Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Peter Gross: Toronto Mike'd #497

Episode Date: August 7, 2019

Mike chats with Peter Gross about why he's no longer at 680 News and what's next for him.

Be here. Peter Gross' final sportscast. Everyone's making too much about this. City Pulse's Peter Gross leaves the sports department. What kind of stories do they want me to do? To take on a new challenge. Peter, why not think of yourself as a daily columnist? What, like Ann Landers?

The World According to Gross. Come on, you guys! Pick up the pace! I've been reading about the Pope's itinerary. Steaming Chinese food. Weeknights on City Pulse. Peter Gross' offbeat look at Toronto. The human comedy of Toronto. So that's it.

The world according to Gross. Get here. What up, Miami? Toronto. VK on the beat. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love My city love me back for my city love

I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love Welcome to episode 497 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs.

I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and my guest this week is former... Yes, former. I don't like using that word. Former 680 news sportscaster peter gross welcome back peter oh pleasure to be here boy you sure drag up those obscure things from city television do you really think the world according to gross is obscure oh it is now oh yeah 33 years later try having a conversation because you know a lot of

people who listen to toronto mic uh maybe they were born for example maybe they're from edmonton and then they they move here after university so they get here in like i don't know late 90s let's pretend right that's a toronto mic listener trying to explain to them this stuff it's like it's like a different language like we you know what if you weren't here in the 80s, you might not know the world according to gross. But if you were of a certain age and you were here in the 80s, of course you know the world according to gross. Are you kidding me?

You've been a fixture in Toronto media, I don't know, I don't want to do the math, 40 years? I don't know. Well, I started at Citi in a small context in 1975. So that's 44 years ago, isn't it? That's almost as old as I am. Okay. So I'm telling you, yeah, most people listening right now know the world according to gross.

We have a lot to cover here here but are you even self-aware of your role in the fabric and the of this of the city like are you are you aware of the you know being on city tv so long and then from 2006 until two weeks ago. I feel a little bit like the Grim Reaper because like yesterday's guest was a woman named Dana Levinson who was at CTV Toronto for 20 years. And then she did her last on air shift like at the end of June. And now she's, she's, she but uh she tells us that she tells us she quit you did not quit i i was persuaded i i don't know what the the uh

restrictions are on the on the contract in terms of what i'm allowed to say i don't recall anything in the document saying i you know i i can't say that i was fired i i don't i don't think that i i don't worry i have lauren honickman coming in uh next very shortly maybe yeah next yeah lauren honickman at the end of the month uh he he can represent you if anybody gives you any trouble okay he's uh i know of course how many you worked with lauren honickman right? At City TV? Yeah. And he's a good guy? Lauren's a great guy, yeah.

Just making sure. I don't want to invite any assholes into my basement. Look, you've done 497 podcasts. You've had a few assholes. Actually, that is true. But most of the assholes say no. So that's like an asshole. One way to detect an asshole is to invite them over for a conversation. And if they tell you no, it doesn't mean they're an asshole.

They could just not want to do it. But if some people say no with what I would call flair, like kind of, and then that's sort of like your detector. But we'll get into that in a minute. Firstly, I'm just off the bat. I'm a little disappointed you didn't bring me any bagels because Dana brought me 12 fresh bagels. No pressure.

I'm going to give you gifts, but you don't have any bagels for me. Well, now I feel bad. No, don't feel bad. I'm growing a cannabis plant. I could have brought you a few. Just one because you can grow four. I got busted in 1978 for growing pot in my backyard. Now I don't smoke. Okay um but i did get a cannabis

plant just on principle oh i'm growing it because you can yeah yeah because i can't it's for your buddies and it's doing it's doing great yeah whoever wants some can i get special lights and stuff like how you doing no no uh there's one thing i do and it's uh we are and there's a visual thing here. You take the middle bud and you pluck it from sprouts. And what that does is it spreads the energy double. So then the plant sort of grows like in a V shape and becomes bushier and shorter instead of a long, gangly plant that can snap in the wind. I think I know your next chapter here.

This is what you should be. You should be the... I should be in agriculture. Yeah. The... What's the... Cannabis, right? I'm trying... What's the name of this plant? This is cannabis. I know. I sound so stupid here. I have no idea. But

you should be like here to help people grow their own weed. Yeah. That's what I should do. It's a growing... Now that it's legal, you get four plants, right? Well, that's the ironic thing is. But no bagels, now that it's legal, you get four plants, right? Well, that's, that's the ironic thing is. But no bagels, I'm just goofing on you.

But let's tell the people your first visit, which, a personal favorite of mine, and I get a lot of notes from people who love the Peter Gross because you,

you came in here and you were, I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but you were so honest about everything. Like, let's tell the people that they can go back and hear that episode.

It's episode 380. And I wrote, at the time, I wrote, Mike chats with Peter Gross about his stints at City TV and 680, as well as his love for fried chicken, horse racing, and more. On the note, on the fried chicken note, because we'll talk about horse racing, but Gene Volaitis, I think he might have asked this last time but he he chimed in on twitter yesterday to say that he wants uh to know how many chicken wings you can eat in a single session well i that brings up a very pleasant moment probably the greatest day in my life and and

i've had sex a few times the greatest day of my life was early on in the 90s, maybe 1994. Kentucky Fried Chicken introduced their hot wings. And at 6 o'clock in the morning brought a bucket of 100 hot wings to the station. And everyone else looking and going, fried chicken at 6 in the morning. Well, I ate about 50 of them. Wow. Is that your record? Because Gene says he, let me read what he wrote.

I don't know that I can set any record for eating fried chicken i'm not a terribly big person but i know but the guy who wins those hot dog contests is a little guy you know the guy uh he's got some kind of organ displacement maybe you got that no joey chestnuts joey chestnut yeah he's remarkable he's like 140 pounds or something uh and he takes down a lot of dogs but okay so gene volitus from the jesse and gene show i'm actually going to uh at least this is the tentative plan if gene's uh watching or listening i'm going to be in vancouver shortly and i'm planning to meet up with jesse and gene in vancouver this is you know i worked with them at the beginning of prior to 680 news in the early days of CFTR wonderful brilliant crazy men and I see much more gene I don't think Jesse does much on Facebook but Volaitis is always posting silly

stuff on Facebook he's very he's very droll yeah and he's actually I had issues with that because he'd tweet things that I thought he was being kind of a dink and he alerted me to the fact that everything he tweeted was a joke so like i didn't have it's hard i find it very difficult to read tone in tweets like there's no happy face or wink or emoji or whatever that sometimes you read it like straight up and you it's fooled me a few times where i thought gene was being a dink and actually he was just uh busting my chops as they say. But he's a good guy. I've had him on the show, but only through Skype because he was in Vancouver.

Your budget doesn't allow you to fly to Vancouver and interview people? Not yet, but maybe that's... If Air Canada's sponsored. Well, thank you. I have an opening. So there's five sponsors and I can accept up to six. And that means if Air Canada is is listening they should give me a

shout because absolutely we could work that's a good idea peter i think you can get a job here in sales actually so gene volaitis says he's seen uh he's guessing that you could do 73 to 87 chicken wings oh he's overestimating all right it's only about 50 you know what i'm i'm pushing 70 now i'm in my 40s maybe how old are you now i was 69 last month okay i mean so that puts me in my 70s there and i'm thrilled about it quite frankly well you look good i think you can go another uh 30 years that's is that the plan you should see my mother my 96. Oh, that's the good indicator. Not a thing wrong with her. She's just, she's rocking and rolling. Now, I'm not going to alarm you here,

but you were so honest in episode 380 that you confessed to some vices that you had. You had some issues with cocaine, right? Yeah. Do you have any concerns? Because I hear about like George Michael and these people who are doing a lot of coke and they have a heart attack.

You don't have any, your doc says you're okay um let me see I in my 50s uh so well no closer to 19 uh I quit all drugs in 1986 so that's like 30 years behind me you're clean and sometime after that I went to a doctor and I said look I've done all of this shit. Tell me how much damage I've done. Because I think in the back of my head, if the doctor had said to me, well, you've really screwed this up and your heart's about to explode and your lungs are a mess,

then I was probably going to jump into the deep end of the pool. And long and short of- You mean you were going to kill yourself? No, I was probably just going to get back into drugs. Oh, okay. I'm not- Just clarifying,

because sometimes I tell you that as suicide. My suicidal tendencies aren't jumping off a bridge or taking an overdose they're just behaving in reckless fashion or previous standards uh however uh they did all kinds of tests they put me on a stress test on a machine and they basically came back and said you're about one notch below professional athlete in your physical fitness oh good so i really even though i did an enormous amount of stupid stuff right i somehow dodged a bullet because a i never drank and i never smoked cigarettes and for some reason uh the large amount of marijuana i smoked didn't affect my lungs and you would think holding that in that hot stuff in your lungs would do you damage so um that was kind of a major reprieve and it's like you literally dodged a bullet then i

turned 65 yeah so this is more recent i had a complete barrage of tests done on me and everything is very much above average now uh, about six, seven years ago, Jim McKinney and I go to Saratoga every summer. I don't know if you want to talk about that. First of all, do you know who I am? Would I ever say no to a conversation about Howie? Who tells me he's coming on this show? Maybe when you're with him, you can get him to book a date.

I had a conversation with him. So we go to Saratoga every summer. And one summer, he said, well, I'm off to the gym. And I said, well, take me with you. And ever since then, I have been going regularly to the gym. And because I suffer from Jewish guilt syndrome, I can't just go to the gym and do like five reps of 15 pounds. It has to be painful. I have to of 15 pounds. It has to be painful.

I have to be gasping. I have to be sweating. And since I've been laid off, I've been going almost every day and actually enjoying it more. But I do a really, really difficult, intense 45-minute workout, mostly with weights and crunches. And I'm in really good shape for the time I aged. I mean this sincerely, and I wouldn't say this to every guest I sit across from,

but I sincerely hope you live to be 100 years old. That's my plan. Well, you're on your way, because the only way to get to 100 is to get to 69 first. One of the reasons I want to get to 100 is, I don't know if we discussed this the last time, my second go-around at City TV from 2000 to 2004 was very unpleasant because I would go out and do stories and they wouldn't run them for various reasons. But the one story that they ran all the time

was Peter Gross meets the 100-year-old. So I did about 10 of these stories of people turning 100. Centurions. Centurions, yes. And all of them, like I think nine were women and one were men, but they were all tiny, skinny people.

So there's a message there. Right. So when I'm 100, I want someone to come and do that story with me and I will say to them, let me tell you how to do that story. Maybe I'll get one of my kids to do it.

Fortunately, unfortunately, that's closer than it used to be i'm doing the math yeah oh that's that's fantastic okay so uh again everybody listening go back pause pause this podcast go listen to 380 and come back because there were a lot of like i gotta thank uh i'll thank them right now again ed conroy from retro ontario uh helped me secure some wonderful clips from your years at city tv that i played in that episode it really so thank you ed uh for that so go back to 380 um lots to cover but one thing is this is very timely so you you reached out to me yesterday i had had, this is what now.

I'm just getting in touch with all of my friends because I'm unemployed now and I need money. So that's. Or if you need lasagna. You've heard that. Listen, you have a mouth to the feet, right? You have a son? Yeah.

And you're going to share the lasagna with him? Oh yeah, we'll go through that. You're going to have leftovers. The two of you won't be able to pack that down in one day. Listen, last week, we have a slow cooker. We make a lot of stuff in the slow cooker. So we got two packages of stewing beef, potatoes and onions and carrots, and just let it sit in the slow cooker for six, seven hours.

Wow. That was enough for 10 people. So my son and I, we ate dinner, put this huge bowl in the fridge. And the next day, I woke up and I thought, well, I think I'll have some of that leftover this huge bowl in the fridge. And the next day I woke up and I thought, well, I think I'll have some of that leftover stew. It was all gone. It was gone. Okay. So I won't, maybe you won't have leftovers, but yeah, let me do that right now since we brought it up though. But Palma Pasta, fantastic partners of the program. And even before we press record, I was telling you straight up, I don't have to bullshit about this

because it is the most wonderful, authentic Italian food you can buy in the GTA. So go to palmapasta.com, visit their retail store. They have a hot table at Palma's Kitchen. That lasagna, that meat lasagna is yours, Peter. We know you're currently out of work and I need to feed you and your son. So please, thank you, Palmapasta. Thank you, Palmapasta. For that. But the reason i'm bringing up the fact you reached out to me yesterday is because coincidentally in fact i told this story in the periscope so before i recorded hebsey on sports of mark hebshire on monday i shared a bit of this story but just this past weekend so we're only on uh wednesday

now right this past weekend i got an email from you, okay? So I can share the story? This is okay? Yeah. I got an email from Peter Gross, an email that said basically... Oh, that one. Yeah, yeah.

That said, it said, hey, buddy, I'm out of town. Can you do me a favor? And I replied back and said, Peter, what do you need? I'm happy to help or whatever. And I'm like,

oh, Peter reached out to me. I'm like, he doesn't, we only met the one time, but I felt kind of like honored that you reached out to me there. And then you wrote back and said, you needed me to buy some Google Play gift cards for your nephew's birthday, but you were out of town, you couldn't do it.

You'd pay me back right away when you're back or whatever. And I wrote, and I even, and at this point, I still kind of am playing along kind of. I'm like, oh, Peter, how, like how much money, gift cards are you talking here? And the reply came back $400 gift card. Then to take a photo of the number on the back of the gift card and email it to you.

So that now, now my flags are going off, right? Because now I'm realizing realizing that uh i so i write back call me because i need to talk to you on the phone now and you made up there's an excuse why you couldn't call and now all my alarms are tripping so i never did buy these gift cards for your nephew because i knew it wasn't you so somebody somebody hacked into your email account and you were one of maybe 50 it's interesting because a lot of people from 25 years ago of my life getting in touch with me. Everyone in your, probably everybody in your address book

got that phishing scam or whatever. At one point I saw that there were 100. There were 100 people got that. Okay. So I spent the last several days saying, ignore I was hacked, but send me the $400 gift card. Right. But I thought, so i've been i chatted

with my my wife and my mom we were having this talk i think that will work on some people because it comes from your account and people read it as if it's you talking and i think that someone i don't know if anyone did obviously but i think somebody somebody will fall for it because I'm super jaded and careful and I would say savvy to this kind of thing but it wasn't instant. It was the... But I always wonder, what if they asked for something like $50?

Would I still have the alarm? The alarms went off because you wouldn't phone me. That's what it was for me. I needed to hear your voice make this request. And I never got those emails because the reply to address was changed i saw afterwards but i just think it's a good warning for anyone listening to us now this this scam i think would work on people because it comes from you we think it's you it's from your email and we hear it in your voice and we want to help you because you're a likable nice guy i think somebody will fall for this scam at some point so i'm this is like a psa for people that uh well you know if you get a request to do this anything with the gift cards and taking photos of it don't you dare do it till

you have you know this is the cra scam right they do this scam where if you're going to be arrested for tax evasion if you don't go buy itunes gift cards or whatever and send this picture like this scam exists and people do fall for it. So that's all. I just thought it was coincidental that I had the fake emails from you on the weekend. And then I got a real one from you yesterday. And it was like I had, we did talk on the phone. I'm like, I never know if I'm talking to Peter Gross anymore.

But here you are. This is the real Peter, right? Can you prove it? I could be an avatar. That voice is unmistakable. Okay, so Ryan, listener of Toronto Mike, says, of course he picked a time that will get him out of there with plenty of time before the first at Saratoga today.

Ask if he likes anything today. Make us all a little money. So talk to me about, like, I don't even know what this means, that you're the Saratoga. Talk to me about Saratoga. Say it on the mic, Bill. Seven weeks a year, from late July into the first week of September,

racing at Saratoga, this elegant, old, historic racetrack in upstate New York, sort of a little bit northwest of Albany. We've gone every year since the late 80s. And the best... Is that you and jim mckinney yeah and clint nickerson who unfortunately passed away a couple years ago um and uh it essentially it's just the best jockeys the best horses the best trainers

um everyone's everyone in horse racing on their bucket list is winning a race at saratoga the racing is sensational the atmosphere is uh wonderful uh the betting is is wild and insane and uh so if all i can say is jose lescano uh luis sayas and and the ortiz brothers and you can't go wrong and a little bit of ricardo santana those are the jockeys who are winning and paying prices okay so ryan uh i know that'll mean something to you so yeah and and and don't bet the favorites that the four to one shots the five to one shots the nine to two horses are the ones that that come in and just every once in a while there's a ridiculous bomb so just you have to throw your normal wagering theories out the window and realize that even even the heavy favorites are in against the toughest competition they've ever experienced so right be creative when you're

betting and when exactly are you going to saratoga this is we're going this is very exciting because we're going in six days and how long are you there for? We're going to be there from Wednesday the 14th through Sunday the 25th. All right. Let me, because of course we're going to get into your departure from 680 News very shortly. But I need to, you disclosed to us, in addition to these other vices you disclosed to us in the last time you were here, you were very open and honest that you have a, am I allowed to call it a gambling problem? Yeah, it's a gambling disorder.

Now, but, and I'm actually seeing a therapist about this. Does your therapist know you're going to Saratoga? Like, I feel like that would be like an alcoholic going to an open bar. Gambling is, and this is maybe delusional, gambling is different from cocaine and alcohol no matter how much you gamble it will not hurt you physically i can gamble until the last day of my life it won't shorten your life no it's not going to shorten your life what

it's what it's going to do is your bank account it's it's it's going to puff up your credit cards um okay but credit card debt is the like the worst thing in the world, right? Because it's like, you know, whatever that is, 20% or whatever. It's just... The worst thing in the world? Okay, I don't mean that, obviously. I think some of the ISIS punishments were just a debt. You know, they put those five guys in a cage and lowered them into a pool.

You know you're right to call me out on my nonsense. Not the worst thing in the world. Well, they gave these five guys the choice between being thirty thousand dollars in debt on their credit cards or drowning in the cage and they all chose the cage you're right the world according to gross you got me again well i'm just saying that because i have enormous credit card debt and it's just something that i live with and i know i'm here i'm only because i because i care about you am i just uh do you have like uh when you go to sar because i care about you am i just uh do you have like uh when you go to saratoga with jim mckinney do you have a set amount that you will

gamble and you won't not a penny more like like you say we don't have a set amount that i'll gamble okay so and that set amount is the amount of money i take um plus whatever i get on my credit cards plus whatever i get on my bank card see peter, you know you have a problem. I know you said you're seeing a therapist. Maybe you need to see him more often. And I don't mean to pry here. The issue with me is because I love gambling and because it's part of me and because it stimulates me

is to keep it within reason. So that's the daily... Credit card debt. I'm not sure that... I think what I think is, and again, I'm going to pretend I'm your therapist for a moment. So please don't be offended here. But you've decided, well, if it doesn't kill me, it's okay. Like there's something I can sense something like if this won't shorten my life.

You're kind of misinterpreting. I'm just saying that as a disorder, it's not as destructive. Now, if you commit suicide because you've lost too much money, that's destructive. But it's not as destructive. now if you commit suicide because you've lost too much money that's destructive but it's not as distracting i've done cocaine okay right unfortunately i've never done i've never been involved with cigarettes and alcohol but i've done cocaine and the cocaine is way more destructive way more expensive than the gambling i should mind my own business on this one for sure i just don't't want to see you on the streets. Like I don't want to be biking under a bridge one day and go,

Oh, there's Peter Gross. We're not in danger of anything like that. Again, in the area of delusion, I've been doing this for 50 years of my life. I own a house. I own two cars. I pay all my bills. I took my, this is a complete sidebar,

I took my four-year-old grandson uh into new york state two weeks ago we went to five amusement parks in five days so i still have some sort of twisted balance in my life that allows me to gamble and still and you give your nephews four hundred dollars and i buy yes or anyone else who wants to get to me i also we eat my son and i yeah we eat like eating is so important to us. So every night there's a meal that we prepare. Okay, good. And say hi to Jim McKinney for me because we do text each other

when I'm trying to get him to book his appearance. I'll be seeing a lot of Jim McKinney and I'll... Just tell him to pick a date and time and do it. Just tell him to, and then I'll stop harassing him. You know what, and you won't regret it because he's wonderful oh i've been working on it for i think a couple years now so uh yeah he's definitely uh sought after again you know what um we uh when we go on these trips together uh when we went to delmar his uh he has a friend a goaltender uh He has a friend, a goaltender, the Axe.

It's not Billy Smith. Great, great goaltender with the Chicago Blackhawks. Won a Vezina trophy. And they go on and on and on about their crazy hockey stories. Esposito? No, no, no. The goaltender. Yeah, but his brother. Smith.

Okay. It's Billy Smith. Not Billy Smith.y smith whatever called the axe look it up he shared he shared the vesada trophy one year with tony esposito uh and they're just their story if you can get some of those stories out of out of them sometimes their stories about being being completely wrecked and then being told that they're goaltending that night. I can imagine the good old days, right? Tell me, though, if you had any, I need to know about following your last appearance here, episode 380.

Did you have any regrets? Like, I just want to know, was it a good experience for you or did you feel weird? No, it was like therapy. I don't have, you know, especially since a lot of this bad behavior of mine is 30 years old right so it's really easy to talk about doing mountains of cocaine but i didn't do it last night right i did well not since the 80s right yeah in the 80s i uh i mean i got very i got i saw a therapist for a while i disliked the therapist

um i remember thinking to myself, the reason that you're in this uncomfortable position is because you've done all this cocaine. And very fortunately, the last four or five times that I did cocaine, it just made me sick. It didn't feel good. I thought, well, this habit has caused me tremendous damage it's cost me like this career in television it's put me thousands of dollars in debt it's it's probably affected my reputation and now i have to see this insipid therapist um and so uh that was a point at which i said why don't i just not do it anymore well good for you for that's good for you for doing that in the but if this was something that was uh a month old right uh i might want to deke around it and not no i'll be completely

honest understood understood uh by the way so you're 497 which means you just missed uh 500 like you were but you were so close can i come back in three weeks with five i think we'll be at 510 by then who's's going to be your 500? Do you do one every day? No, but I do about two or three a week, I'd say, on average. But here's a quick little interesting update about 500 for listeners and for you, Peter. So originally, I want to say I made the blunder, but I asked Bob McCowan to be the guest for 500. Are you friendly with Bob at all?

I'm not unfriendly. I may have run into him twice in the last 10 years we once did a a commercial together i can't even tell you what it was for some kind of sports related commercial i'm a big admirer of bob mccowan well he had a very uh he's very good at what he did anyway. Anybody can talk on the radio. Anybody can ask questions. But it's a quantum leap from blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, filling an hour on the radio and filling it the way Bob McCowan does. Bob McCowan has that secret of holding listeners.

When Bob McCowan was engaged, when he was interested in the subject matter or the guest, there was nobody better in the, I would say, in sports radio in this country. No, I think he's not one of the best. He was the best sports radio host. But Rogers fired him. He and I were dumped virtually the same week. I think that overshadowed the news of your firing, actually.

I feel like, because here's, so I don't even know if anyone wrote about any of the mainstream media wrote about McCowan. I'm trying to think. Maybe, I don't want to say

for sure they did not because I can't remember. But I know that, for example, like the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Post, none of those publications

referenced the fact that you were no longer at 680 News after all that time imagine that but i felt that i did see it though here i want to get the right the name of the publication right but the canadian jewish news are you aware of this are you aware of this oh that's about as big as it gets so the canadian jewish news which by the way is print only which is interesting but um they definitely uh and mark weisblatt wrote wrote about your departure from 680 News in the Canadian Jewish News.

And I tweeted a picture of it yesterday. But it's interesting that, oh, also I want to give credit again to Mark at 1236 and Ed at the Retro Ontario newsletter. Because they both, of course, referenced it, as I did, of course, because this was big news in my world. But it's just interesting how little mainstream media coverage there is of the departures of these longtime fixtures on our airwaves. Just interesting sign of the times, I guess. Well, what it tells me is that I've achieved minor celebrity status, which is, I think when I was a kid, I wanted to be really, really famous. And I became a little bit famous.

I'd say you're Toronto famous. Well, okay. A lot of people listen to you on 680 News, too. That's a very popular thing. I'll tell you one interesting story. There was this attractive young lady named Joanne, and she was working at CTV. So her dad gave her rail seats to a Leaf game, and she invited me to take her to the Leaf game.

So we go to the Leaf game, and then we go up, I think it was Grosvenor and Yonge Street, or Gloucester and Yonge Street, just around the corner from Maple Leaf Gardens, was a McDonald's. And this was at the the height of world according to gross and its popularity it's on ctv and we go in there and there was a group of six or seven young kids who recognized me and started to make a real fuss and as we left the mcdonald's they started following us so it was

it was like a scene out of hard day's night where we're running down young street to my car and they're running after us and this poor young lady i thought it was hilarious yeah i didn't believe they were gonna do us any harm but she was terrified never went out with me again well then so that was the most famous i ever was and but you were on in a lot of people's automobiles as they drove uh to, right? This is until very recently, but we'll get to that. Okay, so 500 was going to be Bob McCowan. He said, no thanks. I actually wrote a piece of snail mail. This was Mark Hemsher's advice. I wrote a piece of snail mail to Don Cherry, and that probably hasn't been read yet. I haven't heard back or whatever, so we'll see. Peter Mansbridge

was a big, I wanted to get Peter Mansbridge for for 500 but he's on the east coast with cynthia or something and not responsive at the moment and then i had this idea yesterday uh thanks to tyler campbell make episode 500 a sports line reunion with jim tatty and mark hebscher okay mark doesn't even know about this yet okay so i knew mark i'm in good with mark i I see him a lot. But it was Jim Taddy. I reached out to Jim. And I said, Jim, here's what I'd like to do. What do you think? And I got the polite no thanks from Jim Taddy.

So there will not be a sports night. Oh, is that your bookie there? What's going on here? Belville. Hello. I don't know what to do. It's Chinese. Oh, you're getting another scam there.

Okay, I hate those calls. So I like that you took that on the air because you never know what's going to come up next. That's great. So for episode 500, I'm not sure yet. I have ideas, but nothing to announce yet. Okay. Mike Wilner.

Does he owe his entire career to you? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I need the details on this because I just heard about this from Mike. And I don't know. Do I know the story? Tell me the story. How does Mike Wilner owe his career to you?

On the mic there. When 680 News came on the air in 1993, they very unwisely made me the sports director. I was a terror. I would not want to be. I don't think I should ever be anybody's sports director. But so this guy starts phoning in reports from the University of Toronto. And what I noticed about them was they're,

these are really good. Like they should have been really kind of awkward and, and lacking flow, but they just bang, bang, bang. So it was Mike Willner. And I, and I, I had to phone him up and I say, get your ass in here and start doing stuff for us. So we hired him freelance. And one of the very first things Mike Willner says to me in 1993 and 1994 is I want to do play by play of baseball. And, um, I'd have to say that of all of the people that I've brought into the industry, and quite frankly, there's an awful lot. Mike Wilner is probably the brightest, smartest guy. I would go, he would do the sports on, on the weekends. And I remember going down,

He would do the sports on the weekends. And I remember going down one Saturday afternoon, watching him do it, and he does it without a script. What he did is he had two computers open, and he would flip from National League to the American League, the men's golf, the women's golf, the basketball, and he would just press buttons, and he would wing it, and he sounded as if he was reading a script and there's like five people on the planet who can do that one of the most focused

brightest smartest guys and of course what is mike willner doing now play by play for the toronto blue so um i had to light a fire under him he is a little bit of a lazy gene i know he likes to sleep in he would saunter in at 10 minutes to 10 if he if he was doing the 10 o'clock sportscast and nail it which really pissed me off um but no he's one of the brightest really really good guys and it's very gratifying to see him doing play by play i'll bet like if he if he's saying that he owes his entire career to you and that career is where it's's saying that he owes his entire career to you and that career is where it's at now where he's his dream job right you know calling um blue jays games uh kudos to you wow no he doesn't you know but he owes the spark that that lit this fire i

don't even know that i trained him all i did was recognize in 1993 1993 that this was a really skilled radio journalist. Right. And like I said, I had to say, he never said to me, is there an opening at 680 News? I had to say to him, I think you should come down here. Are you okay if I pass on your email address to Mike Wilner? Sure, sure. He wants to reach out to you. No, fine.

Yeah, good, because I did it like an hour ago it's it's it's very strange for me to be driving along listening to a blue jays broadcast and hearing mike wilner and remembering 20 26 years ago yeah how how it started wow and i'm i'm really thrilled to have to be part of that connection and you mentioned is that you want to name drop anyone else who you helped get started? I'm not saying, and this is not you taking credit for other people's careers,

but this is people you helped give a lift up. Catherine Humphreys. She's great. What's she doing now? Do you know? No. Catherine Humphreys was waiting tables at the spaghetti factory.

Yeah. And I think it was Damien Goddard. Are you familiar with Damien Goddard? Yeah, because he's notorious now for being against same-sex marriage. Yeah, yeah. Damien Goddard. Are you familiar with Damien Goddard? Yeah, because he's notorious now for being against same-sex marriage. Yeah, Damien Goddard tried to pick her up. And so she came to the station one time, and she ended up coming in once a week, not so much interning. She would write and read sportscasts.

And she was a little bit uh bland to begin with uh and and i gave her a really hard time because she was this tall beautiful stunning woman with a ton of personality and i had no shot i had no shot so i wasn't coming on i was telling her how crappy she was right and subsequently she got a job uh co-hosting a morning show in huntsville and for several months she would phone me and say what do you think about this what do you think about that and then um she did she tape an audition yes city tv City TV invited her to audition for sports. And she actually came to my house to show me this tape

of her reading a sportscast for City TV. And I looked at it and I said, do you realize that that's stronger than anything else in the market right now? And she eventually parlayed that into a job at City TV. Oh, sure. And I'm just throwing a number, but I believe she was making between $300,000 and $400,000 at the end of City TV because...

That's Peter Gross money. Peter Gross never made that kind of money. McKinney. McKinney was making over $200,000. I never broke through $100,000 at City. What were you making at $680,000? Because we're going to get to this, of course, very shortly. But the sense is that they did cost-cutting.

Macauan made a lot of money, so they cut him. That's the sense, anyways. The general consensus. But Peter Gross wasn't making Macauan money. What kind of money was Peter Gross making? Let me dance around that a bit. When I started, this was in the 90s at 680 news they started me at 34 000 and i for whatever reason i had a conversation with sandy sanderson one of the all-time great

uh radio administrators right sweetheart a great uh ad hoc speech maker by the way and he he said to me you will never make a hundred thousand dollars here and by vint of about by dint of about 35 he was wrong oh in my last year in my last year including the fact that they matched my contribution to to the stock option plan okay i may have crept into six figures and and that was a dangerous uh location for me to be we put a target on your back like you were now showing up i'm sure you showed up on some those you know the bean counters and they have the spreadsheets of they only see the salary for example maybe they don't see the uh person they see the number and you might be tripping some alarms there well you realize that in terms of being uh a radio sportscaster um if if you're a ditch digger there aren't 525 year olds lining up to

take your job for half of what you're making but if you're doing the updates on 680 news and right now apparently there's four or five guys and they haven't decided who who's going to replace because i mean replaceable of course but in many ways you are right it's a really coveted wonderful wonderful job and um but it would be misleading to say the reason I got dismissed at 680 News was only because I was making more. You're above the mic there, isn't it? More than they might pay my replacement. Okay.

Put a wonderful corporate boardroom expression. We put a pin in that because we're definitely coming back to that. So I gave you the lasagna. There's beer here as well, but you're not allowed to drink it. But this is fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery, local brewery.

Please, listeners, put a big circle around September 19th because I'm planning something at Great Lakes Brewery for the evening of September 19th, like a live recording listener party where everybody can have some time on the microphone. So there's a whole thing I'm working on. I'll have more details soon, but circle September 19th in your calendar. Peter, in

addition to the beer, here, I'm getting you some things here. Stickers! Stickers. Here's a tattoo for you. So, this is courtesy. That's your coveted Toronto Mike sticker that can go on one of your automobiles anywhere you want, actually. Just let me know where that ends up. No pressure. So, that's courtesy of Sticker You. Sticker You,

they're in Liberty Village. And honestly, Peter, if you, in your next venture, which we'll get to, whatever that might look like, you'll want to brand it, right? You'll want to promote it. And anything you can stick from like decals, like you see in the back wall,

customized stickers, labels, buttons, patches, like anything you can stick, you can get from stickeru.com. You just upload the image and order one or as many as you like. Fantastic people. They're the first website in the world to offer people the ability to customize their own stickers.

I'll have some news shortly about their bricks and mortar location that's opening up in the city in a contest we're going to have for listeners about that. But yes, so stickers from StickerU, beer from Great Lakes Brewery, and lasagna from Palma Pasta. This is like being on a game show.

So where are my bagels? Wheel of fortune. If you invite me back again, I will bring you bagels. Oh, no. No pressure there. Montreal poppy seed? Do you like it? Yeah.

They're the best. They're the best. Where's the best place in the city to get bagels? Do you have a favorite bagel place? Well, at the St. Lawrence Market, there's a Montreal bagel place, and they make them right in front of you. Holy crap, are they good. I heard about this place. Basement Dweller, who's

a frequent commenter on TorontoMike.com, was after the Dana Levinson, because she got hers at Bathurst in Eglinton. There's a place there. She got it. It was just good bagels, apparently, but I was told that St. Lawrence Market Montreal bagels are the king. Yes, because they make them right in front of you.

They come right out of the oven. They're chewy, they're salty, they're wonderful. With a little cream cheese on them, it's the closest thing you'll get to heaven. No, it sounds amazing. And nothing's better than a fresh bagel. Amazing. All right.

You were aspiring to be the world's oldest sportscaster. We talked about this last time. How old was that oldest? Bob Wolf. Bob Wolf did it into his 90s. And you were on your way. I needed only 28 for a year. Right.

Sounds easier said than done. But okay. When did you get noticed? When did they tell you that your time was up at 680 News? April. So you've known since April because we... I learned from... Actually, I learned from Gene Volaitis.

He sent me a tweet to say you were no longer at 680 News. But I guess that was in July? Does that sound right? Like you didn't leave 680 News in April. No. Do you want to share with us the story of your departure or as much as you can well it it it needs to be qualified um i think the main thing to really emphasize here is that i was getting bored with the subject material that my level of commitment

to sports casting wasn't what it needed to be um i love broadcasting i love writing but my interest in sports goes so far as have i bet on the games and they were just almost on a daily basis it was like i don't want to talk about this free agent signing. I don't want to talk about how Blue Jay fans are unhappy with management. I'm very old school. I like to talk about in the game last night there was this play. Right. Who went three for four?

Who made a great save? Yeah, talk about Bichette's big start and not about uh playing time what's that yeah the loopholes in the collective bargaining agreement and and i think that just philosophically what i wanted to present on the air and where 680 news was going began to get farther and farther apart so that's item number one. Okay. That item number two. Um, I'm just going to say this. There was at least two occasions in the last year when they threw to me and now time for sports. And Peter goes,

and I was asleep. Oh my gosh. I, I, Peter, I was, yeah. I mean,

based on that alone. Right. So, so all of these, these narratives and all of these conspiracies. Like literally sound asleep when they throw to you on 680 News. We moved to the second floor a few years ago and I got this booth with one of these $2,000 doors

and you close it and nobody hears you. And yeah, I think both of those might have been the 945 in the morning, my last one. Yeah, I put my legs and feet up and I was out cold. There's no way you can rationalize that it's it's like it's old age syndrome kind of business isn't it it's like that seinfeld episode when uh was it who was jerry's dad was working or something was and he they had these late meetings and he was too tired like i thought he needed a nap like he couldn't

attend the late meetings or whatever but i do i'm gonna throw in and i'm just trying to show you okay but but that is interesting because I like what you're doing now. And this qualifications, as you call them, it sounds like you're trying to take some of the responsibility onto yourself. No, I got fired. And if the story was that someone from the top said,

let's see if we can cut our expenses down. Let's see if we can cut salaries down and let's identify Peter Gross as someone we can get rid of because we're paying him too much. I gave them plenty of ammunition. I made it easy for them. You weren't, yeah, I hear you. So, okay, yeah, by the way,

you can't be asleep when they... No, no, no. That's, I guess... And I'm having some fun with that. What time did you wake up when you were working? Two o'clock, two o'clock every morning. Why is that that you woke up so early? Well, I'll tell you why.

Because I wanted to be in before three. And generally, I got in at 20 to three in the morning. I was also required to do all of the sportscasts for halifax ottawa and kitchener and i wanted them to be done by five o'clock so that i could focus on toronto gotcha and um and i and i pride myself uh and i maybe they'll tell you in the affiliates of not just reading material that they wanted, but to the best of my ability, showing an interest in their specific little teams. So the Halifax Mooseheads, the Kitchener Rangers,

the Kitchener Dutchmen, the Junior Bianchi team. You wanted to localize it, as it should. That's very good. And whenever I could throw in a bit of my personality and do a little extra gag or whatever i did that and they were very happy with me but there were most mornings between 2 30 and 9 30 i bottomed out and had trouble keeping my ass what time do you uh go to sleep in order to be up at two o'clock for your generally between seven and eight there and i had a nap every afternoon i've got to tell you that yeah that now that um i don't

wake up at two o'clock every morning um my day-to-day energy is fantastic i'll bet um i'm able to tackle things that i put off for years and years and years. There's other projects in my life. Whether or not they reap anything for me remains to be seen. But I would come in, I would do my job. I realized that I got to check every two weeks. And by the time I got home at 10.30 in the morning, it was like, I don't have to do anything else. I've accomplished all the work-related business. That's the payoff.

You're done at 10.30 in the morning, which is pretty amazing, except you got to go to bed at 7 o'clock or whatever. But I think that's bad for your health. I think I read this somewhere because I have a lot of morning show hosts, although not really 2 a.m., but I do hear a lot of like, you know,

3.30 wake-ups and things like that, 4 o'clock, depending on how long the commute was to the office or whatever. Because what time did you hit the Toronto airwaves? 5 o'clock that four o'clock depending how long the commute was to the office or whatever because what time did you hit the toronto airwaves five o'clock five o'clock okay that is early yeah but but let's let's just in parentheses but it was a great job it was a fantastic job um when i was told it was over i had had an uncomfortable moment or two but now someone else has it and I don't have it anymore and I really don't spend a lot of time going oh poor me

unfortunately I'm a senior citizen and now I've got to I'm not sure that there's much left for me in mainstream radio there certainly is nothing left for me in mainstream radio there certainly is nothing left for me in television nobody's going to hire this face to do a reprise of the world according to gross not even moses at zoomer i i've been trying to contact zoomer because if there's any radio station that will hire a 69 year old guy it would be zoomer wouldn't i think i think there's many reasons that would be possible.

So if any, I have sent some emails, and I'm not sure I got a response. Well, you're going to have to knock on the door over there by the Zoomerplex, I think. And I'm not sure how Moses feels about me. When was the last time you had contact with Moses? It's not very biblical, the way we talk. When did Moses last speak to you?

Strangely, I mean, we talk about McCowan and me both being fired at the same time. Moses and I were both finished at City TV almost to the week. Now, it was slightly different. They fired me and ushered me out the door. I think they bought him out for a tremendous amount of money. Chum did i believe um when i came back i was at city tv from uh 76 to 86 and i came back in the year 2000

and i may have referenced this in episode 387 um that i i felt so ashamed about the way I behaved in 1986 and, and the drugs I was taking and, uh, the minimal attitude that I paid towards the work that I wanted to come back and just come in and do the work. Right. And I did that for four years and they never ran into this shit. I did. But why is that?

Is it, I, you know what? It probably wouldn't be very wise to get into it. Um, it was just, it was a politically poisoned environment. And the producer of the show was terrified of the executive producer.

And so he was, and I'm speculating here. He didn't want to put it on the stuff that I was doing because I broke a lot of rules. So he didn't want the executive producer coming down on his ass. Why did you run that fucking piece of shit that Gross did? Oh, you wanted to know my last meeting with Moses. Yeah. A week or two after I was rehired in 2000.

Oh, you can get that one on the air because, yeah, Jim McKinney is calling. Mr. McKinney. Jim McKinney is calling. Mr. McKinney. I'm right now on Mic'd Up with Mike Boone, who desperately wants you on the show with him. Toronto Mike.

Toronto Mike. Oh, it's not Mic'd Up. It's called Toronto. Well, he won't know Mike Boone. Remember we talked about being on this guy's show? He's got a very tight schedule. What about September? What about September? Okay, he's promised me on September.

Let me call you back in an hour or so, okay? Yeah. Then I'll go with you. We'll talk about that. Oh, now you're telling me. Are you picking up any of this? There's a birthday party. There's a birthday party for Bill of Tennis.

Let me call you in an hour, okay? But I'm good for Sunday. Bye. No, now I wish we had put that on speakerphone, but that was fantastic. And it sounds like we'll have a jim mckinney visit in september so okay let me let me just finish this thought of course um so moses i meet moses i think in the parking lot of the city building on on queen street west

and he said something essentially to to me that you better be good or i'll fucking fire your ass or something i i've always tried to do a Moses impression, but, um, and let me add that, that, uh, if you ever asked me who is the,

uh, most amazing person I've ever met in my life, it's Moses Neimer. Wow. Okay. It's just the most brilliant, um, futuristic kind of guy.

Uh, visionary, visionary. That's the word I'm looking for. Yeah. When, when, um, this brilliant futuristic kind of guy. Visionary. Visionary, that's the word I'm looking for. Yeah. When cable had 1% penetration in the 70s, Moses knew that it would be 100%. So if you had that information in 1972, you could become a millionaire. Right, and he did that.

Well, he did more than that and this just the other aside from what he did for me of recognizing that i belonged on tv when no one else would have liked that idea um he had this building city tv that was creating one television strand and he thought well I've got the infrastructure. Why don't I make a second television? So much music. Well, I've got the infrastructure. Why don't I make a third?

And soon there were seven, eight, ten. Right. Bravo. Space. Much music. All coming out of that same building because you had the infrastructure that you could plug in the other stage.

He was ahead of the curve, as we say. The bleeding edge, for sure. For sure. Okay. So in April, for sure, for sure. Okay, so in April, you're notified that your time is coming to an end at 680 News. And of course, you have to kind of deal with that,

I guess. I would think that would be, I think that would hurt on some level that you enjoy this job, even though you said you were, I think you said you were kind of getting bored by some of it but you still you had one of the what in your opinion was one of the best jobs in the city yes oh wonderful job great good job and you enjoy the people you worked with yes more or less yeah so you're told basically and then i'm gonna guess you tell me

do they tell they don't tell you they don't give you a reason they just say say this is... Did they give you a reason? Yeah, well, they didn't have to give me a reason because they gave me a package. Right. But I had made a number of factual mistakes on the air. Significant factual mistakes? Okay. I don't know.

I'm curious, but I was curious. Because you were asleep twice. Here's an example. The news director is a massive tennis fan. What's his name? A golfer from Kitchener won that golf tournament out west. Connors? Thank you.

Corey Connors. And without fully checking my facts, I said the $1 one million seventy five thousand dollars that he earned was the most ever by a canadian for a single event and it turned out that bianca andreescu had made slightly more for winning indian wells and the news director who's a fanatical tennis fan not only knew that but she got a fan a a phone call from a listener saying why is peter gross saying this it isn't true and said so that's so there were a number of those i'm just admitting this okay no um so i'm so when she told me that it was over for me i said but why and she said

well you were asleep for a couple of wordscasts. You got facts wrong. And just to sort of put the dagger in the chest, they caught me gambling between sportscasts. So I was playing video poker between sportscasts. You gave them lots of ammunition, Peter. Not that they really need it, right? They're going to package you out. They don't actually need it.

Yeah, so you know what? So that was April. They let me stay on through july well that's kind of them so a soft it was a soft landing and um like i say there was a package i don't know that i'm free to say how much but it was it was a it's a pretty good just don't leave all that package in saratoga no just promise promise me. Oh, the government, God. You know what? For all the gambling I do, the government's my worst habit. Right.

The government takes more money from me every year than I lose gambling, I can assure you of that. You can't write off gambling losses or anything in taxes, no. I'm trying to help you out. By the way, okay, on that note, because it just so happens a partner of the show is the rock star accountant, a man who sees beyond the numbers. His name is Rupesh Kapadia. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to let you know

and listeners know that if you want a free consult, and this is, Peter, you should take me up on this if you can, but if you want a free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia, he can help you. So you got this package, can't, but if you want a free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia, he can, he can help you. So you got this package, right? He can help you, uh,

manage that. So you're trying to live to a hundred, right? We can't, we can't blow this by the time you're 70, we gotta be smart with this money and do proper things. And he knows what to do. He sees beyond the numbers.

And I'm going to just play a clip of friend of the show, Milan talking about how Kapadia helps his business. Here's Milan. Hello, Milan, talking about how Capadia helps his business. Here's Milan. Hello, Toronto Mike listeners. This is Milan from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. We've been using Capadia LLP for many years, providing guidance for all of our corporate and personal accounting needs. Over the years, Rupesh Capadia has put together an effective tax plan for his clients. And the bottom line is, he and his expert team of accountants save you money.

Thanks, Toronto Mike. And thank you, Kapadia LLP. So, yeah, if you want to take advantage, again, complimentary discussion with Rupesh. He really is the man to talk to. So thank you,adia llp and uh i have a great question from brian but it ties back to the the ponies so let's see okay so you're able to work at 680 till the end of july do you get to say goodbye on the air no as it as it turned out um we we were discussing the package and they came to me you know i i rejected the first package

they gave me the second package and although i i liked what i saw in the second package this was the middle of june and they said um if you don't sign off by this date don't come back in and um i was a little bit verklempt So the thought of being paid to the end of July and not coming in really appealed to me. So that was essentially my last day. So you actually haven't been on the air since mid-June? Okay, it wasn't late July. Okay, okay.

So the package was X amount of dollars, plus I got paid for the last almost five weeks, I guess. Gotcha. Out of curiosity curiosity because i have been through this fairly recently did you have a uh did you have a lawyer look at the stuff before you signed it yes i did yes i did and and at one point i was thinking oh i can take them for much more and um basically i had a lawyer saying no no, this is really good. Okay, good.

They gave me a very soft landing. They were very, very good to me. I gave them plenty of material to look at and say, this guy may be past his best before date, coupled with the fact that I don't miss it because it wasn't my life's passion to read sports news on the radio. Your passion is to bet on sports. I love writing.

I love creating. I love broadcasting. I'm enjoying this. Well, you can be my sports updater. You turn the clock back 20 years, someone could have turned me into an entertainment reporter. I could have even been a tongue-in-cheek political reporter.

You could have taken over for Brian Linehan. Well, certainly not in the same manner that Brian Linehan did that. No, I just, sports was always a place where I could have a lot of fun. That's all. I could do tongue-in-cheek where I could slide off and be a little ironic. And people forget that.

I think sometimes, and I think, that people take sports awfully serious and forget that sports is entertainment. This is really there to be fun and enjoyed. People get so into the minutiae of the J's and know who's pitching or whatever.

And it's, it becomes almost like they carry it. Like it's a, a negative on their lives. Like it's, it's like maybe I feel like we all take it awfully serious. When the, when the Raptors were in the finals,

I had this chat with many people, including my son at the time, but like we ended up winning that and it was amazing. I was at the parade and I have this forever. The memories of winning the 2019 nba championship but had we lost to the warriors like i would have been upset for maybe 30 seconds and then i would be so glad we were in a finals you know what i mean and then i'd be onward and it's just sports and moving on you know what i noticed by the way that you use the word we i do all the time because I feel like it's Toronto.

You don't do that. Never did that. Because you don't play for the team. Never did that. I'm not, I mean, obviously you took one look at me. I could play for the Raptors. 69 years old, five feet tall. How do you compare to Muggsy Bogues?

He's taller than me. Spud Webb, I'm trying to help you. Spud Webb could slam dunk. I know. That was always very important to me this is funny we um what in the last couple of years of 680 news yeah particularly with uh the blue jays in the playoffs the maple leafs in the playoffs and what the rappers did recently is we'd come on at the top of the hour and all the headlines would be about the raptors right and

then after they do the weather and the traffic they would have a raptors feature and then they would have a second raptors feature and then they would throw the to the reporter in jurassic park setting up the night right and by the time it came to me i i would say here's a scoop raptors going on to game three so um right they just 680 news at times becomes a secondary all sports station. Well, I mean, part of this, I'm going to guess, is a PR mechanism because half of the games were on Sportsnet. Yeah. They own, I can't remember the percentage, 37.5% of MLSE is Rogers owned,

I believe. So there's huge incentives. And on that note, I believe. Like there's, there's huge like incentives. And on that note, I must ask this question because I'm always curious with the Rogers owned sports reporters. Did you ever talk about the Argonauts? Like is the Argos ever in the Peter Gross sports? Well, very rarely because they played so few games.

They would have to play on a Sunday night for me to mention it on a Monday. And there was, there was the odd, the odd game in the week, games they would have to play on a sunday night for me to mention it on a monday okay and um there was there was the odd there's the odd game in the week but they got so little exposure but was that okay i have a question because i'm on tsn for example i don't know if they still have sports updates but they gave a lot of exposure to the cfl for the same reason right that because they owned yeah oh i i didn't avoid the Argos if they played. I felt an obligation.

So there was no ignore them because we don't have the podcasting rights or anything like that. Oh, see, here I am digging for a little dirt here. I never got instructions like that. Good, good to hear. I feel like you tell me, so that's good to hear. I think that, like you said,

if there was an Eastern Conference final that the Raptors won on a Sunday, you'd probably lead with that on the Monday, right? Well, but the whole issue of going wild in the newscast about the Raptors made sense. Look how many people showed up at the parade. That was the biggest sports event ever in toronto it was bigger in 2019 than the leafs winning the stanley cup in 1967 simply because media is so profoundly greater and you'd agree that would you agree the 2019 raptor championship was a bigger story in the city than the 92 and 93 blue jays world series but the 92 the 92 world series was the biggest sports story at the city than the 92 and 93 blue jays world series but the 92 the 92 world series was the biggest sports story at the time at the time as was the 1967 now if the maple leafs win the

stanley cup okay that's i've been curious about this because i used to feel like that that you know the leafs winning the cup would be a bigger story than the raptors winning the nba championship but i'm not even sure where you go from there. How could you be bigger than that parade? Right, that's what I'm wondering. Can it be any... And again, as I'm reminded, I'm reminded that the fan base, and this is a lot of generalizations here,

but the fan base for the Raptors is extremely diverse. It's really, it's all cultures, it's all colors. Everybody's seemed on board. It's a much younger constituency than the maple leaves do good point but i do feel uh and i mean my eyes tell me this and uh just again just casual observations of small sample sizes that the the much less diverse is the maple leaves fan base yes so that alone because toronto is the most diverse i believe i don't want to say this because maybe new york city's got the title but i believe we might be the most diverse city in the

world possibly well you have to consider new york as every possible type of human being is in new york but in terms but no city embraces its diversity as much as toronto and the raptors genius in embracing drake and you know what's like i can't hum a drake song when it when it comes on the radio i turn off i've got no interest whatsoever you're not a hip-hop head no and i don't get i don't get why drake is so big but the point is he is big yeah and by associating the raptors with drake they've they've done an amazing thing drake had his big thing on the weekend oh uh ovo it was uh and and he had like a a replica large replica of the larry o'brien trophy he had the larry ob as we call it like you're right it was super raptor uh synergized if you will and you're right right. It really appeals to the young fan base.

Yeah, that's a stroke of genius to have Drake involved because he brings in those numbers of people. The Argos have Mitch Marner. I think that's their Drake. There's no hope for it. There's nothing.

There's nothing the CFL can do in Toronto to bring more than 15,000 to a game. I hate to hear that only because I, and again, I don't know. I used to like the Argos. I had my moments with the Argos and I just would, I don't want to see them fail.

Like I'd like to see people come out and see them at BMO Field, but I don't know, you're right. I don't know what they could do. Listen, one of the most exciting sports events I ever saw was 45,000 people at Exhibition Stadium watching the Argos and the Ticats

in a game that ended up 47 to 43, and it was a battle for third place in the East. Was that a Labor Day classic? I can't remember the day. I just remember being at a game and a huge crowd. But it's... I don't think it preceded the Blue Jays, but it certainly preceded the Raptors.

And the sad point is that the Argos have just been eclipsed in this city. I mentioned earlier Mark Weisblatt because he wrote about your departure from 680 for the Canadian Jewish News, which is very good. And he brought up an interesting point that he said, when you started at 680, you worked with Dick Smythe,

right? You overlapped with Dick, but Dick was sent packing around, what, around 66 years of age. So I don't know. I always wonder, and you tell me,

cause you told me you were making mistakes and you were sleeping on the job. So is there any degree of ageism here? Like that you're out because you're old. I have no, I have no proof of that, but it's, uh, it's a theme.

That's for sure. Uh, I had a couple of, uh, get togethers, um, in the last couple of years with a lot of people from city TV. And,

and the first thing that comes up is how are you still employed because it's it's it's an ongoing narrative that if you're white and aging in the market your days are numbered so the uh being uh white works against you because people are trying to be it's a stupid thing to say well i don't know you said it so i had to ask you to like so do you think if you were, I don't know, not white, if you were a person of color, would you still be at 680 News? No, I'm just, okay. No, if I was a person of color who was asleep when they threw to him, gambling between sportscasts and making egregious errors on a daily basis.

Right, you could be green. And making way more money than whoever they might replace me by the way i gotta say i gotta say i completely misjudged your salary at 680 and i had nothing no reason i would be more less okay i and in fact that's sort of ticked me off because i felt like how can this be cost cutting peter gross can't be that expensive but it sounds like if you're tripping the six-figure alarm uh yeah good on you you. I think that is, in this day and age, I think that is a cost-cutting. Somehow I got there with 1% raise every year. That's a lot of years.

They never, back in the city television days, I went from $20,000 one year to $32,000 on a 30-month contract to $55,000. Moses was great in giving you big, big raises. And then I went, I, I, I, so I was on a,

if I was on a 30 month contract that paid 55, 60, and then for 84, 85, 86, they boosted me to 70, 75, 80.

Okay. That's good for that. $20,000 signing bonus. Wow. So, 85, 86, they boosted me to 70, 75, 80. Okay, that's good for that year. With a $20,000 signing bonus. Wow. So that was 1985. So it took me over 25 years to get back. Right. Meanwhile, the price of bread went up from like 29 cents to like $1.89.

$80,000 in 1985 is worth more than $100,000 today. Oh my God, way more. Way more. Ask me what I've got left of that. How much? Well, I'm hearing about the credit card debt. We've got to figure that out, too. That's going to kill you.

We've got to get rid of that credit card debt. Well, no, no. Credit cards, some people disagree with me, but credit cards are a way of getting free money any time you want. Only if you pay the full balance. Otherwise, it's not free. That's the key. Peter, that's a key.

Peter, we need to talk. And you need to talk to Rupesh Kapadia. He's going to set you straight here. I got a note from a fan of yours, Dale. Tell him, that's you, Peter. Tell him I've been a fan of his sports cast since he started in the 70s. Well, you've done most of this on episode 380, so you don't have to repeat stuff,

but he says, ask him about his times on City TV and Stories and also 680 News, which I listen to every morning and was surprised Peter was no longer there. He wants to know, maybe you can touch on this, your experiences with, and I hope I say these names right. Well, I know Paul Cross, Jeff Rehoman. How do I say this name? Rehoman, Jeff Rehoman. I should know that this name? Rehoman. Jeff Rehoman.

I should know that, right? Okay. And Stephanie Smythe, who's been on the show. Paul Cook. Paul Cook. He wrote Paul Cross. He means Paul Cook. Well, there's a Paul Cross, who I think is a senior producer at AM740.

He's been- Okay, he crossed. But Paul Cook is the anchorman at 680 news and he's so how maybe you spend a couple of minutes uh what was it like working with these people uh he says by the way they're they're great but uh you're amongst the best in uh radio dale well thanks for the blowjob all right so uh paul cook who's married to stephanie smith right yes yeah um cook cook is it to my way of thinking the definitive morning anchorman he's got a way of reading so there's

urgency in his voice there's authority in his voice and yet you get the sense that he's just sitting at your breakfast table telling you the news uh he's also a really good guy um and he he's listen there's a guy to know if you if you want bagels because he he's the guy who brings in the bagels for everyone's birthday hook me up with this this bagel man i want to make it happen get paul cook on your show i will i've had if i had his wife on this show maybe yeah stephanie i gotta tell a stephanie smythe story please do because if i had one human rights violation to talk about at 680 news it involves stephanie smythe now imagine if you reverse the gender on this story somebody told stephanie smythe was the news director for a while right stephanie smythe is a beautiful

let me use the word busty blonde just oh she's still on our television right so you see her on cp24 and um somebody told her that i had fear of big breasts that has something i don't have big hands you see i'm not i'm not donald trump proportion yeah so i i guess if you ask me i prefer a little perky champagne glass without being too rude and vis-a-vis nothing stephanie smith came up to me one time and said something to the effect i i hear you're terrified of big breasts and she grabbed my head and pushed it in her chest vis-a-vis uh elaine in in seinfeld that episode with george costanza right do you remember that where she rubs his face yeah they think you want to look george

there you go motorboarding i think we call that is that motorboarding yeah okay can you imagine someone in authority at a radio station a man taking a woman's head and pushing it into his groin no and also this is uh punished for it definitely uh from its time i think i don't even think today that yeah that's definitely uh when you work closely with somebody for a long time but let me and let me paraphrase it by saying i adore stephanie smite and that was just funny and you know she didn't randomly do that to a guy she did did that to Peter Gross, who she knew would get it and was a pal. So, yeah. Now, so Paul Cook, good guy.

And again, Jeff. Jeff Rahoman. Jeff Rahoman's just the definitive character. And what does he do on Six Eighties? He does every, if there's an unusual angle to a story, if it's sports or it's entertainment or it's or it's drake or it's it's some guy you know wearing a watermelon on his head right jeff for homan does

the story um he's just he's got a way of a goofy way of reporting and a ton of personality that he throws into his stories and just a breath of fresh air is what he is. And, I mean, this station, 680, is a very, like people don't necessarily listen for a long time, but many different people tune in on their commute to work. Like this would be a stop to get your traffic and sports and weather and breaking news updates. So you had a lot of ears, if you will, taking in you guys.

And you miss working with these guys, I guess. Not a whole bunch. It's weird because, like I said, I came in at 2.40 in the morning, locked myself in that room. And then at 9.48, I walked out. And so I'd say hello to a few people. I just say that my experience with working with them was very very pleasant i had a bad experience at at city tv from 2000 to 2004 without getting into it just where uh

it was such a poison environment where people just no matter where you went were complaining complaining complaining not the case of 680 news everyone was there just to do the work good to hear very very good to hear. Here's a nice note from Linda. I have a story about Peter Gross. Not so sure if you know that I went back to school to study journalism last fall. I did part of my internship with 680 News.

When we were doing our orientation, she says there were a few of us, he was coming off his shift and he then offered anyone who was interested the opportunity to job shadow him this was such a great opportunity for some of the younger guys who wanted to get into sports it's not really a question she says but more of an observation of what a cool dude he is so that's why it pays back to do those good things cool cool dude is a couple of words that

are usually associated with me well i know what she's referring to. Yeah, well, that is very nice. That was unnecessary that you did that, and it helped out young people coming into your industry. So good on you, though, for helping out. That's good. Well, it was really important. There was a solution to me screwing up on the air.

I had an intern who came in once or twice a week the last several months and he was a great proofreader and i never made mistakes the morning that he was with me well we needed to get that guy in more often could he wake you up as well before they uh yeah yeah yeah oh that was a running joke with the interns, to make sure I'm awake for the show. Oh, that's great. Neil Morrison, who listeners to this show might know him better as Brother Bill, but Neil Morrison says to me yesterday, Pete's a gem.

He worked at CFNY for a while. Now, I'm sure we talked about this on episode 380, but just remind us when and what you did at 102.1 um i'm thinking this is 1990 and i was brought in to take over fred patterson's sportscasting shift and um they wanted to keep me on in some capacity so they were paying me 250 dollars a week to uh do editorials and they were lame they were they were i don't think in 1990 now i'm 40 years old in 1990 right i don't think in 1990 i was fully developed as a writer performer to the extent that I could,

I could do the daily editorial on a show. And I think some of them were quite poor and they fired me in the, they fired me a week before Christmas 1990, I believe. And they sent a courier to, i was living in brampton they said a courier knocked on my door with a check for a thousand dollars which came in real handy and i ended up driving taxi in brampton right right and i i drove for i drove for the better part of a year there's a whole bunch of interesting stuff here yeah Yeah. And yet, about two months later, CFTR hired me back to do, hired me back?

No, it was the first time. Right, right. They offered the morning sportscasting job to Debbie Van Kiekebel. She says, no, I got three kids. She said, why don't you hire Peter Gross? So they hired me. Nice. And here's a real sidebar story, that while I was driving taxi in Brampton,

story that while i was driving taxi in brampton um i would drive from three in the afternoon to 10 or 11 at night some some days made eight dollars and go to sleep and then drive to to toronto to do uh cftr there was a voice the woman who answered the phone at the cab company i would phone i'd say is my cab like a dispatcher or no not the dispatcher the phone at the cab company i would phone i'd say is my cab like a dispatcher or no not the dispatcher the phone answer who would take orders and she had the sweetest voice and i said i gotta see what this woman looks like so i went in one day she was really really pretty i asked her out ended up having two children with her oh wow that's amazing and then to continue this so her name is uli she's a lovely lady um well i hope she had two kids with wow that's amazing and then to continue this so her name is uli she's a lovely lady um well i hope she had two kids with her that's 21 years younger than me wow so when i asked her out

she said i'd love to go out with you but i gotta tell you i'm five months pregnant and that's my oldest son now okay gotcha adopting him and um she left me about 13 years ago for a guy seven years younger than she is. So he's about 41 or 42. So good on her, right? Well, it's a big swing. Then she had three children with him. And they're both accountants. They now own nine properties between them.

Wow. So I know that she wakes up every day going, boy, did I ever screw up leaving him. You think? Man, you got some stories. That's pretty interesting. But I have to say, and I take great pleasure in this, Ula and I are very good friends.

We've never fought. We had one of the most civil, mature breakups that the emphasis was on how do we keep these two children from being upset about this and everyone's gotten along great no that's that's great to hear let's hear from brian gerstein at property in the six.com he's got a question for you hi peter brian gerstein here sales representative PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto

Mike. The July TREB numbers came out and competition is fierce between buyers looking for semi-detached homes, townhouses and condos due to their more attainable price points. I have my own buyers experiencing this right now as we navigate that marketplace. Call or text me at 416-873-0292 so I can break down all the July numbers for you in your own neighborhood. Peter, it was so great to see you recently when you emceed the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team gala dinner, where I had a chance to meet my Expos heroes, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Steve Rogers.

The best part of the night was you telling us how the Kentucky Derby went down with the disqualification and the 91-1 long shot winning. What was your biggest long shot you ever won? And what were the odds? How much did it pay? Did you ever strike it big?

Yeah, yeah. There's a story I like to tell. I told you about my friend Clinton Ickerson who passed two years ago. He was a producer at City TV. And one of the main things we shared was this love of betting the horses. So we go to the Queen's Plate Trial, 1980. There was a horse called Dunce Scotus.

I was certain he would win the plate trial, but I lost all my money before the eighth race. So I turned to Clinton and go, can you lend me $10? He gives me $10. I put it to win on Dunce Scotus, and he won. And I got back exactly 30 dollars so i turned to clinton i said there's a horse i like in the last race called royal centurion it's 30 to 1 uh let's buy triacters with it so long and short is we threw our money in and royal centurion won at 30 to 1 the horse that came second was 11 to 1 and a 7 to 2 shot

came through i don't know if this means anything to you no that came second was 11 to 1 and a 7 to 2 shot came third. I don't know if this means anything to you. No, those are, yes. If you have a 30 to 1 shot with an 11 to 1 shot with a 7 to 2 shot, it's a massive tri-actor. Because you have to get the exact order. So we hit that tri-actor and I remember when we saw that we'd come 1, 2, 3,

I'm screaming, I'm jumping up and down and Clint was worried we'd be mugged. And I said, Clint, this is paying $5, he said no pete no pete no pete it's it's three thousand just calm down anyways after five minutes they declare the race official six thousand nine hundred and ninety six dollars and 30 did you say thirty dollar bet it was how much did you put down to win i put in a total of 36 and there were various combinations and i had three quarters of the ticket and clint had a quarter six thousand nine hundred ninety six dollars um and this is another interesting side yeah to it uh so i gave clint two thousand

for he he should have gotten 1750 for his quarter share but i tipped him because he gave me the ten dollars that right allowed me to cash the seven grand. And there was a woman at the cashier wicket that I'd been dying to ask out for the longest time. And as she's counting out the hundreds, I gave her a $100 tip and asked her out. And she said yes. Well, they all say yes when I eventually get around to asking them. No, they don't. But that was a young lady that I ended up dating for a few weeks anyway. Wow.

So that was the biggest. Now, he's asking about a score. I don't know if I told you the story. A year ago, Jim and I went to Saratoga. And on the way to Saratoga is Finger Lakes Racetrack. And we showed up just after the first race. So it's 20 minutes for the next race. And I got a pocket full of American 50s that I'm dying to gamble with.

So I say to Jim, I'm going in to the slots to play video poker. Jim's got no use for the slots. And I played maybe for five minutes and I hit a royal flush for $10,000. Oh my God. What I think happens when you have a hit like for ten thousand dollars oh my god yeah that's uh what i think happens when you have a hit like that is you get that rush of whatever that is endorphins or whatever and then you end up just chasing that high like you just you know you want it that that would be the uh the high you're chasing it i i wasn't paying much attention

and didn't realize you have to hit the maximum and and i rarely do that playing video poker because it drains you too quickly okay but i'd hit the maximum on the i rarely do that playing video poker because it drains you too quickly okay but i'd hit the maximum on the 50 cent machine and when i cash they said this is the biggest cash we've ever seen oh wow and they withheld i'm still trying to get it they withheld thirty one hundred dollars in in state and federal taxes i'm still fighting to get that but those are my two biggest scores. Wow, wow, wow. Paul says, he says, can you ask him if he remembers his trip to the TSE trading floor back in the 1980s?

Is there a story here about you on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading floor? I guess so. It's one of many, right? Being that he's saying it, it must have happened, and I have some vague memory of perhaps doing that. Okay. Now, what I'd like to do before we end this

is I'd like to talk about what's next for you. So this is a tweet that came in from Ryan. He says, I'd be interested to know if he'd consider a podcast. He has his down the stretch newspaper. I feel like there could be a connection there to expand the brand a little. Maybe you tell us now, if you don't mind,

like do you have any tricks up your sleeve? Like what's next for Peter? You've got your package, I guess, from 680 News. You no longer have the job, but you got a little money or whatever. But at some point, you've got your package, I guess, from 680 News. You no longer have that job, but you got a little money or whatever. But at some point, you know, that money will run out at some point. It's not going to get you to 100. Like, you don't, like, tell me, you're too young and... It's not going to get me to 70.

Your words, right. So you're not retiring. Are you retiring? I didn't put words in your mouth. I'm enjoying these several weeks. These have been the sort of emotionally most enjoyable several weeks of my life from the last. Just the sleeping in, going to the gym.

I'm doing a lot of writing. I'm trying to write something, for lack of a better word, my biography, my autobiography. Because you've got a lot of writing. I'm trying to write something for lack of a better word, you know, my biography, my autobiography. Because you've got a lot of stories to tell. Who would buy it? I don't have,

I don't know much about books. I don't know. I do know that like friends of yours have done this. For example, John Gallagher, you know, Spike, he wrote a book.

Well, that's why, if Gallagher could write a book, I could write a book. I didn't even know Gallagher could read a book so i like i for the record i'm a big fan so um i i i thought about that and he did a really good job on facebook puffing up the book but at the end of the day aside i need all the people who know me or know of me to go out and buy the book. So that's 500.

Hepsey wrote a book. So I've had kind of a bird's eye view of this. And like, yeah, I mean, I've seen that. He came to a Toronto Mike listener experience in late June and I watched him sell a bunch of books. He autographs them and sells them. And I know lately, I know Kevin in Alberta bought a bunch for family members for Christmas and stuff. So I don't, I don't have any sense of like, I don't know how Hebsey's doing exactly, except I have seen transactions and maybe it would be therapeutic on some level to

write the book. Like there might be something cathartic there might be something yeah i'm definitely doing it for my own amusement um i i suspect i'm not going to break into john grisham territory no but no one does no one makes money on books in canada i'm enjoying it um i'm dredging up an awful lot of uh you know what one of the themes of my life is i don't have a bucket list because just sort of spontaneously i've done so many things right um you know i now i haven't jumped out of an airplane with a parachute but do you want to yeah yeah but but i i just you know like i i've been on the ice when the maple leafs won the stanley cup i've been on the field when the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. I've been on the field when the Blue Jays won the World Series. I didn't know you were on the ice, because that's 67. No, 1964.

64. I didn't tell you that. I told you that story last time. Do I need to tell it again? Tell it. Yeah, you've got to tell it again. I can't. Okay, it's April.

It might have been April the 17th. It was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup between the Maple Leafs and the Red Wedwings. This is the Stanley Cup. Bobby Bond broke his leg his leg in game six came back scored the goal in overtime now they go to game seven i get two standing room grays leafs win the game how old are you in the 13 okay i get two standing room grays uh my buddy and i we actually sat in the first row of the grays at maple leaf gardens and in those days you could almost reach and touch the players because it was such a tiny rink uh to hold 16 000 um so i say to my buddy leafs win the game for nothing i said we got to go jump on the ice so with three minutes to go we work our way down the reds at the time the red seats were closest to the ice right we're in the detroit end zone

with half a minute to play i'm climbing over people's shoulders my feet are on the glass the crowd's counting ten nine eight seven six i'm on the ice with three seconds to play fortunately the play is in the same thing terry sawchuck is the goalie for the detroit red wings okay and they've just lost the game for nothing and he's not so much skating he's just sort of floating out of his net towards the blue line and i swear to you i'm the first guy he meets wow and i said to him you played a great game terry and he looked at me he said fuck off and that is that is my all-time favorite story if he if he'd said have my gloves and my stick as a souvenir of being on the ice in game seven of the stanley cup it would not have been as good so i've i've been on the ice when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup.

I've been on the field when the Blue Jays won the World Series. I've been on the field for a Super Bowl. I was at Super Bowl 2000. I played Wayne Gretzky squash. I interviewed Billy Martin at Yankee Stadium. I flew on Pierre Trudeau's plane, his private plane one one time wow i didn't actually speak to trudeau but i was on the plane with with the media um and i slept with a fashion model that might be your biggest claim to fame yeah wow and she must have had a temporary loss

of vision or something well i'll tell you the story i so i i'm i'm a little person i'm five foot two i'm not really a little not in the true sense of there's a little person i'm not a very tall person i'm five foot maybe two and there was myself and these two six foot guys and i can't explain how we ended up in the apartment of this stunning five foot eleven fashion model okay and these two guys are hitting on her like crazy and i figure well if if anything happens she's going to end up with one or the other right and i made the fatal mistake of just being myself because you're uh funny i think women are attracted to a good and i guess these guys were trying too hard and it was it was kind of overwhelming because she was something else

but she was very nice to me it had a it had a little bit of um this is robinson to it you know yeah uh you're doing uh yeah there's simon and garfunkel are you trying to seduce me this is the uh character right she wasn't trying to she she got her way with this is robinson are you trying to seduce me but is the uh character right she wasn't trying to she she got her way with this is robson are you trying to seduce me but i just i always i don't know what that taught me that um that never give up on your dream that height to to a lot of really quality women how tall you are doesn't really matter so i yeah and height doesn't measure heart i think somebody told me that uh marcus stroman so you're you're on board with that amazing so um so do you have like anything you want to share with us about what the next chapter of your life professionally would look like so you're doing writing you're going to talk about

writing a book but this guy this guy says uh you should do a podcast somebody else chimed in uh and said that you should do a podcast with your buddy, Jim McKinney, for example. And do you want, do you want to share off as any thoughts that are in your head about the next chapter beyond writing the book? I think a podcast is,

sorry about that. I think a podcast is the way to go. I see myself as an irresistible talk show host. Now now i don't know if other people see me as that um and and i'm not sure i've got your skills for the talk show but but i'm what i will get you what i am capable of of doing on a day-to-day basis is dredging up my personal experiences because there's there's very few news stories that occur that i can't say well you know in 1976 or night uh i've just had so many experience and i've done i've done thousands and thousands of news stories and hundreds and thousands of sportscasts and um the the and my experience is in the city of toronto for example i'm such a definitive torontonian i go back to david crombie uh to john sewell to art agleton you know here's a story yeah

when i did the world according to gross art agleton was had this reputation of being kind of a stick in the mud kind of not a very charismatic character. And they had a standing rule with Art Eagleton that he would drop whatever he was doing to be on the world according to gross. And I once called him out of a council meeting and they got him immediately. And I was doing a story called The Feel of Toronto.

And in this particular scene I actually felt up Art Eagleton like I'm mauling his arms and his legs as part of a segment of Feeling of Toronto so these are some of the silly experiences I've had

if anyone wants to give Peter Gross his own radio talk show, I think has the potential to draw a crowd, whether it's because people like to look at train wrecks or... Just don't fall asleep. Well, once I'm on the air, I don't fall asleep. Right, and once you're engaged.

And I think I'm with you. I think you have a million stories. I think you're a and I think I'm with you I think you you have a million stories I think you you're a definitive Toronto guy like you said you have all these on

I didn't remember this story from 1964 I just I can't are you sure you told it on 380 like are you sure

I tell it to everybody it's the greatest how do I not remember this story I'm 13 years old and it's the greatest moment of my life hi I'm hi I'm next to sleeping with and it's the greatest moment of my life. Hi, I'm Peter.

Next to sleeping with a fashion model. They're neck and neck, actually. They're both amazing. But you have a million stories to share. You have a great delivery style, very easy to like and personable. And there's got to be, in this 2019, there's got to be room for you somewhere to broadcast. It might not be with a mainstream media outlet. There might not be room, like you

said, for a 69-year-old man to get a job. I know there's a lot of great 69-year-old, 70-year-old, I'm thinking of guys like Dave Hodge and stuff who should be on these mainstream media. Airwaves aren't for a variety of reasons. There's got to be something for you. It might be you rolling your own. You might need to start your own podcast and control your own brand and fate. It might be time for Peter, if you still have any cash left after Saratoga, to sort of invest in yourself

and just to start to do it and then get a buzz, get an audience, and then people, brands and companies will spend money to be aligned with you. And you know what Hamlet says, if it were done to our best, it would run quickly. Or Macbeth. I love a good Shakespeare reference. You just blew my mind with that one. And Peter, I don't think this is your last appearance on Toronto Mic'd,

because now that I know you're available, I'm going to be finding excuses to bring you back. Well, I enjoy this a lot, so. Thanks so much, man. Thanks so much. Does that really go an hour and a half? Well, I have an hour and 40 minutes on my little clock here. But after I press record stop,

and then I'm going to have to turn off the Periscope, I want to have a little chat with you as well so don't disappear too quickly and that brings us to the end of our 497th show you can follow me on Twitter I'm at Toronto Mike Peter is at Peter the Gross our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer

propertyinthesix.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U and Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all Friday

when my guest is Peter Sherman. And drink some goodness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold but the snow is cold

It warms me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green You've been under my skin