Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rebecca Rankin: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1945

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

In this 1945th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Rebecca Rankin about the Irreplaceable Milk campaign that launched her career, her time at MuchMusic hosting Fax, her move to NYC and VH1, why she came home and so much more.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, I'm Rebecca Rankin. I am lucky enough to be on Toronto Mike today with Mike. And I guess we're going to talk about a bunch of stuff. He's going to ask me questions. He has assured me that I don't have to prep anything. I just have to come with truth serum in my blood. So here we go. And here's my debut. I like how you pointed out you're on Toronto Mike with Mike because imagine I wasn't here. Who would be recording? I don't know. There's going to come a time when you have to, you know,

give over your reins to other people. Oh, that's how it works. Maybe I'll sell the franchise. Are you interested? Hi, I'm Rebecca, host of Toronto Mait. That would be good. Welcome to episode 1,945 of Toronto Miked, an award-winning podcast,

proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at greatlakesbier.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit Palma Pasta.com for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball.

Catch a game at Christy Pits this summer. No, ticket required. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aienis. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle myelectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

And Redley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And yes, joining me today. Making her Toronto mic debut. It is indeed Rebecca Rankin. Rebecca, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I'm so glad I get to meet you.

you in real life. I mean, I feel like so many, so many things we've done over the last, what, five, six years. Just all on our computers. What a thrill to be in your home office, your basement. You know, I've lost out on some A-list guests because I'm like, you got to come to South at Tobago and sit in the basement. I'm honored you're here. You know what? I'm all seriousness. I'm thrilled to be here and I'm thrilled, like I said, to be here in person because it's fun to meet people and see people in real life. And you get to see how the cake is baked. Like what's going on over there?

Yeah. And I like, I got to say my, I have a son who's 21 now and he would love to be here. Your paraphernalia, your collectibles, he's really into this stuff. Oh yeah. I want to take a picture for him before. Oh, you can do that. Yeah. Where the magic happens. Shut out to filter.

You can take a picture. Okay. Good, good, good. 21, my daughter, my second born, just turned 22, like a week ago. So maybe born the same year, maybe. So maybe you were like 13. No, welcome. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Now I got to remove this question and I got to remove that question here. But you said something fascinating to me when we first met because we've only, we didn't even do small talk because I don't know about you. You've interviewed some heavyweights, but I don't like to talk to the guest before I hit record. Like, I want to make sure you're comfortable and like say hello. Oh, because I'm a half-decent human being. But like even the small talk and the stuff about the studio,

like I like to capture that as part of the package. I, you know, I come from the world of City TV MuchMusic. So that was what we did. We would roll before anybody knew we were rolling. We would have audio rolling. So we could capture it because the rule was if you had audio rolling, you could basically cover with anything. I mean, you can always find cutaways, right?

But if you had that audio, you were golden. So I hear you. It's good to roll in everything. And then you can cut it up as you want, if you want. Well, I think I've been inspired quite a bit by that whole $2.99 Queen Street scene. The Magic. The Chum City Enterprise there. So just before you got here, I had a Zoom.

I don't normally Zoom, but this was sort of special circumstances with a CP24 anchor who was on all the time until she had this like epiphany of sorts that TV is not what she thought it was going to be. It was her dream since she was a kid. She went to, you know, the institution formerly known as Ryerson, and she did all the things, and she worked her way up the Bell Media chain. And she found herself as an anchor at CP 24. And then it's like, it wasn't what she thought it was going to be. And she left, not only left the city of Toronto, but she left the industry completely. Like now she's a marriage counselor.

Anyway. Wow. Okay. So we're doing this by Zoom. So I'm recording the whole Zoom. And it's like, when does it start? I can relate. It already started.

Like the minute we started said like, hello, we were rolling and the episode was happening. Okay. I'm so curious about this person. You're going to tell me later. Well, I can tell you the name now. Like, so I don't normally, I record and I drop. Like I did two yesterday. I recorded two episodes yesterday.

They dropped them. So your episode will drop like five minutes after we say goodbye. Okay. But because of this was a Zoom and I'm, yeah, calendar was so jammed. It's like a very rare instance where there's a canned episode of Toronto Mike. Like I just recorded it like an hour ago. and I'll probably drop it when there's like a day I'm not recording. Like I don't know, maybe next week or something,

but it is with, it's funny because I have a picture. It's evergreen is what you're telling me. Well, yeah, it's a great story. Like, okay, I'm going to up and leave this industry. To my right, there's a picture of Brian Linehan. This woman's name is Kelly Linehan. Not related, but Kelly Linehan is who will be on Toronto Mike at some point in the next week. But today it's Rebecca Rankin.

And like I said, I'm honored you made the trek. Oh, it wasn't a trek. It's just that the lake shore is a bit of a nightmare with all the trucks. But I will live. Let's not talk about the traffic. Romantic traffic. Shadow to the spoons. Okay.

So Rebecca, you said something remarkable to me when we first met here. Okay. What did I say? Okay, I'll tell you. I'll remind you. Because we only said like 10 words to each other. I asked you where the bathroom was. Sorry, I'm late.

You said, I won't pee in the corner. And then you asked me if I wanted alcohol. Oh, I said, do you want to? I was recovering because I said, sure, maybe. Are you in recovery? Yeah. I said, can I get you a beer? Sure.

I have fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. Brewery, and you said this sentence, and I know you're not going to bullshit me because you took the truth serum. You said, I've never had a full beer in my life. That is true. So I never developed a taste for beer. You know, that's something that everybody, oh, my parents, you'll acquire it. You'll acquire the taste for it.

Exactly. I never did that. And then I got to a point where I didn't need the extra calorie. So I thought, why would I be acquiring this? I like tequila. that's my thing. Tequila Sheila. Yeah, although I can't drink.

I can't drink that much anymore. I'm just a middle age and it really affects me the next day. It's awful. Well, you're not going to drink that much because what I got is a very low alcohol IPA. So I think this will taste very different from those beers you grew up with than you're like, oh, this tastes awful. I need to acquire a taste. I think you're going to like this.

So for the first, so I know you've had some beer in your life. This is not your first taste of beer. But on the mic, you're going to crack open a sunny side IPA that I put in front of you. a nice cold, and then you're going to take a sip of that and you're going to review it. But on the mic, so hold it up. I know.

I just got to get my fingers under it so I don't mess. Don't break a nail. Okay. Is it on? Okay, there we go. You ready? You want the sound, right? Although I heard the sound, actually, when it was down.

I'm not going to criticize your popping technique, okay, the Irish cricket. Wait, it's all twisted up because I messed with it. Okay. You want me to open it for you? I can even give you another one if you like. So opening the beer is half the challenge for Rebecca Rank. in here. Okay. Yeah, really, right? All right. And I actually was a Molson, I, I did Molson hits at one point. It should be better. I pulled one. I pulled a Molson hit of yours. Okay. So, well, Moulson's not a craft brewery, okay? I can't talk to the owner. And this is a beautiful can. Love the design. Okay. I can taste it now. So Rebecca Rankin is tasting, there's Sunnyside IPA.

Oh, that actually is nice. Okay. It's not flat tasting. A lot of beers too flat to me. It's got a little, it's got a little, something, something at the end. It's the hops. Yeah. It's an IPA. I'm going to crack mine. And show Rebecca how you do it. You know, in post, I'll just put it in there. Cheers to my first half beer. Okay. So throughout this episode, you can chime in with how you're enjoying your Sunnyside IPA from Great Lakes Brewery.

Beautiful. I'm going to tell my brother. My brother loves IPA. Okay. Is your brother in Toronto? Yeah, of course. Well, you know, of course. You weren't always in Toronto.

We'll get to that. Okay. So I have some fresh crap. beer that you can take home and you could share that with your brother. So Great Lake sent over some beer for you. That's so nice. Okay, we're going to be thrilled. I mean, he will be thrilled.

Actually, my daughter might want to try one. She's living in Germany now, so she's become like the beer connoisseur. She used to be tequila, but she's gone to the dark side. Well, Germany knows their beer. Yeah. That's for sure. That's for sure. How many kids you got?

I have two. Twins. Oh, so it's a one shot. Yeah. We've covered them both. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Moving on. And guess what?

They're both 21. That's a, you know what I was going to say. How close a part are they in age, these twins? Two minutes. Two minutes. Not Irish twins. Okay. So I offered you a beer.

You're drinking it now, but I considered being a smart ass and offering you a glass of milk. Oh, wow. You're going back. This is, to me, this is the origin story. Okay. Yeah. I guess. Well, listen, I'm the boss around here, Rebecca.

It's just like the most boring origin story ever. Oh, you know, that's, I, that's, I, We'll point out. Some people have, like, origin stories. They're derived from, like, witches in Salem and, you know, who were burned at the stake. You'd be surprised. Okay, so I'm Gen X, okay?

Yeah, me too. Yeah. And I think we're similar vintage. And, of course, you're all over my TV because I was a big much music viewer, and we'll get to that. But you were featured in these irreplicable. What is it, irreplaceable? Irreplaceable.

The irreplaceable milk adds, I got to ask you, and Cam Gordon particularly, FOTM Hall of Famer, he's very interested in these milk ads. They were from like the mid-80s, right? And it was- 1984. 1984.

Yeah. Okay, just like George Orwell predicted. Yeah, exactly. Who were you when you started showing up in these irreplaceable milk ads? And how did that come to be? This is your origin story. And I think it's more exciting

than those other origin stories you might have heard. I think this is a good origin story. Who was I? I mean, I was a child, right? I was 14. I got approached. I went to an all-girls school wearing a uniform, went to get my haircut.

They said, oh, we'll cut your hair for free if you'll do photos for us, which was a thing back of the day. And went in to get this hair styled and was going to do these photos and get my free haircut, which I was thrilled about. And there was a casting agent in there named Craig.

And he was just also getting his haircut. It was a place in New Yorkville. And he said, I want you to come into a house an audition the next day. I was skeptical because I was 14 and been told not to go off with strange men and, you know, get my photos taken or anything. You know, that was, there was the famous case,

Allison Perraud, I think, but that was after. Oh, that was after. I had, I did have an Allison Pratt. Maybe a year later.

Okay. I think she, yeah, so she was a couple years later. She was younger than I was. Okay. And, um,

anyway, he, uh, he didn't, he, me. So my mom called and he said, why don't you bring her down to the audition. So I went down and they cast me along with, I think there was four of us all together. So there was a woman named Harriet and there was a couple other people. Harriet was like a punk rock girl. I was like the,

you know, kind of the jockey girl. I was a high jumper. I ran track. You know what I mean? So at that time. So that was kind of the beginning. I just did that. And then, you know, as soon as you have a job. Agents will take you on very fast. So signed and then started traveling. I went to New York that first summer, first two summers. Okay.

You're now a model. Yeah. 14. 14. I turned 15 that summer. I'm a July birthday. So yeah, I was a kid.

And I looked back on that time and you've got kids, right? So you just said you have a daughter, right? So you have this whole. I got two daughters. One is 10 years old. One is 22 years old. So imagine you're 10 year old in four or five years. years is saying, oh, I'm going to go to New York for the summer and live in a house with a bunch

of other models and just trapes around the city and try and get some jobs. And my parents, I think my parents were, it was obviously a different time. I think that they were happy because they didn't have to deal with me because you know you have to deal with your kids during the summer. They were probably like, okay, good, we've got her taken care of. Now they just take word about her brother. She's off the payroll or something. Exactly. So they were all behind it. Did a couple of summers in New York, went to Japan for a summer, did a couple of summer, did a couple of summer. was in Europe. I always went to school. A lot of the people that I worked with, um, who did ads and stuff. They, in more models, they stopped going to high school, which probably wasn't

the smartest idea. Um, yeah, so that was, that's the origin store. Yeah, you're, you're basically, it's like a Monica schnard here. So Monica came up. Um, she was probably like a year after me. I knew Monica very well. She was a Ford face. They'd started a contest. I lived at Eileen Ford's house with Christy Turlington, the first couple of summers. And then right after that, they started that Ford Face and Monica won it. So, yeah, she's a couple, Monica's one or two years younger I am. Right. Yeah, I think she was like 13 or something.

Yeah, she was young. And she, interesting, I always say like people, because people always ask the question, right? So you're a young girl, we ever hit on, you know, especially after Me Too and now the Jeffrey Epstein and all, was there any of that five? I didn't get any of that. I was 14. I looked 14. I was working for, I was being a 14-year-old, 15, 16-year-old.

But then there were the people of the Christy Turlington's, the Monica Schnars, who were 14, 15, who were being cast as 25-year-olds. Right. So that was a different thing. They looked like women. You were playing a fresh-faced 14-year-old basically. Yeah, I had short hair and I was just wearing shorts and, you know, had no body at all.

So I was just... Although, yeah, I would... I hate to say that probably doesn't matter. Like, I was worried about the... over sexualization of a, you know, a teenage model like yourself back then. So I'm glad to hear that there was no funny business. No funny business. I talked to friends, though, and they talk about, you know, just these brushes they had.

And I think you make decisions, right? It's like anything in life, you make these decisions. And I always just like my sleepway too much. So people would say, like, oh, do you want to come to so-and-so's boat? Like I remember, you know, being in different cities and they say, oh, do you want to come? No, I don't, I'm not interested in that. But some girls went. I mean, they came back the next day.

And obviously now we're hearing horrific stories about what happened to some people. Were you surprised at how much exposure you got from these milk ads? At the time, I didn't really grasp it. But I think now I look back and I think it's amazing. There's a certain segment age group, like the Gen Xers. And people in Toronto, particularly, and, you know, I guess Ontario because it was Ontario Milk Marketing Board. So those commercials, there's a couple of years in there that people go, oh yeah, because

they'll remember those milk ads. So they had an impact at that time, right? So they won these awards. And I think it's funny because now people would say, like an influencer now would say, oh, well, I've won awards for advertising. And I'm like, well, no, I was just in the ad. It wasn't the genius behind the ad. You weren't the creative.

But the people who were the creative, I think they did a really good job. obviously. Well, it got me drinking milk. Yeah, now you're drinking beer. Now I'm drinking beer. That's right. That's right. Right.

So I'm on my buddy Mark Carey. I would drink some milk and he'd be like, are you a baby cow? That's what he said. Are you a baby cow? And I go, no, Mark, I'm not a baby cow. And you go, well, only baby cow should be drinking milk. Yeah. Yeah.

Cow milk anyway. That is a thing. Okay. So, okay. So, okay. So, okay. So this like launches your modeling career and you're off to the U.S. for the first time, I guess.

to do modeling. So in great detail, Rebecca Rankin, I want to know how you go from, literally you're on posters. Like I have a, there's a listener named Cousin Janno. Cousin, Janow. I look forward to seeing you at TMLX23

on September 28th at 6 p.m. at the GLB brew pub at Jervis and Queenskey. I'm just throwing it there. But she wrote me a note to say, like she idolized you from these ads. Like she wanted to be you. She imaged after you.

Like you were really inspiring. fellow teenagers. Do you know what it was? It wasn't me. It was the flock of seagulls haircut that I had. Which you have got, like if you could just grow out your bangs, I know everybody loves your hair. You do have fabulous hair. If you could just grow out the top a little bit.

It's a wig, Rebecca. Let me take it off and show you. And it would just be swooping over your eye, but that it was the haircut. It was the haircut. It was the haircut that. You know, people like hair. You know that. Yes, people like hair.

Absolutely. I will say, that's funny, you mentioned flock of seagles. and because Gordep is now a guitarist of Flok of Seagulls. And Gordep, of course, lead singer and founder of The Spoons. But when I think of that hair, I always think of Burlington's own The Spoons, including my dear friend Rob Pruss, who, when I see him, like, there'll be footage of him on, like, Toronto Rocks, right, of John Major or whatever.

And he's got that hair you're describing. You think I could do that? Even though. I know you. I don't think. But I've lost my pigmentation, so it's lost. It's like, it doesn't really behave anymore. I don't know if you would have.

know this. You could just get a Dyson. Dyson's will help, you know, a little hair. I was at a vacuum. I actually just slick my hair back all the time because it's so, I've got a lot of hair and it's really frizzy. I would just, honestly, if I had your hair, I'd just let it go wild. Yeah, but this is the first time we've met, so I didn't want you to say.

Yeah, you know what? I would kick you out of the bay. I'm not kicking Rebecca Rankin out of the basement for her hair. That's for sure here. But the Cam Gordon quote was interesting to me because he's like, I remember these mysterious milk ads in the mid-80. And Cam, I have a couple of years. on cams. I'm guessing cams

49 or something. That's a guess. I don't know. I remember these mysterious milk ads in the mid-80s and not knowing who this person was until she showed up at much music years later. So can you walk me through every detail of your life, Rebecca Rankin,

between irreplaceable milk? No, I was not talking about the past. It's so boring. You know what? That's my department. Okay. Yes, you're in charge. You have to do what I say now. That's how it works here. You got to drink a beer. You got to do all this stuff. You came to a to to... You came to a Tobico, so I'm doing this very quickly,

and then we're going to get the story between milk and much. Oh, Eminem, I like that. Eminem, the name of Martha and the muffins for a brief period of time in 1984. Okay, it's all coming together here, Rebecca. This box is empty. Do not take this box. It is for show purposes only. But in my freezer upstairs, I have a delicious frozen lasagna,

courtesy of palma pasta that you're taking home with you today. Yay. Yeah. So it's not just the beer, it's pasta. We were just talking about lasagna on the weekend with my cousins and I. And I think we're all having dinner. We're going up north. And so I'm going to bring the pasta with me.

How many cousins are we talking about here? A few, but I'll just give them a sliver. But I'm here to tell you, it's going to feed a lot more people than you think. It is huge. Okay, good. And it is delicious. And will you report back to me what you thought of your parma pasta lasagna? Yes.

Let me tell you, if somebody makes the food for me, it doesn't even matter what it is. I'm so happy. I bought you guys dinner here. You always say pasta now, and I was going to say, after being in the States, if you had a producer, they would be correcting going, it's not pasta, it's pasta. It's funny you say that because I thought it was the opposite. I have always said pasta because Dennis Weaver on a mother's pizzeria ad when I was about 10 years, maybe around the time I was watching those milk ads, he would say pizza pasta made perfect for mother pizza.

So for whatever reason I decided it was pasta, and I've always said pasta. But when I was on with Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo, he said, you say pasta. And I said, yeah, he said, it's pasta. Oh, he did. Interesting. He thought Canadian said pasta. An American said pasta. I'm turned around now.

I have no idea, except that I'm going to keep saying pasta because I went to Anthony Petrucci, whose family owns Palma pasta. His mom was Palma. Okay. Palma Petrucci. So, yeah, you can do whatever you want, but I just know the Americans would be like, they'd say pasta. They'd pasta.

they say, you know, experience music, project as opposed to, I'd say project and they'd say project. Oh, they'd probably say produce instead of produce. They say produce. Like they, it's all, and I'm like, it's PRO, oh, project. It's not project. But anyway, and they say four. But no, I like the digressions, because they say foyer.

And we're talking about a foyer. I'd say foyer. Yeah, I think the Americans say foyer. You know, I'm half and half now. I'm a dual citizen. I went to, I went over there. I was there for a long time and my kids are both American. So at one point they sort of said,

you probably need to get a passport simply because you're going to get hassled at the border, which I was getting hassled a lot at the border, going back and forth. So you carry an American passport? Yes. It's too late. I'm not going to edit this, Rebecca. Too late. Well, I do have to pay taxes in two countries.

Okay, well, we're going to get you to America. I mean, you had a little four years. FOIA? What was I going to say? Yeah, you were there for a... Welcome to my foyer. Yeah, you were there for a spell in the post-milk ad. But then you're, so you obviously spent a couple of years modeling. Yes. Yeah. And then I had this epiphany. I got it. I was at UFT. I finished a humanities, a Bachelor of Arts. And I'm now, what, 21, I guess. And I went through this whole, oh, wow, I can't, this is just, the modeling world is so surface. And there's no depth. to it. So I gave up on that and I moved to Whistler to

teach skiing to little kids. This is something. Okay. I just needed a break, right? I'd been in front of a camera so much and had to worry about every pound I gained and all of that and I think I just that's a lot to sort of thrust onto a 14, 15, 16 year old

and you grow up like that. So I was ready to let, you know, if I had a pimple, I didn't want to worry about it. Right. So did my stint in Whistler for a year, move back to Van And in Vancouver, I got a job working for the agency, which was David Blustein sort of ran it back here. They were booking tours for bands. So I learned the industry there through a guy named Lori Mercer, who was, gosh, he had like tons of punk rock.

He was a punk rock. Can you name check any? DOA. Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah. So he, you know, that was Lori sort of taught me, whatever. And then David Bluesteen came back and said, okay, we're full. folding in with Sam Feldman and associates. And so Feldman's did the West Coast and I moved back

to the East Coast. I wanted to go back to Toronto just because it was, you know, it's hard sort of making minimum wage and living in Vancouver at that time. So I went back and when I left, Sam Feldman said, well, what do you want to do? Like he was going to give me a hand. Like he said, you can have a job here in Vancouver or what do you want to do. And I said, I don't know if I want to work at the agency anymore. I think I want to work at much music. So he's, he's going to do. He's said, oh, really, I know Denise Donland. So I went, handed my resume, and I became the executive assistant for Denise Donlin and David Kines.

David Kines. Who's a dear friend of the program. Although Denise has also been over. So Denise has been over. She's great. But David Kines. You reference like this chair. Did Denise sit in this chair?

Oh, my God. My old boss. Murray McLaughlin sat in that chair. Oh, fantastic. Speaking of Denise. And David, oh, David Kine's actually never sat. he actually somehow negotiated a Zoom. David, if you're listening,

because I know you're listening. He did. Get your ass over here for your proper Toronto mic debut, okay? He did send me, they were packed, I don't know,

his current, he's at Hollywood Suite and they were doing some game network merger thing going on. And he sent me a box of just stuff he had kept from much music.

And it arrived. And I actually recorded. I put the camera on, I did like an unboxing of this thing. But there's, I mean, when you went to the washroom, you passed a much ad,

it was on the wall, that came with the box. this much music thing. But I have all this vintage, much paraphernalia that the wonderful David Kine sent me. So shout out to David Kine. David is fantastic. And he took Denise's job running much

when Denise went to Sony music, right? So that was after my... I laughed and I was in the state so it wasn't following everyone's careers. Right. You know, they were overlap. My recollection is they overlapped a lot. Much was a very open environment,

huge studio. They had a little bit of plexiglass or something. between them and the outside world and I sat outside. But there was a lot of, they worked very closely together. It's operations. It's, you know, so any of the live shows, they're both, you know, Denise is talking to management and dealing with the artists and David is, you know, making sure all the operations part of it, like how many cameras do we have, extra, you know.

So that was all, they were very intertwined. So David could have definitely done her job and she could have done his job. They were both very, very skilled people. Yeah. And Denise, of course, before your time, but Denise, takes over for John Martin, who Moses tapped with the head much at the origin in 84. So I, yeah, but I think that that was, so John Martin, because I know Erica dealt with John Mark, like Eric, right? Like, she was for sure.

So, yeah, Denise was relatively new in that spot when I got in. I come in 94. Yeah. I come in late 94. Okay. Right as Sukhinli is coming. Okay. So we're, so you're. So you've dated yourself now.

No, listen, okay. No, in a good way. Yeah. Right. So we got the era here. So you're at $299 Queen Street West. I did not go to the institution formerly known as Ryerson. So I had to learn radio and television, which was just television for me at that time, on the floor.

I didn't know anything. I knew the music side of it, but I didn't know about cameras and studio and all that stuff. So that was great. But who were your teachers there? Who were your mentors at 299 Queen? So we had our floor crew because obviously everything was live all the time. So those was like a rotating cast. And everybody was amazing, right?

Like I'm still, there was a woman there who was on the floor named Lisa Lightbourne, for example. I'm still close with Lisa. You know, there's John Keffler. There was a whole crew of people. But then we also had the ENG guys who were going out in the field. I wanted to learn camera to be a videographer. And so we have like Steve Gelder, Basil Young. Right.

Master T's brother. Master T's brother, right. So we had a whole bunch of amazing camera guys, and I would go out with them. I'd finish my desk job and go out with them at night, carry their batteries, and learn how to shoot. So I was, yeah, but you, that sounds like, oh, okay, but you could not do that in the world now because it's all union.

Don't touch this, don't touch that. Oh, right. I didn't even consider that. She's not part of the union. She can't move the chair. Don't move the chair. Oh, my God, don't touch the chair, you know. So, um, don't plug that in.

Yeah. So that's how I learned. television and then, you know, we would shoot. And then I actually worked overnights for City Pulse doing Graveyard shift for Steve Hurlbutt. I produced the show for John Gallagher and Peter Gross. Oh, okay. Anyways, John, shout out to John.

He's not doing great and he's in the Maritimes now. But he had a couple of big strokes. And he's recovering from that. But man, if you say that name in front of John Gallagher, it triggers him. Oh. Not a fan. He's not a fan. Okay.

Well, Steve gave me an overnight shift. You can be a fan. I'd never met the man, but just speaking for Gallagher there. And his brother, Dave, was in charge of the E&G guys at that light is just speaking to you. You know what? There's another light up here that I've been noticed is flickering. So you got a light there. I don't know if you're haunted or something.

It's like the omens I've brought. So there's flickering over there. This guy just decided to get brighter. I need, you know what? I need help. You got, you know, mentored by some. That happened. We were talking about the Hurlbut brothers.

Does that mean something? So you're getting a chance. I think it's exciting that you're getting a chance to learn on the job. So you might have been hired as some executive assistant or something like that. But now you're learning the trade from those who know. Like to me, that's a better education than you would have got at Rye High. Yeah. No, no, no, no, amazing.

And actually, my son is going through this right now. He is working with his dad. He was at George Brown, did a great certificate, like this past year, introduction to film. and he has a chance to work with his father who's probably retiring. Like his dad's 67, wants to retire in about three years. And I said, you know what? You've got to take advantage. Like, learn in the field, do as much as you can.

Get your hands dirty. You know, if you can do that, that's great. Okay, so I go into much. I'm working overnights, and then I get, there's a videographer job that opens up. So I start shooting for a show called Fax News story. So I'm out in the field shooting, shooting myself, talking. You know, what we used to think of, I used to think I looked like a crazy person talking to the camera by myself on Queen Street, like outside the Rivoli at two in the morning.

Now everybody talks to their phone, right? So I mentioned I talked to the CP 24 person. We talked about that. Part of why she left the industry was because, and she was working for Bell Media. Part of why she left the industry was that suddenly you didn't, when she got there, she said she could focus on her job and there'd be like a producer and there'd be a camera person. And then now suddenly it's like, oh, you need to do all of it. So essentially they're becoming like city was They were at 299

I have talked to Dominic Shulow's been over And you know Do you think he's he calls himself the original Videographer at my at 299 queen Do you know that could Is that possible? It's possible. You don't know.

You're going to stay out of this. I don't know but he could be He could be. I mean that would make sense. Yeah I'm not sure. But then yeah you're hearing And I still have memories of somebody like a Dominic Would be like he'd aim his camera

At the window of a car Yes. Right? And he'd be doing the talk up or whatever, the reflection in the window. Like that was a city move. Yeah. But it was,

yeah. It seemed cool to me. Or the, the mirror on an outside of, you had the much truck with your logo on it. Right. And then you'd pull off of the much logo into the mirror, you know,

the side mirror and then you'd shoot your stand up like that. But, but. go on. Boy, I mean, you just felt if I was so embarrassed. I don't know.

There's certain things that I felt just were really cringy. I'm glad I, did them, but I'm just not the type of person who wants to show. I'm still, I don't, like, I'm on Instagram, but I don't like to shoot myself talking to my phone. Like, I just find that I get, I don't have a problem with other people to it. I just don't like it myself. Right. So that was hard for me. Well, when you think of the big stations, well, you got CBC, obviously, and you got CTV, right? Yeah. And then you got, you know, City TV. City TV, it seemed like, and, and I have read like a great book, actually, by Christopher Ward called Is This Live? And it's like an oral history of much music for the

I love Christopher Ward. First feet tied, tied with J.D. Roberts. They were the only two VJs at the beginning. And they just did it all. I know six hour shifts or whatever and then re-roll whatever. Yeah. But I think Michael Williams might come in as a third eventually is my memory on this. But okay.

Yeah. So, and a quick aside too is Catherine McClanahan deserves a little more credit for being the first woman VJ in much music history. I think history has kind of forgotten Catherine McClainhan. Have you had her on? Yep. Oh, so that's, yeah. I mean, there's all these people, men and women, right, who have, who really forged the way.

And I would say, I just know when I got that down to the States, they were just starting. I mean, that was just as MTV had, was, what was it called? Total. Total request live. Total request live. Thank you, TRL. Not that they ever saw it. Yeah, exactly.

But that was like the first of their, like, the American. storefront that and the Today Show. I mean, when I got down to VH1, we would go and do Save the Music at the Today Show because it was the biggest game in town. So you've got like Katie and Matt there. And, you know, this was like, they thought it was so revolutionary

that they were letting the public into the shot. Like, oh, Al Roker's doing the weather from like, and I was thinking, we did that. Oh, yeah. Well, that was a Moses. Nimer. Moses really was on the cutting edge. And he had lots of people.

He had the Dave Kines and the Denise Dahlins and all of the people, John Martin, all these people you're talking about. But that really, really changed everything. And Rebecca, the common thread in this, is where I was going with the, is this live by Christopher Ward is a common thread is people being told early much music before your time,

but people being told, hey, you can do whatever you want, which is great creative freedom, just don't spend any money. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That is the, if you think about all these things we think are cool or whatever, it all kind of comes back to low budget.

it. Well, it's very punk rock if you think about it, right? So it's coming up in the 70s, the late 70s, early 80s, and that was kind of the punk rock ethos. And so in a way, we were making punk rock television. They were. I mean, we had more money by the time I came along, but we didn't, you know, it was a one person band, right? You're going out, you're holding the mic. You get down to the States. They have a whole audio crew. They have, you know, production. They have a camera person and a camera assistant. You know, it's a whole crew you're going with. So, you get down to the States. They have a whole audio crew you're going with. So. So that's night and day. 100%. But you had this opportunity, even though you're on the payroll as an executive assistant of some nature. You have this opportunity to go out with Basil Young, for example. Can I ask you about a camera person at 299 Queen

and ask you if you cross paths with him? Sure. Good, because I was going to do it anyway. Oh, okay. Good. Did you cross paths with Bill Atanasoff? So I know of Bill. I don't know him well.

I think that he was, I feel like he was working more for city. Yeah, more city pulse stuff. Like he would go out with Gorda Martineau, for example. Right. But so, yes, so I know the unfortunate story with Bill. I mean, I read your piece, right? So I know that what happened, but.

And that was like, I can't remember what year that was, but Bill 15 and 16 years ago that he got on the job, he got run over. Right. Right. So I remember, you know, because there is, there's a hierarchy, right? So in much we had our camera people and then city had them. And I know Bill more because when I did my overnight shifts, I was in there.

And I'm sure those cameramen, because they were the pros, they were probably mortified at my shooting. Like, let's be honest. Like I was just like, oh my God, you know, looking back. But, you know, I was learning the ropes on the job. That's what I was doing. Which is very punk rock. And that's why they sent me to cover motorcycle accidents and not, you know, press conferences, right? Because there's nothing in the middle of the night.

So I... So you knew of Bill, but you didn't actually work. You didn't go out with Bill? No. No, no. There was one guy in Pulse Pedro, who was assigned to sort of teach me. And then I knew all the guys from much, you know, so. But, yes, so Bill...

Well, Bill passed away last week. Yeah. Very sad. I saw that. And it's, what a tragic, tragic story. Yeah, he was basically a blind quadriplegic following the accident. And if you want to hear... Bill tell his story, in his own voice, his own words, he did do something.

I had Peter Gross, Toronto-miked correspondent Peter Gross, went to visit Bill and recorded Bill's conversation. And then Peter came over and we kind of talked about Bill. This is before Bill passed. And then played the audio from Bill himself. And we talked to Bill's sister. And we talked to people who were still good friends. good friends. Al McCormick, who's a camera guy, who was a good friend of Bill's. And we talked to Lauren Honickman and couldn't get Jo Jo Chinto. That was a bridge too far.

But we had a, I think, Gordon. No, a lot of interesting people. Anyway, you can hear Bill tell his story in the Toronto Micd Archives for sure. But, yeah, he passed away last week. But you didn't work with Bill, but you probably knew of Bill and his reputation at 299 Queen Street. Yeah, he was way up the food chain from me. Right. He was, he might have even been a camera supervisor. You know what I mean?

Which, Paul said by that time, I can't remember exactly, but there was a certain, so that there was the elite squad and I was not part of that. And I think he did a lot of sports stuff. Like he'd go out with Jim McKinney and do a lot of sports stuff. So once they get to a certain level, once camera people get, they, you know, and they sort of bond with one or two reporters or producers or whatever. And, you know, I had that later on in life. Once I got, when I was in New York, I had a cameraman.

I worked with very closely for a better. of, well, two and a half years. So you get this. You can sort of finish each other's sentences, right? Like it's the, you sort of, there's a bond there. So, yeah, that's a, I mean, that story to me is, obviously we knew, we knew Bill from the world of, you know, City Pulse and what happened. But then, you know, the situation with the accident and after, it's sort of bringing to light

disability, you know, systems, all of the things that later on I became very interested in. And that's why I always look at those stories is like, obviously, that's a very sad story. But for what it's worth, I think it brought a lot of attention to a lot of issues that need attention, right? And it's sad that we have to have those things happen. But I'm glad that you guys have shed light on it. I think it's really important, you know, to not just sort of that stuff that needs to be talked about. so I will listen for sure. So you're kind of, like at some point you get the job as videographer for facts, right?

Yeah. And that's before, like, is this, who's hosting facts at this time? So Monica was just leaving and Kathleen Rass stepped in. And Kathleen and I, so we would sort of work together. And she at the time was married to a guy named John Jones, who was working, I don't know what the exact title was. He'd been brought in from, I guess, what, CFNY at the time? He was a music guy.

So he was in programming sort of along with Denise, and so he liked our show because his wife was the host. So I felt very honored. We got a lot of, you know, I feel like John Jones, because he was so close to the show, he really cut us some favors and, you know, sort of up the facts, Auntie. Like I think he really brought that show up.

lot. Do you mean we have quality of guests? Yeah. So usually the hierarchy would be the new music would get everything and anything they wanted, right? Because they were the head honchos. But I think John, you know, and I mean, maybe even just, you know, and Denise, obviously and David, they, at that point I felt like we sort of started to get. So the new music would do their interviews, but then we could kind of shadow on. And Kathleen was doing some new music stuff. So she would maybe shoot an interview with, like I think the Verve was a big one at the time or radio head stuff like that and then we would get it on facts. And facts was live every hour, right?

So we had to be sort of on it. So I would do a story at night. I would come back. I'd have, you know, a couple of times. I'd have to do it. And then inevitably, Kathleen started going in the field more. She might be sent, you know, to New York or whatever, to do something. So then I would cover the live hits.

And then when she moved on to City Pulse, I started hosting Fax. And I was also doing VJ sort of stuff on the side, like Saturday shifts. That's how we roll. That's how you roll. So I must know, like when, I don't know. know if you needed the blessing of the Lord for the executive assistant position, but before you're on the air in front of the camera. Yeah. Does Moses and Imer need to bless? Like, did you have to meet with Moses? Because the story I keep hearing is that Moses has to bless all the on-air people.

Yes. And I think Moses would have never given me a VJ job because that would have been too obvious. I was the old milk girl, as you brought up. Oh, you have blue eyes. Green eyes. Oh, you know. Hazel. Muddy brown. Green eyes are very rare. I think they're hazel. They're hazel.

Officially. Okay. Okay. Enough about my eye, Tyler, please. I'm sorry, I'm Debbie Gibson over here. I'm lost in your eyes. So, yeah. But my point is, I feel like this is Moses's knock against Catherine McClanahan.

Oh, I think this is what, he never cared for her and she didn't last very long. And then the next woman to get a VJ gig is Erica M. Right. Who was also like hired in as like an executive assistant. Like she comes in that route. I think she was a PA for their, you know, under J.D. and stuff, right? Like I think she's answering phones and stuff. Like she comes in ground floor.

I think Erica might be doing a book. Oh, she is. She's trying to get a publisher right now. I actually feel people who are. So we're going to hear all of it. She's read me a few excerpts, which are amazing. So we're going to hear the whole story there. Do you think it's going to be warts and all?

because, you know, famously, famously, her mother was extremely close to Moses' partner. Like, so I only, I'm only saying that, not to say anything other than, I wonder if she'll pull any punches in the book. I think she will tell it. I don't think it was nearly, everybody thinks,

I think City TV was a very, the whole building, 299 was a promiscuous building, but I don't think there was nearly as many shenanigans going on as everybody thinks. But there was a lot of cocaine. Maybe before your era, but I mean, I've had Steve Anthony on and talked about John Gallagher and Peter Gross. But I'm saying in terms of, especially women getting on air, I don't think, like, there

was one or two people that were rumored to have relationships with Moses. I never had, I mean, Moses, yes, he had to bless all of us. And I think he was like, okay, she's tall, she's got blonde hair. So she can't just be a VJ. Green eyes. Hazel, muddy eyes. She can't just be a VJ. She has to have a camera.

That's the person who has to learn how to use a camera and the heavy equipment. And I remember Michael Stipe, R.E.M. Calling me out big time. I walked in. And I actually have Steve Gelder, who was another ENG guy with me. And he was with me. We were in New York. I walk in and I had it on camera.

I actually used it as part of my reel when I was trying to get a job at VH1. And I had the camera on. I was rolling in and Michael Stipe said, what, you got to shoot and do all that? Like, what? Like,

and you know, they all were kind of just like, what? And then he goes, oh, I just love these marketing ploys. Okay, it's funny you mentioned Michael Stipe though,

because I wanted to pull a couple of clips to take us back to much here. Don't worry, it won't be 90 minutes on much. Although if I had my way, it would be 60 minutes on milk and then 30 minutes on much. Okay.

But I did pull a little bit of, because these are some heavy weights you're chatting up for facts. So let's listen for like 30 seconds here. The opportunity to take a look at some of the artwork. Looks like there's a booklet coming out with it. Yeah, the special package has a lot of... Are you going to put the lyrics in there?

Yeah. Who? I know we've never been it before. Why? Mike was reading them, you know, they're up for everyone to read one night, and it was a good night. We'd done something quite good, and everyone felt happy, and he said, we should print.

We should put these in the record. We should put them in the CD. I kind of liked it that he had the audacity statistics, suggest that we print the lyrics. And that I was like, sure, why not? So in 1998, I think as big as it got would be REM. And there you are chatting up Michael Stipe. Yeah, that's definitely, for me, that was a career highlight.

Always had so much respect for him and the band, right? Love the music, you know, in him. And, you know, he was on Smartless, you know, Jason Bateman podcast. Of course, I know. Yeah. And he was on. That podcast frustrates me, by the way. Okay, well, that episode with Michael Stipe is good because, you know, they're all quite

brainy and they're quick. And Michael Stipe is talking about, you know, and he's still interesting to listen to. Yeah. I can imagine. Yeah. Like Michael Stipe's not coming to the South Atobical basement. He might. Now that he's, you know what?

Should we just ask him, Michael Stipe? Are you still friends of Michael Stipe? Maybe he'll do a Zoom with you. Oh, I would zoom. I'm going to throw it in the universe. I would Zoom with Michael Stipe. I, yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, Denise probably is, you know,

Denise was really good at keeping all those connections. I didn't have friendships so much. I mean, there was a couple of people I had friendships with who were in bands, but I was usually fairly... Can you name check these bands that remain friends with Rebecca Rankin? Who I'm friends with still? Or that you kept in touch with? No, I can't.

Hmm. Bon Jovi, who else now? Well, yeah. I mean, I like... John Bon Jovi? But you know what? I knew their producer, right? When they sort of did their sort of comeback and I was at VH1 and I was sent out to John's

house in New Jersey. He has a little bar there like on his compound. He's got a bar so he doesn't have to go out to bars. Right. And so we went and I became close with his producer, Luke Ebbin at the time. And so Luke and I sort of remained friends. Actually, after 9-11, we were both stuck out in. in L.A.

We both, you know, and we were living on the East Coast, but we got stuck out there, and we ended up driving with a couple other people back to New York because there was no planes, obviously. So, yeah, I mean, I'm really good for, I was close with Adam Durwitz from Counting Crows at one point. And Adam in his band, he's got a guy named Charlie, whose keyboards, and his wife and I are very close.

So I'm sort of around, I see those guys. You know, there's, I had those, what I'm saying is this few and far between, right? I really had to have like a friendship with them. I'm not the type of person who would do an interview and get, ask for Michael Stipe's phone number. Right. You know, I, I mean, maybe that would have served me better in life.

I might be able to get them here to the Atobico basement. To network. Listen, if you can get this, I'll put this out. If you can get Michael Stipe into the South Atobico basement, I can tell you now, Palmapasta for life. You'll never have to buy another meal on this. the city again. And your brother will have all the Great Lakes beer he could drink.

Okay. Well, that gives me, that gives me a goal. And here I am, not even sweating a little bit, because I can tell you now, Michael Stipe is not visiting the South Atobical basement. Well, you'd have to do some, you'd have to do some prep. It wouldn't be like, yeah. I had a good that was wonderful. It was fantastic.

I had a communication with Chuck D from Public Enemy, and I'm a huge public enemy fan. And he was coming to Toronto to do a gig at the C&E Banshell. And I was chatting with his handler of sorts, a woman who kind of manages his calendar, and about Chuck coming to the South Atopical Basement. And it was explained to me in no uncertain terms.

Chuck D. will not be visiting my South Atopical basement, but I am welcome to chat him up backstage at the C&E Band Show. Oh. And that's what I did. Okay. But I, so Chuck, no, this is a good story. I got an in-person chat with Chuck D.

Michael Stipe is not coming to my South Atobical Basement. That's a challenge for you, Rebecca. Okay. Well, Chuck D, I like Chuck D too. So that would be, yeah. I mean, I... Man of the people. Yeah.

But he still wasn't coming to my... An interesting, right? What these guys have will have in common, and I find a lot of people who, yeah, they're brainy. You just tapped your brain. And there's... I was seeing if it's still there. Yeah.

And I think that's what, through all of those people that I met, it was the people who, like, you know, Patty Smith, mind-blowing to me. I mean, I just, I feel like she was like, I always sort of had a thing for her. I mean, I admired her and then did an interview with her. And I was equally as blown away. So it's such a, it's so amazing. Like when Michael comes to the basement here, if you're a fan at all, you're, you're going to be even more of a fan by the time he walks up your stairs and goes out

your side door, right? Because he is that, you know, they're quality humans. And that's what I think, you know, people rise to the top and we might know them as, you know, music stars or whatever, but then, you know, it's like when you actually sort of delve into their, they start writing books. So they have other interests and you see like, oh, this person is not just good at lyrics. They, you know, they're amazing. You've interviewed some heavyweights. So you know, and I get to interview heavyways like Rebecca Rankin so I can almost relate to this. But half the battle, and this is not a challenge of you, not a challenge of you actually. But

with a lot of guests, it's moving them off of like the talking points, like the PR stuff. Like you, I can't do those interviews. Like, I don't want to, I don't know, I don't want to do five minutes of a musician. Just, oh, I make, this is the best album I've ever made. And wow, and I was writing this about, like, I can't do that. Like, we'll do a little of that, but it's going to be like five minutes in like 75 minute conversation. Like, I need to move off that and have like a real substantial conversation with you and try to get to know who are you. I can't have you spewing some PR talking points at me.

Right. But, you know, you also have. the luxury of, you, you, you have set up your format and you have become known over what you've been going since 2012. Oh, he did some homework. That's correct. Maybe. August 2012.

Maybe chat, GBT, told me. It's wrong half the time. It, for a long, no, I double check. Okay. But so because you have 60 minutes, 75, like, you know, that's amazing. I, you know, 90 minutes. So there was, when the last election was happening in the U.S., right? We got Trump and we got.

Kamala and they're both going on and they're doing the podcast right and she went on with I think it was Alex Cooper the call her daddy yes right yeah and so she went on um they did Harris did this great interview and it was 60 maybe over 60 minutes but it was like a solid hour if I recall and people would be like oh she got stuff out of Harrison but and I was like well yeah because Harris usually is doing a junket and you have 90 seconds with her like I have interviewed politicians and you are given like very limited time. You know, especially, you know, I remember going like that Michael Stipe one, that was a longer interview, right?

And that was probably 20 minutes. That was long. You can't get to the real talk in five minutes because it takes, you have to develop a rapport. Yeah. Get them comfortable. Yeah. Give them some great legs beer and then hit them for the real talk.

So I used to work with Rick Campanelli, right? Yeah. You know? Good friend of the show. And he obviously is still, he's got a whole thing. He wrote a book. but he's also doing BT, so he's doing the junkets and I'll see him. And he does an amazing job because, but he has to hit the ground running.

He doesn't have the choice because he's probably got two, three minutes with them, right? No, 100%. So it's fast. I used to work with Linda Lopez, who's J-Lo's sister, right? When J-Lo was at the height of her career, this is like 99, 2000, we had a show. And J-Lo came in and she was pushing something and they were like, okay, we're going to give Linda double time with her. Do you know what double time was?

Six minutes. Eight minutes. Eight minutes. Like that's for the sister. Since you're a blood relation, you get eight minutes. Can you imagine? Yeah.

And they know they're going to talk about their stuff. So I don't, I left my talking points in my bag, but no, this is not a problem with you, but it is, but typically that is my, that is the challenge sometimes.

And sometimes people are like, they're not, I noticed you kind of looked at where you were and you kind of soaked it in and found some cool aspects to it. And like, oh, maybe you're, I don't be interested or whatever.

But there is, when you have a certain level of star, and I don't get the Michael Stipes. So I don't even aim at the Michael Stipes, but I don't even waste my time on the Michael Stipes. But there is a level of where you're like, oh, where the hell am I? Like, oh, this is where it's come to. Like, now I'm in this South Atobical basement

and a guy who looks like he needs a good, I don't know, a good vacuum and a good dusting or something like that. Not at all. But I do want to, I need to get you out of much. But I got to play one more clip because you mentioned earlier, a rival brewery. Okay, can you believe it? We have a great South Atobical brewery called Great Lakes Brewery.

Can you believe there's other beer makers, right? Yeah, I'm enjoying my IPA. And by the way, Great Lakes have a podcast called Between Two Fermenters, and I produce it. And it's very interesting because they talk to many independent craft breweries in this country. But it's just fascinating where, you know, to talk to the owner of a brewery. And then you think, oh, yeah, there's also places like Labats, which is owned by like InBev, some consortium whatever, and there's, oh, there's Molesen Coors. So I'm just going to play 30 seconds of you talking about a rival brewery.

You ready? Yeah. All right. So you think you got what it takes to be a big time TV reporter? Well, we're looking for the host of Moulson Canadian where it's at. Our winner gets paid to report on great Moulson Canadian events all summer long on City TV. To enter, come on down the speaker's corner for the edition of your life. You can also enter at our speaker's corner on the road units or send us your audition.

It's the ultimate summer job brought to you by Moulth and Canadian. Canadian and city TV. So enter today and keep watching Speaker's Corner to see if you are a finalist. No purchase necessary must be a legal drinking age to enter. We got some Mark Daly at the end of that. Love that. You know what's scary about that?

I have no recollection of doing that at all. That's like sometimes this happens and I'm just like, wow, I can't, I think that's, is that aging? No, you know what I think, you know, I think I can tell you, I was in the corporate world until 2018. So I speak with some authority that

when you own something, it's a whole different thing than when you're a hired gun, okay? So it's like, the give a shit factor is completely different. Like you obviously worked hard at your job and we're going to get you to the states, back to the states in a minute, okay? You know, you're like Thalia, Shuris and Kevin Newman, you know, Canadian media superstars who get a calling from the US of A. John Roberts.

There's a great example, okay? Yeah, he's good. Can you get me, John Roberts? I want to talk about just the new music. I don't even want to talk about. You should be. He might not come to the basement, but he, I'll zoom with John Roberts.

He should be able to zoom with you. Literally, okay, I have covered in great detail that moment in 1984 when there's like, it's like a piece of paper. And Christopher Ward and J.D. Roberts bust through the paper and much music has been launched. Okay? And really, again, 1984, when they launched much music, it was, they got that license mainly because of the new music, obviously. They were already city much, whatever, whatever that was called at the time.

So they got the new music with J.D. Roberts and Jeannie Becker, right? that's a going concern. But then Christopher Ward has a show on overnights called City Limits. And I think it's like much music is basically the child of City Limits and the new music. So J.D. Roberts would be, because Christopher Ward's done the show, J.D. Roberts would be, and Jeannie Becker's done the show. J.D. Roberts would be a fantastic addition to Toronto Mike. And I feel like he, he's, you have a far better chance of J.D. Roberts doing a Zoom with me than you do of Michael Stipe.

even visiting South Atobico forget my basement. Okay. So do I get free pasta for life if I get J.D.? No, no. That bar's too low. No, no, no. You get another lasagna. Okay.

I can get you another lasagna if you get J.D. Roberts to Zoom with me. Okay. So we played that little thing. You don't remember it because you didn't. No, it's not. Hold on. I remember. I wasn't so much obviously got, had a deal with Moulson.

Yeah. Clearly. I just worked for much. So it wasn't like I was doing. I wasn't doing a separate contract. I was under contract with much, so it's not like I can go and take on other jobs. Like I wasn't a freelancer.

So I would have done that. I remember doing the reporting for that. Like we would go and Kathleen actually produced and I would be in the field and I would go out and like I think in excess and we would go on an airplane sometimes with a bunch of people who would won the contest and then they would fly us to San Francisco and it was in excess. That was the big one. And you know,

did foo fighters and stuff like that, but they didn't know who they were going to see. That was the whole gay. Everyone got on the plane, party, party, party. Rebecca and, you know, usually another camera person so we could cover. It's like, surprise, Metallica. Right. I think Metallica was, there was a whole bunch, right?

And so they get off and then they're taking the venue and then all of a sudden like, yeah. And so I remember all of that. I just don't remember that particular. That sounds very produced to me. Right. Way more than most stuff. That sounds honestly like I'm reading a prom. That is, that's basically a promo for whatever the heck you were having that.

Or maybe it was just a... Hiring someone to cover Moulson Canadian events. So I remember Denise saying, okay, so you and Kathleen are in charge of this and you're going to do it and this is your job for the next four months, whatever the summer concert season was, right? So that was what was going on. And it was the Moulson Amphitheater at the time.

Yep. So, yeah, so we would do a lot of stuff from there and I would do it and then she would cut it all together. So that's how... I'm going to be there Friday night. Oh, you are. It's now the RBC. I am seen, broken social scene.

Oh, nice. Stars. Okay. Good. And metric. Beautiful. I love it there. I went to see,

oh my God, Jack Johnson. Of course. And just like a few weeks ago. And I was just like, right, everybody knows that. But it was amazing.

I mean, we had a whole 20 minutes where he plays surf videos from his new documentary movie. And he and the brothers, Hermannis, you know, the brothers that he's got like opening for him.

Okay. I might be virtually. I'll pretend I know. But they, and so they just, do a soundtrack. It's like kind of like when you go to the watch the movie playing and then you've got the live orchestra. The score. The score. Do you know what I just witnessed? Thank you. Me fumbling around with my words.

No, you're, you're far more talented than I am. But I was at Roy Thompson Hall. Oh, yes. Because it's funny. This top is in. No, but it ties in a bit with Catherine McClanahan and much music because there's a director named Sean Menard. Do you know this name? Okay, well, he directed him. He directed a dog documentary about much music called 299 Queen Street. Oh, yes, I heard about that. Okay, I didn't know that was his name. Yes.

He rented out on a Friday night, he rents out Roy Thompson Hall, as one does. Right. I might have a TMLX there one day. I'll rent it out, okay. And it was like a lot, we got to watch this. And then he had a deal of Crave, which is owned by Bell Media, which owns much music. Right. You know this, but everybody else should know this.

And what happened was, Sean Menard failed to properly, licensed the music that was heard in 299. So they promoted, oh, Friday night, we're going to debut this documentary, which I saw at Roy Thompson Hall, and Catherine McClainan was there, Erica M was there, Michael Williams. Gosh, a whole bunch of people were there.

Anyway, it never aired because of this, and Sean kind of moved on to other projects. Like, he didn't want to play ball or something. I think he got some bad legal advice. I don't know. But he directed a movie for the Terry Fox Foundation. It's called Run Terry Run, because he got access to a whole bunch of footage of Terry Fox

that you've never seen, and I've never seen. But what he did, which blew my mind, and I'm not saying he did it. I think maybe the Terry Fox Foundation did this. They might have deeper pockets. But he rented out Roy Thompson Hall again to air run Terry Run,

except the TSO, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, was there to play the score live. Oh, that's great. And I was lucky enough to be there. Unbelievable, Rebecca Rankin. Right. No, that is, I actually like,

I saw the Muppet Christmas like that. Okay, well. And I sent my brother. sister in law to the top gun, you know, with a lot. No, but they do the score. I mean, I don't know how they do that, but that's, it's unbelievable. Yeah, I have a friend who does scores.

He used to be in a band called Tonic, and he now does scores. I know Tonic. You remember Tonic? So, Jeff. Like a post grunggy thing? Yeah, and they, there was, I met them. I think first at much. Yeah, and I met them first at much, and then, you know,

when I was a VH1, they would come in and we ended up, like, you know, you go to festivals and these guys are around. Anyway, Jeff does these amazing scores. now. He's working for HBO. He's doing all these different. And it's just, I am so in awe. Like, he'll make these posts. And I'm just like, you can conduct an orchestra. You went into the big song. Everybody knows listening. Everyone knows this tonic song. If you could only see, I got a, I could, I'd play it on YouTube, but it would get me blocked. But if you could only see was a big alt rock hit in this country. Right. And in America.

Yeah. Of course, they're an American band. Okay. They're an American. band. Do you want me to sing more to you? Okay. We have to get to you. You mentioned VH1. So, yeah. I need to know Rebecca Rankin.

This is very important to me. How, like, did you get a tap on the shoulder? Like, deep throat wanted to meet you in the garage and say, I have an offer you can't refuse. We need you in New York City. Like, how the heck did you make the move to VH1? I cut a demo with the help of somebody who I won't mention because he might get in trouble. Is he still there?

Much. No, he's not still there, but... He won't get in trouble. Bill Volichka helped me. Bill was an editor. Dear friend of the show. Okay, so Bill was amazing and, you know, very kind, and he gave me time.

We had to do it very covertly at 2 a.m. And he helped me cut, you know, a reel. He made it look spectacular. And then I reached out to Alan Gregg, who was manager extraordinaire up here, who knew all of the MTV guys because they were trying to do MTV in Canada, I like that hadn't happened yet.

Right. So, and Alan, and I said, hey, can you get me in with? And I knew the people. So there was Dave Sterling. By the way, Alan Gregg's also been here. Oh, okay, great. So he won't remember this, but I knew him maybe through Jake Gold. Yeah, that'll do it.

Management company. Right. Like, partners of the hip. Right. So I guess it was through Jake. So I knew Alan, like via email, like not like, hey, I was the blonde lady at the blonde lady at the, you know, whatever. I was in the milk ads.

That's how I would introduce me. Do you know anybody? And I said, I knew the name. So I wanted to meet. And he connected me. He got in touch with the big wigs, which was probably Tom Freston and I think John Sykes at the time. And then I ended up, I just set up some interviews. And when I went down, they were thrilled because up until then they were really getting models.

The girls, they had these models who were pretending they knew how to interview bands. And they were like, oh, wow, here's a woman who can actually interview bands, right? And you're easy on the eyes. I'm just throwing it out there. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt, Rebecca, when you're going to VH1, that you're easy on the eyes. Well, that's very kind.

I don't know. I had, I was, I was a little bit, like, in my, I had, like, short brown, just, trust me, okay. Just take that compliment and go. Thank you. I'm not good with the comments. Um, anyway, so he, uh,

I went down there and I interviewed and then, um, decided, you know, went, it was like MTV or VH1, figuring out where to go and I got an agent, you know, they, they said, actually, they didn't even want it. They were like, okay, you need to make some decisions and figure out what you want to do, but we want you to choose an agent. So they connected me with three different big agencies because they didn't want me doing the deal. They didn't trust me.

I guess I seemed flaky or something. So, and then I chose VH1 because at the time I was very interested in behind the music. I really liked that sort of documentary style. I was getting more into I don't want to just talk to pop like about, you know, Britney Spears's new album. I wanted to get a little deeper. So, and I also thought, you know what, I'm aging out of the MTV generation. I was in my late 20s and I want to go and, you know, I want to be doing content and producing stuff for people my age.

So that's where I went. I ended up at VH1. You're going in New York City. Yeah. So go down. That was great. And this is like 99. This is 99.

Yeah. And you're, okay, because you're in New York City for 9-11, right? Yes. Yeah. I lived very close. Yeah. Are you able to... I wasn't in the city.

I had actually flown it the day before. I flew out September 10th to do the Latin Grammys in L.A. Oh, okay. They were supposed to be on September 11th that evening, I guess. And I woke up to a phone... So I actually flew out. I was supposed to fly in the morning of the 11th. And finished my reads and doing stuff at the studio.

I ran to J.F.K. Flew to L.A., got on the last plane. arrived in L.A., went to bed, woke up to, this is back, this isn't really dating myself. I had a cell phone, but before we would set the phone alarm, you just still asked for somebody to call you, the hotel, right? Like a wake-up call. And I woke up at, it was probably like 5.30 in the morning, L.A. time, so 8.30 and 8.45, right around there, and New York time.

And it was somebody speaking a foreign language to me. And they were like, Carmen, but la-l-l-la. And I was like, what? Carmen. And then they hung. They went, oh, sorry. And they hung up. And I looked at my phone and I had 21 missed calls.

And I started checking them. I was like, what is going on? So I hit go. And my mother is not the type of person who cries easily. She's, you know, she was like that old Protestant, like, never let him see you sweat. And stiff upper lip. Stip upper lip. And she was crying.

And she said, she said, dear, I need you to call me. tell me you're, and she was like, I was like, what is going on? Tell me. And I was like, what? And then the next message was another friend from Toronto. And she was like, hey, I'm just checking on you. I really hope you're okay. And I had no, you know, and so I turned on the TV and I was like, oh my God. And just in time for like the tower, the first building was coming down. So that's how I was not in New York. I, but I lived in New York. Yeah. But you did produce a series called Across America. Yeah, that came out of that whole, that situation.

And I think that was, I went to a really strange, it's sort of similar to middle age, obviously way more tragic, but, you know, in middle age, you have this sort of liminal space. You're like, what's going on? Like, where am I going? You know, you're that in between. And I feel like that was, because I had been working at much since 94, even before that, I was modeling. So I had been in that world of, you know, fun, fun, fun, you know, and I was,

September 11th really sort of changed and I was like that was the beginning of what am I doing with my life? I need to do stuff that's more substantive and I need to get it together. I don't know. It was just like this eye opening thing and it's not that I left my job right.

Did you feel like oh this music is kind of like it's kind of like sports. It's a bit like the toy department or whatever but there's like real news to be covered? Well there's real news. I had worked in real news like you know hot shots and stuff but I think for me it was I wanted to get deeper. I wanted to do, I wanted to be working in, I wanted to be telling stories and, and using my brain

that wasn't just trying to churn out things like on the hour, right? So there's, there's a lot of, there's, that's great. And I remember Janeline White used to work at the new music. Of course. And before I left much, she said to me, I was going to do an interview with Mick Jagger. And I said, you know, she was, I don't know, we were just sort of ran into each other and she was in the hall or something. said, you know, she was, you know, sort of, I really admired her and liked her. And she said, she's always really helpful bringing new people along. And she said, listen, do you, and I said, do you ever get nervous when you're going to do

interviews? Because I was going to Mick Jagger, like it was my first Mick Jagger. And I was like nervous. And she said, who are going to interview? And I said, Mick Jagger. And she goes, let me tell you something. If you get to a point where you're not nervous interviewing Mick Jagger, it's time to move on. And I see that. And after September 11th, they sent me, you know, this was like a couple months later and I had to go back to LA and I'm interviewing Mick Jagger. I wasn't nervous. I had interviewed him a few times.

But I was like, wow, I'm not nervous. I'm not getting those butterflies. Not anything to do with him. I just thought I need to move on. So that was, it took me about a year, but then I was, I went over to W.A.V.C. After VH1. Okay. Okay.

So I did have a little clip of you on VH1. We didn't get VH1 here, as you know. Like, we got much more music. Unless you were my parents who got a satellite. I don't know why you didn't get a satellite. No, this came up recently because there was some talk about MTV having an anniversary. And I, this is just like a WhatsApp group of people who listen to the program. And I disclosed the true story, which is, I've never seen MTV.

Like, I never had access to it. I watched much music. Yeah. I never saw MTV. But of course, friend of the show, FOTM Hall of Famer, Stu Stone, he had a satellite, like a black market satellite. And then, you know, the aforementioned Cam Gordon was talking about going over there to watch MTV. And Stu was watching MTV. Stu, by the way, my guest tomorrow.

Stu Stone's amazing. He was on MTV on a show called Blowing Up with Jamie Kennedy. It's quite something. Okay, good. Lend you the CD over here. You can check it. A rollin of Saget was a big hit and circle, circle, dot, dot. Okay, shout out to Stu Stone, who is now directing for Dark Side of the Ring

and we're going to talk about that, some big match with Samoa Joe. There's a name for you, Rebecca Rankin, and Samoa Joe. I like, yeah. And a guy I learned about only the other day watching this thing at the parade. We're not the Paradise. Where was I? The Royal. college.

His name was Necro. What was the rest of his name? Necro. Philea. No, that's how few. Close. Necro.

Ah, I'll Google it when you're talking about something else. I'll Google it. But you said, I'm going to VH1 and you said, I can't remember your words exactly. Something about doing something more substantive

than talking about like a new Britney Spears song or album. Okay, I'm not trying to slag anybody. No, I'm just saying. You've done that for a few years. you're like, okay, want to move on. You're not sagging. But I did pull a clip from 2001.

Just randomly chose a Rebecca Rankin promo. This is VH1? Yeah, VH1. So let's hear, because some of us Canadians never heard you in VH1. This VH1... Bad audio, by way. ...is sponsored by Chrysler.

Some big names hit record stores today. I'm Rebecca Rankin. That story is coming up. Brittany Spears is much talked about a third album. Brittany is hitting stores today. You can look for sexed-up R&Bron.

the hip-hop flavored vibe from the pop princess, as well, there's a duet with her lover boy and sings Justin Timberlake. After three years, Biggie Small's widow, Faith Evans, is back with her new album Faithfully, and Pink Floyd brings echoes the best of Pink Floyd. For more on these albums, you go to VH1News.com. I'm Rebecca Rankin. So when I hear that, Rebecca, I hear rapid facts. Yeah, yeah, rapid facts with a Prompter, Rapid Facts with a whole team of writers. Rapid Facts with a control room rolling tape in as opposed to just us kind of winging. I mean, you know, like Rapid Fax was so, I mean, much in that building, I didn't understand it at

the time, but to be able to learn and understand, and I think that's what really, really, I mean, that's what got me my job because they were so thrilled at somebody knew production. I mean, even visa aside, right? I went down on an 01 visa, which was a performance. You know, they just said, oh, she's just talent. She's just another person who's on here who's going to talk. I wouldn't have gotten, I wouldn't have been allowed to be into the country because they weren't, that wasn't something. That wasn't an 01 class visa.

But I was able to say, oh, I can produce, I can shoot, I can do this, I can do that. So, yeah, you get down to a VH1MTV and, you know, it was all under Viacom at the time. Right. And there is, you know, so I, you're. doing CBS's morning show, you're doing, you know, you're going and you're doing hits for MTV, you're doing these collabs with them. They're using your tape. You're using their tape. There's a lot of overlap with all of those Viacom companies. Right. So Rebecca Rankin will be on CBS's early show. Yeah, so I would cover Michael Jackson and then I would be on

Brian Gumbull. But we would do like a show. It would be like the Michael Jackson, you know, anniversary show or whatever, which actually is shown in that recent movie, the biopic, like the very end one, that show I went to cover. And then the next morning, I had to go and like go on with Brian Gumble or MTV Awards are happening. And then you have to do the hits because somebody has to go and explain to Brian Gumble what the hell is going on. Right? And then he was always being slightly provocative, right, as, as Bryant tends to be. And kind of asking, and he's like, well, really, does anybody really care about that now? And I was like, oh my God, he was always a little cantankerous, I guess.

Such, but fun. So yeah, you're under that umbrella, but back to your original question, that is rapid facts. Right. But with, you can hear like the Rebecca going like, all right,

you're coming up, but that's all, you're, you know, somebody, I mean, I would put my own spin on it and rewrite, but yeah, you're performing.

Exactly. So, so, okay, so essentially, like we talked earlier, do whatever you want it much within reason.

I guess it changed as Bell Media took over and stuff, but do whatever you want. Just don't spend any money. It's like the, that's sort of like the mission statement of sorts in the Moses empire there. Well, and make sure you put your hands in front of the lens so people know it's not just a camera, right? Like, so if CBC is doing it, like, you know, you're not supposed to be aware of the person shooting or, you know. Right.

You could see the reporter, but if you're shooting at much music or doing anything, the idea of you picking up the camera, that, we embrace that, whereas they would never embrace that. There was no quiet on set in the much. Because they get right. Outside of this universe, Moses. universe, like the environment, as you would call it, right? Like, it would look like, you're cheap. Like, right? It would just look like, oh, you're, you're, you got a low budget.

And this is like a Wayne's World on cable 10 or something like that. Yeah, yeah. And also VH1, all that stuff you're, well, that stuff you're playing and some of the stuff at much, a lot of that is recorded and then rolled in, right? Whereas you're at much and it's live. It's like, I mean, if you're screwing up and you screw up, oh, like a name, you just be like, oops. Well, ask David Kines next time you're talking to him.

Ask him about the very first, and I don't know how many Canadians actually had much music in 84. Like it was on some tier of cable that I sure didn't have in 84. But he accidentally unplugged. Like he hits, yeah, it's in that Christopher Wardbook. He unplugged something, and much went off the air for a little bit that first day. Oh, wow. Because David Kines unplugged something by accident.

And they were at 99 Queen Street East, smaller quarters, and they had it, 299 Queen Street West. Okay. So you said, W-A-B-C. So you leave, like, you didn't get fired. You didn't get out of here, Rebecca Rank, and you left, this light is messing up.

You know, we're like, what are you doing? So you leave the CBS MTV Universe, because you're going to be on W-A-B-C-Channel 7, New York. Well, it was a mixed bag, though. So we went through a management change. Like, the other thing that happens in Canada, is I feel like, you know, teams stick around, assuming you don't unplug in the middle of a broadcast,

like David Kine, but he kept the job. he did everything in that but you know you kind of you know if you do good work and you stick around like people will be able to stick where they're not trying to but in the states they just I mean I would start at a show and then you know like six months later there'd be a totally new team working on the show right like that's normal okay um so I'm at VH1 it's like late 2001 early 2002 I started on like I had one contract when I came in and then I'd re-signed like the next year for another three years or whatever it was. Yeah.

And so now I'm about a year and a half in, I guess, to my second contract. And we go through a big management change. And the guys who I was working, sort of the really big guys were still there. But the people I was working with day to day, my supervisors, one guy named Bill Brand, for example, he was going somewhere else. Like, I think he went and started doing the shopping network. Don't quote me on that. I mean, he just quoted yourself.

What? What was that? Okay. Sorry. That one went over my head. not that quick. Anyway, he, so what happens is you change guards, right?

And so we got a new person in and they wanted to really sex up VH1. No more of this serious behind the music stuff. We're going to do housewives and we're going to do. And so I was told that I was going to be, we were doing something like a spring breaky thing and I was supposed to do my interviews. It was going to be like Rebecca's hot tub is what it was. And I was like, no, I'm a news person. So you're in a hot tub doing, you were supposed to be.

Well, I didn't, but I was like, I was supposed to be. And they wanted somebody who would be in Maxim magazine and then, you know, interviewing artists. Like that was, they wanted to sex it up. And I'm just, I don't, I'm not that person, right? So I probably should have tried to be more of that person. I just don't have that kind of, I'm not, I'm not like that. I don't know. There's nothing wrong with that. I want to be very clear. I should have been more. You're not shaming, uh, but journalists who get in a bikini and get in a hot tub. You're not shaming these people. I don't have a problem with it. I just have always, like embarrassed. I'm just not like that person who wants to show my body.

Whatever, anyway, that's a whole other thing. So I at that point started going, okay, I better find another job. And so I was sort of looking and my agent figured out, you know, because after September 11th, I had had some calls and so he started investigating things. And so we had another option and then it was sort of like, and they, you know, they have to buy you out of a contract for a certain amount of time. So we were able to sort of negotiate that. So I went, where did I go? I had a great trip to, oh my God, Manchu Picchu.

I had like a month off and then I started a new job. So. Okay. And the new job is that WAPC. Yeah. And that was features and that was great because it was, that was kind of the best of the best because that was kind of interviewing real people. I now had decided that I needed to be interviewing real people and real stories. And that really is still where my passion is.

I'm really interested in just people and what they do and how they get by. and how they deal with circumstances and what their jobs are. And so there was a lot of that. And I really liked that part, right? We had fun too. But, and that was a grind. It was a story a day. It was a three-minute story.

It was like a mini-movie every day. Beginning, middle, end. I mean, and I had people helping me, for sure. Like, I had a cameraman and a really amazing editor. You didn't need to be Dominic Shulow out there doing a story. No, that was, I mean, because you can't, you know, you can do that, but that's, you need a little bit more help. So.

Okay. Now, obviously, at some point, you return to the Great White North at some point. But for all this work you're doing here at WABC and at Viacom or whatever it is, VH1, the stuff I never get to see. I don't get to see Rebecca Rankin anymore. This is all New York City. So is it New York to Canada or do you relocate elsewhere in the U.S. before you return to Canada?

I go from New York. I was there for about. five, six years, I guess, six years, and then meet my man I ended up marrying. And he moved to New York for a bit. And then he had to go back. He worked in film. He had to go back. And I was like ready and we were trying to get pregnant.

So I was trying to get pregnant with him. So. You would be wild if he got pregnant. Then we'd be stopping the press. Don't even joke. You don't even know what's going to happen. Oh, I saw the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Yeah.

It wasn't very good. So we go back to L.A. Have kids. I worked. I did behind the scenes on a couple of movies, like Hollywood movies. Produced like the, was then EPKs.

Produced a short for actually a friend of mine who had been at City TV and then just did motherhood for a bit. Just solid. But you have twins. Yeah. Yeah. And we didn't have family.

We didn't have a whole support system out there. So it was either I did it or we had to hire a whole cadre of people. my husband worked, still works in film. So you're gone, when those guys are gone for eight, nine months of the year. You know, if they're not on a film, they're doing commercials, right? So they're out of the state. Yeah. So I do that. And then in about 2011, I start getting into, I start volunteering and then end up getting a job at a place called Carta, Carta, Carta, CoraPoint of Special Advocates. And that is helping kids in foster care, doing advocacy work,

going to the court dates following up on the court orders. And that leads me after a few years to deciding, I'd done my undergrad at UFT, but I wanted to do a master's and do grad work. And so I went into social work. Okay, you got a master of social work. And you're still in California. Still in California. Worked primarily in IEPs,

which education plans for kids in foster care, worked at a law office. They had lawyers, but the social workers would try and get they, you know, the services. It's a lot harder to get help out there than it is in Toronto. It sounds to me like important. By the way, the light just went off.

Rebecca, do you have any lighting assistance you can give me? I need, like, a consultant. Just jiggle it. Who knows, it's okay. You look great, you know. Dancing in the dark is not what we're doing here. But please continue. But I was going to say that that's, that to me sounds like it would be difficult,

difficult work, important work, but potentially. rather rewarding work. Yeah. I mean, very... Ignore the light now. Ignore the wizard behind the curtain. I hope that I don't have a seizure with your strobe light.

Oh, geez. I do too. You got it back on. Yeah, it was definitely a 180 from entertainment. And I, you know, I was living in a world in L.A. that was,

I like to refer to it as the bubble. You know, there's different levels, as you can appreciate, in California, especially in Hollywood, of, you know, there's the people who are the, you know, trying to get a job, trying to work in movies that are usually have other jobs. And then, you know.

And they're usually like a waiter or a waitress. Yeah, they're waiting. They're nannying. They're, you know, they're babysitting. They're doing stuff like that, right? They've got another job. They're trying to make it, right? So that's the vast majority of people.

And then there's people who are obviously working and there's like the agents and the lawyers and stuff. And then there's kind of the Hollywood elite. And they are really not. like the interesting thing about them, they'll do the red carpets and stuff, but they're really, like they are hunkered in. When they're seeing a movie,

they're not going to a screening. They're screening it in their screening room, right? Like that's like an other level, right? So you've got these different levels and I had exposure to all of those levels. And I just began to think, I'm just living in a bubble. My kids are living in a bubble.

Like, I need to do something else. So I think that was it. And along with that is my own son has a number of disabilities including he's on the spectrum. And so I was negotiating a lot of, you know, IEP stuff and educational advocacy for my own son. And so that was, there was an interest there. So it wasn't just, there was a motivating factor,

very selfish motivating factor that if I learned the systems, if I learned the policy, if I learned what was necessary to get through, I could use it for our own home life as well as, you know. It would be really, I think it would be super helpful. for a parent of a neurodivergent child to have your expertise and to have your guidance considering you went through that and learned it all for your own child?

Yes, except that I think that sometimes. I found this. My mother, unfortunately, got very sick last year and spent, gosh, about eight months in the Toronto, Ontario hospital system and just getting through that. And, you know, so I was dealing, we deal with people all the time. my father couldn't really do with it.

So it was my brother and I and the social workers and people, you know, they're moving from one place to another and all this stuff. And they were like, you're like, they would say like, you're very like on it. And I was like,

I never said like, well, actually, you know, I have some of this background. Right. But so it is helpful in your own life. Yes,

definitely. Um, but I think at some point, they also think you're a bit of a pain in the ass because you're asking a lot of questions. Like you go to the discharge meeting and they're like, why is she got a list that's four pages long? If you're not going to advocate for your own loved one, no one else will.

Like it's like you need to be the advocate for your child, your mom. If you know all the services, you're going to ask for it, right? You're going to ask for the world. And I know I asked for the world. And even, you know, in kids in foster care, we would ask for the world. And we'd be lucky if we got, you know, one third of our list, right? Our ask. But you got to, you know.

Yeah, you're not going to get anything. I had to ask for my Skype to visit the basement. You know, he wasn't just going to wander in one day saying, do you have any lasagna. It was like, J.D. Roberts, too. Well, J.D., I think you can actually make that. happen. And I will Zoom with JD. But Michael has to visit the basement. But I think those two worlds sort of combined. So let's go back to sort of the much city TV and then, you know, VH1 and all that stuff. And that storytelling background. Ignore the light. No one, you know, no one watches this actually. I'll

tell you right now. Everybody will listen to this audio only. Everybody, including Michael Stipe. Oh, I would love that. So I think, you know, now I'm sort of at a point where I love the idea. So I had this, you know, that sort of media background and then social work background. And now it's like I'm very interested in my old age of combining the two. And sort of now I'd like to do sort of stories with purpose and stuff like that. Like I think that's where my own son is just kind of launching. He's, you know, this in the last couple of months. So I might get a little bit of breathing room in that because, you know, he went to George Brown.

But really we went to George Brown. So I'm really, I think that's. That's where I, in social work, I love social work. And I, you know, I embrace that. And I'm really happy and glad that I did that. But it's exhausting. I think I had like empathy, fatigue. When you're sort of living it at home and you're working it, you know, I just was like,

I need a break from just this hands on all the time. So, yeah. Well, the big question, Rebecca. Yeah. Besides your light, your electricity falls. I'm embarrassed, Rebecca. Do you want me to look at your breaker for you? You probably could

with that training you had from Basil Young and the gang. Exactly. Why did you return to your homeland? Oh, that's a great question. It was the middle of COVID, right? My son really needed in-person school. I always joke. L.A. had nail salons open

and hair salon's open, but no schools open, right? So when we originally made the decision, I also wanted my kids to, they had been born and raised in California we left when they were 16, I guess. And I wanted them to have more normalicy. I wanted to get them out of that L.A. bubble you talk about. The bubble, because even, you know, you're not on, you know, L.A. people don't really walk.

You're not on mass transportation. That's a joke in Steve Martin's L.A. story or whatever. Oh, do you say that? No, no, but he's at a house or something. And he's going to visit someone three houses. is over. So three houses over. And he drives. And I mean, I'm just a Toronto guy. What do I know? I literally bike and walk everywhere. But I, I just found it so funny because he gets in the car. You think he's going to go far. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, well, that's it. Right. Like, so that is,

that's definitely a thing. Sarah Jessica Parker, I think, might have been who he was visiting. I can't remember. Sorry, we're back a go on. Three doors down. Which is also a band that played at Trump's inauguration. Yeah, I think it's I just wanted them to have another side of it And also I was thinking about university situation From my daughter and did you really want to take out a second mortgage In order to send your kid to upper like college, right? And this daughter is now in Germany, right?

So yeah, this daughter's complicated. No, she's great She did a couple of years at university here in Canada And then she actually, she and her father came up with this idea, which I, you know, I thought, well, okay, they'll never carry through with it, but they actually did. And she applied and was accepted at a liberal arts school out of upstate New York, and they have a campus in Berlin. So she has chosen, so she's been studying in Berlin. She's doing IR international relations. But they also have an art program that kind of she can, she likes doing art, she likes filmmaking, so she can do some of that. And she wasn't really getting that here. You know, you'd sort of choose one track unless you're going to art school.

you're not doing that. And if you can go to school in Berlin, who wouldn't want to go there? Exactly. Her dad is Polish, so she has an EU passport. So she might end up working over there. Like she doesn't, I don't have an EU passport.

So that would be a constraint for a lot of people. But yeah, so we'll see what happens with her. Yeah, exciting. 21. Yeah, why not? When my daughter went to McGill, like, oh, McGill would have been my first choice for her.

I wanted her to go McGill so badly, but she was like, no, I'm not doing that. She wanted to go with her friends. So you can lead a horse to walk. you can't make them during. But my daughter fell in so love with Montreal. She's now graduated McGill and she still lives in Montreal. I'm like, wait, aren't she supposed to come back?

Like, no, the rent is much cheaper in Montreal. Okay, but that's, I think, I think if my daughter gone to Montreal, she would have, because Montreal is a fantastic city, right? Yeah. So that was, so we came back because of that and also I have elderly parents. They needed some help. But now I'm sort of thinking, I want to be a nomad. I'm thinking about living out of my car for a bit and traveling.

Living the dream. Buy one of those old Volkswagen bus, beetle buses or whatever. Yeah, with the split glass, the thing, you know, the split glass one. Honestly,

because I have a fantasy where I live in a boat. Oh. So one of the cameramen at Much, Matt Phillips. Okay. I just looked at his Instagram. He always was into boating.

He lived on a boat most of the year. I think all of the year. His partner had a house. I'm not sure if they, like, in the really cold months went there. But I just saw, It's tough in Toronto.

And he's like, you know, he goes all there on the coast and his boat. I mean, he's really into it. He's doing an amazing job. Jeez, okay. So let me just say, welcome back to Toronto. I guess you've been here a few years now because it was COVID you came here. Exactly. Yeah.

Like 20, 22 or whatever. I do want to let you know in Toronto at a great park called Christy Pitts. You've probably been to. I know, Christy Pitts too. Well. They play pro baseball there and no ticket is required. Can you believe it? I'm telling you, go to the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball website and find out when you can catch a game.

I'm going there tonight. So I plan to bike to Christy Pits tonight. First pitch, I believe, is at 7.30 p.m. And I'm going to take in some Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. But Rebecca, I'm giving you a book on the history of Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. So you can prep and be prepared. You said it's every Friday night? It's not every Friday night.

The schedule zips around. I was there Saturday night and there's a game tonight. But go to the website and find out. But yeah, get your butt to Christy Pits. No ticket required, Rebecca. That's amazing. It is amazing. There's not many things that you can say that about these days, right?

I think it's the best kept secret in this city, so I'm trying to make it less of a secret. Are you going to take your beer with you? You can bring your beer there. That's the thing. So they have an official Leifes Lager from a craft brewery called Leffield, but you can totally go to the LCBO or whatever, buy your Great Lakes beer and just drink that on the hill. So you can drink your beer now in Christy Pits. I think the rule in Toronto, I think, is you can drink beer in a park as long as the park doesn't border a body of water.

I think that's the thing. So if your park is on the lake, I know. I think you're going to get hammered and walk into the lake or something. I don't know where it comes from. But like there are parks near here, obviously, you're near the water. So there are parks near here that border on Lake Ontario. And you can't legally, like I do it anyways. I literally have events where we drink beer in Marie Curtis Park, okay?

But Christy Pitts has no water around it. You can drink your beer in Christy Pitts and it's completely legal. But they have a fantastic skate park. They have a great skate park, yeah. And Yassiel Pueig. I've spent a lot of time. Oh, really? He hits dongers that hit the skaters.

Like, this guy's crushing the ball lately. He leads the league in home runs. And you can see him for free tonight at Christy Pitts. That's a fact. Okay. So, Yaziel, I remember. From L.A. Yeah.

He was a Dodger. He was a Dodger. And then there was this whole thing where he just spent all of his money on video games, like playing video. Like, I was like, I was like, what? But, you know, because he's Cuban, right? He is Cuban. Yeah, 100%. And he was,

was he was, was he was, and I think it was around that time. They were doing all these articles on him. And then it was sort of like, what does rookie of the year who's making a zillion dollars do with his money? And it was like,

they showed a picture of the apartment with like one bed. And like this massive TV and video game. Like he thought this was the greatest thing. So Yassiel probably is good enough to be honest. He could be playing in major leagues,

but he has some legal difficulties and he's awaiting sentencing. And that's how he ended up playing at Christy Pitts. So he'll be there tonight. He'll be in the long. line up. Is he going to be here in the basement next week?

Here's a weird story. I have a relationship with Toronto Maple Leafs baseball, obviously, and they were unveiling to the public and to the media, Yassie L. Pueg. I'm the guy who introduced him at Leffield Brewery, the newest

member of the Toronto Maple Leaf Base Base Base Base team, Yassie L. Pueg. And I introduced Yassie L. Pueg to my friend, Snow. So I'm there. This is a true. I can't believe this. So I'm like, hey, this is informer, this is Snow.

Yassiel Pueg. And they had a a little chat there and I was the one who brought them together. So there you go. This is what's happening, Rebecca Reagan. Wait, he's with Snow the artist? No, Snow the musician lives in Toronto. He's a Toronto guy.

Darren O'Brien is his name and I became fast friends with him. Okay, okay. He works with a media lawyer guy named Paul Farberman. Do you know that name at all? Paul Farberman. Farberman sounds familiar. Well, he worked with Celine Dion for a long time, but he's done a lot of stuff. But he was dating Catherine McLennan.

And he's the one who introduced Catherine McClainahan. Catherine and I need to go out because she has been a huge part of our time here. LA, Catherine. Yeah. Oh, she was at the recording of Tears Are Not Enough because she accompanied her boyfriend Paul Farberman, who was the guy. When Gordon Lightfoot does his part, he has to sign some document that lets them use it or whatever. And Paul, that was his job. But yeah, Paul Farberman's all connected to all this.

Okay. So I just want to say thank you to recyclemyelectronics.ca, because we're, Rebecca, if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices, don't throw them in the garbage. Go to recycle my electronics.ca. Put in your postal code and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. Also, much love to Nick Iini's from Fusion Corp. He's got a great podcast called Building Toronto Skyline.

He's also got one called Mike and Nick. I'm also the Mike and Mike and Nick. And much love to Ridley Funeral Home. They sent over a measuring tape for you, Rebecca Rankin. Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home, you're going to soak that in. Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home will be in this very basement at 4 p.m. to record a fresh episode of Life's Undertaking their fantastic podcast. Thank you for the support.

Ridley Funeral Home, Rebecca. This was amazing. Do they do aquamation at Ridley? I feel like I knew what that was. Is it what? It's like where it's, I think it's really hot water instead of a fire and it's like cremation, but aquamation. I'm very interesting. I have actually feel like.

I have had that question for Brad. I don't remember the answer, but I'll ask him because 4 o'clock Brad's going to be here. I'll ask him. He's the funeral director there. He also owns the place. It's at 14th in Lake Shore. So Rebecca,

you've now made your Toronto mic debut. Thank you. How was it? It was so fun. It was easy. You said you'd make it easy. I was all worried like, do I have to prep?

I'm such a weird. I don't want prep. I know you don't want prep. But I was like, what are you going to prep? You're going to prepare a reel? You're going to get Bill Willichka to put together a new sizzle reel for Rebecca. Can you imagine how boring that would be?

on a couple of times. Here's Rebecca eating her Cheerios. Here's Rebecca stirring up her instant coffee. Here she is, driving to South Etobico to survey the place for Michael Stipe. So basically, just to recap what you're up to these days, because I did snoop your IMDB page. I did snoop that too. You have an IMDB page and it credits you as producer, camera and electrical department,

an actress. Like all three, you have all three credits. I'm not an actress. That's just, I don't know why. I know why that is there because Denise made me go in this Mr. Music movie that much had something to do with. I think it was Mick Fleetwood was in it or something way back in the day. Erica was apparently in it too. And I, so that's the only thing.

So you got a credit as an actress for Mr. Music. It was awful. It was so awful. It's so awful. I don't really know about it. I'll have to get Ed Conroy to tell me what Mr. Music is about. I might have actually ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor because, yeah. Oh.

But, yeah. Okay. Well, I saw that you are, it says handheld productions. Yes. This is sort of like, I have TMDS here. Toronto Mic Digital Services. This is basically Rebecca Rankin Industries. Yeah.

So that started as honestly a tax thing, if you must know. Not here. Careful. The CRA is listening. No, but I mean, in the States, right? They don't listen. IRS. So I always have my hands in little projects.

I'm not, they can audit me all they want. I'm not doing anything illegal at this point. But I've always sort of kept that company. Okay. You know, I have, I want to do a documentary. It's a shell company. I want to do a documentary when my kids want to do it on their father, right? Sort of coming to America, American Dream, all that stuff.

So we've been working on that. That is a in-progress thing. So that would fall under that. So you're no longer with this gentleman, this baby daddy? No, but we're close. We're all, we all celebrate Christmas together. I'm in that club too, but conscious uncoupling or whatever it's called. Oh, that's a Gwen of Paltros thing.

Conscious uncompleting. I'm just joking. No, I get that. Yeah. I get that. So you're still amicable. You're still friends. You're co-parents, obviously.

We're co-parents. And we have a son, you know, we have a daughter too, but, you know, our son needs, you know, some extra help. And, you know, it's not just like, oh, 18 and launched. So we're both. in it for the long haul, obviously, and helping and supporting and working together because it's not, you know, everybody has different scenarios and we, you know, he's not, my son is not independent. He's, you know, lives with one or both of us, you know. So we're all, all hands on deck.

No, I get that. Absolutely. Your most important job, Rebecca, his mother. Yeah. Almost as important as rapid facts. Not quite as important as those Molson ads. Right. But good, no, good on you. And I'm glad we got to meet. And when you referenced this, this ex and you talk about these movies. Like, I'm just curious what level of, like, would I recognize any of these titles? Like, I know, you're careful not to, like, name this person. No, you probably wouldn't recognize anyone.

Okay, just wondering, like, if your ex is Steven Spielberg. I'm just curious. Because I've heard of Steven Spielberg. He directed a movie called About a shark. That's true. He married the girl from the second Indiana Jones. Yeah, Kate Capshaw. Kate capture.

Yeah. Right. And they're still happily married. So that is not him. Your guess was wrong and you only had one guess. So there you go. I feel like Stephen would come to the South Atopical basement. I feel like he's a guy.

I feel like would come in and have a great, we could just chat about how traumatized I was in the drive-in theater off Highway 400 when I saw E.T for the first time. And he flatlined and I started bawling. And I remember when he, because it was like, oh. He would like that. Probably Steve. Yeah.

I'm like, Stephen. Yeah. I get it now. I was like, 10 years old or whatever, I was 8 years old, whatever. But I'm like, I get it. Like, he's an alien. They have different rules than humans. But my brain applied human rules.

And I saw him flatline, which means he's dead. Sure. Yeah, there's always a little twist with the Spielberg aliens, right? Disclosure Day again, right? You can make any rules you want for aliens. I love that. That's going to be my motto. Any rules for aliens?

You're an alien. Okay. Rebecca Rankin, we're going to take a photo by Toronto Tree, but don't leave without your lasagna. And I want you to know, I enjoyed this. And my tape measure and my beer. Yeah, you got everything. Right. Swag.

How was the beer? Actually, I'm enjoying it. I could get down with this because it's not, I, I, I, it's not too much alcohol. It's not too much alcohol and it's not sickly sweet like a soda. No, it's, uh, it's your beer. And I'm, I think at least one of those beers I'm saying, you know, you got a logger, you got a, thank you.

Yeah. My brother's going to be very happy. We'll split them. And the nice, beautiful cans. Amazing. I like graphics. I'm that, that, that, that, I have an in-house artist. Oh, there you go.

Is that you? I wish. I wish, I wish I had some artistic ability. is Fabian, I believe, who famously worked at the only cafe, and there's a song called The Only on Shakespeare My Butt by Lois to the Low.

And also on Shakespeare My But is a song called Rosie and Grey. And this is a cover of Rosie and Grey by Rob Pruth. Bravo. And that! Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca Rankin. Do any people think you're Rebecca Remain?

Yeah, I've had that. I think she did a milk commercial, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, John Stamos. She dropped the Stamos. All right. And that brings us to the end of our 1,945th show.

1945. The war is over. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. And much love to all who made this possible. Of course, that is Great Lakes Brewery. Rebecca's got her beer. She's in love with the Sunnyside Session IPA. Paul Miposta, you're going to love this lasagna.

I guess you're bringing it to this event or whatever. You're going to report back. Yep. Okay. Am I invited to this event? If you want to drive north on the weekend. How far north? Dorset.

Can I bike there? Can I bike there? No. No, I wouldn't suggest that. But you know what? I'll do some video. I'll send you some video. Dorset, is that where the bikers hang out?

Probably. Let's just put it this way. It's Namaskoka. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. I'll be there tonight. Nikainis. Recycle My Electronics. dot CA

and Ridley Funeral Home Brad's here at 4 See you all Okay I gotta go to my calendar I should have done this before Can you bear with me a moment here Please everybody Be patient with me

For some reason this browser is plugging along here Okay All right Oh yeah I think I referenced it earlier Stu Stone In the basement 3.30 p.m. tomorrow

Oh I was going to find out who that wrestler is His name is Necro All right you're ready to Ready for this? Rebecca on the way out? Necro Butcher. Necro Butcher had this historic match with Samoa Joe.

I saw the whole dark side of the ring the other day. I'm going to chat with director Stu Stone about it. See you all tomorrow, 3.30. Be there.