Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scott Morrison: Toronto Mike'd #518

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

Mike chats with sports analyst and broadcaster Scott Morrison about his years at The Toronto Sun and Sportsnet.

Welcome to episode 518 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, Cappadia LLP CPAs, and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and my guest this week is sports analyst and broadcaster and writer and maybe prime minister, we'll get into that, Scott Morrison. Welcome Scott. Thank you. Great to be here. Do you know why I referred to you as Prime Minister? Australia.

That's right. Here, do I have any... It's made you very difficult to Google now. I know. Here, and I don't have the... I thought I could search for the Australian National Anthem, but I'm like, no one knows the Australian National Anthem. As far as we're concerned, this is the Australian National Anthem I'm thinking here. But men at work.

So when did Scott Morrison become Prime Minister of Australia approximately? Is this a recent thing? Yeah, a few months ago, actually. So cute little story, I suppose, is that my former boss, Scott Moore, at Sportsnet and Hockey Night Canada, when he left, Scott and I had been together for many years. He hired me originally at Sportsnet, and then we worked together at CBC, and then he brought me back to Sportsnet. And when he left, he went on a bit of travel log,

and he went to Australia. And so I had sent him a note, and I said, so just keep me posted where we're going to be working together next. And he laughed, and he said, well, I'm on my way to Australia. If you show up there, I'm going to have you deported or something. Right. way to Australia. If you show up there, I'm going to have you deported or something. Anyway, next thing you know, I see this tweet or something that Scott Morrison is the

Prime Minister of Australia. So I sent him the note and I said, you're cursed. I'm everywhere. That's the wrong place to go if you want to escape Scott Morrison. Exactly. But on that note, it sounds like a perfect fit, you working with Drake. That's how I just envision you and Drake working together. Because that's what Scott Moore is doing now, right?

He's working with Drake? Yeah, he is working with Drake and LeBron. Hey! And Uninterrupted, I think, is the name of the venture. Uninterrupted Canada. Wink if you'll be partnering with Drake, I think, this Scott Moore. I don't think that's happening anytime soon. All right.

Down Under. Most Australian song I could think of. It actually discusses a Vegemite sandwich. And I think that's as Aussie as it gets. So congratulations on becoming Prime Minister of Australia. Farewell, men. And don't confuse your men at work with your men without hats. They're different bands, okay?

Yeah. The men without hats are the safety dance Canadians and the men at work do the down under. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense there. Before we get in deep, and I have a lot of well wishes for you from people who, uh, quite like you, like you're, you're gonna be glad you came is what I'm telling you, but little housekeeping. So, um, have you ever worked, I guess you haven't worked, but have you ever, uh, crossed paths with, uh, Peter Gross or John Gallagher? Yeah, both.

So where, elaborate, like,, like tell me where you... Well, Peter was at City, well, both were at City TV at one point, sportscasters. And so I got to know them back in the day when they'd, you know, most often show up at a Leaf game or Leaf practice and that sort of thing. And then Peter, of course, moved on to 680 News, doing the sports there for many, many years. So, and, you know, John had assorted radio gigs along the way. So, gotten to know both of them over the years. Yeah, John had a memorable stint at Q107.

Exactly. And more recently, a less memorable stint at AM74040 which is the zoomer the zoomer station so i i saw john john several months ago i can't remember where we were but uh ran hadn't seen him for a while and saw him a few months ago um he so okay so peter gross is no longer at 680 news that's like happened in the summer john is uh well i guess john was doing something i think he was i don't know this for sure i think he was doing something with uh what's the guy's name uh d'angelo um oh frank yeah and uh i don't know what i always like to pretend i'm a journalist and connect these dots but uh the terrible double murder of the sherman couple uh i know I know Barry Sherman was a big supporter of Frank D'Angelo

and would finance a lot of his operations. So I feel like maybe that line has dried up for Frankie is what I think there. So what's happening is John Gallagher and Peter Gross recorded an eight-episode miniseries, like a podcast miniseries, and they did it here. And I guess I just want to let everybody know that you can now subscribe to Gallagher and Gross Save the World wherever you get your podcasts. So it's on Apple Podcasts and Google and Stitcher and Spotify and you name it, TuneIn Radio. So what I'm urging you to do is subscribe. Obviously, it's free.

Subscribe to Gallagher and Gross Save the World. Right now, there's just a 90-second promo featuring the great voice of Mae Potts, and that's kind of entertaining. But at some point, probably Wednesday morning, hint, hint, I'm going to drop the eight episodes all at once. So if you subscribe, it might be kind of neat. Like these are just going to hit you in the head and then there'll be a lot of fun. So subscribe now to Gallagher and Gross Save the World.

There you go. You too, by the way, Scott, you got to subscribe as well. I will. Okay, I'm going to check in on you. Okay, let me start with some of the hellos for Scott Morrison. So Jim Slotek, listener of the podcast, says, a big hi from me. And you probably worked with Jim at the Toronto Sun.

Absolutely, Jim. The entertainment department, big sports fan, great guy. I'm going to check in on that. I think he's a great guy too, but I had to confirm with you who actually worked with the guy because people get nicer when they're, you know, post-career, but he was always a great guy. Good people, yep.

Okay, Jim gets a thumbs up. Jody Vance says, tell him hi. So that's all the way from the West Coast. Yeah. Yeah, no, worked with Jody at Sportsnet. And she did the original morning show there and then the evening news and was paired up with Jim Van Horn.

Another good person and still got to know Jody well over the years, yes. Yeah, and she's a good person too? Mm-hmm. Absolutely. She was fun to work with. Putting a check mark next to her name, I need to know who I'm dealing with here.

I worked alongside and then was at one point her boss, quote unquote, as executive producer. So yeah, we had some great times. She'd be good working with Drake as well. I think you both should be working with Drake right now. Just saying. Now, I've never met Jodi, but I feel like we've met because we're Twitter friends.

Is that, that exists in 2019? Like you can be, yeah, Twitter, it's like being pen pals. Very friendly person. All right. If she ever makes her way

to Toronto, I'm going to kidnap her and bring her into my basement, which sounds like it's dangerous and dirty, but it's not. okay.

Jeff Merrick, Jeff Merrick says, and I want to ask you if this is if this is your nickname but he says love scomo yes am i saying it right scomo that's the uh short of the cool way of saying scott morris yeah like j-lo yeah i can't remember i don't know if it was jeff who came up with that at sportsnet but it happened only in the last few years, in the last five years. And that one has seemed to have stuck with a lot of people. ScoMo.

So I should call you ScoMo. Within the walls of Sportsnet and Hockey Night anyway, everybody was ScoMo. But Jeff's a good pal. Oh, boy, we first hooked up when he was back at 640 doing the Bill Waters show. Oh, yeah. Doing the hockey show with Bill Waters, Leafs Lunch. And then, of course, Jeff came to CBC,

and he and I were the original iDesk on Hockey Night in Canada once upon a time. Well, there's an iDesk question coming later in the show, so we'll tease it now, but I've got to hear about the iDesk. And then, of course, we've worked the last five years together with Sportsnet and HockeyNate. See, I like Merrick quite a bit as a human being, and interestingly enough, and I've told it many times, but I'll tell it again because I'm going to give you a gift

that's related here, but back when he was a young man, before he was in broadcasting, Jeff Merrick worked for a short bit at great lakes brewery so he worked at great lakes brewery and great lakes brewery if you don't know is a like a southwest toronto institution like for for making fantastic fresh craft beer for the past 30 plus years so merrick used to work there while i'm mentioning them, I'm going to give this to you now. So Scott, you're getting a six pack of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.

They're a fiercely independent brewery, like down the street from the Costco near rural York and Queensway area, but you can find them in LCBOs and some grocery stores, but you're taking that home with you. Thank you very much. What do you think of the pumpkin ale? Is that something you would try? Do you like it?

Oh, I'd try it all. I'd try it all. You're not going to be snobby about it. Open-minded when it comes to beer. Because I was just at the Wolfpack match with Dave Schultz, of all people. Oh, yeah. And I think he's decided that pumpkin ale is too hipster for him, and he's not even going to try it, just because he's just going to be that kind of guy

who thinks it's for hipsters. It's not. It's just a seasonal. Schultz has never turned down a free beer, so I'm kind of shocked by this turn of events. That's a good point. He and I go back a long way, too. Yeah, well, he's... And the Wolfpack. Do you ever go to Wolfpack matches? I've gone to a good point. He and I go back a long way too. Yeah, well, he's...

And the Wolfpack, what is... Do you ever go to Wolfpack matches? I've gone to a couple matches, actually. And very entertaining. Agreed. And I don't know if this is a coincidence. I've been to several matches myself. And every time I go, it's always usually...

Although this last match I was at was a playoff game on a Sunday. But usually it's like a Saturday at 1 p.m. or something. And for some reason, that three hour or two and a half hour period is like the sunniest, nicest. It's just the weather has been fantastic. So you're outdoors at Lamport Stadium. It's great weather. It's entertaining as all heck.

I wish they'd put a screen in there so I could see replays, you know what I mean? Because once the play happens, you're done. Like that's it. I'm like, what happened when I was, you know, I looked down at my phone for a moment and that's it. It's gone forever. But yeah, it's a great experience.

It is. A lot of fun and you're right in top of the action. And if you happen to have the tickets at either end, the beer gardens are A, you're close to beer and B, you're close to the action. And it's very entertaining. And I've got a good relationship with that group

because I do a charity golf tournament, and they're a great supporter. The last few years have been out and giving away tickets and giving away beer. Oh, it's a match made in heaven. Yes. Now, just a little update on the Wolfpack is they're in the finals, which is October 5th.

And I think that's a Saturday. I think it's a Saturday. So October 5 the finals which is october 5th and i think that's a saturday i think it's a saturday so october 5th which is like a week this saturday uh if they win that match they're in the super league which is the highest tier of rug this this version of rugby in the world so uh it's a big deal so yeah if you're gonna make your wolf pack debut i think october 5th is the day to do it. Oh, that's the game to see, absolutely. And they came close last year. They had a great run, and then sadly in that final game,

the million-dollar game. Were you at that? I was there. No, I wasn't, but I watched it. Million-pound match. I watched it, and yeah, it was a tough one for them, but I think they'll be fine this year. It's the only match I've seen where it had a score like 4-2. I've actually never seen that.

Last match was, I don't know 46 to 20 or something but four to two like they needed a single try and anyway it's heartbreaking but we can fix it all with a win on uh we got some really good people in their organization audrey bowman who does a lot of their communications and marketing is terrific and they they brought in, partway through this season, Bob Hunter. He used to work with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. I sat beside him on Sunday because Schultz knew him and they were chatting it up. Great guy. Cool. Good luck

to them. Good luck. After Merrick says, love Skilmo, I've got Kevin McGran. And by the way, all these people except for Jody, who I've never met, have been guests of Toronto Mike. I'll throw that out there. But Kevin McGran. And by the way, all these people except for Jody, who I've never met, have been guests of Toronto Mike. I'll throw that out there. But Kevin McGran says, get him to do his imitation of Chester.

That's a long story, that one. We have a little time. Who's Chester? Chester is the late Jim Proudfoot, who was a tremendous sports columnist with the Toronto Star for God knows how many years. And a legend, absolute legend in the business. So once upon a time, a bunch of us were, oddly enough, in a bar.

And it was actually a stag for eric duhatchik this was back in 1986 out in a bar in calgary and uh the place had been pretty much closed up and the owner was there and he just sort of left us to our devices and we're having beers and the music was playing and uh i did a dance ala chester and uh that became a bit of a signature move as the years went on that scene in calgary in the mid 80s if i remember correctly that was stanley cup final that was okay because working out there do hatchick was working with uh steve simmons and uh david schultz who we talked about and i'm and i the story that i won't repeat because listeners of toronto mic have heard it a half a dozen times now but uh howard burger was cutting his teeth in calgary working there too

and uh he was supposed to cover a c something he was supposed to cover some swim meet or something or other and he decided to cover the cfl game instead and simmons wrote a memo to the boss about how about this i guess and then this memo caused the howard burger to be fired from the gig and then he came back to toronto so this is the the infamous uh simmons inadvertently gets uh burger fired in calgary story so yeah you can file that one away. All right. So one more, actually a couple more. Aaron Davis, speaking of the West Coast,

that's where Aaron is now. Hi, Mike. Would you please give Scotty Morrison our love when you see him? Rob and I think of him and Mark often. So this is a love from Aaron Davis. Well, Aaron and Rob are just two tremendous people. And obviously, you know, Aaron, a great talent and a legend with the morning show at CHFI.

And they've been great friends. And Rob was a radio producer. Miles Long. Yeah. And, well, he was Bob McCallum's producer for so many years as well at the fan. And so that's where I originally got to know him. And Aaron knew my late wife, Kathy, very well from the radio business and CKFM originally and then CHFI.

And Rob and Aaron, they did the music at our wedding. Wow. Yeah. So it's been a while since I've seen them, and I wish them well, and I'm glad. That's really nice to get that message. Now, Erin did write a book,

so I know she periodically... Mourning is broken. Mourning is broken, and mourning is M-O-U-R. Yep. She had an awful loss, and something we both had and kind of share that bond.

Woo. And Jeff Domet, who's become a good friend of mine recently. Yeah, I call him DJ Schwarma. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, he is the DJ. That's right. His other gig.

But Punch the producer. Punch, okay. Because he's actually coming on. He's never been a guest. He's been over here. And he just got a new gig. Yeah, he's like a podcast producer for The Athletic now.

Yeah, absolutely. And had been with Sirius for a while, Sirius XM for a few years and part of a purge there. Inevitably, all of us are parts of purges. Oh, we'll get to that, yeah. Got to know him well because he produced,

well, in various places, but Bill Waters' show for a while and then the Hockey Night in Canada radio that we had for several years at CBC. So he's a good guy, good pal. Well, speaking of Bill Waters, he says, I want to hear Scotty tell a couple of stories about our friend Bill Waters.

Do you have a couple of Waters stories you could throw at us here to make Jeff happy? Punch once, Bill Waters stories? Oh, Lord. Wilbur's one of the, well, Wilbur is his nickname, and he and Bonesy, Joe Bowen, were on the air for many years together and doing the Leaf radio broadcasts,

and oh, my God, the laughs we had along the way. But Willie's just a great guy, and I remember they're two of the loudest people I've ever encountered. I remember Frank Gore nicknamed Joe Percy Dovetonsils at one point, and then the late Rick Fraser came up with the other nickname for the two of them, that they're the arch enemy of silence. But I remember they would room together on the road when they were doing the radio broadcast.

And one afternoon, we'd finished the morning skate. I came back and I'd written an early story and then i was putting my head down on the pillow of a little bit of an afternoon nap before the game that night and all i can hear is the two of them and going at it and laughing their butts off and just then and i thought they're in the next room so i bang on the you know we have those doors between the room. I bang on the doors and say, well, you guys shut up. Well, there's no reply, but all I can hear is the racket again. And finally I get on the blower and I call, get the,

back then you didn't have the cell phones and all that, but get on the blower. Well, they're at the other end of the hallway in the hotel, and it was coming through through the vent system but uh good people and uh you know willie was a terrific player agent back in the day and one of the most prominent in the business and uh and then became an excellent broadcaster and uh and i hired uh bill um at sportsnet once once he had moved on from Assorted Ventures. So, and one of the great storytellers of our time.

What's he up to these days? Bill, he's retired. He still does, he has been doing stints with Sirius, and he would have been on Punch's shows, I'm sure. And does some Leaf post-game hits with Jim Taddy on... Yes Guy. Yes Guy, No Guy on TSN radio. But he winters in Florida, and summers are back in Orillia,

which is his original home. So I'm actually going up to see Billy in a week. Tell Billy if he ever has a 90 Minutes to Kill in Toronto, he should come over and tell stories on Toronto Mike. Oh, he'd be very entertaining, yeah. Just got to get him down to the city. That's the key. That's right.

That's right. By the way, I'm told by Mark Hebbshire that every time I say yes guy, I have to cut a check to Jim Taddy. Well, and I heard Jim recently on the radio saying that he does have the exclusive rights to the phrase and that he will be coming around and charging everybody. He's going to send me an invoice for sure. And I'm going to owe him a lot.

I think I've said it many, many times. Yes. Another great guy. And Jimmy did a lot of shows shows had a regular stint with him uh weekly stint at global which is uh where he and hebsey did the sportsline show and uh real good person great broadcaster and of course it did a lot of midweek leaf games over the years with global right right did intermission features and post-game appearances and uh jim was the the host it's funny how it all kind of such a small

world is canadian media especially canadian sports media it's so smaller like so we've uh we talked about miles long or rob uh rob whitehead this is yeah uh aaron's aaron Davis' husband, who was producing primetime sports with Bob McCallum. Is that right? Well, he did primetime. And then Bob had a stint where he did the morning show for a year or so. I can't remember how long. And I was a pretty steady co-host on that show. And Rob was producing as well well we've been talking about bill

waters who had of course there's a i don't know some infamous story of some falling out there with bob mccowan at some point if i remember correctly like they were they were i guess when bob left to do 640 or something there's something there were well bill i meant i mean left for 640 and you know all of a sudden they're in competition so i'm sure that didn't sit well with Bob at the time. They were a tremendous team together on primetime sports. They had some great hosts on that show over the years. And you think of Bill being there, the late Jim Shakey Hunt. So it was, and Howard Berger, you mentioned earlier,

was the original producer of primetime sports. Yes, yes, indeed. And this is where it all gets intertwined also, Howard Berger, he mentioned earlier, was the original producer. Yes. Of Primetime Sports. Yes, indeed. And this is where it all gets intertwined also is because we, I just brought up Hebsey because we brought up Jim Taddy, and I said, yes, guy. And Jim, sorry, Mark Hebsey replaced, apparently replaced Bob McCown a couple of times.

Once, like on some Blue Jays call in a show, I think, that was on 1430. This is way back when, but far more famously, I suppose, on Sportsline. Well, Bob was the original host and a solo act. And then they, yeah, and then they, yes, right. He moved on and then Ebsey and the Jimmer came in. Are you friendly with Bob McCowan? Do we know what's up with Bob?

I don't know what he's up to. We kind of, we were very friendly for a while, and then we kind of drifted apart. Well, let me heal those wounds there with some gifts. Okay, so you got your beer. You're a meat lasagna man, as I recall, right? True. So that is a frozen large meat lasagna

from Palma's Kitchen at Palma Pasta. I promise you, you're going to rave. It's the best Italian food you can buy, if you will. And they're a family-run organization. Yes, that's going to feed you for a while, actually. There's a lot of food there. My son's a big eater, so we'll see you for a while, actually. There's a lot of... My son's a big eater, so we'll see how long a while is. A while can come quick.

How old is your son? 20. Okay, because I've got a big-eating 17-year-old son, and it still gets into the second day, but that's yours. I want to say to listeners that if you want to cater your event with palmas palma pasta i've done this uh and not not a freebie either i paid for this but uh you go to palmapasta.com you can learn about their catering it's even if you're having like i don't know there's a pta meeting or uh or a wedding whatever they're fantastic at catering events

but of course you can visit their four locations in mississauga and oakville go to palmapasta.com to find out the exact address uh skip the dishes too has palmapasta so if you use skip the dishes but thank you palmapasta there's stickers here for you these are courtesy of stickeru.com so there's a toronto mic sticker scott i know that's what you've been waiting for you stick that on the uh on the car or anywhere you like uh who told me that oh alan cross told me he's going to stick it on his he's got a garbage can in his studio to be honest i'm honored if he sticks toronto mic sticker on the garbage can that's okay with me but i won't do i got a filing cabinet at home that has stickers on it so i'll put it in my office so i'll put put it there. Tweet me a pic or email me a pic when you do that.

And there's a temporary tattoo. So custom stickers, if you have an image, your logo, anything actually, that's the wonderful thing is, you know, the possibilities are endless. But if you go to stickeryou.com, that's stickeryou.com, and you upload your image, you can create as many as you like. Like you could get, I need 20 stickers, or I need 2,000 stickers, or I need magnets, or buttons, or decals, or like I use these decals on the back wall here.

But the possibilities really are endless. There's even a temporary tattoo. So thank you, StickerU. They have a contest they're holding right now. So if a listener has taken a photo of this city of Toronto, and they deem it an iconic photo of the city, and they tweet it at sticker you and at Toronto Mike, and they use the hashtag, this is key, because this is how I'm finding them. Sticker you to use that hashtag so I can find all these entrants. Somebody's going to win $100

gift card for sticker you to use at their Queen Street location near Bathurst there. And somebody, I think StickerU will also take that image and produce stickers and stuff for you free of charge. So do that. I think that's real cool. Just tweet your photo of Toronto and include the hashtag StickerUTO. And also here, this is pretty cool, Scott. I got two tickets for you. I'm going to email you the PDFs of these tickets. It's called

Pumpkins After Dark. And it's 5,000 hand-crafted, hand-carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies of Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ontario. It's on now, and it runs to November 3rd.

And if you go to pumpkinsafterdark.com and you use the promo code pumpkinmike, you can save 10% on your tickets. And I think that's pretty cool. All right, Scott. So you came here. You got all your stuff here. You got the food, the drink, the stickers,

the Pumpkins After Dark tickets. Tell me how you end up at the Toronto Sun. Like, take me back. Like, how does that work? So when I was growing up for, as a kid, I couldn't, back in those days, you had the morning paper and you had an afternoon paper, the telegram. And I couldn't wait for the newspaper to drop on the door in the afternoon when I get home from school and read the you know predominantly the sports section sure and and I knew from a very early age that journalism is what was the vocation that I wanted to pursue

that I wanted to be a writer and uh love to read and love to write and uh at an early age I remember at school as a project to put together a student newspaper type of thing I went off and uh and then when I was uh going through uh through high school and whatnot again knew that that's what I wanted to do at some point. So I'd be writing, I'd write letters to the editor of the papers all the time just to see if I could get something published and then to see how it was edited and how much of the original survived the cut and that sort of thing.

And a buddy of mine, and I'd played for the late John Gardner, just recently passed away who was the president of the GTHL Greater Toronto Hockey League and and I went to John with a an idea of what if we created a paper a monthly paper for minor hockey in Toronto and he thought it was a great idea and John was a great businessman and he went out and sold the ads and got the ads for it to support the cause and a buddy and I basically put the paper together and so that was another platform to kind of launch the career and while all of this was going on and I was sort of probably in grade 12 13 that sort of thing or in starting uh college um i would go around to the major minor hockey tournaments and uh the landscape and newspapers back then was much different

in terms of what was the content of papers and uh so i would there'd be a big tournament on the weekend and i'd say i'd phone up the paper and would either the Globe or quite often the Sun and say, I'm going to this tournament. Do you want me to file a story for you? And free of cost, free of charge rather, but just to get, get something in the paper so you could get a portfolio together. And, and more often than not, they said, absolutely. And then eventually i said well can you put a byline on it is that possible and uh and they started doing that and then uh john had developed something with the originally it was with the the globe and mail

they had a monday morning pullout section it was a tabloid size within the broadsheet paper and uh and they had a minor hockey page in there so i wrote for that for a while to provided the content for john for that page and then it that moved to the star but i was doing more and more work with the sun and so uh i was going to centennial college taking the journalism program there but i was essentially working uh full-time part-time uh at the sun they just kept calling they started calling me and say can you do this can you do that like do you remember who specifically would call you uh george gross was the sports editor yeah and uh so they saw a lot of the work and dave fuller who was uh a reporter there at the time was a a big supporter

and he was pushing george saying hey well why don't we get him to do this and get him to do that and as i say next thing you know i was working they only were six days a week at that point and i was virtually working six days a week while i was going to school but pumping out stories covering junior hockey and high schools and colleges and uh minor hockey and whatever else came up. It's pretty. And then once I graduated school, they said, George said to me, I want you to finish, get your diploma, finish your school.

And once you're finished, we'll put you on staff. Do you do a George Gross imitation by any chance? Kido. Schultz does a good one. I've heard a few. Everybody was Kido. Peter Gross told me a little story that is actually in one of the episodes of Gallagher and Gross Save the World

about how he was often he said he was often mistaken for George Gross they just shared the last name by name only not by size George was considerably taller than Peter I think everybody is considerably taller than Peter he had the Czech accent he was known as the Baron because he was quite distinguished.

But so many, I've had a number, I mean, we're going to run down the list and find out if they're great people too, but a number of Sunriders have been on Toronto Mic, and yeah, they all have that George Gross connection. It's like the link. Well, George started a lot of careers yeah he was uh an interesting individual but uh he did and he wasn't the greatest writer going but he distinguished himself on the on the leaf beat um working for the telly and then

you know once the uh the son was born he was one of the originals and the sports editor but the one thing he did do very very well is he had a knack for identifying young talent talented young writers and uh he launched a lot of careers great careers so you it's uh you start at the toronto sun as like a full-time person in 79? Is that right? Well, 79 I started. That was sort of the full-time, part-time. And then a year later, I started, quote-unquote, full-time.

Is it okay if we spend a tiny bit of time right now chatting about some of the characters you worked? Is that breaking news over there? No, not so much. You're in the breaking news business. You're taking a break from the breaking news, but we'll get to that.

Okay. So, like one character I'd like to ask you about is, I already mentioned his name earlier when we talked about Calgary, but Steve Simmons.

So Steve Simmons seems to, I think of all the current Sun writers, sports writers, I'd say he's the most, biggest name recognition, I guess, right now. Tell me what you can about working with Steve Simmons for so many years.

Well, excuse me, I've known Steve for many, many years. We were both young cub reporters doing freelance in Toronto, and then he moved out west and got the gig there and so we you know covered a lot of events together and then I can't remember the year but Wayne Parrish was sports editor at the Sun at the time hired Steve and brought him in and originally did was a features writer, and I think originally part of the gig at that time too was to be our NFL columnist, and then he eventually morphed into a general columnist, and I became sports editor, so Steve worked with me and for me for years. So we've known each other for a long time,

and he started that dot, dot, dot Sunday notes column. That's become his signature and, uh, wildly successful and wildly popular. So, uh, so he's had a great run at it. So we've, uh, you know, we go back a long way. And I get the sense from Steve that, uh, you know, love him or hate him, but just, just read them. You know what I mean? Like just. Absolutely. And he's got, uh, skin like an elephant, you know, i mean like just absolutely and he's got uh skin like an elephant you know he's well he needs it and that's yeah totally and that's really uh the

philosophy he's had over the years is that uh he's not afraid to poke the bear and uh say what he thinks and uh suffer the consequences if if you're mad at him he's no big deal at least you read it and i elicited a response i was going to say the uh the opposite of uh love is it's not hate it's indifferent it's indifference right you you don't want indifference you know there's never indifference you have an opinion once you read steve you have an opinion either love it or you hate it and or hate him and uh but he does make you think and that's uh that's a gift what can you tell me about uh working with bob elliott oh bob's a great guy um i'll tell you what i mean he owned the baseball beat in toronto over those years i mean every major story bob broke it and you know he just lived and breathed

the game still does even in retirement and uh but every major story he had it and uh the number of you know i covered some baseball uh back in the day because you know the hockey season wasn't as long and your summers. You know, you did other things. And that was really rewarding to be able to do that. And so he spent, I knew Bob from originally when he, because he was at the Ottawa Citizen. And he covered the 67s and Brian Kilroy in junior hockey. And I did a lot of junior hockey when I was younger.

And, again, he owned that beat. You know, every story that came out in junior hockey, Bob had, and then he covered a lot of expos because of the proximity with Ottawa, and then Wayne Parrish, again, hired him to bring him to Toronto, so we worked alongside, and again, I was his sports editor for a number of years, and just amazing the contacts he had, the scouts that would, that he would see at games and knowing you think, how do you know all these people?

And every general manager knew him by name. And you'd be down on the field before a game players knew him on the visiting teams. And, you know, for a guy, especially before he got to Toronto working for a,, you know, you'd call it a smaller paper because, you know, Ottawa's not Montreal. You're not the home team per se. To be as well-known as he was and as connected as he was was absolutely amazing.

And the stories, as they say, that he was able to break. And never mind just the breaking news that was one really great aspect of it but if something happened bob had the ability to phone up people to make to get the explanation for anything that happened to make you, the reader, understand what was behind that move. Why was that manager fired? Why was this trade made? He would get that story and just an incredible talent. Now, you mentioned Jim Shakey Hunt. Tell me about Jim Shakey Hunt,

especially for some younger listeners who might not remember reading Hunt or hearing him on Primetime Sports. Yeah, well, Jim was a newspaper reporter originally and then got into the radio with CKEY, which was the original 590 signal in Toronto back in the 60s and 70s and God knows how far back beyond that. I think until the early 90s, I think,

because the fan was on 1430 until like 93, I want to say, maybe. So anyway, so Shakey, he left the newspaper. He was a very, very gifted reporter. I think it was with the Star originally, and then got into the radio and became sports director at CKY. And he was just a, he was a character and you don't hear that phrase describing a lot of media

people anymore, but Jim was a character and loved to laugh and tell stories. And he just took gregarious soul and uh became very very popular on the radio and then he was writing a weekly column a sunday column for the sun and then uh eventually we brought him on full time and so he'd do four or five a week and uh and uh again he was a guy who was never short of an opinion and uh was wildly entertaining but we used to joke that uh there is a that jim didn't take a lot of time and you know back when he was younger you used a typewriter right yeah sure the fire

audience knows what a typewriter is. And then obviously the computers came along in the various forms back in the day. And geez, you'd travel with a computer that weighed 50 pounds, for God's sakes, and have to plug a phone into it because they had phones back then, dial phones. But Jim didn't take a lot of time. He'd bang it out, but he didn't take a lot of time. He'd bang it out,

but he didn't take a lot of time looking at it to correct the typos and everything else. That was left for the, that's why you have copy editors. Do they even have them anymore? I think back then, of course, there were copy editors, but I just read the Rosie DiManno piece

where she kind of was lamenting the lack of, the loss of the copy editor. Yeah, I think they just do spell checks now. They don't do copy editing. Right. Because copy editors saved your butt. They got the fact, they corrected mistakes and typos

and fact checking and legal issues, all of that. So anyway, there was a joke one night that we had a character who was working on the night desk copy editing and laying out the pages and jim was out covering a game and he filed his column on deadline and this guy on his screen it pops up and he says oh he said well shaky's either fire fire off his column or somebody just sat on a keyboard it was just riddled with right with typos and everything else but uh but he was another

guy that uh you know similar to steve that wasn't afraid to uh uh suffer the consequences he elicited an opinion you either liked what he said or you thought he was a goofball. Here's five names. I'm asking about these five guys because you worked with them at the Sun and they've all been down here in the basement here on Toronto Mike. So let's start.

Steve, you can be briefer if you like because I know otherwise we'll never get you to Sportsnet. But Steve Buffery. Yeah, the beezer. Steve, yeah, I mean, Steve was amongst the very, very best journalists in terms of covering amateur sports. He had a huge passion for it and did a great job covering the Olympics

and whatnot. So very, and still working, still doing a great job. Yeah, he's still working. He's doing some TFC coverage. Yeah, TFC does some horse racing. He's mayor of Etobicoke. Yeah. So you're prime minister of Etobicoke.

Well, I was at his induction into the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame. Right. He's a big deal. He's kind of a big deal. That's right. And a character. A bloody big deal. Great sense of humor.

Who else do I pick on next how about uh terry koshan terry uh geez i might have hired terry trying to think of the timelines here but uh real good reporter uh good person and uh he uh again he was one of those guys that came in and had a knack for uh for knowing, knowing a good storyline, and breaking some stories. So, and did a lot of our junior hockey originally, and then moved on, obviously, to the Leaf beat. Lance Hornby, whose book, by the way, just arrived. It's called If These Walls Could Talk, but it's the Maple Leaf edition,

which means no color photo of a leaf hoisting the Stanley Cup like you get on all the other if these walls could talk but uh yeah talk to me about Lance well Lance and I go back a long way he was a year behind me at uh in school at Centennial College but he got him involved uh on my heels of you know covering high school sports and some college stuff while he was in school and i'd graduated moved to you know full-time to the sun and so uh and then he had the similar path that he got hired and then uh uh you know made a climb and has been covering the leafs forever and uh you know he worked for me again as a sports when i was sports editor and And he's one of those guys that's just a really, he's a solid person, but a really solid reporter who just doesn't miss a thing

and just grinds it out like you can't believe. And he's like that, he's just that guy you know you can rely on every day that he's going to get it done and it's going to be done really well. What about Rob Longley? Yeah. Rob, uh, uh,

known forever. And Rob's done a great job. He covered NFL for us and, uh, now doing a lot of the baseball stuff with, uh, Bob having moved on. He's doing a great job.

He's doing a tremendous job. And, and what I've noticed over the last year or so is that, uh, again, he's really established himself. And it takes time to do this. Anybody can walk in and cover a game.

But to develop contacts and to be able to break stories and get the inside stories, it takes time to develop that trust and to get to know those people and to have them get to know you and i think uh he's become the the voice of baseball uh in the toronto papers uh over the last year or two he's done a great job and it's nice to have a uh like and i'm speaking optically so an optically objective uh guy writing for the and this is g Gregor's great too. There's others as well. But it is nice to have an independent voice.

There's no ownership stake as far as I know. Not that there is a bias at play, but that there's a perception. I think there's a perception that some people, more so I think within the media than within the public have. But I really think it's an unfair knock on you know I've been this whole Auston Matthews story came out and I've been away for a few days so I wasn't really close to what was being said or written around here I was out of town but um but I saw stuff on Twitter from some people and some of them former media people and saying, where were the TSN and the Sportsnet people

when this Austin Matthews story happened back in, was it July or May? I want to say May. May. Yeah, late May. Okay. And why didn't any of them report on this? And I'm thinking, well, nobody else had it either. Where were the newspapers?

Where were the radio stations where were the so but it's like well they laid off it because they own the team and that's just an unfair rap and the people that you know what both networks uh boy oh boy you look at some of the talent there and you hear some of the commentary on air and they're not laying off anything and i just think that's a just a pardon the expression piss poor perception and and a piss poor not so unfair because totally the suggestion that they sat on the story which uh it's it's they didn't have the story nobody had the story leafs management didn't have the story dupe has heard about it on twitter yeah no i didn't it really annoyed me from afar i just

and knowing the people who cover the blue jays who cover the leafs right at both places or you know obviously with the jays it's just a rogers thing but that's just uh really unfair to some very talented people who i don't think sit there and say, wow, can I say this today? No. No, I'm not. And I never was censored once. So you, and I mean, we talked about this quite a bit.

I had Scott Moore on a couple of times. And no, there's no, I always wondered, this is what I wondered, and this is just me as a listener or whatever, as a reader. If there's a, if it's a, nothing's, I don't believe anything, of course, nothing's been put into a memo or put in writing or vocally said, hey, take it easy on Shapiro, for example, or, you know, lay off on this concussion thing or whatever. But I always wonder if there is this

idea to, like a self-censorship going on by some journalists possibly because they don't want to end up on the other side of the employment uh line does that make sense at all like so that i don't i always wondered if if somebody might lay off a certain story just to not ruffle any feathers uh because there's so few media jobs and i this is just yeah perception stuff i mean you can't speak for everybody, but there may be some that have that feeling in the back of their minds and I'm going to steer this way, but there's many who don't. Right, right.

And in defense of these people real quick, I've seen some, you know, Jeff Blair, for example, or Scott MacArthur, like have come out, you know, with negative things about current Jays management and the current Jays direction and stuff very recently. And why would they be doing that if they were giving favorable coverage to the team owned by their employers?

So I think there's a lot of evidence that they are being objective. No, I agree. Totally. Last name, he's not at the Sun anymore, but he was there for a long time. And he's at NHL.com now. Ze's not at the sun anymore, but, uh, he was there for a long time and he's at NHL, uh, dot com now. Zeisberger.

Zeisberger, right? The big Z. Yeah, no, I've known Mike since he was a kid and, uh, and,

uh, he's come a long way and, uh, did some great NFL coverage for us back when I was sports editor. And obviously he could, we, I put him on the hockey beat and, uh, he, uh, it was, he is another one of those guys that just reliable,

that you know he's going to give you a good job every day. There's no letdowns and he's thorough and doesn't miss anything. So real, and it was a great hire by the NHL.com. One more question about the signing. This is something that's come up with regards to the sports. I'm only speaking about the nhl.com uh one more question about the sun and this is something that's come up with regards to the sports i'm only speaking about the sports department should the sun sports department be

a little more diverse like it i've noticed um i mean it's impossible not to notice but that it's uh white men that uh write about sports for the toronto sun does that matter like should a paper that represents canada's most diverse, one of the most diverse cities in the world, should they have an obligation to be more diverse with the perspectives on sports they have employed? A tough one for you. Yeah.

Not my call, but I think now the situation that they're in, because nobody's hiring in that business, that they have a staff and that staff gets smaller by the year. And so you write out what you have. And I'm sure if there was the ability to add to the department, that there would be an eye to diversity to get different voices. Years ago, we had females on our staff bar

mahar mary ormsby who still writes for the star right uh and uh and we had norm da costa was a copy editor and a writer for us and brought a different voice and so we tried to have that diversity and, you know, first and foremost, you want the best people. Right. And you don't hire because of, you know, I want to have this person because they do that. You just want to have the best people. But you keep an open mind and make sure that it doesn't become an old boys club. You want to have that different voice.

You want to have that diversity of thinking and cultural backgrounds and all the rest. So, yeah, you want the best, but you want to keep that open mind to make sure you have a cross-section of personalities and backgrounds and thought processes. But again, it's been a while since a new hire. But nobody's hiring now. So there, you got what you got. Is Ryan Wohlstadt, I'm trying to think, who was the last like Toronto Sun Sports. And did you overlap with Ryan?

He came after your. I think he came after me, yeah. He does a good job on the Raptors beat. He does. And the Sun is, you know, I know that the post-media chain is having its challenges, as they all are financially and whatnot. But I applaud the Sun because they still go everywhere and cover everything and still have a large sports section every day.

It's, for me, I mean, there's good people like Kevin McGranz and at the star and others there and uh uh boy not many left at the globe now but uh right the the sun really works hard at it still and uh you know we were we really prided herself at wanting to be and i think we were uh the best sports section in the city back in the nineties. And, uh, you know, one of the proudest moments for, for me and our department was, uh, trying to think of the year now, maybe it was 1999. Uh, but the associated press sports editors association would have, and they still do competitions every year based on,

and you were in categories based on your circulation levels of uh judging the best sports sections in north america and you would submit ones that you wanted and then there would be you just had to submit they'd say here are the dates and you put them in randomly and uh we were voted the top in the top 10 sports sections in North America. And that's the one and only time at the highest circulation level that a Canadian paper has been in that category. So that was pretty cool. And I went to Chicago for the awards and you get called up on the stage and there's the New York times, the Washington post, the LA times,

the Boston globe. And Oh, there's the Toronto Sun standing there. It was a pretty big moment. And the next year we had the, we won Honorable Mention, which was just as, almost as great an honor. So it was, it's been a great pride in that organization that continues to today that they put a lot of resources in wanting to be the best sports section. Now you were there 22 years at the Toronto sun.

So the obvious question is why did you, why did you leave the Toronto sun? Well, I, while I was there, I, you know, I was covering the Leafs and then as a hockey columnist and I was the first,

I think Al Strachan at the Globe and myself and then Al came and worked for I hired Al uh oh you're the one to blame yes I only on Twitter he's a little bit of a a little little bit of a nutter he's edgy that's right he has an opinion he's one of those characters we like right right? But we were respectfully the first two hockey, full-time hockey columnists as opposed to general columnist and then went on SportsCenter. So while he was doing all that, I was still, I was doing a lot of TV on the side, intermission features for the uh for the leaf uh weekly broad weeknight broadcasts and uh

i did a feature mark askin who was a producer at the time with uh molestar that produced the games stopped the press where it was kind of a notebook kind of section that we would do once a week in the weekly thing so i was doing a lot of tv i did a lot of tsn shows and that's hockey and would have a weekly panel and that sort of thing john john wells had a weekly show on sunday mornings and uh did all that yes tsn day one or i think yes he was yeah great man great broadcaster anyway so i was doing a lot of tv and uh when the leaf rights switched from i want to say it was global at the time and tsn had some of it then when sportsnet started they had the leaf regional rights and so i was sort of transferred over with the show and uh so at that point tsn

it said to me said well we can't really have you on our shows and you're appearing on there. And I said, I get that. So we sort of had that break at that point. And, uh, so he was doing more and more things with, uh, Sportsnet on the side. And in 2001, uh, Scott Moore came to me and he was the VP of production at the time. he was the vice VP of production at the time. And he said, uh, you know, we got these hockey rights, we're doing more hockey shows. You're obviously a part of them. He says, I really want to build a hockey department here and have a good journalism because Scott had a journalism background as well. Right. And he said, uh, you know, I want us to make a mark as being, you know, breaking stories and telling stories and et cetera, et cetera. He said, as being breaking stories and telling stories and et cetera, et cetera.

He said, so would you come over full time and sort of be the managing editor of Hockey, but still do appear on air? And it made me a great offer. And as hard as it was leaving the Sun after so many years, things had changed a little bit there they had a publisher who was more who had was sports minded thought he knew all sports and was very hands-on and getting in the way and there were some frustrations at that point so when scott came with the offer it was easier to make the make the jump and uh and i'm glad i did we was a

fabulous uh change you were essentially you were just too handsome to be in print you needed a television face for radio okay so 2001 uh your first stint we'll call it your first tour of duty uh at sportsnet uh begins and now we're going to talk about Sportsnet, but I'm just going to let everyone know because Rupesh Kapadia from Kapadia LLP CPAs, he's collecting questions from Toronto Mike listeners, questions you'd want an accountant to answer. He's the rock star accountant who sees beyond the numbers and he's collecting these questions

and he's going to record answers to each of the questions. So if you have a question from Rupesh, you can email it to me, mike at torontomike.com. You can DM it to me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. You can send carrier pigeons

to the TMDS studios, smoke signals, whatnot. So here's Rupesh Kapadia telling you about this. so here he is now hey hey hey toronto mic listeners this is rupesh from kapadia lp cpas the rock star accountant who sees beyond numbers and this time i want to get you in the conversation i've been saying things on the topics that may or may not affect you or your situation. So this time around, I want you, the listeners, to ask a question and the best question will feature on

the next podcast with my best answer. Looking forward to hearing from you. Till then, keep rocking. Thank you. And thank you to all the listeners who have submitted questions so far. And the more the merrier. So please, please keep them coming. Okay, Scott, we got you at Sportsnet now. Tell me about, yeah, tell me what you can about working at Sportsnet when you got there in 2001. Well, obviously it was a new network, so it was only a couple of years old at that point.

So it was a lot of growing pains. But a lot of people that and scott was a was one of the guys always had the goal that we want to be the best you want to be the best you can be and then we want to be the best overall and um the competition then between so i came from that background with the the newspaper being at the Sun where the competition between the Sun, the Globe, and the Star was really intense back then to break stories and to be the best section. And then, so when we, a lot of that intensity started to develop at the network between Sportsnet and TSN, and in a friendly way.

I mean, we knew the guys on the other side because weren't you literally a lot of them were friends you know weren't you sharing the same cafeteria and uh parking lot like uh yeah they were on one side and we were on the other and there was a bridge in between and uh but the the competition was really intense and you, we had guys like Kiprios and Drager were with us and, and they wanted to be the best. And so it was breaking stories and it was like, you know, to be the one that was getting the stories. And one of our proudest moments is, so we're building this sports department, we're developing shows and, you know, doing our pre-games and intermissions. And then it was really during that time when the trade deadline became the most intense day of the year in sports broadcasting. Because it was such a competition between the two networks. And, you know, obviously what first started is the score, Steve Koulias.

is um the score steve coolius and one year came up with the idea that why don't we do a trade deadline show because i was doing some stuff with the score you know again on the side back then and so he came up with the idea or somebody one of the producers who came up the idea of doing this so at three o'clock when the deadline came we went up on the air and it was i think myself gourd stellick and steve and uh we sort of analyzed and discussed all the moves that were made what wasn't about breaking news and then out of that tsn started to do um i don't think it was a full show but they would do hourly updates where you know bob, Bob and Gord Miller and some of the guys would pop up and either break stories or be analyzing on an hourly basis throughout the day. And then all of a sudden, once the two networks were there

and Sportsnet was fully born, the concept of going wall-to-wall started. And it originally was a noon-hour show, and then everybody started pushing back and eventually it was like eight in the morning became the right the new benchmark for starting but there was a great competition throughout the season but especially on that day to be the network that broke the most stories and both networks would put out press releases at the end of the day saying we broke this many stories.

Oh, my God, it was just crazy at the time. But one of the great benchmarks that we had, one of the turning points for the Sportsnet network, is that I can't remember the year, but you're going toe-to-toe, and on those days, like on any other day, if you have a game, you're going to win the ratings war because you've got the game. The game's always the thing. Right. But on those days, people vote as we put it, they vote with their thumbs on their clickers because they're either going to go to this channel or that channel.

And one of the years, uh, we beat them handily in the ratings. And that was a real stepping stone for the network in terms of turning the corner and getting to the next level. So that was, but the competition was crazy back then. It was just, oh my God. Yeah, but competitions, it's good. It's a wonderful thing. And we used to joke, you know,

and some of my former print buddies would say, what are you guys doing all these hours of TV? And they'd go, but you guys are watching it. And daytime TV is a dead zone in terms of ratings, except for that day when both networks were getting numbers that were 20 times what they would normally get. So people are paying attention, people are watching, and even if nothing happens, people watch in case something happens.

They want to know how things are going to affect their teams. So anyway, those days were... Also, you don't know nothing happened until nothing happens, right? Exactly. It's anticipation. You're waiting and wondering. And both networks doing an amazing job to this day of filling that time and making it entertaining. I know they brought a monkey into the TSN show at some point. Yeah, they've gotten a lot more lighthearted

about some of the time filling. And after I left Sportsnet, the whole network went in a different direction and they had a really unusual deadline show the first year that I was gone when I went over to Hockey Night. And that was their Deal or No Deal. Remember that show that was on TV at the time?

It was like a suitcase or something. Yeah, they had the Deal or No Deal girls. girls and so they kind of it got a little crazy well yeah they had lots of time to fill now it's 06 so your first stint at sports net ends for you in 2006 and are you uh are you what do you say fired i don't know what the word would be but are you did like what happened yeah i guess fired would be the word it's such a mean word but it's it is what it is send out the door of the check in my hand but uh what was going on at the time was um uh doug b forth was the president of the network and uh you know known known doug for years and um scott moore had left and uh for whatever reason, I think it might have come from the Rogers empire, but Doug was really pushing that the network had to become hipper and edgier and appeal to the younger audience. every department so that meaning the hockey department the news department and then all the rest promotions marketing etc are all challenged to come up with ways to make the network hipper

and edgier and whatever you want to call it younger and um so there was a tons of meetings there was a power struggle at a level above me uh amongst vps and uh when the dust settled uh an individual was sort of put in charge of all of that and uh he and i did not we were not on the same page thinking wise and what we wanted the network to be. And so they said, we think it's best that you part ways. And ultimately, as hard as it was leaving, it was the right decision because it would have been a miserable time for me to have stayed there

and have to endure what this guy had as a vision, which failed miserably as it turned out but uh so it was it was better to move on so it was an interesting year for me because then um all of that happened about a month after it was announced that i'd won the elmer fergus award from the hockey hall of fame and so it's like one day you're a hall of famer next day you're unemployed right congrats on that right that was that was 06, Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, that's from the Hockey Hall of Fame, so like you said amazing. Now, just going to run down some things, so, and I want to

hear what you did. So you wanted a Bill Waters story. Yeah, of course. So the day I was let go, myself and Jeff McDonald, who's uh program director now at tsn radio and uh so we both got a phone call the night before from an hr lady saying can you come to the the delta hotel at kennedy and 401 which was next to the studios and uh 9 30 tomorrow morning and said okay but there have been so many meetings at that hotel for this whole revamping of the network my first thought was oh no another meeting so okay show up and then i thought why would she be calling and not doug's assistant and oh this ain't gonna end well well at least you know before you walk in the room.

And then Jeff and I phoned, he phoned me and he said, did you get a phone call? I said, ah, yeah. So we knew when you walked in the door, what was happening. So that day I used to organize a, we'd have a golf outing for all the hockey media in Toronto. And we'd go play this course and go back. Joe Bowen had a big backyard and we'd have a barbecue and whatnot.

So that was the morning of the tournament. So I phoned and I said, can't make it. I'll hook up with you guys later. And I think here's what's happening. And oh, okay. So then once the the dirty deed was done i got on the phone and uh i think called up to might have been drager or my late wife was there at the time it must have been her and i said well it's done it's official

and i guess somebody told bill waters at the time what would happen, and he said all you could hear over the golf course was Wilbur screaming, are they that effing stupid? So Wilbur across all of Markham at that point, screaming about how mad he was. Okay, so they have the short-sightedness to fire you in 06, but they are wise enough to rehire you in 2011. But tell us what you were up to in that five-year period. Well, so it was a Monday that I was let go,

and then I want to say it was Tuesday afternoon. I was going golfing, and the phone rang, and it was Joel Darling from CBC, Hockey Night in Canada. He was the executive producer at the time. He said, can we get together for lunch? I think I've got something you would be interested in. And so we did get together. Nancy Lee was the head of CBC Sports at the time.

Anyway, I met with Joel, a fellow who was uh running their uh digital internet at the time and uh so joel's proposal was we want to bring you over full-time to hockey night and cbc and you'd write for the website write hockey for the website and uh and uh do the hot stove appearances and features uh for, for the Saturday night show. And so how do you say no to that? And it was a good day after you let go. And that's always nice to get those calls. You get that opportunity. And so, and so I jumped at it.

And I had done hockey night previously. John Shannon had, was really the inventor of the modern hot stove. And I was part of that for many, many years. And then, so anyway, I took the CBC offer and I was there for that five or six years. So, okay, well then why did you, why did you go back to Sportsnet in 2011?

You get an offer you couldn't refuse? What happened there? Pretty much, yeah. I mean, Scott Moore and Scott Woodgate, back to sports net in 2011 you get an offer you couldn't refuse what happened there pretty much yeah i mean scott moore and scott woodgate who was the vp of news and information at the time and scott and i had worked together previously at sports net and all the scotts yeah lots of scotts yeah and um so they come up the idea of coming back and overseeing the hockey department and basically just doing on-air things but also taking charge of the hockey department because they were doing more and more shows at that time and lending editorial direction to it and and whatnot and so it was a great offer and my role at uh at cbc and hockey night had changed a little bit and just this

seemed like uh and you know things were changing at cbc overall so this just seemed like a more secure opportunity and a bigger role and a bigger challenge and uh bigger money and uh and working with a lot of people who uh were there from my previous time and uh so it was uh again one i just couldn't say no to and it means you're you get to go on the fan 590 more right like uh well i did a lot of fan back when i was uh in the newspaper days um sure did the leaf pregame shows with howard burger we did those. We did those before every Leaf game and did a lot of the Bob show and other shows throughout the day.

So there's a lot there. Nelson Millman, program director at the time, was and is a great friend. And so, yeah, so going back meant doing more fan and Rogers Radio. Millman's been on the show. Yeah, great guy. Hello to Nelson, absolutely.

Now, I want to know why it ends for you again at Sportsnet. So tell me how this second tour duty comes to a close at Sportsnet. Well, my contract was not coming. It had a rollover clause in it, I suppose, the best way to describe it. But the amounts were fixed on a term. And so that end of term on the amounts was coming up. So a friend of mine who does my contracts

had been in contact with Sportsnet. And there was a real void a friend of mine who does my contracts had been in contact with sports net and there was a real void in terms of any decisions and being made for a lot of people who were either had expiring contracts or situations like mine because when scum were left in the fall there was a gap before they brought in his replacement and so everybody everything was kind of in limbo in that regard, decision-making. And so it was put off. And then once everything settled in that regard, this fellow who looks after my business,

he had met with the Sportsnet folks a couple times and things got deferred again. And then ultimately it was during the Stanley Cup final that he had a meeting. And at that point, everybody in the universe knew that cuts were coming. Major, major cuts. That's a major reason why Scott Moore left. He didn't want to do the cuts. Well, he didn't want to tear down what he built.

And had done a terrific job of building and having to let a lot of people go that he'd brought in and uh you know people he respected and he just didn't like the concept i don't want to speak for scott but that's broadly what we all feel uh that he believed. And, um, so anyway, we all knew that there was another round coming and it's like an annual thing. It seems these days in the business. And, um, so anyway, the, when my guy was talking to Rob Corte, who's the VP of, uh, of, uh, the hockey and, uh, Rob just said, you know, we're moving on. Decisions are being made and we're moving on. And so he said, but I, and one thing I really respect Rob for doing is he said to a guy, he said, but I want to be the one to tell Scott, he deserves to hear it from me,

not from first, from me, not from you. And so, so we met, had lunch and he handed me a package and you know i asked a few questions and knew the answers and so that was that and then as it evolved a few days later doug mclean found out and bob mccowan news came out and then sadly uh i'm guessing the number but everybody seems to believe it's in the ballpark about 25 30 other people sort of behind the scenes people john shannon got it we're let go and then john got it uh that news came out later on in the in the kiprio skipper news uh in august he was a day one at sports at Sportsnet? Close to it, if not. Close to it, yeah.

Late 90s, yeah. 21 years, I want to say he was there. Yeah. And evolved and came a long way. And, you know, when I moved over, when I left the paper and moved over to Sportsnet the first time as the managing editor and working alongside Nick on the panel,

I mean, he was like a sponge from the standpoint of wanting to learn how to, how do I become a, a, a reporter? Right. I obviously knows the game and could analyze the game, but you know, give me any advice you can about that and how I appearing on the air and then how is it, how cultivating sources and breaking stories and then you know as it evolved he became one of the you know best insiders you know you think of the bob mckenzie's and uh you know i had a pretty good run at it and uh you know drager evolved into that role and uh pierre lebrun and and you know ell Elliot now, Friedman now does that. He's evolved into that role too.

But, uh, you know, Nick was one of the top newsbreakers and I, you know, on deadline day, he was, he was cracking them like you couldn't believe. Now, listen, um, losing your job at any stage in your life, it's always hyper stressful. Like this is like, so I'm so i'm sorry this happened to you but is there any solace in the fact that you are one of many uh many beloved and uh successful broadcasters who get it in the same kind of time period like does that make you i'm only because of there's layoffs and it's only scott morrison you go home and you think what did i I do wrong? Like, but if you're amidst the Kiprioses and the Shannons and the McCowens and the McLeans, and I mean, I'd even put, I'd put Bob Cole in that group

because Bob didn't want to stop. And Romanuk, Paul Romanuk. Darren Millard. Yes, right, Darren Millard. I mean, there's a lengthy list of national broadcasters here at Sportsnet who got it, including Scott Morrison. Does that, I's a lengthy list of national broadcasters here at Sportsnet who got it, including Scott Morrison. I don't know, is there any solace in that fact?

You're caught up in a big cost-cutting wave because of a $5 billion NHL deal? Well, I guess the solace is that you ask the question, was it based on performance? And the answer was no. Was it based on personality? Am I a jerk to work with? And the answer was no right was it based on personality am i a jerk to work with and the answer was no right um it's business and so there's solace that while you didn't suddenly

get bad overnight um i had dinner with a few former colleagues last night and we were talking about this and i said you know it's if you don't think it could happen to you, then you're really not paying attention because it could, it's going to happen to everybody. I said, it's like death. Now you're, you're going to get punted from the company. Very few people walk away on their own. So in the back of your mind, you know, there's a possibility. And especially when you know that the cuts are on the horizon um but having said that when it happens it's still really jarring because it's

suddenly real and you go wow oh now i got to deal with this and uh does it make it easier that there's other people there it's sad that there's other people there but i guess just knowing that it's because of business makes it allows your pride to kind of uh prevail because you're just but it's also it's after 40 years of doing it it's and having been you know i say this humbly uh have done a good job and been recognized and honored and had prominent positions and, you know, always been wanted by somebody just to suddenly to get to that point where it's the end of the line, it hits you between the eyes. There's no question.

It's a humbling experience. And, I mean, how long has it been now? When did you get the paper pushed? End of the Stanley Cup. Okay so g end of june basically yeah a couple months yeah and people say how does it feel and i said it i don't know and because you know july and august you're off work and we're off so it's it's you're not it never you never woke up in any of those mornings thinking i should be somewhere i should be doing something it's going to hit you when you're at the at pumpkins after dark in late october you'll be like wait a minute yeah so once uh you know i guess it's

sort of about now once on the verge of the season starting that things would be ramped up and you'd be doing a lot of things that uh maybe the fact that you'd be doing a lot of things that maybe the fact that you're not doing a lot of things that it may hit me but the way that the last few years evolved where I loved what I was doing with the it wasn't doing panels anymore but I was doing features and documentaries and so it was a different pace and a different kind of expectation and whatnot, that maybe that sort of eased me into what's on the horizon. Or not on the horizon, but it's here now. I'm going to close with that question that everybody's wondering.

So right now I'll just ask you, yeah, like how you're doing, like emotionally. I'm good. Okay. Yeah. I'm at an age and a point in my career where, you know, would I like to still be doing some stuff? Absolutely. Would I like to still be there? Yes. But I'm in a good spot that I can move on and I will dabble at a few things. I'm not entirely certain what those are at this moment, but have assortment of ideas. And yeah, at this stage in the game, I'm okay. I'm good. Don't anybody feel sorry for me. I feel sorry for those still working there.

When, if yourself and if a Bob McCowan can just suddenly be saying goodbye on a Friday, when you think, you feel, like in just fan perspective here, that he's got, he's the biggest sports radio star in the country. And he's, you know, from, you know, whatever Dave Schultz call him or something that you know he's got like 18 months left in his deal and then suddenly he's saying goodbye and for good like so nobody is safe I guess uh what you've said I guess a few minutes ago well and that's the hard part is in talking to the people

who are still there they're of the mind that they won't see the end of the hockey deal that they could be next and everybody's looking over their shoulder and you know when management meets with them and you know they can't make they can't sit there and honestly say oh no everything's done you're safe it's it's done for now, but there's going to be another. And so all these people are going about their business and, and doing really great work and taking great pride in what they do and working very hard, but always looking over their shoulder because they know there's going to be another round and they could be part of it. A friend of the show, Greg Brady, just recently experienced this where he couldn't be told for sure

he was a part of the future and a mutual decision was worked out where they would part ways. He said goodbye. When did he say goodbye? Maybe a couple of days ago, maybe on the Fan 590. And he was the morning show guy for you know 590 and he's gone

now scott mccarther's gonna take his place over there but yeah it's a tough time for uh for uh fan 590 employees i always wonder if like if the bean counters are just seeing a number like is always wonder if the goal and this is terrible because it works against everything that you're wired to do but is to make sure you never make more than x a year and this think about what we're saying here like uh you almost have to suppress your salary to avoid a target being on your back and this is just my speculation but it feels like well probably i don't know what their thought process is other than probably if you are a bigger number you've got a bigger target right um but at the end of the day they have an overall target number and what your role is what how important they think that position is

and what you are offering and then ultimately what you're making probably all factors into the thought process but they say at the end of the day, somebody comes up and says, this is the number we have to get to, or this is how much money we have to trim from various, in various ways. And you got to get to that number and people make tough decisions. All right. Now it's the question period here.

So I have several questions from listeners, but I'm going to give the first question to Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. So here's Brian. Hi, Scott. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike's. Remember that one bedroom condo I just listed in King West? It's sold over list price as first impressions are everything. And I made sure it showed amazing. If you have a condo you want to put on the market,

call me at 416-873-0292. Condos are hotter than ever right now downtown. You also know the drill in Galleria condos. So if you want in, I'm your realtor for exclusive PSR access. Scott, being a Habs fan, it is really hard for me to believe that on June 3, 1993, at the opening of the Hockey Hall of Fame, I was sitting next to Henri Richard and Jean Beliveau watching the Habs beat the Kings 3-2 in overtime, thanks to the curve and Marty McSorley's stick. in overtime, thanks to the curve and Marty McSorley's stick. That tied the series up one-all,

and the Cavs went on to win the next three games and win the Stanley Cup, the last Canadian team to do so. How is this even possible that 25 Stanley Cups later, we are still waiting? Yeah, he wants to know... So I did a documentary last year

on the anniversary of that Habs Cup win. Right. And so we had a bunch of the former habs and uh and kings including marty mcsorley and uh telling the story of that stick measurement because that was the turning point in the series of la wins that game they're up two nothing going home they're not losing at that point and then all of a sudden it it brought life to the the canadians because they bounced back tied up and win it uh in overtime and then that was an amazing spring for the canadians 10 overtime victories in the playoff john leclaire i remember oh my god just an incredible run and and jacques demers was a coach we we visited visited Jacques, who obviously has had some health issues,

but we brought a couple players back to see him, and he was just an amazing moment when the players walked in with the Stanley Cup rings. But that season, Jacques had taken all the players at the start of the year into the forum, and they looked up at the banners, and Jacques said, we're going to make history this year. And then ultimately they did, and that was their theme throughout. So how do you go all these years without a Canadian team winning?

Well, we've had several get to the Stanley Cup final. But as the league grows in number of teams, and now we deal with the issues of salary caps and how that impacts keeping rosters together uh it's tougher than ever to get there and it's as simple as that and you know you've got seven canadian teams out of 31 and i'm soon to be 32 so do the math the odds are are tougher than ever and uh and the challenges are bigger than ever. And you see it here in Toronto with, uh,

what the Leafs are staring down with all the contracts and ultimately bodies they've had, uh, excuse me, already had to move and will continue to have to move because of the economics of the game. I get choked up talking about the Leafs as well.

John Evelyn wants to know your thoughts on David Branch, CHL, and minimum wage for players. And there's a lot there, but... Well, I've known Dave Branch from when he started in the business, and I started roughly the same time covering junior hockey, so I've known him very well, and I think he's been great for the game

and has grown junior hockey so i've known him very well and i think he's been great for the game and has grown junior hockey and uh and whatnot obviously he's been in the ontario commissioner plus the the chl commissioner so i think he's had a tremendous influence on the game the minimum wage thing is a you know that's a deep topic to cut through i, they do provide a lot of things for the players in terms of you think of the scholarships. And you look at Canadian University hockey right now is the best-known secret in the hockey world that nobody's paying attention, but it's great hockey because it's all kids predominantly who played in the CHL

who are cashing in their scholarships and going to universities and and playing hockey and uh so that would be the argument from the ownership side that you know that they are giving these kids something beyond paying them the whatever the wage should be or people think the wage should be so I I see it from both sides but uh i don't i don't know that i've got the answer but uh i do know that uh there's a lot of those junior franchises that are not making a great ton of money there's a real you know divergence in terms of uh the ones that are the haves and and a lot that are the have-nots. So I don't think it's as simple as just saying, well, let's pay everybody and this is what they're going to get

because all teams are not created equal. And you look at how hockey is in the NHL level now, not all teams are created equal, but they've created an economy that makes them all equal. Mike Gregotsky says, the NHL has expanded into Vegas and Seattle. Do you think the NHL will add another team in Canada via expansion or relocation?

So what does your crystal ball tell you there? I don't see it. Relocation, possibly. Expansion, when you think, what do they charge Seattle? $600 million? Something like that. Vegas was $500 million. U.S.

So if you're a Canadian team, do the math. Are you 750 Canadian, 800 Canadian? Right. Right out of the gate. And you may have to build a building. I guess if we use Quebec as the example, they've got their building. But if you're starting $800 million in the hole right out of the gate, that's a pretty tough business model to have to comprehend and make successful.

And again, depending, you've got to look at your market. And, you know, it would be one thing to say you've got a team in Toronto and this is the price point that you have and the sponsorships and the suite sales. But you go to a smaller market like a Quebec, and what is your price point for a ticket what's your price point for a suite how many suites can you sell uh that's a tough business model right right now uh mark e david uh says if you could make one change to the nhl's rules what would it be and why i get rid of that offside review, that's for sure. I would also get rid of the trapezoid.

Oh yeah, yeah, for the goalies. Let the goalies handle the puck. Don't get that one. Why penalize skill? Right, no, yeah, good point. I'll make some calls after this episode and see what I can do there. Those are good points. Gord Lambert says,

what's your most memorable moment in broadcasting? Is there one moment that sticks out or? Oh boy, that's a great question. Um, you know, I think probably the first time that I appeared on hockey night in Canada, um, you know, I had done a lot of broadcasts, but the first time you were on that show back in the day, you kind of think, wow, this is an institution. You grew up watching it as a kid, and, you know, it is the big show in the big land, and all of a sudden you're sitting there on that show.

That's a pretty special moment. do you remember what year it was when you made your hockey night in canada debut oh i should know the year it was uh it was the year of uh one of the lockouts because as i mentioned john shannon had was executive producer at the time and uh on the saturday nights during the lockout they would they were running uh classics the classic games the film airtime and but we would do live intermissions so don would be on an intermission and then uh myself jim hewson and eric would do the the hot stove in the second intermission with the updates on what was happening in the lockout and any other hockey news that was going on.

And so that would have been the debut. And then once the season started, that segment continued. Stephen James May says, why did Rogers renew its agreement with CBC allowing the public broadcaster to continue broadcasting and streaming Hockey Night in Canada? I think that's probably above your pay grade. But the deal is, as I understand it, is Rogers controls...

They don't have a pay grade. That's a good point. That's a good point. Now, Rogers controls the product. It's a Rogers production, but they air it on CBC and CBC gets no money for that, but CBC gets to have ads. Do I have this right?

Well, and you might've talked about this with Dave Schultz because he wrote the book about- Hockey Fight in Canada. Hockey Fight in Canada, the whole behind the scenes story of how the rights moved on and a big part of that and i again i wasn't part of those negotiations but just you should have been though what i yeah what i know of it is a big part of that was it was important to the nhl that hockey night in canada didn't disappear from the landscape and that uh and obviously that cbc would have to be a part of it, but they couldn't pay the rights fee,

so they had to be a partner with Sportsnet in the process, and they signed a four-year deal. And as I understand it, Sportsnet pays money to CBC for studio space, office space, and in return, the games get aired on CBC. and in return, the games get aired on CBC. Sports Night, I believe, controls all the ad inventory, but CBC in return gets promotional time during the game. And you'll see on the bottom of the screen,

it'll be like the tall boys of Bruce McAuliffe on CBC Jammer. Yeah, so that was returned to them. And what, to me me the big save was for cbc and all of that was if they lost hockey and it was moved off their network on saturday they have to fill that airtime and they have a i think part of the agreement for their network agreement is that they have to have so much original programming so this was a way for them to fill those hours that so if hockey's on a bunch of other channels and not on cbc on a saturday night how many people are going to be watching so you would have been spent they

would have been spending money to create programming or buy programming that would have been getting very few eyeballs in return. So as much as there was a revenue loss to it, there was also an ability to repurpose their money in other directions and still have a presence on Saturday night and get their promotional presence there as well. So why was it re-upped is because it was kind of a win-win situation for both, and I think, uh, you know, circumstances and a lot of, uh, a lot of really talented CBC people came into our program and, you know, producers and associate producers and some on air people.

So they were part of the package as well. Two more questions. Jeff Merrick, who, uh, we heard from earlier in this episode, because he tells me you're ScoMo, and I haven't been calling you ScoMo. I got to get back to that. He says, and it's very generic here,

but he says, iDesk questions, please. Oh, and ask him about punching Flyers thug Ben Wilson in minor hockey. What's he wanted with the iDesk? Tell us what the iDesk was. So the iDesk was created by, I think, Scott Moore and Shirely Najak,

who was... He's been on this program. Yeah, great guy, producer with Hockey Night. He became executive producer, and that was under his term. And it was launched in the playoffs of whatever year. And, and it had a sponsorship element to it. And what it was is we were sort of supposed to keep track of, you know, what sort of was trending in cyberspace and what people were thinking and

talking about, but also my, that was more Jeff side of it because i was a cyber geek or not a cyber geek but uh and then also would be news and notes from stuff that was happening around uh around the league on any given night from injuries to suspensions to whatever and the firings of course when at that time of year and so uh that's what the ids started on and the joke always used to be as the intermission went along we'd always be the sort of the last item of the intermission and inevitably it would be okay you guys get three minutes to fill right and then the producer get in here he said you guys got two minutes you got 90 seconds then you got 90 seconds

and the joke used to be jeffy and i would say that because we were so tight for time all the time they would you know they go as they're cut into commercial they always show the scenic and the music starts playing he said i i said i talked over more scenics and more musics than anybody in broadcasting during the tenure of the i-disc i do remember uh a show but it was great for both Jeffy and I. It was fun to do. It was great working with him. Awesome.

Now, I remember a show used to air at 6.30, like before Hockey Night, which had Sofia Yurstukovic doing something about like what was trending on Twitter. Yeah, that was kind of a different version. A lighter version, maybe. Yeah, that was when they first started the, well, after the rights package moved,

when they got the NHL rights, that was one of the elements they had in those early shows. Yeah, before, I was going to say, before Kipriels was in what looked like, where did Superman have that fortress, remember? It looked like some modern science fiction set, anyways, when they first started the big contract but okay what was the other part of jeffy's question oh yeah you uh you punched out ben wilson flyers oh okay so

this was when i was playing minor hockey yeah and um trying to think i was probably with he was a team called the toronto blues at the time it was a AAA hockey, and I was 12, 13 years old. And Ben Wilson, who went on to play for the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, tough, tough player, especially in the NHL days. But he was big even back in those days. And I was a goalie and was scrambling front of the net and put my glove down, cover up the puck, and he kicked my hand. Because he was nasty even.

He kicked my hand. And I was taught by my goalie coach that when people took liberties with you around the crease that you give them a poke with the stick. So I took my stick and I whacked it up between his legs, which he didn't appreciate very much. And he hauled off and with his glove on, punched me in the head, in the mask so bloody hard. I went through the, into the back of the net.

The net came off the moorings and pushed into the board. He put me into space, Ben Wilson. There you go. Okay. Last question. He was a player that scared a lot of players in the NHL, including his teammates and including Mike Keenan when he coached him in Philly. He said you tread lightly when you tell him

he wasn't in the lineup that night. Oh man. Last question is from Bill Stewart. He wants to know, I'll read what he wrote. What's next for him? One of the best and most trusted hot stove insiders. So tell us before we say goodbye, what's next for Scott Morrison?

Well, that's a great question. And I honestly don't know the answer, although I've had people call and have, I don't, there won't be a full-time job. Let's put it that way. Is that because you're a realist that you feel like no one's hiring yeah i'm a realist in that age and the landscape the media landscape right now it's and there's it's a shrunken business so there won't be a full-time job but i

i hope that i can dabble and do some things. And I've had a couple publishers contact me kicking around some ideas. And so there might be a book in the offing and that sort of thing. So I think that's probably the direction that I'll end up going. You could make documentaries like Independent. You could continue to do some great documentaries.

I'd love to do documentaries. It's just you're going to get the funding and have an outlet. So we'll see. I mean, it's kind of a work in progress. Scott, thanks so much for doing this. That was my pleasure. Thanks for having me. And it was a lot of fun.

Thank you very much. And I'll enjoy the beer and lasagna. Don't forget the stickers going somewhere. And I'll see you at Pumpkins After Dark. 5,000 are illuminated I hear in the night skies. And that brings us to our 518th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Scott, okay, are you going to change your Twitter handle before you take off this iPhone? You're Morrison S-Net. Yeah, I've been told I should change it, so I just have to get my son to show me how to do that. All right, because, yeah, you've got to own your brand. I'm not tech-savvy.

Okay, you need some help with that. But right now, he's at Morrison S-Net. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery or at Great Lakes Beer, propertyinthesix.com is at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. And Pumpkins After Dark are at PumpkinsAfterDark.com.

See you all next week.