Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - REWINDER with Blair Packham: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1962

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

On this 1962nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, and 6th episode of Rewinder, Mike chats with Blair Packham about what's new in Canadian media over the previous quarter.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rewind up with the pack of moo is also known as Blair and Mikey Boon Boon too. Rewind up. Looking back and yippy hopping on the air for the quarterly review. Rewind that. Skidly, bodily, poodily. Rookumoo is also known as Blair and Mikey Boon Boon too. Welcome to episode 1,962 of Toronto Mike. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes,

Order online at Great Lakes Beer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees. From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma Pasta.com for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. No ticket required. Fill the Hill in 2027.

Fusion Quarterly. Oh, Nick Aienies. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.catech, A, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of the community since 1921. Congrats to Brad Jones, who became a grandfather this week. For the first time, he's a grandpa.

Now today, returning to Toronto Mike for our sixth episode of Rewinder, it is Blair Packam. The Packam, who is also known as Blair. I still love that theme song, buddy. Me too, actually. I was going to lip sync to it for the camera. Well, you could do that. Mikey Boon Boon, Boone, too. Just yesterday, I was in Scarborough for my son's soccer match.

And then in North York is a neighborhood called Alan Burr. Gardens. Have you ever heard of this? I've heard of it, but I don't know where it is. So it's near the, there's a mall there. Is it Fairview Mall, I want to say? But there's a mall right there. I think fair, isn't, oh yeah, Fairview Mall is up at Shepard and D.P. Okay.

So like, it's right there, okay? And yesterday was going to be Allenbury Gardens Day. I have attended this in the past. It is an event hosted by Snow, our friend Snow. Wow. But they, I got there and there's nothing going on. And I'm like, and I, I phone snow. And I'm like, what's going on?

He goes, oh, I put. on Instagram, we're going to do it next Saturday because of the threat of rain all day yesterday. But of course, yesterday didn't actually rain. Didn't rain, no. Oh, that's too bad. So anyway, I thought of snow when I listened to that opening theme. Yeah, he's my unwitting collaborator on that. In other words, I stole his thing completely, but then wrote new words.

Well, next time he's here, he's going to come, I think, this autumn, he's going to come back. I will play that and get his review. And if he decides to sue me, first of all, he'd have to sue me. And I'll see in court, Baron O'Brien. Yeah, exactly. I'll see it in court here. Yeah.

Blair, how does it feel to be following John Cleese? Oh, I'm thrilled. And that was such a good interview you did. It really was good. And you got to the trans stuff, which is, for me, problematic. Yeah, for a lot of us. Yeah, even though I am a great admirer of him. But, you know, I don't know.

Like, that's a tough one because I did, you know, I want to dislike people who hold those views. And he didn't get particularly extreme, but it's not good from my point of view. Well, you know what I was disappointed in was when he said, I'm going to use the expression, I don't even know if this is appropriate or not. It's language is so important here. But for somebody born with a penis. Yeah. Okay.

Who identifies as a woman. Yes. He equated that to if you identified as Napoleon Bonaparte. Right. And he said, and I have no problem with that until they start raising an army. Right. You know, it's not the same thing at all. It's an antiquated view of gender.

Yeah, and I disagree with him. Me too. So, yeah, it made me uncomfortable, but I thought you handled it very well, and I thought you extracted the good stuff. And he, you know, he's a sweet guy. He's obviously done a million interviews, so I'm pretty sure he's used those lines. before, but you made him genuinely laugh. And of course, that's gratifying too.

And it's one of those things. I say no to these all the time. Like, oh, you can have 20 minutes on the phone with so and so. And unless that person is at the stature of a John Cleese, I will like politely decline. Like, I don't actually have a great deal of interest in a maximum 20 minutes remotely. Your brand, you know, is, is, yeah, you do. And it's, and it's growing. And it's, it's about the, the.

in-depth, lengthy interview wherein you eventually ask, do you know Gort Martin now? You know what? I think you're misremembering. I think what I ask is, oh, maybe I do ask that, but I would ask about, is James B. famous? That's right. Or were you on, tears are not enough?

Right. Yes. Or do you know Stu Stone? Yes, that's right. Those questions. The inevitable local, local questions. I was surprised on that note, though, before we move on from John Cleese.

And I liked how it turned out, and we'll get back to it a moment. But I was surprised at how ignorant he was to the kids in the hall phenomenon. That was interesting. Yes, I thought so too. You know, who knows where he was at that point in his career in the sense that who knows what he was interested in and what he was doing. And, you know, the kids in the hall was an American phenomenon, ultimately, although Canadian obviously.

HBO aired it, right? Yeah. And then CBC, right? but it may just never have come on his radar and the internet didn't exist, so therefore he wasn't going to see it online, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, I was surprised, though, given their, you know, how they often get name checked, you know, by people who, by comics, who say how great they were.

But I enjoyed my 20 minutes of John. I think I took an extra five minutes because there's a PR person, but she turns off her camera, but she's on the Zoom. And then she, at some point, during the trans person discussion, I got a little message. There's another reporter, am I a reporter? There's another person waiting for John. Time is up. Please wrap up or whatever.

And then I figure, I don't want to like leave on the trans note. So I'm like, let's talk about the buff John Cleese that was in a fish called Wanda. Yeah, that was good. That was a good save, I thought. Yeah. And I wondered when I listened, just because I know you, I wondered if that was deliberate. Yeah. Oh, it's always, yeah, it's just, you know, if he, he did say, oh, we could do a deeper dive at some point,

but I actually don't know how to, like, get to John to get that arranged unless this PR person is going to accommodate. Like, I don't have, like, I can't text John Cleese and say, hey, when you're in Toronto, what are you doing at this time? I'll come set up in. Right. Although it's possible that he will be doing press at that point, depending on how ticket sales are going. Right. You know, well, that's how I got the 20 minutes. So maybe they're maybe, I heard they're very expensive.

I was talking to Bob Wollett last night. Oh, yeah. And I don't know who is his in-laws or somebody. they bought these tickets for. And he was telling me they're not cheap tickets to see, you know, see this film that people have seen 100 times. And then you get a little Q&A and a little chatter from John Cleese. Yeah, to see a movie, yeah, that you can see online.

And, you know, yeah. Of course, they're there. You know, he's turning 87. So he's, what do you call that? That's a limited resource. I did think about the age thing for him, like in the context of me, because everything is in the context of me, ultimately. Yeah.

Well, good. Thank goodness. Thank you for introducing us, huh? you know, you get to be a certain age, and maybe, and I don't know, because I'm not at that age yet, but I am starting to get to the point of, and I know we can swear, but I'm not entirely comfortable,

where you just don't have any fucks to give, you know. And I do say that to my students at the beginning, because I'll say, the music business is fucked, and these are my students who are learning about the music business. And it really is. It's, like, from my point of view, it's fucked, because it's upside down from what it used to be. Now, you know, it's the new reality and it's reality.

But maybe you reach a certain age, age where you just think, you know, this trans thing, it baffles me. By the way, don't cut this clip out. And then, you know, I'm quoting, out of context. Yeah, exactly. I'm quoting an imaginary person who might say, who might say, you know, this trans thing, you know, I've had enough of this, you know, trying to be nuanced and subtle and trying to be sensitive to people I don't even know. and, you know, men shouldn't be and, you know, whatever. And, you know, maybe you just get to that point and you think, I'm entitled at this age. Now, I don't think he is entitled just because of age, that's the feeling one gets because I'm certainly gaining in the feelings of I don't give a fuck.

Well, imagine how you'll be at 86. Oh. You'll be guns ablazing. Yeah, I'll be railing about the, you know, men's rights advocates who I hate. Also, may I ask, have you, have you spent any time in a woman's washroom? No, I have not. I'm trying to think, I was trying to think of a saucy answer, but no, I haven't. Well, I don't know.

Maybe at some points in my life I have, like, snuck into a woman's wash. I happen in one's like what I want to point out to you is because us men, and I'm speaking to you. Yeah, you can include me. So men, men's washrooms always have the urinals. Yes. Typically, the urinals. And then there's the stalls with doors in case people need to use that facility.

Right. And women's washroom are just the stalls with doors. Okay. So I always find it interesting, like John Clee seems to be concerned about a person born of the penis using a woman's washroom and women feeling unsafe. But I feel like that is much ado about nothing. And it's, it's, it's, uh, there's doors behind these stalls. Like I just don't, I don't always understand what this fear mongreen is.

Somebody said to me recently and it was a surprise to me. We were having a really nice conversation. Then out of the blue, they said, um, uh, and this, this trans thing really bugs me. Just out of the blue. It was, it was really weird how it came up. But I felt like they needed to get it on the table. And I said, okay, what bugs you? And they said, well, I went to Yorkdale with my granddaughter.

And we went into the washroom and there were men in there. And I said, because Yorkdale has all gender washrooms and they have stalls. And she said, yes, but it really bugged me. How do you explain that to a granddaughter, to your grandchild? And I said, people have to go to the bathroom? I don't know. Was anyone naked or exposed? She said no.

And I, so we, you know, we talked about it. And on that note, you have a son, but I have two daughters. And when I would take them out, I don't know, to the mall or theater or wherever, when they were like six or under, I would say, is they always came into the men's room to go to the washroom, right? Because you weren't going to go into the women's room. So they would come to men, I don't know, six or under, always. Like, so, you know, they'd go into the stall and I'd wait outside the stall or whatever.

And it's, that's, so kids, particularly little girls are, you know, pretty familiar with that. If they ever went somewhere with a grandpa or a daddy or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Now, you know, what I'm learning about one of the many things I'm learning about the world as I continue to learn, right, is that there are some truly awful people out there and a good proportion of them are men. And by the way, when I said I hate men's rights advocates earlier. I was using that as an example, but I kind of do anyway.

But there's a lot of awful guys out there, men, I shouldn't say guys, it familiar, it normalizes them. But, you know, who do awful things. So, you know, the potential for abuse is there. but I don't think that trans people are automatically in that group. In fact, quite the opposite. In fact, if one's going to generalize, I don't know, you know, in the group that offends, that's going to, you know, it just doesn't make sense to me. And, I mean, we're old enough to remember when homophobia was ever present, right?

Like in our schoolyards and the slur you would use is, my God, the F slur or you're gay or whatever. This was like the big insult you'd pull out of your back. pocket or whatever. Well, you're gay, right? And I just feel like we've come so far with that. And we now, not us, you and me specifically, but people in general seem to now have sort of switched over to transphobia. And there's all this rhetoric. The amount of time people spend on a person born with a penis playing professional sports against people born with a cervix. Like the amount of time in oxygen and this wedge issue. you.

Yeah. It baffles me. The only time I can hear that I can think of that in professional sports was this person whose name, I forgot, who, you know, tried to play on the WNBA,

on a WNBA team because they identified as female and therefore, you know, they should be allowed to play and so forth. And, you know, the teams hadn't had to deal with that. So they didn't know how to deal with it. And that's a whole different.

I don't mean to interrupt you, but yeah, that's a different category. It is. But it's also. He should use a woman's washroom in a mall. Absolutely. but also that person demonstrably doesn't identify as a female.

I mean, in any other aspect of their life. It's just when they happen to play basketball against a team of women. So to me, it's much ado about nothing. Now, my son, Owen would tell you he's very astute politically,

by the way, and follows, you know, where things are coming from. And he would say that the whole transphobia thing is because the right wing needs a, you know, a straw man.

Right. Used to be, used to be homosexuals. Right. That's where I was going. And then that was accepted by society to a large degree. Obviously, there are swaths of society that still have homophobia. But it's not as electric a subject for the electorate as transphobia.

So it's deliberate is what I'm suggesting. It's a deliberate way of getting the public riled up about something that actually isn't really that riley. I don't know. If I had more time with John Cleese, and it was almost impossible on Zoom to do this with a man with 20 minutes, conversation. But if I had more time, I would have asked Mr. Kleece, if he's ever had a conversation with a trans woman. Yeah. Like, because we have these, you know, J.K. Rowlings, for example, is big on, what do they call it? Turf. Turf, right. Yeah. Okay. Not to be confused with Terp, which is something you could consider. Okay. So, thank you for reminding me of that.

Right, right, right. So I feel like, have you had a conversation with a trans woman? and maybe you'd gain some understanding, some empathy for this. This is being not equivocal to, if I started to identify as Napoleon Bonaparte, for example. My goodness, that's such a silly. It's so offensive, right? But it's like, and it is so disappointing

because he is, I found him charming. Yeah. And I, again, there's no edits in that. So it's not like we had, we just hit the ground running with a rapport. He says, I'm old, and then I laughed, and then we talked, and then I made him laugh. and I asked him about, you know,

I asked him about SCTV, of course, and then kids in the hall, and we talked about this event that he's having here in Toronto and he's trying to sell tickets too. And it was pretty damn grand, but it is thoroughly disappointing when somebody you respect and care about that much has such what I would call, well, I would say,

the views of an 86-year-old man, like it just seems so old-school and antiquated and that we've come involved so far with regards to what is gender. And it's not as simple as, pull down your pants. If I see a penis, you are a, a man and if I don't you or a woman. It's not that simple. Simply, that's, yeah, it's

incorrect. And he seemed quite entrenched in those views as well. Oh, yeah. Because he had his lines ready, you know, the jokes. Well, he talked to a doctor, but why's it, Y, X, Y, X, Y, X, Y, X, Y, chromosomes or whatever. And I realized, oh, he doesn't get gender. Yeah, as soon as, as he said that, I thought that as well. I'm, I'm equally disappointed with Ricky Jervais, by the way, who I think is otherwise brilliant. Yeah, that I mean, I have to admit, uh, because he dropped Jervis his line at the very end, and I'm out of the loop. Yeah, well, he's expressed similar views. And, you know, his, his, his,

yeah, I like him too. He's disappointing. His humor is, you know, it is common sense based, and it sort of makes fun of extreme views. Not that I would characterize trans support as extreme in any way, but he makes fun of what he perceives as extreme and non-commonensical stuff, and he's really funny. But, yeah, I'm not sure I forgive him as much as I,

want to forgive John Cleese and I think that's maybe an age thing and yeah maybe you're give it you know I do feel like I felt this way when I talked to Tim Cherry about Don Cherry his father and there there is definitely that's not even we're not even boomers here we're the what the one before that what is that the greatest generation like these are people who are too old to be labeled boomers yeah and I do feel like I personally and maybe this is a fault of my own but I give you a little bit of leeway in that you know you were raised for decades and decades being this this thought being pushed into you and it's not so it's sort of like finding somebody who was raised very religious yeah and then suddenly at they asking them at 50 like why do you believe

this you know person's in the sky and this and there's and it's like well I believe it because it's true but of course that's because they've had like 40 50 years of having this pummeled into them like I sort of give you a little and and one thing I will say and we'll move on from john cleese because we got to do a rewinder here that's right I'm and we're I'll do a little Blair catch up really quickly here. But I will say that I did get some notes from, but I said John Cleese was coming on the show. I got notes from people who didn't want me to talk to a transphobic person.

And I will say, I'm just speaking for myself in my podcast. I will speak to somebody and ask them. I basically will shine a light on somebody and let them expose themselves for what they believe. Like I will ask straight up John Cleese about the trans thoughts he has on trans people, particularly trans women. and then I will ask a follow-up, and I'll make sure it's clear to the listenership. There's clarification on what does John Cleese believe about this?

But I will have the conversation with John Cleese, just like I would have the conversation with Ricky Jervais. I agree, and I think the fact that, to those people who didn't want you to speak to him, I understand that, I get that. You don't want to be... They say I'm platforming transphobia. But here's the thing.

Here is the thing that they could remember. I'm not going to say should, but they could remember those people. that here we are platforming the opposite point of view for probably longer than the interview with John Cleese. Right? So in fact, it promotes discussion and thought. That's what it is. Discussion.

And I don't think you're endorsing the person. Yes, you're platforming, but you're platforming them with the opportunity for you to respond. Right. And for you to rebut. And I think we should have these conversations. Yes. Like policing what people can say, I think is wrong,

even though there's lots of stuff that people say that I don't like. But I do feel, and it hurts people sometimes, some of that talk. But I do believe if that's what they think, they should say it. I'd rather they say it. Now, what I don't like is when the people have the 20 minutes of John Cleese and this elephants in the room and they ignore it. Yeah, which is not what I do. And I think I have, after almost 2,000 episodes,

I think I have that reputation that I will go to that uncomfortable place that is controversial. I thought about, you know, because I spent 11 years at, News Talk 1010, interview people about music. And I think I'm pretty good. Bob Reed, my partner is also really good. We were a good team.

But I don't think I would have gone there. I don't think I would have. And I think that that would have been a mistake. I don't think I would have had the nerve. Yeah, I always knew I would go there. It was more about like when I go there. Yeah.

So I think it was perfect the way it came out. It came out near the end, but you didn't wrap up with it. No. I don't think you platformed him in the same. I mean, you did. technically, but I don't think you did in the sense of celebrating his views. We got clarification on what John Cleese thinks about this.

Yeah. And I, and again, I think it's important. If somebody's racist or homophobic or transphobic, I'd rather know. Yeah. Let's,

let, I always say the whole point of this program is that I hold up a mirror and I let, let people see who you are without like sticking to talking points and safe PR-friendly questions and answers. It's like, nobody said to me, I didn't get any directive from a PR person. please do not ask John Cleese about trans women.

Like I got no such directive because that I would have... I got a directive. I had a similar opportunity to talk to Gordon Sumner. Okay, Sting. Yeah. I like to call him by his formal name. Of course. Gordon, back when I knew it.

And the directive I got was don't ask him about the police. This happened, my friend. And I politely said, no, I don't, I'm not going to talk to Sting and ask zero questions about the police. Doesn't make sense. I just wouldn't do it. And I know a lot of people,

with a podcast in this country would have said, I'll do it. Well, of course. Just to say Sting is on, Stings now in FOTM. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, we can all remember the Billy Bob Thornton thing with Gianna Gomesci and how awkward that was and so forth. But still, yeah, yeah, I, anyway. All right, let's move on because there's so much to talk about.

Yeah, now, you're in episode number, what episode number is this? 1962. Okay, so I wanted to be on episode 1959 and I asked you and you said, yes, of course. But did you follow up and like, no. Can I tell you something? Do you know fellow FOTM Leslie Taylor? Yes, of course. Leslie Taylor made a similar request.

She said, I'm born in 1963. Yeah. Please let me kick out the jams in 1963. And I said the same thing, which is yes. But she was persistent in tenacious. Yeah. And she would be messaging me on WhatsApp or whatever, like making sure I wasn't going to slip. and then she'd be

1965 or 1966 or whatever. Like she wanted, and this was a lot of coordination. She's going to be here later today. Oh, that's awesome. And I, you're slid in here

because Colin DeMello was going to be in this spot. And he wanted to do it tomorrow because he had appointments for his kids or something. And then I realized, oh, that's going to throw, I'd have to hold on to this Leslie Taylor

and drop it as 1963, which I did for episode 1021, for example. Like, I've done that in the past. But all this is to say is, I'm sorry that I didn't give you 1959,

but if you had just been a little more like, hey, I'm ready to schedule my whatever. I'm sorry. I was really, I'm mostly joking, but I, it's funny. I'm not preferring Leslie Taylor over Blair Packham or anyone else.

Who wouldn't though? That's the thing. She's great. So it's funny you mentioned Sting in the Police though because on their first album, there's a song called Born in the 50s, and it's a great song and it's a real anthem. And I was born in 1959,

which is less of a, of a boast these days. Let's put it that way. But that's, that was why I would have asked you, to play born in the 50s by the police. Oh my goodness. But it's okay.

We're already in the 60s now. We're in the 1962 here. Yeah, exactly. So I want to say congrats to you. I follow you on Strava and I have been thoroughly impressed by your cycling progress. Oh, thanks.

I'm really working at it. If anybody knows the Pottery Road Hill, which comes up off Bayview Avenue off the Don Valley Parkway, there's a hill there that leads up to the dairy queen. And I've now ridden that hill 58 times this season.

And that's a hell of a hill because I cannot do it on my single speed bike. I think you probably could. I tried, though. Have you? Okay, well, I'd be interested in if you could try again. But people regularly pass me and they go, good, good for you. And I think, oh, Jesus.

But they're gearing way, they're way low. I have no gears to go down to. I have only started doing it on my feet, like standing up, only the bottom of the hill. Because that's hard too. It's just different muscles. So I'm able to do like maybe a quarter. of the hill standing up and then I have to sit down and gear down. Right.

But, but it's, it's good. And I, and I'm, I'm now going longer distances. I was only going 12, 13 kilometers.

Now I'm going 20. I did 30 last week. Amazing. So, yeah, and I'm deviating from my course because I was following this regular route all the time. And, uh, yeah.

So, right is the spice of life. Yeah. And I didn't go today because it's pouring rain, but, yeah, but I'm going to go, uh,

when as soon as it stops raining. Well, you look great and I want to say, uh, I like the new, face. This is a new Blair Packham face. There's no facial hair. No, no facial hair. It was by special request and I acquiesced. Who requested that? Always a woman I dated. And it scratched her face. Oh, yeah. Okay. You know, you're making it with her and she's getting a rash on her face. And she's like,

let's lose this goatee. I shouldn't have said that. You know, my coach, the radio lady, Sharon, Taylor, she said, don't talk about who you're dating. Don't know. You didn't name this person. No, but she gave me a list of things not to talk about it. And she's right. Show me that list. No, no. Did she say don't talk about your prostate? Yes, that was on the list. Well, I was going to ask for an update because last time you were very open.

And I think we should, just like we should talk to John Cleese about his transphobia, we should talk to men about their health. We don't talk enough about prostate. Well, my latest development is I had a terrible, terrible night's sleep last night. And that's becoming more the norm where I have to get up every hour and a half. Sounds terrible to me. Yeah, it was terrible. And I'm told that sleep deprivation.

like that when long term will contribute to dementia and other things like that. So sorry, what's your name? Where are we? Where are you? Yeah. So I'm worried about that. But that's as a result of the prostate. But you know, I jokingly said terp earlier today because Fred Patterson from Humble

and Fred had this procedure done because he had the same symptoms you have. Right. And, you know, he's very happy with having done that years ago now. And he said it changed his life. Is that at least on the table for consideration? consideration. Yeah, I should probably talk to Fred about that. I don't know him. Yeah, he would totally, he just moved and he's got some time in his hands now, and he would love to talk to you about that. Well, that's great. I mean, I think we butted heads about politics at one point.

He's a right winger. He's definitely a right winger. And you're a lefty who cycles this city, my goodness. Yeah, he wouldn't like that. But he's a right winger. I will say this for Fred Patterson, a right winger who hates with all his passion, Donald J. Trump. Oh, well, I know that's good. Because there's two levels of right wingers now. You have the Trumpers, which is like Throne and Lake Ontario. Yeah. Okay.

And then you have the, you know, I am conservative and I voted for Stephen Harper with pride. And I like Doug Ford maybe even, but this is too much. And remember, folks, don't take that out of context. That was Mike Boone quoting this imaginary conservative. No, I think it's Fred Patterson. I'm talking about. Okay, good.

So Bob Reed, I would characterize that way. And he's very sensible. And he's not so crazy about Doug Ford, actually. But he, I mean, maybe I'm speaking for him. I don't know. He wasn't. He doesn't. Well, he won't come on the show, so I won't be able to ask him.

He does a fantastic Doug Ford, though. Get him to come on as Doug Ford. His impression is impeccable. All right. Now. We got to get to Rewinder. Okay. We're still not in Rewinder.

We're not there. We're getting there now. But I will say one thing about Rewinder is we record these episodes every three months. That is a quarter, okay, because there's 12 months in a year. I did the math. It's a quarterly review. You hear it in the theme. song.

For the quarterly review. But we were over a month late last time, which means we're actually, it's a very short, it's summer, first of all, where things are a bit slower, but it's been only two summer months between rewinders. So we can do a little more off the top because there is less meat on the bones

because we didn't have our typical three months, or last time we had four months. Now we only had two months to discuss, and I have some good notes. But I want to say farewell to the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, because this is the last episode of August

and the sponsorship it runs it's a four month deal we do and it's like May, June, July, August. The Toronto Maple Leaf's baseball season is actually, it's over. There are no more games at Christy Pitts because they failed to make the playoffs. But I want to just

say that it was a great season and another great partnership. Yassie L. Pueg, a rather controversial signing in his own right, set the, well, we now call it the CBL. It used to be the inner county baseball league, but the Canadian Baseball League record for home runs in a single season. I believe he ended up with 22,

maybe it was 24. I have to check that out. Bottom line is he is the home run, single season home run king. He is the Barry Bonds of the CBL. And now that Toronto Maple Leaf sponsorship is over, I do have a unique opportunity to introduce a new partnership. So if any, anyone out there wants to step up and help fuel the real talk on Toronto Mike. The show is more popular than ever. We just had John Cleese on the damn show. What more do you want? But the numbers are big.

The events are big. Everything is big. There is room for you. So if you have a budget for sponsorship or an awareness program or whatnot, please write me. I'm Mike at Toronto Mike.com. You can slide into that Toronto Maple Leafs spot while it's still warm. And you really worked for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball.

They almost put me in the lineup. Rob Butler almost had me playing third. I can imagine. You really worked hard for them, and they were great. I enjoyed those games. Yeah. Yeah. It was a great way to spend an afternoon for sure.

So 2027 Maple Leafs will be back at Christy Pits. I hope you all come on out, fill the hill, get a beer. And as I say on this show, a hot dog. We don't eat hot dogs on Toronto Mike. We have a hot dog. All right, Blair, Rewinder time. We always start with radio,

and this segment is brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. They're hosting us. I hope to see you there because you're on the list. September 28. In my calendar. It is TMLX23,

the 23rd Toronto Mic listener experience. Unlike the other TMLX events, this isn't one of those things where I say, if you can hear my voice, you're invited, just show up. This one actually has a list. So if you're not on a list

and you show up, you get to buy your own beer, what I'm telling you, but they do, you know, it's delicious and it's worth it. So 6pm, September 28th, TMLX-23, much love to Great Lakes Brewery for hosting us. We're going to have a great time. And that's a Sunday. No. No?

Okay. What day of the week is it? Monday. Oh, it's a Monday. It is early in the week. Monday, 6 to 9 p.m. At the last one, which was great and the venue is great too. At the brewery.

At the brewery. Yeah. No, no, no. The last one at the brew pub. At the brew pub. Yeah. I had an embarrassing encounter with Steve Paken and Cam Gordon and Cam Gordon's wife or girlfriend. MF, wife.

MF, yeah. I was at the wedding, actually. Oh, that's nice. That's very nice. I played the music, and I played the wrong song for when they come out holding hands as a married couple, because MF wanted one song, and I loaded it up and prepped with, I printed it and everything. I took it very seriously. But she changed it and sent a new version, which I never even opened.

So she got the original choice. It's not like she's got something out of left field. Okay, you didn't play the Rewinder theme or anything like that. He didn't exist yet. Yes. Now, but anyway, they were perfectly lovely, but I misunderstood something. I was trying to go down memory lane with Steve Paken, because we used to be at C-I-U-T together,

before it was called C-I-U-T. Right. And I remembered him, but he didn't remember me. And I misunderstood something he said, and finally MF had to say to me, no, he's not talking about you. Well, M-F, always the reporter, keeping you in line. Yes, and she did, and I went, oh, okay,

and then I slinked away. Slunk. I slunk away. Welcome to my world. Saying the awkward social experiences. Yes, exactly. Oh, yeah? I got diagnosed with ADHD.

Did I tell you that? Oh, no, no. But your ex-wife. Yes. You were wearing the coping shirt. I wear it a lot. I know. I was in the grocery store the other day.

And a young woman, I would put her at like early 20s. She came up to me and said, I love your t-shirt. It said, coping on it. And I said, oh, thank you. And then that woman's mom came over and said, thank you so much for wearing that. Like this is actually, I want to say this to Arlene Bishop, that I wear it with pride.

I can relate in ways you wouldn't even imagine. But what's your experience with this? With ADHD? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I think I want to finish up on the t-shirt thing. I think Arlene should be told because, and I'll tell her,

because I did send her a screenshot of you, talking to John Cleese with wearing a trope shirt, yeah. So, and she was very happy to see that. That was the day. I wore it that whole day. Oh, okay. So I will tell her that because, You know, as independent musicians,

sometimes you feel you're like yelling or singing into the void. Yeah. And it really feels like that sometimes. You know, I play gigs regularly where I think, why am I doing this? You know, which is not a great way to feel. Right. You know, if I were Blue Rodeo at the amphitheater,

I wouldn't be thinking that, you know. But I'm not. And the reality is this is my world. And it's not that it's so terrible. Usually I'm thinking, oh, man, I hit that note. That's amazing. And so forth. Or, you know, this is a real thing.

a pretty good song or I'm thinking I should rewrite that bridge or whatever, but you know, whatever thoughts. The ADHD thing, I was diagnosed, oh, I don't know, about a month ago, a month and a half, no, two months ago, and started on the medication only a few weeks ago. So I'm maybe two weeks into the medication. And it's pretty low dose. So I'm not sure I'm noticing anything except a certain slight manicness, which I think I'm going to, I'm going to see my GPA and we're going to talk about doubling the dose in fact. But, you know, because suddenly I'm aware of my productivity and I'm aware of how I feel and I'm sort of taking my own temperature all the time, figuratively speaking, I have been more productive as a result, you know, because I'm

paying attention in a way. Right. So, so it's been a positive experience in that way, but I got to tell you, the day after I was diagnosed, I was hit with heavy, heavy grief. So ADHD, uh, adult hyperactivity what's the other two, see, I don't even know, ADHD, ADHD, attention deficit, hyperactive disorder. Yeah, there you go. So I felt disordered. And the next day I thought about all the missed opportunities in my life, the relationships that have ended because of behavior that might have been a result of the ADHD,

and it's more than one, you know, the things where I wasn't, I wasn't able to cope. So I wasn't going to wear that Arlene Bishop T-shirt, including, by the way, my relationship with Arlene. Thankfully, thank God for Arlene Bishop because she, you know, has wanted to retain our relationship. And, you know, of course, we had a child, so therefore it makes sense to, you know, stay friends. But we're more than friends. We're, you know, we love each other and in a really lovely, positive way.

And yet the damage that I did, you know, in that relationship, you know, I'm not unique in that, but, you know, this ADHD thing is a, is a motherfucker, frankly. and I intend to, instead of mourning all those missed opportunities and all those things that happened that weren't positive, I intend to move forward positively, and I'm hoping the medication adjustment will help. But in the meantime, just being aware of it has been really helpful. So I don't...

Well, thank you for your candor. Yeah, if anybody is, you know, wonders if they're suffering from it. First of all, I believe everybody suffers from it to one degree or another. I believe it's a spectrum from zero to 100, and most people maybe are around 10 or something like that. But I have a question for you, because you sought medication, which you're now on and you might even double this dosage.

Now, if you didn't feel you needed to receive medicine for this, would you have sought a diagnosis? That's a really good question, and I don't know. Welcome to my world, Blair Packham. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, in some ways, my friend Paul Myers, for instance, absolutely. FOTM, Paul Myers. Yes,

and he's the greatest, and he married Arlene and I. Although he was in my calendar for an in-person visit, and he really buffied that one. Yeah, I know, I know. He bailed. Yeah. But he's the loveliest. He's the greatest. And he and his wife performed the marriage ceremony for Arlene and I, and I, and I've said that before, but I have to say it again. He considers his ADHD, his superpower, basically, because it allows him to do all kinds of of things and, you know, causes him to be interested in all kinds of things and learn about all kinds of things. And yet, I don't know if he's on medication. He was years ago, but I don't know if he still is because we don't talk about that. But, and it wouldn't be my place to talk about it to mention it.

But you'd say he has HIPAA rights. Yes, exactly. But I know that he's aware of it and I know he makes it work for him in a way that I think a lot of people do. I mean, I look back on my very, very undistinguished career in high school, for instance. And by the way, somebody asked me my IQ recently, and I didn't know because I didn't remember ever being tested. Pseudoscience anyway. Well, yes, that's true. But they wanted to know they were curious.

So I went online a few days later, and I did an IQ test. And it's quite high. Is it okay to mention it? You can say it, but it means nothing to me because I don't believe it. Well, it's one, it's, mine is 132, which is, uh, That was just from one test and one moment in time. I don't even think a proper assessment of this type, which I endured quite a bit of this when I was in grade three,

because I tested in something we all did, and then I tested very high, and I went to this other level, and then it requires, like, trained professionals to be with you. Yes, you can't just go online. I know, I agree, but still, anecdotally, it came out to be, you know, this. That's very high.

Yeah, and it's considered high. Welcome to the gifted program. Yeah, thank you. But, but the, so I, but the thing, is I, you know, I've always been articulate and, and, you know, smart about things, but in school, I was there for the social life. Right. And I was distracted and I did grade 11 math three times. Okay. And finally passed it and my parents made me make, take grade 12 math, so I took it twice. And so I spent a lot of summers in summer school. And, uh, and I look at that now and I look at

the fact that I chose to be a musician, not work in an office, not, you know, do anything else. There's so many other jobs that I could have done in theory. But I'm, uh, I'm, so glad I didn't because being a musician allowed me to have something new every day, something different every day, working in a recording studio, a different client every day, a different record, a different, you know, and it satisfied that. Stimulating. Yes, it was very, very stimulating. The thing that's not stimulating about being a musician is when you're on the road and, you know,

you have, you know, 23 hours a day when you're not playing and that, that can be torture, absolute torture. But the point is looking, you know, this ADHD thing has caused me to look back over my life and have some feelings of mourning and grief, but also thinking, okay, but I think I chose ultimately the right path because I get a lot of enjoyment from making music and writing songs,

but also in terms of not being bored out of my mind, I don't know how I would do in a corporate world, I think very poorly. Well, I was trying to be corporate, Mike, for a couple of decades, and it was tough for me to conform. And I look back, and it's similar. I haven't had, I know no official diagnosis,

of anything, except I am running, I won't share too much here, but I'm running on this theory, and it explains a lot in my life. So I look over my 50 years, and I'll see things. And knowing what I know now, and applying it to what happened, it does make more sense.

And I mean, it's been, it's been a work in progress, like even to this very day. And that's why I wear that shirt coping all the time, because I really am trying to understand, like the stew that is me, not the stew stone. No. The soup that is me

and how it applies to the other eight, nine billion people on the planet. Specifically to your kids. Right. You know, I mean, and how it affects them. Well, everybody, you know,

all my partners, Monica, my, my ex-wife, my four children. Yeah. All over the place. And then I look at like things

that are like, like nurture things that in my life. life and the significant nurture events. And then, of course, the nature we're speaking of with the coping with the possible ADHD, et cetera. And it really is like enlightening to realize maybe I'm not like an idiot. Maybe I'm not a asshole.

Like maybe with the tools I had in my arsenal, I did the best I could. And I just lacked the language. I lacked the arsenal in order to to properly sort of attack this world we live in. My father, and by the way, paging Dr. Freud, but my father used to call me, his nickname for me, was El Stupido.

And yet, I was confusing in my brain because I thought, I'm not stupid. I'm not. There's so many things I can do well and understand the nuances of. And, you know, he wasn't cruel and he didn't beat me or anything like that. But that was pretty shitty.

And, you know, but I think that that was a result of what I now perceive as ADHD. Now, even with this diagnosis, I don't know. You know, I don't fucking know. I've talked to a doctor not in practice. Like they're not my doctor, but they're a physician. And they said, ah, all this ADHD stuff,

it's very fashionable. And they sort of put it down that way. And I understand that. If you don't, if you're not looking into it, you may, whoever's sitting and listening right now and thinking, fuck, these guys, this old man, me, talking about his prostate, for God's sake, and then they're talking about ADHD. But it does apply to you.

It actually does because there are people in your life who have these issues, and you may yet have these issues. Probably if you're female, you won't have the prostate issue, just realistically, probably. But, you know, I don't want to rule out anybody. I don't want to not invite you to that party because it's fun. And I'm joking, it's not fun at all. Anyway, but this stuff is pretty universal and this self-discovery. that you and I are both doing is really important.

It's important for people who even think that all this ADHD stuff is hoo-ha. It's important to look at yourself and wonder how, you know, as David Byrne once said, you know, how did I get here? Right, right, right. And if you have big questions about like, I don't understand why I did this or why this happened. Yes. And you think, oh, sometimes it does help to understand like,

maybe you don't see things or appreciate things or understand things in like what I would call like a typical sense. Yeah. Like a non-neurodivergent sense. There's a whole bunch of, like I said, the stew here. But we got to get to radio, man, because we've gone like almost an hour and we haven't got to rewind. It's been very good.

And luckily we have a shorter period, so there probably is less. But there is stuff to talk about. For example, and you mentioned CFRB, where you on the radio for a while. And, of course, your father worked in radio. Yep, at CFRB. At CFRB. He didn't get me the job. He was already, he was already off.

Right, your last name didn't open any doors, you're telling me. Not at all. No, because by then, who owned it? It wasn't the Slates. Standard. Yeah, standard was owned by. Astral. Well, standard, when I started, it was Astral.

And then Bell. Yeah, and then Bell and then Rogers was in there somewhere. But anyway. Okay, well, because R was like Rogers at the rate. Yeah. Well, no, what I mean is in the latter days. Rogers battery lists or something. Yeah, Rogers battery list.

But we survived our show with Bob. We survived many owners, which is quite an achievement in radio. Well, Rogers, speaking of the devils, Rogers, this happened over the last two months. They literally shuttered 6 AM stations.

So what that means is they basically, well, they lay off the staff and they turn off the station and they take the licenses for these AM stations. and it was, I believe there's one FM in here too. So I think it's like 6am and 1 FM. I'm going to name them in a second. But they return these licenses to the CRTC.

So Rogers is basically, and this is, I'll name the stations in a minute, but they're basically like, oh, we're walking, we don't want these stations anymore. And to me, this is a rather significant move to actually say, we can't even sell these damn stations. So CRTC, here's the license for this terrestrial radio station we've been running. and now the signal would be dead. There's nothing.

You wouldn't hear anything there now. They're just gone. I'll just name check quickly because two are in Calgary. One is SportsNet 960 and 660 news radio. The equivalent in Toronto would be 680 News and the Fan 590. So those two stations, which are Roger stations, in Calgary, gone. Dead air, here's the license is back. And that's why Mike Richards, FOTM Mike Richards.

We love this guy. He was buying time for his show on SportsNet 960. But they shuddered that. station. So now Mike Richards is buying time on the local chorus AM station. So just that's another side bit here. But in Vancouver, exactly the same

thing happened. Their station 1130 news radio and SportsNet 650. So their 680 news and their fan 590s shuttered. Okay. So two in Calgary, that's a big city. Two in Vancouver, that's a bigger city. And then of course local, not local,

but closer to home. 570 news radio in Kitchener, where FOTM Larry Fedorik would do fill-in work, gone. And the FM station I alluded to is in Halifax. It's called News Radio 95.7. Kind of sad, Blair, that these six stations are no more. And I feel like this might be a little bit of like a canary and a coalman. I think we're going to see a lot of licenses return to the CRTC

by these big media companies like Rogers and Bell and Chorus. I have so many things to say. Go. Well, you know, their generality. and there'll be people at those stations probably in management who would have something to say to me about it, how naive I am maybe. But it seems to me, you know, radio has certainly declined in listenership. There's no question about that. It's maybe it's a dying medium.

I don't know. It certainly is trending that way. But there's still money being made. And it's just, it's not enough. And if you're a corporation with a growth mindset, which is, you know, one of the, basics of capitalism, then you're, if you're not growing, then you're losing. And I quarrel with that idea. I don't think everything has to have a growth mindset. I think of the mom and pop convenience store, you know, if they're getting by and their bills are being paid, not just getting

by, but they're thriving. Maybe they're having some nice holidays every year and they can leave the, they clear 200,000 in the calendar year and they go, that's good income for this family. It's not like they suddenly have to franchise the store or whatever. I just don't understand this growth mindset thing that has to be applied to everything. And that's the influence of the corporate world. And I object to it. To me, there's this move, you know, I think of the billionaires, and we all know the names of many of them, who want to squeeze every last penny out of everything.

And why? Like, why can't we live our lives and enjoy ourselves? When I was a kid, they told us it was, there was going to be a four-day work week. And, you know, we were, you know, machines would do it. our jobs and we would have a life of leisure. And that hasn't turned out to be true, although I do, because I'm a musician, but that just means I'm not working much. But you're not earning. I'm not earning, exactly. Because you eat what you kill just like I do. Yeah, but I just feel like, I don't, I feel like it's a sickness. And, you know, there are pro-capitalist people in the audience, I'm sure,

who would be like, you know, telling me I'm naive and I don't know how things work. And maybe that's true. But I know that the life I envision is sweet. weater than the life they envision, you know. Well, I think it's fair to say. I would speculate that they tried to sell these stations before they decided to shut them down and give the licenses away. So there's no buyers for these. And again,

it's worth noting none of these stations are in Toronto. Yeah. So the Rogers stations in Toronto, which I've already mentioned, the Fan 590 and 680 news, both continued to this very moment. Let's check the clock here. Okay. I'll check the news reel there.

But it is interesting that it's, you could make an argument that. Rogers only cares about three or four, I would say three stations in the entire country. Like you could make an argument that they care about CHFI. You can make an argument that they care about, what is it, Kiss 92.5. And I believe they care about 680 news.

I don't even think they really care about the Fan 590, but I'm purely speculating here. But in this entire country, think of all the stations Rogers has owned, that's three. Yeah. So all other stations are. are, you know, watch your back. Yeah, up for grabs.

Yeah, wait for that tap on the shoulder. The, yeah, to me, it's, it's sad anyway. I, you know, I'm, I'm an old man. Yeah, I'm an old man. We grew up with AM radio. I loved AM radio and, and worked, you know, during the time that I was with that show, which was called in the studio with Bob and Blair.

So we were at Young and St. Clair at the original, not the original, but the, the latter day CFRB, right? Right. And it was vital and happening. And there was all, you know, all kinds of action. There was three radio stations. There were three radio stations in that facility. And then we got moved down to the city building and on John Street. Right. And at that point, at the beginning of that, there was this, not bullpen, but there was this office area with the salespeople and the administration people, and it was buzzing all the time. But that, by the time our show finished, there was, you know, The newsroom was gone. There was an operator in the control room. There was the announcer on the air. There was the other operator who engineered for our show. And there was the traffic and weather person who was also doubling for city TV.

Of course. And that's it. That is all. And how long ago was that? That was, well, in 2019. Yeah. Okay. So seven years ago.

Yeah. And it went from this super bustling business. And I know that, you know, as revenue. declined. Of course they have to save and so forth, but it's just so sad. No, I agree with you. I feel that same nostalgic pang here. And related to Rogers Radio, FOTM, Sandra Plagacchus was the host of a popular, I understand it to be a popular Ottawa morning show. And it was Sandra and Chris. They called it the Sandra and Chris show. And it was nine years running, all was well. And then Rogers basically, they didn't fire Sandra,

which I'm glad to hear. They moved these people. So Sandra now moves to middays. Chris and the producer Courtney had different, they were going to take on different roles within the comments. I don't think any pink slips went out. But it's interesting to note that the show, which is Kiss FM, Ottawa,

the morning show is now Rawls and Moka. So that is the move. And we've seen it with, you know, I don't know how many stations across this country now, how many Rogers stations across the country now have Raws and Moka, stars of Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Just that is the least expensive way to have a morning show. Yeah.

To me, again, from my particular perspective, which I think you share mostly, radio is about being local. Yeah. It's about, you know, reporting on that traffic jam, you know, half a mile away or whatever and the weather and, you know, and news in the neighborhood and that kind of thing. And the whole point of it is local. So if you make it national, you might as well be on the internet,

which everyone can do, why do we need a radio station? It doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me. It takes away one of the great things about radio. And I do still listen to the radio, by the way, but maybe I'm in the vast majority, you know? Also, you're born in the 50s. Yes, yes. Which I think is a significant detail here.

It is. I am born in the 70s, and I also do turn, I have a radio in the kitchen upstairs, I have one in the bathroom, and I do turn them on. Like, I do also listen to quite a bit of radio. would say, but I know my 24-year-old. I don't know what Owen's up to, but my 24-year-old and my 22-year-olds listen to Zero radio. Zero radio. Owen is, but he's very well informed, of course, but he's on

YouTube and he's on various... He's getting it through other meetings. He's not, you know, tuning in a terrestrial radio that you can't pause and you can't rewind and it's not on demand. But, you know, some of the content is so great. I love, I still love CBC AM, you know, whatever the frequency is 99.1. Oh, right. It's not FM. That's how old I am. Well, you're Zoomers on 740.

Right, that's right. But that's exactly where the two radios upstairs are set to. Oh, there you go. And I love Matt Galloway. I think he just does fantastic work. It's FOTM, Matt Galloway. Okay, Blue. Sorry, I should remember that.

Let's get that right. And while we're in now, we're going to move to Chorus, which has its own well-documented financial issues. Yes, that's right. I think everyone working for Chorus should be checking that bank account and make sure that the payment cleared. tough times at chorus. But what was interesting to me,

and this is my inside source telling me this, even though I've seen online chatter that it was different, Mike Ben Dixon, who I used to work for, quit as program director at AM 640. Wow. So my source tells me he quit. I don't know where he's going. If you're going to ask me what's next,

I haven't talked to Mike. I don't think Mike is a big Toronto Mike fan, but I did hear online. There's rumblings that he was fired. I don't, I haven't heard that from my inside source that he was walked out or fired or whatever. I was told Mike Ben Dixon quit, but that's a significant change at AM 640. That is. And, and people don't often quit in radio.

They, they don't. I mean, if you're on an AM station owned by Chorus and there was maybe another opportunity for you. A better offer on the table, yeah. You quit. Oh, and I'm not doubting whatever. And again, I don't know. I haven't talked to Mike Ben Jackson. Yeah.

Whatever Mike's story is. And chorus is insane. Yeah. And yes. And whatever Mike's story is, I'm sure is true. But he's no longer there. That is... Yeah, that's interesting news.

I didn't know that. Yeah. Good guy. And while we're on this topic of 640, and this is... I've known this for a long time, but it seems like now the public has clued in,

Alex Pearson, who is an FOTM? She was on Sun TV, for example. And very conservative-minded woman that I was happy to engage in conversation to ask her about her thoughts, her beliefs. We had a real conversation, and I have respect for Alex,

even though we aren't politically aligned. she was released of her services as a host on the same station, AM 640. Wow. So she, and she hasn't been heard there in a while, but they've been doing that trick where they, I don't know if it's a trick, but, you know, filling in for Alex Pearson, even though you have an inside source telling you,

she's never coming back. Yeah, and if I were the person being named, not specifically Alex Pearson, but if, you know, you know, filling in for Blair Packham, and I knew I wasn't going back, I'd be irritated because they're using my name still, after I've already gone and they know perfectly well. That reminds me of the recent conversation I had of Maureen Holloway in which he talked about,

you know, for a long time, it was, you know, the Darren B. Lamb and Maureen show, even though they knew full well he had disappeared and was never coming back. Right. Yeah. It was the Darren B. Lamb story. I mean, people get busy. I suppose the people who are coming up with the new brand, the new name for the show or whatever, they got busy or something.

A lot of times HR gets involved because they're negotiating a settlement and exit, maybe there's an exit settlement and there's lawyers involved and the legal department will be like, okay, keep the name on the show while we negotiate this exit. Yeah, yes, of course. There are always reasons, I think. So there you go. For the Alex Pearson fans, I'm sorry to bring, and when I know where she's recent, because I've had many emails, like, where is Alex going to be resurfacing?

I have no idea. Yeah. I remember interacting with her at News Talk 1010. And I knew we had differing political views, but I've had. very nice and kind and, you know. Mutual respect. Yes. Yeah. Right.

Now, you may remember Blair Packham. What's called by those who work there, they call it the mistake of 88 at CFNY, 102.1. Do you have any memory of 1988 when CFNY left that spirit of radio Marsden era? He had left actually in 1987. And they started playing, for example, Madonna or who else? George Michael. Yes. Top 40.

There's still like alt stuff going on, but they sprinkle in quite a bit of top 40. Do you remember this? I do remember that. I also think the mistake of 88 for CFMY was not playing the jitters.

But, but, Q owned the jitters. Q owned the jitters. That was, and that was so annoying, really, because they didn't really, but unfortunately we got heavily identified

with Q107. But, and we wouldn't have been appropriate on CFMI. So I get that. I'm joking. But I do remember that because I always think

that's a mistake. I think that, you know, you're, you're, you're letting down your audience who are into alternative music and they're, but you're broadening, theoretically, but I don't think you do. I don't think you actually do. In the AA's doing it right now. I know. And I don't, I don't know that it works there either. I mean, people who, who plant a flag in the idea that they're different and they listen to

better music. Right. And, you know, they, here's Madonna. Yeah. And then, and then here's Madonna. And they, and not that Madonna, you know. No, no, but she's, she's. But it's mainstream.

It's prototypical top 40. Yeah, especially at the time. Like Michael Jackson. Yeah. And so people who plant that flag are not going to be happy with that because it takes away the differentiation for them. And if you have an audience that it's as passionate as CFNY's has been since the Marsden era, you're alienating them. You risk very much alienating them. And I think that's what happened then.

Well, there were a huge protest, et cetera. And obviously it was an ownership decision to broaden, to get better ratings so they could sell it for a high. price, right? The station. And the man who was tasked with implementing these changes, the mistake of 88 changes, was a former sales manager at CF&Y named Jim Fonger. So Jim Fonger, he was CFNY sales manager. Before that, I learned, he was actually a part of the telemedia Blue Jays broadcasts where he would be alongside, for example, Tom Cheek, ready, pre-Jerry Howard, who is no, Noticably absent from all the Rogers stuff about the Joe Carter class statue and the bringing back the 1993 team. I saw my good friend Rob Butler on the field.

We lost a great in Dwayne Ward, you know. But it's noticeable to me that Jerry Howarth is completely absent. But before that, it was Tom Cheek, an early win. And this gentleman, Jim Fonger, and again, we're going to get back to the statue actually in Rogers there. But he rose from this sales manager position at CFNY. Jim Fonger became director of operations, and he was the man tasked with implementing the big changes that the on-air people hated.

You can ask Alan Cross about this, and he'll be like, yeah, I refuse to play the music I was being told to play by the director of operations because it wasn't what I wanted to play on CFNY. And then you have people like the aforementioned Fred Patterson, who was on the air at this time, angry that Alan Cross would basically be doing this against the orders, what's that called, a mutiny,

or whatever that's called, because Patterson wanted the ratings to increase because he felt like that would increase his salary, and he's trying to raise a family. So he would make more money because the station would make more money, and he felt the station would make more money if they played George Michael and they played Madonna.

But all this is to say, I'm trying to say that Jim Fonger, you can see in that CFMY documentary, you kind of plays the heel, has passed away. Oh, wow. On July 25th, at the young age, because you can see it and I can see it. He was 69 years old. Holy moly. And he died suddenly. Yeah.

I believe it was a heart attack. Yeah. And I just want to give my condolences because Jim Fonger, he's got to play the heel in the mistake of 88. but he owns it. He was doing his job. I think the problem there is that they put a salesperson in charge of the station. But that's not Jim's fault. No.

That's, no, and it's akin to record companies, um, uh, having accountants and lawyers take, uh, the creative positions in labels.

Sometimes they are, are up to it. David Steinberg, for instance, as a lawyer, would be up to any creative task in music for sure. But, uh,

he's an exception, I think. And so in radio to have a salesperson take, take over. the direction of the station, I think is probably a bad idea. Should have been Scott Turner. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably true.

Can I play you 11 seconds of Fergie Oliver on Toronto Mike? Okay. Canada Cav just wanted to say, take down that Ted Rogers statue at the dome. I think a lot of people think, like, maybe put up a statue of Joe Carter or something. Why is Ted Rogers? You're goddamn right. Okay, so I just wanted to report back. This has happened, everybody, okay?

Get rid of the Ted Rogers' stuff. statue. They did. They moved it to the Rogers Plex there on, where is it? Blur and Jarvis. Yeah. Ted Rogers Way. Ted Rogers way. And they have now put up a statue of Joe Carter, but I just want to revisit the fact that I have noticed with all

the ceremony and they have a new level of excellence at the dome. Like it's now got like a room. It's like a tribute to everybody on the level of excellence. And that's all wonderful and good. But I just want to say this seemingly I don't have any insight specifically, but there's

absolutely, from my perspective, some mild hate on or disregard for Jerry Howarth from Rogers. You don't think it's legal. You don't think it's contractual. They don't think they came to a settlement of some sort. And then, you know, Jerry exited. And I'm sure they negotiated that. But that was now, looking back, that was years ago that Jerry Howard exited. But why is Jerry's name not even mentioned in these ceremonies? I just wonder if there was some negotiation about, you know, don't say my name. Yeah, you get your name out of, get my name out of your wife's mouth. Jeez. Or whatever.

Well, that's more of a side beef because we're in radio and this is, you know, Jerry Howarth was a long time. I just thought of it when we talked about early win. I never heard early win call the Jay's game. When I start tuning into Blue Jay's games, it's Tom Cheek and Jerry Howorth. And it was that way until Tom Cheek passed away. And Jerry, who had, and again, he is an FOTM. He's been to the basement. Always gracious when I communicate with him.

And there's a Jerry Howarth Wade. near six points in at Tobico and I'll take a photo by the Jerry Howworth Way sign. But I just noticed that the Rogers and the Blue Jays ops and everybody with the levels of excellence and the statue and the 93 team, it is noticeable to me that Jerry Howworth is never, ever mentioned. It's a shame. Yeah, it is a it's a shame. Okay, you mentioned CBC. We're cooking with gas now because I do it.

Yep. Did you ever listen to Spark? Yes. That was a weekly guide to tech trends and fresh ideas. And it went for 17 seasons. I think it ended in 2024. It was created by a broadcaster at CBC named Nora Young. You will know her voice if you heard it.

You don't know her name. Nora Young has retired as CBC News's senior technology reporter. Wow. She has retired. Well, I always enjoyed Spark, very, very much. There was something about her voice that reminded me of Lori Brown to evoke a different name. Another CBC voice? Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, Spark was a terrific show. And I thought she did a great job. It was on weekend afternoons. I can't remember which day, Saturday or something. Oh, definitely a weekend show. Yeah. And it was a weekly show. And it was great.

Of course, that show has been gone a couple of years. But she did become the CBC News Senior Technology Reporter. And now she's hung up her headphones. and I am trying to get Norah Young to visit the TMDS basement for her exit interview. Oh, I bet that would be great. But she had over 30 years at CBC as sort of their preeminent

voice and technology journalism. Yes, yeah. So I wanted to pay tribute to Norie Young. I think that's great if you get her in the basement. That's great. I'm curious about a couple of things, two things. One is, you always warn me to not hit my head when I come into the basement, and I'm wondering who does hit their head?

Who has? Anybody knows? notable and have they hit their head? Well, Damien Cox bled on the ceiling. That's what I was wondering. Yeah. He's the guy I think about. So I know, now I do a lot of, like, after the show, I realized I would tell them coming down, watch your head.

And I would say it a couple of times. And I'd always say, that's the false one because they get kind of relaxed when they clear that one. But everyone, everyone would clear that in every basement in Toronto. Yeah. That's the one. I say, that's the one. It's got the check your head sticker, but sometimes they miss that.

And I always remind them, okay, be careful. This is where you're going to hit your head. But after the recording, people like to leap up. up in excitement like oh it's over right thank god it's over yeah so i'll do that i'll do it i'll mute it i'll let rob preuss's version of rosy and gray finish and i'll say when you get up you're gonna hit your head be careful yeah now the second thing that i i'm curious about is my memory as an elderly man and by the way when i say that i'm joking but i know that the young people in the audience are not thinking i'm joking when i say elderly they're like yeah uh-huh but but me i'm like

They're young people listening? Hey, I'm calling myself elderly. Isn't that funny? But anyway, as an elderly man, I'm having difficulty remembering the name of the newscaster on Metro Morning. Oh. She's an FOTM too. Oh, I was going to say you should get her.

She's so great. She lives in Riverdale near me. And I'm a big fan, and yet I can't remember her name. You're looking her up. Well, because I do listen to a lot of Metro Morning. She's been there for 100 years. She's so great and such a nice, nice, kind person. Yeah, she's been there a very long time.

And I actually asked her straight out. I said, do you not want the job? And she said she does not want the job. Her name is Jill Dempsey. Jill, yes, of course. So Jill came over and I said, like, because there was, you know, we just got a new host of Metro Morning. Yeah.

I think a lot of people are still, Chris Glover is his name and people are still warming up to his style. Yep, yep, I think so. Because David Common did a great job. He did. His predecessor was not great at it. And then we all miss Matt Gubber. Galloway and Andy Barry, so it's a very important job.

But Jill Dempsey doesn't want the job. She likes her role on the show. Well, I can understand that. It's very, you know, to me, it's that growth mindset thing. You know, if you're happy where you are, it doesn't mean if you stay where you are, you're going to become unhappy. Right. You know, some people will because they need to, maybe they're like sharks.

They need to keep moving. But, but, yeah, so good for her. But anyway, I'm a fan of Jill's. And I remember going to see some. somebody play music one night and Jill was there and it was such a thrill to meet her. And that's, so Jill Dempsey, not to be confused with Jill Deacon, of course. No, who also I've seen play music in my neighborhood as well. Bag of Hammers.

Yeah. What was the, the band's called the, uh, oh. Let's get a new band. Because she had a band in Montreal called Bag of Hammers. Yeah, yeah, and it's a good name, but the con, with, she, with, with Mike, oh my God, I'm forgetting everything. Well, it'll come to you. The, the city of Toronto, uh, music officer.

Mike, now you have to look that up too. His band, not the conspiritualists. Why am I forgetting? I actually know Ian, the bass player as well, and they're a really good band. And Jill is the singer sometimes, not always, but... Okay. Well, you know, you'll have to check on the live stream

and see if a radio lady is going to bail you out on that one, because I'm going to ask you if you have any relationship at all with Bill Carroll. Not active, but I visited Bill in Los Angeles. when he was there. Owen and I went to visit him. He was at KFI. Yeah, and Owen swam in his pool while we sat around and had a, had lunch and with Sylvie. And somebody else was there too, some other adult. Wow.

And their kids as well. It was really nice. Bill was at CFRB when I was there. Right. And he's good friends with Bob, Bob Reed. And so when I went to Los Angeles, Bob said, you should call Bill. So I did. And they were very gracious and invited me over.

And their home was beautiful. and yeah, it was lovely. Well, he's on a Bell Media station in Ottawa called 580 CFRA, but there was a recent decision made by John Moore to work less hours. And he's the morning show host at 10-10, news talk 10-10. John Moore basically said, like, I want to wrap at 9. I don't want to go till 10 or whatever. So what Bell Media decided to do is they decided to just bring remotely,

obviously, from Ottawa, I guess, unless he's in L.A. still, I don't know where he'll be in Ottawa. He's in Ottawa? Okay, so Bill, there's now from 9 to 10 a.m. On weekday mornings on 10-10, you will hear the Bill Carroll show. He does an hour from Ottawa, and then he also does the morning rush with Bill Carroll on the aforementioned 580 CFRA. So Bill Carroll back on 10-10 every weekday. Yeah, yeah, very good guy.

Again, with views that are not complimentary to mine necessarily about... Do you still speak with the man? Well, I haven't spoken with him in a long time. But when we visited in Los Angeles, that was probably seven or eight years ago. So Owen was a young teenager, so maybe 10 years ago. Okay. I was just checking in to see if a radio lady was going to give you that name you're looking for. But actually, she's doing something I'm not a big fan of, where she's acting like program director of Toronto Mike.

Oh, well, my nickname for her, and it's a good one. And I hope she doesn't mind me saying this because I love her. but I call her coach and the other day the other day because she gives me notes like you know Well do you want to read her note here

from earlier it was from almost an hour ago here Okay Please don't give this washroom thing any more air It's fucking ridiculous Okay So she gives me notes

When I play music So she was at I played at sauce On the Danforth on Saturday For a matinee And she was there And I was very grateful That she was there

Because there weren't very many Other people there There were other people Thank thankfully Thank God but she gives me notes, and so I joke that she's coach, and I made David Steinberg laugh

because he was playing snare drum with me, and I said, who's the Leafs coach when Doug Gilmore? Pat Quinn? Pat Burns. Oh, Pat Burns. I thought it was Pat Quinn. No, Pat Quinn was late.

He was like late 90s into early 2000s. But he had a mustache, right? Pat Burns had a mustache. He played of the good brothers. Oh, there you go. So Pat Burns, I joked that Sharon reminded me of Pat Burns pacing back and forth,

and writing down notes. And she gave me notes for this show, as I said. Well, I don't like that either because I don't want you to have a list of things not to talk about in Toronto Mike, because I want Blair Packham and then I will extract what I want. I don't want you to say, don't talk about my prostate because I want to know about your prostate. To be fair to Sharon, though, you know, it's probably more that I expressed regret over talking. Like, did I talk too much about my prostate or something? And so she's like remembering for me.

I'm the boss around here, Blair Packham, okay? I'm the program director of Toronto Mike. She is the managing director of Jazz FM. You know what? She should come back on to talk about that. I have Ralph Ben Mergie in the calendar for next week. Well, and she should come back and,

I don't know, fire Ralph or something. I will reach out to Sharon Taylor, former program director at CFTR 680. And of course, Kiss 92.5 when it was CIS in a country music station. So I'll reach out to Sharon Taylor. One last radio note,

then I want to get to TV. Okay. I want to say, I'm mad at America. Feels good to say that, okay? I don't like it. Bob Willett was sharing on the most recent toast that he went to New York to see Broadway

and experienced New York. And I actually felt inside disappointment and anger that he's choosing to spend his like personal time and vacation in the United States right now. Personal time, vacation money. Yes, I'm not going to be disapproving of Bob. You know, I know.

I was hanging with him yesterday at the Matthew Good concert at the, he got me side. stage at the ban shell. I was there last night hanging with Bob. It was great. Yeah. But, but, but I, and I went to New York in the fall. So before, you know, it disappoints me too. But I know, it disappointed me too, but I was blinded by love. So I went to New York. I did. And I, and I felt weird about it the whole time. And when I went to the border, I purchased a, um, uh, what are they called, a little shield to put my phone in. So they couldn't scan it from a distance because I was paranoid that the,

you know, I drove to New York. So therefore, and the guy was the nicest border guard ever. And, and, and the guy was And he said, what are you doing? I said, I'm going to New York. You meet a friend. I'm going to spend a week there. And he said, have a great time. And that was the end of that. Meanwhile, we'd had all these stories at that time about ice and so forth and how I was going

to get abducted. But I was disappointed in myself that I gave in because I wanted to. It was just, you know, so I'm not going to be doing that anymore. And I hope Bob won't as well. Well, this anger with the country that is trying to devastate my country economically. Yes. So we basically come crawling. to them and say, please, own, I don't know what the term is, own us, we don't want our sovereignty,

yeah, we'll be the 51st state, we'll be a, whatever, a colony like Puerto Rico, whatever it takes. Like, that is so offensive to me in every way that it is, I find it is leaked into a lot of very American things in my perspective, including the NFL, okay? There's nothing more American than the NFL. All the teams are in America. It's the big bang, bang, bang, NFL. And I have so soured on the NFL, and the Buffalo Bills in particular, I hear so many, people in Toronto talk about the Buffalo Bills like it's our home team. And it's not our home team, okay? It's the Buffalo Bills

part of the NFL and a lot of Buffalo very Trumpian because of the blue collar popularity Trump for some reason. So I'm just sharing with you that Bell Media and their TSN radio, which is only three stations. They got one in Toronto, 1050.

They got one in Montreal, 690, and they have one in Ottawa, 1,200. The three ETSN radio stations are going to be airing Buffalo Bills games as part of this partnership between Bell Media and the Buffalo Bills Radio Network. I report that to you, but I don't like it. I don't like it either. As you know, I'm not a sports guy, but I don't like it.

I don't think we should be making nice with anybody, but, you know, the corporateists. The corporateists are all about the bottom line. Right. And I always think of that cartoon of, you know, the post-apocalypse, and there's a little kid sitting on the ground looking up at his dad, presumably, and it's a smoldering, you know, hellscape. And the father is saying in the caption saying, but, but we got excellent shareholder value, you know, and that's what it's like.

It's like at the cost of absolutely everything. Any principle you might have, yeah, but we made some money. It's awful. Yeah. You know, happy capitalism indeed. Okay. Speaking of money, okay. Well, actually, before we speak about money, I just want to make sure you know,

Blair Packum. I have in my freezer upstairs a large frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. This is the sound of it's delicious. Rubbing my palms together. Listen, rub that belly, Blair. Honestly, what delicious lasagna, but all the food there, someone was asking me about their eggplant, parmesan. I mean, everything. Everything there.

At Palma Pasta is top shelf. It's a beautiful store too. Oh, yeah, you're talking about Palma's Kitchen. Pallmas Kitchen, yeah. Where we have our yearly events? We'll have one again this winter. That's, where would you say that is a Seminic court? It's like near Burnham Thorpe and Mavis.

It's basically Helen gone. It's how I would describe it. Well, I can still bike there. That's all I know. That's good. I'm a downtown guy. So to me, it's like I have no idea where it was. A long ride from East York.

Yeah, yeah. But I want to say thank you to Palma Pasta for your continued support. Yeah. And I love Palma Pasta. I've got the lasagna for you. Palma pasta brings you this television segment. The big news from this quarter. And I'm going to ask you a question.

before I deliver you the big news. Have you ever tuned in to watch the social on Bell Media Station CTV? I have not. I don't have cable. So, well, you, in my ignorance here, for some idiot reason, I still have cable. But do you need cable to see CTV still? I guess if you had rabbit ears or whatever, like a digital antenna, you could pull in CTV. I guess.

Now, I've told you before, my father, I'm looking at the camera, was vice president of finance for CTV anyway. I don't seek out CTV for any reason whatsoever. There's nothing there for you. There's nothing there for me. You already said you hate sports. You're not going to watch the Super Bowl there. I didn't even watch FIFA. You know, I would see it in a bar. And no, and again, I've said

this before and I just want to say if any sports, sports fans are feeling attacked by the fact that I don't like sports. They don't care. They don't care. But if you do, it's nothing personal. It's just I don't get it. You are, I told you this last time. You are much like Dan Duran in this regard. Well, that's good to know about Dan. Dan doesn't care about anything to do with anything sports.

And neither do you, and I don't care. I respect you regardless. But the social, it's been on for 13 seasons. See, I would have no idea about that. And you might remember if those who do know of the social, and I don't watch the social either, but I'm well aware of it, 13 years ago when they started the social,

they took a great young broad, I don't know how young shows, but she built my age, I think, but they took a broadcaster from a, CP-24 named Melissa Grello. You know this name, Melissa? I know the name. Okay.

So Melissa had been at Bell Media and CP-24 for five years. And then 13 years ago, she left CP-24 for another Bell Media opportunity at the social. And she was one of the founding hosts. Well, here's two-prong announcement from Bell Media regarding the social. Okay. Firstly, Melissa Grello is no longer employed by this program. Okay. That's a big change.

She's moving on. Hopefully at one point she'll talk to me and tell me what she's up to or whatever. I got lots of respect for her. I met her at a Dana Levinson perimenopause event. That's how you know, Melissa, is my age, okay? So I've had a... I'm going to have one of those. Perimenopause, another thing we don't appreciate enough.

It's not just menopause, which is the moment you stop menstruating. There's a whole perimenopause beforehand, which can be very, very difficult for some people. We should talk about it more. Of course, I agree. We should talk about it more. Prostate talk and paramedopause. Let's have a double header. Let's get somebody in to do that.

I do that. I'll do that. Oh, Dana Levinson made a movie. I'm going to go see it. That's more on that later. But Melissa Grello is moving on. So that's 18 years at Bell Media. She's no longer there.

And the social itself, it was described as a traditional daytime television broadcast. And they have said in this news release, Bell Media says it's no longer going to be that traditional daytime television broadcast. It's going to become a video podcast. podcast. They're still going to, so I'm just going to tell you, Blair, how I, I dove into the details, which, you know, and I'm like, what's the difference here? So everything, I mean, no Melissa, obviously, which is an interesting difference. But to me, the only difference, because it's still going to air at the same time for an hour and it's still going to be, I guess, four women chatting about

things and the current events and stuff in the zeitgeist. I think the only difference is, the social used to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. And I, believe now that they're calling out a video podcast, I don't think there is a live studio audience, which means they can do it anywhere, build a set anywhere, and record, just like we're doing right now. Well, they can also do multiple episodes in one sitting,

which is cheaper. But they won't because I think they react to the news of the day. Oh, okay, that's different then. Like they're like, oh, you know, Google Maps now in America shows it as Lake America, which, by the way, there's a lot of noise about that. And I happen to know because I produced the ESRI podcast, and that's all about geography.

And there is a database called G-N-I-S, okay? And I should look what that stands for it, but it's geography network of information systems, or something like that. I've got to look it up. And Google Maps uses that as their source. So when names are changed in G-N-I-S, which is this American database,

Google Maps automatically in America pulls that data. So it isn't as cut and dry as Google decided to call it Lake America. They're pulling from G-N-I-S. I guess they could override that because they're Google, but they don't. Right. That's interesting, though. I had no idea about that.

I did think it was great the way MapQuest responded. Right. Well, they've got to make some noise here. By the way, it stands for geographic names information system. You were pretty close. I was close, yeah. I, you know, I produced the ESRI podcast here, okay? But that is the database of names and location information that Google Maps

pulls from. Right. Okay. Yes. You'd think, though, that somebody there. would, of course it's an executive order. Well, they didn't do it with Gulf of Mexico. No, they didn't. So it's still Gulf of Mexico

in the GNIS? No, I'm saying they didn't override it. Oh, they didn't. It's Gulf of America, but in parentheses they put Gulf of Mexico. When you're in the state seeing this, I don't think it doesn't change for Canada. Trump has no jurisdiction here and that's the way we want to keep it. That is certainly the way I want to keep it.

I'm sure there are Canadians who feel differently. In fact, I think I know one, but I'm not 100% sure. Okay. Any thoughts on Before we move on, any thoughts on the big change at the social, which is they, I guess they can do it somewhere else and have nobody in the crowd. You know, all, it seems to me that every broadcast decision is made. You know, aside from at the very top,

but most broadcast decisions are made based on money, on saving money, trying to squeeze the last penny out of the situation. Do it more economically, more efficiently, in quotation marks. I'll do that for the camera, efficiently. Cost cutting is. all the rage right now in the media. And yeah, so I think that that would be why. Not having seen the show, though, had no idea it had run 17 years, you said?

13 years. And it's still running and it's going to look different and be a little different. But probably, like you said, less expensive. I think the main thing is they have to get out of $2.99 Queen. I think that's like they have a date by which they need to vacate completely. Like a lot of stuff. Like, right, because that's going to become part of the Ontario line, like a hub. I had no idea.

Like I think things are moving out like already. CP24 for example. I'm like, yeah, that's Bell, right? Yeah.

CP24 now is up in aging court. Oh, wow. At the CTV building. Right. So I think stuff is moving. So I think this is part of that. I didn't,

I didn't know that. The Ontario line causing a major disruption in my neighborhood. Hopefully it won't, you know, take as long as the, the Eglinton Cross Town, which I drove by yesterday. Yeah.

Because my boy was playing a scarabone. It's running. It is running. It is running. And by all reports, I think it's running well. That's good. To be discussed of Ed Keenan. Yeah.

The one on Finch, I think it can only run at 18 kilometers an hour or something like that. So it's not running so well. We got to work on that. That's what I've heard. That's not fast enough. I can bike faster than that. Okay. We're cooking with gas here.

I looked at the clock here. So more TV. One is that FOTM Rob Fold. So Rob Folds, no one mainly now is like a tennis guy. So he would be, for example, he just broadcast

from the 2026 National Bank Open, which is on Sportsnet. But Rob Folds has done a lot of stuff, a lot of curling. He did Blue Jays baseball for his spell. He came over and talked about that tragic day when John Serudi didn't show up for the game.

He was in his 40s, I think early 40s. He had a heart attack in his hotel room. Terribly tragic. They were very close. But Rob Folds, who I called, quite like. And again, it was great to get him in the basement here. After 51 years in broadcasting,

he's hanging up his microphone. Wow. He's retired. Wow. Well, yeah, I guess it, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, you get to this age and people are either retiring or dying and, uh, what option do you prefer? Uh, I prefer retiring, but I don't, I don't know what that means for me personally, though, retiring from writing songs. No, because it gives me joy. Retiring from playing gigs, maybe I would retire from the one I played on Saturday. But, uh, I don't, I don't know what. Um, But I'd rather keep playing. But anyway, retiring or dying seems to be, or getting sick. And it's awful.

And, yeah, it's awful. Well, happy for Rob. He gets to enjoy more of those beautiful Lake Huron sunset. That's lovely. Where does he live on Lake Huron? I'm going to say near Grand Bend. Okay. Nice.

If not Grand Bend. And I know Grand Bend well again because every year I'm at the Pinery, which is right down the street, if you will, from Grand Bend. So much love to Rob Folds. Yeah. SportsNet, of course, is taking, we talked about this last time, that the hockey net in Canada

no longer on a CBC. Yeah, amazing. You got to like, subscribe to SportsNet to see all this stuff now. And one more change from SportsNet that after 12 years at the network, which is the entirety of the SportsNet deal with the NHL, before that with CBC, of course,

when CBC owned the rights to hockey night in Canada. Kelly Rudy, he, of course, was the goaltender for the L.A. Kings, when, oh, there's Wendell Clark, but you talked about Pat Burns. There was a big series in 93. You don't care about this. But when seven games against the Kings

in the Campbell Conference final, there's a famous missed high stick by Wayne Gretzky. Carrie Frazier missed the call. It was on Doug Gilmore. And then, of course, Gretzky scores, blah, blah, we lost that game.

We didn't go to the finals against the Habs. What a terrible time for a Leafs fan. You lucky you got to dodge this bullet. But Kelly Rudy was a goalie. He's been a pretty damn good. I think he's done a great job. at Hockenand Canada, but Sportsnet has said, Kelly, your services are no longer required, and he will not be a part of the SportsNet NHL broadcasts this coming season.

So I don't even need a reply for you, because you don't care about sports. But Kelly Rudy, not on Sportsnet. But Mike, I care about humans. You care about Kelly Rudy. Who's going to be fine? Well, I hope so. Oh, yes. But yeah, that, yeah, it's all about money, baby.

Oh, yeah. And again, the capitalists are like, yeah, what else would it be about? Well, it could be about, I don't know, feelings and love and all those soft things that the capitalists make fun of, fun of. Anyway, I'll stop. I'm naive. I'm hopelessly naive. That's what we love about you. Sportsnet, one more note on SportsNet television and Hawkingen, Canada. So we gave you the big news last time a couple of months ago that Hawkingen, Canada was leaving what I'll call over-the-air stations. Because if you did get a digital antenna, you could pull in CTV.

You could pull in CBC, for example, where you could see Hawkenet in Canada. that was the big news last time. I just gave you the Kelly Rudy news. But this is interesting. On Omni, which I still want to call like CFMT, but on Omni television, they would air Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi. Oh, wow.

Yes, this was happening. I love that. No, not anymore. So they did 18 years of Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi. And SportsNet has just said, no more. They said the audiences weren't sustainable.

They actually, and I felt this was kind of a low blow. I didn't think they needed to publish the numbers. I don't think, I don't think they needed

to tell you, but maybe they were trying to say face and explain, of course we canceled it. They said they averaged 1,500 viewers. Oh boy.

And they said the average audience was less than a thousand people. Now, if I could get those 1,500 people to come and see me play at sauce, then not. Right. Everything's relative.

Everything's relative. But my, my, um, cynical, brain thinks, well, if Sportsnet wants all the games to be on their paid tier of subscription, like you have to cough up money for SportsNet, either the SportsNet Plus streaming or SportsNet as a cable option, then it would not, they wouldn't want an over-the-air station like Omni to air

the game, even if it's in Punjabi. Because what I learned when I saw Habs game in Montreal during this recent playoff run, and it was in French. So I actually didn't know what we were saying. But it was just as exciting to have it in a different language. I would tune in. To save that money, I would tune in to the Leafs game on a Saturday night in Punjabi.

And if you're a hockey fan as you are, you know, you know what's going on. You don't need the... I mean, it's great to have color commentary. Right, you don't need it. You get the excitement from the voice and you don't need to know the language. So that to me,

so cynical Mike says, okay, maybe it didn't get big numbers. Yeah. But it had to go anyways because it was like a loophole. They had to close the Joffrey loophole. Yeah. Yeah, I think.

There's always more money involved. It's, I would liken it in a way, not the specific situation, but the RBC amphitheater. I almost went there last night. I was offered a ticket to see Toto and Christopher Cross, but I was committed to see Matt Good at the C&E at the Banshell. And I didn't think by the time I got out of there, I figured it would be like 10.30. And this thing winds up by 11. So I turned it down.

I think that makes sense. But, you know, when I think of that stage versus the. the Ontario Place Forum and how you would get entrance to the concert with your entrance to the park, which was $5. Right. And, but, you know, then, then the various music people have to get involved, the corporations have to get involved to, you know, we'll build our own facility and then we'll charge you $200 a ticket, you know, and it's just. Or less if you want a lawn.

Well, that's true. But you know, it's interesting to me, Blair, that you bring this up, the RBC amphitheater, as it's called, which by way, at least your ticket to that. If you got a lawn, let's make it up. let's say you spent 70 bucks you got a lawn. At least to get you in the X for free. Like I just, because it's like 33 bucks or something to get a ticket to the X now.

I had a free pass last night because of my scatting cabin episode. So I biked over. I got in for free with this pass I was lucky to get. Yeah. And then I, the concert was free at the band shell. But what's interesting to me is that this amphitheater is not sufficient for their corporate needs and it's going to be blowing up and replaced.

Like, I believe this is the last season of the amphitheater. I believe, if I remember the detail right, this is the last season for the amphitheater. There's going to, maybe there'll be nothing for a bit and then they'll have a new music facility at Ontario place. A new venue to, you know, milk more, to suck more money out of your wallet. To justify it somehow. Yeah, yeah. Now, Matt good.

Had him on my show, like a complicated guy. Yeah. He was a good interview, but very lively and very opinion. which of course is good, you know. But I do remember when I was posing a question to him and we had just met and we had people in common, but we had just met. And I said something like, well, you know, I used to have a band myself in the 80s or something because it was relevant to the question, right?

And he said ominously, he said, oh, I know who you are. But he is a surly guy. He seems sad yesterday. Really? You know, he's had some. He's had some ups and downs. You know, there's been what I call the soft cancellation of Matt Good. Obviously, it was soft because I saw him yesterday at the Sini Band Show.

And his music, though, I've always liked. It's funny, I wrote about this on Toronto Mike.com today. The last time I saw Matt Good live in concert was in 1998 at the Molson Park in Barry. Oh, wow. He was on a side stage before the Pearl Jam Show I was there to see. And I thought he was great. I bought two of his CDs. I really liked the Matt Good band.

and when I was a lowly blogger before Toronto Mike.com was even a glint to my eye, I actually had an interview via email with Matt Good. He's one, either the first or the second rock star I ever interviewed, Matt Good. Oh, that's exciting. Wow, yeah. I think number one might have been custom who had the big hit, Hey, Mr. in 2002.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah. When I had Matt Good on the radio show at that time, whenever that was 2016 or something. His drummer at the time was Pat Stewart, who was in the odds. And Pat played on my records, all my records.

And he, but now he's with Brian Adams again. He used to be with Brian Adams. And when I asked him if I could get a ticket to go see Brian Adams a few years ago, he was like, no, really, and his brother's asking for tickets and so forth. But this time, recently he offered. He just reached out of the blue and he said, hey, I want you to come to the show.

which is nice. I feel really chuffed and I want to see Pat because actually I recorded Brian Adams a bunch of times. Wow. And I would love to see him in that, you know, in a big venue somewhere with Pat playing drums. Well, Brian Adams, of course, had a key part of tears are not enough. He certainly did. Written by his songwriting partner, Jim Valence. That's right.

We talked privately about before the recording. That's right. And I will have on Toronto Mike fairly soon, Bruce Colburn. And Bruce Colburn famously. on tiers are not enough, but not at the recording because he was in Germany. And Jim Valance flew to Germany to record Bruce's part and then flew that, I guess, whatever it was a real. Yeah. Whatever it was back in the mid-80s.

He flew that back to David Foster and the gang in Vancouver. That's amazing. Yeah. Bruce Corburn, lovely guy. All right. I'll say hi for you. Yeah. Say hi.

I'll ask him how many jitter songs he can name. I don't think he'll know jitter's songs, but we had dinner once. but we also hung out at other things and I was a guest at a couple of his shows and I don't know if he'll remember me, but I was impressed by what a kind and gentle guy he was. Thanks to Canada Kev, who we actually heard referenced in the Fergie Oliver clip I played,

Canada Kev gifted me two tickets to see Bruce Colburn at Massey Hall, and I actually went with the VP of Sales, and it was a magical night, and thank you, Canada Kev. That's lovely. Yeah, that's amazing. I don't know what they would have cost,

but Canada Kev, I don't know what's going on over there, but he said, Mike, here you go, award-winning podcaster. There you go. So, I want to say, speaking of podcasters, I want to say hello to Nick Aienes, because we recently had Karen Stintz

on Building Toronto Skyline, which is Nick's podcast. Karen Stintz also visited the basement since your last visit, and we had a pretty good deep-depth. I like it. See, Karen Stintz, she has to come to the basement,

and she has to deal with me for up to 90 minutes. You know, John Cleese, we can do 20 minutes from his home in London, England. That's the difference there. You get that okay. But there's going to be a live event. I'll have more detail soon,

but there will be a live event at the old mill where Nick Aienis is going to chat with Karen Stintz about her new book, which I'm just going to read the title again. It's called Beyond Good Enough. Karen Stintz is called Toronto and the Crisis of Urban Complacency. So I'll have more details on that because I will be producing this live event,

and this will be a live event that should not incur the wrath of the integrity commissioner. If you know, you know. Okay. So much love to Nick Aini's InfusionCorp, and much love to Recycle My Electronics.C.A. I actually had a chat with Cliff Hacking. Yesterday, he's going to come back for Earth month, October.

We're going to save this planet, damn it. Go to Recycle MyElectronics.com. If you have old electronics, old devices, old cables, I don't want you throwing that in the garbage. Those chemicals will end up in our landfill. Remember, recycle myelectronics. com.C.A., that's where you go. if you're in this wonderful country of Canada.

Sorry Jim Moore, it won't work in England. Just throwing it out there. Okay. I would like to play a song for you. Okay. And then talk about the artist, if you don't mind. Not at all. There's a lady who's sure.

All that glitters is gold. And she's buying a stairway to have... When she gets there, she knows. If the stores are... all closed with a word she can get what she came for. There's a sign, but she wants to be sure, because you know, sometimes words have to me. A tree by the brook. There's a songbird who sings sometimes all misguidate to.

Blair Packham, we lost a good one. Yeah. Yes, we did. please talk to me about Dolly Parton. I wish I had had the opportunity to meet Dolly Parton because I feel like she was a living saint. And to be in her presence, I think would have been very, very inspiring. You know, I can't do any better than all the memes that have followed her passing. But to say, you know, imagine being a, you know, multi-millionaire and being really sharp.

at business, being really good at business and, you know, dominate in that world and so forth, but actually be remembered for how good you are, for what a good person you are, and how you brought light into people's lives. And giving away big swaths of her fortune, you know, I mean, just, and not to mention that voice, that voice, I love her voice. And yeah, it makes me really sad. But, I mean, this is what I was talking about earlier. Everybody's retiring or dying.

And, yeah. I've never heard this. Yeah, this is, I didn't want to pull Jolene or, you know, I will always love you. This is a cover, of course, of Led Zeppelin. I think her superpower was how she never

declared a political allegiance. Like, so she doesn't alienate the Republican side of the American spectrum. Like she doesn't alienate, of course, she does not alienate the Democrat side of the spectrum. So, unlike most artists, like Bruce Springsteen, for example, right?

Maga hates him. Yeah. Because he's a lefty or whatever, and he supports the Democrats or whatever. But with Dolly Parton, she stood up for things that were right, you know, LGBTQ plus rights. She was in favor of things that shouldn't be controversial at all,

like giving books to children. Yeah. Why is that controversial? Why is that politicized, right? I know. And supporting communities of people of color. Right. You know, and like supporting them with millions of dollars,

reinvesting the money that she made from, I will always love you. Right. From the cover by Whitney Houston. Right. Right. You know, and doing it quietly. You know, we know about it because she died

and people are talking about that stuff now. But it's not like she did it, you know, as a performative kind of thing. The people who, you know, who need, there has to be an event in order to raise money for the philanthropist to give money. It's like, why don't you just give your money? Like, why do you have to have some kind of exclusive event that no one else can go to because it amuses you? You know, I don't know.

Again, the capitalist will be saying, how naive, Blair. Well, in a world of Elon's, be a dolly. Exactly. What a what a succinct way of saying what I'm rambling about. I stole that from social media. Well, it's a good one. It's a really good one. Yeah. So regardless of whether you like country music or what you did, I think you did like Dolly Parton. I think you appreciated her as an artist. But more importantly, you appreciated her as a genuine human being. And she'll be missed. Yeah. Genuine is the operative word. I mean, she was, you see any interview with her. She's being honest. Asked a question. she'll answer it. She doesn't tell her publicist,

we're not going to talk about that. You know, she doesn't shy away from stuff. You know, when you see these interviews with her, it's, oh, let's hear this. Yeah, that's so beautiful. I mean,

she was just, she was a breath of fresh air and in a world of artifice. And, you know, she talked about, her physical artifice, you know, she talked about that.

And she had fun with it. Oh, yeah, she joke about how her hair was fake, her breasts were, fake, you know. Yeah, her in all the makeup and everything, but, but she was so real. Right.

And, and yeah, it was amazing. Smart woman and she seemed to have a true empathy and she cared about people. And, you know, one thing that struck me was, you know, you can go find photos of her having, you know, a big smile meeting Jimmy Carter, for example. But after her passing, the president of the United States had an AI generated fake photo of her, you know, Dolly Parton walking with him. or, you know, Donald J. Trump.

You, the only photo you can find of Dolly Parton and Donald J. Trump is a fake AI generated piece of slop that Trump put on his social media. Yeah. And that says something right there. That says everything. That says everything later. He's a two-term president. He's pretty available to somebody like Dolly Parton.

And yet, that's a conscious decision by Dolly Parton. Yeah. Yeah. Now, okay, sidebar. Yeah. That track you played was, were there any? credits for the band? Well, I'd have to dig in. Okay, well, yeah, just...

An FOTM Hall of Famer sent it over, and I said, I'm playing that on Rewindor. It's beautiful. The Dobro playing. You know what a Dobro is? No. Okay, Dobro is a guitar-shaped instrument. So it's an acoustic guitar-shaped instrument, but you play it flat. You know, one could

say Jeff Healy-style, but you play it with a bar. It's based on the Hawaiian guitar, the slack key guitar. And Dobro stands for Dopera brothers, who were the original manufacturer. of such guitars. And they had resonator plates that made it louder.

Anyway, there's somebody playing the dobro on that song who's a genius. Because every time, there were about six licks and they were all perfect. Well, let's go to Discogs and see the credit on that.

Let's see if it was a guy named Jerry Douglas. Oh, I will. I'll get you wrong here. But anyway, the Dobro, fascinating instrument. It's like a pedal steel guitar, but it's acoustic. So it has a different sound,

but similar sort of vibe. It definitely sort of identifies the song as country. You know, as soon as you hear it, it's like, oh, that's country, because you hear the Dobro. Okay, so we will look into that right now. All right.

That's going to happen. But in our last segment of Rewindor, before we go take a photo by Toronto Tree, apparently the Dobro on this bluegrass cover, a stairway to heaven, is from the 2002 album by Dolly Parting called Halos and Horns, and Randy Coors, K-O-H-R-S, is attributed with playing that dobro.

Beautiful. Well, that's great. You're beautiful. Okay, let's, I mention off the top. Yeah. Brad Jones, who hosts Life's Undertaking, a TMDS production, and he, of course,

is the funeral director at Ridley Funeral Home, which is 14th in Lakeshore. We love Ridley Funeral Home. The last segment is sponsored by Ridley Funeral Home, because, Blair, if you have a couple more minutes here, I'd like to remember a few people,

like unsung heroes. So Dolly Pardon, well, one of these people is not unsung, actually. Two of these people are unsung heroes. I want to, significant people I'd like to recognize, okay? So

let's start with the person who's not an unsung hero because well-recognized his passing, very famous Canadian. We lost Lloyd Robertson. Oh, yes. Yeah. FOTM, Lloyd Robertson. Yeah. I listened back to his conversation with me when I learned he had passed and he was so

giving, I actually felt like, so it's sort of like if John Clee said you have 90 minutes. Right. Lloyd, I was, I mean, I started going everywhere. I'm like, I've, you know, let's talk. about Floyd Robertson on SCTV. Right. Let's talk about The Simpsons.

And did you inspire the newscaster on The Simpsons? We went everywhere. Right. He opened up talking about his time as a young man working at Sea Joy in Guelph. I believe he's called it Seyjoy. And he's from Stratford, but he was on Seyjoy in Guelth. This is the 50s, early 50s. And we talked about his origin story.

I listened to every syllable Lloyd Robertson uttered. It was quite a thorough walkthrough. We talked about Lisa LaFlam, being let go, and we talked about everything. I urge people to listen to Lloyd Robertson on Toronto mic, but I wanted to take a moment on Rewinder to recognize his passing. He was 92 years old,

and I don't think anyone who met the man, and I only had the 90 minutes on Zoom, but I don't think anyone who met the man had anything ill to say about him because he was always so kind and gentle and giving. That is a unanimous, So he's like the dolly pardon of Canadian news broadcasters. I would say universally loved, yeah, yeah.

I met him once and enjoyed it. He was nice and kind. I can't even remember where it was, actually. Might have been with my dad when I was a child when my dad was with CTV. But yeah, universally loved. Beautiful voice, just his voice and his enunciation. Yeah, you know. Caden's.

Yeah, spoke with authority in a beautiful way. Well, he hosted the national. Yes. And then he kind of, in like kind of a principle, he didn't like the union rules at CBC where he couldn't write. Yes. I think it was. He had to just be the guy who reads or whatever.

So in that almost like a protest there, he jumped ship and went to the competition where he was originally with Harvey Kirk, co-anchor of the CTV National News. And then, of course, when Kirk retired, it was all Lloyd Robertson until at the age of 77. He had 41 years between the two shows. was the national and then CTV national news. He, well, he left the news broadcast and he did some other work, I think, at W5, not W5, that was, yeah, maybe he did some work.

What is CTV? Oh, yeah, W5, it was W5. He did some work at W5 until 2016, but that's when Lisa LaFlam took over. And then, of course, we all know the controversy when Lisa LaFlam was let go. And now Omar Sacadena is the host of this program. but Lloyd Robertson passed away at 92. This was on August 4th. I never got to meet the man in the flesh,

but I think we would have dug each other. I think so. I like the guy. Okay. This is a name you would know if you were a diehard listener of Toronto Mike, and you listened to the episode that Peter Gross produced.

So Peter Gross came over, and he played clips of a city TV cameraman named Bill Atansov. And Bill Atanisov, at the age of 58, late one night or early one morning in the dark, he was filming for City TV. He was filming a story. And a drunk driver, I believe it was a drunk driver.

Annihriated driver ran into him. This is November 2010. And he had severe head trauma, a broken neck, a broken pelvis, two broken legs. He went blind. He was paralyzed from the neck down. it's amazing he survived, but his attitude is the story here. And you'll hear it in this conversation

that Peter Gross recorded with Bill de Tannesoff that was aired on Toronto, Mike. You'll hear far more. I posted, I reissued a tribute to Bill with people like, I don't know, Lauren Honickman talking or Howie and all the greats at Jim McKinney is Howie, by the way. But I just want to pay respects

because Bill Atanasov passed away on August. first at the age of 73. Any thoughts on that player? Oh, no, sorry. I thought you were going to play. I was going to play. No, I actually go listen to that episode. I wasn't aware of that story.

Well, you're not clued into the TMU then, which was a big deal here. I know. I'm sorry about that. Terrible story, but he had a great attitude. Yeah. And he survived and he, you know, he still followed his Boston Bruins.

He was a big fan of the Bruins. I won't hold that against him. But no longer with us. Yeah, I'm sorry. Bill of Tanisov. One more name you might not know, but let me find out. Do you know the name Perry Rosemond? No.

So Perry Rosemond came up in my conversation with John Biner for Toronto Mike. Oh, okay. He produced the first couple of seasons of Bizarre. Yes. Ed Conroy, FOTM Hall of Famer, tells us that he also created, this is his biggest claim to fame, believe it or not, bigger than Bizarre. He created King of Kensington. Oh, wow.

And he worked on shows that most Gen X, will know and love or even beyond Gen Xers for this one. The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, Sesame Street, Canada, and Fragle Rock. Wow, that is quite a resume. Yeah, he's like an unsung titan of Canadian television. And I thank Ed Conroy for shining more light on this. But one more recent detail I was reading is that he executive produced FOTM Allen Zweig when Jews were funny. I love that movie.

Yeah, he executive produced that, and that's one of his last major credits. but Perry Rosemond passed away at the age of 89. 89. And, you know, you'll read in a lot of places about the legend that was Lloyd Robertson, but you won't read very much about Bill LaTanisoff passing or Perry Roseman passing. And that's why I wanted to shine a light on those two gentlemen during this rewinder with Blair Packham. How did we do, Blair? Rewind.

I thought we did pretty. well, despite the fact that I didn't know those latter two names, but yeah. Most Canadians don't know those latter two names. So I will lump myself in with most Canadians. And I feel a little bad about my rants against capitalism. I'm imagining people saying, don't you like to get paid, don't you? You know, but that's not what we're talking about when we talk

about capitalism. But anyway. Sharon will send you some notes. She will, indeed, indeed. She'll say, you went there anyway about the old prostate. Hello to Moose Grumpy, by the way. who on the live stream when I said that I'm going to reach out to Sharon Taylor to get her back on Toronto Mike to talk about how she's helping out there at Jazz FM. What's her title again at Jazz FM? She's the managing director. Okay.

Well, I mentioned Ralph Ben Murgy in the basement next week, but we're going to get Sharon Taylor back in the basement to talk about that. And Moose Grumpy heard that and said, yes, more Sharon. Loved your visit last time. Sharon's so good. Yeah. We'll see what notes she has for me. Yeah. And hello to Chris Ward.

Yes. Not that Chris Ward, though. Oh, different Chris Ward? Yeah. Well, I'll say hi to him anyway. Yeah, you know, he's still a human being, Blair. All because he wasn't the first VJ. Yeah.

Or City Limit. You mentioned Paul Myers. Yeah. Mike Myers' first time on television being Wayne Campbell. Yes, was with... City Limits. Christopher Ward, right? So this is a different Chris Ward.

He's on the live stream. I want to say hi to Hey, Ref. Yeah. Can't wait to see you on September 28. Chris Ward, you too. and I mentioned Moose Grumpy, but C.J. is on the live stream. Nice.

Radio lady, maybe she had to go to work. Maybe she had to be a meeting. She actually probably had to have work to do. But we're going to see Leslie Taylor pretty soon. In an hour. Yeah, it's amazing. So live dot Toronto Mike in an hour. And I'll probably drop this, because she wants to be episode 1963 for her birth year.

And I'll probably drop it tomorrow morning. I'll drop this one with you right away, Blair Packham. All right. Thanks, as always, for making the trek from East York. every quarter and we'll do this again in three months, okay? All right.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,960 second show. Go to Toronto Mike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs and much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery,

Palma Pasta, Mikaiinis and Fusion Corp, Recycle My Electronics.com, Ridley Funeral Home, and for the last time for several months at least. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Insert your product or service or company here.

Reach out, Mike at Toronto Mike.com. Looking for another partner to fill that spot. See you all. I guess it's in an hour. Leslie Taylor's kicking out the jams for her birth year, 1963, and then tomorrow, Colin DeMello, from Global News. visits for a deep dive.

We got a lot to talk about with this Doug Ford thing and this U.S. Canada trade war. There's a lot to talk about with Colin de Mello. So see you all. Then.