Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Live From the Party for Marty: Toronto Mike'd #506
Episode Date: September 7, 2019Mike records live from the Party for Marty, a gathering at The Opera House to remember Martin Streek. Guests include David Marsden, Alan Cross, Maie Pauts, Craig Venn, Bob Willette, DJ Shawarma, DJ Cr...aig G, Lori-Ann, Walter Venafro, Dani Elwell, Robbie J, Pete Fowler, Pina the Inside Edge girl, and so many more.
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Welcome to episode 506 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.
Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com,
Capadia, LLP CPAs, and Pumpkins After Dark.
I'm Mike from torontomike.com and it's early on a Saturday morning and I am tired.
Last night at the Opera House in Toronto, I set up my studio in the lobby and chatted with several guests there to pay tribute to Martin Streak. I spoke with David Marsden, Alan Cross, May Potts, Craig Venn, Bob Willett, DJ Schwarma, DJ Craig G,
Lori Ann, Walter Vinafro, Danny Elwell, Robbie J, Pete Fowler, Pina the Inside Edge Girl, and so many more.
Now here's a warning, a word of warning to those with sensitive ears.
I recorded while DJs played Marty's favorite live-to-air tunes at a very high volume.
In fact, it got louder as the night progressed.
So just know, I did the best I could.
And if you can't handle the background noise, I understand.
This three-hour episode is ad-free, so let me quickly thank again up front
the fantastic partners
who helped make this all possible.
That's Great Lakes Brewery
where you guys get your fresh craft beer.
Palma Pasta
where you pick up your authentic Italian food.
Cappadia LLP CPAs.
They see beyond the numbers.
You can contact Rupesh, the rock star accountant.
StickerU at stickeru.com.
They have a bricks and mortar store on Queen Street you should check out.
And if you need to get any stickers made up or decals or buttons,
heck, temporary tattoos, you go to StickerU.
Property in the six, Brian Gerstein is there for you
if you are ready to buy and or sell.
He's a good man, good real estate sales representative
with PSR Brokerage.
And Pumpkins After Dark, use the promo code Pumpkin Mike
when you buy your tickets for Pumpkins After Dark
at pumpkinsafterdark.com.
You'll love it.
after dark at pumpkins after dark.com.
You'll love it.
Now on to episode 506 live from the opera house.
Oh,
not me.
Oh,
come on.
Oh no.
Good.
I'm going to take these off.
Okay.
So we're at the opera house. It's me,
DJ shawarma.
And we got Toronto.
So we're just going to get on the mic.
The Toronto Mike.
The Toronto Mike.
And we're going to share some stories about Martin, right?
I think so.
I think that makes sense.
We're here for Martin.
Just let me know when I can talk.
I'm afraid to pollute the process here.
This is social activity here.
Because I'm now recording.
Yes.
Okay. That means I got to go. We Because I'm now recording. Yes. Okay.
That means I got to go.
We got some Pina and Jeff stories to capture.
Pina.
Yes.
Nice to meet you.
It's so nice to meet you.
What's your full handle?
You're Pina the something, something, something.
I was Pina the inside edge chick.
You are.
Now I go by, so on Twitter,
I've got,
I still have my,
my old handle,
which is,
act,
the voice chick.
Is that what I'm at still?
You know what?
I need to look it up.
We lost Jeff.
So DJ Schwarma,
he just walked away.
was on the other mic
and now he's going to be on stage.
Like we lost him,
but hopefully we'll get him
when he's done his set.
Yeah,
no,
he'll come back. So yes, I just confirmed. I him when he's done his set. Yeah, I know. He'll come back.
So yes, I just confirmed.
I'm the voice chick at the voice chick or at chic underscore mama.
Is this the John Sinden era?
Like I'm trying to place.
It is.
So he was my boss.
I like that guy.
I mean, he's in Ottawa now.
I like that guy.
I have lost touch with him.
So I have no idea He's like working for like
The
The soccer team
And I think maybe
With the CFL team
Like he's doing like
That's pretty cool
PR work or something or other
With like
Ottawa teams
Oh
Yeah so yeah
He's moved the whole family
To Ottawa
So Pina
The
Formerly the inside edge chick
And
You're with now...
Now Enzo joined us because Shwarma left.
Right.
And Enzo used to work...
Who the hell is Enzo?
I'm a seat filler for Shwarma, obviously.
A seat filler?
Okay, no, tell them.
Yeah, angle that up.
Yeah, yeah.
There we are.
Here, get up.
Yeah.
Okay, get on that thing, Enzo.
I want to hear...
There we are. Perfect. Who are you, Enzo? You worked with the... Yeah, I worked with the... thing, Enzo. I want to hear. There we go. Perfect.
Who are you, Enzo?
You worked with the.
Yeah, I worked with the.
We used to work at the Edge as well.
I was part of the promotions department at the Edge.
You've got a deep voice.
Yeah, I try.
I've heard that before.
It's just a tad.
A little.
A tad bit.
A little baritone.
I want to get some streak stories.
Oh, yeah.
So we're here to tell people we're at the Opera House.
This is the party for Marty. Oh, yeah. So we're here to tell people we're at the Opera House. This is the party for Marti.
Yes, it is.
And Pina, you played a role
in organizing this thing.
Am I jumping to conclusions?
No, no, no.
It's totally true.
We were coming up
to the 10-year anniversary
of his passing.
And I was talking to Shorma,
AKA Jeff DeMett.
Yes.
And we were saying,
you know,
we really need to do something.
It's like 10 years.
Can you believe it?
It's going to be 10 years.
And then we're having similar conversations with Craig G and we're like,
oh my gosh.
Okay.
So what can we do?
What can we do?
And we put our heads together,
the three of us.
And we thought, so we're the three of us, and we thought...
So who are the three?
Let's do a tribute night.
Myself.
Yes.
Jeff DeMette.
Okay.
And Craig G.
DJ Craig G was just on Toronto Mic
like two episodes ago.
By the way,
May Pods is right in front of me.
I just need to let people know
I can literally reach over
and pat her on the head right now.
So this is going to be quite the night.
Tell me how you knew Martin Streak
and anything you can share.
Okay.
So, well, I used to work at the Edge.
And so you obviously get to know the announcers.
And Martin was one of the friendliest, most outgoing guys ever.
So even though he had a shift that was like outside of the office hours,
he was always
he would come in early to work.
He'd always come by to say hello
and he had
he'd always, always
pack this like crazy big
lunch with him, which
usually, usually
had
hard-boiled eggs in it.
Really?
This is the kind of stuff I haven't been able to,
I haven't learned yet in all my discussions about Martin's cheek.
And can I tell you, he would,
he knew how to perfect the hard-boiled egg,
and he learned from Julia Child.
Not directly from her, but from some videos.
Oh, from her television show or whatever.
Wow, I didn't know that.
He was very proud of his hard-boiled eggs.
Tina's bringing the heat.
This is fantastic.
Enzo, you have a Martin Streak story.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, there was like, I was, you know, I was fresh at the edge.
So, you know, roaming the hallways, you see all the people that are there that you heard on the radio and stuff like that.
And just like walking in and meeting martin for the first time like one of the coolest things about him is he just he didn't care
who you were he didn't care any about where you came from and stuff like that the first thing he
would do hey what's your name i'm martin yeah if you need anything at all reach out come to me um
and it's true because like i sat in the studio with him many nights because we had the promotions
desk open at uh at young and Dundas there.
And there was a lot of people that kind of came in throughout the night and stuff.
But he always brought in interns.
He always brought in people that wanted to learn the ropes.
And he literally let them run the show.
Wow.
Yeah, it was amazing.
And not to mention his Halloween.
Oh, my gosh.
Tell me about this because Pete Fowler gave me a taste of this last week.
But like tell me about his Halloween.
Scarface.
Scarface was one of my favorites.
Scarface he did.
The guy from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Yeah.
But one year I will tell you.
So at Chorus we would have these United Way like fundraising efforts.
And we got, oh Pete right behind you. Pete just abused me. These United Way fundraising efforts.
Oh, Pete ripped behind you.
Pete just abused me.
I can't even go to the cops now. I thought that was more of a sexual assault, if you're going to ask me.
I've got to talk to my lawyer before I comment any further here.
So our cluster, the Toronto Radio Cluster for Chorus,
we ended up raising a lot of money.
And we won this little contest that we would have with the other clusters, Chorus, wide across Canada.
And so because we won, they're like, you guys just won a bowling pizza party.
just won a bowling pizza party.
So the whole staff got to go to some bowling alley,
take time off work, go to the bowling alley for Halloween,
bowl in our costumes, eat some pizza, have some fun.
And so we're all there.
We all have our lanes.
And I'm talking about upper management is there as well.
And what happens?
Last minute, like, you know, you got to show up late.
Sure. You need to make an entrance.
Well, that was Martin Streak.
And he walks in.
Fashionably late, they call that, right?
Well, yeah.
Fashionably.
He came in wearing a leather mask, a leather G-string.
And so it's like full dominatrix out for my far yeah and we were all like oh wow management everyone and he just bold and he had a great time
he loved Halloween oh that was his favorite favorite holiday but the scar
face was my face our face was but it wasn't just the Scarface outfit.
He went as the Scarface poster.
So he legitimately had the movie poster behind him.
And he was dressed up.
I'm going to pull up pictures for you so you can see what we talk about.
Okay, both of you, Pina and Enzo.
That sounds like a 60s pop duo, Pina and Enzo.
You guys should be singing together.
Where did you get the buttons?
I see the buttons.
These are the keep it locked and cranked buttons.
Okay, right there.
He never gave me a button.
I need a button.
Mike doesn't have a button.
Mr. Fowler, I was wondering if you had any buttons.
The buttons.
He can't hear because he's a...
You know what?
I have to say something, though, Mike.
I did hear your podcast with the guys.
Yes.
And you were like, yeah, I'm saying Martin with a D, a T but not today well I'm trying that's how I say okay
now I feel better you're not the only one it's Martin Streak right it's about the Italian rolling
the art and he used to make fun of me I've been okay he made fun of you because I've forever been
saying Martin Streak instead of Martin Streak and today I'm trying to punch that T because now I
know people are like listening for it. I'm glad to hear
I'm not alone.
I'm not even going
to fix it.
Martin Streak.
Okay.
I feel like I should
be myself as well.
Do it.
You've empowered me.
We'd also call,
well, not we,
I would,
I also nicknamed him
Martino
because I'm Italian
so I try to Italianize him.
I dig it.
And teach him Italian.
I dig it.
Can I ask you, Pina,
how long ago did you leave Edge 102?
I left there in 2011.
And do you mind,
can I ask you what you're up to these days?
Yeah, totally.
So right now I am teaching at Humber College
in the radio broadcasting program.
And that's the North Campus, right?
North Campus. I teach media branding and creative content in the radio broadcasting program. And that's the North Campus, right? North Campus.
I teach media branding and creative content for the second year students.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then I have my own radio show on Global News Radio, 640 Toronto.
Do you?
Yeah.
I know people there, like Kelly Petrera.
Yes.
I see Kelly all the time.
Mike Stafford once called me a turd in his basement, I think.
But he's been on my show twice.
That means he likes you.
So you're good.
That's good. And Peter Sherman, who does fill-in work But he's been on my show twice. That means he likes you. So you're good. That's good.
And Peter Sherman, who does fill-in work,
he was just on Toronto Mic'd.
And Lauren Honickman, who does the odd fill-in,
he was just on Toronto Mic'd.
I know the 640 people.
So when is your show on, 640?
So I am the host and producer of The Parenting Show,
and it's Sunday nights at 7 with my co-host,
Jennifer Valentine.
Who, by the way, is the prize
queen. Yeah, she's awesome.
And you're the, remind me again,
Pina the... Pina the inside edge chick
but now they know me as Chic Mama.
Chic Mama. So I'm a mom
content creator. This is exciting for me to meet
Pina the inside edge chick.
And Enzo, what are you up to these days?
When did you leave the edge? I left shortly
before you did actually.
Did you leave before me?
Actually, no.
I just left a year after.
Maybe he left when you left
because what's the point
of being there?
There's no Pina and Enzo
together.
Yeah, exactly.
It was a duo.
So I left in 2012
and now I work in real estate,
full-time real estate agent.
Oh, good for you.
Hashtag choose Enzo.
Well, because... I have a conflict but I'll just let you get it. That's agent. Oh, good for you. Hashtag choose Enzo. Well, because...
I have a conflict, but I'll just let you get it.
That's fine.
I understand.
I understand.
I know it very well.
We can bleep that out if you want.
It's okay.
You know, at one point or another, Enzo's like, I need to make money in radios, not
cutting it.
I've heard that story.
It's weird.
I know that works out.
It's a weird reoccurring story over and over again.
Well, you could always podcast, but you probably made a wise decision getting into the real estate market.
So, by the way, anytime you want to drop back, I don't know how this is going to go.
Like, I'm making this up as I go along.
But if you see an empty mic, like, for example, I don't have anyone helping me to like.
Wrangle?
Right.
Not that I'm putting you in a spot.
Wrangle?
Like, do I literally, maybe I grab Ivor Hamilton, who's in front of me.
I think so.
I think this is how we're going to do it.
Can you do that?
Okay.
So like a wrestler would tag their partner.
Yes, the next partner.
Right.
Or like in track and field.
Oh, I got to.
Hey, he did a good job.
Enzo did a great job.
Oh, there we go.
It's up to you, Pina.
You can stick around if you want to.
Okay.
So you know what?
I've never really met Ivor.
Let me do this.
I know of Ivor, but I've never met him in person.
This is Ivor Hamilton.
Lovely to meet you.
Lovely to meet you too.
Ivor Hamilton is a legend.
I want to hear some of his stories. Oh, I know.
First of all, how are you doing, Ivor?
Pretty good. Not too bad. Had a good summer.
It's been a very, very busy week this past week.
Got lots of things going on.
Are you still running marathons?
You know what?
I'm not right now.
I fell on the ice back in February.
Oh, no.
Wrecked my knee, so I've been out of commission.
But I'm hoping to get back next year.
And you got a teenage head T-shirt on.
Very cool.
This is, well, obviously for radio I'll have to describe it.
But this is a special teenage head Hamilton Tiger Cats one-of-a-kind T-shirt
that was done for the Labor Day Classic.
Right.
And I just worked on the reissue for Tornado, the 1983.
We took it from a six-track, blew it up to a 14-track vinyl
with actual real concert tickets from 1983 in each one of the vinyl
from seven different shows,
which you think was pretty unique.
And so we did this thing with the Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Arkells had done one.
And I said, I bet we can do one and do better with it.
And so we did this shirt and it was the second best selling T-shirt in the history of the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
It looks pretty cool.
I mean, we have a lot of listeners from Hamilton who like to remind me Argos suck.
This is what they like to remind me.
Of course.
In fact, before I get out of here, before you leave,
make sure I get a selfie with you just so I can get that T-shirt and the picture.
I would love to do that, yeah.
So tell us, first of all, great to see you.
He's been on twice, so he kicked out the jam.
So we'll get you on Toronto, Mike.
Don't worry.
But he's a two-timer here.
I'm jealous. I got to. We're going to get you on toronto mike don't worry but he's a two-timer here so you're jealous
i got i gotta we're gonna we're gonna get you on don't worry iver we're here to celebrate uh
martin streak uh can you share any uh stories any any memories of marty absolutely i mean um
marty marty and i worked with marty in his very earliest days of CFNY. I think he was kind of like the guy in High Fidelity,
like those guys who came to the store and just hung around and never left.
They never got paid.
They were just always there.
And Marty was that type of guy.
And eventually he got to work with us.
So we all worked together on the original CFNY Video Roadshow.
I was the DJ. Oh, we've got a picture of that. So you all worked together on the original CFNY Video Roadshow. I was the DJ.
Oh, we've got a picture of that. So you've got a picture back.
So I was the DJ.
Marty was
kind of like the guy who drove the truck and did a lot of
the equipment along with Roger Roadshow.
So we, Roger Powell was
doing it. We call him Roger Roadshow. But we played
every high school,
every university, nightclubs.
We did a whole two summers at Ontario Place together.
We did the Carlsberg Pavilion at the C&E.
We went through War and Peace and everything you can imagine together.
But you know what?
He was such a great guy.
He was a loyal friend through and through, you know, right up until when he left us.
I saw him a couple of weeks before.
There was a stag for Brother Bill up on Stoney Lake,
and there was a whole bunch of ex-NYers and current NYers at the time were all there.
It was a great experience, and he was still pretty positive at the very end.
He was telling me about all sorts of things, ideas, and things he wanted to do,
and he was keeping it really positive.
I do remember somebody asked him, and he he said do you know Ivor is he a
friend of yours and I got this from somebody else he goes Ivor he goes no
he's a friend I consider this guy to be my brother and and to me that really hit
hard and meant something that was really meaningful so it meant a lot for me to
be here and I'm really blown away that 10 years after
the fact that we're still celebrating the life and how much of an impact he had on the music in
Toronto. Are you still doing a show on David Marsden's The Spirit and Why? I often get that
backwards right? You do have it backwards again it's ny nythespirit.com. It's called The Tear Down.
And I go to hell every week.
And it's totally
free form and lots of fun.
Awesome. Awesome. So thanks
for... If you want to drop by later, by the way,
feel free. If you see an empty mic, just drop by.
If you have more stories, anything you like, we're
still working on the transitions. But...
Oh, there's more. Let me see that.
Hold on here. These photos, by the way, you've got to send them to me
because I know where I can share these.
I'm just passing my phone over to Mike
because I have a photograph
of Martin Streak dressed up
as the Scarface poster for Halloween.
Have you ever seen this?
I have seen that.
Martin did incredible imitations
of people from the movies, as many
people know.
He also did one of the ones that always came to mind. It was Robert Duvall.
And he could do amazing Robert Duvall.
And also, who's an easy rider?
It was Peter Fonda, but the other one.
Jack Nicholson?
No, not Jack Nicholson.
Oh, yeah.
It eludes me off the top of my head.
The guy from Speed, right?
He really did some amazing, funny people.
I have some very funny memories of Marty, too.
So a great guy.
Awesome, awesome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I'm going to have to flag someone else down.
We will find more people.
Does this guy want to come on the mic?
Do you want to come on the mic?
I don't even know who this guy is here.
Can you tell me who is this chap here?
Oh, send me all these photos, Peter.
Oh, yeah.
Peter and Louie in Las Vegas.
Yeah, all these photos are on the slideshow that we've got going on tonight, too.
Give me these photos.
I demand you.
Who do we have here?
Who is this guy?
It's Walter Benafro.
Oh, my God.
You know what?
He looks just like his Twitter profile picture from Jazz.
Jazz Cast.
Jazz Cast. Jazz Cast.
And Jazz FM.
Oh, my God.
Finally.
Finally, we got a chance to talk to each other.
How you been?
You were like, you know, in my collection, right?
Like you have a hockey card collection and you're missing just one player from whatever,
the 1977 Leafs or whatever.
But great to finally meet you.
Indeed it is.
I thought that was you, honestly, when you were standing over there.
But it's like you have that info overload thing going on.
You're not quite sure.
But how are things going?
Things are well.
I'm glad to be here to celebrate Martin Streak's life and support cancer as well.
Yeah, I miss the guy terribly.
We worked together on the road show.
Actually, there was the brand new road show at CFNY that went out.
And it was me, Marty, and Jimmy Veal.
And we had an awesome time for the year that I was working on that.
So I don't even, like, I need a little backstory here.
So when and how did you end up working at The Edge?
I started in 85 and left at the end of 87.
Okay, so this is Marsden era.
That's right.
Yeah, Marsden.
Well, Ivor Hamilton was there.
Neil Mann was there at the time.
So Pete and Geetz are still doing the morning show?
Pete and Geetz are still doing the morning show.
Ted Wallachian was doing a one-hour talk show at 9.
You had Jim Reed, Middays james scott did the the afternoon
drive and i think uh at one time i believe it was live world drive and uh the lovely and talented
beverly hills doing the uh the evening shift and then scott turner took over at that point and
that's when scott was spelling his name uh s-k-o-t i think correct he's looking out for that guy
oh i'm sorry we're having our photos taken here i'm not I'm looking out for that guy. Oh, I'm sorry.
We're having our photos taken here.
I'm not used to that.
Normally in my basement, nobody's taking photos of me.
So you got out of your basement, man.
That's right.
Once in a while.
I only did it for this and for Chuck D.
That's the only other time I did it.
That's okay.
Nothing wrong with that.
Oh, and Danny Elwell's coming tonight, right?
She is, yeah.
But she's scheduled to make an appearance.
Okay, great.
So in the mid-'80s, I guess you're working. coming tonight, right? She is, yeah. But she's scheduled to make an appearance. Okay, great. So you,
in the mid-80s,
I guess,
you're working.
And Marty,
at this point,
Marty's just helping out
with the road show.
Is that right?
He was the DJ.
So he was very protective
of the board
and the turntables.
But he did a great job.
He was so excited
to be doing what he did.
And we had some great times.
I'll share a story with you.
Yes, please.
So we're on our way
to a road show at a high school,
and we're feeling kind of peckish.
So we're close to a bakery, a Camiso bakery on Kingcourt.
And so let's go in for, let's go get a veal.
So we got a veal.
Driving in the truck on the way to the school,
and he gets sauce all over his face, right?
He goes, hey, how do you say this in Italian, man?
How do you say this in Italian?
He said, well, you say it, sugo sulla faccia.
So he was going on throughout the whole night of the road show
as if it was a curse.
Ah, sugo sulla faccia, which is hilarious.
But a great spirit, someone who was extremely passionate about the music,
there was no doubt, and yeah, some great memories, for sure. And how are
things going at JazzCast?
JazzCast is absolutely wonderful.
In fact, my show's on right now
from 8 till midnight. It's not live, I guess.
No, it's not. It's
impossible. No, well, I do it from time to time.
I do it live, but for the most part, it's pre-recorded.
Awesome, and
some JazzCast people are also
on Jazz FM, right?
Yeah, just the two of us. Heather Bambrick
and myself. Heather's
doing the 9 to 1 shift Monday to Friday
and I've got the weekend stuff going on.
Awesome. So when are we going to
get together and do one of these?
Are we doing it right now? No, no, no.
We need to do a proper
deep dive. You're going to come over and get the
full treatment. You're going to get the lasagna, the beer, the whole thing.
Well, I'm just thrilled that I got a chance to meet you tonight.
I didn't know you were going to be here, so this is cool.
Oh, yeah.
You're telling me because I actually am so ignorant.
I didn't realize you ever had a stop at 102.1.
Yeah, I think that was my second stop.
There was a station just down the hall, CKMW Radio 790.
That's where I got my start in radio.
And as I was in the hallways on a regular basis,
one of the producers came in and said,
Hey, we need a board off.
Are you interested in coming down and helping us out?
I said, Absolutely.
Because I can remember days where I was sitting in the backyard on my chaise lounge
imagining what it would be like to be in CFNY Studios.
And then a couple of years later, Shazam, I'm there.
And now as I realize that Pete and Geet show had Fred Patterson doing sports
and Mike Stafford doing news.
It was a great group, let me tell you.
In fact, I helped produce that show for several weeks.
Kevin O'Leary was doing the Ferris
Wheel thing. Yeah, the other Kevin O'Leary.
Not the Shark Tank guy. Because you'll confuse
everybody here. Yeah, yeah.
He was doing the
Ferris Wheel thing at the C&E,
so I sat in for about three weeks
with Peyton Geetz, and
man, to watch these guys work together was
just phenomenal. Well, I know I'm here to collect street stories,
but I just was lucky enough to have Geetz Romo on the show,
and then I had to play a lot of clips, but to do the research,
I had to go back and listen to a lot of stuff, especially the 104.5 stuff.
It was amazing, just so great.
Yeah. Geetz was one of my favorite people at CFNY.
We got along extremely well.
Like I said, to watch them on the other side of the glass
kind of put things together for a break was phenomenal.
They'd kind of check in with me and say,
okay, we need these sound effects,
and then they'd just ad-lib the whole break.
It was just phenomenal.
Awesome, awesome.
Do you want to share another?
While we're here alone, do you have another, Marty?
I just learned that Marty had these big lunches,
and, like, all these little details I had no idea about.
Anything that paints a picture of a streak
that somebody who just listened to Live the Heirs
and the Thursday 30s might not know?
Anything at all?
No, just some of the things I can't really share, quite frankly.
That's what I've been told.
Yeah, yeah. I'd like to keep them to myself.
Of course, of course.
No, only to say that he was a very passionate man about the music,
and obviously enjoyed being at CFNY,
and he just seemed to be the right fit for them.
So it was kind of sad to hear when he actually got axed, quite frankly.
Yeah, that was too bad.
Hello, how are you?
Okay, so Walter Vinafro, who's on JazzCast and Jazz FM.
Stick on these headphones, you can hear me better.
This gentleman is a proud listener.
Can you be a proud listener or just a listener?
No, a proud listener, for sure.
Get on that mic here and angle yourself up.
Michael Lang, you took my son and I to that mic here and angle yourself up. Michael Lang,
you took my son and I to a hockey game in Brampton. That's right.
Yeah, and you got a t-shirt. I see
you bought that t-shirt from the
great Pete Fowler. Absolutely, yes.
Well, awesome to see you here, man.
This doesn't get you
off the hook, though. In fact, Walter, you should
take note of this, too. September
19th at great
lakes brewery i'm doing this a similar thing for listeners of the program where you got to come
back on the mic and uh chat with us again then do i have to write a speech for that yes please okay
if you write a speech i'm kicking you off the microphone but do you want to share any memories
you have of martin streak uh sure so um I think I probably stumbled across your blog by searching for Martin Streak.
I probably got down to the Phoenix on Saturday night maybe two or three times.
But probably the summer of 1994, we listened to it up at my trailer every night.
Friday nights
and Saturday nights
and then we just
chill out on Sundays
so we're similar age
I think
I think I'm two years older
yeah
but that age
you know that age
where music's everything
right
absolutely
and you know
Martin Street Live
to air is like
yeah it's everything
yeah
that was the thing
and you also had a gig
down in Burlington
what was the club
in Burlington
that I used to go to
we're supposed to call it
Girlington Girlington something or other Plains Road North Plains you also had a gig down in Burlington. What was the club in Burlington that I used to go to? We're supposed to call it Girlington.
Girlington.
Something or other.
Plains Road North.
Plains Road East.
Plains Road East in Burlington.
Is it Plains Road North?
Yeah, maybe you're right.
I can't remember now.
I don't know.
All right.
Somebody else.
I can't remember what it was called.
You can see it from the highway.
You can see it from the QEW.
Are there any songs?
I often will hear a song, and it'll be not just Martin Streak live to airs, but I would
go to like, there was one night that uh uh oh you know it's funny all that noise i can't even hear
myself think there yeah uh who's who's uh psychedelic sunday with andy frost yes yes i
so i but but i have certain songs when i hear them i'm back at the clubs like it's uh certain
songs trigger it one one here i going to play a bit of it.
We're battling the music behind us.
Right now, who's on right now?
I think it's...
I believe it's DJ Schwarma.
Schwarma, by the way,
he'll come on here later.
Songs like this.
Alright, okay.
Thunder 65. Yeah, you're there. No, you're there So, Thunder 65.
Yeah, you got it. No, you're there.
You're there.
Thunder Kiss 65.
Thunder Kiss 65.
Rob Zombie, yes, indeed.
So, when I hear this song to this day, I'm right back here.
Here's Robbie J, I see, in the corner of my eyes.
Why don't I move out of the way so you can get Robbie behind the microphone?
Yeah, but your job, Walter, is to literally grab him and put him on the...
Okay, stand by.
Thank you so much.
And Michael, you brought some buddies here tonight?
No, no one.
You're here solo.
Oh, yeah, Mike.
Nice.
A lot of the people that I knew that came to this,
I don't really keep in touch with anymore, unfortunately,
so I figured I'd meet a new group of friends here tonight.
Well, hey, good to see you.
In fact, you can stay sitting there until somebody better than you shows up,
and then I make you replace yourself with that person.
Sounds good.
A tall gentleman here.
Who is this?
I recognize this face.
Rob Johnston.
I'm the only one I think who says stun.
Everybody.
You're one of the few.
Your name comes up a lot, as you might know,
and everyone calls you, including Pete Fowler a couple of episodes ago,
calls you Rob Johnson.
I know.
I have to correct that.
You're going to edit out the bass in the background?
Can you tell me how to do that?
I don't know how to do that.
I thought it would add to the ambiance.
Yes, exactly.
Is this even worth doing?
I have no idea.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
How is this technical production right here?
It looks fine to me. I like the color coordination
of the mics and the tables.
That's a new addition since you were last here.
I like the Rodecaster. We have one. It's quite a lovely
piece of kit. It does
all the tricks, everything you need.
Yeah, and I tested
the Bluetooth channel of Ann Romer
last episode. It's very good.
And it worked out great.
Now,
Robbie J, as Strombo told us back on episode 103, you are like
you are the spirit of Radio
Personified. That's what Strombo said.
Yeah, that's kind of a weird thing to hear, to be honest
with you.
I
don't remember many of the stories.
I don't know if that's a good or
a bad thing but uh maybe you
can uh share share with us today because today this is all for martin the streak well first off
i i want to i want to pass on regards of somebody who couldn't be here and that's uh ben kowalowicz
i was texting with him tonight good old ben k from the great billy talent great billy talent
he's a new dad new father right so he's going through all that fun times.
It's funny.
I'm only smirking because I just DM'd with him like maybe a week ago because he started following me.
Oh, yeah.
Which I took as like, you know when you're flirting in a bar or something?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I took that as a sign that I was allowed to engage with him now.
So I sent him a DM and said he'd be perfect for Toronto Mike.
And he told me about the newborn and that he'd have to do it later.
But yes, okay, he can't be here.
But okay, so what we're having here now is a big party.
This is an all-request breakfast reunion right here.
Well, there's Alan Cross.
You might have to.
This is like, okay, so we got the ongoing history reunion.
We got the breakfast reunion.
That's right.
Uh,
technical production by Rob Johnston.
The guy who says that is right over here.
That's kind of weird.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'll come back later though.
We'll do Michael Lang.
Everybody.
We've kicked them out because,
uh,
Fowler's going to pop on a mic.
Now you're trapped.
So you wanted, you were looking for stories, right?
Street stories.
Okay.
So Marty was, everybody knows Marty was a big snowboarder, right?
And he actually got me into snowboarding.
He said, you've got to go snowboarding.
Forget the skiing, go snowboarding.
So he showed me how to snowboard the first few times he went out.
But I would say, and you'd probably agree with this, Pete,
Marty wasn't a big sports guy.
No, no, he didn't.
Like, Brother Bill would follow the Leafs.
He'd watch the games while he was on the air,
along with 90210 and Baywatch.
Yeah, and Marty would ridicule him.
Marty would ridicule him, but he did, you know, hell escape.
Oh, I know, I know.
He snowboarded.
He'd go to Chile.
He skateboarded.
So one time, we were doing a remote back on, it was a roller blade shop up on
Yonge Street between Lawrence and Eglinton and Cliff Cohen was a sales rep.
I was doing the tech on this. This would have been in 94 and I know it would have been 94
because Cliff and I were big basketball fans. We started talking about the Raptors and the
Raptors were coming and all this, right? So Marty was doing the remote and we were big basketball fans. We started talking about the Raptors. The Raptors were coming and all this, right?
So Marty was doing the remote, and we were all having a great conversation.
Marty says, and Cliff and I decide, you know, we should get season's tickets at the Dome.
And Marty's like, you guys are getting season's tickets?
I want in.
So Marty, Cliff, and I had season's tickets for the Dome, for the Raptors, for the Sky Dome years.
Wow.
Up in the 500s. And that was a cavernous.
It was a cavernous. was a cap like you were sitting above
the scoreboard right you were sitting way up there now the funny thing was so we would go to cliff's
house and divvy up the tickets and marty could never go obviously to the friday saturday sunday
night and even the thursday night gigs because he had the thursday 30. so he'd go to the the
afternoon weekend games to the early games during the week. But Marty being typical Marty
would have fun at the games.
And a few times I would go
and you get to know the season ticket holders
in the area around you.
And a couple guys would be like,
who's the guy with the long hair who comes
and is just yelling at the players,
yelling at the coaches,
yelling at the refs,
but he does it in a way that's fun and not offensive, right?
Right.
And I said, long hair, mustache, yeah.
Gagarinous, he loves to laugh, yeah.
Oh, that's Marty.
Wow.
That nailed it.
Totally.
Totally nailed it.
Yeah.
And you know that Robbie J here,
he was there when Martin let off the F-bomb, right?
I'm sure you probably already talked about that.
You were back at the Brampton.
I was not doing the Thursday 30 at that point in time.
I think Jason was doing it at that point in time.
But I would come in and do the overnight after that.
See, I did it for these guys for a while, Pete and Marty for a while,
and then Jason did it. I don't know why we flip but sometime we flip anyways i came in jason
says to me you're not gonna believe what happened tonight i said what he goes martin leans back
couldn't go to the nine inch nails show and left off a massive f-bomb sure enough the next day when
i came up to work as well, I saw the infamous memo on the
bulletin board in the kitchen.
I should have taken my own copy of it.
I took that one out.
I know, smart move.
I still remember seeing that.
I remember that.
I remember the phrase, it is a privilege.
It is not a right.
Yeah.
To be on 102.
To be on 102.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
So Jason Barr, yourself, Pete Fowler, and did anyone else witness the F-bomb?
Witness or heard it? I don't know, like a few hundred thousand heard it.
Stu, I think, did.
Yeah, Stu definitely heard it.
But witness, well, actually, yeah.
There was a studio full of people at the Edge of Bloor and Bathurst. That's right.
And when he backed off his chair and let that F-bomb fly,
people started laughing, laughing their head off.
You could hear laughter in the background, even though it was louder being in the studio.
But that Edge of Bloor and Bathurst was very cavernous.
Yes, yes.
It was very long.
I used to speak to these guys through a talkback mic,
and I'd hear them through this little speaker in the bottom of the studio.
But I had no idea what was going on.
Neither did Jason until it actually happened.
So he wouldn't have heard any of this background information
of just go with it sort of thing, right?
And David Marsden just walked in.
Oh, there you go.
David Marsden.
Hi.
David Marsden is in the house.
We're live.
Please jump on a mic later.
We're sharing street stories.
All right, now, even.
Oh, Pete Fowler's giving up his mic.
I'll let you go.
Okay, too bad.
I was going to play Hobo Hump and Slow Bo Bays for you,
but I'll do it for you later.
Come back later.
We'll talk podcasting later.
Okay, for sure.
Thanks.
You're going to help me clean this up.
Oh, yeah.
All right, what are we going to clean?
Welcome back, David Marsden.
I can't believe I'm here with you. This is amazing.
This is amazing. You are the legend, Dave Mickey. I want to play some Dave Mickey right now.
Oh, that's too long ago.
Too long ago.
I don't even remember that.
How are things?
Things are good, actually, Mike. Things are very good.
I know one day you said to me,
if you ever want to talk, come on down and talk to me.
That's right.
I might want to do that before Christmas.
Oh, I would love it.
Yeah, maybe we'll get together.
Ivor was on just like, I don't know, half an hour ago,
and he talked about his show he's doing on nythespirit.com.
Yeah, yeah.
Still going strong.
I do shows, live shows, Saturday and Sunday nights on nythespirit.com. Yes, yes. Still going strong. I do shows, live shows Saturday and Sunday nights on nythespirit.com.
Now, David, we're here today because we're celebrating the life of Martin Streak.
Yes, we are.
I think everybody would love it if you could share, if you don't mind, any Streak stories
or recollections of working with Marty.
And you hired Marty right?
I did when he was about
17
and
he was going to be on the road show with
Ivor Hamilton
and
I know he's
here tonight with Ivor
anyway the two of them
but we had a five tonton truck to haul around the
roadshow equipment. And to drive a five-ton truck in Ontario at that time, you had to have a special
license. And Ivor didn't have time. And so Marty said, I'll do it. So he went in and did the exams and took all the lessons and it went on and on
and on and I still remember the day he came into the station it was around two or three in the
afternoon he was screaming up and down up and down the corridors of the station in and out of the screaming, I got it, I got it! And the rest
is history. Amazing,
amazing. That is amazing.
We love Martin,
and he was a special person.
And I had talked
to him two days before
he left.
Would you be willing to share anything about
how he sounded to you?
Well,
that was the thing that freaked me out.
I was working at Andy Poole Hall doing DJ work for something to do,
and he came in one night.
Actually, a whole mess of the CFNY people came in,
and they were celebrating somebody's birthday.
I don't know who it was.
And so Marty came in, and he came right up on the DJ stand, and he hugged me and whispered in my ear,
I've just been fired.
And I said, yeah, right, that's a good joke.
He said, no, it really happened.
They fired me.
So I said, okay, I'm here for you.
I'll get you back into some place somehow.
And he said, great, I'm going to L.A. first,
and when I get back from L.A., we'll talk.
And so I spent a couple of weeks there when he was in L.A.
looking around to see if I could get him something.
And he called me when he got back from L.A.
We had a nice chat.
He said,
okay, I'll try in a couple of days.
We'll go and have a drink or something.
I said, that's great.
And that was the last time we talked.
Wow.
That's heavy, man.
I want to say, you know, you're the spirit of radio,
but there's a spirit of streak.
Oh, yeah, no, he was amazing. I mean, I went off to Vancouver, as you know,'re the spirit of radio but there's a spirit of streak oh yeah no he was he was amazing uh i mean i went off to vancouver as you know for 10 years right and he became a
star he went way beyond the road show and all that other stuff and he became a major star it was absolutely virtually important for him to do that and uh his i i spoke at his funeral
and uh and his mother gave me a gift of something and that he had treasured in his home
and i now treasure that in my home oh sorry mike that's okay no I was talking to this Mike that's alright that's alright that's a Mike too
I was talking to this Mike
no I'm not you
but
so you know
we were
we were close
but we wouldn't
we didn't hang around together
you know
we were just
doing whatever we did
sure
sure
so
I'll just leave it
with
oh
can I give you a Toronto Mike sticker
you can give me anything you want.
And
I'll leave you with these words.
Let me think if I can remember.
You want me to stick this somewhere?
Don't know how to answer that.
Yes, please.
Keep it cracked and locked, okay?
Thank you, David Marsden.
That was fantastic.
And before I let you go, Pete, though, you can't go until I get somebody else on a microphone.
That's how it works right here.
I want to ask you about who gives some credit.
Give some credit to the people.
Well, right now I just have to organize a couple of things.
You go.
I'll throw somebody down an open mic.
Don't worry here.
I'll vamp as they say.
Okay.
So we have Pete Fowler has taken Dave Marsden.
Hey, Pina, I need somebody on a microphone.
Oh, I see.
Pina, who's turned out to be quite helpful.
So, Pina, if you're listening to the recording, thank you so kindly.
Pina's coming on the microphone.
Okay, Mike, so you asked me to wrangle.
That was one of my jobs at The Edge.
You're a wrangler.
I was, well, as a promo marketing director.
Whenever we did shows like Edge Fest or Wake Stock, anything like that,
I'd have to wrangle staff to get on stage
to introduce bands and so on and so forth.
And so I found you someone pretty awesome.
Okay, tell me who,
because I never know what radio people look like.
Okay, so I am going to invite Mr. Daryl Spring to join us.
Daryl Spring, he worked...
I almost wrecked the table before I even sat down.
Sorry.
So Daryl Spring was one of the announcers at the Edge.
Uh, he was also in the music department.
I was the assistant music director for a couple of years.
Uh, swing announcer, fill in a bit of everything.
I know Daryl Spring.
It's great to meet you.
I got mentioned on your blog once and I was like,
Was it kind?
I need to know.
It was kind because someone said that I had also left
and it was followed by all the good people leave or something like that.
Okay, that's good.
And who else left that we were writing about?
What wave of leaving?
So this was shortly after Barry and Martin.
Okay.
That would have been 2009.
And then I started at Y108 in Hamilton in January of 2010.
Awesome.
And well, tell us before we get to Marty Streak,
what are you up to these days?
So I'm the program director, music director,
and afternoon host at the independently owned Rebel 1017 in Ottawa.
It's an active rock station.
I think we're probably the loudest rock station in Canada.
I think we could say that.
Awesome.
That sounds great to me.
That sounds great.
What are you doing here, though?
You live in Ottawa.
I live in Ottawa, and I was not going to miss this night.
So you came for this.
I did, yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Pina, that's amazing.
I love Mr. Craig G.
Craig G is a big reason why I'm here tonight.
He can't hear me, but I'm pointing at him.
He's going to listen back to this, though. That's the joy.
That's the joy. Yeah, DJ Craig G was just
in my basement like a
few days ago. Yeah, you had him and Pete on a couple days ago.
Yeah, him and Pete came on to kick out the jams for
Marty Streak.
I was just trying to wrangle someone else
for you.
You look fantastic.
So DJ Craig G has just told Darryl Spring a little white lie, but it's I was just trying to wrangle someone else for you. You look fantastic. Thank you.
DJ Craig G has just told Daryl Spring a little white lie, but it's okay, I think.
Flattery will get him everywhere.
Oh, and I like the Crownlands t-shirt, too.
We've been playing these guys for two years.
Two years we've been playing them, and I think they're set for a good next year.
So are you guys going to compete with the station that has Jason Barr on it?
Like, is that Shea?
I love Jason Barr.
He's one of my favorite people to work with,
but it's unfortunate that now he is the enemy.
Right.
He is the enemy.
Right.
I love him as a person.
He's a good guy.
Now, I don't know a lot about Ottawa Radio,
but I know on this other station that's not as good as yours, there was a Doc and a Woody.
And I guess they were a little long in the tooth.
That's accurate.
They were loved by their audience, though.
So it's Bigs and Bar walking into that, which is never good to go on after a Heritage show.
It's always a tough thing.
You want to go on after the person who goes on after the heritage show,
right?
Cause I think let someone go in after the heritage show and then let them flame out or whatever.
And then you go in and then you're the hero.
Exactly.
You save the day.
Right.
So Daryl,
I want to know if you can share it.
And now I'm hearing from people,
Oh,
I got great streak stories,
but I can't share them.
Okay.
Do you have any stories about Martin streak?
That's fit for public consumption.
I,
for sure.
Um,
I used to, to do, to do the overnight on Thursday nights. So Martin would do the Thursday 30 and then at the time we did the Mod Club Radio, which was Mark Holmes. And sometimes Martin
would go play pool, but sometimes he would just sit in the studio and tell stories. And
the stories that Martin had, I remember telling him, you need to write a book.
And he kind of laughed and said,
well, there's just no way to fact check or timeline everything
because things that he remembered,
it would be tough to,
you know, they're a bit of a haze,
I think is how he put it.
But he told me this one story
about going to New York City
with Chris Shepard
and they were going to a hotel
and Cabaret Voltaire was going to be there. And Martin were going to a hotel and Cabaret Voltaire
was going to be there and Martin was saying, you know, Cabaret
Voltaire are like my heroes
at this time, you know?
And when they
walked in, they were like bowing down to Chris
Shepard. So his heroes are like praising
the guy that he walked in the door with
and then he told some more stories about that night
that are probably not appropriate to share.
I have to say, because I never worked in the biz,
I never worked with Streak,
I just listened and loved him on the radio.
But I think there's a perception out there
that Streak and Shepard maybe weren't buds at all.
I feel like somebody has thought maybe
when Shepard would say often imitated, never duplicated,
that might be a shot at Streak.
I've heard this.
I have no idea if this is true.
I don't want to start any... I don't know.
I mean, I would have been just a... I'm happy to hear
they were... I'm happy to hear that they
were traveling together.
He told some awesome stories. He did a great
Shep impersonation, too.
Do you do one? No. Everyone does one.
I can't find him, by the way. Do you know where Shepard is?
I can't find him. He surfaced once
on Humble and Fred.
Yes, yes, he did.
I feel like he was in some sort of academics or something like that.
Well, this is what I want to, I need to get him in my basement to find out how accurate this is.
That he's got these doctorate degrees and things like this. Guy would have stories to tell.
Oh, I know.
And I just want to hear, like, when you're just having like a casual conversation with Chris Shepard, does he sound like that?
Or does he sound like Gilbert Godfrey puts on his...
Shep, he's on a jazzy tip.
Yeah.
Shep, he's on the flex.
Club 102, coming at you live.
Well, see, one of the things that I got to do at The Edge,
I got to fill in sometimes for Craig G and sometimes for Martin.
I was like the filling guy for either of them.
And when you're in a club and in that moment,
and you've heard, I grew up listening to Martin
for years before I got to call him a colleague.
So first working with him was a little like,
holy shit, that's Martin Streak, right?
So once you get over that and doing it,
it was hard not to say like,
live from the Phoenix 410
downtown Toronto, Club 102 Saturday Night Night
that whole script
you don't know what else
to do because it was only
done that way, I thought
right
you look a lot younger than me but you might be
closer than I think
he looks like he's 29 years old
I was born in the 70s
okay, so was I Pina was born in the 70s. Okay, okay.
So was I. Pina was born in the 90s,
right? No. Totally.
No, you were born in the 80s.
I am. I'm an 80 baby.
1980.
No one needs to know.
I could win money at carnivals, apparently.
The birthday game. Just please don't guess my weight.
And the mics go silent.
I was going to say,
whatever I think it is,
I'm going to just subtract,
you know, 20.
50.
I know one more Martin Streak story.
Yeah, of course, please.
So the first time that I,
I DJed in the rave scene in Toronto
for the latter part of the 90s.
I played in the drum and bass scene.
So I was comfortable DJing,
but I had always played with vinyl.
So the first time that I got to fill in for Craig,
DJing at the Phoenix,
I went and rented CDJs
and DJed in my basement for like four or five hours
just to make sure I knew
there's cutting loops for Martin to talk over.
I wanted to make it perfect, right?
And when I got there that night,
I was nervous. And Martin looked got there that night, I was nervous
and Martin looked at me and he's like,
listen, people that listen to this
show think I'm the guy playing the music.
So he pointed at me.
A lot of people think he was the DJ.
So he pointed at me and with the most
serious look ever, he said,
I can swear on your podcast.
So he looked at me and he's like, Sprint, don't fuck up.
And part of you knew that it was a joke,
but part of you knew that it was also dead serious.
But I've never been so motivated
or wanted to just make him proud of the job that you're doing.
And was he proud?
Was he proud?
I think we got overwhelmed.
I think so.
Yeah.
Martin also checked me a couple times in the DJ booth.
Someone came in and the song was running out and there wasn't a lot of time and they
were trying to request something.
And I was just like, I need to get a song queued and ready.
Right.
And I blew them off.
I'm like, get out of my way.
And he's like, don't, don't ever do that.
He's like, you build everyone, like your listeners one at a time.
He's like, everybody comes up here, gets treated like a guest.
Right.
This is what I hear from people that uh martin
had a way of making you seem like the most important person in the world like he had
that charisma yes totally yeah he was he was for the people he loves meeting people you'd walk into
the the studios at the edge of 228 Young Street to pick up a prize.
And he'd come down.
He'd leave the DJ booth, come down, say hello, introduce himself,
ask you questions.
He loved that.
Yes, absolutely. And he loved music.
Daryl and I both had the honor of sitting in on music meetings with him.
Yes, those were interesting.
Those were fun.
Can you share anything?
I'd love to be like a fly on the wall just for a moment.
That group drove the music director crazy at the time.
It was John Mitchell.
Yeah.
And Alan Cross was our PD at the time.
Alan sat in on most.
Yeah, and we would argue,
and we'd really push things to the limits.
But it was Martin Streak that brought in a lot of indie artists
that ended up getting played on the edge.
He always pushed that stuff.
He championed some really great bands like USS.
Barry Taylor had a big part in USS as well.
Yes.
Of course, USS is amazing.
Ash has been on the show.
I just think that's a kick-ass.
I will wrangle. Human Kebab has got his voice.
He just needs to cut promos or something.
That voice, hey, it's Human Kebab.
Well, I will wrangle Human Kebab for you because he will be joining us later.
Okay, that'd be amazing because he has not been in my basement.
I've only had Ash.
Oh, you need him.
You need him.
Okay.
And this is, I feel like I've been intruding here,
but I need a May Potts or an Alan Cross.
I saw both.
I will.
Although I'll take this guy in the meantime here.
I will pass my spot over to Will Dunlop.
No, actually, I'm taking Alan Cross.
And Alan Cross is right here.
Hold on.
I'm going to move out of the way for Alan Cross.
And we'll get Will Dunlop for you as well.
My turn?
Okay.
Yeah, it, your turn.
Pina, I owe you a beer or two.
You're doing a great job.
I'm just going to step away now so Alan can tell his stories.
We were just telling everyone that we used to drive you guys crazy in the music meetings.
Oh, yeah, you were an absolute annoyance.
Listen, Martin Streak in the music meetings.
Go ahead.
No, you did a great job.
Phil, Mike in.
Phil, Mike in.
Well, one of the things that we wanted to do with Martin is,
because he was in the clubs all the time,
was bring him into the music meetings and give him a sense of control
over what else the radio station was doing,
because he was playing in front of thousands of people every week,
and he would have a really good street view
of what was working and what wasn't.
So we invited Martin into the music meetings,
and he would be pretty relentless
in some of the bands that he would,
in some of the songs that he'd be championing.
And a lot of them were,
well, if you went to the Phoenix,
they were kind of crunchy,
kind of heavy. And, you know, if you went to the Phoenix, they were kind of crunchy, kind of heavy, and
you know, if there was a sniff
of a Marilyn Manson record or a Ministry record
or something
along those lines, you could bet that Martin would
be championing the music.
You know, Alan,
maybe fill us in a little
bit here. We're going to get back to street stories, but
you've got the two podcasts
going on, right? Or am I missing any?
No, we've got the Ongoing History of New Music podcast and the
Geeks and Beats podcast that I do with Michael Hainsworth.
And I've always wondered,
how do you know how much of the
song you can play on the Ongoing History of New Music podcast?
The answer is you can't play anything.
Nothing. There is a myth that
says that you can play 30 seconds
or 50 seconds. I think Robbie J is spreading that myth.
We are.
Right now, basically what we're doing is, look, there is no legal mechanism anywhere
in the world for actually playing music in podcasts unless you're the BBC and you've
done some kind of really expensive licensing deal.
The rule is that you can use zero music in a podcast legally.
Now, the problem is that a lot of people have flouted that.
They're setting precedent for the
record labels. Record labels know
this is happening. They know
that a lot of us have gone to them and said,
hey, we'll pay you
for the privilege of using music in podcasts.
And they go, oh, yeah.
Yeah, I guess we are leaving some
money on the table. And then nothing ever happens.
There has been something in the United States
over the past month where
a couple of companies have come together
to try and make podcast
music legal
but it's so convoluted none of the labels
have signed on so
at least the discussion has begun
but I do thoroughly enjoy
both of your podcasts
and we were just talking But I do thoroughly enjoy both of your podcasts. Thank you.
And we were just talking about Martin Streak,
and we just had David Marsden on the show.
And, of course, you've been on Toronto Mic several times.
How long did you have David on the show?
Well, David Marsden.
How long did you have him here?
Here today, I'd say six minutes.
Holy shit.
How did you manage to get rid of him so soon?
I don't know.
Why did he leave?
I'm going to get him back. But yeah, he's coming back on Toronto Mike for a deep dive.
So that's when we'll do the long.
That'll be a very long podcast.
Just so you know.
Please.
Oh, it's OK.
He was episode one.
I don't know.
He was an early.
He was fantastic when he came on the first time.
I can't remember what number that was now, like 102 or something like that.
No, that was Scott Turner. But he was on early. He was fantastic when he came on the first time. I can't remember what number that was now, like 102 or something like that. No, that was Scott Turner, but
he was on early. He was fantastic.
I just hope that we can be heard
over the background noise, but can you share
any additional
Martin Street stories? Well, I'll give you
a personal one. When I
came to CFNY in 1986,
it was October 3rd,
1986, the first day. In fact,
it was the day they started construction
on the Skydome. That's when I showed up. Wow. And I was doing the all-night show on Saturday
mornings. And I had been hired by Marsden to come from a very comfortable music director position
at a radio station in Winnipeg. And I was, at the time, in Winnipeg, with its cost of living, making $23,000 a year for working five days a week.
I wanted to work at CFNY.
David brought me in, working six days a week, five of which were overnights, for $17,500.
And I needed to augment my income because back then, this is 86, the effective vacancy rate in Toronto, Brampton, and the surrounding area was under 1%.
Wow.
There was no place.
So if you did get an apartment, you were going to pay big dollars for it.
I ended up with a place in Brampton, and I think I was paying $600 and something a month, and I was making $17,000
a year.
So, I mean, it ate up a lot of my money.
The only way that I could supplement this income was hosting CFNY video roadshows.
And the deal was, back then, that for every roadshow you hosted, you got $250, plus you
got, I think it was 10 cents a kilometer in mileage.
And because I wouldn't be on the air until midnight every night, that freed me up to
do a lot of road shows throughout the week and also on the weekends.
And I didn't have any, coming from Manitoba, not being afraid of big distances, I was willing to do all the out-of-town ones because, number one, it paid a lot more in mileage.
Right.
Number two, I was just more comfortable doing the smaller schools.
And, of course, the road show at that time was run by Martin.
He was the DJ.
He was the sort of the MC kind of person.
He was the guy that drove the truck.
He was the guy that looked after the crew.
sort of the MC kind of person.
He was the guy that drove the truck.
He was the guy that looked after the crew.
And he was the guy that, you know,
because I was working all night,
he was one of the few people I had regular contact with.
So it was through him that I learned a lot about the music that the station was playing.
I learned a lot about the geography of southern Ontario.
And I learned a lot about the whole alternative culture that was
in place back then. And I felt
really bad for the Roker. I feel like,
you know, I shouldn't just come in, say a couple
things on the mic, and then go home. So I would sometimes
get there early, help them set up, and
help them tear down. Then we'd occasionally
all go, we had this
big 10-ton truck, and we'd all go out
for something to eat afterwards.
It would be 3 o'clock in the morning, and Martin would bring us to some sort of weird
sandwich place run by the mob in the middle of nowhere, and having some of the best sandwiches
I've ever had in my life.
There was one time, too.
Martin kind of looked after me.
There was one time with a school in Shelburne.
And we set up in the auditorium.
They had a stage for theater productions.
And it was a fairly narrow, shallow stage.
And I got up there and I was doing a break in front of the crowd.
And I walked off the stage.
I just, step, step, step, oops, bang, hit the floor.
And Martin noted that I kept talking on the way down.
And from that point on, Martin was the guy that would always remind me
for the rest of his life, quite literally,
be careful,
don't fall off the stage.
Here, I'm giving you, oh, there's one in front of you I see already.
Look at you, you've got merchandise.
Yeah, of course. These are the sticker you Toronto Mike stickers. Got it.
Now, I can't wait
for you to tweet at me where that ends up.
I want to see where that...
I'll tell you where it's going to end up.
Okay, tell me.
I have a very...
In my office downstairs,
I have a very tall garbage can.
Okay, I'll take it.
A plastic garbage can.
And I have stickers from radio stations
all over the world.
I'd be honored to be on that garbage can.
You'll go next to a radio station
called UFM from someplace in South Africa.
Oh, let me ask on behalf of listeners,
how is Mary Ellen Benninger?
She is working for the Ontario Energy Board right now
as their senior media person.
So if anybody has a question about hydro rates in Ontario
and you're a member of the media,
that's who you'll talk to.
Interesting.
Okay, and she's still writing?
Yeah, she is.
She's got a series of really filthy romance novels.
Right.
What's her pen name again?
Emmy Cross.
Emmy Cross.
E-M-M-E Cross.
And then she's working on a sort of a very dystopian
Handmaid's Tale to the Second Power kind of book right now.
Well, that's very in vogue right now.
It is.
It is.
If anybody knows any
literary agents, we need one.
And if you're working
for Netflix and you're listening to this, we will
golly take a production deal with you.
Interesting. There might be someone at Netflix
listening to this. That's fantastic.
Now, you do so many different
things. I'm always surprised.
I hear you're doing imaging
for Q, and you're still doing imaging for 102.1?
I do, not imaging, but I do content production.
Okay, content, right.
Of course, ongoing history of new music.
You got the Michael Hainsworth Geeks and Beats.
And what other things are going on right now that you can share with us?
I'm working with Global News.
I do a bunch of writing for them.
I am sort of the go-to music consultant guy
for chorus radio stations
across the country
when they want somebody
to talk about a music thing
they usually call me.
I do some work with Entertainment Tonight Canada.
What else do I do?
I feel like I hear your voice on things.
Yeah.
You're the authoritative...
You know, I just had Sandy Rinaldo over to my house yesterday
to do an interview about...
Can I beat that?
I had Ann Romer at my house yesterday.
Ah, cool.
I don't know who wins that one.
It's close.
That's really close.
She was there to do...
She's doing a W5 portrayal or profile of choir, choir, choir.
Oh, yeah.
So she's set up in the basement,
and we wrap things up.
My wife comes home,
and Sandy comes up from the basement,
and goes, hi, I'm Sandy.
My wife goes, what?
What are you doing here?
Really kind of cold.
All right, so once I had a,
for a brief period of time,
we had a nanny,
because before my kids went into daycare,
and she's a huge hockey fan,
a mammoth hockey fan.
And she was watching the kids upstairs.
And coming out of my basement, she didn't know,
but all of a sudden, Bob McKenzie comes out of my basement.
So she's like, wait a minute.
He just came out of the basement.
What you're going to need to know about Mike is he lives in Old Toronto
in this very nondescript house.
He lives in old Toronto in this very nondescript house.
And the parade of people that come and go out of that house in that neighborhood will shock you.
I have neighbors who are like, I saw Biff naked there the other day.
And it's like, yeah.
And I mean, Alan Cross, who's this guy taking a photo with Mike on his lawn?
Yeah, because you always take pictures of people out front.
Right, right, right, right.
Absolutely.
Alan, thanks so much for taking some time here.
Anytime you want to come back and share a story, jump on a mic.
I will see what I can do.
Let's see if DJ... Yes, okay, so good.
Yeah, if you want to go, you can go.
If not, you can hang around.
I'll sit here for a second.
Okay, good, yeah.
I haven't talked to Craig G in a while.
Hey, Craig.
Okay, you guys talk.
I'll just listen. I got the left one. Alan, how are you? Mike? Okay, good, yeah. I haven't talked to Craig G in a while. Hey, Craig. Okay, you guys talk. I'll just listen.
I got the left one.
Alan, how are you?
Mike?
DJ Craig G.
Gentlemen, how goes?
I feel like we've talked recently.
Oh, yeah, you were on episode 504.
That's correct, yeah, talking about the party for Marty,
which we are currently enjoying.
Should I ask Alan if he listened to you guys kicking out the jams for Martin Streak?
I don't know. Did you hear the episode?
No, I didn't. My problem is I've got
I have to do so much listening
for work that I don't have any chance
to listen for leisure.
It drives me absolutely nuts.
Because there's all these podcasts I hear about
that I want to listen to. I know that Mike's on top of stuff
when it comes to Toronto media.
And
I just don't have the bandwidth.
No, I fully understand.
Okay, now I understand.
I will.
So episode 504 is Pete Fowler and DJ Craig G
kicking out the jams for Martin Streak.
Kicking out the jams for Martin Streak.
I was telling the story about
when I was working under your guidance. Leadership. Leadership, that's correct.
You had told us ages ago when we had first started, especially in the nightclubs,
you had asked me one day, how many CDs do you, how many songs would you say you had in your crate?
And I think at the time I told you it was between 3,000, maybe 4,000, something like that. And you
were like, get more. Yeah, you'll need more just you'll need more than that yeah yeah and then that was when we actually had crates yep before we had i remember when you came to me
and said there's this new program for a computer called serato yeah that's right and i go what's
that this is well it's kind of like a dj in a box yeah and you load all the music into this computer
and that's everything you will ever need yep and i remember thinking this is like
science fiction yeah yeah and now and now you can get those programs for your phone and i actually
remember alan coming up actually alan called me at home and i was like i really want to get one
of these systems alan called me at home he was like craig g i just found a little bit of money
in the budget get down to the station now we are buying you a laptop today and Serato.
And I remember running down and we went to Save by Technology.
Yes, we did.
And we bought a Mac with a plastic case.
That's right.
It was before the titanium cases.
Yeah.
And it was about 15 inches thick.
Yeah.
And weighed about 14 pounds.
I was going to say 60.
But that was state of the art back then.
It was.
And I think it had, oh man, that one, I bet you had a 100 gigabyte hard drive.
Yeah, probably.
Tops.
Tops.
I remember we had to, because of the fact that we had so much music that we were able
to put onto it, we had to get an external hard drive for it.
That's right.
And then when it got full, you came to me and said, I need a new laptop.
And I said, Craig, I don't have any more money.
Wow.
There's a picture actually of me on my Facebook page on Craig Goddard, which Goddard is my last name.
So you've got your profile picture.
What's the one that's over top, the big one?
Banner?
Oh, no, the cover photo.
The cover photo.
My cover photo is actually Martin and I at the Casby Awards in 2007,
spinning at the government.
Do you remember the after party?
So we would go from the cool house into the government,
and we would play at the government.
We did the after party.
I was thinking about that today
because I was down at the chorus headquarters.
I'm looking across the street
as to where it used to be,
and they have all these giant condos there now.
Yeah.
Oh, big time.
That's so sad.
That was a great venue.
It was.
It was.
And I remember, yeah, the Caspys would be in one room and then we'd go to the other for the after party.
Yeah.
Alan, it's always good to talk to you.
You too.
Mike, I will talk to you very shortly.
I've got to go find the club owner because we need more cash for the food.
Give Bingo Bob your headset here.
Yeah, let's get Bingo Bobby in here.
I need to talk to Bob.
Look at this troublemaker.
What a handsome fellow.
Sit down, buddy. How are we doing? Can you take Craig G? I've got to go. Yeah. I've got talk to Bob. Look at this troublemaker. What a handsome fellow. Sit down, buddy.
Can you take Craig G?
I got to go.
Yeah.
So good to see you, brother.
I'll come up and say hi.
Nice to see you.
Don't forget to say hi.
Bingo Bob, ladies and gentlemen.
Bingo Bob.
Bingo Bob.
Hey, how's it going?
Bob, this is like I see a friend.
Yeah.
Not just a famous radio guy, but a guy I consider a friend.
Nice to see you, man. Nice to see you.
Nice to see you.
I wasn't sure if you'd make it.
You know what?
It's, yeah,
it's my wife's youngest brother's
getting married this weekend.
So it's been,
and the first week of school for the kids
and it's been a bit of a week.
I know that.
Yeah, for sure.
But I had to come.
I mean, you're in my hood.
You're in the East End.
So I had to come.
I biked here.
I know.
Crazy enough, I live close. I drove. here, so. I know. I know.
And crazy enough, I live close.
I drove.
Oh, my God.
I'm ashamed of you.
I would be.
Yeah, yeah.
I should be.
Look at me.
For so many reasons.
Although it's barely, I mean, okay, we're east of, where are we here?
Broadview. Broadview.
And Queen.
Yeah.
So we are east of Broadview.
Yeah.
Because it just felt like, I felt like I got to like Queens, Key, and Young.
Yep.
And almost right away, I'm at Parliament, and then I just went up, Key, and Yonge, and almost right away I met Parliament,
and then I just went up to King.
Yeah, there's an old thing.
It's like downtown used to be from the DVP over to Bathurst,
and then there was a West End after that,
and then I think it was the East End on the other side.
Humble Howard thinks he lives downtown.
He's like, he's like, he's in Queensway.
Compared to Oakville.
I cringe.
Compared to Moose Jaw, that is.
I guess so.
You know where he's from.
Oh, he's like, oh, I live downtown now.
Because he moved from, I guess, Oakville to Queensway.
That's right.
Okay, so let's get some facts about you first before we talk about Marty.
So last we spoke, you were at The Rock.
Yes.
You're not there anymore.
I am not.
I was the music director there for three and a half years doing middays.
It was great.
It's a lot of fun. Small company
though. Not a lot
of room for growth. My boss, Doug Elliott,
would have to have left for me to get...
I like this guy because he brought me the Wii.
That's all it takes. You bring me
over an old used Wii.
You're perfect for radio because you can be bought.
And he's like my best friend forever. Yeah. I'm totally
bought by that guy.
Opportunity came along to
return to Bell.
It's Craig Venn, buddy.
Craig, take it on the mic.
Get over here, bud.
It'll be fun.
I just left this guy in Oshawa, actually.
This is romantic.
This is going to be one of the most
disorganized podcasts you've ever had.
I love it.
Craig Venn, Morning Man at The Rock. That you've ever had. I love it. Yeah. Free foreign. So free for Craig, then yes, morning man at the rock.
That's right.
Ninety four nine.
The rock.
Yes, sir.
The same station.
You quit GTA's rock station.
Bailed on.
Bailed on.
Bailed on us quickly.
And that's a much better gig.
Puts Blundell on the phone and puts him on.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah.
We give Blundell something to do a few times a week.
He's a good boy.
He needs the exposure.
You know what?
You got woke Dean now.
Dean's different now.
I have to make my time.
May I share a thought on Dean?
Please.
Okay.
So my relationship with Dean,
unlike Bob or anybody else,
I didn't work with him daily.
Well, you work in the same building as him.
In the same building,
but I never had a day-to-day
kind of relationship with him. So when I did see him, In the same building. Right. But I never had a day-to-day kind of relationship with him.
So when I did see him, it was always great.
Yep.
Now, what we've learned along the way with a lot of morning men is when you work with
them day-to-day, it's a different situation.
Right.
So I can't judge.
You should hear what they say about you.
I can't.
They say nothing but nice things about you.
I've learned along the way about how to be a decent morning man. You are. And you are. They say nothing but nice things about you. I've learned along the way
about how to be a decent morning man. You are, and you
are. You're one of the best, and one of the best in the
building. Craig, fantastic, but
Bob, where are you now? Like, tell the people.
Let's get back to you.
I'm going to go back and forth.
So, yeah, so
I'm back at Bell Media. I had a cup of
coffee with Bell Media four years ago as the music
director of Virgin Radio.
Right, I remember this.
About four months.
They recruited you and then they canned you.
Me and 300 other people in one day,
so I can't take it too personally.
But they were clamoring to get me back, apparently.
And so I spent the summer,
because Big Zimbara left 97.7 Hits FM to go to Ottawa.
Right.
So they moved Adam Ricard, former Edge person, Adam to Mornings, and I did Afternoon Drive on 97.7 Hits FM to go to Ottawa. Right. So they moved Adam Ricard, former Edge person,
Adam to Mornings,
and I did Afternoon Drive on 97.7 Hits FM for the summer.
Oh, that's over now?
That's over now.
No, I am now the program director
for two fine adult contemporary radio stations,
105.7 Easy Rock.
What kind of music is that?
Can I hand you my resume?
Your boss already has.
of music is that? Can I hand you my resume?
Your boss already has.
Adult Contemporary is, you know,
Shawn Mendes. Okay, my daughter's
at Shawn Mendes right now. Yes. My daughter's right there.
Can I tell you a Shawn Mendes story? Sure.
Lovely Maria, my wife, of course.
She works for Habitat for Humanity
Durham, which is...
And he's from Pickering. That sounds like a noble cause.
Yes, she does a great job.
Shawn Mendes was in her parking lot getting his driver's license just the other day.
That's hilarious.
With a girlfriend.
What's her name?
Camilla Cabello.
Yeah.
Wow.
They were there.
That's crazy.
And everybody's like, oh my God, what's he doing in the Midtown Mall in Oshawa getting
his driver's license?
I love it.
There you go.
So yeah, so it's that and that N1029K light in Hamilton,
which is the number one radio station in Hamilton.
It's equivalent to the CH...
It's the CHFI of Hamilton.
No, good for you.
You know, I'm the program director
of both those stations.
I'm like your biggest fan.
You know that, right?
Stop.
I think I might be your only fan.
I don't know.
Maybe my only.
Exactly.
And you know you're going to come on
at some point soon
to do the obscure jams.
Yeah, you asked me a while ago to put together a kick out the jams of forgotten songs.
So I did a bunch of research and all these songs were at least top 20 tracks that radio has abandoned for one reason or another.
We're doing that for sure soon.
Now, Craig and Bob, I want you both, not at the same time though, one at a time.
That'd be weird.
Share a Martin Streak story or memories of Marty.
Well, you have one of my favorite Martin stories.
You told it on the podcast before.
This might take a while.
Do we have a second?
You stick on that mic and you take your time.
All right.
So Martin and I were never necessarily close.
We arrived at CFNY in the early 80 80s around the same time like 83 84 something
like that but he was a part of the road show and i was down the hall of this am station right you
know so we really didn't have a whole lot of connection but certainly every time i saw him
and i would have been about 17 18 years old and he was probably around the same age. But he just seemed like he was so
far ahead of everybody.
Right? So much more mature.
Had his act together.
Looked great.
Handsome guy. Ladies loved him.
Like certainly we all looked at him
like, holy shit, that guy's got it
figured out. He's an alpha male.
That's what I've always said. Totally, right?
So, this is actually a side story.
There was a time, I think MTV was looking for VJs in Toronto.
Right.
And we all, they came up to Toronto,
and all of us that worked at CFNY at the time applied.
We all wanted to be MTV VJs.
I don't know why we thought we had a chance in hell of being MTV VJs, but everybody
that was an announcer
at CFNY in the early
80s applied for this thing.
Martin,
who was nobody,
I mean, he was just this kid
on the bill. Maybe not even
a roadshow guy. He walked
in and he auditioned
and MTV, the only
person out of LA or New York
that they wanted out of Toronto
was Mark. Wow. I
did not know that. I didn't know that story either.
Now, I heard it
through other people that he got a call back
from New York or somebody said
they really liked his work. He just
always had it going on.
Naturally had it going on. Naturally had it going on.
So of course, I hated him.
Because here I
am trying my best
to get somewhere and he's just
roaming through life
being Martin.
So anyhow,
long story, I'll try
to make it as short as possible.
CFNY made a commercial in the early 80s
where they had to take all the records out of
Brampton, which is where the studio was,
down to a studio in Yorkville.
And the commercial premise
was, we play more music than anybody.
So all the records were in the
background to make it look like
non-stop music.
So Darren Waslick, who was
the marketing director
at the time.
I now work with his wife.
She's my morning show
in St. Catharines.
Is she your...
Laurie Love.
Oh, because this is the station
that Rick and Marilyn went to.
Yeah, yeah.
It was Rick Hodge
and Laurie Love.
That's right.
Laurie Love.
Oh, and this is also,
this is the couple
that Freddie P vacations with, right?
Yes, that's right.
Okay, Darren and Laurie.
I'm now Laurie's boss.
What a small world we live in here.
Okay.
I remember Darren was married to somebody else.
That's another story.
That's a whole other story.
That's the story we want.
So Darren asks Martin, who was still kind of just hanging around and not doing much,
and me, who was down the hall at the AM station, not doing much.
And a guy named Nick Charles, who was a jock at CFNY at the time.
Would we take all these records down to Yorkville for this commercial?
So we did that.
I was doing overnights on the AM station, so I'm exhausted.
It's 8 AM. I've been up all night.
Let's load the records into the truck.
Let's take them downtown.
We do the commercial shoot. Now it's like a.m. I've been up all night. Let's load the records into the truck. Let's take them downtown. We do the commercial shoot.
Now it's like 11 or noon.
And Martin says, or Nick says, we should grab lunch.
I just want to go home to bed.
But all right, let's go have lunch.
I'm not going to argue with these guys.
We go grab some burgers at a diner somewhere.
And then Nick says, let's go grab some weed.
grab some burgers at a diner somewhere. And then Nick says, let's go grab some weed.
We end up at some horrible shithole apartment somewhere.
This is before weed was legal, of course.
So we buy this weed, whatever it is,
and we end up smoking it in this van
coming back across the 401 to the 410 to Brampton.
I get out of my mind hot.
Now, Martin and Nick start telling me, because I'm in the back of the van on the floor, stoned
out of my mind.
Martin says, oh, my God, there's a cop behind us.
There's a cop behind us.
They carry this on for, I don't know.
The entire ride, right?
The entire ride.
Now, I'm 17 or 18. I'm'm just thinking i still live at home with my
parents i'm thinking oh my god i'm gonna get busted my parents are gonna hate me blah blah
so i'm freaking out in the back of the van and and they go on and on and on about the cops oh
my god there's lights lit up they're coming to get us finally we get onto what might have been
heartlake road i don't even think it was the 410 at that point into Brampton.
And they pull over, and they go, we're screwed.
Cops have pulled us over.
We're done.
Now I'm in full panic.
Martin whips open the back doors of the van and goes, can I swear?
Yeah, I don't know.
It's not my show.
Ask Mike.
You can swear.
He goes, fuck you.
And that Martin laughed.
Joe asked, fuck you.
And that Martin laughed.
And I almost pissed myself because I'm both elated that we're not getting arrested. And Martin just fucked me.
Laughing.
That hysterical, maniacal laugh that he had.
It was maniacal.
It's a good way to describe it.
You know.
So anyhow, we didn't speak for many years after that.
And Martin went on to many different things and uh listen martin and i had an odd relationship you know you and i have talked
about many times i i was a big fan of him but there was this just weird thing about martin where
everybody loved him and maybe it was jealousy on my part, but I just never...
He just always had this allure with people
and you're like, well, how is
that possible? And yet, that drove
me crazy at the same time.
You know what? I think it's great that you
admit it. Because I'll tell you
something. One of the things I think about all this
adoration about Martin, and I did adore him.
When I'm on the air, I either sound like Humble
Howard or I sound like Martin Streak that's just the way I what I've
learned from the two of them I listen to them the most but as welcoming and as as
enigmatic as Martin was he could be a prick sometimes to be completely honest
and I'd he would love that I'm telling it he was actually like the he would
purposefully make people feel uncomfortable if he didn't like them and
I don't know if anybody else would admit that, but I watched him.
I sat in the DJ booth with him for three nights a week for over two years.
I watched him.
If he liked you, he was amazing.
If he didn't like you, he made you uncomfortable.
Toronto Mike, Bingo Bob, Bobby, you guys loved him.
You came from a different view of him than I did.
And I remember hearing Humble Howard say, and I don't want to completely try to mimic what Howard said,
but what he said made sense to me from a morning show perspective.
There's this love and allure of Martin looking back at his career.
I love an allure of Martin looking back at his career.
Yet what he did on the air, I feel bad saying this,
but it wasn't that spectacular in that it was.
I've heard Howard say if he was so good, he would have got a regular slot.
Like he would have been, he would have had a. I don't know if he wanted it though.
He would have done more.
See, coming from morning radio, i've learned from the best i learned
from humble howard i learned from john derringer i work with all these guys they share their soul
on the air and i learned that and i think what always kind of bothered me about martin and this
because he did what he did he introduced songs he played songs he wasn't there to do eight-minute bits on his life. That wasn't his job.
But what he did seemed to me to be so simple on some level.
Yeah, yeah.
Right?
And so we, but we had, you know, Toronto, but you loved him.
You grew up listening to him.
He was, and I, as a morning guy, I'm more about just presenting and being and connecting with people.
So I have a tough time honoring what he did on the air.
And yet I liked him as a guy.
That's okay.
Is that wrong?
No, I think, in my opinion, for a guy who worked on both sides.
You and I have had these conversations on the air.
A guy who worked on both sides, worked a long time with him, one-on-one, in the same booth like I did at a morning show with Humble Howard and a bunch of other people.
I know what you're saying about it seeming simple.
Right.
But when you listen back to the old Thursday 30 bits, and he was passionate about music.
Right.
He didn't do eight-minute funny ha-ha bits, and he didn't do political stuff.
And he was probably almost a character,
but the character really was him.
But wouldn't you have loved Martin to share some of real Martin?
That's a good point, because I never had a conversation with him, right?
So I don't know anything about the guy.
He kept his personal life very busy.
An enigma wrapped in a riddle.
I don't know anything about it.
I just know
what bands he loved. I got a sense
of the style of music he loved.
I know he was passionate about music,
but I don't know dick about him.
But he was so much more
than that.
He was so much deeper and more than that.
He was, yeah, absolutely.
Thursday 30,
and there's no more than that. He was. Yeah, absolutely. Thursday 30, and
there's no room for that.
Do what you need to do.
This is Walter.
Walter is a long time
CFNY Edge
live-to-air person.
He came out Saturday nights.
He'd come out to my club gigs at the Zen Lounge.
Walter's been around a long, long time.
And I think he dated my cousin once.
So I guess in a nutshell.
I love the guy's beard.
This guy's got the look.
I can't grow one of those, man.
I admired Martin.
I respected Martin.
I was jealous of Martin, as so many of us were.
And I wish for
Edge CFNY
listeners they knew more about him.
That's a good point because he's way deeper than that.
Way more than what he was.
That's sort of what I'm hoping I'm doing tonight.
So many different people who knew him in different
ways sharing a little bit. And different eras too.
It's painting a bit more of a picture like
Pina. You know Pina? The Inside Edge
girl. She was telling, oh, Martin loved, he had these big you know pina inside edge girl she was telling oh
martin loved he had these big lunches he'd bring like she was describing the lunches he'd bring
and it's like okay like that's like a human real person detail that we don't we would never know
yeah no yeah no and and and i i remember like the girlfriends he had like the early, late, mid-80s.
Stunningly gorgeous.
Always with beautiful women.
And I would always be like, how is that not working out?
How are you not just staying with her?
But I think for Bob, for you and I, oh my God, score one, keep her.
But he had a sea of them.
Oh, he lined up.
It was constant.
Everywhere.
This is real talk.
There was no problem for Martin having women or attracting ladies,
and they were constant.
And God, I hated him for it.
I can't top that for a story.
You know, I just, for a story with Martin, you know,
for me it was a bunch of vignettes, honestly.
Because we spent, we would, so a couple things that we did.
Like, I hung out with him with my then girlfriend, now wife.
We would go to, like, the AGO together.
And going to an art gallery with Martin Streak was just the funniest thing.
He would go in the middle of a quiet gallery, walk right up, like, his nose against a painting and then scream at it.
Just like,
ah!
Just those weird
little things.
Traveling to and from
the kingdom with him.
The Whiskey Saigon
was funny
because Sunday nights,
everybody loved
Whiskey Saigon,
third floor,
250 Richmond Street West,
the whole thing, right?
Yeah.
We were exhausted.
We were exhausted
on Sunday nights.
And we would go to the chapters,
and we would, him and I would go before the show started.
I'd set up, we'd walk over to chapters,
and we would buy all these import magazines,
and we'd stay in the booth for the whole night,
and just read import magazines while we were on the air,
like The Face and FHM UK,
and just sit there and and
talk about them while the live to air was going on uh can i yeah of course of course okay one more
thing and i'm out okay but when you leave can you find may potts and tell her to get over yes i will
do that i will find her right away here's what i will give martin street huge credit for. He replaced a guy named Chris Shepard. And Chris
Shepard was a monster.
He really started it all.
And like in
Morning Radio when Ted Wallachian
replaced Wally Crowder
or, you know,
when they replaced
John Derringer
on Q107. Oh, that's not happened yet.
No, no, no. It's not signed.
We're a long way from that.
There's been no discussions.
I will give Martin this credit.
Chris Shepard was the king of the clubs,
and he had started something that nobody else had ever done.
Yeah, it was unique.
And for Martin to step in and take over for him
and do it very, very
well was huge. And I give
him all that credit in the world because
everybody loved Chris Shepard
and he had that
people just respected him.
And so to be able to come in and be that
club guy and take over was massive.
Do either of you know where Chris Shepard is?
I can't find him. I mean, he did
Love, Inc., right?
He had the Broken Bones.
But that's 20 years ago.
He was producing music.
That's all I heard.
But he got like doctorate degrees or something,
and he's disappeared to some island or something.
He was, you know, with Earl Jive in Beverly Hills.
He was, what the hell do they call him?
Shepard?
Shep, I don't know.
Shep, yeah, something.
Bags of skill, baby.
Bags of skill.
He was, you know,
you look back at the history of this business in radio,
certainly Chris Shepard was just massive.
And again, for Martin to step in and fill those shoes,
can I ask about the DJs?
So you spun for Martin Street.
I would fill in the odd time,
because I was there for the DJ
Dwight years, who is not
involved today. There's something went
down, right? I smell something went down.
Yeah, I'll be honest. I don't know what.
I'm an adult, and I don't have time
for beefs.
I really
don't.
I need a
Maypot. Here we go. We're going to find Maypots. I'll take a Danielle.? I need her Maypods. Here we go.
We're going to find Maypods.
I'll take it to Annie O.
I'll go find May.
I'll go find May.
Okay.
Front of the mic.
Thank you.
Oh, no.
Thanks for dropping by, buddy.
So good to see you again.
Where do I send my resume?
Yeah, it's at 128th Street, St. Catherine.
I'll go find May.
Dougie's going to listen to this program.
I know he will.
Yeah.
Oh, he calls me every day.
Oh, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
All right.
I'll go find me.
All right.
So yeah.
So when I took over,
he's not kidding.
When I when I took over
as the RQEQ technical guy,
right?
There was a technical guy
before that named Ivan.
And then Ivan left
in this guy.
Paul Mello took over
and he didn't want it.
Oh,
he's on stage right now.
Okay, can I get a Danny?
Can you get a Danny Elmore over here?
What are you in?
Come on.
What are you in?
I need a Toronto Mike's associate producer.
It takes a village.
Yeah.
And, yeah, so Dwight was the DJ.
And I'll tell you what, Dwight, pound for pound as a DJ.
But Dingo before Dwight, right?
Yeah, there was the guy they mentioned,
Pete Fowler mentioned the other day,
who's Matt something, Matt Barnes?
Right, Matt Barnes.
Matt Barnes was like a stage name.
He did it after Shep,
then it was Dhingra,
and then after Dhingra was Dwight,
and then after Dwight was Craig G.
There's Danny Elwell.
Come on.
Okay.
But Bob, you can stick around.
You want me to stick around? Yeah, if you don't mind.
I like to look at you. Danny makes me nervous, to be quite honest.
Well, she's a professional broadcaster.
How are you?
What did he say?
I said, you owe me.
Oh, you've been on
with Mike before, haven't you?
I have, yeah.
She absolutely has.
Hi, Mike.
Danny Elwell.
How are you?
Nice to see you from JazzCast.
JazzCast, right?
You know, Walter Vinafro was...
Oh, is this a photo time?
I'm not even in this photo.
These are like all different eras of CFNY here, right?
It's true.
That's actually true.
Yeah.
Long stretch.
And then also you as the imaging voice of QNY here, right? That's actually true. And then also you as the imaging voice
of Q107, right?
When you were
producing Derringer and on with Derringer.
It would have been that same era, wouldn't it have?
Wouldn't you have been the imaging voice?
This is Craig Venn, everybody.
He hung out with you on air.
Do you remember that night?
He showed up to do a commercial and I was in awe
because I loved him.
I know, Me too.
Who did you love?
Who was it?
So Derringer was at CFNY one night doing a...
And he did a break with you.
I think he was with Matt.
Was he allowed?
No.
Danny took him on the air.
Because who was he working for at the time?
He was working at Q.
That was when it was Wick and whoever owned CFNY at the time.
I would call Shirley McQueen.
You were doing the...
That's funny. He came up to do a commercial, and you and him did the time. I would call Shirley McQueen. You were doing the bedtime hour, and he came up to do a commercial,
and you and him did a break together.
I love Shirley McQueen.
I know.
And I was just standing in the control room with you and John going,
oh, my God, that's amazing.
This is amazing.
You see, I had a boss named Reiner Schwartz who would allow for something
like that to happen.
Free form.
Have some fun.
What's to be worried about?
That's true. Yeah, I's to be worried about. Yeah.
Right.
That's true.
Yeah. I mean,
I never,
I actually never worked for him.
I was a Stu Myers era.
Right.
So Stu's a smart guy.
Yeah.
There you go.
So here you get this.
How,
how,
how far into this podcast are you?
One hour and 29 minutes.
And how many people have you had on?
I don't know.
I lost track.
I don't know, but it's been great. Can I, can I just say that on? I don't know. I lost track. I don't know.
But it's been great.
Can I just say that?
Because I was with Danny.
I think I left prior to Danny leaving.
But what the alternative bedtime hour meant to CFNY listeners was huge.
It was huge.
It was huge.
That's very nice.
You know what I do remember is that this was long before email.
This was 89 to 92, right?
And I would get the greatest mail.
Isn't that amazing?
I'd come to the radio station, and there would be piles and piles of people's artwork and poetry and writings.
And people would send me books, like coffee table books.
Now we're happy if we get texts.
We're ecstatic if we get a text.
It was crazy.
They went out of their way to text.
Never mind that.
Walter Bonafro was on this show earlier today.
I finally met him.
That's my first time meeting the guy.
I heard that he is the last card in the deck.
That's right.
That's pretty much.
I was collecting the Jazz cast.
The Jazz FM too, right? Right. And
that was the missing piece. And he's going to come on and do
a deep dive. I heard your Brad
Barker one. That was fun.
That was cool. Brad, yeah.
Pursuit of Happiness is
Brad Barker. That was a great thrill.
Fantastic.
Thank you for dropping by.
How are you? Are you okay? No, I'm good. Yeah, for dropping by. How are you?
Are you okay?
No, I'm good.
Yeah, yeah.
Good.
I follow you on Twitter, so I feel like we talk even though we don't.
We send messages, too.
It's not just following and likes.
We send messages, too.
But it's nice to see you in the flesh.
You know what?
I wanted to say this because I heard something that you were not mad,
but a little bit sad that you hadn't been invited down to the studios yet.
I said it on the Brad Barker episode, right?
Right.
I did.
Because, if I may, for Bob and anyone else listening,
you said you were going to invite me.
I just got really busy.
I never got the invitation to the JazzCast studio.
Wow.
Do you know JazzCast, Bob?
Of course.
Yes, yes, yes.
Of course. I do know, yes. Of course.
I do know of it.
I have to admit,
I haven't had a chance
to listen yet.
You should listen.
I should.
I have a long commute now.
So, you know, as a...
Are you a jazz guy?
I like...
I'm like a Rat Pack guy.
Yeah, me too.
I love...
Like, I think Dean Martin
is the coolest person
to ever walk the face
of the earth.
Right.
So I like that.
I used to,
when I DJ'd,
my dad was a mobile DJ. He did like weddings
and he started in the 80s for a company called
Disc Jockeys Unlimited. DJU.
Remember DJU? My dad was like their
number one DJ from like 85. What was his name?
Dan Ouellette. He was their number one
mobile DJ from like 85 to 90.
So it wasn't Bingo Dan? No, it wasn't Bingo Bob. Yeah, exactly.
He didn't, I actually, he did start working
in the bingo hall after that that I worked at.
But that's another story.
But we had these...
You know, when you...
If you're a DJ,
you can do these subscription-based services
like Hot Tracks.
Yeah, absolutely.
And so we had...
For dinner music, we had Jazz Tracks.
Oh, man.
And so...
Yeah.
So that's what the company...
You're breaking my heart now.
No, I know.
But there was a lot of stuff on there that I would use.
Sure.
That I kind of was self-educated.
Again, pre-internet days and stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
You just get this and you listen.
And you kind of realize what you like and what you don't like.
And, you know, like the spa stuff's not my, you know, like that is not my bag.
But there's some cool stuff out there.
Actually, Dave Trafford from CFM.
Oh, my God.
Neil Mann's here.
His son's a jazz musician in a jazz band, so it's cool.
That's crazy.
Oh, I know.
That is crazy.
I have not seen Neil Mann.
I was just texting with Neil Mann, actually.
Sorry.
No, this is what I love.
I love that.
I know.
Crazy, right?
When was the last time you saw Neil Mann?
I don't think I've...
We've communicated,
but I don't think I've seen him since the early 90s.
Oh, wow.
Would you mind if I ran over there?
I'm going to get out of the way.
As long as you come back at some point.
I'm going to get out of the way.
May Pops is here.
May, come sit down, May.
And May's beautiful daughter.
Who's been in my basement.
I know it sounds dirty, but it's fine.
Wow.
Okay, I'm going to hug Neil Mann.
Take off your headphones. Just come back
at some point because I want to hear a Marty story from you.
Yeah.
Alright, Mae Potts is...
Oh yeah,
would you mind doing that for the rest of the night?
Because I really don't know what to do with this.
Do you want your daughter? Your daughter can...
She's taking a path.
Just let it be known,
I hired Lauren at Evanov Radio.
Yes, you did.
The legacy continues.
Welcome back, May Potts.
Mike, nice to see you again.
It's been a few years.
Very good.
Now, I need you to just get on that mic
because I have so much noise coming.
Noise, yeah.
Oh, that's good.
There we go.
So you're here to celebrate and you're here with your daughter.
Yes, Lauren.
Who came with you when you did Toronto Mic'd.
Yes, and you know, she's actually followed me into a career in radio.
And, you know, it's interesting because she grew up around CFNY.
And we were just telling the story up on stage, well Alan Cross was, about how you know 13, 14, 15 year old kids always were
hoping to be you know part of Martin's live to airs and could hardly wait till
they turned 19 so they could go to one of Marty's nights. Well it was no
different for my daughter even though she grew up around CFNY when she
turned 19 the one thing she said to me was, hey, mom, do you think that maybe I can get to the
Phoenix that Martin will put me on the guest list for my 19th? I said, yeah, I think we can make
that happen. And that's where she celebrated. And that is, you know, that's a testament to what kind
of a vibe that Martin gave out, you know, you know, that you want it to be with him.
You want to party with him.
And,
and he was so kind and so fun and all of the events that he did,
he really cared that people did come out and have a good time.
He was like the hostess with the mostest,
you know?
So,
but this is a good to have you both on together.
It's great because you worked with Martin.
Yeah.
You do it that way,
but you listened to Martin.
Yeah. So yeah. Feel free to speak on the microphone jump in listening to Martin was the best it was just a party all the time that's why I
wanted to have my birthday at the Phoenix because it just sounded like the
most fun ever and it was yeah it might have lived up to my expectations I had
the best time and I think also Martin exuded a great, unique personality.
You know, like, there's a lot of people who are on the air,
you don't really feel you know who they are.
But with Marty, you felt like you knew him.
He was your friend.
And he really was talking to you.
And he loved the music.
He had a passion for radio.
And then he cared about you.
And you enjoying the music
and you loving this radio show and you loving the coming out to this club.
He really made it feel as though it meant something to him for you to be a part of it.
Absolutely.
Now, is there any other stories fit for public consumption you could share about Marty?
You know, it's really funny. I was saying this. I met Marty with the
Video Roadshow. We both started, Alan, Cross, myself, and Marty started within
months of each other at Sea of Unwind. And because my daughter was born in
89, in that era of
where everybody got their crazy Martin stories, I was
pretty much just going home and looking after a kid.
That's right.
So I wasn't snowboarding or parachuting or hanging out.
And also a lot of the nights that Martin worked,
I was out doing club gigs as well.
I was doing three to four club gigs a week
for a good chunk of the 90s as well.
So we didn't cross paths in that way.
Martin and I, although friends,
we definitely had more of a professional relationship
than a party relationship.
And how are things going at Boom?
You guys are still kicking ass over there?
Yeah, it's great.
I've been so fortunate in my career
to work with so many great people
and in so many great places
at a time when those places were so special.
So CFNY, when I was there, I just, you know,
was so privileged to work with some of the industry's best
and at a time where it was such a unique experience
that people still talk about to this day.
Oh, for sure.
And then Boom launched, and, you know, since we've launched,
I've been a part of it.
And it's also doing
something that hasn't been really done here in Toronto before in a successful
way and it's really connecting with people and I love that too.
Recently Stu Jeffries dropped by my place to kick out the jams and you know
he's a he's a crier that's what I you know. Totally. He's such a softy. He's a crier. That's what I, you know. Totally. He's such a softie.
He's a very emotional guy.
He wears his heart on his sleeve.
And if you ever listen to the Boom Morning Show, Stu,
he doesn't shy away from sharing his emotions and sharing emotional stories.
And I love that, you know.
Now I'm going to hijack this celebration of Martin Streak by asking you,
if you don't mind, can you share maybe some memories of working with Dave Bookman?
Yes.
Because you guys worked together for years as well. Yes, and Booky and I first started working together.
I had been at the station for years, but he came aboard as somebody fairly new in the early 90s.
And at that point, I was doing a show called Live in Toronto.
And he would be a contributor to that point I was doing a show called Live in Toronto and he would be a contributor
to that which was great. He really was so passionate about the live music scene and
for a show called Live in Toronto you want to have someone who's out there going out
and checking out the bands. I'll tell you the story that I remember the most about Rookie
is him and I together on Tuesdays.
So the way the record industry used to work is they used to get new releases sent out on Tuesdays.
It's now shifted to Fridays.
But it used to be Tuesdays that new releases came in.
And Bookie and I sat down on a Tuesday afternoon
and he said, listen to this.
And he played me this song and I went, wow, that's amazing.
That's a great song.
Yeah, we're going to have to play that.
So we played that song that night on Live in Toronto.
And at that time, we didn't know the significance of that song
and what it would come to mean to the whole.
What year is this?
It would have been 92, 93.
Yeah.
What year is this?
It would have been 92, 93.
Yeah.
So he said, like I was saying, we didn't understand really.
We knew it was a great song.
But this was a song that really changed the course of music for the 90s.
And the song was Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit.
91.
It was 91.
I have no memory for years.
It's all a blur.
Wow. Yeah.
So I remember that and him and I both being so excited about that song.
I also remember that about Dave Bookman in general is his exuberance.
He was always just so excited to be a part of the radio station,
to be a part of something new, to share information
with us about, oh, you've got to go
this band, and man, you've got to
go have a burger at this place.
You know, all of that. His
exuberance for life was infectious
and I certainly
think that that is a loss
with Bookman.
Not only
as a broadcaster,
but as a person to have, you know, to not have him around anymore.
It is heartbreaking.
Oh, yeah, I know.
Absolutely.
The City Mrs. Dave Bookman and the City Mrs. Martin Streak.
And I'm so glad you dropped by.
Oh, thanks for having me on.
As you can tell, you put a mic in front of me and I'll just yak, yak, yak.
Well, I could listen to your voice all night, so it could be a match made in heaven right there.
Thank you, Mike, and thanks for doing this.
As a fan, may I say, so I'm sitting here and May Potts is here.
Alan Cross just walks by.
It's unbelievable for a fan of the station just to kind of be around all this.
You know what is special for us, too too because some of us see each other occasionally,
but there's a lot of us here
who haven't seen each other in quite some time
and to be able to get together
and enjoy some time together
in celebration of the life of Martin
and support the cause,
CIBC Run for the Cure is great.
Absolutely.
So Danny Elwell was here
and then Neil Mann walks in
and she goes,
I haven't seen Neil Mann since early 90s.
It is like,
there's like,
so there's a whole bunch
of kind of fun connections
happening here.
I know, right?
Yeah, it's really neat.
If it wasn't for Facebook
and being able to keep track
of what we look like now,
we may not have even
recognized each other.
No, thanks so much.
Thank you.
And you guys are always
welcome back on Toronto Mic'd Anytime. But thanks so much. Thank you. And you guys are always welcome back on Toronto Mic any time.
Oh, thanks, Mike.
But thanks so much.
Amazing.
And thanks for doing this.
Oh, happy to.
Happy to.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Hey, Will.
Yeah, pop on that.
I want to find out what's going on here.
Get on that mic there.
Absolutely.
All right.
What's your name, sir?
My name is Will Dunlop.
Will Dunlop.
And I know you because you're working on a Martin Street documentary.
That is correct.
The title is Keep It Locked and Cranked.
And the documentary is really, well, it's two parts.
I'm telling the CFNY story through the eyes of Martin Street.
And the history of the station CFNY tells us the story of Martin C Street.
And what does C stand for?
Charles.
Charles. I would have guessed that, actually.
I was going to ask Fowler. He's got MCS.
And I'm like, what does the C stand for?
Charles.
Now, let's solve a mystery for Toronto Mike listeners. Okay, so on episode 504, I played, I found a YouTube that was like people from Toronto Mike talking about Streak.
And I had nothing to do with the creation of this montage.
And what I ended up, hey, help yourself, help yourself.
Free stickers, free merch.
Yours.
Take the sticker.
It's yours.
It's just a podcast.
Oh, he doesn't want it. Okay, he hurt my feelings. Does he know that? a podcast oh he doesn't want it okay he
hurt my feelings does he know that this gentleman just he doesn't want my sticker
well do you want to say it on the microphone hold on i don't know who this guy is and then
will we'll get back to your documentary absolutely no this is what it's about absolutely all right
well if we're in the uh lost indy city here then I'm not lost. I'm found the place.
What's your name?
My name is Peter case.
And, uh, I knew Martin for all the time.
Like I'd go to the, uh, Phoenix and, uh, it always, cause I was getting started in the radio business, and I worked under Pete Fowler, and he's hosting the event this evening.
And, you know, like, Marty and I didn't always get along, but I always got two beer tickets.
One for Frank and one for me, right?
So he didn't discriminate.
He was always a fair man. he was a very nice person and I hauled my ass over here on the TTC to get here because I wanted to
see everybody here unite and get together to celebrate a wonderful life. He started his career at CFNY. It was his only career. And if you know
who I am, you know who he is because he's a wonderful man. And you know what? What are you
going to do, right? You know what I mean? All we can do is mourn right now. Listen, that was well
said, my friend. Why did you not want the sticker?
I don't have headphones, bro.
Oh, that's right.
We'll stick them on.
They're right beside you.
Here.
There you go.
Why did you not want the sticker?
You picked up the sticker.
You looked at the sticker, and then you put it down.
You didn't want it.
You don't want the sticker.
No, I want two of them.
Oh, good answer.
See, he's back in my good books now.
Thanks for sharing those Streak memories, man.
That's what we're here for today.
We're just sharing memories of Barton Streak.
And thanks for doing that, man.
It was really hard for me to get down here.
Where'd you come from?
What part of the city, I mean?
Well, I came from North York, but then, you know, it's a traveling thing, whatever.
It doesn't matter.
I knew I had to be here.
I haven't seen Pete Fowler in two years.
No, 12 years.
Wow.
And I went to a festival with him, and that's where he met his wife.
Wow.
Yeah.
And we were in a CFO line track too.
Amazing. So thanks so much.
I know you got to get your cigarette. With this guy
Will, we're going to find out about the documentary
he's making about Martin Streak
here. Yeah, I'll talk to you later, man.
Oh, for sure. If you want
any information from me to
you know...
Will, this guy should be in your documentary.
Oh, for sure.
Absolutely. Because he's a real fan.
No, it's true.
He gave my fucking buddy
fucking two beer tickets.
He wouldn't talk to me,
because I was in the radio business
when I was going through school. I have a
diploma in radio and television.
And he'd give my buddy two beer tickets.
But one was always for me.
See, he was nonjudgmental.
No, he wasn't.
Good heart.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So if you want to do a documentary.
Absolutely.
No.
So, Peter, yeah, we'll definitely talk later on.
I'll get your contact information.
We'll definitely talk.
I can't believe this guy over here
tries to interview me with no headphones.
But they were right beside you.
I thought you saw them.
I thought you chose you didn't want to wreck your hair.
No, it's okay, though. You're right.
I know everybody over here.
How come I don't have a Lost Indy City shirt on right now?
Talk to Pete Fowler.
He gave me this one.
He gave me this one.
Pete said before I leave, I got to talk to him anyways.
Is this live there or what?
No, no, no.
It's going up later at torontomic.com.
You can hear yourself.
I hear Mike?
Yeah.
Yep.
I don't want to hear myself.
You know, I don't know.
You sound great, man.
I try my best.
Thanks for making the trek. Thanks for
popping on the mic. I appreciate
it. Will, okay,
when is this documentary coming out?
I've got two stickers, right?
Yeah, they're yours, man, honestly. Enjoy.
Alright.
Get on that mic, Will. Okay, hold on.
Perfect. Hey, nice to meet you.
Alright.
So hopefully I'll be ready for a year. The goal is Perfect. Hey, nice to meet you. All right. Yeah.
So, back to you.
So, hopefully, I'll be ready for a year.
Yeah.
The goal is to have it ready for TIFF 2020.
This is exciting.
It is.
Because how long have you been working on this thing?
About five years now.
Okay.
TIFF 2020.
Exactly.
And, you know, there's origins.
But because I like to finish things.
By the way, did you feel like that was a security risk?
Were you worried about that guy?
I'm curious.
Did you think he was safe?
A little, a little.
Because, you know, there's no security here,
and I was, I don't know about you,
but I was ready to throw down.
I didn't know what he was going to do.
No, I had my eye on him.
Good eye contact, that's what you got to do.
But back to you, my friend.
Back to you, all right.
We survived to tell the tale.
All right.
So you asked your first question, like, on, I think it was episode 405, and you brought it back to you survived to tell the tale all right so you asked your first
question like on because episode 405 then you brought it up where you found that montage of
clips from your show right that's where i was going yeah exactly actually that was put together
by a good friend of mine our richard graft who uh i live in a really and he lives in a really as well
and uh when i announced or i talked to him about doing the documentary, he kind of, because he's a filmmaker in his own right,
kind of took some of these clips and just kind of put it together
and just kind of support.
Like a proof of concept kind of deal?
Yeah, exactly.
But that's kind of exciting that this mystery arose in episode 504
and you're here to solve that mystery in 506.
Like, pretty cool.
Exactly.
And can I tell the people you uh visited my home
that you've been to my house this is a significant right i have not you've not i've not been to you
why do i have so you never came to my house no we met first time in person you know what i'm so
embarrassed no no no oh we've talked on the phone uh because okay we've talked many times on the
phone yes i gave you a call out of the blue.
Basically, when I decided to make the
documentary five years ago around the fifth
anniversary of Martin's passing, I knew
you were doing research a lot, so I gave you
a call to start off. Wow, that's funny.
For some reason, it's funny. I don't know.
Maybe, did you ever tell me on the phone
that you were going to video
interview me for this thing, or did I dream
that? No, you're on the interview list.
Okay, good.
Because you kind of represent kind of the fandom of Martin Street.
So get this, okay?
I'm pretty sober.
You see I'm drinking water, you can tell the people.
Yeah.
I guess I had someone else film me for some school project, I guess.
Around the time you said you were going to film me for this,
and the wires got crossed.
And then my memory is, this is years ago now,
right? And my memory now is
that Will Dunlop video
interviewed me in my
basement about Martin Streak.
But that never happened. That is correct.
I should do a drug test.
I don't know. This is the only second time
we've actually met in person. First time being at the Argos
game with Bingo Bob. And Bingo was in that chair just like moments ago.
Exactly.
And Bingo was your date, as you put.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah.
And that was the great.
And you were on TV later because they showed the close view cheering as James Wilder Jr.
plunged across the line.
Right.
I was on TSN and I got all these texts and notes from people saying they saw me on TSN
because it was the conference final.
People were actually watching.
Casual fans were watching.
And Bob and I
got some major screen time
when the Argos scored that touchdown.
That's correct. I'll never forget
my TSN moment.
Can we say who's your neighbor?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Well, not really, but for those who know, I do live in cottage country.
And one neighbor over from me is Vic Router, who has been on this podcast.
And I've joked around about Vic and I carpooling down one day to kick out the jams.
So he can maybe drop in a little Bill Haley and then I'll come in with nine snails.
I think that would be his kind of jam, Bill Haley in the car.
But he did kick out the jams already. so he'd have to kick out additional jams.
Oh, yeah.
So I'm so far behind the podcast.
Yeah.
Tell Robbie J.
Did he finish with Robbie J?
Robbie J.
Rob Johnson.
Do you know?
Okay, I'll introduce you, and I want to get his take on this.
I can't believe you're still talking.
I actually am curious about something.
Rob Johnston.
I liked how you used curious, by the way.
Hey-o!
Oh, because you're a curious cast guy.
You know he's a podcast guy at Chorus.
Oh, yeah, he has returned.
Rob Johnston, how are you?
Johnston.
Johnston.
Johnston.
It's okay.
Not Johnston.
You've done 504 podcasts.
I've done nine.
He's done a lot of ongoing history of new music.
By the way, we start
the new season this Sunday night. I think it's
episode 860.
I'm going to catch you.
Absolutely. Well, sure.
In about five years.
Maybe not.
Also shameless. Hey, I asked Alan. So Alan,
I asked him how much music can you play
on that podcast.
And he said zero.
But you do play a few seconds.
I hear a few seconds.
What we do is we play about 15 seconds or so.
Yeah.
Because we don't want to get, we want to play nice with the record labels.
And we don't want to cause any issues with it until they sort out
the copyright error of it.
Right.
So because we're not,
because we're operating
at a corporate level,
we can't really just say,
hey, screw it,
we're going to run
But it's interesting
because Alan said that
technically you're not
allowed to play one second.
Technically you're not
allowed to play one second.
He's right.
But you do 15
just because you feel
that's like a good faith
or something.
And we're kind of saying,
you know,
10 to 15 seconds.
We're kind of saying,
the record labels,
they all know about it. A lot of the bands know about it, right? Like especially when we have bands in, we're kind of saying, you know, 10 to 15 seconds. We're kind of saying, the record labels, they all know about it.
A lot of the bands know about it, right?
Like, especially when we have bands in who will do.
Well, Ivor Hamilton knows about it.
Oh, yeah, Ivor knows about it, right?
But, like, when we had bands in, like, you know,
when Arkells or Billy Talent or whatever,
they come in and they do their own words,
they know we're playing the songs in the podcast.
And it only makes sense to help promote it.
But the reason we put it in is because the first couple we did
when we didn't put music in, it was like when you you know those videos you watch of of like bowie
and uh uh what was it bowie and jagger jagger when they're doing they're not with the music
they just do the dancing that's kind of like what it was like when alan was talking he talked about
a song and then you wouldn't hear a song it's like that doesn't make any sense no i'm with you
so that's that's how we do it it's a great job. I have a question for you, Robbie J. Real talk
here. You were not just a colleague
of Martin Streak. You were a friend of Martin Streak.
Is that fair to say? I think so.
Will Dunlop,
if you met Robbie before, is this the first time?
I think it's our first time.
We have exchanged contacts
on the internet.
How do you feel about what Will's
doing? Will is putting together a documentary on Martin Streak. How do you feel about what Will's doing? So Will is putting together a documentary
on Martin Streak.
How do you feel about that?
I think it's good.
I think it's good.
And I know I want to connect with Will
to figure out how I can contribute to it.
It's hard not to crack.
You've got to find the storyline
and how do you tell the story, right?
And what does it encompass?
Well, basically, as I said to Mike earlier, I'm hugely influenced by Hunter S. Thompson,
and Marty was a huge fan. We would talk about his work quite a bit. And so this is like,
I'm telling the CFNY story through the eyes of Martin Streak. And in turn, the history
of this radio station, CFNY, to Edge 102,
is telling us the story of Martin C. Streak.
Yep.
And it starts off with a kid who loves music
in Arendale, Mississauga.
Same high school as mine.
Yep.
And basically how he was a class president
and he booked Teenage Head.
Yep.
And he was so passionate about music.
And he goes to CFNY as an intern with Live Earl Jive
and Live Earl Jive says to Dave Marsden you got to meet this kid's enthusiastic and he goes in
and convinces Dave Marsden as Dave's told the story what are you experiencing radio none and
he's like 19 20 years old and convinces him gives him a job video road show and then that's that
element and then the next part 92 Chris Shepard leaves who is the face of the station club and convinces him, gives him a job, video a road show. And then that's the element.
And then the next part, 92, Chris Shepard leaves,
who is the face of the station.
Club 102 is the big show.
I remember when that happened.
Yes.
And the reason I remember that happened is because I was at the station the night Shep did his last show.
When he did the infamous, I'm not playing the corporate music stuff through his
set list in the corner and decided to do what he wanted yeah i was there that night wow and i ran
into shep later that week because stew myers actually came into the station that night to
talk to chris during his show that's how serious it all was um anyways i ran into shep later that week, and he says, yeah, we're going our separate ways.
And I knew at that moment in time Martin would be the logical next step.
Well, yeah, and that's the next era.
Yeah, and that's the fascinating part of the story because people look at it,
Stephen Wise's Saturday Night Show is Dave Marsden, already a legend,
to Chris Shepard, who becomes the face of the station, who's now a big star.
And now,
you guys knew internally, but
as a listener outside,
it's like, okay, who replaces Chris
Shepard? Well, the guy from the video road show.
Like, someone who's never been on air. It's not
like bringing in a known name from
another station. And that's
what fascinates me as well, another element
of this story. And of course, under Martin,
Club 102 takes on that newer direction, of course.
By the time Martin comes on in September 92,
Nirvana's been out for a year.
Guitar-driven alternative rock
is really taking over rock, radio, and pop culture
for all extents and purposes.
And Martin kind of runs with that
because it's a house night with Matt C
for the first six months out of the Phoenix
and then eventually starts to become his own
with DJ Dhingra.
And moving into Nine Inch Nails and all that.
It caught the wave of the music, right?
It was almost like a perfect synergy.
Yeah, it was.
I mean, people would have known Martin
because of Friday Night High.
That's the only way, aside for the video roadshows.
But that's the only way they would have heard him on air,
was because they used to do, him and Craig used to do the Friday Night High
post-video roadshow get-together with the people who they hosted with.
That was really the first time I think anybody really would have heard Martin on air.
So you're right. People would have been like,
who's going to replace Shep?
How is that even possible?
That's what Craig Venn and Bingo Bob are saying just moments ago.
You're replacing a monster, right?
And think about what, yeah,
the shoes that Streak had to fill.
I mean, Shep was, Shep is,
and he was,
a fucking legend. I mean, Shep was, Shep is, and he was, a fucking legend.
I mean,
that's when people
used to record his show
on cassette.
Yeah,
I used to record
his show on cassette.
All my friends and I,
we used to do that
all the time.
I know,
and like,
when I reached out,
when I announced
the documentary
looking for material,
my email fills up
with kids,
I got Shep shows
from 86,
87,
going back, And I have
the original promo when Dave Marston
turns over Saturday Night at Club
102 now. And
yeah, you're right. Shep was
and he still is.
People still talk about Chris Shep to this day.
So your doc comes out
this time next
year. Hopefully this time next year.
So how close are we to having it finished?
I still got another year to go, Mike.
Have you started this documentary yet?
I have.
Everyone's saying, no, I have.
I've done, I've started to...
Can we see some evidence of this?
This is going to be a really hard
podcast to listen back to.
You're an audio guy. Am I wasting my time?
Will it be even... I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I listen back to. You're an audio guy. Am I wasting my time? Will it be even... Can I even...
I guess I'll find
out tomorrow when I listen back.
You'll fix it in post.
We'll do that in post. But no,
there's still a long way to go.
Music documentaries
especially, because I've been fortunate now to be
mentored under Tom Zimney for this.
Tom Zimney
was the lead editor on a show called The Wire,
the best show in the history of television.
I love that show.
But he moved into directing,
and he directed The Searcher, Elvis Presley for HBO,
and more recently The Gift with Johnny Cash.
And he set the bar with how to do musical documentaries,
and it's been my influence on that.
But what he's really reached out to me,
he told me the story that he was 90% done
with Johnny Cash documentary.
And then the author of Johnny Cash's biography
turned over all his interview tapes.
So Johnny Cash in his own words.
He's like, nope, I'm not done.
And that's what this documentary is like.
It's an organic process.
I'm going to interview people for six weeks.
Then I'm going to edit for six weeks.
Might be good.
Finish your story.
Oh, yeah.
So that's correct.
Well, Mike asked me to finish the story, but that is the story.
So it kind of is a very organic process, especially in filmmaking.
We will make it work.
Exactly.
But back to Rob's kind of original question of how the structure is.
We're starting in 1983.
Right.
And we're ending in 2009.
So the first part is 83 to August of 92, August of 92 to 2005, and 2005 to 2009.
Maybe the movie ends with this.
Pretty much.
Do you have any cameras on this?
Yes, we do.
Okay, good.
I've got cameras out there.
Oh, good.
I have someone running around.
I've been taking footage.
But in a lot of ways,
I won't know how the movie ends
until we get there,
to be honest.
I can't wait to see it.
Will I get a ticket
to the TIFF premiere?
Absolutely, Mike, yeah.
Woo!
Yeah.
I know.
Also, Mike,
there's a promise that I will be back on Toronto, Mike, to fully plug the
documentary.
Oh, when this is available.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
Now, thanks so much, Will.
I'm going to get DJ Schwarma to take your spot.
But awesome.
We'll talk again.
I can't believe I dreamt you came to my house.
What does that mean?
It means you have a huge sexual desire to have me in your basement.
I do not know.
Rob Johnson will
definitely talk. Thanks, buddy.
Thank you, Toronto Mike.
We'll talk soon, bud.
Thanks so much.
That was Will Dunlop. I don't even know if you can hear me now.
I can't hear myself think.
It's quite remarkable.
Oh, there we go.
We're going to get DJ Schwarma on the microphone.
Any moment now, I can see him.
He's chatting with Siobhan.
I've got to get her on as well.
She's working the door.
We can go to Mike.
Okay, I don't know.
I'm not sure who this guy is.
Okay.
Okay, get that mic on, Mike.
This one?
Chris Pack.
Hello.
You did my Dear Friends wedding video.
Oh, Craig Venn?
No, her name's Rosie.
Rosie, yes. I did two wedding videos ever.
Is that right?
Those are the two, yes.
Then I stopped doing it because my wrist would get too sore from holding the camera.
I didn't use a tripod.
So tell us, tell the listeners who you are and how you knew Martin Street.
I'm Chris Pack and Marty hired me to work on the roadshow. That was my first job at The Edge.
And we would go out every night or three nights a week to high schools and put on roadshows with Bobo.
And then we'd come back to the station late or we would watch Hedley spin for a little bit.
We'd do all kinds of stuff.
A couple of times we'd just go back to his place and play chess.
Wow.
Yeah.
See, those are the details I'm into.
Yeah.
Like, who knew?
He introduced me to Dave.
This is a good memory.
Dave Brubeck.
Take five CD.
Of course.
And we would play chess while we're listening to that.
Just to wind down.
Amazing. And DJ,
speaking of DJs,
DJ Schwarma.
Now, okay,
good, because
they turned the volume. Turn that stuff down.
Why did they turn that up?
I feel like the last two jams were
up to 11, right?
Just for the record, I haven't even been in there yet.
You're in the lobby here.
Oh, well, please share.
And I just got here.
No, no, no, it's okay.
Okay, so I'm going to talk to Swarm in a moment.
But Chris, could you share a couple of memories, if you don't mind,
just before you get in there, of Martin Street?
Absolutely, yeah.
When we used to do the road show, we would be setting up.
It would take a few hours.
We would unpack the truck.
And while we were setting up, every once in a while marty would holler out a trust game so i don't know if you
know the trust game that's where you were to you would stand there and you would fall backwards
yes and not and hope that someone catches you you don't catch yourself like in mean girls right okay
by the way he's filmed at Sherway Gardens.
That's right.
Yeah, it was.
Fun fact.
So he would yell, trust game.
And so usually I'm close by, and I would run over, and I'd catch him, right?
And this one time, I did not hear him yell, trust game.
And God love him, he would trust me entirely.
And so all of a sudden, I look over over and I see him fall flat on his back.
He's like,
Chris, where were you?
I'm like, dude, I didn't even hear you yell trust game
as loud in here. Sorry about that.
I'll get you next time.
Hey, Bobo.
I haven't even been inside yet.
I'm on the podcast.
That's okay. It's all good.
It's all good.
I'd kiss this guy.
You just mentioned him.
I was talking about how I met Marty at the road show.
Remember the trust game you used to play on that all the time?
He would fall back.
I think Packer made it up.
Yes.
And I didn't catch him.
That's where we left off on the story.
Amazing.
Oh, Bingo
Bob is taking some kind of selfie
there. Oh, I know he's getting
photos of me.
That's the beauty of podcasting. You can silence
him, fall upon the mic.
Bye, Bingo Bob. He's leaving.
I'll keep talking. I fucking love you. Thank you for coming.
Yeah, Bingo Bob's great, eh? Chris,
amazing. Yes, thanks for having me on. Love your shirt. Yeah, love you. Thank you for coming. Yeah, Bingo Bob's great, eh? Chris, amazing.
Yes, thanks for having me on.
Love your shirt.
Yeah, do you want a sticker?
Absolutely.
Here you go.
Awesome.
Okay, cool. Do you want a sticker?
Oh, yeah, for sure.
I'm giving out stickers.
Oh, sorry.
Thank you.
All right.
We're just getting our picture taken here.
DJ Schwarma, also known as Jeff Domet.
Yeah.
Hi, Mike.
Thanks for coming out.
Thanks for doing this.
This is a wonderful thing.
Do you think this audio will be okay, considering how loud the background noise is?
Well, you're going to find out tomorrow when you go through it.
Oh, I hope it is, because I've got some great stories here.
I know you as,
you used to work on the Humble and Fred show.
That's how I got my start
in 1997
with Humble and Fred
as an intern
like Bingo Bob
and Scary Bald Headed Pete.
So you were both named
by Humble Howard, right?
Yeah, Bob was a bingo caller.
Right.
So it came natural.
I was just Lebanese that's true so he just yeah and as I recall he was he loves shawarma chicken shawarma he loved
it no I didn't know what oh yeah Howard loved it yeah he was on a he was on a
shawarma kick they were living in the west end of Toronto.
A lot of shawarma shops there on Bloor Street.
And he said, what kind of a last name is Domet anyway?
And I said, it's Lebanese.
And, you know, the head, too, did not like that one damn bit.
Do you remember Little Ravi Shankar?
Yeah.
And Hawk Lick. Hawk Lick, which? Yeah. And Hawk Lick.
Hawk Lick, which off the air was Cock Lick.
But we had some good ones.
But Little Ravi Shankar was a fellow who was brown.
Yes.
And when you left to go work at Live in Toronto,
it was with George and Kim, wasn't it?
It was with Kim and Bookie.
Right, before George.
Was George on Live in Toronto at that point?
No, I went there in September of 98,
and then George took over January 99.
So September 98, then, would be my anniversary of starting,
because you left, and we didn't work together?
Not directly, no.
Oh, I thought we did.
Only when we went to Mojo.
It was very, I knew that.
Yeah.
It was very hard to cut the cord with Howard and Fred.
And when Stu Myers gave me the producer's job,
taking Chris Pack's place as the producer of Live in Toronto,
I couldn't, I think we did sort of work together, but not really.
Yeah.
Oh, no, you were involved.
Yeah, I couldn't cut the cord.
And there was a few weeks where I came in
because I loved these guys.
They gave me my start.
I certainly wasn't coming in for 530.
It might have been 845.
I'd still like to archive some stuff,
help with a promo here and there.
At that point, it was the edge of Bay and Bluer,
or Bay and Dundas.
We had the trailer.
It was the trailer.
Because 204 was being reconstructed.
It was going from 204 to 228.
So that's when I
started.
I love this shit.
So it came down to me and this
fellow who happened to be
brown-skinned, who Howard nicknamed little Ravi Shankar
try doing that now no you could not do that now that's only 20 years he also called him little
Ravi canker sore as well but you know he also I mean Todd Shapiro told me he he gave him the
retied name retied you couldn't I don't think you could do that. No. You know what else I wonder just to pivot to Marty?
Yeah.
Could you get away with saying
on a Friday night here
at the Kingdom
in Burlington?
Nobody's got a sense of humor anymore.
No, it's true.
Could you get away with that?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I hope you could.
I think Martin could
because of his charm.
Oh.
But, uh.
He had that. I think that one's okay. I want to do a whole, I want to do a whole thing. I hope you could. I think Martin could because of his charm. He had that.
I think that one's okay.
I want to do a whole thing.
I put that post out about the way he announced things,
like calling Nine Inch Nails star fuckers, far suckers.
Yep.
Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slib, a.k.a. the Funk Soul Brother.
All those things that made Martin, Martin.
Marty, yeah.
Where, you know, smells like Otto's jacket, Nervon's.a. the Funk Soul Brother. All those things that made Martin Martin. Yeah. Smells like Otto's jacket, their Von Squay,
the Beastie Brothers. I made the mistake on
97.7 Hits FM this summer. You said it.
I said Beastie Brothers. And then the
Twitter went nuts. They don't
understand the joke. They didn't get the joke.
They think you're screwing up. They think I didn't know what I was talking
about. So I had to go on air and like, hello,
I kind of know this.
Don't you hate that, though, that you have to explain your inside baseball reference?
Because the people who get it are rewarded for getting it.
And the others, who gives a shit?
Yeah.
As if you don't know.
Chemical Boys, right?
Yeah, Chemical Boys, Hey Girl, Hey Boy.
Oh, there are so many of them.
Red Hot Chili Willy?
Red Hot Chili Willy is one of the biggest ones, yeah.
Oh, man.
There was another one that was on the tip of my head.
Oh, Whale, Hobo Hump and Slobo Bitch.
You know, instead of Hobo Hump and Slobo Babe.
There's a whole bunch of them.
All right, it's Peter Case back again on the air.
I need a piece of paper because Martin always liked this band named Caius.
And I want them to play Demon Cleaner from Caius.
I'll let them know.
So I need somebody to...
I'll let them know for you, pal.
Do you know we played that on episode five?
We played it.
Not too many people know that, right?
Yeah.
So that has to happen.
Did you know?
I'll let them know.
The second appearance of Tool's Opiate.
Yeah.
It was on my first kickoff.
I played that this evening.
Yeah.
So that was on Pete Fowler and Craig G's playlist.
I had it on my first kickoff to Jams.
Which is why it was on my computer.
Yes, absolutely.
There you go.
My unpopular opinion is I'm not a big Tool guy.
Do you know the one Tool song I like?
I love Tool.
I know.
Sober?
Do you love it?
I absolutely adore Tool.
I'm so excited for this new record.
I'm not excited for the price of the concert tickets.
Did you see how much those tickets are?
No, I did not.
They're just under $300.
I mean, you know, that's my cable bill a month, man.
Yeah.
Yeah, I realize now with the noise coming from the opera house here,
I can't even play a song.
I wonder what this is going to sound like, to be honest.
I don't even know.
Tomorrow I'll know whether I can even release it.
That's what I mean.
Knowing me, I'll fucking release it anyway.
Sure, why not, right?
With a disclaimer, this is
live at the Opera House with DJ Spinning
Sounds. DJ Shwarma, DJ
Craig G and Paul Dhingra. If you don't
want to hear that background noise,
you can exit now.
Exactly. Well, they're long in.
They're two plus hours in right now.
But I've been recording yet.
I'm 2.13 in.
Okay, I gotta go. I love you guys. Have a good time at the wedding. I'll see you soon. I'm 2.13 in, so. Okay. I gotta go. You gotta go.
I love you guys.
Have a good time at the wedding.
I'll see you soon.
Yes, let me know.
I pass by your house every day.
Do you still do that Friday night thing?
No, no.
Not with the new job.
New job pays like an adult, so it's good.
Can I just say for the record, Bingo Bob is a very loyal fucking friend.
He's very loyal.
And when you're going through a hard time time you can count on the bingo caller
to track you down and tell him that he's got your back and even though things are tough right now
it'll get better and if i can help you in any way i i will thanks buddy he did you know what
you gave me life bob you know what i wouldn't do it if you didn't deserve it.
You're one of the best.
You're a good-looking son of a bitch.
Oh, thank you.
Let's go make out.
And so are your kids and Laura.
I know the kids are cute, eh?
I know.
And Laura, too.
You make cute children.
I'm batting way out of my league.
It's true.
We all are, Dave.
Yeah, I don't want to say anything, but your wife's looking fucking amazing today.
Yes, she is.
All right.
Bye, everybody.
I love you all. Bye, Bingo Bob. Good to see you. Bye, she is. Bye, everybody. I love you all. Bye, Bingo Bob.
So, Jeff,
do you mind? I mean, I don't want to ask you
too many questions because I actually
want you to come in in November
to come over for a deep dive.
But can we
tell the people, because you alluded to it there,
but you're currently
out of work, right? Can I say that?
Yeah, you can say that. I just did. I'm currently
out of work. Wow, people know. It was
on Twitter. Bob McKenzie
retweeted it recently. That was really
cool.
Yeah, because I had texted
Bobby and asked him to,
you know, with his 1.6 million
followers on Twitter, can you please
tweet out the party for Marty and
He did and he was looking at my tweets and he said you've got relieved from Sirius XM
I had no idea because I shut right down during the summer. Yeah, he goes like most of us hockey people and
Yeah, he sent out something really lovely. Yeah. Got some more traction.
It's nice to be loved.
It would be nicer to be paid.
I saw the Bob McKenzie tweet
when he came back from vacation
and I subtweeted to let the people know the fun fact
that DJ Schwarma is the chicken Schwarma
from the Humble and Friends show.
Yeah.
That's my role.
That's right.
Pina.
What's going on?
Tell me who's with you there.
Okay, I went to go wrangle some more people.
Yes.
And we've got Derek Lewis.
And I'm trying not to bend over.
Hold on.
There we go.
Bend over, Pina.
Bend over. I know there's people with cameras here.
So I've got Derek Lewis with me.
He is from Lewis Family Tattoos, one of Martin's streets.
The guy that tattooed Martin's ass.
Oh, yeah.
I need to hear this story.
Okay, I'm going to give him the headset.
Okay, give him the headset.
Tell him to be right on the mic because we have loud noises over here.
Okay.
And you're amazing.
Pina has been quite the delight.
Like, you're the find of the day for me.
Pina.
Okay.
Over to Derek.
One sec.
Because, Shwarma, you know that we talked about this with Fowler and G.J. Craig, G.
But you know that Streak had a tattoo of the Spirit of Radio.
Like, is that your work?
The Spirit of Radio tattoo that was on Martin's ass? That is me. That is totally me. That was the first song we played tonight. Spirit of Radio. Is that your work? The Spirit of Radio tattoo that was on Martin's ass? That is me.
That is totally me. That was the first song we played tonight.
Spirit of Radio.
The Rush version or the Catherine Wheel?
The Catherine Wheel is a great version,
but Rush wrote that song about
CFMY, so I had to play that.
Goddamn, Schwarm, I love you.
Love you too, bud. Yeah, buddy.
Was David Marsden here when you played it
or not yet? I don't think David got in here yet, no.
Oh, my God.
What's your name again?
Derek Lewis.
Derek Lewis.
Okay, Derek.
And you are a tattoo artist?
I am.
And did you do a number of pieces for Martin Streak?
I've done a number of pieces for Martin, yes.
I have.
Okay.
So I'm curious about all of them, but right now I'm really into this ass tattoo of the
Spirit of Rio.
Can you...
Like, I haven't seen Martin
Streak's ass. Can you tell us what it is?
I have seen Martin Streak's ass.
So there was a
there was a bumper
sticker that was put out by CFNY
way, way, way, way
back. And later, Shawarma.
And Martin came to me
God, I don't even know when this was.
He came to me.
I was working in a street shop in Toronto on Yonge Street.
And, oh, my wife showed up.
Look at that.
And he's, so I was filming for a Toronto tattoo show at the time.
And Martin showed up and he was like, yeah, I'm into this.
Let's do this.
This is awesome.
He's always, always been like super, like super super super super jazzed about everything yes like there's a butterfly
going by he's jazzed about it there's a great jam going on he's jazzed about it there's a super
great song on the radio he's jazzed about it so he was like fully into this he's like yes you're filming a show i'll totally be there
let's go he shows up and he's like i want the cfny bumper sticker tattooed on my ass and i'm like
done and he says uh shit i'm not wearing anything under my shorts. So I said, fuck.
Here, here's 20 bucks.
And we worked across the street from Seduction, which is gone now.
And Seduction was the largest porn shop in Toronto on Yonge Street.
It was three stories.
It was the old Hercules, the old army surplus Hercules.
Right.
Back in like 90-whatever-the-fuck.
Pina said I could swear.
You could swear.
Totally.
You can go on the mic, too.
You can go on the mic.
This is my wife, Christine.
Hi.
Hello.
How are you?
Good.
Describe this bumper sticker, though.
What exactly is...
What spirit of radio logo is this?
It was exactly the original CFNY with the little triangle, Spirit of Radio, 102.1.
That's it.
Strictly in black.
Gorgeous.
Wow.
On his posterior.
So Martin shows up and he says, says shit Derek I'm not wearing any
underwear and I said well I'm not tattooing you naked motherfucker here's
20 bucks go across the street to the porn shop and buy some gitch man he says
cool can I take the camera crew and I said said, fuck, why not? So he says, okay.
So he runs over across the street.
He's gone for like 45 minutes.
For no reason.
45 minutes.
So it's Martin Street with a camera crew in a porn shop.
I have not seen the footage.
I have no idea what went on.
Who tattoos the tattoo artist? Like, who does your tattoos? I have not seen the footage. I have no idea what went on. Who tattoos the tattoo artist?
Like, who does your tattoos?
Oh, I have more than enough friends.
Yeah, dude.
Occasionally you let me.
Occasionally I let her do it.
It's not good.
No, I don't.
No, it's not a fun time.
Trust me.
What other pieces did Streak have?
Like, I don't need to need a whole list or anything.
Martin had a nice, we did a nice black home piece on him,
which is where his ashes were strewn.
And I did that on him a bunch of years ago.
I did his right arm, the dragon on his right arm
with the all-seeing eye on the inside of his arm.
Was that on stage at the Phoenix?
That was on stage at the Phoenix, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, which is where you were dancing.
It's true.
I was a go-go dancer.
You were a go-go dancer at the Phoenix.
I remember the go-go dancers at the Phoenix, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, like in the, I don't know, like bird cages or whatever they were.
I don't know.
Sometimes.
We had the main stage and then there was the side stage.
Right.
Yeah, it was more of a cage off to the side.
Interesting.
Any other street stories you can share?
Oh, yes.
There are so many.
There was a time...
This asshole showed up...
Are you talking about the garden?
Yeah.
He showed up like nine espressos in
at like 8.30 a.m. in the morning.
Just like jacked out of his tree on caffeine
because we were doing my patio
and he's like yeah let's go we're doing this patio let's come on and uh and my my uh my older
brother's a bricklayer he didn't show up until about 10 uh so martin is just running around my
backyard just like jacked out of caffeine like out of his mind what can i do
what can i do what can i do i'm like uh i don't know weed i don't know do something um so my
brother shows up my and my brother's a big dude he's like a he's like a really big he's a brick
layer like the guy's got like his hand like if he touches if he puts his hand on your face, he's, like, tapping the top of your head.
Right.
Like, it's insane the size of it.
So my brother shows up, and we start unloading brick out of the back of his truck.
And my brother's grabbing, like, three or four bricks at a time.
And Martin looks over, and he's like, yeah, I could do that.
So about 15 minutes later, mark throws his fucking back out oh and and and Tara Tara's sitting there looking at
him going I I've told you what do you what are you doing like this is insane
and he's like no no I can I can totally do this I can totally do this and I'm like dude you're injured right he's like no no no no, I can totally do this. I can totally do this. And I'm like, dude, you're injured.
He's like, no, no, no.
No, I can do this.
And my brother's like, why is the little guy trying to impress me?
Like, what's going on?
Fantastic, man.
I'm so glad you could make it out here today.
Always.
Where are you working now?
We own the Lewis Family Tattoo Company out on Ronson's Bills.
Cool, man. Did you bike here today?
No, he didn't bike here today.
No, God, no, we didn't bike here today.
We took a cab.
Funny story.
Yeah.
We used to live just behind the street.
Oh, wow.
Just behind here.
And when Martin moved into the Broadview lofts across the street
yeah and this is this is actually my favorite memory of I have a lot of
favorite memories but this is this is one of the favorite memories I have of
Martin is it's like we were eight years old or ten years old yeah because from my bedroom in my my house on
lewis street i could see his apartment in the broadview lofts and he called me he's like he's
like he's like derek i just moved into the broadview lofts and i was like dude that's awesome
and he's like do me a favor go to your bedroom and see if you can see me flick my lights on and off.
And I was like, okay.
So I ran to the back of the house.
And I'm like, okay, are you doing it?
Are you doing it right now?
And I'm like looking out my back window.
And I look.
And there's this light going on and off, on and off, on and off.
And I'm like, fuck, dude, I can see it.
Oh, my God, I can see it.
And he's like, okay, do you.
And so I started clicking my lights on and off.
And he's like, I can totally see it.
So that was our, we were like 10.
It was fucking awesome.
I love that story.
In fact, I kind of want to shut this down now.
Like, that's the perfect way to end this thing.
And it's just so, like, sweet and innocent.
Yeah, dude.
It was so, it was just so pure.
Like, it was so pure.
And it was so Martin.
He was just so jacked about, like, every stupid, like, everything that, like, a lot of people just take for granted.
Like, a light flicking on and off from like you
know two blocks away right he was jacked about like absolutely jacked about as
passion man is that passion I think that's totally passion brother well
thanks for stopping by I always wondered about the ass tattoo we got some I feel
like I got some closure there so thanks thanks so much. And thanks for sharing your street stories.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks, man.
And, you know, I'm dead serious.
I think I'm going to call it.
We're at about two hours and 25 minutes.
I have no fucking clue if this will even be something you can listen to.
Okay, yeah.
I know.
Okay, yeah, for sure.
Have a seat.
Okay, so Laurie Ann is here. I didn't hear anything. Okay, yeah, for sure. Am I really going down? Have a seat. Okay, so Laurie Ann is here.
I didn't hear anything.
Okay, stick those on her head.
Mike, seriously?
You just missed Bob Ouellette.
No, I saw him inside.
Yeah, I got to see him.
My predecessor?
Yes, that's right.
Predecessor.
But good to see you.
You too, Mike.
Because when I did, whenever I was, the fifth, five years after Martin Streak's passing,
I was putting together just like a little tribute audio thing with conversations I had
with like Alan Cross and stuff.
And you agreed to send in audio for that one.
Of course.
So amazing.
I know.
Now I'm sitting here in real life.
Are you the last live-to-air host?
I think I feel like I was.
Well, they said that they've got to break the mold.
They said we can't improve on Laurieann.
The way I remember it.
Or I failed miserably.
Oh, I would never think that.
But the way I remember it is there's David Marsden, who's here.
Yep.
Then there's Chris Shepard, who's not here.
Do you know where he is?
I have no idea where he is.
No one knows where he is.
You know, I didn't even remember that he was part of CFNY, to be honest.
Oh, because you're so young.
No, because I was uncool.
Yeah.
But you're also young. You're also young. No, because I was uncool. But you're also young.
You're also young.
No, no, no, no.
By the way, the last guy who was sitting there was a tattoo artist.
You got lots of ink.
I do.
In fact, that was Martin Streak's tattoo artist who was sitting there.
Well, Martin inspired my third tattoo.
Is that a cupcake?
It is a punk rock cupcake.
Okay.
Cool. Because I started doing live to a punk rock cupcake. Okay. Cool.
Because I started doing live to airs with him.
Yeah.
And you know how he was good with nicknames, right?
Yeah.
Literally on the air at the time, introduced, I'm not going to remember the nicknames, but
introduced Nolan with his nickname, introduce Tara with her nickname,
and then turn to me and just said, Laurieann the Punk Rock Cupcake. Where the F did that
come from?
Oh, you can swear on this show.
Okay, where the fuck did that come from? I don't know, but I loved it. I loved it. So,
you know, a little while later, I got a punk rock cupcake.
Amazing. Amazing. So after Streak, so Streak was let go.
Yes.
And then you became the new, that made you the new live to air host.
I did essentially work with him and then took over for him. which was really hard on me personally I
texted him right away oh my god do you hate me I didn't know this was happening
yeah cheers cheers cheers to Marty but I literally didn't know that they were
quote phasing him out and bringing me in I didn't know that they were, quote, phasing him out and bringing me in.
I didn't know that was happening.
You couldn't know it.
No, I really didn't.
They don't tell you these kind of things.
It just happens.
And so I texted him right away.
I remember I was at a mall with my mom and I'm crying at people's jewelers.
And I'm like seriously
are they a sponsor Mike?
no they're really not
my mom shops there enough
so she was like
looking at jewelry and I'm crying
because I just found out
that he was let go
and I was like this is not
I didn't know this was happening
so I'm like do you hate me?
I don't know how am I supposed to I'm like, do you hate me? I don't know.
How am I supposed to fill your shoes?
And he's like, no, Cupcake, I don't hate you.
It's all good.
You know?
And I'm like, all right.
But how am I supposed to do this?
Who are your DJs when you were hosting the Live2Airs?
Who are your DJs?
Good question.
Barry Taylor.
Barry Taylor in Live2Airs? Yeah, yeah. I'm surprised by that, too. I've had Barry Taylor in Live to Air?
Yeah.
I'm surprised by that, too.
I've had Barry Taylor on the show.
I did not know he DJed Live to Air.
I do remember.
Wait, it can't be Barry Taylor.
No, he was with me for a New Year's Eve.
Well, because Barry Taylor got fired the same day as Streak.
Yeah.
Craig G and Tara.
Yes, that's true.
Isn't it?
Not Taylor.
But Barry Taylor and I
did a New Year's Eve together.
But probably not live to air.
It was live to air
because we did the countdown together
and he played against me.
I remember clearly.
I know, but there's no way
Barry Taylor was doing anything
at the show after Streak was let go.
Yeah, he was let go the same day.
May of 2009.
But it was Barry.
And it was live.
Who was this person?
No, honest.
It was against me.
Do you know Schwarma?
Do you have any idea?
I don't.
I was at, I don't even know where I was then.
I was at Hockey Night by then.
Right.
But if it was live to air. It was at Hockey Night by then. But if it was
live to air. It was.
On New Year's Eve.
Yeah.
And Marty was still employed there.
Maybe he was. Maybe he just couldn't
do a New Year's Eve. Maybe it was when
Marty was still employed there.
Maybe it was 08. But wouldn't he have been
the one, all due respect.
Hey, I'm Shwarma. How are you?
I never know who knows who. But if Marty But wouldn't he have been the one all to respect? Hey, I'm Shwarma. How are you? Nice to meet you.
Oh, yes.
Okay, I didn't know.
I never know who knows who.
Okay.
But if Marty was still there, they would have had him do...
I mean, you would think so.
But Barry Taylor and I 100% did a live to air.
Then it must have been 2008.
December 31st, 2008.
Yeah.
And Martin was getting paid more money not to be on the air at the kingdom, for example, or something like that.
For sure.
I can't remember the circumstances, but you're probably right.
So it would have to be that New Year's or one earlier than that because Barry wouldn't have been there.
Right.
So who was DJing with me when I took over for Martin Streep?
Why can I not remember?
I know.
I feel...
Well, did Craig G do a little bit?
No, he was gone in April of 2009.
It could have been Nolan.
Oh, it was Nolan.
It was Nolan and Tara.
They flip-flopped.
Yeah.
Right?
Yes.
There you go.
You're right.
And Julissa was technical.
Yeah, you're right.
We should get T-shirts made.
Yeah. How is it going at The-shirts made yeah how's it going
at The Rock
like how is it
being on
so I just
reprived
is that the word
reappeared
reappeared
reprived
reprized
reprized
my role
as midday music announcer
so it's going well
and I'm happy
to be back
and I'm happy to be taking my spot back from Bob,
who I gave it to in 2016.
So it was like I didn't want it at that point,
and he took it, and then he didn't need it anymore,
so he gave it back.
So that's kind of a lovely exchange of hands.
That's a good stationing out there.
I like The Rock.
It's nice.
It's playing just enough of the really good new stuff,
just enough of the really old stuff,
and then a lot of the great in-between stuff.
Hey, when did they kill the live airs?
When did they...
They never did live airs.
No, 102.1.
Oh, gosh. It's a good thing Schwarm is here. Yeah, sorry. Like when did they They never did live to air No 102.1 Oh gosh
It's a good thing Schwarm is here
So I left in 2011
I was still at the Phoenix
But it wasn't live to air
So it was probably in 2010
I think I did a year or so
They asked me to stay on
But not live to air
And did you do all three nights
after uh martin left um i just did the phoenix on saturdays and uh sorry velvet velvet on sunday
there was no friday night there was a friday night no no no yeah yeah so why did live to
airs end with just no money in it anymore? Were the kids not going to clubs anymore?
Yeah, the attendance was way down, for sure.
I'm not going to lie.
We had fun parties, for sure, but it just wasn't what it used to be.
And it was slowly declining as me and Marty were doing them together.
And it was a shame because we did everything that we possibly could
to try to keep it up, you know.
And then when he was gone, the magic was gone.
I'm no replacement for Martin Streak.
I'm not kidding myself.
I mean, I held my own, I think.
I learned everything I knew from him
because I started as just a girl that loved the station that would go to his club, you know.
Then I became his co-worker that would go to his club.
Then I became his co-host that would go to his club or be working with him essentially.
And then I took over.
So everything that I knew about being a club host, I learned from him.
But, I mean, he had magic.
And I'm not too sure that I did, but I tried my best.
Well, do you have any final streak stories you want to share with us
while I finally have you on the mic here?
Or even any final memories or any yeah at this moment it's probably nothing I
should share I've never told anyone this but that's what you like right that's my favorite
stuff I recall being away for my first radio job in Kenora and coming back home finally
and visiting the street level studio on a Thursday 30.
And for some reason,
Martin Street laid one on me
right on my neck.
Like we kissed.
Yeah, so did we.
What's that?
We did too.
Yeah, he kissed Wormo. Oh, you and Martin. What's that? We did, too. Not you and I, but me and Martin.
No, you and Martin.
He kissed Wormo all the time.
I don't care who he kissed.
He kissed me that night, and I was like, whoa.
Martin Streak just kissed me.
I have no comment on this one.
I will never forget that for as long as I live.
You probably sent him a signal.
It was okay to...
Hell yeah.
I sent him all the signals and then some,
but I didn't think it was going to work.
See, the real talk's coming out now, Schwarm,
and this is how it works.
Make sure you're rolling.
I do recall that.
I had no idea why, if it would ever happen again,
but a girl could hope.
Wow, I don't even know what to say.
Help me out, shawarma.
Your show, baby.
You're on your own here.
That's quite the revelation there.
I heart Marty.
That's it.
Yeah, well, thanks so much for popping on a microphone.
Of course.
I had no idea that this was happening, and I was just about to leave.
Surprise.
Surprise.
Thanks a lot for coming down tonight.
Of course.
Appreciate it.
I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Thank you so much.
All the love.
I was going to plant one on her right now, but my wife might be listening, so I won't.
Shwarma, the funny thing was, I
was actually
wrapping things up because
it's two and a half hours.
I don't even know if this audio will be any
good, but is there
anybody in this building right now? I'm glad
you're here. I've been literally... I got kicked
out for the tattoo artist.
Oh, yeah, yeah, please.
The tattoo artist was important, though,
and his wife, too. Yeah, well, there you go.
I forgot we kicked you out for that.
Packing order.
What do you want to know, bro?
Just maybe you could share a street
story or two.
Like what everyone says, he's such
a... He was such a larger
than life.
He was a beautiful man.
He was a great friend.
He was a loyal friend to all.
he helped
me so much, Mike, because
it was not my intention to be
a live-to-air DJ.
I enjoyed making money under the table.
And before I met my beautiful wife...
What if the CRA is listening?
Should we edit that?
No, it's fine.
Come after me.
You know, before I met my wife, it was nice to...
So your wife is here?
Yeah, right against the wall there with the great purse.
The hot to trot one right there.
She's too good looking for you.
Yeah, she is.
Oh, obviously, I've never, well, I just met you.
Well, I know I've met, I should tell the people,
I have met you at Humble and Fred events,
including the famous first podcast at Dan Duran's house.
That's right, yeah, the Maiden Voyage.
Right.
So, yes, okay.
Marty was a great guy. Lorianne talks about getting one planted on her mouth. Right. So, yes, okay. Marty was a great guy.
Lorianne talks about getting one planted on her mouth.
Right.
He used to, on Thursdays at 8 o'clock were my favorite time because Live in Toronto was ending
and Martin would come in to take over for the Thursday 30 with George
and Marty would come up behind me.
I'm sitting there behind the board
operating the show and he would give
the best
back massages. Oh, I need one right now.
How do you do?
I'm lousy. That's why my
wife looks so sad over there.
But Marty gave
killer back reps.
Wow. See, that's the detail
I'm looking for. I know.
Now, let me ask you, because I haven't left this seat
for two and a half hours or whatever.
You got to pee? No, I'm okay, actually.
Who in this
building is a must
have for this podcast? Before I
shut this down and bike
home.
I got an hour bike ride ahead of me.
Is there anyone in this building I haven't had on the mic yet
that I absolutely have to have?
Now, Danny Elwell was brief because she got pulled away into something,
but I did get her on, and she has been over to the TMDS studio.
So who here?
Neil Mann, Carlos Benavides.
Agamemnon Spiridoulias.
Wait, say that Greek name again. Agamemnon Spulius? Wait, say that Greek name again.
Agamemnon Spiritulius.
He was an announcer on the edge back in the late 90s.
He was a Humble and Fred intern,
and he was the only one that did not require a nickname
because his name is Agamemnon Spiritulius.
He had to spell that out phonetically for me.
I'd struggle with that name.
Agamemnon.
Agamemnon.
Agamemnon.
Spirit Julius.
Spirit Julius.
Okay.
Could you get me a Carlos or a Neil, man?
Yes.
Because I kept my eye on this door wondering if Strombo was going to walk in.
Georgie's supposed to be here.
I don't know where he is,
but he did drive home for this.
So this is going, like, this is going,
I mean, I'm not going to make it to the end.
Yeah, neither am I.
Because I have four kids, okay?
How many kids you got?
We have two, but one of them is pitching
a big playoff game tomorrow in Etobicoke at 11.
And I'm the first base coach.
Which park in Etobicoke?
She's going to be at Arringate, across from Centennial.
That's exactly right.
I went to the original location at Michael Power before I moved there.
So did my mom.
My mom grew up on 9th Street.
I went to school with your mom.
No, you're too young.
Oh, we don't give exact streets, by the way. No, you're too young. Oh, wait.
We don't give exact streets, by the way.
Just so you know.
Oh, okay, okay, okay.
But yeah, your mom grew up near my hood.
Just in case Dean Blundell's around?
Aggie!
Aggie!
Aggie!
Is Blundell coming?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, but you talk to him.
Sit here.
And let me listen in.
And I'll get you Neil or Carlos.
Okay.
Come on.
So this is Agamemnon Spiridoulias.
Like I told you, he was an announcer on the edge in the late 90s, early 2000s,
and he got his start on the Humble and Fred show.
The only intern never to get a nickname because his name is...
Agamemnon.
That's it.
Well, nice to meet you, Agamemnon.
Wow, you nailed it. Did I? Because I heard him say it three times. That was pretty good. That was it. Well, nice to meet you, Agamemnon. Wow, you nailed it.
Did I?
I heard him say it three times.
Yeah.
That was pretty good.
That was fantastic.
I built you up big.
Yeah, you really did.
Now, Aggie, you've got about two and a half minutes here.
All right.
Then we're going to bring in Neil Mann.
Thank you, Shwarma.
Oh, sorry.
I missed my high five there.
Agamemnon, can you share any memories, stories of Martin's streak for us today?
You know what?
I shared something on the Facebook group that was opened up,
and that's what I think I share.
I'm going to put it in the mic because they're so freaking loud over there.
I don't know if you can hear.
They're so directional.
Right.
They are.
Unidirectional.
I think I'll share what I shared on the page.
Okay.
I was this young kid, like 21 years old, starting at 102.1.
And I was covering for, producing for Martin at one of the clubs in Burlington.
Burlington, as they call it.
Right.
Right?
So, 21 years old, nervous as hell, didn't want to screw up.
And this guy, you know, he just, he had a heart of gold. He knew I was nervous. He knew I didn't want to screw up and this guy you know he just he had a heart of gold he
knew i was nervous he knew i didn't want to screw up pulled me aside and said like hey if something
goes wrong no problem we'll go with it we'll fly with it we'll figure it out pulled me aside bought
me a couple beers kind of loosened me up and he just took care of me and this is what he did
quietly just aside there everything's going to be okay. He could read people really well.
And that's what I loved about him.
That's the bottom line.
Sounds like just a decent guy, just a solid citizen.
Yeah, just a really good guy, heartfelt.
And it was just something that I don't forget.
And he did the same when I had the first time I produced for like a remote.
One of those live remotes on the weekend.
Sure.
Or at the Br brick or something like that
And he's just like first time first time. He's like we'll do this together as well. That's it
That's all you need. What was it like working with humble and Fred humble and Fred?
That's how I got my start that was it was fantastic. I was thrown right into it those guys were just
They're fun. Everything, you know, the best
people in radio, I think, and what I learned from Humble and Fred too, because they taught
me it, they're basically, if you're that person that you hear on the radio, you're doing a
great job. They were who they were on the radio. The antics, the wisecracks, the jokes
and everything like that, it played in real life too. And that's why they didn't have
to like put on this persona.
Yeah, no shtick or whatever.
No shtick at all.
No top forward.
It's, hey, how you doing?
You know what I mean?
Like, throwing on that voice.
Hey, yeah.
Coming out your, yeah, like, Wolfman Jack or something like that.
That's right.
It was, like, those guys were fantastic.
Learned a lot of good lessons from them, too.
But they were who they were on and off the air.
That's why they were fantastic.
Was there anyone at the edge who had a shtick?
I'm trying to think. I don't think so.
Can I ask about the...
Maybe this predates you there, but the Chris Shepard,
he predates you, right?
He definitely had...
He had a persona.
That's a better word for it, I think.
Because he's not British, right?
No, maybe he did, but I think
one of the program directors, Stu at the time,
he was the one that said, no schticks here.
You know what I mean?
It wasn't what you heard on the top 40 stations, right?
Right.
That voice, that put on thing.
So that was the thing that Stu was like, I do not, even me,
I did overnight swing shift.
And Stu was like, just be you.
He's like, that's what you have to be.
No, that's good advice. I think that's good advice like a stew was ahead of the curve on that because today in this
world of podcasting like the authentic voice is what people crave authenticity so yeah that uh
you know ho shepherd no shtick yeah so yeah uh and and uh i see no one's no one's arrived. I know we sent Schwarma off to find, what did we ask for, a Neal Mann or a Carlos Benavides.
That's right.
We need to get one of those guys.
So you get to tell another street story.
Do you have any more in the chamber there?
Martin's street stories.
Just all, you know, the thing was is he loved his jokes and pulling antics you know what i mean
he just loved like throwing it to the next level and just getting you wound up so tightly once he
knew you though yeah he wouldn't do it like with me at the beginning because he's like here's this
20 year old and your 21 year old kid i'm not gonna do that to him and scare the crap out of him
how about should we talk to Daryl Brad
yeah well let's
of course
on the microphone let's hear from you
what's your name who the hell are you and
what are you doing here
oh well hey it's Daryl Brad
better known as Rad Brad
back in the early 90s
worked at CFNY from 88 to 98
and just here to celebrate Martin.
Do you have a moment to share a Marty story for the record here as I'm
recording? Yeah I could share a story. Let's hear something. Well the
funniest thing I ever saw... You should listen to this.
Get those headphones back on.
One of the funniest things is we used to... I was in charge of the snowboard team.
So we would go up to...
Every week we would go somewhere and snowboard our heads off.
It would be just crazy.
And Martin was a huge part of that.
And Martin's style of snowboarding was
just point it straight down and tuck down and go and he to get about two or
three runs in and he would just do a helicopter and he would end up busting
something up it's funny because he always wanted to win. I heard, I think from Robbie J. maybe, that Jesus Christ Pose, that was his snowboarding song.
I heard it.
It was just great.
So he always wanted to win the race down the hill, but he always ended up busted up.
And so we always got the last laugh on him.
Well, dude, Rad Brad.
Rad Brad, that's the coolest handle.
I love it, man. I Brad. Rad Brad. Rad Brad. That's the coolest hand-loving. I love it, man.
I love it.
Yeah.
Thanks so much for sharing a street story.
If you have another one, you can blast another one out.
No, it's my pleasure being on here.
Did you mention the trip to L.A. that he was doing there?
No, no, I didn't mention that.
In 2009, one of the coolest conversations we had was one of the last ones.
Right.
But it was in between a Nine Inch Nails and a Jane's Addiction intermission.
And Agamemnon and I were talking to him and just having a blast.
And he was so pumped up and he was so amped up because he was going to rip through the desert in dune buggies.
Wow.
And he was on his tippy toes like he was like he was floating he was so excited
to go and it was just I'll always remember the energy that he had and he
just had this this life about him rattle right there's Paul or nothing yeah so
all that's that's the man with two memories that I have him that just keep
me smiling oh amazing man thanks so much for sharing that.
By the way, Agamemnon, I realize now where I know your name from.
A character on Oz.
Did you ever see the show Oz?
Yes, Oz.
That is a character on Oz with your name, and I loved that show.
So pre-Wire, that was my show, man.
Oz, fucking, that's where I know the name.
It's how I got my job with Humble and Fred.
They hired me. They told me for the name.
That's it.
I'm not surprised. That's it. I was like, I'll take it.
I'll take the job. It's a hell of a
great name.
Do you think I should wrap up now?
Because I've been blabbing for almost
three fucking hours. I think wrap it up.
You've done a great job. So you two are
lucky to be here for this because together
I want to thank everybody
for listening. We're live.
Keep it locked
and cranked. Is that what we're going to ask?
Do you want to drop any
streakisms on the way out here?
Mine is locked and cranked.
Hold on.
Thanks guys for sharing your stories. This was a blast.
Thank you. Thanks so much.