Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scott Ferguson: Toronto Mike'd #639

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

Mike chats with Scott Ferguson about his years at 1430 and 590 covering Blue Jays baseball, working the radio broadcasts with Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth, his move to The Team 1050, TSN Radio, and his current health challenge.

What up, Miami? Toronto! VK on the beat, uh, check, uh I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto mic, wanna get the city love So my city love me back, for my city love Welcome to episode 639 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.

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I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is Toronto Radio veteran Scott Ferguson. Hello? Hi, Scott. Oh, is this Mike? Yes, how you doing? Very good, very good. I'm just going to move upstairs because we've got a big dog who likes to bark from time to time. Okay, but the barking just adds

some ambiance to the experience. Well, he's a big boy and he tends to, if he wants to go for a walk or something, he'll bug me incessantly, so I don't want to disrupt what we're doing here. Okay. So I'm in the upstairs now, so...

Whereabouts are you in the world, though? We're up in Aurora. Okay, okay. We've been here for, let's see, since 95, so it'll be 25 years, I guess, in October. Oh, wow. How do you like it up there?

Well, when we came up here, we came up here because it was sort of a getaway, like it was in the country. But now it's as built up as a small town or a small city, I guess you would say. Right. I still like it up here. And the commute wasn't too far when I was working at TSN 1050.

So it was when we were down at Queen Street. I didn't like that. But once we moved up to A to Agent Court, it was okay. Right, because you're not going into the city. You're sort of on top of the city in Agent Court. Yeah, and right now, I'm not in the process of working at all because of the health conditions I alluded to. I asked my doctor if it was a wise decision to keep working where I was, not the radio. I was outside of the business, and he said, no, he said, it's too risky for someone your age and your health condition. So the last two weeks I haven't been working, it's sort of been a little bit of a vacation.

So is that a COVID-19 precaution? They were afraid. Where I was working, two of the co-workers got tested positive, and that prompted me to go to the doctor and have a deeper discussion with my family. And my kids were both against me working anymore, at least at that place, because it was too risky. And I agreed with my doctor. He said the same thing. He said, you know, think about how old you are and think about what you're dealing with otherwise. And he just said, I wouldn't do it if I were you. So right now I'm just looking and seeing what happens. Now, Scott, just to confirm,

because I'm going to record this call, is that fit for public consumption or is that something you wanted to... Well, people know in the business that I've worked with at TSN 1050, like I've had Parkinson's disease for the last five years and it only got worse in the last, like it was manageable for four years. The last year it's gotten worse, but still not enough that I couldn't do a job. Right. But, uh, it's, it's like they changed my medication. I was told that any medication they give you generally will work and be effective for five years. And then after that, it's a time that they have to put you on something else and hopefully something else has been developed. But this new medication I'm on, I've only been on it for about a month and a half and it hasn't made a real appreciable difference so far. So I'm just

crossing my fingers. I'm still kind of torn whether to mention it or not. Like, I've heard Mike Richards mention his cancer, and I've heard, well, Gareth Wheeler, I don't know if you've had him on, but he's got cancer as well, or is in remission now, but they both admitted it publicly. I'm just not sure because I'm looking for a job, and combined with my age, whether it's a good thing to dwell on that. Okay.

I don't know. It's up to you. If you want to ask me about it, I'll answer you. But I'm just a little bit wary of it. I don't want everybody in the business to know necessarily. Okay. I just want to make sure definitively because I was thinking, although I don't have to do this, I was thinking of actually just dropping this phone call, because it's so fly on the wall, like me catching up with you, Scott,

and I was going to drop it. But if at the end of this call you decide you don't want the Parkinson's information in there, I'll edit it out, like happily. You just have to let me know explicitly. Okay. Well, I respect them for coming forward forward because it inspires other people to hear about people who have had success in the face of dealing with illnesses. That's why I've told a lot of people in the business that I know

well, but I just worry about everybody knowing it. Ask me. It's okay. Let me ask you right now. If I change my mind at the end of it, oh, no, ask me. It's okay. Okay, well, let me ask you right now off the top, because... If I change my mind at the end of it, I'll do what you said, and you can edit it out. Okay, for sure, for sure. I'm learning now, actually. I had no idea. So, firstly, I'm sorry that you have this affliction, but could you share anything with us about, like, what symptoms caused you to seek a diagnosis? And I ask this because yesterday I was chatting with Gene Valaitis, who says hi.

Oh yeah, I work with him. Yeah, and he says hi. He says you're a great guy. Yeah, I work with him twice. He was a chum as an intern and then got in there full time. And then I work with him as a team. Right, right, which we'll get into in a moment. But he was very candid about going to the hospital with some chest pain that he thought was probably nothing. And he was almost hesitant to go to the hospital because he didn't want the nurses laughing at him

for coming in about some kind of gas or something. And it turns out if he hadn't gone in that night, he would be dead today. So would you mind sharing? And it's, of course, I had a similar, I'll tell you this one, but this one don't, I don't want to talk about on air really. Similar, I'll tell you this one, but this one I don't want to talk about on air, really. Wow. So I've had a couple of brushes, and this is the latest. Now this Parkinson's, although it's not in a situation where I'm in a fatal condition or anything like that, but it has changed my lifestyle.

And what were your symptoms? I remember, I think it's Andy Barry was very public about his battle with Parkinson's. And what were the symptoms that caused you to seek some diagnosis? Well, it was mostly other people noticing the change in my appearance. I had lost weight, which I was trying to do a little bit anyway. But I had lost weight. I'd become somewhat gaunt sometimes where people would say, you look so pale. And Sean Levine, one of the producers at TSN 1050 at the time, said to me, he was the first to come up to me and actually say,

is there something wrong with you? But I had actually gone to my own doctor before that, and I've been going through a battery of tests, and it takes months before they know for sure what you've got. Right. And I told Sean, I'm getting the diagnosis this week, but I think what it could be is Parkinson's disease. That's what I've been told to expect.

And lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, a week and a half later, whatever it was, I was told I had Parkinson's. And as I said, over the four years subsequent to that, it wasn't too bad. I still get little shaking episodes and that sort of thing. And I don't sleep all that well at times. But the last, I'd say, eight months to close to a year now, things have changed. It's not as good. I just don't feel myself the same way. I mean, I can still work. I can still do things. I force myself to do stuff sometimes that I don't want to do. But it can ruin your quality of life if you let it.

Well, Scott, firstly, I'm very sorry to hear this. I'm sorry that you have to deal with this. But I also want you to be aware of the fact that there's so many people out there like myself who have such fond memories of listening to you throughout the years. And we're going to go into this a little bit now, but I just want to let you know that sharing this struggle, this health struggle that you're going through can only help. It can only, firstly, people will appreciate you sharing this with them,

people who care about you and love listening to you on the radio. But also it will inspire somebody. It will touch a chord with somebody who's dealing with something very similar. So my thought is to do this for the greater good and to give something to your fans. Okay, well, we'll do it, and then I'll think about it at the end of it again. But I really enjoyed when Mike did that, because I really respected him for that coming forward and talking about what he went through with cancer.

And I've talked with Gareth Wheeler extensively about his struggles, and he got it a lot younger than either one of Mike or I. I was really impressed with that, so I will. I just know what some employers can be like. It's tough enough at the best of times when you're 65 to get a position. And on top of that, to them to hear you've got health problems can just bury you sometimes. But yeah, I might as well, I might as well talk about it. Now, I want to thank a couple of people for making this conversation happen, because throughout the years of doing Toronto Mic'd, every once in a while, I'd be thinking, I'd love to talk to Scott

Ferguson. And then I'd, sometimes I would, uh, send an email to the, the, uh, the old TSN address. And sometimes I would tweet, does anybody have a phone number for Scott Ferguson? But I never got much traction. Like I wasn't able to make this happen. And then the other day, a gentleman named Scott Bannister tweeted at me, you should get Scott Ferguson on. And I'm like, yeah, I want to talk to Scott Ferguson because your voice was, we'll talk about this in a moment, but your voice was such a key part of my, you know, my love of baseball growing up in the voice of the summers. And then I reached out to my new friend, Jerry Howarth. And Jerry

must have did some detective work and he had a call with you and he said, Mike, here's his email address and here's his phone number and here we are talking now. So thank you to Scott and a big thanks to our mutual friend, Jerry Howarth.

Yeah, I spoke with Jerry on the phone. I emailed him a couple of times, and then I spoke to him on the phone, and he's doing well, which I was happy to hear, too. Yeah, he seems to be doing very well. Now, one note I received when I said you were coming on the podcast is from Mike Ross, who's now the public address announcer. Oh, yeah, I work with him as a team. He said, Fergie.

Am I allowed to call you Fergie, Scott? Can I call you Fergie? No, that's what everybody calls me. Or Ferg. From now on, it's Fergie. We're on that name basis now. Mike Ross says, Fergie is one of the truest pros I've ever worked with. Oh, that's very

nice of him to say. I enjoyed working with Mike, and I was glad to hear that he got that job at the Air Canada Centre, now Scotiabank whenever I'm watching a game and I hear his voice I say I worked with him let's bring you back if we can to CJCL if I skip anything pertinent just fill in the blanks there

the first time I heard your voice was on 1430 CJCL. Can you tell us how you ended up there and any detail you can share with everybody about your time working for that station doing Blue Jay games? Well, I'll start from the very beginning here, and it might be a little longer story than you wanted to get into, but I had no idea in high school what I wanted to be. I was gearing myself towards being an electrician or working in electronics, because in grade 11 and 12, I took courses that were heavily involved in those two fields. But I realized at the end of grade, I guess, 11 or 12, one of the two, that I really

had no interest in it. So then I was really starting to panic and think, what am I going to do with my life? And I racked my brains and I thought, maybe I can try to be an engineer. And because I knew other people that had, and they said, it's a good living, it's a challenging job. So I loaded up in grade 13 on math and sciences. Out of the six subjects I took, the other being English, I failed all five of them. So it was not a good scene. Then I effectively quit school halfway through without telling my parents and only took the English course for the final third of the year and spent the rest of my time working at a place called

the Pop Shop and also going to movies on Friday after. Finally, the school called me up and said, well, why aren't you going to these classes? And I told them I'm failing them anyway. What's the point? And then I told my parents and to their credit, they backed me entirely and said, well, what are you going to do about it? So I went to summer school and I passed two of the math. And then I came back for grade 13 and got through grade 13. But midway through grade 13, you know how they approach you about what you want to do, where you want to go to school after that. I thought, what is it that I really am passionate about in life? And it was sports and listening to the radio. And I listened to CFRB intensively. And Bill Stevenson was the sports director. Dave Hodge was there,

Brian Williams, and later Fred Locking. And I admired all of them. I'd never met them. But I just questioned in my mind, how do you get to do the kind of job they're doing? So I looked around and found out you could apply at Ryerson or you could apply at Humber College. And I did apply at Ryerson and didn't get in. But I did get into the radio arts course at Humber College. And I did apply at Ryerson and didn't get in, but I did get into the radio arts course at Humber. And after my second year there, there was an opportunity given to go to CHUM as a writer-slash-reporter. But I was supposed to go up against three of my classmates for that opportunity.

And as luck would have it, not for them but for me, none of them showed up. They all had, because it was the May long weekend, they didn't want to go on the weekend. I did. I went on the Saturday and Rick Hodge interviewed me and he liked what I did. He had me write a sports cast and was pleased and hired me on the spot.

So that was the beginning. And I stayed there three and a sports cast, and was pleased and hired me on the spot. So that was the beginning. And I stayed there three and a half years, predominantly as a writer-reporter, but I dabbled in the news and documentary field as well there. But after three and a half years, I started to think, and my wife and I were planning to get married at that stage too, and I thought, this job, although good, isn't what I want to be doing when I'm married. So I thought, is there any place that I can go to get a Monday to Friday gig? And fortuitously, I ran into Mark Hebsher at the Canadian Open Tennis Tournament. And he was at CKFH at the time.

And he told me that he would likely be leaving. And he just offered me the chance. He said, why don't you call him up? So I did and ended up going there. And Chum tried hard to convince me not to leave because they said they had future plans for me. But I said, I think the time is right. I've got to carve my own niche in this business, working Monday to Friday. So much to their chagrin, I left. Although J. Robert Wood, the legendary programmer, said to me, you know something, if you're doing this just for your relationship, this thing bothered me till the end.

Forever it bothered me that he said this. He said that they didn't want to lose me, but he said, remember this, careers last, marriages don't. And that kind of tilted me the other way that he would challenge my relationship. So that was the final straw for me. And I said politely to him, no, I've got to leave. So I did go down to CKFH. And ironically, or oddly enough, I was the final hiring by CKFH that Foster Hewitt approved. And again, much to my chagrin, a few months later, Foster Hewitt put CKFH up for sale. So I had a job there, but I thought it was rather tenuous because I thought, well, if this guy's selling it, whoever buys it might get rid of me. He might get rid of the whole staff.

But luckily, again, at the end of that time, Telemedia bought it and improved it greatly. Media bought it and improved it greatly. And I hung in there through all of the different things that it morphed through until it finally became the Fan 590. And I was there approximately a little over 21 years before I moved on. Okay, so let me step in to say how fascinating it is for me to hear you reference these, what I call FOTMs, Friends of Toronto Mike. So there's Rick Hodge, who helps you kind of get in the door at 1010?

At CHUM, yeah. Oh, at CHUM, 1050? Okay. And then there's Mark Hebbshire, who I co-host a podcast with, Hebbsy on Sports, who gives you the tip. Oh, I know. That's amazing. No, I'm sort of like the Kevin Bacon of radio.

I've had six degrees of separation. I've almost worked with anybody who's anybody in this business. Well, that's why I've been trying to get you on this show for at least the last five years. So I'm so glad we can finally make this happen. Now, could you share a little bit about your work during Blue Jays radio telecast? So I'm one of those guys who would, you know, before it was 590, it was 1430.

And I would tune in to CJCL to listen to Blue Jay games. And I loved listening to Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth. And I have such great memories of your voice on the telecast and whether it be the out of town scoreboard. your voice on the telecasts and whether it be the out-of-town scoreboard. Can you just share some more information about what it was like working with Tom and Jerry on the radio telecasts? Well, I'll tell you

first how I got into that. I was still obviously at CKFH and in 1984, Broadcast News needed a freelancer to cover the Blue Jays. So in addition to my normal job, I took that on as well and did 68 of the 81 games in 84. And I think Tom Cheek noticed that, and Jerry as well.

They passed on the word to the boss at Telemedia, Len Bramson. And I think it was December of 84, it may have been early January of 85, they approached me and said, how would you like to do the post-game show for the Blue Jays? And I just couldn't believe my ears, and I was so honored to be asked. And again, Mark Hebbshire had done it the year before, so there's the Hebbshire connection again. But I said, sure, I'll take it. And lo and behold, in 85, I joined Tom and Jerry, and what a ride that was. I spent 13 years with them initially.

Then there was a break because of a rights change. And then I came back in 2001 sort of for the final curtain with them. But I couldn't have had a better career than I had over those 14 years with those two. Wow. They are just in time for the drive of 85, which, like, I still look back, and a lot of this has to do with my age at the time, but that was everything to me, that 1985 season. I mean, I listened to, I think, almost every game

that wasn't on television. That was most games. And I would hear you and Tom and Jerry, and man, what a great summer that was. Oh, it was incredible. And for me, talk about spoiled. And I remembered Len Bramson came into the broadcast booth one night, and Jerry turned to him and said, Len, this is it.

They're going to have 10 to 15 years of great success now. You can count on it. And Jerry wasn't too far off. They had nine outstanding years in a row before the strike came and the eventual cancellation of the season in 94. But I got to see four division titles. Well, actually five, four under Cito Gaston, one under Bobby Cox, two American League Championship Series victories and two World Series victories. And I mean, it was like something special was unfolding right before my eyes. And I saw the golden era of Blue Jay baseball.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. It sounds like when you were covering the team in 84 there, even though Detroit got off to that, and I always forget, is it 45-5? Was that the start that Detroit? Something like that. It was 30-5 or 30-4 initially that sticks out in my mind. But the Jays, everybody forgets how great a year they had that year and still finished way up the track because Detroit was so good.

Right. That was an unbelievable season for the Tigers, and there was no catching them. But we sure made it interesting considering. But do you have a highlight during that fantastic, what I call the glory days of Blue Jays baseball? Is there any moment that sticks out as a highlight? Oh, just being there for the moment when Jerry handed over the mic to Tom

at the end of the Atlanta game, because it was Jerry's inning to do in extra innings. He gave over the mic to Tom to let the original voice of the Blue Jays call that final half inning and to see them win. And then the fans in Atlanta were so gracious afterwards. They were going up the aisles and they could see us in the booth from where they were because it was fairly close to the diamond. And them all calling out and congratulating us and saying, you've got a great team there.

I remember that so well. And then when they won it the next year in Toronto and Joe Carter's in from his home run, I couldn't believe that one. And I was supposed to go on the postgame show with Dan Schulman, but it took me over half an hour to get from where our broadcast location was down through the Blue Jays dressing room and over to the hotel on the other side where Dan was. So I almost missed at least a third of his show because I couldn't get through the crowds. There were so many people there. And you remind me of a story Dan told me on this very show on Toronto Mic, where Dan talked about being stuck

in a Skydome elevator when Joe Carter hits that homer. Yeah, he had to get to a certain location to do his show and thought he'd leave a few minutes early, catch the elevator, and the elevator jammed or something and he was stuck in it. Wow. I think that's the first time I heard that story.

It was on your show. Oh, good. I couldn't believe that. He didn't tell me that night. I'm sure that he didn't. Well, even when you, now, another story, of course, Jerry's told it many times, but when Jerry was on this show, Toronto Mike, then he talked about handing over the microphone to Tom Cheek for that, yeah, the bottom inning.

Was it the 11th? Do you remember? I think it was the 11th inning, yeah, the bottom inning. Was it the 11th? Do you remember? I think it was the 11th inning, yeah. Yeah. I get chills even remembering him, like, here to take us home, Tom Cheek. Like, what a generous and a wonderful tribute to Tom Cheek and gesture by Jerry to let Tom call the first World Series. Amazing.

It was. It was. I tried to put myself in the same World Series. Amazing. It was. I tried to put myself in the same position. I thought I would have been so excited I wouldn't have even thought to do that. But Jerry had the presence of mind and the class to do it, and it was just a special magical moment. Class, that's a good word for it. And Jerry put us in touch.

I think Jerry is just chock full of class. That's another question I have, because you're working with two of these greats, Jerry Howarth, who thankfully is still with us, and then Tom Cheek, who sadly passed away far too soon. But what can you say about Tom, the man, that you worked with for all those years? Tom was just a physical presence.

When he entered a room, he captured it immediately, and people just loved him. He was a a physical presence. When he entered a room, he captured it immediately, and people just loved him. He was a great storyteller. He helped me in so many ways, as did Jerry. I just can't say enough about him. If I compared my own personality to his, they were diametrically opposed. I was the shy, reserved type, and Tom was gregarious, fun-loving, and a great storyteller. Is it because by nature you're shy and reserved, and I'm using your words here, is that potentially, is that probably why you managed to somehow avoid my annoying invitations for all these

years? I will tell you the truth. Part of it was that there are things that you learn about this business or things that happen to you in this business that you're reticent about talking about. And that was mainly the thing. I didn't really want to talk about myself at that time and some of the things I was going through. But I figured now it's getting to the twilight part of the career anyway. And I figured it was time that I shared some of the stuff that I've been through. Well, I'm just very honored that you'd share with us. So, again, you're one of those beloved voices from the glory days

of our team, so people are going to love catching up with you today here. I'm going to read a note I received from somebody named John Bauer, and no, not Johnny Bauer, he's no longer with us, but John Bauer wrote, host of the Major League Report, Baseball Today, not Johnny Bauer, he's no longer with us, but John Bauer wrote, host of the Major League Report, Baseball Today,

and Jay's talk in the 80s on the Telemedia Sports Network, one of the best radio shows ever, live highlights and reports from around baseball after every Blue Jays game, not an easy feat during the days of analog radio tape. So I got this note, first of all, that's a nice gesture there by John, but could you speak to putting together those types of shows in the pre-digital era? Well, I'll tell you one thing. Initially, I did not have a computer. It was a ticker tape, like you see in those movies, those old New York stock ticker tapes. That's what you got the

baseball information off, and you had to transcribe it into a form that you could deal with. And then I had to, part of my duties with Tom and Jerry was to fill out the scoreboard, which I also used in the post-game show. In the early part of it, it was before computers, so editing wasn't as easily done, especially not when you were at Exhibition Stadium or Rogers Center, as it was then known. So sometimes I had to record, or Bruce Brenner, the producer, did, had to pre-record those updates from other stadiums. So by the time they got to air, they might have been five minutes dated,

but I'd immediately update them afterwards and say, well, guess what? This just happened. And it added to the drama of the show. But it wasn't easy to get everybody on live all the time. We did get some of them on live, but not all of them on live. And of course, this is an era, and most people listening remember this time, but not everybody, but this is a time, if you can imagine, my only source for how, I don't know, how the Orioles were doing

or how the Yankees were doing. My only source was you. Unless I could wait for Hebsey to tell me on Sportsline, hopefully. But really, we only had very few options if you wanted to hear about out-of-town scores. I agree with you 100%.

Part of the advantage of me getting the show when I got it is it was largely before the computer age. And I was an incessant reader. I bought all the newspapers I could buy. I talked to all my stringers all the time and found out what was going on, what were the hot-button issues in their cities. And I usually got them before they appeared in print here or on TV or on radio here.

And that was the secret to it. But once everybody had access to the computer, it wasn't quite the same anymore. And I remember Mike Wilner told me that after he had done the show for a year, he kind of changed the nature of it because everybody knew stuff, even that sometimes he couldn't quite catch up to because they were getting it instantaneously while he was on the air. So he kind of changed the way it was being done. And to his credit, too, you have to adapt to the times. Well, yeah, now in the era of Twitter, you're right. People like, you know, there's people like, I'll change it to hockey for a moment,

but you've got people like Bob McKenzie who will learn something on Twitter, which means they're getting something at the same moment you and I are getting it, if we're on Twitter. So everything's different now. No, it is. It's quite a change in the world. I haven't quite kept up to it the way I should be. I'm not into all the different things like Instagram and all that stuff. I just use it basically as a information gathering service and for my entertainment, but I don't, I don't converse a lot on the internet.

You do have, I don't know if you have control over it but uh you do have a twitter account but it is dormant like is that a is that do you have a login for that or is that basically left to i've got to change the last one the last let's see the last one i had was when i was at tsn 1050 right fergie ball or something yeah uh Fergie Ball TSN or something of that nature. No, no, that's not there anymore. Okay, yeah, it's been left dormant. I think it's technically there, but it's no longer been maintained, if you will. You know, Scott, I will say that if you did ever want to get into Twitter,

it's all about who you follow, but people would love to engage with you on different things. As long as you follow the right people and you aren't afraid to mute the people who cause trouble on Twitter, it can really be kind of a nice experience to engage with the fan base anyways. Well, occasionally it is. When I was earlier in the business, I used to talk to people on the phone all the time, with time permitted. I didn't mind engaging with people, but I just found Twitter and the whole Twitterverse

and the internet to be a little overwhelming at times. You felt if I don't answer everybody, I can't answer just one. So I just kind of let it slip. There were different times in different places where it was a job requirement that you had to do so much. So I did what I had to do, but I really wasn't a fan of it. Did you work with Ken Daniels when you were at Telemedia? Yes, I did. Yes, I did. He was a sports reporter at CKFH and then graduated to being Joe Bowen's backup when Joe was doing television.

And then, of course, he went on to do the Detroit Red Wings with Distinction for years, and he was a great guy. I just thought of him because I looked to my right and I saw that I have this 45 single of the Blue Jays' 10th anniversary in 1986. Terry Cashman re-recorded Talkin' Baseball and he called it 10 Years with the Jays. And I guess Ken found it in his storage box

and he lives outside of Detroit, I guess, in one of the suburbs. And he couriered it to me so I could have it for my collection. storage box and he he lives near outside of detroit i guess in one of the suburbs and he uh couriered it to me so i could have it for my collection and i was just looking at it and i remember he used to work there wow i did not know that yeah so it'll it's all connected my friend you know and not just and hebsey you were telling about how you put things together in the pre-digital era and you know i spent a lot of time withbscher, and every once in a while he'll tell me about, you know, just what you'd go through to produce the content and edit it

and put it together. And I think we probably today take it for granted that we do a little copy and paste, drag and drop. It's a whole different universe now. Well, I just was blessed with a great memory. I could see something and then spit it right back out again moments later. I just had an uncanny ability for that when it came to baseball, at least, which I concentrated most of my career on. Bruce Brenner would get stuff off a ticker for me, and I'd have to be reading it as I was on the air, talking at the same time.

So being able to do those two tasks at the same time isn't always the easiest thing. And even hearing the name Bruce Brenner, that reminds me, I heard it every night. Throughout the summer, I'd hear the name Bruce Brenner. It's funny just to hear it come out of your mouth there. Yeah, I've lost touch with Bruce. I haven't talked to him probably in, I don't know, five to ten years. He had some health issues, but I don't really know where he is right now. Hey, do you know where Murray Eldon is? No, I do not.

He was the public address announcer for years for the Blue Jays. He started in year two, I believe. Bob McCowan was the PA announcer the first year. Right. It does come full circle. And I thought about Murray because, you know, we lost recently, we lost a couple of, you know, great players from the first team you covered there. We lost Tony Fernandez and Damaso Garcia. And great players. But hearing Murray Eldon, you know, call their name over the exhibition stadium loudspeaker there

that's just like brings me right back to those great days and I know that you I think my good friend Freddie P you worked with Fred Patterson right? I worked with him, oh this is another weird story

a connection I believe and I have to double check it with Fred because I haven't talked to him in a long time, that he and I went to the same high school, Winston Churchill and Scarborough, I believe. But when I left CHUM, Rick Hodge and Brian Henderson wanted Fred to replace me. Hodge even said at one point, I think this guy's got more upside than you do. But Fred decided to stay at CFNY and his career took off there. So he had no reason to look back for that, but they did want him at Chum. That's a true story because only, I guess, only a couple of weeks before the pandemic shut

everything down, Rick Hodge was here and he told me that story. That is a true story. Absolutely. That's funny how it's all connected. And ready for this to become even more interesting in a small world is that Fred Patterson this afternoon is visiting my home not to violate any social distancing rule but to pick up some masks that my wife made for him and his wife and his kids and his grandkids

oh really wow so I can ask him because we're going to have a little chat like you know a six feet apart chat in my uh front lawn all right my friend now the glory days cjcl uh 14 30 then 5 90 now i think this might be the part that you are less happy to chat about but i'm gonna find out in a moment here because i'm gonna ask you about it but can you please share with us the impetus for your move to 1050 the team? Well, it boiled down to wanting to be with Tom and Jerry again because after the 97 season,

CKFH or CJCL as it was, dropped the rights. They just were losing money hand over fist. as it was, dropped the rights. They just were losing money hand over fist. What I was told by Doug Ackeris, the station manager, was that after the 92 season, there was a clause in the contract that if the Jays won a second time, the rights fee would double. And lo and behold, they won a second straight World Series. The rights fee doubled.

The economy went into a bit of, not a huge downslide, but a bit of a downslide. And the station was just losing money, and so was the network on Blue Jays baseball. So after 97, I was called in and basically told we're not going to have the baseball next year. So I took a hefty pay cut because of that. But to sort of salve my wounds, in 98, they let me travel with the team and provide my version of the coverage. We didn't have the game rights anymore, but I got to go to, I think, probably three-quarters to 80% of their road games. And the reason I didn't do them all was because of family reasons,

and Barry Davis did the other ones. Right. And I drew a new appreciation for what Tom and Jerry and all the baseball writers do when they cover a full season, because that is one heck of a grind. But having said that, it was a great thrill as well, because I got to see all these ballparks I've been talking about for all these years. You know, that sounds like you were the Howard Berger of Blue Jays baseball.

Well, actually, Howard was doing the Leafs at that time, and they had Howard traveling in 98, of course, well, since 95, I believe. And I traveled in 98, but at the end of the 98 season, they said, look, the way the economy is, we can only afford to send one of you on the road, and we think the Leafs are right at a better point in their history than the Jays are in theirs. And they said, we can't send you on the road next year. So that was one more reason that I thought, we can't send you on the road next year. So that was one more reason that I thought, well, what's going on here? I like I'm doing my best as a baseball, but it seems to be diminishing. So I over the years, I looked at a couple of possibilities of other places to go just so I could get back to baseball in a more career oriented

way. And then finally, I heard about this organization, the team developing, and I'd worked at Chum before, so I trusted the people in the Waters family. And I thought to myself, it's a chance to get back working with Tom and Jerry again. So I left DJCL or the fan, or I guess it wasn't the fan at that point. It was the fan. Yeah, it was the fan, yeah. And I just decided it was time for me to move on and try a new challenge.

And I did exceptionally well financially going to the team, but unfortunately Doug Ackers, and I'll bring up his name again, he predicted to me, he said, Scott, you better go into this with open eyes, because he said, I don't think this place is going to last more than a year and a half. And he almost hit that bang on, and the Waters family and their

shareholders pulled the plug on it after about 17 months. Now, you know, there is no crystal ball, so it's one of those things where you went for it because it was a great opportunity, and you had no way of knowing that it would only last so long. I'm going to just read another email I got, or maybe it was a tweet, but I got another message when I said you were coming on, from a gentleman named Glenn. And it reads, Fergie was the heir apparent to either Tom or Jerry, but that was squelched when he left for 1050.

One of the saddest things in Toronto sports radio is that Scott never got the chance to do Blue Jays play-by-play. He had all the tools to be great. He was underrated and underappreciated. I appreciate that. I actually did get to do it on sporadic occasions. And actually, if I'd been able to come to your place in your studio, I would have brought a couple of cassettes of me doing play-by-play. But it was only a couple of times. And then Dan Schulman came onto the scene. And let's face it, Dan Schulman was a natural, one of the two greats and a future Hall of Famer in my mind.

And once he arrived, he got the lion's share of those opportunities to fill in when they needed to replace Tom or Jerry, along with Don Chevrier, who also dropped in from time to time. Well, it's funny that when Mike Willner was on recently, he joked about how he's not even the best play-by-play guy to go to his high school. Because he and Dan Schulman went to the same high school. So it's one of those things where there's no shame in finishing second to somebody who is going to go down in history as one of the all-time great play-by-play baseball announcers. No, I don't begrudge Dan at all.

He's a great person and an incredible talent, one of the greatest I've ever worked with. I hope you're all enjoying my chat with Scott Ferguson. I'm really glad I got to do this. I tried to make this happen

several times over the last five years. This is one example where persistence paid off. And again, big thanks to Jerry Howarth for hooking me up. I want to thank the partners. The Toronto Mic'd podcast exists because fine companies and people step up to help fuel the real talk. And it's important to me that they get a good return on investment and that listeners of Toronto Mic'd let the sponsors know that it is beneficial to sponsor independent real talk like this.

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If you want the Zoom link to attend a virtual open house, just text Toronto Mike to 59559. Let's chat a little bit here about the team because so many FOTMs have kind of crossed paths there. And I mentioned yesterday's episode is Gene Valaitis. So we actually did talk about this in some detail yesterday. But I'm just going to run down some of the names that you worked with at 1050, the team. Jim Van Horn was there.

Well, ironically, when I first was at CHUM as a writer slash reporter, Jim Van Horn was doing a lot of the weekends when I was in there. So I got to know him really well. One of my favorite people in the business. Great sense of humor, great work ethic, and just a pleasure to be around. I ran into him a few times, including at the spell of the team. Don't forget great mustache. Yes.

Stephen Brunt was there? Yes, he was. Although he had been tipped, I think that he knew it was going to go under. So he left before most of us did. He just decided he didn't want to be part of the proverbial sinking ship, I guess, and he left. But I worked with him there and also at the fan as well when he was Bob McCown's co-host for a time. So I got to know him pretty well as well. What about Paul Romanuk?

co-host for a time, so I got to know him pretty well as well. What about Paul Romanuk? Paul Romanuk was Joe Bowen's backup announcer for a couple of years on radio, and he was the morning host there along with Mike Richards, who was his sidekick sort of, and resident funny man. He was great doing impressions, and we just hit it off and did quite well. I used to guest on their show from time to time and really enjoyed it. It's funny, I just had a chat the other day with Romy. I'm calling you Fergie, I'm calling him Romy. I'm just going to do it. Who's going to start? It's my show, I can do it. But Romy was talking about starting a music podcast. He's a big music guy, and he's talking about launching something in that vein.

But Mike Richards... I can tell you something about my musical taste and interest. Tell me. The first concert I ever went to was Kiss's first concert in Toronto at Massey Hall in 1974. But they weren't the lead act. The lead act was the New York Dolls featuring their singer David Johansson. Of course. And the weird thing about that is the first concert I ever go to,

Kiss blew the doors off the place. They were so outstanding. Nobody had seen what they did with pyrotechnics, with the elevated band or drum kit, with the kabuki makeup, the blood, the fake blood and whatnot. And then when the New York Dolls came out, and they're supposed to be the headliners, into their second song, people started booing and saying, bring back Kiss. And then eventually people started getting up and walking out of the concert. And I couldn't believe that. And it's still the most unique concert experience I've ever had. Yeah, every once in a while you catch a band on the rise that outshines the lead act like that. It's true.

In fact, a little tip for listeners is that on Friday, I'm going to do an episode with a couple of pals, Stu Stone and Cam Gordon, and we're going to talk about acts, like bands or acts that completely sell out, like they change their style to sell out.

On my list of five songs is Buster Poindexter singing Hot Hot Hot. Do you remember this? He, of course, is David Johansson. Right. Buster Poindexter is David Johansson. You might know him from the Scrooge movies, too,

with Bill Murray, where he was the cab driver. Absolutely. Absolutely, yes. So, you know, if you're my age, you might remember Buster Poindexter, and then you realize, oh, the New York Dolls were really cool, but Buster Poindexter was not. But anyway, this is coming on Friday.

Yeah, and Mike Richards, I know we've been talking about him here, but he's just fantastic. I've had him on several times, and he's a good friend now, a good FOTM. And he's a great, like if Romy's going to be the straight man, Richards would be a fantastic

foil there. Yeah, his imitation of Ichiro, or what Ichiro would be, because at the time Ichiro was hardly talking to anybody. And his Jerry Howarth parodies of Evil Jerry and Good Jerry, those were funny too. Yeah, his Bob Cole, absolutely. Yeah, Bob, oh yeah, that's right, that's another one. And there's a gentleman who's no longer with us

that Gene Velitis spoke about in great detail yesterday, but Henny, Brian Henderson. Incredible, incredible. Again, like I talked about the gigantic personality of Tom Cheek, Brian Henderson was that as well. He got there, I want to say, a year and a half after I got there as a young Cub student sort of at CHUM. And he took the place by storm. He was an outstanding sportscaster and commentator. But just the wildlife he led and the great stories I could tell you about him are just incredible. I'll share one with you right here. Yes, please.

In the 81 Canada Cup, it was in Montreal. And I was assigned to go by CKFH then. And Rick Hodge and Brian Henderson were assigned to go by Chum. And the first morning I was there, I ran into Hodge in the lobby and he didn't know where Henderson was. And I said, oh, I hope nothing bad happened. And then lo and behold, a little later in the morning, Henderson showed up, ambled into the lobby, and he said that he had missed his flight to Montreal. So what he did was he went to a cab driver, or a limo guy, I guess it was, and said to him, how about you driving me to Montreal? And if you do, I'll introduce you to Wayne Gretzky. And the guy said, are you okay with me bringing my son? And he said, why not?

Joined the crowd. So they went to Montreal from Toronto by limo. And then when Henny came into the lobby, we all asked how he got there and he explained to us. And we said, well, how are you going to get a one-on-one introduction with Wayne Gretzky? And Henny just shrugged his shoulder and laughed and said, well, I'll work that out later. So I don't even know that the kid ever got to meet up with Wayne Gretzky, but it was a great story. It just shows you the kind of character that Brian Henderson was. And he's probably, when the news comes down, and maybe you'll share a little detail,

but when you get news at 10.50, the team is no more, and they're going back to like golden oldies or whatever. And he survives that, right? He gets to stick around. Yeah, he went back to being a DJ there until health issues caught up with him a few years later. But yeah, he went back there. Right.

Okay, now let's talk about that because Richards has told me about it, Brunt, Romanuk, Gene Valaitis, Jim Van Horn. And it sounds like a pretty awful experience. I hear Romy was really upset. Now, what can you share with us about that day that they deliver the news that you guys are out of a gig? Well, I had a previous engagement that morning,

so I was one of the last ones to get there. But as we were driving downtown, I heard on the radio that there was one of the newscasters from Chum AM, or Chum FM, whatever it was, was doing the sports instead of the regular person. And I thought, this is unusual. Maybe somebody called in sick. So when I got to the point where you're just about young in St. Clair, I could see in the distance this large mass of humanity gathered on the sidewalk

and some spilling onto the streets. And I thought, this doesn't look good. Something's happening. So I get there and get out of the car, park it, and go into the building. And the general manager at the time and a couple of security guards were there. And I was escorted to an office. And they handed me a brown envelope and said, this is your settlement. The team is no more. So it was just like that.

And a whole bunch of us went up to a watering hole at Young and St. Clair and spent the whole afternoon commiserating. And Stephen Brunt, as you mentioned, came back for that. And a whole bunch of us went up to a watering hole at Yonge and St. Clair and spent the whole afternoon commiserating. And Stephen Brunt, as you mentioned, came back for that and wanted to share his sorrows with us over what happened. Wow. I mean, Gene had been through it before at CFTR because he got the same deal when they went all news and him and Jesse were part of the casualties there. So he said he had the whole sense of that. He had seen the movie before, and even though everybody in the room was kind of optimistic about the meeting, Gene was of the mindset that everybody was about to get fired,

and it turns out he was correct there. And it just sounds like an awful day for a lot of very good broadcasters. Well, it was, but we kind of got a warning in effect the day that it officially opened in 2001 in May, because I always remember this. Alan Waters was on the roof of the Chum building with us, and we were celebrating the birth of the station, and they brought Mr. Waters up on a little dais they had built

and gave him a jacket that said the team on it. And I thought he'd be really upbeat about it. But the first thing he said came right out of his mouth was this better work. And then I thought to myself, he's joking. But then in retrospect, a year and a half later, he meant it. It had to work quickly or it wasn't going to be. Do you think this might have worked had they given it more time? Or do you think maybe that possibly the downfall of the team was it trying to be a national station with regards to sports? Well, that's what I believe, that they shouldn't have gone that far and been that ambitious.

They should have made sure that they concentrated on what was going on in Toronto and attacked the fan that way. That's the only way I think it could have been done. Because I think the people were there that could have pulled it off, but it would have taken a little bit more time than we were given, unfortunately. And I should also connect with that,

that after the first year, 2001, Chum dropped the Blue Jay rights as well, so I was out in the cold again regarding baseball. So that was a double hit to me. You lose that job after 2001, and then midway through 2002, they fold all together. So, Scott, professionally speaking, when you get the one-two whammy like that,

through no fault of your own, either one, does that take a toll on your you know your mental psyche and your uh your outlook on things like what was it like enduring that professionally well it was difficult i had to take some other jobs and i mentioned the traffic job before i actually worked at two different traffic places there was just had to plug the gaps until something came up because i was effectively told through the grapevine that i wasn't going back to the fan that they'd gone decided to go in a new direction and in some ways they hadn't forgiven me about living leaving in the first place because when I left some other people followed who followed was it Barry Davis followed right Barry Davis and there

were a couple of others but his name escaped me right at the moment. But when people left and followed my lead, like I was sort of a pillar at that place and a voice of sanity, and they thought I would never leave there, that I'd be there for the bulk of my career, if not all of it. And they weren't too happy when I left. I remember that.

Now, again, we talked about the crystal ball that wasn't functioning for you because it might have made things differently. But do you live with any regret there? Like, again, hindsight's 20-20, so it's not really a fair question because you know what happens at the team. But is this something you carry with you,

or were you able to shrug it off as you went for it, it didn't work out, but no fault of your own? Well, that's basically the way I have to look at it. After all these years, times fade and memories fade and you're not as bitter as you were back then. I was at it for a time because I thought, here's my career. This is what I built it on. Now it's gone. But in time, I got over it. I just moved on. And I've worked at Newstalk 1010 after that, starting in, moved on. And I've worked at News Talk 1010 after that, starting in, I guess, in June of 2003. And I worked there until August of 2008. And then I got on with TSN 1050 in 2011 and worked there until

about just over a year ago. So I've had a diverse and very good career in my mind. I've worked nearly 43 years in the business. Not too many can say that, especially to stay in the city where you were born. Like, I spent my whole career in Toronto, and you can't ask for much more than that. At TSN, did you work with Hebsey's old partner, Jim Taddy? Yes, I did. I worked with Jim Taddy a couple of times. I worked with him at the fan.

I worked with him at TSN 1050. And I also went on, although this was a real strain on me to do this, but I used to go on Sportsline with him on a once-a-week basis. And I appreciated him giving me that chance because that's when I needed it. But the problem was I was still doing the mornings. So when I got done with him at about midnight, I'd go home, get two hours sleep, and then have to go right back to work again. Well, you know what those are.

But I loved doing it and great working with Jim. And again, at that time, I needed that to keep my face out there. So I think, I want to say I did it for four or five years with him once a week during the baseball season. And it was a great teaching tool, too, because I hadn't been on TV all that much. And he gave me that opportunity. Yes, guy. Yes, guy. Yes, guy. But now you know what that means, Scott.

We're both going to get an invoice in the mail because he's trademarked that apparently. So you mentioned those hours that you did for a bit there when you're doing the morning stuff and then you're also doing the night stuff. It reminds me of my buddy John Gallagher who used to do city TV sports at night. I guess that's the 11 o'clock or something. And then he would be doing the Q morning zoo on Q one Oh seven, uh, at like whatever that would be five 30 or whatever. Like just, yeah. Bananas. Joe Bowen was doing something similar in Sudbury.

He did radio TV and the Sudbury wolves hockey games. I don't know how in the world he pulled that off, but it paid off. Holy mackinaw. Yeah. I wanted to mention, too, that one of the other great highlights of my career was before I got into the baseball, twice I got to fill in on New Year's Eve on Leaf Broadcast. I guess that would have been at Maple Leaf Gardens at that time

on two consecutive New Years. And just to get to work with Joe was fantastic. I was filling in for his color guy at the time, Vic Hadfield. And I was a little too stiff, I think, though. I didn't have quite the chemistry with Joe then that I would off the air. But I think I did a pretty credible job and I enjoyed working with him. So what was the impetus for you leaving TSN 1050? Because that's the last time most of the people listening to this podcast

probably heard your voice. Well, it wasn't my idea. They called it restructuring. To me, that was cost-cutting. They got rid of every person that did updates there and a couple of other people too, including Sean Levine, who's one of the best producers I've ever worked with, and Ian Cunningham, who was the commercial producer there,

as well as the update producer. Well, he did just about everything. And two of them I had long-term history with. And all these update people were let go too. There were 11 in total, and some of them were only part-time, but we were all swept out, and they just figured the time had come for updates that people didn let go too. There were 11 in total and some of them were only part-time, but we were all swept out and they just figured the time had come for updates

that people didn't need it. They had their own phones. They could dial up whatever score they wanted. You know what I miss? Quick aside, because we mentioned Rick Hodge already. We mentioned Freddie P.

We mentioned John Gallagher. I miss the old sports commentaries. Yeah, well, Fred Patterson was a master at those. But you know where he learned his craft from? Freddie P, who was great at those, yeah, his sports commentaries were fantastic, but he modeled his writing after

somebody I work very, very closely with who actually I find to be one of the best writers at that type of production. Peter Gross. Oh, yeah. Now, Peter I never did work with, but I knew him. So Fred credits Peter Gross with shaping his writing style, and you can kind of hear it, and they're both great at it,

because it's very concise and economy of words and packs a punch. Yeah, there's some great people in this business who have an innate ability to do that. On the news side, Dick Smythe, to me, who I got to work with closely as well, was one of the all-time greats in a certain Hall of Famer in broadcasting, if he's not in there already. He was

a master at entertaining, not just delivering the news, and his commentaries were legendary. Here's how things looked at Dick Smythe. Absolutely. Yeah, well, way back when at 1050, but I remember him well on the aforementioned CFTR. He was working there for years, and Gene mentioned him yesterday too.

So when you look back, Scott, at this career, and I'm not suggesting it's over, but if it's winding down, as you say, and when you look back at these years that you worked in the Toronto radio landscape, are you filled with a sense of pride and accomplishment that you achieved something so many have dreamed of doing but were unable to do? Well, I've been told by so many people that I inspired them to try to get into this business. I remember Sunil Joshi told me one time, he said, I've been told by so many people that I inspired them to try to get into this business. I remember Sunil Joshi told me one time, he said, I used to listen to you in high school, Scott.

And I said to myself, if this guy can do it, I can do it too. And he did. He carved out his own great career. And there were so many people have told me that over the years, because at the time, there were still a lot of Americans who were being brought up here to work in radio, because they didn't feel that Canadians kind of had the knack for it or the experience. And now it's almost diametrically opposed. There's so many Canadians in the business now and only a pocket full of Americans coming up here now. But it's just good to know that I was part of the beginning. And I wish you nothing but the greatest of luck with regards to the health challenges that you're facing. And I hope periodically maybe I can check in now and then and get a Scott Ferguson update and find out how things are going.

Well, sure, sure. I guess I can share with everybody what my main condition is right now. I've had Parkinson's disease for the last five years. And the first four years, it was mainly under control. Last year, there's been more symptoms surface, but I'm still battling it. That's what people have to do when they get into these situations. You've had Mike Richards on before. My friend Gareth Wheeler, they both battled cancer. And there are countless others who have battled bigger challenges than my Parkinson's disease. But it hasn't inhibited my ability to talk or to write or do any of the things that I have to do in a job.

But it is a challenge. And I can't thank you enough for giving me an hour of your day today and just having this delightful conversation and catching up. Thank you so much for doing this. Well, thank you, Mike. And you have a great, great show, and I never miss it. Oh, you should have led with that. That was the highlight. We're burying the lead.

So you listen to Toronto, Mike? Yes, I do. Do you have any... Well, actually, initially, it was because there were so many people that I knew that were on it. Right. And I wanted to see what their memories were of the same days that we'd spent together. Right. We're so connected here.

Do you have a favorite episode? Oh, gee. I'm putting you on the spot. It's hard to say because, again, I know so many of the people. Like Jerry Howarth, Mike Wilner. I've worked with Bob McKenzie. I can't pick out one and say it was better

than the others because I enjoyed all of them. Well, I can tell you now there's a bunch of FOTMs listening right now that'll put this Scott Ferguson update right at the top of the list. So thanks again, man. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 639th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Scott's not really on Twitter, although he is, but not really, as you heard there. So we'll move on to our good friends at Great Lakes Brewery. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. Support the sponsors.

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