Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Raina Douris: Toronto Mike'd #108

Episode Date: January 28, 2015

Mike chats with Indie88 personality Raina about her years at Edge 102 and CBC Radio and everything you wanted to know about Indie88 but were afraid to ask.

Welcome to the 108th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com and joining me this week is Indie 88 radio personality, Reina. Hey, how's it going? You're like Madonna and Cher in that I don't need to use your last name, right? Just one name only. That's pretty cool. You're right, there's only one Reina.

Well, apparently. Now you're going to tell me about all the Reinas I should know about. There is another Reina who does, I think, traffic at Chorus. I hear every now and then somebody will be like, I just heard you doing traffic on the edge. I'm like, that's impossible. But as you get bigger and bigger, she'll have to change her name.

It would be like if there was an Oprah up and coming and like, oh, that person would have to change their name. There is an Oprah. That's true. Yeah, if my name was Oprah, I'd have to change it. So I think it's only fair. Yeah, well, you're the only Reina I know. With all due respect to the chorus traffic person

who might be fantastic, but you're the only one I know. And I was thinking, I know the last name is like Duras. Duras. Yeah. You can, you can say it. Is that good?

Even I'm not sure how to say it, which is why I avoid saying it on air. Cause the D-O-U-R could be like sour. Yeah. Theoretically. I've gotten Dury, like the French for mouse. Yeah.

Okay. So Duras. But you're, uh, Reina to me. That's cool. So thanks for coming out here. Uh,

you canceled on me this morning. So I woke up to a cancellation note and I was disappointed because since Indie88 launched, what was that like 18 months ago or something? Just about. Yeah. Over a year. It was August of 2014. No, 2013.

Right. The program director at that time, Adam Thompson, promised me he'd come in. And he goes, I'm going to bike over when the weather gets better. This is last winter. Okay. And I'm like, okay, fine. That's cool. And then the weather got better for many months of wonderful biking weather. And he kept making excuses. And then he's like, he's in Edmonton now. Is this right? He's just about to leave, but he hasn't left yet. He's about to go and then he's like he's in edmonton now is this right he's just about to leave but he hasn't left yet he's about to go so he's sort of winding down uh but he's he's a busy guy but is he still affiliated with you uh i mean he's he's hanging around till i

think end of next week but he's he's sort of it's sort of transference of power right now so who the heck is that transfer power? So he was the program director. Who's the power transferring to? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say who it is yet. No one listens to this podcast. Trust me. I do know that Mike Religa, who is our music director right now, is going to be taking part of it.

And the other person is a mystery, and you'll find out. Is it somebody I will have heard of? I'm not sure. She used to work in Halifax. Then the answer is no. And the only person I know from Halifax is Jonathan Torrens. Well, yeah.

It's not him. So I can narrow it down for you that much. Okay. So you mentioned the person with that last name that's hard to say. Say it again. Religa? Well, I found out.

Religa. He says Religa, but then he said it's technically pronounced Religa, but he tells people to say Riliga because that's what most people say anyway. I wish people would just ask people to pronounce it the proper way. Like, don't anglicize it for us. You know what I mean?

I think everyone at Indy should just go by their first name only. Yeah, that would work. But that title you gave, Regala? Riliga. Riliga. You gave, it's a hymn? Yeah. Music director. Wasn't that your title? It was at the beginning. You gave, it's a hymn? Yeah. Music director.

Wasn't that your title? It was at the beginning. Did they take it away from you? Well, they didn't take it away. It was at the very beginning, I was only on from four to eight, and I was also the music director, and the job was just so huge. So they basically gave me the option, they're like, you can become music director and really focus on that, or focus on your show. My hours got longer and it just made more sense for me.

You were like, when you have a GM slash coach and they're at some point, they're like, this isn't working. You can either be GM or coach. Yeah, you gotta focus. You gotta focus. Okay, good. I'm just glad they didn't take it from you because that would make me sad. Oh, no, no. It was a team decision. Okay, good. You didn't think it would be this hard hitting, right? You thought this would be a softball interview because I see you sweating already. Oh, I'm losing it. I need a glass of water. So you mentioned you're from, before we started recording, you mentioned you're from

Toronto, but you never made it this far west. Is that in the southwest? You probably went to Mississauga. I've definitely driven this far, I guess. I haven't really stopped over here. I've never taken the Queen streetcar this far west. What's the furthest west you've been?

Well, I lived in the Junction up until very recently. Now I live in Parkdale. What part of the Junction? You don't have to give me an address. Kill and Dundas area. Yeah.

I'm there every week because my son plays hockey at George Bell. And George Bell, you probably don't know, but it's that like, you know, you know where the Walmart is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's a Goodwill now, but it used to be like a giant wooden rocking chair on the top. They used to make furniture there and then it became a Goodwill.

That's called Riding Avenue. And if you kind of take that east, it's kind of like St. Clair and Keele. Okay, yeah, yeah. So I was right there. Just moved, I guess, a week and a half ago to Parkdale. So did you ever go to that new Target they built at the Stockyards? I never did. In fact, the weird thing about where I was living is I could see the Stockyards,

but I was over the railroad tracks. So to get there, it took me like a 20-minute walk, but I could see it from my door. Like I knew if I could just jump those tracks, I'd be there in two seconds. But you know, when I grew up, when I grew up, when I was growing up, that area stunk. Like it was the worst stench. Oh. Like that whole stockyards area.

Well, there's slaughterhouses right near there. There used to be like a whole bunch more, I think. Yeah. It just was the stinkiest part of the city. Yeah. It actually smells great now. If you're thinking of moving to the junction, up and coming area does not stink anymore. No, absolutely.

And I was talking to Colleen Rushholm recently and she says they've extended, they've made the junction bigger. Maybe it was like such a cool neighborhood for like artsy people. They just expanded the boundaries. So half the city is now the junction, right? I think it's definitely growing.

But it is, one neat thing about it is that it was dry up until the year 2000. Is that so? It's true. That's crazy factoid. But you grew up in Stouffville? That's right. I've been to Stouffville. Have you? Why?

I had to go to a business meeting with a guy who lives out there. So I've been there a few times. You know who lives there? Who? Jeff Merrick. He moved there. So I've been there a few times. You know who lives there? Jeff Merrick. He moved there. I think John Derringer used to live there at one point too. Do you know John Derringer?

I did know him when I worked at Q107. We did not. I knew who he was. Kind of say hi in the hall sort of thing, but nothing. So you can't pick up your phone now and get him on the line? I would not be able to do that, no. I got questions for him. Okay, well if I see, I'll let him know.

So, okay, let's, you mentioned Q107. So, did you start in radio at Chorus? Yes. Well, I started, I guess the first technically thing, have you ever heard of Indie Love Radio? No. It used to be an old online radio station. I did that.

Okay. For a little bit. I had a show there and then I started at Chorus interning. Did you always know you wanted to be an old online radio station. I did that for a little bit. I had a show there, and then I started at Chorus interning. Did you always know you wanted to be in radio? Like, was this one of your... I think I always knew I wanted to be on something. I think I wanted to be on air. I wanted to be on TV or on the radio.

When I was in high school, I was in grade 11 economics class, and I would always run my mouth on everything, and I was in grade 11 economics class and I would always run my mouth on everything and I was very loud. And one day, CBC, sounds like Canada, came in to do an interview with high school students about the Iraq war. And my economics teacher was like, you like to talk. Why don't you be one of the students I talk to?

So I went in and did that. And this is the second Iraq war because you're way too young for that first one. Yeah, exactly. I think it was like, oh gosh, 2002. And Andy Barry came in. Andy Barry. And we had our round table

discussion. And then at the end I went up to him like, Mr. Barry, Mr. Barry, I want to be on the radio or something. And he's like, well, keep on working. I don't even remember what he said. That's amazing but i remember being i don't remember the exact words i remember being inspired by it uh enough to keep going so i did well that's good andy berry uh you know i'm gonna do a few tangents but we'll always come back okay because i want to hear your whole story but uh did you have to clear this appearance with your pr at indie 88 uh we don't have technically a pr

no the answer is no right no okay okay only the only reason i ask is because mac galloway who took over for andy berry he's agreed to come on yeah but it's currently in uh cbc pr land and i had to talk to a pr rep and explain what we do like what we do like there's more than one of me what we do and and give examples like so of me. What we do and give examples. So it's like I'm going through this bureaucratic process to get Matt Galloway. I haven't really had that. With Ash from USS, I had to deal with a PR rep,

but it wasn't as formalized. Yeah, well, you're dealing with a government thing. I know, I know. It's my first CBC person, I guess. And I just wondered, has anyone else... I know of one person at chorus who asked pr and it was told not they couldn't come on i guess but i don't want to yeah i guess if you aren't sure like if you're not sort of designated as someone who can speak for the company then they

might have concerns i mean i understand covering your own ass like i totally get like it's like what i'm gonna clear this but like i had ell Elliot Friedman on last episode and he's with Rogers Hockey and they spent $5 billion. I don't think Elliot thought, I better clear this with Rogers. Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. I think with CBC, because they're so big... Lots of rules? Yeah, and I did work there as well for a bit. And there are things like you don't tweet about the CBC

because you never know who could read that and say, hey, that's a CBC employee saying this thing. And you're just thinking, oh, I'm tweeting something. So CBC gave you like Twitter rules, I guess social media rules or is it guidelines or something? I guess like just sort of common sense sort of rules. It wasn't anything harsh or strict. It was just, you know, to make sure that you're not putting the whole company in jeopardy because it is such a sensitive thing when it's tax money and

all these things, you know. No, and there's a lot of people who get off on hating the CBC. Like it's sort of like their job to hate the CBC. Yeah. Well, I mean, anything that you have taxed always going into people feel like they have the right to. Sure. And then there's this, and we're going to get back to your chorus, but you were at cbc so this is related but uh there's this silly notion that it's like liberal friendly i don't know if you know of course this perception that it's like it leans left i wouldn't necessarily say that i think but the perception exists sure the perception exists no i don't think it means no i don't think i mean i'm maybe i'm a little biased but i have the perception exists i don't believe it't think it means, no, I don't think, I mean, maybe I'm a little biased, but the perception exists.

I don't believe it's valid, but let's get back to you making your way to chorus and then we'll get you to CBC because I want to hear about that. That's cool. Well, I was going to Ryerson for radio and television arts

and I got an email about the Edge Intern Army. Of course. I think so many have begun and I went out and had the interview. I got in. I did it for a while. I remember now. So many have begun. And I went out and had the interview. I got in. I did it for a while.

I remember sitting... I think I thought I recognized you because going to Edgefest at Downsview Park, I'm pretty sure that was you at the station. Oh, yeah. I definitely did some live broadcasts from there when I was first starting. What happened was... So I interned with the intern army, but then I ended up also interning in their interactive and like digital department.

Oh yeah. Um, and around that time I had a lot of friends who were in bands and I'm like, there's nowhere for these people to get heard. Uh, so I started this thing called Indie Online, um, which was a way for bands to sign up and put their bands on the site and vote on them um and then so every week bookie would or every time there's a winner bookie would let me come on and talk about the winner for that month but then every week fred started to let me come on just to talk about what was on the website and i guess one day in there ross winters uh who was the pd at the time right was like why am I hearing you on the radio so much?

You never asked me if you could do that. And I was like, oh, no, I'm in so much trouble. And then he's like, but you sound pretty good. Do you want to try it and try like an overnight? And I was like, absolutely. So it sort of was a fluke that that ended up happening. But why didn't you let him know you were interested in being on the air? I think.

You just thought it would just happen. Well, I also just didn't... I didn't have a demo. I didn't know what... I guess I was nervous, to be honest. I think I was just scared. And I was working in digital, and I was like, maybe this will be what I do. Maybe this online stuff is what I want to do.

I liked that. Sure. But I always kind of knew that I wanted to do more. So it was lucky i i definitely should have asked but that's fantastic that you know at least because i've to be honest a lot of people who've been on the show have had less than nice things to say about ross winters to be quite honest with you but i'm happy to hear that story because uh he's he identified some talent and he gave you an opportunity to shine, which is good to hear.

Yeah. He was, you know, we had ups and downs like anybody does with a boss, but I think in the end, last time I saw him, we went out for a good coffee and it was nice. Cool.

Did, so this interactive digital part that you were involved in, was that the Alan Cross stuff or was that? No. Or is that John Sinden? Like any of these names? John Sinden. Tell me about John only because he got me a whole section

at a TFC match once. I love John Sinden. I remember this was actually I was going to say a minute ago when I was an intern just at the very beginning when I was an intern army member I remember sitting in a room and John was the head of promotions at that time and he gave this speech and he was like, you have to love this.

If you want to do this, you know, there's going to be like one or two of you are actually going to work in radio one day. You know, if you cut your arm, you bleed radio, like stuff like that. And I remember sitting there being like, I'm going to be that one. I know it. And that was like very inspiring for me. He stole that speech from Braveheart, you know. Just so you know. But yeah, he was there.

He, I guess, he was gone partway through when I was there. And then after that, yeah, the digital stuff, I was on the, so what I did was digital for The Edge, Huono 7, and AM640. And then Alan did the Chorus Interactive like sort of national stuff. Gotcha. Yeah. Cool. That stuff you did,

is it still a part of the Edge website or has it all been taken apart? You know, I'm not exactly sure how much it is. I feel like they still have,

they definitely still have like an indie online sort of component. I don't know if they call it that anymore, but I think they just, I think they're doing stuff. Did they give up on the website? Wink if that's true. I actually don't know. To be completely honest, I haven't looked at their website in a while. Okay, cool. And Fearless Fred, is he really fearless?

Well... He's got a few fears? I'm sure he's a couple. He was somebody who, like, I have to credit with so much. He was the first person who let me really go on all the time. And at a certain point, I was on a show every single day, from Monday to Friday at 6.50 doing the entertainment segment. So he basically took Mel and... Because you were Mel before Mel.

Is that basically what you're telling me? Kind of. I mean, it was very comparable, I guess, at the very beginning, what Mel and I were both doing of. I mean, it was very comparable, I guess, at the very beginning what Mel and I were both doing. And then once I was out of there, yeah, I think she kind of took over that part before they became co-hosts. So why did you leave Chorus?

Well, we don't have to go into detail. That's up to you. You know what? I think I was really young. I didn't take it maybe as seriously as I should have. And I think

that just like showed through in what I was doing. I think I didn't, I think by the time I left Chorus, I wasn't really sure where I was going.

I didn't really see a direction. I didn't know how I was going to grow there. And I was kind of thinking, you know, is this really

what I want to do? And I think that just showed through in my work and it ended up being like you know they it was not me saying i'm leaving is this a long way for you to tell me they fired you yeah they fired me but uh there's no by the way fyi uh no shame in being fired in radio it's like a badge of honor i don't think anyone sat there i mean the great aaron davis sat there and told me about how she was fired. So, I mean, if she can get fired, anyone can get fired.

It's true. I think, yeah, there's nobody in radio I know who hasn't been fired. No, I mean, good guys like, you know, Alan Cross,

who we'll talk about in a minute, like he was fired. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Actually, it's a good one. Who hasn't been fired? It's nobody.

Short list. So, don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed of being fired. Anyway, I was fired. You were fired. Okay, so you were let go and you ended up on CBC. Is that right?

Yeah, I took some time off. I drove across the states and then I came back. That's like a road movie right there. It was. It was great. It was a beautiful, beautiful road trip. I came back and I knew a couple people who were working at CBC Radio 3 one of them was Graham Wright from Tokyo Police Club

and he was like I think they might be looking for guest hosts so I wrote in to his boss because he was a guest host there and said hey this is who I am and I was at the time also doing a video series called Rain's World where I was just interviewing bands

I lived in a basement and i was just interviewing bands in it so it really was that's cool um but that was a web series yeah that was just a web series i had steam whistle giving us beer and we would just film it and uh and so i sent all that stuff to cbc let's give me an idea i gotta got to call Steam Whistle after this interview. There you go. And yeah, they were like, come in, try an audition and then I ended up

guest hosting. Their morning person, I think, was he in the mornings at the time? One of their regular personalities left for another job and I filled in for him

so I was doing pretty much full time on CBC3 for a while. And three is web only for those who don't know. Yeah, that's web only. And then I would do the guest hosting when Tom Power was away on CBC Radio 2 in the morning. Is he going to get the Q job?

I have no idea what's happening with that job. Do you want the Q job? I mean, I wouldn't say no to the Q job. You changed the name though. That's a huge thing to walk into right now. I think it's a pretty interesting situation. When you were at Edge,

so when you left Edge, what year was that? Taking you way back now, like probably three whole years ago. 2010, 2011. It must have been something like that. Did Chorus have any social media rules at the time? This is my latest fascination is companies and their Twitter rules.

I think there was no swearing. Really? You can't swear? Well, at the time. I don't know if it is still like that. Maybe. I know CBC didn't really like swearing either. Now I'm allowed to say whatever I want,

which Indy 80 is very nice about that well that's my thing let me just jump ahead and we'll come back but right now you just use your own common sense there's no rules for your tweeting pretty much because you're active on Twitter and interesting and fun on Twitter

there's a cute self-deprecating aspect to the tweets self-deprecating, that's a nice way to say it it's Rara Reina a nice way to say it. It's Rararena, by the way, if you'd like to follow me. R-A-H. R-A-R-A-R-A-N-A.

R-A-H, R-A-H, R-A-I-N-A. But yeah, I'm on there all the time. I think, I really think that having a, like Twitter and radio are such a beautiful match. They're both fast and like instant and you can, I think that they just tie into each other so nicely. I agree 100%. So I think that they just tie into each other so nicely i

agree a hundred percent so i think uh that background in digital like from chorus yeah so useful going into this job uh since then but um this job the indie one yeah well also in the cbc right because you're like a digital person because that's you're on radio three and uh yeah you're i mean indy's very webby we will get to that but um well i had a fantastic question for you about twitter and i can't oh yeah so i had a i had a guest on here who's on the radio every day on 10 10 ever heard of it absolutely which they don't call it that anymore uh but do you know i had only known her from twitter so yeah like the radio twitter i only knew her as a twitter handle like she's she's her twitter compliments. Really? Yeah, the radio Twitter. I only knew her as a Twitter handle. Like, her Twitter compliments her radio,

but for me, her radio complimented her Twitter. Well, I think it's really cool because as someone who works in radio, there's a lot of people across the country who I would just never know existed because if I don't hear them. So to be able to see their tweets, like somebody tweeting in Vancouver or Winnipeg or whatever,

these radio personalities. And it's really cool. You can actually have a network. And it tricks and tricks. I suppose it's not even a trick, but the fans feel far more connected to you. Like you seem more accessible. A fan,

somebody who just enjoys listening to you every, every evening can kind of tweet at you. You'll likely tweet back. And like, this is a whole new phenomenon. That's right. Like if you're on the radio, you can't have't have you know if somebody wants to talk to you you can't really talk to every single person uh you can't address every every request or every single thing so it's awesome

on twitter because you really can talk to anybody and will you reply to anyone if they're nice pretty much and sometimes if they're not nice. Is that right? Have you ever blocked anyone on Twitter? Maybe. Maybe. I can't even remember. I don't think so. I usually, because usually if somebody is being awful, I'd rather argue with them than block them. Well, I suppose no one's going to cross a line with you.

Like you're just such a pleasant person. Why would they do that? Oh, thank you so much. And if they do, let me know because I'll get Twitter Canada to kick them off of Twitter. Do you have that kind of pull? Just let me know. because I'll get Twitter Canada to kick them off of Twitter. Do you have that kind of pull? Just let me know. Can you get me verified? I don't know what's happening.

If I could get you verified, I'd get me verified. That's for sure. Absolutely. So tell me why you would leave CBC. Oh, well, that was actually a really, really hard decision. I think when I was growing up, CBC was like my dream. And I loved it there there i had no complaints uh but i was you know sitting at my desk one day and i got an email from adam thompson and it was at the same time basically i'd been doing the my regular cbc3 show um but because of the way things were because i just still apply for that job and i kind of knew i was gonna get it um but at the exact same work I just still apply for that job and I kind of knew I was going to get it

but at the exact same moment I had to apply for that Adam emailed me out of the blue and was like I want your demo I want your resume I want all this stuff and I was like okay and at first I'm like I'm not going to take this I don't know what this is going to be like

the CBC is a sure thing and then I kept talking with him. And then he told me what position it was for. It was like afternoon drive and music director. And I was like, that's huge. That is like a dream, right? And I remember thinking about it because on one hand, you've got the CBC.

It's like this national institution. And, you know, it seems very solid. And then on the other side, it's like, let's launch a new commercial radio station, 2014. And that seems insane. Um, I mean, it's amazing and exciting, but it's insane. Um, and I think I just couldn't turn down the idea of starting something new and just being there for the very beginning. Um, and it was really hard. Like if you call my mom and be like, mom, I just quit the CBC and she was like, what?

No. And I'm like, don't worry. Nobody quits the CBC. Don't worry. But yeah, it was, it was a really tough call.

So, so Indy 88 called and you accepted the charges essentially. Basically, yeah. The, I'm thinking like,

for you, you're right, it's a big risk, but like at this point in your career, this is the time for that kind of a risk, right? I might be wrong, but I don you, you're right, it's a big risk. But like at this point in your career, this is the time for that kind of a risk, right? I might be wrong, but I don't think you're saddled with like a monster mortgage and kids in school or whatever.

Exactly. And that was part of my decision too. I was like, when else can I just... I'm just glad I wasn't wrong with those guesses. Nope, you were absolutely right. I'm a renter with no children. So I don't... This is the time.

And this is music you enjoy anyways, naturally. So you have the passion. Which is amazingly lucky in radio. Yeah. To be able to actually. Because you could be in a country station or something. You never know, right? Although you might love country, but I'm taking another guess here.

It's not, you know, maybe I just haven't given it a chance yet. But somebody was trying to talk me into, who the hell was, I can't remember now. I think it was Colleen Rushholm actually was trying to talk me into country, but no, it's not sticking. It's not taking. Hasn't really gotten, I haven't really gotten it yet. Well, we don't have a, right? Toronto has no such station. There was one once, wasn't there? Kiss. Yeah, but that's a long time ago. Kiss

92.5, because my mom had a mug. C-I-S-S. Right? I've seen those mugs. Let me educate you, young grasshopper. My mom had a kiss. My mom loved New Country. It was the Garth Brooks fad. I blame Garth Brooks for all this.

Like, he's doing these hits, country crossover pop things. And Kiss 92.5 kind of comes out of that. And my mom's got the mug, and she's listening to this country music. I can't stand it, but it's happening. It was a big deal. And then one day, I guess guess it just flipped to KISS. Yeah. From CISS.

And then it went like top 40. Yeah, it was top 40. That's what I remember. It's probably Jack FM first. I'm probably, you know, at some point they all bleed into each other, but I'm pretty sure that might be the Jack signal. And then it became Kiss. I remember at some point when I was a kid.

See, I'm like dating. No, no, no. a kid I'm okay with this. I've earned every white hair in my head. This is fine. I remember listening to Kiss. It was like top 40. I remember waiting forever and ever for the songs I wanted so I could tape them. Of course.

I think I was one of the last age groups to do that. Is that pre-napster essentially like the pre-napster yeah that was i was maybe like 12 so yeah and then i think in high school is when napster happened but for uh for me it was i remember saying i remember that song blue by eiffel 65 um blue yeah of course that one i remember was like the song I couldn't get. And one day I would be like out at the mall and I'd hear it. I'd be like, damn, I missed it again.

You're just ahead of your time there. That's funny because today you'd be drowning in like every 12-inch remix and you'd just be drowning in blue. Oh, my gosh. As horrible as that sounds, it would be everywhere. So, okay. So, let's set the table here. Indie 88. It is a news station in the city.

We don't get news stations very often in this city. First of all, I like that term, set the table here. Yeah. I don't think I've ever used that. And I'm going to steal that from my show. Every time you use it, Toronto Mike taught me that term. TorontoMike.com. Beauty.

I love it. And people will tweet at me if you don't. If you end up saying set the table on the show and I get no credit, they're going to tweet at me and let me know and then I'll get your Twitter account cancelled. I do not want the wrath of Twitter. I wish I had some wrath. Okay, so

we had a station called CKLN at 88.1 Ryerson Station. You remember that from your Ryerson days. Well, interestingly, if you're a Ryerson student, you weren't necessarily going to be able to be on CKLN. It didn't really work that way. It was a community station. It wasn't for the students, which is kind of ironic

considering it had this big, huge radio and television program. We had Spirit Live, which was an online... I think they still have it. It might not be the same name, but it might be. It was an online radio station. So, no, I never actually even went into CKL. That's interesting.

Because CIUT, I remember University of Toronto students got on CIUT. Yeah, it was completely different. You know, I went to University of Toronto, so this is why we're better than you. But we don't have any radio broadcasting stream. We didn't have that at U of uh stream this is we didn't have that at u of t yeah yeah it's strange i don't know i don't know how you could have such a renowned radio and tv program and not have a real radio station you know whatever interesting okay so 88.1 is they got in trouble or violated some crtc thing or something because they got they got

they lost the stage they lost the the Yeah, from what I understand it was a record keeping thing and they weren't keeping the records properly. So this opened up a frequency and I guess there's a whole, you know, they do their thing of the different people try to get it in. The company that won it is, what's your

boss's name? What are they called? Central Ontario Broadcasting. Central Ontario Broadcasting. That's a very creative name. And they get, this is a new station. And as a fan of that genre, like I like the new rock stuff, I was very excited about Indie 88.

Sure. Because like all we had for that was 102.1, your former guys at the Edge. And it felt like they needed a kick in the pants, like some new kid in town to kind of wake them up and shake things around like we needed some competition there i was very excited so you are like a day one-er at indie 88 and as you mentioned you are music director and were you always like two to seven or did the shift change uh at the very beginning it was four to eight uh well at the the very beginning, that first month, we had

the test frequency, basically. The Rick Astley thing? Because then you had the soft launch. So we tested it for a week, just to test the frequency. But then a month after that, you have a month where you aren't bound by CRTC. We're going to get to this. The best month of radio ever.

It was fun. No commercials. you can play whatever you want there's no can't come rules uh not that i have a problem with can't come rules but it does make things a little bit more difficult uh to schedule um yeah it was the beginning was pretty pretty crazy i would be hosting throne of glories which i'm sure we'll get to in a second yeah absolutely but that was like who knows what time of day that would be hosting Throne of Glories, which I'm sure we'll get to in a second. Yeah, absolutely. But that was like, who knows what time of day that would be, right? And so I didn't actually settle into my schedule until September, so the month after that.

No, cool. I remember the soft launch very well. I was biking every day and I would bike to yours to 88.1. And I'm telling you, and I understand at some point ads had to show up. Okay, I understand the reality had to kick in at some point. But in fact, I almost wonder, because I get a lot of feedback on these stations. People think they're all program directors out there.

I wonder if this backfired in some way in that the pre-launch was such a magical time playing such different stuff. And it was just such a wide playlist. There was no ads, of course, and we could just tune in. And it was like, oh my God. And then you have your launch and then things kind of become more like structured to generate something called revenue yes well it's like the i guess the unfortunate truth that you have to have advertisements to continue to exist which i get that some people i think there are still some

people who listen who don't put that together even i feel like i didn't when i started radio i'm like what are all these stupid commercials and then i'm like one day it just clicked and i understood that they were absolutely necessary but that's why you went to the cbc because uh no ads just to get a little break you know but uh yeah no it was magical at the beginning that was a once in a career kind of opportunity to work for an entire month. Do you think people are... I know somebody. I'm going to name him. He helped me buy this equipment, which you have to promise to repeat what you told me before we started recording.

We'll do it later. Do it organically later. We'll pretend like it's coming up naturally. But my friend Andrew, I think he loved the soft launch and then he seemed disheartened by the actual station when it went live for real. Sure. Not because the ad showed up. We all know the ads have to show up.

He felt the playlist narrowed considerably and suddenly it became a lot like 102.1. This is his feedback. Well, I could say, I mean, what I would say is, you know, at the very beginning, we had a tiny signal, right? You might remember that we got the signal boost. Yes, I do. Yes. So we had this much bigger signal, which also means that you have a lot more people to appeal

to. And I think, you know, it does make it a little bit harder to start to play those really niche songs because you're looking at like, they are very niche for a a reason there are only a few people who are going to really like that um and at the beginning you know we were finding our way we were brand new um and just sort of seeing what people were responding to i got a quote andrew since i already brought him up i got a quote i actually took down his quote so here he he says, why did Indy 88 decide to go the safe route when programming their station instead of doing something innovative?

So that's a direct quote. A direct quote. Correct. Now, I have personally, I've been thinking a lot about this and I wrote a quote from me. I wrote this. I'm off the cuff here in Google documents.

I wrote, it is difficult to find the balance between revenue and innovation. So where is that? Well, I think, you know, we are still so new that I honestly think sometimes we're still finding it. I think, you know, we do have a lot of those choose the music surveys. We have listener feedback that we listen to all the time. So we do try to stay, stay you know it's not just us sitting there looking at charts and you know picking the songs that are that are getting the most spins elsewhere in the country or whatever it's there's a lot of organic growth there's a

lot of like seeing what people are actually listening to there's looking online there's all of these things that um that we do to find music to to decide what we're going to play. But yeah, I think honestly, that's probably something we're still figuring out is where do we draw that line? Because you're right. Here's how I see it. You can go be that station we all want you to be. I think we all want you to be this spirit of radio,

like CFNY in like 1985 or something like that. David Marsden was on recently. So this is all very fresh in my head. We talked a lot about this and literally like he played what he wanted and he told the DJs to play what you want. You don't get to play what you want. I can make some choices about what I mean. We all bring things to the table when it comes to music.

But you're right on a regular on a normal day. It's scheduled. But it's literally I'm going to guess it's you're right. On a regular, on a normal day, it's scheduled. Like it's literally, I'm going to guess it's literally cued into like a piece of software, right? Like it's, I've, every time I've seen a radio show produced,

like literally this is the next song coming up. Here's how long it is. And they might tell you how to hit the post or something like some detail about like when the words kick in or whatever it's called, but it's all, it's all preloaded before your show even begins. These are the songs that will play during your show. And I mean, if I have something I want to talk about

and it has something to do with a specific song, I can ask to, I can like move things around. We do things like Crackle and Pop where Bookie plays vinyl. I've got something called Your First Listen where we play like a song that just came out. So there are things where we do, it's not just straight playlist all the time. are things where we do uh it's not just straight playlist all the time um so yeah i mean i think it is it is interesting because there it's so much easier to get feedback from people all the time

now with the internet and like non-stop constant feedback which is a really cool thing um but i mean we're all just still adapting to that. What is it? That's the best thing and that's the worst thing. Right, because I mean, everybody wants it to be their iPod. Yeah. You know, and that makes sense. I, you know, there's a lot of time where I listen to my iPod. I'm not always listening to the radio station

because sometimes I want to hear something that I want to hear right now. But, you know, we try to make as many people happy as we can while still trying to push boundaries. That's a good answer. Did you rehearse that on your way here? No, I didn't. Very good. I kind of feel for you in the sense, and I don't want to sound like I'm an indie idiot apologist or whatever, because, you know, I have no skin in the game. I listen to you guys. I listen to 102.1 sometimes. I'm all over the place. But I do think that you guys do a pretty good job. When you have to do a CanCon, I noticed

you'll play like a Joel Plaskett tune or a rural Alberta advantage, which is hard to say. Can you say it for me? Rural Alberta advantage. But half the time, I just say rural Alberta advantage. It's like a 30 rock with the rural juror. Say that one for me.

Rural juror. That's good. That's why you you are the professional i have a lot of practice with this it's amazing but and you know the uh what are they called like took down the other guys with the the sailing guys strombellas and stuff like that like yeah well i think i think what one of the reasons that i think this station was people wanted it at the beginning especially you know Toronto's such a vibrant music scene and it didn't feel like maybe a lot of those acts that were getting people loved were getting radio play in their old city and I think that was something that was really I know what that was a very important thing to me coming into it uh I know that was part of the reason that Adam talked to me in the first

place, you know, cause I, I really care about local stuff. Um, right. And I think that's a big commitment that we've made is, is to start,

is to really give love to those local band. And the other guys, the, the big chorus guys at 102.1, they seem to be, they seem to have narrowed their playlist to a harder sound. Is that at the time anyways? Like I,

maybe it's, I think they might've, uh time anyways. I think when you guys showed up, they might have changed a bit. I noticed, for example, they would never play a Clash tune or anything like that when you guys showed up. And you guys would start playing a Clash tune. I feel like I played Rock the Casper when I was at the edge. You think so? Maybe. That might be the only one once in a while. You guys really forgot, you guys. 102.1 seemed to abandon everything pre-90s. It just didn't happen. It seemed like a lot of the new rock stuff,

like the Smiths, for example, or how soon is, yeah, how soon is now, but not New Order. Who are the guys who became New Order? Joy Division. Yeah, Joy Division. All that stuff disappeared completely, but you guys seemed to play a little bit of that

yeah I think one of our first posters said playing the underplayed something like that um how did it say anyway something to that effect

sure I think you know there were a lot of bands that people wanted to hear that maybe weren't they weren't hearing on the radio

July Talk I remember that was like one of the first five songs because I went number three yeah number three absolutely and you know, it's been really cool because Toronto just has so much good stuff, like always. Huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like they spell it funny, right? This is...

A-L-V-V-A-Y-S. You know what's amazing is we've been playing that song for months and I still, every now and then, will say always by accident on air okay like how am I still making this mistake um yeah that's a good lesson in being googleable if you're starting a band you know I think the first thing I think before a band starts now they go make sure they can get the domain name first like that would be like smart right and then you get bands like Lincoln Park for example where they'll change the spelling if they have to like lincoln park do you remember the band women from calgary no okay that was an ungoogleable completely ungoogleable band i like fucked up like when i fucked up it's very googleable but they i mean they clearly were they're not going to find this

main you know although i hear this i'm listening i'm watching the all-star it was terrible the all-star game the hockey all-Star game was terrible, okay? Okay. But nothing was on and I was watching a little bit of it because my kid was into it. They're promoting Schitt's Creek. Like, they're just talking about Schitt's Creek. Like, it's like, no, like, this is just hockey commenters. Hey, Schitt's Creek is on tomorrow.

Well, apparently, I was listening to an interview with Eugene Levy about that. I know this might be too much of a tangent, but he was talking about that name and how to get the CBC to be okay with it. They had to go and find examples in phone books of people with the last name Shit, spelled S-C-H-I-T-T, and be like, it's a name. You can't say it's swearing.

If the CBC approved Schitt's Creek, they can approve Matt Galloway on my podcast. Yeah. Am I right? His name is totally non-revealed at all. No, come on. I just want to make sure Matt comes in here. I got questions for him too.

That would be cool. I'm a fan of Matt Galloway. He, worthy successor to the great Andy Berry. Like that's a show. That's like a juggernaut, man. And you could have messed that up, but no, they did a good job. Big shoes to fill.

That would have been, but he did, he's done a great job. For sure. Speaking would have been, but he did, he's done a great job. For sure. Speaking of tangents, quickly, your bio says you once won money on a game show.

It's true. What game show? Cash Cab. Oh my gosh. I know this guy, Adam Groh. Yeah. Yeah,

I know this guy. It was in like the first season, I think episode 22. I don't, I know that because I had to buy it on iTunes

because I could show my mom. They must, you must hear from people every time they rerun your episode, right? Because it reruns all the time. Yeah. Well, it's weird because I had to buy it on iTunes because I could show my mom you must hear from people every time they rerun your episode because it reruns all the time it's weird because I look different I have long brown hair but my name is still Reina so that's pretty

it's like we said, Madonna, Cher, Oprah and Reina so every now and then I'll get a tweet from someone being like, did I just see you on Cash Cab? and it's like, yes you did my buddy who's normally my normal co-host, who hasn't been in in months actually because he's always traveling,

but he was on Cash Cab in Vancouver of all places. Like they traveled with the cab or something. Oh, really? Like he was in Vancouver on some trip and he ended up on Cash Cab and it comes on all the time and he hears about it every time. So how much cash did you win? We won 475 bucks.

That's real money. Yeah, it was pretty great. I mean, considering we had no idea what we were going to do that day, I think in that episode, I actually yell, I've always wanted to be on a game show and I get so excited.

Now I got to look for this episode. That's cool. That's very cool. Do you remember any of the questions you got? Oh, man. As if she doesn't remember all of them. I screwed up a couple of them. But I know the last one, the answer was quasar.

And I didn't know. We used all our lifelines already, except for the last one. What is quasar? Okay, is that like a science question? I wish I remembered what the question was. Because if this ever is asked me again, I will. It was basically, the question was, what's a quasar? It was describing it and then saying, what is that called?

But it was my dad's birthday. And was our call a friend, but I had called him beforehand. You call the person, right? So they know that the call is coming. And I had to tell my dad, I couldn't tell him any details. I was just like, I'm going to call you, answer the phone. And he's like, what's wrong? And I'm like, I can't tell you. And he's like, he thinks I'm like kidnapped or something.

And I had to call him and then ask him a question. And it was his birthday and he got it right and it was beautiful. That is beautiful. Very good. What does Indie 88 and I know the answer but I want to just point it out that I think a lot of people thought the Indie in Indie 88 was like the music you were going to play

like you were going to play Indie only but of course you don't play Indie only. You're playing lots of big artists. Well we're independently owned and operated's what the indie so the indie means you're not essentially that means we're not bell rogers chorus or cbc like we're the we're a smaller outfit yeah we're a family-run business the owner president of central ontario broadcasting doug bingley awesome guy he actually soundproofed our studio with his hands like he came in and did it like he's it's awesome that's the kind of card and stuff you put on the wall to absorb the uh soundproofed our studio with his hands. Like he came in and did it. It's awesome.

That's the kind of indie music. Like that egg carton stuff you put on the wall to absorb the sound waves and stuff? Yeah. He put that up. He put it up. So how many stations does he own? Three. So there's Rock 95 and Cool FM,

and they're both in Barrie. And then he owns Indie 88 here. Cool. So Indie 88 is, just to show you're the little guy, I guess to contrast with the 102.1 guys we're the big guys and you don't necessarily play indie like some dummies thought at the beginning

but I never thought that by the way and again you know the term indie as far as a music genre goes at this point it's sort of a weird thing but doesn't that just mean you're not with Sony yeah but I mean now every major label has a sort of indie arm and indie labels. There's a million indie labels now.

I'm just saying, that it's more of an aesthetic, I think, then the literally independent label. For sure. So you mentioned your, uh, the owner of your station actually literally building stuff in the studio.

So tell me about the studio. So this is in Liberty Village. That's right. And it's a house. Yeah, it was, I guess, from what I've heard, it was owned by a photographer. So the downstairs was sort of her workshop and the upstairs she lived in. And so upstairs, you know, we've got a bathroom with a shower in it. And I think her bedroom is our boardroom.

And the kitchen island is the table that we have all our broadcasting gear on. So we've moved everything around, but it still was... Can I get into this place? Like, can I come by and see this place? Absolutely. You can come for a tour anytime. Yeah. Can we go right now after this recording?

Right this second? I'm going to wait till... I'm going to pull an Adam Thompson on you. I'm going to wait until it warms up and bike over. There you go. Absolutely. It's not yellow by any chance. It's not a little yellow house. No, but I know the little yellow house you're referring to.

Just making sure it's not a yellow house. Okay, great. The studio, how would it compare to this one, for example? Well, this one is beautiful. Thank you. That's all I was looking for. uh we have three microphones or four microphones instead of three but you know these ones are absolutely gorgeous so it's hard to compare you are saying all the right things reina but yeah it's uh i guess it's cute it like it doesn't look like a big huge it's not like a huge studio uh doesn't look like it from the outside but once you're in there it's cute. It doesn't look like a big, huge... It's not like a huge studio.

It doesn't look like it from the outside. But once you're in there, it's so comfortable. I find... But how big is the board? So this is a little board. It's like $120 or something. But what is yours? I know this is a podcast.

People can't see this. It's hard to explain by talking. But I guess it maybe is like two or three times the size of that. So it's like just more like stuff going on. But you're running off a laptop. Am I right? Like you'd be running off like a Mac or something? No, we've got two PCs and then like four screens

and a bunch of keyboards. I feel like the keyboards are multiplying. But yeah, we've got a whole bunch of stuff going on. I feel, I think sometimes I think about what it would be like because I'm obviously pretty young in this business, but thinking about what it would be like to have to put in carts or have to change records. And I think about how that would be so hard.

But then I look at what we're doing and it's like, I've got four screens I'm looking at and the TV out there telling telling me the news non-stop and it's just a different kind of overwhelming and no it sounds like it's uh it fits the vibe of the station like independent indie like it just feels very like you don't want to be big and corporate in that environment yeah i mean it's we've got a station dog oh that hangs out a couple days a week. That's cool. I usually wear slippers when I'm on the radio. Does anyone use that shower?

No, nobody has used the shower. But does it work? Is it functional? I've heard that it is leaky and that's why no one uses it. It has the most beautiful shower head. I've been scheming on how I can get it home. It's like one of those big rain shower ones, but so far I haven't been able to smuggle it out. Let me know if anyone ever gets the courage to take a shower.

I feel like someone left it on once and that's why we know it's leaky. And so nobody... Yeah, that's dangerous. That sounds like a hazard. We don't want to keep that water away from all the circuits. And you did speak to this,

but I guess I wonder, in all all honesty how much input you have with regards to the playlist like i mean if you hear of a new track somewhere you can bring it to like a board meeting or something you have like meetings you're like meetings you play tunes and you talk about it exactly and some well things get added that playlist that maybe haven't gone through some uh i used to hear stories how things were added to 102.1 and there was like there was like it just seemed really mechanical. Things have to pass through these surveys and pass certain... I think it really depends on what...

Likeness factors? Yeah, it's a gut feeling thing. There's all sorts of different things that go into it. I think because of the nature of our station, there are a lot of bands that maybe have not been played anywhere else. You're going to have things like Always, stuff like that, where we're just thinking,

hey, this sounds really good. I think people are going to like this. They're getting buzz around the city. Let's go for it. But who are you not playing that you think you should be playing? That's a tough question. You, Raina, not you, Indie88.

No, no, totally. I think the interesting thing right now, there's a lot question. You Reina, not you Indie88. No, no, totally. I think the interesting thing right now, there's a lot of music that's the Toronto scene. There's a lot of loud stuff, like noisier things, experimental stuff that is really, really buzzy, but it's kind of harder to bring in to a playlist, right? Like is it missing like a melody?

You don't have that hook? Sometimes it's missing that accessibility. And that can be tricky. Again, that's like finding that line between innovation and revenue. And so you're wondering will this turn people off completely? Will they

not be into it? Is this something... I don't know. It's tough. Well, it's not a science, right? Like it's a lot, it's like a art. It is an art. It's an art. And so it's hard to quantify and define. Hockey right now is going through this analytics rage

and they're trying to like, everything's analytics. And at some point it's going to, the pendulum has to swing back and take into account, like, you know, analytics are important, but this is just still a non-measurable factor here. Absolutely. It's what wins hockey games. Exactly.

The, on this note of what you play, Sam Smith gets a lot of, I remember hearing, stay with me and it's heyday. This is, I guess, last summer, a lot on your station. And I used to say out loud to myself, and I might be wrong. I want you to tell me I'm wrong,

but why is Indie 88 playing Stay With Me when five other stations are playing Stay With Me? It felt like that would be a song maybe when it blew up, you would stop playing and play something else

because everyone's playing it. Well, I think, you know, we started playing that really early on with Stay With Me. And once it started doing well, you want to stay on something, right? Because it's doing well.

But you stay on it because the only way you're going to grow your base of listeners is by sort of playing that stuff. Because that's sort of a mainstream song, very accessible. Like everyone's grandma and their brother likes that tune or whatever. So you got to play some of that to kind of broaden your audience sure i mean you know if somebody's listening to stay with me and then some cool track from some toronto band they'd never heard of comes on next then great that that band just got a new listener who maybe wouldn't have heard them before no that's true and i always like i said i didn't like the fact you're playing stay with me but i'm willing to admit there's there might be a method

to the madness that i'm just not seeing. For sure. And I mean, as well, we do have our Choose the Music surveys. People like stuff. It stays on there. At the time, Stay With Me was a big hit. I was tweeting about the fact

it was ripping off Tom Petty's, well, back then. Oh, that's such a bit, that's been a huge thing this week. I can link you to it. It's like, the good thing about Twitter is there's timestamps and stuff.

Right. So I guess it was July. Yeah. I mean, it was obvious because then I had my, my daughter was in to stay with me and I played her won't back down. And then my, and I even tweeted after that and said like,

my daughter now agrees that she heard it. And I think everyone who knew won't back down, heard it in stay with me. It's not like, I think everyone heard it. Yeah. You heard it, right?

Well, I think at first I, I did as soon as you, as soon as anyone anyone even brings it up, you hear it immediately. I don't think I put it together myself at first. But you're too young. Because I had that on cassette. I knew that song. Sure, but that's like classic rock to you.

To me, that's my high school tunes. Right, for sure. You know what I mean? It's a little different. Well, he got his money. Yeah, he did. That's why I did hear that.

And, uh, you know, it just, it's to me, it's the same, uh, it's the same song.

It is very similar. It's actually a video that somebody posted on YouTube. I think. Oh, I saw it because they take one. Yeah. And then you're like, Oh,

it really is the same. Who are you currently playing on Indie 88 that you don't think, that Raina doesn't think we should be playing? They should be playing. I think we should be playing all the songs that we are playing. No. I have to turn off your microphone now. Because you must play something and smile and talk it up.

And then when it's playing, you're like, I don't like this. That are just like personal. Yeah, no, this is a personal thing. You can't like everything you play oh well you know i've never been a big pearl jam fan i don't know if that's gonna get me in trouble no i mean it's fine i'm a big pearl jam fan but i get that people love that's it like i think that's one thing because there will definitely be times where so what don't you like about pearl jam i don't know i you know i don't like dave matthews band and then some people like i can't believe you i don't love d about Pearl Jam? I don't know. I don't like Dave Matthews Band. And then some people are like, I can't believe you don't like Dave Matthews Band. I don't love Dave Matthews Band either.

There, you found some common ground. I honestly, I think there are some songs by Pearl Jam that I liked from like Versus and Yeah, Versus and Ten and Vitalogy. I know those first three. I'm not a huge, you know, and like what that song Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder. But it's a cover. I know, but it's his voice sometimes i'm just like see i really like that cover that's like like an unknown canadian artist

who wrote that original tune whose name i can never remember but hard sun i really like um but yeah that i think you know that was i think what i think in my edge days i heard a lot of pearl jam and i i was sometimes i don't know what it is about his voice sometimes it just grates on me but other than that I'm disappointed but it's such a subjective thing man I actually like our music which is the weird part I think that sometimes

you work at a station where you'll love some of the songs you'll hate some of the songs you say you love all of them but I actually love the music we play because I am fortunate enough to work at a place where it's a lot of the stuff that i would listen to anyway so that's just very lucky because it hasn't gone old country yet not yet we haven't switched over no garth

brooks on there yet oh good hey what happened to adam thompson like uh i think did we talk about this on here i can't remember now that's how pleasant this discussion has been did we talk about this on air? I can't even remember now. That's how pleasant this discussion has been. Did we talk about Adam Thompson was supposed to come in and he... Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, he was on air? Okay, yeah. He's a busy dude. Okay, so he quit Indy 88.

He's going to Edmonton. But to work at a chorus station. Is it a chorus station? I think it is. Why do I think it is? I don't remember. I remember Sonica. I went to Edmonton. I had to go because it was Of course. I think it is. Why do I think it is? I don't. Okay. But Sonic. I remember Sonic. I went to Edmonton.

I had to go because it was a wedding. But yeah, they love USS there. That's like the big band in Edmonton. And they were like Sonic Fest with the highlight. The big band was Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. Yeah. They get a lot of love out there. Yeah.

It's like per capita. That's like their biggest place. Yeah. Also from Stouffville. Yeah. Oh, you know what? Shit. You know what? Yeah. It's like Jeff Mer that's like their their biggest uh place yeah also from stovill yeah oh you know what shit you know what yeah i was like jeff merckx from stovill yes they're from stovill and i saw them with my my son's first concert in markham oh really it's like a soft seated new theater in markham i like and they were like the first rock band to play it or something no way so that's my connection to that area york region or whatever so adam thompson

just found a better opportunity he was the music director at sonic um before he came to indie and he got the program director the director job there and his family lives out there and you should have just started with that because everyone's like oh i get it why don't you just say oh his family's out there he's like yeah his family's out there that's it like doesn't matter now because it's like that's family reasons of course he's got to go to edmonton yeah i think you know what he he's been the most dedicated person i think i've ever worked with uh it's been like he's worked so hard and uh i was obviously sad to see him go i think we all are sad to see him go but uh it makes sense i don't think I could be apart from everybody I knew for that long.

And now that we've been chatting it up for a good hour now, I feel like we have a rapport. And you can tell me now the name of that new person you said. I can't. I can't. I don't want to. I can't give anything away. I'm not sure. How long have you known about this? Like a couple of days.

When is it being announced? I'm guessing it'll be announced either end of this week or next, probably. And this person will... Is this person coming from another station in the GTA? No, she's from out east. Oh, yeah. Halifax. That's right.

It's all coming back to me now. Oh, yeah. She's great. It's going to be awesome. Nothing to worry about. India's in good hands. Is this for sure happening? What do you mean? Like, is this person maybe... She's for sure happy. Okay to be awesome. Nothing to worry about. Indy is in good hands. Is this for sure happening? What do you mean?

Like, is this person maybe... She's for sure happening. Okay, then you can say it. To me, the only reason not to say the name is because that might not happen and then she jeopardizes wherever she is now, wherever she's leaving. I cannot do it.

All right. You know, you'd say a name, I wouldn't have a clue who it was anyway. So, that's fair. So, one of the fellow CFN wires who came over to indy is a bookie yes who i now hear because i bike ride at noon to one and yes i'm hearing bookie and it's great it's so great we're so lucky to have that guy he it's i still i feel like i still learn so much about music from him every day.

And it's unreal. That's what I like about him because he doesn't just say, here's the song coming up, but he tells you something. And more often than not, it's something you didn't know. Like, I just like, that's what I want. That's what I want in my music,

like a musical tour guide. I don't want just a talkie. I don't even need you to vamp about like, I don't know, the latest news or the Oscars or who is nominated for this or what, who wore what on the red carpet last night. So I don't care about that stuff. I like to hear stuff about the music you're playing that I already know.

Noted. Thank you. And Bookie does a great job on that. Uh, Bookie of course was also just like yourself with ceremoniously, uh, well, you were cast away from,

uh, see, see if you were cast away from CFNY. Bookie was let go as well after many, many years of good service. That's true. He was like the last link to the good old days. Yes, yep. But I think he's found a really good home with us. But he was doing, this is a new time slot for him, right?

Because it used to be Carlin. Am I right? Yeah, Carlin was, it was Carlin and Lorianne did. Who went to The Rock. Yeah, she's in Oshawa. Yes. Yes, doing middays there

and music directing there. She, because I like her, I was doing a Martin Streak retrospective thing. Yeah. And she contributed to it. She was very nice. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. doing a Martin Streak retrospective. Yeah. And she contributed to it. She was very nice. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

For sure. The bookie signing was a big deal to get that voice because he's got this like authoritative voice in Toronto New Rock and I'm glad to see him in the new shift and stuff. It makes you feel so safe when you're listening to you. You're like, oh, you're having good hands. Like I did everything. This guy's going to guide me through this. Warm cup of cocoa. And can you tell me now the current lineup at the Indy 88?

Like the, like, yeah, like maybe start with mornings. In mornings, we've got the morning after with Brian, Matt and Candice. And they're good people. They're all lovely people. But would you say that if they weren't? Like, don't you have to say that? Because they're going to find out what you said about them. Technically, I have to say, but they are actually really great.

That's one thing we're very, we're like very fortunate. there's no uh there's no huge egos no assholes there's no uh everyone's really nice everybody wants to be there you know i think everyone's very excited about the station so everyone wants to work together and so you were never in a meeting where somebody just floated the idea of uh bringing dean blendell into due mornings That never happened, no. Wasn't even considered. Is it because you didn't think you could afford him? I'm not sure. I wasn't, to be fair, I wasn't in those meetings at the very beginning.

But I'm pretty sure that wasn't a thing. Because the news, the big news in the Toronto radio scene is he's going to the Fan 590. That's correct. But I was always, you know, he had this kind of built in, although it's, to me, it would have been a terrible move for you guys

because you've built this, you spent all this money and effort to kind of build you up as this like indie, cool indie station and I think if you just put a sledgehammer like

Dean Blundell in the mix, you blow it all up. We want it to be our own thing. Yeah. And I think we wanted, that meant having a distinct voice. Like you don't have the frat boy guy in there doing his...

We try to, you know, I think for us, there was like a lot of focus on music and the sort of frat boy thing doesn't really fit with our image. But I think it was also, yeah, you know, we wanted to have our distinct voice. It was different from the competition

and just have something a little bit different. Because I'm going to assume that you guys are trying to, basically your job is to kind of like slice off, get a slice of this Edge 102 pie. This is a heritage station that's been there forever. Like as far as, oh, my whole life. I don't remember a time where they weren't doing like new rock stuff. Yep.

So what is it like? Like just tell me what it's like for a little upstart like you guys in a house, you know, with a leaky bathroom upstairs, a leaky shower. Like, what is it like to go up against this big conglomerate? Well, I think in a way it's sort of freeing because you kind of have nothing to lose at the beginning. I mean, you have money to lose, but I mean... What's money?

beginning uh i mean you have money to lose but that but i mean what's money you you kind of can experiment because you're not the big guy because you're the underdog yeah exactly um the scrappy underdog yeah and you kind of have that like underground underdog sort of um people people like an underdog but i think also like the competition is good. I think that having, what is it, a rising tide raises all boats? That's right. The competition just makes us all actually better stations. And I think that is cool because I think Toronto, now you've got these two rock stations instead of where there's just one. And we're both trying to be really good.

And that is good for everybody. It's good for us because it makes us want to be better, makes them want to be better, and makes people actually listen to the radio more maybe, hopefully. You and Bookie have this vantage point where you've been there and then now you're here. So my question is, how does the inner workings of the station at 88.1 compared to 102.1?

We're just a lot smaller, right? You're nimble. That's it, right? I think if we came up with an idea, easy to sort of do it. You don't have to go through different layers of a big company. And that's just sort of the nature of a big company.

We are. Nimble is a great way to put it. You know what? Because I work for a smaller software company. And the line I heard from my boss once was, if we're not small and nimble, we're just small. And it's like, that's resonating with me. Yeah. And I can't take credit for that one. I stole it from him. But if you know, it's like you guys are like, if you're not small and nimble, you're just small. No, nimble is a perfect, perfect word for it.

Almost as good as setting the table. Yes. I've given you two things. You know, it was worth this trip over here was worth it. I'm just writing them down in my mind diary. You can listen back and then you can write it down. Only a couple more. I know I tried to make this an hour and I'm stealing you for a little bit extra.

You were nominated. You were nominated for a prestigious award. Do you know this? Is it prestigious? I'm not sure, but now magazine, I guess this is the now magazine. It was a best Toronto radio personality.

That's correct. I actually won it. You know what? I shouldn't look kind of a researcher. Like do I have employed here? Don't worry about it. I think I, who are you going against

uh oh it was crazy it was um i remember seeing i think i saw the list of nominees and i actually couldn't believe i didn't even know until someone else told me on twitter and it was uh mac allaway carol off wow you beat carol off Which blows my mind. Yeah, she's amazing. Gian Gomeschi. So that's how old this award is. Well, I mean, the voting was all summer, I think. Who else was on there? There was somebody else who was so huge that I was completely blown away. Did you ever meet Gian Gomeschi?

Yeah, I met him like the odd time, just in passing, but that's all. Wink if he ever tried anything. No winking, people. No winking. No winking. But what was I going to say? Yeah, anyway, it was an insane. No, that is a heavy duty.

Huge. Yeah, very talented group of people. And what I wanted, I was going to complete this. I kind of just saw it and I was like, this is so nice that I would be on this list. I'll never win this. I'm going to not think about it. And then it happened. Adam took me out for a drink I thought he was like can you go out for a drink on Friday and I'm like oh crap I'm getting fired yeah I was so worried like no

I was so worried he messaged he emailed me about it and I came in and I was like really nervous he's like what's wrong and I was like I don't know man I just you sent me that email and I'm just kind of worried and he's like don't worry i can't tell you what it is we have nothing to worry about and then he took me out and told me and i actually could not believe it so it was pretty amazing did you get like a plaque or something i did is it in your like it's sitting on my it's sitting at my desk at work i mean that's cool i mean that's a huge competition and you won it and uh you should be proud it was very nice i mean especially as such a young i'm young and it's a new station and so it's pretty it's pretty cool very good

and uh the throne of glory you mentioned it earlier but i actually enjoy the throne of glory i want to say i thought it was a great little thing you were doing there i kept waiting for my call like mike trono michael do his throne was waiting. We always have, like, we've got this sort of, I think all of us want to bring it back eventually. Well, that's my question, is what happened to the Throne of Glory? Well, it was a lot of work. I think it was, first of all. That's the wrong answer.

It was at the time when we were sort of getting ourselves, once we had our regular schedule in and we were trying to set everything else up, the throne of glory was, like, it just didn't really make sense to keep it going at that point. Cause we're like, you know,

trying to make sure all of our scheduling is right and can't go on. And when you have a playlist with somebody who's like, these are the songs I want to hear. And then you have to figure out the can con in that playlist or, you know, all those things, it makes it a little bit more challenging. I think we can lose the CanCon thing now.

You don't want to lose it? Wouldn't we still be playing that sailing tune by Strombellas and we'd still be playing USS? I know it can be frustrating sometimes, but I really think it is

important that we have cancon i think that so many uh bands here have gotten exposure because of it and i know that there are lots of arguments to made for and against but i i think it's a good thing it lets you throw some april wine in the mix now and then for the right reason it's a little more challenging if you're doing a classic rock station yeah yeah it's all guess who let's a little more challenging if you're doing a classic rock station. Yeah, yeah. It's all guess who. It's only so many times you want to hear Triumph. That's right.

Or speaking of Reino, Reino by, what's the, crap, this is going to kill me. The band out west, this is going to suck. They had a song called Reino. Reino? Yeah, you know what? Can we Google it quick?

Sure, yeah. I'll do it. I want to know what this is. Here, vamp or whatever. Tell me something. Tell you something. Oh, God. I've had a long day of working already. Come on, you're the professional here.

Well, I worked all day today. I feel like sometimes at the end of the day... Chilliwack. Ah, there you go. I'm sorry. I just was going to kill me if I couldn't recall that name. Chilliwack. Ah, there you go. I'm sorry. I just was going to kill me if I couldn't work out that name. Uh, Chilliwack, a great CanCon. Yes. We played a lot of that at Q107. I remember. You want a Zeppelin? Uh, okay. You know what? You were a fantastic. Uh, I'm not sure like Andrew's going to be satisfied with the whole, like, why aren't you more innovative and

like broadening the playlist and playing different things? And then I asked him, I actually asked him, like, what do you want to hear that you're not hearing? He doesn't have an answer to that question. So he wants you to tell him what he should be listening to. Okay. But it should be different than what he can hear at 102.1. I feel he thinks it's too much overlap.

But, I mean, you're both playing new rock and stuff. It's going to happen. Come on. For sure. And I think, I totally get playing new rock and stuff. It's going to happen. Come on. For sure. And I think, I think I totally get that. I think, um, it's again, it's a fine balance. And that's my line,

Reena. I'll text it to you. So you have it. And, uh, you know, we're, you have to remember we are still new,

so we're still figuring it all out. The new VR was called the new VR for like 10 years. Oh my God, yeah. How long are you going to be new for? Only a year and a bit. Okay, I think you get a year. It's the old indie. Can you get Bookie to come on Toronto Mic?

I'll see what I can do. Will you though? I'll try. Bookie. You take over for him. You literally will pass in the hallways or something, right? Doesn't he take you to... You're like two to seven and he goes till two.

Is that right? He goes, yeah, 10 to two and I'm two to seven. Yeah. Like every day, you got to do Trotter Mike. Just do it every day. And eventually it'll be like, you won't even know it's not his idea. Just slowly, subliminally message. Yeah.

Leave weird post-its around the studio. Do you play any Lowest of the low at Indie 88? No, I don't think we do. That would be CanCon, and the people would like it. Some Shakespeare in my butt stuff. All right, I'll bring it in. Last request. A little less repetition, please.

I know this is what the people want, so you keep pounding it in, but you're not a top 40 station. We need a little less repetition at Indy 88. All right. Keep up the good work. I'll see what I can do for you. Thank you so much. Thank you kindly.

And that brings us to the end of our 108th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike. And Reina is at Rara Reina, and I will spell it again. R-A-H-R-A-H-R-A-I-N-A. Do you know my youngest son who's like, you met him? Yes. Little guy. Really little guy.

Cutest. He watches a show called Rara the Noisy Lion. It's a British show that airs on TV Ontario in the morning. Rara the Noisy Lion. That lion stole my name. Yeah. And just so you know, it's like, and it's really british show that airs on tv ontario in the morning rah rah the noisy lion that lion stole my name yeah and it's just so you know it's like and it's really like google it like rah rah the noisy line it's kind of a fun little show for like really young kids not even toddlers like babies yeah and he loves that show and that's they stole it from you well i will be suing and i will represent you. Thank you.

See you all next week.