Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Victoria Matiash: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1584

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

In this 1585th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Victoria Matiash about her career in broadcasting, hosting Pucks in 7 and delivering the news on Newstalk 1010, writing for ESPN, and so much more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1585 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Learn how to plan, invest, and live smarter. Season 7 of Yes We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Monaris, hosted by FOTM Al Gregor. Recycle My Electronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making her Toronto mic debut is Victoria, Mattie Ash.

How you doing, Victoria? That was a lovely effect, I really appreciate it. Shooting two, okay. I was told, I promoted your episode in a previous episode like a week ago, and I completely butchered the pronunciation of your surname. And then I got a tip. Mattie Ash.

And then somebody said, no, man, it's more like Mattie Ash. Now that I have a D than a T. Okay. That was a tip I just got from Mark Wiseblood. That was the tip I just got. His alarm is set to 10 10. He said he's heard you a million times. Mattie Ash. That's right. Okay. Good to see you again. Do you know we've met? Yes, we have. We've met I think at least

once at a West End Phoenix event. Okay. I wondered if you'd remember that great moment in your life. Yes. So Tyler Campbell, who does volunteer work with West End Phoenix, I think he delivers in this neck of the woods. I think he delivers the paper. He invited me as his plus one to some kind of a, I don't know, West End Phoenix subscriber event. And I met Victoria Madiash. I think I did a little bit of MCing that night. You were, I think you, I think I won. You know what now? I just came back to me. I think you were MCing a bit and I think I won a little bit. I won. You know, Badini needs the mic too. Okay. I feel I won something that night. I don't even think I was waiting to get like the tickets and I never got them.

And I think like the day before I wrote a note like, hey, I never got these tickets. Am I supposed to get tickets? And the event happened and I never got my tickets. And I so I never did hear back or get any tickets, but it was announced I had one tickets. Well, I apologize on behalf of you. You know, I'm blaming Badini. OK, I'm blaming Badini. Dave Badini is a fabulous individual and I like working with him very much. And the man can wear a pork pie hat. Is that what we call those hats? Pork pie?

Okay, Victoria, here's the first tough question of the day and we're going to get to know you much better. But would you like a burst from Great Lakes Brewery or the octopus wants to fight but it's the fighting weight it's like a lower calorie version of the octopus wants to fight. Which of these delicious IPAs would you like to enjoy right now? I know both of them. I'm a Great Lakes Beers fan, brewery fan and I'm going to take the burst please. Okay you're taking the burst which means I'm going to have the octopus wants to fight the the lower calorie version so at the count of three we're gonna pop this on the mic. Okay three two one. So cheers try not to spill it on my board here. Cheers to you Victoria. Cheers to you. Who I met briefly

at a wonderful event and everybody should subscribe to the West End Phoenix. Tell me what do you do with them now Like just give me a taste of what you do with the West End Phoenix. You help deliver the papers. What are you doing over there? Well, I've been a writer for them in the past. I haven't done it for a little while, but I've submitted six or seven columns, articles, pieces, materials since the conception. I think it's a wonderful publication. I'm not biased. It's just a good publication. I think it's a wonderful publication. I'm not biased. It's just a good publication. Well, it's a publication.

Like Stop Right, it's an independent publication. How many of those are there being launched in this world? It's fantastic. It's run very well by very good people. So I've written for them and I'm a volunteer delivery person as well in the neighborhood near me. Okay, are you a Florida Panthers fan?

I'm not. I mean, I appreciate them. Well, you're wearing, you can't wear the shirt unless you're a fan. Isn't that the rule? No, I can appreciate them. And I actually bought this at one of their Stanley cup run games in Florida. So I think that's justified. No, very, very good. You know, you gotta, you gotta jump on these, uh, championship bandwagons cause in Toronto, they're few and far between. Although the Argos just won the great cup and then they had a rally at like Maple Leaf Square there. But you had to go like through gates or something. Like it wasn't like in the public sphere,

like you had to go through gates to get to this championship rally. And I thought that's interesting. Like, cause you think of like the Raptors parade in 2019, like this is just public space where you show up as a citizen of the city. But like they had everyone like, I guess due to numbers or whatever, but they just had everybody go through the gates and be part of this, uh,

Maple Leaf square. Do you want my theory on that? Yeah. Taylor Swift. There's so much going on down there right now. I think that's just an issue with a little bit of crowd control and security and making sure people who wanted to go to this Argos rally were not necessarily misguided thinking it was some Taylor Swift event because there's quite a few of them going on right now.

Could you imagine the Swifties end up at the great cup rally? You can be both. You can be both. I'm an Argos fan. I actually have my toque in my purse here right now. Okay. I root for the Argos as well. So I'm actually going to ask you about a gentleman who was on the show recently.

And then while you're talking, I'm gonna turn off the dehumidifier I can hear in the background because I don't like to hear it during the recording. It's irritating me. So I had on this program, Jeff Spindel. And so I met you at the West End Phoenix. I am aware of you on social media.

I know who Victoria Maddie Ash is. And then Jeff says, like he goes back way back in the day with you. So I'm wondering if you could share with us your history with Jeff Spindale. Just been dealt today are very good pals. We remain so about 20 years ago, we met at a radio station in Timmins, Ontario and We worked together there. I was a co-host on one station He was a co-host on the host at the sister station and then we worked together became really good pals I eventually moved to Barry and

he then followed me and we co-hosted a show in Barry on And we co-hosted a show in Barrie on CHFM for, I'm going to say, three years. And we did the afternoon show together. And then we both migrated back down to Toronto. He went the music, strict the music. And he went to boom for many years. And then I ended up at 1010 and they were both owned by standard at that point in time. So we shared the same space at St.

Claire. So we've been, uh, we've traveled together for some time now. So if you go back that far, did you work with humble Howard Glassman in that building? No, I mean, not to my knowledge. Okay. He might've been gone before you got there. Okay. So Jeff came over when he got the terrible news. Many a radio professional has gotten his services. Myself included. How many times in your broadcasting career have you been, uh, tapped on the shoulder and told your services are no longer required?

I was laid off only once, so I suppose a little bit more fortunate than many. That was 2019. It was one of my favorite jobs, unfortunately. I was doing sports updates on TSN Radio 1050 at the time. And it came from high above. I don't blame my program director. I know he was not happy about it either, but they removed all the update,

the entire updates department. I remember this. So that was me. Well, me and several other people. And they also removed a bunch of people who covered the Raptors, which was interesting because the Raptors ended up winning the NBA championship. That's pretty.

As we just talked about, I went to that parade. Yeah, it was a that parade. Yeah. So, uh, there's a, there was a few of us upwards of 12 or 13 of us were let go simultaneously. It's one of those, it happens in corporate private owned. It kind of happened this week. Okay. So, uh, maybe we'll dive into this, but, uh, it's interesting you and Jeff go back to Timmons. Like that's, that's a sounds far. I don't know if I've ever been to Timmons, but like if I were to start driving to Timmons in my car right now, how long would that drive be? Eight and a half to nine hours. Okay.

That's why I've never been to Timmons. Okay. That sounds like, cause I have to drive periodically. I have to drive to Montreal and I think this is a very long drive I'm doing right now to Montreal. And that's not as far as going to Timmons here. When you start driving back and forth to Timmons, like I did, because my family is in Mississauga and in Toronto at the time. And that's not as far as going to Timmons here when you start driving back and forth to Timmons like I did because my family Is in Mississauga and in Toronto at the time and that's where I came back to When you start to do that, you'll you'll go meet a friend in Kitchener for a cup of coffee and it feels like nothing Honestly, okay. That's the the pro tip you don't do it in one run. You just bring it up like that

Okay, so Timmons home of Shania Twain. Yes, do I have that right? Okay, although not really a Shania Twain like she's like an Eileen Do I have that right? Okay. Although not really a Shania Twain. Like, uh, she's like an Eileen. She was Eileen born. Yes. Right. Okay. Yeah. So, so Eileen, shut up, Eileen. Okay. Now you mentioned Mississauga there. So you have family in Mississauga? That's where I grew up. Okay. What are you doing November 30th? It's like a Saturday. What are you doing at like noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 30th? I am flying to Quebec City for a long weekend. Never mind. Okay, let me drink my Great Lakes here. Okay, so if anyone listening is not going to Quebec City, which sounds like it's gonna be a lovely trip for you, come to Mississauga, Palma's Kitchen, November 30th from noon to 3 p.m.

TMLX 17 is taking place. We're going to record live. If you had been in town, you could have had a free meal from Palma Pasta. You could have got a free beer from Great Lakes Brewery. You could have jumped on the mic and said hi to us. We would love to see you. But you're in Quebec City. You're going to have more fun than we're going to have.

I'm actually celebrating my 50th birthday. Do you know what? We're the same age. I'm 50 the following. But you're born in 74. That's right. So am I. Okay. Look, cheers to you again. Okay. A lot of the, you know, I didn't Tyler Campbell, who took me to that West end Phoenix event where I met you also turned 50 in 1974. It's a good year, man. Oh my gosh, the best, the best. Okay. So I'm instead of getting that free palm of pasta at TMLX 17 on November 30th, like everybody else, I'll just give you a lasagna.

Would you take home those lasagna? It's in my freezer right now. It looks gorgeous. I absolutely would. No, enough about me. How's the lasagna looking? Yeah, the lasagna looks fantastic. Thank you very much Okay, you got your lasagna. You also get the the more beer you're drinking a beer

But you're bringing home some beer from Great Lakes Brewery more gifts later Did you hear they in and this is gonna tie in because you're a sports person like I want to talk to you about your sports Media career, but also as I was told by Mark Weisblot You're delivering news on News Talk 1010. Like that's not sporty. So what are your thoughts? And I know this will be tough for you. We're going to dive into the details of what you're doing at 1010. But just yesterday we learned that 640, which is owned by Chorus, like gutted the news department. Dave Bradley remains, but pretty much they got rid of the six 40 news department. They got rid of a couple of on

air personalities, made some changes here. How like, like, like actual news people for radio stations are outside of six 80, which is an all news radio station. They're few and far between. Like you're a dying breed. It is certainly heading in that direction. But you're here in nature of the industry. By the way, Dave Bradley is an excellent friend of mine. We worked together for five years in Barry and I worked together with him at 1010 before he moved over. He's actually one of he's the primary reason I started at 1010 back in 2013.

Okay, that's a I met him at a GLB brew pub event when Amanda Cupid was the program director at I worked with her at 1010 to okay she was just here last week she also can't make tmlx-17 maybe she's going to Quebec City I don't know but Dave Bradley I remember having him on the mic and he seems like a great guy he's a fantastic person he's an excellent broadcaster he also works again with motor sports, which I'm sure you guys got into a little bit. So him and I, I think have that in common.

It's something that we went through together because I've known Dave Bradley for 20 years. We were both working in Barry together. He was co-hosting the morning show. I was co-hosting the afternoon show with Jeff Spindel. This is a very small industry. No, you really, that's wild to me. These names, I'm like, I know these people.

And then he started covering motor sports for TSN and started at a smaller level. And now he's grown into that. And at the same time, I started my career at ESPN.com covering hockey in different formats. So we both had our side hustles, which have turned into much bigger things also, because we both been very lucky. I also think we both work our behinds off and so it's been I'm actually having dinner with him in the next couple of days. Okay so we actually didn't get into the motorsport stuff because he what it wasn't his episode he was like it was everybody at this gathering right so I had like I don't know 20 voices on this thing so I think I had like five minutes of Dave and we just talked about what he was doing at

640 but I would love to talk to him about like more like like at some point he should come over and do like, he certainly should. He calls it a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series on TSN and he's excellent at it. I don't know these. That's why you're here, Victoria. You're educating me here. But now I hear about ESPN, like I'm almost going to need some time to figure out all the gigs you've got because I wear a lot of hats.

So let's start with 1010. Okay. Let's start 10 10. And then we'll along the way, we'll talk about, uh, like just the, I, I just personally, I know 10 10 had a news department and that was gutted like a couple of years ago or something like that. I worked at 10 10. I started at in 2013 part time and I filled in for other people. I did a lot of weekends, enjoyed it, then got the opportunity after a few years to move over to TSN 1050 radio, which is my passion. Sports

instead of news. I, I enjoy doing news. So if you were queen for a day, you'd be in sports media ahead of news media. Yes. But that's, there's more of a complicated answer to that. Sports is my passion. Sports is fun. I love writing about hockey and broadcasting about it at every opportunity. I'm co-hosting on Sirius NHL Network tomorrow between one and three. I do a bunch of that. I appreciate my job in news broadcasting because I feel it is terribly important and I take

it as a great responsibility. So those are two very different animals in my life. I'm glad I have both of them. I don't know if I would want to do sports full time. You know what? That's crap. I would. But I found it difficult when I was doing news full time because it's a heavy gig. It's incredibly important.

You talk about a lot of nasty things. You see a lot of a lot of nasty things that the listeners do not get even a taste of. lot of nasty things that the listeners do not get even a taste of it all comes in and I feel it a little bit too much at times And so I was starting to burn out at 1010 a little bit Kim Getty's my very excellent news director She opened the door for me to move over to 1050 because it's the same bell holding of course Yeah, yeah, and to start doing updates there. And I was really happy doing that. So I left 10 10 started at 10 50. Like we talked about earlier, God got downsized pandemic hit. They got to the newsroom during this time at 10 10, which didn't affect me. I was just doing my ESPN

work and then realized they needed to have a few more people do the news. So three years ago or so, I rejoined 1010. So this is my second stint. And again, I work part-time in Philly and where I can, that complements my hockey writing work and my hockey broadcasting work. So when like, I know Mark Weisblatt listens to 1010 24 seven. Okay, so he's always catching it, but like if I want to catch you delivering the news

on 1010, there's not a like, is that a regular thing? It depends like when it isn't necessarily a regular thing. I'm broadcasting this week and I actually screwed up your, um, your invitation. It's next Saturday. I'm going to give back city my calendar. So you're coming to MLX seven. No, I'm actually broadcasting on 10 10 all day.

So it's still a no go. What a tease. I got, I got really excited for a moment. And next week, I'm, um, on afternoon run two or three days during the week. So it's, it's here and there, it's all over the place. And I have an excellent boss there and he works with my schedule with ESPN and what I'm doing on the NHL network. And it all sort of fits together, not necessarily seamlessly every day, but we make it happen. And how many of you are there at 1010 now? In our newsroom?

Yeah. I believe it's four right now. Okay, okay, okay. And so I'm legit curious about this. So Bell owns other stuff. I don't know if you know this, but Bell owns, Bell owns CTV. You'll find the great Siobhan Morris over there.

Okay, so here's the deal. We technically work the newsroom right now at news. I need the real talk here, Victoria, let's go. We work well, I'm not telling any tales out of school. We add in the newsroom at 1010, technically work for CTV. I drive out to Angicourt. That's where our booth is. So you're not at like, I used to be that was the first and not this one. Not anymore. Okay, I work with the Cgecourt. That's where our booth is. So you're not at like, uh, I used to be. That was the first stand. Not this one.

Not anymore. Okay. I work with the CTV newsroom. Okay. Right. Yep. And so we are employees of CTV. The rest, the hosts and the producers and everybody else is still based down downtown Toronto. Okay. So John Moore is at 299 Queen and you're up in the aging court delivering the news for CTV.

Okay. See, see, I the news for CTV. Okay. See, I'm learning some things here. Okay. Very cool. It works. We work remotely with each other. All the news people work with the hosts and we figured out how to make it happen. When do they have to get out of 299 Queen?

Do you have any, did you get any memos about that? Like is there a departure date? I probably should pay a little bit more attention to that than I do. Check your emails lately. CB24 is migrating over now. So, but as far as the 1010 thing go, listen, I come in, I anchor the news. I probably have already explained things that are wrong. I come in, I anchor the news. I work with great people. We put on the product how, as best as we can. You do, you do from all accounts, You're doing a great job now. OK, so you're doing 10 10s. I'm just taking a list of things you're doing here.

You also mentioned ESPN dot com. So what are you doing at ESPN dot com? How long you've been writing there? Seventeen years. Wow. It's mainly fantasy

hockey, although I have done NHL rumors. I did the draft blog, participated in roundtables and power rankings and different. Every year is a little bit different and I'm in my 17th year still with a lot of the same core people I started with and it's a great gig. Sounds like a cool gig. It is, it really is. Okay, so you get to sort of like flex the writing muscles

You're a good writer you get to do that at ESPN calm covering sports Meanwhile you get to broadcast the the heavier the heavier stuff the news That's like 1010 any other Bell Media properties that get to hear your great voice delivering the news or is it strictly 1010? No, no, it's strictly 1010. So the other broadcasting gig I do from time to time is on the NHL network, which is a serious holding. Okay. And do you do that in Liberty Village? No, no, it's moved down to a, it used to be, I know I remember it used to be there.

It is now King street East. Okay. So not enough time. Okay. Not enough time with Victoria. Maddie Ash is a segment that's on every Friday. Okay. And then on the rare occasion, I get to sub in and co-host a show when somebody else isn't

able to do it because they're traveling or maybe they don't feel well or what have you. And that's tomorrow. I will be co-hosting under review with Jay Khan. Okay. Who normally? Okay. So Jay Khan is like, boomer with boomers, the regular and he needs the day off. Okay.

Shout out again. I'm curious. Who else is that Sirius XM's NHL network there? Like can you shout out some of our personalities? Goodness, Gord Stehlich and Scotty Loughlin. Wait, Gord Stehlich? Steve Coolius. Yeah. And there's a lot of hockey, in the hockey community, a lot of heavy hitters there.

It's a great station. I'm going to tell you quite honestly, no jerks, honest to goodness. Well, Stella, I don't know, Cooley, I heard here about these guys, but I've met Stella many times. He's been down here many times. Seems like a sweetheart. Like just seems like a very nice man. I don't know him very well, but yes, he's been incredibly nice to me. You can get hours of Ballard stories out of him. I imagine. Yes. He's going to have intimate knowledge.

And if you just want, you know, if he's like hanging around and you want to get him going, just ask him about the, you know, the court at Cortinal trade. And then you can go off, do a bike ride or a fun run or something, come back and hear it wrap up, but get Stellic going there. Okay. So again, so I'm taking notes. So 1010 slash CTV, you got that going on. You're writing at ESPN. We can hear you on the NHL network here and there here and there.

Yeah. You know, and, and when I said not enough time, I meant, I don't have enough time to cover your bio here. That's just kidding. So you did not enough time on SiriusXM. Here's one. I really want to dive into before we touch with the industry here. Pucks and seven. Tell me everything about Pucks and seven. That's my hockey podcast. So we started Ryan Payton, who's also a broadcaster at the NHL network. He hosts a hot stove on Saturdays and he also fills in a bunch of different, a lot more than I do. And, uh, we met up about five years ago through media.

He invited me to be a guest on his show. So Victoria Matt SESPN as a guest on his show. And we hit it off and I became a regular on his show and his different shows. And then three years ago, we decided to start our own podcast together. And so we're in our third year now. So this is an independent podcast.

It's the two of us. You guys own this thing. We do. Big smart, smart. Okay. And, uh, how often do you drop new episodes? We are at least once a week. If things are pressing and time permitting, we like to do two. We started on video this year. We used to be strictly audio and now we're on YouTube. You're too good looking for that. Thank you very much. They said,

Cheers to you. They said, get yourself on a camera. What do you do? Well, there's an audience on YouTube. So that was the deal, right? Instead of why limit yourself. And we also opened up our show to guests this year. And we've had, so we had Mikeenon on,

we've had Candanico. He's making the rounds. Okay, Candanico. Yeah, we had Cand Danica for an hour a couple of weeks ago and I could have had him on for five. The stories that guy has. He's also very lovely, but he's a great storyteller and he, uh, he told us some bangers. That one was great. You got to get Stalick on that program. Oh, you know what probably will happen at some point. We also talked to a bunch of beat reporters from around North America covering

different teams to get the insight that we just were not privy to. So, so fear you're fiercely independent. So you and Ryan are rolling this yourself pucks in seven and you're at least once a week and at least once a week. And is this NHL or is it hockey? Like is it an NHL focused? It's NHL focused, but we will talk about the PWHL when it's, uh, we're talking about, which it often when it's, uh, we're talking about, which it often is these days, uh, for sure. What do you think of Toronto's nickname? Oh, I don't love it, but like most things, it's not, it would not have been my first

choice. Scepters would not have been my first choice. I will say this, like most things in life, you're going to get used to it. And then in a year from now, you'll ask me and I probably will say it's great. Well, we all hated the Raptors nickname. I didn't. You like it. I wanted Huskies. I wanted towers. I remember towers being yeah, because tall people play basketball. Also, there's a damn tower. Right? I've seen that tower. Hard not to. My eight year old thinks that tower is like it follows us everywhere because basically

everywhere in the city, almost everywhere, unless you're getting blocked from something really close there, you can see that damn tower everywhere. Can you imagine the city without that tower? I have the poorest sense of direction. I will absolutely admit that. You need the tower just to figure out which direction you need to be walking in in Toronto. And it has helped me more than 10, 20, 30 times. Somebody asked me, I was biking downtown and some, uh, visitor was asking me, how do

you get to the aquarium? And I just, I think I pointed to the tall thing and I said, just make your way to that tall thing and you can't miss it or whatever. It's like a beacon or whatever. Uh, yeah. Towers. I remember that being one of the, one of the front runners, like I remember that because you and I are the same age. So I can have this chat that we were kind of a perfect age to get an NBA franchise. Like I guess we're about 20 years old or something. And we're getting an NBA team and like we're that's like, Oh my God, like we don't have to just root for Michael Jordan in the bulls anymore.

Like we're going to have our own team here. Like that was amazing. It was interesting. I, I think it would have been, it would have hit me a little bit harder had I been in Toronto, but I went to the university of Western Ontario. So you just, you felt a little bit of a disconnect, but it was still on television. You're getting to know these players and it's a, yeah, no, it's a, and to see how far they've come. So they got, they went with Raptors, which I felt was like a Jurassic park reflex, like

most people, but like you mentioned a moment ago, you just like at some point it's like, that's just the name and then you came and think of them as anything else. So I'm sure the Toronto Scepters will be like that. I can't spell Scepters, so I hope I can pronounce it right. I did get notes when it was first announced from TMU students who wanted to talk to me

about whether it was, and I don't know why they want to talk to me, except I think they searched and I was writing about it on my blog or something and they found me. But whether it was like a tribute to colonialism, have you heard this one? Cause it's scepters is like a queen holds a scepter and maybe this is a offense. There are undertones to showing tribute to the royal heritage, of course. Right.

And I'm just going to leave it at that. All right. to the Royal heritage, of course. Right. And I'm just going to leave it at that. All right. But I love a whole, I love the Minnesota Frost. I think that name is absolute kick ass. And I think the other names in the league are pretty solid too. And I think Scepter's is fine,

just would not have been my first choice, but I'm really looking forward to the season starting. I'm really excited about it. They could have called it the Toronto Towers, PWHL team. Okay. And Ryan's a good guy. Ryan's excellent. Yeah. We're really good friends. Yeah. He's a, he's a fantastic broadcaster and he's a better person. Do you find there's a lot of Ryan's in the broadcasting industry? Like, like more in the broadcasting world than maybe in the general public?

What is it compared to Mike's and Dave's? No. No, you're great. Mike is number one, but I and Dave's? No. Okay. No. You create Mike is number one, but I feel like Ryan is, I don't know. It feels like there's a lot more Ryan's than I remember growing up. I worked in a new stock 10 10 newsroom that had five guys and three of them were named Dave. So no, Ryan doesn't strike me as particularly prolific. All right. Good point. These are the Dave's I know there were quite a few. No, four. Sorry, four Daves. Not even counting properly. Yeah, Dave Bradley. Okay, who future, gonna get his own episode. So, okay, so you're at

1010 and then you move over to 1050, uh, uh, TSN radio, but over on the, the other guys at 590. I'm curious if you, you know about Jeff Merrick's new podcast. Jeff Merrick, and then I have like a further question, but Jeff Merrick is a famous hockey analyst. I know who Jeff Merrick is. Yes. I know. But he's a famous, I'm not saying you don't know who Jeff Merrick is, but he's a famous

hockey analyst who has now got a podcast. Like do you ever feel like, here I am with pucks in seven, doing a great job of Ryan and then these big famous nationally famous analysts just kind of come on your turf? Like, it has to be a labor of love. If you're getting into this on any level and you understand what the competition is, it has to be a labor of love. Any sponsorship and we do have some right now, not baked potatoes, but we are sponsored. Well, do you want to shout them out? You can shout them out.

Oh, Sprott Money. Absolutely. So what do they do? It's a, um, Oh yeah, I see Sprott like a misspelling of sport. Sprott. So it's a family name and so you can invest in actual gold and silver. So, so it's an investment firm of sorts and they have an excellent reputation. They're based in Toronto. They've been around, but you can actually, what we, we were interested in bringing in sponsorship that you could order through North American wide because we do have listeners in the U S we have listeners in other parts of Canada. So we didn't want

to be, you know, the restaurant down the street. that's not going to help us. And so that partnership has been rewarding, but it has to be a labor of love. You're not getting into this unless you're a Jeff Merrick or an Elliot Friedman or somebody in the hockey world, at least if you're a smaller potato, like I am, you better really enjoy it. I would do it for free. It's nice to do it for a little more than free, but you do it for free Okay, and serious question right now not even tongue-in-cheek

But did you think for a moment that I thought maybe you didn't know who Jeff Merrick was? Just the way you're going, you know, he's a hockey guy. I know I've met him on several occasions. Yes good, dude Yeah, no, he's a good guy. Okay, because I just had a conversation with a radio veteran named Dave Charles. He was actually one of the guys who started Q1 07 back in the late 70s. And Dave Charles was recommending he said, hey, have you ever had? And he goes, if you ever had Bob McCown on your podcast. And then he went on to explain who Bob McCown was.

And then I felt like, Dave, I know who Bob McCown is. Like, I felt like kind of like offended felt like, Dave, I know who Bob McCown is. Like, I felt like, kind of like offended almost. Like he's explaining to me who Bob McCown is as if I might not know that name or whatever. And then I thought for a moment, like maybe Victoria feels what I felt when Dave Charles was asking me if I know Bob McCown. Maybe she thought I was mansplaining to her who the hell Jeff Merrick is. Not at all. Okay. So Jeff Merrick though does have a new podcast and it's like yet another, I just find that a lot of these like I'll call Jeff a celebrity. So these, these famous people pop in and then us,

us like us guys on the ground, I'm not saying you're not famous, but we're not Jeff Merrick famous on, you know, nationwide hockey night in Canada, et cetera etc. etc. There's another one to compete. And I know it's not, we're all in it for love of the game, but is... But here's what we do, Mike, we put together the best content we possibly can. We put together the best, most entertaining product we possibly can. Right? So, and we take it from there. That's all we can do. Do you know Ashley Dawking? Yes.

Are you friends with her? No, I'm not. No, but I know who she is. So I'm not not friends with her. I don't know her personally. So why do you hate Ashley Docking, Victoria? That's what I'm looking for. Just make sure you take some clips from this and post it on social media.

Clip sounds like I know who Ashley Docking is. Yeah. Because when she came over, it was like, I think the first week that Paul Mopasta was sponsoring the show. So I didn't really, I was still, I think the first week that Palma Pasta was sponsoring the show. So I didn't really, I was still figuring out how to like present it or whatever. Now I just like, you got a free lasagna in my freezer. That's what I do now. But I remember telling her how to prepare it.

Like, it's just like something to say when I was giving it like 45 minutes at 375. And then she did get upset at me for mansplaining how to make a lasagna. So that happened on this program with Palma Pasta and... Did you learn your lesson? Yes. Now I stop telling people how to make their damn lasagna. I'm like, there's a label. You read it yourself.

What am I reading? I read the liner notes. You can read the label notes and figure it out yourself here. So will you be... uh, are you curious about Merrick's new podcast? Like, will you say, I haven't listened to it yet, but yes, I will. I think it's super, if it even exists, it might've be like today, like it might've dropped today. Like this is super fresh. So I don't know how many people have got it. Do you know the name Mike gross? Speaking of Mike's,

I know a Mike gross, but he lives in Arizona. He has a question for you. This guy, oh yeah. So he is the right. That's the mic. Okay. So Mike Gross says, I have a question for Victoria Madias. How does someone who lived in Phoenix for the last couple of decades deal with this? And then he attached a picture of like a snowstorm basically. Okay.

Mike Gross is a sportscaster in Arizona and he has a radio show and I have been a guest representing ESPN on his show many times to the point that we developed a relationship and when I visited Arizona he took me out for beers we had a wonderful time and he as any hockey fan will know Arizona lost their hockey team last year they're now in Utah and he's not happy about it like any fan of any team losing a team would not be And so he's been shopping around for a new nhl team to support because it's not going to be utah So so that's a great question before we get back to mike there is is why not utah because they stole your team

Like you're mad at them If the toronto maples moved to to Utah, would you support them? The answer is no. No, I'd probably root for them to lose every game. Okay. So that's his perspective as well. So he's been talking to me, maybe I should jump on the Toronto Maple Leafs bandwagon and I've, I've put back to him, do you, are you in for another two decades of heartbreak after this? Because you know, that's been the trend for decades. I will not abandon the Toronto Maple

Leafs but I still can appreciate reality until it changes. And we also have the weather issue. So we would do hits different times of the year and we compare the temperature and whatever was going on weather wise. And as you can imagine Phoenix and Toronto there's a bit of a discrepancy. I can imagine. Although with climate change I feel like we have fewer and fewer of these snowy days. We're not there yet though. We got to, we got to do a little, a little graphing and see how that's working out. So thank you, Mike Gross. Good dude. Okay, good. I like Mike's like, I try to like Mike's. I do root for Victorias. Like when you hear there's another Victoria, do you start off with a warm fuzzy because hey we share the first name never

It's never crossed my mind one way. You don't spend time thinking about these things. Okay. All right Well Mike I I liked you right away because I said I there's another Mike. I got a route for this guy Melanie Jep Jep has two peas in it. I have a million questions for Victoria. She's awesome So this is funny to me because she writes I have a million questions for Victoria. She's awesome. So this is funny to me because she writes, I have a million questions for Victoria. She's awesome. I can't wait to listen to the interview. So she has a million questions but she doesn't ask any of them. Like ask one of those million questions, right? There's no questions from Melanie. She just thinks you're awesome and can't wait to listen.

That's very nice to hear. And she's supposing you're gonna check all the boxes. So there you go. Well Melanie Melanie, okay, so I I understand There's a lot of questions, but maybe just pick one even if it's at random pick one question, but okay, there's a guy on Twitter and then I have it remind me to get back to Twitter. I want to ask you about blue sky in Twitter Okay, so Phil Sims, don't let me forget. You're my co-host here. Phil Sims Is this person's name this person has been very excited about your visit, but all these tweets at me are all caps. I find it, uh, it's a bit disconcerting. Like, like, like Phil is yelling at me.

Have you ever been tweeted out by a Phil Sims? He's, um, a big supporter of our podcast. We like Phil very much. Okay. Cap locks though. Phil, I love the support and the passion, but you don't have to yell at me with this. Okay. So Phil says as always, Victoria will definitely do the dawn thing. It's just what she does. I don't do the damn thing. I got my glasses on. I'm gonna. Do you have to wear glasses now? Readers? Yes, yes. Thank you. Me is because at fifty that's where right now because this is a new phenomenon for me, but that's not Dawn.

That's damn. I'm going to do it again. As always, Victoria will definitely do the damn thing. It's just what she does. My question to Victoria, and I feel like I could, I could go for a bike ride during this one, but let's hear you answer it. In her opinion, who are the top 10 NHL teams of all time? No, no, I'm not going to. I'm not working here right now.

Jeez. He wants a list right now, like a listicle. Different iterations of Detroit Red Wings and Oilers. There's going to be Boston back in the set. Sure. No, we're not. You're all Canadians in the seventies. I need that assignment for an hour or so.

We'll do it together. Start jotting them down. We appreciate Phil a lot. He's been a loyal listener to the podcast for quite some time. He's been very supportive. So Ryan and I very much appreciate his- Big Sims heads here.

We, yeah, we appreciate his listenership big time. Since we're the same age, maybe you will have the same thought that it's gotta be that pre, before Gretzky's sold to the Kings, like that Oilers team, like think about that lineup, that Oilers team, right?

You had, you gotta forget the, you got Paul Coffee back there, you got Greskie, you got Messier, you got Yari Curry, you got Grandfier and Nett. That's, that's, that's the answer. And then they broke up the band. Then they couldn't afford to have such a good team in Edmonton. And, but they did win another cup. Well, there's still some debate about that, but sure. Well, let's talk about that. No, I'm off the clock. Yeah. It's good. It's a buckling to talk. You're here on the mics right now. You're on the clock. There's no

wrong answers here, but love your input. Phil Sims and Victoria is not going to answer that question, but it's probably today But one we can tell Phil right now one time Ryan and I will address that properly because it's that's a fun That's a fun topic to tackle Yeah, you know you need these listicles or whatever because they fill up time debating and there's no wrong answer Right. Mmm. I think it's only somewhat subjective. There are wronger answers. Here's what I, this is one of my mantras. You don't necessarily have to be correct, but you can't be a dum-dum.

Okay. Well, sometimes I, that's my brand, right? Dum-dum. Okay. You have a presence on Twitter, which is now called X. I'm going to burp because I'm drinking the beer. Do you ever burp on pucks in seven? I haven't yet, no.

Do you drink beer during the recording? No. That's why. Okay. Don't drink beer. Okay. Oh yeah. Morning recordings here. I had one this morning. Coffee is the way to go for sure. So you have a presence on X. Victoria and Maddie Ash is your handle, I believe. Right. Okay. Have you considered is your handle, I believe, right? Okay. Have you considered taking your brilliance to the Blue Sky app? I have registered my name and an account there. I just did that in the last few days. It seems like that's becoming more of a trend.

I can't abandon X yet. It's too useful to me in my work. So I believe there probably will be some overlap. I have to spend some time and develop my account and follow the people I wanna continue to follow because I have noticed a lot of the presence that I've appreciated on X has already moved over. So you have to adjust, you have to evolve.

And that's definitely a project for the next little while for sure. But that's going to take some time. You have to sit down and look people up and follow this person, follow that person. But you tell people on X I'm now here and you'll see how quickly a lot of those people are on both. I just need to do it. That's it. So what I did, thank you for asking Victoria. What I did is- What did you do Mike? What did you do?

Ryan, there's no threat. Don't worry. Okay. So there's no Mike and Victoria show coming, but I am strictly promo only on X right now. Like it's promo only. So I will tweet that you visited and here's the episode.'s what we talked about I will tag you on the tweet that tweet will happen but that tweet will also happen in blue sky right blue sky is

getting all the original content the non promo stuff the you know I was listening to a song today that reminded me of big bad wolf from Teen Wolf like these off- cuff observations, they go to, that's just blue sky stuff now. Like if you want that stream of consciousness thought or whatever or you know, fun facts or mind blows or whatever, I'm not giving that to X anymore. X is promo only.

Well, blue sky sounds like what Twitter used to be. Right, before the Nazis showed up. Okay, so blue sky sounds like what Twitter used to be. Right. Before the Nazis showed up. OK, so blue sky sounds like what Twitter used to be. No, it's a cesspool now. I don't enjoy that much anymore either. I hate even looking at it. I'm just trying to recruit you is what I'm trying to do. And you're doing a good job, actually.

I will. This is something I need to spend some time on. Absolutely. There's no question of that. I can't abandon X right now. I follow too many beat reporters. There's no question of that. I can't abandon X right now. I follow too many beat reporters. There's too much news that comes up in hockey. It's a newsfeed to me. So beyond just the straight promo of our podcast and what I'm doing, then it's, it's just useful this morning, Sammy Silver to tweet it out. Who's filling in for a veg can on the top line with the Washington capitals. And that's not on blue sky. Well,

until she moves over and then I'll make sure I'm going to follow her there too. So those are again, it's it's such a valuable newsfeed to me that until. OK, so let's compromise here today, or I'm not going to fill that box of lasagna. So Victoria, what if you. Promote on X and you consume, you can you can you can read people's tweets on the app formerly known as Twitter but you also started a blue school you said you started one but you can start to post the same promo stuff you're doing on X copy and paste it over to blue sky for a while and then do more additional

outbound messaging on Blue Sky. So you can tell the ex people, hey, I'm also on Blue Sky now and it's me and more, but you can maintain, I'm not telling you to delete the thing, I understand. People like you and I, we still need that presence on Twitter because a lot of people are just only there.

So you don't have to delete it. You don't delete your account, but just start to give more to blue sky and then just, just put your toes in the water, see how it feels. It sounds like a very reasonable plan. Are you on Instagram? I have your, uh, I'm okay. I'm promo only on Instagram too. I only enjoy. I enjoy Instagram. Interesting. I don't enjoy Instagram. Huh? Okay. So where's your most active spot in the social media universe? Is it Twitter or is it Instagram? For what?

Like for, are you okay? Cause are you saying personal, personal, sure. Facebook and Instagram. Okay. I'm still a Facebook gal. But when it comes to Pux and seven or it's on all of it, it goes everywhere. But what we really enjoy with Instagram is we post one minute clip of her show, which we post on Twitter as well. But I'm going to tell you something right now.

We get a lot more traction on Instagram, a lot more. Okay, because Instagram likes the visual. I think they like the there's a video that they like pictures and video. I'm going to speak anecdotally as well. Just a lot of people I know, and this is an age range from early 20s to my age to older have migrated, especially those who don't work in media and this is strictly for pleasure, this is strictly for entertainment, have migrated in a certain fashion away from Twitter to Instagram and still everybody sort of

holds on to Facebook because our family's there and etc and Facebook is still king. The numbers are still king on Facebook. So don't fuck with Zuckerberg. OK, when you were at 1010, the first round, right? I'm going to be a bounce. You're getting in the rhythm of it, Mike. I like it. First round at 1010. Yeah. So that's when they had a they had a 1010 newsroom.

That's right. OK. Not many people in that newsroom ever paid a visit, but Siobhan Morris dropped by a couple of times. Were you friendly or are you friendly? We remain friends to this day. Yes. We have socialized. We spend time together. I like Siobhan very much.

Okay. I feel like her timing was impeccable. I feel like she, she got out when I mean by get out, she didn't get out of bell media, but she got out of the 10 10 newsroom at the perfect time. I want to say like, and then she starts working at a CTV. Let's say I think of a CTV. She started at CP 24 first. So she's at CP 24 before 10 10. Okay. But then she's in this 10 10 newsroom when I'm talking to her on front of Mike a couple of times, but then she leaves for the for CTV news, I believe. Right? She leaves for the, for CTV news, I believe. Right? Yeah. But it wasn't immediate.

She did CP 24 and then she did CTV Barry and she did that for a while. And then she came back and now she's the Queens Park beer chief. But when they decided to flush the, uh, she wasn't around, she's not there anymore, but she's still in the company doing what she wants to do. I think that's good timing. That's probably the opposite of what you did when you went to 10 to 10 50. Like that, that was bad timing. Cause you get to 10 50, a pandemic shows up and they're like, we're going to flush these, these update. The timing wasn't great. No. So she, she's the opposite of, she had good, that was good luck timing for Siobhan Morris.

I think Siobhan always should have been on TV in the first place and those were her goals and she's excellent at it. So I, I don't think it was the timing was orchestrated at all, but it certainly has worked in her favor. Right? You can have a lady luck shine smile. Oh, there's nothing wrong with good fortune. Absolutely not. So you've had the good fortune of in your career here and

for sure. Absolutely. I have. So look, you have so many jobs. Okay. We ran down a bunch of them, but you've got several jobs. Why not give one or two to Jeff Spindel? Like Jeff just needs a couple of jobs. I know he's out. He's actively looking for a gig. He got bad luck when boom, boom, I guess they cut payroll. Why not give him a couple? Jeff is excellent in the music radio industry and that's's you don't have any music radio jobs. No, no.

Do you listen to music? Yes, but not enough to make a point of it. Yes, I turn on the radio and listen to music. I'm still more talk radio and sports radio above all else. When you turn on the radio and listen to music, what station are you turning on? If I'm listening to these hard hitting questions, Victoria, if I'm listening to satellite or terrestrial radio, I both let's do both like like the start with satellite and then tell me if you're in a car or something.

I like the not I like the 90s grunge stuff just because that was lithium radio. Yes, lithium channel 34 in my car. I enjoy that. That was the coming of age stuff. It's what I was listening to when I 16, 17, 18 years old, your formative years as a music listener. So that would be in the car. I do like boom. Still, I listen to it less now because of what they did to my bud. Right. But, um, but you'll listen to it. I'll also put together my, oh, absolutely. But I'll also put together my own playlists when I'm not, when I'm in a certain groove and want to listen to a particular artist or a particular theme or genre or anything like that. All right. So you're singing my song here, Victoria. So when we're going back to, I don't know, early nineties or whatever, and you're listening to like the old rock stuff. Do you prefer the grunge or the, the Brit pop?

No, no, no. Give me the grunge. Give you the grunge. Give me my Alice in Chains. Give me my Pearl Jam. Give me my sound garden. Give me all that. Me too. Yeah.

Look at us. That's the stuff. Okay. Flannels and Doc Martens, man. No, we're, this is amazing. You and I, we're fine. You know, you know what it took? Let me see what time we had a time stamp. It took us 43 minutes, but here we are. Like, I'm just happy to see you like Pearl Jam or Nirvana. If you could only like

have one artists catalog for the rest of your life, I'm still going to go Pearl Jam because of the 10 album. It's just, it was the most ultimate flat back to back classic for me at that time. I probably wouldn't feel the same way if I listened to it at the first time when I was 45, but listening to it for the first time at that age, and that's no disrespect to Nirvana. They're incredible as well. But, uh, I would do Pearl Jam first. I'm a huge, well, I like both those bands. I don't know how to choose would do Pearl Jam first. I'm a huge, well, I like both those bands. I don't know how to choose, but Pearl Jam's got a much larger catalog. So maybe there's a lot more content there. But 10 is amazing.

Like any of course 10 has a sports tie to it. Of course, the name 10. Mookie Blaylock. Correct. Correct. Amando. Those guys love their basketball. They wanted to be called Mookie Blaylock. And they couldn't be because there's a guy named Mookie Blaylock who played in the NBA. No, that's, that's why they wanted to be Mookie Blaylock. And they couldn't because there's a guy named Mookie Blaylock who played in the NBA. No, that's why they wanted to be Mookie Blaylock. But the... Do you have a favorite song on Ten? Oh boy! And why is it black? No, it's not!

Okay, it's Porch. You know what? Porch is excellent. Well, the phone will give it to you, baby, leave a message. Porch doesn't get enough jam. They don't play it on the radio very often at all but what I'm saying, you know your Hudson right and they my favorite version of porch might be the the unplugged MTV unplugged version and I don't I in fact, I know they never released this as an album. Like you got to get the bootleg There is no like unlike the very popular Nirvana unplugged in New York There is no album you can go you can't justplugged in New York, there is no album you can go, you can't just go to, I was going to send you to Sam the Record Man, but they're

not around anymore, but you can't go to the music shop and buy the Pearl Jam Unplugged because they never released it. Bet you can find it on YouTube. Yeah, you can probably find it on YouTube for sure. I spiral down those rabbit holes, Mike. Oh my goodness. If I'm procrastinating, especially with my writing a little bit, I'm just putting it off because the deadline is not sitting right on my head.

And I start on YouTube and start looking up songs and different performances and the unplugs always get me. And then- And Alice in Chains has a very good unplug too. Alice in Chains should have lasted longer and I- Well, he was a heroin addict. It fucked up the program. But the music, facelift, that album, Dirt, ugh.

I'm a jerk guy. I'm a jerk guy for sure. But they're all, you know, I'm a, I love Alison. It's got that. Also he could sing like a son of a gun. So there's that too. And he's in singles, but so is Eddie actually. And so is a Chris Cornell as I think about it. Let's watch singles together. Would you want singles with me? I do think it would hold up. Oh, and does the basketball tying. Cause when the guy wants to last longer in bed, right? He, he thinks of the X man Xavier McDaniel on the superset. Come yet, Steve. Correct.

It's either that or it's Steve. Don't come. Don't come variation on that. Steve. Don't come in the X-Men. Yeah. The supersonic. Are they going to get an NBA team again? I know you're the hockey expert. I'm just asking you. Seattle. Yeah, probably. Probably. It's kind of a shame because every time I hear the ice cube song, I remember that the Lakers beat the supersonics. And then I remember, Oh, that ain't going to happen again here. The one song on 10 that I skipped today is actually Jeremy. Like I actually feel like that one was overexposed. Well, it was such an iconic video during our time that if you had access to much music,

it was just on every 12 minutes. So there's probably something to be said for that. If it got a little less air time, then we might appreciate it a little bit more. Yeah, between 102.1, the edge and much music, there was a lot of Jeremy. I got sick of it, even though I love that band very much, but you know, they made an edit to that video after it was initially released. You know this? Like, so the initial edit makes it clear that Jeremy's not shooting up the

classroom. Jeremy's killing himself in front of the classroom. This is obvious from a shot with that guy has a gun to his head or something, but they took that frame out of the video and it becomes more ambiguous. Like it's not odd. I don't think it's obvious to a new viewer if you had some 20 year old who had watched the video for Jeremy. It's not obvious that Jeremy takes his own life in front of the class. You may think Jeremy is shooting up the class. Like all you see is the blood on the blood splatter, but the initial version of the Jeremy video made it very clear Jeremy was gonna shoot himself in the in the head in front of his class. It's a very dark material, yes.

Here we are! Let's break down the Jeremy video from 1991. What do you think of Soundgarden? Oh yeah, they're again, they're right up there with Alison chains and Pearl jam as well. Another huge loss to the music industry with the death of Chris Cornell. And, uh, I S I've seen sound garden, I'm going to say three or four times live. They put on a heck of a show. I was 18 or 19 when I saw them and exhibition grounds. And it was incredible because Chris Cornell came out and he had just shaved his head and nobody knew.

Wow. Because he had the locks that were like right down to his waist. And he came out and everybody went, oh! Ha ha ha ha ha! And Pearl Jam played in that show as well. It was, that was quite a concert back in the day. Was that at Lollapalooza?

No, there was this, I've seen them at Lala Palooza, but, uh, this was on exhibition grounds. I can actually tell you the year. 92, 90 summer of 92. Okay. So in 92, so, so 10, no, 93, 93. Okay. I'm trying to think of when, um, versus comes out. It might've been 93 for verses.

Okay. But they're already a going concern. And I don't know when you get into a sound garden, but for me, it was bad motor finger. Like a bad motor finger had Jesus Christ pose on it. And that song blew my fucking brains out. Like it was unbelievable. Bad motor fingers. The whole thing's pretty good of rusty cage and all that, but rusty cage is great. Yes. Johnny cash has a good cover of that too, as I think, but Jesus Christ pose just hooked fingers. The whole thing's pretty good of Rusty Cage and all that. But Rusty Cage is great. Yeah. Johnny Cash has a good cover of that too. As I think. But Jesus Christ Pose. Just hook that to my veins. It's a very frenetic song. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's one of those songs you can't turn

off in the middle of. If you're sitting in your car and you're listening to it in your parked you listen to the end because you just can't possibly Turn it off, but it gets your heart going right like I'm even now. Yeah, even now. It's gotta bring you back It's got to bring you back down before it ends for sure. Okay, you'll call 9-1-1 if I have a heart attack or something Right now. Oh a hundred percent because We're recording this and people will know you just walked away. She just, she's gone. Mike just dies. Mike dies.

And who's going to publish this? Please don't have a heart attack. Who's going to publish? I'm just so excited by Jesus Christ. But who's going to publish this episode? So okay. So when you do your Pucks in seven, a fiercely independent podcast of Ryan Payton, Payton, Payton, P-A-T-O-N.

But there's only one T Ryan Payton. Payton? Payton. P-A-T-O-N. I almost said Payton, but there's only one T. Payton. Okay. Payton's Place was a show. We're too young to appreciate. But okay. Who handles the technical aspect? He does.

So we both bring different things to the table, but he primarily handles the technical. I'm not going to even say primarily. He handles the technical aspect of it. So that works for us. Are you in the same room or you do it remotely? We did the first year we did it together a lot and I always find it's better radio when you're sitting and you're looking at somebody and you can have the conversation. But then over time in terms of recording and bringing in guests and doing things in different ways and doing, taking the,

and bringing video into it. So we know, we don't, we do that remotely now. We're looking at each other, obviously, on, we use Riverside, we look at each other through Riverside and that's how we do it. Okay, very good. What's next for you here? You're turning 50, any minute now, checking my watch.

Are you 50 yet? Nine days or so, something like that. We would, we would have sang happy birthday to you at TMLX 17, but you won't be there. So you don't get that, that wonderful feature of FOTM singing a happy birthday in harmony. But what like, you know, you got, I I'm worried about your 10 10 gig. Cause I, I don't know why. I just feel like anybody working in news is going to be chopped. Listen, I have several fabulous gigs. I'm freelance, you can lose one or two.

No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not where I'm taking this. I enjoy all of them for different reasons. I'm freelance, I have no pension, no benefit program, nothing with any of them. I actually I do have a contract with 10 10. I'm part time. I'm on that. I have a contract. The other, everything else is freelance. When I write a piece for the West End Phoenix, it's freelance. Sure. When I do anything, it's freelance, but I have all these balls in the air and I like it. I like it for my personality. I'm restless in general.

I like to keep busy and I like to do different things. The idea of sitting in an office from nine to five, even doing something I relatively enjoy appeals to be none whatsoever. If it all goes away tomorrow and it could, and I recognize this 17 years at ESPN, they owe me nothing. I'm over 10 years at 10 10 grateful for all the work there. I love all the hockey work I do. It can all end tomorrow.

I understand that. And I will go back to tending bar like I did in my early twenties because I enjoyed doing that. And that is fine. This is the right attitude to have Victoria because it's a gig economy. You got a bunch of gigs. You're you're like you said, it suits your personality. You like to do different things. I enjoy it very much. You know, we're not that dissimilar. I don't have a, I don't have a dental. I don't have any dental plan. Now my spouse does. So that helps. So I get to go to my spouse opted out. It's not the dental plan. I'm sorry about that. She didn't, I'm not the dental plan. She opted out of the drug plan. And so there's no drug

plan and go as you'll probably learn in a 10 days. I think it is. We qualify at 50 for the shingles vaccination. Hot diggity, can't wait. I said to my doctor, I turned 50, I go, okay, so what happens when you turn 50? She goes, okay, there's only two things, like I don't know if she has a list or whatever. Two things click in at 50. You can get a colonoscopy,

which I didn't need because I had one already. And she said, you can get the shingles vaccine. And I'm like, oh yeah. And she goes, yeah, like it's covered for 65 plus, but at 50 you can get it. You just got to pay out of pocket if you don't have a health plan or whatever. And I literally did this last week. This was the big thing I did. I went and I paid out of pocket because my wife, for whatever reason, she did the math, which is a good, I guess you're supposed to do the math. She did the math and opted out. So this is now I'm all my, uh, my meds and my, my shingles vaccine, this like coffin up cash.

Are we going to talk about mammograms now? Because that's a, when do they celebrate? Is that 50? Isn't that earlier? So it just went earlier. So it used to be 50 and they just lowered the age, which is a very wise. I love talking about mammograms. There's a Simpson's joke. I think Bart Simpson, there's a T a very wise. I love talking about mammograms. There's a Simpson's joke. I think Bart Simpson, there's a T shirt and Bart Simpson saying, get a mammogram, man. Okay. And every time I hear mammogram, I think of Bart Simpson saying, get a mammogram, a ma'am, ma'am. I think he says, man. Okay. So, uh,

what age does it kick in now? You said 50. This is horrible. I really should know this. It used to be 50. And I was looking forward to doing that unless you, if you have issues and you request one for good reason, you get one. Okay. Um, I believe now it has either dropped to 45 or 40. My guess is 45. Somebody's going to tweet or blue sky you and tell me that I am incorrect.

I apologize in advance, but they did just lower the age. And I think that was a very good call. Okay. Someone is on the live stream so you can fact check this J ho, but they did just lower the age. And I think that was a very good call. Okay. Someone is on the live stream so you can fact check this J ho, but he's saying that's the episode when the Simpson sold out was the get a, they sold out and they, the merchandise, they put their logo on everything. And one of the things they were selling out to do is get a mammogram man. So you're looking forward to this mammogram.

I know in what sense. I don't know. I just, I've got to tap out of this one. Like, uh, it's important. In terms of acting as an adult and taking a responsible route. Yes, I am. Are you going to get this? In terms of actually having the procedure done, not so much rather do other things, but it is definitely a necessity. That's for sure. Are you going to get the shingles vaccination? Probably. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Cause that's like a non-gender thing. Okay. So, okay. Just, it's about 200 bucks. I just want you to get two of them. Okay. But you got it. Okay. I need to hook up with your spouse. Okay. That's what I need to do. I need these things covered. This is ridiculous here. How do you feel about turning 50? Fine. Like it's just a number. You don't have any like, Oh my God, I'm getting older and now my back's getting. I felt more worried about it a couple of years ago than I do now. I don't know why that is. What changed? I'm not sure.

Time probably solves most things. Just approaching it now. I think also too, a lot of my friends have reached it and passed it and they are exactly the same. It is. It's one of those unlike 40, 50 were your parents and 50 were your parents when you were a teenager or older. It's not like they were your parents when you were a kid. So now they're,

now you're older. And I think that was a little bit stuck in my head for awhile and it isn't anymore. Okay, very good. So you're happy with what you're doing in the gig economy and you wouldn't you wouldn't change anything here and I'd like more money. Can we arrange that? Everybody can pay me a little bit more. Have a good gig. Do you live with your spouse? This is a husband. I don't know.

Yes, I've been Larry and I've been together for 20 areas. I like the name Larry. Do you Larry and I've been together for 25 years. We've been married for 14, but we've been together for 25. Okay. So Larry, I just think I just like, I have to say it like that. Larry. Oh, he's going to appreciate that. Larry. I just dig it. Okay. So you live with Larry. Yes. For quite some time now. Okay. Never know in 2020, where it could be a unique arrangement. Okay. Larry has a good job. He's an IT manager. Yes. So Larry has a good, so Larry, this is now it all makes

sense. It took us about an hour to get honest to goodness. It's something that I am very grateful for and I hope to mention to him more. I probably should mention it to him more often than I do, but his stability for sure gives me a little bit more freedom. There's no question of that. Bless your heart, Larry. If you're listening, my buddy, Bob Willett, who, uh, was, he's had a lot of gigs over the year, but he was program director

at these chorus stations in Kingston and then chorus did what chorus has been doing lately and they said nope and they kind of lop it all off or whatever and Bob Willett gets his like severance and it's like your services are no longer required and Bob's kind of lost in the wilderness because all he knows is radio he He loves radio. He's applying for everything and radio doesn't seem to want him like radio is You know, he's a 48 year old dude and radio has few jobs as it is Like there's not a lot of opportunity for Bob. Well, that's out there. But what Bob has Which is can't state this enough Bob has a spouse with a good job And Bob can afford to do pay as you go by the hour, Indy 88 fill

in because Bob doesn't have to worry about his money, paying the mortgage and feeding the kids and all this jazz because Bob has a spouse making real money. That's everything Victoria. It's a, it's a big help. Absolutely. Okay. So if you didn't have Larry, if Larry, that's an interesting, I know where you're going with this and that's an interesting question.

I've thought about it from time to time. Would I still be doing what I'm doing if I was single or if maybe I was with somebody else who was also in the same field? Like if you had to, I don't know, support a family or fight with your income solely or pay the mortgage or the rent or whatever. If I had to support a family, no, I don't believe I would embrace the gig work as much as I do right now. No. You'd be working in a call center. I would like to set my sights a little bit higher. I am educated. I could probably do something.

You went to Western, okay, but you know, no offense. And then I went to Seneca after that. So I actually have like six years of post-secondary education. Okay, but call center, good honest work, Victoria. There's nothing wrong with it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It would be, it would not, it's not necessarily the work, but they don't make a great deal of money. If I'm supporting a family, then I would shoot for dollars. Absolutely. And maybe do something I didn't like very much. So once again, shout out to Larry.

For sure. Good guy. Okay. On our way out, we're going to review here. Okay. Because I feel like we got to know each other a lot better. I enjoyed my hour with you. I hope he says question.

No, I'm questioning. Is it reciprocal? We had a nice time. I have this enemy. I'm questioning is it reciprocal? Andy Kim down here on Monday, and I think at the end of the show He was gonna just smooch me for an hour like he loved me He's looking at me with these these big brown eyes like I love this guy He says as much on the show and I'm like I feel like this guy Andy Kim fucking loves me But here I'm sitting I don't know if Victoria likes me.

Like I can't tell. Was this a good experience for you? I've really enjoyed myself. Yeah. Okay. The conversation. Sometimes you're reserved in a sense where it's hard to tell. I have no, I'm not called reserved. I reserved is not. All right. Get another great legs in you. Let's get that Victoria out here. Reviewing though, you are still writing for ESPN.com. Yes. Very prestigious place. I'm very lucky. Yes. And that's been many years.

17. 17 years. Your voice can be heard on the mighty 1010 as you broadcast from Aging Court at the CTV studios there. You've been doing that for a long time. In two spells, yes, since 2013. You know, the devil's in the details. We'll just say since 2013. Okay. Meanwhile, if sometimes including like now we can hear you on SiriusXM, you're on the NHL network. Here and there, yes. You have submitted freelance, some wonderful prose that has been read in the West End Phoenix.

I've written for other publications as well. Yes. But, but they've been more regular. Name check a few if you want. No, no, no, no, no. It's all right. Actually, you know what? I will. Yeah.

There's a new magazine that's coming out covering the PWHL called Ice Warriors. And there's a piece it's just released the last two or three days. And I did an interview with Taylor Heisey who plays for the Minnesota Frost. And it's a really fun interview and I enjoyed it very much. So you're writing for all these great publications. That's amazing. And of course, Pux and Seven. Go to your podcast app of choice and search for Pux and Seven. You'll find this wonderful show you co-host with Ryan Payton.

And that's like your baby, you own that and you're thoroughly enjoying that. It is my favorite gig, yes. Yeah, because it's yours. It's a big difference between, oh, you know, you don't own these Bell Media Airwaves. You don't own... I wouldn't be working at all if I did. No, it sounds like they have less money than you do, okay? It sounds like they need some cash, is what I hear. So they're so poor. They're rich. That's how that works. I don't know that math, but bottom line is you've got, I hope I didn't miss any of these gigs. No, that's about right. Yeah. But you can add now to the bio, you can add FOTM. You're now a friend of Toronto Mike. It was a real

pleasure. I really enjoyed it. And maybe FOTM goes first and then you go FOTMESPN.com 1010 Pux and 7 SiriusXM. West End Phoenix and this new publication which I just forgot the name of. What is it? Ice Warriors. Ice Warriors. Amazing. Okay, Victoria Maddy Ash, the most important thing for us all to remember is I nailed the pronunciation of your surname. M-A-T-I-A-S-H. Very straightforward. Maddie Ash I got some bad intel, but then I got straightened up just before recording time and I did everyone proud

So thanks for making the track. We're gonna take a photo by the Toronto tree, but do not leave Oh, you know what? I never gave you one of your gifts Wireless speaker my goodness, I can't believe this so that wireless speaker, my goodness, I can't believe this. So that wireless speaker, Victoria, will sound great as you listen to Alice in Chains and you listen to Pearl Jam. Fucking love those bands. We have the same musical taste, okay. But Al Grego co-hosts a show for Minaris,

it's called Yes We Are Open and season seven is dropping now. He went to Winnipeg and he spoke with the twin sisters who co-own Jenna Rae Cakes. Their dream began 15 years ago in their small apartment sparked by an episode of Cake Boss and it grew into a legitimate business despite numerous legal and logistical hurdles. So find out how they triumph over these tribulations. That is the latest episode in season seven of Yes We Are Open. And you can listen to it on your new speaker, Victoria. Thank you very much. Looks lovely.

And you know what? There's a measuring tape. I don't need to know what you measure with it. It's none of my business, but that is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of this Community since 1921. I'm going to keep this in my car. Always, always have a measuring tape in your car. I knew you were smart. I knew you were smart. And I now know you're educated. The world's your oyster.

Happy birthday. Happy 50th coming up. That's a wonderful milestone. And I can attest to the fact it's OK on the other side. It's survivable. You're going to be OK on the other side. It's survivable. You're going to be okay on the other side. And that brings us to the end of our 1,585th show. I am on blue sky at torontomic.com.

Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca. My latest episode is Cliff Hacking from RecycleMyElectronics.ca. We literally recorded this morning. If I'm punchy, it's because it's the second and a back-to-back and we didn't have a backup goaltender here. Raymond James Canada, Monaris, and Ridley Funeral Home. Who's next on this program?

Do you know Victoria? Let's find out together, okay? All right, I'm going into my calendar. Victoria can attest to this. And I'm looking at my calendar and I see my next guest on Toronto Mic'd is, oh wow, it's Ralph Ben-Murgy and Brent Bambery together in the basement. Ralph Benmergy and Brent Bambery, they worked at CBC together for many years, together in

the basement. Are you excited, Victoria? It sounds really cool. So join us then. That's happening Monday. Peace and love! Cause everything is rolling green Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name

And I've seen the sun go down on Sacre-Cœur