Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Cowan: Toronto Mike'd #859

Episode Date: May 31, 2021

Mike chats with Rob Cowan about his father Bernard Cowan, his cousin Paul Soles, his comedy work with Rick Moranis and his radio career at CKFH and CJCL 1430 where he worked with such radio vets as Bob McCown, Andy Barrie, Mark Hebscher, and Jim Brady.

Welcome to episode 859 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. 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. beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majeski. Or as I call him, Mimico Mike.

He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike. From torontomike.com. And joining me this week is Rob Cowan. Welcome Rob. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Hey, there's the old rock jock voice coming out there. Oh God, I hope not.

So you've, in all your years and all your hours on a microphone, have you ever been in an environment like this before? Never did it outside. I suppose I did commercials outside when at the radio station we were on remote at some event. I suppose we were outside occasionally. Okay, so other than that, but yeah, the recording outside, it came out of the pandemic. But I quite like it. Like when this pandemic ends, assuming it ends,

like I'm going to do this on a nice day like today. I would rather be outside than in the basement studio. Oh, this is great. I mean, we got the sound of seagulls flying over. Yeah, this is the Canada goose I think I saw there in their V formation. But nice to meet you. We've actually met once before. We met at Mark Hebbshire's book launch.

That's right. So was that a memorable, is that a memorable experience for you? What meeting you? Certainly it was. I certainly remember it. Yes. No. And I remember it too. I didn't know who you were.

Do you, do you actually listen to Hebbshire on sports or you just. Occasionally I'll check in with him and we get together from time to time, although it hasn't been possible for the last year or so. I'm wondering if and when the Leafs blow it tonight in Game 7. What will Hebsey have to say on Friday morning? I suspect he'll be his usual acerbic self. I suspect he'll be his usual acerbic self. Nobody's going to give the Leafs a pat on the back if they don't come out of this series.

In my humble opinion, as a long-suffering Leafs fan, this will be the greatest collapse in franchise history, I say. I think it will rival the three goal lead blowing against Boston. I think it surpasses that. To play in third. Yeah, that was like our previous low but I feel like we're going to have a brand new low.

Losing to the Zamboni driver. That's right. That's on the list as well. I was at the game in 1967 when we won the Cup. Okay, you were there. I'm one of the 50,000 people who would claim they were there. But I really was.

And I was sitting in a seat that would eventually be under the bunker of Harold Ballard and King Clancy. Right, I know. So I watched that puck roll right into the empty net in the last minute. Who was it that scored that? Was it Pulford or Armstrong? I'm going to say Armstrong, but I don't remember. I do know, I don't know if you know, you probably know of him, but Peter Gross.

Sure. So Peter Gross tells me he jumped on the ice after that. Like he says he jumped on the ice after that game ended. Anyways, that's a story he tells me. But he's one of those 50,000 people who were there apparently. Oh, yeah. We were all there. So, Rob, we're going to cover your radio career.

I've been teasing this. It's an interesting tease, I think. I said, and you'll have to tell me now if I've been accurate, but you're the first guy to say the call letters CJCL on the air. Absolutely. but you're the first guy to say the call letters CJCL on the air. And you're the last guy to say the call letters CKFH on the air. Correct again. Wow. Although I can't remember what the song was that I introed as CKFH

and extroed as CJCL. But, yeah, I was the first. I remember our new program director was the late Leslie Soul. Oh, yes. And he came into the control room and just said, you can start saying CJCL. Wow. Okay, so we're going to go through this.

So radio nerds, prick up your ears, because this is going to be some interesting stuff. I'm interested in knowing this kind of the 1430 chain because I've read things about, you've mentioned, sorry, what was his name? Soul? Les Soul. Les Soul, right.

I've been reading about Metro 1430. Yes, that was him. And we talk about. That was his baby. That was his baby. So there's a few things we're going to cover and some big names that you worked with, not just big names like Mark Hebbshire and Ken Daniels, but Bobcat and beyond.

So we're going to talk about all this. But first, let's talk for a moment, if you don't mind. We just lost Paul Souls. Yes. Paul Souls, and I'll talk a little bit about how I know Paul, but what's far more interesting is how you know Paul. What's your relation to Paul? Well, I come from a huge family. My father's mother, my grandmother, was one of 11 people, 11 kids, brothers and sisters, eight sisters, three brothers. And my grandmother's brother was Paul's father Arthur Souls so that's the connection that

makes him my father's first cousin and my second cousin and before we go any further who's your father oh that oh that guy my father was uh and is Cowan, who people would be familiar with as the voice of Front Page Challenge, the Pierre Burton Show, and Wayne & Schuster. His friends called him Bunny, right? That's right. Because every time I read about him and a friend is talking about him, it's Bunny Cowan. Yeah, there's no story behind that.

His parents just gravitated toward that. I don't really know the origin of it. It was never a big deal, other than Bunny is an unusual name for a man. Yeah, there's a character in my favorite show of all time. It's called The Wire, and there's a character named Bunny Colvin. Okay.

And I always wondered if Bunny was like a nickname for someone named Bernard or Bernard. I never, sorry, say your father's first name again. Bernard. Bernard. He pronounced it Bernard, not Bernard. Right. I'm going to mess that up today.

But for listeners who want like a super deep dive on your very talented father, there's an episode with Elliot Cowan and Elliot is your brother. And there's loads of Bernard Cowan clips there. That's episode 233. So if you want to hear, we go A to Z on his career. But so please tell me more about, maybe we'll do them together, but I want to hear more about Paul Soles, your cousin, because you mentioned some of his work. Oh, you haven't mentioned your father's work, but tell us a little bit of the work that Paul Soles did that we should be familiar with.

And then I'll just put the cap on this to say, I watch shows on CBC Gem, and I fell in love with this show called My 90-Year-Old Roommate. He is so wonderful. Your cousin's so wonderful in that show. I won't get into the politics of the CBC, but that was a web series it only aired on the web uh i loved it i thought it was brilliant paul was spectacular in it um

i think there was supposed to be more but the money got screwed up and went into somebody's hands that shouldn't have had it. I really can't be quoted on it, but there was only that one season, and I'm trying to remember how many episodes, nine or 12. Not enough. And they varied in length. It wasn't like 24 minutes and six minutes of commercials. A couple episodes were 12 minutes.

Others were 22. It just rolled. And there was obviously no commercial interruptions. And Paul Soles was fantastic. And when I first watched the show, I actually did not realize that that was Paul Soles. Like, I actually didn't know at first. And then it's like you start connecting the dots and you you realize, oh, my goodness, how is this all connected? And, again, I'll shut up and we'll hear from you,

but I will just shout out a show, which I pulled a clip. I might play a little bit of it, but the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon. Because both your father, your father narrates that show, right? I don't remember if there's narration on Spider-Man. My father played all the extraneous voices. Like if some cop was chasing Spider-Man, you'd hear, Stop him! He's getting away! That was my father.

He picked up all those little voices. Mostly, probably, because he didn't have to pay another actor to do it. Right. And Paul Solis plays the voice. He's Peter Parker. have to pay another actor to do it right and paul souls plays the voice he's peter parker he's peter parker and walloping web snapper spider-man your friendly neighborhood spider-man wow and you know the fun fact i always share about the theme song and i'll play a bit clip later but uh that do you know who who recorded the theme song to the spider-Man? Well, I know my dad produced it. I think they went to New York to do it. And that's all I know.

Okay, so it's the... I always get these names mixed up. The Laurie Bower singers. Oh, is that who it is? I didn't even know that. But with... Who's the guy from the House of Freidenstein? It's okay.

Billy Vann? Yes. Right, of course. The greatstein? It's okay. Billy Vann? Yes. Right, of course, the great Billy Vann. So the Billy Vann singer. So Billy Vann's on that jam. Okay. Yeah, he's on that. I worked with Billy.

He was a terrific guy and a very talented guy. So Laurie Bower Singers plus the Billy Vann Singers equals that theme song to 1960's Spider-Man. I did not know that. Okay, tell me as much as you can about Paul Soles, and then we'll segue over to talk about your father, Bunny Cowan. Okay, I don't really know a lot about his early days, but I know he started in London at CFPL

and gravitated to TV out there as well. And my real familiarity with him as a broadcaster was when he was hosting with future Governor General Adrian Clarkson a show called Take 30 on CBC, which aired somewhere between 15 and 20 years. It was on every day at 3 or 3.30 in the afternoon. And he was a public affairs talk show host. And he was fantastic.

He was a consummate broadcaster and extremely talented. The next thing he did, well, what he did during the run of Take 30 was a show called This is the law which was a panel show hosted by austin willis i think among the panelists was hart pomerantz who was partnered with lauren green or not lauren green lauren michaels of saturday night live uh they had Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live. They had their own show called The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour. But the show was a panel show in which the premise was old, obscure, strange laws that were still on the books. Right. And they would cut to a vignette of the quote lawbreaker breaking these obscure laws

and the panel would have to guess what the law was that he broke and paul was the lawbreaker and it was basically pantomime again who knew who knew paul could do this sort of thing and on the side he was doing uh commercial voiceover and then in I guess it was the very early 60s my father got into the cartoon business the uh company known as Videocraft at the time uh had heard that there were terrific radio actors in Toronto. Right. And they were directed to someone who knew all of them and all about them. Excuse me, and that someone was Bernard Cowan. Right. And he

gathered this troupe of wonderful radio actors like John Vernon, Paul Kligman, Peg Dixon, Billy May Richards, a name you have heard. She was the voice of Rudolph in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Right. A whole bunch of people. Alfie Skopp, who, incidentally, I can't give you a history of him. I just found out the other day he's still with us at 102. Wow. Wait, so was he on that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

He was. He played Charlie in the box. Alfie Skopp did. But Paul was, of course, Hermie the Misfit Elf. And what a character, Hermie the Misfit Elf. Probably the most beloved character in that awesome special. Who knew? And that was Paul Soles.

I remember we went over to a friend of the family's house to watch that because they had a color TV. Right, right. We didn't have a color TV yet. And who knew, what is it, 50, 56 years now, that it would be a perennial favorite, a 20th century classic. And, of course, did you,ul was never on this show no well i can tell you uh that none of the actors on that wonderful special have been paid a thing in over 50 years wow

it was just a job at the time they were paid the fee for doing the job they were probably paid for one or two or three extra runs and that was it wow wow okay so uh in this of course this company that i think you gave it the original name, but to shout out the name that everybody knows it as, Rankin Bass, right? Rankin Bass. Right, so VideoCraft becomes Rankin Bass Productions. Well, and I know when I was talking to your brother, we definitely talked about certain sounds, again, that your father would add to that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special.

Here's the voice of the Bumble Snowman. Right, here's the big one the Bumble Snow Mart. Right. Here's the big one there. But here, I'm going to play this. I don't know how this will fly because it's actually, there's a, oh, actually, okay. Yes. Okay. So this is actually not the Spider-Man one.

I'm going to play a bit of Rocket Robin Hood. Okay. I watched, I guess it came on at the right time. I think it was on Global, I want to say at the time. And it was, you know, these shows, I'd watch them as a kid, like in the morning before school, whatever. And just such memories. But here is a bit of Rocket Robin Hood.

Come gather around me, space travelers surround me, heart now to the ballad of Rocket Robin Hood. I may well confound you, astound you, spellbound you With heroes and villains, the bad and the cool Watch now as our rockets race here from afar For now with our Robin we live on a star Three, two, one, blast off! Band of brothers marching together

Heads held high in all kinds of weather With fiery blasts are roaring off his rise Beyond the earth, beyond the skies At the sign of Robin take your stand With the gallant leader of our band, send a joyous shout to all the land for Rockin'. Rockin' Ball! We come from near and distant star to the sound of the galaxy born. I was hoping we'd get some narration because for sure I'm pretty sure your dad narrates this program. With Rocket Robin Hood I was hoping we'd get some narration,

because for sure, I'm pretty sure your dad narrates this program. Oh, yes, absolutely. Rocket Robin Hood. So you're raised in this environment. Your cousin. Oh, yeah, and also, before we leave the fantastic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special that we all watch every year,

a couple of other voice actors, just to shout out here. So Larry Mann. Yes. He's, oh, here's your dad. Yep. His new Sherwood Forest asteroid. Fantastic headquarters of that squash-buckling cosmic highwayman of the 30th century, Rocket Robin Hood.

Yes, here comes the one and only Rocket Robin Hood, gliding through galaxies in his search for star-shattering adventure. The interplanetary villains quiver in their space boots when they hear the merry ring of his laughter and feel the blast of his mighty electro-quarter staff. Rocket Robin Hood. Fun-loving astral adventurer in the astonishing years to come. Wow, I guess if your dad's got a voice like that, you just gravitate towards radio?

Like, how do you end up in radio? From Rocket Robin Hood in the fantastic years to come? I knew when I was very young. My dad hosted the Toronto Symphony Pops concerts on Sunday afternoons on the CBC for I think it was 14, 17 years. And my mother and I would crowd around the old Philco, the radio, the big console

radio, and listen, the big console radio, and listen to the concerts. So I was indoctrinated with classical music at a very young age, and I have a conscious memory from when I was four years old that I connected the dots. The guy I was listening to on the radio was the same person who was tucking me in at night. Wow. I never wanted to be a fireman, a policeman, a professional athlete, a doctor.

I always knew. Always. It was my blessing and my curse because I can't do anything else. We're going to dive into this. Last guy I'm going to shout out from the cast of Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, Carl Bannis. Carl Bannis, who was familiar to many people as the evening voice of CKFM Radio 99.9 in Toronto. And he was a wonderful radio host, but a very talented voice artist too.

Wow. He was the foreman in Santa's elf workshop. Yeah, the guy in charge of your cousin, I suppose. The head elf. That's right. He was the head elf. So really, other than Burl Ives, who I guess they import in because he's a big name or whatever,

everybody else is Toronto-based? Is that close enough? Yes, yes. That's wild. I think that's why. I think when we watch that show, most of us who watch it, we don't even consider that, but that Rankin-Bass special being so homegrown and your dad playing such a key role in that, and of course your cousin as well.

Well, he knew all these wonderful actors, and as I said, Rankin-Bass had heard that they were here. And if you listen to the performances, particularly on Rudolph, these people know what they're doing. No doubt. And they worked with him on some of the other cartoon series as well, like Rocket Robin Hood, and Professor Kitzel,

and Tom of THUMB, King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, The New Adventures of Pinocchio. There were a lot of... Some old school Iron Man. Iron, well, all the Marvel. Right, right.

All of the Iron Man. That was John Vernon. Okay, yeah. Was he not the principal or the dean in the animal house John Vernon. Okay, yeah. Was he not the principal or the dean in Animal House? He absolutely was, yeah. And Jack Creeley, who was a well-known Shakespearean actor, played the mighty Thor, I think. Wow.

Oh, I'm just trying to remember some of them. Yeah, there was Thor and the Hulk. Yeah, and we talked about Spider-Man. He's a Marvel guy, so yeah, we talked about Spider-Man. And Keith Rich was Captain America, who was a longtime host at CKEY in Toronto, and later at CJCM. So you are four years old,

and you know what you want to be when you grow up. So how do you make it happen? And how are you, you just inherited those pipes from your old yeah i inherited the pipes uh one of the best lines i ever heard was from my father i uh introduced him to speak as i was emceeing my brother's bar mitzvah and i introduced him and the first thing out of his mouth was it's like listening to a mirror wow isn't that a great line that is fantastic yes and i used to uh confuse my grandmother i would i would call her daily at uh. We used to come home from school at lunchtime. Back in those days.

And she would not know whether it was me or her little boy. Right. That was always fun. But, yeah, like I say, knowing what I wanted to do was a gift and a curse. Part of the gift was probably knowing what I wanted to do was a gift and a curse. Part of the gift was probably knowing what I wanted to do probably played a part in the development of my voice. But yeah, I'm sure knowing my brother, we both look a lot like him, particularly Elliot. And I'm the one who got to sound like him.

So what's your first stop in radio? My first stop, and I didn't take advantage. You know, I probably could have got a job at the CBC, you know, even sweeping floors. I could have got in in Toronto, but I knew that wasn't the way to do it. I could have got in in Toronto, but I knew that wasn't the way to do it. And I knew just from working with my father pretty much after my voice changed. I guess I was 16 or so when I started paying attention to getting ready to begin. And I would gather newspaper copy and magazine commercial copy and I would read them aloud and read them into a tape recorder and

my father would assess and evaluate and I learned that it's not something you can really teach. As articulate as he was at conveying ideas, it's really about developing your own ear. And while it can't necessarily be taught, it's certainly something that can be learned. And it takes a long time to learn it.

They say it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to get good at it. Right. And I subscribe to that because I pretty much sound the same as I do now as I did after working for about seven years. At that point, I reached whoever I was going to be on the air, At that point, I reached whoever I was going to be on the air, and that made it possible to do that every day, no matter the circumstances.

So what are the first call letters you spit into a mic? What's the first time you, what are the first call letters? The first real call letters, or the first playing around with a tape recorder call letters? Real call letters. CHTM in Thompson, Manitoba. Okay, TM, that could be toronto mic that could have been my station so that's in manitoba yes okay and uh oh yeah i sent out uh audition tapes with my own tape recorder and uh turntable i manufactured a little radio show that consisted of a newscast, introing a song, reading a commercial, and saying goodbye, basically.

It was just a basic, you know, about a minute and a half long. And I sent that out to only small stations all across the country, from Nova Scotia to Kamloops, B.C. And the intent was whoever said yes first got me. I got a call. It was in June from a fellow named Andy Shepard, and he offered me a job. Wow. I said, when do you need me said yesterday i said i've got two

weeks of school left it's finishing high school right okay high school wow he let me finish and away i went one of my i think it was my first plane ride i got off the plane on the tarmac of thompson airport which had just installed a runway system that could accommodate jets this is 1972 right right and i walked out the door and it was snowing on June 17th. Wow. Welcome to Manitoba. Welcome to the great white north. Yeah. And I spent a year there and that was school. Right.

You cut your teeth there. Absolutely. And we did everything. Put in your reps. That's the best, right? When you have an opportunity to touch all the parts and learn on the fly there. So how long are you in Manitoba? I was there for almost exactly a year and had a great time.

Made a friend in a guy whose actual name is Wolfgang Fritsche. He went by the air name Mel Corey. he went by the air name mel cory okay and now for over 30 35 years he's been a morning man at um well they just changed their brand uh from bob fm to right what is i know what you're going with it's uh not the beat. What is it called? Something like that. I know. I just lost it myself.

No, it's not fresh. Yeah. What are they... Bounce. Bounce, that's it. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, all the Bell Media stations have been rebranded as Bounce. So he's still there.

His name is Buster Bodine. He's... Well. His name is Buster Bodine. He's, well, he owns. He's the man there. He's Radio Mornings in Winnipeg. And he and I are still friends. Good. It'll be 50 years next year. Wow.

Okay, so where's your stop after Manitoba? From Manitoba, I went to Guelph, Ontario, just down the road from Toronto. And I spent a year there at SeaJoy, C-J-O-Y, doing the evening shift. And then a friend of mine called me. This friend is somebody i grew up with went to camp with for about 10 years i'm talking about rick moranis wow a childhood buddy and we we ended up being a

comedy team which we can get into later yeah rick was doing swing fill-in at ckfh and said they need an afternoon guy so i sent uh an application in they were very short-staffed at the time and instead of just going by the demo i provided i was invited to come in to do the shift. The tryout. As a live audition. Right. Do the four-hour shift, three to seven. Right.

And see what happened. CKFH is at 1430 on the dial. CJOY was at 1460. And you could barely hear it, but you could hear it in Toronto. And you could certainly hear CKFH in Guelph. And I was scared to death. I thought they were going to find out

that I was working at another radio station. And if I didn't get the job at CKFH, I would lose the job at CJOY for trying to get the job at CKFH, I would lose the job at CJOY for trying to get the job at CKFH. But I got the job. So after only being two years in the boonies, in the smaller markets, I ended up getting back to my hometown, the Big Smoke. And I was at CKFH for several years. Okay, let's talk about the CKFH,

because for the younger listeners, and by that I literally mean guys my age and younger, let us know, what does the FH stand for in CKFH? That's Foster Hewitt. So how hands-on, I'm just, so Foster Hewitt, he owns the station? Yes. I don't know all of the minutiae, but it was in the early 50s, and Foster was the voice of hockey in Canada.

And he wanted a venue, a vehicle, a platform on which to broadcast hockey games. So he started his own radio station. And the funny thing about it was all he cared about was the three, four hours of hockey. Right, right. The rest of the programming was not in his wheelhouse. I mean, he sort of pretended it was, but the station did not spend money unless it was on hockey

and the hockey broadcasts. So we were very much like WKRP in Cincinnati. But, oh, my God, did we have fun. Well, this is what I'm interested in because uh like i was tipped off for example about the rick moranis comedy team which we're gonna have to touch on but uh that was hebsey who tipped me off so could you name check if you don't mind who are some of the broadcasters you worked with at ckfh 1430 well the other jocks i certainly remember were a guy named Mal Ferris in the morning. Okay.

Al Kingdon came in to do middays around the same time I came in to do afternoon drive. And basically, we were the only jocks. Okay. Just the four of us. You know, later there were guys like brian barker and andy neal john gilbert did a stint at ckfh larry solway uh filled in from time to time but the the jocks were basically mel ferris al kingdon rob gowan and uh later a guy named country don rickerby and of course when i started rick was still doing uh swing ship fill of fillings is that before he goes to chum fm long before long

before okay so tell me what's the format of ckfh like what are you playing there i could tell you that i probably hold the record for going through the most formats at one station ever. Do you mind running them down? So you're talking 1430, right? So from the beginning of your career at 1430 to the last time you're on the air at 1430, run down the different formats if you don't mind. I'll try. It started as an oldies day, and we were just playing oldies.

Okay. So it was 60s and 70s music, and I guess we were playing some 50s. I was never a fan of 50s music, but that's what we were doing, and that was 1974. In 1975, on a Monday, or no, it was on a Tuesday, somebody came in and said, midnight tonight, we're going country. And we all thought, oh my God, that's it, we're out. I'm not a country jock.

I hated country music. Right. It was all twanging and whining back then. It was, you know, Loretta Lynn and... Tammy Wynette. Yeah, exactly. George Jones. Exactly.

Whiners. Conway Twitty. The country music... Hello, darling. Yeah, it was whining. And I never liked to steal guitar. It just hit my ears wrong. But it was the job, so I became a country jock.

So we were doing that for a couple of years, and then one day, I guess he was either president or general manager at the time, another familiar name, Ron Hewitt. Not Hewitt, Hewatt. Right. No relation, no connection other than the names are similar, but they are not the same. And he was running the place at the time,

and he walked into the control room one afternoon with a cart, a cartridge on which you would play one song on a cart. And then you wouldn't have to worry about scratches or skipping or anything. It was on tape. Right. In a self-contained little cartridge, like an 8-track cartridge. Right. And he handed me this cart and said, play this next.

And I don't know, I had Johnny Paycheck on a turntable. Right. And I looked down at this label, and it says, My Life by Billy Joel. Now, that's not a country song. No, sir. All Ron said to me was, play this next. So I did, and the next thing you know we started getting more contemporary songs and then at that very time country music started to

i don't know what the word is i don't't want to say civilized. Crossover? Well, it came... Because Kenny Rogers would play both sides of the fence. Yeah. Exactly. There were crossover. They started to crossover, not to rock. To pop, though. Yeah.

Now I think country music is what we used to refer to as rock. But we started playing songs by people like Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gale. And the, oh, there were brothers. Larry Gatlin. Gatlin, yeah. The Gatlin boys. Yes, the Gatlin brothers.

Yeah, so things started to contemporize in country music. And it got decent. And we even started to move in the ratings. But the longer we did it, the more it started gravitating back to contemporary soft rock. And then Foster sold the station. Okay. When Foster sold the station. Okay. When Foster sells the station,

does that right away mean the call letters change, or no, someone else just owns CKFH? Well, that's what happened. Okay. A company called Telemedia bought the station from Foster, and they changed the call letters. And the call letters don't mean a thing. I remember asking.

I think they just like the way the J and the L looked like, you know, they were sort of backwards mirror images of each other. Well, CJCL, it does roll off the tongue nicely. No, you don't think so? The best call letters I ever said or got to say and are probably in my mind the best call letters ever are cftr yeah okay listen to how that rolls off cftr okay so so you're at okay so just so i'm at cjcl now yes and uh having made that crossover one day from CKFH to CJCL. And you're the guy, of course, as we said off the top,

you're the guy who says CKFH for the last time, and you're the first guy to say CJCL on the air. Exactly, and I don't have a copy of it. I don't have a tape of it. And you don't remember that last song? No, I don't. That's the fun fact stuff we're looking for here. Okay.

I do remember the, I'm pretty sure that the last song played on the station when it was rock before we switched to country at 1157 p.m. We're going country at midnight tonight was Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. Okay. There you got that. I remember. That one I remember. And I think the first country song on CKFH at midnight was Johnny Paycheck and take this job and shove it.

That makes sense. Shout out to Johnny Paycheck. Okay, so now CJCL is now the call letters at 1430. I'm curious because we mentioned it off the top, when does the Metro experiment occur? Okay, well, when Telemedia bought the station, they brought in their own management team. Among them was Les Sowell, as I said,

who they stole from CFTR. Right. And he brought a number of people from CFTR with him. Trying to remember Larry Silver. Yeah. J. Michael Phillips. Connie Sinclair,

who was Gordon Sinclair's granddaughter. And some others. That might have been all the CFTR people. And of course, the new morning man was going to be Jim Brady, Brady in the morning from CFTR. Right. He was hired, and his contract at CFTR forbid him from working in the market for six months after he left CFTR and Rogers. Uh, so during that interim, he was sort of hands-on from a distance,

certainly not on the air. And, uh, for a little while, uh, the first several weeks of those six months, I was asked to do the morning show, and it was horrible. I am a night person. What time did you have to wake up for that shift? Well, if I was doing it like a normal person, I would have had to get up at 3.30, 4 in the morning, but I couldn't do it, So I stayed up all night. Oh, man.

I turned my clock around by 12 hours. So 7 p.m. became 7 a.m. And I would sleep. I'd get off the air at 9 or 10 in the morning. And I'd go to bed at 11 or 12 noon, which was like midnight for me. Right. noon which was like midnight for me right of course when the rest of the world operates between 9 a.m and 5 p.m there were days on which i got very little sleep you know you got things to do you got to go shopping got to go to the dentist you got a doctor's appointment you got

another job to do a meeting uh lunch with a friend It was a very difficult existence. And, uh, I, I think I only lasted about eight weeks and then I went and, uh, did my, what became my regular shift, which was middays on Metro 1430. Okay. So I'm very interested in this lineup, okay, at Metro 1430, because it's kind of a powerhouse. I mean, really. And as I understand, maybe you'll go into this, but I've asked Hebsey about this, like why didn't this work out. Why don't you name check some of these huge names that were involved

with the lineup at Metro 1430 here? There's some big boys here. Oh, you want me to name them? I thought you had them. You do your best and then I'll fill in the things. For example, how about this? FOTM, fellow FOTM, John Donabee. He's on the air at Metro,

right? No? If he was, it was after I left. Don't forget, I wasn't there for very long after Metro 1430 happened. Okay. Okay. So I feel like Donabee was there.

I feel like he was there. Well, I remember Donabee being there, but I think it was still CKFH at the time. He was definitely a CKFH jock, but he may have come back. I think he came back. And you mentioned Jungle Jim Brady, but what about Andy Berry? Is he involved? Andy Berry, we stole him from CFRB, and he did his regular midday talk show.

So these are some powerhouses. Donabee, Berry, and I think... Tom Fulton. Okay. Grant Forsyth. Grant Forsyth, who I remember listening to on Chum. He was a Chum newsman in the early 60s, I remember him, before Dick Smythe.

That's the way I see it. Okay. And a young John Oakley is there? He was doing the all-night show. That's right. Okay, young John Oakley. And here's a couple of... Jerry Forbes was there.

Right. Oh, my goodness. Well, there's a gentleman named Mark Hebbshire, I think, is involved. Sure. No, Mark basically replaced Bob McCowan. Right. Okay, so let's not bury the lead here. What was Bob McCowan doing at the station?

Bob started at CKFH as a salesman he i don't even know if he had ever been on the air and then he got this whim to do a sports talk show he wanted to do a sports phone and show we were the sports station we carried um i was about to say Blue Jays games, but they weren't there yet. We were carrying Expos games. Right. And, of course, hockey. So we were already, CKFH was already well-known as a sports station. Right. And this is long before it became the fan.

Bob was doing sales, and he went to management and said, let me do this, uh, show, you know, seven to eight o'clock or six to seven, whatever it was, you know,

this is a call in show. So yeah, I rate fans phone and show. Yeah. And, uh, Bob developed this character of being a schmuck, right?

Where he berated everybody and hung up on them and told them they were idiots and morons. You know, it was a thing. A schtick, yeah. So he invented sports talk radio in Canada. In Canada, right. Right. And like so many others, he priced himself out of work. He, does he go to Global himself out of work. He,

does he go to global after that? Yes. Yes. Okay. Cause Pepsi, Pepsi keeps following him, right? Cause yeah,

that's exactly right. No, Bob went, uh, and this was after I had left the station. I'm, I'm trying to remember what he did between CKFH and global and and global and i don't remember uh but he started the first nightly sports highlight show right that was sportsline on global they were the first show

to ever do that and he's the original host of and bob was the original host of sportsline he was the original host of Sportsline. He was the original host of a sports phoning show on radio. Right. And after he finished up with Sportsline, I don't remember why he left. But yeah, Hebsey followed him in there with Jim Taddy and carried on the tradition. Bob established the format of the show. I mean, you know, it runs itself. All you need is highlights from that night's activities. So, okay, we know Bob McCowan is a guy,

he puts on a mask when he has his cranky pants persona, okay, and he's on the air. I think I read an article in Sportsnet article where, like, I can't imagine how tough that would be, like, because when I'm talking to you now on these, this is a podcast, a whole different time and era, but this is me off the mic and on the mic there's no mask i can't imagine having to which mask am i putting on now but how was bobcat off the air at this time like was he a was he nice guy what do you remember about bob here's what i'll say about bob He's very talented. He's very ambitious.

And he can be very arrogant. But generally speaking, he is not that guy on the air. He's not a prick. He's not that curmudgeon cranky pants or whatever that person is. I mean, he can be acerbic, but he's not the guy that you heard or saw on the air. He's a very nice guy, and he's a family guy, and he's got kids, and he's got a young daughter. He's got grown kids. I think he's a grandfather now.

He's a regular guy. For what it's worth, and it's not worth much, I have a feeling we might see bob mccowan back at 590 uh where cjc i have a feeling that by by labor day possibly now just here to start rumors now of course but possibly by labor day mccowan's the afternoon drive show on cjcl again well i hesitate to speculate, but I'd bet against that. Okay, I like this, so we'll see. We'll reconvene in early

September. Isn't he on a stay? Isn't he doing a show nightly or weekly in Mississauga? He has his podcast, which A Station in Mississauga airs. They just press play on his podcast. It would be like if A Station aired this Toronto Mike. It's not quite the same thing, and I don't think any money changes hands,

to be quite honest. Really? Yeah. Like, I'm pretty familiar with that model. But Bob is on Saga 960, his podcast airs. But I personally am of the opinion that that podcast is fresher and on demand and sounds better without commercial breaks

earlier in the day. So who the heck is tuning into a terrestrial station to hear it? That's what I would like to know. You know, I've been out of radio so long. You make a good point. It's people stuck in their car. If you're stuck in your car.

And that's what it was when I was on the radio too. You counted on those people who were in their car. But now it's not just people stuck in their car. It's actually people who have yet to discover uh bluetooth on their smartphone so this is there is an audience yes it's typically uh they're gray-haired white-haired audience uh younger people are pretty they press the button and they're streaming on their uh car stereo with from their smartphone sure that's what the you know but there is an audience there who hasn't quite set that up or is kind of maybe a little intimidated by that whole process who just

wants to tune in a terrestrial radio station and have entertaining noise come out of the speakers. So that's sort of the sweet spot I think for sports radio in general. So Bob McCowan, he's there. Mark Hempshire takes over for Bob and he does that same Colin style show

on 1430. I believe for a while he did. I believe I was gone by then. Okay. There was no sports phone-in show. When Bob left, the show left. I honestly don't remember. I think it's a post-Blue Jay game.

Maybe he did something. When the Jays arrived, that's 77. Yes. Bob, by the way, of course, is the first PA announcer at the Exhibition Stadium. That's right. But when the Jays arrive, and of course, telemedia has the Jays games on 1430. I don't know what they called it then. I don't think it was called Jays Talk.

But whatever the call is. Okay, Jays Talk. So that's Hebsey. He's doing Jays Talk for a while anyways on 1430. Hey, I'm going to play something from you, and you'll tell me when this is from. But I had Ken Daniels on the show last month, I want to say. I feel like a few weeks ago, about a month ago. And Ken Daniels had uncovered all these tapes he had kept from his career at 1430, etc. And he was excited to play some clips. And he told me some of the funniest clips he ever

had from his 1430 days were involving a jock named Rob Cowan. This is kind of how this all comes together here. So I'm going to play the bank robbery first. So I guess this is Foster Hewitt calling a bank robbery. Well, this actually happened. Foster was in the bank downstairs at number one Grenville Street. I think it was a Royal Bank or a Bank of Commerce. Okay.

This is right at Yonge and College. Sure. And he was in the bank when it was robbed. And I think there's a preamble on it. Do you have any idea what year we're talking about here? Oh, it's got to be 75, 76. Okay, wow. So, and, okay, so Ken is at the station at that time.

What's Ken doing? Sports updates? Yeah. Okay. So here's you. Here we go. A kind of distraction a superstar of Foster Hewitt's magnitude could have provided in a bank robbery. All of a sudden, from the holdup, three men have come in.

They're in through the door now. They're coming in over the line. They're not in. They're in through the door now. They're coming in over the line. They're not waiting. They're in over the counter. Now they're fanning out, and they're there. And now one of them pulls out a gun. He shoots. He scores!

$3,000 in cash. And if he leaves his name, he'll be eligible for the Planter's Power Play, which will be coming up since there'll be penalties here, probably major penalties for all of them for high sting. Hello. Oh, there he goes. So thank you, Ken Daniels, for that audio. Oh, my goodness.

You did a good Foster Hewitt there. Yeah, that was that sort of Foster Hewitt sort of gets us into the part of my story with Rick Moranis. Okay, let's hear that because. Well, I'll just tell you that the bank robbery. Yeah. Foster was, I don't want to say reclusive. He was shy. He didn't, he was not very hands-on with the station.

He signed all the checks, but he did not run the place and made very few appearances in the actual radio station. He'd be across the hall in his office, and later he actually moved his office down the street. So he was never in the station. down the street so he was never in the station and i remember uh years earlier there was a thing on 10 50 chum called faster foster and faster foster's father as in foster hewitt and his son bill hewitt right and they would um write little blurbs to go around excerpts from songs that were on the Chum playlist. And they called it a radio cartoon.

And I believe it was Gary Ferrier who was doing an impression of Foster. And it wasn't a very good impression. The overall idea of parodying a hockey broadcast was the premise. And the rumor was that Foster was very upset. And he got lawyers to send a cease and desist order. And the Toronto Maple Leafs chum radio cartoon was removed. Wow. So the idea of me doing an impression of Foster Hewitt on his radio station was a little daunting and I don't know what possessed me to attempt it other than I believed I did a pretty good impression of him.

to attempt it other than I believed I did a pretty good impression of him. Well, you did it more than once. Yes. Set up this, it's a rather long clip. I don't know if I'll play it all, but we'll start it up anyway. Oh, you've got to play it all. Okay, I'll play it all. Set up the tennis clip. Again, it was just an opportunity to imitate Foster.

Nothing happened the first time. Either nobody heard it or nobody cared, or they liked it and just didn't say so. But I produced this one. We put some audio filtering on it to make it sound like it was on the radio and added some crowd noise. And back then, the Canadian Tennis Open

was called the Rothmans International Tennis Tournament. I don't think the tennis center at York University had even been built yet. And if there was one there, it's certainly not there anymore. And Bob McCowan was doing afternoon sports at the time. He would do the 3, 4, 5, and 6 o'clock sports. And then he would do his one or or two hour call-in show talking of sports at seven o'clock uh that was the original name of primetime sports by the way talking of sports um so bob was uh doing the sports cast and he knew this was coming

it might even have been his idea to do it but we did it and here it is now let's go to the Coliseum for a special tennis report hello everyone we're here downtown in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition in the Coliseum for the Rossman International Tennis Tournament. Here, it's a good match, and we're just getting set for another game. Jimmy Connors, the number one seed here against Ili Nastassi of Romania. Nastassi is kind of a tough name.

Not as tough as Ivan Kanoyer, but we'll have to make do. So they're getting set. They're just volleying now, getting ready and warmed up. Their rackets are in their heads. And now, here we go. It's Connors. He's got the ball. He winds up, and he shoots.

Oh, it's right in the net. So that's going to be a fault. The ball wasn't his fault. You got to think it's the first time ever that a fly got on the ball and took a little something off it, and it hit the net right in the center. So they'll do it all over again. Now Connors gets that again. He takes the ball. He throws it up in the air, and there's the shot. It's over the net. Now the assassin's got it. He shoots it back. That was a good shot. Right on. And Connors sends it right back over the net again. Now, Sassy's got

it. He shoots it over the net. And Connors, again, with an overhand smash, is right on the baseline. Oh, he scores! Connors with a great winning shot right on the baseline and it went out right over the wall and into the crowd. So Connors now leads 1-0. Oh, it's 15? He gets 15 points for one score?

Oh, boy, it's a high scoring game. Wonderful. Well, we'll have to come back later. Bob McCown will have to come back later. Bob McCown will have the results of this match on his report tonight at 7 o'clock. I don't recall the name, but that voice is familiar. And that, of course, is a young Bob McCown at the end there. And the funny thing is I'm listening closely in the headphones here,

and the way Ken Daniels does this is he has these tapes, like they're cassettes, and he doesn't have any way to make the cassette digitized. So he plays the cassette and he records it on his iPhone. Okay. That's how he's capturing it. And I can hear someone's doing dishes in the background. That's Ken Daniels' home. Someone's doing the dishes there. Very good. Now, before we get you, so now you're leaving 1430. I got to check in because you mentioned CFTR, man, which I love. And then I guess there's a return, but I need to give you some gifts because you made your way to my backyard. It's a beautiful day. I love doing these episodes in person. Here we are a safe distance apart.

Did you get your shot yet, though? You vaccinated? I've got one, yeah. You got one. I got one too here. So we're good. We're good. We're close and we're doing well.

So thank you for making the trip to the Backyard Studio. Much better than Zoom. I'm so tired of Zoom. I'm tired of Zoom too. That's why I offered to come to you. Amazing. Okay, so here's some gifts. Where do I begin?

Ridley Funeral Home has sent over some hand sanitizer to keep you safe there. Oh, isn't that nice? So there's a bottle of hand sanitizer. Thank you for your support, Ridley Funeral Home has sent over some hand sanitizer to keep you safe there. Oh, isn't that nice? So there's a bottle of hand sanitizer. Thank you for your support, Ridley Funeral Home. They've been pillars of the community since 1921. Palma Pasta sent over a large frozen meat lasagna. Ooh. So the best authentic Italian food you can buy in a store in the GTA.

They're in Mississauga and they're in Oakville. Shout out to palmapasta.com. I want to give some love to Mimico Mike. He's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Go to realestatelove.ca and reach out to Mimico Mike if you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months and let Mimico Mike know that Toronto Mike sent you. I know that's confusing.

Write that down. Okay, so shout out to Mimico Mike know that Toronto Mike sent you. I know that's confusing. Write that down. Okay, so shout out to Mimico Mike. StickerU.com, on top of the pasta box, there is a Toronto Mike sticker. And that was sent over by StickerU.com if you're looking for stickers or decals. You can't do any better. They're in Liberty Village, but it's e-commerce.

So available everywhere in the world. And last but not least fresh just picked it up uh craft beer from great lakes brewery uh delicious if this was an afternoon recording i would definitely be cracking one open right now and that's a little chance for me to say that on thursday evening stew stone and cam gordon will be in the backyard studio we're kicking out the wrestling jams and i'll definitely crack open a beer or two that night. That's going to be fantastic. But glad you're here.

You've got parting gifts. What's the stop for you, Rob, after CJCL? Where do you go? For not very long, I was out of work. And then my friend Rick Moranis called. Hey, good. This will be a good way because I want to hear how that came to be. And then you have to tell us about this comedy troupe.

That's amazing. Rick Moranis from SCTV. That's kind of awesome that at this time you're performing comedy with him in any regard. That's amazing. Well, the CFTR story is short. He said, call Bob Saint at CFTR. They're looking for a guy.

I did, and the short story is I got the job, and I worked at CFTR for about a year and a half doing overnights and fill-in. Okay, and this is early eight? Where are we now in the year? This is 82. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Where are we now in the year? This is 82. Okay. Gotcha.

Gotcha. So is Tom Rivers there yet? Or no, he's still, is he there? No, you know who was there was the very famous John Records Landecker. Right. Right. Gotcha. Okay.

Who was just, any rock and roll DJ will tell you that John Landecker is a hero of theirs. He's in the Hall of Fame, right? He's in the, is there a DJ Hall of Fame? What is there? Recently, in the last couple of years. And in fact, he retired, and I think he's back on the air nightly. And he's in his mid-70s now, I think. Good for him.

But he sounds exactly the same. So why a short stint at CFTR? It's just the way the business goes. You know, they needed to cut back. I was the junior guy, and I left. Well, you're nobody in radio if you don't get fired a few times, right? Exactly. I know very few people who weren't fired at least once

right you can even argue because people always like to bring up who wasn't fired and I like to say if he could don't you think Roger Ashby would still be on the air there's no question in my mind so it all depends on how are you defining fired you don't quit a career after 39

years you do it after 40 he and Gord Martineau were asked to leave. And, you know. But the thing is, it was clear Gord was asked to leave, but they spun the Rogers thing as a retirement. And I don't actually, I don't like it when they, I know why they do it. I just think it's so disingenuous when somebody

who wants to stay on the air is suddenly retired. Like, you know, it's just like decorating the word, you know, fired. retired. Like, you know, it's just like, uh, decorating the word,

you know, fired. Well, there are others, uh, who had been there decades who were escorted to the door one day. Uh, like Ingrid Schumacher.

I'm just like, but yeah, who, that's who I was. Okay. Yeah. Because, uh,

she, you know, she helped train Rick Moranis on, uh, 104. Cause she came over here, uh, to do an episode and she told me about training Rick Moranis on the board Because she came over here to do an episode.

And she told me about training Rick Moranis on the board. On the board. You've got to learn the board. Right. Yeah, because 1050 Chum had operators, control room producers, to handle the board. And the jocks sat in the announce booth. Chum FM was announce op. Although I don't think Roger operated his own show.

Rick was there doing afternoon drive for a while, and I think he operated his own show. But every jock knows how to operate a board. At some time or another, we've all been board ops. And some still do. I know Stu Jeffries just popped on for this Pandemic Friday I was doing, and I know he's the only guy in that room uh all morning on boom so okay so so how the heck are you doing comedy with rick moranis how does that come to be well rick and i as i said we went to

camp summer camp camp new moon in baysville ontario okay for uh nine or ten summers. And I guess we met in 1965. We were 12 years old and we just sort of gravitated to each other and became really good friends. Um, we were doing stick in our early teens. Uh, uh, summer camps often gather the whole group in the camp together and do an all-day program like you know they'll hold an olympiad like in meatballs exactly exactly my favorite

camp movie love meatballs yeah are you ready for summer yeah some great people in that. That's one of Bill Murray's best roles. I don't think he got enough credit for it. Probably because the movie didn't get as much credit as it deserved. But Bill was perfect. And that was filmed here, right? It was filmed at Camp White Pine in Halliburton. Halliburton, gotcha. Love it.

Love that movie. Love it, too. Allah burden, gotcha. Love it. Love that movie. Love it, too. Anyway, to announce that these all-day programs, these Olympiads, to announce that these events were taking place,

we would do what was referred to as a break for an all-day program. At mealtime, the whole camp would gather around the flagpole, settle down, and then orderly make our way into the dining hall. But occasionally, these gatherings were interrupted by people coming out on the roof of the dining hall to announce these events were going to take place. This particular one was the, we referred to it as the Camp New Moon Interstellar Solar Sestinium, a big Olympic event. And we came out as king and queen of the universe, Morris and Cecily.

And we looked like clowns. We were in these elaborate costumes. So that's how we started out together, doing bits like that. Flash forward to 1975. Yeah. And we're watching, I don't remember, there was some CBC show. The TV happened to be on. We were probably sitting there getting herbed up or some other such thing.

We were probably sitting there getting herbed up or some other such thing. And they did a feature on this comedian by the name of Larry Horowitz. Yes, I know this name. Yes. Yes. And he was a year or two younger than Rick and I, but we knew him well, and he's a stand-up comic, and we just looked at each other and said, if he can do that, we can do that.

I'm trying to think. I think he's from that scene with Simon Rakoff and even Ralph Ben-Murray, I think, the old Yuck Yucks, because he was working at Yuck Yucks for a while back in the... Larry was, yeah. Well, Larry, yeah,

but I think Ben-Murray had a time there. I think that's where I know the stories about Larry Horowitz, I think. And then I'm thinking of guys like Simon Rakoff and John Wing, John Wing Jr. Anyway, I'm just throwing names out now. I don't know all those guys. Yeah, I think they were all part of that scene.

So you're kind of like, maybe you're the reason Rick Moranis became such a global superstar in the comedy realm. I'm not going to take credit for his. But have you kept in touch with him at all? Because I'm waiting for Scorsese to get off his butt and finish up this SCTV reunion special that he filmed years ago.

And Rick's in that. No, I don't think he is. I think that was the big, that was the one he did. He decided to do? He did do that, yeah. At the Winter Garden Elgin Theater, whatever that place is called.

I just, I don't know the details. Rick and I had a falling out and drifted apart. I've actually been in touch with him in the last year. Okay. But he lives in New York, and we live here. And I don't think the rift has ever been healed.

And I won't get into the details of that, but suffice it to say that we went many years without any communication at all. He phoned me when my father passed away in 1990, and that was sort of the road back, and I visited him at the Shiva following his own father's passing. And the reunion was like Jerry Lewis and martin on the telethon right years ago but we i don't think we've seen each other since we've been in touch a couple of times

but uh that's all but uh back then we were brothers we were thick as thieves spent most of our time together and we were watching larry and said if he can do that we can do that and we set about writing a an act and it turned out to be about 45 minutes of rapid fire yeah material parodying Canadian television which opened with a late night talk show hosted by Foster Hewitt right that was the first thing in our act

Foster was Johnny Carson hello Canada and talk show fans in the United States we're here and so let's check the United States. We're here. And so let's check the news. Bobby or his wife is having a baby. Isn't that nice? And,

uh, with all the technology they have these days, not only can they tell you what sex the child will be, but they can tell you what position he'll play. So sometime next fall, Peggy or is going to give birth to an eight pound two ounce goalie and they're going to call him either that's either or may dick duff on your lawn so do you remember the whole thing the whole act yeah probably i could probably recite the whole act.

Record that for me and I'll release it in a while. Rick did some wonderful impressions of Gordon Lightfoot and Murray McLaughlin and Stomp and Tom Connors. And we did a Wayne and Schuster parody. We did a game show parody. It was really fast, rapid fire, and really funny. Wow. And one night we went down to Gene Taylor's Improv,

which was downstairs in the lounge at the old Friars Tavern, which later became the Hard Rock at Dundas Square and Young. Of course. I think it's a shopper's drug mart now. Right. But back then it was a nightclub. And local TV personality, city tv personality gene taylor ran an improv in that space and we came down on a friday or saturday night and uh asked if we could go on well you don't go to a comedy club, having never been there before,

on a Friday or Saturday night, and expect to get on. Right. We didn't know that. But he knew who we were. Oh, wow. I mean, he didn't know us, but he was aware that we were both on the radio in Toronto. We were legitimate showbiz people. So he said, I can't let you on until the end.

And we got up on that stage at 1 o'clock in the morning after everybody else had performed, and we killed. Whoa. It just was nuts. And I think part of the success of that particular performance was there was a guy right in the front. And this was not chairs. It was not a theater setting.

It was a lounge setting. It was like a big living room with couches and easy high-back chairs. It was very comfortable and right on a couch right at the lip of the stage were a couple of drunk guys who'd been enjoying the show all evening right and had just gotten last call and this guy was heckling. And I stepped out of character, went to the front of the stage, looked down to him, and I said, Look, I need you like I need pus in my eye. And the place went nuts.

This guy comes up on the stage and starts doing the bowing thing. I'm apologizing. And it was early in the act. So that incident, we owned them already. And they just loved what we did. And for the next year, we were on every radio and TV show that there was. Wow. The problem was we were five years too early.

This was well before Yuck yucks and a comedy circuit right uh you know the the big uh uptake of stand-up comedy which happened which happened later uh especially uh here in canada but it happened later in the States too. We were just a little bit early. But you know what a great talent Rick is. And Rick never wanted really to be a performer. He backed into it. He backed into it on the radio. He backed into it as a comic, as an actor.

If he wanted to be anything, it was a writer. And he was the impetus for most of our act. We wrote it together, but, you know, it was like he was Rob Petrie. He was the head writer on the Cowan and Moranis show. But unfortunately, we never got a Cowan and Moranis show. A few years later, I think we would have got a special i think they would have allowed us to do our act in a one or one hour special that's fascinating i had had no idea uh that history there that pre-second city history for rick moranis and your your uh engagement there your involvement that's wild he got involved with

ken finkelman, who later went on to fame on the newsroom. Yes, which I quite liked, actually. And he also wrote, I think he wrote Airplane 2. Airplane 2. There's an episode of Toronto Mic'd about it because FOTM Andrew Stokely was involved in the audio side of that.

And it just, yeah, that was just... And I think he wrote Grease, too, as well. Yeah, Ken Finkelman, yes. A genius, an absolute genius. He's among... He's probably the most intimidating guy I've ever been around. Wow.

He was just so manic and creative and funny and didn't suffer fools. He wanted things his way. If anybody got in his way, it was just a terrible annoyance. But what a genius. What a funny guy. What a great writer.

That newsroom is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And people now, when you talk about the newsroom, because there's now, there's an Aaron Sorkin newsroom that aired on HBO.

But no, that's ridiculous. The CBC newsroom was fantastic. Absolutely here but no, that's ridiculous. The CBC newsroom was fantastic, absolutely here. Amazing. So, okay, so just to bring us up to speed here, so what happens after CFTR in the radio world for you? I had a rough patch after CFTR.

I was doing, as I am now, still doing freelance voice work. I got into doing cartoon work myself. Do you want to shout out? I saw some of the projects, like Ewoks and Droids. I don't know why. I think I did one episode of Ewoks.

I don't think I was even in Droids, unless there was a show with Ewoks and Droids. All right, well, please don't tell me that you weren't in ALF, in ALF Tales. ALF was my big deal. Okay. There was the ALF cartoon series, and then they did a second series called ALF Tales, where they would rewrite classic tales, classic fairy tales,

and Alf and his crew would play the parts. Do you know what Alf stands for? Alien Lifeform? Correct. Okay, good. You passed the audition here. Alien Lifeform. And do you know what was his favorite food, Alf?

Cats? Yes. Do you know the name of his home planet? You're two for two. Let's see if you can go to that i do i do know he's from um give me the first letter m melmac yes okay good yes all right because i'm a i was a big viewer of the elf stuff so uh okay who were who were his friends in the television show the television show, the live action television show. Oh, the live action. He didn't have any.

I didn't even watch that. I saw a few episodes, and I knew who it was. All right, so I'll just say that there's a character on the live action ALF show. There's a character named Mrs. Ockmonick who's played by the same actress who played Jerry Seinfeld's mother on Seinfeld. Okay. And what's interesting about her is she used to date James Dean. Really?

Yeah. So she used to date James Dean and now we know her best as Seinfeld's mom on Seinfeld, but she played Mrs. Ocmonic, the nosy neighbor. Anyway, there you go. That's your ALF trivia there for you. That's a good nugget. That's a good nugget. That's a good nugget. So you're a voiceover actor.

You're doing TV and radio commercials, and you'll do character voices for animated series and stuff. And life is good. Hopefully life is good. Now or then? Now. Now it's fine. Sort of forced semi-retirement.

But, you know, the voice doesn't get old. So I... Well, some voices do. Yours didn't. But I know some voices do. Is it just the voices that get old? Are they the heavy drinking, chain smoking voices? Is that the...

Some of them. You know, there was a guy doing the morning show at the radio station I started at in Manitoba. He used to smoke cigarillos. Yes. And he would inhale them. I said, why are you inhaling a cigar? He says, I want it to make my voice more rugged.

He wants to sound like Sam Elliott. I think he died in his 40s. Yeah, it's a dangerous game. But Sam Elliott, oh man. Can you do a Sam Elliott? Because I wish I could sound like Sam Elliott. You gotta have your morning pipes to

do Sam Elliott. Guts. guts glory Ram. Very good. How's that? That's good. That's good. So I'll leave, leave this here.

Now, uh, here we are the morning of, uh, the last day of May, 2021. So this is May 31st. Uh,

we talked a lot about Foster Hewitt and, uh, you know, the televising leaf, I'm sorry, radio broadcast of leaf games, etc. Now, are you a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs? Of course.

Oh, you say that, but I know a lot of Toronto people who gave up years ago. Well, I know this about being a Toronto Maple Leaf fan. You pay a heavy toll to support this team. At least you remember a championship. You were there. You were there. You were one of remember a championship. You were there. Yeah. You were there. We were one of the 50,000 who were there.

Guys my age who kind of start tuning in in the very early 80s, we've never even had a sniff of our team in the Stanley Cup Finals. Not in the Finals. You had a sniff of competitiveness. Sure. There was, of course, the landing McDonald goal against the Islanders in 78 and 93 with Doug Gilmore. A couple of good runs by the Pat Quinn era team, too.

A couple of Final Fours anyways. So, yeah. And the Lanny McDonald, I have zero recollection of. I was too young. I wasn't watching. But you're right. I called the Pat Burns era with Cliff Fletcher. We had a couple of Final Four appearances, including that great one in 93.

But that's it. Like, our basically getting to Game 7 against the Los Angeles Kings in 93. That's it. I'm just feeling at this point in my life, my mid-40s, that I've seen this movie so many times. It's like I've seen this movie.

I know how it ends. I know we'll be disappointed tonight. Okay, I know that. But meanwhile, I'll be tuning in, watching every minute, and rooting for the blue and white. And I'll be back. I'll be watching again next year. It's just sports, right?

This is not life and death. Sure. You're trying to reassure me here because I'm bracing myself. Essentially, I'm totally bracing myself for disappointment tonight. So I won't hurt as much. You have to be a fan of the game, which I am. And as I said, the Leafs

exact a heavy toll to support them. Right. A lot of heartache. It's very easy to jump off the bandwagon with this team and then jump back on. Right. They're so inconsistent. So yeah, I'm fully prepared.

Brace yourself, Toronto. What's your prediction for tonight? I predict they're going to lose. You can't go wrong betting against the Leafs. I'm sorry, but I think they're going to lose. And I don't think it'll be close. Oh, it's one of those. I keep thinking it'll be some heartbreaking

fashion. We've lost the last two games in overtime. So I'm going to feel... Didn't we lose game one in overtime too? I don't think so. It was a shorthanded goal in the third period. It wasn't overtime. No, just those last two we lost. It was late enough that there was no coming back. And that was the Tavares injury game

which was weird the whole time anyway. And then it was that shorthanded goalie flick it over uh Campbell oh god all right Rob thanks so much for this man it was great talking about your father my condolences on the loss of your cousin uh so sorry Paul Soles uh but he was 90 years young when he passed away and that's not bad, buddy. Good life. He was a very interesting guy. And we'll miss him. And again, it's free for you Canadians to go to CBC Gem and stream

my 90-year-old roommate. Absolutely. Tremendous series, and yeah, Paul Soles is fantastic in it, so do that. And that brings us to the end of our 859th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Rob is not on Twitter. You won't find him there. So don't go hunting for him there. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridleyley funeral home is at Ridley FH and Mimico Mike. He's not on Twitter either, but he's on Instagram at Majeski group homes. See you all next week. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls.

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