Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Remembering Bill Atanasoff: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1942

Episode Date: August 1, 2026

Peter Gross called me this morning with the sad news. Bill Atanasoff had passed away at the age of 73. Shortly after this phone call, Lorne Honickman texted me the same news and included this prose:Hey Mike. I just wanted you to know that Bill Atanasoff just passed away one week before his 74th birthday. You did a great tribute to him with Peter. If you want post something as I know you do that when significant and important people have died, you can say that its a very sad day for his family, his friends and for all his colleagues from his many years at CITY TV.Bill Atanasoff was a former City-TV cameraman who was struck by a drunk driver on November 9, 2010, while on assignment. Bill suffered severe head trauma, a broken neck, broken pelvis and two broken legs, but despite living the rest of his life as a blind quadrapeligic, his story was not a sad one, but an inspiring one.On Sep 29, 2025, Peter Gross visited the TMDS studio for a lengthy chat about Bill. Peter arrived with several pieces of audio, featuring Jim McKenny, Lorne Honickman, John Whaley, Al McCormick, Bill's sister, and Bill's caregiver. He also recorded a conversation with Bill himself, about the accident, about his life in the years that followed, and about his incredibly inspiring attitude.You can hear the entire episode in the Toronto Mike’d archives, you’ll find it there as episode 1770, but I wanted to pay tribute to Bill by sharing some of the highlights, including a very special conversation with Bill himself. I am grateful to Peter that we have this audio, as Peter tells me it was likely the last time Bill shared his story in such detail.Rest well, Bill. My sincere condolences to all who knew and loved him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Gross called me this morning with some sad news. Bill Atanasoff had passed away at the age of 73. Shortly after this phone call, Lauren Honakman texted me the same sad news and included this prose. Hey, Mike, I just wanted you to know that Bill Atanisov just passed away one week before his 74th birthday.

you did a great tribute to him with Peter. If you want to post something, as I know you do that when significant and important people have passed away, you can say that it's a very sad day for his family, his friends, and for all his colleagues from his many years at City TV. Bill Latanisov was a former City TV cameraman who was struck by a drunk driver on No.

November 9th, 2010, while on assignment. Bill suffered severe head trauma, a broken neck, broken pelvis, and two broken legs. But despite living the rest of his life as a blind quadriplegic, his story was not a sad one, but an inspiring one. On September 29, 2025, Peter Gross visited the TMDS student, for a lengthy chat about Bill. Peter arrived with several pieces of audio, featuring Jim McKinney, Lauren Honickman, John Whaley, Al McCormick, Bill's sister, and Bill's caregiver.

But he also recorded a conversation with Bill himself, about the accident, about his life in the years that followed, and about his incredibly inspiring attitude. You can hear this entire episode in the Toronto Mic'd Archives. It's there as episode 1770. But I wanted to pay tribute to Bill by sharing some of the highlights, including a very special conversation with Bill himself. I'm grateful to Peter that we have this audio,

as he tells me this was. likely the last time Bill shared his story in such detail. Rest well, Bill. My sincere condolences to all who knew and loved him.

We love it when you're on the show. You're an FOTM Hall of Famer. You're one of my all-time favorite guests, if not my favorite guest. We're going to do a couple of quick updates, and then it's going to be all about Bill Atanisov, the rest of of the way. Does that sound good to you, Peter?

I know that you make your living interviewing, the movers and the shakers and the heavy hitters and the notorious and the famous. But enough about Peter Gross. But Bill of Tennisoff wasn't famous. Bill of Tennisoff wasn't a rock star. But this is a story that will amaze some people and dismay a lot of people. It's essentially in my life, what happened to Bill of Tennisoff is the worst thing I've ever seen happen to a human being.

Okay. So hold on to that because you've brought some stellar audio, some familiar voices, some people will hear for the first time. And I'm kind of really excited. When you pitched me this idea, I was sold right away. And I want to thank Retro Ontario for this fantastic photo I was able to get from Retro Ontario. That's Ed Conroy, also of FOTM Hall of Famer. He's got a great photo of Bill, you know, in a city TV truck or whatever with his camera out the window. And I think it'll be a great, like, photo to a company.

this episode of Toronto Mike. Peter, who is Bill Atanisov? Bill Attenasoff. Bill Attenasoff was this dashing, handsome, charismatic man who many, many, you know, at least myself and Jim McKinney will tell you, was the greatest sports cameraman. It was a field cameraman for City TV in the late 70s and early, and 80s into the 90s.

Just wonderful, wonderful cameraman, great guy to work with. We had a lot of adventures, a lot of mischief among us. And almost 15 years ago, one night, he was working nights. He was one of the camera supervisors, but he chose to work night because he had freelance during the day. So he's working night, and he'd gone to some event where a bad guy had jumped from a building, okay? So there were police and ambulance at the site, and it's 11 o'clock at night.

He sets his camera up. there's a sort of a police barrier. And as he's standing in the street near the police barrier, a guy goes through the police barrier, over 30 miles an hour, driving a Cadillac, plows into Bill, smashes his legs, Bill's head hits the windshield, he flips over, his head smashes against the curb.

He's dead if there's no ambulance on the site. They pick him up long and short of it. He was in a coma for a while, needed dozens of stitches to his head. they had to remove one of his legs. Ever since then, he's been a blind quadriplegic. Okay, just to correct, we care about the facts on this show. We don't print the legend, but it was a Lincoln Continental that hit Bill at Tennessee.

What did I say? You said Cadillac. Well, I wasn't there. And this was Kipling Avenue. Shadowed to Atobico where you are right now. So Kipling, this is November 9th. What calendar year again? I'm saying 15 years ago, so 2010.

Okay, goodness. They did arrest the driver, and they charged him. He was a 68-year-old man. They charged him with criminal negligence and dangerous driving, causing bodily harm. I don't know what the resolution was of that lawsuit. But as you've told us, what happened to Bill, at the time, the article I was reading, talked about a severe head trauma, a broken neck, broken pelvis, two broken legs. It sounds like they had to amputate one of those legs.

Oh, my goodness. So devastating accident, a 68-year-old driver, just bowled over Bill Atenasoff, who was doing his job on Kipling Avenue that November 9th night. Terrible. And we will find out in ensuing interviews what happened to that individual who ran Bill down.

Okay. I love it. So I want to just tell the listenership that I've never heard these clips. So I have nine clips that Peter Gross has procured, and I can't wait. So as I listen to these with you, Peter, I'll be hearing them for the first time. And then my reaction will be authentic

because I don't know what's coming and I'm very excited. But do you have things you'll say before I play each clip? Yeah, I'll give you. Just set up. And the first one's easy because Jim McKinney and I have been up to, it's the Grove Park long-term nursing home where Bill. He's been in a number of places based on a series of circumstances.

Now he's up in Barry. in this home. It's very nice. And Jim McKinney and I went to visit him. This is an interview from about three weeks ago, which I got him talking about what happened to him. Okay, so we get to hear from Bill. Here we go. We're talking with Bill of Tennisoff, room 3037, at Grove Park long-term health care.

First of all, it's a beautiful sunny day. Bill, how are you feeling today? I'm feeling pretty good, Peter. Okay. I want to talk to you, and I'm worried that this will be difficult, but I want to talk to you about the accident that you had almost 15 years ago. Are you aware that it's closing on 15 years? Yes. Okay, I'm going to read you something here.

I was in the 680 newsroom. I was doing sports this particular morning. I think it was November the 10th, 2010, and I saw this story come over the white. I'll read, I'm reading it with interest and then my heart just sunk. A Toronto television station's cameraman is in hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a car while videotaping a police investigation. My first thought is, geez, I wonder if I know that guy. And then it says, Bill of Tennisoff 58, who works for City TV,

was struck on Kipling Avenue in Toronto's West End. And just my brain, my heart just sunk at that point. Tennisoff and other journalists were on the scene to videotape an incident being investigated by the province's special investigations unit. They're quoting the CBC's Tony Smyth. Bill was standing on the outside of a police car with emergency lights flashing when he was struck by the car. Police said Attenasov was crossing Kipling Avenue mid-block when he was struck. Bill was thrown about 15 feet. His camera and belongings scattered on the road.

He landed near me and three other colleagues already. on the scene, a 68-year-old male driving a Lincoln Continental was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to Toronto police's 22 division. First of all, do you recall any of this bill? Yes. To what extent? Well, I remember we were waiting for the police to show up and give us a press conference. and I realized that I needed to change my equipment a bit and prepare for the press conference.

Anyway, I went to the car, the trunk, opened it up, exchanged some things, and came back across the street. when I crossed the street the second time I saw a car that was driving in my direction and I thought oh we'd see me I wished that I'd ran across

and exited I guess I couldn't believe that he didn't see me and then he came in and hit me with the car. And I guess I went flying in the air, landing on a couple of hoods of cars. And then the kicker. I landed back on the sidewalk. That's where I hit my head and lost my vision forever. I have to say that on the morning that I got the news about you, there actually was a closed circuit

video of it. It's awful to watch. Your head slammed into the passenger side of the car, breaking the window, and you can see your body flying over. Do you want to describe the full extent of your injuries? Well, I lost my vision. That was the worst. Now I'm a blind person, and I've been for many years. And I also lost my vision. my right leg that was smashed by the car when I was originally hit

and that leg was crushed and they amputated it and I now have a stump in place of the leg but you also suffered a broken neck and a broken back am I correct broken neck?

And did you say broken back? Well, I did. Am I correct? Is that my wrong? I don't know. Well... I was knocked out and taken to the hospital. Do you have any significant feeling below your neck?

Yes. Talk about that. Well, I think I get pain killers, which take care of the pain. Like the painkillers I'd be in total misery. Which part of your body gives you pain? My upper back. That's the worst. When you woke up in the hospital,

because I assume that you suffered a really severe injury to your head, how long did it take you to understand what had happened to you? Well, I know I'd been hit by a car. I didn't learn much about the driver. Do you know what his status is now? He died. Jeez. He died like a day or two before the trial was going to start.

It was a year later, but the day before the trial, he died. Okay, but I'm going to ask you, you know that I've interviewed. people for the last 50 years, mostly frivolous, silly stuff. I'm going to ask you, it's a horrible question. But before the accident, you were this really good-looking, very athletic individual. You were good at sports. You were, and we're going to talk about this, me and Jim and your friend John Whaley and other people, about what a brilliant cameraman you were. You worked hard, you saved money, you owned a house, and in an instant, because some driver was careless and not paying attention, it was all taken away from you. How difficult is it to process that? Well, you can't get

hit by a car and get knocked all over the place and land on a cement sidewalk, head first, back of your head. And that's what did the damage, losing my vision, which really hurts. It's interesting that you emphasize that the worst part of the injury is losing your vision as opposed to losing your body. Why is that? Well, if you can't see, even though you used to be able to see, you don't know where you're going. I can't even go to the bathroom. By myself.

Do you find that humiliating? Yes. Not my fault. No. But it is humiliating when you can't go to the bathroom at a normal toilet. I know for a while that

you were being taken care of in your house, which was kind of in the east end. What street was that on near Broadview and Queen? Woodley. Woodley. And then they moved you to a really nice

apartment, I think on Churchill, north, around Finch and Young. Yeah. And then subsequently, you've been moved into this care place. Is it adequate for you? Are you comfortable here? Can you achieve any level of happiness? Well, as long as my painkillers are given to me at the right times. four times a day

right around breakfast time just after lunch Jim McKinney and I come and visit you I can't say as often as we should but the one takeaway we get is that you don't feel sorry for yourself all those are private moments that I keep to myself

sharing those feelings with people is not productive in any way. Who comes to visit you? Who are still your closest friends? Who drops in on you? John Whaley, he would come. I understand that one of the fundamental reasons that you and John Whaley are good friends

is you both like the Boston Bruins. That would be true. Peter, I'm hearing that for the first time. I have a couple of questions. One is, like, was it easy to get Bill to open up and have that conversation with you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I broach it to him. I said, I want to do this.

And he said, fine. If you put yourself in Bill's place, he's lying there, no capacity to even scratch his own nose. He's blind. The hours must just go on endlessly. so he likes it when people visit. The one question there, I set up this question about you've lost everything in an instant. And instead of saying, poor me, why did it happen to me, he has a kind of a cause and effect. Well, I'm in this situation because I got hit by a car.

Right. Yeah. I found that remarkable. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cause and effect. So I found that to be remarkable to listen to that conversation. And it sounded like he trusts you and he was going to open up to you. And it sounds like he's still struggling.

Like it sounds like maybe it's more privately than when he's having visitors like you and John and Lorne and Jim and Gord and all these people who visit him. I would say that he's still feeling the loss of vision particularly. That's still affecting him 15 years later. That is such a raw conversation with a man who still with us, but you said this is the worst thing you've ever witnessed happened to a human being. Is that what you said? Yeah.

There was, just to put this in context, several years ago there was this wonderful man named Don Nehili. He was in his 30s, cameraman for city television. And he was working the overnight shift, and he kind of pulled his car over to take a little nap and never woke up. Oh, my God. And that was horrible. It was finished, you know?

He died in his sleep, which at least there's no pain. It was horrible. And I remember that the funeral was very emotional. Sure. Bill wakes up every day. I wonder, I couldn't ask him, what do you dream about? Because in your dreams, you're different. I wonder if in his dreams he's walking around with the camera on his shoulder.

So he was 58 when he suffered these injuries? So now he's 73. Okay, so he has 58 years. And you mentioned, you know, I have a little video that you shared with me and I've seen him. Like he's a strapping, handsome, just, you know, king of the world kind of guy. Like he looks like a great guy, sounds like a great guy. I know he still is. But to have to be robbed of that physicality and that stature and to lose his vision and his everything, whatever,

everything that you described, you know, that's quite the blow. Well, well, the theme of this whole podcast about being. Yeah, sorry here. I'm still processing. I've never heard his voice. So for years, I've had people like you and Lauren Honickman particularly. You would come over and I would always hear about these birthday parties for Bill and Lauren would show me pictures.

You know, Jo Jo Chinto might be there. I'd see the blue-eyed FOTM himself, Gord Martineau, and I'd see these people I kind of know. This is kind of what led to me saying, ask Jo Jo Chinto to come on Toronto mic and he said, nope. So I never heard his voice till today, until right now. It's quite something. But please, set up the second. clip. You've got nine-degree clips. Anything. The overwhelming

theme is that this is a guy who suffered catastrophic injuries and doesn't feel sorry for himself. Now, from the beginning, Lauren Honnickman and his wife, Kathy, and Al McCormick, who was another supervising cameraman and his wife, Mara, were probably the

point people who were helping to take care and solve a lot of Bill's problems. So the next clip is me talking to Lauren Hanukam. Let me tell you how we found out. We had just come back from New York. We were celebrating our anniversary there.

We wake up to the radio news. I can't remember what station we had on. But the news was that a city TV cameraman was hit by a car, and he is in critical condition in hospital. And I'm thinking through myself that, geez, I hope that's not Bill. because Bill had a very active freelance practice. He liked to work nights. He liked to keep his days open.

I saw a message from Al that he may have heard it as well and that it was Bill. I rushed to the hospital. And one of the incredible things, Peter, when you think about it now, is that Bill was covering some, what used to be called in the business, and you'll remember this, it was called a hot shot. But being a hot shot meant that emergency crews were on the scene, fire, police, ambulance.

And because there was so many emergency personnel there, he was treated right away at the scene, and they got him to the hospital. And there was always the talk later being that, you know, given the level, of injuries that he suffered he may not have lived had it been not for the fact that so many emergency personnel were there at that time i walk in there peter and there was like so many people from city tv there right it was because everybody had heard about this and from that moment on from that moment on that noitmen were coming up to the anniversary of it november 2010 his his unbelievable, unbelievable will to live.

Just kept, nobody knew what was going to happen. Nobody knew if he was going to survive. He was obviously in critical condition. It was the type of thing where you thought to yourself, you know, nobody's going to make it like, and you didn't think he would. And as the days and the weeks and the months and of course, eventually the years, Bill did survive, and it has been an unbelievable journey watching him.

I remember when we first found out that not only was Bill never going to walk again and that he was, for all intents and purposes, a quadriplegic. He lost one of his legs. He was also blind. So here's a person who's not going to be able to move and not going to be able to see. and if you said that to somebody, anybody, well, I'll speak for myself. If you said, you know, here's what's going to happen. You're not going to ever be able to walk. You're not going to be able to move. You're going to, for essentially you're going to be a quadriplegic and you're not going to be able to see.

I know, and I'd say, please let me die. And I can say that I have never, ever, nobody, I have never. heard anybody say to me one time ever hearing Bill say let me die I want to die and you'd come into the room and you'd go hi Bill and he'd hear your voice and he's immediately Lord or Kathy what whoever it was he knew who it was and a big smile would come on his face and he would just be so happy at that moment that you were there and that's what it's been like through the years.

I understand that right at the beginning of COVID, he got it. Yeah, Bill got it. COVID lockdown started mid-March, and at the end of March, like two weeks, three weeks into it, we hear from JC that Bill's got COVID and that they're taking him to the hospital. It was like they did, we were in this twilight zone. We nobody knew anything. And nobody could be with him. So here it is, Bill, who has this specialized care, you know, quadriplegic, blind.

I'm thinking of myself, he's going to be what, it's going to be lying there. Nobody's going to be, there's chaos at the hospitals. But I was able to find out a floor that he's taken to. I get to the floor and this wonderful nurse, she has her phone, and she walks and gets into the room, and she said, Bill, and I hear her going, Bill, and I hear Bill's voice, she goes, your friend Lauren wants to talk to you. And Peter, I could hear over the phone this relief, and Bill goes, Lauren, I said, hey Bill, hey Bill.

I said, Bill, everything's okay. You're at the hospital. Don't worry. It was like, I just, for him, I was just thinking, oh, my goodness. Here he is getting COVID and with all the, just the insanity that was taking place. But again, the resiliency of Bill Atanasoff, not only did he fight the COVID, which, of course, And that first strain, as we know, that was the worst strain of all. But Bill got through it.

But that's Bill again, making it through another huge, huge hurdle that maybe you and I or anybody else wouldn't be able to make. But I'll always remember the beginning of COVID and what happened to Bill. What's the most pressing issue with his health these days? he's always had issues through the years with you know what because when you're lying down and if you're not things happen you get everybody knows you get these bed sores what they are are ulcers on your back when you're bum everywhere while you're in bed and whatever and he doesn't know about them because because he's paralyzed if you or i ever had those bed

We'd be in agony. But because Bill is paralyzed or whatever, he doesn't even know about having them. And that's sort of a medical issue that he's dealing with right now. And we're all hoping that it's going to be taken care of properly. Bed sores are ulcers. And if ulcers aren't properly taken care of, it can lead to obviously really unfortunate consequences. The thing that I just want to say about Bill, he's somebody that you can get an inspiration from because what Bill has not ever lost is the ability to laugh and the ability to just think about the good.

Here's a person who can't move, who can't see. When you go see Bill, he'll thank you. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for coming. And we always want to say to Bill, thank you, Bill. Thank you. Because you'll walk away every time, every single time I walk away, I'd shake my head.

And I go, oh, wow. Wow. Thank you, Bill. Wow. Honnickman expresses it well, doesn't he? Well, does Hanukman know that you have his mustache? you know, these are you going to be what he's saying there. Just a little memo.

If anyone's out there is listening to this and knows Bill and can put a couple hours aside and go visit him, because that's the most important thing to Bill is that someone comes and spends an hour with him. He's at the Grove Park nursing home in Barry, easy to find. If you ever work with Bill or you know Bill, just think about it. They let you in. They're very nice there, and he's just thrilled, and it's a real moment in his day if someone comes to visit him. The next clip is with John Whaley. Whaley and Bill have a lot in common, because I think at some point John Whaley was a videographer who shot his own stories,

and Whaley's one of these guys who, from the very beginning, was very loyal to Bill coming and helping him out and visiting. So hit the button, and let's play John Whaley. John Whaley, before Bill of Tennisop's accident, how would you describe your relationship with him? Well, it was funny. My first four years at City, I worked on Deity Petty City line with the still fabulous Deenie Petty. And I volunteered and helped Jim McKenny on Wednesday night because he didn't have anyone to help him. So I would go down to Leaf Games or Jay's games with Bill's for highlights. And we struck up a friendship because Bill still is a total.

sports dude, love tennis, his Atlanta braids and the Boston Bruins, and that's where we bond it. You have a mutual affection for the Boston Bruins, which is kind of an affliction from some and in the next couple of years, it's going to be a suicide affliction, but nonetheless, let's talk about Bill. When you first heard what happened to Bill, what was your understanding as to the extent of of injuries. Well, all I had heard, I think it was, it might

have been Jimmy who called me, but he just said that he got hit by a car and was thrown like 30 feet in the air and landed on his head. And then of course, like you know, it's just the horror

thoughts going through your mind when you hear that. And of course it was, I think it was the first morning and you were already there. as I recall. And just to see him, I mean, his head was the size of a 32-inch screen because of the impact. It was horrifying. As I recall, he had something like 60 staples in his head.

Oh, I wouldn't have been surprised. And he had to wear a halo. Did he not? And by halo, I mean, you know, a contraption. to keep your head in place in that. It was just horrifying to see. So for these 15 years, from what I get, you have been the most constant visitor to him.

I would go visit him once a week. I live in the West End, more like Burlington area. So I'd go down once a week and see him on Sunday mornings because I never shook that practice television, getting up at 2.30 in the morning. habit and that was the best time to go into town and back for traffic and I have to admit I haven't seen him I've only seen him a couple times since COVID I mean I'm in constant contact with him on the telephone I've always kept contact with him and kept him abreast of what's going on in

life what's going on with the Boston Bruins and you know as a matter of fact just a quick antidote, it happened December of, was it November of 2011? 2010, yeah. And the Bruins won the cup in June of 2011. And I somehow think that Bill had something to do with that. You can get your hanky out now. What McKinney and I find every time we see him is, the absolute lack of self-pity.

It just doesn't happen. He never mentions why did this happen to me. No, no, not once. I've never heard it. I've never heard him even come close to it. And, like, I mean, it's an overused cliche when something like this happens, but you think you've got problems in your life?

He's a blind quadriplegia. and is not bitter, doesn't complain. It puts things into perspective, and I know that's a cliche, but it's true. Always in a good mood, like always, you know, anxious to talk, and amazing, amazing person. He would just go whatever extra yard had to be done to make your story look. as good as it could. And not that the others didn't. Don't get me wrong. But Bill would ruin his clothes if it meant that the shot looked better.

You know, I wonder, it's just a total pro and a wonderful guy. It is good to hear John Whaley's voice. There's an episode of Toronto Mike celebrating the 30th anniversary of the launch of Breakfast Television. Anne Romer was in the basement. And she arranged to have John on that episode, and I'm so glad she did. and hello to John, but wow, yeah, again,

these are great clips, Peter. Thank you for putting in this work. Do you want to set up? So this, I will just tell the list there. So we have nine clips. They're all pretty short coming up except for this next one. So this next one's got a bit more meat on the bone.

But any words to say before I press play on clip in the point? I think what you'll find in this clip is just we wander into the past with Bill and talk about some of our experiences together because he was a remarkable guy and there were just so many outrageous things that happened to him, so just hit it and see what we got. What high school did you go to?

Winston Churchill. What was your first job out of school? Moses Nymer. Well, wait a second. When we worked together, You used to tell me you had this wonderful job sucking crap out of sewers. Oh, yeah. Tell me about that.

What was involved there? Because that sounds way better than being a cameraman. Well, me and another guy had a job of driving around called sewer suckers. We'd go to a sewer, use a pick, crank it open. and stick this big long apparatus down that's like the sand and other debris that may have gotten somehow into the sewer. Usually the only biggest, weirdest thing we'd get would be a broken hockey stick. And we had a car, me and the other guy Don Purser. he had a car and I had a car

well Purser was the original city television cameraman so did he bring you in I guess he didn't disapprove had you had any experience with camera and videotaping before that only what I studied at Ryerson I went there for

three years and graduated radio television and arts RTA Was there a point where you realize that you were really good at this? No. I didn't never realize I was good. Well, other people realized that you were

an elite cameraman. We're going to talk about some of our experiences, but who do you remember working with? We're going to talk about you shooting stuff with me and with McKinney, but if I throw some names at you, can you give me a capsule comment? I'll try.

Gord Martinot. Did you ever shoot with Gord Martineau? He was a broadcast camera. I didn't have much to do with him other than when I came to the station and he would be there. Maybe they'd asked me to shoot something. Colin Vaughn.

I went out with him a lot. very smart man I got along great with Colin what about the great David Onley I worked with him too quite a bit but then you went to Queens Park and I kind of separated us

there was a moment early on in David Anley's career where Moses got angry because the cameraman were shooting him from the waist up, not showing his disability. Do you recall any conversations around show that David Onley is in the wheelchair? Vaguely, but once it was pointed out to me that I needed to show him, I could understand that it was important to show his disability. What about JoJo Chinto? I was a man of, there's no two JoJo Chentos in the world.

Elaborate on that. He was quite a character. He could size up a situation and call it as he sought. And if you disagreed, tough. Did you ever have the pleasure of working with Catherine Humphreys? Yes. sexy that's all I remember

what about John Whaley did you ever shoot for John Whaley I remember talking to John but I don't remember the shooting part because I know the two of you are very close friends can you describe your relationship with him I thought he was a good reporter okay here's a tough question

who did you prefer working with Jim McKenny or It's an unfair question. Are you passing on it? Yeah, if Jojo was available, he'd go there. Oh, right. I'm going to bring something up here that I think speaks to your personality. We would go to a shoot, and I would introduce myself, hello there, I'm Peter Gross, I'm with City TV,

and then the person would look at you and say, and you are, and you would say, I'm just the cameraman. Do you recall doing that? Yes. Why? because I'm just taking the picture. I'm not going to try and influence. What happens?

Because I had the camera. You know, we would go to gymnasiums to shoot basketball, and I would walk in, and the cameraman would come behind, and the crowd would not go berserk until they saw the camera. It wasn't me. It was the camera and knowing that they were going to be on TV that night. The camera was always important. That's their problem.

We shot hundreds of high school sports events. And there's anecdotes about you because you take your sports very seriously. And one of the anecdotes is we're shooting a high school basketball game. And the ref calls. traveling and you were in sense because you didn't think it was traveling and you pulled your camera away from your from your eye and you shouted hey that wasn't traveling oh i'd let them have it if i disagreed i did not pull punches in that regard i think you took shooting sports very personally well yes we talk a lot jim and i talk a lot about you

Shooting basketball is easy, shooting football is pretty easy because you just follow the ball. Baseball is an almost impossible sport to shoot with one camera, but you had a very special technique. Do you remember how you used to shoot baseball? I'd go up behind home plate, and then how high could I get up? I'd like to see the pitcher and the batter in one image. And then the land around it, maybe shortstop, second base. You used to tell me, though, that you'd keep your camera eye on the camera and the other eye open, and you'd watch the play with the other eye to know where to move the camera.

Yes. My second eye provided assistance in guiding me of where to... move the camera to get the best image for the action. The thing about baseball that's different from all other sports is the massive area that the play can take. The ball can be hit into the right field

corner and a guy is coming around second and third and he's going to score and you have to decide where you're going to go with the camera and because you knew baseball so well, you were always aware of the guy coming into the plate. Well, that's

the camera initially would follow the ball heading to the outfield. Once you saw it's starting to sink, you wanted to see if it landed or whether it'd be caught. And once that was determined, you'd quickly pan down to catch the runners. Were they coming home, which in many cases they were. Okay, I'm going to remind you of, in my opinion, the most intuitive piece of camera work you ever did. And this will probably piss you off to remember the story.

There used to be a media day at Glen Abbey for the Canadian Open, and they would let us play 18 holes. But on this particular day, you and I were out there, and it's pouring rain. And I'm determined to come back to the office with some products. So on the 17th hole, along par four, I put my eighth shot. into the trap. And I'm standing over the ball and I'm wiggling the club back and forth, back and forth.

And you say to me, hit the fucking shot. Yeah, that sounds like me. And you were on the green sort of 10 feet from the pin. And I just took a wild swing at the ball. And from the moment I hit the ball, you knew it was going into the hole.

And you followed it, racked focus, and you got the perfect shot of the ball. going into the hole. Do you remember that? Yes. And then you panned back to me and I'm doing this over-dramatic hands in the air, blah, blah, blah. Look at me, I'm great. I got a nine on a par four. How much did you enjoy shooting sports with us? A lot. I always love sports. Mr. McKinney hockey

baseball American football not Canadian football I got another anecdote another baseball anecdote back in the first days of the Blue Jays at old C&E Stadium there was a camera booth that was about three floors up

behind home plate and you had this fantasy of becoming the first cameraman to catch a foul ball while recording it. And you came damn close once, didn't you? Yep. I was disappointed that I didn't get it.

What were the circumstances? Well, the guy, the batter took a swing, and it nicked off his bat. And the ball came back up in the air and towards us in the camera box. And I just about caught it, but didn't. Imagine if someone did that today, it would be on every TV station, it would be on YouTube, it would go viral. If I had a baseball glove on my hand, I'd have caught it.

Do you recall a number of circumstances with me in which you suffered injuries? I escaped. I was never hurt working with you, but often. Sometimes when you were with me, there was damage to your body. Do any of them stand out to you? Not really. Good. I'm going to remind you.

I think it was 1979. And we were shooting the Big Brothers downhill soapbox derby at High Park. And you got very creative. You got down near the bottom of the hill. And you push the camera back up against the curb and you're lying face down looking through the camera. John Hinnon, who would later be my boss at 680 News, lost control of his soapbox, and his little vehicle slammed directly into the lens of your camera, pushing the lens back against your face, snapping the lens off the camera. I remember looking for you, and I see your body pack, your recorder cumbling down the hill, the lens up in the air, and you're grasping your face, blood coming out all over the place.

Do you remember what you said to me when I came up to you? No doubt I'd be swearing. Well, in between the swearing, you said, there goes my modeling career. Was there a thought at the time? I mean, you were a very handsome young man. Was that a consideration at the time where you were going to do that kind of thing? Modeling career? That's what you said to me.

That was a joke. Okay. Do you remember the house I had on? Dundas Street just east of Coxwell. Yeah. And we used to, we spent a lot of time there smoking pot and playing cribbage. That's right. And one night, it was a block.

It was just through a park to Greenwood Raceway. And of course, I always dragged you to the track. So one night we're running through the park. And I think the sun had gone down, so it was a little dark. And, of course, you're competitive. You had to run faster than me, not knowing that at the end, of the park, there was a wire fence about a foot off the ground, and you hit that full flush in your legs and went flying. You don't recall that? Oh, I'd like to dampen the memory.

Not a proud moment. Do you remember all the squash we played together? Yeah. And I'd have to say this. You were a much better squash player than I was, and you always tempered your game down, so that the games could be competitive. You beat me most of the time, and I wouldn't say that you let me win, but you allowed the rallies to go on longer than if you just wanted to crush me. But in all the times we played squash,

you never hit me with your racket. You never drove a ball into my back. I did that to you numerous times. You hit my back? I hit you with my... Yeah, yeah, drilled the ball right into the small of your back. I'm glad you don't remember that as well. How about this one?

This is actually on videotape. We were shooting a promo around Queens Park, shooting a promo for the Toronto Marathon. So I'm running behind the car. You're sitting in the trunk of the car shooting me as I talk about the Toronto Marathon. The driver hit a bump, and it jarred you out of the car. And on the outtake, which they run at the cruise.

Christmas parties or whatever, you can hear you saying, right out of the fucking car. Well, if I was knocked out of the car, that's what happened. Right out of the fucking car. That sounds like me. Oh, that's great. It's great to hear his voice and the laughter. It's good to hear him laugh. On the mic, Mr. Gross.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, let me see. I'm just looking up my script here. While you're looking at that script, I just want to ask you a really quick question. So since this horrific accident back in the evening of November 9th, 2010, was there any policy change at City TV where they're like, from now on, camera people need to wear some kind of reflective vest or something? I don't know. I think on the night in question, he was mostly in black. But all...

I just wonder, sometimes it takes an accident for people to be like, oh, that. at night it's a bad idea to wear black and be on the street filming. You know, if you had a reflective vest, maybe that would be safer. I'm just wondering. Regardless, all of the information that I have heard is that the guy driving the car went right past a police barrier, that it was completely the fault of the driver. Now, through the whole history of this, imagine, you know, someone very special to you is a quadriplegic and blind.

Every one of his needs to be taken care of someone else. So the, Bill had a live in, I can't say it was a girlfriend. He had a girlfriend and they broke up and she continued to live in his house. And so for several years, she took care of him. And I got to be very vague about this because I really don't know the details. There was some concern that this woman had taken, there was an insurance settlement of some amount,

and that she had taken some of this money and used it for purposes other than Bill's benefit. Allegedly. Yeah, yeah. So I, Lauren wants me to say allegedly. Allegedly. And anyways, because of this concern, I think about seven or eight years ago, Bill's younger sister, Janet, had power of attorney over him and took over. So this next clip is with Janet and talking about her concerns for Bill.

Janet, just how did this affect your family when you found out how badly Bill had been injured? Well, well, it was really, really traumatic. And I know that my husband and I traveled down to Sunnybrook Hospital every weekend, because we were both working full-time at the time, every weekend for, like, I swear, almost two years between him being in Sunnybrook and then later at Bridgepoint. He had a girlfriend or a lady who was a friend taking care of him for a while. And without going into the specifics, it was pretty clear that she was abusing a lot of the money that came from the settlement. So eight years ago, you obtained power of attorney.

And now you are in charge of his destiny? Yes, I am. I was speaking with Bill earlier. And I said to him, did you break your neck and did you break your back? this accident and he was very quizzical and didn't seem to to feel that that was the case. Can you be more informative about that? For some reason, I thought he'd broken his neck and his back. No, no, he did not.

He had a severe head injury and that brain injury caused blindness and basically paralysis. I mean, he's not totally paralyzed. he has feelings and he can feel pain in his back or his neck or his arms, but he really doesn't have use of them. He can't even scratch his own notes. I understand that there's been an issue with bed sores with them. How threatening is that to his health? Well, if they become infected, then, of course, his health would be compromised.

For anybody that gets an infection, especially when you're 73, right, is not good. So it's got to be looked after. He never did have them in his own. private home because he had 24-7 care. They're just lying in one spot for a long time can create these bed source? I guess so, yes, yeah. So you have to sort of lean them to the left, lean them to the right, set them up a bit more. If they do go in the chair, it's a limited time, you know, that type of thing.

You don't have to answer this, but I am curious. It must be very expensive to keep them. If I were to just ballpark and say between $7,000 and $7,000 a month to keep him in this particular home up in Barry, does he have sufficient funds to sustain this? Let's say he lives another 10 years? Yes, he does. There was an annuity from the car accident that gives him extra money along with his pensions and old age in Canada pension. So between all of them, yes, he can definitely live in his present situation in a nursing home.

for the rest of his life and he will have enough money coming in every month. When we visited him, when we talked with him, you never get a moment where he feels sorry for himself. Is this just a reflection? You would know your sister. Is this a reflection of just the type of human being he is? Well, you know, if I go back to before he was hit, he would have said, he did, in fact, say the first time he pretty well could speak to me, that, you know, he'd had a good life,

he'd lived it the way he wanted, and he was ready to go now. And I said, okay, Bill, but you don't really have a choice that way. But he was sick for a long time, as you remember, after the accident, he was in and out of the hospital. And I think one time he just, he became more mellow. Is that the word to use? He accepted it. Now he's moved to the nursing home.

It is an adjustment. It will be an adjustment. but I'm going to try to make it as good, and everybody's trying as hard as they can to make it as good as possible, because this at least is affordable for the rest of his life. Well, that's good news. Janet's one of these very wonderful people in Bill's life who are doing everything.

You know, we talk about Hanukman and his wife, El McCormick and his wife, Waley, people who really care about Bill and do whatever we can to, to enhance his life. Now, speaking of that, there was a reference to, he's now in this home and buried. For several years, he was in this very fine apartment, Churchill and Young Street. It's near Young and Finch. And he had a 24-hour-a-day male nurse called JC, wonderful, wonderful guy. And when you think about what's required from someone taking care of a guy like Bill, I don't think you and I would want to do it. But these are extraordinary people. So we've got a few minutes of the interview

with this fellow, J.C., who took care of Bill for about 10 years. J.C., how long were you the nurse for Bill of Tanasoff? Well, I met Bill back in early 2013 in Bridgepoint Hospital, and then since then I've been with Bill from 2013 up to... last year, December, when I left for the U.S. Had you ever worked with a person with such severe injuries? Actually, Bill was my first client to have that kind of severe injury, like from a quadriplegic. I've worked with hemorrhagic, but Bill was my first quadriplegic. Did you have to stay within 24 hours a day?

How did that work? Well, I have to stay with him. 24 hours a day because he couldn't do anything. He needs somebody to do stuff for him, like scratching her, his eyebrows, water to drink, or especially if he's listening to sports. So you have to do this stuff for him, like even preparing him, the meals, the meds. When we spoke with Bill, the one thing that he was upset about was that he's incapable of going to the bathroom on his own. So without being specific, that's something that you had to take care of.

Yes, I have to do that like every other day, including the changes, changing his superpupic catheter, which we do once a month. So he has a catheter attached to him, and that's how he urinates. Yep, that is correct. Those of us who know and love Jill know that he's got an interesting personality. Did you find that he could be cranking sometimes? Yeah, yeah. He can be cranky sometimes, but, you know, he is also, once he realized that he said something,

that's you, he would immediately apologize. That's what we found. He would have so that he would blow up and then realize that he'd crossed the line and he'd apologize to everybody. Yeah, that is correct. I think that that's important, that here's a man who's become a quadriplegic and is blind, and he still retains a lot of his personality. That is correct. You know what, Peter?

While working with Bill, I also do part-time jobs with other long-term care facilities. And then these people would always tell me that they hate what happened to them, and then they wanted to die. And the moment they say that, I would always tell them about the story of Bill. this guy has been living a normal life for more than 50 years and then all of a sudden it was taken away from him by an accident but for the longest time that I've been with this guy

I've never heard him say those words that he wants to end his life every time we would go to the hospital he would be asked these routine questions from the ER if the event that we need to do we need to revive you do you want to be do you want to have a tube in some started with your mouth, you want to be revived, a CPR, and he would always say yes. Yeah, that's what we're hearing from everyone about Bill.

So in a few words, can you just sum up your experience with Bill of Tenosoff? Well, Bill is like family to me. I went to visit him a month ago, and I cried when I saw him, because he reminded me of my dad, because I told him that, you know, you're like my dad. I've never had a chance to take care of my dad. We have this great relationship with Bill. It was Bill who re-ignited my love for tennis, because I used to play tennis. But then when I started working with Bill, I immediately went back to tennis,

and it was also him who introduced me, who taught me the games of baseball and hockey, those, you know, the terminologies. And every now and then I would call him to check on him, to update him, about, you know, sports, especially tennis. I want to thank you for what you did for my friend. Bill of Tennisoff is a very special friend of mine, and there's a number of us who care deeply for him and admire him. And you know what, Peter, I always tell Bill before that you are so lucky,

and I wanted to be like you. When I grow old, you know, you have these friends that keeps visiting you, you know, keeps calling you despite their busy. schedules. Wow, JC. Wow. These are very special human beings who work in these places and help, you know, severely disabled people.

Okay. Speaking of severely disabled people, we have a clip of Jim McKinney. Oh, perfect segue. I don't have to set this up. There's just some business with Jim here. All right. Let's hear from Howie. Jim McKinney.

That would be me. The ladies, man. Yeah. When did you first hear about the accident with Bill and how what was your feeling about that? I didn't, you know, I couldn't really believe that it happened and you didn't know the extent of it and then we heard Bill was in Sunnybrook and coma and it's just the whole newsroom was upset. know, because in those days, City TV was like a great big family. In the heyday of City TV, there were 65, 70 people in the newsroom every day,

two or three people with their dogs and their kids had come in on a day off. So you knew everybody, and you knew their kids. And when Bill got in the accident, geez. Like nobody talked. The whole newsroom was quiet. What are your fondest memories of him? Not that he's gone, but as a cameraman. Oh, Bill, anytime you got Bill, you were cooking with gas,

especially if you're shooting sports. So we could never ask for Bill because then Hurlbut had never given to us. So you just had to take your chances. but you knew when you got Bill that you'd have a, the Viz would be good. My part of the story would probably be shit, but Bill could save it. And most guys for a minute and a half segment would shoot 15, 18 minutes of tape. Bill would get it all in five minutes of tape, you know.

And so the editors loved them. you know, it was so easy to cut a story that he went out and shot, because in his mind, he put the story together as he was shooting it. Do you remember the look he would give you? He'd pull the camera away and just glare at you saying, we don't need any more. Yeah, or that or, that's six fucking takes. So, yeah, it was always fun going out.

The drive out to the shoot and the drive back. Did you ever experience his white-hot temper where he would blow up for 30 seconds? Yeah, on occasion. You'd be in a game and a referee. It'd make a bad call and bill that come out from behind the camera and said, that wasn't fucking traveling. you know what the fuck you're talking

and all these kids the high school kids would be there too right and uh but I would cover them off because I'd probably be in front of the kids and drop a joint out of my pocket or something so he'd be okay with whatever he said so

you know it was fine and they didn't realize what they were getting but what you were saying before is you know like I went to quite a few high school football games and that's by myself. And nobody cared.

But if you walked in there with a camera, you were cooking. And I used to get people calling me all the time because I never realized that they wanted me to go to an event with the camera to give them exposure to 400,000 people, or however many people were watching City TV that night. When you and I visit Bill, What's your takeaway when we leave? Well, that we should be here more.

I feel guilty. Well, what about his state of mind how he deals with this? Yeah. Well, it's amazing, you know, to keep a half-fast positive attitude after all that's happening for such a long time. I'm not so sure whether I could do it. It's a very powerful example of the will to be happy, you know, to live and to be happy. You know, so many things that we take for granted, you see they can be taken away in a heartbeat. And why does it happen to the good people?

How did you get the nickname Howie? How did they get the nickname Howie? When I was playing for the Neil McNeil Maroons, when I was 16 years old, there was another defenseman on the team named Jim McKendry. So they kept getting us mixed up. And so Gary Smith started calling me Howie after Howie Young, because I had a facial and behavioral resemblance to Howie. Howie was one of the finest alcoholics to ever play in the NHL.

So I was out to see Howie in New Mexico just before he passed. He was doing great. He was quite the character. Wow, Jim McKinney. Wow. You know, I know we have a couple more clips to go, Peter, I want to let you know that I think you did a stellar job on this, producing this episode. And it's funny you made that joke with Jim off the top that, you know,

oh, Bill's not dead because it does come across a little bit like we're memorializing Bill, but absolutely still with us. We got to make sure we're celebrating him while he's here, which I think is very cool. Well, the very fact that he survived 15 years with these catastrophic injuries, has defied the odds with Bill. But you've heard the testimonies. Yeah, I love this. The will to live, the shrugging off of the dreadful things.

And it sounds like we're talking very late September right now, but at some point in November, I guess November 9th, yeah, it'll be the 15th anniversary of that horrific night. And by the way, what you've seen, what you've heard is a guy who's still very articulate, has a very strong memory. Still laughing. And a great sense of humor. Yeah.

And keep in mind that the main injury was the slamming of the head against the concrete. Sounds sharp to me. It's sharper than I am. It's sharper than you, for sure. Well, I accept that. He's very mentally intact. The next clip is Al McCormick. Al McCormick, huge man.

I used to love going out with Al McCormick because he's twice my size. And you can find on YouTube a story we did in 1985 when the Blue Jays wiped out the Yankees. and they sent us to New York. Al McCormick and I on a Monday morning going to New York and basically traipsing through New York going, and then-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. And, of course, they sent me with the biggest cameraman possible just in case I would get beat up.

If you ever find it, it's great. Anyways, Al McCormick and his wife Mara and Lauren Honnickman and his wife, Kathy, have contributed very much to Bill's benefit over the years. So in the next clip, Al talks about his relationship with Bill And included in this is a clip from a piece of video that Al shot of Bill for 27 years ago. I've seen this. Yeah.

It just, it almost makes me cry to see what an attractive, funny, bright guy he was. So here's some clips with Big Al McCormick. Big Al McCormick, five-minute clip. Then I have a very short 11-second clip and a question for you, Peter Gross. and then you're going to take us home with the final clip of Bill. I love this very much. Thank you, Peter Gross. Here is the, what is this?

This is the penultimate clip. Al McCormick, I worked with you many, many times. I loved working with you, but you're probably aware that in many circumstances, the reporters, particularly reporters going out for sports preferred Bill. Were you aware of that? Oh, absolutely. No, Bill was a sports enthusiast, And, you know, you're aware that he played hours and hours of tennis.

And when, you know, he was fortunate enough to have a tennis court in his backyard. I was terrible at tennis. And, you know, I guess in desperation he would call me up and I'd go over. And, you know, we would shoot a bucket of balls and there would be balls all over the court. And we would go around collecting the balls to start again. And I would bend over to pick up the balls and he'd say, don't bend over to pick up the balls. He said, this is how you do it.

And he would demonstrate how he would put the ball between his foot and the racket. And then in one motion, you lift your knee up, and the ball would come up, and you catch it. And so I tried it. I wasn't even very good at doing that. And I just ended up bending over to pick up the balls. And he would be yelling at me constantly about that. How did you and the other cameramen react when you heard how badly he was injured. I received a phone call from Peter Dvorsock. I wasn't working at City at the time. I had

taken a package a few months before that. And it was a phone call just out of the blue. And Peter said Bill's been in a car accident. He's at Sunnybrook. And, you know, we got in the car and went up there. And, of course, the ICU was just crammed with people from city. when we realized how badly he was injured, I mean, it was just devastating for us. I'm sure you've got many anecdotes about Bill. Can you pick one out for our entertainment? Colin Vaughn, who was the political specialist at City TV, he was very interested in Quebec politics.

And in the 90s, we would go to cover the elections in Quebec. And Colin, his favorite cameraman, political cameraman, was Bill. His second favorite was me, fortunately, and a lot of times they would send two cameras to Montreal. And Gord was another one that he would often go with Colin. You know, we would work during the day, and then we would, you know, have a lot of partying at night. This one night, they handed us little video, hand-held video cameras. And just for a laugh, I fired up the camera to show Bill was going to be. to demonstrate how he applied hair products to his hair. So I shot this video of him applying the

hair, and it turned out to be so funny. And Bill, having the sense of humor he had. As my mother always said, smells like springtime. She was referring asparagus with cream sauce. I'm just on the cream sauce. First application for fudge, for those with short lip hair that's looking for a bit of a lift is what we call fudge. See it? Sticky. But once applied to the scalp, explain the flip part. Oh. That was wild. Well, it was soft limp hair. Normally you'd come out of the shower.

And the sheer moisture would flatten it down. Okay, yes, it looks like there's a lot of white molding paste in there. But let me tell you, if you just finger it up a bit for a while, the more you finger it, the more likely it is to disappear. Bill, you have to chub up your hair. and shove up your hair. I'm fluffing the hair. Of course, if you've got some on your forehead, you'd want that off.

Nobody wants a sticky, creamy substance all over their forehead. That's the end of the scene. Good stuff. Good stuff, Billy. It's not worse way. What do you get from the fact that after this horrendous accident that left him so tragically disabled, 15 years later, he's still built. Yeah, he is.

I don't know if I should be telling you this, but after the accident when we first visited him, he said to Mara and I, that he asked for our help to end his life. He didn't want to live. And, you know, for obvious reasons, we really couldn't fulfill that wish. And as it turned out, he, I think, more than ever now,

you know, cherishes his life. Wow. I could have edited that out because we've been constantly reinforcing the fact that he never felt sorry for himself. But that was a very reasonable reaction in the early moments, don't you think? And as we learned from his sister, he now, he won't even sign a do not resuscitate order at this point. That's how much he enjoys life and living.

So it speaks to his acceptance of the fact that he no longer has his sight and his mobility and how he basically adapted and he can listen to his Bruins games and listen to tennis matches and he can laugh at a good joke and visit with friends. He's living his best life. Okay. Now, Peter, hold on, before you set up the last clip, okay, because that's Al McCormick we just heard from, okay? I've never had the pleasure of meeting Al McCormick, but recently Lauren Honnickman visited not once but twice.

And his first visit here in the basement, Lauren Honickman, I played a clip of subdivisions by Rush. And I just wanted to hear from Lauren, who knew Mark Daly very well, whether he agreed with me that the voice saying subdivisions was Mark Daly. I spent a whole, because I'm Mike, and this is Toronto Mike,

Toronto Mike, Post-V-D, I spent a whole six minutes on this, and it drove Lauren mad. Like he was move on, he didn't want to spend more than 60 seconds on this. You should have seen his face, and I have the video evidence. But then when Lauren came back,

I had in my possession a clip sent from the aforementioned Al McCormick. Because Al McCormick heard that episode of Lauren. He enjoyed all six minutes. I know that. And Al sent me a little clip of basically AI, bringing down the music and raising the vocals for an 11-second part of subdivisions by Rush. So I'm going to play 11 seconds that Al McCormick sent me.

You're going to tell me whether you believe, leave that is your former colleague and friend Mark Daly or not, and then you're going to set up the final clip of Bill. You ready? Okay. 11 seconds. Subdivision. In the high school halls, in the shopping malls,

conform or be castles. Suburions. In the basement bars. You heard subdivisions twice in that 11 seconds. Peter Gross, I'm looking at you. In your opinion, having worked closely with Mark Daly for years, Is that the voice of Mark Daly? Very likely.

There was something very distinctive. I wish I'd had more than a second and a half. I'll do it one more time, though. Now you know what's coming. Again, sorry, Lauren, we're spending another 11 seconds on this. Suburitans. In the hot school halls. In the shopping malls.

Conform or be cast house. Suburigence. In the basement bars. I'm voting yes on that. Okay. I just had Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson from Sloan. They were here on Friday. I think Chris loved hearing that little clip,

and he started singing the rest of subdivisions, which is his favorite Rush song, and he thinks it's Mark Daly. Al McCormick, for the record here, before you set up the final clip here in Bill's excellent episode of Toronto, Mike, Al McCormick says, without a doubt, 100%, that was Mark Daly.

Take it away, Peter. You did a great job in this episode. I want to just run one wonderful anecdote by you. In 1979, there was a hockey tournament in New York. It was called the Challenge Cup. NHL All-Stars are against the Russians. So Bill and I were sent down to shoot this. And our number one priority was to score some marijuana. So we're going up to people on the street.

And Madison Square Gardens has these eight circular stairwells going around it. And we found out between periods that they were like the eternal stairwells of pot. Up and down, people were smoking like crazy, being very generous with them. So by the end of the game, Bill and I are extremely high. We go into the NHL All-Stars dressing room, just buzzed out of our minds, and I'm interviewing Ken Dryden. Wow. Now, I don't remember the question I asked, but as soon as I ask the question, Bill pulls his camera away from his face and loud enough so that every other person in the room can hear, he says, that's a stupid fucking question. That was, and then 30 seconds later, he apologizes.

Oh, I love it. I was out of order. I love it. Okay, this is a nice clip to sort of end the thing. And at the very end of this, you're going to hear Bill's ongoing sense of humor. I'm not exactly sure. I can't remember what ensued in this, but just hit this last clip of Bill. So, Bill, there's a nice TV set in your room here.

Of course, you can't see it. But do they put sports on and you can listen to sports? Yeah. And who are your favorite teams these days? The Boston Bruins, the Cleveland Browns, the New England Patriots, and the Toronto Blue Jays. You've moved off Atlanta? Yeah, didn't you like the Atlanta Braves?

Yeah. I'm sorry, Atlanta. So you're enjoying the Blue Jays this year. They're having an amazing season. Aren't they in first? They're still in first as we're talking. I think they're two and a half games ahead of the Yankees and the Red Sox. Their bullpen's been atrocious all August.

But Bichette and Springer are insane. Oh, Bichet. What made you as a child decide that your team was the Boston? Boston Bruins. It might have been as silly as my name's B for Bill. And the two Boston Bruins start with a B.

So you're not a big fan of the Buffalo Bills, though? I like the Bills. But only maybe as a number three team. In terms of watching TV where you can only hear the audio, what's the best sport. I like baseball and the pace of it. Probably hockey. What's your routine here at Grove Park? What are your days like? They're not great. Like an old man. This is where they sent me to die.

Well, you know, considering your circumstances and how badly you were injured, the fact that you're still kicking and still thinking in a very upbeat way after 15 years is incredible. I thank you. I still feel like shit. Well, on that note, I'm going to conclude the interview. Great ending. It's a great ending. I hope we're fucking done.