Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Johnston: Toronto Mike'd #159

Episode Date: February 17, 2016

Mike chats with Rob Johnston, a man who worked at CFNY 102.1 from 1989 to 2015.

Welcome to episode 159 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com and joining me this week is long time CFNY employee, Rob Johnston. is longtime CFNY employee, Rob Johnston. I think the subtitle of this episode is actually, Who the hell is this guy and why do I care? That was too long to fit in my intro. That's okay.

You know, you make a good point because I was promoting upcoming episodes and I said, okay, next week's Hazel May. Next month is Maestro Fresh West. And then in early April it's uh Ron McClain and then I was thinking well how do I like he's the guy he's the guy who's been name dropped by in the Strombo show Adam Ricard show Ivor's show uh and you know and Pete and uh Pete Fowler show so who is this guy actually highly anticipating finding out and I have I have to ask permission. May I call you Robbie J?

Sure. Do you know who coined that name? I'm going to guess. Martin Streak. No. Good guess, though. Thank you. Howard.

Oh, humble Howard. Yeah. That's right. He gives out lots of nicknames because he gave Bingo Bob his nickname. Schwarma. And I believe he's responsible for retod, but Shapiro doesn't want to look back fondly on that one. That's right. That's right. Schwarma. And I believe he's responsible for retod, but Shapiro doesn't want to look back fondly on that one.

That's right. No, Robbie J. I can't even tell you the year that was. It was a while ago. 89. How's that? Okay. So I guess 89 because...

Okay. So people are like, who the hell is... First of all, it's Johnston with a T, right? It is with a T. Does Strombol know that? Because I'm going to play a clip later when he clearly calls you Johnson. I am so used to it. I've gone through my entire life

without people forgetting the T. I mean, yeah. Like, I could sit there and spell strombollopolis. With the U in everything. U, I actually, strombollopolis, I can do because I think... There is a secret to it. There's a U that people will forget.

There's no U after the P's. Is that the trick trick that's the trick from what I understand that's why he calls himself strong but we can spell that but okay so you're Robbie J and you you and Ivor Hamilton so two okay so last week was James Duthie but the week before was Ivor Hamilton who spoke about CFNY from like 79 to I don't know know, 80, 89 or something like that? Ivor would have left before I got there in 89. 88 maybe? Yeah, probably, yeah. So if you think Ivor takes us from 79 to 88 at CFNY, you pick it up in 89 and take us to 2015.

Sure. So when we glue together Ivor Hamilton and Rob Johnston, we have... Oh, we're equals. Ivor and I are, absolutely. and Rob Johnston. We have... Oh, we're equals. Ivor and I are. Absolutely.

That, you guys will merge to be the ongoing history of CFNY. Oh, I see what you did there. And I'm like, so I've known about you for a long time. The reason people won't know you

is because you are not in front of the microphone. You work behind the microphone. Yes. And you do... Tell us what the hell you did at CFNY for all those years. Like audio stuff, right? That's a very good question. My last position

was the, I was the creative director for Chorus Radio Toronto, which was Q107, AM640, and 102.1 The Edge. We had a team of writers and producers, and my responsibility was to oversee that whole crew, award-winning crew, multi-award-winning crew, I might add, a fantastic group of guys. And I also worked with the, we created something called the Center of Excellence, which is like a black ops organization, and we worked a lot with all the other markets across the country

and did a lot of work with that. You probably did too good a job because you're currently, you're not there anymore. I am not there. I noticed I said 2015, not 2016. All right. Save that. Yeah, we'll get there.

We're going to get there. I got to correct something from last episode. So I opened up by telling James Duthie that he's my son's name is James. And I said, you're the first James I've had on this show. And I made a big deal out of it. Like I played Sweet Baby James and Jimmy James by Beastie Boys. And then somebody pointed out that I've had James Myrtle on the show. So I want to apologize to James Myrtle. I think I think of James Myrtle

as Myrtle. Like, I think of him by that one name, Myrtle. I don't remember he's a James. And I want to point out Duffy was not the first James on Toronto Mic'd. I mean, I'm like, you know, sitting here looking at, you got Maestro coming in, you got Hazel coming in, you got Ron McLean coming in, you've

had, you know, many people I've worked with in the past and all these other guys and I'm thinking, wow, I'm in pretty esteemed company that's going on here.

Well, you're also with me. Well, there you go. Yeah, fair enough. And this is my show. So I actually want, I wanted Robbie J on here because I got a

lot of questions about CFNY since 89. I mean, that's my listening era really. I love hearing about the 80s. I love talking to those guys. But I was listening to Tom Rivers. I was listening to CFTR, all hits

CFTR 680 in the 80s because I was a very young man. And I didn't start I really only tuned into 102 constantly pretty much when Humble and Fred show up. because I was a very young man. And I didn't start, I really only tuned in to 102 constantly pretty much when Humble and Fred show up. You know, and I absolutely understand where you're getting at.

When I started there in 89, I guess I can give you the backstory on that because you'll eventually ask me the question so I might as well start with that. I started by volunteering there and I phoned them up because I wanted to get into Ryerson. I wanted to go to RTA. To get into RTA, you need to have some experience showing them you wanted to do it. So I thought, okay, well, where should I go? And somebody said to me, well, I know they take volunteers up at CFNY. And I thought,

oh yeah, that's an option. I should do that. I'll just give them a call. But I was never a, I was never really devoted to it. You know what I mean? It was like, okay, well, this is an interesting option. I'll go that route. So I kind of walked into it with any kind of preconceptions of the aura of this is CFNY. This is this fantastic operation. So I kind of came into it a bit blind, which I think was kind of a saving grace because I wasn't intimidated by it. This is the opposite of the Pete Fowler recipe,

which is he wanted to work for this particular stage. Yeah, absolutely. And I remember him saying that. So perhaps it was a bit of a bonus to me in that aspect. But the irony was the first person I started working for was answering the telephones, the request line, sitting in what was the morning show room, answering it for Alan Cross, who 20-some-odd later, I still do work with.

Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. That guy. I'm just going to keep playing. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. So that is actually your, that is for people. That's my claim to fame. That is it. Yeah.

Because we've all heard that tagline of. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. And that is pretty much your public name. That's how anybody would know you who doesn't know behind the scenes stuff at chorus. That would probably go on the bottom of my tombstone.

Maybe you should have like a WAV file in the tombstone itself, like when people like touch it. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. Oh, that's who that is. You know, your station there, since we're going to dive into 89 to 2015. But as a listener throughout that entire era, basically, there's been a lot of changes. Like, for example, I distinctly remember they did a list of the top 102 rock songs of all time or something. Top 1,002. Okay, 1 or something? Top 1,002.

Okay, 1,002. 1,002. I distinctly remember that this might be like, I don't know, mid to late 90s or something? It was New Year's, 1989, 1990. And it was the top 1,002 songs of all time, and this was the number one song. This was the number one song?

Yep. And, you know, appropriately so. but at some point as time progressed at that station 102.1 things changed oh did they I do love this song though I love this sound but it's a little different right I've heard it too many times it's a good track they like their sublime over there

I think it's this marijuana culture or whatever they play the same three songs over and over again for a band that really had a couple of records it's pretty amazing they uh keep digging it out and the more you dive in like i like sublime a lot but if you dive in you realize they're a lot of times songs you think are sublime originals or covers and then within original sublime songs they're either borrowing from themselves like this song is an old sublime song that was an instrumental track

which name i can't remember right now but it's they covered themselves essentially for this track exactly which bands do i know that red hot chili peppers did it and bands do that okay so uh let me start with that aforementioned strombo clip if that's cool because uh this sets the table nicely. So this is George Strombolopoulos talking about Robbie Jay. I had the unfortunate place where I basically broke the terrible news on my blog, CharlieMind.com. So I, you know, it became sort of, I became part of the story.

That's how I heard about you. Was that right? Because Robbie Jay called me. I was in LA. Robbie called me. I was in LA. Robbie called me. I was paying my rent. And Rob never calls me at that time of the night. And he just said, yeah, Marty's done something.

And I knew right away. And I was like, oh, no. And he told me. And then Jason Rouse called me, who was a good friend of Marty's. And he happened to be in LA. He said, are you here? I said, Marty's. And he was, I happened to be in LA. He said, are you here? I said, I am. And I said, what happened?

And then I went home and I went online and I read your post. Now, I played the wrong strombol. I actually was going to start with the other clip. This was more, I was going to play this when we started talking about Marty. But let's start with Marty. Well, you could fix it in post, right? No, I don't do that. No, okay.

No, no. Actually, I think that's what killed... That's why you have me here. We can talk about that in a minute. I think that's what killed the Alan Cross podcast, Geeks and Beats, is it was too labor-intensive in post. And not that Alan was doing it, but Michael Hainsworth, I think, was doing the work. But they eventually realized there's not any money in it, and it takes an awful lot of time. And they shut down that. I don't know if you ever listened to Geeks and Beats. I did. But they shut it down. Yeah. And I think, and it takes an awful lot of time, and they shut down that. I don't know if you ever listened to Geeks.

I did. But they shut it down. Yeah. And I think it's because they do a lot of posts. So what I do, I'm trying to eliminate that. I just want to have conversations with interesting people, and I'll do like, I don't know, five minutes of labor afterwards, then FTP it up and edit the XML, and then write the blog entry, and I'm out.

Like, it's just nothing. Perfect and raw. Let's start by talking about Marty. And then I want to talk about Alan Cross. And then I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. Fair enough. That clip was Strombo talking about how he found out that Martin Streak had taken his own life. He dropped, he found out by you you told him i did tell him um alan actually called me that night and i think i mentioned this not on that podcast i did before

and he told me what would have happened and i thought i just you know knocked me over with a with a feather was just what the hell so i phoned a few, a few people that I know and worked with and told them what was going on. Then I thought there's two people I have to call because they're not in Toronto and they have to find out about it from somebody they know, even though it's a shitty thing to have to tell them. But you know, the world of social media, broken telephone, they're going to get, they're going to see something and it's going to be like, what's going on? Right. So I, uh, I texted George and I texted, uh, Ben Kowalowicz who were both, I knew were

on the West coast at that time and said, you got to call me, you got to get in touch with me. And, uh, George texted me back. So I gave him a call. And, uh, as George said, I didn't, you didn't really need to say much, you know? And how, how, when you, how did you find out alan called me right sorry yeah and what was your relationship like with uh martin streak when you worked with him i think it was pretty good um you know marty was always a guy who was there when you needed him for

something there was a number of times where i would you know you need him to vote to voice something you just give him a call and he'd be there in a flash. Marty was always there for everybody. And he was just he was an easygoing guy. I mean, back in those days, not that it still doesn't exist. But back in those days when I was younger, you know, you would hang out and you do a lot of things together and you would go to the clubs. You would you would run into each other all the time. It was it was more in the youth aspect of when i was when i was working there when i

started where i mean i worked with marty from the beginning when i started working there and i did some road shows when i first started working with cfny back in 89 90 so it was i think it was a really good relationship it was um it was you know it was crappy when he was let go but you know it's i don't make those decisions and uh and i had seen him afterwards a number of times and spent some time with him and uh you know the last thing i ever said to marty was jokingly because this is the way we operated was that uh brother bill neil morrison stag up at the scottage which i ever would know it was in the kitchen, and I said to Marty, okay, he was going to California for his birthday. I remember that.

So he said he was going to California. I said, okay, have fun. See you when you get back. Don't do anything stupid. Ha, ha, ha. Joke, joke, joke. Right, of course. Yeah.

And at this, I talked to Freddie P. He was at this. Yeah, he was. Yeah, yeah, because he spoke a lot. So he had lots of chats during this event with Marty. And he tells me, other than a severance issue, Marty was pretty pissed at. Other than that severance issue that was really chewing at him,

he seemed to be in good spirits and hopeful for the future. I would agree with that. I would agree with that, yeah. Such a, you know, I get a little flack. I don't know if it's the same guys. Who knows? But I get flack every time I post a podcast episode in which we have this discussion.

Because I don't know how... I personally don't know how to have Ivor Hamilton in my basement without asking about it. I mean, Ivor and him go back so many years. Yeah. However, there was something I heard on Humble and Fred's show, I guess when you were in there with them in December. Oh, November. Early November. it does I think in a way have merit in that

is the legend and the myth bigger than the reality in which it existed you know what I mean but I don't I think it's like a Marilyn Monroe James Dean type thing like you're forever frozen forever young sort of and

I think it's inevitable that your legend will grow as a result of kind of checking out at that point like it's it's without a doubt it's uh without a doubt it's sort of like the way we look at like bill barocco if you will like can you make you know bill barocco we like bill barocco but like he was he was a fine defenseman and we won the stanley cup that year and he had the winning goal and stuff but who knows how history would have treated barocco like but but today he's he's a living. He's a legend. He is a legend. And I think, you know, it was an interesting comment I felt from Howard.

I really never looked at it from that perspective. But at the same time, I know Marty, you know, affected a lot of people's lives. And, you know, the clubs were packed every week. Phoenix, Kingdom, Whiskey, you know you know velvet wherever it was he he resonated with fans like uh he made an imprint and i think that somebody of that first of all what you know going back now i remember josie die gave me a hard time for this but at the time but uh he's let go and then two months later he takes his own life and then i it's almost one of those things in radio when you just stop appearing on the air people don't really notice like i think a lot of people think he was he he killed himself while he was still employed by uh 102.1 i think that's a

perception it's the really shitty thing about radio especially if you're on air is it is so rare you get the um the mike cooper send offoff. It is extraordinarily rare. It's just sort of, okay, where did it go? Because the thing about radio is, it's one of those mediums that you build up this relationship with the people in it, and you build up this persona. Well, maybe not persona is the right word, but I could ask you what your favorite radio station is, and you could tell me, and I immediately have an understanding and an idea about who you are

and what you're about. That's very hard to do with television. It's very hard to do with movies because it's very passive and there's so many different options. With radio and music, you mention it, you mention that person and you immediately strike up a relationship with them because they become part of your life. So when that part of your life is gone, them because they become part of your life so when that part of your life is gone um you start to wonder what happened how do you replace it where do you go where do they go how do i how do i now relate to all this to take it back so that early november comics i remember that day vividly like i remember being in the room and howard and basically paraphrasing howard i think he was saying he's over kind of saying he might be overrated because he took his own life. Yeah, something like that. I wasn't sure what to do with that because I'm not sure he's

overrated. I don't, people haven't like reinvented what Martin Streak was. He was what he was, but he was absolutely clearly passionate about the music and very popular with the crowds, with the people. Yes. And every time time i talk and you're like number i don't know how many people i've talked to now who have because because i always point out you know i didn't know the guy i only hear from you guys but i mean i talked a lot of guys uh who knew martin streak at this point and to a t almost almost all of them i think kelly katria didn't say this but a lot basically talked about how he was so helpful and he'd reach out and he was larger than life and

full of energy. And if you needed something, you know, the first guy, Pete, you know, no, Barry Taylor. When Barry Taylor was let go, the first guy he heard from was Streak, who didn't realize like less than 24 hours he was getting the same thing slip. You know, I used to say to junior announcers and junior people I saw in the business, I'd say, study Martin. Study the way he operates. And I know Strombo mentioned that, too. There was the story, I think Strombo mentioned, where Marty did a header on the DVP riding his longboard and still came in to do the show. And it's like, oh, you do the show.

And Marty would do club nights, and he'd be doing a remote at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning. And I used to say to announcers, study this guy. Listen to the way he interacts. Watch him at events. He is shaking hands, kissing babies. He loves it. And he does it extraordinarily well. He got it.

He totally got it. And you could sense he wasn't faking it, if you will. This was real passion. You probably heard the clip that Brother brother bill gave to pete fowler who gave to me of marty swearing on the air i was there that night okay were you yeah i was there right on your side because we've talked to jason barr who was like in brampton hopping in or something wasn't brampton hopping it fowler's besides streak where were you i was i at that point in time, I had, um, I used to produce the Thursday 30 with those guys and then I started hopping overnights.

So I was doing the midnight till 6am shift and I would come at about, you know, 10 o'clock the night before, get stuff ready, get the CDs out, get it ready. And I walked in, I said, you know, Jason, how's, how's the show going? He's like, oh, you'll find out. That's funny. And I said, what happened? He tells me, I was like, holy shit. Are you serious?

Like, we were just laughing about it. Yeah, yeah. And I remember standing over with the logger tapes in the control room when he told me. And I just thought, well, the blowout of this is going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. I read the memo. As you read the memo. I remember seeing that memo up on the board in the lunchroom. And that was some serious shit.

It's funny how you hear the stories and then you get the audio. Literally, it's like the Zapruder film or something. It's like, you were there, I got your... There's Barr and there's Fowler and it's like the second spitter theory or whatever. You just break it down. You just start wondering, you know, are people living it through rose-colored

glasses? Did it actually happen? But once you start putting all the pieces together and everyone starts telling the same story, you realize, no, that's... And you got the memo. I mean, we've read that. We got everything. How come you didn't come in with memos?

This is the new thing you guys are supposed to do. Stu Meyer's memo. Yeah, I've got them somewhere in a box, somewhere in a basement. So do you agree? I mean, Howard's point. It's an interesting point. I'm not going to...

I don't know whether to validate it or not. I think he's got a very good point. I mean... Well, the question is, why... So when you look at the lineup from... Let's make up a year, because I just recently posted the lineup from 97. So the question is, why did Marty never get his own show during the

day? Like, why... You know, Brother Bill had a show, and, you know, obviously there's why, you know, Brother Bill had a show. And, you know, obviously there's Humble and Fred. Alan Cross had a show. Who else had a show? May had her show. Right, May Potts had her show. Like why was there never a show for Marty during, you know,

what do we call it, the revenue generated hours or whatever? Very good question. I guess maybe the people who were in there played well to the demographics and and everything like that marty played well to the demographics and the shows that he did i mean he did the the club shows brought in a lot of money you know he he was doing the friday he was doing well he did let me think the golden era would have been kingdom on a friday phoenix on a saturday whiskeykey A Go-Go slash Joe on a Sunday, right? Right, right, right.

And they brought in a lot of money. Is that right? Because I keep hearing, you know, oh, you know, the only revenue generating time slots are like the morning show and the drive show. Yes. I'm trying to understand.

So there's real money for a station with having those live airs. Yes, because you would have brought in sponsorship from the clubs who would have paid uh would have paid a lot for the broadcasting times and a lot of ads during the week so they you know those were those were busy nights and they were big event nights so really um sure marty might have sounded good at you know six o'clock on a thursday on a on a tuesday but really you put the people where they're going to get big audiences. Okay, because that would be one of the arguments that maybe he was overrated.

You would hear is that he never got his own show. He had his own show. No, yeah. I mean, during the... Oh, well, sure, but... From 6 a.m. to whatever, to 7 or whatever. Shep was never on at three o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Yeah, that's a good point.

Let's talk about Shep, because Chris Shepard, who was doing o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Yeah, that's a good point. Let's talk about Shep because Chris Shepard, who was doing this before Martin Streak, you were there during his last show at The Edge. Is that right? Yes, I was. Another interesting night. It was an August Saturday in 93. I think it was, yeah.

I mean, at that point, we were the edge, the leading edge. CFN1, 102.1, the leading edge. Whatever incarnation we were at that point in time, I don't know. But the edge had existed at that point in time. And the previous summer was the great falling out, clearing out. You know, when Danny quit on air, famously quit quit on air and a number of people didn't like the direction which the station was going and they left or were let go and whatnot and i remember chris was still around and over time um the playlist would be adjusted and more

more songs would be added in and and his show was always free form. It was always, I'm going to play what I want. Yeah, if you want Skinny Puppy, there was Skinny Puppy. There was Skinny Puppy coming up, right? So I used to do the overnights on Saturdays, Sunday morning, when Deadly Headley's only dance party. Real bad boy, you know, that kind of stuff. I used to babysit that when he was down at Club Max. So I was sitting up at 83 Kennedy Road behind the board just waiting in case something broke down.

So I would come in. I would come in a bit earlier because, you know, see what Shep was doing and just see the vibe that was going on. But that night, Dave Magro was spinning for Headley and Headley was away. So I was doing Magro's gig. So I had to go down to the club. So I went up to the station earlier to get all the gear. And I think at that point,

I might have been opping from 6P to 9P as well. So Shep came in, and I said, oh, they've got some music sheets for you. And I remember he looked at it, and he's like, why would they give me music sheets? I do this free for him. I don't, you know,

this is not what I do. Was he using his voice or his affection? What voice was he using? Hey, brothers and sisters, Chris Shep coming to you live. Would that be how he? Yeah, that was Shep. You know, he put it on a bit, but that was, Chris was Chris, right?

I was just curious because I've never talked to him off character or whatever. Like if you just talk like a normal guy. Well, Chris was Chris, you know. So I remember he went on and he's like, nah, that's not the way I'm going to roll or something to that effect. So he goes on air and he talks about,

you know, the corporate man and they want me to do this and that's not the way Shep rolls and he takes the music sheets and he throws them into the back corner of the studio. I was like, oh, this is going to be interesting. So I was down at a hall in the room getting some stuff ready on.

I hear the door open, the latch go, and the security door open. And I'm like, oh. It's like 9.30 on a Saturday night. Who's coming in? And I see the PD, Stu Myers, come in. And he just goes walking down the hall into the control room. You know, 15 minutes later, he turns around and he leaves. Okay.

Well, that's interesting. and i don't know if i talked to shep about what happened it was none of my business um but i just thought that was okay you don't often see the pd coming in at nine o'clock on a saturday but i i could easily put two and two together and what it was about so uh shep did his last show didn't know it was his last show he did the show signs off i was down at the club and then I ran into him later that week at, of all places, Play to Record downtown

on Yonge Street. And he said, yeah, I just had a meeting with Vince and Stu and we talked about things and we decided, you know, we're going to go

our separate ways. That was it? That was it. I was like, holy shit. It was 93? Yeah, it was summer 93 because I'm pretty sure it was summer 93

because it would have been after everything else that happened in 92. So I'm pretty sure it was 93. And then Marty started. So Marty takes over for Shep. Yeah. And Shep took over for Marsden. Is that right?

I mean, it's before your time. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It's before my time. Yeah, before your time. That story, I believe I got that from Ivor last week. So it was like Marsden gave way to Shep, and then Shep gave way to Marty.

How come we don't get, how come these live airs disappeared at some point? I think they just became, the club land changed. People stopped going to clubs. They probably started being, stopped being profitable for them. People found other things to do. Is this right?

I mean, I'm so old and like, you know, baby number four on the way. I'm so out of the club scene. So people don't do the club. The club thing isn't, because I'm in the early 90s. This was a big thing. It was huge. I met my wife at a club.

Actually. The weirdest thing. I mean, I always said, I'm never going to be, I'm never going to be. Which club did you meet her at? I met her at a Friday night at Actually. The weirdest thing. I mean, I always said, I'm never going to be, I'm never going to be. Which club did you meet her at? I met her on a Friday night at Brother Bill's Studio 69 club gig. Of all places.

You know, I met my first wife at the Barracuda. Do you remember the Barracuda? I remember the Barracuda. I remember the Barracuda. You know, before 10 o'clock, if you bought your beer before 10, it was 98 cents a beer. Wow. And we used to, they had a no hoarding rule, but we like would do it anyways. And like we would buy all these 98 cent beers and hoard them at our table. You do it at the

Morrissey too, right? Can you imagine though? Like a 98 cent beer night before 10 PM? Like, that's crazy. So yeah, no, I think that's just what happened over time. You know, club nights still exist for a lot of the stations, you know, like your Z-103, they're still very popular, but you know, the music just changes and you got to remember back in that time, man, the music was just, in the 90s, was just pumping out. And that was where people would go. And now things change and people go and do other things. Yeah, man.

Yeah, things change. That's for sure. Now with the new digital stuff, they did bring the clubs to their homes, man. Like the home is the club. That's what's happened here. Hey, you got a story about Steve McCluskey. Oh, Steve McCluskey.

Cluskey. You know, I knew I'd fuck that up. Yeah, that kind of comes from the whole Martin swearing on air thing. Steve was a news guy, a very, very funny news guy. And I remember one Saturday morning in December, it would have been 96 because I was living downtown at that time. And the phone rings at 6 a.m. And I'm like, who the hell is calling at 6 a.m.?

And I think it was Fowler who was doing the 6 a.m. shift. And he says, you got to turn on the radio right now. Turn it on right now. So I turn it on and Steve's doing the news. And he is just hammered, hammered to the point where he's going, he talking about jean cretier he's in the talking to so-and-so but he was just going on and there's a world cup skiing thing in gran montagna this weekend and he's just going i don't know what the hell is going on so he did the news that one that one shift that one morning and somebody came and replaced him but steve was a great guy he was a

really funny news guy one of those uh odd situations to hear on the radio and i remember um another steve mccluskey story which relates to jason barr okay um i don't know if jason did jason tell you the story about the time he fell asleep behind the board i believe so yeah i believe so yeah so um this was in the days before cell phones so i remember coming up to do the all request breakfast in the mornings that day. And I was drawing up from where, from Mississauga and songs going and also on the radio stops.

And I figured, Oh, you know, maybe the commercial jammed or something happened and more dead air, more dead air. I figured, no, Jason's falling asleep.

Oh, well still going to stop and get my coffee on the way up. And I walked in and I walked right past the control room and I walked into the newsroom and Steve was there putting his newscast together. I said, you notice anything odd

going on right now? He's, no. It's a little quieter than normal maybe. Oh, yeah. It is a little quieter. Didn't really notice that.

Oh, well. All right. Did these result in any memos? No. None of these got memos? None of those got memos. I, none of those got memos. I mean, it was just... I don't remember the drunken newscast getting a memo,

but certainly Jason Fall Asleep didn't. I mean, I think at some point we all did, and we just tried to never make it happen again. Hey, I'm going to play the Strombo clip I meant to play off the top. Ah, fair enough. Better late than never. That's okay.

Strombo on Robbie J. Talk about Martin on the air. And I remember being disinterested in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, my only connection to that station really is Rob Johnson. Robbie Jay is an incredible... I just heard from him after the Humble and Fred episode aired. I heard from him just last week.

Robbie is kind of like... If anybody ever really wrote a book about the edge, it'd be Rob. He was really an important part of that. I actually met Rob. He was dating a girl that in the beginning of the internet in chat rooms, we were doing these chat groups

and this girl and this other girl and me and my buddies were just talking and Robbie J was dating this girl. And I remember my email address was dead and his was sticks. And that's how we met. And yeah, Rob's an incredible guy. But after he told me, I think Rob was the only guy that I was in contact with at that station.

So a little context. He had a show on the Chorus Network, I guess. It was a strombo show. It was a strombo show, yeah. And he didn't like how things went down with the firing of his Martin Streak, but particularly he wasn't happy with Chorus following the suicide of Martin Streak.

He wasn't happy to... This is his... He told me this on episode 103, but he didn't want to have his show aired on the Chorus Network anymore. And he didn't want to, he didn't talk. In that clip, he's basically saying the only person he would talk to at Chorus Toronto is you. Right.

And he says you should write a book about the Edge. That clip is incredibly flattering. I remember when I first heard it, I thought, wow, you know, I've known George for a long time and he's a fantastic guy. And I have incredible respect for George. And it's, you know, it's amazing to call him a really true friend. And yeah, I guess I could at some point sit down and write a book. I don't know how good it would be. I don't know.

Yeah, I got time now. I don't know how much, you know, I'm sure I'd have some pretty good stories and I'd be able to get some stories from some other people. But yeah, I guess at that point I was probably the last connection that George would have had on the programming side at the time. And, you know, it was hard for George. You know, I would think in many ways Marty was his mentor. You know, it was hard for George. I would think in many ways Marty was his mentor. And to have that happen and have the relationship and the experiences and the tutelage that George had with Martin and the stuff that he learned from him, I'm sure it was really hard for him to say, you know, I can't go back and do this.

This is a good natural break and I just want to move on from it. Right. And his show airs to this day on CBC Radio 2. It does. It's a fantastic show. Yeah. It's an incredible show. Yeah, every Sunday night.

Sunday night's a good night for radio. We used to have the Spirit of Radio Sundays too and I was thinking... That's right. And Marsden used to have his show on The Rock. That's right.

So there was a time where you could hear Scott Turner doing Spirit of Radio on 102.1. You could go tune in to the Strombo show or Marsden's Mars Bar Theater or whatever he was calling it on The Rock. Like, yeah, that was not that long ago. No, it wasn't. And, you know, you start listening at seven o'clock on a Sunday night and there's

some amazing radio that comes on. Sunday was for the old people, I think. That was the deal. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The young people weren't listening to the radio. Yeah, and that's... Sorry, go ahead. Well, I've said this to Ivor before in the past. I said, Ivor, I think in a way, to a lot of people, you kind of built up... The era of CFNY you created was like the 67 Maple Leafs. It's on this massive pedestal that people afterwards

i don't know if they aspire to duplicate or to exceed but there's always that comparison well you were the 92 leaves but you weren't the 67 leaves right you know what i mean however as i said iver it doesn't mean that the current era is any worse because you had that you had the era of cfny you had the era of hummel and fred and the edge um going from you know lack of a better 90 to 2001 you had the dean blundell era and a lot of it is based around morning shows and personalities right and you can't really say to anybody, well, my era is better than your era because it's all about what you got out of it and the music and the culture and the environment

and how those people related to you. My golden era is probably the same as yours. It's like late 80s through to early 2000s. That's not saying what is on right now is any less important because the people now, like your kids and my kids, are going to listen to it and go, wow, I really like this.

So it's apples and oranges. And that's the thing. When you grow up, if you will, and you learn about things like demos, like as a kid, you don't have this concept of demographics or whatnot. And like I said, I listened to CFTR. I listened to Tom Rivers and a lot of CFTR back then, which was top 40. You'd hear like Wh whatever, Wham!

or George Michael or whatever, or Duran Duran. But then the whole demo thing, as you start done, because I talked to Scott Turner when they canceled Spirited Radio. I literally phoned him up. Nicest guy, by the way.

Oh, Scott's fantastic. Nicest guy. Very expensive bicycle, but very nice guy. And basically he told me- Scott hasn't changed. His look hasn't changed. I mean, Scott looks...

Well, he spelled his name differently now. Well, no, that's true. But Scott looks exactly the same as he did when I first met him in 1990. Wow. Yeah, I know. He looks great. And bottom line is,

he's like, yeah, Spirited Radio was popular if you want to count the number of ears listening. But it was the wrong ears because it was older ears like mine and yours and CF... Sorry, I guess, yes.

CFNY wants younger ears. That's their demo and that's how they make their money. It's where the demo is. It's where the advertisers is. It's where the money is. So it made no sense for them to go off and get the old, scare away the young kids, bring in the old people for like a big chunk of the Sunday. They just made no sense. Like they might as well go 24-7 young people targeting.

So, yeah, I always think now in terms of demos, I don't like the songs I'm hearing right now on 102.1, but I'm like twice the age of their target demo. You're well out of the demo. Get over it, old man. That's honestly the way the business works.

You get older, it evolves itself, but it evolves based around the music of what's current at that time. Right, right, right, right. And some is good. Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of it, you know,

but to me, some is a little sleepy right now. This is my subjective two cents. I don't know who to blame, like the Lumineers or what, but there seems to be a sleepy, kind of indie-lite kind of a sound that seems to be all over the two 102.1 and 88.1

which i just find really a little bit boring well i will tell you something interesting being on the outside now um i listen to a lot of radio that is from a lot of different places and i i would do that when i was working at the stations, as you want to do. But now I spend a lot of time really listening to others and really seeing what they're up to and, you know, listening to stuff all over the world. Right now, I am just fascinated listening to WBEN out of Buffalo, listening to Rush Limbaugh and all those guys because of everything that's going on in the states of the politics. I mean, I'm a massive political junkie. So just listening to that and just oh and the supreme court just hearing everything i mean i just it fascinates me and i never really had a chance to listen to that when

you're inside the bubble you don't take the time to because you're worrying about um what you guys are currently up to in your competition right so what do you listen like when you want to hear music now is it just your your uh your ipod but your but your device, or is it you got a station out there you dig for new tunes? I listen to Apple Music. I listen to some satellite radio. I plug in some stations

overseas that you can stream. And I listen to what's going on in Toronto. I still listen to the air. I still listen to indie. So what do you think about what's going on in Toronto right now? Is this good radio yeah um it radio radio is in such a tough spot right now i mean people have been predicting the death of radio since television um i don't think it's ever going to go away but like any business it needs. I mean, I find myself in an interesting place right now, being on the outside of it and really figuring out where my place is going to be in it moving

forward. I still love it. I still want to be involved in it. I still want to get my hands dirty with it. But I'm also taking an MBA right now. And I've been wanting to do this for a while, an opportunity to sort of present itself. And one of the first things where courses we're doing is all about strategy. And when you really start digging into strategy and value assessments, and you know, and VRIO assessments and five forces and all this, and you really start breaking things apart, you see things from a such a different angle, right? And you just start to wonder to yourself, I really hope companies and businesses are looking at this. Like, what are your advantages? Where are your rarities? Where are your intrinsicals? Where are the things that separate you from everybody else? Where are your valuables? What's your objectives? What are your threats? You can do a SWOT analysis, but you got

to get deeper than all that. So I hope companies are really doing that and really analyzing it because they're in tough right now. There are so many different options about where you can get your entertainment from. But at the end of the day, radio is still a local medium that people want to listen to, and they revolve their days around. And like I said earlier, your personalities are a part of your own lives, and the music's a reflection of who you are. And this is the future for Robbie J.

You envision yourself in some form of some management position, helping with strategic direction in radio, or a consultant? Yeah, I mean, I love it. I'm really intrigued by strategy. I was always interested in it, but now I'm really starting to get into it. And I love consulting. I love talking with people. I love talking with clients. I love talking with advertisers because it's a lot of work that I used to do in the past.

Sure. I feel like I'm shilling for myself right now, but what the hell? Why not? But yeah. You know what? That's not how you explain it. But like consulting. I mean, I love talking with people and trying to figure out what do you want to do?

You know, the one thing I used to always say to clients whenever advertisers would come in was, what do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What do you want to say? Why do you want to say it? You know? This is as good a chance as I'm going to get to ask you why you're no longer with Chorus. Like after 26 years of what sounds like some innovative stuff, some good service, and everybody I speak to talks about, hey, Robbie J, he's the best. Why the hell would a company say goodbye to somebody who's the best? I guess my number was the top of the balance sheet.

So is it just after 26 years, you were making too much money? I like to think I wasn't. Is that shocking to hear? You know, it's just the reality. I knew there were changes coming. I wasn't blinded to the fact. There had been some changes earlier in the summer and I kind of started to get my ducks in a row because I thought, well, if you don't need a music director here, you don't need a news director or promotions director,

do you really need a creative director? So I kind of started getting some of my ducks in a row and backing things up. And just the problem is you get to the point where you have the golden handcuffs. Right. You know? Yeah. To walk away from something you've spent a lot of time at, you've got to go somewhere that's going to pay you a lot more money. Because if in two years they decide they don't want you around, you're kind of screwed.

Last in, first out. Yeah, exactly. So I think just that we had had some internal discussions about we wanted to reconstruct some departmental visions and whatnot. And I thought we were going to go a certain way. And they said, we're going to go this way. And at the end of the day, I knew I was the one in the department making the most money.

And when you've been there for a while and there's pensions and all these other things to pay into. So did you know right away, like, was it one of those things where, hey, can I see you in my office? And then you walk in the door and you see that, yeah, the boss is there, but there's some, maybe, I don't know, some HR person or somebody at the table, maybe a folder in their hand. Did you have that moment of like, I know exactly what this is? I will tell you, it was interesting. My family, we had been in Jamaica for a week and went down to Montego Bay for a vacation. Last year was just the shittiest shit gong show crappiest year we ever had.

And we needed a break. So we went away and had a great vacation. And I was still conversing back and forth about some break. So we went away and had a great vacation and I was still, you know, conversing back and forth about some of the options we were pursuing. Um, and I said, okay, well let's have, you know, we'll, we'll meet when we, when I get back on the day I get back. And I thought, okay, great. No problem. Driving in that morning, uh, for my house, I live in the beaches area. So I drive down Woodbine and I go along Lake shore past Ashbridge's Bay. And it's a nice tranquil kind of way to go into the Coors Key, which is down on Queens Key in Jarvis.

And I remember driving in and this is my first day back from vacation. And I just didn't know where the future was going to, where we were going, what are we doing this fall? I just didn't, it's not the way you come back from vacation. I just had too many questions in my head. So I went in, you know, I met with my GM and we said, I had a bit of small chat and he said, okay, well, you know, let's meet at 11 or whatever time it was. And we'll just talk about, you know, the direction we're going to take. Okay. No problem. And, you know, we went, went down to the boardroom and I walked in and sure enough, there was somebody from HR and I thought, oh, okay, well, I guess

she's going to help us sort the, oh, wait a second. And then it just all becomes, you know, like, um, it becomes like a Charlie Brown, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, I guess it comes like surreal, right? It kind of goes a little surreal. It kind of slows down and you just think, okay, well, but they hand you, I guess you get a folder or something. You get a folder, you get a nice package. Review this. And yeah. And then the irony is, you know, you got to sign it off within a week. Then you're running advertising that says, talk to an employment lawyer. Don't sign anything until you have an employment lawyer look at it and go through all that.

So, you know, we eventually came to an agreement on it all and we move on from there. Did Chorus treat you fairly in the severance? Yeah. Good? Yeah, yeah, no. I have no qualms, no problems with it. You know, we went back and forth about a few things and and they've been very fair and they've been very good and you know i i have there's i'm not i would never say anything crap about it um because at the end of

the day they're the ones who helped me put a roof over my head and food on the table and do everything like that and i've had a great run with them and a great career. And you know, sooner or later, you kind of felt, well, time might, you know, the weird thing was people would say, oh, wow, you're still there. Yeah, I'm still here. And you're kind of thinking to back your mind, why am I still here? You know, what value am I still bringing value? Am I still bringing this and that to the table? So maybe you get into a bit of a comfort zone maybe you make too much money maybe you're on the balance sheet um and that's just the way that it goes you know but one thing they were really good about was um alan was very insistent that i keep working with him on the ongoing history okay and we've continued on since then technical productions by rob johnston that's it

episode number i i'm actually going home after this to start putting the voice track together on since then. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. That's it. Episode number, I'm actually going home after this to start putting the voice track together for episode number 745, I think is this week. No,

that's very cool that he, that's cool because I actually just assumed somebody else would be doing that. Well,

I think Alan and I have a very good working relationship about things. He can give me the information and I will get it done. We've been doing it for 20 years together. Yeah. You know, and it's like he doesn't have to worry about it. And at the end of the day, if he doesn't have to worry about it, that makes him, you know, better at the job that he does. And, you know, I've got a good rhythm with the show,

and I'll make executive decisions on things and put it together, and away we go. Keep the syndication going and get all the affiliates on board. We're actually next week, not this weekend, the weekend after we're celebrating, marking the 20th anniversary of the ongoing history, which has been on the air for 23 years. You know what? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but we'll explain it all as we go along no that's very cool very cool so i got on i

think it's reddit actually where somebody was mentioning that alan cross was uh requesting that students volunteered to to to edit these episodes of ongoing history and new music but that's probably like a uh that's probably like a tutorial. It is. It's not for air. It's actually, like what's going on? Just because he has

a plaque on Reddit for another completely different thing where he was asking for writers to write for free on like a chorus blog or something. It's one of those things

where people don't have the full story, right? Of course. That's everything. So, yeah. Welcome to the interweb. Okay, tell me, tell us the rest of the story. What is going on is Alan's actually doing some, he's everything. So, yeah. Welcome to the interweb. Okay, tell me, tell us the rest of the story.

What is going on is Alan's actually doing some, he's a broadcaster in residence with Ryerson down at the Alan Slate School, down at Ryerson. And we're working with some of their students. We've selected three students to work with us on voice track editing. So, we're going to go in over the next three weeks and the students are going to record his voice track and they're going to edit it and they're going to supply it to me and we're going to put it together and make the show work okay and they're going to see just how it all comes together and so you're you're involved in oh yeah cool yeah yeah do you uh do people call you prof no i i taught

at ryerson for a year and i currently do teach up at metalworks that's cool yeah i've always taught i've always loved teaching you know teaching is something I would love to do. I mean, if I could teach and do that, I'd love it because I... And I did a lot of teaching of people when I was working

because there are a few... No, I'm not going to say that. But, you know, you have to learn from people that know what they're doing. If I may say, I've never...

Not only am I meeting you for the first time, this is the first time I'm hearing your voice is today. No, that's not true. You might have heard me on some spots every once in, this is the, not only am I meeting you for the first time, this is the first time I'm hearing your voice is today. I, oh, no, that's not true. You might've heard me on some spots every once in a while. No, not true.

No, you, no. We talked for the Mart at the Street episode. We did talk for the Mart at the Street episode. You're right. On Skype. Other than that, right. Absolutely. So we did speak once via Skype.

But I was going to, my point is that you actually, you have the pipes. Like, I wish I sounded like you. Like, you actually could be in front of the microphone. Well, I do some voice work for some spots. I do I sounded like you. Like, you actually could be in front of the microphone. Well, I do some voice work for some spots. I do some things like that. I'm putting some imaging demos together for some people. I would voice a lot of spots when I was at the station. But it was really weird.

It's really weird to hear your own voice. Tell me about it. You know what I mean? Because you're hearing it through a completely different metric. You know, because your voice box, your ears are behind where it's coming out. But now you're hearing it in a much cleaner perspective. So I would go into the voice booth and I'd voice something. I'm like, you know, it's that old Marge Simpson.

Oh, do I really sound like this? Yeah. That's what I think. Oh my God, I can't edit myself because it sounds like crap. I make a point every episode I listen to back. I listen to every episode back listened to back like no i listened to every episode back so i'm actually so i used to hate my voice like just hate it and even now when i played the strombo clip earlier and i hear myself i hate it like i don't like my voice but

now that i'm this is episode 159 so i listen to every episode at least once back just to hear what sucked and what i should stop doing whatever less ums or whatever yeah and i'm sort of used to it now because that's a lot of hours it is my own voice when i hate it i would never do that before stop doing whatever. Less ums or whatever. Yeah. And I'm sort of used to it now because that's a lot of hours. It is a lot of hours. Hearing my own voice when I hate it. I would never do that before.

So I'm sort of come to like, kind of come to grips with it. This is your voice. This is the one you have and you know, you're stuck with it and just deal with it. But you're right.

I don't, I don't, I sound better. I hear myself better than I sound on a recording. Yeah. Yeah. And it is really hard.

I've gotten used to it, but certainly at the beginning, it took me a long time to get used to working with my own voice. And I know I speak really quickly. And that's the other thing I need to slow down on whenever I was reading anything, because I would just read through it really fast. But, yeah, there's futures out there for all kinds of things.

And at least you don't mumble. I have to tell myself to enunciate because I'll fall into some kind of a mumble thing and it's like, what did you say? It's just a natural mumble I'll go into. So at least you don't mumble. I'm going to throw some names at you. All right.

And maybe, I tried this with Ivor and it worked out. So I'm going to, some people you worked with and maybe you could tell me something or other about them if that's cool. How's this for a fun game? So we've already talked about Strombo and Alan Cross and we talked about Chris Shepard.

Mae Potts. What kind of gal was Mae Potts to work with? Mae is like the happiest person you've ever met. Mae is absolutely fantastic. She is what you hear on the radio. Incredibly professional. Incredibly professional, incredibly nice. The funny thing about May

is in a way we kind of had this synergy because her daughter Lauren was born, she went on mat leave right when I started working at CFNY. So when I started

my career in radio was like ground zero when Lauren was born. She was here by the way in this basement. Oh was she? Yeah. Did you do a podcast with May?

May did a podcast, yeah, and she brought her daughter. You got to go back and find Mae. I got to go back to the archives. No, I know you did do that. I just didn't listen to her for some reason. She's like, yeah, go back and listen. Have you ever listened to a podcast that did not involve a former Edge person? Yeah.

Okay, just curious. Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. That's all I need to hear. This is over. All right, so Mae Potts, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. That's all I need to hear. This is over. All right, so Mae Potts is a... Mae's fantastic.

Nobody could ever say a bad word about Mae, and rightly so, because she's just the most genuine, natural, honest, warm person. And I was going to ask you about Scott Turner, but you actually touched on Scott. This is like, this is your life. No, I'm...

This is because... I'm not even recording this. I'm just naturally curious. Is that okay? Although me, I knew because I had met her, but she was great. And Scott Turner, but we talked about him. So let's jump into, okay, Humble and Fred.

You've alluded to Humble and Fred. And don't speak to them, like they're different people. People, you know, there's a Humble and there's a Fred. So how was it with each guy? Great. Learned a lot from those guys. Still keep in contact, still do some work with them, still talk to them.

What work are you doing with them? We're talking about the ventures that they're doing right now with their podcast and with Sirius and some other things they're working on. Because Howard and Fred are smart enough to know that there is a future out there beyond just terrestrial radio and satellite and whatever it is you know they're gotta give them full credit for just saying they could have easily just said oh woe is me let's just find a radio station and go back to and do it but they're like no we're gonna keep moving forward we're gonna keep pushing forward and they want to work with people that they that they know and respect and and i'm you know kind of flattered that we keep in touch and that they actually ask for my thoughts and opinions on things because um um, you know, they're, they're huge legendary guys who,

who have created this massive, uh, following. Um, I did a lot of, you know, I, I would fill in every once in a while when Jason was sick or on vacation and

produce some of their shows. And, uh, they were intense, very intense shows to work on. And there will be times, you know, Howard might get pissed at you for doing something that happened during the

show. But at the end of the show, he'd be like, Hey man, you know, sorry about get blowing you up about that. But you during the show. But at the end of the show, he'd be like, Hey man, you know, sorry about get blowing you up about that. But you know, this is the reason it's like, Hey, I'm learning from you. Um, Howard's a great guy. He's a, he's a fun guy. He's a really fun. He's always got really interesting thoughts and observations. And he's, uh, you know, what I love about them is the first time I went in and

saw them doing their podcast i was amazed and i said guys this is this is something you guys never did before and you're taking ownership of it and it's fantastic and it's fascinating and i love seeing that because again they could have just packed it all in and freddie is uh again i don't even know what to say they. They're just really honest guys who will call you up at any time and offer to help. They want to help people. Do you know Dan Duran?

I do. I used to get the studio set up for Dan when he would come in and when he was producing the show. Dan's another great guy. Jason learned a hell of a lot from him about how to put a show together. Yeah, my small world story with Dan

is his son and my son are the same age and they were in the same Beavers. Oh, yeah? What are they, Troops? I guess so, yeah. Yeah, whatever they are. And they were in the same one and so there'd be these father-son camping trips

and Dan was the guy who would get up really early and make coffee for all the other dads. That's funny. That was my Dan Duran story. And you mentioned Dani Elwell. And it was 92, right, when she resigns on the air. I believe so. It was August 92.

I remember hearing about it the next day. I was working the boombox down at the C&E. I used to work at the C&E. Are you kidding me? I once met, Alan Cross gave me a bunch of stickers, like modern rock stickers or something, at the boombox at the C&E. I worked there three three years not at the boombox but at the cne well i i um that's where i started was in promotions and doing the boombox maybe i got the stickers from you but

maybe you're pretty sure you never you never you never know um so i remember i remember hearing all about that and um you know i didn't really know danny all that well during that time because you know a lot of the times our paths were transient because of the shows we were doing and whatnot. But I got to know Dani quite well when she came back and started doing a lot of voice work for AM640. She would come in and she'd do a lot of voice work for that. And Dani, again, kind of like May, just an amazing person. She's coming on. Logistically, maybe I should have had you drive her here

because she's coming. Logistically, she doesn't have a car, so we're trying to plan this out or whatever. Well, hopefully she can take, you know, even if she takes a streetcar, it doesn't short-turn on her at Long Branch. That's right. Well, if you get to Long Branch, you're good.

Yeah, at the King's. No, Dani, she loves music. You know, she loves the creativity. She's doing fantastic things over at Jazz. Great person. All right. What about Neil Mann? Neil.

Very, what's the best way to say, oh my God. I'm afraid of saying something that's going to come out the wrong way. Neil doesn't listen to this podcast. Neil really cares about people and really helping people he really one of the first times i ever met neil was when i was at ryerson and i actually interviewed neil when he was doing overnights about what it's like to be on air and um you know neil was the music director and he was very passionate about every all the music. And I think Neil's had some pretty shit deals over the years that, you know, the people have not seen the value that he can bring to an organization

and that he isn't involved in a broadcaster somewhere because he can bring so many great qualities to leadership and guidance and strategy and getting the best out of people. How do I pronounce the guy from Billy Talents last name? Koalowitz. Ben K. Ben K. Ben Koalowitz.

Ben is a lot like George, just a very genuine guy who you can go a long time not talking to. And he's just like, you can have the most in-depth conversation. Very genuine. Very genuine. Very genuine. I remember saying to Ben when he left to go full-time with Billy Talent, I said, you know that if you start getting a big ego, I'm going to come over there and slap you on the head. He said, yeah, and you better damn well do that

because I don't want to be that guy. I used to tease Ben because he used to produce live in Torontoonto when he would come from band practice and you have a scarf around isn't that and i'm like oh how'd your little band practice go how's that little thing going on you know and everything's still doing that you're still doing that little band um so uh yeah ben started off as an intern doing stuff with alan and working downstairs at uh at 228 young street and uh you know i it's fantastic i love what they've been able to achieve. Great, great band. Every single member of those guys, genuine.

It's the Canadiana in them, right? Yeah, they're from Streetsville, right? They are. Originally known as Pez. I'm a Mississauga boy. Are you? What part's Mississauga? I'm from Sheridan Homelands. I don't think anybody knows where that is. It's down around the research center

down near QEW and Aaron Mills Parkway. Okay, yeah, yeah. It's not far from the movie theater, right? Where's that theater? I know that sometimes because I have the...

The movie theater over at Winston Churchill. Okay, that's Winston Churchill. Yeah, Aaron Mills and Winston Churchill. Yeah. Just because sometimes if it's not at the

Islington Queensway place, I got to basically, that's my next spot I got to go to. Really? Yeah, there's nothing else around here. I just walk down to the one on the beaches. That's to basically, that's my next spot. I got to go to. It's like, I got to, yeah, I don't, there's nothing else around here. I just walked down to the one of the beaches.

That's not fair. That's not fair. And I go to, you know, I go to, you know, go to, go to the Burgers Priest and grab something there and hit the LCBO across.

You know, though, that is in Queensway. It's very close to here, but it's, if it's not there, I'm in trouble because now I've, anyways,

that's a whole separate issue here. All right, Ben K. Now I'm going to ask you about the morning show guys, post Humble and Fred. So Jason Barr, Todd Shapiro, and Dean Blundell, how were they to work with? Everybody I ever worked with was fantastic.

Are you going to trash anybody? I have no reason to. No, I don't want you to fake. Honestly, I have no reason to. No jerks? Everybody has an ego. What about Derringer? I heard he's a jerk.

Confirm or deny? I never had a problem with Derringer. Here's the thing. I think, because a lot of people you've had in have been talent. Yes. And talent have a very different, I'm not going to say a very different perspective on things, but they do have a different perspective. And I worked with talent on a very different level because I was sort of a support type person with them. But I think there was always a level of respect because of what we were able to bring to help them out along the way.

And at the end of the day, I can't criticize or shit over what they did because I was never in their place. I was never sitting there going, holy crap, if my ratings go down, I'm screwed. You know, I can't imagine the pressure that comes along with that. It's like being a sales guy and you got to hit quota. Absolutely.

You know, it takes a special mentality to be able to do that. And I would, I had full respect and I still do have full respect for anybody who decides, you know what,

I'm going to get behind the mic and I'm going to put my life out there for everybody to be a part of and to get to know. And I'm going to get behind the mic and I'm going to put my life out there for everybody to be a part of and to get to know. I'm going to tell everything the way that it is because that's who I am. So Blundell was a good guy. Yeah.

Ran into him just before Christmas on the Danforth outside of Corey's last time I saw him. Corey's Clothiers. Corey's Clothiers. 569 Danforth Avenue. There you go. Yeah, I mean, you can go a long time not seeing these people. But again, no, I don't think anybody really has any hard grudges because everybody at some point worked together to make the product better.

Can he hook you up? Rogers must need a guy of your talent. I'm here. Have you phoned him up? Give him a call? Have I phoned up Rogers? No, Dean Blundell, because he's a Rogers guy now. Oh, I know he's a Rogers guy.

I know people on the inside there. I'm not going to... You want me to call... I'm not going to... Julie Adam? I'm not going to go to any of the talent and try and get them to beg me for a job. I'd like my own abilities and talents to stand out for themselves. And you know what?

They got enough crap to worry about. No, I'm goofing around. I just know Mike Cooper's gone. They might need somebody to sit with Aaron Davis. I could give her a call. One of the last, one of the eternal legends in the city. Mike Cooper?

Yeah. I'm glad he's still doing his show. Mike Cooper. Blind Eric does some stuff like you do, right? Like what was Blind before, other than being in, because Blind Eric we know because he was in front of the mic on the Dean Blundell show, but he's working

now for NuCap, which owns the Maypots one, which owns Boom and Flow. Derek is the imaging director up there. I actually was the one who brought Derek to Toronto. I sometimes say, if it wasn't for me, you never would

have gotten into this situation. I sometimes say, if it wasn't for me, you never would have gotten into this situation. I know Derek from my Ryerson days because he was a year behind me in Ryerson. And he was working in Barrie for quite some time. And when I... What happened?

2002, I moved up to the creative director for toronto so my position needed to be filled so i hired and the first hire i did was derrick to replace me crazy as a producer yeah yeah and um and then derrick did that for a number of years and then wanted to try a new challenge and he went off to astral just as they flipped astral he went there for a few years and um and then he came back to work with the morning show congratulations on your pronunciation of astral thank you very few get that right i know you're ready you're ready for management so people love derrick i mean i hear there's a guy the program director at boom uh tells me like yeah derrick was a member of his dream team like

he wanted derrick yeah uh troy yes it was troy derrick um derrick is one of the most phenomenal producers they have out there and he just loves he is one of those guys who just has an incredible love and passion for radio um i run into derrick all the time because we live 10 minutes from each other walk 10 minutes walk from each other and he's a really good guy. I'm very, very happy for where he is and what he's doing right now. And he's a great juror. If you have a trial and you need a good juror, you're not touching that one? No.

What about Billie Holiday? Not the singer, not the dead singer. Honestly, I didn't have a lot of... Interaction? I didn't have a lot of interaction with him. I thought you were going to say Brother Bill for a second. No, I'm going to ask you for a minute. Brother Bill! How's that?

Oh my God, where do I start? Who is now known as Neil Morrison. Of all the people I worked with, I probably have the most experiences working or doing things with Neil. Brother Bill. We've gotten into some interesting situations over the years. That's for sure. Uh, he's a great guy. Oh, it's funny. He, I'm just thinking like,

I'm going to, I can tell you a bunch of stories. Um, if you've got the time, uh, I mentioned earlier that it was his club night at Studio 69 where I met the woman who would later become my wife. Wow. It was, and she knew him and she used to always

go hang out there and our paths just never crossed. We backtracked our lives over the years and there was many opportunities. Wow. We just never crossed the same path

at the same time. It was funny, there was this story, you know the story yesterday about Paul McCartney not being able to get into the... Taiga? The Taiga.

Why he'd want to go to that after party, who knows? But it reminded me of the story that I was sharing with Neil on Facebook yesterday. I said, well, what he needed to do was say, I'm here with Weezer. You've got to let me in. Now, very few people understand this story. But what happened was Canadian Music Week, I'm going to say it was 2001. Yes, it was 2001. We were down at the Steam Whistle Roundhouse and Econoline Crush was playing. And somebody said, oh, Danko Jones is playing up at Lee's Palace.

We should go. Okay. Well, we don't have tickets. Don't worry. We'll get in. So we took, EMI gave us a car and somebody drove us up there and we get out front and the place is just packed, right? You can't get in. So Neil, I'm going to call him Bill, brother. Call him brother, Bill. I'm going to call him brother. And Toronto Mike did brother Bill.

I'm going to call him brother, brother Bill, brother. So he says to me, okay, just give me a second. I'll be back. All right. So he goes in, talks to whoever's at the door and he comes back out. We're in this van and he says to me, says to us all, there's four of us. He says, okay, you guys are weezer you're here to see danko jones show and just follow me in wow okay so just go walking into the club we were weezer for that moment you're too tall to be rivers we were too i know i had the glasses oh i suppose maybe maybe grant he was there at the time

he was more of a rivers um so that was that story which leads me to the time where he um we were at edge fest 2001 why did this all happen in 2001 edge fest 2001 um tool was playing and we had done an interview with maynard earlier that spring uh when he in town, I think for, it wasn't Tool, it would have been Perfect Circle. And Maynard is an intense guy. He's like looking through you when he's talking. And so we go to the gig and we had done the show that day. I was off in the show he was broadcasting broadcasting in. And we somehow snuck up. We walked up with some people. It was dark.

Walked up onto the stage, onto the back line, and we're standing back line stage right about 10 minutes before Tool was going to go on. Like, what the hell? How did we do this? This is crazy. And he's like, oh, this is great. This is great. And he had had a few drinks by that point. And we both had.

And he says, I said, okay, we can't move. We have to stay here. We're like hidden. We can't move if we want to see this. So he says, yeah, yeah, good boy. And he saw Maynard over on the side of the station. So I'm just going to go say hi to Maynard. I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

Like, stay here. And he said, no, no, no, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. So he starts walking over. He gets about two feet from Maynard. And all said, no, no, no, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. So he starts walking over. He gets about two feet from Maynard, and all of a sudden a guy just comes up from behind him and puts him into a full headlock behind him and marches him straight off the stage.

It was like one clean movement. There was no break. It was poetry, right? Yeah. And I'm standing on the back line by myself having seen this thinking, okay, I should probably just sort of slink my way off stage in order not to get my ass kicked off that's funny so there was many many good stories

with with neil many stories about sneaking in with bands there was the time we snuck in we well we didn't sneak in we were staying at the same hotel pearl jam was staying at in portland we went to do an everclear interview and we actually ended up walking into the door with them we couldn't figure out why all these people were standing outside. Turns out Pearl Jam has been playing a show and we walked in and I literally almost knocked over Eddie as we walked in. That's awesome.

Yeah. I want him to come on Toronto Mic'd. I almost sat on Eddie Vedder once. True story. He can't be a very big guy. He's not a very big guy. Neil Mann and I had gone to... I feel like I'm dropping names all over here.

That is my fault. No, that's okay. We had gone to Seattle to feel like I'm dropping names all over here. That is my fault. No, that's okay. We had gone to Seattle to do an interview for the Yield album. And they were in the management offices. And we were talking with Jeff Amman about basketball after we'd done the interview. And as you're sitting there, I was like, I was going to go sit in this chair that was behind me. And you're kind of talking like, I'm just going to go sit down. And I kind of saw this person walking, but I didn't see where they go,

where they went. I just went to sit down and I was like, holy shit, Eddie's sitting on the chair. Sorry, dude, didn't mean to sit on you. That's amazing.

I still, when I go to a concert, I still wear my, I bought the yield t-shirt during that. I was in 98, they came to Molson park and I bought a yield t-shirt and I still wear that Pearl Jam yield t-shirt to concerts. Well,

in the song wishlist, he talks about a 68 Camaro. As we were walking into the manager's office, there was a 68 Camaro sitting in the parking lot downstairs. There is still one regret we have about that at that time and that interview was, and Neil Mann would absolutely agree with this. Eddie says to us after he was done the interview, how long you guys in town for? We got, we're here for another three days.

We literally flew into the interview and had three days before we flew out again. Well, we're rehearsing down at a rehearsal spot tonight and tomorrow. If you guys want to come down, you're more than welcome to come down and sit in on it. What the hell? For some reason, some bizarre reason we didn't take them up on

the offer. I thought we felt like we'd be crashing it. No, that's a regret we'd be crashing it, but... No, that's a regret you're going to have, but that's a pretty good Eddie impersonation you're doing there. Good job, good job. What about Kelly Catrera? What about Kelly? How was it working with her? Didn't like her.

Is that true? No, that's not true. She might hear that. I know. And she's actually... That's what Kelly would expect from me. She wants... I don't think I'm speaking out of school

I think it's well known she would like the Bill Carroll spot on 640 she's doing a great job she's very good she's always been a very good talker

I don't mean that in a bad way but she's always been very good at doing talk shows she's very engaging Kelly's got a wicked sense of humor

very dark sense of humor very cutting very sarcastic, sort of that dry comedian wit, if you will. Funny, I ran into Kelly on Queen Street in the beach about four days after I was let go and she'd been let go earlier that month and I was like, hey, we got time on our hands. What do you want to do?

Want to hang out? We're in the chorus pink slip club here. Yeah, we call it, I'm not, yeah. But good on her that she sure didn't burn any bridges, which is half the battle, I guess, in this day and age, right? It's so true. One of the things I said when I went in and I talked to an employment lawyer, because that's what you should do, just to make sure everything's on the up and up, is I said, look, here's the deal. If you want to push for a bit more, I'm all for that,

but I don't want to make a big shitstorm out of this because at the end of the day, I fully expect at some point in time our paths are going to cross again. And I had a good run. I have no hard feelings. And technically, you're already crossing paths because they could probably use their muscle

and make sure you're not involved in the ongoing history of music. Can you edit that part out? Which part? No, I don't. I'm just joking. Yeah, no, I'm sure they could. It wouldn't be the first time I got that request.

I'm sure they could. But, you know, I think there's a mutual respect there. I think Alan obviously loves the work that I do with him. Sure. No, but I'm saying if things had gone sour between you and Chorus, they could say, you know, screw him, get him out of there. It's our airw do with him. Sure. No, but I'm saying if things had gone sour between you and Chorus, they could say, you know, screw him, get him out of the way.

It's our airwaves or whatever. Yeah. Oh, the people's airwaves, man. Barry Taylor. How is he? Barry's good. Ran into Barry recently at a party at Josie's house. You had Barry on recently.

Yes, very recently. He's a good guy. He's a really good guy. He loves comedy. I think he's a natural entertainer. He's got that kind of thing that people either like or they don't. You know what I mean? I think you either get it or you don't.

Yeah. He's got like a shtick there that's kind of like a slacker, but not really a fearless Fred type. He's got a shtick there that's kind of like a slacker, but not really a fearless Fred type. He's got a shtick there, like this persona or whatever. Like, hey, 420 thought kind of thing. Yeah, and again, incredibly clever. Very small little clever things that he would do that could go way over top of people's heads. Cool.

Yeah, he's doing a Raptor podcast now. People are looking for some Raptor content. Hunt down the Barry Taylor Raptor podcast. I'm surprised he's not doing a Raptor podcast now. People are looking for some Raptor content. Yeah. Hunt down the Barry Taylor Raptor podcast. I'm surprised he's not doing a Jays podcast. Yeah, he talked about how much he loved, I'd say him and his dad loved watching the Jays. Josie Dye, you mentioned. What kind of gal is Josie?

Josie's a good gal. Everyone, I mean, again. Everyone's good. No, Josie's great. She really loves the music. Her show was a great show, Josie's Top 20. She would get in there every week and try and find a new angle on stuff and interviewing people and interviewing bands.

I know she really loves doing the TV stuff. And she invites you to her parties. She does. Josie lives near me too. So there was one Friday night. She says, what are you doing? I'm having a bunch the TV stuff. And she invites you to her parties. She does. You know, Josie lives near me too. So there was one Friday night. She says, what are you doing? I'm having a bunch of people over. Why don't you come over?

Fantastic. Was City in Color there at the party? I don't believe there were any musicians at the party. I think it was a musician-free event. I mean, you know, because her husband, Joel, with Dine Alone. I think they make a great pair. I'm really happy for Josie where she is right now with the kids and everything like that. I think she's a great mom.

You had her in here, you know what she's about. Yeah, very sweet. In a way, she's a lot like Mae. They're very genuine people. In fact, you could draw a line. I believe Mae was replaced by Kelly Cotrera and then Josie Dye. Yeah, May, Kelly, Josie. That's a fun game.

You've had the middays in. And you had Adam in. You've had the middays in. I had Adam in. You have had the middays since 89. Is that right? Yeah. He's as tall as you are, this Adam guy.

I know he is. He might be taller. He could be. I slouch a lot. He could be. Me too. And I can't afford to. Hey, I'm going to be honest.

Some people are not as warm and fuzzy about Ross Winters as a program director. What are your thoughts from your perspective? What kind of job did Ross Winters do at 102.1? I think he did a good job. I think he was in a hard place at that time. I mean, music was in an interesting

place. I'm just trying to think right now. Barry Taylor, he's on, I'm trying to think of who's on the record with this one and trying to make sure I don't screw this up, but Barry Taylor is on the record as no warm and fuzzies for Ross Winters. Well, I mean, I just, maybe it was a case of their personalities

didn't get on, right? When you're a program director, you're expecting a lot from your talent. And maybe the talent doesn't respect the program directors or respect the decisions that are being made. And that could very well be it. I mean, I don't want to speak out a line about anything like that. But, you know, being a PD is a hard gig, man. It's you spend so much time. I've never been a PD, but I've seen what they do. You spend a lot of time dealing with crap. You're dealing with listeners who are complaining about things and you're dealing with clients who want things and sales people who want things and music labels who need things and talent

who's doing things on there. It's not an easy gig. To do it in Toronto, to do it on one of the major stations, there's a lot of pressure. So he did the best he could with the cards he's dealt, in your opinion. Yeah. I guess that's a fair assessment.

Ross is working with Patterson right now, I think, with their stations out west. He's got a good programming mind. Ross comes from... He brought in... I think what Ross did is he probably brought in an angle that a lot of people

weren't comfortable with because Ross is an analytic and he wanted to know what the numbers were. And at the end of the day, it's the numbers that are going to dictate what people want to listen to

and what's popular. Well, that's... So that's something a listener might have observed during the Ross Winters era is that the playlist seems to have narrow them what's popular. Well, so that's something a listener might have observed during the Ross Winters era, is that the playlist seems to have narrowed quite a bit. And this is part of the analytics, you'd say? Maybe you disagree with that statement?

No, I think it's part of the analytics because you want to see what's testing well. You want to look at other stations, other markets, and see what's being popular and what's not. And you're going to adjust from there. He brought in Fearless Fred as well. What kind of guy is Fred? Fred's a good guy.

Fred Kennedy. Fred's a good guy. I like Fred. I know you and Fred. No, I don't. I'm not even allowed to... Apparently, I'm not allowed to talk about that anymore. No, I like Fred. I think he's done a great job. For the record, I've never met Fred, so he has no idea what kind of guy I am. I think he's...

He's... You know, he worked hard to get the morning show. I think... I'm pretty sure he wasn't happy about not getting the morning show when it went the other way but oh when dominic die and josie die took it he worked hard he worked you know he and mel did a great job in the afternoon and um you know i like listening to their show i think he brings a lot of a lot of um cerebralness to it, if you will, if that's the way to describe it.

He's got this slacker thing going on, like the hey, you know, hey, comic, comic, I don't know. Maybe I'm using the wrong term. I get this whole like sticky vibe from him. And like, no, nothing wrong. He's a fine broadcaster. I don't listen to a lot of morning shows because I don't have that lifestyle right now.

But just he does sort of like a, hey, kind of a comic book kind of, hey, cool guy, cool guy. Yeah. How's that for my description? No, I know where you're going with Slacker, but I don't think Slacker in the sense that he doesn't know what's going on. I think he knows a lot of what's going on. I don't think.

I'm not saying he's a, how would I know if he's a Slacker? But the thing about it is here's the thing. Of all the people, I'm not saying he's a, how would I know if he's a slacker? But the thing about it is here's the thing. Of all the people that I've ever worked with, nobody on air has ever been an act. Really?

You know what I mean? Like I've never perceived him as being, this is an act. So you don't know, there's nobody who like, they're on air person and then once they stop recording,

they're completely different. It's all pretty, it'd be easier to maintain. They're genuine, man. Yeah, I mean, it'd be hard to separate the two. And that's one of the observations I made pretty quickly

when I started working with CFNY was everybody is pretty damn genuine. Speaking of genuine, I'm hoping you tell me Bookie is genuine. Yes. Dave Bookman. Love Bookie, I'm hoping you tell me Bookie is genuine. Yes. Dave Bookman. Love Bookie.

I'm glad that he's doing his show over on Indie. That was a moment in time. I was like, oh, man, Bookie's not here anymore. That really sucks. He's one of those guys who brought a tremendous amount of currency to the station, if you know what I mean. Queen Street currency, listener currency, validation, honesty, integrity. Integrity, yeah. A lot of that.

They're hard to find people like that. And I guess the parting ways of Bookie, that might have a lot to do with sort of why they part ways with you and why they parted ways of Marty Streak. Maybe you've been there a long time. It's time for change. Very well might have been. I was the, you know, the funny thing was, I was the longest serving person at that point in time from when CFNY became the edge. Well, I was the last on the programming side, at least. All right. Trust me, these names are stopping. I'm going to maybe tell me a little bit about Dominic Diamond and Greg Beharrell.

Now, Greg wasn't there very long, right? He went off to the West Coast. Greg's done phenomenally well. Greg's in San Francisco right now, working for stations in San Francisco. Greg's an interesting guy. I didn't really get to know him that well. Um, Greg's an interesting guy. I didn't really get to know him that well. Um, he is one of those guys who's always thinking about something to do.

Something, a different way of taking on things. Um, having fun using social media a lot. Um, he always, my impression with Greg is he always wanted to do more. You know what I mean he wanted he wasn't just content with well i'm just happy doing this no i want to do more i want to do more i want to do more right um dominic's i'm very happy that dominic has landed um with with jack i think it's no no jack he's in calgary um out in Calgary it's unfortunate that he's in Calgary and his family is still in Toronto after his family moved from Halifax to Toronto

another East End guy, Danforth guy there's a lot of us out in that area I see a trend here Dominic is, I've always said Dominic is one of the purest broadcasters that I've ever worked with. He's very on the ball, very professional about it.

Melanie from Fearless Fred. I hear that she was like, she started from the bottom. Now she's here. Like this is like a receptionist. Was she hired? Is that true? Yeah,

she was. So this legend is true. So she was a receptionist who worked her way from reception to morning show. She did some work with the sales team, support team. Mel was great because she just wanted to be on air. So she just kept hounding the PDs, hounding the PDs. That's amazing. How do I do it?

How do I do it? What do I do? What do I got to do? What do I need to do? I mean, a lot of us started at the bottom and worked our way up and you have to. And I used to say to people, I feel the pain that you're in because I started off as an intern and I did a lot of those shitty crappy jobs. I used to do 12 hour overnight shifts on weekends and then it'd be back for midnight the next day. And then I was, you know, I didn't even know what bloody well day of the week it was,

but you have to do those things to work your way up. And I've seen a lot of announcers who have worked their way up by just pounding on the door and saying to the program director, what do I need to do? So you got to put in the time. Got to put in the time. Yeah. That's good advice. Let's talk about my studio for a minute. Enough of this nonsense at CFNY. Okay. Fair enough. Good for them. But come on. We have other things quickly to discuss before I dismiss you. I know I've got overtime already. What do you think of the nonsense at CFNY, okay? Fair enough. Good for them, but come on. We have other things quickly to discuss before I dismiss you. I know I've gone over time already. What do you think of the setup here?

You're like, how many audio guys do I get in here? Nah, they never come in. I always get the guys in front of the microphone for some reason. And then you're here. You know sound and audio. I'm impressed. Yeah, it's a good little setup.

I like the swing arms you have going on. The mics are good. You've color-coded all the cables. Stokely, I'm sure, did that for you. I got to give full credit to Andrew Stokely for the color-coding of the cables. Yeah. He actually, if you don't like something here,

it's actually his fault because he basically said, go buy these things, and then I went and bought those things. No, it's a smart thing to do because then you know, oh, I'm adjusting something. I got to make sure I'm doing it from the right mic.

You got your little, you know, multi-track mixer going on there, running it in through your Mac. Through Audacity, a program I could never wrap my head around. It used to frustrate

the hell out of me. I'll stick to my Pro Tools. It's only the ninth episode I've done with Audacity. Is it? It's good. I used to use GarageBand. I was amazed

that you used GarageBand. I was just like, are you kidding me? Because that's a bad idea? That's not a bad idea. But you could even probably notice the difference between the sound of the shows because now you can throw various compressions on it and change everything around. I was impressed that you were doing with GarageBand, to be honest with you.

So I've lost that cred now that I'm on Audacity. No, it's fine. I mean, but here's the thing. The technology has changed so much since when I started on Audacity. No, it's fine. I mean, but the thing, here's the thing. The technology has changed so much since when I started as a producer. When I started doing the ongoing history,

I'll just give you that as an example. Are we done? No, keep going. Okay. I like the song in the background. I was going to say, is this my exit music?

Pretty much. You know, I started off working on multi-track analog tape and now I can sit on my counter at home and produce something for anybody anywhere in the world just by using a macbook pro and a pro tools it's a brave new world man it is guys like me are broadcasting yeah you know they know people are going to hear this episode i know assuming i press record which we won't well wouldn't be

the first time that's not happened by the way in front of you and i should have mentioned this earlier i apologize to my friends at great lakes brewery but that beer is going home with you oh Wouldn't be the first time that's not happened. By the way, in front of you, and I should have mentioned this earlier, I apologize to my friends at Great Lakes Brewery, but that beer is going home with you. Oh, wow. So I hope it's a local craft brewery, very close to here. Great guys. And yeah, every guest who comes on Toronto Mic'd gets to walk away with free beer.

A lovely parting gift. I think that's great. I think it's great that you have a client. I know you were for a while going, oh, geez, should I get a sponsor? Yeah. Makes the world go around, right? You think Chorus will sponsor me? Who knows? Alright, man.

This was awesome. I actually don't give a shit that nobody knows who the hell Rob Johnston is because I could just play this right here. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston. Yeah, that's happened about 700 times now, 650 times. And it was great to finally meet you, Robbie J., and it was great to hear these freaking stories.

I could do three hours of this. We'll do it again. And that brings us to the end of our 159th show. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike. And Robbie J. is, get Twitter at Toronto Mike and Robbie J is get this, he's at Robbie J but stick an underscore before the J.

Yes, it's very annoying. Robbie underscore J. Who's the guy who got it without the underscore? I don't know. Some guy who doesn't tweet. Alan Cross always complains about the guy who owns alancross.com because he doesn't put anything there, but he won't give it up.

Just sits on it. See you all next week. That's true because everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me to dance