Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - TJ Connors: Toronto Mike'd #366

Episode Date: August 11, 2018

Mike chats with 97.7 HTZ-FM's TJ Connors about his career in radio and his relationship with his father, Scruff Connors.

Welcome to episode 366 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know, TJ, that 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Etobicoke? I did not know that, but I know that at least 1% of it live in your basement. GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage

all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Census Design and Build, providing architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is radio broadcaster T.J. Connors.

Wow. Aggressive. Is that aggressive? Somebody from Winnipeg named T.J. This is not a joke. Somebody from Winnipeg named T.J. said he didn't like my opening because it was too much like, I don't know,

like a boxing announcer or something like that. I don't know. Michael Buffer? That was me that emailed into the show. That was my joke. Actually, that's when I reached out to you. I did an episode in which I talked about TJ from Winnipeg, and I said, maybe it's TJ Connors.

Isn't he from Winnipeg or whatever? Yeah, I grew up there, yeah. And then this light bulb went off in my head and I'm like, why the fuck have I not asked TJ to come on this show yet? Well, I've only been waiting 360 some odd episodes because I listened to your first podcast. I remember when you came on. The first one.

Back in August. That was six years ago this month. Okay. Well, I didn't, yeah, I didn't mark it on my calendar before I came, which I should have. I didn't realize we were going to talk about this, but your intro,

I remember you coming on and saying that every good podcast has to have an intro. Now this was around the time, I guess when Humble and Fred had just started doing their thing. Yeah, they inspired me to do this. Because you used to be a guest on their show. I was the digital backend producer. That's right. So, they inspired me to do this. Because you used to be a guest on their show. I was the digital back-end producer.

That's right. So I would pop on now and then. Sorry I didn't get the job title right. But I knew you were a part of the Humble and Fred beginnings. The universe. And yeah, and then you kind of spawned off your own Toronto Mike podcast. Just like in an epic movie or whatever

where I'm the protege who comes and conquers my mentors. And now you have, what, five, six sponsors? That's great. Oh, thanks, man. Thanks. And I've been following your career closely because of my relationship. My partner, Fred Patterson, my buddy, Freddie P, I followed his career when he was in Peterborough. Did you know that? He was a program director in Peterborough. I do, in fact, know that. Yeah, Fred brought me there in 2009. Rescued me from making $55 a day doing mornings at a station in Lindsay, Ontario. That's good money.

Don't laugh at that. $11 an hour for five hours a day getting up at 4 a.m. Wow. It was awesome. Wow. But great experience. That was the thing. It's not about the money at the beginning.

You got to go cut your teeth somewhere. That's, I think, something that a lot of young broadcasters, maybe nowadays, aren't super willing to do. Well, it's hard. I mean, I guess you do what you got to do. Absolutely. That seems unfortunate because I was making more money working at Food City in the early 90s.

I was making more money, FYI. But you didn't get to be on the radio. See, I got tickets to a Bon Jovi concert one time, which I'm sure you didn't get. Okay, but TJ, we had a... I used to have to make announcements now and then, like a Code 20 Register 5 or something like that. What's a Code 20?

Code 20 was what we called it when there was a price check. So a price check. So if somebody comes in, you scan it, and it came in at, let's say, 99 cents, and then the old lady would tell you, oh, the sign says it's 59 cents. And then you would do a code 20. So somebody could a guy to price check. There was a time when I think it was the Loblaws chain tried to have rollerbladers. Do you remember that? No. At real Canadian superstores. And they had rollerbladers that would race out to, you know, this is probably mid-90s.

And I was always so impressed. I'm like, oh, as soon as I get old enough, I am totally going to get a job rollerblading at Superstore. Because that looks like a lot of fun. You would have made more money doing that than the Lindsay thing. You know what? You wouldn't have been on the radio. And that's a gateway. I mean, this is all like a teaser because we're going to do

a chronological deep dive. Actually, this is a double bill. This is a T.J. Connors episode. Sadly, because I can never have him on Toronto Mike, this is also the Scruff Connors episode. Sure, yeah. When you reached out to me and said would you be cool sharing some Scruff stories, yeah, absolutely. Anytime.

I love talking about uh talking about my pop he comes up a lot on the show because we'll have somebody like uh well paulie morris was just on yeah i heard that episode that was great and we had uh i mean somebody you name it like a john gallagher for example sure yeah they work together a queue yeah so anyone who kind of had any or a freddie p episode for example but anytime i I can, I like to talk about Scruff because he's such a very interesting character. I'm kind of tired of vanilla, bland personalities. I like it when somebody's different.

And I mean that with all due respect. I like it when somebody's a freak. Not a conformist, if you will. Yeah, like a freak. I like freaks. Not that your dad's a freak, but he's interesting. You know what? I think the biggest thing was he wasn't scared of toying the line and he wasn't scared of

getting canned, really. I mean, you know, if you follow his career at all, he would take those risks, if you will. And I think that's what it was. It was risk-taking, whereas now I think a lot of people, we like to play it safe because we like to keep our jobs because being employed is awesome.

You don't want to be back at Lindsay for... Well, not to say that I, you know, if that's the case, that's no knock on the crew that's there. But the minimum wage has gone up since then. Well, it's gone up. So you get 14, I think, 14 now? Exactly, yeah. And benefits, I hear. That's not so bad.

Yeah. And it's not that expensive to live there, right? Or am i wrong am i wrong about that i don't know anymore about what it cost to living is anywhere outside of toronto okay well by comparison it pales but i can remember paying i had a place on i want to say it was adelaide street south uh the top floor of uh of a split and i believe the rent was you know at the time 2006-, something like that was, uh, maybe 800 bucks a month, which is like a three bedroom, one bath.

Oh, that's good then. I think that's good. Yeah. I felt, I mean, for me, that was like all my money. So I ate fingernails for the first year and a half, but TJ did that, uh, that song I just played, I don't know if you caught any of it, but did it, did it mean anything to you? Does that song mean anything to you? Do you want me to play it again?

Well, you can play it again. You're younger than me. Is this Chicken Man? No. I don't know. See, you're younger than me. I was just trying to throw back early 80s references. He's everywhere. He's everywhere. But Chicken Man was a US property, right? That was syndicated here.

That's not a scruff property right that's no no that was brought in from the u.s right because i like chicken man that's always the greatest thing about that stuff though i mean if you know especially back in that day before you could fact check anybody and yeah and google it um you know for example the champ the champ is one thing that my dad always gets credit for they're like oh your dad's the champ i'm like and i always said to my dad i'm like'm like, why do you say yes when people are like, hey, you're the champ, right?

My dad is always like, well, he's like, as long as they want to give you credit for something, he's like, just say yeah and nod and smile. I'm glad you brought up the champ. By the way, just to tie the loop on this, what's Mike playing here? Older crowd knows what I'm playing here. This is the theme song to TJ Hooker.

Oh, okay, yeah, of course. Yeah, William Shatner sliding across the hood of the, what was that, Crown Victoria? It wasn't, yeah. And Heather Locklear was in the early seasons.

Oh, yeah. She's still a rocket. Oh, I heard she's had some tough times lately. Yeah. Her mugshot made news about a couple weeks ago, but I think she's on

some hard times. Hard drugs, maybe. Maybe, maybe. Or maybe, I don't know what she's on. But what were we just talking about? No, the champ. Okay.

So the guy who made the champ famous in Canada, the guy we think that we give credit to Scruff, but it's really Brother Jake Edwards. Oh, it absolutely was. But as I learned, and I fact-checked this to make sure Steve Anthony wasn't making it up, but Steve Anthony, who had a bit of a gripe with the fact brother jake was making so much coin i guess off this champ thing that it was not it was originally by a comedy duo mclean and mclean mclean and mclean

from winnipeg right and as the story goes this is maybe an urban legend maybe it's uh maybe it's a half truth because you only get uh you know radio guys right we like to you know it's a half-truth because you only get radio guys, right? We like to, you know, it's at least a 10% to 20% markup on stories. Yeah. So the story was that McLean & McLean, down on their luck, they like to hit the sauce a little bit. And Bro Jake was working at 92 City FM in Winnipeg. And he met up with these guys at the bar and bought them a tray of Labatt 50. And they signed over the rights to the champ.

And from there on out, you know, he's carried that. He actually just wrapped up his career in Vancouver. Yeah, on TSN radio. Yeah, you know, legendary guy. And boy, did he parlay that into something. Do you have a favorite champ episode? I mean, you're too young too, right? Yeah, you know, I didn't.

How can I ask? Like, what are we talking here? It was my birthday yesterday. Okay, can I guess? Sure. This always gets me in trouble, but I'm going to guess I've got at least 10 on you. So I'm going to say, and don't get angry at me because I'm being honest here. I'm not trying to kiss you right here.

I'm going to say 34. I turned 34 yesterday. Oh, my God. You nailed it. I have 10 years exactly on you. Yeah. And that's what I figured. And we have about the same amount of gray, too, so I don't know what that says.

And you have more hair on your head. I might have a bit more hair, actually, but you have way less gray than I do. And we have about the same amount of gray, too. So I don't know what that says. And you have more hair on your head. I might have a bit more hair, actually. But you have way less gray than I do. Way less gray. If you say so. I'll take that as a compliment. Our picture is going to be taken together after this episode. The people will see.

Okay, so the champ. You probably missed the champ. So I was in high school when the champ was huge on Q107. And I would literally make sure. I think it was 640. That's how I remember it. At 640 a.m. is when the champ would come on Q107. And I would literally make sure, I think it was 6.40, that's how I remember it. At 6.40 a.m. is when the champ would come on. They probably ran it twice.

I mean, that's morning radio, you know, 6.40, 8.05, right? Right. I know that that time slot for the champ, I didn't miss it. And me and my buddies would get to school and talk about that day's champ. And sometimes I remember the champ

would even be played on the PA. At school? Yeah, like people would submit their own champs like at michael power high school like this was a huge deal the champ yeah and i think the greatest thing about it was that it was it was naughty but not it's it's just a classic double entendre right if i don't know if you're naughty but not you're right you know you could play it with your kids in the car and the kids wouldn't get offended you wouldn't have to change the channel but if you're the dad dropping the kids off at uh junior high or elementary school it's like you know the champ he's gonna punch her in the solar plexus some were super pg like uh pass the tea bag sure

yeah so some of that and then some were like hey champ i heard you blew your wad on your wife's face like this was a punch line of one that me and my buddies couldn't believe. And it had to do with plastic surgery, I'm assuming. No, he spent all his money on buying makeup for her. Okay, yeah, there you go. So he blew his wad on her, his wife's face. And some of them he couldn't do today, right? We'll get to this, because a lot of scruff stuff you couldn't do today.

But, like, champ, I heard your wife's quite the thespian. Like, why is champ losing it? Like he's so offended that he's suggesting his wife is a lesbian. See, that's the joke. Yeah. Like you couldn't, you can't do that today.

I don't know if you can and you can't. I mean, I think maybe in St. Catherine's you could do that. I don't know. Yeah. You don't know until you try. I mean,

all it takes is really one person getting offended now. And now this is a huge thing. Yeah. There's a guy in Winnipeg. Dave Wheeler was working at City FM there, and he just lost his job after some comments, which I'll let you Google. I'm not going to get into it. But he made some comments. But was it race or was it gender?

No, it was transgender. Yeah. Yeah. It went down that alley. And his comments on the air, you know, okay, not great. But it was a response that he had to somebody who commented online. And then, of course, she screenshots that and then sends it to every group in town. And it was like a real witch hunt.

Well, let me ask you this. Because, I mean, I've had Jesse and Gene on this show. And your dad did this too, and we'll get to it later. But would you do a character with a South Asian accent on Hits FM right now? I wouldn't. No, you wouldn't, because you know that that would be wrong for you. You're a white guy. I should tell people they might not know.

Yeah, right. TJ's a white guy. Very white guy, actually. Super white guy. From the waist up. Right. But you might do, I think you might do an Irish accent.

You might even do a Scottish accent. Sure. But you probably would not do a South Asian accent or a Jamaican accent or a Chinese accent. Again, it's all about who's going to get offended, right? I have this story about the 2010 Vancouver Games. I was sitting beside this guy in a bar, a Jamaican fella.

And he's like, what is this game, man? Would I throw the teapots on the frozen water at the target, at the bullseye? I'm like, again, it's a horrible accent, right? Horrible impression. But this is the conversation. What is this game where, like, if you say it like me, hey, man, what's this game where they throw the teapots on the frozen water? It doesn't have the same effect as if you throw a little stank stank on it right you throw a little bit of an accent in there and it

it makes the story right because you're impersonating a real person right it's real it was a so honestly the line is so it's it's just one massive gray area now totally no totally totally and i kind of feel for you guys like because you're walking that line between funny and offensive. And you don't know where it is all the time. It's crazy because, you know, the audience as a whole, say 95% of them could find something funny. And it's a handful of people that are offended by it. And next thing you know, you know, they're complaining to the CBSC. And people who didn't even hear the audio of what happened on the radio can go and complain. And with social media everything just you know it just

spreads like wildfire i can't believe you listened to episode one like i'm totally honored because i used to watch the numbers because i was new to the game and i wanted to like really see how this thing organically like evolves it's been six years in the making and i remember i remember the first episode and being like oh my god it just, it just hit 100 unique downloads. Like, I remember that moment, okay? Yeah. Like, that's how early days that was for this thing. And I think the only, I thought the only listeners were, like, people following the TorontoMike.com blog. Is that how you got into this?

Well, yeah, I've been blogging since 2002. Okay. And that's kind of. And just about media stuff? Is that? Not, like, about anything I'm interested in, like, be it it whatever, Roy Halladay or Carlos Delgado or, you know, Humble and Fred or whatever. Everything I was passionate about,

I wrote about since, yeah, 2002. So that's kind of how I got into the Humble and Fred camp, if you will, when they were on the mix. No, they were being fired from Mix 99.9. Well, Fred got let go first, I believe. 2005, I'm going to say. Yeah, it could be. Because I know when they worked with, when my dad was at Mojo Talk Radio for Guys,

that was, I think that ended in like 01, 02, basically when they went over to the mix. Right. Yeah. I think. Maybe a bit later. Yeah. But 2003 maybe. But yeah, 2005, they canned Fred.

And then it was just the Humble Howard Show. Then they canned him in oh six. And then they, we were buddies at this point. We hooked up and they were like, Hey, you do digital marketing stuff. You're a guy who does backend stuff,

digital stuff. Can you, uh, make, get, what do, like, I think we,

I talked them into doing a podcast for the Christmas of oh six. And we all walked to Dan Duran's house and we recorded. And then I took that MP3 file and made it a podcast in 2006. I remember Bingo Bob Ouellette was there. Have you ever met Bingo Bob? Yeah, absolutely. Great guy.

I get a call from him, I don't know what it was, Wednesday night or whatever it was and he's like, it was really late and it was like six o'clock at night or something. I'm, you know,

yeah, it was Wednesday night and he's like, hey, can you bike, how fast can you bike to the ACC, which is by the way, not the ACC anymore. Scoti hey, can you bike? How fast can you bike to the ACC? Which is, by the way, not the ACC anymore. Scotiabank Arena. Right. How fast can you get there?

And I'm like, I don't know, 45 minutes or whatever. He's like, I have an extra pumpkins ticket. And it was a really good ticket, too. So we just want to thank Bingo Bob for, it was going to be his wife's ticket and she had a headache or something. So I got her ticket. Thank you for having a headache, Mrs. Bingo Bob. And I just want to say the Pumpkins who I saw, real quick aside about

the Pumpkins. I saw them at their farewell tour in 2000 and I was so disappointed by the show. It was like the most disappointed I've ever been. Because I love that band and I was so happy to see them on their farewell tour. And I thought they were awful live. Like they didn't give a shit about us. They changed their songs just enough to make it unrecognizable.

They didn't play many of their hits. Don't you love that? Hey, thanks for being a fan since, you know, 1990. Now we're just going to screw you and play a bunch of crap. And no encore, which still, I don't think I've, to this day, I don't think I've ever seen like a headliner

not do a single encore, I don't think. There was one recently that I can't put my finger on. Oh, I know who it was. Because Bingo Bob was at this show and he complained. Was it Jack White? No, I think it was Gallagher. Noel Gallagher.

Was it Noel or Liam? I get those two confused. No, because Liam's a decent guy. I think it's... The salad bowl haircut. They just kind of look the same to me. The handsome one who is not the artistic genius,

that is Liam. And Liam was at The Rebel and apparently it was a short set, no encore, and everybody who went to that show was pissed off. I just always see on Twitter, I'm so mad. But everybody's mad about everything now. There was one just recently in June, June 8th and 9th, back-to-back nights of Friday and Saturday in Lewiston, New York at Art Park. Jack White played, and he didn't play Seven Nation Army. Could you imagine going to see Jack White and him not play the song?

I mean, that's one thing that kind of pisses me off about these guys. It's like, dude, this is your song. Yes, you have a whole catalog of other songs, but don't play eight songs off your new album or your new albums that nobody knows. Play the hits. But dude, yeah.

Famous story, the Pumpkins, not the Pumpkins. Nirvana came to Toronto and did not play Smells Like Teen Spirit. At the Gardens? I'm sure it was at the hits. Famous story. Nirvana came to Toronto and did not play Smells Like Teen Spirit. At the Gardens? I'm sure it was at the Gardens. Maybe they just forgot. There was a lot of heroin involved. No, they didn't forget. This is a move. It's a punk asshole move, but

sometimes big bands do that. They pull the big hit. They don't want to play it. Too cool for school, I guess. If I paid for tickets, I guess that's one of the perks that you know if i actually paid for a ticket to go see jack white and he didn't play seven nation army yeah it'd be kind of but jack white's got such a big catalog i think i'd be okay with one of the big smash is not being there but it's not like it's his only smash he played it the next night in toronto so that's what people in lewiston wereiffed about. Gotcha, gotcha. By the way, I just

hear say the Pumpkins were really good. They sounded... I hear three hours and 15 minutes. They did Toronto. They did Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. They played Budweiser Gardens on Thursday night as well in London. So this was the show I wanted in 2000. And I was so pissed at them in 2000. My buddy

Elvis said, hey, let's go see the Pumpkins, this show. And I'm like, no. My wife said, let's go see the pumpkins. I said, no. I was mad at them. And then at the last minute with a free ticket, I said, sure, I'll bike over and watch the pumpkins. And I got to say, they were really, really, really good. You seem like a very athletic guy

just in the studio here to paint the picture. There's a Mike Boone, what is this, a run for cancer type? Yeah, the ride to conquer cancer. Ride to conquer cancer. You've got the bicycle. You've got soccer balls, volleyballs, hockey sticks. I mean, this seems like a very athletic guy, this Mike Boone.

Well, this guy, James, who's sleeping around the corner, he's a big part of that too. He loves to play basketball. And yeah, so he's a big part of it. We throw in the football and stuff. But yeah, a lot of sports going on here. You know, Hebsey, Mark Hebsey from Sportsline? I have one story. You're too young for that, too.

Well, okay. So I didn't grow up in the GTA, right? Right, right, right. So that's a big part of me not really having a lot of context for these guys in the heyday of CHCH, I guess it was. Yeah. Well, no, it was global. Okay. So it was global.

Mark used to go to Woodbine Racetrack a little bit. Has he mentioned this? Nope. Okay. So my dad somehow ran into, you remember Wally Crowder? Of course. His son, and I can't recall his name, something Crowder. In terms of a G, right?

And he was- Glenn Crowder? I can't recall. Okay. But he was the director of marketing or't recall okay but he was uh the director of marketing or something with woodbine racetrack and somehow we ran into him one day my dad and i yeah and he said hey anytime you want to come out on me you're up in this vip area so we gathered together some people there was a guy that my dad worked with uh i don't know if he's still in radio

at sirius xm his phone boy and again i don't know if he's still on radio at Sirius XM, is Phoneboy. And again, I don't know his real name. Might have had nicknames for everybody. But there was Phoneboy, who used to operate the phones at 640. There was Jeff Chalmers, who used to be dad's producer at Q. And then he's been in Toronto Radio for a really long time. Is he on Boom now? I believe so, yeah. Saturday or Sunday nights or something.

And there were just a couple other stragglers. And we didn't know what the hell we were doing we were in with all these you know it seemed like some highfalutin folk at woodbine not really our scene right and my dad's like oh hey he's like there's there's mark hebshire so they do kind of the wave and you know walk by the table and uh we said hey we we know nothing about the ponies and he said okay so we're watching him and he's flashing us numbers of the horses that are gonna win so i you know it's like horse number two and we're watching him and he's flashing us numbers of the horses that are going to win so i you know it's like horse number two and my dad says no way he's putting

us on here so go put five bucks down on horse number two holy shit horse number two came in i'm this is unbelievable now he's flashing number three for the net four or five so we ended up making about uh well two bucks maybe all in a well by the time you clear up the bar bill and tip right right right right the bar bill so yeah. Right, right, right, right. The bar bill gets you. So, yeah, I always appreciate that. That's my one Mark Hebbshire story. That's a great story.

So, he's here every Monday and Friday to record his podcast, Hebbsy on Sports. Well, you should have him do his Woodbine race picks of the week and get it sponsored. No, I had no idea he had this ability to pick the winners. Inside knowledge. Horse with the longest tail every time. I do know, I did mention you, had this ability to pick the winners. Inside knowledge. Horse with the longest tail every time. I do know, I did mention you because he likes to know who's coming on and I just said,

hey, TJ Conner's coming on. He did say, oh, Jeff Newfield. That's the name of your dad, right? Jeff Newfield? Yeah, yeah. That's his legal name, yeah. Because he's not a Scruff. I'd be amazing if he was a Scruff. That'd be cool. Well, yeah. People would be like, is Scruff your real name? I'd be like, yup, two F's in fried fish.

But yeah, no, nobody would name their kids Scruff. Although, you know, you see some of these ridiculous names that end up on, you know, the top 10 list of, you know, dumb names that end up through the social insurance, social security in the States every year. And nothing surprises me anymore with kids' names. And I guess my kids kind of have unique names too. What are your kids' names? Berkeley.

Berkeley is unique, yeah. And Vaughn. So one named after a California thing. University, yeah. The city above Toronto. Yeah, well, we really like the Bass Pro Shops. We're a huge fan. No, there's no A in his name though.

It's just V-A-U-G-H-N, like the goalie pad. Is that Sarah Vaughn's last name? Great singer? Anyway, those are interesting names. I mean, those are UG fans. Unique, not super weird. And we gave them completely normal middle names. That way, if they ever want to just go by their middle name, yeah.

So I saw the Pumpkins last weekend. Last weekend, I saw the 5440. They did a free show at the park down the street from here. They did a free one for us at Canal Days in Port Colborne, where I live. And that's, I mean, the Pumpkins was technically free for me, but not for everybody who went to it. But the 5440, and like you said, did your show. I got to say, I saw them a few years ago do a free show at the same park.

This band is like the best band you could see for free. Like they have the whole two-'s a two-hour set. It's full of chalk, full of radio hits. They sound good. They're engaging. Like it's really good. I mean, I highly recommend it. If you can ever see it, I'd pay to see that band.

Let's put it that way. Well, that's good because apparently not many people will now that they've set the precedent of free shows because I can remember as early as maybe 2009, 2010, emceeing them at Peterborough's, I think it was called Little Lake Music Fest, where they do free shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Yeah. And I emcee them.

And that was, at the time, the biggest crowd that I had ever emceed. There was about 12,000 people piled in downtown Peterborough in this little lake park. Yeah, lake. I can't remember. I've lived so many places that have lakes and lakeside and lakeshore, and I took about eight lake streets to get here. There's a lot of lake streets. Yeah, so they all kind of blend together.

But anyway, in this little park, Del Curry Park, that's what it was called, right on the water. Del Curry, named after the former Toronto Raptor, father of the great... Yeah, Del Curry was Stephanie's name. Del Curry Park. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, he was huge in Peterborough.

They were huge Del Curry fans. I liked him. He's a good three-point shooter, but I liked him because he had this patch of white hair on the top, like the front top of his head. It was like looking into a mirror for you. Yeah. Wow, he's a little bit taller.

Me and Avery Haynes, we were like, oh, look, there it is, the patch of white. So we agree, 54-40, though. They're a solid CanCon band. I mean, chock full of big hits, right? Yeah, and I guess they're still getting play on classic hit stations. It's hits plan? I think we had one song, and I believe it was Ocean Pearl.

Sure, of course. Play a game of kiss and tell with poison pills or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I want to say that's about the only one in the catalog, and maybe that just had something to do with them coming to town for a free show. I mean, I could see Hits playing like One Gun or something like that. I know you're a rockier sound.

We'll get to that. But yeah, I was thinking, you're not going to play I Go Blind. It's too soft for Hits FM. Yeah, it's kind of poppy. You're right. You're right. But that song, I'm guessing because it was covered

by Hootie and the Blowfish for the Friends soundtrack, that this is the song that maybe helped them afford to play all these free concerts, maybe. I don't know. I guess they'd still be getting royalties from that because they wrote the song. They wrote their song. I don't understand how that fully works,

but there's a guy that really changed gears. Hootie. Oh, he's a country singer now, right? Yeah, and largely popular. Extremely successful. You're going to laugh. So me and my son went for a bike ride yesterday. It was like 12K, me and my 16-year-old.

Oh, just 12K? Just 12K. I haven't done 12K on a bicycle in my entire life, so good for you. I don't mean to sound like an asshole when I say that, except 12K is a very short ride for me. But we went for a 12K ride, and I was telling him about mosh pits because I told him in 2000, you know, when I saw the pumpkins, there was a big mosh pit.

And I said, I just saw the pumpkins Wednesday, and there was no mosh pits. And I said, now that I think about it, like in the night I was, cause I, you know, I'm 10 years on you. So it's like in the early nineties when I was doing clubs and everything, there was always a mosh pit. Like this was a staple and I don't see it anymore. I think all the concussion awareness that we have now is kind of steering people away from that. You want a scruff story about a mosh pit? Yeah, yeah, please. All right. So we're at this little dive bar called JP's. You're going to notice a lot of these stories revolve around being in a bar. My dad and I didn't really get close

till I was of legal drinking age. So we went to this place in Newcastle where he was living at the time with Jamie Lott, who was the former receptionist at Q107 and The Edge. If you ever went to pick up a prize there over the years, you dealt with Jamie. She's an absolute sweetheart. So my dad was living with her for a short period of time in Newcastle, and there was this place that was a walking distance away from her house, and it was called JP's.

And this one night we went down there, and my dad said, what the hell is this noise going on here? And it was a metal band. There was a metal band playing in this little dive bar that usually just has, you know, just its usual piss tanks just hanging out. Like, no biggie, right? It's usually just a pretty quiet, dead spot. And my dad said, well, what are these guys doing here?

And they're thrashing around and they're, you know, they're moshing, essentially. There's about 14 people in this bar. Yeah. And eight of them are moshing. And my dad said, well, he's like, because he had already been diagnosed with cancer at this time. It was looking pretty grim. So he said, well, he's like, I've never done that. that he said i want to go get in a mosh pit i said dad i said come on that's that's pretty stupid of you like you know what i mean you're you're fragile

right now not to mention that you're uh you have two torn rotator cuffs and uh you're just not exactly the sturdiest on your feet right now he was a little top heavy if you know what i'm saying right right so he decides that he doesn't care he's going in this mosh pit gets in the middle of these young guys right and of course he's you know platinum on top and he's got his glasses on and i'm looking i'm like oh this is hilarious and one guy like right away just comes up and shoves this you know the old man my dad shoves him down his glasses go flying he's just an absolute yard sale his watch came off and he's laying on the ground i go over i'm like dad i'm like are you okay and this guy's like oh shit and he's laying on the ground. I go over, I'm like, dad, I'm like, are you okay? And this guy's like, oh shit, man. He's like, sorry. I didn't realize it was like a real old guy. I thought it was like a guy in a wig. Right. And I was like, dad, are you okay?

He's like, that was awesome. And he stood up and I know the next day he was feeling it when he went down hard like that. But yeah, he got in a mosh pit. Good for him. Not good for him, man. You know, there wasn't much that he wouldn't do so the mosh pit uh which is gone now i think except you know i think it's gone i haven't seen it in a long time but i used to see it all the time maybe it's because of where i'm which kind of shows i'm going to now i think it's an older crowd now i don't know but i noticed that at green day last year actually in hamilton okay i was at the budweiser stage yeah they played three times for us last year they played darien lake as well you know you think there's a radius clause that the band wouldn't play that close together but anyway we

saw the show in Hamilton and that was one thing I was really surprised about was the lack of people that were really getting into it these are people that you know in 1994 were 18 now flash forward yeah to 2017 at the time and you're like man we all know that we have to work in the morning no you're right I don't even want to scuff that we have to work in the morning and no you're right i don't even want to scuff yeah we have kids i don't want to scuff some guy's shoes because they're probably worth more than my car like no for you're you're right these bands that were mosh pitting we had mosh pits in the 90s they don't they don't have the mosh pit anymore because the crowd is too old for that shit but i'm biking to my son i'm telling him about the mosh pits like

a story time i'm on our bike ride i'm telling him And then all of a sudden in my head, I hear Kid Rock's Bah Witaba. Okay. Because he's got that whole like, get in the pit. Get in the pit and try to love someone or whatever. And I'm singing this out loud all of a sudden. And then I'm like, that fucker Kid Rock.

I'm like, that, because you mentioned Darius Rucker. That's where this is coming from. But I'm like, that fucker Kid Rock, he had hits. He had hip hop hits,

okay, rap hits, okay? He had rock, hard rock hits, like, you know, for the metalheads

were happy or whatever and he had country hits. With Sheryl Crow, picture, one of the biggest karaoke songs on the planet. Right.

Name me now because Darius Rock, you could say, oh, he had pop rock hits and he had country hits or whatever. I don't know if he had a country but he's a big country singer whatever you name me an artist who can say wagon wheel for Pete's sake I don't know this genre I gotta

plead ignorance but uh I know uh Shania Twain but okay so I tell me now Mr. TJ an artist who can say I had a rap hit I had a rock hit and I had a country hit please uh maybe maybe cypress hill maybe no no no sir maybe there's no uh country hit in cypress okay um i will say this about kid rock you know the bob ritchie as he grew up and he was talking about running for uh what was a governor or whatever whatever the hell he was doing in michigan there. I didn't know this about him, but he grew up rich. He grew up, the house, the family house that he grew up in is like a 6,000 square foot sprawling, because he comes off as a total white trash, right?

He comes off as a guy that you're like, wow, this guy's wearing, you know, he's got the white tank top on with mustard stains on it, greasy long hair. Yeah, the Skinner shirt or something. Skinner, yeah, exactly. He's got his name tattooed on his own knuckles, his own name, Kid Rock tattooed on his own knuckles. His own name, Kid Rock

tattooed on his own knuckles. He looks like kind of a wanker. Who knew? His parents, I can't remember exactly what his dad did, but he was some executive. 6,500 square foot house in suburbia. They're out towards Auburn Hills. He didn't grow up in the hood. Nowhere near 8 Mile.

He didn't grow up in a trailer park. And he sings about it too. Boy, did he have all of us fooled. Like, good for him. That's a bit like the Vanilla Ice story, right? He came up and he claimed he was from, I don't know, the streets of, I don't know, the streets of some... Miami. Yeah, and it turned out he was in some Dallas suburb or something. I don't know, but he...

But they're very similar. Dallas suburb, you know, gang-ridden neighborhood at the time Miami was the murder capital of North America. Very similar. Don't mislead us, please. You need to come by it authentically. But okay, now I'm going to, before we do a couple of sponsor mentions,

and we start to, the deep dives actually already began, really, but we're going to get into it in earnest here. But I want to ask you about, you're a Hits FM guy, so that's 97.7 in St. Catharines, and you have the Afternoon Drive show. Yeah, so I do the Afternoon show. I also, I'm on 89X in Windsor, Detroit as well. And that's a Bell Media station? That is, yeah.

You are a member of the Bell Media family right now. Yep, you can download the iHeart Radio Canada app if you want to listen to that on, what am I on? Monday, Tuesday evenings, and then I do Saturday, Sunday. So, cool. Um, yeah, that, that just kind of fell into my lap with Jim McCurdy, who was formerly a chorus guy. Uh, awesome, awesome guy. I came back from holiday and he was like, Hey, he's like, we got

an opening here to do evenings. Uh, would you be able to, to voice track them for us? And I said, absolutely. That's a, another heritage rock station in the country. So, um, yeah, it's, it's really, really cool. It's a, it's a real hard rocking station. I mean, it's, uh, Detroit's a unique market, so it's a station that's just kind of, you know, kind of pigeonholing itself in between a couple of, of other stations that are in the market there, which is, which is interesting. I mean, it's, it's music that, you know, I like it's stuff that you don't hear a lot on Canadian rock radio. So 89 X is kind of unique like that. And then, uh, my day job at 97, seven hits FM. I've don't hear a lot on Canadian rock radio. So 89X is kind of unique like that. And then my day job at 97.7 Hits FM.

I've also been doing a lot of fill-in on the talk station, 610 CKTB, which is the Tom McConnell show. Okay, because I've had Larry Fedorik on the show. I know. Well, we were talking about you yesterday. Oh, yeah. I like that guy. Well, you guys used to live in the same building in Etobicoke. Yeah, but we didn't know it at the time.

Right. It's a lovely coincidence. Larry Fedork, a really great guy. He told me a story about my dad. So he worked in Winnipeg back in the mid-70s or something. And my dad was at CKY in Winnipeg. And I guess it was Larry's first time being on location or first time in the studio alone. Whatever it was, he got this call.

And he's sure to this day that it was my dad pranking him and it had something to do with. Probably. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Master of, master of deception. Larry Fedork is still convinced to this day that it's, it was my dad, but he never, obviously we never got a chance to ask my dad cause he passed away in December of 2016. So yeah, Larry's a great guy. Just, just a consummate professional. And his daughter is BFFs with the wife of a good friend of mine. What does that mean? Best friend forever. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. Come on, I got to help you out here. I used the term bae the other day for the B-A-E, bae. Do you know what bae means? That ship has sailed. But do you know what it means? No. Because people think it's like a synonym for babe.

No, it means before anyone else, bae. Oh, yeah. Remember, I have a 14-year-old daughter upstairs. Well, I'll before anyone else. Babe. Remember, I have a 14-year-old daughter upstairs. Well, I'll never forget that. Let me get that. Maybe I should get that tattooed on my knuckles. Babe, yeah. Come on, babe. Berkeley would be your babe. Not to dismay Vaughn there. They're both the babes.

He woke me up at 5 o'clock this morning. Oh, Vaughn's a guy. I wasn't sure. I thought Vaughn was a woman maybe. No, no. A female. I guess not a woman. It's 2018. How old are these kids? However he chooses to identify, he's one.

He just turned one on July 25th. Oh, wow. Yeah, and then Berkeley is six. Okay. So you could have brought them and they could have hanged upstairs with the four-year-old and the two-year-old. Well, had I known that you had a babysitting service going here, Toronto Mike? Yeah.

Right now, the 14-year-old is watching those two, so I could be down here with you. And, of course, the 16-year-old is sound asleep around the corner because this is a Saturday. Usually I record between 9 and 5 on Monday to Friday. That's typical recording time. But for you, I make an exception because I'm like, whatever it takes to get TJ to make the drive. Well, put it this way. I'm like, whatever it takes to get TJ to make the drive. Well, put it this way.

During the week, it would have been quicker for me to leave my house in Port Colborne in my boat with a 50 horsepower, try and time up the lock system in the Welland Canal and bring my boat to the lakeshore here where you live and docked it up and walked because I absolutely cannot deal with Toronto traffic. I don't understand. These people that live in Niagara that commute downtown,

it gives me anxiety. I just got cut off by a guy in a Hyundai Tiburon with his whole stick family. I'm like, what are you doing? You have clearly a family of seven here. A, you need to learn how to protect yourself or throw a domer on it. But also, you've got kids in the car.

Why are you swerving, cutting across three or four lanes at a time? I don't know. My buddy Andrew Stokely does lots of home J games. He's at the Dome in the audio truck doing the audio for Sportsnet. And he lives in Niagara region. And he makes that track all the time. But I guess it's not rush hour.

I don't know. It depends on what time the ball game is. It's crazy, man. Toronto's, I mean, obviously, you know, the situation with traffic. That's why I bike everywhere, buddy. Oh, no, dude. I would totally do that, too. I got a thing today at King and something.

I don't know. I have an appointment at two o'clock and I'm biking there. I bike to that Smashy Pumpkins concert. Yeah, so you show up with a sweaty back or do you just bring a change of shirt? No, I, ready? At some point, I stopped caring.

Like, I will be sweaty and wet. Stink bag. You show up to the Smashy Pumpkins reeking. Unless it's a TMDS client and it's a professional setting where I really do need to make a half decent impression, in which case I will bring a change of clothes or whatever. But other than that, I pretty much, this is me. I did just bike here and I'm happy to see you.

But yes, I'm a little damp. A little ripe. So what do you do with this heat and humidity? Because I spent last weekend walking around town with a traveler because it was canal days. So I'm walking around stopping at all the neighbor's houses. And by the time, you know, the afternoon hit and it's about 38 degrees with the humidity.

I had this serious case of egg leg. Like I was burning and the guy says, he's like, are you okay? I'm like, no. I said, do you have any gold bond in your house?

Like I'm at somebody's house who I barely know. Like a chafing. Like, Oh, that was the worst. It was the worst. I don't get that, but I know that runners get it. They get it on their nipples. Like, uh, barely know. Oh, like chafing? Oh, dude. Is that what you're talking about? It was the worst. It was the worst thing ever. I don't get that,

but I know that runners get it. They get it on their nipples. I know. And there's a thing you can buy. There's a thing that you put on your nips, and I think it's petroleum jelly. Because I ran a marathon once. Yeah.

Okay. Okay, well, no. The full thing? Like 42.2 kilometers or whatever? Yeah, 26.2 miles. What it actually was, it was I I think, grade six or seven. And it was split up into four. Yeah? So I ran the last leg.

Okay. And I was struggling. You know, it was Father's Day weekend. It's called the Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg. Kind of a big one. It's a really big deal there. But anyway, I'm running the last leg. And I see these people.

They've got, you know, they've got water. They've got All Sport, which is got water they've got all sport which is uh the poor man's gatorade at the time right uh and then this person hands me something on a stick and I'm like oh this is awesome they're giving us ice cream right and you ate it and I yeah I raked it against my my bottom row of teeth and I'm just like and then all of a sudden as soon as my tongue hit it and I was like I'm like I don't know what that is and I spent the rest of the race like it was Vaseline it was awful yeah it was is. And I spent the rest of the race like, It was Vaseline. It was awful.

Yeah, it was Vaseline. So I've eaten Vaseline. Oh my God. Not ashamed to admit it here on the Toronto Mike podcast. I've done worse. Yeah, you've done worse. And hopefully we'll hear about some of that too. So why did I mention that you're at a Bell Media station?

Because I'm going to ask you for a moment about a chorus station. Okay. 102.1 The Edge just moved out Fearless Fred they moved him to Q Fred's a great guy, he used to work at Power 97 in Winnipeg Fred Kennedy with Wheeler and Howl in the Morning, remember listening to him there I was really a huge fan of Fred

when he was at the Bear, he had the Fearless Fred University that was a guy when they hired him here and the news leaked out I was googling him and I saw the certificates from Fearless Fred University he was one of him and I saw the certificates from the University. Yeah, he was one of the first guys to really move towards the digital world on his own as a separate platform from the station. I always thought that was really cool. And then he won Young Broadcaster of the Year, the Steve Young Award, which I guess that really

ultimately got him to Toronto and he came here to do Drive. Well, they did. So basically the chronological, because I'm not sure if you were here yet. I don't think you were here yet, but they let go two DJs, Edge 102. This is going way back now. I'd say 10 years, but they let go Barry Taylor. Yeah. And they let go Martin Streak.

So those two guys got it at the same time. And then shortly thereafter, they announced coming from Edmonton was Fearless Fred and Fearless Fred came from Edmonton and that was the kind of the chronology there. But Fred's doing great.

I mean, he's... But he's... Boom, they moved him to Q. So they moved him out of CFNY to Q which is an interesting move.

So he was doing drive at Edge and now he's doing drive at Q but then they took the morning show at Edge which was Adam and Mel and they turfed him. So Q. But then they took the morning show at Edge, which was Adam and Mel, and they turfed them. So they were let go. So no morning show.

Welcome to radio, huh? Right. And they... Adam's been there a long time. Adam's been there a long, long time, because he's been on this show, and when he was on this show, he was there about 14 years or something.

He's been there a long time. Are you an Alexis on Fire fan? You're okay. Don't you have to be out there in St. Catherine's? Yeah, we play, we play a few,

we play a few songs and obviously Dallas, Dallas green, his connection with St. Catherine's played, I believe the first show at the Meridian center and sold it out when, when they opened that up a few years ago, I want to say seven years ago now, but yeah,

I mean, Hey, you know what? I've never been to a show, but I hear it's a fantastic live show and I, they don't really play in Canada much. say seven years ago now but um yeah i mean hey you know what i've never been to a show but uh i hear it's a fantastic live show and i they don't really play in canada much i know they did a string of what five shows well they yeah they aren't really together right now right like i don't because because dallas is focusing on uh solo stuff right but but wade mcneil had an af had a weekend show

on edge 102 he got let go so okay so that basically all this is to say edge is right now doing this massive refresh and we're all speculating like who's coming in oh i know i got like uh i've worked for chorus twice i know because freddie p brought you to course so yeah uh when else did you work for chorus i worked uh i did morning show in winnipeg at power 97 okay so i was there for you know almost three years well okay so this is a very long-winded way to say something is going to happen before Labor Day. Rumor has it from my inside sources. You have a lot of inside

sources. Young, inexpensive talent is coming in. This is what I heard, but I don't know any names. I don't know anything, to be honest. I don't know any specifics of who's getting these gifts. See, what are you saying? When you say young and inexpensive, I mean, obviously the business has to get younger because people get older and they move on. Yeah, but unknown Toronto entities.

Oh, okay. Instead of bringing a name we know or whatever. Would you rather that or just have the same people recycle? Now, if I had my way, I would make sure that there was – I don't listen to The Edge a lot, but the people that were there, they're great people. I don't know the inner workings of what went on there, so I don't think it was anything. In this case, I don't think it was performance-based, so you may be on something, maybe it is.

It's a refresh. Yeah, it's a refresh, and maybe, who knows? I don't like to speculate. Okay, but I'm chatting with my friend Fred Patterson, Freddie P., you might have heard of him. So we're having a long chat about this because we like to talk inside radio stuff. He used to work at the Edge, did you did you know that yeah they were there for a couple

years what 89 to 98 or something well fred was there oh yeah fred's been there forever geats yeah but yeah humble and fred was 89 although fred did you know humble left for a little bit to go to uh 99.9 in the very early 90s like he left and then came back so but but fred humble and fred starts in 89 and and then they moved to Mojo in 2000, I want to say, when Mojo started. Yeah, I thought it was 98 to 03. I thought my dad was there for at least four years, but I don't know. Again, these are just dates. We could

probably Google it very quick and find out accurate information. I feel like Mojo is a 2000 phenomenon, but we can Google that later. All this to say, Freddie P says the best guy for the 102.1 Ed show is a guy named T. named TJ Connors in St. Catharines. This is Fred Patterson talking. Well, that's high praise.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Again, I'm happy where I'm at. I've got a great gig. We've got great leadership at our station. I'm being very diplomatic here, as you can see. Well, yeah, because you like your job. I love my job. And you like to keep that job.

Absolutely. And other people are saying that you are, this is not, I'm going to word this very carefully, but that it's a bigger market, Toronto. Sure. Even though we hear, like, I get 97.7. I tune in 97.7. Oh, yeah. I mean, we have listeners in Nashville.

Yeah. Like, the bigger Toronto signal is 102.1. So this is, and they're different companies, and I'm putting you in a tough spot now, because you're like, what are you going to say? You want the edge job? Of course not.

You want the job you have. But I'm just saying, and I know obviously you're not about to make an announcement now that you're leaving Hits for 102.1. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Honestly, I have not spoken with them. I would,

believe me, this is me being candid with you. This is all Freddie P talking who already has a bias because he hired you at Peterborough. Yeah. Of course he thinks you belong. I think there are people that would be better for a morning job in Toronto than me.

Put it that way. All right, brother. You know what I mean? I think there are better broadcasters that would be more deserving of that job in Toronto that would probably appreciate that job in Toronto more than I would. I don't feel that at this time that, you know, I have than I would. I don't, I don't feel that at this time that, you know, I have a young family. I'm loving the Niagara life. Um, I, I couldn't see myself moving to Toronto, living the Toronto lifestyle. I'm just, even when my dad,

when he worked at Q, we didn't live in Toronto. We lived out in Holland landing, which is North of new or sorry, Eastern new market. Right. So we were north of the city. We've never really been huge city people. So I think if you were, you know, to work downtown Toronto, I mean, if you're going to do it, you might as well live downtown Toronto too. And I can't see raising two kids in the city. I mean, this is just totally hypothetical. It's all just chatter, of course. Hey, rumors are great though. It's great to be talked about. It's great to be mentioned in a conversation. I appreciate that. But you already stomped this rumor. This rumor does not exist. Well, I have to because it. It's great to be talked about. It's great to be mentioned in a conversation.

But you already stomped this rumor. This rumor does not exist. Well, I have to because it's, you know. You're telling the truth. Yeah, there's no, no, there's never been a conversation to be had. Freddie P told me that I should tell you this, that he thinks you'd be great there. But you're great where you are. So, hey, let's move on here so your kids your kid your

oldest child yeah still kind of young for this but does your oldest child ever watch treehouse like this did yeah it did it did not anymore no she's on to uh she's moved on from treehouse yeah bella and the bulldogs now she wants to play quarterback for the for the high school football team i hear you i don't even know that show which Which show is that? Okay, I missed out on Bella and the Bulldogs. Yeah, she kind of moved on quickly. She's a smart cookie. I got you. She's into more like the teen shows now,

like watching, you know, Hannah Montana's not around anymore, but there's like the Nickelodeon equivalent. We don't watch a lot of TV in our house to begin with, to be honest. But do you remember Splashin' Boots? Does that mean anything to you or no? You don't know who Splashin' Boots is?

Vaguely. I get them confused with Toopy and Beanie. Oh, these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Splashin' Boots. Do you have any pictures of them in here? All right. Here, I'm passing over.

Splashin' Boots, Big Yellow Tunes. Okay. So Splashin' Boots are a popular, I guess they're like the Wiggles of Canada. Are you giving me this so that I can listen to it on the way home? I can't give it to you because it's part of my display here. But I will send you some MP3 files you can listen to, of Canada. Are you giving me this so that I can listen to it on the way home? I can't give it to you because it's part of my display here.

But I will send you some MP3 files you can listen to, of course. But your kids would like shake your butt or whatever from Granny. It's pretty good. Rap? Granny? Anyway, it's pretty good.

Splashin' Boots, I'm just here to announce that Splashin' Boots are going to perform at the second Toronto Mic'd Listener Experience on September 12th. And they're not going to perform at the second Toronto Mic'd Listener Experience on September 12th. And they're not going to perform for kids because this is, of course,

adults going to a brewery, Great Lakes Brewery. Am I invited to this? Oh my God. September the 12th is a Wednesday, though. It is a Wednesday, yeah. That's a school night. And it's six. I know. It's tough for you. You'll have to get on that boat early. You'll have to leave on Saturday to make it there for Wednesday. It's tough. Of course you're invited, but I that boat right in early. You'll have to leave on Saturday

to make it there for Wednesday. It's tough. Of course you're invited, but I didn't want to put you on the spot because I figured logistically it would be a pain in the ass for you to come to Etobicoke

from 6 to 9 p.m. on September 12th. But anyone listening is invited September 12th, 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery. And Splashin' Boots is performing. They're going to do covers of 90 songs. Did they do an adult naughty set?

Because there was this guy when I was working in Kamloops. His name was Uncle Chris the Clown, and this guy was in everything. He'd go to the opening of an envelope and go pull a handkerchief out of his sleeve. But we had a hockey Christmas party, and Uncle Chris the Clown used to play hockey with us. He was awful. He was honestly the worst hockey player I've ever seen. Well, could you imagine a guy with size 19 skates trying to, it was just, it was brutal.

Yeah, so he's, when he wasn't in character, he was actually a pretty filthy human. Had some great, like just funny guy. Only Bob Saget. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he had like all these, all these adult, you know,

tricks and jokes and whatever. So he performed at one Christmas party. I was like, I can never look at this man with a giant red nose the same ever again. That's funny. I can probably guarantee here that Splashin' Boots will not be doing any blue material. I think they're going to be very careful that the, you know, just too bad. Because theoretically, the last Toronto Mike listener experience, my two-year-old

and four-year-old were there for a couple hours. Drinking? No, they didn't get served, apparently. You had to have somebody to drive you home on your bike. You gets a free beer if you come to the Toronto Mike Listener Experience. A free beer from Great Lakes Brewery. I'm going to get to that in two seconds. But I want to say a special... You mentioned Holland's Landing. Holland Landing, yeah. Holland Landing, sorry.

I think that's where Al from the Royal Pains, I think that's where he lives. But he's the lead singer of the Royal Pains. They're a great rock band. They cover 90s jams and before they do good Guns N' Roses covers and stuff. And they played the first Toronto Mic Listener Experience. They're coming back. So they'll be with Splashin' Boots for the September 12th one. And I'm here to say I've been butchering the website address.

I've been telling people if you need to like, if you have an event planning role or you know an event planner or you need to plan your company's Christmas party or something. Plan a kid's birthday. Plan your funeral. Anything that needs a rock band or could have a rock band. Why not have a rock band at somebody's funeral? I had the Good Brothers at my dad's. Oh, yeah.

And they played Honk on Bobo and Hot Knife Boogie. It was awesome. And it was at Allegiant. But we could have used this party planner. I think I heard about, well, there's no party planner, but there's a band that will play your events. So please reach out to Al from the Royal Pains. And I'm here to say I've been giving the wrong website address.

So here's the proper one. The website address is theroyalpainsband.com. T-H-E,alpainsband.com. Spell pains. You got to get the sponsor. P-A-I-N-S. I don't know if they're sponsored, but they are playing my event, and I'm very honored that they're playing my event.

You paying them? No. Oh, come on. See, musicians got to get paid. Oh, I know. That's why I'm doing this. It's an outrage. I feel bad.

I don't have a budget. There's no cover at this event. It's not like I'm getting a cut of the cover. I get no money from the event, not a penny. So I don't have a budget to pay for a band. But they are nice enough to play it, so I'm hoping somebody else will pay them to play their event. So follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

Their handle there is Royal Pains Band. Good people. So they'll be playing. Also, David Schultz, fantastic sports writer. He writes for the Globe and Mail. Gare Joyce is a fantastic sports writer. He writes for Sportsnet. He also writes that show that Jason Priestley stars,

and he wrote the books that the Jason Priestley Private Eye show is based on, FYI. But Gare Joyce and David Schultz also do stand-up comedy as their side hustle. For Shits and Giggles, I guess, they do stand-up comedy. And they're both previous guests of Toronto Mike. Do they call

themselves Shits and Giggles? Splashing Boots and Shits and Giggles, coming up at 9. That's perfect. But I'm here to say they'll be each doing a 10-minute set on this. so come and you know we'll get some live music and uh we'll get 10 minutes of david schultz comedy and then 10 minutes of gear joyce comedy and then more live music so come on september 12th pretty exciting shit tj you survived all that uh all that nonsense there so now that's not nonsense

hey that that pays the bills my my friends. I completely get it. Are you going to... Are you aware? Like I mentioned that that event's at the Great Lakes Brewery. There's a six pack in front of you.

That's yours. For me? Yeah. The Canuck Pale Ale, the Sunnyside Session, the Great Lakes Brewery Blonde Lager. Oh, my wife's favorite.

This is a real step up from the usual Bush Light that I'm into. So this is fantastic. We just recorded. The last episode actually was about Bucca beer. It was like all about Bucca beer. And I had the guy from Troy from Great Lakes Brewery came over.

And we just talked about how they won't be introducing a Bucca beer because they simply can't make a good beer. Well, it costs too much to make the craft beer. But I don't see why you can't. I know it was a campaign promise from Doug Ford. And hey, good to see him sticking to his promises. Is it one of the big ones? I remember when Tim Hudak did that for the PCs years ago. And I mean, he didn't get elected, but that was like one of his campaign platforms.

And he came to visit us in Peterborough and he's like, you know what guys in Peterborough like? Buck of beers. And that's what i'm gonna do but the problem was his platform didn't really have much other substance to it well not at all but i think what the difference is the liberal party was so incredibly unpopular that you could have ran for the pc party and been premier right now yeah and you know it's funny niagara is, it's got four ridings in the provincial landscape, and three out of the four are NDP. There you go. And the area that I'm in, which I would have thought was conservative, but it's been an NDP and even a Liberal riding for quite some time before that. Interesting.

I would have thought that it would have been conservative. Yeah, I agree with you. If you heard the way that my neighbors talk, you know, just about things and watching. About new Canadians? They don't like new Canadians? Well, I'm not going to say that there's not casual racism

thrown around in small town Ontario. I don't think they're above that or beneath it. But yeah, I was just surprised that an NDP, but again, you know, you think of a lot of elderly people in the Niagara region as well. So that's not overly surprising.

I think essentially NDP was where people put their vote to not have Doug be the premier. Sure. Because everybody was so pissed off at the liberals and decided they didn't have a chance. So yeah, that's what happened there. Isn't the political landscape interesting though? Could you imagine getting into that? Because I've thought about it. Not provincially or federally, but on the municipal level. This most recent election, I didn't file my papers to become the mayor of Port Colborne

because it's coming up October the 22nd, I believe, is the municipal election. And they pay $11 an hour for that gig too, right? Yeah. But you have to be bothered with going to the no-frills on a Tuesday afternoon and some guy being mad about their garbage can being tipped over.

I'm like, you know, do I really want to do this? And the big thing was the council meetings on Monday nights because I really believe I had a chance when I was joking about it. I thought you were doing a bit here, but this is real. No, no, no. When I was when I was joking about it on air because they call me the unofficial mayor of Port Colborne. I said, you know, I want four more years of being the unofficial mayor. And then and then maybe we'll see. But yeah, I don't know. It's a pretty thankless job at the end of the day.

Now, help me here. Port Colborne, where exactly is that? I'm trying to picture the map. Yeah, it's on Lake Erie. It's about 20,000 people on the Welland Canal, basically the mouth of the Welland Canal, right on Lake Erie. You're about 20 minutes from the border in Buffalo, Fort Erie, Buffalo, the Peace Bridge crossing. And you'd be,

well, to the west, you've got, you know, you've got like Wainfleet and then Port Dover would be about an hour and 10 minutes down the road. I'm about 28 minutes to St. Catharines. I was going to say, how long until the White House of Rock? Yeah, 28 minutes. I take the 140 and then the 406, which is great. Easy drive. My wife works in Niagara Falls. That's, you know's about 25 minutes on the side roads. It's a cool spot. It's a great area. It's quiet.

It feels like you're going to cottage country. I have a boat that's in the marina, a Sugarloaf Marina, and I walk down to that. We're a street off the water. You're living the life. The worst thing that could happen to you is getting a gig in Toronto.

Just be happy. Raise those children. You know what? Honestly, I've been fired. I've had that happen to me before or maybe restructured because it was a format flip, which the station in turn ended up flipping back to the format that they flipped from 13 months later. But, you know, it's kind of it's like what a manager in baseball, if you want to throw a sports analogy at it. I don't think anybody's really surprised when they get let go in radio. I mean, we know that the business is kind of shrinking a bit as far as, you know, the bottom line, a lot, a lot more streamlining going on, you know, maybe it's more voice tracking

or whatever. Um, you know, it's, it's certainly, it's not what it was, but at the same time, it is still a huge medium. I mean, Nielsen released something a week or so ago that said 92% of Americans are exposed to terrestrial radio, AM or FM, in a week. Right, because they have to go to the dentist. Yeah, exactly. But I mean, seriously, it's not going away. No, and in the car, I always say this, like in your car, most people in a car are still tuning in terrestrial radio.

Sure, why not? I mean, it's free. That's one of the main things. And it's local. It's easy. You can just press a button and it's there as opposed to, oh, I got to connect. It gets a Bluetooth connectivity, all these different ways. I like to think some people, of course, may be listening

to Toronto Mic'd in the car. Oh, absolutely. All of them. All of them, right. Higher barrier of entry to make that happen. But if you want to listen to Hits FM, boom, there it is. Yeah. And I notice you're doing your hand with the dial there. I did not.

It's all push button now. You know why? I have a 99 car out in the driveway right now. Sweet. That's what I drive. So, I mean, this is how I do. I'm doing now my gesture for- You crank the Model T?

I crank my Model T. Your 99? My windows are manual, for example. 1899? Do you have manual? When was the last time you had manual windows? Well, one of my first cars was a 1987 or 88 Dodge Aries. It was a K car.

That had the crankers. Oh, I love to drive in a K car. And then I got into a truck. I got into, well, no, that's not totally true. I had a Nissan Pulsar, which lasted about four months until I blew the rods out of the engine. Then I got a Ford F-250 Baby Blue, the Blaze King. It was a big beast of a thing.

And that one had a CD deck in it, so that was pretty rocking. I remember that, yeah. But it had cranked windows. And then I had a Pontiac Grand Am, which actually, that was the first time having power windows. And boy, that was a luxury. I thought I was balling on a budget. I've yet have power windows i can't wait till i get you well no what are you talking about you got the wind blowing through your uh your hair at 18 kilometers an hour on your bike here with the skinny tires you know i average i'm averaging about 23 23

ride yeah jeez but you're on a trail though you're not riding in traffic at 23 uh yeah typically i'm on the the uh lake the waterfront trail most of it or the humber trail yeah so most of my riding is not with the cars here's one for you because you ride a bike there's this guy in i want to say waterloo and he started wearing a helmet cam like a gopro yeah yeah and he started reporting drivers that are not being kind to cyclists good and to me that's just i know and you're a cyclist right so the other side of the driver though but yeah sure but this is you know at what point do these social justice warriors pack it in i think this is just the way it's going everybody's going to be strapped up

with a gopro and it's like well now now they're just gonna what you're running to the police because i accidentally cut you off like i mean i get it toronto is a little different well here's we got to share the road, but the difference is, I don't know, the guy in the vehicle might get a scratch on his car maybe, but the guy on his

bike might die. To me, you got to share the road. This is a very serious issue. Wear a body suit. Wear hockey gear. I just wish more

people would park the car and try to bike commute to work. In the city, that's reasonable. I would have to leave about 19 hours before try to bike commute to work. In the city, that's reasonable. I would have to leave about 19 hours before my shift to get to work.

You should kayak to work. Can you do that? Well, you know, honestly, if the Welland Canal was a little more accessible, I would love that to boat to work one day. That would be pretty fun. In Winnipeg, we used to be able to skate down the Assiniboine River

and we used to go from my buddy's place. He lived on Westgate. Yeah. And we used to strap on our CCMs and skate down to the bar. And they had lockers that were outside because they have like the big river trail. It's the biggest one. It's bigger than the Ottawa Rideau Canal. Yeah. So there are all these lockers. So we used to take our shoes in the backpack, right? Skate down to the bar, take off our skates, throw them in the locker, lock them up, go to the bar at 2 a.m., try and get our skates back on and skate back to my buddy's house because we didn't have any money for cabs.

No, that's great. Then you get your fit, your healthy. We were keeping fit and having fun. You're saving money. You're helping the environment. It works on all fronts. Exactly. And you don't have to even worry about designated drivers.

Supporting the local economy. Yeah, exactly. You're not going to get a skating under influence. You're not going to get a suey. There's no motor involved. If there's no motor involved, there is no under-influence charge. So the beer is yours. Speaking of that.

Thank you. Greatly. Please enjoy responsibly. But there is also a pint glass in front of you for you to pour that beer into. The pint glass is courtesy of Brian Gerstein from PSR Brokerage. Boy, nice head of hair on him. Yeah, I know. Handsome fellow.

He's going to do... He's got a... Look at the suit. He's in a suit. This guy doesn't need my business. He's a softball player, okay? Hardcore softball player. He might have...

Like slow pitch? I think it... I'm not sure. I played slow pitch, so I'm all about slow pitch, but I'm not sure what brand he's playing, but if it's three pitch or slow pitch or what. But his championship game

is scheduled for September 12th, which is the same night as the Toronto Mike listener experience. So if he's in the championship game, he can't make the experience. But if he's not, he'll be there. Well, I'm cheering against him so that he can come and be at your party. I am too.

Because he seems like a valuable part of the organization here at Toronto Mike. But TJ, he's got a question for you, and he recorded it. So let's hear from that great head of hair. Property in the six dot com. Hi, TJ. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mic'd. Just a note about my website, which I am now using for a landing page for lead generation. As a result, it is not geared towards mic'd listeners, so best to just reach out to me directly at 416-873-0292, either by phone or text. TJ, you blogged recently about the 30th anniversary of Seinfeld and asked us about our favorite Seinfeld episode without revealing your own favorite. There are no bad choices, but for me,

the opposite, where George literally goes against his instincts 100% and ends up with a hot girlfriend and a job at Yankee Stadium, while Elaine turns into George. This had an awesome side story as well, with Kramer's classic appearance on Regis and Kathy Lee promoting his coffee table book. So, TJ, which episode is your favorite? Well, Brian, that's a great question. That is a really, really great Brian, that's a great question. That is a really, really great question. It's a tough question. Yeah, because, you know,

there are so many, and I will say this. I didn't watch Seinfeld a lot during its original run only because, you know, maybe it's an age thing, maybe just because it wasn't uber popular at the time

in our house anyway. Man, I don't know. I was like Kramerramer i was like when kramer's getting into stuff like when he does the road when he's got the roasted chicken in the in the lights kenny rogers yeah yeah yeah but he's got that going on i don't know to me that's just america industries remember where he goes help me drop this ball of oil out the window or whatever that the chimerica yeah the kramer episodes are great or the uh uh the cigar remember he was smoking the cigars and it ruined his skin or whatever that the chimerica yeah the kramer episodes are great or the uh uh the cigar remember he was smoking the cigars and it ruined his skin or whatever yeah he was always up to something and that's what i think i really liked about kramer he was just goofy and just really

quirky like he was just he was crazy and you never knew what he was gonna do when he kicked when you know every time he kicked the door and you're like, okay, where's this going? What's he got going on now? Everything from his outfits, the hair. I'm Cosmo Kramer, the ass man. Oh no, he's fantastic. I think my favorite is the second Spitter episode with Keith Hernandez. Remember, Keith asked Jerry to help him move or whatever and he's like, it's too soon in our relationship.

Anyway, the second Spitter episode was pretty good. I will say this uh i was listening to something the other day and it was jerry seinfeld kind of talking about how he realized that he had something and there was a joke about socks in a in a washer and it's so it's so baseline and it's really you know by today's comedy standards it's not edgy it's not you know it's not over the top but there was something about the simplicity of what jerry seinfeld did and his storytelling ability and he could tell it you know five different ways that's what i always really liked about him um again not being a massive sign well you are yeah now that we know your age you could do the math and realize when seinfeld starts you're too kind of too young

for that like it's. What did it start? 89, 90? Yeah. So I mean, I was five. Yeah. I was watching Splashin' Boots. I was watching Shits and Giggles. Were they alive? I have to do the math on that. But yeah, they were around. But they were in kindergarten, I think. But yeah, so I kind of caught it in its rerun era. I remember

them being on. Yeah, syndication. Yeah, syndication. And I don't even know. Are they still on do they still run them yes are you kidding me i'm sure somewhere you could find if you have enough stations you'll find it playing somewhere at any time of the day pisses me off we've canceled we've we've done sorry crave tv it's uh got you can watch all the same films you want oh really it's on cravo i have crave and we just dialed back our cable package for the summer because I wanted to see, you know, the bill's like $180 a month. I'm like, okay,

you know, we've got to pull this back because we're not even really watching anything. And the Jays are bad, so what are you really watching? Yeah, and you know what? You can buy now, we've got a Roku, and you can buy the Major League Baseball package. I find baseball to be kind of dry to watch

an entire game. Put it this way. If I don't catch the opening pitch, I'm not invested in the game. I'm not going to tune in in the fourth inning and be like, oh, okay, there's a game going on here. Interesting. Interesting. But baseball, I find young people are struggling to love baseball.

I think it is a bit dry and slow. And then how gimmicky is this where they do this players weekend coming up where the players get to have their nicknames on the back of their jerseys. I mean, really? Is that where we're at? We're coming up with hashtags on jerseys? You're dead on about that. And some names are trademarked. So, for example, Kevin Pillar cannot put Superman on his back

because it's a trademark. So what does he put, KP? Something else. I saw Bringer of Rain, Josh Donaldson. It doesn't really matter because he's not going to be in the lineup anyway. He's going to be hurt. But I like this one. Astratosphere, which is you think Marco Estrada.

Astratosphere, because that's exactly where all the opposing players hit the ball into the Astratosphere. Joe Biagini, he's got a great one too. It's Joe the Great. And I thought, well, yeah, I guess it is Joe the Great if you're pitching against Brian Gerstein's slow pitch team. Because he's

had a horrible year. I can't believe he's still in the majors. Gerstein's got a better ERA, I think, than Biagini. I would say so. Seven, I think. You know what's exciting living in the Niagara region? We have season tickets to the Buffalo Bisons at the station. Going to the game tomorrow, actually. Oh, Vlad Guerrero. Vlad Guerrero Jr. He's getting more heat on the highlights

and on social media than the Jays in their entirety. And it's awesome. And I can't believe that they haven't called this guy up yet. That's a great debate we have on Hepsi on sports where Hepsi doesn't want him brought up to this terrible team. And I'm like, when we expand the rosters in September, we got to bring him up, but we'll see. And they're not going to be better for, what,

three, four, five years? So you can't leave him down there and toil forever. No, I think they'll call him up. I think they'll call him up in September. But I'm running out of Pink Floyd here to tell you about Paytm Canada. Oh no, I'm out of Pink Floyd. What do I do? Paytm Canada.

Everybody should do this because you get $10 by doing this. So just follow these simple instructions. Go to Paytm.ca Download the app for your smartphone. Set it up. It's really easy. And when you make your first bill payment, I pay all my bills with Paytm. Every single bill, I pay with Paytm.ca. Download the app for your smartphone. Set it up. It's really easy. And when you make your first bill payment, I pay all my bills with Paytm. Every single bill, I pay with Paytm. And you have a lot of bills.

And I do have a lot of bills. I got a lot of bills, buddy. And for the first time I paid a bill, I used the promo code Toronto Mike, all one word. And they gave me $10 in Paytm cash, which I could use towards a future bill. So that was $10 in free money sitting there. I got from Paytm because I used my own promo code, Toronto Mike. You can use it too. Trust me, if you have any questions about it, hit me up on Twitter or write me an email, whatever.

Paytm Canada, good people and an amazing app. Do I get my own Paytm? You want 10 bucks? Promo code? No, I want to use the TJ Connors promo code. Listen, you got to talk to them about that. I have no control. I can tell you, though, you should use the Toronto Mike promo code and get that $10.

TJ, you're not so wealthy that you'd laugh at $10. No, absolutely. I'm not above $10. Are you kidding me? The things that I would do for $10, Mike. I want to see the list. In fact, I'm going down under a train bridge not too far from here later on. I'm really going to earn it.

There's a good spot where the lake shore turns into Windermere there. I find there's a good spot for that. All right. Well, I'll do my hand exercises now. I'll stretch my groin. All right. It's coming. It's coming. Get ready, TJ. One, two, three, four, five. Census working overtime.

Census working overtime. Census Design and Build provides architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA. I don't know if they'll go to Port Colborne. That might be outside their jurisdiction. I can drive in if it's a good enough deal. Your home? It's for your home, right?

So if you're not going to buy and or sell, because if you're going to buy and or sell, you hit up Brian Gerstein. But if you want to fix up your home, you call Census Design and Build. 416-931-1422 or go to censusdesignbuild.ca today to schedule your zoning and cost project feasibility study. That's what you do, TJ. And I don't know, maybe they will go to Port Colborne. I'm sure it's worth a phone call. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, you got the GO train coming in 2028 if this Ford government has their way. So, you know, I guess by 2028, I should be ready for a home renovation. My stuff will be all outdated. It's only 10 years from now. No, exactly. No, it's going to be perfect. Then you'll be my age. They'll have the super highway built from

Hamilton all the way down to Buffalo by then. Oh, man, I can't. The backup QEW. What an age we live in. It'll be a toll. It's all good. It's all good. Okay, buddy. Now, man, I can't. The backup QEW. What an age we live in. It's all good. It's all good. Okay, buddy, now we've already touched on a lot of this, but how does it begin for you in radio? Can we go back? What's your first radio gig?

Okay, so how I got into radio was my dad started going through some cancer stuff in 2004. It was looking pretty grim. So we decided to do a coast-to-coast trip and go see all his old radio buddies. We started in Montreal, went to Ottawa, saw Carter Brown. Then we turned it into a Legion tour, which took us about a month to get out of Ontario. That's funny. Yeah, we used to like stopping at Legion. That was my dad's jam.

We had all these ribbons. You know, you go and you get the visitor ribbons from all these places. And we were members of Branch 152 in Brooklyn, Ontario. And so we would just go and basically stop in. And whenever we had had too much to drink, we'd just stay in that town. So we were in Wawa for three days. Then we kept making our way across the country, got to Winnipeg and made some stops. And I guess Weyburn, Saskatchewan, my dad worked there.

That was one of his first radio jobs in the late 60s. And then we got to Calgary and ran into Stu Myers, who's a legendary Toronto guy. And comes up a lot on Toronto Mike episodes. You know what? Here's why. Because he has been very instrumental in people's success over the years.

He's one of the great leaders. He's a guy that, I guess, if you don't know Stu Myers, if you don't know the backstory, he's been a program director, general manager, and he's the vice president of operations, I guess is the title, for Alberta with Bell Media. So he's got all the stations there. And I couldn't say any nicer things about the guy. He put us up for a few days, ended up drinking a little too much tequila. Did you meet Carly during this? Carly Myers. No, she was I believe...

I don't even know if she was living in Alberta at that point. To be honest. Because this was about 2004. Because she's like the only 102.1 personality who wasn't moved off the station last week. Well, that's good to hear. I like to hear that.

Yeah, she's great people, actually. I had a chance to have a couple pints with her during Canadian Music Week. She's a truly genuine person. Obviously, comes by it honestly because, you know, Stu's a great guy. Just last note on Stu, and then I'm still going to hear your voice, of course. But Stu, in the Strombo episode, episode 103, Strombo, you know, we talked for a couple hours about Strombo episode, episode 103, Strombo, you know, we talked for a couple hours about Strombo's career. He gave so much credit

to Stu Myers for helping him become the broadcaster he eventually became. So you ask Strombo about Stu Myers and you're going to get the same kind of feedback I'm getting from you here. Yeah, so we stayed at his place. He said, hey, why don't you I guess we were out for dinner

with Jerry Forbes. We were at the CAG over by McMahon Stadium in Calgary and he said hey why don't you uh i guess we were out for for dinner with jerry forbes we were at the keg over by mcmahon stadium and calgary and he said uh he's like jesus like you know you got some personalities like you can even tell stories he said why why don't you work in radio i said i don't know it's my dad's thing my dad my dad was always like oh you don't want to work in radio now it's no fun right so anyway we uh i ended up going to the radio station we were there for three four days i watched jerry forbes who was an absolute legend uh did he just retire yeah he just retired yeah just a just an absolutely fantastic man uh he showed me around uh just did some really cool radio station type things for a few days and we moved on we we kept going across uh we got to the

okanagan and my dad at the time with his bladder cancer um he had to go pee a lot so his his bladder was the size of a peanut and he liked to drink so when we stopped in banff on our way out of out of calgary uh he said well let's stop at the legion i said nah i said dad let's just get going we got to get to colonna tonight like let's just you know get through the mountains here so of course he down downed a jug of beer, and we were on our way. So now, all of a sudden, we're over the Rogers Pass. I don't know if you're familiar with BC at all, but Rogers Pass is one of the highest elevation passes in North America, I believe. It's a place. It's a big watershed, snowshed, right?

It's just crazy in the wintertime. We were going through in the summer, luckily. And there's nowhere to pull over. There are literally signs along the highway that say, do not pull over dangerous, you know, illegal. Um, you know, it's, it's too, you know, it's two lanes, right. And it's, you're either dropping off a mountain cliff or you're driving into a rock face either way. My dad's like, I gotta go. I gotta go. He's like, I'm going to piss on your seat. And I'm like, you better not. I said, if you piss on my seat, I said, I'm going to throw you out. Cause he had, he had adult diapers. He had a condom

catheter that he could have worn and there were pads that he could have sat on. So there, there were multiple options. So you could see that I was a little frustrated when he didn't want to choose option a, B or C. So we finally get to this little town and it's almost at Salmon. I don't even know the name of it. Uh, and we start turning off to go down highway 97 C and he sees this establishment on the left-hand side and he said, pull in here. He's like, Sonny, I gotta go. I gotta go. I'm like, all right, man. And I was pretty frustrated. I mean, we had been on the road at this point for a good six, eight weeks.

Honestly, I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took us a long time to get out there. A lot of time, father-son bonding. Because we didn't know if it was all going to end, right? And that was the big thing. Right. You get dropped with that C-bomb. Dr. Fleschner at Princess Margaret Hospitals, he said, hey, maybe you do want to do this father, son road trip. Right. So he gets to this little spot in, I want to say it's in Falkland, BC, but that could be inaccurate. Anyway, it's

just this little dive pub and I'm sitting there and I'm waiting. I'm like, okay, five minutes go by. I'm like, God, he must be, he must be dropping a deuce in there. I said, okay, five, now 10 minutes. I'm like, all right, what is going on here? 10, 12 minutes. I'm like, all right, we got to get on the road. I said, what the hell is this guy doing? So I walk in the bar and I see my dad sitting. He's at the bar, bellied up, drinking a pitcher of beer.

He's got it by both hands and he's dumping it. And he looked at me like a deer in headlights. And he's like, oh, hey, Sonny. I said, what did I just tell you? I said, you can't, like, we're not stopping anymore. what the hell's the matter with you so i popped the trunk i grabbed his stuff launched it in the bar there's crap flying everywhere his underpants you know his fruit of the looms dangling off the off the bar stool and i took off so i was like i've had enough and i kept driving so the next day uh my dad called me my my mom and stepdad were living on

vancouver island at the time so i managed to make it to the, my dad called me, my, my mom and stepdad were living on Vancouver Island at the time. So I managed to make it to the Island. My dad called me, he's like, sorry. And you know, tail between his legs felt kind of bad. He had to have his friend come pick him up, you know, from Kelowna, which was like an hour and change. Uh, so he spent a couple of days there and we ended up linking up on the way back. But let me tell you on the way back, it was, uh, I'm not going to say it was a quiet ride, but it was, uh, I was like, we're not stopping. No pit stops this time. You're going to sit there. And you know, it was uh i'm not gonna say it was a quiet ride but it was uh i was like we're not stopping no pit stops this time you're gonna sit there and you know it was kind of like uh i was the parent and you yeah well i think you had to be it sounds like you had to be like

you know what i mean somebody had to be there well he's yeah like he put it this way even after the you know the cancer diagnosis and stuff he wasn't changing like it wasn't like oh he's gonna quit smoking darts he's gonna quit drinking like it's just gonna change up they're like oh you can't have beer because you need to lose weight so he'd be like okay well i'll drink vodka you know like whatever and you can't even be mad it's like was there ever any uh attempt to i mean clearly i mean i mean i he's your father of all the respect that he you're just you're describing uh an alcoholic i mean you know a liquor pig would maybe be a little more appropriate um no i mean hey he liked to have his cocktails as much as the next person but uh yeah he he spent a lot of his time in little bars like did he ever

attempt rehabilitation like did he ever attempt to oh god to? Yeah. I guess at that point, when you've already been given the diagnosis of, you know, the grim diagnosis. And is that cause? Like, is that one of the things that would cause bladder cancer? Bladder cancer is a direct correlation to smoking. Smoking. Yeah. It is a direct correlation. Actually, Gary Deladay, a legend from ChexTV, worked 33 years there in the

sports department from Peterborough. He just passed away yesterday, which was kind of a crappy way because it was my birthday. And Gary Daladay was, man, the guy was such a legend, such a great guy, hacked dart after dart after dart. And he got the same cancer as my dad did around the same time. So they kind of bonded over that a little bit. My dad had the neobladder that was built on the inside, so he'd have to, you know, it was pretty unpleasant every time he'd have to go to the washroom. But I'll tell you, it was always funny when he'd stir your drink with a condom, with a catheter, use it as a straw. Oh, man. But do you smoke? Occasionally, yeah.

I've dialed it back. Honestly, you know, between your dad. I'm telling you, for Berkeley and Vaughn, I don't want to sound like your dad here. I get it. But for Berkeley or Vaughn, you've got to quit because it's so obviously this correlation you referred to. Totally.

This is going to shorten your life. 100%. Actually, there's a guy that I work with. It's his 50th birthday today, and he's like, I'm quitting darts after this weekend. And I was like, you know what? That's not a bad place. So, um, yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely in the cards in my future. And I know my wife would appreciate it a lot, but I don't smoke around my family at all. So I don't smoke like from the time I get home, like I'll have like a couple, uh, at work during the day. And then, you know, the

biggest trigger for me would be drinking beer. You know, as soon as I get a couple of beers, it's like, all right. Like, by the time I get to the bottom of this six-pack of Great Lakes Brewing... I'm taking it back, TJ. That's it, yeah. I'm back on the players. But anyway, to bring it all back, you know, with, you know,

obviously this can kind of... You know, now I want to go back. It kind of sounds morbid. Let me drive here for a minute. You mentioned that you got to know your dad when you were a legal drinking age. Can we get a little insight into that? You weren't close to your dad growing up, is that what I'm hearing? My dad left there in 85, I want to say, 85, 86, something like that. And then my parents got divorced when we were in Philadelphia when my dad got canned there. My dad actually lost his job to Howard Stern.

That was the first station, 94 WYSP, that Howard Stern was syndicated to when he was at DC 101. He was the first victim of the Howard Stern syndication. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and it was CBS Infinity Broadcasting at the time. So my dad found out on David Letterman. This is actually documented in that Letterman, the Letterman Howard Stern, the one-on-one. I'm going to watch this. You should watch it.

Just to give it a little context. So when he said, when he talks about Philadelphia. My next guest needs no introduction. I think that's what it's called. That's exactly what it's called. Great title, by the way. I saw the Obama one, and then I saw George Clooney, and I have stopped watching, and I don't know why. I'm going to definitely watch the Obama one and then I saw the, I saw George Clooney and I have stopped watching

and I don't know why I'm going to definitely watch the Stern one. Um, but yeah, so does your dad get mentioned in the Stern one? Uh, no, no, it doesn't get mentioned, but, uh, you know, there's, there's the definite, uh, the reference to Philadelphia and that was my dad that was doing mornings there at the time. And then, uh, when he got canned, my dad was, you know, uh, looking for, you know, something and wanted to move again and ended up going on his own adventure as my mom and I went back to Winnipeg. And that's really where I grew up.

So my dad's family's all from Winnipeg. My mom's family's all from Manitoba, some in Winnipeg, some in rural. But I grew up in Winnipeg for the most part. And I would see dad occasionally. Between 88 and 92, he was working at Hits FM. So I'd fly down to Toronto for a spring break or, you know, a week during the summertime. And, yeah, there weren't exactly a lot of Father of the Year awards being handed out. There wasn't exactly a mug that he treasured.

But, you know, I knew that I knew that he loved me, but it was at the same time he was really, you know, focused on his career. And, you know, he just, you know, everybody's got their issues. Right. So kind of, you know focused on his career and and his you know he just yeah everybody's got their issues right so um kind of you know made amends uh because again when you're a kid yeah sure you want your dad there you want to be uh you know you want to you want to have that role model in your life you want to have somebody teach you how to shave how to drive a car and i'm hearing you buddy but you know we ended up kind of just burying the hatchet being like okay you know what

I'm an adult now I was like 18 I said look like I want to get to know you I want to get to know you as Jeff you know not as Scruff

not the guy that's got to be on all the time not the guy that's you know the character yeah sure yeah it's really it's a personality

that was created and you know I got to know him pretty well and you know know, we were, we got to be really, really close, uh, by the end, you know, there was nothing that, um, that we really kept from each other. There were no secrets. It was, you know, kind of an open book together. So, you know, that was, that was really great before he, uh, you know, and we, we got, you know, quite a few years together. I mean, you talk, uh, 2004 was the diagnosis and he just died in 2016. I mean, you know, was the diagnosis and he just died in 2016.

I mean, you know, but considering the first 10 years of your life, you don't maybe remember a lot anyway. So I kind of made up for it later on in life. But do you ever like, okay, so I recently did an episode of a guy named Stu Stone and he did a documentary about how like his dad just kind of disappeared from their lives

at some point when he was a child. Like, so he said he had a bar mitzvah and there's a lot of footage of his dad at the bar mitzvah and then shortly thereafter his dad just leaves the family and has like another family somewhere else like and he didn't see his dad anymore i haven't shared but i have a very similar story very i have a similar story actually uh where uh there was a one attempt at reconciliation when i was like 27 and nothing came of that. And now I'm 44 years old. Like there's nothing. You, the fact that, you know, you, you at 17, your dad sort of was now he's present. Like now I guess he's engaged and involved in. Yeah. Now let's, yeah, let's use that

term loosely. I mean, you know, I was, I was his buddy, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't ever really like a fatherly type thing. It was, you know, I was already buddy. You know, it wasn't ever really like a fatherly type thing. It was, you know, I was already an adult. I'd already grown up and kind of done my own thing. But you have two kids, Vaughn and Berkeley. Can you imagine leaving them? Not being in their lives? No, no, no.

I got four kids, okay. A thousand percent. I, you know, and I'll say this, and I've had great chats. Fred Patterson was always, you know, kind of a father figure to me in that sense because he's a real family man, family first. I honestly learned a lot from Fred just about parenting but also

just kind of confiding in him that I always wanted this. I always wanted a normal family. I got a daughter and I got a son. I have a beautiful wife and I have a stupid stray dog. You know what I mean? I always wanted beautiful wife and I have a stupid stray dog. You know what I mean? Like I always wanted this. You know, I wanted to pick it. You have a white picket fence. Not yet, but it's going to be wrought iron when I get it. Okay. Once I get

an endorsement deal from the, do you have a wrought iron company on your sponsor list? I'll get one. But you know, I always, I always, this was what I always dreamt of because my family was so abnormal when I was growing up. I thought anyway. And now you look at it, by 2018 standards, it was, you know, life is life. And I think it's taught me to have a thicker skin too. It's like, you know, when you get all these people like,

oh, my parents were divorced when I was a kid and they use it as an excuse to be idiots or, you know what I mean? Well, you know what it is? I can tell you what it made. You forced you to, you had to look out for yourself. And I had to adapt.

No one's going to look out for TJ other than you to, you had to look out for yourself. And I had to adapt. No one's going to look out for TJ other than TJ, he's got to look out for TJ. You know what I mean? And I think it does make you sort of more independent in some weird way. And I was an only child too.

I don't have brothers or sisters. Wow, okay. So that's maybe a different dynamic to it too. But back to that. So you cannot, it sounds like you said a thousand percent. I'm not going to tell you that mathematically that's impossible so at a hundred percent you

a hundred percent sure you couldn't leave vaughn and berkeley's life or whatever and i feel the same way about my four kids like really this unconditional love and i want to be there to help i'm help my son i take him driving you know i taught him how to shave like i want to do that for jarvis who's four i went help out everybody uh i. I want to do that for Jarvis. Who's four? I want to help out everybody. I can. I want to be there as long as I can. Until I die, I want to be there. Now, why are some men able to leave their families?

Some men are able to do it. Stu Stone's father was able to do it. My father was able to do it. There's fathers out there that can just sort of leave their kids and have nothing to do with their kids. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon. Well, is it though? I mean, I believe it's kind of in a lot, it's in our makeup, I believe. You know, you think of like the animal kingdom.

You know, there are some animals that they basically just, they bang, they procreate, and they take off, right? You know, the cavemen, you know, they weren't sticking around. And they go to the Legion. Yeah, they go to the Legion. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but, you know but everybody's situation is different. So I can't judge based off Stu's dad. I don't know, and we don't know,

the relationship that Stu's dad and his mom had at the time. Maybe there was something weird there. Maybe there was... Oh, sure. Everybody's got their... But to me, you can leave... I mean, I'm divorced, right? I'm on my second marriage.

You can leave your wife, but you don't leave your kids. Sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I completely get that. And for me, it would be, uh, you know, I would be devastated if I didn't get to see my kids, you know, morning, noon and night or whenever I wanted, you know, if it was limited to, to weekends or whatever. And I think that was something that, you know, maybe, uh, maybe my dad just felt maybe uncomfortable with, you know, maybe he was just so uncomfortable with the fact that he was unable to be there, you know, maybe he was just so uncomfortable with the fact that he was

unable to be there, you know, with me at any given time because, you know, he's got to be out doing this or, you know, he's got this and he's got his own issues at the same time. But did you carry any anger that like, Oh God, are you kidding me? Me, a teenage boy fucking hated the guy. I did. I absolutely, yeah. There were times when i was like i could care less if i ever saw this man again um like fuck him because he wasn't because he wasn't there and i don't matter to him yeah and then you've got the issue of uh you know the adult stuff where you know you keep in touch once a month by check and then it's like you know mom's complaining there's no child support and he's saying that my mom's spending it on on manicures and pedicures and

they're putting each other putting me against one another. You're like a pawn in the battle. And exactly. And you start to feel like that. And I can remember once on my 10th birthday, so this is 1994, and my dad, he had just come back to Winnipeg to work at the station that I ended up working at.

It wasn't called Power 97 at the time. But dad had just, he'd been let go from the Baron Edmonton after they launched that and then came to Winnipeg. And it was like a chance for us to all kind of maybe get along. You know, maybe this was, you know, I remember going out for a dinner at the Itchy Band restaurant downtown. It's like a, you know, Tepanese or what is that called? You know, the steakhouse, Japanese steakhouse where they cook in front of you or whatever.

I remember going out for a dinner with my mom and dad. And that was like the first time that I'd ever seen them together because they got divorced when I was three. That was like my first time because it was always like when my dad would come pick me up, I'd be like waiting in the driveway. And then there were times when he just wouldn't show up. And there was that side of it too. But it sounds like there's a lot.

I mean, I've only talked to people who worked with Scruff. Like, you know, you're his son. But, I mean, it sounds like he wasn't a dependable guy. I got stories from John Gallagher that I think made his book or whatever. Scruff may call in from somewhere else because he can't make it into that shift.

This was a common story. I'm not going to blame... We're not here to crap on Scruff. No, no, no. And again, I'm not gonna blame we're not here to crap on scruff like no no no no and again like you know i'm not gonna you know even even further that too much because it's you know it was a different era it was you know again everybody was going through their own things at the time i mean if john gallagher he wasn't a saint at the time either so don't like no but he had no kids i know

what you're saying but he wasn't a father right and at the time i mean you know the argument could have been made that my dad didn't have any kids because I was, you know, a two and a half hour flight away in Winnipeg. I guess that's the argument that you're right. You're right. That's a long flight. It's a long way away to live from your kid. That's for sure. That's tough. But, you know, and

people do it and some people manage to make it work and, you know, I often you know, I feel grateful that there are programs out there like Big Brothers and Big Sisters. That's a big one. That's, you know, you often, you know, I feel grateful that there are programs out there like Big Brothers and Big Sisters. That's a big one. That's, you know, you've got these programs where they're, you know, you have the ability to find a male role model in your life. Now, for me, I played hockey, right? So I always had, you know, kind of the coaches.

You know, I was really close with a lot of my friends with their dads. I spent a lot of time with my friends, like whether it's family dinners or whatever. So it wasn't like I was totally lacking male role model. But, you know, it's always nice when it's your own flesh and blood. And was there an uncle or something? I was very close with my uncles. Yeah, my uncle Scott, I actually ended up,

I lived with him for a little bit when I was playing hockey and back for a couple summers. Had a great time, you know. Yeah, so, I mean, you know, I can't complain about it. You know, I'm definitely not the guy that's sitting and bitching like, oh, my dad wasn't there when I was a kid. Like, fuck it.

Like, he had his own stuff to do, you know, just like other people have their own stuff to do. You know, some people worry about themselves more than they care about others, and that's just genetic makeup. Did you ever confront Scruff, though, about his absence during these formative years? Because you can say, you know, you don't remember much of your tenures.

But I'm actually of the opinion that that's sort of setting the base for a lifetime. It's really important, those first... Yeah. And, you know, I can count on one hand, you know, I have some memories of, you know, just the whole my childhood, right? Like, I have memories of my dad in that aspect. But at the same time, we kind of just turned a leaf. It was like, in 2003, it was like, okay, forget what happened in the past

because we can't change that. That's over, that's done with. There's nothing we can do. So let's just move forward with this. And my dad was never, he was never, he was never really apologetic about it either. Um, so, you know, but you did try to have, I'm just, I guess what I'm curious about is like confronted him about it. Of course, of course,

maybe that would offer some kind of, and you mentioned, you just like forget the past and move on, which is what you kind of have to do, but that becomes a easier to do when you can have an open heart to heart about like, why did the past happen? Yeah, well, I think, you know, as you've alluded to, you know, substance may have had a lot to do with that. Was that ever discussed, though? Because, I mean, I feel almost like, who am I to say this, except like I've heard enough stories and now I've heard it from his son that what you're describing is a man who requires alcohol like a medicine medicine like he needs his

hit of alcohol on a regular basis you know he's he's not with us to defend himself but uh you know i it's a disease too i don't this is sure i mean that's alcoholism is a disease i i think it's a it's an illness and it sounds like he was afflicted with this and i just wondered if this was ever spoken about oh hey over many beers my friend um I'm not sure that's the right place to do that but yes I hear you yeah and it was something that uh that you know we weren't changing I've had family events with his you know with with my dad's family yeah uh and you know going out to restaurants and my dad just you know between that and like the gambling um would show up and and you know just be in shambles we'd

be like okay dinner was at five you know dad showing up at 6 30 and just torqued right like you know and you're like okay like uh but that's you know as as my family says that was uncle jay you know that was it was funny and and he was always funny he was never like a mean drunk you know there are some people that get like mean and angry right and and you know like beat their beat their kids and whatever this This was never that. He drank to be jovial and he was always generous to people.

As you say, maybe it's a disease that led him down some path of not being with family growing up. It definitely sounds like he was afflicted with the disease of addiction, addiction to alcohol and maybe more. You mentioned gambling and stuff. I haven't gotten into that. Well, it definitely sounds like he was afflicted with the disease of addiction, addiction to alcohol. And it sounds, and maybe more, like you mentioned gambling and stuff.

I haven't gotten into that. But I mean, that would explain some of these behaviors of like some of the absenteeism and stuff that he's got. He's suffering from alcoholism. Yeah. Hey. And if that's the case, is it an excuse? No, but it's an explanation. No, but it's a reason. Yeah, it's an explanation anyway.

Anyway, buddy, I'm sorry that you had to go through that is what I'm saying. And I'm glad. What I'm happy to hear is that at some point, it sounds like around 2003, you start a different kind of, not so father and sonny, but you get to know your father

and you get to have a positive relationship with a man, which is great. And that was it. And I was there through all his health stuff and that kind of dragged on for a really long time and all the appointments and stuff. But that's a long time. So he's diagnosed in 2004? Yeah. When does he... Okay, so maybe... Okay, I know I'm sorry for being all over the place, but he loses his job to Howard Stern, of all people. That was at 94 WISB in Philly.

And that's in Philadelphia? And then it happened again at Q. There was a short stint of time here at Q when that came. It was after Winnipeg, so 95, almost 96, I guess, when Stern would have come in. Yeah, right. In my estimation, that's when, I can't remember, Danny Kingsbury was the program director.

If he reaches out to you, he would have a better timeline on it than I. I know he's good buds with Humble Howard, for example, I think. And he's the one who brought, I believe he's the guy who brought Humble Howard from Montreal to Toronto to team up with Freddie P. I believe. So it all comes full circle here.

Okay, so when Scruff gets, and I'm trying to follow the Scruff thing too. I'm trying to do you and Scruff, and Scruff is chronologically first. So where does he go from Philadelphia? Which station? So he actually gets out of radio and goes and works for a company

called Cummings Media in Phoenix, Arizona. Okay. You remember the old religious infomercials with Tammy Faye Baker? Of course. Yeah, so my dad used to sell. He was the director of sales and marketing for this company.

Oh, wow. Okay, that's something different. And Don Percy was a guy who, he was a chum for a while here in Toronto. He actually got let go from his job and had some time off. So I know he went down to Phoenix and spent some time down there while he was riding out his severance. And yeah, so my dad wasn't down there too long. And I guess, you know, him and Gary Slate, you know, the relationship there is, is probably, you know, it's a little strained.

I mean, maybe by now, um, you know, uh, well now that dad's dead, I guess it doesn't really matter to Gary anyway, but you know, I don't know if there was bad blood there, but at the time, um, you know, I guess dad was looking to get back into radio. And that was when Hits FM had launched in 86. And then in like 87, 88, that was when my dad, that was when he went back to St. Catharines. And it was Gary's brother, Greg, that was the general manager or program director. It was Eric Samuels was the program director and Greg Slate was the general manager. And if anyone's curious about the sort of the history of Hits FM in its entirety, I really highly recommend the Paulie Morris episode from a few episodes ago.

We really, because he was there at the beginning too, and he helped start that White House of Rock. Yeah, he's such a great guy. He honestly is the nicest man. Like when I got hired for the job, he actually came. So here's how the timeline goes. Dad dies on December the 18th, 2016. Yeah. Dad dies on December the 18th, 2016. And then we kind of figure out some plans to, you know, do some kind of, you know, memorial or celebration of life.

Yeah. So I might as well be at a Legion because that's where dad logged a lot of hours. So the Brooklyn Legion. Right. And that's near Whitby, right? Yeah. It's north of Whitby. Yeah. Now it's all built up. Now it's all Whit it's all Whitby. Like it's just houses all the way out there, even in, you know, in the few years since I had been there. So then you've got maybe mid January, I got a call from Bob Harris, who is the GM and VP of the Hamilton and the Niagara operation at the time. And he says, Hey, you know, sorry about your dad, by the way, you know, we've got something maybe coming down the pipe here. Would you want to wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And I said, Hey, you know what, that would be fantastic. We got the second kid on the way. My wife's family's all from Kingston. It would be nice to get back to Ontario.

Chelsea and I had actually talked about, you know, maybe trying to get back to Ontario, whether that was me being in radio or not just to be closer. We were in BC about, you know, maybe trying to get back to Ontario, whether that was me being in radio or not. Just to be closer. We were in B.C. and, you know, it's just a long way when you don't have that extra. That's a long way. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Every time you want to fly back, you know, it's 800 bucks ahead. Right.

And we've got three at this point. So I absolutely said yes. It was a guy by the name of Jesse Mods, who's a great dude. He moved out to Calgary to go actually work with the Jerry Forbes show before Jerry retired. So now it's Jesse and JD at CJ 92 in Calgary. And yeah, so I, you know, ended up getting the afternoon slot here. It's a, it's a pretty coveted job. I know there were some, some big names that wanted that gig and I was pretty lucky to get it. And just to, you know, there were a few people in the building that had worked there with my dad and Paul was one of them

and he was there during the heyday, you know, see, here's the thing. Here's the thing that I feel that I really miss with my dad. Yeah. I missed when he was in his heyday as an, as, but I, you know, I was a kid at the time, but I mean, like, I wish I would have been an adult to kind of see, you know, how wild and crazy it was to really appreciate it. Cause I, I always got my dad as, you know, after his career kind of, you know, I would get the stories. But I would also, you know, it's always fun to hear them later.

But it would have been fun to kind of live through it at the time when this is all going on. But the environment wasn't conducive to having children around. And it probably wouldn't have been a place that, you know, I would have enjoyed if I would have been his kid as an adult. But at the same time, it would have been fun to see because it was a wild ride.

I could totally. Yeah, absolutely. Because when you kind of come back, you and Scruff become buddies or whatever in like 03 or whatever. That's post Mojo, right? Like, yeah, no, he was out of work. He was down and out. And he never works in radio again after Mojo.

No. And my dad's career, like really, you know, it was it was peaks and valleys, man. It was it was like feast. Well, that's why I career, like really, you know, it was peaks and valleys, man. It was like feasts and it was family. Well, that's why I'm so, he's in Arizona. He's in Arizona doing this work

with Tammy Faye Baker. Yeah, Tammy Faye Baker, yeah. And what radio, what gets him back? It hits any, it hits FM in St. Catharines. Yeah, and that was a Slate station.

Right, and we heard a lot about this from the Paulie Morris episode, but he's at Hits where you are now, which is a really nice little story into itself. And then, where does he go after? What happens in St now, which is a really nice little story into itself. And then

where does he go after? What happens in St. Catharines? Does he get fired in St. Catharines? No, no, no. That was one of the places that he didn't get fired. Okay, good. So you've got Eric Samuels, who's doing Afternoons, and the program director, and Batty, who's his producer.

They end up getting the call to go launch this new rock station. It was light 100.3, and it was just doing nothing. So when my dad showed up there to launch the Bear in, I guess it was 93, the station... Where is the Bear? Edmonton. Edmonton. Okay, and my wife's from Edmonton.

Yeah, so they went to Edmonton, and they launched that station. Again, the numbers... they took them from like, you know, it was like the number 11 station. This is a station now that has like 30 radio stations, but at the time there were like 11 and it was like the last place station. They took it all the way to, you know,

the top. And wow. Yeah. It was, you know, it all happened really fast. Cause it was the first time that it, you know,

it had really been, you know, the, the buttons, the envelope had really been pushed in a new market, but it didn't last long. There was, uh,

you know, some personal stuff that happened with dad and that's uh you know it's it's neither here nor there it was maybe a misunderstanding if you will but you know there was uh yeah you can read about it online but it was unfortunate ended up losing his gig there and um and then he ended up in winnipeg and i thought that was you know I thought he would have been great in Winnipeg and then he got canned there for doing the Super Bowl in Miami stunt, which is pretty legendary unto itself. I mean, if you're going to get fired...

Can you share the Super Bowl Miami story? Yeah, so basically on the Thursday before Super Bowl, my dad Scruff and Larry, Larry Updike, they go on the air and say, hey, your chance to watch the super bowl in miami with scruff and larry fax into 780 whatever uh you know send your fax in and we'll uh we're gonna pick 25 winners to come watch the super bowl in miami with scruff and larry they never once said go to the super bowl right but management's now freaking out like well how the hell is scruff gonna get uh

how's he gonna get these tickets my dad my dad's like, you know, typical. You would never get away with this now because you would never be able to get $20,000 from promotion or anywhere to be like, oh, okay, well, Scruff's taking these people to Miami. Well, there's a little town about an hour and a half outside Winnipeg called Miami, Manitoba. So my dad says, okay, here's what's going to happen. On Super Bowl Sunday, you're going to meet Scruff and Larry at the Air Manitoba hangar at Winnipeg International Airport. And we're going to go to Miami to watch the Super Bowl. So all these people, they show up in Hawaiian shirts.

They've got suitcases. They're ready. Travel insurance in hand. And they're thinking they're going to be going to Florida where the Super Bowl was that year in 1995. And as it turned out, my dad led them know this tarmac kind of thing and pulled down the curtain and there was a school bus that said miami manitoba on the top of it and there were a couple people that got really pissed about it the rest of the people had a hell of a great time you know it was pretty uh pretty rock and roll my dad knew how to throw a party uh so they drive

this hour and a half and they go to this place called the chatterbox lounge, which is still there. Uh, they watched the game on a 19 inch black and white TV. And then the Monday afterwards, uh, showed up on the air, uh, and ended up getting suspended on the air by the program director, Morley Callahan. And then it, uh, you know, it escalated and you know what, this is what's crazy about it too. Um, I was in school at the time and I thought it was like so cool, but there were some, some friends of mine that were like, Oh yeah, my dad doesn't let us listen to your dad in the morning because he's inappropriate. So then my dad's face is plastered on the Winnipeg Sun, Winnipeg Free Press, everywhere in town.

My dad, Winnipeg'sets because we were too small of a market in 95. And my dad's on the front page of the newspaper, scruff scam artist, and takes turfs, whatever. Takes people for a ride, and fake, and phony, and fraud. And of course, I'm at school, and I was mortified. I was like, oh my god, all these people hate my dad. I'm like, man, this sucks. And then a week later, they end up reinstating him kind of thing and my dad plays it off like he needed a vacation he took the 20 grand and went on an alaskan cruise uh he went on a cruise up he flew to vancouver and took a cruise and spent it all gambling so what they

they didn't end up renewing his contract because of misappropriation of funds which could you imagine doing this if anyone's listening that works in radio now, could you imagine going on a Thursday to your promotion director and being like, Hey, we need $20,000 to do this stunt. Okay. And, uh, you know, you know, no, no questions asked. Okay. Scruff, here's the money. Wow. You know, um, you can Google some of the newspaper articles too. I mean, you can track them down. I'm lucky. My, uh, my wife, the Chelsea bun made a scrapbook for me a few years ago of, uh, of just stuff while he was, it gave it to him, but you know, obviously I got it in the end along with the stamp collection. Um, it's, you know, it, it's legendary because you would never, you would never get away with that. Now it would just, it would never happen. First of all, people would, you know, so many

different levels of being able to fact check now. And, you know, the best thing about it was they never once said go to Miami. Like it was always like go watch the Super Bowl with Scruff and Larry. Now you can't even say Super Bowl on the radio. No, that's right. You have to say the big game. Unless you're a boy times have changed. You're right.

You're right. It's a big game. Come watch the big football game with us. Yeah, come watch the largest sporting event on a Sunday. That story, man. But he went to Alaska and gambled. Yeah. When the one-way got canned, first of all, like, amazing.

He just didn't care. Like, this is honestly, this is, you know, I guess about, like, all of this, you know, it's probably an easy segue to just, you know, lead into. He just didn't really give a shit. At the end of the day, he wanted to make people laugh and make people happy. And I think at the, really at the end of the day, he wanted to make himself laugh because he was always a prankster. I mean, like my aunts and uncles tell me stories, you know, when he was a kid on Christmas

morning, he would get up early and go down and open all their presents and then run upstairs and tell them what they got for Christmas from Santa. You know what I mean? Like this is a fine line. Again, this is your father. I am so respectful of that. And I like the interesting personality, the legend of Scruff Connors.

I really find it fascinating. But there's a fine line between prankster and jerk. You know what I mean? And you know what? There's definitely a few tales of him not being the kindest to people. But I will say, as he got on later in life, and maybe as he knew it was kind of winding down, he made some amends with people that he probably never thought that he would talk to again.

He started to be a better person, if that makes any sense. So he's in Winnipeg and this all goes down and he's let go. What's the next radio stop for Scruff? After Winnipeg? Yeah.

So I believe it is a trip to Q107 for a very... Because initially... The second stint, right? Oh, no. The first time? No, first time was like 79, 80 to 84, 85.

Right, okay. That's way back. Before the Philadelphia, of course. Yeah, and then you've got... There was something like... I 80 to 84, 85. Right, okay, that's way back. Before the Philadelphia, of course. Yeah, and then you've got, there was something like, I want to say it's 94. He did have a short return, you're right. Yeah.

Didn't last long. No, and then when Mojo launched in 98. And that's with the Q Morning Zoo? Yeah. That was with Chalmers and Gallagher and was it Donna Saker then? I believe it was. Right, and this is,

and now I've got to get my time on here, but this is, I think this is before they bring in Jesse and Gene to do mornings, right? No, Jesse and Gene were after the original, after, because my dad offered Gene. Now, again, Gene may dispute this, but what my dad told me, my dad wanted Gene to come to Philadelphia with him. And then Gene was like, no, I'm going to stay behind here. And then that was when they brought Jesse in. So Jesse and Gene were from like 85 to whenever, early 90s.

Right. And then they left to go to CFTR and they brought Jesse in. So Jesse and Gene were from like 85 to whatever, early 90s. Right. And then they left to go to CFTR and they brought brother Jake Edwards. And they brought brother Jake in. The Edwards Air Force Base, whatever they were calling it. Which is the champ stuff that's on cue. And bro Jake was at 97.5 in Winnipeg

and they actually did a swap. Right. So you remember that? And then we actually lived in bro Jake's house. It was owned by Wick, which was the company at the time. So we lived... I remember the day when we went there

and my dad and Jake were having a couple beers and we got the keys to the house and their shit was all in boxes and we had the moving truck in the driveway. It was just such a different era of radio. Could you imagine a radio... Could you imagine Bell Media came to me and was like, Hey, TJ, we're going to buy you a house.

We're going to pay your rent so that you go to Winnipeg and work. Well, didn't they buy Derringer a house? I don't know. And you know what? There's a guy, him and my dad did afternoons for a short period of time together at Emojo. Oh, yeah. Well, here, let's keep it chronic. If you have a story there, you can tell the story if you want. I don't want to forget about it. Well, no, again, and you're asking about, you know the timeline on all of it and this is like you know there were a couple really dark years there and these would have been times when i didn't talk to my dad he was doing

collections he tried to go back to uh humber college is that post so this is the second stint at q that's pretty short 96 like it was around the time when stern came in so after that 96 97 and so after that stern comes in right and then derringer takes over after that when they cancel the stern show on q derringer is the morning show and he's still there yeah no i mean he's had a just an absolutely fantastic run and i think he took all the money i think that's how it's worked yeah anyway he's done really well for himself he really has and and you know what i i gotta say this about john uh you. He reached out to me when my dad passed away. And he also, there was some Q event. I believe it was the Q40th anniversary party,

which Dave Barker, who was the creative director there for many, many years, he was like, oh, he's like, maybe you should come to this. And I was like, nah, I don't know. It's not really my place. As much as I want the legend to live on, it was like, hey, I wasn't there. I didn't work there. But you represent your father.

No, I get it. But John got up and said a few words. And, you know, he kind of thanked my dad and paid acknowledgement to him. So I sent John a little message because somebody told me that. So I really appreciate that. And, hey, man, anytime there's a guy that can get a nice paycheck in this business, boy, does it give hope to the rest of us. I mean, I had his brother on the show, for what it's worth, Bill Hayes.

He's a legendary Toronto guy in his own right. Of course, Brian Hayes is doing well at TSN Radio. Is that a relation? Yeah. So here's how it works. So John Derringer is really a John Hayes. Yes. And his brother is Bill Hayes, who was on CFTR.

He's been all over the place, and he's great. Bill Hayes' son is Brian Hayes. So Brian Hayes is John Derringer's nephew. Okay. That's how that time went. It's funny. A lot of, you know,

and this is any business really, but you know, the bloodlines. Well, you, you're on Hits FM where your dad was. Like that probably helped it happen.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, either that or I've worked my ass off for the last 12 years. No, no, no. But yeah, but it's a combination, I think.

Yeah. Jason and Sudbury wanted me to ask you about that like your name is tj connors yeah scruff connors was a fake name yeah so what you know how that came about yeah when did you become connors when did dad no well okay well tell that story first and then tell us how you became a connors because you weren't born at connors right so there was uh there was a time in i mean the scruff connruff Connors character was created at Q107, really. You know, he was found on a park bench and da-da-da-da-da, a ragtag guy.

He was originally going to be Chuck Connors. But I guess when he showed up one day and he was all disheveled and Alan Slate said, are you going to shave that thing? You look scruff. And all of a sudden, it just stuck. And it was like, you know, Scruff Connors and a pretty pretty memorable name right and then uh so initially you know chuck connors was the rifleman um and then when i decided to get into radio i was like okay well i guess we'll carry this on and my name is tyler joe and you know tj pretty short pretty quick pretty easy

to remember yeah and tj connors is a great radio name i mean it's it's okay so was it to honor your dad or was it to open doors like is it a combination sure i mean i guess you okay. So was it to honor your dad, or was it to open doors? Like, is it a combination? Sure. I mean, I guess, you know, if you're going to make the... Because here's a prime example, you know, Adam Wilde. You know, he doesn't use Adam Dennis, like Marilyn Dennis, right? Although, is he even a Dennis? Well, I don't know.

Sorry. Because he has his dad's name. I don't even know. But you're right. He's not an Adam Wilde. That's for sure. By the way, he's a rumored... What do you call that?

He left Rogers, and... But he's still doing Adam Wilde. That's for sure. By the way, he's a rumored... What do you call that? He left Rogers and... But he's still doing stuff at the fan there, I thought. Because he's got a non-compete, which means he can't go against Rogers, but the fan is owned by Rogers, so they let him do that, which is cool feeling work. But at some point, this non-compete ends

and then I fully expect him to appear at a different media company. I would expect that too because he's a really talented guy. Oh, for sure. And my initial instinct was, while his mom's at Chum FM, a different media company. I would expect that too because he's a really talented guy. Oh, for sure. And my initial instinct was, well, his mom's at Chum FM.

He's probably going to end up at Bell Media, either Virgin or Chum FM, probably Virgin because that's kind of where he skews. But then I thought, you know, even though this wouldn't make sense considering I said it would be young, inexpensive talent coming to 102.1,

but, you know, theoretically, an Adam Wilde could end up there. Like, we'll see. But I fully expect him to end up at Bell Media probably in September at some point. But here's our Adam Wilde. You're the one that likes

to speculate, my friend. I'll leave that to you. I have no... All speculation. No insider information. Again, low man on the totem pole. But you were mentioning Adam Wilde changed...

But, you know, yeah, as far as changing the names. And, yeah, so I decided to just go with that because it was like, well, you might as well draw the parallel. I mean, it's, you know, as far as changing the names, and yeah, so I decided to just go with that because it was like, well, you might as well draw the parallel. I mean, it's, you know,

my legal last name's Mitchell, right? And it's, you know, there was, we thought about reversing. Was that your mom's name? Yes. Because your dad was a new field. Yes, yes.

So after he missed a bunch of child support payments, my mom changed my name to stick it to him. Again, like, this is messy shit, right? Like, this is stuff that kids know but you know we were open and honest about it later on in life and you know i

did right you know i can't you kind of you hear both sides of the story and then you form your own opinion but you've been a tj connor since you started in yeah yeah in uh yeah so like 2006 okay um so okay so uh so so your dad uh scruff connors is is that after he leaves Q107 the second time, where does he resurface? It was bad. It was bad, yeah. I came to visit him in 1998, and he was living in a rooming house

near the Christie Pits. 212 Christie. I'll never forget it, man. It was the scariest night of my life. Yeah, I don't know. He was going through some shit. But I mean, if it sounds like if he's a gambling addict and an alcoholic

and he's out of work and he's a neglectful absentee father or whatever, there's none of that. You're just piling on there for the good story. But yeah. Well, what's fake there? I don't want to pile on for a good story. No, no, no.

But what I'm saying is, yes, you're right about the unemployed and maybe the dependency on substance and yeah, sure, the gambling. No, I honestly, I'm very sorry if i even sound like piling on here but but he also you know my dad also knew how to work the system too so he was he was the ultimate scammer he he you know he would he would always have money you know there was never you know there was okay there was just always something brewing and he you And I mentioned that he did collections

for a little bit. I couldn't think of anybody on this planet that would be better at collections because he could get through to anybody. I mean, he got through to... Man, there's so many things. There was the one off the Falkland Islands that he ended up getting through

and saying that he was... I can't fully remember that one, but there were so many prank calls. I mean, that's literally what he did. Well, can we hear a bit of him? Absolutely. Because we talked about him this whole time, so let me hear a bit of Scruff here.

Wow. Morning. Oh, good morning. Morning. Who's this? This is Barry. Yeah, Barry, yeah. I got a question for you.

Yeah, for Dumb Question Wednesday, you're on. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. On those little blocks of chocolates you buy from kids from school, how come there's more almonds on the outside than there is on the inside? Yeah, there's more in the picture than you, because you shake the thing. Oh, yeah. And there's, like, dick in them.

Nothing? Yeah. You'd be scared if you got that in there. Get the money back. Oh, jeez. Oh. Oh, I meant nothing is what I meant. You know what I meant.

All right. With your dildo call. Yes. There's a place in Saskatchewan called Climax. Yes, I've been there. And how big is it? How big is Climax? Yeah.

I don't know. I'm going to call dildo, though. That's a good point. Well, we'll be here listening. And, yeah, I just want to, maybe I should just call a business there, some restaurant. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Take, that'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Take care. Okay, man. Let's do that now, shall we? Might as well. Okay, 1-709-555-1212.

Yeah, Mrs. Johnson, I think, was a little on the crusty side because she'd worked all night and was CP. So I can't blame her, you know, for snapping a little bit. Sure. Newfoundland Telephone Directory Systems. May I help you? Hi, how are you today? I'm fine, and yourself? Oh, you sound so nice on the phone.

You do. Very happy and frisky. Thank you. That's a nice change, I'll tell you. I wonder, I'm looking for the Dildo Cafe in Dildo. The cafe, is it? Yeah. Just one second. Or maybe you have the Dildo Cafe in Dildo. The cafe, is it? Yeah. Just one second.

Or maybe you have the Dildo Diner. Tasty Treats Cafe in Whitburn. No, it has to, this place is supposed to be in Dildo. Is there anything in Dildo? Just one second. Operator? Yes? Can you tell me how big Dildo is?

Oh, not very. It's not a big one? No, it's a very small area, actually. I'd say that cafe might very well be it. They're under the same exchange. So is it in Dildo or just out of Dildo? This one says Tasty Treats Cafe. It states Whitburn Avenue in Whitburn.

Now, Whitburn basically is a very small area, and encased in Whitburn under their exchange is the dildo exchange. They have the same first three digits in the numbers, so the area doesn't expand very far. This might very well be it, because I can't find anything else under a diner or a cafe unless it's under a take-out. So it's not a chain.

They wouldn't penetrate the dildo area, then? No. No. Well, dildo and Whitburn are basically the same. The only thing that changes... I'm sorry, is that... Excuse me, is that Whitburn? Whit.

Oh, Whit. Oh, Whitburn. Okay, sorry. Yeah. So this is some, uh... An idea, though, that he did, uh... he was always good at these kind of calls or whatever. It's like he came natural to it. Yeah, that was his thing.

You know, Dave Barker, actually, they did a thing. For that very short period of time, they did something called Dirt Radio, which was internet radio. And there were a couple of volumes of just crazy calls. And it was called simply that. I don't know if I have any copies anymore, even, because I've heard them all a million times. But that was, you know, some of them were, you know, some of them were amazing, right?

Some of them, you know, like that's not, you know, I wouldn't say that's one of the better ones. No, it's hard to find them, though. That's the thing. I didn't have my pick of the litter. It was that era. I should have brought you a CD, it's hard to find them though. That's the thing. I didn't have my pick of the litter. It was that era. I should have brought you a CD so you could listen to on your own

because some of them are just fantastic and he really was the master of the prank call. No, and I want to say this about your dad is that he entertained so many people. He entertained people. It's like the, you know, and I know we've kind of touched on some of the negative stuff.

It's like the happy, you know, and I know we've kind of touched on some of the negative stuff. It's like the, you know, happy class, you know, like comedians. The best ones are usually the saddest on the inside, so they do things to compensate. I mean, you know, it wouldn't be the first time that, you know, a guy put on this tough shell on the outside, on the exterior, and then, you know, on the inside

was battling demons, right? Now, when I think he was going through that rough time in the late 90s, is it Mojo? Is that what kind of... How does he get the Mojo gig from there? Well, I believe it was Stuart Myers that found my dad in a ditch. He was living at King and Dufferin at the time.

It was not the greatest of neighborhoods. I believe it's been gentrified now, as most of Toronto has, but it was pretty rough. Parkdale, or Sparkdale, as they called it. And again, I didn't really get to see him very much, but I know when they had the concept for Mojo, you know, why not? Why not give him a crack at it? You know, give him a paycheck and throw him a bone.

And, you know, I know for a fact it wasn't a hell of a lot of money, but he needed it pretty bad at the time. So, yeah, you know, I think he told me this, actually. It's funny now that I get to do talk radio. He said he's like, it was the hardest thing that I've ever done. He's like, there's no music to fall back on, right? You've got the callers, if you can get them talking about something, but it's just that storytelling

for 11 minutes at a time and trying to be engaging. And at this point, are you back in his life on a regular basis at this point? Or you came shortly thereafter? Yeah, shortly thereafter. So do you remember, and I'm trying to think, this is now internet time. Did you listen to your dad on Mojo? Yeah, so he was actually syndicated to Vancouver.

Mojo 730, which is now a traffic station. Mojo was syndicated out there and we used to get it on the TV. It used to be on, you know, when radio, I guess they still are if you have the right package. But yeah, you used to be able to listen to Mojo there and, you know, always used to listen to my dad and I always got that weird kind of feeling. But I will say this, that I have bags and bags of cassette tapes of my dad's career. And I've spent a lot of time listening to them

and just kind of getting to know him in that different light. You know what I mean? It sounds really weird, but I listen to his radio show. I'm like, oh, okay. This is where that reference that he was using with me came from. It was like, oh, okay. You're learning about your father. That's incredible that you have that opportunity.

You know, always hearing it from other people, you know, this was like the biggest thing that my dad was, he was uncomfortable with the fame side of it. Cause that was really a time when there were, there were two stations in Toronto. I mean, you know, and you can argue that, but there was Chum and there was Q and it was like, you were either on team Chum or you were on team Q and the people that were on Q, uh, you know were on Q with Scruff, the first generation of listeners, extremely passionate about it. And my dad would get, he'd have people come up to him and be like, oh, fuck, I got to talk to this guy again. And this guy's going to tell me some story about something. And he really was uncomfortable with it in a lot of ways, which I think is pretty common.

I don't know too many people that love you know, love talking about their job. Like, could you imagine going to a restaurant and being like, so, do you grate your own cheese? You know, you go talk to a guy at Domino's Pizza. Oh, you're rolling your own dough there? Like, it's, you know, I think... Especially in Scruff's era, being on the radio was, like, that was a big deal.

Like, you're in the car of the person, you know, they're listening to you at home in the backyard. Like, it's like, it's backyard. It's such a public position. And at the time, yeah. It was before there were 800 stations available on your phone. Before satellite radio, before streaming, before Spotify, before everybody. Before the Toronto Mike podcast. Right, that's right.

That's how long ago we went. And Mojo, I just paid special attention to Mojo because my radio station throughout the 90s was Humble and Fred on 102. And they left. I couldn't believe it. They were leaving my station because I like the music there, too. They got replaced by a pretty good guy, though. Team Blundell? Yeah.

They took him from Windsor, right? Yeah, he was at 89X. And they left behind Todd Shapiro and Jason Barr. And, of course, today you work with Jason. I do, yeah. Jason does the morning show, Biggs and Barr. Great guys. We play hockey together.

Went out fishing, took Jason fishing last Friday when he was in port for the Biggs and Barr. Yeah, no, it's really cool. And it's fun to talk radio with a guy like Jason who really, I've worked at many radio stations and some by choice, some by necessity. radio with a guy like Jason who really like I've worked at many radio stations and you know some by choice some you know some by necessity but you know Jason really he's worked at two stations right he worked at the edge and he's worked at his danger boy it's crazy and you know that's

that's so cool to have a 25 year career and really only having to move you know down the QEW a little bit what can I ask you, would he consider, if he got an offer he couldn't refuse from 102 to become The Morning Show, if Biggs and Barr were going to leave Hits FM and become the 102, would he accept that? I get the idea he's so happy with his lifestyle there. He just seems like he's really content and happy.

What did Ted DiBiase, the million-dollar man, say? Everybody's got a price. I remember Ted DiBiase. But you know what i i don't know i i wouldn't want to speculate who knows yeah yeah yeah i know i'm speculating too much here i don't think i don't think uh you know you talk about a paycheck i don't think at the end of the day if uh if the paycheck's big enough i think you'll you'll you know you'll let a lot of bygones be bygones bygones just he seems really happy with the small town lifestyle. Smaller, sorry, smaller town lifestyle.

He's been here. I talked to him. I got a sense of a guy who is really, speaking of people who don't really want the big city limelight or whatever, he seems really comfortable with, he's a good father, he's got a good life, he likes where he lives now,

and his life is airplane hockey and everything. He seems really happy. And you know what? They have a great thing going. The Bigs and Bar and Pasty Jamie who didn't get a shout out from Pauly Morris last week. But Pasty Jamie, let me tell you about this guy. Big talent. Maybe he's going to the morning show on the edge. No. Probably.

No, but honestly they have a great show together. They really do. Bigs and Bar and Pasty. If you haven't had a chance to check them out, definitely do it. Even catch their podcast. They're real. They're authentic. It's a room full of guys just talking about guy stuff.

And their numbers are huge. And they're kicking ass for the station. They're really driving the ratings. Good. I like your station. I really like your station. Good. Well, thank you.

Because it's got that music blend. Yeah. And I like that you get good rock. Because it would be awkward if you said that you hated it. Good, I like your station. I really like your station because it's got that music blend. Yeah, and I like that it's, you get like good new rock. Because it'd be awkward if you said that you hated it. Yeah, yeah. I'd be like, well, that's okay. I've had guests on

and I just don't listen to their station and I just sort of... Do you pretend? I don't pretend so much as I just don't... Name names. Who?

I just don't talk about it. Like a lot of... I just did a... I mean, I'll have an... It's not uncommon if I have somebody who's on... There's some stations that are like black holes for me like I just didn't listen to. I never listened to 1010, I mean, I'll have an, it's not uncommon if I have somebody who's on, there's some stations that are like black holes for me, like I just didn't listen to. I never listened to 1010, for example, but I'll have on 1010 personalities and chat them up and stuff.

You know, I was, now that I've been doing the talk stuff, filling in anyway, I've been trying to listen a little bit more. And, you know, I like the way that, you know, going younger in the afternoon, I think talk radio has to just keep evolving if it's going to. you know, going younger in the afternoon. I think talk radio has to just keep evolving if it's going to, because, you know, the old joke, like every time you see a funeral procession, oh, there goes another RB listener. You know what I mean?

You mean, are you talking about Ryan and Jay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's just, I think that's just cool that they've, you know, invested in A, having a two-person afternoon show, which I think is, it's fantastic. I would love to have a co-host in the afternoon.

You know, you really create that sense of, you know of the morning radio show can be done in the afternoon too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like just the vibe of sort of that. Oh, they're doing really well over there. And they're intelligent guys. And that's the main thing too. You don't find a lot of dumb guys doing talk radio, despite what the listeners may think. Oh, you just said the word listeners.

And why didn't you say the listenership? Oh, listenership? Yeah, that was one of my dad's terms. The good listenership. Yes, I like to use that word and I credit it to Scruff Connors. The listenership. Yeah, and actually I have a copyright on it, so you owe me eight cents. I can't say it anymore?

You owe me eight cents. No, every time you say it, the good listenership. Yeah, it's eight cents. I heard Jim Taddy owns Yes Guy. I say Yes Guy a lot because I talk to Hebsey all the time, and I'm like, Yes Guy, because that was his catchphrase on Sportsline. And then Hebsey's like, I think Jim Taddy owns that. And I'm like, well, I can still say it, right? Like, come at me, bro.

Yeah, Taddy's doing the afternoon show with my buddy Louis B on TSN 1150 in Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he also does some work on the 1050, too. Who does he? Oh, big shooter. Maybe he does post-leaf stuff or something over there. Okay, well, I saw him at our company golf tournament, and he didn't buy me a beer.

He's a bit prickly, to be honest. My interactions with him, which have only been, I have never met him in person, but I kindly invited him on this show, and he was very prickly about it. Well, I mean, you are a tough guy to deal with. Apparently. I can see you're sweating through your shirt there. This is tough, right? Actually, I was about to take it off.

Go ahead. I don't judge. No, I was going to comment about the climate control in here. Do you not have AC? I turned it off because I didn't like the noise because that's where the AC is. I'm pointing to this wall here. You have AC? I turned it off. Wait a second. You have a house in where the AC is. I'm pointing to this wall here. You have AC? I turned it off. Wait a second. You have a house in Toronto and AC? Yeah.

Okay. I got to get into this podcasting game. I am doing something completely wrong. You kid. You kid because I'm certain you have AC as well. No. Well, I have a window unit now. I have a window shaker.

Okay. You have a window unit. And I have an upright unit that I had to buy. Are you in an apartment or a home? No. We have a house, a century house, but unfortunately, in 1918, there wasn't such a thing as AC and apparently closets weren't big either.

Do you know this was 1917 this house was built? Really? Yeah. Well, we have that in common. Yeah, mine's 19. Yeah, we had our 100th house birthday party past weekend at Canal Days.

Yeah? Yeah, we tried to tear it down. I hear you get more money for a brick house. I don't know if it goes up in flames. I'm always leaving lights on and sockets unplugged. Alright, so I'm just... It's weird. I just wanted to get more...

So when you're listening to your dad on Mojo and you're in... Where are you at this time? Are you in Winnipeg still? No, at that time... So I was playing junior hockey. So I was... Yeah, at that point in time, I was actually... I was in Timmins. We were playing in the Northern Ontario Junior League that year. Did you meet Shania Twain when you were up there? Isn't that her? No, but you know what? My aunt is good friends with her. Eileen, they're actually neighbors in the Bahamas. She lives two doors down in the Bahamas. And yeah, she goes by Eileen. If you know her you don't call her shania yeah and uh yeah you know what she's a gem too i just bought the girls tickets to go see her which i never pay for concert

tickets you know it's it's like i'm like i'm like upset when i have to right but it was a friend who was in sudbury who posted it up on facebook and was like hey you know uh we can't make it to this concert want to get rid of them so i paid like face value for these tickets. Oh, man. Yeah, I know. And they're expensive, right? Yeah, it was. It was like $250. And she played in Hamilton at First Ontario there. But yeah, I didn't run into Shania in Timmons.

She actually kind of denies a lot of her roots. I think a lot of it is it's the optics, right? It's the, oh, yeah yeah i came from humble beginnings and walked down a train track in my tight levi's jeans with my guitar strumming the whole way that's bullshit like i don't you know okay maybe to some extent but i you know you hear so many different stories from people especially in ontario who like ran into shania when she worked at a you know resort in huntsville like she wasn't like oh strumming her guitar singing man i feel like a woman i feel like a woman.

I feel like a woman, like standing on a train track with like a Jofa hockey stick with a bandana wrapped around with all her worldly possessions in it. That was a story that Hollywood made up for. I think that's the story we want. Sometimes they give you what you want, not what's true. So that's a,

that's for sure. Oh man. So Mojo radio, uh, it ends for scruff. And then I, I suppose that, and then shortly thereafter you, uh, we reconnected. Yeah. So Mojo Radio, it ends for Scruff. And then I suppose that shortly thereafter, you reconnected.

Yeah, because he got diagnosed. All his health issues really started after. Did he reach out to you? Like he got a diagnosis and said. So my dad's first wife, who passed away in 1980, her mom, my Auntie Anne, I've always been close with their family. Auntie Anne reached out and was like, hey, your dad's not doing too well. You know, he really wants you to call him if you can find it in your heart kind of thing. And I was like, oh, okay. So I kind of chewed on it. I was like, okay. Talked on the phone a couple of times. I was like, all right, I'll come down and see you at, you know, Christmas, like 2003 or something. So came down for a visit and was like, oh, okay. Like this is, you know,

you know, maybe, maybe there's something there. I know this sounds like really weird. Cause it's like your dad, right. But you're like feeling out the situation. Like, okay, is this guy a total dick bag? Or like, are we like actually, okay, well, geez, this is kind of weird. Cause we're kind of the same person. You know, that's, that's the weird thing about it. Like I'm 50% him. So that could be the good 50% or the shitty 50%. I don't know. But I'm starting to see a lot of similarities. I'm like, boy, I have way more in common with my dad than I do my mom. My mom's a prude, very put-together woman. And you sound like your dad.

If you smoked more, I bet you would be there. And drank more rum. Yeah, my dad got off the hard stuff for many years there. But I bet you do a really good impersonation of your dad. All you have to do is scruff it up a bit. Well, if you want a story, after he passed away,

I knew that dad had a lot of, he had a lot of via preference points. So me being, you know, this 50% of them, I called up via and I said, yeah, hi, it'sff newfield here uh yeah birthday may 12 1952 yes sir via preference number uh 701 yeah i want to send my kid on a trip and they're like okay yeah sure yeah you've got uh you know x amount of via preference points right and so i

said to chelsea's hey where do you want to go i said let do Montreal for a week. So anyway, we were able to go via one. We had enough points to take the whole family via one, so we're riding first class, drinking champagne. That's evidence you are a new field. Like, that is a perfect, you executed it. First of all, that impersonation is spot on. Well, and the woman knows nothing, but I just have to sound like I'm from 1952.

I have to sound like a 64, 65-year-old man, right? So why not just impersonate the guy? And again, to remind everybody, so when your father passes away, which is only a couple years ago now. Yeah, it was December 2016, December 18th, right before Christmas. He was 64 years old. You want to know what's fucking crazy?

Tell me. So he dies on December 18th. I don't go to work on the Monday. My boss, Garth Buchko, great guy, was like, hey man, maybe it'll help you get your mind off things if you come back on the air. And I showed up to work. And I got there, you know, 4 a.m. I'm doing the morning show and I was the program director, too. So I'm always there nice and early.

Yeah. And, you know, kind of wiped the tears out of my face. Got up, get to work at, you know, five after four. And there's a box sitting on my desk. And I recognized the handwriting. And it was the Christmas present that my dad had sent before Christmas, before he died. Wow. Yeah. It was crazy. So I'm like getting all emotional and I'm sitting in my office. Oh man. And so then this news guy comes in like this old, you know, I, I, I'm not going to get into, you know, this

guy's personality, but this was totally par for the course. He comes in and he's like, Hey there, personality, but this was totally par for the course. He comes in and he's like, hey there, TJ, I hear your dad died. I'm like, yeah, man, thanks. I'm just kind of having a moment here. He's like, yeah, he's like, well, you know, my wife's sister there, she died on the 22nd. That's a little closer to Christmas.

And I was like, are you one-upping me on when your sister-in-law died? Is he from Chicago? He sounds like he's from the Bears. No, it's like a Duke-a-boar. It's almost like a Ukrainian Duke-a-boar hybrid. I'm not going to use his name

because he's a pretty well-known guy. You know, I like to tease him, but I put it on a little bit. He's one-upping you. Oh, his 18th isn't as close to Christmas as the 22nd. But he always used to say to me, TJ, you know, I'm from the major markets and you got the major market to sound

there. And I'm like, oh. And then you'd hear him do the newscast. Well, did you hear? He comes from the old CKLW, you know, like if it bleeds, it leads. Strung through the grill of a 56 Chevy was the body.

Dick Smythe and all those guys and Mark Daly and those guys, the big eight from Windsor. Yeah, yeah. But he's kind of got that, like, he had that kind of style about him. So when he would do it, you know, we would always do the impersonations of him. But yeah, so he kind of came in and one-upped me. And I just told him to get the fuck out of my office. I was like, you know what? You got to beat it, man.

Like, I said, I don't want to deal with you right now. Yeah. So I ended up getting through the show that day. And where were you working then? I was in, you know what? You got to beat it, man. I said, I don't want to deal with you right now. I ended up getting through the show that day. Where were you working then? I was in Kamloops. I was running a country station there. I feel like we did too much. By the way, at some point, would you make this drive back to kick out the jams with me? We're not going to kick out one jam soon.

Would you kick out your 10 favorite jams with me and we could maybe chat more about you? I feel like I went a little heavy on your dad. That's okay. I didn't mean to. That's kind of what I expected when I came in here. I've always wanted your dad on this show and apparently that's not happening. No, that's not happening. But I do have his ashes in my trunk.

If you want, I can sprinkle some on your lawn. Is that true? No. I'm just kidding. I get a photo of his ashes. He made me make him a promise. And I did have him in my vehicle until my wife told me that it was weird after. It's a little weird. No, no. He always said that he wanted two things. He wanted to,

his ashes to be sprinkled on my mom's carpet to see if she's still OCD cleans every day. And then he wanted me to take him, uh, in the trunk. He said he wanted his urn rolling around in my trunk so that he could come with me everywhere I go so that he didn't miss out on anything. Cause he always had a real fear of missing out. So yeah, he had FOMO big time. So he's like, just take me everywhere you go. So yeah, he rode around,

uh, until I got this new vehicle and I didn't, that's fascinating. Yeah. It pranks you to the end. And in fact, I honestly, I could do four hours of you,

but here, and I, I'm not even, Oh my goodness. How long can I go here? But I wanted to ask you, so how did you end up in Peterborough? I guess before we, uh, leave that, like, cause you end up in Peterborough, I guess, before we leave that?

Because that's where you meet. Is that where you connect with Freddie P? Yeah. Well, he really changed my career. Well, tell me that story then. Not that Fred has told me he doesn't listen to other podcasts, so he may never hear this. No, he'll listen to this one. Okay.

Then tell me the Fred story. So I guess what had happened was I was working at this Bob this Bob station and you know making no money and the wolf was a rock station I was always more of a rock guy than I was a classic kids at the time anyway now it's you know as it's funny as you as you get older and you're like oh you know I'll just go where the opportunity is I'm happy I can do any format you know do you talk to your grandmother the same way that you talk to you know a podcast mic uh do you talk to you know your buddies the same way that you talk to your kids no exactly so I just learned that as I got to be a more experienced broadcaster, but, um, I really wanted to work at the wolf. It was down the road. My dad was living in Bowmanville

at the time and going through some, uh, some, you know, still going through his health stuff. So I wanted to be kind of close and I was bugging Freddie sending him audio and he'd be like, no, he's like, you know, nothing here right now, but you never know what's around the corner. Yeah. Never know what's around the corner. Uh, but or so later, after we had met, we had met many times, had beers. He just kept telling me like, you know, you never know what's around the corner. And then one day he just gave me the call. He's like, well, he's like, you ready? And I was like, yeah.

He's like, all right. And had a chat and I think he offered me like $42,000 and I thought I'd won the lottery. I went from making $11 an hour for five hours a day doing a morning show to making like $42,000. Wow. I'm like, making it rain, bitches. Seriously, though. And you're not paying Toronto real estate prices to make that $42,000.

No. So that's good, too. And I mean, yeah, we rented. So The Wolf is a station in Peterborough. I like The Wolf because you get your Peterborough and they, I like the Wolf because you get your, you know, Neil Young and ACDC, but you get a little, but you get a little more like. And that, and that was one of the, that was one of the things that Fred brought in was,

you know, we, we played a lot of, a lot of newer stuff and. Like the Arkells kind of thing. Well, I mean, we would, we would have been one of the first stations maybe outside the edge to really play the Arkells. And they were a total wolf band. I mean, they would come to Peterborough and play the Red Dog for like a couple hundred people. And I really got to know those guys well. And as that band has grown, it is just so... Max came and played.

I do this thing called TJ's Tap Tour that we just take around. And it's kind of a live show. And it's sponsored by... Oh, wait. Never mind. I'm not going to drop that. No, wait. These guys know other beer. Okay. So anyway, it's a Mill, oh, wait, never mind. I'm not going to drop that. These guys know other beer.

Okay. So anyway, it's a Mill Street Brewery on board and they're great guys. So they kind of help us with this. We bring the bands, they bring a bit of the party and Arkell signed up to do it, which was kind of surprising to me, but they were just working,

knocking at the door. And when I showed up to do my show at three o'clock, the show starts show starts at three so I got there about two yeah to make sure setup was all good and uh the lineup was down the street like four or five hundred people deep for a venue that held like 150 like when are you ever going to get to see the Arkells in an intimate venue like that it was one of the more special shows that I've had in a long time especially because we kind of reconnected like I hadn't seen the guys since I was working in Winnipeg in 2013 when they

were on tour with the Tragically Hip. That was the last time that I saw Max. The band has just grown so much since then. They are the headliner. You're right. They're now filling arenas now. Absolutely. So hard for a Canadian band. They sold the Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton doing

the hometown show, the Arkells Rally, and that was massive. I just see these guys really taking it to, they've got following in Europe. They're just, and they're fantastic guys. They're still down to earth. Okay, yeah, I know. I think that's a great Canadian success story,

and they seem like nice guys, so I root for those guys for sure. We sing their praises a lot here when we kick out the jams, be it Dave Hodge or Stephen Brunch. There's always some Arkell's talk there. But when you're in Peterborough, Freddie gives you the call, 42K.

What did you get, the morning show? Yeah, it was mornings. Yeah, I took over from a guy. So you're on Peterborough's The Rock. I almost called it The Rock. The Wolf. The Rock is in Oshawa. Actually, that's my buddy Bingo Bob's station. Yeah. The Wolf is in Peterborough. You're on your morning show. That's cool. Actually, that's my buddy Bingo Bob's station. The Wolf is in Peterborough. You're on your morning show. That's cool.

Yeah, so I went from mornings to another morning show, and that was the goal, right? I really wanted to do mornings at a rock station. I was going in after a guy that had been there for 12 or 16 years or some really long tenure, and me being young, fresh, maybe a little edgier than Peterborough was used to. It was refreshing for a lot of people, some really long tenure and, um, you know, me being young, you know, fresh kind of, you know, maybe a little edgier than Peterborough was used to. It was, uh, it was, it was, you know, refreshing for a lot of people, but there were also some of the older demo, you know, as I say,

like the, the dad rock that probably felt alienated, especially as the younger music was, was coming into the playlist. And maybe some of it was a little heavy for, you know, for that, for that town that doesn't have the competition. You almost don't need to be that heavy, but I can remember playing a band like, uh, hail the villain, uh, they're out of Oshawa and they're no longer a band, but, um, you know, playing hail the villain and playing like, uh, man, like airborne and just, I don't know, maybe airborne's not a great example, but just some of these bands that, uh, you know, that really you don't hear on the radio anymore and didn't really hear that much at the time other than outside of maybe you know maybe the edge right so freddie really brought that uh to that station which was cool it was a lot of fun to work well

fred was very transparent about the fact that he always sought the program director job at edge 102 like this was always his goal so he listened to that station all the time and yeah and that was what he wanted so So he considered his stop in Peterborough being program director for the cluster there as a stepping stone towards the job he wanted, which was in Toronto. Yeah, and you know...

But he brought on you and is it true that you would often have your dad come on the show? Yeah, actually Fred gave my dad and I a chance to do. We did TJ... We did the... I don't know why. I can't even remember. TJ and Scruff a chance to do we did uh yeah tj we did the i don't know why i can't even remember tj and scruff yeah we did well yeah we did the uh yeah the connor's family thanksgiving okay we would do like like holidays cool um but it was yeah it was cool all right you never had to i mean that's his last on air okay i hear you that was but that was nice

that you got to actually this is now you getting to spend some time on the air with your father, Scruff Connors, and that's got to be kind of an emotional, I mean, you mentioned maybe he was a bit of a pain in the ass to work with, I have no idea, but I mean, you're on the air with your dad. That's kind of cool. It's something that not a lot of people get to do, especially somebody of his stature and his notoriety.

He also used to play a couple characters for me too. Like when I was working in Kelowna and I was doing mornings there. And it's Kelowna after? After Peterborough. Okay, so maybe get us to Kelowna by telling us. Sure. And Fred's told me this story,

but I'm going to hear what you put on the record here. But why did you lose that gig in Peterborough? You were just too much for them. Oh, I left. Yeah, so I left on my own accord. You left the 42K a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I left for like a little bit more,

but I also... Awesome. So here's what happened. So there's this guy by the name of Drex who does a show called The Shift. It's nationally syndicated. It's national now, yeah. Yeah, and so Drex was in Kelowna.

He was PD and doing afternoons with Liz McKinney there. And I reached out to him because they had an opening for their morning job. They'd gone through quite a few morning guys at the Juice at the time. And I said, hey, man, I'd really like this gig. Because after Fred got let go in Peterborough, I'll be honest, I wasn't having a lot of fun. It was time to move on. My time had kind of run its course.

And I still ended up sticking it out for another year and a half after Fred was gone. But, um, just wasn't, you know, it wasn't the fun work environment that I was, that I was used to. Because Fred was a good boss, right? Yeah. Great. Yeah. No, he was, he was awesome. I mean, in case he's still listening, I wondered, maybe we wrap up the bow and the Fred thing is that, uh, he changed your, uh, he changed your radio career. Yeah. Well, absolutely. Cause you know Because if I would have had to try and... I'm not sure if things would have kept happening,

I'm sure, if you work hard enough and keep improving. But he really helped me get to that. Once you've got your first morning gig and then you go to that second one for more money, then it's like, okay, this is real. You're on your way. Yeah, I'm on my way somewhere, right? And then you end up in beautiful Kelowna.

Well, so I talked to Drax, and he's got this morning opening, and he was pretty blunt with me and said, hey, I like your stuff, but we have to hire from within for this one. And I said, okay. He's like, but my old job, mornings in PD, I have a couple stations in Castlegar, Castlegar and Nelson, BC, in the Kootenays. So I left the Wolf to go take my first job

in management and go dip my feet, uh, in the PD chair myself, which was an awesome experience. Uh, had a chance to, you know, for radio people, radio geeks had a chance to, you know, build my own clocks, my own flow charts, and really build the station from the ground up. And I got to hire people. So, you know, I had a few friends that were kind of on their way up as well in the business. So, um, we were all able to work together, form kind of a dream team of awesome friends off the air, as well as some good people on the air. And then after about eight months there, my daughter was born in July. And then I got the call to go to Kelowna and be, I was PD, I was promotions, I was music director, and I did mornings. And I was actually the backup engineer, if that makes any sense.

Okay, cool. That's amazing. That sounds really good. I did everything. You did it all, which is fun. Yeah. And then I got the call to go to Winnipeg and kind of live my first dream job, which was doing mornings at Power 97. Power 97. Yeah, Matt Cundall hired me there. That was fantastic. Yeah, I know that guy.

He's got a podcast now. Yeah, he does. I had some email exchanges. Sound Off Podcast. And I think Freddie P's been on that podcast. Oh, I'm sure he has. Yeah, he's had a ton of people on. He's really into the podcasting game now.

He's got another one, too, and I can't remember the name of it. Sorry, Kundal. But, yeah, he was a great guy. And, you know, unfortunately, again, change in upper management led to change in, you know, kind of middle management, if you will, at the program director level. And I was really disappointed when, you know, so I'd had a few jobs in a row where, you know, that I wasn't the program director at, losing Fred and losing Kundal, who were both, you know, they were just, they were great leaders.

You know, they were just great guys to have as your, you know, I'm using air quotes, your boss, because, you know, your colleagues at the end of the day. But man, and then does that get us to hits? No. Okay. No yeah so when i get uh my deal is kind of coming to an end in in winnipeg and there was the change in management after matt left uh i was there for about another year and change and there was a new management group that came in and i kind of felt the writing was on the wall and there were rumors about a format flip which happened two days after i got let go uh so then i was kind of i was on the fence and there were rumors about a format flip, which happened two days after I got let go. Uh, so then I was kind of, I was on the fence. I was, I was looking, I'd actually taken

a job outside radio, uh, doing sales and marketing for a fire protection company in Calgary. So I was already, I was, I was ready to move on. Cause the last, the, my last year at, at power 97 was pretty exhausting dealing with, uh, you know, some of the, some of the stuff that was going on there. I'll just, I'll just leave that. Political stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't need to get into detail on that one. Well, Freddie P says that's what did him in Peterborough.

He said it was political stuff. Yeah, and I guess maybe that's just a diplomatic way of putting it. It's in all industries, not just radio. It's every industry. I trust, I've seen it all over. Yeah, so from there, Garth Buchko, who was the former GM at Chorus Winnipeg, he was also he left there to become the CEO of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. That didn't work out for him. So he got packaged out and moved out to Kamloops where he had an opportunity to buy into an independent broadcaster out there. The rest is kind of history. He called me and asked if I was interested in trying country. And I said, absolutely. Like country is, you know what? It is the most diehard audience.

Their music IQ is high. The artists are fantastic. Like the country artists, they're the best. They really, really are. They're super accessible. Just great people. Nice. So and Kamloops is a beautiful place.

Yeah. You know, I went out there and I was golfing in December. Like we're, you know, can't complain about that for a couple of years. But after, again, after my dad passed away, it was like, okay, let's go, let's go back home. Like, you know, let's go back out to Ontario. Get back to Ontario. You had an opportunity. That sounds like a, I mean that. And now we're at Hitz. You're at Hitz and that's a big, big station, legendary Southern Ontario station and where your your dad worked so it comes full circle for you buddy. Yeah absolutely So did you say yes

to coming back at some point? Absolutely anytime but I mean this is episode what 303? 366 Oh 366 sorry 103 was strombo Right Yeah so so what? What do you want me at?

663? We'll just do it reverse? No, sooner than that, buddy. All right. Yeah, it just would be great to get you back and kick on the chance. But here is a jam. Let's listen for a bit. Hold on. You ever get that feeling you can't go on

Just remember the side of the chair on You've got friends with you till the end We'll be right back. All right, tell us what we're listening to. This is a band called Pennywise, and the song is Bro Him. And you love this jam. Well, just listen to the lyrics. I mean, it's talking about brotherhood, the bros, you know, radios of brotherhood, podcasting world. Band of brothers, right?

Playing hockey, brotherhood, and a sisterhood. I mean, I don't know. But if this doesn't get you fired up, great chance at recall. We used to listen to this before hockey games. Yeah, it would get you psyched up, man. Oh, this would get me so excited to go get a concussion. Yeah. Life's the most precious thing that you can lose. What you were hearing finally was never ending.

Life a minute was only the beginning. Can I call back? Never gives one for you. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, buddy, thanks so much for doing this. I love this story. I love the whole arc that you're now at Hits FM and you're now doing the afternoon drive show and you're having great success there. You sound great on that station. I appreciate that. Thank you.

And your dad was there. It's a great little story there, too, that you guys you. And your dad was there. Your dad, it's a great little story there too that you guys reconnected after when he got sick. You reconnected and he was diagnosed in 04, but he passes away in 2016, is it? Yeah, 2016, December.

He almost made it to 2070. Right. So that's a long time to live with bladder cancer. Yeah, bladder cancer and then not to mention the other health stuff, but, you know, maybe we should get a doctor in next time. No, he was a walking medical miracle for the last decade of his life. It was really, there was no reason why this man, we honestly thought he was going to outlive all of us.

We thought he was just going to be like a cockroach and he just never killed this guy. But yeah, finally. My condolences though. You didn't even hear the story about how he well you know what how he passed away we'll see we can save that for next time it's pretty good you know what fuck effort man this is my show i'm uh shutting down my good friends from low so low i need to hear that story before we wind down okay so he's

on the train back from uh winnipeg at christmas time just but you know before christmas time his plan was to come back to toronto and then fly out to see us in BC. He hated flying. Always loved the train because he had more time to booze and socialize. So he always rode the train. So he's coming back from Winnipeg. Now the Via Rail train between Winnipeg and Toronto only has two stops,

and that is Hornpain and that is Sudbury Junction. Okay. So my dad is just before Hornpain. He's getting ready to hop off the train and he's going out for a dart. Like he was going to go have a quick cigarette. Right. So he hops off the train, goes, starts hauling on a dart, tries to get back on the train, has a stroke, goes down for the count. And he ends up going to this one room hospital in Hornpain. Now the weather was really, really bad. The weather was extremely bad.

So Thunder Bay was an 11-hour drive. They were going to get the orange helicopter to fly up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it couldn't fly because of the freezing rain and the sleet. So he was in this one-room hospital thing overnight with just, there's just an LPN. There's no doctor there at all. Wow. And so overnight, his heart gave out. Now my,

my cousin, he called me, uh, the day after my dad passed away and was like, he's like, you're not going to believe this. He's like, just two days ago, I was sitting with your dad at the curling rink, having some drinks. And your dad said he was so fucking mad because the train on the way to Winnipeg from Toronto. Some guy died on it and stopped the train for four hours right around Hornpain. How is that for karmic retribution? My dad was complaining two days earlier that some idiot died on the train and slowed down his train ride. Oh, man. Oh, man. Isn't that crazy?

That's a great story. And I'm glad I shut it down to hear it. That was a great story. And then 64, though, is awfully young. Well, you know what? He had the body of about a 144-year-old. So I'm sorry you lost your pops, and he doesn't get to see his grandkids grow up, and I'm sorry about that. But I'm glad you did get to reconnect,

and I'm glad you got to spend some quality time with him. It sounds like you had some good times with him in the last 12 years of his life there. And now you're at the station he was once at. And fucking I'm happy for you, man. I wish you more continued success. Thank you so much, Mike. And, yeah, anytime you want to have me on for whatever. Kicking out the jams.

Anytime. Okay. Well, I'm available. I think. Unless this one got me in too whatever. Kicking out the jams. Anytime. Okay. Well, I'm available. I think, unless this one got me in too much trouble. I don't know. No way. Did we do anything untoward? I don't think so.

I think it got Scruff in trouble. Did we offend anybody? No, no, no. I think you were good. And that brings us to the end of our 366th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. TJ, are you TJ Connors tweets?

Yeah. At TJ Connors tweets. You can find me there and send me some feedback. When does this get posted by the way? Cause I want to share it. Half an hour from now, maybe 20 minutes. Depends what I have to do with the kids upstairs. I hear they're a little crazy up there, but yeah,

it's going to be posted before you get back home. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Cause that's going to take me eight hours now in the Toronto traffic. Thanks. It is Saturday though. Maybe it'll be okay. Maybe. Do you have a canoe I can borrow? Just taking up the Welland Canal? I'll rent you

the kayak from Old Mill there. I did that the other day. Great Lakes Brewery are at GreatLakesBeer. Property in the 6.com is at Raptors Devotee and PayTM is at PayTM Canada. See you all next week when my guest is Molly Johnson. Thank you.