Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scott MacArthur: Toronto Mike'd #499

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

Mike chats with Scott MacArthur about his years at TSN 1050, his decision to join Sportsnet and host BlueJaysTalk, his battles with depression and his decision to live his life as a proud gay man.

Welcome to episode 499 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is host of Jay's Talk Scott MacArthur Are you sure you're still host of Jay's Talk? It's been a while, right?

It's been like four or five weeks so I'm doing some summer vacation fill-ins on Sportsnet 590 The Fan and Is Brady on another vacation? This guy gets lots of vacations. Brady is away this week. And with Blair doing primetime sports through the summer at the very least, I've had an opportunity to do a lot of the 9 to noon as well.

So who did you host with this morning on the Fan 590 Morning Show? did you uh host with this morning on the fan 590 morning show so this morning it was ashley docking and donovan bennett steve dangle uh did monday and yesterday with us and he is off to harry potter world in orlando taking a little by himself i i think his wife is going with him i think his wife is going with him i guess that's okay it's not his wife is going with him. I guess that's okay. It's not like he's going to like... Yeah, I guess that's fine, right? Adults can go to Harry Potter land. I think so.

Well, see, because Dangle's probably nine. I think he's nine years younger than me. I thought you were going to say mentally he's nine years old. I thought you were going to say that. Oh, no, he's way more mature than I am. But I think he's nine years younger than me. So the Harry Potter series is coming into

its prime as he is a teenager, and I think as Ashley was a teenager too, because she was trying to explain it to me. I missed it, because I was like 23, 24 when it became big. Right. I'm old. First of all, you're not as old as I am. Okay.

Gentle there. Come on. I was thinking my teens were really into the Harry Potter stuff. So I have a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old, and they're right in that wheelhouse. But yeah, okay. I guess it's the same thing if you and I went to like a Star Wars thing. Like, what's the difference, right? Like, if we loved Star Wars as a kid and we went to some Star Wars fantasy thing, that's okay. Absolutely.

I mean, for me, if there was a Seinfeld world... But that's different because Seinfeld is for adults. No, that's a good point. I'm trying to think, what would I be? But you're right. He aged... Yeah, it's okay. No judgments on my part.

Like, if you find it entertaining and you want to spend the money and go, good luck. By the way, Steve Angle's been on the show, friend of the show. Ashley Dawkins has been on the show. Of way steve angle has been on the show friend of the show uh ashley docking's been on the show of course greg brady has been on the show but uh he's always on vacation now and just when uh i met you at the door just to tie it into brady because everything goes back to him i frequent a lot of wolf pack rugby matches yes and i'd often not this season

but last season i saw a lot of Greg Brady at these matches. Okay. And a gentleman there I always talk to who's a great guy, Eric Grossman. I told, he likes to know who's coming up. He's a big listener. And I said, Scott MacArthur's coming on. And he just wants me to say hi to you. He says, he told me this off the record, but I'm going to say it. He says, you're a great guy.

Well, see, I was, now you kind of cornered me because I was not going to say hi back. Now you have to. You think Grossman's listening live? Can you edit this out? Oh, maybe not live. He might not be a live guy, but he definitely is listening.

All right. Well, in that case, Eric, hello. That's a bit of an inside joke, too. He and I have an inside joke from our days when he was the jay's pr and i was on the jay's beat so i know where he's going he had the richard griffin job back in the day right like that's the same similar position what is the difference if i if i have my order of things correct i think griff was jay stenhouse or is what Jay Stenhouse was. Gotcha. And Ryan Brown would be what Mel Romanen was and I think Adam

Felton would be what Eric was. I could be off on that. If we're mapping, okay, that's good. I need to know this stuff. Okay. So thank you for coming straight from, I guess, the morning show. So where in the city do you record? Is that happening at like One Mount Pleasant? Oh yeah. Yeah, it's right in the Sportsnet 590

The Fan studios at One Mount Pleasant? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's right in the Sportsnet 590, the fan studios at One Mount Pleasant. And they got a great setup there. Fantastic. Better setup than this. Like I said, better than this. No, this is like this. Dude, this is impressive stuff. Like I didn't know what to expect.

You've got a full-on studio setup. Oh, you never took a peek. Like you didn't even out of curiosity look at another like. Oh, I've listened. I've listened, you didn't even, out of curiosity, look at another, like... Oh, I've listened. I've listened, but I've not watched the streaming. Like, it's hard for me to stare at myself or others.

So I... Yeah, but no, I've listened. I've enjoyed the... So it's a thrill for me to be on. That's amazing to hear. Tell your friends. Are you friendly with Jeff Blair at all?

Because this guy blocks me on Twitter for no reason and I can't get an invitation to the guy. Send him a note. Like, just write a little handwritten note, pass it over and say, this is from Toronto, Mike. Yeah, okay.

I might do that. I have to bump into him though because when you're working the early morning shift and he doesn't start till noon for Baseball Central, we haven't crossed this week, but I'll slide him a note. Now, I always wondered, so you're a baseball guy. Like you have to go really deep in this one sport.

And because I think today our expectations are that you go pretty deep. That's pretty consuming, I would think, time-wise. Can you talk other sports with an adequate depth to host? Let's say if you're talking, I don't know, football or what other sports are there, basketball or soccer, do you have more than a casual interest slash knowledge? Like, I'm just curious about you and other sports. Well, it's funny because, especially with my dad, my dad will have some friends who listen in and they'll say,

well, how does he know so much about everything? And I said, well, the role is to know what you know and to also know what you don't know. And if you're confident in what you have to say. So baseball is a strong suit for me. I hope so. I'm very comfortable talking hockey. I'm very comfortable talking NFL football.

Basketball, the broader strokes, the sociocultural stuff, I'm quite fascinated by. But if you go back and listen to any of my work, you've never heard me X and O a basketball game. Right. And if I can't do that because I don't feel comfortable doing that, what I will do instead is I will highlight the guest. I mean, bring a guest on and let him or her explain what it is that we're seeing. And then off of their answers to my questions

come the next questions. That's the gift of interviewing, right? Of course. Is listening to the guest and all that. So that's how I approach areas where I am sure I'm not as strong. And at least this morning you had Ashley docking beside you and she does the

basketball very well. That's her, that's probably her strong point. Absolutely. Well, and she is, she's a great broadcaster, by the way, I have really did a week with her and Justin Bourne, I think three weeks ago when Greg was on vacation. Like I said, it's Dangle Monday and yesterday, and then Donovan Bennett the rest of the week in with us she is a terrific talent as is Dangle and as is Justin and they're all talented yeah no it's but it's it's really been cool for me because over the last four or five weeks whether it's been the morning show or the nine to noon slot I've worked with somebody different pretty much every week and sometimes different people in the same week so it gives me

a chance to you know work with different styles different strengths and and test myself i was going to get to this later but now i must ask uh by any chance is any of this like an audition like not like you know i mean like you've already got the gig if you will but is it hey let's see how he hosts his own show on the Fan 590? Well, I mean, that's a question for Dave Cadeau, my program director and my boss. Let's call him up.

Yeah, phone him up right now. I got a Bluetooth channel right here. And see what he has to say. But I think, you know, a lot has happened at the station in the last little bit. And Bob McCown, who is a legend in this market and the best in this country to ever do what it is that we do, that is sports talk radio, left the station back in June. And that created a bunch of, I think, flux. I think that that's fair to say. And so

where do I go from here? I'm at the whims of my bosses, right? And I don't know what the answer to that question is, but they are aware and I mean, the main title of my gig is the host of Jay's Talk. They know that my passion is radio talk show hosting. So let me ask it a different way. So this McCowan leaving, which by the way, FYI, didn't catch your bosses off guard

okay it's not like he one day just said i quit and left right so they knew it was happening but uh like obviously blair fills in for the summer he gets some vacation time and that's when like superflux would happen but would you be interested in hosting primetime sports? Well, I mean, it would be a huge honor. That is, you know, not something, again, that is up to me. No, but I get partial credit for docking, getting that gig on the morning show. Oh, you do?

Yes, because I had her on and I told her, you should be the permanent. I said so. And then it happened. And I say this with my tongue in my cheek. I deserve no credit, Ashley, so if you're listening. But as a joke, people would give me credit for that. Like, oh, look, you got Ashley hired or whatever.

So I could do the same magic and get you this plant-based sports game. But if you do that, what percentage do I owe you? This is where I fail as a businessman because I would just be happy to see you happy. I wouldn't ask for anything. Because the thing is, I feel like I'm just coming in here shooting the breeze with somebody as I would like to anyway, and I'm walking out eventually

with a lasagna. I come out ahead. If you get me some kind of gig here... You come out way ahead. Okay. Since you brought up the lasagna, let's talk about that really quickly here.

That's courtesy of Palma Pasta. You don't live in the West End by any chance, do you? No. You see, I'm an East Ender now. East Ender. Okay, but you know what? You can get them on Skip the Dishes,

so maybe that's a way to get it. But they are like a Mississauga institution, these guys. Authentic Italian food, family-run business. They've been doing it for decades. Go to palmapasta.com to find out where they are and support them because they support this real talk here. But that is a large frozen meat lasagna.

Frozen solid, just took it out of the freezer. That's going home with you. Thank you so much. I mean, this is, and I'm a pig too. Like I will, this is dinner tonight. You know, you saved me a skip the dishes or a DoorDash order by providing this for me. That's my role in this whole ecosystem, you saved me a skip the dishes or a DoorDash order by providing

this for me. That's my role in this whole ecosystem. I'm not Bell. I'm not Rogers. I am independent guy who helps everybody. Feed the guests. Feed the guests. So that is yours. But also, I have a six pack for you of locally made fresh craft beer.

The tastiest fresh craft beer. This is Great Lakes Brewery. Again, they're in the West End, but they're in LCBOs all over the province and even some grocery stores. So seek them out. Yeah, there's like a variety pack for you.

You got the Canuck Pale Ale. They even gave me this, there's a lot of booze there you're taking home with you. Awesome stuff, dude. I'm telling you. Like I might not make it into work tomorrow morning

and if I don't, can I blame Toronto Mike? Or you, Mike? Everyone else does. Go ahead. That's it. That's the other role I play. You Toronto Mike? Are you my excuse? Everyone else does. Go ahead. That's it. That's the other role I play. You need a whipping boy

or whatever. 3.30 a.m. alarm and I got a headache. So because, okay, let me tell the listeners and yourself, but you're an East Ender. You probably won't do this.

I won't put any pressure on you. But on September 19th, which is a Thursday, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., there's actually going to be a listener experience. Listeners of Toronto Mike will collect on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery, which is near Royal York and Queensway.

Like it's down the street from the Costco if you're a West Ender. But we're going to record live. And people who attend are invited to come on one of the open mics. So I have four mics set up. I'm taking one. Elvis might want another. We'll see how that works out. But I know Hebsey's going to want to jump on and gear Joyce and some other people.

But basically, if you showed up, you'd come on for a few minutes. Like, I'd be like, hey, who are you? You're like, I'm Scott. I'm like, when did you discover Toronto Mic? Do you tell us about... You said you listened? Oh, yeah. I mean, one episode you listened to.

Oh, geez. I've heard Mike Richards more than once. I hope he inspired you. He knows how to deliver. He knows how to deliver the goods. Heard a little bit of the Greg Brady episode, the Ashley Docking episode as well. No, I could go on down the list.

Ashley didn't like it. I'll tell you right now. And I knew this at the time. And I don't know what I could have done differently, but she didn't like me asking about the Kelly Gruber thing. Like I could tell that, you know, I didn't know how to not mention it. That was a weird situation because, I mean, I

wasn't there for that incident, but he had, at the time I was working at TSN 1050 doing my one to four show and he had been in studio with me earlier that day. Oh, the same day. That same day. And I think the photo of him and me is still up on my Instagram

because I thought about it afterward. I'm like, well, this was pre-incident. Right. I didn't know this was going to happen, obviously. How could you? That would be amazing if you did. Well, but it's funny, Mike. I mean, interviewing him in studio that day,

maybe I could have read into it a little bit. Did he seem inebriated at all? Well, I could... He didn't give him a breathalyzer, I guess. No, I couldn't tell if he was inebriated or not. I could just tell that there had been... Again, I don't want to make light of this stuff, but that there had probably been a large chunk of his life

where he had been, if he wasn't in that particular moment. And that, you know, it's not funny, ha-ha, but that really challenges your chops as a broadcaster and as an interviewer when it's you and him and you have absolutely no idea whether this guy is on the wavelength and how long you can take it without it potentially spiraling and trying to get it back each time you sense but you get a off the rails okay so i've had one experience kind of like this i'm trying to relate i've done 499 of these things but like 498 including this one so far have been pretty typical you know but

uh do you have a producer in your ear at all telling you to wrap it up or to move on? Do you get any feedback from producers? I don't have a producer. I'm calling all my own shots. So if I just start randomly dropping F-bombs, you're going to have to make a call? No, you can swear on the show.

Oh, I can? Yeah. Oh, okay. You think we're on Terrestrial Radio? There's no CRTC interference here. I know, but I take the lead from my host and I haven't heard you

use a swear word yet. Oh, because I take the lead from my guest. Oh, all right. So if I have a guest on who's dropping an F-bomb, I'm now swearing like a sailor. But if I have,

like if Jerry Howarth is in here, you know, I'm saying, you know, Mr. Howarth, sir. Like there's no, you know, cursing. You're not looking to scare. And this is true because I have,

I do the odd episode of somebody who likes to swear and i swear in those episodes but if you don't drop any kind of f-bomb i don't like i follow your lead so if you're following my lead you know nobody's okay so let's just i mean let's just put it on the table right now are we just going to agree fuck it i mean we start fucking a no okay All right, so... Now I got an adjective every second or third word. As you wish, man. So no, Sean Levine was my producer at the time and he was not in

my ear at all. And I trusted that he would have been if he had sensed that disaster was impending. And I suppose that maybe it could have been, but I kept trying to circle it back, bring Kelly back to a place, talking about this day and age of the Blue Jays, some memories of the playoff teams that he was on in 89, 91, and 92, culminating in the World Series, and

just did what I could, and we survived. Obviously, it was a little more difficult that night, but I felt like I survived and got what I could out of the interview in studio earlier that day. And there is something to be said about unpredictable radio being compelling radio. It's not like he was starting to swear or say any hate speech or anything. So a little bit of like a little bit of unpredictability and like sandpaper if you will it does make for interesting broadcasting like

there is that element too you want to you don't want it to go veer too off but it goes off a bit it's something people will like remember and talk about i mean that one episode i alluded to earlier that went a little off the rails i get more feedback and commentary about that episode than any of the other, you know, than like a two hours with Steven Brunt, which was like amazing. You know, people are like, oh, that was great. But the one that went off the rails, you know, I'll hear about it like a hundred times more. Well, because it's the same.

It's for the same reason that we rubberneck on the other side of the highway for a crash, right? Yes, that's right. People are just like, oh my, you know, I have this joke that the only thing that isn't porn anymore in this world is porn itself. I mean, but we just live in a world where we seek out stimulation. And so a car wreck or a proverbial car wreck, like an interview that goes off the rails

can certainly keep people's attention. And you could make the argument, and I'm not saying this has anything to do with her recent success, but you could make the argument that the Kelly Gruber instance with Ashley docking is the best thing that ever happened to her. Like you could make the argument that a lot of people who had never heard of her,

never seen her, looked at that and heard her. She comes off great in that because she's the victim, if you will. And it really is sometimes those things put you on the map sometimes. Yeah. I mean, I suppose that's possible. I just, the one thing I'd say for Ashley is, is talent always rises regardless of, of when and how long it takes somebody to get there. She is without question, full value for, for the role that she holds at the fan.

For sure. For sure for sure okay you got your beer and your lasagna but you have some stickers too so okay what kind of music do you like well i gotta tell you dude like so i am the the the appropriate answer to the question so that we don't delve too deep into this is i'm not diehard music guy but but um early 90s grunge i was 12 13 14 years old through that. I like a little bit of classic rock. The one band I would love to see in concert and haven't is Red Hot Chili Peppers. I hear they're just unbelievable live.

Last time I saw them live, David Wells was sitting in front of me. No. As a Blue Jay? As a Blue Jay, yeah. I think it was 2000 or something. So where would you have been? It was Molson Amphitheater. And it was, I remember,

because who opened, Stone Temple Pilots opened for Red Hot Shaded Peppers and they were full value. Like, I really liked those guys anyway. So yeah, like you're in my wheelhouse there. But did you ever hear of a band called Lowest of the Low,

a local band? Now this would be getting heavy airplay on like one, are you a Toronto guy? I'm a Toronto, yeah. No, I'm on Oakville, but I did. That counts.

Yeah, it kind of counts. I mean, Torontonians don't really want an Oakville. but, but I, I did start my career. I went to school and started my career up in Ottawa.

So I lived in Ottawa from September of 98 to April of 2011. Okay. So you actually did miss the, uh, you missed the red, sorry, red. I said that you missed the lowest of the low era on 102.1. Okay. You actually missed it, but cause actually did miss the, you missed the, sorry, I read out your name. You missed the lowest of the low era

on 102.1. Okay. You actually missed it. But, because it was like 2001, 2000. I mean, sorry, 1991. Oh, 98. Okay, actually you didn't miss it. Okay, early 90s.

Great Toronto band. So that's basically, that's a sticker from stickeru.com. That's the new album from lowest of the low. So I just like to pump their tires whenever possible. That's the Toronto Mike sticker.

That's going, I guess, it's going in your car? Have you decided where you're going to put it? Yeah, well, I saw the bumper sticker on the back of your car. So I knew your address and all that.

But then when I saw the bumper sticker on the back of the car parked in the driveway, I knew, without question, I was in the right place. Could have been neighbors supporting the show, but you're right.

That was a good clue. Okay. So thank you, StickerU.com. They're actually opening a bricks and mortar store. I'll be talking more about this next episode or at least the one after, maybe for 501, because they're opening this new store on Queen Street West, a very cool new bricks and mortar. But right now, of course, we know them best as a website, stickeru.com, where you can make your own customized stickers,

labels, decals. These decals came from there. And you can get as many as you want or just one. It's really easy. Go to stickeru.com. So take home. Is there even a temporary tattoo for you there? I like this, yeah, because you put it on and it's excellent.

It'll be on my bicep tomorrow morning. Oh, I thought you were going to put it on your butt or something. I'm like, yeah, because you put it on and it's excellent. It'll be on my bicep tomorrow morning. Oh, I thought you were going to put it on your butt or something. I'm like, that's unnecessary. Well, no, but nobody would be able to see it, right? That's bad advertising. That's true. That's true. Good.

Put it on the bicep. Okay, so you got your gifts. Now, baseball. Is baseball your favorite sport? Yes. When did you fall in love with baseball? Oh, boy. Since I can remember.

So I was born in June. Uh, so I was born in June of 79. So I just turned 40. My earliest recollection of, and, and of course, these memories are very, it's hard to describe, but my, I have a brother who's four years younger than me and we would have been at a game in the exhibition stadium bleachers, probably in 1984 or 1985. My brother would have been a year or two old. And let's just say he was having a rough intestinal day as a little guy. Right. And my mom went through the diapers pretty quickly and we had to leave the game in the fourth or the fifth

inning because it was it was a disaster that's a code blue it was a well code red or code brown code brown and i remember pitching a fit pitching a fit that we were leaving the game so that's one of my earliest baseball memories another one that i have is my parents bringing home for me as a gift the Toronto Star Drive of 85 magazine. Yeah, I had this too. I'm six years old at this point. So it's not

like I'm 14 or anything. I'm six years old and I would flip through. I think I could read a little bit by then, although that would have been quite in-depth. But there were lots of pictures in there. Lots of pictures. George Bell on his knees, Tony giving him a high five. Yeah. And my first favorite Blue Jay was Willie Upshaw. And then when Willie Upshaw moved on to make way for Fred McGriff, Fred McGriff became my favorite Blue Jay. And then Joe Carter followed Fred. So Fred replaced Willie. And then Fred got traded to San Diego for Joe in the epic deal that

also included LMR and Fernandez. And so those are some of my earliest favorite Blue Jays. Willie Ups is the first Blue Jay to get 100 RBIs in a season. See, I didn't know that. Fun fact. Now I will vet that and I will use that when appropriate. Yeah, throw it around if you ever get back to Jay's talk. So now you're a baseball fan, but when did you know you wanted to be covering them in some fashion

or a member of even in the media? Like when do you realize you want to be a media guy? Oh, I knew when I was seven or eight years old. We lived on Constance Drive at the time in Oakville and we had a reasonably, not a massive, but a reasonably sized backyard, certainly enough for two kids to get out there and play catch. And so, like I said, my brother's four years younger. And in the summer, I would take him, I'd be eight, nine, 10. He'd be four, five, or six. I'd take him out into the backyard.

I would be the Blue Jays. I would assign him an American League opponent and we would play a game. One of us would pitch, the other would hit, whatever happened, etc., etc. And it was less about the playing of the game, not necessarily for him, but certainly for me and more for me to describe what was happening. And we would do the very same thing in the front on the driveway, road hockey in the winter, where I would be the Maple Leafs and I would sign him a team and we had a bunch of jerseys.

So we had our pick of the litter. And again, it was less about the playing of the road hockey and more about me broadcasting and describing what was happening. And I say about Bob McCowan, if I listen to the primetime sports jingle, we left that house on Constance Drive at the end of May in 1991, so a little less than a month before my 12th birthday.

But when I hear the primetime sports jingle, in my mind, I am taken back to the kitchen of our Constance Drive home, which means I was 11 or younger. And I envision, there it is, I envision dinner being made and Bob McCown on the radio. And so Bob McCown was a huge influence on me. Some of my favorite play-by-play people like Bob Cole were an influence on me. And then a little bit later on into the mid-1990s when I'm now a teenager,

I'm listening to the Fan 590 and Elliott Friedman, who I think is about eight years older than me, so he would have been early getting into his mid-20s, covering the Raptors' inaugural season. When I listened to him, I could tell he was probably pretty close to my age, relatively speaking, to Bob or Bob Cole or whoever. And I would listen to Elliott Friedman and I would think to myself, because now I'm starting to think about post-secondary and what am I going to do after high school, and I would think, how do I get to be him? Not necessarily

covering the Raptors per se, but how do I get to be him? Not necessarily covering the Raptors per se, but how do I get to be an Elliott Friedman doing what an Elliott Friedman does? So those were some of my earliest influences growing up. Yeah, those are some great influences. But were you a Tom Cheek guy? Oh yeah, Tom and Jerry, man. And when I had the opportunity to meet Jerry Howarth, you know, I never obviously had the chance to meet Tom. Sadly, he passed away in 2005. I was able to say to Jerry, like, you know, I think you've probably heard this before, but I don't know a world where you're not on the radio. Yeah, me too. And when Jerry retired, I reiterated that to him in the note that I sent to him. I said, this is, and I'm certainly not alone, from coast to coast, that the world changes

just a little bit now that your voice leaves the Toronto Blue Jays baseball broadcast. Because I think Jerry came on in 1982. If I'm off of you, I apologize. I apologize. It's around then, for sure. It's around then. So, you know, I'm three years old or two going on three. I don't know a world where Jerry Howarth

wasn't on the radio. So Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth were the voice authors of my summers as a youth. And I think back to times that my, all four of my grandparents as a youth. And I think back to times that all four of my grandparents have passed away, but I think back to times at my paternal grandparents' cottage

up near Point of Barrel on Georgian Bay. And if we weren't watching the little Sony Watchmen that my aunt Heather would bring. It was black and white, right? Hope, hope against hope that the antenna would pick up CTV

or whatever was broadcasting the game at the time. Don Chevrier, Tony Kubik, Fergie Oliver. I don't know if Tommy Hunt was around at that point, but he was a part of it at some period of time. Right. So if we weren't watching that, we certainly had the radio on and we'd be barbecuing or we'd be out on the dock or whatever. And we'd be living and dying with every Blue Jays game because back in the early nineties,

every Blue Jays game mattered. It's amazing. Like even here, you talk about these, cause we have similar memories, but even hearing you talk about, you know, primetime sports and, uh, you know, Tom and Jerry, and it must blow your mind, like how you can touch all these parts now, like in your professional life, like you're, you know, Tom and Jerry. And it must blow your mind, like, how you can touch all these parts now, like, in your professional life. It's crazy. It's amazing that you're,

that kid in Oakville pretending he's, like, you're now on that same station following those games, and you're so close to PTS, you can, you know, touch it. Well, I remember, you know, I followed Bob into studio after his last day because of blue jays game was i think it was a friday in june and there was a conveyor belt of

people and i was among them clapping him out of the studio and i knew that if i was going to be able to say something to him it had to happen quickly because i needed to be in the studio by seven o'clock everybody else could sort of mingle and hover. Right. And I just went over to him and there were a bunch of people were still kind of clapping and stuff. So it felt a little, I felt like I was insinuating myself into the situation, but it was six 56 or something by this point now or never. And I thought if I don't do this and I just reached out and shook his hand and I leaned, and I just reached out and shook his hand, and I leaned in, and I said, you know, I'm a broadcaster because of you, and he thanked me,

and I doubt that that's the first time that he had heard it, but I just don't think we can underscore the importance of influences in our lives, whether we know those people or not. And radio, I think, is as intimate a medium as there is. And you connect with, even if you don't agree with, you connect with the hosts who bring you the goods and whose opinions you grow to respect. So it's the old thing, Lowell Green, the legendary conservative talk show host up in Ottawa, who's now into his 80s and long since retired. When I worked at 580 CFRA up in Ottawa and was starting my career, I mean, Lowell would say, have an opinion, don't hold back.

And what I came to realize is that as long as you're a respected voice and people want to hear what you have to say, if you say some things that they agree with, they'll love you and be mad at the world. If you say some things that they disagree with, they'll be angry at you. But the bottom line is either way, they're listening. And that's the key and don't confuse uh that smart guy with a lauren green who's no longer with us but was on bonanza don't confuse those guys i can't you can't confuse lowell green with anybody he is an absolute legend up in the ottawa valley gotcha guy well we'll get you to ottawa in a minute but it's interesting that uh we're talking a lot about

bobcat and i listen to him as well as you like forever. Now you're four 99. He was, uh, the lucky lottery winner. I like to say who was given an opportunity to be on, uh, to be on episode 500. Like he won the lottery. He had that opportunity presented to him.

Okay. And, or yeah, no, it's not happening. Now he took a pass. Uh, I think he confused me with somebody else.

Uh, and he, he thinks that he, I don't think he realizes what a fan I am and how much respect I've spilled all over Bob McCowan throughout the eight years I've been doing this. So I think he's confused me with somebody else.

Tell him about the lasagna. If you tell him about the lasagna in advance, I mean, this could be enough to get anybody into the studio. Yeah. I might stop beating that dead horse, but that's okay. We'll have a 500 episode regardless.

Okay. So you decide you want to be in media, something to do with baseball, but do you go to school for this? Like, how do you get yourself to like, and then I need to hear what happened in Ottawa before we get you to TSN. Okay.

Well, so it became very clear to me in high school that math and sciences were not only things that did not interest me, they were things I was not good at. They're hard. student in elementary and middle school in math. And then in like grade 10, it just fell right off a cliff. And, you know, one of the great fortunes I have in life, my parents are wonderful. My dad's an Ivy leaguer, went to Dartmouth college, got an economics degree, came back, got his chartered accountancy in Ontario, realized accounting was not for him and then, and spun it off and, and was quite successful in his his life um is still alive so i shouldn't talk about him in the past tense but is he listening well he yeah he if he's not listening live he will be later so he'll be quite pissed off if i write him off uh at this

point so dad sorry um many years ahead and your cleveland browns are going to win a super bowl before uh before all is said and done. I promise you that. Hopefully sooner rather than later. So I started to gear some of my elective high school courses toward creative writing, things like that, passions, the written word in particular. And I got into Carleton University's journalism program for the fall of 1998. Let's just pull the Seinfeld and yada, yada, yada over most of that experience. But needless to say, you can't take D-level school work habits that got you an 80 plus average in high school and apply them at

university and expect the same result. And, you know, I think Mike will probably get into, uh, some of the more personal things that I've revealed in the last three or four weeks or so, but I was partying, uh, pretty extensively at that point. I was stoned a lot. I look at my watch and more times than not, it said 420. And I was masking and covering a lot of internalized pain as I look back, but I also was realizing, oh my goodness, everything I've worked for in high school and everything I've wanted is falling apart here because I just can't sit in lecture halls and maintain attention. So I actually took 1999-2000 off, but liked my freedom in Ottawa, because again, the partying and the not being sober, and wanted to stay. So on the rather stern yet loving yet direct advice of my parents to come up with a plan, in the fall of 1999,

I had no recourse but to set up a meeting with a guidance counselor at Algonquin College in Ottawa. And I walked in and I sat down and she was extremely helpful. And I said, look, I can't focus in lectures. I need a program. This is what I want to do. And I need a program that tells me what to do, how to do it, and then lets me apply it right away. Community college. And she said, well, we have this very highly respected radio broadcasting program with teachers who either work or have worked in the industry and know everybody in the industry in this market. The one thing I'll warn you about though, is we accept about 50 out of 400 applicants a year. Do you want to write the test? And I said, absolutely. So in February of 2000,

I wrote the test. Next thing I know, I was accepted and the rest is history. I did the two-year program. I was working at what was then Team 1200, what is now TSN 1200 in Ottawa, behind the scenes by Christmas of first year. So the end of first semester and in the 0-1-0-2 hockey season, so this is now second year of college, I am the behind the scenes producer of Ottawa Senators hockey on team 1200. And then by the time I, because that final semester, the fourth and final semester of the two-year program, it's about placement, right? So I had gotten to know the news director of 580 CFRA, which was the news talk station across the hall from Team 1200. And I had been inundating him with cassette tapes.

Yes, they still were cassette tapes back then. This is early 2002. And in that period of time, I was in the office one day getting ready for a senator's game he called me into his office and he said I've got two overnights a week for you newscast reading do you want them and I said of course and then somebody quit about three weeks later which brought me to five overnights a week about four or five months later so we're into the summer of 02 they've promoted me to weekend morning newscasting and evening reporting three nights a week. And then in June of 2003, Mike, I experienced the first of what very sadly and unfortunately has become far too routine in this industry.

Veterans got laid off. weeks before I turned 24. So mid-June 2003, I was given the opportunity to be the afternoon drive news anchor on 580 CFRA. Now, if you're 23 going on 24, you feel like you're in over your head. If you're 23 going on 24 and you're not from Ottawa, you really feel like you're over your head because you don't have a lot of the background stuff you could draw on, experiences that you could add some layers and some context. Is there even a CFL team at this time?

I'm trying to remember because there's that big black hole. Okay, so the Renegades, the Waters family, the Renegades hosted the Grey Cup in 2004, which would not have been

their first season. So I do believe the CFL is back at that point. Right, the Renegades. Right. Because there was Rough Riders break, Renegades break, Red Blacks. Gotcha.

Okay, so because, I mean, I don't know Ottawa as well as you do now, but isn't it just Sens and CFL? Yeah, the other thing is because there aren't four or five professional teams like there are here in Toronto, the Ottawa 67s get pretty good run junior hockey. Yeah, yeah, gotcha.

And so their games are also on TSN 1200, or as it was, Team 1200. And I began to have opportunities to moonlight on Team 1200 on nights when neither the Senators nor the 67s were playing which is to say not many nights but there were some sure and i think they throw like 50 bucks at me for three or four hours and i would co-host with somebody who's still up there named lever sage and it was just just an opportunity for two young guys to sort of work on the craft, get their chops. And in that period of time, I also started volunteering at Rogers, what was then Rogers

television. It's now Rogers TV, small tweak, but Rogers television. And I began to do features for them that would show in 67s broadcasts. And that led into the lockout season for the NHL 0405. And I became the host on TV of Ottawa 67's hockey. Speaking of chops, I got a question about your voice. Okay. Did you always sound like this? Like sincerely, like only because I feel like if I had your voice at that age, for all I know, I might've gone into radio. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, is the voice always there,

or do you have to do you have to work on it you have great pipes like uh headphones these are great pipes and i i don't have that this and i feel like everything else maps out the same passion for this passion for sports but i felt like uh this voice did not did not belong in front of a microphone well i don't like i it that's a it's a tough question to answer because if if and i don't know where i'd find them or if if i even still have them and they would also be on answer, and I don't know where I'd find them or if I even still have them, and they would also be on cassette tape, so I don't know where I would play them if I had them for you.

I have a cassette player, don't worry. Okay, so, but if you listen back to my college newscasts on the college radio station, you probably heard the depth in my voice, but you wouldn't have heard the cadence or the delivery, right? Back then it would have been, it's minus 12 in Ottawa. I'm Scott MacArthur with CKBJ News. No, but it was very like monotone and direct. And my teacher, who I think, not think, I know, believed in me, would always say

to me, he's like, Scott, you got to be a little more conversational. And I said, Don, I think it feels like when I'm doing this, that I am being conversational. So how do you address a problem that you're not entirely aware of? That's the first step. You got to acknowledge you have it. Well, I acknowledged I had it listening back, but when you're doing it, it feels pretty good. So what I've found is, and younger broadcasters sometimes ask me, the answer to the question is like, talent is talent. What you need are reps. You just have to keep doing it. So the way that I broke into the business almost 20 years ago was different from how people who were advising me broke in in the early to mid 80s or in 1990. Like today, do a podcast. And who cares if you have one listener or a thousand or 10,000 or whatever. The point is you have a microphone in front of your face and you're working on the craft. And that's so...

in front of your face and you're working on the craft. Right. And that's, so. And listen, I mean, what I did, because again, I sucked and then I did it. Who am I to do it? I probably had 10 listeners

at the beginning. And then you listen back and you think, oh yeah, I'm doing a lot of ums or whatever. You know, I'm cutting off my guests a lot. And you're like, you work on improving every single episode

and then by 499, you're half decent at it. Yeah. You're getting there. Yeah. Well, that's the, but that's the thing. And it's 499, you're half decent at it. Yeah. You're getting there. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. And it's when I've worked with, particularly with former athletes, Mike Eastwood was my co-host, former Leaf,

was my co-host on Ottawa Senators hockey broadcast. Once I ascended to that on the radio, he and I did the postgame shows on team 1200 from 06-07, which was the cup run, the Senators lost to the Ducks from that year until 2010-2011. And 2010-2011 also included me hosting the pregame show. So we had like a two-hour pregame intermissions, two-hour posts, like it was serious stuff. And I remember saying to Mike, when I met him in the fall of 06, I said, Mike, you and I just did our first run here together. You probably feel totally weirded out and not sure if this is for you. I can hear it. So you're going to hit a point here in two or three weeks

where you're not even going to recognize that there's a microphone in front of your face. And when you get to that point, you'll feel comfortable. And I think I said the same thing to Jamie McLennan when he, in the very early days of TSN 1050, started there. And it was just always something I would say to people like, look, you have the expertise, you played the game. People want to hear what you have to say because you bring a perspective that I can't, that nobody else can. You can peel the curtain back a little bit or open up the locker room door. So when you get to that point that you feel as though it's just us talking and there's nothing in front of our faces like a microphone, that's when you know you'll be comfortable. That's good advice. I'm going to

take note. Episode 500 is going to kill. I'm telling you. That beautiful. Tune in. Love it. You won't even recognize the microphones in front of your face. How the hell do we get you to Toronto? So you're in Ottawa. It sounds like you're getting more and more airtime, getting your reps in, improving your craft.

And then at some point we hear you on 1050. So how does that work? Yes. So I left. And when I say left, you got to keep in mind, this was the same company from 2002. Well, December of 2000, but like on the air from early 2002 until early this year. You know, Chum became CTV, Globe Media became Bell Media. Right. And so the transfer to Toronto was effectively an in-company transfer.

Right. You're working for the same employer. Correct. So that simplified things relatively considerably. So I left the 580 CFRA newsroom in July of 2010. So I had been doing news and then Ottawa Senators postgame shows on Team 1200. And in the 10-11 season, I did pre-intermissions and post Ottawa Senators broadcast. I had long since left Rogers Television just because if I didn't, I wouldn't have had any time to myself. I hardly had any to begin with, but I certainly wouldn't

have had any. So as much as I enjoyed that, I'd had to let that go a few years prior. As much as I enjoyed that, I'd had to let that go a few years prior. The Senators stunk that year. Corey Clouston was their head coach, and it was very clear by early in the new year they were going to miss the playoffs. The layoff monster, so Bell had purchased CTV Globe Media, I want to say 07 or 08. The layoff monster bit in November of 09, and it got my

program director at CFRA Team 1200. So he was the PD for both. And I had gotten to know him quite well, had spent a lot of time in his office just talking life, talking the business, etc., etc. talking the business, et cetera, et cetera. And we remained close after he left. Just kind of a mutual respect. And I always feel, I don't do this because of this, but I always feel it helps to maintain relationships. And little did I know,

because I'm also not somebody who's particularly good at keeping my ear to the ground for this stuff. But I didn't know that he had taken on a short-term contract to help consult on the launch of TSN 1050. So I get this phone call from Dave, Dave Mitchell, great guy. And he phones me in like mid-March. So we know the Senators are going to miss the playoffs, right? They're going to fire Corey Clouston on the tarmac, essentially after their final game in Boston. And I get this call and he says to me, he says, Scott, look, we're launching TSN 1050.

We don't necessarily have anything permanent, but I envision a role for you to help us get going. Would you be willing to come down to Toronto for a few months, kick around, meet some people, and then we'll send you back to Ottawa in mid-July. You can take six weeks off until about Labor Day and then get ready for the next Senator's season. And I said to him, just in passing and randomly,

I said, Dave, look, how many hours would you estimate that I spent in your office? And he said, oh, countless. I said, what did we talk about? Among the many things we talked about, what did we discuss about this industry? That Toronto is home for me, Oakville, and where my family is,

and that if I was ever going to be anything in this industry, in this country, Toronto is where I needed to be. Do you have anything permanent? And he said, Scott, I have to be honest. I don't know if we do, and if we do, I am not the one who is able to decide that. But I do know the person who can. Right.

And that is Rob Gray, who was the first program director of TSN 1050. So the next thing I know, I'm on a conference call with Rob and Dave a couple of days later. We have another phone conversation. I guess call it a conference call again a couple of days after that.

And a small period of time, maybe a week, week and a half, went by, next thing I know, I got an offer. And I jumped on it. And I had no details. No details. So keep in mind, this is all happening in like a three, four week period. I only know that I'm going to co-host the evening show.

The reason they couldn't tell me who my co-host was is that they were still, I guess, negotiating or doing the deal with the man who turned out to be Jim Taddy. And so when I hear about that, I'm like, oh my God, I grew up watching this guy and now I have to debate him? Like, I hold him in too much regard. Like, I can't, you know. I have to ask you what your opinion of I hold him in too much regard. Like I can't, you know, I have to ask you what your opinion of a Hebsey is. Hebsey. Oh yeah.

No, I grew up watching like the Hebseys. I grew up watching sports line. I grew up watching Hebsey, uh, host Leafs games at the player's entrance, pre intermissions post. You're going to love this.

So McCowan's passed on being the guest for 500. So my next thing I tried was a reunion, a Taddy Hebbs your reunion. Okay. Cause I don't know if you know this, but Mark Hebbs here has a podcast called Hebbsy on sports, which records right here. He sits in the seat you're sitting in twice a week,

every Monday and Friday morning. And we do Hebbsy on sports. So Hebbsy was getting Hebbsy was easy. He's here half the week anyway. But anyway, Taddy, I tried. We had a conversation, what I wanted to do. And he, I think his exact words were, I politely declined. So he's the, the, the sports line reunion is not happening. It's not happening on the Toronto Mike podcast. I think there's a documentary there somewhere, if anybody wants to make it. But yeah, Taddy, I with you tatty and hebsey on sportsline yes guy that was that was it for me man i uh watched it every night

well and you know it's it's tough to put it into context what sportsline meant whether it was the mccowan incarnation or or the the tap man and do you remember the mccowan i don't remember i do not know because i think that goes too far back into the early 80s. Well, if it was the 80s at all, you'd think my parents are allowing me to stay up that late, right? It's true, it was late. I'm a boy then, I'm a kid. So it was unique and it was something to see highlights from out of market. I mean, you get it all on your phone now in a variety of different ways. To say something like that sounds so archaic,

but it's true. Yep. And so it was cutting edge TV in Canada. And the opportunity to work with Jim Taddy, I'm thinking to myself, goodness, I'm going to have to debate him on, I mean, I'll hold him in too high regard, his opinions and stuff,

but he was so welcoming. And I remember he emailed me before we'd actually met in person. And he said, I just want to let you know, I'm looking forward to working with you and, and can't wait to meet you when we, when we, uh, when we get together on Monday. So the thing was, was that it became known toward the end of the season, obviously, the Senator's season, that I was leaving Ottawa. Mike Eastwood and I signed off. The Senators played a day game, a 1 p.m. day game on a Saturday in Boston. One o'clock, I said.

So five o'clock, the broadcast would have ended. We would have signed off. We said our goodbyes. We compiled some of our favorite audio, inside inside jokes and different things with listeners through the years. Ran that. Goodbye. Next morning, I jam my car full of as much of my crap as I can. Drive to Oakville. Crash at my parents' place. And on Monday morning at

9 a.m., I'm at Richmond and John, the old Much Music building. 299 Queen West, but there's a Richmond address, 260 Richmond, where the radio site is. So I'm there at 9 a.m. So I'm thinking to myself, my goodness, it's not even been 36 or so hours. And I've gone from the studios I've known in Ottawa for more than a decade to the Much Music building in Toronto. And we're on the air Wednesday night. It was a whirlwind, man, but what a blast. And you were looking to see if Speaker's Corner was still there. You could throw in your loonie.

I had known by then because I went away when I visited home and be downtown. I was like, oh, that Speaker's Corner is gone. That's too bad. That was the place you're looking. Is Steve Anthony going to throw a Christmas tree off the balcony? Where's that? The sock? Like I'm telling you,

that was a big deal, that $2.99 queen. With the little Queen and John. Was it Electric Circus? Yeah. The dance party. Are you kidding? Actually, just to tie it back to Great Lakes. Here's the Electric Circus brew.

None available right now, so don't get too excited, but the cowboy here who was a dancer in the early days of Electric Circus, that is Dalton Pompey's dad. Yes,

that, I was about to say, there was somebody I'm thinking of who was caught on video, Ken Pompey. Yes, yes,

and he put out a 12-inch dance single at the time early 90s called summertime summertime okay which was uh pretty it's a video and everything it's funny i call him dalton pompey's dad but how long before i'll be introducing him as like tristan pompey's dad that'll be what i'll be doing but but yeah k pompey uh electric circus are you kidding me yeah electric circus big deal on Toronto Mike. Yeah. That's a bingo square, I think. Oh, sweet.

Okay. But yeah, you're... That's like... So is this... You know, forgive me, but you're not a day one-er at TSN. I am. Oh, you are a day one-er. No, we were on...

Okay, so is Mike Richards the first voice to go on 1050? He was, yeah. He did the morning show. And then... See, the schedule changed a little bit, but I want to say it was Mike, and then there might have been like a Dan Patrick sort of mid-morning.

Or like a syndicated thing. And then, was it day one that Steve Koulias was doing the noontime hockey show? Because remember the NHL playoffs were starting. The station was launched to coincide with the 2011 playoffs. And Brian Hayes was 1-4. He eventually and relatively quickly moved to the mid-morning slot, but he started 1-4. And then Sobolski, James Sobolski, came on at 4 o'clock.

And I just, I'll never forget. I can't remember exactly where I was, but I remember listening to Brian Hayes that first day, thinking to myself, again, because I'm an Ottawa guy, right? I wasn't overly familiar with some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I know Hayes had come from 640, but he wasn't really a prominent on of the behind the scenes stuff. And I know Hayes had come from 640, but he wasn't really a prominent on air guy at 640. I said,

who the hell is this? And I said that the talent is there. I mean, and what sounds about, you know, you sound alike a little bit. Well, that's a huge,

for me, that's a huge compliment. Hazy is, you know, I talk about McCowan being the absolute legend and Hayes is younger than me. I think he's an 83. So he's 36 years old. So in terms of a tenure deal and all of that,

there's a long way for Brian to go, but he will be, in my opinion, if he decides to stay in Toronto, he's got a family, he's got decisions to make for them and himself, he could go work in New York or LA tomorrow. But he's on a rising popular, you know, especially now that, you know, you guys turf him a cow and it's almost like now I think this is a boon for them.

Yeah. Well, and I think Brian Hayes, if he decides to stay in Toronto, and even if he doesn't and moves on to quote unquote, even bigger and better things, but he will be looked at as one of the great radio hosts, great sports talk radio hosts of all time to be in Toronto and or to be from Toronto. His dad has been a guest on this show. Bill Hayes. Yes, but I'm still working on his

uncle. So John Darin. Still working on it. He listens though. So we're making good progress here. That's how it starts. You listen and then you're like, oh, I can do that. Well, and then a little bit of shaming on air. I've been asking, I've, oh, I can do that. Negotiate. Well, and then a little bit of shaming on air. I've been asking, I've been asking, I've been asking, where are you?

John, come on on. We'll have a nice fun chat and people want to hear from you. That guy, we need to talk to him because he's got the whole 590 morning show background too. Absolutely. Not just the Q. Okay, so there's a question actually from a fan, Chris McEwen.

Hope I said that right. Can you please ask him what it was like trying to corral O-Dog and Jamie McLennan for three hours at a time? Their shows were off the chart. Funny. What an energy. That's Chris.

So, okay. So, yeah. At what point? So, yeah. Well, tell us what you were up to at 10.50. First of all, was it, I guess, before we get there, you guys are the new kids on the block,

so to speak, and you got this heritage station at 590. It must have been real tough sledding at the beginning to even get the ratings needle to move because everybody's so used to tuning in 590 to hear their sports talk. Well, and I think, I mean, AM radio has been in decline for a long time, but if you think about it, if you're a sports and news junkie, if you're both 590, 680, 1010, right?

Did you have any reason to go north of 1010 on your AM dial at that point, considering that I think CP24 had been simulcast for quite a while? And it was like getting like a 0.01 or something. Right, so I mean. We're in it, which always makes it difficult because we don't have the

perspective of the regular listener. Of course we know 1050 exists. We work there, for goodness sake. But it was... Those were early fun days where we were just getting our feet underneath us. I think we were experimenting with some things, different hosts in different slots.

I worked with Taddy for a while, had a blast doing the evening show. We had been doing, I think, the Patrick thing mid-morning. The 2012 calendar flips, and the Leafs become the 18-wheeler team that year, the famous Brian Burke line. And so it looked as though early in 2012 that the Leafs were going to be a playoff team. So we needed a local host. So Rob Gray came to me and he said, hey, look, we were going to be a playoff team. So we needed a local host.

So Rob Gray came to me and he said, hey, look, we're going to put you nine to noon. I'm like, awesome, great, fantastic. And we were local all day. The 18-wheeler went off the cliff. I stayed nine to noon through the spring and the NHL playoffs and into the summer, took some vacation. And then the lockout happened.

And Rob said, hey, look, we're vacation, and then the lockout happened. And Rob said, hey, look, we're just scaling back a bit with no hockey. I'm going to put you back on the evenings with Taddy, go back to Patrick and syndication in the mid mornings. Okay, great. Whatever. I mean, it was understood. And around that time, Jonas Siegel had previously been hired to be our Leafs reporter. And I had heard through the grapevine that the station hoped to get to a point where it had a Blue Jays and a Raptors reporter as well. Well, the Miami Marlins deal drops in November of 2012. And Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio,

Jose, I said Jose Reyes, Burley, Mark Burley. Right. Like they just took anybody making a salary with the Miami Marlins and brought them to Toronto. And then not long after that, they did the deal with the New York Mets to get R.A.

Dickey. And I remember going to Rob Gray and saying, like I don't really know like if I'm on to something here or not but I've been hearing through the grapevine that you might be considering creating a Jonas Siegel position for the Blue Jays if you do please consider me. He said, okay, great, good. Well, the next thing I know, I'm being asked into an interview with Rob and Ken Volden, who's one of the senior television people at TSN. And I went through a multi-interview process

with Rob and Ken and ended up landing the job covering the Blue Jays, which I did for the 13, 14, 15 and 16 seasons. There wasn't near as much travel in 16, but essentially all travel 13, 14 and 15.

I did 162 games and that was that. And then off the Blue Jays situation, I in 20, late 2016 had an opportunity to host the one-to-four-time slot in a tryout role. And Jeff McDonald, who is still the PD, Program Director at TSN 1050, saw fit to give me my own show. And I hosted the Scott MacArthur Show one-to-four on TSN 1050 in 17 and 18. And when Brian Hayes would take vacation, I was the fill in host on,

on overdraft. All right. Do you have an answer for Chris now? Uh, what was it like trying to corral O-Dog in McLennan? You know, it was easy. And I think my,

my feeling on it is, is this, when I would go in on overdrive, it is clear and very apparent to me who the stars of the show are. Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan. So I suppose there are two approaches you could take. One is the right one in my mind

and the other one is completely inappropriate and would reflect a ton of insecurity. The right one is recognize who the stars are. Don't necessarily ingratiate yourself, but it's their show and you're the guest. So on Monday, it's don't disrupt the chemistry, get in and out of commercial breaks, feed the conversation where appropriate,

but understand that in particular with O-Dog, the show is driven by his personality. So let those components shine. And then as Monday goes into Tuesday, goes into Wednesday, the conversation has taken place over a number of hours now, and some jokes have come up and some threads have come through over the course of the early part of the week that you can then carry through to the end of the week. Right. Like callbacks, I guess.

The inappropriate approach would be to say, this is my opportunity and I am going to jam knowledge in the ear holes of all the listeners and Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan can just sort of chime in. No, that's not how you do it. Recognize who the stars are and understand that if you allow them to shine, you yourself will end up shining as well. I believe the term for that role is straight man, right? Yeah. Like it's just, I'm the host.

I'm the guest host. I don't try to be Brian Hayes. I don't try to be anybody else. I just try to be me. Although I think you could do a Brian Hayes imitation and people would just assume Brian was still on. Is there a Hayes-y imitation, though? Because he's just got a good radio voice.

Right, which is, yeah, but you could probably nail it. But no, that would be funny. So, okay. Now, oh, by the way, Macko and Cause are a couple of good guys too. I'm trying to think of the 1050 guys. Kaz is a little too much into expensive wine. Like I don't judge that either.

I'm always scared of how to pronounce this word. Is it sommelier? Yeah, sommelier. Sommelier? I think so. Okay, so he's one of them now. He's one of them now. So he's into the wines.

And I am not Matt Kaz's expert level on the wine, but I do like the Odd Red now myself a little more than I used to. I still can't get into wine. My wife, like, she's kind of ticked off that she has to drink the bottle alone. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I will say this because you're talking, you like 90s rock. I do that all the time, Mike. What are you talking about?

Depends on the size. Speaking of 90s rock, you remember the band Glue Leg? Glue Leg? Yeah. Did this ring a bell to you? All right. Is that a local? Okay, so Glue Leg, a member of Glue Leg was Bob McElwitt Jr.

Yes. And his father was the PD of the fan for a little while. And he was a Q107 guy back back in the day, Macko Sr. Yeah. Macko's a good, good dude. And I always enjoyed guesting on his and Kaz's show, Macko and Kaz, when I was the Blue Jays reporter,

because I always knew that they were going to bring a different perspective. But it was always in a relatable and easily conversational way. And so I was never nervous, like, what are they going to throw at me? But they were going to challenge me to go in different directions. So it was a fun show to guest on. Yeah, and Macko is doing a lot of work these days with Strombo. Yeah, they're good pals.

Yeah, very good friends. Jeff Merrick, too, is in that days with, uh, Strombo. Yeah. They're good pals. I think Jeff Merrick too is in, in that. He's, well, he's, they all come from the game, like the old,

uh, the 590 game night show. Jim Richards is in that club. You know, quite the club. But, uh, now Jeff,

Jeff, I know he moved out to Stouffville, so I don't know if that makes it more difficult for him to, but yeah, yeah. Jim, you know, it was a joke.

Like if you saw like Strombo, Jim Richards was usually there too. There's like the attach at the hip. So yeah, they're all good guys. They're all good guys. So BNBB, so I have you at TSN at some point, obviously we're going to find out now why you moved, but let me just take a quick moment here to say hello to the rockstar accountant. So Rupesh Kapadia, he's a CPA. He runs Kapadia LLP. Scott, if you have any questions about your taxes or financial dealings or anything which would require a accountant who sees beyond the numbers, I highly suggest you take the free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia. Now, I asked Rupesh to record a fun fact, like something that would be interesting for those requiring his services.

And he did record something for me. So let's hear from Rupesh. Hey, hey, hey, Toronto Mike listeners. This is Rupesh here from Kapiti LLP. We at Kapiti LLP always look beyond numbers in servicing our clients. One of the ways we do this is by providing them information on new incentives announced by the government. In 2019 budget, the federal government announced the first-time home buyers incentive. Under this program, the CMHC or Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation will

assume responsibility of 5 to 10 percent of the mortgage amount for the first-time home buyers, which means that the first-time home buyers will not be required to make payments on the portion of the mortgage assumed by CMFC. For a new home purchase of about $400,000, this incentive can reduce the average monthly mortgage cost by $200. If you would like to know more about this, please feel free to reach out to us at www.kapadialp.com or you can call me directly at rupesh at kapadialp.com and we would like to help you further. Till next time, be calm and save money. Thank you. Rupesh is the man if you're looking to save money.

And I don't know where he's buying a house for $400,000. Geez, I'm trying to think. Not in this city. Like even in the suburbs? Can you do that now in the Burj? I don't think so. I feel like, I don't know where you have to go now. Is there anything in Acton now for $400,000 maybe? I'm trying to think of where you have to go.

Where's the drive? Yes. You know, there's a lane, you know, Roz Weston, he does the morning show on Kiss. Yes. He's got a laneway in Acton. He's from Acton and they named a laneway after him. The Roz Weston laneway. Yeah. Useless fun facts. If you want more,

just hang out with me. So Roz and the old hide house. Right. And I'm pretty, is that still open, the old hide house? Well, I don't hear the ads anymore so I wondered. I googled it not too long ago, I don't think. I think it is wondered i googled it not too long ago i don't think i think it is still there i loved those ads and you're right anytime anyone ever mentioned actin i had to tell them it was worth the drive so that's like mandatory all right you're happy here doing a lot of fun things at 10 50 uh tsn 10 50 oh why would you ever leave that what would

cause you to to say goodbye to your friends at 10.50 for 5.90? What went down there? Well, I just, you know, it's funny. This industry teaches you never to get too comfortable. And I think I was as happy as I've ever been in my adult life in 2018. I loved my job. I loved my life outside my job. And then it just started to hit me a little bit. You're comfortable. And maybe it's just the way that I'm wired, but I started to feel uncomfortable with how comfortable I was, uh, for lack of a better way to put it. I get it, though. And I don't know if there's ever truly a cat and mouse game where you're the mouse and you're getting chased by the cat

and the cat is layoffs, you know, or like whatever. But it was just, it was time to take on a challenge. Sportsnet is a wonderful company with obviously a multitude of platforms. They have the Toronto Blue Jays rights because Rogers owns the team, obviously. They have the massive National Hockey League contract. It was an opportunity to work with some friends and new colleagues at the radio station. Some of my best friends in the industry are Sportsnet people because covering the Blue Jays for all those years

as the lone TSN guy. Shai Davidi. Arash Madani who actually has been a friend of mine since Ottawa because he was up at A Channel and New RO in Ottawa. I call him Truro Arash. Truro Arash. Has he done the show?

Yep. Okay, so he's done the show. So he's been a great friend of mine for 15 years. So between that, Ben Nicholson-Smith, who actually interned at 580 CFRA for a week as a student in 2009, who I then came across just reading a byline on MLBTradeRumors.com a couple of years later. And I'm like, that's a,

you know, hyphenated name is unique. That's that's it's gotta be Ben Nicholson Smith. So I emailed him. Are you the same dude? Yes. So we reconnected through that. And then he landed at Sportsnet law not long after.

So I've known all the, the Sportsnet people for, for a long time. And, and when a Sportsnet and Sportsnet five 90, the fans saw fit, uh, to, to bring me over with, with this opening for blue Jays talking to be a part of the broadcasts, uh, we, we made it work. So it was like, I, I have nothing but love, respect and appreciation for Jeff McDonald and everybody at TSN 10 50. Like it was a wonderful time

and it was a wonderful exit. So it had nothing to do with any of that. It was simply, hey, take on a new challenge. Makes sense because if you want to work Blue Jays games, you're going to have to leave TSN for Sportsnet. This is just how it works. Now, dear friend of the show, Mike Wilner, who's been on like five times

and he's come to previous TMLXs at Great Lakes Brewery. And such a fan of the show, I actually inspired, if you can believe it, Mike Willner when he was in Tampa recently. I guess there were games in Tampa recently. He borrowed a bike and went on a bike ride because I inspired him to get on a bike for the first time in decades.

This is a true story. That's how influential I am over Mike Willner. Wow. He got on a bicycle. He got on a bicycle through, like, so I'm just trying to picture Mike Wilner ripping down a street in the heart of St. Petersburg on a bicycle. This happened. Is there footage? I don't have this footage, but he tweeted afterwards and gave me full credit for the inspiration. So, and proud of him so that's fantastic but wilner and this was the worst kept secret in the industry i think because wilner came on just shortly after news leak and i i can't take credit for the leak i think it was uh do you ever read uh like jonah at toronto sports media oh yeah yeah so i'm i want to give him credit because who else would it be like right like right? Like, I think he's got, you got a leak in the Rogers empire,

just so you know. So there was news leaking that Wilner was leaving Jay's talk and was going to get to be, I guess, like a full-time play-by-play guy. Him and who's that? Yes, of course, from the Bisons. Okay, so Ben Wagner and Willner's well on the record for this being his dream job.

He's always wanted to call Jay's games and he got an opportunity to do it full time. So he didn't have time for Jay's talk. And then it leaked out that, I guess you stepped down from TSN and did you have like a non-compete or something? Yeah, I had to sit for like two months or something like that, yeah.

But again, worst kept secret in the industry was that you were, Scott MacArthur was going to be the new host of Jay's Talk and then it happened. So I guess I have a few questions. Now you haven't done it in a few weeks as we talked off the top, but what is it like?

I guess I want to know about what it's like following in Willner's footsteps because Willner, I'll say it, I said it to his face several times. He's a polarizing guy on Jay's Talk. Like a lot of people love him, but a lot of people felt he was, and I use these words with hymns,

condescending and arrogant. He had a polarizing... He wasn't beloved by everybody. Yeah, well, I think you can only be who you are. It gets back to what I said. I couldn't be Brian Hayes when I would fill in as

the host of Overdrive when Brian would go away. I'm not going to try to be Mike Willner because why would I be? I can only be me. And if you're trying to be somebody else, you're going to fail at it. So from my perspective, I view it this way. you're going to fail at it. So from my perspective, I view it this way. In this market, it seems to me that we all, whether we do or we don't, we all think we understand hockey, right? Because we grew up playing it to some degree

and we all have opinions on the Leafs and the National Hockey League and all that stuff. With baseball, I think that there is certainly a segment of the fan base that understands the game very well, and then there is a larger segment of the fan base that is aware that its knowledge of the sport is, let's just say, limited relative to what it would feel its knowledge of hockey is, but that it is so keen to learn.

And so when people phone in with questions, whatever those questions may be, those questions deserve to be answered. And, you know, it's funny, Mike, like my attitude, my response to questions has not at all changed, yet the perception of me by some has because of who I now work for. So I went from being the voice of reason on TSN to the corporate chill who now works for Rogers and is defending the Toronto Blue Jays. And I said, look, sometimes I have to be very clear on the radio.

I am not endorsing what I am saying. Sometimes I have to be very clear on the radio. I am not endorsing what I am saying. I am trying to explain to you my understanding of what they are trying to do here. It is not always my job to reflect your blinding rage. It's my job to try my best to give context, and then you can decide whether that is acceptable for you or whether you're going to continue to be pissed off at what it is you're seeing. And that really is up to you. But no, I mean, my approach is to try to have a conversation with anybody who calls as long as they do not get stupid or personal. Right. So that pragmatic approach, though,

when somebody comes in uh emotional like their emotional response like who's it galvis or whatever like oh we got nothing for him you know couldn't get a single thing back for this asset or whatever and there's an emotional kind of almost like anger or whatever and then you reply with a i don't know what you reply would sorry be to that but a pragmatic response that's people find that and this is, Wilner had this problem. I think anyone who hosts that show would have this problem, but they see that somehow as arrogant. Like, how are you not jumping on this emotional bandwagon?

I mean, but I look at it, I will not tolerate somebody questioning my integrity. So my opinions have not changed. You call me a corporate shill, we're done. Right. Because at that point, why would I even try to reach you? You've already made it very clear to me that I can't. You have decided that I am a corporate shill. You're wrong. And I also will not tolerate questions of my integrity. If I give you reason, legit reason, to question my integrity, then maybe I'll be a little more receptive and come to my own defense. What I'll say is that I thought

Shai Davidi wrote a great piece on the front office and how the narrative has to change, both from the front office and from the fans' perspective on the current state of the Blue Jays. I have been going on for weeks on the radio station, on the Fan 590, whatever show I've been hosting, about my feeling that the lack of authenticity, i.e. the disingenuousness of this front office, is what is keeping it from emerging under a more positive light in the public perception. So can I look at the diamond right now? I'm not big on the pitching yet, but can I look at the diamond and see Vladdy at third

and Bo at short and Cavan at second and Lourdes in left and Gritchick in right and Danny Jansen, who needs to hit better next year, but Danny catching and say to myself, and maybe Tay Oscar in center, okay, if you dot the diamond, you've got seven pieces out of eight non-pitching positions with a lead dog heading into Dunedin next year. That's good.

And some of these guys are really young and really good ballplayers. And it's been really exciting lately. They've been knocking the cover off the ball. Correct. So the front office has pieced that together. That's a good thing. But when they come out and talk in this corporatist mumbo jumbo, we like the handedness, collaboration, culture, blah. And the 42 years of control. Statements like that, I think you're right. There's a tone deafness of the PR component.

But the point, Mike, I'm making is that you can look around the diamond and see good things. But then when they talk about the team, it makes it almost impossible to believe that they're going to be able to put the finishing touches on this whole thing. So it isn't that they're incompetent because you can see the competence starting to play out in front of us here. It's just that the words they use don't lend me to trust them. So what I see with my own eyes, I like, I know there's more to be added, particularly on the pitching side. Can I trust these guys who speak to me in a language

I don't understand? And just as importantly, don't care to understand, can I trust these guys to go all the way with this? Do they have the competency to make the decisions that need to be made at the right times to make this thing whole? I think they are competent, but I do understand why there's a lack of trust. You'd be a terrible shill, I'd say, because I don't think a shill would say all that. That seemed non-shilly of you. Well, that's why click when you question my integrity. I will tell you what I think. So how's it going so far? I want to get into some more personal stuff with you before you leave me for your lunch date there.

But how is it going at Sportsnet so far? You haven't done Blue Jays Talk, but are you no buyer's remorse? You're happy with your decision? It's been fantastic. And I work with great people. I have worked with so many talented people in the last few weeks. I enjoyed my time in the booth with Ben and Mike, and that may resume here at some point sooner rather than later. So it's all been totally enjoyable for me. I just want to contribute in any way that I can. And I mean, my focus now, Mike, and I think you, as you said, you want to get into some more personal stuff. I'm a guy who has not lived through choices I've made in terms of how I've handled myself in my life. I don't think I've

ever necessarily portrayed this to people, but I've always felt inside I haven't lived a particularly happy existence. And so with everything being out on the table now, I am prioritizing happiness, internal peace to the best of my ability to have it. I mean, we all lead complicated lives, so nothing is perfect. But I just want to enjoy my work. I want to enjoy my life. And I'm looking forward to what's ahead. Now, when you were at 1050, which is a Bell station,

there was a lot of participation. Of course, there's Bell Let's Talk Day. And you were very honest about, I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I need you to speak here, but battles with depression. Could you speak to that? And what I'm very interested in is how you reached this decision to, I guess the term would be, come out about your sexuality. Okay, so I will handle the decision to come out because it gives context to some of the stuff that I talked about on the Bell Let's Talk Day shows in the past. But the decision to come out wasn't for me to say I'm gay, which is a piece of information you learned about me when I shared it and what a lot of people learned.

The decision for me, because I said I'm gay to a lot of people, I've come out to a lot of people in the last four or five years. So I'm used to saying that phrase, it was the release of the burden. And what I mean by that is when you live closeted or partially closeted, you parse off your life. So if you are partially closeted as I was, I was fully closeted half decade ago, but more recently partially closeted, I can be fully authentic in my life with the people who know, but then I am keeping a significant portion of who I am from the people that don't. So for example, I always say Arash Madani is kind of the social coordinator, and he never throws a party that disappoints. But I would always find myself, and I would always be invited.

Arash and I, like I said, have been friends for a decade and a half. I would find myself either not going or managing the message, hey, I can drop in, but then I've got to leave because I've got to be somewhere. And that somewhere would just be probably going home. then I've got to leave because I've got to be somewhere. And that somewhere would just be probably going home. But I never wanted, as the single, somewhat reasonably decently looking guy. Now you have a face for TV.

Thank you very much. I would always be worried, hey, we get a few beers in us and somebody comes up and elbows me in the side and says, that waitress. Oh, sure. Just random guy stuff that happens all the time, right? Yeah. Well, that would be an innocent comment and the rest of the party wouldn't be thinking about it. But in my head, the micromanager, the message manager would be like, oh, if I don't participate, if I don't participate in this, somebody's going to wonder something. So you almost become inordinately selfish about it

because you become so internally focused on managing your own secret that you become hyper-obsessed, and it's almost like you're not paying attention to anything else going on, and your night is ruined. So it was about ripping off the band-aid, exposing my truth to the world and saying, look, man, I'm just going to live now. You don't have to like it. If you don't like it, what's your problem? Really? I'm, I really? I'm not asking for your endorsement of my nature. This is not a lifestyle. I didn't choose this. I didn't choose to be white. I didn't choose to be born in 1979.

I didn't choose to be gay. This is not a lifestyle. Terminology is important. This is my sexual orientation. It's my nature. So accept it or not, that's fine. I'm just going to live and release the burden. And if you go back to all of my struggles with depression, I would always wonder, because I'd try different medications and doctors would prescribe me this, prescribe me that, why don't I ever feel better? Well, deep down looking back, I knew it wasn't necessarily a chemical imbalance. Maybe some of what I was going through was causing my brain to go off kilter a little bit, but antidepressants correct, and I don't want to play doctor here, but I believe they correct chemical imbalances to help lift your spirits. I didn't have a chemical

imbalance. I was denying my nature. I was denying my own person. I was denying myself. There is no pill that can cure you of that. And I say with all truth, and don't go diagnosing yourself. Seek help if you're struggling with stuff. But I have not taken an antidepressant since I came out to my parents more than four years ago because it was that that was causing

all of the weird and wacky behavior and the sort of flight mentality in my brain that caused me to behave irrationally at times. Was there just a moment where you said, enough is enough? Like for coming out? Yeah, for that video. I mean, you had help with that.

It was an excellent video and I'm sure it's been viewed a trillion times by now. It's well-produced, anyway. Yeah. So what happened was, it was the final week of June. There is a woman by the name of AJ Andrews, who I had never met. And she writes for the Jays from the Couch blog. And there had been a Ryan Andrews writing for the Jays from the Couch blog. And there had been a Ryan Andrews

writing for the Jays from the Couch blog. And then on a day in late June, AJ Andrews posted and said, I'm not Ryan, I'm AJ, I'm a woman. I'm a transgendered woman. She came out

as transgendered. And it caught my eye and so I DM'd AJ a relatively lengthy note of support and saying what you have done here is extremely courageous if you know these platitudes but it was more like if there's any help

if I can be of any help, please let me know. And she wrote back a wonderful note. And we stayed in touch, and I asked her probably later in the week or something. I said, like, can I just, like, what's the response been like? Is it like 100-0 positive? Is it 90-10? Is it 80-20?

She said it has been absolutely wonderful and amazing. So Pride goes down in Toronto second to last. So the weekend before Canada Day weekend, second to last weekend of June. I think it was like the 22nd and 23rd. Kenneth is my best gay platonic friend who I met here in Toronto, but has since moved back to Calgary for work. He was in town for Pride. I turned 40 on June 26, so he was here to help celebrate my birthday.

You know, our birthdays are one day apart. 25th or 27th? 27th. Nice. Good man. Sorry to interrupt. Great time of year, though. Great time of year.

Great time of year to have a birthday. Halfway between Christmas and birthday, good for the gift splitting, and weather's always good. You can have the pool parties for your birthday. Well, it mattered more when we were kids, I guess. So he was in town to help celebrate my birthday. On the 27th, on your birthday, we went to Wonderland.

We spent the day at Wonderland, and he had not been, because he's a Westerner who'd moved to Toronto, has now moved back to Calgary, so he actually had never been to Wonderland and he had not been, uh, cause he's a Westerner who'd moved to Toronto, has now moved back to Calgary. So actually never been to Wonderland. So we did like, we bought the Fastlane plus did Leviathan, Behemoth, Yukon Striker, just repeatedly. Cause we're both rollercoaster guys. We ended up going back to my condo that night and we cracked open a bottle of wine and we smoked some weed. And I went Johnny journalistist on him with a very basic question. I said, like, Kenneth, like, you know, we kind of know everything going on in each other's lives.

Are you, I don't know why I felt compelled to ask this, but I said, are you happy? And he talked for a considerable period of time. And then he flipped it back on me. And I said, I'm fucking miserable, man. And he had known some things going on in my personal life that had really affected me. And I think too, Mike,

you know this through your own life experience, when you change jobs and you move, which I also did, job changes and moves are just natural stressors as is. They're environmental, yeah, stressors. Just stressors. They don't have to be negative.

They're positive things, but it's just stuff is happening. Right. And when you're doing Blue Jays Talk and you're pretty much seven days a week or 28 out of 31 days a month and you're trying to do a move and you're staging your place and you're getting your old place painted. And like, there's just, there's so much going on. So I was just, I've just felt like in a constant state of flux and stress, I had some personal stuff going on as well. And, and so he had known about all this stuff. And he said, Scott, he said, look, you've told me about ABCD and E for, for months now. He said, I'm not diminishing

any of these things. I'm not saying they're not important, but he said, we have talked about this for a couple of years now. You know, you will not be right. You will not feel whole until you fully rip the bandaid off and you come out publicly, release the burden. And I said, you're right. And I went to bed that night, woke up the next day. So we're now June 28th and I'm a man on a mission. And one of the first things I did was I sent a direct message to Brock McGillis, who is a former OHL hockey player, now into his mid-30s. He's an LGBTQIA advocate and does a lot of work in the sports realm. And sports is not necessarily the last frontier, but one of the final frontiers of where we've got to really make the push for equality.

And so I DM'd him. I said, Brock, I need to talk to you about something. He said, oh, my goodness. He said, I'm a bigger baseball fan than a hockey fan, even though I played hockey. And I love your work. And I follow everybody on the beat. And I got a ton of J than a hockey fan, even though I played hockey and I love your work and I follow everybody on the beat. And I got a ton of Jay's questions for you as well. So he said, let's set up a phone call. He had been out of town. So we talked on the phone. When he got back to Toronto, we went for dinner. He gave me some pros, some cons, things to look out for,

things to expect, things that could be a little strange about the whole thing. He was a huge, huge help. And so for the three or so weeks between Kenneth sort of laying down the law in that chat that we had to the video coming out, I was really just a man on a mission getting ready to do this. Who helped with the video? Well, so Kenneth and I have a mutual friend and her name is Kat and she, uh, is in the banking industry now, but previously had worked at the score and she had a couple of different friends who are videographers, camera operators and stuff. And I really wanted it like Mike, I'm being honest when I first thought about this I said what I want is effectively an iPhone video this has got this is like I'm not looking to do a wear a suit and be like I would just like to make an announcement notice my rainbow tie like I wasn't I just wanted

to say and but then you get into the whole well Twitter's got a two minute 20 second video limit and right uh Instagram has like a one minute deal and link in the bio stuff. And so it's just with a different, I needed to upload it to YouTube. I'd never done that before. So I needed help with that. So we got it done by somebody in the industry.

We used my wall as a backdrop. It's just me looking into the camera. Is it scripted or is that from the heart? That was totally from the heart. There was a piece of paper with three, maybe four bullet points taped beneath the camera that I just, I wanted

to make sure I hit on. Yeah, yeah. But the whole thing, it was one take. I insisted on that. I said, one take. And I said, whatever happens here, don't edit it. So if I cry, I cry. If I get lump in the throat and have to take 15 seconds

to compose myself or whatever, and I knew that I was going to be fine because I'd come out so much to so many people. Right. And it had all been so positive. Like, it was 100-0. But you're cherry-picking

who you come out to. Correct, yeah. So you're not coming out to that redneck or whatever with the Make America Great Again hat. You know what I mean? Yeah, well, MAGA man, I'll probably never meet, right? And I look at it now, my burden's been released. If you have a problem with my nature, and that's what this is. This is not like I made

some sort of lifestyle choice to upset. It's the equivalent of if you had brown skin and somebody said, I hate him because he's brown. Well, there are a lot of people who unfortunately feel that way. Right. But that would be the equivalent. Yeah. Well, no. Well, that's it. I mean, it's not a lifestyle choice. I don't have a lifestyle any more than you do. What we do with our time may be a little different. You're a father of two teenagers

and stuff. I am not. So, I mean, there are things that happen in our lives that sort of change our own individual courses. But I just,

if somebody doesn't like me and they've never met me, I don't believe I'm the one with the problem in this relationship that doesn't really exist. That's how I look at it. Now, I had, when this video broke, when you released it, I guess, who was on here? Dave Perkins came over. So Dave Perkins was here. Perk. Yeah, Perk came on, sat where you're sitting now. And I asked him if he had seen it and he didn't. So then his initial reaction was like, so what? Like, this is not news. Like, you know, this is 2019.

It's not news. It is news. Right. It's sports media. Yeah. Now, what I said to Perk, which I believe it is newsworthy because I couldn't think, I could not think of anyone else in Canadian sports media

who, any male... Well, take it a step further, Mike. 30 MLB teams times 25 roster spots, 750 players. How many gay men are out? Zero. Donut. 31 NHL teams multiplied by 23 roster spots, soon to be 32

with Seattle. 713, soon to be 32 with Seattle. 713, about to be 736 roster spots. How many openly gay hockey players? Zero. NBA. Current players in their primes. Not Jason Collins at the end. Zero. Zero currently.

NFL? Zero. You're telling me. You're telling me that there are no gay men playing professional sports right now. It would be a statistical anomaly. So that is in part my point, not all my point, but in part my point. There is something about the culture that keeps these men in the closet and keeps them living in fear. And to me, that is tragic

because I know what it's like to live in fear. I know what it's like to live in the closet. And I know how mentally and internally damaging it can be. And so I just hope we get to a point. And I was even saying to somebody, wouldn't it be nice if there's like four or five or six gay players who kind of like get together and talk and say, we're going to do this on this day so that one guy doesn't have to stand up and wear all of it. They kind of parse out the reaction and it'd be great. I'd like to think we're going to get there, but until we do, I'll just wait and see.

I'll remain skeptical. Now, speaking of reaction, what has the reaction been like to your coming out? It's been wonderful, generally speaking. Now, the thing is there's like 1,600 or so responses to the Twitter video, and the algorithm is lined up as such that you see the people that

you follow and all that. So I would be lying if I said that I had seen all 1,600 I've gotten. I can't even count DMs on Twitter and Instagram, Facebook messages. It has been wonderful. I'm sure there has been some negativity, although I haven't really seen it. The one question that has been asked more than once that I have seen, and I don't take it as coming from a negative place, is kind of the one that Perk asked. So what?

Like, why is this news? Why does this matter? And I've already answered that on the podcast. It's not, I'm gay, hey, look at me. It's I am freeing myself of this secret that has weighed me down like a ton of bricks for my entire life. So if you're asking who did you do this for,

I did it for me. If there are spinoff benefits and opportunities to advocate for queer people in a space where not a lot of advocacy work has been done and where there very clearly isn't much space, that will resolve itself over time. And I am open to it. I always complain about myself. I'm not an ideas guy.

I'm more a doer. So I want to be helpful where I can. But honestly, I did this for me because I needed the secret to just be out there. And now I don't have to think about it or worry about it anymore. I mean, you've kind of almost already answered this, but like, how is your mental health now? Like, have you noticed tangible improvements with how you feel about yourself and your happiness? Yeah. And people have heard,

you know, whether talk to them on the phone or seeing them in person, they, they're like, you're so much more relaxed. I said, well, I got,

I got nothing to hide. I mean, the thing that I, I went from hating myself years and years ago, like loathing and just desiring to change. And I, I took a lot of steps to try to, to change my sexuality. I didn't go through conversion

therapy or anything, but I did. I would always convince myself that next job promotion or that raise that you get, or you'll meet a woman and you'll care about her so much that it'll just make you forget about your natural inclinations and your feelings. You're always hoping against hope. Your brain, when it wants to convince itself of a possibility, even though the possibility is impossible, it will convince itself. All of that is gone. I feel completely and totally at ease, completely and totally relieved. And I feel now that I can be fully and totally authentic in social situations because I've got nothing to hide. And I've gone from hating myself for being gay to actually viewing being gay as a gift because the one thing it forces you to do, and it's not just

gay, if you're queer, gender identity, whatever it is you need to disclose in those spaces, whatever it is you need to disclose in those spaces, you are forced, not forced because you make the choice, but you are forced if you are going to live authentically to reveal a depth of your soul and a depth of your core that straight people don't ever have to get to. And there are straight people who do, I don't doubt it in their interpersonal relationships and stuff, but you are never forced to declare something so boldly as this is who I am. And what I found, Mike, through friends that I've told a while back or people more recently, people come to me with their crap now because what am I going to do, judge them?

No, you were very kind to me in a position where I was extremely vulnerable and you welcomed me. So now they are like, okay, so you thought enough of me to reveal the core of your soul to me. We're closer now. That's a subconscious thing. It becomes conscious, but it starts as a subconscious thing. And those are the experiences that I've had. I am a better son, I hope, a better friend, a better uncle, a better brother, a better cousin. And what I hope, and again, everything is subjective in this industry, but what I hope out of all of that is I also become a better broadcaster. And a better podcast guest, I would say. Tremendous.

Thank you. And that's real talk. And I always wonder, like when you have your video prepared, and you've done, the video's recorded, but you're the person who pressed send or publish or whatever the heck the button says. And where did it go first? Twitter first? Good question. So Kat, the woman who used to work at the Score Now in the banking industry, came over on that Saturday morning because what I told her was, so I'm not just gay, I'm an introvert. So I was concerned most about managing my immediate reaction

to the amount of response, which I expected would be a lot. So the plan was hit send, turn off the phone, jump in the car, drive to Oakville. Okay, good idea. See my folks, my brother and sister-in-law and the two kids. My nephew's almost five. My niece who just turned two.

We were all over. Had a couple of adult beverages on the back patio. The kids were running through the sprinkler. So I played with them a little bit too. And I hit send at noon on all those things. I don't think it turned my phone on to 430 or 5. That's a good plan.

I approve of this plan. Yeah, and so I was aware of myself enough to know that it was probably... And you turn off your notifications and stuff. No, I turned the phone off. Right, phone off. The phone was powered right down. Gotcha.

There was nothing that I could have gotten in that moment. And so I prepared for all that. So Kat came over. I think I posted to Twitter first, Facebook, I even hit LinkedIn. And then the last one was Instagram. And we had logged into my Instagram account on Kat's phone. So we hit send on Instagram from her phone because I'd already powered my phone down in case retweets or DMs or texts like, Scott, what's this type thing? You know, so we hit send. I logged out of Instagram on her phone and drove to Oakville.

Okay. So before you press the, what is the button on Twitter? I should know this. I tweet all the time. Is it publish or tweet? Yeah. I'm like, what the hell are they calling this? All these social media things. Okay. So I'm like, I the hell are they calling it? All these social media things. Okay, so I'm like, I'm going to send like a million tweets. Okay, so before you click that button that says tweet and you've already uploaded the video to the thing and it's sitting there and you're going to press tweet, no doubt, like you didn't have a moment of like,

do I really want to go through? Did you have any hesitation at all? No, but while I was anxious, but it had nothing to do with, it had nothing to do with whether or not I wanted to release the video and say what I said in the video. It had more to do with, oh my goodness, the anticipation of the burden being released. I hope this goes over well. I hope this is positive.

I hope this doesn't cost me anything, which is just such a stupid and seemingly irrational fear to have in 2019. But you have it. I mean, you got to understand too, like I, as I said earlier, I spent a long time hating myself. So I just assumed everybody hated me. And the fact that it went over as well as it did, that I was able to manage in the immediate hours afterward not seeing anything. I turned my phone on at 4.30 or 5. By that point, we were in my parents' basement because some of my brothers and my old toys, my almost five-year-old nephew is obsessed with, and he wants to get into the Lego and the Playmobil. So he gets very insistent.

Yeah, I got one of those. Easton loves his routine. We're going to the basement. We're playing with this, this, and this. And he was kicking around with the Lego and stuff. And I said, maybe I'll go upstairs, grab the phone, turn it on, and we see what happens. And so I just kind of put it on the table. A few of us were sitting there. And the next thing you know, it's ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.

And that's like where your notifications, when they have the number beside it, you got like triple digit. This is like serious stuff happening here. And the texts don't come in all at once. So you're like going from like 20 to 40 to 60 to 80 to 100. Like it was just unbelievable. Oh yeah, I forgot about the text. Holy smokes.

Now, I mean, two reasons I'm glad you did this. And the one is obviously for yourself because you're happier. You've got a lot of life to go. Like you fixed it at 40. Assuming that's a midpoint, maybe you'll hopefully live to 100 i don't know but that's a lot of years you got to go and you it'll be better years because of this but secondly

i'm really happy you did this because what you've done is you've actually put out a blueprint for others to do the same like you created the blueprint and uh now there you talked about professional athletes and on teams and how there's no openly gay players, but in the, you know, in sports media, now there's an example of, Oh,

Scott did it. Here's how he did it. We see the reaction. We see that, you know, he got the back. I saw like tweets from people like Julie Adam and stuff like supporting. There's a lot of positive positivity coming out of this and a lot of support,

overwhelming support. So somebody else who's now working in your industry who is gay will have a blueprint that they could follow and live their true self, their true life. Yeah. And I like, I want to give credit to my boss, immediate boss, Dave Cadeau and Julie Adam. I had a meeting with the two of them the Monday before the video. And I said, look, out of respect, you need to know about this. I work for you. You should probably be aware that this is what is happening. And they were incredibly supportive. And I wouldn't have expected anything less. Obviously, they're both very good people, but you never know. This is a bit of a landscape change and all of that. I think you worry more, not so much about the response,

but are they going to feel the need to spring into action where it's not necessarily needed? But they were terrific. They're like, look, you take the lead on this. You do what you need to do. Whatever support you need from us, just say so. And quite honestly, I mean, it's just over the last four weeks, it's not anything we've really needed to talk about. I mean, Dave, just because he's personally interested, a good guy that way, has asked me, so what's it been like?

But there has been no need to sort of have these formalized communicative meetings on how to handle A, B, C, D, or E. It's just kind of been run of the mill. Well, I'm glad to hear this because literally if you get an email from someone at Sportsnet, it says diversity is our strength. I think it's in the signature line. So this is good to hear. Yeah. And I mean, and look, the Rogers building was a rainboat up for the, for the entire month of June. I had, I had no fear, no fear that it was, it was going to go over well, um, at least at the corporate level. And, um, all of my confidence has been, has been absolutely realized.

You got another 10 minutes for me to pepper you? Okay. Cause I don't want to mess up your lunch plans here, but that was, yeah. He's a buddy. He can wait. Okay, good,

good, good, good, good. Cause there's lots to get to here. So we already off the top. I told you that somebody, somebody,

let me see, where do I start? Okay. Brent says, will he ever go back to Jay's talk? And you've already answered that, which is that. So when are you back on Jay's talk?

I have no idea. I mean, you know, there's still a few weeks of vacation time before Labor Day. I think we know the radio schedule typically is, is that Labor Day is when life gets back into routine for parents and kids back to school, work, listenership sort of resets and and and and so i would expect whatever um decision is made to to be out around then and you haven't been notified yet that you're the new host of primetime sports i have absolutely not been notified and mike i i will i'm not going to lie to you and say that had i been notified but told not to tell i would lie to you of course i I would. Right. But I can say with great confidence that I have not been told. Peter D. says, do you think, this is for you,

do you think you'll develop a sound effect for the really awful callers when it's time to hang up on them? Like Storm and Norman Rumak's old hammerhead alert. Hammerhead alert. I remember hammerhead alert. He's been on the show and I made, I didn't have any audio evidence of the hammerhead alerts on the internet or on YouTube, so I asked him to say it so I could overlay it on top of sirens and create my own Hammerhead alert.

Oh, I remember that. I remember Storm of Norman like it was yesterday, and I remember the Hammerhead alert, Hammerhead alert. Well, we talked about Jim Richards earlier, but it was Richards and Rumack. Remember that? Yes. Yes, Jim Richards. And I always found it confusing because Jim Richards was at the fan. And Mike Richards was at the fan. And Mike Richards

was at the fan for a while too. Well he was definitely a part of Derringer's show. Yes. Because he would do the Victor Newman

and some of the other funny impressions. And who else? Somebody else was on that show. Who else was on? Oh Lobster Boy. I don't know.

He doesn't want to be called that anymore. I shouldn't call him that anymore. Craig Venn, who's now the morning show host at The Rock in Oshawa. Yes, okay. But he was a big Q107 guy too because he came with Derringer. But yeah, he was there too. Okay, so here we digress.

So what else do I have for you? Oh, yeah. So there's no sound effect coming to hang up on ridiculous. Oh, he gives me a good idea, though. I'll have to give some consideration. Why don't you bring back the hammerhead alert? I don't want to get sued. I'll get him to sign off on it.

I'll ask Storm and Norman for permission. He'd give it to, he'd give it. Terry Doyle says, you know the name Terry Doyle? Like, is this a name from your past? Only because this one seems inside, but you'll tell me. That's an OHL name, I think. Happy for Scott on and off the microphone. Glad he doesn't have to read out

any more on TV apologies for incidents he wasn't even on air for. Happy face. Hashtag Ottawa. Hashtag kitty. Does this mean anything to you? I thought this was like an inside thing that you'd get. That's a kitty.

So the hashtag kitty must be what he's referring to i have to be honest so maybe you apologize for something on ottawa that you had nothing to do with well i'll tell you this if if i apologize for something and i don't remember it that freaks me out because because i have like a really solid memory so if i'm starting to forget things like because if i had to apologize on behalf of someone or something, I don't, I have, I don't think I've ever apologized for anything for me, but if I actually had to do something like that and I don't remember it, that's,

that's going to worry me more because clearly my memories are eroding. Oh, you've, you've been around. Okay. So actually I'm going to play this next question for you, because this is from Brian Gerstein at propertyinthesix.com. Brian's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. Here's Brian. Hi, Scott. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might.

The first phase of Galleria Mall condos will launch just one month from now we will easily sell out so if you want a shot at getting one PSR is selling it exclusively caller text me at four one six eight seven three zero two nine two if you are considering it as an end user or investment property soon I will have the pricing and floor plans to pass on. Scott, I was at the 19-4 thrashing Monday night and had a great view behind home plate to see the offensive onslaught.

This lineup is capable of putting up lots of crooked numbers going ahead. Wondering how hands-on is Guillermo Martinez, the Jays' hitting coach, with the players, and whose swing needs the least and most work? By the way, I like the offer on the condo. It would be as an investment property, because I love where I'm living. But how east are you living? You don't have to give the street or anything, but what neighborhood? I am east of the Don Valley Parkway,

which is relatively new. I moved six or seven weeks ago. East York? East York? Well, so I'm pretty south. So would that be like Riverdale or Leslieville? Yeah, because once you're south of Danforth, I think you're not in East York anymore. Okay, so I'm not in East York because I'm south of Danforth. Okay, Riverdale, very nice.

I've been to that Riverdale perk or whatever it is, that coffee shop. Yes. Yeah, very nice. It's a fantastic neighborhood. Very nice. But are you familiar with the Galleria Mall? Where is that? Do you know the Galleria Mall?

Dufferin and DuPont. Because you were at Oakville. That's Dufferin Mall though. No. Oh, no, that's further north. That's further south. So Dufferin Mall is south of Galleria Mall.

Like Dufferin Mall, when you get at it, you go to the, I think it's close to Bloor and Dufferin. But then if you come north, you get to DuPont. And Dufferin and DuPont is Galleria Mall. And I know this so well because I spent five years

working at the grocery store at the Galleria Mall. So Brian, hook me up with a condo money. Thank you. Okay, so yeah, he had a baseball, yeah, an actual baseball question. Well, Guillermo, I know is hands-on. And I mean, in this day and age, a lot of it is video and tendencies,

showing hitters, here's what has been working for you, here is something that has changed ever so slightly through your swing path, or, you know, you're a little more upright than you used to be, and this is what you looked like when you were at your best. I mean, he works diligently with the kids.

What swing, man, I... And just while you're thinking, I'm just going to bring in my Bo music, my Bo Diddley, for Bo Bichette. I worry that Bo gets cheated on some of his swings i really don't think i really don't think he maximizes his swing he is fun to watch man and and look you know i am most intrigued to see the cat and mouse game involving bow when they start to try to pick apart whatever weaknesses they perceive through video, through data, and how quickly he will be able to adjust.

But this kid grips it and rips it. He seems to be able to hit it to all fields and for power to both gaps. So, you know, I like what he has to offer there. Teoscar Hernandez is a guy, to me, who's got to shorten the swing just a little bit. He's been better of late staying in the strike zone, which is why we're starting to see him barrel more baseballs. He was offering it too much off the plate earlier on in the year, and if they don't have to throw you a strike, they won't.

Elizabeth Hart wants to know, speaking of Teoscar Hernandez, she wants to know a very of Teoscar Hernandez, she wants to know, a very important Blue Jays question, she says, who is in charge of pouring sunflower seeds on Teoscar Hernandez when he hits a home run? That's a good question.

Does he douse himself? I don't know. Does he douse himself or is that like the one time where the seeds get saved? Hopefully, because I'm not that big a fan of the whole sunflower seed thing,

but not that I'm a hater. Just with the look? The whole practice, but of the, yeah, the sunflower seeds. Seeds are so good, too. It feels like they're wasting. Right. Good snack. They're so tasty.

Okay, Tyler R. says, it seemed that he was hired primarily for Jay's talk and to be the third person in the booth. Was he planning on doing this much fill-in work? Does he have a preference for the type of show he does? Would he prefer to stick to baseball? Any play-by-play aspirations? Tyler had a lot of questions for you.

Well, I think my priority in life is work-life balance and internal peace, which will always be a challenge for me just because of the way that the first half or so of my life has played out. But I am at heart and in my soul a sports talk radio host. Now, whether that is Blue Jays talk as a component of my work or whether people see fit to move me. I'm going to get you that primetime sports gig.

I think I see you in it now. You're my agent. There you go. And get me a good number too. No, I just, I just, I, I truly love, I'm, I say I'm almost willing to do anything. Multi-platform. I enjoy writing. I enjoy TV, but in my heart of hearts, I'm a radio talk show host

first and am willing to sort of work around that doing other things. Darrell wants to know, did you ever dream of being an announcer for WWE? Also, is it true that you do an impression of Macho Man Randy Savage? It is true that I do an impression of Macho Man Randy Savage. It is true that I do an impression of Macho Man Randy Savage. Oh, yeah, let's hear it. Well, I can do one, but the problem is, and Jim Taddy will tell you this, that if I go there,

you've got to cover for like 30 seconds so that I can get back. Because it's like all hands and all this stuff. So, yes, I did want to work for WWE, uh, back in, in the day. And I always thought, what would it be like to be the, the play-by-play voice of Monday night raw or eventually SmackDown or like whatever.

that recent, I was going back to a gorilla monsoon. he was awesome. Bobby, Bobby, better chemistry than gorilla. Those are my guys. And of course,

uh, Jesse, the body Ventura, we join him in the booth and, uh, you know, I mean, Jean on the sidelines there.

Yeah. That's my, so you do, you want a savage in person. Yeah. I love savage. It's one know, me and Gene on the sidelines there. Yeah, that's my thing. So you want a Savage impersonation. Yeah, I love Savage. He's one of my favorite guys. It's always difficult. Tat Man, Jim Taddy would always set me up on the air

and we're just like, I was like, hey, I got no warning. Maybe that's the best way to do it. But all right. So I got to sort of get into this for a second. I'm legit excited here. Are you? Yeah.

This sucks now because now it's been played up. That's the thing, right? Oh, yeah. I don't do one, obviously. I suck. Yeah, Toronto Mike, yeah, having Scotty Mac on the podcast, yeah, for a cup of coffee, cup of coffee.

It was delicious. It was a good conversation, and I'm going to have to get back. Scotty Mac is leaving. I got to get him back. 30 seconds. You take it over, Toronto Mike, because if you don't,

it might be Randy Savage the rest of the way. This is how I'll get Scotty Mac back. I will ask him a question and we'll close with this. The aforementioned Eric Grossman, who works for the Toronto Wolfpack as a media relations guy,

I guess would be his title. What's your favorite Seinfeld episode and why? So many great ones. I think one that is under-discussed is The Gum. So The Gum is where Jerry ends up wearing those crazy like thick coke bottle glasses kramer is the tour guide at the old theater jeffrey har harwood elaine has the lloyd braun and she lloyd braun thinks she's flirting with him when her button pops off and and george

reacquaints with I think a former girlfriend who notices that he might have some rage issues and wonders if he is kind of cracking a little bit and things keep happening to George that are actually legitimate but she never witnesses them and when you piece them

together they seem to be the ravings of a mad man and she's convinced that he's kind of losing it so the whole thing was written so well and put together so well. The gum. The episode's called The Gum. Do you remember the season at all? Do you have any clue which season?

Six or seven. Larry David was still there because he was gone for eight and nine, the two final seasons. So if it's not season six, it's season seven, but it's a little bit later on. That's an inspired choice because it's not the typical answer.

You know, everybody's like... The contest or... The sea was angry that day, my friends, right? Marine biologists. Right, right, right. Anything involving George's parents too, well worth it. Awesome. Love Seinfeld.

Scotty Mac, I love this conversation. That was tremendous. You did two hours. Look, you deserve the lasagna and the beer and the stickers. Well done, my friend. It was great. I'd love to come back anytime. And that brings us to the end of our 499th show.

Scott, you were so close. I feel like doing another one right away just to give you 500. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Scott is at Scotty Mac Thinks. Scott Mac, which one is it? Scotty Mac? Scotty, yeah, with a Y.

Scotty Mac Thinks. I have a typo here. Scotty Mac Thinks. Also on Instagram. Follow Scott everywhere. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery or at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all next week! Check out this command Ah, where you been Because everything is kind of rosy and green