Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rewinder with Blair Packham: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1859

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

In this 1859th episode of Toronto Mike'd, and 4th episode of Rewinder, Mike chats with Blair Packham about what's happening in the Canadian media landscape. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, 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].

Rewindad With the pack of moo is also known as Blair And Mikey Boon Boon 2 Rewinded Looking back and yippy hopping on the air For the quarterly review Rewinded Skiddy-Budely

The Mooh is also known as Blair And Mikey Boon Boon 2 That is so well done Thank you I literally played it on Toronto Mike yesterday To tease, yeah I'll tell you more about that in a minute Okay

Prepare to have your tires pumped. Welcome to episode 1,859 of Toronto Miked. An award-winning podcast. I don't know if I've ever said that on Rewinder before. An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Did you know this is an award-winning podcast? No, I was going to interrupt you, but you're about to do the sponsor list. All right, well, interrupt me at the other side.

Yeah. That's a Nero Smith song, the other side. Order online. Oh, yeah, well, I don't know if I mentioned, but it's proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at Great Lakesbeer.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. FusionCorpso-Nicayini's. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.c.a.cometing to our planet's future

means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today making his return for this fourth episode of Rewinder, it is Blair Packam. Hi.

Hi there. Hi there. Hello there. I'm the Packam who is also known as Blair. I find that opening theme that we have for Rewindor to be very catchy and very clever. Well, the catchy part is because of what Darren wrote, you know, the original hit. Darren O'Brien. That's right.

Snow. And he, it's all that's, I mean, I am just, I'm weird, I'm weird alling. Your, your, uh, your pain. Amage. Okay. But remind me and clarify. Yeah. That's all you, right?

That's not some AI machine spitting that out. No, although I used a karaoke track for part of it. Okay. So I think I left it to the day before, and I was going to send it to you. And I thought, oh, man, I can't recreate, you know, so I thought, well. But you wrote it. You sang it. I wrote all the words.

I sang it. I added instruments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a Blair Packum, okay? So well done. I love it very much. And welcome back to Rewinder. Thank you.

I'm glad to be here. I'm always glad to be here. So we'll do a little catch-up for those who haven't heard Rewinder. We're very organized on this show. Like there is going to be a bit of catch-up here. I have some questions for you, Blair, and a little audio. Then we're going to have a segment about radio changes this past quarter. There were plenty.

Television changes. There were plenty. And we're focusing on Canada here, everybody. Music, there's a little less music, but we'll talk about a couple of news items regarding music. And then we're going to celebrate, pay our resources. respects to some people who passed away this past quarter, significant people in the TMU and beyond. So we're going to cover a lot of ground and we're going to try to do it in two hours. But first, I want to know, how was your trip to Jamaica?

It was great. It was really great. It took a little adjustment. I'm not the sort of lie on the beach and drink a beer at 9 in the morning kind of guy. I like to lie on the beach, but for limited times, I also like to lie on my hotel room bed. And, but I also like to go see things. And this was Negril. And there's stuff to see, but not, you know, it's not like, not like you're going to the cathedral or going to the gallery or, like, it's not like, you know, European tourism. And so I'm just not used to that, like, to chill.

To chill. And I kind of relate to this. I got used to it. I got used to it. Actually, it took a couple of days. Now, the first two days rain like I've never seen in my life. Like, really, it was so loud that my traveling companion, who all I talk. about in a second. My traveling companion and I couldn't hear ourselves talk to each other at like a normal

volume in the in the cabin we were in because the rain was so intense. Right. And then the next day when the rain stopped and the sun was shining, thankfully, I walked around the cabin. I saw like the roof leaked in about six places and you could see sunshine through the holes. It was it was amazing. Now, My traveling companion was Radio Lady. Sharon Taylor. That is correct. F-O-T-M, Sharon Taylor. That's right, all the way from Winnipeg.

And so she flew in from Winnipeg, and then we got on an airplane and went to Jamaica. Well, that sounds like a fantastic trip, but a fantastic companion. She is fantastic. And she had been to Negril. I believe I couldn't have the number wrong, but I believe she's listening,

so she could correct me, as she does. I believe it was her 20th, visits to Negril. Wow. Yeah. And she had gone there for for many, many years with her family and usually a relatively large group. So this was different for her because it was just one other person and it was different for her because it was me. And she's, you know, she had stayed in a bunch of different places and we were in a place called Whistling Bird, which was very charming actually. And, and the whole

place had been affected negatively by the hurricane, as you can imagine. Right. But But Whistling Bird, I think a whole cabin maybe got blown away. But they were rebuilding and it was going to be nice. It's definitely not like a first class resort kind of thing, like not a five-star or anything like that, not an all-inclusive as well, but very relaxed and really easygoing. And I don't know, man, I wanted to go back.

As soon as I got back here, I wanted to go back. You could get used to that. Yeah, I could definitely get used to. And I relate to that whole idea. Like you're used to like, okay, we're going to, I don't know, we're going to Paris or whatever. And then you map out these 20K walks you're going to do every day and see this and that and you're going to cover a lot of ground and everything. And it sounds like this vacation is more of like a lie on the beach, drink some beverage, drink that Great Lakes beer you smuggled over the board.

Right. Yeah, it was it was Great Lakes beer only. Who knew that was such a big beer in Jamaica? Only available in Ontario and Jamaica. That's a little known fact here. Shut out to Great Lakes. But that kind of vacation, to me, I don't think I would have to. enjoy that, but maybe if I did that, if I don't know, if I was forced to by radio lady or something, like maybe it would seep into my bloodstream and after a few days, I'd be like, oh, I get it now and maybe that would be my new style. Like I'd be just chill, dude. When I think about drinking great lakes by a beach, I think about what Mark Wiseblot would do after his visits every month. He'd take his great lakes and he'd go to the waterfront and he'd just enjoy himself. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, that was the ritual. Maybe that's something. And he would just. Tell me, that would be the only beer he'd consume, like the whole month would be his great lakes he'd get from coming here, and he would go to the waterfront. Lake Ontario, similar vibes, and he would enjoy. Very similar vibes to the Caribbean Ocean or whatever. Yeah, it's totally the same. What, it's called? The Caribbean Ocean? I don't know.

Don't you know your job thing? I don't know. I don't know where Jamaica. Maybe a radio lady should fact-check you on where you were. It's apparently south of here, Jamaica, I'm cold. It's funny. You know, I recorded a whole. lot of great reggae in my early recording days.

And so you'd think I'd have an affinity for reggae, which I actually do. But in the meantime, it's turned into this sort of, hey, man, you know, people doing a bad Jamaican accent and talking about how much they love Bob Marley and so forth. And I feel like it's deeper than that. And so I was resistant because here we are with the tourists and everybody's listening to reggae. Right. And I'm thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, reggae, reggae, yeah, whatever.

But I grew to really get into it. and they were playing some deep cuts as well. That was great. So, you know, I got back into the reggae thing too, which is nice. It's going to be an award-winning segue. So I mentioned off the top of this episode, this is now an award-winning podcast because at some point in December,

I won a Canadian podcast award for best, I can't remember now, news commentary or current event. I can't remember the category. But I won this prestigious Canadian podcast award, so I added it to the intro, but I think this is the first. episode of Rewinders since I added that.

Yes, and I'm not plugged in at all. No, you're not at all. Like the fact you haven't heard it hurts me deeply. Your name is... But you mentioned you, early in your career, you were recording reggae. Did any of this reggae involve Fergus Hamilton? Yeah, once or twice, but he and I became friends in about 1992. But in the 80s, he was still working with all the people that I was recording at that time.

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. All right, so I'm trying to segue over it. Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Yeah. But his ex-wife was over here yesterday. Oh, nice, Victoria. Yeah.

Yeah. And you came up because I wanted to find out from Victoria, her origin story in the world of PR. And I didn't know where it would lead. I'm just asking the questions here. But it turns out you played a significant role, Blair Packham. Did you know that? Well, I don't know if I'd characterize it as a significant role because I didn't know.

I mean, I know that we work together and she did a fantastic job. And she's a lovely, lovely woman, but also a great publicist. So, but I didn't know, I didn't know where it fell in her chronology. So, uh, do you want to hear her? Well, celebrate the, uh, co-host of, uh, Rewinder Blair Packham. I think I do. All right. Let's listen to Victoria Lord recorded yesterday, unprompted.

I didn't say, tell me some nice things about my guest tomorrow. Here is Victoria Lord. So it's amazing to me hearing you tell me, Blair Packham, please, um, like a role in your story. Huge. I don't even know if he, he realizes it. He is, as you know, one of the funniest people, so intelligent and with the biggest heart. He's just wonderful. I might have to pull that for him and play for him tomorrow.

He really, yeah. I just think the world of him. I haven't seen him in a long time, actually. Well, hang out. You can spend the night and see him tomorrow. See him tomorrow. So, yeah, so Blair called and said, you know, we're doing this Bluebird North tour, and I know you're on Matt leave, but, you know, would you work on this tour for us? So there's more in the episode of Victoria Lord tomorrow.

Sorry, tomorrow, yesterday. Yeah, it's in tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll tell you about that later. But yeah, so there's more tire pumping in the full thing, but I thought I'd pull a little 30 seconds. That is so nice. And honestly, you could pull that and I could play that on a loop because I'm going through a bit of a self-esteem thing right now.

So, yeah, well, you know, I'm human. It goes up and down. I'm only human. That's a good song. Flesh and blood. Who was that Paul? You know, I don't know. Paul Jans?

Yeah. No. I'll have to, I'll Google it while I play this song, okay? Because this is going to segue into something else. So this is all the catch-up of Blair component. But I'm going to, it gives me an opportunity to rant and rave about somebody. I want to see you. You ready?

Are you ready? The ranting I've heard. You see that saliva building? I want to see the raving. Shout out to DJ Trance. Okay, here we go. Wow. Is life ever amazing?

Just think about it, Kevin. The universe has conspired to create a number of miracles and magic to create of all things. You. Yes, but life is also kind of boring too. That it is, my friend. That it is. So if you ever get down, Guilty is charge,

Then just sing this happy song. Live misgivings, It's cold and unforgiving For dumb little suckers Like us. The world is so foul And just how in the towel Get better they were yourself

If you have any doubt That things hardly ever sister. Who are we listening to Blair Packer? Well, that's Bruce McCullough and Kevin McDonald. Yes, so FOTM, Kevin McDonald. And Bruce McCullough, do you have anything to do with the new material from Bruce McCullough?

Yes, I recorded at my home a few vocals with Bruce for his current release, I believe his debut music album, songs from Bruce. That's his debut? Like, what about was Dave's I know and Terriers and all that? that. Well, those were songs within the show. But I feel like it might have also got it. Did they release? Yeah, that one, the human one, the title I have to Google this. So before

I Google that, and I tell you why I'm ranting about Bruce here. Raving, yeah. And Raving, if you're lucky. Human is by the Human League. I'm only human. Is it? That song? I'm pretty sure that's the one we're talking about. Because I thought I'm only human. There's so many songs,

though, that, you know, I've been tempted to write a song myself that way. Let me play the audio sample. So let me just say goodbye to Bruce here. We're going to talk more about Bruce in a moment here. Bruce is a lovely. I can't speak to that quite yet. I'm sure he is, but let's listen to this. That's the song we're singing. Yeah, I think you're right.

Come on, baby, drive your eyes. Right. Like your tears. The Human League. Yeah, 1986. I'll bring her down, but that is the song we're singing. The Human League. Human affection.

So they're called Human League. The song is I'm Only Human. Well, the song's title is human. Oh, okay. And the band is called Human League. And the chorus goes, I'm only human. Right. So the Jitters could do a version like that.

I'm only Jit. Because it would be half of the name, right? We're workshopping that one still. I'm only Jit. Okay, I'm just checking out Human League. It doesn't ring the same. It's running it by in my head. Well, keep working on that.

But back to Bruce for a moment. moment and then we're going to get to the subject of the matter. Bruce McCullough was in my calendar three distinct unique times. So three times because he had a bunch of shows and a PR person said, would you talk to Bruce? And I said, I am trying to get all the kids in the hall in the basement. I've been trying to get, I wrote him a hand, handwritten letter once because he was, what a tall boys?

Yeah, shooting down the street. Shooting down the street. And I worked on that too. Okay, well, you're, why can't you get Bruce in the basement then? That's my question because this thing was booked three times. The PR person's so apologetic beyond his control, not his fault. But three times I got amped up to have Bruce, a kid in the hall in the basement, which means I load up my songs, I do my research, I'm ready three different times I had my heartbroken.

I'm a little ticked off, man. I can understand that. I totally understand that. Bruce is poly laborious. He's an autonomous creature. He works on what he wants to work on and does what he want. I have no control over. Then why is there a PR person involved booking for him if he's going to do what he wants?

I suppose that's a good question. But he's a busy fella and he's got a family. He's so generous. I got to say, for my son, my son in high school did a documentary for his film class. He was at an art school and he did a documentary about the kids in the hall. And Paul Myers was working on his book at the time and Paul's a family friend. So my boy interviewed Paul. But then Bruce offered himself up to be interviewed.

to this kid, this high school kid. And not only that, he asked Owen if he invited Owen to shadow direct with him, like follow Bruce around basically while Bruce was directing tall boys. Now, Owen didn't take full advantage of the opportunity because he said, sounds like Bruce is a mensch. He's a mensch. He's a total mensch. And he's very businesslike.

When he comes to my house, we, you know, shoot the shit for like two minutes and then we're working. That's like us. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We shoot the shit for two hours and then we don't work. But yeah, no, he's a lovely guy. I'm sure, by way, I never met the man, okay?

I do madly respect his work, and I love kids in the hall. Okay, you know this. But I do think maybe we need to get him in the basement just to, like, not have those bad Hugh Dylan vibes I've been carrying for a decade because his PR blew me off. But that was one time in the calendar, came out last minute, never got back in. Bruce was in there three different times.

I need Bruce in this basement. Well, here's the thing. I know you don't want to chase him. because you've already had him in the calendar three times and you're ticked off. Well, I haven't put him on the shit list yet. I'm still willing to have money. But I do think that if you called his assistant, who I could hook you up with, but I think you might already have her number.

But and just explain your plight. I think she would. This is all I ask. Let me talk to this assistant and explain my plight. She's a, she's wonderful. And she's and she would and she'll be sympathetic and she will be helpful if she can. Okay. Thank you.

This is the third. album released by Bruce McCullough. So the first one was 1995's shame-based man. That's the one I was thinking about. God, I didn't remember. That one I had. Wow.

Yeah, like, so shame-based man. Yeah. Which was by the way, produced by FOTM Bob Wiseman. Okay. And I'll show you, I'll name some of the tracks on that one. But then he also did one in 2002 called Drunk Baby Project. Oh, yeah. So this is the third one.

And I mean, I'm looking at the track list for shame-based man. and okay, so I was wondering if it had any of those kids in the hall songs, but it's got a lot of stuff. Bob Wiseman's all over this stuff. Kevin McDonald always, you know, drops by and helps out.

One of the songs, so I just saw it here. You might remember, maybe you remember Daddy's on the drink, but the one that is on here that you'll know from kids in the hall is Dave's I know. So Dave's on a shame-based man. There you go. Well, I chose you what I know. Well, yeah. I don't have

to research all of my clients. You should. Do you, has the, have the jitters ever been nominated for a Juno? Yes, in 1988. And who won that Juno? Barney Bentall. Not the legendary hearts, just Barney. No, no, Barney Bentall and the legendary hearts.

They were all included. And they were sitting two rows in front of us. Okay, he's a good guy, Barney. Oh, he's a really good guy. And in the moment, I was crushed, but only in the moment. Right. And I think Barney's fantastic. Okay.

You know, Maestro Fresh West was nominated. They didn't have a rap category at the time, but he was nominated for Best Dance Recording, I think. He didn't win that Juno either. But I believe that went to FOTM Concan. Barry Harris? Oh, yeah. Remember the Never promised me a Rose Garden thing?

Yeah, yeah. But that one, I think. Okay. So, just before I get away from this Juno, two quick things on the Junos. One is, if you win a Juno, do you know the answer to this? do you have to pay for your trophy?

Well, I don't know, but that seems to be how it works. You know, I never won, I never achieved gold status with the jitters. We came close, but not close enough. But I understood at the time it was $125. So it's gone up. Yeah. But I don't know. It seems to be the way it is.

Yeah, Simone Danny told me that it was between $400 and $600. And most artists, it'll be the record label. will pick up that tab. Although, as we always say, it gets billed back to you at the end. Oh, yeah, yeah. Anytime you're in a limo at the record company expense

or there's a party. Just, you know, the average Joe, and I used to be one, okay? Yes, a civilian. They don't realize that when you're, you've got those big fancy party, band parties with the expensive champagne and the limos and everything.

They don't realize that the record label's not just paying that because you're making them some money, that you'll actually end up, the band will end up paying for that at the end. Yeah, I mean, it's creative accounting in a way because, you know, they are putting the money out. And then that money they won't necessarily get back from sales because you may not sell enough to recoup that money. But that's where it comes from accounting-wise. And it means you don't get paid of royalty until that money is recouped.

Yeah, it's like a loan. It's an interest-free loan. And there's two things about it that I think are egregious. One is they charge all kinds of stuff to you that you didn't authorize or, you know, like, there was a huge Juno party at the Juno's that year in 88, and all the nominees, I'm sure, found charges in their recoupable account, you know, for a party that, you know, I would have had less shrimp. No, great point, right?

You know, you eat differently when you're paying for it versus, oh, some rich person is paying for them. So, so for me, at the end of our deal with the jitters, we ended up with a debit balance of 485. thousand dollars and that was for limos and parties and that's a lot of money on pressing and distribution of the record and so forth what that meant was at that moment when we were dropped by the label we would have had to earn back in terms of royalties 485,000 dollars before we saw any royalty at all so and that was when half a million bucks meant something exactly and it also meant at that time given our royalty rate that was about one dollar per record which meant we would have had to sell 400

185,000 albums in order to get that in order to recoup. Which means you would have had to break in the United States of America. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because an album that sells 485,000 in Canada is like enormous. Maybe one band can do that, okay? And that's going to tie into the last point before we get to our first segment about radio. But I did see, since your last visit, I saw the Tragically Hips Rob Baker post a video by you on his Instagram story. aware of this? No. Do you have any awareness? So I took the note when I saw it to ask you about it,

but I didn't pull the audio. So Rob Baker posted some video by you on his Instagram story. That's so funny. That's something we can dig into later. Yeah, you might have missed it. I was near Kingston recently and about to drive through Bath and I thought I should call Rob and didn't because I had to go back. Son of a judge. Do you know this, Rob Baker? I didn't actually know it. but I know Rob's been very generous in talking about my music and stuff. That's nice. So Rob Baker definitely a big packum head. Yeah, I guess so.

Well, I mean, yeah, and we've talked before. He's a lovely guy. Paul Langlois and I talked more recently maybe a year ago because he wanted to learn how to, he said he has a gravely voice. You know, I play a... Smokes a lot of darts. Yeah, I play your song, A Little Fish at Campfires. But I don't know if I'm playing a...

properly. Can you make me a video? So I, you know, just for him, I made a little video of me sitting and playing and singing the song and but focusing on my hands. So quick note on the live stream from Radio Lady. Uh-oh. Wants to know if we're both wearing shackets. She keeps giving me a hard time about this shacket.

What is a shacket? Is that just a hybrid? I would stand up, but your basement is height challenged. I'm going to show her my just so she can see. I'm wearing, I'm all cordurore today, baby, including corduroi shoes. So there. Don't hit your head.

No. All corduroy. So, quarteri socks. Quarteroy underwear. That's very 70s, right? Quarterway is very 70s. And I've got a medallion.

No, I don't. I don't have quarteri anything on. Is this Chino Vanelli making his return? Okay. No, it's the, it's the Chesterfield shop is what it is. Blair Packham as the Chesterfield. So this is,

maybe it's a shack. I've been, so the last few months have been, well, last couple of months have been kind of tough in that, like, Mother Nature's been a beast. Yes. And I feel like I'm in survival mode. Like, it's just, It's been busy, but not Toronto Mike podcast busy.

And it's been kind of drawing from this. And there's a lot going on here. More in my Elma combo gig. Did you know I'm headlining at the Elma combo on May 21st? I saw that. I intend to be there. But, yeah, we'll... Listen, you got to buy a ticket.

I don't even have any control over the tickets. I can understand that. Well, depending on how much they are. If I'm not there, you'll know why. I think your hair is thriving, as usual, in this time. Yeah, my barber is moving to New Brunswick, but more on that later. That's a drag. you'll have to go, it's a long way for haircuts.

But to answer Sharon's complaint. Shacket complaint. Yeah. We don't know what's a complaint. You're wearing a, I don't know if it's a shacket, but mine is. There's no question. I got mine in Germany. That would be like a spring jacket.

I bought mine in Germany. It's, well, it's a shacket. It was Billy Bragg who pointed out the shacket on stage at Massey Hall. He said, yeah, my wife said, I had to spruce myself up a little bit on stage. and I'll stop doing that. And he said, so I got myself a shacket. And so he pointed out to the whole audience, and I thought, I got to get me a shacket.

So when I was in Germany, I got this, this, and I like it a lot. Well, you look good. You've kicked it up a notch for sure. And I did know when you got out of your car, I noticed that you're wearing purple pants. And I said to you, only rock stars can wear purple. Like, I can't pull off purple pants. I figure you, Mick Jagger, like maybe Rod Stewart,

these are the people who wear purple pants. Nick Jagger, Rod Stewart are always mentioned in the same sentence, and I'm getting tired of it, Mike. Well, you've all written a catchy ditty or two, okay? So you're ready to get rolling here? I feel like we've caught up enough. Oh, we haven't even started yet. Okay, yes.

So the first segment is going to be all about radio. Okay. A lot happened in radio this past quarter. And this segment, Blair Packham, is brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. I'm actually going to go there at 2 o'clock today. So if you want to meet the Great Toronto, Mike, I'm at Great Lakes Brewery at 2 o'clock today. I've got to pick up a few four cases.

of fresh craft beer. But I am sending you home with some fresh craft beer, Blair Packham. Thank you. I love it. Thank you to GLB. So big news in Toronto Radio Land. You ready? Yeah, I'm ready. 7.02, good morning. Mainly sunny today, high of minus one. And tomorrow, mainly sunny, high of plus six. It is minus seven right now. Minus seven. In the summer, it'll be plus 24. Hopefully. And this summer is when I'm going to celebrate my fourth. 40th anniversary living in this chum universe. 40 years doing this morning show.

40 years. Is that amazing? I love it. I can't believe I'm saying that. I also have to say something else. It's been a privilege, but I'm also going to step away this summer from this morning show and this station that I love. And I wanted to make that announcement because I can't hold a secret very well. So I had a lot of time to think about it, and I just want you to know being in this chum universe.

for 40 years has been so awesome. And I'm just wanted to tell everybody that this is my decision. So there's the big news from Chum. Yeah. That's a big one. That's a really big one. Yeah. 40 years.

Yeah. In fact, I was wondering to myself, when Marilyn Dennis hangs it up for good this summer, who will be the longest serving morning show host in Toronto radio, like actively on the radio? Do you have a guess? Well, based on the 40 years, I would have said her. No, after her. Oh, when she retired.

Once she retires. No, I don't have a guess. I believe it to be Roz and Moka. Oh, wow. And I believe that John Moore is like weeks later. Like, I think they're very close. I could have gone to John Moore, but Ros and Moka, I would have thought was, I just feels more recent.

Yeah, well, that's it. It is kind of recent, right? How long for them? 15 years, I think. 16 years. Okay, and John Moore is less than that? So I believe John Moore starts his morning show, Moore in the morning, like literally weeks or months later.

Wow. So one, yeah, so Rosamoka, then John Moore, but weeks or months apart. But that's a, that's a big deal for Toronto Radio to have Marilyn Dennis no longer hosting the morning show on 104.5. What a busy, busy broadcaster she has been. Do you know her personally? Have you met her? Well, we've met, but I wouldn't say, I know her. And I wouldn't say she'd know me or remember me or anything.

But, you know, I've been on, I was on when she was at. where was she at the Maryland Dennis show City Line oh it's okay two things here she did take over for Deany Petty on City TV's City Line yeah okay but then there was that whole thing where Bell Media bought the standard stations well you're your dad worked a standard

and I was there at the time doing my show and there was that split where Bell Media ended up with CP 24 yep and Rogers ended up with City TV because no yes because Bell already had CTV and he couldn't have city TV have too many properties. Right. But what happened there was Maryland had to leave CityLine because Rogers owned CityLine

and she was becoming a Bell Media talent on 104.5 Chum, which became a Bell media station. So Maryland had to leave CityLine. And then Bell started up a new show for Maryland on CTV called The Maryland Dennis Show or something like that. Right, right. Yeah. And so we cross paths here and there. But I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't certainly wouldn't say she was a friend or anything like that. but I'm an admirer and anybody who lasts that long in broadcasting.

I mean, what a volatile industry. And for her to last that long is a testament to her abilities. Yeah, it's very rare not to get fired in the radio. Yeah, like every six months or every year. Yeah, get fired, get format change, whatever. Now, we don't know. I've been unsuccessful in my many attempts to get Marilyn Dennis on Toronto mic. She's a naturally, it would be a natural fit to have her on to talk about her

radio career and come in a chum and working with Roger Ashby and Rick Hodge. And then Rick, of course, goes to standard to do this crazy thing with Easy Rock and CFRB 1010. And they fill that spot with Darren Lamb. Do you remember this name? Yes, I do. You ever meet Darren Lamb? I don't think so. I love that.

This is my favorite part of the show where I name the people and you tell me. Yeah, and I just go, no. Darren B. Lamb is how I think he was billed. But I think they filled the Rick Hodge spot with Darren. B. Lamb. And then at some point, Dary and B. Lamb left to go to C. H.F.I. And was co-hosting with, like, Maureen Holloway. And then he just seemingly, like, it's kind of a wild Toronto radio story, but he seemingly just disappears. Like, I believe him to be alive and well, but he just walks away from radio kind of mysteriously. And we don't hear from D. And B. Lamb again. This is not totally unique. This has happened before with other Toronto people who, who, in broadcasting, who just. go away and you don't know where they're at. But usually they're fired.

Like this is, I don't believe him to be fired. I believe he just sort of walked away. Right. And I was also thinking of, who are you thinking of? Chris Shepard? Well, Shepard, Gold Shepard didn't have a gig, right?

He did disappear and we can't find them. Right. Well documented. I'm sure there, I wonder about Andrew Crystal. I mean, he, if not, I mean, he obviously resurfaced a number of times. He was on Sirius XM though. Yeah. And I think he was probably possibly at Sirius XM

when he passed maybe? Like he had the show possibly. Yeah, I think he was working. That's like the witness relocation program. Like you could have a show every day on serious exam and we wouldn't have a clue. No,

no. It's funny how fragmented everything is now to the point where honestly when you are naming names, I know the names, but I'm thinking, yeah, it's like if we're talking about the Blue Jays, I'd be like, yeah, good for you, Mike. Talk about that baseball team,

whoever they are. Well, Marilyn Dennis has been around so long that even us oldies. Even I, and I, you know, and I think of Ros and Mocha as new. No, it's true. That's right. By the way,

Ross, I think, is older than me. Like, this is the young, young up-and-comers in Toronto. So I'll give you my theory on what I think happens next with Chum. Okay. And your job is to fake a... Confirm or deny. Fake an interest in all of it.

But the, did you, again, I know you can't do this, obviously. I have the wrong co-host for Rewiner. Get me wise blob back. Well, just kidding. But do you know the current co-host of the morning show on Chum FM? I do not.

That Marilyn Dennis is at the helm. of? Nope. His name is David Corey. Oh. Do you know this name, David Corey? His, well, I believe, hasn't he, hasn't his name come up on, on Toronto Mike's a number of times?

I feel like there were episodes. Okay, I'm floundering here. You're floundering. No, I mean, I haven't, I don't think I've ever explicitly talked about David Corey on Toronto Mike, but, but so David Corey is a very good friend of Marilyn Dennis. And he kind of, I feel out, here's what I think was the plan all along. Okay, I'll just tell you what I, I believe the plan to have been, purely speculative

on my part. But I think they saw that, okay, we'll get Maryland to 40 years. That's a good milestone, a good run, right? It's 40 years in a morning show in Toronto is,

I can only think of one. Unbelievable. You know, one guy went, Wally Crowder. Yeah, in 50 years, right? Okay, so outside,

and that's never going to happen again. Did I ever tell you my Wally Crutter story? Tell me the Crowder story. I lived in the ManuLife Center with my parents when I was a teenager, and so did Wally Crouter. Not when he was a teenager, but when I was a teenager.

Right. So my dad, at the time VP of standard broadcasting, um, uh, you know, they would see each other in the elevator and, hello, Wally, good morning or whatever, you know, and, and, but, you know, they were colleagues and so forth. Sure. But I would see Mr. Crowder going into the elevator. Maybe I'd come home after school and he'd be waiting for the elevator. We got on the elevator and I guess someone had farted.

A person who got off the elevator after. We get on and it's not good. and Wally Crutter says, oh for God, in that broadcast voice, oh for God's sake, did somebody die inside you? Oh, you took the hit on that one. No, no, not to me, not to me.

He was saying it. He was yelling at the door before the elevator door closed. Yeah, he wasn't, no, he wasn't saying it to me. But then I, who was a very delicate soul, very, very, so I rode the ride in silence the whole time.

See, that's the kind of radio stories I'm looking for from you there, Pack him. But you mentioned Andrew Crystal, and we have previously gone through your personal traumatic history of that man. Did you know there's a fairly recent episode of Toronto Mike featuring Michelle Crystal? I heard it. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, Michelle Crystal came on to talk about her late husband. Her late husband, Andrew Crystal. I wondered if you would listen to that. I did listen to it. And, yeah, it didn't offer any enlightenment for my particular experience of Andrew Crystal. But it was interesting to listen to for sure.

For sure. He was a total character. I could never be friends with him again after that, those incidents that happened way back when. But, you know, I don't. Those incidents were pre-Michel. Yes, they were around 1980. Yeah, way pre.

Okay, because she enters the Crystal Nation. The Crystal Palace. When Crystal's in Halifax. Right. Which is after Mojo. and before he got the fan 590 gig and then he was on City News for a while. Right. His real name, Nagel, by the way.

Okay. How many people know that? Not many. Well, listen, you just dropped that bomb on us. And here, let me tell you back to my... See, I am useful, Mike. You are useful. So here you go.

Mike had announced this as my last rewinder. No way. I love these quarterly episodes. Okay, good. Even though I know nothing about broadcast. But after Victoria Lord bumped your tires, I never thought of you as funny. and then Victoria Lord has ever thought of me as funny.

Oh my God. Victoria's got me all turned around. Like now I think, oh, that's a great guy to co-host ReWinder. He's a good guy. I should get him in sometime. You're more than just Rick Emmett's driver. As far as I'm concerned. And engineer.

And engineer. I just realized. There is a, I'm going to drop some triumph on you. Okay. For the music segment. Yes, no, I can't get your ticket. And Victoria Lord sent over. I know I wasn't going to answer.

I'm too young for triumph. Come on, Blair. But Victoria Lord sent Gilmore, not Doug Gilmore, but Gilmore, to the basement studio. That's great. I didn't even know that until she mentioned it yesterday. Okay, so really quickly back to Chum, because everybody wants to chum chatter here. I believe they say, they see, they're looking down the line on Marilyn Dennis, the exit plan, you know, and they're like, okay, Marilyn, we're going to get you to 40 years,

and then you're going to present to the world that you're hanging up your, you know, your decision. After 40 years, you're going to step down. Okay. So we're going to take Jemar McNeil. We're taking him off the morning show because he was implanted there kind of as the Roger Ashby replacement. This guy, Jamar, American, by the way. Came over twice. We got to get him over a third time.

Jamar McNeil is going to go in afternoons to co-host with Joe's FOTM, Josie Dye, who many know best from CFNY and then Indy 88. Okay. That's the afternoon drive because the plan is to take that afternoon drive. and slide it into the morning show. So to get there, because there's a bit of ramp there, as we build the Jamar and Josie show on afternoons on chum, we bring in Maryland's BFF, a chap named David Corey.

Just, you know, you're going to co-host a Maryland. She'll be comfy with you. You're a bud, and then we'll get it to 40 years. Maryland will step away. David will say, bye-bye, I'm going to do other things. Jamar and Josie slide into the mornings. Now you just need to replace Jamar and Josie in the afternoons. And I'm going to speculate Marilyn Dennis's

son, Adam Wilde, slides into that spot with Jacks, Adam's co-host on, I think, a podcast right now. This is what I think was always the plan. Let's see if it transpires, Blair Packham. That's very interesting. And, you know, the idea of a broadcasting dynasty is not new in Toronto, actually. I mean, not to the same degree. Glenn Crowder was doing the woodbine stuff.

That's right. And there's, oh, what's her name? Loring, Elaine Loring. Her father was Rex Leroy. and also Jay Nelson and Kevin Nelson, a dear, dear friend of Radio Lady, by the way, Sharon Taylor, who's listening. Died too young. Yeah, he did.

He definitely did. And I knew him when I was 13 years old, 14 years old. When you were working with Wiseblood at U of T-Radio. That's right. Okay, folks, for the people who don't understand that reference, I used to say to Mark Weisblet that we were at contemporaries, and he would take great offense at this, because I'm about 10 years older. See, that's the difference between you and I.

I'll drop a very inside nugget that will only appeal to the 5% who remember that, okay? And I actually won't explain it. Like, it's there. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, that's on you. Follow more closely. Maybe you'll get the next one. And you feel this radio need to tell the newbies what we're talking about.

Explainer. That's me. The new thing here. Okay, so you mentioned the mysterious disappearance of Chris Shepard, which has been covered extensively on. Toronto, Mike. Yes. Okay.

Since you were here, that CFNY documentary, which I've also been covering extensively, did debut on TV O Docs. Right. Did you watch the CFNY documentary? I keep meaning to, I haven't yet, will. I will definitely. Yeah, I will, I'm definitely interested. I was not really a CFNY listener, and that cuts me off from most of my contemporaries.

But I feel like this was made for the non-listeners. Like, I, you know, I've no one's, no one's covered the CFMY dog closer than I have. and too much to the chagrin of the executive producers. I should show you the emails I got from Ivor Hamilton and Scott Turner. Like my investigative reporting on the CF and White Dog has not made me any friends on the inside. No, really? I didn't know that. Wow. And I'm at an event, and I didn't get an email from this gentleman,

but I was told by the other two gentlemen that he was in cahoots with them on this matter. But I am going to be appearing at a book launch for a new book called Track Changes by Camber. Gordon. Oh. And I saw, like I was looking at who else is making appearance, because I'm on the mic, I think I'm on for like two to five minutes. Maybe I'm practicing my Elmo gig on May 21st. Who knows? But who else is there? Oh, Alan Cross is there. So absolutely 100%. I'm going to make a B-line to the, to FOTM Allen Cross. Look him in his beautiful eyes and just make sure we're good because

I feel I was fair in just doing my job to cover this thing. And yeah, I learned a lot because you know what I did that no one else did? Talk to the director of the documentary. Oh. Even though apparently he was unauthorized and I got a very interesting nasty, well, very, I won't call it nasty, but a very strongly worded email from the producers of this film, I guess they own the film, explaining I'm not allowed to talk to Matt Schichter, the director of this documentary because he is unauthorized to speak about this documentary.

That seems odd to me, and I don't know if there's any legal basis for that. No, no, no. Listen. You can't tell me. That's a you problem. Yeah, and you can tell him and if he decides to comply, or maybe it's in his contract, but it has nothing to do with you. I don't talk to people who are authorized to speak on matters. I talk to who I think would be somebody with a perspective on the matter that I want to explore, and they either say yes or no.

And it's up to them if they feel they can't. And if they're Bruce McCullough, they say yes and then no. Poor Bruce getting beaten up here. He, Bruce is, you'll get Bruce, I'm sure of it. Okay, because that'll be my third, okay? And I'm actually wondering, could I get the complete set? Like, would somebody like a Dave? Because Dave Foley will do things like Q.

Right, right. So I'm not pretending this is Q. Clearly it's not, because I think Bruce would have fulfilled his obligation with Q if he was in the Q calendar. But I'm being hard on Bruce. But I do wonder if, somebody like Dave Foley would ever come on a podcast like Toronto might. I wonder.

Yeah. Only time will tell. My contact with Dave Foley has been pretty limited, but of course he's friends of friends. Craig Northy is the guy who actually produced the Bruce McCulloch record and got me the gig as he has in the past with Bruce recording stuff in Toronto. And Craig Northies with the odds, of course, and he and Dave Foley are tight. Also with the Trans-Canada Highwaymen. Yes, in fact, yes, in fact.

And very close to Stephen Page, because they're in that trio together. Yeah, and Stephen Page that has his summer camp coming up again. I think it's third year in a row. Do you know anything about that? No. It's great. Do you want to go? Yeah, I do.

I really want to go. Although, I want to go as an insider. I don't really want to pay. But is it for adults? I don't know what you're talking. Yeah, it's for adults. But it's on a lake somewhere and it's a, you know, and you don't like lakes. Oh, I love lakes.

Lakes, I mean, Lake Ocean, it's just like Jamaica to me. It's all Jamaica. You know, that's a callback. you see, I have to explain. That's all your years on CFRB. Yes, that's right. Because the demographic is older and you want to go slow. With the co-host, he doesn't like me.

Oh, Bob Reed, yeah. Yeah, see how quickly I guessed that? I don't know if he doesn't like you. He's very circumspect. Well, we're speculating based on the evidence at hand that he might not be a big fan. Circumpect on when your name is mentioned, he goes, and that's it. Could be worse. Yeah, could be way worse.

Hey, let me wrap up the CFOI dog thing. We're going to get to another radio news item that actually is also. All of these, I have three items here, and they're all chorus related, okay, because Matt Schichter revealed, he's the director of the CF and Y dog. He revealed that Chorus did have to, did approve this dock before it could be viewed. Like, that's an interesting little detail that chorus, who currently owns CFMY, needed to approve, even though all the times covered, I think everything, but they do refer to the fact that Martin Streak had passed away.

And of course, he passed away when. Chorus owned CF and Y. But everything in this dock is from the Spirit of Radio era, which is the David Marsden era, which is pretty much like 77 to 87, which is way before Chorus would be an owner of this station. I don't even know of course. I don't think Chorus did. I told it David Marsden's story yesterday.

Go ahead, because he just celebrated his 85th birthday. Yes. And I like David very much. Actually, I don't know him very well, but I've known him a long, long time. So back when I had recorded my first demo of my first song. ever, I decided that all I had to do was get it to somebody famous and they would make me famous because that's how it works. You get it, you know, someone, someone famous recognizes your genius and then they make you famous as well. So I made, I had a cassette and I sent it to

Chum and I was a fan. I had been in a band that David managed, David Marsden managed. It was called chicken and I was in the band for about a month. Okay. And they rehearsed in my basement, Eddie Valacette and Ben Haynes and Dave Tomlinson and me. And so we rehearsed in the basement. Then they went on to make an album and so forth. Anyway, so I felt I had a connection to David Marston. So I sent my cassette to Chum on 1331 Youngstreet. And then proceeded to call about every two days to see if David had listened.

Now, in my memory, my voice hasn't changed yet, but I'm pretty sure it had. I was 17. Right. And I, so I would call, just wondering if David Morrison could call me back. So anyway, eventually, I get a call. I'm at home in the Manuilife Center on the 47th floor. Yeah. And the phone rings.

It's a landline. And I pick it up. And Blair, it's David Marsden. And I'm like, oh, my God, it's David Marsden. And he goes, listen, I was in traffic driving. And I had your cassette on. And you know how when you're driving, you can get distracted easily? well, I got distracted and I turned it off.

And that's just about where it sits now. So I just want to wish you luck with everything. All right. Thanks so much. And that was the end of the call. And I was like, oh, no, I'm not going to be famous. So that's my David's. So here's, I was going to, I wanted to let you finish this story because you tell it so

brilliantly. But I just want you to know, you told that story at the last episode. Oh, the last one? I thought I told it before that. I thought I was spreading it. Okay, well, it's only the fourth episode of Rewinder. Oh, that's true. Oh, Grandpa Packham.

It's great. But a couple of, that's a great story. And I like your, you're, you're, I think my telling of it was better this time. Yeah, because your voice, you're, the young Blair voice you use sounds a lot like me. Like, that's the same impression you do of me, which is funny. I'm Toronto Mike. Mike Boone. And the Packam, who is also known as Blair and Micah Boon Boone too.

Mikey Boon, Boon, too. Yeah, that's right. So clever. So, so clever. So, so clever. So, so clever. So, so. So, so.

So, so. So, so. the impressions I do now, I have to, I'm just doing an inventory for myself. David Marsden, Mike Boone, Youngler, Mark Wiseblot, Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons, and Shaggy. There. Right. Hey, breaking news on the live stream.

Yes. Canada Kev says Shackets are the best of both worlds. Thank you. So I don't know, I still don't know what it is, but if I'm rocking one right now, I like to rock, you know, the best of both worlds. But this is more exciting news to me that Radio Lady. Sharon Taylor, FOTM, was program director at

680 CFTR before it went all news, was at Kiss 92.5, when Garth Brooks was ruling the radio roost, that's right. She says Bob Reed hates me too, and she put it in all caps. We don't know that. I'm reading it right now.

Well, just because it's all in all caps, doesn't mean, you know. You know, she speaks for herself. Okay, fine. We don't know that about either of you, All we know is he, I like the word circumspect. Well, that is a good word. Yeah, he doesn't go either way when he talks, you know.

He's indifferent. I think it's more than an empathetic. Apathy is killing him. Okay. So to wrap the safe of Y, Doc, and I won't go into too much detail and dirt, except I have in my possession, literal letters from lawyers to the, to the director from the producer, the executive producers, basically, executive producers saying basically, this is a piece of shit. we want to get this back so we can fix it.

And so when you follow the threads and you realize what was actually aired that 60-minute version on TVO is with a couple of title card changes, other than a couple of minor title card changes, it is exactly what Schichter delivered. Because I've seen the version delivered by Schichter. I saw it before, they dropped the TVO, Doug. I've said, I compared, I've done my journalistic. Maybe nobody cares but me, but I feel like, you know, this is something of interest to the CFMY heads. it's not supposed to be a PR machine.

Everything was amazing because it kind of comes off as a love letter, but it's like everything was absolutely fucking amazing. They played the best music. This was the best time in the history of radio. And then Marsden left and then it all went to what it became, which is like corporate radio. Right. Yeah, I'm just saying,

within reason, I feel like somebody should be giving a shit about these details. And it seems like I'm the only one who's digging in and having these conversations. And I know some civilians. who have watched it, like people who aren't in radio and aren't in music, but they, you know, they're curious. And they enjoyed it, but I think that they found it a bit of a puff piece.

It is a love letter. Yeah. And I think it's a love letter to our friend David Marston. Right. I do an impression of David Marston. Have I told you that? And I love hearing your impression of David Marston, because if you clock the speed at which he's speaking, and I know that is how David Marsden would speak.

And then you compare it to the footage we have of Dave Mickey on 590. C-K-Y. It is a, like, I think 10-time speed is Dave Mickey 10 times. So it's kind of amazing he was both personas. I do an impression of David Morrison. I'm just going to keep saying that. Do you're Dave Mickey. No, I can't do that.

I could do my Kevin Nelson, though. Kevin Nelson, no, it wouldn't sound. I wouldn't even know. Well, that's the thing, yeah. So, yeah. I'm going to wrap up radio. Okay, radio. I'm trying to keep it the two hours.

Yeah, yeah. We suck at this. Fine, fine, fine. Got to leave time for my David-Marsson impression. Right. A couple of radio notes from, chorus. One is that they moved, we talked last time on

Rewinder that John Oakley had stepped down after a long run. Yes. Okay. He took over mornings for Humble and Fred when they left Mojo Radio. We talked about that when we talked about Andrew Crystal, but Humble and Fred went to Mix 99.9. Yeah. Standard broadcasting, right? Yep. Those were the days. Those were the days. Okay.

And John Oakley got the gig from 1010. John Oakley went to 640 and then he eventually did move to afternoons. I've had many chats that had Supria Devetti on with Mike Stafford and they were the morning show. But John Oakley was in afternoons. We talked about his long run.

Well, he's retired now and Ben Mulrooney got the afternoon slot. So if you're wondering who took over for John Oakley afternoons on 640, the answer is son of Prime Minister Brian, almost FOTM Ben Mulroney. I'm curious if that's also, is it just a radio gig? Well, he is hosting a politics show on Gloverning. on global. That was the one that I had read about, yes. And, uh, yeah, too much Ben Mulroney for my taste. I'll say, I got to say that more clearly, too much Ben Mulroney for my taste. Well, the nice thing about all this is you don't have to listen to Ben Mulroney afternoons on

640. You don't have to listen. You don't have to. I always tell people this when they say they don't like somebody. I'm like, well, you don't have to listen. No, you're absolutely right. And, I don't need to express my opinion except that. No, but what else are you on Rewinder for? Exactly. You think he sucks. Say he sucks. Oh, I didn't, no, no. I just said I don't need to hear any more of him, that's all. No more Ben. But I know, I know, I know, I know some ladies who love him.

Really? Yeah, and they think, and I always think, really? He's available now. Looks, looks Trump, his politics and his opinion. I'm triggered by the use of that word Trump. I know, Trump. I know, I'll just keep saying. I can't play Uker anymore.

No joke. We need a new room. I love Uker. But many in Ontario native does, but. Radio Lady is a Uker player, by the way. Okay. And she taught me a card game while we're in Jamaica,

but I don't remember what, oh no, it's called, not kidding, it's called stupid. I remember that. Named after you. Yeah,

thank you. And she, but youker player and also, she was a member of a curling club. So like, really, really. She's the chukinian.

Yeah, no, no, but it's also like, when is the pickleball going to happen, you know? Okay. Now,

the, if you're wondering, you're probably wondering, who's taking Ben's old spot, which I was, wondering, I was chomping at the bit. I was ranting and raving. A chap named Brad Smith, who was like a bachelor Canada person who possibly played some professional football. I don't know a lot about Brad Smith, but he's got the old Ben Mulrooney spot on 640.

Right. Right. Well, congratulations Brad Smith. So there you go. Here's where you come for your radio news. One last item. Yes. There was a midday announcer on Edge 102, the aforementioned CFNY. And, or was it, 1 or 2.1 the edge, I never knew. But I get confused. But she went by the handle MK. And MK was fired. This is a sad, true story that the, she was only on CF&Y, kind of live and local. And they fired her.

And she's been replaced by a chap named Jeremy Baker, who is on, like, several radio stations at once. Like, so it basically is cost cutting because Jeremy's already doing his show for a bunch of stations in the chorus network. and now it'll be on 102 and they don't have to pay MK that monster's salary she was probably demanding. Yeah, excuse me, that's radio right there. Radio Lady would have something to say about that. I think Radio Lady is turning into a socialist. She was an avid capitalist when she worked in radio,

and the avid, unfettered capitalism is what drives, you know, those large corporations. And so they see an opportunity to, cost cut and even somebody like mk is going to suffer because of that i mean the radio show that i did with bob reed cost them very very little like in the hundreds of dollars per show like several hundreds of hundred dollars like it was it was embarrassingly low we were given advertising time to sell but you know but they they cut our show and now that was more of a format thing i think but still if there's savings to be had and i i like to think that radio lady is much more sympathetic to

that now. But, you know, she was, that was part of her gig, was finding savings so that you keep the profits up, which is understandable, but also it's sad when it affects people you like. And of course, the financial difficulties at Chorus are well documented. Yes, yes. But, you know, as you say, losing MK is not going to fix that. So, no, I'm sorry to hear this, that M.K. lost her gig. So somebody, I think he might be Vancouver based. I don't, I got to check out where Jeremy Baker actually is when he records, but he's on several Corriss stations now. That's the future, maybe a radio.

You know, chorus has just one lineup for rock and one lineup for, I don't know, pop or top 40, and then maybe that depends what you slide in or whatever. Yeah, I mean, to me, the appeal of radio was always the personalities. Live and local, right? Yeah, yeah, that's what it was.

I remember when WPHD in Buffalo, which I used to listen to as an alternative to Chum and I think that was just Chum FM at the time in Toronto, because I was in high school. W PhD went to an automated format, which was revolutionary and unheard of, and it was awful, because there would be an announcer every three songs

that was pre-recorded by somebody in Dallas, you know, and it was all formatted and everything. It was just really, for me, not that interesting. Now, if you're listening to the radio as background and you just want the music as background, I suppose that's fine. But for me, I wanted to know what was going on in the announcer's heads and their lives and stuff.

And I think it speaks to why podcasts are so popular, because you get that. You know, you're not getting music, that's for sure. Well, similar to what you're saying right now, Blair Packham, what I miss is the music announcer who would give you some context about the music they were playing. Yeah. And Booky did this quite well.

Oh, really well. The late great bookie. But I think, but even when, you know, you'd hear George Strombolopolis back when he was at CFNY, but there are certain announcers that, you know, and this maybe this speaks to some of the greatness we had in the spirit of radio era of 102.1, when the jocks, A, they love the music,

but they gave a shit. And there would be efforts to educate you. And I know that's probably why ongoing history of new music was born. They needed some foreground programming, and they could, hey, educate idiots like me in the early 90s about how we get here. You know, there's this band television playing CBGBs, and this leads to that.

And then, you know, you can talk about the Ramones, et cetera, et cetera. But I like it when a jock tells you about that. artist you just heard they're from here this is they're influenced by this you might also have heard them do this and this guy's brother and this but i just like knowing that stuff yeah yeah we don't have any of that right now me too um no we don't have anything like that um i was having a discussion the sidebar having a discussion with somebody about cbgb recently yeah and um uh they didn't know that it's it stood for it did i guess yes go bgb yeah country cbgb bluegrass blues that's exactly right but most

Most people don't know that. They think of it as a punk club. We're the smart people. Well, exactly. But you, unlike me, I approached the owner of, see, I had an appointment with Hilly Crystal, the owner of CBGB to manage the jitters in about 1982. And we, you know, we had a beer and talked and he said, no, he wasn't interested. Was it a Great Lakes beer?

I'm sorry to say it was not, because I think it preceded Great Lakes. 87, I think, is the birth year of the Great Lakes. And probably not in Manhattan at that time. only available in Ontario, Jamaica, and Manhattan. All right, we're going to, we've got to get the TV, man. It's too easy to talk to you. It is. I do want to clarify.

I think I mentioned that, I think I said, if I play back the tape, that Yucre is popular amongst Ontarians. And the reason I added that clarifier is because I am married to a woman from Edmonton, Alberta, who had never heard of Yucre. And I was curious about this because both my grandmothers were playing it when I was a kid. Like it was seemingly everywhere. We played it all through high school. Uker.

I play a lot of Uker. Uca is the game. And apparently, and I'm just bringing this up because Radio Lady just mentioned this on the live stream. If you get west of Ontario, they don't know Uker.

And okay, so Radio Lady is, yeah, she would know. She spent a lot of time in the West. She would know, but I also heard her, but I was, I taught her the game. Yeah. And I was shocked. She didn't know Uker.

Yeah. And then I learned, Oh, they're not playing Uker in Edmonton high school. Radio Lady also will tell you about the people, how it's common for married couples to have separate beds in the same bedroom in the West. I don't know anything about this, but I wish we could get her on right now to tell. Well, we'll save that for the next episode of Rewinders. Send us a detailed email.

And then, can we finally get to my David Marsden impression? Media. We're now moving on to television. Oh, TV. I've heard of it. Yes. This segment is brought to you by Palma Pasta. They're catering my youngest's 10th birthday party on Sunday.

That's so great. She loves the penny with rosé sauce. I have in my freezer right now, Blair Packham, a large beef lasagna. It is frozen, and I know you've had several in the past, and they're delicious, and I'm excited that Palma Pasta sent one over for you. And beef lasagna was my nickname in high school. Beef is Lee Eccle's nickname. Really?

Really? And he was on Chum FM. Right. I remember I met Lee a few times. In the interim, between Rewinder episodes, while I was working on my David Marsden impression, which I'd be working on for the next one as well, by the way. I want to hear it next rewinder. Yeah, that's right. You do. Owen, my son and I, we were at Longo's and saw the Longo's lasagna and thought to ourselves, well, we like that Palma pasta lasagna a lot.

We really do like it a lot. So we got the longos. It was horrible. Yeah. What's interesting is some longos are now selling actual palm pasta lasagna. Well, I thought this was repackaged. Palma, I actually looked on it.

They'll say Palm Apas. It'll have the logo and say Palma Pasta. It was absolutely and utterly not palm pasta, which is excellent. You know what? Why do you think Peter Gross was on yesterday? To get a lasagna. I saw the picture of him holding the lasagna and I thought, that's why he's there. By the way, you've got to hear the Peter Gross.

It's only a half an hour. We had just come out of a court appearance, but he... Like you guys getting divorced? What's going on? He is, he picked his lawyer by Googling lawyer and hiring the first link. Wow. And with this story, that's terrible, right?

If your friend said that, you'd be, oh, my God, that's not how you buy, get a lawyer. But we have a mutual friend, Peter and I, who would do us a favor with no invoice at the end of this conversation. who is a lawyer? Like I don't understand. And I said to Peter, I said, because Lorne Honickman

helped out Mike Stafford after hearing Mike Stafford's plight on Toronto Mike. No kidding. That's so nice. By hooking him up of a lawyer who works on contingency. It all comes back.

It's all coming back to chorus again. We're getting to TV now, except to say, wouldn't you pick up the phone, call your friend Lauren and just say, here's my predicament. Do you have any advice for me

before I hire the first lawyer link I see when I Google it? Yes. That seems unwise. And he's eight grand deep with this lawyer who he now wants to fire so he can represent himself. Oh, my God. You got to listen. I will listen.

I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I would call David Steinberg first because he will dispense advice to his friends. But when he sent an invoice at the end of that, Dave's saying? He actually won't because he'll recommend that you talk to so-and-so, you know. Steinberg's going to come up because when we get, when we do get to music, there is a dock coming out. And I was looking at the credits and I saw Steinberg's name. Oh, yeah. That makes sense.

any music doc made in Canada, I wouldn't be surprised to see his name. Okay. We'll get to him. But I want to start with television by telling you,

beloved FOTM, Steve Pagan, can now be heard. In fact, he's already done four episodes at the moment we're speaking. He's now heard live on breakfast television

in a segment called Paken on Politics, which airs every weekday morning at 650, 5-0, 6.50 a.m. So Steve Paken gets up, he gets out of bed, he drags a comb across his head, and he gets his ass to wherever, wherever that is.

I guess it's up at Bluer and Mount. Jarvis, whatever's up there. Yeah, Jarvis and Blue. Yeah. Shout out to my third one. Ted Rogers Way, they call that segment up there. Not kidding. So he gets up there, I guess, and records live with a young reporter named Karen with a C

and a Y, if you're spelling Karen. I would pronounce the last name, but I can't. So that would be what. 6-50. Yeah, Karen. No, you're not saying, the Y's not at the beginning. Karen is, so it's C-A-R-Y-N. Oh, I say, I see.

Okay, thank you. And she, I mean, I watched the first couple, and it's six to seven minutes of Steve Paken talking about the politics of the day, which has been like 100% Middle East War. Yes. For the first, that's where we're at. So, you know, and Paken's always good. And this co-host, Karen is very good. But it's wild, interesting to me that Steve Paken, you know, does it in. person live at the studio for six to seven minutes every morning at 6.50 a.m.

But that is TV news. That's it. That is very interesting. That's quite a commitment on his part. And at some point, Paken will return to Toronto Mike and I will ask him, you know, more details. Like, I wonder if this is tied to some kind of sponsorship or something that might come. I wonder if the Paken podcast will now be on the Rogers podcast network.

Like, I think there's a lot more moving pieces to this. but Steve Pickin, who's no longer full-time at TVO, can do whatever he wants, and he's sort of showing up in a lot of places. He's on 640, he's showing up there. He's still working a little bit for TVO, doing TVO Today Live, and he's got his own podcast.

There's a lot going on in the Paken universe. That's good. Yeah. Have I done my David Morrison for you? No, I don't have much to say, because I'm afraid now that I'll say, I knew him back at UFT Radio, and you'll say, yes, you've said that on every appearance.

on Toronto Mike. That's different than telling the specific story. I could tell you the specific story about... I like knowing how you're connected to these names. The last, not the last, but one of the last Toronto mic, the TMLX Live things. What's the name of that place? Alma's Kitchen?

No, it was... GLB Brew Pub? Yeah, GLB. Jarvis and Queenskey. Exactly, exactly. So I was there. There was, Paken was there. I felt the need to go over and say, hi, do you remember me from YouTube?

You didn't do that? I did. But then he said something. that confused me something about, you know, old friends or something like that. And I went, well, I don't know about old friends or something. And then his, and then Cam Gordon's partner, whose name escapes me. Megan Fitzpan. Oh, MF. I don't know if we're allowed to say her name. Well, yeah, just call her MF.

Anyway, she was nice, but she laughed and said, he's not talking about you. And I found that embarrassing. I went, oh, okay. And I walked away. She's a, she's a reporter herself, by the way. And I have booked a country music singer named Megan Patrick. Oh, I know her name only, but, yeah. But that name is similar. Yeah. But we're not naming this.

But we're not naming. No. No. M. F. will refer to her. Right. What's that Simpson's joke where he goes, I'm Homer S?

No, no, not that. I'm H. Simpson. Do you remember this? Simpson's joke? Okay, so Paken's got a new gig on breakfast television. I have another piece of breakfast television news for you, and I have some audio that'll tie this in. Let's listen for about a minute. Good morning, everybody.

This is usually where we do a little city. Shout out, Diebel Brown. You are back from a little trip, a little business. So a pleasure, pleasure looking amazing. Thank you. But right now, you have a very special announcement to share with everybody. I do, I do. I'm glad to be back and good to see you guys.

Happy Thursday. Thank you for waking up with BT. All right, let's get into it. This is a day that I didn't think would ever happen. It is completely surreal. And I'm going to get straight to it and then I'll explain more. I will be leaving BT. My last day will be March 27th.

Want you to know this was my decision. One that's been a battle in my mind. in my world for many, many months. Look, I'm at a point in my career and my life where I don't want the what-ifs. What if I did this? What did that? You don't want regrets. That's for anybody.

There are opportunities that I do want to consider and explore both at home here and in the United States and across the world. And I want to really, really kind of dive into that. And now's the time to do it. So that's Devo Brown announcing on the aforementioned breakfast television that his last day is March 27. He's out of there. I feel you, Devo. I really do. No, I mean, now is the time right now.

For anybody, if you're feeling, you know, aimless or you're feeling like there's more to life and so forth, now is the time. So just on a human level, I get it. I completely get it. And the explanation to me suffices. I do think it's sad, though, that in the world of broadcasting, you have to give the disclaimer. And I want people to know that this is my decision. And I think, yeah, because it's so brutal in broadcasting. And we're so used to being told, like Kevin Frankish, for example, right?

Where you're told, oh, I've decided to step down. Yeah. Where you later find out, because they come on Toronto mic, and they tell you, no, they're tapped on the shoulder. Yeah. And they're told, like, this is the Bentley, Christine Bentley's story that she told me a decade ago. But you get told there's two ways to do this. Yeah. You can walk out with a box.

Yeah. And then everyone knows you're fired. Or we can pretend you're either moving on to other projects or retiring, even though you don't want to retire. Yeah. We can have a cake and a goodbye and then audios. And a lot of times people choose that second route because of pride. Yeah, pride.

It seems more humane for sure. You know, I even wonder, and this is, you know, pure speculation and it's just me wondering, but, you know, Marilyn Dennis, you know, maybe she wanted to push for 50 years instead of just 40. Okay. So it's interesting you brought that up because I'm not here to tell somebody they're misleading us. And I don't know why Marilyn is leaving.

after 40 years. But in my heart, I feel like I've heard this story before. Like it echoes. Yeah. And I'm thinking now, I'm going to say some heavy weights,

okay? Who's the heavyweight? Aaron Davis, right? Yeah. When you find things out after the fact that are a bit of a mind blow where you think somebody 100% of their own volition

decides they're going to step away from their lucrative morning show and then you find out later, oh, they were told times up. Yeah. So I'm not calling anyone a liar and I'm here to say why

when Devo says that sentence, we're all thinking he was told to step aside. Paken's coming, buddy. Get out of here. Maybe it's begging. For six to seven minutes. Yeah, exactly. He does a great job, Pagan, by the way. But who knows? You know, and I just want everyone to know that Bob Reed and I left our show, not of our own

volition. It was Mike Ben Dixon, but he was just following orders. And, you know, it was a format change. And we lasted 11 years, so therefore. But, you know, I think most people in Brayton, broadcasting don't leave of their own volition. I think it's just the way it is because it's a brutal business. Right.

But I think, yeah, they, and there are only so many lucrative gigs in radio. They're fewer than ever before. Very few, yes. And Maryland had one. Yeah, and maybe that's part of the calculation as well. You know, people thought that about Colbert, you know, that, that they, you know, it wasn't a political decision on CBS's part.

It was more of the budget. TV with its shrinking audience. They had 200 people working on that show. Yeah, and then you're spending millions of dollars. We have two people working on this show. Yes, and we're better than Colbert. Come on. Come on.

We deliver the goods. That's right. But anyway, it's a, broadcasting is a brutal business. It's funny that I ended up as much in broadcasting as I was, which is still pretty minor. It was in your blood. Well, yeah, but I'm in my dad. That's the funny thing. His whole thing, he worked for Shell Oil when I was born.

But then after that, it was all broadcasting. You were exposed to it at a young age, and you're in elevators with Crowder. With Crowder. Do you remember Charles Templeton? I know the name, but I can't place. He was on CTV. He was a commentator, and anyway, my father took great pride. When I was maybe six or seven, he introduced me to Mr. Templeton at the CTV in ageing

court, where it was the FTO at the time, but it was, you know, CTV affiliate. And we went there, and I saw my first videotape machine at the time. time too. That was mind bugling. Anyway, but Debo Brown. Grandpa Packham is going down memory lane again. Well, we need you. You know, I represent Gen X. We need you to

represent the greatest generation. That's right. The greatest. I'm David. Okay, I'll stop that. He is the greatest. He's 85. I know, no. Good for him. I didn't imagine. I don't, I'm always surprised when any of people I know make it that long. Jeez. Yeah. He's not slowing

down either. Like, he's all, he's the highlight of that CF and Y dog. He's got longer hair than ever had in my life. He's got great head of hair. He really does. He's doing live appearances. He's going on tour now, basically. Like he's having a, you know, this CFMY doc has really rejuvenated the, uh, the CFMY

nostalgia lore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pumps some air on those tires. So Devo Brown, just to wrap up. Yep. Sweet Devo.

I understand he, he, he's also on 92.5 Kiss FM. So he's also on the radio, but so he's in that Rogers family. And, you know, if we take him at his word and I'm not going to called Devo a Liar. He has decided to go do other things. So maybe he wasn't ecstatically happy with his role at breakfast television. I don't know, but he's gone March 27. In my role as the explainer, I want to disclaimer and say, I wasn't suggesting he was lying either. It's just that we hear that so often that, you know, that it's fully my own choice. We all raise a Spockian eyebrow. That said, his explanation sufficed for me. I, you know, I believe him. And I do

think now is the time for anybody. I'm telling my students yesterday, you know, they're all students learning to be musicians and producers and so forth. And I said, when does your career start? And the rhetorical question, they sort of looked uncomfortable. And I said, it's already started. You're doing it right now. You are, you're already expected to be a professional. You're already expected to do your best work and so forth. The time is now. The time is now. What's the line from Kill Bill? now's the fucking time. Lucy Lou. It's a great, great, great scene.

Okay. So do you know, have you had any personal interactions with FOTM, Liz West? I don't think so. No Liz West encounter. So Liz West, who was... We dated, but other than that,

no, we did not... She's a beautiful woman. Yes, she's a beautiful woman. No, I don't believe I've ever met, Liz. So I remember her best from City TV. She was heavily involved there. But most recently, unbeknownst to me, I should know these things,

but she was on Zoomer Radio and she had been there since 2022, but then she suddenly resigned her post at Zoomer Radio. And we all wondered, the entire nation wondered, what is next for Liz West, beloved FOTM? And it turns out she has joined CP24 as an anchor. So if you're ever in a coffee shop or a pizza place and they have CP24 going,

you may look up and see the face of Liz West. My dentist plays CB 24 and there's a TV on the ceiling. That is fancy. You're lying down, you're watching CB 24. Are the captions on? They are and I'm getting a foot rub at the same time. That's a hell of a hygienist there. There are foot rubs and there are footrubs.

Actually, I'm not kidding. I went to a thing called the Zen Dental Spa and I went there a number of times right down the street from me and so they do the part of the cleaning and then they say, okay, now would you like to do your hands? So they get you out of the chair And you put your hand in this hot wax And then they put this glove on you And then you put your other hand in the hot wax

And then you're sitting in the chair With the rest of your cleaning With your hands covered in hot wax I mean it's it was very strange You got better dental insurance than I do No insurance I'm a self-employed person Well me too But it was included in the price

It was still cheaper than my other dentists Well that's amazing Yeah they were very nice I feel like this is the radio lady episode of rewind One last fun fact on our way a couple more little tidbits in TV and we're going to move on.

The last fun fact is the first time, you mentioned that Radio Lady had been to Negril? Yes. 20 times or something like that. The first time she ever went to Negril, guess who she went with? Yes, I remember actually, but I don't remember.

Hold on, let her tell. You tell for her. How can she tell? She's typing away over there and wherever she is. Furiously, I would say. Liz West. Oh, there you go. That's why I was thinking of Liz West recently.

You're not so quick on your feet. No, I forgot. She mentioned that. She told me that. Well, there you go. That's right. Because I was thinking of the other name that came up, that it keeps escaping me, who she went with. But that guy was a behind-the-scenes guy. Hold on.

Oh, God. While you think of that, can I just say, pay my respect that TSN, he was at TSN for many years. His name was Michael Whalen, and he passed away during this last quarter. So if you were a TSN head, you might remember some hockey reporting from. Michael Whalen. He's sadly no longer with us. By all accounts, was a good dude.

And speaking of allegedly good dudes, Sid Xero, who was fired along with Meredith Shaw. This is old news. We might have covered this a year ago, since this is our fourth episode of Rewinder. We've been around the whole calendar year now.

So Sid Sixero, and I remember Devo Brown came on breakfast television and just said, like, off the top was like, Sid Sixero and Meredith Shaw are no longer part of the breakfast television family. We wished them well, and it was kind of an awkward thing. And eventually they brought back Dina Pulezi.

She was like the new star. She's there now. Dina Pulezzi. But this is all to say, Sid Xero has launched a YouTube show. So if you're looking for your Sid Fix, you'll find it on YouTube. Well, that's cool. I knew Meredith. How did you know Meredith Shaw?

Meredith Shaw? Yeah, she's a songwriter and a singer, and she's a singer. She, a talent, very talented woman, very nice. And I was at News Talk 1010 there at Young in St. Clair and boom was down the hall. So we would sometimes cross paths. And Troy McCallum, the PD there, would make these sort of parody videos and asked me to be in a couple of them. And I was in one almost, I couldn't make it the same day. It was I sang, don't give up.

you know the Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush Exactly boy you're faster than me today Just today though Only because one of the Ziggy Lawrence shows On City TV would use that as like the quote They would play that video

And I used to call it the hug song Okay so then Troy makes a video Of the song but I can't make it that day I didn't realize I would get to hug Meredith Shaw For like an hour While they shot it Lucky man Yeah but I didn't

She's a model too I know she's and she's really lovely But I didn't make it So it's a video of Troy hugging her for an hour and lip-syncing to my voice. Well, he probably told you the wrong address, so he would have to fill in. Maybe. Smart guy.

But she, anyway, I'm a fan. I'm a fan. Well, she's been over here for a Toronto mic episode. She was delightful. And, yeah, so Sid Six-Zero has a podcast. I'm not sure what Meredith is up to. But one last TV note, okay, before we move on, we know Blair Packham that you're a huge baseball fan.

Oh, my God. So let's listen to this. You're ready? Here comes the three-two. He got! First tires. The Toronto Blue Jays are going to the World Series. What a performance by Jeff Hoffman in the knife.

What a season for the Blue Jays. Hoffman was outstanding. After two innings last night, he came in and slammed the door. He struck out the side. This is a season to remember. What a season for the Blue Jays. That's Buck Martinez.

Buck Martinez. You got to work on that buck. I know. You got to be more gravelly. Maybe I'll... Maybe I'll... Maybe I'll do my David Marsden in the meantime. No, I like baseball.

I just don't know anything about it. Well, Buck Martinez... You may remember that Buck Martinez has been around Blue Jays forever because he was a Toronto Blue Jays. He was a Toronto Blue Jays. Why did I add an S at the end of that? He was a Toronto Blue J.

And then he started doing like color analyst work for the team in 1987 after he retired as a Major League Baseball as a catcher. So he was also broadcasting as far back as 1982 when he covered the ALCS and he covered the World Series and the All-Star game. He did all this for the Telemedia Radio Network. Oh, yeah. You may remember the Telemedia Radio Network.

Well, he eventually ended up at TSN where, of course, he was with Dan Shulman, the first time. And then he got some ESPN work for a number of years. He even got to manage the Blue Jays for a season, and then he went back to ESPN, and then eventually back to the Blue Jays broadcast booth on Rogers Sportsnet, where he would be alongside, well, Dan Shulman, and then Dan left, and he became the play-by-play guy,

and you might remember, get out of here, ball, get out, you know, I hated it, but that's what he did, and now he's back where he sounds best, I think, with Dan Shulman doing play-by-play, an analysis by Buck Martinez, but this is a long-winded way of saying, after calling more than 4,000 Toronto Blue Jays games, Buck Martinez has announced he is done.

He has retired. That is truly the end of an era. Big time, big time. He is, since I remember, because I am a little younger than you, I have no memory of Blue J baseball before Buck Martinez was a member of the team. Right. Well, there wouldn't be that much anyway, but yeah. A few years there, yeah.

I think he comes here in maybe 81 or something like that. That's a big time change for the broadcast booth. And I think Jay's fans will miss Buck Martinez, and we wish him well. And I hope that the powers that be have already got in the works a big day where Buck visits the dome. And they put him on the level of excellence. And I can hear the crowd going just apeshit nuts. Buck is there. He gets his flowers.

He's on the level of excellence. I hope that happens in 2026. That sounds great. Do you have any friends at Rogers we can call? Not anymore. None more. I want to forget the Joe Carter statue they're going to put outside the dome, which is a good idea. I want to see the statue of Buck Martinez throwing to third with his broken leg.

This is a famous play in Blue Jay's history. Let's make that statue. That's, yeah, the broken leg part especially. Yeah. I'd like to see that. Of course you would. Let's talk a little music, Blair. Okay, finally.

You know a thing or two about music, right? Thank goodness. As long as it's not past the 90s. Well, you might be in luck here as I look at it. It's mainly pre-90s, but a little past 90s. But this music segment is brought to you by Recycle My Electronics.Ca. Blair, if you have that room in East York full of old cables, old devices, old electronics, I'm worried.

I go to bed at night. Worried. You're going to just throw that in the garbage. Well, now that I know that you're worried, I won't because it was ready. ready to go. It's in a garbage bag by the door. I wake up in a cold sweat and I'm like, no, Blair, those cables don't throw them in the garbage

because Blair, those chemicals end up in our landfill. I like it, Mike, when people use my name a lot, Mike. Oh, that's a, you know where I got that from? Tom Wilson. Oh, yeah, Blair. He would do that to me too. That's his thing. He'll come in.

Well, let me tell you, Toronto, Mike. He's like Hulk Hogan doing a WWF promo. I just feel like I'm being sold something, but not from Tom Wilson, but in general, when somebody uses my name a lot. You're going to go to recycle my electronics.com. That's right. Put in that postal code and find it where you drop it off to be properly recycled. Let's properly recycle those cables, those devices. I'm going to do that.

I can think of a particular item right now that needs, it's a charger for a Ryobi drill tool set, and it died. And I need to, and I kept thinking, should I just throw this away? And then I thought, no, recycle my electronics.com. That Riobe cable died, just like the partnership Toronto Mike had with Riobe died. You had a partnership with Robi? Wow. Oh, I remember that. And I used to have on.

I want a battery. There's a case of beer here. But I used to have a, what was it, a drill or something? Like a Robi drill was here. Wow. Well, I want them back. I want them back because I need another battery. Yeah, who doesn't?

Okay. Get in line. Get in line. So I last, I don't know if you remember. I don't know if you did your homework. but last episode of Rewinder, we were talking about your friend, Rick Emmett.

Yes. And we, I think you texted him in real time that there was rumors that there was big news coming from Triumph. Yeah. And he would not budge.

He wouldn't give up the goods. No. But it has been announced subsequently. And I'm wondering if you are even aware of your friend Rick Emmett's news regarding triumph in 2026. I absolutely am. Hey, talk to us.

Well, I mean, I'm aware of it. I'll get the detail. all wrong, but I can just go to my... That's why people come to Rewinder. Yeah. Get the details all wrong. Exactly. I can get...

I can go to my David Marristen impression. No, I mean, they're touring, and the band will be augmented, and there will be extra players on stage, but it's not a cover band doing triumph. Rick will... Rick can still play his ass off, so there's no question. He can still sing his ass off. Now, I don't know. He may drop a key of a song here or there, because...

those songs are high. But, you know, he's in great voice. So, you know, I don't know specifics in terms of where and when and so far. Well, I know it starts on April 22nd, 2026. This tour is called the Rock and Roll Machine Reloaded Tour. Right. 50th anniversary. And, yeah, 50 years, just like Marilyn Dennis.

Oh. Well, she's 40. I know. I know. I felt sad. Nice try. You're thinking of Crowder. Yeah, yeah.

Crowder and the elevator, yeah. Yeah, no, I think it's great. And I've talked to Triumph fans recently. Like people I didn't even know were Triumph fans. They're like, oh my God, I grew up with that. And they wanted to go to the shows and thought I might have an inn. And I thought I might too. But I don't.

But I don't. Well, Rick texted me back. I actually texted him and said, I know allow me to be among the billions of people asking you this. He said his response was something like, buddy, we could sell out two more shows in Toronto and Hamilton. and with all the people who are asking for freebies. And I thought, I don't want to be that guy.

Actually, I think I started my text by saying, I hate to be that guy. Especially if there's a seated event. Like, it's one thing if it's like, I don't know, Danforth Music Hall and you get put on a list or something. I think that might be different. I think, I think, well, I mean, I think we are close enough. I think that I got to him at the wrong time, first of all.

And also, I think he doesn't think of me as a triumph fan. Because I've known him post-triumph. You know, and I didn't, when I first knew him, I didn't really know who triumph were. You know, he was a guy from a band. Right, right. Do you know, go ahead. We met through the Songwriters Association of Canada.

We were co-vice presidents of that organization. Canada's only national voice for the creators of words and music. And so I got to know him as a colleague and, you know, a lovely guy. And then he brought me into a workshop at Humboldt College and then got brought me into sub for him teaching there. And, you know, we, you know, we've worked together a lot over the years. And I just, I love the guy, but I don't at all take any disrespect from him not jumping to offer me a free ticket. I believe April Wine is opening.

Really? That's interesting. You know, obviously, Sam's the late great Miles Goodwin. Right, right. That'll be a different version of April Wine for sure. But that fits, I think. And then you're going to hear magic power and fight the good fight. I feel like, I feel like it's for a hold on.

Right. I feel like this is going to be a big deal to an age cohort that is slightly older than mine. Yes, in fact, probably slightly older than mine, just slightly. But it is all happening. So this is kind of exciting. So if you want to see Triumph, it's going to be a 50th anniversary tour. That is, you know, now I mentioned earlier when we talked about Victoria Lord. She sent over Gilmore.

So two thirds of Triumph are FOTMs. That's amazing. That's great. You know, Negrill is where Mike had a, Mike Levine had a home for many years. Well, Mike's the holdout. Let's get him on Toronto Mike. Well, go down to the Negril. I mentioned earlier that David Quentin Steinberg, I saw his name when I was reviewing the credits for a new documentary

called Nash the Slash Rises Again. Right. I have a very special episode tomorrow. So tomorrow on Toronto Mike, here are the people involved. just name check these people really quickly here as I load up my Google calendar and tell you that tomorrow I have, it's loading very slowly here. Okay. I have, okay, I'm going to actually not go into my calendar for this information. I am going to get you.

This is coming at you life, folks. So do more of that Marsden impression, will you? Well, I got to go. Blair, I had your recording on. The director of this documentary is a gentleman named Tim Kowalsk. he's going to be here in the basement. A writer, and the guy who helped put this together, is F-O-TM Colin Brunton.

Sure, I know Colin. And Colin will be in this basement. Great guy. He'll be here too. Yeah, he's very interesting. I'm looking at the last pogo here. I was going to say, Last Pogo. Yeah, where I first heard his name.

Liz Worth was just over here. You've got to listen to Liz Worth. I read her book, but I don't know. Treat me like dirt. Oh, no, no, she was a guest on the radio show that I did with Bob and Bob Reed. Yeah. Years ago, when her.

when that came out. Because there's a lot of talk about the last Pogo. And the last Pogo jumps again is how her now husband, Kiri Papputz, whose dad was in the vial tones. He was Chris Hate. Oh, wow. In the vial tones. Okay, so let me wrap this up real quick here.

Yeah, I should have got you water. No, no. I'll just drink the beer. I can hear that cough here. I'll drink a beer. So Colin Brunton's a writer. A chap named, let me tell you, do you know this name? Kevin Byrne, but Kevin is,

with a.N. So it's K-E-V-A-N. Burn. Do you know what band he was a member of? I don't. Wait, no. New regime. No. King Cobb Steeley. Oh, King, Caw, right. Sure, sure, sure. He's a writer on this thing and he will be here. And then via Zoom joining us will be the chap who put together the original music, who I believe is on the live stream right now because I see that green ball next to his name. Rob Proust. Rob Proust, the lovely Rob Proust. Enjoyed so much seeing Rob in New York. No, he opened for you. Yeah, no, but enjoy it. Great Lakes Brew. But I enjoyed seeing him so much in New York City back in October. So he's back on the show tomorrow remotely,

and also remotely friendly, rich who helped organize the tribute album. I just wondered if you had ever met Nash-Lis-Lash. Yeah, I have a Nash-lis-Lash story. Tell me. I was with Doug McClement from Comfort Sound. I was working with Comfort Sound, and my job was to be on stage as assistant engineer and, you know, set up microphones and run cables and all that stuff.

But once the show started, my job was to be on stage and make sure if a mic fell over or something that I could report to Doug what was going on. And Nash and Slash was, it was a much music big ticket special. And it was at the Oshua Civic Center. And Nash was opening for Kim Mitchell. And this was Kim's first run after Max Webster, I think. It was early. Well, Go for Soda was his first big single as a solo artist.

This would have been, so this was before that because this was, This was maybe 1980. Was there solo Kim before that? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I would say for sure. Because when we get to the Ridley Funeral Home segment, we will be talking more Max Webster. Well, yes, okay.

But I think so. I think didn't Max fold by 1980? Around 81 or so. Okay, so this was post Max and Kim was solo for sure. But Nash was opening. And Nash was doing the one-man band thing. He had a rack of equipment to play back and echoes and so forth. you know, echolplexes and so forth.

Anyway, his, uh, he's, he's wearing a helmet because it's, uh, you know, I'm an American band, uh,

something like that. I'm a, you know, that was, whatever that album was called. He's wearing a motorcycle helmet on stage while he's sawing away at the violin and, uh,

to tracks. And, um, somebody throws a golf ball at him from the audience. And it's a, uh, like a bright orange golf ball, neon.

And it, it hits him on the head. I'm only laughing because... Well, good thing he has the bandages. Exactly. So then he gets hit another time. Then another one lands nearby. And he calls it and he's like,

and he's swearing at the audience, fuck this and so forth. But he is, I'm thinking of these artists, Kim Mitchell and Nash and Slash. And it is an interesting choice because Kim Mitchell has more of that, that triumph crowd, if you will, like the rush heads, the hosers.

Well, Nash seems pretty down. He's more downtown. He's more sophisticated. it's a different style. I would characterize it as more downtown, frankly. Like, yeah, more, more the Gary's and less CPI. Right, right. So anyway, but Matt, I remember the tour manager, I remember his full name.

I'll say his full name. This doesn't paint him in a bad, pick and pad light. I don't think Matt Study is his name. Don't know where and what Matt's doing these days, and we were never friends or anything like that. So hi, Matt, if you're listening. But he came out with the lights on. and Nash had left the stage, and he said to the audience,

he said, whoever's doing that is a fucking idiot. And if you're standing beside somebody who's throwing those golf balls, I want you to pound them, which I thought was bad advice, you know, given that this is a general admission crowd standing in the front. And anyway,

so that was it. Nash went on and he finished the set, and I don't think any more golf balls happened. Well, more Nash-la-slash tomorrow on Toronto Mike in the, that doc, I can't wait to see it, Nashla-slash rises again. Yeah, that's great.

So, Blair, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. We're going to remember some people we lost this past quarter. But I'm going to play a song and I'm going to disappear for a bit. But I will be back. You ready? Ready. What are your thoughts as you listen to this Max Webster beauty? Classic.

so beautiful. It builds so beautifully to that chorus. You know, songs are about holding the listeners attention, but also tension and release. So the tension is building through the verse. It starts out very, very modestly. And then it builds harmonically, like with the chords, just the way it builds in that, what I would call the pre-chorus, before it gets to the release of Let Go the Line. Like, honestly, it's some of the most beautiful songwriting that I've ever heard. And I've, you know, of course I know the song. Terry Watkinson.

You got it. Terry Watkinson left us this past quarter. He passed away recently. And this is a Terry Jam. He's singing. Like, I think if you're of a certain vintage, like a younger person and you know a bit about Max Webster and maybe you've heard a couple of songs on, I don't know, Q and 07 or whatever, you think it's the Kim Mitchell band.

Yeah. This part. And then we're coming to. the release. It's just like all that build though is so beautiful. And yeah, it's funny. Well, you know, if you were a Steely Dan fan, similarly, you know,

the first album has a couple of different singers. But this, yeah, this is Terry. Beautiful, maybe the most beautiful Max Webster's song, but a Terry Watkinson jam. He's a keyboardist with Max Webster. I will be asking Rob Pruse about him when we do the next toast with Bob Willett.

because whenever keyboard is passed, I must talk to the Bruce Man. But great loss. And it's funny that you're here and we're talking about Max Webster because there was a young man I met in your living room. His name is Bob Wegner. Oh, yes, Bob. Bob wrote a great book on Max Webster. He really did.

What a character, Bob is. And a comprehensive book, that is. Yeah. Had him on the radio show on News Talk 1010 to talk about that. And, yeah, he's a real character. And in a great way, I mean. If people want to learn more about Max Webster, you know, I'll connect you with Bob Wegner.

You can buy a copy of his book and learn more about Max Webster. I, because I've been diving, because of the past seat of Terry, I have been revisiting some Max Webster stuff. And they are, this isn't underappreciated, underrated Canadian band Max Webster. Fully and completely, I would say. Tragically hip. Well, okay.

Very underrated. I will concur. I feel they may have got lost. and we were talking about triumph earlier, but they may have got lost in the rush. Because rush was so massive. Yeah. I feel like Max Webster got lost in that noise.

Well, and people might say, well, what's the connection? The connection is their record label and their management. So, you know, and if, I mean, and I don't know, David Steinberg would actually know. But if. Tight-lipped guy, though. Yeah. He's very discreet.

Won't even put Getty on Toronto Mike. No, he won't. But if, if you're a small-ish label and you've got a couple of acts, maybe you've got three, four acts, whatever, and one of them starts to explode, you're going to focus on that act. And that act in this case was rush.

So the other acts, and I'm not even sure they had anybody other than Max on the label, but the other acts are going to suffer necessarily because you've got to pay attention to the one that's making you money and, you know, for the survival of the label and the furtherance of the band's career. So maybe a resurgency. and maybe more sales for Bob Wegner,

who's been documenting this great band. Right. Well, I hope so. Because, yeah, they are definitely, they have been underrated, unfortunately. The people who love them, love them, you know, deeply and dearly. And I get that.

Well, if you have a certain vintage, they probably played your high school. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and by way, since we said Rush, I'm going to say these words, and then we're going to move on to another death this past quarter. But these are the words I'm going to say,

you. Ready, Blair? Rush at the Juno's. Yeah. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm just putting those words in you. The Junos are coming up in Hamilton. Oh, I didn't know.

I thought you're talking about something in the past. No, I'm talking about predicting the future. Thinking that you were going to ask me to talk about some, you know, and how they played with the Blue Jays or something. No. Rush at the Junos didn't know, and I think that's great. So we'll see. Well, in the Sun. No, no, it's a prediction.

I'm predicting that. Yes, and who knows, and I can tell you this, David Seidberg won't be telling you. But I will also tell you, I will tell you this. Here's an annoying thing about David Steinberg. So we're... Added to the list. It's a very short list.

But we're rehearsing for the Jeter's gig in November. This is back in probably the beginning of November. Yeah, and we finished rehearsing a song. And I say, Well, okay, that one started out at the right tempo, but it slowed way down. So can we pay attention to that? And David says, are you talking to me? And I said, because he's the drummer, I said, yeah.

And then Michael's why, Michael's who was playing guitar with the jitters. He leans over to David and he goes, how's Getty doing? And David starts laughing because David was playing drums and looking down at his phone on the floor because he was getting texts from Getty the whole time. And so he's paying attention to that while he's drumming and he's slowing down. So David then said, I had to look at those texts. They're rehearsing right now, talking about Rush. And I said, David, we're rehearsing right now.

You're literally playing drums and the jitters rehearsing at this moment. That's right. That's great. That's great. So he won't confirm or deny the allegations. But I am putting into the universe right now one more time. I've done it a few times. I'm doing it again.

The Juno's in Hamilton. This is not on the bill, not announced. It is a top secret. I expect to see Rush. So I expect to see Alex and Getty and I, Anika. Anika. Anika. I expect to see this trio at the Juno's.

I look forward to seeing if you're correct. So I like to focus on Canadians we've lost in the last quarter, but I am going to acknowledge some non-Canadian. because there are such big names and maybe a word or two, not too much time, because I am going to try to nail this two-hour deadline here. But we did lose Rob Reiner this past quarter. Horrifically.

Yes, horrifically, horrifically. And when I think about, you know, spinal, this is spinal tab, or stand by me or the princess bride or when Harry met Sally or a few good men or misery, like these are iconic films that man made, and I didn't want to have his passing pass without us spending a moment to just acknowledge what a tremendous director he was.

Yeah, I agree. Completely. Big fan of all of those movies, in fact. Well, I made a little list here to tell you that you could make an argument. Now, again, it's all very subjective, but you could make an argument that the greatest mockumentary film ever made was this is Spinal Tap. Yep, you could make that argument for sure. You could make the argument, Blair Packham, that the best coming of age film ever

was stand by me. You could make that argument. Yes. You're agreeing with me. I like that. You could make the argument that the most beloved fantasy comedy of all time

was the princess bride. No question. You could make the argument that the definitive rom-com was when Harry met Sally. You know, the proof of this is as you're saying each sentence and you're not saying the title,

you're pausing for a moment. In each case, I know exactly which movie you're talking about. Well, you could make an argument, Blair Packham, that the most iconic American courtroom drama of all time was a few good men. Yeah. You can't handle the truth.

You need me on that wall, Blair Packham. You want me on that wall. One of the, and also one of the greatest, most prolific and one of the best-selling writers of all time is a chap named Stephen King, and there have been many, many adaptations. And sure, Shawshank Redemption is one. There are some great films adapted from Stephen King books,

but you could make the argument that one of the best, and again, I'm throwing out Shawshank Redemption because that might be the best. But one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever was misery. Yeah, you could make that argument and you would be, yeah. So that's Rob Reiner. That's just one director. He was in the greatest sitcom.

You could argue the greatest sitcom of all time was all in the family. All in the family. Mike Stubich. Yeah. Meathead. Yeah, I think he was underrated, in fact, Rob Reiner. You know, we think of, you know, another, a director who has a similar sort of track record would be Spielberg. And I would think most people would put Spielberg above Rob Reiner.

I'm not so sure about that. Well, you got jaws, right? You got Jinders list. Yeah, and you got, you're saving private Ryan. Sure, there's a whole bunch of them, but can throw that up against. E.T. Okay. I don't know.

Rob Reiner is great. I think Spielberg might be greater. Okay, sure. But, you know, throw them in a mud wrestling situation. Also, was Steven Spielberg ever in one of the greatest sitcoms of all times? Well, that's what I'm saying. And also, Spinal Tap with Christopher Guest, it spawned a whole genre of mockumentary. And we're going to talk about those mockumentaries when we close with another significant loss from this past quarter.

So I'm putting a pin in that. I'm going to name check a couple of people real quick. The Grateful Dead founder, Bob Weir. That's right. Yeah, that's sad. I'm, you know, you warned me before we went on to not say anything bad about anybody, as you do. I would never say that. That doesn't sound like me at all.

And I think you said if you don't have anything nice to say. No, I said don't say anything nice about people. I want to hear just the, just the dirt. Oh, I have no dirt about Bob Weir. I was not a particular fan of the Grateful Dead. However, there's no question the, um, the advertisement. I had, have for them and had for them. And as with the loss of Jerry Garcia, that's a really big loss.

And the fans who love that band, you know, they really feel it, I'm sure. And shout out to Canada Kev, who is on the live stream right now and is a massive deadhead. Right. Is Canada Kev an orthodontist or a lawyer by any chance? I think he works for the CBC. Okay, that tracks. No, that's me being snarky about Grateful Dead fans. I'm sorry, Canada Kev.

I apologize. He just wrote Bob Weir's passing hurt. Yes, I imagine it did, and I'm sorry about that. And just catching up since I'm on the live stream, that Rob Pruse is on the live stream, and he says that spoons were signed to Russia's management label anthem when he left. When Rob left.

When Rob left the band. He said it wasn't a good combination, well, I think that they, you know, just going back to that, I think that it's got to stretch your resources when you're a small company, relatively speaking. I mean, they did very, very well, but they were small in terms of manpower and so forth.

When the jitters played at Hughes Room before it moved to the East End, it was so great to be playing the songs and then make a joke to the audience because I apparently can't help that. And here, the laugh, the totally distinctive laugh of Peggy Chikoni, who worked with Anthem for so many years,

and just her laugh was so very, great and she passed away about a year after that. And but it was great. And then that was the night that I met Getty for the only time when he said that I was a funny fucker. That's, um, you are a funny fucker. That's, thank you.

That's high praise though from Getty Lee. Well, it's also high praise from yours truly who thought that when he was in Pete Fowler's backyard. There you go. And I was telling those stories. And I thought to myself, this guy would be a good quarterly co-host if I ever started a media,

round of sub-series. I believe it was, wasn't it, wasn't it, uh, wasn't it, uh, Radio Lady Sharon Taylor who approached you? Well, I called her your driver and I believe that did stick, although I tried to avoid it today. It only stuck with you. You know, I like to lean in on these things. Like I'll take that like I think, yeah, Sharon Taylor, that's your driver, but I do, my tongues on my cheek. I thought she approached you that, that evening though to say, you know, Blair'd be good on your podcast. You know what? That sounds about right.

She, she has acted in certain ways as my coach, and I'm not kidding. She's been very instrumental. How long were you in Jamaica with her? Oh God, 182 days. No, it was seven days. But it was great. It was really great. But is that your first trip where you went with just Sharon Taylor? Yeah, I mean, I visited her in Winnipeg last summer and I was there for seven days. Because that's a very close level of a very close level of friendship that you can do what you did with Sharon

Taylor. Yeah, and we got along just fine. I mean, it was She didn't get sick of you? Oh, I can't speak for that. I didn't get sick of her. I don't know if she got sick of me. But, no, it was great. Quick hits on these two gentlemen,

are both Americans here. We're going to burn through this. But Robert Duval, hell of an actor and a hell, many a big, big, big film. Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, yeah. There's a big one that I'm waiting for. It's not Robert Duval.

And I feel sad about that because I loved him, you know, from the Godfather on. That was probably the first movie I saw that he was in. But no, there is, I was about to muse on the fact that I'm at that age where everybody's dying. Well, hold on, because I, you know, there's sequencing, you know, you know how you have your, oh, no, no, I'm the one I'm thinking of, he's fully alive. Oh, okay. I'm just worried about, about that and when it happens.

You won't say the name? I, you're not going to be. I don't want to curse him. There's no such thing as a curse. Like, this doesn't exist. Well, I'm, frankly, the whole reason I'm in music, I just don't want to take too much attention away from, well, that's one. But I don't want to take too much attention away from Robert Duval. I don't want to

Paul McCartney. Exactly. Paul McCartney. Well, that'll be huge for the world. That's going to kill me almost literally. But he's doing well right now. Yes, I know. And we should celebrate that.

We might get another decade. Yeah. Yeah, or two. Yeah. Who knows? That's hope. That's all. So Robert Duvall, what big time.

Yes. The great Santini. Oh my God. What a great movie. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So many big. Napeam in the morning.

Right. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Okay. Neil Sedaca passed away. Yeah, that's sad, too. I always thought he was a sort of, like when I, I didn't know, when I was a youngster, he had a revival in his career due to Elton John's help. And so I wasn't familiar with him from before, you know, Calendar Girl and the original breaking up is hard to do. Right.

And so forth. So he, but he just seemed like the uncoolest guy in rock music. Right. And yet he could sing and play and write. And so I was sort of won over. but honestly the smiling Neil Sedaka to me was like it was so weird because I was into Alice Cooper and shit like that stuff that I thought was dangerous

because you were trying to get Bob Ezrin to produce your demos and I did and I'd like to imitate Dave Marston anyway I went Bob Ezrin on Toronto Mike that'd be a good one I'm surprised he hasn't I did try to reach out well I thought I had an email address and I think I had some help from Mark Weisblot trying to make this happen but I never heard back I keep trying I had a conversation with somebody just yesterday

yesterday about Bob and about him doing something. I have to remember who it was. Whoever it was described Bob as somewhat of a mentor to him. Okay. So you know what? I'll look into that. It was probably I was going to say, which member of Pink Floyd was it who said that to you?

Yeah, so. It was Roger Waters. Teenage head. We don't talk to anymore. Right, because he's a Nazi. Okay. So I'm holding in my hands.

Drumsticks gifted to me by the great FOTM Gene Champagne. Nice. If you go see Teenage Head today, you're going to see on drums, Gene Champagne. Yes. By the way, on the live stream, I'm told by your friend that you're hard on drummers. I guess this was in relation to what you said about David Quinn. No, I think I said that to her once and she has never let me forget it. But it's true, I am hard on drummers.

So Gene Champagne drumming away with Dave Rave and, you know, teenage head currently. But for 20 years before Jean Champagne replaced him, Jack Peddler drummed for teenage head and we lost Jack this past quarter. Yeah, yeah. Jack Peddler, the reason I know him, aside from the teenage head thing, but I knew of him before,

Hamilton guy, really great drummer. When the jitters were looking for a drummer, we ended up with David Steinberg, but we put out the call for new drummers and Jack Peddler sent a promo pack with a headshot and everything and a cassette of him playing, and he was great, and then David Steinberg came along.

So I always remember Jack's name and, yeah. Yeah, he would drum for Daniel Lenoir, for example, prior to teenage head. So 20 years, we lost Jack. Here's somebody I wonder if you cross paths with, and then we're going to close with a big one. But D.B. Hawks, do you know this name? Not at all.

So D.B joined C-I-U-T in 1986, hosting an open format Saturday overnight show. And by 1990, he would basically focus on Caribbean and black-focused programming. He had a show called The Master Plan Show. He basically focused on Jamaican music, on C-I-U-T. And this is a name. It might not be a household name,

but he did that for a very long time, and he passed away this past quarter. I already hear that. DB Hawks. We got to remember the names like DB Hawks, alongside some big names. Let's listen to this and talk about one more, person we lost.

and they shall be joined when the quest is over and a kiss is the oath that they swear and when the veins has lifted and the fairy tales have all been told there's a kiss at the end of more precious than a part of my sweet, my dear, you're so far. Ocean of tears divides us. Let the bridge of our love spend the sea. There's a kiss at the end. Blair Packham, I can't believe I'm saying these words, but Catherine O'Hara is no longer with us.

Unbelievable, really. What a bright light. I mean, that song in and of itself, I believe Eugene Levy wrote that song. And excuse me, and that's both of them singing. Mickey and Mitch. Yeah, from A Mighty Wind. Yes. I found a Mighty Wind to be not that funny, partly because it was so beautiful.

It was so sweet and poignant. But, yeah, what a, I met her maybe once or twice in very non-memorable, memorable for me, but non-memorable circumstances for her, I'm sure. But she was lovely, even to me. And yeah, what a beautiful presence and much loved by everyone who knew her. And I really feel that one, you know, and I feel for the, it's closer to home, you know, than... Born and raised here in the 416. Yeah.

She's a Toronto girl. Yeah. And I've enjoyed interviews with her. I heard one, I heard one recently where she was just so, she's just so natural and real. And I've seen fan videos, you know, iPhone videos of people encountering her. And she's just, you know, and she's like, okay, I got to run. You know, and she just, very matter of fact and so forth.

And just so lovely. And, yeah, it's very sad. And early, too soon. Way too soon. Only 71. Yeah. And she was at TIF in 2025. and seemed looked fine so this was a this was a shocker yeah like to see that news come across the wire

there you're like wait a minute you have to read it twice like yeah katherine o'herod just passed away she was ours you know Toronto second city is where she gets her uh her start in comedy and of course she was on SCTV yeah she got uh she ended up earning four Emmy nominations and she did win one for outstanding writing in a variety or music program for for that but in she had a a five-decade career. I'll name-check some things. We did allude to the Christopher Guest movies, which kind of, you know, Rob Reiner directs this is Spinal Tap. And of course, Christopher Guest, as a member of Spinal Tap. And Christopher Guest goes on to make four films that are in this improv mockumentary vein. Well, improv vein. I had Linda Cash on last week. She's in a couple of these.

I haven't listened to that episode yet. Linda, Linda, I would say, is a friend of mine. We don't hang out, but we went to the same high school. I knew her siblings and played on shows that Linda has booked and so forth. I like Linda very much. It's a lovely person. We did spend some time talking about Catherine O'Hara

because, of course, Linda Cash. Linda Cash, some iconic moments, in Best in show, oh my God, there's a scene that is just fantastic between and where there's a look exchange, between her and Eugene Levy. And it's just, and there's, and anyway.

Catherine's beside Eugene in that scene that you're describing. And she was also in Waiting for Guffman with Catherine O'Hara too and the similar crew. Yeah. No, Linda's amazing. So there is more and more Catherine O'Hara chatter in the Linda Cash episode. But I say, I want you to listen to it because we open the show by listening to Linda Cash's mom sing. Maureen Forrester. And it is quite something. and there's a camera on her,

so I got to kind of review it later. But it is quite something to watch Linda Cash listening to her mom who had early onset dementia in her, like early 50s. So it was quite, that's quite some. That's aside.

But Catherine O'Hara, the four were, of course, waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, which we just heard there, and for your consideration, which Catherine,

Hannah was great in that, too. Like, I love all four of those movies. I think Best's show might be my favorite. But she showed up in everything. You'd see her in six feet under. Of course, she had this resurgence with Schitts Creek, which she got, you know, well, well celebrated.

She won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy series. She won a Golden Globe for that. This is all to me. You talked about how it feels like Rosamoke had just started, right? It feels like Shitt's Creek is just, like, was yesterday. It's a new show. It's a new show. It feels like a new show.

100% here. So, I mean, I could go on. Beetlejuice, right? Home Alone. You ever seen this movie Home Alone? I've heard of it. You've heard of this. Do you have a relationship with any of the other O'Hara's?

Well, Mary Margaret and I go way back very shallowly in the sense that we would say hello to each other. And she, oh, I was always surprised you remembered my name, frankly. But no, we're not, we're not friends. What about like a Michael O'Hara? I've never met Michael or Marcus, in fact. But Mary Margaret, yeah, I remember running into her in the weirdest places. including the photocopy shop that used to be at Bay and Yorkville. I would run into her there because I was a regular visitor.

Right. Regular enough that I knew the guy behind the counter his name, and she did too. But we would see each other on the club scene. Let's put it that way. And she recorded, Mary Margaret recorded her landmark album, Miss America, at Comfort Sound. Wow.

With Stephen Troub, one of our house engineers, one of Doug McCleman's house engineers. Sure. Don't mean to make it sound like I. employed him or anything. But Stephen, a friend of mine as well was the engineer on that. And it's a landmark record. I've always been disappointed that she didn't make more recordings and release more recordings.

But anyway. But it is interesting to note. So Mary Margaret O'Hara, great singer, of course. But Catherine O'Hara was a heck of a singer. She really was. And you can hear it in that song that you played. A delicate voice. But when she sings the bridge part on solo without harmony, without doing harmony,

You can hear the strength in her voice. It's beautiful. Massive loss for everybody, but man, anyone hits close to home. Toronto's own captain O'Hara no longer with us. Blair, we did go over two hours, but not by a lot. Like, I think this was all killer, no filler, and we covered a lot of ground.

So thank you for doing this, man. Well, thank you for having me, as always. I will close by telling you, because normally I had a section called Canadianity. I'm going to just drop one item on you, but I will remind everyone, you, Blair, that you can get a ticket to see me at the Elma combo on May 21st. That sounds like it's a satire or parody or something.

It's really happening. Like, go to TorontoMike.com, click Elmo gig at the top. There's a link and you can buy a ticket or two. I would love to see you there. You know, if it's an empty room, because Rob Proust is on stage with me, too, playing keyboards. I'm a little hurt that you haven't asked me to play guitar with you, but okay. Well, Blair is in charge. Blair.

You're Blair. Rob's in charge of the music. Oh, that explains everything. He's got to organize all that if he wants more people on stage. with him. Rob, I'm available. Rob, you have my number. Listen, you know, when I think of the Elmocombo, I think of Rolling Stones and you. Well, that's actually a part of my act where I do that exact thing.

And then Robbrews... You're going to dress up like Mick. Well, Rob breaks into the Devo version. Oh, Satisfaction. Yeah, satisfaction. So this is all happening. Don't want to miss that. I was going to close by just sharing the fact that Coca-Cola owns Minutemade.

And the Minute Made, Frozen, Juven. are being discontinued, okay? So if you ever, you know, these, these canned, frozen cans that we grew up with Blair are going the way of the dodo bird. Like after 80 years, they're leaving the Canadian market. That is it for the frozen juice from concentrate era. I'm sad about that,

but not as sad as I've been about some of the other items we've discussed in this program. But enough about cherry blossoms. Yeah, I'll eat this one one day. Yeah, one day. And that, brings us to the end of our 1,859th show. Can you ask David Quentin Steinberg

to definitively get me the truth? Who says subdivisions on that song by Rush? I will ask. Who's sampled in that saying subdivisions? I will ask. Will you? Yeah. Will you get back to me?

Yep. We'll see how tight-lipped David is on that one. Okay. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. much love to all who made this possible. That is, again, that is Great Lakes Brewery. Blair's got his beer. I'm texting David right now.

Yeah, thank you. How quickly does he reply to you? We'll find out. Palma pasta. You got a lasagna, buddy. Yay. Nick Aini's. I want to tell people, there's a new podcast from Nick Ainez called Mike and Nick.

Check it out. I'm the mic in that one. Recycle MyElectronics.ca. And of course, Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow. it's all Nash of the Slash, a cast of dozens, but it is one, two, three, four, five,

five plus me. That's six of us talking about Nash the Slash, and of course the new documentary, Nash La Slash Rises again. Don't you dare miss it. We'll be back with another rewinder in three months. If I renew Blair's contract. If.

We're negotiating. I'm working on some new impressions, I swear. Work on that and make sure you, continue to wear the purple pants. I love these purple pants. They're my rewinder pants. With the Peckamoo is also known as player. Perfect.

All right, see y'all tomorrow. Goodbye.