Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ted Woloshyn: Toronto Mike'd #435

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

Mike chats with Ted Woloshyn about his years at Q107, CFNY, CKFM and CFRB / Newstalk 1010.

Welcome to episode 435 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Paytm Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, and Buckle.co. That's B-U-K-L dot C-O. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and joining me this week is radio legend Ted Wallachian. Welcome, Ted. Thank you. Nice to be here. I'm going to steal a joke that Robbie J. made.

This is my very first TED Talk. Sorry, Robbie, but it was too good to pass up there. And I actually have a tip to how to start. I was talking to my buddy Bill King. We're going to mention him again soon, but he's like, play some... He said to open with some of this. Who knows?

You're a fan of this band? Yes. Always have been. Let's rock in here a bit. Dare I say this is a CanCon staple? Yes. Played this many times when I first started in radio. Many times. Back then, I mean, now we're sort of like in the glory days of Canadian content.

But back then, I guess, you only had so many choices. Yeah, yeah. There was a lot of repetition. We also had a weird rule back when I first started in radio. That was back in 1974. 74? Something like that. 74, and we couldn't play back-to-back female artists.

So that was like your station imposed this rule? Yeah. That's amazing. Can't play back-to-back female. Any other strange rules like that you remember? That was the strangest, I think, of all. That's funny. So no patties.

Yeah, you can't do patties. Yeah, that's funny. That's funny. Did you watch any of the Oscars by any chance? I watched parts of it, yeah. Anything? I don't know. I always tune in and I always wonder

why. I'm always left feeling like, why did I do that for like two and a half hours? I don't know what you thought. You know, I used to when I was growing up as a kid, I used to watch the Oscars. I mean, that was a huge, huge thing back then. Certainly

for me, it was much more important than it is now. Back when Bob Hope almost every year was the emcee and then Johnny Carson did it for years and years and years. It seemed to mean more back then than it does now. I think part of it has to do with the fact that there's this proliferation of award shows. Like I once joked years ago that somebody should start a channel on cable and it's nothing but awards.

And you could almost fill a channel with award shows. It's true. I guess back in the day, you only had a small handful of these things. And now, yeah, there's like a proliferation of award shows. You're absolutely right. It's like it diluted the importance. Yeah, I mean, even look at the Emmys.

I mean, there's the Emmys and then there's the daytime Emmys. That's right. That's the one with Susan Lucci, always nominated, never wins. Never wins, yeah. You've had a long career, and we're going to dive in shortly. I have a big announcement to make in a moment about an event I'm hosting in June. But in your long, illustrious career on the radio,

have you ever been accused of slander? No. I wondered if, like, ever, because you've said a lot of words on... Yes. No, I haven't. I mean, I've been accused of lying. People said, no, that's not true. But when it's an opinion,

it can't really be a lie if it's just an opinion, right? Right. Slander, no, that's not true. But when it's an opinion, it can't really be a lie if it's just an opinion. Right? Slandered? No. I don't think so. No, I haven't. Alright, so I've got one up on you, Ted. You have? Yeah, I've been accused of slander. I know what you're going through.

I know what you're going through right now. And that's it. I have nothing to do with all that. That's okay. Yeah, I know what you're going through. I know what you're going through right now. And that's it. I have nothing to do with all that. That's okay. Yeah, I know. So let me just tell everybody, we'll change the channel and let everybody know that TMLX3,

that is the Toronto Mic Listener Experience, number three, is taking place June 27 from 6 to 9 p.m. Ted, this is when like listeners and guests, you're eligible because you're a guest. You're on the guest list now. We all collect at the Great Lakes Brewery, which is like Royal York and Queensway area,

like right down the street from the Costco. They got a great patio. We all collect at like 6 to 9 p.m. There's live music. The Royal Pains will open. But here's the exciting news that I'm going to announce now for the first time. The Lowest of the Low, one of my favorite bands of all time, is going to play the event. Wow.

TMLX3 featuring live music from Lowest of the Low, June 27, 6 to 9. So save the date. There'll be more details soon. Ted, you'd love Lowest of the Low. They're CanCon too, but just fantastic. Fantastic. I feel like I could be one of the lowest of the low. I was named after you.

Is that what you're saying? Yeah, it could be. I mentioned Great Lakes Brewery. They're hosting the event. Ted, there's a six-pack of beer in front of you. I see that, and that's very kind of you, along with the Poma Pasta lasagna, which I eat almost on a weekly basis.

The lasagna? Yes. Yeah. Okay. The meat lasagna? The meat lasagna. Okay, good, good. I'm just crossing my fingers there.

Okay. That's great to hear because Palma Pasta, much like Great Lakes Brewery, they're a proud sponsor of this show. And there is a large meat lasagna going home with you today. I know, I'm looking right at it. Just don't dive in yet.

It's frozen today. Yes, I noticed that too. So what will I say? I will just let everybody know that Great Lakes Brewery, they're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. 99.9% of all their beer remains

here in Ontario. I gave you like an assortment there, so a variety pack, if you will. So this is interesting because the beer is warm and the lasagna is frozen. That's right. I think you got it backwards. I got it backwards.

See, I need some more seasoning to get this right. And also Palma P pasta, as you mentioned. Fantastic. I call it Mississauga's best fresh pasta. They actually have a location in Oakville too. But you mentioned you've been going to the Palma's Kitchen. That's the new location. Near Mavis and Burnhamthorpe, I'll say.

But go to palmapasta.com to find out exactly where it is. Fresh food, retail store, seating, you get coffee, whatever you like. You know what makes it work for them is they get the sauce down perfectly. Yeah. And I have a friend who's an Italian friend who took me years ago to an Italian restaurant. He said, Ted, the first thing you do before

you order anything is just ask for a little appetizer plate. Just ask for a little bit of pasta with some tomato sauce. That's all. Just that. And try it. And if it's good, stick around.

If it's not, leave. Because if they can't get the tomato sauce right, nothing else is going to work. That's actually a good tip. And Palma's got the tomato sauce down. So once you get that, the rest you can figure out. But nail that sauce. Exactly. Good tip. So thank you Palma Pasta. Thank you

Great Lakes Brewery. Here's a little clip from one of my favorite shows of all time. I'm not beaten yet i still have armies in the ukraine the ukraine you know what the ukraine is it's a sitting duck a road apple newman the ukraine is weak it's feeble i think it's time to put the herd on the ukraine i come from ukraine you're not saying uk Yeah, well, we're playing a game here, pal. Ukraine has came to you. How about I take your little bonus?

They're playing Risk. They are, yes. That's a great episode. Have you ever seen the Risk board? Yeah. The size of Ukraine on the Risk board? It's like way disproportionately too large. Oh, it's too large.

It's way too large. They say that about Canada on the map. Like they say Canada's too large on that map. I've heard that if you, yeah, but that's interesting. And I bring up the Ukraine because you're proudly of Ukrainian descent. Yes. I happen to be a big fan of the Ukrainian festival

on Blue West Village. Oh, that's a great one. Yeah. Have you ever been like, what do they call the people in charge of parades or whatever? Grand Marshal. Right.

I was one. One year I was Grand Marshal. And honestly, I've never felt so uncomfortable. Tell me why. Because you're sitting in a car

and I'm waving at people and I'm thinking, A, they don't even know who the hell I am. B, they're thinking, why are you waving at me? And I'm thinking, why am I waving at you?

It just feels awkward to me. I don't know. It's just. I would say if there's a big sign on the side of that car, because they might not recognize your face, but they'll know your name. And especially because you're so proudly of Ukrainian descent.

I have a feeling that everyone in the Ukrainian community knows everybody else who's of Ukrainian descent, I would think. Well, it's a pretty big community. I mean, there's a million and a half Ukrainians in Canada. Oh, really? Yeah, of course, because they all went to Saskatchewan to farm the lands.

There's a whole whack out there in Alberta, you got it. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta. And you're from that hood, kind of, right? Like, you went to Runnymede Collegiate, right? I went to Runnymede, yeah. I know it well, because my kids are at Humberside, but they would have gone to Runnymede Collegiate, right? I went to Runnymede, yeah. I know it well because my kids are at Humberside, but they would have gone to Runnymede except...

My brother went to Humberside. Yeah, because their French immersion was the trick, I think. Well, he didn't go for French immersion. Yeah, Humberside's a good school too. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, so you're at Runnymede Collegiate. And so are you a Blue Rose Village guy or... Yeah, well, grew up, lived in Baby Point and just

off Baby Point for a while. So you say Baby Point because a lot of pretentious people. I know, I know, but nobody says Bobby Point. Some French guy, right? Yeah. James Bobby, I think is his name. But yeah, that's why I went to Runnymede. So did P.K. Subban, I just learned. Yeah, because he went to Humbercrest Public School, what do you call it? Public School before high school. Humbercrest. And. Subban, I just learned. Yeah, because he went to Humber Crest Public School, what do you call it, public school before high school.

Really? Humber Crest. And I was in there, my kids went there, and I took a photo of his class picture. Like, they have all the class pictures. Yeah, yeah. The P.K. Subban year. Yeah, for sure.

And Dwight Drummond went to Runnymede College. That's right. And so did Katie Telford. Okay. You know who that is? No, I was thinking. Katie Telford is like, she's a high-ranker in the PMO. Okay, I see.

I should know that. I'm just excited that you and Dwight Drummond went there. I couldn't take any more, but... Well, we're a few years apart. That's right. Many years apart. Well, I can't tell. You know, Dwight and you look like you're contemporaries, so what do I know?

Please, Ted, let's go in the time machine briefly before we get you to Seneca College. Let's look back 60 years ago today. This was the number one song in the Billboard Hot 100. I want to see how long it takes you to name that tune. The night was clear And the moon was yellow Staggerly.

You got it Can you name the artist? God, I was five No, I can't remember Lloyd Price All right It's a great jam, by the way Because I've been playing it

I had to load it up And I gave it a listen And this is a cool tune It is a cool tune 60 years ago today This was the number one jam. Great song. Remember the Time is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. They've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years.

Ted, you might remember you needed your watch repaired or a battery installed. You went to Sears and they, a watch repair store there. Sears left the country, of course, but the guys doing that repair were always fast time. Now they've opened their own locations. They have a new location in Richmond Hill. If you mention Toronto Mike, you get 15% off your regular-priced watch battery installation.

Great jam. And back then, these jams were only like three and a half minutes long at the most. Yeah. Perfect length of time. All right. So Seneca College, do you mind if we take you back to Seneca? And basically, maybe you share with me, like, when did you decide you wanted to be in front of a microphone?

Like, when does that hit you that you wanted to broadcast? front of a microphone? Like, when does that hit you, that you wanted to broadcast? Honestly, when I was probably about nine or ten years old. I wanted to. I remember I used to, we had an old lamp that nobody was using anymore. I took the shade off it. And with my mother's nail

polish on the base of the brass lamp, I wrote 1050 Chum, and I had a little Seabreeze turntable and I would play songs and pretend I was on the radio. Amazing. Yeah. I go down to the, to the C&E where they used to have the Chum did remotes there. And I'd stand there for hours and hours and just watch Bob McAdory and these guys thinking, like, what a cool job. What a cool job. And you somehow finangled your way into such a job, right?

You mentioned 74, right? Somehow finangled my way in, yeah, exactly. So how do you get in the business in 1974? Well, I went to Seneca College for, I was halfway through my second semester, and a job came up at a station in Brampton, which doesn't exist anymore, called CHIC, C-H-I-C.

And it was called CHIC because at one point, it was all women. Try pulling that off today. And they didn't have that rule about back-to-back female artists? I'm not sure. Well, when I got there, the women were all gone anyway. So it was just the call letters were left. So I got there and it was just doing some board work.

And then that turned into doing the overnight show. I stayed there for maybe three months or so. And then off to Peterborough after that. Off to Peterborough after that. Off to Peterborough. But was this station owned by Foster Hewitt by any chance? No, it wasn't. It was owned by the Allen brothers.

The Allen brothers. Yeah, Harry and Leslie Allen. Interesting, interesting brothers. Do you remember, like I always like hearing about these old stations that I didn't have the pleasure of listening to. Like, do you remember how you'd say the call letters? Like, was there a certain, like, I always like hearing about these old stations that I didn't have the pleasure of listening to. Like, do you remember how you'd say the call letters? Like, was there a certain, like, you're listening to Chick?

I don't think we said Chick. I think it was C-H-I-C. Okay. Probably when they got rid of the chicks, they got rid of saying Chick. Exactly. Exactly. And you went to Peterborough and you bounced around. So how do you get back?

How do you get back to Toronto? Went to Peterborough for about a year and a half. I worked at a station called Chex, where I did the 6 to Midnight show. And when I say 6 to Midnight show, the show was actually 6 to 10, and then from 10 to 12, I rolled tapes. We had As It Happens from CBC.

We played that. And then Garner, Ted Armstrong, and The World Today, or something like that. Yeah, exactly. And Chex, of course, Chex, I just, for guys my age, we know Chex as a TV station.

Yeah, well, it's the same company. Right, right. Yeah. Up on Television Hill, that's where the station was. AM, FM, and television. Gotcha, gotcha. Was there for a year and a half.

Got a chance to go to Montreal, to the West Island for a station called, rank, blank. It'll come to me. I was only there for about three, four months. It was actually owned by Alan Slate. Right. Alan Slate, who of course.

Seafox. Seafox. Well, Seafox, okay, because today Seafox is in Vancouver, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, it thinks, yeah, okay, interesting. Yeah, 1470, I think on the dial.

Okay. So I was there for four months, came back, got a part-time job in Hamilton at CKOC, and I worked part-time for about half a year. And then Alan Slate was granted a license for an FM station, which is Q107. And I went to Q107 and I pitched him an idea doing a show called The Comedy Bowl, which was going to be a one-hour collection of interviews with comedians and recorded comedy albums. Do you remember what year this is? This is 1970. Well, whenever they were there, I was there day one when they signed on.

Yeah, you're the first. 77, I guess. Were you the first morning guy? I was there day one when they signed on. Yeah, you're the first. 77, I guess. Were you the first morning guy at the? I was not. I signed on to do the Comedy Bowl and to do the Saturday and Sunday morning.

John Rohde was the original morning man, but John only stuck around for about three months and then he left and then I took over. I believe that John Rohde is a voiceover guy

we'd hear on like much music promos. Yeah, he owns a winery now, a vineyard out in Prince Edward County, I believe. And when you, so Q, and this is the launch of Q107. Yeah.

CILQ. So Donabee's there. Donabee's there. Yeah. He's a friend of the show. I feel obligated to. I've known Donabee for John. I've known John for years.

John was doing Afternoon Drive. Yeah. Do you remember who else was there? Mark Daly was doing the news. And at one point, Jim McKinney was doing sports. Jane Houghton was there. Jane Houghton, yeah. Keith Elshaw. Okay.

Ron Bruchel did a jazz show Before Bill King moved in And did his jazz show The late Richie York was there as well Oh God, I'm going to forget people Dean Hill Bob Say I can't remember all the names It's okay, I'm here to

I'm capturing this history I think this is really cool. So, so you're. And the first song we played? Yeah. Murray McLaughlin's Hard Rock Town. There you go.

Murray McLaughlin, who's, yeah, fantastic. His wife's been here, but the Q107 launches, and you mentioned you're doing the Comedy Bowl, and I'm wondering,

did you predate, like, are you ahead of the Rick Hodge Sunday Funnies? Oh, yeah. Okay, I thought that's what I was asking here. Yeah, you're number one. We were the first one. Yeah, he stole that idea from you.

No, I don't think so. The interesting thing is, it became so popular, not because of me, but because of the uniqueness of the program, and on Sunday nights, we ran it at, I think, 11 o'clock, 10 or 11 o'clock. We actually, at one point, outrated CFRB at that time slot. Wow.

Which was stunning. I have, it wasn't when you were at Q, though. It was when you were at CFNY. But we'll talk about this. It sounds like you bring the show with you. I did. Yeah. And then you had a gentleman working, helping you out, Craig Venn.

Yes. And Craig was on this show. Craig's a great guy. Yeah. He's at The Rock in Oshawa now doing mornings there. He told a story, and I'm going to play it shortly, and it's a bit long because it goes almost three minutes, but I'm going to play the whole thing because it's just a great story

about some work he did for you on that show at cfny and how it uh how he messed up and it's fantastic so we'll get to that but you're the first guy to do the comedy show and you're at q107 but and tell me if i'm right like you you're you're at q how long you're there that first step because you kind of bounce a year and a half year and a half and Year and a half. And then CFNY? Is that where you went to? I went to CFNY. I'm going to test you again.

Can you drop any, do you remember anybody you were working with at CFNY back in the day? Well, David Marsden. Mars Bar. When I first went to CFNY, I went for, I did a show on Sundays.

Very similar to the show that I do now on Newstalk, which is, except we played a lot more music. It was a combination of interviews and music, and we had the entire cast one day on, one Sunday from Big City Comedy. Big City Comedy was a program that was on CTV

produced by the Osmond family starring John Candy. Wow. Because Candy was with SCTV at the time, and they got into a dispute, a financial dispute, and Candy split, started his own show, and I think that went for a year, and then he went back to SCTV. But we had all of them in the studio.

Now, CFNY at that time was this house in Brampton. Right, the yellow house. Yeah. Yeah. And so we're in there, and we got a huge cooler filled with beer, various odors wafting through, and these guys are doing like improv, and we're just talking and joking.

It was great. So what kind of guy was John Candy? John Candy was a sweetheart. Okay. John Candy was one of the nicest guys. You would, I'm telling you, Mike, if you met him, you'd sit down and you'd just fall in love with the guy. He was that kind of guy.

I'd go and have dinner with him sometimes. It would take us 15 minutes to leave the restaurant because everybody, and there was no selfies back there, but everybody wanted to shake his hand, get an autograph, and he stopped and talked to virtually everybody. I'm glad to hear that. I've heard nothing but good things about John Candy. Yeah, he's to virtually everybody. I'm glad to hear that. I've heard nothing but good things about John Candy.

Yeah, he's a wonderful man. I'd like to hear more. I wish I could meet him because he's gone way too soon. No, but you haven't. What a talent, though. What a talent. Now, I was wrong about you being Q's first morning guy, but tell me, were you CFNY's first morning guy?

I never did mornings at CFNY. No, okay. I'm going to fire my research. No, no, no. I did, Pete and Geetzer do in the mornings. I did a show, a talk show after from nine till ten. Okay. So Pete and Geetzer.

Now, is it Mike Stafford doing news on Pete and Geetzer this time? And Fred Patterson on sports? Okay, because, well, Stafford's going to come up again later. You'll cross paths with him again. But Fred P. is a buddy of mine, so I get the odd war story out of him about the good old days. And he just has, I mean, everybody, I guess,

but he just misses that Marsden era of CFNY. He felt that he was able to, had creative freedom to do more. It was, I've never worked at a station like that, and I suspect I never will. Nobody gives you that kind of latitude. No, you need to start a podcast now, I think. Exactly, exactly.

That's what it was. It was like a collection of podcasts. Interesting. So Marsden brings his vision vision and it seemed to work I mean a lot of people still look back they call it spirit of radio for a reason fondly so you were a part of that

but then you go back to Q gotta go back to Q and I was doing um I was doing sports but I hated it because it was a split shift. Yeah. Split shifts are terrible.

You can get in a lot of trouble, right? Yeah. And so then I left and I went back to CFNY. That's when I was doing the 9 to 10 shift. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha.

Let's play the, here, take a few moments here and listen to Craig Venn's voice for a little bit and then we'll get your reaction. So this is Craig Vann on Toronto Mic'd. So Ted did a thing called the Comedy Bowl, which ran on Sunday nights. It was like Rick Hodge's Sunday Funnies, right?

Same idea. And Rick did it on Chum and Ted did it on Q and then brought it over to CFNY. So what happened was Ted was brought to CFNY to do a talk show after Pete and Geet's every morning between 9 and 10, because back brought it over to CFNY. So what happened was Ted was brought to CFNY to do a talk show after Pete and Geet's every morning between 9 and 10, because back then you had to have so much talk content, right? Foreground programming or whatever they called it.

So he used to do this talk show 9 to 10, and so I would produce that. So on top of doing the overnights on the AM, I'd do that. I'd do the morning show traffic, and then I'd walk down the hall to CFNY and do this 9 to 10 show that I would produce. And then on Wednesdays, we would pre-record the Comedy Bowl, which ran Sunday nights. So this particular Wednesday, we record the show. It's all on reel-to-reel tape. And normally I would do all the editing and fixing of it on the Wednesday.

But I guess that day I was just tired. I'd had enough. I'd been up all night. So I threw it in my locker and I said, ah, screw it, I'll fix it tomorrow or whenever. I had until Sunday night anyhow. So Saturday, I, God, I've told this story a thousand times. I love it. So Saturday, I'm going somewhere and I realize,

oh, shit, I've got to edit the comedy bowl. So I race up to the station. I throw the tape on the machine, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, edit it all up and throw it into the control bowl. So I race up to the station. I throw the tape on the machine, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, edit it all up and throw it into the control room. So Sunday night comes around. It's 11 o'clock and the comedy bowl is on and I'm going to be on the air again at midnight on the AM station. So I sit down at my little desk that I had and I'm prepping my show. Now, Ted used to always say at the end of every comedy bowl, the comedy bowl was produced by Craig Venn or whoever. I used to just be thrilled to hear my name.

So I would tune in at the end just to hear him say my name. But I was prepping the show, and I thought, oh, I'll listen to some of the Comedy Bowl. So I turn over to the Comedy Bowl. Now, the language I'm about to use is the most extreme, if that's okay. No, go nuts. Okay. So Ted's doing the most extreme, if that's okay. No, go nuts. Okay.

So Ted's doing the comedy bowl, and he says, I can't even remember who he was, because every show was about a different comic, and it would be an hour on that. So I don't remember who it was. But he says, so-and-so has been in a ton of movies, such as, and then he goes, he pauses, and he says, fuck, edit. Cocksucker, motherfucker, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt. He says it just like that. Just like that.

Those are the worst words. It doesn't get any worse. So I'm sitting there and I hear, fuck, edit. And I'm like, oh no, because I know what's coming. There's that beat pause and then the rest of it comes out. Now I go hauling down to the FM control room and the kid, I can't remember who it was that was

opping, he's just gone white. He's in shock. I'm in shock. I don't know what to do. I start calling Ted at home. His line is busy already. Everybody must be calling him that heard it. And I finally get through to him and to his credit he was so good about it. He really,

he said, listen, Craig, yes, you screwed up by not editing it, but there is a golden rule in radio that you should never talk like that in front of a live mic. You just don't know where it's going. Just in case. Just in case. In case Craig misses it. Yeah. Do you remember this? Yeah.

You come off good in that story. You weren't a jerk about it. Well, what was I going to do? I mean, he made a mistake, and I made a mistake. Collectively, we ended up getting together and formed the perfect storm. That hot mic rule is probably a good one, I guess. It is a good one. It is. And that happened to me another time when I was doing commentary on what was then the mix.

It would run in the mix in the morning and then the same commentary would run on CFRB in the afternoon. And I had another one of those where I'm three quarters of the way, you know, fuck, all those words that you just heard. And the guy who was recording it didn't edit it. And that's the way it went on the air on CKFM. Thank God it didn't get the CFRB. But Mr. Slate pulled me in and he said, hmm, I want you to listen to something. So he starts playing me something. It's a tape of some guy.

And I said, what you're going to learn from this, starts playing me something. It's a tape of some guy, and I said, well, you're going to learn from this, right? And the guy just loses it, right? He's just everywhere you can imagine, right? It's a funny tape, right? And I thought he was going to, you know, nail my ass to the wall, but he was just kind of like, well, shit happens, you know?

And the kid who missed the edit, he got major shit. But it's true. You shouldn't be saying anything anywhere near Mike, even if the mic's off. Yeah, maybe like that's a best practice or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Well, when Craig Vann was telling me that, I guess he met with Marsden about that,

and Marsden basically said like, if we get complaints and he has to do something about this, he said, Craig, I'm going to have to let you go. Like this was the... Did he say that? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah.

I didn't know that. This is later in that same interview that Imar said. So basically, I think, I can't remember the resolution, like what at the end of the day happened there, but it's possible Craig loses his job over that. But I don't want to say that definitively.

I need to go back and revisit the tape. But I just love that story. And to put aside, if Ted ever comes on this show, I said that I'm armed. I'm glad you did. I'm armed and dangerous. Now, since you love comedy, clearly, you're a comedy fan?

Yeah. A little bit of what happened recently. I just want your opinion on this. So there's a Sirius XM station called Canada Laughs. Yeah. And I guess they... They just sold it to Just for Laughs. Yeah, I don't think they sold

it. I think they just went to Just for Laughs and said, can we leverage your brand and... Yeah. Right. You run it. Right. Which is now causing a lot of comics to lose money. This is what I hear. So Canada Laughs would play a lot of... It was all Canadian comics,

and I guess you pay royalties, sort of like when you play royalties when you use a comic's bits. Is that right? We never did, but I guess they do now. There's some kind of a deal that Sirius had, I guess, with the comedians, that if we play any of your material,

we will pay you so much. Yeah, but now they're afraid that it's all going to be Just for Laughs acts, and Just for Laughs has, because they're afraid that it's all going to be just for laughs acts and just for laughs has, because they're recorded just for laugh events,

they somehow have the rights to that, which means that they're not going to be playing as many Canadians. At least this is what I get from

listening to a comic talk about it in the news the other day. Right, right. And that's my impression as well. So this will be

less exposure and less money. But okay, so I was going to ask you though, because when you were doing your comedy bits, I'm going to guess, and this is a guess, because I never heard your comedy bowl, and I wish I did.

You would hear things, it would be like Richard Pryor, for example. Like I'm thinking these would be big American stars. Well, there wasn't a lot of comedians. We eventually went out and started recording. We went out, we recorded Jim Carrey. We did about 40 minutes of Jim Carrey. Back before anybody knew who Jim Carrey was.

Did you think he was good back then? Yeah. Because I had Mark Breslin on two weeks ago, and Breslin thought he was pretty awful. He said it's the wrongest he's ever been. Yeah, well, that's because, you see, when we were doing the Comedy Bowl, we actually decided we were going to go out

and run our own comedy venues. That's because everything at that time was you were either yuck-yucks or you weren't working, and we thought, well, that sucks. So we would go and we'd find restaurants and places that were willing to do, you know, one night a week, and we'd book our own stuff and promote it on the radio.

And we had Jim Carrey on a number of different occasions. And I guess that's why Breslin didn't think he wasn't funny, because he wasn't on his stage. Interesting, interesting, interesting. So that makes sense. Now, that's cool that you did that. I was wondering how much exposure you'd give to Canadian comedy. But like you said, nowadays there's a lot of, you know,

big-time Canadian stand-ups, and I guess, sort of like we talked about with Lighthouse or whatever, like now there's just more. Yeah. Yeah, well, a lot of contemporary Canadian comedians, they've recorded albums and specials, you know, for the comedy channel, and so that material is available. Back then, there wasn't as much available.

Let me ask you a question from a listener named Dale, a listener of this podcast and a listener of yours. His question for you is, he wants to know, did you work at Graham Cable doing a call-in show with Dave? Don't remember his last name, in the 70s. This gentleman, Dale, says he still remembers watching Faithfully every time it was on and he thought it was a great show. Now, he says it's a great show, so tell me,

please tell me that was you. Yeah, it was me. They had cameras in the studio where people were playing music. So it would be like, you know, watch me spin records and talk like a, pretend like a disc jockey. And then my friend Rich Elwood and I started our own talk show, the Ted and Rich Rioty Hour.

And it was on Cable 10? It was on Graham Cable, yeah, Cable 10. Cool. Okay, Dale, good memory. Yeah, Dale loved it. Who's Dale? He's just a listener. Hello, Dale. And there's actually funny, later I have another question from another, a completely different listener named Dale.

So I think you're very popular with the Dales. You've cornered the market there. Now, okay, so where are we? We got you at, you were at Q, then you went to CFNY. Other than David Marsden, was there anyone else at CFNY you want to name drop? Don Burns was there. Oh, boy. Burns is another one gone too soon.

Yes, way too soon. He had that whole other life as a DJ, right? He was... Earl Jive? Yeah, live Earl Jive. Live Earl Jive. Man. Memories. Putting you on the spot.

Putting you on the spot. But you leave... I just hate this because I'm forgetting people's names and I shouldn't be doing that. We'll fix it in post. Oh, Ivor Hamilton?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been on the show a couple times. Yeah, yeah. Cool. He's a marathon runner now. He's lost a ton of weight and he's like running marathon. He's got a good gig with one of the major labels, doesn't he?

Yeah, for sure. I want to say United. Universal? Universal. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Now, yeah, he's doing well. So you were at Q, you went to CFNY and then back to Q.

And so why these jumping around? Okay. So why is it? Is this just life? Like I learned about this in WKRP. Is this just how it was? Well, it's just better opportunities, more money,

whatever the situation happened to have been. And then after that second stint at Q, what was next for you on the radio? Was it after the second stint at CFNY. Okay. And then from there I went to CKFM. Okay, then before I get to CKFM, I want to ask you to go back to television. So we learned from Dale you were on Cable 10, but I have a clip. I want to play the clip and ask you to tell me about this show.

And by the way, to set this up, this is The Spoons, a great, great band, local band. He's been on, Gord Depp's been on. So hello, Gord. Their first ever television interview. I'm sure there's fantastic visuals right now. You're looking at a moon. You're looking at a moon. This is a CBC show. Hi there, fun seekers. Welcome again to the show. This morning on the program we have Eldon Garnett,

who is the publisher of Impulse magazine. Tells a very interesting story about a magazine that's been around a lot longer than most of us know. And also a stripper, exotic dancer, model, Holly O, her manager Michael Gravino will be here, comedian Michael Greer, the great imposters, and my first guest, The Spoons. Hi, Spoons.

So this is a CBC show. This is Off the Wall. Off the Wall, W-O-L. How did this come to be? How this came to be, I was working at CBC doing entertainment in the news department. I was doing entertainment pieces, and I went to the program director at the time, a gentleman by the name of Yvonne Fitzon, and pitched him an idea

on doing this late night talk show, which is going to be a little bit more edgy than the tonight show. And this is before Letterman hit the stage, before his program came to be. And it ran for, we did about a year or so ago, a year or so, I suppose. But it was strange because it would run in different time slots. Like one Saturday, it'd be on at one in the morning.

The next week, it'd be on at like 2.15. You can't do that. No, you can't, exactly. And so it was all over the map, but it was a lot of fun. John Candy, actually, speaking of John Candy. Yeah. John Candy, I asked him if he would come on to do the demo with me, and he did. Oh, great.

Yeah. He actually stopped on his way to the studio to buy a sports jacket because he felt he should be wearing a sports jacket. No, it sounds like a sweetheart. It sounds like a sweetheart. Now, I got it. So coming up, in fact, I'll just let listeners know

that Ralph Ben-Murgy is coming in in a couple of weeks to kick out the jams with me. Ted, that's a cool second visit thing that you could look forward to where you tell me ahead of time your 10 favorite songs of all time and then we play them

and you tell us why you love the song. We kick out the jams. Second visits only, not first visits though. So Ralph's going to make a second visit and do that shortly. I've got his list and I bring him up because of course we talk a lot about his, speaking of Mark Breslin,

by the way, who was like running the show or whatever. But Friday night with Ralph Ben-Murgy in the early nineties was this big CBC attempt at a late night show that didn't quite work out. But off the wall, is this early 80s? Mm-hmm. Right.

So I'm wondering, like, is this, CBC seems to have always struggled with getting this right. Yeah, well, this was local. Toronto only. Well, it was done by CBLT. It was called CBLT at the time. It wasn't a network production like Ralph's show was.

But they did ship it out and it did run in other markets as well. But again, the times were weird. Off the wall. But you did get The Spoon's first television interview. And they were television ready. That's a good looking group right there.

I think the camera loves that band but and they still look good by the way. What's that? I said they've held up. I see the Spoons

recently and they all look like they're still in their 30s or something. I hate that. What were you about to say there? No, I think I was just going to

Off the wall. Off the wall. Now you mentioned CKFM. Now I need to pause, off the wall. Now, you mentioned CKFM. Now, I need to pause us because I have a lot of questions about CKFM. I want to let Brian Gerstein, Brian Gerstein is a real estate sales representative of PSR Brokerage,

and he wants to ask you a question. It's unrelated to radio, so I'm just going to let Brian take it from here. Propertyinthesits.com So I'm just going to let Brian take it from here. Property in the six dot com. Hi, Ted. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Might. Breaking news. Details of the phase one Galleria Mall redevelopment plan, including 420 condos in two buildings

being sold exclusively by PSR was just announced. Contact me now by phone or text at 416-873-0292 and I can send you high-res pictures and put you on my VIP first access list. We are targeting the end of May or early June to sell them with a 2023 completion date. The best part, the park and community Centre will be completed before then. Ted, as a sports fan, what are your thoughts on the Jays this year, moving on from Gibby to Charlie Montoya, who came from the Rays coaching staff? Montoya will always have a place in my heart, as he played four games in the show for my Montreal Expos back in 93. How important is being able to speak to Vlad Jr. in Spanish? And finally, what are your favorite sports to follow?

I think Montoya is going to be a fine manager for the Jays. And I think the fact that he's got a rapport going with Vlad Jr. because he played with his dad is a good thing. I think the team is going to be about two years away from being any kind of a real contender, but I think they've got some great, great young people coming up. Well, that, the guy we were talking about, Vlad Guerrero Jr., it sounds like we're going

to skip rookie of the year and go straight to MVP. I don't think we're going to, we're not even going to see him in Toronto until probably, my understanding is probably May. May. I thought it was like, I thought it was mid-April, but you would know better than me. Because they start these seasons in March now.

Well, the reason that they're doing this is because if they don't bring him in at the beginning, if he doesn't have a full year, then they get one more year before he can file for free agency. I don't like this rule, because it's a no-brainer, you've got to do it. I understand exactly why they're doing it, and I would do it too, but I hate the fact that

we are doing it because I'd like to see him opening day. So what else did he ask me? He asked me about my favorite sports. Yeah. So what are your favorite sports? NFL, IndyCar racing, golf, baseball, CFL, occasionally hockey

so is it like hockey does it need the stakes need to be higher maybe you jump on in the playoffs or does it you know

I kind of lost my real passion for hockey years ago when I thought it was crap and I don't mean the Leafs I mean just

the game itself there was a lot of clutch and grab and a lot of cheap shots and just lost it for me. And I never really regained it. Although in the playoffs I'll watch. I mean, yeah, and I'll be there jumping

in the bandwagon when the Leafs start winning, for sure. On that note, like, so it sounds like you're not a big basketball fan. I'm okay with basketball. I'm not a big basketball fan. So'm okay with basketball. I'm not a big basketball fan. So I'm wondering about bandwagon. So when the Raptors, you know, I'm going to

make some assumptions here and put us, I'm going to put us in the conference finals. Okay. There's some big assumptions there. Let's say we get to the conference final. Like would yourself, for example, would you tune in to watch the Raps at that point or? Yeah, yeah.

I probably would. But I'm, because when. But because when the entire city has got this buzz going, you know, it's kind of hard not to be part of it, you know, unless you really don't like the game at all. And I do like the game. It's just not appointment television for me.

No, totally fair. Now you mentioned Indy the car. Now let me ask you, I used to watch a lot of Indy car stuff and, you know, back of Paul Tracy and Jacques Villeneuve. And I was a lot of indie car stuff and uh you know back of paul tracy and uh what jack villeneuve and i was a big indie car guy for quite a while there and then they had that split yeah and then that really messed it up for me so screwed it up big time it screwed up big time but now they're back and in the last few years

the sport has been just growing in leaps and bounds and they've got incredible talent the racing um you know people tell you that Formula 1 is better, which I think is bullshit, because Formula 1 is processional racing. I mean, it's just, there are races where once a guy gets in the lead, that's it. And there's like four people who can win. In Indy, at any given time, there's like 10, 12 people who can win.

Much more exciting racing. Is there a competitive Canadian right now in Indy car? Oh, James Hinchcliffe. Oh yeah, of course. And Robert Wickens, once he gets back from his injuries, if he can come all the way back. Okay. You know, I've totally forgot about it.

Of course, Hinchcliffe, of course. And the other gentleman's name was what? Robert Wickens. Okay. He had a serious, serious accident last year. I mean, they didn't know whether he's going to live to be honest with you and um now he's just rebounding and starting to stand now to piggyback on what brian said so brian had the sports questions but before that he was telling us

about this new development at the galleria mall uh have you i need to know have you ever been to the galleria mall where's, in Dufferin? Dufferin and DuPont. Years ago. It hasn't changed. I just want you to know. No, I drive by it almost every Saturday on my way to work, and no, it doesn't look like it has changed.

I worked inside that place for five years. Did you? It was a food city, and then it became a price chopper, and so I was there as a grocery clerk, like as a grocery clerk, like as a student. And I can tell you, it's like a time machine of sorts. Like once you get inside the Galleria Mall,

you're back in... Back when you started in radio, I'd say we're stuck in 1974 and it hasn't changed. But it sounds like they're going to bulldoze that thing and build this cool new development that Brian is selling units for. So if you need an investment property or whatever, gallery or mall.

Oh, okay. Keep that in mind with your pocket change there. And before I begin, I'm going to go to CKFM now, and then I'm just going to thank quickly two sponsors. They're both apps, and they're both fantastic. Paytm, they're an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. So you download the app from paytm.caca and you make all your bill payments through the app. It's free, convenient.

They reward you for making bill payments. They make it easy to use your credit card for every bill you have to pay so you can get points on your credit card so you can double dip. It's really fantastic. Paytm.ca and Buckle, B-U-K-L.co. This is for if you need servicing on your automobile. So you enter your car information and what service you need, and it will give you instant quotes from shops in your area. You can book an appointment right away, bring your car in to get serviced,

and then you can just drive away. You're automatically charged. It's seamless. So try Buckle.co the next time you need work done on your car. B-U-K-L dot C-O. And Ted, we're at CKFM. Tell me how you end up at CKFM in 1987. Don Daynard was the morning man there for years and years, and he quit.

And I got a call. It was Thanksgiving weekend. I got a call from Gary Slate. He said he wanted to meet me. I met him. We talked, and he offered me the job. How many times now has the Slate family given you a gig? I'm trying to do the math.

Is that four? Well, if you want to count Seafox in Montreal, that would be one, and then twice at Q, so that's three, and then CKFM is four. Wow. And there'll be more, right? And then CFRB, five. And I mean, and there, we'll get to this later,

but your current show with Bill King, Slate Music's a sponsor, right? Of that segment. Right, of the segment, right. Of the music segment, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So you're at CKFM from 87 for a little bit.

And tell us what it was like working with Maureen Holloway, for example. She was very funny. She was very funny. She was a very creative lady. And I'm not surprised that she's doing the morning show at CHFI now, because she's got a lot of talent.

Do you take any credit for that? Or no, she was, she was. No. I'm just trying to help you out here, Ted. No, I can't take any credit. No surprise at her success. But yeah, Maureen Holloway, but also. Mike Stafford was there too.

That's where I was going, exactly. He was part of the whole morning crew. And he's a morning show guy now too, so it's. And he's a morning show guy now too, yeah. Wow. He's another extremely talented guy. And he's. With show guy now too. And he's a morning show guy now too, yeah. He's another extremely talented guy. With a wicked sense of humor. Wicked sense of humor, and he was on Jeopardy, as you probably know.

Yes, I know. He knows his stuff. So what can you tell me about... He lost on Jeopardy. He lost on Jeopardy, that's exactly right. They did a song about it too. I think Weird Al did a song about it. Yeah, he did.

You were, so tell me a bit about working at CKFM other than obviously working with Maureen Holloway and Mike Stafford. And why was it such a short, short run at CKFM? I didn't get along with the program director. He didn't like me. I didn't like him. I can't imagine.

That's pretty much it right there. Just oil and water? Yeah, I guess. I suppose. The way I've been saying it, people like to make fun of me whenever I would say, oh, he wasn't your cup of tea. That's what I would say. No, it was his.

We just didn't get along. Sometimes you meet people in life and you just don't jive. Even I've experienced that, Ted, so I totally relate. But you, while you're at CAKFM, though, let me just, did you work with Danny Elwell?

Danny Elwell was there as well. Yeah. Sure, that must have been a very young Danny. Yeah. Early in her have been a very young Danny. Yeah. Early in her career, I guess because she goes, then she ends up

working with, at CFNY, but I believe, yeah, this is earlier than that. So did you, like all these... And then she's

at... Well, now she's at what's called JazzCast. It's like, okay, so she, it's an online jazz station. She was at Jazz FM, right?

For a long time. I'll be careful. But she was there. Two years ago, she left Jazz FM. And now she's starting with, I'm going to try to remember who it is, Walter Vinafro, Heather Bambrick, and

Garvia Bailey. They have all joined Danny Elwell with this new online jazz enterprise. And what I'm interested to find out, so they started this thing because they wanted a proper alternative to Jazz FM because they were unhappy with management and some decisions there. And that seems to be fixing itself. There's a new board that's been in place. So they're rectifying that. And I wonder now if that changes things. Why not just bring back the old crew?

You know what I mean? Well, that's what I'm wondering, whether they were planning on doing that. Time will tell, I guess. But I do have Garvia Bailey coming on the show in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to see what she'll say. But it makes sense.

Now you've got the new board, bring back the old favorite personnel. Like James B., for example, should be back on the air at Jazz FM. Well, was he not one of their leading fundraisers? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Him and Heather Bambrick apparently were like fundraising dynamos.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, bring them back. Both tremendous, like, members of the Toronto music scene. This is actually this Look People album. There's a gift from James B. right here. But yeah, bring them back. Let's fix this.

Let's right the wrong. Let's do it. You in? I'm kind of tied up. Okay. Well, Bill would be on board, I'm sure, at least to help out in some regard. But I won't speak for Bill.

But yeah, so that's where Danny's at now, jazzcast.ca. But you're at CKFM. You don't get along with the program director. And I guess you're out. And then I tried so hard. And I'm going out of order, Ted. I'm way out of order because this is all happening in 87 and 88. But I wanted to ask you about your comedy album,

which was like an 81. So I've completely lost the order. But I tried very hard to score a digital copy of this album called It's Not the Heat, It's the Humility, which is a great title, by the way, which got you a Juno nomination for comedy album of the Year.

Firstly, do you remember the album that won? Oh, yeah. Which album won? Bob and Doug McKenzie. The Great White North, right? Yeah. Good luck. Good luck.

Did I pick a good year, huh? Well, there's no shame. You were nominated. That's pretty cool. So tell me, I have a lot of questions about this. Like, how does this album, this comedy album come to be? And maybe before you answer, because Brandon's another listener of this show who wanted me to ask him to read his question. And then you could just blab about this album.

So he says, his comedy record, it's not the heat, it's the humility. He says you can, okay, he's telling me where you can see images of it. He said it's kind of an interesting Canadian curiosity. It's a U.S. comedy album. He says U.S. comedy albums are a staple, and he says George Carlin, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, etc., but much rarer in Canada. He goes, I believe it was Juno nominated. It was, I checked that out. And he says the liner notes, that's a joke, a Molly Johnson joke, which insiders will get, by Gary Dunford, who was a Toronto Sun columnist. And then the cover design he thinks was by your

brother. My brother's on the cover. On the cover. Along with the, it's a picture of me in the pool lying on an air mattress. My brother is serving me drinks, I think, and the photographer is serving me a platter of what is actually dog biscuits. Okay. And the dogs in the picture too.

Cool. So here's a series of questions from Brandon, and then you can just talk to it. But he's interested to know more about how this album came to be, like who suggested it, and the immediate impact. He wants to know if the Juno nomination

helped it sell more. He wants to know if it was ever reissued. Oh, it pushed it from nine to ten so far. The idea, it was my idea, it was something that I wanted to do for a long time. And we recorded it. There's a whole segment, there's a 25-minute piece on there on being Ukrainian.

That was recorded at a Ukrainian cabaret at the former Ukrainian Hall at Boer and Christie. The rest was recorded at Convocation Hall at University of Toronto. And it was done on Stompin' Tom Connor's label through a guy named Yuri Krychuk who worked with Stompin' Tom. And he's

a Ukrainian friend of the family, and went to him, we put the album together, and here it was. Was it ever reissued on CD, for example? No. No, it wasn't. This is why it's so hard for me to find it. I can get you a copy of the album if you'd like. I would like to, yeah.

I got an email from a girl I went to high school with, a text message last week. She said I was at some garage sale or somewhere, and she said, I saw your album, and I bought it for 18 bucks.

I said, I would have sold it to you for five. First of all, you should be honored. Your stuff in the garage sales is getting $18? Yeah. That's a lot for a garage sale.

You know, whether it was a garage sale or a flea, I think it was actually a flea market or something. No, I know. I mean, I don't know why somebody would have, how did they even come up with that price of $18? You've got to haggle that down to $10, I think. $10?

I know. How about $3? So that was the next question. It's funny you said that story because Brandon wants to know if you ever bump into it at used record stores or visiting people, etc.

And he wants to know the strangest place you ever saw the album. I guess, I don't know if you have any stories about seeing it somewhere. I've never seen it anywhere. How many units did you sell?

Do you know? What are we talking here? Oh, I don't know. Dozens. Trust me. That would here? Oh, I don't know. Dozens. Trust me. That would put you on the charts in this country. Not a big seller at all. Not a big seller.

But do you have any physical copies of this album? I do. How many do you got? I don't know. More than one? Yeah, probably half a dozen or maybe 10, something like that. I think. Well, congrats on the nomination.

And of course, losing to the Great White North is no shame in that. But while we're talking SCTV, were you ever on SCTV? No. You were never on SCTV in any capacity at all? Okay, okay. There's not SCTV, but there's a Saturday Night Live character who's pretty famous. In fact, at these Oscars, actually. Speaking of the Oscars, I was watching

the Oscars, and Dana Carvey and Mike Myers did their characters, Wayne and Garth, which is the first time I think I've seen them do it in a long time, I think. But let me play a little bit of this. Am I going right? Oh, yeah. Let me play a little bit

of this and then talk about how Wayne Campbell fits into the story. One of the regular cast members on the show is a guy who actually became a cast member after winning a contest to perform for one minute on the air. He is, of course, Wayne Campbell, and his feature is called Wayne's Power Minute. And here he is now with his own Christmas message explaining what the season means to him.. We'll wait for a little bit of Mike Myers here. . Hi, this is Wayne's Power Minute. All right, now we're going to look at parties.

Party hardy! I want to know, when did party become a verb? Like, to party. We partied last night. Now, I think around 1972. Now, everybody has their own way of saying party. Like, my parents say party. And some people say partay, which is incredibly bogus.

And some people say party, which is the right way to say it. Now, of course, there's political parties, like the Communist Party. I mean, what's that? So this is from a show called It's Only Rock and Roll. And you hosted this show. I did. So I want to know how that show came to be, and then I want to know, that's pretty cool to get Wayne Campbell,

Mike Myers, in his character Wayne, before Wayne's World. Yeah, he was working out of Second City. Not the television show, the theater. I don't know how the producers found him. I can't remember how I got, you know what, I was going to be a contributor. I was going to be one of many contributors and the guy that they had originally scheduled for host

tried to hold him up for a lot more money and they told him to stick it. Do you remember who that was? I don't know. I don't know who it was. Somebody from Montreal. And then they offered it to me. And this is like 87, I want to say, for this, at least for the Wayne Campbell appearances, 1987.

I guess so too. So that lasted for a year. Yeah, another foray into television though. And again, what was it like seeing the character Wayne break? Like when you see that all of a sudden, you know, we're all not worthy and all this. Yeah.

Well, you know, just judging by the audience that was there watching the taping and how excited they were, and I'm thinking, okay, this is going to work, depending on how far he wants to take this. And you could tell when he took his wig off, there was a couple of guys sitting in the front and they were like, oh.

Like, they were so bummed out. He went, oh, fuck, man. That's not his real hair. I went, okay. Yeah, he's done all right. Yeah, he's done okay. We had Jeff Healy on the show once as well. I love Jeff Healy, and I literally, like three days ago,

booked his drummer to come in and talk about it. Yeah, I got him coming on my show this week. I guess he's selling that book. Yeah, yeah, that's right. We're getting the same circuit, guys. Something, Stephen? We should ask him the exact same questions. You want to coordinate that?

That would be hilarious. That would be funny. That would be funny. And we're going to get to the show you're doing, because I think it's fantastic. I think it's just great that you're doing that show on CFRB. But we're almost there. So, right.

So, yes, Jeff Healy. So how was Jeff Healy? What was he like? Jeff Healy was great. And he played with Stevie Ray Vaughan. They had never met before. And the two of them jammed together. Wow.

It was unbelievable. I'm trying to imagine that. That would be amazing. Uh, is this before, uh, the release of, uh, Confidence Man and, uh. I don't know, Jeff was not a big name then. Cause that's the first time, uh, he starts getting real, uh, airplay, I guess, was with Confidence Man and See the Light. Yeah.

And then a couple of years later, uh, where I used to live out in the east end of Mississauga, there was a bar that had a karaoke night once a week. So I came walking in there one night, and there's the guy singing Angel Eyes, right? Oh, yeah. A big Jeff Healy hit. Yeah. And I'm thinking, oh, this guy's really good,

and I finally get to the top, second level, and then I looked down, and I went, oh, it's Jeff. It turned out the guy, the dish jockey who ran the karaoke night, he and Jeff went to high school together, so every once in a while Jeff would drop by and he'd perform one of his own songs. So I'm standing there and I'm watching Jeff Healy perform with this

waitress and she doesn't know who he is. And he finishes and one of his buddies from his table gets up and walks over and grabs him by the arm and helps him back to the table and sits down. And the waitress says to me, she says, oh, my God, I hope he's not driving. I said, I hope he isn't either.

He's blind. That's great. She had no idea. That's great. That's great. By the way, there's a park near, like, Queensway and Park Lawn. There's a Jeff Healy park. Yeah, I heard that.

And, in fact, a little story is that it's built with this, like, musical instruments as part of the park, the things that make musical, like, notes and stuff. But apparently when the wind's blowing, which I can't imagine what it would have sounded like in the last couple of days. We had some major winds here, man. But, like, when the wind's blowing, it was making a noise and the neighbors complained or something. Like this musical, these musical instruments

in the park were making too much noise for the neighbors. I know. Some people got their hands stuck up their ass so far, man. I can't believe it. I bet that was.

And also my buddy, Mike Kick, he's buried in Park Lawn Cemetery. And by the way, so is Harold Ballard. So when I go to visit Mike, for fun, I'll go,

oh, there's Harold Ballard's grave. In section F. Is that F for firm? Stands for what? Jeff Healy's in there too. Anyways, I don't know if anybody does that, but if you wanted to see

Jeff Healy's grave, it's in... I played in his golf tournament. Did he golf? Yeah, yeah. He had a golf tournament. And how do blind people golf? Is it essentially...

Somebody just sets him up, and he has, you know, once you've swung enough times, right, you basically, you know where the ball is, right, as long as you keep the same swing. So he would come around, and he'd play one hole with every foursome. Interesting.

Yeah, he was a cool guy. And he had another guy gone way too soon, but he was a great musician. And I can't believe Stevie Ray Vaughan, speaking of gone too soon, that's all we're going to do today is talk about people gone too soon, but Stevie Ray Vaughan.

And I had Colin James on recently and that was his big mentor who took him under his wing was Stevie Ray Vaughan. And that guy was just a virtuoso. Yeah. That was great. But yeah,

he passed away in the 89 or something like that. But okay. So Wayne Campbell makes an appearance on it's only rock and roll. And that goes about a year. You said now I have, am I right? Like is, is the next big thing in your career?

Can I get you to CFRB? I can do that now. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. In fact, I mentioned another Dale had a question for you. So this guy's name is Dale Cadeau. He actually lives in BC, but he's a big,

I guess he's from this neck of the woods and he listens to Toronto Mic'd. And he wants me to ask you about what is it like the first day at CFRB after taking over from Wally? So let's set this up. Wally Crowder was doing mornings at CFRB after taking over from Wally. So let's set this up. Wally Crowder was doing mornings at CFRB for how long? Like 50 years or something? Yeah, 50 years.

Wow. So what, I mean, I can't imagine. You don't want to be the guy who replaces Wally. You want to be the guy who replaces the guy who replaces Wally. That's right. That's right. So what was it like? Well, okay, first of all, I had been working at CFRB for a couple years doing a Saturday

and Sunday show. And eventually I started to fill in for Wally until I got to the point where I was his fill-in guy. Wally had like 12 weeks a year vacation. And so I had filled in, I had done that shift many times before I actually got the job. But the first day going on the air, realizing, okay, I'm no longer am I filling in for Wally, I am Wally. But I'm thinking, okay, well, but I got to be me. I can't try to be Wally because only Wally is Wally. So it was intimidating, yeah, daunting, yeah, absolutely it was.

But it was, everybody around me, they were real cool. And because I had done it many times before and Bill Stevenson was there and I felt comfortable with working with him and working with, uh, with Dave Agar and some of the other folks. So, and this is 96. And they had me so tightly reined in to begin with. They just really didn't want anything to go, you know, they wanted this. I, I used to joke around and I said, people said, what do you do for a living? I said, I introduce people.

Because it was constantly like this. And now here's so-and-so with this, and here's so-and-so with this, and here's so-and-so, and here's so-and-so. But would you enjoy that kind of structure? No. Rigidity? Because you seem like a...

No, no. It's the opposite of the Marsden era, right? Exactly. It's 100% opposite. No, not at all. But I realized what, that they felt that needed to be that way because they wanted to ease me in and they didn't want it to be too drastic in any

way, in one way or another. So, and then eventually it started opening up a little bit and I started to do a lot of the interviews on my own. And so, and then it sort of began, became my show a couple of years into it. So you're there, you get there in Takeover for Wally in November 96. Yeah.

And you're there for a decade, which means you're working on the air at 1010 on September 11th, 2001. Yes, sir. Would you mind sharing a little bit about your experiences that day? I was in the air. It was quarter to nine,

and Dave Agar came in with a bulletin. He said, Ted, CNN is reporting an aircraft has crashed into one of the main, Tower 1 or Tower 2 or whatever, of the World Trade Center in New York City. And I immediately turned the TV on and I said, yeah, you can see it's Tower 1. And we don't know what it is.

We don't know whether it's a traffic aircraft from a radio station or a television station. We don't know if it's a commercial airliner because you couldn't see because it was on the wrong side of the camera per se. And then we talked a little bit more, a little bit more. Show came to an end. I got up, walked into the newsroom. I sat down and looked up in the screen and I'm looking and going,

there was this plane flying in a building. I said, well, somebody must have had the camera on the other side. Then I realized that's the second plane. And it's a sinking feeling. I'm thinking, oh, my God. They're being attacked. And then the next two weeks were somewhat surreal because we focused almost everything we did on the air was talking about

because so much news was coming in. And the important thing, and thank God Dave Agar was our news director. He's a brilliant man. He said, you know, we got to be careful because there's more misinformation out there right now than there is information. People are just wildly speculating and saying, well, no, no, it's this, it's this. I know I heard, I read, I saw. And so we had to check and double check everything before we would have put it to air. No, none of this speculation. Somebody's saying this.

No, don't put it to air until we know that that is factual. And then we started interviewing people who were there. We interviewed one guy. Excuse me. There were six. We interviewed one guy. Excuse me. There were six of them, I think, from one office who decided they were going to walk down. And the plane had crashed on several floors below them. But I guess on the other side of the building,

they thought, no, we're going to do this. We're going to go down. And as they were starting to go down, they felt that it's getting hotter and hotter. And half of the group said, no, we're going to go down, and as we're starting to go down, they felt that it's getting hotter and hotter, and half of the group said, no, we're going back up, and these guys pursued, only two of them, they pursued and kept going, and as they were coming down on one floor,

they heard this noise through the wall, and they opened the door, and there's this guy, you can see him buried under rubble, and so they dug and they dug and they dug, and they pulled all this shit from them and they finally got them and they helped them and they carried them down like 65 stairs, 65 floors.

And they basically, they saved the guy's life. Wow. And now these guys are like best friends. And a year later, on the first anniversary, a bunch of us from the station flew down to New York to do our show on September 11th, 2002. So we flew down on the 10th. We got into the plane.

Mike Bendixson, who's my producer, and I were flying together. We got on the plane. Of course, at that point, everybody's talking about air marshals on the planes because, remember, the planes didn't fly for a few days, and then afterwards about air marshals on the planes. Cause remember the planes didn't fly for a few days. And then afterwards air marshals. So I get on the plane and, um, the solicitor general's on the plane.

He's like, that's the top cop. And here's Brosnan. So I said to Mike, I said, we're okay. He said, what do you mean?

Okay. I said, we got the top cop and James Bond. So I went down and we did the show outside the Carnegie Deli. And then we went right across from Ground Zero, one of the buildings, the Verizon building, which had been extensively damaged. The second floor, CBS, and we were an affiliate of CBS at the time.

CBS had rented out the second floor. Dan Rather was doing a show there. And they had all the different CBS radio stations, including ours, doing shows there. So we hung around there for a while and then left, went downstairs one floor, and then sort of walked through the building, and I said, just mangled steel,

and it was really, and we get to, it was really surreal and just creepy, and we get to the airport, and there and there's like nobody at the airport. It's like nobody at the airport other than like the Marines and with dogs and machine guns and cops all over the place. And finally we, you know, get to the bar and we start to have a couple of drinks and we realize we could probably catch an earlier flight because nobody's flying.

Everybody's scared shitless. Okay, I remember. I remember 9-11. I'm old enough. I remember I was an adult working in a full-time job. I remember 9-11, and I know that there was that feeling, that uneasy feeling,

I still remember it, of you don't know what's next, and you're not sure of anything anymore. I know. And you're on a station, CFRB 1010, which is a place people will go. People will go there for information. So you're providing information, but on some level, you're providing comfort. People are coming to hear it from you.

I'm wondering whether you were aware that you were basically providing the service and that you, and did that change the way that you covered this event? Well, as I mentioned, I mean, it's, you know,

we were very, very, very, very careful to make sure that any information that we put out, that we were confident that it was accurate because you don't want to start fear mongering. You don't want to start feeding incorrect information because once you've done that and you've gotten nabbed once or twice, everything else that you say, nobody's

going to believe you and you've lost them. And at a certain level, your decorum changes. I mean, it's kind of hard to crack jokes, but eventually you have to lighten up a little bit. But it all took time. Time is what it takes. It's true nowadays. You know, yeah, shortly thereafter, you're right.

There were certain songs you wouldn't hear on the radio and there was like just certain things that were not being broadcast because it was just time was what was required in order to sort of like revisit a lot of these themes and stuff. Man, so that was 9-11. And I'm

going to ask you, have you I don't think I know the answer, but have you ever experienced anything like that or anything even remotely close to that in your professional career? Not anything that's that close in terms of proximity. I mean, when the tsunami hit some years later, that was pretty horrific,

and we had some people from the station who went down to cover that. For them, that must have been an incredible experience. But for me, 9-11 was it. And there's something to be said about it. Honestly, I don't want to experience anything bigger than that. I was going to say, let's hope we never do. But there's one thing, it's a natural disaster. I think we all have this thing in our minds where it's horrific.

It's terrible. It's tragic. But Mother Nature could be a cruel beast, and we have no control over that. But then this 9-11, of course, a terrorist attack, it's just more difficult to kind of come to grips with why, what this is, what it means. Yeah, and is it coming here? Are these people responsible for it in New York?

Are factions of them here sitting in our yard? Are they going to go after buildings here? Are they going to go after our aircraft once we get back into the, into the skies? Exactly. And, uh, it's not knowing and, uh, it's scary. It's scary. And then flying back on September 11th, one

year later, I mean, you're thinking, okay, well, these guys are sitting there going, they're going to make, this is target time. Right. Man. So you're there, uh, okay. So you're at, you're at 1010 doing mornings from, it's a 5 30 to 8 30 on

cfrb you're doing that for 10 years i mentioned uh you leave that role in december 2006 i need uh i know you've written about this in the toronto sun and you've sort of i want to say uh come clean i don't know if that's the right terminology or not but this was and i've seen this a lot in broadcasting, where it was spun, I guess. How was it spun, that you were spending time with family? Well, I knew it was coming. And so I went to my boss, Steve Couch, and said,

I said, look, I know you guys are going to let me go. So I tell you what, Friday, tomorrow, I've got to do, because I was doing a lot of work with the children's breakfast club and we have our annual, um, Christmas breakfast breakfast for the breakfast club, which we broadcast from. I said, do me a favor. Let me do that so I can finish that. And then at the end of the show, I will say that I'm stepping down, that I'm retiring.

And then at the end of the show, I will say that I'm stepping down, that I'm retiring. And I promise you I will be nothing but polite and gracious and grateful for everybody, for everything that the Slates have done for me and you guys have done for me, and I will be professional. Normally, you don't get that opportunity. Normally, they call you in and say, by the way, that was it. See you later. But how were you so sure it was coming?

It sounds like you knew it was up. How did you know? How do you know? Well, just the way, you know, when people start ignoring you in the hallways. They start having meetings without you. Yeah, exactly. You know, and things are just, are like really tense between you and the boss. But it was your idea. So it was your idea to, I call it a spin.

That's the only term. I mean, it's sort of a PR spin. Well, they didn't want me to go on and say that, you know, that they fired me. And this lets you. So I honored their request. And by doing so, I also honored my commitment and said to them, I thank the Slates for giving me this great opportunity,

and I thank everybody with whom I worked, and I thank my program director, and I thank the general manager, and I thank everybody for listening. And then they kept me on the air for another hour, and we took calls from listeners. And that's the way they wanted. They didn't want to seem as though they'd fired me, because they weren't interested in having people

phoning the station and yelling at them or complaining or whatever they would have done. Sure. So I gave them the option. I said, let me resign on air, but let me do it live. And I promised that I will do it professionally. And afterwards, the general manager said, thank you for keeping your word.

That was extremely well done, very professional of you. I said, I told you I would. Why would I lie? But here's the, you're a classy guy because here's the, as you know, here's the negative, is that if you go on the air and you tell the world, and you know, newspaper picks it up and everything, you tell the world you're retiring.

I never said I was retiring. Okay, you never used the R word. I didn't. They kept saying that I was retiring, and I kept saying, quit saying retiring. I can't find any more fucking work. Well, that's what I was going to say.

No one's going to make you a job offer. I know, exactly, exactly. Sitting on the dock of the bay. I just said, I don't want to spend more time with my family and do some other things. So you never used the R word. They did, and they said you were retiring and uh i'm gonna quote you

though that i like this line you wrote uh this is you uh ted uh radio is an awkward bedfellow one moment embracing you deeming you important and wanted and then suddenly you're as cold as yesterday's kiss yeah man it's uh it's true yeah no it's it's, uh. It's true. Yeah. No. It's, it's, you know what? I love this industry. I've been in it for 45 years now. And, um, I just had the time of my life doing all kinds of different stuff, meeting all kinds of fabulous people.

But, um, but it's a son of a bitch. It's, it's, it's cruel. Why do you think they wanted to move on from you? Like, why do they want, why do you think they wanted to move on from you? Why do you think they wanted you out after a decade? Oh, I don't know. I've got a number of different thoughts on that issue, but I think for the most part, just because they wanted a change

and probably were sick of me. And quite frankly, I was a little sick of them. But you clearly did a good job of not burning any bridges. No, I didn't. No, even when I wrote the column, I didn't shit on anybody. And maybe we'll cover that briefly here before we get... Or did I? Well, no, I mean, I've read it as recently as a couple of days ago.

I read it, and it was refreshingly honest. It's actually... I quite like it when people tell the truth instead of blowing smoke up our asses or whatnot. So I thought it was a great piece. I did notice it's not hosted by The Sun anymore. It's not there. I don't know why,

but you have to know a few tricks to find this article. I don't know why it's not on there. I don't know,, but you have to know a few tricks to find this article. I don't know why it's not on there. I don't know, but let me read this. You wrote, okay, because I knew I was a goner and wanted the opportunity to bow out on air, I came to an agreement with management that I would simply say it was time to move on and thank my colleagues and the listeners. It was an easy way for both of us to save face, certainly much easier for them than responding to angry listeners. It was an easy way for both of us to save face, certainly much easier for them than responding to angry listeners. And there were many as I began to learn the truth of my exit.

However, what followed were on-air pronouncements that I had retired to relax and spend time with my children. That was BS. Yeah, so you mentioned that. And here we are, how many years later, though, you ended up back on the air at what's now called News Talk 1010. So what's that like? Can you maybe walk me through the exit and then how you end up back on there? Well, I had a producer when I did the morning show.

His name was Mike Bendixson. I helped bring him in, actually, because he was just finishing off college. And then he was my producer for about three years or so. And then finally, he got an opportunity to go become a program director at our sister station in Montreal. Now, in the meantime, while he's there, I leave some years afterwards. And I'm now out of radio, with the exception of doing some commercial work and doing some stuff writing for The Sun. And then I met up with Mike, who's now back in Toronto as the program director for News Talk 1010.

And we met over lunch and he said, do you want to come back on air? I said, sure. He said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to do a show that's not like the shows that you've got on air now. I want to do something that would resemble more of a weekend newspaper with a combination of music, food, politics, the arts, current events. And he said, okay. And here I am, nine years later.

I have a great quote from Mike Bendixson here. He writes, without him, and you're the him, I should point out, Ted, without him, I wouldn't have had a chance in this business. So that's a Mike Bendixson quote. What did you get there? I'm not going to tell you. You'll find out at some point,

but I can't tell you right now. It's all good. Okay. You're not allowed to tell you. You'll find out at some point, but I can't tell you right now. It's all good. Okay. You're not allowed to ask these questions, but I'll tell you after we stop recording. I'll tell you why I can't tell you. But anyway, so you end up hosting. You're on 1010 now. And maybe tell me a little bit about how my buddy Bill King gets involved in all this? Well, when I started doing the program,

I'd known Bill for years through a number of different activities and stuff. He used to come to Gary Slate's Christmas party every year and play music. And I knew him from a number of different events. And I said to him, I said, listen, Bill, I want to do a Christmas special. Do you want to come on the show?

And have you got like a singer or two you can bring with you? And he said, yeah. So he came on, brought some singers, played some Christmas music, had a great time, and then about a week or so later he said to me, you know, if you want, I can come on. I can come every week. I said, if you want, I can come on, I can come every week. I said, if you want, that'd be great. I have no money, and I doubt that there's any money in a budget for you.

He said, that doesn't matter. And that's been eight years. And is this where the Slate Music? Slate Music, yeah, a couple years ago. He approached them, and then they said, okay, we, a couple years ago. He approached them and then they said, okay, we'll sponsor that one segment. Let me read a quote from Bill, if you don't mind here. This is from Bill King.

He says, Throughout the years, a light gray car dutifully pulls up late Saturday mornings in front of my corner home. Ted shuffles a few newspapers to the side and off we go. We talk football, comedy, the week's events, rarely politics, just light and easy banter. I come from the music world where laughter is mandatory for survival and sanity. Therefore, I can see the humor in the most mundane. Five hours later, Ted returns me to my front door. We exchange a few parting good wishes and prepare

to repeat the cycle. That sounds beautiful. It sounds like a nice relationship. We have a great relationship. Politically, we're on opposite ends of the stick because, of course, he's a communist. You mean he's a progressive?

No, he's a villain that get along well. We differ in some of our politics, but other than that, we're on the same page. We have the same likes, same sense of humor. Well, speaking of Bill King, speaking of your... Was it Mornings with Ted? Is that the... What's the... Saturday with Ted.

Saturday with Ted, sorry. Here's Saturday with Head, sorry. Here's Saturday with Head. This is King City Stomp by Bill King. And Bill, he wrote this for you? Yeah. Well, that's what he says. Whether he did or didn't, I don't know. Well, you should hear what he wrote for me.

It sounds awfully similar. I'm wondering if he just does this for all the hosts out there. Yeah, exactly. Bill's got a racket going on here. So thank you, Bill, for sending me this audio. Very good. And maybe you want to give some love to some of your... So you mentioned... Is it called Slate Music?

Is that the name of the... Slate Music. Yeah, right. And good on them for helping to... I always thank my sponsors. I say thank you for helping to fuel the real talk. So you've got... Well, also to Roland.

Roland supplies the keyboard that Bill uses. What a killer piece of equipment that is. It still amazes me how many people, when they come into the station for the first time, onto my show, and they sit there and they go, oh, so Bill's live playing? Yeah. Really?

I said, yes, yes. Playing live. He's your Paul Schaefer, you know. Yeah. Very cool. And Tom's Place, is this a... Tom's Place, they've been a sponsor. I've been doing endorsements

for Tom for probably 20 something years now he's a wonderful man this is one of the only guys you know he takes a lot of

a lot of heat from people because his commercials are a little bit out there when he does them on his own but this is a guy

who he pays for 60 60-second commercial, and he'll spend 60 seconds talking about a charity event that's coming up. And doesn't even mention his store. Right. There's not a lot of people who would do that. That's true. You know?

Not a lot of people would do that. And he's a very, very generous guy. So he's been a client of mine. I've been endorsing his stuff for 20-something years. And for the last couple of years, a place called Helendas, which is a butcher. Oh, cool. Here in Mississauga and also in Durham. Very, very cool. Now, we only touched on it briefly, but how did you get the gig writing

at the Toronto Sun? Did they just approach you and say... They did. Yeah, Rob Granstein, he was the editor at the Toronto Sun? Did they just approach you and say... They did. Yeah, Rob Granstein, he was the editor at the time. He approached me and asked me if I'd be interested in submitting three stories, which I did. And then I just kept submitting. And I said, so am I on board? Because it's been like two months now.

Yeah, yeah, you're on board, you're on board. And so originally I was submitting one a week. And then they contacted a number of us and said, we're cutting back. It's going to be once a month now. Because as you know, things aren't all that jolly in print world. So I hear. So I hear.

But that's pretty cool that you can write an opinion column in the sun. Pretty cool. And just before we go here, I actually am very curious. So I mentioned I love your show and I love the caliber of guests you have on and the kind of longer form conversation.

Yeah, I like that. That's one thing that I, that I don't miss about the morning show because the morning show we never got, if we had the premiere coming in, they'd manage to squeeze about five, maybe six minutes. That would be it. Think about that, right?

Imagine you got the premiere here. Yeah. Yeah. I got to. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Everybody else would be like three, three and a half.

No room to breathe. Like, uh. No. And often, as you know, when, like, for example, there's a drummer for the Jeff Healy band has a book to promote, right? So you, yes, okay, that's why they are interested in chatting with you. But if you only have like three minutes with a guest and they're going to do a book promo in there, like, where exactly is the deep dive? Like, where do, when we sink our teeth in anything? You're just wading into the pool. Right. You're just, yeah, you dip your toes in and you're done? Like, where do, when we sink our teeth in anything? Personally, you're just wading into the pool. Right. You're just, yeah, you dip your toes in and you're done. Like, go home.

So, it's great that Mike Ben Dixon gives you time to breathe, I'd say. Yeah, see, because unlike all the other talk shows, we don't take calls. We don't take calls from listeners. We, while we read their their texts when they text in,

some of them. People can be awfully mean, you know that? I do know this. Oh my God. So anyway, so because we don't take calls, it gives me a lot more time to talk to a guest. The way I figured, if I can't come up with good questions and if I have to count on the listeners to come up with good questions for if i have to count on the on on the listeners to come up with good questions for my guest why am i the host and also maybe they're not a very good guest i would say uh if if that is true because a good guest there's a lot to sink your teeth into and you have a i would guess you'd have an authentic interest in yeah extracting well you know what i think i'm i'm pretty much interested almost in anything and everybody has a good story or two to tell.

You could just walk into the Galleria Mall and pull somebody out that you don't know and just sit down with them for 10 minutes and talk to them and I'm sure you'll get something interesting out of them. You've given me an idea. Because everybody's had something interesting. I'm going to do a series of interviews of those

old, yeah, the old guys who sit in the mall there and what's their story? I'm going to do a whole series on that. Well yeah, the old guys who sit in the mall there and what's their story. I'm going to do a whole series on that. Well, you'd be surprised. I know, you're right. Well, I'll give you an example, okay? I was interviewing some years ago, Mark McEwen, the noted restaurateur.

Of course, yeah. Really nice man. And I said to him, I said, you know, with the popularity for the Food Network and Food Television in general, all these different programs, I mean, everybody wants to be a chef, everybody wants to open up a restaurant. And I said, I said, I think the first time I recall watching anybody prepare food on a television show, there used to be a television show in Buffalo called Meet the Millers. Now, the Millers were this elderly couple who were like originally vaudeville performers,

and they did this daily show where they had guests, whoever's coming through Buffalo, and they also had a cooking segment. And I said to Mark McKeown, I said, that's the first time I've ever seen food being prepared on television. And he looked at me and he just smiled, and I said, what's up? He said, my dad was the director of that show. I love those stories. You never know where things are going to tie

together. Yeah, yeah. That's fantastic. I know. Tell me some of your, can you, I mean, the obvious question I want to know an answer to is some of your favorite interviews, like if you had a...

Well, Ron James is a great interview to have on because he's funnier than hell. And he's always got something going. You have enough time for him? How much time you have on that show? Because Ron can go. Yeah. You wind him up and he can go.

He is fantastic. Oh, we can give him half an hour, you know. And normally it's either 15 or... We have two 15-minute segments, but one of them actually is like 12 or something, and the other one is about nine and a half because of commercials and traffic and stuff. But for somebody like him, we give him half an hour. Jan Arden.

Jan Arden was one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. How somebody can write so many songs that make you want to break down and cry, and then suddenly you're pissing yourself laughing is beyond me. So she's always great. There's been a lot of really interesting people that I've had on. I mean, some of the old hockey players, right? Some of the stories that the old hockey players tell. Oh, like Hull.

You ever had... Well, I had Red Kelly on, for example. Okay, yeah, yeah. Now, Red Kelly played for Detroit, and he played for Toronto. Red Kelly won eight Stanley Cups. He's got four rings from Detroit and four rings from Toronto. That's incredible, man.

Yeah, absolutely. What about, like, musicians? Like, you ever had on a musician that you truly, like, admired their work, like, before you met them? Because for me, I don't have nearly the caliber I guess you have. Lighthouse.

Lighthouse. A bunch of guys from Lighthouse came on and they actually, Skip Prokop was on, the late Skip Prokop, Paul Hoffert, and oh God, I can't remember the third one. But they came on and Prokop got behind Bill's keyboard and they sang Sunny Days. Yeah.

Yeah. So did you ever find yourself having that fanboy moment? Like, you know, you're the professional host here, but all of a sudden it's like, because again, I don't have the caliber of guests you have, but I often have a guest on where I, look, as a teenager, I loved their music so much. And there they are.

And next thing you know, maybe they're playing it or they're talking about the song while we listen to the song or whatever. And I have that moment where I have this like, is this really happening moment? Do you still get those like, is this real life? Yeah. Pretty cool, eh?

Yeah, absolutely. So when those moments go away, that means it's time to go off into the sunset. Yeah, I think so. But I don't know that they ever will. I think that there'll always be somebody who will be, you know, who will fascinate you or somebody that, you know, who's going to come up

with, tell you stories that you just jaw, your jaw drops and go, really? Man. Here's a quick little promo clip. So this was cut. My last guest was Mishy Mee. I don't know if My last guest was Mishy Mee. I don't know if you're familiar with Mishy Mee, but she was the first ever female MC from Canada

to get a US record deal. And she's a rapper and she was fantastic. And we're chatting and I was listening to her as a teenager and I always admired Mishy Mee. And she cut this. And I'm not going to ask you to do the same thing, but I want you to hear Mishimi, five seconds of Mishimi here.

Toronto, stay tuned right here with Toronto Mike and it goes a little something like this. Hit it. So she does this and it's like, I have this like super fanboy moment of like, I want it to be my ringtone. Like I want it to play when I enter a room. You know what I mean?

I'm like, did Mishimi, is this? Well, the ringtone, yeah, but entering the room, that's a little over the top. No way, Ted. Go for it. Not over the top. But Ted, any final thoughts before I conclude my very first TED Talk?

This has been an absolute thrill. I'm really honored that you invited me to come on because I've heard a number of your shows from the past. I'm glad you're doing it. And I'll tell you why. Tell me. Because radio people don't get much coverage of anything. There used to be a time when Gary Dunford would always talk about radio people. Nobody talks about radio people. You're absolutely right. Yeah. No one's talking about it. And there's no reason for them to go

to talk about what they do or what they've done, except the kind of stuff that you're doing here, which is great. And it's because I love radio. Well, I can tell that. Naturally curious. It's all about yourself too.

You're a curious cat. That's why you extract these stories. And I think that's half the, half the battle, as they say, is you have to, you know, give a shit and want to kind of learn about a person. But that's why I'm serious. I mean, I'm glad you're doing this. Well, I'm glad you came on.

And now that you've had your first initial deep dive here, at some point, I'm going to pester you to come back and kick out the jams with me. I'd love to do that. In fact, at some point, I'm going to have this idea where I want you and Bill in at the same time. And then we just so I can eavesdrop on the conversation. We can do that too. Let's do it.

You're going to have to drive him, though. That means I have to go pick him up. So, true, when Bill came over, and he does not live near here, as you know. You're not too far from here, but he's much east of here. But he biked here, which I love. I bike everywhere. But he biked here, and apparently it was a very long ride. Well, he's coming from Christian DuPont.

That's right. That's right. Oh, he's not too far from the Galleria Mall. I'm going to have to... No, he's not, actually. ...chat with him about that. Ted, thanks so much. What a pleasure.

Thanks so much for doing this. Pleasure is mine. And that brings us to the end of our 435th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Ted, are you simply Ted Wallachian on Twitter? At Ted Wallachian. At Ted Wallachian on Twitter.

I'm going to tweet this at him if you want to know how to spell Wallachian. W-O-L-O-S-H-Y-A-N. That simple. That simple. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthesix.com at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR.

And PayTM is at PayTM Canada. See you all next week. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or will do Thank you. Rosie and Gray Yeah the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray