Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dan O'Toole: Toronto Mike'd #341
Episode Date: May 28, 2018Mike chats with TSN's Dan O'Toole about leaving TSN for LA, returning like the prodigal son, his relationship with Jay Onrait, and so much more. This is the longest episode in the history of the podca...st.
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Welcome to episode 341 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.
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I'm Mike
from torontomike.com
and joining me is
TSN broadcaster
Dan O'Toole
Hi! I guess that's where I come in. I was just concentrating on this Dan O'Toole. Hi.
Oh, I guess that's where I come in.
I was just concentrating on this.
Great Lakes Brewery.
I thought we were in Mimico.
No.
In fact, I'm so offended you said that I'm ready to shut this whole thing down.
You are in New Toronto, my friend.
This is west of Mimico.
Oh, okay.
See, I don't know this area.
I didn't know it existed.
Let me educate you.
So let's go start from Mississauga.
Once you come into Toronto by the waterfront, you're in... Mississauga, that's where the airport is.
Yeah, that's right.
That's way north.
That's all I know about Mississauga.
That's it.
Okay, way north is the airport.
But on the south side, like by the lake, you've got...
It's called Long Branch.
And Long Branch eventually becomes New Toronto.
That's where you are right now.
And then as you get past Dwight, you'll hit Mimico.
And Mimico takes you to the Humber River.
That is the waterfront geography in Toronto.
Okay.
Do you feel, did you take notes?
No, no.
You got to write that down.
It's beautiful down here though.
No, no. You got to write that down. It's beautiful down here, though. No, thank you. And, you know, today's an interesting day where, like, there's a heat alert.
Like, people are warning, you know, seniors, get indoors.
You're going to die.
Really?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
What's the temperature here?
Let's check it out.
It's only 23, it says.
Okay.
Well, the warning today is that it's going to feel like 36, 37 degrees in Toronto.
Because of the humidity.
Right.
But down here, where you are now, it's like a good 10 degrees less.
Like, we don't have this heat issue.
Yeah, the humidity.
So you're in the right place.
Not a fan of the humidity.
I did not miss that while being in L.A.
As my grandfather would say, it's close.
That's what he called humidity.
Okay.
It's close.
It makes sense, because, yeah, I just call it soupy.
Yeah.
It's moist.
Like the 90s Canadian alternative.
Did you ever enjoy Canadian alternative rock from the 1990s?
I own every single Canadian CD from that time period.
Every single one.
Then I'm talking to my guy. Did you
own Fluke
by Rusty?
I was just going to say Rusty.
Are you being serious right now? Yes.
I was going to say Rusty because
they had that one hit and I did see them play.
Well, more than one hit. They had
Wake Me.
And if I fall asleep,
will you wake me up? They had that one. No, the really heavy song. Oh, Misogyny fall asleep, will you wake me up?
They had that one.
No, the really heavy song.
Oh, Misogyny.
Yeah, that John Waters did the video, or he was in it?
No, it was Bruce LaBruce.
Oh.
It was, yeah, Misogyny, and then they had a big song called California,
but they also had Groovy Dead.
It's so groovy when I...
And then they had the next album with Empty Cell.
So you really do remember Rusty.
Yes.
So while working up in Fort McMurray when I was cutting my teeth in the broadcast industry,
I went to a triple bill at a concert house there.
It was Rusty, Biff Naked, and Kim Mitchell.
Okay.
Holy smokes.
Listen to me.
That's a weird bill because Kim doesn't really belong on that list.
No.
He's not alt-rock.
He's just like rock, rock.
Yeah.
But the two guys, Rusty was here on Saturday.
Are they still playing?
Yeah, they played at the Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday night.
And so Rusty came to us to a house party after,
and was looking for some weed, and we didn't smoke weed back then.
So we're like, we got beer.
We got beer.
So the lead guy from Rusty, his name's Ken.
He lives in Sudbury and he's a bricklayer in Sudbury.
But, you know, they still do the odd gig.
They got back together in 2011 and they were here on Saturday and I was like fanboying
out.
Like I was just dropping the names of all my favorite 90s alternative rock bands to
see like oh
did you play with them are these guys assholes or whatever but you mentioned biff naked she lives in
mimico and she was here two weeks ago wow so i just got to get kim mitchell in here and i i got
the dan o'toole trifecta what is kim mitchell doing now because he's not doing q107 anymore
well no he's on a long list of like q personalities that got uh kicked out but uh which i'm going to
talk to you about talk to you about
in a minute.
But Kim Mitchell just does,
I'm sure he's just like touring as Kim Mitchell.
I'm sure he still does like summer festivals.
I am a wild party.
I remember the OPP hat for Patio Lanterns.
But one of my favorite bands of all time,
Watchmen.
From Winnipeg.
Yeah, brand new day.
I don't know how that album did not explode
it's got so many great songs is that the one of all uncovered on it or is that a different one
because that album with boneyard tree maybe it was called boneyard tree but boneyard tree and
all uncovered i thought that was like a i didn't know how all uncovered didn't explode but yeah go
on so uh and also headstones yeah one of my. So, and also Headstones. Yeah. One of my favorites.
From Hamilton.
Yeah, I remember seeing them in concert.
My sister and I went and saw them at the Pines,
which is just outside Peterborough, Ontario.
And I was blown away because,
what's the lead singer's name again?
Hugh Dillon.
Hugh Dillon.
He's a great actor too.
Hugh Dillon.
This is right when he was,
I believe in the middle of all his addictions.
Right, right, right.
Lit cigarettes being thrown from the side of the stage,
catching them in his mouth, spitting on the crowd.
It was just, I'm like, I've never seen a showman like this.
You ever heard of Jason Agnew?
Jay Agnew does a wrestling.
He used to do live audio wrestling.
Anyway, he was here earlier last week,
and we kick out the jams.
In fact, Jay did this.
We'll talk about it. But people come over and we play their 10 favorite songs of all time and then
you tell me why you love the song. Maybe
one day you'll be back to do that, although you live
100 miles away, but we'll talk.
Jay Agnew, he played a Headstone
song and he had some great stories about
Hugh and he was kind of, yeah, in the midst of
his addiction, he was a
great guy and he's clean and sober now,
but he had some rough years there.
You know what the one headstone song is
that never gets any radio play?
Judy.
I don't even remember Judy.
Judy, she hates her parents.
Judy is all alone in this world.
He had the Pet Sematary song, right?
Like, I don't want to be buried in a pet cemetery.
I don't know that one. I don't know that one.
I don't know that one.
His songs were great.
And they had a song, and I remember I would hear it on Edge 102 or something in the middle of the day,
and it had a line like this,
Paranoid little fuckers.
And I remember thinking, like, young Mike was like,
Oh, they can say fuckers at like 2 p.m. because it's just in the song there.
And then, of course, the Tragically Hip.
I had a great father moment yesterday. Buckers at like 2 p.m. because it's just in the song there. And then, of course, the Tragically Hip.
I had a great father moment yesterday.
Driving back from Toronto, we went to Jay's daughter's birthday party with my two daughters.
And my kids were singing 50 Mission Cap in the back seat.
And I'm like, here, I'll put it on. So we all sang along because they know a bunch of hip songs now.
Yes.
So I'm like, I am so proud to be your dad
right now. I said that to them out loud. That's
a great story. How old are your children?
Ten and seven, little Sydney and Ruby.
Oh, nice.
And that day that
Gord died,
I had to drive them to school that morning,
and every single radio station in Toronto
was playing the hip. I was a
mess. Just a mess. You and me both. For weeks afterwards, I was playing the hip. I was a mess. Just a mess.
You and me both.
For weeks afterwards, I was actually a mess.
Well, I bought that in the day that he passed away.
Oh, wow.
All the proceeds went to the Chenny Wenjack Foundation.
But that's Gord there.
And yeah, I mean, I went down here.
When I got the word, it was early in the morning,
like 7.30 or 8 o'clock or something,
that we got word that he had passed.
And I came down here, it was early in the morning, like 7.30 or 8 o'clock or something that we got no word that he had passed. And I came down here and I just recorded.
And I listened back to the recording pretty recently.
And I'm crying.
I'm openly weeping on this recording.
And I don't, like when famous people die, I don't openly weep.
I can get sad.
Exact same.
Because as I always say, I tell my kids, they're like, well, why are you so upset?
I'm like, well, because he was like the mayor of Canada.
He was different, right?
He felt like you knew him personally.
And they sang about Canada when it was not cool.
They sing about pictures of our parents' prime ministers.
Who sings about that?
Who sings about Bob Cajun?
Yeah.
Like my kids were so happy they went to Bob Cajun a few weeks ago.
They said, we were in Bob Cajun.
They know it.
That's amazing.
Like, yeah, that's a great loss there.
I mean, I'm still kind of coming.
And I mentioned this on our TV show.
So I moved back from LA.
I was getting my house on July 4th.
And you know how it is closing a house.
You don't know when you're going to get the keys and stuff.
Found out there were no keys to my house because they had no locks on the house.
I bought a house with no keys.
So my agent said, you could go stay at the house tonight, but just for insurance purposes,
grab a hotel and like everything will be done tomorrow.
So I go to the Grand in Midtown Toronto.
I did hotels.com.
I've never stayed there in my life.
I'm sitting at the bar.
It's middle of the week in July.
No one is in the place.
And then I'm sitting at the bar, and I'm like, that's Johnny.
Johnny Faye's just going to the bathroom there.
I saw your tweet about this.
Yeah, and then the other gourd walks by.
I'm like, and then I turn around.
The entire hip is on the patio having dinner together,
and it may have been one of their last dinners together
because their tour was, their little tour,
it had been completed.
So finally, I'm talking to the hotel staff
and I'm like, down a glass of red wine.
I'm like, I gotta go.
I gotta go talk.
And they're like, just go do it.
I'm like, I'm too shy.
I'm too shy.
I'm texting Tessa Bonhomme, who we work together,
and she knows Gord.
She goes, just go do it.
I'm like, I'm too scared. So finally, Gord comes by, and she knows Gord. She goes, just go do it. I'm like, I'm too scared.
So finally Gord comes by, and I go, Gord.
And I go in, I'm saying I'm a big fan,
and I love the work that you're doing for Native Canadians.
And he's like, hey, man, I'm just going to the bathroom.
I'm not going anywhere.
Why don't we have a chat when I get back,
and you can join us?
I'm like, nice.
Okay.
So I hung out with him until 3 in the morning.
Okay.
I saw your tweets about this, and you were like, because it was an all-caps tweet, so I don't dance. But now he goes with him until three in the morning. Okay. I saw your tweets about this and you were like,
because it was an all caps tweet.
So, you know, I don't dance with it.
But now he goes,
the tragic leap are like right behind me.
And somebody tweeted back like pics
or this is bullshit or something.
And next thing you know,
there's a pic of you and Gord.
It's Gord Sinclair.
That's the other Gord.
Yes.
That's amazing.
And then I told the story on the show.
I said it was almost fitting
that I moved back to Canada
and the night before I get my house,
the mayor of Canada welcomes me back.
And then I broke down on the show.
I break down a lot.
I cry.
You know,
those Sidney Crosby,
Tim Hortons commercials.
I said,
when he's a kid,
wouldn't it be great if I could just do this for a living?
Tim,
a mess,
just a mess.
Every time I,
at least once every two months,
I watch crowd reactions to the golden goal that Sidney Crosby scored.
A mess.
Every single time.
Do you remember an old Bell ad?
This is where a kid phones his grandpa.
Yes, from the beach.
You know what?
From the beach.
Right.
And I'm actually, he's sounding like, oh, grandpa, I'm calling you from France or whatever.
And then grandpa's like, oh, how's Paris?
Is it as I remember?
And he goes, oh, I'm not in Paris, grandpa.
And then I'm even now
talking about it.
You know what I mean?
I could cry now.
And this is a Bell cell phone.
Yeah, the old flip phone.
The original.
It wasn't even flip.
I think it might have been
like the Zack Morris brick.
I don't know.
I would have liked to have known
the reception on that phone.
Right.
But he's from Dieppe or whatever.
And I think he says,
dad, I just want to say thanks.
And yeah, that commercial still makes me choke up.
So I know what you mean, man.
I know what you mean.
This beer is very tasty, by the way.
Which one are you drinking?
Tell everybody.
I'm having the Canuck Pale Ale, and it looks like they've got the—
remember the Canucks had this lumberjack guy for a while?
Sort of, yes.
He was like a mascot guy for them, Johnny Canuck.
Johnny Canuck?
And then they also had, didn't Molson Canadian have the
Johnny Canuck guy?
I remember Captain Canuck.
I'm trying to remember Johnny Canuck. Oh, no, I'm thinking the I Am Canadian guy.
Oh, yeah.
That guy,
by the way, is on, if you listen to
As It Happens on CBC Radio,
his name is Jeff.
And he does it with,
was it Off?
Carol Off, I think,
is the main news person on that.
And Jeff is one of the news readers now
with Carol on As It Happens.
Really?
The IM Canadian?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm dead serious.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
Did he get Beer for Life, I hope?
I don't know.
I have no idea.
But that commercial is everywhere.
That character you see on the can,
he has a name, and his name happens to be Gordy, of course, but he commercial was everywhere. That character you see on the can, he has a name,
and his name happens to be Gordy, of course,
but he's Gordy Levesque.
So he's like the guy that was on the end of the broadcast day on the CBC.
Running down and down the white waters.
Dude, that National Film Board short, I still love that.
That's where I think Taggart, a friend of your podcast.
Berlin, right? film board short uh i still love that that's where i think taggart a friend of your podcast berlin right right and there the what's uh there's more canadian musical royalty going on i'm trying
to remember their last name but their son is a musician and stuff anyway that's a that's a big
jam you mentioned you mentioned taggart and uh that was one of my other all-time favorite canadian
bands our lady and now i called jeremy good friend. We played golf last Monday.
He...
And we played at Summit,
who the head pro is, former
PGA star Ian Leggett.
Yeah, he's a big deal.
He's a really nice dude.
I knew Taggart was a good golfer.
He used to golf with a friend of mine.
You would not expect that. You see Jeremy Taggart, you're like,
this guy can't golf. He's like a hippie.
He's, yeah. You know
Humble Howard from Humble and Fred?
He used to golf with Taggart. That's my little
connection there. But I have a guy.
He's been pitching me on this idea. I have
a guy. I've got a guy.
There's a spreadsheet where everyone who kicks out the jams,
I mentioned, you know, Jay kicked out. A lot of people have kicked
out these jams. Like Steve Simmons and
Damien Cox and Brad Fay and guys like that.
They kick out the jams.
Brad Fay.
Love that guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's great.
And Gear Joyce.
You know Gear Joyce?
No.
Come on.
You gotta know Gear Joyce.
Anyway, all these jams.
Who's Gear Joyce?
Well, he's a Sportsnet, I know that's the other guys, but he's a Sportsnet writer for
covering sports.
He'd write some good shit but he also wrote books
that became the Jason Priestley series
Private Eyes.
Ever heard of this?
Priestley, good guy.
We hung out with him in LA.
Well, we hung out.
We shot one thing with him.
Well, I would say the same thing.
But then I became email buddies with him
because he's big into wine.
I'm like, I know nothing about wine.
He goes, I will send you all this stuff
and then he sent it to me for like a year
and then it just stopped.
You got a year out of Priestley. That's pretty fucking
good. But you got a
that's a, Gare Joyce
is making money off this series, Private
Eyes, because he licensed his book.
Amazing. I'm bad
when I read articles, I don't look at who wrote
them.
Am I a bad human?
No,
of course not.
Some,
most articles are interchangeable,
but once in a while you get a very thoughtful,
deep dive that,
you know,
you should kind of check out who wrote it because it's above and beyond.
When you say deep dive,
you lose me.
I have the attention span of a gnat.
Then that explains why you've probably never listened to this podcast.
Is that right? Cause this is a heavy lifting. I don't why you've probably never listened to this podcast. Is that right?
I don't listen to any podcast.
I don't listen to any podcast.
As a father, I get in the car and I crank music and zone
out on the way to work.
That's my only free time.
Because podcast listening is almost like doing homework
or whatever.
So don't take offense because I don't listen
to our own. I don't listen to anything.
I'm a bad human.
Okay.
I just remembered
I was going somewhere.
So there's an online,
there's a Google spreadsheet
that this guy, Tyler,
he maintains this
Google spreadsheet
and it's all the people
who kicked out the jams
on this show
and what their jams were.
Like that's what
this Google spreadsheet is.
So this gentleman,
he wrote me an email
and he goes, I have an idea.
Why don't we do an episode about every single Tragically Hip album?
And I thought, okay, that's an interesting idea.
And he goes, yeah, we'll get past guests of Toronto Mic'd, one for each episode to talk
about the album.
He dropped some names of hip fans who have been on, like Ron McLean and stuff.
And then he just wrote me yesterday to tell me that he was golfing on the weekend.
Were you golfing on the weekend with Taggart?
No, on Monday.
I don't golf weekends.
It's too busy.
It's a six-hour room.
You've got a fathering to do and it's too busy.
No, I like my own time and I don't
want to spend six hours on a golf course.
Long story short is I think Taggart's in to be the
guest for the Day for Night episode.
Yes.
If this happens.
So stay tuned for that.
Love that guy.
All right.
Great to meet you.
And I like the fact that I can look you in the eyes
and my neck is not hurting.
You have a colleague named Jay Onright.
Are you familiar with Jay?
So he's been on a couple of times.
I know.
He guilted me into coming here.
Did he?
He said, you gotta go.
Just go. You can go anytime.
Because I'm like, I've lived...
Yeah, because I couldn't get you. Is that the story?
It took me two and a half hours to get here.
Which is amazing.
And Jay, well, he can
be witness to the fact that I don't like
leaving my house except for it's
to go to work. Right.
And golf courses. And golf courses.
And golf courses, yes.
But he said it's a fun time, so come on down.
So that's why.
Well, Jay and I have immense chemistry.
I don't want you to feel, you know,
there's a bromance there,
but I mean, we're just meeting each other.
We might have the same spark.
I like our chemistry.
I think so, too.
I think so, too.
You gave me an ice cold beer.
Yeah, I don't think he even partook.
Has anyone else had a beer on this? Oh my god.
Mike Richards at like 9 in the morning downed
several Great Lakes.
Mike Richards is a
good time Charlie. So he didn't. Yeah, a lot
of people have dove into that. What is too early for a
beer? Well, that's the thing. At the time he was
doing the morning show on TSN radio.
So as he explained to me as he cracked it open, he goes
it's not 9 a.m. to me. Like he's been up since 4 a.m so i'm trying to do the math so that would be like noon
for a regular person yeah and we would never say anything about someone cracking open a beer at
noon right on the weekend now here's the thing so again as a parent i'm always uh leery of the
fact that my kids or i should say cognizant of the fact that my kids are always
viewing me. So on the weekend,
I'm like, it's noon.
Would they judge me if I made
a Caesar right now?
How do they know it's a Caesar? You can say it's tomato
juice. No, but then I make a grand, I'm like,
it's the weekend, I'm having a Caesar!
And then they have no problem with it.
I'm overthinking it.
They're like, I don't give a shit.
Can I swear? Yeah, of course.
I think I've dropped a couple of F-bombs
already, I think. But yeah,
swear away. But the first time Jay Onright
was on this show, I was
told ahead of time it was going to be both of you.
I thought it was going to be Jay and Dan.
And he came with a PR
person. They had a driver and everything.
Oh no, I remember that.
Zach?
That was when we were doing our...
Before the launch of the show.
Right, right, right.
So he was doing the rounds or whatever.
Zach, who no longer works for the company.
I heard, yeah.
Because when Jay came back, he gave me that...
Moved to Edmonton.
Sad news.
He got as far away as he could all the way to Edmonton.
Smart decision.
That takes balls.
He picked up and went to Edmonton
because cheaper cost
of living and he said, why not?
Yeah, I mean, now or never, right? Like once you
got, yeah, it's harder to do that
when you got kids and stuff. Whatever, I guess.
Good for him. I've been to Edmonton. Like my
wife is from Edmonton, so I've been there.
I don't think there's a lot going on in
Edmonton. I know... No, don't say that.
Is it a lovely city?
No, it's a good city. I've been there.
Hey, I lived four hours north of there. Oh yeah, Fort't say that. Is it a lovely city? No, it's a good city. I've been there. Hey, I lived four hours north of there.
Oh, yeah, Fort McMurray.
Okay, so I keep cutting you off.
Getting back to Jay.
Well, back to Jay, just to say that I thought it was going to be both of you coming on,
and then he was like, no, it's just me.
I got the feeling maybe you weren't into it,
so I was actually surprised when you agreed to come on today
because I was under the impression you were a bit of a hermit. Yeah. Well, not a hermit. Again, I just,
if it involves- You're far away.
Yes. Going anywhere that's not 10 minutes from my house, I find every excuse not to do it.
Like any human, I think. You might be right. Now, okay. Now,
was it really two and a half hours to get here? Or is that like an exaggeration? I left my house at 1230.
I got here at 230.
So two hours.
Two solid hours of Toronto traffic.
And whoever says LA traffic is the worst in the world, they need to drive in both cities for a full four years.
Because you're, I can say this, you're like the mayor of Orono.
Is that right?
Supposedly on the Wikipedia page,
I don't know if it's still there.
It's still there.
I saw it yesterday.
I'm listed as the mayor.
It's a town that we're in,
Clarington.
Clarington as a region has one mayor,
which isn't right.
The little town should have a mayor.
What's the population of Orono? I guess as a mayor, you should know, which isn't right. The little town should have a mayor. What's the population of Borno?
I guess as a mayor, you should know this.
I don't know.
2,000, maybe?
You could have bought the whole town, right?
You only bought one house, though.
The one without locks.
That's right.
I bought the one house in town.
That's how safe it is, though.
But there are locks on the door.
So if you're looking at breaking into my home, it is locked.
God, I had this jam loaded up. Okay, so you're about my age we're very similar how old are you born in 74 what am i 43 okay i was 75 that was part of my bonding with jay we're
both born in 74 but you're 75 okay so when this gets to the chorus you'll know what we're dealing
with here but you remember this song.
This was a big deal to me growing up, this movie.
Doesn't it get you like you want to run through a wall right now?
It makes me think of a deodorant commercial, right?
No.
Yes.
That's what I think.
I'm like, this is like a shaving commercial or...
No, no, come on.
It should be a soundtrack to a shaving or a deodorant commercial.
Okay, but this is from the Karate Kid.
This is the big montage.
See, I never watched it.
I never watched that.
Okay, this is first exclusive here.
So you never saw the original Karate Kid.
Because that was a big deal for guys our age.
I mentioned my attention span.
So sometimes it takes me like a week to watch one movie.
Because I'm like
I'm 20 minutes
I'm good
I gotta go do other shit
You're gonna die on this episode
I'm gonna keep you here
For a good 90 minutes
You're gonna die
I'm fine
I'm fine
Chatting
The synapses are
I see
You can't
It needs to be
A two way street right
You need to be like engaged
Yes exactly
Gotcha
Like that's why I'm all
Like
I'll play in the backyard
With the girls for five hours
As long as we aren't sitting still.
Were you working during, you were working during this basketball game last night, right?
This game seven?
We were on after it.
Okay.
Yeah.
Did you, so you, did you see, did you see the game seven Cavaliers versus the Boston Celtics?
We sure did.
And LeBron James, man, we're watching the greatest basketball player in the history of the game. That's why I'm playing. You're the best. This is for LeBron James, man, we're watching the greatest basketball player in the history of the game.
That's why I'm playing.
You're the best.
This is for LeBron James.
He played every minute.
He played every minute of that game.
And he's got, you walk down the street, say, name three of LeBron's teammates right now.
People are like, ah.
I can only name the guy from Toronto, Tristan Thompson.
Kyle Corver. Yeah, thatistan Thompson. Kyle Korver?
Yeah, that's right.
Do you think he's good looking or not?
I have a debate.
Because he's got two looks.
Remember the two-faced?
Is that Seinfeld?
Yes.
Korver's got two looks.
Sometimes he looks like he could be in 90210 with Jason Priestley and Luke Perry.
And sometimes he looks like he could be in The Goonies with the Fratelli guy.
He's got two looks.
Part caveman. but maybe that's
the appeal.
Right, right.
Okay, you're right, though.
He's just a raw human.
So, LeBron, I mean, I'm
watching, and before the game,
I was actually rooting for
LeBron because I like to root
for the best.
I like, just be the best.
You're the fucking best.
And again, this is a guy, it's
impossible not to cheer for him
because the only misstep he's made in his career is the,
I'm taking my talents to South Beach.
Which he raised like $3 million to Boys and Girls Club.
And that's the only misstep.
You're right, the decision on ESPN or whatever.
And the way he answers questions, his mic technique in post-game news conferences is amazing.
And just the way he carries himself
the way he's a leader the way he stands up uh for he says the right stuff uh and so that's what
what annoys me so much about my former workplace like guys like skip bayless like yeah jordan would
never do this whatever why what what's your beef with lebron James? What has he done to you?
Has he hurt you?
Has he, why?
He's a family man.
Yes.
He's an activist, but on the good side,
you know what I mean?
Not the evil side.
Like, do you not go home if you're Skip
and say like, why am I talking like that about people?
Just to make money, I'm going to bash someone?
Right.
No, I know.
I'm with you, man.
Now, I know we're on the same team here and this is like preaching to make money, I'm going to bash someone? Right. I know. I'm with you, man. Now, I know we're on the same team here,
and this is like preaching to the converted,
but I always say to people,
the new thing I'm now saying to people anyway is that,
okay, well, Michael Jordan,
he went to play baseball for two years.
Because he was gambling on sports.
Right, right, right, right, right.
So in those two years, he did not suit up for the Bulls.
How did they perform in the regular season?
And then you go look at their record.
They have great records, those two years without jordan okay you go yeah lebron went to uh south beach he went to miami for four years let's take a peek at those cavalier seasons
without lebron yeah awful yeah like dismal like really come on if you're still i mean all you can
ever point to now as a jordan backer as the goatAT, is you can say oh, six rings. LeBron only
has three. I would argue LeBron has
never been better than he is right now.
Yes, and Jay read me
a tweet someone sent last night. He's like,
LeBron should right now say, okay,
I got you guys this far and just take
off and see what happens. If the
Cavs went to the final without him.
Could you imagine? That would prove
that he was the greatest because they would lose by 50 points a game.
You're right.
You're right.
It's hilarious.
You could take the ninth seed in the West
and they would destroy the Cavs without LeBron James.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, that's amazing.
More here.
Hold on here.
Because we're still warming up here.
And you mentioned, you know, you loved your 90s alt-rock.
But did you ever tune in to Q107's psychedelic sunday ever in your your illustrious music i'm not i'm not a sunday radio
listener i listen to a lot of frost overnight though okay well there's frost overnight you
can do better than that i can do better than that come on give do better than that. Come on. Give me a better Andy Frost. This is Frost overnight.
Sometimes when I do a Frost, I got to break into like Maple Leafs PA announcer Frost.
And like, goal scored by number 13, Matt Sundin.
Something like that.
And he just retired?
Okay.
Well, here.
Let me tell you.
Now, you're talking to the right guy here.
Okay.
Good.
Q107 let three guys go in the same flail swoop.
Is that the expression? At the same time
in late March, they let
Al Joines go, John Scholes
go, and Andy Frost.
Now, Al Joines was walked out
and he was never to be heard from again, although he came
on my podcast to say goodbye to the listenership
because that's the kind of guy I am.
But John Scholes was given a chance
to say goodbye, which is nice in radio,
that he, two weeks ago,
he said goodbye to his listeners
and that he was moving on.
He came by last week, by the way,
to chat about that.
Andy Frost, he said goodbye yesterday.
So yesterday was the final broadcast
of Andy Frost on Q107.
Although he took a little break in the early 90s, I believe, he had
been at Q107 since 85.
Wow. Isn't that crazy?
So he's gone now, but of course
not only is he gone, but Psychedelic
Sunday is gone. They've cancelled the program
and that program has been around
since Andy arrived from Winnipeg in 85.
That's pretty sad.
I know. It's all
parts of Q wants a
younger demo. Psychedelic
Sunday is for an older
crowd, so they're going to lop it off.
But wait, they play classic
rock. How are you going to get a younger demo?
Boom?
You ever listen to Boom?
I don't know if it's on my
presets.
Can you get that stuff in Orono?
My kids are big fans of 99.9 Virgin Radio.
Virgin Radio.
Yeah, my daughter likes that too.
But anyway.
Tucker in the morning.
Used to be Mad Dog.
He was a buddy of the show.
But yeah, Tucker in the morning with Maura, I think.
Maura Gearson, I think.
But yeah, so I wanted to play this because every episode of Psychedelic Sunday
began with Alice Cooper's Hello, Hooray.
And I just want to say good luck to Andy,
whose son you might have heard was drafted in the first round
by the Philadelphia Flyers.
I did not know that. Really?
You're the sports broadcaster.
I didn't know this. This is amazing.
Yeah, he's... Where does he play?
He plays in the OHL.
I can't remember what team.
Sault Ste. Marie or something?
But he was a first-round pick the last year.
He was the first-round pick
of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Morgan Frost.
This is breaking news to me.
Actually, I was warned.
Here, I have a note on this.
I was warned that some
pop culture stuff
eludes you completely.
Like, there might be a new Star Wars or something
that everybody's talking about.
Yes.
You'll like...
That new...
What was the new...
Was it the Avengers movie
that just came out?
Infinity War.
Yes.
The third Avengers movie.
So we were all standing around.
Jay and I were on our way
to tape something.
This is at the TSN Studios
and producer Tim is there.
Our other producer, Greg Bonetta.
And I see a commercial and it's for a movie.
It's on mute.
And Jay says to Tim,
you already got your tickets for this, Tim?
And he's like, oh, I got them weeks ago.
I'm like, what's this?
They're like, you're kidding, right?
I'm like, no.
So it was the first time I'd seen a commercial for this movie.
I'm not a big superhero fan.
Yeah, I got worried about this.
Somebody, I mean, Jay mentioned it too, but somebody named Brendan.
I didn't take down the last name.
Brendan said that you're-
Halloran.
Is that, maybe.
One of the writers on our show, very smart guy.
He says that you're the most connected and least connected human being on the planet.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I know what I like. And I know what's going on in those areas that makes sense. I know what I like,
and I know what's going on in those areas that I like.
In other areas, I'm oblivious.
Okay, so obviously you're not a,
and I'm not a big guy either,
but I still can name a bunch of Marvel characters.
Oh, I can, I think.
So you can name, because this was the question.
I think it was maybe the same, maybe Brendan as well.
He says you can't name three Marvel characters.
So go for it.
Captain America. Mm-hmm. Hulk. That's right. Thor. He says you can't name three Marvel characters. So go for it. Captain America.
Hulk. That's right.
Thor. Oh, you had an easy time.
That's easy. And then
The Thing.
I think that's Fantastic Four.
Is that Marvel, I guess? Is that Marvel?
Batman? Nope, that's definitely DC.
Superman. That's DC. Batgirl.
DC.
The other one, a popular one would be, well, Spider-Man's a Marvel character. That's a. Batgirl. DC. The other one, a popular one would be,
well, Spider-Man's a Marvel character.
That's a big one.
There's a bunch.
I don't know.
There's a bunch, like the Scarlet Witch
and there's the Widowmaker and all that.
Black Widow, I mean.
Okay.
Again, these are movies I watch on flights.
What is your favorite movie of all time?
You can't sit through a movie, though,
unless you're on a flight, and then you have to. But do you have a favorite movie? It's not Karate Kid. A favorite movie of all time? You can't sit through a movie, though, unless you're on a flight, and then you have to.
But do you have a favorite movie?
It's not Karate Kid.
My favorite movie of all time?
Field of Dreams, I can watch.
Does it make you cry?
Every time.
Okay, so the scene...
But the thing is,
my kids sit and stare at me at the end of it
because they know I'm going to cry.
I actually cover my head at the end
because I'm openly weeping.
It's every single time.
It's when he goes, want a catch?
Okay, so same thing. And I'm
gone every time. I've seen that
a thousand times and I still cry
and I know it's coming. And I'm
gone and the kids know it and I cover my head.
I think that was
Ray Liotta's first movie.
No way. Not a chance. His first big
movie, wasn't it? Yes, I'm pretty sure. Wasn't he in Dominic and Eugene? I think that was Ray Liotta's first movie. No way. Not a chance. His first big movie.
Wasn't it?
Yes, I'm pretty sure.
Wasn't he in like Dominic and Eugene?
Never heard of that.
That's not a movie.
You just made that up.
When was, I'm trying to do this.
So this is before Goodfellas, I guess you're saying.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, Dominic and Eugene, I don't know how big that was, but I know he was in some stuff.
You're right.
I'm a big fan of Annie, the original Annie.
We watched that all the time. I saw it at my birthday party when I was a kid. know he was in some stuff. You're right. I'm a big fan of Annie, the original Annie. We watched that all the time.
I saw it at my birthday party when I was a kid.
We all went to the theater. I don't remember what year.
Hopefully it was a young, young age,
but I remember loving it too. It was a song
and dance. I don't know how much
longer it's here, if it's still here, but we just saw
Annie the Musical. Was it good?
The Ed
Mirvish Theater. Beautiful theater. I'd never been
in there. This thing's a hidden gem
in Toronto. It's not even well hidden.
It's right there in the entertainment district.
Hidden gem.
There's another cold beer if you want it.
You said you don't like...
You can tell me. They're sponsored, but
you don't have to love every Great Lakes beer.
I will try. Maybe this will be the IPA I like.
What's that one called before you crack it open?
This one's called Sunnyside Session IPA.
Very popular.
It's a southern Toronto beach, Sunnyside, and you're not far from it.
You owe me $330 for that microphone you just broke.
Foam everywhere.
Enjoy.
If you need more cold ones,
I can always pause this and run upstairs.
But you know.
That one's pretty good.
It's not bad.
Not bad, Great Lakes Brewery.
So yes, if it's not clear,
you're going, Dan's going to get a case
of a six pack of Great Lakes beer
to take home.
Oh, I do?
Yeah, that case is yours.
So you're drinking your own stash here.
Just FYI. So I're drinking your own stash here, just FYI.
So I used to work at a gas station
back when I was still living on the farm in Peterborough.
And you don't know how many times guys would pull in
in their pickup truck,
and I was filling the gas tank.
They'd hop out of the cab,
put the empty in the six-pack in the back, get a cold one,
and just not even looking at me saying, yeah, yeah, whatever.
They just are doing it in the open.
That happens so many times.
You don't see that.
That's a small-town thing.
That's a small-town thing?
I don't know if it's a small-town thing.
Just a Peterborough thing?
I think it's a guy at the end of the workday on the way home.
I got a 30-minute drive.
I can crush three pints.
Wow.
Yeah, that's...
That's not cool.
I just want to let the audience know this is not cool.
I've never done that in my life.
I'm just telling you what I witnessed.
Right, right.
I also worked at this gas station on a lonely stretch of highway by myself until 9 o'clock at night.
And I look back and I'm like, the potential for disaster was always there,
but I never knew that I was naive.
I was a neophyte.
Yeah.
Ignorance is bliss.
Yeah.
I believe they say Sean Fitzgerald recently talked to you because he was on
also.
Yeah.
He kicked out the jams a couple of weeks ago and I was a little jealous from
the athletic and I was a little jealous because he said he sat down and talked to you. And at the time, yeah, he kicked out the jams a couple of weeks ago. And I was a little jealous. From the athletic. And I was a little jealous because he said he sat down and talked to you.
And at the time, you had eluded me.
Like, I was like, oh, you're the one that got away.
And I was like shaking my fist at Sean.
Because Sean came to me.
That's right.
Yeah, he did.
Yeah, you're right.
He did reveal he came to you.
And this is the.
Because it was sent to us by our PR.
They're like, Sean Fitzgerald wants to do this thing.
I'm like, okay. When? They're like, he will come in when you're at work and it'll take 20 minutes
i'm like yes those check all the boxes right so you're right so i felt better after i learned that
because like i'm not coming to you this you got to come to me and come and sit down my basement and
and feel these crazy questions and by the way all of of this is still, this is all just to like establish rapport.
This chemistry,
which is by the way,
very strong
in building quickly,
it's all because
then we're going to
start the deep dive.
We haven't even started
the deep dive yet.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
I thought,
are we not recording yet?
No.
Imagine
all that gold
flushed down the toilet.
Would I want that gone?
All that,
the gas station story about the drunk
driving. Yeah.
Tragically hit me and you at the mid, wherever
that was. I was so bored at that gas station job,
so I'd sit there and look at
the tar content of all the
cigarettes. And the most tar,
and the strongest of all of them, were the menthols.
You wouldn't think so, right?
Although, maybe, I don't know, what do I know about cigarettes?
Menthols, they sold, people liked those menthols. I didn't think they, right? Although maybe, I don't know, what do I know about cigarettes? Menthols.
People like those menthols.
I didn't think they did.
This was before the cigarette packages changed and stuff.
Yeah, this is when you could buy it at a shopper's, right?
Like this is like, now it seems funny, but it wasn't that long ago you could go into a shopper's and buy like a pack of Demoria's or something like that.
Oh, so why do I bring up Sean Fitzgerald?
Because he wanted, he told me that you're a goalie.
So you still, you still.
No, hell no.
I sold my goalie gear after I finished in Bantam because I needed money for something.
I don't know what.
So you're not, you were a goalie,
but you're no longer a goalie.
I went back and played, this would have been,
was this, when was this?
This would have been probably late nineties,
maybe.
Yeah.
Right around there.
I went back and played some ball hockey.
Okay.
Yes.
That's a different beast playing goal in that.
You get a shot from center.
You don't know where that thing's going.
The orange ball.
Right.
Okay.
Cause it dips.
It dips,
it curves and everything.
And those guys,
man,
you play in some leagues,
they take it serious.
And there's near fights every game.
Uh-huh.
Cause guys are hacking guys in the legs.
And so some guys are just out there to have fun.
Other guys are there to win.
And other guys are there just to drink beer after the game on the way home.
Well,
they pretend it's like game seven of the Stanley Cup final,
right?
It's like,
this is my moment.
Right.
Everything's so,
yeah, it's like chill brother. This is Cup final, right? Exactly. This is my moment. Right? Everything's so, yeah, it's like, chill, brother.
This is like a house league pickup thing or whatever.
Yeah, we just all want out of the house.
Can we just have some fun?
Because I brought up, you're a goalie. And FYI, many Canadian rock stars are goaltenders.
Like, there's a commonality.
Ron McLean pointed this out, and then I started noticing it.
Like, a lot of, I don't know know, like Gore Downey, for example,
was a goaltender.
There's many more. Let me see if I can come up with some.
Alan Bester.
Oh, no, he's not a rock star.
And Ken Reget. I had Gord Stelic here
a couple of weeks ago. Really?
He was talking about his greatest trade of all time
was he traded Ken Reget
for two first rounders.
I'm surprised he didn't have like tattoos.
To the Flyers?
Is that when he?
Penguins maybe?
Was it Flyers?
The Penguins?
Okay, that's when he went to the Penguins.
Penguins maybe?
I don't know.
Ken Reget, man, that helmet would come off
if he just got nudged.
And I mean, Alan Bester was like five foot,
like five foot seven.
He's shorter than us, okay?
Yeah.
Nowadays, you can't find a six foot goalie anymore.
Like they're all like six foot four.
Like what a time that was.
And I love watching Rock'em Sock'em Hockey
and looking at the saves and stuff
because they all do the patented 80-slash-90 save,
which is stick your leg out
where you're exposing the side of your leg,
expecting to make a save,
and then you make the glove save.
But completely different style and i
loved it i wish we could go back to that like the bill ranford size gear yeah the ken reggett size
gear go back to that like it's just it's glorious i'm so glad you mentioned bill ranford recently
somebody pointed out that ranford we all think of ranford as like from 100 years ago but he like
only retired kind of in fairly...
I don't have the right year written down.
In the 90s?
It was later than that, even.
He was backing up somebody in the NHL.
Oh, you know how it came up?
The Capitals have been to a finals.
You know the Capitals went to a final in 2002 or something like that?
Was it 98?
Anyways, the Capitals have been to a final before,
but nobody remembers the Washington Capitals
in the Stanley Cup finals before.
This was a team, Peter Bondra, of course, and Hunter,
but the goalie was Olaf Kolzig,
but the backup for Olaf Kolzig on this team
that went to the finals was Bill Ranford,
like years after any of us thought he was still playing.
So yes, Ranford played for the Cap...
HockeyDB, if you ever need to find anything
on a hockey player, all their stats are there.
So he played for the Caps, 96-97, 97-98,
and then went to Tampa, then went to Detroit,
and then finished with the Oilers in 99-2000.
Would you have ever guessed Ranford was playing in 2000?
He played 16 games in that year.
Right.
And the other thing is when people say,
oh, something happened in 2000,
my brain thinks that was a couple of years ago.
He's the goalie coach in LA right now.
There you go.
I didn't know that for the Kings.
So Bill Ranford is a key part of hockey.
The two-pad stack.
Man, he was the king of that.
But I remember those wasters.
I think Don Cherry on these Rock'em Sock'ems,
which I used to buy.
I used to get like a VHS copy for Christmas every year or whatever.
But he talked about the wasters, like helmets, goaltender masks flying off on the shots up to the head or whatever.
Like Pete Peters, for example, I remember.
Pete Peters, one of the greatest names.
So what I would do, so this is before the age of the internet and computers, you'd get the weekly stats in your paper.
So I'd get it in the Peterborough Examiner.
Sure.
So my neighbor, Rob Fitzgerald, who's now working for the Peterborough Police Service,
he's like one of the sergeants there.
Cool.
He was my neighbor.
We would cut that out of the paper and then we would each trade off and be a goalie for
each team and take shots on each other.
So, okay, i'm i'm bill
ramfer here and then you'd get to the winnipeg jets every time and they would have like eight
goalies because don bull prey don bull prey uh fred brathwaite uh pokey reddick you have them
all i love these bob essens uh so it always i always found those teams fun because you could be
eight different goalies. Meanwhile, the good teams just had two.
That's right. Like Montreal and Pachagua.
Actually, in those days, it would have been Red Light Rasico.
He was in net along with Steve Penny.
He was my first love. That was my first goalie that I was like,
this guy is amazing.
He'd allow seven goals a game, but he'd have 60 shots on him.
Like Ron Tugnet style. Remember?
Ron Tugnet, former Peterborough Pete.
There you go. By the way,
Steve, it was always in my schoolyard when the goalies
played tennis ball, we'd play
ball hockey or whatever, and you
were either Steve Penny or Mike Palmatier.
Those were the two guys.
So Mike Paul Mateer,
I,
for the longest time,
thought his name was Paul Mateer.
I'm like,
oh,
Paul Mateer.
They're like,
what?
I'm like,
finally someone called me up.
They're like,
no,
his name's Mike Paul Mateer.
I'm like,
oh,
I thought it was Paul Mateer.
I can see that.
That's funny. We didn't have HockeyDB back then. No, I'm just, oh, that was Palmatier. I can see that. That's funny.
We didn't have HockeyDB back then.
No, I'm just going by what I see in the paper or hearing,
and I wasn't reading the paper then.
Yeah, you probably heard that's what Bob Cole called him.
Okay, now let me play a...
So I have a sponsor.
His name is Brian Gerstein.
He represents propertyinthesix.com.
That's the site you go to if you want to contact Brian.
He's a real estate agent with PSR Roperage.
Brian, good head of hair.
Doesn't he, though?
This comment is, I think it was...
We've got the same.
If he trimmed it a little, we'd have the exact same hair.
There you go.
There you go, Brian.
You're in good company here because I can vouch that Dan's got a good head of hair over here.
It's whiter than mine, but not a lot
whiter than mine. Yeah, kids.
I look at my wedding photos. I've got
like perfectly like brownish
hair. As soon as I had kids,
it just...
Again, you're preaching to the choir.
I have a message for you from Brian, so let's listen
to Brian.
Propertyinthe6.com
Hi, Dan. Brian Gerstein here,
sales representative with PSR Brokerage
and proud sponsor of Toronto Might.
416-873-0292
is the number to call or text me
for any real estate needs you have.
Dan, you and Jay are not just broadcast partners, but good
friends as well, even going to
dinners with your families.
Given that you are the straight man,
the much tougher job of the duo,
is it expected that
Jay picks up the tab as you
make him look so good all the time?
Good question.
Good question, Brian.
No, we usually split it.
You go Dutch.
Yeah, or if one of us invites the other to dinner,
we say no.
Or if one of us traveled a long way,
you're like, no, you came out here,
so this one's on me.
And so, yeah.
We've never had a problem with the bills.
Then one problem you have going to dinner with Jay,
he orders way too much.
He's a giraffe.
We always order family style.
So we're like, okay, let's get one of these, one of these.
He's like, no, let's get two of those.
And then every time he's like, yeah, I order too much.
We've got way too much food.
I'm like, his wife and I look at him and we're like,
yeah, we told you.
He doesn't get it,
but he just wants to be in the moment.
Well, let me piggyback
on Brian's question
before I take you back
to Peterborough.
And not literally,
okay, figuratively.
I can't drive that far.
I can put you on
the back of my bike maybe.
We'll see how long I can go.
But do you ever like
get tired of being associated
with one other broadcaster
so closely?
Like it's sort of
a Siskel and Ebert thing where do people see you and say,
hey, Dan, where's Jay?
Where's Jay?
He should be with you all the time.
I've got a great answer for this.
So I was in Ottawa last weekend for a family event,
and I was out with my cousin Eric.
You should visit Eric's skate shop.
It's in the Ascendsplex in Canada.
He sells wacky suits and such and he can he can sharpen your
skates so when you're out and about whatever like you get a lot of people coming up and saying hey
and almost all of them say where's jay so eric after hearing the 30th person say this he's like
you need a good response i'm like well what like He's like, you should say, well, he's doing tall things like feeding a
giraffe without a ladder and
then washing the upper
floor windows and not
needing... So he
came up with these great responses. So that's
now my go-to because of Eric Hobbins.
Well, he got that from
Mad Magazine and there's
snappy answers to stupid questions.
You remember these? Yes, there you go.
So yes, no, I don't get tired of it
because we...
Because you like him.
You sincerely like this guy.
And we go to work and we laugh
and I think we now take vacation
at the same time.
Not that we don't want to work
with other people,
but we like going to work
and trying to make each other laugh.
Sure.
So if you consider not working
with that person, then you're like, well, that would
kind of suck.
That's why in the Sean Fitzgerald article, he asked us 20 questions and he said, where
do you see yourself in like 10 years or how, whatever.
That was one of those questions about what's happening in the future.
I said, hopefully still working with Jay because I don't want to do this by myself.
Beautiful.
You're both decent people. I can already tell.
What are we now? 40 minutes in.
You guys are both wonderful
human beings. I wouldn't go that far.
I don't know you that well.
All right. So Peterborough,
obviously you grew up near
Peterborough, right?
Like a kilometer outside the city limits
on a farm.
Eventually,
why did you end up going to school for radio broadcasting?
Like what drew you to radio?
I, my first, so I did co-op.
Do they still do co-op?
I believe so.
In high school.
So this is, so for people that don't know what it is,
you pick a profession that you are thinking about doing.
And then for a couple of credits,
you can just go and try it out.
You have to show up every day.
First one I did was teaching.
And I'm like, hell no.
Like two days in, I'm like, I don't ever want to do this.
This is, I don't have the patience.
So my next one was at Trent Radio in Peterborough.
And I got to be a DJ with some other dude. And I'm like,
we get to play music and talk on the radio. This is awesome. And during my childhood, I always
like put hockey games on mute and do play by play. I have tapes of me doing commentary for
wrestling and stuff. And so I always like doing that. And then I figured, why not apply to
colleges? Here's the thing. My marks were never good in high school.
I thought if you give a college money, they accept you.
That's not the case.
I applied to Loyalists in Belleville.
They said, no, we don't want you.
I applied to Fanshawe.
They said, no, we don't want you.
I applied to a couple other ones.
They said, no, we don't want you.
I applied to Algonquin in Ottawa. They said, no, we don't want you um so two weeks before school is about to start in ottawa
they call me and say there's an opening can you take it at that time i was selling i was selling
bottled beverages out of a wazoo van uh so we are the ones who brought jones cola i remember jones
cola and we also had wazoo water was the first bottled water with a sports cap and we had west
west end uh drinks or something anyway so i'd go from convenience store to convenience store
selling these drinks so i'm like i got this van. I got to offload that. My parents are like, you're going to do it. Go to school. So in two weeks, I'd sold everything and then went
to Ottawa for radio broadcasting. And then, yeah, that was the start of this journey.
Is that Algonquin College? That's Algonquin College.
Yeah, the Gonk in Ottawa.
The Gonk.
Yeah, it's Ottawa, is it underrated?
It's a great city.
No, it's a, yeah, it's a very walkable, nice city.
I know this is a Toronto podcast,
but I feel there is way more to do with a tourist,
if you're showing someone the city in Ottawa, than Toronto.
It's just closer.
I feel like it's just more compact.
It's also spread out in Toronto.
Okay, here's my question.
If you have a tourist in town that's never been to Toronto,
what the hell do you do with them? I know, because the corny stuff is like,
oh, let's go to the top of the CN Tower or whatever.
Yeah, the Hockey Hall of Fame, St. Lawrence Market.
Then what?
Yeah.
And usually what happens, I'm like,
well, let's go sit on a patio,
and then, you know, that happens there.
Well, hey, maybe that ties into this. So this is probably a peterborough question i'm not even sure because i don't know
what these words mean but colin teske has a question he wants me to ask you about the pig's
ear and spankies are these uh what what are these places the pig's ear was um a great watering hole
in peter road just closed um you walk in it's got the old wood paneling it's really bright
um they'd sold quarts of 50 which i love we became such regulars we'd walk in they'd have
our court sitting on the uh on the bar for us um they had a unique rule at the pool table we
played a lot of pool there was if your ball went off the
table so if you hit a ball off the table it would go down so if you're in a tough position and
there's like out of towners you're playing i'm like i'm doing it i'm doing it so i'd hammer
hammer the ball it'd go flying off the table and i'd put it down they're like what are you doing
so i'd point to the bartender like house rules it goes down so i'm like
anyway uh so the pigs here recently actually closed they sold everything in it and this is They're like, house rules. It goes down. So I'm like, anyway.
So the pig's ear recently actually closed.
They sold everything in it.
And this is my one regret.
I might still try to find the person that bought the pig's ear sign.
Because I was talked out of it from buying it.
It went for $2,500.
This is a big sign, iconic sign I wanted to put in my living room and light it up but i was talked out of it and now i regret not buying the pig zero could be a fire hazard maybe no no no that
thing was out in uh rain wind snow for 20 30 years however that place was open longer than that
the other one is spanky's yeah It's owned by a buddy, Matt Russell.
He runs a
raucous bar, and we
just go there and have fun. Jay's been there as
well. He was on top of the bar with his
sombrero.
It's on Hunter Street, and then they've
got a bar
next to it. I think it's called the Bar Next Door.
So two establishments
if you're in Peterborough. You can't hit the pigs here. Get that sign. You deserve it. I think it's called the bar next door. So two establishments if you're in Peterborough.
You can't hit the pigs here.
Get that sign. You deserve it.
Come on. Life is short.
So if it went for $2,500,
how much do you think the guy's going to ask for?
Well, it depends if they have buyer's remorse. A lot of times they have
this thing that's in the garage and they're like,
oh man, what an idiot I was. I would like
to unload this thing. If I could get $1,500
for this and just walk away. You never know. It depends how happy this traffic is. I would like to unload this thing. If I could get $1,500 for this and just walk away.
You never know.
It depends how happy this chap is.
I've got to find that guy.
And you also need some inside info.
You need to interview the neighbors and stuff.
Does he look like he's really happy with this sign?
You know what I mean?
Or is it in storage
and his wife's mad at him or something?
But if it's like, yeah,
what do they call white elephants or whatever?
Yeah, it depends if they're happy or not.
Now, I want to get you to TSN.
I don't know if you know this, but you work at TSN,
and you got there in 2003.
2002.
2002.
I'm going to fire my research.
But how the hell do you get there?
You were West, right?
So after you get this wonderful diploma from Algonquin,
you didn't get a diploma.
So it's a two-year course okay a couple months into
the second year um you apply for jobs because you always get job postings in your little area that
you go to school and one was an airborne traffic reporter for vancouver so we had to drive to
toronto me and another girl um interview for the job me and another girl suggest you're also a girl but
you're not you're not anyway me and a girl sorry me and a girl uh a former uh classmate um we drove
to toronto interviewed for it and i got it yay yes so ckvu uh well it was a it was called skywards traffic they started in toronto what they did was they
fly around they give you your traffic reports for free to the radio station they just say we want
to read our taglines so they're like uh traffic's bad on the gardener uh dvp's uh bottled up uh make
sure you get your uh oil changed at mr lube 15 off right now whatever
so we just read the tagline so stations thought this is this is great they made a lot of money
doing this so they started to expand across canada vancouver was their first uh expansion
so i get that job so i go to my instructors i say i got a job but i still have like five months of
school left they're like ah write us a two two page essay and tell us what you learned.
We'll pass you.
So I'm like, so you did get the diploma.
Yes.
Oh, good.
Because I don't want TSN to like pull the contract.
No, no, no.
They eventually sent it to me.
Like they like, well, there's the whole point is to get a job.
You got a job.
So I accept the job.
And, um, it was, it was a horrible negotiation i think i settled for like eighteen
thousand dollars a year um they say and you have to drive the pilot's car out because he's got to
fly the plane out you have to drive the pilot's car so it was like a it would have been like an
85 toyota tercel speedometer didn't work heat didn't work. Heat didn't work. And radio didn't work.
And I have to drive across Canada.
And they say, oh, and by the way, you have to pick up someone in Sudbury.
Oh, yeah.
That's way up there.
So I go pick her up.
You know if you like someone right away.
We despised each other at first sight.
Yeah, you can tell.
And it was a stick.
She couldn't drive stick so she's like well
what's the plan i'm like we're driving straight through she's like i can't drive stick i'm like
well i'll drive until i'm tired pull over sleep on the side of the road and then keep going
because we weren't getting paid to drive the car out so that was my uh introduction to broadcasting
um so i went from oh you got a massive spider over here.
Let me get him.
Yeah, the basements get spiders, I noticed.
Yeah.
Yeah, they like the...
The moist...
Yeah, that's right.
People's least favorite word.
The humidity moist.
I'm still thinking of the band, though.
David Usher and the moist.
Okay, so...
Biff Naked's in the video for Silver.
Remember the voice that we are, Silver?
One of the chicks, one of the women, sorry,
at the table in that bar or whatever is Biff Naked.
Is Biff Naked still performing?
Yes.
In fact, she's on tour right now.
I think maybe she's in St. Catharines right now.
With Rusty?
No, because Rusty, well, now they've gone,
they hook up once in a while.
They played Saturday at the Horseshoe.
Stay tuned. Rusty is one of the most underrated 90s Cancun bands. I think they're
awesome. Can we play some Rusty? I'll load up some Rusty. Yeah. Let's play their big hit.
Okay. So I went to Vancouver. And again, you hire a guy that was born in Peterborough,
went to school in Ottawa to do airborne traffic reporting in Vancouver.
So I'm effing up the street names, the highway names, everything.
I did 501 flights in a Cessna.
And during this, I applied for a yes.
This is such a good tune.
I applied for a job in Fort McMurray, Alberta
for a play-by-play of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Got it.
Moved up to Fort McMurray.
Again, this is before internet was big.
I bought a map.
I bought a map and it had an arrow to Fort McMurray.
Fort McMurray was literally not on the map.
Oh.
Yes.
Can we listen to this a little?
Yeah, yeah, of course. He's coming home to box for readers Oh, oh
Upside down
Where the fair days came
This was a big, much music hit.
Massive.
You gotta hear the chorus.
Upside down Chorus.
Does he still have the dreads?
No, long gone.
I was going to ask him, not a cool look for the white guy in red, right?
Ah, yeah.
You know what he did right after they broke up in 2000, I think?
So about 2000, Rusty breaks up.
And his next gig was a cook at a restaurant in Bloor West Village.
Just working as a cook, yeah.
Wow.
One band, after hearing this, right around the same time, Sandbox.
You know who's in Sandbox?
Yes, Mike Smith.
Yes, okay.
I thought I could blow your mind again, like I did with Morgan Frost.
Yeah, Bubbles. Curious was a massive hit. Yep, Yes, okay. I thought I could blow your mind again like I did with Morgan Frost. Yeah, Bubbles.
Curious was a massive hit.
Yep, agreed, yep.
But can you name a second Sandbox song?
Because I can't.
If you put the album with Curious on,
I could probably sing along to every song.
Could I name the songs?
No.
As a guy who only knew the tunes from Sandbox,
if I heard it on 102.1 The Edge or if Much Music played it,
I can't name a second one.
I can't name a second one.
But with Rusty, there's several.
That's why I'm blown away at how he's working as a cook.
He's a bricklayer in Sudbury now.
My mind doesn't understand how can you be such a big fucking Canadian rock star and be like having to do that still.
But I think for Canadian rock bands,
it all relies on touring because you aren't going to make money off Canadian radio.
There's only like a handful of rock stations in Canada.
So you think these guys are like living off royalties.
They aren't because they aren't getting played enough.
But this is, you know, nowadays you can't sell CDs anymore,
but you could back then in the mid-90s.
I was buying a lot of CDs.
I have a box full.
I don't know what to do with them.
I don't have a CD player.
Right, right, right.
What do you do with them?
And I'm very embarrassed for my daughter, Ruby.
She brought out a DVD yesterday,
and she said, can you put this record
on? I'm like,
because we've got a record player. I'm like, that's a
CD. She goes, no, it's a record. I'm like,
do you buy vinyl?
I do. It's a very expensive
hobby, right? No.
I buy old
country albums and stuff. I don't buy anything
new. Gotcha. Yeah. So I buy
like old Whalen Jennings,
a lot of Nat King Cole,
a lot of Dean Martin.
Whalen Jennings did the Dukes of Hazzard theme.
He sure did.
Which I loved.
Have you watched Tales from the Tour Bus,
I think it's called?
No.
It's a Mike Judge show on HBO
in which they animate former bandmates of these people telling stories about them.
So you got George Jones.
You got Johnny Paycheck.
You got Waylon Jennings, which was a two-part.
Watch it.
These guys, I don't know how they lived as long as they did.
Because George Jones, the tale was, start the morning, every day, two Bloody Marys.
They don't call them Caesars there.
Two Bloody Marys.
Then he'd switch to beer, and then he'd switch to hard stuff every single day.
And then he just flew off his rocker.
He started to think someone that was imaginary was on a bus.
Then they had to stop to let the imaginary person off,
and then he made the bus turn around to go back and pick him up.
What is going on in that person's brain?
Well, Waylon Jennings, I believe,
Waylon Jennings is the guy who drew the short straw
so he couldn't get on the plane
that took the life of Buddy Holly, Rishi Valens, and Big Bopper.
Oh!
It's Chantilly Lace, right?
Oh, baby!
This is the Big Baba speaking.
Yeah.
Waylon, his son, tells a shooter.
Shooter Jennings tells a story.
He's like, yeah, one night George was over at the house,
and he started to get too liquored up, and then my dad had enough.
So his dad, Waylon, went to the backyard, tied George Jones to a tree.
George Jones, hey, screaming, I'm the greatest country singer in the world.
He goes, and Waylon looks at him.
Yeah, right now you're tied to a fucking tree.
Oh, yeah.
I love this show.
I had sheets on my bed that were Duke's Hazard.
What nights did it air?
I only remember it in syndication.
So it was every night on syndication.
It was like on Thursday nights, I want to say, or Friday nights.
Yeah, maybe the new ones were Friday nights.
It was our one night we could have poppin' chips.
So we'd watch Duke's Hazard.
And you remember when...
Can they run it in syndication because it's got the Confederate flag?
Oh, yeah, I don't know.
That's a good point.
Yeah, the General Lee has an offensive roof.
That's a good point.
I was just in Tennessee.
I went to a race in Bristol.
And we're driving with our Uber driver, Larry.
He just drove us everywhere.
And we're driving on the highway
past this big hill,
and we look up,
and there's like a 100-foot flagpole
with a Confederate flag.
So we said, Larry, what's that over there?
He's like, oh,
you weren't supposed to see that.
I counted five Confederate flags,
four Trump flags on my journeys.
Trump flags.
Think about that.
I know.
Is he just there giving a thumbs up?
No, it's just Trump name.
Oh, give me a break.
Oh, boy.
But yeah, Dukes of Hazzard was a big deal to me.
My pillowcase, I remember the side I liked was the side with Daisy.
I loved Daisy so much.
Her beautiful face,
Catherine Bach, I believe is the actress's name,
was on that pillowcase and I'd sleep on
that. Yeah, I had the old
plastic Dukes of Hazzard car.
Of course. Do you remember the commercial
because you grew up in Peterborough, you might remember the commercial
of the drunk dad is trying to fix
the General Lee for his son.
I'm gonna die! yeah so yeah his line is like he can't do it because he's hammered right he goes go to bed now and i often uh with my oldest who's 16 now uh i would always do my imitation of the dad
trying to fix the general me go to bed now scared the shit out of him, I think.
Well, don't bother daddy when he's sipping.
Please tell me,
how do you parlay this great success in Fort McMurray
into a job at the wonderful TSN?
How does this happen?
Okay, so while in Fort McMurray,
I met a gentleman, C., CJ Phillips, who was working
at the, uh, the local cable station.
So I said, I want to do something.
I want to get on TV.
He's like, well, if you go out and shoot something, I'll put it on.
So I found our local MLA Guy Boutelier, who, um, I was buddies with and I'm like, let's
do a show.
So we called it
on the record it was the most like you look back it was so boring we're sitting in these big
wingback chairs in the um in the cable station studios talking about local politics so I started doing that and I sent a tape to, I sent a tape to Vancouver CKVU in Vancouver,
um,
which used to be global,
but they were just CKVU for a bit.
And George Froelich,
who is the program director said,
get one year's experience.
We will hire you.
So in that time I sent a tape to CFRN in Edmonton.
I became their stringer reporter,
which is they had a Fort McMurray
segment for the Fort McMurray CTV station in which they filled five minutes. I'd get a hundred bucks
for a story. If I was on camera, I'd get like 200 bucks. Cool. So I'd call up Guy like once a week.
I need like a hundred bucks. So he's like, oh yeah, he's always wanted to get good news.
like a hundred bucks so uh he's like oh yeah he's always wanted to get good news so i did that for a bit um turned out i didn't know how to shoot i lied to cfrn because they said you you've shot
before i'm like yeah yeah yeah so i'd send the tapes back i had to send them by greyhound
because you can't nothing was digital right this was in 2000 and they they'd say, everything's blue.
So if you don't white balance a camera, it looks like everyone's in an aquarium.
So I'm like, ah, I used to work with a different camera.
Can you just tell me how to do that?
Can you remind me how you do that?
So I figured that out.
I think they were onto my bullshit.
So I did that.
And then a year to the day george called me and said
uh did you get your experience didn't even have to see a tape i'm like yep it's like okay you're
hired so i went down for the launch of city tv in vancouver which was a big event because city
expanded from toronto was monica deal part of this mon D'Ole was our 11 o'clock host.
I remember.
She'd show up at like 10, 10.30
because she'd put her kids to bed,
do the news and be out of there.
Great.
She's a very nice human.
Met Moses.
Did Moses make a pass at you?
No.
Moses, the one thing he said to me,
he goes, I've been watching you.
I think you and Catherine Humphrey should have TV babies.
I'm like, okay.
Speaking of the tragically hip, actually.
Exactly, Johnny Faze.
No, they're not.
I don't even know if that's public, actually.
So maybe I'm not supposed to say anything.
But yeah, they're not together.
Didn't work out.
That's too bad.
So yeah, that was my one and then i missed the big launch party because
i was there like eight nine months and uh farhan lalji who is our tsn reporter
our boss mark millier called him and said is there anyone out there that you've seen on tv
that like we could be interested in he gave him my name so one day i went into work and i had a voicemail and said
dan this is mark millier from tsn this is on speakerphone please take it off i'd like to talk
to you about uh potential employment please call me so i'm like looking around like yeah funny guys
and like no one's it's like i guess this is real i call him back and then they thought i was a
brilliant negotiator at the time i was dating Miss Molson Indy.
I was rollerblading to work.
I was done work at seven, going to the bars with my buddies.
I was like, this is the life.
I was making like 60 grand.
I'm like, oh, man, I don't want to.
So I said no.
And they said, well, I think you should think about it.
Then they got Blake Price, who was an anchor in Toronto.
He's now back in Vancouver, but he was in Toronto.
He called me and said, yeah, do it.
It's like, it's a good, I'm like, I don't know.
So they still, and then they up the, up the ante.
I think they started, the first offer was like the same as what I was making.
So I'm like, well, I'm not leaving this.
And then they got James Duthie to call me and they're like, yeah, I used to work too you know i loved it too but you come to toronto and it's great so finally i caved and
i'm like okay i'm moving to toronto duffy talked you into yes duffy and blake price so that was in
2002 and then i i made the move to toronto okay and how soon like so you get oh so just wait yeah
of course so the the City TV,
so I left before the launch party.
So we were on air
for like four or five months,
and they had a big launch party,
and supposedly at Moses parties,
they card in like 100 beautiful women.
Because if you're at a party
with a bunch of beautiful women,
you're like,
that's the best party ever.
I'm told this, yeah.
And I was told
there was trays of joints going around and that it was chaos.
Like people were found having sex up in like the sat racks, which is all the satellite feeds where it's just like a room of computers and whatever.
And this wasn't the Playboy Mansion.
No, this was like the CKVU studios.
And this is that good Vancouver weed we all hear about in Toronto.
Exactly.
So I missed that.
Wow.
You know, I always hear about the excess.
Like I'll get someone like a Steve Anthony or something will be on or John Gallagher or something.
And we'll talk about the old 299 Queen Street days of Moses.
And yeah, it's a lot of excess and stuff.
Where they play the outtakes from Speaker's Corner.
And it's just a lot of blowjobs, right?
There is blowjobs for sure.
There's a lot of, I'm trying to remember now,
but there's, yeah, there's a lot of blowjobs and more,
like a lot of nudity and a lot of stuff.
Not to bring it down,
but I bet you there's just people going on
racial tirades on that too, massively.
Oh, I think about that now.
Like, yeah, imagine like if you put a loony in here
and you can record whatever.
Imagine the hate and the slime
that would be smeared on that thing.
That's what Twitter is now,
but you don't have to put in a loony.
It's free.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, but at least if you're recording,
you know somebody's going to see it.
You know what I mean?
Most people don't, they don't have that filter.
They don't care.
Did they have a speaker's corner
in Vancouver?
They did in the lobby, though.
They just cut open the lobby.
It was in the lobby.
That's not quite the same
in there, but I was pissed
when they canceled that
when they closed down
speaker's corner.
I don't know if it was
Bell Media or whatever.
Too much urine.
They shut it down.
But okay, Moses,
you hear the stories.
You know, I've been hearing
for like I'd say
about six months now,
I've been hearing about a Globe and Mail expose on the exploits of Moses
that is yet to see the light of day.
But I've been told it's been coming for six months.
So maybe this will be in it.
The joints on the trays and the hot chicks and the sex everywhere.
Like that sounds, that's so Moses, I want to say.
So we had a photo shoot
before the launch of the station.
And by the way,
in these photo shoot pictures,
I'm wearing a
baroon turtleneck.
As was the style at the time.
I don't know.
So we had to go to the
top of the wall center,
which is a hotel.
We had to go to this
beautiful penthouse suite.
So,
in photo shoots.
There's a lot of downtime.
And then while they're setting up the shots and stuff and I'm wandering around
like,
is there a restroom?
Like,
yeah,
it's in there.
So I'm walking through a bedroom.
I'm like,
obviously someone's staying here.
I go into the bathroom.
We're in Moses's suite.
How do I know?
There was a cologne bottle with Moses on it in a samurai outfit,
holding a sword. Oh, fuck.
I wasn't sure where
that was going. That's even better. Yes.
He had a cologne with
him on it.
I mean, I won't even repeat the stories I've
heard, but I've heard the stories
of Moses and various
lady friends, we'll say. But
your lady friend at the time, I need to hear, how long
did you date Miss Molson Indy for?
It was probably only for a few months.
That's long enough.
Yeah.
I went to do a Molson Indy event,
met her there,
and then she somehow contacted me.
But Molson Indy is a Toronto event.
No.
Do they have one there too?
There was in Vancouver too.
Okay.
And yeah, so she was one of the women.
And she actually was the first WWE diva.
She won the first ever WWE diva event.
And this is before it became very big.
So she missed her window by like probably a year or two.
She could be a big
superstar right now. Wow. And this was not the fabulous Moolah. No, no. Well played. Well played.
Thank you very much. Oh boy. Now you're at TSN. You're doing, I guess, SportsCenter. So how long
until you're teamed up with this upstart named Jay Onright? So when I first got to TSN, I was on
weekends. So I'd work Saturday,
Sunday, and then
they might have me reporting and stuff. My first
on-air partner
was Sunil
Joshi. Yeah, long-time
CCTV guy here. Yeah.
Baked some great cookies.
Very nice guy.
And then my second
weekend host partner was Lisa Hillary hillary who came from calgary
and then the next one after that was holly horton and then the lockout came during the lockout blake
price who was doing the 10 o'clock show with uh darren detition jennifer hedger was doing the then 2 p.m. show with Jay.
My boss let me know that Blake had to move back to Vancouver because they had a couple kids.
They needed family support to look after the kids and yada, yada, yada.
So Jen moved up to the 10, and Mark, the guy who hired me, said,
and we're going to put you on the 2 a.m. show with Jay as soon as the lockout ends.
So that's how we got paired together because of Blake Price.
I always say that to Blake.
I'm like, I got paired with Jay because you moved back to Vancouver.
So thank you.
Yeah.
And then I always say to Jay, you were paired with Jennifer.
Now you're paired with me.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Well, Jennifer was from the Lofters, right?
So that's how we all knew Jennifer. A show I was almost applied me. I'm sorry. Yeah, well, Jennifer Hedger was from the Lofters, right?
So that's how we all knew Jennifer Hedger. A show I was almost applied for.
Is that right?
Yeah.
And then I know she's still with the guy,
but Sean McCormick from...
They met at my wedding.
Is that right?
They literally met at my wedding.
My mind is exploding.
Because McCormick, we're buddies.
I was buddies with McCormick.
He'd always send me texts.
He goes, tell Jen she looks great tonight.
I'm like, I'm not saying that to her because I work with her.
Tell her she looks so sexy.
I'm like, I'm not.
He goes, can you put me at her table at the wedding?
I'm like, no, no, I'm not having any part in this.
And then they met at my wedding.
Yeah, you know, now it sounds like I think maybe Jay told me the story.
Jay was at that wedding as well?
Yeah, because now I remember that part.
Now, my very first, I haven't done it since actually,
but I ran a 5K in 2007 called the Hazel 5K,
which was named after Hazel McCallion,
and it was a Mississauga race.
I thought it was named after Hazel May.
Yeah, I wish.
Kevin Barker.
But the guy who cut the ribbon for my 5K race
was Sean McCormick from Sportsnet.
But the long story short...
Was that when he was running for office?
Did he run for office?
He did.
Now he works with my buddy.
I won't name the place,
but there's a real business job.
Yeah, what do they do?
I don't have no clue.
Pay...
You know when you use a credit card,
pay exchange? There's something there
when you make payments on a card or
something.
That's what they do.
Well, you see their machines everywhere.
I don't know. Are we allowed to say the name? Can I say the name?
Sure. Mineris, which is a huge company.
Massive company. Like when you go pay
with a credit card, you'll see that machine has Mineris
on it, like the logo. They have a big office at Islington and Bloor,
which is not crazy far from here.
But my buddy works there,
and he was telling me the other day
about how one of the sales guys was Sean McCormick.
So it sounds to me like Sean,
and you would know he's your buddy,
but Sean could make more money doing this
than he could being on TV for sports media.
Is that possible?
I think he just got tired of the job.
Tired of the...
It's very odd hours.
And yeah, he ran for office.
I think he left the TV.
What kind?
Like provincial?
This was like, yeah, it was a provincial...
For what party?
Because he seems like a conservative kind of guy.
I think, yeah, it was for PC.
I wish I knew what election that was.
Well, if it's any recent history,
it was won by the Liberal Party.
So, yeah, I think that's when he left broadcasting
and then he transitioned into his new role.
Interesting.
Let his wife be the TV beauty.
That's fine.
I still see her on all the time.
So, okay, Hedger moves
and that means you can team you up with Jay.
Yeah, she actually,
I once invited her on this show,
and she wrote me a very nice note
that she's so busy being a mom,
she couldn't fit it in or whatever,
and I said,
that's probably a better thing to focus on.
That's the perfect parent answer.
Blame it on the kids.
That's right.
Yeah, that's right.
All right, now I'm going to play, just give everyone a taste. This is just a clip I really like from Jay and it on the kids. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Alright, now I'm going to play, just to give everyone a taste.
This is just a clip I really like
from Jay and Dan, the show. So you guys
are teamed up. So let's listen to a little bit of
yourself and Jay on record. I hope I like it.
For the
land
of the
free
and the And the home of the brave
That's your money's worth tonight.
Yes, we did.
That was Luke Groves with the...
Music of the night.
With the Star Spangled Banner in Baltimore.
What year is this?
Luke is the lead in a local production of The Phantom of the...
Jay, Jay, do you want to say something?
I'm not Jay.
I am the real Phantom, the Phantom of the opera.
Is that a paper mask you're wearing?
It's a perfectly legitimate Phantom mask.
I'm here in protest, Dan.
Luke Groves isn't fit to wear this mask.
This, you know this is a sports program, a sports center.
I'm actually a huge fan of the Flyers AHL affiliate.
You know, the Phantoms.
You know, Brian's right.
It's tougher to be the straight man.
You felt you as the straight man, the Leslie Nielsen, if you will.
He can't be zany and madcap and have it work.
Because you can't go head for head or toe to toe.
Right.
Head for head. No, that's not a term. I'm working with that. go head for head or toe to toe. Right. Head for head?
No, that's not a term.
I'm working with that.
That's fine.
Toe to toe?
Toe to toe is a term.
No, like I always say, so we get asked this a lot, the biggest thing is to stay quiet
because people want to jump in.
They're like, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or make their own comment.
No, because then it's just too much noise.
Right.
So I'm fine staying quiet.
Yeah, so early on, you complement each other well.
Thank you.
It works, because people love Jay and Dan.
You parlay this.
I'm trying not to have too much.
Go ahead.
Yeah, and then some people also hate, but they watch more.
Like the Howard Stern effect.
Yes, exactly. I was listening to Stern
on the way here. I love Stern too, but
people love to hate him and then they listen twice as much.
Now, I'm going to, I'm trying
not to make any overlap. Like I did
two episodes of Jay and I try not to have
any overlap for people who are going to listen to
this episode as well. But
I guess
the question, I never asked Jay this question
but I always wondered it.
Which came first, Jay and Dan on TSN or Tim and Sid, who I think originate on the score?
I'm almost certain Tim and Sid.
Because they were on the score.
Yep.
Before it was in the Rogers family.
And then people always want us to have a beef.
And I'm like, well, first off, whenever we've met each other, we like each other.
We respect each other.
We both are fans.
I think all four of us are fans of each other and they have a completely different show
and a different time of the day.
People are like, why didn't you go against them?
I'm like, cause we, we want to do a sports highlight show and they do their show.
So there's no beef.
There's, there's never been a beat.
They, they're great broadcasters, great guys.
Have you ever considered faking a beef?
It would be like a fun, dramatic,
you know, people love to watch Canadian,
I know this better than anybody,
people love to watch Canadian sports media.
And they're always like,
oh, you hear Simmons went at Myrtle about analytics.
Well, Simmons goes at lots of people.
But you hear what Cox said about this.
And they try to create this drama.
And some of it's real.
Some of it's fictionalized.
You ever consider a Tim and Sid, Jay and Dan feud?
No, I get in enough trouble
without involving Canadian broadcasters
when I send out tweets on Twitter
and stuff like that.
Well, I got a question.
I had a couple of questions.
But first, because this is your first run at TSN,
you called Carleton University
last chance you. Correct.
And you got in trouble. Can you tell me what
kind of trouble you got into for that?
I don't know if it was basketball
or if it was hockey, but we showed
a gold medal game
in one of those sports, and
Carleton was in that game.
And I said, and Carton, last chance you.
So the next day my boss calls.
He's like, why did, this is, I don't even think we had email back then.
We probably had email, I don't know.
But again, Mark said, like, why did you call Carlton last chance you?
Why didn't you call Lakehead last chance you?
I'm like, well, Lakehead wasn't in the game.
Right, right.
So I'm just going to write.
He goes, oh, the dean's really mad.
So you got to write a letter of apology and yada, yada.
So I wrote it and I didn't write it well.
So TSN wrote it and I signed it and sent it to them.
We used to call it Cartoon You is what we used to call it.
But they've come a long way.
Yes, that's fair.
And my sister went to Lakehead.
It's not like, I don't even know.
It's not last chance you.
Well, my buddy who couldn't get into,
he's a teacher today,
but my buddy couldn't get into any teacher's college.
And finally, like last,
the last hope was Lakehead
and he ended up getting in there.
Well, is Algonquin last chance college?
Because that's the last one I got into.
I got denied by everyone else.
Possibly.
I don't know.
Possibly.
Possibly.
But here's another one I kind of like.
You got a request from your daughter to put her My Little Pony on your desk at TSN?
Yes.
This happened until Sean Fitzgerald brought it up.
I'd forgotten completely about it.
And she said, can you put My Little Pony on your show?
And I said, sure.
And this is before we went out on a craft tour,
which is when we took the show on the road for 10 days,
went to all these beautiful cities in Canada.
It's like one of my favorite parts of this job
that we've ever done still.
So we would document where My Little Pony has been,
but it started with My Little Pony on the desk.
And I got a
voicemail from Mark again.
Mark is a central figure
in my career at TSN saying,
leave your kids'
toys at home.
That sounds like a buzzkill there.
I don't know.
Producer Tim, you're referred to a lot,
but can you confirm once and for all that
is Producer Tim real?
Yes, 100%. He's not like Polka Roo or once and for all that is Producer Tim real? He is, 100%.
So he's not like Polka Roo or whatever.
No, he is 100% real,
and we do not exaggerate his size,
his non-zest for life.
Yeah, he's a curmudgeon.
Now, on May 3rd, 2013,
you guys both announced that you'd be leaving TSN
and leaving the entire country.
Thank you very much.
And you went to work for Fox Sports 1,
which is in LA.
And you started there in August 2013.
So we heard from Jay, but let's hear from you.
Is it just an opportunity you could not resist?
Yes.
1,000% financially and for career-wise
because it's one of those moves,
if we didn't do it,
we would say to ourselves,
why didn't we do that?
And we got called to sell it so many times,
but again, the amount of money
that they came to us with,
if I put that in front of any human in Canada and said,
oh, so you just say no to that?
Fuck you.
But no one's calling Peter, well, he's passed now,
but Peter Jennings, nobody thought was a sellout.
Alex Trebek's not a sellout.
There's not a single human in Canada that would see that and say,
nah, no chance.
No chance.
And I always make the comparison.
I'm like, so Michael Bublé, his music plays in the States.
He lives in the States.
Is he a sellout?
Neil Young, right?
Neil Young lives in a ranch in California or something.
You can only be in Canada?
Like, I never got that.
That is going to annoy me for the rest of my life.
People saying, you're such a sellout.
No.
It was a good financial decision
and a good decision career-wise.
Well, like you said,
if you didn't do it,
you'd have those regrets forever.
Like you have to give it a go.
You get an offer like that
doesn't come around every day.
No, it never does.
That's right.
It's unheard of.
And the fact that we got to go together.
But how did you get the offer?
Like, was it that article? And I can't remember, but that article that basically... Yeah, the Wall Street Journal. Right the fact that we got to go together. But how did you get the offer? Like, uh, was it that article?
And I can't remember,
but that article that basically like.
Yeah,
then the Wall Street Journal.
Right.
So that's like that.
They said,
they said,
why can't American Sports Center be more like Canadian Sports Center with Jan Dan?
And then one of the Fox executives,
Jacob Allman,
he read this article.
He made contact with us when we were doing the Olympic coverage for T coverage for tsn in 2010 in london and that was
our first contact it was on again off again 2012 uh yeah 2010 was vancouver um they wanted us then
they said we went in a different direction and then it was on again and then uh after about a
year maybe a little over a year after all of the communique started, we ended up in LA.
And what was life like for you and your family in LA?
Well, my marriage ended there. Um, so thanks for bringing that up.
Kind of, you kind of brought it up, not to get technical.
No. Um, as far as quality living, loved it. Um, expensive living, extremely high,
but you're living next to the ocean.
Like every day felt like a vacation.
Like you would be sitting at a stop sign and someone would walk by with the
surfboard. Like, you're just like, I can't believe I live here.
I remember meeting Jared Stoll at a bar one night,
played for the LA Kings. And I said, I can't believe I live here.
He's like, yeah, you gotta give that up.
Like you bring that up all the time.
I'm like, so he was over the fact.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm just like, sorry.
I'm just in a, just an awe still.
It takes a while.
How long did you spend in LA?
Was it LA or outside LA?
I started in Redondo beach and then moved to Marina Del Rey.
So we spent four years down there, two years in Redondo, two years in Marina del Rey. And I'm sorry
your marriage ended, but you know, you're in
a big club there with a lot of wonderful people like
myself, so only a little bit of
sorry. Sorry, not sorry, as Kathleen
would say. Hey, I think that, yeah, it's
like 50-50, right? And
Jay's on his second marriage as well.
Exactly. We always tell people we've
each outlasted a marriage with each
other. But you and I made the mistake, not the mistake, of course, because there's nothing better than our children.
But you had children with the wife. Jay didn't have any children with that.
So to me, that's like easy peasy.
Exactly. I always say that to people. They're like, oh, I'm having trouble in my relationship.
I'm like, are you married? Sorry, are you married? Do you have kids?
And they say, no. I'm like, well, then break up.
Sorry, Harry and Mary.
Do you have kids? Right.
And they say no.
I'm like, well, then break up.
Yeah, because 100% of the hard part of the breakup,
100% is the children that you no longer can tuck into bed every single night.
I know.
That's 100% the hard part.
So if there are no children, I'm like, boo-hoo, you're breaking my heart.
Move on, buddy.
Who cares?
Exactly.
Exactly.
But now we're all...
See, we're bonding here over...
We're all reunited.
And I actually, when I moved back.
What do you mean you're reunited?
You're, yo, you and.
So they moved back for the last year and a half.
Okay.
With their mom to Canada.
So I had to make that flight from LA to Toronto every three weeks.
Oh, that's tough.
I don't even want to be 15 minutes away by bicycle.
So I had a great advisor
during the transition period that means the travel time that i had to do and moving back to canada
brian burke i reached out to him because he's been through the same thing he his kids lived
in the boston area some lived in toronto and he worked out in anaheim so i said what did you do
and he said i bought a place close to the kids and And it was a shithole, but we made it a home. He goes, I just wanted, your kids cannot be in the car more than 20 minutes when you're traveling to your spouse's house or to school, whatever. So I took that to heart because I'm like, oh, I don't want to live out there. I want to live in Toronto. He said, boo fucking hoo-oh-tool. He actually said that in an email. He's like, poor Dan.
Boo-fucking-who-o-tool.
It's better than the email I got from Brian Berg's lawyer.
Oh, no.
Speaking of Hazel May, yeah.
Oh.
But only because somebody left a comment on TorontoMike.com,
a very popular blog.
Not me.
I didn't write this.
But somebody left a comment about a well-known rumor
about Brian and Hazel May.
I was hosting it.
I don't know that.
I don't even want to repeat it
because i'll get another cease and desist or whatever but i got a lawyer letter rep his lawyer
brian burke's lawyer that if i did if i didn't delete and give up the ip address of the person
who left the comment i don't know i was gonna be sued or something so i actually replied and said
i deleted it as i would for any human being who had something like
that written about them on my blog.
I would delete it in a heartbeat.
I said, but you're going to have to sue me to get the IP address.
And then I never heard again back from this lawyer.
But there you go.
You deleted it.
That's good.
Boohoo.
Oh, too.
So yeah, I took his advice and now everything has worked out.
I'm happy to hear that.
So when you're in Orono, these kids are no longer in California.
Good.
They didn't like...
Well, my oldest is the only one who went to California schools.
She did not like the California school system.
She had an hour's worth... In grades one and two,
she had an hour's worth of homework every single night.
Oh.
Now she has no homework, and she's in grade five.
They barely have education in
their new home.
I don't know.
No, no.
It's just like they respect that when kids are done school,
they should be kids.
That's a good point.
Like who wants to go home and do an hour's worth of homework?
That's hell.
Not me.
No, I never liked doing homework.
That's for sure.
I'm going to play just a little clip here of like how you sounded
when you got to Fox Sports.
And then we'll
talk about you know what happened there but uh let's listen here thanks for watching squat sports
fox sports live yeah i didn't even know we were coming on tv neither did i that was a total
surprise so you caught us there got us off guard america uh jay and dan we're an acquired taste
given our sardonic nature and show within a show ethos pretty sure you didn't write any of that i
don't even know what ethos means.
He's the first-ever Canadian to go number one overall in the NBA draft.
We'll just do a couple here.
But the question surrounding Anthony Bennett is,
will he live up to the standards set by the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time,
Bill Wennington?
I'm sorry, this script is wrong.
It should have said Steve Nash.
Someone in our research department is going to be fired
The reason we're firing you Ryan and I feel terrible about it is that I am rumbly Oh that range destinies child fan and this show is an exclusively an on Vogue Zone should advise people at the Fox cafeteria
Don't get the salmon. Yeah
Dan's a little gassy tonight. Hi. Welcome
Don't get the salmon.
Yeah.
Sitting well.
Dan's a little gassy tonight.
Hi.
Welcome.
Those were the honorable mentions for the one here are the top five you voted for at Fox Sports Live's Twitter account.
Minus all the comments that said I look like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory.
Trust me.
I know.
And I have to live with that every day.
To the Yankees and specifically to the Chicks.
That was our panel laughing.
So tell me, what went wrong at Fox Sports 1?
Just the concept from the beginning when they told us,
they're like, okay, it's going to be a three-hour show,
live every night, Monday to Friday.
I'm like, okay, that sounds like hell.
It's going to have Carissa Thompson hosting.
I'm like, okay, I thought we were hosting.
Okay, never mind. Donovan McNabb, Carissa Thompson hosting. I'm like, okay. I thought we were hosting. Okay. Nevermind.
Uh,
Donovan McNabb,
Andy Roddick,
Gary Payton,
Ephraim Salam,
who is a,
uh,
a football player in the NFL.
And then,
uh,
we had Gabe Kapler there as well.
So they're like,
they're going to like chat and stuff and then send to you for highlights.
And I'm like,
uh,
what are you paying us again?
Like,
oh,
that sounds a great idea.
That's a great idea.
That's a great idea.
I'm in.
During the week of Super Bowl 50,
speaking of your tweets,
you were critical of Fox.
I know there was a whole Deadspin news article about this, but what were these tweets about?
Budgets, budget cuts and stuff?
Yeah, like our entire staff had just got cut
and then another show was promoting that they were there
and what a great job they all did.
I'm like, well, maybe keep that stuff on the down low
after all these people had lost their jobs
and it turned into a whole big thing.
Again, sometimes I send things or say things
that I don't really think about,
but it's my Irish heritage to just lash out.
And then, ah, shit, I shouldn't have said that.
I sent a recent one on Twitter.
I won't even mention it because I'm still in trouble for it.
I've since deleted it.
You can't give us a clue?
I said something about Bell customer service.
Again, I was just having fun while waiting on hold forever.
Can't bite the hand that feeds.
Eggs.
Well, again, but I'm like, maybe come to me and I can help you with fixing these problems.
So my one advisor in life.
Brian Burke?
No, Jerry D.
Oh, yeah.
Jerry D.
So I was talking to him and he was asking me about something.
And I said, ah, you see those Bell tweets? He's like, yeah, Jerry D. So I was talking to him and he was asking me about something. I said, ah,
you see those bell tweets?
He's like, yeah, shouldn't have sent those. Why didn't you
talk to me before you sent those?
So I'm like, but I was just having fun. He's like, nope,
can't do that. I'm like, ah, shit. Yeah, you need
like a moderator or whatever, like somebody
to just review your tweet. I need a filter.
I'll do it. That's no fun. If Jerry can't do it,
I do it. Real quick story. You know, I have guests.
You're episode 341 or whatever.
And I had a PR person reach out to me.
And it was about Jerry D was doing some work for DAZN.
You ever heard of DAZN?
Okay, well, it's DAZN.
I hope I said that right.
He was doing some work for them or something.
What is that?
Streaming live sports.
It's probably a TSN competitor of some kind.
But they live stream sports, DAZN.
And they were doing something with Jerry D,
so they wanted to promote their service.
So I believe...
Or is it the D-Zone?
Yeah, but you say it DAZN.
But it'd be better
if it was D
because it was Jerry D DAZN.
Yes, it would be better.
You're right.
You're right.
It would be better like that.
You're right.
But anyway,
long story short,
I think I'm getting this pitch
to bring Jerry D on the show,
which I would have done
because I like Jerry D.
He's awesome.
Yeah, I like him a lot.
And I've had a bunch
of cast members from that show, Mr. D. Is that the name of the show? Yes. would have done because I like Jerry D. He's awesome. Yeah, I like him a lot. And I've had a bunch of cast members
from that show.
Mr. D,
is that the name
of the show?
Yes.
Like Maestro's been on.
I'm looking at him right now.
Jonathan Torrance.
I've had these cats on.
I'd have on Jerry D.
Jono's been on the show.
Yeah, Jono's been on the show.
And in person too.
Not even from Nova Scotia.
He was here.
But it was actually
offering me
the two winners
of this contest
that were going to watch
the Super Bowl with Jerry D. They were offering me those two people to come on this show. And I tweeted about
this and I said, like, why would I ever want these two regular Joes who won this contest of DAZN?
Like, I'll take Jerry D and you can talk about the DAZN. That's a PR firm working overtime.
Like, I was like, oh, who's so desperate for content? Like, are there shows that they're
so desperate for content? We'll take that they're so desperate for content?
We'll take the winners of the DAZN.
Maybe if a check came with it, as it's an ad or whatever.
You know what I mean?
You could just walk out on the street and be the same.
Just talk to two people. I'd sooner talk to Ivan the Terrible, my next-door neighbor,
who's in his 80s now, but played defense for some Copenhagen hockey team
back in the day.
I would much rather talk about playing for the Copenhagen hockey team.
I would much rather do that than the two guys who won
the DAZN contest. Give me Jerry D.
Anyway, that's my
Jerry D story. Okay, so Jerry
D told you don't send the sport. You got in trouble for
the bell thing. Okay, I hear that.
Now, they eventually
cancel you guys
on Fox Sports
Live 2017.
Let me play something TSN aired
shortly thereafter.
Yeah, please.
You say the cancel word.
Because people always say, yeah, you guys
failed down there. I just want to point out
that of all the people that worked on that
show, like Andy Roddick,
Donna McNabb, Gary Payton,
Carissa Thompson, we were the last standing of all
those people but that's because they all made way more money than you guys did uh no i have no idea
what do i their contracts were shorter okay we signed four-year deals you know what your mistake
was you had gabe capler right you should have had gay cap gabe caplan from mr cotter right that
would have been a but now we we used to work with a now manager in the big leagues.
That's right.
But eventually you got whacked.
Sadly, you got whacked, but we all benefit here in Canada.
Go ahead.
But they paid us for our last five months remaining,
and all they said was,
we'll honor your contracts, just don't say anything bad about us.
I'm like, perfect.
And I realized in those five months,
I could easily be retired.
I have no problem not working.
Because people are like, oh, you'll miss work.
Nah.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
I'm going through something right now.
And I've never been busier, never been happier.
Yes.
Exactly.
I'm going to play this.
This is from, I don't know, trade deadline day or something.
Oh, yeah.
We are two hours into our show
and still nothing.
Just had a couple of deals late last night.
Yann Pantzer going to San...
Gord, you got something?
Yep.
Hang on.
All right.
James, we do have something.
Bob McKenzie, the insider.
Yes.
First big news of the day,
a major acquisition.
Actually make that a major reacquisition.
TSN is proud to announce
that Jay Onright and Dan O'Toole
are returning to the TSN fold, a.k.a. Jay and Dan.
So happy to welcome them back to TSN.
Weren't they on waivers?
Jay's welcome to come up to the cottage, my cottage, anytime.
Dan, we're still not sure on.
Have you ever been to Bobbik?
Blockbuster deal.
No, that's the ongoing joke.
But has Jay been to Bob McKenzie's? Blockbuster deal. No, that's the ongoing joke. But has Jay been to Bob McKenzie's?
No.
No, no one.
Duffy has been there.
Jeff O'Neill, he mentioned this when he was on our podcast a few weeks ago.
He said, I consider myself one of Bob's friends.
Like, I see him all the time.
Because never has he invited me.
Never.
So I don't feel bad that I haven't been.
I also, when he was here, Bob McKenzie,
at the end, I asked him if I could go to his cottage,
and he right away, not here.
Yeah, Bob's been here.
James Duthie's been here.
Everyone's been here.
You're the final TSA.
Actually, you know who has not been here?
By the way, next week,
Vic Rauter is kicking out the jams on this show.
Gino Red has been here.
I could keep going.
Rod Smith has been here.
Yeah.
Who's your favorite out of all those you just named?
And be honest.
All the TSN guys.
Like one where you'd say,
yeah,
I'd go for a beer with him or I'd hang out for a weekend with him.
All right.
I'll be,
yeah.
Uh,
to be honest,
it's probably Jay on right is probably believe it or not,
but you know,
I can't say anything negative about the sweetheart that is James Duffy.
And that what a very, I mean, all, to be honest,
and I'm not bullshitting anyone out there.
I would tell you, because I've had a couple of jerks
from Roger Sportsnet, not too jerky,
but a little bit, a little bit sandpapery.
Not one TSN personality has been anything less
than like classy and gracious and warm and kind.
Bob McKenzie was fantastic.
Duffy, I can say this,
the best broadcaster that I've ever worked with
because all the stuff you see him do,
he does without a prompter.
I can't do that.
No chance.
And you just see him work,
and you're like, he's just so talented.
So yeah, Duffy, awesome guy.
So is all the guys you just named.
They're all great.
Rod Smith, what a voice.
The voice, yeah.
Bob McKenzie, man, just a legend.
Vic Rauter is a sweetheart.
Vic Rauter, a legend.
Oh my.
And even Gino Retta.
Gino, class act.
I opened that episode up by playing Gino Vanelli
and he just cracked up and he's like,
yeah, I didn't hear that stuff since high school
or whatever.
And it's all I think of when I hear somebody named Gino and he knows where the bodies are buried at tsn the story
like i hope he puts out a book on his time at tsn because he's never put out a book right no because
he's been there since he's been there since day one him and landsberg i think we're day oneers
i gotta give it yes you're right another guy who was a day oneer and it hasn't been of tsn in a
long time but he's been over twice and what a fantastic storyteller and broadcaster, Jim Van Horn.
I've never met him, but I hear great things.
And he's an avid cyclist.
Does he still have the mustache?
He has.
So unlike Gino Retto, I liked your cups that you guys put together,
Jay and Dan.
You guys had the mugs, right?
Gino did that.
Gino did that?
I thought you guys did that.
No, they did a fundraiser.
Well, Gino doesn't have the mustache anymore,
and I always urge him to bring it back,
but Jim Van Horn still has the mustache.
It's just white now, which, yeah.
Does he do voiceover work?
What's he doing?
He does, like, when deaf people watch sports.
Is it deaf people?
Oh, blind people.
I'm sorry.
I got this back.
When visually impaired people watch sports,
he does the voice descriptions that you would hear,
like the auditory descriptions of what's showing on the screen.
But wait, so he has to watch the live sporting event?
Yeah, I think he describes live sports for visually impaired people.
But he can't do every game.
It's just, I don't know, whatever this service does.
They sent him to Korea for the Olympics.
So he was doing Olympic events.
I want to know more about this.
Yeah, AMI, I think it's called.
Something like that, AMI.
But yeah, he explained it on this podcast.
But that's what he's up to now.
He just beat cancer.
Wow, I did not know that.
And I know he's doing okay because he's back on his bicycle.
And I get tweets, I'll see tweets where he did another like 70k ride.
And I get all like, what the?
And sometimes I see him on the trail.
Because I myself will do a good, I did 32 today.
Like I'll go 30 or 35 or whatever.
But I'm not doing a lot of 70k rides.
Jim Van Horn's out there doing 70k rides.
That's too much.
We ride around the Orono neighborhood on our bikes. That's
it. I once did a bike ride from
Long Island to Toronto
to raise money for Alzheimer's
with my buddy, former Islander Steve Webb
and I tried to quit every
single day of the ride. But what kind of distance each
day would you do? Do you remember?
100 miles, I think. It's like a
700-800 mile drive
or ride. And is that 160 kilometers or am I doing my math wrong?
It was long.
It was too long.
It was dumb.
I just hated it.
And so he could survive on those little energy cubes or whatever.
I'd need a sandwich and a Coke every hour or two because I was burning that much.
And then people were like, you can't have a coke. And then a professional
rider with this,
he's like, you wouldn't believe how many
pro riders have a coke and
have a real meal
because they can't survive on that shit either.
But anyway,
I threw my bike
in the ditch at one point.
It was not a journey I'd like to... Oh, I want I threw my bike in the ditch at one point. Uh, it was, it was not a journey I, I'd like to.
Oh, I want to give a shout out because her, her dad, this is a little small world story,
but, uh, Laura Dyken's father lives across the street.
So you can say hi to him if you want after this recording.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Roman Dyken.
He lives across the street.
And also Kayla Gray's been here.
I know she does work at TSN and just a bunch of them.
But, um, yeah, I was, I a bunch of them. I said Jay was my
answer, but to be honest,
we're an hour and 45 minutes into
this and you're right neck and neck with Jay
right now. You could pull ahead.
Keep on
doing what you're doing. You just have to come to Orono
to hang out. I know somebody,
Bickle's from Orono, right? He's the famous...
He is.
He was in town at a party the other night on Saturday night.
And he's like, why don't you come on down?
I'm like, I've got the girls.
And he's like, well, come pick you up in the golf cart.
I'm like, that doesn't solve the problem of the girls sleeping right now.
That's right.
That's right.
But I worked with a girl who was from Orono.
I didn't know Orono existed until she kept talking about Orono.
You haven't been to Peterborough.
But Peterborough, I don't know.
You passed Orono on the way to Peterborough.
You know, my buddy Freddie P, I've been to a trailer on Lovesick Lake.
Am I in the Kawarthas now?
I think.
I don't know.
There's so many lakes.
There's a million lakes there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I don't know if I've been to Peterborough proper or whatever, but I've been really like damn close.
But okay.
So you are back on TSN.
So maybe just a little bit about how,
so you get canned from whatever.
I know you got paid out for a bit or whatever,
but you got whatever.
They screwed up at Fox.
No fault of yours in Jays,
but you're out of work and available.
What made you decide to come home?
Is it you just got a decent offer and thought,
hey, let's
let's go home like we were reviewing our options in the states and there was nothing that was
beyond like a year uh there there were options and then tsn uh they heard that the show might
be getting off so they said why don't we come down and uh have a chat so we went out to lunch
they proved they uh they did this little, they didn't have PowerPoint
because we were at a fancy LA restaurant,
but they had like sheets.
And it was a nice presentation saying like,
we miss you guys.
Why don't you come back?
And it'll be amazing.
So I'm like, that was pretty nice.
So it tugged at the heartstrings
and they said they'd build us our own studio.
So you just have to leave Canada for them them to build your own studio so damn true and put your name on the show and uh it was an easy decision and we are so happy that we did it i'm not speaking for jay
i can speak for myself but he said the same thing yeah the last like year of our show at fox i'd go
home and i'm like i don't even want to watch, I don't even want to watch it. I don't even
want to watch the show we just did because everything was scripted for us. They wouldn't
let us ad lib. And now we're back doing the show that we, that we love doing that. We, uh, that
our, our partnership, uh, grew into what it is and it, it just feels amazing. And there's the,
the plan was always to do sports center classic with some added elements.
And that's exactly what the show has turned into.
So some people might,
they might take some time getting used to some of the new stuff,
like bits written by our writers and stuff.
But I,
I gotta tell you,
if,
if I'm just going by verbal feedback from people I meet,
like go back to last weekend in Ottawa and people said, we love the show.
I'm like, so do you get it?
And they're like, yes, we get it completely.
And when they say that, I'm like, okay, good.
Because if they say, well, I don't like this part, people don't say that.
And I always say, I'm like, are you sure?
Be honest.
They're like, no, we love all of it.
And then they name segments that they like and stuff.
So just getting the word on the, from the man on the street about the show and hearing
that it, uh, it just makes it all worth it and makes our feeling about the show, um,
ring true, which is that we love it.
No, I was going to like, cause I was going to ask you like, how's it going?
Like, what's the feedback?
Cause you, when did you debut this before Christmas?
Remind me, October?
September 1st.
September 1st.
Right, right.
So you're almost a year into this thing.
So you found your groove.
People are happy.
Bell Media doesn't have any buyer's remorse.
It's all good in the hood.
I think it's great.
We've never seen ratings, but we've been told that they are well above projections,
so that's good.
Earlier today, believe it or not,
sitting in the same chair you're sitting in now,
Mark Hebbshire of Sportsline.
Hebbsy.
Hebbsy, right?
He was there.
He has a podcast called Hebbsy on Sports,
and we recorded here.
So episode five we recorded this morning,
and then I just mentioned in passing,
like, oh, Dan O'Toole's
coming over this afternoon.
And he got this angry look on his face.
And I'm like, well, Hebsey's usually
a pretty happy-go-lucky guy.
He's getting angry over there.
Apparently he was watching you guys,
I guess, last night or whatever.
And there was something about
naming the best sportscaster or something.
And I don't know who it was.
You or Jay, you can tell me.
But somebody went with Jim Taddy. Is this is this uh okay so i'll give you the backstory uh hebsey i saw there's a big
road hockey uh thing every summer uh that they have down by the water that's the first time i
met him went up and said huge fan i love watching you and tatty really nice yes most recently like two weeks ago um i saw him at a bar his son was working at a bar
in um liberty liberty village i was there playing shuffleboard with some friends he came over we had
a big chat i'm like thanks so much for coming over and i watched hebbshire and tatty on sports
line growing up me too loved it and night, one of our viewers said,
were there any broadcasters
that you admired growing up?
And I said, Jim Taddy,
because I couldn't name both of them.
And the reason I picked Taddy
was because I saw Taddy
like I am now.
The street man.
And kind of like the working man.
Hebsey was like,
he had the Hebseys
where he was in a tuxedo
and stuff
I'm like
the Hebsey Awards
yeah so I'm like
he's kind of like the J
and I'm kind of like
and Hebsey had the
the earring as I recall
yes
he was more of the J
yeah
and Jim was more of the
so I loved both of them
like I watched that show
religiously
and
it was funny
Hebsey sent a tweet out
he direct not direct messaged me,
but he started the tweet with my Twitter handle.
And so it only goes to me and people that follow me.
But he said, I heard you say yes, guy.
And then he included Taddy.
He's like, are you sure he's allowed to use this?
And I respond.
I said, as I say, every time I use it, use with permission.
Because when Jim Taddy started working in the,
the TSN studios,
I went to him,
I said,
loved your show.
And I said,
I love yes guys.
I said,
can I like mention it?
Like,
could I use it the odd time?
He's like,
yeah,
completely.
And he said,
I'd be honored if he did it.
So whenever I say,
I say,
yes,
guy use with permission.
It's sort of like you said,
you were,
you listened to Howard Stern. Well, Howard Stern, uh, likes to do the, Hey now, right. Use with permission. It's sort of like you said you listen to Howard Stern.
Well, Howard Stern likes to do the Hey Now, right,
which is the Hank Kingsley from Larry Sanders' show.
So it's very similar, kind of an homage.
It's not a copy.
Hey Now.
That's great.
And Taddy politely, I don't even think it was that polite,
to be honest, but he declined the invitation to my basement.
He seemed a little prickly.
I've never met the man.
I don't cast judgments.
He's always been great to me.
I, uh... He didn't want to talk
about the past.
I think that was the crux
of his...
Yeah.
Which is fair.
Some people don't want to.
No, of course.
And if you don't want to talk
about the past,
you should probably
avoid the show.
That's what we do here.
But I have a question
from Jay Onright.
It says,
tell me about Captain D.
Oh, that was where we started.
The Airborne Traffic Report. So my
on-air name was Captain D.
So I'd fly around, let's go check the
traffic with Captain D.
Didn't you need, like, because it
sounds like the service was for multiple stations.
Is that right? Don't you need a different name at each station?
Nope. So I was on, like,
a country station. I was on a Christian
station. I was on a Christian station. I was
on a talk station and there was one
other, oh, it was an Asian station where
they didn't speak English. And you
had difficulty of your Cantonese, I'm sure.
I'm like, are they sure?
And then eventually they
would bring their own guy up and
he would do the traffic reports because they realized
my English probably
was not translating.
Interesting.
I'm still stuck on this Miss Molson Indy.
I'm still digesting that over here.
But okay.
That was a great question from a Jayon right now.
Chris McKeown.
I'm not good at pronouncing names, but Chris McKeown.
Chris.
Chris.
He writes, get the impression he can't play enough golf.
Has he ever had a hole in one? Gets the impression I can't play enough golf. Has he ever had a hole-in-one?
Gets the impression I can't.
No.
He gets the impression, I guess, that you play a lot of golf,
which is probably true, right? Okay, so before kids, played a lot.
Played four or five times a week.
Kids arrived.
That turned into no golf.
When I was in L.A., I think I played golf twice my entire four years.
Now that I've been back and we've got a set schedule with the girls the uh my ex-wife has them half the time I've got the
girls half the time and in my time I don't have them I freaking golf because I don't have to I I
work late at night so yes I golf I'm not addicted to it. I just enjoy it. And no, I've never had a hole in one ever.
I'm golfing tomorrow, actually, in Peterborough at the Kwartha Golfing Country Club.
Do you pay when you golf there?
Or is this always comped because you're?
I go with a good friend, Pete Dalladay, who is a radio legend in Peterborough, and he
does an on the links show.
So he gets us onto these golf courses because he's shooting a show.
Last time we brought Brian Bickle out and we went to a wildfire,
which is on Stony Lake.
If you ever get a chance to play a great golf course,
play,
play that.
So Bickle's like,
why is there cameras here?
I'm like,
I don't know.
Ask Pete.
And I ran.
So Pete did a bunch of interviews with him.
So, oh, what a song.
I sang this song in grade 11 to an auditorium full of people at St.
Peter's High School in Peterborough.
First CD I ever owned.
It had to be you
Is this the Harry Met Sally soundtrack?
It is
That was your first CD?
It was
That's amazing
I love Harry
I played this for Mike
We were playing this the other day
Driving back from Jay's house
Could make me be true
Now my kids sing along to this even
Could make me be blue
Look at how handsome He's still handsome But look at handsome young Harry Connick be true. Now my kids sing along to this even.
Look at how handsome, he's still handsome, but look at handsome
young Harry Connick.
So many times
in high school, I had an opportunity
to go to Harry Connick when he was still
with the big band. I just don't
know if he still is. And at the last
minute, I had to cancel it so I still have never
seen him in concert.
And I don't know if I want to see him now because he'd play a lot of the new stuff,
which I don't enjoy as much.
I own like six or seven of his albums and none of the new ones.
What happened to Meg Ryan?
She was a cutie in this.
You know, I've never seen the movie.
Really?
Because it's a movie.
You can't do that.
We already established that.
That's right
oh
well I
I remember
Harry Connick
having a big hit
with We Are In Love
this was like
a big smash
yes we are
in love
indubitably
we are
in love
I saw Michael Buble
which is the same
kind of a style
of singer
when he was
working clubs
in Vancouver before he was big.
That was when I first went out to Vancouver,
and I was doing my traffic reporting and living in Ladner, B.C.
The good old days.
When you were dating Miss Molson.
No, no.
Before that.
When I was doing the airborne traffic reporting.
Okay, then you went to Fort Mc...
Okay, yeah.
So when I got there,
and then I started dating my boss
who came out from Toronto
to run the little operation out there, so...
He did all right.
He did all right.
Listen to you.
Listen to you.
Baby, it had to be you
Wonderful you
Had to be you.
How many views on YouTube?
412,000.
That's it.
Not even a million.
And then you go to a Bieber song and it'll be at like 42 billion.
Because you know why?
Because it's all happening in YouTube.
This song had decades of popularity before YouTube existed.
So you get a strike when the iron's hot.
My kids, everything is on YouTube or Netflix.
They switch.
Oh, mine too.
Same two.
Yeah, I met mine too.
I sent our president a text the other day.
I'm like, I don't know if the cable industry
is looking at this,
but my kids go to the cable guide, and it's algebra.
You need picture form of the show, and you can click on it.
Yeah, their interface, they're limited in that interface.
There seems to be some technical reason they can't.
But they must be having these discussions behind closed cable doors.
They'd have to stream it in the browser, right?
They'd have to move it out of the TV and into the browser.
But I had this trouble.
You work for Bell Media, so you don't know the struggles I had with ShowMe,
which was a Rogers streaming service, okay, before they canceled this thing.
But ShowMe's interface, when you went through the television,
was god-awful.
It was just horrible.
And I once wrote them this passionate note about how unusable the interface was,
and it explained to me this technical limitation through that.
But in the browser, it was much more Netflix-y. In the browser, this is what I learned.
In the browser, okay.
Do you get a free subscription to Crave TV with your TSN employee?
No. I get 20% off my services. But yeah, every time I turn on the TV, it's either been on Netflix
or YouTube. Guys, this watch cable, it pays my, and I'm like, guys, watch cable. It pays my bill. And they're like,
well, we don't know how to find things. Well, I'm going to let you
in on a little secret, but you are going to be
fine because you're on TSN. But the
only reason anyone
of a certain age gets cable
is for live sports. That's it.
Correct. Absolutely. And that's my 16-year-old
son. He wants to watch all the
West Coast basketball games. He wants to watch
it all. And that's why I pay a bundle every month.
But if me and him could lose our live sports addiction or whatever,
we'd cut the cord.
So here's the problem.
So I sent that,
that tweet cause I was trying to get to bell customer service to order a
channel because some playoff game was on sports net one or sports net
three 60.
I thought I had all the sports channels.
I didn't have that one.
So I waited.
I still don't have the channel.
And people were like, well, order online.
I'm like, I go on there.
I don't know my password.
Nothing.
I don't know the stuff.
You just give me the station.
And you want to be able to buy a la carte, right?
Exactly.
In the States, I would click on a channel I don't have.
They said, do you want to order this?
Yes, I've got it.
I don't have that option. I know, and they bundle
everything. Oh, if you want that, you need the sports
package, which is another $15 a month.
But I have the sports package. Why don't I have
that one? I don't know, because I have the sports package.
I'm with Rogers, though. I have the sports package, and I have
all the sports. I do have all the sports,
but my mom's got some different package, and
she likes to watch the Raptors, and when they're on
TSN 2, she gets locked out of the Raptor game and she gets mighty pissed.
I get angry Google Hangout chats from her.
Like, I can't see this game.
I'm like, I don't know.
Go call Rogers.
Dan, was it worth the drive to act in?
Like two and a half hours, was it worth it?
It was.
So now I've got a debate.
So it's 428. We tape our podcast at It was. So now I've got a debate. So it's 4.28.
We tape our podcast at 8.30.
So I have four hours to kill because I'm not driving in rush hour traffic back to.
Well, do you want to do a tiny bit more?
Because I screwed up in the sense that I did a couple of sponsor mentions.
And I was so enamored by your good looks.
I got distracted and I forgot to talk.
Okay, we can go longer.
Can I run to the latrine?
When you flush it, hold it down for two seconds.
Yeah, it's right there.
Don't pause it.
Two seconds.
Don't worry.
I'm going to talk about my friends at Camp Turnasol
and then we'll come back.
So while Dan drains his main vein,
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You save a bit of money.
You let Camp Ternus all know that you listened all the way through Dan O'Toole's episode of Toronto Mike.
And speaking of Andy Frost,
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Speaking of sponsoring podcasts, I'm rejoined now Dan O'Toole
is here Dan tell me a bit about the Jay and Dan podcast because this when you came back you had
two big things right you had the show of course and that's a like a Tim Hortons presentation or
am I right that's correct yep but you also had and it's okay they're in competition with the
wonderful Great Lakes people but they're a bit bigger than Great Lakes, and Great Lakes doesn't mind if people know they exist.
You have a big sponsor for the podcast, right?
Yeah, our Coors Light podcast.
The podcast we've been doing, we were trying to figure this out the other day.
We could probably easily figure this out if we looked it up.
Yeah, Google it, man.
But I think we've been doing it for around seven or eight years.
We started it before we left.
We continued it in LA and I'm glad we did because it allowed us to stay in
contact with our Canadian fan base.
And it's just Jay and I shooting the shit.
There's no rhyme or reason.
We barely talk about sports.
It's just,
it's just a fun time in which people can see our true personalities and it's developed a very loyal
fan base and um we're thankful for everyone that listens and we have a blast like we tape it every
monday and we've the last few for some reason and i know the reason um they become extremely popular
they're the most talked about podcast we've ever done because as i mentioned i'm single
and i joined a dating site and i found out on these dating sites if there's one picture
of a beautiful woman first off in today's day and age no human has one picture that's it right
that person wants money from you or lives in Russia or is not a woman.
So I clicked on this one and it's turned. She's like, I don't communicate on this.
So send me your email. Her name turns out is Olga.
And she said, I think you might be surprised that I live in Russia.
So I'm like, you're on a Ontario dating site, but you live in.
OK, that's it. So now I've kept this going because I want
to know the end game. So I've been responding
to her emails
and so
we need to know. We need a
finality. Can I guess?
She wants to come visit you to
give you happy times, but you need to pay
for her trip because she doesn't have any cash.
Well, here's the thing. So she hasn't asked for money.
She said she doesn't, she's single.
She's the only friend of hers that,
she sends all these pictures.
She's a very beautiful woman.
Of course.
She lives with her friend who has two kids
and she used to work in Canada, in Saskatchewan,
which we found out the town that she said she worked in,
the family she worked for,
no one of that name has existed there.
So people are investigating this for us.
So she has not asked for money,
but now we're going to talk about this tonight on the podcast.
She just wants my phone number,
and she's adamant that she gets my phone number
so she can call me.
So I ask you, what can she do with that?
I mean, she can sell
it to telemarketing.
She can sell it, but I don't know.
That's a long con.
I could sell
all my friends' phone numbers. What can I get
for them?
I don't think it's worth the time and energy she's put
into this long con.
First off, when she asked for my email address and I sent it to her, so
I started to panic.
I'm like, can she tap into my computer?
So I changed all my passwords.
Oh, yeah.
Well, I mean, you have to click something to phish.
You got to click a link.
Yeah, because if you have someone's email, you can't tap into the computer.
No, of course not.
Of course not.
But you could get an email with a link and it'd be like, oh, click here to see some more
pictures of me.
And that could be phishing.
Like, that link could go somewhere that could cause some trouble in that regard. But if
you don't click anything in the email, you can't do it. No, there's never been any links or anything.
But now she's really angry that I haven't given her my phone number. Well, can't you get a number
that's like, there must be a million like voicemail numbers. Somebody can give you a number
that maybe you can access voicemail from it that's not actually your number and throw it at her and see what... I was thinking of giving her a friend's
phone number. Would that be mean? That's too mean. Like you need to go, you know, it's too mean. Come
on. You got to, there's a, come on. I even have access to other numbers. Like there are numbers
that aren't, it's not going to ring your cell phone that you're carrying around all the time,
but it is a number you'll be able to get, you know, voicemails from. Okay. How do I set that up?
Well, talk on your podcast. If you mentioned the need for a number you'll be able to get you know voicemails from okay how do i set that up well talk on your podcast if you mention the need for this number you're going to be inundated with such numbers okay so we just need a we need a false number somebody like here's
the number and they'll even do it because they love you they're going to be like this is how
you check the voicemail for that number she doesn't want voicemail she wants to hear my voice
so she wants to talk well maybe yeah okay again i, okay. Again, I'm pretty sure this is a man named Boris,
and we always have this discussion.
Tell her to Skype you.
Do they send out like 500, 600 of these a day?
Because they've got to be on these websites
in every city across North America.
But it's possible that the number's not the endgame here,
but she needs the number in order to hook you more,
because it's coming. The actual
reason for this is coming.
I want to send it to Olga. Just get to it.
What do you want? Yeah, cut to the chase, and then
it's going to be something. It's probably something
about her wanting to visit you.
Maybe she needs to pay somebody off in order
to leave the country, and then she needs money to get to you,
and it'll be like, if you can wire me,
I'm going to make up a number, but if you can wire me $10,000,
you can meet me at YYZ
and we can have happy times together.
And a lot of lonely, sad men.
You're not a lonely, sad man.
You're a good-looking,
well-employed guy here.
But there's a lot of less sad,
lonely men
who could wire $10,000
for a chance to spend
some time with a Russian beauty.
Yeah, they would fall for this.
And I actually said to her,
I'm like, I'm going to come over and see you.
Are you free next week?
And her response was, I'm busy, but maybe after work one day.
She's in Moscow or something, right?
She's in Orenburg.
I think the town's name is Orenburg.
Yeah, so we have...
But do you have any real people that are interested in you on this dating app?
I've been chatting.
Yeah, I'm doing okay.
But are you on Tinder?
Because that one goes by your geographic location.
No, not Tinder.
Like there might be some happy girl in Orono or something.
I was on like the more less hookup-ish.
So why can't...
I don't know because I was married for 15 years
and then shortly thereafter got married again
and I'm going to be five years next week.
No, two weeks from now.
I'm five years there.
Thank you.
So that's 20 years of marriage
with two different women.
So,
which is a long time
for a guy my age actually.
But okay.
Why?
I never went through
the dating apps.
I didn't do any dating apps.
Oh, it's horrible.
I hate it.
But you're,
I mean,
you're handsome
and fairly charming.
Forget the fact you're famous
because that could probably
work against you
but people will be interested in you at
like a I don't know
parties at your friend's house if they invite friends
and friends of friends and bars
and different things like that like you don't need the apps
and the site yeah but the people I run
into in those
situations are usually like oh you're on TV
and then I'm like
but as Chris Rock his recent
stand up is he said he went on like Tinder they're like are you just liking... But as Chris Rock, his recent stand-up is, he said he went on
Tinder. They're like, are you Chris Rock?
And people are like, well, people are going to like you just because you're
Chris Rock. He's like, good.
I'm going to say, consenting
adults and all that, if somebody
has fun with you for a while because you're from
Jay and Dan, I say, well, that's okay.
And here's the other thing.
I meet people and start talking
and then I start to play it in my head.
I'm like, what?
I think, like Olga, I'm like, what's their end game?
Do they want something out of this?
Like, are they going to?
That's called paranoia.
If it's like, but I've never done this.
So I'm like, if there's like, if we go out
or if like we hook up and then it doesn't work out,
are they going to be like, this guy was an asshole?
Oh, I see what you mean.
And then like through social media. Like I recently
said to someone, and we're getting way too deep,
but this person,
they wanted to hook up and I'm like,
I don't think, like what if it didn't
work out? I don't think like you're
in the mind space to like
say, oh, that was nothing because you haven't had a lot
of partners and stuff. I'm like,
I'm thinking of your feelings
before my needs.
So please remember that
because you aren't going to find a lot of guys who are going to
because I'm overthinking.
Am I overthinking things? Yes, let me tell you why.
Because you're acting like a guy who's cheating
on his wife. Okay, this is where you're at now.
But you are single, right?
I am, a thousand percent. Okay, well
two single consenting adults,
this stuff is all fine. It's good. It's all good. I know, but you're. Okay, well, two single consenting adults,
this stuff is all fine.
It's good.
It's all good.
I know, but then you're acting like you're afraid somebody will reveal
they had sex with Dan O'Toole,
happily, quote unquote,
happily married father of two or whatever.
That's not your situation.
You don't need to be so paranoid.
I know I'm overthinking it.
But again, I'm just new to all this.
Well, I don't blame you.
I always think, thank goodness. I don't want to be in that game.
No, it's no fun.
It's not.
People are like, oh, I have married buddies.
Why don't you turn this into a game,
like the Jay and Dan podcast,
where you go on dates with people set you up on dates,
and you come on the show,
and maybe you both discuss the date,
like a dating game type show.
I think I'm just going to become a monk.
No, a monk's no fun.
Easier that way.
They drink a lot of beer, actually.
Do they?
That's where monks make a lot of beer, I think.
Back in the day. But they can't taste it, I don't think.
I don't know much about monks. Everything I learned
about monks, I learned from the Beastie Boys.
The Tibetan...
Mine's all from Friar Tuck. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Because of the cartoon, right? Rockin' Robin Hood.
That's right. Which is by the guy... I'm trying to, there's, do you remember the show Hercules?
Yes.
I think it's the same company.
And I'm global.
Hey, Herc.
Hey, Herc.
That's Newton.
Yeah.
And Daedalus.
Yes.
He was terrifying.
Yeah.
He was scary.
But those are the shows I remember being like back to back or something.
Like Herc.
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
I might even have that theme.
I always wanted a Hercules ring.
His H ring was so cool.
I have the power.
No, that's Castle Grayskull guy.
That's He-Man.
That's He-Man.
He-Man's got the power.
His was Olympia.
No, not Olympia.
That was Hercules.
Olympia.
By the power of Zeus or something?
Okay, hold on.
Hercules was Olympia.
And He-Man was, I have the power of Zeus or something? Okay, hold on. Hercules was Olympia, and He-Man was, I have the power.
We still have a He-Man and a She-Ra, which was He-Man's sister.
Yes, I vividly remember those guys, yeah.
And he had the power when he put on his ring or something like that.
Did you ever watch, oh.
I'm not sure this is the right Hercules.
I'll know in a minute, though.
I just searched my collection for Hercules and this came up.
And they found quivers full of arrows in every tree.
This is a different Hercules.
There's multiple Hercules.
Okay, hold on here.
Did you ever watch Thundercats?
Of course.
A schnarf?
Was that on Thundercats?
Schnarf, schnarf.
What are you doing, Lion-O? Schnarf, schnarf. What are you doing, Lion-O?
Schnarf, schnarf.
Dude, you're right in my wheelhouse right now.
That's the wrong Hercules.
I'm killing that one.
Yeah, that was horrible.
I don't know what that was.
My apologies.
Yeah, hold on.
Thunder.
Ah, it's funny.
I got Thunder.
Oh, that's funny.
I got a lot of Thunder songs,
but no, I don't have that one.
Why do I have Thunderbirds?
That's before our time, actually, Thunderbirds.
So play it while I find something better.
But what else did, yeah, what else?
Do you want to go back to the 90s alt rock before?
Yes.
No, this is Thunderbirds.
I don't have the Thundercats,
but 90s alt rock, like, okay, here's a guy.
Tell me, did you ever listen to Hayden?
Yes, what was his big song?
Girl of My Dream.
No, the one, the video where he's cutting the lawn.
Yeah, things are as bad as they seem.
As bad, I'll play that one.
You do not sound like the song at all.
I'm sure you've got the words correct.
No, I don't exactly.
I don't have a good thing.
Okay, Bad As They Seem was a big hit, as I recall.
Let me just kill this guy here.
And it's coming in now to my soundboard.
I haven't heard this song in 25 years.
This is the one where he's mowing the lawn.
Or the cover of the album is him mowing the lawn.
Everything I Long For.
This is the one that Much Music played a lot of.
But the whole album is really good.
Has he been on this podcast?
Not yet. I'm working on it. Hayden Desser.
I'm coming for you.
The Hulkster's coming for you, Hayden.
Have you had Larry Gowan?
No, but he'd be good too.
He's now with Lee Singer 6.
Too much time on my hands.
I was just chatting with Pat Mastroianni.
Okay, so Pat Mastroianni, of course, played Joey Jeremiah on Degrassi.
Did you watch Degrassi?
Or was that too long for you?
No, yeah, I watched it.
I always liked Spike.
Spike had the baby, who was the lead character when they took the new generation.
Who's name was it?
So she worked with Drake?
Right.
I never saw any of the new generation.
I did because Wheels and the gang, they all kind of came back.
Hold on here.
Funny, this band only had one song.
Do you remember this at all?
The Zit Remedy?
So they played gigs at the high school with one song?
Yeah, and they just played it over and over again, I guess.
Are you familiar?
Are you aware of the sad story of Wheels?
Is this a story that reached you?
Like the true life story?
Yeah, the true life story of Wheels. No, a story that reached like true life story yeah the true life
story of wheels i have no i don't know the entire story it's really really sad because uh wheels
five years after wheels the actor who played wheels died it was revealed to the public that
the actor was dead so for he was dead five years before the public was made aware.
The actor died in like,
I don't know if it was Hamilton or somewhere around there.
I'm not sure.
But yeah,
and I can't remember the actor's name now.
It's just terrible.
But yeah,
the actor who played Wheels is dead.
That's very sad.
Very sad,
but that's sad in itself.
But I think it's even more sad
that he was dead five years
before his adoring public was notified.
Why is that? Some messed up family situation or something it was really dysfunctional and stuff
but the reason so the reason i started watching the new generation is because they brought back
snake who was a regular character he was a teacher uh but they brought back spike was a regular
character because she was the mom of the main character. Joey came back because Joey was, I don't know, in a relationship with Spike.
No, Spike and Snake were together.
Anyways, Joey came back and Wheels came back.
There was a whole reunion going on.
I think Caitlyn maybe.
I'm not sure.
I don't know.
Caitlyn promises me she's coming on Toronto Mic'd in September when her kid goes into kindergarten for what that's worth.
That's my Degrassi connection. But still no
word from Drake. But I would like
Mr. Ravitch. Remember Mr. Ravitch?
He was kind of a... He was the principal
of Degrassi Junior High.
I didn't get that deep. I know
bits and pieces.
Again, like everything in my life, I've seen parts
of it.
So maybe that
should be my tombstone.
Here lies a man who saw parts of many things,
but not anything in its entirety.
You get chunks of people.
Including life.
Boom!
Nicely done.
Write that down before you forget.
Do you remember this jam?
Yes.
The Gandarvas.
Great tune.
I have this on my Apple Music or iTunes Music,
whatever one of those is.
So the reason I think,
I know you don't listen to podcasts,
I'm wasting my energy,
but if you did listen to the Rusty episode from Saturday,
I spent the first half an hour
just throwing out names of 90s Canadian alt-rock bands
and having the guys from Rusty tell me
how they knew them,
did they play with them or open for them on this tour,
were they assholes, were they cool guys, whatever. Did they play with him or open for him on this tour? Were they assholes?
Were they cool guys?
Like whatever.
Did that for like a half an hour and it was amazing.
One of the other ones, I forgot to mention, Sloan.
Chris Murphy's been on this show.
I love Sloan.
Yes.
And who's the Canadian band, their album cover is Umbrellas and one of them is Purple.
It's so...
Can you give me another clue?
No, no, that's the only one I know.
I remember I listened to that album a lot,
and I can't remember a single song from it,
but I remember they're an iconic Canadian band.
Yeah, that's going to kill me now.
I don't know. I can start naming Canadian Canadian bands but I can't think of that cover but I could tell you about
Lick My Tractor by
Waltons do you remember the Waltons
okay well I'm gonna find
the Waltons home because
the guy Ken from
Rusty couldn't remember the Waltons
song either but Naked Rain was a song and I heard
it on 102 all the time,
but I'm going to see if I have it.
Hold on.
What a tune.
And I do have the Naked Rain by the Waltons.
Now I'm going to bring down Gandarvis.
I know that's upsetting, but tell me.
We never mentioned Blue Rodeo either.
Because I think they're great,
but I think of them as more like a roots rock kind of a thing,
as an alternative rock.
Speaking of crying, we spoke of crying at the very beginning of this podcast.
On my way to my last or second last night of work at TSN,
before we were going to leave to L.A.,
the Blue Rodeo song came on.
We're like, in the middle of Lake Ontario.
And I'm like, I'd lost it.
Lost it. I was driving through tears
on the way to TSN.
Speaking of tears, Naked Rain.
Tell me if this rings a bell at all.
Never heard this in my life.
I can tell by your eyes. I'm staring at an interview of Life TV
up.
I heard this a lot on the radio
and I thought it was a really good song
One more
Maybe the chorus here
Maybe the chorus here.
Okay, kind of, I guess. I don't know.
All right.
Yes. I will give you everything that you ever wanted
With this promise I will bring you home again
I will give you anything if you don't demand it.
With one promise, I will make you mine again.
Who's this?
Skydiggers.
Oh, Skydiggers.
It wasn't Skydiggers that this one was.
I'm trying to find it online here.
I will give you everything that you've ever wanted.
Good for me for a time.
Headstones.
Cubically contained.
And this is the song that has the line,
Paranoid little fuckers.
You should dial up Judy.
Let me see that. You should dial up Judy.
Judy's not in my collection, I'm afraid.
I have a lot of Judy songs, though.
I have Sweet Judy Blue Eyes by Neat Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
I have Judy's Turn to Cry by Leslie Gore.
I have Judy in Disguise of Glasses by John Fred and his Playboy Band.
Well, you're missing out by not having that. Anything again I said Hours of hiding
Spent apart
The wall was all we'd share
About the closest you could get
About all I would bear
Don't tell me all the things I wasn't I think these guys were from Saskatchewan, I think. Wow.
I think these guys were from Saskatchewan, I think.
This is Grapes of Wrath.
Are you kidding me?
Look at it.
I think that's the band I was thinking of.
With the umbrellas?
Yes, I put that in as you put this on.
Dude, this chemistry is greater than the chemistry I experienced with you.
So go to images.
Let's see if it turns up.
Go to images.
What kind of phone is this?
iPhone 7.
You know why you're going to have trouble?
It's a famous book, Grapes of Wrath.
You're going to have trouble.
Band.
Yeah, you got to stick band in there.
That's funny because I was going to say.
Boom.
Okay, there you go.
Boom.
It all worked out.
Boom.
Face your right.
It's the same wavelength.
Because teenage, teenage.
How does that song go?
Teen land.
Teen land.
So they're all standing under umbrellas on the Now and Again album cover.
We figured it out.
That's awesome.
At the same time.
That's awesome.
So we'll do this one for Taggart.
Although, is he still making money on Our Lady Peace?
Do we know how that business side got resolved?
Has he opened up to you about that?
Well, he still gets residuals.
But again, there's not a lot of rock stations.
Some Our Lady Peace,
you're right, but some Our Lady Peace songs
are no longer in America. Is this One Man Army?
No. Superman's dead.
Do you have One Man Army?
One Man Army?
And ordinary is just not good enough today And now I woo, I woo, I woo
Woo, love this jam
I woo, I woo, I woo
Alone, alone, alone, alone, alone, alone, alone, alone
So I love this. I talked to Taggart about this.
I'm like, I love your drum part in this.
He says it's called throwing the drums down the stairs.
So when his drums go nuts, he calls it throwing them down the stairs.
Is there anything that makes them sound sincere?
Come on, tightly hold your hand and take a deep breath.
Give them the finger. Here we go.
He's about to go crazy on those drums.
This band was huge.
Through the flames
I know I'm coming
You're right.
I believe in something
I remember
Yeah, the Clumsy album
was huge.
Remember the song
4AM?
Yep.
That song gets me too
for something in that song
about father issues.
Hey, let me ask you, we talked a bit about the
Rusty Tunes and I mentioned Groovy
Dead and you look like I never heard it, but you
don't remember Groovy Dead here?
We'll let it kick in here first.
This song? Yeah. I do.
Yes.
Can you pull up Sandbox?
Curious. It's a groovy world. Yeah.
The color's over.
It's a groovy world.
Good tune.
I noticed you had...
Oh!
And let that... the video's awesome too
you never see Mike Smith in it
you barely
one frame I think
I think I capped it in a tweet
yeah there's one frame
with Mike Smith
how many plays does this have
on YouTube?
348,000
oh man
so
so sad
would this song
if you put it out now
do anything?
well Rock is dead.
I mean, you have to put like a banjo in there or something.
I don't know.
Oh, I didn't even mean.
I'm sorry.
That was terrible.
I was trying to bring this.
I'm sorry.
Oh, it's a live version.
Okay.
I was trying to.
This is Judy Headstone.
Yeah, I was trying.
Because now that I'm on YouTube, I'm leaving my collection, right?
So I could get anything now,
but you risk getting a
live version like I did here. There we go, crank that.
She hates her parents.
Judy's all in the morning
in the world.
A little destructive,
pretty abusive.
Judy, turn down your radio.
Let it go.
Let it go. close to the bottom. And it goes.
What club is that at, does it say?
London, Norma Jeans.
London, Norma Jeans.
So is he still doing the cigarettes from the side of the stage,
or is that all over?
I have not seen him in concert in a while,
but I bet you that's all over.
I think he's pretty cleaned up now with his big acting career.
He's in some big-time stuff now, right?
Flashpoint and all these different things.
Oh, this is the cover.
Oh, my God, that's right.
This is the cover of the song I was going to pull up.
Hold on here.
Do you recognize the lyrics?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's funny.
This is a nice cover I discovered once.
Hi, my name is Stereo Mike.
Montreal band, I think, these guys.
Is this them riding on the mopeds?
Wasn't that Len?
Is this not Len?
Brand Van 3000. I feel like that's a blend.
Similar, but they're Montreal and Len's Toronto.
No, I feel like that's a blend.
Similar, but they're in Montreal and Lent's Toronto. What is Todd's favorite cheese?
Jackie just called and said it was a form of rock floor.
Let's see if we'll know.
Give us a ring-ding-ding.
It's a beautiful day.
Yeah, Todd, this is Liquid.
Ring-a-ding-a-ding-a.
I want those three grand band tickets, man.
What do you think?
But you don't remember this drinking and...
Okay.
I know.
That's good.
But admit, they're very similar to Len.
No?
Definitely.
Okay.
Thank you.
The Len Jam was a bigger hit, And they're Canadian too, right?
Yeah, they're from Toronto, these guys
His last name is like Costanza
Like George Costanza
I think Len Costanza
Are they still performing?
Yeah, they did something recently I saw on YouTube
Like a Toronto song or something
It's a brother-sister combo, right?
Like yeah, for sure
Wait, the brother and sister
They were the ones on the moped together?
Yeah, well, they're the lead
singers of Lannan.
That changes everything.
It's like Luke summer song, though.
It's a great song for, like, today.
It's like...
I love it.
One more.
With the windows down.
Yeah,
for sure.
One more jam before,
uh,
Louis of the low play us out.
Okay,
good.
And then I've got to do our,
we do a daily conference call for our show every day.
Oh shit.
I did not do it.
Okay.
No,
it's been a bit.
Cause I want to ask you about this one.
Okay.
Do you remember this jam?
Yep. Yep. Definitely. do you remember this jam yep yep definitely
so his name is Dwayne LaVold and he's from
Calgary I believe and he's now living
in Manhattan in a loft in Manhattan
don't ask me how he can afford it
this was his big hit in 2002
which I loved
so I became like internet friends with him
and he would send me like,
and he still does,
he'll send me like
songs he's working on
for his next album
and he's been doing this
since 2004.
So this is now 2018.
So for 14 years,
he's been sending me songs
that are going to be
on his next album
but there's no next album
14 years later
but it's good stuff.
He,
if you told me
he was the singer,
the male singer in
July Talk, I would not be surprised because they
sound very similar. And July
Talk, the girl in July
Talk is the daughter of
Lori Goldstein, you know, the
Toronto Sun writer. Does that name ring
a bell? Again, I don't read who writes
the article. I'm bad
for that.
Anyways, I saw this,
I saw custom at an Edge Fest
at Molson Park in like 2002
on a small stage.
So all,
a lot of these Canadian bands,
do you remember a concert
out at Mosport,
which is now
Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
called ED Fest?
It's not ringing a bell.
I must have missed out.
The hit played live or live,
whatever you want to call it,
but the band live.
Oh, yeah, but live, yeah.
So it was like a three-day festival.
It was a disaster.
None of the bands got paid.
I showed up after work on a Friday
because it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday thing.
There was no one taking tickets.
I walked on the other side of a farmer's fence
with a case of beer right into the concert venue.
Wow.
But yeah, it's...
Oh, it sounds like a clusterfuck.
I'm pretty sure all these bands were there.
Live was a big band too.
Throwing Copper was a monster.
Midnight Oil performed.
And there was always the hint of there was going to be a big surprise Saturday appearance by someone, but nothing ever happened.
The surprise appearances are always going to be, well, now it would be Drake, but it used to be Rolling Stones.
It would be the Rolling Stones are in town, and they're going to do a surprise appearance.
Here's why this is completely off track, but I've always had a great fundraiser idea.
So someone can take my idea.
Instead of having your corporate golf tournament, I even gave this idea to TSN.
Because people don't want to spend seven, eight hours at a golf course on a beautiful day.
Because it's a pain getting there.
It's a pain leaving.
If you're having drinks, it's a pain getting home.
pain leaving. If you're having drinks, it's a pain getting home. Have a fundraiser or a client appreciation in which it's at a downtown Toronto club, downtown Calgary, wherever your business is.
You have a surprise band. You say, bring your spouse, bring your girlfriend.
The night's on us. Just come prepared to enjoy a rock concert or enjoy a concert.
And then you surprise them
instead of having them sit at a golf course
for eight hours
and they walk away with a putter.
They can have a life experience
where they're like,
holy shit.
I'm down, yeah, I'm down.
Nobody took you up on this great idea yet?
No, because everyone's convinced
that clients love golf tournaments.
They don't.
They don't.
Do you enjoy the music of the lowest of the low?
Yes.
Big time.
I listen to them.
Speaking of Lakehead, I discovered them when I went to pick my sister up from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.
And they were big at the time in that university culture.
This song has closed every single episode of Toronto Mic'd.
This is Rosie and Gray by Lois and Lois.
Are they getting residuals?
No.
But they're okay with it.
They've been here and they played in my basement.
They played.
Ronnie Hawkins and Lawrence from Lois and Lois played in my basement.
Wait, Ronnie Hawkins played? Well, just two Ronnie Hawkins and Lawrence from Lois and Lo played in my basement. Wait, Ronnie Hawkins played?
Well, there's two Ronnie Hawkins.
So the guy from Lois and Lo is Ron Hawkins.
Okay, because the other Ronnie Hawkins, he lives out by Stony Lake.
Right.
Is that house for sale?
Yes.
They keep lowering the price, right?
I think so because it needs a lot of work, I think.
But it's a beautiful location.
Oh, I hear good things.
But Dan O'Toole, I could keep going, but I know you've got to go.
And I just looked at the clock and said,
I have to go to daycare and pick up the 2-year-old and the 4-year-old now.
I had no idea we had hit 5 o'clock.
What time are you supposed to pick them up?
That place doesn't shut down until 6, so we're okay.
At 6 o'clock, they keep your kids.
I think that's the rule if you're not there by 6, but we're okay.
That's fine.
Do you have, like, a claim ticket? They're tough. I might, yeah, they keep your kids. I think that's the rule. If you're not there by six, we're okay. Do you have like a claim ticket?
They're tough.
I might, yeah, they'd be gone.
That brings us to the end of our 341st show.
You can follow me on Twitter.
I'm at Toronto Mike.
Dan is at TSN O'Toole.
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Propertyinthesix.com is at Raptors Devotee.
Paytm is at Paytm Canada.
And Camp Turnasol is at Camp Turnasol.
See you all next week.
Thanks for having me.