Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Why Megan Edwards Quit Radio: Toronto Mike'd #984

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

In this episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Vancouver radio and television personality Megan Edwards about why she left the industry she loved. This is why Megan Edwards quit radio. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Patrons like you.

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I'm Mike. From TorontoMike.com'm Mike from Toronto Mike dot com. And joining me this week is Megan Edwards. Megan, I feel like we've already had a conversation because I've checked out your TikTok videos. Yeah. And there's a lot of them to check out too. Absolutely. In the series that you titled Why I Quit Radio,

how many different TikTok videos make up that series? I think I did 25. I know that's a lot. And some people on TikTok were like, okay, this is too much. But I really wanted to start from the beginning of my career rather than just what happened the last year or two and I've been working in radio for 15 years so I had a lot of ground to cover and I wanted to give the viewer a sense of kind of how I started what was going through my my mind and why I'm so disappointed as to what happened.

Yeah. Well, you needed to give it some context and this is going to make me look, my kids would say I'm a noob, but like what is the time limit on a TikTok video? I mean, the maximum time you can put a video on was three minutes. So most of my videos were three minutes yeah okay and really i mean it's quite the uh i will say i watched every single one of these videos and i you know back to back to back basically and i'm i'm basically and i want to shout out somebody really quick because i'm not on tiktok because i'm an old man but uh fotm steve leggett he's a friend of toronto mike he's on Tik TOK.

He watched your videos and he, he reached out to me and said, he said, Mike, you're the king of real talk. Megan has something to say. And then I went to your Tik TOKs and I said, I would love to chat you up and just,

I think this is like a little bit of a, like instead of doing three minute bites, like here we can just have a conversation and then I can kind of ask all the questions that like listeners would want asked and we can kind of get complete perspective on all of this. Let's do it. So if people want to see the, um,

tick talks that inspired our conversation today, uh, you are, and I love this handle. You're at a radio killed the radio star. that inspired our conversation today. You are, and I love this handle, you're at Radio Killed the Radio Star. Yes, I am. Yes, that is my TikTok name.

I might be putting the videos up on my Instagram as well, which is at It's Megan Edwards. But we'll see about that. It's mostly on TikTok right now. And again, I'm Toronto Mike, not Vancouver Mike. So I'm going to have some questions in terms of what we're talking about. But spell Megan for everybody because I know there's a few different ways to spell Megan, but your name is Megan Edwards

so when we're looking you up and everything, spell Megan for us. Mine is the easiest. Spelled M-E-G-A-N. Simple, straightforward, to the point. And like a good Tarantino movie, we'll give the ending up front, which is the ending of the story is that

you quit radio. So that prompted these TikTok videos and to get the same kind of perspective you gave in these videos, would you mind taking us back? And again, I feel like we're friends

with all that time I spent watching you chat me up. You watched a lot. You watched a lot. What's 25 times three? I'm terrible with math. You watched a lot of minutes. I can even do that math. That would be 75.

So that's an hour and 15 minutes. Well, God love you for doing that. And it's funny because you do a few in one day so you'd have a certain hairstyle and i was like and then the next episode would be like how many different hairstyles do you rock i mean right now i'm living on vancouver island so it's very chill here i usually have it up like this like in a bun a messy bun um the last few videos were hair down straight and with a little bit of wave in it but that's because i was in vancouver doing some uh work so i had to look

presentable so it's usually i usually rock in the bun these days uh but i can do most things with my hair you should see the colors i've had over the years well and i think i saw a couple of videos where you had the wet look i felt like we were back in the 80s. I don't know if you came straight from the shower or what was going on there. Yeah, I was literally just like, I put a little bit of stuff in my hair, scrunched it all up, and I was like, I'm going to do some videos. I would try and do like three or four videos a day. And I'd be, like you said, I'd be in that look look that day. And then the next day I'd be rocking something else. Usually sweatpants though. Yeah.

Well, that's mandatory, I think, in the pandemic. So we got to get this context. Like who the heck is Megan Edwards for those of us who live in, don't live in the Vancouver area, but let's start. Like, if you don't mind, take us back to Halifax. I took a note, you and I'm using your words here. So nobody get mad at me, but you were the mind, take us back to Halifax. I took a note. You, and I'm using your words here so nobody get mad at me, but you were the station bitch. Yep.

I mean, I felt like I was mostly the station bitch in Vancouver more than Halifax. In Halifax, sure. I was doing station bitch work because I was brand new. I was 20 years old. I was in radio. I was still in school when I got my first like radio weekend job. So of course they always do this to everyone. I mean, I'm not sure

about newbies now, but at the beginning, then you would work like, I don't know about this for you, Mike, but like, I would work like 30 days in a row. Like when you first start, they're just like, yeah, she'll do it. She'll do it all because she's new and she has to, you know, we'll get someone else who will do it. If not.

No. Uh, the expression I almost said, actually, I just read this and part of it, I don't agree with, but I just read this CBC piece and all these expressions we're not supposed to say anymore. And one of the,

uh, things I'm not supposed to say is, uh, what I was about to say, which is, is this because you were the low person on the totem pole? Like, is this, is this why? Like, so is it like, is it like last in, I was going to do like a county and life method,

but you basically, you were most recent person there. Therefore you had to do what you term the, the bitch work. Yeah. I was the new person there. In terms of announcers, I was one of the youngest. I was doing the bitch job. Like, who wants to work on the weekend? Nobody. The station bitch works on the weekend.

Like, so, yeah, I was last in, one of the youngest, doing weekends but also fill-in. And then they would have people that would leave for vacation, so I'd be doing their fill-in. And then someone else would leave for vacation, so I'd do their fill-in. So there was zero days off in this mix. And I've heard from a lot of people who started in radio, this was their experience as well. started in radio this was their experience as well but when you are 35 which I am now you don't want to be doing station bitch work and so I can almost understand why I was doing that at 20 but not at 30 to 35 okay and uh you you stated in one of the t videos, I think that first one that you would work, for example, 30 days in a row, you said. Yeah, I would.

I mean, I think at that time I was filling in for somebody who was doing the midday show. He was on vacation. And then I still had my weekend show that I had to do. And days off, I mean, what are days off? And Megan, you're not going to name stations, is that right? I noticed you tried not to name stations. I would love to name every station and every person,

but no, I won't be just because, you know, legal stuff. I feel like it's safer not to. Okay, fair enough. So you're in a station in Halifax and this is going on. And why does it end for you in Halifax, and this is going on. And why? Why does it end for you in Halifax radio? I got laid off. You know, radio, you're gonna get laid off probably at least once in your career. And God, I think it was like four and a half years in, and I was actually doing well. So I went from station bitch there to being the midday show host,

having stat holidays, having weekends off. I was like, Oh yeah. Like making a salary of $24,000 a year. Yes. It was a, yeah. $24,000 a year. Um, and then, uh, they laid me off in summer of 2011 and put a ryan seacrest syndicated show in middays which ouch but ryan does not need that money i did um so then i had always wanted to leave vancouver anyway and i had a friend who was living in vancouver she was like come on out so you moved to vancouver so you leave halif, but are you from Halifax? Like, is that where you were born and raised? Yeah, I was born in Halifax. I grew up in Dartmouth and I moved when I was 25. And as I recall, like it's basically the same city, but you have to throw a loonie in a

bucket or something to get from one to the other. Am I misremembering my visit to Halifax? I mean, Vancouver is quite a bit bigger. Oh, no, no, no, no. I mean, Halifax? I mean, Vancouver is quite a bit bigger. Oh, no, no, no, no. I mean Halifax and Dartmouth. Oh. Why do I have a memory of visiting Halifax and I was staying in Dartmouth and I had to, I feel I had to throw a loonie

in a bucket to get from one to the other. Do you know? Yeah, I mean if you were going across on the ferry, yes, maybe you did. Okay, well you know what? This memory may have been faulty here, but I feel like there was some toll or something to get from. Oh, oh, oh, if you drove across the bridge. Okay.

Yeah, on the Dartmouth side going to Halifax, you would have to, yes. Oh, my God. Okay. I haven't thought about that in so long. Yeah, you would have to put a loonie in the basket almost. Because to put it in Torontoonto like in toronto perspective be like okay oh you're in toronto and it's like i want to go to mississauga and you'd have to use the highway to get to mississauga you'd have to like literally throw a loonie i remember tossing a loonie into some kind of a yeah so anyways so funny honestly that didn't i didn't remember that because now everybody

for the most part, has this thing in their call called a Mac Pass. And it's like right on your, like near the mirror. And it just opens the thing for you already. So I haven't thrown a loonie for quite some time. I also haven't been to Halifax in two years. Okay, yes. You got transponders now.

Okay, so the loonie might be just for the tourists maybe who don't have the. Maybe, yeah. You wouldn't have a Mac Pass. Okay, so now we've. So just for the tourists, maybe, who don't have the... Maybe, yeah, you wouldn't have a Mac Pass. Okay, so now we've... So, by the way, that sucks too. And we're going to go into some of the reasons why you quit radio. But I would think it would be awful that your local and live radio show in a pretty big market... Halifax is not a tiny market.

It's not Toronto or Vancouver. But still, the fact that that would disappear overnight because they were gonna you know press a button and syndicate a big American show like Ryan Seacrest like that sucks oh it was like a dagger to my heart I know that's dramatic but that's what it felt like at the time I was I was only 25 and I had just gotten back from a trip to Germany so I'm like on a high like ready and ratings were gonna star I was ready to go. So I'm like on a high, like ready and ratings were going to star. I was ready to go. And then they were like, um, can you come in the office? And there's two guys sitting there and they hand me an envelope. I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. I know where this is going. Um, and I, I left and I didn't know what I was going to do. It took me about a month to really figure

it out. And then I basically left a month after that. Um, so in hindsight, best thing that ever happened to me. Funny thing is the two guys that fired me, um, the last time I was in Halifax. So two years ago, I was on the same flight as them from Vancouver to Halifax. And then they, they invited me to come to the, um, air Canada, what's it called? The Maple Leaf Lounge. And hang out with them. And I was like, you guys owe me this. At least for firing me 10 years ago. I was hoping the story was going to be something like,

oh, you went home to Halifax and you went to pick up a burger at McDonald's and these two guys were working the drive-thru. That would have been even better. But no, they were chilling in the Maple Leaf Lounge. So they've got some money. But it was funny to me to run into them of all people. And again, now we've got you in Vancouver, but first I have a quick question about the

Ryan Seacrest thing. So you mentioned your salary was what, $24,000 you said a year? $24,000 a year, yeah. So again, my brain always thinks, oh, it's cheaper to syndicate Ryan Seacrest than it is to get actual human bodies to do things. But I'm surprised that it's still, even at $24,000, like it was still deemed, it's probably still cheaper to syndicate a program

like the Ryan Seacrest Show. I mean, I don't know. What do they pay for Ryan Seacrestrest show for a year i feel like it'll be more than 24 000 but i guess they wouldn't have benefits for ryan seacrest and yeah maybe they thought he'd just do better because he's ryan seacrest they're probably thinking ratings i mean that that station is obsolete anyway now so obviously ryan's secrets did not help them at all ryan couldn't save uh that's right you can save them no okay so now we have you in vancouver and how do you how do you get back in the game when you move to vancouver so i uh my music director from halifax my previous

music director had moved to vancouver and he was i was asking him, I was like, Hey, like, you know, do you know anything? There was a new station starting at that time. I didn't apply for it at first because I wasn't sure what was happening, but then he told me he saw a posting for, um, swing announcer at this huge Vancouver station. Uh, I applied for it, didn't get swing, but my boss called me and he was like, Hey, we've got one shift a week 8 a.m until noon on saturdays do you want it i was like yes just i need to get in there somehow

so yes okay so if my math is right that's uh you got you got four hours a week that you can work at this uh we won't name the station but this is a big vancouver Yeah. Yeah. It was, it's a big, still is a big Vancouver station. And, uh, yeah, I was given $25 an hour, um,

you know, once a week. And for me at that time, I was used to like hearing $12 an hour. So when they were like $25 an hour, I was like, Oh my God, this is amazing.

Yes, of course I'll do this. See everything, everything is relative. Okay. So again, I'm me and my, my great math skills. So I see four, four hours, you're getting four hours a week at 25 bucks an hour. And my math skills tell me that's about a hundred bucks before tax. Before tax. Yeah. So $400 a month before tax. Yeah. Okay. And what about though, a month before tax yeah okay and what about though uh like tell me about you know life as a part-timer making 25 bucks an hour uh were you at least do they treat you well like tell me how it was there

uh at that time the radio station was not owned by this massive corporation that is now owned by and i i liked it i didn't see many people because i was there on the weekends uh people i did see were great um and when i did go there on the weekdays it was a fun building people brought their dogs i mean this is very vancouver i don't know about toronto but like people bring their dogs everywhere in vancouver they could bring them to the station. It was very chill, very, it was what radio is meant to be. I always thought so. Yes, I was treated well then I think, um, as fairly as they could about a year into that job. Um, cause of course I had a Monday to Friday sort of thing going on and that fizzled out and I just messaged my boss I was like hey is there can you help me I'll pour your coffee I'll be an assistant I don't care but like can I do something

in the week for you guys and he was like well you know what you can gather traffic and send it to the announcers the afternoon drive announcers I was like cool I'll do it that was 2013 uh so I started doing that Monday to Friday plus Saturday morning at that point. And cause you're, you're literally begging for hours here because, uh, you know, four hours a week and you're, you're wanting much, much more than that. Yeah, absolutely. And I, and I really wanted to, I wanted to be a part of the station full time. I mean, even back then, I think I, I asked my boss, can I do late nights? Like they had an announcer that would be done at 2am. I was like, can I do 2am till 5am? Is there any, because I know a lot of

stations don't like to have voice tracks, but I, so I was like, hey, can I do it? Can I be the person? But it was a no to that. I was always asking. Okay. So I know at some point you will do a fill-in for somebody who goes on mat leave, but maybe, maybe give us a bit of detail on, uh, you know, how you were doing prior to that. And then how life was for you at the station when you took on that, uh, mat leave fill-in role. So by that time, so at first, when I asked you the traffic, I was literally collecting it and sending it. We moved to a new building, I was literally collecting it and sending it. We moved to a new building because we were taken over by a large corporation.

And then they asked me to actually like do the traffic myself, like being like, hey, I'm Megan Edwards. Here's the traffic. Yeah. So I was like, OK, great. Even better. Like my voice is on air now. And sometimes I could do a little banter with the, uh, drive announcer, which was, is always fun. Um, so that was fine. I mean, it was six days a week, like I said, and then a lot of the time, especially in the summer, I would be filling in as well. So if I was asked to do mid days, I'd come in to do mid days, right after mid days, I'd go into traffic and sometimes they forget to give me a day off as well. So I was like, wait a second.

I'm going, I'm like backtracking here. Like this feels like Halifax circa 2007 here. But were you the, again, I'm using your terminology because this is some inside baseball. But at this point, this new station in Vancouver that just got purchased by a very large media company, are you now the station bitch at that station? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And to be fair to them, I was going to, I was just trying so hard to move ahead that I was like, okay, cool,

I'll do it. I'll do it. Not really realizing that, um, I deserve to be paid for some of the work that I wasn't getting paid for. And I was going to crash mentally. Like I just didn't really realize that. So when I say I wasn't getting paid for some things, it was, I was doing some TV things. Um, I asked if I could do entertainment updates. They said, yes, I did them. And I felt like i proved myself after a certain amount of time and there was and then i said can i be paid for this the answer was no then i started doing national updates for them i was asked if i could be paid for that the answer was no until about six years into it and the host of the show said that we need to be paid he was like these

people need to be paid and we started getting paid after that a little bit. Um, yeah. Yeah. Part of the part again, if I sound dumb, it's because I am, but,

uh, okay. So is this something like to me, if you're asking somebody to do something different than their, uh, typical responsibilities or whatever, like be on the TV. Cause you were,

you're a radio person and they're saying, Hey, do this work on the TV, be it local or national, regardless, I don't know how they can even ask you to do that without compensating you financially. Ah, I, they did, and I think they thought, and this is how I was programmed too in school, like if you don't do it, someone else will. So. So say yes to everything, right? Like you basically you're groomed in the school for radio or whatever media you're you're groomed to just say yes. And I will tell you this, Megan. So this is episode, you know, almost almost a thousand. And I've had so many radio professionals on the show. And I often ask, you know, like, like, how did you get this gig that we all know you from? And more often than not, they were there because they were willing to just do whatever. They said

yes to everything. And a lot of times that meant working for free, to be quite blunt. You know, interns, we'd call them or whatever, unpaid interns. So the fact that you were there, and then when there was a paid position that opened up you had the inside track because you had already been doing the damn thing for you know 18 months or whatever like well that's that's what i think is just like okay i understand at first you're not going to pay me i'm going to try and do this for you as best i can and then you see that i can do it you see see, I can do a good job. I put my everything into those TV updates. Like I would never have a piece of paper in my hand ever.

Everything was up here, memorized fully to talk about and to banter and to, you know, ad lib. I was, I was good. And I was, after a while I was like, on like I proved myself I should be getting paid and let's not forget I was hourly yeah so I didn't get a salary it's not like oh this person makes a huge salary she should just do these extra things no I wasn't so I wouldn't get paid to do those things so during that time before the mat leave 100% I was the station bitch um and yes i did really want to do those tv things but after a while i should have been paid because i was also adding to their show you know i did a segment on their show i should be paid i'm their employee now i know we're not naming the company and i respect that so i won't even say it but i have a question would you you

mentioned the word national at some point so i always think figured you're on the air in Vancouver and then you mentioned that you did some national spots so would you have been seen on a Toronto television set yes I would have yes I would have and I actually I was in Toronto for the MMVAs one year for the much music video awards and i said to the company hey i'm going to be in toronto for the mvas i can do an update for you so i did two updates that day one for vancouver and one for toronto but they were for the national show um and anytime i did this show it was seen throughout the whole country so one of my friends was at the airport and she took a video. She was like, Megan, I see you on TV. My brother-in-law was in New Brunswick or Quebec or something. And he was like, Megan, we all saw you on TV. You would have seen me throughout the whole country during those segments. Wow. Okay. This is wild. Because I

didn't know you had done national television. So, okay, I should watch more of these programs. I might have seen you. Okay, so again, in the TikTok, one thing you mentioned in the TikTok I thought was interesting is that you were so exhausted with no days off that you were actually sleeping at work. Oh, yeah. I have, I had a zebra print Snuggie, which I left there when I quit. I was like, you guys can have this as a memory because everyone's seen me in it. I would just put it

around. I would like put it around my arms and go like this sleep on my desk. Um, while I had, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes between updates. And when there was a guy working in front of me, I'd be like, hey, if you see the boss coming around, can you just wake me up? Just say like, or something, and I'll get up. But then after the pandemic, or during the pandemic, no one was there. So I just set my alarm on my phone and I would sleep at work. Wow, like you're clearly, you know, you're about to crash. It sounds like somebody who's going to crash. And to be honest, yes, I was. I didn't really know. I had been doing this for years. I didn't really understand what was going on in my brain. But there were times as well I would sleep overnight at the station, too, because I was doing something like a late night show.

sleep overnight at the station too, because I was doing something like a late night show. And then I was going to do like a morning show. So I lived, I lived in new Westminster, which is like a 20 minute train ride. And when it's super early mornings, there's no train running and I didn't have a car. So I'd be like, okay, then I'll sleep at the station. Um, yeah, sleeping on the floor is probably not the best sleep ever. No, not good for your back. Uh, no. Okay. Now when you, this opportunity, the mat leave. Okay. So, uh, I kind of know a thing or two about this where someone's going on mat leave. So they might be going away for a year and there's like, so when you fill in, are you still like an hourly employee or do you get the uh a year of the full time i got salary um i got her what she would have been paid i got her salary they didn't give me

any of her benefits which again like i feel like in radio you're you're not in the real world so sometimes i don't know if do you get benefits if someone takes over a mat leave do you get their benefits usually i don't know that's a good question obviously obviously you don't have to do that or they would be they'd probably comply with the labor laws like it sounds like they found a loophole where in that instance they don't actually have to extend uh benefits to you but i will say as a guy who recently uh started working for himself it's to me and i we have OHIP here in Ontario, but the fact that dentistry,

and there's so many things like therapists and dentistry and the eye care that are not covered by the provincial healthcare plan. And I just, for the life of me, I don't know why we don't find a way to move all of this stuff into the socialized medicine that we are so proud of in this country.

I mean, I have no idea why, because one of the main things I think that has happened, especially during the pandemic, is people's mental health has just gone downhill so much. I mean, mine was anyway before that, but like during the pandemic.

Yeah, pick it up there. So you're filling in now for a mat leave. Do things get better for you because of that change? Hour wise, yes. I was working very little hours. I was only working four days a week and two of the days were 10 PM till 2 AM. I had to sleep at the station after that sometimes because I didn't have a card. But I was like,

whatever, I'll just do it. I want this mat leave. And then Saturday, Sunday, 12 to five, I was working. So yes,

it was much better. I had three days off a week. I was like, what the hell is this? This is i had three days off a week i was like what the hell is this this is crazy um three days off a week and then at one point they were just getting me to i don't remember why they were getting me to voice track two of the weekday shows so i was like off five days so yes it was like like so good i started writing a book with my friend at that time, but I was like my mental health, it was almost like it was just too late at that time. It didn't really matter that I had

like more time on my hands to do what I wanted. It was almost like it was just too far gone at that point. So that's when I really, really started to crash during those that year. So as your, your depression sets in and your mental health starts to deteriorate, this would be a time where you would benefit a great deal from having some health benefits with this mat leave package. Like, oh, it would have been great. I know. OK, so, yeah. So in your TikToks, it sounds like it got so bad. I mean, you were describing thoughts of suicide. Yeah. Once the mat leave was over and I went back to the six day a week thing, I took a little pay cut. They gave me a $2 raise an hour. No, sorry, a $1 raise an hour. So I was making $26 an hour. Um, but I did take a pay cut because of course, you know, the mat leave paid a little bit more and I started

to struggle so, so much. And I was, um, I would, I would try and do all the things that they say to do, go work out, releases, endorphins, like all that kind of thing. And I just remember every day after I was done my workout, I'd walk back up the hill to my house to get ready for work. And I, all I could think about was I just don't want to be here anymore. Like I don't want to, I don't know why it happened then. I was always up and Adam, I was like, okay, I can do this. Let's do this workout. This is gonna be a good day. And then it would just come after the workout.

I just, I don't know. I just feel the realization of what I was. I had to go to work again that day and be unhappy at that place. And yeah. Now, when you say, I don't want to be here, do you mean like, I don't want to be at this radio station or I don't want to be on this planet earth or I don't want to be on this planet Earth? I didn't want to be on this planet Earth.

I was ready. I mean, I didn't make a plan or anything like that, but I was not wanting to be alive anymore. Wow. I thought it'd be easier if I wasn't. Not for my family, of course, but I thought it'd be easier for me if if I wasn't anymore the pain would go away and at this point do you do you talk to uh to your doctor or do you seek some kind of um I didn't talk to my doctor at that point a friend actually forced not forced but you know put the pressure on for me to go to the doctor and she said I'm coming with you and she got the doctor to the doctor told us about this

place we could go to to get me free mental health help which I didn't know I didn't excuse me I didn't know existed um and I got like 10 sessions with a therapist for free and he's still my therapist right now. And I also got a bunch of sessions with a psychiatrist, which is very important because sometimes you've got to be prescribed medication and the therapist can't do that. So the psychiatrist did. So what I think people are worried about when they go to their work and say, can you help me with, with mental health? We can you help me with mental health? Can you help me with benefits? It's because they don't have the money to do so. If you can reach out,

if you're still able to reach out, they're asking for help financially. That was my issue. A lot of therapists cost like 200 bucks each time you go. I could not do that. Radio Radio will return to The Real talk with Megan Edwards in a moment. I just want to thank some partners of Toronto Might, particularly Great Lakes Brewery.

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Such good quality. Shipped directly to your door. How safe is that? And again, good people. Notice the common thread here. And Ridley Funeral Home is no exception. They're here in New Toronto. So let's say

Lakeshore and 14th. Brad Jones is the FOTM there. Always a pleasure chatting with Brad. He's so easy to talk to and you can talk to him about anything. Go to RidleyFuneralHome.com to reach out. And thank you

Megan Edwards for the honesty here. Again, I have never worked in radio. I love talking to people and hearing their stories. Megan had a story she wanted to share, and I was more than happy to converse with her about it. And I'm learning a lot. If you like what you hear,

consider becoming a Toronto Mic'd patron. I don't do this often, but I'm going to do it right now at patreon.com slash torontomic. You can give as little as a dollar a month. Maybe you'll give more. Help fuel the real talk. I appreciate it. I'm going to continue to churn out the good content. If you like radio,

there's an episode from earlier this week with Gord Rennie, who was the technical producer for Aaron Davis and Mike Cooper, and most recently Darren B. Lamb and Maureen Holloway, and now with Greg Brady at GNR 640 and there's a lot of interesting radio chatter in that episode peace and love to all of you now back to Megan Edwards

now did you did you ever go to your uh boss or you know whoever you reported I guess your boss your boss who do you report to I guess that is your boss actually uh shout out to the arkells uh the boss is coming okay yeah so when you did you ever go to your boss and say like explain did you ever open up about how you were struggling with uh the environment and the workload and etc there was a meeting one time with the boss. This is before he left on mental health leave. And I just said, I didn't feel like the door was open to talk about it, but I just said, a lot of people are unhappy here. And he was like, well, that's something that, and he just moved along. So I did message the like HR.

I don't know why my voice keeps doing this. I kept messaging HR or I messaged HR a couple of times and asked them if I was entitled to benefits of some sort or coverage of some sort. And I was told no. And the last time I messaged them, they sent me a pamphlet. Oh, so, so you're feeling depressed. That's the name of the pamphlet it's like i think there's a simpsons joke in there somewhere i think i mean like i could there's a thing called google these days i don't know if they've heard of it i could google anything about myself i wanted to i don't need a pamphlet but they they do that probably to cover their asses you know well we sent we send to our pamphlet. Now, you know, we talked earlier about how there's this culture of like, you know, you need to say yes to everything. You know, you got to show that you're willing to do anything for free to get your foot in the door because this is your dream.

Of course, you want to work in this industry. And I wonder if there's a similar culture of like, don't complain or bitch or whine about anything because if you, if you're deemed to be a troublemaker, well, you're a part timer. You know what it takes to say goodbye to a part timer? Nothing. Right.

Nothing. And to be honest, I grew up doing modeling, acting, all that kind of stuff. And when you do acting and you're on set, you don't open your mouth. You are.

And like I was, i had a couple lines and some tv movies so i'm not like one of the stars or anything you shut your mouth you go on set right you do your lines don't mess around don't talk to people you do it and you leave like we don't want to see you and to be honest i don't know if this is good or bad but everyone said megan is so good to work with she's so great to work with and I thought now I think well of course I am I was because I didn't want to make trouble with anyone so I just said yes to everything I was a good little girl of course she wanted to work with me I didn't stir the pot well now guess what I do now it sounds to me and uh Steve pointed this out uh Steve leggett when he watched your tiktoks

and he says mike you got to watch this is that you're you're out of fucks to give yeah i and i think that's why like i said i grew up in this industry being a good sweet little girl being the one that everybody wants megan on their set she's so good. And now I'm like, fuck this shit. I don't care anymore. I'm also a woman now. I'm not a little girl. And I am speaking up because I feel like I've been mistreated. And I'm sure a lot of people have in the industry. In fact, I know they have, because since people have watched my TikToks that work in radio, they've come to me. Not the people I most recently worked with, but the people who have also left. They have come to me and been like, wow, we thought you were

making a ton of money. We thought you were happy. We thought Megan's got it made. No! I did not. I can speak from experience. There's a perception out there that this Megan Edwards, whose voice I hear when I'm commuting to work or home or whatever

shift you're on, and then when I'm, I don't know, I'm commuting to work or home or whatever shift you were on. And then when I'm, uh, maybe I'm seeing you on a red carpet and at the, at the much music video awards and you're on some national TV, there is an absolutely, and I've had this conversation so many times, but there is a perception that you're making do re mi, like, uh, you're pulling down, you know, I don't know what you're pulling down $300,000 a year or whatever you're making. Like, and then to find out you're actually, you know, don't know what you're pulling down three hundred thousand dollars a year or whatever you're making like and and then to find out you're actually you know working for 26 an hour and as you pointed out in the tiktok it it had a strange uh a strange detail there that it's probably uh would make sense for those in the know but that you were demoted from part-timer to freelancer. Yeah.

Which is probably, go ahead. And you know what? Yeah. I still don't really know why that happened. I think they were always telling me there's a certain amount of people, certain amount of heads we need in each department. Well, they annihilated a whole radio station, like an entire radio station. When was this? May?

Maybe in April or May? And I'm like, okay, you get, you got rid of 36 people. Like you can, you can, you know, give me a full-time employment, but, um, it just never really made sense. And again, I didn't ask because I was just like, okay, whatever. Like, I guess I'm freelance then. Well, you probably realized that if you didn't want to burn your bridges and kind of find yourself on the outside. And at this point in your career, you still want to have a career in media. So you probably were wise enough to realize, you know, you can't do what you're doing now,

for example, because now they're not going to call you. Like, I mean, that bridge is a torch. It took a while for me to get to this point of zero fucks given. Like, I have nothing to lose now. I left on my own accord. And whatever, you can't fire me now. Like, I just don't care anymore. I need to talk about it.

Okay, so we're going to get there because then I have more questions and we're almost there except a couple of things here one is that and again I respect you we're not naming any stations or any large what do you call it you called it a large corporation but these large conglomerates fine we're not naming where you worked

but theoretically there could be and you expressed this in a TikTok video so I'm not speaking at a school here, but there could theoretically be some massive hypocrisy at play, in your humble opinion, that here you are needing benefits to get the mental health you need because of your workplace environment. And some, maybe this one, maybe not this one, but there are some large conglomerates in this country that have an entire day devoted to mental health. Yeah, there sure is. And when that day would come around every year and people would post about it and make it their profile picture and everything, it made my blood boil. Actually, last year I made a video and hid my face and I put up signs. I'm going to post it again on the day this month. Um, and just said what was actually happening. I

put down each sign. It would, you know, it was like a little write up on each one. And, um, it was funny to me how, and I said, this as well in my TikToks, some of the people that work for this company are some of the sickest people I've ever met. And when I say sick, I mean mentally ill. And my boss, like I said, was one of them. There was one time I asked for a raise, and he said, Megan, they just gave me a bunch more work and a couple more stations to manage and they didn't give me a raise so i don't know if they're going to give you a raise so he was sick and he ended up leaving he was like someone in radio that was in it for like 20 something years and he left because he his mental health suffered so bad and i just think if you have a day that raises money,

put a little bit aside for your employees, all of them, men, um, part-time freelance, full-time. Why do just full-time members get it? Because I was working more than all the other radio announcers. Yeah, this is tough, tough spot. Okay. Now you, you also introduced this, um, I suppose you were doing, you tell me of course, but you were doing a swing shift and evening host. You were doing this part time and they listed that they were going to hire someone for these two roles or maybe two different people for these two roles. So they, at some point a couple years ago, a bunch of people kind of left. It was a huge turnover that hadn't happened in years. So the midday show guy left, and they put the evening girl to middays. I'm trying not to confuse you here. One of the swing people left because she was just leaving radio in general.

And so now they have evenings and swing for upper grabs. Um, so during that time, me and another guy who was a fill-in, um, who was hired years after me, uh, we were filling in for evenings. Um, like one week I do it one week, he'd do it. Um, So I was still doing my traffic, then evenings. And while I was doing that, I was like saying, listen, I want this job. I really want this job. Every time I was done a shift, for the most part, I would send them a demo. Even though they know what I sounded like, I would send them a demo.

Because I was just like, listen, I want this. I want to do evenings now. Like, you know, let me get in on this. We did this. Honestly, it felt like for months. It felt like it was a three-month thing. It took forever. The day that I went in to be told, she said, we found someone else for evenings. I was like, okay. I kind of figured. I was like, okay. I kind of figured. And then when she was like, and we found someone else for swing,

I was about ready to trash the room. Like I was not happy at all. I was really angry, really, really angry. And that's kind of the start of when I realized I really am a station bitch. You guys realize no one will do the things I will do. So you can't put me in one of those positions because we will do the shit I'll do. Is that the straw that broke the camel's back? This moment you're told

basically they were going to hire someone else for you may have expected the evening host wasn't going your way but then when the swing shift goes to somebody else is that the epiphany the moment you realize maybe you need to leave the industry? Not then. I didn't think I was going to leave because that was maybe two or three years ago now.

But I did think, huh, okay. It just was this realization. And soon after that, they were again hiring for, I forget what it was. I think the Midday Show host then left and they were hiring again and I didn't even apply that time. So it was something had shifted in me, whereas before I would have applied. And I was like, no, no, I'm not going to apply now. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I was getting ready to do something. Right. Now, again, you've touched on this all over the place, but in your words, again, I'm going to quote you from your TikTok video, but this is a toxic work environment.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was toxic. I mean, I don't... There's not many people in the building anymore because of the pandemic like all of the like i said they they annihilated a complete radio station there so all those people are gone um no bosses no management is in the building no sales people are in the building um and people are unhappy there there were were, I would say, three or four people that actually left during a pandemic without the promise of another job.

And that, I said this before, that says everything to me. You're going to leave a company without the promise of another job because you're that unhappy. That says it all. That says it all that says it all and now i realize now uh of course the straw that breaks the camel's back is coming up here now because uh maybe give us a little context to go because you you suffered a great personal loss oh god how i'm gonna cry if i talk about this but it's fine um yeah i did um i lost my aunt in april

sorry no don't apologize don't let it out it's okay i'm so sorry for your loss thank you um yeah she uh she didn't commit suicide and and we had just done the pandemic I mean we had been like a year into the pandemic anyway so it was like people's mental health was not great and then it made me kind of question what I want in my life because I was like I was lucky enough I will say that I was lucky enough to work during the pandemic um where a lot of people were losing their jobs, I was grateful to have a job. But it also made me really think like I had more time all of a sudden, because they let me voice track one of my shows. And so I had like five days a week. So I had two days a week off, which was great for me. But then it really started making me think about life. And then

when that happened with her, which was obviously devastating for my entire family, and just made me think, like, this is not the kind of life I want to live. Like, if I can't be happy, and I wasn't, I was miserable most of the time, then what's the point? What is the point? then what's the point? What is the point? I think honestly, at that point I started, my mental health started cracking again, although I had had lots of help with, uh, my therapist and that sort of thing. And I was on medication. I actually think I started to, and I know I'm saying this as a joke and the TikToks, but I think I was starting to lose it. And yeah, it wasn't good.

It wasn't good at all. Is it fair to say that you were maybe showing behaviors that weren't typical of your nature? Like you were just acting differently? Yeah. I mean, I am a uh mouthy person anyway but i got mouthy too much at the wrong times i was creating fights with people issues with people and i didn't really know how i didn't know how to stop and i didn't i honestly like i think if i had to stop and I didn't I honestly like I think if I had gone any further I probably would have like wanted to check into a I don't know what do you call it psychiatric ward I don't know

I think I was having a bit of a psychotic break to be honest um and there was a couple of incidents where one time I got on a we were talking talking about the vaccine. I don't touch the vaccine conversations anymore, but before I was doing that and I got in a fight with this guy online, sent him a voice note, uh, being aggressive and he tried to call my work to get me fired. And that's when I kind of realized, I was like, you know what? I think I need to leave. I think I need to leave. That's the moment. So this person that you were picking a fight with on social media

escalated that to your, which is quite the move, by the way. But I guess this person felt threatened or whatever and went to your boss and escalated it. So I guess, does your boss call you in for, for a chat about that? Yeah, she called me in and she was like, and I explained to her what I meant by the comment. I also explained to her that he tends to do this with people.

I've seen him do this with people before. Cause that is quite the move. And she did, I, she did have a conversation. She was like, just don't talk to him anymore. Just like,

don't talk. And I was like, fine, I'm was like just don't talk to him anymore just like don't talk and i was like fine i'm good i don't need to talk but i realized i was like burning bridges left right and center all like and i was like this is not something i do like i need to i need to make a change a big big change and this is when i actually felt okay with leaving radio i thought you know what if i leave i don't I don't think I'll be upset. Well, as you learned with your, you know, the tragic loss of your aunt is that happiness is everything, right? This is like the, you know,

you come to realize that there's no job worth unhappiness. And at least you can make a case. Like if the job is paying a ridiculous amount of money, you can almost make an argument. Okay, this is the price of my unhappiness. But if it's paying $26 an hour and you hate, you know, well, you describe it yourself, but you feel the way you're feeling and you're as unhappy as you've described. Yeah, maybe there's this person escalating this fight to your boss is the very best thing that ever happened to Megan Edwards. I need to write him a card, honestly, and say thank you.

By the way, I was making $28 an hour. When they did not hire me for the evening show and swing, after I kind of lost it a little bit, they were like, oh, shit, we got to do something. So my boss took me aside and shit, we got to do something. So my boss took me aside and said, we're going to give you a $2 an hour raise. I was like, okay.

And let's remind all those people lucky enough to have a full-time positions. Let's remind them that, yeah, okay, $28 an hour. But if you get a cavity, right, Megan? Like, you know, that's going to set you. I don't know. I have, I'm now on my wife's spousal plan so I can get my teeth cleaned. But I can't imagine, you know, I mean, I'm just picking on teeth right now. I took a Blue Cross.

Like I have Blue Cross coverage. So I pay monthly for Blue Cross coverage because there was one time I went to the dentist. I had to pay $400 and I couldn't pay my rent I had to ask my dad and I am not I did not grow up asking my parents for money or to to help me in any way so asking my dad for rent at 30 years old was quite embarrassing for me so yeah so money's just one reason why it's so difficult to uh and again you're you're not you're in vancouver okay i'm in toronto and we talk about the price of living in this city and it's only gone up and we talk about it and then we go and say oh by the way we're only like in second place in this country because

i think it's worse than Vancouver. Honestly, it is. I was living in New Westminster, which I said was like 20 minutes outside of the city. There's no way in hell I could live downtown Vancouver. I was not making enough money, not to mention the fact that I had debt that I had to pay off. And it was extremely hard to do that. And also, I don't know about Toronto, but the,

the kind of culture in Vancouver is you go out to eat, like you get dressed up, you go out to eat. And so, yeah, I was guilty of doing that to have somewhat of a social life. Um, that's where my money sometimes would go, but it really made life. If I was making 300 grand a year and I didn't have debt, I was able to invest some money. I was able to actually live in a place that didn't have mice in it. That would have been, I probably would have been better for a little longer. Okay. So for those of us who are struggling with what does that mean? $28 an hour? Like, can you just help us out with this? The last full calendar year, I guess it would be for you in

radio is 2020. Is that right? Yeah. Can you guesstimate or remember an approximation of what went in your T4? The T4, what was that number? Do you have any memory of that? I think it was

probably because if you think about it sometimes i would do the doubles and work the extra hours and stuff like that i'm thinking 47 000 okay okay okay okay but again you're in you're in vancouver here and uh you you well you're not in vancouver because you can't yeah yeah i mean i wasn't i was i mean i was in new west but i was in van West, but I was in Vancouver. But $47,000 a year, I mean, that's before taxes and that's not that much. And you're working your ass off. And again, this is a toxic work environment. So I actually don't think, I don't believe, and this has nothing to do with radio, any industry in the world. I'm not trying to pick on radio here.

and this has nothing to do with radio, any industry in the world. I'm not trying to pick on radio here. But there is no compensation that is enough to justify having to work, sorry, yeah, work in a toxic work environment that you've described, like regardless of industry. No, I mean, like I said, if I made $300,000 a year, I probably would be doing a badass job that was super fun. So that would be fine.

But if it's as toxic as it was, I don't think I could have stayed even for that money. It was not worth it mentally. I mean, we have one life. And if you're not happy, what's the point? Right. And now as we speak right now, you're actually living in on Vancouver Island. that lived in Nanaimo. So I'm in Nanaimo. Um, and she was like, come stay with me for a little bit, get on your feet. Like you won't have to pay that much. It's going to be a little, you can just breathe because everything's slower here. Just, you can just breathe. Um, so I applied to be, um, a waxer. So I was waxing the JJs, uhs for a little while. And if you want the opposite of radio, that would be it.

But I was like, I want to wax 30 JJs a day. I would be happier doing that than I would be in radio. And at some point, obviously, maybe before the waxing or after the waxing, I'm not sure, but you give your notice to the radio station that you're out of there. So I went to, I came to the island for a day, like worked a day at the waxing place.

Right. And just to see if I liked it. And I said to her, I was like, listen, this just seems like a breath of fresh air, even though it was completely different

and not what I wanted to do forever because I'm not there now. But it just felt like the right move and I was I was just liking the calmness I just needed like silence is what I felt like I needed I just needed quiet and a couple days later I said to my boss I was like I need to talk to you I went into her so she was my new boss I went into her and I said um I just want to let you know that I'm going to be leaving. And she said, oh, well maybe we can get you a raise. I can see if maybe you can be part

time. And I was like, no, this is not a threat. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I gave them probably like six weeks notice. Cause I just wanted to finish up the month there. Um, it was like the end of May, I think by that time, something like that. And I was just like, I'll give you six weeks notice. I'm leaving at the end of July. And that's that. Now that's nine years you were there. You were making 28 bucks an hour when you left. There's a final email.

I want you to give us the details because it sounds like you went out with one more email. Yeah, I was like, I am not going to be that person who's like it was so fun to work here guys miss you all like no i'm not doing that i this is my chance right here and like like we talked about i was not looking to go to another radio station so if this burns a bridge then god help everybody who works there because it wasn't that bad i said to them you know i I've, I'm thankful for all of the experience I've had. And I am, I, I got to be on national TV. I got to do interviews. I got to do all the things that I really loved. Um, and the people there really

are great people. When I was doing right before I left, I was doing more TV stuff and they were just awesome. Like they were really great people. And I was doing more tv stuff and they were just awesome like they were really great people and I was so sad to leave that group of people especially the tv people and I said the people here are very talented but there is an air of unhappiness here that nobody talks about but it's there I said people leave and they don't have jobs to go to. And, you know, I said a bunch of things about people leaving. I was, it was very diplomatic. It was very nice. I wasn't like, fuck you, but not at all. I was very good with it. And I said, I just want to let you know that, you know, this is an unhappy workplace and something needs to be

done. Because you observed, of course, people were unhappy, they were overworked. As you said, they were sick. Yeah, people were unhappy, overworked, and just the energy in the building was trashed. It was just, I honestly, I would not want to walk back in that building. And you said the words right there. You said nobody talks about it. And I mean, now I'm thinking of this national campaign.

I think that, you know, and we're not naming names here, but there's a national campaign. Nobody talks about it. Well, maybe there should be some talking about it. I think so. I mean, I sat there and talked to my close friends at work about it, but like, I didn't really talk to any higher ups about it because I just felt like it wouldn't be taken.

Well, I didn't know what they do. I thought they'd fire me. And I thought that would be hilarious really, if they fired me for talking about mental health. But it didn't, it doesn't feel like a safe environment where you can talk, obviously, because I emailed one of the HR people, asked for help,

and she sent me a pamphlet. So I didn't feel safe at all. And, like, I mean, I've got a few questions here, but what's the reaction been to the TikToks? Have you heard from like, are you hearing from some radio people that think you're just a whiny suck or anything? Or has it been, give us straight goods. What kind of feedback are you getting?

I have not heard from any of the employees I worked with recently, probably because they are probably sick of me and probably want to be gone. Because I was at the end, I just couldn't stop. My mouth just wouldn't stop. I was just so ready to let it all out by then. I'm sure they think I'm annoying and whiny, whatever, but they haven't said that. To be honest, I've mostly heard really encouraging things from some people in radio. I don't know if any announcers have messaged me,

but people who worked in like promo and people who saw me and were like, we had no idea you were going through this. Like we saw you and we thought, oh my God, Megan's doing all this stuff. I'm jealous. Yeah. I was like jealous of what? So I've had a lot of people and people listening to the radio too, that were like, this happened. Oh my God, what station? I don't want to listen to them anymore. I've had a few people, few people say that.

Yeah. I mean, because let's, let's not forget, even though, uh, here in Toronto, you weren't on our radio waves, uh, but you're in the Vancouver area. It's fair to say you're famous, right? When you're on the radio, you're a famous person, right? it's fair to say you're famous, right? When you're on the radio, you're a famous person, right? I think if I said my name, people probably would know, but people don't really listen to radio a hell of a lot anymore as much as they used to. Like in Halifax, people knew who I was because it was smaller. I did everything there, TV, pageants, like whatever. I was on all kinds of

shit. So people knew what I was in Halifax uh but in vancouver not so much unless maybe you were like oh i work for blah blah i'm megan oh okay i listened to you but if you listen to that station you knew who you were because that's nine years of being all around that station so i mean that's a big station you must have been listening after hours because i was on like 24 seven. Maybe doing a traffic update or two. Megan Edwards. So I know you're like, you're okay with burning the bridges because of course, that's what you've essentially done here, which is why so few people do this, right? This is the reason people get screwed over by their industry all the time. And they don't typically do this because they think, oh, one day down the road, maybe I'll get an offer

or have an opportunity to revisit that industry and I don't want to close any doors. They're just trying to keep all these doors open. But would you ever, if someone heard this and said, that's the real talk I'm looking for, would you ever return to radio? Fuck yes. If I could talk like this, Yeah, definitely. Like, you know what? If someone

actually is like Megan Edwards, burn bridges with us. We're not hiring her. I'm like, why did I burn bridges? Because I spoke honestly about you not paying you not covering my mental health when you have a day every year where you raise money for it like that's really all i've done i haven't sat there and told everyone to fuck off right like i have been just very honest about what has happened so if that's burning bridges to some of those people fine but if someone wanted me to come on and do a radio or tv show where I could talk and say what I wanted to say, yes, I would be all over it. But these big corporations, they do not want you to say certain things.

They're risk-averse, without a doubt. The shareholders, they're seriously risk-averse. And if they smell controversy, they typically won't take a chance on it. I'm over that. I'm over that stuff. Like we people watch the news and listen to radio thinking they're going to get honest information and honest opinions. No, you're not. If it's a huge corporation, you're not. People are going to say what they are allowed to say. You know, when I was doing the TV stuff, one of the anchors had just gotten one of the vaccines and she was like,

I'm so sick. I can't even talk about it. I'm so sick from the vaccine. And then she goes on camera like, and the vaccine. Like, no. No. You're just telling me you're sick. You know, I just

I'm so over the bullshit. Would you, like, I mean, you must talk to other people at other stations. Is this, I'm curious whether this is a widespread issue with the industry or if maybe your station just had a localized toxicity issue. I honestly don't know to be honest i think anyone who's in radio right now um has not been talking to me uh because i don't think i don't think they're going to want to be associated with me at the moment because they know like i'm a what would you call it a whistleblower i don I don't know. In a sense,

because we don't mean to be quite honest when I saw the tick talks and I realized like, I would love to converse with you. It was because people don't typically, uh, deliver the real talk of this nature. Nobody in the industry will do this. Okay.

So anyone who's employed and I know people in the industry who are like, Oh, I need another 20, 30 years out of this industry. And they legit hate it when people who have left the industry attack it from outside. Like it's not fair to those who are still inside. So there's that whole. But maybe if more people start talking, then things will change for them on the inside. Like we have to stop being scared all the time.

I mean, I say that because now it's not my job. I understand people are just trying to make money, but there are lots of other ways to make money these days at TikTok is one of them. Having your own podcast is another one. Like it doesn't just have to be radio these days. And if you're sitting there unhappy 23rd and you have, you know, 20, 30 years in or whatever like is it worth it so i don't think a lot of the uh a lot of the current announcers i have not heard from any of them since the tiktoks have been posted because they probably won't want to be associated with me and i get it that's fine it's there they have to make money, but, um, it is what it is.

And okay. So as we speak in early January, just so we have a little perspective on how much time has gone by. Uh, what day did you start posting these, uh, why I quit radio, TikTok videos? Hmm. I think it was early December. Okay. So there's a bit, there's been enough time for Fallout. Okay, so I guess I really want to just say thank you because, you know, I wrote you an email. Thanks to Steve Leggett again, who said you should contact Megan Edwards. I wrote you an email.

We had an exchange. I'm going to put you on another show I produce, which I can't wait to hear you on that because those are a couple of people who worked in radio for decades and they're going to have an interesting perspective on this. I myself have just been fascinated in how the sausage is made or how the cake is baked, if you prefer that visual. And you really shone a light on some of the stuff we don't get to see.

And I thank you for your candid honesty and for sharing this story with me yeah no problem at all it was great thank you so much for having me and if you're ever i don't know what your life is like you've got the halifax action you got the vancouver island action is there ever any trips to toronto i mean you know what if i was offered a cool job where i could speak my mind maybe there would be i haven haven't been to Toronto in a few years, but I'd be down to go. Well, when you do visit and hopefully there's a good reason to,

I, here's what I can tell you. I got fresh craft beer for you. No joke. Okay. So Great Lakes Brewery will provide you with some fresh craft beer. That's brewed locally here. And do you like Italian food?

Uh, yes. Love. I'm making pasta right after this. All right. Well, Palma Pasta is a proud sponsor of this program and they want to hook you up with their delicious lasagna. So you get the lasagna, you get the beer. I'll give you a Toronto Mike sticker from stickeru.com.

You can even get the stickeru.com from Vancouver. And, uh, no, don't worry. I won't be giving you like a funeral. You won't need one. But I do have some very cool swag from Ridley Funeral Home for you next time you drop by. And by the way, when you say you're looking for like a radio gig where you can speak your mind and be yourself, that's called a podcast. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it would be great if there was one that was already kind of in the like already

up and running where i could get paid for it um right now i'm just gonna i'm gonna do tiktok for a while i'm kind of talking to somebody about potential podcast ideas uh but you know i gotta make the money and no 28 an hour anymore. And that, that brings us to the end of our 984th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Megan is at TheMeganEdwards. T-H-E, Megan Edwards.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. See you all next week. Your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy and green. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears.

And I don't know what the future can hold or do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow won't speed a day. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.

Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who, yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah, I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? I'm picking up trash and then putting down ropes

They're broken in stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine

And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray 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 Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and gray

Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms us today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Because everything is rosy now Everything is rosy, yeah everything is rosy and everything is rosy and gray.