lot of Beatles and John Lennon music? The great thing about Chum, back in the day, and I'm sure to this very day,

I think I can easily say that, although now it's Bell, but fantastic people. Great resource of talent and of information and Ross and, you know, I don't know who exactly, but you know, the folks in the production department pulled old Beatles interviews, Lenin interviews. They said, all of this stuff will be ready for you

in the morning. So, you know, it was like kind of sitting down to a 12 course meal of, okay, what are we gonna do? Let's go to this tape of Lenin in bed with Yoko. Okay, let's go to this tape of of Lenin in in bed with Yoko. Okay, let's go to this tape with Nick Lowe who said something. Maros Bar was there in the bed in. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was telling that story and and just a quick shout out to another guy in this neighborhood who I quite like, Sir Jerry Levitan. Do you know Sir Jerry? I don't know. So as a as a teenager, he interviewed John Lennon at the King Eddie Hotel, and they made a doc about it that was Oscar nominated and everything. It's quite something. But yeah, I'm sure you have a wealth of John Lennon phone calls and interviews and stuff

at your disposal. We had all that stuff. And you know, back in, and again, was it 65 when they stayed at the King Eddie? But I remember riding my bike. I grew up around high park, high park, Parkdale, kind of on the border and, uh, riding my bike down to the King Eddie and, you know, standing there with 10,000 other eight to 17 year olds

and going, Oh, I think I see them in that window up there. So, uh, but morning after the shooting, yeah, uh, you know, Kelly. You're going solo talking about it. What a huge, like we, I'm trying to think of an equivalent, like for the gen X listeners who are probably listening to a lot of edge

one or two at the time, like yeah, the Kurt Cobain death, that's the closest I can think of when Kurt Cobain kills himself at 27. But this is a beetle who was shot dead in New York city. I remember walking into the studio that morning thinking I'm playing through the phone call from last night in my head.

I'm going, okay, this is real. Like this is really happening. Because Howard Cosell told you it was real. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, if, if Howard says, uh, but, but that morning, I mean, I mean, really all the kudos go to the people who did all the prep overnight

to get it ready. And, and they were calling people. So like Kelly J from Crowbar, who was doing work at Chum FM at the time. Uh, he and, uh, and his girlfriend at the time, uh, we're doing a bunch of overnight shows at that point. And, you know, he had, uh, uh, stories about

John Lennon at Bad Manners, uh, which was the Crowbar mansion or whatever. Right. And you know, I forget all the people who came through the studio that morning, but I was a ringleader, you know, it wasn't my show. It was, I was going, okay, you next, okay, you next, you next, okay, play that.

It was like I was an executive producer or something, but it, I mean, it sounds odd to say it was an executive producer or something, but it, it, I mean, it sounds odd to say it was an amazing morning because it was a terrible morning. But after the fact, when you look back and you go, wow, all of this came together so quickly, so professionally, so, you know, seemingly effortlessly, but there was tons of effort put into it. Right. And it showed me the magic of radio all over again, all over again. Because that morning, I mean, people were calling in, they're in tears. You know, people are

standing on the street corner with a coffee with tears in their eyes. It was major, major event. Major event. And Toronto Mike correspondent 1236 lets me know that Ingrid Schumacher was on Chelm FM for 39 years from 1977 to 2016. And the second fun fact, I was the first that she was on the air the night John Lennon was shot. The second is of course she was married to Cleve Anderson, the original drummer for Blue Rodeo who made his Toronto mic debut last month. Well the first time I saw Cleve Anderson was when he was drumming for battered wives yes the the the the the name that wouldn't get you played on uh... many a station well and that's when i was working in calgary and um...

battered wives were playing the jubilee auditorium in calgary and they were opening for elvis castello and i think it was elvis castellos first tour perhaps uh... if you've been around before that, I didn't know. So that was a pretty cool night. And of course, back then, I didn't know who Cleve was except the drummer.

Later I'd see him socially with Ingy and all of that. Yeah, well you can't miss that hair. Yeah. Okay, so you're on the Dream Station, you're on Chum FM. Why do you end up leaving Chum FM in 1981? I suppose it is. Well, it was, it was 81. It was April 81.

Um, I left because, uh, I had a, uh, a long time girl, well, seemingly long time girlfriend at the time, and I'm thinking about, you know, maybe we're going to have a life together. Maybe we're going to get married. Maybe we're going get married maybe we're gonna you know want to enjoy the finer things of life and as I love chum not a single negative thing to say about chum just fantastic except for the fact that I thought geez my last name is not waters it's not Davies it's not this it's not that I think if I stay here I'm

going to be a pretty good jock and that's about it. And I wanted more at that point. I wanted, I wanted to create some things. I had some ideas. Right. And, uh, so I started, uh, I, I looked around, I, you know, I talked to people at CKFM back when

it was CKFM and, um, I talked to, uh, oh, I talked to some, some AM stations before, you know, we, we saw the writing on the wall for that. Um, although AM still continues. Well, you know, they didn't flip a CFTR to, to all news until 93, I think. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you that story after too. Okay. Don't forget. Um, and so, uh, I was listening around the dial and, uh, my girlfriend at the time who later became my wife for 20 odd years or something. Okay. Well, some of them were odd because of me. And she listened to FI a lot, CHFI. And it wasn't really on my radar because I had worked for a

station like that in Oshawa, right? Because at the time back then, CHFI was not just playing beautiful music, but a huge percentage of it was beautiful music. There was an instrumental commitment, CRTC commitment. I don't know if it might've been 30% had to be instrumental. And, you know, we had a bunch of category six commitments. So I got to do a jazz show, which was great because I love jazz. Sunday morning, 6am. Good luck with that.

But, uh, there it was counting, uh, for the requirements. Okay. And so I, uh, I listened around and I thought, well, I really want to be a program director. I decided that saw what Ross was doing at Chum FM said, I want to do that job. Um, and, uh, so I started lobbying, um, Peggy, Peggy Colston, we're at CHFI. I don't know if you are familiar with her.

Uh, she was big name in radio back then. Absolutely. I don't think she's been in radio for many years now, but certainly anybody from that era would, would know Peggy and, um, it got to the point where I would call and her reception or her secretary assistant would say, Oh, Hey Paul, even before I said a word. Yeah.

Uh, Peggy still doesn't want to talk to you. Okay, fine. Uh, I'm going to call, um, uh, Thursday at 10. Okay. Okay, fine. This went on for about six months. Wow. And finally I got an interview with Peggy and she said, you're a real pain

in the ass, aren't you? And I said, well, I really want to work here. I really, I really think this is one of the stations where I can do something that's going to make me feel really good. I want to get involved in programming. She said, well, I'm the program director. I said, well, I know, but like I'm telling you where I want to be down the road, but I'll come over. I'll, I'll be a jock. And I said, here's the other thing I'll do for you. I'll do all your foreground programming, uh, which we had to do back then, you know, all those little 15 minute features, 30 minute

features, 90 second features. Scott Turner has been over telling me all about what he did at CFNY for the compliance. I'm, I'm convinced, uh, she only hired me because nobody wanted to do foreground. Like the jocks hated doing it. You know, we used to do this feature called spotlight. It was 15 minutes and it was thematic, you know, so songs about dirty laundry. And you had to talk for 30 plus seconds to qualify the whole quarter hour.

See, I think I liked foreground programming. Like that idea appeals to me. It, it, when people are doing it because they want to do it, you know, you can have some really good stuff. I mean, listen, most of what I listen to now is podcasting, which is all foreground programming. I was gonna say, by toast episodes I alluded to earlier, that's basically what we do.

Let's kick out our favorite laundry jams. Yeah, so anyway, at some point, Peggy says, okay, I, I'm going to hire you to do foreground and you do weekends and swing. I said, fantastic. Um, and, uh, that was 81. Um, I think it was 1987. I became PD. Okay. Now we're going to talk about a gentleman named day Donner. No, sorry. It's Don Daynard my mistake Yeah, I remember that TV commercial because I I was watching a lot of TV back then as a young man a teenager and I remember the commercials very very well, but can you share with us your role in

bringing Don Daynard to CHFI? Well, I said one word and that was yes. Tony Viner, who was at the time, I think he was just our GM, but of course he became president and president of media and absolutely fabulous guy. One of the smartest people I know and I'm so happy to call him a mentor. So he and another

person I hold very close to me, Sandy Sanderson. Sandy was the PD at TR at the time and he had a dotted line to FI but under the previous regime he didn't get very involved, but part of my deal was I said, I'd like Sandy to be involved. And Tony said, well, that's good, because he's going to be. And they were such a fabulous team. And what happened was we were in a meeting

and I think I was possibly pushing Roger Ashby at the time saying, you know, here's a guy who could do something for us. Because at FI, you have to remember, up until 86 I became music director, 87 I became program director, in 1987 I became program director. But prior to that, a lot of the music we played, frankly, was odd. And a lot of it was our promise of performance. All of a sudden you're going to hear Bob James playing electric piano, you're as right as rain, and then that's going to go into whatever. And you're going to go, wow, that was a weird mix, but part of the problem was

we really needed to change our image. You know, we were your mother's radio station or your grandmother's radio station, and you know, we had a fabulous show on at night called Candlelight and Wine, which was incredible, but kind of hard to have a show like that on and then play contemporary music around it, you know? And listen, Don Parrish was amazing doing that show. There was a guy named Jeff who produced it, and Jeff wrote everything for him and picked all the music. And, you know, Don literally would come in once or twice a week and bang off seven scripts.

And so it was all voice track, of course. With a live op sitting there, those were before automation. And so I sat down with Tony and with Sandy and said, okay, first thing we need to do in my opinion, this is what I told Tony when I applied for the job, even though there was not an opening for that job at the time. Um, I said, we, we really have to do this with the music. We have to do this with the

imaging. We have to do this with the production. Um, you know, our, our, our jocks are great, but we need a dynamic morning show. We just need that. That's what you needed back then. And you know, today, it's not always the case. Sometimes you can get by with a really good morning show and a fantastic drive show or you know whatever. And so we're talking about okay who's going to do the morning show and then it was Tony who had a mutual friend with Don. His name was Al and he said, Al called me up and he said, Don's not happy over at Standard.

And he, you know, he doesn't feel as loved as he used to. Well, the Slates took over. Yeah, well, yeah. Okay, so I can say this, you know, but the Slates took over CKFM in I think it was like May of 87 and you know Don felt that they were changing the station musically and a bunch of the veteran radio people were fired and he was vulnerable. So they took over in May 87. I had my first meeting with Don in July 87. So there you go these these are how you connect the dots on the Toronto Radio circuit. And that meeting was set up by Tony

Weiner and quite possibly Sandy as well. I wasn't in on that meeting, but, um, so, you know, we, we ended up meeting with Don, uh, at a, uh, probably got a hotel suite or something, you know, somewhere off the beaten path. Couldn't go to a restaurant necessarily. It was in Leeside. Okay.

I was hiding in the corner and taking notes. Yeah. He, he restaurant necessarily. It was in Leeside. Okay, I was hiding in the corner taking notes. Yeah, he had a nice little place in Leeside. Anyway, he said, well I got to tell you guys I'm going in for a big surgery. And you know, I said, well how big? He goes, well I could die. They don't think I will, but you know but it was a really invasive surgery. They went in through the back, and they had to deal with something in the front. I don't know exactly what it was. But it was very serious.

And he said, I'm going to need two or three months to recuperate. When do you want me to start? And I said, well, as soon as you want to. He said, okay, December 1st. And so there was a little bit of legal finagling going on behind the scenes. Tony and Gary Slate, you know, were close. They're still good friends, I'm sure. They had to work out a few things.

And, you know, back then, you know, Gary was Gary. Now he's Mr. Slate, but back then he was Gary. And, yeah, there was a lot of back and Mr. Slate, but back then he was Gary. And, uh, yeah, there was a lot of back and forth. And, uh, anyway, uh, uh, we started with Dawn December 1st of 87, uh, with an oldies dance and little did I realize he was up on stage kicking his heels up and he had pneumonia that night, but he said, uh, shows gotta go on.

I mean, that's the kind of trooper he was. And, uh, it was amazing. He was like, he was like putting a Titan rocket under that radio station, because it just took off. But had we not had the music and everything else ready and the imaging and we had a great ad campaign in mind, which you alluded to earlier. Had all that not been in place, I don't know if it would have gone as swimmingly as it did, but Dawn went on the air and the ratings went up like a rocket ship.

I think we went from a 5.9 to a 9.2 in one book or something like that. Wow! Okay, a couple of things. One is in a moment I'm going to play a little audio from the debut on CHFI of Don Daynard. So I pulled an ad too that I think people fondly remember an ad for CHFI series of ads. I pulled one or two. I'm also gonna call you out, not a call you out because who am I to call you out? I wasn't there. But so Gary Slate, who's got a few bucks.

Gary, we need a sponsor Toronto Mic. Okay, so Gary, you make a sponsor. Toronto Mike. Okay. So Gary, uh, you make it sound like, you know, you know, Tony Viner and Gary work it out and everything's honky dory. And next thing you know, what done Daner's on CHFI. But am I right that CHFI wanted Don Daner to appear in the Santa Claus parade in 1987 and Gary Slate brought an injunction against the station so that he was not allowed to make that appearance. You know, in all honesty, it sounds familiar, but I couldn't put a rubber stamp on it and say yes,

but I think you're right. There was so much going on getting ready for dawn. That's not as rosy as you made it sound there Paul. Okay. Don't you can't snow the snowman over here. Let's go. Well, you know, uh, Gary, uh, wonderful man, but, uh, uh, he had a way of wanting it, things

done his way back in the day. And, uh, he was pissed. You poached his, uh, his, his dawn day entered going to the enemy. Yeah. Here's the thing. You never po his, uh, his, his Don Dainard. Well, what we're. Going to the enemy. Yeah. Here's the thing. You never poach anybody. They want to leave.

Like, you know, if somebody's happy. Well, that's, yeah, but you got to make them an offer and then, then they accept it and that's a poach. Well, you know, I, I, I don't know who first floated the idea. If, um, if, uh, if Don said, uh, hey, if you know anybody over at FI, uh, talk to them for me, or if Tony said, Hey, uh you know anybody over at FI, talk to them for me. Or if Tony said, hey, he'd be a great guy,

who do I talk to about setting this up? But there were a few hiccups along the way. I know Gary sued us a couple of times, or threatened to sue us a couple of times over this and that. And then we sued him one time because we came up with Toronto's Perfect Music Mix, times over this and that. And then we sued him one time because, uh, uh, we came up with Toronto's perfect music mix and, uh, uh, uh, Gary had something that was along the lines on the

air and we sent a cease and desist. Oh, for mix 99.9, right? Yeah. Which, which I, as I know, because humble Howard's the first guy to say mix 99.9 on the airwaves. Cause he left humble and Fred for like eighteen months or something like that went to mix ninety nine point nine so i can tell you that was like nineteen ninety two yeah that sounds about right

i'm an official historian over here bulkhead you want to play a little audio there and then listen to ninety seconds of that first aid on day dinner donna cgfi police hearing this is the good way past pops the security guard we say they were there we can is we say his name on the air? We can officially say my name on the air now, gang. It's not a brand name, so I think we can, right? Alright, you guys go ahead and say it.

Daynard's Homemade Radio Shows. Here's the dads. Welcome to the Mighty Eye, home of the hits. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Paul. Good morning, everybody. Yes, it is. This is the first day. Yeah, what time is it it's five or six okay i'm going to have a look at that well we are here officially until uh...

i don't know how long this is going to last next i don't know how many years around here all day will be here all day actually it's kind of nice because terry is here this morning as you just heard you know shepherd me along today. Yeah. You're going to remind me what the call letters are. They're CHFI.

CHFI. That's the first time I think I ever said them on the air, just right there. Is that right? Okay. And it's like the commercial that's running on television. I'm going to remember the call letters and forget my name. Anyway, we're going to have a good time today and we're going to do all the things that we normally do and...

Except we're going to take twice as long to do them absolutely all right let's get this a music and uh... cutting crew kick things out this morning and i've been in love before not like a man well right now with c h f i ninety eight into a lot of the summer god let me try that again in Toronto. Let me try that again. Yeah, cutting crew. I've been in love before here at CHFI. Good. We'll keep that one. We'll fix it in post, Don. Okay, there you go. And then the Paul is you. Yeah, how great to hear his voice, especially from then, you know,

because he was you could feel the excitement in his voice and, and maybe the trepidation. What have I done? Well, the rest, the rest is history. How many years does Don Daynard spend on the air at CHFI? Many, many years. Yes, 12, I think. You know, there were several times he wanted to quit and he had some health issues, obviously. And, you know, you get to a certain age or your, your tolerance for putting up with a certain amount of bullshit fades and, uh, you know, and so we, we, uh, you know, uh, half my job was

the morning show and the other half was everything else. Right. Um, we, we came up with all kinds of, uh, ways of dealing with his, uh, urges to leave and our urges to have him stay. And I'm glad we did because boy, he, and then when Aaron joined him, they made some magical radio.

Well, let's talk about Aaron. I'm a big Aaron head. I'll disclose that off the top here. Okay. Haven't heard that term, but that's a good one. I just coined it, Paul. Well, I'm a big Aaron head too then, cause I think she's amazingly talented. She's been here twice and very different episodes actually, but both remarkable and hello to

Aaron if you're listening in British Columbia there. So how does Aaron Davis get paired with Don Dainard? Well, once we had Don on the air and you know we were excited and you could you know the the emotions were palpable you could feel people tuning in you could feel people talking about it. It was a big big deal and he you know Don gave F.I. legitimacy I think. We were a good station but he made us a great station. And then when Aaron joined, it became a fantastic station. No exaggeration.

Um, so Aaron was doing news at CKO. Um, and we were throwing around a bunch of names. Uh, used to have Thursday meetings, me, Tony and Sandy. And, uh, after Tony beat me up about the budget a few times, we'd start talking programming. And Aaron's name came up and, you know, we all went, oh, I hadn't thought about that. And then one of us said, well, let's bring her over to do news. And if it goes as well as we think it's gonna go, we'll just slide her into that co-host spot. Well, easier said than done,

but it was done and it worked out fabulous. Initially, to be honest, Don didn't want a co-host. He was used to doing a solo show, and I totally understood that. And he was used to having, you know, Jeremy Brown and the old CKFM crew come in and do little bits with him. But you know, it was Don's gig. And why not? That's the way it had always been done. But we had an interesting, you know, scenario developing. And that was when the day we hired Don was, he was 54 or 53, but about to become 54. The day we hired Erin, she was 25. Well, if you know anything about FM radio or advertising in general, if there's a 25 and a 54, you've got a damn fine demo there.

Right. And, uh, it was just coincidental that their ages worked out that way, but, but also their personalities because Don, you know, in his early to mid fifties was a little set in his ways. Uh, you know, he thought hop along, Cassidy should have been president and whatever else. Uh, uh, Aaron, you know, came onto the scene, um, much younger, uh, uh, vibrant, uh, uh, you know, came onto the scene, um, much younger, uh, uh, vibrant, uh, uh, you

know, she can take a conversation and just elevate it times 10 in, in a heartbeat. Uh, she, she's able to find the germ of, of a story in what you're talking about and, you know, presented in this picture and the two of them together, you know, it was, um, you know presented in this picture and the two of them together you know it was um it was a little um oil and vinegar but when you shook it together boy it was an amazing salad dressing and uh i i just think they had one of the best shows in radio period for a number of

years you know they they got off to a bit of a loose start. They ended up, you know, saying goodbye to one another at the Sheraton Center after Don's career ended or was he ended it. No, we didn't end it, certainly. And, you know, in between, there were a bunch of just magical, magical moments. Now, Erin has gone public in recent years that she never really liked Don Daynard. Have you heard these public? Again, I'm not talking out of school here.

These aren't, you know, I did once drive Erin from the airport and these aren't private chats. This is all public stuff. But it sounds like when the red light was on, they put just created compelling content that entertained the listenership. And it didn't, you know, we've heard this from many other on air coupling that maybe in their private time, they weren't going to hang. I would say you're not wrong.

Let's name all the public couplings that look like, I mean, I'm now, okay, I can do it with you. You know, Mike, it happens with a lot of entertainment partnerships or sports partnerships. And you hear of the leading man, the leading lady, they do their love scene on screen, and then they tell each other to f off as they go their separate ways. I don't think it was quite that bad, but they were the ultimate professionals when they were... Right. I was going to say when they were in that studio, but you know, they were the ultimate professionals when they were right. I was going to say when they were in that studio, but I'm going to narrow that down to say when that red light was on the red light.

Okay. So this is the program where we dig for the real talk. And that's why I'm being so tough on you, Paul. Okay. But who a couple of legends I grew up watching on television are a Gord Martinow and Anne Murzkowski. Right. That was my station for, and they were my anchors basically, Gord and Anne. And when that red light was not on, Gord was not talking to Anne. Okay, but I have no idea. What do I know? I only see what's going on with the red lights on, but you get, you know, you have

an Anne over and you get her comfy with some Great Lakes beer and suddenly she tells you the real deal? I think that happens a lot with, I say professional couples and I don't mean married couples, I mean couples who are in the same profession. Makes us so any better. Exactly, yeah. Humble and Fred get along well. I can tell you that off the air they're getting along very, very well these days, absolutely.

But I don't know how, I guess Ron and Don got along I think Ron went to Don's house for a recent 90th birthday celebration like they're still getting along fine despite what you might read in some quarters but yeah it's you know that's a job and when the red lights on you're a pro and you know what happens when the red light is not on is a whole different... Well, you know, we hire people because of their abilities and in part because of their ego, which goes hand in hand with the abilities. And, you know, they all have a certain way of wanting to do things. And when you're taking two different styles and meshing them together, it's not always smooth. And you know, again, I

don't think it's a big secret, but I won't go into detail, but there were times Don came to my office without Aaron, and there were times Aaron came to my office without Don. And sometimes there was crying, and sometimes there was screaming, and they both did both. Well, let me ask you this. Who takes over for Don on the morning show when he retires? Well, that was Bob McGee. And Bob McGee, who was working with Dave Charles until fairly recently at Element FM. Oh, okay, yeah.

I think he was the morning show guy and they do it out of the chorus key building. I got a tour there from Doug Thompson once when I delivered a Palma Pasta lasagna to him. That lasagna gets you into places. You know what? It's like a skeleton key, okay? It's the key to the city, the palma pasta lasagna. But where the hell was I going, Paul? You're the... Bob McGee. Bob McGee. So it was still Bob McGee and Aaron Davis. Like I'm just trying to... I guess it's when Aaron comes back from her... She's let go by Julie Adam. this is a famous story. Go listen to Erin Davis on Toronto Mike and get this story.

But she goes, Easy Rock, and at some point at Easy Rock, she is paired with Mike Cooper. And they end up going back. And from then on, Erin's name is gonna be first on the name of the show. Yeah, so Bob came onto the picture in part because I used to work with him at Chum and I knew Bob, uh, quite, Denny, uh, quite well.

In fact, uh, you know, there was a time where, you know, he and John Major were, were quite close and, and John Major and I got to be a little bit close for a while. In fact, he and I were ushers in a wedding together, uh, Rick Ringer's wedding. Uh, he's an FOTM and sadly John Major died too early and a sad loss. Way too early, yeah.

He never got him on. He was a fabulous guy, but so I knew Denny then and then Around the time, around about the third time where Don said I'm done at the end of the year. That was about the third year in a row. He sounds like Bob McCowan. Yeah, I thought oh geez, he might be serious. I don't know. So He sounds like Bob McCowen. Yeah, I thought oh jeez he might be serious. I don't know So We were using Bob to fill in for dawn kind of an on-air audition really I mean that's the way these things work and And and he and Aaron seemed to you know fit together well get along well I

Thought they did some great shows. They each had a little bit of difficulty in determining whose role was which. And shortly after I went out to Vancouver to run the Rogers BC radio stations, I would say a matter of days afterwards Rogers got rid of Bob and Aaron and at the time it was Bob and Aaron because the jingles worked better that way there was no you know your name should be first your name should be second it was

how are the jingles gonna sound but up until that point it was always the male's name first so it's like a you might might be right, but you're all, it also was going to be that way anyway. Yeah. It, it, it's, it's certainly the way things were many, many years back. Uh, my thinking on it, call it what you will was when you're singing a jingle, you have one syllable followed by two syllables and it kind of works. Waking up with Don and Aaron, you know, and you can hit come in with the song and

And there you go. And so waking up with Aaron and Don it just didn't flow as well to me Now, maybe if I were a better singer it might but Aaron and Mike happened right and it's a similar Yeah, you know what? Come on Paul. I'm willing to admit it could have probably worked the other way, too I'm just telling you what the thinking was 20 years ago. I hear you. I hear you. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no.

I was just going to say, and you know, we were fairly jingle heavy back then, so you were hearing these a lot by design, and it just seemed to, you know, when I sat back, closed my eyes and listened to the station. Don and Erin just seemed to segue better into songs than any other way. Now maybe if we had a different jingle package it would have worked differently. But I forget who you're using that I think it was Jam. Okay I love a good jingle like I'm a sucker for a good jingle you know they just closed my wife likes to she's a sew as a hobby, like where she creates clothes and stuff with a sewing machine. This is a sewist Paul and explain it to you.

I never heard this term sewist. I know. I just learned it from her sewist. And that means I would often be say, Hey, can you bike to fabric land and pick up this fabric or whatever? I get this, or I used to get this order a lot and there was a fabric landland on Dundas just just into Mississauga and Dundas. Okay, now I'm here to give you two pieces of news. One is that that Fabricland is gone. Oh, no, I know this is terrible. But two, what a jingle because every time I'm asked to go to Fabricland, you know what I say? Fabricland Fabricland. That's it. That's a great jingle. Now on that note, I'm gonna play, it's not a jingle necessarily,

but we're gonna listen to one of the many ads for CHFI while you were there. CHFI is Toronto's most listened to radio stations because we play the most music. We're the office favorite with 98 minutes of music, commercial free. Whoa, commercial free. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah, the new sales manager. Look, X-Nate on the commercial free thing. No money in it. No. Don't worry me. I have got plans. Plan on spending your day with CHFI. You fill Sky Dome with Jell-O and you take 98 listeners to the top of the sea and tower. Don't forget to open the roof.

You had a run of WKRP ads for CHFI. I am the guilty party. I loved it. I loved it too. And, uh, you know, it was a little bit of a stretch cause, uh, not everybody was on board with it, but I thought it would work with us because I, I thought Don and Aaron had that folksy feel that a WKRP, if it were real, would have had, and also the demo that we were going after,

the audience, uh, many of them, many of them would be familiar with WKRP. Um, and so in that, we did three commercials, uh, using people from that show. And, uh, Les Nesman, Herb Tarlik. Yeah. Um, and, uh... we used mister carlson arthur carlson arthur carlson and i got a bit of his mother have to tell you those those three individuals and we did another

commercial to with bob denver who was gilligan for the because we were the vacation station so one better vacation than somewhere uh... on a deserted island. And all of them, those four individuals, just pros and wonderful people to deal with. You know, none of them were prima donnas at all. And they knew what the gig was. They said, you tell me what I need to do, show me my mark.

And boy, they were good, they were good. Those were good spots, I thought. I agree with you, they were great spots. I have a question though, at the time, how would Don Daynard and Aaron Davis have done against Roger Rick and Marilyn, for example, in the books, in the radio? They did very well.

Now, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I used to live and die by them along with everybody else. Right. Um, you know, I, I think they may have traded, uh, number one spots, uh, for morning show here or there, and it depended if you were looking at 2554, right. 3554, uh, you know, females only this and that.

Uh, I would say they were, they were comparable shows in terms of talent and quality and, uh, or you know, Females Only, this and that. I would say they were comparable shows in terms of talent and quality and all of that. They were both excellent shows. A little bit different and they were excellent shows. For those who are, I don't know if the youngsters listening can understand the Toronto radio wars of the 1980s, okay? I tell you, they were vicious.

They were vicious and I was in the middle of it along with everybody else who was there. And we lived and died by those four books, which later became three, which later became two, which later became electronic and all of that. The PPM devices. Yeah, but no, back in the day, and probably still, I don't know if it's still the case

today, but CHFI was the number one billing radio station in Canada, year after year after year after year. Was it 10 years? Was it 12 years? I don't know. Does it continue on today? I don't look at those numbers anymore because I don't see them. But we were the number one billing radio station.

And in many cases, we were the number one audience station in terms of Q and in terms of TSA Incredible incredible time spent listening. Look at you. Yeah amazing Any truth to this rumor would you have any insight into this rumor? I heard that Ted Rogers had it in his will that Rogers cannot ditch radio. I Don't know have you heard this though, right? Uh, to be honest, no, I haven't heard it, but I just did. I'm starting this rumor, but I'll tell you, uh, I always got along very well with Ted and the reason for that was I was looking after his baby CHFI, right?

He wouldn't know my name otherwise. Well, okay. Well, Ted much respect for respect for the late Ted Rogers. Oh, he was an amazing leader, you know, I don't know what he was like in the boardroom, or any other rooms for that matter, but he, you know, he was inspirational. They just don't have owners like that anymore, anywhere. Well, I'm just here to suggest as a, you your face here. Okay, maybe the Ted Rogers statue belongs at, you know, Rogers HQ there on George that Bloor and Jarvis there. I'm just here to tell you as a Torontonian for five decades. We would rather see Joe Carter

Joe Carter, maybe a statue of Joe Carter touching them all versus Ted Rogers outside the dome. The fact that the only statue outside of the Sky Dome, sorry I'm calling it that, the only statue outside the Sky Dome, okay, well the only statue, I heard Herb Tarlik say Sky Dome and I got excited there. Well that was before Ted bought it. Well yeah, it will be yes yes of course but the only statue outside the Skydome is Ted Rogers and I think that's a damn bloody shame. Well listen I seconded it put him up near his radio station. Right that's where the Rogers statues belong. Yeah he he boy he was just one of a kind. He'd walk into a room and, um, you know, he, he could take an $8,000 suit and make it look like he just pulled it off the rack at the bay.

The suit was always worth eight grand or whatever the heck it was worth. Right. You know, Ted just didn't care about that. He cared about his ideas and his goals and you know in a lot of ways his staff and all of that. He was a great leader I thought. When did Candlelight and Wine become Lovers and Other Strangers? Well there was a little gap in between that. So when I was still music director, hadn't

become program director yet because there was no opening and you know I was waiting to see what would happen down the road. And so I remember talking with Peggy and saying you know I love Candlelight and Wine but it's an albatross around our neck. You know it's a fantastic show that is now perhaps not on the right station anymore. Put. Put it over there on EZ Rock. It's more of an EZ Rock thing. Oh, the way EZ Rock sounded back then. Right, of course, yeah.

And you know, Don wanted to, Don Parrish wanted to pull back a bit, you know, he was getting on and it was, he was, I think he was living out near Bowmanville or somewhere and you know, he'd drive in to do voice tracks. But then it was, well, I got a voice voice gig so I'll do the voice tracks this day and I'm only coming in for voice gigs and can we rearrange all this and we just kind of came to the conclusion that we needed to transition away from it but you know I often believe in in evolution not revolution there's times when you need a revolution but there's a lot of times when you need a evolution.

So, uh, we started a show, which I hosted actually simply because, uh, I was the available guy, uh, called, um, uh, what do we call it? Night magic. And it was a more contemporary candlelight and wine musically and not as much spoken word. Um, you know, because, uh, Don Parrish would read a poetry or, uh, tell you about Elizabethan

England because of this particular, uh, Shelley piece that he was about to read and that sort of thing. Anyway, so we had, um, uh, night magic on and, uh, somewhere along the way I became program director. And, uh, we, we sort of kept the show on the air, but, uh, when I first worked in Oshawa, I worked with a guy named Don Jackson, who you know, from

lovers and other strangers. Don was doing the morning show in Oshawa. Uh, I'd been there maybe a year or so, and he got a job, I think it was CJD in Montreal. It was Montreal anyway FM96 I think he got the gig at anyway, he stayed there for years and years and years and Maybe 15 years after we'd worked together Somehow we connected and I said well, you know, what are you up to? I know you're in Montreal

he goes on doing the show lovers and other strangers, so I I Well, you know, what are you up to? I know you're in Montreal. He goes, I'm doing the show, Lovers and Other Strangers. So I had to get someone to do an air check for me because we didn't have internet. I couldn't just dial it up. And their signal didn't reach Toronto. Anyway, I heard the show, Lovers and Other Strangers. I thought, wow, that's like candlelight and wine on the moon.

Like, that's amazing. And you know, talked it over with my bosses, said, oh, I want to take a big left turn here. What do you think? And he said, well, it's your left turn. You crash, uh, you're out. So do it. Um, so we, we brought Don over and I think, you

know, Don passed away a few years ago, unfortunately, Don Jackson. Yes. Um, boy, he just did a great show. Uh, you know, he, he, he, he, he years ago, unfortunately, Don Jackson. Yes. Um, boy, he just did a great show. Uh, you know, he, he lived and died for that show. And I mean that somewhat literally, um, you know, if, if, if ever you had something to say about the show, it's like, you know, Don, could you, could you just play a couple of extra can cons before midnight, because we were

a little low last week and he'd go, but I can't, the song doesn't fit the mood, I can't. And you know, he's emotional and it's like, oh Jesus, Don, just fucking play a lot of light foot songs, play beautiful, play something. We need more can-con at night. But he loved doing that show and his fans, like he was number one at night, any demo, anywhere. And his fans like he was number one at night any demo anywhere I mean maybe 12 to 17 he wasn't number one, but he probably was with females It was an incredible show. I

wish I Wish someone could put all those shows together and make maybe it's out there and I don't know about it But it would be great to have a lovers another strangers website and have all those shows But I don't know that there's a record of them or copy of them. Oh geez if you don't know I don't think they exist. Well Don Jackson would have had them because you know a logger tapes got erased every 30 days and the quality was crap anyway. We didn't we would store his shows on 10-inch reels for when he was on holiday but you know we didn't have five thousand ten inch reels. when he was on holiday. But you know, we didn't have 5,010 inch reels.

Right. Right. Well, I mean, I mean, the BBC deleted episodes of Doctor Who because they needed the tape space. Okay. So it's hard to realize what life was like before digital. I'll tell you, a show like Love is Another Stranger, you put that on the air tonight in Toronto.

I, you know, which station? That's a tough one now because they've all sort of changed a bit, but you could find a home for it and it would generate good audience numbers. And I think nowadays more than ever, you know, people are frantic more than ever, forget politics and all that, we've all had our fill of that. But Lovers and Other Strangers was an escape. You know, if you were with somebody, you escaped with them. If you wanted to be away from them, you escaped away from them. But don't you think what you're describing now is a podcast? Yes, yes, yes. And you know what, really, most foreground radio shows, and Lovers was a foreground radio show,

yeah, it's a podcast. Someone could do it. There is an issue as a, I own a company that produces podcasts. There is an issue with playing the music on podcasts. Like this is an actual issue today. Well, where the radio doesn't have this issue because of the so can and everything and they have the license to play the song. But you're still as a radio station, you're still paying for that. You're paying so can. Yeah, right. But they are paying so can. there is no so can jurisdiction over a podcast like a podcast can't play a Gordon Lightfoot song legally. It's it's a huge anyways, we can talk offline, but it's a huge thing. Yeah, but I just realized you're very easy to talk to. And I'm very interested in the subject matter, even though I never listened to see see HFI a moment in my life. in my life. Would that shock you? Well, you don't know what you were missing. I know, but I love talking about it. Okay, I'm learning. Even Chum FM, at least I would tune in for

the Sunday Funnies with Rick Hodge. Yeah, with Rick, yeah. And I like Dr. Demento. They would hear Dr. Demento. And I liked Theater of the Mind. Like, you know what I mean? I love Theater of the Mind. In fact, we tried to do that on a Sunday, you know, many, many years ago. And we got a nice cease and desist letter from Chum saying, you can't these particular shows because we have them licensed and they were right, but I thought what the hell you don't try You if you don't ask you don't get you know, Paul Fisher's got to give it a go here So I'm not done with you yet. Don't don't think you're off the hook quite yet I want to give you a few gifts and I definitely want to ask you about this book and make sure I pick up a couple Of the radio stories your itching tell, particularly one you teased about CFTR going all news.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, so well, let me give you the gifts first, uh, because you, you made a long drive to get here. I've already given you some beer and I gave you some lasagna. I have a wireless speaker for you, Paul. Oh, fantastic. I can put empty content into it. You can put

empty content into it but you also have to put season 8 of Yes We Are Open because Al Grego went to Regina, Saskatchewan. Have you ever been to Regina? I've flown over it many times. That doesn't count okay I'm not counting that but Al visited Tracy Bosch the owner of Zippity Zoom toys and Tracy shared the inspiring story of how she started the toy store in 2009 juggling a newborn in a new business and she talks about the evolution of the store, her background in retail and her passion for toys. Listen to Yes We Are Open. You get great inspiring stories like that courtesy of the cuddly one who I will see confirmed for TMLX 19 and I am gonna make sure I think he'll

be at TMLX 18 at Christie Pitts we'll find out but shut out to FOTM Al Grego there's a measuring tape here Paul for you from Ridley Funeral Home see if the box is long enough and that reminds me now of the WKRP they did the ferryman's do you remember this the ferryman's jingle for the funeral home oh okay all comes back to Venus flytrap. Okay. So I want to just shout out Ridley Funeral Home because they have a great podcast called Life's Undertaking hosted by Brad Jones. I get to co-host that.

But also they only sell Canadian caskets at Ridley Funeral Home. And I love the Canadian companies supporting Canadian goods. So speaking of that, this is the final day of April that I'm recording. And there was a deal with a great Canadian company called Silver Wax. They've been around since 1999. They're out of Quebec. And Silver Wax wants guests of Toronto, Mike, in April

to receive a robust car cleaning kit. And you're the last guy to get this, Paul. You ready for this? It's not just that spray bottle. What'd you got in your hand there? Yeah. You got the interior, the exterior cleaning kit. And you're the last guy to get this, Paul. You ready for this? It's not just that spray bottle. What'd you got on your hand there? Yeah. You got the interior, the exterior cleaning fluid. Do you see the, where you put your, I wanted to call it a purse. Oh, oh, this bucket. It's a purse. It's a merse. It's, I was, I carry a purse. Okay. That bucket, that is your silver wax That is your Silver Wax Clark Kiening kit, car cleaning kit.

So you get the bucket, you get the spray bottles and everyone listening can go to silverwax.ca and use the promo code Toronto Mike 10 and you'll save 10%. And I'm telling you, they make cleaning easy and they do a great job. If you want a nice clean car, you want Silver Wax. Geez, I feel like I'm doing a morning show here, getting all this freebie. All the swag?

All the swag. All the swag. But listen, all these presents, thank you so much because my girlfriend's birthday is coming up middle of June. It's in the freezer, I know you were lifting that box, you're like, it's pretty light. The Palma pasta.

That's in my freezer. Well, this will go in the freezer at home and Maureen's birthday is middle of June, so I don't have to go shopping now this is fantastic. I'm taking care of you Paul. It was worth the drive to New Toronto. Toronto Mike you're the man. Toronto Mike you're the Toronto man. I'm the Toronto man okay move over move over who will I pick on move over Brian Master I am the the man now okay one last tip and then I want to get sure CFTR story

You've been amazing. I can't believe how easy it was ago 90 minutes with you. You're gonna be like Mike You didn't tell me this was a six-hour episode. I'm like, sorry you're paying by the hour. So I'm Stretching it in pasta though, you know and pain and pasta here. I want to just tell you about recycle my electronics dot CA That's where you go. If you have old cables old electronics, you don't throw that in the garbage The chemicals end up in our landfill you go to recycle my electronics dot ca Put in your postal code and find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled got that Paul got it last but not least Shout out to Nick Ienis from fusion Corp He hosts building Toronto skyline and a new podcast called building success And we'll be recording new episodes

on Friday morning and I urge you to subscribe and listen. Nick has stepped up to fuel the real talk. On that note, I mentioned that Silver Wax, this is the last day of the Silver Wax giveaway. So effective tomorrow, I will be giving guests, in fact, you know what, I'm going to get you one Paul, because it's a great book about Toronto Maple Leafs baseball and Welcome back Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. They will be joining us for the month of May Excited to talk about them in more detail tomorrow. Give me that CFTR story Well, you remember TR being the big top 40 station and they were oh Look at that.

Evelyn Macco gave me that. That was my station, Tom Rivers in the morning. Evelyn factors into this story. So 680, well CFTR but 680 news was looked after by John Hinnan. And so John, Tony and Sandy and others, but those three primarily, um, decided it was time to change the format on TR because they could see where the numbers were going ultimately for music on AM radio. And, um, the day came when the big switch was going to happen.

And, uh, I, I remember, uh, you know remember Tony telling us that he had to talk with Ted. And he said, Ted, I've got a fabulous idea. You're only going to lose money on this for seven years. Ted said, I'm in. Sounds good to Ted. As it turned out, just jumping ahead, at the end of year five, 618 News broke even and started making money. Two years ahead of schedule.

And there were times, and again, I don't see the revenue numbers anymore, but there were times when they were the number one billing station in the country. So anyway, the day came when CFTR was going to become 680 News. Sandy was overseeing TR obviously, and had a meeting scheduled with all the jocks and all the key players there.

And there was a newscast at nine o'clock and Evelyn was doing the news. And so my job was to follow Evelyn into the newsroom, into the news booth rather. And she goes, what are you doing in here? I got a newscast to do. I said, Evie, you don't have a newscast to do. What are you talking about? What do you mean? I said, there's a big change.

It's just about to happen. I'm in here just to make sure that we don't go on the air from this booth. So just look at me and I'll try to explain what's happening. don't go on the air from this booth. So just look at me and I'll try to explain what's happening. And within seconds 680 News made it onto the air. It wasn't live immediately because frankly everybody who was on 680 News had to have a week of intense practice and prep to get used to this news wheel that was so alien in Canada. Now very big in New York with winds, but never done in Canada or certainly not to this extent and poor Evy and we laugh about it

occasionally when we see each other. Well, we laugh about it all the time, occasionally when we see each other. So she would say, you know, I was ready to just put a microphone stand through your head because you're not going to stop the news. I said, Evie, don't do the news. It's okay. Everything's, everything's taken care of in a second. You're going to hear audio because of course then we had five seconds of dead air or something and she's panicking as anybody would who's in an honor.

And it was Evie, Evie just wait. And by the way, as a news person, you're gonna love this change. Right. And she did of course. Cause Dick Smythe was there of course, and Evelyn Macco. And they weren't getting the tap on the shoulder. No, no.

And you know, 680 News, well I can't imagine Toronto without it now. We did it for the, for the, was it the 30th? We did a special episode of Toronto Mikeded where we played clips and talked about the history of 680 news and Yeah, I see your mic sock there Scott McCaff gifted me. Oh good Scotty. Yeah One last question is I remember at the time 93 I guess we're talking about there was a race who will go all news first 640 or 680. I Remember that going on and 640 was jumping around a lot back then they were the hog the hog that was it

the beast I remember the hog yeah, and Yeah, that that was an interesting time I mean they they took that idea from a station in Florida right the power The power pig and the hog works for Toronto, hog town. For those who remember what that term means long before I was born. Right. Um, but, uh, yeah, 680 Rogers jumped out in front

first and never looked back. It's worth noting that when you're at, uh, CHFI, you're working with a young Paul Cook. Yes. Yes. In fact, when I started, uh, at the young Paul Cook. Yes, yes. In fact, when I started at FI, Paul Cook was an operator on FI. You know, I'd finish at six o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and Paul or somebody would come in and run voice tracks till midnight and I mean look at the media

sensation he became. Well and now he's married to an MPP. Boy, there are so many lines I could use after that and I won't because I love Steph but yeah congratulations to Stephanie Smythe boy that was a that was a great accomplishment. There you go that's FOTM Stephanie Smythe. Yes. Get it right in FOTM Paul Cook. Okay and next time I can be FOTM. Yeah well you are now. It's official already. Alright so because we took so much time, it's funny.

We, I, you need to like tell me, cause I do want to hear about the book. And if there's another book in you, but is there any other radio stories that you think I would be interested in hearing right now? Mike, there are so many, like, I mean, literally in the summer, you could, if you're in the neighborhood, you can pop in and do another, uh, tell me more stories. I know. What are we at? I'll be honest. Uh, cause I have to pick up my daughter.

About an hour and 35. Yeah. So I'm not playing you off here, but you want to give me the best of the rest radio story. And then, uh, I know we didn't even get you out of CHFI really. Yeah. Wow. That's okay. And that was, that was a long time ago. I had some wonderful times out west, living in Vancouver. And-

Well, that's for Vancouver Mike to investigate. Yeah, yeah, true enough, true enough. No, I don't have any, gotta hear stories immediately, but I'm very, very thankful for all the incredibly talented people I got to work with. I can tell you for any station, even with Danard on FI, it's never, and Aaron of course, it's never just one person. Sooner or later, it's the team that gets you there, but it's good to have a figurehead.

So why do you leave? Maybe we'll wrap it up with why you leave Rogers. Well, Rogers left me actually. So working out there for six years, we were doing very well. Our EBITDA was around 35%, which was above what was expected. We did very well, but it was 2008. A number of people in certain positions were let go and sometimes it depended what you made monetarily. Sometimes it was political. I think it was a combination of all those things.

You know, when it happened, I was disappointed but I knew I wasn done. So I had to take three years off work, almost three years. That was the deal. I couldn't even work at Home Depot as a greeter or Walmart as a greeter. I couldn't work in the plumbing. And you know, every three months I'd get an email or a phone call saying from the HR department, just making sure you haven't made any money. No, I haven't made any money. No, I haven't made any money. Uh, but then, you know, once that no compete ran

out, um, you know, I got to work with, uh, with Astral and then, uh, with Bell when Bell bought, uh, Astral, I still call him Astral, everybody calls him Astral, but. No, I heard it was Astral. So I'm with you there. Yeah. Well, um, um, I, I, I spent three years, uh, working with Ian Lurie there and he was a wonderful guy

to work with, smart guy, um, wonderful dry sense of humor and boy does he know his stuff radio and money-wise. So, uh, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm just thankful that I had a wonderful career and never worked a day in my life. Wow. That's a great story. I love, like I gotta say, I love going down memory lane of the old radio stories.

And I used to do a lot more of these episodes. And then a couple of things happen. One is people who work for one of the big telecoms, basically they weren't allowed to come over or they were afraid to say things. Like this is a thing that happened, right? So that the, I mean, they might want to come over, but either their PR people said you're not allowed to go on Toronto Mic'ed or they basically were afraid they'd say something then they'd be fired. Like there's a lot of fear. So that happened. And also I sort of, instead of the people who

play the music, I sort of got into talking to the musicians who created the art. Yeah, which is great too. I mean, I've heard some of those with the musicians, but you know, there's only one person who can fire me now. And that guy's name is Paul. No, her name is Maureen. Well, she's getting the palm of pasta lasagna for her birthday in june's. Let me tell you that that goes a long way. Well tell me about like give me a moment we have at least a few minutes here i'm very interested in what caused you to write

like a river to the sea. Who are you to write a book Paul? Who the hell am i? I remember in grade twelve my english teacher we had to hand in stories she said you know you will never be a writer don't even bother uh... he'll probably make a good you know whatever and and ever since then i thought what an awful thing to say is an english

teacher uh... but uh... so when i was uh... twenty thing to say as an English teacher. But so when I was 20, a very traumatic thing happened in my life, my father died. And it turned, as it turned out, I was visiting with him and I was with him when he died six times. So he would flatline, asystole, you hear it in all the ER shows now. Yeah. And the crew would come in, the medical crew, and they'd bring him back. For some strange reason, which I know now is not so strange,

I was there that entire weekend. It was a little hospital called Northwestern General, which was on Keele Street, I think north of Eglinton. It's not there anymore. I don't know what it is now. If this had been a Toronto General or Sunnybrook or somewhere, they wouldn't have let me in the ICU for that long. For whatever reason, I was there and every time he came back, we talked about it as best

we could with his raspy voice from tearing out the ET tube and all of that. And for years and years, all I did was read books on what he told me, which was essentially there's something beyond this. And it's not religious and it's not scary. It's not heaven and hell. Um, and so I, I tried for years to write a book about it and it was, it was always crap, frankly. I just wasn't doing it right. When I finished with radio, finally, my brain was empty enough that I could write.

And it's true. I mean, for me to write, finally, my, my brain was empty enough that I could write. And it's true. I mean, for me to write, I have to empty my head. And I can't empty my head when I'm listening to air checks and studying budgets and doing all of that. I mean, writers really need to be writers, I think.

So, uh, since I've quote unquote, retired from radio, I write. And, uh, I had my first book published about two years ago. It's called Like a River to the Sea. It's a book about reincarnation, but it's not a religious book. It's not a self-help book.

It's not a do these five things every day book. It's a novel. And I just wanted to tell the story of an imaginary guy, and he's totally imaginary, and what happens when he dies. Wow. Okay, Like a river to the sea. Yeah it's go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble you can order it and it'll come in a day. I don't think there's a lot of physical copies in bookstores it's mostly online sales but it's through a legitimate publisher like I didn't self publish. It's a little publisher in the states and boy I sent out 400

queries and you know the ones I heard back from all the form letters that was so depressing and then finally one day I get this woman emailing me going I just spent the weekend reading your book we're interested in publishing it well when when I read uh Glenda's chat with you about Lake A River to the Sea, she mentions that she was put in touch with you via FOTM Carla Collins. Oh dear Carla, yes. Which I just saw the name, I mean for a short period of time, through the pandemic I produced Carla's podcast. Well Carla was the designated fill-in for Erin when Erin was away and was the designated fill-in for Erin when Erin was away. And she, A, she was wonderful. But, you know, Don always would say,

do you think we should get her back again? He loved working with her. Loved working with her. And I just went to go see her, a couple of her stand-up shows recently. Carla's wonderful. She's so off the wall there's no wall. And she ended up at CKFM. She did end up at CKFM. You know today she could

jump into a radio gig in a heartbeat or a TV gig and she actually wrote the screenplay for my book for me and we're trying to shop it but we're not doing well but we're trying to shop it around. Okay, but what a small world. And is there another book in you on our way out here? Maybe I'll even start the Rob Proust cover of Rosie and Grey, but is there another book in you? Yes. In fact, it's I've got 300 pages done. And I'm hoping by early middle summer, it'll be done. And I'm hoping by early middle summer it'll be done. Well congrats on that. Congrats on Like a River to the Sea. I can barely read a book.

You wrote a book. Like I'm thoroughly impressed. And what a great career you had in radio. And there's an audio book read by me. I was hoping you'd say Carla Collins. You know, you have a great voice. You should be on the radio. I, I, I are one. My friend, amazing. You have a great voice. You should be on the radio.

I am one. My friend, amazing. I got a shout out again. Thank you, Jeff Lumbee for the suggestion. And then Dave Charles earlier this year who kind of re-upped it. And then we made this happen and I'm so glad. So thanks for making the trek to South Etobicoke, man. Beautiful. Lovely time. Thank you. Thanks for making the trek to South Etobicoke, man. Beautiful. Lovely time. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 1681st show. Is that right, Paul? Oh, it's 82. Let's do that again. I'll fix it in post here.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,680 second show. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Minaris, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, Ridley Funeral Home, and for the last time, much love and a big thanks to Silver Wax. Use the promo code TOR 10 at Silver Wax dot C A save 10 percent.

See you all tomorrow when my special guest is I'm just vamping as I go into my calendar. My special guest tomorrow is... Pause for dramatic effect. Oh, filmmaker Kyrie Papouts. I watched this documentary about Parkdale, not far from where you used to live, and it blew my mind and I said, I got to talk to this guy.

What a beautiful documentary. We'll talk about that tomorrow at two o'clock. See you all then. So I'm going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a The So Music