Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Suneel Joshi: Toronto Mike'd #513

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

Mike chats with sports broadcaster Suneel Joshi about his years at CFRB, CityTV, CFTO, Sportsnet, TSN and CTV Toronto.

Welcome to episode 513 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, and I don't use this word lightly, but dare I say legendary sports broadcaster. Well, he paid me five bucks to say that.

Sunil Joshi. Welcome, Sunil. Thank you, Michael. Michael, am I in trouble here? Well, when you start with legendary, you get Michael. I think that it's appropriate. Fantastic. Before we press recording, I was even, before I pressed record,

I was even getting like a little lesson on how to not pop your peas. And I need that because we're going to say palma pasta a few times. Well, that's okay. We can pop our peas with palma pasta. See, okay, so you taught me some techniques, but when you say it, you try to round the pea, right? Like, so, palma pasta. Is that popping? I can't tell.

You try to soften the pea so you don't go pa-pa. Palma pasta. And that's what three years at Ryerson taught you three years of rta that's all i got out of it sibilance and and not popping your peas okay i just caught up it only took me uh 90 seconds there you go uh what a pleasure uh in fact i have a quick anecdote off the top here so i'm just gonna play this as i tell you and it'll all make sense in a moment okay

twice a week I'm lucky enough I sit down with Mark Hebbshire to record his podcast Hebbsy on Sports and I said Hebbsy, Sunil Joshi's coming in and he said during the 1993 playoffs you were doing

Joshi was doing a live post-game hit for CFTO. Correct. And you were about to interview Wendell Clark. And Hepsey claims he said to you, hey, look, it's the captain in Sunil. Yes. That happened. Yes. Because that's a fantastic line.

That is absolutely true. It's one of those things where you're like, did that happen? Because that's perfect. Hepsy should have just retired right there. You're not a fan. Are you a fan? I don't know. Is this your,

what style of music do you listen to when you're alone? I liked your opening, first of all. Oh, good. I like the opening music. That's a local rapper producer, Ill Vibe. Oh, nice. I like the opening music. That's local rapper-producer Ill Vibe. Oh, nice. So I did like that, but this is sort of the old high school dance.

Oh, yeah. Right? This was the Closer song. Are you getting nostalgia with the Closer? Are you having memories right now, Sunil? Not good ones, obviously. So this is Muskrat Love. That's right.

It's probably the only Captain Antonio song I know, actually. I'm not sure if I can name a second one. I used to be a disc jockey, so some of these songs you played at dances and parties. So, yeah. Is that how it all started for you? Are you a disc jockey because you wanted to broadcast or like like is it related at all actually uh i wanted to i wanted desperately to be an athlete but a i did not i did not grow until much later in terms of size and lack of size and lack of talent uh sort of

ended that career so then i decided okay, then maybe I'll go into coaching or teaching as the case may be. But unless you play back then, you had no chance of getting, and there were no coaching clinics or schools to go to, to learn about that. So then if you can't play and you can't teach, well, then you talk about it. So that's how I wound up in doing the broadcasting. Before we dive deep into that, because obviously I have a million questions, but I have to say some highs for you here. So Jody Vance. Yes.

All the way on the left coast. Sportsnet days. She made sure I said hello to you. So hello from Jody. Great to hear from her too. Danny Elwell. Do you know? Because Danny, I know.

Well, Danny's right she's she's a voice so she does of the jazz she was on jazz fm she does jazz cast she was on cf and y back in the day that's right ckfm i think yes i knew her from ckfm yeah okay ckfm uh 99.9 for those who don't remember radio right right now it's virgin 99 it It keeps changing. It's got a personality disorder there. Danny says, love that guy. Do say hello. So Jody and Danny, this is great. Already a couple of big highs.

Dan O'Toole, have you ever heard of this guy? Dan O'Toole, yes. Dan O'Toole did his very first show on TSN with me. I think it was long before he became a big shot with Jay and went to Californiaifornia and all that you were the original jay is what you're telling that's right and then that's right and then jay and then yeah jay's a little taller than you but otherwise there's a striking resemblance i don't think so so uh dan writes fun fact and now i learned it's true. Sunil was my first partner on the desk at TSN.

As we did weekends together, tell him I missed, sorry, I missed the baked goods he used to bring in. Did you bring in baked goods? Yes, I used to bring, because we did both the 11 o'clock and the 2 o'clock, 2 a.m. show on Saturdays and Sundays

and not every, not very few places were open. So, of course, you'd bring in whatever goodies you can possibly do. And so I used to bring in muffins and Nanaimo bars at Christmastime and Rice Krispie squares and any of those types of things. I couldn't help but notice you came empty-handed today. Yes, that is true. Hopefully I don't leave that way.

No, you won't. In fact, heck, why don't we do some gift giving right off the top here? So, okay. I asked you, I said, Sunil, do you want a vegetarian or a meat lasagna, frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta? And you said meat. And that is your meat lasagna going home with you today from palma pasta excellent and this is uh not new to me because i'm a regular at palma pasta

and i'm not saying that just because i'm here no in fact the ladies at the uh store which is on which one aaron mills parkway yeah just south of the 403 used to be called the michelangelo's plaza but it's not michelangelo's Plaza, but it's not Michelangelo's anymore. It's another grocery store right next to them. And all those ladies who are fantastic, I usually go get the lasagna. I get the rigatoni, sorry, the tortellini and the veal or the chicken parm.

Those are my four go-tos. Unpaid endorsement. This is the real talk. Yep. And in fact, some of the ladies had either nephews or sons who played OHL for Brampton or Mississauga. So when I went in there, oftentimes we spent five, seven minutes discussing hockey.

Nice. David Breaux, I don't remember him. He played for, he was briefly a Leaf. Oftentimes we spent five, seven minutes discussing hockey. Nice. David Brawl. I don't remember him. He played for, he was briefly a Leaf. Oh, I don't remember him. Marley. He's a bit of a tough guy. Okay.

But a terrific two-way player. And he came out of Brampton, Brampton Battalion. And so, yeah, I think his aunt works at palma pasta and uh airmost parkway amazing so that's one of the four locations in mississauga uh there's one in oakville and there's an i don't know if you've in the last year it just turned one year but they have a new it's not i want to say new location but it's actually right beside one of their old locations but it's near mavis and burn burn burnham thorpe okay and it's called Palma's Kitchen. Oh, okay. And it's like 10,000 square feet.

You got the retail, you got the hot table. Wow. It's unbelievable. I bike over there for lunch sometimes. And honestly, before they ever became a sponsor, it was the, if you couldn't make it yourself, you know, it was the best Italian food in the GTA. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And for me, because as I i mentioned when i worked a lot of the late shifts at tsn with dan and and others you get home so you wanted something so i usually used to get it either on like a monday or tuesday because those are my days off and then i knew i'd have meals for the next three four or five days sure yeah so enjoy your uh meat lasagna i shall also there's a six-pack uh great lakes beer fresh craft beer uh for you to take home as well uh great lakes brewery which is in etobicoke here they're gonna host tmlx4 i'm all choked up over it because it's tomorrow and i'm so emotional about thirsty are you i'm gonna crack one of these open but uh it five o'clock someplace. That's right.

I encourage everyone listening, yourself as well, Sunil, that tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., where all the listeners and as many former guests as wish to come are going to collect on the patio of Great Lakes. It's going to be a fantastic day weather-wise. Right. And I'm going to be recording live from the patio. So 6 to 9, I'll probably start recording at 6.30 and go till 9 p.m.

And people who show up are going to take turns kind of jumping on the mic and having quick conversations. Oh, nice. Where are you from? When did you discover the show? A little story you want to share? So I'm really looking forward to meeting

as many listeners as possible. And that means I need you to come to Great Lakes Brewery tomorrow night. And your first beer is on the house. Great Lakes Brewery tomorrow night and your first beer is on the house so Great Lakes is going to buy you your first beer excellent excellent can you imagine a better deal no not at all what a great way to start and I'm not even done you got a Toronto Mike sticker I know you were aching for one of those I am very nice courtesy of sticker you.com there's also a temporary tattoo if you want to rock that.

But stickeru.com, you can get one or as many stickers or decals. All these decals behind me are from StickerU. You can get buttons, like I said, temporary tattoos. Anything that you can stick, you can get done there online, stickeru.com. Wonderful. So I think somebody from, I think Laura from StickerU will be at the TMLX4 tomorrow. Nice. It'll be nice to see her there.

And let me think. I might save the rest for later. There's more, but that's a good opening. So now you're glad you made the trek. Absolutely. I have to incent you to come all this way. Now, you were born in India. Correct. How old were you

when you made your way how did you get to canada i know you didn't come straight to canada but no tell me the journey to get to canada and when you got here my parents were um doing their university in england at liverpool and leeds university both in architecture and so we went to england first and uh from there we made it where once they were finished it turned out that uh after my parents were working in england my dad got a headhunter came and found a job with the municipal affairs in ontario and off we trekked to uh to toronto ontario canada and how old are you at this time i I'm 62 now. I was, it was 1966, 67 February when we moved to Canada. And a month later, the Leafs won the Stanley Cup and have not won since.

It's glad you didn't tell me that you arrived like a month after, because I'd blame you. You would be the curse. I was the one who actually managed to watch the last game. That's how I got into hockey. I'm like, this is great. We're going to win championships every year, and there's going to be a parade every year,

and boy, was I wrong about that. Yeah, that's quite the intro. Yeah, all these years later, you're still waiting to, although at least we gave you a Raptors parade last, so we gave you a little. That is true. And as I know, I'm going to play footage later, but you're well aware of a couple of parades we had in the early 90s for a certain baseball team i certainly

remember those i remember at least there were two argonaut great cup parades there were two blue jays world series parades which i was part of the which was amazing to go through yeah the argo parades are actually they're gone now in the sense that now you get a rally. Yes, which is sad. But 83, you're talking 83, right? So 83 was a big drought ended. Is it? I hope I got the right year.

That was the first one. That was the first one after a 50-year drought. Well, just think about that, because think of how difficult it is not to win that great cup for that long in that size of league. Exactly. It's almost hard not to.

But in those days, Hamilton was sort of their kryptonite. And Leo Cahill, who was the head coach and manager of the legendary Argonaut teams, always would run into Hamilton. And then back then, Ralph Cazio was running the Hamilton Tiger Cats. And so that was usually the way the stumbling block happened, if and when they were actually good in those days. Like, can you tell me a little bit about Leo there real quick?

Only because, uh, when, when he passed away recently, what was kind of, what I noticed was that a lot of people writing about sports in this market, uh, didn't remember him.

Like I thought Steve Simmons wrote a great piece and because, you know, Steve Simmons was there and, uh, it was almost like a an outlier part and we're going to get into this but I kind of lament the fact that we for some reason a lot of the people who were there and can put some really good context and perspective on people like Leo Cahill are no longer working including yours truly so there you go

including yes and that's why it's all gonna to ducktail nicely later. But tell us just a little bit, especially for someone like me, who I don't really remember the Leo Cahill era. Like, what kind of guy was he? Leo was a, and you used the word legend off the top. That is where the word should go. Leo truly was a legend in this city. He did things to truly put the Aronauts front and center and did so now some people will say the cynics will say yeah well what's the big deal there were no blue jays there were no raptors it was a two-sport town at the time it was leafs in the winter and

argonauts in in the summer but the fact of the matter is he always found ways to make sure the Argonauts were front and center, and he did so with the signings. He was, I mean, back then, if you can imagine, the CFL could outpay an NFL team. So when players that, Terry Metcalf and others who came up here to play, Anthony Davis is another, Joe Theismann. Right. They actually got paid more to come to Canada

than they did in the United States, which is something unthinkable today, but that he was able to do that. You're absolutely right. The only thing, if you're my age, the only kind of compare you can think of is that we probably shelled out enough money to get Rocket Ishmael.

That's the only guy you can point to in the stage. The McNall era. yes, that is correct. That was the last of the great coup, if you want to put it, for the CFL and specifically the Toronto Argonauts to bring in somebody like Rocket Ishmael. But back before that, I mean, Jim Stillwagon, I mean, Corrigal, all these guys,

the Georgia Connection, which was the tackle guard from the university of georgia that leo brought in and they were all like top 10 nfl picks and he just walked in and plucked them and brought them to to canada his other thing and and a lot of people don't uh because they don't remember him so much is he's american and he came up here and fought like like anything for the canadian football league quick story sure when i first uh got to cfrb radio um dave hodge was doing a talk show back then called sports line and then he eventually went full-time to hockey night in canada and so there was no Monday night talk show anymore.

That was given up to somebody else. But Bill Stevenson, my boss, a gentleman who hired me, the late Bill Stevenson, sports director at the time, suggested maybe I should do a Sunday night talk show, 7 to 9. And so my first guest was Helen Kellesey, the tennis player. Yes, yes, Hurricane Helen. Hurricane Helen. She was my first guest, and my second guest was Gord Ash,

who was at the time assistant general manager of the Blue Jays. So I start my talk show. Everything's sort of moving along. We're getting the calls. We're not having to have people from the newsroom call in and pretend, hi, it's Jeff from downtown or so on. Exactly. We're actually getting real callers.

And so one day I decided to do CFL versus NFL type, and I went on a bit of a rant. Phone rings. Guess who's on the air? It's Leo Cahill. And he tore a strip off me on the air like none of it i wish i'd kept the copy of that particular because he was so passionate about the cfl he broke it down in terms of the of what the differences between the two games are why one should not be compared to the other

and honestly i was always a convert anyway as i said I was an Argonaut fan growing up. I was just trying to do a comparison, and he took it as me downgrading his league to the American game, and he went off on me. So that's the kind of guy Leo was, and I, subsequent to that, we remained not friends necessarily because we were not contemporaries at the time, but we did see each other a lot and he always respected the fact that i had an opinion i stood up for my opinion and the next day i was at argonaut practice ready to take it from him so that that was sort of a learning process for me as well is there any hope uh for improvements in terms of uh attendance at

Argos games and just the what I sense is right now a general malaise amongst Toronto sports fans for this franchise the weird thing is this apathy has been around since the 70s it's like it goes oh okay is that right because I i'm led to believe in the 70s you had 45 47 000 people uh at exhibition stadium uh come into these games or you're actually you're right i shouldn't i misspoke it was not the 70s but i would say probably we'll start mid to late 80s and then and then after that and then we've had the highs when doug flutie and don matthews were here so there was those back-to-back great cups in 96 97 so they had a high of course the rocket ishmael uh the first year was gangbusters yeah second year not so much and then it started when

then you had matt dunagan come in so there've been what i call blips on on the radar that where they had actually go up to 20 21 000 type people but generally speaking it's it's like the the malays still exist and and you know you date back to what i was referring to in the 70s when they had this archaic policy that they did not air home games on television wow and you know and it wasn't just the cfl it it hurt chicago blackhawks because bill wirth believe it or not back even as late as the 90s he would not allow blackhawk home games to be shown on television because his whole thing was well if you want to come see a blackhawk and buy a ticket uh harold ballard for years the leafs games were never the first period was not seen because they assumed that you hard to believe right when you look back exactly and now last

night the pre-season game from saint john's was on the air and i mean there was a time when you couldn't get a get a even a report from someplace to find out what happened in a preseason game no right i mean the aforementioned hebsey will tell me like in the sports line in the uh like the 80s him and jim tatty like sometimes games didn't have television footage and they would pay somebody like a freelance guy to go yes you know what i mean like think think and then we're not going back to the you know the 50s and 60s here like this is in the 1980s exactly that and long before uh the video sharing where you can get anything from anybody uh it was absolutely impossible but what it did do is it it spawned another uh industry where you got a lot of freelance people who were able to go and you know learn and shoot and become the sports camera people right I bet you Cosmo Kramer would have been good at that. Yeah.

The camcorder in the movie theater. That's right. Okay. So, you know, when you say you came to Toronto, you lived in Mississauga, right? Or did you live in Toronto? No, I lived in Toronto for a bit, but I grew up in Mississauga. See, I'm calling you out on that, but you're...

No, no, I grew up in Mississauga. I went to public school there. I went to high school at T.L. Kennedy in Contra Park. And I was still in Mississauga. I went to public school there. I went to high school at T.L. Kennedy in Contra Park. And I was still in Mississauga when I went to Ryerson. And so, yeah. And you went to Ryerson to learn how to not pop your peas? Exactly. And sibilance.

Right. I don't even, I'm afraid to say it. Like, I'm afraid to say that word. Let me try here. Sibilance. Sibilance. Sibilance. There you go.

Wow. Well done. Well, I know my buddy, I have a friend, Elvis, who sometimes we, in fact, he'll be at TMLX4 if you're interested in meeting Elvis. And who wouldn't be? Elvis lives. But whenever I tell him to do a mic check, he always says, he goes syphilis, syphilis. I don't know if that's related to sibilance. I think he's trying to be funny.

I think he's trying to be funny. Well, he's not very funny, but he he's trying to be funny. I think he's trying to be funny. Well, he's not very funny, but he is a jerk. So I can, I can vouch for that. Now, uh,

I actually have more gifts for you, but, uh, cause I want it. You mentioned CFRB and I know, is that, is that your first mainstream media gig at CFRB? Yes.

Yes. I was, I was very lucky that, uh, things fell into place because when I, when I first got there, I was working in the technical side of it for a year and a bit and i was actually told at one time that my voice didn't wouldn't

translate onto radio and remember cfrb at the time was the juggernaut absolutely and for all things radio so yeah bill stevenson right? This is the biggest station in the country, right? Exactly. Wally Crotter, Earl Warren. You had some of the most amazing voices working there. And there I was, 21 years old. Sounded sort of like, well, wasn't quite that bad, but it was definitely not their standard.

That's how I sound now. Definitely not their standard. So yeah, that's where I started. So how, you know and at the time nowadays i feel like now the authentic voice is sort of in vogue like like that's that's okay be sound like you sound i'm hoping so because that's why i started the podcast but uh back then when you're right the you know the dave hodge or these are these are big, big voices. Like how did you score that gig? Um, I guess right place at the right time is what Dave Hodge said because, uh,

Oh no, actually, no. Dave said, if you hang around long enough, you'll get hired plan. This was at Doug B. Fourth, uh, um, um, pre-marriage party, otherwise known as the stag. Right. Uh, he, uh, Dave was the mc and he was he turned it into a bit of a roast for all of us and he turned to me and he said sunil you are you were hired as by being there long enough and get hired plan that's how i got it and actually what it did happen sort

of that way in that when i got there dave was working uh as a full-time sportscaster along with bill stevenson and fred lockie and. Forth, who later became a legendary sports producer for Hockey Night and then started SportsNet and the various things. He's a member of the IOC Broadcast Council. He was also there. So there was four of them. As it turned out, in one fell swoop, Dave went to HockeyNet as a full-time host and Doug went to HockeyNet as a full-time producer. And all of a sudden, there was a spot open for Saturday, Sunday, and nobody was available. And there I was.

And you were hanging around. Literally. I hear that, you know, I've never worked in the industry, but I've talked to hundreds of people in the industry and more often than you know, maybe you would believe it because it happened to you. But just being there often, just being there. And sometimes you're working for like nothing or peanuts, but you're there and you're available and you're kind of doing all the grunt work and you're there. And that's sort of one of the great gateways to the industry is being there. I don't know if that happens as much anymore but that certainly was the case with me and i and i i'm not exaggerating when i said i was there because they were left with no broadcaster for a weekend shift and it was like who are we going to

get we're not going to take somebody from news and shift them over um the other guys uh we're not going to work weekends so they handed me they said okay on a trial basis basically you do it and see how it works out and i was miserable my very first uh sports cast i was uh choked up i was popping my peas i was siblings you name it uh i couldn't get three words out without stopping to take a breath right uh so the program director called in immediately after that sportscast and said uh start taping uh 15 minutes before you and so that's what i would did until i finally got enough confidence to open the mic and speak it's funny that you mentioned the whole you need to take all those breaths because like i can

you know i can do this now with you i can do four hours with you right now cindy i hope you have no plans but uh no problem whatever but like just so this this morning uh this is kind of a funny uh coincidence just this morning i was on uh ctv's morning show oh yeah i know uh complete coincidence by the way uh in the summer i was i did a very short little thing on City's News. Okay. And it was coincidentally the day I had a chat with Kevin Frankish and just before Gord Martineau came over. So I feel like somehow it's cosmic that I would be on the CTV morning show.

It's called Your Morning. And then Sunil Joshi would be coming over. 60 degrees of separation or all that. Right. So I'm on at 730 via Skype because I have to get kids to daycare. And we're talking about daycare, actually. That was the topic or whatever. And so I'm getting the kids ready frantically.

And at like 7.15, I'm supposed to go on Skype to check. So then as I'm setting up, I'm like, I decided I would like kind of practice something I could say. Like just, I'm not even live anywhere.

We're recording, right? And I'm starting to talk and I'm like, wait, my breaths like they're more you know what i mean it's like what i mean what is that like i and i can hear that i don't have the same uh like relaxing comfort and i can you know i can sit down with you now and do like i said four hours no problem and i'm like what's that and it actually went away before we went live and i was completely relaxed uh because like maybe because the kids distracted me. But you're right. When you're anxious or nervous.

That's actually a good thing. Is it? Yes. Because if you're not slightly anxious just before you go on, then that means you're not necessarily into it. But if you are, that means that once the mic is open and you're ready to go, you're totally into it. That's the way I felt anyway.

If I didn't have sweaty palms. But did you have it when you were like 25 years into your career absolutely there was that it was that one moment just before uh coming out of commercial we're sitting at the desk and we're just talking away and then you're up and now there's three of you or four of you at the desk and they they start they're going to throw to you and you're going to turn to camera one there's just about maybe a millisecond to a second right and yeah and then then you go okay so it's a good thing i agree with it so are you concerned i didn't have it with you right now is there any concern there no not at all different people i'm actually engaged i'm actually ridiculously interested in this convo but no no nervousness. But I think it was something, I don't know what it was.

Maybe it was Skype. I couldn't say. It's not nervousness. It's anxiety, just a little bit of anxious. You're on high alert because maybe because you realize it's live and you realize a lot of people are watching and you can't see your, I was Anne-Marie Medawake and she,

I see her on my screen. Like I'm used to like being able to look at your beautiful eyes right here right so it was a few things but again it was when i was practicing it was there yeah and then i the connection was good and i was just waiting for my cue and it was gone and i was completely relaxed but i had this like oh how do i i can't get a full breath how am i gonna say a full sentence like i had this moment of like where where's my, you know, my full breath? Where did it go? Well, it did go away, don't it?

But that sounds like you had that at the beginning of the 1010 experience. Oh, absolutely. Now, actually I have some music for this here. Oh, more music. Just a little more here. I wonder if you, as a DJ, if you ever played this,

maybe if you did an October dance or something. Sounds like Monster Mash. It's Monster Mash. Boris, Boris. Let's see if you get it. Boris what? Boris. Boris Pickett.

Boris Pickett. So, Mike, why are you playing Monster Mash? Because I have. And, Sunil, I'm going to email you these via, there'll be PDF files I'll email to you. But I have two tickets for you to go to Pumpkins After Dark. What's Pumpkins After Dark, Mike?

What the hell is this? It is 5,000 hand-carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies. It's in Milton at Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ontario. It starts September 25th and it runs, actually it might. Right. It starts September 25th, and it runs... Actually, it might be it starts on September 26th, and it runs to November 3rd.

And you got not just the 5,000 pumpkins, you got 100 sculptures, you got sound, and it's going to be really cool. Like, I'm going to take my family, and you got a couple of tickets now. You can go and attend this thing. Wonderful. Absolutely. And if somebody listening

wants to save 10% right now on Pumpkins After Dark tickets, go to pumpkinsafterdark.com and use the promo code. I chose this. I hope you like it. Pumpkin Mike. Pumpkin Mike will save you 10%

when you buy tickets to Pumpkins After Dark. Excellent. Thank you, Borlaug. you buy tickets to Pumpkins After Dark. Excellent. Thank you, Borlaug. You got tickets to Pumpkins After Dark. You got lasagna. You got the Toronto Mike sticker from stickeru.com. You got the beer. I'm all set for tonight's Leafs game.

My mom sometimes... Oh, yeah, that's right. Is that... I can't believe we're already watching these things. Yeah, I know, isn't it? It never ends. But my mom, like, she My mom like she sees sometimes she sees I got all these lasagnas in the

Usually I can fit four lasagnas in my freezer And you saw I had a few in there And she's like well that's pretty cool Yeah they're for guests and she's can I be a guest She wants to be a guest to get the lasagna Why can't you just give her one Palma pasta can I give my mom A lasagna absolutely I think if Sunil Joshi says I can absolutely I'll give her one? Palma Pasta? Can I give my mom a lasagna? Absolutely.

I think if Sunil Joshi says I can. Absolutely. I'll give her mine if she wants that. Well, you can invite her over. No problem. Just let me know. I'll send her over. Okay, there's a...

Oh, yeah. Before I get to this question, this is interesting because a friend of the show, Milan from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, he's got a question for you that's really timely about CFRB and it kind of, I think it's an interesting question. But I also can tell people that Milan at Fast Time uses the services of Rupesh Kapadia as his accountant. And Rupesh,

as you know, as a listener, is the rockstar accountant who sees beyond the numbers. So let's actually listen to like a minute of Milan talking about Capadia. And then I'll ask you Milan's question. I'm very interested in your answer. Okay. Here is Milan. Hello, Toronto Mike listeners. This is Milan from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair.

We've been using Capadia LLP for many years, providing guidance for all of our corporate and personal accounting needs. Over the years, Rupesh Capadia has put together an effective tax plan for his clients. And the bottom line is, he and his expert team of accountants save you money. Thanks, Toronto Mike. And thank you, Capadia LLP. So there's Milan. Great voice, right?

Absolutely. The voice I wish I had. Now Milan is of South Asian descent. Born in Canada, I believe, but his parents came from India. And he was very interested in you coming on. He has a few questions, but the first one

I'll do right now, because we're talking about CFRB. He tells me, he says, William Houston and Howardard burger both reported racist comments experienced by senile joshi from harold ballard when senile worked for cfrb in the early 1980s uh can you share anything uh about about that is i mean we all know ballard was a cantankerous asshole right but i But I didn't know he was racist towards sports reporters. What can you share? Well, I mean, it's true, first of all.

It is true. And Bill was a columnist for the Globe and Mail. Right. He was a hockey columnist at first, and then he moved on to the media side of it. And Howard Berger and I have known each other since my, I said, I was at Ryerson 1,500 years ago. Howard and I probably have known each other about that long as well.

We sort of broke in together at the same time. Both basically carried a microphone and a tape recorder wherever we went to get stories. And there was a friendly competition, obviously, because he liked to break stories, as i yeah it is true uh harold is was what he was um with the thing with harold was he would never directly say anything to you he always said something about you to someone else so that was a kind of a dichotomy whereas he saw you he'd be like hey how's it going great to see you again and if you called him mr ballard he said ah come on call me harold but then you'd

walk away and then you'd hear that somebody else had done that um in fact one of the quotes of harold is in gorge stelic's book uh the very first book that he wrote about the Leafs. And so, yeah, it is, it was prevalent. It was happening, but you just, you know, put your head down and did the job. I suppose you had no, you just had no choice but to tolerate this from somebody like Ballard. Pretty well. Back then, you know, there was no,

there was no board to report to or you know you couldn't take it to the nhl it was i mean harold harold ran things the way harold wanted to run things so and i mean remember he he banned people he banned women from the dressing room uh that was far more egregious than what what he may or what he what he said about me he never said it directly to me but he did say things about me so i don't know i mean it those are things that we unfortunately had to put up with but we did yeah so was it difficult now especially back then uh the the canadian sports media landscape media landscape was awfully male and awfully white. Yep.

It still is, actually, but getting better. But was it difficult for you as a person of color to advance in such a landscape? Was that at all a hindrance at all? Not that I can remember. I mean, I don't remember not getting a job because of it uh i just remember that in in terms of um getting respect from athletes i just i just assume because i was a young reporter competing against the grizzled veterans if you want to call them and

and the giants of our business newspaper guys back then were very very powerful because they're called milt donnell george gross jim hunt frank or rick fraser i mean i can go on with the names of of the legendary columnists and sports writers right they had the they commanded the respect of of the athletes i was a young guy trying to break in. So I had to sort of find my own way and I didn't have a problem from them ever. I never had a athlete refuse to speak to me because of my color or my ethnicity. So from that standpoint,

I can't say that it was a hindrance in any way. So at 1010, this is your only radio spot, I guess, before you go to TV, right? Yes. Okay. So tell us basically what television you moved to from 1010 and how that worked. Did you get an offer in TV? I went to City TV and how it happened is I got a, again,

again, somebody has to leave to open up a spot and Russ Salzberg, the great Russ Salzberg had just signed on to go to WWOR Channel 9 in New York. He did all right for himself. He's still there and he's doing very well for himself. Did you do a Russ impersonation or no? Only because I was in the room with John Gallagher yesterday.

Okie dokie. That's about the only thing I can remember from him. So just yesterday, and actually this audio will eventually be shared with the world, although not yet.

But I was working with Peter Gross and John Gallagher yesterday. And Gallagher, Russ Salzberg, they didn't like Russ Salzberg. I don't know, maybe they were jealous of his success or something. But John goes into impersonation of russ and it was pretty intense

there but uh anyway so yeah so yes russ salzburg left uh to go to new york so he calls me and says look i'm leaving uh to go i got another job in the states i'm going would you be interested in this in this job and I was like uh okay it was early in the morning when he called I said okay so well then I'm going to talk to the people here and I said okay fine you know talk to them and I didn't think anything was going to happen because I'd uh attempted to get in television before and for one reason another didn't get the job and i assume that's because i wasn't the right person wasn't qualified any of those things and so i didn't think anything of it until i got a call from uh the news director and i went in to see did an uh did an audition one weekend at the card expo out by the airport.

Okay. And that was it. And who was the news director? Do you recall? Steve. His last name escapes me now. Now, okay. So how long were you at City TV? Two years.

Two years. Did you ever have a meeting with Moses? I certainly did. You don't get hired at City TV unless you have a meeting with Moses and Mr. Zneimer. That very day, it was a Saturday, that they called me in to interview as well as to the audition tape. Clint Nickerson was the producer who helped me with that. Clint of 680 fame, but Then he went out west as well. So he helped me produce the story.

And he recently passed away, right? I know. Yeah. Which was, yes. But he was the one who helped me get through it. And then I was finished. We discussed a bunch of things. And then I was told that,

but we can't move forward until Moses meets you. And I'm like, okay, so, but at that time I didn't know if he was in town, if he's not in town. So I had to sit in the lobby at two 99 queen until he showed up and he did show up and we,

we met and it did not go very well. Interesting. He did not like me. He did not find me diverse enough. He felt that I had sort of gone way too middle of the road. And perhaps I had because I'd worked at CFRB and there was a certain standard and a style that they had and he wanted well he hated the cbc so i the whole city tv presentation was don't be cbc exactly

exactly and i i clearly wasn't russ right you know i didn't have the brooklyn accent or i you know i didn't do wild things so uh he he did not like me one bit but it's interesting and i don't mean to interrupt except just if you step back and realize that you weren't diverse enough right imagine when all the other stations were stacked with white faces and you're not diverse enough for a city but they just well they felt at the time because of the cfrb education if you, because I'd been there 10 years, that I'd gone way too middle of the road, way too that way, instead of becoming a personality. That's what he wanted, really. He wanted a personality.

Yeah, characters. Exactly. Like Gallagher and Gross, who I spent so much time with the last couple of weeks. Exactly. And Jim McKinney, for instance. Yes. You know, terrific character himself.

I mean, the fact that he was a good hockey player and he had a terrific career as an nhl but he was he is a character and that's what he wanted and i wasn't that and he didn't think that i could manufacture that and just become a character don cherry who's who make it you know basically has his character those types of things and he's right in that sense because what you see is what you get. So he did not like me at all. Interesting that you're seeking authenticity, but sometimes your authentic self can be, yeah,

lack the, I guess the, you mentioned characters, like I'm thinking Jojo Chinto, right? Like Moses hired Jojo Chinto. And I don't want to, I can't remember who told me that. If it was Lauren Honigman? But I've had so many City TV chats lately. Now they're all, it's all bleeding together. But somebody told me like no station, and it might have been Peter Gross or John Gallagher actually,

but no station in the market would hire Jojo Chinto. But that's precisely what Moses liked about him is that he was a real person, a diverse personality in a very diverse city moses vision for city tv was exactly the way which is anybody that worked for city tv could go into anyone's house and be comfortable in discussing anything and relate to that person problems because they were mine by either as a as a as a parent or someone who lived in the neighborhood that's what he wanted he did not want this separation of i am from television and i'm going to be reporting on you and he wanted his reporters to be part of the story whereas everywhere else they tell you not to be part of the story yeah it's

like it's not your and and it's the same thing in sport when i i don't like it when when uh sports people refer to the teams and athletes as we you're not in the dressing room you don't wear you don't wear a sweater right you can wear a sweater at home and wave and cheer and yell, but you're not in there. But are you referring to fans or reporters? I'm talking about reporters. Okay, yeah, good point. Which was happening more and more, where people who are fans, it's no problem.

But as a reporter referred to a team as we, you're not. You don't get a ring if the team wins the championship. At least you shouldn't get a ring. Also, you're supposed to be completely objective. Objective, that's the whole thing whereas moses did not want that moses wanted you to be fully engaged fully involved in a story if it's a story about let's say there's a sinkhole and it's causing problems uh for a young family he wanted you to feel that so get in the sinkhole you know find out what the what the stench is if it is a

stench where's the you know where's the water coming from how is this going to affect the family he wanted you to be part of that whereas other stations would say okay get the video stand outside do a stand-up and say okay here's what's happening talk to the family talk to the neighborhood talk to public city officials and build your story that way he didn't want that he wanted you part of it and and there's something to be said like we're everywhere else whatever it be cft or wherever but people anchors for example are you know sitting behind uh desks and chairs and uh moses like this kinetic uh activity of constant movement like there was a a flow to everything and everything was on the move all the time well to him again it's the same thing which is executives sit in office and then workers sit

at their pod or or their cubicle right and then you know you've got your lunchroom here well to him that's all separation right and you don't want a separation you want a continuous an environment environment where we all are working together towards something. And a newsroom really is that. It's not just news or entertainment or weather or sports or health or lifestyle. We're all working together. So if we're really truly working together, then we should be able to move from desk to desk to desk to desk

and not have a studio someplace where you can go to deliver everything and then come back to your newsroom. So yes, from that standpoint, yeah, he's absolutely correct. So if Moses didn't like you, how the heck did you get the gig? The news director fought for me. And then the news manager went up and fought for me. And he grudgingly around nine o'clock that night said, okay, well, if you want them you can have

them but you know mark my words when it doesn't work out i'll be here to say i told you so so yeah um glad you got the gig sorry you had the uh the moses of resistance there um but who are i'm trying to what years i get a little confused for example is this john saunders is he there who is who is this part of the sports department at city tv at the time you're there at that time um it is jim mckinney and ann romer has just left to do breakfast television 30 years ago because i had the 30th anniversary episode so she was she was doing sports along with jim and peter had left as well to go to radio so it was jim and myself who replaced russ because annette now leaving to go to breakfast television right and then greg manziuk uh jumped

in and did the weekend gotcha gotcha okay and on breakfast television john whaley uh was doing like sports updates john was uh was a floor director and then he had like two yes yes floor director slash sports and then he did sports yeah and now you can sometimes hear him on tsn radio oh okay i actually just he was part of that 30th anniversary we phoned him up uh he's in mississauga we called him up uh for the 30th anniversary of breakfast television and gave her gave him a shout now uh so why do you leave city tv once again the phone call comes from jerry dobson who was sports director cfto at the time and i thought it was somebody playing a practical joke and i hung up well hopefully they called back. Fortunately for me, he did call back and said, don't hang up.

I'm not going to call back if you hang up this time. And I'm like, okay, I'll play along, because I'm still thinking somebody's pulling a practical joke, because there was no chance of me ever being hired at CFTO. And the late Pat Marsden told me so years before when I had applied for the job that Joe Tilley got. And at that time, he told me, he said, look, there's no chance you're ever going to get hired here.

Did he say why? He just, what, he didn't like the cut of your jib? What's going on there? It wasn't going to be his decision. It was going to be higher up. And he just felt that the climate wasn't right and they weren't interested and they wanted certain a look certain style the other thing is they wanted experience and at that time uh i had not worked in television when joe was hired i was still working in radio so i did not have television experience and joe

television experience in red deer and and so's, that was part of it. And so he just, he just thought that that's not going to happen. So when they did call me, that's why I thought it was a practical joke. Right. And thankfully I, the second phone call, I chose to listen. So was it calling to like audition you or to offer you a gig? Again, somebody was moving and somebody was moving around and they were creating another show okay and they need a next person to start doing weekends

and george bryson who'd been there was was doing weekends was moving to the 5 30 show or the noon show and somebody else coming in and that's how the job opened up. So this is probably 1991? 1991, correct. 1991. Okay, I have a clip. Obviously, it's an early 90s clip. I hope it comes across right. But this is a Blue Jays,

I believe it's the 1992 World Series Parade. And let's just hear a little bit of Sunil Joshi in 1992 reporting for CFTO. Well, Julie, it's just as loud down here on the street as the cars are falling by. Coming up is Jack Morris and Mark Eichhorn. Let's go see if we can talk to them just for a quick second here. Jack, is this unbelievable?

Is this anything like you've experienced before? Yeah, twice before. It happens all the time, every time you win. But it's a first for Canada, and I'm damn happy for all these people. They deserve this. Enjoy the day. Thank you. Okay, so that's Jack Morris.

Let's see if we can get somebody else. We've got Tom Henke and David Cohn here. David, is this what you expected this thing to be? Okay, so you need to see the video, but somehow you're disconnected from this live broadcast at that point. Because I'm curious, and they don't explain in this YouTube video, but what happened? Did your cable get unplugged?

What happened there? It probably did. Back then, we didn't have too many rf mics which is radio frequency mics so that which would allow you to walk freely from uh from the camera and if you did it was only about two of them and so if you did get out of range and you would you were gone basically and there was no way they can get in touch with you so yeah that's probably happened so i mean we're skipping ahead and then we'll come back but was i wearing my trench coat and uh rocking the mustache back you were definitely rocking the mustache when did you lose the mustache it was when i went to sports net okay is that like late 90s where we're 96

96 okay oh it was a sports night in 96? okay maybe yeah I guess is that okay I mean my mind is like 98

but what do I know now okay so you only left CFTO what year did you leave CFTO? to go to sports night

okay okay so yeah maybe I'll let you I'll let you tell your story and then I'll ask questions as we go along. But okay, so you're at CFTO. Do you want to share any...

Oh, I think I know where you're leading this. Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe you should stay in chronological. I worked for three different places, but I never left the compound. Is that where you're going? Yes, it's extremely confusing for... Believe me.

Believe me, it was at the time as well um sports net was at one time owned by or started by ctv it was known as ctv sports net right and uh so and doug b forth was the head honcho of that he's the one who put it all together so it's the same family it's like it's like somebody right now would say oh i'm on ctv but i'm also on a cp24 well you're actually like that's the same correct paycheck but at the time what they did was they the i don't know if you remember the television show eng yes okay the eng set or studios where the television series was shot is where they decided that sports net was going to be housed and created this beautiful, beautiful set. And Yvonne Fitzon was the president and CEO of CTV now at the time.

And when I asked if I could go there, he was a little surprised because I was leaving this established position at CFTO slash CTV to start something new. But I new but i said i you know what i wanted to do was more sports not less sports and so i went and it was literally across the parking lot and this is agent court this is an agent court we're in the same complex we just went from the old building to the new building where the new set was and then when i went to tsn when all the merger business happened to create even more confusion well that business if if and tell me if i'm wrong but uh sportsnet had to be sold because uh ctv was owning bought tsn and they could only have one

correct ctv bought tsn and they had two sports networks, which the CRTC was not going to allow. So they had to sell one of them. And obviously, if you're buying TSN, you're not going to be selling that off. So they were forced to sell their stake in Sportsnet at the time. Right. And Rogers had the first right of refusal so that's where it went and because some people at sportsnet uh belong to ctv that basically so you don't get to go with the station because you belong to ctv right am i right yeah like i mean it's like rod black for example

correct in yourself okay yeah rod black and myself were ctv employees and we were not contract we were we were actually it's a yeah as you said confusing so there were those who were on contract those were staff employees and so we were basically handed over to tsn so basically you're in yeah didn't leave the building right no it's actually very interesting because you're you're a cfto is a CTV affiliate for Toronto. Now they call it CTV Toronto. So you're a CFTO guy and then because CTV has Sportsnet, you get a role at Sportsnet, but then CTV buys TSN and the CRTC says you got to lose one of them. And then, of course, they're going to lose Sportsnet. you you belong to ctv if you will you're anyways as an employee so uh you can't go with the sports net to rogers you stay in the ctv family which now owns tsn and so i mean if i so in my mind where you kind of arrive in early 90s at cfto in my mind you you were there uh well very recently so like so. So you're at TSN. So maybe because it's so spaghetti here, we step through it and maybe if you have any,

the CFTO, for example, you mentioned Joe Tilly and we all know Joe Tilly and Lance Brown were there a long time. So can you share maybe what it was like working with these guys at CFTO and what your experience was like at CFTO when you got there in 91? Well, they were the established stars. First of all, Lance was doing the 6 o'clock show,

which was the biggest show in the country, along with Tom Gibney at the time, and Dave Duvall was there as well. So that was established. And then Joe was 11 o'clock with Christine Bentley and Ken Shaw, and I was the weekend guy george bryson was doing the noon show and jerry dobson sports director was doing the brand new fledgling 530 at the time and then also doing his commentaries on the six to seven world beat news

as it was called right and so i was weekend but the funny thing is that once and that was really an amazing time in toronto sport if you look at it because starting in 85 when the blue jays started to become successful winning their first division title after that it seemed like every other year one of the three teams at the time raptorsors were not there yet, was in the playoffs or going deep in the playoffs. So I wound up essentially traveling with the various teams. I was on the road more than I was at home. And so I rarely saw Joe because I was either on the road or i was working weekends so unless uh unless we were crossing paths doing sport uh sports beat today on sundays that was about the only time that i

got a chance to see joe and then later on it was it was the same thing because i was working completely opposite to him right right uh and well lance is now a politician here. Yes. He's elected ex-city. I don't know what the... Is it Port Perry or Uxbridge? Uxbridge sounds familiar to me. But yeah, he'd be whatever, a city councillor. A city councillor, alderman, yes. So good for him.

And so this is CFTO, your sports anchor. Can I tell you a quick Joe Tilly story? I would love hearing a Joe Tilly story. Joe Tilly, I don't know if people know this, and I'm sure you expanded on his previous career, which was Golden Gloves boxer. Yes, for sure. And Danny Skywalker and Wayne Bork

are some of his contemporaries whom he fought against in training and traveled to Ireland on various competitions. So we were talking about Harold Ballard and the Leafs in those days. And Dan Maloney was the coach of the Leafs. We're at North York Centennial. And Dan was like coaches, Leaf coaches in those days it was under the gun pretty well six days a week because he had to work for uh cantankerous owner shall we say and the team wasn't very successful and so there were people he was being criticized sort of 24 7 and he one time decided that maybe because of his former when he was a player he was a known

as a fighter that he that he might just take on a reporter and he decided that he would take on joe because joe compared to dan maloney was a little shorter and smaller. And I turned to somebody at the time and who did not know about Joe's boxing career. Wow. And I said, I think Dan should back up on this one because my money's on Joe. Right. Fortunately,

Joe showed his class and cool and did not. And then walked away. And then somebody who I'd spoken, spoken to with the Leafs people, PR people at the time, I think it was Gord Stelic or Bob Stelic, his brother. And one of them went and kind of enlightened Dan on the potential. And I think Dan got the gist of it and decided, okay,

this is not a good idea to be taking the Leafs. Pick your boys in a different position. Smart move there. Very, very very maloney there uh that's great and anytime you have any don't even hesitate to sprinkle any stories in here about anybody uh back in the day but so you're at cfto and then you move okay so i've got it right you're at sportsnet correct now can you tell me about those uh those early days of sports net uh sports net is is a fabulous place now it was fabulous place then it was terrific in terms of learning but we were um trying something brand new which was for regional networks and so you were trying to please a lot of people in a short period of time and we did don't forget had the juggernaut known as tsn that we had to compete against and at that time jim van horn was the host of the six o'clock show and i was pitted right up against

him on that side and i was now competing against lance brown on world beat so right this is like uh what have i got myself into but more than anything else it was from a technological standpoint with sports net was going digital or not going was digital so everything they were that we they were doing was there was no tape It was all through the servers. And the servers crashed because they were not used to the amount of volume that a sports show would have. Right. With highlights, with interviews, long interviews, short interviews, all of those things.

And so it would crash. Thankfully, we had a month's worth of rehearsals because literally 10 minutes into a show it would just pack it in and like the lights at a stadium when the when they go dark you need 20-25 minutes for it to warm up so after that we learned very quickly that from now on back up everything on tape right so we were back to you know the old way of doing analog exactly exactly so those were some of the growing pains but uh otherwise it was uh it was a wild ride and i mean nick kiprios uh was he there at the very beginning nick was there we're working with darren drager on hockey central

yep right drager's one of those rare guys you'd cross the parking lot like he's another one yeah exactly he did cross the parking lot except yeah back when it was different than your situation really because you never actually ever change your parent employer right no i did not which is fascinating in itself but drager yeah i always wondered why more people didn't like more uh talent didn't switch or as they said used to say cross the parking lot from like tsn to sports net like it just seemed like there was there wasn't as much poaching as you'd think uh well it was because you want to call it collusion well i once used that word with yeah you don't want to poach our guys we won't poach your people i use that word of scott moore i don't think he liked me using that word but i said it did it seemed like collusion but gregory

is one of the rare examples of somebody who actually did that yes right so absolutely maybe that's just so they can say hey it can't be collusion look at darren drager you gotta have one example like that so you're at uh sportsnet and that's where i guess you're working uh is it uh jody vance is there with working with you j Jody came. Yeah. Jody came later. Later. Okay. Okay. Okay. So you're at Sportsnet and then we already covered that you end up, can't go with Sportsnet.

Sorry. What's that like though? When a lot of your colleagues are off to have a new, you know, new parent, like they're being adopted or something by Rogers and you're, you're going to stay behind. Like,

is that interesting or? It was weird because again it was like uh this uh it's like changing schools but the school is the one that moved and you didn't oh yeah you know normally you move away and you have to you leave your friends behind but in this case the school got up and left and we're like uh what do you what are we what am i supposed to do now so you're getting to know new people and But from that standpoint, I already knew a bunch of people at TSN having worked. And you already knew what was good at the cafeteria, for example.

The cafeteria didn't change, exactly. Hebsey was telling me, I know it's all about Hebsey, but I spend so much time with the guy, I get a lot of stories. But he was telling me, in the cafeteria, he used to sit with,

who's the, oh my God, how come I can't remember his name right now? But Dave Duvall. Yep. And who was the main guy? Tom Gibney. No, for the national news.

Oh. Robertson. Lloyd Robertson. Lloyd, yes. That tells you, I was a City TV guy. I can't even name Lloyd Robertson. Wow, that's. I know.

Those are high circles that Hebby was traveling in. Yeah, they would have, I guess when he was at Sportsnet, they would share the cafeteria or something like that they still i mean they still they share the cafeteria at tsn as well uh but i never had any opportunity to sit down and have uh even a coffee with lloyd if the only time i ever saw lloyd was in uh in and out of the makeup room when he was on his way to taping something and i'd say hello hello and that was it do you think uh he's the inspiration for Ken Brockman on the Simpsons I have to ask that question but maybe maybe not but uh well certainly um he was the an inspiration for the SCTV skit yes of course Flaherty right right

and Eugene Levy for sure right so So that was certainly the inspiration for that. I always liked on SCTV, Brock Linehan for Brian Linehan. Brian Linehan, fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I actually have been influenced by him. I remember watching his interviews and thinking, the guy did his homework. Yes.

It's important. Even though today I can't keep track of where you are at what point, but I just know you're in the same building. But I always took that to heart, like to always be prepared when you have somebody in front of you when i was hired he was one of the first few people to actually come down to the newsroom to say hello welcome me and i was in awe because i i mean i watched his shows right and uh truly enjoyed everything that he did and so for him down and say that, and I'm a new,

a new young reporter, TV type, never have done this before. And he said, anything you need, you know, anytime, anywhere.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Now, speaking of great, since you're back at city TV, I got to ask you about another, uh, former colleague who died too soon.

And that's Mark Daly. Yeah. Can you tell me anything about Mark? Mark and I worked together because after John Roberts, otherwise known as J.D. Roberts from his Much Music days, when I first got to City TV, he was doing the late show, the 10 o'clock show, J.D. Roberts. It was myself and Harold Hussain.

Actually, David Ongley was still doing the weather before he became the lieutenant governor right and then then harold hussein hurricane harold exactly so it was me jd and david onley on the on the late show and then after jd went stateside it was mark daly who came on board and he became the anchor. So I worked with Mark and terrific, terrific guy. Loved his baseball. Loved those Cleveland Indians. And back then, he sat and shook his head every time. Oh, yeah, they were terrible.

Oh, no kidding. Well, the mistake by the lake. And when the Blue Jays went there in those early years, the 500 people that were there, there were 495 were from Toronto or from Ontario, and there were five from Cleveland. So yeah, we had a great time, and what a voice. The voice.

Oh my God, what a voice. So yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed working with him. Okay, so now we got you. So Sportsnet's gone, goodbye, but you're not leaving the school. The school left you. And how do you end up on TSN? I wind up at TSN because I got handed over to them.

But I wasn't sure. Would you be handed back to CFTO or CTV or TSN? At the time, I was handed over to TSN along with Rod Black. I was handed over to TSN along with Rod Black and basically all the properties that Sportsnet had that were actually CTV properties then went to TSN so I went with them such as the NBA and a few other things that I was working on like speed skating some hockey women's hockey university hockey those types of things and so I went and did those for the first little bit before. And then also the late sports desk at 11 and two on Saturdays and Sundays. Right now. So how long were you at?

Cause this is, you already mentioned Dan O'Toole, but so I guess they hide a Sean Ryder who's a listener and just said, if I recall correctly, Jay on right replaced the Neil Joshi as Dan's co-anchor on TSN Sports. It was Sports Desk back then? It was Sports Desk. Yeah, because he wrote Sports Center. But come on, Sean.

We need the details matter here. So is that right? That Onright replaces you and then that's how Onright and O'Toole pair up? I think what, yes. I think what happened was that Jay got hired and then he and i did his first shows together for a while and then when i left he and dan then paired up yeah okay so before we got you leaving here uh can you share any uh stories about the great tsn personalities that you worked with like so um was jim van horn still there jim was still doing the six. Yep. Right.

And he still had the mustache, as I recall. Absolutely. And yours is gone. Mine is gone because when I went to Sportsnet, I just decided it was time to, if I'm going to change everything, then I might as well just change that. And I wound up shaving it.

Right. And that was that. And Jim still got his, by the way. He does. But Gino's is long gone. Gino's is long gone and Jim Taddy still has his. Yes the way. He does. But Gino's is long gone. Gino's is long gone, and Jim Taddy still has his. Yes, guy. There you go.

There you go. We were at the time, I think we were the only three that did. And Rod sort of, you know, with Rod, it's yes, no, sometimes. And his is a bit of like a Clark Gable type thing going on, right? So it's like, he thinks it's 1940 or something there. So Rod, I got to get Rod in here. right? So it's like, he thinks it's 1940 or something there. So, uh, Rod, I gotta get Rod in here. Uh,

now we, um, yeah, who else was there? Uh, Michael Landsberg. Uh, Mike was doing, uh,

Mike was doing, uh, off the record at the time. Off the record. So he was not, I mean, part of that group that I was there with, uh,

let me see here. Like Vic Router, for example. Vic was there. Uh, Vic would fill in on, in the summertime, but primarily he Vic Rauter, for example. Vic was there. Vic would fill in in the summertime, but primarily he was doing soccer and curling, so I rarely saw him.

Make the final. Exactly. Actually, he, Vic Rauter's story. Yeah, please, because actually, Vic's a regular listener of the program, so I'm confident he'll hear this story. So maybe that's a warning. I lost a job to Vic at CBC Television.

He got hired and I didn't at the time so there you go uh i remember that seeing him in those old cbc jackets uh yes there you go so vick another when you take on vick you're probably going to lose out so no shame in that game so absolutely uh vick and dave was doing the sunday morning show at the time dave hodge right um vick was there gourd was there um paul romanek was the hockey guy romanek yes it is over uh doing he was the first guy doing a lot of those well he was doing a lot of those uh junior tournaments he did the world juniors for years and years and years but he at that time i think was the number one play-by-play for nhl hockey right and uh so who i worked with james duffy was there right darren detition was there um i remember one of the stories we used to

do they did a uh every year the espn has the spelling bee and so they used to run that on on tsn when the winners came about and to see, you know, are you smarter than a fifth grader almost. Right, right. And so one of the skits that they decided to do is, can you spell the Titian? And they went around the newsroom, and I think everybody was wrong. Yeah, I can imagine. Everybody was wrong.

That's like asking you to spell Muraskowski. Yeah, and Muraskowski, yes. It took me a long time to learn there's like a C height. It's a C and a Z. C, Z, Y. Thinking there. Yeah. It's tricky.

Remember like Mark Zipchinski? Yes. The Blue Jays pitcher. Try that one on. Or Sophia. Or Mike Krzyzewski. Right. Or Sophia Yurchikovic.

There's another one. I was going to say, we just took a job at New England Sports Network. Oh, nice. Working covering like the Bruins and stuff. So good for her. She's a friend of the show. I have to give her England Sports Network. Oh, nice. She's working covering the Bruins and stuff. So good for her. She's a friend of the show. I have to give her a shout out.

Okay, so TSN, you also, am I right, you called some Raptor games? I did. Only because Rod's wife gave birth and he could not be there. He tried everything he could to travel, to be at the game, but he could not make it. They couldn't have the birth at the there. He tried everything he could to travel to be at the game, but he could not make it.

They couldn't have the berth at the arena. He tried. He tried to have the Raptor doctors to perform it, but it did not work out. So I ended up doing two games, one with the Minnesota Timberwolves and then one in Vancouver. And was that fun?

Oh, it was a rush. Are we talking like, I mean, the Raptors show up in Vancouver. And how did, was that fun? Oh, it was, it was a rush. Are we talking like what, I mean, the rap show up in 95, what year are we talking here? This is in, uh,

this is for CTV. So I would say probably in the early 2000s. Wow. Yeah. Uh, yeah, that's fantastic. I was working with Leo at the time and then, uh,

got to work with Jay Triano in Vancouver because he was doing, he was a PR for the Vancouver Grizzlies. And we went out there and so I got a chance to work with him as well. And you went out there in 2010 for the Olympics, right? So you, I want to cover some of this Olympic action. So how many Olympics? Five, I think. Actually attended four. So we many Olympics? Five, I think? Actually attended four. So we go back to...

So which one did you fake us out on? 2010. Of all the ones... We were here. I ended up doing all my stuff. I did updates from Agent Court and thanks to technology we were able to do interviews with

the people who were in Vancouver at the time. I feel like, come on, that's the one to send Sunil to. Come on, Vancouver. That is true. But I did do Calgary in 88. Right.

I did do Barcelona in 92. I did Norway. And I did way, way, way, way, way back when, when I was at CFRRB I did the Sarajevo Olympics. Oh in 84? Yes. Right and that was okay Sarajevo right so I get my boycotts mixed up. It was

Moscow was the boycott and then LA was boycotted but not Sarajevo. Okay. And any like any highlights at least for the Olympics that you attended any highlights? Oh absolutely the 84 Olympicsics that you attended uh any highlights oh absolutely uh the 84 olympics when gay tambouche won the 500 and 1000 meter gold back then um they skated outdoors they did not skate indoors in speed skating wow and so they and it was snowing so

they had to zamboni the ice and uh they didn't actually have a Zamboni. It was more like a motorized, well, basically how they clean the streets with the snow. Yeah. Yes. That's the type of thing they had to clean the ice and it, they kept having to do it over and over again.

And they finally got a chance to race. And we actually got a chance to stand rink side as, as he went by and won the gold. So for him to win two golds right there in front of him, that was a highlight. And we actually got a chance to stand rinkside as he went by and won the gold. So for him to win two golds right there in front of him, that was a highlight. And for me personally, another highlight, musically speaking, was back in the 90s. These three tenors were quite popular, if you remember. Of course, Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. I feel like on Seinf've met we feel like we've

referenced seinfeld or maybe we referenced simpsons a few times i always reference them all each day but uh they called him the other guy because no one could ever remember the name right right they called the other guy that's right because i remember domingo and pavarotti but then the other guy and i got a chance to see them them perform at the closing ceremony in 1992 in Barcelona. And I was sitting in row 10 off to the side of the stage. So that was a personal highlight. So is that like if Sunil's going to be chilling out at night, it's not going to be Muskrat Love, but might it be like the Tenors?

Like is this like Pavarotti? Like is that your jam? No, I like all kinds of music. I like rock and roll. You would... Give me one band. Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter.

Good, I could play Frankenstein now for the Pumpkins after Dark. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Freebird, any of that. Are you the guy

when I go to concerts and no matter who I'm seeing, somebody yells out, Freebird, is that you? That's me. Now I recognize the voice. You'll be at anything. You'll be at, I don't know, a Def Leppard show or whatever.

It's like, Freebird! Freebird, exactly. It's like, ah, that's too funny. Okay. So that's amazing. The Olympics. I didn't know you didn't go to Vancouver. That ruins my little segue there.

But that's okay. Sorry about that. So tell me, why do you leave TSN? When and why do you leave TSN and like when and why do you leave tsn and are you how do you segue back you're it's very interesting well i guess basically what happened that the properties that i was working on at tsn they had either lost the rights to sports net or decided they weren't going to continue them. And so there really wasn't any work for me to do. And as I said, Jay and Dan were now doing sports desk. So they were sort of overcrowded at the time.

And actually they worked a trade that we traded Sherry Ford for me. Sherry was working at CFTO slash CTV. Oh, interesting. And she went to return to TSN. And I think they got clearly the, they got the future considerations. Listen, that sounds like a fair trade here. That's no Cordic for Cortinal there.

That sounds like a fair trade there. So everybody wins. So you're back at CFTO. Correct, which is now CTV Toronto. Yeah, and I can't remember when they changed the branding, but I mean, you know,

I, you can still, I mean, sometimes I'll refer to edge one Oh two and I'll say, Oh, CF and Y. And then I'll be like, well,

it's still CF and Y. Like the call letters didn't actually change. No. Humble and Fred. Humble and Fred are dear friends of the program. Yes. Absolutely. They get their podcasting and we'll see if humble makes his way.

The very short walk. Cause they're at like Islington and Queens way. We'll see if he can make the very short walk to great lakes brewery which is kind of royal york and queensway downstream we'll see if he shows up tomorrow night i have a bunch of questions for you so i'm going to read them and uh i need glasses that's a whole separate episode so chris drew says uh there was a 1990s sports show he co-hosted on cfto that had a background of inside the skydome yeah what was the beat today sports beat today what was the genesis of that show and what happened to it i think it may have run on the weekends at 6 30 after the 6 p.m newscast fading memory here so chris drew is having these like fever dreams about

this but you're telling him this is real talk to me about this it is true uh but the original hosts of the show were joe tilly and jerry dobson coming right up exactly and so when i got there they were they were doing the show and after i think maybe about a year i started i took over for Joe and, uh, because he was working six days a week. So he decided he wanted more time in the summer, uh, to spend time with the family. So I started doing more of it and then eventually I took over the show and we, yes, the backdrop was a, the, I think it was the,

the picture was taken probably from the first blue Jays game. Okay. Full crowd. And it's taken, I think from was, the picture was taken probably from the first Blue Jays game. Okay. Because it took full crowd and it's taken, I think from the press box. Like June 89, I want to say. Yeah, yeah. Early June. Yeah.

I think I was at the third game. And I remember that feeling when you come out of the concourse or whatever and then you see it. I still remember how, it felt like I was in the future or something. Yeah, back then, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in 89. I mean, I remember when players used to stand

on the field just waiting to see if the roof would open or close, one or the other. Right. It was, yeah, it's unbelievable how that's aged because I guess that is 30 years ago. But 30 years ago, it's like you're in the future. And now we're all like, oh, there's that ugly hunk of concrete we've got to put in.

But anyway. So thank you, Chris Drew, for that question. Mark E.id uh you know you're important when you have a middle initial have you noticed that no regular joes are putting middle initials in there david e kelly right there you go by the way speaking of regular joes before i read mark's question are you still in contact with joe tilly last time i saw joe was probably about a year ago and i was living out in the East End for a while. So I just, I used to stay in touch,

but not as much anymore. All right. I think he's, he's enjoying retirement. Yes. And he also, he wanted to travel. He wanted to go far East. So he was gone for a long, long time. He might even hooked up with some kind of travel company

to help like cover some of those expenses or something. Like I think he's got a very nice little gig going on there. Wonderful. Yeah. If you can get someone to pay for your trip to China or whatever. So Mark David says, I remember watching Sunil on CTV Toronto when I first moved here in 2012. Definitely miss seeing regular sports coverage on CTV.

My question would be, what does he miss the most about being on television? I almost want to finish up, like maybe, maybe I come back to that. I should have read it before I did it all live here, but like, I want to get you out of C. So you're at C,

you're, you, the trade happens. Sherry Ford, Arsenio Joshi, big blockbuster trade. You're back at CFTO, which becomes CTV Toronto.

And what, big blockbuster trade you're back at cfto which becomes ctv toronto and tell us the story of how or why it ends for you at ctv toronto oh well it ended very simply because at the time bell decided that they needed some restructuring and reorganizing and on november 15th 2015 they decided that a whole bunch of us were no longer, services are no longer needed. And among myself and Bill Hutchison and Dan Matheson and in Vancouver and Calgary and Edmonton and Winnipeg, which were all other CTV stations, Montreal also, Randy Tiemann at CFCF in Montreal. And that was that this yeah i mean we've seen these regularly every once in a while like be it bell or rogers or whatever media company have these uh cost-cutting waves and you got caught up in one unfortunately as you said there the funny thing is the funny thing is in 96, I went through it in a reverse situation when Jerry Dobson, we had a sports department at CFTO

that was 12 people at one time. Now, granted, we were doing a lot of shows and we needed it. We were traveling. We were on the road all the time. We were always Blue Jays, Raptors, Leafs, Argos, constantly during the regular season, plus doing a half hour blue jays call which was a sunday afternoon one o'clock show which preceded the ctv blue jays broadcast was

that blue jays banter or was that a different show that was a different show okay i'm sorry my memory inside blue jays baseball was the name of the show. And produced by Mike Angarado. And it was a very successful show during that 91, 92, 93 period, which I was talking about that when I got there, this was amazing what was happening in Toronto sports between 87 and 96. It was just tremendous. So, yeah. So while I was doing that, we were doing a lot of things and

in 96 we had this massive reorganization restructuring and our sports department went from 12 to 4 so yeah and then you know some 20 years later same thing happened to me uh i mean they don't i guess they don't tell you, but you were fairly severed? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they did all the right things. After all, I'd been there for 25 plus years. Right.

So from a legal standpoint, they did. But the biggest thing was it was totally caught off guard. There was no warning. There was no case. It happened in a month. You know, you get your things in order because we're going to be doing this. It just was don't go home today until your shift is over,

which is weird because as reporters, we generally, once the story was in and it was checked and make sure that everything was good, then you can leave or stay or do whatever you wanted but i was told on that they do not leave so i thought oh something's right and then actually i got faked out because i was told it was until five o'clock or something and so now it's 5 1520. I'm looking around and people are coming up to me who had been and said, oh, okay, I guess you survived. And we were making all kinds of jokes about who stayed and who lost. And then about five minutes later, they need to see you.

So you have that moment where you think you avoided the guillotine and then they're like, bend over. Yeah, pretty well. Pretty well, yes. Oh man, I'm sorry. That's a common, I guess that's happening. I mean, Bob McCowan just got axed, right? So if Bob McCowan can get axed, nobody's safe.

Especially, yeah. I mean, Bob's the Wayne Gretzky of the, you know, if Wayne Gretzky can get traded, right? Right, right, right. So Bob is the Wayne Gretzky of our industry, certainly. So that's 2015. Of course, subsequently, CTV Toronto got rid of all their local, I mean, Lance and Joe got it not too long later,

I guess a couple years later. So you were like, yeah, that was the warning shot for Joe to make sure he had all his stuff lined up. Yeah, and I guess they did decide at that point that local sports was no longer going to happen and but what are your thoughts on that doesn't that i think it's a i think it's a huge mistake i mean i've never the argument we were given was that well you know you've got tsn doing this and you've got sports net doing that but people don't have an hour and a half to watch a full show those who are sports fans like you and i yeah we'll sit through an hour and a half to watch a full show those who are sports fans like you and i yeah we'll sit

through an hour and a half but majority of people who watch local news want to know what happened with the leafs blue jays and the raptors argos tfc and whatever the top local news sports story may be it could be a high school story could be a university story could be anything which is what we were and that's completely gone because tsn is sports center exactly they're not going to be doing that at least not on a local unless it's not high school exactly so from my standpoint i thought that was a huge mistake and and not being selfish about it from that we could have made it work if that's what they and city tv that's exactly what they you know that's what they made it work, if that's what they like. And City TV, that's exactly what they, you know,

that's what they made their point. Absolutely. And, you know, because if you find out, if somebody, a high school basketball star is going to be on City TV that night, right? And then, you know, the whole family is going to tune in, all the friends are going to tune in, that, you know, nobody will forget that.

It's almost like a way to like get loyalty for life from a whole group of this city. Precisely. And it's almost like a way to like get loyalty for life from a whole group of this city precisely and and it's not just that one story that story connects with friends families school neighborhood right so if you're looking at you know the village analogy you're it's not the one or two individuals you're looking at 500 550 and if half of them stay to watch the next day's show, you've done your job. So that's too bad that we've, yeah, no more local, no more hyper-local anyways.

Yeah, they still cover, of course, the pro teams, but yeah, it's too bad. Now, back to the question now that I've got you out of CTV there in 2015 from Mark E. David, don't forget the E. What do you miss the most about being on television?

I don't miss being on television necessarily. I miss the people that I work with in our newsroom, which was a terrific group of people. Andrea, one of the, you know, Andrea and I were friends for a long, long time. We shared the desk for so many years. So Andrea Case,

Tom, Tom Clark, excuse me, Tom Hayes, who now is Global, another friend of mine. So I miss the people that I work with, Lance, Joe, on a regular basis. But the thing I miss most is the jazz of going and covering a story. There was a certain adrenaline rush when you did a story. And again, whether it was high school, whether it was local, whether it was pro sports, whether it was doing a parade, a World Series parade, or being at Chicago Stadium, for instance, when the last game played there, the Leafs beat the Chicago Blackhawks

in that playoff series, and that was the last game played there, the Leafs beat the Chicago Blackhawks in that playoff series, and that was the last game played. So being those types of situations, the jazz that you get, the adrenaline rush that you get from that, that I miss more than anything else. A recent guest on this program was Dana Levinson. It's funny, the same question kind of was posed to her, and same answer that she says,

the people she worked with at the ctv toronto she said were excellent like she misses that not necessarily yeah it's not necessarily and it's the same thing from city when i moved from city to cfto back then i'm the first thing i missed was the people because i love working with the people i work love working with jim i love working with greg manziak perry gray was my i was a producer at sports i don't know if he's still there or not but these are the people that you you know mark daily who you dealt with on a daily basis had a coffee went out for a beer met at the sub shop anything like that those are the interactions that you miss more than

anything else uh gentleman by the name of Barrett Real Estate. I don't know if that's a real name or not. Sort of like Don Valley. Right. Oh, actually, yeah, it's funny. I read this name, Barrett Real Estate, and then I recalled I haven't played Brian's question for you. So let me do Brian first.

I apologize, Brian. I almost forgot poor Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. So Brian has a question for you, Sunil. So this is Brian. Okay. Propertyinthes six.com so brian has a question for you senil so this is brian okay hi senil brian gerstein here sales representative with psr brokerage and proud sponsor of toronto mike been a busy week one of my buyer clients firmed up a condo townhouse and i'm listing their one-bedroom condo this week in king west my one-bedroom condo for lease just listed on eglinton near Mount Pleasant

has lots of interest and one of my investor clients picked up a free bedroom Galleria condo new development with a south-facing clear view of the park and community center. Contact me at 416-873-0292 so I can help you out as well. Sunil, you were a fixture for many years and I always enjoyed how you presented my sports news. Curious if you are still in touch with Dan Matheson and Bill Hutchison, who were a part of the Bell Media job cuts that you were caught up in. And if so, what are they up to? Bill and I do email each other and do get together from time to time.

He's a teacher at Seneca College, I believe, and has been there for a number of years. Dan Matheson, I understand, retired and moved to Florida for a while. I've not had any contact with Dan since. Maybe Dan's gone off the grid. Maybe that's the dream of many. Dan Matheson story? Yeah.

1992, we're on our way to Barcelona, and the way the team was split up, we were doing two Olympics. Right. They brought in broadcasters from across the country. And you had a choice of how you wanted to route from Toronto to Barcelona. And most people went through London. Some went through Paris. For some reason, and we did not do this together,

we separately decided I was going to go on holidays after the Olympics, so I decided I would go through Rome, because I was going to go to Italy after the Olympic Games in 92, spend a week there on my vacation. As it turned out, Dan also chose, even though he was not going to go on always he chose that we wound up staying up all night on the flight from toronto to rome rome to barcelona and talk talk talk talk talk talk talk all night long about everything and anything going back to the

days when he was the weekend guy at CFTO working with Fergie Oliver and, and Pat Marsden. And he was the reporter who I used to see at Maple Leaf Gardens and Exhibition Stadium. So we got a chance to catch up and really, really have a good time there. Amazing. Amazing.

And Brian, by the way, for listeners, we'll be at TMLX for tomorrow. Now, Barrett wants to say he's a big fan of yours and he looks forward to listening in Spain. So coincidentally, he'll be in Spain listening to this.

You mentioned Barcelona. Okay. And you've actually already addressed this, but I'll ask it because Barrett sent it in. But he says you were one of the first men of color to venture into sports media and he wants to know if you ever experienced any prejudice or racism.

Is it just the Harold Ballard thing that we talked about? Pretty well. I i mean i don't know what went on behind closed doors i think steve simmons years ago wrote a piece where he thought that my career would have gone a little further a little faster if i wasn't and i did not have the name sunil josh as opposed to mike smith Joe, you know, that kind of thing. And you're hard to Google because apparently there's a world-class cricket player named Sunil Josh. Yes, but he spells his name S-U-N-I-L. Correct.

And the only reason I spell it that way is because my mom insisted she did not want my name mispronounced, not Sunil or other ways. Right. So she wrote it phonetically in the passport application. Interesting. And ever since then, I've been S-U-N-E-E-L. There you go.

That's a really cool story. But yeah, it's tough to Google you because of the other Sineo, but there is a spelling difference, as you mentioned there. Now, let me see. I'm going to skip this question here. We're almost done here. You've done a fantastic job uh this is from milan again so i mentioned milan telsania he says what advice

would you have for up-and-coming sports journalists of color right now there's it seems to be the flavor of the month which is a great thing that so it would work for your advantage now yes absolutely because more more entities are hiring people of color and specifically from the south asian community used to be you know you were if you were black you got the basketball or football beat because it was assumed that that's what you played and therefore you had more of an affinity to those sports that seems to be going away which is a great thing and right now the only thing i could suggest is to make sure wherever you are get find some place to make a tape and i when i say tape i'm talking but obviously now you can do it uh via the computer and make make some kind of a audition that people

can uh people can watch immediately make it nice and short, nice and snappy. And after that, you're on your own. What about starting a podcast? Is that good advice for a young, a young broadcaster? Yes, absolutely. Somebody actually asked me when I left in November, if I wanted to start a podcast at the time, and I wasn't quite well versed in it. And I didn't know necessarily the, the ramifications and what goes into it. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts to it.

Exactly. And I wasn't completely aware of that at the time. So I didn't, but yes. And I mean, that's certainly a way to do it. I know several people who used to be colleagues of mine at different television and radio stations are doing it and are very successful at it. So yes, absolutely.

And this is certainly... This is where Hebsey makes it and are very successful at it. So yes, absolutely. And this is certainly... This is where Hebsey makes it all happen. There you go. There's a guy who, he actually reached the conclusion after he was let go by CHCH when it imploded. Yes.

Unfortunately, he realized he wasn't going to get hired by the mainstream media. Like he just came to this conclusion that he wasn't going to get another mainstream media gig. But he's a fit, young, vibrant guy full of energy

and still loves sports and loves broadcasting. So he's rolling his own. Like, you know, I think that's fantastic. I, we already kind of alluded to it, but Milan's last question here was he wanted to know what you thought

of the recent mass purging at Sportsnet. So a number of bodies, including Kiprios and John Shannon and Doug McLean. Doug McLean, yep. And of course, just before that was, you mentioned Bob McCowan. Yep. John Shannon was my boss instructor. When I first got a job, I was at Ryerson,

second year student, and I got a job as a sports editor, a news editor at Standard Broadcast News. And John Shannon was the supervisor and I almost didn't get it because I couldn't type fast enough. So there you go. That's how far I've known John.

That's funny. I'm trying to get john in here because i'm trying to everybody who was around for that pen flip by uh yes by dave hodge i've been trying to get them on like so romanek was there and ron mcclain and of course dave hodge and um ken daniels was covering it that night i think from uh like he was close enough in covering it live for maybe for 1430 or something. Anyway, so I had him kind of tell his, anyways, I need John Shannon. So, John, if you're

listening, we need to get you in here. Last thing, Sunil, because I was kind of doing my homework, you know, trying to be like legendary City TV Brian Linehan. Like Brock Linehan?

Like Brock. I'm trying to be less Brock and more Brian, but sometimes they bleed together. Thank you, Martin Short. So I realized there's actually an IMDB page for you. Okay, so there's a Sunil Joshi IMDB page.

And it's not just, sure, SportsCenter's on there, which used to be SportsDesk. But it says in 2016, it says you were on American Gothic. And in 2017, you were in Taken. Is this true? What is this? Yes, this is true.

I decided that you asked me about podcasts and I didn't know anything about it. And so I decided not to do that. I continued to look for jobs in the mainstream media. And then like Mark Hepsher, who was smart enough to say, you know, I'm not going to get one. I'm not smart enough to do that. So I keep pounding my head up against the brick wall, hoping to get a job in mainstream media. But in the meantime, I decided, well, I can at least use my voice to do some voiceover work and i've seen on television and movies where they've got the newscaster role gosh i did that for 30 some odd

years maybe i could do that and luckily i found an agent who said yeah yeah you can do that and american gothic i got to play i really had to stretch for that particular part. I was a reporter who had to do a stand-up. So there you go. And they didn't make you grow back the mustache for these. No, no, nor did they paste one on me at the time. Sunil Joshi, movie star. This is the next chapter of your life, my friend. And then if you ever want to podcast, I'm here if you have any questions.

But, man, that was amazing. Loved every minute of it. Well, good. That was just part one. We're going to do part two right away. No, I'm just kidding. Well, I would love to have you back at some point to kick out the jams with me. But, again, a very confusing history because you're at a bunch of big places.

You're at the CFTO and you're at the Roger, sorry, sorry, slip of the tongue. You're at Sportsnet and you're at TV Sportsnet. Right. And you're at TSN but you never leave the parking lot. And you're back to CTV Toronto and you never leave the building. Amazing. Thanks so much.

And that brings us to the end of our 513th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike, but Sunil, why are you not on, can't find you on Twitter? You're not there. No.

Why not? I decided a long time ago, social media and I are not compatible. Therefore, plus the fact that I don't do anything interesting now. I think it'd be, I just wish you were there so I could tag you on all my tweets. I'm going to do about this episode. But I know others have made that decision. Stephen Brunt told me the same thing, which is not for him. But if you ever come on Twitter, make sure you follow me so I can tell the world to follow Sinead Joshy.

Great Lakes Brewery is at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.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 tomorrow at TMLX4 at Great Lakes Brewery.