Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rick Hodge: Toronto Mike'd #116

Episode Date: March 27, 2015

Mike chats with Rick Hodge about the Sunday Funnies, why he left Roger, Rick and Marilyn, what happened at EZ Rock and CFRB and we discuss the time I torpedoed him.

Welcome to episode 116 of Toronto Mike, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is long-time radio personality, Rick Hodge. Welcome, Hodge. Hey, thank you Toronto Mike. How you doing? Good. No, it's good to see you again. It's been a long time, right? Sure has.

Too long. Yeah. You got to feed some cats, right? Yeah, I got a bunch of cats. I got a little farm up north of Toronto, and I've got four in the house and eight in the barn, and they want their food. So I'm doing some quick math. That's 12 cats. Yeah. But there's a lot of space for these cats to live.

Yeah, the barn's huge. And in the summer, I let them out. They got a flap they can run in and out of. So they're good. Beautiful. Now, just looking at you, just make sure you don't wander too much from that microphone. This setup is good if you're right on the mic.

Otherwise, it's like you're in another room. Yes, teacher. Yes. But you teach, right? Yeah, I teach at Niagara College a couple of days a week. Because we just had a quick convo and I said, let's record this. But I was telling you about my work on words like button. Yeah. And I'm really strict with my kids about proper pronunciation. And like, it's not Saturday.

It's Saturday. It's not, you know what I mean? Yeah. And it's not February. It's February. And a lot of them get Toronto wrong. It's Saturday. It's not, you know what I mean? Yeah. And it's not February. It's February. And a lot of them get Toronto wrong. It's Toronto. Right. And as we were talking about, I watch Pardon the Interruption all the time. Yeah, it's great.

And I love the show. But you've got a couple of journalists who've been in the business forever, and they say wanna, gonna. So I don't know what's acceptable anymore. I really don't. I have the same, because I keep reminding myself, this is just a podcast. Like, this isn't being broadcast on the BBC or anything. So I always think maybe it's okay if I say D's instead of T's. Like, maybe this is just how I talk and we're all casual.

And you know what? And I think in certain formats, it's okay. I think, you know, like with your Q107s, The Edge, There are certain formats where you want to be. Like you don't need that enunciation, that diction. Exactly. You don't have to be CBC. Right. And there's nothing wrong with CBC.

I mean, I love it, but for the most part, their diction is absolutely spot on. Yes, it is, yes. So, I don't know. Are you just a normal person who talks like this, or do you want to be the big broadcaster? Right, and then, yeah, I'm with you. Uh,

you know, I got to thank you really quickly right off the bat that you, in a sense, you changed my life. Let me tell you how. I know you hear that every day, but, uh,

once we went to, you and I met at Tim Hortons once and I ordered a double, double, like an extra large, double, double coffee. And you looked me in the eye and said, you said,

that shit will kill you. That was, that's what you said. Okay. I haven't gone double, double since that was it. Like my double double well understand i have type 2 diabetes and i control it with diet and part of that diet is get rid of sugar yeah but also get rid of cream right right and that catches up with you you know and the doctor gave me the whole you know uh read

me the riot act about you know cholesterol and what cream can do to you and right what what sugar can do to you so and i that's one of the few people I've listened to in my life as a doctor. And I listen to you. See, that's how it works. But that was like six years ago. And I haven't – so that was the end of my double era. I go like very little, very little sugar and very little milk. I don't even do cream anymore.

It's funny you mention that because I have a co-worker who just said to me yesterday, as a matter of fact, that she stopped every morning at Tim's for a, what do you call it, a bagel. Bagel, yeah. I don't eat them, so a bagel. And I said, you know what? That stuff's going to kill you. She stops eating them now.

Yeah, see, you're an influential guy. A little heads up there. Be careful what you say. And we're going to get to this in a minute. I don't want to jump. I want to start with basically the year of my birth 1974 i want to talk about how you get on to chum fm but uh then i'm then i'm going to talk about a show you hosted that i listened to and this is like a little teaser now right this is when you teach your kids to do some teasers

oh yeah um that i listened to every sunday night and it had such a huge influence over my sense of humor and what I listened to. But first, please tell me, Rick Hodge, how did you, you've been at Chum FM, you were at Chum FM since 1974. Yeah, it was. And I just started writing copy for the news guys on the weekends.

And I had a friend who I knew in St. Catharines who was in radio, and he phoned me one day and he said, Hodge, there's an opening on the weekends you get and for four dollars an hour you work two 12-hour shifts and I said well I gotta jump into that that's huge money back then well back then it was pretty good money yeah and then uh Duff Roman I don't know if you remember that name no I do know that name okay Duff is one of I think the icons of radio in Toronto uh he's the guy who tried to put the Beatles together uh this on top of the CN Tower. He offered them a million dollars when a million dollars was a million dollars.

Right. Like Austin Powers, Dr. Evil. Exactly. But he was my program director. And he said to me, you know, I always thought that sports and rock music went hand in hand. And he said, we've never had a sportscaster on Chum FM. How would you like to give it a try? And boom, one morning I'm sitting there.

I look through the glass and there's Pete and Geetz. Wow. Yeah, this is Pete and Geetz, right? That's before Marsden brought him over to. That's right. Dave Mickey. But Marsden was still there. He was doing the evenings.

David Pritchard was doing. And these are guys. I actually said to a couple of them. I said, you know what? I've been listening to you since i was such and such a such such an age and i thought it was a compliment and then years later when someone said that you know i was listening to you when i was in grade seven yeah oh gee that's funny um then i won't finish my next sentence so uh we had david marzen was on the show yeah and he talked uh and i'm just remind me when he was at chum fm with you was he David Marsden or was he Dave Mickey?

No, he was David Marsden. Okay. So he had gone to Montreal and I guess he came back. He had that new persona. He had the long. The first time I met him, I walked into the lobby and he was dressed all in black. And it was like one of the. I had heard him.

Never seen him before. Right. And it was like, wow. Like this is way far out. And don't forget, the AM side, 1050, and the FM side were in the same building. So you'd cross paths with everybody,

and the AM side was so much different. So straight. All the jocks were very straight, and all the FM guys were just, wow, man. I'm walking down Yorkville Lab in 1968. Do you do impersonations? Can you do a Marsden impersonation? I cannot do those guys now. Who's just in?

Oh, Stafford. Mike Stafford was just here, and he does a very good impersonation of David Marsden. Yeah, he would have worked with all those guys, too, because they all went over to, well, see if he won. He worked on Pete and Gates. Mike Stafford did news for Pete and Gates. Yeah. When Pete and Gates were at CN Tower, and Mike was in Brampton doing news with Fred

Patterson. I remember, yeah. Who was doing sports. Well, Freddie left us to go there. Did he? Freddie was doing our weekends for Brian Henderson and myself, and we tried to convince him not to go. You keep in touch with Brian Henderson?

I get a lot of emails about what's happened. I know he's doing okay, but... Yeah, well, I actually was wondering one time, I got a hold of him and asked him if he would like to do some fill-in talk show stuff down in St. Catharines. And he said, quite honestly, I don't have it in me anymore. And not

that bombastic personality he had, but it was more physical. The commentary. Yeah, it was physical. That reminds me of, I watched this show called The Wire. Yeah, yeah. And just a character named Cuddy, and he goes up to Avon, the game ain't in me no more. Well, yeah.

It happens, right? It sure does. So you were at Chum FM, and there was a show. Now we're going to go back to, I'm going to say mid-80s when I was listening, but every Sunday night,

I tuned in to the Sunday Night Funnies on Chum FM, hosted by Rick Hodge. That was one of my great joys ever of anything I've ever done. Good, I got a million questions. Well, go. You ask. FM hosted by Rick Hodge. That was one of my great joys ever of anything I've ever done.

Good. I got a million questions. Well, go. You ask. First question, which is kind of a silly question, I guess, but was there a CanCon requirement for the comedy? No. Or was it just music that had CanCon? CanCon was always a problem with the spoken word.

It didn't affect spoken word. So we were okay. And so you could do two, three, four shows in a row. All American comics, all British comics. It didn't matter then. So that's almost like a good reason to have more kind of programming like that, right? Like it's sort of, or maybe I'm extrapolating too much. Back then we had rules

like spoken word, the amount of spoken word that was done on FM radio. And this was all specific to FM radio. AM didn't have a lot of those same regulations. So we had to have X number of spoken words. And right after the funnies was Theater of the Mind. Yeah, which was good too.

Theater of the Mind came on, and again, spoken word. Right, right. Which was, you know, the CRTC said you had to do it. So what you tried to do is make the best of what they considered at the time a bad situation. So tell me how you got involved with the Sunday Night Funnies. We'll start with that, and then I'll keep asking my questions. Okay, Gord Johnson was doing it, and he left. And at the time, I was doing a split shift, but they knocked it down,

so I started doing a recorded sports snorts, the sports commentary in the afternoon. So the boss came to me, and he said, well, you know, you're not doing as much as you used to do, and we need somebody to do the comedy show, so'd you like to do it and what i noticed was there wasn't a lot of material uh so we were playing the same stuff it was very repetitious i'd go down to sam's maybe every second week right and grab anything i could do and then it dawned on me i'm gonna go over to buffalo once a month and check out what they have so i'd go to three or

four record stores right and it was like oh my god there's a cornucopia of comedy stuff that I've never seen before. And I give you one example of Jeff Foxworthy. I found this guy, I found this in the comedy session, Jeff Foxworthy, never heard of him before. I give him a shot. Well, I put the CD on and I just, I busted, I just busted my gut. And so I played, I played the whole CD the following Sunday. About a week later, I get a call from Sam the Record Man that used to be down on Yonge Street. And I said, who the hell is Jeff Foxworthy? We've got a thousand orders on this thing

and we don't know where to find it. So it was just one of those. And that was the joy of finding Louis Black for the first time and comics like that. I can only imagine there were many, many GTA residents who basically relied on you to hear new comedy. You were like their gateway to people like Jeff Foxworthy. You could be right because that's what I would do, look for things that nobody had ever heard before. Or you might have heard of them.

You'd dive in the crates and do all the dirty work and then play it for us. But it was fun. One of the greatest compliments I got, though, was from a woman. We were doing some kind of promotion with her. And she said to me, you know, one of my great joys is my son's in his bed and I'm in my bed. And it's 10 after 10, and we're both laughing at exactly the same thing. And we know what we're laughing at. That's right. So it was kind of cool.

Yeah, I just remembered, before your show, that the dr demento show uh was dr demento was on one was on for a while yeah but i have a memory of like dr demento before you and then theater of the mind and i don't know if that's just my my mind playing tricks on me but uh because i remember dr demento i quite like too yeah we did a there. Right, and then it was you guys. So how much control did you have over what you played? Complete control? Complete control over who I played, but there were certain words that you couldn't use.

And the F-bomb being one of them. Gotcha. So the new program director that we had, this was near the tail end of the funnies, he came to me and said, you've got to get newer comics on and i said here's the problem with newer comics everybody drops the f bomb yeah and and so he went upstairs to talk to the big guy alan waters and he got the okay we can use the f bomb but they moved the show from 10 to 11 there you go we only got ever got one

complaint about it but now i've got now i can play, yeah, yeah. And I can play comics like that, which just were verboten before that. For sure. So that was pretty cool, but it didn't last long. That's interesting. Actually, my next question was about could you swear? Because I do have memories of swears, and then I was thinking,

can you really put your swearing on Chum FM on Sunday nights? And then, yeah, you just explained it. Yeah, and the real good comics could get their point across. They could talk about sex without being blatant about it. And so those are the ones I would play. But you get a guy like Chris Rock. Yeah, I know Jerry Seinfeld is a good example of a guy who basically decided he would always go clean.

Well, Seinfeld actually said, he said, if I'm dropping the F-bomb, I'm not doing my job. Because too many of them, what I found eventually was too many of them use the F-bomb as their punch not doing my job. Right. Because too many of them, what I found eventually was too many of them use that, the F-bomb, as their punchline. That's not a punchline. You're right, right, right. It's a shock factor. Sure.

And that gets tired quick, too. It can only pack a punch so long. Well, yeah. Although I do like a Louis Black's explanation. He did the, and then he did, he dropped the F-bomb. He said, you know why I do that? He said, I need time to think. You're laughing, you're in shock,

and I'm thinking about what my next line is going to be. Right. Yeah, yeah, good explanation. So tell me, who is your favorite comic of all time? Boy, Louis Black's up there. Rock is up there. I think the one I respect the most was probably George Carlin

because of what he did with the language. You introduced me to Carlin, by the way, and I thank you for that right now. Carlin, he just knew how to play with the language. And I think he influenced a lot of the younger comics. Seinfeld, though, is brilliant. I've always liked him. But yeah, I would think, yeah, Carlin. Because you don't have like a Louis C.K. without a Carlin.

There's a clear. I agree with that yeah yeah sort of the the sort of angry what disappointed me about carlin though is that as he got older he got angry i mean really angry and i saw him a couple of the last couple of times i saw him live uh he was just um he wasn't funny anymore he was lecturing me he wasn't he wasn't making me laugh he got bitter yeah and hezzard, too, the British comic. I love him. He can tell you the history

of the Roman Empire and make it funny. I've never seen a comic do that before. Excellent. So, thank you for Sunday Night Funnies. Thank you for listening. I try to keep it chronological because we'll get into this, but I was trying to find out did Sunday Night Funnies have a theme song?

Yes. Because the only episode I have, I'm hosting the Christmas episode, which I think it dives straight into like Bob and Doug McKenzie's 12 Days of Christmas. It may have. Yeah. And I don't know what year that would be from. 86, I think. 86. OK.

We we we had a theme song and I don don't know it was that predated me and then uh a local toronto band called big blue bus uh what they did is they stripped the um uh the lyrics from their song and we use that okay uh and it's um can you sing it can you sing it for me gonna be long no i can't you You know, I did, because I couldn't remember if it had a theme song. I was going to play it now, and then I had a, I said, oh, what do you mean?

I got an archived 1986 episode, but there's no theme song in there. And then I'm thinking. Yeah, we would have changed it for the Christmas show. Yeah, and I Googled mess out of this, and just there was nothing. So if you have the theme song somewhere, you got to email it to me.

I do, I do, I will. Good. In fact, it's on my computer. Okay, you're going to send that to me when you get back home. somewhere, you got to email it to me. I do. I do. I will. Good. In fact, it's on my computer. Okay. You're going to send that to me when you get back home. Right after you finish feeding those cats. Yes. Cats come first, always.

No, that's the way to go. Okay. Now, there's another show you were on, on Chum FM, a little-known show called Roger, Rick, and Marilyn. And this, if my notes are correct, this starts in 86. You know, you know it better than I do. I did a lot of homework here tell me please how did you end up on the morning show roger rick and marilyn uh well

actually i was on the morning show before that and um uh it started with peter griffin as a matter of fact uh when geats left uh peak wanted the newscaster uh tim lang and i he wanted us to hang out in the studio with him because he didn't want to fly solo. And, uh, and Peter told me more, uh, taught me more about radio than probably anybody else. Uh, and I remember the one day with Pete, um, I hit a payoff line, which I didn't know was a payoff line. I, you know, and we were all laughing and he went right to commercial. And I looked at him and said, Pete, like it's your show.

You need the last word. He said, no, the laugh gets the last beautiful it's the laugh like costanza says you got no way to get out yeah and and and so he taught me radios about sharing and then john rody came along he was another really bright guy uh and then they were they didn't have a um a morning guy they just didn't have one and roger ashby was doing weekends over on chum am on 10 50 right and they said and they said well why don't we try roger out so roger and i were doing and now we needed a female we wanted a female presence and they looked and they tried a few different people maryland parachuted in uh she had moved in from calgary so they tried her out boom and that worked and that's it it was a it was a fluke so basically basically just had, you had the right chemistry

and then you brand it and you go with it. Yeah, exactly. But we didn't know for the first year or so, we didn't know if this was going to work. Right. And Roger was one of the, still is one of the great DJs I've worked with. All you had to do was look at him.

And he knew and you knew. Okay, so I had an email conversation with Roger Ashby. I've never met the man because I've invited him on this show. And then I was thinking, is he the guy? Tell me if you think I'm right about this. The guy in the GTA who's been at the same station the longest and is still active. I would think now that would be right.

I can't think who else it could be. Do you have any clue when he started on Champa? Well, he was there when I got there. And I was there for 30 years, over 30 years. And I got to think, you know what? He may be coming up to 50 years. It's amazing, right? Same station.

I think he started, they brought him in from, I believe it was Kitchener when he was 19. Wow. And he's older than I am. So I'm doing the math here. He could be hitting 50 years. Because I don't think anyone comes close. I can't think of anyone who would come close who's still active. Still active.

You'd have to go back to Wally Crowder on CFRP to hit a number like that. That's quite the longevity we have there with Roger Ashby. And so the chemistry that we heard. Now, I've heard Pete and Geetz, for example. By the way, when you speak highly of Pete Griffin, Fred Patterson tells the same story that Pete Griffin taught him everything he needed to know about radio. He did. And when I was doing sports on, I had a boss named Dave Wright, who to me, like I grew up with him, right?

And he taught me something about radio, too. I'll just do this quickly. Yeah, sure. He said, A, when you go into an interview, only go with three questions and listen to what the person you're interviewing says. There's your interview because you have a conversation. You don't just fire questions. You react. Yeah. And secondly, he was the first one to say this to me.

You're in showbiz, kid. Don't take it seriously. Right. And you know what? But I thought radio was a serious thing then, right? No. Radio is show business. You're entertaining people.

That's what you're doing. Make them smile. That's right. Pete and Gates were on air. There was good chemistry. I've heard this from several people. They just weren't friends off the air. I've heard this from several people. You know what? I was kind of wet behind the ears back then. I can't comment on that. It's more to get to the point of you, Roger, and Marilyn. You've got to keep track of these names. Did you get along when the mic was turned off?

When the mic was turned off? Yeah. But for the most part, I did not socialize with either one of them. And a part of that had to do with I got out of downtown Toronto, moved out to the Burbs and then finally moved up north to a farm. So I kind of took myself out of the whole thing. Sure. And you spend enough time together at work you don't need to well yeah and it's not that i it's not that i didn't like them i just think too we we all live in our own different worlds i think roger maryland were probably always much closer than i was with either one of them it's just a personality thing the branding was uh kudos to the marketing department whoever branded this roger rick and maryland because to this day and we're gonna get into

this but uh a spoiler alert you're not actually there anymore but most people i know still call it roger rick and maryland yeah it's funny uh you like it like even down in saint catherine's where i'm doing some work now right uh people come up to me and point and go roger rick and maryland yep it just rolls off the tongue in the right order. Something about it and the ads were on TV quite a bit. The funny thing is, no offense, but I actually didn't listen to Roger Rick and Marilyn.

I know that show as if I listened and it's just you just absorb it like osmosis in the atmosphere. Roger Rick and Marilyn are on 104.5. Well, there was a very prominent rock station, and that's as far as I'm going to go with it, a rock station that approached the three of us one time

and said, they made a pitch. We want to bring you over to our station. And so we're talking about it, and the offer was very flattering. But right at the end, it started dawning on me. He said, you're going to change your format, right? And they said, well, why would we do that? And we kind of looked at each other because it was, Roger could have got away with it.

I'm okay with that. I think it was a little too heavy for Maryland. A lot of Led Zeppelin probably at this stage. You're right. And so we went and talked about it and we just thought, you know what? We don't think it's going to work. But they said to us, they did all the research and they said, Roger, Rick and Marilyn, wow, everybody knows who you are. They may not listen to you like you, but they know who you are.

There's a big high name recognition factor, which is half the battle right there. That's exactly, yes, you're more than exactly right. half the battle right there that's exactly yes you're more than exactly right uh well that's an interesting story because i was just just had a conversation about another morning guy uh dean blundell who had a successful like well targeting young men with rock music basically and they take that guy and they put him on a all sports channel and there's this discussion is basically would that audience follow him like because and i just it's interesting to think of a roger rick and maryland listener who might be enjoying the celine dion tune might might hear you know a lot of uh like i said a lot of led zeppelin suddenly you just there's no you know

yes you come for roger rick and maryland but you're still playing music like it's just interesting to think whether an audience would follow two different genres. Well, yeah, but let me ask you the question. Why didn't you listen to Chum FM at the time? I had Tom Rivers on 680, and then I moved to Humble and Fred. There you go. But was it music or was it the people? No, I'll be very honest. Sure. It was the music that made me.

I like the people with the music, and when this morning show, Humble and Fred, went to a talk format on AM, I did not follow. I missed the music. And when this morning show, Humble and Fred, went to a talk format on AM, I did not follow. I missed the music. I enjoyed my Pearl Jam, etc. Yeah, exactly. And that's it. Music brings you in. We, the broadcasters, embellish the music. That's all we do. Right, exactly. The perfect marriage to me is that when you have that personality you like with the music you like, and you have that personality you like with the music you like and you get that together, now you've got a station.

And when you do that, it's magic. And I think it's worth the Q107. And don't fuck with that, right, when you get that. Ever. Ever. But they do. They do. Well, that's a good segue, but actually I'm going to detour us

because I want to talk for just a couple of minutes about a show called Ringside. Okay? Because I watched Ringside. Isn't that crazy? This was for people who don't know, and I bet you a lot of people aren a show called Ringside. Because I watched Ringside. Isn't that crazy? This was for people who don't know, and I bet you a lot of people aren't familiar with Ringside. It was you and Gord, tell me if I'm right, you and Gord Stelic covering

OHL. No, it was AHL. It was AHL, right? I screwed it up already. And these guys were easy to get interviews from because nobody ever interviewed them, right? So we had a lot of fun with that. But it was a low- low budget show and uh gordon was good uh jim ralph uh who is now uh working with uh bonesy right uh with on the radio play-by-play of the lease he got his start there too uh and some great stories out of him uh but yeah, it was an interesting little show. So where did it broadcast?

Remind me. TSN. TSN. I think Global picked it up for a year or two. But yeah, it was TSN, done out of a little studio and then eventually a big studio out in Mississauga. And it was just one of these ideas that popped into somebody's head and they got a call one day

and we went with it. Cool. It's funny you mention that about AHL players, easy interviews and stuff. I once made a call to the Marlies PR department because I was a big fan of Justin Pogge. Okay. So Justin Pogge, future Maple Leaf great goaltender. Oh, yeah. He was a great junior player.

We'll trade you to Rask. You know, maybe that, you know, that world junior defense was better than we thought, but he had a great junior player. We'll trade Tuka Rask. You know, maybe that world junior defense was better than we thought, but he had a really good junior tournament, and he was Leaf property. And yeah, trade Tuka Rask for Raycroft, because we have Justin Pogge coming down. And I was a big fan, and I made a call to the PR, and I'm like, I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com. I'd like to meet Justin Pogge. This was my call.

Yes, can you be here at 2 p.m PM and I'll arrange a one-on-one. And so I blogger Toronto, Mike, and now at the Rico Coliseum, having a one-on-one chat with Justin Pogge, just, I tried doing that. Like if I tried to do that with Phil Kessel,

you can forget about it. You're never going to get close to him. I just remember that. And I kind of, I now wonder if I jinxed him or something, you know, because it was all downhill from that meeting. He was a great guy, nice guy, but that was it.

So you're going to take the hit. I'll take the hit. So you took a generation of goaltending away from the Maple Leafs. Yeah, Ray Croft was, yeah. Holy smoke. By the way, is that the worst trade in Toronto Maple Leaf history, the Tukarask? It's a tough competition.

It's got to be up there with one of them, yeah. I can't think of a worse one. I mean, we almost traded Curvers for Lindros, but we didn't know who was Lindros. To me, when you trade for a draft pick, that's different to me, because you don't know what's going to be a first overall or a second overall.

I think it ended up being Niedermeyer, though. So it wasn't like we traded Curvers for Niedermeyer. You know what, though? It's different. I think in retrospect, and it took a couple of years for it to wash out, I think the two first-rounders for Kessel, the two first-rounders and a second for Kessel may have been the worst trade I can remember.

But at least, prior to this season, at least Kessel was a top-five goal scorer in the NHL. You know, if you want to talk about the Leafs for a second, here's something that makes me absolutely insane. You've got Matt Sundin, one of the premier centers that the team has ever had, Hall of Famer, and no wingers. Okay? Now you've got wingers.

You've got Kessel and no center. How does a team do this? It's true. What is going through your head when I'm paying my top scorer $8 million a year, but I don't have a center for him? No, you're absolutely right. And it's funny because the Mastodoniers, you'd see guys like Jonas Hoagland, for example,

would be the prime winger on Mastodoniers. And you'd be like shaking your head. But you're right. Now, yeah, now we have a lack of centers. We have Bozak now. By the way, that line, and I just read an article about this because this is a very unusual decline for a line

because for all its wards, the JVR Kessel, here we are in hockey talkarts, the JVR Kessel, here we are in hockey talk, but the JVR Kessel Bozak line for years was an excellent line. I'm not saying it's the first line of a Stanley Cup contender, but it was a productive line. And it literally fell off a cliff.

So either they stopped giving a shit or they forgot how to play hockey. No, they didn't forget how to play hockey. No, they don't. They're junk now. But they forgot how to play hockey. No, they didn't forget how to play hockey. No, they don't. They're junk now. They've been junk since December. But do they want to be here? Something's going on.

Yeah, exactly. Something's going on, and I think we all know what it is. And that's our rink side for today. Now I'm going to take us all back to You're at Chum FM, Roger, Rick, and Marilyn. Successful morning trio. And I'm going to get very serious for a minute, Rick. There's Kleenex. If I need to get you Kleenex, just tap your head.

Am I sniffing? No, you might be crying in a minute. This is the Oprah part of the interview. Not much radio makes me cry. Oh, okay. Well, that's no fun. But on June 23, 2008, you resigned from Chum FM and 1050 Chum. And you, as I remember at the time, you were seduced by Astral.

Is that a fair way to say it? I think there's more to it than that. And there's more to it from the Chum side. Tell me. Oh, boy. Tell us, please. It was an interesting contract that i was offered and basically it was three years and then you're out the door type of contract and uh the the

interesting part was after every time the contract was coming up again it would be two years in and they say we want to sign you to an extension we want to sign you to an extension but there was always this feeling like i think at the time when they took away the sports cast they took away the commentaries they took away the comedy show and it was kind of like well what are we going to do with hodge do we really need hodge and and uh one of the uh my former program director turned out to be a VP over at Astral. And we were talking one day, and he said, well, you know, like, did you miss all that stuff?

Yeah, I want to do the sports again, and I want to do the comedy show again. And he said, have I got a deal for you. If you come over to Astral, we'll let you do all of that stuff. So it's an offer he couldn't refuse, but it wasn't just that there was this Astral seduction, as I call it, but there was also a sense that maybe you weren't as, you know, utilized as you used to on the old show. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's like a perfect storm of like maybe now it's time to do something different.

And that's exactly. And somebody asked me not long ago, you know, do you regret leaving? Well, that's a good question. And no, I don't regret leaving. But quite honestly, I regret where I went. question and no i don't regret leaving but uh quite honestly i regret where i went uh and the interesting thing about that was there were four four people who were in on the hiring and we were sitting in a room one day and i was looking at each of them and one was my my former boss who is now a vp and uh um within a year one had retired and the other three had been fired they were gone right and i and i'm

thinking i got a target on my back now because they were i mean you can see their guy or whatever well you could see they were chopping salary right and and what i what i what i saw was that about every three months or four months people were being let go in ottawa or vancouver or wherever right sure and and there was a tension that I had certainly never felt a chump. There was never that, never that kind of tension, but yeah, it got, it got odd. And then one day I got the, the brown envelope saying, you know, well, So it's a brown envelope and inside is a pink slip. Is that how it is?

And it's funny because, because the because the new vice president at the time, I bumped into him at the Canadian Music Awards about maybe six months later. And so he said, I need to talk to you. And okay, you're going to give me the, well, we're sorry we had to do this. He said it had nothing to do with what you were doing. It had to do with how much you were making. He said we had to cut.

Your name came up. you were doing right it had had to do with how much you were making he said we had to cut your name came up yeah uh i would imagine to to to get you to leave a show like roger rick of maryland where you've been since 86 like to to seduce you so it's maybe three times now i like that word but to to get you to come to to uh let's be specific here to easy rock and cfrb 10 10 yeah to get you to come there it's going to cost money so they're going to have to pay to get rock and cfrb yeah 10 10 yeah to get you to come there it's going to cost money so they're going to have to pay to get you and then you then then you become a guy with a target simply for making too many dollars it sounds uh pretty damn unfair actually well yeah but that's that's business see this was the changing nature of the business uh that that we we and and roger maryland

i think would agree with this you weren't accustomed to the waters family didn't think i don't think like that um but when you start dealing with more corporate sure you know like it's it's more of a bottom line thing right and i get it yeah i do i do understand that but it's it's still you know it's uh you know i gave up a career here to come here and 18 months later boom you don't want me anymore. And you had a guaranteed contract or is that how these work? I hear like radio people get like this, for example, I don't know, five years or something.

And they have to pay you. No, actually, because that was one of the hard, that was one of the points we had trouble with, with the contract. So what I agreed to was a bonus to sign in lieu of a guaranteed contract. Okay, money up front, like an NFL player. Exactly. I wish I had done it the other way around, I'll tell you that.

Right, right. Right, okay. So you were at Easy Rock. You were part of a – and I'm going to – I have an interesting perspective on this because do you remember the day I sat in and watched Easy Rock? Yes, I do. Was that the best day of your life to see me across the table from you? Well, not after you torpedoed me. Okay, let's talk about that.

Yeah, let's do. Let's talk about this. Okay, so I'm in the... Howard invited me, Howard Glassman. It was Howard, Colleen Rusholm, Kim Stockwood, and yourself. So, four-person team, which is actually a pretty big team. I don't know if we have teams that big.

Actually, it's too many in a room. Lots of voices. You don't have a lot of time to talk, right? Because there's lots of music. And when you've got your go-to person, like Howard was the go-to person. And he's got to be the dominant figure in the room, obviously. So now you've got to squeeze three other people in. That's pretty tough.

It's tough to squeeze. Yeah, a three person booth is pretty big for that. Sure it is. And you were split. Okay, and you were split duties, so you'd be part of this four-person team on Easy Rock, but literally down the hall, and I've seen the hall, and I've been there. Down the hall, they're recording CFRB 1010, and you're appearing on that as well.

Yeah, I'm doing sports, plus I'm sitting in on some of the breaks. It was Bill Carroll at the time. Bill Carroll, right, now in L. at the time. Bill Carroll, right now, uh, in LA now, uh, enjoy the big bucks. He's on a two six forties. I think there's a six 40 KF. I can't,

I don't know. Anyways. Yeah. He's done. All right. From, do you remember test pattern with, uh,

Gallagher, uh, uh, Dan Gallagher. Anyway, Dan Gallagher had a, he did. Yeah.

There's a little bit tangents. I won't drag you down here too much, but he was on that show, believe it or not, but that was an old Much Music game show called Test Pattern, but okay. So I was there to live blog the morning show, and this is Easy Rock. And so I'm literally like updating my page.

This is before Twitter. So it's like I'm updating my page every 10 minutes with observations and fun facts and things I'm learning or whatever. I even get on the mic. So, okay. No, go ahead. You used the word torpedoes.

I'm going to tell it exactly how I remember. I remember, yeah, you came down the hall and then there was a bit and I remember it being Jimmy Fallon's like every song in the 80s sounds like something. Can't touch this. Right. Yeah.

So he would, and you played the bit and I remember that it was, I won't, you know, in the room, it seemed awkward that nobody really knew what to do with the bit. And the bit kind of didn't work the way it was supposed to. It didn't even come close to working.

Right, right, right. I've never seen him by the way. This is the first time I've ever sat in on a real morning show, which is an interesting point. So I've never seen this all before. And I may,

I, I shared like details of what I witnessed because there was an interesting moment where you threw up your hands and said something and then you stormed out of the room. Yeah. Now, can I explain? Please. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know.

The setup was for Colleen's 80s show on the weekend. Right. That's what I was trying to do. And the bit would have taken over a minute. I think it was about 70 seconds. Nobody had ever told me they had a 45 second rule for running clips. I didn't know that. Okay. So I handed it to them. It's important detail, by the way. Yeah, it is because what it did, it sliced out the last half, which would have been the perfect setup for Colleen. So in absolute frustration, right?

What the hell happened here? You know, and yeah, I got mad. Right. However. Yes. No, no, please. By the way, real quick. This is not Easy Rock, as I remember.

This is Boom, right? We had rebranded. No, it hadn't been Boom. It's still Easy Rock. It wasn't Boom yet. Okay. Yeah. Sorry.

So you caught me only the second time in my entire career I've ever lost it. Which is amazing. Yeah. Ashby and I got into it one day at Chum once. That was it. And that time. And I swear to God, the only two times I ever got pissed off. I believe you.

But you happen to be in the room. So this is just terrible luck. So I'm in the room, the embedded journalist, if you will. And I thought you all knew I was there. And I guess, so should I have, this is what I had been asking myself at the time, because should I have not? Like, to me, you didn't slug somebody. Oh, no, no. It wasn't like you, suddenly you started saying like terrible, like things that were, so I felt like it was fair game to share what I witnessed.

Was you frustrated over a bit falling down and storming up? No, you know. But should I have not? like terrible, like things that were like, so I felt like it was fair game to share what I witnessed was, was you frustrated over a bit falling down and storming? No, you know, and it was, should I have not? No, because these things do happen in, in, in studios. And I think I tried to explain, I don't, I don't know if I tried to explain to you, but, but I did explain in some format that I saw this on a daily basis on RB and the meetings were like, what the hell is going on here? Like they were screaming matches.

Royal rumble in the, in the meetings. Right. And so I think that that was part of the frustration when I read what you, what you were at said was that, you know, Hey, you know, like this is, that's a rarity. You ought to see it when it's common, everyday stuff. And it was common everyday stuff on the AM side. So, yeah. And so I got a little upset. So I first of all, and I've told you this, we've since then we've patched it up. So it's like this is that Tim Hortons instance when you got me to quit the double double. That's after this instance. No, in retrospect, I'm cool with what you say, because what to me, you're a reporter.

You kind of serve a blogger, but, you know, you're reporting on what you see. Fair game. I get it. And I was told by people and I tried to make this name whenever this topic comes up. I, you know, I did come up in the Colleen Rush home episode, I think we alluded to this. Yeah. And everyone to a T will say, like, that's not typical Rick. Like this was a unique moment where Rick lost his cool. And I, of course I didn't know that,

but if I, since then we've had lots of conversations and I can tell that I, at least I caught you on a bad day. Well, yeah, a bad day, but also one of the things that bothers me about, about radio is when,

and it wasn't me. I don't think so much that got embarrassed but i was and i think colleen got embarrassed because i was setting her up and you embarrassed the radio stick not you but the radio station gets embarrassed and all it was was lack of communications right you know tell if somebody had said this is all the time you have i would have found something different now i know whose fault this is. It's Andy Wilson's fault. No, it wasn't Andy's. It wasn't Andy's either. Oh, come on.

No, but it's – Andy's a good guy. You can take it. No, but I think the fault here is sometimes you have to look at – like why do we have – if you've got something good, why does it have to be 45 seconds? Right. You know, like – It's so rigid. Like why not have a little –

And quite honestly, where I came from, that 70 seconds would have been okay. And so I'm just assuming everybody does it this way. Well, no, everybody doesn't do it that way. I mean, different stations, different rules, different program directors. Anyway, do you forgive me? No, I should be asking you because you're the one who told me I torpedoed you. That's terrible, the torpedo, the great Rick Hodge. You entertain me every Sunday night.

Come on, Roger, Rick and Marilyn. Come on. Okay. So I am sorry that if I embarrassed you, I am sorry, but I'm glad we patched it up. Well, actually, and two, it happened. I think you wrote that. Yeah. Just after I was let go.

Okay. So maybe, you know what? So that was maybe okay you know what so that was a double zinger like that was a tough one i think i held on to it out of respect for you because i didn't want to embarrass you and then i think when you were no longer at the station i felt i would share it as like an anecdote and then that's sort of like uh kicking you when you're down that's what you're telling me you know what yeah and it was tough enough uh that was probably the toughest two-year period uh that I ever went through. After I was let go and then my marriage broke up and then I had to sell my house.

And so it's just like – and then I see this and go, oh, jeez. No, you know what? I feel shitty now. You're right. No, but don't feel – Yeah, but your man has been let go. Let's not air the dirty laundry at that time. Yeah, but you can't – no, because all you're doing is reporting what you saw.

And I get it. So it's nobody's fault.'s just happenstance well i'm sorry anyway come on this i'm trying to get i'm trying to get the oprah moment here but i am but you're not gonna no but it's but you know what yeah you just smiled it's cool okay very cool and i'm gonna now share with you what i think so you're at uh astral and you're doing the Easy Rock and then you're doing the N10. Some teaching in Niagara, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Because we're still there. And then basically what I think, I don't think Astral ever knew what to do with you.

Like, I think that you running down the hall and trying to do the CFRB thing and do this four-person booth. Like, to me, I don't think you had a fair shot is my observation as a radio listener. I don't think you had a fair shot is my my observation as a radio listener i don't think you had a fair shot at at the astral stations uh boy yeah you know what you you you could be right about that um i took it on i found it uh um you know what a very very smart lawyer once said to me better the devil you know. And when you walk into a situation where management thinks differently and the working conditions are different and the hours are different and you're there for a bit and you're thinking, did I do the right thing here? Like, am I in the right place? And I think there was just so many things that were foreign to me there and the way things operated. And so, yeah. so many things that were foreign to me there uh and and the way things operated and um uh it so

yeah yeah um it just it's almost like they didn't know they had suddenly they wanted rick hodge they get rick hodge and then they don't know what to do yeah exactly well yeah uh i think there may be something to that i think i was miscast on talk radio um because because most of all the breaks that roger roger and erlin and i ever did we were having fun with them everyone you'd be serious once in a while but for most part it's you know like the absurdities of life right right and that's what you deal with or uh you know it's mornings and people want to feel good about the day and just have fun and then i had never worked serious radio right i mean really like and and we're talking about you know planes going down

we're talking about you know like let's impeach a politician. What? What are we doing here? Right. Do you have any resentment towards Astral for this incident? No. You know what? If I had been the only one, I probably would have.

But I saw, you know, Paul and Carol Mott were let go and Steve Couch was let go. You know, there were a lot of what i consider top-notch talent how dare you let go the moths okay come on i like the moths you know what so do i they have a podcast now by the way yes uh and i i worked with them a few times when bill carroll was off and they just get radio like Like they have a feel for radio and what they, and they're very good at, you know, like you're in the room,

then you're part of the show and we want you to talk. And, and I just, there was a warm feeling when they were, when they were doing their show. And I know they're not everybody's cup of tea, but still, I think they just sort of understood.

But there were interesting personalities that people enjoyed and they were. Yeah. Yeah. And Paul was so funny because, you know, like, like he's this real hard ass guy on the air, right? yeah. And Paul was so funny because, you know, like he's this real hard-ass guy on the air, right? He's not.

He's a good, you know, he's a good softie. That's funny. Let's talk about something more positive. So, yes, you were let go from the Astral deal. And then at some point, though, you have landed on your feet because you're on 105.7 Easy Rock with Lori Love. Yes. So tell me how this came about and how that's going. I think what happened was the fellow who got me, the former chum executive, who became an astral executive who was let go,

and then I was let go about six months later, had the guilts. He owed you. Well, he said, I kind of feel bad that i got you over here sure and uh and then and then you're gone in uh in a year and a half so he talked to um uh the general manager down in saint catherine's or niagara and they say we know like have you got a place for hodge and he said well let me think about it so we had lunch and he said you want to do talk radio no no i don't no more talk more. I can't do that. And so we kicked some stuff around.

And then he juggled some lineups. And he said, well, how would you like to do the morning show on Easy Rock? Right. And St. Catherine said, well, we'll give it a try. I met with Lori. We sat down, had lunch, sort of knocked a few things around. And I guess about three, four weeks later, I walked in. And I've been there for, I guess, it'll be three years in August. Wow, that's great.

Yeah. And the chemistry's good with Lori? Chemistry's good. What I actually... And really, if it wasn't, would you tell me? Because, come on, you've got to go to work with her on Monday. Well, May Potts and I talked years ago about what if we did a show where the woman was the focal point rather than roger being the focal point or howard being the focal point what if may pots was the

focal point and there was a sidekick and that was you know that was me of course right so so i'll play the dummy and you do you know you be the straight but what i loved about may of course is one minute she could be the most brilliant person in the world and the next minute she could be the the dumb blonde and she can she can do either uh so she's and she's a great broadcaster so we kicked around that so here's an opportunity where laurie has a really strong personality on and off the air i don't have that kind of personality so i thought this is what i've always wanted to do the strong strong woman out front in that form. It has to be in the right format. You couldn't do it on cue. You know, I don't think, I don't think you could do it on the edge. Do you think that they're doing that on CAGFI right now? Don't you think that's Aaron's the focal and then Mike's

the... 100%. That's exactly it. And that's the only other example I can think of off the top of my head. You're absolutely right. Yeah. In this area, I can't think of another one. But I think it's a good format if your target demo is women. Give women a strong woman to look up to who's not playing the little cutie pie beside the hard, tough jock type of guy. And I kind of like that.

And actually, we've done actually we've done very well uh ratings wise so because easy rock uh as we remember when we had one before it became boom but easy rock targets woman this is uh you know you'll take the men listeners but it's the woman that you're targeting for advertising absolutely it's like uh i think it's 24 24 to 54 that's the right target demo and's really, and it's really working so far. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I like the way, uh, I like the way things have worked down there. Is that, so that's Niagara Falls or is that St. Catherine's? St. Catherine's, but it's, it's branded Niagara, uh, because that's basically what you are. You're

from Grimsby to Niagara Falls to Fort Erie to St. Catherine's. And, and so that's your range. Yeah. Uh, just, just sitting in that same seat uh two weeks ago with jason barr oh yeah and he mentioned uh he sees you all the time because it's the same building right yeah and uh and and they do the same thing although i think hits fm is it's kind of unique in that they can probably go into hamilton and farther But I'll tell you something. We get texts and phone calls from Markham, Oshawa, Guelph, Brampton, all the time we've got people calling in. So, you know, we're reaching people that we weren't expecting to reach. Yeah, very interesting.

And so who owns the Easy Rock moniker? So I have a question about branding and stuff. So does Easy Rock, I know they have the branding now. They are at 105.7. But, of course, they used to be at 97.7, which is now like a new cap, I think. New cap owns 97.7. Do you have any idea about how that licensing works? I think what happens is you'll come up.

There's Bob FM. I can't remember come up – there's Bob FM. Right. I can't remember what company came up with Bob FM, and there was Jack FM, whatever. So what you do is you take out the rights to that name. Right. So Easy Rock was taken out, I would think, by the Slates because it was Easy Rock when the Slates owned it. Sure, yeah. Or maybe even before.

But when you buy something, you can also buy them like if if i sell you easy rock in saint catherine's right do you want to rebrand that station or do you want to buy the name chances are good you'll want to keep the name right because that's what your audience is is used to and does that name come with john tesh or is he a separate uh john tesh is gone is he gone you know that's all i remember about easy rock actually john john t gone? You know, that's what I remember about Easy Rock, actually. John Tesher's left the building. That's too bad. Poor John. What's he going to do now?

Oh, he'll make his money. He's no tag days. All right. So, yeah, no, great on the Easy Rock of Lori Love. But now Lori's got to switch. You've got to rebrand it Lori Love and Rick Hodge. I think Lori's name's got to go first. You know, and I agree with that.

But I think it's why they. But you know why. I can tell you right now. You're the name. We talked about Roger, Rick, and I agree with that. But I think it's why they were. But you know why? I can tell you now. You're the name. We talked about Roger, Rick, and Marilyn, everyone knowing the name. You're the name brand in the duo, so your name's going first.

Yeah, but I think what's happening, and I'm watching this, Lori is getting a lot of the attention. And that's the way I think it should be, right? Sure. So she is the front person. Somebody needs an em an MC for something, get Lori,

you know? And, and, and a lot of them are women or female oriented events. And, and I think that it's absolutely right. And she's up for that stuff. I'm not a good public speaker.

I don't like going out and doing that stuff. And, and she does it really well. So more power to her. And did you resurrect recently? The Sunday Funnies? Or is that gone now? You can tell by your reaction. 6-10, right?

Yeah, 6-10. But the all-comedy station in Hamilton, they do comedy 24 hours a day. But what they wanted was some local presence. So we started putting together a one-hour show that ran twice a week. But when Bell bought out Astro, they did some research on it and said, well, you know what? We're playing this in London and we're playing this in Hamilton, but it's coming out of Niagara.

That's not local programming. So they said maybe it's time we shut this down. Bell squashed it. When I was looking for that theme song for the Sunday Funnies, I came across some press releases talking about the new Sunday Funnies on 610. Now, it was a couple years ago, I think. But I didn't know if it was still active or not. No, and I think they've got two shows in the bank,

and I think they carry the Niagara Ice Dogs game. And I think when the Niagara Reichstag scheme runs short, they stick it. Okay, there you go. They might kill a half hour or so. That's funny. We worked,

what happened to your blog? You had a, I think we called it the Hodge blog. Yeah. But we just, you just, because you set me up on that.

Yeah. And then you just didn't maintain it or you just let it go, I guess, because at some point that I don't, I think at some point

it disappeared. Like the domain name expired. Tell me the truth. My dad died. Oh, no. It just sucked the life out of me. Because it came at the tail end of the other things, you know, losing your job, marriage breaking up, losing your house. No, you had

a rough run, man. And then six months later, my dad goes. And I just, I went home one day and I used to write them outside all of i and i loved writing them sure and i just thought i don't want to do this yeah i've got nothing left to say my dad's gone uh and it just sort of i don't know something something happened something sort of snapped well that explains it yeah it was as if some it was as if you just didn't feel like doing that anymore and I didn't.

And you were really good at it, which, so from like a fan's perspective, I'm very disappointed. But I always wondered whether you just, maybe you got another gig and the radio station didn't want you to have it or something. But your dad passed away and it just took the energy out of it. It did, yeah. And mentally you're saying to yourself, what possibly can happen next? Well, here, let's recap. So you lose your job. Yeah.

You lose your marriage. Yeah. And I feel for you there, too. That happened to me, too, by the way. Well, my condolences. Around the same time, actually. Maybe it's your fault, actually. Maybe we were jinxed by that damn Jimmy Fallon bit.

So you lose your job, you lose your marriage, and then you lose your dad. I lost my – but in between, I lost my dream house. It was like this big... Oh, near Barrie. South of Barrie. Big barn board house that I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on redoing. And then, boom, gone. And then, yeah, six months after that, my dad's gone.

And it was just like the worst two two two and a half years of my life absolutely would you bounce back here now you're on the upswing well yeah you know what i'm hoping it's yes yeah but but it feels a lot better uh i'm able to stay with my mom uh which is good uh through the week um and and i come back to the farm up north uh so you have a farm again a different oh yeah yeah okay okay And that's where the cats are. All my cats are there. But you work in St. Catharines, and your mom's near there? My mom lives there.

I grew up there. Okay, you're a St. Catharines guy. Yeah. Okay, perfect. So it was like going home. Oh, that's perfect. And it's amazing when I got back there. And I just looked.

You know on Facebook, you've got the thing, Home Down, like friends? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went through it the other day, and I went, what? They're all from St. Catharines no this is that's actually ideal so you get to work and then you can spend time with your mom during the week exactly what you go because it's a friday right now so you're basically i'm keeping you from the farm right now it's okay you're very close to the

gardener though and then yeah i guess cats can take care of themselves they're pretty cool oh i'm sorry man do you want one? No. Two? I don't want any. No cats at all. I've never been a cat guy, but no, I can't take one off. It was a nice try, though. Don't talk to my wife.

She might want one, so you can't talk to her about it. One more. This is a question. You have no control over this, I don't believe, but I wanted to go to your Wikipedia page, okay? I didn't even know I had one. Right. This is where I'm going with this. I find it helpful to go to the Wikipedia page just okay? I didn't even know I had one. Right. This is where I'm going with this.

I find it helpful to go to the Wikipedia page just to make sure I got my dates right. Like, when did he start at Chum, whatever. I'm going to Rick Hodge's Wikipedia page. It does not exist. Yeah. So my question for the community out there and the nerds and the Wikipedia updaters

and everybody is, like, if you're not worthy of a Wikipedia page, who is? there's so many lesser than rick hodge folks out there with a wikipedia page you should have a wikipedia page see i disagree tell me why because all i i talk on the radio five days a week in public you're in people's bedrooms you're in their homes their cars here's what one of the one of the major reasons i moved north okay i lived downtown toronto for a long time i got remarried uh and then i moved to the suburbs i'm sitting in a restaurant um one time and um i get this guy comes up to me while i'm having

dinner with my then wife and he actually starts poking me in the shoulder. And he said, can we talk hockey? Wow. We'll just go back to the bar and I'll, I'll, uh, I'll come and talk to you. But when I finished dinner,

he wouldn't leave. And what I found was it was the, um, the billboards and the TV commercials. They feel they know. And it's strict, but we'll see when I started with, with Peter,

uh, Pete and Keats, right. We were anonymous. Nobody knew what know you. And it's strict. But we'll see, when I started with Peter, Pete and Keats, we were anonymous. Nobody knew what we looked like. Right, right. And that was the beauty of it. And all of a sudden, everybody knows who we are. Right.

And I felt really uncomfortable with that. And so, like to me, Wikipedia pages for what? For a guy that talks on the radio. I mean, whoop-dee. Well, that's great. Like, I understand

your approach there, except for a fan, you're a public figure. Like, you just are. You're a public figure. You just are. You're a public figure. Yes, the moment you take the job on the radio and you go into people's cars in their homes and you're like, hi, I'm Rick Hodge, and you start talking about

another cold day in February or whatever you do, you're now a public figure. You're public airwaves speaking to people. When I'm sitting having my bowl of cereal with my mother, i'm not a public figure like that's where it all goes away right but that detail is not in the wikipedia entry like so we're not going there to find out like what did you eat for where does your mom live and what did you eat for cereal but we're going there to find out like and you know wikipedia is such that it's uh the masses maintain it so it's

not like you go and create your w page. Somebody should create it for you and then people decide if you're worthy, essentially, and if it stays, which you are. But people want to find out things that... I was looking to find out, when was the Sunday Funnies on? When did it come back? When were you on Chum FM?

When did you leave the Astral Cluster there? These types of details are what go on the Wikipedia page. And you are definitely worthy of that. Well, I will disagree with you. Respectfully disagree. We agree to disagree. Yeah. For me, it's not something that I think is a major thing in my life. I hear you. No, I hear you. I guess for the guy, it sounds like you're almost like so private. It's almost surprising that you chose a career that's so public. I find it really easy to sit here and talk into a mic with you. And if we were sitting in a bar

or a restaurant, I have no trouble with a conversation. It's when I go out there. So yeah, it's there is I won't poke you and we're done here. No, but I do like the privacy. And, you know, like I think, look, my life, and I've told you more than the people I've worked with. Okay, good. And so I don't feel the necessity to be out there all the time. I just do, I talk on the radio and go home. It's just so different from most people in your same position. Like I've talked to – on this show, I've talked to many radio people, a lot of morning show guys.

Yeah. They all have a personality which is sort of alpha male-esque in the way that they like the sound of their own voice and they want to be heard. And sometimes they do more talking than listening. of their own voice and they want to be heard and sometimes they do more talking than listening and i'm not going to name any names but you you seem in fact anything as jason barr was a lot like you or he was different in that sense but you almost seem like it's almost surprising to me that you're in radio it's just jason barr was one of the first radio guys who seemed to sort of not want to be on radio if that makes sense like. Like he didn't want, he wanted, he would be just as happy to be a fireman and be anonymous.

And you remind me of that. And it's, it's, it's unique in the radio world. I think, um, I read a lot. I read a lot. And I, some of these authors that I've read, you know, like historians and professors and things like, like to me, they're doing great work. They're doing important things. I talk on the radio. I mean basically – and it's fun. And it's – sometimes it can be a really difficult way to make a living because of the hours.

But basically all you're doing is you're sitting and you're talking. And you're trying to make – look at – way back when I was taught, give people what they want to hear. Give them the weather, give them the traffic, and make them smile. Make them smile. And you've done your job. And that's nice, but there are bigger things in the world going on than Hodge making you smile. Yeah, by that rationale, we would have, you know, the people doing surgeries on children to save their lives would be paid as well as Sidney Crosby. Like, that's just, unfortunately, the world doesn't necessarily have that. Yeah, but don't you think they should be? Of course they should be. Of course

they should be. But there's, yeah, some sad supply and demand element going on here. But listen, I want to thank you. Considering what we just learned there, I'm very grateful you actually came down into my basement and answered all my pestering questions. No, they weren't pestering at all. And it's really good to see you again. No, yeah. I was thinking since I torpedoed you, I... You're never going to let me forget that one, are you? I like the term.

I could have said lowball, but... I might title the episode, We Talk About How I Torpedoed Rick Hodge. That'll be the hook. Any final thoughts or anything you want to share with your fans? Because your fans will be listening and they want to... You know what? And I know it's got to be coming to the end soon. I've been in radio a long time and

it has been a joy to do this kind of work and to have as much fun. I'll tell you, and to work with the people that I have had the honor, and I mean honor, to work with. I mean, to me, I worked with some of the great, great people who have ever been on the air. And there are some I wish I had been on the air with that I never got the chance.

Who's number one on that list? Don Daynard. Don Daynard. Dee Donnard, as I remember the ad saying. I'll tell you what. Don Daynard, he just had a way of speaking to people. And when he was talking on the radio, he was talking to me all the time. I don't know.

He had a quality about him. And I have great respect for him. Great respect for Peter Griffin, who has passed away, unfortunately. And Roger Ashby, too. He's one of the... He will go down. He will be in the Radio Hall of Fame one day.

Awesome. And he should be. Thank you, Rick Hodge. one day. Awesome. And he should be. Thank you, Rick Hodge. And that brings us to the end of our 116th show. You can follow me on Twitter

at Toronto Mike, and Rick is at Rick Hodgey Hodge. Rick Hodgey Hodge. You do your own tweets, right? You don't have an army of tweeters for you. You do your own tweets. Yeah, I need an army of tweeters. I'm just happy to see you on there. That's the new blogging for you. You do your own tweet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I need an army of tweeters. I'm just happy to see you on there. It's like that's the

new blogging for you. It was forced on me. Was it? Yeah. Now I'm not happy. But while you're there, try to have fun with it. I enjoy the Twitter. Okay. All right. Thanks for having me, Mike. See you all next week. Yeah, the wind is cold but the sky's cold. next week.