Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Siobhan Morris: Toronto Mike'd #101

Episode Date: December 15, 2014

Mike chats with NEWSTALK 1010 reporter Siobhan Morris about all things CFRB, her reporter voice, her visit to Fordfest and why she adopted the Red Sox as her team.

Welcome to episode 101 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is News Talk 1010 reporter Siobhan Morris. Welcome Siobhan. Thanks for having me. I have a quick story right off the bat, which is that my first car was a 1985 Ford Escort. And it had the old school radio, which had like only three digits for the AM. So basically 1050, for example, was 105.

So 1010 was 101. And this is episode 101. Serendipitous. It's great. Ask me if I did that on purpose. Did you do it on purpose? I'm going to say I did. I think it's very clever.

But yeah, no, it happened. 102 is a guy from 102. There you go. Just working out this way. It's wonderful. What are you going to do for 103? It might be rebranded 102.1 and Strombo might take it. Okay.

We're negotiating. It's been a six-month negotiation to get Strombo to come visit. So, yeah. Yeah. That's the plan. So, it'll be 102.1 and then 104. And maybe that's Ashby. Do you know Ashby?

I know Ashby well. Do you know? Yeah. Because if he wants to come in for 104, that would be fantastic. I will see what I can do to... Do you really? Are you kidding me? Do you really know Ashby?

Well, I don't know him well, but I mean, we work in the same building and I've known him for most of my life. So yeah, I know Roger Ashby. He's a good guy. Should I go with Ashby or Dennis? Which one would you go with? Oh, they're both so great and I think they have great stories to tell. I think if you could get them in here together,

that would be a riot. I think in episode 100, I mentioned at the very end that my mom went on a date with Rick Hodge. Really? I'm not even going to tell the story yet. One day I will. Not that exciting a story, but it's a fact. But yeah, he's not there anymore so he doesn't get to be 104.

Unless he wants it. Rick, if you want it, let me know. We'll hook it up. So thank you for coming. You've got the Irish, Siobhan, the Irish spelling. The one that gives everybody all the problems. Tell me some example. What do people call you? Well, a little bit of everything.

And I mean, the worst is as a reporter, putting calls out. As a reporter, you have to get right on these mics. Yeah, there we go. Big difference, honestly. They'll thank me at home. Is just putting calls out as a reporter, you know, people asking, okay, well, okay, so you would like to talk to such and such

minister, what's your name? And I'll give them my name and they say, how do you write that? I say, write it however you're going to be able to deliver the message and say my name right. Phonetically. Yes. Like Homer's notes from his secretary. It's phonetically. Phonetically. Even the word phonetically. So I mean, on a daily basis, it doesn't bother me. I find it kind of amusing. It's one of, I actually have, you know, on my personal Facebook page, an album of all the ways that my name is misspelled. I mean, there are a lot of

Starbucks cups in there, obviously. Do you think they do that on purpose at Starbucks? I've heard it might be intentional. I kind of like to think that sometimes it is intentional because there are some people I know who regularly misspell it who have asked me where you start to know them. And I'm convinced that they're doing it on purpose. Oh, no, but I mean the Starbucks people. Yeah, no, that's what I mean.

Okay, okay. I said, we've been through this. I saw you yesterday and you asked me yesterday. Oh, I thought your's what I mean. Okay, okay. I said, we've been through this. I saw you yesterday and you asked me yesterday. Oh, I thought your colleagues were purposely misspelling your name just to tick you off. Oh, they do that too sometimes

because they know it gets to me. But I mean, in my young life, I knew a Siobhan spelled that way and then I learned it was like some Gaelic thing. So it's like I, because I was like trained early

to know that that's Siobhan. But you're right, if you hadn't seen that, it looks like it might be Siobhan or Siobhan. Siobhan, yeah. Yeah. And then usually what it is, is I find that people say that their brothers,

their brother dated a girl named Siobhan. This is like a common story. So I don't know if there's some other Siobhan out there who's dated all these brothers. Some skanky Siobhan out there. So that's the, oh yeah, my brother dated skanky siobhan out there so that's that's the oh yeah my brother dated a girl named siobhan and that's how i know yeah well that's but that's one of the best ways to get to get it around is yeah just date everybody but um it's

funny that um you're here as a reporter for the mighty 10 10 the mighty 10 10 historic 10 10 and i actually know you from twitter and this is the thing, you know, especially it's Christmas season. So I've been, you know, going to a lot of sort of social mixers events and people are like, oh, I follow you on Twitter. And I find it's interesting. I know that there are a lot of my followers who have never listened to me on the radio, but I know read my stories that I post online, engage with. Well, they literally, we, we, I mean, I follow you because you will tweet news happenings local to my city that I'm interested in like that. So essentially I mentioned to you just before we press record, but Twitter

is like the new radio. It is in a way. I mean, it's that immediacy that's great for, or, you know, that, that radio is so great, uh, great so great with. But I find there are some people who definitely, you know, listen to me and also, you know, follow me on Twitter as well. But I know that there are some people who have asked me, how do you say your name? Because they've never heard my voice on the radio. Yeah, I get a big confession right off the bat. But this, I've confessed the same to people like Aaron Davis and Mad Dog. But I've never heard you on the radio. I actually, before you came on though, I did, I was trying to find out what you sounded like, because I was curious like what your report, your voice was. And I found a clip, just Googling, I found a clip and I did hear you via the web quickly, but I actually, 1010 is not on my,

I don't do a lot of terrestrial radio, but I have like mad respect for the history of 1010 and I know a lot of people at 1010 and I'm happy to have you because I was dying to have somebody in from 1010 other than my quick call with Jim Richards maybe a year ago. So I know you from Twitter

and I know you as C.O.M.E.O. That's the other thing too, people. So my handle is... Which is a great handle though. But people ask me, they're like, how do you pronounce it? I have no idea. It's something that I picked when, you know, signing up and... So the Mio doesn't mean, it's not like a nickname you had or something.

Well, no, it kind of worked backwards where people were like, okay. And I, you know, it's the first three letters of my first name and the first two letters of my last name. And I matched them together. And so people ask me like, yeah, is it Sio Mo? the first three letters of my first name and the first two letters of my last name and i match them together and so people ask me like yeah is it sayomo is it showmo because that's that you know phonetic right it's not see omeo it's see omo but i really don't know i'm sorry i'm good later i'll be very clear with what this twitter handle is i'm quite happy to whatever you know like to take whatever but i actually do have some colleagues now who actually refer to me um by my twitter

handle and not my name. But it makes sense. Like Joey Bats or whatever. Like basically we take like C-O-M-O. It makes sense. C-O-M-O because Mo is for Morris and C-O from... It makes complete sense. People shouldn't even be asking that question. It should be inferred, intuitive.

I just didn't want people to put pressure on people to try and spell my first name when they were looking for me. No, because... Or just... You should just convert to the way people think it's spelled. Like S-H-V-O-N-N-E, which is not as nice looking a spelling, but it's sort of like just become what people are searching for Google's sake. I guess.

No, come on, never do that. That was a trick question. See, never kowtow to the masses like that. Ann Moroskowski didn't do it. And George Strombolopoulos didn't do it. And Siobhan Morris should not do it. I won't. Luckily, you're a Morris, which is like people know that one.

Thank God. Yeah. That's funny. So tell me, how long have you been at? Have you been at 1010? I've been at 1010 about a little over two years now. And before that, I was at our sister station, another historic station, CKTB in St. Catharines. Okay, cool. So tell me, so tell me how you ended up there and then how you got your way to the big smoke. Well, it's kind of a weird, you know, it sounds like a really cheesy thing to say,

but I kind of grew up in radio. My dad works in radio as well. And what's going to happen? Because what's happening, Freddie Patterson told me this just the other day that people will want to look at me. So actually, I usually put them on that end so that I can look at them easily. And that's why you were unmuted here and there. But you want to look at me, but of course, then the mic,

because you're off the mic, so if we just move that damn mic so you can actually look at me, because I don't blame you for wanting to look at me just just kidding but uh yeah get on that mic just because i can hear andrew stokely skyping me and telling me siobhan morris wasn't on the mic she's supposed to be a professional i'm gonna hear a whole rant about it and i don't i don't have time for that yeah i'm sorry i know hopefully we're we're good now no it's beautiful. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. So I grew up in, you know, music libraries and hauling carts through radio stations. And there was a point in, I think, junior or senior kindergarten where you do kind of those half days where I got dropped off, not at home, but at the radio station to wait for my dad to finish work and would sort of, you know, color in the music library and be, I'm sure,

like perpetually underfoot when I think about it now. So this is Paul Morris. Paul Morris, yeah, who's music director at Hits FM in St. Catharines. Right, where Biggs and Barr are. Exactly. And I miss them. I used to listen, when I had a commute, I used to listen to Iron Mike Benson all the time,

that great voice. Gone too soon. Yeah. Iron Mike. Yeah. Please continue. So it's just sort of, you know, it sounds cheesy to say, but yeah, it was something that was in my blood, I think. I grew up kind of thinking that I would end up doing something in the music industry. I don't know what, but that's sort of what my expectation was. And I think about in the later years of high school I became really immersed in I guess excited

and semi-obsessed with news um and that became my new path so I went to school um was at Niagara College in in Welland and uh applied for a scholarship, actually, that was a standard radio scholarship for, you know, best newscast or something like that. OK. The news director at the time heard my, you know, the thing that I had submitted for this scholarship said to me, hey, I heard your thing for this award submission. I won the scholarship, but also she says we have a position opening up. Would you be interested in applying for it? And you thought for two seconds and you said, yes. Yeah. Well, and she, like in the interview, she said to me, you know, you haven't asked me how much it pays. I said, I don't, you know, I don't care. You're like, no, because people are going to like Timbuktu on the air, like for $25,000. This is a true story. People will go to middle of nowhere for $25,000 to get on the air and get their reps in.

I felt very lucky. Yeah, that is very lucky. Especially today. So I started, you know, part-time on the weekend. And that, you know, eventually turned into a full-time job. I worked there at CKTB for about five years. And then, you know, opportunities opened up in Toronto and made the move up here. And so was the goal always to get to Toronto?

Was that the goal? Or is this merely like a stepping stone on your way to New York? No, the goal was to be in Toronto. And now, truthfully, you know, I'm young in my career and still sort of figuring out what's next. And I actually want to get into this later, because I do want to spend some time on 1010, obviously. But long term, like, is it like your final goal is to get Peter Mansbridge's job? Would that be that kind of thing? I mean, I think that's everyone's goal.

It's my goal. I'm starting a little late, though. How do you not want to be Mansbridge, right? Yeah, I just don't know how. I've got to figure out the path to get there. At least Ian Hanomansing. Who might be the next Peter Mansbridge? Who do you think the successor would be

if Peter Hanomansing? Ian maybe, right? I thought they've been grooming him for a while, but I don't know. Maybe he won't move from Vancouver. Sorry, go ahead. I think Ian is probably the guy who makes sense. We agree. So they're not giving Stromballopoulos that job. He's got enough jobs.

He knows how many jobs he has. I was preparing for him to come in and i was thinking okay so uh and we'll do some tangents and we'll always come back don't worry but the guy's got like a cbc radio gig he's mr hockey for rogers he's got uh there's there's other things he's got going on like i can't it's just i saw all these different things he's doing like i've decided he's the next host of q okay that's't, it's just, I saw all these different things he's doing. Like, I've decided he's the next host of Q. Okay, that's nice. You've decided that?

Yeah, like, who else? I mean, I think he should change the name. Well, I think they're going to do that, yeah. Right, so change, rebrand it and give it to Strombo. Like, who else should have that?

And then, of course, now he's going to be the next Peter Mansbridge. Just, anyway. I don't know when he's going to sleep. You've hyper-scheduled his life. He's funny. I was biking on Queen Street and he was just kind of walking Queen Street. I don't know when he's going to sleep. You've hyper-scheduled his life. He's fine.

I was biking on Queen Street and he was just kind of walking Queen Street. I think he was going to the convenience store for milk or something. He's waving away as you're bike buying. You're like, it feels like a small town here. You know, Toronto's a small town. I have very little interaction

with George Strombolopoulos, but somebody passed me his phone number when I was, there was a period of time where I really wanted to be a much music Vj like I really wanted that for myself yes and uh someone got me his number you know and said he's willing to talk to you this is shortly after he left much I don't know if his I don't know if the hour was on the air yet or if it was in development still and he said you know he's willing to give you the lay of the land sort of uh you know prep you about what you need to know to get in there.

And it was actually probably about this time of year. I called him and he was, you know, Christmas shopping and sort of it was like you could only catch him between things. Yeah. So he's like, hold on, hold on one second. And he's like rifling through racks and like paying for stuff at the cash register. But he was very nice to you, right? Oh, absolutely. Everyone has been.

He's nice to everybody. Yeah. I just, in it, I thought it was sort of a good, what I imagine his life is like all the time. You know what? I had a similar, he called me once,

this is back shortly after his buddy, Martin Streak took his life and there was some stuff going on with Chorus and the Strombo radio show that he had there. I thought, I can't remember what he called that show, but he had a show, maybe it was called that show, but he had a show. Maybe it was called Strombo,

but he had a show on Chorus. And then there was some issues and I was writing about it and he wanted to call me and then he wanted to talk about it. Like, just talk about it. He's just one of those accessible kind of down-to-earth nice guys.

And I saw him once go from one end of the horseshoe to the other and everyone in the room wanted a selfie with him. And I swear, I think he stopped for everybody. It must take him hours to leave a place. Probably. No one's ever asked me for a selfie, I don't think. I mean there's time.

We should take a selfie for the entry. People have asked me when I'm out reporting and I find it a little bit weird. Because you're a radio person I think you have less of that face recognition issue like uh people only know you probably from like a small picture that appears uh yeah but you know if you're on tv then it's a whole different kettle of fish yeah you get bombarded so what was it like when you got the 1010 like um what do you do for tell me about 1010 i'm dying to know

because you came after the rebranding or before so after they became you know like when did they stop calling themselves cfrb i don't remember when it was i think it was around like 2009 2010 maybe um so i yeah i came after that so you came to news talk 10 news talk 10 10 um which i you know i imagine i wasn't around for this but i imagine you know that tells you a little bit more about what it is that we do for people who aren't you know heritage radio listeners like what does cfrb mean that's why i imagine it was done no i have no like i have no you know rebrand away if you want but uh and you know like you don't call cfny cfny now they've been calling it the edge since like the early 90s or whatever but uh that cfrb i do know that

that there was a lot of like weight and history behind those call letters like so the decision what it was interesting anyways that they decided to lose it because what was it canada's first radio battery wait canada's it's radio canada's first radio battery lists is that right that's right yeah so i mean no one knows that because that's a silly fact but i mean the fact that cfrb is uh got a lot of weight to it those call letters they do and you know i think that that's part of my family was proud and they said you, you know, I remember listening to, you know, hearing the tones for CFRB in the morning and their morning news. And that's.

Was it Wally Crowder? Who are these big, these big CFRB names? Do they have like when you walk the halls and I've been there because I went to like an easy rock boom. I once live blogged their morning show. So I've kind of been there and I pop my head in and stuff. But you got big pictures of like Wally Crowder on the wall? We don't.

I kind of wish we do because I think it's awesome. The only thing is we've moved recently. We moved... Oh, where are you now? Well, we used to be at 2 St. Clair. I mean, that's the building that people know. That's the one I was at. We're now in the Bell Media compound,

basically at the Much Music building at 299. Okay. So the VJ dreams are not completely dead. There's still a chance. Is there still a Much Music? Can you verify that for me? It is still there. I could just go down to the, you know, to the environment.

I've seen more than one Rip Much Music on my Twitter timeline that made me wonder, did they make an announcement I missed? No, no no it's just they're just cutting stuff they haven't actually killed the uh no it's still there i mean it's it's different but people don't watch music videos no i know they got youtube now yeah so you're at cfrb and what do you do for cfrb i do uh we have kind of a rotating sort of set of responsibilities but i'm a reporter news anchor editor depending on what month it is like okay so if there's a fire somewhere do they would they send you to cover the fire yes okay so you're like that's kind of i always thought that was like a cool like reporter thing like that you kind of get the call like okay there's a something going on here i need you to go on location but did you did you ever have to cover like any uh Toronto political stuff

over the last couple of years so much political stuff uh for example let's say uh Rob Ford has decided at the the Esso at Scarlet and uh whatever near Scarlet and Eglinton he's gonna have a an Esso press conference would you ever be sent to? I wasn't sent to that one in particular, that very bizarre one. Well, they're all bizarre. You have to be more specific. But yes, I have been sent to chase Rob Ford on many occasions, you know, at bizarre times. Luckily, he doesn't run that fast, although deceivingly fast. No, and that's the thing is people say to me they're like he's a large man there's no way that you know all the reporters

talk about you know city hall reporters talk about how fast he is i'm like no it's momentum though no truly because once he gets going he can't slow down it's like a snowball going down a hill by the end of the hill it's a massive massive ball yeah so he really is and i'm also you know like running with like you know 15 pounds of equipment oh yeah chasing after him so that's not you know as fun but he can move very quickly especially when you know genuinely when you don't want to speak to somebody about something i think um you know that puts a little bit more force in your step maybe what did you when the fords had their show on cfrb uh this is a loaded question i'll be honest I'm now that I think about it considering

you're going to go to work there in a bit or whatever but uh were you proud of that show or were you indifferent or were you uh you were in a bit like what did you think of the Ford Brothers show on 1010 I'm proud of the ability you know the fact that we got people I think who didn't listen to talk radio to listen to talk radio and um so by any means necessary this reminds me because I know you watch the newsroom because I follow you on twitter so like if we have to get like uh I hate lady gaga I hate watch the news I just wrote that yesterday I swear do you know I wrote that yesterday I saw that you wrote it but I mean I gently like I openly discuss like and now it's almost over and I just have to see it through and be done with it so

I honestly thought for a minute that was a great coincidence because I hate watching the newsroom. Now we can bond over that. Okay, so the newsroom, so what the, and there's no spoilers in the newsroom, it's ridiculous, but there's like, they want more eyeballs and doing genuine, hard, proper journalism isn't getting the masses. So there's, you know, hey, we want the masses,

we got to like, you got to interview Lady Gaga's, whatever, because they have this many Twitter followers and all that kind of crap going on. So whatever it takes to get people to listen to radio is a good thing. But the journalism happened in the news. And so there was sort of a famous one that, you know, and that's, you know, we sort of gave the Fords a platform to say what they wanted to say.

And we would fact check them in the news, was you know in the middle of uh and i actually was oh so yeah so so you're saying like you'd be listening to the fourth thing and the news would come on and would you guys actually come out and start listing falsehoods that were well i mean within reason because there's something you just don't have enough energy no that would be a full weekend i think uh but the one that the one that's and sometimes you know us No, that would be a full weekend, I think. But the one that, the one that, and sometimes, you know, us fact-checking that would make the news. The famous one is James Moore, who is one of my colleagues and was the reporter at the time, and I was the news anchor. What was this? It was the, after this trade mission to Chicago. Right. Where there was a debate about who paid for what and whatever. And James, you know, did this report that,

so their show was two hours long. So there'd be a newscast that aired in the middle of the show. James prepared a report that basically said, the Fords are saying this again, even though this is absolutely not true about who had covered the cost of the trip. But I can already see the steam come out of Doug's ears when that happens.

And that's exactly what happened. And it was from that, hearing that report that led to Doug Ford calling us out on the air. We're sitting and you need to know this is at the old building where there's a pane of glass separating us, but we're

sitting about 10 feet away from each other. So Doug just blasting without naming James, you know, blasting reporters. And this is where he called us liars or pathological liars and cry babies. That's where that came from. I could see though,

Ben Dixon's smile from here. Like he must love that. Like that to me is like, now you've got this like real time drama. Like now you're going to get people to listen. Yeah. To me, that's like,

that's compelling stuff. Absolutely. Fascinating. now i regret not tuning into the ford show i didn't realize we had this well i i i mean and truthfully i know nothing about the discussions that are happening but um i know that rob ford told joe warmington from the sun that he was in discussions for a radio show so i don't know if it's with us or with somebody else but well uh this would you know if we do start to take rob ford at word, we're going to have to. I know, I know, I know. Man, yeah, I never found a lie he couldn't tell. But OK, so you don't know anything about a Rob Ford CFR, sorry, News Talk 1010 discussion about you can't drop this.

I have a breaking news soundbite I can play. Just wink if you want me to play it. I don't have, I have no knowledge of that whatsoever. What about John Tory? He was a host on The Mighty 1010. Is John Tory coming back? He has also said that with Mike Mendixon, who's our station manager,

that they are in discussions for something. I know that City Hall reporters would very much like to keep their Sunday afternoons as a, you know, a time where they don't have to be, you have to be listening into a show and live tweeting. Although the John Tory show would be so completely different than the... I just suspect the lies per minute and the antagonistic stuff would be far less. I think it would be easier to cover the John Tory radio show than the Ford Brothers. Maybe.

It's got to be. It's got to be. I got Gotta be. It's gotta be. I gotta say, I gotta say, I think that a City Hall reporter who was there just for the last four years is going to be in a bit of a culture shock. It's going to have some culture shock. I think covering City Hall in Toronto for the last four years was a bit like if you were sent to Afghanistan or some kind of a war zone. And then I think you get used to that, like you adapt to that.

It's just crazy all the time. And now the things will be, I mean, little things that Rob Ford would do, like little things, like maybe he wouldn't, he'd have a press conference and make you wait in a place that maybe wouldn't hold the number of people.

Like, so you sort of force the media to become like, I think he played the media card very well and like made them out to be like, they were hunting him. And I think with Tori, it very well and made them out to be like they were hunting him. And I think with Tory, it's going to be very different. I think he would relocate to make it more convenient for reporters. And I think it would be a completely less chaotic environment. And I think a reporter for the last four years

might have to readapt to what municipal politics usually is. Well, I think that, I think you're right. Like you, I'm worried about you. Two years, you've been at 1010 for two years, the last two years, two of the four, two of the craziest years, the two craziest years in Toronto Municipal City Hall history. How will

you adapt to the normalcy that will return? And I have wondered about that. You might have to go like find some, become like a wing walker or some kind of a, get with the snowbirds or something to find to to recapture that adrenaline rush of the crazy i think you would be surprised at the general level of sort of crazy that happens beyond what we've seen from the mayor you're just hoping mamaliti

keeps saying stupid stuff i'm not hoping but i i... But you can bank on that anyway. I think that's probably fair. Probably safe. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how I would have adjusted, I think, had this sort of Rob Ford... And actually, my first assignment for 1010, or one of my first assignments, was actually covering Ford Fest.

Oh, yes. So that was a great, I think, sort of introduction to be kind of thrown in, to start to be like who you know and you can only understand so much i think um as a non-torontonian outside the city um but yeah that what do you think of ford fest it's a little bit like the midway at the cne like a little bit a little bit of that flavor i cut well and i i covered that first one which was the last one that was at um diane ford's home in etobicoke. And that one, I was just,

there were some things where I'm like, who are these people? So you were at this party. Yeah. Now you've got to tell me the story. It's like the stuff you're not allowed to say on 1010, you can say it here. And no one at 1010 is listening. There's nothing really to say I think that wasn't sort of publicly said. I couldn't

figure out, they have a pool in the backyard. I couldn't figure out why they didn't put plywood over the pool so they had more room. That was the only thing. Because they want you to know there's a pool there. I was forever afraid that somebody was going to fall in the pool just because there was such a crush of people. I was like, any minute someone's going to fall in that pool. That's going to

happen. I just couldn't figure why people... In the last couple of FordFests we've seen where there's been a lineup to see people... And there wasn't... In the last couple FordFests we've seen where there's been sort of like a lineup to see the mayor, that wasn't a thing at the first FordFest that I went to. Ford was... Or Rob Ford, sorry.

Because he had to become as... I mean, he wasn't as... He became infamous, I think is the word. Don't you think? He became infamous? Yeah. One, and I saw at later FordFests that I covered stuff that I didn't see at this one,

which was people coming from hours and hours away. Like a cult hero or something. I remember talking, so the Ford Fest this summer in Scarborough, there was a guy who was from, I forget where, but somewhere in England who had, who was in,

like happened to be in Toronto. I don't want to say he came to Toronto. Story's better if he came to Toronto for FordFest. The story's better if he came to Toronto for FordFest. But he planned his trip, like the dates around when FordFest was, so that he could be there. Maybe he just wanted a free hamburger. He did get a free burger.

I have tweeted more than once that you should never, ever underestimate the power of a free hamburger. I don't know, and I'm always... There's a segment of this populace that will do anything and line up for hours for a free burger. I don't know. And I'm always... There's a segment of this populace that will do anything and line up for hours for a free burger.

That scares me though. Like how much is your time worth? How much is your time worth? $4.50. God, I just, I can't imagine it. I think I get impatient

waiting for like 20 minutes. I'm having a mental block you're going to help me with. You know the two white rapper guys, I think they're from detroit and they paint their face white uh like insane clown yes yes what's their festival called oh i don't know oh man i didn't even know no they have a festival okay and uh wow i'm having i know i could google

this because i have a million devices but yeah hardcore icp fan that was another test by the way you passed that one so anyway they have a festival every year i've seen a documentary about it and it's fascinating and i can't remember what they call it but i know they say this a lot ready woo woo woo woo like that's like a call they say to each other to identify themselves yeah and yeah and uh uh insane clownosse. What do they call that? I'm just going to kill me. I just know their fans are called, what, Juggalos? Juggalos.

Okay. Yeah, Juggalo Fest. Thank you. That's what I think. Meeting of the Juggalos, maybe it's called. Okay, let's call it that. So this meeting, I'm, you're in Etobicoke right now. Do you know that? Yes.

I'm proud to say it's the very southern part of Etobicoke, saying it's the very southern part of Etobicoke, which did not vote, did not, which actually voted Tory over Doug in the recent municipal election. But anyway, you are in Etobicoke. But parts of this Ford Fest phenomenon remind me very much of the Juggalos. And I think that Juggalo crowd would be very happy at the CNE Midway. Maybe it's best I say no more, except that's just, that is, that is the crowd you're seeing there. I don't know. There are a lot of people. Was anyone reading a Margaret Atwood book

at Ford Fest? Did anyone have a library card? Yes. Did you ask? Yes? Yes, absolutely. Just checking. Any more tidbits?

I'm fascinated. I've never been to a Ford Fest, but I would love, did you see anything else? Well, I covered the one that was really upsetting where there was an LGBTQ protest that kind of got interrupted

or, you know, very, I don't want to say very violently, but somewhat violently. Did anyone yell at them to go back to Lebanon? Because they're Lebanese. That's a terrible joke. I regret it.

I might cut that out, actually. Okay. Please continue. No, so it was just, there was a faction of maybe about four or five women at first who were sort of, there were people who were coming to make their anti-Ford message known. And these are people who are Margaret Atwood readers and would sort of profess to that. Lefties?

You could call them lefties. Did they cycle there? I don't know. I didn't see them arrive. But they'd be talking with reporters and they'd be shouted down by this sort of angry pocket of people who were yelling racist things, homophobic things. Um, and, and yelling with which were with such intensity that it was really kind of

frightening. Um, well, they're angry people. I don't think that it's fair to say that as you know like you know to sort of all paint everyone all of them are very angry people okay it scared me though this this group and I said I forget how many people were at this Ford fest I really I genuinely forget but whatever the real number is the Ford said it was 10 times it was not as many as as the Fords would have said but uh it was a very small percentage of the people there, but they were a very loud vocal majority or a loud minority. Yeah, I'm not going to go too much more on this,

except I believe that the Ford nation mentality that has plagued us the last four years brings out the very, very worst of this city that I love. I would say in that, that day brought that sort of forward for me. I didn't think Toronto, I don't think a lot of people thought Toronto was like that anymore. I actually, I don't know why I blew up maybe where I grew up, which seems to be a very NDP place. And just I, when I was growing up, I was very naive. And I actually thought this city was like very progressive, like I forever. And then I always had this thought in my head, maybe, you know, that you had was very naive, and I actually thought this city was very progressive, like forever. And then I always had this thought in my head, that you had the David Miller, and it just seemed like this guy cared about the environment. He just seemed very progressive.

I always saw him running the Terry Fox run at High Park every year, and I used to tell my kids about, hey, there's our mayor. That's our mayor that we're going to be running with for Terry Fox. His mother passed away from cancer, and would tell it make a great speech and everything felt very progressive uh and then i this whole when this ford won with 48 or whatever he won off in 2010 it was like a like it totally changed the way i look at my city i look at my city very different i know we're not nearly as progressive and open-minded there's so many homophobes and racists and islamophobes and ignorant people amongst us. Just heartening.

You're right. And the thing is... Almost changed my handle on Twitter to NotTorontoMike. NotTorontoMike. But I can't afford to move. Go ahead. I just think, and I mean, this recent election doesn't change any of that. Those people, you know, people who still hold the opinions that they do, that's not changing

anytime soon. No. And why are they all in northern Etobicoke and northern Scarborough? I don't think they are. I think that's sort of... But the majority are, like according to the maps that I saw, like where they say who voted for Ford.

I don't have an explanation for that. Maybe we can de-amalgamate and fix this problem. Then I'm in Etobicoke. I'm screwed that way too. Anyway, enough on the Rob. We'll move on from Rob Ford, but you are not confirming news that Ben Dixon's talking to Rob

about a new show on 1010. You are not confirming that. I know. Absolutely. Not only am I not confirming it, like I know nothing. I am not. But it's likely that

Tori ends up on 1010 again. I imagine that he'll end up back on 1010 in some capacity because I know how much he loves it. And I think it's a good sounding board for him to sort of, I think, take the pulse of the city and sort of

test out issues or test out ideas. If I were mayor, I'd want a radio show because it's like you just get to promote yourself every week and then you're going to run again in four years and it's just to get you out there and makes people think you're doing stuff and this is a thing you know an opportunity i think that this the ford squandered somewhat is you're given a platform to sort of our you know make your case for whatever you know whatever policy you want to bring you mean subways because there's only one i can think of right now well subways whatever

whatever it is you are are given sort of free reign to make your case uninterrupted. And I think that they didn't use that platform to the best that they could have. So it's not just, I think, you know, like, oh, we'll give him a chance to say whatever he wants to say, but also to test out ideas.

And if people call him and say, this is a frigging horrible idea, then, you know, maybe he'll take that into account. Do you know if they screen the calls? So were the callers cherry picked or were they, was it like first come first serve within reason? I really can't speak to like what happens because it's just like, I think that people, people have this idea about how radio works and how call screeners work. And it's not and it's not it's not what people think so if somebody came in okay so there's no there's no i guess you don't

know so you've already answered that part but uh because the speculation is that some of the callers were cherry picked i think that i i know that they sort of put up and i don't know in our news studio if it works the same way and obviously we don't have a show quite like the Fords right now. Although I guess we have the province with the premier. So I don't know how she picks her calls. But part of the truth of it is the people who call in are people who want to say positive things about the mayor. And of course, you're not going to put on some. So if you call up, there is a screener in so that you know we know that you're not an angry ragey person who's going to you know swear on the air because obviously we'd get in trouble was there a delay on the ford show yes well i mean how long is it though i think it's seven seconds but it's it's that's quick that's everyone that's not just the ford okay um because

the fords need a longer delay just fyi go ahead. I'm trying to think if they ever swore on the air. No, no, no. I just remember the guy would say things like, he would call a Polish woman Polak, for example, which is not a swear, just an insensitive, silly thing to say. Yeah. But that's not a swear. But you're not going to willingly put, you know, somebody,

it's not productive and not helpful to put somebody on who's just going to like, you know, yell at the mayor and tell him he's a terrible person. Like that's not productive. No, uh, no, I, that's fair enough. We'll move. No more Ford. No more Ford. No more Ford, more years. Tell me though, uh, because we mentioned, I mentioned that I know you from Twitter and you're tweeting all the time as S I O M O-M-O on Twitter. And I follow you and it's interesting. And my question is, do you have any mandate from 1010 as to like,

do they ask you to tweet? Do they ask you to tweet new stuff? Is this all you on your own? Do they care if you talk about the newsroom, like the show, the newsroom, not the CFRB newsroom? Do they care if you talk about baseball? Like, tell me what the direction is regarding Twitter to the 1010 reporters. There's not really any.

And I think that I've not had the problem where I don't tweet enough. So I don't know my colleagues who tweet less. So would they ever tell you to tweet less non-1010 stuff? Or do they care that you mix the personal with the business? I've never been approached approached about that so i'm i'm not sure how they um but i i think too um and it's sort of what we talked about earlier where it's i think it's important to yeah okay you can you know to become a place for people to go to so they know like what's going on in their city and also you know some stuff outside the city as

well but for me it's also about building my own personal brand and who I am and the things. Right. Because you that Twitter account is you. Yeah, that's not SIO MO underscore 1010. This is you. This is me. Yeah. And if you leave the Bell organization tomorrow, that Twitter handle goes with you. Exactly. And actually, I don't know. One of my news directors a long time ago gave me really good advice. And this is when I was

still sort of figuring Twitter out. And he said to me, you know. You know, this was in an air check where you're sort of listening back to your work and, you know, they're telling you what you did wrong and what you need to do better and how you can improve and all that kind of stuff. And he said, this is very bland. I need you to be more on the air like you are, or then more like you are on Twitter on the air. Because right now he said, you, you are interchangeable. So he's saying add a little spice. Yeah.

And I think that a lot of young reporters are afraid to do that. You feel like the news has to be super serious. And of course, of course, there are stories that require that and deserve that. But a lot of them don't. So this person liked your Twitter persona. Yeah. You're here today because your Twitter persona. Yeah. So I just I think that they go together.

Interesting. Yeah. Like in this day and age, I said, what about a reporter who doesn't want to be on Twitter? Do they get pressured to go on Twitter because the people want to interact like that? I don't know. I think in radio especially that we really understand that it's just part of the machine now. Right. I've I've talked to I mean, and even it's so different from when I was in college a couple of years ago where like the Web site, you know, was so secondary. It was like, yeah, maybe you'll put up a story at the end of your shift. And now it's like, no. Not only is it a priority, it's like maybe that comes first. Wow. Yeah, you're right. Because the 1010, which is this terrestrial radio signal that we get on a radio, is really just like a delivery platform for the content. 1010 is really a content mechanism. And whether it's dispersed through the radio

waves or through the internet or you know smartphone or or twitter or whatever to like a little blip in a link to an audio file or something like that uh the fact is the 1010 branding is the content not the actual fact you get a signal in your car yeah we have that says 101 my 85 board escort yeah we have so many people who i i don't know what the breakdown of the numbers are but people who stream us like our streaming numbers are giant and there's no geographical limitations no and am sounds good that's what i am's fidelity is sounds you might know this you might know this but on the on the radio 10 am doesn't sound very good did you know that no it all the talk is on am.m all the talks on a.m

i guess because talk doesn't have to be high fidelity but i mean i listen to a lot of cbc radio one a lot of talk and i'll bike to the talk and the conversations and it sounds great but i guess with the internet you can deliver 10 10 with high fidelity yeah bingo and you don't have i mean i think i think it can sound pretty good i know there are pockets in the city though we're like driving in my car where it's just like it's unlistenable because you know stuff is coming in and out but you don't have that problem with online but it's a mighty it's a pretty big signal this 10 10 i think it would blanket the city pretty good mighty the mighty 10 10 and you probably hear it uh you probably hear that in where are we like maybe in huntsville you can pick it up maybe yeah Completely made that up, but I bet you hear it

for a long way. I'm pretty sure you can. I always do that, you know, like a drive out to a friend's cottage in the summer. You can go with it? They're kind of able to come in and out when you'll lose it for like 10 minutes, but then it'll come back. AM's fun. When I was a kid, I had a transistor radio and I used to try to tune in

Cleveland and stuff because at night sometimes, I don't know if it depends on going off water, there's so many variables at play, but I don't know if it depends on going off water. There's so many variables at play, but sometimes these signals come in awfully strong from awfully far away. It's just fun. It is cool. That was the old, they didn't have the internet when I was a kid.

Unlike you. I didn't grow up with this internet thing. So tell me about, it's kind of interesting. You just mentioned it. You talked about air checks. I guess you would listen to air checks. I listened to the clip of you and felt you had what i call the reporter voice okay that's what i call it and i'm hearing you know you actually

have it on this podcast i guess i'm wondering if we were like i was not recording and we were at a starbucks and we were having a conversation about 10 10 or whatever do you sound the same this is like such a i don't know like such a question i get asked all the time because you sound like i mean it's good i think it's good like i think that you have a good voice for the radio it's just a compliment by the way it's just it it sounds like i wonder a is there some kind of training on how to deliver the reporter voice and i hear it like all other reporters too i hear it even on the tv there's a certain delivery for a news story and I can't quite imitate it. I've never been in the news, but it's kind of like this. And there's a, there's a thing and you do it

very well. You should be in the news. You should be a reporter. So tell me, A, are you putting it on because you were taught to put it on? Do you put it on because you know that sounds bigger and more professional from a news perspective? And would you sound like this if you and I had a coffee? If I were a single man and we were at coffee on a date, would you sound like this? I think so. I think the only thing that I'm more aware of is I think that I have this tendency to sort of mumble and kind of trail off at the end of my sentences normally. So I think when I'm in front of a microphone, I'm more conscious to not do that. But there's a switch, right? You've turned a switch because to be on air voice,

like this is conscious is what I'm trying to get at. It is, but I think you want it to be where it doesn't sound unnatural. There's some people where it sounds very put on and unnatural and I hope it doesn't sound like that. Why does radio though,

I always wondered this and since all the reporters have the reporter voice, what would be so bad? Because the DJjs used to have a dj voice yeah hey i grew up with tom rivers or whatever like hey you know they all sound like this uh they have a certain voice they put on whatever but then as the 90s kind of progressed and now i noticed a lot of djs actually you know now they just sound like themselves and sometimes

you'll hear a dj and you'll go back to hear what they sounded like in like 1985 and you'll be like wow like they used to put on something and now they're just their normal voice why can't reporters just talk normally like we're having coffee i think that's the goal um that's where you kind of want to end up the bleeding edge right you're afraid to be the one to go there and then they're like you don't sound like a reporter get out of here i don't and again i think it depends what story you're working on if i'm doing a story about like i don't know the ottawa shooting like depends what story you're working on. If I'm doing a story about like, I don't know. The Ottawa shooting. Like a heavy story.

You're saying you have to have more of a... That requires some respect and some heft and some sort of acknowledgement of the seriousness of the people who've lost their lives and that a city's under attack if you want to view it that way. As opposed to a story about Black Friday shopping. Right, or some guy who has the most Christmas lights

in the city or something like that. Yeah, and there's room to have fun with that. And that's where I think that it's okay to sort of, and I think that's the goal. And it's, you know, I'm young in my career and something that I'm working towards all the time is to sound more like, you know, it sounds cheesy, but to say like, yeah, I'm your buddy telling you a story.

But you want to not lose your sense of authority either. No, yeah, I'm actually, I'm fascinated. I had the same ideas as a story. But you want to not lose your sense of authority either. No, I, yeah, I'm actually, I'm fascinated. I had the same ideas as a kid, like, oh, I want to be a journalist or whatever. And then just reality strikes and you end up being like a digital marketing guy. But let me ask you though, if you could speak to me like a sentence, like you're talking to your dad, let's say you're talking to your dad about Lester, about baseball transaction. Oh God. Like I just, you don't have to do this obviously, but what is the, let's say you're talking to your dad about lester about baseball transaction oh god like i just you don't have to do this obviously but what is the but what i think is i don't know that it's like a you said it you know that it's like a switch okay i don't know that it is as long as that

microphone is there you're unable to turn it back no but i don't i don't think of it as being something that i'm consciously like oh now i'm you know now i'm speaking in my reporter voice like i don't think of it that way. Except that was, that was, ironically, that was not your reporter voice. That was, that was my like imitation of a reporter voice. Okay. I think that it changed. I think people have told me that my, you know, friends have told me that my voice has changed over the last couple of years. Like a deeper, maybe more authoritative. It sounds like I went through a period.

I don't know your old voice. I don't know your old voice, except I don't like the fact that it sounds more authoritative and deeper than mine. And it makes me a little less self-conscious. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't know that it's something that you can turn off like that.

I think that you just get used to speaking with some level of clarity and in a way that you're understood. So it's basically, now I kind of think I know where you're going. Because you're conscious not to mumble, because now you're on airwave. Even though this is just the internet, lots of ears are going to hear this. No one at Bell, but everyone else is going to hear this, okay? So, you know, future bosses will be hearing this, okay?

Potentially. So is it that because it's being recorded, you're so conscious, if not mumbling, that you do your voice that is the clear voice? Because you are very clear. That's good. So yeah, it's very good. No, it's very good. I just wondered whether they teach this.

Do they teach this in school? They do. But I'm trying to remember. Because you all have the same affection. And not to lump you all, but men, women in this city that report on the news, whether it's radio or television, have this certain tone. I hear a difference because I can hear really green reporters have a way,

or reporters, news anchors, whatever, have this way of, I think it's like turning down at the end of a sentence. I'm trying to think of it. And now the news. I'm just picturing Kent Brockman, who I think might have been modeled after Lloyd Robertson. He might have been. I never thought of it that way, but you might be right.

I've heard this might be true. There's a lot of CanCon connections in the early days of the Simpsons. Yeah. When I go back to i actually hauled out a couple months ago my some of my work from college oh my god it was horrific so when you should listen to the early episodes of this podcast uh and i i grew up you know in in niagara um kind of like a border town and didn't realize how bad my border town affectation was my A's and, Oh my God.

And just, um, I mean like the content was terrible also. Um, but just, it was horrific. And I did, I think almost the opposite thing is you get,

or you're trying to convey enthusiasm. So your tone kind of pushes up and I was squeaking in a lot of my stuff it was horrible so i get when i get excited about something suddenly i'm like well rob ford does that if you notice if he's excited he's way up here and i'm like he gets into shrieky where you're like i don't know i don't understand what you're even saying yeah okay uh so you know keep up the good work because you sound great thank you i'm curious what you listen to no but i listen to a lot of podcasts right but but no you mean when i where i. Thank you. I'm curious what you listen to. I listen to a lot of podcasts. You mean where I hear that... No, when you heard me.

It was a quick Google search for your name. 1010. There was a link on 1010.com. Whatever the website is. Is it 1010.com? Newstalk1010.com. From there, it was something. It was just a report. You have the similar tone here. I just figured I was getting the reporter voice.

But I took a note to ask you about what I call the reporter voice. But remember, I'm an outsider. Like I never went to journalism school or broadcast. I've never been on a real air. I've never been paid to speak anywhere. So I'm just a fan guy who listens. And you all have this certain tone. And I just wanted to put on.

And I wondered if you know you're putting it on right now. No, I guess I'm not. just wondered put on and i wondered if you you know you're putting it on right now no i guess i'm not okay now i'm hyper conscious of what i'm saying i'm tricked now yeah yes yes so please erase that i'll don't want this thing too is is as radio people you listen to yourself talk all day what's and that's uh tough to do right it it is i mean it just becomes a normal part of the job but so i find it interesting you know people who work sort of in newspapers and hate, you know, listening to themselves back to do interviews. It's like, I have to listen to my own voice literally all day. So you become very hard on yourself and very nitpicky about the way you pronounce certain words. And I have a

difficult time sort of doing, you know, some combinations of words. So, yeah, I just think you're hyper aware of how you sound all the time. Do you call them coyotes or coyotes? They're coyotes. Is that right? So this is like the Bible or the 1010 Bible says they're coyotes. The Bible according to me. Okay.

I've heard coyotes lately. Okay. Coyotes, I feel like sounds like, you know like jim bob slack jawed yokel thing i don't know that's right it's a cletus yeah all right um do you listen to any podcasts i do listen to podcasts uh i'm just kind of starting i think the last year or so i have a friend who is constantly recommending podcasts it's really blowing up the last year as a guy who was like producing podcasts for humble and and Fred back in 2006, I think we started the first one.

It was sort of scary for people. Podcasting was scary. What, I've got to subscribe and then it's going to sink and it's going to do this and that. It was scary. Yeah. But today, maybe a lot of it has to do with some big American podcasts and podcasts seem to have gone mainstream,

especially with Serial, which everyone's talking about Serial. And today, said, I'm not going up today. Okay. That's going up Monday. So last Thursday, I mean, we have one more Thursday, I guess. I'm trying to keep, I, this is the difficulty, but yes, there'll be one more episode, one more episode of cereal to go. Uh, so what do you listen to? And, um, I have a followup, an interesting followup. I want to hear what you listen to in the podcast world. And then I have a follow-up an interesting thought but i want to hear what you listen to in the podcast world and then i have a question about podcasting and terrestrial radio and this interesting marriage i see i have been listening to serial like i love serial and i was thinking about this this morning i feel kind of weird that i'm so wrapped up in something that you know like

people's lives are really yep there's a dead woman yeah a young young girl a girl with a woman teenager is dead yeah and it feels weird to be kind of like fangirly about it and you're all lives are really at stake. There's a dead woman. Yeah. A young girl, a girl with a woman teenager is dead. Yeah. And it feels weird to be kind of like fangirly about it. And you're all like,

did Jay do it? Adnan, did he do it? And it's all like, then you got to remember like, oh, Hay is actually dead. And then there's a whole family that lost a loved one. I've managed to stay kind of like,

I've not gotten into crazy theories and, you know, followed the Reddit threads and all that stuff. Can you help me though? Because I did a bit of that but i have to admit but i'm trying to adnan's car yeah so this is the body was in adnan's car because adnan shows it to jay yeah in the best buy parking lot yeah couldn't like

where did the car end i never hear what did they ever like don't you examine this car to see if there was a body in it i don't remember remember. Forensically examine Adnan's car? Because we all know Jay knew where Hay's car was. Jay leads the police to Hay's car. But we never hear about examinations of Adnan's car, which is the car that had the body in it when they drove to Lincoln Park. Which is really Leakin Park, as we know. I hadn't thought about that.

And I kind of wonder, there's stuff that's sort of filtered out in news reports and you kind of wonder if they're saving a bunch of tidbit stuff. Well, I wonder because, yeah, and we're speaking, I guess we've both heard 10 episodes so far. So there's 11 waiting for us and 12 will come out next Thursday.

Oh, I already listened. Oh, you did? No, don't tell me. I'm going to be the threat. But tell me though. Okay, so, oh, you've heard it. All right. You might slip up here.

I don't want too many spoilers, but. Oh, I won't say anything. I am of the opinion that I can't, I don't know for certain that Adnan is innocent. What I do know for certain is that Adnan did not get a fair trial. At this point, this is my amateur. I feel like the trial was flawed for various reasons, but that's not to say he is innocent,

but I feel he deserves a new trial. I don't think they had enough to put him away. I think there's some stuff with the J that's not to say he is innocent but I feel he deserves a new trial. I don't think they had enough to put him away. I think there's some stuff with the J that's fishy. I think his representation was weak like she was sicker than she realized and couldn't handle this important case. It is fascinating that we're all like It is. It's really fascinating.

Because it's real. Yeah. It's a real story. Yeah. And what I think is interesting about yeah, podcasts like that I think it's a lot story. Yeah. And what I think is interesting about podcasts like that, I think it's a lot of stuff that's been happening on terrestrial radio, but for some reason people are more willing to listen to it in podcast form,

which I can't really wrap my head around. On demand, first of all. Well, yeah, of course. So on demand. And they do have a couple ads, I noticed, but they're embedded quickly and they don't interrupt the story for the ads. You get the ad out and then they do the story and then you might get another ad. But yeah, you're on a podcast right now.

This is episode 101. So it's 101 episodes. I obviously don't have the time or the money to do what Serial does or probably the ability. I'm not so ashamed to say that. Mail Chimp's not coming to your door? Mail Chimp, as she calls it.

I use Mail Chimp. Well, they may come to my door, but they'll be disappointed with my download count after they were doing the serial podcast. Tough to compete with that one. But I noticed on 1010 that you have Alan Cross

and Michael Hainsworth have a podcast called Geeks and Beats. Yes. And it's an interesting, well-produced podcast that they do. And it was always just a podcast. And now I see it has actually aired as a program on 1010. Yeah.

It's on, what, Sundays, I think. Meanwhile, my friends Humble and Fred have a program. It airs midnight on 1010, which is just their podcast. Yeah. Which they were doing well before you guys came along. Yeah. So, okay. So my question is, what's uh opportunity for like crossover there like i

know bell owns i mean so forget bell we'll see 10 10 we'll talk 10 10 obviously this is just uh inexpensive content where they don't have to put somebody on a payroll and produce it in-house they can sort of like how is this what do you think of this podcast, Terrestrial Radio Crossover, that seems to be happening on 1010? Well, I think what's interesting is, I don't know if there's much sort of... They're all people who are already sort of established people. We haven't seen somebody... We haven't seen Toronto miked on 1010 who has never been on Toronto's radio stations. I think I get a lot of people

who are like, well, I have a podcast and why couldn't you just put it on 1010? I'm like, well, who? And I say this. Well, that person's silly. And I say this in the kindest of tones is who are you? Why should people want to listen to you? What do you have to say that's so interesting and different? Yes, that's right. And you were wise to say that. And people can't make a good case

for that. And if you can't make a good case for that, then So, okay, so basically if I'm reading right humble and fred had name recognition in the market for 20 years and alan cross has name recognition in the market for let's say 30 years or whatever so that obvious because they have well-produced good good podcast it's a no-brainer for mike ben dixon to sign a deal with them to just let us have their content because they're so good at what they do i mean they, they give, yeah, they produce. But isn't this taking hours away from people who work for the station?

Probably. I really don't know. I mean, we're a 24-hour-a-day radio station, too. And that's a lot of time to fill up with talk programming. Do you want Toronto Mic'd on 1010? I will start the campaign. There are some interesting episodes,

okay? Okay. There are, of course, competing radio personalities featured. Will that be an issue? I think that will probably be an issue. But Alan Cross works for Chorus. Yeah. So how is that an issue, Siobhan Morris? Cross-examination. I have wondered about that, but I really, I'm not part

of those discussions. In fact, Michael Hainsworth works for Rogers, doesn't he? Isn't he a. In fact, Michael Hainsworth works for Rogers. Doesn't he? No. Isn't he a business? Who owns Report on Business? He works for BNN, which is a media property. Oh, is that a, you know why? It used to be called, oh, Report on Business.

Okay, you know what? Guys like me get confused. That's a newspaper. You're right, I'm sorry. You're right. But Alan Cross does work for Chorus because I just talked to Scott Turner and yeah. Yeah.

Okay, I'm not trying to ruin this for Alan. He was a guest on this podcast and he was very interesting. And I just see the, I see these podcasts that I've heard and I see that they're on terrestrial radio. And I just wonder whether this is a trend. Is this going to become like, as we look for more inexpensive content,

will 1010 be reaching out to other podcasters? I don't know. Like my friend, Jeremy Taggart and Jonathan Torrens, who have a good podcast. They have a great podcast too. And I'm mixing up the names there. Taggart is on our station quite regularly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a live drive or whatever. Yeah, and like other day parts. And he's like a panelist on some of our roundtables. And he's great. So I don't know. Maybe that's something that's in discussion. I really have no idea.

You're asking me to ask? Yeah, but you're my only 1010 guest. You're asking me for all these scoops from the big boss's office, and I'm not in there. The big boss doesn't tell you these things. No, no. And the big boss is Mike Ben Dixon. Yeah.

Is he a good guy? He's a good guy. I've never met him. I know of him because I'm friends of his. I know mutual friends. He's very good, I think, I know of him because I have friends of his. I know mutual friends, but he's very good. I think that I've sort of turning on like making you think about things differently. Would he come in here? I don't know. I really don't know. There's only one way to find out, right? Yeah, you can ask. I'm gonna ask. Maybe I'll give him a strong spot.

The I know that I'm almost at the hour. I got gotta wrap this up but um what did you think of this is really off topic but just as a listener of radio in the city what did you think of the old dean blendel show did you ever listen to it i did listen to it i listened to it a lot i think when i was in high school so that would be you know early what late 90s, early 2000s. And then I think it got to feel to me like it was an inside joke that I wasn't in on. Was that to say it was becoming very frat boyish? I know I'm putting words in your mouth. I know that that's sort of like an easy descriptor.

I don't know that it's necessary because it's like, yeah, okay, fine. Like I like potty humor in doses. You know what I mean? It's not, you know. Well, then you'd like the Humble and Fred show. Lots of potty humor. Well,

I do like their show. I don't need to be, I sort of, I think hit over the head with it. I like other things. Um, I don't know if I would slap that label on it, but yeah,

I just always felt like what's going on here. I love what happened though. I loved it. What happened? Yeah. That's from a mighty wind by the way. I know. And I think when I saw the movie, I didn't's from A Mighty Wind, by the way. I know, and I think when I saw the movie, I didn't know that that's where it had come from.

I love those movies. They should do another one. That crew does amazing. They did Waiting for Guffman and they did Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. They're all really really good. It's like they have like a page of where the story goes and it's all improvised. And I'm so fascinated by that and that they end up with something that makes sense and

is funny. Yes. It's always funny. They're great people doing that. That's fantastic, that show. Yeah, Fred Willard is a great example. Yeah, he's fantastic. He's great. There you go. That's great tension. But okay, that's fair enough. I just, the reason I asked about Dean Blundell is because I get more questions

about Dean Blundell than anything else. I'm not surprised by that. Of all the radio personalities in the last 20 years, like, yeah, 20 years, lots of questions about, A, is he going to show up somewhere on a bell? I know you, by the way, I've established that you don't have the inside scoop on anything. I do not. I'm sorry. By the way, this is my disappointed face. I'm so sorry.

Because I want to know if there's a, because I know Blundell did some kind of an audition or something with 1010. He did like, I wouldn't call it an audition. Okay, well, he did appearances on 1010. He did, because we're... I think you can call it auditions, though. They're all auditions when you're looking for a new gig, I think, but go ahead.

That's my words, not Siobhan's, okay, Mike? Back into the museum, it's an audition. Yeah, he did a guest host spot on the live drive. Yeah. But isn't't to be honest and no you don't have to speak as a 1010 employee just speak as a listener radio but isn't anytime you do a guest appearance on 10 on live drive isn't it technically an addition like on some level like i noticed barb de julio doing this because she came on this show when she in fact she had to reschedule because she was doing a guest thing yeah on 1010 and it led to a real job yeah i mean i think anytime you speak in public anywhere it's an audition for something you just scared me now i'm gonna start using my reporter voice something

that you have to be really conscious of of somebody in the radio of course yes but especially when the people at 1010 are probably listening very closely to how you sound when you when you do the live drive yeah i'm taggart, for example. There's a good example. So Taggart quit Our Lady Peace. I think he, in fact, I know for a fact, Taggart and Torrens exist as a podcast because they want to be paid to do it on a radio station. Like it exists, like Biggs and Barr was a podcast with one purpose. And it worked.

They work with your old man. Yep, they do. And they sound great, by the way. They do sound great. And yeah, speaking of the Dean Blandell show. Yeah. I don't know. And it might be, by the way. They do sound great. And yeah, speaking of the Dean Blandell show. Yeah. I don't know. And it might be one of those things where maybe like Taggart and Torrance need to like

work some stuff out and get better at what they do before somebody's willing to put them on terrestrial radio. I'm not really sure. I'm not a programmer. You know what I mean? I don't have those ears yet. You'll get there. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe just before you get the Peter Mansbridge gig, you'll get the Mike Bendixson gig. It'll be like a progression. Yeah. I think you have a good chance. Quick story. I have a nephew who's like four. And last Christmas, I had a Santa hat.

Just a red Santa hat. So I'm Uncle Mike to him. I'm Uncle Mike. And I'm talking like Uncle Mike. But when I put on the hat, my voice changes and I become uncle mike but when i put on the hat my voice changes and i become santa mike so i just i put on the hat and santa mike is there and it's like a magic thing all of a sudden i'm talking and acting like santa mike and then i take off the hat and i'm back to uncle mike and i could do this all day it's quite fun actually for me but he buys it like he has santa mike and uncle mike as different people is that like does he need to see

a therapist or anything like Like, he's four. I know you're not a child expert either. He might be pulling your leg a little bit. No, I'm like, this guy really thinks

that I believe he's Santa. Come on. I am much smarter than that. I can't find my Santa hat and Santa Mike is going to make a comeback now and see if he still

buys the whole routine. It's the season. I thought I'd share my Santa Mike story. That's a good story. Do you have a favorite Christmas movie? Oh, It's a Wonderful Life is not just my favorite Christmas movie, but one of my favorite movies of all time.

That's a very good, safe answer. Just like when people are asked what their favorite movie is and they say The Godfather. It's like an answer. I know, but I genuinely mean it. I believe you. I really mean it.

I believe you. That's a great movie. I've actually only seen it once. Do you know that? That's unbelievable. And I saw it in my 30s. Really? Yeah,

the first time I ever saw it. How did you manage to go through life like not seeing it? I don't know. First of all, it's black and white, which just kind of turns off a lot of people. No,

that is such a terrible cop out. Yeah, I know. I know. So it's black and white, so you kind of have to like really invest in it or know i know uh it's so it's black and white so you kind of have to like really invest in it or whatever and then it's like i knew it from like satire and pop culture like through osmosis because of the simpsons had parodied it 100 times or whatever

most of the stuff i learned about from the simpsons when they parody it so then eventually in my 30s i decided to actually watch it and yeah it's a good movie my family every christmasy we watch like we watch it and it's been weird because i think my parents did it when i have two younger brothers and um they've been sort of slow but they've fallen in line as they've gotten older like there was kicking and screaming from them when they were younger like this movie's terrible it's in black and white it's boring and then now we're at the point where like the five of us will watch it together with like a spread of appetizers and all three of us just ball. That's a nice tradition.

Even though we've seen it like 25 times. And if we establish the fact that your dad is a is Paul Morris, the music director for 97.7 Hits FM. That's it. That's cool. It is very cool. I think that's very cool. It is cool. One last question.

Sure. Actually, two, because one I want to know, have you ever listened to an episode of this podcast? I have. So which one did you more than one? Yes, more than one. I want to know is have you ever listened to an episode of this podcast? I have. So which one did you more than one? Yes more than one. I don't know. I'm just kidding.

Do you have a favorite? I actually really liked your talk with Erin Davis. Erin Davis. Is she like a mentor? Not a mentor. That's the wrong word but somebody you look up to

in the Toronto radio scene? Very much so. I mean that the longevity of her career is amazing and I mean I think I have a soft spot for her because she started in news. So I think there's always a bit of that. And I think she's

just a freaking cool lady. You know what? I got to say this because that was the first time I met. Actually, the first and last time I met Erin Davis was when she was down here. But we're Twitter friends, too. I have to say, honestly, I think of her now like as a friend because I never hear on the radio. I know her like through Twitter and her visit here she was the nicest honestly the nicest person and we'll like i'll tweet that i'm going to the lakeshore santa claus parade and then she'll tweet back at me you know drop my name for extra candy cans because chfi has a truck that goes through yeah and then like i'll send her a picture of the chfi truck or whatever and then she'll tweet that or she'll get yeah she'll tweet it and then the will tweet in. Honestly, a lot of people come in this basement and I find out that

they're actually really nice people and I like them. But Erin Davis is top of that list. What a classy, very nice person. She seems that way. I have not met her. I don't think. I've got a one nothing lead on you on that one. I've on that one I have met the Erin Davis wonderful woman gotta watch her head here I think she's taller than I am she was just exceptional so you like that one, good mainly because she's so honest

I like when guests come in I know you had no scoop you had such a young career I thoroughly enjoyed this with you I wasn't sure because every other guest has been somebody I was a fan this. I wasn't with you. I wasn't sure because every other guest has been somebody I was like a fan of it when I was younger,

like almost like a lot of these people I knew from the eighties and nineties. Like I want Mark Hebbs here in here. Cause I love the guy in the nineties or I wanted Ed, the sock in here or Mike Wilner, because I listened to Jay's talk for whatever, since he's been there. And now with you though, I hear somebody at 10,

10, a reporter who I only know from Twitter. And now with you, though, here's somebody at 1010, a reporter, who I only know from Twitter. I could tell from your resume you didn't have a lot of experience, right? I didn't know what to expect, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. I did, too.

Thanks for having me. What's with the Boston Red Sox love? That's my last question, because I follow you on Twitter, and it's all great, except... Except that. I hate it. It's almost enough to unfollow you.

Like, do you know 99.9% of your followers are Toronto, GTA people who love the Blue Jays? I do know. And hate the Red Sox? I do know. So you have to be sensitive to that. It's offensive. It's offensive. It's like if all your followers were Christians and all you wrote about was how there is no God.

Similar. I think that's a bit heavy-handed i also similar siobhan i also like the jays i also cheer for you can't like the jays and the red sox i don't think so i don't think so my same division there's a rule about that i know and it's it's unfortunate that they're how did you end up a red sox fan i was thinking about this because i had a feeling because your irish name and you know boston's a very irish city no i think i was thinking about this because i had a feeling you might ask me and i was trying to like people ask me this a lot and i said and people people were like oh did you become a fan of them when they

were really good i'm like i think i think it happened when i was in elementary school. This had been, I don't know, 2008. No, it was like mid 90s. So I used, I was just a voracious reader as a kid and would go to the library and just fill my backpack up with all the books that it could fit and ride my bike and be, you know. And they still let you at Ford Fest. And I think that, you know, you sort of exhaust at some point all the babysitters and Nancy Drew books. And I started, you know, like drifting into nonfiction. Okay.

And I remember there being a display about like a sports, like, sorry, a table of like sports books. Yes. And there was something about the history of the Red Sox. Ted Williams. It's all his fault. Probably. Carl Yastrzemski.

And I think that's, I can't point to this and say definitely, but I do remember taking out Ted Williams. It's all his fault. Probably. Carl Yastrzemski. And I think that's, I can't point to this and say definitely, but I do remember taking out that book. It's unusual to me because I, older than my next generation before me,

you'll find a guy from that generation who loves the Tigers. And the reason is because when he grew up, there were no Blue Jays. Okay? Yeah.

And he adopted a team and the Tigers were closest or whatever. I get that. You could adopt the Yankees if you want. I won't judge you. If you're a generation older than me, this is where I'm going. You, a generation younger than me, grew up.

You probably, do you remember the World Series? I do. I mean, in sort of faint ways. The 92 World Series, I was too young to stay up for it, but my parents woke me up right when it became clear that they were going to win. After Dave Winfield's double? Is that when you got awakened? I don't even

remember when it was. They said, this is a historic thing. You need to be awake for this. The 93 World Series, I was allowed to stay up and watch. I guess we won't dwell too long on this, but it doesn't make sense because you're growing up in,

I will call that, and this is not the proper term for where you grew up, but I call it the GTA. We're outside the GTA now, right? Don't call it that, Mike. It's the Golden Horseshoe. Golden Horseshoe. But you guys, is it because you're not the GTA that you don't adopt the Blue Jays as your own?

No, no, no. Because, I mean, because, you know, they grew up liking the Leafs too, right? And I did love the Blue Jays. I cheered for the Blue Jays went to Blue Jays games but you decided the Red Sox were going to be your team yeah that's the one disappointing thing about this it doesn't make sense to me please do not tweet all these excessive Red Sox things that upset us like just just understand all of your followers are Jays fans and just when involved. But I mean, the Red Sox were so terrible this year, so this should have been really good for my followers.

Well, it's fine, but we're only one year removed from something else. So anyway, thank you for coming on this podcast and sharing these stories with me because it's been fun for me. No problem. And that brings us to the end of our 101st show. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike, and Siobhan Morris at S-I-O-M-O-R-I-S-S-I-O-M. M as in Morris O.

See you all next week.