Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rick Sargent from Local Radio Lab: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1782

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

In this 1782nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Rick Sargent about his career in radio, stations he's owned, and his current work with Local Radio Lab. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

I'm Rick Sargent, and this is Toronto Mike, and no animals were hurt in making of this podcast. Well, you don't know that, Rick. Well, I'm making an assumption. You're right. Yet to be determined how many animals will be hurt. Welcome to episode 100,000. 782 of Toronto Maked. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery

who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online 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. Blue Sky Agency, The official distributor of Cylent's quiet, comfortable and customizable office pods. Create sanctuary within your workspace.

Nick Iini's host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to. Kindling! Leslie, I'm trying to say it right. Kinling! Go to shopkinling.ca for free one-hour cannabis delivery. Recycle My Electronics.C.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. Today, making his Toronto mic to debut. It's Rick Sargent. Rick, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. How are you? Good. Are you a Blue Jays fan? Absolutely.

When they were down to nothing, heading to Seattle, I need the, your honest answer, Rick, and I know, you know, diehard fans, you bleed blue, you bleed white, fine. But did you think the Jays could come back and win this series?

No, I'll be honest. Yeah. I appreciate your honesty, Rick. And I didn't think they would even win the last two games. Yeah, and the way they won those last two games, overwhelming wins in Seattle. I don't understand this team at all.

I don't either. I will admit last night, I was a little nervous in the first inning. I wasn't sure which way it was going to go. Well, actually, I'll be honest. I was pretty convinced it was going to go one way and it went another, and I was very pleased. But, yeah, yeah, it obviously Max Scherzer needs an inning.

He needs one inning to just get settled, and then he's good. But, yeah, it makes a little nervousness in the beginning. And what did you think when John Schneider comes to the mound, he's going to, you know, take him out of the game. And Max was like, hell no, I won't go. Like that's Shades of Jack Morris back when he went that 11 innings and got the walk-off win there. You're absolutely right.

Yeah. No, I thought it was great. I mean, I think Max is a genuine guy, and there was no theatrics in that at all. That was him coming out. And I'm not so sure, though, that Schneider really planned to take him out when he walked to the mound. I think he went there with, you know,

plan to kind of fire him up a little bit, and it worked clearly. Right. But I don't think he really went there with the plan of, you know, hauling him off the mound. Well, you're ruining my story. Like, I feel like you got to print the legend on this one, okay? An angry Max, mad Max, they call him. 42 years young is like, hell no, I won't go. But this team now is two wins away from the World Series, a place that this team has not

been since 1993. Where were you, Rick, when Joe Carter hit the home run? to in game six to win it for the Jays in 93. I was at a friend's place in, let me just think, was it Brampton, Mississauga, actually. He was in Mississauga at a friend's place with a bunch of other people, and it was a watch party.

And yeah, you know, there are, like you say, there are certain times of your life where you remember where you were when something happened. And that, for me, that definitely is one of those times. Yeah, what a, you know, what a time. Touch them all, Joe, you know, but it's been a long time.

if you're a bit younger than me a lot younger than me maybe but you have no memories of the Blue Jays in the World Series like there are full-fledged adults who have no memory of the Blue Jays in the World Series. So two wins away we now got our home field advantage

back tonight the game is like we're going to wrap up around 2.30 or so and the game's at 608 so only you gotta get home Rick you got to get your what let me do this for you let me send you home with some craft beer so you can enjoy some fresh Great Lakes beer as you watch the game tonight.

That's awesome. You can take that home. And you know what? I don't know if this will be ready in time for the game, but these games go a while. I think you, Rick, deserve some palm pasta lasagna. I have a palma pasta lasagna in my freezer for you to take home with you. That's great. Thank you.

I have enjoyed palma pasta, actually, because I live in Caledon. And the food land in Caledon East carries Palma pasta. Yes, I know they showed up with some longos as well. So you're right because I always tell people go to Palma's kitchen or go to one of the Palma pasta locations in Mississauga and Oakville. But they do have some in retail stores like you saw there. So find yourself some palm of pasta and enjoy because it's delicious. And let me just get this out of the way.

We got a lot of cooking to do here, Rick. And I got an audio clip from Wayne's World. I want to play for you right off the top. But let me invite you, Rick Sargent, and everyone listening. to TMLX21, which is taking place on Saturday, November 29th, the last Saturday of November at noon, so it's going to be noon to 3 p.m. at Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. If you showed up, Rick, not only would you get to pop on a mic and say happy holidays and say hello, because I'm going to be recording live from Palmer's Kitchen, but Palma pasta would feed you and any

guess. You have a plus one, a plus two, a plus three. Everybody gets fed, so come hungry. And I will bring cans of fresh GLB, and it'll be cold on ice. And people can enjoy a beer, have some pasta, a live recording. That's happening November 29th at noon. Rick, you're invited, buddy. Thank you very much. I'm going to make a note of that for sure and try to get there. How many pluses do you want, Rick? Four plus four, plus five? I don't know if I have that many friends. Are you a kiss fan? Again, honesty first. Not really. Okay, you got the vibe already. I don't want any BS on this show, Rick. I want only the truth. So I'm in the same boat as you. So you never know, right? And typically when I speak to somebody 10, 15 years older

than me, I don't know your age, but you're a little older than me, probably. I find out, oh, you know, kiss was everything for them when they were a teenager or whatever. Chris Murphy and Sloan was saying, basically, he was dressing up as ace freely for Halloween. So there's a certain cohort of rock fans that absolutely worship kiss, and a family member died yesterday, but you're not a diehard kiss fan. No, I'm not, no. I mean, I'm familiar with the band, of course. You know, I heard the news yesterday, but again, it didn't, I'm sure it didn't affect

me the way it affected many other people. You and I are in the same boat there, same boat there, but my condolences to all all the members of the Kiss Army listening at home. Okay, they call themselves the Kiss Army. Okay. Here's a Wayne's World clip. I mean, there was two Darren Stevens, right? Dick York, Dick Sargent.

Shihaha, right, as if we wouldn't notice. Oh, hold on. Dick York, Dick Sargent, Sergeant. Wow, that's weird. Okay, do you know why I pulled that clip? Because of the name? Yeah. So you're Rick Sargent.

Is that your real name or is that a radio name? No, that is my real name. My dad was Richard and I'm junior. So, yeah, I was, no, some people may say I'm a dick. I don't know. So I remember as a kid being mind-blowing, like, oh, my goodness gracious, I had no idea the dicks and the ricks were Richards. Like, I still remember when I found out, oh, that you call him Jack, but his name

is John. Like that one blew my mind. Or even like, hey, that guy Bob, Uncle Bobby, he's a Robert. But so you could be a Dick Sargent. I could. I am. Yeah, I started out actually in elementary school as Ricky, back when Ricky Schroeder was really popular. So I was the Rikster.

I was, um, more the Sarge, I guess, sort of became my nickname as I got older, but. Were you a fan of Sergeant Slaughter in the WWF? Again, know who he is, but not a fan, no. Okay, so real name. There's been a theme on Toronto Mike this week with radio, people talking about real names versus fake names because two episodes ago I had Lisa Brandt on the show and I was shocked to learn that that's a fake name. Brandt is not her name and I was thinking, oh, if you were going to invent a name,

you'd come up with something cool like Rick Sargent. I didn't have to make it up. Yeah, I was born with it. You're born with the right name for radio. So tell me, take me back. Actually, do you mind if I read, I hope this doesn't embarrass you, but if I read part of the email you sent me? Sure. No, go ahead. I don't think I sent anything in there. Oh, no. You know, I don't know. But I thought I'd ask permission in case you're like, do not read that, Mike. I'm

storming out of here. Although that is a fantasy I have where a guest storms out of here. So if you want to do it, you feel for you. I won't be the first one. Well, we don't know that yet. If I'm hurting animals or whatever. Oh, there you go. You promised I wouldn't do. All right, I got an email from a Rick Sargent, and it opened like this. You likely have never heard of me, and I am not exactly a household name. But I have worked in radio in Toronto since 1986. And then you listed off a whole bunch of stuff you did, which we're going to cover a lot of this actually over the next hour. But at the end of this lovely email, you said, I would be honored to be a guest on your podcast and have my photo taken next to Toronto Tree. So I read that email and I'm like,

he's right. Like I don't know the name Rick Sargent. I don't believe it to be a household name or I think I would have heard of it. But I will have Rick Sargent. But I will have Rick sergeant over to talk about his career in radio, and we will take a photo next to Toronto Tree. There we go, and here I am today. Here you are today. Take me back. What made you want to get into radio in the first place?

Oh my goodness. Okay. So we're going way back here. How far back are we going here? High school. So is that like 80s? I graduated. So interesting story.

So I have to go way back here to explain a few things. So I grew up in southern Quebec in the eastern townships. So at the time, well, still today, high school in Quebec ends at grade 11. Right. So my dad was always in the electronics industry. So he worked for RCA, for Bell Canada, companies like that. And unfortunately, he lost his job and he was unemployed. A friend of his lived up in Oshawa and said, look, it's the mid-80s, you're an anglophone in Quebec.

Job prospects are not good for you. the political climate was not great and just a number of factors so he said come up here arm yourself with some quarters back when they were still pay phones right spend a week with me and try to get some uh leads and if at the end of the week you don't have any prospects i'll let you go home i won't bug you again so he came up within three days he had an interview and uh got a job so we moved up here so i graduated high school and end of grade 11 right and and in 1985, so now you can do the math. Drive of 85.

Yeah, there you go. I was, I guess I was 18. I was 18 at that point. Rick, I got a wild question you probably don't have the answer to. But at that time, so for me, we had a grade 13. So you're in Quebec, you're done after grade 11. Right. Here in Toronto, we're doing two more years.

My wife's from Alberta, and they did 12, which is what we now do. So my kids are doing 12. But how could we have a delta of two years between Quebec and Ontario? Well, in fairness, in Quebec, you do have to take two years of Sejep, which is prep school. So they do it a little differently. So it did have grade 13, but it wasn't called grade 12 and grade 13. Oh, I see. You're kind of juke in the stats here over there.

A little bit, a little bit. Yeah. So we move up, so I graduate high school. Within two weeks, we move up to Brampton, which is where we're. We had our home. And I went to the local high school and I said, hi, this is my name. My name is Rick.

I'd like my picture taken next to the treeouts. I'm kidding. I just changed. Shout out to Professor Prickle Thorne. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And they said, well, welcome to Ontario. We can give you equivalency for grade 12. But if you want to go on to university,

you need your six grade 13 credits. And I said, you're kidding me. I just graduated high school two weeks ago. You're making me come back to high school? Sounds like a nightmare. It kind of was, actually, yeah. So I had no choice. I took the first semester, I took my three compulsory credits.

But by the time I got to December of that year, I was done. I couldn't do it anymore. And somebody said to me, they said, well, all you need are three credits. Why don't you do co-op? And I was like, co-what? Like, what is that? I never heard of it before. We didn't have that in Quebec.

Right. So at the time, this is the mid-80s now. Right. CF and Y and CKMW were still at 83 Kennedy in Brampton. And I said to the guidance office, I said, okay, if you can get me into one of those two stations, I'll take call. So they called CF and Y and CF&Y at the time. They said, you know, I'm sorry, we only take university or college students. We don't take high school.

Okay, fine. They called the AM station. And they said, sure, come on in, we'll talk to you. So went in for an interview, I guess I impressed them, and I started co-op. I think it was in February of 86. That's CKMW. It was still CKMW. It was on its way to transitioning to Chow, which became CIO, and a full ethnic

station, but it was just kind of on the cusp at that point. Where did we find CKMW on our dial? 790. It was still 790 on the dial back then. So now it's 530, and the call letters are CKMW. H-L-O, which is Chalo, which means let's go in Hindi. Okay. See, I never went below 590.

I don't think my dial ever went below 590, but, you know, that's not even true. There was a Buffalo station, I think it was 550, where you could get Bill's games back. I used to be a big Bill's fan back in the day, and Van Miller would call Bill's games. I think it was 550, but we're going way back now. So who, so you're doing a co-op program at CKMW, and it's in the same Brampton, Strip Mall? This is the strip mall, right? Yeah, it's a second floor above Spanky's Bar, and we shared the same floor with CFN. So you had to go through the reception area of CFNY to get to us at the end of the hallway. Can you remember name check anybody that maybe you met at either station at the time? Oh, absolutely. CFNY. I had met Craig Venn. I'm going to shout out the FOTMs. Craig was actually one of the, Craig actually was working. Craig was working. down the hall at the AM station when I started. And then he got the job at Ciff and Y, so he worked, went down the hall.

Famously, he was editing a Ted Wallachan thing, and he, Ted Wallachan made a mistake, and he dropped some F bombs, and Craig missed them, and they aired. And this is one of the legendary stories I've heard from Craig and others, and Ted himself. So I don't think he made that mistake again. But he's had himself a nice career, being the morning show guy at The Rock in Oscewa. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I haven't talked to. one in many years. He survived Derringer. He did. He did. Yeah, I haven't talked to Craig in years,

but I hear he's doing well. Well, he's a morning show host. That's, that was the dream. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I was fortunate. I never worked at Ciff and Y, but I met everybody that worked there. So Ted Wollison, for example. Mary Curtis, who worked in the accounting department. Jim Fonger, who was the sales manager, who I actually, who I ended up working for, actually, which is another story. So we can get to that later. Um, yeah, so, yeah, tons of people. What about people like who might have been there? I'm thinking like Fred Patterson.

I, I, I met Fred a couple of times, uh, and, and Howard as well, humble Howard. Howard shows up in 89. Right. Yes. So they were doing the morning show at the time that I was working at the AM station. Okay. But shortly after that, we moved out. We moved across the street to 50 Kennedy.

Okay. So anybody that came to see if and why. After 89, 90, I really didn't get a chance to. Okay, so a couple other big names who have been over that you would have crossed paths with are May Potts. Absolutely, yes, yeah. And Alan Cross? Alan, I never really met him.

I used to see him in the hallway all the time, but no one never had a chance. He's a Manitoba guy, so he might have been shy. Yeah, that's true. That's right, yeah. But May Potts, it's funny we talk about May Potts, because when May Potts left CFNY to go to the AM station that was owned by the same company, which was they were calling Mojo Radio.

You remember Mojo Radio probably. I do. I do. So she leaves her longtime gig at 102.1 for 640, and then she's replaced on 102.1 by Kelly Katrera, who was my special guest yesterday. So, Rick, this is the third Toronto mic episode in a row where we talked about GTA radio like it was our.

job to talk about GTA radio. And hopefully I'm doing it justice. Well, okay, so far so good. So walk me through it though, because I guess I'm trying to get you to when you work for Bill Evanoff and talk about him, but on your way there, so you're doing your co-op at CKMW. Yeah. But do you eventually end up at college? So what I ended up doing, so at the end of my co-op, they had a job waiting for me. So I guess they like me well enough. They hired me on part-time to do remotes and that sort of thing. So I was able to work the summer part-time

And then I applied to Seneca, Fanchaw, and Humber For the radio program Of course, living in Brampton, Humber was the place I really wanted to go The North Campus. I could commute, save a bunch of money, all that stuff. Go to the horse track? Absolutely, yeah, and J.J. Mugs at Woodbind at the time, it was a great place to...

Bump into Peter Gross, betting on the ponies? Well, we won't go there, but no animals were hurt, okay? That's true. We talked about that. That's true. Um, but, uh, yeah, so, um, it was, yeah, it was kind of a, a crazy time and, uh, I applied to Humber, got in. And so in between work, you know, going to school and, um, I was able to keep the job, uh, at the, uh, station. When I finished the course at Humber, I was hired on as the

operations manager at, uh, C, well, then it was Chow by that point. Um, so yeah, they had a full time job waiting for me and I just kind of fell into it. So I did things a little backwards. I started it, you know, in radio from high school, and then I went to college and then I got the job. Yeah, whatever, by any means, right? You did it. So you got a job in radio and you're at radio. So at what point do you start working for Bill Evanoff? So in 1994, um, Bill and his partner at the time applied to purchase CIDC in Orangeville. And they obviously, you know, got the station, and they moved it first down to Brampton.

They co-located it with the AM station, and then it was moved down here to Etobico. So that was 94. I left working for the station in Bill. I'm trying to think what year it was now. Because I was at the two stations for about 13 years. in total, the first time. And remind me, part of my ignorance, but CIDC, where would we find that on the dial?

1035. It's now Z-103. Right, okay. So I know it is Z-103. Yeah, yeah. So you're shouting out the location in Atobico, it's at Dundas, like not too far from Kipling Station, I want to say. Right.

Exactly. Yep. The head office. So that was the first time. So actually, I ended up working for Bill three different times. Can you tell me a bit about Bill? Sure. I do record once a month with Bob Willet.

Oh, yes. And Bob Willett was the PD at Proud FM. Yeah, I work with Bob. One of my times at Z, I worked with Bob, so I know very well. You're still, even, you're technically working with him now. I am. Yes, that's right. We don't see each other very often, but. So we'll do, we'll do a Bob Willett segment near the end.

That's for the real heads out there. We'll talk some more Bob. But tell me about what it was like to work for Bill, who's a big name, who sadly will never be on Toronto, Mike sadly. Well, I have an interesting Bill story, actually. So what ended up happening so Bill and I,

we got along pretty well. So there were kind of two camps, actually. So at the radio station, Bill was the majority owner, and he had a partner as well who kind of looked at after the AM side. So I was hired by his partner, but I came to

know Bill, of course, over the years, working there. So there were kind of two camps, like I say, There was his partner's camp, which I was more closely aligned with, and it was the Bill camp. And it was clear at the time that Bill's son, Paul, who now owns the station, was being groomed to eventually take over the station. And Matt, his cousin, the same situation, right? You could tell, it was very clear. The two of them were being groomed to, you know, take over the reins.

I didn't really know after 13 years what my role was. You know, and I've always felt I knew when it was time to leave a job. And I kind of at that time thought, you know what, I think it's time for me to look for something else. So I went to his partner and I said, you know what, I think the writing is on the wall. I think it's time for me to move on. And he said, don't do anything. Stand by. He said, I've got somebody I know who's looking for somebody.

And it was Jim Fogger. So I knew Jim just very casually from my time across the street. 83 Kennedy, but we didn't really know each other that well. So my former boss put me in touch with Jim. Jim at the time had won the RFP to take over the talking yellow pages. So he was looking for somebody with kind of an eclectic skill set, a bit of media experience and technical backgrounds, me basically. So we got together on the back of a napkin.

He made me an offer I couldn't understand, and I went to work for Jim. And Jim was a great guy, absolutely super. He was, in my opinion, Jim is a visionary. He was ahead of his time. So he hires me to look after the talking yellow pages. Excuse me. And I did that for about two years and then teledirect, if you remember the walking fingers, they were the ones that owned the yellow pages at the time.

They decided that telephony was old school. There's this new thing called the internet. And that's where we're, that's the direction we're going. So after two years, I thought, oh, this is great, I'm out of a job again. But Jim said, like, standby, don't go anywhere, don't do anything. We've got something for you. Their core business, Jim's core business, was media measurement.

We measured Yellow Page advertising effectiveness for major publishers in the States. So I transitioned from the talking Yellow Pages to Yellow Page measurement. So it was still kind of media related, but it wasn't radio. So I worked, I guess it was about nine years, I guess. In total, I worked for Jim and it was great, you know, great company. We, I think I was employee number 10 when I started. I think we had 50 employees after nine years. So, yeah, we did very well.

I remember the talking yellow pages. Like, it's funny, this is like a, it was there and then you're right. Internet sort of slays it. Yeah, exactly. You could call, you can get your horoscope, you can get your, news headlines. And then we had a deal with 680 news at the time. They had a lot of their people providing us with sports and news.

Oh, maybe Peter Gross was one of those people. I think Peter might have been at the time. He was a sports guy in the mornings for a long, long time at 680. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I think he was now that I think back. You know, it comes back to Peter Gross. That's right. So, yeah.

So at the time, I'm sort of winding down a little bit at the name of the company was Talmetrics. uh that's what we were called as i'm winding down my time there i moved from brampton to caledon okay and my kids now are just reaching school age and i didn't move to caledid with the intention of applying for radio station but that's what ended up happening so as i moved to caledon my kid starts school and i'm hearing from parents saying oh you know how did you hear about that event or i wish i knew about that i you know so it was clear that it wasn't a knock against the newspapers but It was just, it was clear there was a communication issue in Calvin because it's such a big area.

And at the time, the chairman of the CRTC was somebody who, I think, favored the little guy. He didn't care so much for the courses and the Rogers and the bells and the stingrays and what have you. So my timing was good from that standpoint. So after I left Talmetrics, I actually went to work for Bill again, a second time. And I was hired to identify markets where, they should apply for new stations. That was my role. And so I applied, I, you know, pointed out a lot of different markets, which he ended up

applying and getting licenses in. And I had told him that I was planning to apply for a low power tourist station in Caledit. He said, great, you know, no problem. There's no conflict here. You know, knock yourself out. Good luck to you. So the mistake I made was I applied for a commercial, like, since in Bolton at the same time.

Right. And I didn't tell Bill about that part. Yeah. So it's June, I think it was June, of about 2007. Right. My desk used to be right outside Bill's office. It's about 4 o'clock of the afternoon because this particular day, Chum had a decision coming out.

And so the decisions, instead of coming out at 11 in the morning, when they normally do, they came out at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So I'm sitting there, and I had a, Kind of a, no, I had not heard from the commission at all about the Bolton application. Like this is the CRTC that you basically apply for this license, this FM license. But two of them, one in Caled and one in Bolton? Right. So I applied for 1027 in Caledon and 105 in Bolton.

Gotcha. And 1027 was a tourist station. 105, though, was a full-blown commercial license. The only difference being low power. And so 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it's now 401. I just hop over to the CRTC website, scroll down at the decisions. I see Callan approved, and I thought, oh, great, hey, I got it. I scroll down a little further, and I see Bolton approved.

Wow. And I thought, oh, crap, here we go. So I counted down from 10, Bill's door opens, he walks out, he just looks at me, and he says, so, how's Bolton? Oh, wow. Well, yeah. Okay. So anyway, he got a few other executives together in his office and then called me in.

And he said, Rick, he said, no broadcaster would allow somebody to work for them who was going to own a station and compete with them. And I said, I get that. So he said, unfortunately, he said, this is the end of the road, you know. and I said, I get it. So I went back to my desk and wrote my resignation letter and gave it to him and said, really sorry. I said, if I had any idea that this decision was going to come out for Bolton today, I obviously would have told you.

I mean, what was the point of me hiding it? It's going to be public. Right. So instead of this whole awkward situation that I find myself in now, I could have avoided all this, right? So he wasn't very happy, but there's nothing I could do at the time. And now you own two stations. Yeah, so, you know, the old adage, be careful what you wish for.

To me, this is someone, when you wrote me that email, I'm like, yeah, I'll talk to, Rick, Sergeant. My first question will be is that his real name. And then I said, okay, I'll have more questions. And then, but this whole idea that you applied for and you were awarded FM licenses and Caledon, Bolton, that sounds wild to me. Like, isn't it expensive to own and operate FM radio stations? it can be I was fortunate that I kind of knew I guess more than the average bear and I did my own technical briefs I did I did the whole application myself so I saved a lot of money no consultants involved no engineers involved it was just very basic straightforward and because again because they were both low power licenses you know we're not talking you know big money like like protected frequencies so yeah so now now Now I find myself unemployed, but I have two radio licenses. So, okay, now what do I do?

Well, I guess I better get these stations on the air and start trying to make some money. So, yeah, and that's what I did. It almost sounds like, I mean, I don't know about the money part. That might be very stressful, but this sounds exciting. Like, it's almost like you go, you're watching WKRP in Cincinnati, and then you're dreaming. And then one day you're like, now I own two radio stations. Yeah.

And then you've got to program these stations. You're like Arthur Carlson over there, except there's no mama to bail you out. Exactly, exactly. It was a lot of fun. I mean, I program the stations very much like a community station. I had a lot of people in Bolton and Caledon offered to do programs. You know, we had a great time.

We had a lot of fun. But the money part was a different story. Challenging to say the least in a small community with a low power, frequency. So what ended up happening, two years into the licenses, I was struggling. You know, financially, things were not looking very good. And we had a lot of competition in terms of print advertising. We had two newspapers. We had three magazines. And my timing was not very good because I launched them in 2008 just before the economic downturn. Right. So, you know, in some respects, my timing was great in other respects it wasn't so good um but i realized that if i was going to make a go

with this i had to somehow make myself different and i launched a newspaper so i launched a monthly uh tabloid format newspaper similar to snap if if you remember the snap i do remember snap yeah right so i wasn't snap and i wasn't the metro land paper i was kind of we still have snap why do i think we still have snap still no no covid did snap it unfortunately Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. We lost Snap. There you go. Yes. So, yeah, so I launched a newspaper.

So now suddenly I'm different. I've got a print product and I've got radio. So when I go in to talk to advertisers, I can say, hey, what excites you? What do you like? I like the paper. Okay, well, then I'd give them an ad in the paper. Well, sell them an ad in the paper,

but I'd bonus them radio. Or if I go into somebody else and they said, I like your radio state. Okay, great. buy some ads on the station. I'll bonus you a print ad in the paper. You're like a media mogul. Well, I wish.

Yeah. No, not quite. But thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, so just one second. So I understand the Caledan station is a community station, right? Yeah. So how is that different from the Bolton station, which is a like a commercial state?

Like, what is the difference for us lay people? So at the beginning, 1027 in Caledon, which I ran from my house, actually, on a 98, foot tower that I put up. Wow. Don't bury the lead here. Was a tourist station. So basically I could only talk about things like events that were happening in Caledon, the weather forecast, any road closures, that sort of thing. No, no music, no politics, no religion. Interesting.

The Bolton station, though, was a full-blown station with music and news. And I used to use news from Wise Broadcasting, if you remember back when they were operating. They provided a great service. So I had news and traffic and weather And so if you turned us on, we sounded just like any other station on the dial. And you were branded as the B. Yeah, B 105.5. B105.5. And was there a specific genre of music or was it all over the place?

Yeah, it was kind of all over the place. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, we were middle of the road, adult, contemporary, family friendly. But we did have some programs on the weekend that kind of strayed a little bit from that. But nothing too hard or too heavy. Okay. No kiss. You needed a kiss show.

that's what brings in the the kiss fans and I'm not one and you're not one but the kiss fans are diehards you know I shouted out

Ridley funeral home but I can tell you kiss fans want to be buried in a kiss casket I miss it I missed it I missed the opportunity

was there and I just missed it I want to be buried in a rusty caskets so somebody take a note here I just heard the Alexis on fire cover of misogyny

so shout out to Jim Moore in the gang okay so you own these two stations but I'm guessing you're bleeding money because you're not a independently rich person. No, no.

Fortunately, the newspaper saved my bacon. That kind of kept the cash flow running. When 2012 hit, so we're talking five years into it, you know, 70-hour weeks, the family life was suffering, I realized it was time to pass the torch. So here's another interesting story.

My life is full of interesting stories. This is the play. to share them all. I think they're interesting. Other people might go, what the heck? You know, I'm going to sleep. I'll be the judge. I'll be the judge, please.

So when it was time for me to sell the stations, first people I called were John Paul and Andrew Dixon from my FM. John Paul and FOTM. Yeah, there you go. And they were interested. They were very interested because at the time they were looking at Orangeville to apply for the Orangeville station. And so, you know, we got into discussions back and forth for

couple of months. But at the end of the day, they said, you know what? We're going to take a pass, unfortunately. Your stations don't really fit our mold. And I said, okay, you know, it's fine. Night, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Pause from a moment for me to tell you that Lisa Brandt is now currently doing freelance work for some of NBC stations, some of the NBC stations. Yes, I was aware of that. Okay. So there's a fun fact I learned two episodes ago. Please continue. There you go. Hopefully I can provide you with more fun facts. Um, so yeah. But it was John, actually, John Paul, that mentioned to me, they said, John and Andrew, actually, they said, you might want to call Christopher Grossman. He might be interested.

Oh, okay. Now, I knew of Christopher, never met him. But how did you know of him? Like, tell me, because this name I do not know. He owned the Moose FM branded stations up in north. Cottage country area, Yama Skokka, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Huntsville. So I had heard his name. as an independent owner and heard good things about him.

But at the end of the day, you know, whether he's good or not, as long as he's got the money and he wants to buy my station, that's all I need. So I call him and I said, hi, my name is Rick. I'd like to have my picture taken by your tree. No, that's a good intro line for everybody. You know, I would like to take a photo by your tree and just go from there.

Just go from there. See what happens. It worked for you to get on this show. Yeah. So he did. It did. So he said, yeah, absolutely. I'm interested.

Are you available tomorrow? And I thought, oh, tomorrow, okay. So he came up to Bolton. Again, sat down, back of a napkin, made me an offer I couldn't understand. And that was it. It was done. I mean, we had to wait six months,

unfortunately, for the commission to approve the sales. CRTC. But, so here's the kicker. Yeah. He was in the process of talking to Vista about selling everything he had to Vista. at the time. So I couldn't figure out at first, why was he so interested in my two little stations, right? And then the light bulb came on. It's like, oh, because my two stations are the

only two that he would own that are in the Toronto CMA, right? So it increased the value of what he was selling to Vista. So at the end of the day, I got what I needed, he got what he wanted, Vista got what they wanted. Everyone was happy. That's impossible. Everybody can't be happy. Group hug, group hug. Did you, like, so did this, this covered all your debts and did you make any, any cash out of this deal?

No. No, I'm still paying awesome debt. But you're still, so, you know, not a good business venture. No, no, no. As far as a bucket list goes, you know, own two stations, check, got it. Yeah, but not the best financial decision I ever made in my life. You know it's a bad deal, though, when after five years you sell and then you don't cover all your debt. No, no, true.

Okay, so this is good. We're learning. No wonder John Pole took a pass here, okay, so. They were smart. Yeah, exactly. At that time, is John Paul still at 10-10? Like, I think he had a show. Yeah, he was doing a show.

Yeah, I think he might have. Pole position. Yeah, that's right. I think he was still there at the time. He was still there. I had him on when he, yeah, because I think it was on one of his treks down to Toronto that he came to see me about the sale. So he did visit with a bunch of his people and they did kind of a walk through and, you know, that sort of thing. And then they got back to me and said, yeah.

Okay. So you sell these stations to Chris Grossman. This is 2012. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to pick it up from there, but I'm going to shout out a couple of partners. Who did the sales for you when you owned the B? Primarily it was me, but I had two other people that lived in Bolton who were friends of mine.

And they were sort of, I guess, as the same goes, between. jobs, and they loved what I was doing. They loved radio, too. They weren't in radio, but they had some sales experience. And the three of us basically just went door to door. Okay, you can earn a commission if you sell for Toronto Mike. I'm just letting you know, Mr. Rick Sargent. I know you have me, okay.

I've got your attention now? Yeah, you had me at commission, yes. Okay. So I would love to celebrate Blue Sky Agency, the chap there. his name is Doug Mills and Blue Sky Agency has forged partnerships with established office furniture brands

like silent and green furniture concept and Ruleyard and if you, listening at home or on your run or in the car, wherever you may be, if you are looking for dynamic and creative work environments,

so there's a lot of return to the office as you know, Rick, so if you need a dynamic and creative work environment, have any questions about that. Doug Mills at Blue Sky agency is your guy. Write them now. Doug at blue sky agency.com. C.A. That's what you do. Okay, Rick. Do you have an office you got to go to? I do. Yep. Where is that office located? And we're going to, soon

we'll get to where you're at, because I teased that you're now working, in some way you're working with Bob Willett. We'll put it that way. We're going to get there. But where is your office? In Orangeville, actually. Orangeville. Okay. Look, you tell the office manager that the silent pods give people privacy and that's what Doug Mills can help with so you've got some marching orders right there. Okay, you've got some homework. New sponsor alert, Rick Sargent.

Did you watch Bewitched? A little bit. Me too. Like, I mean, it would come on in syndication, obviously, and the reruns. And I would definitely catch an episode. Back then, and you and I are talking to the kids right now

who think all TV is on demand whenever you want it, okay? All shows available all the time whenever you want it. So back in the day, whatever was on that TV and shed out to CKVR, but I'm pretty sure they were air in Bewitched reruns, and I would definitely catch a bewitched episode now and then. So I do remember the Darren's swapping, like there was the, like Mike Myers says in that clip I played early on. Like there was Dick Sargent, and then there was Dick York.

And we were supposed to not question this back then, I guess. I don't know. Hudson and Rex is having a similar problem, but at least they gave the guy a new name. They swat their Hudson changed. So Hudson is the human. You said no animals were going to be harmed, so Rex is safe.

But they swapped out the Hudson's, but apparently it's like a different first name. But it's still similar to the switch at Bewitched. Just food for thought when you're driving back home to Caledon, okay? All right. Okay. All right.

So what the hell am I talk about? New sponsor alert. That's what I'm telling you. And I want to welcome kindling, and I was told, because I've dropped the name, Kinling on the last two episodes, and apparently I'm pronouncing it wrong. Rick Sargent, see this name right there? How would you pronounce that name? Kindling.

So you've got to nail the D, right? I think I'm skipping the D. Kindling, like you do when you start a fire, you got Kinling. Okay. Or it could be Kindling, but that's, no, that's definitely that fire stuff, okay? You're going to lose your sales job, if you call it, kindling here. But I want to shout out Kinling. because if you go to shopkindling.ca and you purchase,

you can do it right now. You can go to shopkindling.cah, purchase your cannabis products. And very discreetly, that product will show up at your door in under an hour. Like this is, it takes less than an hour. It's very discreet. It comes in a very plain packaging delivered by somebody. It looks like you're getting a book.

That's what I say. Okay. You're receiving a book. Meanwhile, you're getting lots of, you know, weed or whatever you need. So it's very discreet. You can track the package sort of like you, track an Uber driver. You can track it. This is very efficient, very effective, and they have stepped up to sponsor this very program. So shopkinling.ca.a. I don't know if you partake or not.

Are you partaking? I'm not a partaker. You're not a kiss fan, but you are a Jay's fan, so you got you got one for that here. Okay, good. Okay. Last but not least, recycle myelectronics. orgia, Rick, is where you go. If you have old electronics, old cables, old devices, you don't throw them in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to recycle my electronics.ca, put in your postal code, and find out where to drop it off to be properly recycled. I bet you've got, I don't know, a room full of cables in Caledon. Absolutely.

And I've got a couple of TVs that I could get rid of. I've got tons of stuff. Do it up because you don't want those chemicals in the landfill. So recycle my electronics. And I wanted, I know I mentioned Ridley Funeral Home earlier, but what am I reached for you? I have a measuring tape for you, Rick Sargent. You may measure anything you like with that. Measuring tape.

You don't have to tell me what you're measuring. That could be here on the secret. All right. Okay, okay. It's too short. Right. That's the go-to. I'm a legend in my own mind.

There we go. I'll verify this later. Okay. So Chris Grossman, he buys up your two stations. Now you no longer own, you don't own the stations anymore. You just own the debt, okay? Yep, that's right. What's next for you, Rick Sargent?

We're in about 2012 now. Yeah. So after that, so my wife at the time says, you know, well, we clearly don't have enough to retire. So what are you going to do? And it turned out that a fellow by the name of Nehi Ray, who owns Cina 1650 AM Ethnic Station in Mississauga, was at the time applying for an FM ethnic station in Windsor. And I knew him from my time at Chow, because he used to be a producer on the station. And he, he, He was looking for an operations manager in Mississauga. So I thought, oh, you know what? I don't know. You even know if he remembers me, but let me see. So I sent him an email and I said, hey, needy, not sure if you remember me, but I'd really like to have my photo taken by your trip.

No, I didn't do that. But he wrote me back and he said, oh, I absolutely remember you. Yes, let's get together. So we met at a Tim Hortons in Mississauga, back of a napkin again, an offer. You couldn't understand? No, I couldn't understand it. Well, this is part of the problem here, Rick. We need you to have somebody with you.

can understand these. Clearly, I need to bring somebody. Financial advisor would be a good start. Get Lauren Honnickman to help you out. At least somebody to look at it. So, yeah, so I worked for him for five years because he was looking for somebody to look after things here while he was in Windsor getting things ramped up.

And, yeah, that was great. So now it's 2017, roughly, 2018. Okay. And I go back and work for Bill again, Mr. Evanoff. Bill Evanoff, but they're great. So Adam Robinson, who was the director of engineering for a bill at the time, was looking for somebody. And Adam and I were friends, you know, so I called Adam and I said,

hey, are you looking for anybody? And he said, you want to come work for us again? And I said, well, you know, it's only been twice. I'll come a third time. So, yeah, we got together and I worked there for about four or five years, I guess. And then my dad took sick. and I needed a job where I could work from home. And it turned out that Canadian Traffic Network, Dan Dealey, was looking for somebody.

And I had never met Dan previously, but we got together and listened to my demo. And yeah, so I went to work there. What did you do there? I did traffic reports for several stations, mainly CFRB. That seemed to be the one that I did the most frequently. but a bunch of other ones that they had as clients. So 10-10 would recognize your voice. 10-10 listeners would recognize your voice.

Yes. Well, there's another funny story. I forgot about this part. Do we have time? Can I go back very quickly? Go ahead. Okay. So before I took the job actually with CTN,

I went to work for Vista, okay, which now owned the Bolton radio station, the one that I started. Oh, the B. So I sold it to Christopher. He sold it with everything else he had to Vista. Right? So now Vista owned it. They kind of just sat on the station for five or six years, did nothing with it. It was a jukebox. That was it. Then they decided, okay, you know what? We need to do something with this thing. So let's relaunch it. So they were looking for a salesperson, and I applied. And so, you know, they said, yeah, that's great. That's perfect. You're on board. So I was doing sales for them. My dad took sick. And I needed something sort of,

base. So CTN was great because I could do that in the evenings, not during work hours, but evenings or weekends from home. But I never told Vista that I was working for CTN. So I was there for about two months and then one night I got an email from my boss at Vista saying, are you doing traffic for CFRB? And I said, yes. And I didn't really think. it was going to be a big issue. Because again, I'm not doing it during sales time, like nine to five. It's your side hustle. It's my side hustle. But apparently Vista didn't see it that way. So within a week or so, I was told that my services were no longer required. They're doing sales. But that's an interesting little tidbit because you're, you basically applied for a job and you got the job working for

a station that you previously owned. Yes. Well, actually, I am now working. So, So Chris Grossman owns the stations in Orangeville, Alliston, Bolton, and Milton. You know what? I do know this name. It just clicked in. He's the local radio lab guy. And, exactly. And he owns Indy88, where Bob Wollett works.

Okay, okay, okay. So, when did this sale take place within the last couple of years, right, that local radio lab was acquired by, uh, sorry, that, uh, Indy-88 was acquired by local radio lab? Yeah, within the last couple of years. Okay. So Chris Grossman, is he the primary owner of local radio lab? Yeah, he owns it outright. Yeah, it's his station.

So he hired you, after you were obviously let go from that Vista gig, and you're at the Canadian Traffic Network, you were hired by Chris Grossman and his company Local Radio Lab. Exactly, yep. I was originally hired to do a news position for the local, what we call the GTA stations, so Orangeville, Allison, Bolton, and Milton. And I still do a little bit of that,

but it kind of morphed into a hybrid role. So I do mainly sales now, but some content as well. Okay, now, very interested. Now, because this is Toronto Mike, I might talk a little more Indy 88, but so local radio lab, they have you mentioned Orangeville,

Alliston, Bolton, and Milton. And they just acquired, fairly recently acquired Indy 88. Right. do they own any other stations that I'm aware of no no no no just those yeah it's three more than you owned that's true that's right yep he's back ahead of me again okay and uh you mentioned the the the HQ that's in orangeville yeah for the gta stations where we base everything out of original exactly how hands-on is chris grossman with local radio

lab i would say very hands-on yeah yeah i mean obviously he spends most of his time at indy in Toronto. But yeah, no, he's watching things all the time. Is he a, he's a Toronto guy? Yep. Yeah, he is. As far as I know. Yeah, I think I bike by his place.

I won't docks him, but I bike by his place all the time. I think it's his place, the Indy 88 car. I think he shares it possibly with Joe Middleton, who lives in Mimicoe and comes out to the TMLX event. So hello, if you're listening to Mimico Joe. Although Mimico Joe likes to bike to Indy88. he could be on the Martin Goodman Trail when he hears these words right now. Hello to Mimico, Joe.

So, Chris Grossman, who owns local radio lab, like, I know you're doing a variety of things over there, but that seems to me to be different. Like, so Orangeville, Alliston, Bolt, and Milton, there's that going on, but then this decision to, hey, let's buy a rock station in Toronto, that seems to be like, okay, doing something rather different. I think it was really always Christopher's hope that he would own a Toronto station. And so I guess when the opportunity to purchase Indy came along, he saw that as his opportunity to take it.

Okay. And I've noticed since the new ownership took control of Indy88, I've noticed a broadening of the playlist. Like it's a little less alt-y, like it seems more, when I say broad, it means like we'll hear songs that you might, might have heard on Chum FM or something like that. Like it feels like they're, or boom or CHFI. It feels like they're throwing in some Bruce Springsteen here.

And some of these songs you would never have associated with the OG Indy 88. True. But I think the ratings right now are reflecting the changes that have been made and they're very positive. Very positive. So I hear because I mentioned Bob Willett. So Bob Willett, he's weekends at Indy 88. and it seems like since he arrived at the station,

and there's many factors at play here, okay, Mr. Sargent, I'm not suggesting it's all the great Bob Wollett, FOTM Bob Wollett. But he does arrive, and then there is a boom, pun intended, with regards to the ratings. That might not be a coincidence. You're the sales guy. Wouldn't you like, maybe I'm talking to Chris now, wouldn't you like to hear more Bob Wollett on Indy88?

Is he paying you to do this? Because this sounds like, yeah, I don't know, but... I get commission on his new deal. Oh, there you go. Okay, I knew it. There had to be something. No, Bob's a great guy. And like I said, I worked with him at Evanoff.

Yeah, and I don't know who's following whom, but I think I started first and he came after. So we seem to be, I guess, staying together. And how does sales work at Indy-A-D-A-A? Because I mentioned Joe Middleton, right? So are you, do you work with Joe? Because Joe's also there, right? No. So we...

How does it work? I'm a dummy. I can sell spots for Indy88, but that's not my primary objective. Oh, you're working hard on Orangeville, Allison, Bolton. Exactly. I'm working on the GTA stations, exactly. Yeah, because I owned Bolton, that's kind of my bailiwick. You know, I know that market quite well. Oh, that makes sense.

And there's a lot of synergy, too, in Caledon between Bolton and Alaston or Bolton and Orangeville. So it's for, you know, I'm not going to say easy, but it's an easy conversation with an advertiser to get them interested in buying a combo, right? So, you know, buy some spots on Bolton. I'll give you a good deal on the orange. Rick, some Torontoians can't tell the difference. It used to be at anything north of Highway 7 was like, where the heck are you? You know, like, oh. Yeah, so Bolton's like north of 50.

Am I right? Like, is it 50? Highway 50, if you take Highway 50, you'll run into Bolton. You can't miss it. All right. And Milton, not too far from Acton, right? Or is Acton part of Milton? No.

Milton's further south. I'm sounding so ignorant, and I apologize. Except that at this time of year, I know we would go to Acton. Or maybe I was in Milton, I don't know. But we would go somewhere of that nature to pick apples. Like, this is the thing you do. Could have been either one. You know what?

I don't get north of Bloor Street very often. Oh, okay. We're going to have to change. Oh, you know, it depends what's going on up there. I've made the trek all the way to Eglinton for the right reasons. Okay. So local radio rab, you got the five stations. Do you have any insight into Chris Grossman's plans for growth and is Indy-88 like,

okay, I've got my Toronto station? Because there are stations to be acquired. There are some big cable companies and chorus that would be willing to depart to say goodbye to stations in 2025. Like, do you think this is the chance for local radio lab to become the next stingray? Potentially. Honestly, I don't know. No, I'm not.

That's outside my pay grade. You know what? I got to get Chris Grossman on the show. There you go. I'm sure you'd come in. Absolutely. Okay. Will you introduce me to Chris Grossman?

And then I'll really make some big bucks from Bob Bullett when I get Chris Grossman. Oh, there you go? Yeah, I can do that for you. Sure. Okay. So you're still having fun in radio? I am. Absolutely.

After all these years. And it's been, how many years occurred the one? 40 years now, yeah. 40 years now. I'm curious about these four stations I don't ever get a chance to listen to. So Orangeville, Allison, Bolton, and Milton, what kind of music do they play at those stations? I would say it's sort of a light adult contemporary format, family friendly, you know, middle of the road, whatever you want to call it.

But yeah, you know, we're all about the local communities, right? It's about local information, local news. That's where people turn first to find out what's going on. And a lot of people live in these four cities. Like there's a lot of people live in there. Yeah. I mean, population of Bolton's about 30,000.

Orangeville is about 30. Alston's a little bit smaller, but Milton's bigger. It's, I think, around 60 or 80,000. So yeah, I mean, we serve a good population

at each of those markets. Okay, and here's a final question here that is regarding, and probably a question you cannot answer now that I think about it in my head here. But how, like,

how exciting is it for somebody like Chris Gross If in the targeted demographics, he sees that Indy 88 is beating 102.1 the edge. I think he's thrilled. Yeah. Because 102.1. The edge, that's the heritage station. When Indy showed up way before a Grossman's time at the station, but when Indy 88 shows up, they were the great disruptor.

Like, we're coming for a slice of that CFNY pie. Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, I have to say this about Bill Levinov, for example. Bill never let the big guys, when I say the big guys, chorus, Rogers, Bell, whatever, intimidated him. He just, he blaze his own trail and, I mean, you have to admire his success. And so Z-103 will go head to head with, you know, Kiss 92.5. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No, no fear there at all.

And, you know, he just knew. So I don't think personally, and I'm probably cutting myself out a lot of jobs here by saying this, but I don't think I could ever go to work for a big company. That's not me. I've always enjoyed working for independent, you know. What frustrates me is when you have an idea and you want to execute it and you have to go up a chain of 20 people to get approval. Well, you nailed what's the benefit of working for like an Evanoff group

or for a local radio lab is that you can get a one-on-one audience with the owner. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, Christopher comes up to Orangeville, I won't say frequently, but, you know, as often as needed, and we'll sit down one-on-one with the staff, and he's totally open, transparent, you know, and, yeah. Try to get a one-on-one with the owner when you work for Bell Media. I don't think that will work, no. So, Rick, when you were driving here, which I'm really honored, you came all this way. I know it couldn't have been just for the Palma pasta lasagna, although I wouldn't blame you if it was.

Okay, I wouldn't blame you. But Rick, when you were driving here from Caledon, was there a story in you're like, oh, I want to tell this story that I didn't even prompt for. You don't want to be driving home and say, oh, I forgot to tell that story of the time. I don't know. I saved Arnold Schwarzenegger from drowning in Lake Ontario. How'd you hear about that? I witnessed the whole thing. You saw it.

Okay. No, you know what? I think there probably will be something that I'll think of, oh, geez. you know, I didn't bring that up. But you know what? If you're driving home. Okay. And you say, oh, rats.

I just assume you're a guy who would say rats. Yeah, you're not going to swear, right? I forgot to tell Mike about XYZ or, oh, I saw Mark Daly say subdivisions and I saw Getty Lee and I saw Neal Peart and I saw Alex Lifes and sample that for subdivisions. I witnessed it. That happened. If this hits you on the drive home, you come to TMLX, 21 on November 29th at Palmus kitchen, you come on the mic and you can share it with everybody there.

Oh, awesome. So it's like you have a safety net. Perfect. That's great. I feel better now. Well, I feel better having had a fun hour talking about your radio career. And again, if you send me an email and it starts with you likely have never heard of me and I'm not exactly a household name, of course I'm going to book you.

I don't just book famous. I'm not just looking for the Kelly Catreras out there. I want to talk to the Rick Sargent's too. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. And that is your real name, because you'll show me your driver's license in a moment. Absolutely. Can I shout out next week's guests?

Because I think they're kind of radical. You ready? I'm ready. Monday is the return of Ed Conroy, who you might know better as Retro Ontario. Okay. He's in the FOTM Hall of Fame. He's always great. So that's Monday, Retro Ontario.

Tuesday is the return of Arashmadani. Oh. Arashmadani got his pink slip from Raw. a year or two back, and we're going to talk about what happened. So Arashmadani Tuesday morning, that'll be interesting, I am sure. Then on Wednesday, on Wednesday, I have somebody I personally have wanted to talk to for a long time. His name is John Castner, and he was the lead singer for Doe Boys, which was a Montreal band, that I dug in the 90s, and Do Boys, through Scott McCullough, kind of give birth to Rusty, who I shouted

it out earlier. So John Kastner is going to make his Toronto Mike debut. I'm personally excited about that. And then Thursday, it's the return of Alan Zweig. The last time we had Alan Zweig on the mic was at a TMLX event at Palmer's Kitchen when he didn't like Brad Bradford and I talking bike

lanes. And we're going to talk about everything. That's Thursday. So it's quite the week on Toronto mic. Do you listen to Toronto mic to Rick Sargent? I absolutely do. Don't miss an episode. Do you ever listen to Bob Willett on toast? Yes, I have, actually.

Okay, well, let's bring toast to Indy. Do you want it? Oh. We'll talk, okay? Okay. We'll negotiate offline. All right. And that brings us to the end of our 1,780-second show.

Go to Toronto Mike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That is patrons like you. Go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and become a member today. Great Lakes Brewery. Rick, you've got your fresh craft beer. from GLB. I do.

And they did recently advertise on Indy88. That's a fun fact. Very good. Palma Pasta. I've got your lasagna. Nick Iini's is a new episode of Building Toronto Skyline

dropped today. Kindling, welcome to the family, Kinling, Recyclemyelectronics.ca, Blue Sky Agency, Ridley Feudinal Home. See you all next week.